Feel free to use steam's sidebar on the right to skip to the section relevant to you. Some of this guide is meant to be used as a quick Reference, other parts are me rambling at length about Theory.

The game's only been out a few days months. It should go without saying that any and all opinions should be taken with a grain of salt. This game is incredibly complicated, and will become more so as we get more DLCs, content updates, balance patches, and for the daring - mods.

The game mechanics (and tooltips) are too complicated (and unreliable) to decypher through wiki browsing and theorycrafting alone, so any comments sharing your experiences would be welcome. Even if I don't always read the comments, others will, so share away!

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That said, in the current state of the game, open beta 25 JUL 2023:

1) Racial Mounts are the best body racial trait in the game, primarily due to mobility. Mind traits are situational, but my preference is usually Overwhelm Tactics for +20% crit chance.

2) Nightmare Mounts are the best mount in the game, because they have no active abilities that confuse the autobattler.

3) The passives of the Nightmare Mount are useful on all mounted units, with the possible exception of fighting morale immune enemies. Even then, giving mobility to optional cavalry is invaluable.

Hopefully upcoming mods/patches/updates will improve the autobattler and unit balance in the future.

Mounted = Cavalry (This unit always has a mount. If you have a mount racial trait, it's uses that.)
(Mounted) = Optional Cavalry (This unit only has a mount if you have a mount racial trait.)

Culture Units:
All T1 Scouts are Mounted, except for the Mystic culture.

Barbarian
Warrior T1 (Mounted) Shield
Fury T2 (Mounted) Ranged

Dark
Pursuer T1 (Mounted) Ranged
Dark Knight T3 Mounted Shock

Feudal
Defender T2 (Mounted) Shield
Knight T3 Mounted Shock

High
Dawn Defender T1 (Mounted) Shield
Awakener T3 (Mounted) Battlemage

Industrious
Arbalest T1 (Mounted) Ranged
Bastion T3 (Mounted) Shield

Mystic
Spellshield T2 (Mounted) Shield
Spellbreaker T3 Mounted Battlemage


Mounted (even without racial trait):

Hound Master (Chaos I Tome of the Horde) T2 Ranged
Wild Speaker (Nature I Tome of Beasts) T2 Support
Tyrant Knight (Order III Tome of Subjugation) T4 Shock


(Mounted) with racial trait only:

Evoker (Astral I Tome of Evocation) T2 Battlemage
White Witch (Shadow I Tome of Frost) T2 Battlemage
Glade Runner (Nature III Tome of Glades) T3 Ranged

When creating a custom faction, you can choose only one Body trait. Options include +10 HP, +10% physical and ranged damage, +20% accuracy, -30% enemy ranged accuracy, and so forth - for ALL racial units.

Instead, you could pick a racial mount, which only affects members of your race that use that mount.

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Units affected by racial mounts:

Heroes. All heroes, that are of your race, that are eligible for mounts (ie, not dragons, not wielding two handed weapons), start with your racial mount for free

Mounted Units. All units with the "Mounted" trait, that are of your race, instead have your racial mount. This includes most scouts, at least one other culture unit, and some tome units.

(Mounted) Units. All units with the "Optional Cavalry" trait, that are of your race. This includes at least two culture units, and some tome units.

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Units NOT affected by racial mounts:

Anything that isn't affected by racial traits. This includes animals, elementals, most (but not all) magic origin units, dragons, heroes of other races, and any units of other races. Unless you plan very carefully, most Rally Of The Lieges units will not be of your race and will not be mounted.

If the body racial trait is taken up by the mount, the only remaining racial trait is the Mind trait. The best choice will vary by realm, culture, build, playstyle, etc., but I thought I'd highlight the ones that go best with mounts:

Sneaky. +25% Flanking Damage. IIRC stacks with other sources of flanking damage. Obvious synergy with the extra mobility mounts offer.

Overwhelm Tactics. +20% critical chance when adjacent next to friendly unit with the same trait. The extra mobility makes staying adjacent easier.


I would avoid Fast Initiative, as your mounts can already move 6 tiles anyway, and the autobattler doesn't know how to use this trait properly.

I would also consider avoiding the environmental adaption traits outside very unusual realms. Farms are the least important building after the early game, and the move speed penalty from terrain can usually be overcome by 1) roads 2) mounts and 3) minor racial transformations.

