Warlords Heroes and Human Squad Members, A facebook quest game: Infantry, Range and Cavalry

Warlords

There are a lot of quest games available on Facebook. From Mafia Wars to Castle Age, there is no shortage of quality games either but none offer the the amount decision making or have the tactical complexity of Warlords. This is even more impressive when you take into account that Warlords in still in beta.

Warlords players build squads that they use in battle which is unique in Facebook quest games. Each squad consists of one Hero and five soldiers, each with their own abilities like flying or using ranged weapons. Squad members also each have their own health metre. When a squad goes into battle they are pitted against an enemy squad. Once a squad member’s health is brought to zero they are sent to graveyard. A player wins a battle by defeating all of the opposing cards or bringing the opposing squad’s defence to zero.

There are four different types of battles that involve squads: Strategic Quests, Monster Quests, battles against other warlords and the recent addition, Warlords Tournaments. If you would like to learn more about the basics of Warlords check out this full review of the game. In this article we are going to look at Warlords heroes and human squad members.

A Player’s First Human Squad

When someone first starts playing they will only have access to human Warlords heroes and human squad members. There are multiple categories of squad members, these include Infantry, Special, Creature, Range, Spell, Cavalry, Machines, Block, and Hero. There can only be one Hero per squad, and in the beginning that Hero is the Warlord the player creates when they start the game. A players first human squad will only allow them to have the most basic of squad members. As a player levels, more units will become available. The higher the level of the Warlord the more powerful the units are that become available.

Infantry, Range and Cavalry

The most basic squad member is the Infantry member. Few of the low level infantry members have any special abilities but as a player levels more powerful Infantry become available like the Ardenian Pikeman and the Shadow Assassin. Infantry have one major weakness and that is being attacked by Ranged enemies who do double damage when attacking infantry. Ranged units are excellent against both Infantry and flying units. Flying units can only be hit by ranged units or units with special abilities, like stun and flaming sword. Ranged units also have a vulnerability, in this case they receive double damage when attacked by Cavalry units. Cavalry have their own weakness, in this case it is Infantry who have the Spearmen ability. The only human unit with this ability is the Ardenian Pikeman.

Infantry Units

Range and Cavalry

Special, Machines and Block

The Special, Machines and Block type units, at this point in the beta, do not have much representation. There are currently only two Special units, and only one Machines and one block unit. Each Special card has their own special ability, this the name. The Machines unit is called the Ardinian Siegebull and quite useful as it can hit flying units for three damage per round and as thirteen health which is a lot for such a low level unit. This far Block unit have proven to be fairly ineffective unless a player is lucky enough to have it at the end of a long line of units and not have an opponent. Since the Human squad Block unit, the Log Barrier, cannot attack it is very vulnerable and tends not to last long in a battle.

Special, Machines and Block Units

Spell and Creature

Human squad types Spell and Creature have received a lot of attention from the Warlords developers. Only one spell can be added per squad but all three spells have merit. Like spells, creatures are also some of the Human Squads most powerful units. There are three creatures available to players with human squads: Ardenian Sabertooth, Ardenian Griffen, and the Ayothian Phoenix. Each is very powerful but they all come at a cost, each creature takes 5 turns to come into play once it has come on deck. Because of this fact, creature units are best used in squads with a mix of units who come into play very quickly like Axe Throwers and Mace Warriors. The units that come onto play early will basically be cannon fodder until the creatures come into play and clean house.

Spell and Creature Units

Hero

Once players can create more than one squad, they will need Heroes to lead those squads into battle. Human squads can have one of two leaders, either Ragor Warblade or General Victus Creed. Both are very effective units, either doing massive damage or doing damage to both the opposing unit and to the defence of the opposing player. Ragor becomes available first, but the more powerful, Creed opens up only a few levels later. Another great ability is introduced with General Victus Creed, the Flaming Sword which does two additional damage and can also hit flying units, similar to the Frostbolt ability used by the Elven Hero unit Cidone Spearhand.

Hero Units

Creating Squads

Now that you have a decent understanding of each type of unit and their abilities , let’s talk about different strategies that players can use when building a squad. When it comes to human squads there are three distinct types of squads. First there is the “guns blazing” approach. By this I mean that all the units come into play very quickly, attacking the defence as much as possible and overwhelming the enemy with shear numbers. This approach can be very affective but most units that come into play quickly do little damage per attack and have little health. That also means these squads be overwhelmed easily once an opponent gets some stronger units into play.

The next type of squad is a what I call a “tank” style squad. This type of quad would consist of mostly powerhouses like the creatures and machines. They take longer to come into play then other units but do decent damage, have a lot of health, and some have special abilities. Also most of them can either hit flying units or are flying units themselves, meaning they are harder to hit. The big sacrifice with these types of squads is time. Since they take longer to come into play, they are vulnerable to the “guns blazing” type of squads.

The last type of squad is a mixed bag. This type of squad has always worked best for me. Matching a few units that come into play quickly with a Siegebull and a creature or two, tends to get the job done. The Siegebull comes into play after three turns on deck, so this unit, along with the others that come into play quickly and hold the fort while the creatures are waiting on deck. The Siegebull also does a fair amount of damage, and it can hit both ground and flying units. This units alone can make or break a squad.

As you build up multiple squads each tactic with Human squads will become more appealing, mixing it up is always a good idea to find what works best to help you kick butt in Warlords.