Quote Originally Posted by som View Post
Thank you very much for detailed explanations -- precise and clear, covering all points.
You're welcome.

3. Troops move

Questions:
1) What about ranged units? I assume they move in the same manner (full speed), if "stand&shoot" rule is not applicable (nobody's in range). Am I right?
2) Who moves first -- attacker or defender? I assume attacker, otherwise attacking cavalry will never have a chance to "jump on" defending layered archers, even if the initial range is not 5000. Please confirm.
1. That is what I assume about ranged units also. I don't think there is a check (or it would be illogical for there to be a check) at every movement point for units in range. What I mean by that is, if an Archer has a speed of 500, it doesn't stop at every point 1-500 to check if there's something in its range. It checks once at the start of the phase for things in range. If this check is negative, then it moves up the full 500 point, then checks again for units in range.
For melee units, I assume there's a proximity check so units will stop at the same point as an opposing unit instead of bypassing it. Otherwise, layering doesn't work.

2. In the case of equal speed unit, defender gets the priority. Otherwise, the fastest unit will move first, regardless of side.
You have to remember that Cavs are faster than almost every other unit so that is why Cavs can run up to Archers before anything else happens. This is also why you want to clear defending Cavs because they will pretty much mess up that priority.

5. Target priorities
Ok, so the final (?) version looks like this:
1) Range unit rules.
Range units (AT included) prefer ranged ones, no matter what (even being attacked by melee unit). Among possible ranged targets the most valuable (summary of all resources for production) one will be chosen. If no ranged units in sight, follow Melee unit rules.
2) Melee unit rules.
Choose the closest enemy. Among possible targets (same distance) the most valuable one will be chosen.
There is some uncertainty in these rules (possibly unit priorities, say swords 'like' pikes), but that is the best that we have for now.
Am I correct?
Not quite.

Ranged priorities:
1. ATs
2. Other ranged units by value.
3. Melee units by speed.

Melee priorities:
1. Closest target.
2. This is where it gets messed up. Different units appear to have different priorities. Some prioritizes value and some prioritizes by a "hit list"

6. Wall bonus to all defending ranged units
If you are so sure, I can accept it. Especially after such a solid confirmation by archers failure reports.

Well, it works only against offline player though, that decreases its value a lot. Night raids on a sleeping enemy don't seem to be attractive for me.
There isn't very many things that will work against an online player.
In fact, i can safely say that you will never win against an online player that knows what they're doing unless you massively out-number him. You have to remember that defense always has the advantage. This is easily seen by the limit put on a Rally Point, the Reinforcement system, and the Wall bonus. To win as an attacker, you're bound to spend more resources than the defending player to win so keep that in mind when planning an attack.