EoFM How to Play?

[Xara]

Recently I've been playing the 3 campaigns of the Era of Four Moons, and found all of them fun but too hard for me. My most recent playing experience was to play Swamp Witch Curse and get stuck in scenario 4. During the process, I recognized that a part of my problem is a lack of understanding to EoFM factions. So I hope there can be a guide of EoFM factions similar to the "How to Play" pages on wiki.
Questions: What are the general play styles of each EoFM faction? What are the roles of the units? And how to play the factions in different matchups?

[Velensk]

If you want, I could throw together something for each faction fairly quickly however even as the creator I don't feel like I have enough experience to comment on even a strong portion of the faction match-ups. I could say a little on the original 4 and their match-ups but the whole thing really needs more testing.

[Xara]

If it's hard to talk about how the dynamics should be in strict 1v1 conditions, it's OK just to give general tips or to talk about unit roles without every possible situation in mind. Just an introductory guide can help.
And one thing I'm curious about, are the original 4 close to balanced on mainline 1v1 maps?

[Eagle_11]

The following is based on skirmish and multiplayer shenanigans with the non-extended Era of Four Moons.

Imperalist:
Standards are very important, dont wait for the existing one to fall for recruiting another. This faction is more lenient on troop cohesion than others, so this unit is an essential part of how this faction functions.
always recruit one first, i usually open with standard, some legionaires supported by a few pelites.
What the legionaires should level into depends on the situation of Velites, pick Phalanx only if they are lacking, otherwise almost always continue with Stalwart. I dont even consider Shock Troops as charge on level 3 cavalry is far more superior.
do not neglect Sappers as they are your best damage dealers, half the challenge in playing with this faction is caring after them so they can blow up at the intended target at the right time. They are an essential part of imperial strategy. Examine the unique way their weapon functions and master its usage.
stay away from Ballistae and Hardback(cavalry) in the opening, at that phase they will drain up your money for accomplishing nothing.
Ballistae you only require in defense, its also mandatory against elephant spam, you can push the tide after defense, supporting troops with them, on their own they are worthless.
Hardback works good from mid-game on, principally get one whenever you can spare from having to constantly pump Legionair and Velites, at lvl3 it can become either truely supportive addition for leveling troops or an really tanky unit.
Slinger doesnt pay itself out, try to concentrate the ranged option of your other troops instead. The slow of its level 2 advancement may seem alluring however its only 2 tries and there wont be much a thing left around when you have managed to get one, time better spent leveling your other troops.
Their water unit, the Trireme works at best in pairs with rotation, only get one earlier if map has water villages that can be reached by your land troops too because they will require support. If you are playing against the AI, it has this bad habit of deciding to try gang upon one ship so they make excellent baits too.

Highlander:
General troop rotation is to spam Brave, Hunter and Runners with the occasional Hippo, Witch Doctor and Lion Warrior mixed in, dependant on how the situation is faring.
Hippo is your water unit, use him like you would use a Naga, think of ranged attack as comes with extra ranged retaliation.
Get Runners rather than Lion Warriors. Lion Warrior only when things have heat up and you will require its skirmisher to take down hostiles about to level.
Healers are always something nice to have so dont hesitate recruiting Witch Doctors, as you will have plenty of wounded units around. Personally i wouldnt pick Warlock over Shaman considering in the end they both advance into same unit and +8 heal with unpoison is an more essential for the faction.
one silly strategy is to start out with two Elephants and send both straight to the enemy leader, this is an gamble tactic however, as the moment your opponent have spotted this will, knowing you are now economically broke, send his troops directly against your own leader whilst performing the necessary evasive maneuvers, as its rather easy to simply avoid the pair of slow elephants.
If you want to open with Elephants, do like that however with an major deviation and position the Elephants such that they will pose an natural barrier, as such the opponent will have to bother with them, this early denying will work in small to medium sized maps where there are 2 routes of action. However here do keep in mind they dont project an Zone of Control, so support your Elephants with your other troops and not vice versa.
On the other hand surprise Elephant spam (suddenly recruiting +2 at once) when transitioning into mid-game can quickly end the match in your favour, especially if your opponent had already bled too much. However this is expensive and you should have been able to win without pulling this at that condition anyways.

as for the other two, Sea States have more than one way to play and Darklanders are about using everything with rotating correctly depending on what the current threat is rather than 'if want x do y'.

