Update 0.10.0: Commendations, Battle Speed Voting, and Major Balance Changes

Marshals,

Update 0.10.0 is now available for Crown Marshal.

This major update introduces the new Commendation progression system and battle speed voting, adds new modification routes for the Mage Apprentice, Priest, and Militia, and brings extensive balance changes to units, Strategies, cards, stronghold modifications, and the Crown exchange.

We have also reworked shared-card consistency, melee engagement and collision behavior, while fixing several issues involving live spectating, replays, reanimation skins, Escape navigation, and large-scale battle performance.

New Features

New System: Commendations

Winning a round now grants 1 Commendation to each player on the winning side. Draws grant none.

Starting from round 2, the low-weight Field Commendation order can also immediately grant 1 Commendation without providing any Energy.

Commendations can accumulate and never expire.

During deployment, a group deployed in an earlier round can be commended by spending:

• 1 Commendation
• Energy equal to 50% of that unit's base cost

A commended group permanently gains +50% base Health, Attack, and healing for the rest of that match.

Each group can only be commended once per match, but a commended group can still receive a modification.

Only one newly commended group may remain during each deployment phase.

If the group is sold during the same round in which it was commended:

• The full Energy cost of the Commendation is refunded.
• The Commendation itself is returned.
• The deployment phase's Commendation choice becomes available again.

If the group is sold during a later round, only 50% of the Commendation Energy cost is refunded, and the Commendation itself is not returned.

Summons, reinforcements, and strongholds cannot be commended.

Commendation choices remain hidden from the opponent during deployment. Once battle begins, a commended group is revealed through a persistent flame ring, sparks, and an overhead sigil.

Battle Speed Voting

Players can now vote to activate 2x battle speed early.

Once every participating player has voted, the current round immediately enters the same 2x speed that would normally begin after 60 seconds of battle.

• A submitted vote cannot be withdrawn.
• Votes reset at the start of each round.
• Play vs AI requires only one vote.
• Replay playback requires only one vote.
• Live spectators cannot vote.
• Spectators can see the vote tally and follow the resulting battle speed.

Mage Apprentice Modification: Ember Rain

Added Ember Rain for the Mage Apprentice.

• Permanent Store unlock: 1,000 Valor
• In-battle installation cost: 100 Energy
• The Mage Apprentice must be owned before purchasing it.
• Existing accounts do not receive the modification automatically.

Ember Rain retains the Mage Apprentice's 55 base Attack and original 1.5 m splash radius.

When a fireball actually hits, it creates a zone at the impact point with:

• Radius: 3 m
• Duration: 2 seconds

The zone deals 15 fixed damage immediately and another 15 fixed damage after 1 second.

Ember Rain can damage:

• Ground units
• Flying units
• Ordinary buildings

It does not damage allies or strongholds.

Multiple Ember Rain zones can overlap and stack. Existing zones continue to resolve even after the caster dies.

The route includes a dedicated Mage Apprentice appearance, falling embers, and burning effects.

Priest Modification: Radiant Afterglow

Added Radiant Afterglow for the Priest.

• Permanent Store unlock: 1,000 Valor
• In-battle installation cost: 100 Energy
• The Priest must be owned before purchasing it.
• Existing accounts do not receive the modification automatically.

Radiant Afterglow retains the Priest's normal healing.

Every successful heal leaves a radiance zone at the target's position with:

• Radius: 3 m
• Duration: 2 seconds

The zone restores 10 Health immediately and another 10 Health after 1 second to eligible allies inside it.

The radiance affects living, non-building:

• Ground allies
• Flying allies

Once created, the zone remains even if the Priest or the original target moves or dies.

Radiance zones created by multiple Priests stack independently.

The route includes a dedicated Priest appearance and radiance effects.

Militia Modification: Strength in Numbers

Added Strength in Numbers for Militia.

• Permanent Store unlock: 1,000 Valor
• In-battle installation cost: 100 Energy
• Militia must be owned before purchasing it.
• Existing accounts do not receive the modification automatically.

Each other living allied unit within 6 m that also has Strength in Numbers grants that Militia fighter:

• +4% Attack
• 3% less damage taken

Each eligible ally applies its own separate multiplicative stack, with no stack limit.

Spreading the formation apart or losing members immediately removes the corresponding stacks.

The route includes a dedicated shield and active-bonus effects.

Community Invitation

The first time a player enters the lobby on a device, a community invitation is now displayed.

Players can directly open the QQ group or Discord to find opponents and share feedback.

• Chinese interfaces recommend the QQ group first.
• Other languages recommend Discord first.
• Both community links always remain available.

Dismissing the invitation, selecting Maybe Later, or opening either community prevents it from appearing automatically again on that device.

Balance Changes

Crown-to-Valor Exchange

The Crown-to-Valor exchange rate has been increased from 1:1 to 1:10.

Exchanges still:

• Use a minimum step of 100 Crowns.
• Cannot be reversed.

For example, 100 Crowns now grant 1,000 Valor.

Cards and Strategies

• War Loan now enters the card pool in round 4 instead of round 3.
• Elite Tactics now grants 12.5% instead of 10% Health, Attack, and healing when no allied group is within 3 cells of the group's edge.

