Best Warlord Combos

[DJTron]

I'm going to start a new game with a warlord and was just wondering what races and specs are good for them (I have all the dlc)

[Black Hammer]

Tigrans have some interesting unit synergies, due to the Bloodthirsty trait (bonus damage to bleeding units) that fits nicely with multiple Warlord units with cause bleeding wounds (mounted archers off a medal, manticores).

The berserkers can also get pounce, while the phalanx gets Sun Shield.

[Gloweye]

Largeyly dependent on playstyle.

For specs, Shadowborn is my personal favorite. Global Life Stealing fits the Warlord like a glove, and the Shock Damage and Resistance boost are nice.


For races, I'll highlight a few.

High Elves:
My personal choice. High Elf Mounted Archers are insanely good. Manticore is decent(inflict stun). For Racials, the Unicorn and the Gryphon both synergize very nicely with the Warlord.

Frostlings:
Nice dual channel damage, which compensates for a Warlord weakness. You may suffer from having a support as T3, but hey, you can compensate that with class units. Frozen flames is very nice on 3-shot mounted archers.

Draconians:
Once again, another damage channel. Some of them can die fast, but there's some scary potential in the Chargers with dragon ancestry activated, and having Martial Arts and Regrowth. Also, 3-shot mounted archers work good with the Elders as well. May not be the most powerful choice, though.

Orcs:
Doubling down on Physical damage, you're going to have trouble with incorporeals. However, nothing hits as hard on those without Physical Protection as an Orc Warlord. Tireless Warbreeds are insane.

Goblins:
Even cheaper, and easy to mass. Wargs are a good cavalry to mass, due to Overwhelm allowing them to damage pikes more than other cavalry, while Martial Arts can reduce return damage. If you happen to be shadowborn, double-life steal butchers are a nightmare of themselves.

There's something to be said for more races, and there's something to be said about the above that I didn't. But I hope to have given you some inspiration.

[Terrkas]

I will try a halfling warlord. I want to see their monsterhunters in action.

[DJTron]

yeah, I've played warlord once before (human) and shadowborn was VERY good, lifesteal alone saved quite a few of my troops. and yeah, those mounted archers on elf are insane.I played against thannis(the elf warlord) and thos mounted archers were a nightmare

[DJTron]

Originally posted by Black Hammer:

Tigrans have some interesting unit synergies, due to the Bloodthirsty trait (bonus damage to bleeding units) that fits nicely with multiple Warlord units with cause bleeding wounds (mounted archers off a medal, manticores).

The berserkers can also get pounce, while the phalanx gets Sun Shield.

Originally posted by jaccovandorpGloweye:

Largeyly dependent on playstyle.

For specs, Shadowborn is my personal favorite. Global Life Stealing fits the Warlord like a glove, and the Shock Damage and Resistance boost are nice.


For races, I'll highlight a few.

High Elves:
My personal choice. High Elf Mounted Archers are insanely good. Manticore is decent(inflict stun). For Racials, the Unicorn and the Gryphon both synergize very nicely with the Warlord.

Frostlings:
Nice dual channel damage, which compensates for a Warlord weakness. You may suffer from having a support as T3, but hey, you can compensate that with class units. Frozen flames is very nice on 3-shot mounted archers.

Draconians:
Once again, another damage channel. Some of them can die fast, but there's some scary potential in the Chargers with dragon ancestry activated, and having Martial Arts and Regrowth. Also, 3-shot mounted archers work good with the Elders as well. May not be the most powerful choice, though.

Orcs:
Doubling down on Physical damage, you're going to have trouble with incorporeals. However, nothing hits as hard on those without Physical Protection as an Orc Warlord. Tireless Warbreeds are insane.

Goblins:
Even cheaper, and easy to mass. Wargs are a good cavalry to mass, due to Overwhelm allowing them to damage pikes more than other cavalry, while Martial Arts can reduce return damage. If you happen to be shadowborn, double-life steal butchers are a nightmare of themselves.

There's something to be said for more races, and there's something to be said about the above that I didn't. But I hope to have given you some inspiration.

Thanks, this was really helpful, I'll have to try some of these

[Fendelphi]

In my current game, I am at around turn 80 or so.
My Elf warlord's main army consist of him +5 mounted Archers. They each have between 125 and 135 health(because they just never die, and level up quite fast).
My Warlord is also pretty tough, sitting around 18 armor and 16 resistance, with a lot of different potential procs(like immolation, which can be a nice defensive and offensive debuff) and 90 health.
He also hits quite hard(around 21 physical+some magical).

