The published five- and seven-march setups.
Archer march; benchmark five-march setup.
Infantry march; five-march setup.
Cavalry march; five-march setup.
Archer march; five-march setup.
Infantry march; five-march setup.
Archer march; seven-march extension.
Infantry march; seven-march extension.
Cavalry march; seven-march extension.
Anti-heal option behind Sun Tzu (Prime).
The premier infantry open-field pair.
From Liu Che profile pairings.
From Liu Che profile pairings.
Bai Qi works behind mixed nukers such as Qin Shi Huang.
Early-game pairing.
Top open-field cavalry march.
Joan Prime's rage generation and healing keep Xiang Yu's expensive AoE firing every cycle while offsetting the focus fire he attracts.
Honda's troop-agnostic skill support layers extra active damage onto Xiang Yu's AoE without contesting his lead role.
A flex march: Honda's leadership kit supplies the skill damage and Joan Prime the dedicated support engine, so the pair works over any troop base.
Scipio Prime's shields and damage reduction buy Guan Yu the uptime his slow, heavy AoE needs, on matched infantry buffs.
Sargon adds a second infantry skill-damage lane so the march still hits hard between Guan Yu's big actives.
Tariq's self-sustain tanks the front while Liu Che's defence shred makes both kits hit harder on a same-troop line.
Sargon's skill damage rides the survivability Tariq provides, keeping an all-infantry march dangerous in extended fights.
Gorgo's wall-grade defensive stats let Liu Che's slow-and-shred nuke grind targets down in attrition fights.
Our SS AoE smite behind the premier infantry enabler: shields and mitigation protect the smite wind-up.
Bai Qi's skill-damage amplification and bonus damage against weakened targets multiply Ivar's AoE smite output.
Wallace's smite burst gets the mitigation cover it lacks natively, on matching infantry stat lines.
Ragnar Prime's troop-agnostic leadership kit adds a second skill lane while Guan Yu supplies the heavy infantry AoE.
Two charge-burst kits alternate actives so the march lands a nuke almost every rage rotation.
Budget deputy option: Yoshitsune's cheap single-target nuke slots under Nevsky's cavalry buffs without changing the playstyle.
Two Legendary cavalry kits on one troop base: William's attack-focused kit keeps the pressure on while Huo Qubing's skill burst supplies the spikes.
Saladin's durable single-target damage pins a target while William's attack-focused cavalry kit piles on.
Belisarius Prime's mobility picks the engagements; Huo Qubing supplies the burst once the fight is chosen.
Boudica Prime's rage engine shortens the gap between Zhuge Liang's expensive nukes while both stack skill damage.
Hermann Prime's silence buys the ramp time Boudica Prime wants, and both kits feed the same skill-damage lane.
Silence plus two stacked skill-damage passives: the enemy nuke gets cancelled and yours does not.
Ramesses bolts healing reduction onto Nebuchadnezzar's AoE so the damage sticks against sustain comps.
Ashurbanipal's archer skill kit adds a second damage lane behind Nebuchadnezzar's nuke on a matched troop base.
Henry's archer support kit backs Nebuchadnezzar's rally-grade nuke on a matched archer base.
A classic archer line: YSG's circular AoE plus Ramesses' skill damage and anti-heal against anything that sustains.
Qin Shi Huang wants skill-damage deputies rather than normal-attack ones, and Shajar's archer skill kit fills that lane without stealing the active slot.
Trajan's team-wide buffs are multiplied by Scipio Prime's counter-and-shield engine into a march that wins attrition.
Trajan's broad team buffs layer over Aethelflaed's troop-agnostic leadership kit, so the pair holds up regardless of troop mix.
Two single-target cavalry nukers; Cao Cao's march speed delivers Yoshitsune's burst before the target can disengage.
Baibars' AoE slow holds a crowd in place for Yoshitsune's single-target execution.
Pelagius' cavalry skill kit backs Yoshitsune's nuke, and his post-rework S rating may lift this beyond a budget pick.
An all-Epic cavalry budget line: two cheap cavalry skill kits, with Pelagius' post-rework S rating carrying the pair further than the price suggests.
Thutmose's archer support multiplies YSG's circular AoE on a matched troop base.
El Cid's archer skill damage slots into the gaps of YSG's AoE cycle on a matched troop base.
City and objective rallies (incl. anti-heal).
City/objective anti-heal rally.
Infantry anti-heal rally.
Seven-march / rally nuke stacking.
Justinian's cavalry support scales Nevsky's charge burst in the larger rally rage pool.
Attila's attack-focused cavalry kit converts Nevsky's charge burst into a structure-cracking hit from the deeper rally rage pool.
The classic cavalry rally: Takeda's sustain and rage feed Attila's ramping damage buffs — weak in open field, strong on objectives.
Pakal's defensive infantry kit keeps a Tariq rally intact through long garrison exchanges.
The same infantry skill-and-sustain synergy carries from field to rally, where longer fights favour Tariq's defensive staying power.
Leonidas' defensive infantry front keeps Guan Yu alive to cycle his expensive AoE into the packed troop counts of a rally.
Henry's archer support anchors the rally while Zhuge Liang's nuke rides the deep rally rage pool.
Henry's archer support feeds Ashurbanipal's skill damage so an archer rally keeps constant pressure on the garrison.
Gilgamesh's healing reduction stops a garrison from healing back what Zhuge Liang's nuke takes off.
Anchoring and walling structures.
Mixed garrison anchor.
Infantry garrison wall.
Durable garrison/defence pair.
Constantine's shields and healing stack under Gorgo's wall stats for a garrison that refuses to fall.
Gorgo's infantry wall stats stack with Heraclius' defensive leadership kit for a garrison built purely to hold.
Zenobia's garrison support raises the wall while Heraclius' defensive leadership kit holds up whichever troops fill it.
Flavius' attack debuffs blunt the incoming rally while Zenobia's garrison buffs raise the wall behind them.
Flavius' infantry garrison skill kit supplies the offence while Heraclius' defensive leadership kit shores up the wall.
Dido's archer garrison kit gains the survivability layer it lacks from Heraclius' defensive support.
The cavalry garrison niche: Zizka's garrison skill kit with Jadwiga's cavalry garrison kit on the same troop base.
Wu Zetian's troop-agnostic support anchors the garrison while Artemisia's archer defence kit hardens it against the incoming rally.
Budget archer garrison: both nuke on short cycles and Hermann's silence interrupts the attacker's actives.
The most stable all-purpose pairs.
Most stable all-purpose pair at the top end.
Sun Tzu's cheap, fast-cycling AoE does the killing that Martel's shield wall was never going to do alone.
Two durable infantry kits for a beginner tank line that survives mistakes.
Richard soaks and heals while Sun Tzu's rage-fed AoE cycles behind the tank stats.
Early-game exception to same-troop pairing: Richard's support-tank kit protects YSG's AoE over the mixed troops beginners actually field.
Double AoE on a budget; Sun Tzu's rage restore accelerates both actives (early-game mixed-troop exception).
The classic F2P engine: Joan's rage and stat support cycle Sun Tzu's nuke almost continuously.
Aethelflaed's all-stat debuff aura plus a cheap AoE nuke: a free Legendary lead a new player can actually max.
Runes, rally-joins and obelisk grabs on T1.
Keep a dedicated fast T1 march (Cao Cao/Belisarius/Lancelot).
The fastest march available for rune grabs and rally joins; both kits are built around march speed rather than damage.
82 recommended pairings across 5 scenarios. Pairings are meta-dependent and shift each season.