WyldRage’s Tactics:

Welcome everyone to an exciting new chapter in WyldRage's Tactics. For the new ones among us, I also wrote the first strategy guide (mostly introduction) to Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns. This is the sequel of that guide for the sequel of that game.

These articles were written during the course of the beta test where every new build brings new changes. It is therefore quite possible that what is said here may not completely reflect the version which you are playing.

The first thing you should do, of course, is to play the tutorials: I will not be informing you on how to play this game. What I hope to achieve here is to reduce the time it will take to learn to play this game well.

Welcome to Kohan II: Kings of War!

1 Economy

1.1 Resources

There are 6 types of resources in Kohan 2, yet it all comes down to a single one: gold. It is with gold that you will build your settlements, your components and recruit your troops. Gold is also the only resource which is accumulated. Due to its nature, the goal of your economy is simply to acquire as much of it as possible, and as fast as possible. You receive gold from various sources: settlements, certain components and certain mines. Since each nation has its own gold-producing buildings, they will be treated more in depth in their specific articles. On a side note, if you reach 0 gold with a negative gold rate, your companies will start to lose health when not in supply.

There are resources which will have an effect on gold production: stone, which is worth 2 gold, wood (3), iron (4) and mana (5). They are represented with a positive or negative number, which represents your surplus or deficit per minute, and they are not accumulated. You will be penalized by the amount mentioned earlier for each unit in deficit. However, you will not receive money for surpluses. It is therefore your goal to have as balanced an economy you have in these resources, as to not have a negative effect on your gold rate, and to not waste gold in producing these resources. Don’t fret about going negative in these resources: you probably won’t win much without doing so. Just keep the gold flowing and you’ll be fine.

The last resource is your company limit, which is represented by ##/##. The first number is your current number of companies, the second, your maximum number of companies. You will be unable to recruit if you reach that maximum number or surpass it (through losing your towns or selling a barrack). There is otherwise no effect if you surpass the maximum number of companies allowed.

1.2 Settlements

These are the base of your empire. Your goal is to capture or raze every own your opponent possesses. They are also your most important source of economy, producing gold and other resources normally and allowing you to build components. This is also where you can recruit your troops and your settlers for building new ones.

Settlements are built when you send your settlers to build over camps, after, of course, getting rid of the previous occupants. By paying the gold amount, you will be able to make a new village with 1-2 component slots (depending on your nation). After filling those slots you will have (or not, if you play Haroun) the option to upgrade a village to a town, with 2 additional component slots and more gold/resource production. You will also gain, at this level, walls around your town center, to protect it. Don’t worry though, you had some militia to protect the village, and now they have gotten more numerous. Each new level (city and citadel) brings more production, more slots, more militia and better walls.

1.3 Components

These can be built inside your settlements. They are:

· Stone, wood and iron buildings: Produces the corresponding resource.

· Market: Produces gold, sometimes by selling other resources.

· Barracks: Allow construction of advanced units and add to your company limit.

· Temple and Library: Produces mana and allow the recruitment of most support units.

· Focus: produces mana, sometime by selling other resources (Undead and Shadow only).

Often units require certain components to be recruited. They need to be in the same settlement to allow this.

Components can also be upgraded, with the exception of barracks and certain markets, to produce more of the same resource or other kinds of resources (often gold or mana).

1.4 Mines

Mines can be explained as components outside settlements. You use engineers to construct over mines (for a certain amount of gold) to produce certain resources, which depends on the type of mine you build over (you don’t get a choice). You will probably need to use mines if you want to completely fill your company limit without endangering your gold supply. Note that they are vulnerable to wandering monsters and enemy companies, not having any militia. You will probably have to build an outpost to protect them.

Do note that you cannot capture mines, they are always destroyed. Also they can be upgraded to produce more resources. And finally, you no longer need to have a zone of supply for it to work.

1.5 Outposts and Forts

Outposts are built by engineers anywhere on the map. They require gold to build and resources to maintain. Forts are simply upgraded outposts. Their function is to send a militia unit against any hostile that passes near them, thus protecting whatever they are close to: mines, chokepoints, settlements (assuming you put it on the correct side). They also possess a zone of supply, making it possible to supply your troops deep in enemy territory.

1.6 Lairs

Lairs are simply buildings that, once destroyed, will give you gold. Be warned that they have militia defending them.

1.7 Artifacts and research

Artifacts are buildings with militia which, once conquered will give you access to a technology or a new unit. A sub-type of artifact buildings will instead give you resources. They will be protected by their militia, even when you conquer it, but you will lose the effects of the building if you lose it. With each unit technology you will gain 2: one for the Shadow, the other for the rest.

