Foursaken Media’s cross-genre war game Noblemen: 1896 combines the overhead strategy and base-building mechanics typical to mobile war games with third-person shooter and cover mechanics during individual battles.
Keeping track of all the different elements during the campaign isn’t too difficult — but there are a few places that new players can get tripped up and will need some help on the strategy front.
For those looking to cheat, rather than git gud, there are Noblemen: 1986 APK downloads out there at some rather disreputable sites that claim to give you infinite gold. Personally I haven’t found any at this point that actually work and aren’t malware, so proceed at your own risk if you decide to brave those risky sites where its never quite clear what’s an ad and what’s the legitimate download button.
For those who aren’t into the cheating business, let’s get on with the Noblemen tips and tricks!
Getting The Game Running
Since the September 12th update, most players have been left unable to download necessary update files, or the game will just immediately crash on launch. If that describes you, there’s nothing to do but wait for the next update to address the issue.
For those who can still play, many users are reporting intermittent crashes and slow downs, but that’s because the app is a lot more graphically intensive than your typical mobile title. Noblemen: 1896 was specifically optimized for these GPUs:
- Adreno 400 or better
- Mali-760, 860, 880 or better
- Tegra 3, Tegra 4, Tegra K1 or better
- PowerVR Rogue series or better
Noblemen: 1896 Basics
When you can actually launch the app, there’s one critical element that’s easy to forget about. Outside of combat on the world map, keep an eye on your supplies.
Just about any activity — moving, attacking, even defending — requires supplies. If you find that for some reason you can’t move across the map or bombard an enemy position, it probably means you ran out of supplies and need to drop some gold on re-provisioning. Having low supplies will also result in less useful soldiers during combat.
Before battle, take note of every combat advantage you can get. Attacking instead of defending gives a bonus, as does attacking at night. Attacking from a forest tile also gives a defense bonus. As battles get harder later in the campaign, you want to have every possible advantage.
In combat, remember that the left side of the screen is for movement, while the right side is for looking and aiming, and you can use the arrows to cycle through targets. You also have to actually tap the bullet button to fire (the way it’s shaded with the missing color segment makes it look like an oddly shaped “ID” on the lower right side of the screen).
During combat, don’t forget about special ammo. It costs gold, but can make any given skirmish much less difficult. The explosive HE rounds can take out a group quickly with only a round or two, while the AP rounds are needed for armored units or vehicles.
Range in gun combat is also critical, and is marked by the colored arrow above an enemy. If you are at medium or extreme range you aren’t dealing the damage you want to be dealing.
Firing On Targets
Unlike your typical run ‘n gun shooter, in Noblemen you always want to be behind either light or full cover. Health recovers faster in cover, and you take next to no damage in full cover. Unless the enemy is in a full-blown retreat, or there is only a single enemy soldier on his own, you should absolutely never attack from the open.
Oddly, buildings don’t appear to give cover. It’s not really clear why, but don’t stand behind buildings expecting to not got killed. You need something like sandbags, fences, or trees instead.
Cover is incredible effect, but not just for you — it also aids the enemy. It can be pointless to trade fire with the enemy for extended periods if you are both behind full cover. Instead, re-position yourself to flank or come up behind the enemy.
Even Explosive Rounds Aren’t Effective Against Cover
Melee Sword Combat
While the game touts swordplay as a valid tactic, melee combat is only worthwhile under specific conditions. It can be more effective than firing since it’s more accurate, but you have to sprint into the open — leaving yourself vulnerable to fire from whoever you are charging (and more importantly, any other nearby squads).
You are also locked in melee combat for a few seconds and can’t disengage immediately to run back to cover. Unless there are only a few enemies left and you are low on ammo or somehow don’t have cover nearby, it’s not really worth going into melee.
Command Mode
Combat gets frantic, and in ground view your troops will move on their own to seek out cover and engage the enemy. You should pop into the sky view Command Mode frequently, as this gives you a better idea of the enemy’s position, and also lets you pause to direct the flow of battle.
There’s also a nifty little trick here for keeping yourself alive for a push towards the enemy — command your troops to protect your Nobleman so you have troops guarding you during your advance!
Scouting The Enemy From Command Mode
Those are all the basics you need to know to get started dominating in combat during Noblemen: 1896’s campaign mode or random skirmishes. Have any other tips for newcomers that we missed? Let us know in the comments!
