The little man's guide to conquest! (Burgmeister strategy Guide)

A guide to the units, strategies and army composition of Hoburghers, primarily aimed at multiplayer 1v1 strategy, but applicable to every part of CoE4

Introduction

So, you want to be lord of the shire? Master of all the small men villages? Well, this is your definitive guide to playing all things Hoburg. Before we begin, let’s understand what makes these small men different from other teams, both with advantages and disadvantages

Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages

• Hoburghs recruit 15 units at a time. This is 3x more than most other units. This is really really good, just remember that your armies should at least have 45 units or more!
  
• Hoburghs get access to lots of gold, and can use gold, gems and weeds. This means you can take over ancient forests (and stop them spawning annoying grey mobs), use the 4 different gem types from mines, and effectively spend the (hopefully large) amounts of gold you’ll be getting in the game.
  
• Your starting hoburgh Village begins with 1 trade, so you’ll already be buying and selling like a true hoburgh trader, right from day one!

Disadvantages

• Hoburghs have small legs, this means that most of them have only 2 action points (AP) per turn. At first this seems devastating, but in fact it’s needed, to stop them from being the best team in the game. This is the biggest disadvantage by far. Learn to accept this, and only then can you love the ‘Burgh
  
• Because their bodies are so small, Hoburghs are weak. Many units have only 2 hitpoints, and even the stronger units only have 3 or 4hp.
  
• Hoburghs don’t get access to much magic. Innately they only get access to druidism, which isn’t a dominant school of magic, this means you won’t have much use for magic boosting items, until later on in the game when hopefully you can recruit human mages from magic libraries/cities.
  

General rules for playing Hoburg

1. When using Hoburgers in armies, ALWAYS outnumber your opponent at least 2:1, but better yet 3:1 or even 4:1
   
2. Be very aware of your terrain. As much as possible, AVOID mountains and Jungles. They are really bad for your small man movement. Forcing a Hoburg army to go through 2 mountain tiles in a row costs 3 TURNS!!! This is a lot!
   Also
   Following on from terrain worries. Always remember when winter is coming. That’s the time we Hoburgers like to hibernate, or at least, not be stuck in mountains or deep forests. For winter time be on open planes, so that the winter movement penalty doesn't glue you to a tile for 2 turns!
   
3. You must FEAR AoE magic spells, and Fear units with multiple attacks or cone attacks. These guys can wreck your armies unless you have a huge amount of units. There are ways to deal with these units, but not in the early game! This means run away from lvl 2 casters in all of the good offensive magic schools (Necromancy, Solar magic and pyromancy, to name but a few) Remember, even weak AoE spells can 1 shot most of your units!
   
4. Always use trade to your best advantage. On Turn one, always buy weed, so you can get to 10 weed by turn 3 and convert your farm into a village as fast as possible! After that, buy Iron so you can quickly hire some Hoburg Crossbowmen (one of the best early/mid game units)! Later on, when you have a large income, always buy gems, and even buy them at overprice if you can afford it!
   
5. Use your horticulturalists when they come to you. Horti's are an essential part of the Hoburg army. Their “Farm animal” summoning spell is really good, because it gives you access to Giant ants which are very tanky units (22hp\& some armor!) that can really help you kill grey monsters, and even siege walls if you have enough of them.
   
6. In the late game, constructs are really *really* strong units. As I will argue below, I believe that constructs are some of the strongest units in the game, and are essential to small man victories in Elysium.
   

Visual progression guide

Here is a flowchart showing the three parts to progressing as a burmeister. In month one you will only have access to the Burgmeister himself, but within a few months you will usually get a horticulturalist for free. A few months after that, you should also get a horologist for free.

These three units form the core of your army, and are the key to growth. Each plays a separate but important role in the creation of your hoburg empire!

Note: Sometimes the horologist comes first, but usually the horti comes first.

