This guide is a basic overview of the Tainted Coil faction, which includes descriptions of the Solos, Units and some of the basic strategies you can take while playing as Doviculous.

The Tainted Coil plays quite differently from the somewhat similar siblings: Ironheade and Drowning Doom. Where the other factions summon all their forces from their stage, only Hierarchical units (special units that spawn your main army) and Tick Choppers spawn at your stage. The rest of your forces must be built on the battlefield by Double Teaming with the hierarchy units (Battle Nuns, Warfathers and Overblessers).

The Coil's hierarchy system has several advantages/disadvantages over Ironheade and the Drowning Doom.
Advantages
-Units can be spawned and replaced directly on the battlefield, so it is a lot easier to hold your ground and keep up the pressure during early game fan geyser battles
-All tier 1 and tier 2 units can be upgraded by summoning superior and divine versions of lesser hierarchy units from overblessers and warfathers. This not only allows more units to be upgraded than Ironheade and Drowning Doom can, but also provides upgrades free of cost (superior and divine versions of units have the same cost as normal ones).
-You do not need to worry as much about getting your units to where they need to go, as the travel time is eliminated when you spawn your units at the source
-All main army units get a very small healing buff from your hierarchy units, and your hierarchy units get a very large healing buff from your main spawned units. This bonus is always activated when your units are in range.
Disadvantages
-Defending your base when your army is destroyed is nearly impossible, as your hierarchy units that you spawn will likely die before they even summon one spawned unit (thus, starving them of the healing buff).
-Splitting your army is difficult, as you will almost always need to use a light beacon and individual orders to do so. It may be somwhat difficult to isolate the units you want to send, and you will nearly always want to send a hierarchy unit with them (except maybe for the very beginning of the game, where you may send an individual unit to a lone fan geyser).
-Summoning new hierarchy units requires them to travel from your stage to your destination. While they are idle or traveling, they can be killed very easily, crippling your chances of turning the battle back your way.
-Your only option for quick stage defense is a set of Tick Choppers and/or going to the stages aid yourself. You can't just summon a few counter units and have them deal with the attackers.

Using the Coil effectively hinges on your ability to take advantage of the nature of their mobile spawning, and to be on top of your opponent with the right counter units and the proper double teams.

The units and solos in this guide are listed by tiers, which basically are the levels of your stage at any given time (tier 1 is your stage when you start, tier 2 is after one stage upgrade, etc.)

Special thanks go to Guziol# for providing me with specific numbers on the damage and HP of units and solos.

Tier 1 Units

Battle Nun
HP: 10 (14 Superior, 18 Divine)
Damage: 1.1 (1.4 Superior, 2 Divine)
Fan Cost: 75
Load: 1
Double Team Units:
Normal/Superior/Divine Soul Kisser - 4 Load, 100 Fans
Normal/Superior/Divine Punishing Party - 5 Load, 100 Fans
Battle Nuns are often focused hard at the beginning of a match, as without a nun, they cannot build their tier 1 units. To protect them from this harrassment, nuns will recover a very high amount of HP every second while they are around any non-hierarchy unit (so anything but other nuns, warfathers or an overblesser). It is incredibly hard for your nuns to be killed while other units are still around, but a soul kisser sacrifice is enough to kill them in one shot, so be warned. Battle nuns have a standard attack that is decent, and an aura that provides a minimal amount of healing to nearby non-hierarchy units.
If the nun is superior, she will produce superior units instead. Likewise, if it is a divine nun, she will spawn divine units instead (you do not get to choose the grade of unit).

Tier 2 Units

Warfather
HP: 16 (23 Superior)
Damage: 2.5 (4 Superior)
Fan Cost: 100
Load: 2
Double Team Units:
Normal/Superior Skull Raker - 200 Fans
Normal/Superior Screamwagon - 125 Fans
Normal/Superior Pain Lifter - 250 Fans
Superior/Divine Nuns - 1 Load, 75 Fans
Warfathers have the same healing aura that slowly restores the health of non-hierarchy units that surround them, and a self-healing buff that heals them for a significant amount of health while surrounded by non-hierarchy units. Warfathers are tougher than nuns and produce better units, but they cost slightly more fans and load. They have a powerful ranged attack that seeks enemies and deals a good amount of damage (takes down avatars effectively), so on their own they aren't bad fighters at all (just don't mass them as an army - never do that with hierarchy units).
If the warfather is superior, he will summon superior units and divine nuns instead (you do not get to choose the grade of units).

Tier 3 Units

Overblesser
HP: 32
Damage: 6
Fan Cost: 150
Load: 2 (limited to 1)
Double Team Units:
Heart Cutter - 300 Fans
Hate Cage - 300 Fans
Superior Warfathers - 2 Load, 100 Fans
The Overblesser, like the nun and warfather, has the small healing aura for nearby non-hierarchy units, and is healed for a great amount when near non-hierarchy units. Also, the overblesser uses the same sort of ranged projectile that the warfather does (it just deals more damage).
They build the decent heart cutter and the horrible hate cage, but their true abilities lie in creating a superior warfather, which allows you to create superior tier 2 units, as well as divine tier 1 units.
Since overblessers are so big, they can be targeted by enemy players, but generally by the time you get one, it's not the biggest threat you have to offer.
There is no superior or divine version of an overblessor or any tier 3/tier 4 unit.