Research is accomplished with upgraded components, excluding the market. There is a cost and it takes time to be received, but once gained you will never lose it. Do observe what type of unit it affects before paying: archer techs do not benefit cavalry, or vice versa. On a side note: I usually consider them too costly for me to research them.

1 Military

1.1 Companies

It is only through your army that you can win this game, and it is only through your companies that your army function. Companies are the basic controllable level of your military, and it is they that are recruited in settlements. As long as a single unit in a company is alive, you won’t pay a single piece of gold to return it to full strength. They do, however, require maintenance, taken from all four resources, and sometimes even gold.

There are 2 basic types of companies: Normal and Siege. The siege companies are the simplest, with a single siege engine with the possibility of 2 flanks. The normal companies are much more complex, here are the subtypes (excluding the Shadow, which has 1 captain, 4 frontline units and 4 flank units):

· Short: 1 captain and 4 units at the frontline.

· Long: 1 captain, 4 fronts and 2 flanks.

· Short + Support: 1 captain, 4 fronts and 1 or 2 support units.

· Long + Support: 1 captain, 4 fronts, 2 flanks and 1 or 2 supports.

· Settler: 1 captain, 4-6 settlers (2 may be beasts of burden with trailblazing)

· Engineer: 1 captain and 6 engineers.

Generally, frontline units can also be flanks, though engineers can only be in engineer companies (which cannot be supported) and settlers and beasts of burden can only be in settler companies (which cannot be supported either). The captain slot is also the place to put your Kohan.

1.2 Frontline and flank units

It would be too long for me to list all units for each nation; therefore, I will list basic unit types. They are present in all nations, except for the light infantry which lacks to the Gauri, and engineers in Undead and Shadow (due to the dual-nature of their settlers). A few notes: the “wall” I am referring to is the companies used to engage the enemy first and the “flankers” are not those in flank positions, but companies that move around to strike the enemy sides or rear.

· Light Infantry: Cheap and lightly maintained (usual is ½ iron), they are perfect for soaking up damage, having slightly less health than heavy infantry, but they can’t really deal it out in turn. They often provide either cavalry or archer foe, and can be useful when put in flank slots against such companies. Another use is to front your support units, assuming you have lots of mana but few wood or iron. They also usually have a respectable bonus against building. Best uses: All purpose, especially fleshing out companies.

· Heavy Infantry: Costly with a moderate maintenance (usually 1 iron). Good frontline units, they usually can dish out as well as they get. It’s generally a good idea to support with healers, since they can survive long enough to make them useful. It’s a good idea to flank them with light infantry or cavalry if they provide cavalry foe. They usually are armoured. Uses: frontline, Wall.

· Light Cavalry: Cheap and only slightly better than light infantry (usually 1 wood). Provides archer or cavalry foe, depending on which the racial light infantry provides. Good scouts since they also provide recon (added detection range) and due to their speed. If providing archer foe, could be used as mobile troops (flankers). They benefit from open ground terrain, so it’s a good idea not to keep on the plains. They are resistant to siege damage. Raiding is possible if well supported. Uses: scouts, flanks, flankers or raiders.

· Heavy Cavalry: Most costly and hard on maintenance (1 iron with wood or mana), they are very strong hitters. You can usually supplement their charge ability with the open ground bonus for a whooping +8 AV, not to mention the accelerated attacking speed. They have decent speed and quite a lot of health point. They are resistant to siege damage and can be armoured. They can be efficient raiders, especially with good support (some are fast enough to keep up). Uses: Flankers or raiders.

· Archers: Costly and hard to maintain (2 wood usually), they form your basic support companies. They possess the first volley ability which helps dish out vast amounts of damage at the beginning of the battle. They are fragile and are weak against Undead and in sieges. Despite their attack values, they all basically do the same damage at the beginning. Those with greater AV are better against heavily armoured troops, while those with the lowest gain greater bonuses when their AV augments (through experience or heroes and supports). Uses: Support and flanks (especially with siege companies).

· Engineers: Costly but cheap to maintain (stone, heh) they have good stats. They deal additional damage to buildings and can repair said buildings, as well as building outposts and mines. Quite useful, they are mostly in the rear of armies. Note that they do not allow support units in engineer companies. Uses: Engineers and Siege.

· Settlers: You settle with them. That’s it.

