Alzorath's Verdant Guide

Introduction

As with the other color-specific guides, this guide is not intended as a 'instant hall' guide, but instead to serve as a tool to help you gain basic and intermediate abilities and understandings of a color. Also much like the other color-specific guides, this guide is intended to be a 'general green guide' and I will not dive into the more specific or complex specialist strategies available to verdant. Even though this guide is written after the introduction of "Skills", they will not be discussed during this guide (as it is written based on 'pre-skills' information), this is for consistency and simplicity among these color guides.

About Verdant (green), it is based around the power of nature. Verdant is perplexing due to its extremely strong offensive AND defensive power, yet fragility in that it is easily brought to a screeching halt through some fairly simple tactics (which counter-tactics to will be mentioned in this guide). Green's power, while daunting, is heavily centered around its powerful enchantments (Plant Growth being the most well known) and battle spells (such as Call Hurricane and Rust Armor). Verdant also has the extremely versitile, yet often misrepresented, Serenity - which will remove some enchantments from the target mage. Verdant units are notorious for extremely high mana upkeeps, this added to the reliance on enchantments leads to a bit of a resource management issue that may deter some new players. Despite this mana issue green is one of the two colors I will usually recommend to new players due to the fact that mana is a fairly easy resource to manage, and this color is able to be played in a straightforward manner (much like white), that doesn't need any particularly special attention until higher lands.

The Basics

There are several options for the green to gain land with in the beginning, I will focus on 'bottom feeding' (fighting to gain land), but with all colors there is the option of exploring up to the 3500 land mark, and with "Nature's Lore" green is able to do this fairly quickly compared to other colors.

Unit Advice

Verdant Units

Special Note: Animals vs Treefolk. People ask about which to focus on, and in general the best answer is "treefolk" the only exceptions are "when at war" and "when not fully researched". In general, with "Plant Growth" running treefolk is much more powerful than animals and still have your battle spell and item to augment them without diminishing their potential strength. The "when at war" comment deals with the spell "Serenity" which dispels enchantments of target mages - if it hits a green's plant growth, the trees become kindling and die horribly (animals are not affected by serenity because their only boosts come from heroes and spells). Animals are also superior until you've gotten a high enough spell level to pump treefolk up higher than animals.

Phoenix: Green's flying ultimate, and a powerful one at that. They have decent resists, and most notably a high fire resist. In addition to that they are also blessed with the ability "Bursting FIRE" - which will devistate any non-magic, non-ranged units attacking them. Phoenix are a vital unit for greens on ultimate servers, granting them a non-plant, with high fire resist, flying, and still a fairly powerful attack. Avoid heavy ranged non-magic attacks, as these can hurt the phoenix, luckily there is a counter to this: Missile Shield. Busting a Myth: Unfortunately, many people mistake them for Animals, when in fact they are Elementals. Basically this means that NO, Enlarge Animal does not boost them AT ALL.

Earth Elemental: Green's ground ultimate, their primary is nothing to really write home about, but their secondary Magic Ranged attack is extremely powerful. They have a weakness to lightning, but so few units have this attack type it's not much to worry, and EE can oftentimes outdamage most pairings. Phoenix and EE are very often central to a high green's stacking, although I'd recommend hiding them behind Treants so you don't lose a LOT of them (all elementals are geared towards 'outdamaging' - which means they'll lose a lot of power, especially up top).

Griffon: A fairly durable flier, but expensive to upkeep (like many of green's units). Griffons are many times used to either serve as a 'soaker' or to push other stacks down. This is due to their standard moderate durability. They can also be used with the item "Ring of Animal Command" and the spell "Enlarge animal" to make them fairly large units. Personally I only occassionally use them for very specific reasons, there is usually something much more efficient to run in a green stacking after you reach 4-5k land.

