World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

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flynnk
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World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by flynnk »

This is a guide for playing World Conquest, a user-designed multiplayer co-op campaign. The guide is designed for people who have tried playing the campaign at least a few times.

Like any survival, World Conquest (a.k.a. wc) is all about damage control. Your job is to not die. If you fail to die for enough turns, eventually the AI runs out of units. Focus on reducing incoming damage, so your units have time. Time to level up. Time to heal. Time to kill off another few AI units. Here are some methods of reducing incoming damage and buying yourself that time.

1. Do not attack: Stay within two turns move of your castle, find a good defensive line, and prepare to weather the coming storm. At first, the AI seems weak. However, soon you will be facing 1000 gold worth of enemy units (on Nightmare). That works out to about 60 units per AI. If you charge towards the AI castle, on Turn 4 you will be crushing the AI. On turn 6, you will be doing ok. On turn 8, you will need just a couple of lucky hits to turn the tide in your favor. And by turn 10, most of your army will be dead. So don’t do that. Remain on the defensive until Turn 10 or 13; by which time the AI army will be mostly destroyed. Then start moving forward.

2. Find a Choke Point: Select a defensive line which limits the number of AI units that can simultaneously attack you. A good choke point with good terrain is 85% of success in wc. If more than two-thirds of your army must be in the front row in order to hold your chosen line, you are in trouble. You need a large reserve because (1) you need to be able to rotate units out of the front line to heal, and (2) a few AI units will slip around your flanks. An example of a choke point might be five hexes located between two caves. Or between a cave and the ocean. Or create a fort inside a cave (especially good for dwarves).

3. Terrain: Keep your units on good defensive terrain. Place almost all of your defensive line on 50% or better defensive terrain. Any unit exposed to attack on three sides should be on 60% or better terrain.

4. Retreat Often: When you retreat, several good things happen: (1) you can pick better terrain to defend on, (2) you get closer to your reinforcements, and (3) it buys you time. Time to heal. Time to kill off a few more of the AI’s frontline units while his reinforcements waste turns moving towards you. Most importantly, you should retreat one turn BEFORE you have to. Do not ask yourself, “Can I hold this line now.” Instead, ask yourself “If I hold here, what will the situation be 3 turns from now?” Remember, before Turn 10, the AI probably has many extra units that you cannot see in the fog of war.

5. Protect Your Flanks: This is really part of choosing a choke point. If you have an awesome strong line five hexes long, but the AI can easily go around it, you can expect to be surrounded and killed in short order. The Maginot Line had no flank protection. Anchor at least one flank on impassible terrain, like a large area of water, or impassible cave wall hexes. Refuse your exposed flank.

6. Choose a Straight Line: A full health unit that can be attacked by only 2 foes will (almost) always survive, regardless of the terrain. A full health unit exposed to attack on 3 sides can often be killed, even on good terrain. Keep your lines as straight as possible. In fact, the ideal line is a concave line. For this reason, if you see a gap between two pieces of impassible terrain, it is usually better to defend just behind the gap rather than in the gap.

7. Understand Wesnoth Math: Few people understand percentages. Here is a simple way to figure out if your unit will survive the AI’s turn. Multiply your unit’s remaining hp by 1.5 if the unit is on 40% defense, or by 2 if the unit is on 60% defense. Add up the attack damage of all the nearby units (you can neglect resistance unless it is above 20%). If the total attack damage is greater than the result of your hp math, your unit will likely die. If the two numbers are about equal, your unit may die. You want your revised hp total to be about 30% greater than the total amount of incoming damage. If that is the case, your unit is very likely to live. Here is an example:
a. Player 1 has a Dwarf with 30 hp on 60% defense terrain. Multiply remaining hp by 2 to get 60.
b. The AI can attack with two Grunts. Each Grunt has 2 strikes which do 10 damage each. This is a total of 40 incoming damage. 40 is much less than 60, so your dwarf will almost certainly survive.
c. If the AI could hit you with three Grunts, the AI damage total would be 60. Since the AI total is about even with the dwarf total, the dwarf has an uncomfortably high chance of dying. Retreat that dwarf if possible.
d. If the AI could hit you with four Grunts, the AI damage total would be 80. 80 is much larger than 60. That dwarf will probably not survive. Run.
e. This is a fast method of calculating. It is not precise (as I am sure someone will point out), but it works adequately for rapidly making decisions in most situations. Do not use this method to evaluate magic damage.

8. Stay Alive: Move your wounded behind your line. Let them heal and return to fight. Remember, the AI can afford losses. You cannot. In fact, your goal should be to lose only one unit for every ten you kill. Surviving is better than killing. If you have a choice between killing an enemy and keeping your unit safe, choose to keep your unit safe.