Mounted racial units get +5 HP, gain the "Cavalry" trait, and a speed of 48, which is the fastest speed currently available in the game outside manually using abilities like Forced March (from the neutral affinity Imperium Tree).

Speed Comparison:

24 Slowed from cold, certain hero equipment.
32 Normal walking speed.
40 Skirmishers, Fast units.
48 Mounted units, Very Fast units.

Tactical Battles
Move - 2 actions after X tiles - move X tiles total - Notes
24 - 1 - 3 - Slowed, such as from some cold abilities.
32 - 2 - 4 - Normal, default movement speed.
40 - 2 - 5 - Fast, such as skirmishers and some animals.
48 - 3 - 6 - Very Fast, from Mounts and some Unit Enchantments.

Note: The "?" Hero Novice Warfare Skill provides +8 movement, or one tactical tile of movement, that is completely "free". This effectively lets heroes move a single tile and still have 3 actions remaining. (Testing Needed)

Note: Currently, all tactical tiles have an identical move cost of 8. Variable move cost only applies to worldmap tiles.

World Map Travel
Move Cost, Terrain Type
4, Coast (Read: Ocean)
5, Road
6, Default Terrain (Fertile Plains)
8, Difficult Terrain (Forest, Rocky)
16, Very Difficult Terrain (Mountain)

Some Racial Transformations grant traits that treat some difficult terrain (8) as default terrain (6). Ie, Leafskin grants Forest Walk, Earthkin grants Rock Walk, etc. This is effectively -2 to move cost. (WIP: Do roads, racial traits, imperium traits, and/or racial transformations stack?)

Imperium Affinity Materium, 400, Resourceful Vigor. Units heal 1 HP per 2 unused movement.
Imperium Affinity Nature, 100, Expert Sailors, Treat Rivers as Roads for the purpose of movement.
Imperium Affinity Nature 400, Rangers, Move Cost -2 for friendlies inside domain.

Arctic Adaption (Racial Mind Trait) -2 move cost on Snow and Ice.
Desert Adaption (Racial Mind Trait) -2 move cost on Desert.
Water Adaption (Racial Mind Trait) -2 move cost on Swamp.
Underground Adaption (Racial Mind Trait) -2 move cost on Cavern Floor, Mushroom Forest, Fungus Fields and Rocky.

The value of movement speed is far greater than it first appears. Movement allows the following:

1. Fewer turns wasted in transit (during which time units still cost upkeep!).
2. Avoiding unwinnable battles.
3. Catching enemy armies out of position and out of reinforcement range.
4. Flanking and repositioning in tactical battles.
5. Scouting and Pillaging with non-scout units.

There are many battles that I won not through superior numbers or units, but from being able to reposition the strongest flank of my army to focus fire the weakest flank of my opponents.

Mounted units have the "Cavalry" trait, which lets them benefit from certain unit enchantments, spells, and hero skills.

Nature Tome I Beasts
? All Animal and Cavalry units gain +2 Bolstered Defense and +1 Strengthened.
(Beta: Nature ? Building: Also heals +20 temp HP)

Nature Tome ? ?
Hero Skill ? ? ? While Army Leader, All Animal and Cavalry units are immune to Loss of Control and ?

Nature Tome ? ?
Hero Skill ? ? ? While Army Leader, All Animal and Cavalry units have ?

Nature Tome ? ?
Hero Skill ? ? ? While Army Leader, All Animal and Cavalry units have ?

Intimidating Aura: At the end of your turn, adjacent enemies have 90% to lose -5 Morale. Heroes and t5 units unaffected. Note that this is PER unit, so if a target is surrounded on all 6 sides, it will be taking up to -5*-6=-30 morale damage per turn.

Vicious Killer: Inflict double morale penalties upon killing a unit.


Morale:
Most units start with 0 morale.

+20 to +40: +20% crit chance (crits deal double damage.)
-19 to +19: No effect.
-39 to -20: 20% Fumble Chance (20% chance to deal half damage).
-59 to -40: 40% Fumble Chance (40% chance to deal half damage).
-60 or worse: Routing (stops fighting and tries to flee the battle).

Some unit types, like Undead, are immune to Morale.
Some units will never Rout, but still suffer the other effects of Morale.


At first glance, Nightmares seem the best suited to melee units due to their aura. In reality, the 90% aura chance is dramatically reduced against the status resistance of high tier units and heroes.

