Hi



So I am playing with friends and Roving Clans for me is by far my favorite I can't tell you why but I always enjoy playing them.



So my friends always play the same races. But one concerns me the most and it is Broken Lords... If he is near me I know I will lose, I can't match his military. And he is ruthless, he will usually just declare war and attack me so diplomacy is out. Is there a way I can counter him.



This last game it was turn 40 and he is now attacking me, I had focused on expanding not knowing he was so close. He has come in with his hero and 4 stalwarts the whole army is at about 1080 life. Must I just focus on military might or will I still fair badly?



Thanks in advance.

As Roving Clans, you have access to the market instantly, which means you can buy powerful mercenaries in the first few turns while they are still cheap. So I recommend buying minor faction units like Kazanji and Haunts, which thanks to the mercenary comfort traits the Roving Clans have, will have double HP (and +1 movement). Use them to deter early aggression, and then potentially use them aggressively yourself once you reach era 2 and grab privateering.



On a tactical level, it is imperative to keep your dervishes moving to take advantage of their charge bonus. If a dervish attacks a stalwart, he should in the next round target the stalwart that is farthest away from him. Apply this to every dervish you have, and hopefully you'll land a few stuns.

Good advice from KnightofPhoenix.



To add to it: Initiative and Movement Speed are your biggest advantages over the Broken Lords.



Your units will act first and they move farther. So use that to your advantage. Move into combat and hit each unit (forcing them to burn their attacks and spread their damage to your units rather than being able to focus you down). Then next round, pull back out of their range (this will waste 2 rounds for only 1 round of damage, which is good when you're the defender).



Then close again and keep playing that game, forcing him to spread his damage by using your initiative to your advantage. Combat will theoretically look like this:



Round 1: Your units move first, charge the line and hit his units as hard as you can - making each of your units hit a different one of his units so they burn their attacks on countering your units, thus spreading out his damage.

Round 2: Pull out of his range using your higher movement speed to your advantage, no damage will be done this round but he'll probably close the distance.

Round 3: Charge back in and repeat round 1.

Round 4: Have your units shuffle around the area (use ctrl+right-click to force the units to move around the army, using as many movement points as possible) and spread your hits again, doing as much damage as possible and spreading his counters.

Round 5: Repeat round 4

Round 6: Repeat round 5



Lastly, his Stalwarts only heal if they get the last hit. So if you have a unit that is close to death and isn't going to be able to avoid dying, charge that unit at his hero and let the hero's counter attack kill it. This will deny his Stalwarts their self-healing ability.

Are we taking about normal speed turn 40 or fast speed turn 40? I'm assuming normal speed.



There's nothing wrong with RC military in my opinion, and provided you build an army at the right time, you shouldn't have any problem repelling his assault.



First of all, it'd be pretty smart to have invested in a general by this time. Especially with RC, your first general can level relentlessly with the assistance of a single mercenary unit, and the instant you smell danger, you can teleport your general back to your main army. Ideal generals are probably Drakken or BL. Ideal equipment would include both titanium and glassteel insignia.



For your actual army, you have a couple of choices. If this is still tier 2, there is nothing wrong with using mercenaries as defense, provided you have the dust. At +100% hp each, even level 1 mercenaries are going to be fearsome. But ideally, you're going to want strategic-equipped units to fight off BL. Build factional or MF units as strats allow, and if you're expecting conflict, don't waste any strats on buildings.



Specific to your opponent's army: they are almost certainly equipped with sword + shields, so using ranged or infantry against them is less than ideal. Dervishes should be fine. Demons, Silics (with iron necklace), Rumblers, Burdeki, Gauran would all be fine, if you have them assimilated, and those are great assimilations at this point anyways. If using dervishes, I would prefer titanium weapons, followed by titanium rings. I think dervishes can use hammers? They'd still have the initiative, and they'd gain a stun, when spears aren't going to do anything special against Stalwarts. Remember to use your charge to the most effect, bouncing from flank to flank.



If you know you're expecting an attack soon after turn 40, make sure to get the military 2 empire plan for the attack bonus, which can be very useful against the high defense Stalwarts. Check for blood crystal availability. If there's not enough for the booster, lose a city or two until you can boost, withdrawing all the while, then counter-attack and take your cities back, followed by your friend's.



Don't forget Setseke either. If you see him coming, you can waste a lot of his time chasing one of your bugs. Resettle every turn to preserve some dust generation. That lets you counterattack, laying siege and denying him the dust he needs for upkeep.