Combat: Attack and Armor

Every troop has an attack type and an armor type, in a triangle: Normal deals 175% to Medium and 70% to Light; Pierce deals 175% to Light and 70% to Heavy; Magic deals 175% to Heavy and 70% to Medium. Siege deals 160% to buildings; hero, 110% to the common armors; chaos is neutral. Then armor points kick in (each point ≈ −6% damage, diminishing). Spell damage (spells and effects) ignores armor points but is reduced by spell resistance. Click an enemy troop to see its armor; each building's tooltip says what its troop is strong or weak against.

The full table

How much damage each attack deals to each armor. Buildings and castles count as Fortified.

A few troops wear rarer armors. Hero armor takes only 60% from Normal, Pierce and Magic; Unarmored takes a little extra (105%); Divine shrugs off almost everything (25%) except Chaos, which hits every armor for full damage.

Two lessons hide in that table. First, the counter is worth a lot: the same attack deals two and a half times more to the armor it beats than to the one it's weak against. Second, only siege really knocks down buildings; every other common attack deals half or less to them.

Armor points

After the type, armor points reduce what's left of each attack, and each extra point is worth a little less than the one before: 5 points cut about 23% of the damage, 10 points about 38%.

Magic attack and spell damage

They're not the same thing. Magic is a troop's regular attack type and follows the table above. Spell damage comes from spells, abilities and effects: it ignores armor points but is reduced by spell resistance, which some troops have.

Flyers

Some troops fly. They pass straight over woods, water and walls, and can't be caged. Not every attack reaches them: melee and siege hit only the ground, ranged attackers hit ground and air, and a few anti-air troops hit only flyers. Tooltips say which: ground only, ground and air or flyers only.

Reading a matchup mid-match

• Click an enemy troop. The panel shows its HP, damage and armor (bonuses included), its abilities and active effects.
• Hover a building on your build card. The tooltip lists what its troop is strong vs and weak vs.
• Watch the trades. Troops pick their targets and fight on their own; the trade goes to whoever has more troops or the right attack. If your hits are doing little, check the enemy's armor and build an attack that is strong against it.
• Then build volume. Once you own the counter, numbers decide again: keep adding buildings.
• Learn from the result. After the match, Best counter shows the troop that gained you the most extra damage from type advantage.

The Training's Counterattack lesson boils it down to one line: Pierce beats Light, Normal beats Medium, Magic beats Heavy. To plan ahead, the Bestiary in the main menu shows what every troop is strong and weak against, and the factions page lists each army. Mid-match, Enemy faction in the pause menu shows the opponent's buildings and troops, with armor, attacks and who can hit flyers.