Types of Attacks: Advantage and Disadvantage
There are three types of attack in the Chronicles of Merlin. Each type of attack has its own strength and weakness, and the three types of attack restrict each other when used well. Understanding how to use the three types of attack to your advantage is the single most important lesson for any CoM warlord, and able to master the chemistry of these three types of attack is the key to becoming a CoM maestro.
How to tell what Type of Attack a hero uses?
Its quite simple really. Hover over a hero to view the hero's attributes. For each hero, you will see their basic attributes, their units' level and the third line should say something like Normal: Bombardment (for Saladin) or Gambit: Entrench (for Richard the Lionheart). Therefore, Saladin is a Normal Attack hero and Richard the Lionheart is a Gambit Attack hero.
Normal Attack
What is Normal Attack?
Normal Attack deals a steady amount of damage e
ach turn. It is launched by both Normal Attack heroes and Gambit Attack heroes (when morale is not full).
Advantages:
Normal Attack is popular (especially in the early to mid stage) because it is quite stable. Each attack generates about an equal amount of damage and there is no need to wait for Morale to load up, so damage is almost guaranteed each turn. Normal Attack has quite a high success rate, and can have CRITICAL STRIKES which is quite explosive.
Disadvantages:
Normal Attack can be blocked, which means not only does the defender successfully block the defense, the defender also launches a "Counter Attack". Damage from Normal Attack can be reduced from a high level armor, which is quite cheap.
How to Increase your Normal Attack
In order of effectiveness:
- Upgrade your weapon.
- Research tempered Steel.
- Enlighten to increase hero's Bravery.
- Use Serpent Formation or Sickles formation.
How to Defend against Normal Attack
In order of effectiveness:
- Upgrade your armor.
- Research Plate Mail.
- Enlighten to increase hero's Bravery.
- Use Holy Cross, Wedge or Trident formation.
Gambit Attack
What is Gambit Attack?
Gambit Attack deals a high amount of damage WHEN the hero's morale is over 100. It is launched only by Gambit Attack heroes. Most of the time, Gambit Attack is very powerful and often fatal.
Advantages:
Gambit Attack is extremely popular during mid to late game. Most players use this as an One-Shot-Kill-All solution. Especially heroes like Alfred the Great with group damage is extremely powerful when given a high level horse. Gambit Attack is also favored for its relatively high growth. It is more explosive than Normal Attack, and when combined with the likes of Boudica, can be deadly!
Disadvantages:
Gambit Attack needs to wait a few turns for Morale to build up. Even if you have Boudica, there still is a chance for the Morale Boost to fail. Also, because Gambit is so powerful, most players have high level cloaks to defend against Gambit Attack.
How to Increase your Gambit Attack
In order of effectiveness:
- Upgrade your HORSE. Find a red horse and get it into a weapon of mass destruction!
- Research Chivalry.
- Enlighten to increase hero's Tactics.
- Use Mallet Formation.
- Recruit a "Morale Booster" like Boudica.
How to Defend against Gambit Attack
In order of effectiveness:
- Upgrade your Cloak.
- Research Fortifications.
- Enlighten to increase hero's Tactics
- Use Wedge formation.
Spell Attack
What is Spell Attack?
Spell Attack deals relatively high damage each turn. In comparison to the other two Attacks, it generates relatively higher damage and needs no "wait time" for morale to build up.
Advantages:
Spell Attack is reserved for the best of the best. It is an experimental style for the advanced elites. Spell Attack has high damage, and is difficult to counter against (there are no gear that boosts Spell Defense). Therefore it is also known as the ultimate Gambit Terminator.
Disadvantages:
Spell Attack has a relatively low success rate. There is almost nothing you can do to make the success rate higher. Therefore, a lot of your fighting will depend on luck .
How to Increase your Spell Attack
In order of effectiveness:
- Upgrade your Enchanted Item.
- Research Alchemy.
- Enlighten to increase hero's Magic.
- Use Oblique Formation.
How to Defend against Spell Attack
In order of effectiveness:
- NO GEAR CAN STOP SPELL ATTACK
- Research Book of Prayers.
- Enlighten to increase hero's Magic.
- NO FORMATION CAN STOP SPELL ATTACK
Formations Guide
This guide is to help players understand formations and how to use them. There are a lot of choices when it comes to formations and there is no one formation that is better than another.
Know who goes first.
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Location in Formations
It is important to know who goes first. This is what a battle formation on the left side (Attacker) would look like, the right side (Defender) would be mirrored. You can see here it is number in the order in which they go. So #1 Attacker will go, and then #1 Defender will go. If there was no #1 Defender then #2 Defender will go next.
Know where to place your Heroes.
Make sure that you know where your Heroes go which will give you a better advantage. One example of this is placing a Priest or Flag Bearer to go earlier so that they can give their Gambit Hero Morale sooner. Or to place other Gambit users near the front so they can attack sooner. Research multiple Formations so they can be used in any Battle.
You will never succeed with just using one Formation. Depending on your enemy you will need to counter it will different formation, or even different Heroes.
Below is a list of which positions open with each level. Please use the picture above for the corresponding areas (1-9).
Formations
| FORMATIONS | ADVANTAGES |
|---|---|
| Holy Cross Formation | Increases Block Rate |
| Serpent Formation | Increases Normal Damage |
| Mallet Formation | Increases Gambit Damage |
| Sickle Formation | Increases Critical Strike Damage |
| Wedge Formation | Increases Dodge Rate |
| Oblique Formation | Increases Spell Damage |
| Cluster Formation | Increases Counterattack Damage |
| Trident Formation | Increases Defense |
Remember PVP Formations.
PVP can be a totally different ballgame as PVE remembers you have choices to set a default PVP in the formation screen. Remember that PVP opponents can be tougher than PVE you might need to move some of your stronger Heroes to the back so they can survive longer.
Watch Battle Reports!
Whether it is someone who beat you are you are looking at great Battle Reports on the forum, the only way to get better is to watch these reports and learn from them!