A lengthy explanation of the "When" and "Why" for that red 'X' that prevents you from moving military units around on the map. TL, DR: When trying to analyze this topic, I found the game behavior for unit pathing was more complicated and confusing than I expected. After a few in-depth testing and re-testing sessions, I believe I now understand most unit pathing situations which may appear in Northgard. TL, DR: YOU ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO ISSUE PATHING/MOVEMENT COMMANDS WITHIN YOUR CURRENT ZONE OF INFLUENCE. What's a Zone of Influence? It is the entire connected area of tiles that are safe to move around in, plus every hostile tile that is directly adjacent to (can be walked into from) that safe area. If some areas of safe tiles are disconnected from other safe areas by hostile tiles in between them, they will create separate and independent Zones of Influence. Introduction Long Post Explaining the Movement/Pathing System: I believe that the game has rules for pathing which were, in part, created to provide a small protection for the defender against an enemy clan who is trying to rush to the town hall at the center of the defender's colony and eliminate them. These pathing rules help to force the attacker to slow down when they are trying to achieve a domination or elimination of an enemy clan. The attacker is not allowed to move deeper into enemy territory at a rapid pace. Instead, the attacker has to wait for each tile to decolonize before they are allowed to proceed and move closer to the enemy town hall. The pathing rules exist because it provides additional time for the defender to gather support from allies or build more military forces to try to save themselves from elimination. After extensive testing on the map of Rig's Saga #5 Punitive Expedition. I have a better understanding of the movement and unit pathing rules in the game. I have not tested every situation exhaustively, but I have tested many. With this testing, I have created a theory about the pathing behavior. The theory successfully explains what I observed while testing on Punitive Expedition. Test Setup I was able to perform my testing by scouting the entire map of Punitive Expedition, and then sending my army to make forward progress along the outer edge of the map in a COUNTER-CLOCKWISE direction. Always hugging the outer edge of the map as I moved around this direction except not entering Hagen's territory. This way, you have access to enter both the yellow and blue raven settlements from the south side while leaving a large group of hostile territories in the center of the map. This central hostile area was used to test the rules of where and when you are allowed to run your units through it. With this method, I was able to create a long, narrow safe path which wrapped around the outer edge of the map with numerous "gates" along the way. The "gates" were wolf dens and draugar tombs which I could toggle as "open" or "closed". A den/tomb "gate" could be kept open by keeping a military unit stationed on the tile to keep them clear of hostile creatures, or allowed to close by removing military units from it and waiting for a wolf or draugar to respawn. Definition of Terms Definition of new phrases used in this guide are explained below: "Adjacent Pathing" "Long-Distance Pathing" "Activated Zone of Safety"(abbreviation - A-ZoS) "Deactivated Zone of Safety"(abbreviation - D-ZoS) "Zone of Influence" (abbreviation - ZoI) There are two types of unit pathing the game uses to tell your units which way to run: long-distance pathing, and adjacent pathing. -"Adjacent Pathing" is when you command your units to move into a tile that is adjacent to (one tile away from) where they are currently standing. -"Long-Distance Pathing" occurs when you command your units to move to a tile that is MORE than 1 tile away from where they are currently standing. The game keeps track of the tiles which are safe for your units to travel through (connected tiles that all contain zero wild creatures or hostile units). Let's call these large connected areas of tiles the "Zone(s) of Safety". An "Activated Zone of Safety" is a Zone of Safety which is also connected to your colonized home territory. A "Deactivated Zone of Safety" is a Zone of Safety which does not have a connection to your home territory. The Deactivated Zone of Safety is separated from your Activated Zone of Safety by one or more closed "gates". You may have only one, large Activated Zone of Safety. But you may have zero, one, or multiple disconnected Deactivated Zones of Safety. Tiles where neutral factions live can become (part of) a Zone of Safety if that neutral faction has become your ally through favorable diplomacy and they are not coexisting on the tile with hostile creatures (i.e. kobolds living with draugar, wolves, etc). A "Zone of Influence" is an area of tiles that includes the Zone of Safety PLUS it includes every hostile tile that is adjacent to (i.e. "touching" / one tile away from) that Zone of Safety. To be included in the Zone of Influence, you must be able to walk directly from the Zone of Safety into the Zone of Influence tile. If a hostile tile is next to the Zone of Safety, but there is a cliff or other movement blocker preventing you from walking from the Zone of Safety into the hostile tile, then that hostile tile is not included in the Zone of Influence. A hostile tile is any tile that contains enemy military units, wild creatures (wolves, bears, draugar, fallen valkyries, etc), or any tile that has been colonized by a non-friendly faction or clan. If the tile is colonized by a non-friendly clan, it will remain as "hostile" until it is decolonized. The Rules of Pathing and Explanations of Pathing Behavior Rules of Pathing: (also known as "my long mental journey to understand the one primary rule" which I have shared above in the TL, DR.) 1. You are not allowed to enter any tile that is outside of all of your Zones of Influence (MORE than 1 tile away from any Zone of Safety). 