Attacking & defending

What an attack actually costs, and the three things that change that price.

Attacking

Click land next to yours. Your force pushes into that border and keeps taking cells until it runs out. Unowned land is cheap. Land held by a player costs much more, and the more troops they have sitting there, the more it costs you.

Your whole force goes to the border you clicked. If you share two borders with the same enemy, the attack does not split between them — it stays where you aimed. That matters when you are trying to break through in one place rather than push everywhere at half strength.

What makes land expensive

• Troops on the ground. The defender's army is the main price.
• Terrain. Mountains and rough ground cost more to take than open land. This is worth reading off the map before you commit — a border through a mountain range is a different proposition to one across a plain.
• Doctrine. Both yours and theirs. See Doctrines.
• Bunkers. The strongest single factor, below.

Bunkers and artillery

These two are mirror images. Both work in a radius around themselves, not on the tile they stand on.

• Bunker — multiplies the cost of taking anything in its radius by ×. It is the single most effective way to make ground not worth attacking. Put them on the front, not in the middle of your territory where nobody will ever attack.
• Artillery — cuts your capture cost in its radius to × of normal. Same logic in reverse: it belongs near the border you intend to push, and it does nothing at home.

Both stack up to deep in the same spot, and each one on top of another costs sharply more (see Troops & points). Radius scales with the map, so on the world map a single bunker covers a lot more ground than the same bunker on a small procedural map.

Supply — the one people get killed by

Land that is cut off from your main territory defends at half strength. Not reduced income, not slower growth — half defence. On the map it is marked with a cross pattern, so you can see at a glance which of your land is hanging by a thread, and which of your enemy's is ripe.

You can supply it by sea or air, but not for free:

• A harbour in the cut-off area restores 75% of normal defence.
• An airport there restores 25%.
• Either only works if you also have an airport in your main territory — there has to be something to supply it from.

Read this the other way round when you attack: cutting an enemy in two is often worth more than taking the same number of cells somewhere convenient. Everything behind the cut becomes half price.

Scorched earth

A cruise missile leaves its impact area ownerless and expensive for a long while — buildings destroyed, land nobody can cheaply take, including you. It is a denial tool, not a conquest tool. See Air, sea & missiles.

Being attacked

You get an alert when someone starts on you, with their name. Your options, roughly in order of how quickly they work:

• Bunker the front. Fastest real answer, and it keeps working after the attack.
• Counter-attack somewhere else. Troops committed to your border are not defending theirs.
• Offer an alliance — to them, or to someone behind them. See Alliances & ranking.