Unit guide Pt.1 - Commanders

Burgman – These little guys are really useful. You should get offers for them quite regularly and they usually cost somewhere between 20-30 gold. It’s a really reasonable price, so as long as you have the cash for it, get them. The more armies you have, the better. And Having 2 or 3 commanders in an army allows you to split the army up if you need to take multiple tiles quickly. These guys are really nice for the price!

Burgmeister – He’s really tanky for a Hoburg, but he shouldn’t be used in combat. In the early game he’s your main guy for converting farms into Hoburg Villages! I recommend you take all your units, give them to him on turn one (maybe leave an xbowman or two at the base in case you get attacked) , and have him secure the immediate area. By turn 3 or 4 have him convert your farm to a village, then trade some iron, buy 15 xbowmen and venture further afeild. After the midgame he becomes less important but at first he is essential to your slow (yet fearless) expansion.

HORTIculturalist – You’ll get a horticulturalist for free quite early on in year 1. Just like your Burgmeister he can convert towns into hoburgh villages. This is a really strong feature. Once you’ve converted your starting farm your weed income should be around 9 or 10 weed per turn. This is enough to do a “farm animal summoning” every turn. This is great because it gives a front line for your little men to hide behind while they shoot their xbows ‘en masse’. Later on in the game, send them to Ancient forests to upgrade them where you can summon really powerful (but slow) Ents, and strong major animals summons (that arent as good as ents, but also are faster!)

HOROlogist – These guys are your bread and butter for the mid/late game. Whatever you do, don’t let him die early! If he dies you lose access to gem income gathering from mines etc. Keep him at your base, and always let him hide behind animals summoned by the horti, as well as Burgmen soldiers. To learn more about Horologists, I've given them their own section, which you can read about below!

Hogmeister – Wow! 3 movement! These guys can move so quickly! In the early game send them off solo as scouts. Scouting is really important for Burgmeister, so that your slower armies know where to go! Recruit them whenever you have the chance to, because you’ll need all the scouts you can get!
In the mid game, when you have extra iron, send them off with 10 hogknights and maybe some animals to take tiles that are hard to access for your smaller, slower friends. In the late game, you can pair them up with constructs to give you powerful armies with 3 (yes! Three!) movement!

Unit guide Pt. 2 - Recruitable units (ranked for your convenience)!

1. Hoburg Crossbows:
   Cost: 50g 5 Iron
   
   This is your best unit in the early game and the main workhorse of your army. Always have at minimum one full rank of xbowmen. Usually I venture out from my immediate starting place only after I’ve recruited one group of 15 xbowmen with my Burgmeister.
   
   With a range of 5, and dealing 1-4 damage (that’s 2 dmg on average) one recruitment of 15 archers can dish out 30 dmg per turn. Behind walls they are even more deadly and effective. You can kill grey units much earlier on compared to other armies, who need to be more careful. Xbwmen have only 2 hp and are really frail, but losing a few of them isn’t the end of the world. Just be aware of AoE magic spells and cone attacks from big monsters! Also NEVER field these guys when the opponent has a staff of chain lightning (try it..you'll learn a fast and hard lesson)! If you see these things, just avoid them until you get stronger units (constructs,ents, mages from magic libraries)!
   
   In my armies I usually allocate 2 whole ranks (that 40) of xbowmen, as a minimum. I don’t generally ever allocate more than 3 ranks (or 4 at maximum) because it’s more useful at that point to break the army up into two armies, and take more tiles like that. Also with a shooting range of 5, there’s no point allocating much more, as not all of your little guys will be able to shoot at the same time.
   
   
2. = Hoburg Soldiers
   Cost: 50g & 5 Iron
   
   You need a front line for your archers, and this is it. They get 1 armor and have a big shield that they can hide behind. This shield negates up to 3 dmg each time they get hit. Also, with 3hp, they are beefier than your crossbowmen. They deal 1-3 dmg, so they can;t do much work in the front, but they are surprisingly effective vs large unarmored monsters like bears. Always pair them up with crossbowmen!
   
