Zatikon has been re-released and is now available and free to play on Windows, OSX and Linux! We will be updating it again as well:
https://www.chroniclogic.com/zat_download.htm

See the How to Play Guide to get started:
https://www.chroniclogic.com/zat_guide.htm

Zatikon:Legions released!

Zatikon:Legions adds over thirty new unique and powerful units to Zatikon. Each unit has unique powers and abilities to provide even more tactics to a game already rich with strategies for victory. These units can be used in single player, vs, and co-op game modes.

Also we have also been working hard on making the free version of Zatikon better then ever. Zatikon has been updated with new graphics, a cleaner interface, exciting unit changes, new game modes and more.

Also both Crusades and Legions are now on sale together for just $12.95

http://www.zatikon.com

Zatikon Game Guide

We have just published a new Zatikon Game Guide with videos to help players get the hang of the game, check it out:


http://www.chroniclogic.com/zat_guide.htm

Zatikon Update

We have been working all summer on a major Zatikon update which is now live. We are just working out a few kinks and making some balance changes. We are also working on some interface changes as well. Check out the new units, relics, single player and co-op changes as well as all the new art!

Writing the Zatikon Guide....

Hey Zatikon players,

I thought I would drop in and let you know of the progress of the promised guide, and what the task of writing it entailed. It sounds boring (and yes some of it was), but it was also a lot of fun.
Lunaria was kind enough to allow me to use his guide, but I felt that for an official guide, more needed to be written; I wanted to provide a comprehensive guide that answered a new player's every question, while still being enjoyable to read for intermediate (and maybe advanced) players.

The task of outlining how the menu and basic gameplay worked was fairly simple. Lunaria had done most of it, but I mostly just edited his work and added a bit more onto it. The real challenge began when I started to delve into the units and describing them. Since I am a predominantly random player, I have experience playing with or against all of the units and if I didn't have a clue how to use certain units, I quickly got one from playing against top players such as Mongolian. Nonetheless it was still difficult to write descriptions for units that don't see much play, such as the Captain or write descriptions about units that had just come out, such as the Supplicant or the Abbey. With that said, I made a huge effort to go into detail with units such as the Acolyte and the Scout who appear fairly straightforward, but allow for interesting strategical possibilities.

The part I enjoyed most about the guide was helping to create videos for uses of units and unit combos. After employing almost all of the mentioned tactics and playing agaisnt them numerous times, I definitely had a lot to say about them. The videos include a description of the units and combos, and shows actual footage of how to use them. My tasks included recording the gameplay and writing the script and after the assembled videos come back to me, I will be doing a voiceover for them. I hope you enjoy reading the guide and watching the videos as much as I enjoyed putting them together (hopefully more :D ).

Coming Soon: Zatikon Comprehensive Guide!

New to Zatikon? If so, have you wondered how the damage of poison works or how the acolyte's shield spell works? Are you having trouble figuring out how to use a certain unit? If so then look no farther for answers, because a comprehensive Zatikon guide is nearing completion!

The guide is packed with information for new and experienced players alike, featuring tutorials on how to navigate through the menus and chat windows of Zatikon to more advanced ones discussing special abilities and unit combinations. In the units section of the guide, you will find a picture of every unit organized by class with a description of the unit which gives a rundown on its strengths, weaknesses and abilities, and also gives some ideas on what units work well with it and how it is generally used.

The best part is there are also 2 videos in the works that will be embedded into the guide. The first video will be oriented to newer players who may have questions on basic gameplay concepts. The second video will be geared towards more adept players, and discusses using the classes and showcases some awesome unit combos in action.

The Zatikon Underdog: The Captain

Special Abilities: Coordinate Type: Skill

Whenever this unit performs an attack, all allies able to attack will also attack the same target. These additional attacks do not cost commands, but do use the individual units actions and skills or spells. In coop or 2 vs 2 mode, units from an allied player are unaffected.


Welcome to THE UNDERDOG! The past week(s) focused on a more noble side of Zatikon, as The Diabolist has less friends than imagined since he didn't receive a single comment! Our charismatic captain is much more likable, often compared to the likes of Captain Jack Sparrow, Gladiator Maximus Decimus Meridius, Robin Hood, Joan of Arc, and Jason of the Argonauts. With his ability to lead the mislead, we find a captain goes perfectly with any band of misfits.


With leadership comes efficiency. Loners will unite to act together under the same command, and this translates literally in Zatikon play. While the captain himself is a fierce warrior, a cross between a bowman with three attacks and an archer with more mobility and life, his ability to use one command and have several pieces all attack makes any battle he is in a slaughter fest.


His major weakness is simply getting other pieces in position to follow orders. Like a middle school gym teacher, it's not so easy to get a group of barbarians and berserkers into a straight line! For this reason, the captain really likes to work with any piece with a range of more than one square.


Pikemen, bowmen, shamans, archers, fire archers, longbowmen, confessors, and, of course, fellow captains all work well under his command. Still, there is one lost soul which under the right leadership shines the brightest: The Fanatic!


With a range of two and the ability to re-position enemy pieces, a few fanatics can bring a werewolf, dragon or paladin within range of multiple attacks unleashed under the single command of a captain!


While captains and fanatics make for a medium-ranged army full of attacks every turn, their armor level is sacrificed for speed. Not to mention the fanatics simply don't have an attention span of more than a few seconds, so this army likes to head full steam on to that castle by turn 3! Thus, 2 generals start out the positioning, using up 300 points, and letting the entire army deploy the first turn.


Here's what it looks like so far:


2 generals

2 captains

3 fanatics

and...

1 Abbey!


With the Abbey, those fanatics start out like scouts with a range of 2, and able to move pieces back into the range of the captains for certain death. The healing ability is rarely useful, as attacked units don't often survive, but the forgiveness vs confessors can save the day! Variations can utilized the Abby more, adding a paladin at the front, or even 5 fanatics to start instead of 3.


After the Abbey, we're left with 150 points. This is probably best used with an archer to shower long range with coordinated Captain attacks. Other potentials include a Confessor if 50 points are freed up, a Paladin in the front ranks, or even a Templar 3rd option that the fanatics bring enemies to for a kill and constant heal.


With the Archer, the first 2 turn set up is simple: Turn 1 deploy both Generals, Abbey, 3 fanatics, 2 Captains at the castle corners, and Archer right in the middle. Next turn move the Captains to the corners, Archer next to one of them, and a fanatic as needed to provide pressure. After that its an onslaught as the opponents are pulled into range. Mages with 5 range can be attacked by Captains and Archer, and anything within 4 or 5 can be brought forward by a single fanatic for the beat down.


For co-op or 2 vs 2, any partner adding an Armory makes this army double the danger. Fanatics with 4 power and 2 armor combined with similar captains that can be healed when not killed makes for unusually fast games.


