The Battle for Wesnoth Wiki - User contributions [en]

SummerOfCodeIdeas

2012-06-28T02:16:30Z

FAAB:

{{SoC2012Student}}
[[Category:SoC Ideas Whiteboard Multiple CTK 2012]]

= I want to be one of your Google Summer of Code students, what should I do... =

Here is a quick list of things to do at this time:

* '''MOST IMPORTANT''' Submit your application to Google till April 6th.
* '''MOST IMPORTANT''' Join the irc channel (#wesnoth-dev on irc.freenode.net) and talk about your project and your appilication. We will not give formal interviews, but we will clearly favor people we have learned to know during the selection process (basically communication via IRC is mandatory for our project! it is the main way of "every day communication" for Wesnoth. For the same reason, it's also a good idea to regularly read the [http://www.wesnoth.org/irclogs/2012/ IRC logs].).

* '''VERY IMPORTANT''' Create the wiki page about your idea (Make a copy of the student proposal page template: [[SoC2012 Template of Student page]]):
** Fill the questionnaire.
** Detail your idea as much as possible, look at other students pages, and please give timeline, milestones and studies you've done
* If you haven't done so yet, create an account on gna.org (required for committing later on)
* If you haven't done so yet, create an account on the wesnoth forum, and tell an admin of the forum or leader of the group on the IRC channel to mark it as a GSoC Student account (admins/group leaders are: Boucman, Crab, fendrin/Fabi, Ivanovic, Mordante/SkeletonCrew, Noy, shadowm/shadowmaster, Sirp/Dave, Soliton)
* Though not mandatory, it is highly advisable to go to the [[EasyCoding]] and [[NotSoEasyCoding]] pages and implement one of these ideas (or any idea of similar scope) so we have an idea how you work. Be sure to use your gna account when submitting these patches so we know who it is coming from. You can also implement some features from our feature request database at gna. When you implement something, also list it on your own page with a reference to the patch. This should give you a good idea what the Wesnoth sourcecode is like and will provide a good start to getting used to our coding style, too. You can also start working on your project and submit patches/prototypes related to it

* For working on Wesnoth you have to be able to compile trunk. To do so you should have a look at the [[WesnothSVN|page about svn]] and afterwards [[CompilingWesnoth|compile Wesnoth svn]].

= Information about our Project =
The information we provided google with about our project can be looked up at the site [[SoC Information for Google]].

Also see the [[DeveloperResources]] link (from the [[Project]] page).

= People to bug on IRC =
We have prepared a list of people with their "area of competence". This is to give you an idea on which areas those people can be of help for you. Of course you should always just ask in the IRC chan, but those are the most likely ones to answer questions in the respective area. And here is the list:

[[SoC People to bug on IRC]]

= List of Ideas for the Project (Suggestions from wesnoth developers) =

{| border=1
| NOTE: this list of ideas is automatically generated from the 'description' section of pages in ''Summer of Code 2012 Idea'' category. DO NOT TRY TO EDIT THIS LIST BY HAND - IT WON'T WORK. INSTEAD, CREATE A NEW PAGE WITH THE 'Soc Ideas2012 Template' template.
|-
| NOTE: to add a student page, create a new page based on copy the student proposal page template: [[SoC2012 Template of Student page]]):
|}

{{#dpl:
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=Student proposals not submitted to google=
{{#dpl:
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|oneresultheader=''There is 1 student proposal which was not submitted to google'' 
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=Student proposals submitted both to wiki and google=
(marked by hand, so if your proposal is not there, don't panic, check google's site instead and ping us, if necessary)
{{#dpl:
|resultsheader=''There are %PAGES% student proposals which were submitted both to wiki and to google'' 
|oneresultheader=''There is 1 student proposal which was submitted both to wiki and to google'' 
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|include=#IRC, #SoC Application
|includematch= ,/Submitted to google/s
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|format=,,[[%PAGE%|%TITLE%]] ,
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=Result from Google acceptance=
List of proposals accepted by Google: [http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/org/google/gsoc2012/wesnoth]

StartingPoints

2012-06-28T02:04:42Z

FAAB: /* Developer information */

__NOTOC__

What would you like to learn about Wesnoth in this wiki? [[Play]] it, [[create]] with it, [[support]] for it, examine the [[project]], view [[credits]] of it.

This is a page with starting points to exploring this wiki about The Battle for Wesnoth. In addition to the wiki, there's also a [http://www.wesnoth.org homepage], a [http://www.wesnoth.org/forum forum], and a [http://gna.org/projects/wesnoth/ Gna project page].

* [[Special:Categories|List of all page categories in this wiki]]
* [[Special:Allpages|List of all pages in this wiki]]

== Getting the Game ==
==== Downloading ====
* [[Download]] - get the most recent source-files and many binaries
** [[WesnothBinaries]] - precompiled for GNU/Linux, BeOS, PDAs, ...
** [[WesnothBinariesLinux]] - precompiled for many GNU/Linux distributions

==== Compiling ====
* [[CompilingWesnoth]] - on Unix, Mac, Windows, GNU/Linux, PDAs, ...
* [[UsingSourceinstall]] - using GNU Source Installer to automate installation and upgrades from source (Unix-likes only)
* [[DebuggingWesnoth]] - on GNU/Linux and Unix-like systems
* [[WesnothOnLinuxPDAs]] - on the Qtopia/OPIE and thepdaXrom/Zaurus C series

== Playing the Game ([[Play]]) ==

==== For New Players ====
* [[GettingStarted]] - read me first!
* [[WesnothManual]] - the rules
* [[MainlineCampaigns]] - walkthroughs for the game-supplied campaigns

==== For Not-So-New Players ====
* [[AdvancedTactics]] - beating the AI and other people
* [[MultiplayerServers]] - where to play against other people online
* [[Replays]] - archive of replays new and old
* [[How to play...]] - learn more about various faction vs faction strategies

==== Reference ====
* [[HotKeysSystem]] - keyboard shortcuts
* [[CommandMode]] - commands you can use in-game
* [[ChatCommands]] - commands you can use when on a multiplayer server
* [[ServerAdministration]] - commands that invoke direct server response (mostly for getting information)
* [http://units.wesnoth.org/ Units] - Units advancement trees and stats
** [http://units.wesnoth.org/1.8/ Stable version]
** [http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk Trunk version]
* [[Races]] - [[Drakes (race)|Drakes]], [[Dwarves]], [[Elves]], [[Humans]], [[Orcs]], [[Undead (race)|Undead]], etc.
** [[Factions]] - all major factions, mainline and user-made
* [[Wesnoth_Acronyms_and_Slang|Wesnoth Acronyms and Slang]] - common wesnothian acronyms and slang explained
* [[Maps]] - 1v1 default

== Tweaking the Game ([[Create]]) ==
==== Scenarios & Campaigns ====
* [[UserScenarios]] - user-written scenarios, campaigns and game modifications
* [[Wesnoth UMC Dev]] - where you can do collaborative UMC development
* [[BuildingCampaigns]] - how to make your own single player campaigns
* [[MultiplayerCampaigns]] - how to make your own multiplayer campaigns
* [[BuildingScenarios]] - how to make your own scenarios
* [[BuildingUnits]] - how to make your own units
* [[UnitAnalysis]] - tool to analyze units

==== References ====
* [[ReferenceWML]] and [[AlphabeticalWML]] - all about Wesnoth Markup Language
* [[ReferencePythonAPI]] - upcoming Python interface for AI
==== Tools & Utilities ====
* [[ExternalUtilities]] - scripts to help create scenarios, campaigns, and graphics
* [[WesnothMapEditor]] - summary of controls
* [[CustomizingStartup]] - some tweaks for optimizing the game's startup & performance

==== Art related ====
* [[Create_Art#Art_Tutorials|Art Tutorials]] - help in creating art
* [[GraphicLibrary]] - unit and terrain images posted on the forums
* [[Tiles_Status]] - terrain tiles: proposed and in progress.

== Improving the Game ==
* [[ReportingBugs]] - use Gna!
* [http://www.wesnoth.org/wiki/ReportingBugs#Guidelines_for_suggesting_features Guidelines for suggesting features] - To submit a feature request, use http://bugs.wesnoth.org
==== Developer information ====
* [[DeveloperResources]] - useful links
* [http://changelog.wesnoth.org Changelog] - the most recent changes made to the game
* [[WesnothSVN]] - accessing the source code
* [[HackingWesnoth]] - guide for programmers
* [[CodingStandards]] - for programmers
* [[DeveloperGuide]] - for those who received SVN commit rights
* [http://www.wesnoth.org/units/trunk/animations.html Missing unit animations] - what's available and what's missing
* [[WritingYourOwnAI]] - write a C++ plugin
* [[FormulaAI]] - Guide to the experimental formula AI branch
* [[ThemeSystem]] - customizing the screen layout for the game and the editor
* [[ReleasingWesnoth]] - steps to follow to release a new version
* [[WesnothPackagersGuide]] - guidelines for packaging Wesnoth for different platforms
* [[EasyCoding]] - Bugs and features that are easy to implement for new coders
* [[NotSoEasyCoding]] - Bugs and features which are doable but lacking someone working on them
* [[WesnothGL]] - Guide to programming the Wesnoth OpenGL branch
* [[WesnothdDesign]] - Guide to the design of wesnothd, the multiplayer server.
* [[SummerOfCodeIdeas]] - Ideas for Google summer of code

==== Game translations ====
* [[GettextForTranslators]] - how to translate Wesnoth under [[GetText]]
* [[WesnothTranslations]] - completely unknown stats...
* [[WesCamp]] - a project for translating user-made campaigns

== About the Game ==
* [[WesnothPhilosophy]] - Dave on Wesnoth
* [[Timeline of Wesnoth]] - the timeline of Wesnoth campaigns
* [[Geography of Wesnoth]] - description of Wesnoth and surrounding lands
* [[WesnothFigures]] - notable figures of valorous and infamous deeds in Wesnoth
* [[WesnothReviews]] - third party reviews of Wesnoth
* [irc://irc.wesnoth.org/wesnoth #wesnoth] - our IRC channel
* [[Trailer]] - the Wesnoth trailer

== Other ==
* [[UsefulLinks]]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_Wesnoth Wikipedia entry for Wesnoth]
* [[WikiHaiku]]

== About this Wiki ==
* [[Help:Editing|Editing]] - learn how to edit pages
* [[Sandbox]] - experiment with the wiki
* [[WikiMigration]] - we were looking for a replacement for our old wiki (and ended up using Mediawiki)

[[Category:Wesnoth Wiki]]

How to play vs Nightmares

2010-09-29T07:45:44Z

FAAB: Add category how to play

== General strategy against Nightmares of Meloen ==
The faction of Nightmares of Meloen is chaotic (except Creepers and Unstable Elemental that are neutral). It is composed of quite fast units with many specials or abilities. For this reason, if you command a lawful faction you have to follow strictly the day/night cycle. They can hit quite hard at night but on the other hand they have several units with low resistance or low defense. So according to the recruitment you did, you should be able to counter with some result at your best time of the day.

The Nightmares of Meloen don't have particularly efficient units to hold on villages. Taking into account the high price of some of their units (Life Thief, Howling Darkness), you can try to win with your economy, getting their villages earlier, holding your villages longer, by preventing them to have enough gold to buy expensive units. They have some cheap units too, but depending on which faction you play, these sometimes lack of efficiency to hurt you.

Unhatched: as this unit will charge to inflict maximum damage, you should screen your ranged specialists so it can't reach them. To do so you might rely on different units according to its trait as each trait give it some resistance bonus for some damage type. If you succeed to have the Unhatched able to attack only on your melee fighters, it might decide to do so, but will most likely receive retaliation. Get ready to finish them on your turn if the time is right.

Black Cat: with its magical attack and the jinx special, the Black Cat is one of the first unit you may want to kill if you are not Undead. It benefits of high defense but her pretty bad resistances help to kill her in a minimum of strikes when your best time of the day has come. After it has hit you, Unhatched, Life Thief or Scornful Watchers will most likely follow to inflict heavy damage.

Life Thief: arcane melee with drains, we all know from those pesky Ghosts that units of this kind are not easy to handle. Life Thieves will be seen in any matchup but against Loyalists. Fight them with ranged fire or arcane, slow them or run away from them as they are rather slow. As their defense and their physical resistances are lower than the Ghost's, countering them with any range unit is good enough to deal with its additional hitpoints. Even the usage of blade or pierce melee can be acceptable from high defense, if you fight under an advantageous time of day.

Scornful Watcher: his ranged attack turns arcane resistance into weakness. For this reason, he will be Loyalists worst enemy and will be seen in numbers against Knalgans or Northerners. Slow and weak, Nightmares will have to cover him with his tanks. Your ability to win will often be measured by your ability to clean your way to hit him.

Howling Darkness: as an expensive unit without melee attack, the Howling Darkness is an ideal target when you are countering, but as it is fast and skirmisher, go for hitting the unit when you have a good chance to kill or it will slip through your net. It will often be use to support Unhatcheds and Life Thieves on offense to reduce your retaliation and can be a threat itself at night especially against the cold fearing Drakes.

Unstable Elemental: this versatile unit can be used as a scout mostly in its tornado form that you can find in plain, road and castle. It will most likely never fight in this form and will prefer to move to hill or forest when he is ready to fight. Up to you to accept or not the challenge as it will be much slower in those forms. The Unstable Elemental most disturbing use is when it moves behind your lines and take a defending form (quake, bramble or eventually whirlpool), cutting your retreat. The slow ranged attack of the bramble form, obviously combines well with Unhatched's charge at level 1 and berserk at level 2.

Creepers: if you are not playing a chaotic faction, this unit should not change much in your strategy. You should keep trying to catch units with more hitpoints at your best time of the day, so that you don't waste too much fire power to kill this cheap unit. If you are chaotic though, you may have to adapt in order to cope with those pests that can hit you when you are at your weakest. When attacking Creepers on melee, target the ones with few Creepers around so that you reduce the retaliation. When they form a chain, you can consider breaking it in two to double their upkeep.

== Drakes vs Nightmares of Meloen ==
If both teams were randomly picked, they will most probably be badly prepared for this very offensive match, but so you may, as the saurians you'll have picked early won't be your best weapons. The Life Thief, Nightmares best asset at attack, and the Drake Burner, your own nightmare killer, are both expensive recruits so each side would wait to know their opponent before recruiting them. So if the game is starting at dawn, it is very likely that the first night will be quite peaceful and you will have plenty of time to equip yourself in Burners for the next day.

Burners and Life Thieves are the best enemies and two of one kind can kill one of the other every turn at their best time of the day. It shows how crucial the dusk will be for your Drakes, so be ready to retreat in time. As you are at least as fast as the Life Thief, if Nightmares has fallen back too much at day, you will have a easy retreat. If he has stayed close to you to prepare counter, retreat using Drake Fighters to cover your Burners from the Unhatcheds. That strategy might fail if Nightmares succeed at trapping you with Howling Darknesses. That is the reason why, using your Drake Fighters on them at day is the second objective you have to meet to keep the match going.

Depending on the number of Howling Darkness turning to Skirmisher might be a decent alternative. Beside dealing free damage to the Howling Darkness when they are the most impetuous, the Skirmisher have additional benefits: dealing a lot of retaliation to not slippery Unhatched, getting high defense units that might requires Nightmares to get more Black Cats. On top of that, as saurians resist well Life Thief's arcane, they can force Nightmares to turn to Scornful Watchers that are of not much use against your Drakes.

Drake Burner: he is Life Thief's fieriest enemy. As you will definitely see many of them around, getting as much Burners as you can is a safe strategy. As only quick ones are truly faster than the Life Thief, when they can't reach any, they can also have a shot at the Unhatched. As both Burner's advancement are awesome against Nightmares, you should try to level one.

Drake Clasher: due to his slowness and his price, the Clasher is not the best buy against Nightmares. You can however decide to get one if Nightmares haven't any Howling Darkness as it can retaliate the Unhatcheds charge with one of his two attacks depending on their trait. When Howling Darknesses are around, their mobility and their cold attack will be devastating to the Clasher with no chance of retaliation. You don't want them to have such easy kills.

Drake Fighter: the Drake Fighter is necessary to cover Burners' retreat at the end of the day as they will give maximum retaliation to Unhatched's charge and they are relatively cheap. They should not however try to shield off the Life Thief as they won't be able to survive the whole night. When attacking, the Drake Fighter should focus on the Howling Darkness, the Black Cat or the Unstable Elemental, but don't forget his fire range can cheaply harass the opponent's Life Thieves if you have no better target.

Drake Glider: faster than the Drake Fighter with better defence and an impact damage type that can scare away the Unhatched, the Drake Glider can be used for holding off the Nightmares when Burners are retreating. During attack at day time, they will be useful mostly for trapping the Nightmares at dawn and prevent them from fleeing too easily. As they are not as efficient as the Drake Fighter at dealing damage to the Howling Darkness the role they can play is still secondary and you should not recruit too many of them.

Saurian Augur: the Augur with his low hitpoints and cold damage doesn't not play a big role in this matchup. He will have trouble getting away from the Unhatched and Drakes won't have really time to protect him. Because the damages dealt are so heavy, his healing skill is minored in interest. His cold ranged attack should be used on Unhatched or anything else that he can kill. You may take your chance and feed him with kills as at level 2, the Soothsayer will be able to cure Black Cat's jinx.

Saurian Skirmisher: Depending on the number of Howling Darkness the Skirmisher might be a good choice for recruitment. Nearly as fast as them, doing free damage on melee, they beat them in price. However, due to Saurians' weakness on both cold and impact, keeping them alive might be a difficult task. Hence it is only possible if Howling Darknesses are enough to guarantee a target before Skirmisher dies.

