Conquest/Strategies

These are potential strategies to use in Conquest. Note that not every possible strategy is listed here, and some strategies work better than others.
Note: If you think a particular strategy is not useful, DO NOT argue it out on the strategy page. Go to the discussion page and start a discussion.

Basic guidelines

Using ranged units (archers and mages) is heavily advised, as they are difficult to be charged by scouts early-game. If you insist of having one, then it is imperative to launch an immediate assault with it early on.

While there are different types of formation, the most common effective one is corner. Setting up your formation in the corner increases your defensive potential without sacrificing your offensive potential. Using a center formation always puts you at a disadvantage. For an example of how awful a non-corner setup can be, play Antilad.

Rush

Units: 2 champions, 1 knight, 1 halberdier and 6 scouts or 2 champions, 1 foot soldier, 2 halberdiers and 5 scouts
Commands: Battle Cry, Charge, Shield Wall, and Stoicism.

Starting with formation, it is vital that you have your rush set up in the corner. This is because you do not have chastise as a command, meaning that defending mostly comes down to using lesser units (scouts, foot soldiers and, only when necessary, halberdiers) to protect more important units (champions and knights). The corner set-up allows you to make a wall with your scouts and foot soldier, thereby proteting one champion and other halberdiers and archers. Constructing an exact formation is subjective. You will have to experiment with different corner combinations that suit your play style. Nevertheless, there are some things you must feature in your formation. Firstly, you must have one champion somewhere in the top row.. The one champion at he top is almost exclusively for offensive purposes, since you will be looking to rush it in early-game. It is best to have most of your scouts in the front row, as well as the foot soldier if you have one. And then of course it is best to protect your halberdiers and knights, too, by concealing them behind the front-row wall, either on the second row or on the back row. Other than that, formation is largely subjective. Just make sure that you maximise defensive potential without sacrificing offensive potential, which is the main purpose of cornered formations.

For the strategy itself, it is a relatively easy concept. Rush, as the name implies, broadly involves you rushing your first champion into the enemy team, killing units and using your commands to keep yourself alive. Of course, the way you carry this out will differ depending on which units the enemy team consists of, and its formation. However, there are characteristics almost all rushes have in common.

For starters, it is vital for you not to have your champion hit by an opposing scout. You must try and keep your champion at its full 500hp before the rush begins.

In order to do this, a good first move is always to move a scout up four spaces. This is to keep off any enemy scouts. By moving your archer up, you can give your champion more of a chance of getting up the board without being hit. For example, when you move your scout up, the opponent will either keep its scouts out of range or move them in range of your scout. The best policy here would be to kill their scout with your scout. They will most likely respond by killing your scout with a scout, simultaneously moving their scout back in range of your champion. Here, it would probably be best to move your foot soldier up the board to deter scouts or to force them to use battle cry, which would mean you have five turns to kill their champion.

The rush begins when you come into charging range (eight squares) of their first 100-point unit (knights, archers and mages) or 75-point unit (halberdiers), but 100 is always preferable. For charging 100-point units, waiting until 100 command points if possible is the best policy; this allows you to use more commands next turn to keep your champion alive if they chastise you, without running out of command points). Obviously, charging a 75-point unit would be done at 125 command points. After you charge and kill the first unit, you should use one of your commands to keep you alive (stoicism is usually a good first one). After this, continue killing units and using battle cry/shield wall/stoicism to defend. Note that when using shield wall, you need to be careful of enemy halberdiers, as they will often hit you down to 400hp without dying when you have shield wall on. Thus it is often good practice to use stoicism, followed by battle cry and then shield wall. If you use shield wall first, then they hit you to 400hp, meaning that when you use battle cry next turn, they can battle cry their champion to kill yours.

Assuming that the opponent is rational and has some experience with conquest, they will probably protect their champions by using their own commands or by simply moving them out of range. In any case, if you have a chance to, of course you should use battle cry and kill their champion. But you are unlikely to get this chance unless you are against an inexperienced player. So, when you run out of commands (meaning that your champion will die next turn), hit an enemy champion to 100hp and say goodbye to your champion. Their 100hp champion is now more or less useless, as it will only take a scout to kill it later on.

A good rush can take down three high-point units (mages, knights, archers and halberdiers) as well as reducing a champion to 100hp. But realisticially, if your opponent is a competent defender, taking down two high-point units and hurting one champion should be considered a success, especially if they have chastise.

After the first rush is complete, and your champion is dead, there is no concrete way of how to go about the rest of the game. It really depends on the whereabouts of the enemy units and how many units you destroyed in the first rush. Often, you can break the enemy team with the first rush, and the rest of the game involves mopping up the remaining units (a 100hp champ can be finished off by a scout with no commands). In these cases, it is unlikely to take anything remarkable on your part to win the game, so you should focus on making no significant, game-changing mistakes. As long as you don't, a win should be easy.

However, there are often situations where the opponent still has a good chance in the game after the first rush, and might even be slightly advantages. In these circumstances, overall game awareness comes into play. This cannot be described in words, and only comes from experience. Although paying attention to the location of enemy troops is a good idea. If they are concentrated in one location, you could just repeat the first rush with your second champion, probably taking out the rest of the strong units, and maybe the whole team. Though, if their units are spaced out, a simple rush will not work, and you will need to deploy the units at your disposal. Make sure you take advantage of your halberdier's superior range when attacking champions, and if you have a knight, it can be an effective champion killer, and can also act as an effective lure to the opponent to use battle cry.

The good thing about this set-up is that it has only one specific weakness. You are likely to have a harder time against set-ups using chastise, but it is by no means impossible.

Also, this set-up is beneficial for inexperienced players, as the concept is easy to grasp and it has a specific strategy to follow, unlike antirush. Moreover, it works wonders against set-ups without the aforementioned commands. And it usually beats other inexperienced players easily, because they aren't aware of how to defend effectively against champion rushes.

Antirush

Units: Same as rush formation and rush formation variants

Commands: Charge, Shield wall, Chastise, Vigilance.

