so, which units shine and which are garbage? your views

[VladK02]

So far Im liking a pair of stealth ambushers, you can really bait AI into nasty traps. But they lose some shine in larger battles with 10+ enemy units on the screen. They ambush one or two units and then they get wrecked by the followup. Situational.

Spearmen(-women), found them to be under-whelming, honestly. Armor too low, speed too slow, they get wrecked. I want to try that 12-armor heavy axeman, with that ~89% damage reduction and +20% reduction from that quest tree as my main tank instead.

Tanking with the heroes - meh, after first few missions, gets more dicey. need better gear. Which starting power is better I wonder...Command aura 10% dmg +1 morale is weak... 50 hp 20% self dmg? or that third one, zerker gold discount?

Cant find a good use for skirmish cav honestly. Same with javelins-womans. Bit weak, no? maps are too tight, there is no room to maneuvre. They only retreat once, and more often then not, right into arms of other red units.

Slingers....standard ranged unit to me. No shine, no weakness either.

Zerkers...one trick shock pony, they get shot to pieces with no shields in larger battles like mission 5 or whatever. Stealth ambushers prolly better overall.

havent tried promoting units to sub-heroes yet. probably that ends up being the best strat honestly, just because characters get flat -50% damage resistance.

Im thinking, 2 ambushers, 2-3 heavy axeman tanks, 1 slinger, some heroes, and that should do it.

whats your experience?

[primetide_dev]

Just a word of advice - essentially every "environment" brings new types of enemies and challenges. Undead need magical attacks (for example from higher tier Stagriders or Cleavers), The Sunken lands will make you crave missile and decent defense units, Empire needs people who can penetrate armor (spearmaidens) and single out siege engines...
The idea is you need to adapt tactics and army composition a little between your favourite play style and new requirements egery so often.
We did want to shake up the "one army fits all" system of so many games to keep players on their toes a bit.

[terje439]

Stagriders are nice imo. The hit and run is very good, add in the extra damage vs undeads, and I find them to be the best upgrade for me atleast.

[Nidor]

finished on normal

not good
- axe warriors are garbage
- spear maidens too (to slow)
- slingers (only testet no magic) - damage is crap
- same goes for the horse archer

very strong are
- troll warriors fully upgraded ( you will need at least 2-3)
- lizard mage - let him multiply (mirror image) then stone 3 enemies --> halfs the damage output og an enemy group, stone the dragons or siege engines

nice
- troll siege - but only againsts soft targets (lots of small green bars) worthless against all others
- lizard reaver - can go over deep water!!!
- spear jump girls - for the jumping
- thanes - plus: only one bar so no kills ever, minus: no damage, still get hurt easily

overall liked the game

potential for improvements:

- hurry up the animations, that is wasting our time!!!!!!!!!!
- get rid of the negative impact of decision choices where the sister gets morale debuffs etc.,

[tkis]

So far i was underwhelmed by stag riders only, at least by their charge version, skirmishing one was better i think, but i have not progressed beyond the final part of sunken lands, so they still may shine against undead heavy armies...other than that, i was able to find a role for every troop type including berserkers, which i use to finish off (ideally harassed) enemy troops while flanking via forests and fords (using the boots allowing charge over shallow water)

[Malfias]

For me my favourite two so far are Stag Lancers and Wolf Mothers.

Stag Lancers are great as they are different than Stag Skirmishers. They do magic damage (good vs undead), can do a single ranged skirmish attack (undead) that doesn't occupy an enemies space if you kill them and also a charge/lance attack that does high damage. Even better they can do both attacks together once per turn. They also have a skirmish counter attack vs melee/skirmish and flying units(eg dragon)

Wolf mothers I can see as initially being overlooked to be honest. They have a ranged 2 square magic attack. Nice vs undead, can also hit flying units and bypass armour. They can also charm enemy animals. This bit is important for a few reasons. One you can then learn that animal so you can future summon it like an eagle bear or Pegasi. In addition if a charmed unit dies you get your mana back due to the Barbarian upgrade of unit loss. Basically I sometimes like to charm them if the enemy doesn't have much ranged units handy, so their transmuter ends up wasting their turns trying to kill it.

Slingers - these are poor compared to enemy longbow men. No question of a doubt, you both get defensive fire, but you can only have a hit range of 2 squares compared to their 3. Still you have no choice otherwise other than 1 square Javelin skirmishers so they are your bread and butter.

I wouldn't say any units are inherently really bad so far, but I wouldn't have more than a single berserker unit due to no armour / survivability if nuked.

[Genyl]

Faelnir. Main hero - balanced. great to lead. Take 50health 20% dmg promotion

Alisha. Balanced. Great summoms and magic dmg destroys undead


Maidens - below average but great for defense and pierce. 1 shield maiden with aura is great though

Axemen - above avg. Solid tanking unit.

