Efficiency isn’t everything. Sometimes we want our build orders to entertain us with copious minion death before our inevitable victory. Josh details his cruel death march in his favorite Babylonian strategy: The Dwarf Swarm.
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Setup
- Team: 1-4 players
- Mode: Any map, any time (except PvP, unless you’re suicidal)
Tactic
- Race to Age IV
- Use Walls, Shield-Bearers and Castles to protect economy until then
- Can rotate in Spearmen and Lancers if needed, but try to avoid them
- Build sustainable Caravan routes early
- Train everything that boosts infantry damage, life, and training time (esp. Gardens)
- Send out Spearmen to establish a forward base
- Villagers rush out and speed-build 5 Barracks
- Important for style points: straight line perpendicular to the route they’ll run towards enemy base
- Get Shield Bearers out of the way because a stampede is a’coming!
- Select all Barracks and set the waypoint at the town’s front gates
- Train Dwarves until you hit the population limit
- Never stop. Ever.
Breakdown
Age 1
- Build: Walls, houses, 1 Barracks
- Train: Villagers
Age 2
- Build: Houses, Market, Armory, 4 Gardens, 1 Town Center
- Train: Villagers, Shield Bearers, Caravans
- Research: Armory (infantry), gathering, Stone Wall, Conditioning
Age 3
- Build: Castles, Houses, 4 Gardens, 1 Town Center
- Train: Villagers, Shield Bearers, Caravans
- Research: Cultivation, Large Garden, Armory (infantry), gathering, Reinforced Wall, Combined Arms
Age 4
- Build: 4 Gardens, 5 Barracks, 1 Town Center
- Train: SAPPERS OMG SO MANY SAPPERS
- Research: Sapper Champion, Close Combat Training, Royal Garden, Amory (infantry), Saddle Bags, Total War
Timeline
- Until Age IV: Don’t die
- Age IV: Send in the ladder jockies
Equipment
Advisors
-
Age 1: Miner Kleon
Age 2: Infantry Sergeant Herakleides or Herbal Healer Hyginus or Lord Eochaid Muighmedon
Age 3: Cowardly Colonel Pamphilos or Commander Vercassivellaunos or Councilman Onesiphoros
Age 4: Battlemaster Theokoles or King Agamemnon or Savvy Merchant Zeno
Sapper
- Ram head: Pharaoh’s Ram Head or Ardwinna’s Great Boar Ram or Delian Preceptor’s Ram Head
- Armor: Spartan Champion’s Cuirass or Heavy Anubite Armor or Apocalypse Breastplate
- Equipment: Heracles’ Practice Sword or Fell-Handed Gauntlets of the Chieftain or Legion Warlord’s Greaves or Agamemnon’s Greaves
Barracks
- Construction: Walls of Earthen Strength
- Accessory: Ares’ Training Manual
Rewards
- Varies per mission
Us
Josh is a game designer at SOE and former senior editor for PC Gamer and the Official World of Warcraft Magazine. Greg is an entertainer extraordinaire, gondolier and PC Gamer contributor.
Feedback
Let us know what you think of the show and what you’d like to hear us discuss in the future at our email address. You can always talk directly with Greg and Josh on Twitter.
Special thanks to Josiah Pang for making our logo, Jason Shaw for the music, and all the community that helped us improve our stategy on the forums.