Three checks before an army attack
Before ordering an attack on an enemy army, separate three questions: does your country have current contact on that target, can your unit's weapon reach it, and is the weapon ready to fire? Passing one check does not automatically pass the others.
This is different from issuing a province Capture order. A Capture order is a movement-and-occupation command; an attack on an enemy army requires a current shared contact with that army. For province ownership, see the province capture guide.
Current contact is the army-targeting requirement
To target an enemy army, your country must have current shared contact with it. A marker you can see is not automatically a valid target, and an old combat report is only a record of what happened earlier. Do not use historical reports as evidence of present enemy position or visibility.
Sensor reach and weapon range answer different questions. Contact tells the game whether the target may be selected. Weapon range determines when a shot can connect. Seeing or detecting an army does not extend a weapon's reach.
Check the weapon's actual range
Ground and tank close weapons use a 50 km attack range. Defenders can have a separate defensive engagement range of 52 km. Other ranged, aircraft and naval weapons follow their own unit-catalogue rules, so use the selected army's current weapon information rather than assuming all troops share one distance.
Illustrative artwork — not gameplay footage
A target can be a valid contact while still outside your firing range. The attacker may need to approach before it can fire. The reverse is also possible: a unit may be within a weapon's listed distance but lack current contact required to target the enemy army.
Cooldowns control when shots repeat
Weapons fire according to their cooldown. A muzzle flash, impact or other animation is presentation; it does not itself count as another shot. Judge damage from the battle state and shot timing, not from how many times an animation appears to play.
Troop types have different weapons and timing. Use the catalogue and the live army panel to compare a unit's range and cooldown before relying on it in a plan. Do not assume that a larger force has one shared weapon profile.
An attack order is not an endless chase
An attacker can approach until it reaches firing range, stop and fire as the cooldown permits. If the target moves out of that weapon's range, the current attack order ends; it does not automatically begin a new chase. Give a new order only when you decide that continued pursuit is worth the movement and exposure.
Ground and tank close weapons are especially sensitive to this distinction: a short movement into range is different from following a target indefinitely. Keep the army panel open long enough to confirm whether the order is moving, firing or finished.
Stop Attack and Stop Defence control different behaviour
Stop Attack cancels a manual attack pursuit. It does not disable automatic defence or stop enemy fire. Stop Defence is the separate control for switching automatic defence off; Activate Defence turns it back on. Check the state you intend to change before leaving an army in a contested area.
Original capitals cannot transfer ownership, but troops stationed there can still be attacked and killed. Protected territory is not the same as invulnerable units.
A practical targeting checklist
- Confirm the correct enemy army is a current country-shared contact.
- Read the selected troop's weapon range and cooldown.
- Account for the defender's separate engagement range.
- Watch for the attack order to end if the target leaves range.
- Use Stop Attack or the separate defence control intentionally.
- Treat combat reports as history, not live visibility.
For movement routes, capture and army-panel basics, continue with the army movement and combat guide. To learn about aircraft fuel and patrol rules, see aircraft and naval operations.