Now that we’ve described the troops you’ll be using and their strengths/weaknesses, we’ll get to the best way to come out on top. First of all, look at the enemy army. The easier armies to tackle are the ones who have one or two types of units. If they’re all Ranged types, Cavalry or Light Infantry should dominate your forces. If you’re Human, match one Cerberus unit for every Cannoneer if possible and take them out first (more if possible, and more on how to easily do that) so your ground troops can decimate their remaining Infantry. All orcs and War Dogs? Keep your Magic unit protected and your 4 squads of Heavy Infantry will quickly make short work of them. The more diverse types of enemy units, the harder it is to go up against them. Unfortunately, the complicated fights are often the most expensive to negotiate. However, depending on where you are at the game that might be less costly than the Supplies and long wait to replenish your troops.
Where you are in the game also affects victory or defeat. If you don’t have Heavy Infantry and unlock an area with Swamp Monsters, Treants, and/or Knights? You’re going to have a bad time. Squad Size upgrades and unit Promotions also have a major effect on victory. A battle with only two squads of Knights might seem like a cake walk for your Heavy Infantry, until you realize their concentrated troop size deals out more significant damage with one hit than the same amount of troop numbers split 4 ways. Keep in mind that at some point your Province expansions will slow or cost you more casualties until you have enough upgrades to counteract this. Again, refer to Part I to see which unit types fare the best against others. Here are some tactical tips to help:
There Is No Shame in Surrender (Even Before Battle Starts): If at any point you feel like you messed things up and you’re going to lose the fight, there’s a little white icon in the bottom left corner of that complicated looking bar at the bottom of the combat screen. Whatever casualties inflicted on you remain, just be aware you don’t have to watch all of your troops be slaughtered at the bitter end. Which brings me to that caveat in parentheses: you keep the remaining troops when you surrender, so you lose nothing if you quit right off the bat. But why would you? Because it gives you a free look on the battlefield. You can see the terrain which can determine how you want to position your troops (or if it’s one of those maps where all their ranged units are hidden behind a whole shrub wall and it’d be less of a headache to just negotiate that one). Also, you can see who is positioned where so you know where to position your troops. Which leads to-
Use Position and Terrain to Your Advantage: Terrain, like the previously mentioned example, can make what would normally be a straightforward battle into something you’d want to negotiate out of. But it can also work in your advantage: bottleneck areas are great for slowing down enemy infantry. Remember that Heavy Infantry can attack through barriers, which means you can gore the enemy and get away with it while they’re still on the march around barriers. Ranged units can do the same. You can also use terrain to sneak behind enemy lines with your Light Infantry units to take out their Ranged support in certain situations. But getting back to the advantage of that First Look is how to ideally position your troops.
Troops are always arranged in a vertical line. From top on down, we’ll call that Position 1-5. If you have all 5 unit types unlocked, do the following: assign one unit type to each slot before you start combat. If you’re going down the line of your unit types, it’d be in the following order: Light Infantry 1st, Ranged 2nd, Golem/Cerberus 3rd, Paladin/Treant 4, Priest/Sorceress 5th. When you start combat, you’d expect them to be deployed in that order, they’d be arranged from top to bottom in that order right? Wrong. Why is that? Beats me. But you’re going to want to write this down:
1st unit picked= 3rd position/ 2nd unit picked= 2nd position/ 3rd unit picked= 4th position/ 4th unit picked= 1st position/ 5th unit picked= 5th position
If that’s confusing, consider that the 2nd and last unit you pick stay where they are. Your first pick is going to end up in the middle. Now, this won’t matter if your army is entirely 1 unit with a Magic backup. But if you’re planning on using your fastest troops against ranged units in the shortest path possible, this tactic is critical. Because you can-
Take Out The Most Damaging Unit Early: I play Human, which you’ll note if you’ve read the revision to the Magic Class which I added shortly after completing this post. That’s because I noted the range of the Sorceress is nowhere the same as the Priest, which explains why the Sorceress moves faster. For Humans, the Cannoneer is the bane of your existence as it can decimate your Heavy Infantry from the other end of the map and still packs a wallop on the rest of your troops (Golems are a close second for the same reason). But no matter which race you play, you’ll want to quickly eliminate those most capable of doing damage to your most valuable troops. The Cerberus unit is great for this due to its ability to quickly traverse the map and do major damage to ranged units. Since they often go first during a round, you can take out a pesky Ranged unit in the first round. Mind you, they’re often flanked by Heavy Infantry and that unit is likely to get sacrificed right away. But if it protects a trio of Paladins so they only take minor damage, it’s well worth it. With Elves, the Sorceress can draw ranged fire with minimal damage while your troops of choice deal with the infantry. The Sorceress excels at hamstringing any unit on the field so your other units can deal more damage than is dished in return, so once you’ve taken out the most damaging unit on the field they can help you mop up. Same with the Human Priest unit, although note the difference in Part 1. They’re good for making sure your next unit’s attack can take enemies off the field or severely reduce their power. Ultimately, it comes out to-
Thinking Tactically Takes Time: And practice. Once you do enough fights (and more than a few catastrophic defeats), you’ll grasp that the fighting mechanics isn’t all that complicated. If you mouse over each opposing unit, it shows a red grid of where they can travel. This tells you where you can move out of reach of their attack, which gives you the advantage of first strike (especially nice if that unit is Heavy Infantry with enough reach to avoid a counterattack). Recognize boneheaded mistakes and avoid them, repeat solid tactics. Don’t rush battles and you’ll have more to fight with next time. If the costs are too high, consider taking a break from battles until your army is stronger. Finally, recognize when negotiating is the only option to save you a big headache.
That’s the long and short of it. Let me know if there’s anything I missed or valuable tips to be added.
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