Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Army: Enchanter + Archer + Priest

This is an army that I came up with when I started Zatikon. While the strategy involved with playing this army is fairly straightforward, it is nonetheless a solid army that can handle a variety of situations, and also works well in 2v2 or coop.


While some may think that the enchanter is the star of this army, the archer is really the keystone here. In order to play aggressively, it is best to protect the archer with your acolyte and shield maiden, and boost the archers damage by 1 with the enchanter right off the bat.
I generally use the archer to take out targets of opportunity and push up the map, and I use the enchanter to keep my opponents melee units at bay and make sure my archer does not get overwhelmed. I keep my priest slightly behind my enchanter to act as another safeguard against swarms of melee units. It is also worth mentioning to keep your acolyte and shield maiden close to each other, so that the acolyte can heal the maiden when she takes damage.

The short run objective of this army is to boost your archers damage, and push across the board as quickly as your enchanter will allow. The quicker you advance with your buffed and powered up archer or "power archer" the lesser the likelihood that your opponent will be able to find an answer for it. If you can push your opponent's army 1 or 2 ranks away from his castle, you are in an extremely good position.

The middle to late game for this army is somewhat of a dice roll. Armies that are heavy in the use of horsemen pose a significant threat, because their mobility allows them to spread out rapidly and nullify the area of effect stun that your enchanter has. On top of that, their high damage and ability to strike at multiple pieces can overwhelm or circumvent that protection that your acolyte and maiden offer. Other casters, especially ones that stun are a big threat, because they can nullify your archer.

In a late game standoff, continue to power your archer up and look for a way to bring your enchanter up to break the stalemate. Move your shield maiden and acolyte with your archer, enchant and priest to allow you to shift protection to the pieces who are being threatened. Just remember, the longer this army is on the board, the more your opponent can position his pieces and get them set up for a crippling attack. Also, another interesting tactic is to buff the priest with the acolyte and shield maiden and aggressively use your enchanter to try to land a stun. Then bring your priest up and convert those units; even if you do not have the commands to effectively utilize them, you have "1 shotted" your opponents units, and they have to waste time dealing with their own pieces as well.

Army's Strengths:
-Fairly rapid to deploy
-Very strong initial push
-Straightforward
-Handles a variety of situations well

Army's Weaknesses:
-Since it relies on a powered up archer for damage, it is extremely vulnerable to getting overwhelmed
-Scouts and Rogues can cause huge problems for this army
-Priest offers only a soft counter to threatening melee units
-Lack of commands

1 comment:

  1. What a great post! It's great to see the formula of an army that works so well together, and even better seeing how to finally beat it!

    ReplyDelete