Mercival
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 Cherrystone Kingdom
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| "The noble King of Cherrystone. A just and wise ruler" | |
| Unit Details | |
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| Bio | |
| Age: | 59 |
| Height: | 185 cm. |
| Favorite Thing: | His precious Bluebird. |
| Least Favorite Thing: | Anobium punctatum, scourge of the book-lover! |
| Unit Type | |
 Most powerful unit type. Able to use a special ability. If they fall the battle is lost. | |
| Information | |
| Movement: | 4 
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| Range: | 1 |
| Sight: | 4 |
| Effective: |         |
| Vulnerable: | |
| Capture: | yes |
| “ | “King Mercival II ruled Cherrystone for several decades, nurturing peace and prosperity in the kingdom. A wise and fair king, Mercival was much beloved by his people, and even more so by his daughter and only child, Mercia.” |
Mercival II was the beloved King of the Cherrystone Kingdom. He was the father of Mercia, and considered Emeric, Cherrystone's Royal Mage, his most trusted friend and advisor. Mercival was assassinated in his chamber at Cherrystone Castle by Sigrid of the Felheim Legion, who was seeking an artifact called the Key. On the night of his assassination, he had been debating how to tell Mercia about a secret of the ancient past involving a kingdom called Cacophony and a war known as The Great Dissonance, but was killed before he could pass on his knowledge, and his demise sparked a conflict between Cherrystone and Felheim.
Mercival appears as a commander in the Campaign prologue mission The Beginning. He does nothing during his turns except produce dialogue, and he is killed by Sigrid in a cutscene rather than normal combat. He can be unlocked for use in other modes.
Story[edit]
During the events of the Prologue, Mercival lays awake in his studies, debating on how to tell his daughter, Mercia, about the extinct kingdom Cacophany and the war known as The Great Dissonance. However, Sigrid, who sought to assassinate the King and take a Key, enters his studies and attacks him. Wounded, Mercival warned the High Vampire that she would start a war between the Cherrystone Kingdom and Felheim. Sigrid, however, dismisses this, and finally ends Mercival's life. Sigrid is unsuccessful in finding the Key, and leaves the Castle with mercival defeated.
Groove[edit]
Mercival's Groove is Gone Fishing. He casts a fishing pole into an adjacent water tile and pulls up a random fish. This Groove has no utility in normal gameplay, but is instead used to unlock entries in the Fish tab of the Codex. There are 18 Fish Codex entries in total, and unlocking the 18th entry also rewards the game's 200th star.
| Animation | Groove Name | Description | Range | Charge Speed |
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Gone Fishing | Mercival raises his rod to the sky and casts his fishing line into an adjacent pool of water. | ☐☐☐▧☐☐☐ ☐☐▧☒▧☐☐ ☐☐☐▧☐☐☐ |
Medium |
Strategy[edit]
| “ | “Sea and river each make for equally good fishing. Just remember, casting is all in the wrist and elbow!” |
| — Mercival's Bio [1] |
Aside from the Fish Codex, Mercival's Groove serves no useful function, therefore it is best to see Mercival as having no Groove at all. In fact, the Groove actually hurts Mercival, as the game does not allow him to fully walk onto River or Shore while his Groove is charged up. This makes him objectively the weakest Commander in the game, however it is not impossible to optimise Mercival play. Unlike other Commanders, Mercival has negative, or at best zero, value gain from Groove Charge, this means combat for the sake of Groove is not a worthwhile trade, instead Mercival must be used specifically for overall combat potential. This can mean optimal Mercival play may skip certain combat opportunities where no other Commander would. For example it can often be wiser to attack a Spearman instead of a Soldier, because while Soldiers can be killed in one attack, providing a huge boon to Groove, for Mercival the Spearman is not only higher value, but also a bigger threat, so will gain far more attacking into that rather than going for the Groove opportunity. Additionally, because all other Commanders are gaining some value from their Groove, Mercival is progressively worse the longer a battle goes on. If a fight can be finished before the enemy even reaches a full Groove, Mercival is likely to be stronger, because he (should have) ignored the Groove opportunities which were ultimately worthless. To this end, Mercival desperately wants to minimise all Groove exchanges for either side, because this can only ever benefit his opponent, therefore Mercival wants to minimise combat into the enemy Commander, and work as an active deterrent for the enemy Commander to fight his weaker units. Conversely, in the face of some rush-orientated commanders like Valder, it might be wiser to intentionally slow and escalate the scope of a battle, until their Groove effect becomes too minimal to be worthwhile due to the abundance of high-power units already on the battlefield, hoping for an endgame scenario where the opponent's Groove is not much better than having no Groove at all, so as to minimise the gap between Mercival and his opponent. It is worth remembering, however, if Mercival does fully charge Groove, you may need to use it to not lose River or Shore mobility, therefore should aim to find locations to spend Groove where Mercival is losing the least amount of positional pressure as a result of this.
Countering Mercival is somewhat inherent to simply using your Commander's Groove, but knowing that Mercival gains no benefit from Groove opens up various aggressive strategies that do not apply anywhere else. For example capturing a village in range of a full health Mercival has no value loss, because even if Mercival attacks and defeats the Village, this is a net-neutral outcome, meaning you can repeatedly capture structures or leave soldiers in range of Mercival, knowing that the loss of his position and pressure is far worse for him than it is for anyone else. You can also force Mercival to lose mobility if he gains Groove at an inoportune time and the map has rivers or shores.
Unlocking[edit]
Of the three unlockable commanders in Wargroove, Mercival has the most involved process. First, 151 stars must be collected. Next, four Campaign Side missions must be played in chronological order, and Caesar must be placed on a special tile with a statue on it in each mission. The missions are:
- Canine Justice (Act 2, Side 1)
- Puppy in the Middle (Act 3, Side 1)
- Dogged Perseverance (Act 5, Side 1)
- Salty Sea Dog (Act 6, Side 1)
Placing Caesar on the correct tile will reward an Orb. The mission must then be successfully completed to keep the Orb. Once all four Orbs have been collected in the correct order, Mercival will be unlocked.
Trivia[edit]
- Mercival is voiced by David Dixon.[2]
- Mercival is able to use his groove in any type of water tiles, even in the volcano biome style.
References[edit]
- ↑ In Game Codex Entry
- ↑ https://wargroove.com/role-call/
