How to play Loyalists

[JW]

How to play Loyalists:
Back to The "How to play..." Series.

Quick links:
General Loyalist Strategies
Loyalists v. Undead
Loyalists v. Knalgans
Loyalists v. Loyalists
Loyalists v. Rebels
Loyalists v. Drakes
Loyalists v. Northerners

[vigilante]

how ocme nothing here?

[Oreb]

It seems he is just getting the template up.

[Mythological]

General Loyalist Strategy
Loyalists are considered to be the most versatile faction in the game. They have most available unit types to recruit ( 8 ), more than any other faction. Loyalists are mostly melee oriented faction, with only two ranged unit types, the mage and the bowman, but their ranged units play a significant role in the loyalists strategy and have to be used effectively. About the melee troops the loyalist player gets to choose among:
-Heavy Infantrymen : few strikes, high damage per strike, slow, higher hitpoints, good resistances, low defenses, deals impact damage which is good against undead
-Spearman : average strikes, average damage per strike, average movement, medium hitpoints, normal resistances, average defenses, deals pierce damage which is good against drakes, has a weak ranged attack
-Fencer : high number of strikes, low damage per strike, quick, low hitpoints, bad resistances, good defenses, deals blade damage which is good against elusivefoots or wose, deals less total damage than the other two, is a skirmisher.

The loyalists unit price ranges from the cheap spearmen and mermen (14 gold) to the expensive horsemen (23 gold).

Loyalist units generally have good hitpoints and they deal good damage, even the cheap spearmen and bowmen. Even their scouts have high hitpoints and better melee attack compared to most of the scouts of the other factions. But OTOH, the loyalist scouts have lower defences than most of the other scouts and they do not have a ranged attack.

The loyalists have some units with good resistances, like HI or Cavalryman, which can be very good for defending if you notice that your opponent doesn't have the proper units to counter them. Other units, like the bowman, who is more vulnerable than the previous two, but is also good for defense because it has better defense, is cheaper and it deals solid damage back in both melee and range. Similar goes for the spearman.

When attacking, Loyalists have units which can be pretty devastating, like the horseman for attacking enemy magi and other ranged units, magi against the entrenched melee units, fencers for killing enemy injured and valuable units trying to heal behind their lines. But the mentioned units are also very vulnerable and they can die very easily if not properly supported.

The loyalists as a faction generally have average defenses ( they do not get 70% defense anywhere, with the exception of the fencer, which is a special case ) and they are not a terrain dependent faction ( like the Elves or Knalgans are ). Therefore, even if it good to put spearmen and bowmen on mountains, villages and castles where they get 60% defense, you should also take the faction you are facing into account when deciding where to place your units. For example, if you are fighting knalgans, you should try not to move your units next to hills and mountains and/or take the hills and mountains with your units and leave the forest to the dwarves.

All the loyalist units are lawful, which obviously leads to the conclusion that the loyalists should be more aggressive and attack at day ( or even start at dawn, because your opponent in most of the cases will be reluctant to attack too aggressively and leave units on bad ground when the morning arrives ) while at night the loyalists should at least play conservatively, or in some cases even run away. Of course, that is also dependent upon the faction of your opponent.

The greatest weakness of the loyalists is their limited mobility. The loyalists' units have normal movement, some of their units like the horseman,cavalryman,merman fighter and the fencer are pretty quick when they are in their favorable environment, but all their units get slowed over rough terrain a lot compared to the other factions' units . Half of the loyalists units can not even move on/over mountains, and their scouts get significantly slowed in forest, for example. This lack of mobility will often give your opponent an opportunity to outmaneuver you in the game.To prevent that, sometimes it is good to attack hard on a certain point and defend only with minimal amount of units elsewhere, rather than uniformly spreading your units around the front.

When you don't know which faction you are facing, it is good to get a mixture of units. On most of the default 1v1 maps, this initial recruitment list would be good : spearman, bowman, fencer, mage, merman fighter, cavalryman. As always, you should carefully consider about the exact placement of each individual unit from the initial recruits on the castle to come up with the most optimal combination that will allow you the quickest village grabbing in the first turns of the game.


Next : The roles of the loyalist units

[Sir_Furious]

will this ever be finised?


For Horsemen in particular: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11409
For Mages, Dark Adepts, and their ilk: http://www.wesnoth.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11455

(thanks elvish pillager)

[Shiver]

Here, stick this into the first post if you like it. I'd be happy to make a team photo for every faction.

[sir_DenChik]

Very good idea to describe fraction units They are in my opinion especially valuable the cavalry. I promise as I will carry out a worthy translation into English (excuse I write with the help of prompt translator) I will lay out the description of all units

[IPS]

Some info to try it againist your opponent (not incluiding terrain help). Only 7 types of enemies and options you can try.



