What troops should I train?

[DeepTerminal]

I just finished Ch. 15, and in the process of leveling my newly-built Merc Camp and Training Grounds. Once I have all 3 running, which troops should I train for each? I know that for Elves, the Sorceress from Barracks is very weak, and I should get Blossom Mage from Merc Camp. I also heard that for Elves, the Golem and the Treant are both strong. What are some other very strong troops? Which type of light melee units should I prioritize?

Finally, are there any good strategy for using different troops for different purposes? For example, should I use specialize troops more for spire, and normal troops (from Barracks) more for tourney?

 

[Fayeanne]

I am not that high in chapters yet, but based on my experience so far:

- Barracks: Golem
- Training Grounds: Cerberus and Orc Strategist*
- Mercenary Camp: Everything but Drone Rider

(Note: The names change at three stars, but you should be able to figure out which is which.)

* The Orc Strategist requires Orcs, so you may choose to get them via other sources than by training them directly.

- Light Melee is weak; I avoid using them unless the battle is extremely in my favor anyway. If you are going to use them, pretty much the only one worth using is the Cerberus because of its movement range (though they are very frail).

- Light Ranged: I find the Barracks Archer/Crossbowman to be fine, but the Ranger tends to be better at higher stars since they get better range and Strike Back. (If they're not at three stars yet, you may want to mix in some Archers/Crossbowmen for their debuff.)

- Mage: Both Sorceress and Banshee are cannon fodder. Priests and Blossom Mages are the only ones worth using. Make maximum use of their range. They can attack outside of retaliation range of everything (even Mist Walkers).

- Heavy Melee: I find Treants to be troublesome to use because of their lack of range. Yes, they are hardy, but they will struggle to reach their foes to hit them, and battles tend to take longer since the Treants are spending a lot of time chasing their enemies or getting stuck where only one Treant can attack per round because the enemy has run into a corner or whatever. For this reason, I much prefer Paladins (if Human) or Vallorian Guards (if not).

- Heavy Ranged: Here is where all of the units in this category are actually useful. Golems are overall pretty hardy. Orc Strategists have Strike Back and will mow down Light Ranged. Both Mortars and Frogs are very good as support units because they can pretty much hit anything anywhere on the map, so they can strategically take down foes without terrain being an issue.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

Both Sorceress and Banshee are cannon fodder. Priests and Blossom Mages are the only ones worth using.

Banshees are the best unit to use against Heavy Range.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Banshees are the best unit to use against Heavy Range.

Really? Even if the HR that you're up against has short range?
I've found that Range>bonuses has great results, so I've never even really considered banshees.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

Really? Even if the HR that you're up against has short range?
I've found that Range>bonuses has great results, so I've never even really considered banshees.

Banshees are +90%/-80% vs HR. So that's 5x damage reduction right there, and basically double the damage. This is without any other boosts. They also do -50% defense and -40% enemy attack as special abilities.

Banshees weakness is that they're generally not amazing against units that are not HR. But pure HR, or mostly HR, Banshees just roflstomp.

 

[Fayeanne]

Interesting. I think my personal experience has been colored by having Priests, and not having three-star Banshees. Three-star Priests have just slightly less of the same bonuses as three-star Banshees, plus slightly higher HP and much better attack range. The attack range often lets them finish battles without taking a hit, whereas Banshees (and Sorceresses) have to put themselves into harm's way to do any damage. I prefer taking no damage over taking less-than-normal damage. Another issue is I have seen Banshees/Sorceresses get murdered by bad terrain, so I tend to avoid using them unless the fight is already pretty easy.

Still, it is worth knowing what battles one can throw spare Banshees at just to use them up and to save the better units.

 

[hvariidh gwendrot]

train them all

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

Interesting. I think my personal experience has been colored by having Priests, and not having three-star Banshees.

Yeah, should have mentioned that this was from a perspective of an Elf city. I am not that familiar with boosts for Human barracks units, but Priests are certainly pretty good.

 

[The Unbeliever]

Yeah, should have mentioned that this was from a perspective of an Elf city. I am not that familiar with boosts for Human barracks units, but Priests are certainly pretty good.

