The map in Dot Conquest is not decoration. The ground under a dot changes how fast it moves and how much damage it takes while it stands there. Two equal armies fighting on different ground are not equal.
The rule
Every kind of ground
| Ground | Movement | Damage taken while standing on it |
|---|---|---|
| Plains | 100% speed | Normal |
| Forest | 70% speed | 23% less |
| Mountain | 40% speed | 33% less |
| River | 60% speed | 25% more |
| Road | 140% speed | 11% more |
| Desert | 90% speed | 11% more |
| Swamp | 50% speed | 9% less |
| Hills | 80% speed | 23% less |
| Cliff | No dot can enter | — |
| Deep Water | No dot can enter | — |
Two kinds cannot be entered at all:
Reading the table
Movement is how fast a dot crosses the ground compared with plains. Damage taken is what happens to a dot standing on it when it is hit: less damage is a good place to defend, more damage is a bad place to be caught.
Notice that the slow ground is often the safe ground. Forests and hills slow your dots down but protect them; rivers slow them down and make them easier to hurt. Roads are fast but exposed.
Using terrain
Defend in forests and on hills. A group standing on protective ground beside a city takes less damage from attackers on open ground. If you expect a rival to come for a city, meet him on the good ground next to it.
Never fight in a river. A river is the worst place to be caught: slow to leave, and you take extra damage while you are in it. Cross it, then fight. If a rival is crossing toward you, that is the moment to hit him.
Use roads to arrive, not to stand. A road gets your group somewhere quickly, which also means less time wearing down on enemy land (see supply and attrition). But a road is a poor place to hold a line.
Treat deep water and cliffs as walls for dots. They funnel armies into the gaps between them. A ford (a river tile) or a bridge (a road tile) across deep water is a choke point: whoever holds the near bank has the advantage.
Remember they are not walls for land. A cliff blocks dots, but it does not close a pocket when you wall in land. Only your own land does. See flipping land by enclosure.
Terrain and the matchups
The ground multiplies whatever the matchup already is. A dot that is weak against its attacker, standing in a river, loses very quickly; a dot that is strong against its attacker, standing in a forest, holds for a long time. Combine the two: see the counter chart.
Cards that care about the ground
Some Council cards turn terrain into a weapon. Forest Ambush makes your dots in forests hit much harder:
And Homeland makes your dots stronger on your own land:
Where to go next
- How far is "near" on a hex map? Why hex grids, and how to count distance.
- Who beats whom: the unit counter chart.