Military Battles

1. Units Types and Attributes

Click here for the full Unit Index!

There are 3 main types of units in the game, Ground, Defenders and Air.

Each type of unit is created by a different building. Ground units are trained in the Arcanum. Defenders are trained in the Church. Air units are trained in the Aviary and the Dragon Spire. These facilities are unique per outpost.

There are also three other unit types:

Griffins are used to transport stuff between outposts.

Spiky Dragons have the special ability to enhance the attack of ground units.

Caravans are special units that can create a new outpost.

Units may have these special attributes:

Defender: These units are placed first in the line of defense. As such, they absorb hits to save others.

Astral Traveler: These units are not adversely affected by traveling through a dimensional magic portal.

Different troops have different speeds. This is reflected in their requiring different times for the same task.

Higher level buildings train units faster and some influences offer bonuses to unit training time.

2. Troop Movement

Your troops can do the following:

Raid a dungeon: Attack dungeons on the available region maps to gain resources and other useful materials. Use the "Dungeon Raid" icon on your outpost screen to launch a raid.


You can make one dungeon raid per outpost at any given time and that must be on the outpost's region. For example, outposts in the Grasslands can only make dungeon attacks in the Grasslands.

Reinforce another outpost: You can send units to your own outposts or those of your alliance members. If the target outpost does not produce enough food to sustain the troops, they cannot stay there and will simply return. To send reinforcements use the "Reinforcements" action in the Fleet Manager tab of the Strategy Center.

Raid another outpost: Go to the regional map to pick a suitable target.


Possible candidates are those with a red flag, which indicate a player with PvP turned on.


Click on Raid to assign enough troops and.. good luck! If successful, you will steal resources or other valuables from the target outpost.


Note that you always receive a full battle report when you are the defender. If you are the attacker, then at least one of your units must survive to bring back information. If there are no survivors from the attacking army, you get no report at all.

3. PvP

PvP stands for Player versus Player.

All characters have a PvP status flag that can be either on or off. When your PvP status is on, your outposts may be attacked by other players!

You can change your PvP status on or off, but have in mind the following:

* Your PvP status turns automatically on every time you scout other players or send your army against their outposts. There is a 72-hour cooldown period before you can turn it off again after each such action.

* Your PvP status turns also automatically on if you reinforce (or are reinforced by) a player with PvP on who is in a cooldown period. You again get a 72-hour cooldown yourself if this happens. This prevents non-pvp players from safely reinforcing aggressors.

* Outposts on regions marked as "PvP" are not subject to the PvP status flag at all. You can always be attacked (and possibly lose an outpost) on such dangerous regions.

* Turning your PvP off will not stop enemy armies already on their way towards your outposts.

Important: If you do not log in the game for more than 20 days, your PvP flag will be automatically turned to on.

Eligible targets are players who have PvP on and either are at most 5 levels above or below your own level or they are level 30 or higher.

Examples:

* If you are level 20, you can attack players between levels 15 and 25 or level 30 and higher.

* If you are level 50, you can attack players of level 30 and higher.

4. Skills

All heroes have a Defense Skill and an Attack Skill which help during battle with other players. The effects of these skills apply to each individual unit attack during a battle, irrespective of which player is attacker and which is defender.

* If the Attack skill of the player commanding the unit which deals damage is higher than the Defense skill of the player commanding the unit which receives the damage, then the damage is increased [remains the same/ decreased].

* If the Attack skill of the player commanding the unit which deals damage is equal to the Defense skill of the player commanding the unit which receives the damage, then the damage remains the same.

* If the Attack skill of the player commanding the unit which deals damage is lower than the Defense skill of the player commanding the unit which receives the damage, then the damage is decreased.

You need to actively practice these skills in the battlefield in order to raise them. So, to raise your Attack skill you need to raid other player outposts and to raise your Defense skill you need to defend against opposing armies.

5. Espionage

It would be good to know something about an enemy outpost before attacking it. You can attempt to do that by spending some Research Points to scout it.

To scout an outpost, locate your target on the regional map.


