I've decided to write this guide on how to defeat the hardest siege faction in the game because many have been complaining that they are impossible to beat and the game is imbalanced. This is not the case. Elintor just happens to have the best archers in the game, making sieges harder than other factions and players are either not prepared to take them on or are bringing poor strategic tactics to the table.
This strategy will be broken down to 3 phases, Preparation, Attrition, and Conquest. It is not a strategy to take 1 castle, but a strategy to wipe the faction out. To that extent much of the suggested numbers are higher marks for multiple sieges and faction conquest. Your culture and faction of choice is irrelevant. My strategy relies on concepts and approach. In that regard you can choose whatever unit you prefer or think is best. As long as you follow my concepts and strategic approach, you should see success.
I approached Elintor as an end game goal. I must gain power to eliminate an evil genocidal elven force that seeks to rid Perisno of all human life. So everything I did was to get to the point of be able to put this strategy into play. Elintor is one of the 6 main factions and their focused skill and strength with archery makes them incredibly strong at sieges. You don't want to go to war with them unless you are well prepared.
PHASE 1 - Preparation
PHASE 2 - Attrition
PHASE 3 - Conquest
A few final notes and suggestions
- I relied on Custom Mercs and Household troops. They are by no means the best units in the game by skill or ability, but their flexibilty and being able to adjust to the specific need of super heavy armored units that can survive Elintor archers was very high value for me.
- I was lvl 43 when I took this on and had already conquered a decent chunk of Perisno and owned all land in all towns. Money was not a factor for me. I spent 2 million getting 200 Household troops before I realized I needed a third cavalry force to perfect my Phase 2 approach. In truth I was getting bored, and Elintor was the final real challenge to the game.
- I had tried the usual back and forth with Elintor and found it was simply not working. They would retake anything I did and my lords would loose to them more times than not. I realized that unlike every other faction, Elintor was an all in type of war campaign. To truly win, you have to commit to taking them out and use everything trick in the game to do it.
This is already an incredibly long post. I reserve the right to edit it later after a break and as other things come back to me. I also encourage others to share any tips they have in supporting the end of the evil elven empire.
This strategy will be broken down to 3 phases, Preparation, Attrition, and Conquest. It is not a strategy to take 1 castle, but a strategy to wipe the faction out. To that extent much of the suggested numbers are higher marks for multiple sieges and faction conquest. Your culture and faction of choice is irrelevant. My strategy relies on concepts and approach. In that regard you can choose whatever unit you prefer or think is best. As long as you follow my concepts and strategic approach, you should see success.
I approached Elintor as an end game goal. I must gain power to eliminate an evil genocidal elven force that seeks to rid Perisno of all human life. So everything I did was to get to the point of be able to put this strategy into play. Elintor is one of the 6 main factions and their focused skill and strength with archery makes them incredibly strong at sieges. You don't want to go to war with them unless you are well prepared.
PHASE 1 - Preparation
You should not be messing with Elintor until you're a a well established kingdom. If your trying to take their castles and you are a fledgling kingdom without numerous lord support, resources or units to challenge archers, you are setting yourself up for frustration.
You should be a high enough level to have certain skills maxed out or very high to support this strategy. Leadership, Tactics and all medical skills are high priority for this. You should also have a high range ability to snipe at walls.
You will need at least 15 wealthy lords, enough castles or towns to support that many lords, 50+ relations with all your lords, 5 million..... yes million Aurums. Again these numbers are based on a faction conquest scale. For launching multiple consecutive sieges and taking a lot of the factions territory or possibly the entire faction out in 1 to 2 campaigns. You could water these numbers down and use the strategy effectively for smaller gains.
It would also be nice to have some alliances, good relations with other factions, lands and enterprises to support the massive costs. You'll be fielding a force of all elites, wages of more than 50k for your army alone, plus mercs/escorts and a heavily bolstered garrison for fast reinforcements to replace the loses you will take from the epic siege campaign.
You will want to stockpile and train up cavalry specifically for phase 2 and field battles. You are going up against the archery experts. Distance and time is their ally, speed is yours. In the field you want to crash into their lines as soon as possible, limiting Elintor archery from be too effective. You don't want range troops for this. Which units you chose to use is entirely your choice... as long as their fast movers.
You also want to stockpile heavy melee troops for Phase 3 sieges, 300+.
Finally you want to have about 500 raw recruits. You are not upgrading them. You need them for the sheer value of the number 500.
Personally I used household guards. They are not the best units in game but their flexibility and ease of replacement met the needs I had. Choice of unit is up to you.
These stockpiles will incur some serious expenses in wages.
If you look at this prep and think "this is insane, I can't do that". Then you're not ready. Go play footsie with the giants until you are ready to play with the big boys.
You should be a high enough level to have certain skills maxed out or very high to support this strategy. Leadership, Tactics and all medical skills are high priority for this. You should also have a high range ability to snipe at walls.
