How to play: Loyalists vs. Northerners

[monochromatic]

Again, another attempt of mine. Please comment
Was inspired by this layout.

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Loyalists versus Northerners

A chief strategy of the Northerners is to use economy to its fullest. Their units are cheaper than yours, but yours are more potent and damage-dealing. Though the Orcish Grunt is probably has the cheapest hitpoints-to-gold ratio: 38hp for 12 gold. The Heavy Infantryman have 38hp and costs 19 gold. You see?

A good Loyalists player would field enough units to minimize the advantage of many cheap units on the Northerners side. So that include not recruiting lots and lots of expensive units like Heavy Infantrymen and Mages, but to get a good number of cheaper units, like Spearmen and Bowmen. And of course, watch out for Time of Day. Northerners are much stronger at night, so watch out.

units you will be using

Spearman - A staple unit. It can pretty much tear through most of the Northerners units during dawn/day/dusk, except for maybe Troll Whelps. Use this unit especially when defending as the Northerners are a very melee-oriented faction, and the Spearman has firststrike. Rating: *****
Cavalryman - A good scout with good resistances. Its blade and impact resists will help you defend against Grunts, Troll Whelps, and Wolf Riders. However, this unit can easily fall to Archers or even the 9 gold Goblin Spearmen. Use its mobility to outrun dangerous units. Rating: *****
Merman Fighter - For the seas if the map has water or the enemy Nagas are running rampant. That's probably its chief role. Rating: ****
Bowman - A unit to get free shots at the melee specialist Northerners. Use it to defend against Assassins and Archers. Other than those defending roles, this unit is mostly an offensive unit that attacks the melee units and then are shielded by Spearman. Rating: ****
Mage - A powerful yet weak unit. None of the Northerners except for the Assassin have particularly good defenses. And be careful when attacking Assassins with Mages; you will inevitably have less units walking up and missing all their strikes and thus more units to attack/grab villages, but your Mage risks getting poisoned. A Mage, with its magical attacks, can also simply threaten Grunts and Troll Whelps in removing them from a village for example. Rating: ***
Fencer - The two-strike Northerners will probably have trouble taking down this unit. But Assassins will poison them through their marksman poison. It doesn't have a high damage output, but it certainly, with 70% defense on villages and skirmisher, excels in village-stealing. Rating: ***
Horseman - A good unit, but extremely expensive so recruit sparingly. It excels against most Northerners units except for maybe the Goblin Spearman. Rating: ***
Heavy Infantryman - A slow yet sturdy unit. It has good resistances so the Northerners will have trouble taking them down. But watch out for Archers and Assassins; Heavy Infantrymen are weak to fire and are too slow to deal with poison. This unit is 19 gold so recruit sparingly. Rating: **

units to watch out for

Orcish Assassin - Poison, poison, poison. Loyalists do not have a level one healer, and the Northerners will expose that. He shouldn't be sending hordes down at you, but enough to keep your villages busy. Destroy these at all costs! Rating: *****
Troll Whelp - This unit regenerates and hold it's position - especially in mountains - very well. It have good resistances, so he maybe be a bit of a pain to take down. Don't let this unit level up! Rating: *****
Orcish Grunt - A utility unit for the Northerners. It's cheaper than any of your units and has a lot of hp. Very dangerous in packs. Rating: ****

at the start of the match

At the start of the game, recruit 1-2 Cavalrymen based on the size of the map, 1-2 Spearmen, 1 Merman Fighter if there is a significant amount of water, and maybe a Bowman, Horseman, or another Cavalrymen. Rush early to grab villages so the Northerners don't gain too big of an economical advantage. Be prepared to deal with rushes; they can be devastating if you are unprepared. Continue to recruit Spearmen mixed with Cavalrymen, Bowmen, and maybe a Heavy Infantryman, to hold spots you've taken over.

when attacking/advancing

-First use your Bowmen and Mages if you have them to attack.
-Then use your Spearman and Cavalrymen to finish off the units your Bowmen and Mages couldn't and cover the exposed units.
-Remember to take their villages; that's their source of power!
-Remember not to over-extend yourself especially if it is afternoon and night is coming.
-Village stealing with a Cavalryman or Fencer is a good idea.

when defending/retreating

-Place your Spearmen and Heavy Infantrymen in the front, wounded/weak/low hp units in the back.
-Give up a village if you have to; losing 2-3 gold is better than losing a 14+ gold unit.
-If you have the available units, using a Cavalryman or Fencer to steal villages as a distraction may be a good idea.
-Kill Assassins before the night is over; if they poison you at dawn right before its day, you will lose a turn to attack them.

basic flow of the match

Attack at day, defend at night. Steal their villages. Guard your own. Watch out for their numbers; don't let them swarm you at night. Do not focus on killing a single unit; they can easily replace that unit. Instead, focus on trapping/defeating a flank rather than a single unit.

[5dPZ]

Good guide. I just want to point out that mage should be ranked higher than archer in this match up for three things:

1. Remove (or threaten to remove) grunts from villages.
2. Remove (or threaten to remove) trolls from mountains.
3. Deal the last <= 9 damage of 70% defence Assasin for the kill.

Archers are cheap and sturdy but not as vital as mage in this matchup.

[silent]

I think you are somewhat wrong on the threat of the orcish archer in this match-up. Unless you have recruited HI, orcish archers are very poor, requiring 6/6 attacks at night to take down a horseman/cavalry, and resilient+(intelligent or strong) cavalry/horseman cannot be killed by 2 archers even at night (using the example of attacking from 2 hexes as you don't want northerners to be attacking from more especially because of large numbers/ high damage output).

