Welcome back, Godir and curious Mortals alike. I am Thomas Schuiten, Senior Designer at Triumph studios and today we continue our look at the Architect Culture, in particular their units and how they can be used in combat!
Architect Units
The Architect units each have a slight twist on their role, providing off-role utility that gives them unique uses. In addition these units often gain additional benefits from Affinity Incarnate, meaning they remain relevant into the late game as long as enough Monuments are built.
Architect units adapt based on the Dominant Affinity of the Empire, both visually and in their damage type.
Their units adapt their (non-physical) damage type to their Dominant Affinity (highest empire Affinity), letting you lean in to builds that make extended use of specific damage types (such as going full Astral lightning and inflicting lots of lightning weakness!)
Aesthetically each Architect unit wields an enchanted item I will refer to as their artisan item, these represent the ancient craftsmanship and enchantment techniques that the Architect still use to great effect.
Unit Line Up
Surveyor
Architect cultures seek Wonderstone to build their Monuments, the Surveyor is vital to this goal as they scout the map for Magic Materials and Survey those provinces to give an early supply of the valuable Wonderstone.
They do this through the Survey Materials ability, this functions similar to the Industrious Culture’s Prospecting - find provinces containing Magic Materials and click on the pin when in the province to start Surveying.
Surveyors do not require mounts to rapidly scout the map, their artisan item being greaves enhanced with an uncanny speed. This is not the only oddity of this scout unit however, unlike other scouts who wield bows or crossbows as their ranged weapons, Surveyors use bolts like a Battlemage would. The damage type of these bolts is dependent on the Dominant Affinity of the Empire. Thus if your highest affinity is Chaos, they will deal fire damage, while if your empire is predominantly Materium, your Surveyors will throw Steel Bolts inflicting physical damage instead!
I would advise any Architect empire to recruit an additional Surveyor or two early in the game, to locate settlement locations and secure your income of Wonderstone early.
Cultivator
The Cultivator is a core unit to Architect cultures, a tier 1 Support unit that links to a friendly unit to empower them during the battle.
Being only the second Tier 1 support in the game (the other being the Lithorine Core from Giant Kings) and the first cultural Tier 1 support, the Cultivator is in a unique position of availability and ubiquity compared to other cultures’ support units, especially in the early game.
The main purpose of the Cultivator is to provide Affinity Incarnate, This is done through their primary ability which links to the target friendly unit and grants them stacks of Affinity Incarnate, the type of Affinity Incarnate given depends on the culture’s Dominant Affinity. (Thus if we have a predominantly Chaos Affinity empire, this link will provide Chaos Incarnate)
In addition this link gives a weak, but steady source of healing each turn, and perhaps more notably, grants a dispel of a single negative status effect each turn. Insulating the cultivator’s target from the limited debuffs.
The primary attack of the Cultivator inflicts status effect weakness, setting the target up for inflicting burning, electrified, frozen or other powerful status effects you may seek to build into.
The Cultivator combines extremely well with units that are expected to take hits, one such unit is next on the list; The Earthbreaker!
Earthbreaker
The Earthbreaker forms the frontline of many early game Architect armies, a tough Tier 1 shock unit that can provide disruption with a decent chance to survive the encounter.
The Earthbreaker has a Sweeping Charge attack, letting it disrupt defensive formations and effectively fight a more numerous foe. After using this charge, the Earthbreaker enters Defense Mode which greatly boosts its survivability against anything but a dedicated countercharge.
Additionally, the Earthbreaker gains more survivability into the late game thanks to its passive: Incarnate Fortitude, this grants it additional Max HP for each stack of Affinity Incarnate on this unit. One might see why the Earthbreaker is an excellent partner for the Cultivator to link with!
This survivability and AoE utility comes at a cost, the Earthbreaker deals significantly less damage than other Shock units do, and the secondary targets of its Sweeping Charge take only 20% of that damage. This means that an Architect Culture will need to seek out effective damage dealers early on, either in their Tier 2 units or through Tomes.
Shademaker
The Shademaker is a powerful Tier 2 Ranged damage dealer, using their Titanbows they bring down any monster that would threaten the Architect’s projects.
