lvl 11 Paladin: Which units?

[eXeel]

I try to be a paladin mage, focus on that. I love ranged, but need a few melee too.
At the moment I have:

• 30 Evil Beholders, those from the Swamp. Great for dpsing and wasting an enemy stack's turn.
• 29 Mages. Those who can make shield, double damage and move a stack one cell. Great dps.
• 1200 peasants. Great dps, though slow. Easy to get. Cheap. Did I mention great dps?!
• 55 Inquisitors. Hard to get, can't by them anywhere, so I need 3 mind runes to get the talent, so I can turn priests into these. Then I'm set! Great dps and love the ress.
• 57 swordsman, or what the improved version is called. Not the footmen/swordsmen you get at first, but the ones after. I can't get them anywhere anymore, though! So in trouble with these.

I am happy about the first 4, the swordsman I would like to replace. But can't get enough Knights, and the Horsemen are too few too. And 4 ranged might be overkill. What do you suggest? Needs to be easy to get to and plenty of them! And then they need to do good dps or at least take a beating and have nice skills.

I'm on the Eastern and Western islands, trying to find my way into the mines and the hiding of that fellow, to continue the story.
Thanks

[Stardust]

First one that comes to my mind is Shaman, definitely and excellent unit in both range and close combat (totems rock!). You can get them in the Orc castle near where you first arrive at Freedom Isle however you have to beat a pretty tough army before you can recruit Shaman (they are heavily melee based so your current army might suffer some casualties).
If for some reason you don't like Shaman try Sea Dog or Devilfish, there should be plenty of supplies for them in the area. Sea Dogs are decent melee for their LDR and the ability to attack multiple units. Devilfish will need a bless from your Inquisitor and they will swallow anything blocking their path (and great initiative/speed too).

Good luck.

[Zonc]

You have Tolerance (or get one) so buy Vampires (from swamp, undead dwarf, Death Land or anwhere else) and you'll never loose single one.
Also, Archimages have shitty leadership/damage ratio so replace them ASAP (sea dogs are always good choice)

[megajon]

without knowing what you have available to you, it's kinda hard to make a suggestion like this.

I think your melee units are your weak link..

I say peasants -> (royal snakes/griffins)
and swordsmen -> (griffins/polar bears) or (dwarven canoneers/alchemists) if ya wanna beef your ranged more.


I disagree with losing mages this early myself... thier shock ability is so good at tripping up the fast moving big stacks early... I would only replace them once you have blind or a high lvl slow spell.

[megajon]

If you have made it to the Orcish embassy tho, definately pick up shaman, they are so very strong at this stage of the game.

[eXeel]

I hired 30 Shaman instead of the Guardsmen, which they were called. They have great hp and I like them as of yet.
The peasants I can try to upgrade to Griffins, when I finish the quest for the Griff kilt. Can't buy them while doing that, weirdly enough. But I really love how much dps the peasants can do. Yes, they die quickly when all focus is on them from a strong enemy, but what doesn't? Easily replaceable... But can try to check dps vs griffins or snakes and see.

[megajon]

the problem with peasants is, they have no mobility, initiative, or abilities that make for a good striker. I definately recomend snakes over them... the no retaliation coupled with high initiative make them an excellent defensively minded offinsive unit.

you can often times, wait, then double attack a unit that walks into range before that unit will get a single action... if it aint already wiped out... all of this while never recieving any retalitory swings.

[Dabrinko]

Peasants... good for a time, but Griffins is actually more survivable and the DPS shines through when you have unlimited retaliations. (and very high HP/leadership)

[eXeel]

So what is it, Griffins or Royal Snakes? Griffins more mobile but defensive (unl. ret.) and Snakes more of a offensive unit (no enemy ret.)?

What would you get with my current lineup of Shaman, Inquisitors, Arch Mages and Evil Beholders?

[jwallstone]

Personally, that's a tough choice. They are both great units. RS are better at damage dealing, but Griffins have higher hit points than leadership, one of the few units to have that. Griffins are one tough cookie overall. Both have 10% physical resistance, while snakes have 80% poison and griffins have 20% magical, and both are useful, but magic attacks are more common.

I loved and used royal snakes all though the Western and Eastern Islands. They worked great for taking down enemies in these areas, where it was a lot easier to control the battles and take no losses. Once I got to Kordar (Creiston mines onward) I started experimenting with Griffins. The enemy stacks started getting much more dangerous, in the sense that there were many more ranged units or units with special abilities that I wanted to neutralize right away. Griffins are much better for this task, as the increased mobility and ability to split stacks really helps. Royal Snakes simply can't reach the enemies fast enough, unless I use phantom, but that uses up my spell use for the turn (I'm a warrior). I can throw Griffins into the midst of enemies, combined with magic shield from the archmages, bless from the inquisitors to really increase their damage (they have a big range, 5-10), and the unlimited retaliations means that they really dish out same major damage. Resurrect at the end (or time back when you have it) and you can get no losses. Shamans' totems and Lina's Ice ball are also great distractions to take some of the heat off the Griffins.

So in summary, in Kordar, I'm finding greater need to take the fight to the enemy in battle, rather than strategically waiting to engage melee units in the middle or on my side of the battle map. For this role, Griffins are better. But Royal Snakes are probably better in the Isles of Freedom, where there seem to be more large stacks of simple melee units (pirates, devilfish, etc), and Royal Snakes can really take down these types.