Military Advice from Shûl-nak

Taken from the post "Shûl-nak On Terrain & Army Composition" by Shûl-nak, Wed 13 Jan 2016

Military 101

When building an army in Illyriad, it's vital to ask yourself: what do I intend to do with this army, and what terrain will they be doing this on? The answers to these questions will decide what troops you build.

Each unit in Illyriad has five statistics used to determine the outcomes of combat.

Attack
Defense vs Spears
Defense vs Sword
Defense vs Ranged
Defense vs Cavalry

Simply put, the army with the higher relevant score wins the battle.

Let's imagine a good old clan squabble.

Each Fang (Orcish T1 swords) has an attack score of 22, so this army of 300 Fangs has an attack score of 6600.

They march to attack an army of 331 Clanguards (Orcish T1 ranged) who each have 20 Defense vs Sword, so that's 6620 altogether.

The Clanguards win! Although, as combat losses are calculated by ratio of atk:def in Illyriad, and their defense score was only marginally higher than the Fangs' attack, it looks like only one Clanguard will survive.

But I didn't account for some other important aspects of combat in Illyriad here; the influence of commanders, and terrain. There's a lot to say about commanders, so we'll leave them for another topic. For now, let's just consider the terrain modifiers.

https://illyriadinstitute.wordpress.com/tutorials/military/terrain-modifiers/

So, had this battle occurred on a Plains tile, the result would be the same as our first calculation: Swords get no offensive bonus on Plains tiles, and Ranged units get no defensive bonus either.

However, if we moved this battle to a Buildings square, then the new values are:

Fangs: 6600 * 1.4 = 9240 attack
Clanguards: 6620 *1.15 = 7613 defense vs swords

This time the Clanguards get hacked to pieces, and a few Fangs will survive to return home.

There's a great battle calculator that has been set up to save you from maths. Input information from scout reports and your army makeup here, and you can calculate battles that minimize your own losses. http://bestmagicbears.com/battle/


However, there are many more factors than simple unit statistics to consider. Movement speed, upkeep per hour, the resource cost of building troops, production speed, and the composition of your allies' armies are just a few.

This table has some excellent information about troop type upkeep and production of stats per hour. http://www.puzzleslogic.com/illy/troops.html

Additionally, mixing attack types is a very bad idea; stick to one kind of troop for offensive actions. If you include multiple attack types, you risk increasing the defenders' overall effectiveness and making the battle harder for yourself, as explained in this article. http://www.puzzleslogic.com/illy/bigboomfail.html

Mixing defense types is a very good idea; archers and spearmen together form a formidable defense against any attacker.

It may be a lot to take in, so I'll conclude on some basic points. Exceptions do exist, but in general:

Cavalry are the strongest and fastest offensive troops, but take considerable penalties on many terrain types, and are comparatively wasted on defense. Humans get the best cavalry.

Infantry are the best units to attack any other kind of square. In a pinch they can be used to defend against enemy infantry, but like cavalry they are always best used offensively. Dwarves get the strongest infantry.

Spears are defensive troops who shine against cavalry, and are reasonably effective against infantry, but their attack scores and bow defense scores are laughable. These are the Orcs' best units!

Ranged units are defensive troops who are best used to defend against any non-cavalry unit. They can make decent attackers in a few situations, such as against massed spearmen or infantry on mountains, but are better used in defense. Elves get the best ranged units, and will make use of them offensively.

Don't mix troop types (under the same commander) when attacking, ever.


Taken from the post "Shûl-nak On Commanders " by Shûl-nak, Fri 15 Jan 2016

Commanders are your military heroes, as valuable as hundreds or even thousands of lesser troops when properly used. Just as with armies, it's important to ask yourself what the purpose of your commander will be to ensure you make the most effective use of them.

Commanders gain experience and level up by killing enemies. They then can then choose from 20 skills to improve, divided into two categories; personal and divisional bonuses. Personal skills increase your commander's statistics only, while divisional bonuses apply to both the commander and the troops in their division.

Personal Skills

Heroism

A vital skill for any offensive commander, each rank increases your commander's attack rating. The formula is (<commander's base attack> x 6) x <number of heroism ranks>.

It's very important to remember that the attack bonus provided by Heroism is limited by the attack score of the whole army; a commander with 10 Heroism commanding 3 troops with 66 combined attack will have his own attack score limited to 66, so make sure your armies are large enough to fully benefit from this skill.

Break Spear Wall, Cover, Sword Mastery, Avoid Charge

These skills all confer bonuses to defense against either spears, swords, ranged or cavalry units. The formula is (<commander's base defense vs [relevant troop type]> x 7) x <number of skill ranks>. The same limitation caveat applies to these skills as Heroism.

Vitality & Accelerated Healing

Increases your commander's maximum health, and your commander's healing rate respectively. Commanders take damage in battle, and regenerate health every hour.

Defy Death

Gives commanders a 1% chance per rank to escape alive from otherwise fatal battles. Increasingly useful on high-level commanders, but escaping death can be a double-edged sword: would it take longer for the commander to return home than it would to resurrect him?

Uncanny Sense

Increases your commander's chance to avoid assassins. Largely useless at the moment because assassins can only kill commanders in cities who are assigned to armies; your best defense is simply to unassign commanders if you expect assassins. Commanders camped outside cities cannot be targetted.

Division Bonuses

Close Quarters Penetration, Concentrated Fire, Bloodlust, Charge

Each of these skills increases the attack score of a specific unit type by 1% per level ; for example, Bloodlust increases all infantry unit attack scores in the division, but will not affect any other unit type.

Agile Defence, Tortoise Formation, Interlocked Shields, Square Formation

Each of these skills increases the division's defense scores against spears, swords, ranged or cavalry units by 1% per level. Unlike the offensive skills, these bonuses will apply to every unit in the division regardless of their type.

