Military Units: Military units are hired for the sole purpose of defending your village, or to wage campaigns against enemy villages. There are many units which you can use to defend your village, or to attack your enemies. Your military is imperative to protect your lands from those who seek your fortunes.

Direction: Kingdom Menu -> Military Actions -> Army - Archers (or any of the other links in that submenu)

As your village develops, and your reserves grow big and fat, you will need a strong military force to protect your village from invaders who come in search of loot. Your army will ensure that your village does not become an easy pick for the enemy, and puts up a fight when invaded. There are many military units, each with its own bonuses and drawbacks, so it is completely up to you how you assemble your forces.

Unit Type	Information
Archers Associated Building: Archery Units	Archers are mostly defensive units and are used to keep hordes of enemy infantry and light siege at bay, but they are commonly used to inflict starter casualties in the preliminary rounds of a siege. Because of their versatility, Archers are slightly more expensive than normal units. Preliminary Round Action: Attack target's Light Siege units inflicting starter casualties (for the raider). If the target does not have any Light Siege units present, Archers shoot a small volley into the enemy range killing a small portion of enemy troops. For the defender: Archers line up alongside your walls and towers to repel the invasion. They target the invading Light Siege units and inflict starter casualties before the main round can begin.
Cavalry Associated Building: Stables	Cavalry is one of the strongest and most commonly used unit types in the lands of Zhentor. They stampede in large groups to either trample other enemy units, or to break up formation lines, sending your enemies units in disarray and routing them. Because Cavalry does not participate in preliminary rounds, it is highly valuable as it has the highest chances of surviving until the final round of the battle. You can almost always expect your Cavalry units to make it into the final round with little losses and determine the outcome of battle. As a result, Cavalry units are quite expensive and timely to train.
Infantry Associated Building: Training Grounds	Infantry units are common “on-foot” soldiers and can be used to march upon enemy lands in great numbers. They can be used as buffers, and to provide support for the more sturdy units. Because of their relatively average stats, they are quite reasonable to employ and train in good time. Their most common use is to strike the enemy in suicide-waves and they are almost always seen in the frontlines. Preliminary Round Action: Infantry units are quite useful for the defender as they attack the raider's Heavy Siege units before the final round, inflicting starter casualties. This, of course, can stop damage to defender's walls and towers, proving to be quite a nice advantage.
Light Siege Associated Building: War Camps	Light Siege units are quite useful for taking down the enemy's walls and towers, though they are not as effective as the Heavy Siege units at this particular task. However, Light Siege units are still quite useful as they have the ability to participate in normal battle rounds and attack enemy troops as well. Due to their flexibility and useability, Light Siege units cost twice as much as normal units and their training times are not too favorable either. Preliminary Round Action: Attack enemy Infantry units and inflict starter casualties (only for the raider). If the target does not have any Infantry units present, Light Siege units perform a light bomardment on the enemy range killing a small portion of enemy troops.
Heavy Siege Associated Building: War Camps	Heavy Siege units are the most expensive and timely units to employ in Zhentor Online. However, Heavy Siege units are also the most effective and efficient at destroying walls and towers at a high capacity so they are well worth the trouble. Heavy Siege units, however, are quite weak and it takes good planning and strategy to make them survive until the final round of the battle. Since this is rarely possible, these units rarely see more than a couple of battlefronts.
Mercenaries Associated Building: Mercenary Camps	Mercenaries are troops for hire. They defend and fight for your village as long as they are well paid. A strong economy ensures power through these entities, as they defend you against enemy troops as well as fight side by side with your men. However, using these dishonourable units can lead to lower army morals, and therefore inefficient operation of your military units. Mercenaries can only be used if you have positive reputation. Subsequently, mercenaries also reduce your reputation if you use them in your raids (-1 if you win, -2 if you loose, sometimes even more). Mercenaries require pay every hour. The hourly charge is shown in the Mercenaries sheet (Military Actions -> Mercenaries). If you cannot pay the hourly charge, all your mercenary units are automatically disbanded.
Ranking Units Associated Building: None	Ranking Units are special military leaders which lead and/or train your army. Ranking units are quite expensive to hire but offer diverse effects such as faster military training, better discipline (more army moral raised per turn) and even certain bonuses in battle (e.g. Officers offer +200 attack bonus for every 200 men sent in battle). Certain ranking units are only available for set races. It might be a good idea to test a couple of villages with different races and see which one best suits your play-style. Although ranking units cannot be killed in battle, they can be killed by other means, such as path attacks and assasinations by infiltration units.
Special Troops Associated Building: War Camps	Special Troops are based on the Guild Plans you possess, if any. There are 9 guilds, each offering a choice of paths for you to follow. Your special troops will be based around the guild you decide to research. Special troops, as the name might suggest, are powerful troops used in order to strengthen your armies and turn the tides of battle with special abilities. Special troops are more cost-effective than normal conventional troops and some even offer unique bonuses such as self-destruction. There are even some free units which are rewarded by certain authorities upon the successful completion of a Volunteer Troop guild plan. Volunteer troops are composed of soldiers associated with special organisations, such as Clans, Temples, Guilds and other societies within Zhentor Online. Volunteer troops are offered to you as ‘tribute’, and thus do not require upkeep, like conventional troops. You must research the appropriate plan in order to receive the respective volunteer troops, which will be awarded to you every few turns. You must have some unemployed soldiers in order to exchange with an offered volunteer troop.