Is the Captain really an Underdog at all? There's no reason that he should be unpopular, and he certainly isn't a weak piece or over priced. Still, just like Maximus and my 7th grade gym teacher Mr. Sullivan, he has to deal with a group of savages, and for this he deserves to be cheered for!

The ZATIKON UNDERDOG: The Diabolist

Special abilities: Makes inorganic ghosts that are immune to spells and stun enemies. Destroys an enemy, or ally, within 4 spaces by exploding, causing 4 damage in all surrounding squares. Can sacrifice an unit to gain two souls to use for it's spells.

Welcome back to THE UNDERDOG! The past week of Zatikon play brought out the nature of an underdog so loathed that even the other pieces won't play with him: The Diabolist! Don't be fooled by his power, deep down the Diabolist is nothing but a glorified sycophant, desperate to be liked by Warlocks and Necromancers, but lacking the coolness to hang. Simply put, the Diabolist has no friends. Why? He kills them all.


So who is able to fight alongside this temperamental snob of death? To start, lowly tacticians seem to be his favorite pushover. Maybe they look up to his superior intellect? Maybe the are traitors to another army? Maybe they want to die?


There is one "friend" to the Diabolist, but only in the sense that someone who kills his friends would define "friendship". The lonely Channeler. See, the Channeler is not a team player; he's just a ball hog. Just like the Diabolist growing up, when things didn't go his way he took his toys back and went home. "Warning: does not play well with others"- Mrs. Burntwitch, grade 1. In this behavior, the Diabolist and Channeler are best friends, so it's not a problem for the Diabolist if his friend the Channeler wants to use ALL seven actions EVERY turn.


But really, with a bunch tacticians and two almost unlikely friends, who else wants to join this? Who would be willing to face an Abjurer, Wizard, Warlock or Dragon with this as backup! Answer: no one of course, but there are plenty willing to get away from them as fast as possible. Horsemen, Cavalry, even Elephants; anything to get the heck away from the Diabolists mood swings.


Finally, let's not forget the Quartermaster. With a battle at hand, this guys wants nothing more but to pony-up on that donkey and fight fire-breathing dragons then have to have another bowl of soup thrown in his face with "next time I will explode you" haunting his sleep.


So, let's go over... Turn 1, deploy Quartermaster, Diabolist, and Channeler. Turn 2, deploy Tactician, Sacrifice Tactician and gain 3 actions, move Channeler and deploy Cavalry, then deploy second Cavalry and Tactician. ... Boom! That's how it's done son! Save the one last Rider in reserve, just to capture the castle in case Diabolist has to blow up his friend, and the rest.


Against the computer, maybe up to level 40 or so, blasting pieces with a blitzkrieg of Channeler and Cavalry seems to give you an advantage. If the Diabolist allows the Channeler to live long enough to be within range of the enemy Gateguard, a saved up release of energy (that's what she said) is usually enough to kill him with an added Cavalry attack.


Diabolist has a name for player vs player: Sacrifice. Channeler takes down 3 guys to be killed next turn? Perfect move. Attack with Cavalry, kill a piece, explode Cavalry to kill another. Perfect move. More ghosts. Let the Quartermaster or Tactician take the castle, or blow them up next to the Gateguard for the diabolist to walk in.


Sometimes the Diabolist tags along with a Warlock or Necromancer. Really, it's no act of pity, as the Warlock and Necromancer always seem to out survive the Diabolist. White Wizards avoid him altogether, although the Magus can be helpful with feeding spirits of will o' the wisps. War Elephants have had their place, even two of them deployed second turn can be threatening, but Diabolist is usually a bit too happy to let them die.


You might not want to hang out with him in real life, or even in a chat room, or even play Zatikon against him, but the Diabolist isn't so bad if you're in control. Just don't try to change him. Sure, ghosts are nice, throw 'em out there at any opportunity, and sometimes it's possible to resist killing your own guys. Still, when the smoke clears, and body parts are identified, there's no doubt the Diabolist will still have no friends.

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

The Zatikon Underdog: The Chieftain

The Chieftain

Special ability: Cancel enemy movement, any number of times, any range, when the enemy tries to move in a direction away from this unit. Enemy still pays costs for attempting to move.

Welcome to THE UNDERDOG! Last weeks focus was on the historically lovable, easily beatable piece: The Chieftain. A classic underdog, the Chieftain is used to being underestimated. Similar to William Wallace, Shaka Zulu, or the Ice Queen Boudica, his moral boosting influence doubles the armies power with sheer courage and ferocity, leaving every battle a fight to the death...

At first, it seemed like the Chieftain was an all out powerhouse to be sided by barbarians, berserkers, werewolves, and other bruisers for a steady beating advance. So wrong. Out of harms way is exactly where the Chieftain leads from, far from enemy archers to rally his units and enter the battle after the clash has subsided, decimating stragglers with his power as the enemy tries to flee.

Not trusting magic, and with 'no heavy cavalry', the Chieftain's army is best when made of a variety of low cost units to suit any situation. One of each: Pikeman, Rider, Cavalry, Ballista, Quartermaster, Berserker, Barbarian, Bowman, Strategist, and lowly Axeman.

With the Quartermaster down followed by a Ballista, Berserker, and Axeman, we start the assault. With the Ballista aimed at any magic user from the start, thus taking away their usual 1 action a turn for movement, the Axeman and Berserker can move as quickly or as slowly as they want into the battle field, depending on the enemy's deployment. With the Pikemen ready for cavalry or attacks to the ballista, Cavalry and Rider for added pressure to Magic users, healers, and other low power/ life units, and Bowmen covering the defensive or offensive position, the set up begins.

As the offensive slowly develops until the opponent engages, the "check mate" opportunity is scouted. Maybe an advance with the Berserker is pushed, him wiling to die for a one turn slaughterfest, or between Cavalry, Ballista, and Rider, there is a key piece is attacked with little maneuverability. Whatever the move, there is that Chieftain ace-in-the-hole waiting to cement the play.

Backed up by a barbarian or two, enemies who have over-extended themselves into the Chieftains territory are about to face Mr. OneHit, and some ever growing opportunistic savages just waiting on the enemy units like sheep to the wolves.

Changing it up a bit, subbing in a mason or two does wonders, forcing your opponent down the middle instead of around your walls. Switch in a catapult, and maybe even a ranger or sergeant to free up some actions, and suddenly you've got an opponent running at your walls into waiting pikemen! While this adaptable arsenal of units is solid, and if well played can be a real pain against most anything, the Chieftain is truly his best with one particular unit...

Another Chieftain! That's 600 points of headlights headin' right for the deer! With one banger on each side of the board, there's no where to run but down the middle. What happens when Double Trouble gets too far up the board and there a straggling piece lunging for the castle? The piece sits there stuck, unable to move a single space for victory! "Hold of the Chieftain" is everywhere, even in your house, so there's nothing but shooting ducks in a barrel.

Question is, what are you shooting with? With a first turn Quartermaster, Chieftain, Barbarian, there aren't many more points left of the remaining 400. Second turn Chieftain, and then what? Well, what would the Chieftain do?