Priests + Blossoms are busted as feth due entirely to their range.
Frogs once they hit 3* probably have a decent argument for being lumped in with the above as being an S-Tier unit as well, simply due to that insane debuff they carry.

It honestly doesn't matter what game you're playing, as a general rule of thumb, Range >>>>> Melee.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Frogs once they hit 3* probably have a decent argument for being lumped in with the above as being an S-Tier unit as well, simply due to that insane debuff they carry.

Yeah, you can win many(most?) spire fights by blinding sending a combination of Forest Wardens, Blossom Mages, and 3* Frogs with minimal losses ((UUU+ELR+MMM)x1)
It's not the most efficient, but it works so often against the mixed bag lineups that I find myself leaning on it more often than I should.

 

[mucksterme]

I'm chapter 17 elf

In barracks I mostly train Archers and Sorcs. I get the other stuff "free" from AWs, which is plenty since I don't use them much. I especially do not use either of the heavies on manual since they have such lousy range.

training grounds Banshee and Dryads

merc camp Ranger Blossom Toad. I get Vallorians from Valars and I never use that other thing.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

I'm chapter 17 elf

In barracks I mostly train Archers and Sorcs.

Interesting. Archers are fine, but Sorceress? That's a terrible unit, there is absolutely no reason to use it if you have Blossom Princesses, even to save a slot at Mercenary Camp. On the other hand, Golems are actually pretty good, they can soak a lot of damage. Treants are pretty decent as well (as far as any heavy melee are concerned), but can rarely do better than Vallorians. Well, nowadays HM usage is extremely rare regardless.

I exclusively train Golems in the Barracks.

 

[T6583]

I have to agree that all the Merc Camp fighters except for the drone rider are awesome. My favorite is the Blossom Mage followed by the Forest Warden and Frog Prince. Golems for barracks followed by Treants. Ceribus in Training Grounds. Though I also find Orc Strategists useful and Poison Dryad from time to time.

 

[Henroo]

Yeah, should have mentioned that this was from a perspective of an Elf city. I am not that familiar with boosts for Human barracks units, but Priests are certainly pretty good.

3 star Priests are beyond good. Especially once you get and level Dragon Abbey. When facing highly mixed groups of enemies with many types, Priests are often my go-to unit. Unless the enemy force has 2 or more groups of totally anti-mage specialized units such Hellhounds or Mist Walkers. Then I consider other options! And it does require 2 or more such units for me to think Priests won't work. If there is only 1 anti-mage unit and the rest of the line-up is favorable for mages, I am most likely going to send the Priests. And usually they will win.

 

[Yogi Dave]

I'm human and done with ch 17, to give my perspective. In early tourney rounds and through most of the spire, I use all the barracks troops. Yes, even the barbarian and mortar, but I very rarely built those two. When the barbarian begin to fail, I usually switch to dogs. From the training camp, I train dogs the most, orc strats 2nd (but have many grounds of orc strats) , and dryads a bit. Never orc warriors. I just don't use them. I prefer using blossom mages against HM instead of the dryads. The merc. camp is my fav. I train everything except drone riders. I use blossom mages and rangers the most, but also use a good number of frogs. Lizards I use the least (ok drone riders are almost never used) but since I have many hot tubs (Vallorian Valor) I don't usually train them.

People have asked me why I use blossom mages instead of priests in the higher provs and rounds. Blossom mages have a higher initiative than priests so get to fire earlier in the rounds than the priest would. Also, they have a higher attack value against most opponents. These are valuable assets and can win the battle without the opponent taking a single shot more often than the priest do. However, they are more fragile than the priests and there are cases when it's better to have the enemy move first. When a round of survival is required and/or it's better to let the enemy move closer, priest become the better choice. But, like I said at the beginning, all the barracks troops work nicely in the easier battles which lets me save the mercenaries for the tougher battles, especially when it gets to the point I'm going to fight manually.

Although it's rare that I use banshees, they are cool in a manual battle with the sound on. They screech the enemy to death and make an awesomely loud sound when they die. Definitely the loudest troop around. You may want to turn the sound level down when you use them. Well, maybe worth having it loud the 1st time you use them.