Let your pride shine through (Lion armies)

I want to get more discussions going so i figure i'd get the dice rolling for Lions now. I've been playing them for the past week and came upon a decision on the composition i like right now that seems to work well. What i found funny using this group for the first time is i got a player using a golem to turn around and flee... a Golem!

Chimera is the only champion i'm missing at the moment so i went with a Silienne based team.

10 Mercenaries - 500 AP
Silienne 200 AP - Powerful ranged Champion she sits in the back line shooting things.
Assault Lion 54 AP - Your primary scout, for grabbing elixirs and with defensive stance you can use up your opponent's unit activations trying to land a hit on him.
Devotee of Azel 44 AP - Accuracy buffer to support Silienne or your Support Shooter.
Enchanter of the Lion 38 AP - Buffer, primarily you buff your archers, against ram you spread around Scourge of the Impure, against anything else use Strength of Virtue to help an archer take something down.
Support Shooter 40 AP - Mini Silienne, Incapacitating Shaft sometimes comes in handy.
Swordsman x3 87 AP - the Vanguard, be careful how you use them they aren't the most durable units but they can help Sillienne through Assassin by encircling an enemy and they are largely what will keep the enemy from just marching their units into your archers.
Familiar of Sparks 21 AP - Healer but mostly he's just another body, you can use him to get your enchanter's mana up for Strength of Virtue as well.
Sparkling Flash 16 AP - Your secondary scout, depending on the map he can be deployed on the opposite side of the map from where the Assault Lion is to help contest for the elixir or he will be an extra body in your main force. Just like the Assault Lion defensive stance works well in absorbing incoming attacks.

Your army is 8 points over. So check that since I can't get in game to double check your figures

Drop the lion add in 2x sparkling flash.
Net gain of
- more units for board control
- more elixer grabbing
- more assassin bodies
- damage on self sacrifice

That frees up points to upgrade your shooter to Double Shot one.
- More damage output per round
- More benefits from your hero.
- More board control.

To be honest the Devotee and the Enchanter are both useful in a way, but personally I would drop one to pick up another double shot archer. If you drop the enchanter swap the sparkling to a flash.

Lastly you could always swap down to 2 swordsmen and keep the above for the extra archer.

One side has your hero, 2x archer, 1x sparkling flash and whatever support unit you have. The other side of the map gets a sparkling and the last archer. In the middle you place your swordsmen and last Sparkling.

Play aggressively in the first turn moving forward and shooting into the control zone. Focus one unit down before moving onto the next. Move your middle block last to support the side the opponent is trying to move up on.

From here you are on your own since this is a strategy game and the best way is to learn the army and the game is to play it. The important thing is to focus down units that can threaten you, either kill your archers or by scoring.

I put in the wrong costs for two of the units ^^';; Problem is for sacrificing either of the buffers is i don't want to sacrifice accuracy for power. No good me hitting harder if suddenly my units are gonna start missing or worse smacking my own units because they don't have any avenues for extra acc. The way i've been playing so far is to put the large part of my army on one side, i can strong arm my way into control of one side of the map. Many vs few tends to work out well for me, especially with all the melee units to wall the opponent's troops from moving in on my archers.

I think i'm going to test this out and see how well it does.

11 Mercenaries 499 AP

Silienne 200 AP
Devotee of Azel 44 AP
Enchanter of the Lion 38 AP
Sharpshooter of the Lion 45 AP - Abuser of Offensive Stance and Fire at Will. Needs less + accuracy but less mobile.
Irregular of the Lion 45 AP - Double Shotter.
2x Swordsman 58 AP
Familiar of Sparks 21 AP
3x Sparkling Flash 48 AP

I haven't found a problem with accuracy since by the second half of the first turn most units are well in range. With our Hero buffs and with Divine Favor I haven't needed the Valk buff as before. I find more shots output mean more units benefiting from our Hero buffs.

