Racial Attributes:
- extra component slot
- 20% increase in supply range
The main advantage of the nationalists is the extra component slot.
Because of this extra slot, nationalist towns are able to recruit
elites, and it is possible to train dragoons in nat villages. This
advantage, however, is also the nationalist weakness - low company limit
and a need to constantly expand because nationalist town upgrades are
very expensive (200 gold).
With this in mind, the nationalist play differs greatly from the
standard procedure of the other factions. Unlike other factions, nats
should NEVER upgrade to town unless they cannot expand, or wish to hire
elites. Nat strategies can basically be split into 3 separate sections:
- Goon rush
- Buildup w/ magic
- buildup without magic
Goon rush:
a most standard start, this is generally done by nat players when they
are front line and/or wish to do early raids against the opponent.
It is a simple, effective procedure which can get you 1 or 2 goons
(depending on how much economy you wish to go).
Typically, I only go one goon, and as such, do the following start:
settlers w/ kohan (110)
Iron export and bank in first village (264)
2nd village blacksmith and barracks (140)
hire goons with kohan (60)
sell barracks (+60)
upgrade blacksmith (72)
build bank (132)
The following strat costs a total of 718 gold, and leaves your econ
at 52 (-1 iron).
The next two strats are very similar, basically done as a back row
player.
This is when you pump start your economy, and quickly hire good, strong
companies.
In this, I generally do the traditional strategy - 2 or 3 villages of
banks with iron exports, then begin building for war.
This strat, while standard, can be very effective, depending upon the
map settings (it would be favorable to hire 1 or 2 companies of foots or
goons if the map has high lair and/or indy count).
As play proceeds, and reaches midgame, players are often tempted to
upgrade their villages to towns. This is NOT a good idea, because you
can almost expand 3 times for the cost of 1 upgrade (225 as compared to
200). In this, you would get 6 slots rather than two. Upgrades should
really only be done for elite training towns (as stated earlier). UNDER
NO CONDITIONS SHOULD YOU UPGRADE TO CITY! (400 gold for 2 slots is a
stupid waste of money which could be spent in much wiser ways).
Because each nationalist village provides 1 company slot, and gives 2
building slots, nationalist almost always hit their company limit.
As a result of this, nationalist players have two main choices:
a) Get elites
b) Trade villages with other players (preferably ceyah or royalist)
Nationalist players are quick to grow, quick to gain resources, and
are generally a slow buildup faction. Given space to expand, they are
easily the most powerful of the 4 factions. However, pressure them, and
stop them from expanding, and they will fall quickly. Nationalists tend
to have 1 or 2 "main training areas" where they hire the majority of
their forces, as well as "money villages". If those can be taken, a
nationalist player is often nullified (destroyed economy or low
population limit with high resources).
Two important things to consider when nationalist:
your will generally be very spread out, and therefore vulnerable to
raiding.
settling takes a much longer time than upgrading (upgrades takes 2
minutes or so for the upgrade to be complete, but settlers need to heal
up, and then build the village).
Nationalist special troops:
Nationalists have 3 special troops, elite guards, summoners, and
zealots.
Elite guards are basically units which are virtually invincible upon
the battlefield. Unbeatable by even other elites (due to the fact they
will actually have support units, unlike the other factions), they are
tough units which are very versatile. While expensive to maintain, and
vulnerable to magic, the strength of these units cannot be denied.
Summoners do exactly as their name implies - they summon a big
powerful unit - the golem.
The golem, when first summoned, casts an area of effect spell,
earthshock, which deals 40 damage to units in a limited radius, from
there, they march forward to do battle against other units, until they
die, in which the summoner casts another one.
From my personal experience, I find that magicians and other magical
units are more powerful than this (because they get into each other's
way and cast only when close to the enemy). However, a lot of people
like these units, because they bring in a big unit again and again.
However, it seems they would be more effective in archer companies,
where they can march directly to the front.
The zealot, the unit which was all powerful in the previous patch,
has been reduced to such a state that they are, unfortunately, nearly
useless. While it would be advantageous to have a few, the cost of the
temple, and then upgrading it to hire 1 or 2 zealots generally a waste
(after all, would you rather recruit 2 zealots by building and upgrading
a temple or 4 more summoners or magicians by building and upgrading a
library?)
In the end, nationalist armies generally tend to be a combination of
several types of troops: goons for raiding/flanking, with elite guards
and some infantry w/ magic support companies to assist the elite guards.
The nationalist can gain the largest economies, and the largest armies.
With this power, however, comes the vulnerability to raiding, and the
dangers of being front line.