Twin Paladins

The latest Tribes patch buffs Dwarves quite a bit.  Today I'm going to present my favorite way to play the Dwarves: Pumped up Twin Paladins!

The goal is to reach a point where I have a pair of fully upgraded Paladins.  They'll have Shield, Helm, Sword and be within range of each other to heal. 

Fully upgraded paladins are fearsome. 

• They have 1200 health
• Their aura buffs each other to 35% Armor and 35% magic resist
• Their mutual aura also buffs each other to 315 damage
• They heal for 600!

She's too sexy for this blog

To reach this point nowadays I play my Dwarves a little differently than what I've seen most people do.  A lot of people I've seen have super upgraded Annihilators, Grenadiers with Swords standing on red squares, etc.  To be sure, these approaches are super strong and win games and I will very often play my games this way if the opportunity presents itself.  In the absence of a clear opportunity, early game I focus on dumping a lot of units out onto the board.  If there are opportunities to gain an AP advantage then I'll take it.  Gaining an AP advantage mostly consists of trading units, or finding ways to do more than 400 damage per action point through AOE and red swords.

Throughout this process though I try to avoid using any of my swords, shields or helms on anything but paladins.  My first paladin is the most vulnerable, and I'll keep her in the back, load her with helm and shield early, and drink beer as necessary to keep her alive.  The goal is to cycle as many cards as possible while keeping a reasonable AP efficiency against your opponents actions until you can get to your second paladin.

Here's a game that ended on the final units, but my upgraded paladins carried the day.  Besides, what could be better than 2 Paladins?  How about 3 Paladins?  I hadn't saved any swords, but I guess when you have a scroll, who needs swords?

No swords, but I have a scroll

I'm sorry your necro is useless against 35% Magic Resist.  No wait.... I'm not.

Moar Paladins!

You can't cycle too fast, as you will definitely give up too much if you simply let your opponent use all 5 actions a turn stomping on your units or crystals, position so you're not a super attractive target, but make sure you're cycling through.

Much like the end game Wraith for the Dark Elves, end game Paladins are extremely difficult to stop without  bursty damage.

Here's a game from before the Tribal Patch

My crystal is lower but my twin paladins are in position

And now I'm going to win....

Now with the Tribal patch, 1200 health with both 35% armor and 35% magic resist is 1846 effective health (1846 damage must be done to kill her). Keeping in mind a stomp, this means an enemy needs to do 1850 damage in 4 actions.  Even an Archer with a sword (450 damage per attack) is only going to do 1800 in 4 actions

This strategy has proven to be ridiculously effective against Dark Elves.

• The Dark Elves have trouble doing much burst as their Impaler (300 damage) only has range 2
• Their "nuke" in the form of Soul Harvest is not really a damage dealer
• They do not have much physical armor, which makes them more vulnerable to the Paladin's swings
• The only unit which even comes close to posing a threat is a fully upgraded Wraith, which is easily disposed of with the assistance of your Pulverizers.

This strategy is also effective against Humans and Dwarves.  Dwarves can sometimes 'cause a problem depending on how you each use your scrolls and Pulverizers, but here's a game I played recently where my opponent did standard play with Annihilators, Sworded Grenadiers, etc. and I went as quickly as I could to triple upgraded Paladins

Double Paladins has been least successful for me vs. Tribe.  The Tribe Grunts are the most effective killers of the pumped up Paladins, combined with burst damage from Bloodrage and/or meat they can often stomp even fully upgraded Paladins.  In addition the Tribe Chain Heal is very effective in the early/mid game for counteracting any AOE moves the dwarves try to try and squeeze out a gradual AP advantage, so clogging the board with lots of units is not always working in your favor.