OP RANGED REAVER 2.0 Build Guide - AGE OF WONDERS 4 Tutorial

[@dtjaprototype1089]

love it,what i did i used the Necromancer tome for front line flodder zombies while the other units fight from range the downside is the mana if you keep the zombies after the match its alot of fun

[@Ic0nGaming]

That's a nice idea! Reavers are excellent at just putting "something" in front of their shooters. Love to hear other methods than mine! =)

[@SteveMorris-c2r]

I love my reaver champion the Dread Pirate Ker'miit Da Frooge , but man that reaver economy is rough.

[@kalsaurwolf5390]

this build is very strong , i try it one match soo crazy strong the rangers

[@pRIderzaur]

Crazy thing is Ironclad is also a Construct (although Mythic) so Tuning Kits are just extreme synergy.

[@efesutman1166]

i like tower of true sight ( gives that buffs to your city domain not your city center) maybe it should also have like +3-6 sensing range . more like pvp focus maybe thats the problem. never saw ai with 6 stacks of invisible units :)

[@Jake-ok6ge]

One tome I would change is instead of pyromancy. I would use Tome of the hoard. Summon irregulars combos so well with monsters rebirth. And a stack of houndmasters make a great raiding party.

[@Jake-ok6ge]

Also I feel like your over looking the new ranking bonuses with the chaos empire development that makes t1 get 50% more xp.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Yeah, definitely a pick if you are okay with completely opting out of battle mages and magic damage. Since Magelocks do breaching damage it should work, but I personally disliked the idea of being totally out of magic. Summon Irregulars isn't really needed at all, since we can just pick up that Chaos Perk which gives you a T1/T2 unit sometimes after a victory. I personally disliked Horde mostly because of the Houndmasters being a much shittier version of your own Archers. But I think objectively there should be not that much power difference. I'd wager Pyromancy gives you more diversity overall still.

[@Chris-qk1qs]

i think patch changed tome access to dreadnaught

[@sonofthenorth5350]

Hi! first I thank you very much for your work. I have lern a ton of things and ideas for funny and efficient build. I’m always hyped when i see a new video for AoW 4 on your chanel! I was wondering if there is a possibilty to exploite the new trait ceasless cacophony. I see some sinergies with tome of mayem but it’s hard to choose the others tomes. I’ll be curious to read your opinion on this subject. (I try to recreate a « tyranids style » from 40K) Ps: sorry english is not my mother tongue. Hope this is understandable anyway 😅

[@Ic0nGaming]

Thanks for your comment! Definitely will see where I can use that new trait ideally!

[@sonofthenorth5350]

Cool thank you 🥳

[@kuwe4652]

To my understanding your builds are based on (mostly) manual battle, am I right? Any chance to see an OP Autobattle Build in the future?

[@Ic0nGaming]

Nah, this build for example is really good at automatic battle. It really is quite random tbh, so it's kinda tricky to set something up which works specifically well in autobattle. But it sure sounds like a darned fun challenge lol

[@kuwe4652]

@@Ic0nGaming I understand Another thing, what about a mystic necromancer? As the undead should be magic origin (at least I think they are? would make most sense) the summoner mystic should be quite strong with them, shouldn't it? Healing + strengthen for most of the, if not the whole army in addition to the actual spell effect sounds pretty strong and ranking up any higher undead as soon as it's created should make for very strong reapers, banshees and simmilar things or would that be too expensice in regards to the echos, as necromancers tend to get a bigger, more exposable army, that gets renewed after the fights? (I am not very well versed in this game so far^^)

[@jessethatguy6693]

Just my humble opinion, Tome of the Horde would probably work better. 20% Damage buff from spawnkin. And hound masters get a damage buff against marked targets too. They also provide a re-spawning front line. Tome of glades (not sure if its tier 2) also provides glade runners that can mark a target with a free action and also get damage buffs against them I believe.

[@Ic0nGaming]

I've ran the Glades variant in the past and Winds is just more synergistic with the entire Reaver frontline. Glade Runners are still single target damage dealers and you already kinda have that on the Magelocks. So Winds gives you AoE and the much needed range which makes your Archers really hit from afar. Hound masters have that big disadvantage that they are just worse versions of your magelocks and the War Hounds are Paper. Yes, they mark and they are free frontline but they are not really anything to rely on. I personally see in Pyromancy the big advantage of being able to dish out magic damage as well. Something which can be very useful in many cases. Horde + Glades still makes a really nice combo, but I don't think it'd be stronger than Pyro + Winds for the Reavers.

[@jessethatguy6693]

@@Ic0nGaming All valid points. I'll have to give this a go, I've always had aversion to range builds.

[@Ic0nGaming]

@@jessethatguy6693 I've tried both versions of the build already because I had the same train of thought like you ;)

[@Chonus]

This faction’s auto resolve is so bad, the overseers incessantly subdue enemies so if you don’t spend war spoils on the unit then you just lost XP, then the mage locks will sit way back and cast take aim when nothing is range effectively wasting a whole turn while your front line is super far up out of position.

[@drewskee1753]

Dude your thumbnails are great. Where do you get them from?

[@uBaH0B]

I think you should mention that you lose XP when subduing stuff. It is really critical point.

[@Ic0nGaming]

I didn't know, thanks for pointing out!

[@andreaandolina7199]

Now the greatest debate for me. Should i rp as skaven, as chaos dwarves/iron warriors?

