Commanders (Generals) – how they work
The General (sometimes referred to as the "Commander" in the interface) is one of the aspects that new players underestimate and then wonder why their attacks fail and defenses fall. Without a General, you can't make a proper attack or defend your castle effectively. The General leads your army into battle and provides bonuses on top of the raw unit numbers – and often determines how many troops you can send at all. Be careful of a common confusion: a General and a Baron are not the same. The General leads the army and provides bonuses to attack, defense, and speed. The Baron is a completely different mechanic (own territory/castle), so when you hear "Baron" used as a synonym for Commander, take it with a grain of salt. Here we will talk about Generals. Two equally sized armies can perform completely differently depending on who leads them and how well their equipment is tuned. We will go through how Generals work, how to obtain them, how to enhance them with equipment, and why you want to train more of them – especially for attack and especially for defense.
What does a General actually do and why you need one
You assign a General to an army when you send it into battle – whether you are attacking a foreign castle, raiding, fighting NPCs, or defending your own castle. Their main job is to provide bonuses to the army. And be careful, it’s not just a flat bonus to attack. Generals provide differentiated bonuses: specifically for melee units, specifically for ranged units, and specifically for tools (siege engines when attacking, defensive tools when defending). Therefore, the army composition depends on the General you are taking – it makes no sense to take a ranged army with a General that boosts melee.
The second crucial thing is the General's capacity (leadership). The General tells you how many units you can take into that wave. It is not true that you can load a thousand soldiers just like that – the limit is set by the General and your research. A weak General can carry fewer troops, so even if you have full barracks, you won't be able to send them all at once. Many people overlook this and then wonder why the opponent sends stronger waves in the same situation.
The bonuses from the General are added to the base strength of the units. So an equally sized army with a good General is significantly stronger than the same army with a worn-out General. When you send an attack without a General (just with the ruler or none at all), you lose an entire layer of strength and are also hindered by lower capacity.
Practical advice: never send a serious attack or occupy a defense without a General. If you don't have a good one, at least take the best one you have on hand. Even a weak General is better than none.
How to obtain a General
Generals can be obtained from various sources, and it pays off to collect all of them that you encounter:
- From events and leaderboard rewards – seasonal and thematic events are often the main source of the strongest Generals. A General (or parts of one) is often obtained for event currency or for tokens you collect during the event, or directly for your placement on the leaderboard. When you see a General in the rewards, go for it.
- From chests and bundles – some chests and purchase bundles contain Generals or their parts. Here, be careful about what you actually receive, so you don't waste rubies on something you already have.
- From progressing in the game and completing tasks – you will also receive a basic General simply by progressing through the game.
When it comes to Generals, pay attention to their rarity. The higher the rarity, the higher the base bonuses, higher capacity, and usually more equipment slots. A rarer General with empty slots can be better overall than a common one filled with equipment because the ceiling to which you can raise it is higher.
Do not sell or discard Generals just because they seem weak. Over time, they can become a second or third string for defense, where you need to occupy multiple castles at once.
Equipment, sets, and gems – how to strengthen your General
This is where most of the real strength of a General lies. Each General has slots for equipment, and you place artifacts in them that add bonuses on their own. The types of slots vary by General, so do not stick to the general idea of 'weapon, armor, shield' – follow what you actually have available for that specific General and what fits those slots.
Things to watch out for:
- Rarity of equipment – just like with Generals, rarer pieces provide higher values. One strong piece is better than three weak ones, but the ideal is to fill the slots with strong equipment.
- Sets – when you equip multiple pieces from the same set, you receive a set bonus on top. It pays off to aim for assembling a complete set for one General instead of mixing random pieces. The set bonus often makes a bigger difference than the individual stats of the pieces.
- Gems – gems are placed into equipment, adding additional bonuses. Divide them by role: give attack gems to your attacking General, defense gems to your defensive General. And go one level deeper – if your attacking General is focused on tools, take gems for tools, not for melee. Don't mix them unnecessarily, or you'll dilute the effect.
Strategic advice: do not spread strong equipment evenly across all Generals. Choose one main attacking General and stuff the best attacking set and attack gems into them. You will make them your main hammer. Once you have that one ready, then deal with the next.
Offensive vs. defensive General – and why it goes even further
This is the difference that matters. Offensive and defensive Generals fundamentally do two different things, and you want to specialize them distinctly.
Offensive General: strengthens the army you send out to foreign castles, raiders, and NPCs. Here, you want to maximize the attack bonus – and especially for the type of strength you are actually using. One General boosts melee and ranged units more, another boosts tools (battering rams, catapults). You compose your army accordingly. Speed bonuses also come into play, as a faster army arrives sooner and the opponent has less time to react.
Defensive General: holds the units that defend your castle when someone attacks you. Here, you go for defense bonuses and defensive tools. And don’t forget about the fronts – defense is calculated separately for the front gate and separately for the side gates. A well-aimed attack goes against the front where you are weakest, so arrange your defense and General with consideration of where the opponent can strike.
Regarding speed, one correction to what is often said: in purely passive defense of your own castle, movement speed is really of no use, because the General is not going anywhere. But you also send a General to defend foreign castles – ally support, alliance defense. There, movement speed plays a role again, because support must arrive on time. So 'the defender doesn’t go anywhere' only applies to your own castle, not for supporting allies.
Why not mix one universal General: if you keep pulling one General from offense to defense and back, you will always have half of the bonuses unused. A universal General is average everywhere, a specialist is top in one thing. Therefore, it pays to have at least two: one for attack, one for defense.
Why you want more Generals, not just one
Once you have one decent offensive and one defensive General, you will run into the fact that it is not enough. And here’s why it pays off to build a deeper bench.
- Defense of multiple castles at once – when you have multiple castles (main castle, bases, castles in other areas), you need defenders for each of them simultaneously. One General is only in one place. If you are attacked on two castles at once, the second one will be without a General unless you have a backup.
- Attacking multiple targets or in waves – during larger operations, you send multiple camps or waves in succession. Each wave wants its own General, and each General has its own capacity. With one General, you can only attack one thing at a time, and you are also limited by how many troops they can carry.
- A General is 'busy' when deployed – as long as they are in an ongoing attack or assigned to defense, you cannot use them properly elsewhere.
Practical approach: first, train one top offensive and one top defensive General (put the best sets and gems into them). Then build a second and third string from other Generals and weaker equipment to cover simultaneous attacks and defend multiple castles. And don’t forget that castle defense does not rely solely on the General – the overall state of the castle, public order, and reasonably set taxes help you maintain a functioning economy to build your army. The General is the pinnacle of that pyramid, but they need a healthy castle beneath them.
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