At Forge of Empires Tips; we are always on the lookout for the military units that can advance our military strategy and take our empire to the next level; enter the Rogue. Here, we have written a Forge of Empires Rogue guide, so you can get the most from what this potentially powerful unit has to offer…

Rogues are a unique fighting unit. For a start, you can only train Rogue units if you own and have built the coveted Rogue hideout. This is only available through the Inno contest and through special events. So if you are a new beginner to Forge of Empires – this guide is not for you. Instead, we suggest you look HERE.

The Rogue – a Quick Primer:

The Rogue is unique because it doesn’t remain a Rogue for long. When you enter a battle, the first enemy hit your Rogue takes transforms it into one of your existing live units. This is where you need to be careful – if you have no other units (other than Rogues), then the Rogue is destroyed/killed/obliterated in an instant and on this first hit. This can happen even if you take a hit from the lowest and weakest unit, i.e. a Spearman. Remember this! But we will discuss Rogue strategies in more detail later in the artcle.

Rogue Hideouts

For those of you who are reading this and have no Rogue Hideouts, the first thing you are going to need to do is obtain some. Notice we said some, we actually suggest you aim to get as many as possible.

To do this, you will need to participate in one of the special events where you can win prizes from InnoGames. Events like the Winter Event, the Summer Casino, the Easter Event, etc.

At Forge of Empires Tips, we advise you to save all your special events points/spins for the end of the event – that is when the Rogue hideout is offered.

Diamonds spent on Rogue Hideouts are a worthwhile investment as well. You will also want to use diamonds to open up all 5 slots in the Rogue Hideout barracks.

We advise that you try to get as many Rogue Hideouts as you can. Following our own advice, in one of the worlds in our own game, we managed to establish 8 Rogue Hideouts and an Alcatraz Great Building. It goes without saying that we had tons and tons of Rogues. Our reasoning is quite simple; you want a horde of Rogues because they take 24 hours to train. Having more Rogues means that you can save time and get ready for battle more quickly without having to wait for training times. We must point out here, that if you do not fight in the Guild vs. Guild wars, you can get away with fewer Rogues in your Army.

Forge of Empires Rogue Guide: The Suggested Army Setup

How to use Rogues in your Defending Army

Let’s begin with your defending army. Never… let us emphasise… NEVER use an all Rogue defence. Additionally, we also advise that you do not deploy a defence that is mostly made up of Rogues. This is because Rogues die off with a single hit if there are no other troop types left in your army. Placing all Rogues in your defence army is asking for defeat each and every time. Aside from this tip, there are many techniques you can develop with your Rogues in your defending Army. For no player uses the same technique for using Rogues in their defending army. In our own games and experience, we like to use one to three Rogues in our defending army in all ages lower than the Modern Era. This seems to work best and provides us with the most optimum results. But whilst we offer you advice here at Forge of Empires Tips, be sure to experiment. Try using different combinations of troops with various numbers of Rogues. See what works, see what doesn’t. That’s what Forge of Empires is all about! In essence, there is no single solution for your city defence. It will depend on what Age/Era you are in, what troops you have unlocked as well as what other players there are in your neighbourhood.

How to use Rogues in your Attacking Army

This is a military unit that varies quite dramatically depending on your goal; Rogues in your attacking army is a whole different story. The Rogue packs a whopping 100 hit points (higher if you have attack boosts) if he strikes an enemy. This is HUGE!

Additionally, the Inno AI/Auto defence program has a “blind” spot that you can take advantage of when using Rogues and attacking manually. Here’s the tip: In the Ages/Eras lower than the Modern Era, the AI/Auto defence will tend go after your Rogues when they get within striking distance. Since the Rogue can move 14 spaces at a time, simply hold back your other striking troops giving your Rogues a chance to become a threat. When the Rogue gets hit, it transforms into one of the “other” troop types you have on the battlefield (at full strength) and it is much closer to the enemy!

Of course, you will need to select appropriate “other” troops; this will be extremely important to this strategy. Besides, it’s important to remember that you cannot tell which of the other troops your Rogues will transform into.

So Imagine this – you are fighting in the Iron Age. Your army consists of 2 Archers, 2 Legionnaires, 2 Ballistas and 2 Rogues. You have done some damage to the enemy with your Ballistas and your Rogues are more than halfway down the battlefield. Now here is the thing. You cannot pre-determine if your Rogues will transform into Legionnaires or Ballistas! Legionnaires over halfway down the battlefield would be great with their striking power and high defence value. Ballista’s halfway down the battlefield would be… well not so great. They would get slaughtered!

So in our hypothetical example, you would want to try this: 3 Legionnaires and 5 Rogues. During the first 2-3 rounds of battle, try to keep your Legionnaires out of harm’s way from enemy Ballista’s and Archers. In short, keep them alive. Move your Rogues as far as you can so they become a threat and the auto-defense has to attack them. Now you will have 8 Legionnaires with 2 or 3 of them on the enemies turf on the field of battle. Take out their long range troops first, move up your original Legionnaires and you should win this battle.

You see, it is about deploying an effective supporting army alongside Rogues. Do this right, and Rogues can be an incredibly powerful and effective unit!

To illustrate further, let’s look at another scenario to obtain a relatively simple win. This time, where you now deploy 3 Mercenaries and 5 Rogues. The difference here is that Mercenaries can move farther across the battlefield than Rogues and they get a defence bonus for hiding in shrubs and trees. If Keep your Mercenaries in shrubs and trees close to your side of the battlefield while advancing your Rogues. Again, this should be a fairly easy victory.

In more advanced Ages/Eras you can get troops such as the Ranger and Jaeger that are “stealth” in trees. You can use 2 or 3 of these with 5 Rogues and hide them in trees close to your side of the battlefield until your Rogues transform. In this case, advance as many Rogues as possible to positions that are in trees so once they transform, they are in stealth mode and not seen by the enemy. Just be careful of those more rarely deployed units, like the Howitzer, that ignore stealth mode. In these kind of cases, as long as you are mindful of the ranges in which these units can fire, you can still be successful using this style of Rogue Attack.

The fact of the matter is, Rogues can be incredibly powerful in an attacking army, IF deployed correctly. You need to consider the rest of your supporting Army to ensure that when they are hit, they transform into something far more effective than the enemy can handle!

So there you have it, our Forge of Empires Rogue Guide; how to make the most of what this unit has to offer from both a defence and offensive standpoint.

If you liked our Forge of Empires Rogue Guide, be sure to comment below and write your tips for this unit.

And don’t forget to subscribe to our Facebook Page and hit that like button to support us!

Alternatively, learn more Forge of Empires Tips, by going back to our other Guides