   = Hog Knights
   Cost: 50g & 10 Iron
   
   These guys should be used separate from your Hoburg armies, to beef up your hogmeister. Even 5 of them are relatively strong and can clean out a decent amount of gray units. With 5 knights and a meister I’ve killed a group of 3 bears before, although it’s risky. They get a nice lance charge and two attacks, so they are strong for sure.
   
   You can include them in your main armies if you are forced to attack a very dangerous but lightly defended enemy army. Think attacking a pyomancer who has only 5-6 swordsmen as guards. In this situation the knights will kill the mage quickly, hopefully negating the huge amount of damage he’s capable of doing to your army.
   
   
3. Hoburg Pikeneers
   Cost 30g 5 Iron (for 10 units)
   
   These guys are useful recruits if you are low on gold but have a decent iron income. They can attack from the second row. That said, by the time you can afford them, it’s probable that they will no longer be essential. They have some utility, but they are much less important compared to your lines of xbowmen. They do the same dmg as xbowmen, but can only attack once the enemy has hit your front lines, so I don’t find myself using them that often.
   
   
4. Burgmeister Guards
   Cost: 40g & 10 Iron (for 10 units)
   
   As far as Burgmen go, these guys are the elite. They have a big shield, 2 armor and deal 1-4 damage. In the mid game, I like to recruit these guys instead of hoburg soldiers, because of the extra hp and armor. With 2 armor and a big shield, they can negate a lot of damage, so they are your optimum recruit able unit. That said, by the late game they are less effective.
   
   
5. =Hoburgh Slingers
   Cost: 50g
   
   If you have very big iron problems, these guys can be used instead of xbowmen in the very early game. Note they attack every turn, but their damage is so pitiful (1 dmg) that if the opponent has any armor at all they lose a lot of their effectiveness.
   
   = Hoburgh Militia
   Cost: 50g
   
   Again, they can be used in a pinch, but I don’t recommend it because they will die VERY quickly. Much better to summon animals with your horticulturalist, who can provide similar level of chaff at a much lower cost. Save your gold either for trade to buy iron, or to buy xbowmen/soldiers.
   
   
6. Hoburgh Defender
   Cost: 50g & 10 Iron
   
   They are like soldiers, but do 1 extra damage, at a cost of 5 extra iron. They do slash damage instead of pierce damage...but they have lower initiative, so they will probably die before they even get to attack. Not worth the extra iron, which is really needed by other units cough Xbowmen cough

Horticulturalist guide & units

Horticulturalist are cool little units that give you access to some low and mid level nature summons. They use weeds to make these summons. Weeds are found in Hoburg villages, (your main source) as well as in Ancient forests. Furthermore, much like the Burgmeister, they have the vital ability of converting farms into hoburg villages, which changes the income from 1g to 3g & 2 weed. If you are on a map with a lot of farms, when you convert them your gold and weed income will skyrocket, which leaves us with the question, "What should I do with my weed"?

The answer, is easy, we just need to explore the different lvl 1 and lvl 2 rituals available.

Level 1 rituals

Animal summoning:
10 weed cost (cast anywhere)

1 Bear
d5 Boars
d6 Deer
1 Moose
2d4 Rabbits
d3 Snakes
d4 Wolves


Farm Animal summoning:
10 weed cost (can only be cast on farms, or Hoburg villages)

d2 Giant Ants
3d4 Rabbits
d4+1 Snakes

As you can see here, for the level one rituals, the Farm animal summoning has lower variance, because you will get one out of 3 outcomes. I generally use this summoning much more than the Animal summoning, because the animal summoning, while it can be cast anywhere, doesn't have many useful creatures. Sure, you can get a big bear or a moose, but neither of them have armor, and both die very fast (usually their first battle)!

The best way to use farm animal summoning is to use the rabbits as early game fodder. If you really need to take a tile quickly, and don't have many front line troops, you can stick 20 rabbits into your army, who'se only role is to die while your xbowmen destroy the enemy.

The snakes are more useful, and should be used while sieging enemy forts. Because they can climb walls, they are sure to engage enemy archers in melee combat, which will stop them from firing on your little guys. Just be aware it takes 8+ turns before they engage the archers, because snakes usually like to travel via the sides of the battlefield.

