Age of Origins Troop Guide: Ranges, Unit Types & Tiers T1–T13

Part of the Troops series:

• March Formation Guide: How to compose marches that win.
• Battle Machines Guide: What the Factory and Workshop add.

Quick Answer

• Age of Origins groups troops by attack range, not by class: Melee (range 0–1, front row), Mid-Range (2, middle row), and Long-Range (3, back row).
• There is no rock-paper-scissors counter system. Range decides targeting order — the front row is attacked first, then mid, then long.
• That's why long-range units are your damage dealers and the front rows are the screen that buys them time.
• Tiers run T1 to T13. T12 arrives at Camp 36 (Fanatic Terminator, Eagle Eye Shot). T13 unlocks in three stages — Camp 39, Factory 40, Workshop 41 — so it is a city-level project, not a single upgrade.
• A tier upgrade is usually worth more than more troops: same march capacity, far more power.

Three Rows, Not Three Classes

If you've played other zombie strategy games you may be looking for a class triangle — infantry beats riders, riders beat hunters, and so on. Age of Origins doesn't have one. It's a different combat model, and importing that instinct from another game will cost you fights.

What Age of Origins has instead is three attack ranges, which double as battlefield rows:

Range	Distance	Row	Role
Melee	0–1	Front	Absorbs the incoming damage first
Mid-Range	2	Middle	Secondary damage, hit after the front collapses
Long-Range	3	Back	Your damage engine, protected by everything ahead of it

The mechanic that follows is simple and decides every battle report: enemies attack the front row first, then the middle, then the back. Your melee troops aren't there to win — they're there to be hit, so your long-range units get to keep shooting. When a report shows your long-range units dying heavily, your front row was too thin to hold, which is the diagnostic the battle report guide works from.

Which Building Trains What

Three production buildings, twelve units, mapped by range:

Row	Units
Front (melee, 0–1)	Infantry (Axemen), Tanks, Shredders, Armored Soldiers, Shielders
Middle (mid-range, 2)	Gunners, War Bikes, Storm Troopers, Biochemical Zombies
Back (long-range, 3)	Snipers, Cannons, Rocket Launchers, Laser Cannons, EMP Cannons

By producing building: Camp trains Infantry, Gunners, Rocket Launchers and Snipers; the Factory builds Tanks, Shredders, War Bikes and Cannons; the Workshop produces Armored Soldiers, Storm Troopers, Shielders and EMP Cannons.

(Community sources disagree on the row for a couple of units — Shielders and Rocket Launchers in particular. The mapping above follows the official troop-range posting; if your in-game unit card says otherwise, trust the card.)

Units also carry individual special abilities rather than class-counter bonuses — Infantry take 50% reduced damage for a few seconds on a cycle while defending, Snipers land a heavier multiplied shot, Gunners gain attack speed. Defensive abilities are a signal to keep those units home rather than marching them.

Beyond these, Biochemical Zombies (mid-range) come from the Biochemical Lab, and Titans and warplanes are separate systems entirely. The Factory and Workshop rosters get fuller treatment in the battle machines guide.

Tier Progression: T1 to T13

Every unit trains in tiers, gated by the level of its producing building — Camp for your core troops, Factory and Workshop for machines. Higher tiers cost more per unit but are dramatically stronger while occupying the same march capacity.

Late-game reference points:

Tier	Example units
T11	Hell Tank
T12	Fanatic Terminator (Rocket Launchers), Eagle Eye Shot (Snipers) — Camp level 36
T13	Camp 39: Apocalypse Infantry, Hades Gatling · Factory 40: Destruction Tank, Death Cannon · Workshop 41: Havoc Breaker, Immortal Shielder

The practical rule: push building levels aggressively. When a new tier unlocks, prioritize it for your main combat marches and let older tiers age into wall defense, gathering escorts, and rally filler. In kill events the tier scaling is brutal and public — a T13 kill pays 185 points in Void War while a T5 pays 12 — so tier matters both for what you can do and for what your losses hand the enemy.

T13 is therefore not one unlock but three, staggered across your three production buildings and reaching into the highest city levels in the game — Workshop 41 sits at the current cap. That staggering is worth planning around: pushing Camp to 39 gets you two T13 units well before the Factory and Workshop lines catch up.

(Unlock levels shift with updates. Check your own Camp, Factory, and Workshop screens if a number here decides a big investment.)

Promote or train fresh?

Promotion — upgrading existing lower-tier troops — is usually the speedup-efficient path, while fresh training grows your total army. One important event caveat: promotion scores nothing in the Recruit Troops phase, so save promotions for ordinary days and train fresh during scoring windows.

Training Discipline

• Never let production idle — small constant batches beat occasional binges.
• Train across all three ranges so you can actually build formations, then skew percentages per target.
• Mind your Hospital. Train no faster than you can afford to heal; wounded beyond capacity die outright (Hospital guide).
• Appoint recruitment officers before training for the speed bonus — free value, per officer types.