Helpful (learned) tips on how to get gold victories. (Part 3)

[DorianGray]

10. Unit force pool experiences. Following is the unit pool breakdown (from a human perspective) that I have found to be the most effective in almost every scenarios.

a. Deploy all heros. (rather obvious)
b. 1-2 Scouts/Rangers. These guys are a *must* have and you need 1 per axis of advance.
c. 2-3 Archers / Crossbowmen. A *must* have as well. Be aware of the differences of Archers / Crossbowmen and how their *perks* differ as they level. I found myself using 1-2 Archers and 1 Crossbowman.
d. 1-2 Heavy Infantry. You need someone to shield your archers as you push forward. I personally preferred the pikeman.
e. 0-1 Lt Cav. I really like these guys, but remember to not treat them the same as your scouts/rangers as they don't fight nearly as well in wooded terrain.
f. 0-1 War Machine (Ballista/Catapult). I never used the catapult and relied on the ballista as it was the 1st free War Machine given. As it levels, it gets some very nice perks to include one for long range (range 4!) and monster/hero/war machine slaying (which is very nice). These guys can bring down those pesky trolls without breaking a sweat.
g. 0-1 Hvy Cav. I have a love/hate relationship with heavy cav as they are sooo situational... and when the situation arises when you need them, they need to be at the right spot to be useful. Typically only useful in clear and should not be used to defend or hold anything. I kept one around because I liked the idea of having one around, but I found it not really doing much most of the time.
h. 0-1 Lt Infantry. Overall a good unit, especially for all that forest that is in the game. Good mobility is also nice. I prefer to deploy 2 rangers before I get around to 1 Lt Infantry, so I did not use them much in the scenarios that only allowed limited number of units.
i. 1-2 Fliers. Need control of the skies in order to crack most defense positions. Good coordination between archers / fliers is important to quickly bring down enemy air units. They also serve as defensive support, which is a nice boon. For the humans, I found the non-bombers more versatile as they could be used in both air superiority or ground support roles. After you get a couple of levels, they could be very effective ground support and can decimate an enemy caught on a river quite nicely.

[MisterBarca]

Originally Posted by DorianGray

c. 2-3 Archers / Crossbowmen. A *must* have as well. Be aware of the differences of Archers / Crossbowmen and how their *perks* differ as they level. I found myself using 1-2 Archers and 1 Crossbowman.
d. 1-2 Heavy Infantry. You need someone to shield your archers as you push forward. I personally preferred the pikeman.
e. 0-1 Lt Cav. I really like these guys, but remember to not treat them the same as your scouts/rangers as they don't fight nearly as well in wooded terrain.
f. 0-1 War Machine (Ballista/Catapult). I never used the catapult and relied on the ballista as it was the 1st free War Machine given. As it levels, it gets some very nice perks to include one for long range (range 4!) and monster/hero/war machine slaying (which is very nice). These guys can bring down those pesky trolls without breaking a sweat.

A few comments:

1. I find Crossbowmen line far inferior to the Archer line, because of the multiple support shots the upgraded Archers get. I never build any Crossbowmen.

2. Could you elaborate on why you prefer Pikemen over Foot Knights? I prefer the latter's defense, as heavy infantry is meant to be a meat shield.

3. Light cavalry sucks, and I've yet to find use for them that cannot be done by another sturdier unit.

4. I no longer build war machines, because they need too much baby sitting, due to their defensive vulnerabilities.

[Kaerius]

Crossbowmen get the slayer perk, so are good for taking down monsters, warmachines, and especially flyers, I like having one to take down the goblin zeppelins in one shot.

Pikemen(and by that I assume you mean halbardiers/royal guards) are superior defensive troops because they deny your opponents units the charge bonus when attacking them, foot knights are more vulnerable to orcish riders, madz, etc charges.

Incidentally, if you can manage to do it, getting peasants to level 5 before upgrading them makes them better light/heavy infantry. Such a leveled unit of light infantry has as good stats as heavy infantry, but is much faster... however it does lack the charge protection. Makes awesome pikemen too. You can customize very much to your liking too(choices like various terrain bonuses, universal +1 def, segmented movement, ford seekers(always!), etc), and the fifth perk, the whole reason for leveling them to 5, should be people's rage(which gives -1 def +5 melee, this is like pikement with mail armour, darenhalle blades and heavy halberds, all in one!).

And I like light cav... just make sure to make them trail seekers on lvl 3 and ford seekers on lvl 5. They have superior movement compared to scouts, making it easier to hit and run with them, and generally move around... they're weaker though, both offensively and defensively, and they aren't invis...

