A field manual for FrontWars

Defence: cheap posts, dear mistakes

Defence is the cheapest thing on the board and the most expensive mistake. A post costs 50,000; a decoy warhead costs 750,000; a betrayal costs you half your defence for thirty seconds.

TESTEDthe 50,000 price, the tooltip and the SAM price, 2026-11-03
IN-GAMEthe 50% betrayal debuff, the 25% retreat cost, the SAM range, all quoted
OFFICIAL ONLYSteam lists defence posts and SAM launchers with no numbers
NEEDS CHECKhow much one post adds to a border, and whether posts stack

The build menu on 2026-11-03 with 49.2K in hand: the defence post is the only affordable cell at 50.0K, with the SAM at 1.50M on the row below it. — **What this shows** that the cheapest defensive purchase and the most expensive one sit two cells apart, and that 50,000 is the only sub-100,000 price in the whole panel.Captured 2026-11-03Client v42.5Plate 1

The cheap half

A defence post is 50,000 and its tooltip says it increases defences of nearby borders. That phrasing matters: the post does not protect a building, it protects a stretch of border, which is why where you put it is the whole decision. One post on a quiet corner is 50,000 wasted; one on the border that has been pressed for two minutes is the best money in the game.

The expensive half

The SAM launcher is 1,500,000 and covers 100 pixels per the Instructions screen, with a 7.5 second cooldown. Two facts follow that are easy to miss. The first is that a SAM is thirty defence posts: you do not buy one because you feel unsafe, you buy one because you already know where the warheads come from. The second is that a pixel range changes with zoom, so a SAM that looked generous zoomed in can leave a border uncovered zoomed out.

Betrayal costs you defence, not just friends

The client states that breaking an alliance makes you a traitor for 30 seconds and applies a 50% defence debuff for that time, and that trade between you and the betrayed side stops for five minutes. A 50% debuff is not a gesture: if a border was holding at parity, thirty seconds is long enough for it to stop holding. Plan betrayals for moments when nobody is attacking you, not for the moment you want the extra land.

Retreat is not free either

Retreating an attack costs 25% of the troops committed, per the Instructions screen, and nukes cannot be retreated at all. Defending badly therefore costs troops twice: once to the attacker, once to the retreat.

What we have not measured

How much a single post adds to a border, whether posts stack additively on the same border, and whether the 50% betrayal debuff applies to all your borders or only the one facing the betrayed player. Those need a controlled attack with a recorded before-and-after, which this session did not run.

Last checked against the client: 2026-11-03 · client v42.5