[@grand_lizard5663]

Great guide! I was also suspecting that a dragon ruler might add some staying power for the first stack. Because I’m curious, how would you build him? Would you go a nature/shadow route for staying power? Cheers

[@Ic0nGaming]

My thought was to go exactly opposite and make a very nuke-heavy dragon ruler to ease up the early node clearing phase.

[@spiritwolf963]

Less of a build request, but would you consider making a guide for the new Eldritch sovereign leader type? What talents work, when to spend thralls, item construction. That sort of stuff?

[@Ic0nGaming]

Yup, working on it, expect it next week o/

[@cealfonsovargas]

I just started playing the game. Can't seem to get out of T1 units.

[@RealSkelzore]

Gotta build the upgraded town halls

[@SentColumbus]

I still remember how I was playing with previous version of Ranged Reavers build last december and that was good. But this... THIS just simply BROKEN! I already finished few runs with this build, and AI was unable to do anything to stop me. I'm even started using auto-resolve, so it adds challenge of some valuable units dying (and I also cant be bothered to play 5-6 stacks combats sometime). P.S. Dear sir. If you aren't tired from AoW4 yet. May I ask for a pair of build, that implies a dragon ruler for a different factions, to show how it can be viable in the latest version (if it can)

[@sod1237]

I like your videos, but you should add a combat example to the end. You are doing a very good analysis, so it would be nice to see it in action. It must not be a "full stack of most advanced units" either, just something that shows of the basics. Personally, i would even prefer an example from the late early game. If you want to keep the length of the video, you could shorten the spell books part.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Well I can't really shorten the Tome section and adding combat would make these videos 40 minutes long. I know that it'd be awesome but a combat analysis is impossible to do below 15 minutes for me.

[@sod1237]

@@Ic0nGaming It might be just my preference. i do not think, that it needs to be a 15 minutes "combat analysis". I d rather expect a 5 minute "proof of concept" approach, showing how well racial units perform in a difficult fight in late early game. In this specific set up, it would be interesting to see which units you decide to capture and how you focus fire. I like your spell book analysis (and i use them by looking at the video when i have to make spell book decisions). But i think that an analysis of higher tier spell books is less important, because at that stage of the game it is often won or lost already, and it also becomes easier to figure out the benefits of the books to the build by myself.

[@Ic0nGaming]

@@sod1237 Hehe, I tried and I can only say: To fully explain the whole combat setup I don't get it done in 5 minutes :D Thanks for your input nevertheless, I'll see if I can fix something up alongside that idea.

[@sod1237]

@@Ic0nGaming No, thanks for your reply and the videos. They give easy access to interesting builds!

[@seasand6705]

I decided to play Reavers first with the new update. So happy for the magelock buff. (Accuracy could be brought down in a patch, marked stacks go a long way. Pretty easy to move and shoot with good accuracy on a marked target)

[@coderaccoon6061]

Omg yessss. Rever builds. The hardest culture to do shit with

[@khaliddubey8652]

I was waiting for this. I knew that if my peanut brain could figure it out you would have it mastered

[@kuwe4652]

Just have to add this rather simple idea: What about a potential mystic to basically go BOOM on the opponents with spells? One Soother for reduced cost and basically rest spellweavers for A double cast from turn 2 onwards and more or less unlimited spellpoints. To my understanding the reduction from Soothers doesn't stack with multiple units but should stack with gifted casters, bringing in a reduction of either 40% if the reduction is additive or 36% if multiplicative. Either way a HUGE reduction in my opinion and the 25% increased damage from overcharge should deal with many foes, even without stacking dissonance.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Oh yeah, this is so on my to-do list :D I also have a few things to do with the other mystic paths. So much fun to have with those new updates!

[@kuwe4652]

@@Ic0nGaming While not op, going with full combat summons might be a funny meme build. Soothers, gifted casters and mana channelers for a total of 90% reduced cost (if it's additive) would most likely not make a strong build, though definitely fun in my opinion.

[@casualbrowsingyeah]

God bless, you did it again. Idk how you keep getting away with breaking the game, this is ridonkulous. I'm counting down the videos until that Cleansing Flame Build.

[@Ic0nGaming]

Cleansing Flame already happened on Dark Eldritch, check it out, it's ridiculous :D And thanks for your kind words o/

[@casualbrowsingyeah]

@@Ic0nGaming I meant a build centered around Cleansing Flame. Maybe I should've said Anti-Eldritch, specializing in Spirit and Fire damage. With that said, I guess I'd just do your Dark Eldritch build with Tome of Pyromancy and High Culture

[@blackhammer5035]

If you’re playing aggressively anyway, might benefit from an Eldritch leader who can farm thralls for the knowledge ritual to keep your tech advancing.

[@Ic0nGaming]

True. I find the Leader choice to be a very flexible thing in this game in general. I've so far never had a build where I felt like I MUST use a specific leader type.

[@blackhammer5035]

@@Ic0nGaming Aside from Eldritch lords possibly being overtuned, the only exception I can think of is if you wanted to lean hard into combat spells with the new Mystic subculture. Wizard lord’s bonus cast per battle plus extra mana and casting points is hard to argue with. It’s funny to me that dragon might be the best direct attack magic option otherwise, as their breath weapons count as magical.

[@TheMrElefantensau]

so hyped

[@Ic0nGaming]

I wanted to make this build once I read the Reaver Rework section on the Mystic Update.