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Hiring Units: To employ military units, first and foremost you must have some units of War Camps built. War Camps allow for soldiers to be employed from the Population tab. Once employed, soldiers can be distributed to military units. Secondly, you must build the respective buildings required for the military units, depending on the unit type, as mentioned above.

For example, if you don’t have any Archery Units built, you will not be able to hire Archer type units. The amount of military units you can hire depends on the amount of units you have built of the associated building.

Additionally, you need to have some unemployed soldiers to train into military units. E.g. You have employed a total of 1000 soldiers from the Population tab. You now go to Military Actions -> Army - Archers to hire some archers for your village. The maximum amount of archers you can hire is 1000 units, but that also depends on how much Archery Units you have built. You hire 900 archers. That leaves you with 100 unemployed soldiers. The maximum number of units you can now hire is 100.

Choose carefully when hiring units, for you will have to pay their upkeep every turn.

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Training & Upkeep: Initially, when you hire military units, they start at 1.0% fitness (or slightly more depending on the previous fitness of the unit force). At each end turn, your military units will increase their fitness. The amount of fitness gained at each turn depends on the Training Modifier of the unit, with higher training modifiers leading to longer training times. The more fit a unit is, the higher its attack and defence.

Military units require upkeep every turn.

The amount of upkeep required per unit is displayed in the Unit Cost column. The total upkeep for the respective unit is displayed under the Total Cost column. These stats are displayed next to every unit in the army pages (Military Actions -> Army - Archers or any other sheet within the submenu). If you cannot pay the upkeep, you will NOT be able to end a turn. More importantly, if you hire any mercenary units, they require upkeep every hour. If you are unable to pay their costs every hour (the funds are automatically deducted from your village whether you are online or not), the whole mercenary force will disband.

Tip: Units below 20.1% fitness cannot take part in raids!

Tip: Special Rankings Units such as Generals and Officers can speed up training times for your military units.

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Army Stats: Your army stats reflect the military units you have hired, and their fitness. For example, your village's army attack is the sum of the attack of all your hired military units. Army stats can be modified by various external factors.

	Left: Army stats
Each military sheet displays attack, defence and upkeep of your army, as well as for the unit type the sheet is being viewed for. In the above print screen, we are viewing the Archers sheet. We can view individual attack, defence and total upkeep for all archer units, as well as for the whole army. This allows better management of your military units.

How the stats are worked out:

Generally, the fitness of your military units determines your army attack and defence. However this is not entirely true, as there are various effectors in Zhentor Online that modify these statistics depending on your race, alignment, class, and even the time of day! The following factors can alter your army stats:

• Plans - Various special and guild plans can give you special bonuses and modify your attack, defence and upkeep.
• Talismans - Talismans, which can be bought from the Zhentonian Market, can also alter your army stats.
• Race Modifiers - Each race has different modifiers for village development. These can be viewed from the race info sheets for your particular race.
• Army Moral - If your army moral is lower than 50, then your military units will not be 100% fit, thus reducing their attack and defence.
• Race performance - Your army stats can also be affected depending on the performance of your character's race in the time of day.

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Fields Explained

Training Modifier: Defines the speed at which this unit reaches its maximum fitness. The higher the training modifier, the more turns required to train the unit to maximum fitness.

Plan Req: The plan your scholars have to research before this unit becomes available.

Cost: The upkeep of the unit per turn.