Due to the change in the range for the golem ambusher and the recent 1-turn wait rule, I’ve seen an overall decline in the use of the ambusher (GA or bushy for short). I decided to write this review to let the community know that the GA still has enough potential to, if used properly, deal a devastating blow on your opponent.

Before you can learn how to use the golem ambusher, you must first know its general characteristics. The golem ambusher has:

• 60 HP
• 20 attacking damage
• Range of 4 to 5 tiles away (not affected by Line of Sight)
• Movement of up to 2 tiles (non-teleporting)
• Wait of 3 turns (1 for movement, 2 for attack)

The GA is an essential unit for freestyle games in my opinion for the following reasons:

• It makes it easier to take out a same-side cleric
• It makes it easier to break the focus of the Stone Golem, Poison Wisp, Enchantress, Frost Golem, and Barrier Ward
• It does significant damage of 20 HP
• It is not dependent on Line of Sight (LOS)

Now we will talk about where to put the golem ambusher. The two most common places in which to place a golem ambusher are on the front row either 3 or 4 spaces away from the wall. However, I feel very strongly that placing the ambusher 4 spaces away from the wall is much more advantageous than 3, and here’s why. If the ambusher is only 3 away from the wall on the same side as your opponent’s cleric, then they only need to block the tile right in front of the ambusher. With the new first turn rule, it is much easier to protect a same-side cleric from the GA, although most don’t know how to do it properly. A ambusher placed 3 tiles away from the wall is much easier to defend because your opponent can move directly in front, both blocking access to the cleric and dealing damage to the ambusher, as seen here:



Contrary to positioning the ambusher 3 tiles away from the wall, placing it 4 tiles away forces your opponent to block 2 spots, rather than one, as seen in red in this example:



Now we see 2 open spots for the ambusher to move to that will allow it access to the cleric, whereas there was only 1 spot in the other position. Even if the other spot is covered, your opponent will still need to waste a move without attacking to cover the space directly in front of the cleric, which might be crucial to the outcome of the game.

Now that the cleric has been brought down to 4 health, this is where a mud golem can be used to take him out entirely, as seen here:



Moving the mud golem to either of the 3 positions highlighted in red and “mud-quaking” will kill your opponent’s cleric if they have not already healed. In the form seen above, the scout is located on the ambusher side as well and can be used to finish off the cleric if your opponent heals OR break the focus spell of a frost golem or enchantress if your mud golem or ambusher gets paralyzed. Once the opposing cleric is dead, I would highly suggest to quake as much as possible with your mud so as to deal as much damage and destruction on your opponent as possible, free of healing.

As seen in the previous few screenshots, placing a mud and scout on the same side as your GA will allow for even more power in killing your opponents cleric as well as a lot of other possibilities such as:

• Golem Ambusher and 5 HP ground pound by Mud Golem (20+5=25)
• Poison Wisp and Golem Ambusher (8+20=28)
• Golem Ambusher and Scout - even with a heal (20-12+18=26)
• Two shots from Golem Ambusher - even with a heal (20-12+20=28)

Now we will take a look at an example of a situation you might find yourself in that the golem ambusher can help get you out of. I cannot stress enough that the golem ambusher’s independence of Line of Sight is an extreme advantage. In this example, the mud golem is frozen by the frost golem and all of the Line of Sight for the scout is covered with shrubs, preventing the scout from breaking the focus.



However, despite the covered Line of Sight, the golem ambusher can once again be sent to the rescue to break the focus of the frost golem as seen here:



Despite the fact that the most obvious advantage of the golem ambusher is to kill clerics and break the focus of opposing units, there are other reasons to use it even if your opponent’s setup is on the opposite side. In an opposite side game, the ambusher can be used as a long range unit that can do decent damage to other units from the side. Like a scout or mud golem, it can be teamed up with a dragon to take out an opposing player’s scouts. Also in an opposite side game, if your opponent does not kill your GA right away, you can slowly creep it over to the other side to do things such as breaking focus without being affected by LOS.

However, despite the numerous things that the golem ambusher has going for it, there are also some disadvantages to it as well. Disadvantages include:

• Unable to attack opposing units within 3 tiles of itself (thus making it easier for Knights and other close range attacking units to take it out)
• No blocking
• No armor
• An arguably long 3-turn wait

I hope this review can persuade some of both our newer and older members to give the Golem Ambusher a try. Special thanks to C.H.I.L.L. for helping me with the screenshots.