How to play Undead

[Elvish_Pillager]

Huh, looking over this...

Against Drakes I think Skeleton Archers are actually more important than Adepts. Drakes can beat up adepts in melee or use saurians, while they have no real way to counter Skeleton Archers...

Pros:
- a bit cheaper
- 40% vs blade, 60% vs pierce, 60% vs cold
- greater chance to hit at least once

Cons:
- no traits (thus a bit slower on average)
- -20% vs fire
- somewhat less damage

The major differences - although Adepts do more damage, skeleton archers resist Saurians by a load and can't be taken easily in melee (since Drakes have Blade melee at best).

[Higher Game]

Since they have a decent impact attack, drake gliders are actually good against skeleton archers. They aren't so great at anything else, besides scouting, and killing near dead units, so it's definitely weird that they actually have combat roles against the undead. Burners do fine against them at day, while a burner should never try to use range on adepts.

The thing is, while skeleton archers are useful as main battle forces, the adept is for doing heavy damage in little time, which is important for breaking through defensive positions.

[Elvish_Pillager]

Whoops, I seem to have miscalculated the damage. I've now edited my post.

Burners are fine attacking adepts - in melee. They do a good deal of damage that way, while Adepts can never attack them without some retaliation.

[Doc Paterson]

Pillager-


Skell archers more important than adepts? Dead wrong, sonny.

Yes, they're great, yes they're useful, but JW is right on when he says that adepts should be the meat of the army.

[Elvish_Pillager]

I don't understand making the meat of an army out of relatively costly, low HP defenseless mages.

[appleide]

IMO, the skeleton archer is the best unit in the faction. Why pay an extra gold to lose your ranged just for an extra damage and 4 hp? Skeleton archers are also the best unit to recruit against undead because of the high resistance and the impact damage and its rangeness.

Against Drakes Skeleton archers are much more durable than Adepts (except against burners), while adepts are durable only against burners, but gets chewed by every other unit. Yes, the adept can deal more damage, but the skeleton archer is cheaper and can hold defensive positions better. I think 40% skel archers, 40% adepts and 20% everything else would be right against Drakes.

[Zhukov]

I think you people are failing to appreciate the sheer amount of damage that adepts deal to drakes.

When up against drakes I have found that doing serious damage is not enough. They just fly away to villages and wait for daytime. You need to kill them. This is where adepts have the edge over archers. Whump them with adepts then finish them with archers or ghosts.

So, as EP points out, archers are by no means useless. They also make nice daytime defenders, resisting drake melee and have decent retaliation against drake ranged.

Bah, I'm basically repeating what others have said.

[troodon]

You're supposed to use Skeletons and Skeleton Archers to protect the Dark Adepts and fill in the spots previously occupied by the enemies before they were killed by the DAs, and Dark Adepts to break into a line quickly, right? (obviously the skeletons are used for more than that, but for the purposes of fighting with dark adepts...)

[Doc Paterson]

IMO, the skeleton archer is the best unit in the faction. Why pay an extra gold to lose your ranged just for an extra damage and 4 hp? Skeleton archers are also the best unit to recruit against undead because of the high resistance and the impact damage and its rangeness.

Against Drakes Skeleton archers are much more durable than Adepts (except against burners), while adepts are durable only against burners, but gets chewed by every other unit. Yes, the adept can deal more damage, but the skeleton archer is cheaper and can hold defensive positions better. I think 40% skel archers, 40% adepts and 20% everything else would be right against Drakes.

I'm perfectly happy to have people recruiting less adepts. Makes things a lot easier for me.

The most dead-on thing I've read in here thus far was from Zhukov. Let me repeat, in case it was overlooked: If you do not kill a drake, finish it then and there, it will escape and destroy you later on.

There is no real comparison between a unit that does a Drake Clasher 7-3 at night, and one that does it 19-2 MAGICAL. An adept and an archer will finish most Drakes about half the time. Three archers will not, by the odds, kill a Clasher on a village. Two adepts will reliably finish any Drake, in any location.

[JW]

If you don't believe me, please believe the Doc. (and Zhukov)

[Xandria]

The adepts are so deadly in fact that they rip even through lvl 2 drakes with ease. Excellent for leader kills where few tiles near the leader are open.

Just recently, a Drake, sure of his eventual victory, left his Fire Drake leader near an adept. Happy 38 damage from the adept later, Mr. Spooky (a ghost) flew in to eat the very surprised drake.

Also mind that ghosts, having a cold melee attack, not only deal more damage to drakes, but also leech more. You can expect a decent amount of leeching due to low drake defenses, plus ghosts are swifter than any burner.

[F8 Binds...]

Well, in adept vs archer, as in which is better vs drakes, adept wins. Although the archer has better resistances, the adept in ONE hit can do almost as much as all the archer's hits combined. Although drakes are weak vs pierce, it's nothing like their resistance to cold. (-10% vs -50%) A good balance is required here, or risk being run over by clashers or burners. Such a recruit would consist of 2 archers, 2 adepts, and a skeleton + ghost.

[Thrawn]

I don't understand making the meat of an army out of relatively costly, low HP defenseless mages.

EP, adepts have decent hp, compared to other mage units. If they are the meat, just make sure you have a strong enough exoskeleton, and they'll be fine.

[muxec]

What about something like this for "Age Of Heroes" era?

[George Mason]

What about something like this for "Age Of Heroes" era?

Wow, that sounds like an awful lot of work.

Thanks for volunteering for the job!!