Translations of "How igorbat99's play competitive 1vs1" series

[igorbat99]

Hello everyone, this is a topicstarter for the translation of my guides on how i played competitive 1vs1 back in 1.12 and 1.14.
Translates would be placed here, under this topicstarter.

About me:
I won prizes in a couple of big tournaments(I don't count lots of other small or league-like things) and also was 2100+ elo player:
2nd place in Double Elimination "Back to Wesnoth tournament", 32 players, famous participants: diomed, Dauntless, Maboul, Elder, plk2, Danniel_BR, ShadowVeil, Dreadnough, Solymos, Rigor
1st place in Single Elimination "2020 Wesnoth Life Cup", 38 players, famous participants:Elder, Kral, Dauntless, Danniel_BR

Links to the dirty strategies series - subpart of the main guide:
1) Dirty strategies I: Slash, Steal, Kill - viewtopic.php?p=691004#p691004
2) Dirty strategies II: Tygydyk tygydyk (horse rush) viewtopic.php?t=54190
3) Dirty strategies III: no formation you have viewtopic.php?t=54109

Links to the posts(under this topic) with specific matchup:
Undead:
1. vs Notherners: viewtopic.php?p=691786#p691786
2. vs Drakes: (link)
3. vs Rebels: viewtopic.php?p=691787#p691787
4. vs Loyalists: (link)
5. vs Knalganians: (link)

Loyalists:
1. vs Drakes: (link)
2. vs Undead: (link)
3. vs Knalganians: (link)
4. vs Rebels: (link)
5. vs Notherners: viewtopic.php?p=691024#p691024

Drakes:
1. vs Rebels: viewtopic.php?p=691311#p691311
2. vs Loyalists: (link)
3. vs Undead: (link)
4. vs Knalganians: viewtopic.php?p=691806#p691806
5. vs Notherners: viewtopic.php?p=691224#p691224

Notherners:
1. vs Undead: viewtopic.php?p=691786#p691786
2. vs Knalganians: (link)
3. vs Drakes: viewtopic.php?p=691224#p691224
4. vs Rebels: viewtopic.php?p=691225#p691225
5. vs Loyalists: viewtopic.php?p=691024#p691024

Knalganians:
1. vs Undead: (link)
2. vs Drakes: viewtopic.php?p=691806#p691806
3. vs Loyalists: (link)
4. vs Notherners: (link)
5. vs Rebels: viewtopic.php?p=691329#p691329

Rebels:
1. vs Drakes: viewtopic.php?p=691311#p691311
2. vs Undead: viewtopic.php?p=691787#p691787
3. vs Knalganians: viewtopic.php?p=691329#p691329
4. vs Loyalists: (link)
5. vs Notherners: viewtopic.php?p=691225#p691225

[igorbat99]

Dirty Strategy I: Slash, Steal, Kill

Classic Knalganians Player1 rush: Ulf + thief + bird with Footpad to finish enemy / steal village on Player1Turn4.
Maps: Caves of Basilisk, Swamps of the Dread(didn't check), Weldynn's Channel, Sulla's ruins, etc.

Small tricks:
1) We are Player1, so we don't have to take our front villages on turn 2: enemy would be in their keep in the beginning of their turn and wouldn't be able to punish us for it.
2) We don't want to show our plan early so we could outplay 8mp enemy scouts.

So, lets start.
On Weldyn' s Channel:



The key idea here is that after scout moved 1 tile futher their front village(and grab the village using its last move) it wouldn't be able to scout futher than red crosses.




So it is the end of the third turn, this is how our troops looks like. The front village is taken by poacher.

In this attack we have weak ulf, weak thin thief and weak bird while there is a 39hp Cavalryman. And even through all these resistance we would kill it.

Have a look on distribution, we could expect that ulf would deal (39hp at all - 15 hp median left = 24 hp of damage on average would be dealt).


.

.


In the end - we are fine with using 3 bottom-right hexes for 5mp ulf, so, could be, that this initial recruit is not the most optimal. But it makes thing anyway.

===

On Caves of Basilisk

Feature of the map that Player2 usually skip recruit on turn 2 and move their King from village to village. Lets use this fact:



The example of wrong ulf positioning and scout saw him. Had to put it in the red circle and move from one red cirle to another.


Example of the wrong positioning against backstab. The horse would be surround, and most probably killed by the poacher next turn. Leu is placed on a tile where you would usually see an opponent's King after 3rd turn.


Bonus:



Small trick: ulf bought on this tile would be (almost always) invisible for the enemy fish and would kill it(may be with a small help from your King).
===

Okay, what to do next, after this rush?
Depends on a matchup, I often change unit composition into dwarfs: it is very comfortable to defend using dwarfs on an enemy side on the battlefield in defensive tiles.

===

How to defend against it?

1) Buy more units in initial recruit on simplier-to-be-attacked side.
2) Stay in a triangular(at least 3 units you need for it) against backstab. Then the attack would be with poacher, and pad would try to sneak into your formation next turn and/or make you to make a mistake - it is simple to overlook and miss backstab opportunity.

Faction Features:
1) Loyalists: Hi works against this comp - there is nothing to kill it in this setup. Also Cavalryman works really good - and this unit is exact reason for poacher in initial recruit. Loyalist is very strong in damage dealing to these bandits, so this is the reason to say that such a rush almost not working against Loyalists.
Small trick: quite often works to put Horse into the vill and Spier right next to it. Replace one with spier next turn, after receiving initial round of damage.
2) Notherners: you don't have to do much here - these bandits quite ofter die easily on a flat. Just need to have more units. From the other hand your own rush on the other side of the board won't meet any strong defence.

3) Rebels: The bird is the main source of pain here. From the other hand - ulf quite often could kill 2 damaged fighters without huge luck, so if you don't have 3 fighters on a side - just give up a village.

