Formables and how to form them

Every formable is a transformation: hold the right territory, open the panel, and your country becomes something else. The game lists 151 unique formables, but its own progress counters treat the list as 363 formable nations — Austria-Hungaria alone counts twice. Every milestone reward below is measured against the 363 figure.

What a formable is

A formable is a historical, modern or alternate state your country becomes when it holds the right territory. Formables are the long-term goal loop — the reason players paint the map instead of sitting on income — feeding a milestone track that pays medals and titles, and five carry their own badge: European Union, German Empire, Soviet Union, Teutonic Order and Japanese Empire.

Three rules define it:

• 151 unique formables exist, but progress percentages are counted against 363 formable nations, because states that are counted twice in the game's bookkeeping (Austria-Hungaria is the example the wiki gives) contribute two entries each.
• Each formable can only be formed once per server. If another player in your session has already formed it, that formable is gone for this server.
• Since 2025-12-22 you can transform back after forming, so the transformation is no longer a one-way door for the player who took it. No source states whether reverting frees that formable up for anyone else.

How to form a nation

The formation rule is deliberately simple: control every city the formable requires. You do not need to be at peace, and wartime control counts — the requirement is explicitly checked while you are at war.

What counts as control

What that means in practice:

• The formable panel marks the territory it wants. Every city in that set has to be under your control when you form.
• Occupied cities still count as territory on your side, so you can satisfy the requirement with occupations you have taken in a war rather than fully annexed provinces.
• Occupied cities cannot be ceded, and they can only be annexed while you are at peace. If your plan is to absorb the territory permanently rather than just check the box, the peace treaty is where that happens.
• Occupied cities also cannot spawn units, so a formable run that leans on occupations still has to keep its home cities alive to keep producing an army.

Paying for the last city

Because the requirement is city-based rather than size-based, a formable is a checklist problem: identify the cities, take them, form. The bottleneck is usually the war, not the last city — a war goal costs 17 political power on the world map and 50 on the Europe map, plus 10 to declare.

Unlocks, wins and special cases

Not every formable is available the moment you can hold its cities. Some are sold in the medal shop for 40–60 medals — Spanish Empire is the standard example — and others sit behind wins, with British Empire and Golden Horde named as win-gated. Medals are earned through play rather than bought, so a medal-shop formable is a mid-term unlock.

Exceptions that help you

A handful of formables break the "control everything" pattern in your favour:

Milestone rewards

Formables also track completion as a percentage, and each bracket pays out. The milestone system launched on 2025-10-18, and the formable counts below are the 363-nation figures the game uses:

The pattern is worth reading closely: every cash-style payout is 50 medals, so the four titles are the real milestones — Raider at 10%, Invader at 30%, Warlord at 50%, Lord at 70%, Overlord at 90%. The 5% step at 18 formables is the only early goal that pays anything, making it the sensible first target on a fresh profile.

Milestone medals feed the medal shop, so the two systems feed each other: form early targets, spend the medals on a shop-locked formable, then keep climbing the track.

Europe map vs world map

Control Europe runs on more than one map, and formable requirements are evaluated against whichever map you are playing. The differences that actually change your route:

• BRICS can be formed instantly on the Europe map, while British Empire on the Europe map only requires control of 2 countries. Both are shortcuts that do not exist in the same form elsewhere.
• Dominion of Canada only needs Canada itself, with no additional territory — a world-map example of a formable that does not ask you to conquer neighbours.
• War goals are more expensive on the Europe map: justifying costs 50 political power against 17 on the world map, and declaring still costs 10. Political power accrues at +0.25 per day up to a cap of 500, so a Europe-map formable that runs through a war is throttled by justification speed as much as by your army.
• The Europe map also starts every country with 30,000 infantry, which is the war budget you have for taking the first few required cities.

The practical read: on the Europe map the two-country and instant formables are disproportionately good value, while on the world map war goals are cheaper but those shortcuts do not exist.

None of this changes the core rule: control every required city, wartime included — the formable stays a server-wide one-time claim.

Related guides

• How to play — controls, first moves and the free developer-group boost.
• Best countries — picking a start with enough cities to chase formables.
• Formables — this guide, all 151 transformations in one place.
• Military units — the eight unit types you need to take the required cities.
• Cities and economy — city tiers, income and the manpower that funds a conquest run.
• Alliances and war — political power costs, allies and the four-month betrayal window.
• Codes — why there is no code box, and what to claim instead.