How to use the Stack Calculator

Get three things from the game first. The first run takes about five minutes. Once it's saved as a preset, the next one takes seconds.

Section 1 on the calculator

These three numbers are the ceiling for your whole march. Each one pays for a different group of troops:

• Leadership pays for guardsmen, specialists and engineers.
• Authority pays for mercenaries.
• Dominance pays for monsters.

Set up the march screen in the game with the captains, hero and dragon you will actually attack with, then copy the three numbers in. Capacity changes with captains and gear, so always take them from the same setup you will attack with. You can type the numbers with or without commas.

The PvE / Monsters and PvP switch sets a sensible default kill order for that kind of fight (section 5). Pick PvE for monsters, crypts and citadels, and PvP for attacking other players.

Section 2 on the calculator

Choose which troops go into the march. Every tier and type you include becomes its own stack.

Tier ranges

Drag the two handles on each slider. The orange handle is the lowest tier you want, the green one the highest. The badge in the corner of each card shows the range you picked, for example G8→G9.

Troop types

Below the slider, turn off any type you don't want in the march, such as Flying if you haven't researched it. A greyed-out chip is excluded. Engineers have no types, only a tier range.

Two shortcuts

• Only use the troops I actually own caps every slider at your highest unlocked tier, so you can't pick something you don't have.
• ★ Recommended resets the section to G8 to G9, S8 to S9, E9 and M7 to M9 with every type switched on.

Section 3 on the calculator, optional

Skip this section if you don't send mercenaries. To add them, switch on Include, set the tier range, and untick any mercenary in the list that you don't have.

Mercenaries are paid for with Authority. Each one keeps its own combat type, role and trait, so the bonuses you enter in section 4 apply to them the same way they apply in the game.

Section 4 on the calculator, optional but worth it

Bonuses change how much health each unit has, which changes how many units each stack needs. Without them the calculator works from base health, and your stacks come out uneven in the real fight whenever your bonuses differ between troop types.

Get a reference report

You need a battle report fought under the same conditions as your planned attack. Two ways to get one:

1. Use a recent report from the same kind of target, attacked with the same captains, hero, dragon, gear and artifacts. This is the quickest option.
2. Make one. Equip the exact captains, gear and artifacts you'll use, switch on the same boosts, and hit a low-level monster or citadel. Bring at least one unit of every role and combat type you plan to stack. The count doesn't matter.

Before either, check that your clan and royal boosts haven't expired. A boost that runs out between the report and the attack throws the numbers off.

Read the bonuses

In the report, tap each of your units and scroll down to its bonuses. Note the health and strength percentages for every unit type you'll use.

Fill in the columns

For every unit, the calculator adds up three columns: Role (Guardsmen, Specialists, Engineers, Monsters, Epic Hunters), Combat Type (Ranged, Melee, Mounted, Flying) and Army-wide. Split the totals from your report across those columns so that each unit adds up to what the report showed.

An example with three units from a report:

The two guardsmen share their role bonus and differ only by combat type. Melee guardsmen and melee specialists share the melee bonus and differ only by role. Comparing pairs like this lets you work out each column. Any bonus that every unit gets goes in Army-wide.

Monster boost

Pick the monster boost level you will have active: Off, I (19%), II (50%) or III (100%). The four rows below it (Giant, Beast, Dragon, Elemental) fill in from that level and apply to units carrying those traits. Change a row by hand if yours differs.

Section 5 on the calculator, advanced

This decides which stacks fall first. The PvE and PvP switch loads a good default, so most players can leave this alone.

• Tier order lists every tier block in your march. Drag a row up to make it fall sooner, or down to protect it.
• Category order sets which combat type falls first within the same tier. Choose All Equal if combat type shouldn't matter. PvP uses All Equal by default.

Changing the kill order doesn't change which troops you send. It changes how many go into each stack, so that the stacks meant to fall first are sized to do so.

Press Calculate Stack at the bottom of the screen. After the first run the button changes to Update Stack and the results refresh as you change anything above.

You get one block for each capacity: Leadership, Authority and Dominance. The bar at the top of each block shows how much of that capacity the march uses.

• 1x Count is the number of units to send in that stack.
• Total HP is that stack's combined health. These are nearly identical down the column, which is the whole point.
• Kill order shows when the stack falls, for example 3 / 29. Highlighted rows are among the first to fall.
• ◆ marks your highest-health guardsman.

Click a column heading to sort by it. Mobile View and Desktop View only change the layout of the table, not the numbers.

Planning several attacks

Pick x2 to x10 and an extra column shows scaled counts. Each extra attack adds 10%: x2 is 1.1 times the troops, x3 is 1.2 times, and so on, to cover losses along the way. It scales the numbers only. It doesn't check what you have in your city.

Each count has a copy button next to it. Tap it, then paste into the troop field in the game. Copy all copies a whole block as a list of unit names and counts, which is handy for notes or a spreadsheet.

Check your march

Once every stack is loaded in the game, compare the Leadership, Authority and Dominance used on the march screen with the totals at the top of each block. If they match, everything went in correctly.

Section 0 at the top of the calculator

Save each setup you use, such as one per captain or one per event, so you never have to fill it all in again.

• Save as New stores everything on the page under the name you type.
• Pick a preset from the list to load it. Update overwrites it with your changes, and Delete removes it.
• Reset all puts the whole page back to its starting values.