0
Frequently Asked Questions
Version 0.5
Latest Update in January 6, 2000
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
By Joseph Andro Artanto
E-mail: arsin@indosat.net.id
ICQ : 55139575
Site : http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dragon/3939
Hi! I have decided to make a FAQ for Heroes 2. However, I cant take if you
rip off my work here or selling this walktrough for own profit, so if you
did, I'll found out and I will put you in the losers contents. This
walktrough and future revisions of it can be found at :
- http://www.gamefaqs.com/
- http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dragon/3939
or you can e-mail me at arsin@indosat.net.id
Unpublished work Copyright 1999-2000 Joseph Andro Artanto.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ia. VERSIONS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
-Version 0.1 (10/9/1999). Initial release.
-Version 0.2 (23/10/1999). Filled the Roland's and Archibald's campaign
strategy. Minor corrections.
-Version 0.3 (28/11/1999). Layout corrections, Minor corrections. You now
can contact me by ICQ (55139575).
-Version 0.4 (29/12/1999). A really, really big update. Added some more
sections (General Tips, Using certain hero types, and some more normal
strategies). The artifact list and spell list also have updated now.
-Version 0.5 (6/1/2000). Strategy Guides for normal maps section added.
Minor corrections.
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Ib. CONTENTS
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I. VERSIONS/CONTENTS
II. GAME SYSTEM
III. SPECIAL PLACES LIST
IV. BUILDING LIST
V. ARMY LIST
VI. SPELL LIST
VII. ARTIFACT LIST
VIII. GENERAL TIPS
IX. USING CERTAIN HERO TYPE
X. STRATEGY GUIDES (BEGINNER)
-Normal Strategies
-First Week Building
XI. STRATEGY GUIDES (Guides for Campaign Maps)
XII. STRATEGY GUIDES (Guides for Normal Maps)
XIII. DISCLAIMER
XIV. CREDITS
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Ic. DISCLAIMER
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Unpublished work Copyright 1999-2000 Joseph Andro Artanto.
This FAQ and everything included within this file cannot be reproduced
in any way, shape or form (physical, electronical, or otherwise) aside
from being placed on a freely-accessible, non-commercial web page in
it's original, unedited and unaltered format. This FAQ cannot be used
for profitable purposes (even if no money would be made from selling it)
or promotional purposes. It cannot be used in any sort of commercial
transaction. It cannot be given away as some sort of bonus, gift, etc.,
with a purchase as this creates incentive to buy and is therefore
prohibited. Furthermore, this FAQ cannot be used by the publishers,
editors, employees or associates, etc. of any company, group, business,
or association, etc., nor can it be used by game sites and the like.
It cannot be used in magazines, guides, books, etc. or in any other
form of printed or electronic media (including mediums not specifically
mentioned) in ANY way, shape, or form (including reprinting, reference
or inclusion), without the express written permission of the author,
myself. This FAQ was created and is owned by me, Joseph Andro Artanto
(arsin@indosat.net.id). All copyrights and trademarks are acknowledged
and respected that are not specificially mentioned in this FAQ.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
II. GAME SYSTEM
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Heroes of Might and Magic II (HOMM2), is a strategy-adventure-RPG game
created by New World Computing and has been published in PC and Macintosh.
However, many beginners feels confused when they play it the first time.
Originally, you could choose your own map, you can just choose the campaign
(recommended) or just play a map created by you or other peoples. In the
first screen, you can choose New Game and choose what kind of game you want
to play (campaign, standard, multiplayer). Campaign leads you to a series
of scenarios. And standard will let you to play any map in your MAPS
directory. Finally Multiplayer will let you have a multiplayer battle
against your friend via modem, network, or seat-by-seat/Hotseat. Hotseat is
a multiplayer game in one Computer (max. 4 players).
Load game is used to load your previous game. You can see some preview of
some games created by NWC in the door (click the door on left area of the
main menu).
When you first enter a 'choosing maps' menu (by standard or multiplayer),
click the upright button to choose your map, the info of that map is below
the map name (like how many players, what type of heroes you want, it is
optional). Now you will enter the main game screen, which lead you to the
real game. Note, this game has experience status, this mean your level will
be increased when you have enough experience.
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III. SPECIAL PLACES LIST
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This only apply in the world map screen, so take a note about that. If you
want to know about the buildings (inside a castle or town), armies, spells,
etc, see the contents.
As you know, special places are spreaded around the world, to know what the
use of certain places, see below.
There is a couple of mouse icon in this game. Sword means you need to fight
that special places (like castle,army camps,etc), horses means you can walk
to that place.
For easy references, use 'find' and write your desired special places.
* Castle
This is where you can rest, buy troops, learn new spells, or build your own
castle. If its flag isn't your own flag, it is enemy's castle.
* Town
Same as castle, but you cant build any buildings inside the town. You can
upgrade a town into a castle if allowed.
* Gazebo
A place that makes you meet an old man that teach you some skills, and this
means you get some experiences by his lesson. Note that one hero only can
get exp by this old man once.
* Obelisk
A place to get maps to reach the Ultimate Artifact (to dig the land, you
must have full 'yellow').
* Fountain
Your luck is increased until the next battle ends.
* Temple
Your moral is increased until the next battle ends.
* Mines
This where you get minerals like ore, crystal, gems, etc. you get some of
them per day if you have them.
* Woodfields (or something like that)
Like mines, but you get woods instead minerals.
* Alchemy Lab
You get mercury per day.
* Shrine of 1st circle, 2nd circle and 3rd circle
the place where you get certain magic of certain classes. the 1st circle
let you get a random magic from class 1 magic.
* Witch Hut
You can get certain skills from her (like navigation, wisdom, etc). Only
basic ones.
* Artifacts
An important thing in this game, Artifact can make your strength or magic
power increased, even some of them will protect you from some damaging
spells. See the Artifact list section for more info.
* Mineral/Wood/Gold/Mercury
These are all treasures scattered around the world, collect them to get
some small amount of them.
* Treasure Chest
This chest will lead you to 2 choices. The one will give you some gold, and
the other will give you some experiences.
* Army Camp
This where you mainly see the enemies. Go to them and you will enter a
battle. You may get certain events by touching them. Like the enemies want
to join you, etc.
* Heroes
I know you know it. But beware of the hero's flag, as it will be the sign
whose the ally and foe.
* Idol
Same as Fountain. Give you a luck until the next battle ends.
* Tree of Knowledge
This tree will give you a level if you have enough leadership. If not, he
will give you a fee to level up (around 10 gems).
* Fort
Give you 1+ defense skill. Once for a hero.
* Mercenary Camp
Give you 1+ attack skill. Once for a hero.
* Witch Doctor's Hut
Give you 1+ knowledge skill. Once for a hero.
* Stonehege
Give you 1+ spell power skill. Once for a hero.
* Ruins
You can buy some Medusas here.
* Genie Lamp
You can buy some Genie here.
* Peasant Hut
Some peasant will agree to join you.
* Archer's House
Some archer will agree to join you.
* Goblin's Hut
Some goblin will agree to join you.
* Centaur Cave
Some Centaur will agree to join you.
* Dwarf Cottage
Some Dwarf will agree to join you.
* Oasis
Give you a several 'yellow' points.
* Artesian Spring
Doubles your 'green' points (magic points,manna).
* City of the Death
Beat some undead units and you can buy some lich.
* Skeleton
You might found an artifact or treasure from the dead bodies.
* Wagon
Same as skeleton.
* Sign
Something written in there.
* Bottle
Something written in there.
* Magellan House (or something like that)
You can buy the map of the sea of the current map.
* Flotsam
You might found gold or woods from there.
* Treasure Chest (on the ocean)
You might found an artifact or gold.
* Tree House
Some sprites will join you.
* Tree City
You can buy some sprites in there.
* Pyramid
Fight some undead and take the treasures. If the undead have been defeated,
then you get bad luck instead.
* Demon's Cave
Fight the servants or face the demons, it your decisions.
* Factory
Upgrade your iron golem to steel golem.
* Hill Fort
Upgrade some of your troops to the upgraded type.
* Dragon's City
Fight some dragons and you will be able to buy some red dragons.
* Sphinx
Solve the riddle and get the prizes. If you fail, your heroes will be dead,
remember, not all prizes are good.
* Well
Fill up your 'green' points to full status.
* Buoy
Give a morale to your troops until the next battle ends.
* Graveyard
Fight some undead and take the treasures. If the undead have been defeated,
then you get bad morale instead.
* Lighthouse
Your ship yellow points is increased.
* Rogue's Camp
You can buy some rogues from there.
* Road
Used to make your hero's movement longer. Note that heroes always take the
shortest way.
* Abandoned Mine
Fight some ghost first, then the mine will be changed into a gold mine.
* Wrecked Ship (there are 2 type of them)
Fight some ghost first, then take the treasures. If the ghost have been
defeated, you get bad ones instead.
* Event
In certain cases, you may get an event.
* Whirlpool (sea only)
Teleport your ship to a different random whirlpool. Note that some weak
armies (like peasant) might be killed if they enter the whirlpool.
* Dimension Door (there are 3 types of them)
Teleport your hero to a different dimension door (the same type only).
* Watch Tower
Some orcs will join you.
* Halfling Hole
Some halfling will join you.
* Windmill
Give you some resources every week when visited.
* Water Wheel
Same as Windmill, but give you gold instead.
* Magic Garden
Same as Windmill
* Trading Post
Exchange some resources with another resources. Same as Marketplace in a
castle or town. If you have more marketplace, the exchange rate is better.
* Oracle
See opponent's status.
* Troll Bridge
You can buy some trolls here after you fight them.
* Desert Tent
You can buy some Nomads in there.
* Execution Site
Some Skeletons will join you.
* Xanadu
He will teach you some skills when you have enough diplomacy skill.
* Faerie Ring
Give you a luck until the next battle ends. Same as fountain.
* Lean-To
Get some resources here. One time only.
* ??? (maybe im missing something)
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IV.BUILDING LIST
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This is apply inside a castle or a town. Some of them will allow you to buy
some troops, give you a new spell, increases your moral, etc.
--Knight--
----------
* Peasant Hut -> Peasant
* Archery Range/(Upgraded)-> Archer/Ranger
* Armory /(Upgraded)-> Pikeman/Veteran Pikeman
* Blacksmith /(Upgraded)-> Swordman/Master Swordman
* JoustingArena/(Upgraded)-> ? /Champion
* Cathedral /(Upgraded)-> Paladin/Crusader
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* Farm -> Give you more Peasant every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Fortiffication -> Increases the toughness of the wall
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
--Wizard--
----------
* Halfling Hole -> Halfling
* Pen -> Boar
* Cliff Nest -> Roc
* Foundry /(Upgraded)-> Iron Golem/Steel Golem
* Ivory Tower /(Upgraded)-> Mage/Archmage
* Cloud Castle /(Upgraded)-> Giant/Titan
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* Orchard -> Give you more Halfling every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Library -> Give you more spells of every class
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
--Sorcerer--
------------
* Tree House -> Sprite
* Archery Range/(Upgraded)-> Elves/Grand Elves
* Cottage /(Upgraded)-> Dwarf/?
* Stonehege /(Upgraded)-> Druid/Greater Druid
* Fenced Meadow/(Upgraded)-> Unicorn
* Red Tower -> Phoenix
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* Crystal Garden -> Give you more sprites every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Rainbow -> Give the defending armies more luck
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
--Necromancer--
* Execution Site -> Skeleton
* Graveyard /Upg-> Zombie/Mutant Zombie
* Pyramid /Upg-> Mummy/Royal Mummy
* Mansion /Upg-> Vampire/Vampire Lord
* ? /Upg-> Lich/Power Lich
* Laboratory -> Bone Dragon
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* ? -> Give you more skeletons every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Storm -> Give the defending armies more spell power
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
--Barbarian--
* Goblin's Hut -> Goblin
* Stick Hut /Upg-> Orc/Orc Chief
* Cave -> Wolf
* Adobe /Upg-> Ogre/Ogre Lord
* Bridge /Upg-> Troll/War Troll
* Pyramid -> Cyclops
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* Garbage Heap -> Give you more goblins every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Colosseum -> Give the defending armies more moral
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
--Warlock--
* Cave -> Centaur
* Crypt -> Gargoyle
* Nest -> Griffin
* Maze /Upg-> Minatour/Minatour King
* Swamp -> Hydra
* Green/Red/Black Tower -> Green Dragon/Red Dragon/Black Dragon
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* Waterfall -> Give you more centaurs every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Dungeon -> Give you 500 gold every day
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
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V. ARMY LIST
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As you know, I will only give description for some powerfull and usefull
troops, as it will take years to describe all of them one by one. (Long)
means that unit attack with long range attack. (Fly) means it is a flying
type troops. (Fight) means it is a fighter unit. You CAN split your army,
here is the way: press shift, drag a unit you want to split to an empty
box, a menu will appear and ask you how many units you want to split.
--Knight--
* Peasant (Fight)
* Archer/Ranger (Long)
* Pikeman/Veteran Pikeman (Fight)
* Swordman/Master Swordman (Fight)
* Paladin/Crusader (Fight) -> Attack 2 times on a unit
--Wizard--
* Halfling (Long)
* Boar (Fight)
* Roc (Fly)
* Iron Golem/Steel Golem (Fight)
* Mage/Archmage (Long) -> Sometimes causes Dispel
* Giant(Fight)/Titan(Long) -> Titan is 1/2 strongest unit
--Sorcerer--
* Sprite (Fly)
* Elves/Grand Elves (Long)
* Dwarf/? (Fight) -> Sometimes deflect spells
* Druid/Greater Druid (Long)
* Unicorn (Fight) -> Sometimes causes blind
* Phoenix (Fly)
--Necromancer--
* Skeleton (Fight)
* Zombie/Mutant Zombie (Fight)
* Mummy/Royal Mummy (Fight) -> Sometimes causes curse
* Vampire/Vampire Lord (Fly) -> Live again if kills some units
* Lich/Power Lich (Long)
* Bone Dragon (Fly)
--Barbarian--
* Goblin (Fight)
* Orc/Orc Chief (Long)
* Wolf (Fight)
* Ogre/Ogre Lord (Fight)
* Troll/War Troll (Long)
* Cyclops (Fight)
--Warlock--
* Centaur (Long)
* Gargoyle (Fly)
* Griffin (Fly)
* Minatour/Minatour King (Fight)
* Hydra (Fight) -> Attack all nearest enemies
* Green/Red/Black Dragon (Fly)
--Other--
* Medusa (Fight) -> Sometimes causes Petrify
* Genie (Fly) -> Sometimes attack 'half'
* Nomad (Fight)
* Rogue (Fight)
* Fire Elemental
* Air Elemental
* Water Elemental
* Earth Elemental
* Ghost -> Increased if kills some units
* ???
--Army's Strength Table--
-------------------------
===============================================================
| Knight troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit |Atk |Def | HP | Dmg | Spd | Cost |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Peasant | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 20 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Archer | 3 | 5 | 10 | 2-3 | 2 | 150 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Ranger | 4 | 5 | 10 | 2-3 | 4 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Pikeman | 5 | 9 | 20 | 3-4 | 4 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Veteran Pikeman | 5 | 9 | 25 | 3-4 | 5 | 250 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Swordsman | 7 | 9 | 25 | 4-6 | 4 | 250 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Master Swordsman | 7 | 9 | 30 | 4-6 | 5 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Cavalry | 10 | 9 | 30 | 5-10 | 6 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Champion | 10 | 9 | 40 | 5-10 | 7 | 375 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Paladin | 11 | 12 | 50 | 10-20 | 5 | 600 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Crusader | 11 | 12 | 65 | 10-20 | 6 | 1000 |
===============================================================
| Barbarian troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Goblin | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1-2 | 4 | 40 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Orc | 3 | 4 | 10 | 2-3 | 2 | 140 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Orc Chief | 3 | 4 | 15 | 3-4 | 3 | 175 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Wolf | 6 | 2 | 20 | 3-5 | 6 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Ogre | 9 | 5 | 40 | 4-6 | 2 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Ogre Lord | 9 | 5 | 60 | 5-7 | 4 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Troll | 10 | 5 | 40 | 5-7 | 4 | 600 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| War Troll | 10 | 5 | 40 | 7-9 | 5 | 700 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Cyclope | 12 | 9 | 80 | 12-24 | 5 | 750+ 1cr |
===============================================================
| Sorceress troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Sprite | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1-2 | 4 | 50 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Dwarf | 6 | 5 | 20 | 2-4 | 2 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Battle Dwarf | 6 | 6 | 20 | 2-4 | 4 | 250 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Elf | 4 | 3 | 15 | 2-3 | 4 | 250 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Grand Elf | 5 | 5 | 15 | 2-3 | 6 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Druid | 7 | 5 | 20 | 5-8 | 4 | 350 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Greater Druid | 7 | 7 | 25 | 5-8 | 6 | 400 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Unicorn | 10 | 9 | 40 | 7-14 | 5 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Phoenix | 12 | 10 | 100 | 20-40 | 7 | 1500+1m |
===============================================================
| Warlock troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Centaur | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1-2 | 4 | 60 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Gargoyle | 4 | 7 | 15 | 2-3 | 6 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Griffin | 6 | 6 | 25 | 3-5 | 4 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Minotaur | 9 | 8 | 40 | 5-10 | 4 | 400 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Minotaur King | 9 | 8 | 45 | 5-10 | 6 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Hydra | 8 | 9 | 75 | 6-12 | 2 | 800 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Green Dragon | 12 | 12 | 200 | 25-50 | 4 | 3000+1s |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Red Dragon | 13 | 13 | 250 | 25-50 | 5 | 3500+1s |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Black Dragon | 14 | 14 | 300 | 25-50 | 6 | 4000+2s |
===============================================================
| Wizard troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Halfling | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1-3 | 3 | 50 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Boar | 5 | 4 | 15 | 2-3 | 6 | 150 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Iron Golem | 5 | 10 | 30 | 4-5 | 2 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Steel Golem | 7 | 10 | 35 | 4-5 | 3 | 350 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Roc | 7 | 7 | 40 | 5-8 | 4 | 400 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Mage | 11 | 7 | 30 | 7-9 | 5 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Archmage | 12 | 8 | 35 | 7-9 | 6 | 700 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Giant | 13 | 10 | 150 | 20-30 | 4 | 2000+1g |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Titan | 15 | 15 | 300 | 20-30 | 6 | 5000+2g |
===============================================================
| Necromancer | | | | | | |
| troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Skeleton | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2-3 | 4 | 75 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Zombie | 5 | 2 | 15 | 2-3 | 2 | 150 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Mutant Zombie | 5 | 2 | 20 | 2-3 | 4 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Mummy | 6 | 6 | 25 | 3-4 | 4 | 250 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Royal Mummy | 6 | 6 | 30 | 3-4 | 5 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Vampire | 8 | 6 | 35 | 5-7 | 4 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Vampire Lord | 8 | 6 | 40 | 5-7 | 5 | 650 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Lich | 7 | 12 | 25 | 8-10 | 5 | 750 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Power Lich | 7 | 13 | 35 | 8-10 | 6 | 900 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Bone Dragon | 11 | 9 | 150 | 25-45 | 4 | 1500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================
| Neutral troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Rogue | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1-2 | 5 | 50 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Nomad | 7 | 5 | 20 | 2-5 | 6 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Ghost | 8 | 6 | 20 | 4-6 | 5 | 1000 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Medusa | 8 | 9 | 35 | 6-10 | 4 | 350 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Genie | 10 | 9 | 50 | 20-30 | 6 | 750+1g |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Earth Elemental | 8 | 8 | 50 | 4-5 | 3 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Water Elemental | 6 | 8 | 45 | 3-7 | 4 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Fire Elemental | 8 | 6 | 40 | 4-5 | 5 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Air Elemental | 7 | 7 | 35 | 2-8 | 6 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
VI. SPELL LIST
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
--Level 1 Magic--
-----------------
HASTE
Most useful 1st level spell.. since it can turn otherwise deficient monster
stacks in killer armies. Examples.. a big stack of Steel Golems can now
reach the opposing army in 2 turns. Your big stack of slow or average
shooter troops can now shoot before the enemy flyers or shooters. The
Hydras become very, very dangerous. A huge stack of skeletons can reach the
other side in 2 turns while your cheap sacrificial stack of shooters draws
the fire... In general, it can give you the very important first attack.
SLOW
Opposite of Haste... almost as useful but less versatile since if you cast
it too soon the enemy spellcaster will probably dispel it. Can save your
butt against fast flyers since this will give your shooters time to destroy
them. Also useful combined with Blind to stop the enemy from fleeing before
you have a chance to destroy him. Timing is foremost when using this potent
spell. Either use it after the enemy casted his own spell or on the fast
troop going up next which you want to attack first.
BLESS
Very good on certain troops that have a large range of damage. Also assures
you of inflicting maximum damage. For example, Bless used on crusaders and
phoenix double up their damage inflicting points permitting you, under
ideal conditions, to kill double the monsters you would usually have
destroyed with an unblessed stack doing minimum damage. Of course, doing
minimum damage with an unblessed unit is very unlikely since the damage
done by any stack is an average.
CURSE
Opposite of Bless. Very good also but more "passive" than his counterpart
since you can't always control which of your stacks, the enemy stack will
attack first (unless you have shooters). The enemy will rarely dispel this
spell. Use it against the monster stack that scares you the most : the fast
flyer troops or the big stack of enemy shooters.
SHIELD
Extremely nice to have when you go up against big shooter armies. Use it on
your strongest shooter stack who will draw the majority of attacks from the
AI. Unfortunately, the usefulness of Shield is limited because it does not
protect against ballista and turret fire.
DISPEL MAGIC
One of the tough spells to use well. More useful in the later parts of the
game. Try to use this spell against an enemy stack having multiple positive
spells. I typically use it against the most dangerous enemy stack,
especially if it already has bless and steelskin. I use Cure instead of
Dispel Magic when I want to remove negative spells from one of my stacks.
MAGIC ARROW
The first *direct* offensive spell. Good against low-level troops and very
good when you have a high spell rating but no lightning or not enough
spells points left to cast it. Also good when you don't want the enemy to
flee, which it will usually do, when it only has a couple of monster
stacks left.
CURE
Did you know that this spell not only cures your hit points but also
removes all negative spells ? Making this almost the equal of Dispel Magic.
I rated it so low because the number of hit points gained when casting it
is much too minimal. I mostly use it on my high-level monster stacks (like
Phoenix or Bone Dragons).
BLOODLUST
Attack +3. In concrete terms, what this means is that, under ideal
conditions, you could get a 30 % damage bonus. I cast it when I have
nothing else better to cast.
STONESKIN
Defense + 3. In concrete terms, this means that, under ideal conditions,
you could get 30 % less damage (if the difference between his attack and
your defense skill were 3 points or higher before you casted) from an enemy
attack on the stack that is stoneskinned. I cast it when I have nothing
else better to cast.
VIEW MINES
I only use it in the beginning game to check out where the *necessary*
mines are hidden. By *necessary* mine, I mean the mine that produces the
resource you need most to build the advanced-level structures. For example,
sulfur for Warlocks, wood for knights, ore for barbarians, gems for
wizards, etc.
VIEW RESOURCES
I will use it if I have it.. but I prefer getting the other spells. Can be
useful if there are no nearby mines of the type you desire.
--Level 2 Magic--
-----------------
BLIND
One of the most underestimated spells out there. What good is the killer
monster stack of the enemy if it cannot move or attack due to the Blind
spell ? Timing is very important for this spell : either cast it on the
fastest troop of the enemy, wait until he has already cast his own spell,
or time it so that the blinded stack is the one going up next. If the enemy
dispels it after his unit has already lost his turn then it's too late for
the current turn. If he dispels it before that blinded stack would have
normally gotten its turn, then the stack will attack normally. Generally
cast Blind on the most dangerous monsters... faster units first. Also
useful in keeping the enemy from fleeing. A sure way to insure that an
enemy stack will lose the current turn is by attacking it before the
computer opponent has a chance to dispell it. Something we rarely, if ever,
think about is that a blinded creature retaliates with half-damage unless
you shoot it from afar with missiles or offensive spells in which case the
enemy gets no retaliation at all. Finally, keep in mind that this spell
doesn't work on undeads and Titans.
LIGHTNING BOLT
The best "direct" offensive spell that damages a single stack. I use it all
the time. Its use is pretty straightforward : point and shoot. Useful for
destroying remaining enemy units you don't want to see fleeing. As always,
cast Lightning on the most dangerous unit that can attack you right away
(that means walker troops are the last target choice).
VISIONS
One of the best spells if you manage to get it. It's one of the rarer
spells because of it's great usefulness. If New World Computing did not
want us to have it very often, they should have given it a higher-level
spell rating. Visions tells you how a nearby wandering monster stack will
react when you encounter it (join, flee, attack). It also gives you the
number of units present. From intuition and experience, I can usually tell
if an enemy stack will join me or not, but having this great spell makes my
job easier. Don't cast Visions on everything though, cast it on stacks that
you must absolutely pass or that you suspect might join you.
STEELSKIN
+6 on Defense. Quite good when you want to protect one of your important
stacks. I usually cast it on my best shooters or the flyers who are
attacking deep in enemy territory. In concrete terms, this spell can lower
the damage received by about 40 % on the steelskinned unit, under ideal
conditions (if the attacker's attack rating is 5 points or higher than the
defender's defense rating.. before you cast the spell).
COLD RAY
Not a bad spell similar to Lightning Bolt but less powerful. I never cast
it if I already have Lightning unless I have the cold icicle item. It's a
point-and-shoot offensive spell.
DISRUPTING RAY
-3 on Defense each time you cast it. Some people like this spell because
it's permanent and cumulative. Well, I rarely use it because I think it
costs too much. I guess you could use this instead of Curse if you're
really scared of the offensive power of a given enemy stack. The enemy
can't dispel it.. so that's good. I still think the AI uses this spell too
often.
DRAGON SLAYER
+5 attack against Dragons. This is a must against Dragons. It also works
against Bone Dragons. Cast it on your highest-level stack (Titans, Phoenix,
etc). Can possibly inflict 50% more damage on any Dragon stack. Dragon
slayer combined with Bless makes your attacking unit quite dangerous. If
you don't know what to cast against Dragons, which are immune to all magic,
this one is a good bet...
DEATH RIPPLE
Another very specialized spell only useful if you army is entirely composed
of undead troops. Don't cast it unless your hero has a high spell power
rating. The power of this spell is not strong enough imho (only x5 Power),
but it's a 2nd level spell so that's too be expected. The good point is
that it affects all living troops equally. Can serve as a weak mini-
armageddon spell. Possibly useful combined with Anti-magic.
SUMMON BOAT
Summons any nearby boat that you "control" or that has never been
previously controlled by anyone. Can be quite good in water-based
scenarios... For example, you disembark on one side of the desert island,
explore it, reach the other side, cast Summon Boat and board the boat. This
spell can save you a lot of exploring time.
HAUNT
Renders a mine useless for all players until the protecting ghosts are
defeated. In the rare times, I got it, I barely used it. Of course, don't
use this on your own nearby mines :-) Can be useful if a spellcasting scout
hero goes deep into enemy territory and casts it on essential mines of the
enemy (ex : Haunt on the sulfur mines of the enemy warlock).
VIEW ARTIFACTS
I almost never use this because I usually have a lot of scouting heroes
showing me exactly what nearby items are good enough to risk my valuable
troops. If I get it, I will cast it one time just to see if there might not
be a "clump" of items close by. The funny part is : that they are usually
guarded by a very strong army...
--Level 3 Magic--
-----------------
MASS HASTE
Makes all your own monster stacks quicker. I gave Haste the first place in
the first part of my spellcasting guide therefore it's only fair that I
give it the same "honor" in the 3rd part ;-) All that I said for Haste
applies here too but on a larger and better scale. If you play well, and
because most of your troops will attack before your enemies, you can really
devastate the opposition. Extremely useful when you have a fast army or
better (think Sorceress). Your opponent cannot dispel all those hastes,
even if he has Mass Dispel, because he may not even have the chance to get
his turn :-) Watch out for the remaining couple of enemy troops, they could
flee.
TELEPORT
A very rare spell but very good when you manage to find it. This can
teleport any one of your ground troops on the other side of the map
therefore providing you with a quicker attack. Use it on tough very slow,
slow or average troops (Hydras are the best) when it is their turn. Expect
this teleporting stack to suffer some heavy casualties. Useful for
teleporting ground troops inside or outside castles. I also teleport my
ground troops next to the enemy's shooters most of the time (between 2
stacks of shooters if I can).
PARALYZE
A better version of the already nice Blind spell. You use it the same way
as Blind (see part 2) except you don't have to worry about retaliation so
much anymore. Therefore faster and weaker creatures that would die from a
retaliation (against a blinded enemy) can give the first strike (against a
paralysed enemy). It's a little more expensive than Blind but most of the
time it's worth it.
ANTI-MAGIC
This is a must-have spell if you go up against powerful spellcasters. In
general, I cast it on my strongest highest-level or more damaging stack. If
you have shooters in your army that you want to keep, then it's a good idea
to cast Anti-Magic on them before your best stack since the AI will almost
always attack the shooters first. If you also have an all-damaging spell
(like Elemental Storm or Armageddon) then you can attack with only one
tough monster stack... casting Anti-Magic on the first turn and the all-
damaging spell on the second turn. If you see that a spellcaster is
constantly casting negative spells on the same unit stack, by all means
cast Anti-Magic to protect this valuable stack.
MASS BLESS
The spell to use if you want to beef up your offensive potential. Most of
the tips for the simple Bless (see part 1) also apply here. Very good if
your stacks have a big "range" of damage (ex: Phoenix with 20-40 points or
Nomads with 2-5 points each).
MASS CURSE
The spell to use when the enemy has a lot of very damaging units. Most of
the tips for the simple Curse (see part 1) also apply here. Very good if
the enemy's stacks have a big "range" of damage.
ANIMATE DEAD
The resurrect spell for the Necromancer hero ! Only a 3rd level instead of
5th level therefore providing a certain advantage to the Necromancer player
if he manages to get it. You have a better chance of getting it than the
resurrect spell but it's mostly useless for the other types of heroes. A
specialized spell that should be rated much higher if you play the
Necromancer and lower if you play any other kind. I usually cast it on my
Vampire Lords or Bone Dragons...
MASS DISPEL
The spell to use when a lot of your stacks have negative spells on them. It
won't happen very often though since the AI seems to prefer casting many
different negative spells on the same unit (most of the time : your best
shooter stack). The Dispel is useless against Disrupting Ray. Most of the
tips for the simple Dispel Magic (see part 1) also apply here.
EARTHQUAKE
An underestimated spell... Destroys the castle walls sooner therefore
making the castle ballistas destroyed sooner. Castle ballistas destroyed
sooner means a lot less casualties for your shooters. A lot less casualties
for your shooters means a stronger army. A stronger army means a quicker
victory ! Particularly good if you cast it 2 consecutive times at the
beginning of the battle. Less useful if you attack a new lightly-built
castle with only one ballista.
DEATH WAVE
Stronger version of Death Ripple. Cool spell effect that damages all living
troops. Only useful for Necromancer players. Can serve as a mini-armageddon
spell. If your Necromanger gets this spell, the Death Ripple spell will
almost never be used anymore. Having a good spell rating for the hero
casting it is a "must". Death Wave is rated higher for Necromancer players
and much lower for all the other types of players.
HOLY WORD
Very good if you go up against a Necromancer player that doesn't have the
item countering it. Specialized spell only useful against undead. Useless
for the necromancer army and of limited use for the other hero types if
there is no Necromancer present on the map. Can be used to kill wandering
undead troops
FIREBALL
First general area-damaging offensive spell. Because of its lack of
"destroying" punch, I prefer to use the good old Lightning spell. This
spell should be given a power boost. Useful if you have a high spell-rating
and/or when you attack low-level stacks (like halflings or goblins). Also
good for stopping the enemy from fleeing if he only has a couple of stacks
left.
COLD RING
Similar to Fireball but with a slight twist. It creates a "ring" of
damaging ice around one of your units not killing your own stack. Not bad
if one of your good units is surrounded. Good against low-level troops,
useless against high-level troops. Also nice to have when you go up against
wandering low-level shooter stacks (cast it between the 2 enemy stacks).
Like Fireball, it badly needs a power boost.
VIEW HEROES
Not bad but not extremely good either. Can show the exact number and
location of heroes that each of your opponents has. Frequent use of this
spell can save your scouting heroes from ambush. Useless when you have
explored most of the map.
VIEW TOWNS
Only useful to give you a general attack direction. I will cast it once or
twice and forget about it. Can also show you if your enemies have captured
any new towns or built up castles.
IDENTIFY HERO
Most useless 3rd level spell since I generally have enough thieves guilds
by then to know the size of the opposing army. My agressive tactics also
mean that the first defended castle I take will be lightly-defended by a
beginner or intermediate hero. BTW, it may not be pretty, but if you attack
an enemy army and you find out too late it's too strong for you, there's
always retreating and surrendering ;-)
--Level 4 Magic--
CHAIN LIGHTNING
My personal favorite spell. It may not be the strongest or most versatile
spell but it packs a lot of offensive punch anyway. When I have the good
fortune to find it, I use it almost exclusively along with my best
spellcaster and army. No other offensive spell (that does not kill your
troops too) is this damaging to your enemies with the exception of
Armageddon and Dragons. Of course, you have to watch out, when you cast
this potent spell, about not zapping your own troops. I usually cast Chain
Lightning on my first turn while all the opponent stacks are on the other
side of the map close together. My first target will be the most dangerous
and immediately damaging unit. Therefore, I will usually shoot the bolt at
a big stack of shooters close to flying troops or vice-versa. You can still
cast the spell when you go up against only 3 enemy stacks since the 4th
victim (one of your stacks) will suffer practically no damage. I almost
never cast it against an army of only 2 units. If you cast the spell on the
second or third turn, watch out for your own flyers who may already have
engaged the enemy. Never cast it on a enemy unit close to yours unless you
don't care about killing your own unit too. This spell is usually better
in the early and midgame. In the endgame, Mass Slow is better.
MASS SLOW
Ever wonder why this spell is rated a 4th-level spell while his opposite
counterpart Mass Haste is only a 3rd-level spell? It's in part because this
great underestimated spell will give you first strike against the majority
of the opposing stacks. But the real reason is that it will stop all enemy
flyers from reaching your shooters in only one turn ! The enemy shooters
will also fire last giving you a chance to devastate them with your own
army. Some ground enemy troops will arrive to your side sooner than others.
That way, you can concentrate on usually 1 or 2 walker stacks instead of 4
at the same time. Fleeing, for the enemy, is also rendered more difficult.
A well-cast Mass Slow combined with good tactics can give you the victory
before your opponent even has a chance to take one turn ! Most of the tips
for Slow (see part 1) also apply for Mass Slow.
BERSERK
I consider this spell better than the 5th-level spell Hypnotize. Why ?
Because even though you cannot control the actions of the berserked unit,
you can decide to berserk almost any kind of enemy stack with no regard to
its strength. The berserk spell will dissipate after one attack so make it
count. Imagine you're going up against a superhero with 8 Red dragons and
50 Minotaur Kings next to each other. You know that your spells cannot
affect the dragons so you cast Berserk on the Minotaur Kings who go up
next. If you're lucky, the Minotaur kings will attack the dragons (or the
nearby gargoyles) and get attacked in return ! Presto : the MK stack has
lost its turn, the attacked unit has lost the ability to retaliate for the
rest of the turn (unless it has unlimited retaliation) and both stacks are
decimated :-) The best part is that Berserk doesn't cost a lot to cast
(only 12 points). Casting it at the correct time is very important since
you don't want to see it dispelled. In any given turn, either cast it at
the enemy unit that will go next, the fastest enemy stack or when the enemy
has already cast his own spell. A secondary usage of this spell would be to
stop a single unit army from fleeing. Sometimes, you will also want to stop
a particular enemy stack from getting his turn until you are ready to
attack it. Blind and Paralyse are better in that respect, but sometimes you
won't have them. Last warning : do not attack a berserked unit until it has
already attacked one of his own.
METEOR SHOWER
A very nice offensive spell that usually damages 2 units but can sometimes
damage more (if they're all close together). A clever use of this spell is
to send a flyer stack next to an enemy shooter stack without attacking. All
the close enemy walkers and flyers (if you have no shooter troops) will
then proceed to attack this lone flyer stack. Cast Meteor Shower when
they're all clumped together. You will lose your own flying stack but will
have done a lot of damage to the majority of his units. A variation on this
tactic is the sacrificial shooter unit which will attract all enemy flying
troops. On the first turn of a combat, I usually cast Meteor Shower between
a shooter stack and flying stack since they're the most likely to damage me
right away. On the next combat turns, if I see no enemy "clumps" then I
will proceed to cast it again on the shooters if they're close to any other
significant enemy unit. If the shooter stack is alone, then cast Lightning.
Another likely target for Meteor Shower is a group of walkers slowly coming
towards me. The power and range of this spell makes it more useful than
Fireball, Cold Ring and Fireblast imho.
TOWN GATE
Finally a good useful adventure spell :-) It is very rare. Probably because
of its effectiveness. It will transport the hero casting it to your nearest
town. What this means is that you can afford to be more reckless. Even
attacking sooner than would be prudent will not be a problem, since if you
have enough spell points, you can "gate" back to your town for
reinforcements. Extremely useful for strong heroes with depleted armies
that have done a lot of battles deep in enemy territory or weak midlevel
scouts who stumble upon a stronger enemy hero. After coming to a deadend
while exploring, you can teleport back to avoid losing precious travel
time.
HOLY SHOUT
A very specialized spell that only damages undead creatures. Can be quite
useful against Necromancer troops if you have a high-level spellcaster. The
power is good and it kills only undead troops not your precious living
troops. Therefore if you have a knight, barbarian or wizard army, you can
use this as your own little Armageddon without killing your own troops too
(see Storm for Sorceress and Armageddon for Warlock). Mostly useless for
Necromancer heroes unless they are lucky enough to find the magic item
making them immune. On maps with no Necromancer opponents, Holy Shout can
still serve to kill wandering undead armies. If you get this spell, you
will most likely forget about Holy Word.
STORM
A little more powerful than Holy Shout but it also kills all troops, making
no discrimination between dead and living. If you play anything other than
a sorceress or a warlock, then this spell only serves when you want to
weaken a powerful enemy army approaching your castle. You hire a wizard (or
any hero with advanced wisdom), make sure he has a very fast unit and
attack the enemy. You cast Storm on your first turn. You will die right
away but will have weakened the enemy a bit. Try to redo this as long as
you have enough money and/or wizards. This spell could also be useful for
high-level spellcasters with Anti-Magic. They should stomp around with one
very tough single stack, cast Anti-Magic on the first turn and Storm on the
second. Storm with Phoenix is a killer-combination since Phoenix are immune
to all elemental spells and almost always strike first :-) It gives a
needed little secret weapon to the sorceress player.
RESURRECTION
Well.. what can I say about this one. If you have a sufficiently strong
army combined with an adept spellcaster hero, you can win almost any single
combat against any army whatsoever (except Dragons of course ;-). But it
can save your butt in only one combat since the resurrected troops will
dissapear at the end... If the fight was the least bit close-matched, then
you will have very few surviving troops left and no more spell points. Make
sure you have at least ONE non-resurrected troop still surviving by the end
of the tough battle or you will eliminated along with your opponent.
FIREBLAST
I almost never use it because the great area of effect is upset too much by
the low power of the spell. I prefer using Meteor Shower, Chain Lightning
and Lightning. The only real use I see for it.. is if you go up against a
lot of similar low-level troops. That means that Fireblast will be mostly
used against wandering monster stacks and NOT against an enemy hero army
(unless his army really sucks :-). Could possibly be useful as a way to
avoid enemy fleeing if the enemy has 2,3 or 4 low-numbered low-level stacks
remaining.
MASS SHIELD
Halves the damage from enemy shooters for all your troops. Most of the
time, I have better spells to cast than this. Since the all enemy shooters
will usually concentrate their fire on your best shooter stack, why not
cast a single Shield and a Steelskin on your victimized shooter stack ? Use
your precious spell points for something better. Of course, there are
always exceptions... Against wandering armies of mid or highlevel shooters
and against heroes with lots of different shooter troops, this spell can
literally save your life. I still think this should have been a 3rd-level
spell. The tips for the simple Shield (see part 1) also apply for Mass
Shield.
MASS CURE
Mostly useless since the power of the curing spell power is not powerful
enough (only 5x spell power). If you use it, cast it as a Mass Dispel on
your own troops. It won't happen very often anyway except in very big
battles at the end of the game. The tips for the simple Cure (see part 1)
also apply for Mass Cure.
VIEW ALL
By the time I get this, I usually have explored most of the map. So I am
very disappointed when one of my two precious 4th-level spots is filled by
this "dud". Could be useful in large or extra-large maps if only to keep
track of the moving heroes and by showing you where the towns are located.
By knowing where the towns are, you then have a better chance of guessing
from where the enemy armies will come. It also gives you a better general
sense of direction :-) All the tips for all the other View Spells apply
for View All.
SET AIR/EARTH/FIRE/WATER GUARDIAN
What a coincidence... number 13 :-) As it stands now this spell is more of
a liability than something helpful. With the current bug (hopefully fixed
by the 1.2. patch), you cast this to protect your mines, the enemy hero
comes along with his big army, captures the mine and your own Elementals
now guard the mine against you. How nice ;-) I will probably rate it higher
when the patch comes out but not a LOT higher.
Update : The terrible bug exposed in the previous paragraph has been fixed
by the latest patch. Unfortunately, I still don't like or cast those kind
of spells very much. The cost is too high (15 spell points !) and the
results are not that great. As for Haunt, it can be useful if you really
want to stop a certain opponent from getting resources from a certain type
of mine (ex : sulfur for a Warlock). Contrary to Haunt, the mine will stay
in your possession but defended by Elementals against any opponent who
would dare to take it. If you're being invaded or suspect you'll get
invaded by strong attackers, Set Elemental Guardian is a nice way to keep
your mines. Of course, you would have to setup those protections BEFORE the
enemies steal your mines and forces you to flee or stay in your castle.
Those spells are more rare than others of the same level.
--Level 5--
-----------
TOWN PORTAL
Imho, the best spell in the HOMM 2 game. It will teleport you to *ANY* of
your own towns. This spell is so powerful that when you get it, the game
is pratically finished for your adversaries. The designers probably know
this too because they made this spell so rare. In all the games I've
played, I've gotten Town Portal a grand total of only 2 times! With a high-
level spellcasting hero you teleport from one castle to the next, taking
the best troops in each. You're almost dead and deep in enemy territory,
you cast Town Portal and your hero is saved. You have your killer army
exploring far away from the front and one of your weaker castles there is
about to be captured ? Simple, you teleport inside the attacked town at the
last possible moment and trounce the surprised enemy. You need to get a
particular spell from one of your faraway castles ? Again you're only a
little Town Portal away. You need to get from one point of an extra large
map to another in a hurry ? Chances are that you have a nearby castle that
can save you days or weeks of slow ground travel. This spell eliminates
distances and permits you to leave almost of your castles practically
undefended. The only thing to watch for is the number of spell points you
currently have. Of course, you also need to have scouted the map
beforehand and control more than 1 castle for Town Portal to be useful ;-)
DIMENSION DOOR
The 5th-level spell that costs the least. You also need a hero with a very
high knowledge rating to make the most of it. Dimension Door can serve most
of the same kinds of functions than Town Portal but with a little more
difficulty. Any hero in trouble can teleport himself away from danger.
Your best army can still reach the undersieged castle in good time (not
true if it's too far away). Dimension Door can sometimes teleport you in
treasure-rich areas protected by monsters otherwise too strong for you. It
can also make you reach otherwise inaccessible parts of the maps. You don't
have to take the big detour anymore to pass the great chain of mountains.
You can pass it easily by teleporting. This spell generally saves you a lot
of travel time. Teleporting next to wells is really a "must" when using
Dimension Door. When there are no wells present and you are almost out of
spell points, go to your nearest castle and stay the night. A high
Logistics skill and items that increase your movement (like Boots) permit
you to cast Dimension Door more often. In theory, if you found a well each
time you were almost out of spell points, you could traverse the length of
the map in a matter of days.
RESURRECT TRUE
This is the best combat "defensive" spell you can get... since the best
protection is not dying permanently :-) I usually cast it on my best and/or
most useful stack (4th-level monsters or higher). Since the computer enemy
really likes to attack your shooters, you will probably end up
"resurrecting" those kind of stacks more often. Calcutate the numbers of
possible resurrected troops before casting it by multiplying the Spell
Power rating of your hero by 50x. For example, a Warlock with 20 spell
points will resurrect for 1000 hit points of dead troops. In other words,
it could be 3 Titans, 16 Ogre Lords or 100 Rangers. This spell, possibly
combined with Mirror Image, makes your Titans better than Dragons. Please
note that Dragons (unfortunately) cannot benefit from any spells because
they are immune to all magic. Remember also that the Necromancer can also
create more skeletons with his necromancy skill and that Vampire Lords in
sufficient numbers can regenerate their numbers while in combat. Animate
Dead costs 5 points less to cast than Resurrect True but only works on
undead troops. On the other hand, Resurrect and Resurrect True work on all
living creatures except Dragons but not on undead.
ARMAGEDDON
Extremely useful with Dragons.. much less useful when you have other
troops. The Dragon-Armageddon combo is something all advanced HOMM 2
players should know about. For those who are in the dark about this
excellent strategy, here's how it works: You give only Dragons (preferably
Blacks) to your hero who has expert wisdom and lots of spell points. Since
the Dragons are immune to magic, your super-spellcaster can cast Armageddon
to his heart's content (at least until you run out of spell points) without
losing any troops ! The only way you can lose a few of your Dragons is if
the opponent has a much, much bigger and better army than yours, if he has
Dragons too or if he casts Anti-Magic on his highest-level monster stack.
This won't happen very often (if ever) against computer opponents but watch
out against sneaky human adversaries :-) The 2 other uses for this spell
are good if you don't have Dragons in your army. In the first HOMM 1 game,
you could hire a lot of Warlocks and make them do kamikaze attacks (with
one very fast unit) on the huge enemy army approaching your castle. It was
a great way to weaken an otherwise invincible army into more manageable
numbers if you had lots of gold. Well in HOMM 2, it's not so easy
anymore... The best you can hire as a starting spellcaster is a hero with
advanced wisdom which is not enough to cast Armageddon. There's always the
option of kamikazing a mid-level hero with expert wisdom but I consider
this a waste. Don't despair, there is still hope. You can use Elemental
Storm as a substitute if you're lucky enough to get it :-) There's also the
option of casting Anti-Magic on your best stack and Armageddon on the
second turn. See part 4 of this guide for the Phoenix-Storm combo and the
Holy Shout-Living Troops combo.
SUMMON ELEMENTAL
Quite a good spell but also the most expensive one to cast. Getting the
Elemental-friendly items are a great help. As for most of the level-5
spells, the effectiveness of Summon Elemental is directly related to the
Spell Power rating of your hero. This spell is almost as rare as Town
Portal. I won't go into all the different immunities and weaknesses of the
different elementals but be aware of them. With luck, you can use a mass-
destruction spell combo or get a much-needed spell immunity with the kind
of elementals you manage to get. Examples of Elemental-Destructive Spell
combos are : Air-Meteor Shower (you keep your Elemental stack close to a
majority of enemy stacks), Earth-Chain Lightning, Fire-Fireblast (not very
good) and Water-Cold Ring (just a joke :-). Keep in mind that ALL
Elementals are immune to ALL mind spells. I'm not sure about this but I
think the AI has a tendancy to attack the Elemental stacks first (after
your shooters). Casting 2 or more Summon Elementals in the same combat can
definitely "stack" the odds in your favor. Here is a handy little chart for
determining which elemental is immune to which spell :
ELEMENTAL TYPE = SPELL IMMUNITIES
EARTH = Lightning, Chain Lightning, Meteor Shower
AIR = Meteor Shower
FIRE = Fireball, Fireblast
WATER = Cold Ray, Cold Ring
MIRROR IMAGE
Also a very good spell which could have been rated much higher. Level-5
spells ratings are mostly a matter of personal preference so please don't
flame me too much :-). I use Mirror-Image on my best and/or highest level
creature stack (usually Titans, Phoenix or Bone Dragons) with the possible
exception of sometimes casting it on a huge stack of shooters or flyers
which are fast and can attack first. Timing is everything on this spell,
because you don't want the enemy to dispel it with one lousy shot or spell
:-) Raymond Bingham explains the issues of Mirror-Image timing better than
I do.. so please read his comments. Another less-well known usage of this
spell is as an enemy attack "magnet". The AI will usually attack the
mirror-imaged stack before the real one. This is especially useful on the
first turn of a battle, casted on your best shooter stack which will
receive most of the attacks. At the very least, it could save you from the
attack of 1 big enemy stack. Of course, this little tip doesn't work so
well against human opponents.
HYPNOTIZE
This one wins The Quebec Dragon Most Useless and Overrated Spell Award !
When I get Hypnotize in my only 5th-level spot after all the time and
resources it took to get to the 5th-level mage guild... I cringe in disgust
:-) In fact, I prefer Berserk over Hypnotize. Berserk will work on almost
every unit, Hypnotize will work only on the "lesser" units of the opponent.
Berserk is a 4th-level rare spell.. Hypnotize is a 5th-level frequent
spell. Berserk usually lasts one turn, Hypnotize unfortunately lasts only
one turn too. By the time I get Hypnotize, almost all monster stacks of
the enemy are rendered immune because of their high numbers. The fact that
I'm controlling the enemy stack for one turn doesn't make Hytpotize any
much better imho. Besides, I will always have a better spell to cast than
the "crappy" Hypnotize. The designers should really consider giving this
spell a lower-spell rating (4th level perhaps ?) or boosting its power
considerably. As it stands now, the only 2 uses I see for it are : 1)
Eliminating the turn of a stack that scares you (better left to Blind or
Paralyse) or 2) Lowering the numbers of two stacks by attack and
retaliation (better left to a good area-effect offensive spell). If you
would like to prove me wrong about the uselessness of Hypnotize, go ahead,
I would like to hear from you...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
VII. ARTIFACT LIST
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It takes a really long time, but it is finally finished. Thanks to Rob
Merrit for these.
-Ammo Cart: endless ammunition for troops that shoot.
-Ankh: doubles effectiveness of resurrect and animate spells.
-Arcane Necklace of Magic: increases spell power +4.
-Armored Gauntlets of Protection: increase defense skill +1.
-Ballista of Quickness: catapult fires twice per turn.
-Black Pearl: increases spell power and knowledge +2.
-Book of Elements: doubles effectiveness of summoning spells.
-Caster's Bracelet of Magic: increases spell power +2.
-Defender Helm of Protection: increases defense skill +1.
-Divine Breastplate of Protection: increases defense skill +3.
-Dragon Sword of Dominion: increases attack skill +3.
-Elemental Ring: halves casting cost summoning spells.
-Enchanted Hourglass: extends duration spells by 2 turns.
-Endless Bag of Gold: 750 gold every day.
-Endless Cart of Ore: 1 unit of ore every day.
-Endless Cord of Wood: 1 unit of wood every day.
-Endless Pouch of Crystal: 1 unit of crystal every day.
-Endless Pouch of Gems: 1 unit of gems per day.
-Endless Pouch of Sulfur: 1 unit of sulfur every day.
-Endless Purse of Gold: 500 gold every day.
-Endless Sack of Gold: 1000 gold every day.
-Endless Vial of Mercury: 1 unit of mercury every day.
-Evercold Icicle: cold spells do 50% more damage.
-Everhot Lava Rock: fire spells do 50% more damage.
-Evil Eye: reduces casting cost of curse spells by half.
-Fire Cloak: halves damage troops take from fire spells.
-Fizbin of Misfortune: Greatly decreases morale.
-Foremost Scroll of Knowledge: increases knowledge +5.
-Four-Leaf Clover: increases luck in combat.
-Gamblers Luck Coin: Increases luck during combat.
-Giant Flail of Dominion: Increases attack skill +1
-Golden Bow: halves penalty shooting past obstacles.
-Golden Goose: 10,000 gold every day.
-Golden Horseshoe: increases luck in combat.
-Gold Watch: doubles the effectiveness of hypnotize spells.
-Hideous Mask: No wandering troops will join you.
-Holy Pendant: troops immune to curse spells.
-Ice Cloak: halves damage troops take from cold spells.
-Kinetic Pendant: troops immune to paralyze spells.
-Lighting Helm: Halves the damage done by lighting spells.
-Lightning Rod: lightning spells do 50% more damage.
-Lucky Rabbit's Foot: increases luck in combat.
-Mage's Ring of Power: increases spell power +2.
-Magic Book: allows the casting of spells.
-Major Scroll of Knowledge: increases knowledge +3.
-Medal of Courage: increases morale.
-Medal of Distinction: increases morale.
-Medal of Honor: increases morale.
-Medal of Valor: Increases morale.
-Minor Scroll of Knowledge: increases knowledge +2.
-Nomad boots of Mobility:Increases movement on land.
-Pendant of Death: troops immune to holy spells.
-Pendant of Free Will: troops immune to hypnotize spells.
-Pendant of Life: troops immune to death spells.
-Power Axe of Dominion: increases attack skill +2.
-Power Ring: returns 2 extra power points to your hero.
-Sailors' Astrolabe of Mobility: increases movement on sea.
-Skullcap: halves casting cost of mind influencing spells.
-Seeing Eye Pendant: Troops are immune to blindness spells.
-Serenity Pendant: troops immune to berserk spells.
-Snake ring: Halves the cost to case bless spells.
-Spike Helm: Increases attack and defense +1 each.
-Spike Shield: increases attack and defense skills +2.
-Statesman's Quill: reduces cost of surrender to 10% of the total
cost of troops you have in your army.
-Stealth Shield of Protection: increases defense skill +2.
-Superior Scroll of Knowledge: increases knowledge +4.
-Tax Lien costs you 250 gold pieces per day.
-Telescope: increases terrain hero reveals by 1 extra square.
-Thunder Mace of Dominion: increases attack skill +1.
-Traveler's Boots of Mobility: increase your movement on land.
-True Compass of Mobility: increases movement on land and sea.
-Ultimate Book of Knowledge: increases knowledge +12.
-Ultimate Cloak of Protection: increases defense skill +12.
-Ultimate Crown: increases all basic skills +4.
-Ultimate Shield: increases attack and defense skills +6.
-Ultimate Staff: increases spell power and knowledge +6.
-Ultimate Sword of Dominion: increases attack skill +12.
-Ultimate Wand of Magic: increases spell power +12.
-Wand of Negation: protects troops from Dispel Magic spell.
-White Pearl: increases spell power and knowledge +1.
-Witch's Broach of Magic: increases spell power +3.
-Wizard's Hat: increases duration of spells by 10 turns.
--Artifact Classification--
---------------------------
by: Astral Wizard
Artifacts are man-made (more accurately magic-wielder-made) items that have
a particular effect or function. Artifacts can turn a barbarian into a
high-level magic-user or a sorceress into a powerful fighting unit.
Artifacts can make the most craven of hero troops gallant warriors.
Unfortunately, the wrong artifact can also drain a kingdom of gold, turn
the populace against the heros, and demoralize the best. Artifacts can be
broken down into nine basic groups...
Skill Boosters. Skill boosters come in the forms of swords, shields,
crowns, rods, scrolls, broaches, and basically just about any form you can
imagine. The lesser of these artifacts might raise one of your basic skills
(offense, defense, power, and knowledge) by one point. The larger ones can
increase one of your basic skills by up to twelve points or multiple skills
by up to six points. Possession of such artifacts can be crucial in the
first part of the game where all heroes are starting off with a lack of
specific skills. By the time the game has progressed half way, the value of
these artifacts can decrease as heroes gain high skill levels through
experience and visiting skill enhancing structures. Grab all the skill
boosters you can get, but at mid-game start trading them for protective
artifacts when you can on your more buff heroes.
Protection. Protective artifacts come in the form of amulets, rods, cloaks,
and so on; and can save you from missiles, lightning, heat, and other forms
of physical attack or magical bespellment. It never hurts to have
protection. Protective artifacts are a boon during all phases of the game
but especially so towards the end when the fire balls are big, the
lightning bolts bad, and longe-range troops are massive.
Movement Enducers. Speed Baubles (as I like to call them) give you a
greater movement each day either on land or sea or both and can be found in
form both as various footware and medallions. Do NOT sell these apparantly
low-effect items short -- they can save your hero's life or help bring aid
to an unprotected castle under siege. All terrain movement enducers are a
value through the entire game -- in the beginning they help you to "Hoover"
up the resources laying around before your opponent does; and during the
middle and end parts of the game they allow you to run away from too-tough
opponents or to get back to your castle before an opponent can attack it.
Speed baubles are a great item to have when you don't have Town Portal or
Dimension Door!
Spell Cost Reducers. Artifacts that reduce the cost of spells come in a
myriad of oddly shaped items. They allow you to cast spells using much less
spell power. So you can cast more spells before having to rest and
regenerate your mana. Since they only usually help decrease the cost of a
particular spell or spell type (ie, Bless) they are of dubious value. By
mid-game, usually your spell casters have more than enough mana to perform.
Spell Cast Enhancers. Artifacts that make your spells more destructive or
longer in duration (like the Spell Cost Reducers) come in a myriad of oddly
shaped items. They can make your lightning bolts more butch or make your
troop stopper spells (blind, paralyze, slow, etc.) last longer. Again,
spell duration enhanncers are of more benefit at the start of a game then
they are later when the spell caster's abilities automatically increase the
duration of spells. But the enhancers that make a damage spell stronger are
very important are of great value to all spell caster types.
Luck And Morale Generators. Coins, medallions, clovers, and the like make
up this group of artifacts. They counter the ill effects of having undead
in your troops or having troops of more than two alignments. You should try
to equip each of your heroes with one of each (luck and morale) whenever
possible. Don't be fooled by the whimsy of these items: They give your
troops double attacks and maximum damage... they win battles!
Resource Generators. MarketPlace In a Pouch! Resource generators provide
you with one or two units of a particular resource every day or from 500 to
10,000 gold pieces if it's a gold generating artifact. So which would you
pick up if you had a choice: Endless Pouch Of Gems or Ultimate Crown? If
you control one or more wizard castles believe it or not, you would want
the pouch. Resource generators are a big ticket item at the start of the
game when resource piles are rare and at the middle of the game when you
are building the more costlier structures. But wizard castles, warlock
castles, sorceress castles, and barbarian castles all need a constant and
large source of gems, sulfer, mercury, and crystals respectively. And the
control of these sacks, pouches, carts, and cages can be a huge factor in
the outcome of the game.
Cursed Artifacts. Luckily, these are few and far between. Basically cursed
artifacts provide you with something you DON'T want. Coming in ANY form
conceiveable, they can do anything from draining your gold on a daily basis
to preventing you from recruiting troops from home-bases. With the advent
of the expansion pak, we now have a new quasi-form of cursed artifacts --
artifacts that provide a benefit with an equal and opposite bad affect (see
the expansion pak page for details). While you will never want a truely
cursed artifact, the benefits of the quasi-cursed artifacts that provide a
blessing and a curse will have to be experienced to be rated.
Miscellaneous Artifacts. These are special artifacts that provide a unique
function that can't be included in one of the other categories. The
Statesman's Quill which allows you to surrender with a discount, the Golden
Bow which halves the penalty your long-range troops have shooting past
obstacles, and the Crystal Ball which allows you to scrye information on
nearby sites, troops, and opponents are examples of this type of non-
classed artifact. There is no blanket value on this group of artifacts.
Each artifact has a particular, unique value depending on the hero type and
circumstances.
--Rating Artifacts By Hero Type--
---------------------------------
by: Astral Wizard
The level of value that an artifact provides any particular hero not only
varies by the usual map size, terrain, type of opponents, and so on; it
also varies specially based on the hero type. Given the exact same map,
starting point, and even troops; each hero type will still require a
different set of artifacts to enhance their activity. Non-spellcaster types
such as Knights and Barbarians would require a different set of artifacts
than spellcaster types such as Wizard, Warlock, Sorceress, and Necromancer;
and the Necromancer would even require a different set of artifacts than
the other spellcaster types. This is based on the inherit difference in
skill sets of the hero types and also in the logical recruiting and
deployment of troop types. Let's look at the three basic types of heroes:
non-spellcasters, spellcasters, and necromancers (spellcasters but handled
separately due to their unique aspect).
For Any And All Heroes. Some artifacts will provide maximum benefit
regardless of which hero type is in possession of them. You can NEVER go
wrong by acquiring these artifacts!
Ultimate Crown :
Increases ALL primary skills +4 but only takes 1 slot.
Breastplate,Helm,And Sword Of Anduran :
Combined, these three artifacts provide a single hero with +5 to
attack, defense, and power as well as maximum luck and morale and the
town gate spell while only taking up one slot!!!
Legendary Scepter:
Increases ALL primary skills by +2 but only takes one slot.
Ultimate Shield :
Increase both your attack and defense by +6 but only takes one slot!
Ultimate Staff :
Increases both your spell power AND your knowledge greatly while only
taking up one slot!
Lightning Helm :
Halves your damage from lightning.
True Compass Of Mobility :
Gives you extra movement everywhere.
Non-SpellCasters. Barbarians and Knights are basically non-spellcasters.
They are hired without spellbooks which is your first major clue that
spellcasting is not their forte`. Oh, sure: you can buy them books and send
them to school, but they will always be behind true spellcasters... unless
you buff them up with spell enhancing artifacts! Indeed, with the advent of
the expansion pak, we now have two methods of equalizing the spell power
difference between non-spellcasters and spellcasters.
Method Number One. Three Words: Sphere Of Negation! This one little
artifact truely makes the combat totally fair between Barbarian and
Necromancer... between Knight and Warlock! It prevents all use of magic
spells during combat. I believe this artifact will become the "Holy Grail"
for all Barbarian and Knight hero types in any map from now on. No longer
will the Barbarian or Knight need to worry about Armaggedon, Elemental
Storm, or Chained Lightning taking out the majority of their troops. Now
(pardon the expression, Ladies) it's a real man's fight with sword and
arrow, tooth and claw. With magic out of the picture, the Barbarian's and
Knight's troops can leverage their natural offensive and defensive
attributes into a powerhouse army. In fact, if you have the Sphere Of
Negation, then you don't need to pick up ANY spell enhancing artifacts for
that particular hero. Indeed, you want to avoid them and go for the offense
and defense enhancing artifacts. Magic is now a non-issue and it comes down
to sheer phsyical strength and numbers. Load such a hero up with offense
and defense artifacts, mobility artifacts, and luck and morale artifacts!
Method Number Two: But if the Sphere Of Negation is not to be found for a
particular Barbarian or Knight hero, then what? Then you need to get four
things: elevated spell power, elevated knowledge, expert Wisdom (a
secondary skill), and... spells! And you need to get them fast! Wisdom
comes from experience. Spells come from mage guilds, shrines, and (thanks
to the expansion pak) singleton scrolls. No problem. But where does the
elevated spell power and knowledge come from? A little from experience and
training. A lot from artifacts. And as the Barbarian or Knight hero roams
the land, they should be concentrating on finding spell enhancing
artifacts. Don't worry that much about offense and defense: those are
natural skills that increase rapidly in Barbarian and Knight hero types and
are abundantly enhanced by the natural attributes of the type of troops
these hero types usually command.
Go for spell power and knowledge enhancing artifacts first. Once your
Barbarian and Knight heroes have achieved a certain level of spell power
and knowledge, they should then begin concentrating on getting their wisdom
increased so that they can use the medium and high-level spells. Protection
and luck/morale are of equal benefit and should be concentrated on at mid-
game as the action gets hot and the combat gets tough.
What artifacts would particularly suit a Barbarian or Knight hero (if they
don't have the Sphere Of Negation)? For spell power and knowledge... It is
best to boost your spell knowledge first so any artifact that increases
spell knowledge is of major benefit since it keeps you from having to
return to a castle or magic well repeatedly.
Any knowledge scroll -- they increase your knowledge from +2 to +5 so you
can cast more spells.
The Pearls -- they each increase both your spell power and your knowledge
but only take up one slot each.
Enchanted Hourglass -- it increases the duration of your spells.
For protection... All protection artifacts are of sound benefit with the
exception of the Pendant Of Death. Picking up ANY protection artifact is
going to help you. But these four I think provide the most aid to
Barbarians and Knights.
Holy Pendant -- protects you from curse spells so that your bless spells
can boost you to victory!
Serenity Pendant -- makes you immune to bezerk spells.
Pendant Of Life -- makes you immune to death spells.
Miscellaneous enhancements that will help the Knight or Barbarian hero once
he or she has built up their spell power, knowledge, and protection provide
an almost equally important boost to the hero's personae.
Snake Ring -- halves the cost of Bless spells... a blessed Crusader stack
is a serious thing!
Any luck artifact -- gives you extra damage on your attacks.
Any morale artifact -- gives your troops extra turns.
Masthead -- gives you both luck and morale benefits at sea and is great for
maps that have large water terrain areas.
True-SpellCasters. Sorceresses, Wizards, Warlocks, and Necromancers make up
the category of spellcasters. You won't find a true spellcaster without his
or her spellbook. Why not? Because without spells, the true spellcaster is
a feeb! Oh, sure: you can send them to boot camp and make them watch Jake;
but point for point, they will always be behind the Barbarians and Knights
when it comes to attack and defense. Unless you pump up their physical
skills by training, experience, AND...? Right! And artifacts!
But not just any artifacts! Spellcasters need defense more than any thing
else! The very first thing that spellcasters should begin to do as they
seek out training structures to increase ALL their skills is to find
defense artifacts to increase their immunity to physical attacks. Dull the
edge of sword and arrow, blunt the point of tooth and claw. You are already
ahead of the non-spellcasters in spell power and knowledge; but that does
you no good if you get few chances to cast your spells. At mid-game, seek
spell power and knowledge boosters as well as luck and morale boosters. The
spells you are acquiring at this point are greatly enhanced by spell power
(Chained Lightning and Fireblast) and knowledge lets you make longer
forays. The luck and morale boosters now start to increase your attack
capabilities by giving you extra turns and full damage. In the final
stages, seek real attack artifacts so that on the final big battles you are
insured of making your physical attacks do as much damage as your heavy
spells.
What artifacts would particularly suit a Sorceress, Wizard, or Warlock
(I'll leave Necromancers for their own section)?
For defense... It is best to boost your defense first so any artifact that
increases defense is of major benefit since it keeps your troops alive
longer in battle.
Spiked Shield -- increases both your defense and attack by +2 and only
takes one slot.
Sword Breaker -- increases your defense by +4 and your attack by +1.
Divine Breastplate of Protection -- increases your defense by +3.
For spell power and knowledge... Any booster of this type picked up by a
spellcaster will turn them from a dangerous spellcaster into a deadly
spellcaster. But these listed here provide the best overall benefit to the
spellcaster.
Any knowledge scroll -- they increase your knowledge from +2 to +5 so you
can cast more spells.
The Pearls -- they each increase both your spell power and your knowledge
but only take up one slot each.
For attack... All attack artifacts are of sound benefit. Picking up ANY
attack artifact is going to help you. But these four I think provide the
most aid to spellcasters.
Holy Hammer -- increases your attack by +5.
Sword Of Anduran -- increases your attack by +5.
Dragon Sword Of Dominion -- increases your attack by +3.
Power Axe Of Dominion -- increases your attack by +2.
For protection... The same artifacts that provide the best benefit to
Barbarians and Knights also provide the best protection to Sorceresses,
Wizards, and Warlocks.
Holy Pendant -- protects you from curse spells so that your bless spells
can boost you to victory!
Serenity Pendant -- makes you immune to bezerk spells.
Pendant Of Life -- makes you immune to death spells.
Miscellaneous enhancements that will help the true spellcaster differ
slightly from those that help the non-spellcaster.
Power Ring -- restores +2 spell points per turn.
Any luck artifact -- gives you extra damage on your attacks.
Any morale artifact -- gives your troops extra turns.
Masthead -- gives you both luck and morale benefits at sea and is great for
maps that have large water terrain areas.
Necromancers. The Necromancer is basically an aggressive spell-caster --
aggressive meaning that the normal Necromancer starts out with one attack
point whereas the other spell-casters don't. This means very little in the
over all game.
However, the Necromancer has special skill that needs to be cultivated and
exploited. This skill is the Necromancy skill. This skill allows the
Necromantic Hero to turn the combat dead into skeletons. This is no small
thing -- although skeletons are the least of the minions of the Necromantic
Hero, in hordes they are quite deadly.
The Necromancer will want to acquire the same artifacts that the normal
spell-casters do for the same reason. In addition, two artifacts that are a
must have (when available) for the Necromancer are:
Arm of The Martyr (+3 to spell power, and the necromancer laughs at the
undead morale penalty)
Gravedigger's Shovel (increases the necromancy skill by 10%)
Evaluating the Worthiness of an Artifact
Now having listed out what I consider to be some "must have" artifacts for
each hero type, I'd like to challenge my own statement: "Must have"?
Really??? A Player asked this question last week: "I came across an
artifact that I could purchase for 3,000 gold pieces and five gems. I
didn't take it. Should I have?" The answer to that question is a resounding
and definite "Maybe!... Maybe not...!"
Normally, you acquire an artifact by just "finding" it, fighting a guardian
or a pack of scalywags for it, winning it off a defeated opponent, or
through an event. But sometimes one of these annoying little leprechauns
goes retail and tries to sell you an artifact. Whether you should purchase
it or not depends on the artifact AND the situation.
First of all, if the artifact offered is a relatively useless artifact then
skip it? What constitutes a useless artifact? A morale booster is useless
if your heroes all have expert leadership and are already carrying morale
boosting artifacts. An endless pouch or sack of anything is useless if all
of your castles are completely built and you don't need the particular
resouce (for instance, it's the Endless Pouch Of Gems and you only control
totally completed Knight's castles). Statesman's Quill is useless if you
never surrender. I'm sure you'll find other situations where an evaluation
of the state of the union tells you that you don't really need this
particular artifact at this particular time for this particular map
scenario.
But what if the artifact is extremely good and you really need it for a
hero? Evaluate that need with the needs of your current castles'
development and your control of resources. Do you still have critical
castle structures to build? For instance, are you only at Level 3 on your
Mage Guilds and you have only one or none of the mines that produce the
resource that is required to purchase the artifact? Don't do it. Do you
have no control of any mines that will replenish the resource cost used to
purchase the artifact? Don't do it. Is it asking for gems, sulfur, mercury,
or crystals and you control a wizard's castle, warlock's castle, sorceress'
castle, or barbarian's castle, respectively? Don't do it. Did one of the
opponent's heroes just waltz into your view with a few dragons in his
troops while you're still excited over having just built your basic ivory
tower? You're in trouble! Forget the silly artifact and get that castle
built!!
And the final consideration (for now) in determining whether to acquire an
artifact whether you purchase it or just pick it up is this: You can't drop
artifacts. You are limited to the number of artifacts your heroes can hold.
It doesn't matter if the artifact is free, if it takes up a crucial slot
that a better artifact could have taken. Consider this: would you rather
have the Ultimate Crown or the Endless Cord Of Wood? As your heroes'
artifact slots begin to fill up, begin getting more picky about what
artifacts you acquire and ignore the lessor ones. Shop smart!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
VIII. GENERAL TIPS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
* Exploring your vicinity
In most cases it is very wise to purchase at least one more hero to
your starting one. Of course, if you have an observation tower in front of
your castle and can see from there that all ways out are blocked by some
stronger armies and you only have a little space to explore, a second hero
won't be needed... yet.
* Main advantages of two-heroes exploration:
-In early stage - that 'round the castle' exploration - you will
usually profit from having two heroes by having more goodies gathered
quicker. Applies to mines, resources, artifacts and even the fact of
uncovering the map. [More heroes can be used, if your financial
situation seems good and exploration is possible. These guys usually
pay back quite soon.]
-Further in the game, when you assemble a task force strong enough to
go after your enemy, a second guy in backup can be used for several
things:
1.takes care of resources, mines and full exploration of conquered
land (here I often purchase new heroes at conquered castles,
because within a few days the money is back in resources from
taken mines.)
2.holds backup armies for your main hero
3.can build up quite solid experience
4.can take out some of the wandering armies
5.can take care of some minor enemy heroes/towns
* How to select your primary/secondary hero?
With the exception of necromancer, there's no need at all to use a hero
corresponding with the castle class (and even with the necro castle, you
should consider buying another type if there's not any large quantities
of skeleton reserves scattered around the map). How to make your choice?
-Primary hero:
* Knight
for both quick and long tasks. Should be definitely chosen in cases
where magic resources are very scarce. In later phases the knights
develop significant skills in magic, too, but their main advantage is
very strong defense, closely followed by attack. Very good for
walker-based armies due to Ballistics and Leadership, but since they
get archery pretty often, even shooter-based task forces will be glad
to be under a knight's command.
* Barbarian
for both quick and long tasks. Should be definitely chosen in cases
where magic resources are very scarce. The barbarian's magic skills
will remain puny without artifacts. Their main advantage is
definitely attack. The defense can remain surprisingly low for Might
class hero. Excellent in rough terrain, they guarantee quick
exploration and also outrunning your enemies (both offensive and
defensive ;-)).
* Sorceress
For quick and mid-term games. Their Navigation makes them a must for
water-based maps. With excellent knowledge and fair spell power
they're good ones to rely on Summon Elemental spells in battle. If
you manage to get some direct damage spells, they can gain quick
victories on their Might opponents, but in the long term, they lose
to their strength, unless they happen to get high-tech spells. (This
is common for all magic heroes - and the high-tech spells are
berzerker, mirror image and ressurecting, possibly global damage
spells - but at those the sorceress isn't that good due to lower
spell power.) The remarkably high knowledge is very important in
longer journeys in unexplored lands.
* Warlock
If you're gonna to gain access to your opponents quickly and if
their forces are weak, you can take a warlock and bet on spells. His
early Spell Power dominance with slight positive inclination to
attack skill gives opportunity to teach enemies lessons in direct
damage spells from 2nd level Mage guild, which can be built easily in
most cases. In the long term, they lose to strong Might heroes with
strong magic troops ;-)
* Wizard
Being a good compromise between Sorceress and Warlock, their magic
abilities are quite reliable, with little inclination to defense.
Combine comments on those classes and bear in mind that the wizard is
worse than them in their primary positive, yet better in their
negative ;-). In the long term, they lose to strong Might heroes.
* Necromancer
They are of little use as main heroes with living armies. However,
if there are significant numbers of skeleton-providing low-level
armies, it might pay back well to pick a necromancer. Within a few
levels gained from chests and gazebos, his Necromancy skill should
improve to Expert and then it's time to get some armies. Gaining more
levels to A/D than other spell casters, necros aren't that vulnerable
in battles, while still profit from quite strong spells. In the long
term, they lose to strong Might heroes, unless their skeleton hordes
are in four-digit values - this depends strongly on the particular
map.
To sum and extend those comments on heroes, a few notes of my personal
experience follow:
If you plan using high-end magic, make your main hero a spellcaster.
However, if you plan a long-term campaign with huge armies involved,
you'd better choose a knight or barbarian, depending on the chosen
strategy, terrain, number of castles and available troop types. Maps
with easy terrain, close strong opponents (and therefore defensive
strategy), lots of castles and scarce resources (and therefore weaker
armies in low counts) a knight is better, while distant enemies, rough
terrain and numerous armies suit the barbarian.)
Having a sorceress in sea-rich scenarios gives you great advantage -
gathering resources, artifacts and events before the enemy may well
help you win a map.
Wizard's wisdom may be useful with some potent spells like Berzerker,
which is the best way using enemies' own power against them.
Necromancer may be worth it if large amounts of skeleton producing
wandering armies are located nearby - the recruited skeletons make
excellent garrison troops.
My usual practice is to hire a Barbarian (unless I'm sure I'll need a
knight to defend frontier castles) and concentrate the experience with
him. In many cases I manage to get Wisdom, so I can use some good
spells from captured castles. However, Knight heroes have greater
probability of acquiring wisdom, spell power and, which is the most
important, knowledge.
The barbarian should also try hard to get Archery and possibly
Ballistics, as the shooters aren't strong enough to rely exclusively on
them, especially against shooter based opponents as Wizard or
Sorceress).
This concept of relying on the Might in the Long Run has only a few
holes, but those do NOT apply to games against AI. The holes are
Paralyze and especially Berzerker. With those spells, a good
spellcaster can kick your butt. You'll need to be careful with casting.
The only good remedy is those pendants that protect against these.
Oh,well,if the opponent makes a mistake and gives you an opportunity to
dispel those spells, DO that! (Best by using AntiMagic.)
Direct damage spells (maybe except Armageddon) aren't a big threat,
because with large armies the damage caused by those can be compensated
by supportive spells on your troops - I.e. Bless on 30 crusaders gives
an average of +300 damage - equal to Spell Power 12 Lightning Bolt,
Mass Bless on whole army giving even better results compared to
ChainLightning.
The only things that I miss when playing Might heroes is making long
journeys using Dimension Door, but a) even that sometimes gets
possible, b) anyway, after some tens of games won by DDing around, this
thing becomes boring, as it spoils most of the challenge.
Note that in Ways of ... particular hero classes, there are common
strategies to use when fighting other heroes. Those of course mean fighting
armies belonging to that particular hero type. All those strategies assume
all those armies included in the battle (for nit-pickers: five out of six
possible, by best choice under particular circumstances...). If there's any
army missing, the strategies must be reworked to reflect that. If there's
any army added (from other castle types or neutral troops), the strategies
must be reworked. Since there are way too many combinations, I'm not gonna
do that.
Getting secondary skills:
Check Way of particular class to see which skills suit the best your troops
and strategies. There are some general rules to follow. See description of
advanced skills below for most of them. Many of the skills are just
generally good (Luck,Leadership) while others are case-specific (Mysticism,
Wisdom, Logistics, Ballistics) where the conditions cover anything from Map
size, number of castles, type of main hero, type of most used troops,
amounts of resources available and all other things up to terrain types. Of
course, the hero class is very important. I.e. Leadership and Luck provide
much better advantage to Might Heroes, whose troop damage ratings (that
profit from their skills) are generally high. On the other hand, for a
spell caster skills like Mysticism and Expert Wisdom are a must, because
those expand his strong features.
-Secondary hero:
* Knight
Used mainly for defensive purpose - if you need a hero to command
the garisson of a beseieged castle (and don't have any strong spells
in there), use a knight. For active usage there's about nothing
significantly good.
* Barbarian
Can be as well used for defense instead of knight, but in rough
terrain makes an excellent resource gatherer - the kind that runs
between all the weekly-available sources of anything. If your main
guy is a barbarian, try to get another one to accompany him on the
long journeys, picking up all the resources etc. (If your backup guy
doesn't keep the pace up with the main one, he kinda loses his
importance in the two-hero strategy.)
* Sorceress
Use whenever high seas are close - try to improve navigation quickly
in gazebos etc. and rush out to pick up all that floats on the high
waters before your enemies can do so. No other real use.
* Warlock
Use in very early stages as explorer. Leave him only his gargoyles
and let him to help reveal the map. Try to get Expert scouting ASAP
to improve his performance.
* Wizard
Of no much use. The only good thing is that the hero comes bundled
with a few boars and therefore can reach good speed simply by
dismissing the halflings.
* Necromancer
Of almost no use. Comes with slow units and no particular good
skill. However, if you have tons of peasants and other low-level
skeleton-providing scum in vicinity, you can take a necro, get a few
levels to improve necromany, then, before shuttling one or two weeks
of castle production to your main hero, wipe out these armies and
use the skeletons - either with the necro as his main troops or with
the main hero as an improvement to his strike force (if he has some
leadership)).
I personally prefer to take warlocks as secondary, unless I need
barbarian (due to terrain) or unless I need to get more troops for the
primary hero, in which case I take the same class (which is always
offered in first week). Why warlock? Ideal for exploration - has
Scouting and Very fast units at start - can even share the gargoyles
with the main hero, thus giving me two swift explorers at the very
start.
When your secondary heroes happen to gain levels, bear in mind that
really important among secondary skills are movement skills -
Logistics, Pathfinding and Navigation (only when can be applied,
though), Scouting and Estates.
Also remember that the two-hero strategy doesn't implicate use of ONLY
two heroes, but AT LEAST two heroes. The larger the map, the more
heroes may be used.
The so-called backup guy should be taking his share of experience.
Especially later, when the main hero will need large amounts of
experience to advance, it's usually better to let the chests to the
backup guy, because he'll profit them much more. The only exception
should be the case when the main guy desperately NEEDS to upgrade some
advanced skills.)
The main purposes of the backup guy are carrying reinforcements,
killing minor enemies and wandering armies and sometimes possibly
softening up enemy resistance, even at the cost of sacrificing himself.
If the secondary hero survives, he might often 'inherit' all the main
hero's armies - especially if you happen to capture enemy castle with
some 6th level troops left inside unpurchased. In that case the main
hero buys all the big guys and those often carry more firepower that
his entire regular army. In this moment, the backup guy becomes sort of
another main hero and at those moments you really appreciate that
you've already let him to get some levels.)
[Or, if he's still pretty weak, you might consider giving HIM the
dragons, who tend to take minimal losses, grab some quick experience by
defeating wandering armies etc. - and later switch the armies. This
applies in cases where the main hero's army relies very much on his
skills and with the weak secondary guy would suffer many losses.]
There might be a bunch of 'tertiary' heroes that can take care of
collecting resources, gold and armies from self-refilling sources
(usually one hero can do that easily) and for shuttling reinforcements
to the front lines. Those guys need no experience, but should (if that
doesn't mean BIG delays) visit gazebos and possibly trees of knowledge
(if they're for free) to try and get scouting, logistics or estates).
* Task sharing between the heroes:
The main hero should spend his time doing only things that number two
cannot do himself. The former are usually battling armies, getting
artifacts and treasure chests, while the latter are usually occupying
mines, picking up resources and exploring Witch huts. Of course, things
like visiting gazebos and other skill increasing facilities are common.
One more thing should the second guy do - probe trees of knowledge,
because they're more valuable later in the game and you don't want to
waste their potential in the beginning.
* Experience and advancement handling:
-In witch huts you can get random Basic skill. [Random in sense that
level creator cannot affect which skill will it be, but every time the
level is started, the skill is set and remains the same for the single
playtime.] So, the backup hero has one important role: If your main
guy still has some secondary skill slots free, his friend will check
every witch hut and sacrifice his free slots to learn, what the hut
has to offer.
-Treasure chests and other sources of experience. As the experience
needed to gain a level rises with levels already gained, it is pretty
obvious, that if you have a hero with some 40000 exp. and his backup
guy has some 3000 from temples only, then when ever you run into a
treasure chest, you'd better take it by the second guy... Coz getting
another +1 skill for your main guy is usually not as good, as getting
some +6 for the same price... Okay, sometimes you take them with the
main guy, because you desperately need some advanced skill to be
upgraded... [Here I strongly recommend checking every now and then,
how much the hero needs to advance to next level. Even with 100000+
experience points, the hero sometimes is just a 'chest-far' from next
level.
-The same thing comes with wandering armies... If the backup guy can
take them out, let him do it and leave only hard targets to your main
guy. There is one exception... If the main guy has a strong army, it
is a good strategy to leave him one empty stack when touring the
landscape... (The backup guy will carry the fifth army in case it
would be needed for a castle siege or enemy hero onslaught). Thus,
wandering armies can join you. So, if you happen to have a force
strong enough to defeat any wandering army, approach those you'd like
to join you (or buy, having advanced/expert diplomacy) with the main
guy. If they will join you, you can either use them immediately or
give them to the backup guy, if they don't fit for the main guy's
alignment, combat style or speed. Those armies can be then used by the
backup guy as forces to kill other wandering armies and towns for
experience, and later maybe to be left as garrisons in captured
castles and towns (ogres and hydras are excellent for this purpose,
because their high HPs will either prevent any weaker heroes from
attacking your towns or, at least, cause some losses to enemy armies.)
-One more comment on treasure chests - always bear in mind that they
are also a good source of GOLD! If you plan to rely in diplomacy or
build very expensive structures, it's worth it to take gold with the
secondary heroes.
-Also, if your secondary hero explores a closed area that you don't
want to visit with the main guy (maybe there's nothing important
except a few chests, or he's in a hurry to somewhere else), you might
grab gold or exp. with the secondary guy even at early stages of the
game, where the main hero could profit them, but it'd cost too much
time.
-Daemon caves are a bit tricky thing... If you enter and fight the
daemon servants, usually there are about 10 earth elementals, after
whose defeat you get usually 2500 gold. Refusing to fight them, you
risk one of four possibilities (getting the gold and 1000 exp, getting
the exp. only, losing 2500 gold (the hero dies if you don't have 2500)
or receiving some gold and an artifact), that generally are much
better.
-All other sources of experience and skills can be used by more heroes
(temple, stonehenge, witch doctor hut, mercenary camp, fortress, arena
and tree of knowledge, which has the same price for all heroes(decided
at startup, can be nothing, 10 gems or 2000 gold)). In case that a
Tree of Knowledge wants no payment, the level advancement is done
immediately (which is why it's better to try those with the backup
guys first, because using a tree of knowledge before you already have
some 50000 exp. is a real waste.)
-EP features Harpyas - a good way how to transform useless armies to
exp. points. [If you have tons of cash or just some armies you won't
need, give them to a hero, who has a little experience, and send him
there. Harpyas will slaughter some of his armies and reward him with
exp. totalling the sum of slaughtered armies' HPs.Ideal for dismissing
joint golems, ogres, hydras and other (usually useless) stuff. Can get
you a few levels for a beginner hero. Generally not of much use, but
it's there and works alright. And, sometimes this helps human players,
because computer heroes sometimes visit harpyas with their main armies
and thus make your job of killing them later easier.
* Artifacts
Always take time to sort the artifacts you have and have the least
possible number of them with your main hero... All spell-protective
amulets have gained on importance as the AI in it's latest upgraded
version has started using spells like Paralyze and Blind frequently. In
older versions, it never did so and those artifacts were just wasting
space. And, remember one thing - those artifacts will protect you even
from special ability attacks that are similar to the spells - both
Unicorns and Cyclopes will NOT be able to inflict their special spells on
your troops.
So, give those to the backup hero, along with all resource-or-gold-
providing artifacts. That leaves artifacts improving basic skills, morale,
luck and movement. And even then, if you're readying to capture a strong
enemy hero (best in his castle, so he can't flee), think a lot about which
ones you could miss for that fight, coz you might salvage much better ones
from the enemy. (Usually you won't need magical artifacts with
knights/barbarians and sometimes A/D artifacts with spellcasters that plan
to rely on their strong magic...
Also some morale and luck stuff can be missed for that battle, not
mentioning movement artifacts.) Don't hesitate to get rid of unwanted
artifacts by sacrificing a hero to enemy [if you wish to pass the artifact
to enemy - good with tax lien, hideous mask and magical stuff like broach
of shielding and hearts of ice and cold, depending on what spells do you
have ;-)] or just dismissing him and hiring another one. I often even hire
a hero to be dismissed with the negative stuff. NWC should have made
negative artifacts stick to the hero... as it was in the original HOMM.
* Movement rules
The total movement points of your hero depend not only on his skills, but
on his armies, too, and the difference is 4 movement points between very
slow and very fast armies. (Always matters the slowest army, in case you
didn't figure it out). So leave hydras, ogres, dwarven armies and possibly
orcs and archers at home, unless you'll really need them. The additional
movement points may often be the only difference between life and death,
i.e. if you run across an enemy hero with large army during your
exploration and he starts right after you.
Just came to my mind that this could be a good way to waste your
opponent's time - once the enemy wanders onto the edge of your territory,
get close enough to him to let him see you. But be sure to have very fast
armies, possibly logistics or a movement increasing artifact... and every
turn, keep just a few steps ahead of him... And run around the map, wasting
the time of the powerful enemy army...
Also, use always appropriate heroes! If you've got a ship and vast seas
to conquer, buy a sorceress, try to get her some levels to improve her
nagivation to expert, dismiss her dwarves and here we go. (The dismissed
dwarves won't speed up her sailing, but she'll have two extra movement
points for land duties - and those can often save her a whole day if she
can land, snatch resources and board her boat all within one turn. Same
with barbarians exploring deserts, swamps etc. - leave orcs in castle, try
to get expert pathfinding.
* Advanced skills overview
----------------------------T-----T-----T-----T-----м
| Primary Skill Advancement | | | | |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Hero on levels | A | D | SP | K |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Barbarian 2-9 | 55% | 35% | 5% | 5% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Barbarian 10+ | 30% | 30% | 20% | 20% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Knight 2-9 | 35% | 45% | 10% | 10% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Knight 10+ | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Necromancer 2-9 | 15% | 15% | 35% | 35% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Necromancer 10+ | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Sorceress 2-9 | 10% | 10% | 30% | 50% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Sorceress 10+ | 20% | 20% | 30% | 30% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Warlock 2-9 | 10% | 10% | 50% | 30% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Warlock 10+ | 20% | 20% | 30% | 30% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Wizard 2-9 | 10% | 10% | 40% | 40% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Wizard 10+ | 20% | 20% | 30% | 30% |
L---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+------
-----------------------------------------------------------------м
| Secondary Skill Advancement |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| The higher the number, the higher the chance that the skill |
| will be available to learn; the lower the number, the lower the|
| chance that the skill will be available (a 0 means no chance) |
+---------------------------T------T----T-----T------T-----T-----+
| Skill | Barb | Kn | Nec | Sorc | War | Wiz |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Archery | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Ballistics | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Diplomacy | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Eagle Eye | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Estates | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Leadership | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Logistics | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Luck | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Mysticism | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Navigation | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Necromancy | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Pathfinding | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Scouting | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Wisdom | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
L---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+------
Every hero has eight slots for advanced skills. Therefore you have to be
picky and choose only those you'll profit from. The simple fact that your
hero would profit from a skill doesn't mean that you want to take it...
There always could be more skills to profit from. A good example may be a
knight that gets offered Advanced Leadership and Basic Archery. A newbie
will snatch the archery, while the Pro will stop here, think about waiting
for wisdom/logistics with the free slot and therefore will take the
advanced one. This waiting is generally affordable in cases where the basic
offered to you isn't a rare skill for your hero, or in cases where you
don't need it any badly right now.
* Ballistics:
A must for walker based armies, in every scenario with
lots of castles it will save you some losses to your vulnerable
shooters...Either by destroying enemy castle installations or just
making way for your armies to run in and slay the defending troops sooner.
Not needed much for flyers/shooters based armies, such as dragon or titan
task forces. Yet shooters profit from destroyed castle walls by having no
obstacle penalty.
* Archery:
Increased damage from ranged attacks usually comes in pretty
handy, unless you have small stacks or none shooters at all. (I.e.
warlock, necromancer).
* Logistics:
A must, except for Small, sometimes Medium and those island
realms scenarios.
* Pathfinding:
A must, whereever large desert, swamp or snowy areas require exploration.
Otherwise useless.
* Navigation:
Don't have to tell you that you won't need that, when you have no
seas/rivers to conquer, do I? ;-)
* Necromancy:
Not of much use, unless you manage to get expert one and find large masses
of cannon fodder such as peasants. However, in necromancer's hands it's a
powerful weapon. Only warlocks can ever get basic necromancy... and a witch
hut will never teach that.
* Mysticism:
Very useful for long journeys without castles, if you need to use magic.
The better knowledge your hero will have, the lesser need of that skill you
have. (Warlock/Necro needs that far more than Sorceress, to be exact. Also
Knight/Barbie could consider taking this skill, especially in cases where
he already knows Haste/Slow and plans to use those frequently.)
* Wisdom:
Unless you build higher level of mage guilds, you won't find much use to
it, but take this rather than other, worse skills, coz somebody might build
the guild levels for you (either in your or his city). In large scenarios,
even magic-hating/fearing knights/barbies should take this one - it will
give them access to spells in conquered castles and MassHaste/Slow or
Paralyze/Berzerker are spells that may greatly improve their battle
efficiency, not to mention getting i.e. TownGate.
* Diplomacy:
If you get it in early stages, comes quite handy, coz with expert level of
this skill, you get quite a fair price for new units. [And you can see how
many they are, before fighting them... and hell, there IS a difference
between 'lots' and 'lots', 20 and 40 ogre lords definitely aren't a bit the
same easy bait. A few times, having adv/expert diplomacy saved my life,
because I could avoid fighting a stack of grand-elves, that would have beat
crap out of my armies.] I think that the total price is always the same -
the price you'd have to pay for the troops if you were recruiting them,
EXCLUDING magic resources!. Dependant on level, 1/4, 1/2 or all the troops
offer themselves for that price. You should check the areas you have
already explored to see if there are any troops you'd want on your side
(and if their numbers aren't too high - I can't remember the exact value,
but they'll offer to join for money only if your army is somewhat bigger
than their in HPs.) There's one more important thing: This threshold value
for joining is smaller than the value needed for the army to be too scared
to fight you - in other words, if you have diplomacy and a free slot (or a
matching stack in your army), you can avoid fighting armies that would
otherwise fight you, which can be extremly important while facing very fast
shooters or dangerous flyers.)
* Scouting:
Useful for exploration, coz you'll be able not only to see resources and
mines you're looking for, but sometimes you'll spot your enemy soon enough
to turn back or even spot him without him spotting you.
* Eagle Eye:
Learning spells from your enemies is a good concept, especially if you
don't have enough resources to build your own guilds. But I personally
prefer other skills and take this only when I either have to or know I'll
need it. (Being offered Navigation on land-based scenario, it's really
lesser evil to take Eagle Eye.)
* Estates:
Having this skill in expert level is fine, although there are better
ones. Usually I take it in early stages, if either the other
skill is even worse or I'm in dire need of cash. All secondary/tertiary
heroes should take this one - better is only logistics or pathfinding,
where applicable - if the heroes are supposed to travel long-distance
repeatedly and quickly. If you plan to rely on Diplomacy, take Estates
along with the main guy, if you can spare the slot.
* Luck:
Causing double damage can't be a bad thing, ever ;-), but it's never
a thing I'd wait for to come.
* Leadership: Can sometimes save you a lot of trouble and losses. I
prefer it to Luck, as it gives you more tactical benefits. (You can let
enemy units share the double damage you're granted.)
My personal preferences would be: Logistics, Pathfinding, Navigation,
Leadership, Ballistics, Archery, Mysticism, Wisdom and then others. But
if you get Diplomacy or Estates pretty soon, always take them rather than
Eagle Eye or other, in some cases useless skill.
Diplomacy may prove extremely useful in all maps where castles are scarce
and gold is abundant. Especially with stronger armies you'll have an easy
task in acquiring reinforcements among wandering armies.
In general, when deciding about a particular skill, you should always
bear in mind particular conditions in that particular game. You won't
need Estates, if you have a few goldmines/endless bags. You won't need
Diplomacy, if you're very short of gold or if there are only a few armies
that you would want to join you. You won't need Pathfinding on grassland
landmasses. You won't need logistics in a Small map. You won't need luck
with strong armies. Always remember that if something comes handy, you
don't NEED it yet.
* Spell Casting - adventure spells
When an adventure spell is cast, ALL your heroes profit from it. So, if
you have some spare guy at home, cast all view spells and identify hero
spells with him, sitting in his castle. You can identify a hero, that is on
the other end of map, so why use spell points of your killer guy, which
needs to know this opponent before killing him ;-) I don't have to mention
profits of dimension door, do I? Remember one thing, though. Plan your DD
journeys well, considerings wells ;-). It's good to be able to travel half
the map in one day, but is even better to end your trip with almost full
spellpoints, in case you might need them - i.e. to travel back. It's always
nice to see a computer hero DDing onto a little island and then waiting a
week to regain ten points to get back -especially if he has his pack of
titans with him and not in his home castle...
The town portal is even bigger bastard than DD. Suppose you capture an
enemy castle with some heavy losses - you warp home, get new armies, run
to a well, that often is near your starting castle, and then, warp back
to the newly captured castle, all in one turn!
Town portal (without troops) can be emulated even if you don't have it,
at least in some ways. Remember, that in one turn, you can repeatedly
attack somebody/something,retreat and re-hire the hero with new movement
points! [I personally began to dislike DD and Town Portal, finding them
very unbalancing to the game.]
Dirty Trick: Hit'n'Run:
Although the following is nasty and almost cheating, you can do this:
Having i.e. a warlock or a wizard (very fast units), an enemy near your
castle with a huge army and some offensive spells in your guild: Split
your very fast units into 5 stacks, if possible. Just have the five
stacks occupied by 1 unit each. Attack the enemy, demolish his stacks
with spells, retreat, hire again and repeat. If you'll have a well
nearby, you can do this as long as you have the cash. Having 5 stacks of
1 unit often allows you to cast 2 or even 3 spells per battle. (Remember,
you must FLEE, don't get killed!).