Tier 1 Units

Soul Kissers
HP: 9 (13 Superior, 17 Divine)
Damage: 0.4 (0.7 Superior, 1 Divine)
Double Team Damage: 10 (11 Superior, 14 Divine)
Fan Cost: 100
Load: 4
Insul's Rating: 3.5/5
The basic melee unit for the Coil, but so much more than that. Their attack is standard and they possess the same advantage over ranged infantry that headbangers and grave diggers do, but they possess a game-changing double team that can turn the tides of your early game so quickly.
I will almost exclusively build nuns and soul kissers at the start of a Coil game, and opt to rarely build punishing parties.
Double Team: You pick up a soul kisser and hold it in your hands. If you press the attack button, you'll throw it in the distance, sacrificing it for a 10 damage AoE attack. This is such a powerful double team. Not only can you take out an enemy nun in one shot, but you can two-shot a fan leech, fright wig, bride or thunderhog with it. Also, if you're in a pinch, you can make a bunch of soul kissers at the enemies stage and throw them at it one at a time for a scraped-by victory.

Punishing Party
HP: Dominatrix: 8 (11 Superior, 13 Divine), Pin Boy: 12 (17 Superior, 21 Divine)
Damage: 0.5 (0.7 Superior, 0.8 Divine)
Double Team Damage: 0.8 (1.1 Superior, 1.3 Divine)
Fan Cost: 100
Load: 5
Insul's Rating: 2.5/5
A ranged attack unit that produces comparable damage to razor girls, but behaves in a slightly different fashion. There are four ranged fighters (the dominatricies) and one pin boy, who runs between the four of them, supplying ammo for their attack. Killing the pin boy causes the dominatricies to go into a rage, making them attack faster, but also easier to kill. The pin boy automatically dies if he is the last unit of the formation. I usually don't use these until they get divine, as soul kissers are a lot more useful.
Double Team: You jump on the pin boy, rapidly firing pins with the mash of the attack button. This is a fine way to slay leechs, brides, nuns, thunderhogs, frightwigs and avatars. It's a good double team and worth using when you're not fighting a massive army. While using this double team, the four dominatrices will still use their ranged attack.

Tier 2 Units

Skull Raker
HP: 38 (54 Superior)
Damage: 7 (10 Superior)
Double Team Damage: 9 (12 Superior)
Fan Cost: 200
Load: 4
Insul's Rating: 4/5
Skull rakers are general purpose infantry with no real counter tendancies. They are very beefy and have a ranged knockbak attack with a bit of a cooldown. Even though they are not a vehicle, these are basically the Tainited Coil equivalent to the headsplitter and the lightning rod. I recommend using at least 2 of these in any well formed Coil army, as they hit so hard and are difficult to take down. These are vulnerable to the fear aura of a reaper, and other anti-infantry measures (too slow to hit fire barons, for example).
Double Team: Hop on the back of the skull raker and pilot him manually. Pressing the attack button launches his head at high speed directly in front of you, knocking back and dealing damage to all in its path. I love this double team and use it for taking out merch booths and large vehicles of all types.

Screamwagon
HP: 27 (38 superior)
Buff Auras: Defense/Attack/Build Speed
Fan Cost: 125
Load: 4
Insul's Rating: 4.5/5
Mobile buff vehicles. These do not attack, but rather provide a large range buff to all of your units in range. The buff can be cycled between a defense buff (25% normal, 35% superior), an attack buff (20% normal, 25% superior) and a build speed buff (which allows you to build units from your hierarchy units quicker, but I can't find the exact amount anywhere online). These are so cheap to create that it would be very unwise to run without at least one of them, though often times I will make two (attack & defense) when confronting the other players army.
Double Team: You can drive the car and use the pitiful front spikes to ram enemies for abysmal damage. While driving the wagon, you can press the attack button to cycle through buffs.

Pain Lifter
HP: 38 (58 superior)
Damage: 8 AoE (9 superior)
Double Team Damage: 10 AoE (14 superior)
Fan Cost: 200
Load: 5
Insul's Rating: 4/5
The pain lifter is the primary anti-infantry unit of the Coil, and is also one of it's most powerful unit in general. The agony balls do a lot of damage in an AoE circle, but fire slightly slower than a skull raker. If you are deciding between a pain lifter or a skull raker, use pain lifters for all massed army situations, and skull rakers for bigger units.
Double Team: You jump on the painlifter and can drive it around as a vehicle. Pressing the attack button launches an agony ball that can be manually piloted. Ramming the ball into enemies hurts them by a marginal amount, but if you press the attack button or let it go too long, it will explode dealing more damage than it would in a normal attack.