4) Undead: if you defend using Skeleton - not that much a problem. If you have started in Ghoul + Bat - you're in troubles. Another source of pain - 1hp poisoned ulf still kill your DarkAdepts. So from my perspective the best move is to give up a village and attack on the other side of the map.

5) Drakes: usually just give up the village.

[igorbat99]

Loyalists vs Notherners
Reminder: it is a compilation of 1.12-1.14 and may be 1.16 experience. Not sure regarding meta and balance changes of 1.17+

Beautiful matchup, I think in favour of Loyalists(Loyalists have too much raw dmg (per tile))
There I haven't provided initial recruit guide(compared to more old guides). I think here everything resonable recruit should work for both sides.

weak side - usually side of a single front village
hard side - usually side of 2 front villages / lots of villages(Weldynn)

General Thoughts:
1) It is a matchup where it would be ok to have a HI in case of "last stand"(see below)
2) It is the only matchup where you could have mass goblin
3) It is the matchup which could be played around (as core units) archers and goblins - due to uber effectivity of Cavalrymen
4) In late game(20-25 or more units per player) Loyalists have too much raw dmg per tile(mages, Horsemen). Notherners have a great power of green-ing (poisoning) loys units to cancel day attack. From the other hand, Notherners don't have daytime dmg - these 5-3(archer) and 7-2(5-2 to cavalrymen) - doesn't count
5) Matchup itself leads to Cavalry, who stays good against trolls. So trolls here are very dangerous unit for notherners. If troll is slow - it would be free xp or it won't cross the middle line of the map to defend (injured) units after night attack.

Dynamics:
Dynamics are following - dance. At night Loyalists give up a house. At day Loyalists try to catch up and do soo much damage so Notherners won't have a good push at night. So the task for Notherners - not to allow loyalists to do so. Impornant: these horses are very expensive - about 1.5 timre more than Grunts. Which means that we would be allowed to attack/take houses on both sides of the battlefield. In some moment of time loyalists would have to have "last stand" and actually take a fight line-on-line. From one hand: 42 hp spier is very hard for Notherners to kill from 3 tiles in 1 turn. From the other hand - we don't have a signature tiles where we have 60%(mountains and villages/castles are not signature tiles), so other tiles are breakable(we are able to kill a unit on such a tile in 1 turn from 2-3 tiles without huge luck)

So what do the orcs do? On the first night they purse/squeeze loyalists, loyalists usually give up a house(otherways they are ricking to lose lots of hp/ a village and a unit). Then Orcs flee. At daytime loyalists shorten the distance, tries to make a lot of damage on flat, the the main outcome - orcs should be far away from loyalists villages. Orcs buy archer, poisoner, grunts. On the second night Orcs again purse/squeeze loyalists - and loyalists still don't have much options to have a "last stand". But at this moment of time loyalists already could plan to move mage and a couple of cavalrymen to the their main side/orcs weak side. Orcs really need not to sharpen(not to lose small amount of hp so to be able to accept lots of dmg without being killed). At third day(13-15 turns) loys still try to fear orcs, may be to sharpen them a bit. The third night(16-18 turns) is the right time to pressure on both sides. Usually loys give up a village on a weak side. Second line of houses is easier to defend on a weak side(usually), so it allows Loys to defend being in lack of units. So it leads to the following situation: Loys has 2 lines of units vs 3 lines of orcs, and loys units usually overlive first strike and goes back and exange with fullhp second line, so loys stand! And the second line is usually being under attack at dawn, so... yeah, loys stand. So next steps is to run again and to prepare strong push on the "hard" side too.

Loyalist's answer

If Orcs don't pressure on both sides - you may attack their weak side with Cavalry and mage. This would often lead to lots of grants on that side. If there would be no more than 1 archer - a single HI would stop them in village
If Orcs pressure, you have to catch them on one of the sides. You usually may use a fencer, slide behind their backs and cancel their retreat.
Loyalist's goal is to keep their horses healthy at night. This leads horses to attack at day and heal behind the spiers at night while infantry does the opposite - heal at day and fight at night.
Due to narrow zones late-game potential is bigger on a loyalists side, i mean, loyalists could outplay this dances. But I couldn't estimate is there something behind this maneuros left. Yeah, poison/goblins, wall-on-wall fights - all of these is cool. Catching(back) loyalists is also cool. But anyway I think that raw dmg of loyalists is more than poison/pierce damage / orcish blades and so on. Loyal could everything and then kill everything once more at daytime, especially because orcs lack insta-dmg at daytime.
...
notes: peasants gameplan(mass spier/archer while mages/cavalry on support only and not being main firepower/DD) while gives us a similar unit count as orcs have but ... leave us without option of catching orcs, but this also leads to lose of opportunity not to have a last stand early. This (last stand early) lead to increase in risks. Which quite often lead to lose.

[igorbat99]

Drakes vs Notherners

Blind initial recruit pre-setup from me:
Drakes: augur, 2 Soldiers, glider, clasher
Notherners: Wolf, Grunts, 1 support unit(naga, archer, assasin), could be a goblin instead of 1 grunt - depends on map. On support line you will send 3 units(in 1.18 I play two units) - wolf + grunt + grunt/goblin.

Matchup issue: drake's units are very expensive and not that well with defence. Notherners, ar opposite, has very cheap grunts who are very effective. Notherners usually take the village on first night, don't stop and go to the next village too. Yes, dmg at night vs Clasher, for example, is similar 18(9-2) or 20(10-2) vs 20(5-4) retalliation... But grunt costs you 1.5 times less, you just don't worry.