Forced March

Increases movement speeds by 5% per level. Incredibly useful on any commander.

Military Logistics

Increases troop carrying capacity by 5% per level. Only useful if you intend to use armies to take basic resources from other towns.

Force of Will

Increases magic resistance by 5% per level. Currently useless, as spells cannot be cast on troops.


Each skill has 10 ranks, with one notable exception: tier 1 troops may spend an extra five ranks in divisional bonuses to defence against their own unit type, whilst tier 2 troops may spend an extra five ranks in divisional bonuses to attack.

To clarify, a Fist commander can spend 15 ranks in Bloodlust which increases all infantry attack, whilst a Fang commander can spend 15 ranks in Interlocked Shields which increases all units' defense against infantry.

As a general rule, then, tier 2 commanders are better used on offense leading armies of their own troop type. Tier 1 commanders are better used to defend against their own troop type; for example, a Wolfrider [T1 Cavalry] with 15 ranks in Square Formation leading an army of Kobold Cohorts [T1 Spears].

If a commander dies they can be resurrected, but this takes 1 hour/1000 gold per commander level. For this reason it's important to avoid giving commanders unnecessary skills, as your favourite champions can take days to revive.

So, to conclude:

T2 commanders for offense leading their own troop type.
T1 commanders for defense against their own troop type.
Avoid giving your commanders skills they won't use; build offensive or defensive commanders and skill them accordingly.



Taken from the post "Shûl-nak On Crafted Goods & Elite Divisions" by Shûl-nak, Fri 15 Jan 2016


It's possible to equip your commanders and troops with special crafted equipment that improves their statistics. The easiest reference guide for getting a quick idea of what kinds of goods are out there is here http://www.puzzleslogic.com/illy/crafting.html – just remember that many negative and positive values except for movement speed adjustments were multiplied by 5 since this table was built, so certain crafted goods actually have much more powerful effects.

To further build on the strength of crafted goods, you may create 'Elite Divisions' of troops which gain double bonuses and penalties from crafted goods.

To do this, you must have the corresponding researches completed in the military tree, such as Elite Squadrons to build an elite cavalry division.

Once completed, any army which respects the elite division size requirements will automatically become elite. For cavalry, the restriction is 60; any more than that and the elite status no longer applies. For ranged units it's 100, for infantry 150, and for spearmen 200.

Elite Divisions can pack an incredibly powerful punch for their size, making particularly efficient and effective hunting armies.

Let's consider a Fist [T2 Infantry] commander with all relevant offensive skills maxed. He's being sent to fight against a pack of Animals in Buildings.

His equipment is: Silversteel Sword [+150% Attack, +300% with Elite bonus]
Over-Padded Chainmail [+50% vs Animals, 100% with Elite bonus]

So, his 10 ranks in Heroism give him (36 x 6) x 10 = 2160

His 15 Bloodlust ranks increases this damage by 15%: 2160 x 1.15 = 2484

Now we apply the crafted goods bonuses: a 400% increase. 2484 x 5 = 12420

Finally, the Terrain modifiers are added last: an extra 40% for fighting in buildings. 12420 x 1.4 = 17388 attack.

This means the commander alone is hitting as hard as 483 regular Fists. Sucker punch!

For extra brutality, you can assign 5 commanders in different divisions to the same army, meaning an army of 5 fully upgraded and equipped Fist commanders leading 150 Fists between them can hit around as hard as an army of over two thousand regular troops in the same situation.

Just remember that the combined attack scores of the regular troops must exceed the commander's Heroism attack bonus for you to gain the full effects. This applies across the entire army, so you can split 60 cavalry units across 5 divisions, and the commanders will all still gain their full attack bonuses while retaining Elite status.

Any troops who die while wielding crafted goods will drop them, and a percentage of the total equipment will be lost. Therefore it's usually a good idea to only equip commanders with valuable and powerful equipment; their enormous personal attack and defense scores benefit far more greatly from percentage based increases. However, if a fight is particularly important then you may wish to equip all of your elite troops to squeeze out every last ounce of power.

Should your commander die, their equipment will be dropped on the floor and can be retrieved by cotters.


The equipment you can give to your troops depends on the kind of equipment they require in the barracks.

For example, Fangs need chainmail and swords to build, so they can only be equipped with crafted chainmail and swords.

Fists, on the other hand, can use platemail in addition to swords and chainmail.



Taken from the post "Example Armies" by Shûl-nak, Fri 15 Jan 2016

Death Pack Hunters
An elite cavalry army intended for hunting animals on Plains squares. We've attached some scouts because our greedy neighbour keeps trying to scout our claimed hunting squares to see if we've killed anything particularly valuable.

Commander Type
Death Pack [T2 Cavalry]

Equipment
Boar Spear [-16% attack, +120% vs Animals;
both penalty and bonus are doubled by Elite status, so the total is +208% vs Animals]

Plainsman's Platemail [+60% on Plains; +120% with Elite bonus]

Skills

Heroism [10/10]
Vitality [3/10]
Accelerated Healing [3/10]
Charge [15/15]
Forced March [10/10]

Troops
60 Death Pack [T2 Cavalry]

Diplomatic Contingent
200 Hunters [T1 Scout]


Anti-Cavalry Kobolds
A large, cheaply built army for protecting siege encampments on Plains from enemy cavalry.

Commander Type
Wolfrider [T1 Cavalry]

Equipment
Pike [+80% Cav Def]

Reinforced Leather [+24% Cav Def]

Skills

Avoid Charge [10/10]
Vitality [10/10]
Accelerated Healing [10/10]
Defy Death [10/10]
Square Formation [15/15]
Forced March [10/10]

Troops
10,000 Kobold Cohorts [T1 Spears]