Tier 3 Units

Heart Cutter
HP: 64
Damage: 8
Double Team Damage: 8 AoE w/ Stun
Load: 5
Insul's Rating: 4/5
For the cost of a heart cutter, you get a lot of unit. A whopping 64 hp comes with a very strong anti-vehicle attack that temporarily stuns any unit caught in the attack. The great part about these is that, when used in double team, they can stun multiple units at once, and they really are the anti-rock crusher vehicle. I don't always build one of these (opting for tier 2 instead), but if you're against a lot of vehicles, I really recommend you do.
Double Team: Doviculous will drive the vehicle around, as with any vehicle double team. When you press the attack button, you get a targeting reticle on the ground that can be used to select an area to be attacked. The blades released deal the same damage, but can hit multiple enemies in an area. You should use this whenever confronted with a swarm of smaller units (especially brood).

Hate Cage
HP: 40
Damage: 2.2
Double Team Damage: 10 AoE w/ knockback
Fan Cost: 300
Load: 5
Insul's Rating: 0.5/5
The hate cage is the worst unit in the game. It has a very weak ranged attack for its cost, it's tier and its load. Additionally, its secondary effect (the defense debuff) is not nearly as strong as the dirgible and has an incredibly pitiful radius (basically, they have to be right below or beside the cage to get affected by it).
Double Team: Hop on and pilot the hate cage, releasing a stomp attack when you hit the attack button. This attack both initiates and recharges so slowly that it's a waste of time to use. It deals a decent amount of damage with knockback, but it ties you up for far too long.

Tier 4 Units

Bleeding Death
HP: 120
Damage: 12
Fan Cost: 450
Load: 5 (limit of 1)
Insul's Rating: 5/5
The bleeding death is created at your stage once you hit tier 4, but it does not get deployed once it is created. To release it, you must play the Launch of Death solo at a target location. When you're finished playing it, an iron maiden will drop from the sky, dealing damage to all caught in the landing (it probably deals around 20-30 damage, it's really hard to measure). After the landing it pops out and starts wailing on enemy units in the order in which it pleases (you cannot give it order or double team with it, the only control you have over it is where it lands). If you want it to focus on a stage instead of hitting a merch booth, summon it far away from the booth.
One thing to note is that the bleeding death is constantly taking 1 damage per second from the moment it is summoned, so at maximum it can last 2 minutes before dying. Still, it is enough time to take a stage from full health to zero, if left uncontested.
You cannot build a new bleeding death until the current one has been deployed and has perished.

Solos Shared with all Factions

Summon Chariot
Call forth the Chariot and immediately hop in. Can be used to harass in the early game, or to somewhat distract the worm in the Feeding Area. A frontal hit deals 2 damage to any unit/avatar. Cannot damage buildings. The Chariot looks badass.

Summon Flag
Drops the rally flag on the map at your location, indicating where your new units will automatically move to when created. This is very vital for the other two factions, but is somewhat tricky to use for the Tainted Coil (this is because only your hierarchy units will run to it, leaving them exposed and easily killed along the way). This is the quickest of the flag solos to play (6 seconds for Ironheade, 3 for Drowning Doom and ~2.5 for Tainted Coil). I believe it is this way because of the limited uses it has.

Rally Army
Gather all of your units across the map to the location where you played this. It's usefulness varies upon your situation, but here are some good uses for it:
A - You need to quickly bring everyone to an enemy stage (or to the defense of your own stage, but the former is the better use)
B - You have created a massive army that is not scattered, and you don't want to use the beacon (although, the beacon is still probably quicker in most cases).
I use this more for the Coil than I do for Ironheade and Drowning Doom, as I find the Coil moves best as a large unit (though you can't be afraid to split up your army).

Fan Tribute
Builds a merch booth over an undisputed fan geyser. Doviculous' fan tribute has the least notes to play for his tribute. All three fan tributes are the same length of time to play (4 seconds).

Tier 1 Solos

Chains of Hell - 30 second cooldown
Chains of hell is the only avatar disabling solo that actually disables the entire use of the enemies avatar for it's duration. To counter it's full disabling properties, it is also has the shortest duration, and will be over very quickly. Unless you have a lot of units with you, it is unlikely you'll be able to completely finish off a full health avatar while they are stunned by these chains. Additionally, this solo only affects grounded avatars, and if they are even slightly above the ground while flying, it won't get them. To make it easier to catch avatars on the ground, this solo has an extremely short cast.
Chains of hell are best used to interupt another solo that your opponent will be using. I use it mostly to interrupt a fan tribute, but you can also stop a silence, facemelter, curse, shadow blast, launch of death, bring it on home or weaping heavens effectively.

