Tactics for Orocia and other survival maps
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Tactics for Orocia and other survival maps
After playing countless Orocia and other team survival maps, I think I've figured out a tactic to outsmart the AI.
The usual tactics involving attacking/defending from good terrain, melee vs ranged, and targeting weakness have been well documented already,
and thus would not be repeated here.
The focus of the tactics here will be tempo,
the mastery of timing in survival games.
Survival scenarios such as Orocia have waves of enemies arriving every few turns,
so it is important to eliminate the enemy as fast as possible.
Defence:
1. Lure the AI into attacking from bad terrain.
Fact: The AI will always attack the weakest unit in range.
Thus, one should place a defender into the enemy's range so that the enemy is forced to attack him.
Bonus points if the enemy is forced to attack from a weak hex.
Note:
i. Enemy won't occupy village if he can attack.(Unless he attacks from the village)
So good luring will guarantee steady income.
ii. Try not to lure the enemy into attacking from a good terrain.
If you leave a unit next to a village, the enemy will occupy that village and attack you.
=> You lose income from village and enemies gain good defense terrain,
making it harder for you to attack next turn.
You would either take heavy casualty by attacking or wait a turn before attacking, thus losing tempo.
2. Use a strong melee unit to defend against a melee enemy unit.
The enemy will be weakened and would be easy to finish off during your turn.
Likewise, use a ranged defender against a ranged enemy unit.
This allows you to inflict heavy damage during the enemy's turn,
and you can plan your attack to inflict more damage during your turn.
Offence:
1. Try to kill the enemy using least strikes possible.
This will allow the attacker to take less retaliation damage and reduce the risk of having the enemy survive.
If the enemy survives, you have to get another unit to finish the kill, wasting manpower.
If you don't have additional units, then you risk taking damage next turn.
Ex. Enemy has 11 HP and standing on 40% defence terrain.
You have a Wose(13-2) and an Elven Warrior (5-4) to choose to kill the enemy.
Wose is better here because it takes only 1 hit to kill(with chance of 60% each strike).
The Elven warrior needs 3 hits to kill, meaning if all his hits connect, he would take 2 possible retaliation hits.
Also, 3 hits are harder to connect than 1 hit, so the enemy could very well survive the attack.
2. Use units with low strikes against enemy on bad terrain with defence <=40%.
Ex. Wose 13-2 against a merman on land(30%), almost guaranteed to hit at least once.
Use units with high strikes against enemy on good terrain with defence >=60%.
Ex. Elven Archer 6-4 against bats(60%), expect to hit 2 times.
This will prevent you from getting frustrated about missing all your hits.
Now let's see how these tactics work out in Orocia.
1. Recruit 2 melee and 2 ranged units in the beginning.
2. Place melee unit in outer castle hex before the enemies spawn,
place ranged unit inside the castle ring in the center.
3. Melee enemies spawn closer to the castle hex and attacks,
enemies and melee defender are weakened.
4. Retreat melee defender to village to heal,
kill off the weakened enemy using ranged units.
Bam, 1 turn has passed and the enemy front line is decimated.
Next, place appropriate defender onto another good defensive terrain and again force the enemies from the far side to attack.
Then retreat the defender and kill off the attacker.
This works well until turn 19 when enemy hp is too high to kill off in 1 turn.
A perfect play would be enemies miss all attacks(due to your good defensive terrain) and all your hits connect(due to enemy's poor terrain).
If your strategy is working,
you should see that your damage inflicted expected value(EV) should be more than double your damage received EV.
If you are unlucky,
then you might be above or below those EV values, but at least your strategy is working.
The usual tactics involving attacking/defending from good terrain, melee vs ranged, and targeting weakness have been well documented already,
and thus would not be repeated here.
The focus of the tactics here will be tempo,
the mastery of timing in survival games.
Survival scenarios such as Orocia have waves of enemies arriving every few turns,
so it is important to eliminate the enemy as fast as possible.
Defence:
1. Lure the AI into attacking from bad terrain.
Fact: The AI will always attack the weakest unit in range.
