The three troop types
Most heroes are tied to a single troop type, which is the clearest signal of the role they play on the battlefield:
- Cavalry — fast, mobile, hard-hitting mounted units. Cavalry lineups tend to be aggressive: they close distance quickly and hit hard, which makes them a common choice for offence and rallies.
- Archers — ranged damage dealers who do their best work from the back line, behind a protective front. Archer lineups live or die on keeping that back line alive while it pours out damage.
- Footmen — durable front-line infantry. Footmen lineups are built to hold ground, soak damage and grind an opponent down rather than burst them.
How these types match up against one another shifts with the meta and with balance changes, so rather than memorising a fixed "this beats that" triangle, it is more reliable to build around what you own and consult the current rankings for the matchups that actually hold today.
Mixed lineups
Not every strong lineup sticks to one troop type. Mixed combos deliberately blend types — for example pairing a durable footman front with archer damage behind it — to cover more situations than a pure lineup can. They ask more of your roster, since you need good heroes across types, but they reward a broad account with flexibility. The best Mixed lineups live on the Mixed combos page.
Heroes that span two types
Some heroes list more than one troop type. These are especially valuable because they slot into more lineups — a hero who counts as both Cavalry and Archer can appear in combos on either list, which means investing in them tends to unlock more of your reachable combos than a single-type hero of similar strength. When you are deciding who to develop next, dual-type heroes often quietly punch above their weight.
Using the troop filter
The hero list lets you filter by troop type, so you can see every Cavalry, Archer or Footmen hero at a glance — handy when you are trying to work out which type your account is strongest in. Each of the four ranked lists (Cavalry, Archer, Footmen and Mixed) then shows the best lineups of that kind.
Build around your strongest type first
If you are still growing your account, the most efficient path is to concentrate investment in one troop type rather than spreading it evenly. A single well-developed troop type gives you a competitive lineup far sooner than three half-finished ones. Pick the type where you already own the most ranked heroes, lean into it, and let the combo generator show you exactly which lineups that focus unlocks.