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Nationalist Strategies

[Kalisari's Tactics] [Nulak's Tactics] [Nulak's Tactics-Military] [Orional's Tactics] [Rapid's Tactics]
[Terra Kahn's Tactics] [Wyldrage's Tactics]

Nulak's Tactics: Nationalists Military

INTRODUCTION

The most important thing to know is to know the map you are playing on. Does this map have lots of indies or none at all? Do you have lots of mines around your town or not? Is your enemy town right on top of yours or on the other side of the map? Basically, if you know the map then you already have an advantage.

NULAK:

Let's review advantages/disadvantages of Nationalists faction:

  • 20% increase in supply ranges of settlements
  • 1 additional component slot
  • 25% more expensive upgrade cost
  • Elite Guards

Because of the additional component slot, most of your settlements will stay at village level. With 2 component slots you can have a bank and iron export boosting your economy. However, the disadvantage of this is that you only get +1 company per village. So, even with 3 villages you will be limited to only 3 companies. If you wish to play Nats well, you will need to expand, expand, expand.

There is no one RIGHT way to play with Nats but here is how I usually play.
In my first village I build bank + iron export. You don't want to upgrade your first village to town because it will cost you 200 gold. It is more efficient to build 2 new villages then upgrade.
So, in my second village i will usually build another bank and iron export (unless I know the enemy is near and need some units fast). In my third village I will build a woodmill and a group of 6 scouts and start exploring.

Skipping ahead. Lets say you found 3 wood mines near your settlements then you should quickly get yourself a group of engineers going and pump out some wood units (footmen or archers). If you find lots of iron, then get some infantry/grenadiers or dragoons. There are endless possibilities, just adjust to your map.

Because you don't want to upgrade to town too early, your company limit will be always be lower then your opponents' or even allies'. So, what do you do? Keep expanding even in mid-to-late game or take over indies and enemy cities. If you are one of those people who likes to raze enemy towns (I do) then you will need to expand.

Nats have one of the most powerful support units in the game, zealots. They do area damage (25-30 dmg in a 3 square area, I think). So, if your opponent clumps 25 units all together, you will do (25 to 30 dmg)*25 units which is roughly 625 - 750 dmg. Of course this situation will not always happen but even if you are faced with 2 groups of infantry then you will do 25*12=300dmg. In my opinion, zealots are better then mages but their (zealot's) damage is spread out unlike mage's direct damage. So, each unit has its pro's and con's.
To get zealots, you will need to spend a lots of gold though. Building a temple + upgrade will cost you 220 gold unless you use a carpentry guild which will reduce that cost to 170 gold but will add 88 gold cost for the carpentry guild. So, it is best to use that carpentry guild in your town (I'll explain later).
Zealots are a great unit which you can use at any point in the game. You can put couple of zealots with footmen, or infantry, or grenadiers, or elites. So, if you have some spare cash, use them!

Next step in my build-up is getting more advanced units. Nats will usually have 1, maybe 2 towns and the rest will be villages. This is both good and bad. Because you will have lots of villages, you will be spread out more so then your opponents which will leave your vulnerable. However, because you do have so many villages even if you lose one, your economy will not suffer as much as it would if you only had 3 major towns/cities. As a comparison, I usually settle 7-10 villages/towns in every game on top of whatever towns I capture from my enemy. However, you don't want to lose your main town because it can halt your units production. So, choose wisely when you upgrade that one village to a town. Personally, I like to upgrade a village that is located more or less in the center of my settlements. Why? Because your enemy will have to go through your other towns before he will get to this one, giving your sufficient time to build up defenses. But, on large maps this means that your main city will most likely be far away from battles. So, as you can see, everything has its up/down sides.

A good player will try to have a mixture of troops. So, if you can afford it, get yourself some archers with infantry troops and have a couple groups of dragoons (with rangers) for flanking as well as protecting your support units. I like to mix 1 group of elite guards with at least 2 groups of regular grenadiers and back them up with archers if I can afford it. However, to get all of the units above you will need 5 component slots and you will only have 4.

Elite guard requires a blacksmith + barracks + temple + library.
Dragoons require a blacksmith + barrack
Rangers require a woodmill + library.

when you upgrade to town you should have 2 slots taken by a bank and iron export. Build a carpentry guild (88 gold). Then build barracks (save 40 gold). Sell bank (i think for 72 gold) and build Library (save 50 gold) in its place. You should have iron export, barracks, carpentry guild and library. With this setup, pump out 2 groups of 4 dragoons and 2 rangers. Sell iron export (99 gold). Build temple (save 50 gold), sell carpentry guild (not sure how much it sells for) and build blacksmith. Now you can pump out elite guards with mage, cleric, zealots (you need to upgrade temple of course), and other units from this one town. The only units you will not be able to build here is rangers and archers or any other units that require a woodmill. That is why you want to build at least 2 groups of dragoons in the mid process. If you wish to build more dragoons/rangers groups you will need to upgrade another village (or sell temple and build woodmill in your main town). However, 4 dragoons and 2 rangers should never be destroyed. Rangers will let your group quickly retreat to a save position even in the middle of the forest. I like to use 2 rangers because if one of them dies, I still have another one to offer trailblazing ability.

Whew, this is a damn long post. Sorry for that. But I think it has some good tips on how to improve your play as Nats. Remember, you can have zealots early in the game by building nightbringer in any of your villages. If you have blacksmith + nightbringer you can pump out infantry with zealot and cleric support. In another village you can build blacksmith + library for infantry + mages support. It is a mixed blessing to have this "bonus" slot. It lets you build nice groups early in the game and fast but you can mix and match. One village will be for zealots production and another for mages but not both (unless you upgrade to town).

I would like to hear any other strategies people use for playing Nats. Any comments, flames, suggestions, donations are welcome.

TERRA KHAN:
quote:
Originally posted by Nulak:
when you upgrade to town you should have 2 slots taken by a bank and iron export.

Actually, since your expanding anyway (which i certainly agree with, see my Manifest Destiny post ages ago), I'd recommend against this.

Instead, settle one more village. Go Woodmill / Carp / Library / Upgrade to town / Barracks / Temple / Sell Woodmill / Blacksmith.

Then upgrade blacksmith to armory and temple to nightbringer.

This will save you gold, and keeps your econ village intact (and making money).

There are times that I've converted a econ village to my military base, but I consider this 'sub-par' to a pure build path and only do so if forced by map/game issues.

YOUNGBEARD:

I've been experimenting with Nat's and I think another good option is: Don't upgrade any of your own villages unless absolutely necessary (such as, you have no expansion room but want to increase your company limit). Either capture a non-Nat independent or trade villages with a non-Nat ally. Use villages for econ and make the captured/traded city your main upgrade and unit production focus. Ideal example: your ally is Council. With a few Nationalist villages with iron exports and banks you can quickly upgrade a Council village twice for a mere 330 gold (plus components). Five slot cities can produce any unit you like without "component swapping". Plus your ally will probably be delighted to have a two-slot Nationalist village producing gold for him.

 

Nationalist Strategies
[Kalisari's Tactics] [Nulak's Tactics] [Nulak's Tactics-Military] [Orional's Tactics] [Rapid's Tactics]
[Terra Kahn's Tactics] [Wyldrage's Tactics]