Treant: The big dog of the treefolk, the Treant, is easily the most powerful common unit in the game when paired with an on-color plant growth. They get massive life & AP boosts from the spell "Plant Growth", which allows them to even outdamage high fire damage units DESPITE the treants' weakness to fire. These are a must-have for most verdant armies. Their downside is that they almost require Plant Growth to be of any use, therefore a serenity is an easily exploited hole in the defenses of this unit (because it can remove Plant Growth). These units are prone to initiative lowering effects (such as Web) due to their 1 initiative, their 80% Phantasm resist usually protects them from the spell "slow".

Werebear: These are strong melee ground units, not the best units in the game, but a definite nice addition to a green army as you get higher in land. They are usually best kept in the mid-ranks because they can be hurt by several units. These are boostable by Enlarge Animal and Ring of Animal Command, just like griffons - these units are also boostable by 'human only' boosts due to their nature as "Human Animal" - giving them the bonuses and weaknesses of each race (for example Demon Knights gain a bonus fighting "Humans" - and therefore get a bonus fighting Werebears).

Mandrake: The Treefoolk equivalent of Werebears, these are your mid-range treefolk, and generally are more useful than werebears due to higher durability and damage. Mandrakes are very useful after you get Plant Growth up and running at a decent spell level. I usually recommend these for mid-stacks, behind your heavier treants, phoenix, and earth elementals - however many people still use them in their upper stacks to decent success, and it is a viable strategy. These are markedly weaker than treants, although still useful.

Nymph: These are very nice little units, unfortunately they summon a little slow (although you can compensate slightly with "Nature's Favor"). These are many times misrepresented as just 'fodder' or just 'fatigue', when in actuality these are much more powerful little ranged units than most people know. Their decent power Psychic Ranged attack puts them on par with another 3 initiative powerhouse: the Fire Giant. I keep Nymphs in my army as green constantly after I get deep stacked, and they serve me well. Once you've had a solid stack of 20k Nymphs in the 7th or 8th position of your stack you likely won't ever look at these as just fodder/fatigue again (it's not uncommon for a decent sized stack of nymphs to kill 1-3 RD from a low stacked position). These also don't require Plant Growth, or special battle items/spells to be effective. Avoid letting them float too high, like most ranged units they aren't extremely sturdy (however they aren't lightweights either thank goodness).

Gorilla: Come from Peaches and "Animal Summoning" - these are the simple animals (notice 1 animal, 1 treefolk per spell rank except ultimate). Expensive little buggers, but actually not to be blown off as useable units - mainly they are usually used in Armageddon for a powerup (via peaches usually), and during rushing because they actually can take a hit despite costing an arm and a leg in gold to keep. I would probably avoid using these in any normal stacking situation during a reset, but using them for a specific purpose is not a bad idea. They are also boostable by Enlarge Animal and Ring of Animal Command - just like every other animal.

Creeping Vines: Can't really call them the treefolk equivalent of gorillas, but they are fairly close in that they're a small melee unit. Boosted by Plant Growth these are passable units, I tend NOT to use them as green because usually it's better to just pump up a stronger stack than to add these little critters. They can deal damage, but they don't take it well despite their abilities regeneration and steal life. If you need a low melee unit, these are useable - they can also be used to replace werebears in a stacking if so inclined.

Dryad: Not as good as Nymphs, but smaller and you can fit more of them numbers-wise into a stacking. Personally I keep them around, but drop them to very low stacks such as 9th or 10th. They come free from Nature's Favor so if you have that running you don't have to bother summoning them. They are however one of better summonable fodder/fatigue units (Nymphs beat out Psychic Wisps, Dryads beat out Soul Speakers - for the most part). Don't mistake these for "Druids" - druids are a different unit.

Elven Magician: The 'good guy' version of Dark Elf Magicians, these are weaker offensively but still hold a fairly good punch. Being elves they also gain the elf-only boosts from Nature's Lore - improving their power signifigantly. These aren't immediately going to match the power of Nymphs, but they can come quite close and hold their own in damage output. Even keeping just 1 of these around will at least provide you with fatigue, but keeping a large chunk around can provide you with a decent stack. These can't take hits super well so keep them low, their slow recruit speed also keeps them from being a high stack in your army.