Ballista seems like a necessity. Any Witch or Abjurer is a problem for our kings, and there are few counters within 400 points. Ballista out ranges all magic users except warlock, and in this case is still a distraction. For one action a turn, negating a magic user is crucial.

Gotta protect that Ballista too. Knights, lancers, Elephants all advancing before we get the lockdown, so some pikemen are recommended, or, for a bit more, a shaman fits the bill.

What about the slaughter? Really, with the Quartermaster and Ballista, we're working with 200 points left before Pikemen or Shaman. Scratch the Shaman, we need units! The quartermaster is just too good to let go of, as the Chieftains can be susceptible to ranged attacks that don't have to move, so we need some healing out there. Even a ballista that finds it's way to knocking into a Chieftain on the side can't kill it in one shot, and with healing every turn, the Chieftain is just as effective taking Ballista bolts to the chest every turn as moving up the board.

One thing I found was the more pieces I could put on the board, the scarier the Chieftains looked. A single ballista, or even a warlock, just made 3 pieces in total. What is a Chieftain without a hoard? Thus, for 200 points, we need to pack a hoard. Pikeman, Bowman, Barbarian, Rouge? Scouts aren't bad, as we let the opponent melt away in a pool of poison while unable to move, and foot soldiers deploy fast and keep with a non-movement theme, but I like flexibility, so with some pokers, shooters, hackers, and stunners, it's sure to get messy in that barrel.

It's easy to look straight for an abjurer or warlock, envisioning a winning record, and that's OK. Some people need fancy robes and cleverness to feel good about themselves. The Chieftain only knows one thing for certain: If there's to be a fight, it's a fight to the finish.

The Ranger

As you can see, the ranger does not cost any commands to deploy, and also acts without using any commands. Due to these attributes, it is generally a good idea to deploy your ranger on your first turn When deployed during your first turn, the ranger will allow you to gain board control early on while still allowing you to use all of your commands on getting units out.

The ranger is also a great answer to early scout pressure. Since the ranger has 3 commands and 3 range, it can hover outside of the striking range of the scout, get in range, and still have enough actions to both trigger the scouts dodge ability and deal a lethal blow.

The wolf is also a nice add on to the ranger. While it is neither a high damage or high life unit, it can move large distances rapidly and therefore reinforce where needed or threaten weak parts of your opponents army. Like mentioned in Mongolian's post, the ranger can summon infinite wolves if paired with an abjurer.

Last but not least is the ranger's ability to switch to melee mode. Probably one of the more neglected skills in Zatikon, it is definitely very useful in certain instances. At times, someone may have your ranger cornered, or you may be playing with your back to your castle, on top of that they may have parked a unit such as a general 1 space away from your ranger because they did not take the rangers melee skill into account. You may have just attacked the general 3 times with its ranged attack, and only do 3 damage. A much more effective move would be to use 1 action switching to melee, and attack the general twice, doing a total of 6 damage, which is more than enough to kill it. Overall, many seem to hesitate to switch their ranger to melee mode because it uses 1 action, and the ranger can hit and run much more effectively when in ranged mode. With proper support though, such as shield maidens and acolytes, the extra 2 damage that the ranger gains from its melee mode switch give it the power to easily dispatch your opponents hardiest units.

The Assassin

In my opinion, the assassin is one of the most unique units that Zatikon has to offer, its unique method of deployment and its 1 time stun can be used synergistically with a large amount of units.

The assassin is essentially a paper cannon. Its extremely low life and action points coupled with its nonexistent armor make it a sitting duck after deployment. Do not be mistaken though; the "Stuns all surrounding units upon deployment" gives you the opportunity land a large stun on your opponents troops, which allows your units to move up and get in advantageous positions that they otherwise would not be able to get into without taking large amounts of damage. On top of this, if you can keep your assassin alive after deployment, you have the opportunity to take out 2 units within 1 turn.

In order to use the assassin effectively, you must first choose which unit you would like to deploy it on.
I personally prefer riders, due to their ability to close large distances instantly, and deliver an assassin deep into enemy lines. If a great opportunity to use my assassin presents itself, it is best to try to deploy the assassin on the unit that has the opportunity to do so, given the cost of taking that unit off of the battlefield is worth the strategic advantage that is provided by the deployment.

But undoubtedly the hardest, yet most satisfying part of using the assassin comes with where to deploy it.
Clumped up units offer a juicy target for 1 large reason, you can use your opponents stunned units against them. Tightly clumped stunned units create a wall, and if your opponent lacks units with the ability to attack over units and their friendly melee units are far enough away or blocked by the wall, you will be able to use the assassins "Kill enemy unit" ability.

The classic Zatikon standoff.

As you can see, I have used my knight to take out that footman and burn one of the pikeman's action points, I have then moved my footman up to burn the pikeman's second action point.

Boom! Since I was able to peel open a gap in my opponents lines with knight, and burn the pikeman's action points with my knight and my footman, I was able to move my rider in there and deploy the assassin on him. I have sacrificed my knight and my footman to take out his archer and warrior, but I have gained the strategic advantage by retaining my archer.

There are of course many more ways that the assassin can be used. some interesting ideas are to pair it with an abjurer, and recall the assassin upon deployment, which allows you to use the abjurer to act as an enchanter. You can also use the assassin to take out lone units who are attempting to flank.

When your opponent knows you have an assassin, they are much more difficult to use. The best way to incorporate an assassin into your army is to have a large amount of low cost units. When you have only a few high cost units out on the board and an assassin waiting to be used, it is fairly easy for your opponent to see that you are hiding a unit. If you have a large amount of low cost units, sometimes your opponent gets lazy and does not take the time to count the total point value of fielded units, much to his detriment.

Wyrms: The Dragon

Value: Low
Strong against: Low HP, low armor, low power armies.
Weak against; Things that stun(e.g. rogue), dodge(e.g., rogue), or 'incapacitate'(e.g. geomancer),
Best Paired with: Healer, abbey, and artificer all work decently with the dragon.


The dragon is one of the few units I recommend playing before deployment cost reducers like the general are down, if you have to make such a choice. This is because the dragon becomes increasingly feeble as more units enter the field; after a certain point, your dragon will probably be annihilated right after sticking is smoke-exhaling nose near your opponent's side. It simply will not be able to take down units fast enough.

Its effective attack range of 6(including 3) and movement speed of 3, however, makes it excellent for putting very quick pressure on your opponent; low power, low HP units are typically the first units your opponent will deploy. With some luck, you'll be able to land a crushing explosion on a white or black mage, along with a number of fodder units.

Unfortunately, even with only 2-3 turns before your dragon is a threat, your opponent will typically be ready for it.

Wyrms: The Feathered Serpent

Value:High

Strong against: Armies with low power and/or little in the way of commands

Weak Against: Armies with units that do not 'kill' units, but typically remove them from play for an extended duration, if not for the entire game(e.g., geomancer/witch), higher level AI.
Best Paired with: High armor, high HP units, heretic.

