Tips to have a successful army (for rookies)

Gameplay
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Stonehearth has a simple military mechanic, and as you play, you find that the world can be very hostile.
Here are some tips to hopefully help you out on the comformation of a good army.
Starting: When you start make sure that your first footman has at least 5 body and 3 spirit (intelligence is not important). Once you have established a system of good food and balanced your resources with buildings (also having a good metalworking industry) you can start to be pickier (I use at least 4 spirit and 6 body hearthlings)

Weaponry and armor: I never use leather armor, as I recommend you to evolve and lvl up your blacksmith before anything. Look for fights so when you have the best weapons you can currently make done, your guards can take them. NEVER BE AFRAID OF BATTLE

Mining and metalworking should be your priority, and once you get an auto-sufficient town, dedicate AT LEAST THE 40% of you economical efforts to the army. Be ambicious, that is a good choice.

Healing: You start with a herbalist that heals guards once they are hurt and come back home, but as the enemies get tougher and tougher you might be sure that they come back home. For that, make at least two clerics (three if you feel like it). Clerics should have at least 2 or 3 body (to withstand a slight hit and run behind the rest of the army) and 3 or 4 spirit (the soldiers that deal damage should be encouraged by their fellow combat healer)

Footmen: The infantry troops for excellence. Footmen can wear (geared up to the max) decent armor but can hold a sweet, sweet sword that can deal 28 damage (twice the damage of the bronze maces in a single swing).
Footmen are great damage dealers and can withstand some hits, but they are not tanks, those are the:

Knights: COMMON MISCONCEPTION: Please OH PLEASE never think that knights are better than footmen, it is not a simple as “just OP”. The knight gives hope to the citizens, and boost his mate’s morale. I choose hearthlings with at least 5 body (not too many hit points, because it is compensated with its big armor) and 4 spirit (a charismatic tank). Knights are nothing more than steel-plated punching bags (very proud punching bags), as they have a lot of armor and border-lined mediocre weapons (the best craftable weapon for the knight has 18 attack). They are a distraction because the enemies AI tends to target higher health enemies, thus punching the Knight while Footmen and archers dealing REAL damage and both clerics are in his pocket healing him.

Archers: They are good for defense (can shoot from the top of a wall while the melee troops attack on the field) and good on offense. They should always be behind the higher health classes, as the archer is pretty much screwed if he has to melee combat. They are VERY useful if the enemy has support classes in their squad with low armor and low HP (AHEM clerics AHEM). Use them as an ambush class, The damage dealing troops focused on your melee troops, the archers are ignored. Let them go around the enemy’s army, get to the behind of their formation( where clerics usually hang out) and rain cold steel upon them. The requirements should be 4 body, at least 2 intelligence and at least 2 spirit

Army comformation: What I recommend is a balance of damage dealers, support and tanks, which would be

  • 3 footmen
  • 2 knights
  • 2 clerics
  • 3 archers

Structures: I highly recommend building:

  • Walls/moats around your town. It will take time and effort, but it will be worth it
  • Panic room: a room with many layers of doors and platforms between them (so archers and engineer’s gadgets can shoot down upon the ones knocking the doors. Build a big section of tunnels with food and treasures (your most valued items in the town) so if the enemies raid your main stockpile there is nothing of value lost there

I hope these tips helped you on conquering the world!
THanks for reading

6 Likes
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Lovely little guide! Could you maybe provide some visuals on the type of moat or walls you mentioned? I want to make them but I can’t figure out a real effective way to do so!

1 Like
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tridale i had 3 knights 4 clerics 6 footman and 3 archers, just wipes everything off the map. also, forget the moats. just place fences in front of ur gates, the mobs wont even attack the fences (Right now)

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For a rookie I would not commend to have footmen at all.
Since the footmen will get to the enemy first, they tend to die often.
2 Knights
2-4 Clercis
and 6 Archers should be better for rookies.
They can send in the whole party and do not need to care or micro at all.

EDIT:
But nice post :slight_smile:
Very helpfull

2 Likes
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Good observation, so what you can do to compensate that is to have your footmen in a different party and, if they start charging at the invaders, juggle them around so the knights get there first

1 Like
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I guess in a defence situation the whole group is close to one another, so the knights will quickly pick up the invaders.

In a offensive situation far away from base, i usually set a defence marker down a bit before the attackpoint, for them to wait and let the knights and clerics catch up to the footmen, before initiating the planned attack :slight_smile:

I have tried with a group of archer on their own and two “guard” groups placed on each side of town. The guardgroups had knights, healers and footmen. The when an attack occoured they would pick up the mobs and all i had to do, was to direct the archers over there. Im not sure, but maybe these guard groups could be just on tank and a cleric each or maybe two healers for bigger attacks.

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Thank you @Stonestomach

It’s awsome to see someone someone spend their time on stuff like this.
Myself I usually just go with one of each class in each party, this works really well, even in hard mode I haven’t had the biggest problems, atmost lost 2 guyes. Mainly footmen, because they’re faster than Usain Bolt.
Thx for reading :smile: