Loki’s Unit Roster, Strengths, and Weaknesses – Age of Mythology Retold Guide
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Let’s go and have a look at how to play one of the Norse gods. This time, we’ll explore Loki in Age of Mythology Retold. We’ll take a peek at the whole of Loki’s unit roster, one of the most optimal build orders, some of his unique strengths, and general strategy tips for beginners. The whole video will be split into parts, so feel free to jump to any section you want!
Loki Introduction
The unique traits of Loki are:
The passive ability to spawn mythic units while damaging enemies, with a massive 50% chance with Hersirs and a 10% chance with every other unit. This trait marks Hersir as Loki’s signature unit. More on that later.
Human soldiers and heroes return some damage back to the attackers.
Buildings are constructed 25% faster.
Ox carts, where your gatherers put their resources, are 50% cheaper.
The transformation of gatherers into Berserkers is 100% free.
Another good reason to pick Loki is the access to the minor god Hell on the fourth Age, which is very strong!
Unit Roster
Let’s begin with the unit roster.
The Norse civilization uses two different gatherers: the normal villagers, who gather everything at the same rate and cost 50 food to train, and the Dwarfs, who gather gold a lot faster but gather food and wood much slower.
Both of these units can be transformed into Berserkers in a time of need, for free, thanks to Loki’s passive ability.
Berserker
Berserkers are our first scout unit, plus our first builder unit. In general, Norse civilization’s structures are built from foot soldiers. Berserker is just the first one you have access to. His stats are good all-around, considering he’s a scout unit without any bonus damage buff. You should know that his attack power scales from 0.7 to 6.5 after you reach the second Age. Berserkers can be used for rush strategies.
Hersir
Next, we have one of the most interesting units in Loki’s arsenal: The Hersir. Hersirs are available from the beginning of the game at your Temple, but you can also train them from your Great Hall. They are your first infantry hero unit, and what’s unique about them is that their HP and damage scale with Age advancements.
They have a massive 6.88 multiplier damage versus mythic units, making them a key unit throughout all stages of the game. More so with Loki’s passive. Hersirs have a 50% chance to spawn a random mythic unit while they are fighting.
To compensate for all these great traits, Hersirs have medium to low armor value and an okay resistance against arrows. Most of the time, Hersirs will be your go-to mass production unit as Loki, but beware of anti-infantry units, as they counter them.
Throwing Axemen
Moving on to our first archer unit: the Throwing Axemen. Throwing Axemen are our only anti-infantry unit and they require wood instead of food for production. They are also generally cheap. They are available in the second Age from your Longhouse (barracks).
As with every other archer unit, they have a damage multiplier versus infantry units and are weak against most cavalry units. The key use of Throwing Axemen, in my opinion, is that even if you don’t want to focus your army on them, they are a good way to keep your army versatile with different units. They’re also a good way to spend your extra wood if you deplete your food resources faster on other units like the Hersirs.
Hirdman
Next, available from the Longhouse, we have the Hirdman. Hirdman are our anti-cavalry unit with a 5x multiplier damage versus cavalry!
Hirdmen are generally weak as it is, but thankfully, with a unique upgrade from minor gods Forseti and Bragi, they get a few upgrades both on their defense and offense. Other than that, they have very small resistance to arrows and low general damage, making them very weak against anything else. One of their good perks is that they are very cheap to produce.
Raiding Cavalry
Moving to the Great Hall units, we first have the Raiding Cavalry. Raiding Cavalry is a key unit to Norse’s aggressive playstyle. Apart from their use in combat against archers (which they have good resistance against), most of the time you’ll see them early trying to kill villagers to delay the enemy’s advance.
They are the fastest unit in your roster, but remember to move them as a group of only Raiding Cavalry if you want them to move at their full speed.
Jarl
Next, we have the Jarl. Jarls are an all-around good unit available in the third Age. Sadly, they don’t do extra damage against anything until you make a specific research from the minor god Njord, which will give them some anti-myth power.