The truly useful unit though, is the giant ant. With 22HP, wall climbing, an acid spray attack and some armor, these guys are really useful, especially in the early game. Always add some giant ants to your early and mid game army!


Level 2 rituals

To upgrade your horticulturalist to Level 3, and give him access to the level 2 rituals, you need to take him to an ancient forest and pay 150 weed for the upgrade, then he will get one of the following two spells.

Greater animal summoning:
50 weed cost

2d6 Bears
4d6 Boars
1 Great Boar
2d6 Moose
2d6 Serpents
2d8 Snakes
4d6 Wolves

This spell can actually be quite useful, if you need a line of mush to be sacrificed to the opponent while your constructs zap their army. If you can get 10 2x2 creatures (bears or moose), that will provide a decent buffer against the enemy army for a few turns. Also, these creatures aren't slow, so they can be pared up with human mages or Hogmeisters.


Summon Guardian of the Hoburgs:
100 weed cost

1 Ent

The ent has 310 hp and 2 armor. It is the ultimate tank. It also has 4 attacks but the are only d6. It has a vulnerability to fire damage, and with a magic resist of 9, which is quite high. Still, it is perfect on your front lines, to give the enemy something to attack while your diamond constructs nuke their back lines.
It's worth noting that, just like all of your small Hoburgers, these ents are slow, and you should keep this in mind when manoeuvering with them!

Early / mid game army composition

Month One Army


Here is how you should make your army on month one. There are a decent number of xbowmen, and all of your infantry are guarding them on the front line. These guys are pretty tough and can take a lot of different grey units. just be aware that before you recruit any xbowmen they won't have the offensive power to destroy larger grey armies. Keep this army near your base until you can get one round of xbow recruitment off

Springtime Army


By spring of year one you should have your xbowmen. Aahh, now we can venture further away and start taking some interesting tiles, like mines and farms! These xbowmen make all the difference!


Strong early game army.



Beef up your front lines with animal summonings from your horticulturalist, and a few rows of xbowmen. This army can clear a LOT of stuff. As long as they don't have AoE magic or cone attacks, you can attack pretty much anything. Even big units like cyclops don't stand a chance against you. And you can have this sort of army by year 2 if you play your trading right, and maybe manage to find a few farms and/or mines! After an army gets to this size, start to look to create a second, third and fourth army with a similar compositon!

Horologist Constuct Summoning guide

The horologist can summon using one of 4 different gems. Each different gem gives him a different summoning chance. Gems are found mainly on mine tiles, but also in the desert, in desert palaces, in the deep sea and in meteor craters. The horologist can only summon on forest tiles, and has a low chance of burning down the forest when he creates his constructs

There is one of 3 outcomes from each summoning gem, and each is outlined below, visually. If you get a horror you usually get the most units,(1d4 +1) if you get the soldier, is usually one fewer than the horror,(1d4)and if you get the gem specific construct, you always get one.

As far as I am aware the chance of getting either of the three outcomes is even, therefore should be around 33%

[previewimg=19844291;sizeFull,inline;Diamond_summon.png][previewimg=19844293;sizeFull,inline;Sapphire_summon.png][/previewimg][/previewimg

Unit guide Pt.3 - Horologist construct units (tiered for your convenience)!

Aaah, welcome to the mid/late game. Now you really get to shine. All of these constructs, ALL of them have immunity from most types of damage. That means you have 100% immunity from thunder, fire, frost, poison, charm and fear. The two types of attacks you need to avoid are pure magic attacks (undead banefire archers) and decay spells (Yes, undead banefire archers)! These constructs are all well armored, and all of the soldiers carry shields. Apart from the clockwork horrors, they are all very very good and useful. So without further ado, here are the best and most useful ones, ranked for your convenience!

