Behaviour Interactive’s Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall has surprised both fans of the franchise as well as strategy RPG enthusiasts with all that it has to offer. Devoid of elaborate special effects and flashy cut scenes from the characters’ special skills, the game banks extensively instead on the core principles that make up a good strategy game, which, in its purest sense, pushes every player to plan well before engaging in any battle.
If you have just started playing Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall and is still in the process of getting to know the basic mechanics and features of the game, be sure to check out our beginner’s guide, as it offers a quick rundown of the game and provides tips and strategies to jumpstart your journey. In this new Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall guide, we will be focusing more on formations and strategies that you need to know to help you win more easily against the various challenges in the game.
In truth, enhancements and upgrades well beyond the level of enemies ahead do offer advantages but then again, it will not always be enough to rely solely on strength to win over some challenges. If you have played the game for quite some time and have engaged in several battles, an advantage in level mostly applies only to story missions and, surely enough, each level up or gear enhancement will not have a huge impact on performance.
A lot of the game’s other modes will have enemies around the same level as your team and likely adjusting to your commander’s level and team’s overall strength. As such, in as much as the auto battles in the game are fast and convenient, learning to engage each battle more strategically is very important.
Before focusing on strategies in combat, it is important to be very familiar with the hero and units you use. On top of knowing each one’s strengths and limitations, constantly using the same team should leave you with enough idea about how each enhancement and upgrade will impact them. More so, knowing how each unit performs should come with the understanding of how each one will perform along with the other units as keeping a “Team” mentality in battles over individual roles will help build and execute your strategies in play.
1. Keep Your Units Close To One Another
Just as a general rule, playing more defensively especially on first runs is the best way to go. Surely, there are instances where you must chase and eliminate a ranged combatant from the enemy lines but having one unit stray too far from the rest will put him in danger. In team combat, especially in strategy games, it is important to look after each member of the team and that comes with ensuring that each one is within the reach of another unit for backup purposes.
One common error for beginners is playing too aggressively on the initial turn, much like what the A.I. would do on auto mode, where you push each unit to the boundaries of their movement reach without much thought about the succeeding impact of such a risky move. Note that this is especially important if you have both a cavalry and a two-handed sword wielder in your party as the disparity between their movement range is very wide. For the most part, try to move as one and avoid instances where one unit can easily be ganged up on by two or more enemy units.
On the downside, AoE skills from the enemy team should be kept an eye on and while lumping all your units too tightly close together will be dangerous against a volley of arrows or a two-handed slash, you can always keep a close formation that does not necessarily keep everyone on a tight spot. Relative to this, keep in mind that strategy games are games of where the patient has an advantage, so despite taking a little longer to finish a battle as you play defensively, always keep an eye out for opportunites to launch counter-offenses and eliminate threats.
2. Different Scenarios Call For Different Teams
In our beginner’s guide, we mentioned that one consideration to take in terms of choosing which units to invest in should be on which region they are from. Although there are no regions that have an advantage over others, simply having 2 units from the same region enables a buff that boosts units’ stats. As you will be able to choose and deploy 3 units in battle and each region has 4 unit types, there is variety in the roster of units you can bring in battle depending on your needs. That is , of course, provided that you have unlocked each unit in any of the available regions.
With the gacha approach in the Night’s Watch Oath and some randomness involved as well in recruiting units via the Lodge, you may go for a unit type that you need from another region to invest in and develop as a substitute for some tougher battles. As much as possible, having a buff activated even for just 2 units is a welcomed advantage but pushing for it when only one unit within the region is needed may just cause more harm than help, especially if you are not fortunate enough to have both units enhanced enough due to lack of the necessary amount of Seals of Valor.
Your hero will always serve as the strongest character in your deployed team and while keeping the same hero across various game modes is okay, the 3 units to use to support the hero may have limited effectiveness. In essence, there is no single roster that would be best across all the battles that you will go through in your adventure. Prioritizing a hero and 3 units as your main is still the best option for beginners but once you have earned enough resources later on, investing in another hero and a few more units should be a natural recourse.
For starters, having 2 melee units with good defense and having 2 ranged units is a basic team that can do well in stages with impediments. Having a bottleneck between your team and the enemy team can be an opportunity to clog the passage with the 2 melee units while the 2 archers stand behind them to deal damage. On the other hand, being in an open field can be very tricky for a party with 2 archers, especially if enemies are situated in different sides. Having more ranged units also mean having more units to protect, so in such cases, having just one should be the better option.
3. Use Objects In The Field To Your Advantage
There are definitely a lot of battles you will engage in Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall where the strength gap is evident against your favor and your end in mind is set on survival instead of banking a victory where all your units are alive. With a more strategic mindset prior to starting any battle, you should make it a habit to look around the map taking the entirety of its layout along with individual positions of allied units and enemy units in consideration. While there will be wide open spaces in some instances, the case more often is that the battlefield will be littered with objects that are designed to restrict movement and positioning in some way.
