Ceyah Strategies

[Wyldrage's Tactics] [Wyldrage's Tactic's-Units] [Orional's Tactics]

WyldRage's Tactics: Ceyah Units

Each units will have three category:
Analyze: How I analyze the unit's strengths and weaknesses.
Support: The support units that complement them well.
Use: How to use them. (More exactly: how *I* would use them.)

Analyze: As one of the two free (no maintenance) units of the Ceyah, they are great in number. They have better attributes than Shadelings, but are VERY slow.

Support: Any. No support will ever slow them down. I prefer the wraith: it is an average mage that only cost 1 mana and 1 iron, instead of 2 mana. That difference in mana is especially useful when it comes to recruiting beasts. Also, two companies of Zombies with wraiths only require a mana forge to maintain. They don't do much damage, so putting mage-type units is usually the way to go.

Use: I use zombies only as protection for my support units. They don't require maintenance, and so make great hordes. The shear quantity of support units that are made possible by them is astonishing. They are so slow that the only way to use them is to engage the enemy directly from the front. You can afford to lose them, they don't matter much. Don't forget: they are slow. You will need to time their arrival and the one of the other companies.

Analyze: Skeleton warriors are like a normal Mareten infantry unit. They are stronger than Zombies, faster and have maintenance. They should be your standard infantry unit.

Support: This will be discussed in the use part.

Use: I see two types of skeleton warriors companies: defensive and offensive. Try to use both at the same time, they will support themselves well. They should engage the enemy front, as to bring the most enemy units in a same place, for the priests' spells.

/Defensive: This one is optimally using both the Shadow Priest and Prophet. They will slow down the enemy by paralyzing them and curing your skelies. However, don't expect them to hurt the enemy much, if the enemy has a good DV. That is where the offensive Skeleton Warrior company comes in.

/Offensive: Those skeleton warriors should have two Dreadlords. They will give your troops, and each other, an attack bonus of +8 in total, giving the skelies some 30 in AV. Also the Dreadlords will have 46 in AV, with an unholy attack of +10 for non-shadow units. They will do great damage, but will be vulnerable to enemy attacks, that's why your defensive skelies are useful.

Analyze: Those are archers, you know what to do with them. They are also the only Ceyah units who require wood, so you will likely have many. They have a good damage capacity so will be great for destroying the enemy.

Support: Magicians mostly, maybe some necromancers for flavor. Necromancers are good for slowing down enemy companies, and weakening them, but can't compare to the damage of a fireblast.

Use: As any good archers, they will support your infantry. They will deal out great damage, as the enemy will have trouble to go through your undead.

Analyze: The other free unit, the shadelings are also the weakest unit in the game. They have low attributes, and an extremely low number of hit points. Their only good points are their maintenance (none), their fast speed and their trailblazing ability.

Support: None. As other cavalry, the only support units they could have are the fast ones. For the Ceyah, all you got is the Shadow Demon, and I don't recommend it.

Use: I also see two uses for them: scout and shield.

/Scout: They are fast and cheap. They make great scouts. Put them in skirmish formation and let them see the world!

/Shield: Once you get beasts, your shadelings companies take a whole new mission. At this point, scouts become less interesting. Instead of disbanding them, you may as well use them in battle. Send them in with your beasts. The damage won't help too much, but, for each shadeling killed, it is 120 hp of damage that is saved from a beast. Losing them at this point will only make more room for better soldiers.

Analyze: They have high AV and low DV. They are fast. They have a high maintenance, for a non-elite unit, of 1 mana. They cost almost nothing. They are the perfect suicide unit. They are also the forgotten ones, since everyone prefer the Void Beast. More than any other unit, you can afford to lose them all.

Support: None. Check the Shadelings for detail.

Use: As you can probably afford to lose them, Shadow Beasts have one great use: hitting the back of the enemy's army. Their high AV allows them to quickly, and efficiently, annihilate his support, as well as any fleeing companies. You don't have to make them run away if things get too intense, that's great since they often won't be able to do that. I prefer to use more of them and less Void Beasts personally.

Analyze: They are fast, powerful and well protected, they are your elite. Their cost is higher than most Ceyah front-line units, and their maintenance is immense. They are great cavalry, competing against the Royalists' Cavalier.

Support: (This will go against what most of you think but...) None. They are a very strong cavalry, not an infantry, unit. If you have well coordinated your attack, the priests in the skelies regiments will do the work just as well as those who could be with the Beasts. They will slow the beasts down, and I hate slowing units down. They don't even need support.

Use: I use one company, possibly two, as the center of my cavalry regiments, complemented by Shadow Beasts and Shadelings. Their mission is to sneak in the back of the army while your infantry does the work of fighting the enemy face top face. They could do good work there too, but not to the level of carnage they would do blocking the enemy's retreat.