Anno Fans - Anno 1503: Combat

Combat is a powerful if costly means of protecting your population or taking advatage of your neighbour's weaknesses.

Any commander worth his salt knows these facts like port and starboard.

Unit Health
All military units have a vitality bar which indicates their degree of damage. Green represents perfect health while red indicates severe injury.

Unit Range
A unit has two ranges: close combat and ranged combat. The length of each weapon type determines the close combat range.

Range Of Sight
Range of sight determines when an enemy can be spotted by a unit. Each type of soldier, war machine or ship has a different range of sight.

Territory
Each settlement has its sovereign territory. Territories are invisible borders that may also include parts of the ocean around an island.

Terrain Effects
Terrain affects the speed of units or war machines, including attack and defence potential. For expample, if ranged combat units are on higher ground than the attacked enemy, this increases the range of their weapons.

Military Costs
An active military costs your city money.
To view military costs, click the warehouse. The city status menu appears. This menu displays the military costs to your city.

Soldiers

Soldiers are infantry units that are classified by troop types. Troop types are divided into close combat and ranged combat units.
Close Combat Units: Crew, Cavalry, Lancer, Pikeman, Medic, Scout, Swordsmen, Musketeer.
Ranged Combat Units: Crossbowmen, Archer, Marksman

To train soldiers, you need money and a sufficient quantity of the weapon required for this type of soldier. Soldiers are trained in a fortress.

Most weapon technologies must be researched in a school or university before they can be made. As soon as a type of weapon is available, the unit using it becomes available in the train soldiers menu of the fortress.

To train soldiers, select the fortress and then select a troop type in the fortress menu. To cancel training once it has been started, select the CANCEL TRAINING icon. More soldiers can be simultaneously trained in larger fortresses.

Soldiers gain experience while engaging in combat, making them stronger in both attack and defence.
A soldier's experience is indicated by experience points, indicated as up to three yellow dots above the vitality bar.

Ships

Ships can effectively transport large numbers of soldiers.
To load soldiers onto a ship, select one or more soldiers and right-click a ship close to the coast. the soldiers are then loaded onto the ship.
To unload soldiers from a ship, sail the ship to a coast. click the units to be placed on land in the ship status menu. the soldiers are then unloaded.

You can dismiss soldiers in order to save money. to dismiss a soldier, select the unit you want to dismiss and click the DISCHARGE UNIT icon.

Medics heal wounded soldiers. Medics are trained in fortresses like other units.
To heal a soldier, click the medic and then right-click the wounded soldier. If there are wounded units in the medic;s service area, he automatically heals thema medic may heal other medics but not himself.

Warships and soldiersd can be placed in formation. Choose from six different formations, which have different effects on movement, attack and defence modes.
To establish a formation, select the desired warchips or soldiers by drawing a box around them, then select a formation from the buttons that appear in Info Mode.
To dissolve a formation, click the DISBAND GROUPS icon.

War Machines

War machines are produced by the war machine builder and the cannon foundry. there are four different types of war machines: Catapults, Mortars, Cannons and Siege Towers.
Mortars and cannons require one crew and catapults and siege towers can use up to two crews for incresed speed.
Special crews must be trained to move and operate war machines. this troop type is trained in a fortress but is also trained during the construction of a war machine.

Defensive Structures

Defensive structures are fixed installations that protect the city and its inhabitants.

There are three different types of fortresses - small, medium and large - which train and station soldiers. to ststion soldiers in a fortress, click one or more units and click the fortress.

The city wall is a stone boundary that prevents enemy units from invading your city. to build a city wall, click the CITY WALL icon in the military installations menu, then click the desired location for the wall. To extend the wall, hold down the mouse button and drag.
You must have wall access to place soldiers on top of city walls. to build wall access, click the WALL ACCESS icon in the millitary installations menu and click the location on the city wall where you wish to place wall access. wall access must be placed facing the city interior, otherwise enemy troops can enter your city.
Only certain kinds of soldiers, such as swordsmen, archers and medics can be stationed on the wall. Stationing ranged combat units on city walls gives them a greater range.

The watchtower can be manned by up to two soldiers. Archers, crossbowmen and marksmen work best due to their ranged attacks.

Warships are used for combat at sea. they can be used against other naval units, but are also suitable for attacking the coastal infrastructure.