As Elven Warlord, you can create big armies of very mobile troops(manticores, Mounted Archers, Griffon Riders), and at a high veterancy(elite rank when produced), for relative low costs(due to varies Warlord buffs/upgrades).

Personally, I went for Light mastery+water adept(Im on an island map), to negate negative morale from terrain +having access to some nice healing abilities.

[DJTron]

yeah, those mounted archers are scary D:

[Doctor AiBoBo]

I really agree with @Black Hammer's post above

Tigrans have some amazing synergy, and there few possible ways to play Tigran Warlord.

Cheetahs are extremely powerful starter irregular unit. With warlord spells and buffs you can spam them thru porduction or spell, and their pounce and bleeding causing features are amazing.

Tigrans are fast race, and that could benefit from playing Irregular Warlord Cheetah/Monster Hunter spam with Explorer spec.
As cheetahs are fastest irregulars, that gives you fastest 40 movement scout on demand. This covers scouting Warlord problems.

As mentioned above, Bleeding, sun shield, Berserker pounce. Those things rock.

Cavalry Buff. Tigran cavalry lack defences, and all tigrans at general (especially at start of the game), Warlord covers that. Now you have befier cavalry which also have ranged atack, before you reach Mounted Archers.

As warlord, being focused primarily on phys damage, having tigran support units (to deal vs phys-resitants) is must, but at same time those turn into black panthers and deal tons of phys damage if needed!

summary: Pounce, speed, Bleeding/Bloodthirsty combo, Cheetahs, Phys-damage-shapeshifter supports.

I myself very fond of Adept Grey Guard/ Explorer Tigran Warlord combo. It is my favorite one.

[Noble Ten]

I enjoy playing Human Warlord and synigizing with Cavalry/Mounted Archers and T3 Knights. The human happyness military tree adds additional benifits to knight units. T2 Cavalry get 50% exp (half the time to evolving), all human "cavalry type" units receive +2 damage, are pretty useful. Then Pure Breed upgrade (+15 health) Matial Arts (+5 def on enemy retaliation strikes)

Tho I found Orc T3 units with fear stike kinda annoying. I've lost battles I should've won, just by troops running away in fear. Tho isnt really a problem with gold medaled T3 knights who have strong will.

Then nothing better than casting Relentless army in a major fight ^_~ (until bloodbath comes at high tieler late game)

[Aliceskysareblue]

halfling dont make good warlords, they arent very physically damaging , are vulnerable to to physical damage and are sensitive to terrain type.

however if you try that I would suggest taking creation mastery,

[Gloweye]

Originally posted by elderago:

halfling dont make good warlords, they arent very physically damaging , are vulnerable to to physical damage and are sensitive to terrain type.

however if you try that I would suggest taking creation mastery,

They can work without to much issue...even if it's just the Draft/Lucky combo. 200 global army morale works very nice with lucky. Also, you get the racial +1 ranged damage on the horse archers, which isn't a bad deal either.

Largest issue is the absence of elemental damage, just like you have with orcs.

[DJTron]

can't beat deathflings though

[Aliceskysareblue]

I agree about butchers I actually fined them very useful, I found a combo of shadowlord and necromancer to make butchers an absolute nightmare (they end up with greater drain life)

[Doctor AiBoBo]

Well, as I said before.. And I want to add something about why tigran warlords rock:
1. Fastest irregulars.
2. Athletics/ Bleeding wounds/ Bloodthirsty
3. Pounce on berserkers and manticores and cheetahs
4. Fastest MH who can shoot and cause Bleeding wounds for Bloodthirsty, pouncing manticores. And Coup de Grace.
5. Supports which could provide elemental damage if needed, or turn into melee black pouncing panthers.
6. Chetahs.
7. Lack of el. Damage covered by simply picking wild magic adept. It have huge synergy with warlord.

[MattStriker]

Here's a fun combo:

Get a dwarf settlement in range of both a Crystal Tree and some Ancient Ruins. This is actually fairly easy, since ruins are extremely common in random maps. Wherever you find a crystal tree, chances are there's also a ruin somewhere in range.

Now go and build some 17 def phalanxes with Projectile Resistance. Oh, they also have shields. And Defensive Strike. And if you max out racial governance for the dorfs, they get even more unkillable. These guys make ranged units and cavalry (even high-end warlord cav) cry. Even Overwhelmers will have trouble taking these down while they're in Guard mode and they'll get hurt pretty badly in return.