Warlords - units

Hi folks!

Let's take a bit of a closer look at the unit classes in Warlords, after the general free-to-play overview the other day. I quite enjoy turn-based games, so I'm having some fun with this one.

Guardians

Slow, close combat class. High health and armour ratings. They get a damage bonus against Pikes and Archers. Move three fields, one field range. Their passive perk prevents any adjacent enemy unit from moving more than one field past them. The active perk is a "last stand" attack, that deals damage according to damage taken so far by the Guardians.

These folks are frontline fighters. Get them in range quickly, to create choke points, allowing your ranged units to rain down hell on the enemy. Weak against Cavalry and Mages. Good to position in a forest (-50% damage taken), or town (30% damage healed per round). 

In a desperate battle, try to get them into a town, especially if both enemy positional perks (Cavalry push and Pikes seize position) are exhausted. The town will continuously heal the Guardians, and you can deal huge damage once when they're low on health. This way, you can hold out against, and wear down a much larger enemy force, and eventually win, even with just this one unit.

When fighting Guardians, always make sure to kill them entirely in one turn, or you'll get the "last stand" damage next round, which is hugely annoying. Best way to deal with them is to pry them into the open via Cavalry or Pikes, and then hit them with everything else.

Archers

My favourite unit. They have the longest range in the game - three fields movement, three fields ranged attack, plus one field on the area-of-effect "rain of fire" perk. This means they can usually attack across almost the whole battlefield in the first, crucial turn. Their health and armour is decent, direct damage is huge, and they get the class bonus against the pesky Mages.

Generally, try to position them in a defended (forest) or high-ground (+50% damage output) position, such that they can't be reached by enemy close range units. Guardians are their natural pair, since they prevent breakthroughs with their passive perk.

The Archers' active perk allows to create a three-by-three area of fire for three turns, which deals 25% of base damage each turn, and slows all enemy units to one field per turn. Against lower-class enemies, this can wipe out their entire army in one turn, and with high enough archer damage, it even hits stronger ones pretty badly.

More importantly, you can effectively block off certain areas of the battlefield, again creating chokepoints, or allowing enemies to be dealt with piecemeal.

My usual tactics is to position them in a safe (unreachable or defended) location in the first attacking turn, and take out the enemy Archers, or Mages, if they're unusually strong. Guardians, Pikes and Cavalry hold the line, and in the subsequent turns, the Archers obliterate one enemy after the other.

Be careful if they get caught at close range, as they'll no longer be able to use ranged attacks, unless you can move them away.

Archers are definitely worth having a good second unit of, although it took me bloody ages to get there (and then I got two subsequently).

Pikes

Pikes are decent front-line fighters, with the same range/movement as Guardians. They get a class bonus against Cavalry, and a defence & damage bonus when operating in closed ranks (adjacent to friendly units).

Their most powerful weapon is their active perk, "seize position". This one-off attack allows them to swap positions with an enemy unit before attacking. This is hugely annoying, when employed against you - have a cavalry unit on a forested hilltop, giving them +50% on damage and defence? Pikes go to into the swamp next to it (+50% damage taken), swap out with your cavalry, and you're hit with double damage + class bonus - and they sit in your nice, defensible spot for the next turn. Urgh.

Of course, you can use it the same way yourself, prying enemy units out of their frontline positions, shoving them into range of your own line (or into a swamp) and having them obliterated.

Cavalry

Cavalry units are the fastest movers - they have a natural move range of four fields, and their passive perk allows them to move an additional field at the cost of 50% damage reduction that turn. Cavalry gets a class bonus against Guardians. Their active perk is somewhat similar to the Pikes', but less useful - where Pikes can swap positions pre-attack, Cavalry can push an enemy unit out of their position post-attack, but only if the field to push into is unoccupied.

Cavalry is very useful at pushing through enemy lines early on, and getting a first strike against soft targets. The downside is that they'll be pretty much unsupported the next turn, and have the rest of the enemy line crush them, so be careful with those rushes.

I usually use them to either get a good shot at Archers or Mages, if they're in reach, or to defend in front of my own Archers, allowing them to get as close as possible to the enemy lines, and take a shot at their ranged units.

Mages

Lastly, we have spellcasters. They naturally are the weakest in close quarters combat, and their range of only two fields means they've got to get dangerously close to enemy positions to take a shot. This often means holding them back in the first attack, if you can't position them in a way that they won't be wiped out the next.

Their natural friends are the Guardians, since their battlefield control allows them closer to enemy positions. But their main weapon is their active perk: An area-of-effect spell with a range of two fields around their current position. It charges up at 25% damage per turn, so usually not something you want to use in the first attack anyway - but once it's ready, powerful Mages can wipe out most parts of the enemy army in one go, or at least do some serious damage.

Which is why I usually target enemy Mages early on.


That's it for the unit overview. Next time, we'll have a look at the upgrade system, and some more strategies of how to have fun without spending much real-world money.