Strengths:
The most durable troops
Excellency in castle defenses (dendroid special)
Three anti-magic specials
Castle special (Treasury) is cumulative and can sometimes achieve great
results.
Both defender fighters have benefically increased growth rate.
Weaknesses:
Only one shooter and two flyers (and one of them quite vulnerable), however
the shooter is a good one and the flyers are both pretty fast...
Army evaluation:
Centaurs 5/3/8/2-3/6/70
Centaur captains 6/3/10/2-3/8/90
Those fast warriors carry a good offensive punch. In high numbers
they're far more important than you'd expect from a 1stlevel troop.
Dwarves 6/7/20/2-4/3/120, 20% magic resistance
Battle Dwarves 7/7/20/2-4/5/150, 40% magic resistance
Dwarves make a sturdy defensive unit, but after upgrade, they can be
used even in offensive.
Elves 9/5/15/3-5/6/200
Grand Elves 9/9/15/3-5/7/225, shoot twice
In decent numbers, they provide you with much needed ranged firepower,
but they need to be protected.
Pegasi 9/8/30/5-9/8/250, enemy has spell costs higher by 2
Silver Pegasi 9/10/30/5-9/12/275, enemy has spell costs higher by 2
Quite capable offensive unit with a handy special, esp. against weak scouts.
Dendroid Guards 9/12/55/10-14/3/350, binding attack
Dendroid Soldiers 9/12/65/10-14/4/425, binding attack
An excellent defensive unit with a special that has great tactical
value.
Unicorns 15/14/90/18-22/7/850, blinding attack, magic aura
War Unicorns 15/14/110/18-22/9/950, blinding attack, magic aura
Tough and fast fighters. Magic aura gives adjacent units 20% magic
resistance (the unicorns don't get the resistance bonus themselves.)
Green Dragons 18/18/180/40-50/10/2400+1c, immune to spells 1-3
Gold Dragons 27/27/250/40-50/16/4000+2c, immune to spells 1-4
Dragons are pretty strong and green ones also easier to get.
Upgrading priorities:
- Centaur Captains: High - increased durability and speed boost are
worth it.
- Battle Dwarves: Low. Their value lies in magic resistance, but it's
not so common for them to be primary target for spellcasting.
- Grand Elves: High, for the double shot and speed bonus.
- Silver Pegasi: High, for the speed boost that gives them access to
enemy side in one turn.
- Dendroid Soldiers: Low. They're best used in castle defenses, as
they can effectively 'block' holes in walls with their special ability.
- War Unicorns: High, for the +2 speed and increased HPs
- Gold Dragons: Very High, for the +6 speed, +9 A/D and +70 HPs.
Castle building in the first week:
Day 1: | Town Hall | 2500g |
Day 2: | Homestead | 1500g + 10w |
Day 3: | Enchanted Spring | 2000g + 10c |
Day 4: | Dendroid arches | 2500g |
Day 5: | Unicorn Glade | 4000g + 5w + 5o + 10g |
Day 6: | reserve | |
Day 7: | Citadel | 2500g + 5o |
Centaur stables as 1stlevel dwelling assumed present. If it's not
present, we use the reserve slot to shift the schedule.
Usually the reserve would be used for Dwarf cottage, but as dwarves
aren't a crucial unit in offensive strategies, you might want to go for
something else (i.e. a mage guild, if your main hero is a ranger and you want
him to get a spell book fast.)
Under extremely positive conditions, you might be able to buy Dragon
Cliffs. However, you need two levels of mage guild, so you'd have to
skip Town Hall and Citadel from the above schedule. And them extremely
positive conditions are extra 14 crystal and extra 25 ore. No need to mention
that it is worth is, sacrificing some gold chests to get two dragons on the
beginning of second week - they'll allow much faster exploration, as they can
battle many medium wandering armies without fear.
Resource summary:
You'll need 15w, 10o and 15000g, which leaves
us (20000 + 7000 - 15000) = 12000g for Day 1 to spend on troops.
I suggest the reserve day being used for homestead upgrade and day1 of
second week be used for centaur stables upgrade - those will consume
another 15w (thus making your requirements 10 wood above starting 20)
and 2500 gold. With 9500g, you'll easily purchase all the centaurs
(35x90) and elves (17x225) and all 12 pegasi, too. That is a decent
exploration force. If you don't need the pegasi, save the gold for economic
structures!
If, for some reason, you don't go for Unicorn Glade, I recommend
upgrading Pegasi instead (if you find extra 5 crystal) and getting 1st
level of mage guild (for the same gold, wood and ore consumption as
unicorn glade).
Second week strategies:
Since there are no building variants, the second week will be easy -
get some wood and raise City Hall, possibly Castle and Capitol or some
of the beneficial buildings, while your main hero will look for gold and
crystal sources.
