I think aid could be like SE, 6M cash, 100T, and or 4000 soldiers. I think it keeps people “alive” at points when they’ve overspent, and creates an interesting dynamic of trades when people are building.
I think defeat alerts could be Base + Percentage cash , in addition to infra and tech damage.
My thought would be that a large enough percentage, say, 5% would force people to stay armed / fighting. Losing 5M with a 100M war chest is substantial.