Crusading: most things you want to know and everything you didn't

A guide to crusading covering basic information, detailed information, and clarifications for unclear in-game descriptions and mechanics. Also includes suggestions and comparisons for options that are presented to the player.

Mini-intro

When you see [Choice effects](purple), hover your mouse to see a description of the outcome. Right-click to get additional information. This is honestly the most important piece of advice for crusading.

The order of topics attempts to be in a useful order, but I do suggest jumping around to whatever you're looking for.
There are quite a few mechanical clarifications and they're only somewhat organized into sections. Make liberal use of Ctrl + F if you're looking for something in particular. I've tried to use all of the game's wording to keep it straightforward.

If you find a cool unit you want to use, hold on to the decree or event that would spawn the unit until Act 5. The event/decree card is kept and can be completed upon your return when you get access to the mythic kingdom ability to spawn additional units based on your mythic rank. This will allow you to actually make use of cool units in battles. (Alternatively, the great developers of
Toybox[www.nexusmods.com] have added some really cool functionalities for crusade mode such as a toggle which automatically adds all new units you acquire to the mercenary list which means you can recruit all sorts of cool units and bring them into battle!!!)

A previous guide for crusade stat upgrades is available here: Strategist's Guide by Zaukodar. I've presented sections for the upgrades to add details for costs related to repeatable decrees as well as mechanical details for what outcomes actually give due to the in-game descriptions being... lacking (or incorrect).
As a result I'll be giving different suggestions and expanding on the relative benefits of options.

Ranadiel has previously posted on the stat ranks up here based on the game files related to each rank-up.

See Crusade Mode Units guide by phadin for a list of most units and their stats. This can give you some idea of units that I don't cover in the spreadsheet and unit analysis/military rank-up sections.
Note that some units are missing (eg. Signifiers), others have different stats in-game (eg. Marksmen have a +28 damage mod, not +32), and I'm unsure if the author accounted for hidden penalties (trainable unit debuff) or display errors (modifiers that apply in combat, but are not visible if inspecting a unit on the campaign map); given its from 2021, and the author seems to have spawned in every single unit and transcribed their stats, it's impressive regardless.
See the spreadsheet for up-to-date stat comparisons for trainable Infantry, Ranged and Cavalry, Spellcasting, and Grand-Tier units.

Up to date as of ~2.1.0

Playthroughs were all done on the PC version of the game.
The major known difference between computer/console:

• Console banners do not accrue additional days for fulfilling the banners condition, they instead refresh a timer and you must therefore, "do the thing", soon after a banner turns yellow.
  
• In contrast, PC has a counter that increases every time you fulfill a banner condition allowing you to accumulate hundreds of days before the banner starts to decay.

Guide is a work-in-progress as I work through the remaining sections.

Boy am I tired of hitting these section character limits.

Some mechanical clarifications were found by Whiterock on the Owlcat discord.

Pre-Drezen (Act 2)

This will be the first screen you'll see when entering crusade mode by clicking the red banner at the top to switch over from party mode:

You'll start with 100 Footmen at your army's current encampment and 2000 finance points (FP). These units are low attack/low damage and will be insufficient for your plans of Worldwound domination. Click the armoured knight in the bottom left to open up the recruitment panel.


Your current finances are at the top. The green number at the top of a unit is the additional amount added to "available for recruitment" each week. Also displayed is the size of the unit (medium 1 square, large 4 squares), the current units available for recruitment (blue square; 44 archers and 66 footmen in this case) and the cost to recruit 1 of the unit. On the right half of the screen is the army those troops will be added to; new armies are generated automatically and disappear when merging 2 armies together (you can rename them if you want).


Recruit all of the archers. Because of movement speed in battles, ranged and offensive spellcasting units will have 1-2 attacks as a battle develops before melee units are engaged. Ranged units will be your main damage source until at least post-Drezen when other options open up. Even then, they are the only easily recruitable distance damage-dealers so they will most likely form the base of all of your armies.


You'll have 900 finance points left over. Recruit a general for 500 and you can either save the remaining amount or buy more footmen. A general can increase the base stats of units in their army, allow you to recuperate some lost units killed in battle, and give you access to additional abilities ranging from buffing unit stats temporarily to destroying everything on the battlefield. Consequently, a general will be more effective than an extra 34 Footmen (equivalent cost). Your base finance point income is 200 FP/day (the rate is not visible until you reach the logistics mode post-Drezen).

In the end, most generals will grant similar stat buffs to their army, the main differences is in the support they grant turn to turn through their abilities. Click "Assign General" then recruit one, the cost doubles for every general you buy. You'll probably only need 2 maybe 3 total, but 1 will be sufficient for everything pre-Drezen. If you don't like your options, close the recruitment window and re-open it to re-roll the available generals. There are 4 generals of each type available. See the General Discussion section for images of all of them and recommendations.

Main advantages for each type:

Fighter (Sword in shield): Buffs available for cavalry or special units, grants some units 2 consecutive turns on their first turn, AoE stun, largest infirmary
Ranger (Bow): Earliest access to healing, buffs to ranged units, traps that CC or damage enemies, ranged units can debuff enemies that they hit as well as higher movement mid to late game
Wizard (Fireball): Buffs to spellcasting units, spells to damage enemy units, early access to a heal, debuff enemies or buff allies, higher movement mid to late game, map-wide nuke

If you want an additional cushion for your army, spend the 7500g with Irabeth for an additional 100 Footmen, 50 Archers and 20 Clerics to your army. Clerics are a mercenary unit that are durable, have comparable attack/damage to Footmen and have the ability to heal themselves each turn while still getting an attack in. They are your best "tank" unit to distract and block melee units from reaching your archers. Additionally, when 2 melee units are adjacent to an enemy, they'll get flanking bonuses to attacks. (Beware enemies that use aoe attacks that the AI selects when at least 2 enemies are in range. *Cough* Cultists *Cough*).


Fulfilling a banner's condition will add additional days to the timer before it begins to decay. So, just kill things and avoid losing all of your army multiple times. Your pace towards Drezen doesn't matter.
Unless you want the Queen to pat you on the head, give you a ring and tell you you're a good commander.


After crossing the river for the first time at a crusade encampment, there is a node a bit to the NE. If you find Leper's Smile with your army, save before entering with your party as it is a forced encounter and your party may be exhausted and encumbered from traveling.
Your choice of companion and their method can have a large effect, eg. Irabeth no mechanical effect, Nurah also no mechanical effect, Regill lose 300 xp worth of random units from army closest to Leper's Smile, Lann -15 morale, loss 600 xp worth of random units from army closest to Leper's Smile, Sosiel still no mechanical effect.

I find out all these months after having written this part that my save is bugged and the characters are supposed to have an effect but just... didn't. In the meantime, see Ranadiel's description of the choice outcomes if you want to know the effect of each companion.

There are 5 rare loots available, mainly from bodies, and a crevice with someone in it. Every one interacted with will kill 5% of your army and you lose 5 morale (it's probably a xp value worth of random units but I cbf to test it).


If you reach an un-winnable state due to morale, you can edit the game's value to give yourself a second chance at continuing your current game. Otherwise, set crusade to auto-mode (will lock you out of Swarm mythic path as well as the semi-secret ending, Lich will have long wait times in auto-mode).


If you see an incubus commander in a fort, save before entering the battle. This is your first encounter with a caster general; prepare to get dunked on before turning west to Drezen.

General discussion ha. ha.

Main advantages for each type:

Fighter (Sword in shield): Buffs available for cavalry or special units damage, grants some units 2 consecutive turns on their first turn, AoE stun, largest infirmary
Ranger (Bow): Earliest access to healing, buffs to ranged units damage, traps that CC or damage enemies, ranged units can debuff enemies that they hit as well as higher movement mid to late game
Wizard (Fireball): Buffs to spellcasting units weapon damage, spells to damage enemy units, early access to a heal, debuff enemies or buff allies, higher movement mid to late game, map-wide nuke

All three types are amply sufficient to beat the crusade.

If you'd like detailed information on each type, check the sections near the bottom of the guide. I have a section per general class that lists their level-up options and stats as well as clarifications for their abilities.


Fighter (Sword in shield):

Fighter generals are the most "I actually want to play turn-based crusading" generals you can get. They make use of limited use Stratagems such as Overwhelming Shout that has 2 uses per battle to stun all enemies in a 3x3 area or unlimited use Formations that apply their bonuses to all allies immediately and for all future turns until a different formation is used. Their Formations grant relatively large stat changes early-game and fundamentally change how you use your units. "Charge" turns your infantry into cavalry and your cavalry into cavalry^2 for example.
At higher levels, the stun and double turns from tactician (and possibly triple turns from morale) combines with high initiative ranged/cavalry units to devastate the enemy on the first round. Additionally, they have larger infirmary pools for when you have weaker compositions that take more losses, but in exchange they get access to healing skills the latest of all generals.

Available Fighter generals:
Tector, Furio and Iron are the best among Fighter generals and very comparable. They'll have almost identical skills once they hit level 4. The difference will be having a defensive vs. maneuverability stratagem; the latter will be more helpful if you're checking the speed on enemy units and positioning your melee well. Furio is slightly better than Iron for offensive compositions because her attack increase is unconditional (Offensive Training does *not* increase damage, it increases the attack stat) and allows better use of melee units by not making them nearly immobile. Iron has better defense and a slightly stronger attack buff, but reduces the movement speed of units which can cause issues with your melee units getting the first attack when engaging an enemy, which is well, rather important for limiting losses.


Ranger (Bow):

Bow generals are the most "tactically flavourful" of the generals. They have a combination of Siege and Trap abilities which have 1 use per ability per battle and a handful of spells that use energy. Siege abilities are spell-like abilities that don't cost energy while traps are abilities that are placed onto a tile and will activate when they are walked over (walked, teleporting demons don't activate them unfortunately). Plus, they get the earliest access to healing spells making them forgiving during Act 2.
Expanding their traps will open up more tactical options until you reach their pinnacle at a relatively early level with the ultimate area denial skill in "Caltrops". It lingers for 3 turns damaging any unit without Flight that walks through its area. By taking advantage of the AI being dumb, you can literally do nothing and watch as a whole army walks to its death with this one skill. Or go for its bigger Sister, Holy Bomb which lingers for 3 rounds and hits any enemy in it for irreducible damage. Some minor buffs to damage versus certain enemy types and buffs to ranged units' damage makes the backbone of all of your armies even stronger. Cursed Arrows is pretty flavourful if you'd like your ranged units to debuff enemies. They get additional map movement along with Wizards.

Available Ranger generals:

For Ranger generals, Soravielle is top choice with Master of Maneuver (MoM) and a minor CC with Flare. Al'Mahti is next best with an attack boost and a direct damage ability. Nysa is comparable; while the trap is better damage than Stone Throw, it requires waiting for the enemy's turn which is not applicable for ranged enemies or melee enemies with an adjacent target, so most turns after the first 1 or 2.



Wizard generals (fireball):

These are the generals for when you really don't want to deal with turn-based combat and want a click->dead option. They rely on Arcane or Divine Spells that cost energy and are split largely between dealing damage and healing respectively (there is a sprinkle of buff/debuff skills among them but, like, why buff when you could just click that stack over there and it disappears?). Starting out on a similar power level to the others, they ramp up quickly in Power to end at 69 when level 20 while also gaining access to larger and larger AoEs until they get access to one that just wipes the entire board of non-undead enemies. And yes, there is friendly fire on some spells like Fireball, but not Firestorm or the Negative Channel Energies. They do require a high initiative unit if you want to nuke the enemy without casualties because generals only act on your unit's turns. With a somewhat early access to healing spells at level 4, they are a bit less forgiving than ranger generals during Act 2, but you might just forget you have it among the carnage of your AoEs. They also get increased map movement along with Rangers.


For mage generals, Abegoya is a good choice with strong single target damage ability starting out (and extra power from Spellcraft). Setsuna is a strong choice for slightly lower damage on Scorching Ray, but Master of Maneuver brings more units to battles. They'll be almost identical in a couple of levels.

Basic unit management and strategy

Beginning orientation:

The unit windows at the top and bottom are those displayed before entering the battle. (Technically the image for my army was taken after which is why the unit counts are slightly higher, Lich things.)

The player side is relatively straight-forward, ie. a 90° rotation clockwise will align the players campaign-map army layout with the in-battle layout. Specifically, the top row pre-battle is your "front line" with the bottom row pre-battle your "back line". Left side is the top row in battle, right side is the bottom row.

Enemy units on the other hand are less intuitive. Starting from the campaign-map layout (visible by right-clicking an army for additional info), flip the layout along the vertical axis then rotate 90° counter-clockwise. Therefore, the bottom of the enemy army is still the back line and the top row still the front line. Similar to the player's army, enemy units on the right-side in campaign mode are still among the bottom rows of the battle layout despite a possible expectation that the enemy army would have just been rotated 90° counter-clockwise. (Note the Glabrezu on the right side of the army layout but the bottom of the battlefield.)

You can therefore know where the enemy units start and reposition your own army before engaging. The importance of this will become apparent after the AI is discussed. The layout of the environmental obstacles in a battle seem to be predetermined for all stationary armies.

Initiative:

Units take turns in order of highest initiative to lowest unless the "Wait" action is used in which case they go at the end of the round in reverse initiative order (lowest to highest). If a unit would take 2 turns in a row due to high combat morale or an ability, they take both turns consecutively on their initiative.
If there are ties, they are resolved in a specific order every time. In order of priority, the left most column (your back line) top to bottom, 2nd column from the left (your front line) top to bottom, right most column (enemy back line) top to bottom, then 2nd column from the right (enemy front line) top to bottom.
But what if they're a large unit that covers both the front and back lines? IDK. I assume they break ties as if they are part of the back line. No idea if I ever found an army to test it on.


Army layouts:

We got the corner stack, the middle blob and the whatever wherever.

Corner stacking: Pack all of your units into a corner, huzzah.

The advantages of this position is that it requires less units in your front line to body-block the back line. Ignoring the 7th unit at the bottom, this position gives an even 50/50 split between back line and front line units giving you plenty of ranged damage options before the enemy takes turns or gets into melee range. Particularly, only 1 of the back units is even open to direct attacks (red lines). Making use of good target selection allows you to kill any teleporting demons keeping the vulnerable ranged unit at full strength. If the only teleporting enemy is a large unit, you can additionally shift the bottom of the front line down 1 space (green line) to body-block them from accessing the back line completely.

This layout is the most effective in low unit armies as it protects your only ranged unit with 2 front liners. To get similar protection from a middle stack, you need 1 additional front liner which dilutes your ranged damage potential (and ranged damage is the majority of your damage).

Recommendation to place Clerics or any other tanky Spellcasting Unit along the most direct path between your back line and any enemy ranged/spellcasting units.






Middle stack: put your units in the middle

This layout puts more emphasis on your front line and requires that larger front line to have comparable protection to a corner stack against teleporting demons. It has the benefit of blocking large demons from teleporting and attacking the back line, but only with army sizes of 4 and 6. For sizes of 3 and 5 the back line is more vulnerable and a corner stack is probably preferable if you have the ranged units for it.

Wouldn't really recommend this layout, but if you have plenty of front line type units from your mythic path it can be a way to integrate them. If you have a large unit such as dragons, you can place them on the end to body-block and protect one of your back line units from being targeted by melee.

Recommendation to place Spellcasting Units on the outside edges of the front line if you have enough tanky ones.







Whatever, wherever scattered layout:

This is definitely the least recommended layout unless you're taking full advantage of the aggro system (next sections). Not going to cover in detail why this layout or any variants are effective, but I'll describe what's going on in this example.

The back line is all tucked into a corner and protected from large teleporting demons by the body-blocking skeletons. Ranged units are sorted in shooting order to take advantage of how the game breaks initiative ties. Because I know which demons can teleport and pose a threat, and I know that I win initiative for this battle, I can cast my general's abilities and make use of judicious targeting to kill or weaken any actual threats to the back line. Additionally, I know that all units besides the Kalavakus will target the Church Guards first, then the Clerics second regardless of if they are using a ranged or melee weapon.

Therefore, this layout isn't any more vulnerable than the others.

Huh, Clerics and Church Guards are both Spellcasting units... Wink wink





Moving near obstacles/enemies:

Movement is based on a unit speed in feet that is converted to a "speed" stat (base speed divided by 10). Units have a hard coded speed unrelated to their movement speed outside of crusade mode (for example mounted units like Paladins have the speed stat hard-coded onto the "paladin", despite their mount also being a unit).

Squares are 10ft centre-to-centre meaning each tile costs 1 speed. Diagonals cost 1.5 speed and seems to round down which means a Cleric with 2 speed can only move 1 square on the diagonal, but 2 squares otherwise. There is an odd interaction where a unit with a high speed can move up to a potential target that was shown as being strikeable, but will stop next to it without performing the attack when at its movement limit.



Melee body-blocking:
When moving between rows, the diagonal movements are always first followed by any linear movement left to reach a target. If you're trying to body-block a unit by requiring it to move further than its speed, you need to occupy the squares immediately in front of the enemy unit and not your targeted unit.

Consequently, good positioning of the front line prevents enemy units currently engaged with them from disengaging and attacking the back line. Brimoraks only have a speed of 3 and therefore can't reach the Headhunters/Sorcerers.


Back line units within movement distance:

In contrast, if the Spearmen were back 1 square, allowing the Brimoraks to move on the diagonal, the back line is attacked.

Units part 2: AI considerations

The game determines targets based on a series of considerations with corresponding weights that seem to multiply with a base score. These modified values are then compared; the highest value is then selected as the target/ability to use.

This isn't an exhaustive study of the AI and its choices so some of these will be more vague because a couple of these considerations will have 0 practical effect even though the AI has the components. Also, I only looked at the blueprints for the AI and not how the code deals with the variables, so there are some odd cases that I will be handwaving.



Considerations:

InRange:
The default consideration for all units with a melee weapon. Most units have a preference for attacking units that are in range rather than wasting a turn moving towards a different unit. If a unit has a teleport, all units are considered to be in range.
If nothing is in range and there are no other abilities to be used, a unit will advance towards the closest enemy.
Eg. Footmen


ArcherRange:
The default for all units with a ranged weapon. Assigns a low priority to units far away and a higher priority to closer units. Ranged units will generally change from an "important" target to a closer target once an enemy unit is within 2-4 squares. A distance is being calculated (squares are 10ft long) so the number of squares required to force the ranged unit to change targets is variable based on things like being on a different row or having additional considerations like the ImportantTarget one.
Eg. Archers


ImportantTarget:
Possessed by most units, this adds additional priority to units with the Spellcasting, Ranged, or Special Forces tags. This is why units like Clerics or Paladins in your front line are so powerful; they have equal priority to your backline based on this consideration, but higher priority due to usually being closer, ie. ranged units prefer them due to the ArcherRange consideration, and therefore these tanky spellcasters draw almost all aggro in a battle.
Eg. anything with a brain basically
There are a handful of units that don't consider this such as Zombies or Elementals, they'll just attack whatever is closest.

• An interesting special case, there are some enemies that have a RushToImportant blueprint which only has a consideration for ImportantTarget. The consequence of this is that they won't actually move and attack a target in range if there is a path open to a unit with any of the "important" tags. They will path around unimportant targets and give up potential attacks to do so.
  Eg. Fallen Knights

MoreThen2Enemies:
Taken into consideration by most units with AoE attacks, this gives additional priority when multiple potential targets are within the radius of the attack. This requires a minimum of 2, and it can add additional priority for other nearby units, eg. Thunder Tread is only used when at least 2 enemies are close to a unit.
Eg. Balor, Vrocks, Dretch

(Vague handwaving, grumble grumble. Dretch's stinking cloud targets a point so you'd expect them to drop the cloud in the middle of a group of units hitting up to 8, but the consideration only considers up to 3 units. Despite being capable of targeting a point, they always drop it on a unit, and often it will be on a unit that doesn't maximize the total number hit. This sometimes results in the cloud being dropped on 1-2 units despite having a group of 5 that are available. Conversely, it's possible that they don't drop the cloud at all and instead move and attack a target.)


Avoid friends:
In conjunction with the previous consideration, this one reduces priority if allies of the caster are within the AoE.
Eg. Balor, Gallus, Rift Drakes


ChooseMoreEnemies:
Basically the same thing as MoreThen2, it adds extra priority when more enemies are within the AoE. Slight differences to the base value and the additional value per adjacent unit.
Eg. Gallu, Rift Drake


ExecuteHealth:
Seems to add additional priority for unit stacks that have lower health remaining. Somewhat unclear what exactly it is evaluating without further testing. A relatively rare consideration, it's found on a handful of units.
Eg. Balor, Marilith


ClosestButNotInMelee:
Essentially used to target units that are 2 squares away (non-adjacent but nearby). Relatively rare, seeming to only occur on certain spells/abilities, but it can be a way to bait certain enemies to "waste" a turn on one of your units. Nalfeshnee have this consideration on their Slow spell for example, which allows you to bait them off of Lightning Bolting your backline by bringing a unit nearby that is barely affected by Slow.
Eg. Nalfeshnee Slow, Spider's Web


MediumRange:
Mainly used to target units within 0-3 squares. In reality, I think every unit that has this will use abilities affected by it regardless of range because of other considerations overriding it.
Eg. Kalavakus uses Enslave Soul at all ranges, Cultist Mage uses Acid Arrow/Curse at any range, Magus uses Touch of Chill at the start of battle then never again


HasTastyBuff:
The consideration behind Dispel. Unfortunately it's basically never used, but it's there! (Mildly sure the buff it's checking for doesn't actually exist).
Eg. Witches, Wizard, Nalfeshnee only


NoBuff-XYZ:
Used by units with buffs/debuffs to avoid trying to cast an ability on a unit already affected by it.
Eg. Nalfeshnee Slow, Kalavakus Enslave Soul


Teleportation:
Used by units with Dimension Door to cast the spell on allies. Checks for Armored, Large, Cavalry, Infantry, SpecialPurpose tags. Not on all units that have access to the spell though, Liches don't have this consideration despite having the spell available.
Eg. Wizard only


XYZ-tag Consideration:
Used for a handful of abilities such as Smite Evil or Smite Chaos (both only check Demon tag).
Eg. Paladin, Hellknight

Also has related variants that are for unit-type tags for general target selection:

• Slingers and the Armored tag
  
• Knights of Ozem and Undead
  
• Headhunters and Ranged
  
• Dragonslayers and Grand Tier
  
• Spearmen and Large
  
• Spiders and Cavalry/Flying (Web ability)

HalfHealth:
Used by units with healing abilities to heal allies. (Why yes some units will actually heal when you let the AI control them)
Eg. Mummy Cleric, Necromancer (literally never seen this unit in game, found out about it while searching through game files), Warpriest, Knight of Ozem, Cultist of the Swarm



Personal notes:

some units just have better aggro for ???? reasons, rangers are targeted over marksmen, cleric over wizard, sorcerer over headhunter

images for enemy movement/targeting? next section probably, running out of space

No difference between summoned units and normal for aggro. No blueprint checks for the buff or summoned tag as far as I can tell.
Large units targeted by their leading edge for proximity check.

Units 3 maybe?

Enemy AI likes horizontal rows?No, clerics have spellcasting tag.
Target preference when multiple available?Closest target or general preference, can't tell.
Preference to engage in-melee targets:No, it's the closest at that point.
Preference for ranged if not engaged despite ranged weapon available: the ArcherConsid gives priority to nearby targets
Another example of not leaving melee (maybe movement detection is based on movement without accounting for flying? don't think so after having used flying units): Flies use the Dumb Brain that doesn't care about Important Targets
Switching targets back to a previous one? preference for mounted? An example of target preference. The Plagued Horse uses the Dumb Brain which evaluates proximity. If the Cuirassiers leaves melee the horse attacks the zombies, but when the Cuirassier returns, it is once again preferred over the zombies. Still unsure why.