9. Use Items Wisely. Items that increase defense or resistance obviously mitigate damage. Healing and life stealing items also mitigate damage. When giving out a defense or resistance item, think about who can get the largest benefit from the item. A unit with 0 resistance receives almost no benefit from a +10% resistance item. It is much better to give it to a unit that already has high resistance. Consider a unit with 30 hp and 0% resistance. When the AI hits with 30 damage, he dies. Give him a +10% resistance item. Now the AI has to hit with 33 damage to kill him, because 3 damage is resisted. He is 10% harder to kill. Now consider a unit with 15 hp and 50% resistance. When the AI hits with 30 damage, he dies. Give him a +10% resistance item. Now the AI must hit with 36 damage. He is 20% harder to kill. Defense works the same way: increasing already high defense is more valuable than increasing low defense by the same amount (this is why Elves benefit more than Drakes from Forestry Training). Also, it is better to have 5 units with one item each than 1 super-unit with 5 items. Super-units always die. Always.

10. Healing: Healing is a form of damage mitigation. If you heal 4 units every turn, that is 32 more incoming damage that you have successfully mitigated. The longer the battle lasts, and the better your choke point, the more valuable healing becomes. Also, on later maps, you may not control any villages. At some point, you will probably face an army of poisoners. You can survive without healing through Map 2, but by Map 3 you need at least one full +8cure/heal unit. Eventually, you will probably want a second healer.

11. Kill Selectively: Whenever possible, kill the AI’s L2/L3 units first. After that, concentrate fire on enemy units with weak retaliation.

12. Know Your Enemy: Pay attention to the popup dialogue boxes at the beginning of each map. Especially on Map 1 and 2, knowing what the AI can recruit is vital. On Map 1, the order of speaking is: Player 2, Player 1, Player 3, AI King, AI Hero. On Map 2, the order of speaking is: Player 1, AI King 1, AI King 2, Allied Hero. The AI will be able to recruit a from a limited recruit list based on the King and the Hero. Learn what each AI leader recruits. The AI likes Drakes, so if either King or Hero is a Drake, you will face many Drake units. If the AI King can recruit gryphons, berserkers, horsemen, or saurian skirmishers, you are in trouble.

13. Choose Your Bonuses Wisely:
a. Remember, all bonuses are good. The question is not, “Is this a bonus helpful,” but rather, “Is this bonus MORE HELPFUL than any other bonus I could choose.”
b. I usually choose a Hero and an Item, or a Hero and Gold
c. Which bonus should you choose?

Hero: This is always the best choice, because (1) you now have one more unit to absorb incoming damage, (2) it helps you not only on this map, but also on all subsequent maps, and (3) you can choose a unit that complements your existing recruit list with whatever you are missing. No healers in your recruit list? Get a shaman hero. Facing the undead without smashing damage? Get a Wose. Etc. Some heroes are better than others, but almost any hero is useful. In my opinion, the best heroes are:
1. Elvish Shaman: healing available immediately, useful slow attack, and becomes powerful after levelup. No items required, although an experience book can be nice, especially for the Enchantress line.
2. Dwarven Fighter: best tank in the game for wc. No items required.
3. Ghost: excellent multi-role unit. It can scout, fight over water, cover an exposed flank, and an L2 ghost with an item can tank if used carefully. Ghosts benefit from the “heroic” trait more than any other unit, because the extra “heroic” hp adds about 25% to their survivability. Even better when paired with an item that increases hp.

Gold: Extra gold is never a bad choice. New w.c. players should always choose this. I usually choose gold on Map 2, where my army is still small and weak. The extra 3 or 4 units can make the difference between victory and defeat.

Item: Usually a good choice. If you are certain you can win the map without extra gold, then this should probably be your second choice. Remember, an item that adds damage mitigation is usually better than an item that adds extra damage. In fact, I rarely choose +damage items.

Training: A poor choice. Training is bad because (1) it lasts only one map, (2) few of the trained units survive that map, (3) inexperienced L1 units are not worth recalling even if they are trained, and (4) other bonuses are better. Remember, ask not “Can this bonus help,” but rather "Is this bonus more helpful than any other bonus?” Extra Gold beats training every time. The one and only exception, in my opinion, is choosing Forestry Training on Map 1 or 2 when recruiting elves. Elven Fighters and Scouts with Forestry Training get 70% defense in forests. This makes them powerful tanks, and often worth recalling on future maps even if the units are still Level 1.

New Recruits: Never a good choice. Some people choose a new recruit to complement their existing recruit list with whatever they are missing, for example getting a healer recruit. I think getting a single hero usually solves 90% of the problem in addition to providing other benefits that New Recruits do not.

d. Good items and item/unit combinations, listed in no particular order:

Healing Flower: if you cannot get, or do not want to get, a healer unit, this item is a must have. Do not give this to a front-line fighter or to your leader. Healers should be behind the front line, because Healing is most efficient when the healer is surrounded by damaged units on all six sides.
Lawful or Chaotic XP Books: good for almost any heroic unit. I like giving it to hard-to-level units like the Elvish Shaman. Properly used, this item can produce a L2 on Map 1 by Turn 7 or 8.
Footpad + Armor: despite the defensive nature of the armor item, I rarely recommend it. +10% resistance does little to increase your odds of survival, even with Steadfast. There is, however, one important exception. If your resistance is less than 0, it automatically increases to 10%. -30% instantly becomes +10%. Before the armor item, a 10 damage attack did 13 damage to a Footpad. After the item, a 10 damage attack does 8 damage. Your Footpad is now a tank. Outstanding against skeleton armies. Also works on Thieves, Saurian Skirmishers, Fencers, and Orcish Assassins, and Knights, but footpads are best.
Wose + Flying: 50% defense on all terrain makes your Wose hard to kill. Also works on Heavy Infantry and Drake Clashers, but not as effective.
Sergeant + Illuminate: Stacks with the leadership bonus to provide a massive boost at twilight/night.
Ghost + Backstab: Use this guy on the extreme flank of your army, preferably over water on island maps, and watch him rack up the kills. Advance to L2 Wraith and he becomes a tank. The Charge Lance also works on a Ghost, but not quite as well. Drakeslayer.
Ghost + Feeding: Not bad. 5 extra hp makes this unit 25% harder to kill. Advance to L2 Wraith and he becomes a tank.
Ghost + Snow Flower: Not bad. +20 hp doubles the ghost’s chances of survival.
Ghost + Berserk: Not bad. Drain life means you can berserk almost every turn, making your ghost a killing machine. I dislike berserkers, because the AI tends to kill them easily, but this one is an exception.
Regen Potion: surprisingly effective on the first few maps. Give it to a tank. If you have no way to get a healer, this item becomes even more important.
Elvish Archer + Poison: Not bad. The AI will avoid attacking poison archers when they are in a forest, especially if advanced to Ranger. Use him like a portable “impassible terrain” hex in your defensive line. Also works on Dwarven Guardsman. Giving poison to other unit types can sometimes reduce damage taken, since the AI is reluctant to attack poison-capable units.
Clasher + Drain Ring: not bad. A tank that self-heals. Works better after levelup. Drain rings help any high-damage unit, and unlike some other items, it improves as you level up.
Grunt + Arcane Potion: Drakeslayer! 20+ damage per hit at night.
Horseman/Knight + Azure Pearl. Not bad. 60% defense for a fast-moving unit gives you a good hit-and-run flank guard on island maps. This item likewise helps any low-defense unit.
Horseman + Magic Hammer. Now you can make sure you hit on the first attack, saving your horse from retaliation damage. Also works well with Woses, and other high damage/few strikes unit.
Wose + Charge Lance. Double damage works well with your high resistances. Also good for Skeletons for the same reason.

14. Advanced strategies and random thoughts

a. Blitzkrieging the Big Boys: Whenever possible, try to kill off the AI’s high-level units in the first 3-4 turns. Place tempting bait within range of his L2 or L3 units, so he will push them out in advance of his main army. Once you have drawn them close to your starting castle, pounce with your main army and kill them quickly. This sounds a lot easier than it is. If done correctly, it will greatly increase your odds of surviving the subsequent avalanche of units on Turns 4-10.

b. Distract the AI: If you have a fast-moving unit that can go over water (Bat, Ghost, Glider, etc.), you can sometimes get the AI to waste turns chasing him. Move your unit somewhere in the AI’s rear areas (over water behind his castle is good). Move close to get the AI to chase you, then run. When the AI gives up chasing, repeat. With luck you can keep a third of the AI army distracted for several turns, giving your allies time to crush the other 2/3rds with fewer losses. Remember, every turn a unit spends chasing you is a turn they do 0 damage. This plan works best on Map 1.

c. 3-player advance and retreat: If all three players are experienced at wc, then on Map 1 and 2 you can time your retreats to pull the AI first one way, then the other. If large armies attack one player, that player pulls back and the others stand firm. The AI switches it’s attention to the other two, and the first player can stop running and kill off the (now few and exposed) enemy units. The other players likewise retreat as pressure builds on their front. Done properly, this will result in part of the AI army wasting its time moving back and forth between human players. Every turn an AI unit moves without attacking effectively reduces incoming damage by a little more. Remember, wc is all about damage control. This strategy is difficult to pull off unless all three players are experts.

d. Assassinating the enemy king. It never works. Ever. First, you cannot reach the enemy king because he recruits at least a couple new units every single turn, thus blocking your assassins. Second, even if you reach the king, your assassin squad is too weak to kill him before his army returns to kill the assassins. Third, even if, by some miracle, you kill the king, it is now turn 5 or 6. By now, the enemy army is already huge, and the huge army kills. Occasionally, one super-powered hero unit (usually a high-level berserk Ghost) can pull this strategy off. Inevitably, the super-unit dies on the next turn. L1 units swarm it to death. Even if you pull off a miracle, and assassinate the king without losing any important units, assassination was still a bad choice because you missed out on 90% of the available xp. Next map, your wimpy army will be buldozed by the AI because you do not have enough L2/L3 units. Never assassinate.

e. Recruiting at another castle. When my starting location at the beginning of Map 2 is indefensible, I am often tempted to run away and recruit at another castle. While this plan sounds good, my team loses two out of every three times I try it. By the time I reach the castle and finish recruiting, it is turn 8 or 9. My allies have been nearly killed trying to hold off the AI alone, and my army is not enough to redeem the situation. This strategy can work if (1) your allies have very, very good defensive positions, and (2) you can get there quickly. Give your leader the Teleport Orb and use a fast-moving hero (i.e. Drake Glider) to move your leader across the map as fast as possible. If you have no Orb, at least get the Nightstalk Ring to give your leader extra movement.

