Faction overview
It is one of the most customizeable factions with a counter for almost everything that can take many different approaches to be effective. As of version 3.0 it gets a major overhaul, gaining access to even more abilities that makes for extreme adaptability and more spells that makes its guild more unpredictable.
Much like dungeon, it primarily depends on your main hero and less on your actual army. Its units are not very self sufficient so they either need a buffing ,the enemy needs to be cursed or you must aid them with summons-most notably the phoenix and phantom forces.
It is very similar to necropolis that could be considered its dark mirror. Tanky units, lack of charging and a dependence in summoning, just light instead of dark magic.
While they are very resource intensive and build up slowly it is at the same time the only faction that can gain power as quickly, the only exception being necropolis. That is because of spellcasting aided by library, mark of the wizard ability, crazy knowledge and good early unit selection having a fast shooter and a tank with immunities. About the hero it seems a paradox that he has mediocre power and as high knowledge but that can be exploited with intensive creeping and less power dependent schools as light/dark and to a lesser extent summoning to gain an edge. Enlightenment can help with both and high knowledge will in turn mean better artifacts.
Town lineup
Week 1
It is of high priority to upgrade the gremlin dwelling as it ensures better creeping. Before mage guild 1 as you may not get a destructive spell that works with motw.
Other things you are advised to get: gargoyles, mages and mage guild 1 or 2. Blacksmith too for the ammo cart if you are to face a really tough neutral as earth elementals. Avoid getting golems unless you know it is a rich map.
Normally you will aim for town hall, mage guild 1, master gremlins, gargoyles, mages and djinns.
Week 2
Get capitol, upgrade mage guild to 3 or 4 and build library so that you can safely choose your skills, get rest of the units. If the map is big build rakshasas and forget the spells, otherwise try to get colossi. Colossi, (golems), genies and mage guilds already cost too much ore and chances are your resources won't be enough anyway. Spells will serve you more than rakshasas in the short run.
If you have fort, then better to get colossi, genies, treasure cave and castle. In any case only mage guild 2 is important so you can opt for citadel even if you don't have a fort, the extra growth will come in handy - just make sure you will be able to get capitol.
Week 3
If you started without a fort now is the chance to get a citadel and castle. Hopefully mage guild 5(aim for at least mage guild 3 if you missed it) and maybe artifact merchants if only to know what to save money for. Without rakshasas and some gold from chests you should have some spare gold apart from hiring your units. I always leave the genies behind.
I doubt you will be able to hire colossi and buy artifacts but you should be effective with magic alone and few troops.
Later either upgrade units as mages, colossi or go for rakshasas depending on your money and resources income. Or build some mini arties if your opponent is close.
An example starting with lvl 3 town(tavern and fort built)
Week 1: gremlins, master gremlins, mage guild 1, town hall, mages, gargoyles, djinns.
Week 2: mage guild 2, city hall, treasure cave, citadel, library, capitol, castle.
Week 3: marketplace, artifact merchants, colossi, mage guild 3-4, golems.
With this one I try to find out early if dark/destructive is worth taking, take advantage of treasure cave and boost the basic army fast with castle. You may also skip colossi to rush the opponent with buying artifacts from the merchants though it will be risky.
Resources that you may lack: Sulfur, mercury and gems. You don't need more than a few of them to keep going but with this build you can be pretty aggressive and go for mines quickly.
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First two weeks for a rich or poor resources map.
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Town building with numerous resources.
Week 1:
Gremlins, master gremlins, mage guild 1, town hall, mages, gargoyles, djinns.
Week 2:
City hall, library, rakshasas, citadel, castle, , capitol, colossi.
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With poor resources
Week 1 same and:
Week 2:
Mage guild 2, city hall, treasure cave, library, citadel, capitol, castle.
Skill Selection
Depending on starting hero and witch huts more than one skill combinations can be effective but the emphasis should always be on magic. The units are weaker than most of their respective tiers and the hero has little chance to get att/def bonuses and attack, defense, logistics skills.
