Knalgan guide

[Velensk]

I recently had a several hour car trip with a laptop without internet. While I was on it I wrote the following guide for playing knalgans. This is a rough draft and if anyone has suggestions/comments for revisions I'd like to hear them. The guide itself states my intentions for it. This guide is very large as it includes information for each match-up except the knalgan mirror.

The Knalgan Alliance

The Knalgan Alliance is my favorite faction, and it is also one of the hardest factions to play well. It has no magic, the dwarves are slow and terrain dependant, and the outlaws either do not hit very hard, or die relatively easily. However the knalgan alliance does have much to offer, and is in my opinion is very fun to play. This is a guide aimed at players who’ve figured out the basics, but are having problems with the faction. Also designed to give a more updated version of the how to play series advice on each match-up. It is only designed for use in multiplayer on mainline 1vs1, or standard to large sized 2vs2s with standard settings.

Theory/Unit roles: The units of the Knalgan Alliance, to a greater extend than other factions, tend to be very effective/efficient or very ineffective/inefficient. Dwarves in hills/mountains, thieves backstabbing, ulfserekers against ranged units all highly contrast to dwarves in the open/woods thieves not backstabbing ulfserkers against melee units. Naturally, the trick is to force a situation that is favorable to you.

The way this is done varies from situation to situation. It isn’t always easy especially against a decent opponent. However if you can get your machine rolling then you will probably win.

A short list of units and their preferred usage

-Dwarven Fighter/Thunderer: Both cost allot for their role, come with low movement (though a good move type) average damage potential, and slightly better than average hp with good resistances. Normally the extra hp/resistances and the low defence they suffer in most places even out, leaving them about as survivable as a human in the open, with less movement and more cost than their human counterparts. However, when standing on a hill or a mountain, the dwarves become not only a tough tank, but a evasive tough tank, easily worthy of their cost and more.

-Dwarven Gaurdsman: Guardsmen are about as tough as you can get. They sport high hp, good resistances that become excellent resistances on defense. The only area of survivability they fall down in is dodge, where they don’t even achieve the high hill/mountain defense of their kin, but still very good at taking hits. This comes at a high price, and they do not have a very strong attack. Guardsmen are ideal for putting on the side of your formation, or on the village you are trying to hold, but fall very short for any offensive movement.

-Thief: Thieves have the highest damage potential of any knalgan unit (not counting the use of berserk special), they are also cheap and fast. The downside comes when taking hits. Thieves die about as easily as mages (resistances cancel out evasion). The other problem in the use of thieves is that in order to achieve their high damage potential, they must be backstabbing, and it should be night. Works well in combination with footpads or griffons. A strong thief backstabbing at night has the same damage potential as a strong drake clasher at day (non-strong thief has higher than non-strong clasher)

-Ulfserker: Ulfserkers have the potential to be the most efficient killer possible. You cannot be much more efficient than to kill your enemy in one go, with one unit. However this comes at the price that your enemy can kill you in the same way, and usually you cannot afford to trade the ulfserker for anther unit, as it costs 19 gold. Any enemy unit that is decent at melee will have good odds of killing an ulfserker on even ground. An ulfskerer will have good odds of killing most ranged unit on even ground. Obviously the trick is to try to get them into a position to engage ranged units, while keeping them out of reach of melee units. Check the odds of success before using ulfserker in uncertain situations.

There are some units that are not quite as polar. Poachers, Footpads, and griffons are more versatile, though as all units they have their preferred situations and uses.

-Footpad: Footpads excel at providing mobile walls/ZoC and harassing melee-only units. Their speed, decent survivability, ambi-ranged attack, and cheap cost leave only two things to be desired. Damage potential, and resistances.

-Poacher: Poachers are not very strong archers but they do have a couple saving virtues. The first is that they are good at holding and sniping from forest/swamp hexes, something the other knalgans lack, and the other is that they provide a more reliable (and at night higher damage) ranged attack than the thunderer. The poacher also levels up extreamly quickly. An intelligent one, levels up if you give it two kills.

-Griffons: The most expensive unit in multiplayer, and for a good reason. Griffons are fast, flying, and hard hitting. Griffons excel at getting around enemies, over wet terrain, and generally providing that extra punch where you need it. However, because griffons are expensive, it’s not easy to afford losing them. If they get surrounded by the right units when they are on their own, chances are that they are going to die.

