Best use for a Sentinel ?

[MOMO & YUNA]

I understand that different types of heroes give different benefits just like in the description, such as:

Vanguard = Best used against enemy troops
Champion = Best used against enemy generals (Duel)
Commander = Morale bonus for own troops
Strategist = Formations

But I am not sure what is the best use for a sentinel in practical. Please let me know.

[Sandvich]

Sentinel is a champion, vanguard, and commander combined if you get the right skills for them.

Sentinels are probably the best general types. They can beat a Champion's ass in a duel, they can buff your troops, they can also kill the enemy's troops no problem.

[Sins]

Largely, they duel better than a Commander while still bringing some buffs for the army. The dueling bit is important, as a Sentinel can tie up a troublesome Vanguard or Champion for an extremely long time, even if they can't win.

[MOMO & YUNA]

Originally posted by Chaotic Submissive Succubus:

Largely, they duel better than a Commander while still bringing some buffs for the army. The dueling bit is important, as a Sentinel can tie up a troublesome Vanguard or Champion for an extremely long time, even if they can't win.

Due to sentinels have higher evasion rate than the other types? And that is why sentinels can tie up vanguards/champions for very long time even cannot win?

[Sandvich]

Originally posted by MOMO & YUNA:

Originally posted by Chaotic Submissive Succubus:

Largely, they duel better than a Commander while still bringing some buffs for the army. The dueling bit is important, as a Sentinel can tie up a troublesome Vanguard or Champion for an extremely long time, even if they can't win.

Due to sentinels have higher evasion rate than the other types? And that is why sentinels can tie up vanguards/champions for very long time even cannot win?

The higher evasion rate + that skill that makes your dude stronger as the fight goes on, means you'll basically win every single duel as long as you have enough evasion.

[MOMO & YUNA]

Originally posted by Sandvich:

Originally posted by MOMO & YUNA:

Due to sentinels have higher evasion rate than the other types? And that is why sentinels can tie up vanguards/champions for very long time even cannot win?

The higher evasion rate + that skill that makes your dude stronger as the fight goes on, means you'll basically win every single duel as long as you have enough evasion.

I see. It's clear to me now. Thanks everyone for replying.

[Kidlatz]

Originally posted by MOMO & YUNA:

Originally posted by Sandvich:

The higher evasion rate + that skill that makes your dude stronger as the fight goes on, means you'll basically win every single duel as long as you have enough evasion.

I see. It's clear to me now. Thanks everyone for replying.

I saw in Youtube a guy made 1 vs 1 and Sentinel won easily, even Lubu is no match

[s†. Chris†opher]

In romance mode Sentinels are basically tanks, you use them to intercept and hold troops/heroes, the single entitiy also lets you fire on them with ranged fire.

They buff their troops with melee evasion etc, your 6 jian guards will be able to hold 3 times their number, allowing you to field more range or cavs.

The named sentinels are insanely strong with their unique armor, even on higher difficulties they can win duels they aren't supposed to.

Finally Zhao yun is a god, he can quite literally ride into an army, kill the enemy trebuche/strategist and ride back out.

EDIT: So in short, they are the defensive option and counterpart to both champions and vanguard.

[Nylan]

In addition to the dueling aspect, and as mentioned usually winning, I also like sentinels for my governors. Reduced build cost based on their expertise, which happens to be the stat you stack on them anyway. Tanky governor who can hold off most heroes if given some gear, can get an incredibly tanky retinue for his towns garrison, at no cost once built. Almost always my top pick. Has to be extremely nice traits on any other governor to consider them. You can even mix and match the troops a bit, 3-4 heavy shielded infantry and a few archers with flaming arrows added to a town will hold off a lot of troops. Might work better with a further hybrid army, say two heavy swordsmen, two azure dragons, two higher tier archers. Maybe even add gear to give shieldwall to the swordsmen.

[MOMO & YUNA]

All of the sweet experience you had with your sentinels sound very good. But I just tested in the custom battle mode, one on one battles between Zhao Yun (sentinel) VS Zhang Fei (vanguard) with the latest patch 1.1. To my surprise, Zhang Fei beat Zhao Yun twice in both duel and no duel. Historically Zhao Yun should beat Zhang Fei even they never fought each other.