Sorcery is a great skill to have as it helps with faster casting, something that mediocre spellpower casters desperately need. Unless going for light/dark. Arcane training helps with aggressive creeping and counterspell can be a major disruption, especially if used after casting a harmful spell. Arcane brilliance->distract may prove just as if not more appealing.
Enlightenment gives a good boost to magic stats but I would not consider getting it for smaller maps, not until getting to expert 2 magic schools. For other maps it can help with mini arties and it is to be considered if getting warmachines, it can greatly improve the ballista.
Enlightenment now has easy access to mentoring – If you have built the guild you can instantly level up tavern heroes and turn them into efficient casters.
As it stands I'll get sorcery and 2 spell schools in short games, in a longer I'll add enlightenment and maybe a third school or luck.
In the first case I like having maximum use from motw so I prefer destructive and summoning. As the game gets longer light and dark become of more importance so I'll aim for light or summoning/dark. Dark if I get slow, suffering or confusion. Most summoning spells are useful, esp the phoenix and phantom but the mass spells and resurrection will keep you alive. Seal of darkness and suppress light will be essential vs their respective casters.
Luck is a very viable choice with the addition of an easy-to-get warlock's luck even if you have to sacrifice counterspell. You can still aim for distract so you don't lose much but that build is for a destructive wizard anyway. And destructive can be a good choice as you can get cold death, ignite and extra damage from the elemental gargoyles' aura of vulnerability.
The Warmachines path got a boost with triple ballista, which gives a way easier creeping and less need for mage guilds. It works well in unison with enlightenment and hopefully attack->flaming arrows. Bad idea to get multiple schools here. If you face warmachine specialists you may opt for remote control(warmachines) but enemies usually take 3 of them and you controlling their ballista is pretty random. If you do it will get your bonuses however(luck, flaming arrows etc). Flaming arrows works wonders against might factions.
Only problem is the ballista triple cost if not using Havez.
Also worthy of note is Defense with the addition of preparation. Whether you depend on warmachines or destructive it's a great perk, especially against low defense factions. The downside is that it requires tactics from attack skill which is also rare. With both skills at 2% it seems an almost Razzak exclusive skill.
A wizard's skill combination with magic emphasis on a small map.
A warmachine build would have been very effective also.
Mark or the Wizard(MotW)
This perk alone is worth having its own section as it is one of the faction's strongest points. It can work with all types of magic and create various combinations. It was boosted in 3.0 to take into account aoe(area of effect ) spells.
What it does is allow two castings of the same spell simultaneously. When you mark a unit friendly or hostile you have the option of:
A)casting on it with doubled effect.
B)casting on another unit so the spell affects both the marked and the unit targeted by the spell.
Mana drained is double the spell's cost of course. Should mana be insufficient the spell will be cast normally without the effect of motw.
LIGHT MAGIC:
Spells that give a fixed bonus will not stack ie motw with expert endurance will not give two times +12 defense on a single unit but with resurrection you will receive double the healing power. Or you can resurrect two units at once. The same happens with offensive spells like divine vengeance, you either hit two opponents or one for double damage. Does not work with teleport.
DARK MAGIC
Except for vulnerability no other spell gets doubled effect. Puppet master cannot be cast twice as one of the castings is nullified(only one can be in effect) and frenzy has a unique property. If the mark is on a friendly unit and you cast it on an enemy both units become frenzied.
SUMMONING MAGIC
Fire trap now works with motw in that mines appear both in the targeted space and over the marked unit friendly or hostile. Cast over a hostile unit it will summon double the amount of mines. Phantom forces will not create two clones of the same unit though they can create two different ones, say a clone for titans and one for djinns. Rest of the spells that target a unit work as usual.
