Footman

Tactics
The Footman is the single best anti-ranged unit in the game of Urtuk. Good news is he also makes a decent melee tank as well, given his Helmet and Chainmail armor slots. The ability of the Footman to both Deflect and Engage Ranged enemy units makes him the ultimate Ranged counter. As discussed under Deflect, you will want to ensure your Footman has an abundance of AGI and Stamina in order to lock down crucial units. For example, if you want to Ram charge that enemy Forsaken Sniper and ensure he will not get away or fire beyond your Footman, you will want 151 Stamina: 50 for the Ram, 100 for the Engaging Strikes on a 4 Movement enemy, and then 1 leftover for the Deflection. This should be your minimum ideal stamina break point for the end game build, and going even higher has additional benefits. For example you may want 40 more stamina for when you trigger a Strong vs Double Hit or a retaliation Strike or even a second engaged target pull-back.

Now that your Footman is plenty Agile to lock down ranged enemy units, what else can he do? A secondary role for your Footman can be seen as playing the role of ‘off tank’ or ‘flank guard.’ This unit lives on the edges of your formation preventing the enemy from swarming your position by guarding the flanks. He can also swap in to the front lines and guard from those ranged shots or tank some hits for a beleaguered ally. Using engaging Strike in an offensive way helps protect those flanks and can prevent the Forsaken from completing their chained ‘Light Foot swapping’ and focus firing down a friendly unit. He can also apply status effects and increase team damage output by using all that armor with Mutators such as Critical Counterstrike and Bleeding Criticals or Poison Criticals. For healing and sustain he can go Critical Counterstrike and Vigorous or Leeching Crits, for example.

Lastly, he obviously has the very powerful Ram, which can kill the strongest or most armored units in the game, with the simple click of a button. This is what can set the Footman apart from his other two armored human allies, the Spearman and Guardian. He has the combination of Anti-Ranged, Tanking and Ram that can overcome Stalwart (Guardian’s Bash cannot) and provide offensive firepower when needed. His Halberd also has the highest Damage potential of all 3 Human armored units and Armor Breaking comparable to the Spear. He is a very versatile unit and a welcomed addition to any party composition.