How a battle is decided - rounds, damage, counters, morale and losses

Quick answer: a battle lasts at most 40 one-second rounds. Every round each group of troops hits the enemy: troops × attack × counter × morale, reduced by the target’s defense, then divided by the target’s HP to get how many fall. Infantry beat ranged, ranged beat cavalry, cavalry beat infantry (2× damage). On a castle the wall must fall first, or the defender wins. Afterwards, 60% of an attacker’s losses and all of a defender’s losses are wounded, as long as the Infirmary has room.

Before the fight

Your army’s attack, defense and HP are fixed when it leaves: base troop stats plus all your bonuses (VIP, War Chest, research, items, titles…), added up as explained in Boosts and how they stack. The heroes in the army add their battle skills on top during the fight (see Heroes in battle).

Each troop type is split into up to 4 groups that line up in a formation.

In a rally against a castle, all attacking troops use the captain’s bonuses and formation, and only the captain’s heroes fight. Reinforcements that defend a castle use the castle owner’s bonuses. Each player’s losses count for the player who sent the troops.

Base stats of one troop, before any bonus:

Troop	Attack	Defense	HP
Infantry, Tier 1 (Skirmisher)	20	20	60
Infantry, Tier 2 (Footman)	40	40	120
Ranged, Tier 1 (Archer)	30	10	50
Ranged, Tier 2 (Crossbow)	60	20	100
Cavalry, Tier 1 (Light Cavalry)	40	20	80
Cavalry, Tier 2 (Heavy Cavalry)	80	40	160
Siege Engine, Tier 1 (Ballista)	100	10	120
Siege Engine, Tier 2 (Catapult)	200	20	240

Step 1: the wall (castle attacks only)

• When you attack a castle that has a Wall, your army first assaults the Wall.
• If the Wall is still standing after the assault, the defender wins. Siege Engines are the wall breakers: against walls they do 10.5× damage. Ranged troops do 0.75×, infantry and cavalry only 0.2×.
• A broken Wall shakes the defenders: their morale drops by 15.

Step 2: the rounds

Up to 40 rounds of 1 second each. In every round both sides attack.

Who gets hit: every group hits the front-most enemy group still standing. The formation sets the front: Infantry Phalanx puts Infantry first, then Cavalry, then Ranged (the other formations start with Ranged or Cavalry). Siege Engines always stand last. Inside one troop type the lowest tier is hit first. Ranged and Siege fire in every round like everyone else; only the Wall stage of a castle attack has its own shooters (wall traps and defending Ranged troops).

Damage of one group:

damage = troops × attack × counter × morale factor × 100 ÷ (100 + target defense)

Troops lost by the target = damage ÷ HP of one target troop.

Counters:

• Infantry deals 2× to Ranged, 0.5× to Cavalry, 1× to Infantry and Siege.
• Ranged deals 2× to Cavalry, 0.5× to Infantry, 1× to Ranged and Siege.
• Cavalry deals 2× to Infantry, 0.5× to Ranged, 1× to Cavalry and Siege.
• Siege deals 1× to Siege, but only 0.05× to Infantry, Ranged and Cavalry.

Siege Engines hardly hurt troops, so protect them with other troops.

Defense: a target with defense 100 takes half the damage (100 ÷ 200). Defense 300 takes a quarter.

Worked example

Two equal groups of 10,000 troops, same attack and defense, infantry against ranged, both at full morale. The infantry deal 2× damage, the ranged deal 0.5× back. So each round the infantry kill 4 times as many ranged troops as they lose. With +62% attack from boosts, the infantry’s damage is another 1.62× bigger.

Step 3: morale

• Both sides start at 100 morale.
• Morale falls as you take losses, and with shocks: your front line breaking (−10), the Wall falling (−15 for the defender), a hero dying (−8) or the army leader dying (−20).
• From round 16, both sides also lose 4 morale per round.
• Morale changes damage: at full morale a group deals 105% damage, at 0 morale 70%.
• At 0 morale an army breaks (routs) and the battle ends. If both armies are still on the field, the side with more remaining combat power wins.

Step 4: how it ends

Ending	Winner
All attackers down	Defender
Wall still standing after the assault	Defender
All defenders down	Attacker
One side’s morale hits 0	Decided by remaining combat power
40 rounds pass	The side with more remaining combat power

Losses: wounded or dead

• Attacker: 60% of the troops lost are wounded, 40% are dead.
• Defender: all troops lost are wounded.
• Wounded troops go to your Infirmary, but only up to its free room (capacity minus the wounded already waiting). See the Infirmary table in Buildings reference.
• Wounded troops that do not fit die, starting with your lowest tier troops, so the beds go to your best troops.
• Heal them in the Infirmary. See Troops, training and healing and Battle reports.

If something goes wrong

• “I had more troops and still lost.” Check the counters (a ranged-heavy army loses to cavalry), whether the Wall stood (castle attacks), and the morale line in the report.
• “Most of my losses are dead.” As attacker 40% of losses always die. As defender, a full Infirmary turns the rest into dead too. Heal or add Infirmary capacity before big fights.
• “My Siege Engines did nothing.” They do 0.05× damage to troops. Bring them for walls.