1. Units deployment:

Before the battle starts, players have one minute to deploy their units on the battlefield and assign hotkeys for them. When deployment is finished, a player can signal with the «Ready» button.

2. Combat Mechanics:

• The damage dealt during battle is defined by a ratio between Power of the attacking unit to Defense of the defending unit. The more Attack and Strength the attacking squad has, the higher his Power is (for cavalry units, speed of movement and weight is also important). A unit's Defense is defined by its Armor and Resistance values.

• A unit's Hit Points value reflects the number of wounds each individual soldier has. The total number of wounds the unit has is Hit Points value multiplied by the number of warriors in the unit.
When the last soldier in the squad suffers his last wound, the unit is destroyed.

• Soldier losses reduce the unit's battle efficiency, which decreases its Power, Defense and combat skills. The number of losses defines the decrease, but the unit retains some of its battle potential until the last warrior is defeated. The reference values are:
A full unit has 100% Power and Defense values.
A unit with 1 soldier left has 60% of its initial Power and Defense values.
To show a unit's approximate condition, losses are displayed on the unit's icon:

Light Losses (Wounded) means the unit has 34% to 66% of its initial number. The values of Power and Defense are approximately at 85% of its initial values.

Heavy Losses (Badly Wounded) means the unit has anywhere from 1% to 33% of its initial number. The values of Power and Defense are approximately at 60% of its initial values.

Hint: You should always try to kill enemy units to the last man, because even a single survivor can deal some hefty damage.

3. Battle Controls:

• Unit selection:
To select a unit in the battlefield, move your mouse over it and left-click. You can also hold the left mouse button and drag a rectangle around several units to select all of them. Pressing «Ctrl+A» selects all of your units on the battlefield.
All units are shown as icons in the bottom panel; selected units have a white border around them.
You can add or remove a unit from the selected group by holding the «Ctrl» button and clicking on that unit or you can select a unit with the selection rectangle while holding «Ctrl».

• Unit movement:
You can order selected units to move by right-clicking on the battlefield or on the mini-map. You can also set a path with several checkpoints on the battlefield by holding «Ctrl» with selected unit and right-clicking checkpoints.

You can order several units to move to one place. When they arrive, they will stand separately, so they won't interfere with each other.

«Stop» allows you to stop the selected unit (or units) where they are. If they are moving collectively, they won't stand separately when stopped this way.

Different units have different movement speed, depending on the Movement stat and the ratio of Endurance to Weight: the heavier the equipment and the lower the Endurance, the slower the unit will be. Increasing Endurance by one point can compensate three points of extra weight. If a unit carries a weight over its limit (overburdened), it will move at the slowest pace and won't be able to use the «run» ability even it has it.

If you want a selected group to move with the same speed, press the «Lock formation» button before ordering them to move -the units will move at the same speed (the speed of the slowest unit), so they arrive at the destination point simultaneously and won't mix during movement.

When «Lock formation» is active, your army (or selected group) will hold the formation that it had when the Formation Lock order was given.

• Units positioning in battle:
Units interfere with each other when their ranks are intermixed. Such positioning leads to the «Crowd» effect and your units' battle efficiency will be reduced:
The Crowd effect depends on the level of intermixing between two or more units and has maximum impact when more than 50% of the units are intermixed.
The Power and skills of these units will be somewhat reduced as a result of this. As soon as units are moved out of the intermix, the Crowd effect is removed from them.
The Crowd effect can only occur when two or more of your own units are intermixed, not when they are intermixed with enemy!

Hint: when several of your units are attacking the same enemy unit, position them wisely to avoid the crowd effect.

• By holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse, you can rotate a selected unit or formation so they face a desired direction. The formation will automatically regroup, adjusting to the terrain.

• Attack command:
To command your unit to attack, select the unit (or group) and move the cursor over the enemy unit you wish to attack. When the cursor changes to a sword, click the right mouse button to attack.

You can command your army to move to a desired place while attacking everything in its path. To do this, select the units to command, press the «Attack all to position» button and left-click on the destination point.

• Sides of Attack:
It is important to know what side to attack a unit from in close combat Front attack: a simple attack with no bonuses. A unit that is not engaged with the enemy will always receive a new attack from the front; it will turn to meet the enemy. The only exceptions are:
a) When a unit is retreating, it can be attacked from the flanks and back
b) When a unit is executing the Stand Ground order, it does not turn to meet the enemy because it's holding position until the order is canceled.

Flank attack: the attacked unit has 10% less Defense when attacked from flanks. The "flank attack" icon marks it.

Back attack: the attacked unit has 20% less Defense when attacked from the rear. The "back attack" icon marks it.

Hint: to deal maximum damage to an enemy unit you should encircle it, attacking from front, sides and back simultaneously.