Outlaws vs Dwarves: Many new players make the mistake of assuming that the faction is meant to be dwarves, this is not the case. The outlaws are every bit as important to the Knalgans as the dwarves are. The amount and type of each you want varies with your opponent and your style.

A few general styles.

HODOR: A classic, aggressive, and very fun to watch style. The basic theory behind this build is that why do you need the dwarves at all? Between the three outlaws you have a good tool box. You have high melee damage, decent ranged damage, speed and survivability. What’s more it comes in a cheap, fast, quickly leveling, and chaotic package. If you use this, you should plan to rush, but pull out of it if your enemy is undead or orcs (under some circumstances you may be able to rush the orcs). Depending on how the game goes, you might wish to add dwarves in later at the risk of being told off by fans of Hodor tactics.

EDIT: an important thing to remember about Hodor tactics is that village stealing is cheap and relativly easy. It may be that the pair of theives and footpad you brought can't remove that heavy infantry from the village, but on the freelands there are many villages on one flank. It could be quite possible to simply run around to the side, and next turn to grab any village he can't protect. This does give your opponent some time to react but it can still be worth it. Remember that anything that isn't possible, isn't possible. Also this means that you could draw his leader more than two turns away from the castle which is a major red flag because it means that if you press elsewhere your enemy won't be able to react as quickly or well. This can also be used as a threat in a way. It forces your enemy to make a choice. 'Do I send my leader to help drive the invaders from the critical side which is losing me income and going to be a real pain (especialy since those footpads can simply run away around the mountain if things get to rough) or should I keep my leader on the castle so that I can deal with the trio of outlaws on the otherside incase they manage to defeat my cavalry.'

To try this strategy try 2footpads 3thieves and a poacher.

Toolbox: Knalgans have a wide variety of units to choose from. Although not as versatile as the loyalists overall, you do have a wide variety of options on how to play against most foes. Build your initial build to potentially be anything, then recruit to back it up once you know what you want it to be. If your foe turns out to be chaotic you could quickly scramble a defense, if your foe is lawful you could press forward with outlaw/griffon, and grab terrain for your dwarves.

A sample starting recruit might include one of each of the outlaws, a fighter, an thunderer, and another unit depending on your preference. (I usually get a griffin)

Defensive: Much like the tool box in nature except that rather than plan to be flexible, you plan to make it a bad idea for your enemy to attack you. The idea behind this strategy is that if you can make yourself un-attackable (or at least so that if they do attack you can crush them), then that will give you time to build up the forces you need to attack.

A sample starting recruit might include two footpads, a poacher, a dwarvish fighter, thunderer, and guardsman.

Knalgans and attrition: Some games don’t give either side an advantage early on. This happens to knalgans who use defensive especially because they do not attempt to attack and attacking them may not be a good idea. In these circumstances the forces build up which can be detrimental to a knalgan offence reliant on thieves. In these circumstances a couple things to keep in mind when attacking a solid formation that cannot be flanked.

Ulfserkers are frequently a key to solving these snares (if they can be solved). If you get a couple ulfserkers and can use them to break a hole in your enemies line then that may allow you to make use of your thieves and/or the good terrain that the unit may have been guarding. Some units/factions cannot be reliably defeated by an ulfserker alone regardless of time of day (skeletons, cavalry, heavy infantry, drake clashers to name a few), however most of these units are susceptible to some other unit. It may be possible to weaken these units with some unit (frequently a thunderer) to the point that an ulfserker can defeat them.

Most enemy factions cannot kill a dwarf with two units when it isn’t their favored time of day. If the unit is a guardsman that goes up to three units. If you have a sufficient quantity of dwarves you can safely put them in the open at your enemies weak time of day if you ensure two things: Firstly that a safe retreat is possible and Secondly that you cannot be flanked in a way that might allow them unable to retreat or that would allow them to kill your units.

EDIT: People will tell you against placeing dwarves in the open, and this is generally good advice, but remember when it has uses. Amoung other things, if there is no decent terrain around then in order to kill your dwarf he must expose units to attack you. Thus if it isn't their favored time of day then you are fairly safe to put dwarves in the open as long as it isn't next to good terrain (and sometimes even when it is). If he exposes two-three units that will certainly die trying to kill your dwarf it is a net gain for you.