As the name suggests, this setup is very effective against rush formation. However, it can be used effectively against most other setups as well, although it has some weaknesses against setups such as bombard. This setup is good against rush formation because once they make the attack, you can chastise and mend your scout wall for 2 turns, usually enough to fully protect most of your troops. When they attack, they will either use shield wall or stoicism. It is recommended to fill a gap with your halberdier and hit the champion for 100 hp when he has used shield wall, that is, if you have not wounded his champion with a scout before. As for attacking with Antirush, chastise may not be as effective as using chastise on one troop still doesn't protect you from damaging from the others. However, with champions and other high hitpoint troops, you can take advantage of their wall, say if they have a champion boxing in another champion, you can chastise the champion that is part of the wall and the other one will not be able to get you. Any setup with chastise can be considered an antirush, but many have other names as well. Antirush should not be used with shield wall, as it is too easily exploited when making an attack (having a scout hit the champion and having chastise being used on your champion).

Regenerate

Units: 2 Champions, 1 Halberdier and 7 Scouts

Commands: Charge, Battle Cry, Chastise, Regenerate

This strategy is actually very simple. For the formation, you should have, from the edge of the board going outwards, four scouts followed by a champ. That is it for the front row. On the second row you should have two scouts outside the champ on the front row. So the first scout on the second row will be one across from the front champ. On the back row, you want a champ in the corner, then leave a one-square gap and put your halberdier there. Then leave another gap and place your final scout there.

As stated above, the strategy itself is quite simple. In general, you will be looking for opportunities to charge and battle cry their champ(s) with your scouts to bring them to 200hp. If the opponent camps just wait for the 150 command points for charge and battle cry and attack a champ. In response to this they will be forced to attempt a counter-attack. They will most likely advance with their champ with full hp. You should proceed to retreat your front champ into the corner in between the halberdier and other champ, and then close the wall next turn. This should prevent any counter by an enemy champ. If they charge your scout wall they will struggle as you can replace the lost scout with another in the way of their attacking champ. You also have the luxury of chastise to defend.

The champ on the front row is to launch quick counters if the opponent charges for some reason. When they do you have five turns to counter and you can often destroy many of their units in this time. Also the champ is on the front row to deter enemy scouts. Often good players who know how to assault a scout wall will move up their scouts in a line as far as possible. This means that, providing they keep their champs back, they will block you from charge and battle crying them with your scouts. To counter this move up your front row champ. It does not matter if they attack you with scouts as you have regenerate, providing you remember to regenerate (many actually forget). So their scouts will most probably be forced to move back, giving you the chance to charge and battle cry their champs with your scouts. After you do proceed with defending against the enemy counter-attack as described above.

Another useful tip for using regenerate is the champ trade. If they only have one champ while you have two, you can simply place one champ into charging range of theirs as long as you keep your other within range of your bait champ. The opponent will probably charge and battle cry meaning that they cannot kill your second champ. After they take out your first champ, you can simply walk up to them and end your turn. Depending on their commands, you might want to chastise. If they have used all defensive commands then there is no need to chastise. But if they still have one left you can chastise first and then force them to use their defensive command, and then you can skip the next turn.

Bombard

Units: 3 Champions

Commands:Charge, Battle Cry, Vigilance, Bombard

This setup is particularly the most deadly and is one of the easiest to use. These setups are most commonly seen staking, as they are particularly tedious to use for casual playing. For this setup, it can be overwhelming for the other opponent, as they have to make a quick attack, but with the equal champion wall to regenerate, suiciding scouts to bombard is a priority. However, champions are more valuable than they seem on a bombard setup, and you will need to rid of the opponent's knights and champions losing as few of your champions as possible. While the opponent moves their scout within range of your champion, continue to move it back. They will need multiple scouts advanced to make the attack, at least three in the beginning and 4 late in the game. This is because of vigilance, and if you don't slaughter their scouts in one turn, you probably will be able to the next. They will not have all 6 scouts to attack, because they need some left over for the rest of the game and to defend. A popular way to rid someone of scouts, if they have 4 attacking, is when they pull one up, kill that one with your champion with charge. When they have three left, kill one, bombard another, and chastise the rest. At this point, you will still have alot of command points, but they will not have enough troops to kill off your remaining scouts, still enabling you to defend well. This setup works particularly well on regenerate as there are 2 ways to finish of a champion with a champion, and regenerate usually has only chastise, which does not work well, or shield wall, which is countered by your chastise.

Staking

As far as staking goes, never stake if you are still naive at the game. Skill only develops with your experience with the game, and you will never instantly be good enough to stake no matter how well you have been taught, or how well your setup is. When staking, always know that ranking means little: It is a poor representation of someone's true skill. Also, since many people have alternate accounts with low ranking by default, they will use them to stake as their main will have many people feeling uneasy with it. If anyone asks you to stake, there is nothing to make sure they are really good or adequate enough for you to stake. When staking, just concentrate, do your best not to mess up, and focus on both your and your opponent's moves.

Archer+1 foot soldiers -2

Units: 1 champion, 2 halberdiers, 2 archers, 2 scouts, 1 mage, and 1 knight.
Commands: Battle Cry, Charge, and Chastise.

This setup uses the default setup and swaps out both foot soldiers for 1 extra archer. The setup's purpose is to snipe down 100 HP units like scouts, other archers and mages using your archers. If you let a mage follow your archer, you can kill halberdiers without the use of commands unless your opponent uses them. After you have killed as many units with your archers and mage as you can, they will probably die and you'll have your melee units left, who are most likely outnumbering your opponent's units. Now it's a piece of cake to finish your opponent off. The biggest counter to this is if your opponent uses Charge on a scout or archer to kill your archers. Using Chastise could help you escape from this, but not always. Archers are VERY weak against champions and shouldn't be used against them unless they can be killed in one shot, or of the archer will die no matter what.

Variant 1

Units: 2-4 archers or mages, 2 halberdiers, 1 champion, and 1-3 scouts.
Commands: Battle Cry, Vigilance, and Chastise.

This variant has more ranged than the basic set-up stated above. However most units have poor defence, and thus this strategy doesn't work for close-combat. This setup uses at least 2-4 archers or mages, followed by about 2 halberdiers (a knight could also work, but halberdiers are cheaper). With the extra funds you could buy a champion and perhaps a few scouts for suicide missions. Keep the distance attackers out of harm's way but within striking distance. Your objective is to lure the opponent's troop to your side of the board where you can overwhelm it with rangers and halberds from a safe distance. The opponent will get wise to the tactic soon, but by then you will have a good defence and a slight advantage because you have likely taken out one of their pieces. This technique is particularly useful against Championeers.

