Which is the best race overall?

[SoaringMule967]

I just beat my first game as an artificer. I saw all of the races besides elves (Unless evlen rangers are the only elf unit then I saw them all) and I was wondering which one is the best. I like to build my armies around one race (Though I threw elven rangers in with my humans because hunters are poo) so knowing which one is the best would be helpful. Though I personally believe it is the dwarves, gold affinity, greedy, follower, an amazing healer unit, pretty good tanks, and decent damage made me love them. Also find their lore the most interesting.

[Kaysoky]

I like the Orcs due to their Slaver units. This encourages highly diverse armies since you can pick up tons of different types of units.

I'll have an army with an Orc Shaman, Nature Elemental, and Direwolf; this lets me summon spiders and wolves that die and buff the Nature Elemental(s).

I'll have an army with slave War Trolls or Brutes, whom can get the Encourage orc skill (refill action points of a slave). They can then self-Encourage and attack as many times in a turn as their focus allows. You can get infinite damage from this in some situations (i.e. Wild Magic enchantment reduces ability costs to 0, meaning infinite actions).

There's the overpowered combo of Ethereal units (Wisps, Phantom Warriors, Phantom Spiders, etc) with an Earth Shaper or Pyromancer for 100% physical and/or elemental resistances.

I've recently acquired some Purity Inquisitors and Corrupted Elders too. (Not sure what synergies they provide yet)

[HozzMidnight]

Slaver mechanic is OP IMO and will be nerfed at some point. It is far more efficient at creating good free upkeep troops than Necro is. And as pointed out, you end up with random factions armies.

If you want to stick to one race it is Dwarves IMO. All of their units have the gold affinity level up which is 2G a turn. They all have at least 20% base elemental resist.

Earth Shapers start with 50% physical resist as well and they can also learn a spell that is 50% physical resist that stacks. I would not call them the best healer (Goblin Shaman by far), but they are probably the best unit that can heal.

Pyromancers start with Flame Armor, a buff that gives 100% Elemental resist and adds burning to all attacks. They also have an elemental resistance mass debuff. They can also learn the Earth Armor spell. Their level 15 promotion can be +10 Elemental Damage, stacked with a rune you can get them to like 56 max damage per attack. They are sold at Windholme with enough faction but you can also upgrade the Dwarf Barracks you get from Windholme revered with a room that allows recruiting them and adds some nice buffs to all your dwarves. Dwarf Barracks are better than the other faction unit rooms IMO, including Human and Kennels.

Mole Riders are a poor man's Keepers, but T2 not T3. They can get charge as a promotion option and also Total Awareness.

Flaming Construct you can buy from Windholme at Revered and is great paired with a life leech run which if you are Artificer is easy to make.

I think their T1 infantry is nothing special. Sentries, the T1 ranged, also not great. Their workers are nice though in that they have a ranged attack as well.

[Skjaldbjorn]

I'm not sure there is a best, Humans Dwarves and Orcs are all powerful in their own way, but have different playstyles.

Dwarves are pretty nasty and can build large armies due to gold affinity. The biggest downside to them imo is that their T1 infantry is terrible, and it takes a while to hire a large number of ragehammers.

Humans are probably the most powerful, but have the most expensive upkeep. T2 soldiers are a solid unit that can last well into the endgame. Keepers are a powerful cav unit that can be unlocked very early in the game. Alchemist, Mentalist, Paladins, Priests of Tiara.

Orcs are capable of zerging, assuming you don't go for an all orc army. Their ability to enslave is what makes them great.

Comparing a single stack, I think Human>Dwarf>Orc. But when it comes to comparing the upkeep costs, You can probably get 2 Dwarf stacks for every 1 Human stack, and 2 Orc stacks for every 1 Dwarf stack.

[Drakilian]

Imo Orcs by a long shot. Slavers are obviously OP but their units also just all have fantastic raw stats. Brutes and War Trolls are the kings of auto-resolve and you can save a lot of time blitzing through the game and the first two circle mages with just a raw stack of 6 brutes and an apprentice/hero.

[Gravedigger]

Human racial is definitely the best, +20% xp and +20% white resist is super strong. Humans also have the best frontline unit, although elves have better ranged units if you're not playing necro, who have the best ranged units overall.

[Mindeveler]

Well, dwarves are the only ones with earth armor AND a healer AND a unit that provides 100% elemental resistance, so... dwarves? At least in the early game where all those skills still come in handy.
Late-game, if you can afford an army of war trolls, then yeah, as was said above, they're great in autocombat + orcs have great commander perks (+2 dmg to everyone for every orc in the army who learned orc officer perk or whatever it's called).

[Celeborn]

WIll say orcs are probably good as others have said with slavers also the shamans can get access to a trait that increases all healing on troops by 100% this includes the war trolls passive regen or any other regen, the drummer wide range heal etc. WIll say that humans can get the tankiest out of anyone if get lucky and get the human commander. Can have very high will which negates lot of the annoying dark and white enemies as well as any fear/demoralise thing. Though will have to take into account that cards need to land right to get these things on the level up. I also really like the undead specific skills if get them particularly the undead commander can just zoom across the map and the battle maps can just charge but don't think that gets taken into auto resolve which seems to favor stats and resistances.

[Balthasar Gelt]

das racist

[Jimib4158]

i like the palys.....they self rez end of battle, makes them expendable in battle

[Mort]

Paladins with two focus crystal upgrades can get two light javelin volleys off in one battle (no range or LOS penalties). Combine that with the light beam upgrade (-50% white magic resistance) and it's very hard to lose. Get some guardian buffs and every shot kills.

[valiant43e]

Aren't demons quite good? 50% elemental and 50% white defense is great.
Though, it's a pity that we can't hire them easily.

[valiant43e]

According to https://www.spellforce.info/tab_thegames_units.php?lang=EN
Some demons even have 100% elemental resistance.

Though, this will probably change tomorrow with the patch.

[Robineus]

Ultimately beasts are the most powerful if you choose nature mage because you can build kennels, once you can add the best addition to those kennels then all beasts become followers which lets you churn out polar bears for 2 gold each and they are free after, you can then swarm the world with bears, which is a bit silly and it should be nerfed.

[Robineus]

But I mean for a given value of best it depends on what you're after, all beasts from that city down south are slaves so no upkeep, human militia are all followers so no upkeep, as such human militia tends to be the mainstay of my armies for early to mid game, afterwards it's elven archers with blessed weapons and anything that can hold the line so bears, keepers, golems, really depends on your mage and what you built in your tower.

[Etarded]

They each have their own unique flavor, dwarves are kings of fire damage, but dont have a tank unit you can make out of barracks for some reason, (the ragehammers melee unit is buyable only from a city via rep) humans can obtain command perk on halberds making for a very nice pike and shot (crossbows) combo. Orcs are beefy, SMOrcy, and most fun to me due to slave mechanic, brutes very solid for a t2, especially compared to ragehammers which are t3 (buff ragehammer hp and put into barracks perhaps? or nerf them a bit and put to t2), wartrolls are beefiest recruitable unit by far, drummers should be recruitable easier imo, shamans while buyable only, have a very nice variety of play styles, healer, fire damage, buffer, or summoner.