Brood (Building)/1.03

Level 1
As the Dark Elves cannot fill mines early game (without starting with Sorcerors), they depend heavily on mine capturing and thus map control. Like all Elves, the Dark Elves have access to a basic flier than can greatly help them with this task via its ability to convert - the Phoenix. Because of this, you may find yourself building a Brood or two as soon as you hit tier 2. Come tier 4 and you'll still find yourself producing Phoenixes and, even though Harpies can be useful under certain circumstances, they are situational at best, usually leaving you with no need to upgrade the Broods just yet.

Once tier 5 rolls around and you can start producing Dragons, you also have access to the Dark Elf General - the Blackguard. This reduces the dependence on Phoenixes but as they can fly, you may still wish to produce these over Blackguards for quicker (but not safer) map control. As such, you'll then start to need more Broods to help continue production when the Dragons start clogging up the build queues.

Level 2
The Dark Elves acquire Harpies in tier 4 when they upgrade their Brood to level 2. As Harpies are very situational and the core of your army will tend to be mostly missile units, you may not have need for Harpies in your current game and thus wont need to build extra Broods to compensate for the added unit production. Although, you would still want to upgrade them at some point before tier 5, getting them ready for the final upgrade later on.

Level 3
The Dark Elves choice of Dragons can make some of their previous units obsolete - namely Skeletons and Harpies. Where as those two previous units served only a single, limited role, the two Dragons that take their place can perform those roles and also function as a powerful, terrifying units in general. The Dragonliche is the main reason to reach a Brood level 3 quickly, as they can single handily change the shape of the battle through being a flying, missile resistant behemoth that can even immobilize enemy units with its terror. The cost to get a Brood level 3 shouldn't be too much of a problem for the Dark Elves, with only the gold needing some form of management as Sorcerors and Assassins require it, too.

Level 1
The Daemons aren't short in the department of flying units, which immediately puts pressure on the usefulness of the actual generic fliers. Imps are overall better than Firebats and Harpies are more situational with Daemons than with most other races that have access to them. Unless you are fighting High Elves, then you could delay your Broods till tier 5 when Dragons become available. Due to the lack of usefulness of those basic and advanced fliers, you will probably never be needing to build any more than two Broods. It's even debatable whether its worth building them just for their Dragons, as a swarm of Daemons and Imps usually tend to be enough to take out most opponents. Still, a Fire Dragon can raze buildings fast and a Storm Dragon can help against spellcasters, so they can distinguish themselves and work hand in hand with the flying Daemon units - it just comes down to whether you actually need even more brute force to take on your opponent.

Level 2
If you're choosing to go down the route of Dragons or need to deal with annoying spellcasters that brute force doesn't seem to be working against, you will at some point be stopping off at a level 2 Brood. At this level you can produce Harpies and even upgrade them, but it's unlikely your Harpies will actively be engadging enemies in combat, so the research has little purpose. Firebats can still be produced, but again are still outclassed by Imps except for tackling enemy towers that deal fire type damage.

Level 3
With Daemons being a naturally powerful race, featuring mighty flying creatures that bring death and destruction in their wake, Dragons generally don't seem that much stronger, especially the two Dragons that the Daemons can get a hold of. That's not to say they're useless for Daemons - just not as outstanding as they are seen in some other races. Fire Dragons can make seiging bases quicker with their fire breath attack, while Storm Dragons can throw a spanner in the works for enemy spellcasters and torment swarming units that are resistant to fire, who would otherwise laugh at Salamanders and Fire Dragons. However, Daemons are still more than capable of winning the game without them, so there's no real pressure to get a Brood to level 3, so there's no need to make cut back to make a bunch of Broods.

Level 1
Orcs don't make much use from their Brood, mainly using it to produce Swamp Dragons. Harpies can be useful in some very specific situations, but those situations are usually rare to the point that you forgot that you can even produce them. Bats can help out with scouting, but as Goblins are available at tier 1, they would have already made their appearance by this point and uncovered most of the map. As such, you can put off building Broods until a much later point in the game, sometimes only at tier 5 where the Swamp Dragon becomes available.

Level 2
While aiming to get Swamp Dragons onto the field, you will at some point need to get your Brood to level 2. In some situations you may actually set a target to get a level 2 Brood for the production of Harpies. Although very limited in use, their purpose can warrant the creation of at least two Broods (and leveled up). But otherwise the purpose of going to a level 2 Brood is just so it can be leveled up once more when tier 5 hits.

Level 3
Swamp Dragons are amazing and with Orcs lacking in fire type damage, they are seen more valuable to them than other races. Swamp Dragons are pretty much the sole reason for building Broods in the first place and, in some cases, you probably wont even start making one till you are on the verge of hitting tier 5. As Orcs have little use for crystal and gold can easily be spared, they have no trouble in getting those Swamp Dragon out on the field. Also, with the Brood and its level costing just gold and stone, again something that Orcs can handle well (they obtain free stone for knocking down buildings), getting some Broods up isn't difficult, either. As such, Orcs can keep on rolling out Dragons late game and so you may want at least a couple of level 3 Broods. (Although, if you have need of Harpies, then you'll want to build a couple more just for them.)

