How to Play... Rebels versus Khalifate

[Alex-Stargazer]

Hello forum:

I've been playing the above matchup, and wrote my thoughts on the wiki

Fighting these guys is tricky, but your old tricks are useful once more. Generally, your main problem will be the Khalifate’s HP—as usual, they have more of it than you, and the Arif in particular is a hard nut to crack. Khalifate also love hills; as when fighting dwarves, keep an eye out on opportunistic hill-grabs.

Unlike when fighting dwarves—and this here is crucial—you must not fall into the trap of holding hills at the expense of forests. The Khalifate enjoys a 20% boost in defence, but dwarves enjoy a 30% boost; and while you can beat the latter by holding onto hills, this doesn’t work so well in the case of the desert-men.

Expect to see lots of Arif—their marksman ability is very dangerous to archers, shamans, and even fighters. They’re also pretty damn tough. The catch? They’re pricey, and have no ranged attack.

But don’t fool yourself into thinking you can outmaneouvre them and pepper them with arrows until they die. That works against dwarvish fighters, but dwarvish fighters have to go through your defence. Try this against Arifs, and they’ll kill you before you can kill them.

The solution? Slow. Their high price means you can slow most of them, and they’re weak to impact—ideal targets for Woses.

If an Arif manages to grab a hill, don’t try and engage it—even on forest. Rather, focus your attention on other units; try to lure them off it. At the expense of contradicting previous advice, the Arif is the one unit you should really try to keep off hills.

Discretion still applies; if you can kill them with a mage, it may be worth the risk.

The rest of the Khalifate faction is relatively ambidextrous in both melee and ranged—be prepared for more retaliation than usual. Shamans, unsurprisingly, are good for this.

Recruitment-wise:

Shaman: Slow and heal are even more powerful than usual, while some Khalifate units are weak to impact. Provided that there are no Arif nearby, this unit also survives well on forest. Get some. But remember: you’ll need to do a lot more damage than what these girls can do, if you want to win that is.
Rating: B+

Archer: Their high mobility is very useful for grabbing those important forest (and hill) hexes; their ranged attacks are useful against Arif and Hakim, while the Khalifate mounted units are weak to pierce. A good unit. Beware of attacking Jundi and Rami at dawn/dusk though—conversely, they’ll struggle getting you off forest with those.
Rating: A-

Fighter: They’re useful against Rami and Jundi, and can be used to attack Arif and Naffat at night. They’re also cheaper than Khalif units, which can get you a useful numerical advantage. Still: their lesser mobility is a downside here, and the Khalifate has better resistance against blade than pierce.
Rating: B.

Mage: Useful for knocking Khalif off hills with their magic, and can provide some daytime damage. Still, the Khalif’s profileration of ranged attacks makes this already fragile unit dubious.
Rating: B-

Wose: These guys are devastating against Rami, and also against Jundi and Hakim. At day they will crush them (literally). Slowed Arif are prime targets for their impact attacks, but don’t risk it otherwise. Woses, sadly, lack for blade resistance—but Arif will hesitate at the 14-2 counter attack. The only real danger to this unit is the Naffat. Try and kill those.
Rating: A-

Mermen Hunter: Already rather weak to begin with, the Hunter’s efficacy is further eroded by Arif marksmen and Rami retaliation. Use sparingly.
Rating: C+

Scout: He doesn’t fare well against Rami—the Khalif’s primary scout. Nor is he much better against the other Khalif units. Try and use archers instead.
Rating: C+

I was wondering if anyone has anything to add to that, or criticisms to pose. I personally find woses to be particularly effective against the Khalifate (pierce resistance plus impact damage is a real winner against a lot of their units) while I think it can be hard to win a scout-war with the khalif. Those Rami are really strong against scouts; other than stealing villages, the elven counterpart can't really engage with them. Does anyone have any strategies for large maps, e.g. Cynsaun?

Other than that, I'm not sure how useful elvish fighters are against them. I find the extra mobility and pierce damage of the archer to be worth the cost. Does anyone agree?