The Academy is capped by City Hall and gates all research. The standing split: mains rush Military plus the four economy speed techs; farms run pure Economy. What changed in Edition 6.1 is that the Military branch now ships as a route system — one Main route optimised for war competitiveness, and two alternates for accounts whose constraints make the Main route wrong.
Academy percentages are additive inside their categories, which yields three corollaries: on a fresh account academy nodes are the cheapest real damage available; on a saturated account the Health universal out-values another attack source; and nothing in the Academy occupies the skill-damage or shred lanes — those remain commander and gear decisions no research substitutes for.
T5 is two purchases. The UNLOCK: every building at 25, a maxed economy tree, the universal trio at 10, then ≈1,000 days of universal speedups of research per troop type. And the SUBSCRIPTION: healing 100,000 severely wounded T5s costs ≈192M food, 192M wood, 144M stone and 144M gold — the gold line is twenty times T4’s.
The unlock, in universal speedup-days, after buildings are maxed. Each troop type’s T5 is researched independently — specialise in your primary march type and never research T5 Siege.
Do not unlock T5 before your farm economy can feed the healing bill. A kingdom of confident maxed-T4 accounts with full universals out-fights a kingdom of starving T5s — Route B is encouraged to plateau at maxed T4 until farms mature.
Combat Tactics Lv 9 runs ≈65 raw days and Lv 10 ≈100 for a typical account; the type-specific II tiers are comparably heavy. Research-speed sources SUM: Scientist title ~10% + civilisation (Korea) + alliance tech + an Orange research rune (20%) + Writing/Mathematics (25%) reaches ≈+63% — a 100-day node completes in ≈61 days, roughly 39% more research per speedup-day.
Hold small researches (scout and siege-defence levels) as filler so no buff window burns empty, and time big releases to MGE technology stages so the same speedups score event points twice.
| Gate / node family | Magnitude | Requirement / note |
|---|---|---|
| T3 / T4 / T5 gates military [M] Confirmed | — | T3: CH16 (Academy 15) · T4: CH21 (Academy 20) · T5: every building at 25 + maxed Economy tree + Combat Tactics, Defensive Formation, Herbal Medicine at 10 + Cartography path + primary-type T5 node. |
| Economy speed techs economy [M] Confirmed | Masonry +15% build · Writing +10% research · Engineering +35% build · Mathematics +15% research | Do these four first on every account — they shorten everything after (D.6.3). |
| Type Attack/Defense I (Lv 5) · II (Lv 10) military [C] Community | +10% each (I) · +20% each (II), per troop type | Troop attack / defense by type |
| Universal Troop Attack / Defense / Health military [C] Community | +25% each; they apply to every march | Combat Tactics, Defensive Formation, Herbal Medicine at 10 also gate T5. |
| Cartography military [C] Community | +15% march speed | Opens Medical Corps, Encampment, Combined Arms. |
| Training Speed military [C] Community | +20% at max | Feeds MGE training stages and post-war rebuilds. |
Economy speed four first
Masonry → Writing → Engineering → Mathematics on every account — they shorten everything after (build +50%, research +25% when maxed).
Rush T3, then backfill
Rush T3 (all types) without over-investing en route, then max the T3-era nodes you skipped.
Rush T4 — skip Siege
T4 Infantry/Cavalry/Archers; T4 Siege combat research is speedups wasted. T4 needs City Hall 21.
Max the universal trio-and-three
Combat Tactics, Defensive Formation, Herbal Medicine to 10 (the T5 gate) plus universal Troop Attack/Defense/Health (+25% each — the highest-return completions in the tree).
Combat Tactics Lv 9 ≈ 65 days raw; Lv 10 ≈ 100 days for a typical account — never release these unbuffed; stack the ≈+63% research window.
Cartography → 5
+15% march speed, opening Medical Corps, Encampment, Combined Arms — mobility, march capacity, and healing throughput are war stats.
Primary-type T5 only
Matched to your march role; never T5 Siege; secondary/tertiary types only after the season's needs are met.