Recommended commands are: Battle Cry for taking out knights and other halberdiers (but if you have a mage following your archer(s) you can use them to kill the halberdiers); Vigilance for a defence against other archers (this can be countered by Battle Cry); and Chastise, for binding pieces and allowing halberdiers and distance attackers to safe spot.

Variant 2

Units: 2 archers, 2 knights, 2 scouts, 1 mage, and 1 champion
Commands: Charge, Battle Cry, Chastise, Vigilance

This variant is for taking out heavy infantry(the high-health units and high-damage units). However it has less ranged units and is weak at a distance. This setup works well against champion groups as well if you know what you're doing. Preferably the other team should go first. Use your archers to pick off the enemy long range units for as long as possible and then use them to lure people towards your group. Once people get close enough you have a wide variety of units to kill them with. If they boost the person that is close just use chastise and wait for the effects to wear off. you should be able to kill almost any unit with someone in your squad if you do this well. That way when they use chastise you have multiple other options. The setup should look something like this:

Champion/Mage

Units: 2 champions, 2 mages, and another optional unit, such as a knight.
Commands: Battle Cry, Vigilance, and Regenerate.

This setup uses only two champions, two mages and another optional unit, preferably a knight. In this offensive strategy, use the two mages to kill off approaching enemy units. Now use one of your champions and clear away the remaining units. You can even dispose of the enemy champion in one turn by using Battle Cry on your champion. You can use the other champion as backup, in case the other dies.

Championeer

Units: 3 champions, and 2 or more scouts.
Commands: Battle Cry, Charge, Regenerate, and Shield Wall. Note that this depends on personal preference and the number of scouts placed.

One of the most common setups in Conquest, the Championeer build uses scouts with Charge in order to take down units with low HP like archers and mages. Three champions deal with the rest of the units, making the most of commands. Note that this build isn't well liked, and there have been calls by players to limit the number of champions in a setup down to 1 or 2 (sometimes they simply say no champ noobs or they simply resign).

Please note: Due to the update on 12 October 2010 when champion's health was reduced by 100, this method is much less effective.

Championeer Killer

Units: 1 champion, 4 halberdiers, 1 archer, 1 mage, and 2 scouts.
Commands: Charge, Battle Cry, Shield Wall, and Chastise.

This setup is designed to be a counter to the Championeer setup. Your opponent will most likely Charge with a scout to kill either your archer or your mage, which is sacrificed. Then, if they use Stoicism, use Chastise. If not, move an archer or a halberdier up and kill the scout. Next turn, move your halberdier or archer up depending on which one you already sent. If they killed your archer, move up a second halberdier. Note that the mage is there to take out halberdiers, in case they don't use their champions, but they can also be used to help take out champions and scouts. They already have used Charge so you can advance freely with your halberdiers. Move one halberdier one space outside their champion's range so if he moves his maximum amount of spaces, he won't hit you. Keep your archer or second halberdier far enough that he can't run past your halberdier. By now you should have enough for Shield Wall and Battle Cry so move 4 spaces to your opponent's champion. Attack from two spaces away to avoid a counter-attack, and use Shield Wall. If he attacks you, you can kill him on the next turn and save Battle Cry. If he uses Shield Wall, move up your other halberdier and attack a different champion. Your opponent now has 2 champs down to 300 HP, has used up Shield Wall and doesn't have enough points for Battle Cry and Regenerate, so he can only try to save one of his champions. Now use Battle Cry and kill off whichever one he didn't protect. From there, it should be pretty easy to win. Just remember to play it safe, and make sure that your opponent doesn't use Charge and Battle Cry to kill your champion. If your opponent moves up one champion at a time, you can Chastise it and then kill it.

Devastation

Units: 2 champions, 1 archer, 1 mage, 1 knight, and 1 scout.
Commands: Charge, Shield Wall, Battle Cry, and Stoicism.

This setup sacrifices a berserker champion for several other enemy pieces, successfully killing one/two champions and other strong pieces, leaving them with a tattered squad and you with another champion, a knight and at least a mage/archer/scout. Whether you start first or not doesn't matter. The army should be aligned like so:

First, move your archer 3 squares forward. Depending on which unit the opponent moves, follow the directions below.

Archer

Move either champion out four spaces. As the enemy's archer advances, send forward your scout as the enemy will no longer advance, and kill your scout. It's okay, the scout is only for fodder. Make sure the scout is in range of the archer, so that when the archer attacks he is 8/9 squares away from the champion. By now it should be your third turn.

Mage

Move your archer just beyond the mage's range (so there are eight spaces between your archer and her). If the mage retreats, try to lure them back out a little, but not too close so that they can attack. If the mage doesn't retreat, you are able to kill her, because an archer's range is farther than a mage's. Make this last until your third turn.

Scout

Move your scout six spaces ahead. The enemy scout will either retreat, do nothing, or move forward. If the latter happens, send out your archer to either push him back or kill him. If he retreats or does nothing, skip your turn. If your opponent puts forward a different piece, follow the instructions for that soldier. By now you should be reaching your third turn.

Other

Do nothing and skip your turn. If the unit put forward is melee, move your archer in range to attack to either kill or weaken him. This, at least, will hold back the enemy's attacks.

By your third turn, continue holding back the enemy while putting either champion forward 4 spaces, if you haven't already. Make sure an enemy soldier with the command value of at least 75 is within the champion's range as you are able to use Charge. Do so, and attack the mage, archer or whatever it may be. By killing it, you have gained 100 or so command points. Do not use any other commands until your next turn.

The opponent may attack you, but if they do it doesn't matter. shrug off that blow and move into the opponent's strongest piece, most likely a champion. Use Battle Cry and kill the champion. If Chastise has been used on your champion, use Stoicism and kill another medium-strength soldier on your next turn. If not, you will survive another turn. If your opponent has a knight or another champion, use Shield Wall. If they attack, you have taken out another one of their soldiers. Play the next turns freely, trying to keep your champion alive and killing for as long as possible.

At the very best, this setup can kill the entire enemy team with one champion. If minimal soldiers were killed, especially if your opponent has Chastise, it's fine because you still have enough high-powered and varied soldiers left to win the game. This doesn't necessarily work against Championeers, so you can just resign as soon as you see them, because there is no penalty for resigning at the very beginning.

