Fallen Conspiracy

The Fallen Conspiracy, or Fallen, is one of the four playable races in Night of Oblivion.

Storyline
The Fallen Conspiracy is made up of the villagers in the entire town which the Lich King consumed. Prior to that, the villagers were extremely angry at the Government for heavily taxing them to fuel the growing army's needs, thus leaving them in poverty. The villagers turned to religion as a means to convince themselves that there was a greater being watching over them, and that justice would eventually be served to the cruel Government. The Lich King saw an opportunity to appear as the being they revered, and used the villagers to do his bidding by summoning countless ghosts and demons from the Further into the town, hiding them inside cathedrals during the day lest they dissipate due to exposure to daylight.

Race Attributes

 * The Fallen have units which can turn invisible at night, and units which can see further during the night than during the day.
 * The Fallen also feature units which gain extra attack damage during the night, making the day/night cycle an important mechanic for the Fallen.

Units
Worker: Acolyte

Mercenary Camp units: Bandit, Spear Thrower, Deceiver, Fire Drake, Shadow Drake.

Demon Gate units: Bloodfiend, Fel Beast, Doom Guard, Infernal Contraption, Harbinger, Death Wyrm.

Ghost Totem units: Wraith, Succubus, Necromancer, Diabolic, Voidwalker.

Harrowing Circle unit: Forgotten One

Structures
Town Hall: Church, Dark Temple, Unholy Sanctuary.

Core Structure: Shadow Core

Farm: Fire Pit

Production Structures: Mercenary Camp, Demon Gate, Ghost Totem, (Harrowing Circle).

Tech structures/Research Facilities: Shadow Tavern, Haunted Cathedral, (Demon Gate), Burning Skull, Dimensional Gate, Harrowing Circle.

Defensive Structure: Watch Tower

Techtree


Shadow Core: Can cast Black Market, Blackout, and Hand of Destruction.

Black Market: Cast on target allied mineral ore to drain the mineral ore of some of its minerals, and gain half of that value instantly.

Blackout: Changes the time of the day to night time temporarily.

Hand of Destruction: Deals damage to enemy units in the target area, consuming a Fire Pit as an additional cost.

Fallen Opening Theory

 * A common way to define a Fallen opening is by the timing of the Shadow Core activation, and what is done with the first Black Market minerals. Because the amount of minerals gained from an early Black Market is a large sum, openings which are impossible for other races are made possible for the Fallen.
 * One such opening goes double Mercenary Camp for early pressure, and with the first Black Market, transitions into an expansion. There are many creative ways to use the early minerals, or even an early Hand of Destruction to attack the enemy's economy.
 * With all that said, it is no surprise that the Shadow Core's activation is a priority for any Fallen opening.
 * Spear Throwers are powerful early units when proxied due to their Pierce attack which allows them pressure workers more.
 * Due to the anti-air nature of the Watch Tower, tower rushing is unfortunately not an option for the Fallen.

Fallen Unit/Composition Theory
The Fallen race distinctly divides its techtree into two; one which is Biological comprising of (mostly biological) units from the Mercenary Camp and Demon Gate, and the other which is a Ghost comp comprising of units from the Ghost Totem. The two techtrees are absolutely exclusive, sharing no tech whatsoever. This limits composition diversity severely in the mid game, but because it is virtually impossible to tech straight into a pure Ghost composition, transitions from Bio to Ghost will remain prevalent.

Combat units:
Bandit/Spear Throwers:

The two core units of a Bio comp, both have the Insanity ability which sharply increases their attack speed at the cost of amplifying damage received. When massed, the damage dealt between the two units is extremely high, and Insanity timing attacks are very powerful.

Bandits are melee but deal more raw dps than Spear Throwers, while Spear Throwers rely on their range and Pierce attack. Bandits are thus better against targets with Heavy armour like bulky melee units, while the Spear Thrower deals with Light armoured units well.

Both of them share two notable weaknesses which are crucial for counterplay. First is that they both have Light armour, making them weak to Pierce damage sources, and secondly, neither unit can attack air units. The Fallen will have to prepare tech accordingly to cover for their weaknesses.

