War and Order Troop Guide: Classes, Races and Counters (2026)

For War and Order players deciding which troops to train and how to build an army that wins fights. Checked November 3, 2026.

Short answer: War and Order has four troop classes: infantry and cavalry at the front, archers and mages at the back. Players describe the counters as cavalry over archers, archers over mages, and mages over cavalry. Your Barracks level decides the race of each tier. Most players focus one melee and one ranged class instead of training everything.

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The official listing promises more than 30 soldier types, from Orc Knights to Elf Sages and Dragon Riders. That sounds like a lot, but they all sit in four classes, and the class decides most of how a fight goes. Combat runs on its own once the armies meet, so the army you send is the decision that matters.

The four classes

The matchups in the last column are how players commonly describe the counters. Check the troop card in your Barracks for the exact bonus on each unit.

Races and Barracks levels

Each class has a human version and an orc or elf version. Community guides explain the pattern this way: odd Barracks levels train human units, even levels train orc or elf units. Infantry and cavalry alternate human and orc. Archers and mages alternate human and elf.

The race changes the bonus, not the class. One community guide lists these racial bonuses:

• Human infantry: extra HP when defending. Orc infantry: resist part of mage damage.
• Human cavalry: take less damage from archers. Orc cavalry: extra attack when attacking.
• Human archers: extra damage to mages. Elf archers: extra damage to infantry.
• Human mages: extra damage to cavalry. Elf mages: boost your troops when you defend your city.

The exact percentages change with tiers and updates, so read the unit card before you commit to a tier.

Angels and golems

Angels are a stronger, expensive unit with a Sacred Flame skill that players report hits the enemy back row first, where archers and mages stand. Golems, players report, only defend: they guard your walls, never march, and grow with your wall and defense research.

Building an army that works

Our view, from how the counters line up and how long-time players build: pick one melee class and one ranged class and put your research and lord skills into those two. Training all four spreads your resources and your research too thin.

• For attacking players: cavalry plus mages. Cavalry hit fast and carry loot, mages hit hardest from range. Watch out for enemy human mages, which counter your cavalry.
• For defending and holding ground: infantry plus archers. Infantry soak hits at the wall, archers deal damage behind them, and elf mages add a defense boost if you train them.
• For hunting monsters: use what your research supports best. Monsters do not counter-pick you.

Before a big attack, scout first. Your Watchtower level decides how much of the enemy army a scout report shows, so a higher Watchtower means fewer surprises.

Healing and losses

When you defend, part of your wounded troops go to the Hospital instead of dying. Keep it upgraded so a lost fight does not wipe out weeks of training. Players report the Sanctuary lets you buy back some dead units, which helps after a bad loss.

For spenders and alliance leaders

• Training speedups before Strongest Lord. Training scores points in that event, so a pack of training speedups used during the training stage gives you troops and event points at once.
• Your top tier is the big jump. Barracks upgrades that unlock a new tier are where speedups pay off most. Save construction speedups for those Barracks levels and the Castle levels that allow them.
• Do not spend on all four classes. Research and lord skills only boost the classes you pick, so a pack of mixed troops is worth less than training your two classes.
• Leaders: agree on rally armies. A rally of cavalry and mages fails against a wall of human mages and archers, so ask members to scout and post the target's main classes before a rally. See the alliance leader page.

Sources: War and Order on the App Store, official War and Order Facebook.

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