To get the most out of every general we need to consider its role and particular abilities before applying the new skill tree. This guide will demonstrate how skills can enhance Anslem’s ability as a powerful killer of some of the toughest enemy camps in the game.
In researching this guide, I used FastSIM (https://settlersonlinemaps.com/fastsim.php?LangCode=2) to test various combinations of attack skills for Anslem on different camps. Then I chose one camp to use as an example. I present this before the new skills tree is introduced in the hope it will shed light on the opportunities. The simulations can’t show how non-combat skills affect game play. However, in my opinion Anslem benefits from the strongest possible combat skills. Since we can simulate these, they provide a valuable test case.
A report on my first adventure (VLT) with trained Anselm is given in a comment below: http://forum.thesettlersonline.net/t...l=1#post280231
Further, there's a report on some more adventures with details of improved attacks on specific camps in First Thief and Wisdom: http://forum.thesettlersonline.net/t...l=1#post280298
I will consider each skill and do my best to explain why (or why not) it is a good choice for Anslem as opposed to other generals. And since we all play a little differently, I'll suggest which skills you might adjust to suit your style.
Before going into detail, let me say I believe Battle Frenzy is the most powerful skill you can give Anslem. I’m saying this up front because I don’t want you to miss it. This isn't just my opinion; it's backed up by simulations. Battle Frenzy may be wasted on most generals, but it was made for Anslem!
Okay, let’s get started. For each general, the skills you choose should depend on:
- Their basic abilities, particularly the specialized abilities of Anslem, Nusala, Vargus, Master of Martial Arts, Master of Defense, and Lord Dracul.
- Whether players choose to use this general for killing camps, blocking, sacrificing, or loot spots.
- What kind of troops they're likely to use.
- What kind of enemies they're likely to fight.
- Your own playing style.
Anslem’s Basic Abilities
Anslem is an attack general that can wipe out powerful enemy camps in a single wave. Whereas Major Generals have the highest unit capacity, Anslem has the most effective defensive ability of any general.
Dazzle “reduces the accuracy of enemy units to 0%.” – meaning all units in an enemy camp can only deal minimum damage. For example a “Giant Leader I” normally does 100-130 damage with 60% accuracy. There’s a 60% chance he’ll deal 130 damage and a 40% chance he’ll deal 100 damage. But against Anslem and his troops, this monster always deals the lower value, 100.
This protection allows Anslem’s fights to last longer than any other general’s: 5, 10, sometimes 20 rounds. This gives him and his troops time to pound away at tough enemy units. In some cases, Anslem can kill boss and leader camps more efficiently than Major Generals.
Anslem himself deals 1000-1500 damage each round. Nusala is the only other general that hits so hard. Anslem’s accuracy is very low, only 50%. But even 1,000 damage contributes significantly to the fight. His splash ability carries any excess damage to the next available unit, so Anslem is able to kill at least 25 Recruits with one blow.
Factors to consider in training Anslem
Now let's apply the five points to consider in training Anslem:
- Specialized abilities? Dazzle makes Anslem one of the best generals for defeating powerful enemy camps. Anslem's own attack damage is also powerful and can have a large impact. Combat skills will make him even deadlier, so don’t waste this potential. Consider carefully before investing in non-combat skills that make the game move more quickly or provide benefits after combat resolves.
- Intended use? Anslem lacks the qualities for sacking or doing loot spots. Since Anslem's combats run long, he could potentially be used as a blocker. But then his superior killing abilities will go to waste, so we'll concentrate on those. This is where Anslem's preferred skills will differ markedly from those of Nusala or Master of Martial Arts.
- Which troops? Anslem’s attacks often rely on the heavy units – Cannons or Besiegers. Other units that deal fair damage with good accuracy are also useful under the right circumstances.
- Which enemies? Give priority to skills that help Anslem kill bosses and other tough units. Anslem gets swamped when pitted against vast hordes of enemies or a lot of first strikers, so fast, weak troops aren't a priority for Anslem.
- What’s your playing style? Do you run lots of adventures back to back? Do you want Anslem to arrive early on adventures and start knocking out camps before blockers arrive? Do you want to gain extra experience from those leader camps he kills? Do you want to keep things simple or fine tune your generals to make the most of their special abilities? Do you use blocks? Would you rather use multiple sacrifices or enhance generals like Anslem that can kill a camp in one blow? Consider all these and other factors before investing those valuable books in any general. If you want to train a general that will make every boss in the islands quake in its boots, Anslem is your man.
