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[Guide] Military Unit Speed/Initiative in Arctic Future and beyond

qaccy

Well-Known Member
As you all know, military units have turn orders in battle that are determined by how 'fast' the unit is. What most of you probably don't know is that this turn order is decided not by a unit's movement stat, but by a hidden number referred to by the developers as 'initiative'. It wasn't until the release of Arctic Future that players like myself began to suspect its existence when the units, particularly the Surrogate Soldier with its movement of 18, were having their turns out of order with what their movement indicated. All units from prior ages have the same value for movement and initiative, so their turn orders can be easily determined. The initiative stat being hidden has nagged at me ever since I learned about it, so I finally sat down for about an hour and tried out dozens of different army configurations to make my best attempt at hammering down what each unit's initiative/turn order actually is. I don't have any pretty tables or other graphics to share in this regard so it's just going to be a listing, but hopefully people still find this helpful as some sort of reference.

Notes: As mentioned, units prior to Arctic Future (and Champions prior to Space Age Asteroid Belt) have matching movement and initiative. Knowing this, I verified values by using lower-age units and comparing the turn orders against them. In addition, all three No Age units have lower initiative than their movement indicates.

Format: Unit name: movement / initiative

No Age
Rogue: 14 / 1
Military Drummer: 14 / 10 (thanks @Ploton Plaximus for bringing this to my attention)
Color Guard: 12 / 10

Arctic Future
Recon Raider: 36 / 50
Battle Fortress: 20 / 21
Behemoth: 12 / 10
Dragon Drone: 32 / 30
Plasma Artillery: 14 / 16
Surrogate Soldier: 18 / 40

Oceanic Future
Hydroelectric Eel: 35 / 60
Gliders: 30 / 60
Octopod: 20/ 10
C.R.A.B. Mech: 20 / 12
Scimitar: 35 / 50
Manta: 24 / 45
Turturret: 10 / 22
Medusa: 0 / 100 (shares turn order with other Rapid Deployment units)
Sub Cruiser: 22 / 24
Nautilus: 22 / 24

Virtual Future
Warrior Monk: 40 / 50 (thanks @xivarmy)
Ronin Bot: 15 / 10
Augmented Samurai: 30 / 20
Rocket Troop: 12 / 25
Ninja: 20 / 100 (shares turn order with other Rapid Deployment units)

Space Age Mars
Sentinel: 30 / 50
Steel Warden: 18 / 10
Space Marine: 30 / 5
Sniperbot: 14 / 15
Tesla Walker: 16 / 25

Space Age Asteroid Belt
Hover Hammer: 28 / 55
Shredder: 18 / 15
Drill Ranger: 26 / 6
B.E.L.T.: 10 / 20
Nail Storm: 14 / 25
Champion: 20 / 22 (this is the first time the Champion's initiative differs from his movement)

Space Age Venus
Energy Cannon: 30 / 60
Steel Fist: 18 / 20
Observer Drone: 24 / 10
Power Dragon: 12 / 25
Ghost Blaster: 16 / 30
Champion: 20 / 22

Space Age Jupiter Moon
Abyssal Glider: 30 / 65
Glacier Hiker: 18 / 25
Division Drones: 25 / 10
Cavitation Tank: 12 / 30
Harpoon Grenadier: 16 / 35
Champion: 20 / 22


EDIT: By request, I'll also sort the units according to their initiative which is probably better for practical use as this is the order units will actually move in battle. To hopefully make it even more convenient, I'll also color the units based on age (matching above) so as to somewhat naturally filter the list if you're only interested in a particular age. Units that share a number/line will all have the same turn order in battle, usually alternating their turns (including with the enemy side) when paired together, and will move before all units on lines below them. I'll also repeat that for units from other ages, their initiative matches their movement so you can simply compare that number to the ones in this list to determine when they'll move in battles with these units.