Thane - balanced. one is great for the aura. Not great dmg and survivality but good to be 2nd line

Ulnar and berserkers . Slightly below avg. Good for bad terrain. Need ulnar aura for survavility.

Skirmishers - balanced. the top promotion gives them survival because the basic version is too soft. Can shoot flying and enemies without retaliation

Light skirmishers - slighly above avg. Put in the back and great for hit and return. Magic dmg makes them great for finishing.

Cavalry - balanced. A bit low on survivality and not so mobile but great magic dmg and skirmish

Wolf mothers - slightly above avg . Great utility but 1 is enough

Slingers - balanced. Last promotion makes them tough but dmg is npt great. On defense they shine though.

Troll hurlers - slightly above avg. Massive dmg from afar specially against towns but need specific target and no moving, so not always useful and 2 supply

Troll chargers - very good. Massive dmg good tankiness plus regen. 2 supply

[Nidor]

stag skirmishers are top notch! just check when the can attack without taking games - u will need at leats 2-4 also nice for scouting

[Genyl]

Originally posted by Nidor:

stag skirmishers are top notch! just check when the can attack without taking games - u will need at leats 2-4 also nice for scouting

Yes I second this. Put them in third line. They have great mobility and ignore zoc so they can hit anything just dont take loses

Ambushes are great but situational. You won't be able to use it in every battle so I would recommend having them as a weapon in your arsenal but not rely mainly on them. A recon unit is good both for scouting and ambushing

[VanHoven]

Originally posted by Nidor:

- hurry up the animations, that is wasting our time!!!!!!!!!!

right click does the trick for me

[sandman25dcsss]

Originally posted by VanHoven:

Originally posted by Nidor:

- hurry up the animations, that is wasting our time!!!!!!!!!!

right click does the trick for me

I don't think it is a good solution. If I wanted to click that much, I would play clicker.

[sebi.serbanescu.ss]

My army and a grade for each one:
Falirson 10 - he s the boss of course. Tanky as hell with dragon scale armour and ghost sword.
Alisa 10 - now riding a dragon still pretty squishy if shes targeted by 3 or more archers. Has chain lightning spell-very good. And krells staff which is awsome.
Doughal RavenCloak 8 - pretty good against undead. Still pretty squishy.
Heavy axeman - 7 they are ok but now are eclipsed by better units. Both attack and tank good.
Werebears - 9 very tanky and decent attack.
Cleavers: 10. Awesome with bulls helmet which gives +25% charge attack
Trackers 7. Very good in woods. Mine has woodsman ring which makes him deadly in forest. Good to finish weakened units.
Iron javelins(2 units) 8. Very good attack and defence.
Armoured slingers (2 units) 7-8. Unlimited retaliations when defending a unit. Sometimes they don t do ♥♥♥♥ against some units with armour.
Thunderers 9 very expensive but it s worth to have 1 unit.
Wind riders(3 units) 10 excellent skirmishers. They do damage against everything. Still squishy if they are attacked.
Stag chargers 7. not impressed but sometimes they can be usefull.
Centaur archers(2 units) 10 very good unit against everything. Excellent damage and 3 range.
Wolf mother: 9 very good to summon let s say an eagle bear and wreck ♥♥♥♥ up. Excelent support unit
Armoured troll(2 units) 10 good tank and excellent damage. They are good where the battle is more fierce.
Siege troll(4 units) 10 a must have. At least 3 units. Best damage dealers when you siege. Best units at demoralizing the enemy army.
Devourer: 10 pretty expensive but is a good tank and damage dealer. Excellent on rivers, water and swamps. Slow move on fields.

Dissapointed by winged maidens. Very expensive and little utility.

Enjoy. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

[VanHoven]

Originally posted by sandman25dcsss:

I don't think it is a good solution. If I wanted to click that much, I would play clicker.

I agree, a skip all/speed up all animations option would be nice

[Genyl]

I think in general units are very well balanced. Only maidens seem to need a bit of a buff, I'd suggest they should be able to fortify after walking.

Quite impressed the balance is so good just after launch. In the original units were horribly imbalanced. Heavies, skirmishers and sky hunters were all you needed and archers casters and siege were really bad

[blackvoid]

Originally posted by sebi.serbanescu.ss:

Dissapointed by winged maidens. Very expensive and little utility.

Disappointed a bit too, but not as much as with useless chargers.

Valkyries do have some utility. Treat them like paras. One unit will do for all the cheeky flanking air-drops.

They are just too expensive to get and a waste to use as line infantry.

[Sanger Zonvolt]

For me the last upgraded stone hurlers are beasts (singleplayer only). Get two of them next to each other and put them on front. Unlimited double defense fire. You could go even further with 3 standing next ot each other. Why frontline? Because then any unit attacking them is hit by 100% extra damage. This means most units get anihilated when try to to get them (as the AI will often do). One of mine has the frenzy upgrade from a blood oak, meaning each time he does damage his damage increases further. Only problem is when the enemy has longbowman or artillery.