ranging from cavalry, infantry, ranged, artillery, magic users, and specialised troops. What units a player can use depends on the player's overall progress in the campaign – more units become available later on in the game to hire, though some depend on the path the player is taking, while at times the player gains access to certain units that remain with temporarily until after a certain milestone (i.e. completing a chain of missions). Once the player has chosen their units, they then proceed with the mission, with most often consisting of at least one battle to take on. Conflict takes place on a battlefield, which differs between battles, often with various forms of obstacles and terrain, with enemy units varying in type and when they appear – some are already in the battle, while others arrive after some time. Before a battle, players can deploy their units where they wish within a designated deployment area, during a "Deployment Phase", though this is not possible when the player's army is ambushed during a march; instead, they must begin a fight with their units arranged in the manner chosen when setting out the marching formation. Once a battle begins, the objective mainly is to rout the enemy units that appear on the battlefield, while failure occurs mainly when the player loses all units who either are killed or routed. Like other battlefield based RTS games like Total War, players can change the formation of their units, charge them into enemies, and allow the game's AI to control their behaviour with enemy units. The game also features a special "boost" system, in that the player can give a temporary boost to a unit's strength when engaged with an enemy, though this must be used sparingly, in order to not ignore other units in the battle. Shadow of the Horned Rat incorporates the use of magic in battles, in a more primitive manner to that of later titles such as King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame. Magic units a player can control can use magic spells in battle, with more spells made available as the unit improves from further usage – each spell has a cost, and consumes power, which is displayed on a special meter in the player's HUD interface; if the player has no power available, no spells can be used. In addition, units can make use of magic items to help them