This way, you can reduce the enemy's army to quite poor numbers and then,
either fortify at your castle, or even slay him with your main army, that
was resting in your castle all the time (and maybe providing the very fast
units for those repeated attacks). Note that sometimes it would be better
to use non-offensive spells, eh, I mean berzerker ;-))
In early exploration, casting View Resources, View Towns or View Mines
may have crucial impact on your success. Especially View Mines is often
helpful, because there are often scattered respective resources near a
mine, so it's important to be there sooner than your opponents.
* Building
General rules on building are these:
You should always start with money generating structures (statue/dungeon),
with a small exception. Before you build the statue/dungeon, check if
you'll be able to get enough resources, usually laying around your castle
or mines, to build all important dwellings. Applies strongly to barbarian
and warlock as the money
generators are ore-based. When upgrading dwellings, consider these points:
-The most important upgrades are those that increase speed of your
fastest unit. This applies especially to those cases where the fastest
unit of your is only Fast or Average. Getting an upgrade to very fast
means that you'll at least sometimes get first shot in battles.
-The second most important upgrades are those that increase speed of
your slowest unit(s). They give you extra movement points for each
turn.
-The alternative second most important upgrades are those that give
your units some specials. Why alternative second-most? It's good for a
barbarian to move one step faster with his orc chiefs (or two steps
with ogre lord, if he won't use orcs), yet it's comparatively good
(yet in different ways) for giants to start throwing their weapons or
for vampires to start drinking blood of their enemies in large scale
-Other upgrades are important, too, but not enough to be n-th most
important ;-)
A statue built on day one will result in extra 500 gold on first day of
next week (and then extra 1750 every first day of week).
Always try to build most of dwellings before day one of next week. All
miscellaneous buildings like Mage Guild, Tavern, Thieves guild etc. can
wait. If you really don't know what to do with cash, build other
structures. Short notes on them:
-Thieves guild can be quite handy, if you're getting into enemy or
neutral territory with armies, that would have troubes with stronger
opposition defeating neutral/enemy castles/towns. I'd say that it's a
must to have at least one - so you can check at least the troop types.
-Marketplaces generally come to work well in large numbers. [The more
marketplaces you control, the better conversion rates you get. Three
marketplaces get you the same rates as trading posts. With eight or
more the rate drops to 1:2 in resources.]
-Tavern is, well, ehh, of not much use, but if you can spare the cash
and wood, the +1 morale and sometimes useful tips can be worth it.
-City defenses and class dependant buildings (that always somehow
affect defensive actions in city) can be of use, especially in castles
adjacent to enemy. I'd say that the moat is most important, because it
gives you usually one more turn to shoot and cast before the walkers
get to you, and also creatures in moat are more vulnerable. [They
suffer between 15 and 30% more damage, having their defense rating
reduced by three.] The firepower of tower and turrets depends on
number of buildings in city, while the attack bonus is increased by
levels of mage guild built. (And, of course, by hero/captain skills).
My personal experience says this: I almost never build castle defenses and
special buildings. If an enemy starts moving inside my territory, I build
moats in endangered castles, if I ever want to hold them, along with
Turrets, if given enough time. But remember - if an enemy will be still
able to capture the castle, YOU will then have to siege it and suffer from
the improved defenses. If you have a first-strike army like sorceress, you
can afford that and the extra losses imposed by the fortifications on the
enemy force will reduce your losses in recapturing. However, if your armies
are slower, they might suffer more losses from the castle than they would
suffer from the extra troops that the enemy wouldn't have lost while
conquering the castle.
* Combat tips
Combat tips could be divided into several categories:
-Using knowledge of computer intelligence
[This is a non-combat section with tips on how to initiate battles]
If a strong hero comes close to your castle, you can often beat him by
following tactics:
Rather than getting defeated (although heavily damaging his armies) in
your castle, grab all you can and run away. Usually the hero will
leave some of his armies as new garrison in the castle and head
somewhere else (yet he may try to kill you, so you have to move around
wisely). This new garrison is usually no match for your main army, so
you kill it, get the exp. of it ;-)(plus the 500 for castle siege ;-))
and run again. Computer hero again takes your castle, splits his
armies and leave. Repeat until you can beat the enemy with little
losses (or until he stays in your castle - coz in such case you'll
have to either fight it out or find y'self another castle ;-)) [This
works best in cases where the enemy isn't strong enough to attack you,
yet you'd suffer great losses in battle with him - i.e. from direct
damage spells that the AI doesn't include as a decisive factor before
battle.] This technique is very useful with villages, coz there's no
garisson archers and also computer heroes can almost never resist the
temptation to capture undefended village, but will NEVER stay inside
to let you die out after 7 days of homelessness ;-))
AI has also quite simple algorithm for attacking your heroes and
castles. Usually they won't attack unless they have a bigger army (in
HPs). So it often helps to buy anything you can in the castle your
enemy is heading towards and he changes his mind (although he would
easily win, i.e. with a band of shooters and strong magic against a
pack of hydras) Sometimes you'll have to use your main army as this
deterring factor. If the enemy can see your castle, he'll head for it
almost everytime he notices it's empty or lightly defended. But if you
stay in your castle with all your forces for a few days, all these
days he'll be going after other targets, which will give you then
enough time to do your tasks around your castle.
[Note that this also works the other way 'round... If the opponent has
at least once been near to a castle, he'll often launch a task force
to capture it every time he sees it poorly defended. You may benefit
from that in two ways... Either you have your main hero nearby,
that'll smash the incoming enemy, or you'll just get some strong
armies (either by purchase or by moving a hero in) into the castle
just when the opponent is almost there... And he, seeing a defending
army too strong for him, will have to find another target - possibly
somewhere deep back in his territory, which means that you've
succesfully wasted his time and offensive potential of his armies.]
A good idea is always (if you can do without gold) to buy out units in
turn one and then let the opponent capture your castle, retaking it
back just after a week - computer usually does a good job improving
city buildings for you.
* Always make sure you KNOW, what army will play next. The rules are
these:
-First comes speed. If there's a stack, that is faster, than any
other, it plays first.
-When both sides have stacks of same speed, in the first round the
attacker gets the first move
-If both sides have stacks of same speed, the rounds go zig-zag. Once
all stacks of that speed have moved, next lower speed army moves and
if both sides have that speed in their ranks, then again moves side,
that hadn't had made the last move.
-On every side, armies with same speed play in order of appearance on
the screen, when the battle begun. So, if you have two armies of the
same speed, the ORIGINALLY upper plays always sooner, even if it moves
below the other army.
* Always try to use appropriate targets in order to attend your goals.
Your goals may be one of the following:
-winning the battle at any cost
-causing maximum damage (i.e. defending a captured castle)
-winning with no losses
-not letting enemy flee.
There's a different way to each of those goals, but most of them require
you to know exactly the order of play, as well as to know approximately
the damages, that your and enemy stacks can cause.
Order of play is important for one more thing. If i.e. both you and
opponent have some shooters of the same speed, you'll have to determine,
if yours will play sooner, and if so, you can direct your other attacks
to other enemy units (assuming that your shooters will cripple enemy
shooter stack enough to cause you no casualities).
* Combat rules:
How the damage is counted?
DAM= (1+((A-D)*X))) * A_count * RND_damage
In words: Number of attackers times damage caused by a single unit [this
one is the only random factor - damage lies somewhere within damage
range] times modifier based on Attack skill of Attacker and Defense skill
of defender.
Value of X: X equals 0.1 if A is bigger than D, which means that the
damage is increased by 10% for every point between A and D X equals 0.05
if D is bigger than A, so damage is decreased by 5% for every point
between D and A.
We'll show a black dragon fighting different opponents. Damage modifier
counted below will in combat be multiplied by number of dragons and
random value between 25 and 50, which is black dragon's damage range.
So, black dragon attacking peasants: [Assume heroes with A and D=0]
Modifier = (1+(14-1)*0.1) = 2.30 or 230%, which gives damage from 68 to
115.
Now, the same dragon, attacking other black dragon:
Modifier = (1+(14-14)*0.1) = 1.00 or 100% which gives, of course, damage
from 25 to 50
And now, the same dragon attacking other black dragon, whose commanding
hero has the ultimate cloak of Protection, having defense bonus +12:
Modifier = (1+(14-26)*0.05) = ((1-12)*0.05) = 0.4 or 40%
There are limits to those numbers. Attack modifier is limited to 300%,
defense modifier is limited to 20%. That means that there's no need to
cast bloodlust on your army if it's attack is higher than it's target
defense + 20, or steelskin, if your unit's defense is higher than
attacking unit's attack + 16. Is that clear?
* Try to get to know your enemies as well as your units.
Memorize most units' HPs and other numbers and be able to estimate, how
much damage will your armies deliver, in order to use them most
effectively.
It always makes me sick seeing somebody (and happy,if it's the computer)
running with a stack of blessed paladins to crush a few centaurs, while
my blackdragons or minotaur kings will then give them hell, not fearing
the ten master swordsmen, which could have dealt the centaurs, but will
instead perish in the dragons retaliation...)
In the battle, always keep an eye on current state of any unit,
especially the number of HPs. If the stack with badly wounded unit can
get out of enemy range, try it. If you can finish a badly wounded enemy
dragon or another big beast, do it. Two dragons, if which one has
miserable 5 HPs left, still do damage of two dragons. If you have two
stacks with equal HPs left, always sacrifice the one that you need less.
(It's always better to lose a minotaur than a dragon.)
* Remember counterstrike rules!
Any close range attack is retaliated, but every unit retaliates only once
every turn. (see exception list below) So, if your enemy has a strong
stack, you'll want to either attack with a stack strong enough that
decimated enemy will NOT revenge enough to kill any of your units, or
sacrifice a small, cheap unit to waste enemy retaliation.
[Ideal for this are gargoyles, with their speed. If you have two heroes,
use the backup one to carry a stack of gargoyles and give the main hero
one gargoyle before every battle, that would require this technique. (For
example, if a barbarian has a stack of cyclopes, that could slay some of
your black dragons in retaliation, if you sacrifice the gargoyle, the
dragons will have one free attack on cyclopes. But remember, of course, the
gargoyles have to play BEFORE the dragons ;-)]
* Learn the ways computer fights - it uses only a few rules:
-Attack! anytime you can.
-Attack shooters if possible
-Attack flyers if possible
-Attack other units
It always tries to attack the strongest (in total HPs) stack of one of
the mentioned classes, and if there are equal stacks, it picks the
topmost on the screen (topmost at the start of the battle, of course.)
[There are two exceptions - liches and ghosts have different strategies.]
Rule a) means, that the computer will attack, whenever possible, even if
the target should have lesser priority than other your stacks.
Example: You can lure average units with your cheap flyers (gargoyles fit
there best) to give your shooters more time to deal with enemy walkers...
i.e. facing a barbarian army with one strong stacks of ogre lords:
normally, they would get to your shooters in the third turn. But, if you
in the second turn move one single gargoyle to the opposite side of
battlefield, close enough to the ogre lords (they have radius of four
squares, so that four squares between them and the gargoyle is just
enough), they will gladly run after the gargoyle, thus giving you TWO
more shooting turns, before they get to your shooters, which often is the
difference between life and death, coz you can also cast spells on these
two extra turns...)
Rules b and c mean that AI will always pick shooters/flyers as a target,
if the attacking unit has more enemies in it's range, and also units, that
cannot attack in this turn, will try to move towards those preferred
targets.
Knowing what the AI's going to do can help a lot in defeating him.
* Use special abilities to your full advantage.
I'm talking mainly about two-field attacks (dragon, phoenix, cyclope),
and I'm talking about yours as well as your enemy's. For example,
annoying bunch of ogres can be easily smashed sacrificing one gargoyle to
the next stack of cyclopes, if the gargoyles attack from the right
direction. (The cyclopes retaliation will work quite nice, possibly even
paralyzing the ogres ;-))
Of course, many other specials come in handy - i.e. non-retaliating
attacks of hydras (plus their ability to strike at ALL surrounding
units), rogues, sprites and vampires, multiple retaliation of griffins
and all others. Especially the griffins can be used to mop lesser enemy
armies within one turn.
* Tricks battling computer heroes
Computer controlled heroes follow some patterns in their battle behaviour
(as well as non-battle behaviour, see below. Usually, if an enemy hero has
some artifacts, he'll try to flee, when the battle turns bad for him,
preferrably after smashing a lightning bolt into your stack of shooters.
So, try to do your best and plan your crushing attack in a way that will
not allow computer to flee. [Usually this means letting him come closer and
then smashing all his units in counter attack... here comes very handy good
usage of spells, knowledge od abilities, order of playing units and careful
planning, using effectively your damage-causing capabilities. See more in
class dependant strategies - Way of [classname]]
When you don't want to have losses to your strong flyers/walkers, take a
few shooters as a bait for AI. I once managed (with some High Level
sorcery including Meteor Shower, and a Sorceress with no big A/D skills)
to take out 16 phoenixes with 10 phoenixes and 3 centaurs on my side -
grouping the phoenixes as 2x5 and the centaurs as 3x1, losing no
phoenixes. And I did it four times in a row.
The AI is stupid enough to waste it's excellent firepower to smash one
stupid harmless shooter.
* Order and sizes of stacks
Unless you have to, never place your shooters next to each other - this
way you allow enemy flyers to block two units at once. Always try to have
your shooters at both ends of screen, with the strong protective walkers in
the middle. A good example is barbarian, whose Ogre Lords with radius of 4
hexes can walk from their middle lane right in front of your topmost or
bottommost stack, possibly attacking any enemy flyer or fast walker, that
managed to get there.
Always line up your troops wisely, using knowledge about your enemy.
Remember that your Average units can reach enemy Very Fast or Fast
walkers, that are approaching them in their lane. Applies well for
goblins, skeletons, ogre lords etc.etc. (Other pairs work as well - your
Fast can reach enemy Averages, your very Fasts can reach enemy slows.)
Sometimes it's wise to have one BIG stack in total HPs. This will often
lure the computer into casting Disrupting Ray repeatedly, even when he's
a strong spellcaster, that would cause heavy damage with offensive
spells. Best armies for this purpose are Titans, Crusaders, Ogre Lords,
Raised Tons of Skeletons etc.
When battling wandering walkers or mixed enemy armies, think before
ordering your troops. If you have Liches or plan to use area damage
spells, position the primary target to the 5th slot. All the walkers will
try to walk diagonally accross the field, which means that those from upper
slot will get into the way of those in the lower slots, they'll walk around
each other. This will have two advantages - first they'll be placed nicely
together for area damage spells, second some of them will get to you later
than they originally could.
However, if you have strong walkers that have the same speed as the enemy
(and especially Fast+ - cyclopes, crusaders, wolves, whatever), place your
primary target (the strongest shoter) into the 1st slot. Thus, after the
first walker has moved directly after your shooter, you can move some
walker of yours to kill this one without getting in range of other enemy
armies. (Note that if your shooter was in the 5th slot, the first walker
would come diagonally towards you and attacking him at this moment would
expose the attacking army to other enemies of the same speed.) I hope that
you understand what I mean.
* Spell Casting - combat spells
Before casting a combat spell, always think carefully what will your
casting cause. Remember the following:
-Sometimes a non-offensive spell on your unit will give you better
results, than an offensive on enemy. Casting Bloodlust on 10 Titans
will kick your damage by 30%, which can often bring much more, than an
offensive, direct damage spell.
-This applies also to non-offensive spells cast on enemy units!
Disrupting ray can also decide a hard battle, because strong slow
units like hydras or ogres are a pain in the ass in big numbers, but
once their defense is set to 1 with no possible cure, any good attack
acts as a pain reliever ;-) I personally won MANY battles by casting
disrupting rays instead of lightning bolts.
-Generally, you should be able to estimate what spell will have bigger
impact on the enemy. Just count up your damage capabilities and
compare this number, multiplied by the Attack modifier, with the
damage that would your offensive spells deal to the enemy. Usually,
four disrupting rays on enemy hydras stack will mean about 100% or
more damage, so if your armies can deal more than 500 damage at the
start of the battle, they'll score an additional 500+ for the
disrupting rays - you would need spellpower 6+ to beat that with four
lightning bolts. Of course, number of enemy units matters here, as
well, because if you would smash the hydras with the bolts, before
they got to you, there's no need to hesitate, but if you would have to
attack the hydras stack more than once, it's always better to lower
their defense permanently. [And this applies for stronger monsters
even more, especially titans...]
-If you can afford it, let the enemy cast first. [AI always casts at
the very first opportunity] Usually it's better to be able to remove
enemy spells efect. I.e. a curse on 20 titans is worth removing by a
bless.
-Remember that your spell casting can often cause a reaction from the
AI. This covers all non-offensive spells: Blinding, paralyzing,
cursing or slowing an enemy unit can force the AI to cast Haste,
Bless, or even AntiMagic to remove your spell. Sometimes this is
better, than letting the enemy fry your shooter stack with a 300 worth
of lightning bolt, but sometimes an attempt to slow down crusaders
results in them having the Blazing speed rating next turn, wreaking
havoc on your troops. Also, remember this: When you cast Slow, Blind
or Paralyze and the enemy dispels it in the same turn, the affected
unit WILL move in the same turn, even if units of the same speed were
played already. [With the spell removed, the unit's order of play will
follow regular rules - if it's speed hasn't had it's go yet, it will
come regularly. If the speed has been played in the turn, this troop
will play immediately - it has the highest speed of units that haven't
played yet. Thanks Qurqirish Dragon for that one!]
-Use Blinds, Paralyzes, Hastes and Slows wisely! Always be sure to
know, what impact on play order will your spells have. If you know
that you'll wipe four of five enemy stacks within the first turn and
without computer moving, be sure to cast a Blind on his last stack.
Attack blind units only under these conditions:
-Either you've faster units than this stack is
-Or you can cast blind at the end of this turn again! Why? Attacked
blind unit doesn't get it's move within this turn, but will be able
to move in the next and if it is as fast as your fastest unit, it
will move FIRST!
-Cast the blind always right before you skip your last unit (last of
those who move before the enemy!). This applies mainly for a
sorceress. Imagine that you face a stack of average speed. You shoot
with druids and elves and then, before skipping or moving unicorns,
cast the blind. Then a new turn begins. Again, you shoot with your
very fast units, and then either move/attack or skip unicorns. Enemy
loses the blind condition, but within this turn, it WON'T move. So
you can shoot with the shooters for the third time and then decide,
if the unicorns can take the enemy out (within some help of offensive
magic) or blind the enemy again. So generally, if your shooters are
faster, than the only enemy stack, you'll have to cast blind every
second turn (and can cast offensive/supportive magic the other half
of turns) without giving the enemy a move opportunity.
-Rules for paralyze are the same.
-Rules for using haste are simpler,because you'll have to slay the
enemy before his regular move comes. (Haste will not only let you play
sooner, but extend your range by two hexes! Always remember that and
use it wisely. Especially hasted very fast profit from that!] One of
the most profitable uses of Haste is: Play the battle without spells
until your massive army (esp. Skeletons or Ogre Lords) get their turn.
By that time, many of enemy units have moved. If you cast Haste right
now, your Ogres will be able to reach enemy average units, AND, in the
next turn (if you have spell power greater than 1) they'll be probably
among the fastest units. Thus, you have two sequential strikes with a
very offensively oriented stack.
A typical situation is a necromancer with Vampire Lords and Skeletons
battling i.e. bunch of Fast units. In the first round, you should do
without magic until the skeletons get their turn.Then give them Haste,
which should let them reach the approaching enemy. They'll play first
in the next turn, thus giving you the opportunity to cast Haste on the
VLs and get two attacks (one the hasted skeletons and one the hasted
VLs) before the enemy starts doing anything. That means a total of
three consecutive attacks by your troops. In many cases it's enough.
-Slow is usually better,because it reduces speeds by half (rounded up)
(Ultra fast becomes Average(7/2=3.5), Very fast becomes Slow (6/2=3),
Fast becomes Slow, Average becomes Very Slow!), but there's one bad
thing:If you happen to Slow a Fast unit and FAIL to kill it,enemy can
give it haste, which means that not only it will travel as UltraFast
accross most of the battle field to strike at your shooters, but it
will get the first move in the next turn,unless you have ultra fast or
faster units! Even skeletons or mutant zombies will be VERY FAST!, and
those for sure, because Haste is necromancer's DEFAULT spell! Always
remember that!
* Use offensive spells to cause maximum damage. It means:
-Don't cast a 300 Lighning bolt on a stack with 50 HPs, unless you
really NEED to kill it! Use magic arrow instead, or bolt something
else, that will suffer the whole 300 damage!
-Always know which enemy stack means bigger danger to your armies. A
nice example would be my favorite: One titan has 300 HPs. 99
Halflings have 297 HPs. So the AI will always strike at the titan.
But the titan will do 20-30 damage (plus maybe 140%, considering his
high attack), while the halflings will do 99*(1-3), which gives
100-300 damage (plus maybe some more, they have some attack skill,
too). On the other hand, there are cases, when the numerous stacks of
poor creatures, such as centaurs, mean much lesser threat than a
stack with the same HP total, consisting of i.e. very fast and quite
strong minotaurs etc. [You should take into consideration whom will
the possible targets of your magic attack - sometimes the shooters
would cause damage, while the walkers would kill - if the minotaur
kings cannot get to titans, they might decimate your halflings, while
the centaurs would only damage your titans.]
* Fighting shooters
If there are wandering armies of shooters, think before you attack them.
You should always bear in mind how much damage your armies can sustain
without losses, how much damage the enemy can deal to you. Think well
about order of play, spell casting etc.
During the play, keep an eye on damage to your armies. (Sometimes it's
i.e. wiser to NOT attack with the flyers, coz you save damage from
retaliation. - use this rule, if you wouldn't kill at least half of the
enemy stack.) Also, sometimes it's wiser to NOT attack blocked shooters,
if you have an army with the same speed as those shooters, that wants to
attack some others... sometimes it's crucial that a particular damaged
and blocked stack is alive so that your army of the same speed gets it's
turn before an unblocked stack would play.
Before fighting shooters, divide strong stacks of shooters, too. You
don't need 20 druids to attack 5 archers, it's better to attack 2x5
archers with two stacks of ten druids.
If you have fast flyers, divide them to block the enemy. Griffins and
rocs do best here. Gargoyles too, since they're expendable.
Among the regular, weaker armies, most dangerous are grand elves, which
usually score some damage.
* Fighting flyers
You'll have to pay big attention to order of play and try to protect your
shooters with your other units (and it's wise to think about it before the
battle and reorder your units so that this will be an easy job. (Good for
this thing are all two-field creatures - griffins, unicorns, champions,
boars make excellent blockers. Also, using the condensed army setup - the
toggle button in upper left corner of hero screen - that will help much,
making less free space around your shooters. I use this rarely, but a few
times it has proven worth it. Best example is a situation where you have
one shooter stack and four very slow armies - all of them can attack anyone
near the shooter, because they don't have to travel any far.)
Though, beware strong monsters (dragons, phoenix), unless you have
hydras, which will profit from the fact, that the two-field attacks will
strike their friends almost as much as the hydras. The hydras can take
out much stronger armies, than you would think. (Using steelskin, bless,
bloodlust is a good thing here. Out of five enemy dragon stacks four will
strike each other while attacking you.
[In place of hydras any other two-hex creature will do. But make sure
that this stack will be primary target for the AI and will remain so even
if heavily damaged. Phoenixes or rocs fit there well. With Ressurect-true
you'll have an easy job even with some spellcaster, although knight hero
fits there best, possibly with artifact-boosted defense. The hydras are
best, though, because they'll strike at all enemies and they'll not
retaliate.]
[Note that the creature used for this doesn't have to be a two-hex. A
good ogre lord band will do a nice job defeating some decent dragon army
as well.
* Fighting walkers
There are a few good tricks against walkers.
First one touches a bit specific conditions... If you have a strong stack
capable of two-hex attack and the enemy has units with slow or higher
speed, you can do a nice combo. Ideal example are the graveyard garisson
zombies. Suppose we have some Phoenixes.
Ok, we'll just plain attack them zombies... But how? Fly your phoenixes
over to the third stack of zombies and attack from the front side - the
sword cursor horizontal. You fry this middle stack. Next, you shoot your
shooters onto the fourth and fifth stacks of zombies. Now, the first
zombie stack plays its move - walking down to phoenixes, standing just
between the phoenixes and second stack of zombies... A blow, doing
damage... some retaliation, and voila, three stacks of zombies killed in
one turn by the phoenixes, which suffered only one attack.
Note that this trick can be performed even against mixed armies. You only
have to pick a walker with at least Slow speed, stand TWO stacks down (or
up) from him (frying another stack, standing there) and waiting for him to
come after you. However, you'll need to assure that this selected stack
will be the first to attack your two-hex-attack army.
Another trick fits well against average walkers - using bait flyer stacks
of one unit in size - described above with the gargoyle/ogre lord setup. A
sacrificer may help you align enemy troops for your two-hex sweeps. When
fighting walkers with your armies that contain mainly shooters, take mental
notes on how much damage you cause to the enemy stacks. Especially if the
enemy walkers are of the same speed as some of your units. The trick is:
Sometimes it's wiser to let a damaged stack that is closing on your
shooters to attack those shooters. If they're of the same speed, this stack
will attack them, die in retaliation and those shooters then can go
shooting at another stack. A typical example may be war trolls against
veteran pikemen - if the first pikemen stack has been seriously damaged by
the trolls, while the second is full strength yet, let your walkers and
orcs kill the remaining three stacks. In the next round, the damaged first
stack will attack trolls, die there and the trolls can shoot at the yet
unharmed second stack. This often helps to win battles with no losses.
* Concentrate your firepower
As in most strategy games, even here works the approach of taking the
enemies out one by one. Here the thing is based on the fact that all
enemies except griffins retaliate only after first attack.
The only exception is fighting (mostly wandering) shooters, which should
be (in most cases) taken out simultaneously to prevent them from shooting
at you at all. Enemies led by a hero are a bit more dangerous, because the
simultaneous approach can cause losses to walkers and flyers. But sometimes
those losses are a fair cost for protection of your shooters.
* Prevent the enemy from concentrating his firepower.
Always try to determine the primary and secondary target of your enemy
and IF the secondary target is either less important or more durable, try
to let the least possible amount of enemies attack the primary one.
A typical example may be knight troops. The primary target are always the
rangers, while the secondary are most often the crusaders. The crusaders
will suffer losses after six times heavier damage is caused to them (which
with their high defense means about 8-12 times more enemies
attacking them. And furthermore, the crusaders will be surely able to
kill enemies in retaliation, whereas the rangers have lesser Attack skill
and quarter damage at close range.)
And how to prevent enemies from going after their primary target? There
are two different situations:
* The enemy are walkers with the primary target still out of their range.
In that case you need to move any unit into their range, while keeping the
primary target out of their range. The AI rule of attacking
whenever possibly will force them to go after the bait unit. The
gargoyle-ogre lords trick is described elsewhere in the Ways of...
articles.
* The enemy are either walkers with the primary target in their range, or
flyers. In that case the only remedy is surrounding targeted troop with
other units. Best in this task are fast two-hex creatures. Just place the
primary target into first or last slot and the two-hex unit right beside
it. If the two-hex unit plays before the enemy flyers, move it as close to
the primary target as possible, from below/up. Thus, you'll leave only one
free hex to attack the primary target from. If another unit of yours still
plays before the enemy fliers, you can move it onto that last free hex in
front of your shooter. Thus all the flyers will go after the secondary
target, which is usually the strongest walker stack (crusaders, hydras
etc.).
Classical example is knight with Rangers, Champions (or Cavalry) and
Crusaders against Fast or slower flyers. In that case, a total of two or
three flyers will go after the crusader (three, if the first one is
killed by retaliation) and the rest after next strong stack. This works
with little limitations even against Very Fast units - if the first flyer
(that plays before the crusader and can attack the rangers) dies in
rangers' retaliation, place the crusader into the now-freed hex. If the
flyer survives, just leave him here, attack him only if you're sure you
won't kill him!
Always use the terrain well to block enemy units. I.e. if there are two
ways to your shooter - when there are those two long horizontal obstacles
on the battle field, dividing it into three corridors - and the enemy
walkers are average or slower. Let's say that your shooter stack is in the
1st slot. The obstacles always leave two hexes of free space on the rear
side of field. Typical example is fighting any average walker with knight
troops. Let's say that we'll put the rangers in the 1st slot, 2nd and 3rd
will be occupied by those Fast infantrymen. First turn, the infantry will
seal up the top access route, rangers will shoot at whichever unit, all
enemy units try to move in the middle corridor.
Second turn: infantry moves below the rangers, occupying the two hexes
that are between the end of screen and the obstacle. All of those average
walkers that cannot reach the infantry in this turn (and therefore have no
immediate target) spot a way to the primary target 0 the rangers. All of
them turn back and head to the top corridor. In the next turn, you'll again
seal the top corridor, all of them move into the middle. You can repeat
that as long as the rangers have some arrows to shoot. Note that it won't
work against Fast+ units and sometimes, some of the average units may get
too close and attack your infantry. If that should mean losses, it's time
to switch to normal strategy - remove the infantry to give the rangers one
shooting turn and then an all-out attack (or in case that the enemy is
still too strong and would survive the attack and get to the rangers, all-
out attack is launched immediately, keeping the walkers somewhere in the
middle to protect rangers (and let them shoot again.)
Any two-hex creature can be used to block the access from the middle
corridor, but plan carefully, because you'll need to be able to switch
the blocks every turn and not let any of your blockers get into range of
the enemy. This strategy will let you (with the luck of getting the right
terrain) defeat armies that would be able to crush you in a flat field.
This is a cheap trick that I've discovered recently by pure luck, yet it
works miraculously.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
IX. USING CERTAIN HERO TYPES
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
--Using Knight--
----------------
Strengths:
Ideal for fast conquering, smaller scenarios. Invaluable attack and
defense...
Quite cheap armies, especially rangers, who can also be upgraded from
archers found in archer houses and conquered villages, and often bear
main offensive tasks. Until you start to build crusaders, you'll
probably have no big financial problems (that is, if you can do without
one of the walker types.)
High morale in connection with four stacks, that can cross the
battlefield in two runs, often makes battles easier.
Very potent offensive capabilities in champions, that can be built
without magical resources (only the trolls have the same advantage) and
strike against two-field creatures in first round. No crystal needed to
buy crusaders (they're the only one 6th levels with this advantage,
that are an excellent weapon with their good speed and specials.
Three of the armies are upgradeable for free - financial saves. (Of
course, cavalry only in expansion pak games...)
Archers can be recruited for free and found often in captured villages.
Weaknesses:
Armies have quite low HPs - get used to have some losses, esp. due to
magic.
Only very slow stacks available in the beginning - slower exploration,
unless you hire a warlock to get some gargoyles ;-)
Army Evaluation:
Peasant 1/1/1/1/2/20
The only unit in the game, that is totally useless for the side that
has it... (However, pretty useful for necromancers ;-)) Yet, they're
the best unit in the game in the ratio of damage dealt to their own
hitpoints ;-)))
Well, to be true, use of peasants has helped me a few times winning
castle defenses against wimpy computer heroes, but in general, peasants
are really useless, unless in four-digits numbers.
Personally, I never waste money on them. But if you happen to have
several peasant huts in castle vicinity, let the peasants grow there
and if you think you might need them, call up a mobilization. This
usually yields those three-digit numbers. And some hundreds of peasants
for free mean a good stationary defensive potential that can prevent AI
from attacking, even if it would easily win using shooter armies.
TreeBeard says that once peasants saved his life, when being sacrificed
to an army of ghosts, that stood between him and quite a powerful
enemy, which was just about to attack.
Archer 3/5/10/2-3/2/150
Ranger 4/5/10/2-3/4/200
Upgraded: Shoots twice.
Pretty dangerous cheap little fellows. Well, dangerous when upgraded,
because their speed assures first two strikes against orc chiefs,
halflings and other shooters. With some battle tactics, you can even
manage to cripple enemy average flyers (green dragons, bone dragons,
vampires, rocs, griffins, sprites...).
Their availability at Archer houses, which are, due to their nice look,
used more often than other dwellings in many maps, results in fact that
their numbers may get quite high, making a valuable enemy of them.
Definitely not bad for 2nd level creature, esp. due to double strike.
A ranger is for 50 more gold worth two archers and is not far from
grand elves (who are 3rd level), but they die a lot and you should
expect to have none of them in later game. (There are only a few ways
of protecting them, and none of them brings anything good apart from
protecting them.)
Pikeman 5/9/20/3-4/4/200
Veteran Pikeman 5/9/25/3-4/5/250
Swordsman 7/9/25/4-6/4/250
Master Swordsman 7/9/30/4-6/5/300
Both troop types are quite reliable, carrying moderate attack and
excellent defensive potential. Their Fast speed after upgrade allows
them to control most of the battle field, reaching stationary enemies
within second turn.
Their high defense combined with their speed also allow them to
function as blocking armies to protect rangers together with either
champions or crusaders, a matter of big importance esp. against enemy
Average flyers.
As neither swordsmen nor pikemen are AI's primary target, their losses
aren't high and they profit strongly from the fact that most enemies
somehow underestimate them.
Both can be upgraded at foundry, which is another map structure, that
is used more than often due to nice look ;-)
Cavalry 10/9/30/5-10/6/300
Champion 10/9/40/5-10/7/375
This troop is important for many reasons. Being Ultra-Fast assures the
knight first shot in every turn. Being two-hex gives the champions
opportunity (with a little luck considering clear terrain) to strike in
the very first move against enemy two-hex creatures. Most useful
against centaurs, rocs and griffins. The upgrade also makes them 33%
tougher (and, in fact, cheaper per HP...)
Before upgrade, they lack most of their positives, but still remain
pretty strong in both defensive and offensive tasks. One bonus is again
free upgradability (in EP maps only, though).
Paladin 11/12/50/10-20/5/600
Crusader 11/12/65/10-20/6/1000
Both: Attack the target twice.
Upgraded: Cannot be Cursed, scores 2x damage vs. undead.
An army of great potential. Crusaders' special double damage against
undead would make bone dragons tremble with fear, if they only could
have any feelings.
Their 20-40 damage per turn is third best in the game, also they can be
blessed and crusaders cannot be cursed, giving you an assured average
of 30 damage per piece. They're capable of scoring some 160+ against
weaker undead - one blessed crusader without hero skill bonuses can
take out 8 mutant zombies or 40 skeletons in one turn.
Although they're the worst 6th level army by HPs, in real use they're
very potential opponents to face and a very dangerous weapon to
possess.
Knight Castle building in the first week:
---------T----------------T------------------------------м
| Day 1: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 2: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 3: | Tavern | 500 gold + 5 wood |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 4: | Archery Range | 1000 gold |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 5: | Blacksmith | 1000 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 6: | Armory | 2000 gold + 10 ore + 10 wood |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 7: | Jousting Arena | 3000 gold + 20 wood |
L--------+----------------+-------------------------------
20 ore should be an attainable goal (usually it's there, at least on
Normal setting).
35 wood poses much more trouble, because it requires two heaps of wood
(total 10-20) and capturing a sawmill somewhere between day 4 and day 7
(6-0 wood). However, in most cases the wood can be found within the
week, and the second half of supply is needed only at day 7 - up to
this date you'll have enough with the starting stock.
10 000 gold is quite easy to accumulate (The castle yields 7500 in
those six days, which must be lowered by 1250 for the statue, another
7500 should be the starting stock. That will give you at least 4000
gold for day 1 purchases, which makes the knight the strongest in the
early game.)
Another 20 wood and 10 ore will be needed for upgrades of dwellings.
May not be necessary, though - if foundry/stables are near.
The farm is almost absolutely useless.
If you happen to be lucky and get that 20 crystal needed for Cathedral,
it may be often wise to purchase that instead of Jousting Arena at day
7. The paladins' double attack and all higher numbers are a good
advantage. However, if there is a Sorceress enemy nearby with good
prospects on building Phoenixes, the champions may have an important
role in getting you the first attack, which may be pretty critical
factor.
Rough castle output will be 1250x7 - 8750 gold/week.
Weekly armies without the crusaders will cost 5840 before upgrades,
7285 after upgrades.
HPs grown weekly 870 at 12.97 g/HP
This means that knight will be able to actually save money for building
crusaders, while the other classes will have to either leave some
armies unpurchased home or acquire gold sources. This is important
mainly for barbarians, who are otherwise able to compete with knights'
quick starts.
Strategy
The highest priority at the early game is wood - which can usually be
found nearby. However, you'll be able to build first four dwellings
without any additional wood gathered, and after that, even
well-defended sawmills should be acquirable.
One good thing about being addicted to wood is the fact that wood can
be acquired at seas easily - so if you happen to run accross any harbor
town or just a ship (giving a Summon Boat a try at seashore applies
here, too), you may get quickly large amounts of wood. Especially
effective is this technique when your home castle already has a
shipyard - the 10 wood for the ship is usually more than back within
the 7 days of sea travel... Try to hire a sorceress for that purpose -
the money comes back, too!)
The second highest priority may be either gold, if you seem to have
enough crystal, or crystal, if you seem to have enough gold ;-)
Crusaders will burden your budget with 4000 extra gold, which means
that you'll be two thousand/week short. Compared with barbarian, you
have less ranged attack potential and therefore need the durability of
crusaders to keep up the aggressive exploration.
Forces combination:
I usually take all the rangers, champions and master swordsmen on the
road, while the pikemen remain as reserve. Though, especially in cases
where crystal is rare and there is no need to save money for crusaders,
I'll buy all the pikemen to give them to the backup guy as his main
army. Their numbers will usually prevent secondary AI heroes from
attacking him, so he can dare to venture a bit away from the main hero.
In cases of dire need, the pikemen can be still given to the main guy
to help with offensive. In cases of low gold income that is needed to
save for the crusaders, you might as well omit the swordsmen.
My usual practice with the main hero is: Rangers split into two stacks,
placed in first and last slot. Between them, Champions, Crusaders and
Master Swordsmen in any order.
Position of champions is operationally changeable in dependance on any
two-hex creatures present in enemy armies.
In case you have only two walker stacks (Swordsmen and pikemen,
Swordsmen and champions) and plenty of rangers, split the rangers into
three stacks - that gives you more control over damage distribution,
less firepower wasted by blocking flyers, enemies changing their mind
as the stacks of equal sizes lose their priority target status after
taking slightest losses, which causes enemy slower walkers to change
their projected path, possibly wasting a turn.)
The swordsmen are the stack that will suffer the least from enemies. As
you'll maybe have some from villages (and even more pikemen), and
definitely lots of them from castles that you don't have resources
enough to build up to jousting arenas and cathedrals), you'll find that
all of a sudden, they're your biggest stack by HPs - often big enough
to scare the hell out of spellcasting enemies, who'll in turn start
casting Disrupting Ray on them.
Always remember that strongest skill of knights is defense and their
troops are designed to conform with this system.
Always have crusaders in 2nd/4th slot - so they can get into the moat
the very first turn in castle sieges and possibly break in in the
second. Champions will make it from the border slots. Swordsmen can do
well in the 3rd slot.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting fellow knights:
Once your enemy has army about equal to yours, you might probably
forget about having rangers after the battle ;-). With four armies
capable of getting to the other side in second turn, the rangers'
only task will be to eliminate their counterparts, so that your
walkers will not be disturbed while dealing with his walkers, that
have already come to you. Enemy champions will probably die at
blades of your crusaders in the first round. The crusaders are a
tougher nut to crack. Unless you block your rangers, they'll wipe
them out, as you have no way to prevent them from playing before
your crusaders in the second battle turn (omitting magic, though.)
In case the rangers are blocked, the enemy crusaders will go after
their counterparts and that's no good. So it's maybe better to
sacrifice some of pikemen/swordsmen and attack the crusaders in the
first round, when they come into range.
* Fighting barbarians:
This is always a tough job. The barbie will get first shot with his
trolls, which usually means 2-5 dead rangers per enemy troll. That
is bad. If the trolls aren't upgraded and aren't the topmost
average stack, the first shot goes to you, which is much better.
However, against barbarians you cannot afford to rely on defense,
as their range firepower is far greater than yours. You'll probably
have high losses in rangers. All your walkers should approach the
enemy carefully, as you should do your best to get first strike and
decimate enemy units in order of speed - Champions should smash
wolves easily, Crusaders will engage the cyclopes, swordsmen and
pikemen will take on the shooters. With a bit of luck you might be
able to take out wolves in the first round, thus getting first TWO
shots in second round, giving you better chances of minimizing
losses from cyclopes. Orcs are no match for you at close range, so
make sure that one of your fast units will make it to them at least
as a blocker. The Qurqirish Dragon has a good point about the most
dangerous unit of barbarians changing after the first round: Once
the trolls and orcs are blocked in round 2, the worst threat by far
are the Ogre Lords. With a very good attack, and decent defense,
and a whopping 60 hit point per unit they're as bad as cyclopes,
especially since they will probably outnumber the cyclopes as well.
99% of the time, if a barbarian survives a battle with only 1 stack
left, it will be a fairly large stack of ogre lords. The crusaders
should concentrate on them rather than the cyclops, unless there
are equal numbers of the two (which is unlikely). Also, by not
getting the retaliation attack from the cyclops, there is a lesser
chance of the crusaders being paralyzed (and thus beaten up by BOTH
ogre lords and cyclops).
* Fighting Sorceress:
With Champions, you can stand up against Phoenixes. Getting into
the same lane with them gives you first shot. The champions are not
any weak army and the losses are worth it. The Phoenixes will smash
the rangers, but your Crusaders will be already on the way to
prevent Grand Elves and Greater Druids from second shot, while
Swordsmen and Pikemen shoud beat the crap out of the Phoenixes.
TreeBeard says: But then, the crusaders will get hurt from the
unicorns that might be blessed and blind them. Also, expect the
sprites to go after the rangers if the sorceress have attacked the
knight, but not the phoenixes, which means you'll have to attack
with all your walkers. Iniciative will be very important in such a
battle.
* Fighting Warlock:
As in other cases, the rangers are deemed to die as enemy will
probably have two very fast flyers to go after them. Warlock is a
strong opponent. Your only chance is aggresivity. Dragon Slayer on
Crusaders will make wonders here, The rule about concentrating
firepower is extremely important here - the dragons must be taken
out ASAP. The rest should be easier then - the minotaur kings and
flyers are usually taken as a by product of the dragon-slaying,
because they'll get over to you pretty soon. The hydras can be then
Blinded and a massive attack arranged, that will give them no
chance to move. TreeBeard says: Beware of Magic! A simple berserker
on your crusaders and you're knee-deep in trouble, not to mention
Draggagedon combo, which is extremely efficient against the low
HPed Knight troops (Imagine that for every one point of enemy spell
power, you'll lose two pikemen, almost two swordsmen, five rangers,
one champion and almost one crusader... and 50 peasants, of course
;-))
* Fighting Wizard:
The titans are the obvious threat. Since you cannot block them,
they'll cause you great losses. Unless you have ranger stack big
enough to survive titans' and archmagis fire, you might as well
forget about protecting those rangers and run straight after the
enemy shooters. If any of your rangers survive and play before
enemy rocs, use them to cripple halflings. Champions, if they
haven't already attacked boars or rocs, should be able in the
second turn to give hell to archmagi, possibly sacrificing
themselves to block titans - or even attack titans to waste their
retaliation and slice them with crusaders. Swordsmen and Pikemen
should be enough to deal with rocs and boars without suffering any
great harm. TreeBeard says: Again, beware of magic. The best way is
to attack before the wizards manage to get titans.
* Fighting Necromancer:
With Crusaders' double damage versus undead, there's no need to
stress the fact that crusaders should do most of the job. Unless
you can haste your archers, enemy Vampire Lords will go after them.
Depending on the size of the bone dragon stack, you might wish to
block your arches against their attack - they'll then go after the
crusaders and if are outnumbered, will die there. However, if you
want first shot at them with the golden boys (and that might save
you a good number of them), let them toast your rangers and wipe
them in the next turn. Champions should be able to toast enemy
skeletons, unless in extremely high numbers. The undead walkers are
a threat only if their numbers are high. Be sure to concentrate
your fire onto Vampire Lords within one round as to lower their
ranks in the best possible way. A good thing to prevent computer
from raising them from the dead is positioning a unit atop their
ashes... A good thing is to try and send your champions to deal
with power liches ASAP, because that will give you two shot combo
(champions-crusaders) in every subsequent round.
Hero benefits:
No need to comment. Comparable with barbarian - both in very quick
offensives and in long-run campaigns very valuable, outranked by
spellcasters only in mid-terms.
Compared with barbarian, Knight gets far more levels in magic and thus
may partially stand up to spellcasters, especially by using Mass spells
or helping himself slaying weaker stacks. The most proficient way is
Disrupting Ray on strong and slow enemy stacks. (Remember that with
every Ray hitting the enemy, you increase damage your troops cause to
that stack by 15 to 30%m the higher value much more likely, since your
units should already have greater A than enemy D is.). Also, the knight
has twice the barbarians' chance of getting wisdom. (Well, not exactly
twice, since that would need a LOT of counting...)
important for the troops and strategy:
Archery is useful especially in cases where larger quantities of
archers become available, as well as in maps where you plan to conquer
wizards or sorceresses pretty quickly and use their troops later. (Very
recommended, anyway. Having a few titans to attract enemy attention
also gives the rangers some breathing (and shooting) room.)
Leadership is critical, because all your walkers are able to reach
enemy in one turn, if they get the extra morale. With the enormous
close range firepower that your walkers carry, you should in fact rely
on morale boosts.
Ballistics is very important, too, as you'll need to get inside the
enemy castle as fast as possible to minimize losses on your rangers..
Wisdom comes very interesting in larger maps, where you can expect your
knight to get both sufficient magic skills and enough levels to get the
wisdom to advanced or expert level. In shorter maps, you'll probably do
without wisdom. Usually the decision should be affected by availability
of 3rd level spells (from captured guilds and map shrines).
Diplomacy may be very important in the long run, because knight's
troops tend to take minimal losses and once you're on the road, you
stop buying units at home and start to accumulate gold, which could be
later used to buy wandering armies - especially efficient to replenish
ranger stacks that have suffered losses, or to get another powerful
shooter stacks - especially elves/grand elves fit there.
Beyond all doubt, the knight troops are the wimpiest in the game, in
overall long-run look. The knight's strength lies in short-term
exploration and conquering, in fearsome crusaders and in the ability to
use magic quite well. Knights get magic levels far more often than
barbarians.
Your rangers are quite weak for an AI's primary target, so you'll
probably suffer quite high losses. It helps greatly to use Steelskin or
Shield for protection and Haste/Slow to give them their chance to prove
themselves.
As a knight, I do not rely much on my own troops, because a few weeks
worth' of them is enough to gain access to somebody else's troops. As
soon as you locate an enemy castle with suitable troop types built,
take it at almost all costs. I usually use my original troops as a
garrison, preventing weaker enemies from reclaiming their home town,
and use local troops (mostly dragons, titans etc.) for further
conquest. But even with Phoenixes the Knight is usually capable of very
good opposition. (Not to mention adding some 20 war troll to your
army...)
--Using Barbarian--
-------------------
Strengths:
Quite good for small to medium scenarios and fast conquering.
Sturdy, tough units with very good offensive.
Can profit from map bonuses - at forts two armies can be upgraded for
free - financial saves.
Three main stacks have special abilities, all quite useful.
Toughest fourth dwelling creatures - ogres are excellent for castle
defense, especially after the upgrade.
Sometimes the pathfinding skill is a decisive factor, especially for
conquering in early stages. The shooters do excellent job, especially
against wandering armies.
Orcs can be recruited for free and found in villages often.
Weaknesses:
Lower speed of units - opponents get quite often a chance to play.
Lack of ore at startup.
Sometimes hero gets only attack skill upgrades and remains quite
vulnerable even in longer gameplay. Must use most aggressive approach
then, which can even mean taking some losses while grabbing artifacts,
searching graveyards etc. (I remember getting a 10/1/1/1 barbie without
artifacts.)
Quite expensive armies and especially dwellings. After upgrading troll
bridge in second week, you'll have very little money left for buying
troops. However, overall prices are quite fair - wolves, ogre lords and
war troll cost 7900 per week, which is more than covered by castle
output. With some luck (in the nearby fort) you'll save quite a bit on
the ogres and may as well afford slower orc chiefs.
Army evaluation:
Goblin 4/1/3/1-2/4/40
Among the 1st levels their standing is moderate. In high numbers, they
make an excellent unit for defense of shooters as they can deal quite
considerable bits of damage. High numbers are pretty common, because
the goblin hut is one of those nice little buildings ;-)
They carry cosiderable attack punch. With average speed, they're able
to have first strike on approaching enemy walkers with fast+ speed
(Royal mummies, upgraded knight infantry, unicorn and all very fasts.).
I usually use goblins only in large numbers - i.e. when I have multiple
castles and/or goblin huts. Usually stationed as defense reserves,
bought and employed only when I'll need them
Orc 3/4/10/2-3/2/140
Orc Chief 3/4/15/3-4/3/175
A powerful shooter, definitively in comparation with other 2nd level
troops. The upgrade is a must, as it increases HPs by 50% and damage by
33%, not mentioning the higher speed. Since they're available in watch
towers, which are used quite often (due to the nice picture) in many
maps, it may be possible to gather very large armies of orcs. Since
their upgrade can be made in forts for no fee, they're usually a must.
Their lower speed will often get compensated by their leader's
pathfinding, making the barbarian as fast as other heroes, or even
faster. However, they'll often suffer losses in battles. TreeBeard
scores a good point here: Often. But most maps have a huge grass
regions, which means you'll get slow. That's very frustating to try to
run from a mighter hero using those slow troops, not to mention that,
if you have a Very slow or Slow troops, the opponent will get
initiative next turn.
Wolf 6/2/20/3-5/6/200
Attacks the target twice.
A must, especially in the beginning. While they're not strong by HPs
compared to other 3rd levels, they have two good attributes - speed and
doubled attack, which is supported by the relatively good Attack skill.
Usually, they're very valuable against wandering shooters. The very
fast speed will often give you first strike (and opportunity to cast
some spell, too!)
Being two-hex makes them a good blocker for protecting shooters. In
terrain with obstacles, you may even fool wandering walkers by blocking
one side of shooter stack in second turn - see the end of Way of Hero
article for better description of this trick.
TreeBeard says: But their pitiful defense and low HP mean heavy
casualities. They must be protected and only strike to kill, preferably
in the first strike.
Ogre 9/5/40/4-6/2/300
Ogre Lord 9/5/60/5-7/4/500
One of the most remarkable armies. After the upgrade, they often become
the main punch of your army. Since they're there from the very first
week, you'll have plenty of them.
Their biggest advantage is that they're upgraded at forts and with
those 60HPs they beat all other 4th levels (that range from 25 of gr.
druids to 45 of Minotaur Kings.) Their skills and damage are also quite
remarkable.
In the beginning, you probably won't have enough gold to take them on
the road, but if you manage so, you'll benefit from the high HPs in one
more way - wandering armies will give you much more respect, giving you
the opportunity to decide, if you want the exp. for their killing or
rather let them flee, taking no losses from flyers/shooters. Of course,
many more of those armies can now offer you to join them.
Troll 10/5/40/5-7/4/600
War Troll 10/5/40/7-9/5/700
Both: Regenerates to full HP at start of every battle turn.
An excellent shooter. The troll special of regeneration gives
significant advantage i.e. at castle sieges, where total damage points
generated by defensive ballista fire are greatly reduced and with
weaker castles even totally eliminated. Of course, as TreeBeard
corrects me, this regeneration advantage diminishes with time because
it's importance is inverse to enemy army size.
The upgrade gives also a remarkable damage increase, making war troll a
killing machine.
The upgrade is necessary - being Fast gives you a good chance to fire
before enemy average flyers/shooters can take their part. I.e. prevents
blocking by Rocs, Griffins, Sprites, Vampires (to take one army of each
probable enemy ;-)).
Besides, they usually draw enemy attention, which makes a nice combo of
war trolls placed next to Ogre lords, who in their turn smash the
opposing flyers.
Cyclope 12/9/80/12-24/5/750+ 1cr
Two-hex attack, 10% chance to Paralyze enemy after hit.
With Fast speed and two hex attack, a remarkable opponent. Also, the
Paralyze special can give very big advantage, because paralyzed stack
doesn't retaliate - so you can take care of other enemy stacks, then
surround the paralyzed one by all your bashers and give him hell.
However, Cyclopes are costly to build, as the barbarian's gold
consumption for trolls, wolves and orcs is quite high. On the other
hand, not including the crystal, they themselves are quite cheap - 4 of
them cost less than 5 war trolls and as much as 6 ogre lords.
And one personal experience - they're the only one-hex creature with
two-hex attack... and one often forgets about that and either in attack
or, much more often, in retaliation the cyclopes harm their own troops.
When the enemy has the initiative in form of faster troops, you'll have
to be very careful with moving cyclopes around the battlefield.
Upgrading priorities:
* Stick hut: Low priority. Although the upgrade is significant, the
global importance of orcs in the barbarian army is much less
significant. Wait until you're sure there's no fort close to your
castle or somewhere on the way to your enemies.
* Adobe: Medium priority. Ogres are crippled in the battles by their
low speed. The upgrade helps them in many ways. Applies the above
considering waiting.
* Bridge: Highest priority. Increased damage and speed are very
important.
Barbarian Castle building in the first week:
---------T-----------T------------------------------м
| Day 1: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+-----------+------------------------------+
| Day 2: | Stick Hut | 750 gold + 5 wood |
+--------+-----------+------------------------------+
| Day 3: | Den | 1000 gold |
+--------+-----------+------------------------------+
| Day 4: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+-----------+------------------------------+
| Day 5: | Adobe | 3000 gold + 10 ore + 10 wood |
+--------+-----------+------------------------------+
| Day 6: | Bridge | 4000 gold + 20 ore |
L--------+-----------+-------------------------------
So, we have there one day reserve, sometimes more.
There's one thing to stress (thank TreeBeard) - unless you're sure
you'll be able to get extra 15 ore, don't rush for the statue - this
might prevent you from getting trolls within the first week.
(Stick Hut has some chance to be there in a random castle, while the
map makers often give the castles Statues/wells)
The reserve may be used for Garbage Heap (1000 gold) or Mage Guild
(1000 +5w +5o)
Now, we'll need 10 more ore for upgrade of Bridge, 5 more wood for
upgrade of Stick Hut and 20 ore and 20 crystal for Cyclopes, along with
those large gold sums.
Building Coliseum is very optional, while the fortifications and moat
may come handy, if you ever expect your enemy to get close to your home
castle. But that can wait. Resource summary:
You'll need 15 wood, 30 ore and 8100 gold for the dwellings alone,
another 5 ore and 1250 gold for statue and well.
Another 10 wood, 15 ore and 6200 gold is needed for dwellings upgrades
(provided that there's no fort nearby to save on ogres and orcs)
Weekly armies without the cyclopes cost 8400 gold before upgrades,
10450 gold after upgrades.
An interesting idea from TreeBeard is to not use goblins and orcs in
the same task-force, just use one of them and when they suffer some
heavier losses and become weak, replace them with the other type and
let the weakened stack grow at home into more usable size.
Total production (inc. cyclopes) cost/week 11400, 13450 with upgrades
The rough castle output will be 1250x7 - 8750 gold/week.
HPs grown weekly 1250 at 10.76 g/HP
All that sums up to the fact that gold will be prety scarce.
Strategy
The highest priority at the early game is ore - which can usually be
found near. If it seems that there won't be any free ore nearby, you'll
have to get a mine fast. No cost is high enough. It always pays back
soon to sacrifice most of your starting armies (you should have 10+
orcs, 20+ goblins and five wolves by day 2) to sweep out some level1-2
monsters guarding an ore mine.
The second highest priority is beyond all doubt gold.
You'll need two villages to support your weekly troops production
(without cyclopes) and bigger sources to accumulate money for cyclopes,
mage guilds etc.etc.)
Depending on the resources available in close vicinity to your
heroes/castles, the first issue should be statue, if affordable.
You'll need 30 ore for ogres and trolls. If there is a mine nearby, get
it at all costs. Sacrificing a few orcs and goblins is never a too high
price. An useful thing here is to buy a second hero (whenever you
expect the explorable area to be big. Leave him with one goblin to have
some speed. The main hero should occupy the ore mine, get all the
treasure chests for experience (ok, maybe those that offer 500exp/1000
gold should be converted to cash, if you don't have surplus. Sometimes
it might be better to go for gold needed for structure building.)
By the end of first week, you should have bridge built. At day 1, week
2 you'll probably not have enough cash to buy all trolls. Wait then.
With 8 trolls split into two stacks and possibly 12 wolves you should
be able to take out weaker armies and gain access to more resources,
artifacts and towns. This force is capable of capturing a town with
some 15 orcs, some wolves and goblins - which is the usual garrison of
neutral barbarian towns. Other towns should not pose any big trouble.
The touhgest opponents could be warlock and sorceress towns - they have
average or faster shooters/flyers. But having your trolls upgraded to
War trolls should solve this (at least partially).
Remember that trolls regenerate, and make sure that the troll stack
will have more HP's in total than the orcs or other shooters you might
have, so that enemy units will go after the trolls. (Of course, only if
you want them to! If you're sure you'd take losses, it's usually better
to take losses to the lower-dwellings troops.)
It works great esp. with weaker castle garrisons, that will waste their
firepower, often causing some 35 damage per round... which the trolls
promtly restore ;-)
Forces combination:
I usually prefer to walk around with all wolves and trolls I can buy,
with addition of orcs, preferrably upgraded. The orcs aren't required
for exploration. I often leave Ogres and Orcs at home, until I need
them, or at least until I locate a fort for free upgrade.
Generally, you must decide whether or not you will aim for building and
using cyclopes. If so, then you can probably leave ogres at home
unpurchased in reserve and save the money for cyclopes.
If you're not planning to build pyramid, you'll probably take the ogres
on the road, as they have excellent potentials in damage causing,
damage absorbing and intimidating wandering armies into joining. In
heaviest final battles, the ogres are often the only stack that remains
on the battle field. For battle purposes, it is unbearable to go
without upgrade. Upgraded Ogre Lords not only have 50% more HPs, but
also move around within 4-field radius, which in battle is far much
better than two-field of the Slow Ogres.
Recommended order of stacks: If you have non-upgraded ogres and orcs,
let them stand next to each other, the ogres let to be playing first.
With both stacks being very slow, they'll be playing usually last in
the turn, which means that the orcs will be often already under attack
- in first round from flyers, in next rounds from faster walkers. In
both cases the Ogres can either smash the opposition or at least waste
their retaliation, so that the orcs can attack at close range, too,
without suffering additional losses.
Once the Ogre Lords are upgraded, be sure to position them into the
third slot, so that they'll be able to reach both upper and lower side
of battle field. Other armies can be placed everywhere, with Goblins
possibly in the 2nd/4th slot, Trolls and Orcs NOT next to each other.
Wolves and Cyclopes are usually able to reach anywhere they need. The
order of War Troll and Cyclopes should be changed operationally, as
sometimes the cyclopes will be needed to clean the space around the
trolls.
Order of Goblins/Ogre Lords depends on size of those stacks. Sometimes
a small force of goblins can be sacrificed to waste retaliation of some
strong enemy stack to give the Ogre Lords a free shot, but in most
cases the order should be reversed, as the ogre lords seldom take
significant losses where the goblins would get decimated.
If you're exploring, your backup hero can carry your orcs. If you have
a considerable firepower in wolves, cyclopes and trolls, you can give
the backup guy also ogre lords and goblins. This way, the backup guy
will have a force strong enough to occupy villages, defeat most
wandering armies and, last but not least, defeat those bothering weak
computer bastards that have nothing better to do than claim mines that
you've already taken for yours. For important battles, those secondary
forces can be used by the main hero.
Always remember that strongest skill of barbarians is attack and their
troops are designed to conform with this system.
Be very careful about positioning your cyclopes! If you place them next
to wolves or any other two-hex creature, you risk that any attack on
the cyclopes will cause them to harm the wolves in the retaliation.
This is most likely against human players, who will definitely try to
use their very fast flier to do so. The computer might do that if he
cannot attack your shooters.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting fellow barbarians:
This is usually a tough job. You need to accomplish several things
before your opponent does. You have to do your best to get first
shot with trolls and first shot with orcs. When fighting AI, you
may help yourself much using Blind or Paralyze spells. The opposing
wolves should be killed once they run across the field, using
cyclopes and ogre lords. The enemy cyclopes shouldn't be allowed to
attack your shooters - either use slow and fry them with your
shooters or go after them with your own cyclopes and ogre lords,
possibly both in the same round. Fighting barbarians means usually
quite heavy losses.
* Fighting knights:
Here the biggest threat lies in crusaders... Champions that go
after your shooters should be no match for your cyclopes. Depending
or sizes of your orc stack and enemy ranger stack you'll have to
decide, whether you'll smash rangers with trolls or, using some
spell, have the orcs play before the rangers and kill them. You'll
have to pay attention, though, not to let crusaders start the
second round, because they would cripple your shooters. Often it
means that you'll have to attack them with your Cyclopes and Ogre
Lords, suffering some losses. Having Blind or even better Paralyze
will help much. You have two possibilities - either you keep your
wolves alive along with enemy Champions (though severely damaged)
to keep the opportunity to play after them and somehow disable
Crusaders (by spells or by blocking them), or you'll kill the
Champions and assure that your opponent plays the last move of the
first round... However, if you have orcs/orc chiefs and he's got
only average or faster units, you can't do that and the Crusaders
will play before you. Most effective is Haste on the Trolls. If the
champions are dead, Slow on Crusaders works well, too. But be
careful about Slowing them in the first round, because AI will
dispel that as soon as possible.
* Fighting Sorceress:
There's nothing you can do. The sorceress will almost usually have
first strike with Phoenixes, going after your trolls. Unless you
have some useful spells (see below), Grand Elves and Greater Druids
will probably have time to shoot, too, and possibly even sprites
will come after your trolls. It may be good to keep your shooters
with the backup hero and deal with the sorceresses with strong
walkers only. They will suffer lesser losses that shooters, whose
value is higher in general concept of barbarian warfare. However,
if you battle sorceress with all your forces, you should try to
protect your wolves as they're the only unit that gives you an
opportunity to cast a spell before the nasty very fast shooters of
your enemy take their action, which is made worse by the fact that
Sorceress ALWAYS has Bless spell.
* Fighting Warlock:
Without Haste spell, the enemy will get first attack at your
shooters. If the dragons will already be black ones, your trolls
will get their butt kicked. Among the best strategies are: Using
Dragon Slayer spell on your strongest stack (most often Ogre
Lords), having one very fast flyer (purchased at any captured
warlock village) to waste the dragons' retaliation in first round,
thus allowing you to smash them with all your walkers. Against AI
use a few orcs as a bait to waste the dragons' power, keeping your
main shooters with the backup hero.
* Fighting Wizard:
The titans are the obvious threat. Since you cannot block them,
they'll cause you great losses. Your task is to eliminate rocs as
fast as possible. Often is that done by shooting with trolls, the
rocs usually survive, fly to the trolls and die there. The orcs
should take out the archmagi. Cyclopes and Ogre Lords are powerful
enough to take on the Titans. The titans can be Slowed, Cursed, or
Disrupted - which are all good ways to help yourself with minor
spells. However, the losses are obvious here. Since the enemy will
probably have three shooter stacks, you might minimize those losses
by casting Shield/Steelskin on the Trolls.
* Fighting Necromancer:
The most threatening are Bone Dragons (with second best raw damage
in the game!) and Vampire Lords with their regeneration. The
walkers are not a match for ogre lords. Skeletons can be dangerous
in very high numbers, but with their weak defense they're toast
once your orcs get aim at them. Usual procedure is to eliminate
Bone Dragons and possibly Vampire Lords within the first round.
There it's important to play with trolls sooner than the Vampire
Lords - they fly back to trolls and the Cyclopes can then finish
them. If you happen to have the Slow spell, the Bone dragons are
solved by that pretty easily. Or, as Qurqirish Dragon suggests, you
might as well Slow the VLs - very effective, if your trolls are
able to 'minimize' the Boners in one shot. The power liches are
about the only stack that will cause damage in the first round.
However, be careful about the Slow spell - if you play last move in
the first round and the Power Liches are still there, enemy will
Haste the VLs and give your trolls hell. (It may help to leave your
orcs and goblins with the backup hero, keeping only the Ogre Lords
in the Average speed class - the enemy often has skeletons AND
mutant zombies or regular mummies, thus assuring your Wolves first
move in second round - and the opportunity to Slow/kill Liches and
get another free shot on the VLs with trolls and also scoring a
good damage with Cyclopes.)
Hero's benefits:
The barbarian doesn't need any extra comments - it's about the best
type for both long-run campaigns and very quick offensives -
outrankedspellcasters only in mid-term, where their direct damage spells
are
already available and dangerous.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
Archery can give your troops significant boost as your forces should
rely on it.
Balistics is a very good pick, because your three walkers are all very
potent in damage dealing.
Wisdom is less important here, as Barbarians are rarely good
spellcasters, unless helping themselves greatly by artifacts. But as a
general rule, you won't get many chances on Wisdom, so whenever you
think you might need it, take it. (Especially in larger maps it comes
handy in the end, because spells like Mass Haste/Slow and Berzerker can
do wonders and don't rely much on spellpower.)
Generally it's clear that the way of barbarian in battle is pretty
tough, but so is the barbarian himself. His strength is in quick,
aggressive exploration, resource gathering, good movement in rough
terrain.
In the battles, all tactics get changed if you happen to have Mass
Haste or Mass Slow, because those turn the tables greatly in your
favor. Having their minor versions isn't that good, yet having your War
Trolls Ultra Fast can never be any bad.
--Using Necromancer--
---------------------
Strengths:
The undead concept itself with getting skeletons for free ;-)
Very fast shooter with excellent defense.
Vampire lord special. If you give the necros a lot of time, they'll
smash you. A stack of some 40 or more vampire lords is virtually
indestructible, even by equal or stronger armies. If you manage to get
a good attack rating, you've in fact won.
Cheaper resurrection (both in obtaining and casting.)
All armies immune to Mind magic along with Curse (this is really great
advantage!)
Cumulative Castle Special Building in EP maps.
Necromancer is the fastest to build (under favorable conditions) the
6thlevel dwelling - on day 4.
Weaknesses:
Resource and financial problems - without a gold mine or two you'll
never have enough, not even barely enough.
Slow armies at start, not much better later.
The necromancy bound to the hero, who cannot compete with Might ones in
A/D matters.
Army evaluation:
All troops have no morale and are immune to Mind magic as well as
Bless/Curse.
Skeleton 4/3/4/2-3/4/75
Real little bastards. Their speed allows them to decide many battles,
especially in connection with the fact that Necro's default spell is
Haste.
The 2-3 damage is far the best among 1st level creatures - all others
have 1-2 (halflings 1-3, but lower attack skill).
The fact that their map dwelling does align well only with desert
background is far, far more compensated by the fact that the necros
don't have to rely on recruiting/buying skeletons ;-)
Zombie 5/2/15/2-3/2/150
Mutant Zombie 5/2/20/2-3/4/200
Without the upgrade it's pain in the ass to have to use them.
One of the poor fellows that end up on the fact that Necros are poor in
financial means.
I personally almost never purchase those - the only exception are
desperate castle defending missions.
They're definitely not worth the money they cost, with their puny
defense skill.
Mummy 6/6/25/3-4/4/250
Royal Mummy 6/6/30/3-4/5/300
Both: 20% chance to Curse enemy after hit. I think the Royals have 30%
here, but I'm not sure.
They're quite similar to zombies, only a bit tougher and a bit more
expensive.
Their only positive is quite solid defense skill and, after the
upgrade, their Fast speed rating.
Yet, due to financial shortages, I use mummies only in cases where I'm
able to build only one of better armies.
Vampire 8/6/35/5-7/4/500
Vampire Lord 8/6/40/5-7/5/650
Both: Non-retaliated attack.
Upgraded: Regenerates dead units within one battle based on HPs of
killed enemies.
Vampires are pretty useful. In fact, they're the only higher monster
that does unretaliated attacks (the other two are 1st level wimps.) (Of
course, hydras do have the same ability, but it's greatly crippled by
the fact that they don't fly and move very slowly...)
They do moderate damage and have sufficient A/D skills.
After the upgrade, they become tougher in HPs, faster, and above all,
start to regenerate from the blood of their enemies.
This is a terribly strong feature. Once their numbers reach some 30-40,
they're much harder to kill.
An example... a 100 of Vampire Lords is able to deal Average damage of
600 (to opponent with defense 8), which means regenerating 15 of
previously killed stack members. So, in order to kill a VL stack with
100 pieces, you need to deal more than 1200 damage to it per turn.
(They retaliate, too! In fact, much more than that, because you need to
kill this stack pretty fast since there other stacks to go after within
the same battle ;-)
Lich 7/12/25/8-10/5/750
Power Lich 7/13/35/8-10/6/900
Both: Area attack striking 7 hexes with target hex at center.
An underestimated unit (at least by many players), the liches are far
stronger than you might think.
After the upgrade, they're the only Very Fast unit in Necro camp,
giving the Necro chance to Haste (as this he always can do) Bone
Dragons or Vampire Lords that can then block enemy shooters.
Having defense rating of 13 (which is the same the Red Dragons have)
they'll suffer quite low damage from enemy shooters/flyers, yet will
draw the enemy attention.
Their area attack with an excellent damage of 8-10 can cause
significant losses to enemy troops, especially those that have
surrounded the AI's primary target in your ranks - usually those
offensive VLs or Boners. You have to be pretty careful to not hit your
own armies - and often you'll have to plan your moves well to keep at
least one enemy unit free for them as a target.
However, with their miserable 35 HPs, they'll often become subject of
direct damage spells that prove pretty effective against them.
Bone Dragon 11/9/150/25-45/4/1500
Induces -1 morale on all enemy.
A terribly powerful unit with average damage of 35, they're a must.
Their special of reducing enemy morale also comes handy as it helps to
prevent those nasty knights from getting some of their extra attacks
and kicking your butt too soon.
Their only disadvantage is their low speed, but that can be compensated
by Necro's default spell ;-)
One more good thing is the fact that Boners can be possibly (in richer
maps) built within the first week.
Upgrading priority:
* Graveyard: Lowest priority. Only in helpless situations where you
badly need the extra HPs - i.e. for castle defense.
* Pyramid: Low priority. Unless you want mummies in your task force,
you won't need them.
* Mansion: High priority. The more vampires you have, the higher is
the priority to upgrade. Do I have to explain why?
* Mausoleum: Highest priority. You might disagree, but having a first
strike gives you the possibility to haste your VLs or Boners. Not
having it gives the opponent the possibility to cast his spell
first (and it can be Holy Shout or MassSlow ;-))
Necromancer Castle building in the first week:
(Poor variant - the vampire way)
---------T---------------T----------------------------м
| Day 1: | Mage Guild | 2000 gold + 5 ore + 5 wood |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 2: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 3: | Graveyard | 1000 gold |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 4: | Pyramid | 1500 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 5: | Thieves Guild | 750 gold + 5 wood |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 6: | Mansion | 3000 gold + 10 wood |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 7: | Mausoleum | 3000 gold + 10 sulfur |
L--------+---------------+-----------------------------
In case that you don't want to build liches (or discover very soon that
you won't get the +5 sulfur needed for them) you can skip Mage Guild
and Mausoleum, thus giving you a chance to build statue on Day 1 and
one day for reserve, in tougher scenarios gladly used for skull pile. I
personally usually start with the statue. If you happen to have one of
the structures from the schedule built, you migth as well manage to get
the Mausoleum working on Day 7, with the little sulfur gotten from
somewhere.
You'll need some 11000 gold (which should be ok) and 20 wood, 10 ore
and 10 sulfur, which seems to be the only problem here. (The
sulfur-free variant is cheaper by 3000 gold, which allows you to do
more recruiting and start out on day1, week2)
(Rich variant - the Boner variant):
---------T------------T------------------------------м
| Day 1: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+------------+------------------------------+
| Day 2: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+------------+------------------------------+
| Day 3: | Graveyard | 1000 gold |
+--------+------------+------------------------------+ |
Day 4: | Mage Guild | 2000 gold + 5 ore + 5 wood |
+--------+------------+------------------------------+
| Day 5: | Mausoleum | 3000 gold + 10 sulfur |
+--------+------------+------------------------------+
| Day 6: | Laboratory | 10000 gold + 5 all resources |
L--------+------------+-------------------------------
The rich variant has one day reserve and apart from 20 ore and 10 wood
needs 15 sulfur, which means that you'll have to get the 10 extra
sulfur units within the first seven days.
The second biggest trouble is gold. With 7500 starter cash and 7500 of
castle revenues till day 7, you're still 2750 gold pieces short into
the total of 17750. This may require two or three treasure chests or
some four lumps of gold scattered around the castle. That's why this
variant is called rich ;-)
Unless you've got a poorly guarded gold mine right next to your castle,
this variant has one more negative impact... You'll have to wait more
than a day for every bone dragon - taking the four of them out onto the
road on day5, week2, where your opponents may already have gotten some
advantage... four days' advance in exploration MAY be critical...
The upgrade of Vampires is another costly thing - 10 crystal and 10
gems may be a tough nut to crack. And you'll definitely need either
Vampire Lords or Power Liches to support your boners, if you don't want
heavy losses to them.
The 10 more crystal for the shrine is a good investment in larger maps,
yet it's often hard to gather, but this thing doesn't hurry much.
The Storm is quite useful (and the price tells that so) because the +2
spell power can be anything from 20 to 50 damage to a signle unit and
10 to 100 damage to multiple units, along with prolonged effects of
misc. spells. Especially the captain gets a noticeable boost which may
undermine enemy sieging plans.
Resources summary:
The variants are discussed above.
Weekly armies without Boners cost 9550, after upgrades 11600. Boners
will add 4500 to this amount.
HPs grown weekly 1202 at 13.839g/HP
The rough castle output will be 1250x7 - 8750 gold/week.
The armies' costs implicate that you won't be probably buying all of
them, unless you get a stable gold source.
Strategy
The overall strategy is quite simple... Either get tons of gold or tons
of skeletons. In cases neither is possible, you're toasted ;-)
The biggest problem may lie in resources - you'll need extra magical
stuff for almost anything. If you decide to go after Boners, sulfur
will do, but you'll have trouble with magic. If you aim at vampire
lords, crystal and gems are crucial and you'll need 10 of them both, if
you want any good magic to use.
If there are any low-level troops near your castle that don't block the
way to something important, leave them there until your hero gets
Expert Necromancy and until you'll NEED the skeletons. Remember that
wandering armies grow exponentially (The growth rate is 14% percent)
and so grow your skeleton reserves ;-).
Once you get a well-sized stack of skeletons, you may start more
aggressive expansion. Seven or even four bone dragons are a force good
enough to start conquering weak neighbours with. The Vampire Lords need
to reach some good numbers before you can start a good long journey
based on them.
Some 20+ VLs should do all right against most early enemies, while in
lesser quantities, you might suffer intolerable losses.
In battles, you'll have a tough time due to your slower armies. Try to
improve that by casting Haste on those huge skeleton stacks (to the
best effect, do that just when your regular turn with skeletons comes -
by that time any very fast, fast and some average walkers/flyers have
already moved in and you can pick the best target for the skeletons.)
You should try to build 3rd level of Mage guild as the Animate Dead
spell is one of the best things you can get - far more valuable than
Death Wave. Animate Dead is pretty rare, but definitely worth the try.
ALWAYS remember how many VLs did you have at the start of any battle
and try to keep some weaker enemy units in reserve to replenish the VL
stack at the end of the battle - use stacks with low defense, so that
the VLs will cause maximum damage.
In cases where you plan to rely on skeletons (and therefore use a necro
as your main hero), get used to suffer some losses in battles against
Knight or Barbarian heroes. In some scenarios (either if you know your
enemies are Might heroes or if there are not many skeleton-providing
weakies around your castle) it may be wise to forget about necromancy
and get a barbarian or knight, because they'll be able to compensate
the loss of skeleton firepower by extracting much better performance
from the other troops and thus minimizing losses. (Barbie is better
because knight has one secondary skill slot wasted by leadership.)
[The general rule with Necromancer on the road is that all his stacks
in time get weakened with the exception of skeletons, while the overall
sum of his troops HPs is quietly growing. This may seem good to you,
but if you would count the HPs as a weighted average, where the weights
would be defense skills of particular stacks, you'd find that the HPs
do not grow that fast, if ever. A practical example would be a blessed
stack of crusaders beating the crap out of your 'famous and unbeatable'
skeleton army with two swift blows - whereas if you had the same HP
stored in bigger bones, the crusaders might get their balls crumpled.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting barbarians:
One of the easier tasks. Power Liches can shoot after anything,
possibly Ogres (low Defense) or Cyclopes (closerange threat). You
should manage to play with VLs before War Trolls do (and possibly
after the cyclopes) and strike at the War Trolls. Bone Dragons can
aim at Orc chiefs or cyclopes (possibly blocking Orc chiefs) or the
Orcs, if their numbers mean a real threat. You'll probably suffer
some loses to Boners, maybe to liches, but your VLs should come out
unharmed. Be sure to leave them some easy killing at the end -
either goblins or Orcs do fine there. The skeletons should
devastate the wolves and, being Hasted in the first or second turn,
deliver a huge blow to Ogres or Cyclopes, whichever present the
bigger threat to your VLs or Boners. (Usually the cyclopes, but
ogres can be in much higher numbers sometimes.)
* Fighting knights:
The only things you have to do is avoid the Crusaders. The other
armies are much less threatening. The crusaders will play before
you, which may be a good advantage - your VLs can get to other
side, attacking Fast walkers (while blocking Rangers) or attacking
Rangers. The skeletons should be able to send the champions to hell
in one blow. If you cast Haste on skeletons in the end of the turn,
you might get a free shot on the crusaders with the huge skeleton
stack - before that, either cast Haste on VLs or score some direct
damage to crusaders (if they're really numerous, disrupting ray is
better!). The rest should be easy - the Boners outperform those
Fast walkers nicely.
* Fighting Sorceress:
The Phoenixes will probably toast your liches. If they'll survive,
you can cast Haste on VLs and send them between Druids and Elves
(if upgraded, otherwise even without the Haste) - they'll emerge
with low losses (If the shooter stacks aren't together, choose the
bigger threat, of course.) Your skeletons should give Phoenixes the
hell, maybe with the help of Boners (which may be, though, needed
to remove hordes of sprites). Hasted VLs assure you the first shot
in second round - a great opportunity to revenge on unicorns to get
back to original numbers. The rest is easy.
* Fighting Warlock:
The Dragons will give you hell. However, if they'll go after the
liches, you might toast them with either DragonSlayered skeletons
or just an overall offensive - possibly sacrificing some mummies or
even the liches to waste their retaliation. Next take out the
minotaur kings by similar procedure - Bloodlust on skeletons has
wonderful effects. Meanwhile, your VLs and Boners should score
heavily against Gargoyles and Griffins. The hydras are best taken
out in one-to-one fight with VLs, but if the opponent has some
strong direct damage spells, you might need to finish them up fast
- again, use the Hasted skeletons. For killing anything large, you
should rely on your four-digit skeleton stacks. And if you don't
have them yet, avoid heavy battles. Remember one thing - the
skeletons will attract enemy spellcasting, if the hero knows
Disrupting Ray.
* Fighting Wizard:
Here your liches will probably get heavy losses. Use Hasted VLs and
fit them between the Titans and Archmagi, if possible, attacking
rather the Titans, as the archmagi will suffer enough from
retaliation. If both shooters cannot be blocked by the VLs, you'll
suffer here. Use Boners to cripple Rocs (or Golems, if you've
already decided to sacrifice the Liches), best while blocking
halflings. The skeletons should plan their way well, because
they'll be hasted in the beginning of the second turn and should be
able to reach their target - so, when moving them in the first
round, pick a target that won't be in the second turn any farther
than 7 hexes. Depending on their stack size, choose either Titans
or something lesser like Archmagi.) Again, the Boners could suffer
some losses, the liches WILL suffer and may probably die. Again,
1000+ little bony bastards should help here.
* Fighting fellow Necromancer:
Not an easy job. You know where your strengths are (the strategies
against various enemies are very similar to each other...) and
exactly those are strengths of opposing necromancers. They, too,
can Haste their skeleton avalanche... They too can have huge
self-regenerating stack of VLs. The only advantage you have against
AI is your knowledge of your enemys' strategy in battle. He won't
use his VLs optimally (where the optimum is suffering no losses) -
he'll simply go after primary targets with everything he can. I'm
not including the individual moves here - they're pretty obvious.
Simple guidelines are: Eliminate his VLs ASAP. Try taking out his
Power Liches to assure that your hasted skeletons will have first
shot. Ignore wimps as zombies and mummies, unless they're way too
strong in numbers. Use Animate Dead only on important units. If you
decide to ignore his (power) liches in the first round, try to move
all your troops adjacent to an enemy stack so that the liches will
then score damage to their own side. (The AI's too stupid to skip
them...)
Hero's benefits:
The Necromancer's strength lies in the necromancy itself (and therefore
the fact that he can be very offensive with skeletons, fearing no
losses).
Another good thing about the Necro is the fact that he gets more levels
in A/D than other spellcasters and thus his troops have a slight edge
over their opponents.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
None are really needed as the two most important troops are flyers.
However, Ballistics can help you getting the Skeletons behind the
walls, if you can't teleport them there ;-)
If the Archery is offered to you early and you like liches, take it.
Their attack is not that bad - and considering the area effect, you
might sometimes profit from that greatly. It's not uncommon to hit
three enemies at once, which means that with expert archery, you score
4.5 times more than you'd guess by looking at the liches' stats. In the
early exploration the damage increase of the liches may prove worth the
slot as the liches may form the mainstay of your army along with the
vampires. Against wandering walkers, they work nice. (Keep them in the
last slot for best effects - the walkers will start coming diagonally
and form nice impact areas in the middle of the battlefield.)
In general, the necromancer can grow very powerful, but in many
scenarios the going can get extremely tough - no extra gold, few magic
resources, no wandering wimps to convert to skeletons - any of these
things can have great impact on the necromancer's performance.
Necromancer is also pretty vulnerable in the beginning - without Bone
Dragons, any attack from Might heroes within first two or three weeks
may well mean an end-game fanfare.
--Using Sorceress--
-------------------
Way of the Sorceress
This document contains no 'general' rules - all thone
non-class-specific ones are in the Way of the Hero and I suggest you
read it if you haven't done so yet.
Strengths:
Fastest offensive capabilities - good for defeating weaker heroes, slow
troops or wimpy shooters without losses.
Good for long exploring journeys due to bigger knowledge.
Four armies have useful specials.
Phoenix's speed gives it first strike ability (except against
champions).
Weaknesses:
Dependance on mercury, which is generally less frequent than other
resources due to design - mines are somewhat more popular than
Alchemist's Lab. (This is not the weakness of Sorceress, this is a
weakness of Map Makers, that hits Sorceresses badly.)
In early stages short of cash.
Generally lower HPs of troops, thus quite vulnerable to magic.
Army Evaluation:
Sprite 4/2/2/1-2/4/50
Non-retaliated attack.
Often a decisive element in many battles. Those little pixie things
profit from several things:
They're of a good speed - ideal for mopping up other 1st and 2nd level
creatures.
Their special - no retaliation - minimizes their losses.
They're the only creature that has TWO map dwellings - or, better said,
one dwelling and one recruiting place - and those get used often in
many maps.
In early exploration they help greatly defeating shooters and while in
latter phases you won't use them much, their numbers will quietly
accumulate. Good numbers can also be often found in captured neutral
villages. And with a strong hero, those little sweet flyers will have a
good punch, especially against other low level creatures.)
Dwarf 6/5/20/2-4/2/200
Battle Dwarf 6/6/20/2-4/4/250
Both: 20% chance to be immune to any enemy magic.
They'll profit from high numbers. While the slower version is unusable
for active warfare, the upgraded one matches your sprites in speed and
provides a good protective force for your shooters.
Mostly used as a deterring element in castle defense.
If you happen to find a few Dwarven Cottages and accumulate higher
numbers, battle use comes in, too.
One good thing is free upgrades at forts.
When in high numbers, the battle dwarves profit from one thing - their
special ability of magic resistance can often absorb enemys'
spellcasting efforts - the enemy will often try Disrupting Ray (and in
20% fail ;-))
Elf 4/3/15/2-3/4/250
Grand Elf 5/5/15/2-3/6/300
A good shooter with very significant upgrade - giving the elves both
speed boost and higher A/D.
The value of grand elves comes mainly from the speed, which is needed
for the fast-offensice concept.
They're not the primary target of enemy and their losses are therefore
minimal.
The elves before upgrade are about equal to Rangers, except the higher
HPs, and less plentiful. They're far much better after the upgrade.
Druid 7/5/20/5-8/4/350
Greater Druid 7/7/25/5-8/6/400
Quite powerful shooter. The upgrade gives speed and defense skill
boost, along with increased HPs.
The greater druids should be the mainstay of your offensive forces.
With their speed they should score two shots before enemy gets in
range.
However, get used to suffer losses as the druids will be targeted by
everything that moves and especially castle garissons will bother you.
Here often helps the Shield spell.
Unicorn 10/9/40/7-14/5/500
20% chance to Blind enemy after hit.
The only real walker-fighter among your troops.
The unicorns with Fast speed have good battle use, cause high damage
and their blinding ability often helps minimize overall losses.
The AI will often also waste lightning bolts on unicorns, while sparing
your shooters. Dunno why is that, maybe the AI really fears their
impressive stats.
Unicorns are a good target for your bless spells as it increases their
damage from average 10.5 to 14, which is some 38% boost.
Phoenix 12/10/100/20-40/7/1500+1m
Immune to elemental magic (Cold Ray, Lightning Bolt), some Mind magic I
think, two-hex attack.
The flaming bird is a nasty bastard to face. Their Ultra Fast speed
rating gives them (and you) the first shot.
Two-hex attack is extremly valuable when fighting walker wandering
armies.
Phoenixes have excellent damage rating - when blessed, they score about
as well as dragons, definitely better than titans and bone dragons.
Blessing them gives you 33% more damage on average. Another good spell
to cast upon them is Mirror Image, as this will give you a free attack
with them (unless facing champions) and force AI to cast a spell in
most cases to kill the image. (If you're wise enough to attack the same
target as the image source used.)
Upgrading priorities:
* Cottage: Lowest priority. Unless you'll need the dwarves badly (and
then, only if you can't find a fort.)
* Archery Range: High priority. The speed is essential for you. Also
a slight damage boost.
* Stonehenge: High priority. The speed is essential for you. In many
cases, you'll gain the mercury used here back soon due to quicker
exploration (directly or via other resources to trade.)
Sorceress Castle building in the first week:
---------T---------------T----------------------------м
| Day 1: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 2: | Archery Range | 1000 gold + 5 wood |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 3: | Mage Guild | 2000 gold + 5 ore + 5 wood |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 4: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 5: | Stonehenge | 3000 gold + 10 ore |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 6: | Fenced Meadow | 4000 gold + 10 gems |
L--------+---------------+-----------------------------
The schedule has one day reserve useful for Crystal Garden or, in some
extra-rich maps, for the Red Tower. (This would mean 15 mercury, 20 ore
and about 8000 gold to get apart from starting treasure - a task that
is sometimes manageable.)
Without the Red Tower, you'll have some 3500 gold to spend on armies in
the beginning on the second week. Unless you have already gathered some,
you'll probably have to go into action with non-upgraded shooters
and barely anything else.
The dwarves will be built later, if ever, as they're not needed in your
battle strategies.
The castle special isn't worth the money spend on it, as it produces
unguaranteed results, and therefore is very optional. I build it for AI
cash - letting some stupid hero capture my castle with empty dwelling
and retaking it 7 days later with all the upgrades for free - in cases
where I can do without the 8000 cash deficit, of course.
If it's obvious that you won't be able to build Red Tower quickly, then
with some luck of 9 extra gems you might want to get a 2nd level Mage
Guild as soon as possible.
Considering the fact that upgrading your shooters is of utmost
importance, you will probably be able to start out with full army on
day 3 in second week. Also, if gold is scarce, you might want to save
both money and time by not building the Fenced Meadow and upgrading
both shooter dwellings instead, usually having enough cash to start
with their full production right on day 1.
Resources summary:
You'll need some 20 wood and 10 ore for building, along with 11750
gold, including cost of statue.
Weekly armies without the Phoenixes cost 7750, after upgrades 8950. The
phoenixes add another 4500.
HPs grown weekly 871 at 15.15 g/HP
Strategy
Notice that you have the weakest armies in total HPs - so you'll have
to make up for that handicap in speedy exploration.
Your main advantage is speed of your units. Use supportive (protective
and beneficial) spells to profit from that advantage.
You won't need any huge quantities of gold so you can aim at snatching
resources and generally doing things that will indirectly harm your
enemies.
The only big priority you have to follow is mercury in the early
stages. However, even sooner you should get 5 extra gems to get
unicorns as they'll provide a good protection of your shooters against
walkers and wimpy flyers. Remember that the badly needed mercury can be
acquired from marketplaces and trading posts, so do your best to get
every bit of every resource you can.
With those troops, you should plan your actions well - try to take out
the enemy armies in order of their speed rating - phoenixes should kill
any very fast armies and then your very fast shooters should take care
of the rest. (Using Blind on remaining armies or slow on other very
fast units may help you in this). The result is the enemy hero being
defeated without any chance to cause spell damage and/or flee. Mass
Haste should guarantee total domination, making all your troops (except
dwarves, who are at home, anyway) reaching the other end of
battlefield, the sprites being the slowest, yet very fast. With good
positioning of unicorns to hit two-hex enemies at other side, you could
slay five stacks without the enemy ever knowing what hit him.
Forces combination:
In the early-to-mid phases you'll probably use two very fast shooters
accompanied by unicorns and hordes of sprites to take care of
protective tasks and mopping up, respectively.
When phoenixes get introduced, you can drop the sprites at the castle,
increasing your map speed, and possibly unicorns, too.
The unicorns can form the mainstay of secondary hero armies, possibly
together with sprites, battle dwarves and any armies that have joined
your main hero and are unsuitable for his strategies.
For exploration, you'll do fine with the three armies (phoenixes, elves
and druids - both upgraded) and your hero will be quite fast.
For battles against heroes, though, I recommend putting the unicorns
in, as their firepower will be needed for defensive tasks against
approaching enemy walkers and flyers and, as I already have mentioned,
they'll often cause enemy to waste lightning bolts at them.
Be extremely careful about using phoenixes in attack, their HPs aren't
any high and slow walkers in enemy ranks may cause significant losses.
If you can, rather use those more expendable sprites to bother enemy
shooters (provided they'll play sooner).
The Qurqirish Dragon added a very important strategic tip: If you have
haste, unicorns become a real terror in all cases as an ultrafast troop
with blind ability. Remember that unicorns have the greatest attack
potential of all 5th and lower level troops, with a huge 10.5 average
and a 10/9 A/D - only Archmagi may think of being compared with
unicorns, having 12/8 and average damage 8 and ranged attack.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting barbarians:
Barbarians' slow walkers would give hell to your phoenixes, so be
careful - often it's wiser to not attack in the first turn. Your
shooters should cause considerable damage to enemy trolls and/or
orcs, the rest could be taken care of by either spells or sprites.
In the second turn, you have first shot before wolves that have
probably gotten close to you, so fry them with phoenixes and repeat
the shooting procedures. (It may be needed to aim for approaching
cyclopes rather than finishing enemy shooters.) In the third round,
the Phoenixes can either get to other side to finish enemy
shooters, while your shooters (and possibly unicorns) deal with now
pretty close ogre lords and goblins. Remember that barbarian troops
are pretty tough and once they'll get close to you, your losses
will be high. It's usually better to sacrifice several unicorns to
keep ogre lords/cyclopes busy in the middle field, not letting them
to cripple your relatively weak shoooters. (Both Druids and Ogre
Lords are 4th level troop - and there's VREY big difference between
them, especially in close combat ;-).) Unless you have some magic
tricks in your sleeve, you'll get beaten badly. Mass Slow, Blind,
Paralyse and Berserk may be the difference between a huge loss and
a flawless victory. Only a very strong in means of A/D a hero,
possibly with some Leadership/Luck/Archery skills can make things
easier.
* Fighting knights:
In the first turn, your Phoenixes/Unicorns should handle Champions
(Phoenixes if the knight attacked you, Unicorns if you played first
- don't ever think about moving the phoenixes onto the other side -
the four walkers would beat the shit outta them.) Your shooters
should easily eliminate rangers and possibly score even against
crusaders or other walkers. The unicorns should not waste
opportunity to strike in the first round, but do your best to keep
them out of reach of those enemies, that haven't played yet. If the
champions are dead, you'll have the first shot - you can Slow/Blind
crusaders and handle other stacks with phoenixes, or use direct
damage on crusaders (or beneficial spell on phoenixes) and try to
fry the crusaders in one shot. However, if you let the crusaders to
get at your shooters, you'll have them sliced very thinly. It's
better to fry crusaders and let pikemen/swordsmen get their shot at
the druids, because those enemy walkers are much weaker on both
attack and defense and can be handled easier. Treebeard suggests
strongly that you hold off your phoenixes and arrange your sprites
to solve the ranger problem, while your shooters will do their best
on the crusaders. However, I think that crusaders with their very
high defense should be subjected to some magic, while the shooters
should employ their potential against some slightly less-defended
subjects (well, the difference is not that big, all the others have
defense 9, yet that means 15 to 30% difference in damage dealt.)
* Fighting fellow Sorceress:
The ideal setup would be killing enemy phoenixes with yours, while
blocking one stack of very fast shooters - they'll then attack
phoenixes and your druids can go after the second very fast enemy
shooter, while your third shooter will try to weaken walkers that
threaten your phoenixes. Another approach may be Slow on the enemy
Phoenixes and attacking Unicorns or dwarves or one shooter, while
blocking the shooters. In any case, you'll probably suffer
considerable losses to phoenixes. There are other ways that will
mean losses to your shooters - choose whichever troubles you less.
One thing is recommended - eliminating sprite hordes as otherwise
they'll waste next round attack of your shooters. The losses are
usually worth it, because most of them can be replenished at the
defeated sorceress' castles soon.
* Fighting Warlock:
Attacking Dragons with phoenixes is a bloody bad thing, yet if they
play first, there's nothing better to do. At least you can cast
Dragon Slayer on the Phoenixes to make things a little less bad.
The ideal setup could be another very fast army playing before the
blackies. If this army is gargoyles, try to attack them with
phoenixes, but do so only if you WON'T kill them all - they'll in
turn go after your druids, probably die in their retaliation and
your druids can fire at the dragons. (If you happen to have Haste,
cast it right now on the Grand Elves, giving them a chance to
damage dragons further, before they even get to battle.) In this
battle, your shooters will suffer greatly from enemy flyers. You'll
have to try to use dragons' and phoenixes' two-hex attacks to wipe
out enemy flyers - preferrably the dragons should be the second
unit in phoenixes's flame. Also do expect the elves to become the
AI's primary target pretty soon, as druids' total HP sum will drop
rapidly under dragons' fire breath. Unicorns should show bravery
and sacrifice themselves in attacking ferociously anything that
moves. Mass Bless is one of the most useful spells here. Mass Haste
gives you chance to kick the dragon's ass the unicorns, too, which
can do quite well. The sprites can wipe out centaurs or damage
whatever else. General rule is to try and conquer the warlock
before he gets Dragons (or conquer a wizard and take titans against
the Dragons.)
* Fighting Wizard:
Phoenixes should (possibly Steelskinned) attack titans or rather
block them, while frying archmagi. Then your very fast shooters
should take out Rocs and halflings, while the sprites (if you have
them) can soften up enemy walkers - possibly golems, that would
have reached phoenixes. Send the Unicorns after the titans. If the
rocs have survived the shooting, you'll either kill them with
spells in the next round (either direct damage or blessing
unicorns) or take them out by phoenixes (ideally by hasting
unicorns to prevent titans from shooting), or even take them out
with the shooters in person. Concentrated firepower should work
well on the titans - best supported by either Mass Bless or
repeated Disrupting Ray. Also slowing the titans is a good idea.
This strategy is quite offensive and will cost you some phoenixes.
