What to train?

by ArcticWind

Your military is your first and last line of defence against the brutal onslaught other tribes could unleash upon your lands. Providing a strong defence for your lands and citizens is of vital importance in the violent world of Alliances At War. And for many players, taking the land of others will be the preferred way to grow. You need military to take that land and to prevent your own land from being taken.

Each race has different military units with differing strength and training costs. These two, strength and cost, will probably be the most important factors when you decide which race you want to play. So make sure you understand what military is and does. You can not achieve much in Alliances At War without this knowledge. Each military unit has an offensive strength and a defensive strength. These values are often seperated with a "/". So for example the race called Uruk Hai has an elite unit with an offensive strength of 10 and a defence strength of 4. This unit's strength is usually expressed as (10/4).

There are multiple combinations of units you could use, depending on your goals. As a general rule, higher values are better than lower ones, because you will need less military units to attain the same amount of offense or defense. This means you will have more citizens, and having more citizens means that you get more tax and are harder to kill. It's also often better to train a lot of military at once rather than in small batches.

IMPORTANT: Before training military you should consider that you can reduce the training cost by building barracks or researching Economics. Usually, this will only be worth it if you train a large amount of units at once.

The soldier

The basic military unit is the soldier. Soldiers are recruited from your civilian population. They will have received basic military training, but will not be highly skilled. For most races they are of little use in combat. Yet they are the raw material from which a more efficient army can be trained. Once a citizen has joined your army and become a soldier, he can continue his training by specializing to a defence specialist, offence specialist, elite or thief. Soldiers can be instantly sold and bought on the alliance market, unless you are a dragon. Training soldiers to sell on the market will be of great help to your alliance.

The offensive specialist

Offensive specialists are trained in offence, and offence alone. Although for some races the offensive specialists offer a crude and ineffective defence, for most races the offensive specialists can do only one thing: attack.

The defensive specialist

Defensive specialists are warriors whose main task is to defend your lands. Admittedly, some races like to give their defensive specialists an elementary training in offensive, but their main job is always clear: Defend.

The elite

Elites are the most extensively trained warriors in Alliances At War. Whether they are trained mainly in offence or mainly in defence depends on the race, but usually they are quite capable in both aspects of war.

The thief

Thieves can wreak havoc in enemy lands by sabotaging production or destroying buildings. And if you are lucky they can do this so stealthily that the enemy doesn't even know where the attacks came from. Thieves can also provide information by conducting covert operations which often determine the outcome of a battle. Some races will not have thieves or will have thieves that cannot just do thievery operations but can also attack or defend.

The mystic

Mystics can be trained only by the Templar race. Mystics increase your mage level as a group by their mere presence. One mystic per acre of land will increase your mage level by 1. Mystic units may be trained in both offence and defence so they can also be sent on attacks, but be careful: their absence from your tribe means they will not be able to defend against magic. Academies and mystics do not stack.

Last updated: January 2013