Battle (SoW1)

This page describes in which order the units act in battle, as each units acts on a different time in combat. If a composition is made of many different units attacking in different order, it would be possible to attack units in multiple lines, if units in the front are taken down.

Currently, not all information is collected yet and some of it may be false.

General order

General order adjacent battle.

Order		Units acting
Start		Oracles cast thier shield for the squad, and Items like Everlasting Potion or Essence of Embor apply their effect
1		Field Cannons and Siege Cannons in the front row attack
2		Dragoons and Gunners in the front row attack
3		Field Cannons and Siege Cannons in the middle row attack
4		Dragoons and Gunners in the middle row attack
5		Field Cannons and Siege Cannons in the back row attack
6		Dragoons and Gunners in the back row attack
7		Magical Units and Dragons attack (Or innact Casting actions, or wait, in the case of only 1 attack per round for various magical units. This turn order also only applies to the Hero when they're using their magical attack, their sword or healing attacks have a different turn order)
8		Archery Units, along with Rangers and Mercenaries with their crossbow attack, and Samurai when firing up or down walls at 1 range
9		Light Infantry, Light Cavalry , and Samurai attack
10		Heavy Infantry , Heavy Cavalry , and the Hero as their stage 1 support class Cleric attack. (Samurai not included. This also assumes the Valkyrie, Paladin, or Cleric aren't holding their action to heal)
11		Risen attack
12		Healing actions take place. (This assumes Valkyrie, Paladin, or the Hero's Support classes didn't already use their action to attack)
->		The opposing squad is allowed to act, and the order starts over from 1.

Ambush

Squads that have the Light Infantry Movement type are often capable of performing the Ambush action, as long as they're attacking a squad on Ambush Tiles.

The options Menu allows viewing the Ambush tiles in each map; by selecting the Hover Paths icon and switching to Showing: Ambush Tiles.

These include Woods, Swamps, Wheat Fileds, Hills, and Town Tiles, among others.

Ambushing a squad disables the target squad's first volley of attacks, so rather than a fight going: 1st Attack < 1st Counter-attack > 2nd Attack < 2nd Counter-Attack;

Ambush instead makes this:

1st Attack > 2nd Attack < 2nd Counter-Attack.

If a Light Infantry has the damage output to kill or nearly kill a squad, this can often result in no to negligible damage taken by cutting out the most important counter-attack an enemy squad has.

This can also be devastating to glass-cannon squads like most Light Infantry squads themselves, if they're caught on the receiving end.

Charge attack

Squads that have either the Heavy Cavalry Movement type or Light Cavalry movement type can perform a Charge Attack if they move at least 7 tiles to reach their target (6 with Army Stables tech), and are attacking into Charge Tiles.

The options Menu allows viewing Charge tiles in each map; by selecting the Hover Paths icon and switching to Showing: Charge Tiles.

These include Grassland, Road, Wheat Field, Wall, Ramp, and Bridge tiles, among others.

Charging a squad allows each attacking melee cavalry unit a chance to apply the Shock status with their attacks during the 1st wave of attacks, which disables the Shocked unit's action for 1 round of combat, offering a similar end result to Ambush (albeit units have a chance to resist Shock). Knights can apply Shock to any units their AoE attack, which not only enables them to Shock units behind their initial target, but also increases the odds a cavalry squad with multiple Knights will reliably and consistently apply the maximum benefit of charge's associated status effect.

Additionally, the Strategic Maneuvers tech will allow charge attacks to deal increased Morale damage to rival squads. This is applied before the start of the battle in the combat prieview, enabling a squad others would encounter at Fair Morale to be dropped to Fearful Morale before the battle even starts: oppening up more opportunities to Force Surrender an enemy squad. It also means squads with high Morale can be dropped low enough they won't get a 3rd attack, offering good utility through when and how it's applied.

Finally: Polearm Warrior is a core countermeasure to charge, which bestows immunity to the Shock status to it's bearer. Or immunity to Shocked to it's bearer and any adjacent units, should the Polearm Mastery be researched. Enemy factions will research a variety of tech as the game progresses, enabling even 1 hostile lancer to stop cavalry units in their tracks: especially considering Polearm Warrior also grants a +35% damage bonus against the same Cavalry units that are necessary to perform a Charge.

