Unit Movement (Elemental Reforged)

Unit Movement and Terrain

In Elemental Reforged, movement is a fundamental aspect of strategic gameplay. Units expend movement points to traverse the map, with different terrain types imposing varying costs. Understanding movement mechanics is essential for effective army management and tactical positioning.

Movement Points

In Elemental Reforged, there are actually two stats: the Moves stat, which is displayed to the player and is a property of a Unit, and an internal secondary stat called a "Movement Point", which is derived from the Moves stat and used to calculate how terrain effects unit movement and is never shown to the player. For the sake of this article, we will call these Internal Movement Points(IMP).

Internal Movement Points

Each unit has a Moves stat that determines how many Internal Movement Points(IMP) they have per turn. IMPs are tracked internally using a scale factor of 8, meaning a unit with 4 Moves has 32 internal movement points.

The formula for total movement:

Internal Movement Points = Moves Stat × 8

Internal Movement Point Consumption

When a unit moves to an adjacent tile, it expends Internal Movement Points(IMP) equal to the tile's movement cost. If a unit has fewer IMPs remaining than the cost to enter a tile, it cannot move there (unless it's their first move of the turn).

Moves are reset to full at the start of each turn, and as a result, so are IMPs.

Army Movement

When units form an army, the army's movement is limited by the slowest unit in the group. This ensures armies move cohesively rather than leaving slower units behind.

Exception - Organized Tech: Units with the "Organized" technology can ignore sub-unit movement restrictions. If the Sovereign has this tech, the army can move at the Sovereign's speed regardless of slower units.

Terrain Movement Costs

Different terrain types impose different movement costs. The base movement cost scale is 8 points for normal terrain.

Terrain Cost Table

Terrain Type	Movement Cost	Effect
Land (Plains)	8	Normal movement (1x)
Rugged Land	8	Normal movement (1x)
Fertile Land	8	Normal movement (1x)
Forest	16	Slow movement (0.5x)
Hills	16	Slow movement (0.5x)
Swamp	16	Slow movement (0.5x)
Mountain Range	8	Normal (but often impassable)
Mountain Side	8	Normal (but often impassable)
River	8	Ends movement
Beach	8	Normal movement (1x)
Water	8	Water units only

Understanding Movement Cost

• Cost 8 = Normal movement, uses 1 movement point per tile
• Cost 16 = Half-speed movement, uses 2 movement points per tile
• Ends Movement = Moving onto this tile consumes all remaining movement points

Roads

Roads dramatically reduce movement costs:

Road Movement Cost = 2 (vs normal 8)

This provides a 75% reduction in movement cost, allowing units to travel much faster along road networks.

Important: Roads only benefit you if you are not at war with the tile's owner. Moving through enemy territory on roads provides no bonus - normal terrain costs apply.

Zone of Control (ZOC)

Zone of Control represents the area of influence around a player's territory and units.

ZOC Rules

1. Friendly/Neutral Territory: Units can move freely through their own territory or unclaimed tiles
2. Allied Territory: Units can traverse ally and teammate territory without penalty
3. Enemy Territory: Moving through enemy ZOC incurs penalties

ZOC Movement Penalties

• Auto-Explore Restriction: Units in auto-explore mode cannot traverse enemy ZOC at all (returns blocked)
• Caravans Exception: Caravans can traverse ZOC freely for trade routes

Entering Enemy ZOC

When a unit enters a tile controlled by an enemy, their movement typically ends. This prevents units from simply marching through enemy territory unimpeded.

Special Movement Abilities

Several abilities and traits modify movement behavior:

Flying

The Flying ability provides significant movement benefits:

• Changes movement type to Air
• Forest: Cost reduced to 8 (normal)
• Swamp: Cost reduced to 8 (normal)
• Hills: Cost reduced to 8 (normal)
• Rivers: No movement penalty

Scout

The Scout ability reduces terrain penalties:

• Forest: Reduced movement cost
• Swamp: Reduced movement cost

Master Scout

An enhanced version of Scout with greater terrain cost reductions for forests and swamps.

Movement Cost Override System

Abilities and modifiers can override terrain movement costs for specific units. The system works as follows:

1. Check if the unit has a movement cost override for the terrain type
2. For armies, check all sub-units for overrides
3. If an override "affects army," use the minimum cost among all units
4. Otherwise, use the maximum cost (slowest unit determines speed)

Outpost Movement Modifiers

Outposts and improvements can affect movement costs in their area.

Outpost modifiers can:

• Multiply movement cost (enemy slow zones)
• Add flat movement cost
• Percentage-based adjustments

The minimum movement cost after all modifiers is always 1 (tiles never become free to traverse).

Movement States

Aside from moving across terrain normally, there are also some special states that effect how a unit moves.

Immobilized

Units can be immobilized by spells, abilities, or status effects. As the name of the state implies, immobilized units cannot move.

Auto-Movement Modes

Units can be set to automatic movement modes:

Mode	Behavior
None	Manual control
Explore	Automatically explore fog of war
Defend	Do not move and automatically attack nearby enemies.