Since this strategy section seems kinda slow and dead (more so than other parts of the SE forums) I suppose I could compile a few common strategies and some info on them in one thread, to help new people, or anyone who hasn't played in a while etc.
Obviously, if a patch changes stuff, some info in here might not be the same, so remember that this is most likely only accurate on the date of the last edit. Also, note that I am only in the mid to late 1800 ratings. So I don't know alot about strategies past that.
Well, onwards to the strategies, remember this is common ones that I have some knowledge about. There's a basic info thing before the strategy, which is in spoilers and goes more in-depth. Along with that, there is a counter in the spoilers, which actually takes up a good part of it.
Spearton Rush
Ease of Execution: 1/10
Ease of Countering: 4/10
Common at: 1200-1500
Comment: Very simple, works best if opponent caught by surprise
Usually, this starts with either an early Spearton (by using both miners for mana immediately)
The person executing this will generally keep a defensive position at his base while continually building Speartons until they have reached the max population. They may keep many garrisoned to hide them from a tower spawn or other scout, if they're smart. Once they reach maximum population, they will all run past your army and straight to your statue in an attempt to destroy it.
Usually seen at lower ranks due to no micro needed and the fact that lower ranks may not know how to counter this, however countering is easy.
Keep a hold of the tower if possible (usually possible since offensive Spearton rushers seem fairly uncommon in my experience) and use the tower spawn to cover archers or Swordwrath (Archidonis are usually better) as they harass any miners. The Spearton ghost will absorb castle archer arrows as long as it went in range before your other units. Killing miners and damaging or killing a Spearton (Miners are first priority though) will delay your opponent and allow you to build up defences.
2 Miner Walls should be placed as close to the tower as possible (if you hold it) so that if one is destroyed, you can quickly build another one farther from the tower, and closer to your base. This delays the speartons so that your units may get some more hits on them.
Getting castle archers will help since splash damage will damage multiple Speartons at a time (go figure) and help in killing them. Resilience also gives you twice as much time against the Speartons by doubling your statue health.
As for units, Albowtrosses are a solid choice for anyone, as long as you keep them at your base (since Speartons will out run them easily). Their blazing bolts upgrade will allow them to literally tear apart the spearton mass with one or two falling per volley depending on positioning and number of Albowtrosses. Magikill can also be good if you are effective with them. Essentially, I would put the Magikill right where the statue is, so that it can cast an electric wall on itself to protect the statue and himself. After that, poison should be used to give constant damage to the Speartons throughout their endeavour. Oddly however, their armour helps protect against poison. Anyway, if they continue attacking, a blast on them as they group together to attack the statue will take out half a bar of their health usually (since they are armoured) which is quite a bit.
Spear + Archer
Ease of Execution: 2/10
Ease of Countering: 5/10 (pre-auto shield bash)
Ease of Countering: 7/10 (post-auto shield bash)
Common at: 1200-1500 (pre-auto shield bash)
Common at: Everywhere (Since auto shield bash)
Comment: Fairly simple and reliable. Very logical to use based on unit's described purposes.
It is fairly easy to morph many starts to this strategy. An early Spearton can get Archidonis reinforcement, while a single archer start (or archer+sword) can have Speartons added on.
This strategy relies on using Speartons to guard Archidonis from ranged attack by either maintaining a defensive stance in Shield Wall formation, or by rushing ranged units. Archidonis will kite any melee units rushing past. This can be decent at both offence and defence. Someone using this may go on an offence to take the tower and maintain a position there.
Usually seen at lower ranks because it is reliable and simple.
Countering this could require more advanced units. Magikill are an obvious choice. Poison will decimate Archidonis, Electric Wall will prevent Spearton Approach and explosion will assist further. A single explosion can take out up to 10 Archidonis if you manage to get close enough. This may require giants to protect from Archidonis and 2 or more Magikill, casting an electric wall to replace one that recently wore off. Albowtrosses may also be used, I would remove their archers first by flying over them, so that their Speartons lose any counter to the Albowtrosses.
Since the introduction of automatic shield bash, the metagame has shifted greatly to reflect this. Sparcher (Spear + Archer) has become much more prevelant everywhere. Similar to before, this can be easily morphed into from any start.