Rapid Deployment: Ninja, Medusa
65: Glider
60: Cannon, Eel, Gliders
55: Hammer
50: Sentinel, Monk, Scimitar, Raider
45: Manta
40: Surrogate
35: Harpoon
30: Cavitation, Ghost, Drone
25: Hiker, Dragon, Nail, Tesla, Rocket
24: Sub, Nautilus
22: Champion, Turturret
21: Fortress
20: Fist, B.E.L.T., Samurai
16: Plasma
15: Shredder, Sniperbot
12: C.R.A.B.
10: Drones, Observer, Warden, Ronin, Octopod, Behemoth, Drummer, Color Guard
6: Drill
5: Marine
1: Rogue
 
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DeletedUser29726

Virtual Future
Ronin Bot: 15 / 10 (tied with Behemoths and Octopods)
Augmented Samurai: 30 / 20 (verified with Stealth Tanks)
Ninja: 20 / N/A (currently bugged; always moves before standard units but does not share turn order with other Rapid Deployment units)

To add to the Ninja bug, it actually just has a place in turn order - behind eels and gliders, but ahead of everything else possibly.
 

DeletedUser29726

Perhaps a more useful order for the list rather than by age would be by speed so we could just see them in the order they'll move rather than have to look up units individually? Could include a colored code for the age at the start of the name so that it's easily visible which age they're from if you only want to look at one age in particular.
 

qaccy

Well-Known Member
To add to the Ninja bug, it actually just has a place in turn order - behind eels and gliders, but ahead of everything else possibly.

Turns out you were right on that; I irresponsibly didn't really test Ninjas very much as I don't have my own yet, but I was able to verify using a sector on the continent map that they've got an initiative of 50. Thanks! You're also probably right that a ranking list would be more useful; let me know if you think I should include both in the same post or just reorganize what I already have.
 

DeletedUser29726

as long as it's just the 3 ages in the list i think it'd be fine in just an ordered list with color being usable to quickly distinguish ages. if it was going to be every age in the game by-order would become more unwieldy.
 

DeletedUser3882

This is awesome work @qaccy!

Thanks for taking the time in solving this riddle (info *should* have been released at least on the wiki when they started tweaking this stuff back in AF?!?)
 

qaccy

Well-Known Member
Updated the post to reflect Ninjas now working correctly and moving ahead of all units without Rapid Deployment. And unrelated to the content of this thread but still good to know, Gliders were also fixed to fly properly, like other flying units (previously, they moved like normal units and only possessed the immunity to artillery).
 

qaccy

Well-Known Member
This guide has now fallen out-of-date mainly due to me taking a 5-month vacation from the game. Before I'm able to acquire some for myself, would anybody happen to know the initiative values for the Rocket Troop and Warrior Monk?

EDIT: Rocket Troop has been verified and added to the list
 
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DeletedUser29726

Huh, so gliders are faster than sentinels and rocket troops can be used to pop rogues for sniperbots in artillery-centric DAs. Interesting :) Also very interesting initiative for space marines.
 

qaccy

Well-Known Member
I was pretty surprised by the Marines as well, but I can see where Inno's coming from with it. Let everything else move first to get in range, then the Marine(s) can come in to clean up. In theory it seems better than Scimitars, who were either not moving their first turn or ended up being sitting ducks because nothing's in range to attack.

But on the whole it looks like all of the SAM units are fairly slow. Even the Sentinel; I'm surprised it's not at least top tier with Eels and Gliders.
 

DeletedUser40062

I think drummers may have initiative not in line with their movement
 

qaccy

Well-Known Member
@Ploton Plaximus Sorry it took me so long to notice that you posted, but it looks like you're absolutely right! Just did a couple tests with them and it looks like they have an initiative of 10. For what it's worth, Color Guards do as well!
 

qaccy

Well-Known Member
Space Age Venus units have been added! Some notes for practical use in battles with SAV and/or SAAB units:

-Energy Cannons are the go-to fast unit now. Like with Sentinels, be careful using them with Rogues against low-range units and, more importantly, Ghost Blasters. Unlike Nail Storms and Teslas, these often can't hit another unit from starting positions, so treat them as low-range units when using Rogues.
-Power Dragons can be used against pretty much everything else. Power Shot is arguably the strongest unit ability in the game. The icon for it should be a middle finger because that's pretty much what it is in battle.
-As mentioned above, Ghost Blasters really struggle to hit anything on their first turn. Nail Storms are better.
-Observer Drones have been proposed as having a niche use at very high attrition levels in GBG. Since they have the highest attack value among SAV units, their damage output will be the slowest to decrease. However, they're not very good units so there aren't very many matchups where they can make use of it.
 
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