Using heroes - Sviatoslav I of Kiev

Sviatoslav I of Kiev is Tier 1 Kievan Rus hero, with melee foot attack and resource buildings as preferred target. His special ability is Ransack, ability that confers a temporary damage bonus to nearby raiders, making raiders even more effective at looting. (click ability).

Stats per levels:

Level 1: 5000HP; 240DPS; 20min recovery time; 1x ability. (costs 100 Kievan Rus pennants)
Level 2: 6400HP; 300DPS; 1h30min recovery time; 2x ability. (costs 1,250 Kievan Rus pennants)
Level 3: 10000HP; 360DPS; 4h30min recovery time; 3x ability. (costs 4,500 Kievan Rus pennants)
Level 4: 11500HP; 415DPS; 6h recovery time; 4x ability. (costs 7,500 Kievan Rus pennants)

Good combos: Sviatoslav I of Kiev is not such a good hero and doesn't have any hero he goes specially good with. However, he might go well with Belisarius when planning Raiders or/and Raiders of Muscovy Rushes (similar to Cavalry Rush).

Using heroes - Richard the Lionheart

Richard the Lionheart is Tier 1 Briton hero, with melee foot attack and foot soldiers as preferred target. His special ability is Inspire, ability that temporarily increases the damage and speed of nearby infantry units. (click ability).

Stats per levels:

• Level 1: 5000HP; 240DPS; 20min recovery time; 1x ability. (costs 100 Briton pennants)
• Level 2: 6400HP; 300DPS; 1h30min recovery time; 2x ability. (costs 1,250 Briton pennants)
• Level 3: 8000HP; 360DPS; 4h30min recovery time; 3x ability. (costs 4,500 Briton pennants)
• Level 4: 9200HP; 415DPS; 6h recovery time; 4x ability. (costs 7,500 Briton pennants)

Good combos: Richard the Lionheart goes best with Hermann von Salza.

How to use Richard the Lionheart with Hermann von Salza?

Army Camp: 3 Halberdiers, 8 Champions, 6 Crossbowmen (Arquebusers), 15 Bowmen, 6 Laddermen, 6 Teutonic Knights, 8 Grenadiers, 1 Mamluk. (69 Army Camp space)

First, what is most important:

1) Keep Richard alive for all four uses of his ability (His priority are towers, so you need to be careful);

2) You only need to control Grenadiers by yourself. Let others troop be ran by AI.

For taking the Keep down, direct a group of Teutonic Knights towards the Keep. Teutonic Knights crush the walls easily and won't die before taking the Keep down (assist them with some Bowmen if you want). Use your Grenadiers to take down the towers one by one.

Have some units in hand to do remaining clean-ups in the castle. In most cases, you won't miss your second star.

Here is a video guide:

Special thanks to Joyson Joy, who gave us the guide for this combo.

Tribute castles

There are many types of defense layouts you can make. Today, we are talking about one, very popular layout, Tribute layout.

• Don't know what is Tribute layout?

Tribute layout is a layout that consists of putting your Keep outside walls. In this way, you partly sacrifice your crowns so your resources are safe:

• How does Tribute layout work?

Simple. When you expose your keep i.e. offer it to attacker for "free", attacker will most likely destroy Keep only, along with some buildings out of defense buildings' ranges. Lower amount of crowns you have, bigger are chances that it will work.

• How much resources I will lose with Tribute?

We've made some calculations in that view and here are some stats (stats per defensive battle, with empty Farms, Mills and Quarries):

-Average percentage of castle destroyed: 20%

-Average amount of Food lost: 26304

-Average amount of Wood lost: 27759

-Average amount of Stone lost: 10783

As you can see, these loses are pretty little, comparing to loses with non-tribute castles (stats per defensive battle, with empty Farms, Mills and Quarries):

-Average percentage of castle destroyed: 54%

-Average amount of Food lost: 64426

-Average amount of Wood lost: 71593

-Average amount of Stone lost: 31020

• Should I change my layout to Tribute?

If you plan to protect resources, definitely. Interesting thing is that Tribute layout can also help you to lose less crowns, as big part of defense battles will be 1-star loses. You will not have any defense victory in log, but you will lose less crowns.