· Siege engines: they come in 2 flavours: melee and ranged. Melees have deep reserves of hit points, good defence, and strong attacks with a little area of effect. Ranged are weaker, less vulnerable and attack slower, but have a greater area of effect. They both deal great damage to buildings. Their companies heal fast so they can be used as fast defence. I prefer to put archers or light cavalry for their flanks, to make the company more survivable. Uses: Siege, against lots of weak units, support and rapid defence.

1.3 Support Units

These I will go into more details afterwards, but I will post the basic types here. I am also not really following the official classification by moments.

Each nation does not possess all these types, and certain support units are present in 2 types. The Shadow, not having support units, instead has captains which can be classified this way:

· Scout: This support unit provides trailblazing and, sometimes, recon. Always very fast and usually an archer unit. Use: Cavalry and Raiders.

· Healer: This unit can heal the units in the same company, either a single one for a large amount or all for a small amount. They usually are of medium speed and their secondary spell either buffs its company or weakens its enemies. Uses: Wall and melee units.

· Summoner: This one summons creatures to fight for him (usually 2) and replaces them when they are killed. Uses: Archer (for cheap front) or Raiders.

· Mage: This unit deals direct damage to one or several enemy units (excluding those spells where damage is secondary to other effects, like entangle). Often possesses buff or debuff spells or abilities. Use: Archers (not to rout too fast) or light infantry (when they are the man damage dealer of your army).

· Melee: This unit attacks the enemy in melee. Better than frontline units, they usually also possess stats augmenting abilities. Uses: Melee units.

· Entangler: Not official, they are the ones who either entangle (preventing movement) or paralyzes (preventing any action) the enemy. Good to pursue the enemy. Uses: Wall or flankers.

1.4 Kohan

Kohan are the heroes of Kohan II (well, d’uh). There are basically three types of Kohan: Melee, Archers and Magician. Since these types are pretty self-explanatory, I won’t go more in deep, especially considering that each Kohan is different and that their spells change with their levels. They take the captain slot in a company and are much better than support units or other captains. A difference from the first Kohan game: you’ll never have to pay for a Kohan. The only problem of losing them is that their experience is reset. Considering how much they gain each level, this is a good reason to keep them alive.

On a final note, when making companies, remember that they will never slow any other unit down.

2 Strategy

2.1 Starting

The start of a game is the most critical phase. The first 5 or 10 minutes determine who will get what: the lairs are undiscovered, the camps’ locations are unknown, nor are the mines’, and the artifacts are up for grab. The amount of gold you make from lairs and camps will be critical since each gold piece you invest at this point will have the time to make itself worth it many times over.

As I have said, now is the time to explore, not ten minutes from now. Finding 50 gold at this point means 1+ minute less to wait for that next component, that next company or that next settlement. Find them before your enemies do (or your allies ;)). If you’re fast enough, you could even deny these lairs to your enemies on their own side! Plus, finding the camps on the enemy side could allow you to strike their settlements when they are but villages.

At this point in game, there are basically two ways to start up: eco-whoring (whoring for short) or rushing, although there is a whole range of starts between them. The first one implies putting your economy over your military, and the other is the opposite. Whoring means that you get as much gold production as possible the soonest possible (although you do need armies to settle and scout) and make cheap companies. The other implies you go straight up to your most powerful and rapid company (heavy cavalry) and strike deep, hoping to get lairs for gold, or catch your enemies with their pants down.

What you choose is ultimately up to you, but remember one thing: SCOUT!

2.2 Offence

Although your ultimate goal is to capture or raze all of your opponents’ settlements, this does not imply that you should always strike at his walled towns. There are basically three targets: settlements of course, companies and buildings. They may not be as glorious as taking your opponent’s main city, but taking out a good company can mean upward to 120 gold lost (and that’s not considering the level of experience they reached). As for buildings, losing an iron mine means 100 gold lost to make it and up to 40 less gold per minute in income, and that’s if it’s not upgraded and without an outpost.

With three targets, there are of course three types of battles:

· Open field: this is when targeting the enemy’s companies. You have three objectives: position, destruction and annihilation. First, you try to put your troops on the best ground possible, with flankers ready to strike at his flanks or his rear and the wall on advantageous terrain. On contact, you try your best to disable his hard hitters, by flanking his support units and through use of short retreats and column formation. When he tries to flee, the use of entanglers should keep him in place long enough to proceed to the next phase. At this point, you send your fastest companies ahead of the enemy to intercept him and hold them long enough for the others to catch up. Remember, you need to kill all the units in one company for it to be destroyed.