Post-Drezen (Act 3)

• Accessing crusade management mode
  
• Decrees and events
  
• Setting up buildings
  
• Short note on recruitment
  
• New mythic crusade skills
  
• Other notes

To access crusade management mode, you can click on the table in the Citadel in Drezen or click on your new world map button. You will now begin seeing Events and Decrees when in that mode. Every time you are given options for the development of the crusade, hover your mouse over [Choice effects] to see a description of the outcome of that choice; right-click to get additional information.
Your available options are dependent on your Mythic Path as well as your companions.

Decrees list their costs, the time taken to complete, and detail their benefits. Events require you to select between possible outcomes and are randomly occurring throughout the crusade. A set order seems to be chosen each time a save is loaded. Loading a different save seems to generate a new order.



Despite being able to level up many of your crusade stats as soon as you start Act 3, I'd suggest not starting them immediately or not entering the Citadel in Drezen after having completed their decrees until you've found/recruited Woljif/Arueshalae/Greybor if you plan on doing that. The first two are recruitable within the first couple days and have decent options on their councils. Greybor requires you to complete his intro quest to get access to his council options. Each companion contributes to a council and their options are not available unless they are a member of your party. You can enter the rest of the city without triggering crusade related conversations.
See the Unit Comparison section if you want detailed comparisons for trainable/common mercenary units.



Spend 30k GP on Material points and build supply centres in all of your initial outposts (and all the ones you capture). All of your construction will be limited by material points. Build some inns if you want to recruit mercenaries as you build. Due to implementation, an inn will still generate income even if you have recruitment buildings in the same outpost. However, an inn does not appear on the build list if recruitment buildings are in the same outpost; therefore, place the inn before recruitment buildings. The cost of recruitment buildings does double if you build an inn first (eg. Archery Building goes from 90/36 FP/MP to 180/72 FP/MP for a building that will generate 200FP/day).



Assuming Standard difficulty :
Base Finance Point income : 200/day
Babaus army NE of Drezen: +100/day
Marksmen army NE of kenabres : +100/day

FP / day : 200-400
FP / week : 1400-2800

Your base recruitment per week is:

• Footmen: 33 at 15FP = 495 FP
  
• Archer: 22 at 25FP = 550 FP
  
• Mounted Scouts: 20 at 35FP = 700FP
  
• Total for trainable units: 1745 FP

Base income is therefore adequate for both basic recruitment and building. Reminder, recruitment refreshes add units to the total available for recruitment, you are not required to buy them the same week they are added. You will not lose out on potential trainable units by not buying them each week. While mercenaries are "lost" by not buying them, only buy ones you are capable of using; your army capacity is limited.



You now have a crusade skill bar with 3 skills:

• Amplify Resisteance: for 1 day, all units in the target friendly army gain +(5+mythic rank/2) to saving throws (5 day cooldown)
  
• Teleport: allows the party to teleport to any Bastion+ that has a Teleportation circle constructed in it while on the world map (1 day cooldown)
  
• Mark of Terror: for 1 day, all units in the target enemy army take a 2*mythic rank penalty to combat morale

These are referred to as rituals in a handful of events.



If you've completed a decree to upgrade an outpost to a bastion, or a bastion to a fortress, you need to be in crusade management mode and any of the categories that allows you to deal with cards. Click on an outpost (or bastion) with a red exclamation mark on its nameplate to open up the menu that lists all current buildings in it and would allow you to enter the outpost to build more. You should have a new "upgrade" button that will upgrade that location to the next tier giving you the benefits listed in the Outposts, Bastions and Fortresses section.


Clerics are worth having in your army because they have really high aggro, due to the spellcasting tag, and a swift action self-heal. They are your tank unit for this act for all intents and purposes unless you take a peak at the Target selection and the AI section.


If you receive decrees/events that will recruit cool units you want to use, I'd suggest holding on to the card until Act 5 when you get access to a crusade ability allowing you to replicate units. This way, you'll be able to have a sufficient number of the unit to use in any army.


Because banners have a hidden counter that decreases each day, but is increased when you fulfill the banner's condition (PC only, console resets a timer rather than a counter), the speed at which you defeat armies/fortresses has little to no mechanical impact. Defeating "excess" armies will stockpile additional days before your banners decay. However, only stationary armies and forts count for banners, mobile armies do not.


During Act 3, there are 3 timers related to mercenaries. Each timer is 40 days long and when the timer expires, the cost of mercenaries is increased by 33% and the next timer is started. Effectively, mercenaries start at 100% base cost, ie. same cost of recruiting the trainable version of the unit, then it increases every 40 days until at 120 days, mercenaries are double the cost per unit as trainable ones.


If you want your generals available as soon as you start the crusade again after your vacation, recall all of them from their armies.

Your resources and your accrued available recruitment is lost when you come back for Act 5, spend all of your remaining FP recruiting units for that sweet Military xp or constructing buildings for Logistics xp.

Maps: territory defense, bastion locations and teleports

• Circled nodes: demon army spawn points
  
  • Demon forts block line of sight beyond them and can therefore make it seem like demon armies spawn on just the other side of them.
• Arrows: direction of travel
  
• Asterisks: nodes that only begin spawning armies from ~4 months into a given act and will become the only node that armies spawn from 5-6 months into an act, ie. you've been here too long, please move on
  
• Blue lines: Act 3 paths and spawn points
  
• Red lines: Act 5 paths and spawns

At a glance we can see that there are 2 paths that the demons will attack from with a handful of tributaries to give a bit of variety. The consequence of this however, is that 2 armies of sufficient strength can be positioned on the green-circled nodes to block the main routes to Drezen and be within 1 day worth of travel to nearby forts, thereby securing the entire map with the minimum number of armies regardless of the maximum movement points for an army. (An alternative Act 5 node is included; it is slightly closer to the Act 5 forts that would be threatened in the northern and western regions, but both options are within 1 day of travel.


We could instead visualise the forts that are actually at risk of being lost.


It's worth noting that the majority of the forts are never at risk of being lost once captured and while 3 of them are technically "at risk", they're so close to Drezen that you've already seen the army coming for multiple days and can reposition your armies to protect them. As a consequence, there are only 5 forts that might be worth a citadel if you are using only 1 army to protect all of your territory. If we consider 2 armies and the marked nodes from the first map, there's a good chance that a citadel will never be worth building.


Alright, so we can therefore focus on building a good logistics chain in all of our forts and in making use of Bastion/Fortress upgrades to support that supply chain as well as trying to optimize our access to Teleportation Circles across the map to minimize travel times. So, let's visualise the locations on the map that are sufficiently far from Drezen to be more than 24h of travel (the cooldown on teleport) as we can probably assume that we'd teleport back to Drezen from somewhere else, then head out again towards a new place while teleport is still on cd.

The goal is to have the circles far enough apart to give maximum coverage, and to be aware of how long it actually takes to accumulate the resources and complete the decree. Consequently, only 1-2 are going to be useful for Act 3, possibly the 3rd at the end of the act and the others will used in Act 5.

Given 6 circles possible + 1 in Drezen. Blue circles are Act 3, orange are Act 5.

• 1st: Lands of Yath Watch, no question. It gives access to the southern regions and is adjacent to Heart of Mystery. Once the other puzzle locations are visited, HoM allows teleports between them exchanging load screen time for overland travel time (light blue: Act 3; light orange: Act 5).
  
• 2nd: Vilareth Ford's Outpost. It is already claimed going into Act 3 and allows teleports back towards Chilly Creak and Kenabres/Neatholm.
  
• 3rd: Camp on the Ferry. The only other really viable location with its benefit being only realized for Blackwater late in the act or at the start of Act 5. Treasonhome is the other alternative, but it's only giving access to Ivory Sanctum/an Ember quest node and it's directly adjacent to a node accessible through Heart of Mystery anyways.

Act 5 teleports are in whatever order you decide to explore. All of the teleport locations gives rapid access to an Ineluctable Prison entrance as well.

• Sinister Mansion/Death Bridge: quick access to the western region. The least useful locations if you make use of the CotF teleport. It's possible to go through Pulura Falls, Place of Execution (Evil Arue pick-up location) and the City in the Wastelands (locust city) in one go and never need to return to this region again.
  
• Castle of Desires/Cave Citadel: access to Threshold, Lann/Wenduag node, some nodes related to the Heart of Mystery chain puzzle pieces and a faster access to the Lab. CoD is probably the better one as you can capture the fort much earlier.
  
• Tyrant's Keep/Necromancer's Grave: access to nodes for Daeran and Seelah quests. Depending on when you actually get to these, NG is closer to the nodes but is a stronger fort and will be captured later into the act.

If any encounter has multiple lines coming from it, it's because the locations all share the same mutually exclusive event.

• Red stars: caster demon generals, you probably won't be able to win these fights unless you have a strong general or rank 2 military with lots of units
  
• Woljif: 1 must be done before 2, don't exit the 2nd one without recruiting woljif
  
• Arue: go and say hi (if you haven't already)
  
• Dragon: get ambushed (minimum once if you take the best path)
  
• Finnean: you must visit the wintersun map to get this encounter (you can literally walk in and out of the zone to set the flag)
  
• Evil Arue: Act 5 pick-up location for your favourite succubus
  
• AMoS: Ancient Map of Sarkoris, the node is hidden until you have captured Camp on the Ferry

Buildings

In general, only 1 of any building can be built in a settlement. Exceptions are mainly the buildings that grant stat buffs and are denoted with (unlimited).

• For unit buff buildings, the 2nd building costs 3x the first, 3rd and onward cost 1.5x the previous. Other buildings like Pathfinder Lodge cost 1.5x the first beginning at the 2nd building. Ish, building costs get wonky if you delete and rebuild buildings as you reorganize them.
  
• Only repeats of a building in the same settlement have cost increases.
  
• Some buildings only become available in upgraded outposts. Denoted with Bastion+.

General buildings

Alchemist's laboratory (unlimited): +10 energy per building to all generals

• Only the first building increases the energy regened per day for a general, ie. if you build 10 to increase a general's energy from 50 to 150, their energy regen/day will only be 6.
  
• Sort of useful for Wizard generals. More than one doesn't have much of a benefit.

Apothecary (1 Bastion+, unlimited Drezen): +10% to max hp for trainable units in adjacent buildings

• Best defensive buff because AC increases can be found from other buildings/General's skills.

Arsenal (1 Bastion+, unlimited Drezen): +1 to AC for trainable units in adjacent buildings

Citadel: increases the time before Drezen or an outpost falls by 3 days

• Base time is 3 days, falling on the 4th. With a Citadel it's 6 days, falling on the 7th.

Fighting Pit (1 everywhere): +1 initiative to trainable units from adjacent buildings

• Yes, only 1 in Drezen.

Hall of Glory (Bastion+, 1): cost of mercenary recruitment reduced by 5%

• Additive other mercenary cost modifiers from multiple copies of the building, council decisions, events, or passive increases as the crusade progresses.
  
• Cost rounds up to nearest integer.

Hall of Strategy (1 Fortress, unlimited Drezen): +1 Attack and Defense, +2 Power to all generals

• Given that you will generally only have 2-3 armies and they would all be lead by a general, this is the most powerful buff building, particularly because this applies to a general, ie. trainable AND mercenary units benefit from the buffs.
  
• Power increases the effects of most generals' skills including the DCs of saving throw based abilities (+1 DC/2 Power).

Hospital (unlimited): increases infirmary sizes by 5% per building

• All infirmary bonuses are additive.

Mercenary Guild (Bastion+, 1): increases the number of available mercenary slots by 1 per building

Military Academy (1 Fortress, unlimited Drezen): +1 to Attack, AC and Saving Throws for trainable units

• Main benefit is the cost compared to building multiple Halls of Strategy.
  
• One of the few ways to increase saving throws for units.

Pathfinder Society Lodge (1 Fortress, unlimited Drezen): +1 to attack, AC and saving throws for mercenary units

• Very low cost compared to Military Academies or Halls of Strategy. However, limited benefit depending on your usage of mercenary units.
  
• Units that were not chosen during Military stat rank ups but are recruited as mercenaries count as mercenaries.
  
• Mythic units from decrees don't count as mercenaries.
  
• UNTESTED: I assume that units recruited by decrees/events are not counted as mercenary units unless the unit was an option not chosen during a military rank-up in which case it is already present in the mercenary pool and you're just acquiring it in a different way.

Sanctuary (Bastion+, unlimited): increases EP income by 4

• Not useful until reaching Act 5 when Mythic Recruitment decrees have exorbitant costs, in which case you still won't have enough EP income unless you heavily invest in these buildings.

Shelter (Bastion+, 1): allows the party to rest on top of a settlement without gaining corruption

• No use in Drezen. Limited all around use once you get a teleportation circle in Drezen.
  
• Prevents corruption gain, does not remove already accumulated corruption.

Smithy (Bastion+, 1): +1 to Attack for trainable units in adjacent buildings

Supply Center (1 everywhere): +3 to MP income

Teleportation Circle (Bastion+, 1): the character party can teleport from anywhere to a location with the building (24h cooldown for all circles).

• Must not be in crusade management mode when attempting to teleport.

Training Grounds (Bastion+, 1): +10% bonus to damage of trainable units in adjacent buildings

• Stacks additively with itself and multiplicatively with inherent base damage bonuses on units

Watchtower (unlimited): increases Attack, AC, Saving Throws and Initiative by 1 for armies in the fort's area of control

• Only affects units when you attack stationary armies in the same region as a settlement with the building.
  
• Works great if you capture a fort in the region, then build a couple for any armies you're having trouble defeating.
  
• Does not require you to control the whole region to gain its benefits.

Drezen specific buildings :

Engineers' Workshop: reduces buildings costs by 10%

• Multiplicative with cost increases from multiple of a building

Main Barracks: allows recruitment of Infantry units

Main Archery Range: allows recruitment of Ranged units

Main Stables: allows recruitment of Cavalry units

Main Spellcasters' Lodge: allows recruitment of Spellcasting units

• Requires Military III to build

Main Hall of Champions (Act 5 only): allows recruitment of Grand Tier units

Outpost specific buildings

• all garrison recruitment buildings are additive with all other sources of growth increase besides morale

Garrison Archery Range: +25% to recruitment growth of your trainable ranged unit

Garrison Barracks: +25% to recruitment growth of your trainable infantry unit

Garrison Stables: +25% to recruitment growth of your trainable cavalry unit

Garrison Spellcasters' Lodge: +25% to recruitment growth of your trainable spellcasting unit

Garrison Hall of Heroes: +25% to recruitment growth of your trainable grand tier unit

• Can be placed with half the building out of bounds in bastions. Cool I guess?

Inn: +200 to FP income

• Disappears from build list if a recruitment building is placed in the outpost
  
• Just build the inn first...

Building placement and mechanics

Drezen placement:

For the most part, building placement doesn't matter as long as everything fits. However, the various recruitment buildings you have will grant buffs to their corresponding unit based on the arrangement of buff-buildings that are directly adjacent (side-touching, not diagonals).

It is not clearly stated, but these buffs stack for a given type. Ie. 4 Training grounds next to the Main Archery Range will grant 4x the buff. (Base 100% + 4*10% = 140% or 1.4 damage multiplier) This multiplier is combined multiplicatively with trainable unit damage penalty (-10%), ie. Archers have a 0.9x multiplier, combined with 4 Training grounds they would have a 1.26x (1.4 * 0.9) multiplier. This also combines multiplicatively with the damage buff from Shield Wall on units such as Monks, Shieldbearers, etc... If you right click the damage in chat, you'll see a breakdown of the damage calculation. The modifier from (21+attack-AC) is displayed to the right of the adjusted base damage mod.

So, here are a couple layouts for the 4x4 area in Drezen to maximize the buffs received by different units. Be aware that building costs increase for each copy of the building in a town. Therefore, stacking buffs is costly. Evidently, if you are using a variety of buffs, the positions are the same to maximize the buffs received, you just put whatever building you want.

I've colour-coded various layouts for the 4x4 area in Drezen.

• Light green: the units who will make the most use of 4 buffs (Your main units).
  
• Yellow: units who will only get 3 buffs (your secondary units, useful but not the backbone).
  
• Orange: units who will get 2-3 buffs (your utility units rather than important participants in the direct fighting). This will probably be your Spellcaster's Lodge/Barracks. Warpriests, Monks and Assassins want buffs. Witches and Bards won't benefit from some buffs because you just don't want them on the front line due to their high aggro and high value costing you much of your infirmary space. Infantry may also go here because they lose their usefulness in Act 5 when you would probably be building the last couple buff buildings.
  
• Green: Hall of Champions is available in Chapter 5 only. The layouts with this building allow you to pre-plan to avoid having to redo a lot of buildings when you reach that point.
  
• Light blue: a variant that trades an additional buff on your secondary unit for 2 buffs to your tertiary unit. Depends what units you are filling your army with.
  
• Blue: if you are doing a single buff type multiple times, these are the locations to place them.
  
• Red: if doing multiple of the same building such as Training grounds, this would be the location to add Smithy's (+1 Attack) if you don't have enough buffs on your general to have high attack on your units.
  
• Pink: placements that reduce the number of a single type of building to keep building costs down. These require a bit more planning to build but cost less.

Blue/pink (main buff) + red (secondary) is equivalent to blue/red (main buff) + pink (secondary), except the latter will have lower building costs.



In general, Apothecaries are the best defensive buff because you will get AC bonuses from General buffs as well as Military Academies and Halls' of Strategy. Additionally, AC is not accounted for when units take health damage from spells or abilities so HP max bonuses are the only way to reduce the effective damage of non-attack damage. Of course, there is the same reductive effect if you try to heal your units because each one requires more healing to be at max health.

Outposts, Bastions and Fortresses

Quick notes:
If I say fort, I mean the non-Drezen settlements, ie. any of Outposts, Bastions and Fortresses.

If a fort you control is captured by the demons, all buildings in it are destroyed, it's reset back to outpost level when you recapture it and it's manned by 25 Slingers (lul). Despite a listed XP bonus for defeating the garrison and the base xp value of the slingers, recapturing gives 0 xp.
But... demon armies get a large movement increase after taking a fort, moving 2-3 times their normal distance. Avoid losing forts because the army will be halfway to Drezen after it falls.

General info

• Same base cost for any building in any location.
  
• Cost increases for multiple of the same building apply across all types of forts (this applies to buff buildings mainly, things like supply centres and garrison buildings don't have their costs increased)
  
• All settlements (including Drezen) hold for 3 days, on the 4th they fall. Holds 6 days with a Citadel. If Drezen is lost, the crusade is automatically switched to auto-mode.
  
• Each fort blocks line of sight beyond it until you capture it. Once a region is fully controlled (all forts captured) the region will turn yellow (zoom out on the map if you want to see the borders between regions). Regions are mainly related to certain council rank-up bonuses.

Outposts: 4 building spaces (2x2)

Buildings:

• Alchemist's Laboratory (unlimited)
  
• Citadel (1)
  
• Garrison Barracks (1)
  
• Garrison Archery Range (1)
  
• Garrison Stables (1)
  
• Garrison Spellcasters' Lodge (1)
  
• Garrison Hall of Champions (1)
  
• Hosptial (unlimited)
  
• Inn (1, if no Garrison buildings)
  
• Supply Centre/Center (1)
  
• Watchtower (unlimited)
  
• Other buildings from crusade stat advancements (1, usually)

There are 19 forts total (3 obligatory to take Drezen, 7 available Post-Drezen, 9 Post-Vacation).

Every 3 forts you own will give you a decree to upgrade a Fort to a Bastion.

Bastions: 9 building spaces (3x3, 5 added)

6 (possible) total.

Buildings:

• Those available in a Fort
  
• Apothecary (1)
  
• Arsenal (1)
  
• Hall of Glory (1)
  
• Mercenary Guild (1)
  
• Shelter (1)
  
• Smithy (1)
  
• Training Grounds (1)
  
• Teleportation Circle (1)
  
• Other buildings from crusade stat advancements (1, usually)

Why yes, those buffing buildings do stack with all other sources. (4 max in Drezen + 6 in Bastions/Fortresses for 10x their bonus. Cough double damage to some units Cough)

Every 3 Bastions will give you a decree to upgrade a Bastion to a Fortress.

Fortress: 16 building spaces (4x4, 7 added)

2 (possible) total.

Buildings:

• Those available in a Bastion
  
• Hall of Strategy (1)
  
• Military Academy (1)
  
• Pathfinder Society Lodge (1)
  
• Other buildings from crusade stat advancements (1, usually)

Yes, these buildings also stack with those in Drezen

Footprints:

Unit comparisons: Act 3 (Spreadsheet)

General notes:

• Essentially every unit is worth 0.2 Military xp for every FP you spend. You can't optimize your choices for cost-effective Military rank-ups. (Footmen are worth 0.27, Convicts are worth 0.17)
  
• You can optimize for time though. (Value * base weekly recruitment, expressed in the Value/wk column) gives you the additional potential Military xp added per week if you have the FP to buy all those recruits. Eg. Conscripts, Axe Hunters, and Raiders grant the highest potential xp/week due to their mixes of base recruitment and value compared to other units in their category.
  
• Trainable units take 4 penalties: -2 Attack, -2 AC, -10% to base damage, and -10% to max HP. There are 2 consequences of this:
  
  • Trainable units are ~0.8x as tanky and will deal ~0.74x the damage of their mercenary equivalent.
    Because max HP and base damage reductions are multiplicative with regards to effective health and effective damage, respectively, the differences between units depends on their base Attack/AC. The lower the base stats, the more a flat reduction affects them. Eg. a Marksman with 24 Attack being reduced to 22 would deal ~0.83x their base damage. However, a Footman with 5 Attack reduced to 3 will deal ~0.6x their base damage.

(Shield Wall units have overestimated damage. Fixed on a future version.)



First section:

• Everything in the leftmost section is base stats for the unit-type. Average damage was calculated as the expected value, ie. 1d6+5 has an EV=8.5
  
• Certain mercenaries were included in the table because they may make up a non-negligible part of your first army in Act 3. I've assumed their base recruitment is available, but mercenaries are slightly more plentiful than I've assumed.
  
• Shield Wall is described in the Mechanical Clarifications section. Other damage modifiers like the trainable unit penalty are described in the Math and other specific explanations section.
  
• Notes describes extra abilities on certain units that are noteworthy.

Second section:

• Recruit/week: base recruitment per week. Recruitment bonuses from decrees, events and Garrison-type buildings are additive to this number. Crusade morale is multiplicative to the adjusted base recruitment.
  
  • Because both FP and recruitment amounts are multiplicative with crusade morale, all comparisons remain valid for positive morale values. However, as mercenary costs increase Acts 3 and 5, Hellknight/Cleric comparisons quickly become unfavourable for them.
• Cost/wk recruit: FP cost to recruit a weeks worth of additional recruitment

Third section:

• Adjusted damage/unit: adjusts base damage by the Δ against AC 20, DR 5/- (mid-tier demons) and accounts for multiple attacks as well as relevant damage mods.
  
• Total/wk: multiplies adjusted damage by the weekly additional recruitment.
  
• Dmg/FP: divides Total (damage)/wk by the FP/week of additional recruits.
  This last one is a measure of damage efficiency with regards to cost. Minor differences in cost/unit and differing weekly recruitment are smoothed by including total available weekly recruitment and its associated cost.

Fourth section:

Tankiness: ability to absorb inflicted damage without the player being penalized. This does not account for differences in aggro however, which will decide if tankiness is even an important factor for a unit. The goal here is to account for not only a unit's ability to soak damage, but also the amount of infirmary space it will take up after dying with the knowledge that keeping the infirmary below its cap will recover all units and avoid the player being penalized for units dying.

• Inc Dmg Mod: Δ mod against the unit vs. a given Attack value
  
• HP/wk: HP per unit multiplied by a week of additional recruitment
  
• Soak/wk: HP/wk divded by Inc Dmg Mod. This is the total amount of damage 1 week of recruitment can receive, killing every recruit with no overflow. (This amount - 1 is therefore the amount a week of recruitment can take that would leave 1 unit left alive to be healed by spells). Higher values means the unit is tankier.
  
• Soak/FP: This is Soak/wk divided by the FP cost for a week of recruitment.. Higher values means per 1 FP spent, the unit is more capable of taking damage without being depleted, ie. tankiness as a function of cost. Higher values are better.
  