== Knalgan vs Nightmares of Meloen ==
When you get the Knalgan Alliance against Nightmares, you will be in control of the game. Just recruiting Dwarvish Fighters or Footpads will already be a test of your opponent's skill at playing Nightmares. He will have to combine the most efficient use of his units with some well thought gamble with Unhatched to get a game to play. Add some Dwarvish Thunderers and a Dwarvish Ulfserker even the most seasoned Nightmares' players will have a hard time.

Dwarvish Fighter: with their dual blade/impact damage type, the Dwarvish Fighters are the purest anti-Unhatched units in the game, so get enough of them to control the Unhatcheds. When the time has come for you to attack, they will obviously be good at taking down anything around. Just make sure to keep them on good defense, when they have been cursed, they are still probably better sitting on their favorite terrain with a defense lowered to around 50% rather than running on worse terrain for cover. Hitting back the Black Cat who just cursed them is often the best they can do.

Dwarvish Guardsman: slow, expensive and with low damage, you can't make enough use of his pierce attack to recruit any of them. As the Dwarvish Fighter makes such a good job at countering the Unhatched, you won't need the Dwarvish Guardsman's steadfast either.

Dwarvish Thunderer: his ranged attack, his good resistance and good hitpoints, the Dwarvish Thunderer is a good recruit. He will be mainly useful to stay in control at night when the Nightmares are pushing. When staying on mountain, he can stand well against Unhatcheds and has a chance to to massive retaliation on Black Cats or Scornful Watchers. His main offensive role will be to aim at Life Thieves, and if you meet many of these, the Dwarvish Thunderer will become a necessity.

Dwarvish Ulfserker: with his guaranteed safe kill on the Howling Darkness and great chance to kill Black Cats or Scornful Watchers, the Ulfserker is an obvious good recruit to get. However, he can get drained to death by the Life Thief. In some circumstances the Unhatched can also kill him, so always make sure you can cover him properly before attacking. If there are some Creepers around, remember that a group of four or five (depending on traits) of them has a good chance to kill a full health Ulfserker.

Footpad: with his double impact attacks he is a very convenient unit to have against Nightmares. The Footpad can attack on range the Unhatched for free hit (he has good chance of hitting once has Unhatched's defense is below 50% nearly everywhere), while his excellent defense, good hitpoints and impact melee makes it difficult for the Unhatched to handle him when pushing.

Gryphon Rider: while the Gryphon Rider is an awesome offensive unit, it might have a hard time when fighting Nightmares. He can easily be trapped by the Unstable Elemental or the Howling Darkness, which could potentially hurt him a lot due to his impact weakness. Even if it does tremendous retaliation on Unhatched's charge, if the Unhatched's trait give him a boost in blade resistance (lowering each hit's damage by 5 hitpoints), he will never think twice before charging him taking into account their difference in price (except at day time). Be prudent when using the Gryphon Rider, while most of the time, he only needs two hits on a Black Cat for the kill, putting to much hope on two hits on a 60+ defense unit, might be a gamble with Gryphon Rider's 24 gold.

Poacher: the Poacher can give to your recruitment a different flavor. Best defense on forest, he can make use of this common terrain that Dwarves will avoid. He can supply some hit on the Life thief and retaliation on Black Cats or Scornful Watchers for cheap price. When the Unhatcheds get more frequent, the Footpad is a better recruit though, since the Poacher is such a juicy target for them.

Thief: the Thief can be best used to counter Nightmares when they put themselves on bad defense without making much damage. If the Thief can walk around and backstab anything, he will probably be able to make enough damage to make up for his gold. If one Thief got a kill, you might try to feed him with XP to level him. As Thieves have quite low hitpoints and bad resistance on nearly all Nightmares' damage, no need to get several of them as you can't reasonably hope you will get opportunity to backstab with several of them. Counting on a Thief based strategy is quite risky though, because they are very quick to fall under the Black Cat/Unhatched combination.

== Loyalists vs Nightmares of Meloen ==
When Loyalists' player realizes he faces Nightmares of Meloen, his attention should constantly be focused on the Scornful Watcher. The large range of Loyalists' melee units can be used to bring them down before night. As your opponent will try his best as zocing you out from getting at his Watchers, recruiting a bit of any melee units is one important step to ruin his strategy.

While the Spearman gets the best damage per gold, he is quite easily controlled by the Unhatched. Hence you should have some Cavalrymen to attack from the distance, moreover his good impact resistance can make him a good blocker against the Unhatched.

When attacking Unhatched with Mages you should try to finish from fear that Nightmares sacrifice him on your Mage hoping for a kill. For most others attack combo, the most important is to deal maximum damage. As the Nightmares don't really have an efficient village holder, they will have to give up villages reducing their ability to heal. The only exception is the Scornful Watcher as he is so deadly that you want to have him dead.

Bowman: the Bowman is less efficient at dealing damage to Nightmares than the Mage. For this reason you should restrain yourself from getting them. However, if you lack gold or if you already have one, it can be quite useful poking safely the Life Thief and the Unhatched or against the Scornful Watcher at retaliating. His additional hitpoints can be a life saver.

Cavalryman: this is a key unit for this matchup. His high resistance to impact damage helps containing the Nightmares push at night while his speed allows him to switch quickly to the attack mode on Scornful Watchers. The Cavalryman can also successfully chase down a fleeing Howling Darkness and you can use his 3 strikes to ensure a hit on the Black Cat. His blade damage is also doing well against the bramble form of the Unstable Elemental. So get some of them and try to level one.

Fencer: get them if wounded Howling Darknesses and Scornful Watchers keep escaping your grip. They will only have small use in defense, as the combination of Black Cat's jinx attack and their own bad resistance are promises of short life when facing the Unhatched. If you have no problem killing your quota of Scornful Watchers you probably better keep the gold for a Mage.

Heavy Infantry: do only recruit them when Nightmares abuse of Unhatcheds. As soon as they appear, they will be the target of Scornful Watchers to clear the way for the Unhatcheds. As your Heavy Infantry's armor is no use against them, you should make sure they are in Scornful Watcher's range only at the second night otherwise you will probably lose too much gold. Due to their slowness, they will only be useful in defense so the best time to get recruit them is usually at dusk or first night. On attack they should target anything but the Life Thief whenever possible.

Horseman: while the Horseman powerful charge let's you hope of huge damage, its cost is a deterrent to having one in the early game. If the game gets longer and you succeed in cashing enough gold, you can then get one as he will do well at Scornful Watcher assassination with his impact resistance cutting down the retaliation, and will simply be deadly against the Howling Darknesses.

Mage: the Mage will be a powerful weapon against the Unhatched. However, his low hitpoints require you to protect them at any time of the day. Hit the Unhatched you have the best chance to kill, as even wounded his charge attack is danger for your Mage's life. Because he is so weak against the Unhatched, don't feed him with kills. He will probably never live long enough to level.

Merman Fighter: when water is present in the map, getting a Merman Fighter or two is a good idea. Since Nightmares don't have good movement on water, they can force the Unstable Elemental to move to water to control them or they will be able to reach the Scornful Watchers. When facing a whirlpool form of the Unstable Elemental do not fear to engage in combat as they have worst resistance than your Merman Fighters.

Spearman: as always, the Spearman will be the first recruit to turn to. He can both retaliate hard on the Unhatched's charges and do severe damage to the Scornful Watcher. His low price allows you to get enough to protect efficiently your Mages from the threat of Unhatcheds. Combining with Cavalryman is a must though, as you want to diversify your damage type to leverage on the resistance bonus of the Unhatched's trait and get more speed to chase Nightmares down when the day comes.

== Undead vs Nightmares of Meloen ==
Having to fight Nightmares is one to the toughest experience for Undead. Unlike what they are used to, Undead in this matchup will play by counter-attack as the ability of make the most damages is not on their side. While you will be relatively safe on the ranged front, the Unhatched's impact will break your Skeletons in piece, the Life Thief's arcane will tear them apart while the cheap Creepers' banding is an additional threat to your Dark Adepts. So you will have to turn on the survival mode as soon as possible, recruiting Ghoul, Ghost, Walking Corpse, still some Skeletons and Dark Adept for the counter.

Always keep a decent amount of Dark Adepts on the board in order to keep Nightmares under pressure of a possible attack and the threat of a hard counter-strike. This way you will be ruling on the ranged as they will rule on the melee part. As you will unlikely face the threat of Life Thieves in the beginning, you will have to deal with Unhatched first by recruiting Walking Corpses to contain them and keeping your Skeletons on high defense. While your Walking Corpses begin taming the Unhatched, Nightmares will send more Life Thieves. Try to make them attack your Skeletons as if they get wounded, they will become an easy job for your Dark Adepts.

It is quite sure that at a certain moment, as your Walking Corpses starts getting annoying, Nightmares will recruit Creepers. As level 0 units, they are quite a natural opposition for the Walking Corpses, however they require some special techniques to deal with them. Creepers have a neutral alignment so you better fight them at night as two hits will be enough to kill them (they won't get plagued). Because the banding ability can make them inflict high damage you should always try to attack the most isolated ones, if you really need to kill one in the pack, better use the Skeleton as he resists strongly their pierce.

Dark Adept: again, the Dark Adept will be your best unit for attacking. The threat of the Unhatched's charge will be the major challenge, as three hits are enough to kill an adept at night. When they are in position to attack they should hit the Unhatched first as they will do maximum damage against them. The second best choice being the Life Thief. Try to pick your target so your Dark Adept can take the shoot from good defense or make sure you can cover him immediately. You'll want to go for a kill each time you attempt to damage an Unhatched, because even a badly hurt one will safely charge your Dark Adept for massive damage before dying.

Ghost: with drains on its arcane melee, the Ghost can enjoy this matchup. It is simply unattackable by the Unhatched without very heavy risk, and efficient enough to deal damages to the aberrations and Unstable Elementaland to a lesser extend to the Creepers. Its only problem will be when facing full health Life Thieves or Scornful Watchers. As the Ghost has worst resistance, less hitpoints and doesn't hit as hard, it should not engage in direct fight with them. Hopefully it can rely on its better movement points to make sure to keep far enough, as long as it doesn't get slowed by the bramble form of the Unstable Elemental.

Ghoul: don't underestimate the Ghoul role in this matchup. It is a decent candidate for holding village against Unhatcheds with its poison retaliation, and Life Thieves with its relative resistance to arcane. He can also poison Unstable Elemental to force them to heal, depriving Nightmares of support units.

Skeleton: it is a good support unit against Nightmares. As it certainly fears the Unhatched's impact and Life Thief's arcane melee, he can cause enough damage to make its sacrifice worthwhile. While the Skeleton can help clearing Creepers out of the way, it is not worth putting it on bad defense terrain for that as the Nightmares' counter will hurt him badly. It is also the best damage dealer against Black Cat and Scornful Watcher if they are present on the field. But it is not worth to feed it with kills, better use a Walking Corpse to plague them, or try to upgrade a Ghost.

Skeleton Archer: do not recruit any Archer, they are made of the kind of bones Unhatched likes to play with. At any time of the day, the Unhatched will be attracted by them and his impact charge attack will destroy them within the second. There is no way the Skeleton Archer can make enough damage before dying to repay its gold.

Vampire Bat: even the hax power of the Bat is not enough to save them against the charge of an Unhatched. Any bat is killed in two hits and the intelligent ones are dead in one single hit at night. If you got one, use it to steal village or disrupt Nightmares' organization. But stay away from Unhatcheds and Scornful Watchers at all time.

Walking Corpse: the use of Walking Corpse is mainly for obstructing, screening off Dark Adepts and Skeletons from their foes. You can also place them around units that are holding a position to reduce the number of spots available for attack. On attack, they should focus on Creepers and Unhatched.

== Rebels vs Nightmares of Meloen ==
When Rebels realize they are playing against Nightmares, their first idea will be to get some Woses. While this is a good idea, the best is too wait for dawn or second night to get one, so that Nightmares are at the closest to launch the counter. When you get your Wose, you need to get some Mages quickly. They will make Life Thieves think twice before pushing at the end of the night when your Woses get engaged. At other time of the day, better to keep recruiting Elves, mostly cost efficient Elvish Fighters.

On counter, use the Wose first on Unhatched at dawn, backed by Mages, Elvish Shaman staying on good defense to slow any Unhatched or Life Thief, the Elvish Fighters covering up while other units deploy to get ready for the push. When pushing keep the Woses moving full speed while Elves try to slow, zoc in and trap Nightmares. When attacking, use Elvish Fighters on Black Cats and Scornful Watchers, Mages on Life Thieves, Elvish Shamans and Woses on Unhatched.

When retreating, have the Woses go full speed while using Elvish Fighters to cover the fleeing Mages and Elvish Shamans. As they will get wounded pretty badly keep on recruiting more to be able to hold until next day. When you can't retreat anymore, use Elves in lines, Elvish Fighters on the most exposed spots and Elvish Archers or Elvish Scouts elsewhere. Keep slowing Unhatched if your healthiest Elvish Shaman can stay on forest with some cover. On defense at night, do not use the Woses to hold the line, but rather leave them behind to regenerate as it will help make the Nightmares' Life Thieves aimless.

Elvish Archer: if the Elvish Archer does not make as much damage as the Mage and does not have has much hitpoints as the Elvish Fighter he can still be of some use. It can increase the speed of your army while making significant damage on Nightmares' melee units for free. He can replace an Elvish Scout but can't take the role of an Elvish Fighter. So recruiting one or two is enough.

Elvish Fighter: there is obviously no chance for you to win in this matchup if you don't rely on Elvish Fighter's resilience and punch. He is the guy that will bring down any ranged units of Nightmares, and he will make maximum retaliation on Unhatched or Life Thief before leaving. That is the best hitpoints that money can buy and he will act trustfully as Mage's or Elvish Shaman's bodyguard. Have a lot of them, and keep recruiting to make up for the losses you'll have in their ranks.

Elvish Scout: on wide maps, it can be good to have some, but most of time, you will get one for village grabbing only. In the middle of the game, you will go for Elvish Fighters and an Elvish Archer once in a while. You will recruit more Elvish Scouts only is you think that you have some chances to level them with the required XP being one kill lower then Elvish Archers'.

Elvish Shaman: she is as usual the hidden treasure of the Rebels. With slow special, she is able to reduce the damage Nightmares will inflict at night and nailed down the Life Thieves when they have to retreat. With her high defense on forest, she is quite difficult to take down for the Unhatcheds while they can't really get help from the Black Cat as he would feared to get slowed in front of angry Elvish Fighters. The usual things with shamans : slow the targets you can't kill, or slow a target to lower its retaliation if you intend an attack on your enemy's primary range.

Mage: the use of Rebels' Mage will be quite different from Loyalists'. As the presence of Woses will call for Life Thieves, the Mage's main role will be to put pressure on them and counter when the day comes. For this job, a quick mage is best as he can catch up with running Life Thieves. When targeting them, make sure you hit the ones with most XP as you don't want one to level. He will again be the preferred target for the Unhatched and hence should be covered with Elvish Fighters at night as the Woses will be busy running away from Life Thieves.

Merman Hunter: less useful than the Loyalists' Merman Fighter, he still can get some use if a patch of water in present in the map. Try to use them to fix an Unstable Elemental in the water. Don't hesitate to attack him as your resistances are better than his.

Wose: you can recruit some Woses as he is excellent at countering the Unhatched's charges or taking them down at day time. While he is resistant to most Nightmares' attacks, he is very weak when facing the Life Thief who can inflict heavy damage with its arcane melee while getting healed from drains. As the Wose is as expensive and slower then the Life Thieves you can't afford to let him fight them alone and should back him with Mages.

== Northerners vs Nightmares of Meloen ==
Both factions do have tremendous melee heavy hitters: the cheap Unhatched and the cheaper Orcish Grunt. Relying on them to make a breakthrough is quite a gamble and the best way to keep in control of the game is more than often making the best use of the ranged fighters, the Scornful Watcher for one side, the Orcish Archer for the other. Due to the threat they represent, they will be the focus of the melee unit tactics.

Another similarity between these two factions is how the Black Cat and the Orcish Assassin are used. Both unit bypass the defense to hit the target and disrupt it until it has healed on a village. As both factions, don't have a healer, the villages is an important asset and should be kept at all time. Your Orcish Assassin does only impact a couple of Nightmares' units so you should keep them in low number.

Northerners make better use of terrain to improve their defense, so push Nightmares to fight you on patches of good terrain. Keep in mind to always put in front the units with more hitpoints in order to make maximum retaliation and give you the opportunity to kill on your turn. They also have more diverse damage type available and can more easily press, choosing where to attack depending on Unhatched's trait.

Goblin Spearman: evidence that the little one from the Orcish family play an essential role has still to be found. But you can still get a couple of Goblin Spearmen in some circumstances. They can be helpful at taking down the ranged oriented Black Cats and Scornful Watchers, can hold a village quite well when facing a single Unhatched and can give a hand at disinfecting an area from Creepers.

Naga Fighter: when a patch of water is available, recruiting a Naga Fighter may be required. While his range is very similar to the Unstable Elemental due to his decent movetype on land, he cannot fight as well as the Merman Fighter against them.

Orcish Archer: he is Northerners' best weapon against Life Thieves with their low defense everywhere and, for this reason, will attract Unhatched as if he was a mage. The other special of the Orcish Archer is that he will be the only unit to make equal damage to any Unhatched regardless of his trait, so you can always use him on the Unhatched that resists best the damage type you have recruited. You have to protect him though and leveling one is a big achievement for this matchup.

