Jordan Newman
United States
Olympia
Washington
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I have been looking into this game for a while and I am wondering which armies I should get. What the strengths and weaknesses of all the different armies. I'm trying to figure out which army best suties my style of tactical thinking.
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Piero S. P.
Italy
Turin
"If our gods and our hopes are nothing but scientific phenomena, then it must be said that our love is scientific as well." - L'Eve Future
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What is your style of tactical thinking?
I can give you advice only on some army.
High Elves - manoeuvre, lots of delay
Humans - balanced, very good units overall
Orcs - crushing power, little discipline
Undead - unyielding frailness
Lizardman - fast, fast and savage. Out for blood.
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Wulf Corbett
Scotland
Shotts
Lanarkshire
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My additional comments...
Gorgoneion wrote: High Elves - manoeuvre, lots of delay Lots of archers too, good for defence against a slow opponent!Quote: Humans - balanced, very good units overall Also quite easy to learn, no complications.Quote: Orcs - crushing power, little discipline And lots of cheap GoblinsQuote: Undead - unyielding frailness Make certain you use the official upgrade for Skeleton Spearmen & Horde - add one additional Amber hit each unit. Cheap units, and lots, lots lots of them!Quote: Lizardman - fast, fast and savage. Out for blood. In my experience, a mix of big tough nasty units, and small fast nasty units - but they all keep failing their morale checks!  Still, you get Raptors & Triceratops...
Also...
Umenzi: Good variety of foot units, with plenty of special powers, but quite a bit of added complexity in using them.
Ravenwood Elves: mobile, capable, some interesting units. Not outstanding, but trustworthy and has some nice specialist units. Decent archery, not as good as the High Elves.
Dwarves: Tough, slow, heavy hitters. Only a few ranged units.
Dark Elves: lots of ranged magical power and some kinky outfits... (I've never actually used them yet)
Mercs & Monsters: The mercs can be fielded as an army on their own, but it's limited in variety, even though it does cover all the vital areas - infantry, cavalry, archers & magic. The Monsters are lovely for bigger (higher point...) battles. Add a T-rex or a Hydra in to a lizardmen army and watch the enemy scatter!
I would also highly recommend using some simple terrain after a few games. The terrain pack supplies lots, but you can do with your own substitutes at first.
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Matthew McMahon
United States
Virginia
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As Piero stated each army has a unique style and strength. Here is a list of the factions and comments from a post on the Your Move Games forum.(link - http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,4496.0.html)
Dark Elves – This faction has a great selection of tanks, speedbumps, infantry units, and cavalry. Their ranged attack power is absolutely fantastic with the Witching Hour curse. It has many good options for breakthrough units between Duskblades, Blade Dancers, Lashmistresses, Lord of Dusk, and Dusk Lances. It also has a lot of shenanigans in Lashmistresses, Drake Riders, and Coven. As downsides, they don’t have a good answer to 6-skill offense units and suffer greatly if their shenanigans are mitigated. Also, they have problems in an archery fight because they can’t shield their shooters. While they have their bad matchups, this is probably the strongest faction in the game as it stands.
Carthage – Libyan Foot and Elephants make great breakthrough units, and skirmishers and Gallic Warriors are great speed bumps and tanks. With Foresight, they can get the Libyan Foot and Elephants matched up in favorable fights. Between Skirmishers and Numidian Cavalry, Carthage has lots of ways to mitigate your opponent’s shenanigans. However, most of their units pay for front-loaded damage which is a waste of points if those units need to stall more than win their fights. The faction has to get good matchups or it wastes a ton of points. Also, they often can’t deal with units with good defenses that cost over 300 points. Their cavalry is cheap but highly ineffective in a fight and isn’t a good value compared to similarly-costed cavalry in other factions.
High Elves – This faction has great defenses across the board and lots of different offensive profiles. It’s easily one of the strongest factions. However, this faction really suffers from variance. If it had Cold Blooded and Defy Fate instead of Oathbound and Deadly Strike, I could probably make the case that this faction belongs in the “Very Strong” category. It also suffers from not having a good line infantry unit between 187 and 299 points (Rangers don’t count), and no speed bump units.
Orcs – The Orcs have a stout line and great options for breakthrough units in Axemen and Marauders (perhaps one of the best breakthrough units, since dice is often the limiting constraint on how fast you can kill speed bumps). There are several factions that have lots of trouble against a 2/3 defense line. However, they don’t have many options for tanks. Crazed Goblins charge themselves into combat and thus tend to die much faster than Peasant Mobs, and Goblin Raiders are much more expensive than Militia but have worse tanking stats.