While its other abilities are certainly nothing to spit on, the FS ability to raise army-wide reduction by one is, insofar as I am concern, its most potent one. It is the only way any unit can reduce more than 2 incoming damage. Most units in this game do 3-4 damage; these units now make no, or a very small, dent in your already two armor units(footman, warrior, etc). Very few have five or more power, and these tend to be clumsy and expensive, so that it's hard to land multiple powerful attacks on units that now have an effective three armor.

Some things to remember about fighting a feathered serpent army:

-If you didn't kill a unit, you might as well have not damaged it at all. It's getting a full heal next round.

-If you didn't kill at least two units, your attack was only a minor setback for your opponent, as he can just put the dead unit back on the field. On the other hand, you probably exposed your attacking units to a great deal of harm-and you can't get them back.

-It takes quite a few commands to successfully take out two mitigation-buffed units.

-DON'T FORGET that all of your opponent's organic units reduce one extra point of damage per attack.


FS armies have one weakness: they probably don't have that many pieces on the board, since the FS cost 550 points. This means that you can often maneuver around your opponent's pieces to knock out the FS(warning-the FS is a slippery unit)

Otherwise, you will likely have to slowly advance up the field in a conservative offensive formation: acolytes, units with dodges, masons, and/or healers are necessary to make this happen. Guard witches, geomancers and the like closely; they are your greatest asset.

Wyrms: The Dracolich

When I was new to Zatikon, the Dracolich seemed like one of the most impressive units in the game. Someone pulled one out in coop, and, after most of my units were mostly wiped out, proceeded to defeat the AI essentially single-handedly. I proceeded to request that my coop partners bring a Dracolich, and kept hoping the new unit button would bring me one.

At a certain point, however, I started losing coop games and the honeymoon was over.

Value: Very Poor

Strong against: Early AI

Weak against: Higher level AI, competence

The problem with the dracolich is this: you need to actually kill something for its most potent ability to be of any use. A dracolich costs 550 points, more than half your army; as you’re bound to discover, this doesn’t leave that much room for units that can kill something(with an effective attack range of two, the dracolich just doesn’t fit the bill). It also doesn’t leave much room for command units, so that, in the event you manage to kill a lot of the AI’s units, you can barely use them.

Early AI typically sends in only a couple ‘weak’ attackers, who you can typically kill and resurrect fairly easily. However, at higher AI levels, the AI swiftly swarms you with units that are not only normally strong(like dragons) but also have empowerments(Arcane, rampaging, etc). Any units you manage to kill will be promptly re-killed, and you will soon be overwhelmed.

Drawing a dracolich in random is typically a death sentence, as your opponent almost certainly got more value for their 550 points. You only have 500 points left(excluding general and gate guard), and chances are a substantial chunk of those points went into one or two units. Your opponent should have absolutely no problem maneuvering around your three mildly threatening pieces, and typically needs to be playing sloppily to allow one of their units to die. If one of their units does die, chances are they will be able to rekill it before you get a chance to use it. They’ll push your back to a wall and go for the kill.

If this wasn’t already clear, make sure that you bring enough units to not be easily outmaneuvered by a player or swarmed by the AI if you insist on using a Dracolich(A mason would probably be helpful)

And lastly, a ‘fun’ fact:

If both players have a dracolich on their side, there is no limit to how many times a unit can be resurrected. In one game, in which I had a dracolich and my opponent drew a mimic(and mimicked the dracolich), we must have swapped control of this poor footman some twenty to thirty times. It took me an hour and a half to eventually beat my opponent as I slowly won the game of reversi, making for what remains the longest Zatikon match I’ve ever played.

Thanks to Mongolian for the random construction points correction.

Wyrms: The Hydra

When most people come into the game, the first type of unit that really catches their eye is the wyrms. Unfortunately, most of these units(especially the dracolich) become less and less impressive as you gain more experience.

The Hydra is not one of those units.

Value:Very High
Strong against: Almost anything/
Weak against: Mimics(like all expensive units), artificer + changling
Best Paired with: Sergeant is a must; mourners, confessors, strategists, changling(against AI)

The Hydra is one of the few very expensive(costing over 400) units that doesn't cause an experienced player to throw their hands into the air in frustration when drawn in random; even without its soulmate, the sergeant, it's a tank complete with serpent turrets smashing its way up the field. Of course, it is very command intensive without a sergeant; it costs five commands just to deploy all snakes from a full health Hydra.

Now, pair it with a sergeant and it becomes a nearly unstoppable force, to the extent that there's typically something of a "gentlemen's agreement" in constructed and 2v2 that neither player bring a sergeant/hydra setup.

Of course, most players do not have such an agreement with the AI. When playing single player, my setup is always the following(I almost always win in less than 5 minutes):

Hydra
Sergeant
Strategist
Changling x 2
Gate Guard or Acolyte

Deployment order: Sergeant/Changling --> Hydra --> Strategist(Changling can precede the strategist if your Hydra's snakes aren't going to get attacked that turn)

The Hydra can destroy almost anything within range; its snakes block the AI's units' path and, most importantly, provide fodder for changling swaps. The changling is used to swap for the AI's best units; typically, the AI will then proceed to trade the changling for a serpent, letting you repeat the process over and over, grabbing valuable units in exchange for serpents. In any round, the AI will destroy many of your serpents, feeding commands to your strategist, allowing you to move all of those serpents and stolen units.

I would typically advise using the 'new unit' button when you're new to the game and doesn't have almost all of the units; however, it might be worth the money to directly buy a sergeant, a changling, a Hydra, and a strategist: this setup makes single player a cash cow.

Some warnings: Be very, very careful about heretics and warriors- heretics and warriors(or something that can be used to 'de-activate' them before they reach your snakes) should be changling swap priorities. I've occasionally carelessly let an ascendant warrior cleave through my snakes all the way through to my Hydra.

Lunaraia's School for Zatikon Beginners

School for Zatikon Beginners
Good Morning, Day, Afternoon, Evening and or Night, Class!


I am Lunaraia, a player of Zatikon, and as you have most likely noticed there is no official guide to this game, so I decided to make one to help both new and experienced players get a deeper understanding of the game itself

Code of Conduct

- In Zatikon everyone plays to have fun and as such it is expected that you keep it friendly at all times, insults and the like are frowned upon by the community in general, but friendly banter is common; we are friendly not strict.

- Cheating is as far as I know impossible, and if you find a way to cheat please report it at once, it is considered VERY rude to cheat in Zatikon and in doing so you will more often then not find yourself without anyone to play with.

- Inviting people is a good way to find someone to play with, however due to the way the chat windows are programmed simply pressing enter while chatting with someone else will cause you to accept an invite too resulting in what is called 'Dragging'. When it occurs the match the player left goes completely berserk since it is now in effect missing a player, so common conduct is that you either wait till they are done or send a chat where you ask if they want to play, instead of just sending an invite. It can be quite frustrating if you are in a coop and are 2 moves away from victory then you get 'dragged' out and into another type of match.

