City Wall

What it does

The Wall stands on its own plot — the fortification gate — so raising it costs you no ordinary ground. It is not a unit: it recruits nobody, eats no citizens and costs no upkeep; it stands where it is and takes the blows.

While it stands it does three things: no enemy who fights hand to hand, on foot or on horseback, can walk into your front line or your ranged line; your defenders are under cover and much harder to kill; and it takes the damage itself.

Integrity and resistance

A wall has two numbers. Integrity is what is left of it — at nothing, it is breached. Resistance decides how much of each blow reaches the stone.

Both rise with the level and integrity rises far faster: the integrity of a high wall is many times that of the first level. The wall has no last level; the higher you raise it, the stronger it gets.

The breach

The wall is breached on the round its integrity reaches nothing. Your cover holds to the end of that round; from the next one it is gone and the fight turns into an open-field battle: the melee troops walk in and the flank joins the fight.

A breach lifts the attacker's morale and hits yours hard. A wall never repairs itself during a battle: the breach stays open until that battle ends. Damage does not carry over from one battle to the next; a new battle begins with the gate whole.

A new level joins the defence only when its construction is finished. A battle already under way goes on with the wall it began with: a level finished while it is being fought does not join it.

Why it is the best investment

It stops an unprepared attack outright and delays a prepared one for hours — which buys you time to train soldiers and call for help.

Every round it stands it helps your garrison's morale, and it stands on its own plot: raising it costs you nothing else.

The wall's window

Tap the wall in the pass and its window shows what the gate is worth in a battle: integrity, damage absorbed, the share of a shot over the wall that gets through, and the lines closed to melee troops. Beside every figure a level changes, after the arrow, stands the next level's figure; it is green when it rises. How does the wall work? in the head sums up the rule.

The upgrade block says how much integrity the new level adds, and while the work is under way it reminds you that the defence is still at the old level. Before you lower or demolish the wall, the window also tells you this: without a wall the pass stands open and the battle is fought in the open field.