• Soak/value: Damage per value (damage received to take up 1 point of a general's infirmary). Tankiness that ignores cost, only considering the effect on infirmary space. Useful if you want tanky units and cost is not a factor. Higher values are more tanky.
  
• Value/wk: value per unit multiplied by weekly additional recruitment. Not super interesting, used in other calculations.
  
• Soak/value/FP: Damage soaked per value (infirmary space) per 1 FP whil accounting for a weeks worth of recruitment. Cost efficiency for total damage mitigated while filling infirmary space. This is a measure of tankiness/FP, ie. cost effective tanking. Higher is better.

Additional notes:

• Clerics and Paladins have additional Soak (+X) that I've calculated as all of the weekly recruitment casting Lay on Hands - Self twice using an EV of 3.5 for the d6. Because it's a swift action, this is essentially "free" health as long as the unit doesn't take heavy losses.
  
• Mercenaries cost the same as a trainable unit for the first couple weeks, then the cost increases as the crusade progresses. As a result, trainable units should form the backbone of your armies despite mercenaries being somewhat competitive initially. If you have the FP for it though, recruit to your hearts content. (Despite the penalties to trainable units, after the first 40 days trainable units will be more cost effective than recruiting the same unit as a mercenary)
  
• Mercenary costs start at 100% in Act 3 and increase by 33% every 40 days until 200%. Act 5 starts at 200% then increases by 33% every 30 days until 300%. All other mercenary cost modifiers are additive with the base value.

Units part 2 (Recommendations/Analysis)

Infantry:

Champions are the clear highest damage, both from an effective combo of attack and damage per weekly recruitment as well as a high unmodified damage to overcome DR on enemies. Spearmen are the next best choice if aggro is an issue and you're worried about your unit getting one-shot with the low HP and AC on Champions.

Shield Bearers would seem to be the best as a tank unit, with both Conscripts and Houndmasters being similar in terms of their potential to take damage while having better damage output. However, the summoned Hounds have infinite tanking potential, as long as the Houndmasters don't die, because they don't count against your infirmary space, so... ya.

Regardless, infantry have minimal aggro so you want to select for good damage and acceptable survivability unless you're going to have a single unit tank everything and use your general's abilities to kill everything.


Ranged:


Axe Hunters are the strongest by such a large margin due to having 2 attacks as well as the potential to double their damage for one round. The only circumstance in favour of Marksmen is 1 fight in Act 5 where the Fallen Dragons have DR 20/- due to Blur.
Given the slightly lower initiative on Axe Hunters, armies relying on the general's abilities as soon as the first round will need to look for initiative in their cavalry unit.
After Marksmen, all of the other choices are more or less comparable to each other with similar damage outputs and slight variations in initiative/survivability. Just avoid Slingers, they have the lowest damage and die as easily as Marksmen.

Your main ranged unit shouldn't be exposed to attacks anyways, besides blow through/spells/other ranged units, so survivability isn't a huge issue for them. Main consideration is that the stack doesn't die so you can Cure Wounds all the dead back.


Cavalry:

Hedge knights are excellent all around. High initiative, high damage (plus crit chance), decent tankiness. Next best are Raiders, but if you don't have Wenduag, then paladins because they have a swift action heal to give themselves extra survivability and sufficient charisma to take advantage of extra damage from auto-smite (looking at you Hellknights with a charisma mod of 0 making your smite give no benefits).

If you don't use an unmounted Spellcasting unit such as Clerics for your tank, Paladins are the best choice because they have such high aggro as well as becoming trainable, ie. always available. While less tanky than Cuirassiers, the latter have such abysmal damage and such low priority as a target by the AI they fulfill essentially no role besides granting flanking bonuses and body blocking the enemy. Additionally, their DR is ignored by BPS, ie. the most common damage types.

Math and other specific explanations

Damage calculations (weapon attacks):

A single unit has base damage of (XdY + mod). This "mod" is a sum of expected sources such as strength/dexterity, masterwork/enchanted weapons, the Battering Ram skill, but also whatever the ♥♥♥♥ someone felt like, eg. Marksmen sitting here with a +28 mod. Trainable units also take a -2 Attack and a 10% damage penalty, ie. a (1-0.1) = 0.9x base damage multiplier

• Trainable units take 4 penalties: -2 Attack, -10% damage, -2 AC, -10% max HP

Therefore, an archer (ha, they're all trainable) would deal (1d6 + 5)*0.9 damage. A group of N units would deal N*(XdY + mod)*(base multipliers) damage. Damage is rounded down. It's possible to have a unit lose its base mod, roll a 1 and multiply by 0.9 to deal 0 damage for some units in a stack.

Note: Because a die gives a uniform distribution, and because the damage of a stack is a sum of dice rolls, the summed result will tend towards a normal distribution as the number of units in a stack increases. This means that the damage dealt will tend towards the average displayed damage when you hover over potential targets. Just because it says 10-50 enemies killed, you're going to be killing 25-35 with the majority of your attacks.


Base multipliers are usually inherent to a unit/unit type, ie. Trainable units with a 0.9 base damage multiplier, though Shield Wall grants a 1.25 multiplier when not activated.

• Most inherent multipliers can be seen if you inspect the units' stats in a battle. Hidden ones such as Hellknights or Shieldbearers are viewable if you right-click a damage chat message for additional info. This is now stated on the Shield Wall ability description.

The 10% damage buff given by Training Grounds is a damage multiplier that stacks multiplicatively with inherent base multipliers. So, an Archer with 2 Training Grounds adjacent to the Main Archery Range would deal (1d6 + 5) * 0.9 *(1+2*0.1)] = (1d6+5)*1.08 damage.

Notes:

• You have a base damage multiplier. This is usually affected by the penalty to trainable units, though All Out on Axe Hunters gives a +1 to this multiplier. Otherwise, it just equals 1.
  
• Training Grounds are additive with the Shield Wall modifier and their result is multiplicative with the base multiplier.
  
• Most stat rank-up bonuses from council decisions will be multiplicative with all other damage multipliers.
  
• General feats that grants units bonus % damage against certain enemy types (eg. Flying, Large) stack multiplicatively with other sources.
  
• Often, all of the non-Δ (21+Att-AC) multipliers will be combined into a single decimal that is displayed in the combat log.

In addition, the difference between the Attack value of the attacker and the AC value of the defender modifies the damage of a unit, ie. base damage * (21+Attack-AC) * 0.05. Eg. An Archer with no buffs to attack (10, 12-2) or damage (0.9, 1 - 0.1) that is attacking a Vrock (AC 20, ignoring DR for the moment) would deal:
[(1d6 + 5)*0.9] * (21+10-20) * 0.05 = [(1d6 + 5)*0.9]*0.55 damage.

When attacking a unit that has DR that is not bypassed by your unit's weapons, the DR of the target is subtracted from the base damage after bonuses have been applied, ie. [(dice+mods)*(base multipliers)*(other modifiers) - DR] * (21+Attack-AC) * 0.05



Eg.
50 Archers (always "trainable") attack a Vrock (AC 20, DR 5, +2 AC from general) for:

50*[(1d6+5)*0.9 - 5] * [21+10-(20+2)]*0.05 damage.

Expected damage from this attack would therefore be: 50*[2.65]*[9]*0.05 = 59.625 = 59 damage.

(Calculated without DR, the ED would be 172.125).

Test numbers coming out right at the middle of the distribution, noice.




Because DR is applied before the Δ damage multiplier AND affects each attacker in a unit stack, it only matters if the size/number of dice rolled per attack and the base mods (Training Grounds, buffs, Shield Wall, etc...) are bigger than the DR, ie. don't be surprised if Shieldbearers with an expected base damage of 4.5 deal no damage to Derakni with a DR of 5 regardless of the # of units in your stack unless you buff them with damage mods through buildings or other sources.


Resistance (spell attacks):

Spell attacks are thankfully much simpler than weapon attacks.
Resistance is subtracted from the total damage of a spell. It's calculated as (caster # * resistance). Don't forget that some units have resistance and immunity to a damage type, ie. Brimoraks and fire.
Eg. 9 Wizards use Lightning Bolt on some hypothetical unit with Electricity Resist 10 (but not Electricity Immunity), they would deal 9*45*d6 - (9*10) = 405d6-90 damage.
For Generals, their power is used as the "# of casters" when calculating resisted damage.
Eg. A Firebolt with a power of 30 against a Fire Resist of 10 would deal (30^2+5)d6-(30*10) = 905d6-300. Isn't quadratic scaling nice :)

Inflicting Damage:
Once damage is calculated, it is subtracted from the health of a unit. If the damage dealt exceeds a single unit's health, that amount of health is removed from the damage and the remaining damage carries over to the next unit, depleting consecutive units until the last unit only loses a fraction of their health (or the stack dies). Healing units does the inverse, adding health and units until the last unit gets a heal for a fraction of their total health.

Leadership 2-3

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Daeran, Harmattan

The Leadership stat gains experience equal to experience gained by a general. A general's experience gain is equal to the total experience of all non-summoned enemies in a battle. All experience buffs affect the amount of Leadership xp gained.

Level 2

Character	Decision
Seelah	"Seelah, mobilize the priests and the paladins to raise awareness." Glory to the Heroes (repeatable every 30 days, costs nothing) : 5 day Leadership decree for +1d6+4 crusade morale
Regill	"Regill, find the instigators and make an example of them." Hunting Down Mutiny (repeatable every 14 days, costs nothing) : 3 day Leadership decree for +1d10+15 morale, -10% recruitment growth for trainable units, +10% mercenary cost Adjustments are additive with other sources
Daeran	"Daeran, pay the officers and promise that they'll get more if they stop the drain on manpower." Bribes for the Officers (repeatable every 30 days, costs 4k FP) : 5 day Leadership decree for +1d6+14 crusade morale
Harmattan	"Captain Harmattan, issue the privates a pay raise and improved rations." Distributing Provisions (repeatable every 20 days, costs 300 MP) : 4 day Leadership decree for +1d6+9 crusade morale

Recommendations :

Level 3

Character	Decision
Seelah	"Seelah, summon the knights and paladins." Pious Officers : +10% infirmary size to all generals
Regill	"Regill, choose those deserving of promotion among the privates." Striving for Distinction : +10% xp gain for generals Multiplicative with other xp increases.
Daeran	"Daeran, call your bright youths." Promising Officers : +1 Master of Maneuver to all generals Allows a general to reach MoM IV if they were at MoM III before this option was chosen.
Harmattan	"Captain Harmattan, appoint new officers from the ranks of the volunteers." Heroic Officers : +5 combat morale to all units

Recommendations :

Leadership 4-5

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Daeran, Harmattan

Level 4

Character	Decision
Seelah	"Seelah, send the preachers to inspire others to volunteer." 7 day decree for +7% recruitment growth for 20 days (Preachers, repeatable every 20 days, costs nothing)
Regill	"Regill, we'll draft the victims." 7 day decree for +20% recruitment growth for 20 days, -20 crusade morale (Refugees' Recruitment, repeatable every 20 days, costs nothing)
Daeran	"Daeran, convince the volunteers with money." 7 day decree for +1 to available mercenaries for recruitment for 14 days, -20 crusade morale (Generous Recruiters, repeatable every 20 days, costs nothing)
Harmattan	"Captain Harmattan, we'll follow Her Majesty's instructions. Request reinforcements from Mendev." 14 day decree for +10% recruitment growth for 14 days (Refugees' Recruitment, repeatable every 30 days, costs nothing)

Recommendations :

Level 5

Character	Decision
Seelah	"Seelah, see to the construction of the monuments." Monument (1 per Bastion+): +5% combat morale
Regill	"Regill, make sure the gallows are sturdy and tall." Gallows (1 per Bastion+): -3% chance to skip turn due to negative morale
Daeran	"Daeran, arrange for new taverns for soldiers to be opened in Drezen." Tavern (1 per Bastion+): reduces all morale effects by 10% in combat
Harmattan	"Captain Harmattan, give the order to set up a bulletin board." Bulletin board (1 per Bastion+): +2% to combat morale, -2% to chance to skip turn due to negative morale

Recommendations :

Logistics 2-3

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Woljif, Arueshalae, Lann/Wendaug, Dorgelinda

The Logistics stat gains experience based on constructed buildings. If you remove a building, you lose the xp. The amount per building is listed when you hover over the building in the build-list.

• Recruiting Wendaug in Act 5 doesn't seem to open up her options for selection. Her options are therefore mutually exclusive with Lann's.
  
• Arue spoiler: Evil Arue will not rejoin the council even if you recruit her in Act 5
  
• Nenio has an etude to be a participant on the Logistics council, but there doesn't seem to be a way to activate her participation. Unfortunate.

Level 2

Grants a feat applying to certain unit types.

Character	Decision
Woljif	"Woljif, we'll staff our quartermaster service with merchants." Expensive Equipment : +1 attack/AC to trainable units
Arueshalae	"Arueshalae, we'll choose the most honest and responsible people for the job." Ready for Anything : +2 to saving throws for trainable units
Lann	"Lann, our new quartermasters will be veterans." Only the Essentials : +10% max HP for trainable units
Wenduag	"Wenduag, pick the shrewdest, toughest mercenaries you can find." Only the Essentials : +10% max HP for mercenaries
Dorgelinda	"Dorgelinda, recruit those with connections in the capital as quartermasters." Equipment from the State : +1 attack and to all saving throws for mercenaries

Recommendations :

Level 3

Grants a new building. Each building can only be built once in a Bastion, Fortress or in Drezen.

Character	Decision
Woljif	"Woljif, we'll build a market and allow the soldiers to trade supplies." Market : +20 FP income, +1 MP income
Arueshalae	"Arueshalae, we'll ask the priests for help." Shrine : +1 EP income, +10 FP income
Lann	"Lann, it's time for our fighters to learn how to provide for themselves." Salvager's post : +1 MP income, +1 EP income
Wenduag	"Wenduag, let the soldiers fight for supplies." Fighting Pit : +1 initiative to trainable units from adjacent recruitment buildings
Dorgelinda	"Go for it, Dorgelinda. Demand all that you can of Nerosyan." Warehouse : increases income from adjacent buildings: +100 FP income (Inn) or +1 MP income (Supply Center) or +1 EP income (Sanctuary)

Recommendations :

Logistics 4-5

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Woljif, Arueshalae, Lann/Wendaug, Dorgelinda

The Logistics stat gains experience based on constructed buildings. If you remove a building, you lose the xp. The amount per building is listed when you hover over the building in the build-list.

• Recruiting Wendaug in Act 5 doesn't seem to open up her options for selection. Her options are therefore mutually exclusive with Lann's.
  
• Arue spoiler: Evil Arue will not rejoin the council even if you recruit her in Act 5

Level 4

Character	Decision
Woljif	"Woljif, we'll take the leaders of the Fellows under our wing." Favoritism : +33% xp gain to generals Multiplicative with other xp bonuses
Arueshalae	"Arueshalae is right. We'll ask priests to accompany the caravans." FlagLogistics4Favors : +7 EP income It's applied as a direct increase to the income and has no associated, visible kingdom buff. So you get the blueprint name.
Lann	"You're right, Lann. The bandits must be brought to heel." FlagLogistics4Resources : +20 MP income
Wenduag	"Wenduag is right. We'll have mercenaries escort the caravans." FlagLogistics4Mercs : -5% mercenary cost Additive with other cost increases
Dorgelinda	"Dorgelinda, arrange for treasury workers to escort our caravans." Caravan Masters : +15 movement for generals

Recommendations :

Level 5

Character	Decision
Woljif	{"Woljif, we'll hush this up and send the offenders to distant forts. I wish them luck in their 'escape.'" FlagLogistics5FinancesAndMaterialsForRegions : +10 FP income and +1 MP income per controlled region (total: 6 regions Act 3, 10 regions Act 5)
Arueshalae	"Arueshalae, we'll give them a chance to redeem themselves." Demonstration of Mercy : +33% to the effect of positive morale on all resource incomes Multiplies your morale by 1.33 then rounds down when applying it as a multiplier for resource incomes. Eg. 20 morale which would normally give a 1.2 multiplier becomes 1.26
Lann	"Lann, we'll execute the offenders." Salvage : generals gain +1k FP when defeating an army
Wenduag	"Wenduag, we'll execute the offenders." Salvage : generals gain +1k FP when defeating an army
Dorgelinda	"Dorgelinda, send the Fellows to Mendev. They deserve imprisonment, but not the gallows." Demonstration of Loyalty : +5% to all resource incomes Additive with other buffs to incomes such as the repeatable decrees from Diplomacy

Recommendations :

Diplomacy upgrades (2-5)

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Sosiel, Daeran, Lann, Woljif, Konomi, (Galfrey)

The Diplomacy stat gains experience from acquiring resources, either bought or gained otherwise. This can be passive gain from income, defeating an army with the Salvage general ability, selling a constructed building or defeating an army that grants bonus resources. Experience points are doubled if the resources are bought for GP.

• Finance point (FP): 1 xp
  
• Material point (MP): 10 xp
  
• Energy point (EP): 25 xp

Level	Options
2	Income bonuses stack multiplicatively with the morale bonus. High Priest ( Sosiel ): 7 day Diplomacy decree for +20% EP income, -10% FP income for 30 days (Religious Feast, repeatable every 45 days, costs nothing) Parade for commander ( Daeran ): 4 day Diplomacy decree for -7.5% mercenary cost, -25% MP income for 30 days (Commander's Parade, repeatable every 45 days, costs nothing) Mercenary cost decrease is additive with other modifiers Funds for those in need ( Lann ): 3 day Diplomacy decree for +10 (20, if morale < 0) crusade morale (Helping those in Need, repeatable every 10 days, costs 2.5k FP) Royal Council gifts ( Woljif ): 4 day Diplomacy decree for +20% MP income, -10% FP income for 30 days (Bribery, repeatable every 45 days, costs nothing) Parade for Her Majesty ( Konomi ): 7 day Diplomacy decree for +10% FP income for 30 days (Royal Parade, repeatable every 45 days, costs nothing)
3	All unit types are unlocked as mercenaries despite the in-game descriptions Lastwall ( Sosiel ): 12 Inquisitors recruited at Drezen Swordlords ( Daeran ): 15 Duelists recruited at Drezen Numeria ( Lann ): 10 Barbarians recruited at Drezen Varisian ( Woljif ): 15 Rogues recruited at Drezen Isger ( Konomi ): 13 Sorcerers recruited at Drezen
4	Loyal to queen ( Sosiel ): 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 12 Paladins and 20 Duelists (Help from Queen Galfrey, costs 2k FP) Mendev's nobility ( Daeran ): 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 12 Cuirassiers and 20 Marksmen (The Help of the Noble Houses, costs 2.25k FP) No part in politics ( Lann ): 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 35 Light Cavalry and 75 Shield Bearers (People's Help, costs 2.25k FP) Demands to plotters ( Woljif ): 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 15 Hedge Knights and 30 Headhunters (Royal Court's Help, costs 2k FP) Royal Council ( Konomi ): 5 days to recruit 70 Slingers and 100 Conscripts (Royal Council's Help, costs 1k FP) Non-interference (other): +10 crusade morale
5	Andoren supplies not soldiers ( Sosiel ): +6k FP, trainable infantry gain +3% max HP (Andoren Equipment) Andoran help ( Daeran ): 28 Hedge Knights recruited, trainable cavalry gain +3 AC (Excellent Horses) Disapprove of Andoren politics ( Lann ): 45 Rangers recruited, all ranged units can debuff AC and saving throws with a Fortitude save (Isgeri Training) Bugged. No effect on Slingers, Headhunters, Marksmen, Rangers or Axe Hunters Andorens under neutral banners ( Woljif ): 28 Hedge Knights recruited, mercenary units gain +1 to AC and saving throws (Attracted by Fame) Act according to will of Nerosyan ( Konomi ): 10 Cuirassiers, 30 Champions and 30 Marksmen recruited, +20 crusade morale

Diplomacy 2-3

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Sosiel, Daeran, Lann, Woljif, Konomi

The Diplomacy stat gains experience from acquiring resources, either bought or gained otherwise. This can be passive gain from income, defeating an army with the Salvage general ability, selling a constructed building or defeating an army that grants bonus resources. Experience points are doubled if the resources are bought for GP.

• Finance point (FP): 1 xp
  
• Material point (MP): 10 xp
  
• Energy point (EP): 25 xp

Level 2

Income bonuses stack multiplicatively with the morale bonus.

Character	Decision
Sosiel	"Sosiel, invite the High Priest of Nerosyan to the religious festival." Religious Feast (repeatable every 45 days, costs nothing) : 7 day Diplomacy decree for +20% EP income, -10% FP income for 30 days
Daeran	"Daeran, organize a parade in my honor." Commander's Parade (repeatable every 45 days, costs nothing) : 4 day Diplomacy decree for -7.5% mercenary cost, -25% MP income for 30 days Mercenary cost decrease is additive with other modifiers
Lann	"Lann, spend the funds we have to help those in need. It's more important than any parades." Helping those in Need (repeatable every 10 days, costs 2.5k FP): 3 day Diplomacy decree for +10 (+20, if morale < 0) crusade morale
Woljif	"Woljif, see to it that the members of the Royal Council receive our gifts." Bribery (repeatable every 45 days, costs nothing): 4 day Diplomacy decree for +20% MP income, -10% FP income for 30 days
Konomi	"We will hold a parade in Her Majesty's honor." Royal Parade (repeatable every 45 days, costs nothing): 7 day Diplomacy decree for +10% FP income for 30 days

Recommendations :

Level 3

All unit types are unlocked as mercenaries despite the in-game descriptions.

Character	Decision
Sosiel	"Sosiel is right, we will ask Lastwall for help." 12 Inquisitors recruited
Daeran	"Daeran, send delegates to the Swordlords." 15 Duelists recruited
Lann	"Lann, send ambassadors to Numeria." 10 Barbarians recruited
Woljif	"Woljif, we will form an alliance with the Varisian cities." 15 Rogues recruited
Konomi	"Lady Konomi, I'm willing to accept Isger's aid." 13 Sorcerers recruited

Recommendations :

Diplomacy 4-5

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Sosiel, Daeran, Lann, Woljif, Konomi

The Diplomacy stat gains experience from acquiring resources, either bought or gained otherwise. This can be passive gain from income, defeating an army with the Salvage general ability, selling a constructed building or defeating an army that grants bonus resources. Experience points are doubled if the resources are bought for GP.

• Finance point (FP): 1 xp
  
• Material point (MP): 10 xp
  
• Energy point (EP): 25 xp

Level 4

Character	Decision
Sosiel	Sosiel, inform the Queen that we remain loyal to her, but we're being dragged into an intrigue." Help from Queen Galfrey (costs 2k FP) : 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 12 Paladins and 20 Duelists
Daeran	"Daeran, we will support Mendev's nobility." The Help of the Noble Houses (costs 2.25k FP) : 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 12 Cuirassiers and 20 Marksmen
Lann	"Lann, have the address to the people prepared. Let them know that we take no part in politicians' games." People's Help (costs 2.25k FP) : 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 35 Light Cavalry and 75 Shield Bearers
Woljif	"Woljif, demand the plotters in the capital give us good soldiers for not interfering." Royal Court's Help (costs 2k FP) : 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 15 Hedge Knights and 30 Headhunters
Konomi	"Lady Konomi, we will support the Royal Council." Royal Council's Help (costs 1k FP) : 5 days to recruit 70 Slingers and 100 Conscripts
Other	"I won't interfere in their feuds." +10 crusade morale

Recommendations :

Level 5

Character	Decision
Sosiel	"Sosiel, tell the Andorens we will accept their weapons and supplies, but not the soldiers." +6k FP, trainable infantry gain +3% max HP (Andoren Equipment)
Daeran	"Daeran, we will accept Andoran's help." 28 Hedge Knights recruited, trainable cavalry gain +3 AC (Excellent Horses)
Lann	"Lann is right. We will publicly announce that we disapprove of Andoran's politics and refuse their armies." 45 Rangers recruited, all ranged units can debuff AC and saving throws with a Fortitude save (Isgeri Training) Bugged. No effect on Slingers, Headhunters, Marksmen, Rangers or Axe Hunters. Listed as fixed in 2.2.0as. Wasn't functioning in my saves, but they have had weird bugs previously, so still unconfirmed.
Woljif	"Woljif, let the Andorens join us under neutral banners." 28 Hedge Knights recruited, mercenary units gain +1 to AC and saving throws (Attracted by Fame)
Konomi	"Lady Konomi, I will act according to the will of Nerosyan." 10 Cuirassiers, 30 Champions and 30 Marksmen recruited, +20 crusade morale

Recommendations :

Military 2-3

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Greybor, Ulbrig, Wendaug, Odan

Greybor will only join the military council after you have helped him hunt the dragon including fighting it in its lair.

