The guide to Units and Combat
Your army is a crucial part of this game. While I personally used a very small army the first few months, it all depends on your play style. I categorize war into three different play styles:
Diplomatic: Small armies, a lot of talking to other players. Most people will stop attacking you, for a few days at least, if you ask them (as long as you’re far smaller than them.) Your army will only be for raiding inactive and very weak players.
War Lord: Build up large armies consisting of only warriors and archers. As of the point this was written, archers are the “God” unit that in large numbers beat anything. WIth the new patch though, Ballistae and Trebuchets are more important, so consider making them.
Defensive: Build up large armies of swords and archers. More expensive but a very good offensive force when need be. Also, your walls will be filled with mostly Archers Towers (Which I will talk about later)
The best units to build in this game are: Archers, Warriors, and Swords. But why is this?
Archers: Ranged infantry, and they are the “God” unit. Enough of these can kill any unit, since they do 60 damage to infantry and have a range of 1260 (since they require archery 1 to build). That gives them 5 shots on the fastest infantry.
Warriors: Cost only 230 goods and carry 20. They take a mere 30 seconds to build and become a screaming axe of death when they get to about 70k in size.
Swords: Cost wise, Swords are the best unit in the game. And they are worth it, but only with archers as backup. Else they will be mowed down all the same by the opposing archers.
Other Units:
Workers: Weak and pitiful, they carry a lot. Also, 250 are required for a new city.
Scouts: Worst fighters, besides Transporters and Workers, a scout army is a VERY important thing to have. You will kill off enemy scouts and prevent them from gaining full knowledge. Do reduced damage to walls, or none at all.
Pike men: Fast and with a 50% bonus versus Calvary, they look like a good choice. And if you mass them they are. But don’t rely on them.
Calvary: Powerful against archers in en masse, these units die quickly to abati.
Hint: When you attack a city and your force dies and you all you see are abati, they DIDN’T get killed by them. The units failed to break through the wall. Unless those units are calvary
Cataphracts: Extremely powerful, a legion of these would be the most destructive force in the game. It would also be impossible to support. They cost 36 food each.
Transporters: Hold 5000 goods, but move very slow. Transporters are a necessity for sieges, allowing you to steal a lot of the enemy’s goods.
Ballista: These weirdly target archers first. Good against archers, but often killed by other things soon afterwards.
Ram: Powerful durability wreckers. Use to smash through high level walls.
Catapults: Powerful ranged units. Can kill towers easily without being hit. Super expensive and extensive to build.
Now what’s important: Don’t mix units of the same type. Send armies of one kind of melee, archers, and siege. Warriors, Pikes, and Swords sounds like it should work the best, but fails too, unless you are trying to use the meat shield method, upon which this works.
Following these basic combat rules should lead you to victory on the field.
