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This post is written to provide some guidance on how to maximize the benefit of Aphrodite's Charm Units ability.
There are essentially two main uses for the Charm Units ability: (1) to create a distraction or (2) to create and/or reinforce the troop line (commonly referred to as "wall of archers"). Using the troop charm ability to distract is pretty straightforward and does not require much comment - basically, find a cluster of troops, charm them, and then kite your gods away while they sacrifice themselves to save you! Not much more to said about it than that. The second use is what this guide is focused on, as that requires much more consideration to use properly.
The most important element in using the Charm Units ability properly to create and/or reinforce the troop line is equilibrium. As you probably know, enemy troops tend to approach your gods in waves or in large clusters. The idea of equilibrium means that your goal is to, at a minimum, not experience a net loss of troops on your side (and preferably get an increase in troops) each time you encounter a wave of enemy troops. So long as you can maintain an equilibrium, your troops will continue to push slowly into the enemy base and will protect your gods from damage while allowing them to freely use their abilities to assist with the destruction of the enemy base.
I know, I know that sounds overly complicated, so let me put it more simply: each time you encounter a new wave of enemy troops, you want your troop numbers to stay the same or get larger. How do you do this? By reducing the base's ability to generate more troops than you can handle and by eliminating dangers to your troop line. Let's take these one at a time:
1. Reduction of troop generation. While Aphrodite, leveled up properly, can easily mass charm a few building's worth of troops, she obviously can't charm every single troop in the base. So the idea is to cut their troop generation down to a point where you can charm all or at least a majority of the troop waves coming at you.
The first step to reducing troop generation is to pick the starting drop point for your gods based on what will allow you to most quickly reduce their troop generation to a more manageable level. In other words, drop where you can kill the most troop buildings.
Looking at the example base in the first photo, I would insert at the left side of the base - this will allow you to take out the Athena monument and four troop buildings on the drop, leaving you with only five troop buildings to deal with after the first twenty seconds or so (make sure to drop out of range of the Athena monument so it doesn't spawn troops). If the troop levels were still unmanageable, you have plenty of time to roll around to the bottom right side of the base and take out another four of the troop bases, leaving you with only two to deal with - well within Aphrodite's ability to control.
Too many times I see people establish a troop line on the drop, only to find themselves getting overwhelmed because they ignored troop buildings or dropped nowhere near troop buildings. To be clear, your goal is not to eliminate every troop building; rather, your goal is to eliminate troop buildings until you can control the flow of enemy troops comfortably. If you have an extremely high powered Aphrodite and their troop buildings are relatively low level, you may be able to easily handle six or more buildings. Or the reverse could be true and you may only be able to handle a couple of buildings. That means you have to very closely watch the first time you use the Charm Units ability - its effectiveness will tell you whether you can push in or whether you need to reduce troop generation further.
2. Eliminating dangers to your troop line. There are two main threats to your troop line: (a) enemy troops and (b) enemy towers. Both have to be dealt with properly.
Dealing with enemy troops is pretty straightforward: use your gods. It sounds easy, but all too frequently I see people abandon their troop line or leave their gods sitting in the back doing nothing while their troop line slowly gets whittled away. While you certainly don't want your gods shielding your troops, abilities such as Apollo's Flaming Arrows, Artemis' Hawk Storm or Ares' Whirlwind Attack can easily thin out a large group of enemy troops and preserve your troop line while eliminating the enemy's troop line. This is especially beneficial when you're getting assists, as that will quickly allow the size of your troop line to grow because those assists will actually grow your troop line rather than just being cancelled out by enemy troops.
Dealing with enemy towers requires you to keep a constant eye for threats to your troops. Take a look at the second photo. As you can see, a nice troop line has been established and the base's ability to generate troops has been significantly reduced. However, you can see that there are two obstacles currently bottlenecking the troops (the two Greek Fire Towers) and one (the Apollo monument) waiting to decimate the first cluster of friendly troops to make it past the fire towers. In order to preserve this healthy troop line, when you see situations like this you need to use your gods to take out the threats. In this case, you'd want to take out the Apollo monument first, followed quickly by the fire towers. Why this order? If you take out the fire towers first, the troops will push into range of the Apollo monument and get blown up. Better to lose a few more to the fire towers and allow them to delay the troops until the Apollo monument is dealt with. You constantly want to be monitoring the battlefield for anything that is either holding up your troops or is a threat to them.
It's especially important to do this on the initial drop as you'll see from the third and fourth photo. In the third photo you can see that this is a good initial drop location, allowing him to take out four troop bases right off the bat. He has a nice cluster of troops from Aphrodite that are ready to push in; however, as you can see he unfortunately left the Apollo monument up. The consequences of this show up in the fourth photo, taken about fifteen seconds later. As you can see from the pile of dead bodies, that Apollo monument single-handedly wiped out the troop line and now the attacker is getting overwhelmed. Basically what would happen is that as soon as Athena spawned her troops or Aphrodite charmed a cluster of troops, the Apollo monument would kill them a second later in a single shot. Had the Apollo monument been eliminated earlier, the troop line could have been saved and the attacker could have pushed in rather than have to retreat from overwhelming numbers of troops.
So that's how to take full advantage of Aphrodite's Charm Units ability in a few nutshells.
TLDR: To use Aphrodite's Charm Units ability properly, you have to both reduce the flow of enemy troops and protect your friendly troops by actively using your gods to eliminate threats.
