In this post, I’ll mainly focus on army armor. Few hidden secrets which I’m sure most of the beginner and intermediate players will be unaware of. If you are an advanced/expert player then this post won’t be much of use to you.

What is Armor?

Armor helps protect units and buildings from damage. Higher armor value prevents more damage; but there is no armor value that offers invincibility.

Army Armor - 1
In simple words, I would say that units (armies) having more armor die slowly compared to those having less armor. When put on a “one on one” battle for the same unit. The unit with higher armor wins the battle.

How do I increase unit armor?

– Army armor is mainly influenced by a general. A general increases the armor of all your nearby troops by +2 (increased further per level General is upgraded).

Army Armor - General– In short, troops within general’s range have higher armor compared to troops not in any general’s range.
– At start (Age 2), you can use the unique general created from the senate. Later ages you can have a general from castle.
– Senate updates are very important. In age 2, despotism/republic researches provide you with a general which provides armies (Both infantry and cavalry) with +2 armor. In age 4, monarchy research provides cavalry units with +2 attack and +2 armor in generals range while infantry units get +2 armor. While democracy provides +0 attack and +2 armor to both infantry as well as cavalry. In age 6, socialism research provides armies with +2 attack and +4 armor while capitalism provides armies with +0 attack and +2 armor. I’ll blog about senate researches separately later.
– Now you must be wondering what is “per level General update” ? This is an update present in castle.

Army Armor - Castle updates

– These updates are called as “Tactics” (Level 1) which you receive after researching military level 3, “Operations” (Level 2) which you receive after researching military level 4, and “Strategy” (Level 3) which you receive after researching military level 6.
– After every update your army armor increases in generals range.
– Note that you need to have a general with your armies to get increased armor. Any unit outside the generals range does not get armor benefits. At most your armies can have +8 or +10 armor.
– I’m pretty sure most of you might be not knowing about these castle researches. That is why I have called them as hidden secrets.

Few tips:

Now, you know how to increase armor of your armies. I would like to give you few tips :-

– Always have a senate (Unique general) or a general with your armies.
– Its important to get senate researches as soon as possible so that your armies can get armor as well as other (eg. healing) benefits sooner.
– You can research military before age and research general updates from castle. For example, you are in age 4. You can research military 4 and research “Operations”. Now your armies can get level 2 general update benefits compared to your opponents level 1 general benefits. This trick is used by most of the advanced players.

Army Armor - Tips– Note that Romans get free general updates (i.e tactics, operations and strategy). The moment you research military 3, your armies get “tactics – level 1” benefit.
– While in battle if you manage to kill your opponents general, your armies will eventually win the battle because of increased armor.

I’m sure this post is very useful for most of you. Even I didn’t knew about these things till I had 400-500 games in my record. Thank you to GADslowrex who told me about it. Very few expert players will tell you about this thing. Because this is one of the main things which separates an intermediate player from an advanced/expert one. So next time you fight battle, keep “Army Armor” in mind and then only fight it.