Waging war and fighting battles in Ara: History Untold is a rather complicated endeavor, with many things to keep track of. If you want to keep your Nation safe and destroy your enemies, you’ll need to know everything there is to know about warfare.
Table of contents
How to train and muster troops in Ara History Untold
First things first, let’s go over training and mustering (deploying) your Forces in Ara: History Untold. You’ll want to at least train some units so you’re not caught unprepared in the case of an aggressive neighbour in the early game.
You can train units you’ve researched with the “select project” button available at the bottom of a City’s production queue. Depending on the City Production of your City, the units will take varying times to be trained. It would be wise to train your units in the City with the highest production, as the City they’re trained in isn’t necessarily the one they’ll end up in.
When a unit of any type is trained or made by a City, they’ll end up in your reserves. You can access your reserves by clicking the button in the very bottom left depicting your Nation’s symbol, or by clicking “deploy forces” on the bottom left of the screen when you’re interacting with a City.
Note that if you don’t have any units in your reserves, you won’t be able to open this menu.
This screen is where you’ll deploy any forces that you’ve made. At first, you’ll only be able to deploy Squads, which consist of only one unit. Choose what trained unit you want to deploy onto the map, and choose which City they’ll spawn into.
Remember that orders are always issued on the next turn. So when you end your current turn, the selected Squad will begin mustering at the City you chose on the next turn. So it’ll take two turns after deploying a Force until you see them on the map, thanks to the pending order and then mustering phase.
Air and Sea units are trained and deployed in the same manner as Land units, with some exceptions. They won’t be mustered into a City, but at their respective Improvements. Additionally, they each have their own combat quirks and their own individual caps.
Do note that you can’t muster into a City if enemy units are occupying the City Center, so make sure you’ve get the centers well-defended.
Now you know the basics of summoning armies, let’s get into the weeds with formations.
What are Battalions and Legions?
It’s crucial to note that Squads are a type of Force that consists of one unit. As you research new Formations, you’ll unlock new ways to assemble your units, through Battalions and Legions.
A Battalion Force consists of different specific units. As long as you field the right units, a Battalion force will receive bonus Strength.
A Legion Force consists of any four units of your choice, but they’ll garner no bonuses. Flexibility at the cost of strategy.
Fielding multiple units in a Battalion or Legion is crucial, as they allow for multiple units to be on the ground whilst only filling up the Land Force cap by one space. When you are able to, you should think about disbanding your Squads in favor of Battalions and Legions to become truly powerful.
Like Squads, Battalions and Legions can occupy the same spaces together, although the units that make a Battalion or Legion can never separate from each other.
Again, Air and Sea units also have their own formations that need to be researched separately.
This is all important to know when you start hitting your army caps.
How to increase army limit caps in Ara History Untold
When starting Ara: History Untold, it may be frustrating to see how small your different Force caps are. Each Nation has a base limit for each Force type, but this can be increased.
You will be permitted an additional Land Force for every City you own above Tier 4.
You will be permitted an additional Sea Force for every City you own above Tier 8.
You will be permitted an additional Air Force for every City you own above Tier 12.
Highly tiered cities may provide an additional Force cap.
So, in short, make sure your Cities are growing swiftly to house more units. If you’re struggling for space, try disbanding weaker Forces, or Forces with less units in them. Disbanding Squads in favor of fielding new Legions and Battalions is crucial when you can.
Other buffs will increase the limits, such as special Improvements or Nation traits.
Force Strength in Ara History Untold explained
You may notice the Strength of your Forces fluctuating rather rapidly in Ara: History Untold. This is because numerous factors contribute to the final Strength score, such as:
- Base Strength of units composing the Force.
- Nation traits.
- Security of region.
- Terrain type.
- Formation bonuses.
- Current Health Points.
When moving your Forces around to respond to threats, make sure you’ve taken these factors into consideration so you aren’t surprised by a nasty drop in Strength when combat occurs.
Also take into consideration that each unit type is weak against other unit types, and vice versa. When composing your Forces, make sure to know what adversaries they’re likely to deal with so you can construct appropriate teams.
Hovering over a unit will tell you what they’re strong and weak against.
How to declare War in Ara History Untold
So, you’ve established a powerful force and want to take them out for a spin, right? I suppose it’s time to declare war.
Unfortunately for the bloodthirsty, you can’t declare war because you felt like it. You need a Casus Beli, a cause of war. You will unlock different Casus Beli from specific scenarios and events that occur, as well as inherently from Nation traits.
To declare war in Ara: History Untold, select the target Nation in the Diplomatic Relations tab. You will see “Declare War” at the bottom.