You will need at least 15 wealthy lords, enough castles or towns to support that many lords, 50+ relations with all your lords, 5 million..... yes million Aurums. Again these numbers are based on a faction conquest scale. For launching multiple consecutive sieges and taking a lot of the factions territory or possibly the entire faction out in 1 to 2 campaigns. You could water these numbers down and use the strategy effectively for smaller gains.
It would also be nice to have some alliances, good relations with other factions, lands and enterprises to support the massive costs. You'll be fielding a force of all elites, wages of more than 50k for your army alone, plus mercs/escorts and a heavily bolstered garrison for fast reinforcements to replace the loses you will take from the epic siege campaign.
You will want to stockpile and train up cavalry specifically for phase 2 and field battles. You are going up against the archery experts. Distance and time is their ally, speed is yours. In the field you want to crash into their lines as soon as possible, limiting Elintor archery from be too effective. You don't want range troops for this. Which units you chose to use is entirely your choice... as long as their fast movers.
You also want to stockpile heavy melee troops for Phase 3 sieges, 300+.
Finally you want to have about 500 raw recruits. You are not upgrading them. You need them for the sheer value of the number 500.
Personally I used household guards. They are not the best units in game but their flexibility and ease of replacement met the needs I had. Choice of unit is up to you.
These stockpiles will incur some serious expenses in wages.
If you look at this prep and think "this is insane, I can't do that". Then you're not ready. Go play footsie with the giants until you are ready to play with the big boys.
PHASE 2 - Attrition
Again this is a faction elimination strategy, so attrition by way of killing off their active armies is part of it. In phase 2 you are systematically hunting down enemy lords of the faction and taking them prisoner.
You need pure cavalry here. You are going up against the archer faction. So again speed is your friend here. You need to crash into their lines as fast as possible to keep their archers from setting up to take you out. I split my force into 3. 1) Custom merc knights specific for in close combat (lances, shields and long sword) 2) Household Guards built as pure horse archers (Bow with multiple stacks of arrows) 3) companions as a hybrid of both. I would always focus my companions on flank and rear for archers that were trying to move back to firing range. The goal is to keep the archers busy from using bows.
An additional tactic is to also fight the Elintor in forests with the smaller maps. Obviously smaller maps means you close the distance to archers faster and take fewer loses.
Pay attention to the feeds,
- if one of your lords is taken prisoner, go free him quickly. You will need your lords at full strength for phase 3, when you call campaigns to siege castles and towns.
- Also if one of your lords taken an elintor lord prisoner, go take the lord and hold him in your dungeon. (This is a new feature in Perisno courtesy of Leonion)
Why are you taking all of these lords prisoner? 3 reasons;
1) Holding all of their lords prisoner eliminates their offensive force. They can't raid or siege you if their lords are in prison. Leaving you and your lords freedom to focus on sieges on them.
2) No offensive force means your lords aren't taking losses. So when you call the campaign in Phase 3, your lords will be at full strength and capable to support you.
3) When you do call the campaign in phase 3, you won't be countered by an elintor campaign or lord force. You can essentially fill your force with siege specialists and march castle to town taking chunks of land. All partrols will run from you.
Why is it important that you personally capture or hold the enemy lords? You are going to deny ransoms and peace offers. The only Elintor lords free are the ones that escape or you haven't caught yet.
Again, at this point you should be a well established king with 50+ relation among your lords, high renown, and honor. If your worried about losing honor, relations, and renown, you are not ready. Go curl up in your snuggy, watch the Notebook and eat ice cream with the Hakkon while real men conduct the business of war.
Again, this is a faction conquest strategy, much of this is scaled to that extreme. You don't have to wait to capture all enemy lords, but you should make a concerted effort to get the majority in your dungeon. The more you have held prisoner, the fewer you will have to deal with while conducting sieges.
You need pure cavalry here. You are going up against the archer faction. So again speed is your friend here. You need to crash into their lines as fast as possible to keep their archers from setting up to take you out. I split my force into 3. 1) Custom merc knights specific for in close combat (lances, shields and long sword) 2) Household Guards built as pure horse archers (Bow with multiple stacks of arrows) 3) companions as a hybrid of both. I would always focus my companions on flank and rear for archers that were trying to move back to firing range. The goal is to keep the archers busy from using bows.
An additional tactic is to also fight the Elintor in forests with the smaller maps. Obviously smaller maps means you close the distance to archers faster and take fewer loses.
Pay attention to the feeds,
- if one of your lords is taken prisoner, go free him quickly. You will need your lords at full strength for phase 3, when you call campaigns to siege castles and towns.
- Also if one of your lords taken an elintor lord prisoner, go take the lord and hold him in your dungeon. (This is a new feature in Perisno courtesy of Leonion)
Why are you taking all of these lords prisoner? 3 reasons;
1) Holding all of their lords prisoner eliminates their offensive force. They can't raid or siege you if their lords are in prison. Leaving you and your lords freedom to focus on sieges on them.
2) No offensive force means your lords aren't taking losses. So when you call the campaign in Phase 3, your lords will be at full strength and capable to support you.