[Velensk]

I'm not trying to offer offense, but I think that most of the above is exceptionally bad advice for standard multiplayer. Also some things wouldn't be relevant in that format anyway (like level 3 advancements). Maybe if you're playing on 30% xp 5 gov or something there are some points in there but that isn't what Xara is asking for and it isn't what the faction is designed for.

EDIT: I'll work on my own take on it and post once I have it. It may not be finished today or tomorrow but I'll get it.

EDIT2: Turns out it went faster than I was expecting. Probably because I don't really have much to say about the extended factions or matchups.

How to Play: The Era of Four Moons

Multiplayer in general: An important thing to note, it that in general, Era of Four Moons is a bit more aggressive than default. Even most of the factions with a defensive leaning have to be fairly proactive. It’s also worth noting that much less testing/polishing has been put into it than default so many of the interactions are harsher.

[Velensk]

The Highlanders: The highlanders feature both very cheap units and very expensive units, the cheap units tend to be neutral and the expensive ones tend to be chaotic. Highlanders love the hills and are on average fairly mobile (the elephants excepted). Most highlander units have negative resistances to physical weapons and high hit points.

Putting that all together, highlander armies by and large tend to be fairly fragile. Against enemies which deal decent damage their core units will actually die pretty quickly while in the open. On the other hand, they deal decent damage at all times of day and are fairly expendable. The hunters are swift and can chase enemies down, braves can deliver a beating, runners are a secret strength to the faction and provide exceptional utility for their cost. The rank highlander forces are good at spreading an enemy thin and picking them off. On the flip side, the expensive units are good at breaking through a well established line. The elephants are living battering rams which at night will mow down enemies with low defense and the lion warriors give you the ability to attack from more hexes and are very durable with their evasion.

Braves: Outside the hills or other high defense terrain these guys will go down a lot faster than their hp would indicate on the other hand they’re a neutral unit with 21 damage on their main attackk for 12 gold. You can’t use them quite like grunts in the meatshield department but unlike grunts you can really put a hurt on enemy units at any time of day.

Hunters: Hunters do considerably less damage than braves and are very vulnerable to enemy melee but they are still essential support as braves will lose large chunks if they attack enemy melee. Also, their 6 movement points and low cost are part of the reason why your force as a whole will feel so mobile. Don’t leave them in the open near enemy melee during their favored time of day.

Runners: Strongest unit on your side in multiplayer. In the campaigns, not so much. In all seriousness, runners are incredibly cheap for the mobility they provide and this combined with their infantry level village defense makes them some of the most annoying buggers in the game. They are frailer and weaker than braves but if you can find any way to exploit their mobility they are very cost efficient. In campaigns, generally you’ll want a braves toughness/damage instead.

Hippoes: Obnoxiously beefy water unit. Resists impact, more than blade, and blade more than pierce. That’s really all there is to say about it.

Witch Doctor: Witch doctors don’t do much damage but they do enable masses of damage with their curses. Curses are applied and removed in a similar fashion to poison and the -15% defense can make quite a difference. Unless you have an elephant though, it’s hard to break a line with witch doctors as the witch doctor itself takes up one of your available attack hexes. Thus you can combine them with an elephant to put a lot of hurt in one place, or use them to mark future targets for dead. Witch doctors are also healers which is important for this faction as you’ll likely have a lot more injured units than villages. It’s also important for elephants who get more bang for their hp and can’t easily run for villages.

Lion Warriors: These guys may not look like it, but they’re a considerable step up on the brave. Faster, evasive on any terrain, and skirmishing. Unlike the braves though, they aren’t cheap and skirmishing is a risky trade even if you can dodge. Be careful with them and they can make it impossible to build a wall against you.

Elephant: Recruitable level 2. Gives you massive damage per hex when on offense and is very durable but it doesn’t do too much damage while retaliating and as it has no ZoC it can be easily surrounded if you don’t support it.

