Kobold King Guide - Dragon Wannabe's

[Sanctus57]

Kobold King Guide - Dragon Wannabe's

This is my first guide I've ever written. But given that I've been playing the Kobold King pretty obsessively in the latest iteration of Conquest of Elysium, I thought I should at least give it a shot. This is a work in progress and I will be adding to it in the future, please take anything I say here with a moderately sized grain of salt.

A Note On Colors: All kobolds each have the advantage of being immune to their respective elements, e.g. Red is immune to fire, White is immune to lightning etc. For black kobolds, they have no immunities but are instead stealthy. Some of the colors also get additional advantages, such as green kobolds having forest stealth, swamp move, and their archers using poison on their arrows. White kobolds troops can often have flying. Blue kobolds have snow move and snow stealth. Each color has their own strengths which make them stand out, though red are possibly the weakest since they only have fire immunity and lack even archers (they have slingers instead). Then again, fire magic is very common in the game and so they may be quite strong depending on what you're up against...

UNITS:
Red/White/Green/Blue Kobolds: These guys are your basic fodder troops. They have low morale, low hp, and low damage. Essentially these guys are among the weakest troops in the game aside from their resistances and terrain stealth/move bonuses. At best, they are useful against a magic user or elemental of their respective type. At worst... just feed them to the dragons/drakes at your earliest convenience.

Black Kobolds: These guys are also pretty awful EXCEPT that they can stealth. This may be useful in certain hit-and-run guerrilla warfare situations when you also have a black kobold leader (Chief/Shaman/Prophet). Otherwise they are only useful as fodder just like the others.

Red/White/Green/Blue Kobold Warriors: These guys at least have shields. A little bit better weapons, a little bit better hp, and as of this writing, the same terrible morale. Overall, they're essentially just a little bit more survivable than regular kobolds. Nothing to write home about and it is therefore debatable if they are worth the additional 5 iron you have to spend to recruit them. I would recommend just waiting for them to spawn from Kobold Strongholds whenever you start producing those.

Black Kobold Warriors: Same as above, just with the stealth bonus. Stealth is nice when used effectively but overall... meh.

Black Kobold Scout: I mean, you needed a scout to see all those pesky brigands right? Here you go.

Red/Blue Kobold Slingers: Terrible, but better than the vanilla kobolds. Kobolds need massed ranged because their melee troops are so terrible. These will do in a pinch but prefer the archers.

White/Green Archers: Now we're starting to talk about some semi-decent firepower, these are the only units you should be recruiting early game in my opinion. They won't exactly one-shot a knight but a massed bunch of them will take care of most medium-range units all the same. The green archers are especially nice because of their poison ability but your army may already be half-destroyed before it really starts to take out units. I'd still take the green over the rest any day.

Flying White Archers/Warriors: These are nice if you want to ascend to the heavens and take a cloud city or some such. It's not like they're amazing in combat but they're decent like the above. If you get them with other flying units, you'll move quickly across terrain which is nice. It may even be game changing so consider this carefully.

Red/White/Green/Blue Dragon Spawn: Pretty expensive for what they are in my opinion. Yes, they fly. Yes, they have elemental resistances. Yes, most of them have some cool damaging abilities like bows on the white dragon spawn and flaming breath on the red dragon spawn. BUT they cost a gem for each you recruit. And they have low hp and morale just like the rest of the kobolds but with some good armor to offset it. As Draken pointed out in this thread, you could get 300 dragon spawn for 300 gems and 1500 gold, versus using those 300 gems to upgrade a sorcerer to a king and getting level 3 combat magic. It may make more sense to opt for those 300 dragon spawn in the mid-game and then later when armies start to matter less to switch over to upgrading your spellcasters.

Black Dragon Spawn: These guys are actually decent if you want to surprise a castle/citadel that has a modest garrison. They'll fly over the walls and... well not exactly destroy everything but at least give the archers a decent fight. The downside is they're super expensive at 10 gems for five. Unless you are heavily investing in a guerilla warfare strategy, which may be a good idea, I would give these guys a skip.

Drakes/Wyvern Knights: They're all powerful and most of them are worth the price. The stone drakes might be the least worthwhile because they are so expensive in terms of iron so you will have to consider that based on your current supply situation... but it's still very strong and may indeed be worth it. The rest are easily worth the price and I recommend you recruiting them whenever you have the chance unless you are saving up for something better. Wyvern knights are a special case in that they offer decent damage but their main draw is their morale. In a faction that has many, many morale 2 units, this one stands out at morale 7. If you're having trouble dealing with fear spellcasters, keep an eye out for recruiting opportunities for these guys.

