Age of Wonders: Planetfall Battles Guide – Building Armies, Operations, Research

In this Age of Wonders: Planetfall Battles Guide, we will guide you on everything that you need to know about combat and battles in Age of Wonders: Planetfall. Battles in Age of Wonders: Planetfall is pretty detailed and you will be able to use a lot of different tactics to overcome your enemies. You will need some pre-battle preparations as well before you can jump in the battles. In addition, you will also need to make sure that your army is capable enough to deal with the threat.

We have curated this Age of Wonders: Planetfall Battles Guide in which we have detailed everything that you must do before and during battles. You must be well aware of all these tactics and strategies to ensure that your army always emerges victorious in battles. We will tell you how you can build your armies, use different operations during battles to your advantage, use your heroes more effectively and some other important tips and tricks that are crucial to winning in Age of Wonders: Planetfall.

Battles Guide – Age of Wonders: Planetfall

Our Age of Wonders: Planetfall Battles Guide details everything that you need to know about battles in Age of Wonders: Planetfall.

Building Armies

This is a pre-battle requirement. Before jumping in battles, you must ensure that you have a healthy army in your possession. Enemy armies will vary in size and combat strength so you must have different armies to cater to every scenario. To build more army units, you must build sufficient military structures in your settlements. At one time, you can either build a structure or an army unit so you must keep a balance between the two and ensure that build both your army and your structures at the same time.

You can unlock better army units by completing military researches. Head to the research tab and start completing researching to unlock advanced battle units such as heavy attack units and powerful air units. Once researched, you can build them at your settlements. You can also earn some free army units by completing certain missions and tasks assigned to you during the campaign or scenarios. A single army unit is constructed at the same time so you must combine them together to form an army.

Merging units to form an army is very simple. Click on the unit that you want to merge and then move to the army or unit you want to merge it with. Click on the unit’s hex and it will move and merge with the other unit and form an army. However, you must know that you can only merge six units in an army. If you have more units, combine them together and form another army. You can take multiple armies in a single battle however we have detailed that aspect below.

Fight Battles with Multiple Armies

Since a single army only consists of six units, you will need many more units in some of the tougher battles. With a little trick, you can take multiple armies in a single battle. The enemy army that you want to fight with occupy a single hex on the map. If you surround that hex with multiple armies and then use any one of these armies to attack the enemy army, you will take all of the surrounding armies into the battle as well. This is a very neat tactic and will offer a great advantage over the enemy.

However, in doing so, make sure that you do all this in the same move. Sometimes the enemy army might attack one of your enemies and in this case, you will not take your remaining armies with you in the battle. You can only take the extra enemies with you in battle if you attack first, not the enemy.

Always Look for Cover

Age of Wonders: Planetfall might a 4X Strategy Game but during battles, you will often find some elements straight out of FPS titles and taking cover is one such mechanic. During battles, you will command your units to move around the battlefield in specific places during each turn. While you are moving them around, you must ensure that they are well protected from each side. When you have a unit selected and then you move them around, try to move them behind objects and obstacles that provide cover.

The best way to see how much protected your units are is by looking for the shield icons when you select them. When selected, if the unit is in cover, the direction where the cover is located will have a shield icon in that direction. Having cover in multiple directions is even better as your units will be protected from multiple directions and will take reduced damage if an enemy attack comes from that direction. Always put your units in cover no matter how strong they are.

Flank Enemies for Maximum Damage

Just like your own units, the enemy AI will also move their units into cover at the early stages of the battle. Air units cannot take cover so they are mostly just sitting ducks. If you see that your enemies are hiding in cover, try to get to a location where the cover is not present and attack them from there. This will be termed as Flanking and you will deal extra damage to enemies you flank in the battle. This is yet another great mechanic for dealing extra damage to enemies.

However, just like you can flank enemies for increased damage, the enemy AI will also look for flanking opportunities and will fully utilize them to land some serious damage to your enemies. To counter this, you will need to ensure that you keep moving your units around according to your enemy unit’s locations. The battle positions will change throughout the entire battle so you will need to be extra vigilant and make sure that you do not allow your enemy to flank you. Some stronger units will kill some units in one hit if they are successful in flanking them. You must always be on the lookout and try to flank your enemies rather than the other way around.

Use Operations in Battles

Operations could also be called as support powers. You unlock them by completing researches. Complete as many kinds of research as you can and you will have a ton of different Operations to choose from during battles. These Operations range from Laser Strikes to dropping Healing Systems on the battle. Each race comes with their own unique operations. These are extremely helpful in battles and you will need them. They will allow you to heal your own units or deal massive damage to a relatively powerful enemy unit. Use them wisely because they are later charged after certain moves in combat. These operations can turn the tide of the battle if used wisely.

Use Unit Special Abilities

Just like Operations are special powers, each unit type also comes with their own special powers. Some can heal other units; some can land powerful attacks or even land AoE attacks on enemies which cause long-lasting effects such as poisoning or burning. Click on a unit type and check all available actions you can perform in that specific move. However, using these actions will use all the Action Points and the unit might not be able to move afterward. You must keep this in check before using them.

Always Research Better Technologies

Research is critical for your race to survive in Age of Wonders: Planetfall. They will unlock better units, technologies, mods, powers, and structures. You must have 1 Military and 1 Scientific research active at all times to ensure that you are always making your armies and settlements better. After every research, you will have access to new mods, Operations, unit types to build so make sure that you adjust your heroes, armies, and settlements after each research is complete to make them more effective.

Equip Mods on Your Heroes

Each hero in Age of Wonders: Planetfall comes with three mod slots that will make them even better in combat. You must use these slots and equip mods which will allow them to perform special attacks or moves in battles. Mods are an excellent way of making your heroes even more effective in battles so you must ensure that once you have researched some mods, they are equipped in all your heroes.

If you want a more peaceful solution to your problems, make sure to check out our Age of Wonders: Planetfall Diplomacy Guide.

This concludes our Age of Wonders: Planetfall Battles Guide. If you want to add anything to this guide, feel free to use the comments section below.