Unleash the North! Your Guide to Northern Alliance Units in Kings of War

Army Name: Northern Alliance
Total Units: 35
Units with Crushing Strength ≥ 1: 16
Units with Piercing ≥ 1: 3
Avg Points: 165.3
Avg Defense: 4.3
Avg Melee: 3.5
Avg Speed: 6.3
Unique Keywords (count): 34

Note: This summary only includes non-individual units. Individuals have more keywords, which are difficult to include in the Elo simulation accurately.

Most Cost-Effective Units

Understanding the Table

Elo Ratings and Cost-Effectiveness:
To evaluate how Northern Alliance units perform for their points, I ran each unit through 1.25 million combat simulations. The model tracks two main metrics to measure efficiency:

• Elo per Point: This metric evaluates the efficiency of each unit by dividing its Elo rating by its point cost. It offers insight into the unit’s performance in relation to its cost.
• Elo Difference: Derived from a regression model, this metric indicates the difference between the unit’s actual Elo and its expected performance based on cost and size. Positive values indicate better-than-expected performance, while negative values suggest underperformance.

Combined Cost-Effectiveness:
To pull those two numbers together, I blend Elo per Point (60%) and Elo Difference (40%) into a single combined rating. That gives a balanced look at both raw points-efficiency and performance relative to unit size.

One-Turn Break Potential:
I also tested how reliably each unit can break an opponent in a single charge, running 100 simulations against two standard targets: a typical medium unit (Defense 4, Nerve 13/15) and a heavy anvil (Defense 5, Nerve 16/18).

Here is how the roster breaks down once you put the stats next to the simulation data.

Takeaways

The Northern Alliance is a synergy-heavy faction that got a significant rework in CoK 2024. They have a variety of quality units, but from a combat perspective, the best performers are the various titan options (especially with the change to Frost Giants by adding Fury and Chilling Presence) and the Pack Hunter regiments. They’re cheap and stealthy, and with 24″ bows now are more effective from range. At the same time, they punch above their weight in combat as well. The new Hearthguard stand out as well: 20 attacks on 3s with CS2 will hurt most units, but they’re fragile and can be difficult to get into combat. That said, most of the list holds its own in combat, and the only clear combat outliers are snow foxes–and if you’re relying on snow foxes to win combats, you’re playing the Northern Alliance wrong.

Ice Naiads gained value from Regeneration and the Phalanx upgrade. As a horde, they can anchor a battleline; as a regiment, they can hold objectives and are harder to remove with shooting or fast flyers. Lifeleech (2) and spears add to their staying power, though their points cost can add up.

Speed 10 Frostclaw riders could change how players build the list. They’re the poor man’s Scorchwings: expensive, but they add new options. I expect players to try them over the next few months before the common builds settle.