Fast and Brutal

Units: 2 champions, and 8 scouts.
Commands: Charge, Battle Cry, Regenerate, and one more of personal preference.

This setup has two champions in the middle, with four scouts on each side of them. With all those scouts and Charge, you can easily kill off the mages and archers from nearly anywhere in a single hit. Battle Cry can be used to increase the damage of scouts to 300 HP, making it possible to take out stronger units such as halberdiers or knights from anywhere as well. Alternatively, Battle Cry can be used to take out the enemy's champion by using your own. The scouts make up your "sweep" team to take out the annoying archers and mages, while the champions make up the brute force of your attack. Stoicism is a good option for your fourth command, as it will enable your scouts to survive for another turn after they have run in for a kill. With Stoicism in effect, your scout will have 500 HP, enough to withstand an attack from almost any enemy unit, even if they are using Battle Cry. Also, in combination with Regenerate, your champions will be transformed into tanks capable of withstanding massive amounts of damage. Note: If you don't feel safe with 8 scouts, you can replace 1-3 with foot soldiers or knights.

Variation 1

Units: 2 champions, and 8 scouts.
Commands: Charge, Battle Cry, Bombard, and Chastise

This variation is most effectively used against championeers and other teams which have high-health units, to whittle down their health with bombard.

This relies on the same strategy as above, except makes use of bombard to take out problem pieces from afar. Even if the opponent uses three or more champions, charge and battle cry can effectively be used to take out half of a champion's health in one attack, and bombard allows you to take out very weakened champions in the later game. Use the scout's superior range and maneuverability to hide behind obstacles in the arena and keep them out of range of the champions, but keep them just in range yourself. Chastise can be used to keep back an invading champion. Generally, try to buy time while your bonuses recharge for a scout sprint attack. Keep the champions in reserve until the middle-end of the game as a surprise to the enemy. This strategy is subject to changes depending on the enemy's strategy, but keep in mind keeping your scouts out of range of opposing units until they can hit them hard with a battle cry.

Winds of Stab and Death

Units: 2 Champions, 1 Halberdier and 7 Scouts
Commands: Charge, Battle Cry, Shield Wall and Winds of Fate

This strategy is similar to the "Fast and Brutal" listed above, but Winds of Fate is brought in to give your Scouts the punch they really need, both to survive and to kill mercilessly, all the while denying the enemy a large amount of points to spend on their abilities. The idea is to starve them early game, in order to dominate late game.

Going second is always preferable with this strategy - it means you get to make the first charge, as you do not get any points on the very first go. You set up in a line, as far forward as you can - Scouts on the flanks, Champions and Halberdier in the centre. Assuming the enemy don't run full-sprint with a Scout, you move one Scout 3 spaces forwards. If you do get the first go, the same move is made, but you must be mindful that they will charge you first. However, you have nothing worth charging as soon as possible - they won't kill your Champions or Halberdier, and you'll just kill their Scout if he kills one of yours.

Keep doing this, lining up 3 spaces forward, making sure to stay out of the enemy Scout/bow range. If an Archer moves towards you, let them kill a Scout - you have plenty, and in order to kill a Scout, they have to move into stab range from one of your friends. Even if they blow a cooldown to save themselves, you're still set.

As soon as you can, Charge with a scout. Run all the way to his back line, and stab something to death - Archers and Mages are a perfect target. If none are available, then wait until you can nut someone with a Battle Cry. Early game, you want to be covering your Scouts with more Scouts. You want to force him to lose units - for every unit he kills, he must lose one himself. If something big and tough runs in - a Champion, a Knight with Shield Wall/Battle Cry/Stoicism, then leave him until he runs out of cooldowns, as long as your scouts are playing merry hell through his lines with Charge and Battle Cry, using Shield Wall to save them from dying if you've got a Battle Cry up. Just make sure your Champions are kept safe, as they're your sucker-punch while he's reeling. As soon as you get a chance, you kill his invader in one blow from either a Battle Cry'd Champion, if he's running you with a Champ or Battle Cry'd Knight/Foot Soldier, or a Scout, or your Halberdier on anything else.

The magic is that even though your Scouts will die, they'll be taking an even number of casualties - and your Scouts only cost 25 points a piece. Archer or Mage nets you an easy 100. Foot Soldiers, Knights and Halberdiers are all popped with Battle Cry.

What do you do with your massive point advantage over the enemy? Winds of Fate. Mid-game, normally you would have lost 2-4 Scouts, and your opponent would be down all his Archers and Mages, most likely his Scouts too. Once all your cooldowns are off again, you would have an abundance of points to spare. Once you have 300+ points, your mid-game is available.

First, making sure that you're within 12 squares of an easy target, you use Battle Cry on a Scout. Then you blow Winds of Fate, giving you the Battle Cry back. Then you Charge, and preferably kill a Knight. So long as you have 100 points left after that kill, you're set - if they lack a Knight or Archer/Mage, you may want to delay until you'll have enough points - 325 points available if you'll be killing a Halberdier, 350 for a Foot Soldier, etc. With your 100 points remaining, you use Shield Wall, making your Scout now immune to death via Shield Wall, or Bombard via Battle Cry.

Once your next turn comes around, your Scout can blow Battle Cry again with his last 75 points, netting him another kill. If he's disabled via Chastise, then you move another Scout into range of his units, saving your Battle Cry. He can only kill one Scout, and the other goes on killing.

In an ideal game, the enemy Champions will be the last to die. The easiest way to do this is with a Battle Cry on your Champion. If this is not possible or feasible, your Halberdier + a Scout, with Battle Cry on one of them will also suffice.

You can surprise the enemy champion by using Battle Cry, then Winds of Fate, Charge (to get close), Shield Wall. Then on your next turn you close in for the kill, using Battle Cry. This is very useful because it may potentially trick the enemy into thinking that you have wasted your Battle Cry. Be aware, however, that this costs 400 points to do - a number you generally won't have during a game, especially if you've used Winds earlier in the game.

