There are twenty-one attributes on a unit's stat sheet. Three are Costs that only matter in the shop, three are Leadership scores that only Commanders have, and the other fifteen are "stats" that all units have.

The top three values are the Costs. These must be met before you can do anything with the unit; once you have them, however, you don't need to worry much about these.

Gold must be paid up-front when recruiting a unit. You cannot even queue someone for recruitment, if you don't have enough Gold. Units also require a sort of per-turn Upkeep to stay around; this is pegged to their hiring costs and certain traits.

Resources are not required up-front, but you'll have to wait for them to "pool up" in the unit before using the fellow.

Recruitment Points are a local limiting factor cost, just like Resources. As with Resources, you can queue up units that you lack the Recruitment Points to acquire, but they won't be available until they've "pooled" over however many turns.

Note that this is the symbol for regular troops, while the crown symbol is for Commanders. The two kinds of units use different Recruitment Points, with Commanders using Commander Points.

The fifteen personal stats can be further subdivided into two subcategories. Three of them are "collected" or "pooled" stats with an indirect effect on combat, while the other twelve do not pool up in that fashion.

Hit Points (HP) are reduced by taking damage, but a unit's max HP will only change in rare circumstances, and their starting HP in a battle will hardly ever deviate from that value. With zero HP, one is dead.

Size is of strategic concern, as it determines Supply Usage, how tightly-packed units can be, and some peculiar interactions in combat. Size has a hard floor of 1 and a hard cap of 10, not that a single unit's size will change much.

Protection (PROT) is what stands between your unit's HP "bar" and the damage of a successful attack. The value may be inaccurate for targeted hits, but it provides valuable damage reduction either way.

Magic Resistance (MR) is the base for a "saving throw" against many magical or spell-like effects, most of which outright ignore Protection. It either succeeds or fails, with no in-between.

Morale is a measure of resolve. A unit will run away from battle if their Morale is broken (whether through losses in their squad or through Fear "damage"), possibly never to return.

Strength (STR) is a measure of the base damage a unit can do, with a one-handed strike that doesn't have any damage modifiers, to a fellow without any Protection. Many weapons are far more helpful than this theoretical stick.

Attack Skill (ATT) represents competence with attacking in melee combat. A feuding roll with the opponent will determine whether a hit lands, strikes upon the shield, or misses entirely.

Defence Skill (DEF) represents competence with not getting hit in melee combat. It is the first line of defence between a sword and the Underworld, followed first by Protection and then by HP.

Precision (PREC) represents keenness of the eye and competence with missiles. It determines what range a unit can strike with perfect accuracy; and beyond that range, how far off the spell or stone may land.

Combat Speed (CS) is how quickly a unit may move in the heat of battle. In a single combat round, and with no interruptions, this is roughly how many squares a unit may move.

Map Movement (MM) is the movement stat of long-term strategic concern; it determines how far a unit may travel outside of battle, within a single month. The point values are far messier than what CS enjoys.

Encumbrance (ENC) determines how tiring an action other than walking at one's Combat Speed is. The value shown is specifically for performing melee attacks; for casting spells, it's generally much higher.

Fatigue (FAT) is one of the pooled stats; fortunately, it goes away at the end of each battle, since it's a measure of the "tiredness" mentioned above. Fatigue reduces combat performance, and may lead to passing out on the job.

Age is another pooled stat, and this one does not go away easily. A unit gains a year of age at the start of Winter, regardless of which month they were hired. Past a certain value that varies between species or skill levels, age causes problems.

Experience (XP) is the last of the three pooled stats, and the only positive one among them. Units gain 1 XP every turn/month that you have them, as well as when landing hits, and certain thresholds of XP give minor "level-ups" to various stats.

There are three Leadership stats, each for different kinds of units. The main Leadership stat is relevant to the other two, however. In a nutshell, these stats determine how many units you can bring into a battle as the attacker.

Leadership (LDR) governs all normal units. It also reflects a commander's tactical acumen with all units; to lead more than one squad without Morale issues, and to lead complex formations, certain thresholds of Leadership must be met.

Magic Leadership governs Magic Beings, such as Faeries, Elementals, and insane people. Without any Magic Leadership to fall back upon, Magic Beings will rout, and some of them will just stop existing.

Undead Leadership governs Demons and the Undead. It's similar to Magic Leadership in its necessity. In case you wonder about which Leadership is needed on a dual-type, Undead is more important than Magic Being, which is in-turn more important than Demon.