· Raid: A common misconception is that raids have to hit settlements. Although they can, by exploiting the vulnerability of walls, they will often fail, unless there is another battle to distract them elsewhere. What are vulnerable in your enemy’s territory are the mines and artifacts spread out all over, and often with no more than their normal militia. 2 or 3 units of light cavalry, with support if possible for the nation/faction, should do the trick. It is always best in these case to avoid all contact with the enemy’s army.

· Siege: This is, of course, the hardest and most rewarding attack on can pull off. This should be attempted when the enemy is distracted or recently defeated: if you are not in superiority, this is going to be hard. This is where the siege units really shine, and no only when destroying the walls (after all this is only the first step). The “street fighting”, when your troops try to engage the militia and troops entrenched inside, means limited place for your melee troops to engage the others, giving the enemy time to regroup. A single powerful unit, or a ranged unit with a large area of effect, is therefore right in its place there. Attacking on two sides will also help, by leaving more room to manoeuvre inside. There is the danger of being locked in during this kind of battle, since you can exit through the doors unless you control the town center, so be ready to retreat if this gets grim. Once you capture the town center, all that remains is to pick off the stragglers blocking the supplies and heal up for the inevitable counter-attack.

2.3 Defence

This is not always a desirable position, but it will happen half the time. During defensive combat, your goals are first to survive, second to push them back and third, although this is often hard to accomplish, to destroy his companies. Remember that the enemy is coming towards you, in terrains you know, so don’t be quick to engage: trap him. You have time to send your flankers around. You have time to bring back your units. You have time to entrench a few units inside your town. If you can’t win, retreat and counter-attack. He may have the advantage of initiative, but once he’s engaged, you can do what you want.

You first have to catch him: your Wall or a wall should do it. If in a siege, you can catch him in a chokepoint when his first units have walked inside the wall. A few entrenched light units can truly delay him. Nothing is more devastating than a few light cavalry in his back when only his support units are left outside. Make him panic and do mistakes. In the worst case scenario, you can always take back the town if you keep a few units in it. And harassing him as he retreats is within fair-play.

2.4 Factors

These are the factors which can turn a battle to your advantage:

· Experience: As your troops gain in experience levels, they augment in attack value, defence value, health and morale. Your Kohan, as well as gaining greater bonuses, also gain better spells as they advance.

· Morale: This is the blue bar on your company interface. When it reaches a certain point, your company will start routing uncontrollably. If it reaches 0, they will become exhausted and stop moving (as if entangled). At this point you’ll have to wait for their morale to come back, or lose them to pursuing troops. The Berserk ability grants invulnerability to morale loss.

· Terrain: There are four kinds of terrains. Open ground grants a bonus the to attack of cavalry. Slow terrain limits your speed to fast. Heavy cover and uneven ground grant a ranged and melee resistance respectively, as well as limiting your speed to medium. The speed limitations can be circumvented with trailblazing.

· Formations: There are three formations. Attack will slow you down but will leave you at maximum efficiency. Skirmish/normal will leave you at 75% efficiency. Column reduces efficiency to 50% but speeds you up.

· Resistances: There are several kinds of attacks, and they can be reduced (or augmented) by certain percentages via resistances. They are too common to list, so you’ll have to check them yourselves, but I’ll name the most commons. The undeads are often resistant to ranged attacks for up to 65%. Walls and buildings are very resistant to ranged and melee attacks, vulnerable to siege and khaldunite damage and resistant towards the other types of damage.

· Entrenchment: By standing still for some time, your companies will gain the entrenched bonus, which adds to DV, ranged AV and morale. Remember that you lose it when they move (notice that, when grouped and linked together, companies will move to engage enemy companies which have engaged companies they are linked with).

· Abilities: Certain Kohan and support units provide these bonuses automatically. While less numerous then spells, they are still too many to list here.

· Spells: All sort of spells buffs their companies or debuffs the enemies’.

· Unit Foe: Comes in Cavalry, Archer and Infantry variety. Grants a bonus to attacks against that sort of companies. Infantry Foe is very rare, while the others are rather common. They only affect melee attacks.

· Healing: Making your troops fight longer is always a good idea.

· Technologies: Some techs, both researched and found, will grant bonus to certain stats.

It is very important to note that abilities and spells of the same type do not stack. If they give the very same bonus, but are named differently, they will stack. So making 2 clerics and a blessing Kohan in a same company is a waste of two blessings.

