I haven’t been playing long, but am enjoying this excellent game and wanted to contribute something to the player guide that Jay has on his Trello Board. Suggest you can outsource writing this to the community, Jay so you can focus on cool new features!
Blight calls out for a strategy guide for each race – see the excellent one on Orcs by Tangle Rainbow Filter. However, on most maps you get to recruit races that were not your starting race, so you need to also understand the basic strengths of each race.
Towns and Villages – the Basic Facts
It took me a while to realize just how different the Towns and Villages of different races were.
Note that the starting position of each race is not equal. Dwarves start with a 9 valour Fortress; Trolls and Elves only 3. This translates into 4 times the Gold production for the Dwarves – a huge advantage in the early game. Also note the unit capacity of the settlements – you are unlikely to every use up an Orc or Human Town (so you don’t need very many). Troll and Elf villages are gone after 2 units are recruited – this means they can be cleared in 12 hours in the face of an Zombie onslaught you can’t stop.
Towns and Villages – Fighting Strength
Which Towns and Cities should you target? Always the nearest?
The Gold production you get for your valour is very similar – only Goblins and Dwarves have a slight edge. So when you plan the settlements to spend your 20 initial valour on, don’t worry, whatever you pick they will generate about 1,000 Gold income for you. Unless you make the mistake of spending it on big creatures and never get a Gold economy going - fun but irresponsible!
The second point to note is the HUGE difference in Zombie strengths. An Orc town will spawn a total zombie strength of 8,400 – over 6 times as much as a Goblin town. So prioritise saving Orc/Human towns - also if you are interested in maximizing your living soul score! And burn those Orc and Human bodies as early as you can – with a fixed % spawn rate, they are the biggest Zombie strength generators.
Base Unit Comparison
Although you have those fancy special cards, most of your fighting will be done with the base units from each race. So how do they compare?
The Strength per cost in Gold reflects the huge advantage of speed. But if you are defending, use Dwarves and Trolls! The Goblin and Elf bow power more than makes up for their low strength/gold ratio if you have enough mana.
However, you lose 50 in gold production for every Goblin unit you create! And this ramps up to losing 33 Gold production for every 100 strength points! Clear conclusion – never create Goblin archers, think twice about Dwarven Hammers, use Orcs and Humans for your steamroller armies, Elves for dancing around.
This is just a start, I am way off expert on this game. I am sure others can add more insights – please add them in the comments.
TL; DR
• Start with Dwarves; don’t start with Trolls
• Never create Goblin archers and think twice about Dwarven Hammers
• Use Orcs and Humans for your main armies
• When burning bodies, target first Orc, then Human, then Dwarven Zombie towns and villages