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Game Title: Banish Land | |
| Genre: Strategy Graphics: Text with Graphics Status: Final Theme: Warfare |
Period: Medieval Time Units: Realtime Fee: Optional premium accounts Developer: Peak Virtual Enterainment | |
| Submit your own review | Official Site: Click here | |
These Formations and Battling Guide is original from Banish Official Forum, which was posted by Blues711.
Banish Guide: Formations and Battling Guide
By Blues711
What is a formation?
A formation is a design for how you plan on setting up soldiers for a fight. Keep in mind, your formation is simply a plan, if you attempt to add things that surpass he limits on your formation (dealt with in the next section), it will not be complete.
The Limits to Building Formations
The biggest limit on how you set up your formation is your hero. The hero is the most important unit you have. He has three stats that matter in battles: VIT (called Leadership in the Tavern), STR (Bravery), and AGI (Agility). However, your hero's VIT is the only part that matters in formation design. You can have any number of soldiers in your formation, however, your hero's VIT is what determines how many will actually appear in a battle. Your hero can only lead his VIT x 5 + 50 soldiers. If you're bad at math, take away that last 0 from your hero's HP and add 50. It is a good idea to raise your VIT first if you have the option to raise any stat at a given time, because even a person with bad tactics can win if they have enough soldiers, and a person with good tactics can defeat stronger units with weaker ones.
The other limitation on building a formation is simply the number of soldiers you have available, if you use more soldiers in your formation than you actually possess, then not all of them will show up.
It is VERY important to remember that when you attack another castle, those soldiers are gone until the hero has attacked and returned, so try to make sure you don't send so many soldiers on an attack, that you can't defend yourself. Just remember to ALWAYS count the number of units you use in your formations. If for some reason, you miscount, the available units will fill in starting at the top left, and moving to the right, and downwards. (not diagonally, row by row)
How to build a formation
This part is going to be very newb friendly, so if you know the basics, I suggest you skip this.
To set a unit, click its name on the list at the top, and RIGHT CLICK the space you want to place the unit. You'll notice that in the top left corner of the unit, there is a 10. This is the number of units in that spot. Although it only takes up one space, it has 10 soldiers in it. You can change this number by clicking on the space the unit is in, and going down to the scroll bar to the right of the unit type. It is a good idea to keep this at 10, unless you have a highly limited number of available units. Most effective strategies against overwhelming enemy numbers (mostly in situations against NPCs, however, the NPCs in Leo are MUCH stronger than the NPCs in Aries and Taurus, mainly because they have techs) require some number less than 10 in some spaces.
At the top where the unit types are listed, there is a number next to each name, that is the number of available units you have of that type. (it does not include units in training or on attacks against other castles). If your formations use more units than you have of this number, not all will show up.
The second number on each unit's square is called the priority. Priority determines the order in which units are placed on the map, lower numbers get set down first. Priority is very useful in situations where you are going to be attacked multiple times, and will not have enough soldiers and will not be able to either change your formation or replenish the destroyed soldiers. In this situation, priority should be set so that your formation remains fairly balanced (don't let loss of units create holes in the bottom of your formation, people will target those holes, well, I will at least).
There is one last feature to formations that has yet to be mentioned, it is also the most important part, the standby command (called Hold in Leo). At the bottom of the formation screen, there is a scroll bar that by default will say "Forward". A unit left unchanged will march forward until it runs into an enemy; it will attack until it is defeated, or defeats its foe, and then will continue to march. The other option on that scrollbar is "Standby". This makes the unit stand still. It will attack anything that enters its range, but will never move. The advantages of this will be explained later in the guide for those who don't already realize.
The Difference between Defensive and Offensive Formations
Your defensive formation is your most important formation. It is the formation that gets used when someone attacks you. The defensive formation is quite different from offensive formations in that it can also contain defensive structures. A defense may have up to 45 points worth of defense structures. Each type of defense structure is worth a certain number of points. Here is a list of the base stats and point value for each defense structure, as well as a little information:
Arrow Tower HP:600 Attack:150 Defense:15 Range:3 defense points: 2
The arrow tower could be called an extra powerful archer, it has decent HP, Attack, and Defense, but is still highly vulnerable to attack from Hoplites, like regular archers.
Catapult HP:400 Attack:200 Defense:5 Range:2-4 defense points: 3
The Catapult has high range and attack, but is VERY easily destroyed. Its attack strength is not hampered against hoplites, so it is a very effective ranged hoplite killer. However, it should always be protected because it only takes one or two attacks to destroy it. It should also be noted that catapults cannot attack units that are adjacent to them.
Self-Detonating tower HP:0 Attack:400 Defense:0 Range:1 defense points: 1
The Self-Detonating tower is a viciously powerful defense structure. It ignores defense, so its attack also equals its damage. With a high level of Gunpowder Technology, this can EASILY destroy full blocks of 10 units. They are very quick to make, but can get expensive if many are used.
Rampart HP:1200 Attack:0 Defense:50 Range:1 defense points: 5
The Rampart has unrivaled defense strength and HP, but cannot attack. It is an excellent stalling tactic as the Unit AI MUST destroy anything that moves within its attack range *NOTE: this is not the case in Leo, Light Cavalry can bypass them if they do not block its path*, even if it isn't actually blocking its path. This structure can take a VERY long time to build and can become quite expensive at higher levels. On a side note, in game battle reports refer to them as barricades instead of ramparts. This unit also takes up a large number of defense points due to its insane durability.
