Must-Have Garrison Commanders For New Players

This article is for the players in Rise of Kingdoms who are looking for the best Garrison Commanders and pairings to invest. If you get into kingdoms where it might be tough coping up with the huge power difference, you will absolutely find this article helpful.

Advantages of Using Garrison Commanders

Best Garrison Commander Pairings in Rise of Kingdoms for New Players

One of the most asked questions is:

Whether Sun Tzu is still viable as a primary commander in-game?

For me, personally, the answer remains yes.

Sun Tzu is still a very capable commander, a perfect option for the F2Ps. With Theodora coming in as the f2p version of Yi Seong-Gye, Sun Tzu earns a huge boost as a possible garrison captain.

In the early days of ROK, the main choices for garrison primaries were Charles Martel + Richard I (historically Richard the Lionheart), and Sun Tzu. With anti-healing commanders like Saladin coming into the game, Richard was pushed away from the frontlines into the dredges of forgotten commanders.

That is until JWM2 showcased in Osiris league how Richard, coupled with good old Caesar could tank quite a few of the newer commanders.

What became the newest defensive meta, nevertheless was the archer combo of Artemisia YSG.

This was mainly because of the fact that experiments portrayed perfectly, the capability of Artemisia to counter Attila Takeda rallies, the newest P2W offensive meta.

However, the attackers were not stumped for long.

They figured out that, while Artemisia was the perfect counter to Attila, she could easily be beaten with more conventional rally combinations like Genghis Khan and Saladin for cavalry, Alexander Martel for infantry, or Edward Tomyris for archers.

The defense meta then shifted to more conventional combinations like Charles Martel/Constantine or Sun Tzu/ YSG.

Lately, there had been a new quirky combination of Wu Zetian with Matilda for siege defense, something which is worth giving a proper chance in desperate situations like the last flags in KvK.

Whoa, I almost forgot. Wu Zetian has for some time, been a prominent defensive meta against Attila as well as Edward Tomyris. Her best virtue is the fact that she caters to mixed troop defense, often the last resort for cornered kingdoms being routed out of King’s Land.

Some older kingdoms have also experimented with Wu Zetian Frederick or Wu Zetian Caesar in the Ark, but by far, Wu Zetian/Constantine is the best all-around defensive commander pairing.

Constantine is very good at defense as a secondary commander.

1. Constantine

Against Non-Attila-Takeda Rallies

Most are skill damage commanders.

Here, the support tree of Constantine comes into effect.

Loose Formation and Emergency Protection both are fabulously effective in reducing skill damage of attacking commanders. This trumps out most skill damaging rally leads like Minamoto, Alexander, Edward, or Mehmed.

For Attila-Takeda Rallies

Who are not active skill damage commanders and are based on normal attack damage. Constantine has two trump cards for them.

1. His support tree has the talent Rejuvenate which is basically a proper rage engine. Imagine if it is a Constantine / Charles Martel combo, this talent will be feeding continuous rage to continuously make Charles Martel regenerate those shields.

2. His first skill “Edict of Milan” decreases the enemy attack by 40% and increases troop damage reduction of not only the garrison but also the surrounding armies by 10%.

Now, this is particularly effective against Attila Takeda because they focus on the normal attack.

Now suppose you have a counter-rally of Hannibal/Aethelfled debuffing the Attila Takeda rally. At that point, Constantine will buff not only the garrison but also the debuffing rally/armies.

Moreover, his 2nd skill “Allegiance” gives 40% health to infantry, which as infantry players know is fabulous for defense.

If you have read so far in the blog, you are lucky, because I will now introduce an epic commander that cannot substitute Constantine but will be every bit a bang for the buck for f2p players.

2. Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu, the F2P rage engine, AoE fighter.

Skills:

His 1st skill “Art of War” is an area-of-effect damage skill that can hit 3 targets (5 targets when expertised) within a fan-shaped area. It also generates 50 rages for each target. Now if you can hit 5 targets, that means 1/4th of your rage bar filled instantly.

In addition, his 2nd skill increases troop damage reduction in garrison by 7%.

His 3rd skill “Master Strategist” increases troop damage reduction by 10% and infantry health by 10% as well. Moreover, his 4th skill “Everchanging Tactics” grants 20% boost to skill damage.

Now, these skills place this commander in a very interesting position.

If you want a damaging garrison, one that will eat up enemy troops for breakfast, Sun Tzu can be paired with any commander that focuses on skill damage, like Alexander, Mehmed, Freddy, Osman, Edward, or Cao Cao. Even Boudica is a good combo for damaging armies with Sun Tzu in the early game.

