The 10‑Minute Starter Plan

1. Open the Map and claim nearby unclaimed land to expand your footprint.
2. Tax (1 turn) a few times to get early gold for your first buildings and recruits.
3. Build Farms to raise Supplies cap (so you can hold more troops).
4. Recruit a starter stack (enough to discourage opportunists).
5. Build an Obelisk once you can afford it so you can bank more mana and push spells later.

Early game is about not wasting turns and getting a basic economy online.

Turns

Turns are your action fuel. Most actions cost turns. Turns regenerate up to your cap (288). A new turn is generated every 300 seconds while you are below cap.

• If you’re capped, you’re wasting regeneration. Spend turns regularly.
• When in doubt: Map, Tax, or Focus keeps you progressing.

Resources

• Gold: buildings + recruiting. If you can’t rebuild, you can’t win wars.
• Mana: spells + magical pressure. Big wars are decided by mana timing.
• Valor: unlocks Wizards of Valor (your combat identity).
• Power: a threat signal — not the victory condition.
• Land: the score, the bragging rights, the “world domination” number.

Map Basics: Claim • Move • Attack

The Map is the game. You’ll use it to expand, reposition, and start wars.

• Claim — take unclaimed land and grow your territory.
• Move — reposition within your own territory (setup for attacks/defense).
• Attack — only against bordering enemies. No “air-bombing” across the realm.

Rule of thumb: If you’re not touching them on the map, you can’t meaningfully fight them.

Economy: Tax • Focus • Buildings

Your economy is what lets you keep fighting when the first battle doesn’t end the realm.

• Tax (1 turn): immediate gold injection for recruiting + buildings.
• Focus (1 turn): immediate mana recovery so you can cast and research.
• Farms: raise Supplies cap so you can hold more troops.
• Obelisks: raise Mana cap and Arcane capacity (for summons).

If you want to dominate late game, your build order usually becomes: Farms until you can field real stacks, then Obelisks to enable spell wars.

Recruitment and Supplies

Units cost Gold and consume Supplies. Supplies cap is mostly built via Farms. If you hit your cap, you must build farms or lose troops.

• Balanced stacks are safer than single-unit spam.
• The best armies are the ones you can rebuild quickly.
• When you plan a war, budget turns for recruit → cast → attack.

Research and Spells

Research is a long game advantage. You pay upfront (gold + mana) and then your research completes after you spend enough turns on any actions. Think of it as: start research, then keep playing — it finishes naturally.

The First 13 Barracks Units (Unique Passives)

These passives are intentionally distinct and impactful—they reward mixed armies and counterplay rather than “one unit to rule them all”. Every unit has a clear late-game niche.

• 1. Swordsmen — Steady Line: damage reduction + morale stability. The reliable backbone that keeps your line from breaking under pressure.
• 2. Spearmen — Beast Hunter: strong counter bonus vs beasts (Wyverns, Ember Hounds, Stone Golems). Essential in any late-game beast-heavy meta.
• 3. Archers — Opening Volley: extra damage on Round 1. Even more potent when melee units are present — your front line gives them cover fire.
• 4. Shieldbearers — Shield Wall: best infantry tank — significant damage reduction and heavy ranged damage reduction. Buy your line time against arrow/caster pressure.
• 5. Crossbowmen — Armor Piercer: high armor penetration. Punches through Shieldbearers, Golems, and constructs that laughed at your regular archers.
• 6. Veteran Infantry — Hold the Line: stronger morale anchor + solid damage reduction. Stabilize mid and late rounds when lesser troops would rout.
• 7. Skirmishers — Mobile Harasser: great opening burst + counter bonus vs plants (Thornlings, Barkguards, Ancient Treants). Fast and annoying.
• 8. Battle Sergeants — Commander Aura: army-wide attack boost + morale anchor. Worth including in any army composition, even summon-heavy ones.
• 9. Heavy Knights — Cavalry Charge: devastating Round‑1 charge + counter bonus vs spirits. A mixed army opener — pair with Shieldbearers for sustained pressure.
• 10. War Engineers — Siegecraft: high siege bonus (buildings at serious risk if you win) + armor piercing. Essential for attacking fortified land.
• 11. Arcane Auxiliaries — Spell-Shield Drill: strong spell shielding + hard counter to casters (Lich, Siren, enemy Battlemages). Your anti-magic specialist.
• 12. Spellbound Veterans — Enchanted Guard: spell shield + exceptional morale stability + damage reduction. The gold standard tank against magic-heavy armies.
• 13. Novice Battlemage — Arcane Striker: high spell output, opening burst, and a hard counter to undead (Bone Skulks, Crypt Stalkers, Grim Reapers). Bring them when your enemy stacks death magic.

Need strategy tips? The Wiki Spell Guide has detailed "how to use" advice for every spell, targeting rules, spell class explanations, and the wizard counterplay triangle.

Mana timing wins wars. Don’t blow your mana on tiny casts right before a big border fight.

⚔️ Army Composition Matters

Stacking a single unit type is no longer the optimal strategy. The combat engine rewards mixed armies and punishes lazy homogeneity. Here's what's happening behind the scenes every battle:

Bonuses for Mixed Armies

• Cover Bonus (+12% ranged attack) — When your army has both melee and ranged units, your ranged units fight from cover. Pure archer stacks get no cover and don't receive this bonus. Front-liners make your archers deadlier.
• Striker Synergy (+10% striker attack) — Strikers, assassins, and duelists deal more damage when a tank unit is anchoring your line. Without a tank to pin the enemy, strikers lose their window to exploit gaps. Pair them together.
• Infantry Formation (+8% attack, reduced losses) — When at least 25% of your army is infantry militia (not summoned creatures), your forces fight in tighter formation. This is a free bonus for running a real mixed infantry army rather than a pure summon stack.