Normal attack

Balanced attack, no special bonuses or penalties.

Forced Surrender

Given at the stat of Chapter 3

Attempt to negotiate a surrender. If the attempt fails, enter combat and lose your first turn in the next combat. Enemies defeated in the next combat have a chance to surrender.

Surrendered enemies give 50 gold a piece at the end of the chapter, along with more immediate XP, LDR, and Loyalty rewards.

Forcing the enemy squad to surrender also skips combat entirely (when successful), immediately resolving it, and prompting artifacts to drop and XP rewards to go accumulate.

Squads of Fair Morale or better provide a 0% chance to surrender before the battle's start, and will instigate a fight. On a failed surrender attempt, the player also looses out on their 1st volley of attacks: essentially suffering the same downsides as though they were ambushed.

Still: units "killed" during the fight are allowed a surrender attempt, enabling squads with solid kill-potential even in the face of being ~ambushed to muscle through and capture units regardless.

Squads often need to be Fearful Morale or worse for Force Surrender to be the optimal play, and only a few maps start squads with such low Morale initially.

Which often means the Force Surrender option is a 2-squad endeavor, were one will attack the squad in an effort to lower their Morale (or try to kill them outright), and another will clean up with the Force Surrender action.

It should also be noted that Squads with Fearless Morale will often always have Fearless Morale regardless of how bad things are going for them, and will always resist a Force Surrender attempt, and never surrender even when KOed during a combat following directly thereafter. Such squads are often led by Dark Mages or Assassins, belonging to the Cult of Zanatus.

Target leader attack

Unlocked from the Identify Command Structure tech.
Enhanced with the Optimized Tactics tech.

Attack the Squad Leader or anyone blocking the Leader. +35% hit rate, -25% / -10% evasion until the start of the next Player Phase.

Useful for lowering a squad's Morale in tandem with the Phych Warfare tech.

Also a good option to encourage units with AoE attacks to center their AoE attacks, given opposing squad leaders heavily favor being in the center of a group rather than the corners. A good option for squads featuring Zweihander (), Sorceresses and Ice Mages ( ), and Dragons and Knights ( ); discouraging such units from striking the far corners of a squad and wasting a lot of potential damage from poor targeting.

This also has some utility when a squad has a lot of Medics, Priestesses, Hospitallers, or Templar remaining; as these units will all voluntarily surrender if there are no units left capable of doing damage: and can be in an awkward spot were a squad will otherwise spend all their energy targeting the healers (and everything that isn't the squad leader), which can result in a squad remaining at Fair Morale or better with it's core combat units still standing, rather than being eliminated and giving the player captured unit revenue.

Finally: the +35% Hit Rate is a good way to get around more evasive squads. Those occupying Walls, squads with Guerilla, or units with noteworthy SKL totals like Beatrix when she's an enemy unit.

Aggressive attack

Unlocked from the Adaptive Battlefield Command tech.
Enhanced with the Optimized Tactics tech.

Target weak and low HP enemies. Deal +15%/+25% damage and take +35% damage until the start of your next Player Phase.

A good option for any archery or cannon squad in most occasions, a good option for any squad that won't get attacked the following turn, a good way to add more offense to a bulky squad.

Can be high-risk, high-reward: though this is often offset by the fact dead enemies deal no damage, and any enemies killed in the initial volley of attacks usually more than offset it's downsides in the initial fight.

Any squad that's removed from the map will also be incapable of capitalizing on the downsides of Aggressive Attack.

Cautious attack

Unlocked from the Adaptive Battlefield Command tech.
Enhanced with the Optimized Tactics tech.

Spread damage between targets as much as possible. Deal -15% Damage and take -25%/-35% damage until the start of the next Player Phase.

A good option to enable a squad's healers some breathing room in a fight, enabling encounters to end with more HP than they started with.

Also a strong option to survive Firearms, generally deadly squads, or chains of cavalry units.

Against any squad that require 2 or more squads to wear down, this can also be an effective option and minimizing HP losses (or unit losses), or maximizing the remaining enemies in the event a Force Surrender is desired.