Age of Origins Formation Guide: 10/10/80, 1-1-98 & Ratios That Win

Part of the Troops series:

• Troop Types & Tiers: The three ranges this guide arranges.
• Defense Formation Guide: The garrison side of the same math.

Quick Answer

• Formations are written as three percentages: melee / mid-range / long-range, summing to 100.
• The standard long-range build is 10/10/80 — a thin screen in front of a heavy back row. Mid-range players run something like 20/70/10.
• 1-1-98 is the single-target build: 1% melee, 1% mid, 98% of one unit type, used to concentrate damage on NPC targets. Community sources note the pure version works best for cities level 30 and under.
• There is no counter triangle — the front row simply gets attacked first, so your screen exists to buy your back row time.
• Always send full marches, and always scout before committing.

Reading a Formation

When players trade formations in alliance chat, they're quoting percentages of their march across the three attack ranges: melee / mid-range / long-range.

• 10/10/80 — the classic long-range build. A thin screen absorbs the opening damage while 80% of your march deals it from the back row.
• 20/70/10 — a mid-range player's build, weighted to whatever their strongest units are.
• 1-1-98 — the single-target special: 1% melee, 1% mid-range, 98% concentrated in one unit type. Used against NPC targets where you want every point of damage arriving from the same source, rather than spread across rows.

The logic behind all of them is targeting order. Enemies hit the front row first, then mid, then back — so the question a formation answers is "how much screen do I need to keep my damage alive long enough to win?" Too little screen and your long-range units get exposed early. Too much and you've spent march capacity on troops that don't deal meaningful damage.

Formations by Target

These are starting points. Read your battle reports and adjust — that feedback loop matters more than any table.

Farming zombies and elite zombies

Zombies hit predictably. Run a light screen and load up on long-range, keeping wounded inside your Hospital capacity. Something in the 10/10/80 neighbourhood is the workhorse here for long-range accounts. For single high-health targets, the 1-1-98 concentration build is exactly what it was designed for.

Ruins and boss rallies

Fill rally slots with your highest tiers, weighted toward your damage row behind the rally leader's screen. Join on time — an under-filled rally wastes everyone's marches. Mechanics in the alliance guide and the Ruins guide.

Medici's Treasure

The Monday dungeon deliberately breaks the usual advice: it wants a balanced build with maximum Biochemical Zombies, since zombies auto-heal between fights and the boss is immune to everything else. Full breakdown in the Medici's Treasure guide.

Attacking players

Enemy garrisons hit back with real burst, so your screen has to survive the opening exchange:

• Thicken the melee row relative to your zombie-farming build. The current meta is decided in the first seconds — Tifa's Death Bomber style openers exist to delete thin front rows.
• Scout first, always. Composition should answer what the report shows, and how much that report tells you depends on your Recon Center.
• Details on target selection in PvP basics.

Officers Complete the Formation

A formation is troops plus the officers marching with them:

• Zeus-style universal attack buffs amplify any composition (tier list).
• Burst officers want a screen that survives long enough for the burst to decide the fight.
• Drillmaster officers buff and debuff by troop category — but only against players, never against zombies or the weekly bosses.
• Saki at launch for the bigger fleet, then swap to your combat lineup before contact.

March Discipline

1. Full marches only. A 70% march fights at 70% strength for 100% of the walk time.
2. Highest tiers forward. Per march slot, a higher tier is simply worth more — retire old tiers to gathering.
3. Read battle reports. Long-range units dying early means your screen was too thin; a dead screen with no damage output means the back row was too small. The full diagnostic is in why you lost the battle.
4. Machines supplement, never replace — see the battle machines guide.

Event Formations

Kill events change the calculation: higher-tier troops score more points when killed — yours and theirs. Bring your best, hunt their best, and go in with an empty Hospital. Point tables are in the kill event guide.