f. Swim away. Only use this strategy if you are desperate. If you have absolutely no chance of survival at your starting location, and retreat to a friendly castle is not an option, give your leader the Flight Stick or Azure Pearl item, recruit nothing but flying or swimming units, and retreat out to sea. If you have very skillful allies, your team just might still win. This strategy is much more likely to work if you have a flying or swimming healer. Send your non-flying/swimming hero units to your ally’s castle, or let them die. This plan works well for undead skeleton/ghost armies.

g. Play Dwarves. Choose the Dwarven Fighter leader, and recruit nothing but Fighters and Thunderers. Get a healer hero on Map 1. Dwarves are the easiest faction to play in wc, because their high defense and good resistances reduce make them excellent for holding a chosen piece of ground. Also, Dwarves retreat better than other some other races because they have good movement over most terrain types.

h. Rushing. Expert players can sometimes swarm an AI in the first few turns. This strategy is difficult on General, and almost impossible on Nightmare. It requires total commitment from all human players in order to work. Even if successful, casualties will be high. Do not attempt this until you have extensive experience playing wc.

(2/13/13 Post title changed per suggestion and some minor edits made)
Last edited by flynnk on February 14th, 2013, 1:20 am, edited 2 times in total.
MRDNRA
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Re: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by MRDNRA »

Bookmarked this page as have been a fan of WC for a long time but never really got to the highest difficulties. That said, now that there's a modified version of it with a lot more treasure points and variety of items amongst other things these tips will be particularly handy even for the easier difficulties of the modified version because the enemy even on the 3rd difficulty starts with over 1000 gold!
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tr0ll
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Re: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by tr0ll »

are we talking about http://www.allgamesfree.com/online/deta ... -conquest/
or some other game?
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8680
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Re: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by 8680 »

Perhaps this would be more useful if its title is “World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare”? Otherwise, how will people looking for a guide to this add-on know to look here?
tr0ll wrote:are we talking about http://www.allgamesfree.com/online/deta ... -conquest/ or some other game?
This, I think.
MRDNRA
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Re: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by MRDNRA »

8680 wrote:Perhaps this would be more useful if its title is “World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare”? Otherwise, how will people looking for a guide to this add-on know to look here?
tr0ll wrote:are we talking about http://www.allgamesfree.com/online/deta ... -conquest/ or some other game?
This, I think.
Yes that's the right one.
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SatHyre
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Re: World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by SatHyre »

hello,
choosing dwarves is a good advice but there is more efficient than that : choosing a faction with a leader healer like loyalist and white mage or rebels and the shaman level 2.
and if you are lucky and get an hero with leadership!!!
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TheEmptyLord
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Re: World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by TheEmptyLord »

Having played with a lot of people new to WC recently I'd like to bump this thread :)

Also, I didn't see you mention one of my favorite strategies, so I thought I'd bring it up.

Since Nightmare WC is focused on large amount of enemies with high amounts of gold, (little to no healers), one very effective strategy when playing Northerners(my favorites) or Undead is poison/retreat/defense.

With Orcs: Recruit 3-5 assassins (Dependent on whether you chose +60 gold and assuming Scenario 1.). Your other units are cheap, particularly grunts which you can use as a meat shield or for decent melee damage. The focus of this strategy is to poison as many enemy units, preferably high hp, as you can while keeping your assassins on 70% defense(if possible). If you have a healer hero or the healing item, try and keep these units behind your assassins. Chances are you will lose most, if not all, of your assassins, but by this time you should have poisoned a huge amount of the enemy (far more then they have villages for).

Pros:
1) Assassins have high defense, 70% on any decent terrain and 60% on flat.
2) Their attack has marksman, so they can hit high defense units and either make them retreat or die a slow death.
3) They usually hit roughly 3-3 marksman, but there is a guaranteed +8 damage the next turn regardless of time of day. (And then the enemy either has to retreat, find a village, or take +8 every turn after). Because of this, these units can end up doing as much damage as other base units in a single turn.
4) They can be used to plug holes in your defenses (given a little luck), because they have the best chance of evading for any Orc unit.
5) It is occasionally possible (and useful) to sneak an assassin to the enemy leader and poison him. The enemy leader doesn't attack or leave his keep for healing, so by the time battle is over you can swoop in and finish him with minimum turn waste. Or, if the battle is going badly for you, you can swoop a flier in and finish him. This works much better with Woodcraft giving ambush.

Cons:
1) They have low resistances against physical weaponry. This means that if the RNG screws you, you can lose assassins pretty easily. You have to take this into account and defend them as best you can, but expect to lose a few.
2) They are much more expensive than regular Orcs (5 more than grunts, 3 more than archers). This doesn't mean it's a bad idea to use them, just don't go all out and recruit 90% assassins. This is still WC, you still need defense.
3) If the enemy is undead, or at least primarily undead, be very hesitant about employing this strategy. You can't poison any undead units (and your blade dmg is negligible), while the only unit you can really poison, the dark adept, has a very strong magical counter attack. This strategy works very well against everything BUT undead.



