Movement and Travel
A squad does not teleport across the map by default. When you send one, it travels for a number of ticks before it arrives, and it burns Oil along the way. Movement is where strategy meets the clock: distance, fuel, and timing all decide whether your squad lands where you want, when you want.
Travel time (ETA)
Every move order has an ETA, the number of ticks until the squad arrives. ETA is driven by how far the squad is going. Short hops are quick, long crossings of the map are slow, and there is a hard ceiling.
On the Classic ruleset, ETA scales roughly like this by distance:
| Distance | ETA |
|---|---|
| Same tile | 1 tick |
| Up to 100 | 3 ticks |
| Up to 250 | 6 ticks |
| Up to 500 | 12 ticks |
| Across the map | 24 ticks |
So most real attacks land in the 6 to 24 tick range, and no squad will ever take longer than 24 ticks to arrive no matter how far it travels. Because ETA is in ticks, you can plan an arrival precisely: a squad with a 12 tick ETA arrives exactly 12 ticks after you confirm the order.
Oil cost
Movement is not free. Sending a squad costs Oil, and the cost scales with the journey: longer ETAs burn more Oil because the cost is charged per tick of travel. A short reinforcement is cheap; a full-map assault is a serious Oil commitment. Check your Oil before you commit a long order, because a stranded plan with no fuel for the next move is a wasted army.
Controlling an order
You are not locked in the moment you press send. A move order can be:
- Sent. Confirm origin, destination, and mission, and the squad departs with its ETA running.
- Cancelled or returned. Change your mind and bring the squad back. A returning squad travels home rather than snapping back instantly, and the return trip is faster than the outbound one.
- Delayed. You can hold a squad before it leaves for up to 24 ticks. A delayed squad stays home defending and is hidden from enemy incoming views until its delay expires, which makes delay a real timing tool for coordinated strikes. Note it can still be hit by spy actions and heavy weapons at its origin while it waits.
Friendly trips are faster
Sending a squad to your own or an allied position is treated as a deployment, not an attack, and it arrives in about half the time a hostile trip of the same distance would take. Reinforcing a friend under pressure is meant to be responsive, so friendly moves and returns both move at the faster rate.
The instant alternative
Travel time is the default, not the only option. A teleport gate moves a squad instantly between valid linked endpoints for an Energy cost instead of waiting out an ETA. Gates have their own conditions and are covered on their own page, but the headline is: for a controlled gate network, distance stops mattering.
See also
Read Squads for what you are actually sending, see the Teleport Gate for skipping travel time entirely, and check Combat for what happens the tick a squad arrives at a hostile target.