Swordmaster
The Swordmaster is a Melee tier 3 infantry unit in Symphony of War and is the ultimate Light Infantry that targets a single unit, capable of dealing massive amounts of damage to enemy front lines with their 
double attacks. Their extremely high 
Skill means they will perform critical hits often.
The Swordmaster's core draw is attacking twice each volley; though of note the 
Champion and 
Risen Warrior also share this feature. The Swordmaster distinguishes herself from these 2 by having much higher Skill and thus a much higher crit rate; while also contributing to the 
Light Infantry movement type and having the 
Guerilla trait for added accuracy & evasion. This boosted offense does come at the expense of her Defense; where the Swordmaster has few favorable defensive match-ups outside of what Guerilla can offer on Ambush Tiles (though they're often vulnerable to being 
Ambushed themselves in such locations.)
Stats 
| Stats | Base | Growth | Lvl 1 | Lvl 54 | From Tier1 | |||
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Med | Med | ~101 | ~304 | - | |||
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Med | Med | ? | 100 | +?~22 | |||
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Low | Med | 15 | 50 | +5 | |||
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Med | High | ~30 | ~59 | +10 | |||
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Low | Low | ~11 | ~24 | - | |||
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High | High | ~52 | ~80 | +25 | |||
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Med | Med | ~ | ~1572 | ~247 |
Related Technologies
| Tech: | ||
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Martial Traditions | Gain Class Points 15% faster. |
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Mixed Unit Tactic | Gains +3 weapon power for each different archetype of unit added to the squad, starting from the second.
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Journeyman Leathercraft | +5 Armor
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Behemoth Leather Armor | +5 Armor (+10 total)
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Battle Details
| Battle Detials: | ||
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| Round 1 | Two Melee Slashing Attacks,  Light Volley (9th), at 1 range.
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| Round 2 | Two Melee Slashing Attacks, Light Volley (9th), at 1 range.
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| Extra Attack | Two Melee Slashing Attacks, Light Volley (9th), at 1 range.
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| Other Detials: | ||
Strategy
Tactics
Swordmaster's high damage output paired with low bulk makes them significantly better on player-phase than enemy-phase, as they can translate their high offense into a good defense by decimating opposing squads before they unleash their first volley of attacks.
Otherwise: Swordmaster's poor overall durability means they're squads usually want to dance around enemy attack ranges to strike at the opportune moment; as Swordmasters themselves can struggle surviving in an enemy-phase heavy squad; even more so than Supports or Magicians that at least have a good defensive matchup vs. 
Magic.
Squads
As a Light Infantry unit that can push a squad to that end and gain the benefits of Ambush attacks, it's worth leveraging the Swordmaster's assets here.
Of course: they deal so much damage regardless of what squad-type they're in, making them a good addition to a wide variety of squad types.
Below are a few examples of how to use them or were to put them:
 Light Infantry Squad:
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 Light Cavalry Squad:
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Kill Squad:
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Broadly speaking Swordmaster's enjoy positioning that doesn't fare that well against 
Stealth Attackers, which is something to keep in mind for what squads they want to help out, how to utilize their squad on the field, and what positioning and zoning concerns they're going to have.
As Opponents:
Swordmasters threaten killing a wide range of units.
Their powerful double-hit attacks have the trifecta of high damage, hit, and crit: enabling them to threaten big damage even against the likes of 
Sentinels or Champions; while being as dangerous as firearms units to everything else (if not more so).
They also push their squad towards Ambushing; which causes it's own problems. Swordmaster's poor defensive match-ups against most units paired with Ambushing only working during the acting player's phase does tend to make the easiest solution acting first.
Stunning them (or shocking them) with Knights and Valkyries is often a strong option: especially given these usually have enough Armor and HP to survive significant counter-attack damage either way.
Squads with a 
Sorceress are also a strong option: given their 
Stun and Daze chance can also shut down any Swordmaster a squad can't overwhelm with raw power; and Swordmaster's surprisingly bad bulk against Magic attacks is also a good way to overwhelm their defenses.
Redundancy with 
AoE 
attacks splashing onto Swordmasters also makes it less likely they win every dodge check; while simultaneously increasing the likelihood they take damage when your squad is picking sub-optimal targets.
For their evasiveness: 
Target leader's 35% Hit rate bonus can quickly patch up a lot of hit issues against Swordmasters, allowing most units to reliably and consistently hit them either way.
Builds
Traits
Warrior's Hubris is a significant boost to a Swordmaster's survival, especially with the 
Lightning Affinity reducing their 
HP and 
Magic.