With Undead: This strategy is a bit less front line/offensive than the Orc one. Ghoul's poison is melee, so unless fighting rangers/mages it is generally better not to attack with them in the same way(Though obviously there are exceptions). This strategy focuses on setting ghouls on villages near the enemy line or even just behind the enemy line. This won't be your winning piece of strategy, but it can be a big help. When the enemy tries to take these villages they either have to range them (which can work, but the AI generally isn't patient enough to attack with only rangers against the unit) which gives you a chance to poison key rangers, or to pile the ghoul with melee units. In my experience the AI generally attacks with 3/4 melee to rangers against ghouls. If nothing else this ghoul holds those units up for a turn or two, allowing you to change tactics, save a line, etc. Generally though, a ghoul gets a chance to poison 2-10 units in his time. It obviously varies based on enemy luck and unit types, but it is almost always worth it.

Pros:
1) The ghoul has good resistances, and not bad defenses. One can hold a village for a nice amount of time poisoning units and forcing them to retreat or lose HP every turn.
2) Melee units that try and take out the Ghoul have a good chance of being poisoned, while most ranged units that can seriously threaten a ghoul have weak melee and relatively low hp, so are excellent targets for a poison attack(Or even rushing in a few units to finish them off while distracted).

Cons
1) Sometimes the enemy may get lucky, or have good units for taking out your ghoul and he may die not having poisoned any unit, or perhaps just 1-2. It happens. Still, when you see 6-10 good units of the enemy held up and poisoned by a single ghoul it sort of balances out :) Keep in mind that half of the purpose of the ghoul is to be a distraction from your main defense.
2) This strategy doesn't work particularly well against undead though, admittedly, it isn't useless. The ghoul still has resistances to all of the base undead units(except walking corpses which he can kill in a few turns), while the dark adept is exactly the kind of unit a ghoul wants to attack.


All in all, I've found both of these strategies to be a great help in WC. Obviously you can't simply rely on them to win you the campaign, you have to incorporate them into your larger strategies, but they help push the odds in your favor.

Great guide! Thanks for making it.
MRDNRA
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Re: World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by MRDNRA »

TheEmptyLord wrote:Having played with a lot of people new to WC recently I'd like to bump this thread :)

Also, I didn't see you mention one of my favorite strategies, so I thought I'd bring it up.

Since Nightmare WC is focused on large amount of enemies with high amounts of gold, (little to no healers), one very effective strategy when playing Northerners(my favorites) or Undead is poison/retreat/defense.

With Orcs: Recruit 3-5 assassins (Dependent on whether you chose +60 gold and assuming Scenario 1.). Your other units are cheap, particularly grunts which you can use as a meat shield or for decent melee damage. The focus of this strategy is to poison as many enemy units, preferably high hp, as you can while keeping your assassins on 70% defense(if possible). If you have a healer hero or the healing item, try and keep these units behind your assassins. Chances are you will lose most, if not all, of your assassins, but by this time you should have poisoned a huge amount of the enemy (far more then they have villages for).

Pros:
1) Assassins have high defense, 70% on any decent terrain and 60% on flat.
2) Their attack has marksman, so they can hit high defense units and either make them retreat or die a slow death.
3) They usually hit roughly 3-3 marksman, but there is a guaranteed +8 damage the next turn regardless of time of day. (And then the enemy either has to retreat, find a village, or take +8 every turn after). Because of this, these units can end up doing as much damage as other base units in a single turn.
4) They can be used to plug holes in your defenses (given a little luck), because they have the best chance of evading for any Orc unit.
5) It is occasionally possible (and useful) to sneak an assassin to the enemy leader and poison him. The enemy leader doesn't attack or leave his keep for healing, so by the time battle is over you can swoop in and finish him with minimum turn waste. Or, if the battle is going badly for you, you can swoop a flier in and finish him. This works much better with Woodcraft giving ambush.

Cons:
1) They have low resistances against physical weaponry. This means that if the RNG screws you, you can lose assassins pretty easily. You have to take this into account and defend them as best you can, but expect to lose a few.
2) They are much more expensive than regular Orcs (5 more than grunts, 3 more than archers). This doesn't mean it's a bad idea to use them, just don't go all out and recruit 90% assassins. This is still WC, you still need defense.
3) If the enemy is undead, or at least primarily undead, be very hesitant about employing this strategy. You can't poison any undead units (and your blade dmg is negligible), while the only unit you can really poison, the dark adept, has a very strong magical counter attack. This strategy works very well against everything BUT undead.



With Undead: This strategy is a bit less front line/offensive than the Orc one. Ghoul's poison is melee, so unless fighting rangers/mages it is generally better not to attack with them in the same way(Though obviously there are exceptions). This strategy focuses on setting ghouls on villages near the enemy line or even just behind the enemy line. This won't be your winning piece of strategy, but it can be a big help. When the enemy tries to take these villages they either have to range them (which can work, but the AI generally isn't patient enough to attack with only rangers against the unit) which gives you a chance to poison key rangers, or to pile the ghoul with melee units. In my experience the AI generally attacks with 3/4 melee to rangers against ghouls. If nothing else this ghoul holds those units up for a turn or two, allowing you to change tactics, save a line, etc. Generally though, a ghoul gets a chance to poison 2-10 units in his time. It obviously varies based on enemy luck and unit types, but it is almost always worth it.