Druid: despite being almost the same power as Elven magicians (40 NP for Druid, 41 NP for Elven Magician), these units recruit quite a bit faster. Druids pound for pound though are not nearly as good as Elven Magicians, but you can pull a lot more of these into your army. They are 3 init and good fatigue, just like EM, and these also gain the boost from Nature's Lore (because Druids are Elves). Druids have superior spell resists (protecting them from red/black spells mainly) and an easier to handle upkeep, but far less survivability due to no "Swift" and far less damage output due to no "Marksmanship" and lower actual damage. I usually recruit these and Elven Magicians for my low stacks to fill in 10 total stacks, keeping Druids just a hair below my Magicians.

Elven Archer: Third and final recruitable green elf, Elven Archers are exactly like they sound - a better "Archer". 3 initiative fatigue is about all these are really worthwhile for, despite their ability to do more damage than normal archers, their attack type is weak (Missile Ranged), and they are only mediocre at taking hits. They recruit fast and can be ok early fodder while rushing, but usually that's not a real problem. Keeping a stack of a few hundred around in an '11th stack' (ie a stack that only enters battle if another is killed completely) is not a bad idea though because they can provide good fatigue.

Faerie Dragon: The only non-red dragon, Faerie Dragons. Their attacktype is good but counterable, their initiative is high but damage is low, and they can actually hold their own against many barracks, simple, and average units - but many complex and ultimate units will rip these to pieces, relegating them to mainly a rushing and armageddon role. They do have the nice little advantage of 400% Eradication, Nether, AND Phantasm resists, protecting them from powerful spells that slaughter most other barracks/simple/average units (such as inferno and Chain Lightning).

Swanmay: 2 initiative, melee units, decent survivability but not very commonly used. One note though is that recently they have had a resurgance as rushing units due to their "animal" aspect. They don't deal out a lot of damage, but are much more survivable than their closest comprable unit: Cavalry. Boostable by Enlarge Animal and Ring of Animal Command these are actually decent units that just fall below the radar in favor of better recruitable units.

Eradication Units

Efreeti: These aren't too hard to summon, and their 4 initiative ranged primary is ideal for fatigue and to get in some good early hits. At lower land the best use for these is fatigue, but once you start getting higher they should be your staple non-green complex summon as a ground green, a few thousand of these can do wonders mid-stack. These are also easily the most popular non-green unit for greens to use.

Chimera: Good fliers, and actually can be used in some stacks as green - however overall you likely won't find a large number of uses for these throughout the game because efreeti will usually help you out more, don't be afraid to experiment with these guys though, they're very high damage but fragile.

Hydra: I'd avoid these simply because they cost so many turns to summon (5), and are fairly mediocre at best. They can be useful vs blue though, so they do have their occassional use (you're often better off using mandrakes wherever you'd use these guys though).

Hell Hound: These won't be a use to most green players, they have isolated uses, but you're usually better off going after something more reliable, and on-color. (Despite being animals, these are often better used with spells/items other than enlarge animal/ring of animal command - because their power sits in their secondary fire breath attack)

Salamander: These are slightly more useful for the green player (if you hunt blues or greens they can target fire weak units), but again you're probably better off looking on-color for your units.

Dwarven Deathseeker: These guys blow up on themselves, I personally wouldn't use them as green, but since they were changed to poison burst they may prove useful against some white units - again better off looking on-color.

Lizard Man: (Fun Fact: These summon faster NP-wise than Creeping Vines for green), despite that "fun fact", the upkeep on these is fairly crappy, and they're not much more than a weaker red version of zombies (lizard men do more damage than zombies which isn't saying much, zombies can take more damage than lizardmen). If you absolutely need fodder, you could use them though (Vines are better).