The Military stat gains experience equal to the value of units recruited. It's the slowest one to accumulate, particularly if you advance across the Worldwound with no losses to force you to wait a week for reinforcements. Recruiting units via decrees does not grant xp. Recruiting units via events also does not grant xp.

Level 2

Footmen are upgraded to a new unit that is now recruitable, the rest are added to the mercenary pool.

All Infantry units have low aggro because nothing targets the Infantry tag.

Character	Decision
Seelah	"We'll hold contests and select the most proficient warriors." Champions : high base damage and attack, can crit, very squishy, low aggro (Infantry)
Regill	"We'll put our faith in a tight formation of shield bearers." Shield Bearers : tanky with a bit of DR, terrible damage, low aggro (Infantry) So survivable and cheap, there's even a tactic to just put a stack in the corner and have a mage/ranger general do all the work with abilities.
Greybor	"Let's give the infantry long spears and teach them to fight in a new way." Spearman : good damage and attack, bonus against Large enemies, squishy, low aggro (Infantry)
Ulbrig	"Let's use dogs to reinforce our infantry." Houndmasters : summon hounds, good tankiness, low damage, low aggro (Infantry) Hounds : better damage, less tanky, low aggro (Summoned/no tags); Houndmasters are really just here for the hounds that occupy space and don't count again infirmary space when they die. The Houndmasters are affected by buildings that would buff stats such as Training Grounds. The summoned Hounds are, however, unaffected by building buffs.
Wenduag	(Evil) "Let's drag the criminals out of their dungeons and make infantry of them." Convicts : decrease enemy morale on hit, medicore tankiness, low damage, low aggro (Infantry), negative starting morale Convicts can decrease their own morale on attack. I can't figure out what causes this. Often, their attack just doesn't affect anyone's morale. They may also lose morale when attacked? May be a bugged interaction between Zombies and Convicts both having Terrifiying Appearance. By turning AI on and off in a battle seems to correct the behaviour to affect the enemy, if the Convicts were affecting their own morale.
Odan	"Let's fill our ranks with new recruits." Conscripts : deceptively tanky, low damage, low aggro (Infantry)

Recommendations :
Champions are a great pick because the Infantry have low aggro, so as long as a unit is adjacent to a Spellcasting unit like Clerics or Paladins, their tankiness is a non-issue. Champions are essentially the only Infantry unit that stays relevant in Act 5 because of their high base damage; almost all of the other units have such low base damage they won't be able to get past DR 7/- on high-tier demons. Spearmen are the slightly tankier but with far worse damage replacement to Champions. Though, because getting Greybor usually takes longer than getting the first military council, most players never see this unit and I wouldn't recommend trying to rush the dragon just to get them.

If you instead want a unit that can take a hit, Houndmasters are relatively tanky and have good damage between the Hounds and Masters. Conscripts are an alternative because they take up little infirmary space and have slightly worse damage. If you want full tank, Shieldbearers are the go-to, just know that they won't be dealing damage unless you give them some Training Grounds to buff their base damage so they get past DR on mid-tier demons.

Level 3

After making a decision, a mobile army will spawn far west of Drezen beyond the location where you ambush the Dragon. This army must be defeated before the decree for the following rank-up becomes available. It will head straight to Drezen, so you're fighting it no matter what within a couple days.

Archers are upgraded to a new unit that is now recruitable, the rest are added to the mercenary pool.

All units that are "mildly intelligent" have a preference for Ranged, Spellcasting and Special Forces units. As a consequence, all of these units have very high aggro.

Character	Decision
Seelah	"Our infantry will be covered by rangers." Rangers : high initiative, tanky, low damage, bonus vs. Demons, high aggro (Ranged)
Regill	"I prefer to strengthen the army with snipers." Marksmen : high initiative, high damage, no firing-into-melee penalty, very squishy, high aggro (Ranged) They have the Precise Shot feat to negate melee firing penalties.
Greybor	"Let's hire headhunters." Headhunters : mediocre damage, squishy, counter ranged attacks (sorta combos well with having high aggro), high aggro (Ranged)
Ulbrig	"We'll invite hunters to join our army." Axe Hunters : ridiculous damage, very tanky, can double their damage, high aggro (Ranged) All Out gives a +1 bonus to the damage multiplier that is additive with the base damage multiplier, ie. a trainable axe thrower with 1 training grounds and All Out active would deal : (2d6+34)*(1+1-0.1)*(1.1) = (2d6+34)*2.09 This is approximately equivalent to making 2 attacks in a single action. The AC penalty doesn't take effect until their next turn starts (the buff stays for 1 round, is removed on turn start and the penalty is applied when removed).
Wenduag	(Chaotic) "If bandits will serve us well, let's hire them." Bandits : mediocre damage, double damage on first turn, squishy, high aggro (Ranged)
Odan	"Peasants with slings will be quite enough." Slingers : low damage, squishy, bonus vs. Armored units I guess, high aggro (Ranged)

Recommendations :
Axe Hunters are the uncontested best choice in all aspects besides initiative. At double the damage efficiency of Marksmen and the tankiest Ranged unit, you can't find a better unit. Alternatively, take Marksmen for high initiative and the next best damage, again double the damage of the next best choice, though their low HP makes them very squishy and vulnerable to enemy Ranged and Spellcasting units as well as Blow-Through from your front line.

Next up are Headhunters/Bandits. The former have slightly higher damage turn-to-turn while the latter have double damage on the first turn which can make them a better choice if you want to delete a strong unit early in a single attack.

Rangers and Slingers are just sort of there. The former has slightly better damage and far better tankiness, while the latter is just squishy with very weak damage.

Military 4-5

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Greybor, Ulbrig, Wendaug, Odan

The Military stat gains experience equal to the value of units recruited. It's the slowest one to accumulate, particularly if you advance across the Worldwound with no losses to force you to wait a week for reinforcements. Recruiting units via decrees does not grant xp. Recruiting units via events also does not grant xp.

Level 4

Finally, some usable unit differentiation.

Must defeat the mobile army to the west from Military 3 before the decree becomes available.

Unlocks Spellcasters' Lodges.

Mounted Scouts are upgraded to a new unit that is now recruitable, the rest are added to the mercenary pool.

Cavalry are not targeted besides by a Web attack on spiders, so these units have low aggro unless they have another tag such as Spellcasting.

Character	Decision
Seelah	"I hope the paladins won't let us down." Paladins : high aggro (Spellcasting), swift action self-healing, mediocre damage, auto-smite, squishy* Individually squishy; as a group their total healing offsets their squishiness Any time the paladins attack a target, they will smite it first gaining bonuses from their charisma mod. There is no limit on how many times they can smite.
Regill	"I'll rely on cuirassiers." Cuirassiers : quite tanky, low damage, low aggro (Cavalry)
Greybor	"We'll pay hedge knights as much as it takes." Hedge Knights : good damage, high initiative, chance to crit, mediocre tankiness, low aggro (Cavalry)
Ulbrig	"We'll invite the wolf riders of the Verduran Forest into our army." Wolf Riders : highest trainable initiative, low damage, tanky, low aggro (Cavalry)
Wenduag	"Let the western steppes know we're looking for skilled riders." Raiders : good damage, grant FP on kill, mediocre tankiness, low aggro (Cavalry)
Odan	"Let's rely on light cavalry." Light Cavalry : low damage, squishy, low aggro (Cavalry)

Recommendations :
Paladins are a great choice here because they are your first option for a trainable front line unit with high aggro. While they are squishy individually, as the stack size grows, the healing potential from Lay on Hands will cover all losses and they will be unkillable. They also become additionaly tanky against targets they have hit due to smite bonuses.

Hedge Knights and Raiders are good damage choices. The former because of better initiative and damage, while the latter gives you additional income from units they kill.

Wolf Riders excel at initiative, being the highest value on a trainable unit before other modifiers. (Ulbrig's choice at rank 5 can allow other units to fill the high initiative role).

Cuirassiers seem like they could be a good tank, but their low aggro means everything ignores them unless nothing else is nearby.

Level 5

Storm's Peak will spawn just SE of Lands of Yath. It will be an army with 3 Balors in it.

Activated abilities are swift actions.

Gain a buff that applies to specific unit types.

Character	Decision
Seelah	"I'd prefer to win battles with an aggressive cavalry charge." Charge : trainable cavalry gain a swift action ability granting +1 speed, +20% damage and -2 AC until the start of their next turn The damage bonus is additive with the base damage modifier.
Regill	"We'll fight like the Taldan Phalanx." Charge : trainable infantry gain a swift action ability granting +1 speed, +20% damage and -2 AC until the start of their next turn The damage bonus is additive with the base damage modifier.
Greybor	"We'll let our officers use their initiative in battle." Independence : all cavalry and ranged units gain +2 initiative
Ulbrig	"Let's use the war tricks of old Sarkoris." Cunning Tactics : all infantry and ranged units gain +4 initiative and +2 attack on the first turn
Wenduag	"We'll base our tactics around diversions." Debilitating Poison : all infantry gain a buff causing their attacks to poison enemies, reducing the targets speed to 0 for 1 turn Anything immune to poison is immune to this, ie. every demon and some other units
Odan	"We'll fight in a defensive formation." Tough : all units gain +2 to saving throws against disease and poison

Recommendations :
Cunning tactics, +4 initiative on the first turn, for ranged units, that already have high initiative? This is basically just a free initiative win on the first turn for using a general's abilities and killing a high threat unit. Second up is Independence for +2 on every turn, it's better turn-to-turn, but the importance of nuking a dangerous unit early is far more useful for avoiding damage to your squishy units.

Otherwise, Charge on either cavalry or infantry is useful for the 20% damage buff.

Tough is pretty meh because there aren't a whole lot of really dangerous disease/poison effects and winning initiative allows you to kill those units earlier anyways. Debilitating Poison is incredibly niche because all the dangerous units you want to use it on are immune to poisons.

Post-Vacation (Act 5)

When starting Act 5, mercenary units will cost 2x their base cost, ie. double their cost at the start of Act 3. Reductions from all sources are still additive.


In addition to the crusade active skills from Act 3, you'll gain a few more:

• Replenish: restore 10*mythic rank energy to target general (11 day cooldown)
  
• Mighty Tempest: all units in target enemy army take 18d6*mythic rank physical damage (13 day cooldown)(should be reduced by demon's DR as exceptions are only for BPS)
  
• Call to Arms: add units to target army with a total value of 750*mythic rank (right-click a unit to see its value). Units are randomly selected from those present in the army and their count is increased until the total value is depleted. (15 day cooldown)(doesn't count for Military xp)
  
• A mythic path specific ability
  
• Mass teleportation: moves selected army to target point (18 day cooldown)

During Act 5, there are 3 timers related to mercenaries. Each timer is 30 days long and when the timer expires, the cost of mercenaries is increased by 33% and the next timer is started. Effectively, mercenaries start at 200% base cost (double the cost per unit as trainable) then it increases every 30 days until at 90 days, mercenaries are triple the cost per unit as trainable ones.



Eventually all demon armies stop spawning except for a handful near Iz. Seems to be around Arodus (5 1/2 months after coming back from the Abyss). This is the end of the crusade, your income will eventually hit 0 and your weekly units will also decay to 0; mercenary recruitment amounts are unaffected by crusade morale, but their cost will increase continuously. Consider this the game's warning that you should be finishing soon.

Odd bug I've found, pretty sure it's specific to the end of your allies' interventions when playing the Legend path. You gain 2 buffs: Universal Mastery which does a couple things but among them doubles the effect of positive morale for units taking a second turn as well as Heroes Will Not Be Forgotten which also doubles the effect of positive morale. When crusade morale decays to -100%, units actually have -300 unit morale in battle, I assume because those 2 doubling effects are additive and effect negative morale accidentally. Despite this negative morale, those units take 1 turn as normal with no other effects. Maybe the calculation for skipping a turn just can't account for less than -100 unit morale? Who knows.

Leadership 6-7

Upgrades available during Act 5.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Daeran, Harmattan

Level 6

Character	Decision
Seelah	"Seelah, we will reach out to the soldiers and appeal to their conscience." Charismatic : generals grant +15 combat morale to units at start of battle.
Regill	"Regill, executing the traitors is your personal responsibility." Decimation : generals grant +3 combat morale to a unit when it's damaged.
Daeran	"Daeran, we will neutralize the leaders and pay their successors for their loyalty." Bloodthirsty Officers : generals grant -15 combat morale to enemy units at start of battle.
Harmattan	"Captain Harmattan, I am ready to parley with the Wary." -25 crusade morale
Other	"I'll do this my way. We'll surround their forces, cut off their supply routes, and maintain the blockade until they give in." Test of Strength : generals grant +1 combat morale to a unit at the start of their turn. Additional turns from high morale don't count.

Recommendations :

Charismatic is best because the bonus is so high. Test of Strength requires a unit to take 15 turns just to be of equal value, and every turn before that was of lesser value when battles usually take 1-4 turns to decide the outcome. In a similar vein, Decimation requires a unit to get hit 5 times to be as strong which means it probably won't benefit your squishy back line as they will be avoiding damage. Bloodthirsty officers isn't bad, but negative morale doesn't scale linearly, so enemies have less than a 15% chance to lose a turn vs. Charistmatic which gives your units a +15% chance to act again.

Charismatic > Bloodthirsty Officers > whatever

Level 7

Character	Decision
Seelah	"Seelah, your advice is sound. Tell them to send us holy relics." Relic Keeper (feat) : generals gain +15 power at level 20
Regill	"Regill, you're right. Tell them to send us their knowledge of warfare." Brilliant Strategist (feat) : generals grant +15% damage to all ranged and infantry units Bonus is additive with base multipliers
Daeran	"Daeran, I like your suggestion. Tell the nobles to send their offspring." Noble Recruits (feat) : generals grantain +20% damage to all cavalry and grand tier units Bonus is multiplicative with base multipliers
Harmattan	"Captain Harmattan, I agree with you. Tell them to send money and resources." +100 FP income, +5 MP income, +4 EP income (FlagLeadership7Resources KingdomBuff)

Recommendations :

Leadership 8

Upgrades available during Act 5.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Daeran, Sir Thommis

Level 8

Character	Decision
Seelah	"Seelah, we'll greet our guests with a celebration." Feast of the Sacred Host (repeatable every 23 days, costs 750 FP & 50 MP): 7 day Leadership decree for +25% to generals' infirmary size for 30 days (+1 Heavenly Ward feat)
Regill	"Regill, lure Harmattan into a trap and execute him before the ranks." Unlocks a feat and a decree. Tactical Superiority (feat): +20% damage to a specific unit type; ranged->infantry, infantry->cavalry, cavalry->ranged (rock paper scissors) (Leadership8TriangleDamage). The bonus is multiplicative with all other multipliers; it displays separately in expanded damage info. Military Exercise (repeatable every 10 days, costs 500 FP): 5 day Leadership decree for +50k xp to all generals
Daeran	"Daeran, reach out to your contacts and make them eliminate Harmattan in Nerosyan." Dark Bonds (repeatable every 30 days, costs 100 EP) : 7 day decree Leadership for +3 Power to all generals (+1 Mighty Servant feat) The highest rank in the game files is Mighty Servant VI for +18 power after 6 months. (Leadership8Power6 LeaderSkill)
Sir Thommis	"Sir Thommis, I will listen to your advice. We'll greet the army with a memorial service." Great Commemoration (repeatable every 30 days, costs 40k FP) : 7 day Leadership decree to recruit a random army at Drezen Pulls from specific list of presets. Reloading to a save before the decree completes and advancing past midnight will generate a new army. 100 Paladins, 35 Warpriests, 200 Clerics, 400 Champions (Leadership8Army1) 100 Hedge Knights, 200 Headhunters, 20 Dragonslayers, 400 Spearmen (Leadership8Army2) 300 Light Cavalry, 1250 Conscripts, 500 Slingers, 25 Bards (Leadership8Army3) 100 Cuirassiers, 600 Shield Bearers, 300 Rangers, 10 Honor Guards (Leadership8Army4) 150 Barbarians, 12 Bloodragers, 200 Sorcerers, 25 Witches (Leadership8Army5)

Recommendations :

Logistics 6-7

Upgrades available during Act 5.
Advisors: Woljif, Arueshalae, Lann/Wendaug, Dorgelinda

The Logistics stat gains experience based on constructed buildings. If you remove a building, you lose the xp. The amount per building is listed when you hover over the building in the build-list.

• Recruiting Wendaug in Act 5 doesn't seem to open up her options for selection. Her options are therefore mutually exclusive with Lann's.
  
• Arue spoiler: Evil Arue will not rejoin the council even if you recruit her in Act 5
  
• Nenio has an etude to be a participant on the Logistics council, but there doesn't seem to be a way to activate her participation. Unfortunate.

Level 6

Character	Decision
Woljif	"All right, Woljif, go ahead with your scheme." Tricky Steal (30 day cooldown, no cost) : 14 day Logistics decree for +10% FP (max 10k)
Arueshalae	"Arueshalae, we'll limit ourselves to abandoned property." Acquiring Unclaimed Property (30 day cooldown, no cost) : 14 day Logistics decree for +750 MP
Lann	"Lann, we'll do as you say. Our available resources will be traded on the black market." Grants 2 decress that allow trading of FP and MP for the other resource Distribution of Trophies (1 day cooldown, costs 1k FP) : 6 day Logistics decree for +220 MP Selling Excesses (1 day cooldown, costs 100 MP) : 7 day Logistics decree for +2250 FP
Wenduag	"You're right, Wenduag. We're grabbing everything we can." Warehouse Raiding (1 use, no cost) : 30 day Logistics decree for 10k FP, 600 MP & 65 EP
Dorgelinda	"Dorgelinda, I give you free rein. Procure everything you can." Corruption (16 day cooldown, no cost) : 14 day Logistics decree for +120 FP income, +10 MP income, +2 EP income for 16 days
Other	"We will take no part in the plundering of Mendev. This meeting is over." (Lawful) +10 crusade morale Increments the FlagLogistics6Bonus Flag to 1 Interestingly, the dialogue line is tagged as "Devil2_4".

Recommendations :

Level 7

Adds a buff that affects certain types of recruitment.

• Reminder: fractional unit recruitment, ie. 7.4 units, after modifiers, rounds to the nearest integer, ie. 7 units added to total recruitment.
  
• All buffs are additive with Garrison buildings and other recruitment buffs.

Character	Decision
Woljif	"Woljif, we'll feed the strongest fighters first. The rest get half rations." Meritocracy : +30% recruitment growth for "Spellcasting" and Grand Tier units, -20% growth for Infantry and Ranged By "Spellcasting", I mean units from the Spellcaster's Lodge despite half of those units not actually being spellcasters.
Arueshalae	"Arueshalae, we'll feed the weaker ones first." Strength Is Responsibility : +30% recruitment growth for Infantry and Ranged, -20% growth for "Spellcasting" and Grand Tier units
Lann	"Lann, tell the soldiers that we have trials and scarcity ahead of us. Let only those who are most loyal to the Crusade remain." Holy War : +25% to recruitment growth of mythic units, -15% to growth of trainable units Affects mythic units recruited via decrees. Due to rounding down, the decree must recruit at least 4 of a unit to gain an additional unit from this increase. Does not affect mythic units recruited via events. Is NOT multiplicative with crusade morale for units from decrees .
Wenduag	"Wenduag, the mercenaries will be the first we feed." Paid Loyalty : +2 slots to available Mercenary units, -15% growth for all trainable units
Dorgelinda	"Dorgelinda, your decision seems the most reasonable. We'll cut rations for everyone, save some of the food for storage, and spread propaganda amongst the troops." Propaganda Instead of Bread : +10% to growth of trainable units
Other	"I'll do this my way. Nobody is going into battle on an empty stomach. Everyone gets the same food as before. We'll get through this somehow." (Good) +10 crusade morale Increments the FlagLogistics7Bonus Flag to 1 Again that "Devil2_4". Curious.

Recommendations :

Logistics 8

Upgrades available during Act 5.
Advisors: Woljif, Arueshalae, Lann/Wendaug, Dorgelinda

The Logistics stat gains experience based on constructed buildings. If you remove a building, you lose the xp. The amount per building is listed when you hover over the building in the build-list.

• Recruiting Wendaug in Act 5 doesn't seem to open up her options for selection. Her options are therefore mutually exclusive with Lann's.
  
• Arue spoiler: Evil Arue will not rejoin the council even if you recruit her in Act 5
  
• Nenio has an etude to be a participant on the Logistics council, but there doesn't seem to be a way to activate her participation. Unfortunate.

Level 8

If you listened to any of your advisors during the 6 and 7 rank-ups, you will receive a 30 day Logistics decree for +15k FP, +1k MP, -35 crusade morale (Requisitions, repeatable every 30 days, no cost).
You must complete the decree to trigger the actual rank-up for level 8. Once completed, you must then return to the citadel for the rank-up; there is no report informing you to return once the decree has finished.

If you didn't plunder AND maintained rations, ie. got both Bonus flags, you will immediately be able to rank up as well as receiving a 15 day Logistics decree for +5k FP, +500 MP, +200 EP, +20 crusade morale (Donations, repeatable every 15 days, no cost). You can set the flags with toybox and skip a day to get the improved rank-up. If you set both Bonus flags after having the xp for rank 8, you'll get the rank-up card for both "paths".

Only 1 of any building can be built. Buildings are Drezen only.

Character	Decision
Woljif	"Woljif, we'll staff our quartermaster service with merchants." Palace: +25% to FP, MP & EP income Additive with the Demonstration of Loyalty buff from rank 5 Logistics.
Arueshalae	"Arueshalae, we'll choose the most honest and responsible people for the job." Spiritual Garden: +25 combat morale to all units, +50% to generals' energy recovery, +20% recruitment growth for Mythic units Energy recovery is multiplicative with normal recovery amounts, ie. only first Alchemist's Lab counts, ignores Magical Reserves, etc... Recruitment growth is additive with the Holy War buff from rank 7.
Lann	"Lann, our new quartermasters will be veterans." Stronghold: +25% to recruitment growth of trainable units Additive.
Wenduag	"Wenduag, pick the shrewdest, toughest mercenaries you can find." Stronghold: -12.5% to cost of recruiting mercenaries Additive.
Dorgelinda	"Dorgelinda, recruit those with connections in the capital as quartermasters." Cathedral: all units gain +15% Max HP, +3 attack & +3 AC as well as +10% damage against demons Damage multiplier is listed separate from all others. Is multiplicative with all others as well.

