Choosing Troops
The army lists are not exhaustive, nor do you have to take every troop available
on the list. It is key to get used to playing with your army, to find which troops work best
in what arrangement for your own playing style.
In compiling your army it's a question of balance, low skill troops are cheap, their
advantage is in numbers not in full frontal attack. It is important to support low
value troops so their numbers can pin the enemy down while you bring shock troops in
to cause damage.
Missile troops attract the higher costs, but missiles are useful to bring down expensive
troops. Your enemy may have missile immunity which renders these expensive troops
useless.
Cavalry are useful to flank your opponent they are a shock troop, cover good ground
and pack a punch. With 2 wounds, they can hold their own if outnumbered by low skill
troops.
Some troops can infiltrate, this means you can pay the extra points to have them
deploy later in the game, they can even appear behind the enemy. They can be effective
assassins to a lone character wandering on the board.
Units with special abilities must be used to get the best out of them. Where they
have terrain benefits then you must deploy them near a zone that lets them but use
this skill.
Natural ability can allow troops to move and fire without adversely affecting their
accuracy, troops that can't do this should be moved when you don't need them to
fire. You could use two units of troops one behind the other, the front unit skirmished
and firing, the unit behind can move through and skirmish. Next turn the front unit
fires and the rear moves through. You only get one units of fire per turn, but it
is without penalty.
Characters form an important choice, having multiple lesser characters can bolster units
of troops. The number of mages also affects how much magic you can use in the game.
You may choose to have no mages and a leader with general spells to dispel enemy magic, allowing you to invest the extra in a monster or another unit champion.
Monsters are expensive but powerful, smaller monsters make good mounts for leaders
increasing the amount of wounds and attacks. After 4 wounds different rules apply
to losing wounds, so they make good mounts for lesser leaders.
Artillery is not essential by any means, it does provide a good long range attack,
but with the skill level it's still only a 50% chance of hitting and, with the exception of ballistae, artillery can only fire
every other turn. Armies with low missile troops may find benefit
in a battery of artillery.