Ascendant Units

Archangel: Some greens use these in all-flying stacks, green all-flying isn't exactly 'great'. These are useable but come ungodly slow. They are good soakers but you likely won't get enough of them where you'd need soakers (not to mention reds can hurt AA pretty easily - due to breath attacks).

Unicorn: Decent unit, slow summoning, and only mediocre without the white ultimate boosts. They are your best option as far as white ground units go though - some greens keep them mid-stack for their 2 init magic primary. These and Archangels are the most commonly seen white units in green armies.

Spirit Warrior: Slightly more offensive than Unicorns, and can be utilized as green against certain units (Rust vs Lich, with SW, actually helps their damage a decent amount by putting a large dent in the lich melee resistance). However these suffer the same problem as most white units: slow summoning and very limited usefulness.

Astral Magician: Don't bother with these guys, Hell Hounds serve you better than these guys, and you have units that serve you better than hell hounds. It's not unheard of to use these, but I wouldn't recommend it for new players (experiment if you want, but don't get your hopes up basically).

Angel: Basically weak Archangels, these do less damage, and are less durable than archangels - and these still summon slow. You may keep them if you go for a "gate army" however those tend to be more for the knights than anything else (numbers, not attack power). I wouldn't recommend these.

Pegasus: Very strong simple unit for the Animal green and/or all-flying green. Boosted by enlarge animal and ring decently, they also have a decent melee attack that can be augmented with spells other than enlarge animal such as Sword of Light, Flame Blade, and Rust Armor. They make good fodder, and can usually do a little damage with spell support - hide them behind something though because they'll get hurt if you don't.

Soul Speaker: They're decent little ranged fatigue/fodder. If you use them, only use 1 summon so you can fill out all 10 of your stacks, otherwise the free nymphs/dryads you can get from Nature's Favor are oh so much better and easier to get.

Knight: Gotten from Horn of Valhalla and/or Gate, these can serve as little melee fodder units early on - however later you'll usually have more than enough fodder in nymphs/dryads, and your average units like werebears/mandrakes. These are useable, I just wouldn't bother past my first few runs though.

Nether Units

Special Note: Several nether units are mentioned with "not recommended for those using this guide" - this is because there 'are' strategies for using them, but they're mostly for entertainment value with minimal strategic value, and tend NOT to be worth the trouble.

Lich/Demon Knight: Don't bother with either of these as black, you can't get enough of them, and frankly they're not of much help to you (Lich are really only useful vs red if you have a good number of them, it takes a few hundred to kill 1 Red Dragon for example). Demon Knights are just flat out worthless though, especially for how slow you'd get them.

Vampire: There are ways to use these, but they're not for the weak of heart, and require a lot of patience. As with most nether units I do not recommend these for those using this guide.

Horned Demon: These are nasty little buggers, if you can get enough of them they're very powerful for green - the problem is getting enough of them (you are NOT going to be summoning them, trust me there). They're too much of a pain to summon, and unreliable from the market, just like vampires I wouldn't not recommend these for those using this guide.

Wraith: I wouldn't bother with these as green, the tricks for using them like Vamps and HD work here, but these are the worst of the 3 to work with in that manner - not recommended for those using this guide (or any green really outside of rushing).

Ghoul: This is probably one of the few times you'll see me mention the benefits of *shudder* Whoring. Ghouls are kinda "fun" as green in that as green you have so many lovely spells to make these mediocre units kinda threatening (again: Sword of Light, Flame Blade, and Rust Armor). The whoring part is: for you to really use these you need to have bought the nether complex Blood Ritual, and get lucky casting it, because Summoning them straight from their spell is horribly slow. It is extremely comical that a nether complex enchantment is easiest to utilize (albeit not 'cast') as verdant/ascendant (slower ghoul generation rate, means you tend not to need to be as high as blacks/blues/reds to use it). These are for entertainment purposes only.

