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Regnier X-Box Live Basic Strategy
Author: Spiderboy80 (John Gibbs)
Email: I'd prefer you to post any questions or comments on the KUF message
board, as my email blocks pretty much everything and I'd rather not have my
inbox flooded if you are able to get through
Last Updated: 10/19/04
Version .9
This Faq assumes you are already familiar with the basics of the game, but if
you are not, I suggest you check out Thrakkemarn's FAQ on Gamefaqs. This faq
is
very specific, and describes a strategy meant for online play, not
necessarily
single player.
=================
Table of Contents
=================
1. X-Box Live Basics
2. The Army
2a. Sappers
2b. Axe Riders
2c. Archers
2d. Swamp Mammoth and Support Units
2e. Your Hero and Heavy Infantry
3. How to use the army
4. Alternative Army Selections
4a. Anti-Cavalry
4b. Anti-Air
4c. Melee Rush
4d. Hit and Run
5. Question / Answer Section
6. Legal Info
====================
1. X-Box Live Basics
====================
Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders is a very different game on X-box Live than
it is on single player campaigns. All of your units will start out at level
0, and you have to use 10,000 experience between all of your units to create
your first army. It may be tempting to put all of this right into your hero,
but you are going to want a balanced army with diverse groups of units. The
only way that you can get more experience to put into your troops after this
point is by playing games against other players on X-Box Live. After each
match, you will get additional experience based on the number of enemy units
you killed in the match. This means that if you want to have high level
units, you are going to have to put some time in on X-Box Live. Luckily,
there is an even match search option, which allows you to search for
opponents who are around your skill level.
The other difference is that your opponents are living, thinking, trash
talking people, not just an AI controlled army. This means you will have to
outwit, or simply overpower your opponent. Unlike the single player
campaigns, you can't replay missions and memorize what is going to happen and
what you need to do in order to succeed. You, and your army, need to be
versatile and capable of quickly changing plans during the middle of the
match.
===========
2. The Army
===========
The Dark Legion Army that I have found to be most effective requires a lot of
patience, and you may be called a sissy for using it. The basic idea is to
use Sapper traps to either catch your enemy by surprise, or to prevent them
from attacking you while you slowly advance on them. At times, it can provide
a quick win, although it also can end up in a stalemate that requires
patience and quick thinking to succeed.
-------------
2a. Sappers
-------------
Arguably, the most important unit in this strategy is the Sapper. These are
extremely effective at any level if you use traps immediately at the start of
the game. The only real counter to these guys is an all out rush at the start
of the game, or opposing sappers to disarm traps. Even if your opponent
rushes you at the beginning of the game, you will still have time to get 3-4
traps up depending on the map, which will demolish any cavalry that would be
fast enough to make it across the map that quickly. Be careful that you don't
give away these traps at the beginning of the game by moving a group of
archers up near your sappers to shoot down any scouts sent to find you. An
added bonus to this is that your archers will get additional sp for you by
attacking the scout. You don't need to upgrade these guys too much, which is
part of why they are so effective, but keep them at around half of the level
of your main combat troops. A decent amount of teamwork is necessary to get
traps up quickly.
*Traps cost 200 sp, but with axe rider charges giving you extra sp, you
should have plenty to throw traps up everywhere. Eventually, if the game
lasts long enough, you will be unable to set traps, but I am not sure what
the max number is for them. The rest of the sapper's skills are not used as
often, and have limited uses.
*Another important thing to know is that you can dismantle enemy traps. Just
issue the remove trap command from the spell menu and click the area where
you believe there are traps and the sappers will automatically dismantle them
for you.
----------------
2b. Axe Riders
----------------
Another important aspect of any army, especially this one, is the Axe Rider.
These are fast, powerful, and can be used with hit and run tactics to wear
down your opponent. These will be your highest level units, and probably will
be controlled manually by you for most of the time. The most important thing
about the Axe Riders is that you don't let them just get into a melee battle.
