Age of Origins Recruit Troops Phase: Why Promotion Doesn't Count

Part of the Events series:

• Strongest Commander Guide: The parent event.
• Upgrade Buildings Phase: The phase that always comes before this one.

Quick Answer

• Points credit when you collect the troops, not when training starts — so a 24-hour queue finishing just inside the window scores the whole batch.
• Troop promotion does not count. Upgrading existing troops to a higher tier scores zero in this phase; only fresh recruitment does.
• Higher tiers score more per troop, so train your best available tier rather than mass-producing cheap units.
• This phase always follows the Upgrade Buildings and Technology phase — the one fixed ordering rule in Strongest Commander, and it's free advance warning.
• Don't burn speedups on a queue that won't finish inside the window; a partial batch scores nothing.

The Collection Rule

The mechanic that catches everyone: training progress is worth nothing until you collect the troops. A queue running for a day scores at the moment it completes and you claim it — which means the winning play is a long queue started well before the phase and finishing just after it opens.

Set up correctly, a single 24-hour batch dropped one second into the window outscores a player frantically speedup-rushing batches all day. Same troops, same resources, wildly different points. This is the banking doctrine in its purest form.

The corollary saves you materials: don't spend speedups on a batch that can't finish inside the phase. Speedups have no direct point value here — they exist only to force a completion into the window. If the batch lands after the phase closes, every speedup you poured in was wasted.

Promotion Scores Nothing

Worth stating plainly because it's an expensive surprise: troop promotion — upgrading existing lower-tier troops to a higher tier — does not count toward this phase. Promotion is often the resource-efficient way to modernize an army (troop guide), and it remains a good idea on ordinary days. But if you promote during the Recruit phase expecting points, you'll get an army upgrade and an empty scoreboard.

Save promotions for non-phase days; spend phase days on fresh recruitment of your highest available tier, since higher tiers award more points per unit.

You Always Get Warning

Strongest Commander randomizes its phase order with exactly one fixed rule: Recruit Troops always comes after Upgrade Buildings and Technology. That's not trivia — it's a free planning signal. The moment the building phase appears, you know the recruit phase is still ahead of you, and you can start the long queue that will land inside it.

Combined with the Phase 2 reveal, most cycles give you a day or more of warning. Use it: queue deep, don't collect early, and let the timer do the work.

Maximizing the Batch

• Train your top tier. Points scale with tier, and you wanted those troops anyway (troop tiers).
• Appoint recruitment officers before starting — Loreline-type training-speed officers and your Strategy appointments snapshot at queue start, per the appointment habit.
• Fill every production building: Camp, Factory, and Workshop batches all count as recruitment, so run all three (battle machines guide).
• Have the resources banked. A phase you can't afford to train through is a phase you spectate. Gather ahead, per the resource guide.
• Mind your Hospital and your kill event posture — a giant fresh army trained on Saturday is a giant target on Sunday if you're not shielding.

The Routine

1. Watch for the building phase — recruit is coming after it.
2. Bank resources and start a deep queue timed to complete inside the window.
3. Never collect early. The claim is the score.
4. Skip promotions until the phase ends.
5. Run all three production buildings, top tier, officers appointed.