Main Menu

The Main Menu is quite simple. In the top left you have the credits button. It shows you the credits.

Underneath the credits button is the account button, it allows you to change your password and is also the place where you write the key code to upgrade your account when you get an expansion. Upgrading allows you to use more units and you get 10k as a thank you present from Chronic Logic for upgrading, this happens every time you upgrade.

Under the account button is the refer friend button, this options allows you refer a friend via email. If that friend upgrades his/her Zatikon account you get 5k gold to spend on more units.

Underneath the refer friend button is the mute button, it should be pretty obvious what this does, 1 click and no sound, this can only be used on the main menu and disables both music and SFX.

Single Player

In the bottom left is the single player button, more about that in 3rd Class of this Course, for now let's move on.

Constructed

To the right of the single player button is the constructed button, this puts you a search mode for playing a constructed game, a game where you play against another player in a ranked match using an army you have created, more on that in 3rd class.

Random

To the right of the constructed button is the random button, the random button initiates a search for a player opponent for a ranked random match. The difference between constructed and random is that when you play random you are given a randomly generated army.

Cooperative

The bottom center of the screen is home to the cooperative button, in cooperative you and another player play against the AI together. The rewards in cooperative are usually higher than in constructed or random. As with single player, the higher the level the AI is, the more gold you get. It is also worthy to mention that higher level players get a gold bonus for playing cooperative with a lower ranked player.

2 vs 2

In the center of the screen is the button that is called the 2V2 test button, this starts a team match between 4 players, in effect it's like cooperative mode except that is against a team of other players. The match up is as follows: The first and second players that enter the search queue on Team 1 while the third and forth on team 2. Also in 2v2 test the last one who enters the search queue is the one that starts out with summoning, no matter the rank of the players. In Constructed and Random the one with the lowest rank (highest Number) is the one that starts out.

Edit Army

The button to the right of the cooperative button is the edit army button, this button is used to edit your army for use against the AI and other players in constructed or cooperative modes, more on this button in the 2nd Class.

Army Archive

The button to the right of the edit army button is the army archive button. This button allows you to store an army you have made in the edit army screen so you can easily load it later. There are a total of 10 slots as of right now. Please note: There is a bug that prevents some Mac users from using the button without the game client crashing on them. It is in the process of being fixed.

New Unit

The right-most button in this game is the new unit button. When you press this button you spend 100 gold and are given a random unit, however this unit can belong to an expansion regardless whether you own the expansion or now, so you may end up with units that you cannot use. As you get more units it gets cheaper to buy each unit in singles instead of hoping to hit it with random buying.

Current Rank and Gold

In the top center of the window is your current rank and your current gold . You get gold by defeating the AI in single player and by fighting against other players. You start out gaining only small amounts of gold per single player victory. The AI increases in difficulty as you defeat it and the amount of gold you earn per victory increases with the level of the AI, so after a few victories you are able to begin to earn the gold you need.

Player List

In the small window to the right are a list of all the players and their current rankings. You can double click on it to open a small chat window for private chats, you can also use the invite menu to invite that player to a cooperative, constructed or random game. Keep in mind that invited matches are not ranked, so it is a great way to practice and play with friends without having to worry about losing ranking points. Also this window shows the players current status, if you see a symbol of a guy with green shirt and brown hair then the person is in the main menu or in one of the sub menus, if it is a red X symbol then they have connection problems and if the symbol is 2 crossed swords then he is in a match.

Zatikon Chat

The window to the left is the general information window is the chat window. As the name implies, you can chat in it but it will display who’s fighting whom or what, and it tells you how said match ups went. It is also a great tool to network with other Zatikon players and very useful for setting up team games.

"Well then: CLASS DISMISSED!"

"Until next time students"

Welcome Back, Students, I hope you are eager to learn more! In today’s Class we are going to look at the edit army and I will explain the stats of the units. Well without further delay let us begin

The Edit Army Menu

The first thing you will notice about the edit army menu is that is it divided into parts.

The first part covers the leftmost 1/3 of the screen and is where your army is listed. The middle 1/3 of the screen is the unit stable containing all your units divided by class; the classes will be explained later.

The third part of the screen is divided into 2. The top portion displays a units statistics and abilities when you select one from the stable. If you wish to add that unit into your army, simply click the add button. For more in-depth information about the abilities check out that part of the blog, or simply hover your mouse over that unit's ability for a few seconds.

The bottom part of the right-most 1/3 are the menu choices, from top to bottom they are:

- Save and Exit: This choice saves your current army, even an empty one and exits to the main menu

- Sell all Extra Units: This little button is particularly useful. There is an army limit of 1000 points, by clicking this button it will sell any excess units that you own within each unit type without you having to comb through every class to look for them.
Example: A knight costs 200 points, if you own 6 knights, there is no way to use all of them, even if you were to create an army entirely of knights. The sell all extra units button will instantly remove excess units such as these.

- Clear: This button clears your current army allowing you to build a new one, you can remove single units by double clicking their tabs in the left-most 1/3 of the screen, or alternatively you select them from your army pool and then by click remove on the right most 1/3 of the screen.

- Cancel: This cancels everything you have done and returns you to the Main Menu

Buying Single Units

Buying single units is not recommended for beginners, since beginners would benefit more from using the new unit button on the main menu, but if you absolutely want to buy a unit you will need the amount of gold they ask for. Also note buying a unit whose name is in red is useless since you need to first purchase an expansion to use those units.

Stats

The stats of the units are one of the single most important aspects of the entire game; not knowing a units capabilities can make the difference between a good game and a frustrating beat down, so without further delay on to the explanations:

Actions

Actions are the extremely important as they dictate how many things a unit can do per round, if a unit has 3 actions it can: move 3 times, attack 3 times, use 3 skills, use 3 spells or any combination of those, keep in mind however that some abilities do not cost actions.

Life

When a unit's Life reaches 0 it's dead, all in all it's the units HP.

Power

Only units that have attacks (red columns) have a power rating, some units like the Channeler do not have a power rating but a set amount of damage she can use with her attacks. Power is the raw damage a unit would inflict on each attack against an unarmored opponent

Armor

Armor is the defense rating of your units. At no time can you have an armor rating higher then 2. Armor does not protect from obliteration attacks or insta-kill abilities; most abilities that act as shields will not protect from those.

Deploy

This stat is only visible in the edit army, and shows the cost of summoning that unit without some sort of reduction to it's summoning cost

Ability Types

In Zatikon there are several abilities, they are coded by color and I will describe each ability here

Blue

The blue abilities are movement. These comes in 4 versions and 1 passive move ability

- Move to target location
Range: 1
Cost 1

This is the standard movement for most units. With this movement type you use one action every time you move

-Move to target Location
Range: Varied
Can be one 1/1

This movement type works in much the same way as the previous type, but can only be used once. The range varies from 3 to 5 and the units that have this movement type cannot move over other units in their path.

