Hello from our Symphony of War The Nephilim Saga Army Composition guide. This guide contain recommendations for how to build your army optimally. The guide is written based on Patch 1.10.04 Legends, Ludicrous difficulty. But this guide is not suitable for Perma Death game mode. As Ludicrous require you to have already beaten the game, this guide will contain spoilers.
This is the guide WomboCombo it was created by. You can find the author’s link at the end of the guide.
Symphony of War The Nephilim Saga Army Composition
Welcome to our Symphony of War The Nephilim Saga Army Composition guide. This guide offer examples of how to build up an army for the Ludicrous difficulty on the Symphony of War DLC.
Ideally, you want your final army to look something like the image below, which will be explained through this guide. This army consists of 3 parts – Dragons, Canons and Support
Dragons – 6+1 Squads
Dragons are by far the most powerful units in the game. They have high damage, high hp, high mobility and flying movement. Thus dragon squads deserve the greatest priority and investment. You can have 18 dragons in this game; 3+1 from quest progression, 12+2 are purchasable from bazaars. So you should always purchase any dragon you see available. The +X refers to dragons available from the Legends missions, only available via the DLC.
Dragons should be given Dark affinity, if possible. If not, you may have to give them Water affinity so they have sufficient MAG to become red dragons, which are the more power variant. A newly purchased drakeling should be given CP tomes to allow immediate class change. Each dragon squad should have 3 dragon riders and no cavalry units. This will result in the squad having flying movement.
Beatrix’s Squad
Beatrix is by far the most powerful Nephilim and deserve a powerful squad. For artifacts, Temporal Modulator is obligatory. The others are recommended. An alternative is to swap Balmung for Skull of Grothnor, but what I’ve shown here is better. In Ludicrous, it is harder to kill off enemy squads, so I’ve added Balmung for more firepower. If more power is needed, you can swap Azure King for Zelos.
When Beatrix join you, give her Dark affinity, then put Medals of Valor on her until her LDR reaches 60. Thereafter, use all Leaves of Magic to increase her MAG. For the dragons, each dragon cost 15 capacity. But certain dragons, such as Azure King only cost 10.
For traits, I gave Beatrix Executioner (alternative is Cold Blooded). For the dragons, I gave Blood Lust and Arcane Might. For Azure King, I gave Bodyguard. For the Champions, I gave Warriors Hubris and Blood Lust.
Zelos’ Squad
Zelos now has 2nd highest priority. Despite his STR and MAG, his dragon breath appears to deal more damage than other dragons. He can also reach 999 HP easily. Note that due to his low LDR, you need to use another unit for leader.
Abigail’s Squad
Abigail has the 3rd highest priority due to her dragon affinity and being the Queen of Dragons. Nibbler should always be in her party due to his LDR cost is only 5 when paired with Abigail. Soha’s blood shards must be paired with Field Kit’s healing to keep the squad healthy.
Sybil’s Squad
Sybil has 4th highest priority because she can tank better than Cloudrender and have higher LDR
Cloudrender’s Squad
Cloudrender is 5th highest and should be leader of a dragon squad due to his starting LDR at 60 and his leadership trait of Tundra Warrior. See Section below about Shopping and how to recruit Cloudrender into your army.
Commoner Squad
The 6th and last dragon squad should be a commoner squad, made up of non-hero units.
Diana’s Squad
You may have noticed there are no dragons in this squad. But this squad can fly due to Mercurial Shoes that is found from Legends Chapter 6. This is the only way for Diana to fly, after she obtains her true Nephilim powers. Edelia, who is bonded to Diana, should be in this squad to lower the capacity cost 5. This squad has a lot of heavy infantry to absorb damage. Instead of Essence of Embor, you can try Black Belt as well. If you manage to find or buy Infantry Captain trait, you can use it on Diana to add a 9th unit to this squad, which I suggest to be a Champion.
Field Cannons – 4 or 5 Squads
Field Cannons squads are absolutely needed in Ludicrous difficulty due to their ability to destroy or cripple an entire squad and take no damage in the process. To properly field an army of cannon squads, see Tech Tree section of this guide.