DESTRUCTIVE MAGIC
Every single one of them can be cast twice, even aoe spells. However it has a negative part, aoe will hurt your units if they are marked too. The spell will hit the designated space and the space over the marked unit. A few interesting parts:
A fireball over a small unit will be centered on it so it will hit all it's adjacent squares. On large units: Because the area is 3x3 and large units 2x2 the tiles to the left and to the front will be also hit. Same with circle of winter and firewall is cast on the front row of large units with a tile extending to the left so avoid the left sides of marked units if you plan to use destructive magic.
A A A
A L L
A L L
Where A + L =area of effect and L= large unit. Units in A tiles will be harmed.
Circle of winter has another funny effect. If centered on a small unit it will never harm it but hit its adjacent tiles instead. As for meteor shower over large units it will hit the front row, one tile to the right and two to the left.
A A A A A
A A L L A
A A L L A
Meteor shower.
It's not very clear with this spell but keen eyes may spot that only a tile to the right is harmed while it's two tiles to the left.
Creeping
Where skills are concerned get MotW asap and try maxing sorcery, summoning and another school or if attack pops up pick it instantly, then wait for warmachines so you can soon get a flaming ballista. In the second case you can afford to only level up one magic type for early at least.
If you go for destructive go for secrets of destruction, with any luck you will get fireball in which case you'll go for ignite. If you have icebolt in your guild you may want to get cold death instead. Next thing you should do is get luck and arcane brilliance from sorcery.
From summoning you'll want to get fire warriors once it hits expert. Or fog veil, it helps a lot in creeping ranged neutrals.
In week 1 creep with gremlin saboteurs and gargoyles. Master gremlins can work if you use golems but the saboteurs are faster and more offensive. Never go creeping with unupgraded gremlins, they have just 5 shots so stacks like a horde of footmen won't be easy to beat.
On the first day you can clear the wood/ore mines and have your secondary take the gremlins back to town to return them upgraded for day 2. Make sure you buy an ammo cart soon.
The general idea is putting them in the corner and surrounding them with 3 small stacks of gargoyles. On the other corner there is a lone gargoyle for distraction, if you move it just out of range of the enemies more than one stacks may go after it and forget the gremlins.
Other than that keep a few 1-stack gargoyles for blocking shooters or replacing those that fell protecting the gargoyles to buy some time for your gremlins.
Strangely master of life can boost your fist of wrath to the point of being better than eldritch arrow/lightning at power 13 and advanced destructive mastery. Keep in mind that it counts as physical so it is not subject to resistances/immunities but may miss to incorporeal ability.
Against slow stacks as zombies charge your gremlins ahead, shoot at full range, retreat. Or wait until they come in range, your shots are limited.
Golems are still vulnerable to fist of wrath.
Units with large shield, ghosts, large walkers as bears and faster creeps as wardancers and cerberi are mainly handled by motw + eldritch arrow and firetrap. Horned grunts will attack any unit in 8 tiles radius so move a single gargoyle to lure them forward.
Djinn upgrades are no longer owned with eldtritch arrow tactics, they are magic proof now.
Lots of hunters can die vs 6 single gargoyles if your sorcery is good and you have gotten some power or icebolt.
By week 2 you will also have mage guild 2 and mages. Now you may also have wasp swarm and icebolt.
Better to split mages in small stacks to deal maximum damage with fist of wrath. Of course not against units that will reach you fast as you will be undefended then.
36 damage per mage, not bad!
Once a unit acts and you mark it, casting wasp swarm on it may mean it will never get to act again.
For druids use the lightning-immune gargoyles and cast away. Note that druid elders also have stone spikes, avoid.
If you upgrade the gargoyles for fire/ice immunity pit fiends/lords will keep casting vulnerability, exploit that.
Vs lots, maybe horde of slow shooters(marksmen but not crossbowmen) have both gremlins and mages to attack, that and hero casting will prevent casualties.
Fight archliches after having a good lvl and magic mirror, they keep trying to curse you while the mirror reflects the curses back at them.
Against imperial griffins do not cover your gremlins yet have the gargoyles near. That way they will not battle-dive from the first turn. Fire trap will be most effective. Against battle griffins start with the gremlins and gargoyles far from the corner and move there after they dive.