Recommendations :

Diplomacy upgrades (6-8)

Upgrades available during Act 5.
Advisors: Sosiel, Daeran, Lann, Woljif, Konomi, (Galfrey)

Level	Options
6	Church intervenes ( Sosiel ): Holy Relic (Robe of Angelic Prudence: +4 to Char and Wis; cast Greater Angelic Aspect as a lvl 20 cleric) Support rebellious nobles ( Daeran ): Family Heirloom (Cloak of Astounding Prowess: cloak of resist +5; on killing blow, all enemies w/in 15ft blind for 4 rounds (Will DC=32) Mendevian generals to capital ( Lann ): Powerful Relic Armour (Overlord's Chainmail: mithral +5 chainmail; +7 insight bonus for intimidation) River Kingdoms send help ( Woljif ): Masterpiece from distant land (Elixir of Inconceivable Transmutations of Body, and Soul, and Also Mind: +2 bonus to all ability scores) Support Royal Council ( Konomi ): Relic from Treasury (Goggles of Quick Grasp: +15 competence bonus to Persuasion skill checks as well as ALL Lore and Knowledge checks) Nerosyan's concerns are not mine ( Other ): 10 day decree for +7 Power to all generals, 100k FP, 10k MP, 4k EP (Declaring Independence, no cost); Diplomacy council ends If you end the council and declare independence, your diplomacy has a new max rank of 6 and you can still get the ending slides for maxing all crusade stats.
7	Summon foreign delegates ( Sosiel ): +10 Power to generals (Excellent Advisors) Call to nobles of Mendev ( Daeran ): +15% recruitment growth for each captured region (New Lands for the Nobility) Calculated dynamically. 10 total regions possible. Call to arms among the people ( Lann ; Andoran): unlocks mercenary unit for, and recruits 6 Mendevian Cavaliers Approve of Andoran ( Woljif , Andoran): unlocks mercenary unit for, and recruits 4 Golden Legionnaires Send reinforcements to Mendevian cities ( Konomi ): 0 recruitment growth for 2 weeks, afterwards all trainable units gain +20 combat morale (Best Sons of Mendev)
8	Offer prayers to gods ( Sosiel ): 4 day decree to unlock a new spell for generals (Glorification of the Gods, costs 10 EP); Judgement day: 60 energy, d6*Power magic damage to all enemy units, d6*Power healing to allied units Tax of the righteous ( Daeran ): 3 day decree to reduce building construction costs by 50% (Tax of the Righteous, costs 100 MP) (overrides Engineer's Workshop, costs set to 50% round down) Elections for Royal Council ( Lann ): 5 day decree to reduce mercenary recruitment costs by 10% (Elections of the Royal Council, costs 2k FP) Equal rights to tieflings ( Woljif ): 4 day Diplomacy decree to increase mythic (grand tier actually) recruitment growth by 15% (additive), +5 EP income (Tieflings' Rights, costs 1.5k FP) Military mobilization of Mendev ( Konomi ): 3 day decree to reduce trainable unit costs by 10% (Mobilization, costs 1k FP & 100 MP) Incorrectly applies to only trainable units that have the Mercenary tag, eg. Knights of Ozem, Hedge Knights Foreign nobles join Mendev's aristocracy ( Galfrey ): 7 day decree to recruit 30 Mendevian Cavaliers & 60 Warpriests (New Nobility, costs 1k FP)

Diplomacy 6-7

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Sosiel, Daeran, Lann, Woljif, Konomi

The Diplomacy stat gains experience from acquiring resources, either bought or gained otherwise. This can be passive gain from income, defeating an army with the Salvage general ability, selling a constructed building or defeating an army that grants bonus resources. Experience points are doubled if the resources are bought for GP.

• Finance point (FP): 1 xp
  
• Material point (MP): 10 xp
  
• Energy point (EP): 25 xp

Level 6

Income bonuses stack multiplicatively with the morale bonus.

Character	Decision
Sosiel	"Sosiel, invite the High Priest of Nerosyan to the religious festival." Robe of Angelic Prudence: +4 to Char and Wis; cast Greater Angelic Aspect as a lvl 20 cleric
Daeran	"Daeran, organize a parade in my honor." Cloak of Astounding Prowess : cloak of resist +5; on killing blow, all enemies w/in 15ft blind for 4 rounds (Will DC=32)
Lann	"Lann, spend the funds we have to help those in need. It's more important than any parades." Overlord's Chainmail : mithral +5 chainmail; +7 insight bonus for intimidation
Woljif	"Woljif, see to it that the members of the Royal Council receive our gifts." Elixir of Inconceivable Transmutations of Body, and Soul, and Also Mind: +2 bonus to all ability scores Doesn't stack with all of the +2 stat tomes.
Konomi	"We will hold a parade in Her Majesty's honor." Goggles of Quick Grasp: +15 competence bonus to Persuasion skill checks as well as ALL Lore and Knowledge checks
Other	"We will hold a parade in Her Majesty's honor." Declaring Independence (no cost): 10 day ???? decree for +7 Power to all generals, 100k FP, 10k MP, 4k EP (); Diplomacy council ends If you end the council and declare independence, your diplomacy has a new max rank of 6 and you can still get the ending slides for maxing all crusade stats.

Recommendations :

• Call to arms among the people (Lann; Andoran): unlocks mercenary unit for, and recruits 6 Mendevian Cavaliers
  
• Approve of Andoran (Woljif, Andoran): unlocks mercenary unit for, and recruits 4 Golden Legionnaires
  
  
  

  Level 7

  
  All unit types are unlocked as mercenaries despite the in-game descriptions.
  
  

  Character	Decision
  Sosiel	"Sosiel is right, we will ask Lastwall for help." Excellent Advisors : +10 Power to generals
  Daeran	"Daeran, send delegates to the Swordlords." New Lands for the Nobility : +15% recruitment growth for each captured region Calculated dynamically. 10 total regions possible.
  Lann	"Lann, send ambassadors to Numeria." 10 Barbarians recruited
  Woljif	"Woljif, we will form an alliance with the Varisian cities." 15 Rogues recruited
  Konomi	"Lady Konomi, I'm willing to accept Isger's aid." Best Sons of Mendev : 0 recruitment growth for 2 weeks, afterwards all trainable units gain +20 combat morale

  
  Recommendations :
  

Diplomacy 8

Upgrades available during Act 5.
Advisors: Sosiel, Daeran, Lann, Woljif, Konomi, (Galfrey)

The Diplomacy stat gains experience from acquiring resources, either bought or gained otherwise. This can be passive gain from income, defeating an army with the Salvage general ability, selling a constructed building or defeating an army that grants bonus resources. Experience points are doubled if the resources are bought for GP.

• Finance point (FP): 1 xp
  
• Material point (MP): 10 xp
  
• Energy point (EP): 25 xp

Level 8

Character	Decision
Sosiel	"Sosiel, we will urge Mendevians to offer their prayers to the gods." 4 day decree to unlock a new spell for generals (Glorification of the Gods, costs 10 EP); Judgement day: 60 energy, d6*Power magic damage to all enemy units, d6*Power healing to allied units
Daeran	"Daeran, go ahead and impose your 'tax of the righteous'." 3 day decree to reduce building construction costs by 50% (Tax of the Righteous, costs 100 MP) (overrides Engineer's Workshop, costs set to 50% round down)
Lann	"Lann, we will hold elections for the members of the Royal Council." 5 day decree to reduce mercenary recruitment costs by 10% (Elections of the Royal Council, costs 2k FP) Seems to be bugged. Can't find any effect.
Woljif	"Congratulations, Woljif. Tieflings will be granted equal rights." 4 day Diplomacy decree to increase mythic (Grand Tier actually) recruitment growth by 15% (additive), +5 EP income (Tieflings' Rights, costs 1.5k FP)
Konomi	"Lady Konomi, send word to the capital that military mobilization has been ordered." 3 day decree to reduce trainable unit costs by 10% (Mobilization, costs 1k FP & 100 MP) Only seems to affect Cavalry trainable units (Hedge Knights tested). No effect on Conscripts, Marksmen, Warpriests or Hardened Veterans.
Galfrey	"Her Majesty is right. We will invite foreign nobles to become Mendev's new aristocracy." 7 day decree to recruit 30 Mendevian Cavaliers & 60 Warpriests (New Nobility, costs 1k FP)

Recommendations :

Military 6-7

Upgrades available during Act 5.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Greybor, Ulbrig, Wendaug, Odan

Recruiting Wendaug in Act 5 doesn't open up her options for selection.

Level 6

Character	Decision
Seelah	"Have the warpriests join our ranks." Warpriests : dispel, high aggro (Spellcasting), squishy, some healing
Regill	"Monks can handle demonic magic." Monks : tanky, mediocre damage, low aggro (Infantry)
Greybor	"We'll call upon the Daggermark Poisoners' Guild for help." Assassins : high damage, teleport, high aggro (Special Forces), squishy
Wenduag	"We'll invite witches into our army." Witches : dispel, high aggro (Spellcasting), squishy
Ulbrig	"We'll ask the druids of the Verduran Forest to aid us." Druids : healing, able to buff AC, high aggro (Spellcasting), decently tanky
Odan	"Bards will inspire our warriors." Bards : buff nearby allies (action), high aggro (Spellcasting), squishy

Recommendations :
Warpriests are the best choice here as they are sort of the big sister unit to clerics, but they're now trainable. Fulfilling the front line, high aggro role with access to dispel (removes things like Unholy Aura or Charm) and an emergency heal while having decent base stats makes these incredibly useful. Witches are sort of a vague second in that they have access to dispel and if you field very few of them, they can eat a hit while taking up little infirmary space.

Assassins otherwise for their damage that can hit almost any target because they teleport on every attack. However, they are a high aggro unit that will now be the closest target to most of the enemy if they are used to attack the back line. So, use judiciously if you don't want to constantly replace your stack.

Level 7

• Requires the defeat of Khorramzadeh's army near Leper's smile to gain the rank-up decree.
  
• Seelah, Regill, Greybor and Ulbrig's abilities are swift actions; Odan's is a standard action.
  
• No save for abilities despite a listed DC.
  
• Enemies with immunity to mind-affecting effects are evidently unaffected by the mind-affecting abilities.

Character	Decision
Seelah	"Seelah, explain to the cavalry's officers what we expect from them." Contain the Enemy : all cavalry gain an ability(1/turn) that reduces the target's speed to 0 for 1 round on melee attack Gaining an extra turn from high morale maintains the buff for the additional attack.
Regill	"Regill, brief the infantry's officers." Bait : 1/battle, trainable infantry gain a mind-affecting ability that causes enemies in a 3x3 area (centred on the infantry) to target and attack them for 1 turn
Greybor	"Greybor, put your clever tactic into action." Taunt : 1/battle, trainable cavalry gain a mind-affecting ability that causes an enemy unit to move and attack only them for 3 turns Stops units with abilities from doing anything but move + attack. If the unit does not have enough movement to reach their target, they will move up to their speed, then end turn without attacking other potential targets. If the source is unreachable, the unit takes the Total Defense action. If a demon can teleport, it will do so as its movement while taunted.
Wenduag	"Wenduag, see to it that our ranged troops receive additional training." Harassing Shooting : all ranged units gain a mind-affecting ability to pull non-Large enemies 2 squares towards themselves It's bugged. The ability can't target any unit and has no effect when targeting a point.
Ulbrig	"Ulbrig, let's employ your tactic of wearing them down." Contain the Enemy : all infantry gain an ability(1/turn) that reduces the target's speed to 0 for 1 round on melee attack Same thing Seelah gives, but for infantry instead of cavalry. Gaining an extra turn from high morale maintains the buff for the additional attack.
Odan	"Captain Odan, I am taking your suggestion." Juicy Target : trainable infantry gain a mind-affecting ability that causes all enemy ranged units to attack them for 1 round Can only affect a given unit once per battle despite being usable every turn. If you use it twice due to Tactician or high morale, you will remove the debuff from the enemy unit.

Recommendations :
Greybor's taunt for cavalry is probably the most useful as it can shut down ranged units and other dangerous/hard to reach units by forcing them to come to you. If you're feeling ambitious, it's even possible to arrange your units to force the enemy to follow a labyrinthine path to reach your cavalry who are at the other end of the battlefield killing someone else, or to hide your cavalry in a corner and the taunted unit will take the Total Defense action until it wears off.

2nd place to Seelah/Ulbrig with Contain the Enemy. It can allow a tankier unit to lock down a target and force it to trade melee attacks because it doesn't have the movement to reach a more preferred target.

Bait can be useful but it requires you to place an infantry unit in the middle of the enemy units which can be difficult with low initiative/low speed. Likewise, Juicy Target requires your infantry unit to act before a ranged unit when infantry generally have low initiative.

Military 8

Level 8

If you speak to Odan in the courtyard after rank up, you can recruit him as a level 15 Ranger general. He has pretty good skill choices and a chance for MoM IV (if you took Daeran's option for +1 MoM earlier in Leadership). Unfortunately he has 0 xp so you'll have some difficulty getting him to any higher level (especially given that this stat will only reach level 8 after you've probably cleared every army and won't have much need for recruiting.

Hardened Veterans are upgraded to a different unit that is now recruitable

Character	Decision
Seelah	"We could do with Lastwall's aid." Knights of Ozem : tanky, high aggro (Spellcasting), low damage, emergency heal Technically they have bonuses against undead, but you'll get them at a point where you have maybe 1 undead army left, so they aren't notable.
Regill	"Send a letter to the Esoterium Lodge." Arcanists : bit of AoE, good single target damage, high aggro (Spellcasting), squishy Yay, you finally have a trainable damage-oriented Spellcasting unit.
Greybor	"Send generous gifts to the dragonslayers' guild." Dragonslayers : good damage, high aggro (Ranged), squishy
Wenduag	"We'll request the help of the Hold of Belkzen." Bloodragers : mediocre damage, but an ability to make them cleave nearby units, squishy, low aggro (Infantry)
Ulbrig	"Ulbrig, summon the shifters." Shifters : good damage (Tiger), built in control via Tiger Form, squishy, low aggro (Infantry) Tiger Form kinda wild. Wolverine/Boar not so much, but Tiger absolutely slaps. They attack with their full Attack and Damage mods, but because of Shifter bonuses they get a large increase to their damage mod on top of having more attacks when shifted than when unshifted. Tiger Form has an ability called Grabber that reduces a struck enemy's speed to 0, gives them -2 AC and denies them the use of abilities (unconfirmed if functioning).
Odan	"We'll ask Molthune for troops." Honor Guards : buffs allies(automatic), low damage, squishy, high aggro (Special Forces) These are here for the buffs. +3 Attack and AC to nearby units as well as a +10 stacking morale bonus every turn. Eventually, every unit near them will take 2 turns.

Recommendations :
Dragonslayers are a great pick because they add onto the existing Ranged meta. With Bloodragers being a cool pick with good damage if you want a melee unit.

Otherwise, Shifters and Honor Guards actually have cool abilities, while Arcanists and Knights of Ozem are sort of just a tiered-up Sorcerer/Paladin respectively.

Conclusion or smthg

Various notes and general mechanics for crusade mode

If your army has a Strength (number in the shield above a selected army) that is greater than an enemy army's Strength by 2 or more, you are given additional options when an army reaches yours.

• Let them flee: auto win with no losses that you can either "Accept" as is or "Fight the Battle" manually, grants xp to your general and triggers other casualty related effects such as Lich recruitment if accepted
  
• Pursue: manual battle as usual

Army movement regeneration, decree advancement and most other crusade advancements occur at midnight (0:00), this also includes demon army spawn/advancement. Exceptions are weekly recruitment refills at 7:00 every 7 days. Returning to the world map at night can have demon armies advance as early as 17h.

Random encounters while your main party is traveling on the world map occur every 6 hours of traveling.

Clicking a destination and ordering an army to move makes the move animation faster than choosing to continue a movement from a previous day if you are in army mode(red banner at the top). If you are in crusade mode (able to view decrees and events), movement is at full speed. Movements that exceed available movement are not automatically continued when the army has movement points available; you must select the army and order it to move each day.

Time continues when controlling your adventuring party. This will become relevant post-Drezen when mobile demon armies will advance when you return to the world map from a node.

Generals have an Attack and Defense stat; the stats are the sum of their skills that grant passive increases to attack and AC. They are added to the attack and AC of a unit when attacks or defends.

Most ranged units take a -4 attack penalty when you have a unit adjacent to their target. Pay attention to turn order to avoid imposing penalties on your own units.

The game will only auto-pause while your party is traveling on the world map when certain events take place, a demon army moving mainly. For general stuff it will continue. Remember to pause your party's movement and move your armies when their movement is refreshed.

Flanking is about adjacency, not the actual target of attacks. Position well to gain flanking bonuses, but attack whichever units minimizes damage and CC that your units will suffer.

When the speed of a unit is sufficiently large, the square that your unit will move to will be indicated by a crosshair and the unit they will attack will be indicated by the sword.

Hard binds:

• "W" : wait turn until end of round. Waiting units will take their turns at the end of combat in reverse initiative order (lowest to highest).
  
• "A" : let the AI play out the rest of the battle, press again to resume control. Stopping the AI during a friendly units turn then resuming it will skip the turn of your current unit.
  
• "Spacebar" : unit takes the Total Defense action (+4 AC, end turn)

Crusade card events are not removed from the pool of possible events until you have resolved the event. It's therefore possible to wait on an event until it appears multiple times in your hand, then complete either the same or different outcomes. It is possible to complete different outcomes on the same turn, it's also possible to complete the same outcome twice on a turn for stat-type rewards. For outcomes that trigger follow-up decrees, the event is considered completed and a 2nd decree will not become available from the event's outcome. Completing the same outcome twice in a day for a follow-up decree will only spawn 1 decree. Completing the 2nd event after the first has spawned a decree will not grant a 2nd one either. Completing the event for 2 different decrees is possible though.

Finance, material and energy points are multiplied by (1 + [crusade morale/100] ) rounded to closest whole number. Crusade morale affects recruitment as a global multiplier that rounds down. If you have 10 base unit recruitment with +200% from buildings, you would have 30 added to your recruitment pool that week. If you have -90 crusade morale, you would instead recruit 3. -100 is a halt on everything. Recruitment and resources are affected dynamically by the multiplier.
Mercenary unit recruitment costs are affected by negative crusade morale but not by positive values. The effect is not dynamic, it only affects the cost when new mercenaries become available, either at weekly reset or when searching for new mercenaries. It's non-linear, mercenaries are expensive as ♥♥♥♥ as your morale decreases. Clerics cost 8x more comparing >=0 morale to -100 morale cost.

Crusade morale adjustments each day are additive, +40 and -5 will result in +35, even if you were at -100 before. Morale changes take place before Resources points are granted (eg. having -10 morale and having a decree that gives +30 complete at midnight for a new day will adjust you to +20 then you will receive all 3 resources with a 1.2x multiplier)

Your crusade morale is increased 1% each day for the number of banners currently green or yellow and decreases 3% for each red banner. Yellow banners seem to count correctly only for the first day they turn yellow, then they grant no benefit nor drawback (0%). See the banners top left of the UI for descriptions of what changes their status from green to red.
It is worth noting that fulfilling the conditions for the "kill armies" Banner of Victories and "capture forts" Banner of Conquest, will add days to their counters (on PC, on console it resets their timers) meaning you can clear the whole map of forts then skip 140 days (in Act 5)before your Banner of Conquest would start decaying, ie. you don't need to worry about micromanaging those banners. Evidently, clear sieged forts for the Banner of Defense.
Special note, mobile/moving armies do not count towards the Banner of Victories and will not add additional days, so you do have a soft cap on how long you can spend in Act 3 before crusade losses will no longer be replenishable.

Additionally, your crusade morale is added to your unit morale during battles. Unit morale is the percentage chance to take an additional turn immediately following the current one, ie. 100% morale always takes 2 consecutive turns. However, negative morale will not skip all turns at -100%. Negative morale has a chance to cause the Panic effect: unit skips its turn or the Fear effect (1 turn): unit flees from source of negative morale

• If you fear a unit with teleport, they teleport to the opposite side of the map from the unit that caused the negative morale.

If you don't like the skill bar on a general, click the arrow next to it and drag-n-drop the skills you want in the order you want. (I think the ability to drag n' drop to reorder skills on generals was patched out and you now need to select from their pop-out menu).

Friendly generals can friendly fire your units with their offensive abilities. (ish, Fireball has FF as does Ice Storm, but the Fighter general stun doesn't. It's a mix depending on the ability.)

The game does seem to actually generate random numbers for all dice. This includes when you roll over 25k dice due to a bug. No lag noted.

If you finish a battle with a general's ability, don't attack a remaining summoned unit with the currently selected unit. High chance to crash your game.

Mechanical clarifications and bugs

Power stat on generals doesn't include buffs to specific Spell Descriptors such as Siege Mastery or Arcane Magic (predictably) but it also doesn't include buffs from Halls of Strategy. When using Spells and Siege abilities on enemies, the listed damage range uses only the base Power and the enemy's resistance/DR to calculate the damage range.

• Eg. listed damage range was 1481-13283 when the actual range was 2549-20392
  
• Knowledge of the Chosen Ones is actually included in base power though

Infirmary bonuses are additive from all sources and multiplied with the base infirmary for a general.

Battering Ram Attack increases the units damage by 1 for every 2 movement used. (Helps overcome DR, wink wink.)

Enemy DoTs (Freezing on Water elementals for example) are calculated dynamically. Killing the source unit reduces the damage to 0 (actual minimum is 1, rounding? idk).

Armies that have a general with Master of Maneuver added and are quicksaved back to a previous save without a general will retain the increase to the maximum number of units in the army.

Similarly, if you quickload back to a save after having passed 0:00 and a demon army had spawned, the army will spawn on quickload before midnight.

Witches: Agony and Infected Wounds (ignores Disease immunity on enemies) are Fortitude saving throws (DC 10 + Cha), Misfortune is a Will saving throw (DC 10 + Cha). Infected Wounds ignores Disease immunity on enemies. Misfortune doesn't cause the -3 to attack, it will only cause a unit to reroll saving throws (3 times instead of 2) taking the lowest result; it has no effect on the attack rolls. Agony just lasts 1 round if the initial save is failed. Amusingly, a 2nd save is attempted at the start of the Witch's next turn, but the debuff wears off regardless of a failed save.

Shield Wall: Units who possess this ability gain an inherent +4 Attack, -4 AC, +1.25 damage multiplier (additive with bonuses from Training Grounds). When the ability is toggled on, a -4 Attack, +4 AC and -1.2 damage multiplier is applied, effectively canceling out the bonuses. If you look at the stats in the Unit guide, they will be off by 4 from the in-battle stats due to these mods being added/subtracted based on Shield Wall being inactive or active.

Swords of Gorum: +10% damage buff is multiplicative with other damage modifiers, ie. a Hellknight has a mod of 1.375 (1.1*1.25) when Shield Wall is not activated.

Thunder Tread: take a -4 penalty on this attack and the next one to deal the damage of the first listed attack on the stat block to adjacent enemies immediately. If Blow Through is activated, you will take its -4 penalty as well with no benefits. On units with multiple attacks, this isn't worth using because you forgo all the other attacks, eg. a dragon with 7 base attacks performs 1 attack on adjacent units rather than 7 attacks on 1 target with a possibility for better damage due to lesser attacks contributing to area damage with Blow Through.

Blow Through: does not function on additional turns from morale unless you toggle it off and on again on the additional turn.

Blur: There is an Act 5 army in the south with 3 Fallen Dragon units. The Blur ability on them grants them DR 20/- rather than ignoring 20% of damage dealt to them. Lmao, gl.

Vavakias cast Power Word Stun with no saving throw despite a DC being listed.

If a unit is Charmed and has access to an ability that summons more units. They'll use that ability with priority however the units spawned will be allied units.

Locust Swarms' Stunning Attack can ignore stun immunity on enemies because it counts as the Nauseated condition, they still get a saving throw (DC 16) at least...

Conditions on units count down at the start of the turn of the unit that inflicted the debuff.

Unholy Aura forces a saving throw for every attack a unit uses, ie. a unit with 7 attacks makes 7 STs and can therefore lose all of their strength in 1 turn from sufficient failures. Similarily, Babaus force a reflex ST for every attack that hits them from Protective Slime.

Dispel Magic has no saving throw on enemy or allied units. It removes magic buffs, but it can also remove other buffs such as Drone, Unholy Aura, Aura of Blood, Dark Flicker or the Summoned buff (unfortunately it's the summoned tag that disallows summoned units to summon other units I believe). It even removes beneficial debuffs like Fear from enemy units with low morale.

Mythic Path (Lich) related clarifications

Uggghhhh. Why do I do this to myself.

Lich:
Yo, Vampires are sick. 10/10 tank unit. Sick aggro. Would recommend. High AC, a heal on attack and a priority target, gorgeous.

• Necromancy
  
  • Mercenary cost and recruitment growth adjustments are additive with others, eg. buildings or buffs
    
  • All units spawned are neither recruitable nor mercenary units, so they are unaffected by most stats buffs from buildings besides Halls of Power when with a general or Watchtowers in a given region
    
  • Ignores bonus xp from certain enemy armies. Also ignores bonus xp granted by buffs from Zealous student, Favoritism, etc...
    