Pros:
1) The ghoul has good resistances, and not bad defenses. One can hold a village for a nice amount of time poisoning units and forcing them to retreat or lose HP every turn.
2) Melee units that try and take out the Ghoul have a good chance of being poisoned, while most ranged units that can seriously threaten a ghoul have weak melee and relatively low hp, so are excellent targets for a poison attack(Or even rushing in a few units to finish them off while distracted).

Cons
1) Sometimes the enemy may get lucky, or have good units for taking out your ghoul and he may die not having poisoned any unit, or perhaps just 1-2. It happens. Still, when you see 6-10 good units of the enemy held up and poisoned by a single ghoul it sort of balances out :) Keep in mind that half of the purpose of the ghoul is to be a distraction from your main defense.
2) This strategy doesn't work particularly well against undead though, admittedly, it isn't useless. The ghoul still has resistances to all of the base undead units(except walking corpses which he can kill in a few turns), while the dark adept is exactly the kind of unit a ghoul wants to attack.


All in all, I've found both of these strategies to be a great help in WC. Obviously you can't simply rely on them to win you the campaign, you have to incorporate them into your larger strategies, but they help push the odds in your favor.

Great guide! Thanks for making it.
My usual tactic on the few occasions I play as undead using the Dark Sorceror leader is to recruit a mix of ghouls and DA's (tending to go slightly more ghouls than DA's) so I can use their poison. They basically become slightly expensive fodder as I usually just use them in the front line to protect my adepts though.
roidanton
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Re: World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by roidanton »

Do you think it's a good idea to add Orcish Assassin to your recruit list when playing Elves (or Loyalists) or is this only something that should be used when playing Orcs?
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TheEmptyLord
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Re: World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by TheEmptyLord »

IMO it isn't generally worth it to add units to your recruit list, the only exceptions being ghost and a healer (and those only very very rarely). Elves already have two units with 70% defense on forests, one of the most common terrains, and their base fighter has 60% defense there. The assassins would add poison, but they are a relatively expensive units while rebels already have quite a few relatively expensive units. Assassins work well for Northerners because the northern base units are cheap. It would probably be better to give yourself an extra +60 gold, your elves woodcraft, and extra healer (with poison or leadership or drain or heal), or an item for one of your heros instead of an extra recruit.

Just my opinion, but in my experience very few good WC players ever get an extra recruit.
Honor
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Re: World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by Honor »

Great idea about writing a guide for the newer players that have yet to make it to the half way point of WC, i.e. Map 4.
Some of the common mistakes that I have observed while playing with the newer players.

1. Forming a bad defensive line.
A) When forming a line, try to use the least amount of units to form the line. For example, if you can form a line with 2 units and a hex between them, do that. Don't put 3 units side by side when 2 units will suffice.
B)Pick the right traits for the line. For example, if you know the AI is going to hit your line with melee attacks, it makes more sense to use strong traits to form the line instead of dextrous or if it's day time, it makes sense to form the line with Fearless trolls than some non-fearless trolls.
C)Knowing where to form a line. If you are forming a line, consider how many AIs you are attracting, not too many where you are overwhelmed and not too few where you leave your allies in trouble! In general, AI tends to converge on the player that is most easily reached, not the closest! Also not only do you want to form a line where you have good terrain but you also want to consider giving the AI bad terrain to work with!
D)Avoid forming a line for the sake of forming a line; avoid giving free hits! For example, you form a line of grunts and the AI then comes at your with skeleton archers shooting at you w/o taking any retal damage. Better to form it with some ranged units and get in some retal damage.
E) The line is too thin. Keep your line tight and small as possible so you can easily swap injured unit for healthy units and have the chance to heal up!

2. Not knowing when to retreat. If you are fighting against lawful or chaotic, you retreat during dawn or dusk respectfully. It's a bit too late to retreat during day or night!

3. Not scouting enough. Scout out your enemies! Know what's coming so you can take appropriate measures. This is very important if the enemies have quick units that may flank you. Don't lose an important unit just because you didn't see that coming!

4. Spreading the exp received too thin or too focused. Your goal is to have as many lvl2s as possible. It's better to have 5 lvl2s than 2 lvl3s and 3 lvl1s because you can have more studier units to defend hexes that are not too weak and are able to hold against the masses of lvl1s that the AI will throw at you.

General Comments: (without repeating what's already been mentioned)
Easiest Factions for WC: Northerners/Dwarves/Elves
Northerners: Grunts - 12 gold and 38 base HP. No unit that has that type of tankiness and for that price except for...Trolls!
Trolls! 13 gold and 42 base hp plus regen!
Those 2 units alone make Northerners ridiculously powerful since you can field a lot of them with the limited gold. + Northerners start out with 3 heroes and always an healing auger!