- Jump to target Location
Range: Varied
Can be done 1/1

This ability is only for units that can fly with exception to the war elephant. If this flight is granted by wizard then ranged units are restricted to flying only 2 squares at a time instead of the usual 3. Units with this ability can move over other units, as long as there is an empty square to land on within range.

- Jump to Target location
Range 2
Cost 1

This ability are as far as I know only seen on the wolf unit, this unit is summoned by druid or deployed by ranger. The wolf can jump once for each of it's commands, and is the only unit capable of doing so.

- Movement does not Cost Actions

This ability is only seen on the movement types of 1/1 it is Dark Blue in color making it as a Passive Movement Ability.

Red

Red abilities are attacks. There are 4 types of attacks and there are also red passive abilities

Explosions:
Explosions are an attack that cover a 3X3 area with the center on the square you select, these kind of attacks can hurt friendly units.

Hack and Slash: This is the normal attack and costs 1 action per use, unless stated otherwise in the attack description.

Obliteration:
Obliteration attacks are an insta-kill, the only thing that can prevent the unit from dying instantly are: Aegis, Dodge, Parry or Berserkers Die-at-end-of-Turn Ability. NOTHING else can prevent the destruction of the targeted unit, since the attack simply squishes the target similar to an egg is crushed by a mallet wielding ogre.

The Line Nuke:
This attack can only be done by the Warlock and is unique as it hits anything on a direct line up to 6 squares away, friend or foe alike, just click the square you want the attack to reach to, (clicking 1 square away and the attack goes 1 square click and the end of the attack range and it goes all the way)

Red Passive Abilities:
These attacks only trigger when certain criteria is met, these criteria are explained by the ability

Green

Green Abilities are skills and are so varied that I cannot give a description of them, if the skill is hostile in nature they can be evaded by units that have: Aegis or Dodge, parry won't help since it only triggers on attacks. Inorganic units are unaffected since they are immune to any and all skills, friendly and hostile alike.

Passive Green Abilities:
These abilities trigger when certain criteria are met, like summoning an Assassin.

Purple

Purple abilities are spells. They have a high variety of abilities, some change the rules significantly, spells ignore dodge and parry, but not aegis. Only spells cast by an artificer have any affect on inorganic units, and only friendly ones at that.

Passive Spells:
These spells are always active, or trigger when their criteria is met, depending on the type of spell

Grey/Black

Passive Abilities, these abilities cannot be negated as long as said unit are on the field, since they are mostly defensive in nature they are not subject to the inorganic immunity, as seen by both parry and dodge working against inorganic units.

The only Grey Abilities are seen on the Mason’s Wall, and are used to destroy it, costs 1 Command to do so, commands will be explained in the 3rd Class.

Classes

When you are setting your army up you have 1000 points to recruit units with. Every unit has a cost which comes out of those 1000 points, you can have an army worth less then 1000 points, but you cannot have an army with more then 1000 points in it, so you can have 2 Mages and 2 towers for a total of 1000 but you cannot have 2 Wyrm Class units since they all cost 550

Archers

Archers are your run of the mill long distance units, they generally have few abilities. All archers have 2 action points and a minimum range of 3.

Black Mages

Black Mages all cost 350 and have either devastating abilities or extreme range and damage, or worse yet, both. All Black Mages can only either move or use their abilities but they cannot use both, also all Black Mages have 2 hp.

Clergy

Clergy units are healers and defenders. They also have 1 unit capable of converting enemies. They are also the only class except wyrms that have a unit with a cost of 550.

Commanders

Commanders are your main support troops, their main focus is to increase the amount of commands you can use per round and lower the cost of summoning units. In fact apart from 1 building in the structures class they are the only units that can lower summoning cost and increase commands.

Cultists

Cultists excel at disrupting a well entrenched enemy defensive line. They also feature one of the 2 400 cost units units in the game, the possessor. The said unit is capable of tearing an army apart on it's own, unless your opponent has a way to be rid of it apart from killing it with an inorganic unit.

Horsemen

The main focus of the horsemen is moving long distances. They can move without using actions, which is a huge advantage. They all have in common the fact that they all can move at least 3 squares and still be able to attack. If flight is cast on a horseman it is subject to the normal limitations of range.

Nature

A headache in a bottle, nature's main aim is to stop the opponent from moving. They are the natural enemy of horsemen (pun not intended) since horsemen can only move once per round.

Scouts

Scouts are rush units with the main goal of infiltrating enemy lines and striking quickly. They all have low costs and high action points and also different ways to really mess things up for the opponent, including dodge, poison, insta-kill and costing no commands to use.

Shape Shifters

Shape Shifters are actually one of the few classes that work best when played together with other units from the same class. They also feature 2/5 units with an effective range of 6, their main focus is to either mimic enemy units or otherwise change the playing rules by transforming into units with other abilities. Please note shape shifting does not cure poison, but will otherwise cure the unit of all status ailments except conversion.

Siege

Siege units have extreme destructive capabilities, but apart from the golem and mason they only have 1 action point. Units with dodge can tear them apart without much problem, on the other hand they also have extreme reach and apart from the mason they are immune to skills and spells. They also have the only units with the "obliterate" skill

Soldiers

The jacks-of-all-trades, they have a multitude of passive (black) abilities but no spells or skills worth mentioning. All of them except the pikemen have one range.

Structures

Structures cannot move, end of story. Structures occupy the heavy support role and have the unit with the longest auto attack reach in the game.

White Mages

While mages have the capability to change game play on a fundamental level. No white mage should be underestimated, their wide range of stuns, summons and spells in the hands of a capable player makes for a formidable obstacle to overcome.

Wyrms

The wyrm class units are insane, as they have very unique abilities or stats. They cost 550 points for a reason, they change the game play to an extreme level; skills such as resurrection or conversion upon death are extremely powerful. All Wyrms cost 5 Commands to summon and have a maximum of 2 actions. As such, when a player decides to use a wyrm in their army, they generally choose units that either protect the said units or particulary benefit from its abilities.

"Well would you look at the time..."

"CLASS DISMISSED"

"See you next time, Students!"



"Welcome back!"
"Take your seats and we will begin"

Todays lesson will be about the battlefield itself, the importance of commands, how to summon the units and the goal of the game in general. This will most likely be the last class since the topic of units is not a part of this beginner guide, and as of such I will only go into detail about the invidual units.

The Battlefield

The battlefield is the most important aspect of the game, it is 11X11 in size and in the center of the bottom and top lines of the field are 2 castles, the bottom castle is yours and it is your goal to protect it while at the same time attempting to capture the enemy's castle, the castle is captured when you move one of your units atop of it, however the unit has to survive the movement, so if something causes your unit to die as it moves onto the castle it is not captured and the game goes on. Ways this might happen are the autoattack of pikemen, snakes and towers.