Martyrdom - 30 second cooldown
Martyrdom is the Tainted Coil's buffing solo. All units surrounding you when you finish the solo have their attack and movement speed increased at the cost of your health. Each note does 3 HP of damage, so at the end of the solo at full health you will have just 4 HP left. It is possible for this solo to kill you if you are not entirely healed before playing it.
This solo, in my opinion, is the best buffing solo as it helps your units move across the map quickly in addition to killing things faster. Play it whenever you are safe and play it on cooldown.

Agony Boil - 90 second cooldown
Agony boil summons a land mine at your location that will swell in size over time. It will do anywhere between 4 damage to 12 damage, based on how big it is in size (4 damage when it is first summoned, 12 when it is at it's maximum size). This is an awesome solo to put on a main road, as it can take out almost any tier 1 unit set in one hit. Enemy avatars can see the boil if they are close enough, and will often detonate it themselves to protect their units.
Doviculous will make a comment if a unit is hit by this, so you will be able to tell remotely if you placed it well.

Tier 2 Solos

Curse - 1 minute cooldown
AoE Damage solo for TC. This deals 8 HP of Damage over Time in an area around you immediately after the solo finishes. The curse may also reduce the infected units defense, but I cannot confirm this portion of it. Any time you can survive being in the middle of enemy units and can pull off this solo, do so. As the damage is taken over time, gravediggers and razor girls can survive even if they recieve just a bit of healing.

Summon Tick Choppers - 4 minute cooldown
Summons a free set of 4 tick choppers at your stage (they will ignore your rally flag). Tick Choppers are very fast moving vehicle units with a general purpose attack. They do not have a lot of health, but their attack is strong enough to make them very excellent at harassing/taking enemy merch booths. They are good supplements to your main army, but I prefer using them to distract your opponent and claim undefended merch booths in tier 2. Your Martyrdom and screamwagons affect tick choppers like any normal unit.
There is no superior or divine version of tick choppers and you cannot double team with them. Tick Choppers will automatically die before the cooldown expires (so you can never have more than 4 at a time).

Tier 3 Solos

Skies Afire - 5 minute cooldown
A weather effect solo that turns the sky a burning gray. This solo supposedly buffs your units by a percentage based on how close they are to your stage (the closer they are the better), but there is very little information online about how it actually affects your units. You can use it when your stage is under attack, but I prefer saving it to block either Light of Dawn or Encompassing Gloom, as both are equally devastating to your army in most circumstances. Try to play it before you think your opponent will play either of these.
It's not really worth it to use Skies Afire to block another Skies Afire, but it never hurts to play it as you attack your enemies stage (thus blocking them from buffing their units).

Tier 4 Solos

Launch of Death
This is Tainted Coils equivalent to a nuke solo. It has no cooldown, but can only be played if you have a Bleeding Death built and in reserve at your stage.
When you finish playing the solo, a large iron maiden crashes on your location very quickly, causing approximately 20 damage to all caught under it (including yourself and your units, so fly out immediately). The iron maiden then opens, allowing the bleeding death to come out and blindly attack any enemy units or structures in the area. If there is nothing for the bleeding death to attack, it will start wandering in search of units or structures.
The bleeding death will last a maximum of 2 minutes, due to its taking damage every second. They are very good at taking out enemies or megastages if played in the proper location, and have enormous strategic value at the end of the game (it makes it a lot harder for your opponent to leave their stage unguarded).
This is the best nuke solo in my opinion, as it carries so much more leverage over the other 2. This is the reason to get to tier 4, and should be considered whenever you have a spare moment or are at a stalemate.
You cannot build a new bleeding death until the old one has been summoned and killed.

General Strategies

-When using a beacon, set it just to the side of a fan leech, merch booth or stage. This way, your units will defend themselves when enemy units or avatars attack them. If you set them directly on a structure, they will ignore all incoming attacks and focus on that structure.
If you require them to focus a structure (like a stage), use the attack command instead.

-Give individual orders from the air. Holding the Y button while airborn will place a blue pentagram cursor on the ground. If you keep holding it, you can drag it across any number of units you wish. This is much quicker and a lot easier to pull off than individual orders on the ground. (DF stated that they threw this feature in at the end of production, hence it is not outlined in the single player campaign).

-It's been mentioned many times in many guides since 2009, but use your double teams. Axe and guitar combos are great for beating down avatars and things like frightwigs and organists, but in bigger battles you'll want to hook up with one of your units. Here are your best double teams (but don't forget to make use of all your DTs).
-Soul Kissers (These are so important in the early game that you'd be a fool to let them die naturally. Best part is they can fight and then be sacrificed, without choosing one or the other)
-Punishing Party (clear fan leechs, nuns, brides, frightwigs and thunderhogs using this)
-Skull Raker (use it on crowds and merch boothes)
-Pain Lifter (use it on crowds of infantry, but skip it for vehicles)
-Heart Cutters (use it on tightly bunched vehicles like brood)

Countering Units

The Coil has a few key units for countering different types of units. If you notice what your opponent is focusing on, try building the counter to it. Here are the counters, according to the descriptions:

Soul Kissers counter Ranged units - Though it seems to be a very slight advantage over them. This holds true for all melee infantry in tier 1 of all three factions.