Knalgans against Rebels

A very tricky match-up. Both factions are mainly neutral, and mistakes can be quite fatal. For this particular match-up I suggest going stronger on dwarves than outlaws because elvish fighters and archers both are pretty good at fighting outlaws. However, the outlaws still find use in the fact that they can plug forest hexes, and provide heavier damage at night. A dwarf on the hills beats an elf in the woods 1vs1 same with a dwarf in the open vs and elf in the open. However remember elves are faster than you, and more numerous. The elves can beat you out of tough spots with mages at day, and woses can be tough to dispose if you don’t have the right units.

Dwarven fighter: You will want a few of these. They are decent against everything your enemy has though only ideal against fighers/woses if in the hills.

Dwarven Thunderer: Not quite as useful against elves as some other factions. However they are good at holding hills against archers and mages, they also can get good mileage attacking fighters and scouts that are not in cover.

Gaurdsman: Most elves will do 3-4 or 4-4 against him which if he’s on a village amounts to about 6-8 damage form each enemy. Not something likely to wear down his 42ish hp quickly. On the other hand, he is susceptible to mages and woses and cannot attack elves very well.

Griffon: Gives great power and flexibility at great cost. Griffons can be pinned by elves ranged units easily. Also, in a losing fight beware of shamans, because they can stop your retreat.

Ulfserker: It’s always good to have one of these guys around to discourage archers, shamans and mages from exposing themselves. They can even almost beat an elvish fighter on equal ground (not quite). Also a good unit for getting wounded archers out of woods. Be careful, a full hp archer in the woods can beat an ulfserker depending on traits.

Thieves: A pair of these at night is the best way to handle a wose. Thieves are great for dealing with pretty much any rebel unit out in the open at night, and decent at attacking archers in woods. The problem is that the most common enemy units are good at killing thieves.

Footpads: One footpads strengths, the ability to attack both melee and ranged enemies, does not work against elves. They are still fast and good at surviving, but you do not need many of them.

Poachers: A good unit for taking up forest hexes and shooting at fighters.

Knalgans vs Northerners

There are a few difficulties here. It is sometimes difficult to attack because the outlaws are chaotic, but not as chaotic as orcs are, and the northerners are relatively tough overall. You can expect to be outnumbered, especially if you go with a dwarf heavy build. The northerners also have poison, which will cut through your dwarves resistances and your outlaws defenses. This is compounded by the fact that dwarves, being slow, have a hard time retreating to villages. However you have a number of advantages, not the least of which is that you can make attacking you a very risky proposition. The other major advantage is that orcs do not have good damage hex for hex, while dwarves do have great resistance, so in order to bring you down quickly they must have access to many hexes.


Dwarven fighter: A solid unit for defending hills against northerner melee. Good for attacking enemy ranged units at any time, and even enemy melee units at day (most grunts will give you 6-2 damage to your 7-3, and trolls even less). Be carefull about leaving them to far from villages when your enemy has assassins.

Dwarven thunderer: A solid unit for defending hills against enemy ranged units. Most enemies don’t like risking assassins against these. Can do a decent job defending against melee units. Also very good for punishing enemy units that step into the open. Always try to have an alternate plan for if your shot misses as it is prone to do at critical points. A good unit to have several of around if your enemy attempts to mass trolls.

Dwarven Guardsman: Orcs more than any other faction (with the possible exception of other knalgans) have a hard time bringing these things down. A guardsman could reliably hold a village for a round against three grunts and an archer at night. These are a useful unit for holding exposed corners of your formation. On the other hand, as always, guardsmen have an impossible time retaliating to great effect, and are expensive.

Dwarven ulfsekers: It is generally worthwhile to trade an ulf for an assassin despite cost differences. The reason being that your foe will have to wear down a different melee unit to finish off the ulfserker, and assassins are a potentially very dangerous. Aside from assassins ulfserkers are good for archers, and even grunts at day. Be careful though, as all enemy units are cheaper than these.

Griffons: Depending entirely on your style, your enemies, and the map, these could be useful, or far too expensive.

