Troops

There are several types of warriors that you can train. Warriors can be divided by "levels' depending on their statistics. An easy way to identify them is by looking at the food consumption. If troop needs 3 food per hour, it is a level 3 troop.

Warrior in a specific level group are often referred to as "tier" group, so for example a force containing level 3 warriors are then referred to as "T3s" warriors.

The attack/defense/health value are the same in each tier, Level 1 have 100, Level 2 have 169, level 3 have 235, level 4 have 300 and level 5 have 366 as the base value for attack, defense and health. This value is raised by different factors like upgraded knowledge.

As a rule of thumb; a number of T3s will easily beat almost any number of T1s etc. See comparison below.

**\*NOTE: Troop levels and abilities change drastically with updates, so most information below is highly outdated.**

## Food

Food consumption rate increases with troop tier, though remains the same across each troop type of the same tier. To see an overview of food consumption, check within game MENU > PROFILE > FOOD.

***NOTE**! You do not need to have any food at all! If your food storage reaches zero, there are no negative consequences for your troops. Having a negative food balance nearly always at 0 simply means you'll need to find/send/open food before being able to perform most upgrades. If you can acquire food via hitting towns or from your fellow clan members when you need it, you can have a single Farm building (for other upgrade purposes) and just ignore that your food consumption. Most players with substantial troops tend to follow this method.*

Food production is raised with boosters like special knowledge, Hero skills, Hero equipment and Greed Bonuses.

## Troop comparison and training times

Due to multiple, constantly changing factors, it is difficult to compare or quantify exact power/attack/defense qualities of any troop type against another. Recent [2019] updates of T7 Troop Knowledge enables upgrades toward specific troop types, for example. Considering those factors, much of the information below is out of date or simply no longer accurate. It is here for reference only.

#### The values below were previously applicable in the game:

* 1 T1 has 1 power
* 1 T2 has 2.19 power
* 1 T3 has 3.59 power
* 1 T4 has 5.263 power
* 1 T5 has 7.01 power

This means that 100k T5 have the same power as 701k t1s.

The comparison below is wrong based on the power of the troops that was tested in the game. The values below are taken from the values that are displayed on troop info on Attack, Defense and Health, but don't reflect the reality in game.
~~It is difficult to compare armies of different level troop type. The general formula to compare troops is as follows :~~

* ~~Level 5 troops are **22%** stronger than level 4 troops but [TBC] slower to train ;~~
* ~~Level 4 troops are **28%** stronger than level 3 troops but 50% slower to train ;~~

* ~~Level 3 troops are **39%** stronger than level 2 troops but 75% slower to train ;~~

* ~~Level 2 troops are **69%** stronger than level 1 troops but 150% slower to train.~~

~~Therefore, 1000 T4 troups equals 1280 T3 troops, equals 1780 T2 troops, equals 3008 T1 troops.~~

In terms of training times, **base training times** for troops (without any training speed bonuses applied) are as follows :

* Tier 1 troop : 30s
* Tier 2 troop : 1m15s
* Tier 3 troop : 2m15s
* Tier 4 troop : 3m30s
* Tier 5 troop : 6m
* Tier 6 troop: 10m30s

With good but not perfect training speed skills and bonus, one thousand T4 troops will take 18h14 to train, one thousand T3 troops 12h09, one thousand T2 troops 6h57, and one thousand T1 troops 2h37.

**With max training speed bonus** (120% bonus from hero skills and 325% bonus from 13 manors plus 60% from knowledge) plus 20% speed-up bonus from speed-up item and 20% bonus from training events and KvK rewards, you can reach a training speed of **3.2 second per T1 troop**, 8.2 second per T2 troop, 14.8 second per T3 troop, 22.2 second per T4 troop.

You can still get a bit faster (about 50% more) with specific invader equipment boosting training times to get a T1 troop training time just below 3s (displayed as "2s" on the screen), which is really the fastest you can get.

The training time / strength of troops ratio show that tier 1 troops are the best when only time is considered. However, you have to take into account that the amount of troops you can send in a single march is limited (depending upon your Shrine of Odin level), and so are your infirmary slots. A level 4 troup still occupies 1 infirmary slot like a level 1 troop.

Also, based on these stats, you understand why, in mid and end-game, one barracks is sufficient if you only want to train T3 or T4 troops, unless you want to train huge batches of troops and accelerate them with boosters. In this case, it is cheaper to train large chunks of troops, because 24h boosters and 3-day boosters are much cheaper (in gold) than 8h or 15h boosters.

In any case, **you should never resurrect troops with gold or use the "train with gold"** button because in both cases it is much, much cheaper to train your troops with resources while using training speed-ups and use boosters to complete the training.

## Troop training strategy

Your strategy for using and training troops will vary whether you will use them for attack or for defense.

**For attack**, it is generally considered best to use only one type of troops, usually the one type that is best suited to kill your enemy's troops. For example, if your enemy is mainly cavalry, you will want to use melee first. Why only one type of troop ? This is to take advantage of the best knowledge possible (at mid to end-game it becomes mandatory to have unlocked attack and defense knowledge for this type of troop to level 10) as well as troop-specific hero skill for attack bonus. That way, you can reach up to about 400% attack bonus for one type of troop.

A good army for attack will be composed of **about 300K T4 troops of the same type**, with maximum bonuses on knowledge, hero skills and hero equipment (legendary, if possible). With two march enlargement bonuses, you can reach a single march size of about 300K troops.

**For defense**, you are not limited by the march size, and you need to be prepared to fight with all sorts of enemy troops. Therefore, the best strategy is to train **about 400K T1 troops of each type** (for a total of 2M troops).

You will choose T1 troops because they have the best power / training time ratio, and you will need all type of troops to be sure that some of your troops have a 50% bonus against the attacking enemy's troops.

You will need 400K of each type because it is generally considered that, with optimal defense and health skills and hero equipment (at minimum 300% defense and health bonus, 400% is better), 400K T1 troops with 50% added bonus on the attacking troops can defeat any single march attacking you.

It is up to you whether you want to train defense or attack first, and which type of attack you want to build. **Melee** are among the most common, being much versatile with good capacity. **Siege** is probably the less common type of attack troops you will find, because they are said to be too slow, which is not a real issue with appropriate speed-ups and teleporting just next to the town you want to attack, so it may be a good option, too.