Challenger, 
Desperation, and especially 
Executioner are the strongest damage amplifiers: each receiving double the benefit from Swordmaster's 
2-hit attacks.
Assassin's Heart, 
Precision, and 
Lithe Assault put Swordmaster's high 
Skill and more importantly high crit-ratio to good use. Lithe Assault in particular has good synergy with Guerilla's Hit bonus; often giving the maximum +15% Crit: though Precision letting them ignore all 
Armor on critical strikes is also a fun option; and both also work well together.
Arcane Speed is an interesting trait; largely in tandem with 
Dark Affinity's boost to Magic. While the Swordmaster has plenty of Skill already: the difference between an enemy missing them 1/5th of the time, 1/4th of the time, or 1/3rd of the time is only 13.33% hit (80% to 75% to 66.66%); so their are some number ranges were a little boost can make a noticeable difference (presuming that's how hit/skill even works). More critical hit chance when they have 4 attacks also results in a fairly high likelihood an extra critical strike happens.
- And
Dragonslayer can make Swordmasters a hard-counter to dragons (in the few cases they appear). Dragon's defensive strategy of high HP and low Armor is torn apart by Swordmasters, and an extra +50% damage means one Swordmaster can potentially kill two Dragons in the same clash.
Artifacts
Steelshatter and 
Flame Saber are reliable fallbacks and consistently good damage boosters.
Black Belt and the 
Temporal Modulator (or 
General Ragavi with her 
Soul of Sayunaa trait) also have great synergy with the Swordmaster; leveraging their high kill-potential to strike first on enemy phase, along with a +25% damage boost. Turns their offense into a good defense: though it's worth noting 
Ambush is a hard counter to this strategy; denying the 1st-strike advantage effect.
Soha's Blood Shard grants 
+15 Strength and +15 Magic along with life steal: allowing Swordmasters to weaponize their high offense to consistently refill their life bar. Strength and Magic mitigating damage on glancing blows also helps stretch the restored life further, and +15 Magic offers nice synergy with mixed-damage squads. Or covers for Swordmaster's biggest weakness in magic damage.
St. Teresa's Tiara or The 
Fang of Duros are all incredibly strong Strength boosters in the realm of ~ +25 Strength. Both result in 0 Magic in order to provide their bonuses though; and have poor synergy with one-another.
Balmung's +24 Skill is the highest no-drawbacks bonus to Skill in the game; making Swordmaster's critical strikes and dodge chance more reliable features. The +8 bonus to everything else doesn't hurt.
Aetherium Gemstone applying 0 Magic in exchange for a 10+ 1:1 Skill conversion does hurt a bit; though with good positioning and battle selection it's a large bonus.
Blademaster's Armor and 
Cyrene's Regalia are good options for increasing their bulk. Swordmasters don't have the armor class to reliably survive on the front-line; so they're main goal is mitigating a few big hits that wind up reaching them in the back: were more HP is often the most effective strategy.
Dark Magic in particular can also be really nasty for Swordmasters, as their low HP and low Magic gives them nothing to work with, were Cyrene's Regalia offers a lot of HP, Magic, and 25% less 
Dark damage taken. Blademaster's Armor is also noteworthy for improving their matchup vs. everything that utilizes slashing attacks: which includes every Light Infantry unit, Heavy Cavalry unit, and a good chunk of Heavy Infantry.
Unfortunately both items are very expensive on their Capacity cost, so fitting in these helpful bonuses within a squad is its own challenge.
Spencer's Spectacles disables Stealth Attacks; a big help for units like the Swordmaster in particular were maintaining Light movement types or maximizing kill-potential already places a lot of strain on squad-building. Making the 
Back Row a safe row makes maintaining such qualities a lot easier.
Affinity
Lightning Affinity is the best option for a physical glass-cannon, boosting Strength and Skill. It's also the only Affinity that boosts Skill, which can matter for any crit-reliant builds.
Dark Affinity is also a potent option: maximizing Strength for every one of the Swordmaster's strikes. Given they critically strike ~fairly often and strike twice, this is a great use for the rarest affinity.
Swordmaster's core survival issue is their lack of magical resistance paired with low overall health; and having maximized Magic helps here as well.
Fire Affinity is a respectable fallback; especially given the 
Militia doesn't upgrade into anything were Fire is the obvious #1 pick; and the combo of Strength and HP are both directly useful for the Swordmaster's core functions.
Gallery
