I have been in the Beta test from an early date, and have earned a lot of experience in building up an army. Much of my time was spent as an underdog in dueling, but creative tactics enabled me to beat much stronger armies and overtime I built a first rate force. Tactics are continually evolving as the top players keep their place only by watching and adapting to changes, and my own methods tend to emphasize adaptability on the battlefield though I will also describe some effective tricks I have seen which actually reduced an army's ability to change done out of anticipation of going against a particular line up.

Since dueling rank is used to unlock territories it can be important even for people who want to focus on their economy to become a successful duelist (hopefully the designers will find ways to increase the pvp activity soon so gaining the rank needed to unlock the last territory is not so difficult).

One of the first and most important things to do is upgrade your army above the simple militia you start with, these guys are garbage; furthermore, experience is a precious resource and should not be wasted so get usable units quickly.

Not everyone wants to spend a bunch of RL money getting gold to get units, but there are plenty of good options right from the start to get an army on its feet. Longbowmen are a good starting point, I only have one unit but I almost always use them, and having two is perfectly doable; unfortunately, longbowmen are the only ranged unit that does not cost gold so hunters might keep a place in an order of battle longer than the levy spearmen do. A unit of medium cavalry and one of light cavalry can also be quickly added, longsword knights are also free and so are swordsmen.

It might be tempting to wait to conquer new regions before expanding the army but this is a bad idea. After taking a new territory it is easy to transfer troops from one barracks to another, just tear down the home of the unit you want to move and build a new one of the same type and they will automatically occupy their new home. This might take slightly longer if you need an upgraded unit moved as they will not be usable till the building is the same level as the troops it houses. The slight cost of resouces can allow much faster expansion and thus a much larger income making the trade off well worth it.

Gold is precious and should be saved as much as possible for purchasing the best types of units at an early point so they can start gaining XP. This should come before upgraded weapons and armor for existing units.

Just because a player does not believe in ranged combat does not mean it will not hurt him, since only 3 units can fight at a time the majority of an army will be sitting back waiting to fight unless they have ranged capability.

Shoot and fallback: A time tested trick of skirmishers this can be effective for getting off a volley of shots before a ranged unit would otherwise be able to.



This can also be used by armies that do not have javelin men to start the ranged combat off right away by placing a unit of longbowmen in the first rank the enemy first line will be in range before anyone even moves.


I am not sure if I am the first to start making effective use of javelin men but when I started people were shocked to see a unit most people ignored dealing terrible damage to first rate troops, and it was not long at all before they were being used by all the top armies. Their gold cost is fairly modest so even a newer player should be able to quickly get at least one of these death dealers.



What makes them so important is Wildshot, for a short perior of time they can ignore all ranged restrictions (their usual achilles heel) making them likely the first unit in an army to start doing damage. This has become so important to higher level tactics that the javelin men principally target each other as the armies close so as to weaken the effect of the enemy's Wildshot barrage. Their other great problem is they do not do much damage against anyone with a shield, but that is not a real problem against ranged troops.


Crossbowmen are devastating, especially against lightly armored opponents, but really against everybody. They do not have the same flexibility of being able to shoot overhead, but the damage to the enemy front rank is decisive. While it might be tempting to go for the toughest enemy units, the crossbows do their best work against weak points. Melee troops who can not go invincible for a short period are choice targets as are ones against whom your front line troops opposite are vulnerable. Spearmen facing cavalry or cavalry (espeically light or medium) against infantry are great targets. I often let my front rank march straight into the jaws of an uneven matching knowing that few of the enemy troops will survive even the first volley or two of quarrels. Their massive damage is good for cleaning up enemy missile troops making them as good for supporting a breakthrough as they are for creating one.



One of the great benifits of ranged troops, espeically longbowmen is being able to choose exactly where to put your effort, so look for a melee where the odds do not favor your forces. Longbows are good against armor and Precision avoids friendly-fire, but there are plenty of circumstances to shoot into a melee without it. The trick is to weigh the relative vulnerability of the troops engaged, so that well armored troops might benifit far more than they stand to lose from missiles being shot indiscriminitely into the fighting. A great example of this would be the weaker and less armor piecing ranged attacks (hunters, compositebows, and mangonels) being shot into a group of medium cavalry or mounted knights fighting spearmen or javelin throwers (or even levies), the damage done will vastly outweigh the damage incured. Using a temporary invincibility power like Shieldwall can also be used for this reason, though you should hope to be through the enemy before it comes down or cancel the order if needed.

For armies that want to go melee heavy it is still advisable to have 3 units of ranged troops, in addition to the crossbowmen some guys who are good against lightly armored troops are the best choice. One unit of javelin men and one of composite bowmen would be an option though most I have seen just double up on the javelins.

While I am a ranged player battles can not be won without a strong melee component. Shifts in the line just before the charge begins are common and can even be a good trick since if you wait till the last moment the enemy player might not have the time to shift his troops to match the move.