Orcish Assassin: the Orcish Assassin while not being able to kill much in this matchup, remains useful. You can have one on the board at any time. Aberrations and Unstable Elementals only can be poisoned, the ones that give the hardest time to Northerners can be: Unhatched, Black Cat and Scornful Watcher. Poisoning Unhatcheds is particularly efficient as they possibly get a lot of damage in retaliation if they keep attacking so Nightmares do not want them to be low on HP. When the opportunity shows, poisoning the Unstable Elemental is neat too.

Orcish Grunt: the loyal Grunt proves himself again one of the best units in this matchup. Being able to do heavy retaliation on both Unhatched and Life Thief, he is in charge of clearing Black Cats and Scornful Watchers from the map. When all the possible targets have been decimated, you can use him to protect your Orcish Archers from Unhatched or your Troll Whelp from Life Thieves. It can also be used to give the killing blow to a Life Thief, if you don't have more archers available.

Troll Whelp: he is the solution when the board starts looking like an egg incubator. His impact damage and regeneration, combined with his low price makes any Unhatched spam a complete failure. The Life Thieves like to use his arcane weakness to drain him, thus being able to hold armies of Troll Whelps, so you should only recruit them when the number of Unhatched requires them. The Troll Whelp's regeneration does not cure the effect of the Black Cat's jinx, so, if cursed, his defense will drop to a critically low level.

Wolf Rider: with his exceptional movement and his three strike attack, the Wolf Rider can have a use against Nightmares depending on your play style. He can track down wounded or poisoned units when they flee, he can also keep in range of Howling Darkness for free hitting. Generally speaking, his movetype allows you to dispatch him wherever you need one hit or two without using one of your heavy hitters.

Summary:
There are two strategies to fight Nightmares with Northerners.
The first one is to rely on Troll Whelps to control the Unhatched. As a consequence, Nightmares will recruit Life Thieves to heal on them while inflicting enough damage with Troll Whelp's arcane weakness and his low defense. On your side, you will recruit Orcish Archers to beat the Life Thieves down. You still have to recruit some Orcish Grunts as he is still the best unit to hold strategic places against the Life Thief.
The second path you can go is to go for a maximum of Orcish Grunts. If so, be ready to see Black Cats and Scornful Watchers coming in to take at them. They will be covered by Unhatcheds that you will target with some Orcish Assassin to disrupt his organization, and still some Orcish Archers. As poison will be often used and you will face ranged units, the Wolf Rider can bring additional tactics that can help getting a kill or extend the effect of poison on a trapped unit.

[[Category:How to Play]]

How to play Nightmares

2010-09-29T07:40:14Z

FAAB: Add how_to_play category

== General strategy for Nightmares of Meloen ==
Generally speaking, Nightmares of Meloen is a faction made of fast units that lack of resilience. In order to win, you have to keep your troops mobile and follow the day-night cycle. Some of Nightmares' units are relatively expensive which makes them unable to compete in number with most of default faction, but on the other hand they got a lot of abilities and specials that make them deadly when used right.

They don't have a typical village holder and it is most of the time better to leave a village open than to sit on it waiting for your opponent's attack. If holding a village is of paramount importance, good candidates are the Unhatched and in a lesser way the Black Cat or the Scornful Watcher, the former should be use to hold village threatened by melee oriented units while the latters can hold against ranged units. Given his poor resistance the Black Cat can't hold well against more than 2 units, so make sure to zoc out the other possible attackers. On hill and cave villages, the Unstable Elemental may be considered too.

As Nightmares of Meloen are quite fast units, the village grabbing should not be a problem in the early game: Unhatched, Black Cat, Unstable Elemental and Floating Darkness all have 6 or more movement points. However as the last 3 units are rather weak and expensive, make sure you keep enough cash to buy units to protect them later. A typical first turn recruitment could be: 2 Unhatched, 1 Black Cat, 1 Unstable Elemental and a mix of Scornful Watcher, Life Thief, Howling Darkness or additional Unhatched.

Unhatched: for his high resists and his low price, the Unhatched is the core unit of Nightmares' faction, filling both the big melee hitter and the cheap meatbag roles. It's good to have some for any of the matchups in mainline's. While they are very efficient in taking damage in defense, they also have a major role in most offense strategies. When attacking with them, mind the trait who gives them an edge against some damage type.

Black Cat: it is the magi of Nightmares. He helps to reduce the defender's defense when pushing an offensive, hence boosting every unit's damage per cost ratio. While having strong defense overall, it suffers of poor resistance making it quite weak in one versus some combats.

Life Thief: while it can be compared to the Ghost by some, it differs in its statistics. Even if it has more HP and better attack than the Ghost, it has worst defense and resistance. This overall make him less like a tank and more like an offensive weapon. This is particularly true against units with bad arcane resistance such as the drakes, trolls or woses. It can make an upset to a push of chaotic units with low defense too.

Scornful Watcher: if it can be considered as the archer units of nightmares, his role is major against any faction that have good arcane resistance. As it turns any arcane resistance into a weakness, this Nightmares' unit is Loyalists' and knalgans' nightmare, and could be put to good use against the arcane-neutral orcs. The Scornful Watcher is mostly a support unit against both Drakes and Undead, but can eventually retaliate against the cold damage or poke at the saurians for the former or ghosts for the latter.

Howling Darkness: a 7 movement point flying skirmisher with leadership is what we talk about. Lacking a melee attack and low hitpoints, the Howling Darkness can't take care of itself. In exchange of their protection, other units will receive lower damage from opponent's attacks with the Howling Darkness. Keep in mind that to give that bonus, it should get next to the opponent's unit.

Unstable Elemental: this is the game's most volatile unit. Most of its stats change according to the terrain it is standing on. With a very high movement point and a flyer movetype on its basic form, this can be used as Nightmares' scout. However be aware than in some of its variations, the Unstable Elemental trades most of its mobility for some resist bonus.

Creepers: a strategy changing unit. When all your attempts with Unhatched or Life Thief have failed, this is the time to bring the Creepers in. Low cost and low upkeep, you can mass them to block opposition's advance. They have very high damage as long as you use the banding ability when attacking. If they can't win a game, they can save your day.

== Nightmares of Meloen vs Drakes ==
Unless you got a Life Thief right on, it is likely that your first recruit will be a little backward what is truly needed against the Drakes. Still, your Unhatched units should be put to good use as they still deal a good amount of damages at night. After acknowledging your opponent's faction, you should start getting a few more Howling Darkness and Life Thief units as they both have a damage type the drakes are weak too. If you got a Watcher, do not worry too much, your opponent is likely to have gotten a few saurian units on their first recruit, thus your Watcher will still have his role to play.

More than in most match-ups, this one will use heavily the Time of Day cycle as your opponent will unlikely base his strategy around saurians, and will make heavy use of Burners. This will lead to a match between quick and hard hitting units with opposite alignments. Do not fear to leave your villages at day, you will get them back as the night falls.

Unhatched: Although the Drakes will resist his impact damage a bit, this unit will remain damage/cost efficient, and a good option to bring the Burners down or other units at favorable Time of Day and/or with a Howling Darkness support. Also, on favorable terrain they'll be your cheapest option to block an attack and let your expensive damage dealer safe, if you really have to hold a point or cover an important unit. Try to have a couple around any time.

Black Cat: the Cat won't be as much of use as in other match-ups, as the drakes don't suffer defense alteration as much as the high-def units. Still, it can be of use against the saurian and any cheap shot to lower a drake defense is cool to take. No need to recruit several of them.

Life Thief: they really are a core troop in the matchup against Drakes. Their damage type ensures heavy damage against any of them, in addition to the fact they'll replenish life as they fight. Always have a couple of them around, but be aware that at daytime the fire damage of Drakes will tear them apart.

Scornful Watcher: It is likely that the only saurians you'll face are those from your opponent's first recruit. Poking at the Skirmishers, or finishing and retaliating against Augurs is the only use of this unit, so don't recruit it if you know you're against the Drakes faction.

Howling Darkness: While a casual support unit elsewhere, the Darkness is a necessity against the Drakes. His cold damage type makes it efficient against anything, his horror ability will make your push safer, and his skirmishing ability will help to ZoC the hard-to-trap Drakes when comes the night. You need a couple of them around.

Unstable Elemental: The scouting role will be fill by your Darkness units already, so the Elemental will be less of use here. It can still get the iffy slots you don't want your Darkness to take, and hopping on a hill/mountain or a water hex to tank can remain a decent option if you have to protect your more important damage dealers. Don't recruit more than one.

Creeper: Although dealing piercing damage, the amount isn't enough to benefit from the Drakes' pierce weakness. So no need to focus on that point. More over, its low movement and grouping constraint will make it unable to follow the day/night push'n pull of this match-up. If the game goes for a stalemate though, because of an heavy damage threat on each side or defensive styleplay, they can become an option.

== Nightmares of Meloen vs Knalgan Alliance ==
A general purpose recruit will be good against Knalgans, all of the units you have here can serve a purpose in this match-up. Even the arcane resistance of the units doesn't make the Life Thief useless, as it remains a good counter against the Ulfserker, and can tank a bit on flatland where you don't want to expose your other units, especially against those harassing Footpads.

Unhatched: they will have a tough job dealing with the Dwarf Fighter or the Footpad because of their impact attacks. Still, the Knalgans will have to shift to other units, life the Thunderer, the Poacher, or the Thief, if they want to bring your Life Thieves down. And those units are good to charge, so keep a few Unhatched units around.

Black Cat: you will need these against Knalgans. They'll do a great job at diminishing the survivability of the elusive units, and will help to negate the dwarven incredible defense in mountains. They are easy prey for the Ulfserker though, and you will most likely have to lose a few of them during the battle. So keep a regular flux of recruiting to have 1 or 2 of them in the field.

Life Thief: a bit like the Undead Ghost, this unit will help to counter the ulf, and defend against the Fighters and Footpads you'd meet. However, they aren't a cost efficient damage dealer here, so don't recruit too many as they'll lower your fire power with each of them.

Scornful Watcher: like against the loyalists, the Watcher will get a bonus in damage against every unit you'll face, making it a precious and cost efficient ranged damage dealer. Having too many will make their protection difficult against the Ulfserkers, but having several around to poke at the melee oriented units, especially the cursed ones, is an excellent choice.

Howling Darkness: their ability is appreciable, but not a necessity. Because it is an expensive unit, and an extra safe kill for the Ulfserker, you might prefer to spend the money on more Watchers or Unhatched to outmatch the Knalgans in number or power.

Unstable Elemental: you will want one of these for the scouting role mainly : grabbing village and gathering intelligence. Don't forget that other forms can occasionally be useful, for tanking and slowing to lower retaliation.

Creeper: if the game goes for a stalemate you might want to accumulate these instead of banking. It can also be tiresome defenders to remove for the knalgans if they want to push at day. But generally speaking, you will prefer to use other units when you face the Knalgans, as few Fighters in mountains will hold massive amounts of Creepers.

Once you see your opponent to be knalgan, you'll want to diversify a bit your army and recruit more Watchers than you usually have, so get a Life Thief as soon as possible if you don't have one already, and same for the Watcher.

Each time it is safe, you'll want to use the Black Cat on the Gryphons, Thieves, Footpads and Fighters to negate their massive defense and make them easy shots for your Watchers mainly, but also at times your Life Thieves and Unhatched. Use those last two to charge the Thunderers and Poachers who can remain a threat to your Life Thief. If you see massive amounts of Footpads, get a few more Life Thieves, and progress slowly with a front line of them and a back-line of Black Cats and Scornful Watchers.

== Nightmares of Meloen vs Loyalists ==
After having got a general purpose recruitment on turn 1, when realizing Nightmares of Meloen are facing Loyalists, they want to get Scornful Watchers. Their arcane focus special is using loyalists' arcane resistance at their detriment. The Scornful Watcher is rather fragile on melee though and you need to protect at any time of the day. The Unhatched is usually used for that job as it is quite cheap and thus does not divert too much resource from the Scornful Watcher recruitment.

While most of Loyalists' army is a threat to an wounded Unhatched, only the Mage will dare to attack them when their hitpoints are still high. If he fails to finish the Unhatched, a sacrifice on the Mage is a option to consider taking into account the huge difference in price and the hard damage the Unhatched can deal. When charging Loyalists' melee units, getting them cursed first will increase your chances to make damage, while support of the Howling Darkness helps reducing the retaliation.

When retreating the Unhatched must stay in first line so it is quite important they don't get hurt too bad at the end of the night. Consider with great care the possible moves from the Cavalryman as he will be the main tool to get you zoced when the day arrives. Recruit your Unhatched around second night so they are available to cover your retreat, recruit Scornful Watcher around second day so can counter if Loyalists push too far.

Unhatched: get enough of those to protect your weaker units. They can engage in combat with any ranged unit and melee unit too if you make full use of Unhatched's trait. Exception for the Heavy Infantry that should not be attacked directly for fear of hard retaliation.

Black Cat: get one or two of them to lower opponent's defence. Combined with heavy hitters Unhatched and Scornful Watcher they guarantee maximal damage. They can be use for village holding too if the number of attacker is limited.

Life Thief: don't recruit those against Loyalists as their unit's all have good arcane resistance to counter his melee attack.

Scornful Watcher: when facing Loyalists, this is showtime for the Scornful Watcher. You have to recruit enough of them to do plenty of damage at night but make sure you can cover them when the day comes. You should consider feeding them XP so to use the level 2 at his full potential.

Howling Darkness: you can recruit one of those to help the Unhatched to clear the way for Watchers without taking too much retaliation. His own ranged attack can be of some help to weaken units that don't resist cold. Timing his attack is important because as soon as he has fired, you can't use his skirmisher for further support.

Unstable Elemental: recruit some of them zocing out your opponent's troops at dawn and trap them in at dusk. When put in water they can restrain Mermen's mobility, however they should not engage in combat due to their bad resistance. The Unstable Elemental can also help holding the line when put on hill or forest. In the later terrain, the slow special can keep the Mages away and their pierce resist can hold the Spearmen.

Creeper: you can use some of them to hurt Mages, Bowmen or horses. When your time of the day is done, you can also use them to shield more important units by forcing your opponent to use some unit to clear them out. Keep them in pack to lower upkeep.

== Nightmares of Meloen vs Undead ==
This matchup will be another total war for Nightmares. Facing another chaotic faction, there will be not much time to rest even if the pace of the game might get slower depending on the recruited lines.

As Nightmares realize they are facing Undead they will have most probably an edge to launch the first attack. As Undead's major tool to contain attack from Nightmares is the Walking Corpse and that this one is rarely recruited in the beginning of the game, there will be a window for Nightmares to strike first before Undead gets fully prepared. During that period, the Unhatched will be ruling the place raiding Skeletons and Dark Adepts.

As Undead starts building up its army of Walking Corpses, Nightmares will have to change his recruitment pattern toward Life Thief and Creepers. The Life Thief despite its high price will be an invaluable asset with its heavy arcane melee that hurts any undead. The Creepers will be necessary to match Walking Corpses' numbers.

Unhatched: one of Nightmares' most important weapons in this matchup. The Unhatched's role is to focus on Dark Adepts and get them down before they inflict deadly strikes. Its charge is also very efficient depending on its trait at fighting skeletons despite the heavy retaliation at night. For these reasons, you should keep getting some after Walking Corpses are spreading. If they have to charge a Walking Corpse, make sure to pick one that can be killed in one hit as its retaliation will hurt hard.

Black Cat: as Black Cat's special jinx is not affecting Undead, she has a too huge price for its limited power in this matchup and should not be recruited in numbers. If you have got one, use her to hunt Bats, weaken skeleton with magic before Unhatched's assault or hold village.

Life Thief: with its arcane melee, the Life Thief will be the master of the battle, its only threat being the Dark Adept. While it will be inflicting damage all around, it will have very few opportunity to drain so it will have to retreat to heal. Don't let your blood lust make you forget it or you could lose all hopes to level.

Scornful Watcher: as most Undead's units have some arcane weakness, the Scornful Watcher doesn't play a significant role. The only exception is if Undead recruitment turns for Ghouls against who he is the best weapon. Otherwise, use your Scornful Watcher on Bats and Ghosts, or to defend against the Dark Adept. Getting Scornful Watcher to fight Ghost is a good idea if you can't afford getting a Life Thief.

Howling Darkness: its cold ranged attack is very inefficient against most Undead's units and its terror ability doesn't affect undead. For these reasons, refrain yourself from recruiting any Howling Darkness.

Unstable Elemental: it is good to have one of this quick unit on the board. As the tornado form, the fastest, is quite weak, it will be used mainly for scouting and remote village protection. The bramble form can also be of some help with two impact attacks and the slow special. All form being weak to arcane, it will be a target for the Ghosts that will heal on them with drain when they don't fear getting slowed.

Creeper: the Creepers are a good match to the Walking Corpse with the advantage of not fearing to be plagued. They have less health points but hit harder when the banding ability is used well. Make sure you keep them in pack as the Walking Corpses will always target the most isolated ones. You should wait the end of the night to attack them as they will lose their chaotic bonus that allows them to kill your neutral Creeper in two hits. Keep in mind though to kill Walking Corpse when it clears access to a Dark Adept, and doing it at daytime would bring little benefit as your Unhatched will not hit that hard.

== Nightmares of Meloen vs Rebels ==
The Unhatched and Black Cat combination will shine on this match-up. The defense debuffing will negate the specialty of the nimble elves, and the hard hitting Unhatched will quickly rip off their little health amount. That will not be enough to give you the game in hand though : the cost efficient fighter can still do some nasty retaliation, even if your Unhatched has the appropriate trait, and the Wose is almost invincible against them. Therefore, you'll need a mix of support units to make up for it.

Your opponent will try to hold your night pushes mostly, capitalize experience by finishing off the units that took hard retaliation and wait to have regrouped a few Woses before attacking you at day. Try to seize the dynamic of the game in your favor with an early threat and have the push'n pull happen around his villages rather than yours. If he brings on too many Woses, counter recruit with your Life Thief units, and use the support of an Howling Darkness if too many fighters block the way.

Unhatched: They'll be your core troop here, dealing massive damage to the elves who are on bad terrain or under the effect of jinx, as well as taking the hits from swords and arrows. Have an army of them anytime but if you see Wose spam.

Black Cat: Another of your key units in this match. They won't deal many damage, but they'll have a massive impact on the Rebels' defense organization. Always have at least one, but you may recruit several as they'll be really busy cursing every unit around.

Life Thief: Their arcane damage will make them quite decent damage dealers against most of Rebels' troop. However they really shine at dealing with the Wose, and aren't as cost efficient as the Unhatched for the other jobs. So recruit according to the number of Woses you face.

Scornful Watcher: Because nearly all units it'll fight with are arcane weak, the Scornful Watcher's special will lessen its potential. Still, the rounding of damages make it do a 7-3 ranged attack (at night only) making it a passable archer-like creature. It may deal with the human mage too in favorable conditions. You can have one around, but restrain from having more as your money is probably better spent elsewhere.

Howling Darkness: If you face packs of elves to counter your Unhatched army, its horror ability will be of good help to reduce retaliation. Moreover, its skirmishing capacity will make it efficient at ZoCing units, get on the extra hex you need for damage dealing, or even slip behind the lines to village threat, decoy, create open spaces and disorganize the Rebels' defense organization in general. It is quite an expensive unit though, so don't recruit several of it.

Unstable Elemental: The Elemental will have a vital role of scouting and gathering intelligence. It will also at times be able to tank in hills or grab the forest hexes your opponent would want. To finish with, its slowing special when coming out of a forest will ensure your Unhatched to take low retaliation even against the fighters. The unit isn't too damage/cost efficient though, so bear in mind that you decrease your fire power with each of them.

Creeper: Again, the Creepers will offer an alternative to your army, but they don't make a game on their own, especially since the Wose is about invincible against them. Go the Creepers way if you fight many elves that aren't willing to come for a fight.

== Nightmares of Meloen vs Northerners ==
The fight between these two chaotic factions will be relentless. As Nightmares' units are slightly weaker and more expensive, it will be theirs to decide when to retreat or heal a unit. If they failed to do so and try to match Northerners in a total war, it is likely that they will end up critically wounded and undermanned.

While the natural way for Nightmares of Meloen to fight against Northerners would be to use their abilities to make for Northerners' number, that strategy doesn't fare very well. Nightmares' best chance is to turn quickly to Creepers. Getting too many Unhatched will make the Northerners turn to Whelps. As Nightmares' Life Thieves, their best counter against trolls, can't beat them in price, that is not something they want to happen.

Unhatched: this time, basing your army around this unit won't be so safe : the Troll Whelp is most of the time quite efficient to counter it, charging Grunts is not often a good idea and the fire of Orcish Archers is efficient enough. Though it remains important to keep a few arounds because it remains an efficient Wolf and Archer killer and if the traits and the Howling Darkness are wisely used, could even charge occasionally Grunts or Whelps.

Black Cat: she is a vital unit to have to weaken defense of Northerners' melee units. Keep her on the best defense and don't leave Northerners too many spots to attack her as a Grunt only needs two hits to kill her at night. Even then, it will be Grunts' primary target, so Nightmares will have to regularly put her in their recruitment list as their Black Cats fall.

Life Thief: while it is a useful unit to face Whelps as he leverages on their arcane weakness, its low defense and lack of fire resistance makes it Orcish Archer's favorite meal. However, recruiting it will force your opponent to invest in Orcish Archers, a unit that is more expensive and an easier prey for your Unhatched, because the other northerner troops will hardly deal with your Life Thief on their own. Still, it is more a unit to bring in the middle of the game after Nightmares have survived Orcs first assaults and Northerners move to an attrition warfare with Whelps.

Scornful Watcher: the safest fighter to poke at the Grunts. He deals good damage without retaliation. However as it still requires 6 or 7 hits to kill a Grunt, the support of Black Cats is necessary to inflict enough damage per turn to stand the flow of hordes of Grunts. His retaliation is also good enough to make cursed melee units think twice before attacking. However, because it is by far not as cost efficient as the Grunts here, they aren't enough to give you victory, and are only a part of the mix you need.

Howling Darkness: it can provide helpful support to attacks on melee and its range attack is very useful to finish off cursed Grunts or Whelps. But as its survival hope is quite bleak against melee heavy Northerners, getting one at a time is enough. As it gets a nice health point boost on leveling, Nightmares might want to feed him with kills (a bit more than three kills needed to advance).

Unstable Elemental: this scout can find some room to fit in. It can be useful on water against Naga and can hold a hill or mountain for a while. The bramble form on forest, while it gets a nice slow special, is weak to Grunt's blade. While the Unstable Elemental is very versatile, something is common to all forms: they can be poisoned.

Creeper: his lack of mobility is not a problem as both factions are chaotic, while his relatively high defense requires on average two Grunts to kill one at full health. They do a pretty lousy job at holding village against more than 2 units. Creepers' priority is to bring down the Orcish Archers on attack and cover healing units and Watchers. As they are of neutral alignment, wait for daytime to push them to attack when they will receive less retaliation. If they can be used to attack Wolf Riders, they should keep defensive for the other melee units. Keep the full health Creepers in front to maximise retaliation before they die. Try to manage your gold to recruit them by pack of at least three as power comes with number.

Summary:
Use Creepers on Orcish Archers and Black Cat and Scornful Watcher on Grunts. The Unhatched can at times be used to charge but you have to create good conditions of attack for him. If you really have to charge something, try to use the Floating Darkness to limit retaliation (unless you target an Archer), and keep in mind the traits. Charging Assassin is a good idea to get rid of the poison that turns your Unhatched into a joke. If you face an army of Trolls get some Life Thieves. If you can't, best is to just ignore Trolls unless you have a bunch of idle Creepers. Don't mind high defense spot (except for the Cat) as much as unit cover when moving.

== Nightmares of Meloen vs Nightmares ==
Like all mirror matches, this matchup requires to use units at their full potential to make a difference. The additional fun in this mirror is that you will make huge damage at each turn and that for most units the number of potential targets is pretty high.

When realizing you face other Nightmares, get more Life Thieves. Beside other Life Thieves, its only foe is the Scornful Watcher, so its life on the board is pretty easy. The only thing to worry is to get slowed by a bramble form of the Unstable Elemental as that would make any Scornful Watcher around an immediate danger.

Move in the battlefield with Life Thieves first. While you should not let them get slowed, you can lure some foe in the open to charge him with Unhatcheds. When moving, the Unhatched will under constant pressure from opponent's Life Thieves so you should keep your Scornful Watchers in range to counter an attack (bramble form of the Unstable Elemental can do either).

In the case you face a spam of bramble form of the Unstable Elemental, make sure you attack them one after the other, feeding the same Life Thief with kills. The bramble forms lacks of attack power and even slowed Life Thief will heal enough on retaliation to survive. Putting your Unhatched on forest will deprive your opponent from the best spots and force him quickly to resign after your first Life Thief has levelled.

Unhatched: while the damage the Unhatched can do is still pretty high against Nightmares, the impact damage he resists least is distributed on several units: Unhatched, Scornful Watcher and some forms of Unstable Elemental all have some and can inflict painful retaliation, which leaves the Black Cat and Floating Darkness as preferred targets. It is worth though to throw the Unhatched on any Scornful Watcher around to protect your Life Thief.

Black Cat: as most of Nightmares' units have pretty low defense, getting her is not mandatory, but if the opposition is seasoned, the increase of chance to hit will be welcome. In this case, she will be in constant danger from the opposing Unhatched. As the jinx special does not affect unit with nightmare race (Life Thief, Floating Darkness), she will be most useful on Unhatched as they will not retaliate. Cursing an Unstable Elemental can help your life Thief to heal faster too.

Life Thief: its arcane attack spreads panic and desolation in the ranks of opposing Nightmares. It hurts badly any unit around, getting healed in the process except against the nightmare race. Get some of them.

Scornful Watcher: he is very useful to tame the Life Thief. None other unit can do the job better and safer than him. As being the major threat to the powerful Life Thief along with the Life Thief itself, he will be followed closely by opponent's Unhatched and should thus be protected by yours. If no better opportunity is present, taking at Creepers never hurts.

Howling Darkness: the Howling Darkness helps reducing the impact of retaliation, saving a couple of health points that can turn death into life. However, due to its high price and lack of resilience, one of them is enough. Its cold ranged should be left for the Unhatched that has no resistance.

Unstable Elemental: in its basic tornado form, it is quite weak, and taking into account how fast is the Unhatched it might be hard to keep alive. Move it to forest or hill and it will trade its blade for an impact attack that will earn Unhatched's respect. The bramble form gets a slow special on its range attack that comes handy against the Life Thief. This asset will make it the reigning form on the battlefield as the quake form's improved blade and fire resistance will have no use.

Creeper: while not playing a significant role in the mirror matchup, the Creepers can always bring a change in strategy. Their main targets would then be the Watchers, the Floating Darkness and the Black Cat.

[[Category:How to Play]]

LuaWML/Units

2010-09-23T07:36:36Z

FAAB: /* wesnoth.simulate_combat */ explicitely give the expected type for the attack parameter

This page describes the [[LuaWML]] functions for handling units.

A unit is a proxy table with the following fields:
* '''x''', '''y''': integers (read only, read/write if the unit is not on the map)
* '''side''': integer (read/write)
* '''id''': string (read only)
* '''type''': string (read only)
* '''name''': translatable string (read only)
* '''hitpoints''', '''max_hitpoints''', '''experience''', '''max_experience''', '''max_moves''': integers (read only)
* '''hitpoints''': integer (read/write) {{DevFeature1.9}}
* '''moves''': integer (read/write)
* '''resting''': boolean (read/write)
* '''hidden''': boolean (read/write) {{DevFeature1.9}}
* '''petrified''', '''canrecruit''': booleans (read only)
* '''role''', '''facing''': strings (read/write)
* '''status''': proxy associative table (read only, read/write fields) {{DevFeature1.9}}
* '''__cfg''': WML table (dump)

The metatable of these proxy tables appears as '''"unit"'''.

A unit can be either visible on the map ([[#wesnoth.get_units]], [[#wesnoth.put_unit]]), or on a recall list ([[#wesnoth.get_recall_units]], [[#wesnoth.put_recall_unit]]), or private to the Lua code ([[#wesnoth.create_unit]], [[#wesnoth.copy_unit]], [[#wesnoth.extract_unit]]). The Lua code has complete control over the private units; they will not be modified unless accessed through the proxy unit. Units on the map and on the recall lists, however, can be modified by the user, the engine, WML, independently of the Lua code. In particular, if a unit is killed, any further use of the proxy unit will cause an error. For units on the map, the proxy unit is valid as long as there is a unit on the map that has the same "underlying_id" WML field as the original one. The behavior is similar for units on the recall lists.

==== wesnoth.get_units ====

Returns an array of all the units on the map matching the WML filter passed as the first argument. See [[StandardUnitFilter]] for details about filters.

local leaders_on_side_two = get_units { side = 2, canrecruit = true }
local name_of_leader = leaders_on_side_two[1].name

==== wesnoth.get_unit ====

{{DevFeature1.9}}

Returns the unit at the given location or with the given underlying ID.

local args = ...
local unit = wesnoth.get_unit(args.x1, args.y1)

==== wesnoth.match_unit ====

{{DevFeature1.9}}

Returns true if the given unit matches the WML filter passed as the second argument.

assert(unit.canrecruit == wesnoth.match_unit(unit, { canrecruit = true }))

==== wesnoth.put_unit ====

Places a unit on the map. This unit is described either by a WML table or by a proxy unit. Coordinates can be passed as the first two arguments, otherwise the table is expected to have two fields '''x''' and '''y''', which indicate where the unit will be placed. If the function is called with coordinates only, the unit on the map at the given coordinates is removed instead.

-- create a unit with random traits, then erase it
wesnoth.put_unit(17, 42, { type = "Elvish Lady" })
wesnoth.put_unit(17, 42)

When the argument is a proxy unit, no duplicate is created. In particular, if the unit was private or on a recall list, it no longer is; and if the unit was on the map, it has been moved to the new location. Note: passing a WML table is just a shortcut for calling [[#wesnoth.create_unit]] and then putting the resulting unit on the map.

-- move the leader back to the top-left corner
wesnoth.put_unit(1, 1, wesnoth.get_units({ canrecruit = true })[1])

==== wesnoth.get_recall_units ====

{{DevFeature1.9}}

Returns an array of all the units on the recall lists matching the WML filter passed as the first argument.

==== wesnoth.put_recall_unit ====

{{DevFeature1.9}}

Places a unit on a recall list. This unit is described either by a WML table or by a proxy unit. The side of the recall list is given by the second argument, or by the side of the unit if missing.

-- put the unit at location 17,42 on the recall list for side 2
wesnoth.put_recall_unit(wesnoth.get_units({ x= 17, y = 42 })[1], 2)

When the argument is a proxy unit, no duplicate is created. In particular, if the unit was private or on the map, it no longer is. Note: passing a WML table is just a shortcut for calling [[#wesnoth.create_unit]] and then putting the resulting unit on a recall list.

==== wesnoth.create_unit ====

Creates a private unit from a WML table.

local u = wesnoth.create_unit { type = "White Mage", gender = "female" }

==== wesnoth.copy_unit ====

Creates a private unit from another unit.

-- extract a unit from the map
local u = wesnoth.copy_unit(wesnoth.get_units({ type = "Thug" })[1])
wesnoth.put_unit(u.x, u.y)
-- u is still valid at this point

==== wesnoth.extract_unit ====

{{DevFeature1.9}}

Removes a unit from the map or from a recall list and makes it private.

-- remove all the units from the recall list of side 1 and put them in a WML container
local l = {}
for i,u in ipairs(wesnoth.get_recall_units { side = 1 }) do
wesnoth.extract_unit(u)
table.insert(l, u.__cfg)
end
helper.set_variable_array("player_recall_list", l)

Note: if the unit is on the map, it is just a shortcut for calling [[#wesnoth.copy_unit]] and then [[#wesnoth.put_unit]] without a unit. It is, however, the only way for removing a unit from a recall list without putting it on the map.

==== wesnoth.add_modification ====

{{DevFeature1.9}}

Modifies a given unit. It needs to be a proxy unit. The second argument is the type of the modification (either trait, object, or advance). The option "advance" applies effects as if the unit would advance (e.g. AMLA effects). The third argument is a WML table describing the effect, so mostly containing '''[effect]''' children. See [[EffectWML]] for details about effects.

local u = wesnoth.get_units { canrecruit = true }[1]
wesnoth.add_modification(u, "object", { { "effect", { apply_to = "image_mod", replace = "RC(red>blue)" } } })

==== wesnoth.unit_resistance ====

Returns the resistance of a unit against an attack type. (Note: it is a WML resistance. So the higher it is, the weaker the unit is.) The third argument indicates whether the unit is the attacker. Last arguments are the coordinates of an optional map location (for the purpose of taking abilities into account).

local fire_resistance = 100 - wesnoth.unit_resistance(u, "fire")

==== wesnoth.unit_defense ====

Returns the defense of a unit on a particular terrain. (Note: it is a WML defense. So the higher it is, the weaker the unit is.)

local flat_defense = 100 - wesnoth.unit_defense(u, "Gt")

==== wesnoth.unit_movement_cost ====

Returns the movement cost of a unit on a particular terrain.

local move_cost = wesnoth.unit_movement_cost(u, "Gt")

==== wesnoth.unit_ability ====

{{DevFeature1.9}}

Returns true if the given ability is active for the unit.

function has_teleport(u)
return wesnoth.unit_ability(u, "teleport")
end

==== wesnoth.get_unit_type_ids ====

Returns an array containing all the unit type IDs the engine knows about.

local unit_types = wesnoth.get_unit_type_ids()
wesnoth.message(string.format("%d unit types registered. First one is %s.", #unit_types, unit_types[1]))

==== wesnoth.get_unit_type ====

Returns the unit type with the corresponding ID.

local lich_cost = wesnoth.get_unit_type("Ancient Lich").cost

Unit types are proxy tables with the following fields:
* '''id''': string
* '''name''': translatable string (read only)
* '''max_moves''', '''max_experience''', '''max_hitpoints''', '''level''', '''cost''': integers (read only)
* '''__cfg''': WML table (dump)

The metatable of these proxy tables appears as '''"unit type"'''.

==== wesnoth.unit_types ====

{{DevFeature1.9}}

This is not a function but a table indexed by unit type ids. Its elements are the proxy tables returned by [[#wesnoth.get_unit_type]].

local lich_cost = wesnoth.unit_types["Ancient Lich"].cost

==== wesnoth.simulate_combat ====

Computes the hitpoint distribution and status chance after a combat between two units. Optional integers can be passed to select a particular weapon, otherwise the "best" one is selected. The first unit is the attacker; it does not have to be on the map, though its location should be meaningful. The second unit is the defender; it has to be on the map.

