9 Kings: King of Blood Ballista Strategy

To run an effective King of Blood build in 9 Kings, treat your frontline units as disposable resources to fund a massive ballista backend. The King of Blood relies on high unit turnover to trigger passive gold generation and Monarch effects, allowing you to recruit and maintain a large volume of siege artillery.

Building the Sacrifice Engine

The King of Blood scales by cycling units off the board rather than committing heavily to individual unit upgrades. To establish your economy early in the match:

• Maintain a wide board state: Flood your territory with cheap, low-cost units to maximize passive triggers.
• Avoid over-investing in single-unit upgrades: Prioritize recruitment volume to keep unit cycling fast and continuous.
• Rotate the frontline: Continually send basic units forward to absorb damage and clear space for high-value artillery.

Cycling units quickly yields the gold flow necessary to construct and maintain siege workshop output without stalling your early progression.

Scaling and Positioning Ballistas

Because ballistas possess weak defensive stats, placement and production pacing dictate whether your backline survives.

1. Deploy behind a active shield: Position all ballista squads strictly behind disposable ground units. If enemy melee forces breach the frontline, fragile artillery lines collapse rapidly.
2. Expand siege infrastructure: Direct early research and building upgrades toward reducing artillery recruitment time and raising siege workshop capacity.
3. Build toward target volume: Aim to build up to 4,000 ballistas over the course of the match, creating an overlapping range zone that negates incoming ground troops.
4. Recruit in deliberate waves: Avoid draining your entire gold reserve in a single turn. Scale artillery in planned batches to align with your turn-by-turn income.

Gold Management and Economic Priorities

High-volume artillery strategies require continuous gold management to prevent economic collapse from upkeep costs.

• Gold Loop Stability: Secure a consistent base income during early turns before making heavy investments in artillery.
• Upkeep Reduction: Select perks or relics that specifically decrease the recruitment and maintenance costs of ranged units.
• Recycling Space: Use the King of Blood's sacrifice mechanics to clear out low-utility units, recovering part of their investment cost while opening board space for additional ballistas.

Countering Build Vulnerabilities

Massive artillery groups are vulnerable to area-of-effect (AoE) spells, high-piercing strikes, long-range casters, and fast anti-artillery units that bypass frontlines.

To protect your backline against sudden wipes:

• Reserve board capacity for support: Allocate 10% to 15% of your total board space to defensive support units rather than filling every spot with artillery.
• Hold gold reserves: Keep a buffer of unspent gold to immediately rebuild frontline blockers or replace lost ballistas if your primary defensive line breaks.