2. Rules of Long-Distance Pathing (for both A-ZoS or D-ZoS): a. If your unit is on a hostile ZoI tile, your unit will first move to the nearest ZoS. b. After following rule 2a. (or if the unit started in a ZoS) the Long-Distance Pathing will follow the shortest route through the current ZoS (without leaving the ZoS) to reach... c. to reach the destination if that destination is inside the current ZoS OR d. to reach the tile in the current ZoS that is directly adjacent to the hostile ZoI destination tile, and after reaching that closest tile in the ZoS, your unit will enter the destination tile. e. You are not allowed to issue any Long-Distance Pathing movement commands for a destination that is outside of the ZoI where your units are currently standing. f. If you issue a Long-Distance Pathing command and your safe path ahead becomes broken while your unit is still running (either by a "gate" closing or hostile unit entering your ZoS corridor) then the movement command is immediately cancelled and your unit will stop running and stay in the tile where they were located when the safe path became broken. (Note: this auto-cancellation of your movement command occurs because your intended destination now lies outside of your current ZoI and is therefore an illegal move. If your target destination is the gate that just closed by a hostile unit respawning, then your units will continue to move to the destination because the gate still lies within their current ZoI.) 3. Rules of Adjacent Pathing For Activated Zone of Safety (this section assumes movement in a single A-ZoS, excluding any existence of other D-ZoS): a. You are allowed to issue Adjacent Pathing commands for ANY ZoI tile that is attached to your A-ZoS. b. As you would expect for "Adjacent Pathing" commands, your unit will move from the tile where they are standing directly to the destination tile. Examples: Diagram 1 (assuming that Safe tiles shown are all A-ZoS) Sorry, if the formatting in this diagram and all following diagrams may be a bit messy. S1 S S S S S2 S H H H H H1 S H H H H H2 S3 S S S S S4 Legend for Diagram 1 -- "S" = safe tile; "H" = hostile tile. Only orthogonal tiles are adjacent. Diagonal tiles are not adjacent in this example. Long-Distance Pathing Example A: Standing in H1. Issue command to move to S4. Unit will run to S2, then S1, S3, and proceed to S4 through ZoS. Example B: Standing in H2. Issue command to move to S2. Unit will run to S4, then S3, S1, and proceed to S2 through ZoS. Adjacent Pathing Example: Example C: Using Adjacent Pathing, you can issue commands to move from S2 to H1 to H2 to S4. Or vice-versa S4 to H2 to H1 to S2. This greatly shortens the walking distance which would occur if you use Long-Distance Pathing. In fact, with Adjacent Pathing, you can move from any tile in Diagram 1 to any other adjacent tile. By chaining together Adjacent Pathing commands you can go anywhere you want in this example block in Diagram 1. Start anywhere, finish anywhere, choose your own path. It is all allowable movement. It is all within the same ZoI attached to your A-ZoS. Results of Disconnected Zones of Safety Rules of Pathing (continued): 4. Rules of Adjacent Pathing for Deactivated Zone of Safety (This can create in-game situations which break your expectations if you are unaware of Pathing Rules): a. ZoI areas attached to D-ZoS are completely independent and separate from ZoI areas which are attached to your A-ZoS. b. To further clarify: Each separate ZoS creates its own independent ZoI. Whether it is A-ZoS vs D-ZoS OR D-ZoS vs different disconnected D-ZoS -- they each have separate and independent ZoI. c. You are not allowed to issue Adjacent Pathing commands from a hostile ZoI attached to your D-ZoS into a hostile ZoI which is attached to you A-ZoS. d. THE PRIMARY RULE: You are ONLY allowed to issue pathing commands within your current ZoI (whether Adjacent Pathing or Long-Distance Pathing commands). e. You may ONLY jump from one ZoI to a different ZoI, i.e. Move from ZoI #1 to ZoI #2, by entering a hostile tile that is shared by the ZoI areas of BOTH ZoS #1 and ZoS #2. Quick 1-dimensional diagram example of 4.e. Diagram 2 S#1 H S#2 S#1 is a safe tile in ZoS #1 which is independent and separate from S#2 which is a safe tile in ZoS #2, separated from each other by a single hostile tile "H". This 'H' is included in the ZoI for ZoS #1 and also in the ZoI for ZoS #2. You can movement jump from ZoI #1 into ZoI #2 (or vice versa) by entering tile 'H'. Example of Adjacent Pathing in Disconnected Zones of Safety Diagram 3 S1 G S S S S2 S H H H H H1 S H H H H H2 S3 G S S S S4 Legend for Diagram 3 -- "S" = safe tile; "H" = hostile tile; "G" = gate (a Den or Tomb, may be either Safe or Hostile) Only orthogonal tiles are adjacent. Diagonal tiles are not adjacent in this example. In the example for Diagram 3, we will assume that both gates are closed. They contain hostile units. Example D: Imagine a Warrior standing in S2 and an Axe Thrower standing in S4. The Warrior is allowed to move to H1, but NOT allowed to move from H1 to H2. At the same time, the Axe Thrower is allowed to move to H2, but NOT allowed to move from H2 to H1. The Warrior and Axe Thrower may be fighting in tiles which are right next to each other, but they are not allowed to move directly next door to help each other fight. In order for the Warrior to join the Axe Thrower, the Warrior