A good defense uses all 45 points worth of defense structures, but there is no perfect strategy for how many of each to use. I recommend that you keep some extras of all the structures in case you have to deal with multiple attacks. If all your structures are destroyed in one attack, you're left out to dry.
The Components of Formations: Soldiers
Soldiers are the most important part of any formation. Without them, it is not possible to fight. This section will list the basic types of units and give some info about their advantages and the special hero skills that apply to them.
Note: In Leo, the special skills that level 4 unit types have can be given to ALL units of that type if the hero taught a special skill, these are different from regular skills and do not count as part of the limit to 4 skills that all heroes have. However, a hero can only have 1 special skill at a time. These skills also DO NOT have predetermined activation rates. The rate can be increased by having the hero adventure and win in the Dark Castle area.
Archer
The archer is the only basic unit that can have range without a special skill (light cavalry can gain ranged abilities if you have the horse archer skill). Archers have a range of 3, and are the unit that the game GIVES you for free for completing the novice quest. Archers have the lowest defense, attack, and HP of all units, however they can be very useful when supported properly by other units. NEVER USE ARCHERS WITHOUT UNITS SUPPORTING THEM. It’s as good as throwing them away. They're fragile, so treat them as such. Archers are more powerful the closer the enemy is, but obviously it isn't good if the enemy is right next to them, because they'll die, so make sure there's something in front of them. The hero skill that affects archers is called Sniping. Sniping increases archers' range by 1, and at that increased range, they only do 35% damage. This bonus range also affects the lvl 4 archer unit, the Divine Archer, which gives it a range of 5 spaces, the greatest attack range of any unit. Also, Archers deal extra damage when attacking Pikemen, and less damage when attacking hoplites.
Hoplite
The hoplite has the greatest defense and HP of any unit type. It has the lowest attack strength (other than archer) as a side effect. Hoplites deal extra damage to archers, and take less damage from all types of arrows. Hoplites are very vulnerable to cavalry and light cavalry however. Hoplites are excellent defense units, as even when against cavalry and light cavalry, they can take multiple attacks before being killed. The hero skill that effects hoplites is called Rebound. Rebound deals damage back to whatever attacks a hoplite. This damage is not related to the strength of the enemy's attack however. The level 4 hoplite, the Grail Guardian (this is the name given in battle and in the formation screen, the name given in the guide is wrong) has the ability to reduce damage taken by half at a 35% rate. This means if attacked by a cavalry, even though the cavalry gets a sizable attack bonus, it could end up doing less than a regular attack if this ability activates. Overall though, this is has little effect on tactics.
Pikemen
Pikemen are the opposite of Hoplites. Pikemen have very high attack strength, but have defense that is barely higher than that of an archer. Pikemen get massacred by archers when not properly protected, and support is necessary to get the real power out of them. Pikemen are highly effective against cavalry and light cavalry, and can dispatch an entire unit in one attack with a fatal blow or a continuous strike (the pikeman's special ability). The hero skill for Pikemen is Combination. Combination increases the chances of dealing a continuous blow to 35%. (In Leo, it actually says "Pikeman has activated Combination") This is generally considered one of the two most useless hero skills, as most people do not use pikemen for anything other than defeating cavalry units. Level 4 pikemen return 50% of the damage they receive at a certain rate.
Cavalry
Cavalry have fairly high attack, defense, and HP. Cavalry are also faster than most other units. They are weak against pikemen but strong against hoplites. Cavalry are also the most expensive unit to build material-wise, requiring a full plate, pike, and horse for each. The hero ability that affects cavalry is called Ignore. Ignore activates at a 50% rate and allows cavalry to ignore the defense of whatever they attack, this is VERY effective against hoplites but does not work against defensive structures. Level 4 cavalry retain the same attack strength as a group of 10, even when only 4 or fewer units are remaining in a square. The special technology for cavalry, ambush, allows cavalry to gain an attack boost during the first engagement with a particular enemy unit(not positive about this, it may also be a randomly activated attack boost). This is VERY different from the Ambush (renamed Rush in Leo to avoid this confusion) hero skill, which cuts travel time to enemy castles by 50%.
Light Cavalry
Light Cavalry are extremely fast, but are weaker in HP, defense, and attack than standard cavalry. Level 1 light cavalry are faster than ANY OTHER UNIT cavalry. Light Cavalry are excellent for attacking empty castles due to their extremely high speed. An attack of only light cavalry can reach a castle that is 2 hours away when using hoplites, in only 20-40 minutes. The hero skill for light cavalry is horse archer. This skill allows light cavalry to attack units that are 2 spaces away, instead of the standard 1 space, their attack power is only 75% when attacking enemies two spaces away though. Light Cavalry with the horse archer skill retain the damage bonuses they already have against hoplites and vulnerability to pikemen, and can even attack defense structures from a distance. The only change is the range. Light cavalry are also different from cavalry in that they gain a very large damage bonus against opposing heroes.
This Review have been omitted a number of paragraphs, you can read more here - Banish Guide: Formations and Battling Guide or check our Banish Feature to find more information.
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