Units

Units are the means by which all battles are fought and - hopefully - won. Units are usually created in Cities, but may also be purchased from the Marketplace, as well as a few other methods such as the Cultists' "Conversion" trait.

At the start of the game, every major faction starts with an army of two units unique to them, a Settler, and a Hero. The unique unit can be trained in cities, as well as upgraded; by entering the Military Screen (F6), the left side shows a list of all your armies, and the right shows a list of your unit designs. From here, you are able to change the equipment (Armor, Weapons, and Accessories) for your unit designs, but note that in order to apply these changes to pre-existing units of the same design, you must pay a cost in Dust and any applicable Strategic Resources to retrofit these armies, and this can only be done in regions you control. You can unlock more unit designs either by researching the appropriate technology, or - in the case of Minor Faction unit designs - assimilating Minor Factions.

The standard units of the game can be broadly broken down into Land and Sea Units, and these two groups also have their own unit type categories, such as Infantry, Ranged, or Support, that are meant to fill certain roles in an army. Special units such as Heroes, Guardians, and Urkans have their own pages given their greater complexity.

Land Units
Land units are created for land combat and can move through land tiles. If the Shipyard technology is researched, land units can also move through water tiles and take part in naval combat (although usually they are quite bad at this). When they are embarked, their class (Infantry, Support, Flying, Ranged or Cavalry) changes to Transport ship

Infantry
Infantry units are meant to be the front-line force of your army, and are usually very tough as a result, with high Life and Defense  attributes.

Support
Support units are usually very weak - both offensively and defensively - and aren't really meant to be in the thick of the fighting. Instead, they usually have capacities that are meant to aid their fellow units - usually through healing or buffs - but since Support units usually wield a Scepter, Staff, or Wand, they are able to place debuffs on enemy units as well, all being done at a safe distance.

Flying
Flying units all have the "Fly" Capacity, which makes them some of the most mobile units in the game; their movement is not hindered by terrain, and they can pass right over cliffs and ridges, and have a vision range 1 higher than most other units. This makes them very useful for scouting and battles that feature complex terrain.

Ranged
Ranged units are able to strike at enemies from a distance using Bows or Crossbows, and usually have high offensive attributes and fairly low defensive ones.

Cavalry
Cavalry units are among the fastest units in the game, and usually have high Battle Movement in addition to a higher base Speed  than most units. Cavalry units also often have the "Charge" capacity, which gives them bonus Attack for moving before striking.

Statistics
A table showing the attributes of all the units shown above, to allow for easy comparison of their base attributes.

Militia
Militia are special units that are permanently garrisoned in Cities to ensure that there is always some units defending the city. These units don't count against the number of units garrisoned in a city, but they also cannot leave the city and cannot have their equipment changed. Militia units are automatically trained to fill up the maximum number of slots allowed so long as the city isn't being sieged, with the max number being 4 by default, but can be increased with the Infantry Cantina and Military Reserves technology. Militia are automatically equipped with the highest-tier Iron or Dust Longspear available, but do not get any Armor or Accessories, so while they may help defend a city from an assault for a time, the units are relatively weak, and should be supported with other units in order to ensure that the city is not eventually captured.

Settler
Available to all major factions at the game start is the support unit Settler, which has the ability to create new cities. Additionally all major factions can construct new settlers, except for the Cultists and the Mykara, who are confined to a single city due to their special Affinities "High Seat of the Queen" and "Creeping Presence," respectively.

It is important to note that, while building a Settler, your city will not produce any Food, due to the settler's "Blocked Growth" capacity. As such, you should move any Population working on Food into a different resource, ideally Industry  so that your Food production isn't affected by the settler for long.

Tip: Consider upgrading your Settlers with an Iron Talisman. The increased movement can get your new city up and running faster, with less risk of the settler being killed by enemy armies en route.

Naval Units
Naval units are created for effective movement in water and naval combat. They cannot move through land tiles. Because these units are so much stronger than the Transport Ship that is made when Land Units are embarked on water, anyone seeking to control the seas would be wise to research one or two of these units.

Transport Ship
Every land unit becomes a transport ship when it goes on water tiles ("Shipyard" technology has to be researched for this). Transport ships are ranged units with range of 3 (standard range). Their attributes vary depending on the land unit that was embarked, although usually they are very low for non-hero units, and more or less normal for hero units (Unless your army is led by Morgawr hero, who can increase its own attributes in embarked state and attributes of every transport ship in his army using his skill tree). Non-hero units usually don't have any capacities except "Range" and "Transport ship" when they are embarked. Heroes retain the capacity "Last Stand" when embarked, and sometimes some of their other capacities. Accessories on unit or on heroes increasing their own attributes don't work in an embarked state, but accessories on a hero which increases the attributes of units in the army work in embarked state.

Enemy Units
In addition to the many units that can be created and trained in the game, there are also a handful that only appear as enemies to be fought during quests.

Sea Monster
The Sea Monster is a particularly unique enemy that appears at the start of the "There is Something Out There..." Global Quest, to which the objective is defeating the Sea Monster. However, instead of being a single unit, the Sea Monster is actually an army comprised of a main central unit and several appendages that act as units in and of themselves while in battle.