You can play it on defensive - best by shielding your shooters,
which will still suffer quite high losses. After one or two
defensively carried battle turns, switch to general offensive, as
by this time the titans should be about the only enemy alive. (And
if not, other enemies are damn close, anyway.) In case you manage
to catch the wizard without titans, target the archmagi with your
phoenixes, the halflings with your sprites, forget about the
golens, try to fry the rocs with your shooters, and keep the
unicors near to smash the rocs next turn.
* Fighting Necromancer:
Here your speed says it all. Either ignore the power liches in
first turn and let them score some kills, or send phoenixes, that
will although have to stand up against all the slower walkers.
Anyway, both your shooters should be able to cripple Vampire Lords.
If the enemy is trigger-happy on spells, Slowing Bone Dragons after
he's casted his part is a good thing, because in the next turn you
may succeed in eliminating them before he could haste them. Another
approach is to block liches, while attacking their neighbour. Since
the enemy has two flyers, you'll probably suffer some losses. But
if the things go well, the Vampire Lords that have survived
phoenixes' onslaught and further shooting can be taken out by
Unicorns and if you succeed in slowing the dragons at that point,
the losses should be minimal and mostly on phoenixes. If you don't
have Slow, you'd rather smash the Bone Dragons first or accept the
fact that your shooters will get their ass kicked well. TreeBeard
says: Humm, beware of the dragons!! Hold to the last secound to
cast (mass) slow, or start shouting holy verses right from the
beginning. Hordes of skeletons should be handled a good kick, with
shooters and sprites.
Hero benefits:
The Navigation can prove as a decisive factor in water-based maps with
lots of resources and goodies scattered on islands.
Long journeys with armies that need to be helped with spellcasting are
best suited for sorceress' high knowledge, if she's gonna be the main
hero of yours.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
Archery is the one of most importance with two aggresive very fast
shooter stacks.
Leadership can prevent losses to your precious troops and help you to
win many battles without giving the AI chance to move, which already is
an important concept of the sorceress side.
Balistics are good in breaking castle walls and thus reducing the
obstacle penalty for your shooters.
The Sorceress' heart is speed, says TreeBeard - she is the one who
needs Logistics and some movement boosting artifacts the most to get
her quickly built Phoenixes to the enemy, before they manage to get
their 6th level troops.
In general, sorceress troops profit strongly from their speed.
Sorceress should have one of the fastest starts due to successful
exploration - stands a good match to warlock and both Might classes and
should be able to defeat slower-starting necromancers and wizards.
In the long run, the stronger troops of your enemies can trouble you
seriously. Especially big bastards like Ogre Lords (not speaking of the
300 HP fellows) can prove too tough for any army of yours to stand up
to. However, a succesfull warrior usually uses sorceress troops to gain
quick access to some more potent ones. (Wizard/Warlock usually.)
--Using Warlock--
-----------------
Way of the Warlock
This document contains no 'general' rules - all thone
non-class-specific ones are in the Way of the Hero and I suggest you
read it if you haven't done so yet.
Strengths:
Three flying armies, of which two are quite cheap - very good for
exploring and cleaning out shooter armies without heavy losses.
Dragons are definitively the best unit around (Titans, although they
shoot, are vulnerable to some devastating magic.) with their highest HP
rating, complete magic invulnerability and two-hex attack.
Excellent defense potential in hydras - for castles mainly.
Good offensive punch even without dragons - minotaur kings are a very
strong and dangerous army.
Income bonus in dungeon (although more than needed for blackies ;-)).
First dwelling produces shooters, that have the biggest HP count among
1st dwelling creatures, and are also often found in villages, and of
course in caves.
Weaknesses:
Sulfur dependance.
Dragons are very expensive.
Lack of any powerful shooters - and therefore casualties against just a
bit strong walkers, especially in early game where the magic's not
powerful enough to stop them.
Army evaluation:
Centaur 3/1/5/1-2/4/60
About the only two things good about centaurs are their highest HPs
among 1st level creatures and the simple fact that they shoot.
Their speed matches your griffins and minotaurs, so they won't slow you
down.
Generally centaurs won't cause any high damage, unless in very high
numbers. Their potential lies in the fact that those high numbers can
be reached pretty fast ;-).
One bad thing about centaurs is the fact that their natural dwelling,
the cave, definitely looks odd, unless placed in snowy terrain... which
is the reason that there aren't usually many caves around your castle,
especially because most authors tend to cripple warlocks by placing
their castle into swampy areas.
However, lacking a better shooter, the warlock will often have to carry
these weak ones or take the very slow hydras to absorb damage from
enemies.
Gargoyle 4/7/15/2-3/6/200
Their defense of 7 is the highest number among 2nd level creatures,
while their skills sum of 11 is matched only by dwarves.
Their biggest positives are quite reliable damage causing, high numbers
and, above all else, their Very fast (and flying) speed rating, which
assures first shot in many early battles.
The gargoyles will suffer losses as their main goal is usually to block
shooters. They're good in killing archers, halflings and other weakies.
Having 18+ gargoyles at start of second week gives you considerable
firepower.
Due to their high numbers, they're expendable - divide them into two
stacks and let them block very fast/fast shooters and wait till
griffins arrive to deal the big damage.
Griffin 6/6/25/3-5/4/300
Retaliates against every attack.
Griffin's special of unlimited retaliation makes them a feared
opponent, excellent for early exploration and fighting shooters.
Try to minimize their losses as they can be quite handy even in mid
phases of play - ideal to be put between two enemy shooter stacks, with
drawing the enemy troops close around them, causing them damage and
possibly making a nice lineup for some area-damage spell. (Or even for
the hydra-teleport combo - just remove the griffins (in case they
survived) and teleport the hydra stack into their place - you'll get
TWO shots at many enemies (One in the hydra turn and one in the
retaliation after first enemy attack.)
Their damage skills are quite useful for sweeping out minor enemy
units, most often at castle sieges.
Minotaur 9/8/40/5-10/4/400
Minotaur King 9/8/45/5-10/6/500
Especially in their upgraded version, they stand out with their
toughness, speed and excellent skills.
Being very fast allows them to cover most of the battle field.
Their high HPs (second only to Ogre Lords among 4th level creatures)
assures you the first shot in most situations, as they cannot be wiped
out as easily as gargoyles can.
In games with low sulfur reserves the minotaur kings will form most of
your offensive, which suits them.
Even their non-upgraded version carries considerable punch and is
excellent for protection of centaur hordes. However, offensive
campaings aren't their best role, then.
Hydra 8/9/75/6-12/2/800
Non-retaliated attack, attacks all adjacent enemies.
An excellent army for defensive purposes.
Offensive use comes handy in exploration - most effectively used
against enemy flyers (be sure to place the stack into the third slot).
Assure that they will be the highest priority target for AI - no
shooters and flyers allowed - usually that means hydras alone, but
having one minotaur/minotaur king with them will allow you to cast
protective spell on them.
In defensive battles, place hydras close to primary target of enemy AI
- the hydras will be able to attack approaching enemy, with the
possibility of some slower enemies coming in later and, not being able
to reach their primary target, attacking hydras, which the retaliate to
all of those units that have already attacked the hydras' protection
subject.
If you happen to get teleport, hydras prove an excellent means of
wreaking havoc among the enemy lines.
If you've run out of centaurs and don't want to lose your flyers, use
hydras as a bait for enemy walkers - they can absorb considerable
damage, in the end of turn score multiple attack and your very fast
gargoyles and minotaurs can wipe out the rest.
Green Dragon 12/12/200/25-50/4/3000+1s
Red Dragon 13/13/250/25-50/5/3500+1s
Black Dragon 14/14/300/25-50/6/4000+2s
All: Immune to all magic, two-hex attack.
There's no doubt about the Dragons' supremacy in the game. However,
there are three types of them.
Green ones are good only in situations where you desperately need their
HPs and firepower and can't afford to wait for upgrades. Their Average
speed is the worst thing about them.
Red ones are a good compromise between price and power - needing only
one sulfur, they're quite affordable, while the Fast speed gives less
enemies the first shot.
I usually go for Blackies but in many cases I decided to stay with Red
ones and profited from that, most often through higher numbers I could
afford to purchase and the offensive being launched sooner.
Black ones are a bit too expensive, yet the investments usually return
pretty soon.
Comparation of blackies and greenies is simple... 20% more damage
potential, 50% more HPs, 10-20% less damage suffered and, above all,
the +2 speed. All these are definitely worth the extra 1000 cash and
one bit of sulfur.
The Blackies are the dragons that can take out a titan any day of the
week. Reddies cannot.
The most stressed thing about dragons should be their complete magic
immunity, often appreciated in connection with Armageddon or any other
global damage spell.
However, the two-hex attack is another powerful weapon, which requires
extreme care when dragons are near their friends.
Upgrading priorities:
* Maze: Low priority. High only in cases where you know you won't get
dragons any soon.
* Green Tower: Highest priority. Greenies are way too weak and slow.
* Red Tower: High priority: Reddies are much better, yet the Blacks
give you first shot in most cases. I'd stick with reddies only in
those cases where I couldn't get enough sulfur to buy the blackies.
(And, to tell you truth, 6 blackies are way better than 7
reddies...)
Warlock Castle building in the first week:
----------------T-----------T-----------------------------м
| Day 1: | Dungeon | 3000 gold + 5 wood + 10 ore |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 2: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 3: | Crypt | 1500 gold + 10 ore |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 4: | Well | 500 gold |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 5: | Nest | 2000 gold |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 6: | Maze | 3000 gold + 10 gems |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 7: | Swamp | 3500 gold + 10 sulfur |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 7: (alt.) | Waterfall | 1000 gold |
L---------------+-----------+------------------------------
There's no reserve in this schedule, but Hydras aren't really needed
and the Waterfall is not of any big importance, if your ambitions are
dragons.
However, sometimes you'll be forced to postpone Maze due to shortage of
gems - in that case you have one day reserve ;-)
The two money generators have absolute priority. Although you'll seem
to have enough gold in the first few weeks, as soon as you'll start
thinking about dragons, you'll find that you have far less than you
thought.
The resources needed are 11500 gold (without the swamp), 10 gems and 25
ore (which on normal setting means that you'll have to get 5 ore pieces
pretty soon.) However, in many cases the Crypt is already there,
sparing you of that problem.
Resources summary:
You'll need 5 wood and 55 ore for the dwellings, but without the
dragons, whose price almost assures that they won't be built within
first week, the ore requirements drop to 25, including dungeon and
statue.
Upgrades of dragons will consume 10000 gold, 10 ore and 20 sulfur,
while minotaurs cost some 5 gems and 2000 gold.
Weekly armies without dragons cost 9680, after upgrade 10180. With
green dragons 9000 more, blackies yet another 3000 more gold and six
sulfur instead of three.
The rough castle output will be 1750x7 - 12250 gold/week.
HPs grown weekly 1755 at 12.63 g/HP
Strategy
Unless you build dragons, you'll have more than enough gold for lesser
armies - in fact, you should be able to spare 2000/week for use on
special buildings and heroes.
If you won't use hydras, that will leave you another 3200 per week,
which implies saving up for dragons' construction only three weeks. In
three weeks, you should also easily get the needed sulfur and ore -
you'll need only one mine for each resource.
If there's no sulfur around, you'd better hurry to go after your
opponents. If you happen to locate a village of warlock type, this will
give you even more significant advantage - often centaurs, sometimes
gargoyles, the possibility to upgrade and build money generators.
Due to money matters, which are pretty alright with warlocks, your
biggest advantage (apart from possible dragon armies) lies in initial
strength, because you'll be able to purchase all the armies you have
grown and start aggressive exploring.
If you stick to warlock hero, you'll need mage guild on second level,
though, as the warlock's greatest skill is always spell power. More on
heroes in Way of Hero.
If there's a sulfur mine nearby, capture it at almost all costs and
start looking for a stable gold source, because dragons will need at
least one gold mine.
Forces combination:
In the early stages, griffin-gargoyle gang-up is an excellent tool.
Usually backed by a bunch of centaurs, those two flyers provide
wonderful means of exploration.
With this combination, you can easily smash any shooters with average
speed (just make sure your griffins will play before your centaurs, use
gargoyles to block first two stacks, then griffins for other two,
centaurs should damage/kill the fifth stack.) Against the walkers, a
good option is to have centaurs in top slot, where griffins and
gargoyles can form almost completely surround them (with minotaur
kings, the protection is total) and be a bit passive.
As all the resources may have great importance (at least to be traded
for sulfur), try to get the mines at any reasonable cost - never mind
losing a few gargoyles/griffins.
Against flyers, especially gargoyles, try to use hydras, if you've got
them near. Hydras alone can do quite well. You'll suffer five full
strength attacks from your enemies, which with hydras' 12 defense and
75 HPs means none or small losses, and then you get in fact two attacks
(one attack and a retaliation after first enemy attack in second round)
upon all enemy stacks. As mentioned above, one minotaur/king can help
giving you time to cast some protection. A gargoyle can be used, too,
placed BELOW the hydra - to the first attacker will get next to hydra.
This, at the cost of one gargoyle, minimizes losses on hydras - saving
one enemy attack and giving the benefit of spellcasting.
Later, minotaur kings will carry most of your close-range firepower.
Hydras are taken on the road only exceptionally - if you need to scare
off some enemies or need every bit of firepower. Their Very Slow speed
costs you two movement points each adventure turn, which is quite high
price.
Once you manage to get dragons, life should be easy. Dragons can take
enormous amounts of damage and return it back. Once I get dragons, I
usually drop off slower armies. The centaurs are good for a second
hero. Having them with the main guy would only cause them losses,
because most enemies would turn after them, at least with magic. I
don't need to explain much, that it's better to have all enemy going
after something with defense of 14, than defense 2, because that means
the damage dealt by the enemy is reduced by 55%.
Generally, having any armies beside dragons gives the enemy a chance to
cast damage spells onto your side, but strong stacks of minotaur kings
and gargoyles are often needed. Note that you can sometimes benefit
from the magically vulnerable army - if the enemy casts at your minor
stacks, he doesn't cast supportive spells on his troops that go after
the dragons.
With warlock, you should rely on the speed of your armies. Try to get
some morale boosts, because your three very fast units can profit from
that nicely.
Especially the dragons do very good work when splitted into two or
three stacks, because that gives you opportunity to take out several
enemy armies within one turn, possibly even preventing the enemy from
getting a move on his own. Excellent in combination with griffins and
Blind - two stacks of dragons and one stack of gargoyles will take out
enemy units of faster speeds, Blind will eliminate somebody that is
average and Griffins could take out slow armies.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting barbarians:
Barbarians are a threat that cannot be underestimated. Their heroes
are usually pretty strong on attack and they have very strong
walker armies. If you have the first shot and go after trolls with
your dragons, all the remaining armies will attack your dragons in
the first turn. Cyclopes with potent offensive skills and two-hex
attack are to be paid attention to, possibly using their two-hex
against their friends. Ogre Lords will often get a kill on the
dragon. Only slow ogres can be avoided by good maneuvering.
Orcs/orc chiefs should be taken care of by griffins. Get used to
losing a few dragons in fights with strong barbarian armies. I
usually want the enemy to play with wolves before my dragons, then
I attack cyclopes, possibly blocking trolls. Try to eliminate some
of the walkers by using slow/blind/paralyze. Berzerker on cyclopes
is the nicest alternative.
* Fighting knights:
If you didn't have opportunity to line up your troops, you may get
hit by champions before you can do anything. I suggest taking out
rangers either by magic or by griffins when all faster units have
moved. Definitely avoid placing dragons there, because all the
walkers would get at you. Try to use two-hex attacks to damage
crusaders indirectly. They're a real threat, because they'll often
play sooner than you in subsequent battle rounds, have defense as
good as green dragons, often strongly supported by high defense
skill of the hero, so that your dragons will hardly be able to take
out one crusader each. Other walkers are much lesser threat, yet
often come in annoying numbers and can cause significant losses.
One good thing is their speed - both the master swordsmen and
veteran pikemen are only one step slower than crusaders - often
helping you in the task of indirect attack on crusaders. Damage
spells are of some importance againts the heavily defensively
oriented crusaders. Again, berzerker on them just before their play
is the most wonderful thing. (That's why the most experienced
map-makers give the right protective artifact to AI knights ;-))
* Fighting Sorceress:
Here you need to be extremely careful. If the enemy has phoenixes,
do not take centaurs into the battle, they would be all killed in
one single blow. Also, be sure to have the dragons in top slot and
no army under them, because their retaliation onto phoenixes
wouldn't do any good to their neighbours. The rest is easy. Dragons
should easily eliminate enemy shooters while the minotaur kings
should strike at phoenixes and gargoyles shouls take care of
sprites. Besides phoenixes, damage could come from unicorns and
overgrown stacks of dwarves - so be careful in choosing the
dragons' target as to avoid those threats if possible. Often the
unicorns will block the way for dwarves so you can handle that
later. Casting Slow/Blind/Paralyze helps, too.
* Fighting fellow Warlock:
Try your best to use two-hex attack of both your and enemy dragons
to cause maximum damage. Often the minotaur kings of enemy suffer
in the first round. Sometimes, it may be wise to have gargoyles
playing first, wasting dragons' retaliation. The battle is going to
be hard and will depend strongly on type (and skills) of enemy
hero. Having a strong hydra stack close to your dragons may be good
for attacking all the flyers that surround your dragons. Enemy
hydras should get across the field just after anybody else is dead,
so you won't have any hard task killing them in one massive attack.
Blinding them in the process will often save you from one their
attack onto all your troops.
* Fighting Wizard:
You'll have to take care of titans quickly. If their numbers are
high, use disrupting ray, else use direct damage spells, curse or
Slow. Attack with dragons, possibly blocking archmagi, too. Do
expect dragons to take significant losses, but hurry with all your
firepower, esp. minotaur kings, to help killing those bothering
rocs and boars. Use damage spells on archmagi, they're weak in HPs.
Use either griffins or gargoyles on halflings. Try to avoid golems,
bother enemy with mind/speed spells so that he'll dispel them
instead of casting supportive spells on titans (worst of which are
resurrects). Also, take into consideration that the enemy may have
gotten Expert Archery, which makes the Titans' average damage at
distance a bit higher that the one of Dragons. (They then score the
same average of 37.5 and have Attack skill of 15 (while dragons
have 12-14)). The Qurqirish Dragon also stresses that using
supportive magic like Bless, Steelskin and Bloodlust, the Titans
with Expert Archery may overwhelm dragons. The only advice here is
- use your spells wisely to prevent the enemy from supporting his
Titans... If you'll ignore those supportive spells on Titans,
within three turns of battle they can become a 18/20 A/D beast with
63 damage per piece - which will be deadly for your dragons.
Therefore you should use all you can to eliminate Titans quickly.
Disrupting Ray fits there best. However, if the enemy keeps casting
supportive spells on titans, you could consider using dispel magic
only every second turn, while in the meantime using direct damage
or other spells of your choice. Berzerker here won't be as
profitable as against might heroes.
* Fighting Necromancer:
You need to concentrate on Bone Dragons or Vampire Lords and
destroy them fast. If the Vampires aren't upgraded or their numbers
aren't high, the Bone Dragons are primary target. The necromancer
will probably be weak on defense, so attack with all you can. Be
careful when casting Slow, because the enemy often reacts with
Haste on the Slowed unit, which totally overthrows strategic
planning. Try to use two-hex on all the undead walkers. If the
enemy has already managed to grow considerable numbers of
skeletons, be careful, because they may form a remarkable threat,
too. Generally if the enemy walkers are in big numbers, you should
consider skipping the first turn almost entirely - use direct
damage spells and wait for the two flyers to get to you, prod their
buttocks (know THAT quote? ;-)) and in second turn, launch the
offensive against walkers/liches - the walkers might have lined-up
nicely by this time for the dragons' flame. If the enemy isn't THAT
strong, you could sometimes use the two-hex attack even in the
first round - knowing the order of play, pick a target that will
assure that royal mummies will come over and the army behind them
gets a good portion of warm welcome.
Hero benefits:
The Scouting skill can be very helpful in early exploration. If you
strongly plan to rely on Armageddon or other global damage spell to use
with dragons, the warlock is the best choice for the main hero, because
his most expanded skill is Spell Power. Warlocks generally make good
scouts, because they come with bundled garoyles.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
None in particular... warlock armies rely mostly on flying - no big
need for archery/leadership/ballistics. Mysticism may help a warlock
hero on long journeys, since he's not focused on knowledge that much.
In general, warlock is quite a strong class (in overall most popular,
too) whose strength lies in quite fast initial exploration and
unmatched supremacy of draggagedon combo. However, the dragons are much
stronger weapon in hands of an experienced barbarian.
However, one sulfur mine is never enough, so you'll either need two
mines or several marketplaces to get your dragons from their towers to
the battlefield.
--Using Wizard--
----------------
Way of the Wizard
This document contains no 'general' rules - all thone
non-class-specific ones are in the Way of the Hero and I suggest you
read it if you haven't done so yet.
Strengths:
Very strong in long-run campaigns.
Has three shooters, of which two are very fast, strong and with
specials, while the third one can be found in natural dwellings, often
reaching very high numbers.
Library gives a true sense to higher mage guild levels, often gives
dimension door and ressurrect true.
Most needed resource can be obtained from extra source! This fact often
helps a lot, as gardens can be found in most maps.
With 300 HP sixth-dweller often allows two 'main' forces - one composed
of titans and possibly archmagi, while the another taking the bulk of
rocs, boars and halflings - which is enough to capture minor garrisons
and take out minor heroes.
Weaknesses:
Titans need lots of gems and cash - far more than you'll be able to
accumulate with one castle.
Early exploration is usually tough, because the available troops will
often take losses.
High consumption of resources in the beginning - you'll usually have to
choose either magi or spells.
Army Evaluation:
Halfling 2/1/3/1-3/3/50
Innocent-looking but powerful creatures, that are a real threat in
higher numbers. (Compare 99 halflings to one titan ;-) - cost is the
same, damage range is 109-326 vs. 50-75 against D=1, 33-99 vs 20-30
against D=15.)
Once they're not AI's primary target, they'll start to accumulate.
Being 1st level, they're often found and 'default' neutral villages and
castles, so that they reach the higher numbers pretty easily.
Often the halflings are major part of your firepower in early stages. A
blessed stack of halflings is really an ugly thing to face.
Due to their low HPs, wandering stacks will often offer to join you.
Haflings have one of the BEST damage ratings in the game, measured per
HP.
Boar 5/4/15/2-3/6/150
A reliable 2nd level army. They have excellent range, often dwellings
are in villages.
In long run, their power diminishes and they are a good force for the
secondary heroes.
They provide good troops for scout heroes, being Very fast.
Iron Golem 5/10/30/4-5/2/300
Steel Golem 7/10/35/4-5/3/350
Both: Half damage from elemental magic (Cold Ray, Lightning Bolt)
A good unit for defense. It's resistance to elemental magic improves
the defense potential.
I personally buy them only when absolutely needed and rarely take them
on the road, but many people do otherwise and profit from that. And I
must admit that a few times I emerged from a tough battle with a golem
stack the only army left standing of my forces.
Their free upgradability at foundries is a good thing, though, as it
increases their speed to match halflings and thus not slow you down in
case you take them.
Compared to other three-level creatures, they have very impressive
stats.
With some good spells like Haste/Teleport they can do a significant
part of work on your offensive and defensive battle tasks. If you're
gonna to take halflings on the road and can spare the cash for the
golems, do so - they might attract the enemy's attention (including
spellcasting) and are by definition expendable. Also, their elemental
resistance cannot do any bad. (Thanks to Qurqirish Dragon on that one!)
Roc 7/7/40/5-8/4/400
In early and mid phases this is the main force of the army.
One of the strongest flyers, they're excellent for delivering damage to
enemy shooters.
Their role is most important in early game, where they help much in
cleaning wandering shooters, as they have good damage absorbing
potential.
Having 8 rocs in the beginning of second week (and usually the money to
buy them) is very important advantage.
Mage 11/7/30/7-9/5/500
Archmage 12/8/35/7-9/6/700
Both: No adjacent penalty (scores full damage even at close-range
attack).
Upgraded: 20% chance to cast Dispel Magic upon hitting an enemy.
Those guys carry excellent firepower and once you manage to build them,
they'll form most of your offensive capability.
The upgrade is costly but pays back! Being very fast gives them first
strike in most cases and all the increased stats mean 10% more damage
dealt. The HP increase is good, too. (Remember, the speed will be VERY
important - they'll play before vampire lords, red dragons, war trolls
and on the level with gargoyles, black dragons, crusaders, power liches
etc.)
Their special - no adjacent penalty - makes them extremely useful
against those wandering armies that manage to get across the battle
field.
Not to mention the archmagis' chance to dispel good spells. Always nice
to dispel a huge stack of blessed, steelskinned, bloodlusted and hasted
hydras. (In most cases, you'll quite appreciate especially removal of
haste from a stack that is hurrying to meet the archmagi face-to-face
;-))
Giant 13/10/150/20-30/4/2000+1g
Titan 15/15/300/20-30/6/5000+2g
Both: Immune to Mind magic (Blind, Berzerker...)
Upgraded: Shoots, no adjacent penalty (scores full damage even at
close-range attack).
The giants can be useful both in castle defense and in offensive
campaings, but are generally wimps compared to their upgraded version.
In most cases, you'll want to wait for the upgrade. The doubled HPs and
range attack make titans a feared opponent.
Titans are about the only unit that can try to be compared to dragons.
Although a hundred times proven saying tells you that a Dragon can take
out a Titan any day of the week, with a bit of supportive magic ranging
from bloodlust to teleport, mirror image and resurrect true the result
can be otherwise.
The titans have one important role - with their high HPs they are
usually primary target of AI and, not being immune to all magic,
usually also the primary target of AI's spellcasting. What's good on
that? Your archmagis' and halflings survival ;-)
Having all the enemy hurrying after the titans gives your archmagi and
halfligns enough time to cause horrendous damage to enemy units. 9
archmagi carry definitively much bigger offensive punch that one titan,
yet the titan gets the AI's attention. Halflings explained above...
Upgrading priorities:
* Foundry: Low priority. Only if you gonna need the golems in the
field and can't find a Freeman's Foundry nearby.
* White Tower: High priority. Archmagi's strength lies in their speed
since many nasty units are very fast.
* Cloud Castle: High priority. May be higher than for magi, but
lower, too. Generally, upgrade only when you have enough money to
purchase it's residents. You can spend a few weeks collecting money
(and using upgraded magi for that purpose) and then, on day 1 of
the week you want to start campaigning, do the upgrade and set off.
Wizard Castle building in the first week:
---------T-------------T-----------------------------------------------м
| Day 1: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 2: | Pen | 800 gold |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 3: | Foundry | 1500 gold + 5 wood + 5 ore |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 4: | Mage Guild | 2000 gold + 10 wood + 10 ore |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 5: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 6: | Cliff Nest | 3000 gold + 5 wood |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 7: | Ivory Tower | 3500 gold + 5 wood + 5 ore + 5 all magical |
| | | resources. |
L--------+-------------+------------------------------------------------
So, we'll need 5 additional wood and 5 additional ore.
The schedule has no reserve, unless the Pen is already built. Moreover,
in case the habitat wasn't there at day one, we'll have to do without
one of those buildings. In my games, this usually is the Ivory Tower,
as I need the gold, but the Statue can be omitted instead and built
later, especially if you can locate a good gold source at day one.
(Locating doesn't mean immediate conquering - just the possibility to
do this later - Gold mine, Haunted mine, gold-giving artifact or
lightly guarded (or even owned) village fit there.)
Later, we'll need additional 4 of all magical resources and 10 of wood
and ore, along with some 6000 gold for Upgraded Ivory Tower. And yet
later, 40 gems, 10 wood and 10 ore and 25000 gold for Cloud Castle with
upgrade.
Resources summary:
The first week should take 25 wood, 25 ore, 5 of all magic resources
and 12650 gold, including Statue.
Weekly armies without Giants/Titans cost 9000 (with archmagi).
Total production incl. Titans costs 24000 a week plus 6 gems.
The rough castle output will be 1250x7 - 8750 gold/week.
HPs grown weekly 1614 at 14.86 g/HP
This gives a clear picture of gold being the first thing to look for,
because with regular city income, you'll be only able to buy out the
weekly production. (You won't save much on not buying golems. Or,
buying golems and not buying boars. I often save on both golems and
boars, since I need gold reserve for buying artifacts etc...)
Strategy
If the you ever want to build titans, you'll have to acquire a stable
source of gold - preferrably two castles or a gold mine.
The titans alone will cost 15000 a week, which is the home castle plus
a gold mine production fully consumed - not mentioning that you might
need another hero, another armies to accomplish minor tasks, spare cash
for enhancing captured castles, buying artifacts etc.
Therefore, you'll need to explore fast, find a good source of ore and
wood, because these may be needed desperately to upgrade captured
villages into castles.
The upgrading of neutral villages pays back pretty soon - after a week,
the invesment is back. You should, however, think a bit forward before
upgrading a village - sometimes you might need the 5000 gold for
purchasing of armies - be sure to do investments only in situations,
where enemy heroes aren't nearby to threaten your playground.
Try to gather magical resources and build libraries and higher level
mage guilds, as th extra spell per level guild is often your biggest
advantage over your enemies!
Forces combination:
In early stages, I usually take out rocs, halflings and sometimes
boars.
In mid phases, the magi are in, for sure. If I happen to have larger
armies of halflings, I'll take them, but if I only have the castle
dwelling, I leave halflings home, possibly taking the boars for
defensive firepower. Boars are a necessity in cases where I don't have
resources/gold enough to upgrade magi - very fast armies are a must!
In later stages, having titans alone should be enough for exploration,
while secondary hero should carry all the remaining forces. Having
Titans, Archmagi and possibly boars (esp. in cases that you have had
two dwellings for a long time or some large group has joined you)
should be enough for most battles.
Always remember to keep an eye on strengths of your stacks - divide
your armies as to assure that titans are the strongest stack (unless
fighting ghosts), because enemy will send shooters often, blocking the
titans, while archmagi/halflings, that are capable of doing more
damage, will be free to do so.
Use protective spells (esp. Steelskin) on titans to prolong their live.
Remember that once you lose a single titan, the titan stack may lose
the priority in AI targeting. And halflings will probably suffer at
least twice the losses the titans suffered (measured in HPs).
If you have archmagi and titans and the titans have higher sum of HP,
keep them in the first slot. Thus, when you attack, you shoot with
titans, enemy very fast flyers fly over and block them and you shoot
with archmagi. If the archmagi played first, the titans would have to
fight with the flyers.
Unless the enemy is much stronger than you in walker armies, do NOT
cast Anti-Magic on titans - instead let the enemy cast curses,
disrupting rays and even direct damage spells upon the titans - they
should survive. Once you cast Anti-Magic on them, the enemy spells will
be directed to next good target - the much weaker archmagi.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting barbarians:
One of the easier tasks, as you have big advantage in two shooters
faster than enemies' shooters. You'll have to take out trolls and
orcs, which your titans and magi/archmagi should be able to handle.
Unless the enemy outnumbers you, you should win with low losses.
Unless enemy 'hastes' his ogre lords, you'll have two shots at
cyclopes (one with titans and one with magi) and in the third turn
the same with ogre lords. (All the shooters that survived first
round attack should be taken out by rocs, but rather in the second
round - as to prevent enemy units of average speed from attacking
the rocs. However, losses to rocs are more acceptable than losses
to titans and magi. Blocking the shooters in the first round is
usually suicidal - the AI heroes tend to carry large armies of ogre
lords AND goblins, which means that your rocs will play sooner than
at least one of those two stacks - and they could get their wings
ripped off quite quickly. It's better to lose one titan due to
orcish fire than to sacrifice some 20 rocs for blocking.
* Fighting knights:
Against knights, the strategy is easy, too. Either titans or
archmagi alone should be able to take out rangers, while all the
rest should be aimed at champions and crusaders. Very useful may
prove casting Blind or Slow at one of those dangerous units. The
champions' danger lies in giving the knight first shot, and
furthermore, blocking your titans' action, which in turn gives the
crusaders first shot at the titans. Swordsmen and pikemen will
probably score some losses upon their arrival, but in general you
should be able to score a good victory. Be careful about that Slow
- enemy tends to counter-cast Haste!. If you can't slay Champions
in the first turn, don't ever think about slowing the Crusaders
;-), because they'll reach you in the second turn, if they're
hasted. About the best option I know is Berzerker on Crusaders just
before they play.
* Fighting Sorceress:
There's nothing you can do. The sorceress will almost usually have
first strike with Phoenixes, going after your titans. Unless you
have some useful spells (see below), Grand Elves and Greater Druids
will probably have time to shoot, too, and possibly even sprites
will come after your shooters. However, your archmagi should have a
free shot to the second enemy very fast shooter, before it's turn
would come. Your rocs should play before sprites, possibly killling
them, if their stack would have been able to cause reasonable
damage to your titans. Possibly huge armies of battle dwarves
shouldn't be able to get across the field, so they may only attack
the rocs in case those went after the sprites. The only threat
beside the phoenixes are unicorns, whose high-end stats and
Blinding ability may cause severe damage and maybe disrupt your
tactics. The shooters have HPs too low to resist your heavy fire.
If the dwarven stack is huge, sacrifice rocs in second turn by
flying them behind the dwarves - they'll return to their starting
position to attack the birds, thus giving you two or three turns'
worth of extra shooting on them. Phoenix should be taken out by
titans and halflings.
* Fighting Warlock:
If you have the first shot, try to cast supportive spell
(preferrably Dragon Slayer ;-) on the titans and go after the
Dragons. This should help greatly. Archmagi can give hell some
stronger stacks as griffins are. The Minotaur Kings may cause
severe damage, but your priority will definitely be the Dragons.
You must try your best to use the fact that Titans aren't immune to
magic. Mass Spells come handy, too. (Bless increases the damage
well, Haste gives you free shot at dragons with archmagi, Slow
prevents gargoyles, griffins and minotaur kings from reaching you
too soon.) If you can, try to conquer Warlocks before anyone else,
because they pose the biggest threat to you, especially if they
manage to get Black Dragons and Armageddon. Use titans against the
dragons wisely - they can walk around the dragons, so pick the best
direction of attack and the dragons will help greatly in killing
anything that flew over from the other side.
* Fighting fellow Wizard:
Both the titans and the archmagi should be taken care of quickly,
even at the price of sacrificing Rocs - they should go after the
Archmagi, because against titans they would score much less damage.
Battles with wizards will strongly depend on spells that both sides
will have used, not mentioning the advantage of first shot.
Remember that your advantages and advantages of your enemy are the
same. If HE has a large stack of halflings, take them out! The rocs
are best here, they'll score much more and suffer much less than
against the archmagi. Your halflings then can strike whomever they
want, I'd prefer the archmagi - let the titans clash alone. If you
don't have any good spells to cast, use direct damage or Blind on
Archmagi.
* Fighting Necromancer:
The power liches do not present any real threat, because they have
low attack skill. That leaves your shooters to go after Bone
Dragons and Vampire Lords. I strongly suggest 'serial approach' -
taking out first the bigger of the threats - possibly employing
Hasted Halflings on the Boners. But the main firepower should be
aimed preferrably onto the Vampire Lords, that need to be taken
care of quickly... An useful tip maybe casting Slow on Bone
Dragons, because by the time that Average units come to play, the
other side has usually already casted a Spell and therefore cannot
dispel this Slow, thus rendering the dragons useless for one round.
Direct damage to power liches is a good alternative to deal with
their high defense skill.
Hero benefits:
The Wizard's only strong point is the starting Advanced Wisdom, which
can be often used in a form of Nasty Trick - best if having Berzerker
in a castle with enemy hero within one-day range - to repeatedly let
this guy's troops to kill each other.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
Archery has top priority for your heroes as most of your strong troops
are shooters.
Leadership - having morale with one of your Very Fast units can help
greatly when fighting heroes that want to flee.
Estates - for a wizard castle owner, this is never any bad thing,
because in expert level, it means 70% of a titan every week.
Generally it's clear that the wizard is pretty weak without the Titans
- The Archmagi don't have either HPs or Defense high enough to survive
onslaught from enemy troops, while the slow Halflings will often getout in
a single blow from enemy, either shooter or flyer, or
fried with some strong damage spell.
The rocs will often cause considerable damage in the first round, but
since they'll be on the enemy side of battlefield alone, they'll
probably get beat up hard from enemy defensive walkers. The wizard's
only strong walkers are golems, but those are far too slow to do any
good - by the time they get to the other side, the rest of wizard's
troops are usually lying dead on the ground. [Ok, I didn't mention
boars, but those are too weak to stand any attack from stronger
walkers.]
As a wizard, you should profit from higher number of available spells.
Once you manage to build titans, your life will change dramatically,
because most of the battles that would have cost you half of your
shooters are now 'as easy as butchering sleeping cattle' [know that
quote? ;-)].
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
X. STRATEGY GUIDES FOR BEGINNER
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
--Normal Strategies--
---------------------
-At the start of each scenario you'll notice a few
artifacts around. Grab them to see what their powers are, if they
aren't what you like reload the win scenario and start over. The
placement will be the same, but the artifacts will be different. I
found the endless pouch of gold especially usefull, it helps you boost
your gold in the early stages. (Kaspa)
-Your main hero should have the powerful monsters that you can
afford, and the all the artifacts that will boost his stats. Take this
hero and forge a gouge in their defenses. Find the weader heroes and
dereat them as quickly as you can. This will make your enemy spend
2500 gold on new heroes not on more armies. (Kaspa)
-Sometimes, when there's a strong hero coming to your town, buy
all the available monsters, and leave the slow ones in the castle.
Then take your hero, and run away. The computer will take over the
castle, leave, and leave a small army to protect it. What you have to
do now is wait untill the sixth or seventh day and recapture it. This
gives the computer some time to build additional facilities for you,
and gives you the castle one day before new monsters arrive. (Kaspa)
-Don't bother investing in captains. They're pretty weak, and if
your castle is captured, you'll end up facing your own soldier as a
foe. Always try investing in a new hero when your castle is about to
get attacked. (Kaspa)
-Always build a strategy according to the conditions of your
scenario. If you're near enough the location of a hidden artifact,
send a throwaway hero there to do nothing but dig. If your goal is to
conquer a town, scout the area and build a very powerful force to
overwhelm it. Also look for desert areas with magic lamps. These contain
genies, the best armies you can buy on the road. They give a great
advantage if you grab them at the beginning of a game. (Kaspa)
-All Together Now: When you're using certain troops, especially Liches (but
also those with a 2-area attack - Dragons, Cyclopes, Phoenixes) it's of
great benefit if the enemy troops bunch up so you can strike several armies
at a time. Here's a tip for facilitating that. The computer's first attack
priority is always your archer stack with the most collective hit points.
If you place that army in your last troop slot (so it appears on the bottom
of your screen in battle), ground-based enemy troops will be most likely to
bunch up as they advance. The computer will always take its troops down the
screen before taking them forward, but it will always march them forward
before it sends them up. So, if your target archer troop is in the top
slot, the computer won't bunch up, but if it's in the bottom slot, they
group together nicely. If that sounds confusing, get a group of Liches and
try it out. It's easy to see the difference in action. from Grayson Towler
at (grayson@rigroup.net).
-Two Birds With One Stone: This is a tip which is especially appropriate
for Phoenixes and Dragons, though it's useful for Cyclopes to a lesser
extent. When you're faced with a ground-based monster army and your
Dragon/Phoenix attacks first (which, in the case of Phoenixes, always
happens), target the bottom troop stack and hit it from straight on (not at
an angle). When it comes time for the enemy monsters to move, they get
their turn from the top monster down. So, one of the upper troop stacks
will come down towards your Dragon/Phoenix and take a shot. When your
Dragon/Phoenix retaliates, it should catch the attacking stack AND the
next-to-last stack in the blast. This is a great way to take out a lot of
ground-based enemies more quickly. from Grayson Towler at
(grayson@rigroup.net).
-All About Artifacts: Tomas Pavlicek wanted to learn how to do Windows 95
help files and decided to use HOMM2 artifacts as his test subject. Good job
Tomas! Download Tomas' HOMM2 Artifacts Help File, put it into your Heroes2
directory, and create a shortcut for easy access!
-Laugh In The Face Of Death: The Pendant of Life, which makes you immune to
the Death Wave and Death Ripple spells grants immunity regardless of
whether your opponent casts it or you cast it. So if you have the Pendant
of Life, you can cast this spell with total disregard for your own living
troops' well being. This is a great combo early in the game with Death
Ripple (or Death Wave if you've got it), especially with regards to weak
computer archery stacks. from Tim Ford at (deathhq@hotmail.com).
-Troop Splitting 101: It's real "kewl" to have a stack of 50 Paladins, for
example, in your troops. But if they get paralyzed, blinded, slowed,
bezerked, then what good were they? Have an empty slot? Split your stack.
Two stacks are more difficult to paralyze, blind, slow, and bezerk than one
stack and they also get two attacks. To split any troop stack into another
slot:
Click once on the troop to be split. Now hold the shift key down and click
once on the slot you want them to go to. A window pops up asking you how
many to split out. Enter that number and click on Okay. Aha! Your troop has
been split. You can use this to split one troop stack into many troop
stacks, or to only take a part of the troops in the castle with your hero,
or to exchange some of the troops between heroes, or to even out two or
three stacks (if you have a stack of 50 and a stack of 10, split 20 out of
the 50 into the stack of 10 making two stacks of 30). Splitting can be done
in castle ranks, hero ranks, between castle and hero, and between hero and
hero. The only time you cannot split a troop stack is once you have engaged
in combat. Once the battle starts, it is too late to do housekeeping!
-The Lure Of The Sirens: The benefits of experience handed out by those
Sirens hanging around on the rocks at sea is proportional to a percentage
of the number of troops you have in your hero's stacks. This means that
visiting them with a small number of troops will provide you with little
experience, and visiting them with a huge number of troops will provide you
with a lot of experience. But remember that the experience is traded for
troops! For instance, visiting the Sirens with over seven thousand ghosts,
lost over two thousand ghosts to the Sirens, but yielded over 20,000
experience points to the visiting hero. Don't visit the Sirens with any
troops you don't want to give up, but if you do have surplus troops and
need a quick boost to your hero's experience, the Sirens might just be your
answer from Matthias at (Matthias.Freudenschuss@wirtschaft.uni-giessen.de).
-How Few a "Few" Really Is: For those of you who like to have your doom
indicated a little more specifically than, say... "Several Black Dragons"
or "Zounds Battle Dwarves"; here is a definitive list of what those
indicators actually mean.
Few 1 - 4
Several 5 - 9
Pack 10 - 19
Lots 20 - 49
Horde 50 - 99
Throng 100 - 249
Swarm 250 - 499
Zounds 500 - 999
Legion 1000+
-For The Bean Counters: There are several variables in the determination of
a score for a single scenario of HoMM2. These are: map size, inherent map
difficulty, player difficulty adjustment, and days taken to win the map.
The former pair of variables are chosen by the map author, while the latter
two are controlled or influenced by the player.
-Inherent map difficulty can be one of four possible values: Easy (80%),
Normal (100%), Hard (120%), and Expert (160%). The player may adjust this
difficulty when launching a new game. Adjustments come in five flavors:
Easy (-30%), Normal (no change), Hard (+20%), Expert (+40%), and Impossible
(+60%). The range of adjusted difficulty is therefore 50% (Easy/Easy) to
220% (Expert/Impossible). (Note that the original HOMM score calculator had
a number of differences, including an inherent map difficulty of Impossible
and a maximum adjusted difficulty of 250%.)
-The adjusted difficulty is used to calculate your final score in a very
straightforward manner. It takes your base score and multiplies by the
adjusted difficulty, rounding down if needed. That's it! Now all we have to
know is how the base score is calculated. This is where the map size and
days taken variables come into play.
-Each different map size has an associated map size factor, given by the
following chart: Small (1.2), Medium (1.0), Large (0.8), Extra-large (0.6).
HoMM2 calculates a time penalty, which is the number of days it took you to
win the map multiplied by the map size factor (rounding down if needed).
Your base score for the map is 200 minus your time penalty.
-Confused? Hopefully, this example will clear things up. The four variables
are: map size, inherent map difficulty, player difficulty adjustment, and
days taken to win. Let's say that we're playing a Large sized map,
inherently rated by the author as an Expert map. When we started the game,
we chose the Easy adjustment, and we were able to win the game, taking 107
days to do so. We can calculate our score along with the computer as
follows:
Inherent map difficulty: Expert (160%)
Player difficulty adjustment: Easy (-30%)
Adjusted map difficulty: 130% (i.e., a factor of 1.3)
Map size: Large
Map size factor: 0.8
Days taken: 107
Time penalty: 107 x 0.8 = 85.6, rounded down to 85
Base score: 200 - 85 = 115
Final score: 115 x 1.3 = 149.5, rounded down to 149
The last part of a player's score is, of course, a creature ranking. I do
not have a complete chart of creatures and their associated final scores;
if you have one, drop me a note, I'd love to see it. Two points of interest
about this scoring system. The maximum score possible is 440, which would
require playing an Expert map on Impossible setting, a Large or Extra-large
map, and winning that map in a single day. My own personal high score is
305. It should be noted that the world high scores show a record score of a
whopping 431! Also of interest, green dragon ratings and higher are only
awarded for scores over 200; you therefore cannot achieve a dragon rating
if you play at 100% difficulty or less. The minimum final score required
for the highest Black Dragon rating is somewhere between 226-230. from
Rorke Haining at rhaining@uswest.net.
-You Are Getting Smarter... You are Getting Smarter...: Hypnotize has the
special ability of giving the target creature into your control. Most
people don't use it properly. After you cast it on a stack you can then
make it stand, walk around, or block some slow but powerful creatures from
attacking your own force. It's extremely good for foiling the turn of a
range attacker at least once. While your target doesn't attack or get
attacked it will stay under your control. Cast it on small stack of
Phoenixes, crusaders, or cyclopes with powerful spellcasters to prevent
those creatures from attacking you. This spell is particularly potent when
combine with the Gold Watch and/or the Skull Cap from Alex at
(alex@ipoline.com).
-Here! Hold these guys a minute: The movement awarded to a hero at the
beginning of each turn is based on the slowest creature in the stacks at
the beginning of the turn only. So a good strategy when you have heroes
adjacent to each other or a primary hero at a castle, is to offload the
slow creatures onto one hero at the end of the turn. Leave only real fast
troops with the primary hero. At the beginning of the next turn, move those
slow troops back into the primary hero's stacks. He/she now has the tough
(slow) troops but can move the turn distance based on the faster troops.
This can make quite a difference if your turn movement is based on
Champions or Phoenix at the beginning of the turn instead of those 30
hydras you want with you for defense! from Matt at
(greatdrake@hotmail.com).
-I Thought I Told You To Stay In The Castle!: When your hero defends from
the castle, troops available in the castle will join your hero if there are
empty slots. Troops in the castle are evaluated left to right. Each group
will join the left most matching hero group. If there is no matching hero
group, then they will go to the left most empty hero slot. If there is no
empty slot they will stay in the castle (but abandon the castle if the
battle and castle are lost). If you want to keep some units out of any
battle (say weak archers that might be killed by flyers) you need to fill
up all of the hero's slots by splitting the troops you wish to have in the
battle. But remember that once the battle is over, the castle troops that
joined the hero's troops for battle stay with the hero -- they do not
automatically return to the castle. Not only will these troops affect the
hero's next move (if slower troops joined the ranks), but if the hero
leaves the castle without sending the troops back, you might unwarily leave
the castle undefended from Bruno at (bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu).
-Here's Mud In Your Eye: Remember that a blinded creature, when attacked,
loses its turn for the combat sequence and only retaliates with 50%
strengh. Therefore, if the opponent has only one large stack (i.e.
crusaders, phoenixes, etc.) it is possible to destroy it without it ever
getting a turn. Simply cast blind, skip all of your creatures, and after
attacking with all of your troops except for the last stack next round,
skip the last stack and cast blind. Viola!, instant giant dust! from
DarkWolf at Darkwolf2@Mindspring.com.
-In Your Face: Never put two of your range-attack troops (halflings,
archers, mages) groups next to each other! A single stack of fliers could
severely disable large portions of your heroes army by parking a stack of
rocks, griffons, etc. between two of your range-attack stacks. Although the
computer is lazy and will fly to attack from the closest angle, a human
player will not hesitate to take advantage of your careless placement from
DarkWolf at Darkwolf2@Mindspring.com.
-It's The Ultimate! (In Protection): If a map requires you to find the
Ultimate Artifact, station a loaded hero or two by some of the obelisks to
guard them while your other heroes visit the obelisks and find the Ultimate
Artifact. This will prevent your opponents from finding the Ultimate
Artifact first and thereby winning the game from Kennedy at
(kennedy@proaxis.com).
-Variety Is The Spice Of Strife: Specifically for all beginners: Don't
choose your hero type. Put it on random. This lets you get to know a
variety of hero types. If you come in with the misconception that one hero
type is stronger than another, you're wrong. Each type has their own
strengths and weaknesses. Learn these, and THEN decide which type you like
the best. THEN patronize that one from Viper at (epsilon@michiana.org).
-A Solid Foundation: First of all... the tips and strategies that you
learned in the original Heroes Of Might And Magic still apply for the most
part. Continue to follow those guidelines!
-Whirlpool Revelations: The whirlpools that we so frequently use to
magically move from one body of water to another, or from one side of the
map to another, holds a dark secret that seems to have been kept from the
Hero masses. Your first trip through any one whirlpool is a "gift". After
that, you pay a heavy price to use this combination of magic and nature as
a portal to elsewhere. You lose a percentage of the troops your hero is
carrying at the time. This can be especially devastating if you hero had
few troops to begin with. So the next time you feel like cutting the cruise
short with a quick hop through a convienent and already traveled whirlpool,
remember the cost and take the long, safe way instead!
-And Don Riale (bytedr@innernet.net) adds: Now, while it is true that you
lose some troops when going through a whirlpool more than once, there is a
way to minimize the loss. The whirlpool will take a percentage of your
WEAKEST stack. Therefore all you have to do is have at least one stack with
a single creature. For example: explore water by sending out a Sorceress
with only sprites, with 4 single sprites and one larger stack. When going
back through a whirlpool, you lose only one sprite, which you can replace
from the larger stack. As long as you have at least one stack consisting of
only one weak creature, that creature is the only one you will lose.
-Yeah, I'm One But What Are You?: You've all seen the information that your
"correspondants" report via the Theives' Guild and most of us have been
curious about the rating given to the hero types. You know... "Explorer",
"Builder", "Human"... Well, I contacted Phil Steinmeyer (at psteinx@anet-
stl.com) and this was his response:
"They vary the weights the AI assigns to various activities, such as how
the AI's money is spent, and to some extent, what the heros choose to do.
The effect is fairly modest."
So "Builders" must concentrate on building up their towns and castles. This
implies that you may find their castles fully built but with few troops
recruited since they spent their resources on structures instead of troops.
And "Explorers" must have lots of resources because they go off into the
black of the map and probably snarf up a goodly number of artifacts, free
resources, and maybe even mines. Be careful, they might have lots of troops
recruited because they got to the troop-generating structures first. Then
"Warriors" must be the bullies, who concentrate on accruing troops and
always have the undeveloped castles manned by all sorts of creature types -
- and probably hardly any troops remaining to recruit from the structures
they have built. And "Human" would be.. hey! That would be you... and any
other human Player in a Multiplayer session! The game randomly chooses
these traits when you start a new map (I experimented with that a little),
so restarting the same map will produce a different mix of these types.
Also remember that a color may be indicated as being one type of hero, but
due to victories and acquisitions may have the fully built or stocked
possessions of the other types when you finally butt heads against them!
-Troop Wise And Turn Foolish: I think we all have the urge to constantly
revisit our local monster generating sites. You know: the goblin huts,
nomad tents, sprite trees, etc. -- where after the first of each week we
can increase our troops by a few. But that's an obvious point: ONLY BY JUST
A FEW. Is it worth it to have your hero take half or more of his or her
turn to pick up 2 sprites? Monitor your monster generating sites. Mentally
mark when they have been visited last (by either you OR an opponent). And
save your heroes from making unneccessary side trips when they could be
snatching up a resource or taking care of an irritating little snippet of
an opponent who has been (turn by turn) taking over your mines.
-Virtues Still Serve: The hardest lesson I had to learn was in the Broken
Alliances scenario. The lesson was PATIENCE!!! Sometimes having your heroes
just sitting in their castles turn after turn is the best action you can
take. If you try to go up against an opponent before you are strong enough;
you will either fail or you will have a battle too costly to justify.
Likewise, heading too far from your castle when there are dangerous
opponents nearby will almost assuredly result in a lost castle. Go slow.
Think ahead. Ponder. Be patient.
-"Save"-ty First: This is probably the most important tip you will ever
get. It's simple. Get it in your head. Save the game. Save the game often.
Save the game before you attack an opponent. Before you attack a monster
home-base. Before you go into a demon cave. Before you go into a ruined
city. Before you go into a pyramid. Before you confront a sphinx. Before
you leave the castle and there's an opponent in view (but, gosh! he looks
so far away... maybe I can get to the morale fountain and back before he
attacks my castle). Before you attempt to snag an artifact. At the
beginning of each week (or some other regular interval). Get the
picture...?
-Economy 101: The Market Places are a godsend! At first I was a little
"under-"whelmed by them. But I soon found that more often than not, my
structure upgrade or extra mage tower level was just a market visit away --
sometimes when I was trapped in the castle too weak to venture out, I was
able to continue steadily building by changing resources produced from my
captured mines into other resources. And later on when the powerful troops
were so costly to recruit, the Market Places allowed me to convert
resources into gold to purchase those big ticket items such as Dragons,
Titans, and Margaret Thatcher!!! I used to feel that Market Places should
be built even before horde generators, but I have changed my opinion of
that. I do still feel that they are more important than Thieves' Guilds
should be built first. It's definitely time to build one or more Market
Places if you find yourself wishing you had more mines of a certain
resource because you are unable to build a particular structure. The more
Market Places you control, the lower the exchange rate is, too!
-Charmed I'm Sure: Medusas are your friends! The Medusas are found in
ruins. They have this wonderful ability to not only fight and bite, but to
turn your opponent's troops to stone. That doesn't kill them -- it acts
like a Blind or Paralyze spell; but it certainly helps stop them until your
big boys can come deal with them.
-Rank And File Rule #42: Manipulate your troops for optimum performance. In
the original HOMAM, I usually never left a castle with more than four troop
types unless I was purposely embarking to attack another castle or an
annoying opponent. I left one spot blank. That way I could recruit along
the way. I've changed that now. Once I get a large enough army containing
ONLY three strong types, I head out. If I encounter a castle ripe for the
sieging or an opponent's hero who carelessly allowed him or herself to get
whittled down and weak; I split one or two of my three troops in half --
filling up those empty spots in the ranks and attack with a force that can
have five attacks per round! This worked extremely well in Broken Alliances
wherein I carried my Black Dragons -- 30 of them -- as a single troop until
I made my move on an opponent's castle or hero. Then I split them up into
three troops. Each combat round I had three large Black Dragon attacks
instead of one gigantic one. At other times -- while romping through the
countryside -- I used the empty slots to recruit troops when encountering
monster home bases. Check the HOMAM II manual that comes with the game to
learn how to split troops. It's a very empowering tactic.
-Rank And File Rule Addendum: There is and easy way to recruit large
numbers of troops. If you click on the Castle/Heroes button (from the
outer world) you can see a list of all current AND available troops in ALL
your towns and castles. If you then click on an available troop icon, you
may purchase that troop into the castle garrison as if you were actually in
the town/castle. It also shows current material and gold values at the
bottem of the screen. This is a nice way to purchase troops at the
beginning of a month w/o having to go to each city from Austin Fowler at
(calandryll@mail.utexas.edu).
-Advanced Electronics: Be very careful with the Chain Lightning spell. It
is a fantastic weapon. But it can backfire on you very easily if you get
careless. The Chain Lightning spell always strikes four targets. They are
the original creature you target and the three other creature troops next
to it. If one or more of your troops are closer than the opponent's troops
YOU GET HIT. If the opponent's troops only contain two or three stacks or
ranks of creature you also get hit. Be very careful.
-'Til Death Do Us Part: The Death Ripple and Death Wave spells are great
for necromancers. The necromancers usually only have undead creatures in
their ranks. These two spells damage only living creatures. As a
necromancer with only undead in your ranks; you can cast these spells
against opponents with impunity. Go for it! (And enjoy the kool effect!)
-Ring... Ring... Clue phone... It's For You!: If late in a scenario, in an
area that has been pretty well cleaned out you encounter a solitary monster
home base guarding an artifact: take the obvious clue here. In the original
HOMAM, we encountered maybe a hundred monsters in a home base (split into
five groups of 20 each) and they were pretty easy to take out. Now, we are
encountering four hundred to a thousand monsters in a home base (split into
five groups of tens to hundreds each!) and they aren't easy to take out at
all!!! In fact, when they're upgraded mages or upgraded liches; you can
usually kiss your unwary hero's butt goodbye. Save the game before all
battles while you are learning the feel of HOMAM II. And remember my first
tip about PATIENCE!
-When Secondary Is Primary: We have now been provided with two new ways to
scrutinize monster home bases before attacking. In the original HOMAM, all
you could do was right-click on the home base, see whether or not it said
"Zounds" or "Horde" and come up with an "I think I can take them" decision.
Now, we have Diplomacy, Leadership, and general "presence". Diplomacy
allows you to sway the monsters into joining your forces when normally they
would just attack. Leadership and the general "presence" of your large,
highly skilled troops cause the encountered monsters many times to just
flee (and you can let them). I used to feel Diplomacy was a very
desired skill until I saw the price tag that comes with successful
Diplomacy. So I avoided Diplomacy for awhile. But I have found that the
value of the skill of Diplomacy depends on each map. If you have a map with
an over abundance of monster camps and you have a nice early income,
Diplomacy can really pump your heroes up troop-wise very early in the game.
If the map is fairly devoid of monster camps or you need every penny you
have to build, Diplomacy becomes a liability. I guess it all comes down to
how and when it is used. I had one reader write in to tell me that he
picked up over 240 hydras and 130 magi using Diplomacy. Can't beat that
with a stick. For more information on diplomacy, refer to the article in
the previous section. Leadership, however, is a always very important
secondary skill that doesn't pertain to spell power in some way. It
pertains to morale, and having a highly developed Leadership skill is a
total replacement for all the morale generating structures. And while we
are talking about secondary skills... for your spell casters, the two most
important secondary skills are Mysticism and Wisdom. These are musts!
Acquire them first!!! Also, when getting to select a new secondary skill,
be sure to pick skills your hero can really use. For instance, if you are
in a scenario with little or no water terrain, don't pick Navigation. It's
a wasted skill. Don't pick Diplomacy for a hero you plan to have only guard
the castle. Don't pick Archery for a Hero who doesn't have range-capable
stacks, etc. These secondary skills weren't just added as frivolous doodads
by NWC. They have an important, powerful purpose.
-Mana Manana: Spell casting is a whole different breed of animal in HOMAM
II. We used to have to make desperate hell-rides back to our castles to
regain our spells which were consumed and lost as they were used. It
doesn't work this way anymore. You never lose a spell anymore. You only
lose the power to cast it. And this power doesn't return magically when you
arrive at one of your castles. You must slowly build it back up over the
next many days (unless you find a rare well whose magic waters restore your
mana) or start your hero's turn in a castle which has a mage guild. So!
Watch your mana power closely. And if you are running for your castle with
a huge opponent hot on your heals and you are out of mana, you had better
have something up your sleeve (like a pack of Titans) or the castle isn't
going to save you at all!
-Numeralogy As A Hobby: A note about spells as portrayed in your spell
book... remember that the little number on the spell icon is not the number
of spells of that kind that you have left to cast anymore. It's the number
of mana points the spell costs to cast. This lost me a few heroes at first
(if only I had read the manual earlier). I jumped into battle with 7 points
of mana left and the only useable spells I had cost 10 or more to cast.
-Deja Vu Sucks!: Right-clicking on a site while a hero is selected will
often tell you whether or not that particular hero has been to that site.
This can save wasted turns. Keep this in mind.
-Practice Good Grid: There is the most incredible feature in combat that I
would certainly have never thought of and already can't live without. You
can turn on Shadow Grids. Shadow grids highlight around an active creature
you control to show you all the areas that the creature can move to on that
turn. No more tediously wanding your cursor over the terrain slowly trying
to find the limit of movement for your creatures. Because the monsters move
differently in this version of HOMAM, this is a godsend! You can activate
this feature using the options button found in the lower left corner of the
combat screen as well as some other good options.
-There's No Retentive Like An Anal-Retentive: I have developed a standard
mode of operation for each turn that has worked pretty well for me. Of
course, it's subject to deviation based on what's going on at any
particular turn but usually I:
Move all heroes that will (probably) not be involved in combat. (Heroes
moving into combat are moved up to the point just before contact is made.)
Heroes claiming mines, resources, treasures, or no-cost troop generating
sites (cabins, huts, etc.) move next. Heroes claiming artifacts move next
so that if the artifacts require purchase all the new money from the start
of the turn and from above treasures taken are available. Then heroes
visiting costed troop generating sites move (gypsy camps, medusa ruins,
etc.). Then I check each castle and build structures where needed. Then, if
there is money left over (and I'm not saving for the purchase of a big
ticket structure) I purchase troops.
THEN I SAVE THE GAME IF I'M ABOUT TO DO ANY TYPE OF BATTLE!! Then any hero
staged at a combat point (opponent's hero, monster home base, castle) moves
next and attacks. End of round. Of course, there are deviations to this. If
an opponent's hero is about to attack one of my castles, I will move the
heroes to that castle as best I am able and (regardless of any heroes
present) use whatever funds I have to pump the castle structures up,
recruit troops in the castle, and maybe even summon a new hero.
-Behind the Wood Door: In case you haven't noticed, stone liths have been
replaced with all sorts of inter-dimensional doors and they work in pairs.
If you enter a glowing wooden arrowhead-shaped door, you will appear at its
counterparts location. The old stone liths were random and you never knew
where you were going to end up. Now you can plan movement through these new
inter-dimensional doors!
-Wondrous VISIONS: A sleeper of a spell, the new VISIONS can get you off to
a fast, powerful start. VISIONS lets you know what the probable outcome of
an encounter with a monster home base will be. It is cast before engaging a
monster home base and you must be within three squares of the base. It will
tell you if the monsters will run, fight, or join your troops. By using
this spell (when you are able to get it) you can stop ignoring those mines
or artifacts protected by the monsters just because you were afraid they'd
cream you. Just remember that the spell tells you expected results only for
the moment... come back later with more or less troops and VISIONS may tell
you something different. This spell is not always available. When it is...
USE IT! Remember how frustrating it always was to be tiptoeing around with
your handful of pixies and a couple of recalcitrant dwarves when suddenly
along would come an opponent with 40 peasants, 22 swordsman, 16 paladins,
and maybe 17 griffins!?!? Well, VISIONS helps you turn the tables. It is
basically the same ability that the AI has always had -- the ability to
know whether monster home bases would recruit or fight. Check it out!
-Familiarity Breeds Success: Pick a favorite hero type and stick with him
or her. The more you play that type, the more you become familiar with
their strengths and weaknesses. You learn when to build or upgrade what
structure based on the ready materials and the "climate" of the immediate
surroundings. You acquire a good sense of mobility knowing exactly how fast
you can move with specific troops. You get a solid feel for how the
associated troops are going to fare in combat: what won't bother them and
what will... which attacking opponent troops can do the most damage to
which of your troops.
-Macabre Advice: When playing the Necromancer, don't ever let monster
groups run away from you! Can you say easy experience and piles of
skeletons? I knew you could! Use your Necromancer to pick on every "Lots
of" group you can find. It won't be long till hundreds of skeletons are
roaming the lands. It's truly a beautiful sight when your no cost mound of
2000 skeletons destroys 10 titans in a single swing (Roland scenario) from
Todd (ConceptFour@ll.net).
-I've Had My Shots... Have You?: Some creatures are naturally immune to
spells and effects. For instance the phoenix is immune to heat and
lightning. Elementals have grave immunities to many spells also. Use this
to your advantage to supply your hero with certain combinations of troops
and then go forth using certain spells with impunity. They affect the
opponent but not your troops! Consider the proper deployment of this
concept as a mini-Armaggedon spell! from Grayson (grayson@rigroup.net).
-The Shadow Knows: A curious little item. As you are sending your hero out
across the land, look for little triangular shadow smudges on the map. A
flaw in HOMAM2 program causes this shadow in a spot where an event has been
placed. SOMETHING is going to happen when your hero lands on this shadow-
marked spot. But is it a good event or a bad event? Only the Shadow knows!
-Cheap Phoenix Tricks: Since Phoenix are immune to all elemental spells,
they are immune to Elemental Storm. You can use the Phoenix/Elemental Storm
combination in the same manner as you can the Dragon/Armageddon combination
-- except that Phoenix are a lot cheaper from Carl at Kalle@tom.fos.su.se.
-Heroes As Gophers: Play with one MEGA powerful group and a secondary group
that is somewhat good to defend the base. The other heroes run back and
forth through castles bringing troops to the MEGA heroes. This is also a
great way to unload those artifacts that give 1 ore a turn and other dumb
stuff like that from Josh at mfodale@nmu.edu. [I learned this technique
right from the start many many months ago in the original HOMAM and use it
alot. There is one word of warning on it, however: Your hero runners who
bring troops to "the front" are returning to their castles with very weak
forces since they have given most of them to the mega hero. Do not try this
technique if there are opponents close by. They will attack your troopless
runner hero and dispatch him or her every time. --Phil]
-Lame And Lousy Allies: The computer makes a poor ally in a setting where
one side is pitted against another. As an ally of a human player, the
computer will not attack your heroes or towns, but it will take your mines
and swoop your resources/artifacts/etc. out from under you. When computers
are allied with each other, they tend to charge around and spend most of
their time taking each others mines. Occasionally, they will attack each
other when they get in each others' way, though I have never seen a
computer attack its human ally. If you create a map where the human player
has a computer ally, the human player is generally better served conquering
the ally than relying on its help. The computer ally will defend itself
normally if attacked, but it will not be aggressive in return. from
Grayson (grayson@rigroup.net). [As dutifully noted in a couple of otherwise
wonderful scenarios such as Amaz'N'Grays. I win better/faster when I treat
the allies as opponents! -- Phil]
-I'll Just Stand Over Here If You Don't Mind: When facing a hero who can
resurrect, if you put one of your stacks on top of the deceased stack, the
hero cannot resurrect it from Patrick (avromk@erols.com).
-I've Already Played This Map, But What If...?: Change the whole way a map
plays with a quick couple of clicks. Take a multiplayer map that you have
already played and if it is set up for cooperative play (for instance,
"Blue and Green .vs. Others") turn cooperative play off. If it isn't set up
for cooperative play, set up a couple of colors for cooperative play. Now
play the map again. It's a whole new scenario with a whole new set of
strategies.
-The Expansive (Pak) Necromancer: With regards to the Necromancer. If
you're looking to be really HUGE, play him. Early on (first 2 weeks),
locate a barrow wight. Recruit as many ghosts as you can afford. Then
attack only wimps. Peasants etc... Build as many shrines as you have
Necromancer castles, and advance your necromancy skill as much as possible.
Leave the last slot in your troops for skeletons and split the ghosts
amongst the other 4. NEVER let anything run away. Kill EVERYTHING! from
John at apache@ameritech.net.
-Circumspect Ghosts: If you should be so lucky as to acquire one or more
ghosts in your troops, don't throw them away by carelessly allowing them to
attack everything that moves. Hold your few ghosts back in combat. Attack
only low level creatures. This will allow you to build your number of
ghosts troops up. Once you have a large stack of them, then you can begin
attacking the higher level opponent troops with impunity. This is one tip
the AI doesn't get. So if you use this tip, you will always be one up on
the AI when it comes to ghosts in combat!
-Why Ghosts Should Be Ban (Reason #42): Have some ghosts? Want to double,
or possibly get up to 32 times the number you've got? All you need is
Mirror Image and some sort of enemy ghosts - having the Haunt spell is
ideal, but it'll also work with a wandering stack, abandoned mine, or
shipwreck. Go into battle with the enemy ghosts, and cast Mirror Image on
yout ghost stack. Skip turns until an enemy ghost stack destroys the image.
All the "fake" ghosts in the image just became "real" ghosts in the enemy
stack. Now, have your ghost stack attack the big enemy stack. It might take
a couple rounds, but eventually your ghost stack will absorb the entire
enemy stack if your hero has a few points of attack/defense. Voila - you
just doubled your ghosts! With careful planning, lots of spell points, and
perhaps a Mass Slow to better control the enemy movements, you can use each
of five enemy stacks to double your stack - potentially increasing 500
ghosts to 16,000 in one battle. If you've got the Haunt spell and a mine
near a castle or well, you can do this as many times as you want. I turned
400 ghosts into ten stacks (hero + castle) of 28,000 each in about fifteen
minutes and three game turns! from Erik at emooney@stevens-tech.edu.
-You Can Be All That ***I*** Want You To Be: Since you can usually select
your computer opponents' starting castle types, try and inconvenience them
with your selections. If you are playing a small map, select Warlocks or
Wizards for enemy colors, or if it's a large map, select Knights or
Barbarians for them. This will give them a disadvantage. Or if you know a
certain color will be disadvantaged by a certain castle type (e.g. Warlock
if there is no sulfur nearby) then give them that castle type. from Heng
Lok at shambler@labyrinth.net.au.
-Do The Genie Math: If ever you must battle a large army in order to win
the scenario, try splitting your genies into 5 stacks. This will increase
your chances of halving troops to 50%. Since genies are very fast, all of
them should be able to get an attack quite early on in the round. from Heng
Lok at shambler@labyrinth.net.au.
-Titan-Wise And Gold Foolish: Never upgrade your giants. Since upgrading
costs twice the difference in resources, upgrading a giant to a titan will
cost 6000 gold and 2 gems, which is more than buying a new titan.
Altogether you would be spending 2000 gold and 1 gem to build the giant and
a total of 8000 gold and 3 gems after upgrading. Either don't upgrade your
giants, or don't build them! from Heng Lok at shambler@labyrinth.net.au.
--First Week Building--
-----------------------
by: Quebec Dragon
This is a strategy article about what structures to build in the crucial
first week according to castle type. As always, your comments are welcome
:-) Some of those building orders were taken from from my strategy
walkthroughs.
GENERAL TIPS
I'm an adept of might makes right.. therefore I will always concentrate on
building monster structures before Mage Guilds... If you build the maximum
of monster producing structures in week 1, you will accumulate a bigger
army more quickly. Never buy castle upgrades, turrets, moats or Mage Guilds
(unless it's a requirement for another monster structure) during week 1. In
some cases, you won't be able to build some structures due to lack of
resources or gold... That's to be expected because my suggested building
orders are under ideal conditions and need a bit of luck.
You should know that unless the mapmaker specifies the given structures in
your starting castle, you will encounter 2 possibilities when you start a
new scenario. First option is where only the lowest creature-producing
structure is built. Second option, the better one, is when the 2 lowest
creature dwellings are already built. In order to avoid "cluttering" the
article, my building orders suppose you've been unlucky and that you
started with only one creature dwelling. If you're lucky enough to have 2
initial creatures dwellings, just jump to the next building suggestion.
In the first week, try to build a structure in your starting castle each
and every day. If you're not able to build the next structure in the
building sequence due to lack of resources or gold, skip it and build
another suggested 1st week structure (like Well, Horde Building or Statue).
Try to build the skipped structure later in the week. If you still can't
afford the "missing" structure, don't sweat it... it happens to the best of
us ;-)
KNIGHT CASTLE
Wood is the most badly needed resource so search for it everywhere.
Good building order :
1) Archery Range (To boost your starting hero's army ; hire another Knight
and combine troops)
2) Statue (To start getting another 250 gold pieces as soon as possible..
same thing for other castles)
3) Well
4) Pikemen Blacksmith
5) Tavern (required for Swordmen)
6) Swordmen Armory
7) Cathedral or Jousting Arena (if you have enough ressources, if not, buy
the Farm)
During week 2, I usually buy the upgraded Archery Range, Marketplace and
any monster structures not built in week 1.
BARBARIAN CASTLE
Ore is the foremost priority.
1) Stick Hut (To boost your starting army ; hire another Barbarian and
combine troops)
2) Wolf Den (Very fast units for scouting)
3) Statue
4) Adobe (wait until you upgrade it to buy troops)
5) Troll Bridge (if you have enough ore)
6) Well
7) Garbage Heap (horde building)
During week 2, I upgrade the adobe, sometimes the stick hut and build up
the maximum of troops.
NECROMANCER CASTLE
This one has the toughest building decisions. I suggest going for either
the Vampire Lords or the Bone Dragons (building orders differ accordingly).
Trying to get both at once is impratical and unnecessary. Regenerating
Vampire Lords OR powerful Bone Dragons should be sufficient in the
beginning game.
VAMPIRE LORD BUILDING PATH
1) Zombie Graveyard (To boost your starting army ; hire another Necromancer
and combine troops)
2) Mummy Pyramid
3) Statue
4) Thieve's guild (required for Vampires)
5) Vampire Mansion
6) Well
7) Skull Pile (horde building)
During week 2, upgrade the Vampire Mansion. Buy the Mage Guild and the
Mausoleum if you can.
BONE DRAGON BUILDING PATH
1) Zombie Graveyard (To boost your starting army ; hire another Necromancer
and combine troops)
2) Mummy Pyramid
3) Statue
4) Mage Guild (required for Liches)
5) Lich Mausoleum
6) Well
7) Skull Pile (horde building)
In the second week, I will save my gold and resources for the Bone Dragon
Laboratory. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't hire all available undead
troops (except the expensive Liches) on day 1 of week 2.
SORCERESS CASTLE
Gems and mercury are a must. If the Cottage is not already built, forget
this structure for a while (meaning much less Dwarves) because the 10 units
of wood it requires (5 for Tavern + 5 for Cottage itself) are better used
for the Fenced Meadow. (Thanks to Dark Wolf for feedback)
1) Elf Archery Range (To boost your starting army)
2) Statue
3) Mage Guild (required for Druids)
4) Druid Stonehenge
5) Well
6) Crystal Garden (Horde Building)
7) Unicorn Fenced Meadow (alternate is Cottage Upgrade or Archery Range
Upgrade)
Week 2, I usually upgrade either the Dwarf or the Elf structure, buy the
marketplace and the Unicorn Fenced meadow if I don't already have it.
WIZARD CASTLE
Has the highest resource cost.. You wil have to make a decision about
whether you concentrate on building up your Mage Guild or going for the
Titans.
1) Boar Pen (To boost your starting army ; hire another Wizard and combine
troops)
2) Statue
3) Roc Cliff Nest
4) Golem Foundry
5) Mage Guild (required for Mages)
6) Well
7) Mage Ivory Tower (if you have enough resources... Orchard as alternate
choice)
During week 2, I usually build the ivory tower (if it's not done yet), the
library and the marketplace.
WARLOCK CASTLE
You will need sulfur ! That's the most important thing you have to search
for...
1) Gargoyle Crypt (To boost your starting army ; hire another Warlock and
combine troops)
2) Dungeon (for gold !)
3) Statue (for more gold !)
4) Griffin Nest
5) Maze or Swamp (both if you have the resources, wait until week 2 if you
lack them)
6) Well
7) Waterfall (horde building)
During week 2, I build the missing monster structure, upgrade the minotaur
maze, and start saving my money for the Dragon Tower.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
XI. STRATEGY GUIDES (Guides for Campaign Maps)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(Thanks to Dragos Stanciv for these guides)
First of all, I have discovered that fighter heroes are much better then
mage heroes. After you play for some time and you have a hero with attack
skill (15) and you also have a defence skill (>10), your hero becomes a
threat even if you don't have a very large army. The idea is that you can
only perform one spell in a row, but you can move 5 troops in the same row.
Also you can improve your hero's spell points and spell power using some
artifacts.
Secondly, it would be better to have a very fast (or at least fast) unit in
your army, so you could attack first. If you also have a great number of
slow archers it would be a great idea to cast Haste on them, this way you
will shoot first and do serious damage. This 2 tips I think are very well
conected.
Also, sometimes you might want to protect your shooting troops. Let's say
you have some war trolls and you want to protect them. Spelling Antimagic
on them would be a great idea, trust me!
Question: Man,I'm too good ! What can I do about it ?
Answer: If you think you are really tough then you should always play on
level impossible. Start with no resources at all and see what you can do.
My first advice was to have one fighter hero. You can get one very fast.
First of all check your starting hero(es). If you don't have one then do
your best and buy one. Keep all your treasure chests for it. Always choose
experience instead of money. You should look for : Wisdom, Luck,
Leadership, Ballistic, Archery, Logistics, and Pathfinding. Remember that
you must keep a place free for Wisdom, as your hero will not have it by
default! If you have to choose between two good things (let's say Luck
Advanced and Leadership Basic), always choose the Basic one. You can
improve your Skills later (in combat!). If you have The Necromancer Town
then choose Necromancy, too. There is a certain Skill I have left out:
Diplomacy. If you play on Xlarge maps this could make the difference. Why?
You should know by now that wandering armies grow in number and you could
meet a throng of Archers or Zounds of Horses or something like that. This
way you can buy a very powerful army (provided you have the money). Skills
to choose first : Logistics, Pathfinding, this way your hero can move as
fast as possible.
Question: What's the best creature in the game?
Answer: My vote goes to Titans! Why? Just because you can cast spells on
them! When fighting against Black Dragons you can use Resurrect True on
them until you make your opponent gets mad, and there is nothing he can do
about it! So, if you attack an opponent's army (or better said fight
against it) be sure and attack first (and perform the first attack!). If
you have the heart (!) let your opponent cast spell first This is a great
tip. He can't perform another spell in that row and you can do whatever you
want. Very good spells are : Mass Slow and Mass Haste. Remember that units
attack in the decreasing order of their speed:
Ultra Fast
Very Fast
Fast
Average
Slow
Very Slow
If you cast Haste on an at least very fast unit, it's speed will become
Blazing and it will strike before Very Fast units.(Black Dragons, Titans,
etc.) A piece of advice : Never miss anything that can improve your hero's
skills! There are maps where you get Spell Power (>20) by just visiting
those things, such as forts, mercenary camps, stonehenges, and huts. Try to
have some artifacts that increase your knowledge. If you have a hero (>15,
>10, >20, >20=Attack, Defence, Power, Knowledge) then you've reached the
Land of Dream and the game becomes a nice place to fool around !!!
Sometimes !!!
I think that the computer still can't play very well, but human opponent's
can and you should be very careful when you play against them. Always have
a large army with you best hero. If the computer attacks you and you
realize you will lose many troops (even if you defeat it) it's better to
surrender and then buy the hero back with it's armies.
Tip:
How to keep your shooting troops alive.
When attacking shooting troops you usually have to wait while they destroy
your own shooting troops before you can shoot, so my advice is: Have
something that flies, (rocs, gargoyles, etc.) split them into groups of 3-7
until you get 3 groups and then attack. Also if you have some very fast
shooting troops (Mages, Elves, Druids) you could also split them and shoot
all the enemy troops. I'm talking about wandering armies, of course. If you
can do neither then don't take the shooting troops with you. The more you
have at the final battle, the better. When playing against human opponents
that FINAL BATTLE WILL COME !!!
How to kill enemy heroes before they have the chance to retire:
Please notice that the enemy will not retire if he still has his shooting
troops alive. First of all, destroy the creatures that have the highest HP.
You should plan your atack very carefully. First try to move some units
right next to the opponent's shooting troops. DO NOT ATTACK, I REPEAT, DO
NOT ATTACK THEM. Try to kill the opponent's fastest troops. If you
remember, units attack in the decreasing order of their speed! Ok?
Destroying the enemy's fastest units will give you the chance to use all
your troops before the enemy can move his. Also don't hurry with your
spells. Sometimes, if you have good spell power you can destroy one group
of enemy units with Lightning Bolt. If you don't, then wait. Sometimes,
after you make some moves and so did the enemy, you realize that the
opponent still has one group of troops you can't destroy that turn and he
will retire. Their is only one thing to do: use Blind or Paralyze on them
and don't attack if you aren't sure you can destroy them. You will then
have another turn. You can use your shooting troops and cast spells before
the enemy can respond.
Why bother to kill enemy heroes? Sometimes, you meet a powerful hero, you
attack him, he destroys many of your troops and then he retires. After a
couple of days he comes back and the story repeats. Instead of losing
troops several times, you'd better lose them once and also get some
artifacts. Remember: powerful heroes ALWAYS carry powerful artifacts with
them!
Now, how to handle your best hero:
Remember, when the first day of a week comes you will be offered a new hero
to buy. That means that if you have retired from a battle with your best
hero in the 7-th day of the week and you didn't have the money to buy him
back, you may not find it available and you will lose it foolishly. So, my
advice is: if it is the 7-th day of the week, you don't have 2500, and you
consider having a battle but you are not sure you will win, then wait one
day and then attack. Also, in the first day of the week ALWAYS check the
heroes available to buy. You might be offered powerful heroes with powerful
artifacts and (in some cases) with troops (for only 2500). Cool, right?
I have discovered something new:
When casting Haste on an Ultra Fast unit its speed will become Instant. I
haven't verified it but it may mean that the unit may attack anything on
the battle field (just like the flying units). If someone verifies it,
please let me know.
How to handle the wandering armies:
If somewhere next to your castle there are armies the same as the ones you
can build in your castle you should not attack them. Wait until you get a
good hero with many troops and then attack. The troops may ally with you.
Also if you get a good hero with many troops, you should not allow the
wandreing armies to retreat. Attack! There are still some troops you should
avoid: flying units and shooting ones. All the others should get your
attention.(ogres, golems, swordsmen etc.) You will get experience and
become more and more powerful. I've once got a hero that had an attack
skill equal to 30 and a defence skill equal to 25, only by fighting with
all the troops I could find.
Now let's talk about the ultimate artifact:
You do not have to reveal the entire map to find the damn things. Visit
only 5-6 obelisks. All you have to do is recognize the place and try to
center your hero so that the piece of map you see looks exactly like the
one you get from the obelisks. The artifact will be right in the middle.
Maps with sea:
On some maps you have boats next to your castle (or close). Send a hero
with 4-5 very fast units (boars, gargoyles ...) with a boat on the map and
try to get as many things as possible. Buy the maps for the sea (you should
find it somewhere) and try to get the money and the artifacts first.
Remember to split your units in 4-5 positions so that if anyone attacks
you, you have the chance to retire and then buy the hero back (with the
artifacts, of course).
Sometimes you have the chance to choose what to attack:
Let's suppose you can attack a castle or an enemy hero but you can't attack
both in the same day. You should always choose the castle and then go after
the hero. It may be their last castle and if you attack the hero and that
player doesn't have another castle, then he will not retire!
The pyramids:
When you enter a pyramid you will be asked if you want to fight the
defenders. Answer no. Sometimes you receive very interesting things like
artifacts, money, experience. If you do fight you will always get 5000.
There is a "but", sometimes you will be asked to pay 2500 to keep your hero
alive. Well,the idea is that you should take the chance.
--Campaign Strategies for Heroes Of Might And Magic II--
Roland's Campaigns
by David Mills
This article has been written to help you obtain Black Dragon ratings on
both the Archibald and Roland Campaigns. The basic strategy is "Attack as
soon as possible, with the minimal possible effective forces". As we shall
see, there are a few further tips
Update, with notes about Tournament Play..
Warning! There are major spoilers, so if you want to try the campaigns
unaided, don't read on!
1. Force of Arms
You start with a Wizard City. Get the resources, hire a couple of knights
or barbarians, build an army and head north-west. If you go for the
Barbarians in the north- west, rather than the other two in the north or
east, it is probably easier. Not a difficult scenario, but difficult to do
quickly.
2. Annexation
Start with the Knight option. Hire another knight or preferably a barbarian
(for the pathfinding through the swamps). Get the gold, resources and
medusas while building up your armies. Go south-east in the first week,
through a guarded pass, and you should get the Sorceress city virtually
unopposed. The Knights from the south-west will come via boat in the second
week. Kill them with your second week armies, then head north. Get the
northern city, and then sail back south-west to wipe out the Knight.
3. Save the Dwarves
This option is essential for the following scenarios, and it is possible to
do it quite quickly. First, dump your slow armies in the towns and pick up
all the dwarves possible, for speed. Buy spell books for your heroes. Head
for the three central groups of dwarf cottages, and upgrade the dwarves at
the Hill Forts (this includes the Hero starting in your city). Pick up any
extra troops or mercenaries on the way. Meanwhile, build up your city in
readiness for the boat that may arrive via the whirlpool in the lake. Hire
a knight or barbarian when the enemy arrives. Also, buy all the available
dwarves in your towns. When you have an army with fifty or so battle
dwarves, head north-west and grab the Warlock city before the third week.
Mop up the other enemy heroes. Don't worry about losing the town in the
snow in the north-west, as long as you don't leave any dwarves for the
enemy to use.
4. Carator Mines
Hire another knight (or barbarian). With one hero, head south-east and grab
all the dwarves, then get the Yellow city. With the other, head north and
grab the dwarves, then follow the road north and east and grab the Red
city. Meanwhile upgrade the city and get another hero to collect the
resources and mines. Consolidate your captured cities, then head east again
for the final two cities on the eastern edge of the map, your dwarf armies
will probably do for these as well. Ignore the town to the north-east of
your start. Don't bother upgrading your pikemen and swordsmen in the city
as there is a Freemen's Foundry close by. Your third hero with a Knight
army will be able to sort out any armies that have spread west, such as the
town to the south of your start. Be bold and fast, and it is not too
difficult.
5. Turning Point
Very easy. Forget everything except dwarves and treasure chests for
experience. Start with the knight option. Hire another knight. Grab the
dwarves, the head east with one, and north with another. Grab the cities.
The enemy heroes will come from the north-east city, chase and kill them
and walk into the city virtually unopposed. You can do it in eight days. I
wonder what score this would be as a stand-alone scenario!
6. Defender
Again you depend on the dwarves for a head start. First return the Knight
to the city for the spells and the battle dwarves, then head north
following the road. Use the sorceress to guard the city and pick up the
mines and resources when it is safe. Hire another hero, preferably a
barbarian and head west for the lumber mill then the dwarves. The knight
should get the city in the north-west and the central town in the first
week, while the new hero returns east. Avoid the strong yellow knight. Get
the red Necromancer's city as soon as possible and don't worry about losing
your town to Wyrm. Hopefully the yellow enemy will have lost by then. Go
after Wyrm with the knight or new hero. Finally, sail south with the
sorceress for the island Barbarian city, but don't leave your home city
exposed. Chase and kill any green heroes still on the mainland or on the
central island town/city.
7. The Gauntlet
You need to do this option if you want a quick finish in the final
scenario.
Head south from your start, and get any mines on the way, particularly
sulphur. Keep to the most direct path, and avoid detours. At the bottom of
the map, head west. If your hero upgrades a level, get logistics if it is
offered. You should get to the enemy town by Day 4, Week 2. This gives you
time to buy a castle, maze and green tower before week three. Don't forget
the nearby trading post if you need more sulphur. Gold is not a problem in
this scenario, so hire another hero, give him some gargoyles for speed and
go and collect things. Go for experience with your main hero. The towns
dotted around will give you good spells if you capture them, but against
the dragons at the end, this may not be important. I usually wait the full
eight weeks to get the full complement of 19 Black Dragons, plus everything
else from the Warlock city (including the hydra - don't worry about the
slowness of the hydrae, as you will be mainly traveling by boat in the
final scenario). If there are any dwarves, get them towards the end to
allow their numbers to grow (I have had 117 Battle Dwarves). If you are
really going for speed, you can beat the enemy after six weeks of the
scenario, and this will leave you with just enough for the showdown in
Final Justice, but it is a close run thing. You will usually lose one or
maybe two Black Dragons, and a few others in the final battle on this
scenario.
8. The Crown
Look, do you want a good score or not? If you do this alternative, you are
destined to a long hard and probably unsuccessful slog in the final
episode. If you insist: the strategy is get the obelisks, hire plenty of
heroes and dig like crazy when you think you have an idea.
9. Corlagon's Defence
I initially thought this was very hard, but again, if you get the dwarves
and go quickly, it is not too bad. Choose the crystals to allow you to
build the cathedral in your city quickly.
Don't upgrade any towns, keep money for the Knight city and mercenaries.
For each hero, visit the observation towers promptly. Your sorceress should
then go east for the dwarves and the cottages. Keep going east. If you see
Corlagon, try and kill him, otherwise get the Red Warlock city in the
north-east corner in the second week. Corlagon starts with about 20
Champions but if he reaches the Medusae he will dump them in favour of the
Medusae (or any other free army such as dwarves or halflings). The AI
leaves something to be desired here!
Your wizard in the south should get some dwarves from the south and head
centrally. Your knight should get the rest of the dwarves and meet up with
the wizard to take his army. Then the knight should collect the central
halflings and sprites and go south east to the Necromancer's city. Send
your wizard back home. Meanwhile build up an army of Knight troops and a
Knight or Barbarian hero and send them east in the second week to sort out
the east-central Barbarian city. It usually does not go as smoothly as
that, particularly if Corlagon out-runs you and gets your Sorceress town,
but it is not too difficult overall.
10. Final Justice
Basically, you give your carried-over army to the knight, kill the dragons
guarding the lighthouse to give you good water speed, summon boat and head
north-west to Archibald's lair. If you don't have Summon Boat in the
Knight's city Mage Guild, go north by the coast to the first Barbarian
city, build a shipyard yourself, and sail from there.
There are a few more details, like protecting your Sorceress city from the
Necromancer hiding behind the trees, but it should be business as usual
while you wait for your major player to sail to the end of the river. You
need about 15 Black Dragons plus support to beat Archibald. His magic
tactics are not very good, such as chain lightning, and he has even
helpfully cast Armageddon twice, leaving my dragon pack versus his remains!
If you go overland, apparently you can get very close with Dimension Doors,
but you still need to sail some of the way. But as you take time to reach
the Warlock cities and buy more dragons, Archibald is busy buying more of
his. He starts out with 5 Blacks and then gets the usual 1 dragon for the
first week, followed by three for each week after. His stats are
approximately: Attack 12, Def 8, Power 13, Know 12. So if you take longer
than three weeks to reach him, he will have 15 Black Dragons and superior
stats, and will wipe out your starting army. If you try the quickest method
with a six week carry-over army (12 Dragons plus 20- 30 of the other
Warlock troops), you can get to the end of the river by day 15 but you need
either Summon Boat, or advanced or expert logistics. Your 12 Black Dragons
will face 5 Blacks and 4 Reds, and it is a very close battle, but winnable.
If anyone can beat a score of 231, or even go below 200, I would be
fascinated to hear of it.
Good Luck!
Written by David Mills, Gerrards Cross, London, England -
david@misborne.demon.co.uk
24th April 1997
Force Of Arms (Good Campaign 1)
-------------------------------
Hello everyone..having finished most of the stand-alone maps, I will now
replay both campaigns and share my strategies with you. The first good
campaign map is quite easy, but winning in a minimum number of days takes
some luck and some good tactics. I finished in 39 days. It should be quite
hard to beat this score by more than a couple of days. So without further
ado :
1) Hire 2 more heroes who will serve as scouts and pack-mules.
2) One will go west, one east and the other north.
3) Take gold instead of experience points from chests.
4) Beginning of week 2 : buy all the troops in the wizard castle, give them
to your best hero but leave one slot free.
5) Attack the halflings to the north protecting the gem mine. If you're
lucky, they will join you.
6) Attack the trolls (easy) and rush to the north stopping for nothing.
7) By week 3 day 1, I had captured the northern Barbarian castle.
8) Week 3 is for construction while you wait for the green barbarian enemy
to get eliminated by default.
9) Take the second western castle (Necromancer) by the end of month 1 with
a barbarian army.
10) Stay in it !
11) Take the big remaining wizard army from the Barbarian castle, build up
all possible troops in your starting castle.. and combine the two armies at
the center of the map.
12) This wizard army will conquer the Warlocks to the east.. and quite
easily at that.
13) If you don't want to lose time chasing Warlock heroes, I suggest taking
some small "clean-up" detours on the way to the Warlock castle.
Annexation (Good Campaign 2)
----------------------------
This is a small map where you start with a partially built castle and 4
genies. I finished it in 25 days playing the Sorceress.
1) Buy another Sorceress and combine troops (leave dwarves in the castle)
2) Split genies in 2 stacks to attack missile troops.
3) With your principal army, go east taking chests, gold, resources and the
ore mine on the way. Don't lose time exploring the swamp with this army.
This is the job for the other sorceress.
4) It's possible to take the southeast Sorceress castle by the end of week
1.
5) It's also possible to buy the Phoenix Red Tower in the first week !
6) Kill the wandering sorceress opponent (yellow)
7) Board the boat by the middle of week 2, take the stuff in the water.. if
it's not already taken.
8) Go north to take troops from your initial castle (don't disembark from
the boat)... Army at this time : 4 Phoenix, 3 Genies, 16 Elves, 13 Great
Druids ,50 Sprites. Leave the unicorns and dwarves in the castle !
9) Still by boat, attack the southwestern knight castle by the end of week
2 or day 1 of week 3.
10) Mop up the remaining knight armies.
11) Rush to the north with your still significant army, making a pit-stop
at your starting castle (to get more Phoenix)
12) The remaining Wizard opponent (orange) should now be quite easy to
dispose of.
Little note about playing the Sorceress : Dwarves are good for garrisoning
your starting castle when you're scared of being attacked by a very near
enemy. Bless is great for Phoenix.. double the damage !!!
Save The Dwarves (Good Campaign 3)
----------------------------------
I suggest finishing this map in order to have the dwarf alliance in
subsequent scenarios. I completed this one in 19 days (I have an idea to
finish it even sooner, but I have to try it first).
1) You start with 3 sorceress heroes (if you pick the Sorceress :-),a bunch
of dwarf villages and one castle
2) Buying more heroes is a very good idea. I had 6 heroes exploring by day
3 or 4. Warlock and Barbarians are good heroes to hire.
3) With your northern sorceress, go in the nearby village, buy troops, then
explore west, south (fairies) and then east again (note : This will take
many days)
4) The center sorceress should buy all available troops then move south-
east following the road. Your 3 other scouts will go north, north-east and
east.
1) Take gold instead of experience from chests.
6) The southern sorceress should take the dwarves in the village, take a
little detour to the west for upgrading all those dwarves and then rush
east by road in order to capture the gold mine.
7) Buy a marketplace in your starting castle and when you find a trading
post, exchange most of your useless ressources (sulfur, red crystals) for
gold. Buy Druid and Unicorn structures first !
8) Take all free low-level troops (dwarves, sprites, goblins, etc) that you
find by exploring the map.
9) By week 3 day 1, my big attack in enemy territory was well under way...
10) I had bought a shipyard, a boat and transferred most troops from my
castle to the sorceress already in the boat.
11) I attacked on 3 different fronts : northeast with my northern
sorceress, southeast with my southern sorceress which took all the dwarves
in the snow and by boat with another sorceress (druids, elves, unicorns,
sprites). The sorceress by boat took the whirlpool in the lake.
12) The rest is quite easy, beat up enemy heroes that pass your way so you
don't have to chase them later.
Carator Mines Without Dwarven Alliance (Good Campaign 4)
--------------------------------------------------------
Just for fun, I tried beating Carator Mines without the Dwarven Alliance,
to see if it would take less time than going first through campaign map 3
(Save the Dwarves) combined with campaign 4. Well, avoiding the Dwarf
alliance, I finished Carator mines in 59 days, which was a lot longer than
the combination of map 3 and 4 with the dwarven alliance (43 days). So make
your own conclusions ;-) For those who are masochistic and want a lower
score, I have included some tips on beating Carator mines without the
Dwarven alliance. Enjoy !
1) Buy 2 (or more) other scout heroes ASAP
2) One scout will rush south-west to take an undefended gold mine.
3) One other scout will also go south but more slowly, taking resources and
free troops along the way (including Goblins). This scout will take the
southern village with the goblins.
4) Transform the village into a castle
5) It's easy to beat dwarves with a Druid and Elf combo.
6) At the beginning of week 2, buy the maximum of troops in your starting
castle and go south.
7) You can buy the Red Tower in the second week.
8) Leave the slow dwarves in the castles.
9) Wait until you have 7 Phoenix, a bunch of Grand Elves and Great Druids
before attacking the other castles. (Unicorns and sprites are optional).
10) With this army, I really stomped the computer opponents losing very few
troops and most of the time killing his stacks before he even had a chance
to attack :-)
In conclusion, I would like to suggest some very good spells for the
sorceress troops. Bless for the Phoenix (40 points of damage assured
instead of maybe only 20 points per Phoenix) and Unicorns makes quite a
diffence. Slow and Blind on the enemy fast flying or shooter troops are
also great !