Remember - support your own units, and threaten his, the whole time. With so many Scouts, and Charge + Winds, you will most likely have the upper hand in movement. For every Scout he kills, he must lose something more precious in return. With this set up, you have the capability to do so. You may lose two Scouts killing an Archer, but he just lost 100 points, and you 50. This strategy requires a player to have a mild amount of experience on the Conquest battlefield, as compromises, strategic changes and trickery will definitely have to take place in the heat of the battle.

This set-up can take down championeers, though more experienced championeers will still manage to kill you. It is advised that you immediately resign at the start of a battle if the enemy is a championeer. If you are against a similar set-up, its also advisable to resign as this strategy isn't very effective against itself, as Battle Cry and Shield Wall will become nearly useless, and the only useful Command you can use is Charge, but with the enemy also capable of Charge, this will become hard. Since both sides will be starved of points, Winds of Fate cannot be used extravagantly.

Health over Damage

Units: 2 champions, 2 mages, 1 knight, and 1 foot soldier.
Commands: Stoicism, Charge, Shield Wall, and Vigilance.

This setup makes the most of low HP, long ranged units, and then finishing off with champions. Without Battle Cry or Chastise this tactic may seem weak against Championeers, but it works very well against them if you know what you're doing. The army can be aligned like so, but it is personal preference:

If your opponent uses scouts, you should start with your knight. Otherwise, start with either mage. Go near enemy units with your knight/mage and eliminate any of them, preferably long ranged ones, which you can kill in one hit. By now you should have more than 100 command points from killing units. If you used your knight, cast Shield Wall on it. If you used your Mage, cast Vigilance. End your turn now. If your opponent attacks your unit, it will most likely die, and you'll get points. Next turn, use Stoicism if needed, if, for example, your opponent uses Vigilance on a unit you want to kill, and kill one more unit. If you can use Vigilance, Stoicism, or Shield Wall for your knight, use it. Your unit is not likely to die in your opponent's next turn, so you will be able to eliminate one more unit in your turn. Using this strategy, you can kill up to 5 enemy units, giving up one of your own. After your berserker dies, use either another mage, your champion, or your knight, if still alive, to try to finish off your opponent. There are no specific tactics after your berserker is dead, but you should use the commands to maximize your health, thus letting one of your units to stay on the field for much longer, even if it normally has low health.

It's a Trap!

Units: 1 champion, 1 knight, 1 archer, 2 mages, and 5 scouts.
Commands: Battle Cry, Stoicism, Charge, and Shield Wall.

This strategy consists of more defensive, hit-and-run style attacks. The army should be aligned like so:

The object is to use your scouts to lure the opponent into using Charge to get to one of your scouts. You can then use another one of your scouts to get to the unit that just used Charge (without using your Charge). The opponent will likely not be able to reach you during their next turn - if they can, just reset the trap. You've got 5 scouts to use as bait - so long as you have one left over to actually do the dirty work. Once you have your scout into position, you should be able to charge to your opponent's champion if they have one. If not, go for the units with 300 HP, preferably knights. What you'll do is Charge to the unit you're attacking, then use Battle Cry and Shield Wall. This will allow you to attack (and potentially kill) the unit you're targeting. If the unit is not killed (a champion), it will recoil back 100 damage (because of Shield Wall). On your opponent's next turn, they will likely Chastise you if they have it.

Sometimes, people will attack the Chastised scout, thinking that it cannot do recoil damage. The scout has 200 HP remaining, and can take a maximum of only 100 because of Shield Wall. If they do not Chastise you, use Stoicism on the scout and proceed to attack any unit with 100 HP, preferably a mage. If they did Chastise you, just use Stoicism and end your turn. They will still be unable to kill you with anything, unless they use their Battle Cry, which is a drain on their points and leaves them having to cool down for 5 turns - a major setback. If they don't decide to kill the Scout, you're free to attack the champion again, bringing it to 200 HP - within killing range for your mages. After this point, most of the "bait" units (e.g. archers and scouts) will have been removed from the opponent's team. Their champion should be severely weakened, if not dead. Now, you are free to use the exact same tactics with your remaining scouts, then the mages - rinse and repeat. Use the knight for defence, and the champion to clean up any leftover messes.

The archer can be switched - possibly for another scout and a halberdier, or just another mage if you are worried about your opponent ignoring your bait and taking out your mages first.

If you encounter a team with 2 or more champions, you will not have a very good chance at winning. Resignation is penalty-free, as always at the beginning of the game.

One less Champion for Bombard

Units: 1 champion, 2 halberdiers, 2 mage (1 mage can be replaced with an archer), and 2 scouts.
Commands: bombard, vigilance, charge, and battle cry.

This setup replaces one of the usual two champions in a team for bombard, which can be very useful for taking out 100 life point units like scouts. Not very useful against championeers, but very good against all other teams. Depending whether you go first or second, follow instructions below:

If you go first

Move your mage out, the opponent will most likely respond by moving a scout or archer forward, if they move a scout, move your mage forward just out of the scouts range, next turn, move a halberd out and cast vigilance on the mage, use your mage and halberd to take out other enemy units, when they are dead, use another mage/halberd combo, and use bombard to take out scouts or archers, clean up with your champion.

If they send out an archer, do not move your mage, instead move a halberd up to your mage, if your mage dies, kill the archer with halberd and move a scout up next to the halberd, begin to fight with you other mage, clean up with champion, halberdier and your last scout.

If they go first

Your opponent will most likely move a scout or an archer forward, respond with a scout, if they have a scout or archer out, wait until your charge is ready and charge opponents scout, next turn, your scout will most likely be killed, leave it there, and move halberds up and fight with them, once they are killed send out your champion and mages to clean up.

The Two/Two/Two

Units: Two of each of the following: Archer, Champion, and Scout. Note that the Archers may be replaced with Mages for more damage versus teams with Champions.

Commands: Chastise, Battle Cry, Stoicism, Regenerate. Note that Chastise may be replaced with Charge if it is so preferred.

This strategy focuses on using the Archers or Mages combined with Chastise, Battle Cry, and Stoicism to both be lethal weapons at range and also to protect them from attacks by pieces close up; however this strategy also focuses on Scouts being used as suicidal attackers in the early stages of the game.

If you are using Chastise: await your opponents to come within range of either your Archers or Scouts, then unleash your attack.
If you are using Charge: attack your opponent head-on at the beginning of the game, using your Scouts to attack longer-range targets of your enemy's.