They are most effective when they make several runs through enemy groups. To
do this, click on the enemy units and then waypoint (holding the left trigger
while issuing commands) them to run away. That way, they will run through the
enemy one time and escape. You can also use waypoints to tell them to charge
between 2 groups of enemy units. To do this, instead of clicking away from
the battle to make your cavalry escape, set waypoints on two seperate groups
of enemy units by clicking one, then the other, and repeat. This way they
will run over one group, then go hit the next group, and repeat as often as
you like. These units also give you a lot of sp when they attack, which gives
you more traps or magic. Upgrade your melee, riding, and frontal evenly,
although melee and frontal should have a slight priority over riding. Some
people may tell you not to get melee, since you will not be getting into any
melee fights with these guys anyway, but melee is incredibly important to
every unit because it adds to defense and adds more to hit points than any
other skill. Axe Riders need lots of hit points to survive their hit and run
attacks so that they can retreat to your archers for healing.
*When charging through enemy units, spread your formation on the turns to
speed up the turn, and then tighten the formation to increase the damage the
charge causes. (White and Black Buttons spread/tighten formation)
-----------------
2c. Elf Archers
-----------------
That's right, archers not Cavalry archers. These regular archers pack more
punch than their cavalry counterparts, and do not require as many upgrades as
cavalry archers. This group will be spending all of it's time in your back
lines, shooting and casting magic. Be sure to protect these from opposing
cavalry attacks by keeping them near your hero's melee units or traps. These
are important to the army as they provide cover from air, magic, and ranged
support. They should have one strong magic spell (I used Fire), and they come
with the tree of healing spell. Use tree of healing to heal your units,
(especially axe riders after hit and run attacks) and Fire to inflict damage
on enemy units. These should be only slightly lower level than your axe
riders, and their melee and ranged should be upgraded equally, and their
magic should be upgraded whenever you have extra experience. Ranged gives
them more damage, and Melee keeps them alive by giving them more hp which is
essential if your enemy brings an air support unit.
*An important thing about archers is to focus or widen their fire. Use wide
fire if the target is moving, and focus the fire when firing at stationary
targets. Focusing the fire will cause more damage, but widening the fire will
make it more likely to hit if your target is moving quickly. (White and Black
Buttons widen/focus fire)
-----------------------------------------------
2d. The Swamp Mammoth (Or other support unit)
-----------------------------------------------
The Swamp Mammoth, in this army, acts as a slow moving, but long ranged
artillery. The mammoth can take a beating, but is very vulnerable to
explosive damage and some magic. Keep him in your traps to protect him from
attacks, and let his range hit anything that tries to come near you. Be sure
to use your axe riders to harass any enemy siege units with explosive damage
(catapults, mortars etc) as they can eliminate your mammoth in just a couple
hits. A high level is not really necessary; just keep him within 10 - 15
levels of your highest group. One advantage of support units is that it is
pretty easy to change their class at the troop management screen as they all
have similar stat requirements. If you do not like using the swamp mammoth,
take advantage of this and switch his class to another support unit if you
like, I just prefer having the swamp mammoth as this strategy does not
require your support unit to move around very much.
----------------------------------
2e. Your Hero and Heavy Infantry
----------------------------------
This will most likely be your least used group. I know many people love to
just fight with their hero, it is simply not the most efficient way to manage
an army. On X-Box Live there is no equipment (as far as I know) to give to
your hero, so the only skill you can level up is your melee. It is extremely
difficult to level this group up, because you need the scout skill which
leaves you with only melee to upgrade. This will be around or lower level
than your sappers. Use this group to cover your archers or as a frontline
melee group if you commit to an attack.
*It may be tempting to use this group often, and try to control your hero
manually all of the time, but you are going to need to get over this urge if
want to be more successful. Controlling your hero distracts you from
controlling other groups of units, and special moves by your hero waste sp
that could be used for traps or magic spells. By no means am I saying that
you should never manually control your hero, it is very fun, but only do so
when you have already issued commands to your other groups and all of your
units are engaged in combat.
