noob question about moving armies around

[Nuggs]

ive never played dominions or any conquest of elysium games so im brand spanking new. I thought with the knowledge i had in other strategy games i could figure this game out on my own but that turned out to be false lol

So i launched a game and i started off as a baron since they seem most basic to learn with. Anywho, i was trying to move my entire force 1 space away to some encampment some independants were sitting on so i could beat them and take them.

However when i left licked my army then left clicked the enemy army only my baron moved to attack at which point i was forced to quit and start over.

I still cant figure out how to move a whole army as it seems when i left click it just wants to move the baron and nothing else. Am i supposed to attach the baron to the army first somehow? would be nice if a game with no tutorial at least came with a manual lol

[Draken]

There is no tutorial, but there is a manual:
https://www.illwinter.com/coe5/coe5manual.pdf

As for your issue specifically, you need to use the "transfer units" screen to transfer, aka assign, units to a commander.

It's either the second button in your commander order list(upper right), or you can just press 't'.

There the game will show you what units are on the tile and which are currently assigned to the active commander.

Pressing '?' will show you all the keyboard shortcuts. This is available in almost all screens and often very helpful.

[Gilmoy]

Yes, always press '?' first.

~~~~

Briefly, there are 2 kinds of units.

• Commanders are under your click-control. You move them around.
  
• Each 1 Commander leads 1 army, of any number of units (including 0).
  They move with the commander.
  Each entire army moves at the speed of the slowest unit in the army.
  
• Regular units never(*) move on their own.
  Every regular unit is either owned by 1 Commander (at a time), or 0.
  If it's in 1 Commander's army, it moves with that Commander.
  If it's not in any army, it stands still. This is useful to garrison a site.
  
• Exception: Regular units with Stupid always move on their own.
  They ignore any Commander. You can't group them with a Commander.

At start of game, you have 2 Commanders (an L2 and an L1).
But they're both alone, with 0 units in their armies.

You also have a garrison of ~15 regular units, but they're unattached.

So everybody's turn-0 move is usually something like this:

1. browse your L2 commander's ritual and 3 of 4 spells, switch if needed
   
2. peek at your L1 commander's ritual and 2 of 2 spells (he can't switch)
   
3. study the nearby terrain, make a raiding plan
   
4. select L2 commander, press 't' to Transfer Army, 'a' to select All
   
5. move L2 commander 3 tiles, maybe attack 1 weak site
   
6. move your L1 commander, either join the same fight or go explore

Many variations exist, but that's the gist.

[Draken]

Good summary Gilmoy.

Two additions:
- You can also assign a commander to another if they should just group up and you don't want to do anything with them. They behave like a normal unit if you do that.
- When learning the game it's often a better idea to leave one commander at your starting location with 2-3 ranged units. It takes a bit of experience to know when it's safe to leave your starting location completely undefended. Some classes want to split their units up in two different armies, but that's advanced stuff.