Remember that when an opponent's troop is defeated, you gain Command Points. Use these to increase the lifespan of your suicidal Scouts by using Stoicism and Battle Cry to live through anything and everything that your opponent can throw at you. Literally! A Champion using Battle Cry can only hit 600, while your Scout with Stoicism and Battle Cry has 700 Hitpoints!

If everything has gone your way this battle, you should end up with a somewhat weakened enemy lacking in long-ranged pieces. This is exactly what you desire, for your next stage of the attack:

Use your Archers or Mages, whichever you chose, to snipe off your enemy's melee pieces one by one. The Archers or Mages may be used as suicidal pieces, however it is nice to spare them when possible so that you can use your longer ranged pieces to assist your Champions in the "Cleanup" stage, attempting to use your Champions to clear the board of your opponent's pieces.

Remember that the only real reason to use Regenerate here is for your Champions; all of your other pieces have too little health for it to be wasted on.
Also remember that your Champions are vulnerable to Knights, Mages, and Halberdiers of the enemy team: even with only 100 hitpoints gone, they can be killed by these pieces if they use Battle Cry!

Formation should be as follows:

Note that this is the row closest to the enemy squad, the "front" row if you will.

Glass Cannon

Units: 1 champion, 2 archers, 2 mages and 5 scouts.
Commands: Charge, battle cry, stoicism and chastise.

This setup is built for the sole purpose of killing of any enemy before they can possibly get into range to kill you back. The drawback to it is that the majority of units here have only 100 health so a single mistake could cost you your entire formation.

The first step is to move your scouts forward, within 12 paces of your opponent's archers or mages. If their archer moves forward to support, move your own one within range so you can take it out if they take out your scout. Up to 3 scouts can be deployed in this ready position. Count your opponent's Command points carefully to make sure their scouts never have the chance to use charge. If their scouts move forward within striking distance, let them kill your scout, and use the chance to bring another scout forward into the 12-square range, unless they are able to charge, in which case you should sacrifice your scouts to kill them off.

The top priority is to keep at least one archer and one mage alive.

Once you can, charge with your scout and kill one of their archers or mages, and immediately use stoicism on your scout, so that nothing can kill you back without using battle cry. If your scout survives, kill another archer or mage if you can, or another scout, or if you have enough Command points to use battle cry, do so and kill off a knight. If your scout is chastised, move one of the reserve scouts forward 6 paces so that regardless of what they do, they cannot possibly guard against both of them. At this point, your opponent still will not have enough Command points to use Bombard for the first time.

If your opponent uses chastise or battle cry, their Command points will be very low at this point, so they cannot eliminate your second scout since they won't have enough to use charge.

Once all your opponent's scouts are down, move your archers and mages forward. Kill all halberdiers with the mage, and against knights, foot soldiers or champions, attack using the archer first and kill the unit with your mage once it moves forward to attack. If anything uses stoicism, chastise it and bring another mage/archer forward to provide fire support. If the champion moves forward, dock its health using the archer and kill it on the next turn with a battle-cry enabled mage.

Because your archer is attacking first and dealing 100 health, players will generally not use Regenerate against you, so you should almost always be able to kill off their champion in the next turn.

Optimally, nothing will be able to advance without first being attacked once by your archer, and having 2 mages to support means that even if one is chastised, the other can still provide the kill.

Vigilance is meaningless against this strategy as you should be able to outrange easily anything that attempts to attack.

Should the opposing champion ever manage to come within 8 paces of your champion, charge to kill it off. It can be useful to position your archer such that when the other champion charges to attack it (because it should never be reachable without using charge), it will exactly come into the 8 pace charge range of your champion.

The only setup that will be able to prevail consistently against the Glass Cannon strategy is one with at least 4 scouts and 3 halberdiers, as halberdiers are the only unit available that can effectively outrange an archer. Most other setups include too many knights or champions, which are especially weak against this setup. Thankfully, almost nobody ever uses the scout-halberdier formation so you should be able to win against virtually everyone you play against. However, three champions attacking together can be a worry due to you using battle cry on the first, your champion on the second and the third able to run riot with your mages and archers until you have battle cry again, which may well be too late, especially if they have regenerate (which most champion-heavy setups do).

Always be mindful of the recharge rates of your opponent's Commands, their Command Points and their units' charge ranges. Winds of Fate and Bombard may make it difficult to guard against an opponent's attacks, but again, almost nobody uses either of them.

Wrath of Bombard

Units: 1 champion, 6 scouts, 3 halberdiers ( One may be swapped out for any 100 troop if using chastise )
Commands: Battle Cry, Charge, Stoicism ( Or chastise if wanted ), Bombard

This setup is built to devastate your opponent through aggressive commands. The only downside is that the number of command points needed to do this is high, as bombard does not reward you when you kill enemy troops. For this reason, when possible always finish the enemy off with a troop and not bombard. Bombard should be used for initial damage only, unless you plan on killing something from far away. It is well advised to only use bombard when needed and not just simply using it when you have 200 command points available. Wrongly using bombard could cost you the game.

The Bombard Difference

Champions: People only think of killing a champion with battle cry as the only way. But this is where bombard has ultimate use, the decrease of 100 hp. To take advantage of this, we use the elitist troops (the champion and the 3 halberdiers) to surprise opponents completely. With your lone champion, it is possible to kill the other champion in two ways; with use of either battle cry or bombard. The cost of each are 75 and 200 respectively, or 150 and 275 with charge. With halberdiers, there is a completely new way to kill champions. With battle cry and bombard, champions fall victim to halberdiers, due to the fact that halberdiers have extra range. This tactic costs 275 points but since charge will most likely be used, the total cost is 350, without counting the 200 you get from killing a champion.

Knights & Foot soldiers: It is recommended not to use bombard on these as just a simple battle cry/champion attack can kill them. But if you absolutely must, bombard and a single hit from a halberdier can finish these deadly 300 hp troops off.

