Best way to kill units (esp. shield-units) ?

[HohesHaus]

So I was wondering if there is a way to destroy units quicker. I mean the player himself is nothing more than a stronger unit, you will have a hard time deailing with a whole squad alone. So the key goal (in my opinion) is to destroy the enemy units as quickly as possible.

While Archers can be mowed down with horses or shield units, and Sword Units will loose against horses, and horses die to pikemen .... what about shield units with spears?

They look like to be the allrounder in this game. They are strong against bows, against horses and it seems against sword units too. Do they have a weakness? The only thing that comes into my mind is to attack them from behind, but that is difficult in a siege or because of the enemy player.

[Krono]

Shield spears are a very strong defensive unit yes, there are a few ways of dealing with them:

1. Artillery, whether from Trebuchet in siege or a cannon you set up yourself.

2. Heroes with good wave clear against units, like Glaive or Nodachi, can break the line and lead an attack.

3. Your own shield units, matched up face to face with their spears. If yours are higher tier they'll win, and if they're evenly matched you can tip the balance. You can also try to press your units through their line so they're in behind them, which I think is a bit exploity but whatever.

4. Overwhelm them with numbers, try to hit them from the sides.

5. Have Tier 5 units and charge your cavalry straight into pikes/shields/anything without a care and win the game with ease.

[HohesHaus]

Originally posted by Krono:

5. Have Tier 5 units and charge your cavalry straight into pikes/shields/anything without a care and win the game with ease.

Kidding? I thought spears are hard-counter to horses

[Burba]

Originally posted by HohesHaus:

Originally posted by Krono:

5. Have Tier 5 units and charge your cavalry straight into pikes/shields/anything without a care and win the game with ease.

Kidding? I thought spears are hard-counter to horses

Tier 5 cavalry has no real hard counter.

[NoobSkills]

Shields are supposed to be strong counter to most they're not super aggressive. But they can be countered by guns, T5 Cav charges, certain hero abilities in combination with a charge from units, reapers, tsergs, Demense arbalists (over time). It can become hard in certain situations because if you're playing lets say short bow and you don't bring out units that counter shields, then you can't do much except wait for a teammate.

[Krono]

Originally posted by HohesHaus:

Kidding? I thought spears are hard-counter to horses

Yeah, unfortunately Tier 5 units kinda break the balance of the game. It goes somewhat like this:

Tier 2 > Tier 1
Tier 3 > Tier 2
Tier 4 > Tier 3
Tier 5 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Tier 4

[ChaosKhan]

Originally posted by Krono:

Yeah, unfortunately Tier 5 units kinda break the balance of the game. It goes somewhat like this:

Tier 2 > Tier 1
Tier 3 > Tier 2
Tier 4 > Tier 3
Tier 5 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Tier 4

Yeah, but don't you dare say it in disc channel of CB. The vets will come along with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ because apparently they deserve to field godlike units because they invested a lot into them (they literally told me that, just in a roundabout way). So lvl 30 Iron Reapers with over 12000 hp that flatten 3 Imperial Spear Guard troops with a single charge are perfectly balanced (since their kits are expensive) and if you don't like it, your supposed to get Iron Reapers yourself. Apparently, T4 aren't supposed to win against T5, so the logic...

I mean, what the hell do I care about how expensive those kits are if I just get flattened without even being able to hold the line for 3 seconds with the BEST DEFENSIVE UNIT in the ENTIRE GAME! Not to mention that they still cost 2/3 the leadership of Iron Reapers to field in the first place.

Oh well, I digress.

The fastest way to break and kill units is to get Iron Reapers, Winged Hussars or Monastic Knights. You will roll over any shield wall with this in seconds with 0 losses... literally. It might sound like salt, but it's actually a fact.

Until you get them, you gotta combine your heroes knockdowns with offensive charges and time them together, so your charge lands while they are still on the ground. Classes like swords, glaive and nodachi (with the corresponding ult), have the easiest time.

[HohesHaus]

It might have to do with that horses might do blunt damage with charge? Shield units are weak against blunt damage

[Krono]

Originally posted by HohesHaus:

It might have to do with that horses might do blunt damage with charge? Shield units are weak against blunt damage

It's really just a numbers things. My character is over level 60 now, with a purple weapon and blue armor. It's not an exaggeration that if I were to try and 1v1 an individual soldier from the Tier 5 Iron Reaper unit, it would be difficult. Much less the entire healthy unit.