It is important to note that when your army initially gain enough CP for tier 3 units, your soldiers and cavaliers will not have the necessary STR to change class into sentinels or knights. The best possible class change available at this time frame is cannons. Additionally, cannons created from soldiers and cavaliers have higher HP than others. Therefore, in the mid game between Chapter 10 and Chapter 20, you should be changing your soldiers and knights into cannons. Knights raised by Barnabas make good leaders. If the soldier or cavalier is Water, Earth or Light affinity they are ideal candidates for cannons. If they are Fire, Lightning or Dark, keep them for Champions and Knights later on.
The recommendation is to have 4 (minimum) or 5 (suggested) squads of cannons. Each squad should have not less than 4 field cannons and slowly raise this to 6.
Lysander’s Squad
Field Marshal Lysander is the best leader for Field Canon squad due to his Shock and Awe trait and insanely high LDR. Hes just amazing. Jade Figurine is absolutely necessary. The image you see is geared for the final chapter against Zanatus. For any other chapters, swap Iblis Family Signet for Skull of Rowdain for hilarious results.
This is what happens when you use Skull of Rowdain and Jade Figurine. The amount of gold and stars earned is simply insane.
Commoner Squads
You will need 3 (or 4) additional squads that look like this. Upgrading to gold version is unnecessary.
Support – 9 or 8 Squads
The remaining support squads are here to support the Dragon and Cannons squads.
Their priorities are:
- Protect Field Cannons
- Assassinate dangerous enemy squads (or die trying)
- Force surrender or cleanup weakened units
- Open chests
- Liberate towns
That being said, most support squads are low priority, with the exception of Barnabas and Stefan.
Barnabas’ Squad
Before you have 4 canon squads, Barnabas should be training cavaliers with Donar’s Treatise of War to provide Field Cannon candidates. After the 4th cannon squad, he can transition to Hussars to provide anti cavalry support. Barnabas’ squad should be given priority to the extent that you need him to provide training.
Barnabas should also be given Medals of Valor until he reach 60 LDR, then give him Light affinity for further boost.
Jaromir’s Squad
During the Legends Chapter, there should be a guaranteed drop or chest with Shock and Awe. Give it to Jaromir for a Dragoon squad. Mixing in Gunners to lower the cost while keeping the mobility. You should not attempt to build this squad until the full Tech Tree is unlocked, as gunners and dragoons suck without T4 tech.
Prior to T4 tech, Jaromir should be used to train or hold spare units, such as holding 2 dragons while you are waiting to recruit the 3rd. The role of Jaromir’s dragoon squad is to provide hit and run capability against dangerous but poorly defended enemies.
Stefan’s Squad
Stefan is a high priority squad and its probably be worth using Proof of Merit here. Just look at all that Legendary Artifacts!
You should start with 4 Rogue with Stefan. All of them should be given Lightning affinity. For Chapter 11, the Rogues must be upgraded to a T3 unit of either Ranger or Assassin. Their job is to assassinate Beatrix in a single turn. Keep Stefan on an ambush-able tile, send out a bait unit on another ambush-able tile and watch Beatrix annihilate the bait. Then move Stefan to where the bait once stood. This guarantees an ambush attack and Beatrix should die instantly.
After Chapter 11, upgrade the Rangers to Assassins. This is achieved by downgrading the Rangers to Rogues and if they meet the requirement, upgrade to Assassins. If not, upgrade them back to Rangers and check again later.
Other than Chapter 11 assassination of Beatrix, Stefan’s main role is to steal gold and looting artifacts. Their squad should consistently be able to steal 500 to 800 gold per turn, and as high as 1,000+. Stefan can easily contribute over 30k gold to your war chest over course of a Ludicrous play through.
Raskuja’s Squad
Raskuja is actually a decent leader. He has high enough LDR to lead a full squad naturally. He is naturally an excellent ambusher.
Kuroda’s Squad
Kuroda has about 20 more LDR than Narima and Shadowchaser is a better leadership skill. This squad serve the same purpose as Raskuja. Prior to getting Kuroda, use Narima as leader.
Ragavi’s Squad
Ragavi can fill 9 slots on her squad if you give her Raid Captain trait, which is a guaranteed drop or chest from the Legends chapters. Her squad delivers unparalleled single target damage, which is needed for the final chapter.