Pain Lifters counter Infantry - Pain lifters are very effective at clearing out clumped units due to their explosive AoE ammo. They have a damage bonus against infantry units, so clumped infantry get smashed by these.

Heart Cutters counter Vehicles - They stun any unit they strike by pulling them into the air with their blades (the stun is not limited to vehicles). The blades deal additional damage to vehicles, and their double team will rip apart brood clusters.

Skull Rakers counter massed units - Being general purpose ranged infantry (somewhat identical to headsplitters and lightning rods in effectiveness), they are able to hit almost all units effectively (though they have great difficulty attacking fast moving units like reapers and fire barons). Their attack can hit multiple enemies at the same time, so any units that are clumped together (in a somewhat straight line) will be greatly damaged by skull rakers.

Bleeding Death counters all - Bleeding deaths are not impossible to kill by any merits, but a hit from them can usually one-shot most small infantry and vehicles like brood or fire barons. They can take down a stage from full health if they focus on it during the entire duration, and even if an army can take one down, it will definitely leave it's deadly mark. They have no double team, accept no orders and haveno way to buff them, so other than choosing where to summon them there isn't much strategy involved in using them.

Agony Boil Placement

One of the biggest keys to playing Tainted Coil is the timing and placement of Agony boils. Follow these rules:
A) Is Agony Boil not on cooldown? Play it somewhere immediately.
B) Is there a central path where you know the AI units will cross over? Play it there.
C) Will there be enough time for it to reach maximum size before enemies cross over it? Play it then.
Do not place an agony boil in the middle of a fight - it will prematurely explode and won't hit enough targets for enough damage.
Note: You can use an agony boil as an alarm system of sort. If it hits an enemy, Doviculus will make a comment, alerting you (the player) that an enemy is on the path that you placed it on.

Ironheade plays fast and hard and defeating them as the coil is a matter of keeping the pressure on them (which fortunately is made easy by the heirarchy units of the coil). They employ such tactics as buffing their unit attack power or disabiling your buffs with solos, swarming you with bulky & heavy hitting units, and quickly getting their new units to the locations that they require.

Early Game

Anvil of Burden - If you hear Eddie playing this, it's a really good idea to fly far out of range before he completes it. If you get an anvil stuck to you while in the middle of a group of enemy units, it can mean a death for you, and a very important 50 fans for your opponent. On the other hand, if the player is good they may stop playing just as you leave, effectively preventing you from harassing them. If this is the case, it may be wise to coax them into playing it when you know you will be safe. Since this plays so fast you will never get to use Chains of Hell on Eddie in response.
Facemelter - You definitely have enough time to interrupt Eddie with Chains of Hell if you react quickly enough. If you don't think you can chain him in time or the solo is on CD, send your units away from Eddie as fast as you can. The radius of the solo is low, but the damage is high.

Don't be afraid to sink a lot of fans into the early game. Depending on the map, build 1 to 2 battle nuns (1 is fine if you have to send units to 2 or 3 different geysers, but 2 works if you are swarming a single one). From your nuns, you should consider building only soul kissers at the beginning, opting to make a punishing party only if you have 2 units of soul kissers already. Use your nuns at the site to alternate between making soul kissers and punishing parties if you need extra support. When you come to clash with your opponent, throw your soul kissers at thunderhogs, clumps of headbangers and formations of razor girls (the latter 2 units will be destroyed in a single hit if they are caught in the blast). Avatars take a lot of damage from soul kissers as well, but save them mostly for units.

Be sure to put an agony boil somewhere on your enemies path, as it could give you a 100 fan advantage. Also, use Curse & Martyrdom at every available opportunity (use Martyrdom both to buff attack speed and to move your units faster).

Any time you are at a fan leech and your opponent is not around you (the geyser is uncontested), throw a soul kisser at it. It will bring the fan leechs HP from 16 to 6 in a single hit, and if your units were already attacking it, the leech will be defeated. If you are really in a rush, throw 2 soul kissers and you'll have it instantly. This is such a crucial speed bonus over Ironheade that can't be ignored.

When the dust clears, upgrade to tier 2 and continue taking merch booths with your large victorious army (unless your army was destroyed, of course).

Mid Game

Rock Block - This solo laughably will only stop you from summoning your heirarchy units at your stage. This solo will not stop your Nuns, Warfathers and Overblessers from producing units on the field, so you will barely be hampered by this. Just brush it off and move on, because you can't do a lot to stop this.
Light of Dawn - This ones a doozy - While it's in effect the sky burns a bright orange, stopping your buffs from working. This blocks your ever important screamwagons, the buff from Martyrdom, the healing buffs from your heirarchy units (if I'm correct) and the somewhat weak debuff from your hate cages. Stopping this is nearly impossible as Eddie will probably play it somewhere secluded, so the only thing you can do is strategically block it using your own weather, Skies Afire. Try to play that just before attacking, as losing your screamwagon buffs can really hurt your shot at an effective assualt.

