Overview
You will need Units to make up your army. Your Units will stay in your City (or its Acropolis), from where you can send them out on missions around Hellas to engage with Persian forces or the armies of other players. All Units have a series of statistics, including:
- Cost: The amount of Resources spent to train this Unit
- Carrying Capacity: The amount of Resources the Unit can steal on Raids or collect from Emporia
- Speed: The speed at which this Unit travels on the Map
- Production time: The amount of time required to produce each Unit
- Offense: A measurement of the Unit's attacking power
- Defense: A measurement of the Unit's defensive power, broken down by Type of enemy Unit
- Grain Consumption: The amount of Grain required to maintain this Unit every hour
Agreements
Unit statistics are also affected by each Unit's relevant Agreement. You can update certain Agreements to improve your Units and increase their effectiveness.
Unit Groupings
There are several factors that characterize a Unit.
1. Designation
Units are designated as Offensive, Defensive, or Spying.
2. Types
There are 4 primary Types of Units:
- Light Infantry
- Heavy Infantry
- Cavalry
- Phalanx
Other Types of Units include:
- Political Units: single-use Units that have only Offensive Statistics
- Champion Units: these units increase the combat statistics of certain Units they accompany into battle.
Roman Warrior Units belong to the primary Types, but can only be acquired with Denarii.
3. Versions
There are often multiple Versions of a Unit:
- Regular Units are the standard Version of the Unit
- Imperial Units have lower Grain consumption than their Regular counterparts. Their combat statistics are also altered. They can only purchased at the Bank or won as Rewards, and cannot be trained
- Veteran Units are Regular Units that have been given Orichalcum at Pantheons. This improves their statistics, making them overall stronger warriors. Veteran Units also consume less Grain per hour than their regular counterparts
Note that not all Units have all the above-listed Versions.
4. Orders
All Versions of a Unit - Regular, Imperial, and Veteran - are grouped together to form an Order. For example, Promachos, Imperial Promachos, and Veteran Promachos Units all belong to one Order.
There are several Orders of Units within each Type. For example, Swordsman, Javelineer, and Hoplite are three different Orders of Infantry Type Units.
Acquiring Units
Unlocking Units
To be able to train a Unit, you must first unlock it by signing the relevant Agreement. For example, to train Swordsmen, you must have signed the Agreement "Rhodes". For more information on Agreements, see the Agreements" section of this guide.
Training Units
Once you have unlocked a Unit, you may train that Unit at the relevant Military Building in your City (the Infantry Camp for Light Infantry Type Units, the Stables for Cavalry Type Units, the Barracks for Heavy Infantry Type Units, and the Armory for Phalanx Type Units). If you have not yet built the Building, you must do so by selecting it in the Construction menu. Regular Units will cost you Resources to train.
Usually the required Resources are Bronze, Timber, and Grain, but Denarii are also needed to train Roman Warriors.
Units take time to train ("Training Time" is one of their statistics). Unit Training Time can be decreased, for example by applying Scrolls of Wisdom, by activating certain Phylarch Skills, and more. You can also boost individual training processes with Drachmas or by applying Boost items.
Purchasing Units
Units can also be purchased from the Market. This is useful if you do not have the time or the Resources required to train them. Some Units cannot be trained, and can only be won as Rewards, acquired at the Market, or purchased as part of packs at the Bank – for example, Champion Units.
Some Units may also be included in special promotional offers at the Bank.
Winning Units
There are a variety of in-game events and tasks that can earn you Units as prizes or rewards, including but not limited to:
- Tournaments
- Tutorial, Time-Sensitive, and Recommended Quests
- Coalition Quests
- Defeating the Persian Army at Positions
- Campaign Missions
- Spartan Allegiance
Improving Units
There are many ways to strengthen your Units or otherwise improve them. For more information on any of the items in this list, refer to the relevant section of the Guide.
- Elixirs: Elixirs can be collected, combined and applied at the Sanctum of Asclepius. When activated, they will grant an offensive or defensive bonus to a certain Type of Unit
- Equipment: Every piece of Equipment your General equips grants an offensive or defensive bonus to one or more Types of Unit
- General Abilities: Many of the General Abilities, when unlocked, grant an offensive or defensive bonus to one or more Types of Unit
- Agreements: Updating the Agreement that you signed to unlock a Unit will also increase its combat statistics
- Items: Items can be acquired at the Market that temporarily boost your army's Offense and/or Defense statistics
- Orichalcum: If your Coalition holds Pantheons, you may be able to upgrade your Units with Orichalcum. Orichalcum turns Regular Units into their Veteran Versions, and improves their statistics significantly
- Phylarch Skills: By activating certain Phylarch Skills, you can temporarily boost the Offense and/or Defense statistics of one or more Types of Unit
- Dominion Status: By activating your Dominion Status, you can temporarily boost your army's Offense and Defense statistics
- Coalition Capital: If you have discovered the relevant Disciplines, your Coalition Capital can boost the Offense and/or Defense statistics of one or more Types of Unit
- Coalition Buffs and Debuffs: At the end of a Capture the Flag Tournament, your Coalition may be assigned Buffs that boost your army's Offense and Defense statistics. However, rival Coalition may assign Debuffs that reduce your Units' Offense and Defense statistics.
