Warriors of the North Unit Analysis Extra: Unit Initiative Tiers and Damage Types

Same basic dealy as the prior two games.

Initiative: 8
Speed 9: Archdemons

Speed 3: Furious Goblins

Initiative: 7
Speed 5: Ancient Vampires (Bat form), Horsemen, Lake Fairies, Unicorns

Speed 3: Devilfish, Gorguls, Ice Minions

Speed 2: Necromancers, Foremen, Sea Dogs

Initiative: 6
Speed 8: Black Dragons

Speed 7: Bone Dragons, Red Dragons, Ice Dragons, Snow Falcons

Speed 6: Royal Griffins, Hayterants

Speed 5: Angelic Guard, Warrior Maidens

Speed 4: Cursed Ghosts, Vampires (Bat form), Lake Dragonflies, Tirexes, Sun Fairies

Speed 3: Veteran Orcs, Scoffer Imps, Fire Spiders, Royal Snakes, Guard Droids, Undead Spiders, Hyenas, Thorn Warriors, Assassins, Adult Gobots, Berserkers, Axe Throwers, Orc Hunters, Fire Dragonflies, Vengeful Gorgul, Worms

Speed 2: Ancient Vampires (Human form), Rangers, Demonesses, Marauders, Archmages, Demonoligists, Avengers

Initiative: 5
Speed 6: Emerald Green Dragons

Speed 5: Griffins, Winged Shadows

Speed 4: Forest Fairies, Werewolf Elves (Wolf form), Black Unicorns, Cerberi, Imps, Fauns, White Wolves, Frost Unicorns, Necroxes

Speed 3: Shaman, Rune Mages, Blood Shaman, Wolves, Pirates, Beholders, Witch Hunters, Vikings, Skald, Evil Eyes. Ice Nymphs

Speed 2: Vampires (Human form), Inquisitors, Alchemists, Werewolf Elves (Elf form), Elves, Snakes, Knights, Engineers, Ogres, Goblins, Goblin Shaman, Executioners, Black Knights, Soothsayers, Mystics, Pyromages, Books of Nightmares, Jotun, Elders, White Werewolves, Scouts, Gorguana Ghosts

Speed 1: Giants

Initiative: 4
Speed 5: Repair Droids

Speed 4: Ghosts

Speed 3: Guardsmen, Dryads, Demons, Venomous Spiders, Pirate Ghosts, Evil Beholders, Jarls, Ice Spiders, Contemplators, Gorgons, Advisors, Snowflake Fairies

Speed 2: Skeleton Archers, Robbers, Bowmen, Priests, Dwarves, Orcs, Catapults, Polar Bears, Swamp Snakes, Orc Chieftains, Trolls, Gorguanas, Slingers, Sorcerers

Speed 1: Chosha

Initiative: 3
Speed 3: Swordsmen, Ice Thorns

Speed 2: Skeletons, Peasants, Miners, Ancient Bears, Paladins, Cannoneers, Burrowed Brontors

Speed 1: Brontors

Initiative: 2
Speed 3: Cave Spiders, Thorn Hunters

Speed 2: Zombies, Ents, Druids, Bears, Ram-Thors

Initiative: 1
Speed 3: Cyclops

Speed 2: Decaying Zombies

Speed 1: Ancient Ents, Royal Thorns

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Warriors of the North hasn't modified very many existing units' Initiative tiers, but the new units have notably bloated Initiative 5/Speed 2 and Initiative 6/Speed 3, making those points the most consistently important tiers to try to get ahead of. (eg when deciding how many ranks of Onslaught to take) Furious Goblins also notably have jumped ahead of literally everything other than Archdemons, making them the option to take in the early-midgame if you want to ensure you get first turn every turn. Though Warrior Maidens are almost as good in the early game and are much better as combatants, with only Devilfish, Ancient Vampires, Necromancers, and Sea Dogs routinely showing up while going before them. If you've got Onslaught and are willing to burn your first turn on Battle Cry, Warrior Maidens will consistently beat out anything you'll encounter for a while except Ancient Vampires in bat form.

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As with The Legend and Armored Princess, here's units by primary damage type contribution:

Physical (99)

Magic (26)

I still don't get why Solar Fairies do Magic damage.

Poison (9)



I could've included Gorgons in here, but there's not many situations in which it makes sense for them to deliberately pursue a melee attack. If you do count Gorgons that's... two whole Poison-damage units added by Warriors of the North... both of which are Ice and Fire content... ouch.

Fire (8)



Literally the only Fire damage units added by Warriors of the North are the Snow Falcon and Pyromage, and they're both Ice and Fire-exclusive. And Snow Falcons aren't even doing pure Fire damage, and their Talents don't do Fire damage at all!

It's a little better when you're counting some of the Talents that aren't readily re-usable, such as Archdemons getting to incinerate everyone, but Fire is still pretty narrow.

Ice (12)




It's a bit weird to me that Ice is a brand-new damage type and yet it has more representatives than either of Fire and Poison. Nice, but weird. Note that even in the base game it's better or ties; Ice and Fire tilted things more toward Ice, but less than you might expect from the DLC that adds Snow Elves.

Astral (1)


Still just Goblin Shaman. Though with a bit of luck, Blood Shaman can end up spamming Astral damage attacks surprisingly frequently, so arguably I should be putting them under this list as well.

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And that's it, we're done with Warriors of the North and it's time to move on to Dark Side!