Vicious Killer, on the other hand, is guaranteed to trigger on any kill, and applies to Ranged/AOE/Melee abilities equally well.

Autobattler: Best autobattler mount. The AI prioritizes mount abilities even when it doesn't make sense - such as putting ranged units in melee, or using a weak AOE instead of a heavy charge attack. Since the Nightmare has no active abilities - only passives - it has the best (read: least terrible) autobattler AI.

Spider
Web: Full Action, 90% Acc, Range 4, AOE 1, 12 Physical Damage, 60% Immobilized chance, Cooldown 3.

Unlike most abilities of it's type, Web does NOT care about Zone of Control. You can use it in melee just fine. Just be careful about friendly fire!

The damage and chance to immobilize are very low, especially against high tier units, so to make the most of Web you have to use it en mass. Use on melee units to make them useless for a turn, or on ranged units to keep them from escaping your zones of control.

Even if webs don't let you stunlock/kill entire armies anymore, being able to immobilize even a single unit can swing the tide of battle in your favor. Not needing to worry about an enemy for one turn doesn't just mean less damage against you, it means you can afford to concentrate more of your firepower on killing something else.

Even when used in mass, webs are nearly useless against TIV/TV units unless you can reduce their status resistance with strategic or tactical spells first.

Autobattler: Great early game, terrible late game. The AI will prioritize AOE abilities and cooldown abilities, even when it doesn't make sense. In the early game, Web is better than most basic attacks, so it's not a problem. In the late game, it will cause your units to waste actions, resulting in avoidable losses.

Phase: 1 Partial Action, Range 4, teleports caster to target point, ignores retaliation and zone of control, Once Per Battle.

Note that after using a Partial Action movement ability, like Jump or Phase, you'll never have more than 1 action remaining. If you don't spend 1 of your 3 actions moving before you Phase, that action is wasted.

This is not to be confused with Blink, Quick Phase, and other abilities that have different move costs and cooldowns.

Presumably, you could combine Unicorn Mounts with the Battle Phasing unit enchantment (Astral Tome III of Teleportation) to give your supports and battlemages TWO uses of Phase per battle. On top of the 48 movement just for being a mount, that's a LOT of mobility!

Autobattler: The worst mount in the hands of the autobattler. The AI gets it's units killed by teleporting them into the enemy, even when it doesn't make sense too. Outside of manual battles and PVP, avoid this mount like the plague.

Enfeebling Howl: 1 Action, Always Hits, Range 0, AOE 2, 18 Frost Damage, Inflicts Weakened 2, no friendly fire, damages fortifications. Cooldown 2. Woof that's a lot to unpack in one ability!

Weakened: This unit deals -10% damage per stack. Stacks up to 5 times. Duration is 3 turns unless refreshed by a new stack (testing needed).

Pack Hunter: Melee Damage +20% if adjacent to another unit with Pack Hunter.


The synergy with melee units, in particular dark culture shock units, should be obvious. Sadly, this mount does little for ranged units aside from the movement speed (which is still incredibly useful!) I suppose that in some cases, ranged units caught in melee could use the Howl to reduce the damage they take from escaping zones of control. This is the only mount I haven't personally used yet, so I don't have much insight here.

Autobattler: Terrible, even on melee units. Dark Knight will prioritize charging charging 3+ hexes to deal instakill levels of damage... then use their Enfeebling Howl instead. Ranged units are worse, as they'll Howl instead of fleeing from melee. Powerful mount in the hands of a player, terrible in the hands of the AI.

Since Tome Units can be researched by any faction, you can ignore my advice about mount synergy with cultures if you are planning to rely on tome units instead. Just keep in mind that tome units require research and upgraded cities to train, which can take awhile.


Always Mounted (even without racial trait):

Hound Master (Chaos I Tome of the Horde)
T2 Ranged. The free T1 warhound is not mounted, and therefore has a normal move speed.
Pros: Free T1 unit that doesn't require a turn to be summoned.
Cons: T1 units get one shot late game

Wild Speaker (Nature I Tome of Beasts)
T2 Support.
Pros: Free T1 combat summon, reduces animal upkeep of army by 20%, good combat animal combat buff.
Cons: Needs animals to work. No healing or defensive abilities. In the late game, is only useful for the upkeep reduction.