You have two good options if you're not in trouble at this point. You can either A) upgrade directly to tier 3 and stall until you can start getting an overblesser and divine warfather out, or B) Create a warfarther and cause a ruckus using skull rakers, screamwagons and pain lifters.
In the case of A, you're going to want to play defensively to get a few fans stored up. Use what units you have leftover from your early game to both defend the most important merch booth on the map (usually the central one) and to annoy/harass the merch booths of your opponent. The goal is not to take the booths, but to keep them busy until you can get your tier 3 army rolling out.
If you want to jump the gun and go for scenario B, then build a warfarther or 2, at least one skull raker and screamwagon (set to attack buff), a superior nun and a superior soul kissers/punishing party. Take this battalion from booth to booth to gain financial dominance, or bring it to their stage and start pumping out superior soul kissers (throwing them like grenades at the megastage). With B you may get a mid game victory.

If, however, you are in trouble at this point (due to losing the early game) and your stage is under attack, don't build heirarchy units willy nilly, as they die fast without unit support. Instead, build a warfather and try to time summoning tick choppers at the same time your warfather comes out. If he can survive long enough to build a skull raker, you'll be able to take control of your stage again. Man the defenses (fog and spotlights) if required.

Note - At this point really watch out for early Roadies, as they will destroy your stage very quickly if left unattended. Leave a superior or divine punishing party w/ a nun at your stage to prevent this from ending you.

Late Game

Bring it on Home
Usually Eddie has to be right in the middle of your units to pull this off, so chances are you will see and hear him playing it. Try to double team with a pinboy to kill him before it finishes, or quickly play chains of hell if you don't think you can get him down in time. This will do a lot of damage to your units regardless of your debuffers. You probably only have to worry about this once per stage battle, as it has a 5 minute cooldown.

Keep watch for roadies as you did in tier 2.

Once you hit tier 3 and it is safe to do so, build an overblesser. Immediately double team with it and build a superior warfather (don't build hate cages and only build heart cutters if they have an abundance of vehicles). From the warfather, build 1-2 divine nuns, a sup. skull raker, 1-2 sup. screamwagons (dmg>def) and a sup. pain lifter. With the nuns, build divine punishing parties and divine soul kissers in equal numbers when you can spare the fans. Your options now are to take back merch booths or to attack the stage. What I suggest you do is march towards the stage and blow up any merch booths that happen to be in the way. When you get to their stage, keep summoning units to replace the ones that you lose, and victory should be yours soon.

Once you get to the point where Ironheade has a Rock Crusher, you're going to want to keep your army away from it as much as you can. Skull rakers and heart cutters are probably your best bet in countering these behemoths, but you'll want to double team them from a distance to avoid bladehenge assaults.

Upgrade to tier 4 if you are at a stalemate or need to defend your stage while attacking the enemies stage. Immediately build a bleeding death when you have the fans and room to do so, as it is a huge force of pressure that can cause Ironheade to split their army between attack and defense. If they do not split their army, it instead provides extra offensive firepower.

The Drowning Doom are a bit tricky to deal with when playing as Tainted Coil, as you have no real tools to prevent their debuffers from turning your huge army into cooked spaghetti. Other than that, dealing with Drowning Doom is nearly identical to dealing with Ironheade.

Early Game

Silence - It's not a deadly solo, but it has a huge range and will slow you down for a few moments. You won't be able to give orders, use solos or use your guitar attacks/combos while silenced, but you can still fly, double team, produce units and attack with the axe. The dangerous situation to watch for here is if you send your units to the next geyser before playing your fan tribute. Ophelia can swoop in, silence you before you finish, and take the geyser for herself (and you can't call your units back). You can try to trick your opponent into wasting this by flying off just before it finishes playing. Chains of hell plays faster than this, but you have to be lightning fast to interrupt it.
Shadow Blast - This solo isn't too much to worry about, but it will deal damage directly, knock back units, and reduce their attack power slightly while dealing a small DoT to them. This will hurt and possibly kill your soul kissers. Either try to use Chains of Hell to interrupt this, or just try to send you units away if you hear it being played.

Don't be afraid to sink a lot of fans into the early game. Depending on the map, build 1 to 2 battle nuns (1 is fine if you have to send units to 2 or 3 different geysers, but 2 works if you are swarming a single one). From your nuns, you should consider building only soul kissers at the beginning, opting to make a punishing party only if you have 2 units of soul kissers already. Use your nuns at the site to alternate between making soul kissers and punishing parties if you need extra support. When you come to clash with your opponent, throw your soul kissers at brides and clusters of gravediggers (don't waste them on frightwigs, just combo those down). Avatars take a lot of damage from soul kissers as well, but save them mostly for units.

Be sure to put an agony boil somewhere on your enemies path, as it could give you a 100 fan advantage. Also, use Curse & Martyrdom at every available opportunity (use Martyrdom both to buff attack speed and to move your units faster).