Carator Mines With Dwarven Alliance (Good Campaign 4)
-----------------------------------------------------
Completing campaign 3 (Save the dwarves) is strongly suggested if you want
a better score and a easier time winning. I finished in 24 days.
1) Buy 4 more heroes during week 1 that will serve as scouts.
2) There's a lot of free resources near your castle, so you can build the
necessary structures in week 1 while still hiring other heroes.
3) On day 1, hire another sorceress hero, buy all troops in the castle and
give them all to your starting sorceress who will go north.
4) 2 heroes will go north, 2 will go south and one will go east. The last
one will take stuff around your castle.
5) The starting sorceress will rush north and then east (taking the gold
mine and the free Battle Dwarves) following the road. The other hero (I
suggest Barbarian or Warlock) will follow her taking resources and other
troops in the snow.
6) For the 2 heroes going south, one will will rush to the southwest corner
to take another gold mine, while the other will take resources and hire
goblins from the huts.
7) The eastern hero will go towards the mountains, then south, hiring the
free dwarves on the way.
8) The starting sorceres will take the northern castle (probably Warlock)
by the end of week 1. This castle will probably be undefended (grin).
9) The southern hero with lots of goblins will capture the southern village
and transform it into a castle right away. Protect this castle by staying
in it.
10) The eastern hero with lots of dwarves will take another castle near the
center of the map. It will probably be free for the taking also (evil
grin). Stay in this castle so that the AI doesn't come to take it back.
11) By week 2 day 1, I had 4 castles and 2 gold mines for a total of 6750
gold pieces per day :-).
12) The northern sorceress will go south leaving 10 battle Dwarves in the
castle to protect it.
13) By week 3 day 1, exchange all unnecessary ressources and buy all troops
from your two eastern castles.
14) Attack the two remaining castles !
Turning Point (Good Campaign 5)
-------------------------------
This small map has given me my quickest all-time victory... only 8 days
playing the Sorceress ! With the dwarven alliance, this scenario is the
easiest of the good campaign.
1) Hire another sorceress, buy troops and transfer them all to your
starting sorceress.
2) Ignore mines unless they are truly in your way.
3) The starting sorceress will go north, mostly following the road, taking
stacks of battle dwarves along the way.
4) The second sorceress takes experience from the Gazebo and goes east also
taking stacks (one stack ?) of battle dwarves.
5) After capturing the northwest castle, rush east taking (again) any
dwarves stacks you encounter. I reached the northeast castle on day 1 of
week 2.
6) Don't forget to obliterate any wandering enemy armies so that you don't
have to chase them down later.
7) The southeast castle (orange) should be easy to capture because there
are 2 Battle Dwarves stacks very near.
Defender (Good Campaign 6)
--------------------------
This campaign map has given a lot of people headaches.. including me on my
first try through when I was just a newbie with HOMM 2 (I won it anyway :-)
A barbarian ambushes your starting castle by boat very soon in the game,
and if you don't know it's coming, you can be easily overtaken. Good
Campaign 6 is called Dedender but to win you have to be the "Attacker" !
The good old cliche "The best defense is a good offense" applies on this
map. You start with Lord Halton that has 5 Genies and 20 Rangers. A
sorceress in the partially built castle has 20 Battle Dwarves. I finished
it in 19 days two times, using slighly different strategies each time.
So with all this in mind, here is my strategy :
1) Lord Halton should enter the castle right away to get the magic spells..
then go to the nearby gazebo.
2) Lord Halton will go north-east following the road until the T crossroads
where he will turn right (split the genies in 2 stacks when you attack
shooters)
3) There's already a shipyard built in your starting castle...
4) Hire another hero ASAP preferably a Barbarian and move him west. There
are 4 stacks of Battle Dwarves on the west side of the map free for the
taking (if you have the Dwarven alliance).
5) Build structures and troops until week 1 day 5 (or day 4 at your
choice), when you will board a boat with your sorceress, 30 Battle Dwarves,
Sprites and possibly other troops.
6) Lord Halton can capture the red Necromancer castle quite easily by the
end of week 1.
7) The sorceress in the boat will rush south and capture the barbarian
castle, also by the end of week 1.
8) On day 1 of week 2, buy more troops in your new Necromancer castle and
destroy Wyrm the annoying Necromancer before he can become a thorn in your
side. If he's too far (him and the other red heroes) and you want to lure
him into a trap, step one or two squares away from the Necromancer castle.
9) Eventually, build the best troops in the barbarian castle and chase down
the barbarian boats with your sorceress.
10) The barbarian who took the 4 stacks of Battle Dwarves should go
northeast and give them to Lord Halton.
11) When you feel that you're strong enough (day 7 of week 2 ?), charge the
yellow Knight castle with Lord Halton avoiding (if possible) all yellow
armies.
12) Since it's the beginning of week 3, buy more troops in the knight
castle and mop up the remaining yellow armies.
I tried going after the knight yellow castle once (before the Red
Necromancer castle) and I found the rest of the game easier to play. Maybe
that was a fluke, but eliminating Wyrm before he gets too strong has a
higher priority in my eyes, that's why I suggest going after him first. I
also tried boarding the boat on day 1 with my sorceress and attacking the
barbarian castle as soon as possible (day 4)... I captured the castle but
the other barbarians were still on the island and they proceeded to trash
me.
The Gauntlet (Good Campaign 7)
------------------------------
This is one of my favorite scenarios because it is so different from the
others. You start with a moderately big army (20 Rangers, 40 Sprites, 22
Pikemen, 24 Rocs, 16 Greater Druids), the boots of mobility and one other
magical item. You have to rush to the southwest part of the map to capture
a town in 8 weeks or less. You're stuck with this army for the major part
of the map and you can't get reinforcements from a starting castle. I
completed this map in 53 days.. not a great score for sure, but it's
necessary to take more time so you can build the maximum of troops for your
carry-over force in the last scenario.
1) The villages you will find on each patch are not upgradable to castles
except the last warlock village at the southwest of the map near the lake.
2) On each different path, there are 3 villages who get progressively
tougher (more protecting creatures). Note that the first village you will
encounter on your path has a level-1 Mage Tower, the second village has a
level-3 Mage Tower and the third village has a level-5 Mage Tower. Each
village also has more monster structures already built.
3) I suggest taking the wizard path. Always take experience instead of
Gold.
4) Capture the first village, dump the sprites there and get more Rocs.
5) That way, you have one spot free in your army to hire better troops.
6) Continue west and south attacking moderate wandering armies that inflict
you minimum losses.
7) Always attack armies that are the same type as you (ex : attack Rangers
if you still have Rangers in your army).. there's a slight chance they
might join you. In any case, most of the time, they will flee.
8) Capture the second wizard village (watch out for the nearby 2nd level-
spell Visions). Take more rocs. Dump stacks that are now too weak (ex :
dump the Greater Druids if you only have 5 left).
9) Some people prefer ignoring the villages and rushing for the southwest
warlock village. That's your choice.
10) Capture the 3rd wizard village with a 5th-level Mage Tower. Buy more
Rocs.
11) Eventually you will come face to face with a high-level army (in my
case Green Dragons). You will lose many troops in this battle but it's
necessary to continue on your way. (Hint : Use Mass Haste, make your fliers
attack between two stacks of dragons, when they attack back, their flame
attack will catch another dragon stack :-)
12) Now rush to the south and capture the Warlock village near the water.
This should be at the beginning of week 4.
13) Transform the village into a castle right away.
14) Your next objective is getting the Black Dragon tower. Buy one
structure each turn until you have it.
15) Buy 2 other secondary heroes who will explore, take free mines and free
resources on the other paths.
16) Explore the 2 other paths with your big Barbarian army while your Black
Dragons, Hydras and Minotaur Kings accumulate.
17) By the end of week 7, your Barbarian should be back near your Warlock
castle.
18) Take all secondary army stacks you don't want to carry-over (49 Elves,
50 Nomads...those kind of troops), get on a boat and attack the yellow
village Lakeside.
19) You will lose but you will have weakened your adversary very much.
Don't forget to flee with your Barbarian at the last possible moment :-)
20) Rehire your barbarian super-hero and dismiss all secondary heroes
(because if you don't, the army of the top-spot secondary hero will carry-
over).
21) Give all the best troops to your Barbarian principal hero (ex : 13
Black Dragons, 28 Minotaur Kings, 18 Hydras, 68 Battle Dwarves, 36
Griffins) and attack the yellow player again.
22) The last battle should be quite easy. I only lost 1 black dragon !
Corlagon's Defense (Good Campaign 9)
------------------------------------
It's called Corlagon's Defense because this particular hero will probably
give you a lot of problems if you don't destroy him soon enough :-) Anyway,
I finished this map in 23 days on my last game (the one used to compile my
score in the good campaign). I also finished it in 20 days at one time but
I had to replay this map because of a carry-over force problem.
1) You start with 1 Knight castle, 1 Sorceress village and 1 Wizard
village.
2) Transform those towns into castles as soon as possible (week 1)
3) There is a lightly defended gold mine in the southeast part of the map.
Another one is very near the Sorceress town.
4) Hire at least 2 more heroes in week 1 to explore everywhere and to serve
as pack-mules (transfer troops to the front-line heroes).
5) Try to build one structure in each castle at each turn, starting always
with the same castle (I suggest Sorceress). This is particularly important
in week 1 and the beginning of week 2.
6) Lord Haart the knight will go east taking free halflings, goblins and
dwarves along the way.
7) Try to capture one of the villages in the center of the map on week 1
(facultative).
8) Your best sorceress should go north (from the Sorceress town) and then
east taking all available sprites and dwarves. This hero will eventually
try to kill Corlagon who prowls in the northeast part of the map.
9) Lord Haart will attack the southeastern Necromancer castle (orange) on
week 3 day 1. Probably a little later if you make frequent stops and
detours.
10) Your shooters will draw fire while the dwarves and goblins close in for
the kill.
11) Buy Vampire Lords and other troops (that you find good) in the
Necromancer castle.
12) Transfer troops to Lord Haart from another hero who got the armies
Haart didn't have time to get.
13) Rush north with Lord Haart to capture the Barbarian castle (green) in
the desert and the Warlock castle (red). It's possible to do all this
during week 3.
14) Don't forget to kill any wandering heroes so that you don't have to
chase them down later.
Final Justice (Good Campaign 10) -- The Quick And Dirty Way
-----------------------------------------------------------
First of all, as always, try this quite good scenario at least once before
reading my strategy tips. This Final Justice map is quite fun and you don't
want to spoil the surprises ! I found a very quick way to win this map...
Only 11 days ! I don't think it's possible to do better. I will probably
post another strategy some of these days about how to win using the long
way. So without futher ado :
1) Before you start, take the Tax Lien, it's the least damaging item you
can take.
2) Reload the game until you have the Summon boat spell in your Knight
castle.
3) Hire Sister Eliza the level-5 sorceress in the Knight castle.
4) Protect your starting sorceress castle by returning the nearby sorceress
inside the castle and buying the phoenix.
5) Roland should have a big carry-over force consisting of Black Dragons,
Minotaur Kings and other mighty stacks.
6) With Sister Elisa, rush east towards Roland who will transfer all his
troops to her (except the very slow Hydras which Roland will transfer just
before Elisa boards the boat). Why you ask ? Because Elisa being a
sorceress has advanced navigation !
7) On day 2, destroy the Red Dragons with Elisa and board the boat. If
you're very lucky, you could get expert navigation... I did :-)
8) On day 3, navigate the boat towards Magellan's Maps and give the guy his
1000 gold pieces. Take the nearby items but make sure you still have time
to disembark on the northern side of the lake.
9) On day 4, go north 3 or 4 steps, cast Summon Boat and board it.
10) Beginning on day 5, you will navigate towards Archibald's castle. It's
at the end of the river.
11) To make sure you take the least amount of time navigating, click on a
spot at the end of the river and then press m (move : horse icon) on each
subsequent turn.
12) With expert navigation, Elisa's army should attack Archibald's castle
on week 2, day 4 (11th day) With advanced navigation, it's one or two days
later. With Roland, you would have attacked on week 3 day 2. Now you can
see why taking Elisa is better... Archibald has one week less of troops
(including 3 less Red Dragons).
13) The last battle is a very tough one, practically impossible if
Archibald gets the Summon Elemental spell. It can also be easier if he gets
a lousy 5th-level spell like Hypnotize.
14) I had 12 Black Dragons while my opponent had 5 Black and 4 Red Dragons.
Unfortunately, he had Elemental Storm and a lot of spell points, so I lost
all my secondary troops from constant spell casting.
15) The trick to winning this is attacking the Minotaur Kings (second stack
from the top) from the bottom with your Black Dragons. Then Archie will
cast Elemental Storm destroying most of his remaining troops except
Dragons.
16) Archie's Black Dragon stack will attack you from the top while the Red
Dragon stack will attack you from the bottom.
17) With a correct positioning, the 2 Dragon enemy stacks will proceed to
flame one another while trying to attack my Black Dragon stack ;-) This is
what I call the Dragon sandwich tactic and it's very effective. The only
thing still alive at the end was my 3 surviving Black Dragons.
So that's it ! I completed the good campaign in 221 days beating the 231
days score of David Mills and earning myself the Black Dragon rating ! With
better luck in scenarios 7 and 9, I could probably lower this score to 208
days. I would appreciate very much hearing from anybody who did beat my
score. I'm sure there's somebody somewhere who did better :-)
Final Justice (Good Campaign 10) -- The Long And Fun Way
--------------------------------------------------------
I had written a strategy for completing "Final Justice" in the quickest
possible way but I was quite unhappy about it. Much better and more fun is
trying to capture all the enemy castles on the mainland before going after
Archibald at the end of the river. It's also more strategically-sound
because you rely less on luck. With your multiple-castle growth, when every
color but Archie's is eliminated, you can afford to build a strong army
that should have no trouble with the end-battle. First time I ever played
the final good campaign scenario (that was very long ago ;-), I went after
the eastern-shore green barbarians first. I won eventually but I was always
wondering if going after the yellow warlock (center) or purple necromancer
(west) might have been easier. Well, I found out some interesting things by
recently replaying "Final Justice" using each different option...
Having the "carry-over force" for the last scenario is *highly*
recommended. If you insist on playing it with the Ultimate Crown, expect a
much longer game and a tougher challenge. I had a carry-over force of 12
Black Dragons (along with Hydras, Minotaur Kings, Battle Dwarves and
Griffins) which is pretty good if you decide to stay within the 8-week
limit in Good Campaign 7 where you will recruit your carry-over force (you
could have "cheated" and gone over that artificial time limit if you
desired). The carried-over Black Dragons are what's important, every other
stack is extra "gravy". Implementing my battle plans should be possible
with around 8 Black Dragons (if you're a good player) but I would not go
much lower than that total. You start with 3 almost fully-built castles,
one of each "good" type : sorceress, knight and wizard.
--PLAN A (Going after the Purple Necromancers first)--
1) From my experience, this is the easiest, safest way to go but you'll
probably get a slightly lower score (although still very good).
2) The first color you will attack will be purple : the Necromancers on the
western edge of the map.
3) Prepare for a sneak attack on sorceress castle by a Necromancer with 10
Vampires (btw, this early computer strike makes the enemy alliance aware of
you and also puts it in an offensive "frame of mind").
4) Roland should kill Red Dragon stack protecting the Lighthouse and boat.
5) Hire Sister Elisa on day 2 at sorceress castle. If you don't have the
"Sorceress Alliance Award" (and therefore no Elisa), just use your starting
sorceress instead. (To lighten the text, I will just refer to Elisa from
now on).
6) Hire secondary hero in knight castle, trade him the negative artifact
from Roland and dismiss him. Do NOT dismiss your starting heroes by mistake
!
7) Elisa should buy the single phoenix (for ultra fast travel speed) and go
right visiting all your home castles for spells.
7.5) Do not buy Giants, wait for Titans instead (those won't come into play
until near the end anyway).
8) It's a good idea for your main heroes to pay at least a little visit to
one of your home castles (to get spells).
9) Try to develop Wisdom to expert level for your main heroes, especially
Roland and Elisa.
10) Roland should leave the Hydras in the good knight castle nearby to
serve as garrison (they would slow him down too much).
11) Roland will go a little way north (graveyard, tree of knowledge) then
west.
12) Roland will stay in your home territory for the first 3 weeks to visit
locations, get items and to make the good armies "grow". Why delay the
first strike ? Because you're going for the surest, safest way to win...
See the point just below.
13) Always leave one free spot in Roland's army so wandering stacks can
join him for greater glory. Have 1 or 2 buddy heroes follow him around to
carry the extra "free" stacks.
14) Develop a level 5 Mage Guild in the sorceress castle. I don't usually
recommend reloading but if you do get Hypnotize, do so, it's useless and a
big waste of resources. If it's anything else, keep the spell ;-) Remember
to make Roland visit the castle.
15) Elisa should have plenty of time to return to the sorceress castle
before the big offensive in purple territory.
16) "View Heroes" is a nice spell to keep tabs on where your opponents are.
I used it often.
17) On week 4 (more or less) came time for the big offensive on the west
road (the one next to your sorceress castle). Roland only had Black Dragons
and Minotaur Kings (both very fast speed). Elisa was a great spellcaster
and was following with a good sorceress-troop army. Some "buddy" heroes
with other numerous stacks were also making their move.
18) Roland rushed the main purple necromancer castles (in volcanic terrain)
while Elisa took care of eliminating the purple towns in the wastelands
east of the west road (orange terrain). A strong buddy hero should go west
from the west road to see if purple captured a neutral town there.
19) Don't worry too much if you lose a few Black Dragons in your conquest
of purple.
20) I was lucky enough to get Dimension Door in one of the enemy castles
(well, I did build up level 5 guilds when they were already at level 3 or
4). It probably saved me a few unnecessary weeks but Dimension Door is not
absolutely required to win although it will make your life easier. Do try
to finish each turn inside a castle and visit wells at each opportunity.
21) Even with Dimension Door, the biggest delay and annoyance you will
encounter is chasing down the many little heroes scampering everywhere
around. Believe me when I say that you will surely have to backtrack
several times to recapture castles.
22) A way to minimize this is by leaving heroes with strong garrisons
(remember all the free stacks Roland accumulated in the first month ?) in
the castles you want to keep. Your big Minotaur King stack could also serve
as a garrison if you wish. Also buy the maximum of troops available in each
castle "under siege" at the beginning of each week (big ticket creatures
like Bone Dragons and normal Dragons first)
23) Don't make Elisa go too far east (this means, not going past the second
road you will encounter) or she will get clobbered by the very strong green
barbarian (in fact, I lost her that way by being too reckless).
24) FYI, I captured the first warlock yellow castle (center one named
Alamar) on week 4, day 7. Dimension Door did help there ;-)
25) Try to make a sweep from left to right (purple, yellow, green)
eliminating (or badly crippling) one color at a time. Don't run after every
little enemy hero, but eliminate them if they're in the way. Concentrate on
taking castles using hit and run tactics.
26) Boost Roland's army with new Black Dragons from the center warlock
castles.
27) Week 5 and 6 = destroy yellow and finish up purple.
28) Watch out for the southeast corner of the map. You could get ambushed
by the green barbarians. Keep the knight castle well-defended or you could
have surprises.
29) Eventually go up that road with either a strong knight or wizard army.
30) Build Black Dragon towers in all warlock castles.
31) In general, the second month is dedicated to utterly destroying every
trace of purple, yellow and green on the main land (myself, I finished that
worthy task on month 2, week 3, day 7).
32) Give Titans from wizard home castle to Roland. Board a boat with him (I
did so on month 3, week 1, day 1). Follow the river until you reach
Archibald's castle.
33) His army at that time was 5 Black Dragons (this number stays static),
25 Red Dragons, 51 Minotaur Kings, 60 Griffins and 34 Hydras.
34) My army was too strong (in fact, it was overkill) but I didn't want to
take any chances. Better safe than sorry :-) My army was composed of 22
Titans, 45 Vampire Lords, 37 Black Dragons, 27 Bone Dragons and 36 Power
Liches. The important armies were the Black Dragons and the Titans who drew
most of the fire away. I chose undead troops because they were the stacks
that had the most time to accumulate (purple necromancer was attacked first
after all).
35) If you have problems with the last battle, try to place your troops so
that the Red Dragon's 2-hex breath torches his own partner creatures.
36) With Plan A, I finished in 64 days (month 3, week 2, day 1)
--PLAN B (Going after the Yellow Warlocks first)--
1) From my experience, this is a bit riskier than Plan A, because there's
no build-up phase in the first month and you leave your home castles almost
undefended but you'll probably get a slightly higher score.
2) The first color you will attack will be yellow : the Warlocks in the
north-center part of the map. Your objective is to get more Black Dragons
as soon as possible. Problem is that without waiting a little in your home
territory, only one Warlock castle will have the Dragon Tower and you'll
have to build the rest. Another problem is that you'll be surrounded left
and right (purple and green) and that it will be impossible to make a sweep
from left to right as in plan A (more backtracking)
3) Defend against sneak attack on sorceress castle.
4) Get rid of Roland's negative artifact with an expendable dismissed hero.
Roland should kill Red Dragon stack protecting the Lighthouse and boat.
Trade stacks that are slower than very fast to the nearby Knight starting
hero (on day 2).
5) After that, he should rush north (going into the knight castle is not
necessary), visit Graveyard and Tree of Knowledge (because it's on his way)
and take the left branch at the crossroads. Knight hero should follow just
behind with the slower stacks.
6) Make Elisa (or starting sorceress) go east with Phoenix, visiting the
knight castle for spells but not the wizard castle. She should follow the
left fork of the east road and reach yellow territory after Roland and the
Knight hero around week 2.
7) Go easy on ore and sulfur. You'll need those to build Dragon Towers
later on.
8) Roland reached first yellow warlock town on week 2, day 1.
9) Make the following Knight hero stay in the first captured enemy town. He
will serve as its protector.
10) On week 2, conquer the other warlock castles badly crippling the yellow
color in the process.
11) Leave Minotaur Kings (or another strong stack from your carry-over
force) in the main yellow castle (the one with the Dragon Tower already
built).
12) Upgrade all warlock towns to have Black Dragon Towers.
13) Always leave a minimum of 4 Black Dragons with Elisa in the main
castle. She will serve as the main protector and intimidation factor in
your newly acquired holdings.
14) Hire maximum number of secondary heroes in warlock castles and visit
mines with them. When that's done, scout around. Leave Elisa and medium-
level knight hero inside their respective warlock castles.
15) Build your second Dragon Tower in northwest warlock castle on week 2.
The first yellow castle you captured can survive for a while without a
Dragon Tower. It already has a strong garrison with the knight hero.
16) If you have Set Elemental Guardian, cast them on your mines.
17) Go after purple or green, not both at the same time (I picked purple)
18) Beginning of week 3, buy all available Black Dragons and leave them in
garrisons. This will intimidate your opponents.
18) Yellow was eliminated in week 3.
19) Watch out for purple and green that could go south in your starting
territory.
20) If you don't think you can survive an enemy assault, flee with your
best troops and return later. The enemy hero will split his big stack in 2
to garrison your castle but most importantly it will dismiss strong stacks
to visit nearby map dwellings (in my game, the computer dismissed 9 Bone
Dragons for 50 Halflings !)
21) If a color, other than one you're currently eliminating, captures an
enemy castle (for example, a green barbarian captures one of your castles
that was formerly purple). Let him have it, unless Roland is very close.
22) Yellow, green and purple were totally eliminated on month 2, week 2,
day 5.
23) I boarded a boat with Roland a few days later (month 2, week 3, day 1,
FYI). Sail the river up to Archibald's castle. I got Dimension Door very
late in the game and by that time the yellow, green, purple alliance was
practically eliminated. You could use that spell to reach Archibald's
castle quicker but I preferred to save my spell points for the final
battle.
24) Roland's army was composed of only 34 Black Dragons and 76 Minotaur
Kings. This was barely enough to win against Archibald and I had to reload
twice before succeeding. I suggest waiting 1 (or 2) more week to have a
stronger army before boarding the boat.
25) Archibald had better stats than Roland along with blood morale and
irish luck. Archibald's garrison was composed of 5 Black Dragons (this
number won't grow), 31 Minotaur Kings, 46 Griffins, 26 Hydras and 19 Red
Dragons. Morale played a big factor in the 2 first battles which I lost,
his Red Dragon stacks had a lot more free attacks than my Black Dragon
stack.
26) Use the Red Dragon's 2-hex flame attack against your other opponents by
placing your own Black Dragon stack appropriately. Use Anti-Magic to
protect your Minotaur Kings from offensive spells. In the first few turns,
cast Chain Lightning and Armageddon to weaken enemy stacks other than enemy
Dragons.
27) Cast Summon Elemental often if you have it (I did not). If Archibald
has the Summon Elemental himself, I doubt you can win. Wait a few more
weeks and come back with a Titan-Black Dragon combo army.
28) Using Plan B, I finished this scenario in 49 days (month 2, week 3, day
7).
-Campaign Strategies for Heroes Of Might And Magic II-
Archibald's Campaigns
by David Mills
This article has been written to help you obtain Black Dragon rating on the
Archibald (Evil) Campaign. The basic strategy is "Attack as soon as
possible, with the minimal possible effective forces". As we shall see,
there are a few further tips.
Update, with notes about Tournament Play.
Warning! There are major spoilers, so if you want to try the campaigns
unaided, don't read on!
1. First Blood
This is a fairly easy start, and it is possible to finish more quickly than
the Roland introductory scenario. Choose the 2000 gold option as this makes
it possible to get up to the Mansion upgrade of your Necromancer starting
castle in the first week. However, Frank Cardillo told me a better way than
this. Go for the Laboratory via the Mage Guild and the Mausoleum. The Bone
Dragons are much more reliable than vampires. Hire another hero (knight or
barbarian for battle strength), get the easy resources, don't bother with
the defended mines, and head east at the beginning of the second week with
all your forces and your best hero. Beat the few wandering armies, and you
should come across the green enemy city with few forces inside. Take the
city. The AI does not seem to be very clever and usually dies off without
trying to retake the city. With this army, add to it as much as possible
and go south. Again you will find the next city soon, and it should be
easily taken. Meanwhile, give your new home city forces to your other hero,
and head south. The two heroes should more or less meet up in the south-
west at the end of the third week to wipe out the remaining enemy.
2. Barbarian Wars
This a small and quick scenario. Choose the Barbarian option. Equip your
first hero with the nomads (keep them in two separate armies as this makes
it easier against ranged enemies), and go directly north-east, through a
defended pass and take the yellow north-east city which will probably be
undefended. On the first day, you should also hire two more heroes. Send
one east along the road to the genie lamps and hire as many as you can
afford. Let the other gather the resources and mines. Build up you city as
usual. Your first hero will need to fight the yellow hero, but should be
successful with reinforcements from the captured city. The hero with the
genies should capture the purple south-west city with no bother, while the
other hero guards the home city from the purple hero. Load up at the
beginning of the second week and let all three heroes meet up in the north-
west to finish off.
3. Necromancers
Don't do this option if you want a good final score! I tried it on my very
first go and got a score of 630. The rewards of a Level 5 Necromancer for
each following scenario is not worth it. But if you insist...
Capturing the closest city is easy, go to the observation tower to guide
you. Get a decent army and head south in the third week. Through the
guarded pass is the easiest enemy city to capture. Build more armies (gold
is a problem as all the gold mines are heavily defended and you don't want
to waste good troops on anything but the enemy) and try to get one good
fighting (barbarian or knight) and one good spell-casting hero. Don't
upgrade the foundries as there two easy-to-reach Freeman's Foundries. Go
through another of the heavily defended passes and get the city by the
mountains and the middle pass, and the town (which may have been upgraded
to a city) in the south-east corner. The enemy heroes are moderately
powerful, including giants. Don't leave things too long or you will face
titans, and it takes ages to amass enough gold and jewels for you to make
these.
4. Slay the Dwarves
You need this option for assured success in the rest of the campaign. If
you can do the equivalent scenario with Roland, you can do this one, as it
is the same map.
Choose the Barbarian option. You don't need to buy any more heroes, and
only need to upgrade to Ogre Lords in your city. Send the hero at the top
of the map east to the city to be equipped with the troops. With the other
two, send them to the nearest towns for Battle Dwarves and Magic Books.
Then send one centrally for the Dwarf Cottages and Rogues, then south-west
to the Hill Fort then west along the road and capture the city. This hero
should then return east to get the towns along the bottom of the map,
picking up troops along the way. The final hero should go north-west-ish to
the other Dwarf Cottages by the Observation Tower just by a small patch of
snow. There are some Medusas near here too. Once he is tanked up, go north,
west then south getting the towns and any enemy heroes. The hero in the
city should go south once he has a decent army, to mop up any stray enemy
heroes and the last towns. Watch out for boats appearing out of the
whirlpool by the enemy city.
5. Turning point
I assume you have the Ogre Alliance for the rest of the campaign.
Pick the Barbarian option, although it does not really matter. With the
first hero, go south down the road, ignoring everything until you come to
the two sets of Ogres. Join up with these, upgrade at the Hill Fort, take
easily the city in the south-east corner, then the south west corner, then
go north. Meanwhile the second hero you hired on the first day will have
picked up a few more ogres locally and gone west and may well be finishing
off the city in the north-west corner and chasing after the remaining enemy
heroes (who seem to come from the north-west city). You can do this
scenario in seven or eight days.
6. Rebellion
This is the fun scenario. Pick the Barbarian option to give a good fighting
hero for your secondary army, but Lord Corlagon, with his Expert
Necromancer ability does all the hard work.
Initially, send Corlagon to the Treasure Chest and Gazebo for experience.
Then fight the two small peasant armies to the north of the city to gain
some skeletons. Then continue north then east a little to a legion of
peasants. This army is in three groups of 333, but each group can be killed
in one blow by your skeletons. The trick is to separate them by waiting for
a Loss of Morale due to the Bone Dragon. You will now have about 400
skeletons. If you attack the rangers by the Ore mine they may join you, or
may attack, it seems about fifty-fifty. Anyway, you have enough to win
against the huge legion of peasants guarding the Treasure trove to the east
of the city, as long as you only allow one or maybe two attacks from a full
stack of 700 peasants. Use the Morale trick if necessary. If you go back to
the city for spells or more troops, it will probably be the second week,
and the army will become five stacks of 800, although this may be worth it
if you have Slow in your Mage Guild.
Get all the stuff from the trove, going for experience over gold, then head
west through the gap in the forest guarded by the Archers near the 1st
Level shrine. All the armies should retreat, I only fight the non-ranged
attackers. Continue south-west to the Knight city, and send your other hero
down to occupy it. If the Knight armies are close by, fight them, otherwise
skeletonise the peasants guarding the good artifacts just to the north-west
of the Knight city, and follow the road north. At the T-junction by Xanadu,
it does not really matter which way you go, both cities will fall very
easily to your army of 2500 skeletons, and you can soon chase and kill the
remaining heroes.
My best score of 21 days was greatly helped by having the Boots of Mobility
in the original Treasure Trove.
7. Dragon Master
This scenario is very difficult without the Ogre Alliance, but a doddle
with it. I pick the Barbarian option so that my main hero will have
Pathfinding through the desert near the Dragon City. Send your starting
hero along the road to the Observation tower then to fight the army
guarding the way to the Alchemists Lab. Hire another hero, drop off the
slowest part of his army and go and pick up the Ogres by the Ore mine and
the Alchemists Lab. Meanwhile, with your first hero, collect the other two
Ogre armies, upgrade and go back to meet the other hero. Take those Ogres,
upgrade then proceed west along the road, going south at the junction then
west again to the desert. Do not be distracted by anything else. The Dragon
Castle is at the far west of the map, so, once in the desert, go north-
north-west through a pass where you have to fight some Dragons, then north
for a little while and you will see the Castle on you right. You have to
fight another army first. However your Ogre Lords can overcome all these
Dragons with no bother. I keep them in two armies of about 40 and make sure
they are not next to each other or they may both get flamed at once.
Without the Ogre Alliance, you just have to work hard in the usual way. Aim
to take the northern enemy city first, as it seems to upgrade to Dragons
after the other city.
8. Country Lords
This is quite hard work, although the Ogre and Dragon Alliances make it
significantly easier.
Old Advice
I pick the Logistics option, but the other two have their merits also. Go
west and kill the enemy knight on the second day. Try to kill him outright
as he has usually picked up a good artifact. Then go east to the Sorceress
city. There are various options once you have captured the city. I tend to
hire two more heroes (knight or barbarian, as you will be fighting knights
mainly), then send the original one east through a pass then north to the
Ogres and treasure, and then continue north to collect two Red Dragons.
Another hero goes to the mines then the treasure in the south-west corner,
then back to the city for troops, and the last hero goes north-west for the
Ogres, then back south-west when he is onto the grass, for more Ogres and a
small Green Dragon Army. It all usually goes a bit pear-shaped at this
point, but the plan is supposed to be to capture at least one of the three
enemy cities along the northern edge of the map, preferably the middle one
as it has the best Mage Guild. Ideally, the enemy heroes avoid yours and go
for the central towns. However, I find that the Dragons are usually
sacrificed on the Crusaders. There are also some Black Dragons on the east
of the map which are very useful, and some Green Dragons just to the south
of the most westerly enemy city, but these are usually beaten before you
get there. Continue with business as usual, bringing up Sorceress troops at
regular intervals, and you will win in six or seven weeks.
New and Better Advice
Frank Cardillo has provided some excellent advice. You definitely need the
Logistics option. Forget about the Knight in the west. Go north, via the
Observation Tower, the Ogres (do not turn back to upgrade them, but upgrade
at the next fort) then the Red Dragon. Get the Knight town or you will run
out of time. Proceed directly north up the road then west then north to the
middle one of the Knight cities. You will walk into the city unopposed with
your last step, and you will have a full complement of Knight troops and
the Fifth Level Mage Guild! It all fits so perfectly that I suspect that
this was designed that way and the Knight in the west was a deliberate red
herring. Once you have the city, it is fairly routine, particularly with
the Green Dragons in the little enclave to the south of the city, and the
Black ones at the eastern edge of the map.
9. The Crown
Look, do you want a good score or not? If you do this alternative, you are
destined to a long hard and probably unsuccessful slog in the final
episode. If you insist: the strategy is get the obelisks, hire plenty of
heroes and dig like crazy when you think you have an idea.
10. Greater Glory
How you proceed on this scenario depends on how confident you feel about
the final scenario. In Apocalypse, Roland starts with 5 Titans in his city,
and gains 1 more in the first week, then 3 more in each following week. So
if you can get to his city in the second week, 12 Black Dragons may beat
his 9 Titans, bearing in mind his Attack/Defence stats will be much better
than yours and he may have Mirror Image, Raise Dead, Armageddon, or any
combination. I would recommend 20 Black Dragons for safety.
You should be able to get to the enemy town in 1 week and 4 days, giving
you time to upgrade to City, Maze and Black Tower before the end of the
second week. Sulphur is the limiting factor. You therefore need to go
north-west to the Sulphur Mine first, back south to the Treasure Chests - I
get Experience in the hope of more Logistics - then go east as far as you
can getting mines and resources if they are not too far out of your way,
then turn north in the south-east corner of the map. Don't forget the other
Sulphur Mine by the coast as you travel north. If you have a sulphur
shortage when you want to upgrade, remember there is a Trading Post close
to the town. Hire another hero to help run around collecting things while
you wait for Dragons to appear. There are often two Dragon armies waiting
to join you, so go to the Observation Tower to see if you can spot them
quickly. If these free Dragons are a significant number, you may only need
to wait two weeks to add to them before you can attack the city over the
river. Pad out your army with more Warlock troops, although I usually leave
the Hydra because they are too slow for the long journey in the next
scenario. If you want to attack a town, the first one you come to
immediately west of your city is the most heavily defended, but has a Level
5 Mage Guild. In the final battle, try not to zap your own troops,
particularly the Griffins, with your own Dragons.
11. Apocalypse
As discussed above, Roland will have a pretty good army with top class
spells, so your carry over army and the hero to go with it should be
powerful.
There are two enemy heroes lurking around your cities - the Barbarian and
the Necromancer ones - but they can easily be overcome. Send Archibald
north from his starting point, and let the Barbarian hero catch up with him
after beating the enemy hero close by his city. If you are confident and
really going for speed, give only the Black Dragons, Gargoyles and Minotaur
Kings to the Barbarian, and keep the rest for Archibald. Use the Barbarian
for the final battle, because Archibald's Attack and Defence stats are not
good enough, and his spell power will not make a significant difference.
Send the Barbarian north up the road, them east then north again after the
mercenary camp. Go around the small range of mountains then east to the
winding road and up to the Glowing Liths which are guarded by the Titans.
There are not many Titans, only six or seven, and they may even flee.
Roland's City is close to the other end of the Liths. You can do what you
like with the other heroes and cities, it does not really matter.
If you are doing a tournament, 12 Black Dragons will not reliably beat
Roland. His killer spells are Raise Dead, Summon Elementals because he can
produce over 30, and Mirror Image. Positioning your Gargoyles and Dragons
next to the Titans can overcome Mirror Image. But if he suddenly raises
seven Titans from the dead when you are down to three Dragons, it is bye-
bye cruel world. In fact I would go as far as to say that you will often
lose to Roland with the basic 19 Dragons that you get from your city in the
previous scenario. Help from the allied wandering Dragons is essential.
Good Luck!
Written by David Mills, Gerrards Cross, London, England -
david@misborne.demon.co.uk
First Blood (Evil Campaign 1)
-----------------------------
I finished this map in 22 days. You're stuck with the Necromancer castle
when you start so make the best of it ;-) Playing well, you can get Bone
Dragons in the first week giving you a definite advantage.
1) Take gold instead of experience from chests for a quick building start.
2) Build the Mausoleum on day 2 or 3, not to buy Liches but because it's a
prerequisite for the Laboratory.
3) Build the Bone Dragon Laboratory on day 3 or 4.
4) Good building order for the Necromancer with lots of resources :
- a) Statue (later if you wish) - b) Mage Guild - c) Mausoleum
- d) Bone Dragon Laboratory - e) Zombie Graveyard (if not
already built) - f) Mummy Pyramid - g) Well
5) Attack the trolls blocking the way on day 2 week 1 with an army
including 4 Bone Dragons and lots of skeletons.
6) After beating the trolls, take experience instead of gold for your
primary hero.
7) Go southwest first to capture the yellow castle (knight)
8) Destroy wandering heroes and rush east to take the wizard castle.
9) On week 3 day 1, build 3 other Bone Dragons from your starting castle,
give them to a quick hero and go east to rendez-vous with your primary hero
who is coming from the south-east.
10) Destroy the remaining castle and wandering heroes.
Barbarian Wars (Evil Campaign 2)
--------------------------------
This is a very small map where you are surrounded by 3 barbarian opponents.
I finished in 10 days playing the Warlock.
1) You have 30 free Nomads when you start.. Enough to take your first
castle.
2) Hire a second hero who will take all nearby resources around your
starting castle.
3) Rush southwest with your principal hero and capture your first Barbarian
castle. It will probably be very lightly defended.
4) Next, go north to capture your second barbarian castle by the end of
week 1.
5) Since it's the beginning of week 2, you can build Ogre Lords and Trolls
in your new Barbarian castle.
6) Leave some troops in this castle and the other one (if someone comes
near) so that wandering heroes are not tempted to take it back. Of course,
killing the wandering heroes while you go east is a better idea
7) Run east towards the last Barbarian castle and capture it.
8) If you want, you can build some troops in your starting Warlock castle
and go north therefore catching your Barbarian opponents in a squeeze. This
also serves as reinforcements for your primary hero.
Necromancers (Evil Campaign 3)
------------------------------
Taking the other path is highly recommended but if you insist on taking the
"Necromancers" path and having a tougher time later, please read on. I
finished in 51 days (month 2, week 4, day 2) but I could have finished a
few weeks sooner if I hadn't built-up such a powerful superfluous army for
the final battle.
1) Your warlock begins with 40 Centaurs, 18 Gargoyles, 12 Griffins.
2) Wait until day 7 to capture the southeast wizard castle. Why ? Simply
because it gives more time for the enemy to build free structures for you
3) Buy Foundry on day 7
4) Buy Mage Guild Level 2 on day 1 of week 2.
5) Explore around but don't leave your northwest valley surrounded by the
chain of mountains.
6) I had 2 armies : warlock with initial troops and barbarian with wizard
troops.
7) Buy Ivory Tower on week 2.
8) There's lots of opportunities to have free stacks "join you for greater
glory" because these wandering armies are mostly low-level creatures.
Therefore, always leave a spot free in your main army.
9) Don't bother with the yellow castle stuck in the soutwest corner. Taking
it is not necessary for victory. The enemies there probably won't bother
you if you leave alone the wandering army defending the southern passage
out of your valley.
10) On week 4, day 1, your warlock will attack the Air Elementals near the
Observation Tower blocking the east passage out of your valley.
11) A small "pipeline" of heroes can bring reinforcements (Rocs, Halflings)
to the warlock before he attacks.
12) Visit the Observation Tower and conquer the nearby wizard castle.
13) Kill remaining enemies and take mines around this second castle except
for the gold mine which is too well protected.
14) Watch out for an enemy hero, coming from the south, possibly with
Giants and high-level spells.
15) Upgrade appropriate troops at appropriate locations (Orcs and Dwarves
at Hill Fort and Golems at Freeman's Foundry)
16) Your objective is the Necromancer town named Quick Silver south of your
second castle.
17) It's protected by 200 Halflings, 45 Rocs, 30 Archmages and 5 Giants
(with possibly more) so be patient and create an army sufficient to the
task.
18) There are 2 gem mines south of Quick Silver.
19) Instead of going for Titans, I decided to upgrade my Mage Guild in the
second castle up to level 5 and build a Library. It was a good decision.
20) My final army was composed of 26 Mages, 71 Battle Dwarves, 61 Steel
Golems, 45 Rocs and 118 Orc Chiefs with a few other powerful "reserve"
stacks in my castles. I admit that it was a bit of overkill but why take
chances :-)
Slay The Dwarves (Evil Campaign 4)
----------------------------------
If you want a good score, going through this map is an absolute necessity.
I finished in 18 days playing the Warlock. This scenario is the opposite
counterpart of Good Campaign 3 where you had to save the Dwarves.
1) You start with 3 heroes at different places on the map.
2) Hire another hero (or two) at your castle, build some troops (gargoyles,
centaurs) and go west.
3) Transfer those troops to your Warlock already near the dwarf village
(west of the castle)
4) Split your Gargoyles in 2 stacks to attacks shooters.
5) Take this northern dwarf village and then go northwest where you will
capture a second village by the end of week 1. Do not take the road,
because the stacks there are too strong for your beginning army.
6) The southern Warlock hero will go west towards a clump of dwarf
dwellings.
7) He will upgrade all those dwarves to battle dwarves at the nearby Hill
Fort and then will go southeast to capture the dwarf village in the snow.
8) The northern Warlock hero after capturing a nearby 3rd dwarven village
should follow the road southwest then south.
9) I attacked the sorceress castle (in the southwest) by the end of week 2.
The castle was very easy to take being lightly defended.
10) If there is a big opponent army inside the castle, go the farthest away
from the castle while still remaining only one day-walk away. With luck,
the AI will be stupid enough to leave the castle undefended...
11) Since it is the beginning of week 3, build some other troops from your
new Sorceress castle.
12) The only thing left to do is to clean-up the wandering enemies and
taking the last dwarf village to the southeast.
In conclusion, completing this map is important because it will give you 2
excellent awards available on all subsequent maps ... Dwarfsbane will make
ALL dwarf and battle dwarf stacks flee in fear. While the Ogre Alliance
will make ALL ogres and ogre lords stacks join you ! Not too shabby, don't
you think ? ;-)
Turning Point (Evil Campaign 5)
-------------------------------
This is the same map as Good Campaign 5. Only the artifacts, the position
of your starting castle and the artifacts change. I finished in 7 days. You
need the Ogre Alliance for this strategy.
1) Hire a second hero on day 1.
2) Your starting hero will rush south with Gargoyles and Centaurs.
3) Your second hero will go west taking any Ogre stacks in his way.
4) The first hero can also pick up Ogre stacks and upgrade them at a nearby
Hill Fort.
5) Ignore mines and most ressources. If there is a chest directly in your
path, take the experience from it.
6) Second hero (with only Ogres) will capture the northwest castle.
7) First hero will capture southeast castle then rush west towards the last
castle.
8) Don't forget to kill any wandering enemy heroes. Sometimes a little
detour at the beginning can save a time-consuming chase later.
Turning Point Without Ogre Alliance (Evil Campaign 5)
-----------------------------------------------------
It is recommended to complete scenario #4 (Slay the Dwarves) instead of
scenario #3 (Necromancers) because of the excellent Ogre Alliance and Dwarf
Bane awards that #4 gives you. But if you're reading this, it means that
you like having a challenge later in the campaign, that you're curious or
that you simply were unlucky in your choice of paths :-) I finished in 16
days.
1) Pick warlock for your castle.
2) In small maps, pick gold from chests.
3) Hire Brother Brax the 5th level necromancer.
4) Rush south by road with the warlock.
5) Take both sawmills, visit Observation Tower and the Halfling Hole.
6) Attack the castle in the southeast corner by the end of week 1 (day 5 or
6 is good)
7) Make sure that your 2 castles have the 3 first creature dwellings,
wells, horde buildings and marketplaces on week 2, day 1.
8) Exchange all your resources for gold.
9) Buy all troops in both castles (this can take 2 days) and rush west with
both heroes to capture the remaining 2 enemy castles in the northwest and
southwest corners.
10) Try to attack the castles when the enemy heroes are not inside even if
it means running after them afterwards.
11) The only possible problem with this map might be the northwestern hero
that might have an army just a bit too strong for you (my conquest of his
castle without him inside was a close affair since our warlock armies were
evenly matched except for 29 Skeletons I had transferred to Brother Brax).
Check his warlock castle to see if there might not be some Hydras left in
the Swamp. There might also be Medusas left in the nearby Ruins. This
should be enough to destroy the northwestern hero.
Rebellion (Evil Campaign 6)
---------------------------
Rebellion is one of my favorite maps in HOMM 2, one that could have been
easily named Peasant Revolt or Skeleton Armageddon ;-) Stomping around the
countryside with 2000 skeletons is a great way to relieve yourself of
stress and get delusions of grandeur :-) FYI, Corlagon, the 5th-level
knight you start with, has expert necromancy so you don't really need to
start with a necromancer castle or necromancer heroes. In fact, I suggest
playing with a warlock castle. I finished in 23 days : not a great score
but not bad.
1) Corlagon has 1 Bone Dragon and 40 skeletons at the beginning.
2) Buy a mage guild on day 1 and go there with Corlagon to get the spells.
Cross your fingers to get either Slow or Haste. Those spells could be very
useful but they're not totally necessary.
3) Attack the throng of Peasants to your north. Use your centaurs to lower
their numbers until they get too close. Then the Bone dragon can finish the
remaining peasants. On later combats with peasants, split your multitude of
skeletons in 3 or 4 different stacks and wait for the peasants to come
near.
4) Still going roughly north, attack the stack of archers, a legion of
peasants (you should now have over 400 skeletons) and the lots of rangers
stack.
5) Tips for attacking big shooter stacks : Bone dragon should be in the
top-most spot of your army. The Gargoyles should be split in 2 stacks if
you have enough of them. Fly the Bone dragon between the 2 upper-right
shooter stacks and attack the lowest one. Fly the gargoyles between 2 other
different stacks of shooters and stay there without attacking (unless you
have a lot of gargoyles).
6) Option for more skeletons and magic items : Go back to the southeast
with Corlagon and attack the legion of peasants guarding the loot near your
castle. I did not do this preferring to go for a quicker victory.
7) There's a yellow knight castle to your northwest. It should be your
first castle conquest. I captured it on day 5 of week 2.
8) If you have it, use Haste on your skeletons or slow on fast shooter
stacks.
9) With your huge stacks of skeletons, rush south following the road.
10) Kill any wandering enemies.
11) Capture the orange knight castle in the south. I did it easily with
only 4 big stacks of skeletons.
12) Make sure all orange enemies with big armies are eliminated before your
final attack.
13) Go northwest following (mostly) the road to attack the remaining Wizard
castle.
14) The Titans are no match for your skeletons by now.
P.S. Grab any shooters you can get while exploring. Against other shooter
troops, they will die in the first turn but will also draw missile fire
away from your attacking skeleton stacks.
I am new to the game and this is not intended to be a high scoring strategy
- just a really fun one. Assuming you start the scenario with the Knight
with Necromantic power. When you start - scoot south of your castle and
pick up the freebie resources. Collect archers from the house all the way
on the southern edge of the map. When you have a good sized army of ranged
weapons - I think I had 20 orc chiefs, 50 archers, and 10 or 15 upgraded
trolls, and some ogre lords for mop up - break them into 4 stacks and go
attack the legion of peasants (roughly 4,000 of them!) to the northeast of
your castle. Use "slow" to avoid letting any reach your forces- whittle
them all down with ranged weapons. If you have left an empty space in your
army your necromancer will raise about 1500 skeletons - head north and hit
any other peasant legions you can find - with about 2,000 skeletons you
should head northwest and go straight to the high-mage's green castle -
taking it should be a snap - particularly if he casts an Armageddon and
wipes out most of his own forces - once his castle falls the rest of the
game is mop up.
Dragon Master (Evil Campaign 7)
-------------------------------
The Ogre Alliance is necessary for my strategy. Don't lose time worrying
about your two warlock enemies. They won't have time to become real
nuisances before you capture the Dragon castle. I won in 10 days. It should
be quite tough to do better.
1) Start with a barbarian castle. Their pathfinding skills will help you in
the western desert.
2) Hire 2 other barbarian heroes and make them give their troops to your
starting barbarian hero.
3) Do not lose time building up your castle. It's not required in this
scenario.
4) The 2 secondary barbarian heroes should collect ogre stacks that are a
little removed from the road. ASAP, they should transfer those ogres to the
principal hero.
5) Your primary barbarian hero will go west following the road.
6) Take any nearby ogre stacks and upgrade them to ogre lords when you pass
nearby the Hill Fort.
7) Do not deviate from the road very much until you reach the desert.
8) Attack the first red dragon stack in the desert...
9) Make sure your ogre lords are split in two equal stacks and that they
are in the 2nd and 3rd place on your roster (I had 2 stacks of about 43
ogre lords before the first dragon battle)
10) With correct positioning, the flying dragons will soon flame each other
while attacking you (the sandwich dragon strategy again :-)
11) Go north through the desert, destroy any dragon stacks blocking your
way.
12) Attack the Dragon castle !
Dragon Master Without Ogre Alliance (Evil Campaign 7)
-----------------------------------------------------
Well, since I got requests for help on this scenario (and number 8) from
those who had decided to help the Necromancers (#3) instead of
exterminating the dwarves (#4), I decided to write a strategy walkthrough
for the Dragon Master scenario without the Ogre Alliance award. I finished
in 57 days. Please keep in mind that in order to win you MUST capture the
Dragon City... exterminating the 2 enemy colors does not give you victory.
Anyway, I think it's much easier to win this map by first killing your
opponents then capturing the Dragon City.
1) I suggest playing with a Warlock since you will need Dragons to kill
enemy Dragons later in the game.
2) Split your Gargoyles in 2 equal stacks when attacking shooter stacks.
3) Hire Brother Brax as soon as possible and make him board the boat (a 3rd
hero preferably a Sorceress is also an option).
4) Don't worry about his lousy navigation skill, since you will have plenty
of time to explore the sea. The lighthouse and the astrolabe of navigation
are in the southeast corner of the map.
5) Your 2 priorities in the first week are building up your castle and
capturing ore and sulfur mines.
6) Weeks 2 and 3 should be used for hiring more troops (for a stronger
army) and building any monster structure not already built.
7) Go roughly north with your primary army. Avoid any enemy heroes prowling
the landscape since you're not strong enough (yet) to take them on.
8) DO NOT build the level-2 Mage Guild ! since you will need the sulfur for
your Dragon Tower.
9) FYI, you should be able to kill easily the wandering armies of slow
ground troops (Ogres, Dwarves, etc) with your big stack of centaurs
(beginning on week 2 or 3) combined with Gargoyles and Griffins who will
destroy any enemy stacks that make it through the hail of shooter arrows.
10) If you are unlucky enough to have Necromancy as a secondary skill,
scrap any skeletons you might get since they will destroy your good morale.
11) Eventually build an army composed solely of Hydras and go south with
them (to get mines). Do not go too far away with them, since their presence
in your starting castle will intimidate the enemy heroes away.
12) I had built up my Dragon Tower on week 4.
13) Upgrade your green Dragon Tower to red one.
14) When you have 7 Red Dragons, the time to attack your first enemy castle
has come.
15) Try to attack the castle that seems the less powerful (orange ?) or
that has the better spells (Dimension Door). My conquest of the first enemy
castle was at the end of week 6.
16) Buy more dragons from your new castle (there should be some) and
combine them with your Red Dragon army.
17) From then on, you should be pretty much invincible. Reinforce your
primary army with Dragons from your castles and chase down all enemy
heroes.
18) When you consider yourself strong enough, you can attack the Dragon
City. If you have Dimension Door, you can attack much sooner since you
won't have to go through the dragon stacks guarding the way.
Country Lords (Evil Campaign 8)
-------------------------------
To use my strategy, you need to have both the Ogre Alliance and the Dragon
Alliance. With those, it turns an otherwise tough map into a merely average
difficulty map. I won in 38 days probably making this the longest scenario
in the Evil Campaign.
1) You start with only one hero commanding a strong army (50 centaurs, 30
Gargoyles, 10 Minotaurs if you pick the warlock) but no castle.
2) You have 1 week to capture a town or you're eliminated by default.
3) First thing to do is visit the Observation Tower. You will see an
annoying knight to your southwest taking all the resources that are
righfully yours.
4) Show him the error of his ways by destroying him on day 2.
5) You don't have time to take everything right away, so take only the
chests.
6) Always take experience and concentrate on the following secondary skills
: Logistics, Wisdom, Leadership (or Luck) and Ballistics.
7) Now rush east to capture the Sorceress castle in the valley. I captured
it on day 7.
8) Hire a second hero and make him go southwest taking all the resources
you left there.
9) Go north between moutain cliffs with your primary hero... scaring
dwarves and taking ogres until you reach a Red Dragon stack.
10) Take it (or them) and go northeast through a field of gold. Don't
bother taking all of it since it could slow you down too much.
11) It's possible to build a Phoenix tower during week 2, but since we use
a very agressive strategy, those phoenix will only serve as a clean-up crew
when the game is already practically won.
12) Capture the northeast warlock castle by week 3.
13) Leave your remaining minotaurs and unicorns to garrison this castle
since you don't want a wandering blue player to take it back after you're
gone.
14) Option : It's possible to capture the southeast village near the water
therefore avoiding a return trip back later.
15) Go north and get the nice 4 free black dragons waiting for you...
16) Now comes the fun stomping part ;-) With your 4 black dragons, your 2
red dragons, around 25 Ogre Lords and your super-hero spellcaster, attack
the knights castles one by one going west.
17) Killing the wandering enemies and capturing 3 very-well protected
knight castles, I did not lose ONE single unit ! If you're lucky you can
get some mass destruction spell (like Armageddon) and leave the Ogre lords,
slowing you down, in one of the castles.
18) Those 3 knight castles were captured in less than a week.
19) Remember your 2nd hero ? He should have explored most of the western
part of the map building up a good army on his own. Capture the western
village if the blue player got it.
20) After killing the majority of the blue enemies in the northwestern part
of the map, it's time to use the teleporter and obliterate the remaining
blue hero hidden on the island.
Country Lords Without Alliances (Evil Campaign 8)
-------------------------------------------------
In answer to multiple requests, here is a general strategy on how to win
Country Lords without the Ogre and Dragon Alliance. I do not suggest
playing it this way unless you really want to have a challenge. No
alliances turns this already hard map into one of the toughest scenarios of
the game. I managed to complete it in 81 days with lots of difficulty.
Playing "Country Lords" the long way is a good way to learn the combat
tactics of the Sorceress and how to beat great Knight armies. I included
some good general tips for the Sorceress player in this walkthrough
1) Kill the Knight in the southwest corner on day 2
2) Take most of the chests but always pick experience instead of gold (pick
Logistics if you can). You don't have time to take all the other resources.
3) Conquer the Sorceress castle to your east by the end of week 1.
4) Hire a second hero and let him harvest the remaining resources in the
southwest corner.
5) It's possible to buy the Red Tower (for Phoenix) on week 2 or 3.
6) Since the Dragons or Ogres will not join your army, you have to be more
patient.
7) Build up your army while conquering most of the southern part of the map
(the brown plains). 1 or 2 additional castles are nice to have but don't
upgrade them too much since you only keep them for additional revenue.
8) You can try sending a scout deep in enemy territory to see the coming
attacks but expect to flee or lose him.
9) AVOID strong enemy heroes ! At least until you are confident in the
strength of your own primary army.
10) I would usually suggest taking the castle to the northeast, near the
water, but in my game, the best enemy hero was patrolling there blocking my
way.
11) Some combat tactics : a) Sorceress units are the fastest ones in the
game. Use this to your advantage. b) Knight troops usually don't have
flyers, therefore stay back and shoot. c) Cast Slow or Blind on the Knight
troops (especially Champions and Crusaders) d) Cast Bless or Haste on your
best Sorceress troops e) Always cast the mass version of the spell if you
have it. f) Keep a garrison (dwarves, unicorns) in the castles you want to
keep since, with luck, it can intimidate some enemies away. g) Use the
Phoenix-Elemental Storm combo if you manage to get this spell. h) Targets
you must destroy, in order of priority, are : the Rangers, the Champions,
the Crusaders and the rest. i) Use offensive spells and shooter fire to
lower enemy stacks before they reach your lines. Finish the approaching
walker stacks with Unicorns or Phoenix. j) Use troop combos (see below)
12) Sorceress troop combos : a) Very Fast Combo = Grand Elves, Greater
Druids, Phoenix b) Fast Killer Combo = Grand Elves, Unicorns, Druids and
Phoenix. (adding another shooter stack makes it even stronger) c) Scout
army = 1 Phoenix or 2 very fast troops in different positions. d) Clean-up
Crew Combo (or Beginning army) = Elves, Battle Dwarves, Druids,Sprites
13) When I had a sufficiently strong Fast Killer Combo (10 Phoenix or
higher), I rushed to the north trying to capture the Knight castles while
the big enemy heroes were otherwise occupied in conquering the southern
towns and castles.
14) Use Hit and Run tactics : capture the castle, enter it for new spells,
reinforce your own army, leave the castle empty, rush the next castle,
capture it, etc.
15) Be aware of opportunities : weak heroes and newly built castles.
16) In my game, I exchanged my good Sorceress castle (after stripping it
almost empty) for the 3 excellent Knight castles in the northwest :-)
In conclusion, the keys to winning this tough scenario without alliances
are patience, guerilla tactics, good spellcasting and avoiding battles you
are not equipped to win.
Greater Glory (Evil Campaign 10)
--------------------------------
This is the same map as Good Campaign 7 (The Gauntlet) with a few
differences. You start in the southwest corner and have to conquer the
enemy town in the northeast corner in 8 weeks or less. I finished in 37
days ,which is not the best possible score, because I wanted at least 12
black dragons in my carry-over force for the last scenario. You start with
the hero Corlagon which has 20 Orc Chiefs, 50 skeletons (Expert Necromancy
will raise this number very soon :-), 24? Griffins, 24 Gargoyles and 20
Power Liches.
1) Dismiss the orc chiefs on your 1st turn : they ruin your morale and slow
the rest of you army. Put the Power Liches in the top position.
2) You can decide to split your 20 Power liches in 2 stacks but I prefer to
leave one spot free for new recruits.
3) I suggest going north by the Warlock trail... but first take the wood
and sulfur mines without forgetting the 3 free chests near the water.
4) Always take experience instead of gold from the chests.
5) During your long trek in the forest, I suggest taking the chests, the
ore piles and the sulfur piles in your direct path but to deviate from it
VERY LITTLE. Leave the other ressources and items for later.
6) When you climb levels, try to pick Logistics.
7) Do not capture the villages... The only one you really need is the
warlock village at the end of the trail near the water.
8) I reached this northeast village by week 2 day 4, leaving me barely
enough time to construct the castle, build the swamp and most importantly
the green dragon tower.
9) Hire another hero that will go back on the trail you just came from to
pick up all the goodies. Option : Hire a 3rd hero to follow your primary
hero around collecting resources a little out the way.
10) Your primary Barbarian hero will explore the 2 other trails while the
black dragons accumulate in your Warlock castle.
11) After Corlagon reaches level 16, take gold from the chests.
12) Eventually build a shipyard with 2 boats.
13) On week 5, go to the nearby trading post and exchange all unnecessary
resources (sulfur is necessary !) for more gold.
14) Board the boat on week 5 day 5, with Corlagon and all the secondary
armies you do not want to carry-over (hydras, skeletons, power liches,
etc). This is the first attack where the objective is weakening the yellow
village (Middlegate) you must capture to win.
15) Try to kill everything except the Dragons which are too tough for the
moment. Don't forget to flee at the last minute with Corlagon.
16) Rehire Corlagon in your Warlock castle and equip him with all the best
troops (black dragons, minotaur kings, gargoyles, griffins). Wait 1 turn
for your spell points to replenish and then board a boat for the second
time (week 5 day 7).
17) On day 1 of week 6, hire another hero (or use one you already have) to
build more troops in the Warlock castle and transfer them to Corlagon
inside the boat.
18) Dismiss all secondary heroes ! Do not dismiss Corlagon and his
impressive army !
19) Final attack takes place on week 6 day 2. Try to minimize your losses
especially for the Black dragons (I only lost one).
Apocalypse -- The Quick And Dirty Way (Evil Campaign 11)
--------------------------------------------------------
To carry out this quick-win strategy you need at least 12 Black Dragons or
more in your carry-over force. The Ogre and Dragon Alliance are not
necessary. I finished it in 12 days. The following is my quick and dirty
(not to mention dull) strategy for this excellent map. I have also done
another strategy on this same map using the long way , which BTW is
infinitely more interesting (the way to play the map, not the article
itself :-), that I will post very soon on this newsgroup. To really enjoy
your HOMM 2 experience, I strongly suggest trying out all maps on your own
at least 2 times before reading any of my strategy tips. If you achieve
victory on your first or second try, then feel free to compare your
strategy and score with mine just for fun :-)
Your primary objective in this map is to capture Roland's castle far to the
northwest. Everything else is secondary to that victory goal.
1) First order of business is to protect your Babarian and Necromancer
castles which are about to be attacked.
2) Buy the best troops available (Cyclops, Trolls and Ogres) in your
Barbarian castle but not everything right away. In any case, even without a
barbarian hero in the castle, the nearby enemy sorceress should be
intimidated enough not to bother you too quickly.
3) The Necromancer castle can be easily defended by returning the nearby
Necromancer hero to the castle and by buying the Bone Dragon. With good
spellcasting, you can beat the approaching knight army.
4) Archibald who has the carry-over forces should give them up to your
midlevel barbarian hero because this barbarian will get superior
pathfinding, good logistics (maybe) not to mention better attack/defense
statistics than Archie.
5) If you have Hydras, leave them with Archibald since they would slow you
down too much.
6) With your barbarian hero leading your carry-over force, go north by the
road (Queen's road). Do not deviate too much...
7) Turn right at the first intersection.
8) You will see a wizard castle but ignore it. Continue east until you
reach another intersection.
9) Turn left (north) still following the road.
10) By the end of week 1, capture the wizard castle at the end of this
road.
11) Buy a spell book and if you can... buy some titans (you can have 4 if
you wait on day 1 of week 2)
12) Next, leave the road and follow the meandering path between mountains.
Don't worry about losing the Wizard castle.
13) At the end of the path, kill the Titans and use the teleporter.
14) For comparison's sake, let's suppose you had kept Archibald (with
Hydras) to reach Roland's castle. You would have arrived by week 3 day 2.
By using the barbarian hero (and no Hydras) you instead reach Roland's
castle on day 5 of week 2.
15) The final battle is very, very tough. Roland will usually have 9
Titans, 9 rocs, 6 Archmages, 11 Steel Golems and 15 Boars. The problem is
that Roland is much better (from a statistics point of view) than either
Archibald or your barbarian hero.
16) Also note that Roland (the wizard) has a 5th-level mage guild with two
5th-level spells and three 4th-level spells. If he manages to get some
killer spell like Ressurect True or Summon Elemental then you can forget
about victory. Spare yourself the humiliation and reload the scenario from
the beginning :-)
17) I had to reload many times, before Roland did not have a combination of
spells too strong for my carry-over force. He usually got Armageddon, Storm
or Mirror Image, but even with those spells, I think it's still possible to
win with good tactics (maybe not if Roland mirror-images his Titans too
much ;-)
18) Your most important stack is the Black dragons since they are immune to
magic and are the only units that can really compete against the mighty
Titans.
Apocalypse -- The Long And Fun Way (Evil Campaign 11)
-----------------------------------------------------
As always, it's a lot more fun and rewarding to completely explore a map
rather than go for the quick victory giving you a better score. Therefore,
I've replayed the last scenario of the evil campaign in order to provide
you with some strategy tips if you decide to play it the long way (like
most of us do). I finished in 38 days. Neither the Ogre and/or Dragon
alliances are necessary to win this scenario but the carry-over force is
preferrable.
1) Winning the long way means that you will have to kill all the enemy
heroes and castles before you go after Roland.
2) My carry-over force consisted of 12 Black Dragons and other assorted
warlock units.
3) Protect your barbarian and necromancer castles which will get attacked
on the first day. If you build enough troops in the barbarian castle, the
nearby sorceress will be intimidated and leave you alone for a while.
4) You don't want this annoying sorceress to steal your resources and free
troops, therefore go kill her on day 2 with a good barbarian force.
5) Unlike the quick and dirty way to win this scenario, you will leave the
carry-over force with Roland since he's a better spellcaster.
6) The 2 first weeks are used for completing the construction of your 3
initial castles.
7) Go north with Archibald's army and capture the wizard (green) castles.
8) I managed to capture two wizard castles in week 1, including one with
Titans and a level-5 mage guild.
9) Leave your griffins in the first castle and the minotaur kings in the
better second castle. That's for protection from wandering enemies
(especially yellow).
10) Concentrate on destroying one enemy color at a time. That means, you
take detours to kill enemy heroes of the color you are currently stalking.
You destroy all that is green, then all that is orange, then finish with
the yellow.
11) Of course, if a wandering enemy hero of a different color is passing
not too far away, you can destroy him too :-)
12) The general strategy in this map is to destroy the strongest enemies
first by striking quickly. Green wizards, orange sorceresses, yellow
knights and finally the red castle of Roland in that order.
13) On week 2, I completely destroyed the green enemy and began my foray
into western sorceress territory (orange).
14) Take one or two Titans with your black dragon army that will draw all
shooter fire away from your precious dragons. All other troops are
optional.
15) On week 3, I almost completely destroyed the orange player taking over
all his castles.
16) On week 4, I annihilated the yellow knights (completely to the east)
with still only 11 Black dragons and 1 Titan.
17) On week 5 day 1, I built 13 Black dragons in my starting Warlock castle
(Griffins, Minotaur Kings and Gargoyles too) and I moved them to the front
(up north).
18) I transferred this great Warlock army to Archibald who still had 11
black dragons and who had become a high-level hero during the course of the
game.
19) I also bought all Titans available from my Wizard castles and gave them
to Archibald.
20) Finally, Archibald's Dragon and Titan army followed the northern path
between moutains, took the teleporter and captured Roland's castle. It was
a tough epic battle with the only survivors being... 3 of my Titans.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
XII. STRATEGY GUIDES (Guides for Normal Maps)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Note: Contributed by a lot of players.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scorched Earth
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following will be another walkthrough for one of the tough scenarios
of HOMM 2 : Scorched Earth. I finished this one in 34 days for 199 pts
(Paladin rating) at normal settings. I will try a different format this
time. Tell me what you think...
1) I suggest starting with a Barbarian castle since this is a medium
map.
2) You start with one castle and one town. Build your second castle on
the first day ! This will give you a money advantage.
3) Hire one other hero at the east castle and one hero at the west
castle.
4) Explore during the first week. Use Barbarians or Warlocks.
5) Your best hero will have an army of Orcs, Goblins and Wolves. Combine
armies if possible. You now have 2 scouts with only one quick unit and
the best army stack who will take mines defended by slow troops.
6) Forget about mines that are too well defended. There are a lot of
free ressources for the taking.
7) During the 2nd week, take the yellow castle in the center of the map
with your best army.
8) Continue exploring with your scouts and take everything that is not
defended. Hire more heroes if possible.
9) Concentrate on the construction of one castle. Don't upgrade, except
for Ogre Lord and forget about mage guilds or turrets. Economize your
ore, it's your most important ressource.
10) By the end of the 2nd week, your best castle should have all monster
structures except for Cyclops.
11) In the 3rd week, conquer one or two more of the yellow player
castles. Buy the best troops and leave for the next city or castle.
Before all that, give your best troops from your starting castle to your
best hero army.
12) By the end of the 4th week, you could try getting the castle of your
enemy brother in the opposite corner of the map. Try to attack while his
hero is away exploring.
13) In the 5th week, you have a definite advantage with your more
numerous castles. Build all the armies you can in all castles (3 or 4
armies now). Exchange all your ressources for gold. Blitzkrieg the
remaining cities and heroes and you've won !
Final word : The secret to victory in this scenario is being aggressive.
Take the enemy castles as soon as possible, but most of all don't let
the Necromancer build up.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
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Shipwrecked
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is my strategy on Shipwrecked! a hard scenario at normal game
difficulty. Please note that you start with a lot of disadvantages in
this one. Your knight starts with only a village and you have to go up
against Warlocks, Barbarians and Necromancers that have 3 towns each. My
walkthrough should assure you of a win, but it will take some time. You
need to be patient in this scenario. I finished in 74 days for 159 pts
(troll rating). Far from my best score but at least I won it ;-) So here
are some tips in rough chronological order :
1) In the beginning, always take gold instead of experience points
2) Build your castle on the first turn
3) Hire another hero on day 2 but give only 1 or 2 very fast troops. He
will serve as your scout while your other slower army (Lord Kilburn)
fights the battles.
4) Take mines that are lightly defended. Don't take any risks especially
againt shooter troops.
5) There is a free town to the north of your starting castle ! But don't
turn it in a castle, you will need the wood for building up your primary
castle.
6) Build the most structures possibles on week 1. Don't bother with Mage
guilds or upgrades except for the ranger upgrade. In my game, I
succeeded in building the Cathedral on day 7 !
7) In week 2, you should have a big army with Lord Kilburn (6 paladins,
28 rangers and some swordmen) and a scout you will use to explore.
8) Week 3 : Build up your castle and explore with Lord Kilburn's army
going first north (there is a genie lamp !) and then south-east.
9) By the end of week 3, you should start attacking the Barbarians
castles in the south-east.
10) Now comes the waiting time...
11) You have to build up your knight and barbarians castles and mop up
the remaining barbarian heroes. By this time, you should have seen
enough obelisks to try finding the ultimate artifact. Don't search for
it if it's too far in enemy territory.
12) By the end of the 2nd month, you should be able to build two big
armies : one composed of Barbarian troops (Ogre Lords, Wolves, Orc
Chiefs...) and the other including (Paladins, Rangers and Swordmen...).
13) With your 2 big stacks... I suggest attacking the Necromancers with
the Barbarian troops and the Warlocks with the Knight troops.
14) Never leave your castles undefended or at the least destroy any
passing armies on your way to their castles.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spellcasters
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As always, try this scenario at least once before reading my little
walkthrough. It's more enjoyable that way and being spoiled of the
surprises is very sad ;-) If you complete it, check out how it could
have been done differently and compare your score with mine !
This scenario is supposed to decide once and for all who the best
spellcasting class will be ! The necromancer, sorceress, warlock and
wizard go up against each other and you have the time to build big
armies while the crusaders keep the peace. The title of this scenario is
somewhat misleading... as you don't really need spell casting to win
this one. At least I didn't ;-) I decided to play the Warlock : my
favorite hero class. So the following tips are more geared towards the
Warlock player. In fact, this article could have been called the Way of
The Warlock ;-) I finished this scenario in 56 days for 144 pts (Water
Elemental rating) at normal game difficulty.
1) Always buy another hero on your first turn of the same class as your
first hero if possible. Give all the troops to your starting hero except
for a very fast unit that will stay with your 2nd hero : the scout.
2) I don't usually do this but here is a good order for building
structures in the Warlock Castle during the first week : Crypt, Dungeon,
Statue, Nest, Maze (if you can), Swamp (if you can), Well (possibly
Waterfall as a alternate choice).
3) You play a Warlock, sulfur is your first priority !
4) Explore with both heroes and take lightly defended mines. Your flying
troops (griffins and gargoyles) are great for killing most missile
troops ! Separate your gargoyle stack in two if necessary.
5) Do not build mage guilds, you will need the sulfur for Dragons and
Hydras.
6) At the beginning of week 2, reinforce your best army with new troops
from the castle.
7) Keep Hydras in your castle. They slow down all your troops and they
make a great garrison. Hint : With hydras in your castle, the AI will
rarely attack you.
8) Here is a good "pocket" formation for protecting your centaurs from
flying enemies (thanks to whoever came up with that formation !). You
need a closer formation (monsters next to one another). From top to
bottom :
Dragons
Centaurs
Griffins
Gargoyles (who will move in front of the centaurs at their first turn)
Minotaur kings
9) Upgrade for minotaur kings as soon as possible
10) By week 4, you have a big enough army to take on the Necromancer to
the north. Keep close to the shore and take the gold mine while you
pass. Usually, I would attack other castles much sooner, but your
adversaries start with good armies in this scenario.
11) Always save your money for Dragon towers. Do not build Mage guilds
except for the first level...
12) You can now give your Hydras (you should have a bunch by now) to
your scout and attack the wandering armies and cemeteries that you
didn't get the first time.
13) Don't go too far from your castle with this second army.
14) Week 5 : construction
15) If you're lucky, the Wizards and Sorceresses (?) are attacking each
other.
16) After the Necromancer is completely eliminated, go after the Wizard
next but with Necromancer troops (Vampire Lords, Liches and Bone Dragons
are a good combination!)
17) At almost the same time, attack the sorceress castles with a stack
of Red Dragons and Minotaur Kings.
18) You can attack on both fronts, but don't leave your castles
undefended. If you do, kill any armies that want to avoid you.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Teleporters
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Think of this map as a 3-pointed star. On each point there are 2 colors
and one teleporter leading to an island full of good stuff. You can win
by accumulating 400,000 gold pieces or by destroying all your opponents.
The second way is quicker. I finished in 80 days for 138 pts (Ghost)
playing as a Warlock.
1) There are a lot of free ressources... take the gold and build up your
castle.
2) Hire another hero on day 1 and a third one at the beginning of week
2.
3) Keep the buffer zone troops in the middle of the "star" island.
4) With this 3rd hero, build a shipyard with a boat and go explore the
map.
5) There are no ressources in the water... but it's nice discovering
more of the map.
6) Week 3 : why not build a second boat ?
7) End of Week 3 : attack the castle in your point of the "star"
8) The enemy AI is too stupid to build shipyards...
9) The 4 other colors will beat up on each other.
10) Remember the buffer troops ?, they keep your part of the island free
to explore.
11) Attack the other castles by boat when you're ready.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terra Firma
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game difficuly: impossible
Map difficulty: expert
Goal: vanquish all the opponents in 11 days.
Everything is quite simple. For faster movement - at the end of each day
try to take with one hero all the army from main hero except the boars.
Day 1
Wizard (leave all army in the castle except one boar) takes Treasure
chest (money - 2000!) and campfire. Recruit 2nd wizard which goes to the
right (leave all army in the castle except one boar).
Day 2
1st wizard takes haflings. 2nd wizard takes Treasure chest (money) and
visits Gazebo. Recruit 3rd hero. Take all army in the castle (buy some
troops) and give it to 1st hero. 1st hero kills monsters on the road and
takes artifact.
Day 3
Capture lower castle (get 'Magic arrow' spell there). Defend with one
hero starting castle.
Day 4
Main hero moves south. Leave the starting castle and go down. You have
now 2 heroes standing on both sides of lower castle (keep safe
distance).
Day 5
Orange retakes castle an chases after your main hero leaving castle
undefended. Your king has sent supplies to help you in your efforts -
5000K gold and 10 gems. Recruit 3 more heroes (get the free resources to
the left from lower castle). Supply the main army. Your main army kills
the monsters guarding the entrance in the valley and go SE.
Day 6,7
Main army still moving SE. At the end of Day 7 you should stand 1 step
from gazebo. Other heroes collect all free resources around and visit
all obelisks they see.
Day 8
Main army is attacked by red. Don't allow to retreat. Capture castle. 4
bone dragons are waiting for you. Now your puzzle is quite open to
detect where is ultimate artifact. For me it was in 1 day distance from
castle. Recruit 2 heroes. One will dig the artifact, the other - pass it
to main army. Main army stays in castle where you buy 2nd level mage
guild.
Day 9
Pass the ultimate artifact to main army (I got Ultimate book of
Knowledge - +12 knowledge, but actually you need any ultimate stuff with
knowledge and/or spell power). Visit well and move south.
Day 10
Main army kills red's hero. You already see the Black Fang.
Day 11
Black Fang is so weak that it makes you laugh.
Good job! You get 415 pts.
-- Bene Armstrong
This is my killer strategy for Terra Firma. You play a lone warlock that
has to caspture a necromancer castle on the other side of a new
landbridge created by wildmagic. This scenario is considered of expert
difficulty but I found it quite easy (at least more easy than Broken
Alliance ;-) I even got my best score ever ! Finished in 29 days for 273
pts (Black Dragon rating) at normal game difficulty. So without further
ado here's how I did it :
1) Buy one other hero on day 1. One hero will be scout (one unit) and
the other hero the warrior (all other units).
2) Don't forget to get more halflings at the nearby halfling hole.
3) Take the wizard castle to the east very rapidly, by the end of week
1, with your warrior hero (army : lot of halflings, 3 rocs, several
boars and possibly mages)
4) Keep the buffer zone between your starting castle and the south
Wizard castle.
5) Keep your steel golems in your starting castle for the moment
6) Buy more troops at the beginning of week 2 in your new wizard castle
and conquer the southern Wizard castle.
7) Week 3 : Build up the maximum of units possible and give them to your
warrior hero stack (Mages, Boars, Rocs, more than 100 halflings). You
can add steel golems too but they're not necessary.
8) Buy cheap sacrificial Barbarian heroes to explore to the southeast.
9) With your warrior hero, rush to the southeast ignoring all towns and
detours (possible exceptions : Gem mine and obelisks) until you get to
Blackfang Castle.
10) Kill wandering Necromancer armies if they're weak.
11) If you don't want a Necromancer Hero to flee, use the slow spell
instead of the blind spell which doesn't work on undead..
12) Conquer Castle Blackfang ! If you're lucky it will be lightly
defended with no enemy hero protector :-)
It's probably possible to get a better score on this map if it's your
second time out (it was my first attempt on this scenario) and if you're
very agressive.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
TERRA FIRMA
Expert Map, Impossible rating, 220%,35 days, 363 points. My top score.
This one is rather simple. I have played it three times, improving each
time the strategy. In every scenario you have to keep in mind the
objective. Conquer the BlackFang castle. That's all !
1.By the end of the first week you have to conquer one of the Wizard's
castle.
2.By the end of the second week you have to conquer the other Wizard's
castle.
3.Find the Ultimate Artifact. On this artifact depends the strategy.
Anyhow in this scenario this artifact is not very necessary.
4.A miss of the game. If you find the castle with the hero in it, the
forces guarding the castle don't fight with you if they are different
types of the opponent's hero forces. (The second time I played this
scenario in 47 days this happened and the victory was easy.)
5.Another miss of the game(not for this scenario).The computer player
always leave forces in the castle, so they split their force and it is
easier to defeat.
6.On my last attempt I was lucky. I had 2nd level spells only, the
Lightning, the artifact which improves with 50% the lightning and as
Ultimate artifact the Staff with 12 Spell Power points. Last, but not
the least BlackFang was heavily defended. Going for them they send 4
heroes against me, each of them having 4 light troops (7-10 of a kind)
and one large troop which was defending the castle. My army was very
light, made up of 10 ArchiMages, 20 Stell Golems, 25 Birds, 30 boars and
about 60 halflings.
7.In normal situation I could not beat the castle armies made up of 25
Bone Dragons, 40 Liches, 50 Vampires, 70 Royal Mummies, 100 Mutant
Zombies. But resisting almost without losses to the four strikes of the
enemy, my final fight was with 25 Bone Dragons and nothing more.
Anyhow at this level you have to restart the game several times to get
the best configuration: spells, artifacts and a bit of luck in order to
get a top score.
-- Cristian Arosculesei
Terra Firma should be set as a hard map. It is just too easy. Lost
continent is way harder than it. I won it at a score of 367 in 33 days
(impossible level).
I just get all resources I need and when enemies comes near I always
sneaked back into the castle. About week 2, yellow and orange should be
fighting badly. Send a hero to check who wins. If the enemy castle in
sight is lightly defended than capture it no matter who strong the hero
near the castle you can fled back to your base and can use the magic
that castle has (use a waste warlock hero).
If your are lucky, you can even buy the troops in the castle ( a lot).
Then the enemy hero may not attack. After I used this technique to
capture all other two wizard castles, orange defeated and yellow in a
caslt near Blackfang. Get about 24 archmages, 30^ rocs, 40 steel golems,
60 boars, 160 haflings before month 2 week 3. I went down to Blackfang
at the the 27 day. Lucky me! Blackfang was havily defended! It had 16
bone dragons, 20-30 vampire lords, 98 upgraded zombies, 10 skeletons,
and 30 royal mummies. High spell power, high defence, and slow magic
will be nessary.
-- Judy Chan
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Lost Continent
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game difficuly: impossible
Map difficulty: hard
Goal: vanquish all the opponents in 31 days.
The map is easy but annoying. It's hard to destroy the enemy fast.
That's why I don't like it.
The only reasonable choice here is the sorceress :
1) there are tons of wood, gold and artifacts in the water ;
2) its closer to the strongest castle (purple warlock) than any other
castle - 2 days by sea.
There is one condition - purple must be builder. Otherwise you will find
nothing worth using when you capture his castle. The goal is to take
purple Warlock castle on Day ~12 - it will be lightly defended cause
purple has taken all his army out. If there is not green tower built
then u are screwed - restart. Even 5th level guild wont help u to
accomplish the task.
1) Purple will be vanquished trying to retake his starting castle.
2) On Day 15
a) give 2 dragons to one sorceress which goes in the whirlpool to reach
orange Wizard castle. After capturing wizard starting castle (4th level
guild there) she goes East and captures necromancer starting castle.
Many bone dragons awaiting for you.
b) give 2 dragons to one hero which goes West and captures knight
starting castle. Then go south and capture barbarian starting castle.
You will see that dragons and your growing spell power are unstoppable.
When you have captured these castles you can retreat and hire these
heroes whereever you need.
3) On 3rd week hire (actually you should have one hero there already)
one hero in your starting castle. Recruit archers and move south cause
yellow likes to build there.
About this time you should have finished taking all the free resources
from sea.
4) On 4th week hire one hero in your starting castle. Take black (you
have tons of resources - why not upgrade) dragons and move to the center
of the map. Barbarian and wizard like to capture towns there.
~ on Day 27 all castles (!) are captured but you still run after enemy
heroes who run in all directions and capture towns or have already done
it.
Good job! But it can be done a few days faster. I didn't score in my
table so I don't know how much points you get.
-- Bene Armstrong
An original HOMM2 professional map.
The goal is to take purple Warlock castle. On normal difficulty you can
build second magic level guild and get Lightning bolt or Cold ray and
make an attack plan to purple castle within the first week and capture
castle on day 7 or 8. Within the 2 or 3 first weeks you can build Dragon
tower. Playing on impossible you can't take purple castle within the
first week. I decided to conquer the castle on week 2. To conquer
Warlock castle I needed a strong army. With 8 druids, 10 grand elves and
6 unicorns it is possible to take purple Warlock castle. How it is
possible to build unicorns in the first week? Actually there are 6 piles
of random resources near. I had 2 piles of gems (for a total of 12) and
2 piles of ore (for a total of 15). I took money over experience, hired
another Sorceress hero, made her board a boat and took flotsam in the
water.
Warlock castle was lightly defended and I won with minimum losses. There
were 4 green dragons available, I hired 2 and stayed in the castle. Both
Warlock heroes failed to beat me in the castle and Purple was
vanguished. Within the week I upgraded green tower to black and had 7
black dragons by the 4th week. 2 dragons I gave to my primary Sorceress
hero who she went into the whirpool to reach orange Wizard castle.
Second sorceress with 2 dragons went to conquer Knight castle. Then I
vanquished Barbarian and Necromancer.
Finished on impossible in 34 days.
-- King Arturo (Arturo Axenenko)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Undead Armies
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This scenario is called Undead Armies but your biggest problem will be
the Barbarians... I played blue color as a knight (southwest corner). I
won this in 54 days for a score of 146 pts (Water Elemental rating) at
normal game difficulty.
1) You play a Knight, your first priority is WOOD !
2) Hire another hero : if possible a Barbarian or Sorceress.
3) Good order for the 1st week of building : Archery Range, Shipyard
with Boat, Statue, Well, Blacksmith, Tavern, Armory (if you have enough
wood).
4) On day 2 or 3, give most of your archers to your sorceress who will
board the boat.
5) Attack the enemy boat already exploring the sea.
6) You now have all the flotsam, chests and island treasures to
yourself.
7) By the end of Week 2 : upgrade to Rangers and attack the castle to
your north... Follow the shore !
8) 3rd castle conquest (Necromancer near the shore) should be at the end
of week 3 or beginning of week 4.
9) With all the obelisks found by your sorceress and other heroes, you
should have a pretty good idea where the ultimate artifact is located.
10) Do not go deep in enemy territory trying to find it.
11) Be patient and build up your 3 castles. Never leave your castles
totally undefended.
12) Explore with scouts while preparing your final army.
13) Orange armies (Barbarians) shall be your toughest opponents.
14) There is a teleporter going from the northwest corner to the
southeast corner... use it if possible.
15) I leave the rest to you !
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Valley Of Death
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game difficuly: impossible
Map difficulty: expert
Goal: capture Vulcania at Day 11. Take blue barbarian (for max moving in
the desert).
Day 1-4, Take experience in the Treasure chest (prefer better
pathfinding and logistics then and later) and go straight North. Take
dwarwes in the Dwarf cottage. No need to recruit more heroes. I tried to
recruite one more hero and supply the first with halflings and/or
medusas but I lost then 1-2 days.
Kill the monsters (if you get not so many dwarwes you'll be screwed if
monsters appear to be strong (for.ex., one time I got pack of iron
golems)) blocking pathway to North.
Get in the boat on Day 5.
You land on NE island on Day 7. There you'll find a teleporter to the
"valley of death". Delete dwarwes and goblins to move further each turn
and later if you have less hitpoints the computer hero will attack.
You'll need that for sure.
Day 8, Take genies.
Day 9, Take as much genies as you can in second lamp.
Day 10, You see that enemy hero couldn't reach you. You recruit ghosts
and move just one (!) step towards Vulcania.
Day 11, Computer hero attacks you. Main goal is to attack weaker enemy
units with ghosts. To attack Vulcania you need at least 50+. Final
battle is like a cake walk if the same strat is used.
You get for this trick 415 pts . Congratulations!
-- Bene Armstrong
Expert, medium expansion set map.
# of players: 1 human(computer) random / 1 human(computer) random / 1
computer necromancer
You have to capture Necromancer castle "Vulcania" by the end of month 5,
week 4, day 7. The castle lies in the valley of death and is strongly
defended.
I played Blue Barbarian and used the quickest way to win.
Day 1-4, Take experience in the Treasure chest and keep going straight
North. Recruit dwarwes in the Dwarf cottage.
Day 5-8, Kill the 2nd level monsters blocking pathway to North because
there will be a boat you need to board. Board boat with Barbarian and
navigate to NE island. There will be a teleporter leading straight to
the 'valley of death'.
Day 9-11, Recruit some ghosts...for the final battle you will need a
horde of ghosts.
Finished on impossible in 11 days.
-- King Arturo (Arturo Axenenko)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vikings!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this scenario you have 3 towns in the southwest corner of the map.
You are heavily outnumbered by 4 Barbarians (different colors) to your
north and east. I finished in 71 days for a score of 160 pts (Troll
rating) at normal game difficulty, playing as a warlock.
1) Transform your northern town into a castle on day one.
2) Concentrate on building your Warlock castle first...do not build any
mage tower (except level one eventually) or castle defenses (turrets)
3) A little tip... green (forest) is safe and brown (broken Lands) is
dangerous and crawling with Barbarians.
4) You are protected by big armies that stop the Barbarians from
attacking you in the forest. Keep those buffer zones until you are ready
to attack !
5) There are also buffer armies in front of your towns. Leave them
alone, until you feel confident in the strength in your armies.
6) When you have 7 Red Dragons (week 4 to 6 depending on your luck), a
lot of gargoyles and a bunch of Minotaur Kings, you can start attacking
the Barbarian castles.
7) With this army, you should be pretty much unbeatable.
8) I suggest attacking the southeast Barbarian castles first, while the
Barbarians in the north attack each other.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warrior Knight
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't usually make strategy walkthroughs for large maps of normal
difficulty, but this one was quite interesting. In addition, since you
have to pick one of 4 knights, it's a good scenario to practice your
knight's strategies. I will concentrate on the starting game of the
Knight castle and on general tips because so many different things can
happen.
I finished in 76 days for a score of 140 pts (Ghost rating) at normal
game difficulty. I played the blue color. So without further ado :
1) Buy 2 other heroes in week 1 : one barbarian or wizard, one knight to
combine troops.Two heroes will be scouts, one will be the warrior.
2) As a Knight, your foremost priority is WOOD !
3) A good building order for week 1 : Archery Range, Statue, Well,
Armory (for Swordmen), Tavern, Blacksmith (for Pikemen), Jousting Arena
(Farm as an alternate if you don't have enough wood)
4) Week 2 : Shipyard, Boat, Upgraded Archery Range, Marketplace
(facultative)... the rest of your money for armies.
5) Usually there is a lot of wood in the water... in those cases, build
a shipyard and a boat as soon as possible... the high wood cost is
recuperated very soon by all the flotsam and chests.
6) For most of this scenario I had 6 heroes : 3 in boats, 1 to protect
the starting castle, 1 scout and 1 warrior.
7) Go after Red opponent (Necromancer) in the north first (week 4)
8) Let the other colors beat up on each other...
9) After eliminating Red, attack the closest and/or weakest Color.
10) Concentrate on destroying one color at the time.
11) Leave the Peasants in your castles unless you have a lot of them..
they slow down the rest of your army and they're the worst troop in the
game.
12) A good first knight army would consist of Rangers, Swordmen and
Pikemen.
13) A very good second or third army would consist of Paladins,
Cavalries, Master Swordmen, Veteran Pikemen and Rangers.
14) It's always a good idea to go after Necromancer castles first..
they're usually weak and don't have a lot of missile troops.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wastelands
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a good scenario to learn how to play the barbarian. You're a
barbarian stuck in the broken Lands that must beat an alliance of the
Necromancer, the Sorceress and the Wizard. I won in 52 days for 177 pts
(Champion rating) at normal game difficulty.
1) Buy a second Barbarian hero, buy troops in your castle and combine
all the troops on your starting Barbarian.
2) Foremost priority of Barbarian is ORE ! (mine to the north-east)
3) Good building order for week 1 : Stick Hut, Statue, Den, Adobe, Well,
Garbage Heap, (Bridge if you have the ressources)
4) Week 2 : capture the village near your castle but don't upgrade it.
5) Week 2 purchases : Upgraded Hut, Upgraded Adobe, Marketplace,
Thieve's Guild
6) You will lack ore during the second week... build up your armies
instead. Build Troll Bridge when you have enough ore.
7) By the end of week 3 : attack the closest enemy castle with your big
army (15 Ogre Lords, 40 to 50 Orc Chiefs, Wolves, Goblins)
8) When you have this second castle, buy a marketplace and exchange
unnecessary ressources for ore.
9) I almost never build cyclops pyramid because I prefer to use my money
on Ogre Lords and Trolls.
10) Conquer another castle by the end of week 4.
11) With 3 castles, the rest of the scenario is pretty easy.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who Am I?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game difficuly: impossible
Map difficulty: expert
Goal: vanquish all the opponents in 15 days. One special requirement -
nomad boots (see Day1,2,3).
Think you are weak. Heeeeheeee. Ergh+.. No!
Day 1,2,3.
Hero kills 2 skeleton armies, takes Treasure chests.Then kills lots
mummies (22). Takes halflings and kills lots of gargoyles (21), losing
first mage (no more losses yet). Takes first chest and nomad boots (I
didn't take thunder mace of dominion). Secondary skills at the end of
Day 3: advanced wisdom, advanced balistics, advanced logistics, basic
pathfinding (1-2-4-3).
Day 4,5
Capture castle. Move north (not the way you came). Don't take the town
though it's free. Easily kill () first hero. Second hero attacks you (7
mages, 6steel golems, 39 halflings) with 20 chief orcs, 5 ogres, 5
wolfes, 20 rogues. Lose just one mage.
Day 6,7
Purple has built a castle and moved out one hero who fails to capture
your castle on Day 7 because you have recruited your second hero -
wizard (warlock) . Hero moves north killing 2 u. zombie armies and
visiting well.
Day 8
Hero kills skeletons on the road, visits oasis and thus can capture
castle on that day but that is hard. The enemy hero which stands in the
gates of the castle already has a huge army: 30 chief orcs, 5 ogre
lords, 18 skeletons (uh.. his morale is gonna be bad), 4 ogres, 8 orcs.
You should have such secondary skills before the battle as expert
balistics (walls and tower are destroyed in 3 moves) and basic luck (2-
3-5-3). Purple has moved out his last hero. Move your 2nd hero out too.
Day 9,10
Hero stays in captured castle 2 days to defend it. Last green's hero
attacks his former castle on Day 10 and dies. Green is vanquished. Now
you have got many useful and unuseful artificats. Hero moves south (at
the end of Dau 10 you stand one step from wolves). Recruit 3rd hero
there and move out. This hero will pass the army from this castle to
main hero. 2nd hero captures purple's castle and stays there. On Day 10
2nd hero attacks last purple's hero. Purple is vanquished.
Day 11,12
Hero kills wolves, then visits 2nd level shrine. Take archers and
Treasure chests. Kill m. zombies. Other heroes don't play a role here.
Day 13,14,15
Move down the road. Red's biggest army attacks you (suffer minimal
losses if spells used properly). Capture castle to the right. Easily
kill red's 2nd hero and capture their last castle. Red is vanquished.
You get for this trick 407 pts. Congratulations!
-- Bene Armstrong
Very fun scenario of expert difficulty similar in some way to Dragon
Rider. BTW, who is that Wizard ? It's never told :-) I finished in 70
days for 216 pts (Bone Dragon rating) at normal game difficulty.
1) You start with a lone wizard, 8 Mages and some Steel Golems
2) Go north towards the village beating skeletons along the way.
3) Capture village and build castle right away
4) Hire a second hero to use as a scout
5) Takes the mines to the north-west and to the west.
6) Capture another village and upgrade to castle when you can. Try to
pick a village away from the other Colors.
7) Keep buffer armies between you and your adversaries.
8) Conquer northern castle at the beginning of week 4. Note : This is
the hardest part of the game...you have to avoid the armies until you
conquer the castle and then with the remaining troops you must defend
against his desperate attacks.
9) Beginning of month 2 : there is PLAGUE !!! Use this to your
advantage.
10) After taking northern castle and waiting a little to build up your
armies, take the boat to your west.
11) There's not enough good stuff in the water to justify any detour.
12) There's an excellent island with a lot of chests and a gold mine in
the south-west corner.
13) In the beginning of the 2nd month, I had 3 castles.
14) Now be patient and build up a good wizard army from your starting
castle.
15) Let the 2 remaining colors beat up on each other and take any
lightly defended cities.
16) By the 3rd month, it was a war of attrition, my higher number of
castles and better armies garanteed me a victory !
