OpenFront Attack Ratio
The attack ratio decides how much of your army a single attack order commits. There is no universal best value — but there is a clear way to reason about it.
Quick answer: there is no single best percentage. Raise the ratio when the defender is dense, the terrain is expensive or a defence post is in range; lower it to probe, to hold a border, or when you cannot afford to empty your home front. Then judge the result by whether tiles fell per troop spent.
What the ratio controls
- Each attack order commits a share of your army to that front; a human player's standard attack stack is troops ÷ 5.
- A larger committed stack means the defender's local troops matter less, so losses per tile fall and tiles fall faster.
- A smaller stack costs less but advances slowly — and a slow border is one the defender can reinforce.
- The setting applies to every front you are pushing at once, so a high ratio with three fronts open is how players accidentally disarm themselves.
Why one universal number does not exist
Attack cost is a function of the defender's local troop density, the terrain and any defence post in range. Two borders on the same map can differ by several times in price. The game's attack logic clamps the defender-to-attacker troop ratio between 0.6 and 2 when pricing losses — below that band, adding more attackers stops reducing the price per tile; above it, you are paying a premium for every tile.
| Situation | Ratio direction | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Thin border, plains, fresh player | Lower than you think | A small committed stack already overwhelms the local defence; extra troops are wasted |
| Dense defender behind a defence post | High, or do not attack | The post multiplies losses on your side; only a decisive stack changes the math |
| Mountain border at parity | Do not attack | Terrain alone makes each tile cost half again as much as plains |
| Holding a front you do not intend to push | Low | You want presence and information, not expenditure |
| Final push toward the tile majority | High | Speed matters more than efficiency once the match is close to ending |
A practical procedure
- Price the border — terrain type, defender troop density, any defence post in range.
- Pick the smallest stack that still clearly overwhelms the local defence — that is your ratio floor.
- Check your other borders — if raising the ratio empties them, your real problem is overextension, not the slider.
- Push, then re-read — if tiles are falling fast and your army is barely dented, the ratio was fine; if the border crawls, raise it or stop.
- Lower it when the war ends — the post-war rebuild should happen at a defensive ratio, not at your attack setting.
Common mistakes
- Setting the ratio once at the start of the match and never revisiting it.
- Attacking a defence post at the same ratio that worked on an open plains border.
- Using a maximum ratio to probe, then having no army to answer a real attack elsewhere.
- Believing the ratio changes troop growth — it does not; it only changes how troops are spent. Troop growth
FAQ
Common questions about this topic.
What is the best attack ratio in OpenFront?
There is no single best value. It depends on the defender's troop density, the terrain and defence posts at that border. Start low against thin borders, go high for a decisive push, and avoid attacking a defended mountain at parity.
Does a higher attack ratio lose more troops?
Not per tile. A larger committed stack usually reduces losses per tile taken because the defender's local troops matter less — the cost is that you have committed them.
Where do I change the attack ratio?
It is a player setting adjusted during the match, bound to keys in the default layout (T lowers it and Y raises it).
Why is my attack failing with a huge army?
Because the fight is local. If your troops are not committed to that border — or the defender sits behind a defence post on mountains — size elsewhere does not help.