Footpads: Footpads are a decent buy, however a couple lucky grunt hits by a grunt (depending on traits) could end their lives prematurely. Still the ability to get around quickly, survive against most foes, and harass enemy melee is fairly cheap for the price it comes at.

Poachers: A solid purchase in many instances. Poachers (especially resilient ones) are great at defending woods. They also have the ability to punish grunts and trolls standing out in the open at night. They generally outclass the orcish archers in most regards. At times other than night, their damage is a little low to quickly kill most enemies, as such they work best as a defensive unit.

Thieves: two grunt hits at dawn or dusk probably mean the end of a thief. At night an exposed thief is probably dead. On the other hand, if you want a unit that can ramp up your nighttime counterattack potential, or if you really need some unit that can kill assassins, without having an ulfserkers cost and disadvantages, a thief is a decent buy.


Knalgans vs Loyalists

This match has the most possible variety of units of any 1vs1 in the game and not surprisingly there are many effective ways to play it depending on what your opponent does. Use common sense in countering your enemy. If he goes heavy on cavalry then extra thunderers and poachers would be good to have for attacking them, and guards are a good way to defend against them. An enemy who recruits many spearmen and bowmen can be brought down if you can get your units to act for maximum effect. Be careful though. Mages can break your defenses at day and horsemen are a major threat to exposed units at day. Having a strong outlaw presence can help you press the loyalists back at night so that they do not have as much time to attack at day.

Dwarvish fighter: Again, tough enough to defend hills/mountains against most loyalists even at day. Mages are the exception. Not great at attacking cavalry or heavy infantry but fine for the rest.

Dwarvish thunderer: mages risk quite a bit when attacking them. Is a great threat to cavalry and can take a chunk out of spearmen. Frequently worthwhile in this match despite unreliability

Dwarvish guard: The best way to defend against aggressive cavalry is with guardsmen. As always expensive and not that strong, but sometimes worthwhile.

Dwarvish ulfserker: These guys are of course the most efficient way to deal with mages. Also good for bowmen. Be careful as the enemy has many counters some very mobile (spearmen, cavalry, fencers depending on traits). Depending on traits may or may not be capable of defeating spearmen at night.

Griffon: As always mobile power. Most griffons can kill a non-resilient mage if they get both hits in. Your enemy has many tools to kill or ZoC griffons so be careful.

Theives: Their vulnerability is somewhat negated at night. At night backstabbing they can do immense damage to loyalists without resistances and take relatively little in return. An essential part of a night time offence

Poachers: Decent damage at night to lowered retaliation. They are especially good at killing cavalry at night.

Footpads: Depending on how your enemy builds his army these may or may not be worth it after the initial recruit. At night their harass role can be emphasized, but at day their mobile wall role isn’t quite as well maintained. Surprisingly good at dealing with heavy infantry though I wouldn’t recommend it for day. They do not do large amounts of damage to heavy infantry per hit, however they are fast enough to run away from heavy infantry when needed chase down/zoc heavy infantry when needed, agile/tough enough to not die to them easily and very certain to return damage whenever their foe attacks.

Knalgans vs Undead

Undead are very chaotic and you are slightly chaotic. Calculate odds very carefully when determining if you wish to run or defend at night. Be careful when dealing with enemy magic and poison and mindful of enemy resistances Ulfserkers are a critical part of this match-up. This match-up is also home to Wesnoths only certain battle result and fortunately it is in your favor. If your enemy is defending with ghouls at day, you can crack his defenses with ulfserkers.

Dwarvish fighters: Good at attacking undead with the exception of ghosts and ghouls. Your enemy will have less than the usual trouble removing them from tough terrain as they will probably have abundant amounts of adepts. Good at defending hills from skeletons.

Dwarvish thunderers: Surprisingly not a bad buy. They aren’t that good at attacking skeletons but adepts do not like attacking them and they can do severe damage to other undead. A good response to if your enemy attempts to spam walking corpses.

Dwarvish guards: One of the few units in the game that can survive full damage from two adepts at night. As always good at holding ground. I would say that they are less useful in this match-up than they are in most because your enemies primary melee unit can attack them with little regard for retaliation and their primary ranged unit uses cold.