The Demonstration
For this demonstration I chose the first leader camp in the Valiant Little Tailor, which becomes familiar to all players after reaching level 42. The camp contains 1 Giant Leader I, 1 Giant Leader II, 100 Boars and 60 Foxes.
Untrained Anslem is already the most efficient general to kill this camp in a single wave. However, nobody does this because it takes 17-19 rounds, costs a few Militia and Soldiers, and risks losing a few Cannons. If you’re trying to block the nearby camp, Anslem’s attack will take too long. A Major General can kill the camp with a higher loss of troops, but with no risk of losing Cannons, and it takes only 10 rounds. That’s short enough to allow a block on the nearby camp. If you’re not blocking, you would likely use a sac on this camp first to reduce troop losses.
I’ll demonstrate how combat skills allow Anslem to kill this camp in a single wave while losing only a moderate number of Recruits, and finishing in 6 rounds – more than fast enough for the block. I believe these combat skills will make Anslem useful against a wider range of boss and leader camps like this one.
First I'll discuss the effect of individual skills and why they're useful for Anslem, or not. Then I'll suggest three skill tree configurations, each with a different emphasis. Finally I'll provide my simulation results to show in detail how each added combat skill affected the outcome of combat with the 2 Giants Camp.
The Skills
Let’s break down the skills one tier at a time. C = combat skill (these are particularly important for Anslem) and NC = con-combat skill.
Tier 1, manuscripts
Rapid Fire: (C) Increases the attack damage of your Bowmen by 5/10/15.
Pass. Anslem’s attacks seldom rely on Bowmen.
Juggernaut: (C) Increases the general’s attack damage by 20/40/60. These attacks have a 33/66/100% chance of dealing splash damage.
Anslem already deals splash damage, so we might be tempted to pass over this one. Besides, 60 points doesn’t seem like a major improvement on 1000-1500 damage. I simulated Anslem’s attacks on several Thousand and One Nights adventures, and Juggernaut had no effect on the results. However, it significantly improved Anslem’s performance in the 2 Giants camp in VLT. So I suspect Juggernaut may be more beneficial against lighter units such as those encountered in Fairy Tale adventures. I don’t have enough evidence to strongly recommend Juggernaut for Anslem, still I lean toward this combat skill to give him every possible advantage.
In the demonstration with the 2 Giants camp I used 3x Juggernaut throughout the simulations. However I recommend placing just two manuscripts here.
First Aid: (C) Recovers 3/6/9% of units lost after every combat.
Anslem faces some powerful opponents so it’s tempting to try to recover some of your losses. But it’s better to avoid losing troops in the first place. Sticking with combat skills will make Anslem the best killer possible. But you might prefer to put 2 manuscripts here rather than on Juggernaut. First Aid is probably more versatile, and will recoup a few Mounted Swordsmen in Thousand and One Night adventures where Juggernaut seems to fizzle.
Jog: (NC) Adds 33/66/100% to the general’s movement speed when returning to or transferring the garrison.
As one of your best camp killers, Anslem will do a lot of running back and forth. You want to spend more of your life jumping out of airplanes, less time watching generals walk around, right? This is the only non-combat skill I feel strongly about recommending for 3 books on Anslem, and they’re only manuscripts.
My Tier 1 recommendation: 3x Jog, and 2x Juggernaut.
Tier 2, tomes
Sniper Training: (C) Increases your longbowmen’s and regular marksmen’s minimum attack damage by 45/85/135%, and the maximum by 5/10/15%.
Anslem needs heavy-hitting offensive units with good accuracy. Both Longbowmen and Marksmen qualify. Unfortunately this camp is not a good test case for Longbowmen. I did simulations on the Oasis Camp in Ali Baba and the First Thief using Marksmen and Sniper Training, and found that it provided a marginal benefit. However, in my opinion it’s not enough to justify giving Anslem this skill. It's more important to support heavy units, and we’ll get to that.
Overrun: (C) Decreases hit points of enemy bosses by 8/16/25%.
Anslem is a born boss killer. Overrun will make him even deadlier. In this test, adding 3x Overrun reduces “Giant Leader I” from 90000 to 67500 hit points and “Giant Leader II” from 70000 to 52500. Anslem will handle much stronger bosses in Thousand and One Nights adventures, cutting their hit points proportionately. In the demo camp, this skill improved Anslem's efficiency by 27% based on training time of lost troops. Just be aware that the benefit from Overrun will only apply to camps containing bosses, so it's less versatile than combat skills further up the tree. Still, I strongly recommend applying 3 tomes here.