A couple of replays to look at.
P2 Notherners rush at Caves of the Basilisk by BridgeTroll vs Kral at Winter Tournament 2016. https://replays.wesnoth.org/1.12/2016/0 ... 10290).bz2

Legendary "Dauntless(P2) game on Freelands where he upgraded and upgraded units" - I don't have a replay link at original post

...
So what is the Notherner's gameplan? Take villages, take villages, take villages. Couldn't take a village? Put your grunt at mountain / futher at the map, let the drake waste a lot of time to kill it while not healing in the villages, while you would add more grunts and poisoners. (Ofc this is about more or less daytime. At night you would often attack/ deal(to kill) or split(to make drakes unable to take damage again) dmg.

What is Drakes response? Units >> villages, anyways villages would fall - not today then tomorrow: there would be infinite amount of grunts anyways. Augurs quite often are upgraded into healer(+8) to remove poison. It is quite often to upgrade a lot of units - and this also heals+remove posion.
Quite often people try to buy goblin+grunt or archers - there is no need in this. Goblin is much worse in defending villages, archer just don't deal dmg in return. All of these happens due to melee nature of a main damage which notherners would receive on defence of taken villages. (there is no time for more than 1 burner except for enemy's leader). => it leads to thoughts about melee retalliation to these drake attackers. it is quite often that we won't have much a opportunity to deal dmg to melee units at night - drakes would run away (fork of attack or grab a village is not a fork. It is a free village - orcs are in situation where villages >> units, because in 2 turns we have a return-of-investments in 1 grunt [ economy calc is following 2 turns are +4 gold for us -4 gold for drakes +2 gold of support for us -2 gold of support for drakes ], which also lead us to the following thought - we anyways won't have an opportunity to strike with our archer - so why we would invest in it?
Another idea - goblins and archers are units-of-line. But if we have a line-on-line fight with drakes - why do we even need those archers and goblins - we already got their villages and have a opportunity to strike - lets go and finish the game !

In case we would have a line-on-line fight for some reason(p2 Notherners at the Fallenstar Lake map) - then you would have a moment to invest in additional archer. but overall the plan is the same -- attack on the all sides, somewhere you would e given some villages and then you may start going wide into their territory make them to skip the day attacking your "spreaders", while prepearing your next wave.

I know only 1 response from the drakes side - save the units, buy soldiers and augurs(very small amount - every augur could be dead from 1 strong grunt at night), level your units. With great unit management you could kill almost every enemy unit and then stabilize the situation. After which you may even fly forward and finish the game!

[igorbat99]

Notherners vs Rebels

So stats in Maboul's analysis or at WesnothLife are in favour of Notherners. But here I am in disagreement with it - from my point of view Rebels are superior in this matchup. how so?
Rebels are defensive faction, much more cheap than Knalganians, much less effected by poison(speed+shammy), better on friction(poke using bow even by fighters) and even with tanky archers.
My stream observer could say: "hey, we have seen your last tournaments, everywhere you easily defeated Rebels in one way". Sure, sure. I had +40% Inflicted and weak initial recruit by enemy AND +72% inflicted and, yeah, weak initial recruit from enemy. Why these were weak? Let me explain:

First and the most important: there were lack of pure fighters. There were archers, fishes, even woses. Let me remind you my recruits:
Rebels: Horse, 3 fighters, fighter/fish/archer. 5 units in total - you'll buy the sixth - fighter(if map don't allow you to do it you may recruit 6 units turn 1). But [at the moment of the guide] I am almost always don't buy a fish: why do i even need it initially?
- Against Loyals? Fighter in the village would work better
- Against Orcs? fighter in the village would work better.
- Against Drakes? Fighter stay better in hte wall due to retalliation.
- Against Knalganians? So Birds could kill it, right, everything for the free food for the bird?
- Against UD? Not funny.

Notherners: Wolf, 4 grunts, assasin / archer / grunt / goblin

===
Gameplan for Rebels:
This recruit allows us to have a nice wall on forests + villages + mountains against orcish hordes. Without huge luck Notherners would receive a lot of dmg, especially from our Leader, so will have injured units + without any clear results (but most often wouldn't even bother with heavy strike after initial attack with unluck)

Okay, Igor, what are next steps?
Next - more. recruit of trolls would lead to woses. Woses are much painful to attack compared to fighters/archers/mages - so most often orcs won't go for more than 1 troll. So orcs army would be grunts-archers-poisoners against fighter-archer-shammy-mage. Usually amount of poisoners on side - 1 = amount of shammies on side. When rebels would have about 12 units on side(7 fighters, 3 archers, 2 shammies), they may think about mages to plan a attack. Usually 2 mages is enough to have a nice attack on a village. Important that all these time Rebels should not sit tight they have to move forward and backward, dance, have a friction so orcs would be wounded before their night attack.

Notherners counterplan: luck.
If rebels won't have enough 38/39 hp fighters on frontline, they would have to use more thin units. Who will die after 3+/6 strikes (45.5% ctc if rebel on the 60% area). So killing without losing unit is a solution. Friction against villaged rebels doesn't sound like a good idea.
A couple of tips: you could leave your fullhp grunt on flat next to the village, so next turn you may have a step into their previously unmovable tile due to Zone of Control. Rebels Response: ignore(then you may have 4-5 tiles on villaged fighter), take a flat tile with a unit(possibility of being killed), initiate huge fight line-on-line. But 40+hp grunts are almost unkillable from 2 tiles.
Poisoner could attack on dusk(sunset), being covered from both sides by grunt(previous tip), so, after 1 hit the fighter in the village would leave a "safe zone" of 37+hp, and start to be in a danger zone(36- hp = ability to die from 3+/6 strikes from strong Grunts).

Continue to the first tip: you may do such a sneaky move even on the another line, where you have your support. Difference between Orcs vs Rebels VS Orcs vs Dwarfs is following - Rebels are much cheaper so they would have a chance to counter your moves on both sides without being (much) exposed.