3 Factions

I’ll be passing over the factions quickly. What they provide are a few bonuses, Kohan and a support unit (captain for the Fallen). They provide flavour to your game style: the real guiding factor will be the nation you choose, or let the computer choose for you.

3.1 Ceyah

Bonus: Melee attacks, maximum speed and entrenchment speed.

Unit: Prophet, with Life Leech, doing are of effect damage, and Dark Restoration, healing a single unit.

Strategy: Go melee, walk around and stay put. J Seriously, having two different healers would be interesting as part of a wall unit. Healing spells are rather lacking for the undeads, and a prophet/cleric combo could provide both group and unit healing. However, since the humans already have area of effect damage and healing, it’s not really fulfilling a need for them, unless you’re going to mass area of effect damage.

3.2 Council

Bonus: Reduction in structure cost.

Unit: Wizard, a powerful mage support unit casting Lighting, doing great amounts of damage to a single enemy and hitting its company’s morale, and protecting his company with Storm Shield, against ranged attacks and doing shock to would-be attackers.

Strategy: Find a nation that has a high structural cost (Haroun) and lacks a strong attack (Haroun again). Overusing Wizards can be a rather good idea.

3.3 Fallen

Bonus: Health and detection range

Unit: Dreadlord, a captain doing massive melee vorpal damage (no DV protection), with good defence and health points, and the Bloodlust ability, providing an AV bonus. Also counts as cavalry, so say hello to your new friend: Open Ground!

Strategy: Well, the Shadow has the highest hit points in the game, so 10% is nice. However, you already have so many captains to choose from, with all those nice spells and “unit” foe. However, the Undeads, while not very healthy (joke intended), do have a reel lack of choice in captains. Bloodlust will be a nice addition to your nightmares and skeletons.

3.4 Nationalists

Bonus: Recruitment cost reduction, supply range, detection range and attacks vs. buildings.

Unit: Zealot, a “healer” which doesn’t heal. What you get is Was of Pain, an AOE damage spell rendering units vulnerable to melee, ranged and siege damage, and Invigorate, which boosts your company maximum health point.

Strategy: Well, recruit costly companies and scout a lot. The Zealots will probably fit best with the Drauga, renown for their attack strength and health points. You can’t really depend only on the zealots to win, although they can help a bit.

3.5 Royalists

Bonus: Melee attacks, defence value, morale resupply and plain resupply.

Unit: Paladin, a melee support unit with Inspiration, providing attack and defence bonus, as well as lower morale loss: basically a support version of the Dreadlord, without Vorpal damage.

Strategy: Use mostly melee units, cheap ones if possible, and stick a Paladin in each and every one of them. For laughs, pair the paladins with healers and watch your enemy cry as your light infantry cuts through his wall. Due to the Haroun obsession with wood and archers, you would think that the royalists would be a little out of place, but the Paladin fills a role no Haroun unit does: Bad-Ass melee damage dealer.

4 Nations

These are the real factors dictating your playing style in Kohan II: Kings of War. Here you will learn the basic advantages and disadvantages of each nation, their support units, how to play with them and, of course, how to play against them. For the actual builds and stats, I will be providing links to find such things. This is due to laziness, yes; but it is also for the fact that a game is a living thing: what is hot can change from week to week, and patch to patch. Enough chit-chat: on with the show!

4.1 Drauga

Factors:

+ High health points and morale.

+ Good gold potential via exports.

+ Great Iron production.

+ Barracks provide 2 units to company limit.

+ Good support units.

+ Cheap outposts and forts.

+ Low demand for wood means more Impalers and Beast Riders.

+ Maulers cheap to maintain (equivalent to 1 stone), but…

- Gold maintenance for maulers and behemoths.

- Low defence value.

- Market upgrades very specialized with no or negative gold production.

Support units:

· Elder: A Healer with Spirit of Battle (AV and morale) and Recover (Healing 1 and morale recovery). A must if morale is a problem, otherwise ok.

· Huntmaster: A Scout/Summoner combo. Great with Impalers or cavalry.

· Warmonger: A Melee support with Defensive Tactics (DV) and casting Haste (AV and attack speed). They are best with melee companies, and are fast enough for Beastriders. This is your heavy-hitter, and putting one in every company is considered overkill.

