This guide contain recommendations for how to build your army optimally. The guide is written based on Patch 1.03, Warlord difficulty. But this guide is not suitable for Perma Death game mode.

Ideally, you want your final army to look something like the image below, which will be explained through this guide.

Dragons are by far the most powerful units in the game. They have high damage, high hp, high mobility and flying movement. Thus dragon squads deserve the greatest priority and investment. You can have 15 dragons in this game; 3 from quest progression, 12 are purchasable from bazaars. So you should always purchase any dragon you see available.

Dragons should be given Dark affinity, if possible. If not, you may have to give them Water affinity so they have sufficient MAG to become red dragons, which are the more power variant. A newly purchased drakeling should be given CP tomes to allow immediate class change. Each dragon squad should have 3 dragon riders and no cavalry units. This will result in the squad having flying movement.

The recommended dragon squads are:

1. Beatrix
   
2. Abigail
   
3. Sybil
   
4. Cloudrender
   
5. Zelos

Beatrix has the highest damage potential and thus highest priority. She should be given Dark affinity and medals of valor until she reaches 60 LDR. Her squad shall be 3x dragons + 2x sentinels. The front line units should be given Bloodlust trait and the sentinels given Warrior's Hubris trait. For artifacts, give her Temporal Modulator, Everlasting Potion and Ataraxia. Do not put healers in Beatrix' party, otherwise it would trigger Temporal Modulator from long range attacks. Beatrix should be played like her introductory mission - charge deep into enemy formation - to bait enemies into attacking her.

Abigail has the 2nd highest priority due to her dragon affinity. Nibbler should always be in her party due to his LDR cost is only 5 when paired with Abigail. For artifacts, I gave her Soha's Bloodshard, Belinda's Field Kit and Black Belt. Abigail's Acolytes should be given to Sybil when she have access to sentinels.

Sybil has 3rd highest priority because she can tank better than Cloudrender and have higher LDR but also needed more investment. Sybil's squad should use paladins (donated from Abigail). Give her the artifacts Balmung and Obsidian plate armor, due to her lower armor compared to sentnels.

Cloudrender is 4th highest and should be leader of a dragon squad due to his starting LDR at 60 and his leadership trait of Tundra Warrior.

Zelos has lowest priority because he is the last to join your party.

Cannons squads are incredibly effective in Warlord difficulty due to their ability to destroy an entire squad and take no damage in the process. To properly field an army of cannon squads, see Tech Tree section of this guide.

It is important to note that when your army initially gain enough CP for tier 3 units, your soldiers and cavaliers will not have the necessary STR to change class into sentinels or knights. The best possible class change available at this time frame is cannons. Additionally, cannons created from soldiers and cavaliers have higher HP than others. Therefore, in the mid game between Chapter 10 and Chapter 20, you should be changing your soldiers and knights into cannons. Knights raised by Barnabas make good leaders for canon squads.

The recommendation is to have 3 squads of cannons. Each cannon squad should have not less than 4 cannons. After Chapter 20, raise this to 6 cannons per squad. Recommended artifacts are True Shot Bow paired with Obsidian Plate Armor and Zero Point Blade. Your best cannon squad should be given Jade Statue for a chance to have a 2nd turn.

Heavy cavalry units are like dragon units that can not fly, but are equally mobile, equally tanky and hits equally hard. The most suitable leaders are Baranbas and Jaromir. Each squad consists of 4 other knights, 3 fire mages and a templar. Each should be given St. Teresa's Bulwark to make up for not having sentinels in the front line. Lysander is just as good, since he already has cavalry movement type. Lysander can ditch the spearmen and put in 3 knights and 2 dragoons.

Barnabas is a great recipient for Donar's Treatise of War and Lysander is a great recipient of True Shot Bow. Barnabas should be given Medals of Valor to boost his LDR into the 50's and then give him Light affinity for a further boost.

Two of the Nephilims should be commanding dragon squads. The remaining ones, being the Main Character ("MC"), Diana and Stefan, each serve a purpose and they are all low priority for different reasons.

MC is low priority because the MC naturally gains a lot of LDR. So the MC does not need a lot of combat to grow. The MC's death also mean losing, so there is a tendency to keep him outside of danger. His ability to revive further means using his turn to support allies as opposed to fighting enemies. Still, the MC is the best mage squad in the game. His high LDR can easily support a squad of 3 sentinels, 4 mages and 1 templar. On top of this, he can equip Cyrene's Regalia, Blood Staff and Iblis Family Signet. This is a minimum LDR requirement of 106, but my MC has LDR of 118! This overflow of LDR means you can stack his squad with the least loyal members of your army. Hence, the low priority.