When giving the attack, the parameter is the attack id (integer) and not an element from the table returned by helper.child_range(att, "attack").

local function display_stats(n, t)
wesnoth.message(string.format(
"Chance for the %s\n to be slowed: %f,\n to be poisoned: %f,\n to die: %f.\nAverage HP: %f.",
n, t.slowed, t.poisoned, t.hp_chance[0], t.average_hp))
end
local att_stats, def_stats = wesnoth.simulate_combat(att, att_weapon, def)
display_stats("attacker", att_stats)
display_stats("defender", def_stats)

How to play vs Nightmares

2010-04-24T09:16:15Z

FAAB: /* Drakes vs Nightmares of Meloen */ Fix some type

2010-03-10T05:24:59Z

FAAB: /* Undead */ First version

How to play vs Nightmares

2010-03-10T05:23:57Z

FAAB: /* Loyalists */ First version

How to play vs Nightmares

2010-03-10T05:22:37Z

FAAB: /* Drakes */ First version

2010-03-01T01:33:19Z

FAAB: /* Nightmares */ Fix typo

== General Nightmares Strategies ==
Generally speaking, Nightmares of Meloen is a faction made of fast units that lack of resilience. In order to win, you have to keep your troops mobile and follow the day-night cycle. Some of Nightmares' units are relatively expensive which makes them unable to compete in number with most of default faction, but on the other hand they got a lot of abilities and specials that make them deadly when used right.

They don't have a typical village holder and it is most of the time better to leave a village open than to sit on it waiting for your opponent's attack. If holding a village is of paramount importance, good candidates are the Unhatched and the Black Cat, the former should be use to hold village threatened by melee oriented units while the later can hold against ranged units. Given his poor resistance the Black Cat can't hold well against more than 2 units, so make sure to zoc out the other possible attackers. On hill and cave villages, the Unstable Elemental may be considered too.

As Nightmares of Meloen are quite fast units, the village grabbing should not be a problem in the early game: Unhatched, Black Cat, Unstable Elemental and Floating Darkness all have 6 or more movement points. However as the last 3 units are rather weak and expensive, make sure you keep enough cash to buy units to protect them later. A typical first turn recruitment could be: 2 Unhatched, 1 Black Cat, 1 Unstable Elemental and a Life Thief or a Scournful Watcher .

Unhatched: for his high resists and his low price, the Unhatched is the tank unit of Nightmares' faction. It's good to have some for any of the matchups in mainline's. As they are very efficient in taking damage in defense, they also have a major role in most offense strategies. When attacking with them, mind the trait who gives them an edge against some damage type.

Black Cat: it is the magi of Nightmares. He helps reduce the defender defense when pushing an offensive, hence boosting every unit's damage per cost ratio. While having strong defense overall, it suffer of poor resistance making it quite weak in one versus some combats.

Life Thief: while it can be compared to the Ghost by some, it differs in its statistics. Even if it has more HP and better attack than the Ghost, it has worst defense and resistance. This overall make him less like a tank and more like an offensive weapon. This is particularly true against factions with bad arcane resistance. It can make an upset to a push of chaotic units with low defense too.

Scornful Watcher: if it can be considered as the archer units of nightmares, his role is major against any faction that have good arcane resistance. As it turns any arcane resistance into a weakness, this Nightmares' unit is Loyalists' and orcs' nightmare. The Scornful Watcher is just a support unit against both Drakes and Undead, where, when you have one, you wish you had none and use it to make retaliation damage to the opponent's cold ranged.

Howling Darkness: a 7 movement point flying skirmisher with leadership is what we talk about. Lacking a melee attack and low hitpoints, the Howling Darkness can't take care of itself. In exchange of their protection, other units will receive lower damage from opponent's attacks with the Howling Darkness. Keep in mind that to give that bonus, it should get next to the opponent's unit.

Unstable Elemental: this is the game's most volatile unit. Most of its stats change according to the terrain it is standing on. With a very high movement point and a flyer movetype on its basic form, this can be used as Nightmares' scout. However be aware than in some of its variations, the Unstable Elemental trades most of its mobility for some resist bonus.

Creepers: a strategy changing unit. When all your attempts with Unhatched or Life Thief have failed, this is the time to bring the Creepers in. Low cost and low upkeep, you can mass them to block opposition's advance. They have very high damage as long as you use the banding ability when attacking. If they can't win a game, they can save your day.

== Drakes ==
Unless you got a Life Thief right on, it is likely that your first recruit will be a little backward what is truly needed against the Drakes. Still, your Unhatched units should be put to good use as they still deal a good amount of damages at night. After acknowledging your opponent's faction, you should start getting a few more Howling Darkness and Life Thief units as they both have a damage type the drakes are weak too. If you got a Watcher, do not worry too much, your opponent is likely to have gotten a few saurian units on their first recruit, thus your Watcher will still have his role to play.

More than in most match-ups, this one will use heavily the Time of Day cycle as your opponent will unlikely base his strategy around saurians, and will make heavy use of Burners. This will lead to a match between quick and hard hitting units with opposite alignments. Do not fear to leave your villages at day, you will get them back as the night falls.

Unhatched: Although the Drakes will resist his impact damage a bit, this unit will remain damage/cost efficient, and a good option to bring the Burners down or other units at favorable Time of Day and/or with a Howling Darkness support. Also, on favorable terrain they'll be your cheapest option to block an attack and let your expensive damage dealer safe, if you really have to hold a point or cover an important unit. Try to have a couple around any time.

Black Cat: the Cat won't be as much of use as in other match-ups, as the drakes don't suffer defense alteration as much as the high-def units. Still, it can be of use against the saurian and any cheap shot to lower a drake defense is cool to take. No need to recruit several of them.

Life Thief: they really are a core troop in the matchup against Drakes. Their damage type ensures heavy damage against any of them, in addition to the fact they'll replenish life as they fight. Always have a couple of them around, but be aware that at daytime the fire damage of Drakes will tear them apart.

Scornful Watcher: It is likely that the only saurians you'll face are those from your opponent's first recruit. Poking at the Skirmishers, or finishing and retaliating against Augurs is the only use of this unit, so don't recruit it if you know you're against the Drakes faction.

Howling Darkness: While a casual support unit elsewhere, the Darkness is a necessity against the Drakes. His cold damage type makes it efficient against anything, his horror ability will make your push safer, and his skirmishing ability will help to ZoC the hard-to-trap Drakes when comes the night. You need a couple of them around.

Unstable Elemental: The scouting role will be fill by your Darkness units already, so the Elemental will be less of use here. It can still get the iffy slots you don't want your Darkness to take, and hopping on a hill/mountain or a water hex to tank can remain a decent option if you have to protect your more important damage dealers. Don't recruit more than one.

Creeper: Although dealing piercing damage, the amount isn't enough to benefit from the Drakes' pierce weakness. So no need to focus on that point. More over, its low movement and grouping constraint will make it unable to follow the day/night push'n pull of this match-up. If the game goes for a stalemate though, because of an heavy damage threat on each side or defensive styleplay, they can become an option.

== Knalgan ==
A general purpose recruit will be good against Knalgans, all of the units you have here can serve a purpose in this match-up. Even the arcane resistance of the units doesn't make the Life Thief useless, as it remains a good counter against the Ulfserker, and can tank a bit on flatland where you don't want to expose your other units, especially against those harassing Footpads.

Unhatched: they will have a tough job dealing with the Dwarf Fighter or the Footpad because of their impact attacks. Still, the Knalgans will have to shift to other units, life the Thunderer, the Poacher, or the Thief, if they want to bring your Life Thieves down. And those units are good to charge, so keep a few Unhatched units around.

Black Cat: you will need these against Knalgans. They'll do a great job at diminishing the survivability of the elusive units, and will help to negate the dwarven incredible defense in mountains. They are easy prey for the Ulfserker though, and you will most likely have to lose a few of them during the battle. So keep a regular flux of recruiting to have 1 or 2 of them in the field.

Life Thief: a bit like the Undead Ghost, this unit will help to counter the ulf, and defend against the Fighters and Footpads you'd meet. However, they aren't a cost efficient damage dealer here, so don't recruit too many as they'll lower your fire power with each of them.

Scornful Watcher: like against the loyalists, the Watcher will get a bonus in damage against every unit you'll face, making it a precious and cost efficient ranged damage dealer. Having too many will make their protection difficult against the Ulfserkers, but having several around to poke at the melee oriented units, especially the cursed ones, is an excellent choice.

Howling Darkness: their ability is appreciable, but not a necessity. Because it is an expensive unit, and an extra safe kill for the Ulfserker, you might prefer to spend the money on more Watchers or Unhatched to outmatch the Knalgans in number or power.

Unstable Elemental: you will want one of these for the scouting role mainly : grabbing village and gathering intelligence. Don't forget that other forms can occasionally be useful, for tanking and slowing to lower retaliation.

Creeper: if the game goes for a stalemate you might want to accumulate these instead of banking. It can also be tiresome defenders to remove for the knalgans if they want to push at day. But generally speaking, you will prefer to use other units when you face the Knalgans, as few Fighters in mountains will hold massive amounts of Creepers.

Once you see your opponent to be knalgan, you'll want to diversify a bit your army and recruit more Watchers than you usually have, so get a Life Thief as soon as possible if you don't have one already, and same for the Watcher.

Each time it is safe, you'll want to use the Black Cat on the Gryphons, Thieves, Footpads and Fighters to negate their massive defense and make them easy shots for your Watchers mainly, but also at times your Life Thieves and Unhatched. Use those last two to charge the Thunderers and Poachers who can remain a threat to your Life Thief. If you see massive amounts of Footpads, get a few more Life Thieves, and progress slowly with a front line of them and a back-line of Black Cats and Scournful Watchers.

== Loyalists ==
After having got a general purpose recruitment on turn 1, when realizing nightmares of Meloen are facing Loyalists, they want to get Scornful Watcher. Their arcane focus special is using loyalists' arcane resistance at their detriment. The Scornful Watcher is rather fragile on melee though and you need to protect at any time of the day. The Unhatched is usually used for that job as it is quite cheap and thus does not divert too much resource from the Scornful Watcher recruitment.

Unhatched: get enough of those to protect your weaker units. They can engage in combat with any ranged unit and melee unit too if you make full use of Unhatched's trait. Exception for the Heavy Infantry that should not be attacked directly for fear of hard retaliation.

Black Cat: get one or two of them to lower opponent's defence. Combined with heavy hitters Unhatched and Watcher they garantee maximal damage. They can be use for village holding too if the number of attacker is limited.

Life Thief: don't recruit those against Loyalist as their unit's all have good arcane resistance to counter his melee attack.

Scornful Watcher: when facing Loyalist, this is showtime for the Watcher. You have to recruit enough of them to do plenty of damage at night but make sure you can cover them when the day comes. You should consider feeding them XP so to use the level 2 at his full potential.

Howling Darkness: you can recruit one of those to help the Unhatched to clear the way for Watchers without taking too much retaliation. His own ranged attack can be of some help to weaken units that don't resist cold. Timing his attack is important because as soon as he has fired, you can't use his skirmisher for further support.

Unstable Elemental: recruit some of them zocing out your opponent's troops at dawn and trap them in at dusk. When put in water they can restrain Mermen's mobility, however they should not engage in combat due to their bad resistance. The Unstable Elemental can also help holding the line when put on hill or forest. In the later terrain, the slow special can keep the mages away and their pierce resist can hold the spearmen.

Creeper: you can use some of them to hurt mages, archers or horses. When your time of the day is done, you can also use them to shield more important units by forcing your opponent to use some unit to clear them out. Keep them in pack to lower upkeep.

== Undead ==
This matchup will be another total war for Nightmares. Facing another chaotic faction, there will be not much time to rest even if the pace of the game might get slower depending on the recruited lines.

As Nightmares realize they are facing Undead they will have most probably an edge to launch the first attack. As Undead's major tool to contain attack from Nightmares is the Walking Corpse and that this one is rarely recruited in the beginning of the game, there will be a window for Nightmares to strike first before Undead gets fully prepared. During that period, the Unhatched will be ruling the place raiding Skeletons and Dark Adepts.

As Undead starts building up its army of Walking Corpses, Nightmares will have to change his recruitment pattern toward Life Thief and Creepers. The Life Thief despite its high price will be an invaluable asset with its heavy arcane melee that hurts any undead. The Creepers will be necessary to match Walking Corpses' numbers.

Unhatched: one of Nightmares' most important weapons in this matchup. The Unhatched's role is to focus on Dark Adepts and get them down before they inflict deadly strikes. Its charge is also very efficient depending on its trait at fighting skeletons despite the heavy retaliation at night. For these reasons, you should keep getting some after Walking Corpses are spreading. If they have to charge a Walking Corpse, make sure to pick one that can be killed in one hit as its retaliation will hurt hard.

Black Cat: as Black Cat's special jinx is not affecting Undead, she has a too huge price for its limited power in this matchup and should not be recruited in numbers. If you have got one, use her to hunt Bats, weaken skeleton with magic before Unhatched's assault or hold village.

Life Thief: with its arcane melee, the Life Thief will be the master of the battle, its only threat being the Dark Adept. While it will be inflicting damage all around, it will have very few opportunity to drain so it will have to retreat to heal. Don't let your blood lust make you forget it or you could lose all hopes to level.

Scornful Watcher: as most Undead's units have some arcane weakness, the Scornful Watcher doesn't play a significant role. The only exception is if Undead recruitment turns for Ghouls against who he is the best weapon. Otherwise, use your Scornful Watcher on Bats and Ghosts, or to defend against the Dark Adept. Getting Scornful Watcher to fight Ghost is a good idea if you can't afford getting a Life Thief.

Howling Darkness: its cold ranged attack is very inefficient against most Undead's units and its terror ability doesn't affect undead. For these reasons, refrain yourself from recruiting any Howling Darkness.

Unstable Elemental: it is good to have one of this quick unit on the board. As the tornado form, the fastest, is quite weak, it will be used mainly for scouting and remote village protection. The bramble form can also be of some help with two impact attacks and the slow special. All form being weak to arcane, it will be a target for the Ghosts that will heal on them with drain when they don't fear getting slowed.

Creeper: the Creepers are a good match to the Walking Corpse with the advantage of not fearing to be plagued. They have less health points but hit harder when the banding ability is used well. Make sure you keep them in pack as the Walking Corpses will always target the most isolated ones. You should wait the end of the night to attack them as they will lose their chaotic bonus that allows them to kill your neutral Creeper in two hits. Keep in mind though to kill Walking Corpse when it clears access to a Dark Adept, and doing it at daytime would bring little benefit as your Unhatched will not hit that hard.

== Rebels ==
The Unhatched and Black Cat combination will shine on this match-up. The defense debuffing will negate the specialty of the nimble elves, and the hard hitting Unhatched will quickly rip off their little health amount. That will not be enough to give you the game in hand though : the cost efficient fighter can still do some nasty retaliation, even if your Unhatched has the appropriate trait, and the Wose is almost invincible against them. Therefore, you'll need a mix of support units to make up for it.

Your opponent will try to hold your night pushes mostly, capitalize experience by finishing off the units that took hard retaliation and wait to have regrouped a few Woses before attacking you at day. Try to seize the dynamic of the game in your favor with an early threat and have the push'n pull happen around his villages rather than yours. If he brings on too many Woses, counter recruit with your Life Thief units, and use the support of an Howling Darkness if too many fighters block the way.

Unhatched: They'll be your core troop here, dealing massive damage to the elves who are on bad terrain or under the effect of jinx, as well as taking the hits from swords and arrows. Have an army of them anytime but if you see Wose spam.

Black Cat: Another of your key units in this match. They won't deal many damage, but they'll have a massive impact on the Rebels' defense organization. Always have at least one, but you may recruit several as they'll be really busy cursing every unit around.

Life Thief: Their arcane damage will make them quite decent damage dealers against most of Rebels' troop. However they really shine at dealing with the Wose, and aren't as cost efficient as the Unhatched for the other jobs. So recruit according to the number of Woses you face.

Scornful Watcher: Because nearly all units it'll fight with are arcane weak, the Scornful Watcher's special will lessen its potential. Still, the rounding of damages make it do a 7-3 ranged attack (at night only) making it a passable archer-like creature. It may deal with the human mage too in favorable conditions. You can have one around, but restrain from having more as your money is probably better spent elsewhere.

Howling Darkness: If you face packs of elves to counter your Unhatched army, its horror ability will be of good help to reduce retaliation. Moreover, its skirmishing capacity will make it efficient at ZoCing units, get on the extra hex you need for damage dealing, or even slip behind the lines to village threat, decoy, create open spaces and disorganize the Rebels' defense organization in general. It is quite an expensive unit though, so don't recruit several of it.

Unstable Elemental: The Elemental will have a vital role of scouting and gathering intelligence. It will also at times be able to tank in hills or grab the forest hexes your opponent would want. To finish with, its slowing special when coming out of a forest will ensure your Unhatched to take low retaliation even against the fighters. The unit isn't too damage/cost efficient though, so bear in mind that you decrease your fire power with each of them.

Creeper: Again, the Creepers will offer an alternative to your army, but they don't make a game on their own, especially since the Wose is about invincible against them. Go the Creepers way if you fight many elves that aren't willing to come for a fight.

== Northerners ==
The fight between these two chaotic factions will be relentless. As Nightmares' units are slightly weaker and more expensive, it will be theirs to decide when to retreat or heal a unit. If they failed to do so and try to match Northerners in a total war, it is likely that they will end up critically wounded and undermanned.

While the natural way for Nightmares of Meloen to fight against Northerners would be to use their abilities to make for Northerners' number, that strategy doesn't fare very well. Nightmares' best chance is to turn quickly to Creepers. Getting too many Unhatched will make the Northerners turn to Whelps. As Nightmares' Life Thieves, their best counter against trolls, can't beat them in price, that is not something they want to happen.

