THE INFANTRY UNIT

my inbox is filled with questions like this so I thought I'd take a second to put up a new guide concerning my favorite unit, the infantry. In my opinion, this may well be the best unit in the game, though I am well aware the topic is subject to debate. Read on, and offer your opinions, please.

(and for the record, I don't use mono inf )

Hi taem!
I read somewhere that you were a mono inf user.  I want to Give it a shot for several reasons.  Do you know the ratio for inf to Cav or inf to cat. It would be much appreciated if you could help or give any additional tips.  Thanks

Ok maybe I take Uranos guides too seriously but I remember him saying that with attack cav/cat/arch all kill more troops.  But inf kills the same even with attack.  So I don't think a sword would be of much use?  And your points should go into speed/defense/fortune right?  
And last thing you said necessary to have max enhance to run this.  So should I just give up on the idea than?  Cuz I won't be getting maxed anytime soon.
Well maybe one more thing Is it possible to run a archer/inf army?  I heard this could possibly be the most effective strategy.  I run a cav/arch atm.
Thanks

Here's how it works. Let's say you have 1 cav and 1 inf. Clearly the cav is stronger, faster, can sustain more damage and in every respect is far superior to the inf. But one thing that's off is crop consumption. What people tend to forget is that crop consumption, more Than anything else, dictates what type of army you may field.
If we were to balance out those troops as per the food they consume, you'll find that inf are actually the more powerful unit by comparison. Actually, they are 58% stronger than cav, and sustain 58% more damage as well. 
But, If those 4 inf faced the 1 cav in battle, the cav may actually still come out on top....so how can you play this strength of inf off the cavs superiority in battle? The secret (and what Uranos does not tell us) lies in the speed. 

Because inf are slower, they attack second. However, due to this, if they survive the attack, they receive a COUNTERATTACK. this means that they effectively get 2 attacks to every one cav attack. 
When deploying inf, the most important thing to remember is that you need to have a lot of them. Of course, Uranos is right when he says "1" max attack inf will kill the same as "1" base attack inf.....but what about 100k inf? These inf will show the results of having max attack lol.

Generally, a cav will take down 2-3 inf per round if they are on equal footing. As for inf, they require 2-3 to take down 1 cav.  For this reason I wouldn't suggest attacking 50k cav with only 150k inf. But what if you attacked 50k cav with 200k inf? What would the outcome be?

Well on first contact, it's likely those cav will wipe half of your 200k inf, but what of the remaining 100k and their two attacks in that first turn. My money says the inf will easily wipe those cav, no problem, and provided you are equal or lower level than your enemy, you'll come off with a clean 100k pres! Give yourself an additional 75k for rebuilding the inf you lost there and I'd say that's a pretty good haul. 

The secret of the mono inf army is it's numbers. You are fighting with MASS INFANTRY and it is necessary to be successful. This is why I call the inf a novelty. When used properly, they're insanely powerful, yet their weaknesses can be easily exposed (meatshields) if your not careful. 
Maxxing your stats/equip will only help here, making them more efficient.

This brings me to speed. A max speed inf is almost as fast as a cav with lv10 march and no equipment or stats. This is only showing us that they are insanely fast and can easily traverse not only the world map, but a battlefield as well. In truth, they are most powerful when attacking second, but against an army of cats, you don't want that to be the case. You want them to reach the cats as quickly as possible, which they can do as quickly as cav if they are properly equipped. 
IMO, this makes them better than cav (which will actually suffer penalties when attacking cats and turrets).

And finally, inf kinda specialize in a certain area of expertise....infantry receive a +150% bonus to their attack when attacking cav! This makes them even better at killing those pesky horses. Additionally, while they don't have any specific bonus vs archers, archers still suffer a -23% penalty to their attack when attacking infantry. This makes infantry even better for disposing of those tiresome cav/archer armies! Observe what happens when 4000 inf square off with 1000 cav. Both armies have minimum attributes, no equipment and max tech.

As you can see, the inf handle the cav readily. As they bring more power against any unit than the cav does, it's hard to argue their superiority.

I have moderately enhanced equipment on my inf army. Even with that, I am usually much more upgraded than most, and I can usually reach the other side of the battlefield in 3 turns max. Therefore, I must be sure to compensate for the free attacks with my numbers of inf. You're looking to take out all enemies in one round of facing them hand to hand, so be sure to have that many inf in battle, if you wish to be successful.