Any time you are at a fan leech and your opponent is not around you (the geyser is uncontested), throw a soul kisser at it. It will bring the fan leechs HP from 16 to 6 in a single hit, and if your units were already attacking it, the leech will be defeated. If you are really in a rush, throw 2 soul kissers and you'll have it instantly.

When the dust clears, upgrade to tier 2 and continue taking merch booths with your large victorious army (unless your army was destroyed, of course).

Mid Game

Encompassing Gloom - This the the Dooms most dangerous solo. This solo blocks all of your building (including from heirarchy units) for it's duration. It is a lot more poweful and damaging to you than it is to Ironheade or Drowning Doom, as it can stop reinforcements and waste your fans in a big way. You can only really block it by thinking ahead of your enemy and playing Skies Afire.
Baleful Misdirection - This solo also isn't that bad, but it can end up distracting you, wasting your time. You can't really block it, so just try to outthink your opponent. If a lone unit (or lone set of grave diggers) is attacking one of your merch booths, see if the booth is getting damaged at all. Chances are they used a Baleful Misdirection to distract you and cause you to scramble. If it's a set of grave diggers, kill one and see if it blows up in a blue puff of smoke. If it does, the whole unit is a fake.

You have two good options if you're not in trouble at this point. You can either A) upgrade directly to tier 3 and stall until you can start getting an overblesser and divine warfather out, or B) Create a warfarther and cause a ruckus using skull rakers, screamwagons and pain lifters.
In the case of A, you're going to want to play defensively to get a few fans stored up. Use what units you have leftover from your early game to both defend the most important merch booth on the map (usually the central one) and to annoy/harass the merch booths of your opponent. The goal is not to take the booths, but to keep them busy until you can get your tier 3 army rolling out.
If you want to jump the gun and go for scenario B, then build a warfarther or 2, at least one skull raker and screamwagon (set to attack buff), a superior nun and a superior soul kissers/punishing party. Take this battalion from booth to booth to gain financial dominance, or bring it to their stage and start pumping out superior soul kissers (throwing them like grenades at the megastage). With B you may get a mid game victory.

If, however, you are in trouble at this point (due to losing the early game) and your stage is under attack, don't build heirarchy units willy nilly, as they die fast without unit support. Instead, build a warfather and try to time summoning tick choppers at the same time your warfather comes out. If he can survive long enough to build a skull raker, you'll be able to take control of your stage again. Man the defenses (fog and spotlights) if required.

Watch out for organists - They can't control your heirarchy units, but a skull raker or pain lifter in their control will really hurt you. Also, watch for frightwigs taking your screamwagons, effectively buffing your opponents forces.

Late Game

Weaping Heavens - This the the Doom's nuke solo. If you see Ophelia in the middle or ahead of your army playing a solo, and she's in tier 4, you're probably going to get hit with a barrage of black tears. Fortunately you can see them flying in the air, and if you're quick enough, you can probably move your army out of the way before they it. This will do significant damage if it hits your army dead on.

Once you hit tier 3 and it is safe to do so, build an overblesser. Immediately double team with it and build a superior warfather (don't build hate cages and only build heart cutters if they have an abundance of vehicles). From the warfather, build 1-2 divine nuns, a sup. skull raker, 1-2 sup. screamwagons (dmg>def) and a sup. pain lifter. With the nuns, build divine punishing parties and divine soul kissers in equal numbers when you can spare the fans. Your options now are to take back merch booths or to attack the stage. What I suggest you do is march towards the stage and blow up any merch booths that happen to be in the way. When you get to their stage, keep summoning units to replace the ones that you lose, and victory should be yours soon.

As you build your tier 3 marching force, your opponent will probably be building a wall of death (brides, organists, dirgible debuffers w/ attackers). This is extremely hard to deal with as the coil, as you have no Light of Dawn to stop the debuffs from affecting your units. Instead, have a screamwagon with the attack buff and one with the defense buff ready to counter the effects of the organists and dirgibles. Playing Martyrdom should somewhat counter the slowing effects of the brides for a short period of time. When you are poised to destroy the wall of death, first aim for the organists, then the brides, and finally the dirgible.

Upgrade to tier 4 if you are at a stalemate or need to defend your stage while attacking the enemies stage. Immediately build a bleeding death when you have the fans and room to do so, as it is a huge force of pressure that can cause your enemy to split their army between attack and defense. If they do not split their army, it instead provides extra offensive firepower.

In my experiences, Tainted Coil mirror matches are the most intense and difficult of the multiplayer match ups. It requires a lot of unit & financial management, as knowning when to keep pumping more units into the field and when to cut your losses is the difference between falling behind or keeping up. As with all mirror matches, you're going to need to outplay your opponent, as you both have access to the same tools.

