To Check front line of a castle with or without anti-scout: https://lordsmobilepro.com/how-to-check-enemys-phalanx-in-lords-mobile/
First rough draft, not even close to complete. Yes there are even errors not yet fixed. If you have any problems, whine to Jester and he may give you a hot pocket or a cabinet expander.
Heroes
The color grade of the hero is the only thing that matters for normal combat (attacking castles, attacking troops, defending from attacks, etc). The better the color, the bigger the battle stat boosts of the hero. Also the administrative boosts are also increased by color: research, hunting, construction, resource production, etc.
Gold is currently the highest color a hero can achieve.
Hero rank is important because it affects how many troops you can send in a solo attack, a rally attack, a garrison, occupy camp, or rss gathering. Joining another's rally does not allow you send your own heroes.
Some heroes give near zero battle stat boosts. These are not good choices to include when engaging in battle. Trickster is one such hero with almost no combat boosts. Do not use him in combat.
Some heroes give battle stat boosts for certain troop types. Some heroes give battle stat boosts for the whole army.
Be mindful of which heroes you choose to use for a given battle. It is best to choose at least 4 heroes that focus on the same troop type for the biggest boost to your troops.
Heroes cannot be captured or put in a prison, except the hero that is your current leader (see below for more info on Leaders)
Some heroes have battle stat boosts that are always added even if they are not involved in the battle. Magmaroid is one example of this. His battle stat boosts are always included even if he is not involved in the battle so it makes little sense to send him into battle.
Leaders
If you don't know who to use as your leader then select Rose Knight.
Having and keeping your leader safe is important because having your leader available makes a big difference for most things in the game.
From the heroes, all of the administration skills such as research, construction, resource boosts, etc. are added no matter who your leader is. As long as you have those heroes unlocked, you always get those boosts.
There are reasons to change your leader from time to time but it has to do with more advanced battle strategies or sometimes to be deceptive to the enemy. If you are unsure at this point, use Rose Knight.
Mostly only battle boosts are important when it comes to leader selection. So do not pick a hero as your leader if they have terrible battle boosts.
Your leader can be captured by enemies and put into their prison. If this happens you can ask for your leader to be released, wait for your leader to escape which happens automatically after a few days, your captor can execute your leader, you can feed your leader poison so they die after 24 hours if you have poison available, your captor can set a ransom of gold that you pay and get your leader released, or some other castle can attack your captor and if they burn the captor, your leader is automatically freed. If your leader is executed you can buy a cheap revival fruit to get your leader returned instantly to you. Your leader will also be available to freely revive 7 days after execution. If the captor puts on a shield, any prisoners they have are automatically freed. The kingdom overlord can also pardon all prisoners in the kingdom but this is not common.
Losing your leader affects many things but it does not end your game and you will get your leader back eventually.
Non-combat boosts to continue to apply even when your leader is in prison. You are not able to change gear while your leader is in prison so you are stuck with what you have on when captured until you get your leader back.
Battle boosts do not apply when your leader is in prison.
When your leader is involved in combat you get battle stat boots from your leader hero itself, other heroes included in the battle, heroes that have passive battle stat boosts (eg Magmaroid), familiar talent attack skills, the leader talents currently selected, all battle research, castle skin boosts, and the gear currently equipped when the battle occurs.
When your leader is not involved in combat you get battle stat boosts the same as above except the leader talents and the equipment boosts do not apply.
Battle stat boosts from gear are usually the most important though there are other important variables that are equally if not more important such as tier level and the number of troops involved in a battle.
If your leader is in shelter, walking around in a monster hunt, walking in another rally, etc. then your leader is not involved in an attack on your castle and therefore none of your equipment and talents apply to the battle. Your leader needs to be sitting out in your castle for the leader stats to be used in that battle.
The bottom line is, having your leader involved is very important for combat in both attacking and defending. Example, if you have 2 million troops and someone solo attacks you, you will probably not lose your leader in that single attack. If you put your leader into the shelter right away before the attacker arrives, you just weakened your troops and you will probably lose a lot more troops than you would otherwise have with your leader available in the combat. It usually would be better to put on war gear and make the attacker lose a lot more, possibly even capturing their leader if they included it. See below for more attacking and defending basics.
Formations
Infantry Phalanx, Range Phalanx, Cavalry Phalanx, Infantry Wedge, Range Wedge, and Cavalry Wedge are the 6 formations available in the game.
Formations are critically important for combat, both attacking and defending. They set the starting troop positions of your troops and the enemy troops before a battle begins. Without going into more complex squad based mechanics, if you are being attacked by an army of mostly one troop type you want to put the counter troop type of that main force into your front line using the appropriate phalanx. If you know the formation of an enemy (castle, fort, camp, rss tile, or dark nest) then you may want to send an attack that is the counter of the enemies front line.
Setting/changing your formation can be done any time up until the very moment before the battle begins. It is important to note that your formation applies to all of your own controlled forces. What this means is if your castle is attacked, a fort you control in WoW or DA is attacked, your camp is attacked, your rss tile is attacked, one or more attacks you are sending either solo or rallies, etc. They all are set with the same formation. So if you have multiple battles going on in a short time span (attacking and defending) it can be difficult to set the formation appropriately for each if the time is small in between battles. This is especially crazy in DA when you might have 2 or 3 forts under your control. Castles with reinforcement troops have no control over the formation of their reinforcements.
If you are going to be offline and not protecting all of troops and castle (eg not using a shield) it is best to sit in the Wedge formation that best matches your current battle stats from gear and talents. This is just a general rule of thumb, there are obviously many exceptions and cases where other choices are better.
Equipment and Talents
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Castle Location, Wonder Province, and Porting
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Shields, Fury, Scouting, and Anti Scout
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Reinforcements and Garrison
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Walls, Defense, and Protecting your Castle/Troops
Hiding your troops
Garrison with 5 heroes = 250k troops per army
50% size boost Garrison with 5 heroes = 375k troops per army
50% size boost Shelter with leader = 450k troops or more
Total troops you can hide with 6 armies = 2.7m troops
There are ways to increase this amount even further
Infirmaries and Sanctuary
Content has not be delivered yet