Combat in Rise of Kingdoms - A Guide to Basic Combat Mechanics
War games are always a fun time for those of us who enjoy strategy gameplay with a heavy focus on PvP. Those who jump into one of these games must know that, sooner or later, they’ll have to face off against other players on the battlefield. At the very least, they’ll need to shore up their defenses because, even if they want to avoid engaging other players in combat, they will eventually come under siege themselves as other unscrupulous players will target them for their resources.
However, for those who actually want to partake in PvP in games like Rise of Kingdoms, it’s important to learn the ins and outs of combat, especially since the way this system works isn’t immediately evident to the player. Sure, it’s easy to grasp the combat at its minimum, which is about numerous armies exchanging attacks until only one remains. However, as they say, “the devil is in the details.” And when it comes to the combat in Rise of Kingdoms, you’ll need to get acquainted with this particular devil if you want to emerge victorious from all your battles.
In this guide, we intend to explain the basic mechanics behind the combat in Rise of Kingdoms. The next time you’re thinking about picking a fight with someone in this game, even if you’re just fighting simple Barbarians on the map, keep these elements in mind.
How do Turns Work?
The combat in Rise of Kingdoms is quite straightforward but has many elements working in the background to create the images you’re seeing on your screen. For instance, the one constant of the combat in this game is the fact that battles resolve in turns, with each army automatically performing a number of actions in each one of the said turns. Each turn lasts one second, during which many actions, that we’ll talk about shortly, happen simultaneously.
The important takeaway about the turns system in Rise of Kingdoms’ combat is that each turn lasts a single second. You can observe this by the fact that the HP of both armies that are locked in battle tick down every second, which indicates that a turn just passed. Similarly, the rage of both armies also builds every second.
Attacking and Counterattacking
Now, there are quite a few things that happen every turn. However, at its most basic, each army launches a single attack against the enemy, and also retaliates against any attack with their own counterattack. In other words, in a 1v1 engagement between two armies, each platoon will launch an attack, and retaliate against the enemy attack automatically. This means that each army, at a minimum, performs two basic attacks per turn.
While a single army can only launch an attack once, there is no limit to the number of counterattacks they can perform. In this sense, if a single army is engaged with, say, two or three enemies, they will only voluntarily attack one of them, but they will retaliate similarly against all the others.
Keep in mind that a counterattack deals the same amount of damage as a regular attack, and also builds up some rage in every instance. In this regard, an army that is engaged with multiple platoons might still have the upper hand if its numbers and troop quality is high enough, particularly also because they’ll have faster access to their Commanders’ active skills due to higher rage generation per turn.
Active Skills and Their Uses
Every Commander in Rise of Kingdoms has their own set of skills both passive and active. Once an army has generated 1,000 rage, in what is known as the active skill cycle, they will automatically unleash a Commander’s active skill. These abilities have different effects, though they usually translate to dealing a chunk of damage, either instantly or via a DoT, to the enemy army.
Rage Generation
Every active skill requires the same amount of rage to unleash, which is 1,000 units. The active skill cycle refers to the number of turns it takes for an army to build this amount. There are several methods of building rage though, at its most basic, it’s usually built through regular attacks and counterattacks. These methods are the reason why an outnumbered army will usually have a shorter active skill cycle, since they will generate more rage due to a larger number of counterattacks per turn.
Every army generates around 91 rage per turn, which suggests that, in normal conditions, it will take around 11 turns to complete the first active skill cycle. However, since active skills also generate rage—just like a regular attack would—the second active skill cycle will usually take 10 turns. Keep in mind that excess rage over 1,000 units will always go to waste since, after using an active skill, this stat will always reset to 0.
Damage and Stats
The constants in combat are usually the number of attacks per turn, as well as the rage generation. You can accurately predict how many attacks you will perform by considering the armies that are currently locked in combat. However, the damage that you’ll deal with every swing is an entirely different matter as there’s a complex mathematical formula involving numerous parameters and variables.
In essence, there are three main stats that come into play in every encounter:
- Attack: The strength of every individual unit in your army which, when added up, constitutes your base damage that your army will deal in every turn. However, aside from their attack values, you also need to consider damage bonuses such as the ones from research, commander passives and talents, troop type advantages, and civilization perks, among others. The resulting number from combining all these elements will represent your grand attack value that will clash against the enemy’s defenses.
- Defense: This stat determines how much of the enemy’s attack you’ll be able to absorb before your army starts getting damaged. In short, the more defense you have, the less damage you’ll receive from every attack and counterattack. Just like with the attack value, there are many ways to increase your defense in Rise of Kingdoms, and the more focus you put into your armor, the more damage you’ll be able to soak before you start getting losses in combat.
- Health: In simple terms, your health is the amount of damage you can take before your army falls. The more units in your army, the more health you’ll have.
It’s important to note that every attack your army launches deals 200 direct damage factor. While this isn’t very informative by itself, it’s useful for determining the potency of an active skill, especially since the damage done by skills is directly dependant on your army’s attack. For instance, if a skill says it does 1,000 direct damage factor, you can expect it to do damage equal to 5 attacks (2,5 attacks and 2,5 counterattacks) in a single turn.
With the basic info we’ve shared in this guide, you can hopefully get acquainted with the essentials of the combat in Rise of Kingdoms. As you learn these and many other elements, you can start making educated decisions on the best courses of action in this game, whether it involves simply fighting Barbarians, or engaging in PvP against other players.