======================
3. How to use the army
======================
At the start of the game, immediately order your sappers to build a trap in
front of your army and use your hero to send a scout at the opposite corner
of the map. If your scout sees a rush coming, send your axe riders on a hit
and run attack on an enemy group that you think will be hurt most by the
attack in order to slow them down. Continue building traps whether you see
the enemy rushing or not. If the enemy did not rush, keep scouting but push
your traps more towards the middle of the map. Your biggest concern should be
enemy siege units, such as mortars or catapults that can quickly crush your
swamp mammoth. If you feel that your axe riders can survive a quick attack on
the enemy, send them to run through 1 or 2 groups of enemy units before they
run back to the safety of your traps and mammoth cover. Use the sp you gain
from these attacks to cast tree of healing on your axe riders and repeat. If
you are able to kill a few enemy units than you should be able to repeat this
until you win. If you are ever forced into a battle by the opponent
attacking, your traps will give you the upper hand. Use your magic, Fire, on
enemy troops and send your axe riders to repeatedly strafe and run over enemy
infantry, (not spearmen) which will inflict major damage and give you the sp
you need to cast more magic. The defensive capabilities of traps and the
swamp mammoth combined with efficient use of archer's magic will give you the
upper hand you need to defeat enemies up to 20 levels higher than you, and
your axe riders will be able to frustrate your opponent into attacking your
bunkered in position.
The main threats to this strategy are an opponent using a similar strategy
with sappers, and an all out rush. Your best hope against an all out rush is
that you can simply overpower your opponent with superior troops, efficient
magic, and the small bonus the few traps you can get up will offer.
If an opponent does not attack you, and axe rider hit and runs aren't
working, then slowly move towards your opponent with all of your troops.
Using your swamp mammoth as cover, start disarming traps with your sappers,
and be prepared to use magic or attack with your archers if an opponent's
support unit attacks your sappers. When you are able to open up a large
enough hole to allow your units to get through, you can either choose to
attack straight in if you have superior troops, or siege them with your Fire
spell and the swamp mammoth. Eventually these 2 should wear down your
opponent to the point where you can directly attack.
==============================
4. Alternative Army Selections
==============================
If you find that you do not like the tactics that I described, or simply can
not get the strategy to work effectively in battles, this is an alternate
army made for a simple all out assault. This army requires less thinking, but
is much faster and can be at times even more fun to play, as there is more
action.
----------------
4a. Anti Cavalry
----------------
In this setup, you are going to replace your sappers with axemen. Why axemen
and not axe riders? Because axemen dominate enemy cavalry. The best way to
use axemen is to keep them near your infantry and position them where the
cavalry is charging from. They are not as effective when engaged in melee
battle, but will rip apart a group of charging cavalry. Use this setup If you
are looking for a quick match and are having trouble countering enemy cavalry
with normal units
------------
4b. Anti Air
------------
If your archers are having trouble stopping enemy air support from picking
off your troops, you can try a few options. One is to switch your own support
unit to Wyverns and have them attack the air that is giving you problems. The
other option is to replace your sappers with another group of archers or, if
you like, cavalry archers. If you really want to go for overkill, you can do
both, although I would not suggest it as your army will be fairly weak in
melee combat.
--------------
4c. Melee Rush
--------------
Basically, with this army you are just going to send all of your units
directly across the map and catch your opponent by surprise and then
outmuscle him. With this, switch your axe riders to infantry or heavy
infantry, your choice, and engage your opponents units in melee so that he
can either retreat, and be hit by your archers, or stay and hope he can win.
Try to avoid being trampled by enemy cavalry as you head to the opposite
corner. Also switch your swamp mammoth to either wyverns or a dirigible, as
the swamp mammoth will be way too slow to make it over to help out with your
rush. This strategy will lose often, but you will be able to kill some units,
get experience, and get into another game very quickly, which makes it decent
for leveling up your low-leveled initial units.
---------------
4d. Hit and Run
---------------
I haven't personally tried this strategy out, but it would involve using 4
groups of cavalry along with either wyverns or a dirigible as support. The
idea would be to use the speed of axe riders and cavalry archers to run
circles around your opponent, inflicting damage and healing before they can
react. In theory this strategy would be unstoppable, but theory does not
always translate into results in the real deal.
==============
5. Q/A Section
==============
Q. You spelled Cavalry wrong; it is supposed to be Calvary.
A. That is not a question, and it is spelled Cavalry
=============
6. Legal Info
=============
This document is property of John Gibbs. This document is not to be
distributed or printed without the author's expressed consent. The author is
not affiliated with the makers of the game. This Faq can be found at
Gamefaqs.com. Any violation should be reported to the author at his email,
(
[email protected]).
Thanks to Thrakkemarn for making a great overall faq for this game which
contained information that helped me a lot in writing this one.
Thanks to Phantagram for making one of the best console strategy games.
Thanks to Gamefaqs.Com for providing the best help on the internet for the
gaming community.