Now, with auto shield bash, a single line of Speartons can easily form a defensive line that blocks projectiles and stuns away any would be melee attackers. Thus, the archers are free to take potshots at enemies, decimating them with each volley. Due to this, the metagame has now revolved around this strategy or a derivative in some way due to its sheer effectiveness. Merics behind the shield wall further increase its durability making this defensive position very hard to break. It is also very mobile, so it can be advancing at every opportunity.
Countering this would require getting some sort of tank to absorb arrows close enough to the wall so that your own units can get some sort of attacks in with spells or Blazing Bolts Albowtrosses. However, Speartons can simply rush the giant, attacking it and still blocking some projectiles. Another possible counter would be harassing the wall, gradually weakening it until it falls apart.
Archer Mass
Ease of Execution: 4/10
Ease of Countering: 5/10
Common at: 1500-1800?
Comment: Only here because it is apparently more common than I thought. I favour this early game, but usually morph it to something like Spear + Archer, but with giants, magikill or tech up to Albowtrosses. Although I will talk about Archer Mass, not what I do.
I usually start this with a dual Archer start. This is accomplished by setting both miners to gold and buying ONLY an Archer. The next gold batch will be another Archidon.
This will eventually lead to maybe a sword or two to protect from enemy archers for atleast 2 arrow volleys. Since swords are cheap and the many archers will do much more damage, the person would be trading maybe 250 gold for maybe 300 or more gold worth of damage to the opponent, which is fairly worth it. As a last resort, they may cycle wounded archers to the back.
This strategy relies on hit and runs and large amounts of kiting. It favours Grass Hills immensely. I don't think you would see this at all on a short map like Castle. This person will whittle you down, basically delay you until they can get a fully grown giant to tank. Most melee units will not be able to get to the archers without taking serious damage.
Seen at middle ranks due to the surprise factor from a dual archer start (many people entering this rank level may think tanks for ranged units are necessary for success) and the pure damage that hit and run attacks can safely do.
Countering this strategy will need magikill that are protected to poison the archers. Poison will kill archers unless they can get immediate meric support, and a few will still likely die unless the merics are properly used with micro.
Yes, to any newer people reading this, merics CAN be micro'd to an extent. Credit to BuddyLucky2 for the Meric Tips topic.
Shadowrath doing their own hit and runs with shinobi can work too, they will whittle the archer army down too. However, if there gets to be a large number of archers, your Shadowrath may die in a single volley or two, so kill the bottom archers so that you can move up to dodge atleast one volley and time your shinobi correctly so that you enter shinobi right before the arrows are about to hit you. This may require some training and lag compensation, so it can be tough.
Giant Mass
Ease of Execution: 3/10
Ease of Countering: 6/10
Common at: 1200-1600
Comment: Most likely died out recently, but for legacy's sake...
Giants are a very high health unit which makes them difficult to take out, especially with cycling. A person using this will have many miners on gold since giants are very gold heavy.
Seen often due to its simplicity. Anybody could use giants.
The key here is to note that giants only hit one unit at a time. Raging Swordwrath can be effective, although other options are better for a counter-attack. A giant of your own to tank for Albowtrosses with Blazing Bolts will tear through giant hide. There will also commonly be a mage that is meant to hit hard on low-health units. A ninja can be used to assassinate the mage or use shinobi to take out a low-health giant that has retreated back. There will often be merics, but it is probably not worth losing a ninja to kill a meric.
A mage of your own will also help, since electric wall is devastating to slow units that need time to escape.
A much more reliable way is to prevent the mass at all by killing miners to prevent giants from building up, and killing the single giant that first comes out. Kill 'em one at a time. Eventually your army will be large enough to destroy his statue.
Ninja Rush
Ease of Execution: 4/10
Ease of Countering: 5/10
Common at: 1400-1700
Comment: Never got this, almost like a riskier version of Spearton Rush.
This usually starts with a ninja fairly early, maybe attempted as the fourth combat unit or something. They will try to use the ninja with shinobi to take the tower.
Seen often at these ranks because a ninja rush works very similar to a Spearton rush (which these people are probably migrating from) but is more difficult to counter.
As a defence, raging swords can match the speed of ninjas and will greatly outnumber them to reduce the effectiveness of fixate and shinobi. Focus on one ninja at a time. The rage will slice through the ninjas. You can afford to give them the tower to give them confidence, since when they rush your statue, castle archers will decimate them due to their lack of armour.
