By KadavuFC.
So just going to update this article with a bit more information, this article deals with the most critical part of an AOW formation: The first row.
When a battle first begins, all frontal attacking melee units will target a troop in the first row (note: This doesn’t include units that attack from the rear such as Magic Apprentices etc., or units that attack from the sides, such as Shadow Ninjas, nor does it include any ranged unit, which have their own targeting system).
It doesn’t matter where these melee units are situated, near the front or at the back, they’ll target a troop in the first row and they’ll remain targeted on that troop until it has either been killed, or that unit has been triggered by either someone else’s, or their own control effect.
What this does is bring up a fairly universal strategy you will see deployed by anyone who plays Art of War: Legions and knows what they’re doing. This strategy revolves around their front row and what you can do with it to have some control over how your opponent’s army will behave.
So the basic idea of the front row is to have a tough to kill unit or units as the only targetable units in your front row, with the remainder of the front row filled with units which cannot be targeted initially, such as backline attackers like Magic Apprentices, Ghost Assassins and Demons, and now side attackers such as Shadow Ninjas. The more difficult it’s to kill said unit/units, the more time you have before a whole lot of troops end up retargeting to other units. This can buy you a lot of time in the game to get your own units into better positions and works particularly well with backline attackers, which cannot be targeted until that unit/units have been removed. Obviously, there are many workarounds to this.
So just to go over the absolute basic set ups:
This is the most standard front line formation, a single tank front row. I will be using Stone Golems as my example, as they’re the toughest to kill troop in the game with the highest HP and the potential to get even tougher to kill with their primary skill. If the Stone Golem manages to bash its fists into the ground, or at an enemy, it becomes even tougher to kill as generally after their first attack they immediately move into their ‘will of the stone’ mode, which can make them up to 44% immune to damage. That’s why it’s a good idea to stun them before they can get to this stage, ideally with Pirate Ships. Essentially what this does is make the majority of troops run forward after this one Stone Golem, which means a lot of troops will gather centrally, making them vulnerable to heroes that like grouped troops and also makes their army vulnerable to attacks from either side.
This is the split front line. What this does is split the opposing armies troops, as they now have two targetable troops in the front row.
This makes the opposing army split in two and go off towards the side of your army trying to kill those Stone Golems, while leaving the middle a lot more free for you to attack centrally. This front line works particularly well against someone who is running a single Stone Golem front line. But caution is to be taken with using this with the wrong hero, as a lot of traffic will end up heading towards your hero.
This is the narrow split, it works similarly to a Single SG only with two targets, splitting the focus but making it still more of a central attack. This generally works well countering the wide split.
Similar to the above tactics, instead of using a tank, such as a slow moving Stone Golem, Rhino Knights offer something a bit different. They offer more of a push back effect for the opposing army, as the troops will target the Rhino Knights, which go rushing towards the opposing armies backline. This can send a lot of troops chasing them back into their own army. This works particularly well with a lot of ranged units, as the ranged units can pick off a lot of troops in the back while they’re focused on trying to chase down and kill these. This can be helpful particularly against certain heroes which thrive on close quarters combat such as the Seon’s and Jinn’s. It’s a staple of most Selene formations as the immunity she provides the Rhino Knights makes them even more effective than with other heroes as Rhino Knights are a lot easier to kill than Stone Golems HP-wise.
Things that you should not do:
Putting zero targetable troops in the first row simply means that all the troops will target the troops in the second row.
Using something that can be killed in about 0.2 seconds is also not ideal at all. Generally speaking, you want the troop/troops to be the most difficult to kill. So, if you do not have Stone Golems yet, using things like Sacred Swordsman, Meteor Golems or even Ogre Warriors would be a better option than this poor Fire Mage.
Having every troop in the first row be targetable also means there’s a lot more troops to target so the enemy will simply come at every sector of your army at the same time and backline defenders will likely have a far easier time turning around as the troop they target out of all these will be dead pretty quickly.
Some more Advanced front lines:
This is the triple front, what this does is create a group of tougher to kill tanks, it’ll cause a less narrow central attack. The interesting thing about this setup is that the only two of the 3 units are initially primary targets for the majority of the troops, the two units on the outside. The one in the middle (circled) won’t be targeted by the majority of the troops as their primary target. It’ll generally only be targeted by the troops in the immediate column adjacent to it. It’ll, however, become the most likely secondary target should any units become triggered by a control effect or something which causes a retargeting. This can lead to that unit being far more likely to survive longer. To put this basically, the troops in column 1,2,3 will target the SG on the left, the troops in column 5,6,7 will target the SG on the right and only the troops in column 4 will show any interest in the middle SG. So essentially you’re allowing that middle unit less potential targets, thus a greater chance of survival. You can create certain forms which take advantage of this:
This can allow this Meteor Golem (A Yasha can also work) a free lane into the heart of the enemy to create some stunning.
Likewise, this can allow the Swordsman to push into the enemy and do it’s magical disappearing act, causing a lot of damage and offering a bit of push back.
Likewise with the Swordsman, only this will create a lot more push back and is more to make the Rhino Knight become the secondary target, as troops will shift focus from attacking a Stone Golem, to turning around trying to kill a Rhino Knight. This works particularly well with a Dark Witch, as any troops turned into pumpkins will retarget with the idea we want the Rhino Knight to be the closest troop to them.
This tactic with the Orc Hunter does something a bit different. It’ll cause every pirate ship in range to throw their boat at it, regardless of what column the Pirate Ship is in UNLESS THAT PIRATE SHIP IS POSITIONED IN COLUMN 1 AND 7 IN ROW 2. If they’re in row 3, same thing, they will throw at the Orc Hunters. What this can do is counter a formation with a lot of pirate ships upfront to prevent them from stunning your troops, and your Stone Golems. The Orc Hunters become sacrifices. Obviously, you will want to run no more than one Orc Hunter as any others in your form will fall victim to being heavily boated. The downside is that this will cause an immediate retargeting for nearly every troop, which means the opponents backline defenders will likely immediately be able to start defending their backline. You will often see this form being used particularly by Davison users, as it does something extra with him. A lot of troops will retarget…to the immortal Davison, who has likely dove into them and now becomes the unit closest to them.
This form generally works well countering split SG forms as this pirate ship will ignore the opposing split stone golems and instead target and stun the troops heading towards your middle as your troops head towards those split Stone Golems. What this can do is buy time for your vulnerable middle while you’re working away at those split Stone Golems.
This can however be countered by a split form, by making sure you run only one Orc Hunter and placing it in row 2, column 4. That will trigger this Pirate Ship to throw basically on itself, thus negating the impact it can potentially have.
More stuff about front lines:
There are a few more complicated front line forms I could get into here, but I don’t want this to be too long of a read. But, I would like everyone to pay attention to things like this:
Now this may look like some sophisticated front line, but if you see this, more than likely (it happens especially in this spot) is that the game has accidentally swapped these two units with each other. This happens quite frequently in the game and it’s a good idea to make sure your front line is correct before you hit battle, as this sort of front line is bad and it can cost you the win. Make sure to check your saved defense frequently too as it can happen there.
Likewise, every time you upgrade troops, there’s the potential that your troops can be subbed out for a random troop by the game’s algorithm, which is why, especially when you’re still in the process of upgrading your troops, it’s a good idea to check your saved arena defense to make sure all the troops are where they’re supposed to be. Leaving something like this on defense could be quite costly. Likewise, if you see a front line like this, that’s some easy pickings right there.
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