Elves: Versatility and evasion is the name of the game. All units except wose has both range and melee attack, which give you the option to inflict damage to AI w/o any chance of retal. Have shamans. The value of shamans is under-appreciated by newer players. The ability to slow enemies, heal +4 and 70% evade on forest makes shamans probably the most important unit for elves. In general, try to slow enemies first before attacking them to reduce enemy retal damage.


Hardest Factions: Drakes/Loyals/Undead

Loyals: Contrary to what most players think, Loyals are very weak. 2 reasons for this: high movement penalty - penalized on movement on both hills and forests. This makes it very hard for loyal to advance and retreat when needed. The other reason is the high exp levels needed to lvl up units. Mages have the highest exp requirement to lvl. Spearman also has high exp requirement. On top of all these 2, most players would focus experience lvling up sergeant which is an exp glut himself.

Undead: Lack of healing and high movement penalty and locked in 5 movement points for some units.


Traits considerations:

Most important Trait: Intelligence! Because there is a +50% increase in the amount of exp needed to lvl up, intelligence helps out a whole lot to get your units from lvl 1 to lvl2 or have enough experience obtained to be worthwhile recalling as a lvl 1 unit.

For mages or casters of any type, the best traits to have are intel and quick. Intelligence is very important since the lvl2 forms of the caster is way better than it's lvl1 form. Quick is important because mages are designed as support units, not tanks, so they need the ability to move as needed and not be in the front to tank!

Strong/dextrous are the worst traits. Better to have your units live a bit longer and kill a bit slower than to kill an enemy in retal only to have another enemy take the hex of the fallen enemy and kill you.

Quick Trait is vitally important for units that have 5 mp, namely, spearman, elf fighters, clashers, etc. This is important because the ability to move 3 hex instead of 2 hexes on terrain that requires 2 mp can means the difference between life and death.

Fearless: Love it on the trolls, not so much on HI since those bad boys need quick and resilient to be able to move and tank hits from skeletons.

Healthy: Love it.

Bonus Picks.

Unit Training contrary to what has been mentioned is extremely valuable - way better than picking an item. This requires the player to know how to keep his units alive to be recalled in following maps.

Popular/good combos: Troll with Ambush, Elves with HP, shamans with Exp, all burner spam with range, all ghost spam with HP, loyals with ambush, skeletons with ambush, etc.
Training is best purchased in map1 as this is the easiest map and also allows the player more opportunity to lvl up the upgraded units.


Pick recruits is a last ditch option to go if you can't survive without that recruit type.
60 Gold pick is another last ditch option to go if you can't survive without a few more units.

Generally speaking:
I choose:
Map1 - Hero picking/Training
Map2 - Hero picking/Item
Map3- Hero picking/Item
Map4- Hero picking/Item
Map5- Hero picking/Item
Map6- Hero picking/Gold

The best heroes to have early on is either a healer type or a scout type. Scout type heroes is critical to have in later maps as it allow you to scout out the enemy first before you decide what type of bonus to get/unit to recruit.

Special mentioning: Ruffian is a ridiculously awesome lvl 0 unit. It's has expert trait and can advance to lvl 3.

Items Consideration:

Illuminate is a double edged sword because your military later will incorporate both lawful and chaotic types and lawful enemies can also benefit from illuminate. Do you really want to give that bonus to enemy drakes or a horseman?
Far better to grab banner if you have it or go for another item.

Units:
Specialty units are almost never worth recruiting. These units are skirmisher, fencer, & assassin. The main reason that they are not worth it is they do not live long. And if they happen to evade like there is no tomorrow, that's pure luck. Statistically, a grunt will tank much longer than an assassin and spearman over fencer. Assassin is worth it if there is an unit coming at you that you really have no way of dealing with except slowly killing it via poison like a lvl3 dwarve on hills.
Raliven
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Re: World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by Raliven »

It's also possible to play WC with only one or two players because I think the spawns scale to the number of players. When playing with fewer players, you need to make sure you recruit more scouts to grab villages. It can be particularly helpful if you have scouts with the woodcraft training which gives them ambush, because this will allow you to sneak behind enemy lines to take villages to shut down the ai's gold. This will stop the ai from recruiting and give you a chance to finish the maps, though I'm not sure you can actually solo WC to the end. The maps seem to get kind of large later for a single player to finish in time.
roidanton
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Re: World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by roidanton »

Hmm, is the game very different when you play it alone (on Nightmare)? Is droiding the other sides a viable option for learning? So far, I've only reached Map 3 once, but never actually played it.

I think I've been too embarrassed because most WC were "experts only" - until I finally realized that distinguishes me from a noob: I want to learn and am listening to advise from better players - and of course, I'd never even consider getting regenerates + melee strikes 1st round for shaman in a pro colosseum :D

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Regarding that line, if I could choose between using 2 units or 3 units, but the empty hex would allow an additional AI unit to attack (can this even happen)?

Speaking of scouts, I prefer playing Elves - is there any value in getting a ghost / drake hero because I could already recruit an Elvish Scout?