Evoker (Astral I Tome of Evocation)
T2 Battlemage.
Pros: The only T2 battlemage with cavalry, and an AOE with no friendly fire.
Cons: Needs a lot of enchantments to remain useful late game. Doesn't come with any sundering or crowd control.

White Witch (Shadow 1 Tome of Frost)
T2 Battlemage.
Pros: A single action guaranteed slow makes this "battlemage" more of a skirmisher.
Cons: Doesn't come with AOE or sundering. Freeze rarely triggers on late game foes.

Glade Runner (Nature III Tome of Glades)
T3 Ranged.
Pros: As a free action, Mark and Sunder foes, then kill with a multiattack.
Cons: No AOE, consider Amplified Arrows from the Tome of Amplification.

Tyrant Knight (Order III Tome of Subjugation)
T4 Shock.
Pros: Slightly tougher than cultural T3 shock units.
Cons: Significantly more expensive than T3 units. Costs precious Imperium.

Tier 1 Mounted Scout A)) R4 90% acc 6 Phys.
Tier 1 *(Mounted) Shield A)) 10 Phys. Shield Bash 90% Stun.
Tier 1 *Skirmisher A)) Melee 12 Phys. A R4 90% acc 24 Phys.
Tier 2 (Mounted) Ranged A)) R4 90% acc 12 Phys.
Tier 2 Support A R4 90% acc 14 blight 90% Poison (8 Blight for 3 turns).
Tier 3 *Shock A 24 Phys, +20% damage per tile travelled, max ~36 Phys at 3 tiles.

*Has Primal Strike: +8 Blight damage on the first successful melee attack of the battle.


Has a fast early game, with the second mount coming early at a mere T2, and a T1 skirmisher that is almost as fast as your cavalry.

Falls off late game unless you have a plan.No T3 mount, and their T2 Ranged units will either need lots of investment... or simply be replaced by T3 tome units.


- Nightmare - Intimidating Aura - Vicious Killer

Great choice. The T1 Shields get extra turns of Aura from stunning things, while the T2 Ranged - especially in packs - are great at focus firing enemy units to trigger massive morale penalties.


- Spider - Web -

Decent choice, but not as overpowered as it used to be. If you want your T2 Ranged spam to immobilize entire armies of T3 or higher units, you'd better have a plan for lowering the status resistance of your foes.

With enough enchantments, the web attack will be worse than killing things with regular arrows.


- Unicorn - Phase -

Poor choice. After phasing, a Fury only has one action remaining, which isn't much damage. The T1 shield units might get some use out of suiciding behind enemy lines to zone ranged units, provided you don't mind replacing your losses constantly.


- Wolf - Enfeebling Howl - Pack Hunter -

Decent choice, but poor synergy with your Furies, who ideally don't want to get in melee.

Tier 1 *Mounted Scout A)) R4 90% acc 6 Phys.
Tier 1 *Polearm A)) 11 Phys.
Tier 1 *Ranged A)) R4 90% acc 10 Phys.
Tier 2 *(Mounted) Shield A)) 12 Phys.
Tier 2 *Support A)) 16 Holy 60% Sundered.
Tier 3 *Mounted Shock A 24 Phys, +20% damage per tile travelled, max ~38 Phys at 3 tiles.

*Has Stand Together: +20% damage when adjacent to a unit that shares this trait.
Sundered: -1 defense and resistance. (~10% less damage resistance.)

Weak early game, even if it's scout does more damage than any other scout. Strong mid-late game, when it's T2 Shield and T3 Shock cavalry come into play.

Note that the T1 Polearm Evolves into the T2 Mount with enough EXP, letting you potentially access T2 Mounted units while your city is still T1. If you stack enough +Polearm Rank and EXP, you can even buy T2 units for the price (and training time) of T1 units. With the right build, that's a lot of spammability.


- Nightmare - Intimidating Aura -
Great Choice. Both the T2 Shield and T3 Shock spend a lot of time in melee, and are very likely to be triggering kills.


- Spider - Web -
Odd Choice. Might work well, or be completely useless, depending on how good (or bad) your opponent is at positioning themselves. You are getting into melee anyway, so stop the enemy from approaching melee won't always be useful. Still, AOE damage is AOE damage.


- Unicorn - Phase -
Decent Choice. Same advice as for Dark. Nice synergy on high tier Shock units. Note that 3 shield units, back to back, are unflankable even if you teleport them in the middle of an enemy formation.