Penalty for Stacking One Type

• Homogeneity Penalty (−12% attack for dominant tag) — If more than 70% of your army shares a single tag (e.g., all cavalry, all undead, all fire creatures), that dominant unit type suffers a coordination penalty. Real armies don't fight efficiently when every soldier is the same.
  You'll see this reported as a "⚠️ Composition penalty" line in your battle reports if it triggers.

Practical Army Building Tips

• A melee anchor + ranged damage is the most accessible mixed bonus. Even a modest stack of Swordsmen or Shieldbearers enables your archer/crossbow core.
• Adding a Battle Sergeant and a few Shieldbearers to any army is almost always worth it — they enable both the formation bonus and striker synergy.
• Don't run 50,000 of one thing. Blend in support, tanks, and counters — the system rewards it directly in combat math.
• Check your battle reports after fights — they will tell you if composition bonuses fired or if you took a homogeneity penalty.

Wizards of Valor

Wizards are unlocked with Valor. You choose one as your Active Wizard. Your active wizard auto‑casts at the start of every battle (attacking or defending), shaping how your wars play out. Only one wizard effect can be active at a time.

Unlock Costs

• Green — 25 Valor
• Blue — 50 Valor
• Black — 125 Valor
• White — 250 Valor
• Red — 500 Valor

War Effects (Auto‑Cast)

• Green • Verdant Surge — reduces losses by returning some wounded to your ranks.
• Blue • Arcane Tempo — dampens the enemy’s battlefield output and rewards smart timing.
• Black • Reaper’s Cut — increases your lethality and boosts raid spoils on victory (gold + mana siphon).
• White • Aegis of Concord — shimmering wards blunt spells and arrows (better defense and trades).
• Red • Crimson Onslaught — siege magic crackles over the battlefield; on victory, enemy buildings may be damaged.

Switching your active wizard costs turns. Your bound creatures remain, but any in‑progress summoning ritual is canceled (see the Dashboard tooltip).

Summoned Creatures (Late Game)

Summons are high-cost power that consume Arcane Capacity (from Obelisks). They’re the “I’m serious now” layer of the game. Each active wizard offers three summon choices (low / mid / elite) so you can field summons earlier and scale up over time.

Summon Roster (Abilities)

Summons act as real combat stacks. They are expensive because they carry special passives that can swing battles—especially when mixed with the right infantry.

• Green • Thornling — Thorns: reflects a portion of melee casualties back onto attackers. Great vs brawlers.
• Green • Barkguard — Shielded Bark: tough vs ranged fire; small aura that steadies your line.
• Green • Ancient Treant — Siege Colossus: brings strong siege pressure if you win; hard to bring down.
• Blue • Water Wisp — Warding Mist: adds spell shielding and improves your opening exchange.
• Blue • Tidal Raider — Ranged Hunter: bonus damage vs ranged stacks; deletes archers/casters.
• Blue • Siren of the Tides — Arcane Chorus: amplifies your wizard opening effects; deadly early impact.
• Black • Bone Skulk — Ambush: extra punch in Round 1 and slightly harder to kill.
• Black • Crypt Stalker — Life‑Drain: prevents some losses based on kills inflicted; duelist that sustains.
• Black • Grim Reaper — Execute: bonus damage into fragile or already-thinned stacks—snowballs fights.
• White • Cherub Scout — Wards: strong spell shielding and reduced ranged casualties; excellent defensive glue.
• White • Templar Guard — Sanctuary: reduces overall casualties for your whole army.
• White • Angel — Holy Wrath: the bane of dragons. +35% damage vs dragon-tagged units, team-wide casualty reduction, spell shielding, and flight. The only summon that can match an Infernal Dragon blow-for-blow.
• Red • Cinder Imp — Swarm + Burn: becomes dangerous in numbers and adds burn follow‑through casualties.
• Red • Ember Hound — Relentless Burn: strong opener plus heavy burn for grinding down tanks.
• Red • Infernal Dragon — Mythic Siege: massive siege pressure and brutal burning damage—war‑ending threat.

• More Obelisks = more Arcane capacity = more bindings.
• If you lose Obelisks, capacity drops and excess summons collapse.
• Protect your Obelisks if you invest in summons.

War: When to Fight and How to Snowball

War is expensive — but it’s how you take land. Look for border targets, cast for advantage, then attack to seize territory. Winning is often about chaining: win → take land → stabilize economy → win again.

• Border rule: you can only engage meaningful targets that touch your territory.
• Fatigue: wars have limits — don’t waste turns in endless feuds.
• Pick fights where you can take land and hold it afterward.

If building capture is enabled, captured buildings per victory are capped at 25.

Guilds (Alliances)

Guilds are how you turn “one mage vs the world” into coordinated domination. You can share plans, defend borders, and time wars together. A good guild doesn’t just win fights — it wins the week.

• Create or join in the Guild Hall.
• Coordinate border pushes and defensive walls.
• Politics matters: alliances, pacts, and betrayals are part of Magefall’s soul.

Game Phases (Basics → Mid → Late)

Common Mistakes (and How Not to Die)

• Sitting at turn cap (wasting regen). Spend turns daily.
• No Farms (you can’t hold troops). Supplies is survival.
• All-in wars with no rebuild plan (you win once, then collapse).
• Ignoring borders (you can’t project power if you aren’t positioned).
• Spending mana carelessly right before a border war.