Behemoth and Ancient Behemoth

Stronghold creatures
Level 1
Goblin
Hobgoblin
Level 2
Wolf Rider
Wolf Raider
Level 3
Orc
Orc Chieftain
Level 4
Ogre
Ogre Mage
Level 5
Roc
Thunderbird
Level 6
Cyclops
Cyclops King
Level 7
Behemoth
Ancient Behemoth
Towns

Statistics
Behemoth
Cost per troop  1500
	Attack 17 Defense 17 Damage 30–50 Health 160 Speed 6 Movement Ground Size 2 Growth 1 AI Value 3162
Special abilities:
• Attack reduces enemy's defense by 40% and 1 point temporarily
Ancient Behemoth
Cost per troop  3000 1
	Attack 19 Defense 19 Damage 30–50 Health 300 Speed 9 Movement Ground Size 2 Growth 1 AI Value 6168
Special abilities:
• Attack reduces enemy's defense by 80% and 1 point temporarily
Portraits

Behemoths and Ancient Behemoths are level 7 creatures of Stronghold town. They are recruited from the Behemoth Lair (while the external dwelling is Behemoth Crag).

"The attack of these giant creatures is so overwhelming it reduces their target's ability to mount further defenses. The attack of the behemoth reduces target defense value by 40%. Ancient behemoth attacks reduce it by 80%." ^{RoE manual}

Heroes with a specialty

• Kilgor the Barbarian has behemoths as a specialty, which gives them +5 Attack, +5 Defense and +10 Damage.

Tactics and info

User commentary

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The defense is reduced only for the Behemoth's attack, and is returned to normal immediately after that.

The Behemoths deal incredibly high melee damage thanks to their special ability. They seem resilient having 160-300 Health, but are quite fragile due to very low (for a 7th level unit) Defense, thus being "glass cannon" unit that both hits hard and gets hit hard in return.

30-50 damage range means they are good targets for Bless and Curse spells.

Being quite slow walkers, Haste, Teleport and Prayer are great buffs to cast on Behemoths. Conversely Slow combined with ranged troops works well when fighting them.

The best defense against Behemoths is keeping them out of melee. They hit hard, but also take a lot of damage themselves that is only mitigated by their high Health, so use Slow, ranged troops, Blind or Berserk while you deal with other stacks.

Their own Attack is very low. Reducing it with spells like Weakness so their attack value doesn't exceed opposing unit's Defense as much as it normally would takes away a lot of their damage potential. Increasing Attack usually isn't as high priority as increasing their damage and speed, as it is compared to only 60%/20% of opposing stack's Defense.

Behemoths also have very low Defense. When using them, consider patching this vulnerability with Shield or Stone Skin spells or Armorer. When fighting them, exploit it - they can dish out damage very well, but aren't as great in taking it.

In melee, do not use Stone Skin against Behemoths as they ignore most of the bonus defense anyway. Use Shield spell instead, as it's not defense buff but flat damage taken reduction, and it greatly reduces Behemoths' killing power. Fire Shield is good defensive buff too, as it reflects part of damage dealt before mitigations, and Behemoths deal very high melee damage.

Because Defense works only partially against Behemoths, don't use Defend command in melee against them, as it sacrifices your stack's turn and possible attack for a very small defense bonus that will be mostly ignored anyway.

Use "sacrificial" expendable stacks to take counterattacks instead of your more valuable units, so the hard hitters can live longer and keep dealing damage to Behemoths. Thus casting Counterstrike on Behemoths is something to consider when fighting several melee stacks.

Damage-increasing spells also work well, as Behemoths take a lot of damage themselves. Bless, Bloodlust, Precision, Prayer, Slayer are all viable buffs for your army when fighting Behemoths. Frenzy is a somewhat special case - normally it's double-edged sword, increasing Attack at the cost of Defense, but in melee against Behemoths your stacks have only a fraction of their normal Defense, so this spell becomes less useful unless cast on unreachable ranged stack.

Direct damage spells work well on unupgraded Behemoths due to their low Health. Ancient Behemoths boasting 300 HP might be better dealt with using your army.

An Ancient Behemoth is among the few recruitable level 7 creatures that can defeat an Archangel in one-on-one combat, another example being the Haspid from Horn of the Abyss expansion. (A Titan can also defeat an Archangel one-on-one by defending 4 times and then attacking).

Analysis of the special ability

They ignore 40%/80% of the opponents defense. Depending on their attack value to the opponents defense Value, there are two scenarios:

• Scenario I: The Behemoths have more attack than the defending creature's defense (then, every attack the Behemoths have more than the defending creatures defense increases their damage by 5%)
• Scenario II: The Behemoths have less attack than the defending creature's defense (then, every defense the defending creature has more then the Behemoths attack decreases the damage taken by 2.5%)

Below, you see how much this is for some attack/defense values. As can be seen, this ability is becoming more and more useful in the late-game. Increase your hero's attack as much as possible for maximum effect.

Note that the maximal difference between an attacker's attack and the defender's defense is capped (see damage calculation). If the attacker has more than 60 more attack, it is capped at 60 (translates to a 300% damage increase). If the defender has more than 28 more defense, the difference is capped at 28 (translates to 70% less damage).

Behemoths Table

					Base	Base
					30	50
Behemoth's Attack	Defender's Defense	Defense After Ability	Diff (capped at +60 and -28)	Increased Damage	Damage Low	Damage High
20	10	5	15	75%	52	87
20	20	11	9	45%	43	72
20	30	17	3	15%	34	57
20	40	23	-3	-7.5%	27	46
20	50	29	-9	-22.5%	22	37
30	20	11	19	95%	58	97
30	30	17	13	65%	49	82
30	40	23	7	35%	40	67
30	50	29	1	5%	31	52
30	60	35	-5	-12.5%	26	43
50	20	11	39	195%	88	147
50	35	20	30	150%	75	125
50	50	29	21	105%	61	102
50	65	38	12	60%	48	80
50	80	47	3	15%	34	57
70	25	14	56	280%	114	190
70	40	23	47	235%	100	167
70	55	32	38	190%	87	145
70	70	41	29	145%	73	122
70	85	50	20	100%	60	100
90	30	17	60	300%	120	200
90	50	29	60	300%	120	200
90	70	41	49	245%	103	172
90	90	53	37	185%	85	142
90	100	59	31	155%	76	127

Ancient Behemoths Table

					Base	Base
					30	50
Ancient Behemoth's Attack	Defender's Defense	Defense After Ability	Diff (capped at +60 and -28)	Increased Damage	Damage Low	Damage High
20	10	1	19	95%	58	97
20	20	3	17	85%	55	92
20	30	5	15	75%	52	87
20	40	7	13	65%	49	82
20	50	9	11	55%	46	77
30	20	3	27	135%	70	117
30	30	5	25	125%	67	112
30	40	7	23	115%	64	107
30	50	9	21	105%	61	102
30	60	11	19	95%	58	97
50	20	3	47	235%	100	167
50	35	6	44	220%	96	160
50	50	9	41	205%	91	152
50	65	12	38	190%	87	145
50	80	15	35	175%	82	137
70	20	3	60	300%	120	200
70	35	6	60	300%	120	200
70	50	9	60	300%	120	200
70	75	14	56	280%	114	190
70	90	17	53	265%	109	182
90	30	5	60	300%	120	200
90	50	9	60	300%	120	200
90	70	13	60	300%	120	200
90	90	17	60	300%	120	200
90	100	19	60	300%	120	200

See also:

• List of creatures