Main Character’s Squad
MC is by far the best healer in the game. Not only can he/she revive fallen units, but can also provide unlimited AOE healing to all squads. Morale boost sweetens this further. MC’s offensive abilities are lousy and dying means losing. So MC is best use for backline support and offer healing/revive services. Enemy does like to charge towards the MC, so frontline Champions are needed.
Healer Squad
MC alone is insufficient to keeping your whole army healed, because splitting up the army to fight different fronts are necessary. Thus you need another healer squad. In my picture, the squad is lead by a Dark Mage, due to his high LDR. So any high LDR unit will suffice. You will need a frontline unit to absorb the occasional frontal. Notice these are Priestesses, not Templars, to keep the cost low.
Undead Squad
An Undead squad is optional and if you send out a 5th Cannon squad, then don’t bother using this unit. The role of this squad is to absorb damage, especially in choke areas. See examples below.
In this example, a single Undead squad blocked off the exit and the Hand of Zanatus did not get a chance to leave base, making this chapter trivial even under Ludicrous difficulty.
Resource Management
Resources in Ludicrous difficulty is harder to come by. In Warlord or Captain, you have so much material that you can just buy the best possible army to fill out all 9 spaces. In Ludicrous, you won’t be able to do this. So cost saving measures are needed and here are some ways to achieve it.
Most importantly, for the final chapter, the Marketplace will not restock items. This significantly limits the maximum amount of materials you will be able to access. Thus, Resource Management necessary. And here is how:
- Buy mercenaries – Mercenary prices are now competitive, given resources cost more. A mercenary Oracle now cost about the same or less compared to recruiting a T1 medic and upgrade to priestess and then to Oracle. More importantly, this allow you to raise the limited amount of resource that can be bought – even if you had unlimited gold.
- Stealing – Stefan and his gang of assassins can steal sizable amount so fund your purchases.
- Buying War Cats – These Hello Kitties do not cost resource to upgrade and have impressive attack and defense performance. They also significantly increase survival rate of Light Infantry squads.
- Using Light Infantry – With better survivability, Light squads are now viable. Light squads cost less material.
- Downgrading Units – If a Dragon is ready for an upgrade but you lacked a Gem or Obsidian for the upgrade, just downgrade a Priestess to Medic or an Assassin to Rogue and it will refund the material used.
- Change Class – Field Cannons are very costly in materials. You can lower the cost by recruiting a mercenary Siege Cannon, downgrade it then upgrade to Field Cannon, at the cost of 1 Horse. Same can be done to recruit a Templar and class change into Oracle by downgrading the Templar.
- Tech Tree – Crafts and Technology Tech Tree should be prioritized over the other 2 trees to unlock Industrial Furnace, making resource usage more efficient.
Tech Tree
The recommended order to level tech tree is:
- Crafts and Technology
- Academy of War
- Tactics and Command
- You want to have Gunsmithing, Grapeshot and Breech-loading Gun researched around the time your army has enough CP to change class to tier 3 units. And as soon as that happens you want to get field cannons.
After that, the priority is level up Academy of War, which will unlock Rifled Artillery and Dragon Bond. The former greatly improves cannon performance, the latter unlocks flying dragons. To achieve this, you should not have more than 4 points invested in Tactics and Command, until both Rifled Artillery and Dragon Bond are researched.
Lengendary Artifacts
Legendary artifacts can have powerful impact on the game. This section explain how to use them to their full potential. In order of priority, the artifacts are:
- Temporal Modulator – Most powerful artifact in game. Beatrix is the natural user of this for her high dmg output.
- Jade Figurine – Best used on units with high attack power and can avoid counter attack, hence field cannon squad led by Lysander is the natural user of this.
- Mercurial Shoes – Best used on Diana to make her fly.
- Soha’s Blood Shards – Best used with dragon squads, as their attack benefit from both STR and MAG. Should also be used with Belinda’s Field Kit, as the HP lost and recovery cancel each other.
- Iblis Family Signet – This artifact would have even higher priority, if not for the fact that you can only get it from Chapter 27. The natural user of this is either MC or Lysander, as both provide bonus to other squads and has very high LDR to use this.
- Balmung – I suggest Beatrix to ensure she can kill off squads. Alternative is Sybil, paired with Obsidian armor.
