Barbarians | Leaders in Total War: Arena Total War Arena Guide & Walkthrough
Last update: 28 February 2018
Barbarians are units that are great for fighting in the harsh territory and for ambushes. Check, which commander would suit your preferences the best.
Arminius
Cavalry specialist, although he can use any unit type. His skills aren't very powerful, but versatile.
- Momentum (Tier 1)
After activation units are moving faster and receive a bonus to charge attack. The effect lasts until the units stop. Cooldown: 40s.
- Frenzy (Tier 3)
Order the units to increase their aggression in melee combat. For 15s you deal more damage but your defense drops significantly. Use cautiously, when you join an ally flanking the enemy or while chasing rotating units. Cooldown: 70s.
- Infiltration (Tier 5)
Enables you to mask selected units so that the enemy sees them as allied ones. Additionally, it slightly increases your speed, sight range and provides charging attack bonus. The masking effect disappears once the squad begins fighting. It is a great way to surprise the enemy and get behind his back. To protect from this ability you must simply move your cursor over the suspicious units - if it's a masked enemy unit, the cursor will change into a sword, as in case of regular enemy squads. Cooldown: 280s.
Boudica
This female leader has skills dedicated to Wardogs and Infantry. Optionally you can mix units by adding a squad of archers. The latter is not frequently seen on the battlefields. Rebellion skill gives you a bonus to fighting in the harsh territory - remember that each unit type receives different penalties and only some barbarian units might have positive modifiers.
- Fury (Tier 1)
Activate charge that lasts for four seconds. It works both for melee units and for Wardogs. Cooldown: 40s.
- Ambush (Tier 3)
Slightly increase range of sight and range of ranged weapon at the cost of speed. Great skill for creating ambushes. It's a type of formation that you can activate and deactivate at any time you want.
- Rebellion (Tier 5)
Activate the skill and the units will receive bonus to: terrain modifiers, melee combat, damage (including cavalry's charge). The effect also works on your allies and lasts for 30s. Preparation for using it takes 10 seconds. Cooldown: 140s.
Vercingetorix
This commander mostly leads forces of Infantry. However, you can also mix the squad with archers or cavalry.
- Iron discipline (Tier 1)
For 14 seconds your units are fully resistant to morale drops, even if they are surrounded. Cooldown: 60.
- Scorched earth (Tier 3)
Burn enemy units that are near your units. You will damage them for 3 seconds. With space you can locate enemy units during melee combat and make it impossible for them to retreat while hurting them. You can also use the skill against spearmen defending passages and other immobilized units or you can use it to stop an enemy that is chasing you. By default each unit has three charges of this skill. Important - the more soldiers in your squad, the effect is weaker. Cooldown: 120s.
- Defiance (Tier 5)
A powerful skill that forces your units to fight for 20 seconds without receiving any casualties (the health level of units might drop but once it reaches zero, the units don't die for as long as the effect lasts). Cooldown: 120s.