> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ashenmarch.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Scouting & Spoils

> Send scouts to reveal the prosperity and hidden treasure of distant ground before you ever march on it.

## Why scout?

You can only see so much from your own holdings. Somewhere out past your borders is a dense, prosperous district worth claiming — or a buried treasure worth the detour. **Scouting** lets you send outriders to survey ground you haven't set foot on: it reveals how rich each territory in an area is, and flags any **treasure** your scouts turn up — all before you spend a single kilometre marching there. It turns "I'll run somewhere and hope it's worth it" into "I know exactly where the good ground is."

## How scouting works

Scouting is powered by **Scouting Writs** — commissions you spend to send a scouting party. You start with a small grant of writs, earn more through consistent play, and can always buy more in the Market.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Pick an area on the map">
    Long-press any point on the map to choose where to scout. You can scout ground up to **2,500 m** from your nearest holding — your scouts range out from land you already hold, not from anywhere on earth. Tap a point that's too far and the app tells you why instead of spending a writ.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Confirm and spend a writ">
    Confirm the survey. Each scout costs **1 Scouting Writ**. If you have none, the button becomes **Earn a writ** and points you to how to get one rather than letting you stumble.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Read the Scout Report">
    Your scouts return a **Scout Report** — a single list of every territory inside the surveyed area (a **\~600 m radius** around your chosen point), each showing its **prosperity** (the same pip scale used across the game) and a **treasure marker** wherever your scouts found buried spoils. Tap any territory to jump straight to it on the map.
  </Step>
</Steps>

A report doesn't last forever — a scouted area stays **fresh for about 30 days**, then the intelligence fades and you'd send scouts again to refresh it. Ground changes hands and prospers or declines, so old reports go stale by design.

## Where treasure comes in

When a scout finds **treasure** on a territory, it's marked with a wax-seal token on the map and in the report. Claiming or holding that ground lets you take the spoils — treasure pays out in **Gold** and other rewards straight to your [Treasury](/en/treasury). Treasure is the payoff that makes a scouting party worth the writ: you're not just window-shopping for land, you're hunting caches.

<Note>
  **Worked example:** you hold a Keep on the edge of downtown and wonder whether the riverside district two neighbourhoods over is worth a march. You long-press it (about 1.8 km away — well within the 2,500 m range) and spend **1 writ**. The report comes back listing eight territories in that \~600 m circle: most are middling, but two are **richly prosperous** and one carries a **treasure marker**. Now you plan a single campaign that loops through the treasure tile and claims the two rich ones — instead of three exploratory runs hoping to get lucky.
</Note>

## Getting and spending writs

|                            | Value          |
| -------------------------- | -------------- |
| Starter grant              | **2 writs**    |
| Cost per scout             | **1 writ**     |
| Most writs you can hold    | **6**          |
| Buy a writ in the Market   | **◉ 200 Gold** |
| Scout range from a holding | **2,500 m**    |
| Scout report radius        | **\~600 m**    |
| A reveal stays fresh for   | **\~30 days**  |

*These are the current live settings and are server-tunable — the team may adjust them for balance without an app update. See the full [Reference](/en/reference).*

<Tip>
  Writs are bought with **earned Gold**, never real money — so scouting rewards playing, not spending. Buying a writ is a fair use of your coffers: it's convenience and information, not power in battle. Spend a writ before a big campaign, not after — the whole point is to plan the march around what your scouts find.
</Tip>

<Warning>
  A scouted reveal is **information, not a claim**. Marking a treasure tells you it's there — you still have to march the ground and hold it to take the spoils, and a rival scouting the same area can see (and race you for) the same treasure. Fresh intelligence is an edge, not a guarantee.
</Warning>

## Where next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="The Treasury" icon="coins" href="/en/treasury">
    Where writs are bought, and where treasure and tribute are banked.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Conquering Land" icon="map" href="/en/conquering-land">
    Turn a scout report into a claim — how prosperity and territory work.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>