Archers & Mages: People tend to kill these with bombard. It would seem like a great strategy, but the 200 command points down could be your downfall. Do not to kill these if they are not playing a part in the game, as the command points are wasted. The only 2 times where killing these is efficient is when either they pose a threat in the game, or you have enough command points to not risk the game to it (300-400+)

Scouts: Do not kill these with bombard. Since scouts are a meager 25 points, 95% of the time they will not be your target. There are 3 times when you can kill these; when they are the only troop your opponent has left, when you have 1000+ command points and you have nothing better to use it on (i.e. archers or mages) or the scout is blocking your way to a caged champion. (Gaining time through not killing the scout with the champion and using it to kill the other champion instead, killing the scout with bombard, may win the game sometimes).

Halberdiers: As these have only 200 hp, it is able to knock them down to 100, allowing anything to knock them out. The scouts can have the most advantage out of this since the other troops can already kill it in one hit anyway.

What to do with your troops

Scouts: These are the main attackers. With 6 of them, it is rare an opponent can defeat them all, and can be deadly in the end when 1 or 2 survive, with the added power of bombard. What these do in the beginning is move forward out of an archer's range ( 9 squares ). If the opponent offers to give up a scout for one of yours, do so, but after killing it use stoicism if you have it, or chastise if only one troop can kill your scout. Unless your opponent has chastise, you get more out of the trade. With battle cry and bombard these deal 400 damage, a good amount, but not enough to kill a champion.

Champion: What you do with this tough guy is simple. Kill all in your path! With Bombard these guys can kill 2 champions alone, leaving your hallies with a good game ahead of them. Use stoicism or defend yourself with chastise if you are chastised or are without defence, because you only have one of these!

Halberdiers: As stated above, these are good for killing enemy champions, using battle cry, charge and bombard. Weak as they seem, the offensive capabilities of these things are amazing and not to be underestimated.

This strategy can counter regeneration by mostly killing in one move, and can destroy unsuspecting champions. It is also a smart plan to economise command points, for bombard is a very costly strategy!

Venom strategy

Units: halberdier, 2 mages, 2 archers, 2 scouts, 2 knights

Commands: Stoicism, Battle Cry, Charge, Shield Wall

This strategy requires careful use of scouts at the beginning.

If they go first: This is what you want, as you get command points first. If they send in an archer or mage, move your scout just out of their reach. Then wait until you have enough points for charge, then strike the archer or mage. Then use stoicism. This will make it so that they

1. Waste a Battle Cry

2. Wait, and let another archer/mage die.

If they wait, quickly send your scout to kill another mage/archer. If they don't have any, kill scouts, or hit a champion. If your scout is still alive, use Battle Cry and Shield Wall, as you can get yet another turn to hit them. Once that scout is killed, either send your other scout and repeat or send your troops to try to eliminate as many champions as possible.

If you go first: This is sometimes tricky, as they sometimes charge your range units, still try to use your scouts. They will probably die more quickly than if they went first, however. This is more reliant on your mages and knights to get rid of champions and archers.

Melee Meltdown

Units: 2 Champions, 3 Halberders, and 5 Scouts
Commands: Battle Cry, Charge, Chastise, and Shield Wall

This is a well rounded setup used by many and is good against many strategies. The scouts are used to take out archers and mages, and sometimes a knight with battle cry, and you can put three together to tempt an archer and not fall to chastise. Halberders are deployed to take out other halberders and to safely whittle a champion's hp with shield wall. The champions are used to finish things off late in the game. The strategy is simple, yet it works well. Some players even call this setup "Classic Pro."

Halberder Hedge (HH)

Units: 4 Halberdiers, 1 Champion, 2 Knights, 1 Scout.
Alternative unit setup: 5 Halberdiers, 1 Champion, 1 Knight, 2 Scouts.
Commands: Battle cry, Charge, Chastise and Stoicism.
Alternative commands: Battle cry, Charge, Shield wall, Stoicism.
Third Alternative unit setup: 6 Halberdiers, 1 Champion, 3 Scouts.

This is a general counter unit setup and is useful against the default set up and many mixed unit setups, including two Champion setups. It is least effective against setups with 3 Champions, but this varies depending on the skill of the players involved and whether Regeneneration is available to your opponent. Regeneration hampers the effectivness of this battle strategy.

Without Battle cry or the Halberdier already being injured, Archers, Scouts and Foot soldiers all need two hits to kill a Halberdier. Halberdiers can kill Mages, Archers, Scouts and other Halberdiers with one hit. Halberdiers also have a two square range giving him a advantage over other melee units. Halberdiers can be used to weaken a foot soldier, Knight or Champion by 200 health at no immediate risk to himself leaving the assaulted unit rather vulnerable to other attacks. Vigilance is usless on a melee who is being targeted by a Halberder. This something that many players forget or overlook. Also, uninjured Helberdiers can take a Bombard without dying. With your other unit setup, this makes Bombard much less effective in general as only one unit on your team can be killed by Bombard, and they would be spending 200 Command points to kill a Scout.

No matter what move your opponent makes or if you go first, move up a Halberdier. Left side or right side Halberdier depends on were your opponents troops are. When your next turn comes around, move up another Halberdier one-two squares away from the first. Be on the look out for enemy Mages, if your opponent went first, you will be 25 command points ahead of him, and may be able to use Charge on your Scout to take out the Mage. Once that is done, move up a third Halberdier close to the others. This makes a triangle of defence, no matter what your men are covered. If one is killed and the other Chastised, there is one more capable of action.

Although three Halberdiers is pesky and annoying, it is all the better to have one of your Knights in the middle, then another off to the side. Over lapping pain. Knights can take out any unit in the game besides Champions not under a command with one hit. Under Battle cry, Knights can kill a normal Champion. Or, you could move up your Champion with them. Another Halbadier may be substituted for the Knight or Champion if one wishes to hold the "big guns" in reserve.

Always make sure you move up your units together, I like the triangle formation but a line works as well.

Value him, but expect your Scout to die rather quickly. Just make sure his sacrifice is worth it. Taking out a Mage is useful with this setup as they are a Halbadiers bain, but you could use them to kill a Knight (with Battle Cry used on the Scout, obviously)or weaken a Champion, depending on personal preference.

I personally prefer to save the Champion for moping up, and as a reserve, but you can use him as a hard hitting first strike and then sweep up the leftovers. However sending out the Champion will most likely cause the opposing player to focus all of his/her commands on taking out that one unit, which could be use to your advantage if one is shrewed enough, or it could lead to you losing a substantial amount of your teams fire power.

