Overview
Basic Formation, Skill/Attribute priorities and general tips.
AI advantage and Skill / Attributes priorities
A little bit about myself I’m a big fan of strategy guides and made guides for TW series Rome – Shogun II – Attila – Warhammer (Legendary) and Xcom (Ironmode). I also own many Strategy games and play chess in a regular basis. This guide will help you succeed and mitigate your units losses.
Some of my good results :D.
Now let’s get started.
First off the advantage & behavior of AI:
AI tends to be better with charge triggers than your ambush.
AI goes for your weakest first (We be using this to our advantage)
AI goes for Wyrdstones loots (Which can be used to track down movements by overview map, rough estimate and sounds).
More skills even at same rating especially at median level warband. It normalizes at max ratings.
Ddamage bonus especially at harder difficulties and major boost with their hit points.
Your advantage
Delay functionality
Disengage functionality
Range weaponry – AI is just bad with range mechanics.
Focused builds – AI is known to distribute their attributes all over the place.
Attributes to focus early on for your melee henchies & (maybe) heroes:
Agility – Some say Toughness but mathematically speaking since the AI doesn’t have many attacks nor have a lot of skill attributes for crit values (at start things change around lvl 6-7 warband consistency) I’d say better not to get hit than get hit. Besides Agil works to buff your dodge which is a plus considering most of the time you be wearing cloth until you get heavy armor. If it is a henchman melee tank you are going for I suggest to max Agil then toughness. Or start putting toughness around lvl 6-7 because the AI units tend to have access to some crit skill (earlier against Skaven).
Added note about toughness: It has a lot of good potential in LATE game & PVP eccentric builds. But we are here to not get OOA’d and it is best if the AI misses a lot then hitting you especially when you play at harder difficulties.
Alertness – Psychology is the least of your concern. In fact besides All Alone which can be easily remedied there is not much for value for LED except for opening good mastered skills like Insult etc. Most Leadership values are 30% anyways to succeed soo yeah, don’t need it until you make a specific build (more likely for a damage eccentric hero or support hero for warcry etc). Leaderships values can be good at around lvl 6-7 when AI will start to have access with melee resistance skill/buffs. I only have one insult user in my Skaven Warband the rest got starting leadership :D.
Added note about Leadership: Almost a must in PvP since most good players will spot your initiative ladder and try to make a force ALL Alone roll on your units (AI is not good in terms of this) The only time you might get a problem like i’ve mentioned dealing with AI is ambushes.
Weapon skill – Yes we are going for melee resist values :D.
Make sure to get shield specialist on your henchman at lvl 3 this will ensure additional survivability on your henchies.
Create a “critter” – This pretty much saves me in most battles, be aware that high crit means at most times low hit chance. (it doesn’t do you any good if it is below 50% to hit). But if you account Insult or any range / melee resist debuff values you can get a very good critter (for rats you can get upwards of 50%+).
Melee resistance is important considering AI is horrible at range mechanics and spells have a tendency to blow them up (Speaking of spells don’t use it until you get a purple staff or hammer & have skills that lowers the curse values which comes around at lvl 6-7 there is no rush for it). All the priority stats i’ve mentioned all contribute and open up skills for melee resistance buff. Awareness – Shield Specialist – Defensive Stance etc. Getting it up to 40% is vital especially at lvl 6.
What happens in level 6 (I think?) At brutal+ difficulty! Daemons! I hunt them! Defending on your warband size it is recommended that you have 2 melee resist tank solely for Daemons maybe 1 – 3 to enemy AI. Surprisingly you get 5 henchman that can be good melee resist tanks (except for darksoul they suck). What happen to range henchman. I normally build them for 6 Ballistic and MAX Accuracy. The only strategy I can see in them is fully take advantage of height and pepper down units. Why max accuracy? Because of headshots (just my own preference, go for ballistic if you like there is no problem there or get 1 each!). I like the stun values because you can practically stun everything in game 😀 the penalties they get when they recover is a lot. Of course it is not guaranteed but oh well having a chance to control the field of battle is a good thing.
Game is all about controlling the flow of battle and with that comes with formation
Formations
Now to battle formations:
Some say that it is better to camp inside a house, wearing your apron while waiting for the enemy AI to sell you girl scout cookies creating a ambush choke point. No this is blasphemy, this is madness. No THIS IS SPARTA. (totally acceptable strategy especially if you are range eccentric warband). There are many downside with this approach. The amount of units you can engage the enemy with which is max 3 for example worst you get is 2.
What do you do? I don’t want to be called a camper! The first thing you do is make an approximate. how much distance the enemy can cover so you can set up a staging point. Loot until discovered, then rally to designated area. Skaven can cover up to 50% of the in a small map up to 40% in large maps (so yeah keep that in mind). The other factions not so much unless they bring some light heroes (with general buffs like For Sigmar). Let’s just say to be safe that can cover 30-40% of the map.
Shield Wall Gameplay:
Also called Testudo formation (meaning teenage mutant ninja turtles) by the Romans It was very effective during the Ancient times. Surprisingly the word Warband derived from Warrior ancestry. They call it Comitatus aka German Warband which was used & trained by the Romans which expanded their legion.
Testudo!!!
As illustrated in the screenshot you can move your warband while protecting your weakest unit.