'S' Tier
Diamond Clockwork solider

These units, when massed, and used correctly will strike fear into the hearts of any opponent. Each diamond construct deals 1-8 damage to a random unit. It has a range of 8! This means that a full line of them will do 20 attacks per turn. Every turn. At 4.5 dmg on average that's 90 dmg on the enemy army every turn. Furthermore, the lightning attack can stun enemy units! Although usually it wears off quickly, it's still notable. Not only that, if they get into melee combat (you don’t want them in the front line, but they shine there also) they can still do their ranged attack and additionally do a melee attack worth 1-6 slash damage. They are killing machines and you need them in your late game army!

'A' Tier
Sapphire Clockwork solder / Iron spider (sapphire lesser summoning)

These guys are useful in the early late game, when you don’t have a full line of diamonds to obliterate the enemy army. Their ability is a stun called paralyze which affects all sorts of different units. Unlike the diamond clockwork soldier's lightning stun, paralyze is MUCH more powerful. Any affected unit has to make a roll every turn with a 90% chance of failure When the enemy is coming forward, they can stun them, so that they are slowed down, and become fodder for your massed xbows / diamond clockwork soldiers. In the late late game they are less useful, and can be switched to smaller armies, or paired off with hogmeister units to travel quickly (read:3 movement) around the map.

The iron spider is also included here, because he can stun like the Sapphire soldiers, but again, he takes up less space on the battlefield. With a range of 5, it’s doing better than the ruby constructs, but not by much.

Emerald Clockwork Soldier / Emerald Scorpion (emerald lesser summoning)



The emerald Clockwork soldiers are VERY tanky. Instead of 15 hp, they get 25, and they have 4 armor instead of the usual 3. You want these guys on your front line in the late late game. The emerald scorpion performs the same role, but you only get one of them. Still, with 80HP, and taking up 2x2 of space, they provide an iron sheild, behind which your diamond clockwork soldiers can cast lightning death upon the battlefield.

Even though it looks like they are ranked underneath the sapphire constructs, these guys become more important than them in the late late game, because they are both the ideal tanks.

'B' Tier (still really good)!
Iron fly (diamond lesser summoning)

These flies perform the same role as the diamond clockwork soldier. They aren’t as good however, because you only get them one at a time, and they have less armor (2 instead of the diamond soldiers 3) even though they get 25hp. They do more damage though, 1-15, so they are nice. Also , they can fly, so on the rare occasion that you get a flying commander I suppose you could pair them with him?

Ruby Clockwork soldier / Iron ant (ruby lesser summoning)

All of these guys are very good. The ruby clockwork soldier sprays fire ahead of him. Unfortunately he only has a range of 4, although he does do a mini AoE attack. They are useful in the early late game, and very useful burning through massed low hp units (for example, other burgmeister armies!). But unlike the sapphire soldiers, they don’t stop the enemy from charging in and wrecking your stuff. Still very good, but not great.

The Iron ant is a concentrated version of the Ruby soldier, but he takes up less space on the battlefield and has more attacks.

'C' tier (or, please why couldn’t I have any of the other things)

Diamond / Sapphire / Emerald / Ruby clockwork horrors

All of these units are ok. You usually get 1-5 of them per summon. They are battle fast, and get two 1-5dmg attacks per turn, so they are not weak units by any means. They don’t really belong in your main army, so I like to pair them up with hogmeister scouts. They are still ok units, but when you spend 20 gems, you want something with a bit more power. You’ll be getting quite a few of these things, so find a way to put them to good use.


'D' or “It’s a trap” Tier


Diamond / Sapphire / Emerald / Ruby Dragon




Don't get me wrong! All of these four dragons are very VERY strong units. They can easily wreck whole armies. The problem comes in their high cost. In a multiplayer game I recommend NEVER going for them, as the price is 90 + 150 gems minimum. With 240 gems you can get a lot of clockwork soldiers, (12 summons to be exact) who are as a combined force stronger than the dragons. And if the horologist who you upgraded dies, you lose your investment!

Notably, the emerald iron dragon has 300hp and 4 armor. That is insane. But if he gets decay cast on him, he will fall, just like the rest!