- Wolf - Enfeebling Howl - Pack Hunter -
Great Choice. What's scarier than Shock cavalry that gets an adjacency damage bonus? Shock cavalry that gets another adjacency damage bonus! Sadly, the bonus is *only* additive, not multiplicative. Also gives a much needed AOE to follow up charges with.

Tier 1 Mounted Scout A)) R4 90% acc 5 Phys.
Tier 1 *(Mounted) Shield A)) 10 Phys.
Tier 1 *Ranged A)) R4 90% acc 10 Phys.
Tier 2 *Polearm A)) 14 Phys.
Tier 2 *Support A)) R4 90% 16 Holy.
Tier 3 *(Mounted) Battlemage A)) R4 90% acc 12 Holy.

*Has Dormant: Gain a bonus depending on unit type when Awakened. The details are too lengthy to mention here.


Poor early game, as your T1 Shields won't be getting far without supports or ranged units, which usually don't come with mounts. Consider picking an early tome that lets you summon skirmishers or train mounted units.

Strong late game. Awakened Awakeners already have the best range in the entire game (short of dragon rulers), in a magic AOE that sunders magic resistance. Toss on the best speed in the game for lots of kiting and flanking potential. You'll need to figure out how to protect your squishy battlemages though. Heroes with summons work well, but if you hit hero cap you'll want to consider summonable disposable tome units that can frontline.


- Nightmare - Intimidating Aura - Vicious Killer
Great choice. Mild benefit on T1 Shields, great benefit on T3 Battlemages. Due to how squishy battlemages are, it's vital to convince the enemy to flee before they break through your front lines.


- Spider - Web -
Decent choice. Webs are great on otherwise lousy but spammable T1 units, and it shores up one of the weaknesses of the Awakener by helping it slow down melee units, and giving it another AOE ability while it's regular one is on cooldown.


- Unicorn - Phase -
Odd choice. Unless you're doing something weird in PVP or manual battles, T1 fodder and T3 battlemages don't get much use out of a single teleport. In fact, they usually prefer to sit still and let the enemy come to them.


- Wolf - Enfeebling Howl - Pack Hunter -
Odd choice. The T1 Shield unit can make make good use of melee in the early-mid game, but the Awakener does not belong in melee. That said, if an Awakener is stuck in melee, the Howl makes them better than useless.

Tier 1 Mounted Scout A R4 90% acc 12 Phys.
Tier 1 **Shield A)) 8 Phys. A? Always Hits, 90% Taunt (3 turns).
Tier 1 (Mounted) *Ranged A R4 90% acc 20 Phys. AAA R4 90% acc 30 Phys.
Tier 2 ***Polearm A)) 14 Phys.
Tier 2 *Support A)) R4 90% 16 Phys.
Tier 3 **Mounted Shield A)) 12 Phys.

*Has Bolstering: Once per turn, getting damaged by physical/magic boosts defense/resistance.
**Also has Watchful: +1 Retaliation attacks.
***Also also has Rune of Retaliation: 40% of damage from melee is reflected onto attackers.

(I bet there were some fun discussions regarding which of the Polearm and Shield units were going to be T2 and T3)


Decent early game. The T1 Ranged has better 1 action damage with the crossbow, making it a good flanker, and it's full action ability has some midgame utility.

Late game, the T3 Shield makes a durable front line. Consider grabbing some T2/T3 mounted tome units to provide support and ranged options.


- Nightmare - Intimidating Aura - Vicious Killer
Great Choice. Least bad scout to have in melee, as it only needs one action to deal full damage.

Amazing synergy with the T3 Shield. The damage is normal, the HP respectable, but the defense is ridiculous when in formation. This is the perfect unit to park next to enemies. As a reminder, one of the first effects of low Morale is a chance to deal even less damage.

Shield units qualify for a LOT of enchantments, so they can eventually become quite deadly.


- Spider - Web -
Decent Choice. Webs go great on T1 Ranged spam in the early game. In the late game, your T3 Shields will often having nothing better to do than sit still, so the ranged AOE is nice even if it's weak.


- Unicorn - Phase -
Decent Choice. High defense and extra retaliations make this the perfect unit to teleport into the middle of enemy formations. Three units with their backs to eachother can't be flanked.


