How do you guys use Malakia?

[Bartowski]

Wondering how i should build him in the early game. Should i just use him to buff my units(red line?) or is he capable of dealing a lot of damage himself? Should i target Lords, or units with him?
I know the other 2 heroes you start with are quite strong combatants which is pretty cool.

[StrangestEcho]

He's best when using a Gyrocopter stack with 3-4 engineers that have stalk. There's a forge item or rune that will give Malakai stalk as well. If you go that route, then you won't be having him fight much so his personal combat stats are a low priority.

[antique_nova]

I'm currently 62 turns into my first Malakia campaign with 74 settlements captured. I play the game on hard campaign and normal battle difficulty.

Here's what I've been using.

Malakia army - Use him to buff the gyrocopters asap, then reduce the upkeep of gyrocopter spam. Then use only the gyrocopters to kill the enemy and hide Malakai. Oh and add in a master engineer for more attack and damage per shot from the gyrocopters.

For all the other armies, you only need the following.

Daemon Slayer (Lord) - The only reason you take him is because he has the siege attacker skill. So you can attack walled settlements asap. This saves you from having to bring a useless cannon unit. Blue line - Pure beard (anti-corruption) + Inspiration Leader (Regen)

Master Engineer (Hero) - For increase ammo and damage for gyrocopters. Get "bare essentials" skill so they can stalk and stay hidden in all terrain all game.

Gyrocopters - As many as you can. Try to fly around with 10 man stacks, then 15 man stacks.

This doomstack is insanely easy to build, recruit and maintain.

It's only weakness is facing armies with lots of flying units. So, you're either gonna to have to "skill" it by getting gud with micro managing units. Or you simply send in a second stack of gyrocopters to help out. That's what I did for the daemon slaying adventurer quest since they're too hard to beat with a single stack of gyrocopters.

You'll notice I didn't mention gyrocopters with trollhammers. That's because they're really hard to get and you can only recruit 2 every 15 turns I believe if you gain enough grudges. So you can't rely upon it. They are really nice though.

Ideal cost effective spammable doomstack

1x Daemon Slayer (Lord)
1x Master Engineer (Hero)
17x Gyrocopter
1x Thunderbarge (This is optional)

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For your settlements, here's what you should build.

Granary - Level 1 - For growth

Trading Depo - Level 1 - For gold and oathgold

Refectory - Level 1 - For public order (one per region)

Tinker's Den - Level 1 - To recruit gyrocopters.

Minor settlements - You never need to go beyond level 2.

Major settlements - You never need to go beyond level 3.

The reason being is that the trade off just isn't worth it.

You're better of just building more gyrocopter doomstacks.

If you ever capture a settlement that already has "dwarf tinkerer's workshop" just keep it then.

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For Malakai's airship panel - Here's what you'll want first.

Beer tap buildings - Lower upkeep of army (It saves you about 1k gold per turn difference compared to other armies)

Engine buildings - So the thunder barge you summoned lasts longer

Engineering workshop - So you can purchase the thunder barges asap. They will help you kill large flying units later in the game.

Airframe - Level that up asap

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What to get from the workshop?

Honestly, only your daemon slayer lord needs it, but even then you'll never use them to fight with your gyrocopter spam. Here's what I equip my daemon slayer lords with:

Alaric's armour - Best armour to hold your ground

Dragon slayer fang - Best defensive talisman

Ironwarden's tankard - Regen's health and isn't affected by fire damage

Master rune of Spite rune - Perma AOE damage to enemies within 35m

Rune of luck - +10 ward save

Starbreaker - Best melee weapon (but you never need this due to gyrocopters) and -16 to enemy leadership on units it hits

In other words, this daemonslayer lord base stats after being upgraded will look like this. (Stats are not final, and can be boosted a little more)

Health - 6097
Armour - 60 (shielded)
Leadership - 100 (Unbreakable)
Speed - 48
Melee Attack - 98
Melee Defence - 89
Weapon Strength - 878 (This excludes bonuses from weapons and skills, which would be 2k+ weapon strength)
Charge Bonus - 75

Ward save - +45% (50% against demons) and +10% when less than 50% health and +20% as he gets more kills

Expert Charger defence
Physical resistance - 20%
Missile resistance - 35%
Spell resistance - 45%
Ward save - 80% (Max and less than 50% health)

In other words, this lord would be hard as ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nails and insanely hard to kill and it can kill large units insanely easily and it does perfectly fine against endless hordes.

Did I also say it regens? Against trash mobs, it's going to have a 99% resistance against all enemy attacks. Which is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane with it's AOE damage that NEVER TURNS OFF.

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Also, learn to confederate the other dwarven factions early, so you get more chances to earn more grudge points.

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Capture "Karaz-a-Karak" asap. It has an airfield that provides the following benefits:
+5% campaign movement range to all armies
-10% upkeep for gyrcopters + bombers (all armies)
-30% recruitment cost for gyrocopters + bombers
+5% speed for gyrocopters + bombers (all armies)
+5 recruit rank for gyrocopters + bombers

Aside from that, there's no other special buildings worth your attention.

[chickabumpbump]

Urrg doomstacking. What a boring way to play