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
I only used 79 days and a score of 286. Mr. Dragon said he waited the
three enemies to beat up each other is wrong. I attracted strong heroes
to the town north of the purple's base(swamp). When that hero captured
the town. Either green or purple will appear. After a good bloody fight,
one of the two heroes must lose some troops, and the other defeated. I
usually comes by and just send all the troops of that remaining hero's
to heaven. When either purple or green is weakened, I will attack the
easily send some of my titans to finish purple off. Then the other hero
sucessfully arrive the area near the desert and beat them up also. Then
these two heroes will attack red in two directions. the small opening
near the xanadu and the south opening of the snow. Red will surely be
destroyed.
1. Day1 destroy the first army of skeletons and head to the skeletons on
the sawmill
(capture the sawmill).
2. Day2 Get all treasure chests near the sawmill and capture the town.
3. Day3 kill the royal mummies north of the first town and capture the
ore and gem mines.
4. Day4 Go west and kill the pack of mummies. Go south and capture the
town nearest to you.
5. Day5 Capture the sulphur mine just near you.
6. Day6 Get haflings southeast of the second town.
7. Get the crystal mine way north of the ore mine or the in the entrance
of swamp.
8. Build castle
9. Fresh heroes are coning near you. The will turn into benifits if you
can kill them without losing lots of troops.
10. Build pen, foundry, cliff nest, mage guild, well, ivory tower and
2nd level mage guild. Then wait for money to build clould castles.
*11. If STRONG enemies are coming toward you, forget about building. Buy
rocs in first place then golems, mages, and haflings. Also left turnnel
and right turnnel will greatly help you in the battle. Don't buy any
troops unless enemies are coming and your Who am I? hero can't get there
in time.
12. Who am I should not leave any troops in castles.
13. Green and purple will gratefully kill each other for the town north
of the swamp area. You kill the one who wins(you must be stronger than
him). Don't stand between those two or three different colour's heroes.
They may attack you first. Just stand near but not to near.
14. After purple's armies are very weak but another hero to go attack
green in the dessert with about 5-6 titans, Who am I's going to attack
purple with also 5-6 titans.
15. After purple and green got destroyed go straightly to red's base and
destroy him too.
NOTE: there should be only two heroes or a third to transport armies.
Don't let people capture your main wizard castle. Remember on the west
end of the swamp there's a castle too. Sea traveling is not nessary. You
may tell some junk heroes to get the artifacts in the isle south
westward of the map.
-- Smarties
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Winterlands
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first time I played this I started in the Southwest corner of the
map as a Necromancer. (Yellow)
A major key to victory in this scenario is given in the introduction;
i.e. you will need lots of heroes. I was using three of them in the
first week and wished I could afford more. The reason for this lies not
only in the size of the map (large), but also because there are a large
number of recruiting stations to make use of. For example there are
Halfling Holes, Archer houses, Wagon camps, Medusa thingies (I forgot
what they are called). In fact, immediately to the southwest of the my
starting castle was 3 Halfling holes! I collected about 75 of the
friendly little Bilbo's in the first week!
There are two towns nearby the starting castle in the southwest. They
are not too heavily guarded, and may be conquered by week 3. The first
town lies immediately to the west, and the other northwest through a
mountain passage into snowy country. Meanwhile, your other heroes should
be operating under one directive: EXPLORE!!
Once you get these two towns converted into castles, then the real
action begins. By this time, your other heroes will have explored much
of the region to the north. They may have discovered Green's castle. Get
your main hero up there quickly to take this castle because he tends to
leave it guarded by a mere token force. It's a long journey to get
there, so If you have the cash and wood, build a shipyard and a boat in
your main castle and sail right up to his doorstep!
IMHO, once you get this castle (it will be your 4th) the rest of the
game is fairly easy. Just be on your guard with the portals nearby that
may provide easy access for the enemy. But, also, use the portals to
your advantage and take the initiative.
Finally, don't forget to get the multitude of artifacts that are
scattered everywhere! It's helpful to have your haste spell ready
against the guardians of these artifacts. I found that the first strike
made a big difference.
Overall, this is a very fun to play scenario. There is a wide variety of
terrain and castle types. You will pretty much experience everything
Heroes of Might and Magic II has to offer with this scenario. (Not too
different from Lost Continent in that regard). Also, the first few weeks
are relaxing because you spend more time discovering things instead of
desperately defending yourself as in other scenarios.
Final Note: Some players will probably recommend buying a boat early and
getting the goodies in the ocean. I think this is a good idea, but
sometimes you can achieve the same result by defeating an enemy hero and
taking all the artifacts that he collected in the ocean thus saving you
the work. Although you miss out on the wood & gold, it's not a terrible
loss in the scheme of things.
-- Scagon Dragon (Jeff Scanga)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
XIII. DISCLAIMER
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Unpublished work Copyright 1999-2000 Joseph Andro Artanto.
This FAQ and everything included within this file cannot be reproduced
in any way, shape or form (physical, electronical, or otherwise) aside
from being placed on a freely-accessible, non-commercial web page in
it's original, unedited and unaltered format. This FAQ cannot be used
for profitable purposes (even if no money would be made from selling it)
or promotional purposes. It cannot be used in any sort of commercial
transaction. It cannot be given away as some sort of bonus, gift, etc.,
with a purchase as this creates incentive to buy and is therefore
prohibited. Furthermore, this FAQ cannot be used by the publishers,
editors, employees or associates, etc. of any company, group, business,
or association, etc., nor can it be used by game sites and the like.
It cannot be used in magazines, guides, books, etc. or in any other
form of printed or electronic media (including mediums not specifically
mentioned) in ANY way, shape, or form (including reprinting, reference
or inclusion), without the express written permission of the author,
myself. This FAQ was created and is owned by me, Joseph Andro Artanto
(arsin@indosat.net.id). All copyrights and trademarks are acknowledged
and respected that are not specificially mentioned in this FAQ.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
XIV. CREDITS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
-Thanks to God.
-Thanks to Rob Merrit for his artifact list.
-Thanks to Sebastien Patenaude for his too many to count contributions.
-Thanks to AstralWizard for his artifact/spell explainment.
-Thanks to Dragos Stanciv for his guidance for expert.
-Thanks to Kaspa for the idea.
-Thanks to New World Computing.
-Thanks to you, readers! Goodbye! if you have any contributions,
suggestions, comments, critics, or anything, just e-mail me
(arsin@indosat.net.id)or(ICQ:55139575). You also can visit me at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dragon/3939
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Unpublished work Copyright 1999-2000 Joseph Andro Artanto.
Version 0.5
Latest Update in January 6, 2000
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
By Joseph Andro Artanto
E-mail: arsin@indosat.net.id
ICQ : 55139575
Site : http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dragon/3939
Hi! I have decided to make a FAQ for Heroes 2. However, I cant take if you
rip off my work here or selling this walktrough for own profit, so if you
did, I'll found out and I will put you in the losers contents. This
walktrough and future revisions of it can be found at :
- http://www.gamefaqs.com/
- http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dragon/3939
or you can e-mail me at arsin@indosat.net.id
Unpublished work Copyright 1999-2000 Joseph Andro Artanto.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ia. VERSIONS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
-Version 0.1 (10/9/1999). Initial release.
-Version 0.2 (23/10/1999). Filled the Roland's and Archibald's campaign
strategy. Minor corrections.
-Version 0.3 (28/11/1999). Layout corrections, Minor corrections. You now
can contact me by ICQ (55139575).
-Version 0.4 (29/12/1999). A really, really big update. Added some more
sections (General Tips, Using certain hero types, and some more normal
strategies). The artifact list and spell list also have updated now.
-Version 0.5 (6/1/2000). Strategy Guides for normal maps section added.
Minor corrections.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ib. CONTENTS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I. VERSIONS/CONTENTS
II. GAME SYSTEM
III. SPECIAL PLACES LIST
IV. BUILDING LIST
V. ARMY LIST
VI. SPELL LIST
VII. ARTIFACT LIST
VIII. GENERAL TIPS
IX. USING CERTAIN HERO TYPE
X. STRATEGY GUIDES (BEGINNER)
-Normal Strategies
-First Week Building
XI. STRATEGY GUIDES (Guides for Campaign Maps)
XII. STRATEGY GUIDES (Guides for Normal Maps)
XIII. DISCLAIMER
XIV. CREDITS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Ic. DISCLAIMER
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Unpublished work Copyright 1999-2000 Joseph Andro Artanto.
This FAQ and everything included within this file cannot be reproduced
in any way, shape or form (physical, electronical, or otherwise) aside
from being placed on a freely-accessible, non-commercial web page in
it's original, unedited and unaltered format. This FAQ cannot be used
for profitable purposes (even if no money would be made from selling it)
or promotional purposes. It cannot be used in any sort of commercial
transaction. It cannot be given away as some sort of bonus, gift, etc.,
with a purchase as this creates incentive to buy and is therefore
prohibited. Furthermore, this FAQ cannot be used by the publishers,
editors, employees or associates, etc. of any company, group, business,
or association, etc., nor can it be used by game sites and the like.
It cannot be used in magazines, guides, books, etc. or in any other
form of printed or electronic media (including mediums not specifically
mentioned) in ANY way, shape, or form (including reprinting, reference
or inclusion), without the express written permission of the author,
myself. This FAQ was created and is owned by me, Joseph Andro Artanto
(arsin@indosat.net.id). All copyrights and trademarks are acknowledged
and respected that are not specificially mentioned in this FAQ.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
II. GAME SYSTEM
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Heroes of Might and Magic II (HOMM2), is a strategy-adventure-RPG game
created by New World Computing and has been published in PC and Macintosh.
However, many beginners feels confused when they play it the first time.
Originally, you could choose your own map, you can just choose the campaign
(recommended) or just play a map created by you or other peoples. In the
first screen, you can choose New Game and choose what kind of game you want
to play (campaign, standard, multiplayer). Campaign leads you to a series
of scenarios. And standard will let you to play any map in your MAPS
directory. Finally Multiplayer will let you have a multiplayer battle
against your friend via modem, network, or seat-by-seat/Hotseat. Hotseat is
a multiplayer game in one Computer (max. 4 players).
Load game is used to load your previous game. You can see some preview of
some games created by NWC in the door (click the door on left area of the
main menu).
When you first enter a 'choosing maps' menu (by standard or multiplayer),
click the upright button to choose your map, the info of that map is below
the map name (like how many players, what type of heroes you want, it is
optional). Now you will enter the main game screen, which lead you to the
real game. Note, this game has experience status, this mean your level will
be increased when you have enough experience.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
III. SPECIAL PLACES LIST
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This only apply in the world map screen, so take a note about that. If you
want to know about the buildings (inside a castle or town), armies, spells,
etc, see the contents.
As you know, special places are spreaded around the world, to know what the
use of certain places, see below.
There is a couple of mouse icon in this game. Sword means you need to fight
that special places (like castle,army camps,etc), horses means you can walk
to that place.
For easy references, use 'find' and write your desired special places.
* Castle
This is where you can rest, buy troops, learn new spells, or build your own
castle. If its flag isn't your own flag, it is enemy's castle.
* Town
Same as castle, but you cant build any buildings inside the town. You can
upgrade a town into a castle if allowed.
* Gazebo
A place that makes you meet an old man that teach you some skills, and this
means you get some experiences by his lesson. Note that one hero only can
get exp by this old man once.
* Obelisk
A place to get maps to reach the Ultimate Artifact (to dig the land, you
must have full 'yellow').
* Fountain
Your luck is increased until the next battle ends.
* Temple
Your moral is increased until the next battle ends.
* Mines
This where you get minerals like ore, crystal, gems, etc. you get some of
them per day if you have them.
* Woodfields (or something like that)
Like mines, but you get woods instead minerals.
* Alchemy Lab
You get mercury per day.
* Shrine of 1st circle, 2nd circle and 3rd circle
the place where you get certain magic of certain classes. the 1st circle
let you get a random magic from class 1 magic.
* Witch Hut
You can get certain skills from her (like navigation, wisdom, etc). Only
basic ones.
* Artifacts
An important thing in this game, Artifact can make your strength or magic
power increased, even some of them will protect you from some damaging
spells. See the Artifact list section for more info.
* Mineral/Wood/Gold/Mercury
These are all treasures scattered around the world, collect them to get
some small amount of them.
* Treasure Chest
This chest will lead you to 2 choices. The one will give you some gold, and
the other will give you some experiences.
* Army Camp
This where you mainly see the enemies. Go to them and you will enter a
battle. You may get certain events by touching them. Like the enemies want
to join you, etc.
* Heroes
I know you know it. But beware of the hero's flag, as it will be the sign
whose the ally and foe.
* Idol
Same as Fountain. Give you a luck until the next battle ends.
* Tree of Knowledge
This tree will give you a level if you have enough leadership. If not, he
will give you a fee to level up (around 10 gems).
* Fort
Give you 1+ defense skill. Once for a hero.
* Mercenary Camp
Give you 1+ attack skill. Once for a hero.
* Witch Doctor's Hut
Give you 1+ knowledge skill. Once for a hero.
* Stonehege
Give you 1+ spell power skill. Once for a hero.
* Ruins
You can buy some Medusas here.
* Genie Lamp
You can buy some Genie here.
* Peasant Hut
Some peasant will agree to join you.
* Archer's House
Some archer will agree to join you.
* Goblin's Hut
Some goblin will agree to join you.
* Centaur Cave
Some Centaur will agree to join you.
* Dwarf Cottage
Some Dwarf will agree to join you.
* Oasis
Give you a several 'yellow' points.
* Artesian Spring
Doubles your 'green' points (magic points,manna).
* City of the Death
Beat some undead units and you can buy some lich.
* Skeleton
You might found an artifact or treasure from the dead bodies.
* Wagon
Same as skeleton.
* Sign
Something written in there.
* Bottle
Something written in there.
* Magellan House (or something like that)
You can buy the map of the sea of the current map.
* Flotsam
You might found gold or woods from there.
* Treasure Chest (on the ocean)
You might found an artifact or gold.
* Tree House
Some sprites will join you.
* Tree City
You can buy some sprites in there.
* Pyramid
Fight some undead and take the treasures. If the undead have been defeated,
then you get bad luck instead.
* Demon's Cave
Fight the servants or face the demons, it your decisions.
* Factory
Upgrade your iron golem to steel golem.
* Hill Fort
Upgrade some of your troops to the upgraded type.
* Dragon's City
Fight some dragons and you will be able to buy some red dragons.
* Sphinx
Solve the riddle and get the prizes. If you fail, your heroes will be dead,
remember, not all prizes are good.
* Well
Fill up your 'green' points to full status.
* Buoy
Give a morale to your troops until the next battle ends.
* Graveyard
Fight some undead and take the treasures. If the undead have been defeated,
then you get bad morale instead.
* Lighthouse
Your ship yellow points is increased.
* Rogue's Camp
You can buy some rogues from there.
* Road
Used to make your hero's movement longer. Note that heroes always take the
shortest way.
* Abandoned Mine
Fight some ghost first, then the mine will be changed into a gold mine.
* Wrecked Ship (there are 2 type of them)
Fight some ghost first, then take the treasures. If the ghost have been
defeated, you get bad ones instead.
* Event
In certain cases, you may get an event.
* Whirlpool (sea only)
Teleport your ship to a different random whirlpool. Note that some weak
armies (like peasant) might be killed if they enter the whirlpool.
* Dimension Door (there are 3 types of them)
Teleport your hero to a different dimension door (the same type only).
* Watch Tower
Some orcs will join you.
* Halfling Hole
Some halfling will join you.
* Windmill
Give you some resources every week when visited.
* Water Wheel
Same as Windmill, but give you gold instead.
* Magic Garden
Same as Windmill
* Trading Post
Exchange some resources with another resources. Same as Marketplace in a
castle or town. If you have more marketplace, the exchange rate is better.
* Oracle
See opponent's status.
* Troll Bridge
You can buy some trolls here after you fight them.
* Desert Tent
You can buy some Nomads in there.
* Execution Site
Some Skeletons will join you.
* Xanadu
He will teach you some skills when you have enough diplomacy skill.
* Faerie Ring
Give you a luck until the next battle ends. Same as fountain.
* Lean-To
Get some resources here. One time only.
* ??? (maybe im missing something)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
IV.BUILDING LIST
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This is apply inside a castle or a town. Some of them will allow you to buy
some troops, give you a new spell, increases your moral, etc.
--Knight--
----------
* Peasant Hut -> Peasant
* Archery Range/(Upgraded)-> Archer/Ranger
* Armory /(Upgraded)-> Pikeman/Veteran Pikeman
* Blacksmith /(Upgraded)-> Swordman/Master Swordman
* JoustingArena/(Upgraded)-> ? /Champion
* Cathedral /(Upgraded)-> Paladin/Crusader
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* Farm -> Give you more Peasant every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Fortiffication -> Increases the toughness of the wall
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
--Wizard--
----------
* Halfling Hole -> Halfling
* Pen -> Boar
* Cliff Nest -> Roc
* Foundry /(Upgraded)-> Iron Golem/Steel Golem
* Ivory Tower /(Upgraded)-> Mage/Archmage
* Cloud Castle /(Upgraded)-> Giant/Titan
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* Orchard -> Give you more Halfling every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Library -> Give you more spells of every class
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
--Sorcerer--
------------
* Tree House -> Sprite
* Archery Range/(Upgraded)-> Elves/Grand Elves
* Cottage /(Upgraded)-> Dwarf/?
* Stonehege /(Upgraded)-> Druid/Greater Druid
* Fenced Meadow/(Upgraded)-> Unicorn
* Red Tower -> Phoenix
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* Crystal Garden -> Give you more sprites every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Rainbow -> Give the defending armies more luck
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
--Necromancer--
* Execution Site -> Skeleton
* Graveyard /Upg-> Zombie/Mutant Zombie
* Pyramid /Upg-> Mummy/Royal Mummy
* Mansion /Upg-> Vampire/Vampire Lord
* ? /Upg-> Lich/Power Lich
* Laboratory -> Bone Dragon
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* ? -> Give you more skeletons every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Storm -> Give the defending armies more spell power
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
--Barbarian--
* Goblin's Hut -> Goblin
* Stick Hut /Upg-> Orc/Orc Chief
* Cave -> Wolf
* Adobe /Upg-> Ogre/Ogre Lord
* Bridge /Upg-> Troll/War Troll
* Pyramid -> Cyclops
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* Garbage Heap -> Give you more goblins every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Colosseum -> Give the defending armies more moral
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
--Warlock--
* Cave -> Centaur
* Crypt -> Gargoyle
* Nest -> Griffin
* Maze /Upg-> Minatour/Minatour King
* Swamp -> Hydra
* Green/Red/Black Tower -> Green Dragon/Red Dragon/Black Dragon
* Well -> Give you 2 more units every dwelling
* Statue -> Give you 250 gold every days
* Waterfall -> Give you more centaurs every dwelling
* Tavern -> Increases your defending troops moral
* Moat -> Hold enemy's fighter
* Mage Guild 1-5 -> Provides spells for your heroes
* Right Turret -> Attack opponent's army every turn in castle
* Left Turret (battle)
* Dungeon -> Give you 500 gold every day
* Captain's Quarters -> Acts as a hero inside a castle
* Shipyard -> Used to create a ship
* Thieves Guild -> Provides info about your opponents
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
V. ARMY LIST
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As you know, I will only give description for some powerfull and usefull
troops, as it will take years to describe all of them one by one. (Long)
means that unit attack with long range attack. (Fly) means it is a flying
type troops. (Fight) means it is a fighter unit. You CAN split your army,
here is the way: press shift, drag a unit you want to split to an empty
box, a menu will appear and ask you how many units you want to split.
--Knight--
* Peasant (Fight)
* Archer/Ranger (Long)
* Pikeman/Veteran Pikeman (Fight)
* Swordman/Master Swordman (Fight)
* Paladin/Crusader (Fight) -> Attack 2 times on a unit
--Wizard--
* Halfling (Long)
* Boar (Fight)
* Roc (Fly)
* Iron Golem/Steel Golem (Fight)
* Mage/Archmage (Long) -> Sometimes causes Dispel
* Giant(Fight)/Titan(Long) -> Titan is 1/2 strongest unit
--Sorcerer--
* Sprite (Fly)
* Elves/Grand Elves (Long)
* Dwarf/? (Fight) -> Sometimes deflect spells
* Druid/Greater Druid (Long)
* Unicorn (Fight) -> Sometimes causes blind
* Phoenix (Fly)
--Necromancer--
* Skeleton (Fight)
* Zombie/Mutant Zombie (Fight)
* Mummy/Royal Mummy (Fight) -> Sometimes causes curse
* Vampire/Vampire Lord (Fly) -> Live again if kills some units
* Lich/Power Lich (Long)
* Bone Dragon (Fly)
--Barbarian--
* Goblin (Fight)
* Orc/Orc Chief (Long)
* Wolf (Fight)
* Ogre/Ogre Lord (Fight)
* Troll/War Troll (Long)
* Cyclops (Fight)
--Warlock--
* Centaur (Long)
* Gargoyle (Fly)
* Griffin (Fly)
* Minatour/Minatour King (Fight)
* Hydra (Fight) -> Attack all nearest enemies
* Green/Red/Black Dragon (Fly)
--Other--
* Medusa (Fight) -> Sometimes causes Petrify
* Genie (Fly) -> Sometimes attack 'half'
* Nomad (Fight)
* Rogue (Fight)
* Fire Elemental
* Air Elemental
* Water Elemental
* Earth Elemental
* Ghost -> Increased if kills some units
* ???
--Army's Strength Table--
-------------------------
===============================================================
| Knight troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit |Atk |Def | HP | Dmg | Spd | Cost |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Peasant | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 20 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Archer | 3 | 5 | 10 | 2-3 | 2 | 150 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Ranger | 4 | 5 | 10 | 2-3 | 4 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Pikeman | 5 | 9 | 20 | 3-4 | 4 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Veteran Pikeman | 5 | 9 | 25 | 3-4 | 5 | 250 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Swordsman | 7 | 9 | 25 | 4-6 | 4 | 250 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Master Swordsman | 7 | 9 | 30 | 4-6 | 5 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Cavalry | 10 | 9 | 30 | 5-10 | 6 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Champion | 10 | 9 | 40 | 5-10 | 7 | 375 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Paladin | 11 | 12 | 50 | 10-20 | 5 | 600 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Crusader | 11 | 12 | 65 | 10-20 | 6 | 1000 |
===============================================================
| Barbarian troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Goblin | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1-2 | 4 | 40 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Orc | 3 | 4 | 10 | 2-3 | 2 | 140 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Orc Chief | 3 | 4 | 15 | 3-4 | 3 | 175 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Wolf | 6 | 2 | 20 | 3-5 | 6 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Ogre | 9 | 5 | 40 | 4-6 | 2 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Ogre Lord | 9 | 5 | 60 | 5-7 | 4 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Troll | 10 | 5 | 40 | 5-7 | 4 | 600 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| War Troll | 10 | 5 | 40 | 7-9 | 5 | 700 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Cyclope | 12 | 9 | 80 | 12-24 | 5 | 750+ 1cr |
===============================================================
| Sorceress troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Sprite | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1-2 | 4 | 50 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Dwarf | 6 | 5 | 20 | 2-4 | 2 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Battle Dwarf | 6 | 6 | 20 | 2-4 | 4 | 250 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Elf | 4 | 3 | 15 | 2-3 | 4 | 250 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Grand Elf | 5 | 5 | 15 | 2-3 | 6 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Druid | 7 | 5 | 20 | 5-8 | 4 | 350 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Greater Druid | 7 | 7 | 25 | 5-8 | 6 | 400 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Unicorn | 10 | 9 | 40 | 7-14 | 5 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Phoenix | 12 | 10 | 100 | 20-40 | 7 | 1500+1m |
===============================================================
| Warlock troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Centaur | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1-2 | 4 | 60 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Gargoyle | 4 | 7 | 15 | 2-3 | 6 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Griffin | 6 | 6 | 25 | 3-5 | 4 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Minotaur | 9 | 8 | 40 | 5-10 | 4 | 400 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Minotaur King | 9 | 8 | 45 | 5-10 | 6 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Hydra | 8 | 9 | 75 | 6-12 | 2 | 800 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Green Dragon | 12 | 12 | 200 | 25-50 | 4 | 3000+1s |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Red Dragon | 13 | 13 | 250 | 25-50 | 5 | 3500+1s |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Black Dragon | 14 | 14 | 300 | 25-50 | 6 | 4000+2s |
===============================================================
| Wizard troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Halfling | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1-3 | 3 | 50 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Boar | 5 | 4 | 15 | 2-3 | 6 | 150 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Iron Golem | 5 | 10 | 30 | 4-5 | 2 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Steel Golem | 7 | 10 | 35 | 4-5 | 3 | 350 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Roc | 7 | 7 | 40 | 5-8 | 4 | 400 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Mage | 11 | 7 | 30 | 7-9 | 5 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Archmage | 12 | 8 | 35 | 7-9 | 6 | 700 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Giant | 13 | 10 | 150 | 20-30 | 4 | 2000+1g |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Titan | 15 | 15 | 300 | 20-30 | 6 | 5000+2g |
===============================================================
| Necromancer | | | | | | |
| troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Skeleton | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2-3 | 4 | 75 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Zombie | 5 | 2 | 15 | 2-3 | 2 | 150 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Mutant Zombie | 5 | 2 | 20 | 2-3 | 4 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Mummy | 6 | 6 | 25 | 3-4 | 4 | 250 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Royal Mummy | 6 | 6 | 30 | 3-4 | 5 | 300 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Vampire | 8 | 6 | 35 | 5-7 | 4 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Vampire Lord | 8 | 6 | 40 | 5-7 | 5 | 650 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Lich | 7 | 12 | 25 | 8-10 | 5 | 750 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Power Lich | 7 | 13 | 35 | 8-10 | 6 | 900 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Bone Dragon | 11 | 9 | 150 | 25-45 | 4 | 1500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
===============================================================
| Neutral troops | | | | | | |
===============================================================
| Unit | A: | D: | HP: | Dmg: | Spd: | Cost: |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Rogue | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1-2 | 5 | 50 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Nomad | 7 | 5 | 20 | 2-5 | 6 | 200 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Ghost | 8 | 6 | 20 | 4-6 | 5 | 1000 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Medusa | 8 | 9 | 35 | 6-10 | 4 | 350 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Genie | 10 | 9 | 50 | 20-30 | 6 | 750+1g |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Earth Elemental | 8 | 8 | 50 | 4-5 | 3 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Water Elemental | 6 | 8 | 45 | 3-7 | 4 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Fire Elemental | 8 | 6 | 40 | 4-5 | 5 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
| Air Elemental | 7 | 7 | 35 | 2-8 | 6 | 500 |
---------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
VI. SPELL LIST
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
--Level 1 Magic--
-----------------
HASTE
Most useful 1st level spell.. since it can turn otherwise deficient monster
stacks in killer armies. Examples.. a big stack of Steel Golems can now
reach the opposing army in 2 turns. Your big stack of slow or average
shooter troops can now shoot before the enemy flyers or shooters. The
Hydras become very, very dangerous. A huge stack of skeletons can reach the
other side in 2 turns while your cheap sacrificial stack of shooters draws
the fire... In general, it can give you the very important first attack.
SLOW
Opposite of Haste... almost as useful but less versatile since if you cast
it too soon the enemy spellcaster will probably dispel it. Can save your
butt against fast flyers since this will give your shooters time to destroy
them. Also useful combined with Blind to stop the enemy from fleeing before
you have a chance to destroy him. Timing is foremost when using this potent
spell. Either use it after the enemy casted his own spell or on the fast
troop going up next which you want to attack first.
BLESS
Very good on certain troops that have a large range of damage. Also assures
you of inflicting maximum damage. For example, Bless used on crusaders and
phoenix double up their damage inflicting points permitting you, under
ideal conditions, to kill double the monsters you would usually have
destroyed with an unblessed stack doing minimum damage. Of course, doing
minimum damage with an unblessed unit is very unlikely since the damage
done by any stack is an average.
CURSE
Opposite of Bless. Very good also but more "passive" than his counterpart
since you can't always control which of your stacks, the enemy stack will
attack first (unless you have shooters). The enemy will rarely dispel this
spell. Use it against the monster stack that scares you the most : the fast
flyer troops or the big stack of enemy shooters.
SHIELD
Extremely nice to have when you go up against big shooter armies. Use it on
your strongest shooter stack who will draw the majority of attacks from the
AI. Unfortunately, the usefulness of Shield is limited because it does not
protect against ballista and turret fire.
DISPEL MAGIC
One of the tough spells to use well. More useful in the later parts of the
game. Try to use this spell against an enemy stack having multiple positive
spells. I typically use it against the most dangerous enemy stack,
especially if it already has bless and steelskin. I use Cure instead of
Dispel Magic when I want to remove negative spells from one of my stacks.
MAGIC ARROW
The first *direct* offensive spell. Good against low-level troops and very
good when you have a high spell rating but no lightning or not enough
spells points left to cast it. Also good when you don't want the enemy to
flee, which it will usually do, when it only has a couple of monster
stacks left.
CURE
Did you know that this spell not only cures your hit points but also
removes all negative spells ? Making this almost the equal of Dispel Magic.
I rated it so low because the number of hit points gained when casting it
is much too minimal. I mostly use it on my high-level monster stacks (like
Phoenix or Bone Dragons).
BLOODLUST
Attack +3. In concrete terms, what this means is that, under ideal
conditions, you could get a 30 % damage bonus. I cast it when I have
nothing else better to cast.
STONESKIN
Defense + 3. In concrete terms, this means that, under ideal conditions,
you could get 30 % less damage (if the difference between his attack and
your defense skill were 3 points or higher before you casted) from an enemy
attack on the stack that is stoneskinned. I cast it when I have nothing
else better to cast.
VIEW MINES
I only use it in the beginning game to check out where the *necessary*
mines are hidden. By *necessary* mine, I mean the mine that produces the
resource you need most to build the advanced-level structures. For example,
sulfur for Warlocks, wood for knights, ore for barbarians, gems for
wizards, etc.
VIEW RESOURCES
I will use it if I have it.. but I prefer getting the other spells. Can be
useful if there are no nearby mines of the type you desire.
--Level 2 Magic--
-----------------
BLIND
One of the most underestimated spells out there. What good is the killer
monster stack of the enemy if it cannot move or attack due to the Blind
spell ? Timing is very important for this spell : either cast it on the
fastest troop of the enemy, wait until he has already cast his own spell,
or time it so that the blinded stack is the one going up next. If the enemy
dispels it after his unit has already lost his turn then it's too late for
the current turn. If he dispels it before that blinded stack would have
normally gotten its turn, then the stack will attack normally. Generally
cast Blind on the most dangerous monsters... faster units first. Also
useful in keeping the enemy from fleeing. A sure way to insure that an
enemy stack will lose the current turn is by attacking it before the
computer opponent has a chance to dispell it. Something we rarely, if ever,
think about is that a blinded creature retaliates with half-damage unless
you shoot it from afar with missiles or offensive spells in which case the
enemy gets no retaliation at all. Finally, keep in mind that this spell
doesn't work on undeads and Titans.
LIGHTNING BOLT
The best "direct" offensive spell that damages a single stack. I use it all
the time. Its use is pretty straightforward : point and shoot. Useful for
destroying remaining enemy units you don't want to see fleeing. As always,
cast Lightning on the most dangerous unit that can attack you right away
(that means walker troops are the last target choice).
VISIONS
One of the best spells if you manage to get it. It's one of the rarer
spells because of it's great usefulness. If New World Computing did not
want us to have it very often, they should have given it a higher-level
spell rating. Visions tells you how a nearby wandering monster stack will
react when you encounter it (join, flee, attack). It also gives you the
number of units present. From intuition and experience, I can usually tell
if an enemy stack will join me or not, but having this great spell makes my
job easier. Don't cast Visions on everything though, cast it on stacks that
you must absolutely pass or that you suspect might join you.
STEELSKIN
+6 on Defense. Quite good when you want to protect one of your important
stacks. I usually cast it on my best shooters or the flyers who are
attacking deep in enemy territory. In concrete terms, this spell can lower
the damage received by about 40 % on the steelskinned unit, under ideal
conditions (if the attacker's attack rating is 5 points or higher than the
defender's defense rating.. before you cast the spell).
COLD RAY
Not a bad spell similar to Lightning Bolt but less powerful. I never cast
it if I already have Lightning unless I have the cold icicle item. It's a
point-and-shoot offensive spell.
DISRUPTING RAY
-3 on Defense each time you cast it. Some people like this spell because
it's permanent and cumulative. Well, I rarely use it because I think it
costs too much. I guess you could use this instead of Curse if you're
really scared of the offensive power of a given enemy stack. The enemy
can't dispel it.. so that's good. I still think the AI uses this spell too
often.
DRAGON SLAYER
+5 attack against Dragons. This is a must against Dragons. It also works
against Bone Dragons. Cast it on your highest-level stack (Titans, Phoenix,
etc). Can possibly inflict 50% more damage on any Dragon stack. Dragon
slayer combined with Bless makes your attacking unit quite dangerous. If
you don't know what to cast against Dragons, which are immune to all magic,
this one is a good bet...
DEATH RIPPLE
Another very specialized spell only useful if you army is entirely composed
of undead troops. Don't cast it unless your hero has a high spell power
rating. The power of this spell is not strong enough imho (only x5 Power),
but it's a 2nd level spell so that's too be expected. The good point is
that it affects all living troops equally. Can serve as a weak mini-
armageddon spell. Possibly useful combined with Anti-magic.
SUMMON BOAT
Summons any nearby boat that you "control" or that has never been
previously controlled by anyone. Can be quite good in water-based
scenarios... For example, you disembark on one side of the desert island,
explore it, reach the other side, cast Summon Boat and board the boat. This
spell can save you a lot of exploring time.
HAUNT
Renders a mine useless for all players until the protecting ghosts are
defeated. In the rare times, I got it, I barely used it. Of course, don't
use this on your own nearby mines :-) Can be useful if a spellcasting scout
hero goes deep into enemy territory and casts it on essential mines of the
enemy (ex : Haunt on the sulfur mines of the enemy warlock).
VIEW ARTIFACTS
I almost never use this because I usually have a lot of scouting heroes
showing me exactly what nearby items are good enough to risk my valuable
troops. If I get it, I will cast it one time just to see if there might not
be a "clump" of items close by. The funny part is : that they are usually
guarded by a very strong army...
--Level 3 Magic--
-----------------
MASS HASTE
Makes all your own monster stacks quicker. I gave Haste the first place in
the first part of my spellcasting guide therefore it's only fair that I
give it the same "honor" in the 3rd part ;-) All that I said for Haste
applies here too but on a larger and better scale. If you play well, and
because most of your troops will attack before your enemies, you can really
devastate the opposition. Extremely useful when you have a fast army or
better (think Sorceress). Your opponent cannot dispel all those hastes,
even if he has Mass Dispel, because he may not even have the chance to get
his turn :-) Watch out for the remaining couple of enemy troops, they could
flee.
TELEPORT
A very rare spell but very good when you manage to find it. This can
teleport any one of your ground troops on the other side of the map
therefore providing you with a quicker attack. Use it on tough very slow,
slow or average troops (Hydras are the best) when it is their turn. Expect
this teleporting stack to suffer some heavy casualties. Useful for
teleporting ground troops inside or outside castles. I also teleport my
ground troops next to the enemy's shooters most of the time (between 2
stacks of shooters if I can).
PARALYZE
A better version of the already nice Blind spell. You use it the same way
as Blind (see part 2) except you don't have to worry about retaliation so
much anymore. Therefore faster and weaker creatures that would die from a
retaliation (against a blinded enemy) can give the first strike (against a
paralysed enemy). It's a little more expensive than Blind but most of the
time it's worth it.
ANTI-MAGIC
This is a must-have spell if you go up against powerful spellcasters. In
general, I cast it on my strongest highest-level or more damaging stack. If
you have shooters in your army that you want to keep, then it's a good idea
to cast Anti-Magic on them before your best stack since the AI will almost
always attack the shooters first. If you also have an all-damaging spell
(like Elemental Storm or Armageddon) then you can attack with only one
tough monster stack... casting Anti-Magic on the first turn and the all-
damaging spell on the second turn. If you see that a spellcaster is
constantly casting negative spells on the same unit stack, by all means
cast Anti-Magic to protect this valuable stack.
MASS BLESS
The spell to use if you want to beef up your offensive potential. Most of
the tips for the simple Bless (see part 1) also apply here. Very good if
your stacks have a big "range" of damage (ex: Phoenix with 20-40 points or
Nomads with 2-5 points each).
MASS CURSE
The spell to use when the enemy has a lot of very damaging units. Most of
the tips for the simple Curse (see part 1) also apply here. Very good if
the enemy's stacks have a big "range" of damage.
ANIMATE DEAD
The resurrect spell for the Necromancer hero ! Only a 3rd level instead of
5th level therefore providing a certain advantage to the Necromancer player
if he manages to get it. You have a better chance of getting it than the
resurrect spell but it's mostly useless for the other types of heroes. A
specialized spell that should be rated much higher if you play the
Necromancer and lower if you play any other kind. I usually cast it on my
Vampire Lords or Bone Dragons...
MASS DISPEL
The spell to use when a lot of your stacks have negative spells on them. It
won't happen very often though since the AI seems to prefer casting many
different negative spells on the same unit (most of the time : your best
shooter stack). The Dispel is useless against Disrupting Ray. Most of the
tips for the simple Dispel Magic (see part 1) also apply here.
EARTHQUAKE
An underestimated spell... Destroys the castle walls sooner therefore
making the castle ballistas destroyed sooner. Castle ballistas destroyed
sooner means a lot less casualties for your shooters. A lot less casualties
for your shooters means a stronger army. A stronger army means a quicker
victory ! Particularly good if you cast it 2 consecutive times at the
beginning of the battle. Less useful if you attack a new lightly-built
castle with only one ballista.
DEATH WAVE
Stronger version of Death Ripple. Cool spell effect that damages all living
troops. Only useful for Necromancer players. Can serve as a mini-armageddon
spell. If your Necromanger gets this spell, the Death Ripple spell will
almost never be used anymore. Having a good spell rating for the hero
casting it is a "must". Death Wave is rated higher for Necromancer players
and much lower for all the other types of players.
HOLY WORD
Very good if you go up against a Necromancer player that doesn't have the
item countering it. Specialized spell only useful against undead. Useless
for the necromancer army and of limited use for the other hero types if
there is no Necromancer present on the map. Can be used to kill wandering
undead troops
FIREBALL
First general area-damaging offensive spell. Because of its lack of
"destroying" punch, I prefer to use the good old Lightning spell. This
spell should be given a power boost. Useful if you have a high spell-rating
and/or when you attack low-level stacks (like halflings or goblins). Also
good for stopping the enemy from fleeing if he only has a couple of stacks
left.
COLD RING
Similar to Fireball but with a slight twist. It creates a "ring" of
damaging ice around one of your units not killing your own stack. Not bad
if one of your good units is surrounded. Good against low-level troops,
useless against high-level troops. Also nice to have when you go up against
wandering low-level shooter stacks (cast it between the 2 enemy stacks).
Like Fireball, it badly needs a power boost.
VIEW HEROES
Not bad but not extremely good either. Can show the exact number and
location of heroes that each of your opponents has. Frequent use of this
spell can save your scouting heroes from ambush. Useless when you have
explored most of the map.
VIEW TOWNS
Only useful to give you a general attack direction. I will cast it once or
twice and forget about it. Can also show you if your enemies have captured
any new towns or built up castles.
IDENTIFY HERO
Most useless 3rd level spell since I generally have enough thieves guilds
by then to know the size of the opposing army. My agressive tactics also
mean that the first defended castle I take will be lightly-defended by a
beginner or intermediate hero. BTW, it may not be pretty, but if you attack
an enemy army and you find out too late it's too strong for you, there's
always retreating and surrendering ;-)
--Level 4 Magic--
CHAIN LIGHTNING
My personal favorite spell. It may not be the strongest or most versatile
spell but it packs a lot of offensive punch anyway. When I have the good
fortune to find it, I use it almost exclusively along with my best
spellcaster and army. No other offensive spell (that does not kill your
troops too) is this damaging to your enemies with the exception of
Armageddon and Dragons. Of course, you have to watch out, when you cast
this potent spell, about not zapping your own troops. I usually cast Chain
Lightning on my first turn while all the opponent stacks are on the other
side of the map close together. My first target will be the most dangerous
and immediately damaging unit. Therefore, I will usually shoot the bolt at
a big stack of shooters close to flying troops or vice-versa. You can still
cast the spell when you go up against only 3 enemy stacks since the 4th
victim (one of your stacks) will suffer practically no damage. I almost
never cast it against an army of only 2 units. If you cast the spell on the
second or third turn, watch out for your own flyers who may already have
engaged the enemy. Never cast it on a enemy unit close to yours unless you
don't care about killing your own unit too. This spell is usually better
in the early and midgame. In the endgame, Mass Slow is better.
MASS SLOW
Ever wonder why this spell is rated a 4th-level spell while his opposite
counterpart Mass Haste is only a 3rd-level spell? It's in part because this
great underestimated spell will give you first strike against the majority
of the opposing stacks. But the real reason is that it will stop all enemy
flyers from reaching your shooters in only one turn ! The enemy shooters
will also fire last giving you a chance to devastate them with your own
army. Some ground enemy troops will arrive to your side sooner than others.
That way, you can concentrate on usually 1 or 2 walker stacks instead of 4
at the same time. Fleeing, for the enemy, is also rendered more difficult.
A well-cast Mass Slow combined with good tactics can give you the victory
before your opponent even has a chance to take one turn ! Most of the tips
for Slow (see part 1) also apply for Mass Slow.
BERSERK
I consider this spell better than the 5th-level spell Hypnotize. Why ?
Because even though you cannot control the actions of the berserked unit,
you can decide to berserk almost any kind of enemy stack with no regard to
its strength. The berserk spell will dissipate after one attack so make it
count. Imagine you're going up against a superhero with 8 Red dragons and
50 Minotaur Kings next to each other. You know that your spells cannot
affect the dragons so you cast Berserk on the Minotaur Kings who go up
next. If you're lucky, the Minotaur kings will attack the dragons (or the
nearby gargoyles) and get attacked in return ! Presto : the MK stack has
lost its turn, the attacked unit has lost the ability to retaliate for the
rest of the turn (unless it has unlimited retaliation) and both stacks are
decimated :-) The best part is that Berserk doesn't cost a lot to cast
(only 12 points). Casting it at the correct time is very important since
you don't want to see it dispelled. In any given turn, either cast it at
the enemy unit that will go next, the fastest enemy stack or when the enemy
has already cast his own spell. A secondary usage of this spell would be to
stop a single unit army from fleeing. Sometimes, you will also want to stop
a particular enemy stack from getting his turn until you are ready to
attack it. Blind and Paralyse are better in that respect, but sometimes you
won't have them. Last warning : do not attack a berserked unit until it has
already attacked one of his own.
METEOR SHOWER
A very nice offensive spell that usually damages 2 units but can sometimes
damage more (if they're all close together). A clever use of this spell is
to send a flyer stack next to an enemy shooter stack without attacking. All
the close enemy walkers and flyers (if you have no shooter troops) will
then proceed to attack this lone flyer stack. Cast Meteor Shower when
they're all clumped together. You will lose your own flying stack but will
have done a lot of damage to the majority of his units. A variation on this
tactic is the sacrificial shooter unit which will attract all enemy flying
troops. On the first turn of a combat, I usually cast Meteor Shower between
a shooter stack and flying stack since they're the most likely to damage me
right away. On the next combat turns, if I see no enemy "clumps" then I
will proceed to cast it again on the shooters if they're close to any other
significant enemy unit. If the shooter stack is alone, then cast Lightning.
Another likely target for Meteor Shower is a group of walkers slowly coming
towards me. The power and range of this spell makes it more useful than
Fireball, Cold Ring and Fireblast imho.
TOWN GATE
Finally a good useful adventure spell :-) It is very rare. Probably because
of its effectiveness. It will transport the hero casting it to your nearest
town. What this means is that you can afford to be more reckless. Even
attacking sooner than would be prudent will not be a problem, since if you
have enough spell points, you can "gate" back to your town for
reinforcements. Extremely useful for strong heroes with depleted armies
that have done a lot of battles deep in enemy territory or weak midlevel
scouts who stumble upon a stronger enemy hero. After coming to a deadend
while exploring, you can teleport back to avoid losing precious travel
time.
HOLY SHOUT
A very specialized spell that only damages undead creatures. Can be quite
useful against Necromancer troops if you have a high-level spellcaster. The
power is good and it kills only undead troops not your precious living
troops. Therefore if you have a knight, barbarian or wizard army, you can
use this as your own little Armageddon without killing your own troops too
(see Storm for Sorceress and Armageddon for Warlock). Mostly useless for
Necromancer heroes unless they are lucky enough to find the magic item
making them immune. On maps with no Necromancer opponents, Holy Shout can
still serve to kill wandering undead armies. If you get this spell, you
will most likely forget about Holy Word.
STORM
A little more powerful than Holy Shout but it also kills all troops, making
no discrimination between dead and living. If you play anything other than
a sorceress or a warlock, then this spell only serves when you want to
weaken a powerful enemy army approaching your castle. You hire a wizard (or
any hero with advanced wisdom), make sure he has a very fast unit and
attack the enemy. You cast Storm on your first turn. You will die right
away but will have weakened the enemy a bit. Try to redo this as long as
you have enough money and/or wizards. This spell could also be useful for
high-level spellcasters with Anti-Magic. They should stomp around with one
very tough single stack, cast Anti-Magic on the first turn and Storm on the
second. Storm with Phoenix is a killer-combination since Phoenix are immune
to all elemental spells and almost always strike first :-) It gives a
needed little secret weapon to the sorceress player.
RESURRECTION
Well.. what can I say about this one. If you have a sufficiently strong
army combined with an adept spellcaster hero, you can win almost any single
combat against any army whatsoever (except Dragons of course ;-). But it
can save your butt in only one combat since the resurrected troops will
dissapear at the end... If the fight was the least bit close-matched, then
you will have very few surviving troops left and no more spell points. Make
sure you have at least ONE non-resurrected troop still surviving by the end
of the tough battle or you will eliminated along with your opponent.
FIREBLAST
I almost never use it because the great area of effect is upset too much by
the low power of the spell. I prefer using Meteor Shower, Chain Lightning
and Lightning. The only real use I see for it.. is if you go up against a
lot of similar low-level troops. That means that Fireblast will be mostly
used against wandering monster stacks and NOT against an enemy hero army
(unless his army really sucks :-). Could possibly be useful as a way to
avoid enemy fleeing if the enemy has 2,3 or 4 low-numbered low-level stacks
remaining.
MASS SHIELD
Halves the damage from enemy shooters for all your troops. Most of the
time, I have better spells to cast than this. Since the all enemy shooters
will usually concentrate their fire on your best shooter stack, why not
cast a single Shield and a Steelskin on your victimized shooter stack ? Use
your precious spell points for something better. Of course, there are
always exceptions... Against wandering armies of mid or highlevel shooters
and against heroes with lots of different shooter troops, this spell can
literally save your life. I still think this should have been a 3rd-level
spell. The tips for the simple Shield (see part 1) also apply for Mass
Shield.
MASS CURE
Mostly useless since the power of the curing spell power is not powerful
enough (only 5x spell power). If you use it, cast it as a Mass Dispel on
your own troops. It won't happen very often anyway except in very big
battles at the end of the game. The tips for the simple Cure (see part 1)
also apply for Mass Cure.
VIEW ALL
By the time I get this, I usually have explored most of the map. So I am
very disappointed when one of my two precious 4th-level spots is filled by
this "dud". Could be useful in large or extra-large maps if only to keep
track of the moving heroes and by showing you where the towns are located.
By knowing where the towns are, you then have a better chance of guessing
from where the enemy armies will come. It also gives you a better general
sense of direction :-) All the tips for all the other View Spells apply
for View All.
SET AIR/EARTH/FIRE/WATER GUARDIAN
What a coincidence... number 13 :-) As it stands now this spell is more of
a liability than something helpful. With the current bug (hopefully fixed
by the 1.2. patch), you cast this to protect your mines, the enemy hero
comes along with his big army, captures the mine and your own Elementals
now guard the mine against you. How nice ;-) I will probably rate it higher
when the patch comes out but not a LOT higher.
Update : The terrible bug exposed in the previous paragraph has been fixed
by the latest patch. Unfortunately, I still don't like or cast those kind
of spells very much. The cost is too high (15 spell points !) and the
results are not that great. As for Haunt, it can be useful if you really
want to stop a certain opponent from getting resources from a certain type
of mine (ex : sulfur for a Warlock). Contrary to Haunt, the mine will stay
in your possession but defended by Elementals against any opponent who
would dare to take it. If you're being invaded or suspect you'll get
invaded by strong attackers, Set Elemental Guardian is a nice way to keep
your mines. Of course, you would have to setup those protections BEFORE the
enemies steal your mines and forces you to flee or stay in your castle.
Those spells are more rare than others of the same level.
--Level 5--
-----------
TOWN PORTAL
Imho, the best spell in the HOMM 2 game. It will teleport you to *ANY* of
your own towns. This spell is so powerful that when you get it, the game
is pratically finished for your adversaries. The designers probably know
this too because they made this spell so rare. In all the games I've
played, I've gotten Town Portal a grand total of only 2 times! With a high-
level spellcasting hero you teleport from one castle to the next, taking
the best troops in each. You're almost dead and deep in enemy territory,
you cast Town Portal and your hero is saved. You have your killer army
exploring far away from the front and one of your weaker castles there is
about to be captured ? Simple, you teleport inside the attacked town at the
last possible moment and trounce the surprised enemy. You need to get a
particular spell from one of your faraway castles ? Again you're only a
little Town Portal away. You need to get from one point of an extra large
map to another in a hurry ? Chances are that you have a nearby castle that
can save you days or weeks of slow ground travel. This spell eliminates
distances and permits you to leave almost of your castles practically
undefended. The only thing to watch for is the number of spell points you
currently have. Of course, you also need to have scouted the map
beforehand and control more than 1 castle for Town Portal to be useful ;-)
DIMENSION DOOR
The 5th-level spell that costs the least. You also need a hero with a very
high knowledge rating to make the most of it. Dimension Door can serve most
of the same kinds of functions than Town Portal but with a little more
difficulty. Any hero in trouble can teleport himself away from danger.
Your best army can still reach the undersieged castle in good time (not
true if it's too far away). Dimension Door can sometimes teleport you in
treasure-rich areas protected by monsters otherwise too strong for you. It
can also make you reach otherwise inaccessible parts of the maps. You don't
have to take the big detour anymore to pass the great chain of mountains.
You can pass it easily by teleporting. This spell generally saves you a lot
of travel time. Teleporting next to wells is really a "must" when using
Dimension Door. When there are no wells present and you are almost out of
spell points, go to your nearest castle and stay the night. A high
Logistics skill and items that increase your movement (like Boots) permit
you to cast Dimension Door more often. In theory, if you found a well each
time you were almost out of spell points, you could traverse the length of
the map in a matter of days.
RESURRECT TRUE
This is the best combat "defensive" spell you can get... since the best
protection is not dying permanently :-) I usually cast it on my best and/or
most useful stack (4th-level monsters or higher). Since the computer enemy
really likes to attack your shooters, you will probably end up
"resurrecting" those kind of stacks more often. Calcutate the numbers of
possible resurrected troops before casting it by multiplying the Spell
Power rating of your hero by 50x. For example, a Warlock with 20 spell
points will resurrect for 1000 hit points of dead troops. In other words,
it could be 3 Titans, 16 Ogre Lords or 100 Rangers. This spell, possibly
combined with Mirror Image, makes your Titans better than Dragons. Please
note that Dragons (unfortunately) cannot benefit from any spells because
they are immune to all magic. Remember also that the Necromancer can also
create more skeletons with his necromancy skill and that Vampire Lords in
sufficient numbers can regenerate their numbers while in combat. Animate
Dead costs 5 points less to cast than Resurrect True but only works on
undead troops. On the other hand, Resurrect and Resurrect True work on all
living creatures except Dragons but not on undead.
ARMAGEDDON
Extremely useful with Dragons.. much less useful when you have other
troops. The Dragon-Armageddon combo is something all advanced HOMM 2
players should know about. For those who are in the dark about this
excellent strategy, here's how it works: You give only Dragons (preferably
Blacks) to your hero who has expert wisdom and lots of spell points. Since
the Dragons are immune to magic, your super-spellcaster can cast Armageddon
to his heart's content (at least until you run out of spell points) without
losing any troops ! The only way you can lose a few of your Dragons is if
the opponent has a much, much bigger and better army than yours, if he has
Dragons too or if he casts Anti-Magic on his highest-level monster stack.
This won't happen very often (if ever) against computer opponents but watch
out against sneaky human adversaries :-) The 2 other uses for this spell
are good if you don't have Dragons in your army. In the first HOMM 1 game,
you could hire a lot of Warlocks and make them do kamikaze attacks (with
one very fast unit) on the huge enemy army approaching your castle. It was
a great way to weaken an otherwise invincible army into more manageable
numbers if you had lots of gold. Well in HOMM 2, it's not so easy
anymore... The best you can hire as a starting spellcaster is a hero with
advanced wisdom which is not enough to cast Armageddon. There's always the
option of kamikazing a mid-level hero with expert wisdom but I consider
this a waste. Don't despair, there is still hope. You can use Elemental
Storm as a substitute if you're lucky enough to get it :-) There's also the
option of casting Anti-Magic on your best stack and Armageddon on the
second turn. See part 4 of this guide for the Phoenix-Storm combo and the
Holy Shout-Living Troops combo.
SUMMON ELEMENTAL
Quite a good spell but also the most expensive one to cast. Getting the
Elemental-friendly items are a great help. As for most of the level-5
spells, the effectiveness of Summon Elemental is directly related to the
Spell Power rating of your hero. This spell is almost as rare as Town
Portal. I won't go into all the different immunities and weaknesses of the
different elementals but be aware of them. With luck, you can use a mass-
destruction spell combo or get a much-needed spell immunity with the kind
of elementals you manage to get. Examples of Elemental-Destructive Spell
combos are : Air-Meteor Shower (you keep your Elemental stack close to a
majority of enemy stacks), Earth-Chain Lightning, Fire-Fireblast (not very
good) and Water-Cold Ring (just a joke :-). Keep in mind that ALL
Elementals are immune to ALL mind spells. I'm not sure about this but I
think the AI has a tendancy to attack the Elemental stacks first (after
your shooters). Casting 2 or more Summon Elementals in the same combat can
definitely "stack" the odds in your favor. Here is a handy little chart for
determining which elemental is immune to which spell :
ELEMENTAL TYPE = SPELL IMMUNITIES
EARTH = Lightning, Chain Lightning, Meteor Shower
AIR = Meteor Shower
FIRE = Fireball, Fireblast
WATER = Cold Ray, Cold Ring
MIRROR IMAGE
Also a very good spell which could have been rated much higher. Level-5
spells ratings are mostly a matter of personal preference so please don't
flame me too much :-). I use Mirror-Image on my best and/or highest level
creature stack (usually Titans, Phoenix or Bone Dragons) with the possible
exception of sometimes casting it on a huge stack of shooters or flyers
which are fast and can attack first. Timing is everything on this spell,
because you don't want the enemy to dispel it with one lousy shot or spell
:-) Raymond Bingham explains the issues of Mirror-Image timing better than
I do.. so please read his comments. Another less-well known usage of this
spell is as an enemy attack "magnet". The AI will usually attack the
mirror-imaged stack before the real one. This is especially useful on the
first turn of a battle, casted on your best shooter stack which will
receive most of the attacks. At the very least, it could save you from the
attack of 1 big enemy stack. Of course, this little tip doesn't work so
well against human opponents.
HYPNOTIZE
This one wins The Quebec Dragon Most Useless and Overrated Spell Award !
When I get Hypnotize in my only 5th-level spot after all the time and
resources it took to get to the 5th-level mage guild... I cringe in disgust
:-) In fact, I prefer Berserk over Hypnotize. Berserk will work on almost
every unit, Hypnotize will work only on the "lesser" units of the opponent.
Berserk is a 4th-level rare spell.. Hypnotize is a 5th-level frequent
spell. Berserk usually lasts one turn, Hypnotize unfortunately lasts only
one turn too. By the time I get Hypnotize, almost all monster stacks of
the enemy are rendered immune because of their high numbers. The fact that
I'm controlling the enemy stack for one turn doesn't make Hytpotize any
much better imho. Besides, I will always have a better spell to cast than
the "crappy" Hypnotize. The designers should really consider giving this
spell a lower-spell rating (4th level perhaps ?) or boosting its power
considerably. As it stands now, the only 2 uses I see for it are : 1)
Eliminating the turn of a stack that scares you (better left to Blind or
Paralyse) or 2) Lowering the numbers of two stacks by attack and
retaliation (better left to a good area-effect offensive spell). If you
would like to prove me wrong about the uselessness of Hypnotize, go ahead,
I would like to hear from you...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
VII. ARTIFACT LIST
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
It takes a really long time, but it is finally finished. Thanks to Rob
Merrit for these.
-Ammo Cart: endless ammunition for troops that shoot.
-Ankh: doubles effectiveness of resurrect and animate spells.
-Arcane Necklace of Magic: increases spell power +4.
-Armored Gauntlets of Protection: increase defense skill +1.
-Ballista of Quickness: catapult fires twice per turn.
-Black Pearl: increases spell power and knowledge +2.
-Book of Elements: doubles effectiveness of summoning spells.
-Caster's Bracelet of Magic: increases spell power +2.
-Defender Helm of Protection: increases defense skill +1.
-Divine Breastplate of Protection: increases defense skill +3.
-Dragon Sword of Dominion: increases attack skill +3.
-Elemental Ring: halves casting cost summoning spells.
-Enchanted Hourglass: extends duration spells by 2 turns.
-Endless Bag of Gold: 750 gold every day.
-Endless Cart of Ore: 1 unit of ore every day.
-Endless Cord of Wood: 1 unit of wood every day.
-Endless Pouch of Crystal: 1 unit of crystal every day.
-Endless Pouch of Gems: 1 unit of gems per day.
-Endless Pouch of Sulfur: 1 unit of sulfur every day.
-Endless Purse of Gold: 500 gold every day.
-Endless Sack of Gold: 1000 gold every day.
-Endless Vial of Mercury: 1 unit of mercury every day.
-Evercold Icicle: cold spells do 50% more damage.
-Everhot Lava Rock: fire spells do 50% more damage.
-Evil Eye: reduces casting cost of curse spells by half.
-Fire Cloak: halves damage troops take from fire spells.
-Fizbin of Misfortune: Greatly decreases morale.
-Foremost Scroll of Knowledge: increases knowledge +5.
-Four-Leaf Clover: increases luck in combat.
-Gamblers Luck Coin: Increases luck during combat.
-Giant Flail of Dominion: Increases attack skill +1
-Golden Bow: halves penalty shooting past obstacles.
-Golden Goose: 10,000 gold every day.
-Golden Horseshoe: increases luck in combat.
-Gold Watch: doubles the effectiveness of hypnotize spells.
-Hideous Mask: No wandering troops will join you.
-Holy Pendant: troops immune to curse spells.
-Ice Cloak: halves damage troops take from cold spells.
-Kinetic Pendant: troops immune to paralyze spells.
-Lighting Helm: Halves the damage done by lighting spells.
-Lightning Rod: lightning spells do 50% more damage.
-Lucky Rabbit's Foot: increases luck in combat.
-Mage's Ring of Power: increases spell power +2.
-Magic Book: allows the casting of spells.
-Major Scroll of Knowledge: increases knowledge +3.
-Medal of Courage: increases morale.
-Medal of Distinction: increases morale.
-Medal of Honor: increases morale.
-Medal of Valor: Increases morale.
-Minor Scroll of Knowledge: increases knowledge +2.
-Nomad boots of Mobility:Increases movement on land.
-Pendant of Death: troops immune to holy spells.
-Pendant of Free Will: troops immune to hypnotize spells.
-Pendant of Life: troops immune to death spells.
-Power Axe of Dominion: increases attack skill +2.
-Power Ring: returns 2 extra power points to your hero.
-Sailors' Astrolabe of Mobility: increases movement on sea.
-Skullcap: halves casting cost of mind influencing spells.
-Seeing Eye Pendant: Troops are immune to blindness spells.
-Serenity Pendant: troops immune to berserk spells.
-Snake ring: Halves the cost to case bless spells.
-Spike Helm: Increases attack and defense +1 each.
-Spike Shield: increases attack and defense skills +2.
-Statesman's Quill: reduces cost of surrender to 10% of the total
cost of troops you have in your army.
-Stealth Shield of Protection: increases defense skill +2.
-Superior Scroll of Knowledge: increases knowledge +4.
-Tax Lien costs you 250 gold pieces per day.
-Telescope: increases terrain hero reveals by 1 extra square.
-Thunder Mace of Dominion: increases attack skill +1.
-Traveler's Boots of Mobility: increase your movement on land.
-True Compass of Mobility: increases movement on land and sea.
-Ultimate Book of Knowledge: increases knowledge +12.
-Ultimate Cloak of Protection: increases defense skill +12.
-Ultimate Crown: increases all basic skills +4.
-Ultimate Shield: increases attack and defense skills +6.
-Ultimate Staff: increases spell power and knowledge +6.
-Ultimate Sword of Dominion: increases attack skill +12.
-Ultimate Wand of Magic: increases spell power +12.
-Wand of Negation: protects troops from Dispel Magic spell.
-White Pearl: increases spell power and knowledge +1.
-Witch's Broach of Magic: increases spell power +3.
-Wizard's Hat: increases duration of spells by 10 turns.
--Artifact Classification--
---------------------------
by: Astral Wizard
Artifacts are man-made (more accurately magic-wielder-made) items that have
a particular effect or function. Artifacts can turn a barbarian into a
high-level magic-user or a sorceress into a powerful fighting unit.
Artifacts can make the most craven of hero troops gallant warriors.
Unfortunately, the wrong artifact can also drain a kingdom of gold, turn
the populace against the heros, and demoralize the best. Artifacts can be
broken down into nine basic groups...
Skill Boosters. Skill boosters come in the forms of swords, shields,
crowns, rods, scrolls, broaches, and basically just about any form you can
imagine. The lesser of these artifacts might raise one of your basic skills
(offense, defense, power, and knowledge) by one point. The larger ones can
increase one of your basic skills by up to twelve points or multiple skills
by up to six points. Possession of such artifacts can be crucial in the
first part of the game where all heroes are starting off with a lack of
specific skills. By the time the game has progressed half way, the value of
these artifacts can decrease as heroes gain high skill levels through
experience and visiting skill enhancing structures. Grab all the skill
boosters you can get, but at mid-game start trading them for protective
artifacts when you can on your more buff heroes.
Protection. Protective artifacts come in the form of amulets, rods, cloaks,
and so on; and can save you from missiles, lightning, heat, and other forms
of physical attack or magical bespellment. It never hurts to have
protection. Protective artifacts are a boon during all phases of the game
but especially so towards the end when the fire balls are big, the
lightning bolts bad, and longe-range troops are massive.
Movement Enducers. Speed Baubles (as I like to call them) give you a
greater movement each day either on land or sea or both and can be found in
form both as various footware and medallions. Do NOT sell these apparantly
low-effect items short -- they can save your hero's life or help bring aid
to an unprotected castle under siege. All terrain movement enducers are a
value through the entire game -- in the beginning they help you to "Hoover"
up the resources laying around before your opponent does; and during the
middle and end parts of the game they allow you to run away from too-tough
opponents or to get back to your castle before an opponent can attack it.
Speed baubles are a great item to have when you don't have Town Portal or
Dimension Door!
Spell Cost Reducers. Artifacts that reduce the cost of spells come in a
myriad of oddly shaped items. They allow you to cast spells using much less
spell power. So you can cast more spells before having to rest and
regenerate your mana. Since they only usually help decrease the cost of a
particular spell or spell type (ie, Bless) they are of dubious value. By
mid-game, usually your spell casters have more than enough mana to perform.
Spell Cast Enhancers. Artifacts that make your spells more destructive or
longer in duration (like the Spell Cost Reducers) come in a myriad of oddly
shaped items. They can make your lightning bolts more butch or make your
troop stopper spells (blind, paralyze, slow, etc.) last longer. Again,
spell duration enhanncers are of more benefit at the start of a game then
they are later when the spell caster's abilities automatically increase the
duration of spells. But the enhancers that make a damage spell stronger are
very important are of great value to all spell caster types.
Luck And Morale Generators. Coins, medallions, clovers, and the like make
up this group of artifacts. They counter the ill effects of having undead
in your troops or having troops of more than two alignments. You should try
to equip each of your heroes with one of each (luck and morale) whenever
possible. Don't be fooled by the whimsy of these items: They give your
troops double attacks and maximum damage... they win battles!
Resource Generators. MarketPlace In a Pouch! Resource generators provide
you with one or two units of a particular resource every day or from 500 to
10,000 gold pieces if it's a gold generating artifact. So which would you
pick up if you had a choice: Endless Pouch Of Gems or Ultimate Crown? If
you control one or more wizard castles believe it or not, you would want
the pouch. Resource generators are a big ticket item at the start of the
game when resource piles are rare and at the middle of the game when you
are building the more costlier structures. But wizard castles, warlock
castles, sorceress castles, and barbarian castles all need a constant and
large source of gems, sulfer, mercury, and crystals respectively. And the
control of these sacks, pouches, carts, and cages can be a huge factor in
the outcome of the game.
Cursed Artifacts. Luckily, these are few and far between. Basically cursed
artifacts provide you with something you DON'T want. Coming in ANY form
conceiveable, they can do anything from draining your gold on a daily basis
to preventing you from recruiting troops from home-bases. With the advent
of the expansion pak, we now have a new quasi-form of cursed artifacts --
artifacts that provide a benefit with an equal and opposite bad affect (see
the expansion pak page for details). While you will never want a truely
cursed artifact, the benefits of the quasi-cursed artifacts that provide a
blessing and a curse will have to be experienced to be rated.
Miscellaneous Artifacts. These are special artifacts that provide a unique
function that can't be included in one of the other categories. The
Statesman's Quill which allows you to surrender with a discount, the Golden
Bow which halves the penalty your long-range troops have shooting past
obstacles, and the Crystal Ball which allows you to scrye information on
nearby sites, troops, and opponents are examples of this type of non-
classed artifact. There is no blanket value on this group of artifacts.
Each artifact has a particular, unique value depending on the hero type and
circumstances.
--Rating Artifacts By Hero Type--
---------------------------------
by: Astral Wizard
The level of value that an artifact provides any particular hero not only
varies by the usual map size, terrain, type of opponents, and so on; it
also varies specially based on the hero type. Given the exact same map,
starting point, and even troops; each hero type will still require a
different set of artifacts to enhance their activity. Non-spellcaster types
such as Knights and Barbarians would require a different set of artifacts
than spellcaster types such as Wizard, Warlock, Sorceress, and Necromancer;
and the Necromancer would even require a different set of artifacts than
the other spellcaster types. This is based on the inherit difference in
skill sets of the hero types and also in the logical recruiting and
deployment of troop types. Let's look at the three basic types of heroes:
non-spellcasters, spellcasters, and necromancers (spellcasters but handled
separately due to their unique aspect).
For Any And All Heroes. Some artifacts will provide maximum benefit
regardless of which hero type is in possession of them. You can NEVER go
wrong by acquiring these artifacts!
Ultimate Crown :
Increases ALL primary skills +4 but only takes 1 slot.
Breastplate,Helm,And Sword Of Anduran :
Combined, these three artifacts provide a single hero with +5 to
attack, defense, and power as well as maximum luck and morale and the
town gate spell while only taking up one slot!!!
Legendary Scepter:
Increases ALL primary skills by +2 but only takes one slot.
Ultimate Shield :
Increase both your attack and defense by +6 but only takes one slot!
Ultimate Staff :
Increases both your spell power AND your knowledge greatly while only
taking up one slot!
Lightning Helm :
Halves your damage from lightning.
True Compass Of Mobility :
Gives you extra movement everywhere.
Non-SpellCasters. Barbarians and Knights are basically non-spellcasters.
They are hired without spellbooks which is your first major clue that
spellcasting is not their forte`. Oh, sure: you can buy them books and send
them to school, but they will always be behind true spellcasters... unless
you buff them up with spell enhancing artifacts! Indeed, with the advent of
the expansion pak, we now have two methods of equalizing the spell power
difference between non-spellcasters and spellcasters.
Method Number One. Three Words: Sphere Of Negation! This one little
artifact truely makes the combat totally fair between Barbarian and
Necromancer... between Knight and Warlock! It prevents all use of magic
spells during combat. I believe this artifact will become the "Holy Grail"
for all Barbarian and Knight hero types in any map from now on. No longer
will the Barbarian or Knight need to worry about Armaggedon, Elemental
Storm, or Chained Lightning taking out the majority of their troops. Now
(pardon the expression, Ladies) it's a real man's fight with sword and
arrow, tooth and claw. With magic out of the picture, the Barbarian's and
Knight's troops can leverage their natural offensive and defensive
attributes into a powerhouse army. In fact, if you have the Sphere Of
Negation, then you don't need to pick up ANY spell enhancing artifacts for
that particular hero. Indeed, you want to avoid them and go for the offense
and defense enhancing artifacts. Magic is now a non-issue and it comes down
to sheer phsyical strength and numbers. Load such a hero up with offense
and defense artifacts, mobility artifacts, and luck and morale artifacts!
Method Number Two: But if the Sphere Of Negation is not to be found for a
particular Barbarian or Knight hero, then what? Then you need to get four
things: elevated spell power, elevated knowledge, expert Wisdom (a
secondary skill), and... spells! And you need to get them fast! Wisdom
comes from experience. Spells come from mage guilds, shrines, and (thanks
to the expansion pak) singleton scrolls. No problem. But where does the
elevated spell power and knowledge come from? A little from experience and
training. A lot from artifacts. And as the Barbarian or Knight hero roams
the land, they should be concentrating on finding spell enhancing
artifacts. Don't worry that much about offense and defense: those are
natural skills that increase rapidly in Barbarian and Knight hero types and
are abundantly enhanced by the natural attributes of the type of troops
these hero types usually command.
Go for spell power and knowledge enhancing artifacts first. Once your
Barbarian and Knight heroes have achieved a certain level of spell power
and knowledge, they should then begin concentrating on getting their wisdom
increased so that they can use the medium and high-level spells. Protection
and luck/morale are of equal benefit and should be concentrated on at mid-
game as the action gets hot and the combat gets tough.
What artifacts would particularly suit a Barbarian or Knight hero (if they
don't have the Sphere Of Negation)? For spell power and knowledge... It is
best to boost your spell knowledge first so any artifact that increases
spell knowledge is of major benefit since it keeps you from having to
return to a castle or magic well repeatedly.
Any knowledge scroll -- they increase your knowledge from +2 to +5 so you
can cast more spells.
The Pearls -- they each increase both your spell power and your knowledge
but only take up one slot each.
Enchanted Hourglass -- it increases the duration of your spells.
For protection... All protection artifacts are of sound benefit with the
exception of the Pendant Of Death. Picking up ANY protection artifact is
going to help you. But these four I think provide the most aid to
Barbarians and Knights.
Holy Pendant -- protects you from curse spells so that your bless spells
can boost you to victory!
Serenity Pendant -- makes you immune to bezerk spells.
Pendant Of Life -- makes you immune to death spells.
Miscellaneous enhancements that will help the Knight or Barbarian hero once
he or she has built up their spell power, knowledge, and protection provide
an almost equally important boost to the hero's personae.
Snake Ring -- halves the cost of Bless spells... a blessed Crusader stack
is a serious thing!
Any luck artifact -- gives you extra damage on your attacks.
Any morale artifact -- gives your troops extra turns.
Masthead -- gives you both luck and morale benefits at sea and is great for
maps that have large water terrain areas.
True-SpellCasters. Sorceresses, Wizards, Warlocks, and Necromancers make up
the category of spellcasters. You won't find a true spellcaster without his
or her spellbook. Why not? Because without spells, the true spellcaster is
a feeb! Oh, sure: you can send them to boot camp and make them watch Jake;
but point for point, they will always be behind the Barbarians and Knights
when it comes to attack and defense. Unless you pump up their physical
skills by training, experience, AND...? Right! And artifacts!
But not just any artifacts! Spellcasters need defense more than any thing
else! The very first thing that spellcasters should begin to do as they
seek out training structures to increase ALL their skills is to find
defense artifacts to increase their immunity to physical attacks. Dull the
edge of sword and arrow, blunt the point of tooth and claw. You are already
ahead of the non-spellcasters in spell power and knowledge; but that does
you no good if you get few chances to cast your spells. At mid-game, seek
spell power and knowledge boosters as well as luck and morale boosters. The
spells you are acquiring at this point are greatly enhanced by spell power
(Chained Lightning and Fireblast) and knowledge lets you make longer
forays. The luck and morale boosters now start to increase your attack
capabilities by giving you extra turns and full damage. In the final
stages, seek real attack artifacts so that on the final big battles you are
insured of making your physical attacks do as much damage as your heavy
spells.
What artifacts would particularly suit a Sorceress, Wizard, or Warlock
(I'll leave Necromancers for their own section)?
For defense... It is best to boost your defense first so any artifact that
increases defense is of major benefit since it keeps your troops alive
longer in battle.
Spiked Shield -- increases both your defense and attack by +2 and only
takes one slot.
Sword Breaker -- increases your defense by +4 and your attack by +1.
Divine Breastplate of Protection -- increases your defense by +3.
For spell power and knowledge... Any booster of this type picked up by a
spellcaster will turn them from a dangerous spellcaster into a deadly
spellcaster. But these listed here provide the best overall benefit to the
spellcaster.
Any knowledge scroll -- they increase your knowledge from +2 to +5 so you
can cast more spells.
The Pearls -- they each increase both your spell power and your knowledge
but only take up one slot each.
For attack... All attack artifacts are of sound benefit. Picking up ANY
attack artifact is going to help you. But these four I think provide the
most aid to spellcasters.
Holy Hammer -- increases your attack by +5.
Sword Of Anduran -- increases your attack by +5.
Dragon Sword Of Dominion -- increases your attack by +3.
Power Axe Of Dominion -- increases your attack by +2.
For protection... The same artifacts that provide the best benefit to
Barbarians and Knights also provide the best protection to Sorceresses,
Wizards, and Warlocks.
Holy Pendant -- protects you from curse spells so that your bless spells
can boost you to victory!
Serenity Pendant -- makes you immune to bezerk spells.
Pendant Of Life -- makes you immune to death spells.
Miscellaneous enhancements that will help the true spellcaster differ
slightly from those that help the non-spellcaster.
Power Ring -- restores +2 spell points per turn.
Any luck artifact -- gives you extra damage on your attacks.
Any morale artifact -- gives your troops extra turns.
Masthead -- gives you both luck and morale benefits at sea and is great for
maps that have large water terrain areas.
Necromancers. The Necromancer is basically an aggressive spell-caster --
aggressive meaning that the normal Necromancer starts out with one attack
point whereas the other spell-casters don't. This means very little in the
over all game.
However, the Necromancer has special skill that needs to be cultivated and
exploited. This skill is the Necromancy skill. This skill allows the
Necromantic Hero to turn the combat dead into skeletons. This is no small
thing -- although skeletons are the least of the minions of the Necromantic
Hero, in hordes they are quite deadly.
The Necromancer will want to acquire the same artifacts that the normal
spell-casters do for the same reason. In addition, two artifacts that are a
must have (when available) for the Necromancer are:
Arm of The Martyr (+3 to spell power, and the necromancer laughs at the
undead morale penalty)
Gravedigger's Shovel (increases the necromancy skill by 10%)
Evaluating the Worthiness of an Artifact
Now having listed out what I consider to be some "must have" artifacts for
each hero type, I'd like to challenge my own statement: "Must have"?
Really??? A Player asked this question last week: "I came across an
artifact that I could purchase for 3,000 gold pieces and five gems. I
didn't take it. Should I have?" The answer to that question is a resounding
and definite "Maybe!... Maybe not...!"
Normally, you acquire an artifact by just "finding" it, fighting a guardian
or a pack of scalywags for it, winning it off a defeated opponent, or
through an event. But sometimes one of these annoying little leprechauns
goes retail and tries to sell you an artifact. Whether you should purchase
it or not depends on the artifact AND the situation.
First of all, if the artifact offered is a relatively useless artifact then
skip it? What constitutes a useless artifact? A morale booster is useless
if your heroes all have expert leadership and are already carrying morale
boosting artifacts. An endless pouch or sack of anything is useless if all
of your castles are completely built and you don't need the particular
resouce (for instance, it's the Endless Pouch Of Gems and you only control
totally completed Knight's castles). Statesman's Quill is useless if you
never surrender. I'm sure you'll find other situations where an evaluation
of the state of the union tells you that you don't really need this
particular artifact at this particular time for this particular map
scenario.
But what if the artifact is extremely good and you really need it for a
hero? Evaluate that need with the needs of your current castles'
development and your control of resources. Do you still have critical
castle structures to build? For instance, are you only at Level 3 on your
Mage Guilds and you have only one or none of the mines that produce the
resource that is required to purchase the artifact? Don't do it. Do you
have no control of any mines that will replenish the resource cost used to
purchase the artifact? Don't do it. Is it asking for gems, sulfur, mercury,
or crystals and you control a wizard's castle, warlock's castle, sorceress'
castle, or barbarian's castle, respectively? Don't do it. Did one of the
opponent's heroes just waltz into your view with a few dragons in his
troops while you're still excited over having just built your basic ivory
tower? You're in trouble! Forget the silly artifact and get that castle
built!!
And the final consideration (for now) in determining whether to acquire an
artifact whether you purchase it or just pick it up is this: You can't drop
artifacts. You are limited to the number of artifacts your heroes can hold.
It doesn't matter if the artifact is free, if it takes up a crucial slot
that a better artifact could have taken. Consider this: would you rather
have the Ultimate Crown or the Endless Cord Of Wood? As your heroes'
artifact slots begin to fill up, begin getting more picky about what
artifacts you acquire and ignore the lessor ones. Shop smart!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
VIII. GENERAL TIPS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
* Exploring your vicinity
In most cases it is very wise to purchase at least one more hero to
your starting one. Of course, if you have an observation tower in front of
your castle and can see from there that all ways out are blocked by some
stronger armies and you only have a little space to explore, a second hero
won't be needed... yet.
* Main advantages of two-heroes exploration:
-In early stage - that 'round the castle' exploration - you will
usually profit from having two heroes by having more goodies gathered
quicker. Applies to mines, resources, artifacts and even the fact of
uncovering the map. [More heroes can be used, if your financial
situation seems good and exploration is possible. These guys usually
pay back quite soon.]
-Further in the game, when you assemble a task force strong enough to
go after your enemy, a second guy in backup can be used for several
things:
1.takes care of resources, mines and full exploration of conquered
land (here I often purchase new heroes at conquered castles,
because within a few days the money is back in resources from
taken mines.)
2.holds backup armies for your main hero
3.can build up quite solid experience
4.can take out some of the wandering armies
5.can take care of some minor enemy heroes/towns
* How to select your primary/secondary hero?
With the exception of necromancer, there's no need at all to use a hero
corresponding with the castle class (and even with the necro castle, you
should consider buying another type if there's not any large quantities
of skeleton reserves scattered around the map). How to make your choice?
-Primary hero:
* Knight
for both quick and long tasks. Should be definitely chosen in cases
where magic resources are very scarce. In later phases the knights
develop significant skills in magic, too, but their main advantage is
very strong defense, closely followed by attack. Very good for
walker-based armies due to Ballistics and Leadership, but since they
get archery pretty often, even shooter-based task forces will be glad
to be under a knight's command.
* Barbarian
for both quick and long tasks. Should be definitely chosen in cases
where magic resources are very scarce. The barbarian's magic skills
will remain puny without artifacts. Their main advantage is
definitely attack. The defense can remain surprisingly low for Might
class hero. Excellent in rough terrain, they guarantee quick
exploration and also outrunning your enemies (both offensive and
defensive ;-)).
* Sorceress
For quick and mid-term games. Their Navigation makes them a must for
water-based maps. With excellent knowledge and fair spell power
they're good ones to rely on Summon Elemental spells in battle. If
you manage to get some direct damage spells, they can gain quick
victories on their Might opponents, but in the long term, they lose
to their strength, unless they happen to get high-tech spells. (This
is common for all magic heroes - and the high-tech spells are
berzerker, mirror image and ressurecting, possibly global damage
spells - but at those the sorceress isn't that good due to lower
spell power.) The remarkably high knowledge is very important in
longer journeys in unexplored lands.
* Warlock
If you're gonna to gain access to your opponents quickly and if
their forces are weak, you can take a warlock and bet on spells. His
early Spell Power dominance with slight positive inclination to
attack skill gives opportunity to teach enemies lessons in direct
damage spells from 2nd level Mage guild, which can be built easily in
most cases. In the long term, they lose to strong Might heroes with
strong magic troops ;-)
* Wizard
Being a good compromise between Sorceress and Warlock, their magic
abilities are quite reliable, with little inclination to defense.
Combine comments on those classes and bear in mind that the wizard is
worse than them in their primary positive, yet better in their
negative ;-). In the long term, they lose to strong Might heroes.
* Necromancer
They are of little use as main heroes with living armies. However,
if there are significant numbers of skeleton-providing low-level
armies, it might pay back well to pick a necromancer. Within a few
levels gained from chests and gazebos, his Necromancy skill should
improve to Expert and then it's time to get some armies. Gaining more
levels to A/D than other spell casters, necros aren't that vulnerable
in battles, while still profit from quite strong spells. In the long
term, they lose to strong Might heroes, unless their skeleton hordes
are in four-digit values - this depends strongly on the particular
map.
To sum and extend those comments on heroes, a few notes of my personal
experience follow:
If you plan using high-end magic, make your main hero a spellcaster.
However, if you plan a long-term campaign with huge armies involved,
you'd better choose a knight or barbarian, depending on the chosen
strategy, terrain, number of castles and available troop types. Maps
with easy terrain, close strong opponents (and therefore defensive
strategy), lots of castles and scarce resources (and therefore weaker
armies in low counts) a knight is better, while distant enemies, rough
terrain and numerous armies suit the barbarian.)
Having a sorceress in sea-rich scenarios gives you great advantage -
gathering resources, artifacts and events before the enemy may well
help you win a map.
Wizard's wisdom may be useful with some potent spells like Berzerker,
which is the best way using enemies' own power against them.
Necromancer may be worth it if large amounts of skeleton producing
wandering armies are located nearby - the recruited skeletons make
excellent garrison troops.
My usual practice is to hire a Barbarian (unless I'm sure I'll need a
knight to defend frontier castles) and concentrate the experience with
him. In many cases I manage to get Wisdom, so I can use some good
spells from captured castles. However, Knight heroes have greater
probability of acquiring wisdom, spell power and, which is the most
important, knowledge.
The barbarian should also try hard to get Archery and possibly
Ballistics, as the shooters aren't strong enough to rely exclusively on
them, especially against shooter based opponents as Wizard or
Sorceress).
This concept of relying on the Might in the Long Run has only a few
holes, but those do NOT apply to games against AI. The holes are
Paralyze and especially Berzerker. With those spells, a good
spellcaster can kick your butt. You'll need to be careful with casting.
The only good remedy is those pendants that protect against these.
Oh,well,if the opponent makes a mistake and gives you an opportunity to
dispel those spells, DO that! (Best by using AntiMagic.)
Direct damage spells (maybe except Armageddon) aren't a big threat,
because with large armies the damage caused by those can be compensated
by supportive spells on your troops - I.e. Bless on 30 crusaders gives
an average of +300 damage - equal to Spell Power 12 Lightning Bolt,
Mass Bless on whole army giving even better results compared to
ChainLightning.
The only things that I miss when playing Might heroes is making long
journeys using Dimension Door, but a) even that sometimes gets
possible, b) anyway, after some tens of games won by DDing around, this
thing becomes boring, as it spoils most of the challenge.
Note that in Ways of ... particular hero classes, there are common
strategies to use when fighting other heroes. Those of course mean fighting
armies belonging to that particular hero type. All those strategies assume
all those armies included in the battle (for nit-pickers: five out of six
possible, by best choice under particular circumstances...). If there's any
army missing, the strategies must be reworked to reflect that. If there's
any army added (from other castle types or neutral troops), the strategies
must be reworked. Since there are way too many combinations, I'm not gonna
do that.
Getting secondary skills:
Check Way of particular class to see which skills suit the best your troops
and strategies. There are some general rules to follow. See description of
advanced skills below for most of them. Many of the skills are just
generally good (Luck,Leadership) while others are case-specific (Mysticism,
Wisdom, Logistics, Ballistics) where the conditions cover anything from Map
size, number of castles, type of main hero, type of most used troops,
amounts of resources available and all other things up to terrain types. Of
course, the hero class is very important. I.e. Leadership and Luck provide
much better advantage to Might Heroes, whose troop damage ratings (that
profit from their skills) are generally high. On the other hand, for a
spell caster skills like Mysticism and Expert Wisdom are a must, because
those expand his strong features.
-Secondary hero:
* Knight
Used mainly for defensive purpose - if you need a hero to command
the garisson of a beseieged castle (and don't have any strong spells
in there), use a knight. For active usage there's about nothing
significantly good.
* Barbarian
Can be as well used for defense instead of knight, but in rough
terrain makes an excellent resource gatherer - the kind that runs
between all the weekly-available sources of anything. If your main
guy is a barbarian, try to get another one to accompany him on the
long journeys, picking up all the resources etc. (If your backup guy
doesn't keep the pace up with the main one, he kinda loses his
importance in the two-hero strategy.)
* Sorceress
Use whenever high seas are close - try to improve navigation quickly
in gazebos etc. and rush out to pick up all that floats on the high
waters before your enemies can do so. No other real use.
* Warlock
Use in very early stages as explorer. Leave him only his gargoyles
and let him to help reveal the map. Try to get Expert scouting ASAP
to improve his performance.
* Wizard
Of no much use. The only good thing is that the hero comes bundled
with a few boars and therefore can reach good speed simply by
dismissing the halflings.
* Necromancer
Of almost no use. Comes with slow units and no particular good
skill. However, if you have tons of peasants and other low-level
skeleton-providing scum in vicinity, you can take a necro, get a few
levels to improve necromany, then, before shuttling one or two weeks
of castle production to your main hero, wipe out these armies and
use the skeletons - either with the necro as his main troops or with
the main hero as an improvement to his strike force (if he has some
leadership)).
I personally prefer to take warlocks as secondary, unless I need
barbarian (due to terrain) or unless I need to get more troops for the
primary hero, in which case I take the same class (which is always
offered in first week). Why warlock? Ideal for exploration - has
Scouting and Very fast units at start - can even share the gargoyles
with the main hero, thus giving me two swift explorers at the very
start.
When your secondary heroes happen to gain levels, bear in mind that
really important among secondary skills are movement skills -
Logistics, Pathfinding and Navigation (only when can be applied,
though), Scouting and Estates.
Also remember that the two-hero strategy doesn't implicate use of ONLY
two heroes, but AT LEAST two heroes. The larger the map, the more
heroes may be used.
The so-called backup guy should be taking his share of experience.
Especially later, when the main hero will need large amounts of
experience to advance, it's usually better to let the chests to the
backup guy, because he'll profit them much more. The only exception
should be the case when the main guy desperately NEEDS to upgrade some
advanced skills.)
The main purposes of the backup guy are carrying reinforcements,
killing minor enemies and wandering armies and sometimes possibly
softening up enemy resistance, even at the cost of sacrificing himself.
If the secondary hero survives, he might often 'inherit' all the main
hero's armies - especially if you happen to capture enemy castle with
some 6th level troops left inside unpurchased. In that case the main
hero buys all the big guys and those often carry more firepower that
his entire regular army. In this moment, the backup guy becomes sort of
another main hero and at those moments you really appreciate that
you've already let him to get some levels.)
[Or, if he's still pretty weak, you might consider giving HIM the
dragons, who tend to take minimal losses, grab some quick experience by
defeating wandering armies etc. - and later switch the armies. This
applies in cases where the main hero's army relies very much on his
skills and with the weak secondary guy would suffer many losses.]
There might be a bunch of 'tertiary' heroes that can take care of
collecting resources, gold and armies from self-refilling sources
(usually one hero can do that easily) and for shuttling reinforcements
to the front lines. Those guys need no experience, but should (if that
doesn't mean BIG delays) visit gazebos and possibly trees of knowledge
(if they're for free) to try and get scouting, logistics or estates).
* Task sharing between the heroes:
The main hero should spend his time doing only things that number two
cannot do himself. The former are usually battling armies, getting
artifacts and treasure chests, while the latter are usually occupying
mines, picking up resources and exploring Witch huts. Of course, things
like visiting gazebos and other skill increasing facilities are common.
One more thing should the second guy do - probe trees of knowledge,
because they're more valuable later in the game and you don't want to
waste their potential in the beginning.
* Experience and advancement handling:
-In witch huts you can get random Basic skill. [Random in sense that
level creator cannot affect which skill will it be, but every time the
level is started, the skill is set and remains the same for the single
playtime.] So, the backup hero has one important role: If your main
guy still has some secondary skill slots free, his friend will check
every witch hut and sacrifice his free slots to learn, what the hut
has to offer.
-Treasure chests and other sources of experience. As the experience
needed to gain a level rises with levels already gained, it is pretty
obvious, that if you have a hero with some 40000 exp. and his backup
guy has some 3000 from temples only, then when ever you run into a
treasure chest, you'd better take it by the second guy... Coz getting
another +1 skill for your main guy is usually not as good, as getting
some +6 for the same price... Okay, sometimes you take them with the
main guy, because you desperately need some advanced skill to be
upgraded... [Here I strongly recommend checking every now and then,
how much the hero needs to advance to next level. Even with 100000+
experience points, the hero sometimes is just a 'chest-far' from next
level.
-The same thing comes with wandering armies... If the backup guy can
take them out, let him do it and leave only hard targets to your main
guy. There is one exception... If the main guy has a strong army, it
is a good strategy to leave him one empty stack when touring the
landscape... (The backup guy will carry the fifth army in case it
would be needed for a castle siege or enemy hero onslaught). Thus,
wandering armies can join you. So, if you happen to have a force
strong enough to defeat any wandering army, approach those you'd like
to join you (or buy, having advanced/expert diplomacy) with the main
guy. If they will join you, you can either use them immediately or
give them to the backup guy, if they don't fit for the main guy's
alignment, combat style or speed. Those armies can be then used by the
backup guy as forces to kill other wandering armies and towns for
experience, and later maybe to be left as garrisons in captured
castles and towns (ogres and hydras are excellent for this purpose,
because their high HPs will either prevent any weaker heroes from
attacking your towns or, at least, cause some losses to enemy armies.)
-One more comment on treasure chests - always bear in mind that they
are also a good source of GOLD! If you plan to rely in diplomacy or
build very expensive structures, it's worth it to take gold with the
secondary heroes.
-Also, if your secondary hero explores a closed area that you don't
want to visit with the main guy (maybe there's nothing important
except a few chests, or he's in a hurry to somewhere else), you might
grab gold or exp. with the secondary guy even at early stages of the
game, where the main hero could profit them, but it'd cost too much
time.
-Daemon caves are a bit tricky thing... If you enter and fight the
daemon servants, usually there are about 10 earth elementals, after
whose defeat you get usually 2500 gold. Refusing to fight them, you
risk one of four possibilities (getting the gold and 1000 exp, getting
the exp. only, losing 2500 gold (the hero dies if you don't have 2500)
or receiving some gold and an artifact), that generally are much
better.
-All other sources of experience and skills can be used by more heroes
(temple, stonehenge, witch doctor hut, mercenary camp, fortress, arena
and tree of knowledge, which has the same price for all heroes(decided
at startup, can be nothing, 10 gems or 2000 gold)). In case that a
Tree of Knowledge wants no payment, the level advancement is done
immediately (which is why it's better to try those with the backup
guys first, because using a tree of knowledge before you already have
some 50000 exp. is a real waste.)
-EP features Harpyas - a good way how to transform useless armies to
exp. points. [If you have tons of cash or just some armies you won't
need, give them to a hero, who has a little experience, and send him
there. Harpyas will slaughter some of his armies and reward him with
exp. totalling the sum of slaughtered armies' HPs.Ideal for dismissing
joint golems, ogres, hydras and other (usually useless) stuff. Can get
you a few levels for a beginner hero. Generally not of much use, but
it's there and works alright. And, sometimes this helps human players,
because computer heroes sometimes visit harpyas with their main armies
and thus make your job of killing them later easier.
* Artifacts
Always take time to sort the artifacts you have and have the least
possible number of them with your main hero... All spell-protective
amulets have gained on importance as the AI in it's latest upgraded
version has started using spells like Paralyze and Blind frequently. In
older versions, it never did so and those artifacts were just wasting
space. And, remember one thing - those artifacts will protect you even
from special ability attacks that are similar to the spells - both
Unicorns and Cyclopes will NOT be able to inflict their special spells on
your troops.
So, give those to the backup hero, along with all resource-or-gold-
providing artifacts. That leaves artifacts improving basic skills, morale,
luck and movement. And even then, if you're readying to capture a strong
enemy hero (best in his castle, so he can't flee), think a lot about which
ones you could miss for that fight, coz you might salvage much better ones
from the enemy. (Usually you won't need magical artifacts with
knights/barbarians and sometimes A/D artifacts with spellcasters that plan
to rely on their strong magic...
Also some morale and luck stuff can be missed for that battle, not
mentioning movement artifacts.) Don't hesitate to get rid of unwanted
artifacts by sacrificing a hero to enemy [if you wish to pass the artifact
to enemy - good with tax lien, hideous mask and magical stuff like broach
of shielding and hearts of ice and cold, depending on what spells do you
have ;-)] or just dismissing him and hiring another one. I often even hire
a hero to be dismissed with the negative stuff. NWC should have made
negative artifacts stick to the hero... as it was in the original HOMM.
* Movement rules
The total movement points of your hero depend not only on his skills, but
on his armies, too, and the difference is 4 movement points between very
slow and very fast armies. (Always matters the slowest army, in case you
didn't figure it out). So leave hydras, ogres, dwarven armies and possibly
orcs and archers at home, unless you'll really need them. The additional
movement points may often be the only difference between life and death,
i.e. if you run across an enemy hero with large army during your
exploration and he starts right after you.
Just came to my mind that this could be a good way to waste your
opponent's time - once the enemy wanders onto the edge of your territory,
get close enough to him to let him see you. But be sure to have very fast
armies, possibly logistics or a movement increasing artifact... and every
turn, keep just a few steps ahead of him... And run around the map, wasting
the time of the powerful enemy army...
Also, use always appropriate heroes! If you've got a ship and vast seas
to conquer, buy a sorceress, try to get her some levels to improve her
nagivation to expert, dismiss her dwarves and here we go. (The dismissed
dwarves won't speed up her sailing, but she'll have two extra movement
points for land duties - and those can often save her a whole day if she
can land, snatch resources and board her boat all within one turn. Same
with barbarians exploring deserts, swamps etc. - leave orcs in castle, try
to get expert pathfinding.
* Advanced skills overview
----------------------------T-----T-----T-----T-----м
| Primary Skill Advancement | | | | |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Hero on levels | A | D | SP | K |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Barbarian 2-9 | 55% | 35% | 5% | 5% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Barbarian 10+ | 30% | 30% | 20% | 20% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Knight 2-9 | 35% | 45% | 10% | 10% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Knight 10+ | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Necromancer 2-9 | 15% | 15% | 35% | 35% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Necromancer 10+ | 25% | 25% | 25% | 25% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Sorceress 2-9 | 10% | 10% | 30% | 50% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Sorceress 10+ | 20% | 20% | 30% | 30% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Warlock 2-9 | 10% | 10% | 50% | 30% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Warlock 10+ | 20% | 20% | 30% | 30% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Wizard 2-9 | 10% | 10% | 40% | 40% |
+---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| Wizard 10+ | 20% | 20% | 30% | 30% |
L---------------------------+-----+-----+-----+------
-----------------------------------------------------------------м
| Secondary Skill Advancement |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| The higher the number, the higher the chance that the skill |
| will be available to learn; the lower the number, the lower the|
| chance that the skill will be available (a 0 means no chance) |
+---------------------------T------T----T-----T------T-----T-----+
| Skill | Barb | Kn | Nec | Sorc | War | Wiz |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Archery | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Ballistics | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Diplomacy | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Eagle Eye | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Estates | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Leadership | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Logistics | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Luck | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Mysticism | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Navigation | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Necromancy | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Pathfinding | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Scouting | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
+---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+-----+
| Wisdom | 1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
L---------------------------+------+----+-----+------+-----+------
Every hero has eight slots for advanced skills. Therefore you have to be
picky and choose only those you'll profit from. The simple fact that your
hero would profit from a skill doesn't mean that you want to take it...
