Novice Training Orders

To (issue an order to) train a novice, click its structure on the board to open its town sidebar, then drag-and-drop the novice's button onto the desired training icon.

To untrain a novice, just re-drag it (to nowhere).

New Group of 2 New Recruits (swordsman, archer)	Training 3 Novices in a Sanctum (as Mystery mana, swordsman, archer)

Training Rules

Training Recruits

Effects of Training Recruits

Untraining Recruits

Training Mana

Effects of Training and Untraining Mana

Training Strategies

Leaving Novices Untrained

Training Rules

Training Recruits. Any structure that produces novices can train them as recruits.

• Any class. You can train a novice as 1 of any class of recruit.
  • To train a swordsman, drop the novice onto the sword icon.
  • To train an archer, drop the novice onto the arrow icon.
• Max 8. You can train any number of recruits in each structure each turn (up to the maximum of 8).

Effects of Training Recruits. The new recruit appears immediately on the board.

• Commits novice. The novice is marked as “committed”.
• New group. If this structure's square is unoccupied, then a new empty recruit group is created in the square, and your new recruit joins it. After this, the square is occupied (by your new group). The group's sprite immediately appears in the structure's square. You can target group spells on this group in the same turn.
• Training is joining. If this structure's square already contained a recruit group, your new recruit automatically joins that group. Some spells prevent joining, so they also prevent this kind of training.
• New tile. Its recruit tile appears in the left sidebar. You can target individual spells on this tile in the same turn.
• Potent recheck. All members of the group in this structure immediately recheck all potent spells.

Untraining Recruits. You can cancel a novice training at any time during the player orders phase, before you click Confirm Orders. Just re-drag it to nowhere (i.e. drop it anywhere that isn't a training icon).

• Removes tile. This novice's recruit tile immediately vanishes. Any individual spells that you targeted onto this recruit are automatically uncast, and refund their mana to your mana pool.
• Flushes group. If this novice was the sole recruit in a new group, and the group is now empty, then the group's sprite is immediately erased from the board. Any group spells that you targeted onto this group automatically uncast, and refund their mana.
• Potent recheck. Otherwise, if a group still exists in this structure, all members of the group immediately recheck all potent spells.

Training Mana. Your Sanctum can also train a novice as mana.

• House mana. You can choose only your house's 2 mana types. The other 4 mana training icons are disabled.
• Max 1. You can train only 1 novice as 1 point of mana per turn. After you “commit” one novice as mana, both mana training icons are highlighted (disabled), and ignore further drops that turn.
• Slow rate. Your Sanctum produces new novices slowly (1 every 4 turns). Plan your mana path wisely!

Effects of Training and Untraining Mana

• Credit. When you train a novice as mana, its 1 point of mana is immediately added to your mana pool. You can use this mana to cast a spell this turn. This is the standard way to cast a 1-cost spell on turn 1 of the game.
• Foreclosure. When you untrain a mana novice, its 1 point of mana is immediately deducted from your mana pool. If you are at 0 current mana in that mana type (because you already used that mana to pay for a spell targeting), then your most recent spell casting order that uses this mana type is automatically cancelled, which uncasts that spell and refunds its mana cost.

Training Strategies

Leaving Novices Untrained. You can leave novices untrained as long as you want. Having a stockpile of untrained novices is sometimes more advantageous than training them right away. Caution: Some spells eliminate novices!

• The Popup Defense. When the opponent is besieging one of your structures with an adjacent recruit group, and is threatening to enter and capture it, you can stall for time by training 1 novice as a recruit each turn. This creates a new group in the structure, which blocks non-friendly groups from entering.
  • With init, fight. If you have initiative, you must stand still and fight. You will probably lose, so this is only a delaying tactic.
  • Without, retreat. If your opponent has initiative, then you can order your new group to exit the structure in any unblocked direction (which avoids a combat at poor odds). Since your opponent moves first, she will still bounce off your group's back, and be unable to enter the structure. If you do this with enough groups of 1 recruit each, you could eventually build up a substantial group adjacent to your town that might even beat off your opponent's attack!
• The Turtle Defense. If your opponent has spells that can damage or otherwise target recruits and groups, you can keep your strength “in reserve” by leaving them as novices, which most spells cannot hurt in any way.

v2.20.00 Last updated 2009/03/22