Army food and gold upkeep, desertion when short

How it works

• Upkeep is deducted on the server together with production; food never goes below zero. While you are offline it runs for at most 24 hours, just like production.
• The value in the food cell is net: production − army upkeep. Resource Bounty doubles production but does not change upkeep.
• If net food is negative, food decreases even when storage is full; the food breakdown shows roughly how many hours until the granary empties.
• If food will run out within 6 hours you get “Food running low”, and “Food ran out” when the granary is empty. The two warnings share one limit of at most one every 12 hours, so “Food ran out” may arrive not when the granary empties but 12 hours after the previous warning at the earliest.
• 1 hour after the granary empties, and every hour after that, a desertion step runs: that hour's unpaid food is divided by the per-soldier upkeep and that many soldiers leave. At most 5% of the army (at least 1 soldier) leaves per step.
• Deserters are split across unit types with the same proportional rule as battle losses. Ready soldiers in the village leave first, then the guest garrison at an ally, then idle field parties; marches on the road are not touched.
• Desertion is postponed while a battle is under way in the village; the unpaid food debt is kept.
• Each desertion writes a “Food ran out · N soldiers deserted” report to the Töre Ledger and a Battle notification. Deserted soldiers do not enter the Infirmary, cannot be bought back with diamonds and do not count towards victories, tasks or achievements.
• Soldiers spend gold as well as food. The gold cell is net too: production − army gold upkeep. Resource Bounty doubles gold production as well and leaves upkeep unchanged.
• If the storehouse runs out of gold, desertion works as with food: one step 1 hour later and then every hour. If food and gold run out together, as many soldiers leave as the larger shortfall cannot cover (still at most 5%). The report title names the cause: “Gold ran out” or “Food and gold ran out”.
• If gold will run out within 6 hours a “Gold running low” warning arrives, and “Gold ran out” once it is gone; gold warnings are also sent at most once every 12 hours.
• When the season closes, the army stops eating and deserting.

Step by step

1. Tap the Food cell in the resource bar; the NET HOURLY value and the ARMY UPKEEP breakdown show upkeep per unit type, free soldiers and the wounded.
2. Tap the Gold cell; the same breakdown shows the gold cost per unit type and net gold. The strip on the Army screen shows GOLD UPKEEP and NET GOLD, and the training card adds a GOLD UPKEEP line.
3. Watch FOOD UPKEEP and NET FOOD in the food strip at the top of the Army screen; the Breakdown button opens the same details.
4. Before training, check the FOOD UPKEEP line on the unit card: it shows the upkeep added when the order finishes and the resulting net food.
5. If net food turns negative, upgrade the Supply Tent and storage, gather from food sites, bring food from the market or with village-to-village shipments, or disband soldiers.
6. If desertion has started, follow the time to the next desertion on the red banner of the Army screen. Once food enters the granary no new desertion step starts; the pending step for the hungry time still runs on schedule.

Key numbers

Spearman, Archer, Agent

1 food and 0.15 gold per hour — Multiplied by the world's economy multiplier.

Raider, Siege Engineer

2 food and 0.30 gold per hour — Multiplied by the world's economy multiplier.

Heavy Cavalry

3 food and 0.45 gold per hour — Multiplied by the world's economy multiplier.

Free allowance

First 50 soldiers per village — Counted starting from the cheapest units; the starting army is completely free.