Fire Drake:

Fire Drakes are strong air to ground units which have a Siege attack. When upgraded, Fire Drakes deal additional damage to structures, which enables them to better siege opponent bases.

A substantial part of the Fire Drake’s strength lies in their being produced from the Mercenary Camp as opposed to an air unit production structure. They are unlocked by the Burning Skull tech structure, which means it is possible to catch enemies off guard with sharp transitions.

Conversely, Fire Drakes are not very strong in the late game as they cannot attack air units and do mediocre damage at best to ground units. They are also relatively supply inefficient, thus it is important to leverage the Fire Drake’s strengths in the mid game.

Shadow Drake:

The Shadow Drake is the Fire Drake’s counterpart, being able to hit only air units. When upgraded, Shadow Drakes can turn invisible with their ability Shadow Rush, allowing them to better ambush and outmaneuvre opposing air armies. Shadow Drakes however, have no way to contribute to the ground battle.

The Shadow Drake is also produced from the Mercenary Camp, and thus shares similar techtree strengths as the Fire Drake.

Bloodfiend:

The Bloodfiend is a midgame front line unit which can Bash opponents when upgraded. Notably, they are one of the few sources of Heavy armour front line units, so if a Bio composition is being punished with Pierce damage, Bloodfiends can enter as a response.

Fel Beast:

Fel Beasts have a empowered attack against air units, and thus slot nicely into Bio compositions which innately do not have anti air. Unlike the Shadow Drake, Fel Beasts are able to contribute to a ground fight, and are thus safer choices.

Doom Guard:

Doom Guards are a ranged dps unit which boasts a splash attack. As such, they are good against clumps of units like infantry units.

Infernal Contraption:

The Infernal Contraption is a unique unit which participates in battle by summoning an Infernal from far range, and stunning enemy units on impact. While bulky melee units would normally have issues breaking concaves, this is not the case for the Infernal, which immediately enters the back line. This creates artificial flanks, effectively bypassing any defensive formation.

Thus, Infernal Contraptions can come in as an answer to artillery units or enemies who are turtling in a defensive formation.

Wraith/Succubus:

Wraiths and Succubi are the basic ranged/melee units respectively for Ghost compositions in the early stages of the composition (as opposed to early game per se, as it is difficult to field Wraiths then).

The movespeed of Wraiths can be improved with the Phantom Streamlining upgrade, alleviating their poor movement speed.

Diabolic/Voidwalker:

The Diabolic and Voidwalker are the two late game dps units for Ghost compositions. The Diabolic features a Magic attack and armour reduction on attack, while the Voidwalker has a Hero attack and a range upgrade.

Before upgrades kick in, the Diabolic’s armour reduction outshines the Voidwalker’s raw dps, but after upgrades, the Voidwalker’s increased attack range allows it to form critical mass easily, and the armour reduction from the Diabolic turns into more of a support effect.

Forgotten One:

The Forgotten One is the ultimate unit for the Fallen race and is only unlockable at the very end of the Ghost tech tree. In addition, it costs a lot of resources and takes a long time to produce.

However, the combat abilities it brings to the battlefield makes it worth its cost. It has a armour reduction aura, and two aoe dps abilities in Forgotten Fire and Chaotic Hellfire.

As a lot of its strength comes from its armour reduction aura, it is often unwise to produce multiple Forgotten Ones.

Spellcasters:
Fallen spellcasters are offensively slanted, with the Necromancer providing defensive utility, and have a sacrifice motif. This reflects the race's affinity for bloody trades in the early to mid game with Biological compositions, before slowing down into a robust deathball composition with Ghosts.

Deceiver: Can cast Dark Flattery, Cripple, Trickster.


 * Dark Flattery empowers target ally, increasing their attack damage but decreasing their armour.
 * Cripple slows target enemy temporarily.
 * Trickster swaps the positions of the Deceiver and the target enemy and deals damage to it.

