Well, would you look at that, another kingdom is in peril and you must defeat the king's power hungry son before it is too late. Nano Kingdoms makes you a loyal army commander to the king who must fight his away across the kingdom to gain allies, and prepare for the final confrontation. Defensive strategy games are pretty common and widespread across the 'interwebs, but the boys at Trutruka managed one that will peak your interest if you don't mind a little micro-management. Defend your castle with villagers and warriors alike while wielding magical spells to give you an extra edge in combat. Everyone in this casual RTS kingdom is in trouble so heed the call of duty on your computer or a mobile device to crush the evil!
Just click on the type of soldier you want to deploy and it will be built in front of your castle. You upgrade your castle with different warriors and buildings by clicking on it, provided you have enough resources to do so. Certain buildings allow you to train better warriors or help you to collect the necessary resources for their deployment. Manage your resources well because you don't want your ill-trained villagers to fall prey to your enemy's deadly archers. The battle is over once either castle loses all of its health and a score is given based on the length of the battle. A healthy balance of offense, defense, and magical spell bonuses are the keys to winning each skirmish so you can hurry to end the evil Alexander.
The game presents a rather unclear story to tie all the commanders together, but when playing a nice, casual strategy game like this, you don't really need a story to keep you going. The ambient soundtrack is entrancing and makes you yearn for renaissance times as your white doll warriors clash in static yet beautiful landscapes. There is even enough difficulty spread throughout the game so you will not run out of worthwhile foes as you close in on Alexander's walls. Another big plus side to this fun flash game is that it has eight levels which you can try out all the commanders on and it is completely free for both browser and mobile platforms, with an iOS version on the horizon to boot. You can waste away a rainy afternoon defending a quaint castle while your chores sit to the wayside and feel no remorse.
Walkthrough Guide
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Nano Kingdoms strategy guide
Basics
Farms produce food, founderies produce metal, and lumbermills produce wood.
Upgrading these buildings increases the rate of production.
Upgrading your castle increases its hit points (hp) and increases your population cap, allowing you to build more units.
A maximum upgraded castle is also required for an upgraded Barrack.
To command your army, you have two buttons at the top of the screen: Attack and Defend.
Attack will command your units to move across the battlefield toward the enemy castle, killing any enemy units in their way. They will only attack the castle when there are no enemy units to kill.
Defend will command your units to stay by your castle, but they will attack any enemies that come near.
The game is won by destroying the enemy castle and lost if your castle is destroyed. Defend your castle at all costs.
General Strategy
Start off by upgrading your farm: all units except ballistas require food as well as all buildings, so you will want to have as much as possible.
Build and/or upgrade your foundery or lumbermill soon after so you can build advanced units. Until the last few levels, warriors will serve you very well, so I recommend upgrading the foundery.
Your opponent will start off with more buildings and upgrades than you, so you will be at a disadvantage from the start. Defend for a while until you can upgrade to their level.
Upgrading your castle and building towers helps a lot with defense.
When defending, it is useful to use the Attack command once your enemies are in range of your towers. Using the Defend command will make units return to the castle after each defeated enemy rather than moving on to the next one, which costs valuable time.
Balistas attack so far away that if a Defend command is being issued, only the unit hit by the balista will respond and go to attack it. Be sure to use an Attack command so that all of your units respond; once the balistas are dead you can switch back to Defend.
Choose two or three units to build and upgrade them! Unit upgrades are essential.
When you have as many of your chosen units as you can, attack. Use any abilities you have that will help, and don't forget to continue building units to reinforce the attack.
Units
Villager
Cost: 15 food, 1 population
The basic unit. No building requirements and very cheap, but not very strong. Don't bother building them unless you need some units quick to defend your castle.
Warrior
Cost: 25 food, 10 metal, 1 population
Requires: Barrack
A solid melee unit. Has the fastest base movement speed in the game, making them great reinforcements when you are attacking the enemy castle. When fully upgraded, they are a formidable force for the population cost. Most levels can be won without building any other units.
Archer
Cost: 15 food, 10 wood, 1 population
Requires: Archery
Ranged unit. Does good damage for the cost, but dies quickly when taking damage. They are best when there are melee units in front to absorb the hits. Their range is long enough to attack a castle without being attacked back.
Horse Riders
Cost: 50 food, 10 metal, 2 population
Requires: Stable
Upgraded melee unit. They are very fast when upgraded and can take hits better than Warriors, but they will not do as much damage per population cost. Good for defending or attacking quickly.