Hostile Takeover: (NC) When this army wins a battle, gain 1 recruit mercenary for every 200/300/600 experience worth of enemies defeated.
Anslem will kill lots of tough enemies, so it’s hard to resist this skill. But let's stay focused on combat skills. Confession here: I haven’t researched experience values to tell you what the actual benefit of this skill would be; for example, how many recruits you’ll get for taking down a pair of Steersmen in Aladdin and the Oil Lamp. Still, I don't believe it would be better than more combat skills for Anslem.
Navigation Crash Course: (NC) Reduces the general’s travel time by 15/30/45%.
Here is where the skills you invest depend on your play style. How important is it to have your attack generals arrive at the island in 8 minutes, 15 seconds, instead of 15 minutes? Anslem can play a valuable role hitting some early camps before blocking generals arrive. Anslem is one of the first attackers I send in The Betrayed Little Tailor, Wood Cutter and Treasure of Wisdom. This is another non-combat skill where I plan to use some books.
My Tier 2 recommendation: 3x Overrun and 2x Navigation Crash Course, or 3x NCC and 1 less book at a higher level.
Tier 3, tomes
Unstoppable Charge: (C) Increases maximum attack damage of your swift units by 1/2/3, and gives their attacks a 33/66/100% chance of dealing splash damage.
In this test case, first strike units aren’t suited to Anslem’s attack. He often makes good use of Mounted Marksmen at higher levels. I want to make Anslem the best killer possible, so I applied Unstoppable Charge to some simulations on Ali Baba enemy camps. The benefits were at best marginal. No doubt there are some situations where this skill would make a bigger difference, but I don’t have enough evidence to recommend applying it on Anslem.
Battle Frenzy: (C) Increases attack damage of this army by 10/20/30% after every combat round.
This skill has received some poor reviews, but do not make the mistake of dismissing it for all your generals! Battle Frenzy is wasted on sac generals or those that specialize in short combat, like Master of Martial Arts. But Battle Frenzy was made for Anslem, who kills powerful enemies by protecting his troops and drawing out the fight as long as possible. Each round after the first adds a cumulative 300/450 damage to Anslem’s basic attack.
Consider this test case. With Tier 2 skills included, Anslem kills the camp in 15 or 16 rounds. Then adding 3x Battle Frenzy cuts combat to 6 or 7 rounds and with far fewer losses. It’s easy to understand why: by round 6, Anslem’s basic damage has increased from 1000-1500 to 2500-3750. Add in a little more for the effect from Juggernaut. This is like having two Anslems.
For argument’s sake, let’s consider one example using elite troops. In Ali Baba and the Second Thief, the leader camp at the south end of the first sector contains a Snooty Thief, 100 Horsemen, and 90 Sword Wielders.
Anslem is already the best general to kill this camp in a single wave:
62 MS, 78 AM, 10 B (losses 60-62 MS, lasts 11 rounds)
Adding 3x Battle Frenzy alone – no other combat skills – cuts losses by 19%.
50 MS, 74 AM, 26 B (losses 47-50 MS, lasts 6 rounds)
When Anslem makes a kill in one or two rounds, Battle Frenzy will have little or no effect. But this is seldom the case. Anslem is at his best with a prolonged attack. In simulating attacks on various Ali Baba camps I found no other skill, not even Garrison Annex or Lightning Slash, improved Anslem’s performance so consistently and dramatically.
Fast Learner: (NC) Increases experience points gained by defeating enemy units by 10/20/30%.
With Anslem potentially killing so many powerful enemies, this is hard to resist. And with no other compelling combat skills in this tier, I recommend investing 2 tomes in this skill. Maybe even 3, but that will mean one less slot for the higher level combat skills. Whatever you do, don’t skimp on Battle Frenzy.
Just a Flesh Wound: (NC) Reduces the general’s recovery time by 15/30/45%.
This is for sac generals. Sometimes Anslem might make a useful sacrifice, but hopefully by now you’ll agree he’s far more useful to keep awake.
My Tier 3 recommendation: 3x Battle Frenzy and 2x Fast Learner, or 3x FL and one less book at a higher level.
Tier 4, codexes
Cleave: (NC) Increases the attack damage of your elite soldiers by 4/8/12, and gives their attacks a 33/66/100% chance of dealing splash damage.