To experiment, if you already have a very healthy cav army, stop building cav and start on inf. As your inf army grows, kill off cav systematically (in multiples of 4) to compensate for consumption.

For much of the same reasons, archers are likewise more powerful than cats...in a sense. The main reason one would accompany inf or cav with archers as opposed to cats is the archers greater speed. This speed allows a tactful commander to attack cats first with archers, thus protecting them against cat power. If the archers aren't completely destroying all the cats in one round (or close to it), then chances are those cats are gonna seriously mess up those archers. IMO, ranged units should only accompany inf or cav if there is a meatshield, or turrets (of the level9+ variety). Otherwise, the crop consumption is better used for either more inf, or more cav, as the case may be.

One thing to never forget about cats, what makes them superior to archers, is that when they retreat on the battlefield, they cannot be hit by the enemy. This is a very useful tactic to understand and utilize to your advantage. This shouldn't play too much of a role in battle if your army mainly consists of inf or cav, but it's something to think about. 
The main thing I don't like about cats is how slow they are on traveling the world map. IMO, this defeats the purpose of using inf or cav armies as one of the greatest benefits is you don't always need to warp your city to attack, due to how quickly they travel the map. Archers are only negligibly slower than inf in this respect.

All in all, I hope I've illustrated the benefits of the inf army. I'm kinda writing this onthe fly so I hope I didn't leave anything out lol.

Just remember, with inf (as well as cav, for that matter) numbers equals power. The more inf in your army, the stronger they'll be, and the more cav and cat armies they'll be able to attack.

....A last word for those who don't think it possible to enhance your equipment adequately and for free. I have enhanced my equipment greatly without using a single coin. Though it may take time, be tedious and especially frustrating, it is possible to hunt enough stones to eventually max all equipment enhancements. I've raised horse to 19, sword and armor to 15, and manual to 17 in three months, with sporadic gameplay.

Very good guide Taem!
My only problem with using mono cav and mono inf is that you will lose troops to ranged units. Even if the player isnt commanding his troops you will lose some cavs/inf.
I personally think cav cat is best. its the best of both worlds with 2 meat shields. IMO infantry are not to be reilied upon. For example is your battling 1k/1k/1k/1k. Even with 200k infantry your prestige gain will be dismal. As you push you infantry up you get pounded by enemey cats and archers before you hit.

Anonymous who could that be
Very nice guide taem! Answers alot of questions. I can testify from my experience that infantry is awesome,my personal fav!

:mrgreen: Very good guide Taem!
My only problem with using mono cav and mono inf is that you will lose troops to ranged units. Even if the player isnt commanding his troops you will lose some cavs/inf.
I personally think cav cat is best. its the best of both worlds with 2 meat shields. IMO infantry are not to be reilied upon. For example is your battling 1k/1k/1k/1k. Even with 200k infantry your prestige gain will be dismal. As you push you infantry up you get pounded by enemey cats and archers before you hit.

If you want to gain max pres from battles, DON'T build inf,while they are effective you won't get alot of pres.

First off, I'd like to say thanks for the warm reception guys!

Now, there seems to be concern as to taking losses with inf and thus crippling your yummy prestige intake. Don't let this deter you!!While it is true that you will likely suffer some casualties when employing an inf heavy army, there are some important things to remember....

Infantry are a specialized troop type. Their greatest use is destroying cav armies. You could argue that it's easier to dispose of cav using cats from a distance. But consider how many cats would be necessary to destroy a large cav army.....say 50k cav. My guess is you're gonna need more than 20k cats, and from a crop consumption standpoint, this is inefficient.
Using inf allows us to field bigger, more versatile armies that are WAAAAAAY easier to feed, compared to an army of cats or cav.
Additionally, in a situation where you have to lose troops (like when fighting cats), it is ALWAYS better to lose inf than any other unit. This is due to the fact that you will lose less than 2 prestige per infantry no matter your opponents level. With cav, you could easily lose upwards of 5 pres per cav killed, and cats vs cats of the same speed is almost guaranteed to give less pres than if you went at those cats with inf and archers.

I call inf a novelty, but I also call them an advanced unit. This is because for the inf to be truly efficient, one needs to have upgraded their title, equipment and tech considerably. They are not viable for beginning players, but likewise beginning players will never see 50k cav. When you find yourself scouting more and more large cav armies and cat armies, that is the time to employ inf an surprise the heck out of your opponent.

