Quick Links
- Hammer And Anvil Technique
- Click And Drag
- Kiting
- Micromanage Your Units
- Ranged Units Are Incredibly Powerful
- Don’t Forget About Siege Units
- Always Bring Scouts
- Use Your Battle Abilities
- Pick A Clan
Building villages, expanding outposts, and mastering the art of production will only get you so far in Frozenhem. Eventually, you will need to master the subtle art of combat. After all, how can you be a Jarl, if your village is burned down, and your people lie dead at your feet? War is inevitable.
Thankfully, combat in Frozenheim is not that complex. There’s a fairly limited pool of units to build, they all build from the same building, and outside of siege combat, they are fairly simple to control. Once you get to grips with the basics, you should be able to deal with just about any threat with a little bit of planning and fast fingerwork.
Hammer And Anvil Technique
This technique is as old as time. The concept is incredibly simple – you have one unit hold the enemy in place, and then you get a second unit (or however many you need) to smash into the enemy from the side to take them out. This has been successful for thousands of years, and it continues to be successful in the realms of Frozenheim.
The best unit to use as an Anvil would be the Shield Bearer. These guys are incredibly tough, with high defensive stats and battle abilities that make them even harder to shift. Bear Clan Shield Bears are especially potent. For your Hammer, Axemen, Berserkers and Housecarls are excellent. You can even use Archers.
Click And Drag
Something the game doesn’t tell you is that you can set a basic formation by clicking and dragging. Your units will default to a loose clump when moving around, but if you click and drag at a location, you can stretch their formation out into a line. This has plenty of uses in-game and should be used often.
On a basic level, this lets your units cover a wider area. This makes units like Shield Bearers very effective at holding the line. You can use them to pull enemies into them and protect your weaker backline, and siege units. You can also angle your formations, allowing them to counter charge on flanks easier, or force enemy units to expose their flank to engage you.
Kiting
Kiting is an interesting tactic that falls under the greater terms of micromanagement (which we will also cover). Kiting is where you take a fast unit and distract an enemy – ideally forcing it to chase you. You then lead this unit on a jolly adventure whilst you pepper it with arrows.
Naturally, the best units for kiting are Scouts. Combine them with Archers, and you can very easily kill much larger forces without having to muster additional troops. You can use this in open combat, but you can also use this in sieges. Enemy defenders can be pulled out one at a time, kited, and then taken out in an isolated fashion.
Micromanage Your Units
Micromanaging is, in short, the act of commanding your unit's every move. This gives you more control over your army, and it allows you to drastically increase their effectiveness. It’s an intensive strategy to use, and you will likely be unable to divert your attention elsewhere, but like with kiting, it will allow you to defeat more powerful units.
The best way to micromanage is to get attacks off on your opponent's flanks. The AI is pretty stupid – for both you and your opponent. They tend to clump together and ineffectively fight. You can get around this by not relying on AI to attack. Instead, manually move your units to surround your opponent. This will maximise your damage, speed up most combats, and reduce casualties.
Ranged Units Are Incredibly Powerful
There is only one dedicated ranged unit in Frozenheim – the Archer (not including siege units). Archers are ridiculously good against most things. They can delete bandits, take out bears, down packs of wolves, and deal massive damage to enemy forces. Even unupgraded, Archers are a deadly force with very few counters.
This is because Frozenheim has no cavalry. The enemy must use foot soldiers to tie them up, and you can keep those guys occupied all day. There is friendly fire in Frozenheim, but the damage is so low it doesn’t matter, and even then, you can use their ability to ignore it anyway. Try to have a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio of Archers to melee troops – they are great.
Don’t Forget About Siege Units
Whilst you can take out most things with regular troops, siege units can be brought in to deal with structures and clumps of enemies. They are especially good at taking on fortified villages and can save the lives of many soldiers just by bringing a couple of catapults.
Not that Catapults are the only option. There are three kinds of siege weapons, and they are Catapults, Ballista, and Battering Rams. Of the three, Rams are the least useful in regular combat but are great for breaking through gates. Ballista and Catapults are excellent at destroying buildings. A couple of Catapults can destroy a Jarl’s Homestead in mere moments.
Always Bring Scouts
You never want to be in a situation where an enemy is ambushing you. For this reason alone, you want to have at least one Scout unit on the field at all times. Whether this is running around Scouting for resources and quests, or leading your armies to the enemy. Scouts are just too good to pass up.
Scouts are one of the fastest units in the game and can scout an enemy's location, and fall back without a scratch. They are also excellent for kiting as mentioned earlier. A single Scout unit can kite multiple enemy units. They can also pull small portions of an enemy's army allowing you to pick them all one at a time. Always have Scouts.
Use Your Battle Abilities
Battle Abilities are unique cooldown-based abilities that most units come equipped with. There is very little reason not to use them because they are refreshed so quickly, and the benefits are so great. A single unit using its Battle Ability at the right time can change the course of a battle.
More often than not though, you will want to use more than one and use them frequently. Archers gain increased range and no longer deal damage to friendly units. Shield Bearers become even harder to kill. Axemen move faster and deal more damage. There are rarely downsides to these things, so use them.
Pick A Clan
Clans are important in every aspect of Frozenheim, but if you are gearing up for a large-scale war, then maybe consider dedicating your settlement to one of the warmongering Clans. More specifically the Bear or the Wolf Clan.
The Bear Clan are masters of siege and completely immovable on the battlefield. They are tanky raiders who revel in the destruction of their enemies. The Wolf Clan are infantry powerhouses, able to build armies faster and stronger than anyone else. They have access to unique units and abilities making them especially brutal. When war is calling, answer with one of these.
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