Few players use spearmen making cavalry a strong choice for the front rank. Even if they are facing spearmen it might be a good idea to let them get in their powerful charge, and then use infantry with Saviors ability to relieve them in place. In one memorable fight I swapped a unit of javelin men for my infantry at the last moment, and then the enemy saved his cavalry using Saviors infantry. At the same time I moved my reserve infantry, who had Saviors, into place and then swapped out the javelins saving them. So in a matter of seconds the matchup went from cav-inf to cav-jav to inf-jav to inf-inf. Even when not facing spearmen Saviors to relieve cavalry can be nice since it lets them use their charge again as part of a counter attack.



All that being said infantry (for purposes of this guid I'm going to refer to all melee non-spearmen as infantry) can also make for a powerful front line and are probably the best choice for a reserve. Their toughness lets them hold up against powerful attacks, and ranged troops can do much of the killing against enemy cavalry if needed. I prefer a front line comprised of the troops who hold up the longest so I go with knights cavalry and 2 units of heavily protected infantry (usually longsword knights and greatsword knights).

Even though ranged troops can be used throughout a battle leaving any melee reserve idle, in the late game when armies start running out of melee troops these guys can quickly devastate even full units of squishy ranged troops. In some ways they are like rooks in chess becoming more and more valuable as the board opens up.

Arrangement is of course important so give thought to how the troops are in relation to each other.

I often see an arrangement something like this:

Cav-Cav-Cav
Xbow-Inf-Inf
Jav-siege-Jav

It can be very effective, and sometimes one of those infantry units is archers (of some kind) instead. The crossbows can even be put in the front rank for a rapid peel-back. One of the few complaints I have with it is the placement of the javelins. So far back that, assuming they surivive, once wildshot runs its' course they are unable to be used at least for awhile. That said I can and do sometimes lose matches to this kind of set up.

The type I tend to use, which is still popular, looks something like this:

Inf-Cav-Inf
Jav-Xbow-Jav
Inf-siege-Bows

The reserve infantry is of course saviors capable. The use of a formation like this is it allows switching around quickly. The crossbows can be redeployed to either flank to take on their best target and so can the cavalry. The javelins can keep fighting against the enemy first or second rank, and if enemy cavalry breakthrough then the javelins can usually be at that point making the breakthrough less than devastating. One reason to put archers further forward it to let them get into range faster so putting them in the second rank is perfectly plausible.

While I often see greatsword or greataxe knights in the second rank it can be risky if there are javelin men nearby who can hit them.

There are of course many many variations and good players will change things up in small ways to keep the enemy guessing since right now the limited number of duelists makes it so you keep going against the same people again and again.

Orders can also have a large effect and thinking of how to employ these might even effect the placement of troops.

Reinforce, is effective and nice for keeping up troops, it's problem is that putting it on a ranged unit means you can not use some other ability on them till it runs its course. Maybe I'm just sentimental about this one, but I like it.

War Cry, fear is an effective tool and even though more experienced armies tend to have some level of resistance it will still do good damage. One of the real uses of this is to remove the ability being used by an enemy unit, though the same applies against War Cry as it can be mitigated by using an ability on the unit as it starts being effected.

Take Aim, I don't think many duelists go in without this. Even if precision has already been used this allows the ranged units to shoot more effectively and even into melee. Remember everything I have already written about crossbowmen, well very little of it applies if they can not shoot.

Shieldwall, this can be used to foil those nasty crossbowmen at least for some periods and is a part of why I have a preference for infantry over cavalry (though mounted knights can also use it). Even crossbowmen can use it so if the enemy are targeting them early on with their ranged troops then they can survive the punishment even if it keeps them from starting to shoot. In a situation like that the enemy's shots will be greatly reduced by the time it runs out if you target their ranged troops.

Scout, this is a bit of a reverse Take Aim putting the heat on an enemy unit instead of a bonus on one of yours. This way multiple guys can utilize it, but it does not prevent friendly fire. Recently I have seen armies use it in conjunction with Wildshot to gain an advantage in the first exchange.

Swarm, a good choice for melee heavy armies to take at least some of the sting out of an enemy's ranged advantage. Disabling even one guy can make a good difference, but working with this is a little like with War Cry. It can take out an ability just put on a unit, but it can also be disabled by activating an ability on the same unit, so timing is crucial. The ideal target is which ever ranged unit has just been given take aim.

Sorry to say this, but I have not experimented that much with the rest of the orders, I have used them from time to time but I do not see the big effects on tactics from them being used. Even when effective they don't change how I play much.

This guide is a work in progress, and I believe tactics in this game will remain so in the coming months. When I started using them javelin men were a largely ignored unit but because of the devastating effect they started having on pvp they were actually converted to a unit which costs gold. More radical changes in tactics might come when someone puts a few of these elements in a way the experienced players like me have not seen, and yet the best players have only been able to retain their possition by staying abreast of the changes and adaptations.


I'm sorry for any typos I might have missed, and for this focusing units that require gold. Especially if you do not put real life currency down, save up that gold and use it for the things you can not otherwise get for your army in any kind of timely manner.

It is my hope that by publishing this guide to units and tactics that I might improve other players ability to take on the pve challanges and hopefully make dueling less intimidating for beginers and increase the overall competetivness required to stay ahead on the leader boards.



Input is much appreciated and I will try to answer any questions people have if my experience covers it.