Strategy Guide: The Highmen

The pure good people with the clean faces


Note: This isn’t written to the experts, but to the newbies

Initial Comments:

The Highmen are the only pure good race in the entire game, they host awesome units, not a single bad one, but if you are pure good, you have to pay the price of few friends…

Diplomacy:

The Highmen has the tactical (dis)advantage of being pure good, this mean that it has decent  relationship with only three races. But Highmen does also have decent a relationship with humans, which makes diplomacy a lot easier.

Units:

The Highmen host great units, none of them are bad, they arent too specialised, as most of their units are allround. They can traverse all terrain, and see concealed units. No strike and hide operations can be done against the highmen, as they have true seeing. All their units are much faster than the average, even the lvl1 units!


Lvl1 Units


Highman Archer

This is an average archer, except for two things: True seeing, so you cant ambush it with concealed units, And their superior speed! It has 4 mp over the average(26 = average), so its morre than excellent for rushing.

Highman Swordsman

As with the archer, the swordsman is average, “only” differences is true seeing, and their almost light-cavalry speed.

Spirit Puppet

This is the only lvl1 unit with magic strike. It has the same immunities as a syron, but way lesser stats. This is probably the cheapest wraithkiller availble in the game. This unit also has the benefit of 30 Mp.


Lvl2 Units


Highman Saint

This is maybe the best priest classed unit in the game. It has Charm, Holy Bolts, Holy Protection, Holy Strike, Magic Strike, True Seeing, and Turn Undead II.  Though the Undead Doom Priest has Dominate, Charm is almost the same, and the saint has better stats than the Doom priest, which makes this one of the best priest classed units in the game.

Highman Paladin

This is a lesser form of a priest, with average cavary stats! Its Mp on 40 makes it the fastest cavalry in game shared with Azrac Rider, with healing and turn undead mounted on the fastest cavalry in game, you have a support unit that can travel between stacks fast. They also make up wraithkillers(Although its a mere 48% that they succeed, its better than nothing, be sure to have at least two Paladins when encountering a wraith.), but not in fast combat! As turn undead is NEVER used in fast combat. For a reference, check out Fast Combat Mechanics .


Lvl3 Units


Titan

This is one of the few melee infantry units that can slay a warlord. Heavy stats, round attack, first strike, the speed of a Cavalier , and some immunites/protections make this one of the best. (With 36 Mp, this is the fastest infantry classed unit in the game)

Valkyrie

This is the second best flying unit in the game(After the demon). Imagine an overpowered lvl2 cavalry unit with holy strike and immunity, that flies! It can chop through most units in the game, with disturbing ease.

Highman Avenger

This is a great unit, look at these abilities: Cave Crawling, Death Immunity, Fearless, Forestry, Holy Bolts, Holy Champion, Holy Immunity, Holy Strike, Magic Strike, Mountaineering, Strike, Swimming, True Seeing, Turn Undead II, Walking. It can traverse any terrain, smash through any evil units with ease; holy champion gives 2 attack 2 damage extra when fighting evil units. I wouldnt attack avengers even with warlords, holy champion boost avengers attack to 7, damage to 6, plus that nasty holy strike, can finish off any unit. The only drawback, is that it havent got concealment. If it had, it would be the best strike n’ hide unit of all time. Although it packs a mean punch against evil units, it is not so good against good and neutral ones; 2 lesser attack and 2 lesser damage makes it more of a lvl2 unit than lvl3 unit.


Lvl4 Unit


The Astra

This is an overpowered version of the valkyrie. VERY overpowered…  Instead of holy strike, the astra has fire strike, healing, dispel magic and of course holy immunity and fire protection. It isnt much to say about it except its low defense(4 defense is even low for a lvl3 unit!), its just a brute force unit.


Strategies:


The Highman rush

The Highmen have the fastest infantry units in the game, 4 more Mp than the average soldier, makes them an excellent for rushing. Their units are average, but not so bad. You can use whatever lvl1 unit you like in a rush attack,.

The Paladin tactic

This isn’t really a strategy or a tactic, it’s more of a tip.

Having at least one paladin in a group is can be much better than having a priest; The priest doesnt have the attack power, nor the speed of a cavalry unit, and the paladin still heals and turns undead as good as an average priest. Another strength of having paladins, is that they can jump from stack to stack fast, supporting several stacks at a time.


Conclusion:

The Highmen are a true powerful race, they are probalbly the most allround race in the game. They have an answer to almost every unit in the game.


This article was written by Silver_Dragon, with the help of the gamers at the AoWHeaven forum.