Armies and combat

An army holds one troop type at one tier. Each hex holds one army.

Starting forces

Each of your three realms is dealt one troop type, one realm Knights, one Crossbowmen and one Paladins, in an order drawn for you. Each starts with 1,000 T1 troops of its type garrisoned and 1,000 in reserve. No army stands on the map at the start: create one from the reserve.

Barracks make more: T1 troops from wheat and a resource, T2 from T1 troops, T3 from T2 (Realms and production).

Tiers and deployment

A troop's strength is its count times its tier's strength: 1 for T1, 3 for T2, 9 for T3. A realm's level caps the strength of one army (Realms and production), and the largest army is that cap divided by its tier's strength, times 0.5 for T1, 1 for T2 and 1.5 for T3.

Field armies stand on the map. Select your realm and right-click a free tile beside it to deploy one there, or use the Military window (M). A new army starts with 30 stamina.

Guards stand in a structure's guard slots and do not appear on the map. An attacker meets them one slot at a time. A slot whose guard falls cannot take a new one for 10 minutes. A guard can attack an army beside its structure.

Merging and moving troops

Select an army, then right-click another of your armies or one of your structures beside it: the transfer panel moves troops between them, across your realms too. Both sides must hold the same troop type and tier; an empty guard slot takes any type and tier, and only from an army. A guard cannot move straight to another guard slot. The army that receives troops keeps the lower of the two staminas and the longer of the two battle timers.

Stamina

A T1 army holds 120 stamina, a T2 army 140 and a T3 army 160. Each recovers 30 every 60 seconds. Exploring a tile costs 30. A step onto a known tile costs 20, 10 more or less by biome and troop type. Moving and exploring also cost 0.05 wheat a troop, from the army's home realm.

Attacking

Select an army and right-click an enemy within reach: the attack forecast opens with each side's losses, and Attack sends it. Attacking takes 50 stamina; without it, the attack is refused. The defender spends 40 stamina, and deals 30% less damage without it.

Biomes. Each troop type fights 30% better or worse on some biomes. The biome is the defender's tile.

Damage. Both sides strike in the same exchange. Each side deals 2 × its troops × its tier's weight ÷ the other side's tier weight ÷ (both sides' troops together)^0.2. The tier weights are 1 for T1, 3 for T2 and 9 for T3. On top of that:

• the biome adds or takes 30%, as the table above shows;
• a defender without the stamina to defend deals 30% less;
• a defender still on its battle timer deals 15% less;
• relics and the troop roles below add their own.

Blitz rolls no dice, so the attack forecast is the result. For example, 1,000 Knights attack 1,000 T1 Knights on grassland, where Knights have no biome edge:

Battle timer. An army cannot attack while its battle timer runs. A fight at close range adds up to 60 seconds to each side's timer and spends the stamina the fight took. A side that dealt more than 2.5 times the damage it took has less time added and gets some of that stamina back. At 10 times or more it has none added and gets all of it back. A ranged attack adds 30 seconds to both timers.

The time is added to what is left on a timer, so a defender attacked again before its timer ends waits longer. For example, 1,000 T1 Knights attack 1,000 T1 Knights with 60 seconds left on their timer: the defenders then wait 120 seconds and the attackers 60. If 1,000 T1 Crossbowmen attack them from range instead, the defenders wait 90 seconds and the Crossbowmen 30.

Troop roles

• Knights deal 15% more damage attacking a structure's guards from beside it, and as guards take 15% less damage.
• Crossbowmen can attack from 2 hexes away. A ranged attack still costs the attacker 50 stamina, but the target spends only 20 and strikes no blow back. It deals 70% of its damage to an army and 30% to a structure's guards, ignores biomes, and adds half as much to the battle timers. A ranged attack never claims a structure.
• Paladins have no combat bonus, and open ground costs them the least stamina.

Capturing

When a structure's last guard falls, an army beside it claims it. Realms, camps, Essence Rifts and Hyperstructures can all be captured, and a captured realm's armies go with it. A player who loses their last realm watches the rest of the game.