Army composition and Eagles

[jiji]

Had the game for a week
and played the human campaign twice through.
Great game.

I'd say eagles are one of the most important units
in the human army.
Build 'em up quickly as soon as you can have 'em.

Movement in FW is a key ability,
due to lots of difficult terrain like rivers and forests
and several scenarios where you have to cross the map
with your army as quickly as possible.
Eagles simply ignore all this stuff and rule the skies.
Your heavily armoured foot knight tanks
simply never get to see a fight
as they trudge over snow-covered hills
and take days to wade across streams
and still haven't reached level five by the final scenario.

Eagles scout far better than any other unit,
cos they can fly over water, move further
and can ignore most ground forces, unlike rangers.

Finishing off wounded units before they get a chance to recover
is a vital tactic if you don't have the time to kill everything twice
and eagles can swoop in from six hexes away.
They can also hurt anybody who's foolish enough to finish their turn in a river.

The Air support defence is powerful, maybe a bit too much,
a free hit at the enemy which always kills one or two,
and even affects enemy skirmishers(?)
who would otherwise attack non-skirmishers with impunity.

The fact they can get knocked down to 1hp,
and then bounce back one turn later at full strength,
ready to go accumulate xp again,
is far superior to the knackered normal units who only recover wounded and not the dead if resting in a scenario.

Buff them up with segmented movement at 2nd level
so they can scout a bit and pop back for a bit of air support if needed
or if they run into a goblin archer trap.
Also choose the air combat options,
so that any pteranodon or zeppelin gets creamed 1-to-1.
Once you get to level five, you are very tough, +5 to all scores, remember.

Building up eagles' experience early on is easier than any other unit
as you get experience for any combat,
no matter how dumb,
and with such mobility, eagles can usually attack someone.
You get injured, you fly away, not a waste of time
as you got 5-10xp for it.

I have two eagles as soon as possible
and have even found a use for three.

One ballista, with the long range perk, is also very useful
in nearly every scenario, if not essential.
Spearmen aren't essential, but with all the mobility perks,
they do well on the bigger maps and are fun.
Light Cavalry seem to offer nothing worth their inclusion
at the expense of another unit.

That's my experience so far.
Now to try the human campaign with just light cavalry,
catapults and feudal knights...