Unlocking a higher tier does not make your army better if you keep sending the wrong units at the wrong enemy. Total Battle troop types split into five categories — guardsmen, specialists, monsters, engineer corps, and mercenaries — and every unit has a subclass with bonus strength against other subclasses. Read the enemy's card, send the units it is not strong against, and keep mercenaries for epic monsters. Leadership, dominance, and authority cap how much of that army actually marches.
What are the troop types in Total Battle?
Five trainable categories plus the dragon as a separate asset. Four are trained in the barracks; mercenaries are not trained at all.
| Category | Trained in | Costs | Tiers | What's in it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guardsmen | Barracks | Silver + food | 9 | Archers (ranged), spearmen (melee), riders (mounted) — all human. Tier 5 adds the battle griffin (flying, beast) |
| Specialists | Barracks | Silver + food | 9 | Tiers 1–4: swordsmen (melee, human) and spies (scouts, human). Tier 5 unlocks ranged, mounted, and flying specialists |
| Monsters | Barracks | Silver + dragon coins | Start at tier 3 | Beasts, giants, dragons, elementals |
| Engineer corps | Barracks | Silver + food | 9 | Siege engines, plus city walls (subclass: fortification) |
| Mercenaries | Not trained | Silver at the merc exchange, shop, events | — | Enhanced versions of the other categories; usually expire after 7 days |
Guardsmen are the foundation every player starts with, and higher guardsman tiers cost enormous amounts of Valor Points — the Ragnarok upgrade trick is how veterans unlock a tier a whole event early. Monsters need dragon coins instead of food, which is the main reason they lag behind — the currency guide covers where dragon coins drop.
Mercenaries come from the mercenary exchange (silver), tournament-specific mercs in the game shop (real money), the Lucky Bazaar (earn tokens, spin the wheel of fortune), and progression systems like the Triumphal Challenge, which unlocks epic-monster-hunting mercs. They are extremely powerful and temporary: the usual lifespan is 7 days, so if you don't use them, you lose them.
City walls are troops
City walls sit under engineer corps but behave like buildings. Their subclass is fortification, their initiative is 11, and their features give strength against melee, ranged, mounted, and flying units plus bonuses. The wall count in your army screen is the sum of each wall building's current level. At the levels in the example below, that was 11,230 troops:
| Wall | Level | Troops protecting the city |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern city wall | 34 | 3,270 (3,600 at level 35) |
| Western city wall | 35 | 3,600 |
| City gate | 34 | 4,360 |
Multiply that count by strength plus bonuses and you have the defence your walls add when another player attacks you.
Which subclass beats which?
Every troop and every monster carries a subclass and a list of "strength against" bonuses on its stat card — that card is the whole optimisation skill. Open the enemy's card, note what it is strong against, and send the units that aren't on that list.
The subclasses you will see:
- Attack style: melee, ranged, mounted, flying, scouts, fortification
- Creature type: human, beast, giant, dragon, elemental, cursed
Bonuses are large, not cosmetic. A Death Rider (cursed mounted unit) has +50% strength against ranged units; a Werewolf (cursed beast, melee) has +45% against mounted units. Send archers and riders at that pair and you are handing them a half-strength-again multiplier. The same cards tell you which of your units get bonuses against the enemy's subclass — beasts, melee, mounted, and so on — so the choice works in both directions.
How do leadership, dominance, and authority limit a march?
A hero or captain can only command as many troops as their three scores allow: leadership caps guardsmen, specialists, and engineer corps; dominance caps monsters; authority caps mercenaries. A huge army in the city does not mean a huge march.
The scores differ a lot between captains, tested at these values:
| Commander | Leadership | Authority | Dominance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hero | 87,200 | 43,600 | 21,800 |
| Cleopatra (fighting captain) | 59,600 | 29,800 | 14,900 |
| Farhad | Lower on all three |
Leadership is also why the clan's highest-leadership player usually tanks a CP run — bigger caps mean bigger stacks. When you attack a squad and hit "select all", a captain with less leadership than your guardsmen count simply maxes out. Adjust the numbers per guardsman type until the whole leadership score is used, then do the same with dominance for monsters and authority for mercenaries. The new player guide explains how these three scores grow as heroes and captains level — and the captain-levelling guide shows the fastest ways to push that level.
How do you pick troops against a monster squad?
Check the squad's composition, find what each monster is strong against, and send the opposite. A worked example against a level 32 common monster squad:
- Open the watchtower, choose the dragon tab, and pick a common monster squad.
- Inspect the enemy. It contains a Death Rider (cursed mounted, +50% vs ranged) and a Werewolf (cursed beast, melee, +45% vs mounted).
- Conclude that your ranged and mounted units take the most damage here, so you want melee units and anything strong against melee.
- Select guardsmen with those traits — melee units that are also strong against beasts — plus flying units, which are strong against mounted units and not on the enemy's bonus list.
- Apply the same filter to your monsters: go through every type and keep the ones strong against the squad.
- Leave the mercenaries at home. Save them for epic monsters; don't spend them on common or rare squads.
- Add the dragon, then start the march.
The result: the squad's first hit lands on your melee units, which would have cost far more had it landed on ranged or mounted; your squad's damage includes the bonus strength, bonus health, and the anti-subclass bonus; the monsters clean up. You earn valor points, armour, and experience for the win.
If you have leadership left over after the counter-pick, don't fill it with units that are weak against the squad. Bring a second level of each chosen type instead — the troop-stacking formula sizes that second rank so it hits as hard as the first.
What does the dragon add to a march?
The dragon is not a troop but an asset that raises army strength and health, all three command scores, and the points you earn. Level it with dragon treats and evolve it with dragon orbs.
At evolution level 6 fed to level 220, the bonuses list shows: army strength, army health, strength against other players, health against other players, leadership, authority, dominance, experience, valor points, and conquest points. The information tab shows the starting value for each evolution level; feeding treats at that level pushes the real numbers above the listed ones, which is why a level-6 dragon can show stats beyond the evolution-6 baseline.
Energy is the constraint. Each march uses some dragon energy, and the dragon produces energy per hour based on its level — one attack took about an hour to fully recharge. Chain several attacks and you will have to wait for it to rest.
Should you rebuild or revive lost troops?
Rebuild guardsmen in the barracks; revive mercenaries in the temple because you have no other choice; decide monsters case by case. How many barracks you run sets your retraining tempo — the rundown of Total Battle buildings covers that tradeoff. The two options cost different things:
| Option | Where | Costs | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rebuild | Barracks | Silver + food (monsters: silver + dragon coins) | Guardsmen, covered by city resource production |
| Revive | Temple | Sacred potions or gold | Mercenaries (cannot be rebuilt); monsters when silver and dragon coins are short |
Whether to revive with sacred potions or gold is your call, and only you know how fast your city regenerates resources. Set the balance around the tournament rotation and your own play style — the stacking guide's advice on rebuilding with silver and food, not gold is the default to start from.
Before your next march
Open the enemy's stat card before you touch the troop sliders. Two numbers — what it is strong against, and what your candidates are strong against — decide the fight more than your tier does. Then spend every point of leadership, dominance, and authority on units that pass that test, attach the dragon, and keep the mercenaries for the epic monster that actually deserves them.