You will now select why you want to go to war, and your objective. Here is a list of all War Types in the game:
| War Type | Requirements | War Goal | Prestige Cost when Declaring War | Prestige Reward if successful | Turn limit to reach objective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skirmish | Unlocked for all Nations at the start of the game. | No goal. | 5 | 0 | 25 |
| Holy War | Target must have a City converted to your religion | Capture the converted City. | 3 to 18 | 60 | 15 to 45 |
| War of Expansion | Target must share a border with you. | Assimilate or Raze the adjacent City. | 5 to 35 | 70 | 25 to 55 |
| War of Retaliation | Target must have declared war upon you previously. | Assimilate or Raze any City. | 0 | 100 | 20 to 50 |
| War of Annihilation | Certain Nation Traits. | Destroy the enemy Nation. | 1,000~ | 100 | Unlimited |
As you can see, the Casus Beli for your war can be costly, but can also be extremely rewarding. Gaining new Cities through conquest and Prestige for winning from successful wars is quite lucrative.
Also remember that when a war breaks out, you have the liberty of Assimilating or Razing any of the target Nation’s Cities. When you capture your target City (if there is one), then the war will end, and you won’t be able to declare war on that Nation again for a small while.
You can track how a war is going by clicking the burning flag at the bottom right. That flag will also show you how many turns you have left. If you fail to reach your objective before the timer, you’ll lose the war and suffer any other consequences.
When checking the war tab, you can see all the relevant information regarding the current war. You will also see the War Weariness of both Nations. War Weariness affects the Happiness of every City the Nation is a part of.
A Nation will become more and more Weary as they lose battles and Cities, so try not to overextend yourself and make sure you’re putting pressure on your adversaries where it hurts the most.
Oh, and don’t forget that allies will pile into the conflict too, so make powerful friends.
How combat works in Ara History Untold
So you’ve got yourself into a war, how exciting! Whether fighting against other Nations or mere tribes, combat works the same.
When two rival Forces occupy the same region, they’ll enter battle. Neither Force can move out of battle when one has started, although Special Forces (Scouts and Settlers, etc) can. Forces can move into active battles, however.
After ending your turn, you’ll see that the Forces have entered combat and completed a round of fighting already. You will see the health bars of both Forces which will show just how hurt they got. You can click on the black icon between the Forces to open up the battle menu.
In this menu, you’ll get to see how well each individual contributing Force is faring. How much damage they received, and how much damage they’re projected to receive next turn. Any other auxiliary factor that contributes to the conflict, like Indirect Fire from an adjacent Force, will also be displayed here.
At the bottom of the list, you’ll also find some bonus information about buffs affecting either side.
Finally, you can watch a battle scene between your Forces and the enemy’s. This doesn’t really tell you anything, but looks really cool.
Remember everything you’ve learned so far about Force Strength and compositions to make sure that these fights go as well as possible. Don’t bother engaging in a fight with an enemy Force with a higher strength than yours, as you will lose unless you bring in support.
And remember, you can’t retreat from a fight.
To support fights further, units in adjacent regions may be able to provide Indirect Fire. It’ll be worth having powerful support systems like this to hurt your enemy without getting your hands dirty.
Also, Air units don’t engage in combat like normal. They instead have a variety of other actions that they’ll take, that’ll either damage enemy infrastructure or damage enemy Forces through Air Strikes. But be warned, as any present enemy Anti-Air Units will strike against your Air Forces.
Finally, to boost your Forces even further, it’ll be worth assigning Paragons to them. Nations will earn Paragons at random intervals, and they each have a variety of bonuses that they can apply. One such bonus is a military bonus.
You can assign available Paragons to Forces at any time through the Paragon menu. Any spare Paragons you have may as well be attached to one of your Forces for bonus Strength and other buffs.
Now that you’ve finally mastered the art of combat, it’s finally time to occupy a rival City and expand your horizons.
Sieging and occupying Cities in Ara History Untold
Sooner or later, you’ll want to take over a rival city in Ara: History Untold.
This is done in an incredibly simple manner, by moving your Force into a rival’s City Center. Every turn that your Forces are in an enemy City Center without any enemy Forces, they’ll deal damage right to the City.
When a City loses all its Health Points, it’ll become occupied, and you can decide to either Assimilate it or Raze it.
Assimilating a City captures it to become a part of your Nation. All of the Improvements, Triumphs, and upgrades will be yours to keep. So long as you’ve got the City cap for it, you can essentially steal all of that Nation’s hard work.
Razing a City utterly destroys it. Everything about the City will be deleted, as though it were never there.
Occupying and deciding the fate of a City can be made more difficult by walls. If walls are surrounding a City Center, you won’t be able to move your Forces into it.
To destroy a wall, you’ll need siege units. A siege unit, when adjacent to a walled City Center, can use the Bombard action to destroy it. On the next turn, you’ll notice that the wall is gone thanks to your siege weapons, and your Forces are free to move on in.
And there we have it!
Everything you need to know to create and utilize a powerful military in Ara: History Untold. Remember that the Nation you pick is an important factor for military domination.
Published: Sep 24, 2024 07:00 am