What's the best leader for Elves, Captain or Druid? I choose Druid for most of my games, so I get healing right from the start, then try to level a fighter as quickly as possible. Is leadership even that important or will most of my units be lvl 3 quickly enough to make Elvish Champion the better choice? Love the Shamans, btw. - especially against Northeners.

What's the best hero that I could get when playing Elves? I'd pick Merman Initiate on water maps / Ghost otherwise, that's a good choice?

What's unit training and what'd be the best for Elves?
Last edited by 8680 on June 4th, 2013, 4:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Merged double post [Posting Guidelines §1f].
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TheEmptyLord
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Re: World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by TheEmptyLord »

What's unit training and what'd be the best for Elves?
Unit training allows you to increase the stats of units you recruit for this scenario, but not units you recall. These units retain the stat changes on future scenarios. By far the most useful training (imo) is Woodcraft which gives all units you recruit ambush, +10% defense in forests (up to a max of 70%) and, iirc, mp on forests set to one. The increase defense in forests doesn't apply to horsemen/cavalry who keep 30% defense there.

Woodcraft is very useful for loyalists, allowing them movement through forests, extra defense, and ambush. It is also really useful for elf fighters, bringing them to 70% defense and ambush. It is pretty useful for all the other races, but perhaps not so much. (Maybe least useful for dwarves since they have 30% defense on forests and it only boosts them to 40%).

The other training are things like increasing melee damage, ranged damage, mp, hp, decreasing exp to lvl, etc. I hardly ever pick them, not because they are bad but because I generally have other things I want better. Regardless, they can be very useful to counter faction's inefficiencies, getting some good mp+1 units first scenario means a lot for dwarves later. The question is: are the 3 units surviving 2 scenarios later with mp+1 better than giving your lvl 3 ancient wose w/ flying, magical, charge, berserk the drain item? Or maybe a banner, or healing, or a new hero.

One last piece of advice on training: IMO if you get training, it is best on the first scenario for units you will keep/recall later, and if you get training you should strong consider +60 gold to maximize the troops you have that benefit with.
Speaking of scouts, I prefer playing Elves - is there any value in getting a ghost / drake hero because I could already recruit an Elvish Scout?
Not for scouting necessarily, though the scout lacks the ability to fly so is a bit restricted, but the ghost is always an awesome hero. Definitely my favourite hero because he is so easy to get powerful with a few items and gets extremely powerful with more. Some items that are good for him imo: Hp +20, feeding, magical melee, storm trident, berserk (if power is great enough), and possibly slows if you don't mind losing the arcane attack.

What's the best leader for Elves, Captain or Druid?
Elves are not a race I personally play a lot in WC but I see a lot of good players using sorceress. This leader has a slows attack and a magical arcane one, so can be pretty useful for filling holes in a line or forcing one open at times. This unit can also reach level 4 and gets flying movement when it does. Druid and captain aren't bad choices, however I would probably pick captain over druid because the captain has more survivability and because you can recruit shamans for healing (which are very nice units in their own right. Shamans are definitely a top priority to lvl as elves(and mainly into sorceresses).

Edit: And sorceresses also have 70% defense in forests
Honor
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Joined: July 18th, 2011, 8:01 pm

Re: World Conquest: Surviving the Nightmare

Post by Honor »

roidanton wrote:Hmm, is the game very different when you play it alone (on Nightmare)? Is droiding the other sides a viable option for learning? So far, I've only reached Map 3 once, but never actually played it.
No ai can win WC for you.
roidanton wrote: Regarding that line, if I could choose between using 2 units or 3 units, but the empty hex would allow an additional AI unit to attack (can this even happen)?
Yes, if they have a skirmishing unit or one of the 2 units die and now that space can be grabbed.
roidanton wrote: Speaking of scouts, I prefer playing Elves - is there any value in getting a ghost / drake hero because I could already recruit an Elvish Scout?
The best scout is glider. Ghost is my second choice. Scout is my 3rd choice. And then Griffon. Glider has flying, fearless, 9mp, 50% evade, and has marksman. Best! Ghost is second. Folks will say that Ghost with such and such item is awesome. All I have to say to that is any hero with 3 good items is awesome. Get my point? We're looking for the beset scout; not some uber hero we'll invest all our items into.
roidanton wrote: What's the best leader for Elves, Captain or Druid? I choose Druid for most of my games, so I get healing right from the start, then try to level a fighter as quickly as possible. Is leadership even that important or will most of my units be lvl 3 quickly enough to make Elvish Champion the better choice? Love the Shamans, btw. - especially against Northeners.?
The best leader is avenger or marksman. High MP value is valuable for a leader that may have to run back & forth to fight and recruit and grab villages.
roidanton wrote: What's the best hero that I could get when playing Elves? I'd pick Merman Initiate on water maps / Ghost otherwise, that's a good choice?
The best hero is the hero that will either A) help you at each map (scout) or B) Will help you significantly for that map.
roidanton wrote: What's unit training and what'd be the best for Elves?
Again, it varies. It all depends on A) what unit you will be recruiting the most and B) which units you'll be focusing your exp into.
If spamming shammies against undead, I would go EXP training.
If spamming archers to fight against loyals, I would go HP training.
Anything else, I wouldn't buy training for.
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