*Tank *Tank
* Weakling
*Tank *Tank
Weakling stands for glass builds or support builds that don’t do well with melee (not like a tank).
In this battle formation I’m taking advantage of the AI willingness to go towards my weakest unit which is behind my shield wall while setting up an ambush point.
As long as circle overlaps you dont have to worry about them breaking thru.
You can partially collapse your units and re-adjust to create a new shield wall front. demonstrated with the last screenshot.
Advancing your shield wall:
Here is an example of my black skaven exposed rear and how I use my melee resist tank to cover it. 3 warpguards to protect it from the oncoming onslaught while engaging an enemy unit.
What happens to don’t block the disengage line? You ask. This is one of the exceptions.
Goading ambush AI into open field.
The goal in an open field battle is to push the AI into open and surround it with the max attackers (Which is 5, 4 if you bring large impressives). At times it is best to take the initial ambush impact ratther than charging.
Ultimate defense line
|Wall|*Tank *Tank *Tank *Tank |Wall|
—————- disengage line ——————–
Support – DPS – Moochers
Pretty much the most effective formation against AI.
Key points:
– “Shield Wall” allows the use of defensive values and relying on counterattacks.
– Protects your glass builds / support builds
– Can advance with small risk to your units.
General Tips
Some tips –
– Never hug a wall unless you got a unit ready to fill the sides of it. What you value with your shield wall is the disengage function it provides If you are engage and your backside is in front of a wall then you are getting rid of one of your advantage. If you are darksoul… good luck… poor you I had a hard time with my darksouls…. they just horrible get warpguards unlock as quickly as possible.
– Calculate the gap of your circle that way if you bring starting large impressive they can get in and out of shield wall for killing blows (Delay functionality plays a big part).
– Assume the worst when you surround and break your line. Assume that you will miss (95% “hit” hahaha). Always go for the max encirclement.
– It is best if you manage your initiative for Damage Dealers I often make them wear cloth with high alertness that way you can cycle your dps getting in – out of your shield wall. If needed your shield wall can advance and cover your break away units. They really don’t need to do damage, they are there to tank. In fact at times I just go hug a unit, stance and don’t attack.
– Make specific roles with different skills sets.
– Always try to bring 2 meds (poultice especially).
– Avoid Horrors of Mordheim.
– Be wary of bringing Heroes in rank 4 and Impressive in rank 5 Warbands you might find yourself in a big penalty. You are pretty much bringing a lvl 1 against a lvl 5-6 (or 7). It is best to get them up by doing Story Missions or reduce difficulty (if you like) Normal or Hard works ok. Get them up at least lvl 3 that way they can make an actual difference.
– Like I already mentioned saving your Story Missions until you unlock an impressive is good strats.
– Know your enemy. It takes a lot of familiarization to know the advantages of the AI factions and skills.
– Count red pills and blue pills, count the expected damage value the ai can deliver on your units.
– Daemons often spawn in the same spots. Odds are that Daemon spawn in 1 to 2 spots depending on map. Memorizing them where they spawn can give you an edge.
– You can also count the number of units during deploy phase . If the numbers doesn’t compare to yours (you know there is a Daemon)
– You can goad the AI in one portions of the map and can achieve most of the optional objectives (especially Crushing Their Will). Allowing you an open side to get a runner or a looter (probably). Just be careful sometimes AI tend to get stuck near their spawn.
– If you can equip your warriors with secondary either a range or shield/one-hand or 2h variation. Range is good especially if you got a dying warrior that way he can still participate behind your shield line.
Ambushes
I got hit with this 4 x in my Skaven Walkthrough. If you follow my guide regarding skill attributes, the only drawback you should have is All Alone which is not that big considering if you follow the guide. Your units pretty much rocking Alertness which helps get back with your group (which control the penalties of all alone just in case your AI doesn’t like one of your units)and high melee resist values which helps you survive more.
I suggest you centralized most of your weakest light units (unless you discovered a Daemon or Impressive in front) If you follow my guide your highest hero/leader should have +15 Alertness (for mastery Awareness) which can be used in the middle to see any of these dangers. Heavies on the side that way the heavies don’t have to go all the way to the other side to support your army.
If you can’t deploy FIND the weakest unit in your line and set up a wall there. Disengage if you have to.
A 4 man team.
4 man team 1 Leader 2 hero 1 Impressive
A 4 man team is ok especially if you want quicker battles. If you also use a melee resist – dodge/parry builds like I mentioned it shouldn’t be difficult.
The biggest advantage you get running with a 4 man team is that the enemy AI units tend to get Impressives. Three out of five factions have large impressives that ends up getting stuck. So that pretty much lower the capability of the AI effectively.
Transition phases (Starting out).
Starting out:
Level 1 – 3 I advice that you get 2h or dual wield on all your characters
Level 3 – 8 I advice that you get your henchman shield with heavy armor.
Level 8-10 You can transition your henchies into 2 handers (Darksouls) but preferably they stay as heavy/shield/melee resist(or parry builds?).
Level 7-10 Toughness is an important stats to level up at this time (your starting values are relatively bad against high accuracy, high crit skills (which the enemy spams) and multiple attacks.
Also it is not bad to transition totally to toughness at this lvl phase (for future plans in PVP) for your new level 6-7 henchies/heroes (Hired Swords).