Regarding the combat layer, from all the gameplay walkthrough reviews, everyone said it is "embeded" in the current turn, units fighting having 3 moves each (if i'm correct). If the battle doesn't end on the current turn, it'll continue on the next one.

You should check those reviews for more insights on the mechanics, though the combat mechanics/layers are still a work in progress.

For your other subject, I can't say, since it's still under developpement, and also keeping in mind that they've only revealed gameplay from the first Era so far.

So I'd say, stay tuned for more !

This video also mention that Humankind will have some sort of capture the flag mechanic that can end the battle early without necessarily killing all enemy units.

Waykot wrote:

Regarding the combat layer, from all the gameplay walkthrough reviews, everyone said it is "embeded" in the current turn, units fighting having 3 moves each (if i'm correct). If the battle doesn't end on the current turn, it'll continue on the next one.

You should check those reviews for more insights on the mechanics, though the combat mechanics/layers are still a work in progress.

Yes, I've read a bunch of articles, but the details are still a bit unclear. For example, what does "embedded" mean exactly? Is it that the 3 combat turns happen during one strategic turn, or is there one combat turn per game turn? (You seem to suggest it's the later). 

Or play Amplitude's earlier title, Endless Legend. Combat will probably be very similar in both games.

1. Each cities has a garrison of militia units based on pop size.

2. "Gobal" mobility is not strictly tied to "battle" mobility. A cavalry unit might be as slow as an infantry unit on the global map, but have a +2 speed bonus in battle.

3. There is no limit on the number of armies, but units per army are limited by administrative techs.

I believe that reenforcements have been confirmed as a feature for long battles, and I believe you can have more than one army per battle, they said late game a battle could be an entire front of a nation with many units. I got the impression there is no hard cap on the number of armies you can have but if you have more armies than generals you suffer a significant upkeep penalty. Also there are a maximum of four units per army. So you might have a practical cap of 20 units per player.

Aye_Avast wrote:

Or play Amplitude's earlier title, Endless Legend. Combat will probably be very similar in both games.

1. Each cities has a garrison of militia units based on pop size.

2. "Gobal" mobility is not strictly tied to "battle" mobility. A cavalry unit might be as slow as an infantry unit on the global map, but have a +2 speed bonus in battle.

3. There is no limit on the number of armies, but units per army are limited by administrative techs.

Yes, I have played EL and I don't like how combat works there. As I wrote, I don't think this is the model that works well for a 4X game. With Humankind, Amplitude has the chance to mix things up. 

Eulogos wrote:

I got the impression there is no hard cap on the number of armies you can have but if you have more armies than generals you suffer a significant upkeep penalty. Also there are a maximum of four units per army. So you might have a practical cap of 20 units per player.

Upkeep penalty would work too, as long as economy is balanced. I woudl imagine that the army size will increase through the game though (just as it did in EL). 

I think having mini games like HoMM battle mechanic would be nice. But It would definitely reduce the gameplay experience.

Had a thought on this and came up with a pretty strong plan. However this is going to be tricky while considering the terrain height and narrow passages. 

1. Forming an army - Instead of having limited armies etc attaching units of same or different type together to form an army .
2. Zone Control - Depending on the army type & units, having a zone around the army that will block other players / barbs to raid your improvements.
3. Experience - A great general to upgrade this zone add bonuses for flanking and defensive multipliers as well as reinforcements.
4. Tactics - Each turn players might have an option to re-position their troops in this zone would mostlikely fix a lot of issues of depth & strategy for battle mechanics. 
5. Battle - When 2 armies crash into each other the ovelapped grids can be the actual battlezone so with small placement changes the battles fate can provide various resolutions through tactics.

The placement of the army over districts / city borders / tiles etc would provide defensive bonuses / loyalty / upkeep costs multipliers would bring huge difference to 4x military gameplay. 

Practically this might solve the unit spam problems as well as adding a depth for veteran non-militaristic 4x players to be more agressive / defensive.

Eulogos wrote:
If you haven't seen it this video explains combat fairly well. It already has features similar to how you described, except units travel in a pack and unpack when the engage.

Thank you Eulogos, I'm kind of new and there are many things that I need to recap. The features are kind of a bit scattered in pieces for me. I'm glad to be on the same page with Humankind playstyle. 

Well this information is new to me too, that video for example is only 2 days old. Much of the information in it was not announced until that video was made.

Eulogos wrote:

Well this information is new to me too, that video for example is only 2 days old. Much of the information in it was not announced until that video was made.

Strictly speaking, nothing specific was announced, at least not officially. All the reviewers were very clear that they were not allowed to show off combat. GamerZakh's sketches are still very helpful.