Admittedly, I didn’t investigate this combat skill, with full simulations taking as long as they do. Cleave could potentially improve the opportunities for an underused unit. But investing valuable codexes in a skill that doesn’t help any elite troops seems short-sighted to me (I know it’s confusing: elite soldiers are not elite troops). For the long run I don't recommend this skill. But if you plan to make much use of Anslem in Fairy Tale adventures, for example, try some simulations yourself using Anslem, Elite Soldiers, and Cleave before deciding against it.
Weekly Maintenance: (C) Increases attack damage of your heavy units by 10/20/30.
That means Cannons and Besiegers. I wouldn’t recommend this skill for most generals, but Anslem relies on these units more often than most. In this test case, 2x Weekly Maintenance reduced Recruit losses by 3. That’s not much, but in some of the Thousand and One Nights camp I looked at, Weekly Maintenance moderately reduced losses of elite troops.
Consider including this skill. It will apply to fewer situations than the other combat skills I’ve recommended. This is one you might consider skipping if you want to bump up certain non-combat skills by a book or two.
Garrison Annex: (C) Increases unit capacity by 5/10/15.
Everybody’s raving about this one, but I have reservations. Increasing a Major General’s capacity to 285 doesn’t improve his/her fighting power as much as you might expect. But for Anslem, 3x Garrison Annex increases his capacity by 10%, and I endorse that unconditionally. His fighting power depends on carefully protecting a few powerful units, so if you increase it to by few more, Anslem becomes more deadly.
In this demonstration, adding Garrison Annex to the skill tree significantly improved the outcome. Anslem was able to stop relying on Soldiers and restrict troop losses to Recruits only. Again, you might not wince at a few soldiers, but the marginal difference matters more with elite troops. In my simulations of Thousand and One Nights combats, Garrison Annex was second only to Battle Frenzy in consistently improving Anslem’s performance. Against boss camps Overrun may be more beneficial than Garrison Annex, but GA's benefit applies everywhere. Definitely put 3 tomes here.
Confident Leader: (C) Reduces the length of combat rounds by 15/30/45%.
I’ve seen comments dismissing this skill for all but sacrifice generals. Actually, it makes more sense to put Confident Leader on Anslem, whose attacks can easily last 10 rounds, than on a general that dies after one round. With other skills like Battle Frenzy significantly reducing the time it takes Anslem to kill a camp, I expect Confident Leader would present opportunities for even more creative blocking. But I couldn’t test the hypothesis in the scope of this demonstration.
In this test case we could apply 2 codexes to Confident Leader and shorten Anslem’s 6-round victory to the same duration as 4.2 rounds. Considering we started with 17-19 rounds, that’s pretty awesome. How much opportunity do you want for better blocks? This is your call. If any general will benefit from Confident Leader, it’s Anslem.
My Tier 4 recommendation: 3x Garrison Annex and 2x Weekly Maintenance. Depending on your playing style, drop WM and spend two books on Confident Leader or non-combat skills lower down the tree. I like Weekly Maintenance, but based on results from my simulations, it's the combat skill you can most afford to drop.
Tier 4, codex
Lightning Slash: (C) The general attacks twice per round. The second attack’s initiative is “Last Strike.”
Remember that Anslem’s attacks last a long time, and Battle Frenzy increases the damage of his attacks with each round after the first. Now Lightning Slash gives him a second hit at the end of the round. After five rounds Anslem with BF and LS Slash deals 2500-3750 damage twice per round.
In this test case Lightning Slash helped Anslem finish combat one round sooner, after round 6, cutting recruit losses from 87 to 80. You’ll enjoy similar results on Thousand and One Nights adventures. Based on my simulations, this is the best top tier combat skill for Anslem.
Master Planner: (C) Adds 10% to this army’s accuracy.
Anslem himself has poor accuracy, only 50%. So this skill means his attacks would do full damage 60% of the time instead of 50%. Intuitively, that should be a good thing. This skill also improves the accuracy of all his troops, so Cannons do full damage 100% of the time instead of 90%.
But consider Anslem's own powerful attacks. Doing the reduced 1000 damage (or 2750 after five rounds) twice with Lightning Strike is better than a slightly improved chance of doing 1500 (3750) damage once. Master Planner may improve the efficiency of Anslem's best skill, Battle Frenzy, but Lightning Slash doubles its effect. The drawback of Lightning Slash is that it doesn't enhance the damage from Anslem's troops.