There always could be more skills to profit from. A good example may be a
knight that gets offered Advanced Leadership and Basic Archery. A newbie
will snatch the archery, while the Pro will stop here, think about waiting
for wisdom/logistics with the free slot and therefore will take the
advanced one. This waiting is generally affordable in cases where the basic
offered to you isn't a rare skill for your hero, or in cases where you
don't need it any badly right now.
* Ballistics:
A must for walker based armies, in every scenario with
lots of castles it will save you some losses to your vulnerable
shooters...Either by destroying enemy castle installations or just
making way for your armies to run in and slay the defending troops sooner.
Not needed much for flyers/shooters based armies, such as dragon or titan
task forces. Yet shooters profit from destroyed castle walls by having no
obstacle penalty.
* Archery:
Increased damage from ranged attacks usually comes in pretty
handy, unless you have small stacks or none shooters at all. (I.e.
warlock, necromancer).
* Logistics:
A must, except for Small, sometimes Medium and those island
realms scenarios.
* Pathfinding:
A must, whereever large desert, swamp or snowy areas require exploration.
Otherwise useless.
* Navigation:
Don't have to tell you that you won't need that, when you have no
seas/rivers to conquer, do I? ;-)
* Necromancy:
Not of much use, unless you manage to get expert one and find large masses
of cannon fodder such as peasants. However, in necromancer's hands it's a
powerful weapon. Only warlocks can ever get basic necromancy... and a witch
hut will never teach that.
* Mysticism:
Very useful for long journeys without castles, if you need to use magic.
The better knowledge your hero will have, the lesser need of that skill you
have. (Warlock/Necro needs that far more than Sorceress, to be exact. Also
Knight/Barbie could consider taking this skill, especially in cases where
he already knows Haste/Slow and plans to use those frequently.)
* Wisdom:
Unless you build higher level of mage guilds, you won't find much use to
it, but take this rather than other, worse skills, coz somebody might build
the guild levels for you (either in your or his city). In large scenarios,
even magic-hating/fearing knights/barbies should take this one - it will
give them access to spells in conquered castles and MassHaste/Slow or
Paralyze/Berzerker are spells that may greatly improve their battle
efficiency, not to mention getting i.e. TownGate.
* Diplomacy:
If you get it in early stages, comes quite handy, coz with expert level of
this skill, you get quite a fair price for new units. [And you can see how
many they are, before fighting them... and hell, there IS a difference
between 'lots' and 'lots', 20 and 40 ogre lords definitely aren't a bit the
same easy bait. A few times, having adv/expert diplomacy saved my life,
because I could avoid fighting a stack of grand-elves, that would have beat
crap out of my armies.] I think that the total price is always the same -
the price you'd have to pay for the troops if you were recruiting them,
EXCLUDING magic resources!. Dependant on level, 1/4, 1/2 or all the troops
offer themselves for that price. You should check the areas you have
already explored to see if there are any troops you'd want on your side
(and if their numbers aren't too high - I can't remember the exact value,
but they'll offer to join for money only if your army is somewhat bigger
than their in HPs.) There's one more important thing: This threshold value
for joining is smaller than the value needed for the army to be too scared
to fight you - in other words, if you have diplomacy and a free slot (or a
matching stack in your army), you can avoid fighting armies that would
otherwise fight you, which can be extremly important while facing very fast
shooters or dangerous flyers.)
* Scouting:
Useful for exploration, coz you'll be able not only to see resources and
mines you're looking for, but sometimes you'll spot your enemy soon enough
to turn back or even spot him without him spotting you.
* Eagle Eye:
Learning spells from your enemies is a good concept, especially if you
don't have enough resources to build your own guilds. But I personally
prefer other skills and take this only when I either have to or know I'll
need it. (Being offered Navigation on land-based scenario, it's really
lesser evil to take Eagle Eye.)
* Estates:
Having this skill in expert level is fine, although there are better
ones. Usually I take it in early stages, if either the other
skill is even worse or I'm in dire need of cash. All secondary/tertiary
heroes should take this one - better is only logistics or pathfinding,
where applicable - if the heroes are supposed to travel long-distance
repeatedly and quickly. If you plan to rely on Diplomacy, take Estates
along with the main guy, if you can spare the slot.
* Luck:
Causing double damage can't be a bad thing, ever ;-), but it's never
a thing I'd wait for to come.
* Leadership: Can sometimes save you a lot of trouble and losses. I
prefer it to Luck, as it gives you more tactical benefits. (You can let
enemy units share the double damage you're granted.)
My personal preferences would be: Logistics, Pathfinding, Navigation,
Leadership, Ballistics, Archery, Mysticism, Wisdom and then others. But
if you get Diplomacy or Estates pretty soon, always take them rather than
Eagle Eye or other, in some cases useless skill.
Diplomacy may prove extremely useful in all maps where castles are scarce
and gold is abundant. Especially with stronger armies you'll have an easy
task in acquiring reinforcements among wandering armies.
In general, when deciding about a particular skill, you should always
bear in mind particular conditions in that particular game. You won't
need Estates, if you have a few goldmines/endless bags. You won't need
Diplomacy, if you're very short of gold or if there are only a few armies
that you would want to join you. You won't need Pathfinding on grassland
landmasses. You won't need logistics in a Small map. You won't need luck
with strong armies. Always remember that if something comes handy, you
don't NEED it yet.
* Spell Casting - adventure spells
When an adventure spell is cast, ALL your heroes profit from it. So, if
you have some spare guy at home, cast all view spells and identify hero
spells with him, sitting in his castle. You can identify a hero, that is on
the other end of map, so why use spell points of your killer guy, which
needs to know this opponent before killing him ;-) I don't have to mention
profits of dimension door, do I? Remember one thing, though. Plan your DD
journeys well, considerings wells ;-). It's good to be able to travel half
the map in one day, but is even better to end your trip with almost full
spellpoints, in case you might need them - i.e. to travel back. It's always
nice to see a computer hero DDing onto a little island and then waiting a
week to regain ten points to get back -especially if he has his pack of
titans with him and not in his home castle...
The town portal is even bigger bastard than DD. Suppose you capture an
enemy castle with some heavy losses - you warp home, get new armies, run
to a well, that often is near your starting castle, and then, warp back
to the newly captured castle, all in one turn!
Town portal (without troops) can be emulated even if you don't have it,
at least in some ways. Remember, that in one turn, you can repeatedly
attack somebody/something,retreat and re-hire the hero with new movement
points! [I personally began to dislike DD and Town Portal, finding them
very unbalancing to the game.]
Dirty Trick: Hit'n'Run:
Although the following is nasty and almost cheating, you can do this:
Having i.e. a warlock or a wizard (very fast units), an enemy near your
castle with a huge army and some offensive spells in your guild: Split
your very fast units into 5 stacks, if possible. Just have the five
stacks occupied by 1 unit each. Attack the enemy, demolish his stacks
with spells, retreat, hire again and repeat. If you'll have a well
nearby, you can do this as long as you have the cash. Having 5 stacks of
1 unit often allows you to cast 2 or even 3 spells per battle. (Remember,
you must FLEE, don't get killed!).
This way, you can reduce the enemy's army to quite poor numbers and then,
either fortify at your castle, or even slay him with your main army, that
was resting in your castle all the time (and maybe providing the very fast
units for those repeated attacks). Note that sometimes it would be better
to use non-offensive spells, eh, I mean berzerker ;-))
In early exploration, casting View Resources, View Towns or View Mines
may have crucial impact on your success. Especially View Mines is often
helpful, because there are often scattered respective resources near a
mine, so it's important to be there sooner than your opponents.
* Building
General rules on building are these:
You should always start with money generating structures (statue/dungeon),
with a small exception. Before you build the statue/dungeon, check if
you'll be able to get enough resources, usually laying around your castle
or mines, to build all important dwellings. Applies strongly to barbarian
and warlock as the money
generators are ore-based. When upgrading dwellings, consider these points:
-The most important upgrades are those that increase speed of your
fastest unit. This applies especially to those cases where the fastest
unit of your is only Fast or Average. Getting an upgrade to very fast
means that you'll at least sometimes get first shot in battles.
-The second most important upgrades are those that increase speed of
your slowest unit(s). They give you extra movement points for each
turn.
-The alternative second most important upgrades are those that give
your units some specials. Why alternative second-most? It's good for a
barbarian to move one step faster with his orc chiefs (or two steps
with ogre lord, if he won't use orcs), yet it's comparatively good
(yet in different ways) for giants to start throwing their weapons or
for vampires to start drinking blood of their enemies in large scale
-Other upgrades are important, too, but not enough to be n-th most
important ;-)
A statue built on day one will result in extra 500 gold on first day of
next week (and then extra 1750 every first day of week).
Always try to build most of dwellings before day one of next week. All
miscellaneous buildings like Mage Guild, Tavern, Thieves guild etc. can
wait. If you really don't know what to do with cash, build other
structures. Short notes on them:
-Thieves guild can be quite handy, if you're getting into enemy or
neutral territory with armies, that would have troubes with stronger
opposition defeating neutral/enemy castles/towns. I'd say that it's a
must to have at least one - so you can check at least the troop types.
-Marketplaces generally come to work well in large numbers. [The more
marketplaces you control, the better conversion rates you get. Three
marketplaces get you the same rates as trading posts. With eight or
more the rate drops to 1:2 in resources.]
-Tavern is, well, ehh, of not much use, but if you can spare the cash
and wood, the +1 morale and sometimes useful tips can be worth it.
-City defenses and class dependant buildings (that always somehow
affect defensive actions in city) can be of use, especially in castles
adjacent to enemy. I'd say that the moat is most important, because it
gives you usually one more turn to shoot and cast before the walkers
get to you, and also creatures in moat are more vulnerable. [They
suffer between 15 and 30% more damage, having their defense rating
reduced by three.] The firepower of tower and turrets depends on
number of buildings in city, while the attack bonus is increased by
levels of mage guild built. (And, of course, by hero/captain skills).
My personal experience says this: I almost never build castle defenses and
special buildings. If an enemy starts moving inside my territory, I build
moats in endangered castles, if I ever want to hold them, along with
Turrets, if given enough time. But remember - if an enemy will be still
able to capture the castle, YOU will then have to siege it and suffer from
the improved defenses. If you have a first-strike army like sorceress, you
can afford that and the extra losses imposed by the fortifications on the
enemy force will reduce your losses in recapturing. However, if your armies
are slower, they might suffer more losses from the castle than they would
suffer from the extra troops that the enemy wouldn't have lost while
conquering the castle.
* Combat tips
Combat tips could be divided into several categories:
-Using knowledge of computer intelligence
[This is a non-combat section with tips on how to initiate battles]
If a strong hero comes close to your castle, you can often beat him by
following tactics:
Rather than getting defeated (although heavily damaging his armies) in
your castle, grab all you can and run away. Usually the hero will
leave some of his armies as new garrison in the castle and head
somewhere else (yet he may try to kill you, so you have to move around
wisely). This new garrison is usually no match for your main army, so
you kill it, get the exp. of it ;-)(plus the 500 for castle siege ;-))
and run again. Computer hero again takes your castle, splits his
armies and leave. Repeat until you can beat the enemy with little
losses (or until he stays in your castle - coz in such case you'll
have to either fight it out or find y'self another castle ;-)) [This
works best in cases where the enemy isn't strong enough to attack you,
yet you'd suffer great losses in battle with him - i.e. from direct
damage spells that the AI doesn't include as a decisive factor before
battle.] This technique is very useful with villages, coz there's no
garisson archers and also computer heroes can almost never resist the
temptation to capture undefended village, but will NEVER stay inside
to let you die out after 7 days of homelessness ;-))
AI has also quite simple algorithm for attacking your heroes and
castles. Usually they won't attack unless they have a bigger army (in
HPs). So it often helps to buy anything you can in the castle your
enemy is heading towards and he changes his mind (although he would
easily win, i.e. with a band of shooters and strong magic against a
pack of hydras) Sometimes you'll have to use your main army as this
deterring factor. If the enemy can see your castle, he'll head for it
almost everytime he notices it's empty or lightly defended. But if you
stay in your castle with all your forces for a few days, all these
days he'll be going after other targets, which will give you then
enough time to do your tasks around your castle.
[Note that this also works the other way 'round... If the opponent has
at least once been near to a castle, he'll often launch a task force
to capture it every time he sees it poorly defended. You may benefit
from that in two ways... Either you have your main hero nearby,
that'll smash the incoming enemy, or you'll just get some strong
armies (either by purchase or by moving a hero in) into the castle
just when the opponent is almost there... And he, seeing a defending
army too strong for him, will have to find another target - possibly
somewhere deep back in his territory, which means that you've
succesfully wasted his time and offensive potential of his armies.]
A good idea is always (if you can do without gold) to buy out units in
turn one and then let the opponent capture your castle, retaking it
back just after a week - computer usually does a good job improving
city buildings for you.
* Always make sure you KNOW, what army will play next. The rules are
these:
-First comes speed. If there's a stack, that is faster, than any
other, it plays first.
-When both sides have stacks of same speed, in the first round the
attacker gets the first move
-If both sides have stacks of same speed, the rounds go zig-zag. Once
all stacks of that speed have moved, next lower speed army moves and
if both sides have that speed in their ranks, then again moves side,
that hadn't had made the last move.
-On every side, armies with same speed play in order of appearance on
the screen, when the battle begun. So, if you have two armies of the
same speed, the ORIGINALLY upper plays always sooner, even if it moves
below the other army.
* Always try to use appropriate targets in order to attend your goals.
Your goals may be one of the following:
-winning the battle at any cost
-causing maximum damage (i.e. defending a captured castle)
-winning with no losses
-not letting enemy flee.
There's a different way to each of those goals, but most of them require
you to know exactly the order of play, as well as to know approximately
the damages, that your and enemy stacks can cause.
Order of play is important for one more thing. If i.e. both you and
opponent have some shooters of the same speed, you'll have to determine,
if yours will play sooner, and if so, you can direct your other attacks
to other enemy units (assuming that your shooters will cripple enemy
shooter stack enough to cause you no casualities).
* Combat rules:
How the damage is counted?
DAM= (1+((A-D)*X))) * A_count * RND_damage
In words: Number of attackers times damage caused by a single unit [this
one is the only random factor - damage lies somewhere within damage
range] times modifier based on Attack skill of Attacker and Defense skill
of defender.
Value of X: X equals 0.1 if A is bigger than D, which means that the
damage is increased by 10% for every point between A and D X equals 0.05
if D is bigger than A, so damage is decreased by 5% for every point
between D and A.
We'll show a black dragon fighting different opponents. Damage modifier
counted below will in combat be multiplied by number of dragons and
random value between 25 and 50, which is black dragon's damage range.
So, black dragon attacking peasants: [Assume heroes with A and D=0]
Modifier = (1+(14-1)*0.1) = 2.30 or 230%, which gives damage from 68 to
115.
Now, the same dragon, attacking other black dragon:
Modifier = (1+(14-14)*0.1) = 1.00 or 100% which gives, of course, damage
from 25 to 50
And now, the same dragon attacking other black dragon, whose commanding
hero has the ultimate cloak of Protection, having defense bonus +12:
Modifier = (1+(14-26)*0.05) = ((1-12)*0.05) = 0.4 or 40%
There are limits to those numbers. Attack modifier is limited to 300%,
defense modifier is limited to 20%. That means that there's no need to
cast bloodlust on your army if it's attack is higher than it's target
defense + 20, or steelskin, if your unit's defense is higher than
attacking unit's attack + 16. Is that clear?
* Try to get to know your enemies as well as your units.
Memorize most units' HPs and other numbers and be able to estimate, how
much damage will your armies deliver, in order to use them most
effectively.
It always makes me sick seeing somebody (and happy,if it's the computer)
running with a stack of blessed paladins to crush a few centaurs, while
my blackdragons or minotaur kings will then give them hell, not fearing
the ten master swordsmen, which could have dealt the centaurs, but will
instead perish in the dragons retaliation...)
In the battle, always keep an eye on current state of any unit,
especially the number of HPs. If the stack with badly wounded unit can
get out of enemy range, try it. If you can finish a badly wounded enemy
dragon or another big beast, do it. Two dragons, if which one has
miserable 5 HPs left, still do damage of two dragons. If you have two
stacks with equal HPs left, always sacrifice the one that you need less.
(It's always better to lose a minotaur than a dragon.)
* Remember counterstrike rules!
Any close range attack is retaliated, but every unit retaliates only once
every turn. (see exception list below) So, if your enemy has a strong
stack, you'll want to either attack with a stack strong enough that
decimated enemy will NOT revenge enough to kill any of your units, or
sacrifice a small, cheap unit to waste enemy retaliation.
[Ideal for this are gargoyles, with their speed. If you have two heroes,
use the backup one to carry a stack of gargoyles and give the main hero
one gargoyle before every battle, that would require this technique. (For
example, if a barbarian has a stack of cyclopes, that could slay some of
your black dragons in retaliation, if you sacrifice the gargoyle, the
dragons will have one free attack on cyclopes. But remember, of course, the
gargoyles have to play BEFORE the dragons ;-)]
* Learn the ways computer fights - it uses only a few rules:
-Attack! anytime you can.
-Attack shooters if possible
-Attack flyers if possible
-Attack other units
It always tries to attack the strongest (in total HPs) stack of one of
the mentioned classes, and if there are equal stacks, it picks the
topmost on the screen (topmost at the start of the battle, of course.)
[There are two exceptions - liches and ghosts have different strategies.]
Rule a) means, that the computer will attack, whenever possible, even if
the target should have lesser priority than other your stacks.
Example: You can lure average units with your cheap flyers (gargoyles fit
there best) to give your shooters more time to deal with enemy walkers...
i.e. facing a barbarian army with one strong stacks of ogre lords:
normally, they would get to your shooters in the third turn. But, if you
in the second turn move one single gargoyle to the opposite side of
battlefield, close enough to the ogre lords (they have radius of four
squares, so that four squares between them and the gargoyle is just
enough), they will gladly run after the gargoyle, thus giving you TWO
more shooting turns, before they get to your shooters, which often is the
difference between life and death, coz you can also cast spells on these
two extra turns...)
Rules b and c mean that AI will always pick shooters/flyers as a target,
if the attacking unit has more enemies in it's range, and also units, that
cannot attack in this turn, will try to move towards those preferred
targets.
Knowing what the AI's going to do can help a lot in defeating him.
* Use special abilities to your full advantage.
I'm talking mainly about two-field attacks (dragon, phoenix, cyclope),
and I'm talking about yours as well as your enemy's. For example,
annoying bunch of ogres can be easily smashed sacrificing one gargoyle to
the next stack of cyclopes, if the gargoyles attack from the right
direction. (The cyclopes retaliation will work quite nice, possibly even
paralyzing the ogres ;-))
Of course, many other specials come in handy - i.e. non-retaliating
attacks of hydras (plus their ability to strike at ALL surrounding
units), rogues, sprites and vampires, multiple retaliation of griffins
and all others. Especially the griffins can be used to mop lesser enemy
armies within one turn.
* Tricks battling computer heroes
Computer controlled heroes follow some patterns in their battle behaviour
(as well as non-battle behaviour, see below. Usually, if an enemy hero has
some artifacts, he'll try to flee, when the battle turns bad for him,
preferrably after smashing a lightning bolt into your stack of shooters.
So, try to do your best and plan your crushing attack in a way that will
not allow computer to flee. [Usually this means letting him come closer and
then smashing all his units in counter attack... here comes very handy good
usage of spells, knowledge od abilities, order of playing units and careful
planning, using effectively your damage-causing capabilities. See more in
class dependant strategies - Way of [classname]]
When you don't want to have losses to your strong flyers/walkers, take a
few shooters as a bait for AI. I once managed (with some High Level
sorcery including Meteor Shower, and a Sorceress with no big A/D skills)
to take out 16 phoenixes with 10 phoenixes and 3 centaurs on my side -
grouping the phoenixes as 2x5 and the centaurs as 3x1, losing no
phoenixes. And I did it four times in a row.
The AI is stupid enough to waste it's excellent firepower to smash one
stupid harmless shooter.
* Order and sizes of stacks
Unless you have to, never place your shooters next to each other - this
way you allow enemy flyers to block two units at once. Always try to have
your shooters at both ends of screen, with the strong protective walkers in
the middle. A good example is barbarian, whose Ogre Lords with radius of 4
hexes can walk from their middle lane right in front of your topmost or
bottommost stack, possibly attacking any enemy flyer or fast walker, that
managed to get there.
Always line up your troops wisely, using knowledge about your enemy.
Remember that your Average units can reach enemy Very Fast or Fast
walkers, that are approaching them in their lane. Applies well for
goblins, skeletons, ogre lords etc.etc. (Other pairs work as well - your
Fast can reach enemy Averages, your very Fasts can reach enemy slows.)
Sometimes it's wise to have one BIG stack in total HPs. This will often
lure the computer into casting Disrupting Ray repeatedly, even when he's
a strong spellcaster, that would cause heavy damage with offensive
spells. Best armies for this purpose are Titans, Crusaders, Ogre Lords,
Raised Tons of Skeletons etc.
When battling wandering walkers or mixed enemy armies, think before
ordering your troops. If you have Liches or plan to use area damage
spells, position the primary target to the 5th slot. All the walkers will
try to walk diagonally accross the field, which means that those from upper
slot will get into the way of those in the lower slots, they'll walk around
each other. This will have two advantages - first they'll be placed nicely
together for area damage spells, second some of them will get to you later
than they originally could.
However, if you have strong walkers that have the same speed as the enemy
(and especially Fast+ - cyclopes, crusaders, wolves, whatever), place your
primary target (the strongest shoter) into the 1st slot. Thus, after the
first walker has moved directly after your shooter, you can move some
walker of yours to kill this one without getting in range of other enemy
armies. (Note that if your shooter was in the 5th slot, the first walker
would come diagonally towards you and attacking him at this moment would
expose the attacking army to other enemies of the same speed.) I hope that
you understand what I mean.
* Spell Casting - combat spells
Before casting a combat spell, always think carefully what will your
casting cause. Remember the following:
-Sometimes a non-offensive spell on your unit will give you better
results, than an offensive on enemy. Casting Bloodlust on 10 Titans
will kick your damage by 30%, which can often bring much more, than an
offensive, direct damage spell.
-This applies also to non-offensive spells cast on enemy units!
Disrupting ray can also decide a hard battle, because strong slow
units like hydras or ogres are a pain in the ass in big numbers, but
once their defense is set to 1 with no possible cure, any good attack
acts as a pain reliever ;-) I personally won MANY battles by casting
disrupting rays instead of lightning bolts.
-Generally, you should be able to estimate what spell will have bigger
impact on the enemy. Just count up your damage capabilities and
compare this number, multiplied by the Attack modifier, with the
damage that would your offensive spells deal to the enemy. Usually,
four disrupting rays on enemy hydras stack will mean about 100% or
more damage, so if your armies can deal more than 500 damage at the
start of the battle, they'll score an additional 500+ for the
disrupting rays - you would need spellpower 6+ to beat that with four
lightning bolts. Of course, number of enemy units matters here, as
well, because if you would smash the hydras with the bolts, before
they got to you, there's no need to hesitate, but if you would have to
attack the hydras stack more than once, it's always better to lower
their defense permanently. [And this applies for stronger monsters
even more, especially titans...]
-If you can afford it, let the enemy cast first. [AI always casts at
the very first opportunity] Usually it's better to be able to remove
enemy spells efect. I.e. a curse on 20 titans is worth removing by a
bless.
-Remember that your spell casting can often cause a reaction from the
AI. This covers all non-offensive spells: Blinding, paralyzing,
cursing or slowing an enemy unit can force the AI to cast Haste,
Bless, or even AntiMagic to remove your spell. Sometimes this is
better, than letting the enemy fry your shooter stack with a 300 worth
of lightning bolt, but sometimes an attempt to slow down crusaders
results in them having the Blazing speed rating next turn, wreaking
havoc on your troops. Also, remember this: When you cast Slow, Blind
or Paralyze and the enemy dispels it in the same turn, the affected
unit WILL move in the same turn, even if units of the same speed were
played already. [With the spell removed, the unit's order of play will
follow regular rules - if it's speed hasn't had it's go yet, it will
come regularly. If the speed has been played in the turn, this troop
will play immediately - it has the highest speed of units that haven't
played yet. Thanks Qurqirish Dragon for that one!]
-Use Blinds, Paralyzes, Hastes and Slows wisely! Always be sure to
know, what impact on play order will your spells have. If you know
that you'll wipe four of five enemy stacks within the first turn and
without computer moving, be sure to cast a Blind on his last stack.
Attack blind units only under these conditions:
-Either you've faster units than this stack is
-Or you can cast blind at the end of this turn again! Why? Attacked
blind unit doesn't get it's move within this turn, but will be able
to move in the next and if it is as fast as your fastest unit, it
will move FIRST!
-Cast the blind always right before you skip your last unit (last of
those who move before the enemy!). This applies mainly for a
sorceress. Imagine that you face a stack of average speed. You shoot
with druids and elves and then, before skipping or moving unicorns,
cast the blind. Then a new turn begins. Again, you shoot with your
very fast units, and then either move/attack or skip unicorns. Enemy
loses the blind condition, but within this turn, it WON'T move. So
you can shoot with the shooters for the third time and then decide,
if the unicorns can take the enemy out (within some help of offensive
magic) or blind the enemy again. So generally, if your shooters are
faster, than the only enemy stack, you'll have to cast blind every
second turn (and can cast offensive/supportive magic the other half
of turns) without giving the enemy a move opportunity.
-Rules for paralyze are the same.
-Rules for using haste are simpler,because you'll have to slay the
enemy before his regular move comes. (Haste will not only let you play
sooner, but extend your range by two hexes! Always remember that and
use it wisely. Especially hasted very fast profit from that!] One of
the most profitable uses of Haste is: Play the battle without spells
until your massive army (esp. Skeletons or Ogre Lords) get their turn.
By that time, many of enemy units have moved. If you cast Haste right
now, your Ogres will be able to reach enemy average units, AND, in the
next turn (if you have spell power greater than 1) they'll be probably
among the fastest units. Thus, you have two sequential strikes with a
very offensively oriented stack.
A typical situation is a necromancer with Vampire Lords and Skeletons
battling i.e. bunch of Fast units. In the first round, you should do
without magic until the skeletons get their turn.Then give them Haste,
which should let them reach the approaching enemy. They'll play first
in the next turn, thus giving you the opportunity to cast Haste on the
VLs and get two attacks (one the hasted skeletons and one the hasted
VLs) before the enemy starts doing anything. That means a total of
three consecutive attacks by your troops. In many cases it's enough.
-Slow is usually better,because it reduces speeds by half (rounded up)
(Ultra fast becomes Average(7/2=3.5), Very fast becomes Slow (6/2=3),
Fast becomes Slow, Average becomes Very Slow!), but there's one bad
thing:If you happen to Slow a Fast unit and FAIL to kill it,enemy can
give it haste, which means that not only it will travel as UltraFast
accross most of the battle field to strike at your shooters, but it
will get the first move in the next turn,unless you have ultra fast or
faster units! Even skeletons or mutant zombies will be VERY FAST!, and
those for sure, because Haste is necromancer's DEFAULT spell! Always
remember that!
* Use offensive spells to cause maximum damage. It means:
-Don't cast a 300 Lighning bolt on a stack with 50 HPs, unless you
really NEED to kill it! Use magic arrow instead, or bolt something
else, that will suffer the whole 300 damage!
-Always know which enemy stack means bigger danger to your armies. A
nice example would be my favorite: One titan has 300 HPs. 99
Halflings have 297 HPs. So the AI will always strike at the titan.
But the titan will do 20-30 damage (plus maybe 140%, considering his
high attack), while the halflings will do 99*(1-3), which gives
100-300 damage (plus maybe some more, they have some attack skill,
too). On the other hand, there are cases, when the numerous stacks of
poor creatures, such as centaurs, mean much lesser threat than a
stack with the same HP total, consisting of i.e. very fast and quite
strong minotaurs etc. [You should take into consideration whom will
the possible targets of your magic attack - sometimes the shooters
would cause damage, while the walkers would kill - if the minotaur
kings cannot get to titans, they might decimate your halflings, while
the centaurs would only damage your titans.]
* Fighting shooters
If there are wandering armies of shooters, think before you attack them.
You should always bear in mind how much damage your armies can sustain
without losses, how much damage the enemy can deal to you. Think well
about order of play, spell casting etc.
During the play, keep an eye on damage to your armies. (Sometimes it's
i.e. wiser to NOT attack with the flyers, coz you save damage from
retaliation. - use this rule, if you wouldn't kill at least half of the
enemy stack.) Also, sometimes it's wiser to NOT attack blocked shooters,
if you have an army with the same speed as those shooters, that wants to
attack some others... sometimes it's crucial that a particular damaged
and blocked stack is alive so that your army of the same speed gets it's
turn before an unblocked stack would play.
Before fighting shooters, divide strong stacks of shooters, too. You
don't need 20 druids to attack 5 archers, it's better to attack 2x5
archers with two stacks of ten druids.
If you have fast flyers, divide them to block the enemy. Griffins and
rocs do best here. Gargoyles too, since they're expendable.
Among the regular, weaker armies, most dangerous are grand elves, which
usually score some damage.
* Fighting flyers
You'll have to pay big attention to order of play and try to protect your
shooters with your other units (and it's wise to think about it before the
battle and reorder your units so that this will be an easy job. (Good for
this thing are all two-field creatures - griffins, unicorns, champions,
boars make excellent blockers. Also, using the condensed army setup - the
toggle button in upper left corner of hero screen - that will help much,
making less free space around your shooters. I use this rarely, but a few
times it has proven worth it. Best example is a situation where you have
one shooter stack and four very slow armies - all of them can attack anyone
near the shooter, because they don't have to travel any far.)
Though, beware strong monsters (dragons, phoenix), unless you have
hydras, which will profit from the fact, that the two-field attacks will
strike their friends almost as much as the hydras. The hydras can take
out much stronger armies, than you would think. (Using steelskin, bless,
bloodlust is a good thing here. Out of five enemy dragon stacks four will
strike each other while attacking you.
[In place of hydras any other two-hex creature will do. But make sure
that this stack will be primary target for the AI and will remain so even
if heavily damaged. Phoenixes or rocs fit there well. With Ressurect-true
you'll have an easy job even with some spellcaster, although knight hero
fits there best, possibly with artifact-boosted defense. The hydras are
best, though, because they'll strike at all enemies and they'll not
retaliate.]
[Note that the creature used for this doesn't have to be a two-hex. A
good ogre lord band will do a nice job defeating some decent dragon army
as well.
* Fighting walkers
There are a few good tricks against walkers.
First one touches a bit specific conditions... If you have a strong stack
capable of two-hex attack and the enemy has units with slow or higher
speed, you can do a nice combo. Ideal example are the graveyard garisson
zombies. Suppose we have some Phoenixes.
Ok, we'll just plain attack them zombies... But how? Fly your phoenixes
over to the third stack of zombies and attack from the front side - the
sword cursor horizontal. You fry this middle stack. Next, you shoot your
shooters onto the fourth and fifth stacks of zombies. Now, the first
zombie stack plays its move - walking down to phoenixes, standing just
between the phoenixes and second stack of zombies... A blow, doing
damage... some retaliation, and voila, three stacks of zombies killed in
one turn by the phoenixes, which suffered only one attack.
Note that this trick can be performed even against mixed armies. You only
have to pick a walker with at least Slow speed, stand TWO stacks down (or
up) from him (frying another stack, standing there) and waiting for him to
come after you. However, you'll need to assure that this selected stack
will be the first to attack your two-hex-attack army.
Another trick fits well against average walkers - using bait flyer stacks
of one unit in size - described above with the gargoyle/ogre lord setup. A
sacrificer may help you align enemy troops for your two-hex sweeps. When
fighting walkers with your armies that contain mainly shooters, take mental
notes on how much damage you cause to the enemy stacks. Especially if the
enemy walkers are of the same speed as some of your units. The trick is:
Sometimes it's wiser to let a damaged stack that is closing on your
shooters to attack those shooters. If they're of the same speed, this stack
will attack them, die in retaliation and those shooters then can go
shooting at another stack. A typical example may be war trolls against
veteran pikemen - if the first pikemen stack has been seriously damaged by
the trolls, while the second is full strength yet, let your walkers and
orcs kill the remaining three stacks. In the next round, the damaged first
stack will attack trolls, die there and the trolls can shoot at the yet
unharmed second stack. This often helps to win battles with no losses.
* Concentrate your firepower
As in most strategy games, even here works the approach of taking the
enemies out one by one. Here the thing is based on the fact that all
enemies except griffins retaliate only after first attack.
The only exception is fighting (mostly wandering) shooters, which should
be (in most cases) taken out simultaneously to prevent them from shooting
at you at all. Enemies led by a hero are a bit more dangerous, because the
simultaneous approach can cause losses to walkers and flyers. But sometimes
those losses are a fair cost for protection of your shooters.
* Prevent the enemy from concentrating his firepower.
Always try to determine the primary and secondary target of your enemy
and IF the secondary target is either less important or more durable, try
to let the least possible amount of enemies attack the primary one.
A typical example may be knight troops. The primary target are always the
rangers, while the secondary are most often the crusaders. The crusaders
will suffer losses after six times heavier damage is caused to them (which
with their high defense means about 8-12 times more enemies
attacking them. And furthermore, the crusaders will be surely able to
kill enemies in retaliation, whereas the rangers have lesser Attack skill
and quarter damage at close range.)
And how to prevent enemies from going after their primary target? There
are two different situations:
* The enemy are walkers with the primary target still out of their range.
In that case you need to move any unit into their range, while keeping the
primary target out of their range. The AI rule of attacking
whenever possibly will force them to go after the bait unit. The
gargoyle-ogre lords trick is described elsewhere in the Ways of...
articles.
* The enemy are either walkers with the primary target in their range, or
flyers. In that case the only remedy is surrounding targeted troop with
other units. Best in this task are fast two-hex creatures. Just place the
primary target into first or last slot and the two-hex unit right beside
it. If the two-hex unit plays before the enemy flyers, move it as close to
the primary target as possible, from below/up. Thus, you'll leave only one
free hex to attack the primary target from. If another unit of yours still
plays before the enemy fliers, you can move it onto that last free hex in
front of your shooter. Thus all the flyers will go after the secondary
target, which is usually the strongest walker stack (crusaders, hydras
etc.).
Classical example is knight with Rangers, Champions (or Cavalry) and
Crusaders against Fast or slower flyers. In that case, a total of two or
three flyers will go after the crusader (three, if the first one is
killed by retaliation) and the rest after next strong stack. This works
with little limitations even against Very Fast units - if the first flyer
(that plays before the crusader and can attack the rangers) dies in
rangers' retaliation, place the crusader into the now-freed hex. If the
flyer survives, just leave him here, attack him only if you're sure you
won't kill him!
Always use the terrain well to block enemy units. I.e. if there are two
ways to your shooter - when there are those two long horizontal obstacles
on the battle field, dividing it into three corridors - and the enemy
walkers are average or slower. Let's say that your shooter stack is in the
1st slot. The obstacles always leave two hexes of free space on the rear
side of field. Typical example is fighting any average walker with knight
troops. Let's say that we'll put the rangers in the 1st slot, 2nd and 3rd
will be occupied by those Fast infantrymen. First turn, the infantry will
seal up the top access route, rangers will shoot at whichever unit, all
enemy units try to move in the middle corridor.
Second turn: infantry moves below the rangers, occupying the two hexes
that are between the end of screen and the obstacle. All of those average
walkers that cannot reach the infantry in this turn (and therefore have no
immediate target) spot a way to the primary target 0 the rangers. All of
them turn back and head to the top corridor. In the next turn, you'll again
seal the top corridor, all of them move into the middle. You can repeat
that as long as the rangers have some arrows to shoot. Note that it won't
work against Fast+ units and sometimes, some of the average units may get
too close and attack your infantry. If that should mean losses, it's time
to switch to normal strategy - remove the infantry to give the rangers one
shooting turn and then an all-out attack (or in case that the enemy is
still too strong and would survive the attack and get to the rangers, all-
out attack is launched immediately, keeping the walkers somewhere in the
middle to protect rangers (and let them shoot again.)
Any two-hex creature can be used to block the access from the middle
corridor, but plan carefully, because you'll need to be able to switch
the blocks every turn and not let any of your blockers get into range of
the enemy. This strategy will let you (with the luck of getting the right
terrain) defeat armies that would be able to crush you in a flat field.
This is a cheap trick that I've discovered recently by pure luck, yet it
works miraculously.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
IX. USING CERTAIN HERO TYPES
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
--Using Knight--
----------------
Strengths:
Ideal for fast conquering, smaller scenarios. Invaluable attack and
defense...
Quite cheap armies, especially rangers, who can also be upgraded from
archers found in archer houses and conquered villages, and often bear
main offensive tasks. Until you start to build crusaders, you'll
probably have no big financial problems (that is, if you can do without
one of the walker types.)
High morale in connection with four stacks, that can cross the
battlefield in two runs, often makes battles easier.
Very potent offensive capabilities in champions, that can be built
without magical resources (only the trolls have the same advantage) and
strike against two-field creatures in first round. No crystal needed to
buy crusaders (they're the only one 6th levels with this advantage,
that are an excellent weapon with their good speed and specials.
Three of the armies are upgradeable for free - financial saves. (Of
course, cavalry only in expansion pak games...)
Archers can be recruited for free and found often in captured villages.
Weaknesses:
Armies have quite low HPs - get used to have some losses, esp. due to
magic.
Only very slow stacks available in the beginning - slower exploration,
unless you hire a warlock to get some gargoyles ;-)
Army Evaluation:
Peasant 1/1/1/1/2/20
The only unit in the game, that is totally useless for the side that
has it... (However, pretty useful for necromancers ;-)) Yet, they're
the best unit in the game in the ratio of damage dealt to their own
hitpoints ;-)))
Well, to be true, use of peasants has helped me a few times winning
castle defenses against wimpy computer heroes, but in general, peasants
are really useless, unless in four-digits numbers.
Personally, I never waste money on them. But if you happen to have
several peasant huts in castle vicinity, let the peasants grow there
and if you think you might need them, call up a mobilization. This
usually yields those three-digit numbers. And some hundreds of peasants
for free mean a good stationary defensive potential that can prevent AI
from attacking, even if it would easily win using shooter armies.
TreeBeard says that once peasants saved his life, when being sacrificed
to an army of ghosts, that stood between him and quite a powerful
enemy, which was just about to attack.
Archer 3/5/10/2-3/2/150
Ranger 4/5/10/2-3/4/200
Upgraded: Shoots twice.
Pretty dangerous cheap little fellows. Well, dangerous when upgraded,
because their speed assures first two strikes against orc chiefs,
halflings and other shooters. With some battle tactics, you can even
manage to cripple enemy average flyers (green dragons, bone dragons,
vampires, rocs, griffins, sprites...).
Their availability at Archer houses, which are, due to their nice look,
used more often than other dwellings in many maps, results in fact that
their numbers may get quite high, making a valuable enemy of them.
Definitely not bad for 2nd level creature, esp. due to double strike.
A ranger is for 50 more gold worth two archers and is not far from
grand elves (who are 3rd level), but they die a lot and you should
expect to have none of them in later game. (There are only a few ways
of protecting them, and none of them brings anything good apart from
protecting them.)
Pikeman 5/9/20/3-4/4/200
Veteran Pikeman 5/9/25/3-4/5/250
Swordsman 7/9/25/4-6/4/250
Master Swordsman 7/9/30/4-6/5/300
Both troop types are quite reliable, carrying moderate attack and
excellent defensive potential. Their Fast speed after upgrade allows
them to control most of the battle field, reaching stationary enemies
within second turn.
Their high defense combined with their speed also allow them to
function as blocking armies to protect rangers together with either
champions or crusaders, a matter of big importance esp. against enemy
Average flyers.
As neither swordsmen nor pikemen are AI's primary target, their losses
aren't high and they profit strongly from the fact that most enemies
somehow underestimate them.
Both can be upgraded at foundry, which is another map structure, that
is used more than often due to nice look ;-)
Cavalry 10/9/30/5-10/6/300
Champion 10/9/40/5-10/7/375
This troop is important for many reasons. Being Ultra-Fast assures the
knight first shot in every turn. Being two-hex gives the champions
opportunity (with a little luck considering clear terrain) to strike in
the very first move against enemy two-hex creatures. Most useful
against centaurs, rocs and griffins. The upgrade also makes them 33%
tougher (and, in fact, cheaper per HP...)
Before upgrade, they lack most of their positives, but still remain
pretty strong in both defensive and offensive tasks. One bonus is again
free upgradability (in EP maps only, though).
Paladin 11/12/50/10-20/5/600
Crusader 11/12/65/10-20/6/1000
Both: Attack the target twice.
Upgraded: Cannot be Cursed, scores 2x damage vs. undead.
An army of great potential. Crusaders' special double damage against
undead would make bone dragons tremble with fear, if they only could
have any feelings.
Their 20-40 damage per turn is third best in the game, also they can be
blessed and crusaders cannot be cursed, giving you an assured average
of 30 damage per piece. They're capable of scoring some 160+ against
weaker undead - one blessed crusader without hero skill bonuses can
take out 8 mutant zombies or 40 skeletons in one turn.
Although they're the worst 6th level army by HPs, in real use they're
very potential opponents to face and a very dangerous weapon to
possess.
Knight Castle building in the first week:
---------T----------------T------------------------------м
| Day 1: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 2: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 3: | Tavern | 500 gold + 5 wood |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 4: | Archery Range | 1000 gold |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 5: | Blacksmith | 1000 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 6: | Armory | 2000 gold + 10 ore + 10 wood |
+--------+----------------+------------------------------+
| Day 7: | Jousting Arena | 3000 gold + 20 wood |
L--------+----------------+-------------------------------
20 ore should be an attainable goal (usually it's there, at least on
Normal setting).
35 wood poses much more trouble, because it requires two heaps of wood
(total 10-20) and capturing a sawmill somewhere between day 4 and day 7
(6-0 wood). However, in most cases the wood can be found within the
week, and the second half of supply is needed only at day 7 - up to
this date you'll have enough with the starting stock.
10 000 gold is quite easy to accumulate (The castle yields 7500 in
those six days, which must be lowered by 1250 for the statue, another
7500 should be the starting stock. That will give you at least 4000
gold for day 1 purchases, which makes the knight the strongest in the
early game.)
Another 20 wood and 10 ore will be needed for upgrades of dwellings.
May not be necessary, though - if foundry/stables are near.
The farm is almost absolutely useless.
If you happen to be lucky and get that 20 crystal needed for Cathedral,
it may be often wise to purchase that instead of Jousting Arena at day
7. The paladins' double attack and all higher numbers are a good
advantage. However, if there is a Sorceress enemy nearby with good
prospects on building Phoenixes, the champions may have an important
role in getting you the first attack, which may be pretty critical
factor.
Rough castle output will be 1250x7 - 8750 gold/week.
Weekly armies without the crusaders will cost 5840 before upgrades,
7285 after upgrades.
HPs grown weekly 870 at 12.97 g/HP
This means that knight will be able to actually save money for building
crusaders, while the other classes will have to either leave some
armies unpurchased home or acquire gold sources. This is important
mainly for barbarians, who are otherwise able to compete with knights'
quick starts.
Strategy
The highest priority at the early game is wood - which can usually be
found nearby. However, you'll be able to build first four dwellings
without any additional wood gathered, and after that, even
well-defended sawmills should be acquirable.
One good thing about being addicted to wood is the fact that wood can
be acquired at seas easily - so if you happen to run accross any harbor
town or just a ship (giving a Summon Boat a try at seashore applies
here, too), you may get quickly large amounts of wood. Especially
effective is this technique when your home castle already has a
shipyard - the 10 wood for the ship is usually more than back within
the 7 days of sea travel... Try to hire a sorceress for that purpose -
the money comes back, too!)
The second highest priority may be either gold, if you seem to have
enough crystal, or crystal, if you seem to have enough gold ;-)
Crusaders will burden your budget with 4000 extra gold, which means
that you'll be two thousand/week short. Compared with barbarian, you
have less ranged attack potential and therefore need the durability of
crusaders to keep up the aggressive exploration.
Forces combination:
I usually take all the rangers, champions and master swordsmen on the
road, while the pikemen remain as reserve. Though, especially in cases
where crystal is rare and there is no need to save money for crusaders,
I'll buy all the pikemen to give them to the backup guy as his main
army. Their numbers will usually prevent secondary AI heroes from
attacking him, so he can dare to venture a bit away from the main hero.
In cases of dire need, the pikemen can be still given to the main guy
to help with offensive. In cases of low gold income that is needed to
save for the crusaders, you might as well omit the swordsmen.
My usual practice with the main hero is: Rangers split into two stacks,
placed in first and last slot. Between them, Champions, Crusaders and
Master Swordsmen in any order.
Position of champions is operationally changeable in dependance on any
two-hex creatures present in enemy armies.
In case you have only two walker stacks (Swordsmen and pikemen,
Swordsmen and champions) and plenty of rangers, split the rangers into
three stacks - that gives you more control over damage distribution,
less firepower wasted by blocking flyers, enemies changing their mind
as the stacks of equal sizes lose their priority target status after
taking slightest losses, which causes enemy slower walkers to change
their projected path, possibly wasting a turn.)
The swordsmen are the stack that will suffer the least from enemies. As
you'll maybe have some from villages (and even more pikemen), and
definitely lots of them from castles that you don't have resources
enough to build up to jousting arenas and cathedrals), you'll find that
all of a sudden, they're your biggest stack by HPs - often big enough
to scare the hell out of spellcasting enemies, who'll in turn start
casting Disrupting Ray on them.
Always remember that strongest skill of knights is defense and their
troops are designed to conform with this system.
Always have crusaders in 2nd/4th slot - so they can get into the moat
the very first turn in castle sieges and possibly break in in the
second. Champions will make it from the border slots. Swordsmen can do
well in the 3rd slot.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting fellow knights:
Once your enemy has army about equal to yours, you might probably
forget about having rangers after the battle ;-). With four armies
capable of getting to the other side in second turn, the rangers'
only task will be to eliminate their counterparts, so that your
walkers will not be disturbed while dealing with his walkers, that
have already come to you. Enemy champions will probably die at
blades of your crusaders in the first round. The crusaders are a
tougher nut to crack. Unless you block your rangers, they'll wipe
them out, as you have no way to prevent them from playing before
your crusaders in the second battle turn (omitting magic, though.)
In case the rangers are blocked, the enemy crusaders will go after
their counterparts and that's no good. So it's maybe better to
sacrifice some of pikemen/swordsmen and attack the crusaders in the
first round, when they come into range.
* Fighting barbarians:
This is always a tough job. The barbie will get first shot with his
trolls, which usually means 2-5 dead rangers per enemy troll. That
is bad. If the trolls aren't upgraded and aren't the topmost
average stack, the first shot goes to you, which is much better.
However, against barbarians you cannot afford to rely on defense,
as their range firepower is far greater than yours. You'll probably
have high losses in rangers. All your walkers should approach the
enemy carefully, as you should do your best to get first strike and
decimate enemy units in order of speed - Champions should smash
wolves easily, Crusaders will engage the cyclopes, swordsmen and
pikemen will take on the shooters. With a bit of luck you might be
able to take out wolves in the first round, thus getting first TWO
shots in second round, giving you better chances of minimizing
losses from cyclopes. Orcs are no match for you at close range, so
make sure that one of your fast units will make it to them at least
as a blocker. The Qurqirish Dragon has a good point about the most
dangerous unit of barbarians changing after the first round: Once
the trolls and orcs are blocked in round 2, the worst threat by far
are the Ogre Lords. With a very good attack, and decent defense,
and a whopping 60 hit point per unit they're as bad as cyclopes,
especially since they will probably outnumber the cyclopes as well.
99% of the time, if a barbarian survives a battle with only 1 stack
left, it will be a fairly large stack of ogre lords. The crusaders
should concentrate on them rather than the cyclops, unless there
are equal numbers of the two (which is unlikely). Also, by not
getting the retaliation attack from the cyclops, there is a lesser
chance of the crusaders being paralyzed (and thus beaten up by BOTH
ogre lords and cyclops).
* Fighting Sorceress:
With Champions, you can stand up against Phoenixes. Getting into
the same lane with them gives you first shot. The champions are not
any weak army and the losses are worth it. The Phoenixes will smash
the rangers, but your Crusaders will be already on the way to
prevent Grand Elves and Greater Druids from second shot, while
Swordsmen and Pikemen shoud beat the crap out of the Phoenixes.
TreeBeard says: But then, the crusaders will get hurt from the
unicorns that might be blessed and blind them. Also, expect the
sprites to go after the rangers if the sorceress have attacked the
knight, but not the phoenixes, which means you'll have to attack
with all your walkers. Iniciative will be very important in such a
battle.
* Fighting Warlock:
As in other cases, the rangers are deemed to die as enemy will
probably have two very fast flyers to go after them. Warlock is a
strong opponent. Your only chance is aggresivity. Dragon Slayer on
Crusaders will make wonders here, The rule about concentrating
firepower is extremely important here - the dragons must be taken
out ASAP. The rest should be easier then - the minotaur kings and
flyers are usually taken as a by product of the dragon-slaying,
because they'll get over to you pretty soon. The hydras can be then
Blinded and a massive attack arranged, that will give them no
chance to move. TreeBeard says: Beware of Magic! A simple berserker
on your crusaders and you're knee-deep in trouble, not to mention
Draggagedon combo, which is extremely efficient against the low
HPed Knight troops (Imagine that for every one point of enemy spell
power, you'll lose two pikemen, almost two swordsmen, five rangers,
one champion and almost one crusader... and 50 peasants, of course
;-))
* Fighting Wizard:
The titans are the obvious threat. Since you cannot block them,
they'll cause you great losses. Unless you have ranger stack big
enough to survive titans' and archmagis fire, you might as well
forget about protecting those rangers and run straight after the
enemy shooters. If any of your rangers survive and play before
enemy rocs, use them to cripple halflings. Champions, if they
haven't already attacked boars or rocs, should be able in the
second turn to give hell to archmagi, possibly sacrificing
themselves to block titans - or even attack titans to waste their
retaliation and slice them with crusaders. Swordsmen and Pikemen
should be enough to deal with rocs and boars without suffering any
great harm. TreeBeard says: Again, beware of magic. The best way is
to attack before the wizards manage to get titans.
* Fighting Necromancer:
With Crusaders' double damage versus undead, there's no need to
stress the fact that crusaders should do most of the job. Unless
you can haste your archers, enemy Vampire Lords will go after them.
Depending on the size of the bone dragon stack, you might wish to
block your arches against their attack - they'll then go after the
crusaders and if are outnumbered, will die there. However, if you
want first shot at them with the golden boys (and that might save
you a good number of them), let them toast your rangers and wipe
them in the next turn. Champions should be able to toast enemy
skeletons, unless in extremely high numbers. The undead walkers are
a threat only if their numbers are high. Be sure to concentrate
your fire onto Vampire Lords within one round as to lower their
ranks in the best possible way. A good thing to prevent computer
from raising them from the dead is positioning a unit atop their
ashes... A good thing is to try and send your champions to deal
with power liches ASAP, because that will give you two shot combo
(champions-crusaders) in every subsequent round.
Hero benefits:
No need to comment. Comparable with barbarian - both in very quick
offensives and in long-run campaigns very valuable, outranked by
spellcasters only in mid-terms.
Compared with barbarian, Knight gets far more levels in magic and thus
may partially stand up to spellcasters, especially by using Mass spells
or helping himself slaying weaker stacks. The most proficient way is
Disrupting Ray on strong and slow enemy stacks. (Remember that with
every Ray hitting the enemy, you increase damage your troops cause to
that stack by 15 to 30%m the higher value much more likely, since your
units should already have greater A than enemy D is.). Also, the knight
has twice the barbarians' chance of getting wisdom. (Well, not exactly
twice, since that would need a LOT of counting...)
important for the troops and strategy:
Archery is useful especially in cases where larger quantities of
archers become available, as well as in maps where you plan to conquer
wizards or sorceresses pretty quickly and use their troops later. (Very
recommended, anyway. Having a few titans to attract enemy attention
also gives the rangers some breathing (and shooting) room.)
Leadership is critical, because all your walkers are able to reach
enemy in one turn, if they get the extra morale. With the enormous
close range firepower that your walkers carry, you should in fact rely
on morale boosts.
Ballistics is very important, too, as you'll need to get inside the
enemy castle as fast as possible to minimize losses on your rangers..
Wisdom comes very interesting in larger maps, where you can expect your
knight to get both sufficient magic skills and enough levels to get the
wisdom to advanced or expert level. In shorter maps, you'll probably do
without wisdom. Usually the decision should be affected by availability
of 3rd level spells (from captured guilds and map shrines).
Diplomacy may be very important in the long run, because knight's
troops tend to take minimal losses and once you're on the road, you
stop buying units at home and start to accumulate gold, which could be
later used to buy wandering armies - especially efficient to replenish
ranger stacks that have suffered losses, or to get another powerful
shooter stacks - especially elves/grand elves fit there.
Beyond all doubt, the knight troops are the wimpiest in the game, in
overall long-run look. The knight's strength lies in short-term
exploration and conquering, in fearsome crusaders and in the ability to
use magic quite well. Knights get magic levels far more often than
barbarians.
Your rangers are quite weak for an AI's primary target, so you'll
probably suffer quite high losses. It helps greatly to use Steelskin or
Shield for protection and Haste/Slow to give them their chance to prove
themselves.
As a knight, I do not rely much on my own troops, because a few weeks
worth' of them is enough to gain access to somebody else's troops. As
soon as you locate an enemy castle with suitable troop types built,
take it at almost all costs. I usually use my original troops as a
garrison, preventing weaker enemies from reclaiming their home town,
and use local troops (mostly dragons, titans etc.) for further
conquest. But even with Phoenixes the Knight is usually capable of very
good opposition. (Not to mention adding some 20 war troll to your
army...)
--Using Barbarian--
-------------------
Strengths:
Quite good for small to medium scenarios and fast conquering.
Sturdy, tough units with very good offensive.
Can profit from map bonuses - at forts two armies can be upgraded for
free - financial saves.
Three main stacks have special abilities, all quite useful.
Toughest fourth dwelling creatures - ogres are excellent for castle
defense, especially after the upgrade.
Sometimes the pathfinding skill is a decisive factor, especially for
conquering in early stages. The shooters do excellent job, especially
against wandering armies.
Orcs can be recruited for free and found in villages often.
Weaknesses:
Lower speed of units - opponents get quite often a chance to play.
Lack of ore at startup.
Sometimes hero gets only attack skill upgrades and remains quite
vulnerable even in longer gameplay. Must use most aggressive approach
then, which can even mean taking some losses while grabbing artifacts,
searching graveyards etc. (I remember getting a 10/1/1/1 barbie without
artifacts.)
Quite expensive armies and especially dwellings. After upgrading troll
bridge in second week, you'll have very little money left for buying
troops. However, overall prices are quite fair - wolves, ogre lords and
war troll cost 7900 per week, which is more than covered by castle
output. With some luck (in the nearby fort) you'll save quite a bit on
the ogres and may as well afford slower orc chiefs.
Army evaluation:
Goblin 4/1/3/1-2/4/40
Among the 1st levels their standing is moderate. In high numbers, they
make an excellent unit for defense of shooters as they can deal quite
considerable bits of damage. High numbers are pretty common, because
the goblin hut is one of those nice little buildings ;-)
They carry cosiderable attack punch. With average speed, they're able
to have first strike on approaching enemy walkers with fast+ speed
(Royal mummies, upgraded knight infantry, unicorn and all very fasts.).
I usually use goblins only in large numbers - i.e. when I have multiple
castles and/or goblin huts. Usually stationed as defense reserves,
bought and employed only when I'll need them
Orc 3/4/10/2-3/2/140
Orc Chief 3/4/15/3-4/3/175
A powerful shooter, definitively in comparation with other 2nd level
troops. The upgrade is a must, as it increases HPs by 50% and damage by
33%, not mentioning the higher speed. Since they're available in watch
towers, which are used quite often (due to the nice picture) in many
maps, it may be possible to gather very large armies of orcs. Since
their upgrade can be made in forts for no fee, they're usually a must.
Their lower speed will often get compensated by their leader's
pathfinding, making the barbarian as fast as other heroes, or even
faster. However, they'll often suffer losses in battles. TreeBeard
scores a good point here: Often. But most maps have a huge grass
regions, which means you'll get slow. That's very frustating to try to
run from a mighter hero using those slow troops, not to mention that,
if you have a Very slow or Slow troops, the opponent will get
initiative next turn.
Wolf 6/2/20/3-5/6/200
Attacks the target twice.
A must, especially in the beginning. While they're not strong by HPs
compared to other 3rd levels, they have two good attributes - speed and
doubled attack, which is supported by the relatively good Attack skill.
Usually, they're very valuable against wandering shooters. The very
fast speed will often give you first strike (and opportunity to cast
some spell, too!)
Being two-hex makes them a good blocker for protecting shooters. In
terrain with obstacles, you may even fool wandering walkers by blocking
one side of shooter stack in second turn - see the end of Way of Hero
article for better description of this trick.
TreeBeard says: But their pitiful defense and low HP mean heavy
casualities. They must be protected and only strike to kill, preferably
in the first strike.
Ogre 9/5/40/4-6/2/300
Ogre Lord 9/5/60/5-7/4/500
One of the most remarkable armies. After the upgrade, they often become
the main punch of your army. Since they're there from the very first
week, you'll have plenty of them.
Their biggest advantage is that they're upgraded at forts and with
those 60HPs they beat all other 4th levels (that range from 25 of gr.
druids to 45 of Minotaur Kings.) Their skills and damage are also quite
remarkable.
In the beginning, you probably won't have enough gold to take them on
the road, but if you manage so, you'll benefit from the high HPs in one
more way - wandering armies will give you much more respect, giving you
the opportunity to decide, if you want the exp. for their killing or
rather let them flee, taking no losses from flyers/shooters. Of course,
many more of those armies can now offer you to join them.
Troll 10/5/40/5-7/4/600
War Troll 10/5/40/7-9/5/700
Both: Regenerates to full HP at start of every battle turn.
An excellent shooter. The troll special of regeneration gives
significant advantage i.e. at castle sieges, where total damage points
generated by defensive ballista fire are greatly reduced and with
weaker castles even totally eliminated. Of course, as TreeBeard
corrects me, this regeneration advantage diminishes with time because
it's importance is inverse to enemy army size.
The upgrade gives also a remarkable damage increase, making war troll a
killing machine.
The upgrade is necessary - being Fast gives you a good chance to fire
before enemy average flyers/shooters can take their part. I.e. prevents
blocking by Rocs, Griffins, Sprites, Vampires (to take one army of each
probable enemy ;-)).
Besides, they usually draw enemy attention, which makes a nice combo of
war trolls placed next to Ogre lords, who in their turn smash the
opposing flyers.
Cyclope 12/9/80/12-24/5/750+ 1cr
Two-hex attack, 10% chance to Paralyze enemy after hit.
With Fast speed and two hex attack, a remarkable opponent. Also, the
Paralyze special can give very big advantage, because paralyzed stack
doesn't retaliate - so you can take care of other enemy stacks, then
surround the paralyzed one by all your bashers and give him hell.
However, Cyclopes are costly to build, as the barbarian's gold
consumption for trolls, wolves and orcs is quite high. On the other
hand, not including the crystal, they themselves are quite cheap - 4 of
them cost less than 5 war trolls and as much as 6 ogre lords.
And one personal experience - they're the only one-hex creature with
two-hex attack... and one often forgets about that and either in attack
or, much more often, in retaliation the cyclopes harm their own troops.
When the enemy has the initiative in form of faster troops, you'll have
to be very careful with moving cyclopes around the battlefield.
Upgrading priorities:
* Stick hut: Low priority. Although the upgrade is significant, the
global importance of orcs in the barbarian army is much less
significant. Wait until you're sure there's no fort close to your
castle or somewhere on the way to your enemies.
* Adobe: Medium priority. Ogres are crippled in the battles by their
low speed. The upgrade helps them in many ways. Applies the above
considering waiting.
* Bridge: Highest priority. Increased damage and speed are very
important.
Barbarian Castle building in the first week:
---------T-----------T------------------------------м
| Day 1: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+-----------+------------------------------+
| Day 2: | Stick Hut | 750 gold + 5 wood |
+--------+-----------+------------------------------+
| Day 3: | Den | 1000 gold |
+--------+-----------+------------------------------+
| Day 4: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+-----------+------------------------------+
| Day 5: | Adobe | 3000 gold + 10 ore + 10 wood |
+--------+-----------+------------------------------+
| Day 6: | Bridge | 4000 gold + 20 ore |
L--------+-----------+-------------------------------
So, we have there one day reserve, sometimes more.
There's one thing to stress (thank TreeBeard) - unless you're sure
you'll be able to get extra 15 ore, don't rush for the statue - this
might prevent you from getting trolls within the first week.
(Stick Hut has some chance to be there in a random castle, while the
map makers often give the castles Statues/wells)
The reserve may be used for Garbage Heap (1000 gold) or Mage Guild
(1000 +5w +5o)
Now, we'll need 10 more ore for upgrade of Bridge, 5 more wood for
upgrade of Stick Hut and 20 ore and 20 crystal for Cyclopes, along with
those large gold sums.
Building Coliseum is very optional, while the fortifications and moat
may come handy, if you ever expect your enemy to get close to your home
castle. But that can wait. Resource summary:
You'll need 15 wood, 30 ore and 8100 gold for the dwellings alone,
another 5 ore and 1250 gold for statue and well.
Another 10 wood, 15 ore and 6200 gold is needed for dwellings upgrades
(provided that there's no fort nearby to save on ogres and orcs)
Weekly armies without the cyclopes cost 8400 gold before upgrades,
10450 gold after upgrades.
An interesting idea from TreeBeard is to not use goblins and orcs in
the same task-force, just use one of them and when they suffer some
heavier losses and become weak, replace them with the other type and
let the weakened stack grow at home into more usable size.
Total production (inc. cyclopes) cost/week 11400, 13450 with upgrades
The rough castle output will be 1250x7 - 8750 gold/week.
HPs grown weekly 1250 at 10.76 g/HP
All that sums up to the fact that gold will be prety scarce.
Strategy
The highest priority at the early game is ore - which can usually be
found near. If it seems that there won't be any free ore nearby, you'll
have to get a mine fast. No cost is high enough. It always pays back
soon to sacrifice most of your starting armies (you should have 10+
orcs, 20+ goblins and five wolves by day 2) to sweep out some level1-2
monsters guarding an ore mine.
The second highest priority is beyond all doubt gold.
You'll need two villages to support your weekly troops production
(without cyclopes) and bigger sources to accumulate money for cyclopes,
mage guilds etc.etc.)
Depending on the resources available in close vicinity to your
heroes/castles, the first issue should be statue, if affordable.
You'll need 30 ore for ogres and trolls. If there is a mine nearby, get
it at all costs. Sacrificing a few orcs and goblins is never a too high
price. An useful thing here is to buy a second hero (whenever you
expect the explorable area to be big. Leave him with one goblin to have
some speed. The main hero should occupy the ore mine, get all the
treasure chests for experience (ok, maybe those that offer 500exp/1000
gold should be converted to cash, if you don't have surplus. Sometimes
it might be better to go for gold needed for structure building.)
By the end of first week, you should have bridge built. At day 1, week
2 you'll probably not have enough cash to buy all trolls. Wait then.
With 8 trolls split into two stacks and possibly 12 wolves you should
be able to take out weaker armies and gain access to more resources,
artifacts and towns. This force is capable of capturing a town with
some 15 orcs, some wolves and goblins - which is the usual garrison of
neutral barbarian towns. Other towns should not pose any big trouble.
The touhgest opponents could be warlock and sorceress towns - they have
average or faster shooters/flyers. But having your trolls upgraded to
War trolls should solve this (at least partially).
Remember that trolls regenerate, and make sure that the troll stack
will have more HP's in total than the orcs or other shooters you might
have, so that enemy units will go after the trolls. (Of course, only if
you want them to! If you're sure you'd take losses, it's usually better
to take losses to the lower-dwellings troops.)
It works great esp. with weaker castle garrisons, that will waste their
firepower, often causing some 35 damage per round... which the trolls
promtly restore ;-)
Forces combination:
I usually prefer to walk around with all wolves and trolls I can buy,
with addition of orcs, preferrably upgraded. The orcs aren't required
for exploration. I often leave Ogres and Orcs at home, until I need
them, or at least until I locate a fort for free upgrade.
Generally, you must decide whether or not you will aim for building and
using cyclopes. If so, then you can probably leave ogres at home
unpurchased in reserve and save the money for cyclopes.
If you're not planning to build pyramid, you'll probably take the ogres
on the road, as they have excellent potentials in damage causing,
damage absorbing and intimidating wandering armies into joining. In
heaviest final battles, the ogres are often the only stack that remains
on the battle field. For battle purposes, it is unbearable to go
without upgrade. Upgraded Ogre Lords not only have 50% more HPs, but
also move around within 4-field radius, which in battle is far much
better than two-field of the Slow Ogres.
Recommended order of stacks: If you have non-upgraded ogres and orcs,
let them stand next to each other, the ogres let to be playing first.
With both stacks being very slow, they'll be playing usually last in
the turn, which means that the orcs will be often already under attack
- in first round from flyers, in next rounds from faster walkers. In
both cases the Ogres can either smash the opposition or at least waste
their retaliation, so that the orcs can attack at close range, too,
without suffering additional losses.
Once the Ogre Lords are upgraded, be sure to position them into the
third slot, so that they'll be able to reach both upper and lower side
of battle field. Other armies can be placed everywhere, with Goblins
possibly in the 2nd/4th slot, Trolls and Orcs NOT next to each other.
Wolves and Cyclopes are usually able to reach anywhere they need. The
order of War Troll and Cyclopes should be changed operationally, as
sometimes the cyclopes will be needed to clean the space around the
trolls.
Order of Goblins/Ogre Lords depends on size of those stacks. Sometimes
a small force of goblins can be sacrificed to waste retaliation of some
strong enemy stack to give the Ogre Lords a free shot, but in most
cases the order should be reversed, as the ogre lords seldom take
significant losses where the goblins would get decimated.
If you're exploring, your backup hero can carry your orcs. If you have
a considerable firepower in wolves, cyclopes and trolls, you can give
the backup guy also ogre lords and goblins. This way, the backup guy
will have a force strong enough to occupy villages, defeat most
wandering armies and, last but not least, defeat those bothering weak
computer bastards that have nothing better to do than claim mines that
you've already taken for yours. For important battles, those secondary
forces can be used by the main hero.
Always remember that strongest skill of barbarians is attack and their
troops are designed to conform with this system.
Be very careful about positioning your cyclopes! If you place them next
to wolves or any other two-hex creature, you risk that any attack on
the cyclopes will cause them to harm the wolves in the retaliation.
This is most likely against human players, who will definitely try to
use their very fast flier to do so. The computer might do that if he
cannot attack your shooters.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting fellow barbarians:
This is usually a tough job. You need to accomplish several things
before your opponent does. You have to do your best to get first
shot with trolls and first shot with orcs. When fighting AI, you
may help yourself much using Blind or Paralyze spells. The opposing
wolves should be killed once they run across the field, using
cyclopes and ogre lords. The enemy cyclopes shouldn't be allowed to
attack your shooters - either use slow and fry them with your
shooters or go after them with your own cyclopes and ogre lords,
possibly both in the same round. Fighting barbarians means usually
quite heavy losses.
* Fighting knights:
Here the biggest threat lies in crusaders... Champions that go
after your shooters should be no match for your cyclopes. Depending
or sizes of your orc stack and enemy ranger stack you'll have to
decide, whether you'll smash rangers with trolls or, using some
spell, have the orcs play before the rangers and kill them. You'll
have to pay attention, though, not to let crusaders start the
second round, because they would cripple your shooters. Often it
means that you'll have to attack them with your Cyclopes and Ogre
Lords, suffering some losses. Having Blind or even better Paralyze
will help much. You have two possibilities - either you keep your
wolves alive along with enemy Champions (though severely damaged)
to keep the opportunity to play after them and somehow disable
Crusaders (by spells or by blocking them), or you'll kill the
Champions and assure that your opponent plays the last move of the
first round... However, if you have orcs/orc chiefs and he's got
only average or faster units, you can't do that and the Crusaders
will play before you. Most effective is Haste on the Trolls. If the
champions are dead, Slow on Crusaders works well, too. But be
careful about Slowing them in the first round, because AI will
dispel that as soon as possible.
* Fighting Sorceress:
There's nothing you can do. The sorceress will almost usually have
first strike with Phoenixes, going after your trolls. Unless you
have some useful spells (see below), Grand Elves and Greater Druids
will probably have time to shoot, too, and possibly even sprites
will come after your trolls. It may be good to keep your shooters
with the backup hero and deal with the sorceresses with strong
walkers only. They will suffer lesser losses that shooters, whose
value is higher in general concept of barbarian warfare. However,
if you battle sorceress with all your forces, you should try to
protect your wolves as they're the only unit that gives you an
opportunity to cast a spell before the nasty very fast shooters of
your enemy take their action, which is made worse by the fact that
Sorceress ALWAYS has Bless spell.
* Fighting Warlock:
Without Haste spell, the enemy will get first attack at your
shooters. If the dragons will already be black ones, your trolls
will get their butt kicked. Among the best strategies are: Using
Dragon Slayer spell on your strongest stack (most often Ogre
Lords), having one very fast flyer (purchased at any captured
warlock village) to waste the dragons' retaliation in first round,
thus allowing you to smash them with all your walkers. Against AI
use a few orcs as a bait to waste the dragons' power, keeping your
main shooters with the backup hero.
* Fighting Wizard:
The titans are the obvious threat. Since you cannot block them,
they'll cause you great losses. Your task is to eliminate rocs as
fast as possible. Often is that done by shooting with trolls, the
rocs usually survive, fly to the trolls and die there. The orcs
should take out the archmagi. Cyclopes and Ogre Lords are powerful
enough to take on the Titans. The titans can be Slowed, Cursed, or
Disrupted - which are all good ways to help yourself with minor
spells. However, the losses are obvious here. Since the enemy will
probably have three shooter stacks, you might minimize those losses
by casting Shield/Steelskin on the Trolls.
* Fighting Necromancer:
The most threatening are Bone Dragons (with second best raw damage
in the game!) and Vampire Lords with their regeneration. The
walkers are not a match for ogre lords. Skeletons can be dangerous
in very high numbers, but with their weak defense they're toast
once your orcs get aim at them. Usual procedure is to eliminate
Bone Dragons and possibly Vampire Lords within the first round.
There it's important to play with trolls sooner than the Vampire
Lords - they fly back to trolls and the Cyclopes can then finish
them. If you happen to have the Slow spell, the Bone dragons are
solved by that pretty easily. Or, as Qurqirish Dragon suggests, you
might as well Slow the VLs - very effective, if your trolls are
able to 'minimize' the Boners in one shot. The power liches are
about the only stack that will cause damage in the first round.
However, be careful about the Slow spell - if you play last move in
the first round and the Power Liches are still there, enemy will
Haste the VLs and give your trolls hell. (It may help to leave your
orcs and goblins with the backup hero, keeping only the Ogre Lords
in the Average speed class - the enemy often has skeletons AND
mutant zombies or regular mummies, thus assuring your Wolves first
move in second round - and the opportunity to Slow/kill Liches and
get another free shot on the VLs with trolls and also scoring a
good damage with Cyclopes.)
Hero's benefits:
The barbarian doesn't need any extra comments - it's about the best
type for both long-run campaigns and very quick offensives -
outrankedspellcasters only in mid-term, where their direct damage spells
are
already available and dangerous.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
Archery can give your troops significant boost as your forces should
rely on it.
Balistics is a very good pick, because your three walkers are all very
potent in damage dealing.
Wisdom is less important here, as Barbarians are rarely good
spellcasters, unless helping themselves greatly by artifacts. But as a
general rule, you won't get many chances on Wisdom, so whenever you
think you might need it, take it. (Especially in larger maps it comes
handy in the end, because spells like Mass Haste/Slow and Berzerker can
do wonders and don't rely much on spellpower.)
Generally it's clear that the way of barbarian in battle is pretty
tough, but so is the barbarian himself. His strength is in quick,
aggressive exploration, resource gathering, good movement in rough
terrain.
In the battles, all tactics get changed if you happen to have Mass
Haste or Mass Slow, because those turn the tables greatly in your
favor. Having their minor versions isn't that good, yet having your War
Trolls Ultra Fast can never be any bad.
--Using Necromancer--
---------------------
Strengths:
The undead concept itself with getting skeletons for free ;-)
Very fast shooter with excellent defense.
Vampire lord special. If you give the necros a lot of time, they'll
smash you. A stack of some 40 or more vampire lords is virtually
indestructible, even by equal or stronger armies. If you manage to get
a good attack rating, you've in fact won.
Cheaper resurrection (both in obtaining and casting.)
All armies immune to Mind magic along with Curse (this is really great
advantage!)
Cumulative Castle Special Building in EP maps.
Necromancer is the fastest to build (under favorable conditions) the
6thlevel dwelling - on day 4.
Weaknesses:
Resource and financial problems - without a gold mine or two you'll
never have enough, not even barely enough.
Slow armies at start, not much better later.
The necromancy bound to the hero, who cannot compete with Might ones in
A/D matters.
Army evaluation:
All troops have no morale and are immune to Mind magic as well as
Bless/Curse.
Skeleton 4/3/4/2-3/4/75
Real little bastards. Their speed allows them to decide many battles,
especially in connection with the fact that Necro's default spell is
Haste.
The 2-3 damage is far the best among 1st level creatures - all others
have 1-2 (halflings 1-3, but lower attack skill).
The fact that their map dwelling does align well only with desert
background is far, far more compensated by the fact that the necros
don't have to rely on recruiting/buying skeletons ;-)
Zombie 5/2/15/2-3/2/150
Mutant Zombie 5/2/20/2-3/4/200
Without the upgrade it's pain in the ass to have to use them.
One of the poor fellows that end up on the fact that Necros are poor in
financial means.
I personally almost never purchase those - the only exception are
desperate castle defending missions.
They're definitely not worth the money they cost, with their puny
defense skill.
Mummy 6/6/25/3-4/4/250
Royal Mummy 6/6/30/3-4/5/300
Both: 20% chance to Curse enemy after hit. I think the Royals have 30%
here, but I'm not sure.
They're quite similar to zombies, only a bit tougher and a bit more
expensive.
Their only positive is quite solid defense skill and, after the
upgrade, their Fast speed rating.
Yet, due to financial shortages, I use mummies only in cases where I'm
able to build only one of better armies.
Vampire 8/6/35/5-7/4/500
Vampire Lord 8/6/40/5-7/5/650
Both: Non-retaliated attack.
Upgraded: Regenerates dead units within one battle based on HPs of
killed enemies.
Vampires are pretty useful. In fact, they're the only higher monster
that does unretaliated attacks (the other two are 1st level wimps.) (Of
course, hydras do have the same ability, but it's greatly crippled by
the fact that they don't fly and move very slowly...)
They do moderate damage and have sufficient A/D skills.
After the upgrade, they become tougher in HPs, faster, and above all,
start to regenerate from the blood of their enemies.
This is a terribly strong feature. Once their numbers reach some 30-40,
they're much harder to kill.
An example... a 100 of Vampire Lords is able to deal Average damage of
600 (to opponent with defense 8), which means regenerating 15 of
previously killed stack members. So, in order to kill a VL stack with
100 pieces, you need to deal more than 1200 damage to it per turn.
(They retaliate, too! In fact, much more than that, because you need to
kill this stack pretty fast since there other stacks to go after within
the same battle ;-)
Lich 7/12/25/8-10/5/750
Power Lich 7/13/35/8-10/6/900
Both: Area attack striking 7 hexes with target hex at center.
An underestimated unit (at least by many players), the liches are far
stronger than you might think.
After the upgrade, they're the only Very Fast unit in Necro camp,
giving the Necro chance to Haste (as this he always can do) Bone
Dragons or Vampire Lords that can then block enemy shooters.
Having defense rating of 13 (which is the same the Red Dragons have)
they'll suffer quite low damage from enemy shooters/flyers, yet will
draw the enemy attention.
Their area attack with an excellent damage of 8-10 can cause
significant losses to enemy troops, especially those that have
surrounded the AI's primary target in your ranks - usually those
offensive VLs or Boners. You have to be pretty careful to not hit your
own armies - and often you'll have to plan your moves well to keep at
least one enemy unit free for them as a target.
However, with their miserable 35 HPs, they'll often become subject of
direct damage spells that prove pretty effective against them.
Bone Dragon 11/9/150/25-45/4/1500
Induces -1 morale on all enemy.
A terribly powerful unit with average damage of 35, they're a must.
Their special of reducing enemy morale also comes handy as it helps to
prevent those nasty knights from getting some of their extra attacks
and kicking your butt too soon.
Their only disadvantage is their low speed, but that can be compensated
by Necro's default spell ;-)
One more good thing is the fact that Boners can be possibly (in richer
maps) built within the first week.
Upgrading priority:
* Graveyard: Lowest priority. Only in helpless situations where you
badly need the extra HPs - i.e. for castle defense.
* Pyramid: Low priority. Unless you want mummies in your task force,
you won't need them.
* Mansion: High priority. The more vampires you have, the higher is
the priority to upgrade. Do I have to explain why?
* Mausoleum: Highest priority. You might disagree, but having a first
strike gives you the possibility to haste your VLs or Boners. Not
having it gives the opponent the possibility to cast his spell
first (and it can be Holy Shout or MassSlow ;-))
Necromancer Castle building in the first week:
(Poor variant - the vampire way)
---------T---------------T----------------------------м
| Day 1: | Mage Guild | 2000 gold + 5 ore + 5 wood |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 2: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 3: | Graveyard | 1000 gold |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 4: | Pyramid | 1500 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 5: | Thieves Guild | 750 gold + 5 wood |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 6: | Mansion | 3000 gold + 10 wood |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 7: | Mausoleum | 3000 gold + 10 sulfur |
L--------+---------------+-----------------------------
In case that you don't want to build liches (or discover very soon that
you won't get the +5 sulfur needed for them) you can skip Mage Guild
and Mausoleum, thus giving you a chance to build statue on Day 1 and
one day for reserve, in tougher scenarios gladly used for skull pile. I
personally usually start with the statue. If you happen to have one of
the structures from the schedule built, you migth as well manage to get
the Mausoleum working on Day 7, with the little sulfur gotten from
somewhere.
You'll need some 11000 gold (which should be ok) and 20 wood, 10 ore
and 10 sulfur, which seems to be the only problem here. (The
sulfur-free variant is cheaper by 3000 gold, which allows you to do
more recruiting and start out on day1, week2)
(Rich variant - the Boner variant):
---------T------------T------------------------------м
| Day 1: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+------------+------------------------------+
| Day 2: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+------------+------------------------------+
| Day 3: | Graveyard | 1000 gold |
+--------+------------+------------------------------+ |
Day 4: | Mage Guild | 2000 gold + 5 ore + 5 wood |
+--------+------------+------------------------------+
| Day 5: | Mausoleum | 3000 gold + 10 sulfur |
+--------+------------+------------------------------+
| Day 6: | Laboratory | 10000 gold + 5 all resources |
L--------+------------+-------------------------------
The rich variant has one day reserve and apart from 20 ore and 10 wood
needs 15 sulfur, which means that you'll have to get the 10 extra
sulfur units within the first seven days.
The second biggest trouble is gold. With 7500 starter cash and 7500 of
castle revenues till day 7, you're still 2750 gold pieces short into
the total of 17750. This may require two or three treasure chests or
some four lumps of gold scattered around the castle. That's why this
variant is called rich ;-)
Unless you've got a poorly guarded gold mine right next to your castle,
this variant has one more negative impact... You'll have to wait more
than a day for every bone dragon - taking the four of them out onto the
road on day5, week2, where your opponents may already have gotten some
advantage... four days' advance in exploration MAY be critical...
The upgrade of Vampires is another costly thing - 10 crystal and 10
gems may be a tough nut to crack. And you'll definitely need either
Vampire Lords or Power Liches to support your boners, if you don't want
heavy losses to them.
The 10 more crystal for the shrine is a good investment in larger maps,
yet it's often hard to gather, but this thing doesn't hurry much.
The Storm is quite useful (and the price tells that so) because the +2
spell power can be anything from 20 to 50 damage to a signle unit and
10 to 100 damage to multiple units, along with prolonged effects of
misc. spells. Especially the captain gets a noticeable boost which may
undermine enemy sieging plans.
Resources summary:
The variants are discussed above.
Weekly armies without Boners cost 9550, after upgrades 11600. Boners
will add 4500 to this amount.
HPs grown weekly 1202 at 13.839g/HP
The rough castle output will be 1250x7 - 8750 gold/week.
The armies' costs implicate that you won't be probably buying all of
them, unless you get a stable gold source.
Strategy
The overall strategy is quite simple... Either get tons of gold or tons
of skeletons. In cases neither is possible, you're toasted ;-)
The biggest problem may lie in resources - you'll need extra magical
stuff for almost anything. If you decide to go after Boners, sulfur
will do, but you'll have trouble with magic. If you aim at vampire
lords, crystal and gems are crucial and you'll need 10 of them both, if
you want any good magic to use.
If there are any low-level troops near your castle that don't block the
way to something important, leave them there until your hero gets
Expert Necromancy and until you'll NEED the skeletons. Remember that
wandering armies grow exponentially (The growth rate is 14% percent)
and so grow your skeleton reserves ;-).
Once you get a well-sized stack of skeletons, you may start more
aggressive expansion. Seven or even four bone dragons are a force good
enough to start conquering weak neighbours with. The Vampire Lords need
to reach some good numbers before you can start a good long journey
based on them.
Some 20+ VLs should do all right against most early enemies, while in
lesser quantities, you might suffer intolerable losses.
In battles, you'll have a tough time due to your slower armies. Try to
improve that by casting Haste on those huge skeleton stacks (to the
best effect, do that just when your regular turn with skeletons comes -
by that time any very fast, fast and some average walkers/flyers have
already moved in and you can pick the best target for the skeletons.)
You should try to build 3rd level of Mage guild as the Animate Dead
spell is one of the best things you can get - far more valuable than
Death Wave. Animate Dead is pretty rare, but definitely worth the try.
ALWAYS remember how many VLs did you have at the start of any battle
and try to keep some weaker enemy units in reserve to replenish the VL
stack at the end of the battle - use stacks with low defense, so that
the VLs will cause maximum damage.
In cases where you plan to rely on skeletons (and therefore use a necro
as your main hero), get used to suffer some losses in battles against
Knight or Barbarian heroes. In some scenarios (either if you know your
enemies are Might heroes or if there are not many skeleton-providing
weakies around your castle) it may be wise to forget about necromancy
and get a barbarian or knight, because they'll be able to compensate
the loss of skeleton firepower by extracting much better performance
from the other troops and thus minimizing losses. (Barbie is better
because knight has one secondary skill slot wasted by leadership.)
[The general rule with Necromancer on the road is that all his stacks
in time get weakened with the exception of skeletons, while the overall
sum of his troops HPs is quietly growing. This may seem good to you,
but if you would count the HPs as a weighted average, where the weights
would be defense skills of particular stacks, you'd find that the HPs
do not grow that fast, if ever. A practical example would be a blessed
stack of crusaders beating the crap out of your 'famous and unbeatable'
skeleton army with two swift blows - whereas if you had the same HP
stored in bigger bones, the crusaders might get their balls crumpled.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting barbarians:
One of the easier tasks. Power Liches can shoot after anything,
possibly Ogres (low Defense) or Cyclopes (closerange threat). You
should manage to play with VLs before War Trolls do (and possibly
after the cyclopes) and strike at the War Trolls. Bone Dragons can
aim at Orc chiefs or cyclopes (possibly blocking Orc chiefs) or the
Orcs, if their numbers mean a real threat. You'll probably suffer
some loses to Boners, maybe to liches, but your VLs should come out
unharmed. Be sure to leave them some easy killing at the end -
either goblins or Orcs do fine there. The skeletons should
devastate the wolves and, being Hasted in the first or second turn,
deliver a huge blow to Ogres or Cyclopes, whichever present the
bigger threat to your VLs or Boners. (Usually the cyclopes, but
ogres can be in much higher numbers sometimes.)
* Fighting knights:
The only things you have to do is avoid the Crusaders. The other
armies are much less threatening. The crusaders will play before
you, which may be a good advantage - your VLs can get to other
side, attacking Fast walkers (while blocking Rangers) or attacking
Rangers. The skeletons should be able to send the champions to hell
in one blow. If you cast Haste on skeletons in the end of the turn,
you might get a free shot on the crusaders with the huge skeleton
stack - before that, either cast Haste on VLs or score some direct
damage to crusaders (if they're really numerous, disrupting ray is
better!). The rest should be easy - the Boners outperform those
Fast walkers nicely.
* Fighting Sorceress:
The Phoenixes will probably toast your liches. If they'll survive,
you can cast Haste on VLs and send them between Druids and Elves
(if upgraded, otherwise even without the Haste) - they'll emerge
with low losses (If the shooter stacks aren't together, choose the
bigger threat, of course.) Your skeletons should give Phoenixes the
hell, maybe with the help of Boners (which may be, though, needed
to remove hordes of sprites). Hasted VLs assure you the first shot
in second round - a great opportunity to revenge on unicorns to get
back to original numbers. The rest is easy.
* Fighting Warlock:
The Dragons will give you hell. However, if they'll go after the
liches, you might toast them with either DragonSlayered skeletons
or just an overall offensive - possibly sacrificing some mummies or
even the liches to waste their retaliation. Next take out the
minotaur kings by similar procedure - Bloodlust on skeletons has
wonderful effects. Meanwhile, your VLs and Boners should score
heavily against Gargoyles and Griffins. The hydras are best taken
out in one-to-one fight with VLs, but if the opponent has some
strong direct damage spells, you might need to finish them up fast
- again, use the Hasted skeletons. For killing anything large, you
should rely on your four-digit skeleton stacks. And if you don't
have them yet, avoid heavy battles. Remember one thing - the
skeletons will attract enemy spellcasting, if the hero knows
Disrupting Ray.
* Fighting Wizard:
Here your liches will probably get heavy losses. Use Hasted VLs and
fit them between the Titans and Archmagi, if possible, attacking
rather the Titans, as the archmagi will suffer enough from
retaliation. If both shooters cannot be blocked by the VLs, you'll
suffer here. Use Boners to cripple Rocs (or Golems, if you've
already decided to sacrifice the Liches), best while blocking
halflings. The skeletons should plan their way well, because
they'll be hasted in the beginning of the second turn and should be
able to reach their target - so, when moving them in the first
round, pick a target that won't be in the second turn any farther
than 7 hexes. Depending on their stack size, choose either Titans
or something lesser like Archmagi.) Again, the Boners could suffer
some losses, the liches WILL suffer and may probably die. Again,
1000+ little bony bastards should help here.
* Fighting fellow Necromancer:
Not an easy job. You know where your strengths are (the strategies
against various enemies are very similar to each other...) and
exactly those are strengths of opposing necromancers. They, too,
can Haste their skeleton avalanche... They too can have huge
self-regenerating stack of VLs. The only advantage you have against
AI is your knowledge of your enemys' strategy in battle. He won't
use his VLs optimally (where the optimum is suffering no losses) -
he'll simply go after primary targets with everything he can. I'm
not including the individual moves here - they're pretty obvious.
Simple guidelines are: Eliminate his VLs ASAP. Try taking out his
Power Liches to assure that your hasted skeletons will have first
shot. Ignore wimps as zombies and mummies, unless they're way too
strong in numbers. Use Animate Dead only on important units. If you
decide to ignore his (power) liches in the first round, try to move
all your troops adjacent to an enemy stack so that the liches will
then score damage to their own side. (The AI's too stupid to skip
them...)
Hero's benefits:
The Necromancer's strength lies in the necromancy itself (and therefore
the fact that he can be very offensive with skeletons, fearing no
losses).
Another good thing about the Necro is the fact that he gets more levels
in A/D than other spellcasters and thus his troops have a slight edge
over their opponents.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
None are really needed as the two most important troops are flyers.
However, Ballistics can help you getting the Skeletons behind the
walls, if you can't teleport them there ;-)
If the Archery is offered to you early and you like liches, take it.
Their attack is not that bad - and considering the area effect, you
might sometimes profit from that greatly. It's not uncommon to hit
three enemies at once, which means that with expert archery, you score
4.5 times more than you'd guess by looking at the liches' stats. In the
early exploration the damage increase of the liches may prove worth the
slot as the liches may form the mainstay of your army along with the
vampires. Against wandering walkers, they work nice. (Keep them in the
last slot for best effects - the walkers will start coming diagonally
and form nice impact areas in the middle of the battlefield.)
In general, the necromancer can grow very powerful, but in many
scenarios the going can get extremely tough - no extra gold, few magic
resources, no wandering wimps to convert to skeletons - any of these
things can have great impact on the necromancer's performance.
Necromancer is also pretty vulnerable in the beginning - without Bone
Dragons, any attack from Might heroes within first two or three weeks
may well mean an end-game fanfare.
--Using Sorceress--
-------------------
Way of the Sorceress
This document contains no 'general' rules - all thone
non-class-specific ones are in the Way of the Hero and I suggest you
read it if you haven't done so yet.
Strengths:
Fastest offensive capabilities - good for defeating weaker heroes, slow
troops or wimpy shooters without losses.
Good for long exploring journeys due to bigger knowledge.
Four armies have useful specials.
Phoenix's speed gives it first strike ability (except against
champions).
Weaknesses:
Dependance on mercury, which is generally less frequent than other
resources due to design - mines are somewhat more popular than
Alchemist's Lab. (This is not the weakness of Sorceress, this is a
weakness of Map Makers, that hits Sorceresses badly.)
In early stages short of cash.
Generally lower HPs of troops, thus quite vulnerable to magic.
Army Evaluation:
Sprite 4/2/2/1-2/4/50
Non-retaliated attack.
Often a decisive element in many battles. Those little pixie things
profit from several things:
They're of a good speed - ideal for mopping up other 1st and 2nd level
creatures.
Their special - no retaliation - minimizes their losses.
They're the only creature that has TWO map dwellings - or, better said,
one dwelling and one recruiting place - and those get used often in
many maps.
In early exploration they help greatly defeating shooters and while in
latter phases you won't use them much, their numbers will quietly
accumulate. Good numbers can also be often found in captured neutral
villages. And with a strong hero, those little sweet flyers will have a
good punch, especially against other low level creatures.)
Dwarf 6/5/20/2-4/2/200
Battle Dwarf 6/6/20/2-4/4/250
Both: 20% chance to be immune to any enemy magic.
They'll profit from high numbers. While the slower version is unusable
for active warfare, the upgraded one matches your sprites in speed and
provides a good protective force for your shooters.
Mostly used as a deterring element in castle defense.
If you happen to find a few Dwarven Cottages and accumulate higher
numbers, battle use comes in, too.
One good thing is free upgrades at forts.
When in high numbers, the battle dwarves profit from one thing - their
special ability of magic resistance can often absorb enemys'
spellcasting efforts - the enemy will often try Disrupting Ray (and in
20% fail ;-))
Elf 4/3/15/2-3/4/250
Grand Elf 5/5/15/2-3/6/300
A good shooter with very significant upgrade - giving the elves both
speed boost and higher A/D.
The value of grand elves comes mainly from the speed, which is needed
for the fast-offensice concept.
They're not the primary target of enemy and their losses are therefore
minimal.
The elves before upgrade are about equal to Rangers, except the higher
HPs, and less plentiful. They're far much better after the upgrade.
Druid 7/5/20/5-8/4/350
Greater Druid 7/7/25/5-8/6/400
Quite powerful shooter. The upgrade gives speed and defense skill
boost, along with increased HPs.
The greater druids should be the mainstay of your offensive forces.
With their speed they should score two shots before enemy gets in
range.
However, get used to suffer losses as the druids will be targeted by
everything that moves and especially castle garissons will bother you.
Here often helps the Shield spell.
Unicorn 10/9/40/7-14/5/500
20% chance to Blind enemy after hit.
The only real walker-fighter among your troops.
The unicorns with Fast speed have good battle use, cause high damage
and their blinding ability often helps minimize overall losses.
The AI will often also waste lightning bolts on unicorns, while sparing
your shooters. Dunno why is that, maybe the AI really fears their
impressive stats.
Unicorns are a good target for your bless spells as it increases their
damage from average 10.5 to 14, which is some 38% boost.
Phoenix 12/10/100/20-40/7/1500+1m
Immune to elemental magic (Cold Ray, Lightning Bolt), some Mind magic I
think, two-hex attack.
The flaming bird is a nasty bastard to face. Their Ultra Fast speed
rating gives them (and you) the first shot.
Two-hex attack is extremly valuable when fighting walker wandering
armies.
Phoenixes have excellent damage rating - when blessed, they score about
as well as dragons, definitely better than titans and bone dragons.
Blessing them gives you 33% more damage on average. Another good spell
to cast upon them is Mirror Image, as this will give you a free attack
with them (unless facing champions) and force AI to cast a spell in
most cases to kill the image. (If you're wise enough to attack the same
target as the image source used.)
Upgrading priorities:
* Cottage: Lowest priority. Unless you'll need the dwarves badly (and
then, only if you can't find a fort.)
* Archery Range: High priority. The speed is essential for you. Also
a slight damage boost.
* Stonehenge: High priority. The speed is essential for you. In many
cases, you'll gain the mercury used here back soon due to quicker
exploration (directly or via other resources to trade.)
Sorceress Castle building in the first week:
---------T---------------T----------------------------м
| Day 1: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 2: | Archery Range | 1000 gold + 5 wood |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 3: | Mage Guild | 2000 gold + 5 ore + 5 wood |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 4: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 5: | Stonehenge | 3000 gold + 10 ore |
+--------+---------------+----------------------------+
| Day 6: | Fenced Meadow | 4000 gold + 10 gems |
L--------+---------------+-----------------------------
The schedule has one day reserve useful for Crystal Garden or, in some
extra-rich maps, for the Red Tower. (This would mean 15 mercury, 20 ore
and about 8000 gold to get apart from starting treasure - a task that
is sometimes manageable.)
Without the Red Tower, you'll have some 3500 gold to spend on armies in
the beginning on the second week. Unless you have already gathered some,
you'll probably have to go into action with non-upgraded shooters
and barely anything else.
The dwarves will be built later, if ever, as they're not needed in your
battle strategies.
The castle special isn't worth the money spend on it, as it produces
unguaranteed results, and therefore is very optional. I build it for AI
cash - letting some stupid hero capture my castle with empty dwelling
and retaking it 7 days later with all the upgrades for free - in cases
where I can do without the 8000 cash deficit, of course.
If it's obvious that you won't be able to build Red Tower quickly, then
with some luck of 9 extra gems you might want to get a 2nd level Mage
Guild as soon as possible.
Considering the fact that upgrading your shooters is of utmost
importance, you will probably be able to start out with full army on
day 3 in second week. Also, if gold is scarce, you might want to save
both money and time by not building the Fenced Meadow and upgrading
both shooter dwellings instead, usually having enough cash to start
with their full production right on day 1.
Resources summary:
You'll need some 20 wood and 10 ore for building, along with 11750
gold, including cost of statue.
Weekly armies without the Phoenixes cost 7750, after upgrades 8950. The
phoenixes add another 4500.
HPs grown weekly 871 at 15.15 g/HP
Strategy
Notice that you have the weakest armies in total HPs - so you'll have
to make up for that handicap in speedy exploration.
Your main advantage is speed of your units. Use supportive (protective
and beneficial) spells to profit from that advantage.
You won't need any huge quantities of gold so you can aim at snatching
resources and generally doing things that will indirectly harm your
enemies.
The only big priority you have to follow is mercury in the early
stages. However, even sooner you should get 5 extra gems to get
unicorns as they'll provide a good protection of your shooters against
walkers and wimpy flyers. Remember that the badly needed mercury can be
acquired from marketplaces and trading posts, so do your best to get
every bit of every resource you can.