Late game army compositions

There are two choices late game. Either armies with 2 action points, or armies with 3. The good news is, all of your constructs have 3 AP, so they can (eventually) be paired up with a human commander. The bad news is, you won't be getting consistent offers for human mages from magic libraries, so there is a lot of luck involved. In the event where you can't use a human mage, a Hogmeister is an acceptable substitute, because they still have 3 AP. They are not ideal however, because they position themselves near the front, which means they tend to die in big battles.

Ideal 3AP late game army would be:

Front row	second row	Third row	4th row+
10x Iron scorpion	20x sapphire construct	20x diamond construct	20x diamond construct
20x emerald construct	15x sapphire construct+5 iron spider	15x Diamond construct + 5 Iron flies	15x Diamond construct + 5 Iron flies
10x bears/moose (fodder row)	20x emerald construct	15x Diamond construct + 5 Iron flies	15x Diamond construct + 5 Iron flies

The first two armies have similar costs, and the 3rd army is noticably cheaper, as it doesn't have the stun machine sapphire constructs in it.

If you want to add fodder at the front, I would recommend adding a full 2x2 row of either bears or moose. This will allow your diamond constructs (who have a range of 8) to focus their fire on a more concentrated target. To explain this mechanic a bit more. Imagine if the enemy has a 5 row army. Because your diamond constructs choose a target randomly, and have a range of 8, they could target any unit in the enemy army. Also, with a damage of d8, it's likely that they will hit, but not kill an enemy unit. However, if they diamond constructs are behind 5 or 6 rows of allied shielding units, it means they have to focus their fire on only 2 rows of the enemy army, thus increasing the odds of hitting the same unit multiple times. Remember: the more units the enemy has, the harder it is for your constructs to focus their fire. That's why when the enemy starts to lose units, it increases the effectiveness of your constructs. The goal here is to kill units as quickly as possible!

2AP late game armies (rely heavily on Ents)

Front row	second row	Third row
6x ent	20x diamond construc	20x diamond construct

This army has a MUCH lower gem cost compared to the 3AP armies listed above, but it loses movement. The kill power is actually similar to the armies above, but your ents will die reasonably quickly. Even with 310 hp, they are durable but not invincible. Still, they take up 3 rows, which will focus the fire of your diamond constructs reasonably well.

Question: Where are all the Hoburghs?

In the late game, the effectiveness of xbowmen drops off significantly. Also the speed at which normal Hoburg commanders can move just doesn't cut it. The late game is all about constructs. You should keep using Hoburgers, because you will have an excess of cash, but they should be used as a support role, in supporting armies - maybe to obscure the movements of your main army, or to clear and take tiles full of grey units. Either way, most of the time, adding Hoburgers to the armies doesn't help, and may actually hinder, if you have mages who have spells with a range of 5, and they can't cast past multiple ranks of xbowmen. There is no perfect army, but keep testing and trying different mixes to see how all of the units work together.

How to get fast(er) armies

Burgmeister armies have 2 Action Points (AP). This means they move slower than almost every other side in the game! However, by the mid/late game, with some luck you should be able to form some 3AP armies. How is this done? By getting 3AP commanders and pairing them with your constructs and summoned animals.

The easiest way to get 3AP commanders is to take over magic libraries and then keep money in the bank waiting for random human wizard offers. I believe that each 'book' you own gives you a 2% chance of an offer each turn. With a magic library that is +4% for an offer each turn, Taking a city also gives one book, so as you expand your chances of getting offers for human commanders expands. Once you have the commander, take him to your constructs, and give him command and VOILA, you have a 3AP army.

The other way is to find an item that gives extra AP or the 'fast' ability to your horologist. It's best used on the horolgist, because not only will he be able to move more each turn, but he will also be able to perform more rituals/summons each turn

You'll be surprised at how strong and versatile a 3AP army with only 10 constructs is. They can usually wipe a much larger army, and once you know how to synergise the mages and constructs things get even better!

[Sanctus57]

Really enjoyed the guide, thank you

[Curious]

Absolutely amazing guide!