Ravenwood – This faction has a pretty good range of infantry, and a bunch of units that are extremely difficult for the opposing player to deal with. Stag Cavalry, Centaurs, Archers, Bowmasters, and Treants can all make a lot of trouble for your opponent. Even the Nets ability can swing a fight in your favor and create a hole in your opponent’s line that he isn’t prepared to deal with. Finally, Ravenwood also has the best offensive checkmark ability in the game. However, the faction’s line units can be unreliable. Ravenwood Swordsmen are really bad against units with 6-skill offense and have less life than comparable units in other factions (plus they cost more). Bear Packs require the not-so-stellar Bearkin and really suffer from opponents playing Force and Might. Wolfkin are pretty expensive for a 2/1 tank, although they can hold up enemies for a lot longer if they rout on the opponent’s turn. Because the faction doesn’t have a Courage-boosting or Courage reroll card, the line’s flakiness is a huge weakness.
Rome – Like Carthage, Rome has great breakthrough units in Veteran Principes and Italian Swordsmen. Unlike Carthage, Rome also has cheap tanks in Hastati, 3/2 defense Triarii, one of the best spearmen in the game, and a 2/2 defense unit at 200 points. Rome’s cavalry is better and cheaper than Carthage’s cavalry, although they still can’t be expected to win a fight. On the other hand, Rome has a higher point density and don’t have a 6-power unit to break through 3-defense units. They don’t have Foresight to get the best matchups. In longer fights, they can deal with high-toughness units with repeated Replacements, but this is expensive both in points (costs 348 points for 2x Italian Swordsmen) and Command Actions. Rome also doesn’t have fast breakthrough units. Finally, Rome’s courage is dicey, especially around the end-game when backup units can’t be found.
Umenzi – This faction has great line units (which is good, because that’s pretty much all it has!). Possessed are fantastic speed bumps, Initiates are great “Militia”-level speed bumps, Javelineers are fantastic against normal line units, Beserkers are great matched up against weak units, and Chosen can be expected to win their fight against almost any other line unit. Shamans provide some minor but very much appreciated blesses and hexes, along with healing a few points of damage. Also, the Giant War Elephant always has to be accounted for. Their problem is they don’t have any units faster than 3.5” at reasonable prices, which opponents really should take advantage of.
Dwarves – For their points, the units are very tough in combat. Rune of Uruz is fantastic on breakthrough units since it can be the difference between winning in 2 turns and winning in 3. However, they don’t have a lot of high skill guys and they’re really slow.
Hawkshold – They have a good mix of units of all types. They really suffer from not having a normal-speed strong infantry unit. Also, while their Swordsmen and Spearmen have more green boxes counterpart linemen in other factions, they have less green+yellow boxes.
Monsters and Mercenaries – Their selection of normal infantry units is extremely limited and they have to deal with all kinds of drains on Command Actions. However, unlike the Lizardmen, their 200-point line units have 2/3 defense and their 140-point speed bumps have a courage boosting ability. Despite being stupid, Ogres are much more affordable than Tyrants. They also have a better selection of large units, including ones that can be direct controlled. I think Monsters and Mercenaries barely makes the bottom of the Average pack.
Lizardmen – IMO all of their Hatchlings, Swarmlings, Trogs, Tyrants, Bowmen, and Raptor Packs are overcosted, probably by around 3%. Their line units just suck at tanking for their points, and can't be expected to win their matchups very quickly. Their heavy units are great, but are Ancients have the green/red health box issue and Trike Herds and T-Rexes can be shenaniganed. They don’t have a good way of dealing with high evade defenses.
Undead – They suffer from speed discrepancies and don’t have a good breakthrough unit against high-skill factions. Death Knights are very touchy and can die very easily. Besides them, the only reasonable breakthrough unit in this faction is the Skeleton Trolls, and they have trouble against units with good power and units with high evade defense. Their cheap units are pretty good, but they can’t be expected to win the fight for you.
There is also a thread for each faction that goes into detail on an evaluation of each unit and general strategies for the faction. http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/board,9.0.html
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Rogil Camama
United States
Virginia
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The links boltana posted are a good source. In the first link, note that the discussion continues and not everyone agrees. I definitely disagree with Death Knights dying very easily. Then again, I'm biased after being on the receiving end of a charge by a pair of them...
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Jordan Newman
United States
Olympia
Washington
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Thanks for all the info guys.
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Jordan Newman
United States
Olympia
Washington
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Gorgoneion wrote: What is your style of tactical thinking? I can give you advice only on some army. High Elves - manoeuvre, lots of delay Humans - balanced, very good units overall Orcs - crushing power, little discipline Undead - unyielding frailness Lizardman - fast, fast and savage. Out for blood.
I like to have a strong center line with cavalry on my flanks. I play the Total War RTS series and this strategy usually serves me well in those games.
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Kevin Block-Schwenk
United States
Massachusetts
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Quote: I like to have a strong center line with cavalry on my flanks.
I'd say that the best army for this is Rome. Mainly because their Italian Cavalry is cheap enough (about half the price of Hawkshold Light Cav) that you'll be able to affored a good center line. If you're sticking with fantasy, Hawkshold may be your best bet.
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