Troops and attacks

#Troops

Troops are your military resource. They regrow by themselves up to a maximum:

• The bigger your territory, the higher your maximum.
• Each city raises that maximum (and upgrading a city raises it further).
• Growth slows as you get close to the maximum: leaving troops at the cap is wasted growth. Attack or build before that.
• Always keep some troops for defence: the game warns you when you are very low, and when you are near the limit.

#Attacking

Click free or enemy land (or use the sword of the radial menu): you send a share of your troops equal to your attack slider. The troops advance tile by tile.

#The attack slider

It is the share of your troops sent with each attack, from 1 to 100%. Sending more troops than the defender has means fewer losses, but the effect stops at 2 to 1. Set it with the T (down) and Y (up) keys, or with the mouse wheel.

#Terrain

The troop cost of taking a tile depends on the terrain:

Tiles marked by bomb fallout are also harder to retake.

#Defending

• The defender spends troops for each tile lost; its troop density matters.
• A defense post strengthens the border around it (checkered pattern): attacks there are slower and cost the attacker many more troops. See Buildings.
• A traitor (who broke an alliance) defends at half strength for 30 seconds. See Alliances, peace and betrayal.
• You can retaliate against the last player who attacked you (key Shift+R).

#Attacking by sea

If you have a coastline, you can send troops by boat to any coast (radial menu, or the B key under the cursor). Transport boats are free; you can have at most 3 at the same time. Enemy warships can sink them.

#Attack front

A pulsing outline marks the borders at war: emerald for your attacks, red for the ones you suffer. Small arrows show the direction of the attack.

#Conquering a player

When you eliminate a player, you take their gold: half of a human player's gold, all of a tribe's (bot) or a nation's (AI).

#Tribes and nations

• Tribes are small AI opponents (bots) with no alliances, easy to take early on.
• Nations (AI) attack, defend, build and make alliances like a player. Their difficulty is set in solo and private games: Easy, Medium, Hard, Impossible.