I also agree with 5dPZ in regards to magi over archers. I'd also be inclined to attack assassins with a mage myself if only to ensure they die, but also because the lack of ranged units in the northerners faction means you can still effectively use the mage to attack other units while it still only has 1 hp left, provided you are covering it well (which cavalry do a really good job of at day). Essentially both units are pretty frail here, and require significant protection to prevent their death, so the extra 6 gold is probably worth the magic attacks and extra damage.

[monochromatic]

Good points. Editing...

[Huumy]

Nice layout, made me smile

[Caphriel]

In fact, I would prefer to attack a full-health assassin with a mage than with any other unit, for "obvious reasons." It's better to get a poisoned mage, although this isn't a guarantee if you can attack from decent terrain, then to have a bunch of units waste turns swinging at an assassin and getting poisoned by it. Furthermore, mages are good against trolls and, of course, good for removing village holders.

Horsemen are not the most efficient use of money in this matchup. Almost everything the northerners have has strong melee, exactly the sort of target you don't want to attack with a horseman. Sure, the grunt only does 11-2 to the horseman during the day (12-2 if strong), but the grunt only costs half of what the horseman costs, and has the same HP. This may be a matter of taste, but using more than the odd horseman here or there leaves you even more heavily outnumbered. I'd downgrade this to a C.

[monochromatic]

@Caphriel I actually agree with you on the Horseman. It's just in Elvish Pillager's "How to Play Horsemen" guide he states that the faction Horsemen are most effective against is Northerners. So, trusting his opinion over my own... Anyways editing.

@Hummy

[Huumy]

I think horseman can be used vs assassins, at day they do lots of dmg to them. Not sure if they can one shot quick assassins or not.

[5dPZ]

I liked your initial ranking for horseman. I would give it a place between Archer and HI (lower rank than archer but higher than HI).

It is better than HI because it is fast - speed is very important for a tidy matchup like loyalists vs orcs.

One horseman can:

1. THREAT of great attack power during day - loyalist player not necessarily needs to use it, but keeping one around would make orc player double think how to position his defences during day.

2. Punish anything on flat terran during day - make sure that orc player won't put anything on flat and prevent him from completing his ZOC line.

3. Break ZOC line - that is, orc player often has enough units to make a good ZOC at day for defence, and damage per hex becomes crucial in this match up - horseman provides the highest possible damage per hex for loyalist.

4. 50% killing chance for 70% defence, full hp assasin - worth a try when you are short of units.

Also, HI would be the worst unit in this match up (in fact, it might be the worst unit in every match up, well, except vs dwarves, it would get the most votes for worst unit of the Default era counting all units from all factions). It costs 19g - buying it almost always gives way too much unit-number adventage for orc player. It is almost un-usable for offense due to its slow speed, vulnerability to poison and fire. It is also almost un-usable for defence due to vulnerability to fire, impact and low defence (even grunts cut him up during night, don't forget poison, too - it's always there in this match up) - you would always find a spearman to be a better village holder at night, while you save 5g and gain first strike (awesome in this matchup), range pin (assasins hate this attack - it "always" hits), mountain holding power and an extra strike (important vs assasins).

Fencer is not great, but it has trapping power (useful for tidy match up) and ZOC breaking (helps during offence), thus make it a better unit than HI.

[psychic]

I second 5dPZ's views. Horseman is certainly high up for the utility they provide. Like he mentioned highest damage per hex most useful for opening up defences in loy attacks against most factions(except ud and mirror). And horseman are not supposed to be used like how caphriel mentioned, they take the last shot not the first shot unless it is against an assasin or archer. Hence horseman certainly equals archers utility if not higher and I would like archer to be made B+, horseman B and downgrade the HI more.

Me personally being a fencer user, it is such an utility unit where if properly used you can easily trap units for value higher than its worth during dawn which is besides the ever useful skirmish+4shots finisher role. My point(up for discussion) with respect to fencer is that you can give it a straight B in all the match ups for its utility and comment only on the number of them to be recruited(in case of this match up I recommend 1) according to the match up. Dont forget lvl 2 fencer is an absolute beast.

[monochromatic]

@psychic agreed. Sheesh, you wanted to raise the HI's ratings in the rebels matchup, and now you want to downgrade it. (kidding, of course).

[A Guy]

Are you sure horsemen are a B-? Northerner units are cheap and usually have more HP, and a horseman is expensive, so they can't do damage worth their cost as easily.

[monochromatic]

Should I compromise and make it a C+?

[psychic]

Are you sure horsemen are a B-? Northerner units are cheap and usually have more HP, and a horseman is expensive, so they can't do damage worth their cost as easily.

Please define damage worth their cost.

Apart from that,

Only unit which can do atleast 20 damage per shot in loy arsenal(i think 20 against a troll?) which in turn is the max damage per hex possible by loy units.
Faster than all orc units.(scout is not a normal unit)
Some spectacular hero kills have happened by horseman suicide.
If you can develop the horseman to lvl 2 by carefully feeding last hits, it becomes the best defensive unit compared to other lvl 1 units and easily the best offensive unit.

[A Guy]

I mean, for example, that it's harder for horsemen to do enough damage to justify spending 23 gold on them when fighting northerners than when fighting undead or drakes, for example.