Cannonneers or Alchemists?

[Fatt_Shade]

After all time spent on this game, i came to conclusion that this is game of numbers, possibilities and percentages. Early game absolute bonus is much better then %bonus : +250/+500 leadership banner regalia is great at start, but later lets say -20% lds requirements for whole demon race gives you 25% larger demon army to lead. But it`s useless if you want to play elf build, so it all also depends of situation you`re in and what is you`re play style.
So i`ll compare this 2 units in my way of viewing : alchem 18% more Lds, 20% more Hp, lower attack, but much higher defense. With high poison up to 3 units hit area dmg are great vs all units except plants/undead but gain no bonuses from any skills/items and have horrible crit%, cannoners on other hand physical dmg, bonus from quick draw for archers, and archer crit% items, and 2x dmg to towers, so they are great in item suppressing battles. In pure numbers alchem win - higher stats, easier to keep alive, higher dmg output overall(give them fire breath spell and see great dmg), cannoner are like special assignment unit - for item battles, and for full archer 100% crit build.
All in all my vote goes to alchem ( every game i played first thing i do is go to swamps and buy all available alchemists from dwarf alchemist laboratory, because they are probably best 4th lvl unit available at that time).

[trentjaspar]

Thanks for the analysis, Fatt_Shade. I don't currently have any items that help one troop or another, but I've only been to Darion so far. I do have an item that gives +3 Attack to Dwarves. But chances are I'll bring the Alchemists with me to Freedom Isles and swap them as necessary.

[Fatt_Shade]

If you have battle hammer, it`s great weapon item, keep it unless you find gladiator sword for +10 might runes/50 battle. And it gives +3 attack to all, and +3 more to dwarves (+6 total to dwarf race, great for them).

[trentjaspar]

So now we add Catapult to the discussion.

Leadership is so low that I can get more than twice as many Catapults as Alchemists, and almost twice as many as Cannonneers. I love the AOE fire as I don't have many AOE options as a Paladin. And unlike Alchemists, they can shoot every round. The low initiative certainly hurts as you want your archers to fire before theirs, but I do have the Pandemonic Mask which gives all enemies -1 initiative. They won't benefit from the Battle Hammer, but I haven't been using it (been using mostly +1 poison or +2 int weapon).

I suppose for suppression battles they can still be useful, but the low init and fire vulnerability makes them a bit of a liability vs Gremlin Towers. And their low def and HP means I'll be using an Inquisitor res on them a lot (or I can upgrade Res spell to level 2, but that's 15 crystals and 20 mana a pop).

Since I don't like to take losses, I guess the catapults might not be the best idea, unless maybe I'm doing an all-archer build or something.