[igorbat99]

Small joys of Caves of Basilisk:

Joy 1:
dwarf fighter placed here causes a lot of pain for the enemy. He is very hard to kill without mage/sniper leader and in every way such a fight would steal time of 2-3 units for +/- 6 turns(sum up with healing).


joy 2:
If you have 2 infanty(grunt/troll/fighter/spier/soldier/clasher), you may defend like here. Even Slow-in-water and Slow-in-cave Rebels could use it this way(Loys, often, put the changer in the water directly).
(After receiving hits unit quite often couldn't help you from the keep side. But you could help yourself through the caves!)

[igorbat99]

Rebels vs Drakes

Initial recruit (blindly):
Drakes: you never need 2 gliders - it is waste money. (It is possible to be reasonable on 9 or 10 villages map but never on classic 7-8 villages map. Or, possibly, on Sylla's ruins. Glider - is very weak unit which dramaticly decrease an ability to defend of your army)
Drakes: Glider, Clasher, Soldier x 2, augur, spier lizard = 100gold. 6 units is solid. Vs Rebels not-blindly i would go for soldier x 4, augur, glider.
Rebels: horse, 4 fighters, fish/fighter/archer. Sometimes players use wose instead of fighter. This matchup is the reason not to play this way.

The first idea: this matchup is "ok" for Rebels if drakes make huge mistakes or random gives a log of dexterous archers(7-4 vs drake fighter). This matchup itself about rebels traits: strong on archers/fighters make them 7-2 and 7-4 vs lizards, dexterous on archers make them 7-4 vs gliders/burners/soldiers.
May be i don't know how to play rebels well, but lets get started

Drakes strategy:
0) I don't believe in lizard-heavy setup, they are very weak especially vs fighter who are expected to be massed in this matchup
1) I play mass soldiers with 1-2 clashers (initiate fight / cover retreat) and 2-3 augurs(healing, finishing off).
Note: clashers are not mobile so move them forward quickly(initiate) or put them behind(to cover retreat or side change - more about side change below).
The strategy is simple - you got a big flock of flying dinosaurs, playing on the side where you could attack 2 villages in 1 time, there is not enough rebels to cover well all the villages , you brutally kill rebels on first day(morning). After receiving retalliation you fly away - hills/mountains/swamps would help you not to have line-on-line fight with all the rebels in 1 time. If rebels would blindly attack you they would be left on a flat where your dinosaurs would be able to kill them at neutral time. If random was good enough (not too much 7-4 archers) - you bratually positively exchanged troops
Important if you woudn't hurry up with your attack - rebels would be able to have shammy which would lead to xp collection on right rebels. If you strike early and they have a shammy usually drakes are able to continue fight on second day + neutral time and kill almost all rebels(if they tried to attack/slow you).

As for Rebels, they have hard time to attack due to...
1) not every drake participated in fight, they are able to cover using full hp ones.
2) some of the drakes could fly away and put in danger another village - then rebels would have a fork: to attack with some chances a part of drakes army and to lose another side/village by clashers/augurs/soldiers or not to lose anything and keep army close(then drakes would retreat freely)
3) some of units could be too wounded(due to 4-3 retalliation of drake-fighters) / too thin

As for drakes: usually you kill fighters, so there would be smaller amount of them in Rebels army which would lead to idea to mass lizards. Just don't, I don't recommend it in the most of cases.

Important to understand: as for drakes, you don't need a situation: "you tried to attack, not succeded, you died on flat at first day... and continued on the second day, in the same place, losing more and more, giving up more and more xp and units. So skill in is matchup is folloing: attack in such way, time, and place so even bad luck wouldn't lead you to high loses with safe counterattack.

How?
On Veldin, Clearing Gushes, Swamps of the Dread you may split your flock into several pieces (clasher-augurs, fliers, clasher-augurs). If clasher hit hard - you attack "on all money" with your fliers. If you don't hit well - you may cover them / attack the other side on channel / put other villages in great danger.
===
I have seen setup through clashers-burners-soldiers. Too expensive and too brutal without enough flexibility. Possibly it should work for maps like Caves of Basilisk - when you don't have enough ways to put to sides in danger. Also rebels in such case would have about 1.5 times more units - so you could have a night attack situation

As for rebels strategy
Rebels are very thin and under right play from the drakes they will face hard time finding a "window" for attack, and even not being pushed to rebels vills. As you remember, I start in 1 scout but this is a matchup where 2 or even 3 Elvish scouts would find a place in army(ofc in later stages of the game). Before 1.18 they were very quick to level up, and lvl2 scout was a fighting machine. I recruit 50/50 archers and fighters, sometimes 1 fish(to fill the line), 1-2 shammies (for heal and slow - not to allow drakes to fly away + collect an xp on a right unit - which leads to lvl2, which changes situation a lot - Leader makes non-dexterous archers to deal +1 dmg (5 * 1.25 * 1.1 -> 7), while evil Sniper allows to attack villages giving us so important dmg-per-tile.

