So from what Spaniard tells me battling is no longer about maneuvering but cluncking heads and smashing walls. This true?

not entirely crimson, most people just don't want to put the time and effort into battles to dance a little. Thats my perception of it anyways. everyone wants to charge in without paying any attention to the positioning of their troops and hope for the best. About as entertaining as playing heads or tails. It really depends on who you are battling though.

Yeah, I admit I'm a little impatient and want to get to it. I'm usually playing a battle when I have less time so need to hurry somewhat. I can see where the dance is necessary especially if playing the better players. I typically end up tripping over my own feet and falling right in front of my opponents army. Doh!

Ha ya I get you. Always find it so tempting with a range army to just shoot up the first thing that comes my way.

Now for the second question. Whats the reigning combo now for points battles? I know it changes with every upgrade and i've missed a few.

It depends on who you ask.

Last Edited : Saturday, 28 November 2009 - 14:52

Not that melee units are back in the fight; it really comes down to an individual style for each player now. But I'm sure there's a "Power combo" or two around to be discovered

thats a great question crimson...

for a long time marks became the troop of choice...but now they require a bit more support...i think a lot depends on who you are playing.. and the map is the most important factor in troop selection...thats just my opinion

Crim to be honest there is not a set up quite as powerful as the old balli /ram pairing, alot of guys here never saw it in action

lol those damn rams wouldn't die @.@

you've always been more up on point based games over me Hairy, always kept my nose in the scenarios :O

From what i've gathered thanks in part to heat is that arbalisters are pretty terrible to face in mass, though i suspect that balista could put them in their place pretty well.

Over all it looks like its pretty balanced now, definately glad for that. Latitude i strategy is always the life blood of a game like this though the building like 6 squares away from a commandeer sorta throws me off @.@

you can't build six spaces away from a comm crimson. you have to be 6 spaces away from enemy troops to build, i don't know if thats the misconception you had but that is how it came off.

Arbs have definitely made their place in WoL where before they were absolutely useless. Now an arb can take out 1pop master level unit if it is at 10pop. 1 marks can only take out 2pop master level unit. This makes arbs much more tempting.

ballistas will make arbs hate life but ballistas absolutely have to be defended from melee troops and are slow and have a 50% penalty to attack after moving on that turn. IMO marks have little use anymore, i still see them used more than anything else though. prob because people don't want to have to wait the extra turn it takes to get the ballis where they are going due to their being slow. maybe they just don't realize the power of the new arbs and their cost efficiency.

Yeah, but range is still king. If a missile unit attacks from beyond the defender's range it effectively gives it the knight's special - i.e. no retal.

That said, a balli attacking an arb would need to attack from range 6 - which would give a "long range" reduction of 20% of the damage done.

Assuming both units are 10 pop, a balli would do 120-180 +50% large stack bonus -20%range = 180-270 - 36-54 = 144-216, (4.2-6.4 pop) for no loss. If the balli had to move to get that range right, this damage would be halved to 72-108 (2.1-3.2).

If you've bought arbs instead of ballis, you probably have more of them. When positioning, try to make sure that all of them are within range 3 of the all the opponents ballis (if that can't be done, make sure they are within range 5, or beyond range 10). This will mean that the ballis will take retal when they attack the arbs, or it will foce the ballis to move, reducing the damage they can do.

If the ballis do move to get the best shot, always reposition your arbs to force the to do it again. Money spent on arbs gives you more hit points than money spent on ballis, but this advantage is easily eroded if you let the ballis get shots without retal.

I presume that arbs are pretty effective against ballis in melee? (but you should have melee units for that purpose, right? - they have more hp and do more damage than arbs, pound for pound (or gold for gold)).

up my bad, what i've seen from balis is near insain so far but i guess when you do the math it adds up. a bali in a castlecan kill 5 falch outside 4 and i think it kills close to 2 master level units. the expense and time to maneufacture seems to be their only real limitations. seems catapults do well against them thought, out range and if garrisoned in a barracks with comm bonus, assuming the enemy isn't in a castle himself, kills about 2-3 bali with no retal, its probably about 1-2 in the feild and they'r similar in price to the bali who struggle to kill 1 cat a shot and always get retal if melee isn't beating them.

yeah, cats are the balli's nemesis - I'd always deploy 2 cats with the ballis in a campaign army. I guess you can't really afford this in a battle (but then your opponent won't be able to afford many cats either)

I would hope that's not true...granted, sometimes that's the case. People play with 2-3 unit set ups and just throw everything at you, but that's usually at the low end of the spectrum.

The best battles I've had have been drawn out affairs, easily lasting up to two hours, with quite a bit of maneuvering before the main action heats up (and afterward). It's really pretty exhilarating if both players are skilled and neither army has a clear advantage: you realize that the outcome of the battle depends entirely on how you play, and the battle may not be decided until the last few turns. If both players are smart, and execute well, there won't be any glaring errors to take advantage of, meaning the battle will hinge on making the most out of every turn, weighing costs and benefits and hoping you've made wise tactical/strategic choices.

...hummm, I really should start playing again :p