≈1,000 days of universal speedups after buildings are maxed; each troop type's T5 is researched independently. Spend universal speedups on research only until T5 lands.
Post-T5: healing economics
Healing-cost/speed reduction pays back every hospital cycle — the T5 sustainment bill (healing 100k T5 ≈ 192M food, 192M wood, 144M stone, 144M gold) is 20× T4's gold line.
Identical to Route A through the universal trio
Economy four → T3 → T4 (no Siege) → Combat Tactics / Defensive Formation / Herbal Medicine to 10 + universals.
Skip the MGE kill races
The server-age reality check: on old servers packed with maxed-T5 spenders, pour every universal speedup into the research clock instead of the kill race — the long-term payoff is larger.
Endpoint (i): the slow T5 climb
Budget the unlock as a two-season project timed to research-event windows.
≈1,000 days of universal speedups post-buildings. Do NOT unlock T5 before the farm economy can feed the healing bill.
Endpoint (ii): the maxed-T4 plateau
Full T4 with all universals and your primary type's II tiers at 10 is a genuinely competitive war footing at a fraction of the cost — and it avoids the T5 sustainment subscription until farms mature. A kingdom of confident maxed-T4 accounts with full universals out-fights a kingdom of starving T5s.
Health universal earlier than a spender would take it: with attack saturating slowly on an F2P stack, Troop Health out-values a same-size attack source (Theorem 8).
Shared steps 1–3, then Defense & Health before Attack
After the economy four, T3, and T4: take the Defense and Health universals before Attack.
Infantry line first
Max the Infantry line regardless of commander taste — garrison walls are infantry.
Encampment early, healing above the attack ceiling
More troops per reinforcement march = more value per garrison; weight Medical Corps + healing research above attack. T5 Infantry is Route C's only T5.
The account-level mirror of alliance Route A: someone must be hard to kill — the D.8 solidity results say a defense surplus is a real multiplicative shield.
T5 is two purchases. The UNLOCK: every building at 25, a maxed economy tree, the universal trio at 10, then ≈1,000 days of universal speedups of research per troop type. And the SUBSCRIPTION: healing 100,000 severely wounded T5s costs ≈192M food, 192M wood, 144M stone and 144M gold — the gold line is twenty times T4’s.
The unlock, in universal speedup-days, after buildings are maxed. Each troop type’s T5 is researched independently — specialise in your primary march type and never research T5 Siege.
Do not unlock T5 before your farm economy can feed the healing bill. A kingdom of confident maxed-T4 accounts with full universals out-fights a kingdom of starving T5s — Route B is encouraged to plateau at maxed T4 until farms mature.
Economy speed four first
Masonry → Writing → Engineering → Mathematics on every account — they shorten everything after (build +50%, research +25% when maxed).
Rush T3, then backfill
Rush T3 (all types) without over-investing en route, then max the T3-era nodes you skipped.
Rush T4 — skip Siege
T4 Infantry/Cavalry/Archers; T4 Siege combat research is speedups wasted. T4 needs City Hall 21.
Max the universal trio-and-three
Combat Tactics, Defensive Formation, Herbal Medicine to 10 (the T5 gate) plus universal Troop Attack/Defense/Health (+25% each — the highest-return completions in the tree).
Combat Tactics Lv 9 ≈ 65 days raw; Lv 10 ≈ 100 days for a typical account — never release these unbuffed; stack the ≈+63% research window.
Cartography → 5
+15% march speed, opening Medical Corps, Encampment, Combined Arms — mobility, march capacity, and healing throughput are war stats.
Primary-type T5 only
Matched to your march role; never T5 Siege; secondary/tertiary types only after the season's needs are met.
≈1,000 days of universal speedups after buildings are maxed; each troop type's T5 is researched independently. Spend universal speedups on research only until T5 lands.
Post-T5: healing economics
Healing-cost/speed reduction pays back every hospital cycle — the T5 sustainment bill (healing 100k T5 ≈ 192M food, 192M wood, 144M stone, 144M gold) is 20× T4's gold line.