Playing as Drauga:

If you are a Nationalist, you want strong, and costly, companies. Beastriders with Warmongers is a great way to start your day (and ruin your opponent’s). Note that those two units have the same building requirements. Another option would be plain Beastriders with Mauler flanks for that extra bite against cavalry (and with that iron production, you can afford 2 right at start!). As Royalists, if you really want to feel that melee bonus, massed raiders is a good option. You can keep pumping them out without ever filling your iron production. Or you can combine Warmongers with Paladins (help!). Standard choices are to avoid market upgrades and work your way up to have every melee company joined with Warmonger. Adding Maulers as flanks is great against cavalry, and for limited cost (4 gold per minute). Summoner dancing (short retreats) is possible with Huntmasters, but you didn’t hear this from me.

Playing against Drauga:

You can exploit his units’ low defence by maximising the number of attacks rather than their attack value. What this means is: mass those light units! Watch your cavalry though: he’ll probably be using his maulers to flesh out those flank spots. He is also vulnerable to spells against melee troops: entangle and attack debuffs. If he gets Warmongers (with Paladins!), you’ll have to kill them early (hard, but early flank while they are casting hast may do it).

4.2 Gauri

Factors:

+ Additional component slot in settlements.

+ Good production for all resources.

+ Good gold potential via exports and markets.

+ Cheap Engineers and mines.

+ Good heavy units.

+ Great and varied siege units.

+ Good defences (militia and walls).

+ Magic resistance.

- No light infantry (though engineers can compensate).

- No cavalry foe.

- No ranged support.

- Low health points.

- Often slightly slower than equivalent units.

Support units:

· Healer: Guess. Casts Slow (AV and attack speed debuff) and Revive. Due to the nature of slow, one of the few healers which can be doubled with little to no spell waste.

· Warden: Melee. Provides Aura of Immunity (Magic Resistance and Immunity to enchantments). Great stats and Khaldunite damage. Fast support for cavalry, or protection against heavy magic users.

· Wrecker: Tactician (AV and Entrenchment), Recon and Immobilized (Paralyze 1 unit). Good stats and low maintenance. Good in siege and about everything else, but only has medium speed.

Playing as Gauri:

As a nationalist, your lack of light infantry will not sting as much when the bill comes for that new anvil company. As a Council, that money is just saved somewhere else. Zealots can complement Healers well, but Wizards fill a need: support for Spears. Generally, you’ll notice that Hammers are nice, Anvils are very nice when supported, and Forges are cheap enough to be used as light infantry. Don’t be afraid to use your two siege units: they are monsters, even away in open fields. A mix of Wreckers and Healers will generally do a good job for your Wall, and your Spears can take care of any armour. Using Forges at start can be useful to take advantage of well-placed mines.

Playing against Gauri:

Their first weakness is against cavalry. Gauri can’t bring in any units providing a bonus against cavalry (like those pesky Pikemen and Maulers). Another weakness is their (relative) slow speed: no trailblazing and slower heavy cavalry will mean a lot when you’re moving in column to save your furthest settlement. Do keep light units at home: the Gauri high defence means that their attacks will lose a lot of effectiveness. Magic damage is also weaker, but that doesn’t include fireballs (with damage over time).

4.3 Haroun

Factors:

+ Practically unlimited component slots via free upgrades.

+ Good markets.

+ Bounties are more versatile then usual upgrades (trading 2 units in gold)

+ Great wood and good mana production.

+ Great support units.

+ Best Archers in game (gain most from AV bonus due to attack speed).

+ Relatively fast units.

+ Persistent settlers and cheap engineers.

- Very costly buildings.

- Limited gold potential (no exports).

- Weak heavy infantry, no heavy cavalry (Windriders are archers).

- Weak walls.

Support units:

· Harvester: An entangler with a twist. Casts Grasping Thorns (Entangle and damage over time) and Whirlwind (Defence and Projectile range debuff). Good resistance, but he’ll only attack buildings in melee unless engaged.

· Moonwatcher: A healer with the excellent Holy Shield (major defence buff) and Revive (group heal + morale). They make your Stonewalkers worth it.

· Pathfinder: A Scout, if Haroun weren’t fast enough already. Trailblazing and a fast (for archers) attack speed, coupled with decent Khaldunite damage. Great for raiders, since buildings are not resistant to Khaldunite.

Playing as Haroun:

For the high building costs, the doctor calls for a prescription of Council-strength structure cost reduction. And their wizard is a good support for your archers. If you went the other way with Royalists, try mixing Paladins and Moonwatchers, or Pathfinders for raiders. For the actual tactics, I usually try two components. The cavalry, with Pathfinder support, can pursue the enemy quite well, especially with those very fast Windriders. They also are a very potent raiding force, due to buildings’ lack of resistance to Khaldunite damage. The other part, infantry backed with archers, supported by Moonwatchers and Harvesters, can stop and hold on the enemy fairly well and long enough for your cavalry to annihilate him. Use archers: there is something artistic about the way the Haroun’s arrows rain and their enemies drop. Fight near your settlements: you’ll have longer to catch and utterly annihilate his companies.

