suggestions for fighting unholds?

[General Jah]

So I accepted a mission around day 40 that paid me nearly 2k to fight some unholds. There were 3 and they mopped the floor with my crew, nearly got to kill one of them, but they just shattered my front line, even with spearmen having spear wall up. I don't think the missed a single attack.

Any suggestions on viable strategies to counter them?

[Decado]

Sounds like you are under-leveled/geared. They are a high level enemy. Spears do nothing.

Two handers and duelists and some bros with indomitable.

[Chicago Ted]

Have one dude for each unhold with high armor and indomitable. Don't surround them, have guys with polearms, bows, xbows and throwing weapons hit them from the sides and behind. Focus on one Unhold at a time because they regenerate. Don't stand with anyone directly next to the guy holding the Unhold in place, else they'll throw them over their shoulders and take their place. Spears don't do enough damage.

The guy tanking should do nothing but spam shieldwall and indomitable, don't attack with them. If you run out of stamina, have another bro with a shield rotate him out.

You can take out Unholds much earlier than that, but without indomitable they tend to break your bros' bones left and right. It's a gamble if you're not geared and leveled up.

[General Jah]

good advice thanks

[turtle225]

Ted has some sound points.

I'd like to add that Taunt is a great tool as well. With Taunt the Unholds will only punch you which any decent Taunt tank can dodge reliably. Just keep in mind that the punch is an AoE so give the Taunt user some space.

Two hand mace will daze Unholds, reducing their damage output.

Nets and Goblin poison can do a great job at making Unholds waste their turns.

A strong archer core can down 2 Unholds before they even engage. At that stage in the game you wouldn't have that though.

[UnluckyNoob]

0. If that's white unholds, just retreat. You should improve your fighting skill to mess with them that early.
1. The main way to fight few strong enemies using low-lvl bros is spliting them and fighting only one at a time.
2. Split them using dogs/nets/spearwall/shieldwall/whatever you want and fight them one by one. Don't afraid that unhold will kill your bro in 1 vs 1 fight.
3. Fighting single unhold is easy. Just wait till he move, surroung him and stab with whatever you have. Due to initiative drop, next turn he'll move after your bros and you'll be able to finish him before his turn. Crescent formation/wooden hammer/all kind of maces will help.

Originally posted by Chicago Ted:

Have one dude for each unhold with high armor and indomitable.

Those who have 3 bros with high armor and indomitable at day 40 don't write "help me beat unholds" topics.

[Chicago Ted]

Originally posted by UnluckyNoob:

0. If that's white unholds, just retreat. You should improve your fighting skill to mess with them that early.
1. The main way to fight few strong enemies using low-lvl bros is spliting them and fighting only one at a time.
2. Split them using dogs/nets/spearwall/shieldwall/whatever you want and fight them one by one. Don't afraid that unhold will kill your bro in 1 vs 1 fight.
3. Fighting single unhold is easy. Just wait till he move, surroung him and stab with whatever you have. Due to initiative drop, next turn he'll move after your bros and you'll be able to finish him before his turn. Crescent formation/wooden hammer/all kind of maces will help.

Originally posted by Chicago Ted:

Have one dude for each unhold with high armor and indomitable.

Those who have 3 bros with high armor and indomitable at day 40 don't write "help me beat unholds" topics.

Yeah and surrounding an Unhold is a bad idea due to aoe. If you use dogs, you'll give them a free morale boost because they smash them to bits easily. You need the sutained damage and reliable hit chances to bring down an Unhold in two rounds.

[Whatever100500]

1 tank spamming Shieldwall or Indomitable per Unhold, when they are few. If too many Unholds, 2 tanks keep 1 Unhold each (ones that you are currently killing), rest keep 2-3 Unholds each.
Good enough tank should have 5% to be hit while shield-walling against non-white Unholds. And even at this point, 1 of 20 attacks will hit, break shieldwall and with high probability inflict a wound. So you can't tank them indefinitely.

Be very cautious about terrain if not using indomitable. As long as Unhold can't toss you to get to 1) other bros 2) better terrain, they won't toss. So don't leave other bros adjacent to tank, don't tank on or next to high ground.

Actual killing is done by 2-tile weapons and archers (you should walk into 1-tile range only if you are 100% sure to finish current Unhold before it's next turn).
If not enough 2-tile weapons and archers, 2 1-tile melees can attack from opposite sides (Unhold has 3 tile aoe, so doesn't cover both).

Also, Unholds have Steel Brow and ridiculous amount of health. Close to impossible to wound other than with hardest 2h-weapon hits.

Their interaction with Spearwall is weird. They should be able to always shut it down by charging, but surprisingly often choose to just run into it.

Overall Unholds are much easier opponent than Schrats.