- Skull of Rowdain – The natural users are Lysander and Beatrix, as both tend to kill alot.
- Gilded Clover – I have no idea what does Lucky do. But I give it to Stefan, hoping he get lucky.
- Landis’ Fixed Die – Should be given to the Avatar of Justice – Stefan.
- Shadowchaster Boots – I’d put this on Stefan as well
- Genbu Shell Fragment – This is the inferior version of Iblis Family Signet. Pairing this with Boots of Tyranny to mitigate the movement penalty is a must.
Other legendary artifacts are not as useful and thus not listed. Artifacts are insanely expensive in Ludicrous, so I suggest you make use of Stefan and hope to get lucky.
Traits
Traits boost performance of individual units. Leadership traits are only active when that unit is the squad leader. Other traits normally boost either offensive or defensive of the unit.
The most useful offensive traits are (in alphabetical order):
- Arcane Might – for high MAG units that need STR only
- Cold-Blooded
- Concentration – for low SKL units only
- Executioner
- Precision – for high SKL units only
- Smite
The most useful densive traits are (in alphabetical order):
- Arcane Barrier – high MAG only
- Arcane Vigor – high MAG only
- Beacon – when combined with AOE heals
- Bloodlust – Strongly recommended for Beatrix’s squad
- Bodyguard – front row only
- Pacifist – Oracles and Templars only
- Warrior’s Hubris – high STR only
The most useful leadership traits are those that reduce unit capacity cost. The sole exception is Archery Captain, as archer units are not very competitive in Ludicrous.
Affinity
Each unit has affinity and affinities provide a boost in some cases but penalty in others. Additionally, some boosts or penalties are not clearly stated in the game. Earth provides –SKL penalty. The game incorrectly displays a single – penalty.
Each affinity is suited for certain types of characters, they are as follow:
- Earth – Suited for tanks like sentinel and paladins for the HP boost. OK for cannons.
- Water – Best for mages for the HP and MAG boost. OK for dragons. It does not directly improve the dragons, but will allow earlier class change.
- Lightning – Best for light infantry units like assassins, sword fighters and archers.
- Fire – Best for units with high STR requirements like knights and champions
- Dark – Best for dragons and Beatrix
- Light – Best for squad leads who lack the LDR, most notably Barnabas.
Also, when building up an army, you should consider upgrading Fighters with Earth / Water / Light into cavaliers, and later as field cannons, dragoons or knights. Lightning / Fire / Dark should be turned into champions and sentinels. You may need to upgrade some Lightning fighters into skirmishers and later as rangers, in order to keep cost low.
CP Farming
CP farming via Bronze Arena has been nerfed and sitting there all day to take hits from archers is no longer recommended. That being said, put on Donar’s Treatise of War and go whack some enemies in the Arena for some high speed XP / CP gains. This is especially necessary for the final chapter, as you want to go in with the best army you’ve got. Saving 5 Bronze tokens for this purpose should be sufficient.
Mercenaries
Due to resource scarcity and higher prices on materials, Mercenaries become quite cost competitive. It is now necessary to recruit mercenaries, as you will not have sufficient material for an all out T3 army.
Priorities for purchasing mercenaries are as follow:
- Cloudrender – Legendary dragon rider
- Cannons or Field Cannons
- Any T3 Magic Units
- Champions (preferred) or Zweihanders
Remember you can change class horizontally without penalty. So you can hire a Fire Mage or a Templar, downgrade to Tier 2 and then upgrade to Oracle at no penalty or lost resource. For how to recruit Cloudrender, see FAQ on how to reset the shop.
New Units in DLC
The Nephilim Army have access to some new units in the DLC.
Oracle – Excellent unit. Healing is nerfed in Ludicrous, so damage prevention is much more useful.
War Cat – Excellent unit. They appear to have higher effective damage and effective defence than the raw stat value suggests. They make Light units viable now.
Dark Mage – I’ve seen them deal 500+ in total damage in a single turn, unfortunately the chance of that happening is less than the times when they deal 10 in total damage. I suspect their magic has very fast decay or longer recovery time, leading to the wide array of outcomes. At this time, I would not recommend wasting resources on them.
Necromancer – More useful than the Dark Mage. They are not OP, but they have proven use cases when used as a medium tank. For each Necromancer in a squad, you have add one Risen unit at 0 cost.