Dwarvish ulfserker: Autokills adepts though keep in mind that they also cost more than adepts. Ulfserkers also kill ghouls and skeleton archers. A strong ulfserker at day has the potential to kill ghosts. Most ulfserkers can kill bats, but it will probably be costly. Skelotons dice ulfserkers even at day and ghosts at night can practically use an ulfserker as instant healing.

Griffon: Same as always, fast, strong, but vulnerable and expensive.

Thieves: Thieves are very susceptible to undeads main fighting units. They still can provide good damage against foes that are not skeletons, but in order to use them you have to put them where the enemy can attack them. Money is generally better spent elsewhere, though if you are having trouble with ghosts thieves might not be a bad choice.

Poachers: Of more limited use than usual. I would not recommend poachers against undead except possibly for a unit that can reliably damage ghosts.

Footpads: Really shine against skeletons. They can attack both kinds for little or no retaliation, counter both kinds for decent retaliation and are faster cheaper and quicker leveling. On the other hand they do take lots of damage when they are hit and are vulnerable to adepts.

Knalgans vs Drakes

An odd match-up because drakes are both chaotic and lawful. The value of your units varies with how your enemy recruits. This is a hard match to recommend things for because of how situational it can be.

Dwarvish fighter: Good at attacking saurians however their slowness and susceptibility to fire/ice-magic makes them generally undesirable.

Dwarvish Thunderer: Good at attacking drakes. Can defend against augers in the open or burners from any terrain. Just as slow as fighters however much more usefull and definatly worth the extra gold.

Dwarvish Guardsman: Hasn’t changed any since we last discussed him. Strong guardsman get extra damage against non-clasher drakes.

Dwarvish ulfserker: Will die to most drakes, even burners kill them at day. Although it is a good counter to augers, skirmishers tend to accompny augers and skirmishers can get around your protection to attack your ulfs. Depending on traits and terrain your ulfserker might be able to beat a skirmisher, however it's still risky.

Griffon: Drakes resist blade, but that doesn’t stop griffons from being useful against them. A unit useful for spreading your control of the map.

Thieves: Great at attacking saurians and not horrible against drakes at night. However as always they die easy and at any time other than night they are not terribly effective.

Poachers: At night they do decent damage to drakes. However saurians defeat them and at day the damage they do is relatively insignificant.

Footpads: Generally not a good buy unless your enemy has far to many saurians.

[Doc Paterson]

Really nice work here.

(If you wanted to keep this clean of comments, just let me know, and I'll erase.)

[cmonyiman]

Good guide !
I agree with almost everything you said, though I have a few remarks.

Knalgans vs Drakes

Dwarvish Thunderer: Good at attacking drakes. Can defend against augers in the open. Just as slow as fighters, however slightly more useful overall.

I think it is not only slightly, but much more useful. To get a dwarf down from a mountain, you need augurs, and it is better to have a thunderer as dwarf then, for good retaliation, it makes the enemy think twice before attacking it. Other than that, it is the unit with which to kill the clashers, fighters ,gliders, finish off pyro. It is a wonderful unit because as drakes have bad defense, it hits quite frequently, and it hits hard. Of course, to take down saurians, it isn't the best, though it is a perfect defensive unit v them.

Dwarvish ulfserker: Not that great at attacking drakes, even burners. Always good vs Augers and depending on traits and terrain he either kills or dies to saurians.

Recruiting an ulfserker v drakes seems to be like a total waste of money for me.
You could say that it is good v augurs, but don't forget that augurs usually attack at night, and they are in that case with skirmishers, who can reach ulfserker as they have more mp, and thus ulfserker must always retreat so as not to be in range for the skirmisher. Should it kill the augur, it is very hard to protect it from the skirmishers, and you lost 19g for 16g (+half-levelled a skirmisher!). At day, even pyro kills it, with 40% defense, and if it should kill a wounded pyro, again, it is very difficult to protect it.
I would say instead of ulf not being great, that ulf is useless. You'd be better off with +1 thunderer, fighter, guard, ...

[Velensk]

I agree with both your points. At doc: I'd like to keep the comment at least until this gets stickied or something simular as your voice adds authenticity to the guide.

[JW]

I agree with both your points. At doc: I'd like to keep the comment at least until this gets stickied or something simular as your voice adds authenticity to the guide.