Uniquely the Shademaker’s Titanbow has Giantslayer, letting them deal with the largest targets and partially fulfil the role of a polearm for the Architects. In addition, half the damage type of their primary attack is determined by the Dominant Affinity, thus should you be an Astral focused ruler who inflicts lots of lightning weakness, the Shademaker will play into this naturally.
The Shademaker also has a powerful means of subduing attackers in the Incarnate Shot, an AoE ranged attack that gains a chance to inflict Weakened for every stack of Affinity Incarnate the Shademaker has.
Shademakers function as the culture’s primary damage dealers while providing a way to soften the impact of massed enemies and thin their numbers through Incarnate Shot. They are soft targets once engaged in melee however, so keep the enemy disrupted with your Earthbreakers, and ensure you bring a frontline that can take a hit such as our next unit; The Guardian.
Guardian
The Guardian will be your anvil, while Earthbreakers provide disruption, this Tier 2 Shield unit provides the tough frontline brawlers for the Architect culture. Designed to be tough above all else while withering away at adjacent enemies and leaving them vulnerable to their allies’ strikes.
The Guardian’s basic attack does low damage for a Tier 2 shield unit, but it has access to First Strike, letting it weaken any incoming attackers before they strike them.
Their relatively low attack damage is offset by two powerful passive effects however, the first is Incarnate Disruption, which reduces the Damage Resistance of adjacent enemy units per stack of affinity Incarnate the Guardian has.
The Damage Resistance reduced is based on the stacks of Affinity Incarnate, thus should the Guardian have one each of Astral Incarnate and Chaos Incarnate, adjacent enemies will suffer -1 Lightning and -1 Fire Resistance.
The second is Incarnate Retaliation, forcing attackers to take damage based on the stacks of Affinity Incarnate on the Guardian. This damage may not seem like a lot, but it can quickly escalate to significantly more painful numbers, especially with some assistance from the Cultivator.
Architect
And now for the Tier 3, often the defining unit of a culture, the Architect is a Tier 3 Support unit, however it fills a very different role to its Tier 1 Colleague.
The Architect is a simple but powerful support capable of providing distraction and damage through their Conjure Affinity Tesseract ability, which lets them summon a stationary structure in combat that flings magic damage towards the enemy and provides an alternate target. Clever Architects may even conjure the Tesseract in chokepoints to buy time for their ranged units to do the damage, or protect vulnerable support elements. The Damage type of the Tesseract is based on the Dominant Affinity.
But what makes the Architect a true powerhouse of a Tier 3 Support is Incarnate Restoration, an immensely powerful heal that scales even harder as their empire builds more Monuments and gains more Affinity Incarnate. This ability quickly becomes the most powerful single target heal available, making Architects an excellent support for powerful Dragon or Giant Rulers, or any other linchpin unit with a healthy pool of HP.
Lastly should those abilities be unavailable, its basic blast attack gives it a decent way to contribute to the fight still, inflicting Sundered Resistance and Defense.
While the Architects are not a particularly cavalry focused culture, both the Architect and Cultivator may optionally have mounts should you choose to bring any mount traits. This gives you access to quite capable and extremely mobile support units.
Research
The Architect culture like all cultures has three Research skills available to it:
Incarnate Mark is a unit enchantment that lets non-culture units benefit from Affinity Incarnate as provided by the Monuments.
Conjure Elemental is a tactical summon spell that lets you summon a lesser elemental spirit based on your Dominant Affinity. So if your empire prefers Order, this handy spell may grant you the new Lesser Light Spirit to provide additional support. While if you wish to fill the gaps of your damage better perhaps Chaos’ Lesser Magma Spirit would be of greater use.
Resilient Incarnation is a tactical buff spell, letting you significantly increase the Defense and Resistance of a vulnerable formation of friendly units. Units in the 1-hex AoE gain Resistance and Defense, that increases with each stack of Affinity Incarnate they have.
I hope this proved to be an interesting insight into the new Architect Culture and what they can do, they should prove a very flexible culture that supports a wide array of builds and playstyles, with a focus on the late game. I look forward to seeing what you make of it when the long wait is over and Archon Prophecy releases!
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