Hurts those large units as bears and griffins. Just let them come!
Powerful neutrals as a horde of archangels can be won by week 3-4. Usually it's a phoenix with a spell combo variation(mass slow, regeneration, wasp swarm etc) or puppet master and motw+blind/frenzy.
If you have flaming arrows with triple ballista it will ease the pressure a lot. If the map has a tier 7 generator you could try vampirism with your colossi.
The basic idea is that you have gremlins in the corner to shoot and either the phoenix or a puppeted unit to cover them from the other enemy stacks. Keep two tiles next to the gremlins unoccupied and have some single gargoyles a tile away from each other so that the only room for the phoenix to be summoned is next to the gremlins.
Here is a replay.
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What you can take on during week 1 - fast levelling required
Tier 2
Lots of blood furies.
Horde of marksmen/crossbowmen. On lots I will fight marksmen. Horde of archers manageable.
Lots of war/wind dancers(depends *). Blade dancers usually manageable.
Horde of obsidian gargoyles(with fist of wrath). Horde of stone gargoyles manageable. The obsidians immune to eldritch arrow.
Others can be defeated on horde.
Tier 3
Lots of cerberi/firehounds(depends *).
Lots of black/whitebear riders(with fire trap).
Lots of master hunters. Lots of hunters(depends *).
Lots of steel golems. Easy with ammo cart, otherwise risky. Horde of iron golems manageable.
Horde of spectres/poltergeists and ghosts. Lots of ghosts manageable, horde better to avoid.
Tier 4
Pack/lots of succubi and succubi mistresses(depends *)
Lots of vampires and vampire lords/princes. Vampires manageable but not the upgrades.
Pack of mages or archmages(depends *) Not in case of lots.
Pack of raiders and grim raiders(depends *).
Lots of druid elders. Druids and high druids manageable.
Lots of berserkers/battleragers(depends *). Brawlers manageable, the others depends*.
Pack/lots of imperial griffins(with fire trap).
Tier 5 I may attack pack of djinns or hydras(depends *). Note that djinns waste some turns to cast dark magic.
*Depends=on spellpower, level of sorcery, an early artifact, early spells.
Note that here I rely only on eldritch arrow, motw and occasionally fist of wrath, firetrap, wasp swarm, arcane crystal and icebolt. In the case of fist and fire trap summoning on advanced or expert. Also I assume you have stone gargoyles and master or saboteur gremlins boosted both from town and secondary hero.
Nathir with fireball and Havez can easily kill some of those listed above.
Tactics
Gremlins are for shooting only in the beginning. Due to high initiative, defense reducing arties work well vs high defense foes. Also their repair ability is very powerful and they can 'resurrect' many golems in a big battle. The opponent will target them before the golems so don't overlook hp arties. They can raise warmachines too.
Saboteurs on the other hand are about disabling mechanical contraptions and since it is hp based you’ll definitely need hp arties. With their high initiative they can keep disabling each turn as long as you do not suffer losses but their real strength is in earlygame creeping.
Gargoyles are good as protectors and blockers. With a speed artie they can get adjacent to a shooter and stay there. Most of the time you'll want to keep them close, so an hp artie is great. You may give them an init artie to cover your titans before charging units act.
Elemental gargoyles are more offensive oriented but they are not for attacking. Placing them near enemy stacks causes fire/ice/lighning vulnerability(50%) yet they are vulnerable themselves which extends to your allied units too.
Golems are good but only when upgraded. Speed and def arties seem a good call here. They'll usually guard your shooters but may take an active role. Golem march and teleport assault is a distant dream usually.
Magnetic golems are weaker physically but faster and effective against destructive casters. Direct damage will heal them by 50%(armageddon being an exception) and damage aimed to their adjacent allies is redirected on them(5% per weekly growth). Yep that screams anti dungeon. Unfortunately they do not work with phantom forces.