- More
Reviving Units
Units that were lost in battle can often be Revived if you act within seven days of their loss. Revival is cheaper than training new Units, and it is instant – saving you time.
Infirmary
Once you have built the Infirmary in your City, you will be able to revive some of the Units lost while defending your City for free. Upgrading the Infirmary to higher levels will allow you to revive a greater percentage of your Units.
Healer
The Healer, which can be accessed from the Infirmary building or through the Market interface, allows you to revive 70% of all Units lost in battle – regardless of where the battle took place. Reviving Units at the Healer costs Drachmas.
Special Units
Heroes
Heroes are multi-purpose Light Infantry Units. They are equally well-suited for both Offensive and Defensive roles, do not consume Grain for their maintenance and can carry a large load of Resources during Raids. If a Hero is defeated, you can revive it as soon as you have Ambrosia at your Hall of Heroes. You can maintain up to 50 Heroes simultaneously.
Ambrosia is needed to summon Heroes. Every day the Ambrosia Vessels at your Hall of Heroes are automatically replenished with more Ambrosia – and you can increase the amount of Ambrosia replenished by purchasing Ambrosia Vessels from the Construction Menu and placing them in your City. Each Vessel grants you one additional Ambrosia, replenished daily. In addition, each of your Friends can create an additional Hero for you once a day by clicking your Hall of Heroes.
When sent to a City as Reinforcements, no more than 2,000 Heroes will fight for its defense, even if more are present at the City. Hero losses in a defensive battle are spread proportionally across all the players whose Heroes took part in the battle.
Champion Units
Champion Units receive boosts to their combat statistics when they are accompanied into battle by certain Supporting Units. Champion Units each have a Type and Designation, which defines which Units they can be supported by. For example, the War Elephant can be boosted by up to 20 Defensive Cavalry Units.
Champion Units cannot be trained. They can be acquired in the following ways:
- By purchasing them from the Market or the Bank (as part of packs)
- As a Reward for completing Quests or participating in Events
Political Units
The Greek Assassin can be acquired from the Market, under the "Offensive" Unit tab. While it is not strictly speaking a Unit, it behaves like one in that it can be sent to an enemy location. This special Item is completely undetectable (your target will not be notified of an incoming attack) and will reach its target within 3 minutes, regardless of how far away it is. It is single-use, meaning that each Greek Assassin can only be used once. You can send several Greek Assassins together, however, you cannot send them alongside regular Units. You may only send 10 Greek Assassin attacks per day.
Roman Warriors
Roman Warrior Units are non-traditional Units. Some possess special abilities, such as above-average speed or the ability to destroy enemy Spying Units.
Roman Warrior Units are Special Units that are split into Offensive, Defensive, and Spying Designations, and further into Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Cavalry, and Phalanx Unit Types.
Roman Warriors can be acquired with Denarii from your Unit Training Buildings, for Drachmas at the Market, or purchased as part of packs at the Bank.
Unit XP and Ranks
Most Orders have Ranks. You can increase their Rank by earning Unit XP for that Unit Order in battle. Upgrading your Unit Orders to higher Ranks allows you to increase their statistics.
Upgrade requirements
Unit XP, which is earned by your Units for participating in battles, is required to upgrade your Unit Orders to higher Ranks. In addition to collecting the required amount of Unit XP for the Order you wish to upgrade, you may also need to:
- Upgrade certain Buildings to the required Level
- Update certain Agreements to the required Level
- Acquire enough Relics
*Relics can be earned by reaching new Levels, or purchased from the Market ("Resource" tab).
If you earn enough XP to upgrade your Units, but haven't met the other requirements, don't worry: you can continue to earn Unit XP for that Order of Units.
Stat Points
When you Upgrade a Unit Order to the next Rank, you will receive Stat Points.
Stat Points can be assigned to Unit Orders to increase the following Unit Statistics:
- Unit Offense or Defense (depending on the Unit's Designation)
- Movement Speed
- Carrying Capacity
Each Stat Point assigned grants a 1% increase to the statistic of your choice. This bonus applies to ALL Units in that Order that you currently have, as well as any that you acquire in the future.
You can reassign Stat Points at any time using a "Stat Point Redistributor" Item.