Your army is the driving force of the expansion of your kingdom’s power when you play Kingdom Maker. Without them, your kingdom would simply be a mere fortified village. In this guide, we’ll show you all of the things that you need to know about soldiers and military conquests in Kingdom Maker. 

Forming an Army

Let’s first familiarize ourselves with the elements of an army in Kingdom Maker. An army always has a commander (which can be any noble family member), troops, and optionally several officers.

To make an army or edit an existing one, click the Armies button in the main menu to see your current armies. More army slots can be unlocked by upgrading the Keep. Now let’s take a deep look at what constitutes an army.

Commander (Noble)

An army cannot exist without a commander. Any noble can become one even if they do not necessarily have the “Captain” specialization. In the armies menu, click on the image of the commander to access the commander page. The page contains several important parts:

• Training – this is where the commander’s talents and level can be upgraded. 
• Each commander has four tiers of talents with each tier containing five unique skills. These skills provide passive boosts depending on the specialization of the noble. For instance, a “Captain” noble will have skills that boost the soldiers during battle (i.e., +20% ranged unit health).
• Levelling up a commander improves their passive abilities. The abilities will depend on the specialization of the noble. A commander can be upgraded for up to 10 levels before reaching the level cap. A new talent tier must be unlocked to increase the level cap which can only be done by purchasing all skills in a particular talent tier.
• Abilities – these are the current talents equipped by the commander. Additional talents can be unlocked through training.
• Traits – these are characteristics that the noble was born with and cannot be changed. Certain traits allow passive benefits to be inherited to soldiers led by a noble to battle (i.e., Lord Protector trait giving +20% defense and offense bonus against all enemy types)
• Army Slots – give information about the troop capacity of the commander

• Equipment – a noble can wear up to six equipment either for cosmetic or utilitarian purposes. Some equipment give additional boosts to the wearer and the soldiers they lead (i.e., Captain’s Sword giving +2% infantry and ranged damage).

• Consumables – resources that temporarily grant benefits to a noble. They can either be purchased with gold or silver.

Troops

The soldiers are the building blocks of the army as they are the ones responsible for doing the dirty and bloody work. There are four classes of troops and each of them are built for specific purposes and are trained from different facilities. Additionally, each class consists of five different types of that class which have different stats, training times, and abilities. More types can be unlocked through academy research.

• Melee – well-armored infantry units that directly fight enemy units and in doing so, allow other units to easily take out preoccupied enemies.
• Types: Militia Swordsman, Swordsman, Axeman, Veteran Swordsman, Veteran Axeman
• Ranged – capable of attacking multiple enemies at once from afar with their rain of arrows which makes them good kingdom guards and support units.
• Types: Militia Archer, Archer, Crossbowman, Veteran Archer, Veteran Crossbowman
• Mounted – strong and rigid units that ignore enemy defenses and crash straight into enemy battalions to deal damage.
• Types: Militia Cavalry, Cavalry, Lancer, Veteran Cavalry, Veteran Lancer
• Siege Machines – slow artillery units that can deal devastating damage to multiple enemies upon a successful hit
• Types: Battering Ram, Heavy Battering Ram, Trebuchet, Heavy Trebuchet, Catapult, Heavy Catapult, Ballista, Heavy Ballista

Officers (Champions)

Special soldiers called champions can be assigned as officers in an army to lead a sub-unit of troops into battle. You can view the complete list of champions in Kingdom Maker when you click on the “Champions” in the main menu.

Play Kingdom Maker on PC

Play Kingdom Maker on PC

Champions are categorized into Engineer, Miner, and Officer classes. The class determines what class of troops the champion can bring as well as the passive benefits that they give. Engineer classes support machine battalions whereas Miner and Officer classes support troop battalions.

Champions are similar to nobles in that they can be leveled up to improve their stats and abilities. Hero EXP is required to level up a champion and this can usually be acquired from conquering enemy camps and completing story quests. Champions can also reach a level cap and it can be lengthened by promoting them using Hero EXP.

More champions can be recruited by opening Champion Packs which come in three types: Gold Champion Pack, Silver Champion Pack, and Bronze Champion Pack. These have their respective Champion Tokens and can only be opened when you have enough of them.

Attacking Enemy Camps

Once you have prepared your army, it is time to attack! In Kingdom Maker, you are often going to attack hostile orc camps or hostile kingdoms. Regardless, your troops will engage in a bloody battle with hundreds of enemies.

Before starting the battle, you can choose where your troops will be deployed. Individual battalions can be selected and moved elsewhere as long as they are within the green deployment zone box. You can also move all of your troops at once by clicking on the torch located in the middle of the army and relocating that torch to wherever you see fit.

Once the battle starts, all of the fighting will be automatically done by your troops. You can manually command them to advance, halt, or retreat when needed. In case your troops die or retreat, reinforcements (led by a different noble commander) can be called in to replace them.

Upon capturing an enemy camp, loot will be taken (which can be used to develop your kingdom )and nobles residing in that camp will be sent back to your own kingdom as prisoners (given the prison has been unlocked in the Keep). Prisoners can either be freed, ransomed, or executed.

When your army has sustained significant damage after a battle, they must be healed before entering into another one. The healing speed can be boosted either with temporary healing boosts or passive upgrades from the Keep or the academy.