Furthermore, let's not forget how easy it is to make inf. with only 5 cities you can easily train upwards of 25k inf per day. Admitably, the pres for building inf is not as efficient as the pres for building cats, but like my original example, if I send 200k inf against 50k cav, I'll lose around 100k inf but I'll gain 100k pres from winning...in a few days, I can rebuild those inf and get an additional 75k pres from the rebuild. So in a straight battle between inf an 50k cav, you can feasibly gain 175k pres! I challenge you to gain that much with any other unit. It may be possible, but I'm sure you'll have great fun keeping the necessary troops from starving before and after the battle.
To me, this is the real reason inf are more efficient.

I should also reiterate, one wouldn't expect to much from their cav army, and for this reason, you will rarely see a monocav army, rather youll find them accompanied by archers or cats. The same should hold true for your inf. don't expect miracles, instead set them up for success and prepare them for the possiblity of facing cats by pairing them with a ranged unit for support.

It is paradoxical to say that inf will suffer great losses so you prefer cav. The strategy behind the two units is identical, and any situation where you'd lose some cav, is a situation where you'd lose LESS prestige if you were using inf instead.

So.....infantry=more attack power per crop consumed than cav, and less potential of prestige loss than cav. This is simply mathematics.

EDIT: IMPORTANT In my haste I suppose I left a glaring hole. Please understand that you should expect these kind of results when you oppose a player who does not have very many equipment enhancements and/or is a lower level than yourself. Obviously, a cav with Max enhancements is Going to afford you less prestige or a greater inf:cav troop ratio, regardless of your own upgrades. I suppose I find it safe to assume though, that most players we scout have Low level enhancement (meaning less than lv10-15) and that is where we will find the greatest efficiency from an inf.
Even so, the capacity for power and pres gain is always higher for the inf than the cav.

Good in-depth look at his just one unit works. Obviously there are shortcomings, just like there would be for any army made of just 1 unit type. Intrigued by this tho I ran the numbers, and found that, for a non-coiner a dirty can support 10k inf, or 2500 cav. The infantry are pound for pound a better unit, with 71% more attack and 20% more life. And since hunting is a nnumbers game, the hunts you'll pull with hundreds of thousands of inf must be killer.

Excellent point.

To add to your assessment, I believe ATM I have around 75k inf with 0 crop deficit. Though im a king, this is with only 5 cities, and 0 oases

I have a question:
Not to sure how to word it but say you have 1 cav. You also have 100 attack attribute added on to your normal stats.

For the same crop you could have 4 inf. With The same 100 attack attribute would get overall get +400 attack worth because there's 4 inf? Or still the same 100?

This could potentally make inf more viable at higher enhance / attributes.

Sorry for poor wording 

Cheers - Lordewan 
(lvl20 - s115)

Well yes and no.

Attack doesn't quite work like that, it affects each unit differently. It doesn't give each unit +100 for their Attack, it will give them +0.5% to their BASE attack for each point of attack attribute and equipment.
0.5% for an inf would be +.37 so if you had 100 as attack, it would give +37 to their base attack of 75, bringing them to 112 actual points of attack power.
A cav receives +0.87 per point of attack/equipment so with attack 100 they receive a bonus of 87, bringing their attack up to 237.

Now, in terms of crop consumption, you can suppose that 4 inf will give you 448 combined attack points (after modification) to 1 cav at 237, but it's not quite as cut and dry as that.....
When inf fight cav, inf will die first. 1 cav vs 4 inf will probably kill at least 2 of your inf at first contact....this means your inf only bring 224 (the remaining inf) attack points into the actual battle. This is the case vs cav, but vs a slower unit (where the inf attack first) they have the potential to bring the full power.

So yes, the combined attack is somewhat cumulative, but only if they all get to attack. If any of them die on the way (which is very likely) then their total attack will suffer.

Remember, while inf may be more powerful than cav in a direct ratio of 4:1, they are much, much weaker than cav in a 1:1 scenario. 

You are correct in your theory that inf are more powerful with more enhancements/upgrades etc. for the crop it takes to feed them, inf are hands down the most powerful unit, and this includes cats as well as cav.

Thanks for that
Had a brain fart lol. Forgot it was percentage.....