Early Game

Chains of Hell - You will definetly recognize this solo, so get a pretty good warning when you're about to get chained. If you notice your enemy playing this, jump to the sky as quickly as possible, as it can't hit you when you are airbourne. It will interrupt any solo you are playing, so your opponent might use it to delay you grabbing a geyser, or to try to kill you (though it doesn't last quite long enough to kill you early game).
Agony Boil - You can't prevent this from being planted, but if you can see one in the middle of your path, go down and detonate it yourself, saving your units from taking the damage and knockback. At 80-100% power, this will one shot your nuns, so keep an eye out for it on main roads.
Curse - This will put an 8 damage DoT on the units inflicted with it, while also reducing their defense (I believe, unconfirmed at this moment). You can probably chain your opponent before they finish this. Move your units out of the way if you recognize the solo playing.

First off, make an agony boil somewhere on your enemies path, and hopefully it will be strong enough to one-shot a nun.

Making a high number of battle nuns is so much more important when facing another TC player than it is for either IH or DD, as your opponent has the ability to take them out in one shot. I'd say it's worth it to create up to 3 nuns right from the start and protect them by moving them with at least one set of soul kissers. When you meet the other TC forces at a geyser, continue to make soul kissers and start throwing them like little grenades at your opponents nuns. The sacrifice does damage equal to their health, thus killing them instantly.
If the fighting at the geysers lasts a long time (both you and your opponent keep pumping fans into winning it), then both players may stay at tier 1 for an abnormally long period of time. Try to get to tier 2 while also keeping your toes in the fight at the geyser, as having tick choppers and curse available will give you a fighting edge.
Finally, don't be afraid to lose the fight to up your stage level. Just be aware that your opponent may be coming for your stage directly after building the merch booth, and defending it will be difficult.

Any time you are at a fan leech and your opponent is not around you (the geyser is uncontested), throw a soul kisser at it. It will bring the fan leechs HP from 16 to 6 in a single hit, and if your units were already attacking it, the leech will be defeated. If you are really in a rush, throw 2 soul kissers and you'll have it instantly.

Mid Game

Tick Choppers - They hit hard but they do not take much to kill. These are more annoying than anything (probably why the'yre named Tick Choppers), and most of the time your enemy will use these guys to harass your open merch booths. They can kill a merch booth quickly, so if you notice it, go down and Curse them, using combos to finish them off.
Skies Afire - I really wouldn't worry about skies afire too much, as it is the weakest weather effect. It's only really dangerous if your enemy has a lot of units defending their stage and you're coming at them. Play it yourself before you attack their stage to prevent them from using it.

My advice is to skip tier 2 altogether if you are not in trouble. If your stage is under attack from losing the early game, build 1-2 warfathers and try to make sure you have tick choppers out at the same time. The healing buff from the choppers being around will save them from dying before they can build a skull raker or pain lifter, thus saving your stage from destruction.

Teir 2 has the best units, but you'll be a lot better off if you can make those units superior by getting to tier 3 before you start spending the fans on an army. Push out on tier 2 with warfathers, skull rakers, screamwagons and pain lifters (even one of each is pretty awesome) if you think you can win during the mid game.

Late Game

Launch of Death - This solo is just the worst, and you know it. If it lands on your army, it will do a lot of damage even before the bleeding death emerges from the iron maiden. After that, unless you have a strong army with screamwagons, your army is going to suffer serious casualties. Additionally, if you are busy fighting their army at their stage, the other player can just drop one of these at your undefended stage and destroy it from full health in about 45 seconds.
Your foe will have a lot of trouble playing this extremely long solo near any of your units, so if you can kill him with double teams before it finishes, you'll be safe. Also, you can try using this solo yourself to defend against a bleeding death attack, that would be pretty cool to watch.

Once you hit tier 3 and it is safe to do so, build an overblesser. Immediately double team with it and build a superior warfather (don't build hate cages and only build heart cutters if they have an abundance of vehicles). From the warfather, build 1-2 divine nuns, a sup. skull raker, 1-2 sup. screamwagons (dmg>def) and a sup. pain lifter. With the nuns, build divine punishing parties and divine soul kissers in equal numbers when you can spare the fans. Your options now are to take back merch booths or to attack the stage. What I suggest you do against the Coil is march straight to their stage, ignoring merch booths along the way. When you get to their stage, keep summoning units to replace the ones that you lose, and victory should be yours soon (as long as you continue to use your double teams and direct your army intelligently).

Watch your opponents stage and look at their speaker stacks - If all of them have monitors, theres a 90% chance that they have a bleeding death ready to land on either your stage or your army. If that is the case, you'll have to be really diligent whenever you see the other Doviculous around, because he's going to try throwing it at you. Use Chains of Hell to interrupt and hold him while your forces seperate him, and try leaving Tick Choppers or a Skull Raker at your base to kill him before he can finish the solo.

Upgrade to tier 4 before your opponent can, and immediately build a bleeding death. You need this ball in your court as Launch of Death holds so much control over the end game of a TC mirror match. Use it in the same ways that I warned you about your enemy using it.