ancient ents

[thorndike]

while leading an all-elf army, i found ancient ent's wasp is really effective against black dragon, especially considering fairy and sprite's attacks are all magic based. Here is a typical scenario while fighting against black dragons:

1) set trap
2) black dragon right on top of the trap. Using wasp, then cast "fit of energy" to put more action points to ancient ent.

Usually I can elimate a stack of 10+ black dragons pretty quick this way

[cassiel101]

I found a good strat for these was to use haste on them. Even better if you can mass haste and have more than 1 slow moving tank type unit.

Cast haste and send em in! Just be careful of firebased troops and bear in mind that you can't heal them with the usual heal spells. You can heal them with the holy light spell though and the gizmo, not sure what else.

[Metathron]

They would be decent if you could heal them, what with the huge hp. Alas...

[Akimbo]

Originally Posted by Metathron

They would be decent if you could heal them, what with the huge hp. Alas...

That's what Time Back is for ^_^, I actually just finished the game ( first time, woohoo ) and these guys in the last battle were the most annoying enemies. Damned Bees!

[Metathron]

Originally Posted by Akimbo

That's what Time Back is for ^_^, I actually just finished the game ( first time, woohoo ) and these guys in the last battle were the most annoying enemies. Damned Bees!

If I'm gonna choose to have a non-resurrectable, non-healable unit in my ranks that's gonna depend on Time back, I'm gonna choose skeleton archers, a much better investment by leaps and bounds. Anyhow, the ancient ents are just too damn dependent on the hero to be useful.

Actually, in my last game (my 5th full playthrough so far ) as wizard, I didn't choose the skellies at all. At the moment, I have an all eleven army (sprites, fairies, elves, hunters and black unicorns). I was loath to part with the snakes, but I wanted to try an all elven army for the morale bonus, and due to the unicorns' added punch against the undead and demons. Turns out +1 morale for elves coupled with black unicorns < no morale bonus + royal snakes + ring of the snake king. In my opinion, of course.

[Akimbo]

Actually in my last game I didn't even get Ancient Ents. Nowhere in the world had them at all, same with Royal Thorns. Man I was annoyed. Still I probably wouldn't have used them with a warrior. A casting of teleport to get them into the fight instead of Dragon arrows or Mass Precision on the first round? No thanks hehe I was going to try the all Elven army, but in the end I just couldn't resist using a mix of units ^^

[Vilk]

The Ancient Ent have the more powerful normal attack among high level units and they have a high life. Their long range special attack is cool enough to be a complementary long range attack for the first round.

You can heal them with Life Light and Shaman. I know that Life Light mana cost is high but eventually can heal more than one stack. You can also use Sacrifice (at high level) to resurrect them and can use Sacrifice on them without to kill even one.

They aren't only cool to use with haste or teleport but also when you are certain that fast enemy unit will attack your back lines or when you won't be able to stop many strong close range enemy unit coming to your line. They can guard a strategic point quite efficiently and are better with tactic level 1 and even 2.

Like mentioned their main weakness is they slow speed and impossibility to be resurrected and heal normally but also their fire vulnerability. In a way this has one plus, to tend to attract fire dragons attacks and you can exploit this.

As knight I see them more for mage with some High Magic level learned.

Overall I tend to agree that globally their negative points are more important than their positive but they aren't that bad so they can be cool unit anyway.