Three kinds of dot have an ability, and none of them needs a button. Each one fires by itself when its moment comes, then rests before it can fire again. They are not hidden bonuses: each is shown as it happens, has its own entry in the game's reference, and a first-time hint explains it the first time you see it. Knowing when each fires lets you set it up.
The Siege's shell
The Siege is slow and fragile, but it punishes crowds. When enough enemies bunch up near it, it lobs a shell that hits all of them at once.
Set it up: keep Sieges just behind your front line, where the enemy's crowd forms but your Sieges are not the first thing hit. Defending a city is ideal: attackers crowd around it to fill the capture ring, which is exactly what the shell wants.
Watch out: Sieges are weak against Lights and Scouts. A fast raid that reaches them before they fire wins the trade. See the counter chart.
The Medic's burst
A Medic does not fight at all. It heals the dots around it, a little all the time, and when several nearby dots are badly hurt, it heals them all at once in a burst.
Set it up: Medics belong inside a group that is taking hits but holding: a line on good ground, a group defending a city. They are wasted on a group that wins fights in one rush, and wasted on a group that dies in one.
Watch out: a Medic on its own is just a fragile dot. Keep it inside your army. More in when support units are worth it.
The Heavy's charge
The Heavy is slow, so it cannot chase. The charge fixes that: when an enemy comes close, the Heavy jumps at it and hits every enemy along the jump. You see it as a short dash with a streak of the team's colour.
The charge is the one movement in the game that a dot makes by itself. Everything else your dots do, they do because you told them to.
Set it up: lead with Heavies when you meet a line of Lights. The charge lands first and softens the line before the rest of your group arrives.
Watch out: a charge carries the Heavy forward, sometimes into a crowd. Heavies are weak against Sieges and Scouts; charging into a Siege's range is a good way to lose them.
Faster abilities
One card makes all three come back sooner:
It is worth taking when your army leans on one of the three, for example with Siege Doctrine or Field Hospitals.
Abilities and the siege phase
In the siege phase, cities fall faster and armies crowd around them. That is the Siege's best moment: bring them to the cities you mean to take. See the siege phase.
Where to go next
- Who beats whom: the unit counter chart.
- When a Medic or a Siege is worth it at all: when support units are worth it.