  • Only one of either Zombies or Skeletons is spawned after a battle. Seems to randomly select between the two options.
    
  • Rounds down to closest integer when spawning new units.
    
    • Units don't grant Military xp when spawned. Good luck maxing your stat with halved recruitment and increased mercenary costs lmao.
  • New units are spawned with the same map movement available as the army that fought the battle.
    
  • Will create a new army if the spawning army is full.
    
  • Your Zombies are affected by negative morale effects from enemies such as Zombies. Wat. They're also affected by positive morale effects from your general. Also wat.
    
  • The ability to resurrect other unit types after battles as you progress through Lich choices are all calculated independently.
• Knowledge for the Chosen Ones gives +10 energy to generals but this is excluded from daily energy regen calculations
  
• Animate Dead (the mythic kingdom spell) grants Skeletons, Skeleton Sharpshooters and Skeleton Champions, 27 of each when given. Seems to go Skele, Champ, Sharp, Sharp, repeat.
  
• The Vampiric Touch buff on Zombies and Skeletons, given by the decree (Creating Spell Devourers) granted by keeping Septimus alive, has no effect. It is displayed as activating in the combat log, but no healing occurs. (Probably because both units have 0 power and the amount healed is multiplied with power.)
  
• Ravener Dragons cause a permanent frighten debuff rather than the 2 rounds it should last. Will DC of 24 for resisting the frighten. No additional damage against frightened targets despite Cowering Fear's description.
  
• Plague dragons inflict Demon Plague and Fatigue (Fortitude DC 19). The former causes the targets max hp to be reduced by 2%, doesn't stack with subsequent hits. The latter inflicts just the stat penalties. Perfect plague is broken, no idea if it even exists. They also have morale and are affected by morale effects. 5/7
  
• Nightcrawlers (Nightshades) have a Will DC of 11 on the fear aura, does apply for the correct 3 rounds though. Resisting it once grants immunity to the aura as stated, even if resisted any currently applied fear from the aura continues for its duration but is not refreshed. Lmao, they have morale. The damage display for Finger of Death is way off, not sure how it's being calculated but it was overestimating by around 3x when I was testing. Finger of Death also doesn't instant kill enemies if it's max potential damage is high enough.

Clarifications for General's skills and abilities

Holy Bomb: deals damage upon impact as well as when an enemy enters the area or when a unit starts its turn in the area.

Harpoon: pulls a unit to the left-most square of the map in its current row, movement stopped by obstacles and other units. Can target medium enemies but not large.

Offensive Training does not increase damage, it increases the attack stat ON the general. This is then added as an undescribed bonus when your unit attacks.

Crushing Offense does actually increase the attack stat of an attacking unit. It is correctly described.

Good Hope, despite its description, is classified as a Arcane spell and gains benefits from Arcane Power.

Hold is a Will save.

Master of Manuver can reach rank 4 if a general has rank 3 and Daeran's option is chosen for the rank 3 Leadership upgrade. This gives you a cap of 7 units in an army rather than 6.

Spellcraft I is the only level of Spellcraft despite it being available for selection at multiple levels.

Favored Enemy - Large is extremely inconsistent. Around half of demon units with the Large tag do not have the multiplier correctly applied when they are targeted.

Favored Enemy - Large/Flying gives a 1.15x multiplier to a units damage that is multiplicative with other sources.

Poison (I, II, III) are gained as a spell-like ability by generals who use an action to cast it on a unit who's next attack will deal additional damage based on the units power; this includes ones like Thunder Tread or Blow Through that are performed as an attack but have an AoE effect. It can be used on ranged units despite its description. It can not grant its benefit to a spell-attack, only melee/ranged ones. Scales with general's power.

Calculation of DCs for generals' skills is DC = 10 + (Power/2).

The guaranteed ability from Zealous Student at level 20 pulls from the pool of buffs from previous levels. It is randomly selected when opening the level-up window. Due to the tedium of testing, not all pathways were tested; assume that the buffs available for that choice pull from the same pool as every previous level-up. (Ie. The lists from level 3, 6, 10(not including Zealous Student evidently), 14, 16 and 19 for sword generals are all of the possibilities for the buff chosen at level 20 if you had taken Zealous Student at level 10.)

Some guaranteed abilities at level-up are select-able before the level listed, it's unknown how the game selects which ability is the guaranteed one at a later level if it was selected previously. It appears to not have a list of possibilities. If a skill is a guaranteed acquisition at some level, choosing it at a previous level is just a lost choice.


Upgrades available for selection that have multiple ranks will have the lowest available rank displayed. You could therefore have an Offensive Training III available next to a Mobile Hospital I.

Fighter (Sword) general upgrade path

Tactician randomly selects a unit (per rank) that will take 2 consecutive turns during the first round. All 3 ranks of it stack, granting 2 turns during the first round for up to 6 units (T1: 1 unit, T2: 2 units, T3: 3 units). You can not "Wait" and save both turns to be used at the end of the round.

Level	Power:(Increase) Total	Infirmary: (Increase) Total	Guaranteed Upgrade	Selectable Upgrades
1	(/) 6	(/) 150	A stratagem specific to the named general	Listed upgrades when recruiting
2	(+2) 8	(+100) 250	Penetrating Strike	(Stat buffs) Crushing offense, Mobile Hospital, Close Combat Training
3	(+1) 9	(+100) 350	None	(Stat buffs) Defensive Training, Offensive Training, Master of Maneuver, Spellcraft
4	(+2) 11	(+150) 500	None	(Stratagems) Attack Formation, Charge Formation, Defensive Formation, Cover
5	(+1) 12	(+200) 700	None	(Spells) Bless, Shield of Faith, Bane
6	(+2) 14	(+200) 900	Tactician 1	(Buffs) Inspiration, Intimidation, Master of Maneuver, Extensive Infirmary
7	(+1) 15	(+200) 1100	None	(Ability) Go for the Throat, Overwhelming Shout, Battle Rage
8	(+2) 17	(+250) 1350	None	(Spell) Scorching Ray, Heroism, Cure Wounds
9	(+1) 18	(+300) 1650	Outflank	(Stat buffs) Crushing Charge, Special Forces, Mobile Hospital
10	(+2) 20	(+300) 1950	Look Out	(Ability) Salvage, Zealous Student, Master of Maneuver
11	(+1) 21	(+550) 2500	None	Tactician, Crushing Charge
12	(+2) 23	(+600) 3100	None	(Spell) Prayer, Cause Fear, Bull's Strength
13	(+1) 24	(+650) 3750	None	(Stratagem) Elemental Weapon, Retaliation, Precise Prediction
14	(+2) 26	(+750) 4500	None	(Stat buff) Defensive Training, Offensive Training, Extensive Infirmary, Spellcraft
15	(+1) 27	(+750) 5250	None	(Ability) Unexpected Maneuver, Bet on the Best
16	(+2) 29	(+750) 6000	Fearsome Formation	(Buffs) Inspiration, Master of Maneuver, Intimidation, Zealous Student
17	(+1) 30	(+750) 6750	None	(Spells) Fireball, Haste, Heroism
18	(+2) 32	([phone]	None	(Buffs) Tactician, Close Combat Training, Special Forces
19	(+1) 33	([phone]	None	(Buff) Defensive Training, Offensive Training, Extensive Infirmary, Salvage
20	(+2) 35	([phone]	None	(Spells) Breath of Life, Slow, Call Lightning

Wizard (Fireball) general upgrade path

Buffs such as Arcane Magic and Divine Magic do not have multiple ranks and can only be taken once. I've listed the ranks you could take them at as long as you haven't previously chosen them.

A unit teleporting with Dimension Door is considered to have used maximum movement for the purposes of Battering Ram Attack.

Magic Instructor (I & II) increases the damage of a spellcasting unit. When these units cast spells they do not use the damage stat, they use power. This increases the damage of melee attacks from units with the Spellcasting Unit type. Yes, this hurt my soul to test. Yes, there are a half dozen spellcasting units that actually make use of melee attacks such as Paladins or Clerics if you really want to use this. Check the Units guide linked in the beginning and find everything that has the Spellcasting tag.

Summon Elementals can be used a maximum of 3 times in a single battle. Unsure if it's a unit summoning cap or a uses cap.

Magical Reserves does not increase the amount of energy regened per day despite increasing base energy.

Level	Power: (Increase) Total	Infirmary: (Increase) Total	Guaranteed Upgrade	Selectable Upgrades
1	(/) 12	(/) 100	A spell specific to the named general	Elemental Protection, 1 stat buff
2	(+3) 15	(+100) 200	None	(New spells) Cause Fear, Shield of Faith, Bless, Bane
3	(+3) 18	(+100) 300	None	(Stat buffs) Defensive Training, Offensive Training, Master of Maneuver, Spellcraft
4	(+3) 21	(+100) 400	None	(Spells) Heroism, Bull's Strength, Cure Wounds, Scorching Ray
5	(+3) 24	(+200) 600	Penetrating Strike	(Buffs) Protective Wards, Magic Instructor, Magical Reserves
6	(+3) 27	(+200) 800	None	(Buffs) Inspiration, Intimidation, Extensive Infirmary, Zealous Student
7	(+3) 30	(+200) 1000	None	(Spells) Fireball, Haste, Slow, Bear's Endurance
8	(+3) 33	(+200) 1200	None	(Buffs) Magical Channeling, Arcane Magic, Divine Magic
9	(+3) 36	(+300) 1500	Summon Elementals	(Abilities) Experienced Traveler, Master of Maneuver, Outflank, Salvage
10	(+3) 39	(+300) 1800	None	(Spells) Ice Storm, Hold, Breath of Life, Prayer, Good Hope
11	(+3) 42	(+300) 2100	None	(Stat buffs) Protective Ward, Magic Instructor, Magical Reserves
12	(+3) 45	(+650) 2750	None	(Spells) Bear's Endurance, Bull's Strength, Breath of Life, Good Hope
13	(+3) 48	(+750) 3500	Slow	(Stat Buffs) Defensive Training, Offensive Training, Extensive Infirmary
14	(+3) 51	(+750) 4250	None	(Buffs) Magic Channeling, Divine Magic, Arcane Magic
15	(+3) 54	(+750) 5000	None	(Spells) Finger of Death, Heal, Channel Negative Energy, Fire Storm
16	(+3) 57	(+750) 5750	Call Lightning	(Buffs) Inspiration, Intimidation, Spellcraft, Zealous Student, Master of Maneuver
17	(+3) 60	(+750) 6500	None	(Ability) Twincast, Spell practice
18	(+3) 63	([phone]	None	(Spells) Hold, Heal, Ice Storm, Crushing Despair, Fire Storm
19	(+3) 66	([phone]	Dimension Door	(Buff) Extensive Infirmary, Outflank, Salvage, Deep Defensive Order, Master of Maneuver
20	(+3) 69	([phone]	None	(Spells) Finger of Death, Heal, Stone Call, Greater Channel Negative Energy, Enervation

Ranger (Bow) general upgrade path

Siege abilities can be used once per battle and have no energy cost.

Caltrops deals damage on cast and when enemies enter it's area. It's a Siege ability despite the description saying it is a Trap. It benefits from Siege Mastery, not Trap Mastery. Caltrops appears to block movement for allied units when placed down however, movement through the area is calculated normally. Ie. cavalry can ride through and attack despite no crosshair marking the target square they will move to. The sword will still appear showing the direction of the attack.

Pit Trap has an unlisted Reflex DC of 10 + Power/2

Frenzy Trap is guaranteed at level 15, taking it at level 13 does nothing. But wait, by taking Trap Mastery (1 or 2) previously, Frenzy Trap at 13, gaining the guaranteed copy at 15 AND choosing Preparation, then entering into a battle with any army grants a bonus 3 (6 if Trap Mastery 2) power that is from no visible buff. This buff is infinitely stacking. (That's 25k d6 on a fireball)

Level	Power:(Increase) Total	Infirmary: (Increase) Total	Guaranteed Upgrade	Selectable Upgrades
1	(/) 8	(/) 100	A siege ability specific to the named general	Hunt, 1 stat buff
2	(+2) 10	(+100) 200	Cure Wounds	(Siege/Trap) Weakening Trap, Explosive Trap, Flare, Ice Bomb, Stone Throw
3	(+2) 12	(+100) 300	None	(Stat buffs) Defensive Training, Offensive Training, Master of Maneuver, Intimidation
4	(+2) 14	(+100) 400	Pit Trap	(Spell) Bane, Bless, Penetrating Strike
5	(+2) 16	(+200) 600	None	(Buffs) Marksmanship, Siege Mastery, Trap Mastery
6	(+2) 18	(+200) 800	None	(Stat Buffs) Inspiration, Master of Maneuver, Spellcraft, Extensive Infirmary
7	(+2) 20	(+200) 1000	None	(Siege/Trap) Frost Blast Trap, Acid Trap, Burning Liquid
8	(+2) 22	(+200) 1200	None	(Spells) Scorching Ray, Hold, Heroism
9	(+2) 24	(+300) 1500	Harpoon	(Buffs) Deflect Missles, Favored Enemy - Flying, Favored Enemy - Large
10	(+2) 26	(+300) 1800	None	(Abilities) Intimidation, Master of Maneuver, Offensive Training, Outflank, Zealous Student, Salvage
11	(+2) 28	(+300) 2100	Breath of Life	(Siege/Trap) Holy Bomb, Obstacle, Smoke Bomb, Caltrops
12	(+2) 30	(+650) 2750	None	(Buffs) Marksmanship, Siege Mastery, Trap Mastery
13	(+2) 32	(+750) 3500	Experienced Traveler	(Siege/Trap) Stunning Trap, Spring Trap, Frenzy Trap, Boulder, Sticky Bomb
14	(+2) 34	(+750) 4250	None	(Spells) Haste, Prayer, Call Lightning
15	(+2) 36	(+750) 5000	Frenzy Trap	(Ability) Preparation, Cursed Arrows
16	(+2) 38	(+750) 5750	None	(Buffs) Defensive Training, Master of Maneuver, Inspiration, Extensive Infirmary, Deep Defensive Order
17	(+2) 40	(+750) 6500	None	(Traps/Siege) Frost Blast Trap, Acid Trap, Holy Bomb, Obstacle, Smoke Bomb
18	(+2) 42	([phone]	None	(Spells) Slow, Fireball, Good Hope
19	(+2) 44	([phone]	None	(Buff) Deflect Missles, Favored Enemy - Large, Favored Enemy - Flying
20	(+2) 46	([phone]	None	(Trap/Siege) Stunning Trap, Spring Trap, Boulder, Sticky Bomb

Pre-Drezen (Act 2) pseudo-events

Storm travelling into the Worldwound at the start of crusade triggered by leaving the first encampment heading towards the Houndheart campsite. Successful check gives +10 crusade morale (failed check -10 morale and lose 5 Footmen).

Gain 7 Rangers after defeating the army between Conundrum Unsolved and the first demon fortification.

Gain 5 Rangers after capturing the fortification straddling the river. Spawn NE of the fort.

Chest of Gold from Horgus Gwerm. Occurs 5 days into the crusade. 2500 finance points.

Gain 15 Shieldbearers at Kenabres. Occurs 5 days into the crusade.

Quest to help the Hellknights. Activates upon returning to the army encampment that will be on the river after capturing the first demon fort.

• Accepting the help of the Hellknights gives 7 Hellknights regardless of who the Sunrise knights are under the command of.
  
• (Good) Take the Sunrise knights into the army: gain 5 clerics
  
• (Chaotic) Let them choose: gain 3 additional Hellknights if help is accepted
  
• (Lawful) Leave them under the command of Regill: gain 3 additional Hellknights if help is accepted

Equipping scouts. Activates upon asking Wilcer Garms, "How are things in the camp?", after the army encampment has advanced to the river where the first demon fort was.

• Fully equipped: 30 Mounted Scouts spawn at Kenabres
  
• As you see fit: all generals gain +5 map movement until Drezen is captured (Prepared Scouts)
  
• Written in blood: +1 to saving throws until Drezen is taken

Speak to Wilbur after Leper's smile.

• Commemorate the fallen: +10 morale
  
• Words of prayer: +1 AC and +5 Max HP to clerics until Drezen is captured
  
• Ever vigilant: 8 clerics at Leper's Smile

Gain 20 Mounted Scouts. Defeat the rank 4 army ESE of the Lost Chapel.

Speak to Wilbur at the encampment when it's east of Lost Chapel.

• Rousing song: +1 Attack to all units until Drezen is captured
  
• Hold a tournament: 6 rangers, 8 champions at Lost Chapel
  
• Well rested: +6% Max HP to all units until Drezen is captured

Attack on Drezen. Enter the encampment just south of Drezen.

• Asking the queen about her plans adds 15 crusade morale
  
• Attack the giants with Hellknights: -10 morale

Post-Drezen (Act 3) events

Event	Option : Outcome
Witches	Destroy settlement : (Lawful) +1.2k Leadership xp Establish trade : +10 FP income (Trade with Witches buff) Force them into service (Demon) : (Evil) 2 Witches are recruited Inform Order of Pyre (Regill) : (Lawful) 7 Hellknights are recruited
Vagrants	Accept into army : -10 crusade morale, recruit 100 Conscripts Work on home front : -20 crusade morale, +1 MP income (Help of the Outcasts) Send to Mendev : No consequence Bless the brave pilgrims (Angel) : (Good) 40 Champions recruited Set up hospital (Arueshalae) : (Good) +5 crusade morale, +1 MP income (Help of the Outcasts)
Restoration	Expand the streets : 7 day Logistics decree for +1k Logistics xp (Widening the Streets, costs 500 FP) Reinforce the defenses : 7 day Military decree for +400 Military xp (Reinforcing the Walls, costs 50 MP) Don't spend money : +20 FP income (Cutting Costs buff) Invite Order of Nail (Regill) : +100 Military xp, + 250 Diplomacy xp, and a 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 10 Hellknights (Help of the Nail, costs 2.5k FP) Unmodifed costs of 10 Hellknights is 2150. Decree isn't worth doing economically until you're more than a month in and your mercenary pool is diluted.
Cursed Children	Saving the children : (Good) +30 crusade morale, -2 penalty to AC of units for 30 days (Vulnerable) Safety of soldiers : +550 Military xp Set a trap for demons (Azata) : (Good) 7 day Diplomacy decree to gain 2k Diplomacy xp and +30 crusade morale (Dangerous Kids, costs 1k FP) Hunt down kidnappers (Lann) : (Good) 3 day Logistics decree to gain 1.5k Diplomacy xp and 60 EP (Hunt for the Kidnappers, costs 75 MP)
Frenemies	Punish both : +3.5k Leadership xp Punish aristocrat : +20 crusade morale Punish mercenary : +3.5k FP Let warriors judge the opposing officer (Azata) : (Chaotic) +35 crusade morale Reconcile them (Sosiel) : +15% recruitment growth to Barracks and Archery Range units for 30 days (Common Cause buff)
In the Commander We Trust	Punish the artists : (Lawful) +3.5k Leadership xp Leave them be : +20 crusade morale Fill fake charms with real power (Angel) : (Good) 5 day Leadership decree for +1 EP income, +25 crusade morale (Holy Wards, costs 80 EP) Crusade-themed merchandise(Woljif) : (Chaotic) 7 day Logistics decree for +20 FP income (Buy a cloak - Support the crusade!, costs 150 MP)
Intolerance	Remove mages : 12 Barbarians recruited Stand up for mages : 9 Wizards recruited Sarkorians fall in line : (Lawful) +1.5k Leadership xp Throw a banquet (Trickster) : (Chaotic) +2k Leadership xp, +20 crusade morale Commander's support has a cost (Woljif) : 12 Barbarians recruited, gain 1.2k gold
The End of the World	Send on suicide mission : 600 Military xp Silence the secatarians : 4k Leadership xp Permit their preaching : -30 crusade morale, +15% trainable unit growth for 30 days Reconcile the priests (Sosiel) : (Good) +15 crusade morale, +3 EP income for 30 days (Tolerance of the Faiths buff)
A Problem with Nine Lives	Leave the cats be : +4.5k Logistics xp, -1.5k Leadership xp Get rid of cats : +4.5k Leadership xp, -1.5k Logistics xp Induct the cats into service (Trickster) : +1.5k Logistics xp, +500 Military xp Cult of Bastet helps (Sosiel) : 7 day Diplomacy decree for +1 EP income (Blessing of Bastet, costs 100 EP) grants (Blessings of Bastet buff)
An Important Inspection	Guaranteed benefit : +50 FP income, +5 MP income Cold : +4k Leadership xp Lavish : +30 FP income (Passed Inspection buff) As they are : +30 FP income (Passed Inspection buff), +3k Diplomacy xp Front lines (Seelah) : +30 FP income (Passed Inspection buff), +600 Military xp
Birthright	Nobles' side : +3.5k Leadership xp Common warriors : +20 crusade morale Deprave the aristocrasts (Demon) : +2k Leadership xp, +10 FP income (Gratitude of the Aristocrats buff) Tournament (Seelah) : +1.75k Leadership xp, +20 crusade morale
An Army of Thieves	Accept them : 6 Rogues and 8 Bandits recruited Send away : 750 Diplomacy xp Arrest them : (Lawful) 14 convicts recruited Raise them as undead (Lich) : (Evil) 1 day Leadership decree to recruit 6 Skeleton Champions and 8 Skeleton Sharpshooters (Death Redeems All, costs 10 EP) Accept and care (Arueshalae : (Good) 14 day Leadership decree to recruit 6 Paladins and 8 Marksmen (Raising Heroes, costs 2k FP)
A Visitor from the Past	Metal deposits : +5 MP income for 30 days (Ore Veins) Forests : All units gains +2% Max HP to all units (Robust feat) Everything he can : (Evil) +100 Material points, +1% Max HP to all units (Healthy feat) Care for spirit (Azata) : (Good) 3 Earth Elementals recruited
A Problem with Nine Lives	Leave the cats be : +4.5k Logistics xp, -1.5k Leadership xp Get rid of the cats : +4.5k Leadership xp, -1.5k Logistics xp Trickster Path : Unknown Ask cult of Bastet (Sosiel) : 7 day decree for +1 Energy point income
Underground Avengers	Front ranks : 30 Mongrel Fighters recruited Position in rear : 30 Mongrel Sharpshooters recruited Pacify with prayer (Angel) : 30 Mongrel Sharpshooters recruited, all Mongrel units gain +2 to saving throws against poison/disease (Tough feat) Rile their bloodlust (Demon) : 30 Mongrel Fighters recruited, +1 attack to all Mongrel units (Wild feat)
Collared Crusaders	Buy and free : +25 crusade morale, -2k Finance points (min. 2k FP necessary) Accept new troops : (Lawful) 4 Battle Slaves recruited Free by force : (Chaotic) +25 crusade morale, -1k Diplomacy xp Reform the slaver (Azata) : (Chaotic) +40 crusade morale
Fear of the Surface	Position in rear : 50 Mongrel Sharpshooters recruited Train to fight : 50 Mongrel Fighters recruited Inspire with Light of Heaven (Angel) : 50 Mongrel Sharpshooters recruited, all Mongrel units gain Heavenly Protection (+1 AC) Kill some cowards (Demon) : 50 Mongrel Fighters recruited, all Mongrel units gain Mongrel Wrath (+10% damage)
Dwarven Property	Give to dwarves : (Lawful) +40 MP Keep in walls : +300 Military xp Use in battle : 3 day Logistics decree to recruit 3 Earth Golems (Warden Golems, costs 60 EP) Pay for illegally storing in walls (Woljif) : (Chaotic) 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 12 Shieldbearers and gain +1.5k Finance points (Ransom from the Mountain Kings, costs nothing)