Using heroes - Charles Martel

Charles Martel is Tier 1 Frank hero, with melee mounted attack and foot soldiers as preferred target. His special ability is Taunt, ability that causes nearby enemies to target him, directing fire away from friendly troops. Damage against him is reduced while taunting (click ability).

Stats per levels:

• Level 1: 7500HP; 240DPS; 20min recovery time; 1x ability. (costs 100 Frank pennants)
• Level 2: 15,000HP; 300DPS; 1h30min recovery time; 2x ability. (costs 1,250 Frank pennants)
• Level 3: 22,500HP; 360DPS; 4h30min recovery time; 3x ability. (costs 4,500 Frank pennants)
• Level 4: 25,875HP; 415DPS; 6h recovery time; 4x ability. (costs 7,500 Frank pennants)

Good combos: Charles Martel goes well with any hero, but for best results, use him in combo with Alexander Nevsky and Conrad the Elder.

How to use Charles Martel with Alexander Nevsky?
Army Camp: Standard offense layout
First, pinpoint group of  buildings you are going to destroy with Alexander Nevsky. Next, deploy some troops to kite defending troops. Then, if any wall stands on your way, destroy it with a trebuchet, or Ram if there is a gate.
After you open the wall, deploy Charles Martel and activate his ability. After him, deploy Alexander Nevsky and another trebuchet to help Alexander Nevsky finishes his job. When you reach group of buildings you wanted to take out, activate Nevsky's ability. Make sure you use trebuchets to help Nevsky do his job faster, while taking care that Martel's ability is on. Also, watch if any tower or emplacement is shooting at Nevsky or trebuchets and move Martel to that area of influence.
If you have 2nd Nevsky ability, use it on another group of buildings while your trebuchets are taking the keep down.
After you take the keep down, finish the rest of the castle.
Here is a video guide:

How to use Charles Martel with Conrad the Elder?
Army Camp: ~10 Rams; lot of Bowmen/Great Bowmen/Composite Bowmen (more than 40); 10 Raiders
First, deploy some troops to kite defending troops. Then, deploy 10 Rams and direct them to keep. After you direct Rams to keep, deploy Conrad and activate his ability.
While Rams are heading towards keep, use your Bowmen to snipe barely protected buildings and hunt 2nd star.
Then, deploy Martel and direct him to place where most defender's towers are located. Activate his ability.
After Martel, send Raiders and let them do their job while Martel draws fire away from them.
Here is a video guide:

Tip: Don't emerge Martel with other troops, especially siege units, as Cannon Towers, Trebuchet Emplacements, Catapult Emplacements, Crossbow Towers, Flame Towers, Grenadiers, Cheirosiphons, Bowmen and Longbowmen deal damage to every unit that lies on projectile land point.

Using heroes - Belisarius

Belisarius is Tier 1 Byzantine hero. His special ability is Undermine, ability to tunnel under walls and destroy their foundations, taking them down, while being safe from defenders' fire (drag ability).
Stats per levels:

• Level 1: 5000HP; 240DPS; 20min recovery time; 1x ability. (costs 100 Byzantine pennants)
• Level 2:  6400HP; 300DPS; 1h30min recovery time; 2x ability. (costs 1,250 Byzantine pennants)
• Level 3: 8000HP; 360DPS; 4h30min recovery time; 3x ability. (costs 4,500 Byzantine pennants)
• Level 4: 9,200 HP; 415DPS; 6h recovery time; 4x ability. (costs 7,500 Byzantine pennants)

Good combos: Belisarius goes best with Winrich (level 1), Charlemagne and Edward the Black Prince.

How to use Belisarius with Winrich?
Using Belisarius with Winrich is recommended only if Winrich is level 1, as Winrich at level 2 needs additional protection by other heroes like Hermann von Salza.
Pinpoint a building that will be center of Winrich's ability. Use Belisarius to undermine walls that stand on Winrich's path to that building. After you finish with Belisarius, send 2-3 squads of Infantry/Heavy Infantry/Champions to kite defending troops and towers. Then, deploy Winrich and drag his ability to target building. Then use rest of your army to finish the keep and rest of the castle.