LEADERS:
Red/White/Blue/Green Kobold Chiefs: These guys are basically weaker human captains with an elemental immunity. Treat them as such. They are uniquely useful to the Kobold King because kobolds will need lots of leaders to ferry units around from their kobold hatcheries/strongholds to the battlefield or to other mines to be devoured by dragons. Otherwise, use them with a sizeable squad of kobolds to secure your various resource points on the map. I like to keep 1 chief per 3/4 resource nodes to keep indies/roaming enemy forces at bay but your mileage may vary.

Black Kobold Chiefs: The cheapest leader to use for a stealth/guerilla force and also the least useful. If your crappy black kobold units can get the job done by themselves, then this is the leader to pair them with. If an enemy has a single patroller squad assigned to an area, you may be able to use such a pathetic commander as this and his pathetic black kobold units to randomly steal points away from the patroller squad and just harass them in general. I feel confident this is an effective tactic and have used it some myself, but the force will be weak and if you are surprised then that will be a decent amount of resources down the drain. It depends on the situation you're facing as to whether or not it is worth the risk.

Dragonspawn Chiefs(Red/White/Blue/Green/Black): I just don't see these guys being worth the cost UNLESS you are trying to ascend to the sky. There are some pretty cool resources up there and it could be worth it to use these guys for exploring BUT to capture those cool resources you are going to need alot of dragonspawn/white flying archers. Alternatively, you can use prophets and kings to assist with some serious spellcasting. More on that below.

Red/White/Blue/Green Kobold Shaman/Prophets: These guys are pretty good. They're one of the main sources of real power in your faction and you should value them. The more gems of a certain color you have flowing in, the more you should try to recruit shaman of that particular gem color. Ideally, you'll eventually have gems of all colors flowing in and have shaman of all colors available to take advantage of them. They start out with level 1 elemental magic of their color and will take a significant investment of gems to get them higher. BUT they are able to summon dragons to a mine even without upgrading them. What rituals they start with are random so you may have to invest in the normal mastery levels to get the dragon summoning ritual but that's a relatively modest investment. If you upgrade them, they will get to level 2 elemental magic and start being able to do some real damage in combat AND get access to summoning elder dragons. Also they can now fly. Whether or not they are worth upgrading depends on the situation. The level 2 combat magic is good, but you can get that from sorcerers. Elder dragons are an interesting case. We'll discuss dragon summoning further down.

Black Kobold Slayer Shaman/Prophet: These guys are interesting and, potentially, game-changing. Stealthy, with a disease assassination ability, equipped with dark magic spells... Highly useful in a variety of situations. You will want to upgrade these guys if possible. They are much more effective as Prophets, both because they can cast level 2 dark magic which tends to be very useful in combat, and also because they are now flying and they can summon their black dragons which are uniquely useful among all the dragons. More on that further down.

Red/White/Blue/Green Kobold Sorcerers/Kings: These guys are your artillery and the real power of your nation. They start with combat magic at level 2 and can be upgraded to kings with level 3 magic at a hefty price. Once you have a few mines with kobold hatcheries/strongholds and multiple colors of chiefs/shamans these guys will be easy to recruit. At mid-game you should be getting at least 1 recruitable sorcerer every 1-3 turns. That's the real power of the kobolds, which is their sheer access to huge numbers of magic users, albeit very physically weak magic users. But their magic is NOT weak, they can do horrific stuff on the battlefield just like any other witch/wizard. In fact, you have to be careful with some of their battlefield-wide spells, because they could end up destroying most of your forces in the process as well as the enemy (i.e. Gale from the Storm magic school). So read the spell descriptions carefully, especially of the Kobold Kings, and have fun blasting apart everything in front of you with tons of cheap spell casters. Also, these guys can found hatcheries/strongholds like the shaman and are great for expansion parties for both their combat magic and their ability to found new spawning locations. The the kings freaking fly, so there's that. You will want to start recruiting the sorcerers pretty heavily in the midgame and then starting to upgrade them to Kings towards the lategame when you are rolling in gems.

Black Sorcerer/Kings: Sorry, these guys don't exist from what I can tell. Which is okay, I would think level 3 dark magic on kobolds would be hilariously OP. Of course, I still wish they existed...

Rituals:
Kobold Hatchery: This is the beginning of your bid for world domination. Get one of these up and start spewing out terrible, crappy kobold units for free every turn ASAP. Yes, they are pathetic, but they're also a great screen for your ranged units and also serve as delicious meals for the drakes and dragons you'll be recruiting/summoning...

Traps: I haven't used these much, but they do seem like great help when defending a point. I would say they are likely worth the investment in highly contested areas. Don't bother with them in areas far away from the frontlines.

Kobold Stronghold: Like the hatchery, but instead spawns warriors and archers/slingers? Yes, please! Prioritize casting this. This ritual are expensive in terms of iron and so make iron gathering a priority from the start of the game. But it will be the #1 ritual that will ensure your success in a game, at least until late game.

