Basics: Counter - Unit Buffs - Race Buffs

Another question that keeps coming up even though it all has been around for quite some time already. So I figured it's way past time to do a thorough explanation on how the troop size counters work and what it is with the extra buffs you can get. I hope this enables you to plan your army accordingly and decide for yourself which buffs you want to ensure or which ones you can pass up on. 

Introduction

There are 3 different things at play when composing your army out of units that tend to get confused or meshed with each other. You want to keep in mind when setting up your army that there are these types of "buffs":

• Race (Bloodline) of the formation's commander
• Counter or unit size in connection to countering opponents' units
• Size in connection to the extra buff for same size on all your army's commanders

See below, what they impact and how to manage obtaining the best possible buff combination.

Power of Bloodline

You can find this buff on your commander's Skill page in the Commander interface. The Power of Bloodline gains more points as you develop all your commanders' respect levels. The more influence you gain overall, the more points you will get for the different Bloodlines over time. You can check the status of your influence level when you go to the Mathom House and there on the Commander Map.

 However, you can also add leftover points that you cannot make use of with skills and by that slightly improve the stats.

This buff only applies if your commander leads the troops that his Power of Bloodline indicates. It only concerns the troop's race on this one commander/formation. The other formations do not have to lead the same race, but rather the race their own commander's Bloodline indicates.

See this example: Sauron buffs Orcs, Uruk-hai, Evil Men and Trolls. Saruman buffs Orcs, Uruk-hai and Evil Men. Meanwhile Lurtz buffs Orcs and Uruk-hai. 

What does this mean? Do you have to use Orcs or Uruk-hai because they get buffed by all three?
You certainly could if that is what you want, but you don't have to. You can also use Trolls on Sauron, Evil Men on Saruman and Orcs on Lurtz - all three Buffs would be activated in that case.

Since I don't have Orcs or Uruk-hai on him, I cannot activate Lurtz' buff, but the other two still apply regardless.

Counter

The basic counter is: Small < Medium < Large < Small.

Meaning: A formation with Medium sized Units will counter a formation that has Small sized Units. Large Units counter Medium. Lastly, Small Units counter Large.

Now, important to know here is that this is based on individual formations. Regardless what else you have in your army, if one formation has Small units and hits an opponent's formation with Large units, you will do more damage with your Small against Large compared to what you do against Small or Medium. At the same time you take more damage from attacks by Medium against your Small than you take from Small or Large armies. 

The game will indicate the "counter" in your report overview when both armies have troops of same size and one counters the other. 

Army Buff

If all commanders in your formation have units of the same size, you get an additional buff. This buff is unrelated to the counter buff, but it is an extra on top. However, strict requirement for this is that all formations in that army have the same size units. This can apply to one formation armies already - then it is of course easy to get.

The buffs you receive depend on the unit size:

• Small Unit: [Unit] Attack +10 & [Unit] Initiative +5
• Medium Unit: [Unit] Defense +10
• Large Unit: [Unit] Attack +5 & [Unit] Defense +5

Regardless of whether or not you have these buffs activated, the Counter function still applies on a formation vs formation level.

Activating these buffs might be superfluous for some or it might give you the little extra edge you need to survive.