Positions

Empires has no tribes and no traits. What it has instead is a map — and the map is where units combine. Four formations cover almost all of it. None of them costs gold.

The pincer

Attack a unit that already has one of your units on the exact opposite side — north and south of it, or east and west — and you deal +2 damage. It only works against units (a building has no back), and only when you strike from a neighbouring tile. It rewards walking around an enemy instead of into it, and it is why a unit that gets in behind the line is worth more than its stats.

The hill

A unit standing on a mountain attacks +1 tile further and takes 2 less damage from every hit; Heavy units cannot climb it. Put artillery on the hill and it outranges what it could not touch from the plain. Forest and water are walls to Ground / Underground troops — air flies over — and whatever stands in a forest takes 1 less damage. Everything else is plain: no bonus, no wall.

Terrain	Defense	Blocks
Mountain	+2	Heavy
Forest	+1	Ground / Underground
Water	—	Ground / Underground
Plain	—	—

The screen

Every enemy unit that is not airborne projects a zone of control on the eight tiles around it. Moving a ground unit into one of those tiles costs +1 movement — so a line of your units is a wall the enemy pays to cross by hand, or walks around into your pincer. Air ignores it and casts none. There are no free hits for crossing: the screen slows, it does not bite. It weighs on the moves you order; the automatic march at the end of the turn takes the shortest path over the terrain and does not pay it.

The camp

Buildings fight too — by standing next to your units. Within their reach they change the numbers, so a Barracks is not just a factory: it is a bonus to whoever stands at its door, and a Bunker between two guns is a corridor nothing walks through cheaply. Build where you intend to fight.

Building	Effect
Air Base	+1 attack to your units within 2 tile(s)
Anti-Air Tower	Automatically attacks Air within range 3 for 4 damage
Anti-Missile System	Automatically attacks Projectile within range 6 for 3 damage, max 2/turn
Armor Factory	+1 attack to your units within 1 tile(s)
Artillery Battery	+2 attack to your units within 1 tile(s)
Barracks	+1 attack to your units within 1 tile(s)
Bunker	+2 defense to your units within 1 tile(s) Enemy units attacking from an adjacent tile deal 1 less damage
Defense Cannon	Automatically attacks Ground/Armored/Naval within range 2 for 5 damage +2 attack to your units within 1 tile(s)
Minefield	Deals 4 damage to Ground/Armored/Underground that step adjacent — destroyed after one use
Steel Wall	Blocks movement for Ground/Armored enemy units within 1 tile(s)

What you can see

The fog of war hides who owns what and where enemy units stand — never that a collection point or a person exists. You see the tiles around each of your units and buildings: most reach 2, your HQ reaches 3; Minefield, Wall, Steel Wall see only 1, while Fighters, Recon Drone, Kamikaze Drone, F-35I Adir see up to 4. Everything you own adds its circle; nothing you lose keeps seeing.

Named formations, in one line each

Pincer — one unit on each side of the target: +2.
Hill — mountain: +1 range, 2 less damage taken; heavy stays below.
Screen — a line of ground units: +1 movement to cross by hand, no free hits.
Corridor — a Bunker with a Defense Cannon on each side of the only path.
Door — your army mustering at the Barracks: its bonus from the first turn.

The rules behind these formations are the Keywords the parity gate proves against the engine; the numbers on this page are read from the same engine dump.