Post-Drezen (Act 3) events part 2

Event	Option : Outcome
The Runaway	Try the criminal knight : (Lawful) +3k FP Protect the repentant knight : (Chaotic) +15 crusade morale Give the vengeful noble the murderer's head : (Evil) gain family heirloom (Unholy Flail +4) Settle the conflict through a duel (Demon) : (Chaotic) Recruit a vengeful and stern general (Siola the Avenger: Fighter general with MoM I and Dispersal of forces (Sir Tector without Defensive Formation), cool portrait though) Do away with the noble and take her treasures (Daeran) : (Evil) 3 day Logistics decree to gain 7k GP, 5k FP, 50 MP & 25 EP (Unscrupulous Heir, no cost)
The Touched One	Let him go to his death : (Chaotic) gain relic of the blessed one (Holy Disruption Mace +3) Convince the priest of his doom : (Good) +20 FP income (Blissful Ally buff) Convince the priest to join the army (Arueshalae) : (Good) all generals gain +5% Infirmary size (+1 Reduction of Losses feat)
A Misunderstanding	Everything by the book : +4.5k Logistics xp, -20 crusade morale Committed a crime : +30 crusade morale, -1.5k Logistics xp Fair trial (Aeon) : (Lawful) +2.5k Military xp Accuse superior officers (Sosiel) : (Good) +2k Leadership xp, +30 crusade morale, -1.5k Logistics xp
In Our Midst	Increase the number of inquisitors : 10 Inquisitors recruited Introduce collective responsibility : +1.5k Leadership xp, -200 Military xp Send spectres to spy (Lich) : +3k Leadership xp Select trustworthy soldiers to keep an eye (Seelah) : 5 day Leadership decree for +1k Leadership xp, +30 crusade morale (Senior Comrades, costs 1k FP & 10 EP)
First Blood	Approve the training method : (Evil) +300 Military xp Forbid touching prisoners : (Good) +750k Leadership xp Recruit prisoners who prove their worth (Wendaug) : (Chaotic) 3 day Leadership decree to recruit 30 Cultists (Right to a Pardon, repeatable every 5 days, costs 3.5k FP)
Giants	Send them to perform manual labour : 3 day Logistics decree to gain +1 MP income (Work for the Giant, no cost) Cure the victims : (Good) 3 day Leadership decree to gain +20 crusade morale (Healing the giants, costs 300FP & 10 MP) Use them in battle : 3 day Military decree to recruit 2 Zagelforntz's Giants (Abnormal Giants, costs nothing) Mediocre tanks with decent damage, you just can never get more than 2 Found a settlement for them (Lann) : 5 day Logistics decree to gain +2 MP income, +1.5k Logistics xp (Giants' Village, costs 250 MP)
The Unwanted	Train and temper them : 14 day decree for +25% recruitment growth for trainable units for 30 days (Future Heroes) Collect payment from families : +20 Finance points income Send them back home : +3k Diplomacy xp
Pupils of Nethys	Send the children to battle : 15 Sorcerers recruited Work on home front : +1 EP income for 90 days (Sorcerer Children buff) Send them away : +2.5k Leadership xp Cared for by free crusaders (Azata) : +1 EP income, +20 crusade morale (Sorcerer Children buff, no duration) Squires for the worthy (Seelah) : Generals gain a feat for "50%" energy regen per day (Sorcerer Squire) for 90 days Seems to just add +20 raw energy regen per day. Eg. Base of 130, regens 13/day without, 33/day with.
Rank Trade	Ban this malpractice : +650 Military xp Do not obstruct the trade : +5k Diplomacy xp Authorize this custom : +20 FP income (Rank Bribery buff) Play cards for ranks (Trickster) : (Chaotic) +20 FP income (Rank Bribery buff), Generals grant units +3 to all saving throws (Lucky feat)
Dark Allies	Refuse their help : +100 EP Let them stay and serve : recruit 8 Vampires and 2 Shadowdancers Improve relations with Nidal (Lich) : +2k Diplomacy xp, recruit 8 Vampires and 2 Shadowdancers
Cleaners	Turn a blind eye : (Evil) +400 Military xp Punish the cleaners : (Good) +2.5k Leadership xp Elevate the cleaners (Demon) : (Evil) +500 Military xp, 5 day Military decree to recruit 24 Cultist Cutthroats (Personal Guard, costs 2k FP) Punish the cleaners and mentor underachievers (Lann) : (Good) 21 day Leadership decree to increase recruitment growth by 25% for Spellcasters and Stables (Individual Approach to Training, no cost)
The Hopeless	Banish the defeatists : +30 crusade morale, -15% recruitment growth for 20 days Order them to press on : +4.5k Leadership xp Reveal the light of hope (Angel) : (Good) Summons an enemy army. Defeating it gives +2.5k Leadership xp & +30 crusade morale Rank 9: Mariliths, Paninis, Glabrezus Send home without punishment (Ember) : +2.5k Leadership xp, +30 crusade morale, -15% recruitment growth for 20 days
Veterans	Keep them : -50 crusade morale Let them go : +35 crusade morale, -25% recruitment growth for Spellcasters and Stables for 30 days (Lack of Veterans debuff) Prolong duty for minor infringements (Woljif) : (Evil) No mechanical effect. Wtf Woljif. This doesn't even seem in character.
Deadly Legacy	Give permission : 10 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 3 Knights of Ozem (Destruction of the Dangerous Relic, costs 88 EP) Forbid plan : +2k Diplomacy xp, +10 crusade morale Take artifact (Lich) : (Evil) acquire relic of Tar-Baphon (Unholy Necrotic Heavy Crossbow +3) Deliver artifact to demons (Nenio) : 7 day Military decree (Experiment in Destruction, no cost) to gain Negative Energy Blast ritual (target enemy army: -2 to ability scores, attack, AC, saving throws & -10% Max HP for 3 days; single use)
Broken Oaths	Chance at redemption : (Good) 7 day Leadership decree to recruit 15 Paladins (Paladin's Redemption, costs 2.5k FP) Stay and serve : recruit 30 Light Cavalry Direct to hellknights (Regill) : (Evil) 3 day Military decree to recruit 20 Hellknights (Fate of the Fallen Paladins, costs 500 FP)
Poisoned Soil	Let druids work : +20 Logistics xp per day Expensive mages : +1.5k Military xp, -2k FP Research warped lands (Nenio) : 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 12 Kineticists (Worldwound Research, no cost)
Cultural Differences	Renounce former oaths : +4.5k Leadership xp Pursue personal interests : +5k Diplomacy xp Reconcile parties : units grant adjacent allies +1 AC and +1 to saving throws via mind-affecting effect (United feat via United buff) Unlisted: limited duration buff until next midnight (max 1 day) Make them compete (Greybor) : +1k MIlitary xp, -20 crusade morale

Post-Drezen (Act 3) events part 3

Event	Option : Outcome
Carefree Hunters	Arrange the hunt : (Lawful) 5 day Diplomacy decree for +3k Diplomacy xp (Dangerous Hunt, costs 3k FP) The flag additionally unlocks a 2nd, unlisted decree: 5 day Logistics decree for +12.5k FP (Dragonslayer's Adventure, costs 400 MP) Event47DragonslayersAdventure? Let them die and take belongings : (Evil) +3k FP Turn them down : no consequences Convince them to become crusaders (Seelah) : recruit 6 Infernal Cavalry
Stash	Send treasure to Nerosyan : -20 crusade morale, recruit 4 Warpriests Remove the curses : +7.5k FP, +100 MP, -100EP (requires at least 100 EP, these are actually called Kingdom Favors by the game) Collapse the cave entrance : no consequences Unmake the curses (Aeon) : +7.5k FP, +100 MP Gift the treasure to crusade enemies (Daeran) : (Evil) +4k Diplomacy xp
On the Scene	Keep bards in headquarters : +20 crusade morale Train and send to front lines : 7 day Military decree to recruit 3 Bards (Preparing the Bards, costs 2k FP) House them with free crusaders (Azata) : all generals learn a spell that causes allied units to heal adjacent allies and damage adjacent enemies (Song of Seasons) OR if the spell is already know the general gains an ability to grant +2 speed to all units for 1 round as well as a Battering Ram effect (+1 damage per 2 movement used) (Inspiring Advance) Lmao, I tested this on my Lich's undead army against another undead army and I just had a deathball that exploded killing everything. The healing is indeed positive energy typed damage. If you have undead units you will nuke them. Treats diagonals as adjacent. Both the healing and damage occurs at the end of the 2nd round, simultaneously. Offer them patronage (Daeran) : +1.5k Diplomacy xp, +30 crusade morale
Hitting the Bottle	Ban libation : +1k Leadership xp, +1k Diplomacy xp, -20 crusade morale Permit soldiers to unwind : +20 crusade morale, -1k Diplomacy xp Drinks for merit : +350 Military xp Ban drinking water (Trickster) : (Chaotic) 5 day Leadership decree to recruit 20 Clerics of Cayden Cailean (Host of Drunkards, costs 1k FP & 50 EP) Ban infringes on Cayden Cailean (Azata) : (Chaotic) receive a gift from the church of Cayden Cailean: Speed Cold Iron Rapier +3
Fugitives	Capture them : 7 day Military decree to recruit 140 Convicts, -10 crusade morale (Fugitive Hunt, no cost) Leave them be : no consequences Help the runaways (Azata) : (Good) +2 MP income for 30 days, +10 crusade morale (Help from the Fugitives buff)
Price or Quality	Cheap gear : 7 day Diplomacy decree to reduce trainable recruitment costs by 10% for 15 days (Purchasing Cheap Equipment, costs 200 MP) High-quality gear : 30 day Logistics decree granting +2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 attack, +1 damage & +1 AC to all trainable units (Quality Equipment feat) by increasing their recruitment cost by 5% (Purchasing Quality Equipment, costs 3k FP) Send servants to "influence" (Lich) : (Evil) 30 day Logistics decree granting +2 Str, +2 Dex, +1 attack, +1 damage & +1 AC to all undead units (Quality Equipment feat) (Profitable Purchase, costs 5k FP) Only the +1 attack, +1 damage & +1 AC are actually granted Also grants +1 to saving throws. What? Purchase gear through Greybor (Greybor) : 7 day Diplomacy decree to grant all trainable units +1 attack, +1 AC, +1 to saving throws & +1 initiative (Weapons from Daggermark feat) as well as reducing the recruitment cost by 10% for 15 days (Weapons from Daggermark, costs 200 MP)
For a Great Purpose	Form group of preachers : 3 day Military decree for +500 Military xp, -20 crusade morale (Swords of Set, costs 1k FP) Use crippled soldiers : (Evil) 3 day Military decree for +500 Military xp, (Swords of Set, costs 5k FP) Turn the priest down : (Good) +20 crusade morale Send criminals (Aeon) : (Lawful) +2k Leadership xp, +400 Military xp Since when does Drezen have a law about punishing criminals by inflicting permanent blindness to make weapons?
Useful Friends	Mwangi Expanse support : 7 day Logistics decree to recruit 3 Witches (Help of the Mwangi, costs 1.5k FP) Osirion help : 7 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 8 Sand Clerics (Help of Osirion, costs nothing) Tian Xia support : +40 EP Friends in Nidal (Lich) : undead units gain +1 attack & +1 AC (Occult Enchantment feat)
Heir	Help young aristocrat : +5k FP Denounce cheater : recruit 7 Infernal Cavalry Actually gives Infernal Infantry. Sort of a side-grade to Champions in terms of power level. Discipline the youth (Angel) : (Good) grants 3 sequential decrees that culminate in recruiting a general Young Challenger (no cost): 7 day Military decree for 500 Military xp Ambitious Debutant (no cost): 21 day Logistics decree to recruit 3 Mendevian Cavaliers The Hero has Matured (no cost): 7 day Leadership decree to recruit Tarsival Caster general at level 1 with no spell nor buff.
Collector	Tamed monsters as payment : 4 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 4 Minotaur Vanguard and 4 Minotaur Axe Throwers (Battle Monsters, costs 1.4k FP) Gold as payment : 7 day Logistics decree for +1k FP (Dangerous goods, no cost, repeatable every 23 days) Refuse the request : +25 crusade morale Send disguised crusader (Trickster) : (Chaotic) +4k FP, +3k Diplomacy xp Special unit to capture demons (Greybor) : 7 day Leadership decree for +25 FP income (Exotic Prey, no cost)
Dead Heroes	Lay the fallen to rest : +60 EP Accept into army : -15 crusade morale, recruit 12 Skeleton Sharpshooters & 8 Skeleton Champions Take for research (Lich) : 7 day Military decree to recruit 4 Mummy Clerics (Enchanting the dead, costs 80 EP)
The Unwanted	Train and temper them : 14 day Leadership decree for +25% recruitment growth for 30 days (Future Heroes, no cost) Collect payment from families : +20 FP income Send them home : +3k Diplomacy xp
Inconvient Heroes	Suppress cult of personality : +4.5k Leadership xp Encourage tales of heroism : +30 crusade morale, -2k Leadership xp Send the heroes to travel and recruit : +4.5k Diplomacy xp
The Price of Mercy	Hang slaver : +1.5k Diplomacy xp Buy and set free : (Good) 7 day Diplomacy decree granting +1.5k Diplomacy xp (Freeing the Slaves, costs 3k gold) Buy and make them serve : 3 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 50 Conscripts (Reluctant Soldiers, costs 3k gold) Buy and take care of them (Angel) : (Good) 3 day Leadership decree to recruit 30 Champions (The Unchained, costs 3k gold) Buy and resell in secret (Woljif) : (Evil) 3 day Diplomacy decree to gain 12k gold (Slave Trade, no cost)

Post-vacation (Act 5) events

Event	Option : Outcome
Idol	Forbid him to egg on candidates : all units are unaffected by flanking (Prudent feat) Encourage the behavior : +20% recruitment growth for Stables and Archery range, all trainable infantry take a -2 penalty to AC (Vulnerable feat) Assign the best warriors to the outfit : 5 day decree to recruit 4 Honor Guards at headquarters (Best of the Best, no cost) Convince the soldiers to not have idols (Legend) : all generals get +10% to xp gain (multiplicative)(Striving for Distinction +1) Send the officer to Mendev for recruits (Arueshalae) : 3 day decree for +25% to recruitment growth for 24 days (Famous Recruiter, costs 3k FP & 100 MP)
Dead Men's Club	All units in any army are reduced by 5% rounded down for applicable options. Ban the club : (Good) +25 crusade morale Encourage the club : (Chaotic) lose 5% of recruited units, all enemies have -35% Max HP for 1 week (end of 7th day, minimum duration may be as low as 6d 0h 1m) (Wounded feat) Use them in a trap : (Evil) lose 5% of recruited units, gain a ritual (crusade skill bar) that deals 50*MR physical damage to all units in an army (Ambush, single use) Convince them to become undead avengers (Lich) : (Evil) lose 5% of recruited units, recruit 60 Vampires Ember talks to them (Ember) : (Chaotic) lose 5% of recruited units, +50 crusade morale
Missing in Action	Form a search party : 4 day decree for +5% infirmary size to generals (+1 Reduction of Losses feat), (Rescue Squads, costs 1k FP & 50 MP) Large-scale rescue operation : 9 day decree for +6k Logistics xp (Strategic Routes, costs 1k FP) Hire diviners : 8 day decree for +3 Energy points income (Diviners, -2.5k FP) Find trackers among the people (Legend) : 3 day decree to recruit 10 Hunters (Help from the People of the Forest, no cost) Train new trackers : 6 day decree to recruit 8 Hunters (Tracker Training, no cost)
The Hand of Retribution	Help the vigilante : (Chaotic) +6.5k Diplomacy xp Catch the murderer : (Lawful) +9k Leadership xp Kill the discontented and blame Milanite (Devil) : (Evil) 3 day decree for +15k Leadership xp (Secret Repressions, costs 2.5k FP) Accuse Galt and demand compensation (Daeran) : (Lawful) 5 day decree for +7.5k Diplomacy xp, +300 Material points (Grievance Against Galt, costs 1.5k FP)
Beasts	Find and clear the nest : 3 day Logistics decree for +6k Logistics xp (Nest Cleanup, costs 1k FP & 35 MP) Teach soldiers to deal with beasts : 5 day Military decree for +2 to savings throws for all units for 60 days (Ready for Anything feat) (Monster Slayers, costs 2k FP & 70 MP) Catch and tame them (Demon) : 7 day Logistics decree for +3 EP income, +6k Logistics xp (Taming Monsters, costs 125 EP)
Replacement Parts	Banish the clockmaker : +8.5k FP & 350 MP Take him under protection : +5% infirmary size to all generals (+1 Reduction of Losses feat) Elevate the craftsman : +1 initiative to all units and +10% Max HP (Reinforced Bodies buff) Why yes, the description does say +1 EP income. No, it gives nothing related to EP. Oblige the troops (Demon) : (Evil) +1 EP income Why yes, the description does say Reinforced Bodies feat. No, it actually gives Talented Clockworker buff. Repair Retrievers (Wenduag) : 7 day Military decree to recruit 9 Retrievers (Retriever Repair, costs 1k FP)
A Daring Strike	Maximum damage to enemy : deal 150*MR physical damage to all units in an army (Daring Blow, usable once) Gathering intelligence : all units in an army take -2 AC for 7 days (Studied Target debuff) (Reconnaissance, usable once) Seizing trophies : 4 day Military decree to gain 11k FP, +500 MP & 100 EP (Raid for Plunder, costs 2.5k FP & 100 MP) Saving prisoners and slaves (Azata) : 4 day Leadership decree to increase trainable unit recruitment growth by 20% for 15 days (Freeing the Prisoners, costs 2.5k FP & 100 MP) Intimidating the enemy (Wenduag) : all units in an army take -40 to combat morale for 7 days (Act of Intimidation, usable once)
The Possessed	End their lives : (Lawful) +20 combat morale to all units (Fearless feat) Perform an exorcism : (Good) +35 crusade morale, -3k FP Use them in battle : (Chaotic) +1.75k Military xp Imprison the spirits (Demon) : (Chaotic) +125 EP
Heart-Blood	Permit the practice : all units gain +2 to saving throws against disease and poison (Tough feat) Refuse the request : +25 crusade morale Destroy the anomaly (Aeon) : (Lawful) 7 day Military decree for +49 crusade morale (Eradicating the Anomaly, costs 49 EP) Make fighters drink blood (Wenduag) : (Evil) 4 day Leadership decree for +2 damage & +5% Max HP to all units for 14 days (Blood Potion feat) (Blood Potion, repeatable every 56 days, costs 375 MP & 85 EP)
Threatened	Guard the officers : +1.5k Military xp Same living conditions as soldiers : +40 crusade morale, -1k Military xp Bring the dead officers back (Lich) : +20 combat morale to all units (Fearless feat) Train the officers (Greybor) : 10 day Leadership decree to give +30k xp to all generals (Security Training, costs 1.5k FP & 75 MP)
Wounded Dragon	End suffering : +9k Leadership xp Kill and give organs to alchemists : +100 EP Send healers : (Good) +7.5k FP Heal the dragon (Dragon) : (Good) 5 day Leadership decree for +3k Leadership xp and 1 Gold Dragon recruited (Healing the Kindred, costs 27 EP) Subdue and set on enemies (Wenduag) : (Evil) 3 day Military decree to recruit 1 Fallen Dragon (Enslaving the Dragon, costs 35 EP) Due to a bug these are the strongest tanks in the game. They apply a -20 damage penalty to any unit that attacks them. Due to damage calculations, this means that all units dealing less than 20 damage on an attack can't damage the dragons.
You Can Call Me Helper	Hunt down the spirit : 3 day Military decree to take the evil spirits trophy (Elder Caustic Necrotic Quarterstaff +5) (Spirit Hunt, costs 1 FP) Soldiers don't accept help : +8k Leadership xp Soldiers encouraged to accept help : +5% infirmary space to generals (+1 Reduction of Losses feat) Arueshalae finds spirit (Arueshalae) : +3(2) Power & +10 Energy to all generals (Knowledge for the Chosen Ones feat) Does stack with the similarly named buff that Liches can get in Act 3. They are different buffs with different icons. Gives 2 Power instead of 3 despite its description.

Post-vacation (Act 5) events part 2

Event	Option : Outcome
An Epidemic of Secrets	Save everyone : (Good) +5% infirmary space to generals (+1 Reduction of Losses feat) Kill the sick : (Lawful) +9k Leadership xp Turn disease against creator (Aeon) : (Lawful) for 3 days, all enemy units inflict a -1 AC penalty, -1 to saving throws & -1 to initiative for 1 round at the start of every round (Dissociated feat) Lasts until end of 3rd day, can be as short as 2d 0h 1m if you finish the event just before midnight Seems to be bugged. No effect visible.
Mysterious Poison	Extract the poison : (Evil) -20 crusade morale, all generals get +1 to the Poison feat (allows a units' next attack to deal extra damage) Treat the soldiers : (Good) +25 crusade morale Turn warriors into poisonous undead (Lich) : (Evil) 3 day Military decree to grant all undead units the Poisoned Strike feat (-2 Str to struck enemies) (Poisonous undead, no cost)
Principles of Drake Training	Permit the request : (Chaotic) 7 day Diplomacy decree allowing generals to summon (1+Power/2) Rift Drakes in battle (Pet Drake ability) (Drake training, no cost) Kill drake : +25 crusade morale Train something peaceful : 10 day Diplomacy decree to give all cavalry units +1 speed for 30 days (Swift Mounts feat) (Mount training, repeatable every 20 days, costs 3k FP & 200 MP) Reform drake (Dragon) : (Good) 5 day Leadership decree to recruit 25 Rift Drakes (Drake Leader, costs 1.5k FP) Use it's venom (Nenio) : 10 day Logistics decree to give give all generals +1 to the Poison ability (Drake Poison, repeatable every 30 days, costs 1.5k FP & 40 EP)
The Two Blades	Rusty sword : Holy Longsword +5 Radiant blade : Keen Bleed Longsword +5 Reveal Radiance : all units gain +1 attack vs demons for 60 days (Enchanted Weapons buff) Perceive true natre (Angel) : Holy Elder Flaming Longsword +5 Give both to Nenio (Nenio) : Brilliant Energy, Magical Beast Bane, Longsword +5
Business Acumen	Authorize deliveries to succubus : (Evil) X day Diplomacy decree for +5k FP (Trading the Cultist Captives, repeatable every 28 days, no cost) Send troops after succubus : (Lawful) X day Military decree for +100 EP (Raid on the Succubus, no cost) Subjugate the succubus (Demon) : (Evil) 7 day Leadership decree to recruit 12 Vrocks (Enchanted Demons, repeatable every 21 days, no cost) Unaffected by mythic unit recruitment bonuses Introduce to thieflings (Woljif) : (Chaotic) 7 day Logistics decree for +200 FP income & +5 MP income (Deal with the Thieflings, costs 1.5k FP)
Executioner	Punish the jailer : (Good) +25 crusade morale Encourage the jailer : (Evil) all units apply -10 combat morale when striking enemies (Terrifying feat) Take on as apprentice (Lich) : (Evil) +2 EP income Transfer to officer corps (Wenduag) : +2k Military xp, +20 combat morale to all units (Fearless feat) Doesn't stack with other sources of the Fearless buff.
Threatened	Guard during and between battles : +1.5k Military xp Same living conditions for all : +40 crusade morale, -1k Military xp Bring dead officers back (Lich) : all units gain +20 combat morale (Fearless feat) Train the officers (Greybor) : 10 day Leadership decree for +30k xp to all generals (Security Training, costs 1.5k FP & 75 MP)
Enchanting Voice	Sell it : +8k FP Use against demons : most experienced general can put enemies to sleep with the Demonic Lullaby ability All generals gain the Sleep spell. (Demonic Lullaby feat) LMAO. It has a Will DC of 10. Use it for healing : +5% infirmary space for all generals (+1 Reduction of Losses) Set up resting wards (Trickster) : +10% Max HP and +2 initiative to all units for 45 days (Well Rested feat) Teach the soldiers to resist magic (Wenduag) : 6 day Leadership decree to give all units +4 on saving throws against fear, sleep & mind-affecting effects for 60 days (Strengthening the Mind, repeatable every 54 days, costs 6.5k FP & 133 EP)
Some Are More Equal	Try him publicly : (Lawful) +35 crusade morale Conceal the crime : (Chaotic) +7k Diplomacy xp Use the officer (Devil) : (Evil) +5k Diplomacy xp, +15% recruitment growth for 30 days (Friend in the Capital)
Nightmares	Mages drive away nightmares : X day Diplomacy decree to recruit 40 Wizards (Nightmare Wardens, costs 500 FP & 80 EP) Meditate before sleep : 4 day Diplomacy decree to recruit 13 Monks (Harmony of Dreams, costs 200 MP) Make nightmares worse (Demon) : (Evil) all units gain DR 1/- (Tormented feat) Protect soldiers' dreams (Arueshalae) : (Good) +2 EP income
Bestial Upbringing	Accept them : recruit 42 Barbarians Reject them : +25 crusade morale Keep them in the rear (Dragon) : (Good) 3 day Leadership decree to recruit 5 Dragonslayers (Northern Hunters, costs 2.5k FP & 75 MP) Awaken their rage (Wenduag) : (Evil) 9 day Leadership decree to recruit 5 Bloodragers (Unleashed Rage, costs 4.5k FP & 150 MP)
A Remedy for Fear	Ban the potion : +9k Leadership xp Allow the potion : 7 day Military decree to make all units are immune to fear and have -1 to AC for 14 days (Potion of Courage, repeatable every 25 days, Costs 25 EP) Non-reliance on potions (Legend) : (Good) 10 day Leadership decree to recruit 12 Monks (Masters of Serene Thought, no cost)
Garbage Dump	Demand removal of dump : +5.5k Logistics xp Compensation from Kaer Maga : +10k FP & +500 MP Oblige mages to work of damage : +150 EP Rummage around the dump (Trickster) : 1 day Logistics decree to receive random items (Dump Excavation, repeatable every 19 days, no cost) RE_TrashLootSettings is the list it pulls from. If you manage to get anything interesting, lmk. Send garbage back to mages (Ember) : +3k Logistics xp, +10k FP & +25k GP
Soldiers of Fortune	Clamp down : +2 to saving throws against disease and poison for mercenaries (Tough feat), -1 mercenary slot for recruitment Assuming this doesn't stack with other sources of the feat More generous pay : mercenaries grant +1 attack to adjacent allies at the start of a round as a mind-affecting effect (Brave feat via Brave buff), +1 to mercenary recruitment slots, +5% to mercenary recruitment costs (Expensive Mercenaries buff) Doesn't actually increase recruitment cost Doesn't actually give an attack buff to adjacent units. Not even units with the Mercenary tag grant it. Does actually give you the mercenary slot though Lead mercenaries against officers (Trickster) : (Chaotic) recruit 50 Headhunters & 20 Hedge Knights Greybor negotiates (Greybor) : +1 mercenary recruitment slots, +1 free mercenary reroll per week (Glory Among the Mercenaries buff)

Post-vacation (Act 5) events part 3

Event	Option : Outcome
Involuntary Heroism	Approve tactics : (Evil) +1250 Military xp, -25 crusade morale Pay compensation : +1250 Military xp, -20 FP income (Compensation (de)buff) Punish officer : (Good) +35 crusade morale Inspire officer (Angel) : (Good) +30 crusade morale, all generals gain +10% to gained experience (Example for the Soldiers feat) Multiplicative with other experience buffs

Leadership upgrades (2-5)

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Daeran, Harmattan

The Leadership stat gains experience equal to experience gained by a general. A general's experience gain is equal to the total experience of all non-summoned enemies in a battle. All experience buffs affect the amount of Leadership xp gained.

