Army movement
There are multiple ways to move an army, a ship or a spy: The easiest way is to place the mouse pointer above the unit in the map and either simply wait (in the JavaScript map) or press the right mouse button (in the Java Map; press the left button for left-handed mice). This opens up a popup for the moving of units.
The popup shows the coordinates of the selected field and a list of your armies on the field. Armies that already have a movement order are displayed in green; armies without movement orders are in red. The speed of the army is shown in the parenthesis (S1 means a speed of 1 field per turn), as well as its exhaustion (E). Armies with more than 50 exhaustion will receive the order, but will exceute the order only after their exhaustion dropped to 50 or lower. The Java Map also shows the armies experience.
More than one army can be selected in the list by pressing the CTRL key while clicking on the army. After selecting the wanted army/armies, you have to press the "Move" button.
Now, all fields the army/armies can move on are marked in green. Click the field of interest to define the next step of your army. The respective field is the marked in red and labeled with the number of the step. A small box close to the field also lists the directions of all steps. 8 steps can be defined this way. By clicking on the field in the middle of the green circle an "empty step" can be entered ("-"). This empty step simply means that the army takes a break on that field for one turn. When the selection of steps is finished, press "GO" to send the steps to the server. You may repeat this process asoften as you need to get the directions right.
Alternatively, moves can be entered in the area selection, which is shown after regular clicking on the field. My selecting the checkboxes (1) multiple armies will receive the orders at once. The checkboxes have to be selected BEFORE the moves are entered. This facilitates the movement of a big number of armies. All chackboxes can be selected or deselected at once (2).
Armies consisting purely of cavalry can move two fields per turn on friendly grounds; mixed armies can move only one field per turn. Sometimes it is advisable to move a horsemen-army jointly with other armies, so the speed of the army can be reduced (3). By clicking the "GO" butoon (5) all orders are saved and the STOP/GO lamp (4) changes from red to green.
To move armies over long distances, coordinates from a target field can be entered (6). Target fields can also be entered directly on the map by clicking any field on the map after clicking the "move" button. The army automatically detects the shortest path to that field, but will move only across friendly area. The target field may sit within hostile lands and the army will attack automatically (if possible).
The entered steps are executed automatically one after the other each turn. It is possible to enter empty steps ("-"), if the army should pause on some field. Depending on the entered field, the exhaustion of the army increases. Entering a mountain of course costs more exhaustion than the open plains. Similarly, fields with buildings of high expansion level cost less exhaustion.
If the army moves into a neutral or hostile area, a combat takes place. The combat results are listed under "Events". Armies of allies can enter each other fields. Allied forces can also attack and defend in a joined combat. If an army defends the lands of an ally, the army may be attacked by an enemy even if the army's owner is not at war with that enemy. Only the field's owner has to be at war with the attacking enemy. When allies attack a field together, the conquered field becomes property of the player, from whose field the troups attacked. The owner of that field has to be at war with the owner of the attacked field. Else, the attacking troups do not move. If a player attacks another field solely with his own armies but starts from the field of an ally, he becomes the owner of the conquered field. This allows for the creation of islands of property within other players' lands.