With a certain upgrade, they gain bonus damage versus mythic units.
Godi
Godi is a great ranged hero unit available in the third Age as well. He deals massive bonus damage versus mythic units from afar. He costs wood instead of food and has a weakness against only anti-archer units. He has high HP value and good movement speed, making him a good unit all-around.
Huuskarl
The Huuskarl is the first unit available at your Hill Fort. Their purpose in combat is solely to counter archer units. Their damage multiplier against them and their huge resistance versus arrows make them very effective. They also have good movement speed.
Other than that, they are extremely weak against anything else, so you have to maneuver them carefully.
Portable Ram
Our first siege unit is the Portable Ram, available in the third Age. This is a cheap and very effective way to destroy buildings. Nothing complicated to add here.
Ballista
Lastly, we have the Ballista, a tier 4 unit strong against military and ships. By the end of the game, it’s good to have two or three of these to deal some AOE damage into enemy lines from afar.
Mythic Unit Roster
Now, let’s look at Loki’s Mythic Units.
Troll
The Troll is a ranged mythic unit available in the second Age. It costs wood and some favor, and its unique passive is that it generates life based on the damage it deals. This is life steal in short.
It’s very good against other mythic units but also very good against human armies because of its active ability.
Einheri
Einheri is an interesting unit available in the second Age as well. It has the active ability to buff nearby units with 50% bonus damage and movement speed for a short duration. He costs gold and some favor and is also able to destroy buildings, as he has 10 blunt damage.
Battle Boar
The Battle Boar is available in the third Age and is considered a good unit against human soldiers because of its ability to knock them away. It is very tanky, has good HP and movement speed, and can deal damage to structures as well. However, it costs 250 gold and 27 favor, which is quite a lot.
Mountain Giant
The Mountain Giant is a tank unit with the sole purpose of destroying buildings. Mountain Giants can take several buffs and become even stronger in the late game thanks to Hell and Njord improvements.
Frost Giant
The Frost Giant is available in the last Age. It’s preferred to be used in combat because of its special ability to freeze enemy units. Other than that, it is not as tanky as the Mountain Giant and not as strong as the Fire Giant.
Fire Giant
The Fire Giant is the least tanky of the three giants but deals the most damage. It can get a good boost from Hell’s upgrades but costs 5 population, making it the most expensive unit in your roster. It is extremely good against enemy armies.
Fenrir’s Wolf Brood
Lastly, we have Fenrir’s Wolf Brood, a very interesting unit with the unique ability to gain damage and movement speed the more wolves you have. It is the preferred choice against enemy armies that contain lots of heroes and myth units. They are cheap to produce and have very good stats all-around.
And that concludes Loki’s unit roster!
Loki’s Opener Recorded
The first goal every player should have at the beginning of each game is to advance to the second Age as fast as possible. To do that, there are several steps that you can follow the exact same way in every single game!
The game begins, and the first thing you have to do is select your Town Hall and put first a Dwarf and then villagers into training autoqueue. Dwarfs are much more efficient at gathering gold, so you want to use them exclusively on gold mines. To enable autoqueue, all you have to do is right-click on the unit you want to train.
As soon as your 3 villagers appear, take 2 of them with the Ox cart and put them into food. Hunting animals gather food at a much faster rate than farms, so it’s best to continue hunting as much as possible.
Building Your Economy
Select the third villager and have him build an Ox cart near the gold mine, and then another one near the forest. To add buildings into the queue, just hold shift.
Select your Berserker and scout a bit! Use the first two units to collect wood from a forest, and once you advance to the second Age at 2:50, then build your Temple and Great Hall.
Conclusion
Now that you’ve learned about Loki’s unique units, strategies, and build orders, you’re ready to dive into Age of Mythology: Retold. Enjoy using Loki’s powerful mythic units and strong aggressive strategies to dominate your enemies!
Good luck, and have fun!
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