How to use Belisarius with Charlemagne?
ATTENTION! Belisarius+Charlemagne is combo for cavalry rushes. Make sure you have at least 10 Cavalry/Heavy Cavalry/Major Knight (Cavalry in following text) squads in your Army Camp before going to battle with this combo!
Use Belisarius to undermine walls that stand on your path to defender's keep.
After you finish job with Belisarius, deploy minimum 10 squads of Cavalry along with Charlemagne and drag Charlemagne's ability to keep (make sure Cavalry squads are close to Charlemagne). Then use rest of Charlemagne's abilities to take the keep down.

How to use Belisarius with Edward the Black Prince?
Use Belisarius to undermine the walls that stand on your way to keep. After you finish the job with Belisarius, deploy 2-3 squads of Infantry, direct them to keep and then deploy Edward. Drag Edward's ability to keep and wait for him to use it. Then, if keep still isn't taken down, drag his ability again onto keep.

Battle tactics

There are various battle tactics with certain combinations of units and heroes in game. Here, we will mention some of them:

1) SIEGE RUSH
Army: 6 Halberdiers; 6 Champions; 4 Great Bowmen; 6 Rams; 1 Siege tower; 4 Longbowmen; 3 Teutonic Knights; 1 Mamluk; 4 Trebuchets (66 army space). +heroes: Nikephoros and Conrad
Description: Use Siege Tower to check for engineer traps, fire traps and attracting defense units in proximity. Use Longbowmen and Halberdiers to kill defending troops. Now:

• If the castle is wide, deploy all of the Trebuchets decently spaced with Nikephoros in the middle.
• If the castle is narrow, deploy 2+2 Trebuchets together with Nikephoros in the middle.

Use Teutonic Knights , Great Bowmen and Champions as meats and destroy the defenses in the first layer of castle by activating Nikephoros' ability and destroy as much walls as possible. Meanwhile, deploy 2+2+2 rams and direct them to different defense buildings depending upon the castle. If the Trebuchet Emplacement, Watch signal and Guard Houses are too deep in the castle, don't forget to use the rams on them as they are serious threats. If you are concentrate much enough, you can use them to destroy three more towers.

Drop Conrad, activate the second abolity of nikephoros. Use one treb on the keep and others on different towers. Trebuchets won't be destroyed under Conrad's ability protection even getting hit from cannons, archers and wall troops at the same time. Watch the fun.

Use Mamluk for outer building cleanup and your remaining units to further boost your %.

2) RED RIOT

Army: 3 Rams, 8 Champions, 8 Halberdiers, 8 Great Bowmen, 3 Teutonic Knights, 6 Grenadiers and 20 Raiders. (68 army space) +heroes: Hermann and Sviatoslav.

Description: Deploy 1 Champion to trigger traps and kite defender's troops, and keep them away from your attacking point.

Drop another Champion as a decoy for 2 Grenadiers to make the first breach. After the castle breached, drop a line of 3 Rams to make another hole to the keep. Drop 2-3 Champions and survived Grenadiers and direct them same way as your Rams.

Drop the rest of your Champions, Grenadiers, make a line of 4 Great Bowmes and your Teutonic Knight and let them loose. Drop Hermann and shield them all.

After you have an available path to the keep, split your raiders into 3 groups. 3 Raiders on right and left side to ransack resource buildings and 14 Raiders to destroy the keep. Boost their DPS with Sviatoslav's ability.

There you have a Red Riot.

Oh, You have Halberdiers only to kill horses and stop incoming relief troops.

We will regularly update this post with more tactics.
 

3) CAVALRY RUSH

Army: at least 15 Cavalry/Heavy Cavalry/Major Knights, some Infantry/Heavy Infantry/Champions as meatshields +heroes: Charlemagne and Belisarius.

Description: Drop one squad of Infantry to kite defending troops.

When defending troops have been distracted by Infantry, send Belisarius to dig shortest path to the keep.

When path is free, drop all Cavalry and direct them to keep. Right after, deploy Charlemagne and direct his ability to keep (Cavalry must be in Charlemagne's proximity). Then watch Cavalry destroying the keep, giving you 1-star victory.