- Wolf - Enfeebling Howl - Pack Hunter -
Great Choice. Shield units aren't usually known for their damage, but the Howl is pretty handy for reducing incoming damage, and is a decent AOE.

Tier 1 Mounted Scout A)) R4 90% acc 6 Phys.
Tier 1 *Shock A 18 Phys, +20% damage per tile travelled, max ~29 Phys at 3 tiles.
Tier 1 (Mounted) Ranged A)) R4 90% acc 10 Phys 90% Weakened.
Tier 2 *Polearm A)) 14 Phys.
Tier 2 Battlemage A)) R4 90% acc 8 Dark 90% Weakened (3 turns).
Tier 3 *Mounted Shock A 24 Phys, +20% damage per tile travelled, max ~38 Phys at 3 tiles.

*Has Cull The Weak: +20% damage vs Weakened units, and gains Regeneration for 1 turn upon attacking a Weakened unit.
Weakened: This unit deals -10% damage, stacks up to 5 times.
Regeneration: Gain 6 Temporary HP per turn. Stacks up to 5 times.


Decent early game with spammable T1 Ranged. Pursuers can debuff, so they remain relevant into the midgame.

Strong late game. High tier Shock units are devastating if you can keep them alive.


- Nightmare - Intimidating Aura - Vicious Killer
Great choice. The aura is irrelevant in the early game before you have mounted melee units, and less relevant in the late game against high tier units with status resistance, but the on kill effect is very easy to trigger using shock units.


- Spider - Web -
Decent choice. The Web makes the cheap T1 Ranged spam a bit more viable for longer. Less relevant in the late game, since T3 Dark Knights usually prefer to outright kill things than fling unreliable webs.


- Unicorn - Phase -
The only thing scarier than Shock cavalry, is Shock cavalry that teleports. You can do some very, very nasty things with a good teleport. If you have Wightborn and Raise Undead, (or the Order Affinity equivalents if you like irony) reckless charges aren't even that risky.


- Wolf - Enfeebling Howl - Pack Hunter -
Great Choice for late game. Early game, can turn spammable T1 Ranged into psuedo-melee units.
In the late game, gives your Dark Knights even more damage and an extra AOE ability (on top of the AOE they aleady have!)

Tier 1 Scout A)) R4 90% acc 1 Frost 1 Fire 1 Elec (total 3)
Tier 1 *Polearm A)) 12 Phys.
Tier 1 *Battlemage A)) R4 90% acc 3 Frost 3 Fire 3 Elec (total 9)
Tier 2 *(Mounted) Shield A)) 12 Phys. R0 AOE, Always Hits, (total 9) 60% stun.
Tier 2 Support A R4 90% (total 15).
Tier 3 *Mounted Battlemage A)) R4 90% (total 12).

*Has Attunemend Star Blades: +1 damage of random element added to basic attack, each time a spell is cast in combat, for up to +3 damage.


- Nightmare - Intimidating Aura - Vicious Killer
Great Choice. The passive Aura goes great with the stun AOE, and T2 Shield units are just cheap enough to be spammed and suicided into enemy lines. On the Battlemages, Vicious Killer convinces enemies to flee right before they break through to your squishy backline. I honestly didn't expect this combo to be any good, but I found it to be quite pretty good.


- Spider - Web -
Decent Choice. Good choice, for reasons similar to the High faction, but you get a stronger mounted Shield unit and a weaker (in terms of damage) mounted Battlemage.


- Unicorn - Phase -
Decent choice. Of all the mounted melee units, a shield with an AOE stun could probably make the most out of teleporting. The Spellbreaker is meant to hard counter very specific enemies and tactics, not to be an all rounder, so having just one or two Spellbreakers able to reposition quickly would likely be strong in PVP.


- Wolf - Enfeebling Howl - Pack Hunter -
Odd Choice. T2 Shield units are a great candidate for weakening howls and damage buffs. Useless on the unmounted Scout and the T3 Battlemage. You could make things work with the right tomes, but it would take awhile to bring online.

All scouts cost 50 gold, and require 60 draft to make.
All t1 units cost 60 gold, and require 80 draft to make.

Typical balance:
T1 Scout 45 HP, 48 move speed. ~18 Damage (6*3)
T1 Melee ~65 HP, 32 move speed. ~30 damage (10*3)
T1 Ranged 50 HP, 32 move speed. ~30 damage (10*3)

Barbarians are special.
T1 Skirmisher 50 HP, 40 move speed. ~36 Damage (12*3) in melee, or ~24 damage at range, with +8 Blight damage on the first successful hit.