0) if an opponent decided to go lizard-aggression and we see it by our scout(9mp or 10mp) -- then i focus on fighters - fighters's hp would be the main factor in this battle. I try not to allow opponent to unilize a lot of units in 1 turn in attack. I even give up a village, or, if i have 38/39 hp fighter, i would leave him alone in a villa. Usually such a fighter takes 3 augurs + someone else to kill + someone else to grab a vill. So 5 units total while 3 lizards are at flat - quite often we would able to kill a lot of them in 1 turn!
Mass lizards make Drake's Player army so weak so you may even go and poke clashers at day (usually clashers cover running away lizards). It is very important not to overcommit here, because 50/50 (by gold) mix of augurs / soldier+clasher is very evil - if your thin Rebels would be on flat you quite expected to lose them in 1 turn D:

1) Drakes play my build: you have to manage your troops in such a way so you would be able to defend 2 sides but also be quick to migrate to the other sde(and help there).
For example, on the clearing gushes, drakes are pushing top/water village(we are bottom player), then they would be ably to push bridge village and/or bottom village.
Sure, it is very hard to plan everying on the defender side, especially all these maneours. It is the right time to remember about 2-3 scouts. Also these scouts allows us to see what is our opponent recruits and/or "read the game". We have to stay alive until our shammies would found a place - we would need a big enough amount of fighters: to keep the line, to change the line-keepers(changers would collect a lot more xp, think about it in advance), to strike / revenge(and their changers too) - and only then we would have enough space for shammies. Earlier - harder to defend - you have your archers tanking drakes -> hard to replace wounded/killed units in lines -> our lines has fallen.

2) Drakes are playing overexpensive build: we would have to attack on several directions on the second night(10-12 turns) and do standart things regarding "if our units are much cheaper then somewhere we would be in far outnumber, we would be able to have a great hp exchange / land some kills. It is quite important not to allow Drakes to setup this expensive limit, make them to buy lizards so it wouldn't be so painful at the moment of the final battle(especially because during this early fights you would collect some xp, so your units would be able to lvl up after 2 kills )

Finals, keypoints:
Drakes: mass fighters, clashers - in the initiation of a fight / in the wall on keeping flying away drakes.Expecially because 49hp clasher has high chances to outlive 1 round of retallation of a rebel fighter in village + 2 rounds of dexterous archer attacks.
Attack on directions, quick-in-attack, quick-in-retreat. 44, 45hp fighters are able to outlive 2 dexterous archers(6- hits out of

Drakes, not mobile map: very expensive limit of clashers/burners. 2 burners to strike hard + mass clasher on everything else, especially on retallation on those, who tried to strike back (agressivly showing teeth )

Rebels: play-from-of-defence, outplay opponent recruit, receive right traits on units, wait for shammies, collect xp

[igorbat99]

Dwarfs vs Rebels

Note: I'm not the best player on dwarfs, but i could give you some overview.
Please, don't forget about ulf rush https://forums.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.p ... 4#p691004

Note2: dwarf fighter stays on the first night NOT worse than guard, don't overinvest!

Initial recruit:
Rebels: horse, 4 fighters, fish/fighter/archer.
Dwarfs: Bird/footpad, 3 fighters, poacher.

This matchup is very hard for thin rebels. You can't perform a good attack(good luck, units are thin, left on flat would likely die), ideal defence(infinite damage per tile due to ulfs).

Rebels strategy: almost everything is fighters, small amount of shammies, archers, possibly wose, (not too much archers/shammies because you could be left without enough hp). Yes, ulf kills especially after some dmg on target. But our units are a bit cheaper, a bit more mobile, which could lead to options. Ideally not to fight on flat in 1 exact place on the battle field BUT(!) to fight all over the map. Why not to fight in 1 place? Dwarfs would bring their leader. I always remember the game on Elensefar where top-part-of-the-map player came and killed everything on the side using a lot of fighters with level 2 fighter - King. Mage-King didn't help the Rebels due to ulfs.
... So the Dwarfs stretegy is simple - bring a lot of dwarf fighters, often 1-2 hodor units like poachers/birds/pads to continue the line so only head of line would have 3 tiles on it. (usually the head is the guard or King).

Bad strategy - mass thunderers -- response of mass woses is hard-to-kill.
Good strategy - mass birds. Especially when the map allows to quickly change sides through the middle of the map(Swamps of the Dread, Veldin's channel, even Freelands) - which lead to "almost equal" amount of units in exact place on the map, while birds are overeffective against rebels(strong bird 3/4 to kill any rebel and 4/4 to kill the Wose). Think yourself - rebels would be dead on flat, rebels have to keep a lot of units on the far sides of the map while birds just fly from side to side making you sad).

But how to fight the main dwarf strategy?
endless line on endless line, only this way. Yes, this is about friction. Yes, our units are weaker against dwarfs and our units would start to die earlier. But! on friction we would have some options, hopefully some level-ups especially due to 4 strikes nature of fighters/archers. So this is about patience. Sometimes it happens to outmaneur dwarfs, but even if it didn't happen you still could fight line-on-line.

[igorbat99]

Undead vs Notherners

I will say in advance that from my perspective "good" feeling regarding this matchup (not "nightmare") happens due to too-early-attack by orcs / too weak recruits(=not effective unit composition)

Initial recruit (blindly):
Wolf, grunts, archer/poisoner
bat or x2 (any from bat, ghost), 1-3 DA, Skeleton on a weak side, Skeleton/Ghoul on a rush side = standart push in 3 DAs / more safe debut where DA -> Skeleton/Archer and DA+ Skeleton/Archer keeped in the middle to be able to help on every side.

Notherner's side thoughts:
0) regarding recruits: I prefer to fight using mass trolls with archers + if I don't go for a hard strike this night/day, I would prefer to keep an upkeep low(meaning a bit of banking). Usually i have 1-2 goblins on sides (poke adepts, also they're good at finishing adepts). In my formations, I try to set up a wall—a continuous line of units—so the opponent can't attack them from three hexes away. If I can't allow this, I try to ensure that the units don't form 2-3 adepts plus finishers, or that the opponent can't effectively close the line, which means they often end up exposing their units to attacks from three hexes.

1)Understanding Unit Costs:
It’s important to understand that undead units are MONSTROUSLY more expensive than orc units. An undead army can vary, but the cost of our units is always significantly lower than that of the enemy’s. Therefore, given that we are orcs and can afford to push the opponent to their villages, we can even afford to have a smaller upkeep than the enemy, provoking them. Once the opponent decides to maintain a higher upkeep than ours, it seems they are doomed to worsen their situation.