Unhatched: this time, basing your army around this unit won't be so safe : the Troll Whelp is most of the time quite efficient to counter it, charging Grunts is not often a good idea and the fire of Orcish Archers is efficient enough. Though it remains important to keep a few arounds because it remains an efficient Wolf and Archer killer and if the traits and the Howling Darkness are wisely used, could even charge occasionally Grunts or Whelps.

Black Cat: she is a vital unit to have to weaken defense of Northerners' melee units. Keep her on the best defense and don't leave Northerners too many spots to attack her as a Grunt only needs two hits to kill her at night. Even then, it will be Grunts' primary target, so Nightmares will have to regularly put her in their recruitment list as their Black Cats fall.

Life Thief: while it is a useful unit to face Whelps as he leverages on their arcane weakness, its low defense and lack of fire resistance makes it Orcish Archer's favorite meal. However, recruiting it will force your opponent to invest in Orcish Archers, a unit that is more expensive and an easier prey for your Unhatched, because the other northerner troops will hardly deal with your Life Thief on their own. Still, it is more a unit to bring in the middle of the game after Nightmares have survived Orcs first assaults and Northerners move to an attrition warfare with Whelps.

Scornful Watcher: the safest fighter to poke at the Grunts. He deals good damage without retaliation. However as it still requires 6 or 7 hits to kill a Grunt, the support of Black Cats is necessary to inflict enough damage per turn to stand the flow of hordes of Grunts. His retaliation is also good enough to make cursed melee units think twice before attacking. However, because it is by far not as cost efficient as the Grunts here, they aren't enough to give you victory, and are only a part of the mix you need.

Howling Darkness: it can provide helpful support to attacks on melee and its range attack is very useful to finish off cursed Grunts or Whelps. The Howling Darkness is also a very efficient helper when fighting Nagas. But as its survival hope is quite bleak against melee heavy Northerners, getting one at a time is enough. As it gets a nice health point boost on leveling, Nightmares might want to feed him with kills (a bit more than three kills needed to advance).

Unstable Elemental: this scout can find some room to fit in. It can be useful on water against Naga and can hold a hill or mountain for a while. The bramble form on forest, while it gets a nice slow special, is weak to Grunt's blade. While the Unstable Elemental is very versatile, something is common to all forms: they can be poisoned.

Creeper: his lack of mobility is not a problem as both factions are chaotic, while his relatively high defense requires on average two Grunts to kill one at full health. They do a pretty lousy job at holding village against more than 2 units. Creepers' priority is to bring down the Orcish Archers on attack and cover healing units and Watchers. As they are of neutral alignment, wait for daytime to push them to attack when they will receive less retaliation. If they can be used to attack Wolf Riders, they should keep defensive for the other melee units. Keep the full health Creepers in front to maximise retaliation before they die. Try to manage your gold to recruit them by pack of at least three as power comes with number.

Summary:
Use Creepers on Orcish Archers and Black Cat and Scornful Watcher on Grunts. The Unhatched can at times be used to charge but you have to create good conditions of attack for him. If you really have to charge something, try to use the Floating Darkness to limit retaliation (unless you target an Archer), and keep in mind the traits. Charging Assassin is a good idea to get rid of the poison that turns your Unhatched into a joke. If you face an army of Trolls get some Life Thieves. If you can't, best is to just ignore Trolls unless you have a bunch of idle Creepers. Don't mind high defense spot (except for the Cat) as much as unit cover when moving.

== Nightmares ==
Like all mirror matches, this matchup requires to use units at their full potential to make a difference. The additional fun in this mirror is that you will make huge damage at each turn and that for most units the number of potential targets is pretty high.

When realizing you face other Nightmares, get more Life Thieves. As it has no real foe beside the Scournful Watcher, it will have a pretty easy life. The only thing to worry is to get slowed by a bramble form of the Unstable Elemental as that would make any Scournful Watcher around an immediate danger.

Move in the battlefield with Life Thieves first. While you should not let them get slowed, you can lure some foe in the open to charge him with Unhatcheds. When moving, the Unhatched will under constant pressure from opponent's Life Thieves so you should keep your Scournful Watchers in range to counter an attack (bramble form of the Unstable Elemental can do either).

In the case you face a spam of bramble form of the Unstable Elemental, make sure you attack them one after the other, feeding the same Life Thief with kills. The bramble forms lacks of attack power and even slowed Life Thief will heal enough on retaliation to survive. Putting your Unhatched on forest will deprive your opponent from the best spots and force him quickly to resign after your first Life Thief has levelled.

Unhatched: while the damage the Unhatched can do is still pretty high against Nightmares, the impact damage he resists least is distributed on several units: Unhatched, Scornful Watcher and some forms of Unstable Elemental all have some and can inflict painful retaliation, which leaves the Black Cat and Floating Darkness as preferred targets. It is worth though to throw the Unhatched on any Scournful Watcher around to protect your Life Thief.

Black Cat: as most of Nightmares' units have pretty low defense, getting her is not mandatory, but if the opposition is seasoned, the increase of chance to hit will be welcome. In this case, she will be in constant danger from the opposing Unhatched. As the jinx special does not affect unit with nightmare race (Life Thief, Floating Darkness), she will be most useful on Unhatched as they will not retaliate.

Life Thief: its arcane attack spreads panic and desolation in the ranks of opposing Nightmares. It hurts badly any unit around, getting healed in the process except against the nightmare race. Get some of them.

Scornful Watcher: he is very useful to tame the Life Thief. None other unit can do the job better and safer than him. As being the major threat to the powerful Life Thief along with the Life Thief itself, he will be followed closely by opponent's Unhatched and should thus be protected by yours. If present, taking at Creepers never hurts.

Howling Darkness: the Howling Darkness helps reducing the impact of retaliation, saving a couple of health points that can turn death into life. However, due to its high price and lack of resilience, one of them is enough. Its cold ranged should be left for the Unhatched that has no resistance.

Unstable Elemental: in its basic tornado form, it is quite weak, and taking into account how fast is the Unhatched it might be hard to keep alive. Move it to forest or hill and it will trade its blade for an impact attack that will earn Unhatched's respect. The bramble form gets a slow special on its range attack that comes handy against the Life Thief. This asset will make it the reigning form on the battlefield as the quake form's improved blade and fire resistance will have no use.

Creeper: while not playing a significant role in the mirror matchup, the Creepers can always bring a change in strategy. Their main targets would then be the Watchers, the Floating Darkness and the Black Cat.

Nightmares

2010-02-27T07:16:09Z

FAAB: Disable access to how_to_play_vs_nightmares

Nightmares

2010-02-27T07:14:38Z

FAAB: Add link to remaining how to play nightmares

How to play Nightmares

2010-02-26T15:28:30Z

FAAB: /* Nightmares */ Update to version 0.24.0

== General Nightmares Strategies ==
Generally speaking, Nightmares of Meloen is a faction made of fast units that lack of resilience. In order to win, you have to keep your troops mobile and follow the day-night cycle. Some of Nightmares' units are relatively expensive which makes them unable to compete in number with most of default faction, but on the other hand they got a lot of abilities and specials that make them deadly when used right.

They don't have a typical village holder and it is most of the time better to leave a village open than to sit on it waiting for your opponent's attack. If holding a village is of paramount importance, good candidates are the Unhatched and the Black Cat, the former should be use to hold village threatened by melee oriented units while the later can hold against ranged units. Given his poor resistance the Black Cat can't hold well against more than 2 units, so make sure to zoc out the other possible attackers. On hill and cave villages, the Unstable Elemental may be considered too.

As Nightmares of Meloen are quite fast units, the village grabbing should not be a problem in the early game: Unhatched, Black Cat, Unstable Elemental and Floating Darkness all have 6 or more movement points. However as the last 3 units are rather weak and expensive, make sure you keep enough cash to buy units to protect them later. A typical first turn recruitment could be: 2 Unhatched, 1 Black Cat, 1 Unstable Elemental and a Life Thief or a Scournful Watcher .

Unhatched: for his high resists and his low price, the Unhatched is the tank unit of Nightmares' faction. It's good to have some for any of the matchups in mainline's. As they are very efficient in taking damage in defense, they also have a major role in most offense strategies. When attacking with them, mind the trait who gives them an edge against some damage type.

Black Cat: it is the magi of Nightmares. He helps reduce the defender defense when pushing an offensive, hence boosting every unit's damage per cost ratio. While having strong defense overall, it suffer of poor resistance making it quite weak in one versus some combats.

Life Thief: while it can be compared to the Ghost by some, it differs in its statistics. Even if it has more HP and better attack than the Ghost, it has worst defense and resistance. This overall make him less like a tank and more like an offensive weapon. This is particularly true against factions with bad arcane resistance. It can make an upset to a push of chaotic units with low defense too.

Scornful Watcher: if it can be considered as the archer units of nightmares, his role is major against any faction that have good arcane resistance. As it turns any arcane resistance into a weakness, this Nightmares' unit is Loyalists' and orcs' nightmare. The Scornful Watcher is just a support unit against both Drakes and Undead, where, when you have one, you wish you had none and use it to make retaliation damage to the opponent's cold ranged.

Howling Darkness: a 7 movement point flying skirmisher with leadership is what we talk about. Lacking a melee attack and low hitpoints, the Howling Darkness can't take care of itself. In exchange of their protection, other units will receive lower damage from opponent's attacks with the Howling Darkness. Keep in mind that to give that bonus, it should get next to the opponent's unit.

Unstable Elemental: this is the game's most volatile unit. Most of its stats change according to the terrain it is standing on. With a very high movement point and a flyer movetype on its basic form, this can be used as Nightmares' scout. However be aware than in some of its variations, the Unstable Elemental trades most of its mobility for some resist bonus.

Creepers: a strategy changing unit. When all your attempts with Unhatched or Life Thief have failed, this is the time to bring the Creepers in. Low cost and low upkeep, you can mass them to block opposition's advance. They have very high damage as long as you use the banding ability when attacking. If they can't win a game, they can save your day.

== Drakes ==
Unless you got a Life Thief right on, it is likely that your first recruit will be a little backward what is truly needed against the Drakes. Still, your Unhatched units should be put to good use as they still deal a good amount of damages at night. After acknowledging your opponent's faction, you should start getting a few more Howling Darkness and Life Thief units as they both have a damage type the drakes are weak too. If you got a Watcher, do not worry too much, your opponent is likely to have gotten a few saurian units on their first recruit, thus your Watcher will still have his role to play.

More than in most match-ups, this one will use heavily the Time of Day cycle as your opponent will unlikely base his strategy around saurians, and will make heavy use of Burners. This will lead to a match between quick and hard hitting units with opposite alignments. Do not fear to leave your villages at day, you will get them back as the night falls.

Unhatched: Although the Drakes will resist his impact damage a bit, this unit will remain damage/cost efficient, and a good option to bring the Burners down or other units at favorable Time of Day and/or with a Howling Darkness support. Also, on favorable terrain they'll be your cheapest option to block an attack and let your expensive damage dealer safe, if you really have to hold a point or cover an important unit. Try to have a couple around any time.

Black Cat: the Cat won't be as much of use as in other match-ups, as the drakes don't suffer defense alteration as much as the high-def units. Still, it can be of use against the saurian and any cheap shot to lower a drake defense is cool to take. No need to recruit several of them.

Life Thief: they really are a core troop in the matchup against Drakes. Their damage type ensures heavy damage against any of them, in addition to the fact they'll replenish life as they fight. Always have a couple of them around, but be aware that at daytime the fire damage of Drakes will tear them apart.

Scornful Watcher: It is likely that the only saurians you'll face are those from your opponent's first recruit. Poking at the Skirmishers, or finishing and retaliating against Augurs is the only use of this unit, so don't recruit it if you know you're against the Drakes faction.

Howling Darkness: While a casual support unit elsewhere, the Darkness is a necessity against the Drakes. His cold damage type makes it efficient against anything, his horror ability will make your push safer, and his skirmishing ability will help to ZoC the hard-to-trap Drakes when comes the night. You need a couple of them around.

Unstable Elemental: The scouting role will be fill by your Darkness units already, so the Elemental will be less of use here. It can still get the iffy slots you don't want your Darkness to take, and hopping on a hill/mountain or a water hex to tank can remain a decent option if you have to protect your more important damage dealers. Don't recruit more than one.

Creeper: Although dealing piercing damage, the amount isn't enough to benefit from the Drakes' pierce weakness. So no need to focus on that point. More over, its low movement and grouping constraint will make it unable to follow the day/night push'n pull of this match-up. If the game goes for a stalemate though, because of an heavy damage threat on each side or defensive styleplay, they can become an option.

== Knalgan ==
A general purpose recruit will be good against Knalgans, all of the units you have here can serve a purpose in this match-up. Even the arcane resistance of the units doesn't make the Life Thief useless, as it remains a good counter against the Ulfserker, and can tank a bit on flatland where you don't want to expose your other units, especially against those harassing Footpads.

Unhatched: they will have a tough job dealing with the Dwarf Fighter or the Footpad because of their impact attacks. Still, the Knalgans will have to shift to other units, life the Thunderer, the Poacher, or the Thief, if they want to bring your Life Thieves down. And those units are good to charge, so keep a few Unhatched units around.

Black Cat: you will need these against Knalgans. They'll do a great job at diminishing the survivability of the elusive units, and will help to negate the dwarven incredible defense in mountains. They are easy prey for the Ulfserker though, and you will most likely have to lose a few of them during the battle. So keep a regular flux of recruiting to have 1 or 2 of them in the field.

Life Thief: a bit like the Undead Ghost, this unit will help to counter the ulf, and defend against the Fighters and Footpads you'd meet. However, they aren't a cost efficient damage dealer here, so don't recruit too many as they'll lower your fire power with each of them.

Scornful Watcher: like against the loyalists, the Watcher will get a bonus in damage against every unit you'll face, making it a precious and cost efficient ranged damage dealer. Having too many will make their protection difficult against the Ulfserkers, but having several around to poke at the melee oriented units, especially the cursed ones, is an excellent choice.

Howling Darkness: their ability is appreciable, but not a necessity. Because it is an expensive unit, and an extra safe kill for the Ulfserker, you might prefer to spend the money on more Watchers or Unhatched to outmatch the Knalgans in number or power.

Unstable Elemental: you will want one of these for the scouting role mainly : grabbing village and gathering intelligence. Don't forget that other forms can occasionally be useful, for tanking and slowing to lower retaliation.

Creeper: if the game goes for a stalemate you might want to accumulate these instead of banking. It can also be tiresome defenders to remove for the knalgans if they want to push at day. But generally speaking, you will prefer to use other units when you face the Knalgans, as few Fighters in mountains will hold massive amounts of Creepers.

Once you see your opponent to be knalgan, you'll want to diversify a bit your army and recruit more Watchers than you usually have, so get a Life Thief as soon as possible if you don't have one already, and same for the Watcher.

Each time it is safe, you'll want to use the Black Cat on the Gryphons, Thieves, Footpads and Fighters to negate their massive defense and make them easy shots for your Watchers mainly, but also at times your Life Thieves and Unhatched. Use those last two to charge the Thunderers and Poachers who can remain a threat to your Life Thief. If you see massive amounts of Footpads, get a few more Life Thieves, and progress slowly with a front line of them and a back-line of Black Cats and Scournful Watchers.

== Loyalists ==
After having got a general purpose recruitment on turn 1, when realizing nightmares of Meloen are facing Loyalists, they want to get Scornful Watcher. Their arcane focus special is using loyalists' arcane resistance at their detriment. The Scornful Watcher is rather fragile on melee though and you need to protect at any time of the day. The Unhatched is usually used for that job as it is quite cheap and thus does not divert too much resource from the Scornful Watcher recruitment.

Unhatched: get enough of those to protect your weaker units. They can engage in combat with any ranged unit and melee unit too if you make full use of Unhatched's trait. Exception for the Heavy Infantry that should not be attacked directly for fear of hard retaliation.

Black Cat: get one or two of them to lower opponent's defence. Combined with heavy hitters Unhatched and Watcher they garantee maximal damage. They can be use for village holding too if the number of attacker is limited.

Life Thief: don't recruit those against Loyalist as their unit's all have good arcane resistance to counter his melee attack.

Scornful Watcher: when facing Loyalist, this is showtime for the Watcher. You have to recruit enough of them to do plenty of damage at night but make sure you can cover them when the day comes. You should consider feeding them XP so to use the level 2 at his full potential.

Howling Darkness: you can recruit one of those to help the Unhatched to clear the way for Watchers without taking too much retaliation. His own ranged attack can be of some help to weaken units that don't resist cold. Timing his attack is important because as soon as he has fired, you can't use his skirmisher for further support.

Unstable Elemental: recruit some of them zocing out your opponent's troops at dawn and trap them in at dusk. When put in water they can restrain Mermen's mobility, however they should not engage in combat due to their bad resistance. The Unstable Elemental can also help holding the line when put on hill or forest. In the later terrain, the slow special can keep the mages away and their pierce resist can hold the spearmen.

Creeper: you can use some of them to hurt mages, archers or horses. When your time of the day is done, you can also use them to shield more important units by forcing your opponent to use some unit to clear them out. Keep them in pack to lower upkeep.

== Undead ==
This matchup will be another total war for Nightmares. Facing another chaotic faction, there will be not much time to rest even if the pace of the game might get slower depending on the recruited lines.

As Nightmares realize they are facing Undead they will have most probably an edge to launch the first attack. As Undead's major tool to contain attack from Nightmares is the Walking Corpse and that this one is rarely recruited in the beginning of the game, there will be a window for Nightmares to strike first before Undead gets fully prepared. During that period, the Unhatched will be ruling the place raiding Skeletons and Dark Adepts.