Castle Defense

To help you defend your castle you have 2 units that can increase the chance of sucess you have the gate guard, and the abjurer. The Gate Guard is able to walk onto your castle, and is the only unit capable of doing so. The abjurer can seal the castle gate, this creates a square that is slightly colored as the background of your units, blue for and green for friendly, red and yellow for hostile. The blockade lasts for 2 turns and prevents anything from moving onto the castle square, it is also immune to all forms of damage, so don't bother trying to attack it. It is worth noting that the abjurer's seal gate skill is rarely used.

Turn Length

You have a timelimit of 1 min and 30 sec to finish your turn, most people are capable of finishing well within that time. If you're in a tough spot it is useful to have that much time to think. If time runs out you automatically end your turn, there is no way of undoing your mistakes, so don't rush in.

Commands

Commands are without a doubt the most important aspect of the game. By default you have 5 commands, when you first start out you have to summon your units, every unit has a summoning cost from 0 to 5 and this costs comes out of your available commands. If you do not have enough commands to summon something you have to wait until your next turn. By summoning certain units you can increase the total amount of commands you have or lower the cost of summoning a unit, some units allow you to do both at the same time.

Deploying your Army

To summon a unit you simply have to wait for your turn to begin, when it does the green window to the right of the battlefield changes from showing tactical or unit information to displaying a list of units not unlike the one you saw in your edit army screen. These units have a cost beside them that indicates the ammount of commands needed to summon them. As previously explained, simply click on the desired unit and look on the field, if you have enough commands to summon the unit the squares beside your castle should light up with a blue color, indicating where that unit can be summoned. Some units can be summoned further away from the castle. Scouts, assassins and all buildings can be summoned further away, all other units are restricted to appear next to the castle itself. The gate Guard can be summoned directly onto the castle.

Summoned units are afflicted with, out of a lack of better term, summoning sickness, they cannot act the same turn that they are summoned. However units that can auto-attack are capable of doing so as soon as you end your turn, you will also notice that newly summoned units are greyed out, marking them as unusable.

Ok so now you have summoned your units and plan to use them, well don't go overboard just yet, commands limit the ammount of things you can do per turn and not keeping an eye on the amount of commands you have can be disasterous, everytime you order a unit to do something you use up 1 command. Also passive abilities do not cost commands when they activate.

Beginner’s Blog #1

Welcome fellow Zatikon Players

This is a beginner’s blog. A beginners, as in that I’m a beginner to Zatikon. A beginners, as in that this is my first ever blog I have ever done. A beginners, as in that the people I expect to read this will be beginners to Zatikon too.

Being that I’m a beginner to this game, I don’t really know what I’m talking about. But what I will do is create an illusion that I do know what I’m talking about. If for some strange reason you don’t fall for that illusion then please visit one of my fellow Zatikon blog team members, who are all very well informed on Zatikon and should be able to give you very good advice on the game.

OK, let’s begin beginners:

sgainford vs AI (level 25)

Playing the Artificial Intelligence is a great way to start off and learn this game. First off, you will begin playing the AI in its lower levels, which means you can make many mistakes, which you probably will, because you’re a beginner, but will still be able to win. But don’t get too confident. The more you play the AI the stronger it gets. The AI also has unlimited units and actions, so you need to reach its castle as quickly as possible because it won’t run out of units.

Playing the AI is also good because if you lose to the AI you don’t feel as bad as losing to a human player. If you lose to the AI you can just switch off the computer so the damn thing can’t even think anymore and go grab a beer and watch some TV. However if you lose to a human, he can go grab a beer and watch TV also! And he will probably have a big fat smile on his face and do some big belly laughs, which the AI can’t do; or at least I hope my computer is not laughing at me.

On my side of the ring I have the following units:

Acolyte
Archer
Fire Archer
Tactician
Dracolich

The first thing you will have to do in this game is deploy your units. How you deploy your units is very important. You are limited to how many units you can deploy each turn, by only having 5 squares to choose from on the board, and how many commands it cost to deploy your units. In this particular game I deploy first my Tactician, which means by next turn I will no longer have just 5 commands, which is what you start off with, but will have increased my commands to 6 because of the Tacticians ability to increase my commands by 1. It would have been a blunder to deploy my Tactician last on the board, for then I would miss having 1 command advantage each turn that he was on the board. So any time you have units that will increase your commands when deployed, make sure those are the first units you get out on the board (please see the blog article ‘Gaining More Commands Every Turn’ by my fellow blog team member Mongo for more information on the importance of commands).

I next deploy my Archer. Using an Archer will quickly help you gain an understanding about range in this game. Range is of vital importance and if you ever want to improve your rating in Zatikon you will need to get down what range the units have. Zatikon helps you out with this: click on a unit and information about the unit pops up. In a highlighted blue box you will have what range the unit can move to and in a highlighted red box you will have what range the unit can attack to.

There are some really ugly beasts in this game, which probably smell very bad also. The last thing you want is to have your opponent's disgusting looking units close up to you, and you definitely don’t want them walking around in your nice clean castle. I like to have my opponent's units as far away from me as possible. I find the best way to do that is to stick an arrow right through their skull. It might not be a very polite thing to do, but I think the beasts shouldn’t be getting up all in your territory, especially without taking a bath first!

The Archer has a nice attacking range of 4. And the Archer doesn’t just have an attacking range of 4 diagonally, vertically or horizontally like some units have, but can attack any square within 4 squares of himself. To see who you can attack with the Archer, just click on him and a red boxes will pop up to show you what squares you can attack. What is also great with the Archer is that if you have a clumsy ally that foolishly stumbles in front of you, you can still attack your opponent’s units -- unlike some units the Archer cannot be blocked by his own units when attacking. The problem with the Archer though is that he never listened to his mother when she said "Don’t go out of the house unless you have your armour on.". So the Archer might be happily shooting arrows at his opponent’s units, laughing away, and then he gets a little scratch from an arrow himself and he falls down dead because he doesn’t have any armor on. To try to equal out this weakness you can put a stronger, more protected ally in front of the Archer so that he can give the Archer some protection. And again, the Archer can just shoot right over the Ally unit in front of him and still attack the opponent’s units.

I then deployed my Fire Archer. This unit has one less attacking range than the Archer (3 instead of 4) however makes up with that by having every square within one range of the original attacking square explode for a power hit of three points. This is brilliant when your opponent’s units are close together holding hands. Shoot your fire arrow at them and their hands will blow off, and hopefully their heads too. But again, this unit has no armor so tread carefully.

The AI releases his units and I release the rest of mine. He charges at me with his Paladin and his own Fire Archer. They both foolishly step into my Archers territory. His Fire Archer is quickly extinguished with an arrow in his skull by my Archer. I take a few shots at the Paladin as he approaches, weakening him, and then finish him off with my Dracolich. Many times your Archer will not be strong enough to kill your opponent’s unit right off, however a good strategy is to weaken the unit first with your Archer and then finish it off with one of your stronger units. Also, take heed of the AI’s blunder and learn the following principle: don’t go charging into battle unless you have the necessary backup!