The Deceiver is most adept at snowballing a won skirmish. All three of its skills are put to full use when running down a retreating army. Dark Flattery's armour reduction means nothing to a fleeing enemy, and Cripple and Trickster further enable kills on weakened enemies. The Deceiver goes hand in hand with Bandits and Spear Throwers who pursue the same ideal.

A notable synergy is casting Dark Flattery on Doom Guards, which quickly ramps up their damage to insane amounts, and allow the Doom Guards to reach critical mass with less units. On the other hand, because Ghost units gain most of their dps from their night time % damage bonus, their base damage is not that high at all, making Dark Flattery's % damage increase less effective.

Necromancer: Can cast Raise Dead, Death Coil, Unholy Charm.


 * Raise Dead raises a Zombie from a corpse.
 * Death Coil heals a target allied Ghost unit or damages an enemy living unit.
 * Unholy Charm decreases the attack damage and armour of enemies around the Necromancer.

The Necromancer has skills which clearly benefit a Ghost composition, having Raise Dead to bolster the front line which can be lacking in Ghost Compositions, and Death Coil which not only benefits compositions with low numbers of powerful units (Diabolic, Voidwalker), but is only castable on Ghost units (for healing).

Unholy Charm retains its flexibility, benefitting both Bio and Ghost compositions and this allows Necromancers to be splashed into Bio comps.

Harbinger: Can cast Death Mark, Death Foretold, Ruination.


 * Death Mark places a debuff on target enemy unit, causing it to explode if it were to be attacked while below 40% HP.
 * Death Foretold causes target ally to die after a while, but gain invulnerability and attack speed in the meantime.
 * Ruination instantly kills target unit.

The Harbinger is a powerful spellcaster unit which brings various forms of offensive spells. Having a few Harbingers Death Mark the entire enemy army is a simple yet effective way to soften up the enemy army, whilst synergizing with the various armour reduction debuffs the race offers.

Death Foretold is a spell to maximise unit efficiency. For example, while having Doom Guards, it is normally wise for the enemy to focus the Doom Guards as they are very powerful in front to back skirmishes with their splash. Casting Death Foretold while a Doom Guard is low on HP effectively makes it last longer on the battlefield, since it would have died anyway.

Ruination is a simple yet powerful spell. Ruination being able to target Ancients makes this spell worth it, making enemies reluctant to produce powerful units with no Spell Immunity as they would instantly get eliminated.

Fallen Strategy

 * Despite the tech exclusivity, it is common to transition from Biological to Ghost as Ghost units can only be produced after Dark Temple, before which there are no army units to work with. In addition, Insanity is a key spike for Biological armies, and thus converting the advantage gained from a strong timing attack into a transition is a viable option. Transitioning the other way, however is much rarer as Ghost compositions are superior in the late game. A hybrid style can be pulled off, but is rare and tech inefficient.
 * Burning Skull is the only basic air unit structure which is not a production structure itself. Because of this, unscouted (or proxied) Burning Skulls can be especially devastating, giving the enemy little warning since the production structures remain the same.
 * Ghost compositions are combat capable during the night. With the help of the Blackout ability from the Shadow Core, extended pushes are made possible. On the other hand, Blackout can be used in a pinch when defending against an attack during the day.
 * A focus on invisibility and armour reduction points towards a more hit and run style of play, with an emphasis on catching smaller groups of enemies out of position and assassinating them, before returning to the shadows again. With Ghost compositions however, this is less obvious as a pure Ghost composition doesn't have any control, thus making it easy for enemies to flee.
 * The tech requirement for Critical Strike (the Bio Attack upgrade) is the Demon Gate and Dimensional Gate, which are extremely easy to access. As a result, +3 timing attacks should always be considered as the Fallen can hit this timing the fastest and most easily.

Trivia

 * The Ghost units are the only units in game which have to play around day/night cycles.
 * Higher tier biological units also feature longer sight range during the night, albeit less extreme than Ghost units.
 * The Infernal Contraption is the only unit in the game which can only deal damage via summons.
 * Akin to the Defiled Coral Blades, the Ground +1 for Fallen is an improved Critical Strike as opposed to a standard increase in damage.
 * Is the only race to not feature building upgrades.