Polytopia City Attacks: Clear the Tile, Enter and Hold

Killing the unit in a city is not the same as taking the city. A successful assault needs someone to occupy the cleared tile, survive the opponent's response and complete the capture. If every nearby unit has already spent its useful action, a good-looking attack can end with an empty city and no progress toward owning it.

Plan backward from the unit you want standing in the city. This guide covers ordinary land attacks with regular-tribe units. It does not cover special-tribe movement, naval landings or forced-displacement tricks. The examples describe specific board conditions, so you can identify which part of the plan your own position is missing.

Give the attack three separate jobs

Before moving anything, identify a clearer, an occupier and supporting units. One unit can sometimes perform more than one job, but do not assume it will.

For an ordinary move into an enemy city, entering begins the siege; it does not immediately transfer ownership. Your unit needs to remain there through the opponent's response, then use Capture on your following turn. When that turn arrives, select the occupier and capture before spending its turn on another task.

This changes how you evaluate a trade. Losing an attacking unit might still be worthwhile if it opens a durable occupation. Conversely, removing several enemies may achieve little toward the city if nobody can enter afterward.

Read the preview before choosing your finisher

Hold on a target on mobile, or hover over it on Steam, to see the battle preview. It shows damage to both sides. Sweat marks a target that will die; the skull warns that your attacker will die. Read the two outcomes together rather than looking only at damage dealt.

A melee unit that kills an adjacent enemy normally advances into its tile, subject to movement restrictions. A ranged attacker stays where it is, even when firing from an adjacent tile. That difference determines who will occupy the city after the finishing blow.

Choose the finisher with the destination in mind. If your melee attacker would become a vulnerable occupier, a ranged finish can leave the tile free for a healthier unit. If the melee attacker is already the unit you want there, its advance can complete the clear-and-enter part of the plan efficiently.

Case 1: an Archer clears the way for a Defender

Suppose an enemy occupies the target city. Your Archer is already in range, its preview shows a killing shot, and your fresh Defender stands on a legally adjacent land tile. Neither needs to move through another unit to perform its assigned job.

The useful order is:

1. Check the Archer's preview and confirm the shot removes the occupant.
2. Use the Archer to clear the city.
3. Select the still-unused Defender and move it into the empty tile.
4. Inspect the enemy approaches before ending the turn.
5. If the Defender remains there on your next turn, use Capture first.

The Archer's position is what makes the sequence work: firing does not put it into the city. The Defender's unused movement is the second requirement. If you send the Defender elsewhere first, the same killing shot no longer produces the same occupation.

Do not turn this into “always use an Archer.” If the shot does not kill, the city remains occupied. If your Defender is farther away or its route is blocked, clearing the tile does not teleport it forward. In either case, solve the missing step before committing the units you need for the full sequence.

A strong occupier is not automatically a strong attacker

The regular Defender has 15 base health, 1 attack, 3 defence and 1 movement. Its role is easier to understand when you separate getting into the city from holding it. The developer's clear-and-hold advice recommends Defenders for city captures, but their low attack and limited movement mean they often need another unit to open the way.

A Defender is therefore a useful candidate to stage near the target, not an answer to every defender inside it. Making your intended occupier attack an enemy it cannot remove can waste the opportunity that a different attack order would have created.

Health also matters. A unit's printed type is not a substitute for its current condition. If the available Defender is badly damaged and the enemy has several attackers nearby, its name alone does not make the siege secure.

Do not count the enemy's walls as your protection

City defence bonuses belong to eligible friendly units, not to an invader besieging that city. Fortify does not give your occupier the enemy city's defensive bonus before ownership changes. After capture, eligible units can benefit from the now-friendly city; those are different stages of the assault.

Evaluate the exposed siege first. A plan that survives only by assuming you already own the wall is planning for the wrong turn.

Clear the approach, not only the city

An ordinary unit entering a tile beside an enemy is stopped by that enemy's zone of control. Spare movement and roads do not override that stop. Forests and mountains can also halt an ordinary route; road movement has its own territorial restrictions. Use the actual reachable tiles, not straight-line distance alone.

This makes an enemy outside the city strategically important. A wounded blocker can still prevent your occupier reaching the destination. Reducing it to almost no health is not equivalent to removing it.

Case 2: the last hit opens the corridor

Suppose the city is empty, but your intended entrant must pass a square beside an enemy to reach it. Other routes are unavailable in this position. The enemy has only a little health left, and a separate ranged unit can finish it without moving the entrant.

Moving the entrant first leaves it stopped in the approach. Even if you remove the blocker afterward, you have already committed that movement. The better sequence is to remove the blocker first, then select the entrant again and take the newly available route into the city.

The result you want from the supporting attack is not merely more damage. It is the removal of the unit controlling the corridor. If the preview shows that your shot leaves the blocker alive, you still need another finishing action or a different plan.

Also distinguish a blocked route from an occupied destination. Killing a side blocker will not clear an enemy still standing in the city. An assault can require two separate removals, and you must have enough useful actions left to accomplish both before the entrant moves.

Inspect the response before committing the siege

Once you know how to enter, look at what the opponent can reach. Start with visible enemies that can attack the city, then consider reinforcements approaching from behind them. Fog can hide additional units, so an apparently empty rear area is not the same as a protected flank.

Use support to change that response. Removing a nearby attacker may matter more than damaging a distant unit that cannot influence the siege. Placing your other units to obstruct approaches can be useful, but do not block the route your own occupier still needs.

Case 3: the winning attack leaves the wrong unit inside

Suppose your wounded melee unit can finish the city defender. Its advance would leave it in the city, but several visible enemy units can reach that tile on the response. Your healthier occupier is not yet close enough to take over the assault.

There are two different goals you might choose:

The second choice is not automatically a mistake, but it is not the same plan as taking and keeping the city. Name the purpose before spending the supporting units. If you need ownership to continue your advance, waiting for a coordinated assault can be better than repeatedly sending isolated finishers into the same tile.

Recheck after every attack that changes the position

Do not treat the first preview of the turn as a permanent answer for later attacks. Damage changes unit condition, a kill changes occupancy, and a cleared enemy can open movement. After each important action, select the next unit and inspect its actual options again.

A useful stopping point is any moment when the intended occupier can no longer do its job. Perhaps the target survived, the corridor remains blocked, or the only available entrant would be left exposed. You can still use the remaining turn to position support rather than continuing an attack sequence whose original purpose has disappeared.

On the following turn, finish the capture, not just the fight: select the surviving siege unit and use Capture. Then reassess the position under its new ownership. You have completed the assault when the city is yours, not merely when the enemy on its tile has been defeated.