Crossbowmen
Cost: 50 food, 40 metal, 2 population
Requires: Upgraded Archery
Stronger ranged unit. The attack rate upgrade makes them very deadly, but it still helps to have melee in front of them to make them as effective as possible.
Ballista
Cost: 60 wood, 60 metal, 2 population
Requires: Workshop
Long-range siege weapon. Slow moving and very slow attack, but does vastly increased damage to buildings. Not very useful against units, but great at tearing down castles.
Golem
Cost: 90 food, 75 wood, 3 population
Requires: Upgraded Barrack
Very strong melee unit. Has high hp and does a lot of damage, but is slow until upgraded. The cooldown for building them is long so it takes a while to get a lot of them, but they are a force to be reckoned with.
Elephant Rider
Cost: 90 food, 75 metal, 3 population
Requires: Upgraded Stable
Very tough melee unit. Does less damage than Golems, but can take a lot more damage. Great for defense or for holding the line while you have ranged units do most of the damage.
Commanders and Spells
Lex Paladin
Sword Punishment
Deals damage equal to 25% of max hp plus 5 to all enemies on the battlefield.
75 mana, 25 second cooldown
Best used when there are a lot of enemies on the field, such as before an enemy attack. Has very low mana cost and cooldown however, so it can be used frequently.
Call of Duty
Spawns 10, 15, or 20 villagers instantly, depending on the current level of your castle.
500 mana, 60 second cooldown
Very handy for emergency defense or for bolstering an attack. It will give you the set number of villagers even if it puts you over the population limit, so you can use it to get a bigger army than otherwise possible.
Magnus Steelblade
Iron Skin
Buffs ally units for 10 seconds, reducing damage taken by 75% but also reducing movement and attack speeds by 25%.
100 mana, 20 second cooldown
Versus Magnus: If used while you are attacking, you can retreat for the duration by pressing Defend so you do not have to waste your time attacking enemies without doing much damage, and they will be unable to chase you.
Playing as Magnus: This is a great skill to use for defending when you are outnumbered. Also useful any time in combat that you do not need to move, as it reduces your damage taken more than it reduces your damage done.
Titanic Growth
The next unit you create will be a giant version of that unit, which has four times normal hp and damage.
750 mana, 60 second cooldown
Versus Magnus: When Magnus uses this he will only make a giant villager, so it will not be much of a threat.
Playing as Magnus: Make sure the next unit you build is a good one as this ability scales very well with the more powerful and upgraded units.
Peter Elf Green
Hermes Speed
Buffs ally units for 5 seconds, giving them 800% attack speed and 200% movement speed.
100 mana, 15 second cooldown
Versus Peter: There is not much you can do to counter this other than using defensive abilities like Iron Skin, you will just have to take the extra damage.
Playing as Peter: Use this when you have a lot of units in a good position to do damage, either to the enemy army or castle.
Gaia's Growth
Deals damage equal to 30% max hp plus 70 to all enemies, and slows their movement speed by 80% for 20 seconds.
600 mana, 50 second cooldown
Versus Peter: Your units will move very slowly for the next 20 seconds, so unless they are in a good position already your melee units will not be able to close in on ranged units effectively.
Playing as Peter: Use when your opponent is crossing the battlefield to give you more time to bolster your defenses.
Dark Blood III
Vampirism
Absorbs 15 hp from all units on the battlefield, allies and enemies, and gives it to your castle.
100 mana, 25 second cooldown
Versus Dark Blood: Breaking his castle down bit by bit will not be very effective because he will just keep replenishing it with this ability. Try to destroy it completely with one big attack.
Playing as Dark Blood: Use this whenever there are more enemies on the field than allies, or whenever your castle is damaged.
Zombieland
Raises all the dead units from their graves, with 60% of their max hp, to fight for you.
750 mana, 60 second cooldown
Versus Dark Blood: Just be aware that this is coming. If you are on the attack and there are graves being raised behind you, turn around and defend or your castle may get overwhelmed while you are attacking his main army.
Playing as Dark Blood: Best used when there are a lot of graves on the field, they will all become yours. Like Call of Duty, it will bolster your army quickly and potentially beyond the normal population limit, and can be used effectively for defense or offense.
Rose Magma Heart
Barbarialand
Buffs all ally units for 10 seconds, giving them 15 bonus damage.
100 mana, 30 second cooldown
Versus Rose: If you can retreat and avoid engaging for the duration, do it. This is not always possible however, but if you are playing as Magnus, Iron Skin would be a good call.
Playing as Rose: Like Hermes Speed, use whenever you have a lot of units in position to do damage. Because it increases damage by a flat amount, it is more effective with lots of small units than a few big ones.
