Cities at War Units Tier List

Soft ranking disclaimer

This page is a community soft tier list for Cities at War on Roblox. Snick Co. has not published a full public damage sheet for every soldier, tank, helicopter, jet, and drone, so treat every placement as a practical guide—not a locked meta bible. Patch notes, research unlocks, and map changes can move a unit up or down overnight. Cross-check ideas against the Tier List Hub, then turn rankings into real compositions in the army build guide and apply them on contested points with the capture points guide. Pair this list with the buildings tier list so production capacity matches the army you want to field.

Use these roles when you read the ranks below:

• Early pressure — cheap units that contest lanes and docks before your economy peaks.
• Anti-infantry — tools that shred soldier blobs and stop rushes.
• Air control — helicopters, jets, and drones that scout, harass, or deny enemy air.
• Capital push — heavier stacks that break defenses and finish a Capital siege.

How to read the tiers

S means the unit carries its role in most lobbies when supported correctly. A is a reliable pick that still needs the right timing. B is situational—strong when the map or enemy composition asks for it. C is niche or inefficient if you spam it alone. Soft ranks assume a healthy economy from farms, mines, mills, and docks; starving your city while massing premium air rarely wins a six-player match.

Soft ranks by role

Role	S	A	B	C
Early pressure	Soldiers	Light tank packs	Scout drones	Lone jets
Anti-infantry	Soldiers + tower support	Helicopters	Drones	Unescorted tanks in choke
Air control	Jets	Helicopters	Drones	Pure soldier AA hope
Capital push	Mixed tanks + soldiers	Jets for soft targets	Helicopters	All-drone greed

Soldiers — foundation of every army

Soldiers sit at the top of early pressure and anti-infantry soft ranks for a simple reason: they are available early, scale with barracks output, and hold ground after a fight. In Cities at War, capturing space matters as much as winning a skirmish, and infantry is what actually stands on a point. Massing soldiers without income is still a mistake—pair barracks queues with the economy plan in economy and docks so replacements arrive faster than the enemy can delete them.

Soft grade: S for early pressure and point holding; A for capital pushes when tanks lead the breach. Soldiers lose value if you throw them into open ground against prepared armor and air without tower or tank cover. Use them to screen, occupy docks approaches, and clean buildings after armor creates a hole.

Tanks — breakthrough and capital weight

Tanks define capital push soft ranking. When a lobby stalls into mid-game, armor turns a messy street fight into a durable advance that can threaten the Capital. Soft community consensus places tanks in S for siege windows and A for mid-map control, provided you keep soldiers nearby to clear flanks and stop infantry from swarming hulls.

Avoid sending a lone tank column into sniper-tower kill zones. Soft B play uses smaller tank groups to deny enemy expansions while your main stack forms. Soft C play is pure tank greed with empty barracks and no air answer—common in new six-player lobbies and easy to punish. For layout advice that keeps armor staging safe, see base layout.

Helicopters — flexible harassment and anti-infantry lift

Helicopters earn A soft ranks in anti-infantry and air harassment. They punish exposed soldier lines, scout Capital approaches, and rotate faster than ground armor. They drop toward B when the enemy fields coherent jet coverage or packs anti-air near docks and towers.

Best soft usage: peel soldiers off a contested lane, then peel out before jets arrive. Helicopters are poor as your only capital-breaker; use them to soften defenses and protect tank flanks instead of expecting them to delete a fortified Capital alone. Army templates that mix heli timing with ground pushes live in the army build guide.

Jets — air superiority and soft-target deletion

Jets take the S soft slot for air control. Once unlocked and fueled by a stable economy, they police helicopters, contest drone screens, and punish players who march soldiers without overhead cover. On capital pushes they sit in A: excellent at deleting soft targets and disrupting reinforcements, less efficient as the only tool against dense armor.

Soft B jet play is late, greedy tech with no ground front—flashy until someone walks tanks onto your income. Soft C is spamming jets while docks and mines starve. If your research path unlocks air earlier than armor, still keep a soldier floor so you can hold what jets clear. Capture timing after an air wipe is covered in capture points.

Drones — scouting, chips damage, and niche denial

Drones usually land A/B soft ranks depending on patch feel and map openness. They shine as early vision, harassment chips, and cheap answers when you cannot yet afford a full jet wing. Against massed soldiers they help but rarely replace helicopters or towers. Against capital fortifications they are support, not the main breaker—soft B on capital push, A on scouting and early pressure support.

Treat drones as information and distraction. Soft C is all-drone armies that evaporate when jets show up. Pair a few drones with soldier pushes so you see tower lines and enemy air before committing tanks.

Role packages that win lobbies

Community soft packages that repeatedly show up in healthy games:

1. Opener — soldiers first, drone eyes second, delay premium air until docks and mines are online.
2. Mid control — soldiers plus a tank core; helicopters if the enemy over-invests infantry.
3. Air spike — jets when you spot helicopter spam or need to scrub a capital approach.
4. Capital finish — tanks leading, soldiers occupying, jets or helicopters covering the sky, drones watching flanks.

If your city cannot fund the package, fix buildings first via the buildings tier list and economy docks guide. A soft S unit is worthless if it never leaves the production queue.

Common mistakes that fake a bad tier list

• Ranking units without naming the role. A jet can be S for air and only A for capital work in the same patch.
• Ignoring builder capacity and barracks throughput. Production buildings decide whether your soft S pick actually appears on the map.
• Copying a capital-push composition into minute five. Early pressure needs soldiers, not a late tech fantasy.
• Forgetting the six-player reality. Flanks matter; single-lane tank tunnels get surrounded.
• Treating this page as official balance. Revisit after updates and compare notes on the Tier List Hub.

How to update your own soft list

After each session, note which unit won its role and which died for free. If soldiers consistently clean up after tanks, keep infantry in S for occupation. If jets delete your helicopters every fight, demote unprotected heli spam and invest in your own air answer. Soft lists improve when they track roles, not vibes. Use army build to lock a template, then stress-test it on capture points routes toward the Capital.

When buildings change income timing, revisit unit ranks the same week—economy patches move military soft tiers more than raw damage tweaks. Stay flexible, keep a soldier floor, and only promote a unit to S when it wins its job across multiple lobbies, not one lucky highlight.

Related reading

• Tier List Hub
• Buildings tier list
• Army build guide
• Capture points guide
• Getting started