Foretelling: A scouting spell for finding mines. Mines are the lifeblood of kobolds so this ritual is obviously very useful.

Summon Dragon(Red/White/Green/Blue): So fun. Who doesn't want a friendly dragon hanging out at your homebase? And how about if it goes and takes highly defended resource/fortification points nearby occasionally? Still not interested? What if it comes with awesome magic items that you can take and give to your other commanders/dragons if you so choose? These guys are great. You cannot control them and they're expensive, they need a decent amount of gold, crunchy kobolds, and gems upfront to keep them satisfied. But they're hugely effective units. I would say don't use this ritual on your safe areas. Use them out in unexplored and highly contested areas, the dragons will make up for their cost by taking points, disrupting enemy forces, and providing excellent defense. Their breath and immunities correspond to their color, they cause fear, murder things with their tails etc, all the dragon things. So awesome.

Summon Dragon(Black): Even more fun. But also even more expensive. These guys cost more in terms of gems which is a tough pill to swallow. BUT they are even more effective because, instead of breathing magic breath on things, they cast level 2 dark magic spells. YES. Shades galore, ethereal buffs, fears, direct damage, you name it. This dragon is so powerful. Yes, it is more powerful than the other colors which is why it is more expensive. But is it worth it? Yes, in the right mine, it is hugely worth it. Prioritize these if you can, recruit the black shaman, upgrade that black shaman to a prophet, and plunk down the gems for this bad boy in a mine in enemy territory. You'll be glad you did.

Summon Elder Dragon: You thought a regular dragon was stupid awesome? These guys are basically gods. No you still can't control them and yes they are stupid expensive. They are competitive with the most dangerous units in the game, only bested by elemental lords, super strong horrors, and demon lords (maybe tartarians too... okay, there are alot of crazy strong units in this game but these guys are up there). It's a hugely physically powerful dragon with level 3 illusionism magic. It will wreck almost anything it encounters. It's also very, very expensive in terms of gold, kobolds, and gems. But it's basically incredible and perfect for summoning in areas you are having serious trouble holding. And hey, kobolds consider it an honor to be devoured by dragons, right? Don't feel too bad.

Thanks for reading my guide. As I've said, it's still a work in progress and I'm sure I've missed some things. Please leave any suggestions you have in the thread.

[Maverick00053]

I think you could really expand upon the different color types as well. Each really have different strengths, caster types, caster spells, and just unit variation. Good start though.

[mergele]

I somewhat disagree on the dragonspawn evaluation. White dragon spawn are serious firepower. Red ones I have also often found useful as they do indeed bring decent damage and fire resistance is very useful against several enemies + flying against wall defenders.

What is you opinion on the wyvern knights? I by now stopped recruiting them entirely.

A useful thing you can do with stealthy basic kobolds (green ones in forest, blue in permasnow region and blacks everywhere) is to leave a single one behind on a tile to give you scouting information and early warning.

[dopamine bandit]

why not put this under the "Guides" aswell?

[Sanctus57]

I added your suggestions, thank you very much.

@mergele I still feel that the dragonspawn are not worth the price in gems unless you are simply rolling in resources. You'd be better off saving up to upgrade a sorcerer or even a shaman in my honest opinion UNLESS you are trying to siege a difficult castle or something similarly specialized and you are massing them up for this purpose. But they're better than any of your other basic troops, I'll give them that much. As for the wyvern knights, I really like them, I don't think they're as powerful as the other drakes generally but they can fly and they have high morale. I'd say keep recruiting them if you have the gems but by late game it's all about spellcasters so your mileage may vary.

@dopamine released *EDIT* Oh, okay I see what you mean. I'll post it there soon, thank you.

[Draken]

Upgrading a sorcerer cost 300 gems. 10 dragon spawn cost 10 gems. So an upgraded sorcerer is worth 300 dragon spawn.

And dragon spawn are strong. They have decent hp and good armor.
The red ones melt anything that doesn't have fire resist or awe/fear with their breath and halberds.
The white ones deal massive damage to everything.
The green ones are decent too, though the poison works a bit slower than the reds fire breath. The blue ones are a bit weak but very good meatshields for blizzard shamans.

So quite often 300 dragon spawn are going to perform better than a single kobold king. Especially since you can split them up in smaller armies.

They also can fly which means your dragon spawn only armies have an incredible mobility advantage against most other factions.

I would honestly suggest only upgrading a shaman to prophet for each color and then getting a mixture of shamans and dragon spawn depending on what you are fighting. Only get sorcerers if you really need those level 3 spells or you are swimming in gems.

Tipp: Dragon spawn with a dragon spawn chief or a prophet can do 1 turn raids into the water and grab some near coast gems resources in the ocean.