——

Vs the Sea States: the sea states feature neutral infantry that do very well against all your core units. Fortunately for you, many of their stronger specialty units are less effective against you in general. You’ll want to field at least one elephant or get them somewhere where you can use a hippo in order to gain an edge on the regiment’s because otherwise you’ll have a hard time fighting in the open. Keep enough braves around to threaten their archers/alchemists, enough hunters to threaten their riders, and if they get horse archers have at least one lion warrior.

Vs the Imperialists: The imperialists have a hard time killing elephants, that said, they will murder you on an open field if they can catch you at day and their basic troops are pretty resistant to your basic troops. Witch doctors help a lot as imperialists are somewhat reliant on high defenses. Lion warriors are very useful when your enemy has no sappers nearby.

Vs the darklanders: This match-up is crazy. You both kill each other at incredible speeds, particularly at night. It’s probably not the best idea to use elephants here as your enemy has two very good ways of taking them down. Rely heavily on your neutral units and try to use your speed to fight at day or otherwise under your conditions.

[Velensk]

The Sea States: The most vanilla of any of the factions. I feel most units choreograph their role pretty well. There’s really nothing tricky about them other than the maybe the water units and the alchemist. Try to outmaneuver your enemies and beat them down with your cost efficient units whenever they can’t muster the damage to kill you. Half your forces are neutral the other lawful.

Regimenteers: Tough infantry that do decent damage at all times. That said, as opposed to loyalist spearmen they don’t get the offensive breaking power or a ranged retaliation but with your army built around these guys you’ll never be lacking the ability to put a hurt back on enemies trying to attack you.

Composite Bowmen: If your regimenteers are your backbone then these guys are your offensive muscle. They are also ranged attackers in an era where most (non-imperialist) units lack ranged retaliation and 9-3 at day is nothing to disregard. They are expensive and vulnerable so you have have to treat them delicately.

Riders: Durable, effective cavalry. Not much else to say.

Horse Archers: These guys are ideal harassment but if your enemy lacks spears they aren’t bad in a direct fight either.

Alchemist: An amazingly versatile support. Both poison and slow are nasty. Like most support units it needs to be protected.

Loyalists: Loyalists are a more offensive alternative to the regimenteers. They’re faster, lawful, and harder hitting. They have an offense only ability which somewhat mitigates their lower hp when attacking but they can’t hold a line as well and are more expensive. Generally I use fewer of them but the extra speed is nice.

Boatmen: This is an amphibious unit that can defend (but not move) well on open ground and is generally pretty durable. Not bad at what it does for the price.

Paddleship: Strongest navel unit in the era. That said, it’s pretty expensive and useless outside water.

——

Vs highlanders: As long as you have many regimenteers you own the open field vs anything other than elephants. Even then, at day the elephants aren’t much of a threat. That said, it’ll be hard to use your cavalry, archers, and alchemists as your enemy has a lot of cost efficient units that kill them. You’ll still want some just be careful with them when you push.

Vs Imperialists: You’ll want lots of alchemists and more archers than normal. An imperialist core can be tough to break with the tools at you disposal so you’ve got to do the best to keep them pinned back so you can slowly wear them down. Fortunately, they’ll have a tough time actually killing you but you should seek ways to give them more units that need healing than they have villages to cover them.

Vs Darklanders: Darklanders have a lot of nasty tricks to pull but their ability to fight you strait up is pretty bad. Use your cavalry to force them to stay way and try to pick off their beastmen/malice. If you can stop them from being able to engage you at night, you will eventually have control and be able to push them over.

[Velensk]

The Imperialists The imperialists have a lot of toughness but not a lot of damage and what damage they have is pretty specialized. The basic idea here is that if you can be in a position where they can never kill one of your units in one burst that you’ll be able to cycle that unit and wear your enemy down quicker than they can wear you down. That said, you do need to push aggressively as every other faction has some way of breaking through your line and so if you can’t force them back they will set themselves up according to their desire. Imperialists with the exception of the pelite fight poorly in forests and many get 50% defense in the open.

-Legionaires: These are your core infantry. That said, they’re expensive and don’t have a typical core infantries level of damage so in many circumstances you’ll wish to avoid getting too many of them (depending on whom you are fighting). High defense in the open means that you have a lot of freedom as to how you draw your lines with them.