It really comes down to a matter of preference I suspect. Either way works.

I change to this setup and the first thing i come across is a Wolfen player... His units are just creaming the sparklings. Even with defensive stance they aren't evading much against melee strikes. Ring of ice is proving to be really effective too even if i avoid attacking the ones with ring of ice i'm getting punished badly.

edit:

Well i changed to a composition that sounds more or less like what your were talking about and positioning is somewhat like you said though it depends on the map. it seems to do ok so long as i'm careful. Lag and making choices too late have been my downfall more than anything else >.<

11 Mercenaries 496 AP
Silienne 200 Ap
Devotee of Azel 44 AP
2x Irregular of the Lion 90 AP
Support Shooter 40 AP
2x Swordsman 58 AP
4x Sparkling Flash 64 AP

Somebody played this against me recently, and i just got blown up. Tried to get a good snatch early, and ended up just being sniped to shit and lost all presence. I really like it. I see it being strong in the two bigger maps though. The ruins could be brutal knowing there isn't a lot of snipe oppurtunities

I find the ruins are really only a problem against Wolfen because of how close they can get before you can line up a shot. Kerberos too can get really close before your archers can put a dent in him. The opponent's i have the most issues with are Chimera users, at times i'm forced to make less desireable decisions just to keep her at a distance. She can take quite alot of arrow fire as well, where as Silienne is much less durable. I feel the best strategy against her is to blitz her troops and then focus on elixir gathering but even that is pretty difficult.

13 Mercenaries 494 AP
Silienne 200 Ap
Devotee of Azel 44 AP
1x Sharpshooter of the lion 45 AP
5x Swordsman 145 AP
4x Sparkling Flash 64 AP

I've been running this recently and it does just as well i think. Ryskar can be big threat though if you don't play your melee troops smartly and i'm not sure how well it will do against Kerberos. Atleast you have plenty of fodder to keep him back and plenty of Assassin.

I think i'm going to play around with Arinius next, i don't have alot of confidence in him since i've beaten players using him so many times but i have a few ideas for commanding shout.

Right well after running Arinius for a bit i've settled with this i think, though i'm honestly not sure about wether to use an irregular or a sharpshooter. I opted for the Irregular because Arinius lacks Offensive Stance.

Arinius is quite bulky and does quite well against other melee champions and units. Since he has the highest strategist stat of all the Champions he also does well building elixir and he can more often than not get duel back up before an opponent can go on the offensive on him. Arinius is weakest against ranged units since they aren't effected by counter attack so dealing with them will often be high on the list of your priorities.

11 Mercenaries 494 AP

Arinius 200 AP
Assault Lion 54 AP - This guy and Raise your shields! work hand in hand. You can apply ruthless to multiple enemies without worry of him getting hurt and you can wedge him amongst enemy archers. He also does well against enemy Champions with this order up since hitting him will be difficult especially if they are stunned and encircled. Magic nukers are going to be able to bypass his parry a dodge so be wary of their presence.
Devotee of Azel 44 AP - Acc buffer for your archer early on, regen for Arinius when it's needed. She is almost a Swordsman stat for stat so she can often take a few hits.
Irregular of the Lion - Some ranged damage, probably debatable as to wether the unit is worth being in the group due to a lack of offensive orders but you can still soften up some targets for your melee units.
x3 Swordsman 87 AP - Basic well-rounded units, they don't have the movement or dodge of the sparkling flash but they can often endure more blows and do more damage.
x4 Sparkling flash 64 AP - I use them for the same reason i've been using them in most of the builds, they are efficient units and with Arinius' high strategist stat you've got a good chance of blowing them up before the opponent can finish them off. They work quite well with all of the orders at your disposal but they are also the least worth the use of those orders, so be sure the order will pay off. Defensive stance is often worth using on the sparkling grabbing the first elixir.

weak.... anyone using sparks to detonate... just weak. no skill what so ever.