Playing against Haroun:

First rule: don’t get caught. He can catch up with you easily and will make you regret what moving from the safety of your towns. Be ready to leave an expendable read-guard, just in case. Don’t leave him the initiative: you’ll be raided all over the place. Bring flankers or, if you’re lucky, skeletal units to nullify his archer advantage. His walls are weak, but his counter-attack is not. Bring high damage troops against those pesky Moonwatchers. Always be ready to run for it.

4.4 Human

Factors:

+ Best gold potential (if at the cost of resource production).

+ Best light units (for all that means).

+ Cheap siege unit, and it’s decent too.

+ Good archers (second fastest attack speed).

+ More support units and very different ones at that.

+ Most possible starting factions.

+ All-in-all, very versatile.

- No real superiority in any one aspect.

- Costly settlement upgrades.

- Slower start than most.

Support units:

· Cleric: Your standard Healer. Casts Blessing (AV and DV bonuses) and Heal (Group heal). Good to have with infantry units.

· Ranger: Scout/Archer combo. Basically the same as the Haroun Pathfinder, but with a stronger, slower, magical attack. With Trailblazing of course.

· Sorceress: An Entangler. Casts Elemental Aura (Magic and Fire resistance) and Spirit Cage (AOE damage + entangle). Useful, but it won’t win you any battle.

· Warmage: A Mage. Casts Fireball (AOE fire damage with damage over time) and Dispel Magic (Immunity to Magical Enchantments). Very good support units, especially when massed. Few units give fire resistance. High requirements and maintenance though.

Playing as Human:

It’s actually quite hard to find a good way to play humans; they have many ways that are okay though. There’s not really a single strength that you can exploit that would give you an edge against every other nation, with the exception of immense gold production (though that makes you vulnerable early on). It is actually quite dependent on what nation you are fighting against. When you need melee, use Cleric and your faction’s support unit. Need ranged attacks? Archers with Sorceress and Warmages. Raiders? Rangers. Siege? Catapults. You have good options in every conceivable situation. More than anything else, be ready to exploit your opponent’s weaknesses.

Playing against Human:

If it’s hard to build up a standard Human strategy, it’s even harder to set up strategies against it. You can’t really exploit his weaknesses, and you can’t really predict what he will use. You can exploit his (potential) weakness at start by rushing him as soon as possible, but that works fine only if he doesn’t rush himself. Play with your nation’s strengths should work well, or else surprise him with the technologies you found on the map. Assuming you didn’t pick your nation, try not to reveal yourself until you are ready to strike: if he doesn’t know what you are going to do, he can’t prepare for it.

4.5 Shadow

Factors:

+ Cheap buildings and Outposts and units (only mines are full price)..

+ Great mana production (your settlements produce mana naturally!).

+ Walls have extremely high hit points and DV, although they all fall as one.

+ Your choice of scouting units: infantry or cavalry.

+ Great Heavy units.

+ Resistant to Siege, Immune to Poison and high morale.

+ Infantry Foe!

+ Dual-purpose settlers/engineers.

+ Many choices for captain and more flanking units…

- …but no support units (you won’t miss them).

- Lowest potential gold income (Hoard, with library and temple).

- Great demand for mana (it’s a blessing in disguise though: it reduces demand for the other resources, especially in wood).

- Vulnerable to Khaldunite.

~~Support units~~ Captains:

· Brute: Basic Melee captain. Provides Aura of Fear (DV bonus). Cheap and quite decent, I still leave it at home though.

· Shade: Basic Scout captain for Wargs and Shadelings. Provides Recon and TB. The only captain fast enough to keep up with those very fast units.

· Banshee: Advanced Healer captain. Casts Dark Restoration (Heals 1 unit) and Unholy Strength (Melee AV bonus), and provides Archer Foe. Fast to keep up with Beasts. Think of it as a Healer Dreadlord for melee units.

· Fiend: Advanced Summoner captain. Summons Shadowswarm (2X2 Shadelings), casts Umbral Aura (DV bonus and Fear Reverse Effect) and provides Cavalry Foe. Goes well with Furies.

· Warlock: Advanced Entangler captain. Casts Shadow Shock (AOE damage and paralyze) and Umbral Shield (Melee resistance). Provides the mystical Infantry Foe. Good versus infantry (duh), and with infantry (medium speed).