There are essentially two main uses for the Charm Units ability: (1) to create a distraction or (2) to create and/or reinforce the troop line (commonly referred to as "wall of archers"). Using the troop charm ability to distract is pretty straightforward and does not require much comment - basically, find a cluster of troops, charm them, and then kite your gods away while they sacrifice themselves to save you! Not much more to said about it than that. The second use is what this guide is focused on, as that requires much more consideration to use properly.
The most important element in using the Charm Units ability properly to create and/or reinforce the troop line is equilibrium. As you probably know, enemy troops tend to approach your gods in waves or in large clusters. The idea of equilibrium means that your goal is to, at a minimum, not experience a net loss of troops on your side (and preferably get an increase in troops) each time you encounter a wave of enemy troops. So long as you can maintain an equilibrium, your troops will continue to push slowly into the enemy base and will protect your gods from damage while allowing them to freely use their abilities to assist with the destruction of the enemy base.
I know, I know that sounds overly complicated, so let me put it more simply: each time you encounter a new wave of enemy troops, you want your troop numbers to stay the same or get larger. How do you do this? By reducing the base's ability to generate more troops than you can handle and by eliminating dangers to your troop line. Let's take these one at a time:
1. Reduction of troop generation. While Aphrodite, leveled up properly, can easily mass charm a few building's worth of troops, she obviously can't charm every single troop in the base. So the idea is to cut their troop generation down to a point where you can charm all or at least a majority of the troop waves coming at you.
The first step to reducing troop generation is to pick the starting drop point for your gods based on what will allow you to most quickly reduce their troop generation to a more manageable level. In other words, drop where you can kill the most troop buildings.
Looking at the example base in the first photo, I would insert at the left side of the base - this will allow you to take out the Athena monument and four troop buildings on the drop, leaving you with only five troop buildings to deal with after the first twenty seconds or so (make sure to drop out of range of the Athena monument so it doesn't spawn troops). If the troop levels were still unmanageable, you have plenty of time to roll around to the bottom right side of the base and take out another four of the troop bases, leaving you with only two to deal with - well within Aphrodite's ability to control.
Too many times I see people establish a troop line on the drop, only to find themselves getting overwhelmed because they ignored troop buildings or dropped nowhere near troop buildings. To be clear, your goal is not to eliminate every troop building; rather, your goal is to eliminate troop buildings until you can control the flow of enemy troops comfortably. If you have an extremely high powered Aphrodite and their troop buildings are relatively low level, you may be able to easily handle six or more buildings. Or the reverse could be true and you may only be able to handle a couple of buildings. That means you have to very closely watch the first time you use the Charm Units ability - its effectiveness will tell you whether you can push in or whether you need to reduce troop generation further.
2. Eliminating dangers to your troop line. There are two main threats to your troop line: (a) enemy troops and (b) enemy towers. Both have to be dealt with properly.
Dealing with enemy troops is pretty straightforward: use your gods. It sounds easy, but all too frequently I see people abandon their troop line or leave their gods sitting in the back doing nothing while their troop line slowly gets whittled away. While you certainly don't want your gods shielding your troops, abilities such as Apollo's Flaming Arrows, Artemis' Hawk Storm or Ares' Whirlwind Attack can easily thin out a large group of enemy troops and preserve your troop line while eliminating the enemy's troop line. This is especially beneficial when you're getting assists, as that will quickly allow the size of your troop line to grow because those assists will actually grow your troop line rather than just being cancelled out by enemy troops.
Dealing with enemy towers requires you to keep a constant eye for threats to your troops. Take a look at the second photo. As you can see, a nice troop line has been established and the base's ability to generate troops has been significantly reduced. However, you can see that there are two obstacles currently bottlenecking the troops (the two Greek Fire Towers) and one (the Apollo monument) waiting to decimate the first cluster of friendly troops to make it past the fire towers. In order to preserve this healthy troop line, when you see situations like this you need to use your gods to take out the threats. In this case, you'd want to take out the Apollo monument first, followed quickly by the fire towers. Why this order? If you take out the fire towers first, the troops will push into range of the Apollo monument and get blown up. Better to lose a few more to the fire towers and allow them to delay the troops until the Apollo monument is dealt with. You constantly want to be monitoring the battlefield for anything that is either holding up your troops or is a threat to them.
It's especially important to do this on the initial drop as you'll see from the third and fourth photo. In the third photo you can see that this is a good initial drop location, allowing him to take out four troop bases right off the bat. He has a nice cluster of troops from Aphrodite that are ready to push in; however, as you can see he unfortunately left the Apollo monument up. The consequences of this show up in the fourth photo, taken about fifteen seconds later. As you can see from the pile of dead bodies, that Apollo monument single-handedly wiped out the troop line and now the attacker is getting overwhelmed. Basically what would happen is that as soon as Athena spawned her troops or Aphrodite charmed a cluster of troops, the Apollo monument would kill them a second later in a single shot. Had the Apollo monument been eliminated earlier, the troop line could have been saved and the attacker could have pushed in rather than have to retreat from overwhelming numbers of troops.
So that's how to take full advantage of Aphrodite's Charm Units ability in a few nutshells.
TLDR: To use Aphrodite's Charm Units ability properly, you have to both reduce the flow of enemy troops and protect your friendly troops by actively using your gods to eliminate threats.
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