Carpet Bombing

Introduction
This battle group is aimed for maximizing area of effect(AoE) damage, while minimizing casualties, without spending too much energy on moving.

To begin with, here is the core attribute of champions:

As you can see, the Alchemist, Axeman and Bandit all have fairly high defence and health, as well as base damage, compared to other units with range > 1. And the reason why I didn't upgrade the Apprentice is her attributes are almost the same as Tier 2, and she has both nuking and healing abilities. It might be a good idea to upgrade one of them to a Sorceress, as she has better health+defence and higher damage output; and the other to a Cleric, who has a longer skill range.

The Alchemist is my favorite champion so far. Since Oil Burst and Ubernade  are considered AoE, which means they potentially both have 1 extra threat range, and can hit units on high ground even when the Alchemist has no vision on them. Such better coverage is extremely valuable because you can stand on an Energy Tile and still have the luxury of choosing targets, without have to move too frequently. And for the best part, THEY DO NOT AFFECT YOUR OWN UNIT as of version 1.1.4 (unless your champ steps on the bottle while moving). Finally, doing AoE has the best damage/energy ratio in the game, which is obvious.

To counter the AoE from the Alchemist, the best way is to stand in a straight line, which becomes a perfect target for Penetrating Shot from the Bandit.

Strategies
Opener:


 * 1) Move all of your units forward, try to grab the center with the Bandit, and the side power squares with the Alchemist and the Axeman.
 * 2) Use Reflect reflect.png on the Bandit, transforming her into a real tank (with a cannon!).
 * 3) Cast the Axeman's Resharpening resharpening.png, wait until 5 energy then move to wherever you can hit multiple squishy units with Cleave cleave.png

General Guideline:


 * 1) Use AoE skills whenever you can hit multiple units. Exceptions include: your champ has 3 energy and will be killed before reaching 5; your opponent's nuker is reaching 5 energy and can be killed by a basic attack.
 * 2) Try to apply Oil Burst oil_burst.png before using Ubernade ubernade.png or Fire Bolt fire_bolt.png  (when target has more than 200hp remaining of course). Extra 100 damage per unit with only 4 energy is a bargain. (Another trick is to use Oil Burst oil_burst.png on a unit that is already burning. This will extend the burning duration.)
 * 3) Change your formation in order to hit multiple units with AoE skills, forcing your opponent's champions to waste 2 energy to evade or take the hit.
 * 4) Try to move an Apprentice apprentice.jpg to where she can heal other champs.
 * 5) This champ mix also has all three damage types (Physical, Magical and Technical). Memorize which champ is vulnerable to which damage type to maximize damage output.
 * 6) Eliminate high priority targets when they rush into good positions, eg a Ghoul with multiple stacks; Axeman and Alchemist etc.

Tips

 * 1) The AoE from Oil Burst oil_burst.png and Ubernade ubernade.png only happens when the bottle explodes on an empty square, which means your opponent can intentionally step on the square to receive debuff/damage on a single unit.
 * 2) Ubernade ubernade.png does more damage when directly hitting a target.
 * 3) The extra damage from Oil Burst oil_burst.png includes about 50% on-hit and 50% from burning over time. And yes, the burning damage is affected by target's defence.
 * 4) This champ mix-up generally does not do well against mostly-tanky battle groups, due to lacking single target nuking.
 * 5) Change formation and even give up power squares to prevent your opponent from bursting down your champs too frequently.

Hope you find this guide helpful and enjoy this awesome game!

Contributor
Ylthine