THE POPULOUS BIBLE
C.65 Units and their effectiveness
Braves are the second weakest units (only stronger than spies) but they are also the fastest unit. They are also the only unit that can build, so it safe to say that they are the most important unit in Populous. They also provide the best mana - only lesser than a shaman - but you only have 1 shaman, while most of your tribe population are usually braves.
It's important to know which units will be avaliable when playing a level, so you know what to expect and what to do.
Keep in mind that every unit has its counters, and the shaman basically can counter anything, but you only have once, and once it dies, it will be dead for many seconds.
Warriors are the strongest melee unit in combat, but are easily countered by preachers. This unit is also really vulnerable against shaman spells, but it's still considered the most important offensive unit in Populous. They are also the most effective unit to destroy buildings.
Preachers are well rounded. Their special ability of preaching is what makes them unique, meaning that they are really strong against braves and warriors. Preachers can be the most dangerous unit in Populous, but are countered by enemy preachers, firewarriors and spells.
Firewarriors are very weak if engaged in melee fights, but they can shoot at distance, which make them good against every kinds of units or shamans. They are stronger when together, and because of their range, preachers will not preach them so easily. This can be used offensively but it is specially good defensively - both inside towers or front huts.
Their main counter is the warrior.
Spies are the weakest unit to fight with, but take in mind that they are not made to battle - their special ability is to disguise as the enemy and burn their trees or buildings. Burning huts is obviously good, but aim to burn the training buildings, which will make the enemy unit production stop. Spies inside towers can also detect enemy spies, and will cloak akk nearby buildings from the enemy's worldview.
Spies are also good to stop enemy preachers from preaching, and their only counters are the enemy spies and the attention from your opponent.
Shamans are the strongest unit in Populous because they can cast spells - in hand-to-hand combat they are only weaker than a warrior.
Because of the cheat cost of the spell blast, no unit can face a shaman, but many together can get over one. The shaman's biggest counter is obviously the enemy's shaman. In terms of units, its urually the firewarriors, but any bloodlusted or magical-shielded unit can be annoying against a shaman. Also, invisible firewarriors or warriors can fastly kill a shaman before he even notices it.