With those troops, you should plan your actions well - try to take out
the enemy armies in order of their speed rating - phoenixes should kill
any very fast armies and then your very fast shooters should take care
of the rest. (Using Blind on remaining armies or slow on other very
fast units may help you in this). The result is the enemy hero being
defeated without any chance to cause spell damage and/or flee. Mass
Haste should guarantee total domination, making all your troops (except
dwarves, who are at home, anyway) reaching the other end of
battlefield, the sprites being the slowest, yet very fast. With good
positioning of unicorns to hit two-hex enemies at other side, you could
slay five stacks without the enemy ever knowing what hit him.
Forces combination:
In the early-to-mid phases you'll probably use two very fast shooters
accompanied by unicorns and hordes of sprites to take care of
protective tasks and mopping up, respectively.
When phoenixes get introduced, you can drop the sprites at the castle,
increasing your map speed, and possibly unicorns, too.
The unicorns can form the mainstay of secondary hero armies, possibly
together with sprites, battle dwarves and any armies that have joined
your main hero and are unsuitable for his strategies.
For exploration, you'll do fine with the three armies (phoenixes, elves
and druids - both upgraded) and your hero will be quite fast.
For battles against heroes, though, I recommend putting the unicorns
in, as their firepower will be needed for defensive tasks against
approaching enemy walkers and flyers and, as I already have mentioned,
they'll often cause enemy to waste lightning bolts at them.
Be extremely careful about using phoenixes in attack, their HPs aren't
any high and slow walkers in enemy ranks may cause significant losses.
If you can, rather use those more expendable sprites to bother enemy
shooters (provided they'll play sooner).
The Qurqirish Dragon added a very important strategic tip: If you have
haste, unicorns become a real terror in all cases as an ultrafast troop
with blind ability. Remember that unicorns have the greatest attack
potential of all 5th and lower level troops, with a huge 10.5 average
and a 10/9 A/D - only Archmagi may think of being compared with
unicorns, having 12/8 and average damage 8 and ranged attack.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting barbarians:
Barbarians' slow walkers would give hell to your phoenixes, so be
careful - often it's wiser to not attack in the first turn. Your
shooters should cause considerable damage to enemy trolls and/or
orcs, the rest could be taken care of by either spells or sprites.
In the second turn, you have first shot before wolves that have
probably gotten close to you, so fry them with phoenixes and repeat
the shooting procedures. (It may be needed to aim for approaching
cyclopes rather than finishing enemy shooters.) In the third round,
the Phoenixes can either get to other side to finish enemy
shooters, while your shooters (and possibly unicorns) deal with now
pretty close ogre lords and goblins. Remember that barbarian troops
are pretty tough and once they'll get close to you, your losses
will be high. It's usually better to sacrifice several unicorns to
keep ogre lords/cyclopes busy in the middle field, not letting them
to cripple your relatively weak shoooters. (Both Druids and Ogre
Lords are 4th level troop - and there's VREY big difference between
them, especially in close combat ;-).) Unless you have some magic
tricks in your sleeve, you'll get beaten badly. Mass Slow, Blind,
Paralyse and Berserk may be the difference between a huge loss and
a flawless victory. Only a very strong in means of A/D a hero,
possibly with some Leadership/Luck/Archery skills can make things
easier.
* Fighting knights:
In the first turn, your Phoenixes/Unicorns should handle Champions
(Phoenixes if the knight attacked you, Unicorns if you played first
- don't ever think about moving the phoenixes onto the other side -
the four walkers would beat the shit outta them.) Your shooters
should easily eliminate rangers and possibly score even against
crusaders or other walkers. The unicorns should not waste
opportunity to strike in the first round, but do your best to keep
them out of reach of those enemies, that haven't played yet. If the
champions are dead, you'll have the first shot - you can Slow/Blind
crusaders and handle other stacks with phoenixes, or use direct
damage on crusaders (or beneficial spell on phoenixes) and try to
fry the crusaders in one shot. However, if you let the crusaders to
get at your shooters, you'll have them sliced very thinly. It's
better to fry crusaders and let pikemen/swordsmen get their shot at
the druids, because those enemy walkers are much weaker on both
attack and defense and can be handled easier. Treebeard suggests
strongly that you hold off your phoenixes and arrange your sprites
to solve the ranger problem, while your shooters will do their best
on the crusaders. However, I think that crusaders with their very
high defense should be subjected to some magic, while the shooters
should employ their potential against some slightly less-defended
subjects (well, the difference is not that big, all the others have
defense 9, yet that means 15 to 30% difference in damage dealt.)
* Fighting fellow Sorceress:
The ideal setup would be killing enemy phoenixes with yours, while
blocking one stack of very fast shooters - they'll then attack
phoenixes and your druids can go after the second very fast enemy
shooter, while your third shooter will try to weaken walkers that
threaten your phoenixes. Another approach may be Slow on the enemy
Phoenixes and attacking Unicorns or dwarves or one shooter, while
blocking the shooters. In any case, you'll probably suffer
considerable losses to phoenixes. There are other ways that will
mean losses to your shooters - choose whichever troubles you less.
One thing is recommended - eliminating sprite hordes as otherwise
they'll waste next round attack of your shooters. The losses are
usually worth it, because most of them can be replenished at the
defeated sorceress' castles soon.
* Fighting Warlock:
Attacking Dragons with phoenixes is a bloody bad thing, yet if they
play first, there's nothing better to do. At least you can cast
Dragon Slayer on the Phoenixes to make things a little less bad.
The ideal setup could be another very fast army playing before the
blackies. If this army is gargoyles, try to attack them with
phoenixes, but do so only if you WON'T kill them all - they'll in
turn go after your druids, probably die in their retaliation and
your druids can fire at the dragons. (If you happen to have Haste,
cast it right now on the Grand Elves, giving them a chance to
damage dragons further, before they even get to battle.) In this
battle, your shooters will suffer greatly from enemy flyers. You'll
have to try to use dragons' and phoenixes' two-hex attacks to wipe
out enemy flyers - preferrably the dragons should be the second
unit in phoenixes's flame. Also do expect the elves to become the
AI's primary target pretty soon, as druids' total HP sum will drop
rapidly under dragons' fire breath. Unicorns should show bravery
and sacrifice themselves in attacking ferociously anything that
moves. Mass Bless is one of the most useful spells here. Mass Haste
gives you chance to kick the dragon's ass the unicorns, too, which
can do quite well. The sprites can wipe out centaurs or damage
whatever else. General rule is to try and conquer the warlock
before he gets Dragons (or conquer a wizard and take titans against
the Dragons.)
* Fighting Wizard:
Phoenixes should (possibly Steelskinned) attack titans or rather
block them, while frying archmagi. Then your very fast shooters
should take out Rocs and halflings, while the sprites (if you have
them) can soften up enemy walkers - possibly golems, that would
have reached phoenixes. Send the Unicorns after the titans. If the
rocs have survived the shooting, you'll either kill them with
spells in the next round (either direct damage or blessing
unicorns) or take them out by phoenixes (ideally by hasting
unicorns to prevent titans from shooting), or even take them out
with the shooters in person. Concentrated firepower should work
well on the titans - best supported by either Mass Bless or
repeated Disrupting Ray. Also slowing the titans is a good idea.
This strategy is quite offensive and will cost you some phoenixes.
You can play it on defensive - best by shielding your shooters,
which will still suffer quite high losses. After one or two
defensively carried battle turns, switch to general offensive, as
by this time the titans should be about the only enemy alive. (And
if not, other enemies are damn close, anyway.) In case you manage
to catch the wizard without titans, target the archmagi with your
phoenixes, the halflings with your sprites, forget about the
golens, try to fry the rocs with your shooters, and keep the
unicors near to smash the rocs next turn.
* Fighting Necromancer:
Here your speed says it all. Either ignore the power liches in
first turn and let them score some kills, or send phoenixes, that
will although have to stand up against all the slower walkers.
Anyway, both your shooters should be able to cripple Vampire Lords.
If the enemy is trigger-happy on spells, Slowing Bone Dragons after
he's casted his part is a good thing, because in the next turn you
may succeed in eliminating them before he could haste them. Another
approach is to block liches, while attacking their neighbour. Since
the enemy has two flyers, you'll probably suffer some losses. But
if the things go well, the Vampire Lords that have survived
phoenixes' onslaught and further shooting can be taken out by
Unicorns and if you succeed in slowing the dragons at that point,
the losses should be minimal and mostly on phoenixes. If you don't
have Slow, you'd rather smash the Bone Dragons first or accept the
fact that your shooters will get their ass kicked well. TreeBeard
says: Humm, beware of the dragons!! Hold to the last secound to
cast (mass) slow, or start shouting holy verses right from the
beginning. Hordes of skeletons should be handled a good kick, with
shooters and sprites.
Hero benefits:
The Navigation can prove as a decisive factor in water-based maps with
lots of resources and goodies scattered on islands.
Long journeys with armies that need to be helped with spellcasting are
best suited for sorceress' high knowledge, if she's gonna be the main
hero of yours.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
Archery is the one of most importance with two aggresive very fast
shooter stacks.
Leadership can prevent losses to your precious troops and help you to
win many battles without giving the AI chance to move, which already is
an important concept of the sorceress side.
Balistics are good in breaking castle walls and thus reducing the
obstacle penalty for your shooters.
The Sorceress' heart is speed, says TreeBeard - she is the one who
needs Logistics and some movement boosting artifacts the most to get
her quickly built Phoenixes to the enemy, before they manage to get
their 6th level troops.
In general, sorceress troops profit strongly from their speed.
Sorceress should have one of the fastest starts due to successful
exploration - stands a good match to warlock and both Might classes and
should be able to defeat slower-starting necromancers and wizards.
In the long run, the stronger troops of your enemies can trouble you
seriously. Especially big bastards like Ogre Lords (not speaking of the
300 HP fellows) can prove too tough for any army of yours to stand up
to. However, a succesfull warrior usually uses sorceress troops to gain
quick access to some more potent ones. (Wizard/Warlock usually.)
--Using Warlock--
-----------------
Way of the Warlock
This document contains no 'general' rules - all thone
non-class-specific ones are in the Way of the Hero and I suggest you
read it if you haven't done so yet.
Strengths:
Three flying armies, of which two are quite cheap - very good for
exploring and cleaning out shooter armies without heavy losses.
Dragons are definitively the best unit around (Titans, although they
shoot, are vulnerable to some devastating magic.) with their highest HP
rating, complete magic invulnerability and two-hex attack.
Excellent defense potential in hydras - for castles mainly.
Good offensive punch even without dragons - minotaur kings are a very
strong and dangerous army.
Income bonus in dungeon (although more than needed for blackies ;-)).
First dwelling produces shooters, that have the biggest HP count among
1st dwelling creatures, and are also often found in villages, and of
course in caves.
Weaknesses:
Sulfur dependance.
Dragons are very expensive.
Lack of any powerful shooters - and therefore casualties against just a
bit strong walkers, especially in early game where the magic's not
powerful enough to stop them.
Army evaluation:
Centaur 3/1/5/1-2/4/60
About the only two things good about centaurs are their highest HPs
among 1st level creatures and the simple fact that they shoot.
Their speed matches your griffins and minotaurs, so they won't slow you
down.
Generally centaurs won't cause any high damage, unless in very high
numbers. Their potential lies in the fact that those high numbers can
be reached pretty fast ;-).
One bad thing about centaurs is the fact that their natural dwelling,
the cave, definitely looks odd, unless placed in snowy terrain... which
is the reason that there aren't usually many caves around your castle,
especially because most authors tend to cripple warlocks by placing
their castle into swampy areas.
However, lacking a better shooter, the warlock will often have to carry
these weak ones or take the very slow hydras to absorb damage from
enemies.
Gargoyle 4/7/15/2-3/6/200
Their defense of 7 is the highest number among 2nd level creatures,
while their skills sum of 11 is matched only by dwarves.
Their biggest positives are quite reliable damage causing, high numbers
and, above all else, their Very fast (and flying) speed rating, which
assures first shot in many early battles.
The gargoyles will suffer losses as their main goal is usually to block
shooters. They're good in killing archers, halflings and other weakies.
Having 18+ gargoyles at start of second week gives you considerable
firepower.
Due to their high numbers, they're expendable - divide them into two
stacks and let them block very fast/fast shooters and wait till
griffins arrive to deal the big damage.
Griffin 6/6/25/3-5/4/300
Retaliates against every attack.
Griffin's special of unlimited retaliation makes them a feared
opponent, excellent for early exploration and fighting shooters.
Try to minimize their losses as they can be quite handy even in mid
phases of play - ideal to be put between two enemy shooter stacks, with
drawing the enemy troops close around them, causing them damage and
possibly making a nice lineup for some area-damage spell. (Or even for
the hydra-teleport combo - just remove the griffins (in case they
survived) and teleport the hydra stack into their place - you'll get
TWO shots at many enemies (One in the hydra turn and one in the
retaliation after first enemy attack.)
Their damage skills are quite useful for sweeping out minor enemy
units, most often at castle sieges.
Minotaur 9/8/40/5-10/4/400
Minotaur King 9/8/45/5-10/6/500
Especially in their upgraded version, they stand out with their
toughness, speed and excellent skills.
Being very fast allows them to cover most of the battle field.
Their high HPs (second only to Ogre Lords among 4th level creatures)
assures you the first shot in most situations, as they cannot be wiped
out as easily as gargoyles can.
In games with low sulfur reserves the minotaur kings will form most of
your offensive, which suits them.
Even their non-upgraded version carries considerable punch and is
excellent for protection of centaur hordes. However, offensive
campaings aren't their best role, then.
Hydra 8/9/75/6-12/2/800
Non-retaliated attack, attacks all adjacent enemies.
An excellent army for defensive purposes.
Offensive use comes handy in exploration - most effectively used
against enemy flyers (be sure to place the stack into the third slot).
Assure that they will be the highest priority target for AI - no
shooters and flyers allowed - usually that means hydras alone, but
having one minotaur/minotaur king with them will allow you to cast
protective spell on them.
In defensive battles, place hydras close to primary target of enemy AI
- the hydras will be able to attack approaching enemy, with the
possibility of some slower enemies coming in later and, not being able
to reach their primary target, attacking hydras, which the retaliate to
all of those units that have already attacked the hydras' protection
subject.
If you happen to get teleport, hydras prove an excellent means of
wreaking havoc among the enemy lines.
If you've run out of centaurs and don't want to lose your flyers, use
hydras as a bait for enemy walkers - they can absorb considerable
damage, in the end of turn score multiple attack and your very fast
gargoyles and minotaurs can wipe out the rest.
Green Dragon 12/12/200/25-50/4/3000+1s
Red Dragon 13/13/250/25-50/5/3500+1s
Black Dragon 14/14/300/25-50/6/4000+2s
All: Immune to all magic, two-hex attack.
There's no doubt about the Dragons' supremacy in the game. However,
there are three types of them.
Green ones are good only in situations where you desperately need their
HPs and firepower and can't afford to wait for upgrades. Their Average
speed is the worst thing about them.
Red ones are a good compromise between price and power - needing only
one sulfur, they're quite affordable, while the Fast speed gives less
enemies the first shot.
I usually go for Blackies but in many cases I decided to stay with Red
ones and profited from that, most often through higher numbers I could
afford to purchase and the offensive being launched sooner.
Black ones are a bit too expensive, yet the investments usually return
pretty soon.
Comparation of blackies and greenies is simple... 20% more damage
potential, 50% more HPs, 10-20% less damage suffered and, above all,
the +2 speed. All these are definitely worth the extra 1000 cash and
one bit of sulfur.
The Blackies are the dragons that can take out a titan any day of the
week. Reddies cannot.
The most stressed thing about dragons should be their complete magic
immunity, often appreciated in connection with Armageddon or any other
global damage spell.
However, the two-hex attack is another powerful weapon, which requires
extreme care when dragons are near their friends.
Upgrading priorities:
* Maze: Low priority. High only in cases where you know you won't get
dragons any soon.
* Green Tower: Highest priority. Greenies are way too weak and slow.
* Red Tower: High priority: Reddies are much better, yet the Blacks
give you first shot in most cases. I'd stick with reddies only in
those cases where I couldn't get enough sulfur to buy the blackies.
(And, to tell you truth, 6 blackies are way better than 7
reddies...)
Warlock Castle building in the first week:
----------------T-----------T-----------------------------м
| Day 1: | Dungeon | 3000 gold + 5 wood + 10 ore |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 2: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 3: | Crypt | 1500 gold + 10 ore |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 4: | Well | 500 gold |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 5: | Nest | 2000 gold |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 6: | Maze | 3000 gold + 10 gems |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 7: | Swamp | 3500 gold + 10 sulfur |
+---------------+-----------+-----------------------------+
| Day 7: (alt.) | Waterfall | 1000 gold |
L---------------+-----------+------------------------------
There's no reserve in this schedule, but Hydras aren't really needed
and the Waterfall is not of any big importance, if your ambitions are
dragons.
However, sometimes you'll be forced to postpone Maze due to shortage of
gems - in that case you have one day reserve ;-)
The two money generators have absolute priority. Although you'll seem
to have enough gold in the first few weeks, as soon as you'll start
thinking about dragons, you'll find that you have far less than you
thought.
The resources needed are 11500 gold (without the swamp), 10 gems and 25
ore (which on normal setting means that you'll have to get 5 ore pieces
pretty soon.) However, in many cases the Crypt is already there,
sparing you of that problem.
Resources summary:
You'll need 5 wood and 55 ore for the dwellings, but without the
dragons, whose price almost assures that they won't be built within
first week, the ore requirements drop to 25, including dungeon and
statue.
Upgrades of dragons will consume 10000 gold, 10 ore and 20 sulfur,
while minotaurs cost some 5 gems and 2000 gold.
Weekly armies without dragons cost 9680, after upgrade 10180. With
green dragons 9000 more, blackies yet another 3000 more gold and six
sulfur instead of three.
The rough castle output will be 1750x7 - 12250 gold/week.
HPs grown weekly 1755 at 12.63 g/HP
Strategy
Unless you build dragons, you'll have more than enough gold for lesser
armies - in fact, you should be able to spare 2000/week for use on
special buildings and heroes.
If you won't use hydras, that will leave you another 3200 per week,
which implies saving up for dragons' construction only three weeks. In
three weeks, you should also easily get the needed sulfur and ore -
you'll need only one mine for each resource.
If there's no sulfur around, you'd better hurry to go after your
opponents. If you happen to locate a village of warlock type, this will
give you even more significant advantage - often centaurs, sometimes
gargoyles, the possibility to upgrade and build money generators.
Due to money matters, which are pretty alright with warlocks, your
biggest advantage (apart from possible dragon armies) lies in initial
strength, because you'll be able to purchase all the armies you have
grown and start aggressive exploring.
If you stick to warlock hero, you'll need mage guild on second level,
though, as the warlock's greatest skill is always spell power. More on
heroes in Way of Hero.
If there's a sulfur mine nearby, capture it at almost all costs and
start looking for a stable gold source, because dragons will need at
least one gold mine.
Forces combination:
In the early stages, griffin-gargoyle gang-up is an excellent tool.
Usually backed by a bunch of centaurs, those two flyers provide
wonderful means of exploration.
With this combination, you can easily smash any shooters with average
speed (just make sure your griffins will play before your centaurs, use
gargoyles to block first two stacks, then griffins for other two,
centaurs should damage/kill the fifth stack.) Against the walkers, a
good option is to have centaurs in top slot, where griffins and
gargoyles can form almost completely surround them (with minotaur
kings, the protection is total) and be a bit passive.
As all the resources may have great importance (at least to be traded
for sulfur), try to get the mines at any reasonable cost - never mind
losing a few gargoyles/griffins.
Against flyers, especially gargoyles, try to use hydras, if you've got
them near. Hydras alone can do quite well. You'll suffer five full
strength attacks from your enemies, which with hydras' 12 defense and
75 HPs means none or small losses, and then you get in fact two attacks
(one attack and a retaliation after first enemy attack in second round)
upon all enemy stacks. As mentioned above, one minotaur/king can help
giving you time to cast some protection. A gargoyle can be used, too,
placed BELOW the hydra - to the first attacker will get next to hydra.
This, at the cost of one gargoyle, minimizes losses on hydras - saving
one enemy attack and giving the benefit of spellcasting.
Later, minotaur kings will carry most of your close-range firepower.
Hydras are taken on the road only exceptionally - if you need to scare
off some enemies or need every bit of firepower. Their Very Slow speed
costs you two movement points each adventure turn, which is quite high
price.
Once you manage to get dragons, life should be easy. Dragons can take
enormous amounts of damage and return it back. Once I get dragons, I
usually drop off slower armies. The centaurs are good for a second
hero. Having them with the main guy would only cause them losses,
because most enemies would turn after them, at least with magic. I
don't need to explain much, that it's better to have all enemy going
after something with defense of 14, than defense 2, because that means
the damage dealt by the enemy is reduced by 55%.
Generally, having any armies beside dragons gives the enemy a chance to
cast damage spells onto your side, but strong stacks of minotaur kings
and gargoyles are often needed. Note that you can sometimes benefit
from the magically vulnerable army - if the enemy casts at your minor
stacks, he doesn't cast supportive spells on his troops that go after
the dragons.
With warlock, you should rely on the speed of your armies. Try to get
some morale boosts, because your three very fast units can profit from
that nicely.
Especially the dragons do very good work when splitted into two or
three stacks, because that gives you opportunity to take out several
enemy armies within one turn, possibly even preventing the enemy from
getting a move on his own. Excellent in combination with griffins and
Blind - two stacks of dragons and one stack of gargoyles will take out
enemy units of faster speeds, Blind will eliminate somebody that is
average and Griffins could take out slow armies.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting barbarians:
Barbarians are a threat that cannot be underestimated. Their heroes
are usually pretty strong on attack and they have very strong
walker armies. If you have the first shot and go after trolls with
your dragons, all the remaining armies will attack your dragons in
the first turn. Cyclopes with potent offensive skills and two-hex
attack are to be paid attention to, possibly using their two-hex
against their friends. Ogre Lords will often get a kill on the
dragon. Only slow ogres can be avoided by good maneuvering.
Orcs/orc chiefs should be taken care of by griffins. Get used to
losing a few dragons in fights with strong barbarian armies. I
usually want the enemy to play with wolves before my dragons, then
I attack cyclopes, possibly blocking trolls. Try to eliminate some
of the walkers by using slow/blind/paralyze. Berzerker on cyclopes
is the nicest alternative.
* Fighting knights:
If you didn't have opportunity to line up your troops, you may get
hit by champions before you can do anything. I suggest taking out
rangers either by magic or by griffins when all faster units have
moved. Definitely avoid placing dragons there, because all the
walkers would get at you. Try to use two-hex attacks to damage
crusaders indirectly. They're a real threat, because they'll often
play sooner than you in subsequent battle rounds, have defense as
good as green dragons, often strongly supported by high defense
skill of the hero, so that your dragons will hardly be able to take
out one crusader each. Other walkers are much lesser threat, yet
often come in annoying numbers and can cause significant losses.
One good thing is their speed - both the master swordsmen and
veteran pikemen are only one step slower than crusaders - often
helping you in the task of indirect attack on crusaders. Damage
spells are of some importance againts the heavily defensively
oriented crusaders. Again, berzerker on them just before their play
is the most wonderful thing. (That's why the most experienced
map-makers give the right protective artifact to AI knights ;-))
* Fighting Sorceress:
Here you need to be extremely careful. If the enemy has phoenixes,
do not take centaurs into the battle, they would be all killed in
one single blow. Also, be sure to have the dragons in top slot and
no army under them, because their retaliation onto phoenixes
wouldn't do any good to their neighbours. The rest is easy. Dragons
should easily eliminate enemy shooters while the minotaur kings
should strike at phoenixes and gargoyles shouls take care of
sprites. Besides phoenixes, damage could come from unicorns and
overgrown stacks of dwarves - so be careful in choosing the
dragons' target as to avoid those threats if possible. Often the
unicorns will block the way for dwarves so you can handle that
later. Casting Slow/Blind/Paralyze helps, too.
* Fighting fellow Warlock:
Try your best to use two-hex attack of both your and enemy dragons
to cause maximum damage. Often the minotaur kings of enemy suffer
in the first round. Sometimes, it may be wise to have gargoyles
playing first, wasting dragons' retaliation. The battle is going to
be hard and will depend strongly on type (and skills) of enemy
hero. Having a strong hydra stack close to your dragons may be good
for attacking all the flyers that surround your dragons. Enemy
hydras should get across the field just after anybody else is dead,
so you won't have any hard task killing them in one massive attack.
Blinding them in the process will often save you from one their
attack onto all your troops.
* Fighting Wizard:
You'll have to take care of titans quickly. If their numbers are
high, use disrupting ray, else use direct damage spells, curse or
Slow. Attack with dragons, possibly blocking archmagi, too. Do
expect dragons to take significant losses, but hurry with all your
firepower, esp. minotaur kings, to help killing those bothering
rocs and boars. Use damage spells on archmagi, they're weak in HPs.
Use either griffins or gargoyles on halflings. Try to avoid golems,
bother enemy with mind/speed spells so that he'll dispel them
instead of casting supportive spells on titans (worst of which are
resurrects). Also, take into consideration that the enemy may have
gotten Expert Archery, which makes the Titans' average damage at
distance a bit higher that the one of Dragons. (They then score the
same average of 37.5 and have Attack skill of 15 (while dragons
have 12-14)). The Qurqirish Dragon also stresses that using
supportive magic like Bless, Steelskin and Bloodlust, the Titans
with Expert Archery may overwhelm dragons. The only advice here is
- use your spells wisely to prevent the enemy from supporting his
Titans... If you'll ignore those supportive spells on Titans,
within three turns of battle they can become a 18/20 A/D beast with
63 damage per piece - which will be deadly for your dragons.
Therefore you should use all you can to eliminate Titans quickly.
Disrupting Ray fits there best. However, if the enemy keeps casting
supportive spells on titans, you could consider using dispel magic
only every second turn, while in the meantime using direct damage
or other spells of your choice. Berzerker here won't be as
profitable as against might heroes.
* Fighting Necromancer:
You need to concentrate on Bone Dragons or Vampire Lords and
destroy them fast. If the Vampires aren't upgraded or their numbers
aren't high, the Bone Dragons are primary target. The necromancer
will probably be weak on defense, so attack with all you can. Be
careful when casting Slow, because the enemy often reacts with
Haste on the Slowed unit, which totally overthrows strategic
planning. Try to use two-hex on all the undead walkers. If the
enemy has already managed to grow considerable numbers of
skeletons, be careful, because they may form a remarkable threat,
too. Generally if the enemy walkers are in big numbers, you should
consider skipping the first turn almost entirely - use direct
damage spells and wait for the two flyers to get to you, prod their
buttocks (know THAT quote? ;-)) and in second turn, launch the
offensive against walkers/liches - the walkers might have lined-up
nicely by this time for the dragons' flame. If the enemy isn't THAT
strong, you could sometimes use the two-hex attack even in the
first round - knowing the order of play, pick a target that will
assure that royal mummies will come over and the army behind them
gets a good portion of warm welcome.
Hero benefits:
The Scouting skill can be very helpful in early exploration. If you
strongly plan to rely on Armageddon or other global damage spell to use
with dragons, the warlock is the best choice for the main hero, because
his most expanded skill is Spell Power. Warlocks generally make good
scouts, because they come with bundled garoyles.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
None in particular... warlock armies rely mostly on flying - no big
need for archery/leadership/ballistics. Mysticism may help a warlock
hero on long journeys, since he's not focused on knowledge that much.
In general, warlock is quite a strong class (in overall most popular,
too) whose strength lies in quite fast initial exploration and
unmatched supremacy of draggagedon combo. However, the dragons are much
stronger weapon in hands of an experienced barbarian.
However, one sulfur mine is never enough, so you'll either need two
mines or several marketplaces to get your dragons from their towers to
the battlefield.
--Using Wizard--
----------------
Way of the Wizard
This document contains no 'general' rules - all thone
non-class-specific ones are in the Way of the Hero and I suggest you
read it if you haven't done so yet.
Strengths:
Very strong in long-run campaigns.
Has three shooters, of which two are very fast, strong and with
specials, while the third one can be found in natural dwellings, often
reaching very high numbers.
Library gives a true sense to higher mage guild levels, often gives
dimension door and ressurrect true.
Most needed resource can be obtained from extra source! This fact often
helps a lot, as gardens can be found in most maps.
With 300 HP sixth-dweller often allows two 'main' forces - one composed
of titans and possibly archmagi, while the another taking the bulk of
rocs, boars and halflings - which is enough to capture minor garrisons
and take out minor heroes.
Weaknesses:
Titans need lots of gems and cash - far more than you'll be able to
accumulate with one castle.
Early exploration is usually tough, because the available troops will
often take losses.
High consumption of resources in the beginning - you'll usually have to
choose either magi or spells.
Army Evaluation:
Halfling 2/1/3/1-3/3/50
Innocent-looking but powerful creatures, that are a real threat in
higher numbers. (Compare 99 halflings to one titan ;-) - cost is the
same, damage range is 109-326 vs. 50-75 against D=1, 33-99 vs 20-30
against D=15.)
Once they're not AI's primary target, they'll start to accumulate.
Being 1st level, they're often found and 'default' neutral villages and
castles, so that they reach the higher numbers pretty easily.
Often the halflings are major part of your firepower in early stages. A
blessed stack of halflings is really an ugly thing to face.
Due to their low HPs, wandering stacks will often offer to join you.
Haflings have one of the BEST damage ratings in the game, measured per
HP.
Boar 5/4/15/2-3/6/150
A reliable 2nd level army. They have excellent range, often dwellings
are in villages.
In long run, their power diminishes and they are a good force for the
secondary heroes.
They provide good troops for scout heroes, being Very fast.
Iron Golem 5/10/30/4-5/2/300
Steel Golem 7/10/35/4-5/3/350
Both: Half damage from elemental magic (Cold Ray, Lightning Bolt)
A good unit for defense. It's resistance to elemental magic improves
the defense potential.
I personally buy them only when absolutely needed and rarely take them
on the road, but many people do otherwise and profit from that. And I
must admit that a few times I emerged from a tough battle with a golem
stack the only army left standing of my forces.
Their free upgradability at foundries is a good thing, though, as it
increases their speed to match halflings and thus not slow you down in
case you take them.
Compared to other three-level creatures, they have very impressive
stats.
With some good spells like Haste/Teleport they can do a significant
part of work on your offensive and defensive battle tasks. If you're
gonna to take halflings on the road and can spare the cash for the
golems, do so - they might attract the enemy's attention (including
spellcasting) and are by definition expendable. Also, their elemental
resistance cannot do any bad. (Thanks to Qurqirish Dragon on that one!)
Roc 7/7/40/5-8/4/400
In early and mid phases this is the main force of the army.
One of the strongest flyers, they're excellent for delivering damage to
enemy shooters.
Their role is most important in early game, where they help much in
cleaning wandering shooters, as they have good damage absorbing
potential.
Having 8 rocs in the beginning of second week (and usually the money to
buy them) is very important advantage.
Mage 11/7/30/7-9/5/500
Archmage 12/8/35/7-9/6/700
Both: No adjacent penalty (scores full damage even at close-range
attack).
Upgraded: 20% chance to cast Dispel Magic upon hitting an enemy.
Those guys carry excellent firepower and once you manage to build them,
they'll form most of your offensive capability.
The upgrade is costly but pays back! Being very fast gives them first
strike in most cases and all the increased stats mean 10% more damage
dealt. The HP increase is good, too. (Remember, the speed will be VERY
important - they'll play before vampire lords, red dragons, war trolls
and on the level with gargoyles, black dragons, crusaders, power liches
etc.)
Their special - no adjacent penalty - makes them extremely useful
against those wandering armies that manage to get across the battle
field.
Not to mention the archmagis' chance to dispel good spells. Always nice
to dispel a huge stack of blessed, steelskinned, bloodlusted and hasted
hydras. (In most cases, you'll quite appreciate especially removal of
haste from a stack that is hurrying to meet the archmagi face-to-face
;-))
Giant 13/10/150/20-30/4/2000+1g
Titan 15/15/300/20-30/6/5000+2g
Both: Immune to Mind magic (Blind, Berzerker...)
Upgraded: Shoots, no adjacent penalty (scores full damage even at
close-range attack).
The giants can be useful both in castle defense and in offensive
campaings, but are generally wimps compared to their upgraded version.
In most cases, you'll want to wait for the upgrade. The doubled HPs and
range attack make titans a feared opponent.
Titans are about the only unit that can try to be compared to dragons.
Although a hundred times proven saying tells you that a Dragon can take
out a Titan any day of the week, with a bit of supportive magic ranging
from bloodlust to teleport, mirror image and resurrect true the result
can be otherwise.
The titans have one important role - with their high HPs they are
usually primary target of AI and, not being immune to all magic,
usually also the primary target of AI's spellcasting. What's good on
that? Your archmagis' and halflings survival ;-)
Having all the enemy hurrying after the titans gives your archmagi and
halfligns enough time to cause horrendous damage to enemy units. 9
archmagi carry definitively much bigger offensive punch that one titan,
yet the titan gets the AI's attention. Halflings explained above...
Upgrading priorities:
* Foundry: Low priority. Only if you gonna need the golems in the
field and can't find a Freeman's Foundry nearby.
* White Tower: High priority. Archmagi's strength lies in their speed
since many nasty units are very fast.
* Cloud Castle: High priority. May be higher than for magi, but
lower, too. Generally, upgrade only when you have enough money to
purchase it's residents. You can spend a few weeks collecting money
(and using upgraded magi for that purpose) and then, on day 1 of
the week you want to start campaigning, do the upgrade and set off.
Wizard Castle building in the first week:
---------T-------------T-----------------------------------------------м
| Day 1: | Statue | 1250 gold + 5 ore |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 2: | Pen | 800 gold |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 3: | Foundry | 1500 gold + 5 wood + 5 ore |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 4: | Mage Guild | 2000 gold + 10 wood + 10 ore |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 5: | Well | 500 gold |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 6: | Cliff Nest | 3000 gold + 5 wood |
+--------+-------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Day 7: | Ivory Tower | 3500 gold + 5 wood + 5 ore + 5 all magical |
| | | resources. |
L--------+-------------+------------------------------------------------
So, we'll need 5 additional wood and 5 additional ore.
The schedule has no reserve, unless the Pen is already built. Moreover,
in case the habitat wasn't there at day one, we'll have to do without
one of those buildings. In my games, this usually is the Ivory Tower,
as I need the gold, but the Statue can be omitted instead and built
later, especially if you can locate a good gold source at day one.
(Locating doesn't mean immediate conquering - just the possibility to
do this later - Gold mine, Haunted mine, gold-giving artifact or
lightly guarded (or even owned) village fit there.)
Later, we'll need additional 4 of all magical resources and 10 of wood
and ore, along with some 6000 gold for Upgraded Ivory Tower. And yet
later, 40 gems, 10 wood and 10 ore and 25000 gold for Cloud Castle with
upgrade.
Resources summary:
The first week should take 25 wood, 25 ore, 5 of all magic resources
and 12650 gold, including Statue.
Weekly armies without Giants/Titans cost 9000 (with archmagi).
Total production incl. Titans costs 24000 a week plus 6 gems.
The rough castle output will be 1250x7 - 8750 gold/week.
HPs grown weekly 1614 at 14.86 g/HP
This gives a clear picture of gold being the first thing to look for,
because with regular city income, you'll be only able to buy out the
weekly production. (You won't save much on not buying golems. Or,
buying golems and not buying boars. I often save on both golems and
boars, since I need gold reserve for buying artifacts etc...)
Strategy
If the you ever want to build titans, you'll have to acquire a stable
source of gold - preferrably two castles or a gold mine.
The titans alone will cost 15000 a week, which is the home castle plus
a gold mine production fully consumed - not mentioning that you might
need another hero, another armies to accomplish minor tasks, spare cash
for enhancing captured castles, buying artifacts etc.
Therefore, you'll need to explore fast, find a good source of ore and
wood, because these may be needed desperately to upgrade captured
villages into castles.
The upgrading of neutral villages pays back pretty soon - after a week,
the invesment is back. You should, however, think a bit forward before
upgrading a village - sometimes you might need the 5000 gold for
purchasing of armies - be sure to do investments only in situations,
where enemy heroes aren't nearby to threaten your playground.
Try to gather magical resources and build libraries and higher level
mage guilds, as th extra spell per level guild is often your biggest
advantage over your enemies!
Forces combination:
In early stages, I usually take out rocs, halflings and sometimes
boars.
In mid phases, the magi are in, for sure. If I happen to have larger
armies of halflings, I'll take them, but if I only have the castle
dwelling, I leave halflings home, possibly taking the boars for
defensive firepower. Boars are a necessity in cases where I don't have
resources/gold enough to upgrade magi - very fast armies are a must!
In later stages, having titans alone should be enough for exploration,
while secondary hero should carry all the remaining forces. Having
Titans, Archmagi and possibly boars (esp. in cases that you have had
two dwellings for a long time or some large group has joined you)
should be enough for most battles.
Always remember to keep an eye on strengths of your stacks - divide
your armies as to assure that titans are the strongest stack (unless
fighting ghosts), because enemy will send shooters often, blocking the
titans, while archmagi/halflings, that are capable of doing more
damage, will be free to do so.
Use protective spells (esp. Steelskin) on titans to prolong their live.
Remember that once you lose a single titan, the titan stack may lose
the priority in AI targeting. And halflings will probably suffer at
least twice the losses the titans suffered (measured in HPs).
If you have archmagi and titans and the titans have higher sum of HP,
keep them in the first slot. Thus, when you attack, you shoot with
titans, enemy very fast flyers fly over and block them and you shoot
with archmagi. If the archmagi played first, the titans would have to
fight with the flyers.
Unless the enemy is much stronger than you in walker armies, do NOT
cast Anti-Magic on titans - instead let the enemy cast curses,
disrupting rays and even direct damage spells upon the titans - they
should survive. Once you cast Anti-Magic on them, the enemy spells will
be directed to next good target - the much weaker archmagi.
Special strategies against particular classes:
* Fighting barbarians:
One of the easier tasks, as you have big advantage in two shooters
faster than enemies' shooters. You'll have to take out trolls and
orcs, which your titans and magi/archmagi should be able to handle.
Unless the enemy outnumbers you, you should win with low losses.
Unless enemy 'hastes' his ogre lords, you'll have two shots at
cyclopes (one with titans and one with magi) and in the third turn
the same with ogre lords. (All the shooters that survived first
round attack should be taken out by rocs, but rather in the second
round - as to prevent enemy units of average speed from attacking
the rocs. However, losses to rocs are more acceptable than losses
to titans and magi. Blocking the shooters in the first round is
usually suicidal - the AI heroes tend to carry large armies of ogre
lords AND goblins, which means that your rocs will play sooner than
at least one of those two stacks - and they could get their wings
ripped off quite quickly. It's better to lose one titan due to
orcish fire than to sacrifice some 20 rocs for blocking.
* Fighting knights:
Against knights, the strategy is easy, too. Either titans or
archmagi alone should be able to take out rangers, while all the
rest should be aimed at champions and crusaders. Very useful may
prove casting Blind or Slow at one of those dangerous units. The
champions' danger lies in giving the knight first shot, and
furthermore, blocking your titans' action, which in turn gives the
crusaders first shot at the titans. Swordsmen and pikemen will
probably score some losses upon their arrival, but in general you
should be able to score a good victory. Be careful about that Slow
- enemy tends to counter-cast Haste!. If you can't slay Champions
in the first turn, don't ever think about slowing the Crusaders
;-), because they'll reach you in the second turn, if they're
hasted. About the best option I know is Berzerker on Crusaders just
before they play.
* Fighting Sorceress:
There's nothing you can do. The sorceress will almost usually have
first strike with Phoenixes, going after your titans. Unless you
have some useful spells (see below), Grand Elves and Greater Druids
will probably have time to shoot, too, and possibly even sprites
will come after your shooters. However, your archmagi should have a
free shot to the second enemy very fast shooter, before it's turn
would come. Your rocs should play before sprites, possibly killling
them, if their stack would have been able to cause reasonable
damage to your titans. Possibly huge armies of battle dwarves
shouldn't be able to get across the field, so they may only attack
the rocs in case those went after the sprites. The only threat
beside the phoenixes are unicorns, whose high-end stats and
Blinding ability may cause severe damage and maybe disrupt your
tactics. The shooters have HPs too low to resist your heavy fire.
If the dwarven stack is huge, sacrifice rocs in second turn by
flying them behind the dwarves - they'll return to their starting
position to attack the birds, thus giving you two or three turns'
worth of extra shooting on them. Phoenix should be taken out by
titans and halflings.
* Fighting Warlock:
If you have the first shot, try to cast supportive spell
(preferrably Dragon Slayer ;-) on the titans and go after the
Dragons. This should help greatly. Archmagi can give hell some
stronger stacks as griffins are. The Minotaur Kings may cause
severe damage, but your priority will definitely be the Dragons.
You must try your best to use the fact that Titans aren't immune to
magic. Mass Spells come handy, too. (Bless increases the damage
well, Haste gives you free shot at dragons with archmagi, Slow
prevents gargoyles, griffins and minotaur kings from reaching you
too soon.) If you can, try to conquer Warlocks before anyone else,
because they pose the biggest threat to you, especially if they
manage to get Black Dragons and Armageddon. Use titans against the
dragons wisely - they can walk around the dragons, so pick the best
direction of attack and the dragons will help greatly in killing
anything that flew over from the other side.
* Fighting fellow Wizard:
Both the titans and the archmagi should be taken care of quickly,
even at the price of sacrificing Rocs - they should go after the
Archmagi, because against titans they would score much less damage.
Battles with wizards will strongly depend on spells that both sides
will have used, not mentioning the advantage of first shot.
Remember that your advantages and advantages of your enemy are the
same. If HE has a large stack of halflings, take them out! The rocs
are best here, they'll score much more and suffer much less than
against the archmagi. Your halflings then can strike whomever they
want, I'd prefer the archmagi - let the titans clash alone. If you
don't have any good spells to cast, use direct damage or Blind on
Archmagi.
* Fighting Necromancer:
The power liches do not present any real threat, because they have
low attack skill. That leaves your shooters to go after Bone
Dragons and Vampire Lords. I strongly suggest 'serial approach' -
taking out first the bigger of the threats - possibly employing
Hasted Halflings on the Boners. But the main firepower should be
aimed preferrably onto the Vampire Lords, that need to be taken
care of quickly... An useful tip maybe casting Slow on Bone
Dragons, because by the time that Average units come to play, the
other side has usually already casted a Spell and therefore cannot
dispel this Slow, thus rendering the dragons useless for one round.
Direct damage to power liches is a good alternative to deal with
their high defense skill.
Hero benefits:
The Wizard's only strong point is the starting Advanced Wisdom, which
can be often used in a form of Nasty Trick - best if having Berzerker
in a castle with enemy hero within one-day range - to repeatedly let
this guy's troops to kill each other.
Skills important for the troops and strategy:
Archery has top priority for your heroes as most of your strong troops
are shooters.
Leadership - having morale with one of your Very Fast units can help
greatly when fighting heroes that want to flee.
Estates - for a wizard castle owner, this is never any bad thing,
because in expert level, it means 70% of a titan every week.
Generally it's clear that the wizard is pretty weak without the Titans
- The Archmagi don't have either HPs or Defense high enough to survive
onslaught from enemy troops, while the slow Halflings will often getout in
a single blow from enemy, either shooter or flyer, or
fried with some strong damage spell.
The rocs will often cause considerable damage in the first round, but
since they'll be on the enemy side of battlefield alone, they'll
probably get beat up hard from enemy defensive walkers. The wizard's
only strong walkers are golems, but those are far too slow to do any
good - by the time they get to the other side, the rest of wizard's
troops are usually lying dead on the ground. [Ok, I didn't mention
boars, but those are too weak to stand any attack from stronger
walkers.]
As a wizard, you should profit from higher number of available spells.
Once you manage to build titans, your life will change dramatically,
because most of the battles that would have cost you half of your
shooters are now 'as easy as butchering sleeping cattle' [know that
quote? ;-)].
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
X. STRATEGY GUIDES FOR BEGINNER
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
--Normal Strategies--
---------------------
-At the start of each scenario you'll notice a few
artifacts around. Grab them to see what their powers are, if they
aren't what you like reload the win scenario and start over. The
placement will be the same, but the artifacts will be different. I
found the endless pouch of gold especially usefull, it helps you boost
your gold in the early stages. (Kaspa)
-Your main hero should have the powerful monsters that you can
afford, and the all the artifacts that will boost his stats. Take this
hero and forge a gouge in their defenses. Find the weader heroes and
dereat them as quickly as you can. This will make your enemy spend
2500 gold on new heroes not on more armies. (Kaspa)
-Sometimes, when there's a strong hero coming to your town, buy
all the available monsters, and leave the slow ones in the castle.
Then take your hero, and run away. The computer will take over the
castle, leave, and leave a small army to protect it. What you have to
do now is wait untill the sixth or seventh day and recapture it. This
gives the computer some time to build additional facilities for you,
and gives you the castle one day before new monsters arrive. (Kaspa)
-Don't bother investing in captains. They're pretty weak, and if
your castle is captured, you'll end up facing your own soldier as a
foe. Always try investing in a new hero when your castle is about to
get attacked. (Kaspa)
-Always build a strategy according to the conditions of your
scenario. If you're near enough the location of a hidden artifact,
send a throwaway hero there to do nothing but dig. If your goal is to
conquer a town, scout the area and build a very powerful force to
overwhelm it. Also look for desert areas with magic lamps. These contain
genies, the best armies you can buy on the road. They give a great
advantage if you grab them at the beginning of a game. (Kaspa)
-All Together Now: When you're using certain troops, especially Liches (but
also those with a 2-area attack - Dragons, Cyclopes, Phoenixes) it's of
great benefit if the enemy troops bunch up so you can strike several armies
at a time. Here's a tip for facilitating that. The computer's first attack
priority is always your archer stack with the most collective hit points.
If you place that army in your last troop slot (so it appears on the bottom
of your screen in battle), ground-based enemy troops will be most likely to
bunch up as they advance. The computer will always take its troops down the
screen before taking them forward, but it will always march them forward
before it sends them up. So, if your target archer troop is in the top
slot, the computer won't bunch up, but if it's in the bottom slot, they
group together nicely. If that sounds confusing, get a group of Liches and
try it out. It's easy to see the difference in action. from Grayson Towler
at (grayson@rigroup.net).
-Two Birds With One Stone: This is a tip which is especially appropriate
for Phoenixes and Dragons, though it's useful for Cyclopes to a lesser
extent. When you're faced with a ground-based monster army and your
Dragon/Phoenix attacks first (which, in the case of Phoenixes, always
happens), target the bottom troop stack and hit it from straight on (not at
an angle). When it comes time for the enemy monsters to move, they get
their turn from the top monster down. So, one of the upper troop stacks
will come down towards your Dragon/Phoenix and take a shot. When your
Dragon/Phoenix retaliates, it should catch the attacking stack AND the
next-to-last stack in the blast. This is a great way to take out a lot of
ground-based enemies more quickly. from Grayson Towler at
(grayson@rigroup.net).
-All About Artifacts: Tomas Pavlicek wanted to learn how to do Windows 95
help files and decided to use HOMM2 artifacts as his test subject. Good job
Tomas! Download Tomas' HOMM2 Artifacts Help File, put it into your Heroes2
directory, and create a shortcut for easy access!
-Laugh In The Face Of Death: The Pendant of Life, which makes you immune to
the Death Wave and Death Ripple spells grants immunity regardless of
whether your opponent casts it or you cast it. So if you have the Pendant
of Life, you can cast this spell with total disregard for your own living
troops' well being. This is a great combo early in the game with Death
Ripple (or Death Wave if you've got it), especially with regards to weak
computer archery stacks. from Tim Ford at (deathhq@hotmail.com).
-Troop Splitting 101: It's real "kewl" to have a stack of 50 Paladins, for
example, in your troops. But if they get paralyzed, blinded, slowed,
bezerked, then what good were they? Have an empty slot? Split your stack.
Two stacks are more difficult to paralyze, blind, slow, and bezerk than one
stack and they also get two attacks. To split any troop stack into another
slot:
Click once on the troop to be split. Now hold the shift key down and click
once on the slot you want them to go to. A window pops up asking you how
many to split out. Enter that number and click on Okay. Aha! Your troop has
been split. You can use this to split one troop stack into many troop
stacks, or to only take a part of the troops in the castle with your hero,
or to exchange some of the troops between heroes, or to even out two or
three stacks (if you have a stack of 50 and a stack of 10, split 20 out of
the 50 into the stack of 10 making two stacks of 30). Splitting can be done
in castle ranks, hero ranks, between castle and hero, and between hero and
hero. The only time you cannot split a troop stack is once you have engaged
in combat. Once the battle starts, it is too late to do housekeeping!
-The Lure Of The Sirens: The benefits of experience handed out by those
Sirens hanging around on the rocks at sea is proportional to a percentage
of the number of troops you have in your hero's stacks. This means that
visiting them with a small number of troops will provide you with little
experience, and visiting them with a huge number of troops will provide you
with a lot of experience. But remember that the experience is traded for
troops! For instance, visiting the Sirens with over seven thousand ghosts,
lost over two thousand ghosts to the Sirens, but yielded over 20,000
experience points to the visiting hero. Don't visit the Sirens with any
troops you don't want to give up, but if you do have surplus troops and
need a quick boost to your hero's experience, the Sirens might just be your
answer from Matthias at (Matthias.Freudenschuss@wirtschaft.uni-giessen.de).
-How Few a "Few" Really Is: For those of you who like to have your doom
indicated a little more specifically than, say... "Several Black Dragons"
or "Zounds Battle Dwarves"; here is a definitive list of what those
indicators actually mean.
Few 1 - 4
Several 5 - 9
Pack 10 - 19
Lots 20 - 49
Horde 50 - 99
Throng 100 - 249
Swarm 250 - 499
Zounds 500 - 999
Legion 1000+
-For The Bean Counters: There are several variables in the determination of
a score for a single scenario of HoMM2. These are: map size, inherent map
difficulty, player difficulty adjustment, and days taken to win the map.
The former pair of variables are chosen by the map author, while the latter
two are controlled or influenced by the player.
-Inherent map difficulty can be one of four possible values: Easy (80%),
Normal (100%), Hard (120%), and Expert (160%). The player may adjust this
difficulty when launching a new game. Adjustments come in five flavors:
Easy (-30%), Normal (no change), Hard (+20%), Expert (+40%), and Impossible
(+60%). The range of adjusted difficulty is therefore 50% (Easy/Easy) to
220% (Expert/Impossible). (Note that the original HOMM score calculator had
a number of differences, including an inherent map difficulty of Impossible
and a maximum adjusted difficulty of 250%.)
-The adjusted difficulty is used to calculate your final score in a very
straightforward manner. It takes your base score and multiplies by the
adjusted difficulty, rounding down if needed. That's it! Now all we have to
know is how the base score is calculated. This is where the map size and
days taken variables come into play.
-Each different map size has an associated map size factor, given by the
following chart: Small (1.2), Medium (1.0), Large (0.8), Extra-large (0.6).
HoMM2 calculates a time penalty, which is the number of days it took you to
win the map multiplied by the map size factor (rounding down if needed).
Your base score for the map is 200 minus your time penalty.
-Confused? Hopefully, this example will clear things up. The four variables
are: map size, inherent map difficulty, player difficulty adjustment, and
days taken to win. Let's say that we're playing a Large sized map,
inherently rated by the author as an Expert map. When we started the game,
we chose the Easy adjustment, and we were able to win the game, taking 107
days to do so. We can calculate our score along with the computer as
follows:
Inherent map difficulty: Expert (160%)
Player difficulty adjustment: Easy (-30%)
Adjusted map difficulty: 130% (i.e., a factor of 1.3)
Map size: Large
Map size factor: 0.8
Days taken: 107
Time penalty: 107 x 0.8 = 85.6, rounded down to 85
Base score: 200 - 85 = 115
Final score: 115 x 1.3 = 149.5, rounded down to 149
The last part of a player's score is, of course, a creature ranking. I do
not have a complete chart of creatures and their associated final scores;
if you have one, drop me a note, I'd love to see it. Two points of interest
about this scoring system. The maximum score possible is 440, which would
require playing an Expert map on Impossible setting, a Large or Extra-large
map, and winning that map in a single day. My own personal high score is
305. It should be noted that the world high scores show a record score of a
whopping 431! Also of interest, green dragon ratings and higher are only
awarded for scores over 200; you therefore cannot achieve a dragon rating
if you play at 100% difficulty or less. The minimum final score required
for the highest Black Dragon rating is somewhere between 226-230. from
Rorke Haining at rhaining@uswest.net.
-You Are Getting Smarter... You are Getting Smarter...: Hypnotize has the
special ability of giving the target creature into your control. Most
people don't use it properly. After you cast it on a stack you can then
make it stand, walk around, or block some slow but powerful creatures from
attacking your own force. It's extremely good for foiling the turn of a
range attacker at least once. While your target doesn't attack or get
attacked it will stay under your control. Cast it on small stack of
Phoenixes, crusaders, or cyclopes with powerful spellcasters to prevent
those creatures from attacking you. This spell is particularly potent when
combine with the Gold Watch and/or the Skull Cap from Alex at
(alex@ipoline.com).
-Here! Hold these guys a minute: The movement awarded to a hero at the
beginning of each turn is based on the slowest creature in the stacks at
the beginning of the turn only. So a good strategy when you have heroes
adjacent to each other or a primary hero at a castle, is to offload the
slow creatures onto one hero at the end of the turn. Leave only real fast
troops with the primary hero. At the beginning of the next turn, move those
slow troops back into the primary hero's stacks. He/she now has the tough
(slow) troops but can move the turn distance based on the faster troops.
This can make quite a difference if your turn movement is based on
Champions or Phoenix at the beginning of the turn instead of those 30
hydras you want with you for defense! from Matt at
(greatdrake@hotmail.com).
-I Thought I Told You To Stay In The Castle!: When your hero defends from
the castle, troops available in the castle will join your hero if there are
empty slots. Troops in the castle are evaluated left to right. Each group
will join the left most matching hero group. If there is no matching hero
group, then they will go to the left most empty hero slot. If there is no
empty slot they will stay in the castle (but abandon the castle if the
battle and castle are lost). If you want to keep some units out of any
battle (say weak archers that might be killed by flyers) you need to fill
up all of the hero's slots by splitting the troops you wish to have in the
battle. But remember that once the battle is over, the castle troops that
joined the hero's troops for battle stay with the hero -- they do not
automatically return to the castle. Not only will these troops affect the
hero's next move (if slower troops joined the ranks), but if the hero
leaves the castle without sending the troops back, you might unwarily leave
the castle undefended from Bruno at (bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu).
-Here's Mud In Your Eye: Remember that a blinded creature, when attacked,
loses its turn for the combat sequence and only retaliates with 50%
strengh. Therefore, if the opponent has only one large stack (i.e.
crusaders, phoenixes, etc.) it is possible to destroy it without it ever
getting a turn. Simply cast blind, skip all of your creatures, and after
attacking with all of your troops except for the last stack next round,
skip the last stack and cast blind. Viola!, instant giant dust! from
DarkWolf at Darkwolf2@Mindspring.com.
-In Your Face: Never put two of your range-attack troops (halflings,
archers, mages) groups next to each other! A single stack of fliers could
severely disable large portions of your heroes army by parking a stack of
rocks, griffons, etc. between two of your range-attack stacks. Although the
computer is lazy and will fly to attack from the closest angle, a human
player will not hesitate to take advantage of your careless placement from
DarkWolf at Darkwolf2@Mindspring.com.
-It's The Ultimate! (In Protection): If a map requires you to find the
Ultimate Artifact, station a loaded hero or two by some of the obelisks to
guard them while your other heroes visit the obelisks and find the Ultimate
Artifact. This will prevent your opponents from finding the Ultimate
Artifact first and thereby winning the game from Kennedy at
(kennedy@proaxis.com).
-Variety Is The Spice Of Strife: Specifically for all beginners: Don't
choose your hero type. Put it on random. This lets you get to know a
variety of hero types. If you come in with the misconception that one hero
type is stronger than another, you're wrong. Each type has their own
strengths and weaknesses. Learn these, and THEN decide which type you like
the best. THEN patronize that one from Viper at (epsilon@michiana.org).
-A Solid Foundation: First of all... the tips and strategies that you
learned in the original Heroes Of Might And Magic still apply for the most
part. Continue to follow those guidelines!
-Whirlpool Revelations: The whirlpools that we so frequently use to
magically move from one body of water to another, or from one side of the
map to another, holds a dark secret that seems to have been kept from the
Hero masses. Your first trip through any one whirlpool is a "gift". After
that, you pay a heavy price to use this combination of magic and nature as
a portal to elsewhere. You lose a percentage of the troops your hero is
carrying at the time. This can be especially devastating if you hero had
few troops to begin with. So the next time you feel like cutting the cruise
short with a quick hop through a convienent and already traveled whirlpool,
remember the cost and take the long, safe way instead!
-And Don Riale (bytedr@innernet.net) adds: Now, while it is true that you
lose some troops when going through a whirlpool more than once, there is a
way to minimize the loss. The whirlpool will take a percentage of your
WEAKEST stack. Therefore all you have to do is have at least one stack with
a single creature. For example: explore water by sending out a Sorceress
with only sprites, with 4 single sprites and one larger stack. When going
back through a whirlpool, you lose only one sprite, which you can replace
from the larger stack. As long as you have at least one stack consisting of
only one weak creature, that creature is the only one you will lose.
-Yeah, I'm One But What Are You?: You've all seen the information that your
"correspondants" report via the Theives' Guild and most of us have been
curious about the rating given to the hero types. You know... "Explorer",
"Builder", "Human"... Well, I contacted Phil Steinmeyer (at psteinx@anet-
stl.com) and this was his response:
"They vary the weights the AI assigns to various activities, such as how
the AI's money is spent, and to some extent, what the heros choose to do.
The effect is fairly modest."
So "Builders" must concentrate on building up their towns and castles. This
implies that you may find their castles fully built but with few troops
recruited since they spent their resources on structures instead of troops.
And "Explorers" must have lots of resources because they go off into the
black of the map and probably snarf up a goodly number of artifacts, free
resources, and maybe even mines. Be careful, they might have lots of troops
recruited because they got to the troop-generating structures first. Then
"Warriors" must be the bullies, who concentrate on accruing troops and
always have the undeveloped castles manned by all sorts of creature types -
- and probably hardly any troops remaining to recruit from the structures
they have built. And "Human" would be.. hey! That would be you... and any
other human Player in a Multiplayer session! The game randomly chooses
these traits when you start a new map (I experimented with that a little),
so restarting the same map will produce a different mix of these types.
Also remember that a color may be indicated as being one type of hero, but
due to victories and acquisitions may have the fully built or stocked
possessions of the other types when you finally butt heads against them!
-Troop Wise And Turn Foolish: I think we all have the urge to constantly
revisit our local monster generating sites. You know: the goblin huts,
nomad tents, sprite trees, etc. -- where after the first of each week we
can increase our troops by a few. But that's an obvious point: ONLY BY JUST
A FEW. Is it worth it to have your hero take half or more of his or her
turn to pick up 2 sprites? Monitor your monster generating sites. Mentally
mark when they have been visited last (by either you OR an opponent). And
save your heroes from making unneccessary side trips when they could be
snatching up a resource or taking care of an irritating little snippet of
an opponent who has been (turn by turn) taking over your mines.
-Virtues Still Serve: The hardest lesson I had to learn was in the Broken
Alliances scenario. The lesson was PATIENCE!!! Sometimes having your heroes
just sitting in their castles turn after turn is the best action you can
take. If you try to go up against an opponent before you are strong enough;
you will either fail or you will have a battle too costly to justify.
Likewise, heading too far from your castle when there are dangerous
opponents nearby will almost assuredly result in a lost castle. Go slow.
Think ahead. Ponder. Be patient.
-"Save"-ty First: This is probably the most important tip you will ever
get. It's simple. Get it in your head. Save the game. Save the game often.
Save the game before you attack an opponent. Before you attack a monster
home-base. Before you go into a demon cave. Before you go into a ruined
city. Before you go into a pyramid. Before you confront a sphinx. Before
you leave the castle and there's an opponent in view (but, gosh! he looks
so far away... maybe I can get to the morale fountain and back before he
attacks my castle). Before you attempt to snag an artifact. At the
beginning of each week (or some other regular interval). Get the
picture...?
-Economy 101: The Market Places are a godsend! At first I was a little
"under-"whelmed by them. But I soon found that more often than not, my
structure upgrade or extra mage tower level was just a market visit away --
sometimes when I was trapped in the castle too weak to venture out, I was
able to continue steadily building by changing resources produced from my
captured mines into other resources. And later on when the powerful troops
were so costly to recruit, the Market Places allowed me to convert
resources into gold to purchase those big ticket items such as Dragons,
Titans, and Margaret Thatcher!!! I used to feel that Market Places should
be built even before horde generators, but I have changed my opinion of
that. I do still feel that they are more important than Thieves' Guilds
should be built first. It's definitely time to build one or more Market
Places if you find yourself wishing you had more mines of a certain
resource because you are unable to build a particular structure. The more
Market Places you control, the lower the exchange rate is, too!
-Charmed I'm Sure: Medusas are your friends! The Medusas are found in
ruins. They have this wonderful ability to not only fight and bite, but to
turn your opponent's troops to stone. That doesn't kill them -- it acts
like a Blind or Paralyze spell; but it certainly helps stop them until your
big boys can come deal with them.
-Rank And File Rule #42: Manipulate your troops for optimum performance. In
the original HOMAM, I usually never left a castle with more than four troop
types unless I was purposely embarking to attack another castle or an
annoying opponent. I left one spot blank. That way I could recruit along
the way. I've changed that now. Once I get a large enough army containing
ONLY three strong types, I head out. If I encounter a castle ripe for the
sieging or an opponent's hero who carelessly allowed him or herself to get
whittled down and weak; I split one or two of my three troops in half --
filling up those empty spots in the ranks and attack with a force that can
have five attacks per round! This worked extremely well in Broken Alliances
wherein I carried my Black Dragons -- 30 of them -- as a single troop until
I made my move on an opponent's castle or hero. Then I split them up into
three troops. Each combat round I had three large Black Dragon attacks
instead of one gigantic one. At other times -- while romping through the
countryside -- I used the empty slots to recruit troops when encountering
monster home bases. Check the HOMAM II manual that comes with the game to
learn how to split troops. It's a very empowering tactic.
-Rank And File Rule Addendum: There is and easy way to recruit large
numbers of troops. If you click on the Castle/Heroes button (from the
outer world) you can see a list of all current AND available troops in ALL
your towns and castles. If you then click on an available troop icon, you
may purchase that troop into the castle garrison as if you were actually in
the town/castle. It also shows current material and gold values at the
bottem of the screen. This is a nice way to purchase troops at the
beginning of a month w/o having to go to each city from Austin Fowler at
(calandryll@mail.utexas.edu).
-Advanced Electronics: Be very careful with the Chain Lightning spell. It
is a fantastic weapon. But it can backfire on you very easily if you get
careless. The Chain Lightning spell always strikes four targets. They are
the original creature you target and the three other creature troops next
to it. If one or more of your troops are closer than the opponent's troops
YOU GET HIT. If the opponent's troops only contain two or three stacks or
ranks of creature you also get hit. Be very careful.
-'Til Death Do Us Part: The Death Ripple and Death Wave spells are great
for necromancers. The necromancers usually only have undead creatures in
their ranks. These two spells damage only living creatures. As a
necromancer with only undead in your ranks; you can cast these spells
against opponents with impunity. Go for it! (And enjoy the kool effect!)
-Ring... Ring... Clue phone... It's For You!: If late in a scenario, in an
area that has been pretty well cleaned out you encounter a solitary monster
home base guarding an artifact: take the obvious clue here. In the original
HOMAM, we encountered maybe a hundred monsters in a home base (split into
five groups of 20 each) and they were pretty easy to take out. Now, we are
encountering four hundred to a thousand monsters in a home base (split into
five groups of tens to hundreds each!) and they aren't easy to take out at
all!!! In fact, when they're upgraded mages or upgraded liches; you can
usually kiss your unwary hero's butt goodbye. Save the game before all
battles while you are learning the feel of HOMAM II. And remember my first
tip about PATIENCE!
-When Secondary Is Primary: We have now been provided with two new ways to
scrutinize monster home bases before attacking. In the original HOMAM, all
you could do was right-click on the home base, see whether or not it said
"Zounds" or "Horde" and come up with an "I think I can take them" decision.
Now, we have Diplomacy, Leadership, and general "presence". Diplomacy
allows you to sway the monsters into joining your forces when normally they
would just attack. Leadership and the general "presence" of your large,
highly skilled troops cause the encountered monsters many times to just
flee (and you can let them). I used to feel Diplomacy was a very
desired skill until I saw the price tag that comes with successful
Diplomacy. So I avoided Diplomacy for awhile. But I have found that the
value of the skill of Diplomacy depends on each map. If you have a map with
an over abundance of monster camps and you have a nice early income,
Diplomacy can really pump your heroes up troop-wise very early in the game.
If the map is fairly devoid of monster camps or you need every penny you
have to build, Diplomacy becomes a liability. I guess it all comes down to
how and when it is used. I had one reader write in to tell me that he
picked up over 240 hydras and 130 magi using Diplomacy. Can't beat that
with a stick. For more information on diplomacy, refer to the article in
the previous section. Leadership, however, is a always very important
secondary skill that doesn't pertain to spell power in some way. It
pertains to morale, and having a highly developed Leadership skill is a
total replacement for all the morale generating structures. And while we
are talking about secondary skills... for your spell casters, the two most
important secondary skills are Mysticism and Wisdom. These are musts!
Acquire them first!!! Also, when getting to select a new secondary skill,
be sure to pick skills your hero can really use. For instance, if you are
in a scenario with little or no water terrain, don't pick Navigation. It's
a wasted skill. Don't pick Diplomacy for a hero you plan to have only guard
the castle. Don't pick Archery for a Hero who doesn't have range-capable
stacks, etc. These secondary skills weren't just added as frivolous doodads
by NWC. They have an important, powerful purpose.
-Mana Manana: Spell casting is a whole different breed of animal in HOMAM
II. We used to have to make desperate hell-rides back to our castles to
regain our spells which were consumed and lost as they were used. It
doesn't work this way anymore. You never lose a spell anymore. You only
lose the power to cast it. And this power doesn't return magically when you
arrive at one of your castles. You must slowly build it back up over the
next many days (unless you find a rare well whose magic waters restore your
mana) or start your hero's turn in a castle which has a mage guild. So!
Watch your mana power closely. And if you are running for your castle with
a huge opponent hot on your heals and you are out of mana, you had better
have something up your sleeve (like a pack of Titans) or the castle isn't
going to save you at all!
-Numeralogy As A Hobby: A note about spells as portrayed in your spell
book... remember that the little number on the spell icon is not the number
of spells of that kind that you have left to cast anymore. It's the number
of mana points the spell costs to cast. This lost me a few heroes at first
(if only I had read the manual earlier). I jumped into battle with 7 points
of mana left and the only useable spells I had cost 10 or more to cast.
-Deja Vu Sucks!: Right-clicking on a site while a hero is selected will
often tell you whether or not that particular hero has been to that site.
This can save wasted turns. Keep this in mind.
-Practice Good Grid: There is the most incredible feature in combat that I
would certainly have never thought of and already can't live without. You
can turn on Shadow Grids. Shadow grids highlight around an active creature
you control to show you all the areas that the creature can move to on that
turn. No more tediously wanding your cursor over the terrain slowly trying
to find the limit of movement for your creatures. Because the monsters move
differently in this version of HOMAM, this is a godsend! You can activate
this feature using the options button found in the lower left corner of the
combat screen as well as some other good options.
-There's No Retentive Like An Anal-Retentive: I have developed a standard
mode of operation for each turn that has worked pretty well for me. Of
course, it's subject to deviation based on what's going on at any
particular turn but usually I:
Move all heroes that will (probably) not be involved in combat. (Heroes
moving into combat are moved up to the point just before contact is made.)
Heroes claiming mines, resources, treasures, or no-cost troop generating
sites (cabins, huts, etc.) move next. Heroes claiming artifacts move next
so that if the artifacts require purchase all the new money from the start
of the turn and from above treasures taken are available. Then heroes
visiting costed troop generating sites move (gypsy camps, medusa ruins,
etc.). Then I check each castle and build structures where needed. Then, if
there is money left over (and I'm not saving for the purchase of a big
ticket structure) I purchase troops.
THEN I SAVE THE GAME IF I'M ABOUT TO DO ANY TYPE OF BATTLE!! Then any hero
staged at a combat point (opponent's hero, monster home base, castle) moves
next and attacks. End of round. Of course, there are deviations to this. If
an opponent's hero is about to attack one of my castles, I will move the
heroes to that castle as best I am able and (regardless of any heroes
present) use whatever funds I have to pump the castle structures up,
recruit troops in the castle, and maybe even summon a new hero.
-Behind the Wood Door: In case you haven't noticed, stone liths have been
replaced with all sorts of inter-dimensional doors and they work in pairs.
If you enter a glowing wooden arrowhead-shaped door, you will appear at its
counterparts location. The old stone liths were random and you never knew
where you were going to end up. Now you can plan movement through these new
inter-dimensional doors!
-Wondrous VISIONS: A sleeper of a spell, the new VISIONS can get you off to
a fast, powerful start. VISIONS lets you know what the probable outcome of
an encounter with a monster home base will be. It is cast before engaging a
monster home base and you must be within three squares of the base. It will
tell you if the monsters will run, fight, or join your troops. By using
this spell (when you are able to get it) you can stop ignoring those mines
or artifacts protected by the monsters just because you were afraid they'd
cream you. Just remember that the spell tells you expected results only for
the moment... come back later with more or less troops and VISIONS may tell
you something different. This spell is not always available. When it is...
USE IT! Remember how frustrating it always was to be tiptoeing around with
your handful of pixies and a couple of recalcitrant dwarves when suddenly
along would come an opponent with 40 peasants, 22 swordsman, 16 paladins,
and maybe 17 griffins!?!? Well, VISIONS helps you turn the tables. It is
basically the same ability that the AI has always had -- the ability to
know whether monster home bases would recruit or fight. Check it out!
-Familiarity Breeds Success: Pick a favorite hero type and stick with him
or her. The more you play that type, the more you become familiar with
their strengths and weaknesses. You learn when to build or upgrade what
structure based on the ready materials and the "climate" of the immediate
surroundings. You acquire a good sense of mobility knowing exactly how fast
you can move with specific troops. You get a solid feel for how the
associated troops are going to fare in combat: what won't bother them and
what will... which attacking opponent troops can do the most damage to
which of your troops.
-Macabre Advice: When playing the Necromancer, don't ever let monster
groups run away from you! Can you say easy experience and piles of
skeletons? I knew you could! Use your Necromancer to pick on every "Lots
of" group you can find. It won't be long till hundreds of skeletons are
roaming the lands. It's truly a beautiful sight when your no cost mound of
2000 skeletons destroys 10 titans in a single swing (Roland scenario) from
Todd (ConceptFour@ll.net).
-I've Had My Shots... Have You?: Some creatures are naturally immune to
spells and effects. For instance the phoenix is immune to heat and
lightning. Elementals have grave immunities to many spells also. Use this
to your advantage to supply your hero with certain combinations of troops
and then go forth using certain spells with impunity. They affect the
opponent but not your troops! Consider the proper deployment of this
concept as a mini-Armaggedon spell! from Grayson (grayson@rigroup.net).
-The Shadow Knows: A curious little item. As you are sending your hero out
across the land, look for little triangular shadow smudges on the map. A
flaw in HOMAM2 program causes this shadow in a spot where an event has been
placed. SOMETHING is going to happen when your hero lands on this shadow-
marked spot. But is it a good event or a bad event? Only the Shadow knows!
-Cheap Phoenix Tricks: Since Phoenix are immune to all elemental spells,
they are immune to Elemental Storm. You can use the Phoenix/Elemental Storm
combination in the same manner as you can the Dragon/Armageddon combination
-- except that Phoenix are a lot cheaper from Carl at Kalle@tom.fos.su.se.
-Heroes As Gophers: Play with one MEGA powerful group and a secondary group
that is somewhat good to defend the base. The other heroes run back and
forth through castles bringing troops to the MEGA heroes. This is also a
great way to unload those artifacts that give 1 ore a turn and other dumb
stuff like that from Josh at mfodale@nmu.edu. [I learned this technique
right from the start many many months ago in the original HOMAM and use it
alot. There is one word of warning on it, however: Your hero runners who
bring troops to "the front" are returning to their castles with very weak
forces since they have given most of them to the mega hero. Do not try this
technique if there are opponents close by. They will attack your troopless
runner hero and dispatch him or her every time. --Phil]
-Lame And Lousy Allies: The computer makes a poor ally in a setting where
one side is pitted against another. As an ally of a human player, the
computer will not attack your heroes or towns, but it will take your mines
and swoop your resources/artifacts/etc. out from under you. When computers
are allied with each other, they tend to charge around and spend most of
their time taking each others mines. Occasionally, they will attack each
other when they get in each others' way, though I have never seen a
computer attack its human ally. If you create a map where the human player
has a computer ally, the human player is generally better served conquering
the ally than relying on its help. The computer ally will defend itself
normally if attacked, but it will not be aggressive in return. from
Grayson (grayson@rigroup.net). [As dutifully noted in a couple of otherwise
wonderful scenarios such as Amaz'N'Grays. I win better/faster when I treat
the allies as opponents! -- Phil]
-I'll Just Stand Over Here If You Don't Mind: When facing a hero who can
resurrect, if you put one of your stacks on top of the deceased stack, the
hero cannot resurrect it from Patrick (avromk@erols.com).
-I've Already Played This Map, But What If...?: Change the whole way a map
plays with a quick couple of clicks. Take a multiplayer map that you have
already played and if it is set up for cooperative play (for instance,
"Blue and Green .vs. Others") turn cooperative play off. If it isn't set up
for cooperative play, set up a couple of colors for cooperative play. Now
play the map again. It's a whole new scenario with a whole new set of
strategies.
-The Expansive (Pak) Necromancer: With regards to the Necromancer. If
you're looking to be really HUGE, play him. Early on (first 2 weeks),
locate a barrow wight. Recruit as many ghosts as you can afford. Then
attack only wimps. Peasants etc... Build as many shrines as you have
Necromancer castles, and advance your necromancy skill as much as possible.
Leave the last slot in your troops for skeletons and split the ghosts
amongst the other 4. NEVER let anything run away. Kill EVERYTHING! from
John at apache@ameritech.net.
-Circumspect Ghosts: If you should be so lucky as to acquire one or more
ghosts in your troops, don't throw them away by carelessly allowing them to
attack everything that moves. Hold your few ghosts back in combat. Attack
only low level creatures. This will allow you to build your number of
ghosts troops up. Once you have a large stack of them, then you can begin
attacking the higher level opponent troops with impunity. This is one tip
the AI doesn't get. So if you use this tip, you will always be one up on
the AI when it comes to ghosts in combat!
-Why Ghosts Should Be Ban (Reason #42): Have some ghosts? Want to double,
or possibly get up to 32 times the number you've got? All you need is
Mirror Image and some sort of enemy ghosts - having the Haunt spell is
ideal, but it'll also work with a wandering stack, abandoned mine, or
shipwreck. Go into battle with the enemy ghosts, and cast Mirror Image on
yout ghost stack. Skip turns until an enemy ghost stack destroys the image.
All the "fake" ghosts in the image just became "real" ghosts in the enemy
stack. Now, have your ghost stack attack the big enemy stack. It might take
a couple rounds, but eventually your ghost stack will absorb the entire
enemy stack if your hero has a few points of attack/defense. Voila - you
just doubled your ghosts! With careful planning, lots of spell points, and
perhaps a Mass Slow to better control the enemy movements, you can use each
of five enemy stacks to double your stack - potentially increasing 500
ghosts to 16,000 in one battle. If you've got the Haunt spell and a mine
near a castle or well, you can do this as many times as you want. I turned
400 ghosts into ten stacks (hero + castle) of 28,000 each in about fifteen
minutes and three game turns! from Erik at emooney@stevens-tech.edu.
-You Can Be All That ***I*** Want You To Be: Since you can usually select
your computer opponents' starting castle types, try and inconvenience them
with your selections. If you are playing a small map, select Warlocks or
Wizards for enemy colors, or if it's a large map, select Knights or
Barbarians for them. This will give them a disadvantage. Or if you know a
certain color will be disadvantaged by a certain castle type (e.g. Warlock
if there is no sulfur nearby) then give them that castle type. from Heng
Lok at shambler@labyrinth.net.au.
-Do The Genie Math: If ever you must battle a large army in order to win
the scenario, try splitting your genies into 5 stacks. This will increase
your chances of halving troops to 50%. Since genies are very fast, all of
them should be able to get an attack quite early on in the round. from Heng
Lok at shambler@labyrinth.net.au.
-Titan-Wise And Gold Foolish: Never upgrade your giants. Since upgrading
costs twice the difference in resources, upgrading a giant to a titan will
cost 6000 gold and 2 gems, which is more than buying a new titan.
Altogether you would be spending 2000 gold and 1 gem to build the giant and
a total of 8000 gold and 3 gems after upgrading. Either don't upgrade your
giants, or don't build them! from Heng Lok at shambler@labyrinth.net.au.
--First Week Building--
-----------------------
by: Quebec Dragon
This is a strategy article about what structures to build in the crucial
first week according to castle type. As always, your comments are welcome
:-) Some of those building orders were taken from from my strategy
walkthroughs.
GENERAL TIPS
I'm an adept of might makes right.. therefore I will always concentrate on
building monster structures before Mage Guilds... If you build the maximum
of monster producing structures in week 1, you will accumulate a bigger
army more quickly. Never buy castle upgrades, turrets, moats or Mage Guilds
(unless it's a requirement for another monster structure) during week 1. In
some cases, you won't be able to build some structures due to lack of
resources or gold... That's to be expected because my suggested building
orders are under ideal conditions and need a bit of luck.
You should know that unless the mapmaker specifies the given structures in
your starting castle, you will encounter 2 possibilities when you start a
new scenario. First option is where only the lowest creature-producing
structure is built. Second option, the better one, is when the 2 lowest
creature dwellings are already built. In order to avoid "cluttering" the
article, my building orders suppose you've been unlucky and that you
started with only one creature dwelling. If you're lucky enough to have 2
initial creatures dwellings, just jump to the next building suggestion.
In the first week, try to build a structure in your starting castle each
and every day. If you're not able to build the next structure in the
building sequence due to lack of resources or gold, skip it and build
another suggested 1st week structure (like Well, Horde Building or Statue).
Try to build the skipped structure later in the week. If you still can't
afford the "missing" structure, don't sweat it... it happens to the best of
us ;-)
KNIGHT CASTLE
Wood is the most badly needed resource so search for it everywhere.
Good building order :
1) Archery Range (To boost your starting hero's army ; hire another Knight
and combine troops)
2) Statue (To start getting another 250 gold pieces as soon as possible..
same thing for other castles)
3) Well
4) Pikemen Blacksmith
5) Tavern (required for Swordmen)
6) Swordmen Armory
7) Cathedral or Jousting Arena (if you have enough ressources, if not, buy
the Farm)
During week 2, I usually buy the upgraded Archery Range, Marketplace and
any monster structures not built in week 1.
BARBARIAN CASTLE
Ore is the foremost priority.
1) Stick Hut (To boost your starting army ; hire another Barbarian and
combine troops)
2) Wolf Den (Very fast units for scouting)
3) Statue
4) Adobe (wait until you upgrade it to buy troops)
5) Troll Bridge (if you have enough ore)
6) Well
7) Garbage Heap (horde building)
During week 2, I upgrade the adobe, sometimes the stick hut and build up
the maximum of troops.
NECROMANCER CASTLE
This one has the toughest building decisions. I suggest going for either
the Vampire Lords or the Bone Dragons (building orders differ accordingly).
Trying to get both at once is impratical and unnecessary. Regenerating
Vampire Lords OR powerful Bone Dragons should be sufficient in the
beginning game.
VAMPIRE LORD BUILDING PATH
1) Zombie Graveyard (To boost your starting army ; hire another Necromancer
and combine troops)
2) Mummy Pyramid
3) Statue
4) Thieve's guild (required for Vampires)
5) Vampire Mansion
6) Well
7) Skull Pile (horde building)
During week 2, upgrade the Vampire Mansion. Buy the Mage Guild and the
Mausoleum if you can.
BONE DRAGON BUILDING PATH
1) Zombie Graveyard (To boost your starting army ; hire another Necromancer
and combine troops)
2) Mummy Pyramid
3) Statue
4) Mage Guild (required for Liches)
5) Lich Mausoleum
6) Well
7) Skull Pile (horde building)
In the second week, I will save my gold and resources for the Bone Dragon
Laboratory. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't hire all available undead
troops (except the expensive Liches) on day 1 of week 2.
SORCERESS CASTLE
Gems and mercury are a must. If the Cottage is not already built, forget
this structure for a while (meaning much less Dwarves) because the 10 units
of wood it requires (5 for Tavern + 5 for Cottage itself) are better used
for the Fenced Meadow. (Thanks to Dark Wolf for feedback)
1) Elf Archery Range (To boost your starting army)
2) Statue
3) Mage Guild (required for Druids)
4) Druid Stonehenge
5) Well
6) Crystal Garden (Horde Building)
7) Unicorn Fenced Meadow (alternate is Cottage Upgrade or Archery Range
Upgrade)
Week 2, I usually upgrade either the Dwarf or the Elf structure, buy the
marketplace and the Unicorn Fenced meadow if I don't already have it.
WIZARD CASTLE
Has the highest resource cost.. You wil have to make a decision about
whether you concentrate on building up your Mage Guild or going for the
Titans.
1) Boar Pen (To boost your starting army ; hire another Wizard and combine
troops)
2) Statue
3) Roc Cliff Nest
4) Golem Foundry
5) Mage Guild (required for Mages)
6) Well
7) Mage Ivory Tower (if you have enough resources... Orchard as alternate
choice)
During week 2, I usually build the ivory tower (if it's not done yet), the
library and the marketplace.
WARLOCK CASTLE
You will need sulfur ! That's the most important thing you have to search
for...
1) Gargoyle Crypt (To boost your starting army ; hire another Warlock and
combine troops)
2) Dungeon (for gold !)
3) Statue (for more gold !)
4) Griffin Nest
5) Maze or Swamp (both if you have the resources, wait until week 2 if you
lack them)
6) Well
7) Waterfall (horde building)
During week 2, I build the missing monster structure, upgrade the minotaur
maze, and start saving my money for the Dragon Tower.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
XI. STRATEGY GUIDES (Guides for Campaign Maps)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
(Thanks to Dragos Stanciv for these guides)
First of all, I have discovered that fighter heroes are much better then
mage heroes. After you play for some time and you have a hero with attack
skill (15) and you also have a defence skill (>10), your hero becomes a
threat even if you don't have a very large army. The idea is that you can
only perform one spell in a row, but you can move 5 troops in the same row.
Also you can improve your hero's spell points and spell power using some
artifacts.
Secondly, it would be better to have a very fast (or at least fast) unit in
your army, so you could attack first. If you also have a great number of
slow archers it would be a great idea to cast Haste on them, this way you
will shoot first and do serious damage. This 2 tips I think are very well
conected.
Also, sometimes you might want to protect your shooting troops. Let's say
you have some war trolls and you want to protect them. Spelling Antimagic
on them would be a great idea, trust me!
Question: Man,I'm too good ! What can I do about it ?
Answer: If you think you are really tough then you should always play on
level impossible. Start with no resources at all and see what you can do.
My first advice was to have one fighter hero. You can get one very fast.
First of all check your starting hero(es). If you don't have one then do
your best and buy one. Keep all your treasure chests for it. Always choose
experience instead of money. You should look for : Wisdom, Luck,
Leadership, Ballistic, Archery, Logistics, and Pathfinding. Remember that
you must keep a place free for Wisdom, as your hero will not have it by
default! If you have to choose between two good things (let's say Luck
Advanced and Leadership Basic), always choose the Basic one. You can
improve your Skills later (in combat!). If you have The Necromancer Town
then choose Necromancy, too. There is a certain Skill I have left out:
Diplomacy. If you play on Xlarge maps this could make the difference. Why?
You should know by now that wandering armies grow in number and you could
meet a throng of Archers or Zounds of Horses or something like that. This
way you can buy a very powerful army (provided you have the money). Skills
to choose first : Logistics, Pathfinding, this way your hero can move as
fast as possible.
Question: What's the best creature in the game?
Answer: My vote goes to Titans! Why? Just because you can cast spells on
them! When fighting against Black Dragons you can use Resurrect True on
them until you make your opponent gets mad, and there is nothing he can do
about it! So, if you attack an opponent's army (or better said fight
against it) be sure and attack first (and perform the first attack!). If
you have the heart (!) let your opponent cast spell first This is a great
tip. He can't perform another spell in that row and you can do whatever you
want. Very good spells are : Mass Slow and Mass Haste. Remember that units
attack in the decreasing order of their speed:
Ultra Fast
Very Fast
Fast
Average
Slow
Very Slow
If you cast Haste on an at least very fast unit, it's speed will become
Blazing and it will strike before Very Fast units.(Black Dragons, Titans,
etc.) A piece of advice : Never miss anything that can improve your hero's
skills! There are maps where you get Spell Power (>20) by just visiting
those things, such as forts, mercenary camps, stonehenges, and huts. Try to
have some artifacts that increase your knowledge. If you have a hero (>15,
>10, >20, >20=Attack, Defence, Power, Knowledge) then you've reached the
Land of Dream and the game becomes a nice place to fool around !!!
Sometimes !!!
I think that the computer still can't play very well, but human opponent's
can and you should be very careful when you play against them. Always have
a large army with you best hero. If the computer attacks you and you
realize you will lose many troops (even if you defeat it) it's better to
surrender and then buy the hero back with it's armies.
Tip:
How to keep your shooting troops alive.
When attacking shooting troops you usually have to wait while they destroy
your own shooting troops before you can shoot, so my advice is: Have
something that flies, (rocs, gargoyles, etc.) split them into groups of 3-7
until you get 3 groups and then attack. Also if you have some very fast
shooting troops (Mages, Elves, Druids) you could also split them and shoot
all the enemy troops. I'm talking about wandering armies, of course. If you
can do neither then don't take the shooting troops with you. The more you
have at the final battle, the better. When playing against human opponents
that FINAL BATTLE WILL COME !!!
How to kill enemy heroes before they have the chance to retire:
Please notice that the enemy will not retire if he still has his shooting
troops alive. First of all, destroy the creatures that have the highest HP.
You should plan your atack very carefully. First try to move some units
right next to the opponent's shooting troops. DO NOT ATTACK, I REPEAT, DO
NOT ATTACK THEM. Try to kill the opponent's fastest troops. If you
remember, units attack in the decreasing order of their speed! Ok?
Destroying the enemy's fastest units will give you the chance to use all
your troops before the enemy can move his. Also don't hurry with your
spells. Sometimes, if you have good spell power you can destroy one group
of enemy units with Lightning Bolt. If you don't, then wait. Sometimes,
after you make some moves and so did the enemy, you realize that the
opponent still has one group of troops you can't destroy that turn and he
will retire. Their is only one thing to do: use Blind or Paralyze on them
and don't attack if you aren't sure you can destroy them. You will then
have another turn. You can use your shooting troops and cast spells before
the enemy can respond.
Why bother to kill enemy heroes? Sometimes, you meet a powerful hero, you
attack him, he destroys many of your troops and then he retires. After a
couple of days he comes back and the story repeats. Instead of losing
troops several times, you'd better lose them once and also get some
artifacts. Remember: powerful heroes ALWAYS carry powerful artifacts with
them!
Now, how to handle your best hero:
Remember, when the first day of a week comes you will be offered a new hero
to buy. That means that if you have retired from a battle with your best
hero in the 7-th day of the week and you didn't have the money to buy him
back, you may not find it available and you will lose it foolishly. So, my
advice is: if it is the 7-th day of the week, you don't have 2500, and you
consider having a battle but you are not sure you will win, then wait one
day and then attack. Also, in the first day of the week ALWAYS check the
heroes available to buy. You might be offered powerful heroes with powerful
artifacts and (in some cases) with troops (for only 2500). Cool, right?
I have discovered something new:
When casting Haste on an Ultra Fast unit its speed will become Instant. I
haven't verified it but it may mean that the unit may attack anything on
the battle field (just like the flying units). If someone verifies it,
please let me know.
How to handle the wandering armies:
If somewhere next to your castle there are armies the same as the ones you
can build in your castle you should not attack them. Wait until you get a
good hero with many troops and then attack. The troops may ally with you.
Also if you get a good hero with many troops, you should not allow the
wandreing armies to retreat. Attack! There are still some troops you should
avoid: flying units and shooting ones. All the others should get your
attention.(ogres, golems, swordsmen etc.) You will get experience and
become more and more powerful. I've once got a hero that had an attack
skill equal to 30 and a defence skill equal to 25, only by fighting with
all the troops I could find.
Now let's talk about the ultimate artifact:
You do not have to reveal the entire map to find the damn things. Visit
only 5-6 obelisks. All you have to do is recognize the place and try to
center your hero so that the piece of map you see looks exactly like the
one you get from the obelisks. The artifact will be right in the middle.
Maps with sea:
On some maps you have boats next to your castle (or close). Send a hero
with 4-5 very fast units (boars, gargoyles ...) with a boat on the map and
try to get as many things as possible. Buy the maps for the sea (you should
find it somewhere) and try to get the money and the artifacts first.
Remember to split your units in 4-5 positions so that if anyone attacks
you, you have the chance to retire and then buy the hero back (with the
artifacts, of course).
Sometimes you have the chance to choose what to attack:
Let's suppose you can attack a castle or an enemy hero but you can't attack
both in the same day. You should always choose the castle and then go after
the hero. It may be their last castle and if you attack the hero and that
player doesn't have another castle, then he will not retire!
The pyramids:
When you enter a pyramid you will be asked if you want to fight the
defenders. Answer no. Sometimes you receive very interesting things like
artifacts, money, experience. If you do fight you will always get 5000.
There is a "but", sometimes you will be asked to pay 2500 to keep your hero
alive. Well,the idea is that you should take the chance.
--Campaign Strategies for Heroes Of Might And Magic II--
Roland's Campaigns
by David Mills
This article has been written to help you obtain Black Dragon ratings on
both the Archibald and Roland Campaigns. The basic strategy is "Attack as
soon as possible, with the minimal possible effective forces". As we shall
see, there are a few further tips
Update, with notes about Tournament Play..
Warning! There are major spoilers, so if you want to try the campaigns
unaided, don't read on!
1. Force of Arms
You start with a Wizard City. Get the resources, hire a couple of knights
or barbarians, build an army and head north-west. If you go for the
Barbarians in the north- west, rather than the other two in the north or
east, it is probably easier. Not a difficult scenario, but difficult to do
quickly.
2. Annexation
Start with the Knight option. Hire another knight or preferably a barbarian
(for the pathfinding through the swamps). Get the gold, resources and
medusas while building up your armies. Go south-east in the first week,
through a guarded pass, and you should get the Sorceress city virtually
unopposed. The Knights from the south-west will come via boat in the second
week. Kill them with your second week armies, then head north. Get the
northern city, and then sail back south-west to wipe out the Knight.
3. Save the Dwarves
This option is essential for the following scenarios, and it is possible to
do it quite quickly. First, dump your slow armies in the towns and pick up
all the dwarves possible, for speed. Buy spell books for your heroes. Head
for the three central groups of dwarf cottages, and upgrade the dwarves at
the Hill Forts (this includes the Hero starting in your city). Pick up any
extra troops or mercenaries on the way. Meanwhile, build up your city in
readiness for the boat that may arrive via the whirlpool in the lake. Hire
a knight or barbarian when the enemy arrives. Also, buy all the available
dwarves in your towns. When you have an army with fifty or so battle
dwarves, head north-west and grab the Warlock city before the third week.
Mop up the other enemy heroes. Don't worry about losing the town in the
snow in the north-west, as long as you don't leave any dwarves for the
enemy to use.
4. Carator Mines
Hire another knight (or barbarian). With one hero, head south-east and grab
all the dwarves, then get the Yellow city. With the other, head north and
grab the dwarves, then follow the road north and east and grab the Red
city. Meanwhile upgrade the city and get another hero to collect the
resources and mines. Consolidate your captured cities, then head east again
for the final two cities on the eastern edge of the map, your dwarf armies
will probably do for these as well. Ignore the town to the north-east of
your start. Don't bother upgrading your pikemen and swordsmen in the city
as there is a Freemen's Foundry close by. Your third hero with a Knight
army will be able to sort out any armies that have spread west, such as the
town to the south of your start. Be bold and fast, and it is not too
difficult.
5. Turning Point
Very easy. Forget everything except dwarves and treasure chests for
experience. Start with the knight option. Hire another knight. Grab the
dwarves, the head east with one, and north with another. Grab the cities.
The enemy heroes will come from the north-east city, chase and kill them
and walk into the city virtually unopposed. You can do it in eight days. I
wonder what score this would be as a stand-alone scenario!
6. Defender
Again you depend on the dwarves for a head start. First return the Knight
to the city for the spells and the battle dwarves, then head north
following the road. Use the sorceress to guard the city and pick up the
mines and resources when it is safe. Hire another hero, preferably a
barbarian and head west for the lumber mill then the dwarves. The knight
should get the city in the north-west and the central town in the first
week, while the new hero returns east. Avoid the strong yellow knight. Get
the red Necromancer's city as soon as possible and don't worry about losing
your town to Wyrm. Hopefully the yellow enemy will have lost by then. Go
after Wyrm with the knight or new hero. Finally, sail south with the
sorceress for the island Barbarian city, but don't leave your home city
exposed. Chase and kill any green heroes still on the mainland or on the
central island town/city.
7. The Gauntlet
You need to do this option if you want a quick finish in the final
scenario.
Head south from your start, and get any mines on the way, particularly
sulphur. Keep to the most direct path, and avoid detours. At the bottom of
the map, head west. If your hero upgrades a level, get logistics if it is
offered. You should get to the enemy town by Day 4, Week 2. This gives you
time to buy a castle, maze and green tower before week three. Don't forget
the nearby trading post if you need more sulphur. Gold is not a problem in
this scenario, so hire another hero, give him some gargoyles for speed and
go and collect things. Go for experience with your main hero. The towns
dotted around will give you good spells if you capture them, but against
the dragons at the end, this may not be important. I usually wait the full
eight weeks to get the full complement of 19 Black Dragons, plus everything
else from the Warlock city (including the hydra - don't worry about the
slowness of the hydrae, as you will be mainly traveling by boat in the
final scenario). If there are any dwarves, get them towards the end to
allow their numbers to grow (I have had 117 Battle Dwarves). If you are
really going for speed, you can beat the enemy after six weeks of the
scenario, and this will leave you with just enough for the showdown in
Final Justice, but it is a close run thing. You will usually lose one or
maybe two Black Dragons, and a few others in the final battle on this
scenario.
8. The Crown
Look, do you want a good score or not? If you do this alternative, you are
destined to a long hard and probably unsuccessful slog in the final
episode. If you insist: the strategy is get the obelisks, hire plenty of
heroes and dig like crazy when you think you have an idea.
9. Corlagon's Defence
I initially thought this was very hard, but again, if you get the dwarves
and go quickly, it is not too bad. Choose the crystals to allow you to
build the cathedral in your city quickly.
Don't upgrade any towns, keep money for the Knight city and mercenaries.
For each hero, visit the observation towers promptly. Your sorceress should
then go east for the dwarves and the cottages. Keep going east. If you see
Corlagon, try and kill him, otherwise get the Red Warlock city in the
north-east corner in the second week. Corlagon starts with about 20
Champions but if he reaches the Medusae he will dump them in favour of the
Medusae (or any other free army such as dwarves or halflings). The AI
leaves something to be desired here!
Your wizard in the south should get some dwarves from the south and head
centrally. Your knight should get the rest of the dwarves and meet up with
the wizard to take his army. Then the knight should collect the central
halflings and sprites and go south east to the Necromancer's city. Send
your wizard back home. Meanwhile build up an army of Knight troops and a
Knight or Barbarian hero and send them east in the second week to sort out
the east-central Barbarian city. It usually does not go as smoothly as
that, particularly if Corlagon out-runs you and gets your Sorceress town,
but it is not too difficult overall.
10. Final Justice
Basically, you give your carried-over army to the knight, kill the dragons
guarding the lighthouse to give you good water speed, summon boat and head
north-west to Archibald's lair. If you don't have Summon Boat in the
Knight's city Mage Guild, go north by the coast to the first Barbarian
city, build a shipyard yourself, and sail from there.