As Undead starts building up its army of Walking Corpses, Nightmares will have to change his recruitment pattern toward Life Thief and Creepers. The Life Thief despite its high price will be an invaluable asset with its heavy arcane melee that hurts any undead. The Creepers will be necessary to match Walking Corpses' numbers.

Unhatched: one of Nightmares' most important weapons in this matchup. The Unhatched's role is to focus on Dark Adepts and get them down before they inflict deadly strikes. Its charge is also very efficient depending on its trait at fighting skeletons despite the heavy retaliation at night. For these reasons, you should keep getting some after Walking Corpses are spreading. If they have to charge a Walking Corpse, make sure to pick one that can be killed in one hit as its retaliation will hurt hard.

Black Cat: as Black Cat's special jinx is not affecting Undead, she has a too huge price for its limited power in this matchup and should not be recruited in numbers. If you have got one, use her to hunt Bats, weaken skeleton with magic before Unhatched's assault or hold village.

Life Thief: with its arcane melee, the Life Thief will be the master of the battle, its only threat being the Dark Adept. While it will be inflicting damage all around, it will have very few opportunity to drain so it will have to retreat to heal. Don't let your blood lust make you forget it or you could lose all hopes to level.

Scornful Watcher: as most Undead's units have some arcane weakness, the Scornful Watcher doesn't play a significant role. The only exception is if Undead recruitment turns for Ghouls against who he is the best weapon. Otherwise, use your Scornful Watcher on Bats and Ghosts, or to defend against the Dark Adept. Getting Scornful Watcher to fight Ghost is a good idea if you can't afford getting a Life Thief.

Howling Darkness: its cold ranged attack is very inefficient against most Undead's units and its terror ability doesn't affect undead. For these reasons, refrain yourself from recruiting any Howling Darkness.

Unstable Elemental: it is good to have one of this quick unit on the board. As the tornado form, the fastest, is quite weak, it will be used mainly for scouting and remote village protection. The bramble form can also be of some help with two impact attacks and the slow special. All form being weak to arcane, it will be a target for the Ghosts that will heal on them with drain when they don't fear getting slowed.

Creeper: the Creepers are a good match to the Walking Corpse with the advantage of not fearing to be plagued. They have less health points but hit harder when the banding ability is used well. Make sure you keep them in pack as the Walking Corpses will always target the most isolated ones. You should wait the end of the night to attack them as they will lose their chaotic bonus that allows them to kill your neutral Creeper in two hits. Keep in mind though to kill Walking Corpse when it clears access to a Dark Adept, and doing it at daytime would bring little benefit as your Unhatched will not hit that hard.

== Rebels ==
The Unhatched and Black Cat combination will shine on this match-up. The defense debuffing will negate the specialty of the nimble elves, and the hard hitting Unhatched will quickly rip off their little health amount. That will not be enough to give you the game in hand though : the cost efficient fighter can still do some nasty retaliation, even if your Unhatched has the appropriate trait, and the Wose is almost invincible against them. Therefore, you'll need a mix of support units to make up for it.

Your opponent will try to hold your night pushes mostly, capitalize experience by finishing off the units that took hard retaliation and wait to have regrouped a few Woses before attacking you at day. Try to seize the dynamic of the game in your favor with an early threat and have the push'n pull happen around his villages rather than yours. If he brings on too many Woses, counter recruit with your Life Thief units, and use the support of an Howling Darkness if too many fighters block the way.

Unhatched: They'll be your core troop here, dealing massive damage to the elves who are on bad terrain or under the effect of jinx, as well as taking the hits from swords and arrows. Have an army of them anytime but if you see Wose spam.

Black Cat: Another of your key units in this match. They won't deal many damage, but they'll have a massive impact on the Rebels' defense organization. Always have at least one, but you may recruit several as they'll be really busy cursing every unit around.

Life Thief: Their arcane damage will make them quite decent damage dealers against most of Rebels' troop. However they really shine at dealing with the Wose, and aren't as cost efficient as the Unhatched for the other jobs. So recruit according to the number of Woses you face.

Scornful Watcher: Because nearly all units it'll fight with are arcane weak, the Scornful Watcher's special will lessen its potential. Still, the rounding of damages make it do a 7-3 ranged attack (at night only) making it a passable archer-like creature. It may deal with the human mage too in favorable conditions. You can have one around, but restrain from having more as your money is probably better spent elsewhere.

Howling Darkness: If you face packs of elves to counter your Unhatched army, its horror ability will be of good help to reduce retaliation. Moreover, its skirmishing capacity will make it efficient at ZoCing units, get on the extra hex you need for damage dealing, or even slip behind the lines to village threat, decoy, create open spaces and disorganize the Rebels' defense organization in general. It is quite an expensive unit though, so don't recruit several of it.

Unstable Elemental: The Elemental will have a vital role of scouting and gathering intelligence. It will also at times be able to tank in hills or grab the forest hexes your opponent would want. To finish with, its slowing special when coming out of a forest will ensure your Unhatched to take low retaliation even against the fighters. The unit isn't too damage/cost efficient though, so bear in mind that you decrease your fire power with each of them.

Creeper: Again, the Creepers will offer an alternative to your army, but they don't make a game on their own, especially since the Wose is about invincible against them. Go the Creepers way if you fight many elves that aren't willing to come for a fight.

== Northerners ==
The fight between these two chaotic factions will be relentless. As Nightmares' units are slightly weaker and more expensive, it will be theirs to decide when to retreat or heal a unit. If they failed to do so and try to match Northerners in a total war, it is likely that they will end up critically wounded and undermanned.

While the natural way for Nightmares of Meloen to fight against Northerners would be to use their abilities to make for Northerners' number, that strategy doesn't fare very well. Nightmares' best chance is to turn quickly to Creepers. Getting too many Unhatched will make the Northerners turn to Whelps. As Nightmares' Life Thieves, their best counter against trolls, can't beat them in price, that is not something they want to happen.

Unhatched: this time, basing your army around this unit won't be so safe : the Troll Whelp is most of the time quite efficient to counter it, charging Grunts is not often a good idea and the fire of Orcish Archers is efficient enough. Though it remains important to keep a few arounds because it remains an efficient Wolf and Archer killer and if the traits and the Howling Darkness are wisely used, could even charge occasionally Grunts or Whelps.

Black Cat: she is a vital unit to have to weaken defense of Northerners' melee units. Keep her on the best defense and don't leave Northerners too many spots to attack her as a Grunt only needs two hits to kill her at night. Even then, it will be Grunts' primary target, so Nightmares will have to regularly put her in their recruitment list as their Black Cats fall.

Life Thief: while it is a useful unit to face Whelps as he leverages on their arcane weakness, its low defense and lack of fire resistance makes it Orcish Archer's favorite meal. However, recruiting it will force your opponent to invest in Orcish Archers, a unit that is more expensive and an easier prey for your Unhatched, because the other northerner troops will hardly deal with your Life Thief on their own. Still, it is more a unit to bring in the middle of the game after Nightmares have survived Orcs first assaults and Northerners move to an attrition warfare with Whelps.

Scornful Watcher: the safest fighter to poke at the Grunts. He deals good damage without retaliation. However as it still requires 6 or 7 hits to kill a Grunt, the support of Black Cats is necessary to inflict enough damage per turn to stand the flow of hordes of Grunts. His retaliation is also good enough to make cursed melee units think twice before attacking. However, because it is by far not as cost efficient as the Grunts here, they aren't enough to give you victory, and are only a part of the mix you need.

Howling Darkness: it can provide helpful support to attacks on melee and its range attack is very useful to finish off cursed Grunts or Whelps. The Howling Darkness is also a very efficient helper when fighting Nagas. But as its survival hope is quite bleak against melee heavy Northerners, getting one at a time is enough. As it gets a nice health point boost on leveling, Nightmares might want to feed him with kills (a bit more than three kills needed to advance).

Unstable Elemental: this scout can find some room to fit in. It can be useful on water against Naga and can hold a hill or mountain for a while. The bramble form on forest, while it gets a nice slow special, is weak to Grunt's blade. While the Unstable Elemental is very versatile, something is common to all forms: they can be poisoned.

Creeper: his lack of mobility is not a problem as both factions are chaotic, while his relatively high defense requires on average two Grunts to kill one at full health. They do a pretty lousy job at holding village against more than 2 units. Creepers' priority is to bring down the Orcish Archers on attack and cover healing units and Watchers. As they are of neutral alignment, wait for daytime to push them to attack when they will receive less retaliation. If they can be used to attack Wolf Riders, they should keep defensive for the other melee units. Keep the full health Creepers in front to maximise retaliation before they die. Try to manage your gold to recruit them by pack of at least three as power comes with number.

Summary:
Use Creepers on Orcish Archers and Black Cat and Scornful Watcher on Grunts. The Unhatched can at times be used to charge but you have to create good conditions of attack for him. If you really have to charge something, try to use the Floating Darkness to limit retaliation (unless you target an Archer), and keep in mind the traits. Charging Assassin is a good idea to get rid of the poison that turns your Unhatched into a joke. If you face an army of Trolls get some Life Thieves. If you can't, best is to just ignore Trolls unless you have a bunch of idle Creepers. Don't mind high defense spot (except for the Cat) as much as unit cover when moving.

== Nightmares ==
Like all mirror matches, this matchup requires to use units at their full potential to make a difference. The additional fun in this mirror is that you will make huge damaage at each turn is pretty high and that the number of potential targets is pretty high for most units.

When realizing you face other Nightmares, get more Life Thieves. As it has no real foe beside the Scournful Watcher, it will have a pretty easy life. The only thing to worry is to get slowed by a bramble form of the Unstable Elemental as that would make any Scournful Watcher around an immediate danger.

Move in the battlefield with Life Thieves first. While you should not let them get slowed, you can lure some foe in the open to charge him with Unhatcheds. When moving, the Unhatched will under constant pressure from opponent's Life Thieves so you should keep your Scournful Watchers in range to counter an attack (bramble form of the Unstable Elemental can do either).

In the case you face a spam of bramble form of the Unstable Elemental, make sure you attack them one after the other, feeding the same Life Thief with kills. The bramble forms lacks of attack power and even slowed Life Thief will heal enough on retaliation to survive. Putting your Unhatched on forest will deprive your opponent from the best spots and force him quickly to resign after your first Life Thief has levelled.

Unhatched: while the damage the Unhatched can do is still pretty high against Nightmares, the impact damage he resists least is distributed on several units: Unhatched, Scornful Watcher and some forms of Unstable Elemental all have some and can inflict painful retaliation, which leaves the Black Cat and Floating Darkness as preferred targets. It is worth though to throw the Unhatched on any Scournful Watcher around to protect your Life Thief.

Black Cat: as most of Nightmares' units have pretty low defense, getting her is not mandatory, but if the opposition is seasoned, the increase of chance to hit will be welcome. In this case, she will be in constant danger from the opposing Unhatched. As the jinx special does not affect unit with nightmare race (Life Thief, Floating Darkness), she will be most useful on Unhatched as they will not retaliate.

Life Thief: its arcane attack spreads panic and desolation in the ranks of opposing Nightmares. It hurts badly any unit around, getting healed in the process except against the nightmare race. Get some of them.

Scornful Watcher: he is very useful to tame the Life Thief. None other unit can do the job better and safer than him. As being the major threat to the powerful Life Thief along with the Life Thief itself, he will be followed closely by opponent's Unhatched and should thus be protected by yours. If present, taking at Creepers never hurts.

Howling Darkness: the Howling Darkness helps reducing the impact of retaliation, saving a couple of health points that can turn death into life. However, due to its high price and lack of resilience, one of them is enough. Its cold ranged should be left for the Unhatched that has no resistance.

Unstable Elemental: in its basic tornado form, it is quite weak, and taking into account how fast is the Unhatched it might be hard to keep alive. Move it to forest or hill and it will trade its blade for an impact attack that will earn Unhatched's respect. The bramble form gets a slow special on its range attack that comes handy against the Life Thief. This asset will make it the reigning form on the battlefield as the quake form's improved blade and fire resistance will have no use.

Creeper: while not playing a significant role in the mirror matchup, the Creepers can always bring a change in strategy. Their main targets would then be the Watchers, the Floating Darkness and the Black Cat.

How to play Nightmares

2010-02-26T15:27:31Z

FAAB: /* Northerners */ Update to version 0.24.0

== General Nightmares Strategies ==
Generally speaking, Nightmares of Meloen is a faction made of fast units that lack of resilience. In order to win, you have to keep your troops mobile and follow the day-night cycle. Some of Nightmares' units are relatively expensive which makes them unable to compete in number with most of default faction, but on the other hand they got a lot of abilities and specials that make them deadly when used right.

They don't have a typical village holder and it is most of the time better to leave a village open than to sit on it waiting for your opponent's attack. If holding a village is of paramount importance, good candidates are the Unhatched and the Black Cat, the former should be use to hold village threatened by melee oriented units while the later can hold against ranged units. Given his poor resistance the Black Cat can't hold well against more than 2 units, so make sure to zoc out the other possible attackers. On hill and cave villages, the Unstable Elemental may be considered too.

As Nightmares of Meloen are quite fast units, the village grabbing should not be a problem in the early game: Unhatched, Black Cat, Unstable Elemental and Floating Darkness all have 6 or more movement points. However as the last 3 units are rather weak and expensive, make sure you keep enough cash to buy units to protect them later. A typical first turn recruitment could be: 2 Unhatched, 1 Black Cat, 1 Unstable Elemental and a Life Thief or a Scournful Watcher .

Unhatched: for his high resists and his low price, the Unhatched is the tank unit of Nightmares' faction. It's good to have some for any of the matchups in mainline's. As they are very efficient in taking damage in defense, they also have a major role in most offense strategies. When attacking with them, mind the trait who gives them an edge against some damage type.

Black Cat: it is the magi of Nightmares. He helps reduce the defender defense when pushing an offensive, hence boosting every unit's damage per cost ratio. While having strong defense overall, it suffer of poor resistance making it quite weak in one versus some combats.

Life Thief: while it can be compared to the Ghost by some, it differs in its statistics. Even if it has more HP and better attack than the Ghost, it has worst defense and resistance. This overall make him less like a tank and more like an offensive weapon. This is particularly true against factions with bad arcane resistance. It can make an upset to a push of chaotic units with low defense too.

Scornful Watcher: if it can be considered as the archer units of nightmares, his role is major against any faction that have good arcane resistance. As it turns any arcane resistance into a weakness, this Nightmares' unit is Loyalists' and orcs' nightmare. The Scornful Watcher is just a support unit against both Drakes and Undead, where, when you have one, you wish you had none and use it to make retaliation damage to the opponent's cold ranged.

Howling Darkness: a 7 movement point flying skirmisher with leadership is what we talk about. Lacking a melee attack and low hitpoints, the Howling Darkness can't take care of itself. In exchange of their protection, other units will receive lower damage from opponent's attacks with the Howling Darkness. Keep in mind that to give that bonus, it should get next to the opponent's unit.

Unstable Elemental: this is the game's most volatile unit. Most of its stats change according to the terrain it is standing on. With a very high movement point and a flyer movetype on its basic form, this can be used as Nightmares' scout. However be aware than in some of its variations, the Unstable Elemental trades most of its mobility for some resist bonus.

Creepers: a strategy changing unit. When all your attempts with Unhatched or Life Thief have failed, this is the time to bring the Creepers in. Low cost and low upkeep, you can mass them to block opposition's advance. They have very high damage as long as you use the banding ability when attacking. If they can't win a game, they can save your day.

== Drakes ==
Unless you got a Life Thief right on, it is likely that your first recruit will be a little backward what is truly needed against the Drakes. Still, your Unhatched units should be put to good use as they still deal a good amount of damages at night. After acknowledging your opponent's faction, you should start getting a few more Howling Darkness and Life Thief units as they both have a damage type the drakes are weak too. If you got a Watcher, do not worry too much, your opponent is likely to have gotten a few saurian units on their first recruit, thus your Watcher will still have his role to play.

More than in most match-ups, this one will use heavily the Time of Day cycle as your opponent will unlikely base his strategy around saurians, and will make heavy use of Burners. This will lead to a match between quick and hard hitting units with opposite alignments. Do not fear to leave your villages at day, you will get them back as the night falls.

Unhatched: Although the Drakes will resist his impact damage a bit, this unit will remain damage/cost efficient, and a good option to bring the Burners down or other units at favorable Time of Day and/or with a Howling Darkness support. Also, on favorable terrain they'll be your cheapest option to block an attack and let your expensive damage dealer safe, if you really have to hold a point or cover an important unit. Try to have a couple around any time.

Black Cat: the Cat won't be as much of use as in other match-ups, as the drakes don't suffer defense alteration as much as the high-def units. Still, it can be of use against the saurian and any cheap shot to lower a drake defense is cool to take. No need to recruit several of them.

Life Thief: they really are a core troop in the matchup against Drakes. Their damage type ensures heavy damage against any of them, in addition to the fact they'll replenish life as they fight. Always have a couple of them around, but be aware that at daytime the fire damage of Drakes will tear them apart.

Scornful Watcher: It is likely that the only saurians you'll face are those from your opponent's first recruit. Poking at the Skirmishers, or finishing and retaliating against Augurs is the only use of this unit, so don't recruit it if you know you're against the Drakes faction.

Howling Darkness: While a casual support unit elsewhere, the Darkness is a necessity against the Drakes. His cold damage type makes it efficient against anything, his horror ability will make your push safer, and his skirmishing ability will help to ZoC the hard-to-trap Drakes when comes the night. You need a couple of them around.

Unstable Elemental: The scouting role will be fill by your Darkness units already, so the Elemental will be less of use here. It can still get the iffy slots you don't want your Darkness to take, and hopping on a hill/mountain or a water hex to tank can remain a decent option if you have to protect your more important damage dealers. Don't recruit more than one.