Now I am quite reluctant to use it. I will have to prove it in the campaign.

[Sandvich]

Originally posted by MOMO & YUNA:

All of the sweet experience you had with your sentinels sound very good. But I just tested in the custom battle mode, one on one battles between Zhao Yun (sentinel) VS Zhang Fei (vanguard) with the latest patch 1.1. To my surprise, Zhang Fei beat Zhao Yun twice in both duel and no duel. Historically Zhao Yun should beat Zhang Fei even they never fought each other.

Now I am quite reluctant to use it. I will have to prove it in the campaign.

You can see here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72RMTw72mYU

Zhao Yun vs an entire army.

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Sentinels make for incredible govenors/assignees, but as folks have mentioned their best attribute is in surviving for a long time in duels. If you can survive for 90 seconds against a stronger enemy then disengage you get an army-wide buff that's basically as strong as actually winning the duel (the "survive to gain respect" thing). If you're outmatched by an overpowered enemy general (see: Guan Yu / Lu Bu) there's nobody I'd rather have than a Sentinel, except for perhaps a Yellow Turban physician.

[MOMO & YUNA]

Originally posted by Sandvich:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72RMTw72mYU

Zhao Yun vs an entire army.

I am sure any legendary vanguard/champion/sentinel can do the same as in the video, using the hit and run tactic (which i feel that it looks like the player is cheating the AI), of course it's lore-friendly to do so because in the novel those heroes always fight like 1 vs 1000 anyway. But I don't want to cheat the AI. Because the AI is already stupid enough. In battles human players always win over the AI, given equal strength (unless the player is a noob) without having to use the hit and run maneuver like he did in the video.

But my point is, a hero fighting troops is one thing, dueling is another. I will probably make a video showing how easily Zhang Fei beats Zhao Yun from my test mentioned earlier.

Thanks for the video. I guess multiplayer community will use that hit and run maneuver very often now.

[Andrewbh2003]

Originally posted by MOMO & YUNA:

Originally posted by Sandvich:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72RMTw72mYU

Zhao Yun vs an entire army.

I am sure any legendary vanguard/champion/sentinel can do the same as in the video, using the hit and run tactic (which i feel that it looks like the player is cheating the AI), of course it's lore-friendly to do so because in the novel those heroes always fight like 1 vs 1000 anyway. But I don't want to cheat the AI. Because the AI is already stupid enough. In battles human players always win over the AI, given equal strength (unless the player is a noob) without having to use the hit and run maneuver like he did in the video.

But my point is, a hero fighting troops is one thing, dueling is another. I will probably make a video showing how easily Zhang Fei beats Zhao Yun from my test mentioned earlier.

Thanks for the video. I guess multiplayer community will use that hit and run maneuver very often now.

thats called cycle charging and its by no means an exploit as thats how you get the charge bonus going

[Super Cosmic Space Magnet]

Cavalry also totally borks the strat since they have enough mass to stop generals from freely leaving units.

[MOMO & YUNA]

Originally posted by andrewbh2003:

thats called cycle charging and its by no means an exploit as thats how you get the charge bonus going

I know about the cycle charge, it's when a cavalry unit charges and breaks off for a distance then turns back to charge again and repeats the cycle, but what shown in the video is not a cycle charge, it's simply an exploit of the Romance mode where any enemy troop touching the hero or his horse will suddenly die. But as long as ai heroes don't do that against me, i will not do that to them, just to be fair.

Because if human players keep doing like that in the video, it is very possible that we can conquer the whole country using just one hero. But what's the point of playing a strategy game if we keep using that method.

Besides, if we keep using that method (a single hero beating a whole ai army) a few battles, it will be very boring. The challenge is gone. I certainly did not pay the money to run around with one hero.

I paid the money to play tactically and strategically. I love the Romance mode, but this exploit would kill the tactical part of the game completely and turn it to a Feeding Frenzy game.

By the way, the ladies in the ai army just ran away from a mad man, from what i saw.