[Sanctus57]

@Draken you make some good points and so I will do some more testing with these. I'll likely update the guide to reflect that. I disagree, though, that they have decent hp. 5 hp is the same as the most worthless human units, a Levy. Their armor is good though, 2 armor and a shield is decent mitigation. The black dragon spawn don't get a shield though, instead two disease daggers... so great against solo super combatants vulnerable to disease I guess. A 1-5 damage bow on the white dragon spawn, I don't think I would call that massive damage but yes, it's good. All the dragon spawn morale is still abysmally low at 2... I don't know that I would say they are strong. Good mobility, good survivability for kobolds, and some cool damage abilities, yes. But not strong. Thank you for the feedback, I did need to take a closer look at this.

[Draken]

@Sanctus57
Thanks for taking my opinion in consideration.
The 5 hp isn't great, but together with their armor it means they don't instantly die to chip damage. Especially AoE chip damage which is what melts the normal kobolds. I think that's 'decent' but maybe I should have used another word here. :D

Some more details:
Red dragon spawn:
They have a burst 1 fiery breath doing 1-3 damage and a halberd doing 1-8. The fire attack has initiative 7 and the halberd initiative 5. Smaller battles usually end in a single turn as those fast double attack melt the enemies before they get attacks off. Especially since they fly and can completely surround an enemy before their first attack. They also tend to set tougher/bigger enemies on fire. Ethereal units stand very little chance as the fire attack is magic. The do struggle against awe or fear effects. They lack a shield but make up for it a bit with having 6 hp instead of the usual 5.

White dragon spawn:
While the bow only has 1-5 damage, the important part is the 7 range. That means that 140 white dragon spawn can fire on the same enemy at once (roughly). In masses they can rapidly chew through even tough enemies or enemies protected by air shield. I consider them the strongest dragon spawn when not taking elemental resistances into account. They also have a shield in addition to their bow.

Green dragon spawn:
I consider them a bit worse than the red and white ones, but both melee and range variant has a poison spit with 1-5 damage. They tend to suffer more causalities because the poison needs time to stack up. So I usually send them out when I have enemies that either do a lot of poison damage or that the red and white ones have problems dealing with.

Blue dragon spawn:
For me those are the worst dragon spawn. The only thing the get, appart from snow stealth/move, is a frost shield of 2. Which can be ok against high armored enemies or enemies with evasion or glamour, but it's not really that usefull most of the time. They still make decent meatshields for blizzard casting shamans or sorcerers.

Edit: I haven't really tested out the black ones as they just got added.
Edit2: Having fun with white dragon spawn:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2608670814

Edit3: About dragons:
The dragons also come with a very important ability: They have a recruitment boost for shamans, sorcerers and wyverns/drakes of their color. Elder dragons have a recruitment booster for all shamans, sorcerers and wyversn/drakes regardless of color. I don't know how or if those recruitment boosts stack, but depending on how and if they stack it might be worth it to summon at least one dragon of each color in a safe location. Also the normal dragons aren't really all that expensive. 50 gold and 25 gems (basic kobolds are free) is really cheap for a dragon, and a chance for some magic item. That's the gold cost of 15 normal kobolds. Shamans are more expensive than that. And it's only 12,5% of the gem cost of a prophet.

Edit4: Rituals:
Kobolds have so few rituals that it's not really worth it to spend gems to unlock additional rituals expect for promoting shamans or maybe sorcerers. There are only 3 rituals each for the first two tiers. You should have access to all the rituals after hiring only a couple of shamans. And the important 'stronghold' ritual isn't color dependent either.

[Primagen]

White Dragon Spawn its all you want or need.

[Bullet Tooth Tony]

Thx for the guide

Just tried the Kobolds yesturday, and liked them, so... what can i add?

I started with green kobolds and i managed to expand very quickly.
Thay have all i like for the early game: stealth, good archers, poison resist: great.

Murderers are not too bad for 15G, they have acute sences and pay for themself in most cases.

Warriors are very usefull vs archers and pierce resistant foes.

Kobolds have good armor/low HP, so when they level up, they become decent troops.

Winged white archers are cheap and effective, very nice to haras or rush the sky early.

White dragon spawn and drakes are also very very good, only matched by the Red dragon spawn (like said above)

The fact you can EASILY create cheap and effective full stacks of stealth and/or flying units is great imo.

Stronghold upgrade is very powerfull, dragons are fun and cheap, casters are ok, blue kobolds need some buff imo.

Very enjoyable faction overall :D

[Sanctus57]

Excellent feedback. I've made an official guide now (under the "Guides" option, next to "Discussions") and so most of the changes that I and contributors will make will be there. Please continue giving suggestions though and we will update accordingly

[Blaise_art]

you missed that you should prioritize blue sorcerers because they are your first battlefield spell with blizzard, you can even win the game using only that little bastards.