-Standards: Once the fighting gets serious, you will want one of these at your front. They do pitiful damage, and are very expensive and slow, but the amount of damage mitigated by their aura adds up very quickly in any pitched battle and they are very tough. It makes your legionnaires dauntless and your other units tough.

-Slingers: Slingers do cost efficient damage but they’re chumps in terms of hp. If you can set up your formation so that enemy melee can’t get more than 1 hexed against them, then they can wail on enemy melee units for their monies worth (they do as much damage as the legionaries [ignoring traits] despite costing 20% less and it’s ranged). If not, (and if there is no standard protecting them), they’ll go down to two units doing minimal retaliation.

-Pelite: Pelite are versatile but even by the imperialist standards they deal poor damage per hex. Still as your one unit that can hold forest hexes and considering that they’re vulnerable neither at range or melee, and the extra movement point, you should be able to find uses for them against most foes.

-Hardbacks: Hardbacks are very solid cavalry that (especially when combined with a standard) can tank the front line and beat down on your foes. They’re somewhat vulnerable to impact but hugely resistant to blade. They are expensive though, so you don’t want too many of them.

-Gallies: Typical navel unit.

-Sappers: A unique unit. Sappers make it so that you can break any line if you’re willing to pay the price. Generally, sappers don’t trade especially well but if you can pick off high cost elusives, or if you can use them to grab an enemy village and then sit/hold that village you’ll get your monies worth out of them. Sappers can also force your enemy into the open which favors you significantly. After early game you’ll probably want one of these hanging around on each front just for the threat value. Be careful that they don’t get picked off.

-Ballista: These units are incredibly slow, incredibly vulnerable, and very awkward to use. They cannot get traits to help them get places faster, they simply have to be content to be the only conventional unit in the faction with excellent damage per hex. If you can get them to the front and support them so the enemy cannot pick them off, they’ll let you break down enemy positions that aren’t vulnerable to ssappers. Most of the time there are better options but sometimes you’ll want them.

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Vs the Highlanders: The highlanders can spread you pretty thin if you let them and braves eat your cheapest units very effectively. Then even if you stabilize agains that you’ll have to find some way to take down the elephants who’re very resistant to sappers and most of your infantry and can outright kill Ballista. As such, I consider this a very hard match-up. Ballista at day are your best way of killing Elephants but even that is fraught with risk. In general I find that if you can kill off all of the elephants support at day then you can just gang up on them with pelite and legionnaires until they go down. Killing highlanders in the open at day is rather easy once you have a certain critical mass of units. Avoid getting too many hardbacks as they’re bad both against braves and elephants; use pelites instead if you want more mobility in your army.

Vs the Sea States: Your goal is to force your enemy to engage you at day in the open while you have a mass of units with a standard. This is most commonly done with the threat of sappers but however you can achieve it be careful. Their army is more mobile in general, you’ll want to use pelite to discourage their cavalry so that your hardbacks have some movement room but if you push too hard you can be caught out of position and the poison and slow from their alchemststs will eat you alive even if you have a standard. When you attack, you must capture at least one village s that you have some way to mitigate poison and so that you can put time on your side. In the meanwhile, you have the toughness to discourage them from being too reckless when attack you on your own ground but you’ll want to try to position yourself so that it’s hard to engage you in such a way where they can pull back easily if things don’t work out.

Vs the darklanders: Again you’re facing poison and slow, and this time berserk as well. This is a heavy ToD match-up. Fortunately, your fast units beat their fast units unless their fast units are in a forest. But you’ll have to contend also with vipers who are a royal pain for you. Same general plan as always, force them to fight in the open at day. If you can pull that off, you don’t even need the standard. Beware the beaskskull. Beware the beastskull/malice combo even more.

[Velensk]

The Darklanders The darklanders are an odd faction as a whole. Outside forests, their units are all on the flimsy/vulnerable side on the other hand, the amount of damage they can put out is fearsome. Particularly of note is that if a malice slows down pretty much any unit, a beast skull kill it. Now this is a very expensive combo but once you have it it does mean that you have a pretty reliable chance to pick off any individual target you have two hex sides on. It’s important that you have this line busting potential as one of your other main damage dealers is a backstabber and so a disciplined enemy formation can be quite a crimp for you. You are incredibly reliant on dealing damage to your enemies though, so if you cannot maim something on impact you won’t fair well in a fight in the open. Also, when you cannot backstab, most of your damage is in melee so it’s easy to build a wall resistant to you.

