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| Thread: Basic Tactical Strategies | |
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InfernoX880
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted January 09, 2008 10:36 PM |
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Basic Tactical Strategies
Welcome to part 2 of my guide. For those of you unfamiliar, the first of my guides discussed general strtagies for playing the game on Heroic mode, and thus applied to every level of difficulty (I would think). In this guide, I will discuss actual combat techniques that can be used to help aid you in victory.
Firstly, I would like to make a few things clear about threat levels. There are currently five threat levels, though few people understand exactly how they work. Here is the rundown:
Low: a guaranteed victory. Possible casualties if your opponent has high initiative or if you can't reach archers fast enough.
Moderate: an easy victory in most cases. Usually involves greater casualties than Low threat level and often does not involve casualties at all.
Challenging: varies. Can be anywhere from as easy as a Moderate threat level to very difficult. Usually means victory, bu will require skill and plenty of thought to avoid casualties.
High: victories are rare, and if they occur, you are expected to suffer casualties. However because the game does not acknowledge hero spells in considering threat level, a skilled wizard could manipulate creatures or cast powerful destructive spells to win without casualties. A Knight or might hero is less likely to win in High threat levels.
Deadly: can be won if you are very good at tactics and if your hero has spells that can manipulate enemy units or can cast high level damaging spells. Usually a loss though.
In creeping, Low and Moderate theat levels should be attacked as soon as possible, Challenging should be put off, but only if there are lower threat levels on the map.
Against AI, anything up to Challenging is possible, and Challenging means you are generally on par with your enemy. High and Deadly threat levels are migh-impossible to win against an AI who can also cast spells and boost morale etc.
Now then, moving into tactics. Not all tactics will be discussed here, as there are plenty, but there are some general formations you ought to know.
Haven
Formation 1: Shield and Sword
This formation will involve you blocking of your ranged units while leaving your Tier 6 and 7 units ready to kill. Very useful if you enemy does not have creatures with "Breath" attacks.
As you can see, the archers are safe from most attacks. The Squire (3) will protect a total of four units with his "Shield Other" ability. This makes your Crossbowmen resistant to arrows as well. If your hero does not know Cleansing, however, this may fail since if one unit is "Puppet Mastered", much of it goes to waste. Still, both Paladins and Angels are ready to go wherever almost instantly.
Formation 2: Hiding the Archers
If you haven't realized, a key point in all formations is to protect archers. This will come up repeatedly so make a note of that.
[7][7][ ][4][4][1][6][6][3][ ]
[7][7][2][4][4][5][6][6][*][ ]
Suggestions:
All same
Here the Crossbowmen are safe from Large Creatures until you move. The * is an alternate location for the Tier 5 creature, either will work. Both Tier 1 and 3 are in the front lines, but this is not too good since they are both quite slow. Mass Haste wil excel this strategy greatly.
Inferno
Formation 1: Quick Attack
This formation will involve positioning units in such a way that can quickly destory enemies. It will rely on the Intitiative of units and their Speed to get the first attack.
[1][6][6][5][5][3][2][ ][7][7]
[4][6][6][5][5][ ][ ][ ][7][7]
Suggested Creatures:
1 - Either
2 - Horned Leapers
3 - Firebreathers
4 - Infernal Succubus
5 - Nightmares
6 - Pit Spawns
7 - Archdevils
The Tier 1s should make their way to the enemy along the edge of the battlefield. Both Tier 5 and 3 are positioned in such a way that at least one of them is bound to get an attack in. The Archdevil has a chance of getting a quick attack, but you will need a speed modifier. Pit Spawns are in a place that makes them useless until the later part of the fight, so they are not quick attackers. Instead, they make way for the quicker units, and then follow them up. A constant pressure against the enemey makes the Infernal Succubus seem nonexistant, expecially if there is an obstacle making it even harder for your opponent to break through. Leapers ought to do what Leapers do best...leap.
That's really it for Inferno. If you have Tactics ability, move all the quick attacks (Tiers 3, 5 and 7) up to the front lines instead.
Sylvan
Formation 1: Devastate and Deal
All Sylvan battles have one thing in common; they use the powerful Archers to their utmost advantage. This first strategy is a little destructive, but effective nonetheless.
[1][5][5][ ][7][7][2][ ][6][6]
[3][5][5][4][7][7][ ][ ][6][6]
Suggested Creatures:
1 - Driads
2 - Either
3 - Either (Arcane Archers are probably the better pick)
4 - Either
5 - War Unicorns
6 - Ancient Treants
7 - Crystal Dragon
With the above, you will keep both your ranged units somewhat safe from magic, with magic resistance provided by your nearby Unicorn friends. The Ancient Treants should spend their entire battles Taking Roots, they are not too effective in this situation. The Crystal Dragons are centered and hopefully you can use their ability to dish out huge damage against enemy archers. Likewise with the Tier 2 you have chosen within a few turns. The Driads will be like the Imps, sneaking up slowly then dealing damage. They are better conserved so as to heal the Treants and themselves should the need come. If your Crystal Dragons deal a powerful early blow, which will be followed by your Archers' strike, your enemy will be crippled. The Unicorns should be a semi-defensive unit, attacking anything that comes to their sight but not marching towards the enemy themselves.
This guide is still incomplete. It will be expanded upon over the next few days.
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Moonlith
Bad-mannered
Supreme Hero
If all else fails, use Fiyah!
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posted January 10, 2008 12:47 PM |
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Edited by Moonlith at 12:48, 10 Jan 2008.
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First of all, nice start! 
I'd like to comment on a few things.
Quote:
Inferno
Formation 1: Quick Attack
This formation will involve positioning units in such a way that can quickly destory enemies. It will rely on the Intitiative of units and their Speed to get the first attack.