Click "Scout" and spend an amount of RP to attempt an infiltration.


Each outpost has an Intelligence Level and to successfully scout it you need to spend at least 200 RPs per the target's Intelligence Level.

A successful scout report contains details about the resources, buildings, units and items present in the target outpost.

You do not know the IL of the target, so think carefully before spending your RPs.

The higher the intelligence level of the target outpost the more likely it is that your spies will be spotted. This means that you might get a full (or not) report but the target player will also be notified for your actions!

6. Combat Phases

Important: The following is for advanced players, who want to know more about how combat works.

Ground and air attacks: A unit with ground (or air) attack rating can hit opponents with ground (or air) movement greater than zero.

Rounds: Battles consist of rounds, during which units and buildings act. The combat is divided in 10 rounds. During each round each group of units inflict 10% of their attack to the opponents.

Initiative: Every unit and building involved in a battle has its own initiative number. This number defines when during the battle this unit makes its attack. Higher numbers act earlier than lower numbers.

Each unit acts on its initiative and deals damage to enemies in this order:

* Phase 1: Attack against the first line of enemy defense ("defender" units)
* Phase 2: Attack enemies with the same Initiative
* Phase 3: Attack other enemies

The attack power of each subsequent phase is reduced by the actions taken in the previous phase. So if you have an attack power of 2000 points and you spent 500 during phase 1, you will have 1500 during phase 2.

Multi-round battles: If there are units left at the end of a round, a new round begins with the remaining forces. There is a maximum limit of 10 rounds in a battle.

No targets: If the opponent has no suitable targets in any phase, the attacking unit proceeds immediately to the following phase.

Anti-air mode: If the attacking ground units have also an air attack mode, then if their opponent has no first line of defense on the ground they switch to anti-air mode to attack air units.

Ground forces: Ground units play an important role in combat!

The battle is over if there are no ground attackers left.

The battle is also over if there are no ground defenders left and the attacker has no Caravan.

Only if the attacker has a Caravan the battle continues even if the defender has no ground army left.

Level difference: If there is a significant level difference between two players, the one with the higher level suffers reduced casualties in the pvp battle.

Looting: If at least some of the attacking units survive, then they raid the target outpost and steal as much resources as they can carry. Transport units can help in this, as they can carry more.

Defensive / Offensive Buildings: The Arcanum, Wall and Dragon Spire buildings contribute to the attack and defense of an outpost during an incoming attack.

* The Arcanum contributes to the ground attack of any defending units in the outpost. It also increases the ground attack of defending units by some amount relative to its level.

* The Wall acts as shield against attacks. Early levels offer defense against ground attacks, while higher Wall levels also offer protection against air attacks.

* The Dragon Spire contributes to the air attack of any outpost units. It also increases the air attack of defending units by some amount relative to its level.

Buildings attack on their initiative, but they cannot work on their own. Their ground or air attack is capped by the combined ground or air attack of the defending units.

7. Graveyard

All outposts have a graveyard that you can upgrade to reduce your PvP loses. If you have no graveyard, when you lose units in a PvP battle (not in Elemental Planes or Dungeon Raids), then these units are gone forever! Units that are also lost while defending a outpost end up in Scrapyard.

If you upgrade your Graveyard then 90% of your casualties return as "damaged units" in the Graveyard. You can then "Repair" them and re-deploy them in your outpost for a fraction of their cost in both resources and time!

To revive units, the Graveyard uses "Scraps". You can refill the Graveyard with scraps by using "Supply Crates". For each Supply Crate you use, you get 350 Scraps, which can in turn be used to revive units of 350 upkeep value.

Depending on its level, the graveyard has a maximum capacity in both Scraps and Unit Upkeep it can hold. It starts from 500 at Level 1 and goes up to 32000 for Level 15. If you lose in battle more units than your Graveyard can hold, then the extra units are gone forever! So, make sure you have your Graveyards at maximum level!

Tip: The math suggest that if you use the Graveyard to revive your units it can be up to 80% cheaper in both Resources and Time than building them from scratch!!!