Battles

From Civ World

(Redirected from Battle)

Battles are where Civilizations use their combined Armies to fight and attempt to steal technologies and Wonders from one another.

If the player's civilization is currently fighting a battle, the Armies button on the main taskbar will change to the Battles button and show the number of battles involving the player's civilization. A list of all battles being fought in the game can also be found in the World screen under the "Current Battles" tab.

Starting a Battle

The highest-ranking members of a Civilization, the King or Queen and all Princes and Princesses, can start a vote to begin a new battle from the World screen. Hovering the mouse over a foreign Civilization will reveal options including one labeled "Invade." Clicking on this button will start a vote in the player's Civilization to attack the foreign Civilization. If the vote passes, a new battle will begin between the two Civilizations.

After a battle has been initiated, it will begin in a paused state for twenty hours, to allow players from both sides to coordinate strategies and place troops on the field. A countdown timer is visible on the Battle screen for each battle. When the timer expires the battle will begin!

A Civilization may be engaged in any number of battles at the same time.

The Battle Screen

Each battle is fought between two combatants: the attacker and the defender. In the Battle screen, the attacker is represented in red and the defender in blue. The screen is divided into two halves, and the committed troops from the two sides are shown on either the top or the bottom:

If the player views a battle involving their Civilization, they will always see their side on the bottom of the screen regardless of whether their civ is attacking or defending.
If the player views a foreign battle -- one that does not involve their civilization -- the attacker is shown on the top and the defender on the bottom.

The Battle screen can be accessed from the main taskbar.

Adding Troops to a Battle

Each side in a battle has a set number of slots with different types: Melee, Ranged, Mobile, and Naval. The number of each type of slot is determined by the battlefield being used.

At the bottom of the screen the player can see their available Military Units, with icons to match the slot types. If there are empty slots with the right type, clicking on the unit will commit the entire stack to the battle in that slot. If all the slots are full, the battle is full! The player must wait until the units filling a slot are killed or retreated before they can add new units.

If a High Population Civ is defending, Battles will be started in multiple pages.

Tip: You may want to add only some of your units in a stack to a battle slot instead of the whole stack. To add just a single unit, use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+Click.

Unit and Army Strength

Each unit has two kinds of strength: attack and defense strength. While a unit is waiting to go into a battle these are written on the unit card. Once a unit is sent into a battle, the card shows its total strength:

Total strength is based on whether the unit is filling a slot on the attacking or defending side, and is measured per slot: each slot's strength is the number of units in it times their attack or defense value.
- For example: Archers have an attack strength of 1 and a defense strength of 2. Sending 10 of them into a Ranged slot on the attacking side will only provide 10 total strength, but sending 10 into a Ranged slot on a defending side will provide 20 total strength.
- Unit strengths can be further modified by a stance, an unopposed bonus or a weather bonus. These affect the strength of the individual unit, and are factored in when measuring the total strength of the army.

The strength of each side is the combined total of all its filled slots.

Unit Attacking and Dying

Throughout the course of the battle, slots on both sides regularly attack or are attacked by their opponents. Units on the weaker side tend to get attacked more often, and units are killed at a rate based on how powerfully they are attacked.

As long as units remain in a slot, that slot will continue to fight until it is retreated, wiped out, or the battle ends.

Unit Stances

Each slot can be set in one of three stances to alter its tactics and effect on the battle:

Normal stance is chosen by default and offers no change to the unit.
Heroic stance will double the strength of the unit, but will cause it to lose triple the number whenever it is attacked.
Fortified stance will reduce the unit's strength by half, but will also reduce its losses by half when attacked.

Hovering over a unit slot will show options to change the stance.

Retreating

Any unit the player controls can be retreated from the battle, emptying the slot it had filled. Hovering over the unit slot will show a "Retreat" option below the options to change stances.

If a unit was attacking or being attacked at the time the player clicks retreat, it will remain in the battle until the attack finished before leaving the slot. This could mean that the unit is wiped out before it gets the chance to retreat.
Retreating all units from one side of the battle will not immediately cause a surrender. The other side will still have to push the progress arrow all the way to the end before the battle ends. This prevents battles from being won before the defender has a chance to marshal their troops. However, a completely unopposed army will gain all possible bonuses and push the progress arrow down quite quickly, so one-sided battles do tend to resolve in a hurry!

Unopposed Bonuses

Each battle includes four different types of slots: Melee, Ranged, Mobile, and Naval. Each type represents a different area of the battlefield, and while all four are added to get each side's overall strength, a bonus can be gained if one side has troops in areas that the other does not.

Each unopposed bonus a side earns will double the effectiveness of troops fighting in that area.

If one side's Melee slots are completely empty, as long the opposing side still has Melee units on the field they gain a Breakthrough bonus.
Having Ranged units on the field while the enemy has none provides a Bombardment bonus.
Having Mobile units on the field while the enemy has none provides a Flanking bonus.
Having Naval units on the field while the enemy has none provides a Blockade bonus.

Weather

A further element that affects the strength of units in a battle is weather. There are four kinds of weather during battles, and each battle will cycle among the possible weather conditions at random intervals. These types are Foggy, Snowy, Rainy, and Windy. The current weather for a battle is displayed as an animated background behind the unit cards.

Each military unit has an attribute based on the ideal weather condition for that type of unit. All units fighting in a battle that favor the current weather will have their attack or defense strength doubled for as long as the weather lasts. When the weather changes, these units will return to normal and a different set of units will have their strength doubled.

Each unit card shows its favored weather as the card background, behind the image of the unit.

Winning and Losing Battles

The progress of the battle is shown by the balance bar on the left side of the screen. The arrow on that bar will move up or down as one side or the other gains the advantage, based on whichever side has the higher total strength. The greater the difference in strength between the two sides, the faster the arrow will move. As soon as one side pushes the arrow all the way to the other end of the bar, they immediately win the battle.

The winner of the battle gains all the loser's Wonders and immediately learns all technologies known by the loser.

Fighting in Foreign Battles

In addition to attacking or defending their own civilization, players may contribute troops to battles between two foreign civilizations, but only on the side of the defender. Visiting the "Current Battles" tab in the World screen will show all current battles. Clicking on any of these will show the battle, and the player will be able to commit their troops to the defender's side with the same conditions as if it were their own civilization's battle.

Fighting Barbarians

In addition to fighting against other civilizations, any civilization can randomly be attacked by Barbarians. These battles work exactly the same way as any other, except that barbarians tend to field small, predictable armies and will not reinforce them after the battle begins.

When fighting the Barbarians, players can circumvent the battle timer and "jump-start" the battle. If the players place enough troops in the battle such that their army's strength is higher than that of the Barbarians, the battle will begin immediately.