The AI then released a Magus on me, which makes it the first time I have ever played against a Magus. My first impression was ‘what can this old man do to me, with his gray beard and cane? I mean the guy can hardly walk, with a 1 square move to target location and only 1 action.’ Then this old man transforms himself into a Spirit. And the Spirit is indestructible! Then the scenario became "Everybody run for your life! There is some nut case running loose who can’t be destroyed!". Luckily this Sprit’s range is quite low, only having 1 move to target location range and 1 attack enemy unit range. It was a bit strange though, because I was completely beating the AI but at the same time was still running away from him, because of the Spirit. The Spirit definitely made me make haste to the opponent's castle.



Once you get your Archer units within attacking range of your opponent’s castle, there is no reason to go any further with your Archers. This will only put them at risk. The AI released a few more units from his castle, but as soon as he did I just killed them with my Archers. I then took shots at his Gate Guard until he died, then cruised into his castle.

Victory!

Summary of things discussed and learned in this game:

• Archers are great range units but are fragile, so be careful.
• Don’t rush into battle unless you have the necessary back up.
• Just because a unit has a gray beard and cane, doesn’t mean he can’t kick ass!
• Get your archers within attacking range of your opponent’s castle, then go no further. When your opponent releases another unit from his castle, just put an arrow in his brain.

Abjurer

STATS:
Actions per turn: 1
Hit Points: 2
Power: (can not attack)
Armor: 0
Cost: $350

The Abjurer is one of my all time favorite units. It costs just as much as a necromancer or a warlock, but is it really worth the price tag? Yes, because it's one of the few units in the game that let's you attack at a range 6, can act as a summoner, acts as a healer and can give your troops +1 armor for a turn. So let's run down exactly what each of it's special abilities do.

Army gets +1 Armor (max 2). Costs 1 action, lasts 1 turn
The main use for this ability is for extreme defensive positions and stalemates. This ability should be used as a backup ability as 90% of the time the Abjurer should be used to unsummon units. The +1 armor ability gives all units who have 0 or 1 armor an extra unit of armor; but as with all units in Zatikon, they cannot have more 2 armor. Typically, in end game scenarios, it comes in handy not only when you have another summoning unit like a barracks, but if you also have a significant amount of foot troops. As such the +1 armor will give you that much more of an advantage in any offensive/defensive position.

Seal the Castle Gate. 1 action, lasts 2 turns
I have yet to ever come into a scenario that ever used this ability. The main reason is all random armies come included with a gate guard, which supplements this ability. Ideally, this ability has to potential to be useful if it lasted for 4 turns, but at 2 turns, if your using this ability, you have probably already lost at this point seeing as your opponent has already broken down your lines so severely.

Return target to their castle, cast anywhere within 5, 1 action
This is the Abjurer's best ability in the game: unsummoning! Anywhere within 5! Range 5 for means that you can pretty much cover most of the game board; this in turn means your abjurer will be able to consistently provide support for the bulk of your units. There are 4 ways to use this ability:

#1 to unsummon an enemy piece. Your goal with an abjurer is to setup a defensive line first before using the #2 ability. Therefore this part of it's ability is to help zap back units back to the opponent's gate just to stall your opponent. Ideally, you don't want to be using this ability the entire game as all your other units on the board should be striking out offensively or defending the area within 5 that the abjurer can cover.

#2 to unsummon an ally piece. After setting up a decent defensive position, your ready to start pushing forward to attack. The best units to use in conjunction with an abjurer are other long range units like an archers, rangers or horseman, but also standard ground troops can be used. You can safely move up your units make an attack, then simply unsummon any damaged or threatened ally unit. This means, you will be able to penetrate a range of 6 as the abjurer reaches 5 spaces and your other allied unit will reach the 6th line.

#3 unsummoning is healing. Once an ally is damaged after an attack, just move it within 5 of the abjurer and then bring out that unit from your base fully healed again!

#4 unsummoning also means summoning! Currently, in the game there is only 1 unit that this works with: the Ranger. Normally the Ranger only gets 1 wolf to summon, but with the abjurer, you can unsummon him and then refresh the ranger's ability to make another wolf upon redeployment, which means having an infinite amount of wolves. Just be advised, it's better to establish a defensive line and push a little forward before you start using this #4 ability, but every scenario in Zatikon is situational.

Gaining More Commands Every Turn

Every player in Zatikon starts off with the default 5 commands. But, that doesn't mean that you can't gain extra commands every turn! Commands are the things needed to move a unit, attack, use a special ability and to do just about anything in the game. Generally speaking, the player who has more commands in a game has a huge advantage, but this isn't always the case. The ideal in every game should be to have 7 commands or at least 6. Once you go above 8 commands per turn, it's not going to be significantly helpful. So, how can you gain more commands per turn? here are the few units that can help do that:

Tactician, General, Command Post, Strategist and Sergeant.

Tactician:
Every Tactician you have in play will give you 1 extra command. That might not seem like that big a deal, but it helps out dramatically. Plus, he's as cheap as they come as he only costs $50. The drawback of the tactician is that he can't attack or defend, but all your other troops will be very excited to see him on your side of the battlefield.

General:
The General, in addition to giving you 1 extra command per turn like the Tactician, also let's you deploy all your troops for -1 command. Deployment is what it costs to bring a unit onto the gameboard, so the sooner you can deploy your stuff the better off you are. The general is also a well rounded unit as he has 4 hit points, 3 power and 2 armor. Basically, he's a run of the mill defensive backup unit that helps you deploy everything faster and gives 1 extra command per turn.

Command Post:
The Command Post like the General, lets you deploy all your troops for -1 command. The Command Post can also store up to 2 commands per turn and has no limit to how many commands it can store. Once you activate the Command Post, you will use up all those commands for 1 turn and be able to use way beyond the normal 5 default commands. This helps in doing attacks/defense moves that would normally be impossible.

Strategist:
The Strategist is also similar to the tactician in that it costs $50 and it can not attack or defend. But, instead of just gaining 1 command per turn, the Strategist gives you +1 command for EVERY attack your opponent makes on any of your units. So, as you can imagine, that could mean a lot of extra commands. I think overall, the strategist is just as useful as the tactician, it mainly depends upon what game mode you are playing and what units you and your opponent are using.

Sergeant:
The Sergeant is a normal weak unit with 1 great ability. The Sergeant lets any other unit perform all their actions for free. So, all those free actions can definitely add up, especially with the fact the sergeant only costs $50. Additionally, Sergeant has 2 actions per turn, so this means you can technically let 2 other ally units perform both their actions for free if they are standing 1 space away from the sergeant. Last but not least, unlike the strategist and tactician, the strategist at least can attack but it's rarely ever used for doing so.