The balance is a bit more complicated thanks to special abilities, synergies, and positioning, but you get the idea: Scouts are about 20% cheaper in exchange for being 30% lousier.


But what if you gave them Mounts?


- Nightmare - Intimidating Aura - Vicious Killer
Archers ending their turn in melee is what some call a "Nightmare!"
That said...

If you are fighting a single stack of 6 units, and you brought 18 scouts, you'll outnumber them 3 to 1. If you can surround a unit with 6 scouts, it will suffer -30 morale a turn, meaning it will Route in 2 turns.

Unlike regular damage, debuffs don't care about casualties. As long as at least one scout in a unit is alive, it will still deal full Morale damage.

Sadly, most mid to high tier units are very good at one shotting scouts, and tier 5 units and heroes are immune to Morale.

To take full advantage of this tactic, you'd need additional sources of morale loss, like some Shadow and Chaos Tomes. It's probably not worth the effort, but it's a funny idea.


- Spider - Web -

A full attack from a scout has 90% to deal up to 6x3=18 damage. Web does 12 damage, guaranteed, with a 60% chance to stop melee units from moving, in an AOE.

A full attack from a T2 barbarian archer does twice 36 damage, but with a miss chance and only to a single target.

In short, Spiders make your Tier 0.7 Scouts as strong as Tier 1.5 Battlemages!


- Unicorn - Phase -

Stuck in melee? Phase behind your foe, then shoot him in the back for a guaranteed flank. Such a shame that getting hit in melee even once lowers your DPS by about half.


- Wolf - Enfeebling Howl - Pack Hunter -

Instead of spending three actions to deal 6*3=18 damage with a bow, Enfeebling Howl does 18 Frost to enemies in a 2 hex AOE centered on yourself - as a Single Action! That's right, charge your scouts right outside (or into) melee range and let loose!

Two turn cooldown. Retaliations and First Strike may apply.

A quick comparison of the Scouts from each culture.

Barbarian - Pathfinder
A)) 90% r4, 6 Phys.
Can build Outposts without a hero.

If you hadn't guessed by now, Barbarians are the "early game rush / late game zerg" faction.


Dark - Outrider
A)) 90% r4, 6 Phys.
+2 Vision while trespassing on enemy soil (stacks with the +1 vision all scouts get)
On worldmap, camouflaged while on Forests, Rock, and Swamp. Can still get walked into by accident!

Note that this is partially redundant with the Shadow Culture Trait that camouflages scouts in all terrain.


Feudal - Scout (Because sharing a unit name with a unit type isn't confusing!)
A)) 90% r4, 6 Phys.
Stand Together: +20% damage if adjacent to unit that shares trait.
Low Maintenance: -25% upkeep, so it costs 6 upkeep instead of 8.

If you want to spam scouts, Feudal is the way to go. If you fix the miss chance with a racial trait, and fight in groups, you're looking at 7*3=21 damage on a Full Action attack, before any other bonuses.

This still pales in comparison to the T1 units, but it's something!


High - Lightseeker
A)) 90% r4, 5 Phys.
Greater Farsight: Gets +2 vision instead of the +1 most scouts get.

For whatever reason the extra tile of vision was deemed powerful, since his already pitiful damage got nerfed.


Industrious - Pioneer
A 90% R4 12 Phys
Can Prospect for loot.

Thanks to the crossbow, he can use two actions to move to a flank and still deal two actions worth of damage. It's not much, but every bit helps.


Mystic - Mystic Projection
A 90% R4 1 Frost 1 Fire 1 Elec (3 total)
Ethereal: Can pass through solid terrain (except on the overmap), Float over obstacles such as water (?), and is immune to a bunch of debuffs.

Half the damage of a normal scout, in exchange for not being slowed down by ANY type of terrain short of a solid mountain. Sadly, cannot use mounts.

Apologies for any rushed or lacking formatting, factual errors, misunderstandings, bad advice, WIP content, etc.

No apologies for puns.



Note that any given strategy is going to be heavily influenced by realm, race, playstyle, enemy type, research RNG, quest RNG, etc. Due to how interconnected all the game mechanics are, this guide is only a single patch or DLC away from being hopelessly outdated.