Zombie/Skeleton: You should not have these unless you got black sabbath from the gods (if you get that, it's up to if you want to save them or not), don't ever summon opposing color non-ranged fodder, especially when it isn't even useful as fatigue.

Shadow: What to say, these don't summon extremely great for green, but they are able to be summoned 'enough'. Frankly though, by the time you'd possibly be able to use these, the opportunity for using them has passed (their strength is their strong magic attack, and 100% melee resist - both of which are sadly easy to negate after research).

Phantasm Units

Djinni: Don't bother, really, don't bother. They are 'jack of all trade' units, serving as both soaker/attacker for blue/black and rarely white, but that's only when they're in decent numbers (in small numbers they're not much more than a distraction - and that's all that green gets of them, "small numbers").

Mind Ripper: It doesn't hurt to buy these off the market every now and then (they are mana hungry though), they serve as good fatigue and can usually kill a few low units. More often than not though you'll find them shoved to 11th stack or lower by your bigger stacks later on.

Sirene/Medusa: Sirene are just bad in general, and both are just not worth the effort for greens to get. Don't bother with these, even through the market the geld can be better spent.

Sylph/Sprite: Fliers, magic damage, you 'can' use them, but I probably wouldn't (only reason I can see using them: All-Flying green, and that's just as fakes). You have a much better flying magic damage dealer anyways: Phoenix. Not to mention the lovely ground units with magic damage you already have.

Psychic Wisp: These can be used as fatigue early on, 1 cast only though. You'll find them definitely not worth the trouble in any real numbers as verdant.

Plain Units

Militia/Pikeman/Phalanx: These are basic recruitables, I don't bother using them as Verdant (other things work better as fodder).

Cavalry: Weaker than Swanmays overall, but 2 init, can be useful for apprentice, but you're better off with swanmays, or pretty much anything else.

Archer: Why bother using these as Verdant when you have Elven Magicians, Elven Archers, and Druids? They can serve as a single unit for fatigue if you aren't recruiting another unit in great numbers. I tend to keep a few hundred of these in the non-battle stacks (11th and lower)

Renegade Wizard: Great buyable unit, expensive to upkeep. Numberswise, they are a little weaker than your nether elf counterparts (Dark Elf Magicians), but are still a good addition if you can afford them. They fit in well with your Druids, Elven Magicians, Nymphs, and Dryads. Since these don't take up time needing to be recruited, I use them as Verdant if I need another stack and can afford them (since your barracks tend to be tied up the entire run at higher land)

Mercenary/Starving Peasant/Bounty Hunter: I would tend to ignore these 3 as verdant, they can serve as fake power - but you're better off going for the animals, renegade wizards, and assassins than with these 3. I only ever use these as green while rushing (true for most swords units)

Assassin: Good for taking out some blue and white units, you won't use them often, but it's really nice to know where to look if you need a strong poison punch against a target (these will die off pretty bad if left exposed, but can do well vs poison-weak units like MR and several white stacks)

Falcon/War Hound/Trained Elephant: The 3 "Swords for Hire" animals, they can be used, however even with enlarge animal they are best left to fake power. These can be used in a green stacking, but you really must be careful of their upkeeps (especially Trained Elephant). I tend to only use these during rushing (except occassionally falcons).

Fanatic/Werewolf: Rare to come by, but good units none the less. With Fanatics just keep them around when you get them - they don't really hurt anything and are a free upkeep, not to mention the overall strongest units in the game (and holy attack with nether is fun heh). Werewolves aren't as overpowered, and you have to pay their upkeep, but they are animals (like werebears) and can be boosted like any other animal.

Frog/Sheep/Squirrel: Free Upkeep, 1 NP units. Squirrels fly. I like keeping a bunch of these 11th stack and lower so they don't enter battle but still protect from pillages. (Frog/Squirrel come from Total Newbie Handbook, Sheep come from shepherdess). Never hurts to have more units - especially free ones that protect from pillages.

