How a battle resolves
Your army fights as groups—all your archers of one tier act together, all your spearmen together, and so on. The fight itself runs on autopilot, per the official rules:
- Who goes first: the side with higher initiative. A tie is a coin flip—unless your hero is Guan Yu, who wins ties when fighting without allies.
- Within your side, your strongest group swings first, counting all its active bonuses.
- Targeting: each group attacks whichever enemy group it can hurt the most—and if that target would die with damage left over, it switches targets so nothing is wasted. (Players who log their battles add a practical observation: monsters reliably pound your biggest, toughest group.)
- Then the sides alternate, one group at a time; if one side has more groups, the extras attack in a row at the end of the round.
- Leader bonuses lock in the moment the march departs. Anything applied—or expiring—while your troops are walking doesn't count. Buff first, then march. Leaders themselves are always the last to fall.
Because monsters spend their turns on your biggest, toughest group, you can make that group cheap on purpose. The monster wastes its attacks killing inexpensive troops while your valuable groups do the damage. That's the whole trick behind every 'layering' guide.
Stack balancing
One number unlocks all the sizing math: each troop tier is about 1.8× stronger and tougher than the tier below it—confirmed independently by multiple creators and the game's own stat tables. From it falls the community formula: for every 100 troops of your best tier, bring about 180 of the tier below, 320 of the tier below that, and 580 of the tier below that—each layer then packs the same total punch.
Worked example: 2,000 tier-IV Riders at 580 strength is a 1.16M baseline—so about 3,625 tier-III Riders or 4,000 tier-IV Archers matches it. Equal groups mean the boss's targeting spreads evenly and nothing gets deleted for free. The Army Stacker does this arithmetic for you.
How bonuses combine
The game's own Mythbusters video settles this with worked math: every bonus adds together into one big percentage, which is then applied to your base strength once. Bonuses never multiply each other. Example straight from the video: 2,000 tier-IV riders at 580 strength is a 1.16M base. Cleopatra's +50%, and a +219% bonus against ranged targets, don't compound—they simply sum (+269%), so the total is 1.16M × 3.69 ≈ 4.28M. The practical takeaway: every percentage point is worth the same, wherever it comes from—captain, research, dragon, VIP, or clan—so chase whichever is cheapest to raise next.
Marches and Leadership
- March size is capped by Leadership—a stat on whichever hero or captain leads the march. Every unit costs Leadership points; higher tiers give more power per point.
- Every march needs a leader. Your simultaneous-march ceiling is effectively your roster of available leaders, and content restricts who may go: Common squads take one captain, Rare squads take the hero, Heroic squads take hero plus all captains with reinforcements.
- Leadership grows with levels, and is boosted by gear, gems, research, talents—and the hero Thaddeus (+25%).
- Hero choice changes march rules: Ayrin removes march time limits and allows cross-kingdom marches; Ryjong doubles march speed; Svyatogor buffs captain-less marches.
- Clan Raids are the group-attack mechanic: a clan Leader or Superior sets a target, deadline, and participant cap; members add marches and the group hits together. Used on Heroic squads, Vaults, and event bosses.
Battle types
| Type | How it works |
|---|---|
| Monster squads | Common (one captain), Rare (hero), Heroic (hero + all captains + reinforcements, raidable), Epic (event-only). Kills award Valor Points and XP. |
| Citadels | Level-10+ monster fortresses with walls. Bring Engineer Corps and the level's required catapults. Drop Master Coins, clan chests, and Dragon Keys (Elven citadels). |
| Crypts | Captain-led, consume Tar, drop gear materials and gems—economy content, not combat. Carter's job. |
| City attacks | Steal resources above the target's Warehouse protection plus Gold Ingots. Defender fights with garrison plus wall fortifications. |
| Scouting | Your Spies fight the defender's Spies; only if yours survive do you see resources and troops. Scouting always appears in both players' journals—it is never stealthy. |
| Kingdom PvP | Clash for the Throne and Clash of Kingdoms revolve around Conquest Points. Attacking players stronger than you yields CP even in defeat; clans run coordinated 'CP runs' with compensated losses. |
Death and revival—no hospital
Total Battle has no wounded queue. Casualties die, and the Temple revives them—at official rates: 90% of troops lost attacking come back (paid in Gold or Sacred Potions), and 75% of troops lost defending your city come back (paid in Silver or potions). The rest are gone for good. One strange official rule worth knowing: a lone casualty can't be revived at all—if exactly one unit dies, the Temple won't take it.
- Events change the rules: Ruthless Slaughter lets attack losses revive for Silver; Thirst for Battle halves Gold revival costs. The timing meta: hit Heroic and Epic monsters during these windows so everything revives cheap.
- Never revive cheap troops with Gold or potions—delete and retrain. Reserve revival for high-tier guardsmen, Griffins, Corax, and mercenaries.
Defensive doctrine
The community consensus for big PvP events is do NOT defend your city. Shield, or dump troops into a clan Fort when offline; keep portals closed; keep resources under the Warehouse cap; bank overflow as unopened tokens. Fighting at home is a choice you make deliberately with a garrison build—not a default.