Meteor Storm
Deals damage equal to 75% of max hp plus 30 to all enemy units on the battlefield, but also deals damage to ally units equal to 30% of their current hp.
700 mana, 40 second cooldown
Versus Rose: This is going to hurt, but there is little you can do about it. If you have an ability to capitalize on the fact that her units will be hurt too, like Sword Punisment, this will make her army vulnerable. Otherwise, just be ready to rebuild your army afterwards.
Playing as Rose: Best used when there are a lot of enemies and not many allies on the field. It can almost wipe out a very large army, leaving each unit with very little health.
Anakyn Rock
Null Magic
Prevents the enemy from casting any spells for 10 seconds.
75 mana, 20 second cooldown
Versus Anakyn: The only counter to this is using your abilities before he casts it, or afterward. He will use this ability frequently, so expect to be unable to cast for about half the fight.
Playing as Anakyn: If you can predict when your opponent is going to cast and use this first, it can be very valuable. When you or they are on the attack are times when they will usually cast, and preventing them from doing so can have a large impact on the battle.
Big Foot
Stomps the battlefield three times with a giant Monty Python-esque foot, dealing 95 damage to all enemies it hits each time. It will hit the middle of the battlefield, then the area by his castle, then the area by his the opponents castle.
600 mana, 40 second cooldown
Versus Anakyn: Be aware where the foot is going to land and try not to get hit by it twice, as it will kill smaller units in two hits easily. It is less effective against larger units, as it does a flat amount of damage.
Playing as Anakyn: Very powerful if you can make their army get hit twice. If you cast it when they are on their way to your castle and just entereing the middle of the field, they should get hit by the first and last stomps. Still effective if you can only hit them once.
Shark Waterfall S.
Freeze
Freezes all enemies on the battlefield for 10 seconds, making them unable to move or attack.
200 mana, 20 second cooldown
Versus Shark: This one is very annoying, as it will make your entire army unable to do anything for 10 seconds. Build more units if you can so you are not as vulnerable.
Playing as Shark: Use when your opponent has a large army and you are in a position to do damage to it. Casting this will prevent them from doing damage, but is not very helpful unless you can deal damage to the frozen units.
Tidal Wave
Deals 120 damage to all enemies on the battlefield and pushes them back to their castle.
600 mana, 40 second cooldown
Versus Shark: You take a lot of damage and get sent back to your castle, which can be annoying, but you can use it to rebuild your army for another attack.
Playing as Shark: Great defensive move. Not only does it do a lot of damage to all of your enemies, but sending them across the battlefield will buy you time if you need to bolster your defenses.
Unplayable Commanders
Louis Looney Joker
Jack in the Box
Casts a random lesser spell from any one of the playable commanders.
100 mana, 25 second cooldown
Since you don't know what he is going to cast, there is not much you can do to prepare for this until he casts it. Once he does, you have to react accordingly. On the plus side, he doesn't know what he is casting either, so sometimes it will be spell relatively useless for the position he is in.
Countdown of Doom
All enemy units on the battlefield will get a timer over their head, counting backward from 9. When the timer reaches 0, the units will die.
600 mana, 40 second cooldown
Your units have 9 seconds to live, might as well make it count. Unless you can destroy his castle in that time, after the time expires you will need to defend and rebuild your army.
Alexander Red Devil
Black Hole
Will instantly kill all units, allies and enemies, in the middle of the battlefield, without leaving graves.
250 mana, 30 second cooldown
Very painful if he casts this while your army is crossing the battlefield, you can easily go from max population to zero. If only some of your army is in it when it is cast, make sure to tell the rest of your units to defend so they don't walk into the Black Hole too.
Armaggedon
Calls a meteor to hit the middle of the battlefield, killing any enemies it lands on and dealing 100 damage to all other enemies.
750 mana, 60 second cooldown
Like Black Hole, can be very devastating if you are in the middle of the field, but is still painful if you are not.
When facing Alexander, start by upgrading your production buildings and your castle, and by building some towers. He will send wave after wave at you for a little while, you will need to defend hard. War elephants hold up well, but he can kill them faster than you can make them so you will need something else like golems to compliment them. Make sure you use your spells when you can. When he has few units defending his base, send a wave of your own over. Since he has two mid-field kill moves, try to spend as little time in the middle as you can. Don't try to build up a super large army, he will use Armaggedon to weaken or kill them, and they might just get sucked into a Black Hole. It may take two or three waves, but if you keep waiting for a super army it may never come. You will probably lose a wave or two to his spells, but keep at it and don't stop building units.
Posted by: cheeko
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April 30, 2012 12:52 PM