Diana is obviously the best tank squad in game. That being said, in Warlord difficulty, she still dies regularly. For this reason, the artifacts she need are Genbu's Shell Frangment, Boots of Tyranny and Black Belt. Once she unlocks her Titan status, she can not have flying movement. Her acolytes do not have sufficient armor to tank in late game and need to be placed in back row after sentinels become available. She can tank better than heavy cavalry units, nearly as mobile but less offensive power. Hence, low priority.

Stefan is the official Certified Thief(tm) of the game. He has very niche roles, including:

1. Stealing gold and increased chance of finding artifacts
   
2. Taking out enemies with extremely high SKL - such as Beatrix on Chapter 11
   
3. Taking out dangerous enemies in the back line
   
4. Ambushing

The advantages are very powerful when they are activated. But he is also fragile. He should be in a team with 4 assassins. Two of which he starts with and the other two donated to him from Narima. All of them should have Lightning affinity. For artifacts, give him True Shot Bow, Shinobi Gi and Landis' Fixed Die.

Heavy infantry squads are built like the MC's squads. They are slow but have a tanky front line and dish out significant damage. The recommended leaders are General Ravi, Kuroda and Barnabas' Templar. They have very high LDR and therefore able to field 9 units. The front line should be sentinels, the center line should be templar with 2 fire wizards. The back line can be fire mages, champions or swordmasters (for Ravi). They have very low priority but also a lot of flexibility in how to build them. Often, I would remove a member from these squads to fill an opening from a higher priority squad.

Barnabas' Templar is the healer that you would naturally add to Barnabas' squad from the early game. By Chapter 21 (after side quests), her LDR should be in the high 60's or low 70's. By end of the game, she will be in the low 80's. This allows a full squad with the use of artifacts.

Light units are just underwhelming in this game. The lack of armor means they are just sitting ducks. The reason for having them are:

1. To use units that were given to you for free anyway.
   
2. Keep costs low and to allow materials be used on higher priority squads.
   
3. To navigate rough terrain

The natural leaders for these lousy squads are Jules, Narima and Raskuja. All of them lacked the LDR to reach a full squad of 9 units. Jules is archery captain and he does not need to recruit archers. All the free archers given from the game should go with Jules. Raskuja came with light infantry units, which you can either turn them all into rangers or demote them into fighter and later turn into hussars. Narima's starting units should all be given away and refill her ranks with scouts, which can later turn into dragoons.

If these guys sound like a liability, it is because they are. On some missions you have to keep them alive.

During some missions you are allowed to deploy more squads than you have meaningful resources for. Instead of not placing the maximum number of squads on the field, go to the market place and recruit fighters and medics. Use some non-critical units as leaders, such as the ranger from Raskuja's squad or sword fighter from Abigail. These leaders need a minimum of 30 LDR. And the fodder squad have a minimum of 2 units up front and a medic in the back. Recruiting apprentices also work, but they usually have very low LDR.

The AI always attack the lowest threat rating unit in range. So these units are excellent mean shields to waste the enemy turn. Enemy cannons are also incredibly dangerous in Wardlord difficulty. These squads are the cannon fodders that you need. They can also be used to bait enemies forward while your main army stays out side of enemy range.

Aside from being cannon fodder, they can also heal out side of combat, open chests and shuffle units to either keep them out of danger or to move them further ahead.

The recommended order to level tech tree is:

1. Crafts and Technology
   
2. Academy of War
   
3. Tactics and Command

You want to have Gunsmithing, Grapeshot and Breech-loading Gun researched around the time your army has enough CP to change class to tier 3 units. And as soon as that happens you want to get cannons.

After that, the priority is level up Crafts and Technology, which will unlock Rifled Artillery and Dragon Bond. The former greatly improves cannon performance, the latter unlocks flying dragons. To achieve this, you should not have more than 5 points invested in Tactics and Command, until both Rifled Artillery and Dragon Bond is researched.

Legendary artifacts can have powerful impact on the game. This section explain how to use them to their full potential. In order of priority, the artifacts are:

1. Temporal Modulator - By far the most powerful artifact in game. The counter attack ability is best used when you can guarantee the enemy will attack that unit and you can kill off the enemy in a single combat round, hence Beatrix is the natural user of this. Pair this with Everlasting Potion. The potion's heal is approximately 2x MAG of the squad leader + 50.
   
