Lord's Army Buffing Tree

[Crymic]

Hi!
Worth to lvl the army buffing tree for the lords? Lords are great as tanks and damage dealers, is it worth to sacrifice it for these 10%-15% buffs?

[[EL] The Emperor of Mankind]

Only if your Empire in my opinion... Halberds, and Greatswords absolutely wreck ♥♥♥♥ with buffs...

[Dracon]

It all depend I think, I loved to charge with my my orc Ironskin followed by army into battlefield, but when I did play as dwarf I did add everything into army buffs, sitting on trone and commanding army felt like git gut.

[DeathHead]

Yeah I usually buff 'honest steel' (I think) as it helps your weak infantry survival. It's helped a lot early game on my VH campaign right now as The Empire.

Other races not so sure right now

[goumindong]

Sort answer, yes. Especially if you can't buff the tank attributes of your primary lord

[dyne2alex]

I get them on empire lords sometimes for budget armies. Honest steel and rally helps ♥♥♥♥♥♥ troops be not so ♥♥♥♥ for a short period of time.

[Kanjejou]

on dwarf it almost mandatory seing how poor in damage dealing and offence with their front line soldier

[drazan]

i allways buff the army because you benefit more from it then a single hero.

see it like this, grimgor becoming even better (he is allready good) or your whole army becomming better. what will give the best results you think?

for me it was an easy choice.

[Hex]

The army buffs are essential IMO, it makes your guys good enough to smash armies even if you're not countering everything just right.

[NixBoxDone]

Not everything is worth taking. It depends a lot on what kind of unit you want to build. I always go for the enhanced leadership and increased aura - one of the leading causes of failure for me was when my men routed.

They would do so even though the enemy army was half ranged, and all the ranged units had been murdered by my cav/air, which was even then on the way to fall into the back of whatever unit they held off, leading to my loss because those units (in early game) typically didn't have the staying power to fight head-on.

With the leadership aura, that takes a lot more time.

I also always go for the 10 % extra movement range on campaign, obviously. Other than that it really depends on if I use the unit that's getting buffed a lot. I try to have at least a moderate amount of points in the fighting skills so my general + one or two heroes can massacre the enemy general to get rid of HIS leadership bonus.

Consider what you want to use the unit for, too. Buffing zombie damage is senseless is all you want them for is is occupying the enemy. Far better to skip that option and go for, let's say, extra movement speed and charge damage for ethereal cavalry - they can then murder the enemies the zombies hold much quicker, as opposed to the zombies doing a tiny bit more damage.

You also don't want to spend permanent skill points or valuable research time buffing zombies if you plan to replace them with, say, skeleton spearmen later on. This goes for all units. You can't get those points back and might feel pretty batman about it later on, when you lose a close fight because you spent skillpoints and a dozen rounds of research on units you deleted from your line-up.

[Mr. Ape]

Imo, buffing units with Lord skills just isn't worth it (we have tech trees for that). And aside from the bonuses themselves being quite meh, the way the skill tree is designed forces us to invest in the lower tiers first, many of which are for units that will inevitably be replaced in the late game. That whole branch is a huge sink that gives very little reward. The only skill worth picking up is the 12 percent vigorloss reduction (if you run your troops a lot / want to climb up siege ladders).

[supermegadeathninjallamaofdoom]

Originally posted by Mr. Ape #I.TOLD.U.SO:

Imo, buffing units with Lord skills just isn't worth it (we have tech trees for that). And aside from the bonuses themselves being quite meh, the way the skill tree is designed forces us to invest in the lower tiers first, many of which are for units that will inevitably be replaced in the late game. That whole branch is a huge sink that gives very little reward. The only skill worth picking up is the 12 percent vigorloss reduction (if you run your troops a lot / want to climb up siege ladders).

Cant speak for every faction, but buffs to quaralers and spearmen remain very very useful throughout the whole campaign - some basic troops stay in army comps the whole game.

[DaBo81]

I tend to have primary armies with elites and lightning strike (not many red skills) and secondary armies with more basic units - the red skills are good for the secondary armies as it buffs most the force - it all depends on how you want to build the general's army

[dyne2alex]

Originally posted by supermegadeathninjallamaofdoom:

Originally posted by Mr. Ape #I.TOLD.U.SO:

Imo, buffing units with Lord skills just isn't worth it (we have tech trees for that). And aside from the bonuses themselves being quite meh, the way the skill tree is designed forces us to invest in the lower tiers first, many of which are for units that will inevitably be replaced in the late game. That whole branch is a huge sink that gives very little reward. The only skill worth picking up is the 12 percent vigorloss reduction (if you run your troops a lot / want to climb up siege ladders).

Cant speak for every faction, but buffs to quaralers and spearmen remain very very useful throughout the whole campaign - some basic troops stay in army comps the whole game.

depends how you build your armies though. For humans, usually I have 2 elite armies lead by balth and franz, and all the other armies are budget armies of spears swords and xbows with the occasional mortar. Still works against norsca tribes post turn 100 surprisingly well

[NixBoxDone]

I like to go for the upgrades for cav and ethereal units on Count Dorkula. Extra weapon lethality, reduced upkeep, better speed, more charge damage. That makes them pretty lethal, and due to the ethereal characteristic you can just dubbleclick them on some annoying archers and leave them to it. Chances that the enemy will damage them significantly, even if he intercepts them, are pretty darn low.

Check back in 3 minutes to have them run down somebody else. If the enemy wastes arrows on them, SPLENDID!

I don't consider it a waste of skills because the skills before that are pretty damn good too. Undead units start taking damage when they lose morale, so the + morale leadership aura bonus for the first point is a pretty good investment.

I spend the next three on giving him + 10, 15 and 40 % (or some such) aura range for the same reason - to push out the time they get damage for merely existing a bit further.

I put one point in extra melee defense for skeletons, because I build my army around a core of 6 to 7 elite skeleton spearmen each. You get them for a song, they have like 6.2 k defense, they resist charges and do dmg vs large. They also come with shields, so they don't crumble from ranged attacks immediately like zombies, without costing that much more.

I spend the money I save on the spearmen on more ethereal/flying units and use the general/wight king/vampires to murder the enemy general.

[Crymic]

Thanks for the answers, hints and tips :)