2)Taking Advantage of Multiple Attack Directions:
Following from point 1, look at the map: if there are 2+ attack directions, you can place a couple of trolls in each, supported by archers/grunts/wolves. The undead will need to defend 3+ villages with… ghouls? Two grunts with three attacks will put them down. Skeletons? They will fall to 2+ trolls and archers. 12+12+10 = 34 HP of a skeleton with an axe, but if the opponent has two strong trolls from the start, it’s a rare situation. So, what then? At this point, the undead starts recruiting units that consume upkeep, or by then, they don’t have any adepts—units that can punish the orc for audacity and pressure. If there are no adepts—though I haven't encountered such situations, I'll share my theoretical reasoning—you can focus on the trolls (as the initial grunts will shred the ghouls).

3)Defending Against an Undead Attack:
If the undead attacks you, they will face a harsh reality—you easily kill their units from two hexes away. Three out of four hits on a ghost (or even 2/2 + 1/3) from an archer will kill it. Three out of four hits on a skeleton from a strong troll at night will kill it. Three out of four hits from strong grunts will kill a ghoul. The sturdiest adept only has 33 HP.

4) Countering a Ghoul Wall:
If the undead chooses a strategy of "my wall is ghouls," you can hire masses of trolls and kill them during the day. Ghouls deal 3-3 damage with poison during the day. Trolls deal 5-2 (weak), 6-2 (strong), 7-2 (weak, fearless), and 8-2 (strong, fearless). Come, hit them, make it so the opponent needs to heal more units than there are villages on that side—retreat just enough to have a wall of healthy units—it will hurt the undead to hit you, considering that calculated walls—ghouls—are already damaged during the day.

5) Countering a Skeleton Wall:
If the undead chooses a strategy of "my wall is skeletons with axes," you can also go in with trolls, but be more cautious. Your trolls have a 30% dodge rate, which means that often, after a night attack, they will take 21 damage in return. Therefore, trolls with 45 HP or less will have problems—they might start dying from one adept!

6) Countering Mass Ghosts:
If the undead tries to mass ghosts, their problem will be that grunts can finish them off at night, and archers can easily reduce their HP. Moreover, ghosts are expensive—you hire two, and the orc buys three archers. Against a group that swoops in, gains experience, and retreats, you need to 1) force a fight—the opponent makes us do this, but for the tactic to work, you need 6-8 ghosts, 2-3 for the raid, 2-3 for covering the control zones of the raiders, meaning 120-160 gold spent on conditionally defensive units. These units won’t stand in the wall in the center of the defensive formation, so you can break in and kill them. We simply have a two-layer wall (unlike the opponent), and our wall will move forward, meaning we can attack from three hexes on the edges.

7)Dealing with Zombie Swarm:
The undead might passively start swarming zombies—they don’t consume upkeep. Strangely enough, if you can hire a horde of troll-archers in a 2-to-1 ratio a couple of times AFTER the undead has swarmed a lot—around 10-12 zombies—they will be unstoppable by night. And what will stop them?)

Undead couldn't really go forward out of 60% zone(villages, villages mushrooms) - which is not a line, it has holes / bats or zombies, so on flat orcs would deal huge dmg.
Undead couldn't really fight Orcs at day - their low dmg will be even lower due to regen / resists. Yes, at day units(lost probably) won't die from 2 hexes in 1 turn. But there are too much Orcs, they suffer less on friction.

Undead's side thoughts:
In light of the above, I don’t know how to play this matchup. My ideas always come down to one thing—if you can’t attack your opponent at any point in the game, it’s very bad from a game balance perspective. I try to sit passively on defense, creating a mobile squad of ghosts that I try to upgrade by gaining small amounts of experience from fighting level 1 units. I do this carefully, not giving the enemy the chance to catch the wounded ghosts—he will definitely try to attack them with a couple of archers per hex. If he can place three archers, it's a big mistake on your part. Even two archers during the day have a (5-2) attack on your ghost, meaning with a (1/16) chance, they will kill it. But this is very expensive, and at this point, the orc can go on the offensive, for example, in another direction—remember, our units are much more expensive.

After the initial recruitment of adepts/walls, I usually continuously produce skeletons until the upkeep evens out OR until I feel confident I can hold the wall and even partially replace it if the orc pushes. After that, I start recruiting aviation—but I am not given that much time, so I start massing ghosts earlier since they hinder the opponent from getting rid of the less useful grunt limit.

=== Micro-tip
Second player-undead may attack on the second night - orcs would respond at neutral time without dmg bugg so yours fat adepts(33hp+) may still be alive after strike.

Final analysis
Orcs won't attack hard at early stage, UD couldn't attack themselves, in case of attack orcs could give up an a village and on the second day return it back and safely pass to the midgame.
In the midgame Orcs strangle UD and silently prepear final strike, on the 3/4 day/night they may try to have a final battle, where in case of unlucky initial strike adepts would go to the flat (be unlucky) and be dead next turn ^^. Wall-to-wall vs trolls is very hard to win - +8hp regen is strong.
And late-game is still under orcs - they have bigger mass when this banking would stop to be a point of interest to them.

In attachment my game vs UD on not the strongest Notherner-barcode. We haven't finish: Notherners didn't strike.

[igorbat99]

Rebels vs Undead

Initial recruit (blindly):
horse, 3-4 fighters, fish/archer/fighter.
bat or x2 (any from bat, ghost), 1-3 DA, Skeleton on a weak side, Skeleton/Ghoul on a rush side = standart push in 3 DAs / more safe debut where DA -> Skeleton/Archer and DA+ Skeleton/Archer keeped in the middle to be able to help on every side.