In this test case Master Planner improved Anslem's efficiency by 5%, but Lightning Slash improved it by 7% based on barracks training time. I found similar results in simulations in Thousand and One Nights adventures. I believe Lightning Slash is the better choice for Anslem.
Bounty Hunter: (NC) After an adventure, gain 1 star coin for every 1.000 experience worth of enemies defeated by this army.
As a level 65 player with a limited supply of star coins, I find this one awfully tempting. But I hear from reliable sources that star coins become easier to obtain later on with Pathfinder quests. So I'm bound to regret giving this ability to Anslem when Lightning Slash could make him the most feared killer on the planet.
1-Up: The general has a 50% chance of instantly recovering after a defeat.
Anslem is not a sac general, so don't bother with this one.
My Tier 5 recommendation: Lightning Slash.
Three Possible Skill Configurations
Maximum Combat Values:
This tree includes all the combat skills I recommend, including 2x Weekly Maintenance. For the preferred non-combat skills I include 3x Jog, 2x Navigation Crash Course, and 2x Fast Learner.
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High Combat, More Speed and Experience:
This configuration sacrifices Weekly Maintenance for 3x Navigation Crash Course (faster travel time to adventures) and 3x Fast Learner (more experience from killing all those tough bosses).
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Improved Blocking Ability:
This configuration sacrifices Weekly Maintenance for 2x Confident Leader, shortening combat rounds by 30% to present more blocking opportunities. While I don't have any direct evidence to support this, it may appeal to players who enjoy creative blocking, because Anslem is worth it!
Simulation Results
Here is how Anslem performed in the test camp with various combat skills added.
In short, untrained Anslem killed the camp in 17-19 rounds with a loss of 10 Militia, 55 Soldiers, up to 1 Elite, and up to 4 Cannons. With all the best combat skills including Lightning Slash rather than Master Planner, his performance improved dramatically to a loss of 82 Recruits in 6 rounds of combat. That's a 66% reduction in troop losses based on training time.
Battle Frenzy had the most dramatic effect on performance, reducing troop training time by 38%, with Overrun second at 27%, and Garrison Annex third at 20%. Note that while I did these simulations using 3x Juggernaut, I recommend only 2x Juggernaut. Similarly I used 2x Weekly Maintenance, but substituted these two slots for other skills in two of the configurations suggested above.
All combat skills are cumulative in the results listed below, except for Lightning Slash and Master Planner, which are given alternatively in the last two data sets.
R = Recruit, M = Militia, S = Soldier, E = Elite Soldier, K = Cannon
Untrained Anslem
Best attack: 10 M, 55 S, 1 E, 84 K
(losses: 10 M, 54-55 S, 0-1 E, 0-4 K)
time on barracks: 2:07:01 h/m/s
lasts 17-19 rounds
Ans + 3x Juggernaut
Best attack: 24 R, 2 M, 48 S, 4 E, 72 K
(losses: 24 R, 2 M, 48 S, 1-4 E, 0-5 K)
time on barracks: 2:03:08
lasts 17-19 rounds
Ans +3x J +3x Overrun
Best attack: 56 R, 6 M, 24 S, 2 E, 62 K
(losses: 56 R, 6 M, 23-24 S, 0-2 E, 0-8 K)
time on barracks: 1:29:48
lasts 15-16 rounds
Ans +3x J +3x O +3x Battle Frenzy
Best Attack: 65 R, 14 S, 1 E, 70 K
(losses: 65 R, 10-14S)
time on barracks 0:55:16
lasts 7-8 rounds
Ans +3x J + 3x O +3x BF +3x Garrison Annex
Best attack: 91 R, 1 E, 73 K
(losses 87-91 R, 0-1 E)
time on barracks 0:44:44
lasts 7-8 rounds
Ans +3x J +3x O +3x BF +3x GA +2x Weekly Maintenance
Best attack: 87 R, 1 E, 77 K
(losses 82-87 R, 0-1 E)
time on barracks 0:43:07
lasts 7 rounds
Ans +3x J +3x O +3x BF +3x GA +2x WM + Lightning Slash
Best attack: 80 R, 1 E, 82 K
(losses 80R)
time on barracks 0:40:00
lasts 6 rounds
Ans +3x J +3x O +3x BF +3x GA +2x WM + Master Planner
Best attack: 82 R, 2 E, 81 K
(losses 82 R)
time on barracks 0:41:00
lasts 6 rounds
Posted by Erevan
Level 65
Ares Realm
Transendent Horde [YDKJ]