How to play Nightmares

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

Assuming that the players have picked up random factions, it is very likely that when finding out they are matched against Drakes, the Nightmares of Meloen's number of Life Thief, the fiercest attacker against Drakes, is probably too low to hope an early attack. As their price is quite expensive, switching to a more offensive profile might take some time. So if the game is played with fixed time of day at start, it might be wise to skip the first night attack and wait for the arrival of the second night to get more Life Thieves. The early priority would then be at recruiting defensive units and saving gold.

Unhatched: as usual, the Unhatched is a very helpful unit. His role against Drakes goes from charging at night to covering up retreat at day. As they could be heavily hit during next day, the Nightmares wants to charge at night without taking too much damage, focussing on wounded units and ranged oriented ones. At dusk, Unhatched should hunt down fleeing Drakes as fast as possible to allow Life Thieves to move in full speed while being covered well enough.

Black Cat: the Black Cat's importance against Drakes should not be underestimated. She is very useful to lower down defense of Drakes. Taking into account that Drakes defense is varying between 30 and 40%, getting them cursed nearly halves it. On top of that, more hits means also better healing for the Life Thief which is critical for their survival. The Black Cat can be used to stay in villages during Drakes' favorite time, cursing Burners on retaliation and hunting them down when night arrives, to get them ready for Life Thieves' use. They will die quickly, so Nightmares should get ready to recruit some throughout the game.

Life Thief: they are the key element when playing against Drakes. They can make vast damage at night while healing from drain in the process. However they are quite weak to Drakes' fire, so the Nightmares should make sure they can retreat when day comes. Due to the fact they are slower than any drake, the Nightmares should cover their retreat at day and feed them by zocing in targets when night comes.

Scornful Watcher: only recruit them in the unlikely case the Nightmares face an army of Saurians. Use him to lower down their HP so Unhatched can get kills without too much retaliation.

Howling Darkness: this is the ranged unit for the Drakes' matchup. However his low HP, lack of melee and Drakes' retaliation reduce greatly his life expectation. For this reason, the Nightmares should not take several of them. They will use his skirmisher ability to slow down fleeing Burners but most probably restrain this tactic to the first night. Make sure to use his terror ability when the Life Thieves start attacking as even a single HP doesn't seem much at night, it might be crucial at the end of the next day.

Unstable Elemental: get some of them to help blocking the Drakes' retreat when night comes. For this reason, the Nightmares should make sure that it gets its tornado form when they plan their counter-attack so they have maximum range. Don't bother to try to use the bramble form on defense at day as it is weak to blade damage Drakes are full of. The Unstable Elemental gets a much broader use when facing Saurians as its bramble form gets excellent resistance to their pierce.

Creeper: do not get them for this matchup. Leave it to the big guys.

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 on or two of them to lower opponent's defence. Combined with heavy hitters Unhatched and 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 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 as as soon as he as 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.

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

Rebels

The Unhatched & 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 invicible 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 organisation. 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 organisation 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 an unit. If they failed to do it 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, that would be their best counter, can't beat them in price, that is not something they want to happen.

Unhatched: while it is still a convenience unit, it loses most of its power in front of a herd of Whelps. So while Nightmares will get some to hold villages, as it is still the best health points per gold ratio they can buy, it must reluctantly leave some room to Creepers when fighting Northerners. Beside Whelps, the Unhatched doesn't hold well in front of Orcish Archer's fire.

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 an useful unit to face Whelps as he leverages on their arcane weakness, its low defense and fire weakness makes it Orcish Archer's favorite meal. Hence it should only be recruited when the Orcish Archer problem is under control. It is more an 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 best fighter against 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.

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 levelling, 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. Creepers' priority is to bring down the Orcish Archers on attack and cover healing units and Watchers. They do a pretty lousy job at holding village against more than 2 units. If they can be used to attack Wolf Riders, they should hold back to retaliation 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 should be left to protect Watchers and Cats or to hold villages. If you really have to charge something, try to use the Floating Darkness to limit retaliation (unless you target an Archer). 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.