Things are shaken up after the first act of Pathfinder WotR and you’re thrust into the role of the commander of the Fifth Crusade and have to now manage armies and lead them to victory. In this Pathfinder: Wrath of Righteous guide, we’ll help you fill in those commander boots by telling you how to effectively manage your Crusader Armies.
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Army
Once promoted to commander of the Fifth Crusade by Queen Galfrey in Act 2 of Pathfinder: WotR, you have the monumental task of leading the crusader armies. Below we’ve outlined some things you should keep in mind to effectively command your troops.
Crusader Armies World UI
There’s now a whole new UI, a whole new battle system and whole new units. This can be a bit daunting, but let’s ease you into all of these elements.
This UI consists of a map with moveable armies along points on the map. It also includes tabs to show resources (we’ll discuss this later), your party units and your Crusader army units.
To swap between looking at your party units and the crusader units, simply click the blue banner for party and red banner for Crusader Armies.
Furthermore, you can even see the strength of your army units on the left (indicated by the number in the shield icon). You can select these to view the individual units that comprise these army units.
Moving with your armies
Setting out with your army units is important as you have objectives to complete and battles to win. Each day you’ll get around 40 points to move on the map. Make sure you make good use of these points to get advantageous positions.
If you run out of movement or decide you don’t want to use them on a day, you can press the skip day button on the top right. Try to rest your armies in safe locations within your movement limits or else you’ll get penalties for it.
Its also a good idea to utilize movement to merge your armies. Speaking of which…
How to Merge Crusader Armies
In a nutshell, you need to overlap the Crusader Army units you wish to merge together. Simply navigate one of the Army units onto the other and look for the merge icon. It’s the two opposite facing arrow icon that appears next to the name of the overlapping armies.
Once you press that icon, you’ll have to manually shift over your units to the army you want to merge with.
So, for e.g., if you want to merge Crusader Army 1 and 2, Simply overlap them on the map, press the merge icon, then drag your units from 1 to 2 or 2 to 1 depending on the end merge you want.
Resources
You can’t run an army without managing your resources efficiently. Here are some of the important points that you should keep in mind while managing the resources.
Finance – The most important resource is finance, as you need this resource to recruit generals and units. You can get this resource by winning the battles.
Materials – Secondly, you will need this resource to construct the buildings.
Energy – At last, you will need this resource while building huge buildings.
Recruiting
In this section, we will be guiding you about the factors that you should consider before recruiting generals (army leaders) and units.
Generals / Army Leaders
Even though you are not bound to recruit a general, we advise that you should recruit the general to make your army stronger. Moreover, the generals gain bonus skills as they win battles.
To choose a general, click on the “I” icon under the army tab. Next, choose “Assign General ” and different options will appear on your screen. Now, you can choose anyone you wish to choose from this section.
To see new options, the players can also refresh the screen if they don’t find any option suitable. When merging armies you can even move the general over when shifting units.
Useful General Skills
Now, we will be guiding you about some of the important skills that can be pretty useful for generals.
Cure Wounds – This skill allows a general to heal the injured members of the army. Moreover, a general can also undead the dead with the help of this skill.
Traveler – This allows the general to travel to more places, thus enhancing their movement skills.
Leadership – This allows the rank of the army to be 10 higher per rank during combat.
Master of Maneuver – Lastly, this skill is one of the most important of all. This increases the number of units by one that this general will lead, thus increasing the strength of the army.
Units
Now, we will be heading towards the recruitment of units. Like the generals, you will need finance to buy the units.
There are a limited number of units that will appear on your screens every week. You can choose the units from a slider that appears with different options.
Sometimes, different events and dialogues can take you to the units. Like a dialogue between you and Wilcer Garns to ask him to equip horses with the scouts will unlock the mercenary units.
In the same way, helping Regill will give you bonus Hellknights to increase the number in the mercenary units. Also, at Kenabres, which is the place where the chapter begins, you will see the new recruits appearing during Act 2.
Morale
Morale is the indicator of how efficiently you are leading the crusade. If this value is higher, then you can recruit more units, and gather more resources.
The green color represents the high value, the orange color represents the low value, and the red color represents a concerningly low value.
How to Keep Morale High
You can see how important it is to keep the morale high. To do so, you need to win tactical battles against the demon armies to keep the banner of victories green.
Each win against the demon armies keeps this banner green for four days. Moreover, defeat the demon armies on the way leading Drezen to keep the banner green for ten days.
Estimated Army Power
Irrespective of whether an army belongs to the crusader or demon faction, it has an estimated army power, which basically governs the strength of the concerned army.
As a general rule of thumb, to reach your destination, you should avoid encounters with armies with greater estimated army power than yours.
It’s also worth mentioning that the estimated army power ratings of some armies, such as gargoyles, are often deceiving since without the anti-air update (in the case of gargoyles), you aren’t able to dish out much damage to them.
Tactical Battles
This is another important point to be considered while leading the crusade. A battle is prompted when your legion meets an army of a hostile faction.
Here are some tips to help you win the tactical battles.
How to Win Tactical Battles
- You need to focus more on ranged units, as they can hit all the targets. The melee units can hit only those targets that are near.
- Keep a look at HP value, so you can be aware of the damage dealt.
- With the special abilities, some of the units like Cleric and Smite might be helpful for you guys. Smite can debuff the enemy while Cleric can also cast spells, thus ensuring a huge amount of damage to enemies.
- If the players recruit a general, they can cast active spells once in each round.
- Also, make sure that you use Cure Wounds to undead the dead. In this way, you can increase the number of your armies continuously.
- You should not rely on exhausting the troops of the enemy, as it is never possible. The better way is to keep restoring your troops and rest for a day to enhance your magical skills.
Rewards
You will gain the following rewards for winning the tactical battles.
- Finance points.
- A rise in Morale.
- Bonus items.
- Bonus experience points for general.
- Healing of the units.
- Blocked paths are reopened.
- New operation base as your new camp.
Best Army Units
There are almost forty different kinds of army units that you can recruit in Pathfinder WotR. Below we’ve put together some of the best units that are a must-have in your army.
Barbarians
A crusader army is incomplete without the barbarians. They belong nowhere in specific, and all that they know is taking down any enemy that crosses their path.
Barbarians are known for their persistence on the battlefield, and they’ll be fighting to their last breath during a fight. They’re nothing but raw muscle and aggression.
Archers
Any army will be incomplete without a couple of archers. They’re usually the first ones to begin an attack, given that they can begin the attack from a distance. Have a few archers lined up in your army for long-ranged attacks.
Assassins
While the rest of the army units fight the enemies head-on, assassins are the masters of stealth. They’re capable of sneaking up on the enemy and taking them down with a dagger or poison.
If you’re planning on making a few silent targeted kills, then assassins are your go-to.
Bandits
They can take the enemy by surprise. No other army unit can plan an ambush better than the bandits. They don’t play clean but still get the job done.
Champions
They’re the masters of close combat. They won’t be much of a help in a battle. However, they’re quite helpful in a 1v1 battle. Also, they are known for their defense and heavy armor.
Clerics
Lastly, you need clerics in your army. They won’t lay down any enemies or swing any swords. However, they have a very important role in the army when it comes to healing your fallen soldiers.