[1][6][6][5][5][3][2][ ][7][7]
[4][6][6][5][5][ ][ ][ ][7][7]
I would favour spreading out the nightmares and Cerberi a bit so they cover at least 1 more field that can be reached. This way, you only cover 5 fields if you have no ways to amplify your devils' speed:
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][x][x][x][x][x][ ][ ][ ]
| | |
| | |
[1][6][6][5][5][3][2][ ][7][7]
[4][6][6][5][5][ ][ ][ ][7][7]
I would favour something like this:
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][x][x][x][x][x][x][ ][ ]
| | |
| | |
[1][6][6][5][5][2][3][ ][7][7]
[4][6][6][5][5][ ][ ][ ][7][7]
Or even this:
[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]
[ ][ ][x][x][x][x][x][x][x][ ]
| | |
| | |
[1][6][6][5][5][ ][2][3][7][7]
[4][6][6][5][5][ ][ ][ ][7][7]
Of course you can argue how many fields you need to cover, I just like to keep as much options open as possible. The only bad side is that your cerberi and nightmares can't attack the same target in the latter situation unless it is a large one.
Also I would favour keeping my cerberi a bit along the edges of the battlefield. Creatures who run in the open are extremely vulnerable as they can be reached by any enemy creatures, while those that sneak along the battlefield edges can only be targetted by a select few enemy creatures.
Additionally, you could sick your devils after your cerberi to try and keep them a bit covered, especially from large creatures.
Quote:
Sylvan
Formation 1: Devastate and Deal
All Sylvan battles have one thing in common; they use the powerful Archers to their utmost advantage. This first strategy is a little destructive, but effective nonetheless.
[1][5][5][ ][7][7][2][ ][6][6]
[3][5][5][4][7][7][ ][ ][6][6]
The treants are given a useless role here while you could easily utilize them better.
[1][5][5][ ][6][6][2][ ][7][7]
[3][5][5][4][6][6][ ][ ][7][7]
In this formation, you could move your treants in front of the unicorns, bunkering your archers up even more.
Additionally, I like to send them forward even, and yes, attack. Especially strong tier 7 or 6 troops. When entangled, that provides your unicorns with a few extra rounds of suffering less damage, thus allowing your archers to deal more damage. Meanwhile, your dragons can try to whack enemy archers if yours are outnumbered, or kill whatever the treants entangle. Fact is, if you can entangle strong enemy creatures, they have no choice BUT to attack your treants. More rounds for your archers seem more valuable to me than those last extra rounds that your treants stand in their corner, all alone and useless.
This is defensive play, of course 
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forest001
Known Hero
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posted January 10, 2008 03:12 PM |
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Quote:
Sylvan
Formation 1: Devastate and Deal
All Sylvan battles have one thing in common; they use the powerful Archers to their utmost advantage. This first strategy is a little destructive, but effective nonetheless.
[1][5][5][ ][7][7][2][ ][6][6]
[3][5][5][4][7][7][ ][ ][6][6]
for me t depends on my oponent.
if i need this magic resistance i prefer to split unicorns in two stacks
and put it like this
[5][5][1][5][5][7][7][2?][6][6]
[5][5][3][5][5][7][7][2?][6][6]
and no way to leave treants to pointless defend of nothing
they are fantastic in tackling enemy attackers.
also in this configuration you your archers gains 60%!!! magic resistance. the unicorns on the left from archers are usually smaller in numbers, when those on right still can run to attack.
if i face non magic faction i choose something like this
[1][6][6][2][7][7][ ][5][5][ ]
[3][6][6][4][7][7][ ][5][5][ ]
but if you know that enemy can't reach yours archers before treants gets move this is better
[ ][ ][6][6][7][7][2][5][5][1]
[3][4][6][6][7][7][ ][5][5][ ]
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InfernoX880
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted January 10, 2008 10:00 PM |
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I'll make a note of that and eventually will replace the boring brackets with screenshots.
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forest001
Known Hero
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posted January 11, 2008 02:03 PM |
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Quote:
I'll make a note of that and eventually will replace the boring brackets with screenshots.
will be nice to do also separate strategies with tactics, it changes a lot.
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DKnight
Adventuring Hero
in Bloodhunting session
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posted January 11, 2008 09:17 PM |
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Well dude if u continue posting guides like that you'll become a promising hero quite soon
____________
#666 WoG fan
I love orc pwnage.
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InfernoX880
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted January 11, 2008 10:19 PM |
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@forest
Sorry, didn't see your post. There will also be some strategies for Tactics, but I won't get too deep into that because it's rare to take tactics in the first place. However, with factions that can do clearly better with Tactics (Sylvan comes to mind), there will be alternates.
All recommendations made in the previous posts will be applied through screenshots, because I've noticed that the brackets involve too much thiking and sometimes look pretty sloppy.
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Jabarkas
Adventuring Hero
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posted January 11, 2008 10:50 PM |
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Quote:
All recommendations made in the previous posts will be applied through screenshots, because I've noticed that the brackets involve too much thiking and sometimes look pretty sloppy.
If you've photoshop, then a nice trick is to turn on the grid and shade the tiles that your units can cover. It give a nice view for the reach.
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InfernoX880
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted January 11, 2008 11:23 PM |
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No, I don't have Photoshop. Damn. I knew I should've gotten it on discount with my new computer.
I can still make a sloppy sketch of what things could look like using GIMP or I could just upload a few replays, maybe I can record the battles instead of saving them as replays then add subtitles to the media files with explanations. I'm just kidding, I have a life.
But I could probably highlight a certain section then make it a different color with GIMP.
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