Miner Walls help prevent against economy harassment and works as a delay too. This is devastating if not prepared for, but almost as easy to defend against as a Spearton rush. Many things that apply to a Spearton Rush should apply here too.
Shadalbow
Ease of Execution: 5/10
Ease of Countering: 8/10
Common at: 1500-1900
Comment: A very deadly combination if pulled off correctly. Basically completely eliminates the use of 2 key units in many armies, which are Magikill and Merics.
One pulling off this strategy will usually have a normal start like archer + sword. However, they will gradually add miners to mana, so that they can get ninjas and Albowtrosses. Usually a ninja comes first since it is devastating on early game units. When scouting, lots of miners on mana is good evidence of the person planning on using this strategy.
Seen very often at these mid-level ranks since it is devastating on people coming into this rank level and is still devastating on people who have been in it for a while (such as me, although only if I haven't prepared well for it)
Attempt to use many low health units. Fixate favours focusing on one target, and shinobi only works on one target at a time. Rage swords are an option, but they will be massacred once your opponent gets a few Albowtrosses. A swarm of kiting Archidonis is a solid way to go, since they will be able to get a few volleys in on any ninjas before they close in (possibly killing a few) and will out-speed and out-range Albowtrosses. If possible, station your archers in position to prevent usage of the second gold row, this will slow your opponent down. Be prepared to start kiting at any moment if they try to ward you off.
To counter this, massing Archidonis will be your main army, since they will deal lots of damage quickly. Giants will protect from Albowtrosses. 2 or 3 fully grown giants would be best, since one will most likely fall to a concentrated shinobi attack. Your archers will kite if ninjas chase them, your giants can deal with the Albowtrosses for a while, if needed, cycle them out.
Alternatively, replace the Archidonis with your own Albowtrosses (with Blazing Bolts upgrade) and focus all your fire (from giants and Albowtrosses) on enemy Albowtrosses. Once they are defeated, enemy ninjas are at the mercy of your Albowtrosses. This is more expensive, but requires much less micro, since you're only cycling giants, unless they go for a ballsy move by rushing to your statue with their ninjas. I would get a castle archer or two and some walls as a precaution anyway.
Giant + Albowtross
Ease of Execution: 4/10
Ease of Countering: 7/10
Common At: 1700+?
Comment: Very high damage output with Albowtrosses being protected by giants. Someone using this strategy may use a Shadowrath to get rid of Magikill, which threaten the Albowtrosses.
Someone pulling off this strategy will most likely need to be turtling or holding their opponent at their base so that they can build up numbers of these two expensive units.
Possibly seen higher up since its counter is a simple strategy that has faded out of the eyes of this rank level.
Due to the high costs of these two units, one should attempt to harass the economy of one trying to execute this strategy. Essentially, stop the threat before it appears.
If all else fails, a rush of either Speartons or Shadowrath straight to the statue might be able to run past the Giant + Albowtross army due to their low speed. If the other person is turtling, they would have a castle archer, so a Spearton Rush may be a better choice.
On the flip-side, if they lack Shadowrath (to deal with Magikill) two of your own Magikill guarded by a giant may have enough time to eliminate the Albowtrosses with an Explosion or a poison spray if they begin retreating.
(contributed by jerrytt)
Ease of Execution: 7/10
Ease of Countering 9/10
Common at: 2100 and Higher
Comment: Almost impossible to counter once it has been set up, and on medium and long maps setting up is very simple.
This strategy relies on 5 key units/upgrades: Castle archer, Spearton Wall, Miner wall, Meric, and Magikill.
The idea is that you hold them off with a sword or two long enough to get a castle archer without denting your economy. Then, Tech up to Speartons and buy the shield wall upgrade. Also buy a miner wall. Place the spearton and wall In front of the second row of gold mines, and get merics and speartons to hold the enemy off long enough for you to get a Magikill.
Once you have your mage your turtle is complete, and you are protected from both spearton attacks, (castle archers, walls, mages) and Archer attacks (mages and Speartons in shield mode with Merics) This can protect you until they tech up or have a huge advantage over you to break the turtle (unlikely) Once you have it set up, you can Giant mass, shadowalbow, albow mass, etc. go crazy :/
The first seven strategies are common ones that I have encountered at least once. If anyone would like to post strategies they have encountered, or their own takes on these strategies, feel fr