2. Jade Figurine - Best used on units with high attack power and can avoid counter attack, hence your best cannon squad is the natural user of this.
   
3. Soha's Blood Shards - Best used with dragon squads, as their attack benefit from both STR and MAG. Should also be used with Belinda's Field Kit, as the HP lost and recovery cancel each other. Abigail is the natural user of this, because she is available to be deployed on the most number of missions.
   
4. Iblis Family Signet - This artifact would have even higher priority, if not for the fact that you can only get it from Chapter 27. The natural user of this is MC, as the MC is always deployed on missions and has very high LDR.
   
5. Genbu Shell Fragment - This is the inferior version of Iblis Family Signet. Pairing this with Boots of Tyranny to mitigate the movement penalty is a must. The natural user is Diana due to the need for her to be tanky.
   
6. Balmung - Sybil is the natural user because her squad fully benefits from the STR, MAG and SKL. Should be paired with Obsidian Plate Armor.
   
7. Fang of Duros - The only squad not impacted by the MAG penalty yet benefit from STR is Archery units. Hence, Jules is the natural user.
   
8. Skull of Rowdain - The natural user is Beatrix, as her squad starts with low morale already and she tends to kill a lot.

Other legendary artifacts are not as useful and thus not listed.

Traits boost performance of individual units. Leadership traits are only active when that unit is the squad leader. Other traits normally boost either offensive or defensive of the unit.

The most useful offensive traits are (in alphabetical order):

• Arcane Might - for high MAG units that need STR only
  
• Cold-Blooded
  
• Concentration - for low SKL units only
  
• Executioner
  
• Precision - for high SKL units only
  
• Smite

The most useful densive traits are (in alphabetical order):

• Arcane Barrier - high MAG only
  
• Arcane Vigor - high MAG only
  
• Beacon - when combined with AOE heals
  
• Bodyguard - front row only
  
• Bloodlust - front row only
  
• Warrior's Hubris - high STR only

Each unit has affinity and affinities provide a boost in some cases but penalty in others. Additionally, some boosts or penalties are not clearly stated in the game.

• Earth provides --SKL penalty. The game incorrectly displays a single - penalty.
  
• Dark provides --HP penalty. The game incorrectly displays no penalty.

Each affinity is suited for certain types of characters, they are as follow:

1. Earth - Suited for tanks like sentinel and paladins for the HP boost. OK for cannons.
   
2. Water - Best for mages for the HP and MAG boost. OK for dragons. It does not directly improve the dragons, but will allow earlier class change.
   
3. Lightning - Best for light infantry units like assassins, sword fighters and archers.
   
4. Fire - Best for units with high STR requirements like knights and champions
   
5. Dark - Best for dragons and Beatrix
   
6. Light - Best for squad leads who lack the LDR, most notably Barnabas, Narima and Raskuja

The best way to farm CP is fighting in the bronze arena, especially after you unlocked Supply Chain Mastery. Send one or two strong units to bait the archers into attacking you. Keep the squad you want to farm CP for in the base - to obtain the defensive bonus, healing and preventing enemies from capturing your base. Soon, the enemy archers will notice your squad in the base has the lowest threat rating and will always target that squad. Have your strong units destroy the remaining enemies. Sit and watch the enemy archers give you free EXP and CP.

Mercenaries are available from bazaars and marketplaces. Prices for non-legendary mercenaries are quite reasonable and should be considered for purchase, if you intend to raise that unit anyway.

Priorities for purchasing mercenaries are as follow:

1. Cloudrender - Legendary dragon rider
   
2. Zeteni - Legendary sentinel
   
3. Any legendary mages
   
4. Any cannons
   
5. Any sentinels
   
6. Any fire mages
   
7. Any templars

It is important not to squander all cash on mercenaries, as you may have to save cash to purchase legendary artifacts. It is also important to purchase some mercenaries, as you will not have sufficient materials for a maxed out army. Having 5 to 10 is ideal.

This section contain spoilers. Below are images of how the illustrated army from the beginning of this guide has performed in the final Chapter of this game in Warlord difficulty.



This is the deployment of units

This is the end of the 1st turn. Every enemy squad is either destroyed or badly wounded. Except the boss, which is unharmed thus far.

This is the 2nd turn, immediately before the boss is defeated. The boss fell so quickly that my slower units have not yet faced combat in this entire mission.