Hints | Combat AoW III Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
1. Still before you start a battle, i.e. move to the tactical map, you can choose whether you want to fight yourself or whether the AI should control your units. As the attacker, you can also waive the attack. If you want to be sure of your victory, always fight yourself, especially when large number of units are at stake and the outcome of the battle is not sure. Play automatically those of the battles, in which you have the clear majority and you do not want to waste your time. However, you need to watch out, because you may be surprised sometimes and lose much more units than if you played the battle yourself.
2. Remember about the action points. They reflect what a given unit can still do. Melee attacks and ranged attacks can be repeated up to three times (depending on the number of action point left). After you attack, or use a skill, the unit loses the remaining movement points and can do nothing in the current turn, including movement. Therefore, you should make sure if leaving a unit on a given field is safe for that unit (if it is not staying within range of the opponent's units, which could destroy it). While you attack with a ranged attack, the damage is lower, up to a point, and they are signaled with the Ranged Penalty message in the menu that displays how much damage you dealt.
Sometimes, it is better to spend the action points on approaching the opponent, where you can deal more damage (e.g. instead of dealing 3x2 damage, deal 2x6 damage).
3. Use the skills of the units. Many of them, apart from the basic ones, such as attack or movement, has many others, which are much more useful. They can heal the allied units, immobilize the enemy units in a number of ways (the other skills have similar effect - depriving the opponent of the ability to make a move, for some time) and capture control over the opponents. Often, it is the skills that may prove more useful than the standard attacks.
4. Watch out for counters and attacks of opportunity. Most of the units can control your attacks and even attack before you strike (First Strike). Remember about that to avoid exposing your units to unnecessary losses, when the effective ranged attack is available. Some of the units also explode after they die, which deals damage to the others around them. Try to destroy such units at a distance or, at the moment at which there are many enemy units around.
5. Cast spells. Your advantage is a well-developed leader, who can attack effectively at a distance and cast spells that reinforce the allied units and the ones that deal damage to the opponent. Use AoE spells whenever there are many enemy units in an area, the ones that attack single units can be used for finishing off the dying units, who cannot be reached by your own ones, e.g. the leaders who, with low amount of HP hid behind walls.
6. Try to start only those of the battles in which you are sure to win, or deal damage to the opponent, while sustaining small losses yourself. Avoid the pyrrhic victories, because the bleeding out of nearly entire army, in order to capture some small city, is not going to bring you much profit. This is followed by another hint - try to attack only what is really important. If you have to lose your units, let it be over something that matters, e.g. opponent's Throne City or another, well-developed, city. Also, you should pay attention to the range of movement of the enemy armies on the strategic map. If you want to fight, you need to be sure that the opponent will not be able to reach you in the following turn.
7. During sieges, make sure that there is, at least, the wooden wall, around your city, which in itself provides you with an advantage, thanks to archers that can place atop it, which increases their range. The opponent will have to approach the gates, if he wants to destroy it, which will leave units exposed. While defending, you need to have ranged units however, you should also remember about cavalry and infantry, who will be defending the gates and fight on the walls, should the opponent attempt climbing them.
8. While attempting to capture an enemy city, you need to take several siege units along, which will allow you to force down the gates. Otherwise, you will sustain heavy losses, while trying to bring it down with the other units, because the opponent may pepper you with a hail of arrows and spells. Therefore, you are going to need trebuchets, thanks to which you will be able to attack the gates at a distance. Bringing down of the enemy gates is the key, because your units will probably be incapable of attacking (unless they can climb walls) and the ranged attacks will be much weaker, with the better range of the enemy archers.
9. Ensure a diversified army. You are always going to find a job for infantry and ranged units. Cavalry is excellent while attacking at a longer range and while flanking the enemy, thanks to the high number of movement points. The Support usually take care of magical attacks and healing. A diversified army allows the units to complement each other and to deal various types of damage, which will prevent a situation in which there comes a unit with high defense value, which you are incapable to "waste" because there are no units that deal magical damage, in your army.
10. Watch out for the nearby hexes and units placed on them. A battle can be participated by 7 armies, which means that if you strike a central hex, all of the adjoining ones will join the battle.
Sometimes, it is possible to attack some projecting fragment, thanks to which you will have the advantage of numbers in the battle. In the case of cities, which are surrounded by multiple units, it is especially discernible, and attacking the enemies in the proper way, allows you to heal with the siege in installment and increases your chances of winning, thanks to the larger number of participating units.
11. Finish out the enemy units. remember that even an unit with 1 HP left, deals regular damage, i.e. even if there is one soldier in an archer unit, he still deals the same damage as the entire unit, because the unit, in itself, still exists. Therefore, you should not let yourself be misled by the animation that shows the low numbers of soldiers in a unit. It is better to destroy 5 enemy units than to damage 10. The ones that are destroyed, are gone forever, where the ones that are low on health may still regenerate their health and exact revenge in the following turns.
12. Protect your leader and try to kill the enemy one, as quickly as possible. Thanks to this, he will not be able to cast spells and, if it was a well-developed leader, losing him will be excruciating to the opponent. For that reason, you should take care of your leaders and not let them run wild - booth during exploration of the strategic map and in battle. Implement an inventive tactic - let the leaders command the battle from afar, do not order them into a short-range fight.
13. Do not give up. Even if the battle is already lost, it is worthwhile to fight until the very end to deal the opponent some extra damage, or even destroy a unit. At the moment at which you give up, your entire army dies immediately. Retreating is a different pair of shoes (available only for the attacker) - if the situation is hopeless, it is a good idea to attempt saving, at least, some of the units.