Iron Golem: Horrible mana upkeep, but a royal pain in the butt to kill in sufficient numbers. I don't bother with these because you can't get enough of them to be effective with them. Not to mention they don't do much damage. They're also mana eaters galore (very bad for verdant, which is mana-heavy already)

Spells and Items

Some Spell Information can be found Here
Item Information can be found Here

Spell and Item recommendations vary based on the stacking you use - remember to always focus items/spells on augmenting your goal, and never use item/spell combination that contradict or diminish the returns on each other.

Examples of Good One-Goal Combinations:
Rust Armor + Candle of Sleeping: Huge reduction to melee resistance, minor reduction to everything else, and an efficiency drop for the enemy units. It's good for knocking down resistances.
Web of the Spider Woman + The Spider's Web: -2 Initiative to 1 stack (provided it doesn't resist the spell), -1 initiative to the rest, this is especially powerful vs other greens, and is essentially a weaker (but still useful) version of Slow + The Spider's Web used by blues.
Enlarge Animal + Ring of Animal Command: What more can be said, except that it makes your animals big.

Examples of Good Complimentary-Goal Combinations:
Call Hurricane + Ash of Invisibility: Brings most flying units down, and gives them -1 initiative (only a few units have good verdant resistance), and lets your units strike first.
Rust Armor + Carpet of Flying: Reduces enemy melee resistance (most units won't resist verdant magic - however a few will), and makes your units fly - thus avoiding a lot of attacks, and the reduced enemy melee resistance will help you do signifigant damage.

Examples of Bad One-Goal Combinations:
Can't think of any at the time of writing this guide.

Examples of Bad Multi-Goal Combinations (opposing/interfering goals):
Regeneration + Satchel of Mist: By Reducing losses, you reduce the amount you heal. This will protect your units somewhat, but it's much more effective to either healing OR accuracy reduction.
Rust Armor + Satchel of Mist: Stick with one goal: either deal damage, or soak damage - don't try and do both because Satchel of Mist also reduces YOUR accuracy (making it counterproductive to the purpose of Rust Armor).

Some Commonly Used 'good' Combinations (this is a short-list to get you started, there are many other worthwhile combinations, but I'll leave them for you to discover on your own):
Web of the Spider Woman + The Spider's Web: -2 Initiative to 1 stack (provided it doesn't resist the spell), -1 initiative to the rest, very good on offense vs greens/blacks, and decent on defense if you want a cheap assignment and are running barriers.
Call Hurricane + Ash of Invisibility: -1 initiative to enemy fliers dropped by this spell, units hit by it can't gain flying (so it negates carpet), and all your units are set to 6 initiative.
Call Hurricane + Candle of Sleeping: Great for use with your ultimate units (Earth Elementals and Phoenix) because it plays to their strengths and abilities, dangerous for people to hit into if you're using a lot of power in your ultimates.

Spell Notes:
Nature's Favor is a great enchantment that boosts your Farm Output, Pop Income, and gives you Treants, Nymphs, and Dryads each turn.
Nature's Lore is an exploring enchantment, but also serves another purpose: It greatly enhances the damage your ELF units do (this is your Druids, Elven Archers, and Elven Magicians), so if you have a lot of elves, consider using it.
At 100 mp upkeep, Sunray is a very powerful, very cheap, enchantment (giving you a light nether/phantasm spell resistance for your kingdom), especially useful when at war to help block 1 of the most deadly spells: Confuse and Death & Decay.
Plant Growth, at spell level 428, will increase your treefolk primary attack, counter, and life by +228%, essential if you want to use Treants, Mandrakes, or Creeping Vines.
Serenity will attempt to randomly dispel spells off of a target (it'll sometimes dispel nothing, even when it passes barriers), it's very dangerous against treefolk greens, and is a very powerful tool in war.
+% boosts to units (such as potion of valor) are all based on 'base' values, so for treefolk, with plant growth they have +228% Primary attack, potion of valor with its +30% would only increase that to +258% (you're probably better off with a candle in that case).