For the alternative unit setup seen above the approach is basically the same but you now have different options. With alternative powers your stratagy will require more changes.

Shield Wall VS Chastise in the Halbadier Hedge setup.

Now, never minding the debates of Shield wall VS Chastise in other areas, this section just focuses on how they compare to each other in this stratigic setup.

Chastise is a very hepful command.(as they all are, in their proper situation) It is very cheap to use costing only 50 comand points, matching it with the cost of using Vigilance and Shield wall. Currently Chastise has the second shortest reset time of all commands, 3 turns,(along with Vigilance) it can prevent any damage to your units by freezing the marching enemy soldier in his tracks. Of course, it can only work on one unit at a time and so it can become somewhat less useful as the game progressess and the two opposing teams mix up together. Its main drawback however, is the fact that once your opponents force is down to one unit, it is a useless power unless you are fighting an inattentive player, in which case you may be able to trick them into thinking their last unit is Chastised. But such happenings are few and far between. Chastise and allow you to move up another unit in your triangle (or line) approach to the enemy.

Now Chastise must be contrasted with Shield Wall, a common alternative command to Chastise for the HH setup. Shield wall can be greatly annoying when you have a hard hitter at your disposal, for no amount of fire power may do more then 100 LP of damage to a unit under its protection. It is best used on Champions and Knights. But it too has drawbacks, its reset time is 2 turns longer then Chastise, 2 turns can mean the difference between winning and losing a Conquest match. Its secondary and not as worrisome weakness is that it is useless on any unit(not under a LP boosting command)with only 100 LP. Bombard is sort of the bain of Shield wall, as it can allow up to 200 LP's of damage to occur to your Shield wall protected unit. Shield wall is still quite useful to use on Halbadiers, as the cost of killing a Halbadier under its protection is far greater then the CP reward your enemy would reap from it.

Both powers have their places, consider what is written here and decide for yourself which is your favoured command.

Outrange and Outplay

Units: 6 Scouts, 2 Halberdiers, 1 Mage, 1 Champion
Commands: Charge, Battle Cry, Chastise, and Bombard

This is a balanced setup which can also kill off Championeer setups. It should be set up right in the middle in a square. 5 Scouts are on the top and edge. The 2 Halberdiers are on the bottom corners. The Mage is in the bottom middle, and the Champion is in the center. The last remaining scout should be on the very edge of the board on the side to surprise inattentive players.

Against a Championeer setup: When facing a Championeer setup, the top priority is to kill off the Champions first. First off, you camp. Alternatively, you can set up a Halberdier into position to kill off a Champion with Charge and Battle Cry. However, this would cost a total of 350 Command Points because of bombard. When you camp, build up enough points to get a battle cry and bombard. When a champion comes into range, kill them off with a bombard first, and then a Mage or Halberdier attack. If a scout is killed, you can kill a champion with only Battle Cry. But the reason that you bombard first is that you don't get points for killing a troop with bombard. Attack with the unit last. When you kill the Champion, rinse and repeat. If they have scouts left over, you can bombard them if and only if you have extra points left over. Otherwise, just mop up and destroy them.

Against a normal setup: Use the Scouts to kill off Knights, Mages, or Archers, with Charge (and Battle Cry in the instance of a Knight). The Halberdiers can be used to take out other Halberdiers or Champions with Bombard. The Mage should stay back to defend, as it is flimsy when out in the clear because of its 100 health. The Mage is also good for killing Champions with Bombard as well. It is imperative that you protect the Mage, because if it is killed, you lose a valuable Champion killer, and the other person gets 100 Command points. The Halberdiers are there to protect the Mage in the beginning. The Champion should be saved for cleaning up the board.

Progressing through the game: Assuming you haven't lost any pieces, you should move your scouts on the middle edges to the sides of the other scouts, so all 6 scouts line up. The Halberdiers should be next to the Champion and the Champion and Mage should stay still. This way, it's easy to defend the Halberdiers and Mage from Scouts that are Charging, because you must be in a straight line with them to get near them and attack. A Champion can be easily dispatched this way. If the Champion uses Stoicism, Shield Wall, or anything like that, use a Chastise on them. If in the case that they use Stoicism, and you Chastise, with them using Shield Wall, hit the Champion with a Scout and finish off with a Champion attack if possible, or a Mage or Halberdier attack with Battle Cry.

Super Championeer

Units: 4 champions
Commands: Regenerate, Chastise/Shield Wall/Vigilance (choose from personal preference)

Just destroy everything. This is a very strong setup, but if not used correctly, you will most certainly fail.

Anti-Melee

Units: 3 Archers, 3 Mages, 2 scouts, 1 knight
Commands: Chastise, Battle Cry, Charge, Vigilance

Position alternating Archers and Mages, with a scout on each end, and a Knight in the middle. Lash out with your Scouts first, using charge and battle cry until they're dead. Then take your Mages and Archers, and advancing them in pairs, kill what remains. You can easily kill anyone under a Champion by Archering them, then when they advance, Mageing them. When fighting Scouts, count nine spaces away from the scout and put your Archer there. On your next turn, move your archer 3 spaces forward and attack. for other archers and mages, use yours to spread them out, then chastise and battle cry with your knight or scouts (if you're at the beginning). For Champions it is extremely important that you keep your Archers and Mages together. That way, you can shoot them with Archers from a distance. When they charge to get you, make sure you've vigilanced your Mage. When they go for your Archer, on your next turn battle cry and attack with your Mage. If, for whatever reason, they attack your vigilanced Mage, battle cry your archer and shoot him, as he will now be at 200 life. Save your Knight for herding, trapping, and killing the Archers and Mages. If you still have him at the end of the game, chances are the remaining people are going to be Archers and Mages. Your enemy will naturally be putting all of their commands into them, so wait until you get an opportunity to chastise (if they have multiple people left) and charge. Before then, stay 10 spaces from Archers, and 9 from Mages. If your enemy has charge, stay 13 from Archers, and 14 from Mages. Unless they make a mistake, you will not get an opportunity to attack like this, so be careful with your Archers', Mages', and Scouts' life. If you administer this setup correctly, you can easily win with only losing your Scouts and Archers and Mages equal to your opponents number of Champions. If you attempt some last hope sort of thing, you will be destroyed. Keep in mind that all but your Knight can be killed by a single hit.