The Appendices contain data covering unit strengths, abilities and use of terrain.

Health reflects the overall life and damage of the unit. Single-man units will survive until their health reaches zero. For multi-man units, health is an average across the unit. Such units typically start losing men once the unit's health declines below about 50%. Health can be recovered using a healer such as a Physician. Stamina is used when running or (in certain cases) when using special abilities. Stamina declines at different rates. For example, Legionaries' stamina will decline fast when running because all that armor is heavy - try it. ;) Stamina recovers over time once the unit stops trying to use it. Certain abilities such as Extra Energy Regeneration and Prayer can be used to recover stamina more quickly. Steal Energy Effect drains stamina from enemy.

Poison is only used by Nubian Archers. It can be treated using the Physician's Cure Disease ability. The later ability also cures blindness.

Commanders (Centurions, Chieftains or Barbarians) are required to recruit at villages. They also have advantages in the field. Troops within their area of influence gain bonuses to attack and defense. These bonuses vary by civilization and experience/level - as shown in the Unit Abilities appendix below. Bonuses do not stack, however it is thought that where two commanders of different civilizations are present, the highest bonus available applies. This would mean that a level 4 Centurion and a level 4 Chieftain collectively give a 30% bonus to both attack and defense. This is only relevant to a few campaign missions, since in most only one civilization is available. The area of influence is shown by a faint blue circle around the commander. RogueImpaler adds: "You can tell if your troops are affected by their leader when they have a little extra eagle in their flag." Combat that takes place within a commander's area of influence increases the commander's experience and level. Higher ranking commanders can make a significant difference to the outcome of a battle, so ensuring they gain experience is useful.

There is no command to do this, however there are tricks to destroy your own units. From no_pulse: "Build a tower and garrison it with the units you want destroyed. Then send a battering ram in to destroy the tower, and it will not only destroy the tower, but also the units inside." Athos suggests: "You can also position your troops between a ballista and the ballista's target." Mercurypitt writes: "I like to hide them in grass and then burn the grass while forcing my troops to run through the flames." Kmorg74 adds: "I just break them up into small groups and send them to probe or decoy enemy troops."

Yes. Assign them 'Hold Position' orders (press H). Stationary formations may also be used, although these generally have a more specific purpose than simply telling your troops to remain still. Troops will still react to the enemy when holding. This reaction can be modified by setting them to 'Aggressive' or 'Defensive' mode. In 'Aggressive' mode units will engage the enemy as soon as they come into view/range. In 'Defensive' mode units will wait until they come under attack or the enemy comes very close before responding.

Troops cannot be retreated once they have been engaged in melee. This is considered realistic. Troops can retreat from ranged attacks, however they may sustain heavy casualties doing so.

By default patrols are set between the starting point of the unit and the location you set the patrol. By holding Shift down while setting the patrol route, multiple patrol points can be set. Similarly, if CTRL is held down while setting a patrol point, the unit will run that part of the route.

No. Weather is essentially there to look pretty. It does not affect how troops fight, their stamina, or anything else.

Andrex Aurelius writes: "Place your Hunters in a forest and wait until their Stamina regenerates to full. When it has, the Hunters will automatically go into Ambush mode and will attack enemies that walk over their position. When in Ambush mode Hunters become invisible to the enemy (except to Wolves) and deal much higher damage."

War machines are generally the least likely to respond to an approaching enemy. This partly reflects the time taken to load and fire them. To make them more responsive set them to 'Aggressive' mode. The main danger with auto-firing siege engines is the risk your troops will get caught by them. This is particularly true of Ballistas, which fire straight at the target, rather than over the heads of your own troops. Alternatively, assign attack targets yourself.

Yes. Retire the machine or siege engine from the front line and assign Auxiliary Infantry (or similar) to repair the machine.

The use of villages and barracks is discussed under Unit Training above.

Wooden bridges can be destroyed using archers or Catapults. Simply order them to attack the bridge and after a short time the bridge will start burning and then collapse. Stone bridges cannot be destroyed.

Demote an existing regular or special unit. Click on the unit, select demote from the bottom-right menu and confirm the demotion. The unit will put up a tent for a few seconds, and then reappear as infantry. The infantry can then be used to rebuild the bridge. Demoted units cannot return to their former unit type.

Select the unit and then right-click on the tower. From Random: "It's important to click the base of the tower. I was clicking the top of it, but it wasn't registering." Cicero notes: "Make sure that the towers are in good or perfect condition. They get damaged by attacks, in which case your archers may not get in. If there's damage to towers, simply get your auxiliary troops to repair them." Only foot troops can enter towers - not cavalry or siege engines.

Yes, so long as it is your fortress and the gate has not been completely destroyed. Assign Auxiliary Infantry (or similar) to repair the gate, by selecting them and then clicking on the gate. The unit will attempt to repair the gate to full health and then stop repairs. They will not attend to subsequent damage and must be reassigned each time new repairs are required. Once the gate has been destroyed it cannot be repaired.

No. Major fortifications and villages are defined by the map and cannot be built from new, moved or modified.

No. The protect command works with troops only.

For technical issues see I can't connect to an online game. Any suggestions? below.

Press Enter to chat to your allies, Shift+Enter to chat to everyone.

Officially no. Jare writes: "The plans for fortress sieges in skirmish and multiplayer had to be put on hold in order to make the release date we had committed to." However existing siege maps have been hacked to make them playable in multiplayer or skirmish mode - see Are there any custom or multiplayer siege maps? below.

This feature is designed to make it easy to finish a multiplayer game without having to search for every last enemy unit. When the enemy no longer has any villages, or their force is 10% the size of your force, inferiority is enabled. This starts a 60 second timer. Once the timer has run out the location of all the enemy's remaining units can be seen.

Written by timski