2

• Priests and paladins (Seelah): 5 day Leadership decree for +1d6+4 crusade morale (Glory to the Heroes, repeatable every 30 days, costs nothing)
  
• Make an example of instigators (Regill): 3 day Leadership decree for +1d10+15 morale, -10% recruitment growth for trainable units, +10% mercenary cost (Hunting Down Mutiny, repeatable every 14 days, costs nothing)
  
  • Adjustments are additive with other sources
• Pay the officers (Daeran): 5 day Leadership decree for +1d6+14 crusade morale (Bribes for the Officers, repeatable every 30 days, costs 4k FP)
  
• Pay raise and improved rations (Harmattan): 4 day Leadership decree for +1d6+9 crusade morale (Distributing Provisions, repeatable every 20 days, costs 300 MP)

3

• Knights and paladins (Seelah): +10% infirmary size to all generals (Pious Officers)
  
• Promotion among privates (Regill): +10% xp gain for generals (Striving for Distinction)
  
  • Multiplicative with other xp increases.
• Pay the officers (Daeran): +1 Master of Maneuver to all generals (Promising Officers)
  
• Pay raise and improved rations (Harmattan): +5 combat morale to all units (Heroic Officers)

Logistics upgrades (2-5)

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Woljif, Arueshalae, Lann/Wendaug, Dorgelinda

The Logistics stat gains experience based on constructed buildings. If you remove a building, you lose the xp. The amount per building is listed when you hover over the building in the build-list.

• Recruiting Wendaug in Act 5 doesn't seem to open up her options for selection. Her options are therefore mutually exclusive with Lann's.
  
• Arue spoiler: Evil Arue will not rejoin the council even if you recruit her in Act 5
  
• Nenio has an etude to be a participant on the Logistics council, but there doesn't seem to be a way to activate her participation. Unfortunate.

Level	Options
2	Merchants ( Woljif ): +1 attack/AC to trainable units (Expensive Equipment) Honest and responsible ( Arueshalae ): +2 to saving throws for trainable units (Ready for Anything) Veterans ( Lann ): +10% max HP for trainable units (Only the Essentials feat) Toughest mercenaries ( Wendaug ): +10% max HP for mercenaries (Only the Essentials feat) Connections with capital ( Dorgelinda ): +1 attack and to all saving throws for mercenaries (Equipment from the State)
3	Market and allow trade ( Woljif ): Market (1 per Bastion+) +20 FP income, +1 MP income Ask priests for help ( Arueshalae ): Shrine (1 per Bastion+) +1 EP income, +10 FP income Provide for themselves ( Lann ): Salvager's post (1 per Bastion+) +1 MP income, +1 EP income Fight for supplies ( Wendaug ): Fighting Pit (1 per Bastion+) +1 initiative to trainable units from adjacent recruitment buildings Demand of Nerosyan ( Dorgelinda ): Warehouse (1 per Bastion+) increases adjacent buildings output: +100 FP income (Inn) or +1 MP income (Supply Center) or +1 EP income (Sanctuary)
4	Fellows under our wing ( Woljif ): +33% xp gain to generals (Favoritism feat) Multiplicative with other xp bonuses Priests accompany caravans ( Arueshalae ): +7 EP income Bring bandits to heel ( Lann ): +20 MP income Mercenary escort ( Wendaug ): -5% mercenary cost Additive with other mercenary cost increases Treasury workers escort caravans ( Dorgelinda ): +15 movement for generals (Caravan Masters feat)
5	Salvage removed from list of potential generals' feats if taken. Hush and send officers to distant forts ( Woljif ): +10 FP income and +1 MP income per controlled region (total: 6 regions Act 3, 10 regions Act 5) Chance to redeem ( Arueshalae ): +33% to the effect of positive morale on all resource incomes Multiplies your morale by 1.33 then rounds down when applying it as a multiplier for resource incomes. Eg. 20 morale which would normally give a 1.2 multiplier becomes 1.26 Execute the offenders ( Lann ): all generals gain +1k Finance points when defeating an army (Salvage feat) Execute the offenders ( Wendaug ): all generals gain +1k Finance points when defeating an army (Salvage feat) Imprison Fellows at Mendev ( Dorgelinda ): +5% to all resource incomes (Demonstration of Loyalty buff) Additive with other buffs to incomes such as the repeatable decrees from Diplomacy

Military upgrades (2-5)

Upgrades available during Act 3.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Greybor, Ulbrig, Wendaug, Odan

The Military stat gains experience equal to the value of units recruited. It's the slowest one to accumulate, particularly if you advance across the Worldwound with no losses to force you to wait a week for reinforcements. Recruiting units via decrees does not grant xp. Recruiting units via events also does not grant xp.

Gotta love that the upgrade descriptions are so... concise and descriptive

Level	Options
2	Footmen are upgraded to a different unit that is now recruitable Hold contests ( Seelah ): Champions Tight formation ( Regill ): Shield Bearers Long spears ( Greybor ): Spearman Dogs reinforce infantry ( Ulbrig ): Houndmasters The Houndmasters are affected by buildings that would buff stats such as Training Grounds. The summoned Hounds are, however, unaffected by building's buffs. Criminals ( Wendaug ): (Evil) Convicts Convicts can decrease their own morale on attack. I can't figure out what causes this. Often, their attack just doesn't affect anyone's morale. They may also lose morale when attacked? May be a bugged interaction between Zombies and Convicts both having Terrifiying Appearance. By turning AI on and off in a battle seems to correct the behaviour to affect the enemy, if the Convicts were affecting their own morale. New recruits ( Odan ): Conscripts
3	Archers are upgraded to a different unit that is now recruitable After making a decision, a mobile army will spawn far west of Drezen beyond the location where you ambush the Dragon. This army must be defeated before the decree for the following rank-up becomes available. It will head straight to Drezen, so you're fighting it no matter what within a couple days. Covered by rangers ( Seelah ): Rangers Strengthened with snipers ( Regill ): Marksmen Headhunters ( Greybor ): Headhunters Hunters ( Ulbrig ): Axe Hunters All Out gives a +1 bonus to the damage multiplier that is additive with the base damage multiplier, ie. a trainable axe thrower with 1 training grounds and All Out active would deal : (2d6+34)*(1+1-0.1)*(1.1) = (2d6+34)*2.09 This is approximately equivalent to making 2 attacks in a single action. The AC penalty doesn't take effect until their next turn starts (the buff stays for 1 round, is removed on turn start and the penalty is applied when removed). Hire bandits ( Wendaug ): (Chaotic) Bandits Peasants with slings ( Odan ): Slingers

Level	Options
4	Must defeat the mobile army to the west before the decree becomes available. Unlocks Spellcasters' Lodges. Mounted Scouts are upgraded to a different unit that is now recruitable Paladins won't let you down ( Seelah ): Paladins Rely on cuirassiers ( Regill ): Cuirassiers Pay hedge knights ( Greybor ): Hedge Knights Wolf Riders ( Ulbrig ): Wolf Riders Looking for skilled riders ( Wendaug ): Raiders Rely on light cavalry ( Odan ): Light Cavalry
5	Storm's Peak is just SE of Lands of Yath. It will be an army with 3 Balors in it. Activated abilities are swift actions. Aggressive cavalry charge ( Seelah ): trainable cavalry gain an ability granting +1 speed, +20% damage and -2 AC for 1 round (Charge) Taldan Phalanx ( Regill ): trainable infantry gain an ability granting +1 speed, +20% damage and -2 AC for 1 round (Charge) Let officers use their initiative ( Greybor ): cavalry and ranged units (including mercenaries) gain +2 initiative (Independence) Tricks of Old Sarkoris ( Ulbrig ): ALL infantry and ranged units gain +4 initiative and +2 attack on the first turn(Cunning Tactics) Diversion tactics ( Wendaug ): ALL infantry gain a buff causing their attacks to poison enemies, reducing the targets speed to 0 for 1 turn (Debilitating Poison) Anything immune to poison is immune to this, ie. every demon and some other units Fight in a defensive formation ( Odan ): all units gain +2 to saving throws against disease and poison (Tough)

Leadership upgrades (6-8)

Upgrades available during Act 5.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Daeran, Harmattan, (Sir Thommis)

Level	Options
6	Reach out to soldiers ( Seelah ): generals grant +15 combat morale at start of battle (Charismatic) Executing traitors ( Regill ): generals grant +3 combat morale to a unit when it's damaged (Decimation) Pay successors ( Daeran ): generals give -15 combat morale to enemy units at start of battle (Bloodthirsty Officers) Parley with Wary ( Harmattan ): -25 crusade morale Blockade their forces ( Personal ): generals grant +1 combat morale to a unit at the start of their turn. Additional turns from high morale don't count. (Test of Strength)
7	Send us holy relics ( Seelah ): generals gain +15 power at level 20 (Relic Keeper feat) Knowledge of warfare ( Regill ): generals gain +15% (additive with base multipliers) damage for ALL ranged and infantry units (Brilliant Strategist feat) Send their offspring ( Daeran ): generals gain +20% damage (multiplicative with base multipliers) for ALL cavalry and grand tier units (Noble Recruits feat) Send money and resources ( Harmattan ): +100 FP income, +5 MP income, +4 EP income
8	Greet with a celebration ( Seelah ): 7 day Leadership decree for +25% to generals' infirmary size for 30 days (+1 Heavenly Ward feat) (Feast of the Sacred Host, repeatable every 23 days, costs 750 FP & 50 MP) Trap and execute Harmattan ( Regill ): unlocks a feat and a decree Tactical Superiority (general lvl 20): +20% damage (multiplicative, separate multiplier in expanded damage info) to a specific unit type; ranged->infantry, infantry->cavalry, cavalry->ranged (rock paper scissors) Military Exercise (repeatable every 10 days, costs 500 FP): 5 day Leadership decree for +50k xp to all generals Eliminate Harmattan in Nerosyan ( Daeran ): 7 day decree Leadership for +3 Power to all generals (+1 Mighty Servant feat) (Dark bonds, repeatable every 30 days, costs 100 EP) Greet with a memorial service ( Sir Thommis ): 7 day Leadership decree to recruit a random army (Great Commemoration, repeatable every 30 days, costs 40k FP) Pulls from specific list of presets (both units and amount). Reloading to a save before the decree completes and advancing past midnight will generate a new army. Barbarians, Bloodragers, Sorcerers, Witches Paladins, Warpriests, Clerics, Champions Light Cavalry, Conscripts, Slingers, Bards Hedge Knights, Headhunters, Dragonslayers, Spearmen Cuirassiers, Shield Bearers, Rangers, Honor Guards

Logistics upgrades (6-8)

Upgrades available during Act 5.

Advisors: Woljif, Arueshalae, Lann/Wendaug, Dorgelinda

• Recruiting Wendaug in Act 5 doesn't seem to open up her options for selection. Her options are therefore mutually exclusive with Lann's.
  
• Arue spoiler: Evil Arue will not rejoin the council even if you recruit her in Act 5
  
• Nenio has an etude to be a participant on the Logistics council, but there doesn't seem to be a way to activate her participation. Unfortunate.

Level	Options
6	Go ahead with scheme ( Woljif ): 14 day Logistics decree for +10% to Finance points (max 10k) (Tricky Steal, 30 day cooldown, no cost) Limit to abandoned property ( Arueshalae ): 14 day Logistics decree for +750 to Material points (Acquiring Unclaimed Property, 30 day cooldown, no cost) Trade on black market ( Lann ): 2 decress that allow trading of FP and MP for the other Distribution of Trophies: 6 day Logistics decree, 1 day cooldown, +220 MP, -1k FP Selling Excesses: 7 day Logistics decree, 1 day cooldown, +1.25k FP, -100 MP Grab everything we can ( Wendaug ): 30 day Logistics decree for 10k FP, 600 MP & 65 EP (Warehouse Raiding, no cost) Procure everything you can ( Dorgelinda ): 14 day Logistics decree for +120 FP income, +10 MP income, +2 EP income for 16 days (Corruption, 16 day cooldown, no cost) We take no part in plundering ( Other ): (Lawful) +10 crusade morale Increments the FlagLogistics6Bonus Flag to 1
7	Reminder: fractional unit recruitment, ie. 7.4 units, after modifiers, rounds to the nearest integer, ie. 7 units added to total recruitment. All buffs are additive with Garrison buildings and other recruitment buffs. Feed strongest first ( Woljif ): +30% recruitment growth for Spellcasters and Grand Tier units, -20% growth for Infantry and Ranged Feed weaker first ( Arueshalae ): +30% recruitment growth for Infantry and Ranged, -20% growth for Spellcasters and Grand Tier units Only those loyal to crusade remain ( Lann ): +25% to recruitment growth of mythic units, -15% to growth of trainable units (Holy War buff) Affects mythic units recruited via decrees. Due to rounding down, the decree must recruit at least 4 of a unit to gain an additional unit from this increase. Does not affect mythic units recruited via events. Is NOT multiplicative with crusade morale for units from decrees. Feed mercenaries first ( Wendaug ): +2 slots to available Mercenary units, -15% growth for all trainable units Untested: assumed additive with Garrison buildings and other recruitment buffs similar to Lann's reduction. Cut rations for everyone ( Dorgelinda ): +10% to growth of trainable units Everyone gets same food as before ( Other ): (Good) +10 crusade morale Increments the FlagLogistics7Bonus Flag to 1
8	If you listened to any of your advisors during the 6 and 7 rank-ups, you will receive a 30 day Logistics decree for +15k FP, +1k MP, -35 crusade morale (Requisitions, repeatable every 30 days, no cost). You must complete the decree to trigger the actual rank-up for level 8. Once completed, you must then return to the citadel for the rank-up; there is no report informing you to return once the decree has finished. If you didn't plunder AND maintained rations, ie. got both Bonus flags, you will immediately be able to rank up as well as receiving a 15 day Logistics decree for +5k FP, +500 MP, +200 EP, +20 crusade morale (Donations, repeatable every 15 days, no cost). You can set the flags with toybox and skip a day to get the improved rank-up. If you set both Bonus flags after having the xp for rank 8, you'll get the rank-up card for both "paths". Only 1 of any building can be built. Buildings are Drezen only. Worthy palace ( Woljif ): Palace: +25% to FP, MP & EP income Additive with the Demonstration of Loyalty buff from rank 5 Logistics. Beautiful garden ( Arueshalae ): Spiritual Garden: +25 combat morale to all units, +50% to generals' energy recovery, +20% recruitment growth for Mythic units Energy recovery is multiplicative with normal recovery amounts, ie. only first Alchemist's Lab counts, ignores Magical Reserves, etc... Recruitment growth is additive with the Holy War buff from rank 7. Trade on black market ( Lann ): Stronghold: +25% to recruitment growth (additive) of trainable units Grand fortifications ( Wendaug ): Stronghold: -12.5% to cost of recruiting mercenaries (additive) Cathedral ( Dorgelinda ): Cathedral: all units gain +15% Max HP, +3 attack & +3 AC as well as +10% damage against demons Damage multiplier is listed separate from all others. Is multiplicative with all others as well.

Military upgrades (6-8)

Upgrades available during Act 5.
Advisors: Seelah, Regill, Greybor, Ulbrig, Wendaug, Odan

Gotta love that the upgrade descriptions are so... concise and descriptive

Recruiting Wendaug in Act 5 doesn't open up her options for selection.

Level	Options
6	Church Guards are upgraded to a different unit that is now recruitable Warpriests ( Seelah ): Warpriests Monks ( Regill ): Monks Daggermark Poisoners' Guild ( Greybor ): Assassins Witches ( Wenduag ): Witches They're so bad, they can cast Misfortune on themselves if you let the AI run a battle. But, they have Dispel, so.... Druids ( Ulbrig ): Druids They have 0 power therefore, they heal for 0. Bug fix one day. 2.1.4 added 11 Power to them! Bards ( Odan ): Bards
7	Requires the defeat of Khorramzadeh's army near Leper's smile to gain the rank-up decree. Seelah, Regill, Greybor and Ulbrig's abilities are swift actions, the others are standard actions. No save for abilities despite a listed DC. Enemies with immunity to mind-affecting effects are evidently unaffected by the mind-affecting abilities. Explain to cavalry's officers ( Seelah ): all cavalry gain an ability that reduces a targets speed to 0 for 1 round on melee attack (Contain the Enemy, refreshes at start of turn) Gaining an extra turn from high morale maintains the buff for the additional attack. Brief the infantry's officers ( Regill ): trainable infantry gain an ability that causes enemies in a 3x3 area (centred on the allied unit) to target and attack them for 1 turn (Bait, 1 use per battle, mind-affecting) Put your clever tactic into action ( Greybor ): trainable cavalry gain an ability that causes an enemy unit to move and attack them for 3 turns (Taunt, 1 use per battle, mind-affecting) Stops units with abilities from doing anything but move + attack. A taunted target will only attack the source unit. If the source is unreachable, the unit takes the Total Defense action. If a demon can teleport, it will do so as its movement while taunted. Ranged units receive additional training ( Wenduag ): all ranged units gain an ability to pull non-Large enemies 2 squares towards themselves (Harassing Shooting, mind-affecting) It's bugged. The ability can't target any unit and has no effect when targeting a point. Wear them down ( Ulbrig ): all infantry gain an ability that reduces a targets speed to 0 for 1 round on melee attack (Contain the Enemy, refreshes at start of turn) Same thing Seelah gives, but for infantry instead of cavalry. Gaining an extra turn from high morale maintains the buff for the additional attack. Taking your suggestion ( Odan ): trainable infantry gain an ability that causes all enemy ranged units to attack them for 1 round (Juicy Target, mind-affecting) Can only affect a unit once per battle despite being usable every turn. If you use it twice due to Tactician or high morale, you will remove the debuff from the enemy unit.
8	If you speak to Odan in the courtyard after rank up, you can recruit him as a level 15 Ranger general. Has pretty good skill choices and a chance for MoM IV (if you took Daeran's option for +1 MoM earlier in Leadership). Unfortunately he has 0 xp so you'll have some difficulty getting him to any higher level (especially given that this stat will only reach level 8 after you've probably cleared every army. Hardened Veterans are upgraded to a different unit that is now recruitable Lastwall's Aid ( Seelah ): Knights of Ozem Esoterium Lodge ( Regill ): Arcanists Dragonslayers' guild ( Greybor ): Dragonslayers Hold of Belkzen ( Wenduag ): Bloodragers Summon the Shifters ( Ulbrig ): Shifters Tiger Form kinda wild. Wolverine/Boar not so much, but Tiger absolutely slaps. They attack with their full Attack and Damage mods, but because of Shifter bonuses they get a large increase to their damage mod on top of having more attacks when shifted than when unshifted. Tiger Form also has an ability called Grabber that reduces a struck enemy's speed to 0, gives them -2 AC and denies them the use of abilities (unconfirmed if functioning). Molthune ( Odan ): Honor Guards

[Zaukodar]

I love and appreciate the amount of detail and depth you went into with this guide. It absolutely rocks!

[azalea]

thank you for this guide, I had so many questions and this really answered all of them, and more (just as promised). really wished Owlcat explained everything better (or perhaps even have a different method of crusade management) but of course who can blame a small indie dev, ecks dee

great work!

[Sly]

Because, why not?

[Dusty Duster]

why

[kingtigertrdg]

Ya, I'll do that once legit beat this game then go for the extra perks, but totally understandable to find and dig out all the stuff and option outcomes for guides like these. I think there is still stuff out there that most don't know about honestly. But sadly Owlcat has kinda moved on except the next year extended 2'd DLC season as they move onto Warhammer, sadly as I think they really missed it with not going with Paizo's Sy Fy Fantasy game Starfinder :(. But maybe their next project or Pathfinder 2nd edition perhaps. hell Starfinder just had a Kingmake in Space AP that just wrapped up, right up their ally. Then tyhe Drift crisis would also have been perfect!! But I digress

Tom

[Sly]

I'll end up adding a section on save editing/using toybox at some point. If you check online there are some guides on setting up toybox or editing the .json to manually set your morale to a different value. I have my crusade set to a minimum of -20 morale instead of -100 since I spent almost 3 months in Act 3 checking to see if I had exhausted all the events.

[kingtigertrdg]

Thanks, no friggin clue how I missed that......... SIGH!! I had to go to a just after capturing Drezen old save, as I "timed out" and went down that 100% neg morale. All Stationary demons destroyed, all forts captured, just the new spawning ones and they don't help with nothing. Took a "tad" bit to much time exploring and building up 3 general armies, still have a lot of open only complete in chapter 3 Quests open and NO TIME now, LOL

Good times regardless though

Tom

[Sly]

If you're talking about the Act 3 event, ctrl+F for "giants" and you'll find the outcomes in the Post-Drezen events part 2 section

[kingtigertrdg]

Nice guide, any clue on effects of the Giant event and all the outcomes?

thanks

Tom