World Order · Board game rules
How do you improve relations between factions?
Quick answer
Improve Relations (a Diplomatic action) lets you take an available Country card by spending Diplomacy (🀄) equal to its value, adding it face up to your allied Countries.
Details
To Improve Relations, choose an available Country card on the board — the top card of either deck in a Region — and spend Diplomacy equal to the Country's value shown in the hexagon in its top-left corner, then place it face up in front of you as a newly allied Country [p.12 — Improve Relations (Diplomatic)].
If you already have other allied Countries from the same Region, you can exhaust them (turn them face down) to lower the Diplomacy cost, each exhausted Country reducing the cost by an amount equal to its own value [p.12 — Improve Relations (Diplomatic)]. Whenever a Country card is taken from a deck, remember that each Region must always keep 2 Country cards available, so the top card of the remaining deck slides over to refill the empty spot [p.12 — Improve Relations (Diplomatic)].
If you Improve Relations with a Country you already control (such as one of your 4 Starting Countries), place the new card on top of the old one, slightly offset so both cards' trade icons remain visible; if the old card was ready (face up), you also add 1 Influence to that Country's Region. From then on, treat them as a single Country, using the top card's stats but keeping only the trade icons from the previous card [p.12 — Improve Relations (Diplomatic)].
Watch out: Some Countries restrict certain powers — if a power's flag is crossed out in the card's upper-right corner, that power cannot Improve Relations with it (e.g., the USA cannot improve relations with Iran) [p.12 — Improve Relations (Diplomatic)]. Also, note that a Country card doesn't need to be exhausted to be chosen for Improve Relations — if it's already ready, choosing it simply skips the "ready" part of any related effect [p.22 — Ability Cards Questions].