This matchup is dead, stats shows the same (in Maboul's stats p2 Rebels vs p1 UD is dead, p1 Rebels vs p2 Undead is playable)

Reflections from the Undead Perspective:

Wall of Woses:
If the opponent sets up a wall of woses, we will likely become more dead than alive. Hence, we must force events before this happens. Woses are expensive, meaning the opponent cannot afford them in large numbers for a long time.

Early Game Pressure:
Elvish fighters are very cost-effective while cutting down your adepts/ghouls. This influences our purchases—we mainly fight with skeletons, scaring village defenders with 2-3 adepts to capture villages. We also maintain some highly mobile ghosts to force the enemy to guard their distant homes (e.g., caves on Basilisk) and cover the flanks.

Second Night Attack:
On the second night, I try to strike a heavy blow on the opponent's weak flank.

Third Night Offensive:
On the third night, I attack both flanks, and both will yield to me because there won't be enough woses to defend everywhere, leaving no clear defense against my offensive on the other flank. Typically, 1-2 adepts and 2-3 skeletons (+ ghost/bat) go to the strong flank. The idea is that after capturing villages, we have another night to strike. If the opponent retreats far enough, we can reclaim both villages without losing anyone during the retreat. If they don't retreat far enough, we can force a trade favorable to us because we have higher long-term income and a still comparable upkeep, due to the high cost of our army.

Important: Considerations for Wose-Elf Strategy

This reasoning applies to an elf army composed mainly of woses as infantry, supported by fighters, mages, and shamans.

Adjustments for Mobile Elf Army:
If the elf prefers a mobile army (mages, fighters, shamans), our logic changes. Ghosts become much less necessary and are replaced with skeletons. We can cheaply and effectively initiate a last stand by breaking into the second row of the enemy's wall, forcing a fight. Elves will have difficulty dealing with our skeletons at dawn, leading to the remnants of their proud army being decimated, after which we can retreat to heal in a weak village on their flank.
Reflections from the Elf Perspective:

Accumulating Woses:
Accumulating woses and surviving attacks from two hexes even at night is very satisfying. It's especially gratifying that skeletons, receiving 2/2 hits in return, become so crippled that they won't survive a third hit (nor 2/3 hits from a mage at night).

Transition to Woses and Mages:
Transitioning to woses and mages is justified and logical against any army composition (add perhaps +1 shaman to the initial purchase). Just endure the pressure.

Key Moments:
The main point is not to miss the opponent's attack on multiple directions (both/three/four directions). Ensure you don't face a final stand on the "main" flank while not dying on the "secondary" directions, likely fighting there with the leader + 1 wose + mobile units (horse, archers, fighters).

In attachment - legendary Elder vs Sinter at WesnothLife Cup 2020. 60 turns (1.14)

[igorbat99]

Drakes vs Dwarfs

Initial Recruit

Drakes:

2 fighters, glider, clasher, augur. Never 2 gliders; there are almost no maps where this is necessary.

Dwarves:

Poacher, 3 fighters, griffin/footpad. Never 2 griffins; there's no reason to do this ever.

Basic Feel of the Matchup

As a dwarf and as a drake, I always end up in a situation where the dwarf is just sitting at home or in the center of the map, unable to reach the villages. This happens because the distance between the frontline villages is too large for the tiny dwarf legs, so the dwarf simply can't get to the drake's houses in time. Fighting on open ground during the day is a joke—the drake has more damage, higher mobility, and a better hit-and-run ability. However, there are some things that can be done.
Strategy 0 for Dwarves: Hodor

Concept: Thieves deal excellent damage at night if you manage to execute a backstab. The army usually includes an ulfserker, one griffin, one footpad, 2-3 thieves, and 1-2 poachers. The idea is to run around quickly and, if the drake is careless, break through, take the house(s), and then run away quickly. Sometimes this strategy is reinforced by bringing in dwarves to defend the houses.

Drake Response: Endure. If you can't set up a wall or you see that you will be heavily damaged without much pain, surrender the house. On many maps, you don't need many units on the flank to set up a reliable wall (a "double wall" that takes hits and allows you to either refresh the wall or cover the wounded on a second wall). After that, transition to the next situation—the dwarf has many useless thieves (remember, we are already in mid-late game with 13-18+ units for the drake). Recruit more fighters (for mobility), and maybe have 2-3 clashers on the desired attack direction. On the attack direction, you will want to have 2 burners eventually.
Strategy 1 for Dwarves: Hird

Concept: Recruit thunderers, guardsmen (2-3), and thugs (1-2), allow the drake to attack the guardsmen from 4-5 hexes, stay on the open ground, and shoot them all in one turn. The guardsman is important here, as he can absorb a lot of drake damage and potentially survive, also damaging the drake units. It's important to understand that 2 thunderers deal 40 damage from 2 hexes. The toughest drake fighter will be left with 40 HP after taking one hit from a guardsman. Draw your conclusions from this.

Drake Response: On open hexes, manage to place clashers so they don't die from 2 hexes. Alternatively, outmaneuver the dwarves—drakes are faster, and on villages, you can break through areas where the slow thunderers aren't, making the revenge for the guardsman potentially end in the death of both waves of avengers—those who attack and those who can't reach. From the recruitment perspective for the drake—2 burners on the attack direction.
Detailed Strategic Reflections

For Dwarves (Hodor):
Execution: The idea is to take advantage of the thieves' night-time damage with backstabs, ulfserkers, griffins, and poachers for quick assaults and retreats. Coordination and timing are crucial to capitalize on the drake's mistakes.
Challenges: Maintaining pressure and mobility while ensuring survival against the drake's superior daytime strength and mobility.