Tribesmen: 7-3 chaotic for 13 gold is a very aggressive set-up. That and forest move/defense really is all these guys have going for them. In the same fashion as highlander braves these guys can really cost efficiently hack down ranged units but aren’t great for trading blows in the open with enemy melee. On the other hand being chaotic means they can’t do that at day, but they’re even nastier at night.

Hurlers: A ranged backstabber. Like most backstabber these guys are really efficient if you can set them up and lackluster when not backstabbing. That said, I find that they aren’t as bad as thieves when not backstabbing because you can frequently attack without getting hurt.

Vipers: These guys are an odd auxiliary. They’re almost entirely dependent on poison for their damage. The way self healing works makes it so that it’s frequently better to let them attack you so that if you survive you heal some and can then run away from your now poisoned enemy (this is much easier to arrange against an AI than a human player). Still they are mobile and they can harass and if the enemy doesn’t beat down on them they’ll sustain themselves.

Jaguar: A typical scouting unit mostly. Though, they are actually tougher than your basic infantry everywhere other than the forest.

Canoe: Cheap water archer.

Malice: These guys are expensive and don’t do a lot of damage themselves so you must be careful with them, that said, they have a magic slow with decent damage and they can sustain themselves with it so minor scrapes won’t matter much as long as they keep attacking. Slow is particularly useful in this faction as its units are frail and aggressive so things which lower the retaliation they take is important.

Beastskull: Same general principle as a ulfserker but with some major differences. Ulfserkers instantly kill ranged units and instantly die to melee units, this is in general still true. The differences come mostly in three forms. The first is, that beast skull are chaotic. At night the range of units that they can kill dramatically increases, and at day racially decreases. The second, is that beast skulls fight well in forests, which again dramatically changes their array of match-ups. The final is that beast skull can beat pretty much anything slowed by a malice frequently even if ti’s the wrong time of day. If you are careful, the threat behind these things can be a powerful force for warding your opponent. If you aren’t careful, then they’ll just be picked off or trade inefficently.

——

Vs the Highlanders: Lion warriors make it risky to use malice and beast skull but without them, elephants become a major threat. With them, elephants are probably a mistake for your opponent. Be careful but don’t be too passive. Even at day it’s hard for braves to beat through tribesmen stationed in woods and at night they sure don’t want to be facing tribesmen in the open. A lot of play is about trying to get your beast skull in position to threaten without them getting picked off by lion warriors as well as a positional battle between the hill/forest dwellers. Once things break down, they’ll get bloody very fast. This isn’t a good match for vipers as the highlanders do pretty well vs poison, likewise malices are normally pretty ineffective (though they can help vs elephants).

Vs the Sea States: Cavalry are super annoying and your answer to them can’t stand up against regiments in the open. I find that generally you’ll want to start with hurlers to force the cavalry to be cautious and then play passive until you can get your breaker combo and force them back. Still this is a hard match-up.

Vs the imperialists: Vipers really shine here. Sure the imperialists have lots of ways to poke at them but they sustain through minor damage and poison cuts through high defenses and resistances strait to the (actually pretty low) hit points. Likewise imperialists (except ballista) have a hard time focusing down malices. Your goal is to keep the imperialists from gaining enough cohesion to mount a big push at day until you can break through their lines with your combo.

[Velensk]

The Dalefolk: Have good mountain defense and movement and overall a relatively defense defensive style. It’s an entirely neutral faction but it has its damage dealers.

Miners: Vaguely like dwarven fighters, except faster, worse at moving through terrains, better at fighting in most terrains, and weaker. Not the strongest frontline fighter but beefy for their cost.

Herders: A lot like footpads. Not quite as fast but cheaper and neutral.

Rocketeers: Much like thundered except not as beefy and with an artillery option. Fire damage is pretty rare in this era so it’s a nice boon.

Herbalists: Poison and healing in one convenient package. If you an keep them alive they can help any slow attrition situation go in your favor.

Raven: Even weaker at combat than a bat but cheaper and better at dodging in villages. Position them in such a way that you can force them to either have to keep units on remote villages or lose the villages temporarily.

