Whilst it is easy to think of the real-time combat system of Dominions 5 in terms of combat rounds, in reality each round is subdivided into 7500 "ticks"¹⁾. Ordinarily there is no reason to be concerned with these shorter time measurements, however some things that happen rapidly, such as auras and battle enchantments, occur based on ticks and not combat rounds. For instance, most battle enchantments that inflict damage such as Fire Storm strike some percentage of the battlefield every 320 ticks, or 23.4375 times per combat round.

Internally, some effects such as stun and petrification have durations measured in ticks. The duration of these effects is also reduced by 320 every 320 ticks.