I also use both my freebee warmachines, as they end up quite powerful, sure they do need babysitting, but I find that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. I don't use them every mission(I skip them when the terrain is unsuitable), but often enough. In any case they're miles better than the orc warmachines due to superior movement, so I only use the one spear chukka... I don't use the alliance warmachine at all, as elvish archers are so much better(they get range 3 AND slayer).

[gecko_tq]

Several comments on my own:

For Human side

1. Personally for me, I only used 1 ranger. Ranger is used mainly for e harassing effect and ambush as well as scouting. I don't really find it efficient in destroying e opponent army in 1 attack, unless using e terrain advantage

2. Heavy infantry. Foot Knight is obviously much better for defending and attacking city as well as soaking more damage (unless against armour piercing or charge). Halberdier, for me, is more of counter against cavalry as well armour piercing

3. Archer has superior damage against non-armour units, but crossbowman is vastly superior against these units. With slayer perks, crossbowman's use is vastly improved. Personally i prefer crossbowman but archer is good in difficult terrain and forests.

4. Light cavalry is useless. It can only poke lighty and scout

5. Heavy cavalry, is hand down. the best unit in e human arsenal if deployed correctly. They possesed various perks that improve their stats considerably as well as having armour piercing. They can easily destroy any opponents more efficiently than others. Of course, there is a catch. They are effective only in plains. So ,my usual strategy is to use ranger or ranged units to chase e opponent out of the difficult terrain and let heavy cavalry finish them off.

5. Light infantry. I don't really use this unit that much. I prefer to use air to handle units in difficult terrain as well as using warmachines (ballista with superior range)

My build usually emphasise on armour piercing because armoured units are hard to kill without armour piercing. I do restrict my damage against normal units as well as has terrain limitation. Agains AI my strategy works incredibly well but agains human it may not be so.

For orc, i prefer 2 orc mights, 2 rider, 2 sharp eyes, 1 zeppelin,1 pterodactyl, 1 war machine, 1 or 2 wolf raider, and heroes.

Generally i found that orc campaign is much easier than human due to a more balanced, IMO, heroes than human as well as smaller units size

[claudio6921]

Originally Posted by DorianGray

10. Unit force pool experiences. Following is the unit pool breakdown (from a human perspective) that I have found to be the most effective in almost every scenarios.

a. Deploy all heros. (rather obvious)
b. 1-2 Scouts/Rangers. These guys are a *must* have and you need 1 per axis of advance.
c. 2-3 Archers / Crossbowmen. A *must* have as well. Be aware of the differences of Archers / Crossbowmen and how their *perks* differ as they level. I found myself using 1-2 Archers and 1 Crossbowman.
d. 1-2 Heavy Infantry. You need someone to shield your archers as you push forward. I personally preferred the pikeman.

- 3 Heavy Infantry. I use them mainly for taking urban exes.

e. 0-1 Lt Cav. I really like these guys, but remember to not treat them the same as your scouts/rangers as they don't fight nearly as well in wooded terrain.

- i found no use on them.

f. 0-1 War Machine (Ballista/Catapult). I never used the catapult and relied on the ballista as it was the 1st free War Machine given. As it levels, it gets some very nice perks to include one for long range (range 4!) and monster/hero/war machine slaying (which is very nice). These guys can bring down those pesky trolls without breaking a sweat.

- i love machines. I finished the campaign with 3 catapult/ballista.

g. 0-1 Hvy Cav. I have a love/hate relationship with heavy cav as they are sooo situational... and when the situation arises when you need them, they need to be at the right spot to be useful. Typically only useful in clear and should not be used to defend or hold anything. I kept one around because I liked the idea of having one around, but I found it not really doing much most of the time.

- never used, only th amin hero.

h. 0-1 Lt Infantry. Overall a good unit, especially for all that forest that is in the game. Good mobility is also nice. I prefer to deploy 2 rangers before I get around to 1 Lt Infantry, so I did not use them much in the scenarios that only allowed limited number of units.

- no use.

i. 1-2 Fliers. Need control of the skies in order to crack most defense positions. Good coordination between archers / fliers is important to quickly bring down enemy air units. They also serve as defensive support, which is a nice boon. For the humans, I found the non-bombers more versatile as they could be used in both air superiority or ground support roles. After you get a couple of levels, they could be very effective ground support and can decimate an enemy caught on a river quite nicely.

- used 4 fighter, 2 bomber; simply put, they too good!

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