Playing as Shadow:

It’s actually quite simple: get them before they get you. You have a rather low gold income, but your start is one of the fastest: the early game is your game. You may not have support units, but those advanced captains make up for them quite nicely. They’re not really a subtle nation: massed units with bonuses provided by captains or Beasts. You can try and match *unit* Foe with the corresponding unit for added fun.

Playing against Shadow:

If you can survive the initial onslaught, your gold production will probably wear him down eventually. Don’t try to siege him until you are ready: his defences are murder and he can counter you easily. You can exploit his Khaldunite vulnerability with Gauri (Maelstrom Engine and Warden) or Haroun (Pathfinder). His units are not really easy to replace (due to gold production), so they should be your primary target.

4.6 Undead

Factors:

+ Everything you can build or recruit is cheap.

+ Good mana and gold production via the resource converters.

+ Barracks provide 2 units to the limit.

+ Can resupply anywhere when not in combat.

+ Resistant to range, Immunity to poison and disease and Berserk.

+ Support units compliment each others quite well.

+ Dual-purpose settlers/engineers.

+ The only maintenance-free unit in the game: Zombies!

- Rather low gold potential.

- Lower resupply rate (about half the others’).

- Vulnerable to magic.

- Units have lower stats than equivalent units.

Support units:

· Defiler: Entangler. Casts Cloud of Fear (Entangle and morale loss) and Toxic Mist (AOE DOT and AV debuff). Combos well with Liches for AV debuff.

· Lich: Summoner. Casts Lethargy (Av, attack and maximum speed debuff) and Animate Dead (summons skeletons). As mentioned earlier, goes with Defiler. In my opinion, one of the best support units.

· Revenant: A Melee with an AOE spell. Its attacks, as well as his Immolation, cause fire damage, which provokes Burning (damage over a few seconds).

Playing as Undead:

It’s important to remember several facts about the Undead. First, you resupply ANYWHERE. If you play random, you’ll often forget this at start (I know I do). It’s the best time to scout, and you can get an early edge by sending the captain/Kohan right away. Second, you resupply SLOWER than others. This has two implications: short companies allow you to get back at full health faster and you cannot go head to head repetitively. So, avoid long companies, and avoid open field battles unless you can reduce at maximum the damage you receive (which you can by reducing their attacks with Defilers and Liches). What you are good in is raids, since you can simply leave your raiders sitting in his back. You are also good at sieges, due to range resistance. For start, your nightmares will usually give you a good edge. Especially since you can supply a short unit with an Iron converter, and have a few gold units left behind. If you are playing Shadow, replace your basic captains with Dreadlords as often as possible (it’s really much better). And finally, use support units as often as possible.

Playing against Undead:

Avoid Archers: they can’t hurt those skeletons enough to be a factor. Flanking is a possible solution to their Liches since they have rather abysmal health, or else go with high AV units. If you can contain their support units, their front won’t last long. Always press on the attack and don’t let him heal: it takes him much more time than you.

5 Conclusion

A few terms you have either read here or will see in game:

· AOE: Area of Effect.

· DOT: Damage over time (per second).

· AV/DV: Attack Value and Defence Value.

· Goat: Windriders.

· Debuff: Opposite of a buff, reduction to enemy’s stats.

· Super*unit*: A unit supported by Scouts.

· Dancing: Short retreats, often to re-summon killed summon units, reduce morale, or annoy.

· Razing: The act of destroying a settlement.

· Gl hf: good luck, have fun. Usually said at the start of a game.

Since a game, or more specifically the strategy involved in a game, changes and are not set in stone, this guide will become obsolete sooner or later. Since I do not have access to the release version as I am writing this (17/09/04 at 22:47:00 EST) , the actual release of the game will already have made portions of this guide obsolete. I will not be updating this (although I will be adding to this in case of an expansion J), therefore you will need other sources to keep up with changes in strategy. Here are a few links:

· Timegate’s webpage: www.timegate.com . Visiting the forums is a good way to learn of new strategies, meeting the community and downloading films.

· Chimaeros’ Website, The Awakening: www.strategyplanet.com/kohan . This site hosted many strategy articles, films, screenshots and mods for the first Kohan, and will hopefully be continuing this tradition. Also comes with a forum.

What more can I add now? This should provide you with more than enough information to take your first (or second) steps in the world of Khaldun. I hope to see you all in game.

Good Luck and Have fun!

-Matthieu “WyldRage” Vallée