Doctrines

One choice before the round, three multipliers for the whole round.

Attack scales how much ground a push takes. Defence scales what your land costs an attacker. Growth scales how fast troops come in. The numbers above are read straight from the game — they are always current.

Which one

Infantry — the safe default

The highest defence in the game at the price of a little attack pressure. Land you hold is genuinely expensive to take, which buys you the one thing a new player needs most: time to make mistakes without dying for them. If you are not sure, take this — it is the default for a reason.

Mechanized — the middle

Better attack than infantry, normal defence and growth, no weakness. It gets nothing for free but it is never the wrong shape for a situation. A reasonable pick if you plan to react to the round rather than commit to a plan.

Engineers — the long game

Much faster troop growth and slightly tougher ground. It wins by out-producing people rather than out-fighting them, so it needs somewhere to grow into — a corner of the map, a coastline, few neighbours. Remember that growth is wasted at the troop cap, so Engineers wants Cities early (see Troops & points). In a crowded start it is the weakest of the four.

Airborne — all pressure

The hardest hitting attack and the softest ground in the game. It is a bet: take enough early that the weak defence stops mattering, because if you stall you are the cheapest target on the map. Strong in the hands of someone who knows where they are going, punishing otherwise.

Reading an opponent

Click a player to open their card. Together with what you can see of their borders it usually tells you what you are up against: someone whose land costs you far more than their troop count suggests is either dug in behind bunkers or on Infantry — and either way, that border is not where you want to spend your army.