Pikeman and Archer Rebalance

Pikemen:

• Deployment cost increased from 100 to 150 Energy.
• Health per member increased from 95 to 120.
• Attack increased from 11 to 12.

Archers:

• Group size changed from four members in a 2x2 formation to six members in a 3x2 formation.
• Health per member reduced from 60 to 40.
• Attack reduced from 10 to 6.
• Range reduced from 8 m to 7 m.

Heavy Arrowheads:

• Attack adjusted from 15 to 9.
• It still provides 50% more Attack than the base unit.

Archer Garrison still triggers every 10 seconds, but each activation now summons two standard Archers instead of one.

Base Unit and Building Buffs

• Light Knight Health increased from 450 to 500.
• Crusader deployment cost reduced from 450 to 400 Energy.
• Crusader Health per member increased from 380 to 400.
• Arrow Tower range increased from 8 m to 9 m.
• Crypt Spider Health per member increased from 90 to 100.
• Griffin attack range increased from 1.1 m to 1.3 m.
• Wasp Swarm attack range increased from 0.8 m to 1.0 m.
• Dwarven Musketeer range increased from 7 m to 8 m.
• Windhawk Crossbow Rider Health per member increased from 110 to 120.

Ranged Firepower Coverage

• Long Barrels for Dwarven Musketeers now provides 11 m instead of 10 m range.
• Ember Whelp base range increased from 4 m to 4.5 m.
• Forked Breath Attack increased from 30 to 35.
• Ashwing Metamorphosis range increased from 5 m to 5.5 m.
• Mortar Crew maximum base range increased from 10 m to 13 m.
• Close Support maximum range increased from 10 m to 12 m.

Modification Costs and Route Buffs

Reduced the following in-battle modification costs:

• Shock Lance for Light Knights: 100 → 50 Energy
• Swarm Hunt for Wasp Swarms: 100 → 50 Energy
• Raise the Fallen for Necromancers: 250 → 200 Energy
• Withering Curse for Necromancers: 150 → 100 Energy
• Ground-Hunter Instinct for Griffins: 150 → 100 Energy
• Repeating Ballista for Arrow Towers: 150 → 100 Energy

Split Arrow for Elven Sharpshooters now provides 80 Attack instead of 60.

Stronghold Modification Buffs

Militia Reinforcements:

• In-battle activation cost per side reduced from 150 to 100 Energy.

Inspiring Morale:

• In-battle activation cost per side reduced from 200 to 150 Energy.
• The bonus to allied base Attack and healing within its area increased from 25% to 30%.

Store prices for these stronghold modifications remain unchanged.

Fixes and Improvements

Shared Card Consistency

Fixed shared card slots being able to generate different specific cards for each side.

The following public functional cards now show the same card in the same position for both players:

• Technology
• Energy
• Deployment
• Fortification
• Orders

Unit cards and custom skills continue to resolve independently from each player's own loadout.

If a public functional card is already maxed out or cannot take effect for one player, only that player receives the card's original fallback.

The card is no longer rerolled, and the opponent's offer is no longer changed as a result.

Melee Engagement, Routing, and Collision

Improved melee engagement, routing, and collision behavior.

• Melee units can no longer hit a backline target through allied or enemy frontliners.
• Normal targeting now attacks an enemy directly when that enemy is blocking the lane.
• Focus-fire groups retain their intended target and move sideways to find a valid attack angle.
• Units now sidestep more reliably around allies, enemies, buildings, and strongholds.
• When a moving unit runs into a stationary unit, the moving unit takes the positional correction.

These changes reduce:

• Frontliners pushing one another
• Lane congestion
• Units standing idle while blocked
• Melee attacks passing through other units

Modification Preview and Reanimation Skins

Fixed skin display in modification previews and after reanimation.

During the following modes, modification route cards now preserve the skin actually used by the inspected unit or publicly revealed at that moment:

• Live battles
• Replays
• Live spectating

Units reanimated by Raise the Fallen and transferred to enemy control also continue using their original pre-death skin.

This remains consistent across:

• Corpses
• Projectile launch positions
• Battle animations

Catch-Up Acceleration and Scheduled 2x Speed

Fixed temporary catch-up acceleration being confused with official battle speed.

After reconnecting or joining live spectating during a battle, temporary client acceleration used to catch up with the current battle state no longer incorrectly activates the “2x Speed” indicator.

The real 2x state triggered by:

• A successful speed vote
• The battle reaching 60 seconds

continues to work correctly and is no longer lost after catch-up finishes.

Escape Navigation

Pressing Escape during live spectating now only closes the current selection or overlay and no longer exits the battle.

Leaving live spectating still requires the explicit exit button in the Settings panel.

Also fixed the same Escape input continuing to propagate after returning to the lobby from the following screens, which could previously cause interface errors or crashes:

• Store
• Armory
• Account
• Marshal Feats

Large-Battle Performance

Optimized dense sound and visual effects during large battles to reduce momentary stalls and resource spikes when many attacks occur simultaneously.

• On-screen transient effects still receive at least one complete draw.
• Concurrent sounds are no longer cut off early during heavy bursts.
• Effects entirely outside the visible area no longer consume drawing time.

Thank you for your continued support and feedback.

See you on the battlefield, Marshals!