Strategy Guide: The Elves

The good people with the natural look

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

Initial Comments:

The elves seem quite weak at first, especially the Lvl1 units, the Elf swordsman is probably the weakest swordsman in the game, however, most of their other units kick.

Diplomacy:

TheElves, as the Halfling’s and Dwarves, don’t have the diplomacy bonus neutrality gives, but they have nice relationships with the good races, which can give them a nice advantage in the beginning(So you dont need to migrate towns etc to be friends with any of the good races).

Units:

The Elves have lots of good units, but some of their units, like the Elf swordsman, is a disaster. However, they do host some of the best units in the game, like the Nature elemental, known as one of the best hero killers.

Lvl1 Units

Elf Archer

The Elf archer is one the best Lvl1 archers in the game, markmanship I, forestry and good resistance make up one hell of a unit, its much betetr to produce hordes of theses than of elf swordsmen.

Elf Swordsman

The Elf swordsman is maybe the worst Lvl1 unit in the game, 5 attack is nice, 2 defense is average, but the tine amount of 2 damage does more damage to you than to the enemy. If it had 3 Defense, i would call it average, or even better, but since it does not have that, it sucks.

Elven Nymph

This is the Elves response to the Dark Elves lady of pain, it is good for seducing heroes when in large numbers, its fairly cheap, and when an elven cleric has entangled a victim, the nymph can seduce that unit with disturbing ease. Trying to seduce units with a single nymph with no significant backup,  will not turn out so well; it has almost no defense/attack power at all.

Lvl2 Units

Elven Cleric

This is one of the best clerics in the game, its really  an average cleric, but its entagle makes it one of the best. If the Elven cleric can get the first strike, it can mean certain doom even for warlords; with 7 attack in it, you will need a staggering 7 resistance just to be 50% sure that you arent entangled. Howevere this is a touch attack, so the cleric must still have a succesfull attack to entangle.

Elven Scout

This is what the name says; a scout. Lightly armored and armed, but a lot quicker than most cavalry. Vision I and forestry makes up for that loss of 1 damage.

Lvl3 Units

Unicorn

One of the better Lvl3 units in the game: Good damage and defense, the Hp is quite low, but ahvinh Healing, Kickass resistance and magic strike makes it a real winner.

Fairy

This is a nice flying unit, 5 defense , lots of resistance, concealment, and of course magic strike, makes it able not just to explore, but to harass any stray lvl1 or 2 units. They are also good for capturing cities behing enemy lines, which is very disturbing, as it is quite hard to find, except for highmen of course.

Elf Ranger

This is a unit that is quite simialar to the highman avenger, though it doesnt have any immunities or bolts, it does have markmanship II and the ability to cross anything, concealment , and some regular attack capabilities makes it a real winner.

Lvl4 Unit

The Nature elemental

This is the best melee unit in the game, i wouldn’t even want to fight this unit with a syron, entangle strike is so darn much better than just entangle, it can entangle when attacking, and defending,  all its other stats are extremely useful, path of life, lots of immunities and protections,  makes it high on the top 12 lvl4 units list. But it has a weakness; any flying ranged unit(except ice drake when nature elemental is on gold), can kill it with ease, as it has NO defense against ranged flyers.

Strategies:

The Elf rush

The Elves have generally fast units; especially in forests, but their swordsman is too weak for use in any attack force, so the unit(s) the Elves must rely on, is the Elf archer, when mixed with some Nymphs, they make up one hell of a strike force, the Nymphs can simple seduce the swordsmen you need, and the archers can kill almost any attacking enemies with ease.

The Nymph tactic

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

If you produce lots of Nymphs, like 8 or so, they can seduce almost any hero that crosses your path, even though you may lose one of two Nymphs in the process, an additional hero is definately worth it.

Conclusion:

The Elves are generally a powerful race, though they have some of the worst units, they also have some of the best.

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