Army and battles

Whoever wants to forge an empire must fight. In Forge of Empires, the military plays an important role. You can use your units to attack other players or conquer provinces on the Continent map. To go into battle, you first need units. You put these into slots in your military buildings. In your Army Management you can manage the units and add your attacking army or defending army.

Army Management

The army management screen is an efficient way to manage your units. You can mark units to defend your city and the same units can even be used in attack. The units marked with a blue highlight are in your defending army and they defend your city. You should always try to put as many troops as possible into your army. Fellow players have to defeat them when they attack you. But fear not: even if your opponent is victorious, all defenders will be healed and revived to full strength immediately after any battle to defend your city.

If you want to attack another player or an enemy on the Continent map, you can choose the units in your attacking army before the battle begins. These can be the same units you’ve marked as defenders of your city. However, your units are not protected when you attack and can therefore be destroyed or damaged... so be careful!

Finally, if you would like to skip right to the results of the battle, you can do so by pressing the "Auto-Battle" button in the Army Management. Keep in mind that the AI will take control of your units in this case and you won't be able to plan the movement of your units yourself!

Unit Types

In each age, there are five different military buildings that produce the different units of that time. The units differ in their type: There are fast units, light and heavy units and units with short or long ranged attacks.

Fast units have a good range of movement, but they cannot take much damage. They are a great way to take out ranged units.

The light units are genuine all-rounders: they are fast, inflict good damage and can withstand a lot. They are best at intercepting enemy cavalry.

The heavy units are slow and heavily armored. They are formidable opponents when they make it into close combat; there they outmatch any other unit.

Short ranged units are fast and can attack from a distance, and their attack does significant damage. However, they cannot defend themselves and are easy prey for all units which manage to attack them in close combat.

Artillery units are lost in close-range combat. They are very slow and have a weak attack. Their big advantage is that they can cover almost the entire battle map with their attack and are able to selectively attack almost every unit.

Movement and Attack

The battle is fought in rounds. Basically, each unit moves and attacks once per round. They move according to their movement points, but each type of terrain will cost a differing amount. Directly after movement, if there is an opponent within their reach, the units can attack. Melee and fast units have to attack into an adjacent field, while ranged units can shoot at an enemy within their range.

There is no retaliation to fear from ranged attacks; however, in close-ranged battle, attacked fast and melee units can defend themselves. It works like this: First, the attacker does its damage, then the one being attacked hits back. However, there is only one counter-attack per round: even the strongest unit can be defeated by a swarm of enemies this way.

Damage

Each unit has a maximum of ten life points. The amount of damage points an attack deals is calculated using the current life points and the attack value of the attacker, the defense value of the attacked, modifiers for terrain, other bonuses (some units get bonuses if they fight against units of a particular type) and a random factor. Thus, a unit with a high attack rating deals more damage, and an uninjured unit inflicts more than a wounded one. On the other hand, high defense means good armor – the unit takes less damage. If a unit loses all its life points, it is destroyed.

Terrain

On the battle map, there are different types of terrain. Forest, bushes, rocks, small hills, plains and swamps are some of them. Terrain has two different effects in the game: Firstly, it affects movement. Water areas are impassable, and other types of terrain costs extra movement points when they are crossed. On the other hand, terrain can give battle bonuses: light melee units get defense bonuses in bushes and forests, heavy melee units are better protected in plains, long-range units receive an attack bonus when they shoot from hills, whereas those with short range attacks deal more damage standing on rocks. Only fast units do not receive benefits through the terrain.

Buffs

The stats of units might get further influenced by a percentile boost. While on some provinces of the Continent map all enemy units in it gain a percentage bonus to their attack and defense stats (easily seen in the sector view as small shield icons on top of the unit images), there are two different buffs that can affect the armies of the players, both of which are accumulated from certain buildings like a few of the Great Buildings:

• Fierce resistance: All units in the defending army of this player get a bonus to both their attack and defense stats, which means they take less damage and deal more.
• Military boost: All units in the attacking army of this player get a bonus to both their attack and the defense stats, which means they take less damage and deal more.
• Defense bonus: All units in the defending army of this player get a bonus to only their defense stat, which means they take less damage.
• Attack bonus: All units in the attacking army of this player get a bonus to only their attack stat, which means they deal more damage.

Special Skills

There are some units in the game that add a further layer of tactical options to the players by featuring special skills.

Blast: Gains increased damage output for each tile closer to the target and ignores Stealth.

Call of Duty: Grants attack and defense bonus to all friendly units when this unit is killed. Only applicable once.

Chivalry: Gains bonus to attack and defense when it is the only unit with chivalry in your army.

Close Quarters: Gains attack bonus when attacking an adjacent field.

Contact!: Always retaliates against attacks within range.

Dragon Breath: Attacks a row of enemies up to two tiles behind the target enemy without receiving retaliation.

Dug-In: Receives defense increase when enemy is more than 2 tiles away from it.

Flying: Cannot be attacked by artillery units. Ignores terrain when moving.

Force Field: Absorbs damage points, up to a minimum of 1 damage point.

Frenzy: Deals damage to the enemy units within 1 tile range of unit on top of damaging targeted unit.

Heat: Reduces attack of target

Last Stand: Gains attack and defense bonus for every unit with last stand that is killed.

MIRV: Hits targeted unit and between 1 and 3 additional units in range.

Morale: All friendly units start a battle with 1 point of armor. Does not stack.

Mortar: Its shots also cause 50% damage to the units within a tile/tiles range around the target unit.

One-Shot: Is removed from battle after attacking. Dies when battle is lost.

Poison: 50% chance of poisoning unit it attacks. Poisoned units lose 1 HP every turn.

Power Shot: Ignores defensive skills and terrain.

Rapid Deployment: Starts the battle in a random field on the map. Acts before any other unit.

Rally: All friendly units start a battle with extra % attack and defense bonus. This ability does not stack.

Reactive Armor: Cannot take more than 4 damage per attack.

Recharge: Fires every other turn only.

Secret Identity: Ignores first damage and transforms into another unit of your army. Dies instead, if you have no unit without secret identity remaining.

Stealth (hides in terrains): When standing in varies with terrains, they can only be damaged by adjacent melee attacks.

Swarm: Units with Swarm get a bonus in defence when they are adjacent to other units with Swarm. Defence bonus stacks

Keen Eye: Upon attacking, provides a X% chance of doubling the damage on enemy units of any era.

Healing

Is the battle over and your units have been damaged? No problem – they heal automatically over time, one life point at a time. Units that were destroyed in battle do not heal. Their corresponding slot in military building is freed again and you can recruit a new unit there.

You also have a possibility to heal your units in your Army Management screen using Diamonds.

You have a chance to resurrect a fallen unit right after a battle, using Diamonds. It can be worthwhile, especially if you've lost "unattached" units that are not from slots in military buildings but obtained through quests or events - a unit that you can't replace otherwise.