Squads
Your squad | Enemy squad | |||
Tired Squad | Two squads fighting |
Each squad has a condition that indicates how tired the squad is. A squad slowly gets tired as it marches. A squad gets tired much faster if it is running. When a squad's condition gets low, the squad's icon will change and the squad will no longer be able to run. When a squad's condition reaches zero, the squad will lose men due to starvation and sickness. A squad will flash red each time that it loses a man.
You can restore a squad's condition by stopping the squad so it can rest. Stop a squad in a village or city and its condition will improve much faster. Stop a squad in the desert or water and its condition will NOT improve. The rate that your squad's condition increases may vary from mission to mission.
Each squad can have between one and 25 men. The more men in a squad, the larger that squad's size on the map. Move one of your squads by dragging it to the destination or select it then tap the Orders button. When dragging a squad, a line will be drawn between the squad's current position and the destination. The color of the line gives an indication of what is at the destination:
- Dark red - normal
- Bright red - squad or flag
- Green - village, city or castle
- Blue - water
- White - mountains
If two or more squads are close together, dragging from the group of squads will move the selected squad. Dragging an isolated squad will select that squad then move it.
Some flags, crowns and gold can be picked up by a squad. Move the squad on the piece to pick it up. A squad with a crown is twice as strong in fights and will not get tired as fast. A squad with gold is half as strong in fights and will get tired faster.
When you tap on a squad, that squad will become selected and will turn yellow. The number of men in the squad and the squad's condition will be shown at the bottom of the screen.
If you tap on one of your squads, you can give it a command by tapping the Orders button. A panel will appear with one or more options:
Split: (Available if the squad has more than one man) Split will create a new squad next to the selected squad. A slider bar will let you transfer men between the two squads.
Join: (Available if the squad is close to another friendly squad and at least one squad has less than 25 men). The squad that the selected squad will join with will have a blue tint. Use the slider bar to transfer men between the two squads. If the two squads have different conditions, the conditions will be adjusted to reflect the overall condition of all the men in the squad. Moving all the men to one squad will delete the empty squad.
Group: Used to form two or more squads into a group. All the squads in a group will follow any movement or speed order that you give any squad in the group. To form a group, tap any squad that is not in a group and tap the Group button. Then drag a box around all of the squads that you want in the group. Fighting squads will not be added to a group. If a squad is already in a group, the Group button will have a red line through it. Tap this button to remove all squads from the group. When moving, each squad in a group will find its best path to the destination. If you want the squads in a group to move together then they should be close to each other before forming the group.
Move: Used to order the squad to move to a different location. Tap the Move button then tap on the map where you want the squad to go. This is an alternate method to dragging the squad to the destination. The squad will determine the quickest route to reach the destination. The route will be shown for a few seconds. If you would like the squad to take a different route - for example go through the forest instead of taking the fields - then select a closer intermediate destination. When the squad reaches that destination, select the final destination.
Halt/March/Run: Determines the speed that the squad will move. Set this before the Move button. If it is set to Halt when you tap the Move button, it will automatically change to March. You can tap on a moving squad to change its speed.