Alzorath's Verdant Guide

Placeholder (green's my weakest color, but it is also severely lacking in actual guides, so it will be my focal project - this will be based on pre-skill Verdant)

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.