Risen – They are not OP and they are only useful situationaly.
How to Beat Zanatus?
The final chapter to fight Zanatus is all about playing around the mechanics, and here are some things you need to know.
1. He summon minions every 3 turns, starting from Turn 2. These minions need to be killed off, no matter the cost. If not, Zanatus will absorb them. I do not know the full consequence, but it is either massive AOE damage or Zanatus will heal himself, or both.
2. He lose invincibility for 1 turn and every 3 turns thereafter, starting with turn 4. When this happens, hit him with Field Cannons until his arms are destroyed.
3. He uses an AOE spell that hits every Nephilim squad on the map starting at turn 5 (i think) and then every 3 turns thereafter. The power of this attack may be dependent on the units he absorbed. See Pt 1 above.
4. On turn 7, his arms gets healed back to nearly full hp. The body does not heal. I do not know if this heal is preventable, but I could not prevent it.
5. On turn 10, he is vulnerable again. It seem like this time his arms do not heal or did very little healing. It may be due to I killed off all minion squads in the previous turn. On this turn, you can kill his arms off with Field Canons and Dragons. Then use all other units to attack his body.
6. On turn 13, if you killed off all minions from turn 12, then he will not be able to absorb anything. On this turn, you can finished him off.
7. The purple tiles are hazards. It seems like there flying squads (including Mercurial Shoes) and Firewalker Artifact will make you immune to the damage. Otherwise, you want your unit to avoid these hazard squares when possible. However, stepping on these tiles is better than a) getting hit by Zanatus’ black magic or b) letting Zanatus absorb the minion or c) allow them to attack your cannons.
8. The Avatar of Donar provide AOE healing each turn. Take full advantage of this trait or else you will run out of heals.
9. Have a healing squad with DIY bandage and Donari charm is great to help with sustain.
10. Donar’s Blessing power will revive all dead units in a squad as well as healing for 50% hp. This can come in handy.
11. Use QuickSave / QuickLoad to ensure your Jade Figurine always activate. If it doesn’t, load the save, use another unit and come back to the Jade Figurine. Basically, re-roll until it activates.
See screenshot at Turn 13, immediately before the final blow.
FAQ’s and Explanations
Why use Champions? What about Sentinels
Sentinels are better tanks, especially vs firearms. But more damage is needed in Ludicrous
Where is Jules?
Hes useless and a liability to the team in Ludicrous. He has low LDR and Archery classes are outclassed by Field Cannons. Don’t bother upgrading Jules to Warbow or Raider, you will need those materials elsewhere. Don’t bother deploying him either, as there are far strong units to use.
Where are Fire Mages (or Other Mages)?
Ludicrous is very limited in resources. Magicians (or any T3 unit) will compete for the same scarce resource and gold. With additional Dragons and Field Cannons available in the DLC, these mobile AOE death machines are more mobile and more deadly than Magicians. Magicians are just way outclassed and their high costs make them uncompetitive.
Why not use Templars in other squads?
In-combat healing has been nerfed in Ludicrous, largely due to magic decay. Oracle is more effective.
Why not use Heavy Infantry / Heavy Cavalry squads?
Cost. Materials are quite scarce in Ludicrous. Light units are also made more viable now, so they offer great bang for buck.
How do I reset the Shop or Reroll the Recruit List
The Shop is only reset upon the completion of a Chapter. You can re-roll the mercenary list an unlimited number of times using the trick below, this will allow you to recruit Cloudrender with certainty. This trick does not work for the Trader list (ie. items).
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What if I really want to re-roll the Trader List?
I have not fully tested this, but after you complete Chapter 20, you have access to Gaiden Chapters and obviously some of the Legends Chapters as well. On Chapter 21 and Legends 3B, there are Bazaars that are located not far from your deployment area, which you can send a flying unit to check out. If the shop does not have the item you want, go complete a Gaiden or Legends Chapter and see if the shop now has the item you want. If the shop does have it, then you can restart the chapter and complete it normally and the Trader List will remain as you saw it.
This is Chapter 21, the Bazaar can be reached on turn 2. Allowing you to see whats inside and decide if you want to refresh the shop.
What is your score when completing Ludicrous playthrough?
This.