Your units try to choose the optimal side to attack. For example, if two or more units are ordered to attack an enemy in close combat, they will try to surround the enemy unit to deal more damage to it.

• Cavalry charge.
Cavalry units increase their Power when moving according to their speed. Cavalries can attack enemy units with this speed bonus, or charge through them, dealing instant Charge damage. However, the higher enemy Resistance is, the lower cavalry Defense is.

To charge through an enemy unit, a cavalry must be ordered to move through it by clicking on a destination point beyond the enemy unit. Alternatively, you can direct your cavalry to the second-line enemy squad (a common practice of hiding archer units behind infantry or pikemen could be countered this way). In this case, the cavalry will attempt to charge through the first-line unit (dealing it some damage) and engage the second-line unit.

After each charge, the cavalry unit is weakened temporarily, which is reflected by the Charge sickness effect  . The more units the cavalry charged through, the more weakened it will be. For each following charge, it will receive more damage due to its weakened state. A cavalry unit can be wiped out completely by attempting to charge through several strong units one after another.

Hint: if you want your cavalry to deal maximum damage you should ensure it has no «Charge sickness» effect on it. If there is, wait until it wears off.

• Standing ground and breaking the lines:
Infantry and pikemen units can hold the line of battle when executing the «Stand ground» order  . In this case, it is much more difficult for enemy units to break through, when attacking from the front. Note that enemies executing flank and rear attacks have no difficulties breaking through the unit holding the line (this reflects expecting the attack from the wrong direction).
A unit's ability to hold the line is measured by its Resistance stat; an enemy's ability to break through is measured by its Strength, Movement and Weight.
If you don't order your unit to hold the line, the enemy unit can pass through them in close combat (which can be important, for example, if you have an archers unit in the second line of battle and want to protect them from the enemy)

Hint: pikemen are the best when Standing Ground against enemy cavalry.

• Battle modes:
Aggression mode is a mode of battle that all units (except archers) have. When this mode is on (activated by pressing the corresponding button in the lower right panel), the unit automatically attacks any nearby enemy and pursues its target when it attempts to flee.
This mode can be activated anytime. Its default setting is "off" for all units.

Fire at Will mode is a mode for archer units. When this mode is on (as it is by default), archers would attack the first enemy unit that comes into their range of fire (or, if there are several enemy units, the closest one). When they start firing at a certain unit, they will continue while it's in their firing range (i.e. until it's either destroyed or fled).

• Melee:
If your unit is engaged in melee, a symbol of the enemy unit it currently fights will appear at the top right of the screen. Below this symbol, the icons of enemy units attacking your unit are stacked (if there's more than one unit in melee with your single unit).

A unit can switch targets and start to fight any enemy unit it's engaged with, if you click on their enemy unit's symbol; alternatively, you can drag and drop an enemy unit's symbol over your own unit symbol in the bottom panel.

• Retreat:
When your unit retreats from melee, it receives a certain amount of damage instantly -more depending on the damage it was receiving in melee. While your unit is retreating, it can be attacked from the flank or rear, thus receiving heavier damage.

Hint: if you are certain that enemy units are faster than yours, it is useless to retreat from them. Attack them with your other units instead.

• Ranged fire:
All archer units have a special ability that helps them take their mark on enemy units more efficiently the longer they're firing at it. This ability is reflected by the Marksmanship skill. The longer they fire at a single unit, the more they reduce this unit's Defense and the more damage they deal.

Hint: enemy units with reduced Defense are destroyed faster, whether by ranged fire or in melee. This means your archer units can act as support troops, weakening the enemy as it advances on your positions.

The further your archers are from their enemy, the less damage they deal to it.

• Different close combat weapons provide different abilities in close combat. The abilities that unit have developed are displayed as icons near the unit's pictograph (only if they are applicable with the selected weapon).

4. Combat Interface:
Combat interface of World of Battles consists of the following elements:

• Minimap (bottom left) is a reduced schematic reflection of actions taking place on the battlefield.

• Unit selection panel (bottom center) displays all unit icons. Selected unit icons are bordered with a white frame. The squad that is currently active is marked with a "hand" icon.

Under a unit's icon its status is displayed as a pictograph:
- moving:

- melee:

- under fire:

The color of this icon depicts the level of danger this unit is in; the more losses the unit takes each minute, the richer the red color of the icon.

• Order panel (bottom right) contains all the buttons and abilities the selected unit can use: Attack, Lock Formation, turn Aggression Mode, Run, Stand Ground, deactivate Fire at Will, etc.

5. Visibility:
An enemy unit can be seen if a line of sight can be drawn to its core from any of your units or allied units.

6. Terrain influence:*
* Parts written in grey are still in development.