This makes Sun Tzu not only a good defensive commander but also a great rally leader.

• In the early game, Sun Tzu maxed will be the veritable bane of P2W Minamoto Cao Cao combos.
• For the late game, Sun Tzu paired with Constantine has been known to hold their own against many new age cavalry combinations.

This makes Sun Tzu a proper defensive as well as offensive meta.

What makes it better is his skill talent tree.

Since he is in the offense, a skill damage maestro in AOE, the skill tree gives an essential boost to his merics in defense as well as in offense.

I myself have won in 1v1’s with 40-50M players when I was just 15M in might, using Sun Tzu Charles Martel.

The Sun Tzu Martel combo is especially lucrative because it boosts infantry health like anything. All infantry players know how essential health is for infantry on the battlefield.

Even now, in the age of Chandragupta Maurya and other new commanders, Sun Tzu does pack a good punch as an early game tank that spews fire, as well as a late-game aoe rage engine.

Even most t5 players focusing on infantry have their last march as Sun Tzu/ Eulji. Sun Tzu has always been the F2P strength in the game, due to his expertise as an infantry primary.

Best Garrison Commanders for Late/End Game

Zenobia

A commander specialized in leading infantry units.

She has no damage skill, her combat mechanics are based on the constant healing to the troops and the application of defensive buff makes Zenobia a powerful defender of garrisons.

In addition to leading this type of structure, she increases the attack of all units so that they can cause greater damage to the attacker, Zenobia constantly and perfectly applies improvements to her troops.

Why choose Zenobia?

• Absolute defense, specialized in Infantry.
• Great use of defensive buffs to benefit her army.
• Constant healing in large portions, ideal to restore part of her army and continue to defend perfectly.
• Perfect defender of garrisons.

Theodora

Theodora is a great commander to defend garrisons!

She has a damage skill that affects a maximum of 5 targets in AOE Although the skill damage does not cause much impact, she applies a strong debuff to the enemies that further increases the damage dealing towards them.

Furthermore, she decreases the attack of any enemy while she leads the structure, at the same time increases her troop damage.

Theodora is perfect when defending garrisons with the special combat style, thanks to her skills and talents.

Why choose Theodora?

• Great defense and resistance.
• Application of strong defensive and offensive buff.
• Damage in AOE.
• Debuff to the enemies, reducing the damage caused by the opponent rallies.
• Her talents and her skill are created to defend any garrison.

Yi Sun-sin

Commander specialized in the defense of Garrisons, capable of leading any type of unit since the use of mixed troops is his strength.

YSS has a unique combat style in Rise of Kingdoms, since his damage skill has two forms of use, for open-field and for when he leads garrisons, his damage is transformed into AOE.

As long as YSS leads the garrison defense, he will constantly apply strong defensive buffs to his troops, making them a complete impenetrable defense.

Why choose Yi Sun-sin?

• Great defense and resistance.
• Strong defensive buff.
• Excels at leading mixed troops.
• Great damage in AOE when he defends garrisons.
• His talents and his skills are created to defend any garrison.

Wu Zetain

A commander specialized at leading garrison of any kind.

Wu Zetian has excellent skill damage and healing factor. She is a commander with great defense, especially damage reduction and increases the attack impact on her enemy when leading garrisons.

She also excels at leading mixed troops, which is perfect for defending garrison when people sending different kinds of units.

Why choose Wu Zetian?

• Great defense and damage reduction.
• Good healing factor.
• Great for mixed troops.
• Great damage skill.
• Her talents and her skill are created to defend any garrison.

Constantine I

A great infantry leader and made for PVP battles, especially leading Garrisons.

Constantine is one of the most defensive commanders in Rise of Kingdoms. His garrison leading is almost perfectly, thanks to his absolute defense and great healing factor.

The infantry is his main unit, so it is always important to use Constantine for leading infantry in fundamental KVK structures such as Fortresses and Flags, making it a robust defense. He has very defensive talents and skills for garrisons.

Why choose Constantine I?

• Great defense.
• Excellent healing factor!
• Great damage reduction (both physical and skill)
• Good buff for infantry.

Conclusion

This is why most new players who want to fight their way up, are advised to start with civilization China so that they can get Sun Tzu at the beginning of the game.

Most of these are only designed for this specific task and it is one of the most important in Rise of Kingdoms due to its role in PVP combats or events such as “Ark of Osiris“, where we must defend by all cost.

Hope this blog was interesting and informative for you. Keep a lookout for more articles incoming on defensive strategies in KVK and in daily life as a ROK player.

See y’all next time… Peace out, Folks.

– Adhikari