Thus, one should place a defender into the enemy's range so that the enemy is forced to attack him.
Bonus points if the enemy is forced to attack from a weak hex.
Note:
i. Enemy won't occupy village if he can attack.(Unless he attacks from the village)
So good luring will guarantee steady income.
ii. Try not to lure the enemy into attacking from a good terrain.
If you leave a unit next to a village, the enemy will occupy that village and attack you.
=> You lose income from village and enemies gain good defense terrain,
making it harder for you to attack next turn.
You would either take heavy casualty by attacking or wait a turn before attacking, thus losing tempo.
2. Use a strong melee unit to defend against a melee enemy unit.
The enemy will be weakened and would be easy to finish off during your turn.
Likewise, use a ranged defender against a ranged enemy unit.
This allows you to inflict heavy damage during the enemy's turn,
and you can plan your attack to inflict more damage during your turn.
Offence:
1. Try to kill the enemy using least strikes possible.
This will allow the attacker to take less retaliation damage and reduce the risk of having the enemy survive.
If the enemy survives, you have to get another unit to finish the kill, wasting manpower.
If you don't have additional units, then you risk taking damage next turn.
Ex. Enemy has 11 HP and standing on 40% defence terrain.
You have a Wose(13-2) and an Elven Warrior (5-4) to choose to kill the enemy.
Wose is better here because it takes only 1 hit to kill(with chance of 60% each strike).
The Elven warrior needs 3 hits to kill, meaning if all his hits connect, he would take 2 possible retaliation hits.
Also, 3 hits are harder to connect than 1 hit, so the enemy could very well survive the attack.
2. Use units with low strikes against enemy on bad terrain with defence <=40%.
Ex. Wose 13-2 against a merman on land(30%), almost guaranteed to hit at least once.
Use units with high strikes against enemy on good terrain with defence >=60%.
Ex. Elven Archer 6-4 against bats(60%), expect to hit 2 times.
This will prevent you from getting frustrated about missing all your hits.
Now let's see how these tactics work out in Orocia.
1. Recruit 2 melee and 2 ranged units in the beginning.
2. Place melee unit in outer castle hex before the enemies spawn,
place ranged unit inside the castle ring in the center.
3. Melee enemies spawn closer to the castle hex and attacks,
enemies and melee defender are weakened.
4. Retreat melee defender to village to heal,
kill off the weakened enemy using ranged units.
Bam, 1 turn has passed and the enemy front line is decimated.
Next, place appropriate defender onto another good defensive terrain and again force the enemies from the far side to attack.
Then retreat the defender and kill off the attacker.
This works well until turn 19 when enemy hp is too high to kill off in 1 turn.
A perfect play would be enemies miss all attacks(due to your good defensive terrain) and all your hits connect(due to enemy's poor terrain).
If your strategy is working,
you should see that your damage inflicted expected value(EV) should be more than double your damage received EV.
If you are unlucky,
then you might be above or below those EV values, but at least your strategy is working.
TromboneStar
HP 42
7-3 Melee Trombone
4-4 Ranged Star
HP 42
7-3 Melee Trombone
4-4 Ranged Star
-
sam_waz_here
- Posts: 77
- Joined: November 13th, 2007, 7:15 am
- Location: under a rock
Re: Tactics for Orocia and other survival maps
Temple of Orocia
Firstly putting your wounded unit open to attack to lure their unit onto bad terrain depends on what unit you are facing, what unit you are putting in harms way and how many other enemies/ allies are around. Also wounding a unit isn't always a good plan as depending on the damage you are losing that unit for one or more turns while it heals and losing money from its upkeep.
Always get a +8 healer onto the middle space of the temple area as it will mean that wounded units can become stronger and heal in the same turn. If the enemy is close don't put all your units in the middle even if it is around a healer with leadership as the enemy will stand on your castle walls and lock you down in the middle. It also causes th problem of most units having a 40% dodge chance in the middle compared to the 60% the enemy will receive on the wall. As a rule of thumb when a wave with fast moving units are about to spawn build one unit next to your keep to prevent them from charging through and to prevent them from sitting on your keep which ruins "tempo".
Pilgrims of Orocia
Always keep your units surrounding the mages if the enemy is in attack range. Don't be afraid to miss a few bonuses by going ahead of the mages as the worst thing to happen is that the mages get behind the wall of enemys while in a battle leaving them defenseless. Only cross the skull lines when you have a decent sized attack frce ready as you don't want them to get the jump on you. If there is strong terrain near a spawning enemy group then feel free to take it and attack them but beware the your units on the front line will be the most likely to dies as everything can attack them. When you take a castle fill the rear side with tank units so they can slow down the ever increasing parade of enemies that will gather behind your forces. Always take villages when you encounter them, if a silver mage spawns and you haven't captured the villages then they will have an easy attack on whatever wounded unit they choose. Always be tactical on the map but when the side wall comes down on the final stretch of the map you must attack with everything you have or you will be mobbed.
Survival Extreme
The key is 100% blade and peirce resistance combined with a dwarf berserker or arcanister (extended era) will always grant an easy game. Alternatively you can use an elf sylph or even better a master of nature (oblivion era). However if you get tired of using those four units you can use others an equip them with weapons the best being the... I forget the name but it has focus giving an extra 50% damage on attack and it's magical. If your team is struggling you should stick together giving eachother the ability to cover the wounded and finish any kills they failed to finish; as long as it is ok with them of course. After 20 or so turns bossess will spawn it is best to stay together and use their slow movement against them by having 2 players keeping the spawns away while 2 more work away at the boss. If someone drops out don't leave their unit as an ai the computer will just put it on a keep and spam the map with weak units; vastly increasing the amount of time their turn takes.
Firstly putting your wounded unit open to attack to lure their unit onto bad terrain depends on what unit you are facing, what unit you are putting in harms way and how many other enemies/ allies are around. Also wounding a unit isn't always a good plan as depending on the damage you are losing that unit for one or more turns while it heals and losing money from its upkeep.
Always get a +8 healer onto the middle space of the temple area as it will mean that wounded units can become stronger and heal in the same turn. If the enemy is close don't put all your units in the middle even if it is around a healer with leadership as the enemy will stand on your castle walls and lock you down in the middle. It also causes th problem of most units having a 40% dodge chance in the middle compared to the 60% the enemy will receive on the wall. As a rule of thumb when a wave with fast moving units are about to spawn build one unit next to your keep to prevent them from charging through and to prevent them from sitting on your keep which ruins "tempo".
Pilgrims of Orocia
Always keep your units surrounding the mages if the enemy is in attack range. Don't be afraid to miss a few bonuses by going ahead of the mages as the worst thing to happen is that the mages get behind the wall of enemys while in a battle leaving them defenseless. Only cross the skull lines when you have a decent sized attack frce ready as you don't want them to get the jump on you. If there is strong terrain near a spawning enemy group then feel free to take it and attack them but beware the your units on the front line will be the most likely to dies as everything can attack them. When you take a castle fill the rear side with tank units so they can slow down the ever increasing parade of enemies that will gather behind your forces. Always take villages when you encounter them, if a silver mage spawns and you haven't captured the villages then they will have an easy attack on whatever wounded unit they choose. Always be tactical on the map but when the side wall comes down on the final stretch of the map you must attack with everything you have or you will be mobbed.
Survival Extreme
The key is 100% blade and peirce resistance combined with a dwarf berserker or arcanister (extended era) will always grant an easy game. Alternatively you can use an elf sylph or even better a master of nature (oblivion era). However if you get tired of using those four units you can use others an equip them with weapons the best being the... I forget the name but it has focus giving an extra 50% damage on attack and it's magical. If your team is struggling you should stick together giving eachother the ability to cover the wounded and finish any kills they failed to finish; as long as it is ok with them of course. After 20 or so turns bossess will spawn it is best to stay together and use their slow movement against them by having 2 players keeping the spawns away while 2 more work away at the boss. If someone drops out don't leave their unit as an ai the computer will just put it on a keep and spam the map with weak units; vastly increasing the amount of time their turn takes.
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