Troops cost weekly (with castle):
Without 7th level: 18620
With 7th level: 26620
With one castle producing 14000/week, you see that you'll have to
decide which units to left unpurchased. Dendroids and Dwarves are
favorites, of course. Capitol at 28000/week will have minor surplus.
HPs grown weekly 2150 (plus 500 in Gold Dragons) at 8.66 g/HP (10.05)
[This is the highest HP total/week and lowest g/HP rating among all
towns!]
Benefits:
- Blacksmith: First Aid Tents sold here.
- Dendroid saplings: +2 dendroids growth (not bad, just in case)
- Mystic Pond: gives 1-4 random resources each week. A good thing for
longer games.
- Fountain of Fortune: Upgrade to mystic pond, gives +2 Luck when
under siege. I never build it.
- Miner's Guild: +4 Dwarves growth (just as good as dendriod saplings),
required for treasury.
- Resource Silo: Provides +1 crystal/day - a must if you don't have
the mine!
- Treasury: On day 1 of each week increases your gold reserve by 10% -
Great! Great! But be careful, the game can't handle total gold hihger
than 10,000,000 ;-)
Strategy
You won't have much to worry for. Of course, wood is always needed
for the City Hall and Castle, but you can relax in the first week.
A good strategy might also be to upgrade centaurs quickly, hire a
few extra heroes that come with centaurs and with some 60-80 centaur
captains run into some action - they're durable and offensive enough to
handle even strong enemies. With their high speed, they can rely on
'waiting' to get two consecutive shots. But since AB, 3rd+ hero in any
week will not come with any good starting army.
Forces combination:
In general, Dendroids and Dwarves should be kept home as castle
defenses, possibly unpurchased. Of course, against particularly
well-defended castles you might decide to use them - dendroids can be
used to block an enemy that went after your elves or any other unit.
They can take a lot of damage and you have a +2 growth benefit option on
them.
A good strategy could be to use either dwarves or dendroids as sort
of expendable fighter unit - and whenever their stack would get
crippled, you'd switch for the other one, while the first would sit in
the castle and grow silently and slowly back to some reasonable numbers.
The offensive force should be Centaur Captains, Silver Pegasi, Grand
Elves and War unicorns. All are pretty fast and therefore you should use
'wait' against all walkers/flyers and even against shooters, unless your
morale is very high and you count on it.
Green dragons are wimps that should be in later game used only in
hopeless situations such as castle defenses. Upgrade them ASAP.
If for some reason your dwarves and dendroids hit the action out
there, try to have first strikes with dendroids - they can absorb much
more damage. Also, when all the enemy walkers/flyers attack them, the
dwarves can with a little help of Haste start quickly to the other side
to demolish shooters and/or war machines. The dendroids will take
losses, but the effect should still be positive. Also area spells (Frost
ring the best) are good to help them when surrounded. [It might be even
reasonable to use fireballs, if their opponents are weaker - especially
if the fireball could win the battle - because if you'd spare the
dendroids from your own flame, enemy might hit them with his own spell.]
Heroes:
Rangers are a mixed group. There are nice picks like Kyrre the
Logistics expert, Thorgrim with magic resistance and 5% bonus to it, and
on the other hand Ryland (Dendroids) and Ufretin (Dwarves) that would
make good castle defenders. A secondary pick is Jenova (+350 gold).
From druids, I recommend Aeris(Pegasi) and Alagar(Ice Bolt, has
Sorcery). Also Elleshar with Intelligence may come handy (esp. for
castle defenses). Others seem quite useless to me under common
conditions.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
Given so fast units, Tactics may be the best pick for you - your
centaurs, pegasi and unicorns will be able to pick most of enemy units
for targets. With Expert Haste, you will be able to attack slower
enemies even with Dendroids and Dwarves.
Since you have only one flyer (except dragons) and one shooter, you
should get Ballistics to let your Unicorns and Centaurs make some
justice, especially when you expect many castle sieges.
Unit | A | D | HP | Dmg | Sp | $$ | AdjD | Dm/g | grow | weekD |
Centaur captains | 6 | 3 | 10 | 2-3 | 8 | 90 | 2.30 | 2.56 | 28 | 64 |
Battle Dwarves | 7 | 7 | 20 | 2-4 | 5 | 150 | 2.82 | 1.88 | 20 | 56 |
Grand Elves | 9 | 9 | 15 | 3-5 | 7 | 225 | 3.92 | 1.74 | 14 | 55 |
Silver Pegasi | 9 | 10 | 30 | 5-9 | 12 | 275 | 6.86 | 2.49 | 10 | 69 |
Dendroid Soldiers | 9 | 12 | 65 | 10-14 | 4 | 425 | 11.76 | 2.77 | 9 | 106 |
War Unicorns | 15 | 14 | 110 | 18-22 | 9 | 950 | 25 | 2.63 | 4 | 100 |
Gold Dragons | 27 | 27 | 250 | 40-50 | 16 | 4000 | 83.25 | 2.08 | 2 | 167 |
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