It's a good guide, but does it really add more than the one posted in my sig and already stickied in this forum?

[Velensk]

I would say that it has more content than your How to Play guide and talks more to more experianced players. Your guide has nothing like the section near the beginning. Although the factional match-ups are not that diffrent from your guide, they are a little more updated. You yourself mentioned when you wrote them that you didn't like footpads much but later you came to appreciate them after they got buffed.

[JW]

I would say that it has more content than your How to Play guide and talks more to more experianced players. Your guide has nothing like the section near the beginning. Although the factional match-ups are not that diffrent from your guide, they are a little more updated. You yourself mentioned when you wrote them that you didn't like footpads much but later you came to appreciate them after they got buffed.

The HTP is out of date, that much is certain. I guess I was hoping you'd come up with a much different style of analysis, but of course the advice is quite solid.

Anyway, do you intend to do the other factions as well, or flesh out even more Knalgan strategy first? Or were you simply doing the one faction becacuse of your boredom?

[Velensk]

I did it out of boredom. I don't realy wish to do this for the other factions though if I find myself in a situation like that one I might. As I mentioned at the beginning Knalgans are my favorite faction, and one that I see misplayed more than most others. Those were the reasons I picked them.

I would infact like to flesh this guide out as much as possible. However this is tricky because without a given situation there is only so much general advice you can give.

[JW]

I would infact like to flesh this guide out as much as possible. However this is tricky because without a given situation there is only so much general advice you can give.

I don't know if this would interest you, but perhaps writing some general strategies on how to use Knalgans on the various mainline 1v1 maps? I always thought it would be a neat project to work on, though it would be a lot of work and the maps do change (though the factions have over time as well).

Anyway, if you were interested in fleshing this out more that may be an avenue you could explore. Another possibility would be how they play in various mods such as TL's WC, or orocia, or even general survivals. There's lots of possibilities out there.

[grrr]

However this is tricky because without a given situation there is only so much general advice you can give.

So what speaks against settings up some exemplary situations (saves, screenies, ...) and explain those in detail?

[TheMasterOfBattle]

Very nice guide Velensk. Knaglans happen to be my second favorite faction besides drakes. Perhaps because I like playing defensively. XD

HODOR FTW!

[Yogibear]

However this is tricky because without a given situation there is only so much general advice you can give.

So what speaks against settings up some exemplary situations (saves, screenies, ...) and explain those in detail?

*yogi nods to an excellent idea *

[Turuk]

Velensk, if you ever need any of the posts in this thread moved around, trimmed or deleted in order to facilitate making the guide uniform and flow well, PM me with what you need done.

[Velensk]

Alright, I'll try to do the map/situation run-thoughs. Don't expect them immediatly I'm busy trying to update my campaigns at the moment

[Wintermute]

nice work. Clearly, there is a lot of sound advice here. Personally, I would use "more thunderers" in almost every situation than most players, but that is just me.

One comment/suggestion: I think you should really talk about ulfs a lot, maybe giving them their own section. It is hard to tell players when to get an ulf, but spending some time on the situations where an ulf would be a bad idea might be useful to players figuring out how to play knalgans. I would venture to say that newer players lose a lot of their games as Knalgans because of improper ulf use (not enough, too many, wrong placement, etc.).

A few examples (stressing that this is not an exhaustive list):

• Don't get an ulf in your initial recruit.
  There is no "magic number" for when to use an ulf - even if you have a 99% chance to kill a unit, it doesn't always mean that you should (you could lose the ulf next turn, or worse).
  The most useful thing an ulf can do in almost every situation is look mean and threatening - if you use it to get a kill but then lose it right away, your opponent knows his DA's are safe, or what have you.
  Ulfs are at their best when they are able to kill a unit that break's the enemy's ZoC.
  DO place your ulf safely behind your line, but close enough to the action that he can threaten key hexes. This forces your enemy to retreat in many cases, since they need to use melee units to defend lots of hexes and hide their ranged units.

I think much more can be said about them, and perhaps some replays of good ulf use would go a long way toward helping players figure out what to do with them. When I first played knalgans, I got way to many ulfs, and used them way to frequently - losing a lot of money in the process to get kills that weren't "important" kills.