How do you know which units are late game?

[Kaemon Awa 123]

A late-game figure is one that may not be the strongest part of your army, but its usefulness is nearly or entirely independent of the rest of your forces.

Consider Kaemon vs the 10th Regiment. In the early to middle game, I'd much rather activate the 10th, for their versatility and power. However, when their numbers are down, or they're spread too thin, Kaemon becomes the more reliable of the two assets.

[Jexik]

Early game, it's best to have something that can potentially kill many squad figures: numbers of attacks are paramount. Losing turns hurts as well, so that's why you're probably using squads yourself, or something really hard to kill like Major Q9.

Late game, it's best to have something that hits hard for potentially big swings in positional power and forcing your opponent to lose momentum. Losing turns isn't as big of an issue because you're both at the same point where losing turn is going to happen, or else the units are so spread out that those "lost" turns may be spent moving into position to attack what you have left.

Using the theory from the linked article:
Cheerleaders are basically activated once per game or not at all.

Defenders are activated in the early rounds for glyph-grabbing and then sparingly later, when the engagement and protection + the attacks they'd provide are greater than what you'd get out of your other units.

With 4+ attacks per turn, Bread and Butter are early game units. Hopefully you'll win before it hits "late game."

Usually with 3 attacks per OM, Menacers are pretty flexible.

Cleanup Units generally have high defense or some lives backing up 1-2 strong attacks.

[beholderthedm]

This makes a lot of sense. I was playing recently and opening with fen hydra. But a lucky roll for the opponent and n defense whiff for me was pretty big trouble because I was in danger of losing turns and a turn wouldn't have done much anyway with 1 attack left.

Multiples of a common squad would have given me way more flexibility. Plus one normal attack normally won't cost you 90 points when you're playing with squads.

Originally Posted by Jexik

Early game, it's best to have something that can potentially kill many squad figures: numbers of attacks are paramount. Losing turns hurts as well, so that's why you're probably using squads yourself, or something really hard to kill like Major Q9.