Each obstacle within the battlefield may come in different forms but what is important initially is to determine which ones can be destroyed. Beyond that, the second and more important decision to make is how to utilize these objects to tip the tide of battle more to your advantage. In this regard, know that you are at a discrete advantage given that enemy units will never choose to attack objects within the field whereas you can opt to, at any given time for various strategies advantages.
4. Setup Bottlenecks Whenever You Can
Some battle stages may have few objects for you to strategize around in while others often present a more evident approach towards taking advantage of the situation. These instances are often present in stages or levels where the number of objects in the field provide for a tight space between your units and the enemy units to engage one another. These stages that showcase bottlenecks or chokepoints often present an opportunity for you to delimit the surge of incoming enemies. In some cases, however, the same effect can be achieved with carefully placed units that practically call for a very predictable movement reaction from the enemy team.
If you have played long enough to identify the type of units in Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall or have read our beginner’s guide, you should already have a good enough idea about each unit’s strengths and limitations and how each hero you command falls within these types. Although you are very much free to choose the types of units you deploy in combat, setting formation advantages will largely depend on having units that have high defensive capabilities, like the shield bearers, or at least a strong unit who wields a two-handed sword.
The disparity in defensive skills can easily be felt in the game and despite the lack of offensive strength of tanks, they do serve as great “walls” you can use to block enemy passage. The idea does not exclusively cut off all enemies from reaching the rest of your squad but rather, filtering them in such a way that they will approach one by one and not come from all directions.
How you utilize this tactic should depend on your goal for the match as some battles, such as story stages, make it important for you to succeed with every unit intact. In other battles, using this slow but steady approach can be utilized up to some extent and be shifted to a more aggressive strategy once you have the unit advantage.
5. Take Advantage In Numbers First If You Can
Unit numbers, in any turn-based strategy game, carries with it a certain point of advantage. A weaker army composed of more units can always win against a stronger one with less numbers, given the right strategy and formation. Even a fair four-on four battle can sometimes be a threat to you especially if you have not yet enhanced some of the units you need to deploy and in Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall, there will be instances where you will have to stand your ground against more enemy units.
Regardless of how the battlefield is laid out, one common objective to set your sights on is tilting the advantage in numbers over to your side and with that in mind, you will focus on two considerations before you devise your plan of combat action. The first one is to determine which of the enemy units are the easiest to eliminate, as you will be going after them first. The second one is to determine which of the enemy units you should watch out most for, as you would want to avoid these units from getting close to your less defensive members.
To start off, archers and cavalry units have the weakest defensive capabilities in the game and should serve as your initial targets. Archers have range and offensive strength making them a top consideration as well relative to our second factor, giving them a higher priority in the kill list ahead of everyone else. Two-handed sword wielders are strong as well but simply estimating their range based on their one-square movement makes it very easy to keep your frail units away from them. While cavalry can move far and wide, and reach your archers quicker, they will not do much damage compared to the other enemy units.
If it is a boss battle, however, keeping your archers and cavalry away from the boss is also important. Bosses typically possess more offensive strength regardless of what type of unit they categorically fall into. Given all these considerations, therefore, the right approach with the “numbers” strategy in mind would be to push and eliminate the archer or archers first while keeping your archer and cavalry at a safe distance from archers, two-handed sword wielders, and boss units or heroes.
6. Leaving Fewer Sides Open Is Always Best
A typical battle scenario in Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall will set you and your team on one end of the battlefield while setting enemies on the other end. Sometimes, though, you will be right at the center of the field seemingly prepped right in for a pinch with no other option but to stay there and just battle through with no plan in mind. While this is practically the worst-case scenario as far starting turns go, it should not mean that you should proceed without any strategy in mind.
In practically every level, regardless of how your units are situated, it is important to always leave as few sides open to enemy attacks. For example, being the first to move and act and charging your cavalry right into an enemy unit to launch the first strike is a definite error. This is because once the enemy’s turn starts, they will most likely be able to surround your cavalry from at least 3 sides and chances are that your units will not survive for another turn. Unless there are barriers on both sides of the unit, then it should not be considered at all.
In wide open spaces, what you would rather go for is close at least one side of your unit’s formation. Backing up to the top or bottom of the screen will prove to be a better defensive stance than staying at the center. Suppose you are at those levels where the match starts with you at the center of the battlefield, push to park your units lumped together with the archer preferably at the top center position.
Even if all enemy units get close enough, only one of your units will have 3 sides open, 2 units will have 2 sides open, and the unite between all of them will have none. With this in mind, you know that the one most vulnerable ought to be the tank, or the melee powerhouse who can dish out damage to multiple opponents nearby.
And this wraps up our combat guide for Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall. There are still plenty of strategies to test and discover but considering everything, being patient and staying on the defensive will generally be the better option. Of course, this almost always means keeping away from auto mode and learning how to strategize every step of the way by going on manual play. If you have plowed through a lot of unique and challenging battles in Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall and have discoveries outside of what we have discussed, feel free to share your tips and strategies with us!