1.- loyalist - loyalist game: You need to remmind both players haves only lawful units, so you need to remmind your enemy will charge you at day time as the same than you.

you must know too the spearmen and the archers are the main units of a game, so you will fight againist many of them. A suggerence if you know the enemy is another loyalist, is to try to buy only the sufficent calvary/horsemen units to take the villages early, then don't produce any more because horses are food of spearmen. A good unit what is useful againist the loyalist faction is the heavy infantry, they haves 40% res to pierce, so it can be crush the spearmen, they can hold againist the archers and ressists good the horsemen charges. It has 50% res to blade, so the calvary offensively like a toy againist the heavy infantry. You can try to buy mages too, exelent to kill the heavy infantries (due their 10% weakness to fire) and the fencers (due their inferior hp) and are really useful againist every unit in the loyalist faction. Buy archers too, their bests uses are to atack the heavy infantry and wounders the horse a lot without taking counter atacks and bring you a good defense againist the mages, but it can atack effectly every unit in the loyalists faction. Don't forget the spearmen, the main force of the loyalist faction, them are exlent to keep far the horsemen and their charges, to fear the calvary and to atack every unit (but be specailly careful with them againist the heavy infantries, remmind this heavy guys is a spearmen eater). Fencers are always useful, overall to trape the enemies in uncomfortable positions and to kill wounded units, but never trust in their high defense because with a bit of bad luck them dies of nothing. The calvary unit is not bad againist a loyalist faction, but the others units are better to fight againist another loyalist faction (it's useful only to ressists the heavy infantries, wtih 40% res to impact they can wound a heavy infantry to for an example a spearman kills it after). Horsemen can be very useful, 1 is enought many times exelent to kill calvaries, archers and mages and every unit with decent hp (ALWAYS try to use a horsemen againist a unit what can be killed in only a hit from the horsemen, it's much less risk and you can kill a decent hp unit with no taking dammage, not try to use them in spearmen). The mermen are solved if you uses them as spearmen, but with more care keeping them in water squares and you must remmind they don't have first strike, so the enemy may try to use a horseman to try to kill your merman.



2.- loyalist - Rebels: The rebel faction is as well a neutral-lawful faction, so need to remmind their offensive is more high at day time than at night, but your units all are loyal, so that mean you need to charge them at day time.

The rebels are mainly a pierce/blade based faction, so a heavy infantry many times is useful. Another very important thing is to don't buy only pierce/impact based units because if enemy feels you have to much pierce and impact, if he is smart he will start to buy woses to compense every pierce and impact unit. The woses haves an awesome res to pierce of 60% and very efficent res to impact of 40%, so you must need more than simple maces, arrows and spears to beat the rebel's friendly tree. To balance more your strategy againist the woses you need to buy some mages as a offensive solution and the calvary unit has a defensive unit. A calvary at day time can kill a tree if both are in flat, calvary has very good impact atack and has blade in his atack, both things exelent to kill the woses, but the problem of the calvary if the opponent compenses with some elvish archers, calvary can be in big troubles. This time, the fencers can be useful, they can make you a shield againist the enemy's shamans, with lower chance to slow your frontline of fencers. Horsemen are useful to kill the every enemy unit exeptly the woses ... the elvish fighters doesn't have pierce mele based atack and doesn't have first strike, so them are more fragible againist the horsemen. Your archers are only useful to keep defensive position and to atack every elvish fighter unit, so them are very helpful. Elvish scouts are easy to kill with every pierce unit and doesn't have that good res to impact and blade like the loyalist calvary, so you can try to kill it with every unit.


3.- loyalist - Knalgans: Knalgans are mainly a neutral faction as every elf, but their ouwtlaws are chaotic, so the knalgans are a neutral-chaotic faction. So be careful when the dwarves want to atack you because your weakness at night time and for their right time ouwtlaws.

This time, the calvary unit is awesome of useful, them are useful againist every knalgan unit exeptly againist the thunderers, poachers and guardsmen so keep the calvary how far you can of the pierce based atack units. Horsemen can kill every careless dwart on flat before it reach a hill or a mountain, so them can kill a potentional danger unit and they can charge at the ouwtlaw (overall in day time) because they have a weak blade and impact mele based atacks. About the heavy infantry, they are AWESOME to kill enemies ulf, with a 99.9% to kill a enemy ulf unit on a neutral time if both are in flat, so they can be a lot of useful to defuse the enemies ulfs. Another good use for the heavy infantry is to wounder or kill the thieves units (if they does hit ...) before the night time, they crush the gryphon rides like flying potatoes, due they very good blade ressistances and the gryphons is weak againist the impact based atack units. Heavy infantry must be careful againist the footpads, they are a trap againist the heavy infantry, so let the job of killing footpads to other unit and must careful atacking a Dwarvish Fighter with your heavy infantry, don't rush a dwarvish fighter on a hill/mountain if you aren't sure you can kill him in the turn. Spearmen are exelent to hold againis the dwarvish fighters and are always nasty to kill for thieves, so they are always useful in the front line. Fencers can reach enemy's ulf very easly, don't scare to use a fencer againist an ulfseker, it has a good change to kill an ulfseker unit in neutral time and a trustable chance to kill the ulf in the day time. The mages are really useful to kill every ouwtlaw unit and dwarvish unit, but they are very fragible againist the ulfs, so be sure to keep the mage safe of the ulf. Archers are useful always to kill fighters, gryphon riders and to wounder ulfs, so they are useful many times.

Special note: The thunderer unit is a very anoying unit for the loyalist faction, their thunderstick does risk the use of a mage or a archer to atack it and their dagger is efficent, so atack a thunderer on a hill at day time only with a spearman, heavy infantry or with a horseman if you want to trust in it's powefuls charges. If them are in flat, DON'T WAIT to charge it how early you can, they are very anoying for the loyalist faction.


Post as been ended for today, I will re-edit it when I give up, here is at the 23:40 when I was writing this post, so I did it with less care than the normal. Or should I write this in separated posts ??