Mages are a strange bunch. Shooters, aggressive casters, dispellers, buffers. If you want them as shooters have them in a corner with a large unit two tiles away from them, attack a few times then surround. Or surround them from the start and use fireballs. In any case your mana or shots are limited. Cleansing vs dark, light spells and arcane armour, fist of wrath vs black dragons. Watch out for spectres' mana drain. Good with initiative and resistance. May be worth teleporting to hit multiple targets occasionally.
Battle Mages are simpler. More shots, better attack and their ranged attack now does not hurt your adjacent forces so you can properly surround them. A might upgrade which can work well for longer games.
Djinns are good damage dealers by midgame but only if upgraded - keep them in town until then. Later they tend to die in the first few rounds without causing much damage. You must either use init+attack or luck artie for suicide attacks or use def/hp arties. As casters they can save you but they are not that reliable. ToE nerfed their damage while giving more health and magic proof.
Viziers are tougher both physically and against magic but manipulate luck instead of magic – positive for allies, negative for enemies and ranging between 1-3 per cast. They can directly affect the damage output so they help the might side of academy.
Rakshasas are tanks not chargers and thus need initiative and morale/luck or defense. When you use dash with init artie or haste you get a better boost. In big battles don't dash them, they may suffer many casualties until they play. Motw and arcane armour on them and titans is great.
Kshatras are more offensive at the cost of slightly lower health and loss of no retaliation but better damage, +1 speed and automatically the half of its adjacent tiles in front of it more than compensates for it. When you face factions that tend to clutter the battlefield of course.
Titans are meant to stay in place and shoot, then melee or call lightning though it is rather weak and can be resisted. They will need rakshasa protection as well as magical aid. Initiative arties can ensure the first hit and luck can do the trick occasionally.
Storm titans seem lacking. Same function except they have a weaker area of effect overtime version of call lightning.. Also decreases by 1% per titan the ranged attack for what it’s worth. On the positive side the thundercloud they summon is 3x3 and strikes the targets in it each turn so phantom force tactics can be countered.
Alas ThunderTitan lost his shot for immortality by that close.
FACTION SPECIFIC STRATEGIES
HAVEN
Haven will usually be weak in earlygame, with training rebalanced it cannot amass marksmen or cavaliers until week 4. Their units are easy to tackle with spells so they need to come close and attack. Split your mages for boosted fist of wrath and play defensively, attacking with ranged units/casting spells.
In lategame things look different. You will face angels, one good stack of paladins(probably split), marksmen and griffins. He may also buy squires if he has enough money or sacrifice getting more palies.
You do NOT want to face this. Attack faster!
Destructive may work with warlock’s luck and elemental gargoyles - otherwise ONLY with slippers and implosion - There are better picks out there.
Have light both for buffing/rez and suppress light. Motw+phantom forces are essential, start with a mark on the titans if possible.
A single curse is bad news as the paladins have lay on hands and in the case of two stacks one will still attack. Only exception a frenzy just before they act. Keep in mind that leadership decreases puppet master duration each time they get good morale. When paladins are weakened try a phoenix or motw+resurrection. Lead the paladins to charge through multiple mines with fire trap to attack your units.
Magic alone is not the way to go in lategame. Light/summoning or dark/summoning is enough, take enlightenment to get at least 15 knowledge(for arties), sorcery and luck/defense. Don't pick too many abilities.
Adding luck arties while having luck gives a maxed luck on your main damage dealers.
Djinn sultans charging on the paladins with init/att arties or init /luck will kill some and block them from jousting.
Gargoyles might just be lucky enough to cover the titans with init. Titans/rakshasas should have init/luck/def. Mages tightly defended and casting fireballs, ranged will be ineffective. Hp/def/armour reduction for gremlins, golems and gargoyles.
Watch the placement if he has champions, their charge hurts even the back lines. If he has seraphs expect some nasty magical divine vengeance damage on your units with a high bodycount. Blade barrier and summon hive can buy you valuable time.