For Drakes:
Defense: Enduring the dwarf attacks until you can establish a strong enough wall or force the dwarves into unfavorable positions. Strategic positioning and using burners effectively to counter-attack.
Counter-strategy: Using mobility to outmaneuver the dwarves, hitting weak spots, and leveraging the higher damage output during the day.

For Dwarves (Hird):
Execution: Using guardsmen to absorb damage and thunderers to deliver high damage from a distance. Timing the attacks to coincide with the drake's vulnerability periods.
Challenges: Ensuring that guardsmen can absorb enough damage and that thunderers hit their marks, avoiding being outmaneuvered by the drakes.

For Drakes:
Offense: Utilizing clashers and burners to break through the dwarf lines and maintaining pressure to prevent the dwarves from stabilizing their defense.
Counter-strategy: Exploiting the drake's speed and maneuverability to avoid concentrated attacks and isolate dwarf units.

Overall, the matchup requires careful management of unit placement, timing of attacks, and strategic recruitment to leverage each faction's strengths while mitigating their weaknesses.

[newbieA]

Thanks for the guide! really insightful! Curious ifyou are going to do more matchup guides? Curious how dwarves should play vs loyalists, or undead? I come across few other players who admit dwarves are hard to play. Im very unsure about griffon these days and they even made it more expensive than before (24g!)

[igorbat99]

@newbieA sure, I will finish translations: there were guides for the all matchups. Thanks for reminding me about this topic, I will put Knalganians earlier in the list

[momom2]

I'm looking forward to it!

[dwarftough]

Dwarves vs Orcs by Igorbat99 (translation from Russian)

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not particularly good at playing as the Dwarves in general, but I can explain the key points to you.

Please don’t forget about the "standard" for Dwarves on the first slot - viewtopic.php?p=691004#p691004(rush with Ulf, Thief, Footpad/Gryphon, Poacher). An important note – on the first night, a Dwarvish Fighter in a village is NO WORSE than a Dwarvish Guardsman. Don’t invest in a Guardsman on the first night, it’s very expensive, and you won’t have enough units later.

This is the worst matchup for Dwarves.

Blind purchase:
Dwarves: 3 Dwarvish Fighters, Footpad/Gryphon, Poacher.
Orcs: Wolf Rider, 4 Orcish Grunts, Orcish Assassin/Orcish Grunt/Archer. Sometimes they hire up to 8 units: Wolf Rider and Orcish Grunt on one flank, all the rest on the other. In general, if the orc sends 2 units to a secondary flank – that’s not enough, but if they send three – that’s the sweet spot. However, this requires some thought on how to achieve it.

Game plan for the orc in the early game:
Due to the high cost of Dwarvish units, they will either try to tank with non-tanking units or fail to form a proper formation. From 5 tiles in 1.5 turns, even the tankiest Guardsman in a village can be taken out. Meanwhile, on the other flank, 2-3 units (Wolf Rider + Orcish Grunt + Orcish Grunt/Goblin) hold off 3-4 Dwarvish units in villages (you aren't going to attack the orc at night with your Fighter, are you?).

Counterplan for the Dwarves:
Well, you need to give up the outermost village (where the main attack is going), manage to build a wall around the next village, and not lose villages or retreat with the intention to ulf the occupying Wolf Rider on the other flank. This is purely about surviving the first night. In terms of units – Dwarves are preferable because, unlike Hodor (a strategy involving mostly Thieves, Poachers, and Footpads), they can bring the game back to normal if we survive the night. While hodor a) can fall apart b) won’t help if the opponent is minimally cautious.

Game plan for the orc in the mid-to-late game (if it even happens, heh-heh):
Poison, Poison, Poison. This is the root cause of all Dwarven problems. Play with Orcish Assassins and Orcish Grunts. Rarely recruit a Troll (for defense) or a Archer. The Archer as an investment doesn’t pay off – he dies too easily, even a heavily wounded Ulf can one-shot it. Yes, he levels up easily, but it’s still too easy a target for the Ulf. Better to recruit an extra Orcish Grunt.

From a protected (1 tile of exposure to enemies) position, the Orcish Assassin attacks, with Orcish Grunts standing to the left and right. The Dwarves have nothing to kill Orcish Grunts even during the day – their Thunderer has 1 attack, and you bring in a new full-health unit every turn. And you keep spreading poison on the opponent’s units. Moreover, it’s possible that all this happens near a village you’ve captured from the opponent. At the same time, on the other flank, we still don’t allow them to pull away the same or more units. Since our units are much cheaper – this means we have roughly 1 extra Orcish Grunt on the attacking flank. That is, on average, 2-3 more units. Nice? Nice.The Troll is good for covering the final retreat, as it can absorb a lot of damage. But it’s slow, so I wouldn’t invest in it.

Counterplan for the Dwarves:
This matchup is very difficult for a reason – after being poisoned, your Dwarf usually has 2 turns to reach a village. This means that after poisoning, we lose about 16 HP. It will take another 3 turns to recover (1 to remove the poison). So, 5 turns in total. Then another 2 turns to the front. In total, we lose a unit for a game day. We can’t reasonably retaliate for this: Orcish Grunts will eat the Ulf even during the day. Trading an Ulf for an Orcish Assassin is a mediocre trade.
The key thoughts are as follows – our goal is not to kill orcs, but to make them "unplayable cripples." That is, if the enemy has 1 healthy unit and 8 cripples, they won’t attack or poison you. Otherwise, they risk everything falling apart. But this is a very specific situation, and you need to play into it. This will allow you to retake a village and remove poison right on the front line. Most likely, this will delay the orc’s next night attack. And that’s good, as it allows you to even out the situation. Then you need to start pressuring the opponent on the other flank, forcing them to split their forces.