would have to issue a command to move to the Gate next to S1, THEN issue a command to move to the Gate next to S3, and THEN issue a command to join the location of the Axe Thrower at S4 or H2. The three separate Zones of Influence in Diagram 3 are Diagram 3a (ZoI including S2) _ G S S S S2 _ _ H H H H1 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Diagram 3b (ZoI including S1 and S3) S1 G _ _ _ _ S H _ _ _ _ S H _ _ _ _ S3 G _ _ _ _ Diagram 3c (ZoI including S4) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ H H H H2 _ G S S S S4 Friendly Colonized Territory 5. Your own colonized territory is ALWAYS treated as "safe" zones, even when it is under attack by hostile units. You are allowed to freely issue Adjacent Pathing or Long-Distance Pathing commands within your own colonized territory (i.e. any unit in your A-ZoS can go anywhere in your colonized territory, even when your colonized territory is under attack.) As you might have guessed, this guide is primarily focused on explaining the movement rules of military units. Most Northgard clans do not allow civilian / worker units to leave your colonized territory. So, following along according to Rule #5, it is easy to determine that your civilian workers may always move freely inside of your own colonized territory, but they cannot leave it. The Dragon clan allows your civilians to enter hostile territory, so I believe that civilians of the Dragon clan follow the same movement rules as military units. Movement of Scouts 6. Scouts have their own set of movement rules which are independent of all other units. The scouts' purpose is to reveal what is underneath the unexplored "black" zones of the map, and open those black zones to allow military units and eventually civilians to enter them. Military and civilian units are never allowed to enter a tile that has not yet been explored by a scout. Scouts can move freely anywhere that they have revealed on the map, and they cannot be attacked or injured by any of the hostile units on the map. 6.b. Note: a new feature was recently added to Northgard to allow scouts to "see" into enemy territory even before you have used Stone to upgrade your Scout Camp. This feature allows a scout to peer into the border belonging to an enemy clan and see the buildings and units in the enemy territory up to a depth of two tiles from that border where your scout is located. The area that the scout peers into will appear slightly darkened and foggy. This feature was added to allow you to obtain slightly earlier information (before Scout Camp upgrade) of whether an enemy clan may be preparing to rush you with military units. Even though you can see into enemy territory with this new Scout feature, you are NOT allowed to move military units into the foggy enemy territory because it has not been officially explored. To explore foggy or black tiles that have enemy territory underneath, you must first have an upgraded Scout Camp. Caveat Rule - Immediate Retreat 7. Caveat Rule "Immediate Retreat" a. The immediate retreat Adjacent Pathing movement is always allowed. Immediate Retreat means, "backtracking 1 tile ALSO (in other words) moving from the current tile to the previous tile or the 'tile you came from' ". Example of "Immediate Retreat". Without creating the circular safe path around the outer border of the Punitive Expedition map, I cleared the Draugar Tomb directly north of the yellow Raven settlement. I cleared the two defense towers and military units from the yellow Raven settlement. I then left the Draugar tomb tile empty. And I ran only a single unit (warrior) into the yellow settlement without killing the remaining Raven villagers (so it would not decolonize) and continued running my warrior in circles inside the yellow settlement to keep it alive while waiting for a draugar to respawn. After the draugar respawned, my warrior could leave the yellow settlement and enter the draugar tomb. However, an Axe Thrower further north could enter the draugar tomb but could NOT enter the yellow settlement even though the warrior was there. The warrior was permitted to freely go back and forth between the draugar tomb and yellow settlement as long as he did not leave those two tiles. 1-dimensional diagram which shows example of Immediate Retreat. Diagram 4 S G1 G2 H S - the swamp directly south of the Circle of Stones tile on Punitive Expedition. Cleared and safe. G1 - the Wolf Den south of the swamp. A useable gate. G2 - the Draugar Tomb north of the yellow Raven settlement. A useable gate. H - the yellow Raven settlement. Note: none of the other tiles bordering G1 or G2 have been cleared. To start this example. Both G1 and G2 are open (cleared) and some hostile units still exist in H. Run a single Warrior from S into H and then have that unit run in circles to stay alive without killing all the hostiles in H. Allow enough time for both G1 and G2 to close (at least 1 wolf and 1 draugar). Observe the Warrior in H can freely run back and forth between H and G2, but may not enter G1 or any other adjacent tiles. Any units in S may enter G1, but cannot continue into G2. Then, clear G1. Observe that an Axe Thrower in G1 (now open/clear) may enter G2, but may not enter H. The warrior in H may continue moving freely back and forth between H and G2. If the warrior from H enters G1, then it is no longer able to backtrack 2 tiles and enter H (via G2) until after G2 is open/clear once again. Thanks for reading! Thanks for reading my long guide! If you have: -Suggestions to improve this guide, -Further examples to share, or -Clearly explainable observations to add from your own experience with the pathing in Northgard, Then, please share about it in the comments!