Channelers: These are your offensive muscle. They do massive magical melee damage with cold that can chew through almost any defense in the era very well. As a melee mage though they take quite a bit of damage and they are a high priority target for your enemies.

Shifters: It takes awhile to wrap your head around these guys. They provide a variety of roles depending on what form they’re in but in any form they provide good melee damage.

The Pygmies: These are the oddest faction I’ve ever designed, including the halflings. They have no generic melee unit per say and they’re a swarm faction despite the fact that most of their units are pretty expensive. To top it off they’re liminal and all have a weak regeneration ability and are terrain dependent in addition. You kind of have to play guerrilla with this faction. Use your gnats to force your enemy to spread out and keep out of reach until you can pick enemies off. You are the most mobile faction in the era by a decent margin so take advantage of it.

Gnats: Cheap, mobile, and dodgy. They don’t do a ton of damage but it adds up.

Swamp Witch: A magical archer, the main quality of the swamp witch is that enemies adjacent to it take more damage. Normally none of the pygmies do a lot of damage for their cost but at dawn or dusk a creature next to the swamp witch will take a lot of damage, and you can use skirmisher to get at it from more angles.

Charmer: Does immense damage at dawn and dusk while at full health and heals itself with the same attack. If you can keep them from taking too much damage before the engagement begins they’ll clean up pretty well.

Puma: A relatively tough and mobile skirmisher.

Crocodile: Solid water unit.

Spider rider: Expensive for what it does but has poison and mobility.

The Whities The whites are another mobile faction. They have high hp but low defense in the open (average defense in rough terrain). They are also the faction I have by far the least playtime with but I normally play them fairly aggressively. They’re mostly chaotic but have some neutral units.

Warriors: Fast expensive terrain dependent grunts with a ranged attack. The expensive is a sufficient crimp that it’s not as exciting as it sounds but you’ll still use them.

Warden: Slower, and not terribly hard hitting but effective at retaliating against high defense enemies at any time of day.

Bow girls: Cheap level 0 ranged unit. As the factions only other ranged unit is very expensive this gives you access to a tiny bit of ranged damage but I wouldn’t rely on them too much.

Scout: Moves quickly and can harass with a ranged attack.

Storm guard: This is an odd odd unit. A slow steadfast berserker. It can still pick off ranged units if it can catch them. Against some foes, who has the upper hand will depend on whether you’re attacking or your foe. Also has a bow so it can do damage to enemies that it can’t attack.

Storm child: Devastating magical attacker. Treat it like a more expensive but stronger version of the mage.

Terror riders: A somewhat more versitile charger. Does quite a bit of damage when it charges but it doesn’t have to risk itself by charging.

Longboat: Melee navel unit.

The Freemen The freemen are a very durable faction. In terms of style they’re similar to the imperialists however the way they go about it is very different.

Aristocrats: Are a bit more expensive than they are generally worth but are still tough infantry and as a bonus can do good pierce damage while backstabbing.

Sand Walkers: These guys are as tough as a footpad and deal similar damage but are much cheaper. The downside is that they don’t have the speed. You can use these to hold down space and block as the rest of your army is quite expensive.

Wanderers: A mobile mixed fighter. Wanders do decent damage at both ranges and can get through terrain easily and don’t have poor hp either. Their only real weakness is that they don’t have great damage per hex.

Howlers: Howlers are very expensive for the amount of damage they do, however stun can effectively make all your units skirmishers where you need them to be and set up for backstabs.The fact that it’s magical physical damage also makes them excellent for taking down elusive.

Mufti: A durable healer. Healing is pretty important for this faction as you’ll have a lot of expensive units you’ll be wanting to keep alive and the mufti can both shield them with his body and heal them. He’s not easy to focus down so you’ll want him up in the thick of the fight.

Camel riders: Durable cavalry. Don’t do a ton of damage but they aren’t easy to take down and are less vulnerable to pierce than other cavalry.

Roc: Recruitable level 2. The roc does amazing damage but is so expensive that if you don’t protect it well, you’ll have a hard time getting your money’s worth. If you can protect it with sand walkers or wanderers or mufti it’ll tear enemy ranged units apart. Be particularly careful against piercing and impact enemies.