How does attacking work? What is the attack ratio?
Conqora FAQ · updated 2026-10-16
Short answer: Clicking land next to your border sends part of your army against it; the share is the attack ratio (Z and X change it). Attacks advance tile by tile against the defender's troops. Troops regrow on their own, fastest when you are around 40% of your maximum, so keep sending moderate waves instead of waiting at full strength.
Attacking is the heart of Conqora, and it is simpler than it looks: every click spends troops to take land. Mastering how many troops, where and when is what separates a good player from a great one.
The basics
Left click land next to your border (or anywhere you can reach) to attack it.
The game sends a share of your current troops: the attack ratio. With 100,000 troops and a 25% ratio, a click sends 25,000.
The attack advances tile by tile along the border, fighting the defender's troops. Empty land falls quickly; owned land costs more.
Clicking land across water sends a boat instead (up to three at once).
Clicking the same target again adds another wave to the attack.
Changing the attack ratio
Input
Effect
Z
Lower the ratio one step
X
Raise the ratio one step
Shift + mouse wheel
Fine adjustment
Slider
In the bottom-left panel (bottom of the screen on phones)
Why 40% matters
Troops regrow on their own, and growth is fastest at around 40% of your maximum. A full army grows almost nothing. That gives a simple rule: keep your troops between roughly 30% and 60% of the cap by sending waves, and you grow faster than someone who hoards. Cities raise the cap; oil fields in hotspots mode add 25% growth each.
Defenders and terrain
Defense Posts make land within 30 tiles five times harder to take, and the owner's own attacks there move faster.
Fallout from nukes slows attacks across it and grows no troops.
Mountains and narrow passes concentrate the fight; rivers and coasts let boats go around it.
Territories (passive land holders) have a troop cap, so they are cheap land once you have an army.
Attack ratio by phase
Phase
Ratio
Why
First minute
30–50%
Empty land is cheap; speed matters
Expansion
20–30%
Many small waves keep growth high
First war
30–40%
Enough to break through, enough left to hold
All-in on a weak neighbour
60–80%
Only with a safe flank (alliance)
Holding the line
10–15%
Small counter-waves where they break through
Common mistakes
Clicking everywhere at once. Spreading thin means every attack stalls. Pick one direction.
Leaving home empty. Keep 20–30% at home; a boat landing on an empty coast takes a city.
Attacking an ally by accident. You can't attack an ally; break the alliance first, and accept the traitor mark.
Numbers make the attack ratio click. Say your troop cap is 500,000 and you currently have 200,000 troops, which is 40% of the cap.
With a 25% ratio, one click sends 50,000 troops. You keep 150,000 at home, which is 30% of your cap.
At 30% you are just below the fastest growth point, so your army climbs back toward 40% quickly.
When you're back around 200,000, click again. Each wave costs you a little reserve and buys land, which raises your cap and your gold income.
Compare a player with the same cap sitting at 480,000 troops. They are at 96% of the cap, so they grow almost nothing. In two minutes the player sending waves has more land, a higher cap and often a bigger army too.
Now the same click at 100%: all 200,000 troops leave. If the attack stalls against a Defense Post, you have nothing at home, and a neighbour or a boat landing walks straight in.
Boats, step by step
Click land across water (or press B with the cursor on it) to send a boat with the troops your ratio sends. G sends a ground attack at the cursor.
You can have up to three boats at sea at once.
Boats land on any coast and follow rivers inland, so a river country can be raided from the middle.
The landing works like a normal attack from that tile outward. A strong wave on a thin coast carves out a beachhead before the defender reacts.
Warships sink boats, so land away from enemy patrols or send two boats so one gets through. More in the navy guide.
Reading a defended border
A Defense Post makes land within 30 tiles five times harder to take. In practice, a wave that would sweep across open land needs roughly five times the troops for the same ground near a post. Three better options:
Go around it. A post covers 30 tiles; attack the stretch of border outside that range.
Land behind it by boat, where the defender has no post.
Remove it. An Air Raid from an aircraft carrier (R, 150K) destroys one building within 110 tiles, and an atom bomb destroys every building in its blast.
Timing windows
The traitor window. A player who breaks an alliance has their defence halved and their attacks slowed for 30 seconds. If someone betrays you, that's your moment to counter-attack.
The empty neighbour. A player who has just launched a big attack elsewhere has fewer troops at home.
The two-front war. When a rival's border with someone else lights up, their reserve is busy there.
After a nuke. Fallout grows no troops and is slow to attack across, so push into the land beside the blast rather than through the middle.
Tips by skill level
Beginner
Keep the ratio between 30% and 50% in the first minute and take every patch of empty land.
Pick one direction at a time.
Press C to centre on your land if you lose track of your border.
Intermediate
Change the ratio several times a minute with Z and X, or Shift + mouse wheel for ±10% steps.
Ally one neighbour so your reserve only has to cover one side.
Use the "attacking / attacked" list on the right; clicking a name moves the camera there.
Advanced
Hold Space for the terrain view to find mountains and rivers that make natural borders.
Combine a carrier Air Raid on a Defense Post with a ground wave the moment it's gone.
When donations are allowed, send troops to an ally who's about to break through, then share the land they take off your common rival.
Map-specific advice
Map
How attacking plays
World
About two minutes of free land before the first real border; expand hard early
Europe
49 nations in a small space; borders from minute one, so alliances decide who can attack
South America
The Andes act as a wall; rivers let boats reach deep inland
Oceania, Britannia
Island maps; most attacks are boat landings, so the second Port matters
Black Sea
Land all around a central sea; boats and warships decide the trade and the raids
Ranked maps
No nations, so the fight is between players from the start
On a phone
Tap land to attack, long-press for the action menu, and use the attack-ratio slider at the bottom of the screen. The same 40% rhythm applies. See playing on mobile.