DUNGEON
Dungeon focuses on destructive so you have many counters: Destructive->sap magic, magic mirror, sorcery->counterspell, mini resistance arties. If they go the might way they cannot counter dark magic. Warmachines with enlightenment/attack->flaming arrows will help, especially used with counterspell. From artifact merchants buy elemental elemental protection and luck reducing artifacts(warlock’s luck). Get enlightenment anyway for the arties.
Disable or kill the matriarchs to avoid them ending counterspell, a full frontal assault is very effective vs the warlock's low defense units.
Mass hasting with initiative and resistance arties, then making a counterspell right after can be a winning strategy.
Rakshasa rajas dashing with haste(exp) and init artie(20%) get 21 initiative!
If the opponent has sorcery he will act before you get to counterspell again so don't expect to totally disable him and use arcane armour asap. Have enlightenment->intelligence, counterspelling empowered spells may end your mana. Puppeting his raiders may just end his game as they’ll joust their way to the hydras, however they may opt for shrug darkness even if rarely - watch out for that. Summoning is always effective with phantoms, summons, or firewall/trap, consider consume artifact for fast resurrecting when the warlock's mana is exhausted.
If he uses invisibility move a unit towards the last place you saw the unit disappear, if you move on its path you'll attack it and make it visible.
INFERNO
Inferno will charge you after a swift gating. With reinforcements and extra mana stealing familiars you may be eventually drained so enlightenment->intelligence or take summoning->banish are good to have. Take dark magic, inferno can weaken it with shrug darkness at best. Although pitlords would advice against it, a phoenix can serve you well with the right timing. Keep in mind that berserked units can still be teleported near you. Horned grunts can leap-attack you through empty spots, succubi seducers may make one of your units abandon his place and archdemons can teleport you near them.
Light for mass endurance with resurrection may be invaluable. If having neutral morale consider morale arties as nightmares have an aura. Initiative and defense arties will help you.
Do not buy a ballista without the warmachine skill, it may randomly hit the succubi and thus hurt your army. After you kill one of their units, move a unit over them to avoid devils summoning pitlords. Or banish. If you don't have banish focus on the original stacks to end the battle asap. Keep your ranged fire surrounded, gated stacks can block you. Resurrect before he uses consume corpse and attack the nightmares first with boosted djinns. Have def artie just in case nightmares play first.
IF you are lucky enough to attack the nightmares first...
..and follow with a puppet afterwards it's game over for the demonlord.
The puppet alone can often turn the tide.
If instead the nightmares attack the djinns first, the devils play before hero(usually they do) and he has windstrider boots you may as well give up.
For an early battle they are vulnerable to magic and warmachines as they have less units to gate with only familiars, hell chargers(maybe succubi) are dangerous.
NECROPOLIS
You will face a big army so light and/or dark are obvious picks – seal of darkness will make them waste more turns for motn. Unfortunately your high lvl dark magic are useless without cloak of Sandro. He may try summoning, so banish will help against phoenix conjuring. Elemental balance can be a good surprise but he can get it too. He rarely goes for destructive as cold death is not easy to work out and ice bolt can be mirrored. The necromancer's mana with the nerfed mark of the necromancer is still bottomless in big fights so raise your mana or get arcane training.
Beware of his specters that may reach your archmages and resurrect themselves and focus on his vamps and wraiths. The phantom forces bug is still there so vamps can drain life from it. Kill them fast or they'll block you.
Firetrap against wraiths and firewall when ganging up on you. Do not keep your units too close, except those with high defense - liches may take advantage of that.
Do not summon a phoenix in the vicinity of wraiths and wait to see if the necromancer has cold death. If it gets frenzied or puppeted magical immunity, cleansing or vampirism are good counters.
Djinns should cast spells initially but are puppet vulnerable so cover up your key units. Mages are better off shooting with attack artie.
Try to kill his stacks outright and cover dead stacks to prevent them from being raised. Defense reducing arties help a lot when he starts raising as they'll be easier to take down.
Finally keep in mind that banshees can counter your phantom forces with their wail if they are close. Nothing scary but better to expect it.
