MARIVS wrote:

Zinek wrote:

I would disagree. Priests are actually the cornerstone and should be research first this is also nice because you can have two legions of gold priests for 32 supply which you will have even as free to play (no patron bonus) by the time you get castle 13 and research gold priest.

They have mass heal which can be used to top off the frontline after vega ult wears off and you already summoned archers or swordmen. This is how you maintain an army with few losses and allows you to fight weaker enemies without using a vega 5 mana spell to keep your army alive and in mint condition. If you are like me and usually have to fight people.back to badk (usually 5 or more duels in a row) this is critical to survival. After priests I would go with gold swordsmen as my third gold legion and use virion with crusader resurrection again for maintaining survial.

My standard default setup for all situations (I change setup if I know who I'm fighting and what they have like jacques or mass cavalry etc) is this.

My front line is 2 spears 1 swordsmen. The spears are on the flanks and the swords cover the middle they have warriors pride so the midddle will hold long enough for the flanks to encircle the enemy.

Behind the spears are horses followed by archers and horses again. The horses are spread apart so they get more stun time on the front line and the first horse is placed behind the spears so the spears can block enemy spear toss and spear toss the enemy. And the charge kills anything almost due to the 30% damage bonus from spear toss. And with the extra range trait archers will hit the enemy line from where they stand.

Behind the swords I put heroes followed by archers with priests on the flanks of the archers follow e by more heroes in the back.

This setup is 13 legions with room for extra heroes if you buy them. Bane would be a great purchase for this setup as his one downside doesn't affect this setup. If you don't have Avalon buying bane will have you still reach the 13 legions count. It's great. If you don't get bane I would go with Elena as my second choice as with her you buff your whole army except spears.

This is also why spears suck over all they are not stat buffed by a hero like archers swords priests and cavalry are. This may not affect the first 20 castle levels much but when you get to the the end game 32% more health and damage is huge. Spears are almost useless once you get past the early game horse rush noobs.

I hope this helped. If you have any more questions please feel free to message me or continue the discussion here I'm happy to share my thoughts and theory craft.

Hi. I appreciate your help. I will agree that golden priests must be a cornerstone of human army. But upgrading swordsmen and using only one legion of them is doubtful idea for me. Talking about spearmen I hope that in future the developers will add some hero who will improve spearmen. So, for now I leave choosing between spearmen and swordsmen up to players. Also, can you tell me how would you form your army if you confront spearmen-oriented army like mine as it will make your cavalry useless?

Aluminara wrote:

MARIVS wrote:

What do you mean on "large units do increased damage to spearmen"? I haven't seen such an ability.)

Large units do increased damage to small units. Spearman are small units.

MARIVS wrote:

Talking about spiders, yes, they worried me a lot. I usually counter them by casting mana barrier before they hit my spearmen and spawn troops in the rear. Of course in this situation you also need a bit of luck.)

Mana barrier only stops arrows and spell damage. I know that it does not stop spider spit, but the summon archers in the backline is the best counter to spiders.

MARIVS wrote:

If I've not said clearly I say it again I think that the purpose of spearmen is holding the line and countering, not ordinary damage dealing. Gold spearmen have unique ability "impenetrable defence" so they can survive longer. Together with two other abilities they are strong defensive unit. In this way I try to make up the deficiency of missing health bonus.

Fair enough.