Help with unhold

[Talesin]

So i ran into Unhold for the first time and the 3 of them massacred my warband.
And i got no clue how you are supposed to fight them at all.

First of all they tosses away the shield bearer and take his place and then massacres the backline.
So my polearms died first because as soon as i tried to use them it jumped next to them and killed them.

Surrounding it with melee didn't work either because he uses a hard hitting knockback aoe attack that crushes everyone.
And then i ran out of stamina because i kept having to run back to it after getting knocked away.
And at that point it regenerated more hp than what i could do in damage.

So yeah...how are you supposed to kill them?

And why does the game count these super strong monsters as a 2 star contract when they easily massacres 12 people?

[99Random]

3-5 standard Unholds is a 2 skull contract as later on 3 skull version can have 9.

A few pointers:
1- Standard (not the northern armored ones, they really suck) have no armor so high HP damage weapons and bleeding is a great move. A whip user with cleaver spec will add 20 bleeding/turn/hit (from 3 range!) and devastates them. 2-handed Scimitar/Crypt Cleaver also do wonders. You can pick up a nice named one in the Icy Cave location in the north like this: https://www.screencast.com/t/XKRQTi2IlDI

2- Indomitable will help with the knock around tactics, but it is not a cure all so best to learn to adapt. On that note...

3- Learn to anticipate their actions and limit the impact. Chasing after them will just burn fat if you cannot get in an effective attack when you arrive and all you have done is set yourself up for a knock around. Wait until they have moved, see if you can move+attack or just move into a better postilion for next round. As you noticed, surrounding them with not enough AP or fat to attack is just giving them the chance to destroy you.

[Talesin]

You seem to think about endgame play, but i'm talking about first time you meet them.
My best man is lvl 4 and i only got a few non basic weapons.

But if you are insinuating this is endgame monsters that i meet at lvl 4 then i can understand why it seems impossible for me.

[DarrkPhoenix]

With a level 4 team (probably with only raider gear or worse) you'll have a pretty bad time against unholds, since you won't have the defensive perks to tank their hits well, and your mdef is still likely low enough that taking several hits before you can take them down is unavoidable. Take this as a lesson that contract skulls can still have a wide range of difficulty depending on contracts, and certain beast contracts (such as unholds, schrats, and lindwurms) are some of the most dangerous types of contracts.

For general tactics against unholds (for once you're a bit better prepared), they're actually pretty easy to fight once you understand their moves and AI. The unholds will use their throw/move attack if the bro adjacent to them is also adjacent to another bro with a lower mdef. This means placing squishy backline characters right behind the tanks holding down the unholds is one of the worst things you can do tactically. Instead, you'll want to position your backline characters close enough to the unholds to strike, but not adjacent to any tanks, which means spreading out your formation instead of going with a standard line formation (another option is dancing your backline characters in and out for each strike). Also, if a tank has indom then that will prevent unholds from using the throw attack against them.

It's also a good idea to try to spread the unholds out a bit, then assign one or two tanks to each to lock them down, followed by focusing your damage dealers on one unhold at a time (otherwise their regen really slows things down). For regular unholds (without armor) attacks that can inflict bleed can help quite a bit (cleavers, whips), but be aware that unholds have resilient, so those bleeds will only last a single turn. Clustering melee around them is also not advised, given that their melee attacks are aoe and can hit three adjacent cells at once. If you want more than one melee bro on an unhold it's best to place them on opposite sides of the unhold, since that will make it so that the aoe attack can't hit both at once.

Finally, if the number of unholds permits it, it can be a good idea to keep a tank or two in reserve and not engage with them immediately. This will allow you to rotate them in if another tanks takes too many hits, or if an unhold somehow gets aware from a tank and rolls up on one of your backline bros.

Ultimately to take on unholds safely you'll want several dedicated tanks with enough armor and defensive capabilities to go toe to toe for several turns, plus carefully positioned backline damage dealers to focus on one unhold at a time. Watching your positioning is one of the most important elements, and hold some tanks in reserve in case several rolls just don't go your way.

[99Random]

They are not endgame enemies, but yes, level 4 is way too low and you did not mention that in the original post. This game relies on knowing what contracts to not take and what fights to run away from.

What day are you on as it sounds like you are low level if this was a contract.

[bulbatrs]

they are quite killable with a 12 man average lvl 4 party, you just need to know what you are doing. I wouldn't recommend learning how do deal with them pre lvl 7 as that's your main powerspike with nimble that does very well into them.
generally speaking they will throw your guy if they feel like that will let them attack better target, so try to create situations where that does not happen. try pilling up on a few, while distracting the rest.
This is the sort of fight where early t3 2h weapons shine very well - a few 2h hammers or maces do wonders or even a mansplitter. there is no reason why you should not have them since each can costs as low as 2k.

[Talesin]

Originally posted by 99Random:

They are not endgame enemies, but yes, level 4 is way too low and you did not mention that in the original post. This game relies on knowing what contracts to not take and what fights to run away from.

What day are you on as it sounds like you are low level if this was a contract.

Well i thought the game would upgrade the contracts to harder enemies as you got further into the game.
At that point i was at day 37 and usually met 6 raiders, nomads, orc young or other beasts like direwolf, sea serpent, webknechts etc.

Anyway i skipped the contract and did others instead.
And i'll just avoid it in the future seeing how its not worth it when other 2 star contracts is 10 times easier.

[Heron]

Originally posted by Talesin:

Originally posted by 99Random:

They are not endgame enemies, but yes, level 4 is way too low and you did not mention that in the original post. This game relies on knowing what contracts to not take and what fights to run away from.

What day are you on as it sounds like you are low level if this was a contract.

Well i thought the game would upgrade the contracts to harder enemies as you got further into the game.
At that point i was at day 37 and usually met 6 raiders, nomads, orc young or other beasts like direwolf, sea serpent, webknechts etc.

Anyway i skipped the contract and did others instead.
And i'll just avoid it in the future seeing how its not worth it when other 2 star contracts is 10 times easier.

They're well worth it once you can beat them because of the crafting materials they drop.

Skipping before you can handle them is definitely the right move. Not just for Unholds, that's a general lesson to be learned in BB.