One option is to use armageddon tactics with a few low lvl heroes and 7 obsidian gargoyle stacks. Armageddon with each, retreat, attack with your main.
Your spellpower may not be enough to make a firewall damaging. How about two?
For an early battle a destructive/dark skill combination is quite effective as are warmachines.
SYLVAN
You never know which units are favoured enemies. It has fast units each able to do decent damage and a good dark spell on one of them may not be enough. Also apart from resistance they have unicorn magic aura that makes single spells too much of a gamble. To build up fast they tend to skip treants, build dragons fast and upgrade hunters which are usually split. That kinda forces you to go for mass curses but also light for protection and resurrection - suppress light may not help much. Warmachines and flaming arrows it’s a good idea. Defence can help you survive.
Beware of the dragons and place your units correctly. You will be charged with unicorns and wardancers but still, try to deal with hunters fast. Wardancers with multi attack with luck/avenger may be more than you can handle so do not to underestimate them.
Try to find luck and morale reducing artifacts. Initiative, luck and defense arties to kill them fast. Reducing luck will reduce the crystal dragon’s breath potential ie the amount of targets it can hit.
A good ballista can help against their deadly lower tiers while you focus on the stronger ones with magic. If he has pristine unicorns watch out with what you bless your units.
Better to tackle them early. They will not have the chance to pick favoured enemies and their hunters fall like flies. Keep an eye on the druids, the ranger will have them split in 4-druid stacks whose lightning really hurts, at least you have those immune gargoyles.
ACADEMY
With magic mirror in play it is safer to go for mass spells, summoning and/or warmachines. Counters as banish, teleport assault or armageddon tactics with resistance arties if he is not expecting them. Keep an eye on the opponent’s arties in the beginning of the battle to be prepared. Casting and having a ballista may give you an edge against a caster only hero.
In a short game using a Havez rush, getting mage guild 5 for phoenix in week 2 or even buying a ring of elemental summoning by having expert in the school may give you the victory just like that. There is simply no telling what an academy hero will do and luck may play a decisive role in any case. The new upgrades allow for more chaos and tactical possibilities.
FORTRESS
With their resource costs and need for both mage guild and the runic one they build slow. In earlygame they won't have runepriests, brawlers are ineffective and the rest slow so your magic will be able to keep them at bay. Kill the thanes fast because they can attack first with a rune of charge and destroy packed formations. You may face a fireball with ignite. Hope to get fire trap for the bears and dragons.
For longer games they usually pursue light which along with runes and a might build makes them pretty strong. They can get dwarven luck and light->eternal light so better to pursue light and summoning yourself.
You can expect their whole army charge you so better have def arties - swift mind, mass haste and rune of charge can cripple you in round 1.
If you do get dark you can use their runes with puppet. Low level curses can be countered easier but from 4 on require either cleansing or magical immunity that he may eventually not get. Toe added another light spell in levels 2 and 4 so they are not 50-50 to get anymore.
Attack the warlords with djinns or decrease their luck. They may use rune of resurrection but will not get to use offensive runes. Do not keep your units adjacent as the dragons and priests can still attack multiple targets. Especially rune patriarchs have firewall but the opponent won't have too many of them. Don't let the bears alive too long - very disruptive, then for the berserkers because they have nasty rune combos with rage. Kill off weak stacks to prevent a rune of resurrection.
Some of their units' abilities can displace your position, especially blackbears and harpooners so you may find yourself a tile ahead or back, plan ahead.
Do NOT attack them in town, you will face a massive army of shieldguards that grows per week.
Motw+wasp swarm can keep them from acting as long as you can cast so taking the retaliation with a weak unit you can start hitting them with every unit you have.
They may pull off preparation with armageddon tactics. They don't mind because their dragons are immune and shieldguards, bears unaffected by master of fire not to mention the rez rune. Of course if you get fire resistance from light it should be a minor inconvenience.
It's just 50-50.
My only saving grace is that I made clear the fact that adjacent units vs dwarves=bad!