How to play Knalgans2

WARNING
This article is being re-written right now. Nothing you can see here is final and may have a lot of wrong statements.

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Dwarvish units

Dwarvish Thunderer is a strange unit with powerful, but only one ranged attack.

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maximum defense and speed in mountains(70%)
neutral
strong vs drakes and units on wrong terrain; weak vs skeletons
average melee attack (blade), strong ranged attack (pierce)

Dwarvish Fighter is important unit with two melee attacks, so he can choose which one is better. Also, strong front-line unit.

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maximum defense and speed in mountains(70%)
neutral
strong vs mages, woses, outlaws, ulfserkers; weak vs nobody, usable in any match
strong melee attack (blade and impact)

Dwarvish Ulfserker is your specialist. He will be killed easily, but he can also kill someone not good in melee fighting.

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average defenses everywhere, but moves fast in complicated terrain.
neutral
strong vs mages, saurians, archers and enemy leaders; weak vs grunts, ghosts, drake clashers
strong melee attack with berserk (blade)

Dwarvish Guardsman is a solid defensive unit. When you need someone to guard important hexes, he is your guy. Not very good in attacking. Make sure he can use his steadfast ability.

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average defenses everywhere
neutral
strong vs melee attackers; weak vs ranged attackers
average melee attack with steadfast (pierce), weak ranged attack (pierce)

Gryphon Rider is very fast, moving quickly in every terrain. Most expensive unit in game.

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good defense in mountains, average on every other terrain, what is awesome.
neutral
strong vs retreating wounded units; weak vs multiple enemies, heavy infantry and archers
strong melee attack (blade)

Outlaw units

Footpad is fast. That is his main strengh. Better in scouting than in fighting.

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maximum defenses (70%) in many terrains, but vulnerable to pierce, blade and impact weapons
chaotic
strong as a blocking and fast moving unit; weak in fighting
weak melee attack (impact), average ranged attack (impact)

Poacher is a chaotic version of classic human bowman, capable to fight even in swamps. They have much more ranged hits than dwarvish thunderers.

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good defenses in many terrains
chaotic
strong against drakes and units with no ranged attack; weak in melee fighting
weak melee attack (impact), strong ranged attack (pierce)

Thief is a very special outlaw. He (or she) can do minimal damage during the day and a lot of damage during the night, when well placed. Also thieves are very cheap.

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maximum defenses (70%) in many terrains, low hitpoints and vulnerable to pierce, blade and impact weapons
chaotic
strong when well placed at night; weak in fighting
average melee attack with backstab (impact)

Starting troops - random opponent

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On the maps with a lot of water, recruit one or even two mermen hunters in the first turn.

Choose a leader wisely. Good leaders might be someone with good abilities, if you wish to use him/her on the frontline in small maps. White Mage, Druid or Elvish Captain will do just fine. Good healer is more effective than shamans and can also remove poison. Leadership will make your units more powerful. You can also pick up Elvish Ranger if you are on map with lots of forest hexes.

General Knalgan strategies

The Knalgans have perhaps the greatest tactical flexibility of any faction. Because of this, there is no one way to play the Knalgans. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your personality. You can use dwarves for power and defense and outlaws for movement and low prices.

Dwarvish Fighter: It can take more hits than most units, making it a great defender. It also has two damage types, making it offensively versatile. It shares the downsides of all dwarves: slow movement (though few terrains slow it down) and low defense on non-specialized terrain.
Dwarvish Thunderer: Although powerful, it can just as easily do no damage at all, making this a tricky unit to know how to use. Fortunately, it is almost as durable as the fighter.
Dwarvish Ulfserker: This utility unit has value in many match-ups. It will ensure that either its opponent or it dies. Thus, it has a 100% kill chance against a non-melee unit such as the dark adept, and a very high kill chance against many non-melee-centric units, such as the Mage, Saurian Augur, Bowman, Elvish Shaman, and a wide variety of others. The problem is that your opponent can very easily kill an Ulfserker: they will lose to any dedicated melee unit unless very exceptional circumstances are in play (remember that the ulf cannot get nearly as high defensive values as the Dwarvish fighter, for example), starting hitpoints, time of day, or a combination of the above. Since it is an expensive unit, letting an elvish fighter kill your ulf out of the blue is unwise: however if he just killed a Mage and in killing the ulf the fighter is severely weakened, this is obviously a good trade for you. When using Ulfs, plan how you want them to kill and how you want them to die.
Footpad: Opinions on the footpad vary widely. In this guide you will not see them recommended often, but many good players consider these a staple unit of the Knalgans. Regardless, this is not a unit you should overrecruit or your offensive power will be very low. It has excellent defense where your dwarves might be very vulnerable and you might not want to risk your more costly riders. Use it for it's great ZoC abilities even if its offense isn't high-powered.
Poacher: Also a very useful unit for the Knalgans, this unit provides a reliable ranged attack to counterbalance the power of the thunderer, plus it fills many useful hexes (notably forests and swamps) well.
Thief: This unit is possibly the highest damage-dealing unit in your arsenal when used correctly. A strong thief at night does 12-3 damage: the equivalent of a level 2's damage output. However, they have very few hitpoints and their low resists compound this problem. High defense and low cost offset these disadvantages. Remember to backstab with it whenever possible.
Gryphon Rider: Possibly the best scout in the game in terms of combat, this is tempered by its high cost. Use it as a lookout for enemy advances and pick off weak or wounded units that are retreating behind enemy lines.

Keep in mind that that the dwarves should stay in mountains, hills, and other high-defense terrain and the outlaws should stay in any non-grassland terrain, if possible. Keep in mind that since your footpads and thieves have 60 defence on grassland, and your enemy will often have 40 or even 30, it can often be to your benefit if the enemy chooses to attack them on open ground.

Villages

Generally, elves does not have a lot of hitpoints, so healing in villages to full health is quick. Use scouts to get to the distant villages. Fighters are good for holding them. Use woses more often on maps with limited number of villages, because they do not benefit from them and cannot defend them effectively.