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. A squad covers a fixed distance each tick, so ETA is simply how far it has to go divided by how fast it moves.
On the Classic ruleset a squad travels 23 tiles per tick. The ETA for an order is the distance to the target divided by 23 and rounded up, with two limits:
- A minimum. An attack takes at least 3 ticks to land no matter how close the target is, and a friendly or returning trip at least 2 ticks. Nothing arrives the instant you press send.
- A maximum reach. A single move covers at most 552 tiles, which is 24 ticks of travel. You cannot launch directly at a target farther away than that. To strike across a large map you stage forward in steps or use a teleport gate.
Rough attack ETAs by distance:
| Distance (tiles) | Attack ETA |
|---|---|
| Up to 69 | 3 ticks (the floor) |
| 230 | 10 ticks |
| 460 | 20 ticks |
| 552 (max reach) | 24 ticks |
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 is charged per tick of the journey at 10 Oil per tick of ETA. A short 3 tick strike costs 30 Oil; a full 24 tick crossing costs 240; a friendly trip at the 2 tick floor costs just 20. A short reinforcement is cheap and a full-map assault is a serious commitment, so check your Oil before you confirm 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, down to a two tick minimum. 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 owned or same-alliance endpoints for a distance-based 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 working gate network, distance stops mattering.
Spies travel the same way
Squads are not the only thing that crosses the map under these rules. A spy moves to its target the same way a squad does, with an ETA and an Oil cost based on distance, and it travels at the faster friendly rate so it arrives quicker than an attacking march. A spy can also use a teleport gate between valid endpoints. Plan a spy's trip with the same fuel and timing in mind that you would give an army.
See also
Read Squads for what you are actually sending, see the Teleport Gate for skipping travel time entirely, check Combat for what happens the tick a squad arrives at a hostile target, read Spies and Agents for how spies make the same trip, and read Alliances for shared movement and defense rules.