3) When you do call the campaign in phase 3, you won't be countered by an elintor campaign or lord force. You can essentially fill your force with siege specialists and march castle to town taking chunks of land. All partrols will run from you.
Why is it important that you personally capture or hold the enemy lords? You are going to deny ransoms and peace offers. The only Elintor lords free are the ones that escape or you haven't caught yet.
Again, at this point you should be a well established king with 50+ relation among your lords, high renown, and honor. If your worried about losing honor, relations, and renown, you are not ready. Go curl up in your snuggy, watch the Notebook and eat ice cream with the Hakkon while real men conduct the business of war.
Again, this is a faction conquest strategy, much of this is scaled to that extreme. You don't have to wait to capture all enemy lords, but you should make a concerted effort to get the majority in your dungeon. The more you have held prisoner, the fewer you will have to deal with while conducting sieges.
PHASE 3 - Conquest
With the majority of Elintor lords in your dungeons you are free to focus on taking land and your lords should be at full enough strength to respond to campaign calls.
The key to Phase 3 is numbers. or to be more accurate, the game mechanic of "Battle Advantage".
We have all been there. A siege where the AI has brought 2000+ soldiers and thanks to battle advantage you're only allowed to field a small number of troops. In many cases far fewer than you probably want. Well we're using the same mechanic and flipping it on Elintor. This is why leadership and tactics was important.... to maximize your battle advantage.
Your going to be the marshal and call a campaign for your lords to answer. Inspect the ones that show up and start giving them some of those 500 raw recruits you have stored up. Again it's not their strength that is important, it's their amount. Once you've bolstered the numbers, hire an escort and set your party up with whatever melee siege unit you value. Max it out.
You should be marching with no less than 3k troops. I stomped around with 4k for this. Whether you pick a castle or a town the strategy is the same.... Get up the ladders and in the walls as fast as possible. Again it's an archer faction, you don't want range warfare, you want to be in their face quickly. Thanks to the battle advantage they should have fewer archers on the walls, giving your troops more survivability. Your job in the siege is to snipe as many archers as possible.
Again these are conquest level numbers. Built to take hundreds of loses over several sieges back to back. You could march with fewer lords and troops if you are just taking a castle or 2. The strategy would still hold true; Overwhelming numbers to get a large battle advantage so Elintor has fewer archers on the walls.
As usual the best of the best will spawn out at the beginning, so you should breach the walls and be in their spawn point with serious melee troops rather quickly. Once that is the case, the weak elves with no lords or lord household troops, should fold fast in the siege.
Rinse and repeat.
The key to Phase 3 is numbers. or to be more accurate, the game mechanic of "Battle Advantage".
We have all been there. A siege where the AI has brought 2000+ soldiers and thanks to battle advantage you're only allowed to field a small number of troops. In many cases far fewer than you probably want. Well we're using the same mechanic and flipping it on Elintor. This is why leadership and tactics was important.... to maximize your battle advantage.
Your going to be the marshal and call a campaign for your lords to answer. Inspect the ones that show up and start giving them some of those 500 raw recruits you have stored up. Again it's not their strength that is important, it's their amount. Once you've bolstered the numbers, hire an escort and set your party up with whatever melee siege unit you value. Max it out.
You should be marching with no less than 3k troops. I stomped around with 4k for this. Whether you pick a castle or a town the strategy is the same.... Get up the ladders and in the walls as fast as possible. Again it's an archer faction, you don't want range warfare, you want to be in their face quickly. Thanks to the battle advantage they should have fewer archers on the walls, giving your troops more survivability. Your job in the siege is to snipe as many archers as possible.
Again these are conquest level numbers. Built to take hundreds of loses over several sieges back to back. You could march with fewer lords and troops if you are just taking a castle or 2. The strategy would still hold true; Overwhelming numbers to get a large battle advantage so Elintor has fewer archers on the walls.
As usual the best of the best will spawn out at the beginning, so you should breach the walls and be in their spawn point with serious melee troops rather quickly. Once that is the case, the weak elves with no lords or lord household troops, should fold fast in the siege.
Rinse and repeat.
A few final notes and suggestions
- I relied on Custom Mercs and Household troops. They are by no means the best units in the game by skill or ability, but their flexibilty and being able to adjust to the specific need of super heavy armored units that can survive Elintor archers was very high value for me.
- I was lvl 43 when I took this on and had already conquered a decent chunk of Perisno and owned all land in all towns. Money was not a factor for me. I spent 2 million getting 200 Household troops before I realized I needed a third cavalry force to perfect my Phase 2 approach. In truth I was getting bored, and Elintor was the final real challenge to the game.
- I had tried the usual back and forth with Elintor and found it was simply not working. They would retake anything I did and my lords would loose to them more times than not. I realized that unlike every other faction, Elintor was an all in type of war campaign. To truly win, you have to commit to taking them out and use everything trick in the game to do it.
This is already an incredibly long post. I reserve the right to edit it later after a break and as other things come back to me. I also encourage others to share any tips they have in supporting the end of the evil elven empire.