Level 1
The Plaguelords don't really make much use of their Broods, simply because they can't usually afford anything from it. Dragonflies are the only affordable unit, although you still need to produce a lot of them to make them effective, but aren't useful to the race and thus not worth producing. Wyverns are expensive and their cost clashes horribly with the rest of the race, reducing the possibility of producing them, but are otherwise great fliers. The Plaguelords choice of Dragons are both decent choices, but again, they cost an incredible amount (especially for the Dragonliche) and the Plaguelord player simply has to make drastic cut backs in order to get one in production - which usually leads to other problems. Plaguelords Broods are really only for the richest of Plaguelords players - unless you're doing well, building and upgrading a Brood may just be nothing but a liability.

Level 2
Wyverns are actually really good units and can help out when fighting Orcs, but as stated before, the Plaguelord player will struggle to add these to the mix of their units due to their high cost of gold and crystal. The price of getting a Brood to level 2 is also another issue, especially at tier 4. If you're struggling at this point with resources in general, then don't bother upgrading your Broods (or even build them) - if you can't afford a small attack force of Wyverns, then there's no hope for Dragons and thus no need to upgrade.

Level 3
Costing a total of 900 gold and 1000 stone with the reward requiring further amounts of gold and crystal, it simply isn't practical for the Plaguelords to sacrifice so much and jump through all those hoops needed just to pull a Dragon out of the Brood, unless you are doing incredibly well - but one could argue that if you are doing well enough to get a Dragon with out much hassle, then you probably don't need it. Granted, Dragonliches are amazing and Swamp Dragons aren't too far behind, but typically by the time your Dragon is ready after making many cut backs, you're likely to be in a position where a Dragon wont help.

Level 1
The Swarm can make good use of both of their basic and advanced fliers, as well as Dragons, of course. As such, you'll probably be building more of these buildings than you would with any other race. Most of the time you'll be producing Wasps, with the occasional switch to Harpies if your enemy goes spell caster heavy. But once Dragons roll around and clog up the production queue, you'll be making even more of these buildings, not necessarily to level them up, but to keep some Wasps in the fray. This does mean that even a level 1 Brood is useful, so you should build a couple of them when you can.

Level 2
Most the time you would want to make sure you have a Brood at level 2 late tier 4 just so you can quickly get to Dragons come tier 5. But for the Swarm, each Brood level is useful as each unit they bring can offer some useful traits the the Swarm army, and encourage a need to level up your Broods as and when they become available. Brood level 2 brings Harpies to the Swarm race, who can use their Drain Mana spell to prevent enemy spellcasters from casting those multi-target damaging spells that most spellcasters carry. These would normally cause a headache for the Swarm player - smiting down swarms of their infantry with ease. Due to the usefulness of all Swarm fliers, you'll probably need to build a couple more at this point to ensure you can still pump out Wasps while upgrading. However, due to the stone and gold cost of the Broods and their level upgrades, they can intervene with your production of Scarabs and tower building. Although there are still plenty of Swarm units to produce while upgrading Broods, your defensive production will take a hit.

Level 3
Because of the Swarm's great economy, it's much easier to get a Brood to level 3 than with other races. But it doesn't stop there, either, as even producing a Dragon is not that difficult for them. Because of this and the fact that you would certainly already have a bunch of level 2 Broods, come tier 5 and you can immediately start upgrading at least one of your Broods, ready for that inevitable Dragon production. But of course, Dragons hog production queues and with the earlier fliers actually useful this time around, you'll probably find yourself starting up some more Broods. It's not uncommon to reach around four to six Broods in a typically battle as the Swarm.

Level 1
The Undead can produce 2 of the nastiest Dragons around, so you would want to get your Brood to level 3 as soon as you can. As for the other units the Brood can produce - Bats can be useful early game for scouting if you lack a retinue Vampire, but with Shadows available at tier 3, the Harpies main role is already taken, leaving them with only those really situational tasks to do (such as rendering Dwarven Runelords useless). So, if you're not bothered about scouting nor do those rare situations that have need of a Harpy over a Shadow show up, then you could easily forgo building a Brood till tier 5, when Dragons become available. Although, you may still want to start getting one up in tier 4, ready for a quick upgrade once you hit tier 5 and giving you instant access to your Dragons.

Level 3
Regardless of race, a level 3 Brood (or Nest / Eyrie) is a frightening thing to behold - but more so when it's in the possession of the Undead! The Undead get access to two of the best Dragons around that can easily turn the tide of battle (and even possibly win it in the case of the Dragonliche), so there is no reason why an Undead player should not be getting a level 3 Brood up. As the earlier fliers are almost useless/redundant you therefore can just upgrade an earlier Brood (or two) and not need to build any more, as your production will not suffer when a Dragon clogs up the production queue.

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