How do attacks and retaliation resolve in combat?

When an army attacks, it deals its attack damage and at the same time the defending army responds using its retaliation damage, within the same combat tick.

The army that moves into an enemy is treated as the attacker. An army that remains stationary is treated as the defender.

If both armies move into each other at the same time, each is treated as both attacker and defender. This results in two combat resolutions during that tick, one for each army’s initiating attack.

In addition, every attack has a splash radius of 5. Any additional armies within that radius are pulled into the combat and will also retaliate using their retaliation values. This means you may target one army, but nearby armies can still retaliate if they are close enough.