Creeper: Although dealing piercing damage, the amount isn't enough to benefit from the Drakes' pierce weakness. So no need to focus on that point. More over, its low movement and grouping constraint will make it unable to follow the day/night push'n pull of this match-up. If the game goes for a stalemate though, because of an heavy damage threat on each side or defensive styleplay, they can become an option.

== Knalgan ==
A general purpose recruit will be good against Knalgans, all of the units you have here can serve a purpose in this match-up. Even the arcane resistance of the units doesn't make the Life Thief useless, as it remains a good counter against the Ulfserker, and can tank a bit on flatland where you don't want to expose your other units, especially against those harassing Footpads.

Unhatched: they will have a tough job dealing with the Dwarf Fighter or the Footpad because of their impact attacks. Still, the Knalgans will have to shift to other units, life the Thunderer, the Poacher, or the Thief, if they want to bring your Life Thieves down. And those units are good to charge, so keep a few Unhatched units around.

Black Cat: you will need these against Knalgans. They'll do a great job at diminishing the survivability of the elusive units, and will help to negate the dwarven incredible defense in mountains. They are easy prey for the Ulfserker though, and you will most likely have to lose a few of them during the battle. So keep a regular flux of recruiting to have 1 or 2 of them in the field.

Life Thief: a bit like the Undead Ghost, this unit will help to counter the ulf, and defend against the Fighters and Footpads you'd meet. However, they aren't a cost efficient damage dealer here, so don't recruit too many as they'll lower your fire power with each of them.

Scornful Watcher: like against the loyalists, the Watcher will get a bonus in damage against every unit you'll face, making it a precious and cost efficient ranged damage dealer. Having too many will make their protection difficult against the Ulfserkers, but having several around to poke at the melee oriented units, especially the cursed ones, is an excellent choice.

Howling Darkness: their ability is appreciable, but not a necessity. Because it is an expensive unit, and an extra safe kill for the Ulfserker, you might prefer to spend the money on more Watchers or Unhatched to outmatch the Knalgans in number or power.

Unstable Elemental: you will want one of these for the scouting role mainly : grabbing village and gathering intelligence. Don't forget that other forms can occasionally be useful, for tanking and slowing to lower retaliation.

Creeper: if the game goes for a stalemate you might want to accumulate these instead of banking. It can also be tiresome defenders to remove for the knalgans if they want to push at day. But generally speaking, you will prefer to use other units when you face the Knalgans, as few Fighters in mountains will hold massive amounts of Creepers.

Once you see your opponent to be knalgan, you'll want to diversify a bit your army and recruit more Watchers than you usually have, so get a Life Thief as soon as possible if you don't have one already, and same for the Watcher.

Each time it is safe, you'll want to use the Black Cat on the Gryphons, Thieves, Footpads and Fighters to negate their massive defense and make them easy shots for your Watchers mainly, but also at times your Life Thieves and Unhatched. Use those last two to charge the Thunderers and Poachers who can remain a threat to your Life Thief. If you see massive amounts of Footpads, get a few more Life Thieves, and progress slowly with a front line of them and a back-line of Black Cats and Scournful Watchers.

== Loyalists ==
After having got a general purpose recruitment on turn 1, when realizing nightmares of Meloen are facing Loyalists, they want to get Scornful Watcher. Their arcane focus special is using loyalists' arcane resistance at their detriment. The Scornful Watcher is rather fragile on melee though and you need to protect at any time of the day. The Unhatched is usually used for that job as it is quite cheap and thus does not divert too much resource from the Scornful Watcher recruitment.

Unhatched: get enough of those to protect your weaker units. They can engage in combat with any ranged unit and melee unit too if you make full use of Unhatched's trait. Exception for the Heavy Infantry that should not be attacked directly for fear of hard retaliation.

Black Cat: get one or two of them to lower opponent's defence. Combined with heavy hitters Unhatched and Watcher they garantee maximal damage. They can be use for village holding too if the number of attacker is limited.

Life Thief: don't recruit those against Loyalist as their unit's all have good arcane resistance to counter his melee attack.

Scornful Watcher: when facing Loyalist, this is showtime for the Watcher. You have to recruit enough of them to do plenty of damage at night but make sure you can cover them when the day comes. You should consider feeding them XP so to use the level 2 at his full potential.

Howling Darkness: you can recruit one of those to help the Unhatched to clear the way for Watchers without taking too much retaliation. His own ranged attack can be of some help to weaken units that don't resist cold. Timing his attack is important because as soon as he has fired, you can't use his skirmisher for further support.

Unstable Elemental: recruit some of them zocing out your opponent's troops at dawn and trap them in at dusk. When put in water they can restrain Mermen's mobility, however they should not engage in combat due to their bad resistance. The Unstable Elemental can also help holding the line when put on hill or forest. In the later terrain, the slow special can keep the mages away and their pierce resist can hold the spearmen.

Creeper: you can use some of them to hurt mages, archers or horses. When your time of the day is done, you can also use them to shield more important units by forcing your opponent to use some unit to clear them out. Keep them in pack to lower upkeep.

== Undead ==
This matchup will be another total war for Nightmares. Facing another chaotic faction, there will be not much time to rest even if the pace of the game might get slower depending on the recruited lines.

As Nightmares realize they are facing Undead they will have most probably an edge to launch the first attack. As Undead's major tool to contain attack from Nightmares is the Walking Corpse and that this one is rarely recruited in the beginning of the game, there will be a window for Nightmares to strike first before Undead gets fully prepared. During that period, the Unhatched will be ruling the place raiding Skeletons and Dark Adepts.

As Undead starts building up its army of Walking Corpses, Nightmares will have to change his recruitment pattern toward Life Thief and Creepers. The Life Thief despite its high price will be an invaluable asset with its heavy arcane melee that hurts any undead. The Creepers will be necessary to match Walking Corpses' numbers.

Unhatched: one of Nightmares' most important weapons in this matchup. The Unhatched's role is to focus on Dark Adepts and get them down before they inflict deadly strikes. Its charge is also very efficient depending on its trait at fighting skeletons despite the heavy retaliation at night. For these reasons, you should keep getting some after Walking Corpses are spreading. If they have to charge a Walking Corpse, make sure to pick one that can be killed in one hit as its retaliation will hurt hard.

Black Cat: as Black Cat's special jinx is not affecting Undead, she has a too huge price for its limited power in this matchup and should not be recruited in numbers. If you have got one, use her to hunt Bats, weaken skeleton with magic before Unhatched's assault or hold village.

Life Thief: with its arcane melee, the Life Thief will be the master of the battle, its only threat being the Dark Adept. While it will be inflicting damage all around, it will have very few opportunity to drain so it will have to retreat to heal. Don't let your blood lust make you forget it or you could lose all hopes to level.

Scornful Watcher: as most Undead's units have some arcane weakness, the Scornful Watcher doesn't play a significant role. The only exception is if Undead recruitment turns for Ghouls against who he is the best weapon. Otherwise, use your Scornful Watcher on Bats and Ghosts, or to defend against the Dark Adept. Getting Scornful Watcher to fight Ghost is a good idea if you can't afford getting a Life Thief.

Howling Darkness: its cold ranged attack is very inefficient against most Undead's units and its terror ability doesn't affect undead. For these reasons, refrain yourself from recruiting any Howling Darkness.

Unstable Elemental: it is good to have one of this quick unit on the board. As the tornado form, the fastest, is quite weak, it will be used mainly for scouting and remote village protection. The bramble form can also be of some help with two impact attacks and the slow special. All form being weak to arcane, it will be a target for the Ghosts that will heal on them with drain when they don't fear getting slowed.

Creeper: the Creepers are a good match to the Walking Corpse with the advantage of not fearing to be plagued. They have less health points but hit harder when the banding ability is used well. Make sure you keep them in pack as the Walking Corpses will always target the most isolated ones. You should wait the end of the night to attack them as they will lose their chaotic bonus that allows them to kill your neutral Creeper in two hits. Keep in mind though to kill Walking Corpse when it clears access to a Dark Adept, and doing it at daytime would bring little benefit as your Unhatched will not hit that hard.

== Rebels ==
The Unhatched and Black Cat combination will shine on this match-up. The defense debuffing will negate the specialty of the nimble elves, and the hard hitting Unhatched will quickly rip off their little health amount. That will not be enough to give you the game in hand though : the cost efficient fighter can still do some nasty retaliation, even if your Unhatched has the appropriate trait, and the Wose is almost invincible against them. Therefore, you'll need a mix of support units to make up for it.

Your opponent will try to hold your night pushes mostly, capitalize experience by finishing off the units that took hard retaliation and wait to have regrouped a few Woses before attacking you at day. Try to seize the dynamic of the game in your favor with an early threat and have the push'n pull happen around his villages rather than yours. If he brings on too many Woses, counter recruit with your Life Thief units, and use the support of an Howling Darkness if too many fighters block the way.

Unhatched: They'll be your core troop here, dealing massive damage to the elves who are on bad terrain or under the effect of jinx, as well as taking the hits from swords and arrows. Have an army of them anytime but if you see Wose spam.

Black Cat: Another of your key units in this match. They won't deal many damage, but they'll have a massive impact on the Rebels' defense organization. Always have at least one, but you may recruit several as they'll be really busy cursing every unit around.

Life Thief: Their arcane damage will make them quite decent damage dealers against most of Rebels' troop. However they really shine at dealing with the Wose, and aren't as cost efficient as the Unhatched for the other jobs. So recruit according to the number of Woses you face.

Scornful Watcher: Because nearly all units it'll fight with are arcane weak, the Scornful Watcher's special will lessen its potential. Still, the rounding of damages make it do a 7-3 ranged attack (at night only) making it a passable archer-like creature. It may deal with the human mage too in favorable conditions. You can have one around, but restrain from having more as your money is probably better spent elsewhere.

Howling Darkness: If you face packs of elves to counter your Unhatched army, its horror ability will be of good help to reduce retaliation. Moreover, its skirmishing capacity will make it efficient at ZoCing units, get on the extra hex you need for damage dealing, or even slip behind the lines to village threat, decoy, create open spaces and disorganize the Rebels' defense organization in general. It is quite an expensive unit though, so don't recruit several of it.

Unstable Elemental: The Elemental will have a vital role of scouting and gathering intelligence. It will also at times be able to tank in hills or grab the forest hexes your opponent would want. To finish with, its slowing special when coming out of a forest will ensure your Unhatched to take low retaliation even against the fighters. The unit isn't too damage/cost efficient though, so bear in mind that you decrease your fire power with each of them.

Creeper: Again, the Creepers will offer an alternative to your army, but they don't make a game on their own, especially since the Wose is about invincible against them. Go the Creepers way if you fight many elves that aren't willing to come for a fight.

== Northerners ==
The fight between these two chaotic factions will be relentless. As Nightmares' units are slightly weaker and more expensive, it will be theirs to decide when to retreat or heal a unit. If they failed to do so and try to match Northerners in a total war, it is likely that they will end up critically wounded and undermanned.

While the natural way for Nightmares of Meloen to fight against Northerners would be to use their abilities to make for Northerners' number, that strategy doesn't fare very well. Nightmares' best chance is to turn quickly to Creepers. Getting too many Unhatched will make the Northerners turn to Whelps. As Nightmares' Life Thieves, their best counter against trolls, can't beat them in price, that is not something they want to happen.

Unhatched: this time, basing your army around this unit won't be so safe : the Troll Whelp is most of the time quite efficient to counter it, charging Grunts is not often a good idea and the fire of Orcish Archers is efficient enough. Though it remains important to keep a few arounds because it remains an efficient Wolf and Archer killer and if the traits and the Howling Darkness are wisely used, could even charge occasionally Grunts or Whelps.

Black Cat: she is a vital unit to have to weaken defense of Northerners' melee units. Keep her on the best defense and don't leave Northerners too many spots to attack her as a Grunt only needs two hits to kill her at night. Even then, it will be Grunts' primary target, so Nightmares will have to regularly put her in their recruitment list as their Black Cats fall.

Life Thief: while it is a useful unit to face Whelps as he leverages on their arcane weakness, its low defense and lack of fire resistance makes it Orcish Archer's favorite meal. However, recruiting it will force your opponent to invest in Orcish Archers, a unit that is more expensive and an easier prey for your Unhatched, because the other northerner troops will hardly deal with your Life Thief on their own. Still, it is more a unit to bring in the middle of the game after Nightmares have survived Orcs first assaults and Northerners move to an attrition warfare with Whelps.

Scornful Watcher: the safest fighter to poke at the Grunts. He deals good damage without retaliation. However as it still requires 6 or 7 hits to kill a Grunt, the support of Black Cats is necessary to inflict enough damage per turn to stand the flow of hordes of Grunts. His retaliation is also good enough to make cursed melee units think twice before attacking. However, because it is by far not as cost efficient as the Grunts here, they aren't enough to give you victory, and are only a part of the mix you need.

Howling Darkness: it can provide helpful support to attacks on melee and its range attack is very useful to finish off cursed Grunts or Whelps. The Howling Darkness is also a very efficient helper when fighting Nagas. But as its survival hope is quite bleak against melee heavy Northerners, getting one at a time is enough. As it gets a nice health point boost on leveling, Nightmares might want to feed him with kills (a bit more than three kills needed to advance).

Unstable Elemental: this scout can find some room to fit in. It can be useful on water against Naga and can hold a hill or mountain for a while. The bramble form on forest, while it gets a nice slow special, is weak to Grunt's blade. While the Unstable Elemental is very versatile, something is common to all forms: they can be poisoned.

Creeper: his lack of mobility is not a problem as both factions are chaotic, while his relatively high defense requires on average two Grunts to kill one at full health. They do a pretty lousy job at holding village against more than 2 units. Creepers' priority is to bring down the Orcish Archers on attack and cover healing units and Watchers. As they are of neutral alignment, wait for daytime to push them to attack when they will receive less retaliation. If they can be used to attack Wolf Riders, they should keep defensive for the other melee units. Keep the full health Creepers in front to maximise retaliation before they die. Try to manage your gold to recruit them by pack of at least three as power comes with number.

Summary:
Use Creepers on Orcish Archers and Black Cat and Scornful Watcher on Grunts. The Unhatched can at times be used to charge but you have to create good conditions of attack for him. If you really have to charge something, try to use the Floating Darkness to limit retaliation (unless you target an Archer), and keep in mind the traits. Charging Assassin is a good idea to get rid of the poison that turns your Unhatched into a joke. If you face an army of Trolls get some Life Thieves. If you can't, best is to just ignore Trolls unless you have a bunch of idle Creepers. Don't mind high defense spot (except for the Cat) as much as unit cover when moving.

== Nightmares ==
Like all mirror matches, this matchup requires to use units at their full potential to make a difference. The additional fun in this mirror is that you will make huge damaage at each turn is pretty high and that the number of potential targets is pretty high for most units.

When realizing you face other Nightmares, get more Life Thieves. As it has no real foe beside the Scournful Watcher, it will have a pretty easy life. The only thing to worry is to get slowed by a bramble form of the Unstable Elemental, or cursed by a Black Cat, that would make any Scournful Watcher around an immediate danger.

Move in the battlefield with Life Thieves first. While you should not let them get slowed, you can lure some Black Cat in the open to charge him with Unhatcheds. When moving, the Unhatched will under constant pressure from opponent's Life Thieves so you should keep your Scournful Watchers in range to counter an attack (bramble form of the Unstable Elemental can do either).

In the case you face a spam of bramble form of the Unstable Elemental, make sure you attack them one after the other, feeding the same Life Thief with kills. The bramble forms lacks of attack power and even slowed Life Thief will heal enough on retaliation to survive. Putting your Unhatched on forest will deprive your opponent from the best spots and force him quickly to resign after your first Life Thief has levelled.

Unhatched: while the damage the Unhatched can do is still pretty high against Nightmares, the impact damage he resists least is distributed on several units: Unhatched, Scornful Watcher and some forms of Unstable Elemental all have some and can inflict painful retaliation, which leaves the Black Cat and Floating Darkness as preferred targets. It is worth though to throw the Unhatched on any Scournful Watcher around to protect your Life Thief.

Black Cat: as most of Nightmares' units have pretty low defense, getting her is not mandatory, but if the opposition is seasoned, the increase of chance to hit will be welcome. In this case, she will be in constant danger from the opposing Unhatched. She will be most useful on Unhatched and Life Thief as they will not retaliate.

Life Thief: its arcane attack spreads panic and desolation in the ranks of opposing Nightmares. Except the Life Thief itself, it hurt badly any unit around, getting healed in the process. Get some of them.

Scornful Watcher: he is very useful to tame the Life Thief. None other unit can do the job better than him. As being the major threat to the powerful Life Thief, he will be followed closely by opponent's Unhatched and should thus be protected by yours. If present, taking at Creepers never hurts.

Howling Darkness: the Howling Darkness helps reducing the impact of retaliation, saving a couple of health points that can turn death into life. However, due to its high price and lack of resilience, one of them is enough. Its cold ranged should be left for the Unhatched that has no resistance.

Unstable Elemental: in its basic tornado form, it is quite weak, and taking into account how fast is the Unhatched it might be hard to keep alive. Move it to forest or hill and it will trade its blade for an impact attack that will earn Unhatched's respect. The bramble form gets a slow special on its range attack that comes handy against the Life Thief. This asset will make it the reigning form on the battlefield as the quake form's improved blade and fire resistance will have no use.

Creeper: while not playing a significant role in the mirror matchup, the Creepers can always bring a change in strategy. Their main targets would then be the Watchers, the Floating Darkness and the Black Cat.