There are a few more details, like protecting your Sorceress city from the
Necromancer hiding behind the trees, but it should be business as usual
while you wait for your major player to sail to the end of the river. You
need about 15 Black Dragons plus support to beat Archibald. His magic
tactics are not very good, such as chain lightning, and he has even
helpfully cast Armageddon twice, leaving my dragon pack versus his remains!
If you go overland, apparently you can get very close with Dimension Doors,
but you still need to sail some of the way. But as you take time to reach
the Warlock cities and buy more dragons, Archibald is busy buying more of
his. He starts out with 5 Blacks and then gets the usual 1 dragon for the
first week, followed by three for each week after. His stats are
approximately: Attack 12, Def 8, Power 13, Know 12. So if you take longer
than three weeks to reach him, he will have 15 Black Dragons and superior
stats, and will wipe out your starting army. If you try the quickest method
with a six week carry-over army (12 Dragons plus 20- 30 of the other
Warlock troops), you can get to the end of the river by day 15 but you need
either Summon Boat, or advanced or expert logistics. Your 12 Black Dragons
will face 5 Blacks and 4 Reds, and it is a very close battle, but winnable.
If anyone can beat a score of 231, or even go below 200, I would be
fascinated to hear of it.
Good Luck!
Written by David Mills, Gerrards Cross, London, England -
david@misborne.demon.co.uk
24th April 1997
Force Of Arms (Good Campaign 1)
-------------------------------
Hello everyone..having finished most of the stand-alone maps, I will now
replay both campaigns and share my strategies with you. The first good
campaign map is quite easy, but winning in a minimum number of days takes
some luck and some good tactics. I finished in 39 days. It should be quite
hard to beat this score by more than a couple of days. So without further
ado :
1) Hire 2 more heroes who will serve as scouts and pack-mules.
2) One will go west, one east and the other north.
3) Take gold instead of experience points from chests.
4) Beginning of week 2 : buy all the troops in the wizard castle, give them
to your best hero but leave one slot free.
5) Attack the halflings to the north protecting the gem mine. If you're
lucky, they will join you.
6) Attack the trolls (easy) and rush to the north stopping for nothing.
7) By week 3 day 1, I had captured the northern Barbarian castle.
8) Week 3 is for construction while you wait for the green barbarian enemy
to get eliminated by default.
9) Take the second western castle (Necromancer) by the end of month 1 with
a barbarian army.
10) Stay in it !
11) Take the big remaining wizard army from the Barbarian castle, build up
all possible troops in your starting castle.. and combine the two armies at
the center of the map.
12) This wizard army will conquer the Warlocks to the east.. and quite
easily at that.
13) If you don't want to lose time chasing Warlock heroes, I suggest taking
some small "clean-up" detours on the way to the Warlock castle.
Annexation (Good Campaign 2)
----------------------------
This is a small map where you start with a partially built castle and 4
genies. I finished it in 25 days playing the Sorceress.
1) Buy another Sorceress and combine troops (leave dwarves in the castle)
2) Split genies in 2 stacks to attack missile troops.
3) With your principal army, go east taking chests, gold, resources and the
ore mine on the way. Don't lose time exploring the swamp with this army.
This is the job for the other sorceress.
4) It's possible to take the southeast Sorceress castle by the end of week
1.
5) It's also possible to buy the Phoenix Red Tower in the first week !
6) Kill the wandering sorceress opponent (yellow)
7) Board the boat by the middle of week 2, take the stuff in the water.. if
it's not already taken.
8) Go north to take troops from your initial castle (don't disembark from
the boat)... Army at this time : 4 Phoenix, 3 Genies, 16 Elves, 13 Great
Druids ,50 Sprites. Leave the unicorns and dwarves in the castle !
9) Still by boat, attack the southwestern knight castle by the end of week
2 or day 1 of week 3.
10) Mop up the remaining knight armies.
11) Rush to the north with your still significant army, making a pit-stop
at your starting castle (to get more Phoenix)
12) The remaining Wizard opponent (orange) should now be quite easy to
dispose of.
Little note about playing the Sorceress : Dwarves are good for garrisoning
your starting castle when you're scared of being attacked by a very near
enemy. Bless is great for Phoenix.. double the damage !!!
Save The Dwarves (Good Campaign 3)
----------------------------------
I suggest finishing this map in order to have the dwarf alliance in
subsequent scenarios. I completed this one in 19 days (I have an idea to
finish it even sooner, but I have to try it first).
1) You start with 3 sorceress heroes (if you pick the Sorceress :-),a bunch
of dwarf villages and one castle
2) Buying more heroes is a very good idea. I had 6 heroes exploring by day
3 or 4. Warlock and Barbarians are good heroes to hire.
3) With your northern sorceress, go in the nearby village, buy troops, then
explore west, south (fairies) and then east again (note : This will take
many days)
4) The center sorceress should buy all available troops then move south-
east following the road. Your 3 other scouts will go north, north-east and
east.
1) Take gold instead of experience from chests.
6) The southern sorceress should take the dwarves in the village, take a
little detour to the west for upgrading all those dwarves and then rush
east by road in order to capture the gold mine.
7) Buy a marketplace in your starting castle and when you find a trading
post, exchange most of your useless ressources (sulfur, red crystals) for
gold. Buy Druid and Unicorn structures first !
8) Take all free low-level troops (dwarves, sprites, goblins, etc) that you
find by exploring the map.
9) By week 3 day 1, my big attack in enemy territory was well under way...
10) I had bought a shipyard, a boat and transferred most troops from my
castle to the sorceress already in the boat.
11) I attacked on 3 different fronts : northeast with my northern
sorceress, southeast with my southern sorceress which took all the dwarves
in the snow and by boat with another sorceress (druids, elves, unicorns,
sprites). The sorceress by boat took the whirlpool in the lake.
12) The rest is quite easy, beat up enemy heroes that pass your way so you
don't have to chase them later.
Carator Mines Without Dwarven Alliance (Good Campaign 4)
--------------------------------------------------------
Just for fun, I tried beating Carator Mines without the Dwarven Alliance,
to see if it would take less time than going first through campaign map 3
(Save the Dwarves) combined with campaign 4. Well, avoiding the Dwarf
alliance, I finished Carator mines in 59 days, which was a lot longer than
the combination of map 3 and 4 with the dwarven alliance (43 days). So make
your own conclusions ;-) For those who are masochistic and want a lower
score, I have included some tips on beating Carator mines without the
Dwarven alliance. Enjoy !
1) Buy 2 (or more) other scout heroes ASAP
2) One scout will rush south-west to take an undefended gold mine.
3) One other scout will also go south but more slowly, taking resources and
free troops along the way (including Goblins). This scout will take the
southern village with the goblins.
4) Transform the village into a castle
5) It's easy to beat dwarves with a Druid and Elf combo.
6) At the beginning of week 2, buy the maximum of troops in your starting
castle and go south.
7) You can buy the Red Tower in the second week.
8) Leave the slow dwarves in the castles.
9) Wait until you have 7 Phoenix, a bunch of Grand Elves and Great Druids
before attacking the other castles. (Unicorns and sprites are optional).
10) With this army, I really stomped the computer opponents losing very few
troops and most of the time killing his stacks before he even had a chance
to attack :-)
In conclusion, I would like to suggest some very good spells for the
sorceress troops. Bless for the Phoenix (40 points of damage assured
instead of maybe only 20 points per Phoenix) and Unicorns makes quite a
diffence. Slow and Blind on the enemy fast flying or shooter troops are
also great !
Carator Mines With Dwarven Alliance (Good Campaign 4)
-----------------------------------------------------
Completing campaign 3 (Save the dwarves) is strongly suggested if you want
a better score and a easier time winning. I finished in 24 days.
1) Buy 4 more heroes during week 1 that will serve as scouts.
2) There's a lot of free resources near your castle, so you can build the
necessary structures in week 1 while still hiring other heroes.
3) On day 1, hire another sorceress hero, buy all troops in the castle and
give them all to your starting sorceress who will go north.
4) 2 heroes will go north, 2 will go south and one will go east. The last
one will take stuff around your castle.
5) The starting sorceress will rush north and then east (taking the gold
mine and the free Battle Dwarves) following the road. The other hero (I
suggest Barbarian or Warlock) will follow her taking resources and other
troops in the snow.
6) For the 2 heroes going south, one will will rush to the southwest corner
to take another gold mine, while the other will take resources and hire
goblins from the huts.
7) The eastern hero will go towards the mountains, then south, hiring the
free dwarves on the way.
8) The starting sorceres will take the northern castle (probably Warlock)
by the end of week 1. This castle will probably be undefended (grin).
9) The southern hero with lots of goblins will capture the southern village
and transform it into a castle right away. Protect this castle by staying
in it.
10) The eastern hero with lots of dwarves will take another castle near the
center of the map. It will probably be free for the taking also (evil
grin). Stay in this castle so that the AI doesn't come to take it back.
11) By week 2 day 1, I had 4 castles and 2 gold mines for a total of 6750
gold pieces per day :-).
12) The northern sorceress will go south leaving 10 battle Dwarves in the
castle to protect it.
13) By week 3 day 1, exchange all unnecessary ressources and buy all troops
from your two eastern castles.
14) Attack the two remaining castles !
Turning Point (Good Campaign 5)
-------------------------------
This small map has given me my quickest all-time victory... only 8 days
playing the Sorceress ! With the dwarven alliance, this scenario is the
easiest of the good campaign.
1) Hire another sorceress, buy troops and transfer them all to your
starting sorceress.
2) Ignore mines unless they are truly in your way.
3) The starting sorceress will go north, mostly following the road, taking
stacks of battle dwarves along the way.
4) The second sorceress takes experience from the Gazebo and goes east also
taking stacks (one stack ?) of battle dwarves.
5) After capturing the northwest castle, rush east taking (again) any
dwarves stacks you encounter. I reached the northeast castle on day 1 of
week 2.
6) Don't forget to obliterate any wandering enemy armies so that you don't
have to chase them down later.
7) The southeast castle (orange) should be easy to capture because there
are 2 Battle Dwarves stacks very near.
Defender (Good Campaign 6)
--------------------------
This campaign map has given a lot of people headaches.. including me on my
first try through when I was just a newbie with HOMM 2 (I won it anyway :-)
A barbarian ambushes your starting castle by boat very soon in the game,
and if you don't know it's coming, you can be easily overtaken. Good
Campaign 6 is called Dedender but to win you have to be the "Attacker" !
The good old cliche "The best defense is a good offense" applies on this
map. You start with Lord Halton that has 5 Genies and 20 Rangers. A
sorceress in the partially built castle has 20 Battle Dwarves. I finished
it in 19 days two times, using slighly different strategies each time.
So with all this in mind, here is my strategy :
1) Lord Halton should enter the castle right away to get the magic spells..
then go to the nearby gazebo.
2) Lord Halton will go north-east following the road until the T crossroads
where he will turn right (split the genies in 2 stacks when you attack
shooters)
3) There's already a shipyard built in your starting castle...
4) Hire another hero ASAP preferably a Barbarian and move him west. There
are 4 stacks of Battle Dwarves on the west side of the map free for the
taking (if you have the Dwarven alliance).
5) Build structures and troops until week 1 day 5 (or day 4 at your
choice), when you will board a boat with your sorceress, 30 Battle Dwarves,
Sprites and possibly other troops.
6) Lord Halton can capture the red Necromancer castle quite easily by the
end of week 1.
7) The sorceress in the boat will rush south and capture the barbarian
castle, also by the end of week 1.
8) On day 1 of week 2, buy more troops in your new Necromancer castle and
destroy Wyrm the annoying Necromancer before he can become a thorn in your
side. If he's too far (him and the other red heroes) and you want to lure
him into a trap, step one or two squares away from the Necromancer castle.
9) Eventually, build the best troops in the barbarian castle and chase down
the barbarian boats with your sorceress.
10) The barbarian who took the 4 stacks of Battle Dwarves should go
northeast and give them to Lord Halton.
11) When you feel that you're strong enough (day 7 of week 2 ?), charge the
yellow Knight castle with Lord Halton avoiding (if possible) all yellow
armies.
12) Since it's the beginning of week 3, buy more troops in the knight
castle and mop up the remaining yellow armies.
I tried going after the knight yellow castle once (before the Red
Necromancer castle) and I found the rest of the game easier to play. Maybe
that was a fluke, but eliminating Wyrm before he gets too strong has a
higher priority in my eyes, that's why I suggest going after him first. I
also tried boarding the boat on day 1 with my sorceress and attacking the
barbarian castle as soon as possible (day 4)... I captured the castle but
the other barbarians were still on the island and they proceeded to trash
me.
The Gauntlet (Good Campaign 7)
------------------------------
This is one of my favorite scenarios because it is so different from the
others. You start with a moderately big army (20 Rangers, 40 Sprites, 22
Pikemen, 24 Rocs, 16 Greater Druids), the boots of mobility and one other
magical item. You have to rush to the southwest part of the map to capture
a town in 8 weeks or less. You're stuck with this army for the major part
of the map and you can't get reinforcements from a starting castle. I
completed this map in 53 days.. not a great score for sure, but it's
necessary to take more time so you can build the maximum of troops for your
carry-over force in the last scenario.
1) The villages you will find on each patch are not upgradable to castles
except the last warlock village at the southwest of the map near the lake.
2) On each different path, there are 3 villages who get progressively
tougher (more protecting creatures). Note that the first village you will
encounter on your path has a level-1 Mage Tower, the second village has a
level-3 Mage Tower and the third village has a level-5 Mage Tower. Each
village also has more monster structures already built.
3) I suggest taking the wizard path. Always take experience instead of
Gold.
4) Capture the first village, dump the sprites there and get more Rocs.
5) That way, you have one spot free in your army to hire better troops.
6) Continue west and south attacking moderate wandering armies that inflict
you minimum losses.
7) Always attack armies that are the same type as you (ex : attack Rangers
if you still have Rangers in your army).. there's a slight chance they
might join you. In any case, most of the time, they will flee.
8) Capture the second wizard village (watch out for the nearby 2nd level-
spell Visions). Take more rocs. Dump stacks that are now too weak (ex :
dump the Greater Druids if you only have 5 left).
9) Some people prefer ignoring the villages and rushing for the southwest
warlock village. That's your choice.
10) Capture the 3rd wizard village with a 5th-level Mage Tower. Buy more
Rocs.
11) Eventually you will come face to face with a high-level army (in my
case Green Dragons). You will lose many troops in this battle but it's
necessary to continue on your way. (Hint : Use Mass Haste, make your fliers
attack between two stacks of dragons, when they attack back, their flame
attack will catch another dragon stack :-)
12) Now rush to the south and capture the Warlock village near the water.
This should be at the beginning of week 4.
13) Transform the village into a castle right away.
14) Your next objective is getting the Black Dragon tower. Buy one
structure each turn until you have it.
15) Buy 2 other secondary heroes who will explore, take free mines and free
resources on the other paths.
16) Explore the 2 other paths with your big Barbarian army while your Black
Dragons, Hydras and Minotaur Kings accumulate.
17) By the end of week 7, your Barbarian should be back near your Warlock
castle.
18) Take all secondary army stacks you don't want to carry-over (49 Elves,
50 Nomads...those kind of troops), get on a boat and attack the yellow
village Lakeside.
19) You will lose but you will have weakened your adversary very much.
Don't forget to flee with your Barbarian at the last possible moment :-)
20) Rehire your barbarian super-hero and dismiss all secondary heroes
(because if you don't, the army of the top-spot secondary hero will carry-
over).
21) Give all the best troops to your Barbarian principal hero (ex : 13
Black Dragons, 28 Minotaur Kings, 18 Hydras, 68 Battle Dwarves, 36
Griffins) and attack the yellow player again.
22) The last battle should be quite easy. I only lost 1 black dragon !
Corlagon's Defense (Good Campaign 9)
------------------------------------
It's called Corlagon's Defense because this particular hero will probably
give you a lot of problems if you don't destroy him soon enough :-) Anyway,
I finished this map in 23 days on my last game (the one used to compile my
score in the good campaign). I also finished it in 20 days at one time but
I had to replay this map because of a carry-over force problem.
1) You start with 1 Knight castle, 1 Sorceress village and 1 Wizard
village.
2) Transform those towns into castles as soon as possible (week 1)
3) There is a lightly defended gold mine in the southeast part of the map.
Another one is very near the Sorceress town.
4) Hire at least 2 more heroes in week 1 to explore everywhere and to serve
as pack-mules (transfer troops to the front-line heroes).
5) Try to build one structure in each castle at each turn, starting always
with the same castle (I suggest Sorceress). This is particularly important
in week 1 and the beginning of week 2.
6) Lord Haart the knight will go east taking free halflings, goblins and
dwarves along the way.
7) Try to capture one of the villages in the center of the map on week 1
(facultative).
8) Your best sorceress should go north (from the Sorceress town) and then
east taking all available sprites and dwarves. This hero will eventually
try to kill Corlagon who prowls in the northeast part of the map.
9) Lord Haart will attack the southeastern Necromancer castle (orange) on
week 3 day 1. Probably a little later if you make frequent stops and
detours.
10) Your shooters will draw fire while the dwarves and goblins close in for
the kill.
11) Buy Vampire Lords and other troops (that you find good) in the
Necromancer castle.
12) Transfer troops to Lord Haart from another hero who got the armies
Haart didn't have time to get.
13) Rush north with Lord Haart to capture the Barbarian castle (green) in
the desert and the Warlock castle (red). It's possible to do all this
during week 3.
14) Don't forget to kill any wandering heroes so that you don't have to
chase them down later.
Final Justice (Good Campaign 10) -- The Quick And Dirty Way
-----------------------------------------------------------
First of all, as always, try this quite good scenario at least once before
reading my strategy tips. This Final Justice map is quite fun and you don't
want to spoil the surprises ! I found a very quick way to win this map...
Only 11 days ! I don't think it's possible to do better. I will probably
post another strategy some of these days about how to win using the long
way. So without futher ado :
1) Before you start, take the Tax Lien, it's the least damaging item you
can take.
2) Reload the game until you have the Summon boat spell in your Knight
castle.
3) Hire Sister Eliza the level-5 sorceress in the Knight castle.
4) Protect your starting sorceress castle by returning the nearby sorceress
inside the castle and buying the phoenix.
5) Roland should have a big carry-over force consisting of Black Dragons,
Minotaur Kings and other mighty stacks.
6) With Sister Elisa, rush east towards Roland who will transfer all his
troops to her (except the very slow Hydras which Roland will transfer just
before Elisa boards the boat). Why you ask ? Because Elisa being a
sorceress has advanced navigation !
7) On day 2, destroy the Red Dragons with Elisa and board the boat. If
you're very lucky, you could get expert navigation... I did :-)
8) On day 3, navigate the boat towards Magellan's Maps and give the guy his
1000 gold pieces. Take the nearby items but make sure you still have time
to disembark on the northern side of the lake.
9) On day 4, go north 3 or 4 steps, cast Summon Boat and board it.
10) Beginning on day 5, you will navigate towards Archibald's castle. It's
at the end of the river.
11) To make sure you take the least amount of time navigating, click on a
spot at the end of the river and then press m (move : horse icon) on each
subsequent turn.
12) With expert navigation, Elisa's army should attack Archibald's castle
on week 2, day 4 (11th day) With advanced navigation, it's one or two days
later. With Roland, you would have attacked on week 3 day 2. Now you can
see why taking Elisa is better... Archibald has one week less of troops
(including 3 less Red Dragons).
13) The last battle is a very tough one, practically impossible if
Archibald gets the Summon Elemental spell. It can also be easier if he gets
a lousy 5th-level spell like Hypnotize.
14) I had 12 Black Dragons while my opponent had 5 Black and 4 Red Dragons.
Unfortunately, he had Elemental Storm and a lot of spell points, so I lost
all my secondary troops from constant spell casting.
15) The trick to winning this is attacking the Minotaur Kings (second stack
from the top) from the bottom with your Black Dragons. Then Archie will
cast Elemental Storm destroying most of his remaining troops except
Dragons.
16) Archie's Black Dragon stack will attack you from the top while the Red
Dragon stack will attack you from the bottom.
17) With a correct positioning, the 2 Dragon enemy stacks will proceed to
flame one another while trying to attack my Black Dragon stack ;-) This is
what I call the Dragon sandwich tactic and it's very effective. The only
thing still alive at the end was my 3 surviving Black Dragons.
So that's it ! I completed the good campaign in 221 days beating the 231
days score of David Mills and earning myself the Black Dragon rating ! With
better luck in scenarios 7 and 9, I could probably lower this score to 208
days. I would appreciate very much hearing from anybody who did beat my
score. I'm sure there's somebody somewhere who did better :-)
Final Justice (Good Campaign 10) -- The Long And Fun Way
--------------------------------------------------------
I had written a strategy for completing "Final Justice" in the quickest
possible way but I was quite unhappy about it. Much better and more fun is
trying to capture all the enemy castles on the mainland before going after
Archibald at the end of the river. It's also more strategically-sound
because you rely less on luck. With your multiple-castle growth, when every
color but Archie's is eliminated, you can afford to build a strong army
that should have no trouble with the end-battle. First time I ever played
the final good campaign scenario (that was very long ago ;-), I went after
the eastern-shore green barbarians first. I won eventually but I was always
wondering if going after the yellow warlock (center) or purple necromancer
(west) might have been easier. Well, I found out some interesting things by
recently replaying "Final Justice" using each different option...
Having the "carry-over force" for the last scenario is *highly*
recommended. If you insist on playing it with the Ultimate Crown, expect a
much longer game and a tougher challenge. I had a carry-over force of 12
Black Dragons (along with Hydras, Minotaur Kings, Battle Dwarves and
Griffins) which is pretty good if you decide to stay within the 8-week
limit in Good Campaign 7 where you will recruit your carry-over force (you
could have "cheated" and gone over that artificial time limit if you
desired). The carried-over Black Dragons are what's important, every other
stack is extra "gravy". Implementing my battle plans should be possible
with around 8 Black Dragons (if you're a good player) but I would not go
much lower than that total. You start with 3 almost fully-built castles,
one of each "good" type : sorceress, knight and wizard.
--PLAN A (Going after the Purple Necromancers first)--
1) From my experience, this is the easiest, safest way to go but you'll
probably get a slightly lower score (although still very good).
2) The first color you will attack will be purple : the Necromancers on the
western edge of the map.
3) Prepare for a sneak attack on sorceress castle by a Necromancer with 10
Vampires (btw, this early computer strike makes the enemy alliance aware of
you and also puts it in an offensive "frame of mind").
4) Roland should kill Red Dragon stack protecting the Lighthouse and boat.
5) Hire Sister Elisa on day 2 at sorceress castle. If you don't have the
"Sorceress Alliance Award" (and therefore no Elisa), just use your starting
sorceress instead. (To lighten the text, I will just refer to Elisa from
now on).
6) Hire secondary hero in knight castle, trade him the negative artifact
from Roland and dismiss him. Do NOT dismiss your starting heroes by mistake
!
7) Elisa should buy the single phoenix (for ultra fast travel speed) and go
right visiting all your home castles for spells.
7.5) Do not buy Giants, wait for Titans instead (those won't come into play
until near the end anyway).
8) It's a good idea for your main heroes to pay at least a little visit to
one of your home castles (to get spells).
9) Try to develop Wisdom to expert level for your main heroes, especially
Roland and Elisa.
10) Roland should leave the Hydras in the good knight castle nearby to
serve as garrison (they would slow him down too much).
11) Roland will go a little way north (graveyard, tree of knowledge) then
west.
12) Roland will stay in your home territory for the first 3 weeks to visit
locations, get items and to make the good armies "grow". Why delay the
first strike ? Because you're going for the surest, safest way to win...
See the point just below.
13) Always leave one free spot in Roland's army so wandering stacks can
join him for greater glory. Have 1 or 2 buddy heroes follow him around to
carry the extra "free" stacks.
14) Develop a level 5 Mage Guild in the sorceress castle. I don't usually
recommend reloading but if you do get Hypnotize, do so, it's useless and a
big waste of resources. If it's anything else, keep the spell ;-) Remember
to make Roland visit the castle.
15) Elisa should have plenty of time to return to the sorceress castle
before the big offensive in purple territory.
16) "View Heroes" is a nice spell to keep tabs on where your opponents are.
I used it often.
17) On week 4 (more or less) came time for the big offensive on the west
road (the one next to your sorceress castle). Roland only had Black Dragons
and Minotaur Kings (both very fast speed). Elisa was a great spellcaster
and was following with a good sorceress-troop army. Some "buddy" heroes
with other numerous stacks were also making their move.
18) Roland rushed the main purple necromancer castles (in volcanic terrain)
while Elisa took care of eliminating the purple towns in the wastelands
east of the west road (orange terrain). A strong buddy hero should go west
from the west road to see if purple captured a neutral town there.
19) Don't worry too much if you lose a few Black Dragons in your conquest
of purple.
20) I was lucky enough to get Dimension Door in one of the enemy castles
(well, I did build up level 5 guilds when they were already at level 3 or
4). It probably saved me a few unnecessary weeks but Dimension Door is not
absolutely required to win although it will make your life easier. Do try
to finish each turn inside a castle and visit wells at each opportunity.
21) Even with Dimension Door, the biggest delay and annoyance you will
encounter is chasing down the many little heroes scampering everywhere
around. Believe me when I say that you will surely have to backtrack
several times to recapture castles.
22) A way to minimize this is by leaving heroes with strong garrisons
(remember all the free stacks Roland accumulated in the first month ?) in
the castles you want to keep. Your big Minotaur King stack could also serve
as a garrison if you wish. Also buy the maximum of troops available in each
castle "under siege" at the beginning of each week (big ticket creatures
like Bone Dragons and normal Dragons first)
23) Don't make Elisa go too far east (this means, not going past the second
road you will encounter) or she will get clobbered by the very strong green
barbarian (in fact, I lost her that way by being too reckless).
24) FYI, I captured the first warlock yellow castle (center one named
Alamar) on week 4, day 7. Dimension Door did help there ;-)
25) Try to make a sweep from left to right (purple, yellow, green)
eliminating (or badly crippling) one color at a time. Don't run after every
little enemy hero, but eliminate them if they're in the way. Concentrate on
taking castles using hit and run tactics.
26) Boost Roland's army with new Black Dragons from the center warlock
castles.
27) Week 5 and 6 = destroy yellow and finish up purple.
28) Watch out for the southeast corner of the map. You could get ambushed
by the green barbarians. Keep the knight castle well-defended or you could
have surprises.
29) Eventually go up that road with either a strong knight or wizard army.
30) Build Black Dragon towers in all warlock castles.
31) In general, the second month is dedicated to utterly destroying every
trace of purple, yellow and green on the main land (myself, I finished that
worthy task on month 2, week 3, day 7).
32) Give Titans from wizard home castle to Roland. Board a boat with him (I
did so on month 3, week 1, day 1). Follow the river until you reach
Archibald's castle.
33) His army at that time was 5 Black Dragons (this number stays static),
25 Red Dragons, 51 Minotaur Kings, 60 Griffins and 34 Hydras.
34) My army was too strong (in fact, it was overkill) but I didn't want to
take any chances. Better safe than sorry :-) My army was composed of 22
Titans, 45 Vampire Lords, 37 Black Dragons, 27 Bone Dragons and 36 Power
Liches. The important armies were the Black Dragons and the Titans who drew
most of the fire away. I chose undead troops because they were the stacks
that had the most time to accumulate (purple necromancer was attacked first
after all).
35) If you have problems with the last battle, try to place your troops so
that the Red Dragon's 2-hex breath torches his own partner creatures.
36) With Plan A, I finished in 64 days (month 3, week 2, day 1)
--PLAN B (Going after the Yellow Warlocks first)--
1) From my experience, this is a bit riskier than Plan A, because there's
no build-up phase in the first month and you leave your home castles almost
undefended but you'll probably get a slightly higher score.
2) The first color you will attack will be yellow : the Warlocks in the
north-center part of the map. Your objective is to get more Black Dragons
as soon as possible. Problem is that without waiting a little in your home
territory, only one Warlock castle will have the Dragon Tower and you'll
have to build the rest. Another problem is that you'll be surrounded left
and right (purple and green) and that it will be impossible to make a sweep
from left to right as in plan A (more backtracking)
3) Defend against sneak attack on sorceress castle.
4) Get rid of Roland's negative artifact with an expendable dismissed hero.
Roland should kill Red Dragon stack protecting the Lighthouse and boat.
Trade stacks that are slower than very fast to the nearby Knight starting
hero (on day 2).
5) After that, he should rush north (going into the knight castle is not
necessary), visit Graveyard and Tree of Knowledge (because it's on his way)
and take the left branch at the crossroads. Knight hero should follow just
behind with the slower stacks.
6) Make Elisa (or starting sorceress) go east with Phoenix, visiting the
knight castle for spells but not the wizard castle. She should follow the
left fork of the east road and reach yellow territory after Roland and the
Knight hero around week 2.
7) Go easy on ore and sulfur. You'll need those to build Dragon Towers
later on.
8) Roland reached first yellow warlock town on week 2, day 1.
9) Make the following Knight hero stay in the first captured enemy town. He
will serve as its protector.
10) On week 2, conquer the other warlock castles badly crippling the yellow
color in the process.
11) Leave Minotaur Kings (or another strong stack from your carry-over
force) in the main yellow castle (the one with the Dragon Tower already
built).
12) Upgrade all warlock towns to have Black Dragon Towers.
13) Always leave a minimum of 4 Black Dragons with Elisa in the main
castle. She will serve as the main protector and intimidation factor in
your newly acquired holdings.
14) Hire maximum number of secondary heroes in warlock castles and visit
mines with them. When that's done, scout around. Leave Elisa and medium-
level knight hero inside their respective warlock castles.
15) Build your second Dragon Tower in northwest warlock castle on week 2.
The first yellow castle you captured can survive for a while without a
Dragon Tower. It already has a strong garrison with the knight hero.
16) If you have Set Elemental Guardian, cast them on your mines.
17) Go after purple or green, not both at the same time (I picked purple)
18) Beginning of week 3, buy all available Black Dragons and leave them in
garrisons. This will intimidate your opponents.
18) Yellow was eliminated in week 3.
19) Watch out for purple and green that could go south in your starting
territory.
20) If you don't think you can survive an enemy assault, flee with your
best troops and return later. The enemy hero will split his big stack in 2
to garrison your castle but most importantly it will dismiss strong stacks
to visit nearby map dwellings (in my game, the computer dismissed 9 Bone
Dragons for 50 Halflings !)
21) If a color, other than one you're currently eliminating, captures an
enemy castle (for example, a green barbarian captures one of your castles
that was formerly purple). Let him have it, unless Roland is very close.
22) Yellow, green and purple were totally eliminated on month 2, week 2,
day 5.
23) I boarded a boat with Roland a few days later (month 2, week 3, day 1,
FYI). Sail the river up to Archibald's castle. I got Dimension Door very
late in the game and by that time the yellow, green, purple alliance was
practically eliminated. You could use that spell to reach Archibald's
castle quicker but I preferred to save my spell points for the final
battle.
24) Roland's army was composed of only 34 Black Dragons and 76 Minotaur
Kings. This was barely enough to win against Archibald and I had to reload
twice before succeeding. I suggest waiting 1 (or 2) more week to have a
stronger army before boarding the boat.
25) Archibald had better stats than Roland along with blood morale and
irish luck. Archibald's garrison was composed of 5 Black Dragons (this
number won't grow), 31 Minotaur Kings, 46 Griffins, 26 Hydras and 19 Red
Dragons. Morale played a big factor in the 2 first battles which I lost,
his Red Dragon stacks had a lot more free attacks than my Black Dragon
stack.
26) Use the Red Dragon's 2-hex flame attack against your other opponents by
placing your own Black Dragon stack appropriately. Use Anti-Magic to
protect your Minotaur Kings from offensive spells. In the first few turns,
cast Chain Lightning and Armageddon to weaken enemy stacks other than enemy
Dragons.
27) Cast Summon Elemental often if you have it (I did not). If Archibald
has the Summon Elemental himself, I doubt you can win. Wait a few more
weeks and come back with a Titan-Black Dragon combo army.
28) Using Plan B, I finished this scenario in 49 days (month 2, week 3, day
7).
-Campaign Strategies for Heroes Of Might And Magic II-
Archibald's Campaigns
by David Mills
This article has been written to help you obtain Black Dragon rating on the
Archibald (Evil) Campaign. The basic strategy is "Attack as soon as
possible, with the minimal possible effective forces". As we shall see,
there are a few further tips.
Update, with notes about Tournament Play.
Warning! There are major spoilers, so if you want to try the campaigns
unaided, don't read on!
1. First Blood
This is a fairly easy start, and it is possible to finish more quickly than
the Roland introductory scenario. Choose the 2000 gold option as this makes
it possible to get up to the Mansion upgrade of your Necromancer starting
castle in the first week. However, Frank Cardillo told me a better way than
this. Go for the Laboratory via the Mage Guild and the Mausoleum. The Bone
Dragons are much more reliable than vampires. Hire another hero (knight or
barbarian for battle strength), get the easy resources, don't bother with
the defended mines, and head east at the beginning of the second week with
all your forces and your best hero. Beat the few wandering armies, and you
should come across the green enemy city with few forces inside. Take the
city. The AI does not seem to be very clever and usually dies off without
trying to retake the city. With this army, add to it as much as possible
and go south. Again you will find the next city soon, and it should be
easily taken. Meanwhile, give your new home city forces to your other hero,
and head south. The two heroes should more or less meet up in the south-
west at the end of the third week to wipe out the remaining enemy.
2. Barbarian Wars
This a small and quick scenario. Choose the Barbarian option. Equip your
first hero with the nomads (keep them in two separate armies as this makes
it easier against ranged enemies), and go directly north-east, through a
defended pass and take the yellow north-east city which will probably be
undefended. On the first day, you should also hire two more heroes. Send
one east along the road to the genie lamps and hire as many as you can
afford. Let the other gather the resources and mines. Build up you city as
usual. Your first hero will need to fight the yellow hero, but should be
successful with reinforcements from the captured city. The hero with the
genies should capture the purple south-west city with no bother, while the
other hero guards the home city from the purple hero. Load up at the
beginning of the second week and let all three heroes meet up in the north-
west to finish off.
3. Necromancers
Don't do this option if you want a good final score! I tried it on my very
first go and got a score of 630. The rewards of a Level 5 Necromancer for
each following scenario is not worth it. But if you insist...
Capturing the closest city is easy, go to the observation tower to guide
you. Get a decent army and head south in the third week. Through the
guarded pass is the easiest enemy city to capture. Build more armies (gold
is a problem as all the gold mines are heavily defended and you don't want
to waste good troops on anything but the enemy) and try to get one good
fighting (barbarian or knight) and one good spell-casting hero. Don't
upgrade the foundries as there two easy-to-reach Freeman's Foundries. Go
through another of the heavily defended passes and get the city by the
mountains and the middle pass, and the town (which may have been upgraded
to a city) in the south-east corner. The enemy heroes are moderately
powerful, including giants. Don't leave things too long or you will face
titans, and it takes ages to amass enough gold and jewels for you to make
these.
4. Slay the Dwarves
You need this option for assured success in the rest of the campaign. If
you can do the equivalent scenario with Roland, you can do this one, as it
is the same map.
Choose the Barbarian option. You don't need to buy any more heroes, and
only need to upgrade to Ogre Lords in your city. Send the hero at the top
of the map east to the city to be equipped with the troops. With the other
two, send them to the nearest towns for Battle Dwarves and Magic Books.
Then send one centrally for the Dwarf Cottages and Rogues, then south-west
to the Hill Fort then west along the road and capture the city. This hero
should then return east to get the towns along the bottom of the map,
picking up troops along the way. The final hero should go north-west-ish to
the other Dwarf Cottages by the Observation Tower just by a small patch of
snow. There are some Medusas near here too. Once he is tanked up, go north,
west then south getting the towns and any enemy heroes. The hero in the
city should go south once he has a decent army, to mop up any stray enemy
heroes and the last towns. Watch out for boats appearing out of the
whirlpool by the enemy city.
5. Turning point
I assume you have the Ogre Alliance for the rest of the campaign.
Pick the Barbarian option, although it does not really matter. With the
first hero, go south down the road, ignoring everything until you come to
the two sets of Ogres. Join up with these, upgrade at the Hill Fort, take
easily the city in the south-east corner, then the south west corner, then
go north. Meanwhile the second hero you hired on the first day will have
picked up a few more ogres locally and gone west and may well be finishing
off the city in the north-west corner and chasing after the remaining enemy
heroes (who seem to come from the north-west city). You can do this
scenario in seven or eight days.
6. Rebellion
This is the fun scenario. Pick the Barbarian option to give a good fighting
hero for your secondary army, but Lord Corlagon, with his Expert
Necromancer ability does all the hard work.
Initially, send Corlagon to the Treasure Chest and Gazebo for experience.
Then fight the two small peasant armies to the north of the city to gain
some skeletons. Then continue north then east a little to a legion of
peasants. This army is in three groups of 333, but each group can be killed
in one blow by your skeletons. The trick is to separate them by waiting for
a Loss of Morale due to the Bone Dragon. You will now have about 400
skeletons. If you attack the rangers by the Ore mine they may join you, or
may attack, it seems about fifty-fifty. Anyway, you have enough to win
against the huge legion of peasants guarding the Treasure trove to the east
of the city, as long as you only allow one or maybe two attacks from a full
stack of 700 peasants. Use the Morale trick if necessary. If you go back to
the city for spells or more troops, it will probably be the second week,
and the army will become five stacks of 800, although this may be worth it
if you have Slow in your Mage Guild.
Get all the stuff from the trove, going for experience over gold, then head
west through the gap in the forest guarded by the Archers near the 1st
Level shrine. All the armies should retreat, I only fight the non-ranged
attackers. Continue south-west to the Knight city, and send your other hero
down to occupy it. If the Knight armies are close by, fight them, otherwise
skeletonise the peasants guarding the good artifacts just to the north-west
of the Knight city, and follow the road north. At the T-junction by Xanadu,
it does not really matter which way you go, both cities will fall very
easily to your army of 2500 skeletons, and you can soon chase and kill the
remaining heroes.
My best score of 21 days was greatly helped by having the Boots of Mobility
in the original Treasure Trove.
7. Dragon Master
This scenario is very difficult without the Ogre Alliance, but a doddle
with it. I pick the Barbarian option so that my main hero will have
Pathfinding through the desert near the Dragon City. Send your starting
hero along the road to the Observation tower then to fight the army
guarding the way to the Alchemists Lab. Hire another hero, drop off the
slowest part of his army and go and pick up the Ogres by the Ore mine and
the Alchemists Lab. Meanwhile, with your first hero, collect the other two
Ogre armies, upgrade and go back to meet the other hero. Take those Ogres,
upgrade then proceed west along the road, going south at the junction then
west again to the desert. Do not be distracted by anything else. The Dragon
Castle is at the far west of the map, so, once in the desert, go north-
north-west through a pass where you have to fight some Dragons, then north
for a little while and you will see the Castle on you right. You have to
fight another army first. However your Ogre Lords can overcome all these
Dragons with no bother. I keep them in two armies of about 40 and make sure
they are not next to each other or they may both get flamed at once.
Without the Ogre Alliance, you just have to work hard in the usual way. Aim
to take the northern enemy city first, as it seems to upgrade to Dragons
after the other city.
8. Country Lords
This is quite hard work, although the Ogre and Dragon Alliances make it
significantly easier.
Old Advice
I pick the Logistics option, but the other two have their merits also. Go
west and kill the enemy knight on the second day. Try to kill him outright
as he has usually picked up a good artifact. Then go east to the Sorceress
city. There are various options once you have captured the city. I tend to
hire two more heroes (knight or barbarian, as you will be fighting knights
mainly), then send the original one east through a pass then north to the
Ogres and treasure, and then continue north to collect two Red Dragons.
Another hero goes to the mines then the treasure in the south-west corner,
then back to the city for troops, and the last hero goes north-west for the
Ogres, then back south-west when he is onto the grass, for more Ogres and a
small Green Dragon Army. It all usually goes a bit pear-shaped at this
point, but the plan is supposed to be to capture at least one of the three
enemy cities along the northern edge of the map, preferably the middle one
as it has the best Mage Guild. Ideally, the enemy heroes avoid yours and go
for the central towns. However, I find that the Dragons are usually
sacrificed on the Crusaders. There are also some Black Dragons on the east
of the map which are very useful, and some Green Dragons just to the south
of the most westerly enemy city, but these are usually beaten before you
get there. Continue with business as usual, bringing up Sorceress troops at
regular intervals, and you will win in six or seven weeks.
New and Better Advice
Frank Cardillo has provided some excellent advice. You definitely need the
Logistics option. Forget about the Knight in the west. Go north, via the
Observation Tower, the Ogres (do not turn back to upgrade them, but upgrade
at the next fort) then the Red Dragon. Get the Knight town or you will run
out of time. Proceed directly north up the road then west then north to the
middle one of the Knight cities. You will walk into the city unopposed with
your last step, and you will have a full complement of Knight troops and
the Fifth Level Mage Guild! It all fits so perfectly that I suspect that
this was designed that way and the Knight in the west was a deliberate red
herring. Once you have the city, it is fairly routine, particularly with
the Green Dragons in the little enclave to the south of the city, and the
Black ones at the eastern edge of the map.
9. The Crown
Look, do you want a good score or not? If you do this alternative, you are
destined to a long hard and probably unsuccessful slog in the final
episode. If you insist: the strategy is get the obelisks, hire plenty of
heroes and dig like crazy when you think you have an idea.
10. Greater Glory
How you proceed on this scenario depends on how confident you feel about
the final scenario. In Apocalypse, Roland starts with 5 Titans in his city,
and gains 1 more in the first week, then 3 more in each following week. So
if you can get to his city in the second week, 12 Black Dragons may beat
his 9 Titans, bearing in mind his Attack/Defence stats will be much better
than yours and he may have Mirror Image, Raise Dead, Armageddon, or any
combination. I would recommend 20 Black Dragons for safety.
You should be able to get to the enemy town in 1 week and 4 days, giving
you time to upgrade to City, Maze and Black Tower before the end of the
second week. Sulphur is the limiting factor. You therefore need to go
north-west to the Sulphur Mine first, back south to the Treasure Chests - I
get Experience in the hope of more Logistics - then go east as far as you
can getting mines and resources if they are not too far out of your way,
then turn north in the south-east corner of the map. Don't forget the other
Sulphur Mine by the coast as you travel north. If you have a sulphur
shortage when you want to upgrade, remember there is a Trading Post close
to the town. Hire another hero to help run around collecting things while
you wait for Dragons to appear. There are often two Dragon armies waiting
to join you, so go to the Observation Tower to see if you can spot them
quickly. If these free Dragons are a significant number, you may only need
to wait two weeks to add to them before you can attack the city over the
river. Pad out your army with more Warlock troops, although I usually leave
the Hydra because they are too slow for the long journey in the next
scenario. If you want to attack a town, the first one you come to
immediately west of your city is the most heavily defended, but has a Level
5 Mage Guild. In the final battle, try not to zap your own troops,
particularly the Griffins, with your own Dragons.
11. Apocalypse
As discussed above, Roland will have a pretty good army with top class
spells, so your carry over army and the hero to go with it should be
powerful.
There are two enemy heroes lurking around your cities - the Barbarian and
the Necromancer ones - but they can easily be overcome. Send Archibald
north from his starting point, and let the Barbarian hero catch up with him
after beating the enemy hero close by his city. If you are confident and
really going for speed, give only the Black Dragons, Gargoyles and Minotaur
Kings to the Barbarian, and keep the rest for Archibald. Use the Barbarian
for the final battle, because Archibald's Attack and Defence stats are not
good enough, and his spell power will not make a significant difference.
Send the Barbarian north up the road, them east then north again after the
mercenary camp. Go around the small range of mountains then east to the
winding road and up to the Glowing Liths which are guarded by the Titans.
There are not many Titans, only six or seven, and they may even flee.
Roland's City is close to the other end of the Liths. You can do what you
like with the other heroes and cities, it does not really matter.
If you are doing a tournament, 12 Black Dragons will not reliably beat
Roland. His killer spells are Raise Dead, Summon Elementals because he can
produce over 30, and Mirror Image. Positioning your Gargoyles and Dragons
next to the Titans can overcome Mirror Image. But if he suddenly raises
seven Titans from the dead when you are down to three Dragons, it is bye-
bye cruel world. In fact I would go as far as to say that you will often
lose to Roland with the basic 19 Dragons that you get from your city in the
previous scenario. Help from the allied wandering Dragons is essential.
Good Luck!
Written by David Mills, Gerrards Cross, London, England -
david@misborne.demon.co.uk
First Blood (Evil Campaign 1)
-----------------------------
I finished this map in 22 days. You're stuck with the Necromancer castle
when you start so make the best of it ;-) Playing well, you can get Bone
Dragons in the first week giving you a definite advantage.
1) Take gold instead of experience from chests for a quick building start.
2) Build the Mausoleum on day 2 or 3, not to buy Liches but because it's a
prerequisite for the Laboratory.
3) Build the Bone Dragon Laboratory on day 3 or 4.
4) Good building order for the Necromancer with lots of resources :
- a) Statue (later if you wish) - b) Mage Guild - c) Mausoleum
- d) Bone Dragon Laboratory - e) Zombie Graveyard (if not
already built) - f) Mummy Pyramid - g) Well
5) Attack the trolls blocking the way on day 2 week 1 with an army
including 4 Bone Dragons and lots of skeletons.
6) After beating the trolls, take experience instead of gold for your
primary hero.
7) Go southwest first to capture the yellow castle (knight)
8) Destroy wandering heroes and rush east to take the wizard castle.
9) On week 3 day 1, build 3 other Bone Dragons from your starting castle,
give them to a quick hero and go east to rendez-vous with your primary hero
who is coming from the south-east.
10) Destroy the remaining castle and wandering heroes.
Barbarian Wars (Evil Campaign 2)
--------------------------------
This is a very small map where you are surrounded by 3 barbarian opponents.
I finished in 10 days playing the Warlock.
1) You have 30 free Nomads when you start.. Enough to take your first
castle.
2) Hire a second hero who will take all nearby resources around your
starting castle.
3) Rush southwest with your principal hero and capture your first Barbarian
castle. It will probably be very lightly defended.
4) Next, go north to capture your second barbarian castle by the end of
week 1.
5) Since it's the beginning of week 2, you can build Ogre Lords and Trolls
in your new Barbarian castle.
6) Leave some troops in this castle and the other one (if someone comes
near) so that wandering heroes are not tempted to take it back. Of course,
killing the wandering heroes while you go east is a better idea
7) Run east towards the last Barbarian castle and capture it.
8) If you want, you can build some troops in your starting Warlock castle
and go north therefore catching your Barbarian opponents in a squeeze. This
also serves as reinforcements for your primary hero.
Necromancers (Evil Campaign 3)
------------------------------
Taking the other path is highly recommended but if you insist on taking the
"Necromancers" path and having a tougher time later, please read on. I
finished in 51 days (month 2, week 4, day 2) but I could have finished a
few weeks sooner if I hadn't built-up such a powerful superfluous army for
the final battle.
1) Your warlock begins with 40 Centaurs, 18 Gargoyles, 12 Griffins.
2) Wait until day 7 to capture the southeast wizard castle. Why ? Simply
because it gives more time for the enemy to build free structures for you
3) Buy Foundry on day 7
4) Buy Mage Guild Level 2 on day 1 of week 2.
5) Explore around but don't leave your northwest valley surrounded by the
chain of mountains.
6) I had 2 armies : warlock with initial troops and barbarian with wizard
troops.
7) Buy Ivory Tower on week 2.
8) There's lots of opportunities to have free stacks "join you for greater
glory" because these wandering armies are mostly low-level creatures.
Therefore, always leave a spot free in your main army.
9) Don't bother with the yellow castle stuck in the soutwest corner. Taking
it is not necessary for victory. The enemies there probably won't bother
you if you leave alone the wandering army defending the southern passage
out of your valley.
10) On week 4, day 1, your warlock will attack the Air Elementals near the
Observation Tower blocking the east passage out of your valley.
11) A small "pipeline" of heroes can bring reinforcements (Rocs, Halflings)
to the warlock before he attacks.
12) Visit the Observation Tower and conquer the nearby wizard castle.
13) Kill remaining enemies and take mines around this second castle except
for the gold mine which is too well protected.
14) Watch out for an enemy hero, coming from the south, possibly with
Giants and high-level spells.
15) Upgrade appropriate troops at appropriate locations (Orcs and Dwarves
at Hill Fort and Golems at Freeman's Foundry)
16) Your objective is the Necromancer town named Quick Silver south of your
second castle.
17) It's protected by 200 Halflings, 45 Rocs, 30 Archmages and 5 Giants
(with possibly more) so be patient and create an army sufficient to the
task.
18) There are 2 gem mines south of Quick Silver.
19) Instead of going for Titans, I decided to upgrade my Mage Guild in the
second castle up to level 5 and build a Library. It was a good decision.
20) My final army was composed of 26 Mages, 71 Battle Dwarves, 61 Steel
Golems, 45 Rocs and 118 Orc Chiefs with a few other powerful "reserve"
stacks in my castles. I admit that it was a bit of overkill but why take
chances :-)
Slay The Dwarves (Evil Campaign 4)
----------------------------------
If you want a good score, going through this map is an absolute necessity.
I finished in 18 days playing the Warlock. This scenario is the opposite
counterpart of Good Campaign 3 where you had to save the Dwarves.
1) You start with 3 heroes at different places on the map.
2) Hire another hero (or two) at your castle, build some troops (gargoyles,
centaurs) and go west.
3) Transfer those troops to your Warlock already near the dwarf village
(west of the castle)
4) Split your Gargoyles in 2 stacks to attacks shooters.
5) Take this northern dwarf village and then go northwest where you will
capture a second village by the end of week 1. Do not take the road,
because the stacks there are too strong for your beginning army.
6) The southern Warlock hero will go west towards a clump of dwarf
dwellings.
7) He will upgrade all those dwarves to battle dwarves at the nearby Hill
Fort and then will go southeast to capture the dwarf village in the snow.
8) The northern Warlock hero after capturing a nearby 3rd dwarven village
should follow the road southwest then south.
9) I attacked the sorceress castle (in the southwest) by the end of week 2.
The castle was very easy to take being lightly defended.
10) If there is a big opponent army inside the castle, go the farthest away
from the castle while still remaining only one day-walk away. With luck,
the AI will be stupid enough to leave the castle undefended...
11) Since it is the beginning of week 3, build some other troops from your
new Sorceress castle.
12) The only thing left to do is to clean-up the wandering enemies and
taking the last dwarf village to the southeast.
In conclusion, completing this map is important because it will give you 2
excellent awards available on all subsequent maps ... Dwarfsbane will make
ALL dwarf and battle dwarf stacks flee in fear. While the Ogre Alliance
will make ALL ogres and ogre lords stacks join you ! Not too shabby, don't
you think ? ;-)
Turning Point (Evil Campaign 5)
-------------------------------
This is the same map as Good Campaign 5. Only the artifacts, the position
of your starting castle and the artifacts change. I finished in 7 days. You
need the Ogre Alliance for this strategy.
1) Hire a second hero on day 1.
2) Your starting hero will rush south with Gargoyles and Centaurs.
3) Your second hero will go west taking any Ogre stacks in his way.
4) The first hero can also pick up Ogre stacks and upgrade them at a nearby
Hill Fort.
5) Ignore mines and most ressources. If there is a chest directly in your
path, take the experience from it.
6) Second hero (with only Ogres) will capture the northwest castle.
7) First hero will capture southeast castle then rush west towards the last
castle.
8) Don't forget to kill any wandering enemy heroes. Sometimes a little
detour at the beginning can save a time-consuming chase later.
Turning Point Without Ogre Alliance (Evil Campaign 5)
-----------------------------------------------------
It is recommended to complete scenario #4 (Slay the Dwarves) instead of
scenario #3 (Necromancers) because of the excellent Ogre Alliance and Dwarf
Bane awards that #4 gives you. But if you're reading this, it means that
you like having a challenge later in the campaign, that you're curious or
that you simply were unlucky in your choice of paths :-) I finished in 16
days.
1) Pick warlock for your castle.
2) In small maps, pick gold from chests.
3) Hire Brother Brax the 5th level necromancer.
4) Rush south by road with the warlock.
5) Take both sawmills, visit Observation Tower and the Halfling Hole.
6) Attack the castle in the southeast corner by the end of week 1 (day 5 or
6 is good)
7) Make sure that your 2 castles have the 3 first creature dwellings,
wells, horde buildings and marketplaces on week 2, day 1.
8) Exchange all your resources for gold.
9) Buy all troops in both castles (this can take 2 days) and rush west with
both heroes to capture the remaining 2 enemy castles in the northwest and
southwest corners.
10) Try to attack the castles when the enemy heroes are not inside even if
it means running after them afterwards.
11) The only possible problem with this map might be the northwestern hero
that might have an army just a bit too strong for you (my conquest of his
castle without him inside was a close affair since our warlock armies were
evenly matched except for 29 Skeletons I had transferred to Brother Brax).
Check his warlock castle to see if there might not be some Hydras left in
the Swamp. There might also be Medusas left in the nearby Ruins. This
should be enough to destroy the northwestern hero.
Rebellion (Evil Campaign 6)
---------------------------
Rebellion is one of my favorite maps in HOMM 2, one that could have been
easily named Peasant Revolt or Skeleton Armageddon ;-) Stomping around the
countryside with 2000 skeletons is a great way to relieve yourself of
stress and get delusions of grandeur :-) FYI, Corlagon, the 5th-level
knight you start with, has expert necromancy so you don't really need to
start with a necromancer castle or necromancer heroes. In fact, I suggest
playing with a warlock castle. I finished in 23 days : not a great score
but not bad.
1) Corlagon has 1 Bone Dragon and 40 skeletons at the beginning.
2) Buy a mage guild on day 1 and go there with Corlagon to get the spells.
Cross your fingers to get either Slow or Haste. Those spells could be very
useful but they're not totally necessary.
3) Attack the throng of Peasants to your north. Use your centaurs to lower
their numbers until they get too close. Then the Bone dragon can finish the
remaining peasants. On later combats with peasants, split your multitude of
skeletons in 3 or 4 different stacks and wait for the peasants to come
near.
4) Still going roughly north, attack the stack of archers, a legion of
peasants (you should now have over 400 skeletons) and the lots of rangers
stack.
5) Tips for attacking big shooter stacks : Bone dragon should be in the
top-most spot of your army. The Gargoyles should be split in 2 stacks if
you have enough of them. Fly the Bone dragon between the 2 upper-right
shooter stacks and attack the lowest one. Fly the gargoyles between 2 other
different stacks of shooters and stay there without attacking (unless you
have a lot of gargoyles).
6) Option for more skeletons and magic items : Go back to the southeast
with Corlagon and attack the legion of peasants guarding the loot near your
castle. I did not do this preferring to go for a quicker victory.
7) There's a yellow knight castle to your northwest. It should be your
first castle conquest. I captured it on day 5 of week 2.
8) If you have it, use Haste on your skeletons or slow on fast shooter
stacks.
9) With your huge stacks of skeletons, rush south following the road.
10) Kill any wandering enemies.
11) Capture the orange knight castle in the south. I did it easily with
only 4 big stacks of skeletons.
12) Make sure all orange enemies with big armies are eliminated before your
final attack.
13) Go northwest following (mostly) the road to attack the remaining Wizard
castle.
14) The Titans are no match for your skeletons by now.
P.S. Grab any shooters you can get while exploring. Against other shooter
troops, they will die in the first turn but will also draw missile fire
away from your attacking skeleton stacks.
I am new to the game and this is not intended to be a high scoring strategy
- just a really fun one. Assuming you start the scenario with the Knight
with Necromantic power. When you start - scoot south of your castle and
pick up the freebie resources. Collect archers from the house all the way
on the southern edge of the map. When you have a good sized army of ranged
weapons - I think I had 20 orc chiefs, 50 archers, and 10 or 15 upgraded
trolls, and some ogre lords for mop up - break them into 4 stacks and go
attack the legion of peasants (roughly 4,000 of them!) to the northeast of
your castle. Use "slow" to avoid letting any reach your forces- whittle
them all down with ranged weapons. If you have left an empty space in your
army your necromancer will raise about 1500 skeletons - head north and hit
any other peasant legions you can find - with about 2,000 skeletons you
should head northwest and go straight to the high-mage's green castle -
taking it should be a snap - particularly if he casts an Armageddon and
wipes out most of his own forces - once his castle falls the rest of the
game is mop up.
Dragon Master (Evil Campaign 7)
-------------------------------
The Ogre Alliance is necessary for my strategy. Don't lose time worrying
about your two warlock enemies. They won't have time to become real
nuisances before you capture the Dragon castle. I won in 10 days. It should
be quite tough to do better.
1) Start with a barbarian castle. Their pathfinding skills will help you in
the western desert.
2) Hire 2 other barbarian heroes and make them give their troops to your
starting barbarian hero.
3) Do not lose time building up your castle. It's not required in this
scenario.
4) The 2 secondary barbarian heroes should collect ogre stacks that are a
little removed from the road. ASAP, they should transfer those ogres to the
principal hero.
5) Your primary barbarian hero will go west following the road.
6) Take any nearby ogre stacks and upgrade them to ogre lords when you pass
nearby the Hill Fort.
7) Do not deviate from the road very much until you reach the desert.
8) Attack the first red dragon stack in the desert...
9) Make sure your ogre lords are split in two equal stacks and that they
are in the 2nd and 3rd place on your roster (I had 2 stacks of about 43
ogre lords before the first dragon battle)
10) With correct positioning, the flying dragons will soon flame each other
while attacking you (the sandwich dragon strategy again :-)
11) Go north through the desert, destroy any dragon stacks blocking your
way.
12) Attack the Dragon castle !
Dragon Master Without Ogre Alliance (Evil Campaign 7)
-----------------------------------------------------
Well, since I got requests for help on this scenario (and number 8) from
those who had decided to help the Necromancers (#3) instead of
exterminating the dwarves (#4), I decided to write a strategy walkthrough
for the Dragon Master scenario without the Ogre Alliance award. I finished
in 57 days. Please keep in mind that in order to win you MUST capture the
Dragon City... exterminating the 2 enemy colors does not give you victory.
Anyway, I think it's much easier to win this map by first killing your
opponents then capturing the Dragon City.
1) I suggest playing with a Warlock since you will need Dragons to kill
enemy Dragons later in the game.
2) Split your Gargoyles in 2 equal stacks when attacking shooter stacks.
3) Hire Brother Brax as soon as possible and make him board the boat (a 3rd
hero preferably a Sorceress is also an option).
4) Don't worry about his lousy navigation skill, since you will have plenty
of time to explore the sea. The lighthouse and the astrolabe of navigation
are in the southeast corner of the map.
5) Your 2 priorities in the first week are building up your castle and
capturing ore and sulfur mines.
6) Weeks 2 and 3 should be used for hiring more troops (for a stronger
army) and building any monster structure not already built.
7) Go roughly north with your primary army. Avoid any enemy heroes prowling
the landscape since you're not strong enough (yet) to take them on.
8) DO NOT build the level-2 Mage Guild ! since you will need the sulfur for
your Dragon Tower.
9) FYI, you should be able to kill easily the wandering armies of slow
ground troops (Ogres, Dwarves, etc) with your big stack of centaurs
(beginning on week 2 or 3) combined with Gargoyles and Griffins who will
destroy any enemy stacks that make it through the hail of shooter arrows.
10) If you are unlucky enough to have Necromancy as a secondary skill,
scrap any skeletons you might get since they will destroy your good morale.
11) Eventually build an army composed solely of Hydras and go south with
them (to get mines). Do not go too far away with them, since their presence
in your starting castle will intimidate the enemy heroes away.
12) I had built up my Dragon Tower on week 4.
13) Upgrade your green Dragon Tower to red one.
14) When you have 7 Red Dragons, the time to attack your first enemy castle
has come.
15) Try to attack the castle that seems the less powerful (orange ?) or
that has the better spells (Dimension Door). My conquest of the first enemy
castle was at the end of week 6.
16) Buy more dragons from your new castle (there should be some) and
combine them with your Red Dragon army.
17) From then on, you should be pretty much invincible. Reinforce your
primary army with Dragons from your castles and chase down all enemy
heroes.
18) When you consider yourself strong enough, you can attack the Dragon
City. If you have Dimension Door, you can attack much sooner since you
won't have to go through the dragon stacks guarding the way.
Country Lords (Evil Campaign 8)
-------------------------------
To use my strategy, you need to have both the Ogre Alliance and the Dragon
Alliance. With those, it turns an otherwise tough map into a merely average
difficulty map. I won in 38 days probably making this the longest scenario
in the Evil Campaign.
1) You start with only one hero commanding a strong army (50 centaurs, 30
Gargoyles, 10 Minotaurs if you pick the warlock) but no castle.
2) You have 1 week to capture a town or you're eliminated by default.
3) First thing to do is visit the Observation Tower. You will see an
annoying knight to your southwest taking all the resources that are
righfully yours.
4) Show him the error of his ways by destroying him on day 2.
5) You don't have time to take everything right away, so take only the
chests.
6) Always take experience and concentrate on the following secondary skills
: Logistics, Wisdom, Leadership (or Luck) and Ballistics.
7) Now rush east to capture the Sorceress castle in the valley. I captured
it on day 7.
8) Hire a second hero and make him go southwest taking all the resources
you left there.
9) Go north between moutain cliffs with your primary hero... scaring
dwarves and taking ogres until you reach a Red Dragon stack.
10) Take it (or them) and go northeast through a field of gold. Don't
bother taking all of it since it could slow you down too much.
11) It's possible to build a Phoenix tower during week 2, but since we use
a very agressive strategy, those phoenix will only serve as a clean-up crew
when the game is already practically won.
12) Capture the northeast warlock castle by week 3.
13) Leave your remaining minotaurs and unicorns to garrison this castle
since you don't want a wandering blue player to take it back after you're
gone.
14) Option : It's possible to capture the southeast village near the water
therefore avoiding a return trip back later.
15) Go north and get the nice 4 free black dragons waiting for you...
16) Now comes the fun stomping part ;-) With your 4 black dragons, your 2
red dragons, around 25 Ogre Lords and your super-hero spellcaster, attack
the knights castles one by one going west.
17) Killing the wandering enemies and capturing 3 very-well protected
knight castles, I did not lose ONE single unit ! If you're lucky you can
get some mass destruction spell (like Armageddon) and leave the Ogre lords,
slowing you down, in one of the castles.
18) Those 3 knight castles were captured in less than a week.
19) Remember your 2nd hero ? He should have explored most of the western
part of the map building up a good army on his own. Capture the western
village if the blue player got it.
20) After killing the majority of the blue enemies in the northwestern part
of the map, it's time to use the teleporter and obliterate the remaining
blue hero hidden on the island.
Country Lords Without Alliances (Evil Campaign 8)
-------------------------------------------------
In answer to multiple requests, here is a general strategy on how to win
Country Lords without the Ogre and Dragon Alliance. I do not suggest
playing it this way unless you really want to have a challenge. No
alliances turns this already hard map into one of the toughest scenarios of
the game. I managed to complete it in 81 days with lots of difficulty.
Playing "Country Lords" the long way is a good way to learn the combat
tactics of the Sorceress and how to beat great Knight armies. I included
some good general tips for the Sorceress player in this walkthrough
1) Kill the Knight in the southwest corner on day 2
2) Take most of the chests but always pick experience instead of gold (pick
Logistics if you can). You don't have time to take all the other resources.
3) Conquer the Sorceress castle to your east by the end of week 1.
4) Hire a second hero and let him harvest the remaining resources in the
southwest corner.
5) It's possible to buy the Red Tower (for Phoenix) on week 2 or 3.
6) Since the Dragons or Ogres will not join your army, you have to be more
patient.
7) Build up your army while conquering most of the southern part of the map
(the brown plains). 1 or 2 additional castles are nice to have but don't
upgrade them too much since you only keep them for additional revenue.
8) You can try sending a scout deep in enemy territory to see the coming
attacks but expect to flee or lose him.
9) AVOID strong enemy heroes ! At least until you are confident in the
strength of your own primary army.
10) I would usually suggest taking the castle to the northeast, near the
water, but in my game, the best enemy hero was patrolling there blocking my
way.
11) Some combat tactics : a) Sorceress units are the fastest ones in the
game. Use this to your advantage. b) Knight troops usually don't have
flyers, therefore stay back and shoot. c) Cast Slow or Blind on the Knight
troops (especially Champions and Crusaders) d) Cast Bless or Haste on your
best Sorceress troops e) Always cast the mass version of the spell if you
have it. f) Keep a garrison (dwarves, unicorns) in the castles you want to
keep since, with luck, it can intimidate some enemies away. g) Use the
Phoenix-Elemental Storm combo if you manage to get this spell. h) Targets
you must destroy, in order of priority, are : the Rangers, the Champions,
the Crusaders and the rest. i) Use offensive spells and shooter fire to
lower enemy stacks before they reach your lines. Finish the approaching
walker stacks with Unicorns or Phoenix. j) Use troop combos (see below)
12) Sorceress troop combos : a) Very Fast Combo = Grand Elves, Greater
Druids, Phoenix b) Fast Killer Combo = Grand Elves, Unicorns, Druids and
Phoenix. (adding another shooter stack makes it even stronger) c) Scout
army = 1 Phoenix or 2 very fast troops in different positions. d) Clean-up
Crew Combo (or Beginning army) = Elves, Battle Dwarves, Druids,Sprites
13) When I had a sufficiently strong Fast Killer Combo (10 Phoenix or
higher), I rushed to the north trying to capture the Knight castles while
the big enemy heroes were otherwise occupied in conquering the southern
towns and castles.
14) Use Hit and Run tactics : capture the castle, enter it for new spells,
reinforce your own army, leave the castle empty, rush the next castle,
capture it, etc.
15) Be aware of opportunities : weak heroes and newly built castles.
16) In my game, I exchanged my good Sorceress castle (after stripping it
almost empty) for the 3 excellent Knight castles in the northwest :-)
In conclusion, the keys to winning this tough scenario without alliances
are patience, guerilla tactics, good spellcasting and avoiding battles you
are not equipped to win.
Greater Glory (Evil Campaign 10)
--------------------------------
This is the same map as Good Campaign 7 (The Gauntlet) with a few
differences. You start in the southwest corner and have to conquer the
enemy town in the northeast corner in 8 weeks or less. I finished in 37
days ,which is not the best possible score, because I wanted at least 12
black dragons in my carry-over force for the last scenario. You start with
the hero Corlagon which has 20 Orc Chiefs, 50 skeletons (Expert Necromancy
will raise this number very soon :-), 24? Griffins, 24 Gargoyles and 20
Power Liches.
1) Dismiss the orc chiefs on your 1st turn : they ruin your morale and slow
the rest of you army. Put the Power Liches in the top position.
2) You can decide to split your 20 Power liches in 2 stacks but I prefer to
leave one spot free for new recruits.
3) I suggest going north by the Warlock trail... but first take the wood
and sulfur mines without forgetting the 3 free chests near the water.
4) Always take experience instead of gold from the chests.
5) During your long trek in the forest, I suggest taking the chests, the
ore piles and the sulfur piles in your direct path but to deviate from it
VERY LITTLE. Leave the other ressources and items for later.
6) When you climb levels, try to pick Logistics.
7) Do not capture the villages... The only one you really need is the
warlock village at the end of the trail near the water.
8) I reached this northeast village by week 2 day 4, leaving me barely
enough time to construct the castle, build the swamp and most importantly
the green dragon tower.
9) Hire another hero that will go back on the trail you just came from to
pick up all the goodies. Option : Hire a 3rd hero to follow your primary
hero around collecting resources a little out the way.
10) Your primary Barbarian hero will explore the 2 other trails while the
black dragons accumulate in your Warlock castle.
11) After Corlagon reaches level 16, take gold from the chests.
12) Eventually build a shipyard with 2 boats.
13) On week 5, go to the nearby trading post and exchange all unnecessary
resources (sulfur is necessary !) for more gold.
14) Board the boat on week 5 day 5, with Corlagon and all the secondary
armies you do not want to carry-over (hydras, skeletons, power liches,
etc). This is the first attack where the objective is weakening the yellow
village (Middlegate) you must capture to win.
15) Try to kill everything except the Dragons which are too tough for the
moment. Don't forget to flee at the last minute with Corlagon.
16) Rehire Corlagon in your Warlock castle and equip him with all the best
troops (black dragons, minotaur kings, gargoyles, griffins). Wait 1 turn
for your spell points to replenish and then board a boat for the second
time (week 5 day 7).
17) On day 1 of week 6, hire another hero (or use one you already have) to
build more troops in the Warlock castle and transfer them to Corlagon
inside the boat.
18) Dismiss all secondary heroes ! Do not dismiss Corlagon and his
impressive army !
19) Final attack takes place on week 6 day 2. Try to minimize your losses
especially for the Black dragons (I only lost one).
Apocalypse -- The Quick And Dirty Way (Evil Campaign 11)
--------------------------------------------------------
To carry out this quick-win strategy you need at least 12 Black Dragons or
more in your carry-over force. The Ogre and Dragon Alliance are not
necessary. I finished it in 12 days. The following is my quick and dirty
(not to mention dull) strategy for this excellent map. I have also done
another strategy on this same map using the long way , which BTW is
infinitely more interesting (the way to play the map, not the article
itself :-), that I will post very soon on this newsgroup. To really enjoy
your HOMM 2 experience, I strongly suggest trying out all maps on your own
at least 2 times before reading any of my strategy tips. If you achieve
victory on your first or second try, then feel free to compare your
strategy and score with mine just for fun :-)
Your primary objective in this map is to capture Roland's castle far to the
northwest. Everything else is secondary to that victory goal.
1) First order of business is to protect your Babarian and Necromancer
castles which are about to be attacked.
2) Buy the best troops available (Cyclops, Trolls and Ogres) in your
Barbarian castle but not everything right away. In any case, even without a
barbarian hero in the castle, the nearby enemy sorceress should be
intimidated enough not to bother you too quickly.
3) The Necromancer castle can be easily defended by returning the nearby
Necromancer hero to the castle and by buying the Bone Dragon. With good
spellcasting, you can beat the approaching knight army.
4) Archibald who has the carry-over forces should give them up to your
midlevel barbarian hero because this barbarian will get superior
pathfinding, good logistics (maybe) not to mention better attack/defense
statistics than Archie.
5) If you have Hydras, leave them with Archibald since they would slow you
down too much.
6) With your barbarian hero leading your carry-over force, go north by the
road (Queen's road). Do not deviate too much...
7) Turn right at the first intersection.
8) You will see a wizard castle but ignore it. Continue east until you
reach another intersection.
9) Turn left (north) still following the road.
10) By the end of week 1, capture the wizard castle at the end of this
road.
11) Buy a spell book and if you can... buy some titans (you can have 4 if
you wait on day 1 of week 2)
12) Next, leave the road and follow the meandering path between mountains.
Don't worry about losing the Wizard castle.
13) At the end of the path, kill the Titans and use the teleporter.
14) For comparison's sake, let's suppose you had kept Archibald (with
Hydras) to reach Roland's castle. You would have arrived by week 3 day 2.
By using the barbarian hero (and no Hydras) you instead reach Roland's
castle on day 5 of week 2.
15) The final battle is very, very tough. Roland will usually have 9
Titans, 9 rocs, 6 Archmages, 11 Steel Golems and 15 Boars. The problem is
that Roland is much better (from a statistics point of view) than either
Archibald or your barbarian hero.
16) Also note that Roland (the wizard) has a 5th-level mage guild with two
5th-level spells and three 4th-level spells. If he manages to get some
killer spell like Ressurect True or Summon Elemental then you can forget
about victory. Spare yourself the humiliation and reload the scenario from
the beginning :-)
17) I had to reload many times, before Roland did not have a combination of
spells too strong for my carry-over force. He usually got Armageddon, Storm
or Mirror Image, but even with those spells, I think it's still possible to
win with good tactics (maybe not if Roland mirror-images his Titans too
much ;-)
18) Your most important stack is the Black dragons since they are immune to
magic and are the only units that can really compete against the mighty
Titans.
Apocalypse -- The Long And Fun Way (Evil Campaign 11)
-----------------------------------------------------
As always, it's a lot more fun and rewarding to completely explore a map
rather than go for the quick victory giving you a better score. Therefore,
I've replayed the last scenario of the evil campaign in order to provide
you with some strategy tips if you decide to play it the long way (like
most of us do). I finished in 38 days. Neither the Ogre and/or Dragon
alliances are necessary to win this scenario but the carry-over force is
preferrable.
1) Winning the long way means that you will have to kill all the enemy
heroes and castles before you go after Roland.
2) My carry-over force consisted of 12 Black Dragons and other assorted
warlock units.
3) Protect your barbarian and necromancer castles which will get attacked
on the first day. If you build enough troops in the barbarian castle, the
nearby sorceress will be intimidated and leave you alone for a while.
4) You don't want this annoying sorceress to steal your resources and free
troops, therefore go kill her on day 2 with a good barbarian force.
5) Unlike the quick and dirty way to win this scenario, you will leave the
carry-over force with Roland since he's a better spellcaster.
6) The 2 first weeks are used for completing the construction of your 3
initial castles.
7) Go north with Archibald's army and capture the wizard (green) castles.
8) I managed to capture two wizard castles in week 1, including one with
Titans and a level-5 mage guild.
9) Leave your griffins in the first castle and the minotaur kings in the
better second castle. That's for protection from wandering enemies
(especially yellow).
10) Concentrate on destroying one enemy color at a time. That means, you
take detours to kill enemy heroes of the color you are currently stalking.
You destroy all that is green, then all that is orange, then finish with
the yellow.
11) Of course, if a wandering enemy hero of a different color is passing
not too far away, you can destroy him too :-)
12) The general strategy in this map is to destroy the strongest enemies
first by striking quickly. Green wizards, orange sorceresses, yellow
knights and finally the red castle of Roland in that order.
13) On week 2, I completely destroyed the green enemy and began my foray
into western sorceress territory (orange).
14) Take one or two Titans with your black dragon army that will draw all
shooter fire away from your precious dragons. All other troops are
optional.
15) On week 3, I almost completely destroyed the orange player taking over
all his castles.
16) On week 4, I annihilated the yellow knights (completely to the east)
with still only 11 Black dragons and 1 Titan.
17) On week 5 day 1, I built 13 Black dragons in my starting Warlock castle
(Griffins, Minotaur Kings and Gargoyles too) and I moved them to the front
(up north).
18) I transferred this great Warlock army to Archibald who still had 11
black dragons and who had become a high-level hero during the course of the
game.
19) I also bought all Titans available from my Wizard castles and gave them
to Archibald.
20) Finally, Archibald's Dragon and Titan army followed the northern path
between moutains, took the teleporter and captured Roland's castle. It was
a tough epic battle with the only survivors being... 3 of my Titans.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
XII. STRATEGY GUIDES (Guides for Normal Maps)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Note: Contributed by a lot of players.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scorched Earth
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following will be another walkthrough for one of the tough scenarios
of HOMM 2 : Scorched Earth. I finished this one in 34 days for 199 pts
(Paladin rating) at normal settings. I will try a different format this
time. Tell me what you think...
1) I suggest starting with a Barbarian castle since this is a medium
map.
2) You start with one castle and one town. Build your second castle on
the first day ! This will give you a money advantage.
3) Hire one other hero at the east castle and one hero at the west
castle.
4) Explore during the first week. Use Barbarians or Warlocks.
5) Your best hero will have an army of Orcs, Goblins and Wolves. Combine
armies if possible. You now have 2 scouts with only one quick unit and
the best army stack who will take mines defended by slow troops.
6) Forget about mines that are too well defended. There are a lot of
free ressources for the taking.
7) During the 2nd week, take the yellow castle in the center of the map
with your best army.
8) Continue exploring with your scouts and take everything that is not
defended. Hire more heroes if possible.
9) Concentrate on the construction of one castle. Don't upgrade, except
for Ogre Lord and forget about mage guilds or turrets. Economize your
ore, it's your most important ressource.
10) By the end of the 2nd week, your best castle should have all monster
structures except for Cyclops.
11) In the 3rd week, conquer one or two more of the yellow player
castles. Buy the best troops and leave for the next city or castle.
Before all that, give your best troops from your starting castle to your
best hero army.
12) By the end of the 4th week, you could try getting the castle of your
enemy brother in the opposite corner of the map. Try to attack while his
hero is away exploring.
13) In the 5th week, you have a definite advantage with your more
numerous castles. Build all the armies you can in all castles (3 or 4
armies now). Exchange all your ressources for gold. Blitzkrieg the
remaining cities and heroes and you've won !
Final word : The secret to victory in this scenario is being aggressive.
Take the enemy castles as soon as possible, but most of all don't let
the Necromancer build up.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shipwrecked
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is my strategy on Shipwrecked! a hard scenario at normal game
difficulty. Please note that you start with a lot of disadvantages in
this one. Your knight starts with only a village and you have to go up
against Warlocks, Barbarians and Necromancers that have 3 towns each. My
walkthrough should assure you of a win, but it will take some time. You
need to be patient in this scenario. I finished in 74 days for 159 pts
(troll rating). Far from my best score but at least I won it ;-) So here
are some tips in rough chronological order :
1) In the beginning, always take gold instead of experience points
2) Build your castle on the first turn
3) Hire another hero on day 2 but give only 1 or 2 very fast troops. He
will serve as your scout while your other slower army (Lord Kilburn)
fights the battles.
4) Take mines that are lightly defended. Don't take any risks especially
againt shooter troops.
5) There is a free town to the north of your starting castle ! But don't
turn it in a castle, you will need the wood for building up your primary
castle.
6) Build the most structures possibles on week 1. Don't bother with Mage
guilds or upgrades except for the ranger upgrade. In my game, I
succeeded in building the Cathedral on day 7 !
7) In week 2, you should have a big army with Lord Kilburn (6 paladins,
28 rangers and some swordmen) and a scout you will use to explore.
8) Week 3 : Build up your castle and explore with Lord Kilburn's army
going first north (there is a genie lamp !) and then south-east.
9) By the end of week 3, you should start attacking the Barbarians
castles in the south-east.
10) Now comes the waiting time...
11) You have to build up your knight and barbarians castles and mop up
the remaining barbarian heroes. By this time, you should have seen
enough obelisks to try finding the ultimate artifact. Don't search for
it if it's too far in enemy territory.
12) By the end of the 2nd month, you should be able to build two big
armies : one composed of Barbarian troops (Ogre Lords, Wolves, Orc
Chiefs...) and the other including (Paladins, Rangers and Swordmen...).
13) With your 2 big stacks... I suggest attacking the Necromancers with
the Barbarian troops and the Warlocks with the Knight troops.
14) Never leave your castles undefended or at the least destroy any
passing armies on your way to their castles.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spellcasters
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As always, try this scenario at least once before reading my little
walkthrough. It's more enjoyable that way and being spoiled of the
surprises is very sad ;-) If you complete it, check out how it could
have been done differently and compare your score with mine !
This scenario is supposed to decide once and for all who the best
spellcasting class will be ! The necromancer, sorceress, warlock and
wizard go up against each other and you have the time to build big
armies while the crusaders keep the peace. The title of this scenario is
somewhat misleading... as you don't really need spell casting to win
this one. At least I didn't ;-) I decided to play the Warlock : my
favorite hero class. So the following tips are more geared towards the
Warlock player. In fact, this article could have been called the Way of
The Warlock ;-) I finished this scenario in 56 days for 144 pts (Water
Elemental rating) at normal game difficulty.
1) Always buy another hero on your first turn of the same class as your
first hero if possible. Give all the troops to your starting hero except
for a very fast unit that will stay with your 2nd hero : the scout.
2) I don't usually do this but here is a good order for building
structures in the Warlock Castle during the first week : Crypt, Dungeon,
Statue, Nest, Maze (if you can), Swamp (if you can), Well (possibly
Waterfall as a alternate choice).
3) You play a Warlock, sulfur is your first priority !
4) Explore with both heroes and take lightly defended mines. Your flying
troops (griffins and gargoyles) are great for killing most missile
troops ! Separate your gargoyle stack in two if necessary.
5) Do not build mage guilds, you will need the sulfur for Dragons and
Hydras.
6) At the beginning of week 2, reinforce your best army with new troops
from the castle.
7) Keep Hydras in your castle. They slow down all your troops and they
make a great garrison. Hint : With hydras in your castle, the AI will
rarely attack you.
8) Here is a good "pocket" formation for protecting your centaurs from
flying enemies (thanks to whoever came up with that formation !). You
need a closer formation (monsters next to one another). From top to
bottom :
Dragons
Centaurs
Griffins
Gargoyles (who will move in front of the centaurs at their first turn)
Minotaur kings
9) Upgrade for minotaur kings as soon as possible
10) By week 4, you have a big enough army to take on the Necromancer to
the north. Keep close to the shore and take the gold mine while you
pass. Usually, I would attack other castles much sooner, but your
adversaries start with good armies in this scenario.
11) Always save your money for Dragon towers. Do not build Mage guilds
except for the first level...
12) You can now give your Hydras (you should have a bunch by now) to
your scout and attack the wandering armies and cemeteries that you
didn't get the first time.
13) Don't go too far from your castle with this second army.
14) Week 5 : construction
15) If you're lucky, the Wizards and Sorceresses (?) are attacking each
other.
16) After the Necromancer is completely eliminated, go after the Wizard
next but with Necromancer troops (Vampire Lords, Liches and Bone Dragons
are a good combination!)
17) At almost the same time, attack the sorceress castles with a stack
of Red Dragons and Minotaur Kings.
18) You can attack on both fronts, but don't leave your castles
undefended. If you do, kill any armies that want to avoid you.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Teleporters
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Think of this map as a 3-pointed star. On each point there are 2 colors
and one teleporter leading to an island full of good stuff. You can win
by accumulating 400,000 gold pieces or by destroying all your opponents.
The second way is quicker. I finished in 80 days for 138 pts (Ghost)
playing as a Warlock.
1) There are a lot of free ressources... take the gold and build up your
castle.
2) Hire another hero on day 1 and a third one at the beginning of week
2.
3) Keep the buffer zone troops in the middle of the "star" island.
4) With this 3rd hero, build a shipyard with a boat and go explore the
map.
5) There are no ressources in the water... but it's nice discovering
more of the map.
6) Week 3 : why not build a second boat ?
7) End of Week 3 : attack the castle in your point of the "star"
8) The enemy AI is too stupid to build shipyards...
9) The 4 other colors will beat up on each other.
10) Remember the buffer troops ?, they keep your part of the island free
to explore.
11) Attack the other castles by boat when you're ready.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terra Firma
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game difficuly: impossible
Map difficulty: expert
Goal: vanquish all the opponents in 11 days.
Everything is quite simple. For faster movement - at the end of each day
try to take with one hero all the army from main hero except the boars.
Day 1
Wizard (leave all army in the castle except one boar) takes Treasure
chest (money - 2000!) and campfire. Recruit 2nd wizard which goes to the
right (leave all army in the castle except one boar).
Day 2
1st wizard takes haflings. 2nd wizard takes Treasure chest (money) and
visits Gazebo. Recruit 3rd hero. Take all army in the castle (buy some
troops) and give it to 1st hero. 1st hero kills monsters on the road and
takes artifact.
Day 3
Capture lower castle (get 'Magic arrow' spell there). Defend with one
hero starting castle.
Day 4
Main hero moves south. Leave the starting castle and go down. You have
now 2 heroes standing on both sides of lower castle (keep safe
distance).
Day 5
Orange retakes castle an chases after your main hero leaving castle
undefended. Your king has sent supplies to help you in your efforts -
5000K gold and 10 gems. Recruit 3 more heroes (get the free resources to
the left from lower castle). Supply the main army. Your main army kills
the monsters guarding the entrance in the valley and go SE.
Day 6,7
Main army still moving SE. At the end of Day 7 you should stand 1 step
from gazebo. Other heroes collect all free resources around and visit
all obelisks they see.
Day 8
Main army is attacked by red. Don't allow to retreat. Capture castle. 4
bone dragons are waiting for you. Now your puzzle is quite open to
detect where is ultimate artifact. For me it was in 1 day distance from
castle. Recruit 2 heroes. One will dig the artifact, the other - pass it
to main army. Main army stays in castle where you buy 2nd level mage
guild.
Day 9
Pass the ultimate artifact to main army (I got Ultimate book of
Knowledge - +12 knowledge, but actually you need any ultimate stuff with
knowledge and/or spell power). Visit well and move south.
Day 10
Main army kills red's hero. You already see the Black Fang.
Day 11
Black Fang is so weak that it makes you laugh.
Good job! You get 415 pts.
-- Bene Armstrong
This is my killer strategy for Terra Firma. You play a lone warlock that
has to caspture a necromancer castle on the other side of a new
landbridge created by wildmagic. This scenario is considered of expert
difficulty but I found it quite easy (at least more easy than Broken
Alliance ;-) I even got my best score ever ! Finished in 29 days for 273
pts (Black Dragon rating) at normal game difficulty. So without further
ado here's how I did it :
1) Buy one other hero on day 1. One hero will be scout (one unit) and
the other hero the warrior (all other units).
2) Don't forget to get more halflings at the nearby halfling hole.
3) Take the wizard castle to the east very rapidly, by the end of week
1, with your warrior hero (army : lot of halflings, 3 rocs, several
boars and possibly mages)
4) Keep the buffer zone between your starting castle and the south
Wizard castle.
5) Keep your steel golems in your starting castle for the moment
6) Buy more troops at the beginning of week 2 in your new wizard castle
and conquer the southern Wizard castle.
7) Week 3 : Build up the maximum of units possible and give them to your
warrior hero stack (Mages, Boars, Rocs, more than 100 halflings). You
can add steel golems too but they're not necessary.
8) Buy cheap sacrificial Barbarian heroes to explore to the southeast.
9) With your warrior hero, rush to the southeast ignoring all towns and
detours (possible exceptions : Gem mine and obelisks) until you get to
Blackfang Castle.
10) Kill wandering Necromancer armies if they're weak.
11) If you don't want a Necromancer Hero to flee, use the slow spell
instead of the blind spell which doesn't work on undead..
12) Conquer Castle Blackfang ! If you're lucky it will be lightly
defended with no enemy hero protector :-)
It's probably possible to get a better score on this map if it's your
second time out (it was my first attempt on this scenario) and if you're
very agressive.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
TERRA FIRMA
Expert Map, Impossible rating, 220%,35 days, 363 points. My top score.
This one is rather simple. I have played it three times, improving each
time the strategy. In every scenario you have to keep in mind the
objective. Conquer the BlackFang castle. That's all !
1.By the end of the first week you have to conquer one of the Wizard's
castle.
2.By the end of the second week you have to conquer the other Wizard's
castle.
3.Find the Ultimate Artifact. On this artifact depends the strategy.
Anyhow in this scenario this artifact is not very necessary.
4.A miss of the game. If you find the castle with the hero in it, the
forces guarding the castle don't fight with you if they are different
types of the opponent's hero forces. (The second time I played this
scenario in 47 days this happened and the victory was easy.)
5.Another miss of the game(not for this scenario).The computer player
always leave forces in the castle, so they split their force and it is
easier to defeat.
6.On my last attempt I was lucky. I had 2nd level spells only, the
Lightning, the artifact which improves with 50% the lightning and as
Ultimate artifact the Staff with 12 Spell Power points. Last, but not
the least BlackFang was heavily defended. Going for them they send 4
heroes against me, each of them having 4 light troops (7-10 of a kind)
and one large troop which was defending the castle. My army was very
light, made up of 10 ArchiMages, 20 Stell Golems, 25 Birds, 30 boars and
about 60 halflings.
7.In normal situation I could not beat the castle armies made up of 25
Bone Dragons, 40 Liches, 50 Vampires, 70 Royal Mummies, 100 Mutant
Zombies. But resisting almost without losses to the four strikes of the
enemy, my final fight was with 25 Bone Dragons and nothing more.
Anyhow at this level you have to restart the game several times to get
the best configuration: spells, artifacts and a bit of luck in order to
get a top score.
-- Cristian Arosculesei
Terra Firma should be set as a hard map. It is just too easy. Lost
continent is way harder than it. I won it at a score of 367 in 33 days
(impossible level).
I just get all resources I need and when enemies comes near I always
sneaked back into the castle. About week 2, yellow and orange should be
fighting badly. Send a hero to check who wins. If the enemy castle in
sight is lightly defended than capture it no matter who strong the hero
near the castle you can fled back to your base and can use the magic
that castle has (use a waste warlock hero).
If your are lucky, you can even buy the troops in the castle ( a lot).
Then the enemy hero may not attack. After I used this technique to
capture all other two wizard castles, orange defeated and yellow in a
caslt near Blackfang. Get about 24 archmages, 30^ rocs, 40 steel golems,
60 boars, 160 haflings before month 2 week 3. I went down to Blackfang
at the the 27 day. Lucky me! Blackfang was havily defended! It had 16
bone dragons, 20-30 vampire lords, 98 upgraded zombies, 10 skeletons,
and 30 royal mummies. High spell power, high defence, and slow magic
will be nessary.
-- Judy Chan
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Lost Continent
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game difficuly: impossible
Map difficulty: hard
Goal: vanquish all the opponents in 31 days.
The map is easy but annoying. It's hard to destroy the enemy fast.
That's why I don't like it.
The only reasonable choice here is the sorceress :
1) there are tons of wood, gold and artifacts in the water ;
2) its closer to the strongest castle (purple warlock) than any other
castle - 2 days by sea.
There is one condition - purple must be builder. Otherwise you will find
nothing worth using when you capture his castle. The goal is to take
purple Warlock castle on Day ~12 - it will be lightly defended cause
purple has taken all his army out. If there is not green tower built
then u are screwed - restart. Even 5th level guild wont help u to
accomplish the task.
1) Purple will be vanquished trying to retake his starting castle.
2) On Day 15
a) give 2 dragons to one sorceress which goes in the whirlpool to reach
orange Wizard castle. After capturing wizard starting castle (4th level
guild there) she goes East and captures necromancer starting castle.
Many bone dragons awaiting for you.
b) give 2 dragons to one hero which goes West and captures knight
starting castle. Then go south and capture barbarian starting castle.
You will see that dragons and your growing spell power are unstoppable.
When you have captured these castles you can retreat and hire these
heroes whereever you need.
3) On 3rd week hire (actually you should have one hero there already)
one hero in your starting castle. Recruit archers and move south cause
yellow likes to build there.
About this time you should have finished taking all the free resources
from sea.
4) On 4th week hire one hero in your starting castle. Take black (you
have tons of resources - why not upgrade) dragons and move to the center
of the map. Barbarian and wizard like to capture towns there.
~ on Day 27 all castles (!) are captured but you still run after enemy
heroes who run in all directions and capture towns or have already done
it.
Good job! But it can be done a few days faster. I didn't score in my
table so I don't know how much points you get.
-- Bene Armstrong
An original HOMM2 professional map.
The goal is to take purple Warlock castle. On normal difficulty you can
build second magic level guild and get Lightning bolt or Cold ray and
make an attack plan to purple castle within the first week and capture
castle on day 7 or 8. Within the 2 or 3 first weeks you can build Dragon
tower. Playing on impossible you can't take purple castle within the
first week. I decided to conquer the castle on week 2. To conquer
Warlock castle I needed a strong army. With 8 druids, 10 grand elves and
6 unicorns it is possible to take purple Warlock castle. How it is
possible to build unicorns in the first week? Actually there are 6 piles
of random resources near. I had 2 piles of gems (for a total of 12) and
2 piles of ore (for a total of 15). I took money over experience, hired
another Sorceress hero, made her board a boat and took flotsam in the
water.
Warlock castle was lightly defended and I won with minimum losses. There
were 4 green dragons available, I hired 2 and stayed in the castle. Both
Warlock heroes failed to beat me in the castle and Purple was
vanguished. Within the week I upgraded green tower to black and had 7
black dragons by the 4th week. 2 dragons I gave to my primary Sorceress
hero who she went into the whirpool to reach orange Wizard castle.
Second sorceress with 2 dragons went to conquer Knight castle. Then I
vanquished Barbarian and Necromancer.
Finished on impossible in 34 days.
-- King Arturo (Arturo Axenenko)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Undead Armies
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This scenario is called Undead Armies but your biggest problem will be
the Barbarians... I played blue color as a knight (southwest corner). I
won this in 54 days for a score of 146 pts (Water Elemental rating) at
normal game difficulty.
1) You play a Knight, your first priority is WOOD !
2) Hire another hero : if possible a Barbarian or Sorceress.
3) Good order for the 1st week of building : Archery Range, Shipyard
with Boat, Statue, Well, Blacksmith, Tavern, Armory (if you have enough
wood).
4) On day 2 or 3, give most of your archers to your sorceress who will
board the boat.
5) Attack the enemy boat already exploring the sea.
6) You now have all the flotsam, chests and island treasures to
yourself.
7) By the end of Week 2 : upgrade to Rangers and attack the castle to
your north... Follow the shore !
8) 3rd castle conquest (Necromancer near the shore) should be at the end
of week 3 or beginning of week 4.
9) With all the obelisks found by your sorceress and other heroes, you
should have a pretty good idea where the ultimate artifact is located.
10) Do not go deep in enemy territory trying to find it.
11) Be patient and build up your 3 castles. Never leave your castles
totally undefended.
12) Explore with scouts while preparing your final army.
13) Orange armies (Barbarians) shall be your toughest opponents.
14) There is a teleporter going from the northwest corner to the
southeast corner... use it if possible.
15) I leave the rest to you !
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Valley Of Death
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game difficuly: impossible
Map difficulty: expert
Goal: capture Vulcania at Day 11. Take blue barbarian (for max moving in
the desert).
Day 1-4, Take experience in the Treasure chest (prefer better
pathfinding and logistics then and later) and go straight North. Take
dwarwes in the Dwarf cottage. No need to recruit more heroes. I tried to
recruite one more hero and supply the first with halflings and/or
medusas but I lost then 1-2 days.
Kill the monsters (if you get not so many dwarwes you'll be screwed if
monsters appear to be strong (for.ex., one time I got pack of iron
golems)) blocking pathway to North.
Get in the boat on Day 5.
You land on NE island on Day 7. There you'll find a teleporter to the
"valley of death". Delete dwarwes and goblins to move further each turn
and later if you have less hitpoints the computer hero will attack.
You'll need that for sure.
Day 8, Take genies.
Day 9, Take as much genies as you can in second lamp.
Day 10, You see that enemy hero couldn't reach you. You recruit ghosts
and move just one (!) step towards Vulcania.
Day 11, Computer hero attacks you. Main goal is to attack weaker enemy
units with ghosts. To attack Vulcania you need at least 50+. Final
battle is like a cake walk if the same strat is used.
You get for this trick 415 pts . Congratulations!
-- Bene Armstrong
Expert, medium expansion set map.
# of players: 1 human(computer) random / 1 human(computer) random / 1
computer necromancer
You have to capture Necromancer castle "Vulcania" by the end of month 5,
week 4, day 7. The castle lies in the valley of death and is strongly
defended.
I played Blue Barbarian and used the quickest way to win.
Day 1-4, Take experience in the Treasure chest and keep going straight
North. Recruit dwarwes in the Dwarf cottage.
Day 5-8, Kill the 2nd level monsters blocking pathway to North because
there will be a boat you need to board. Board boat with Barbarian and
navigate to NE island. There will be a teleporter leading straight to
the 'valley of death'.
Day 9-11, Recruit some ghosts...for the final battle you will need a
horde of ghosts.
Finished on impossible in 11 days.
-- King Arturo (Arturo Axenenko)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vikings!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this scenario you have 3 towns in the southwest corner of the map.
You are heavily outnumbered by 4 Barbarians (different colors) to your
north and east. I finished in 71 days for a score of 160 pts (Troll
rating) at normal game difficulty, playing as a warlock.
1) Transform your northern town into a castle on day one.
2) Concentrate on building your Warlock castle first...do not build any
mage tower (except level one eventually) or castle defenses (turrets)
3) A little tip... green (forest) is safe and brown (broken Lands) is
dangerous and crawling with Barbarians.
4) You are protected by big armies that stop the Barbarians from
attacking you in the forest. Keep those buffer zones until you are ready
to attack !
5) There are also buffer armies in front of your towns. Leave them
alone, until you feel confident in the strength in your armies.
6) When you have 7 Red Dragons (week 4 to 6 depending on your luck), a
lot of gargoyles and a bunch of Minotaur Kings, you can start attacking
the Barbarian castles.
7) With this army, you should be pretty much unbeatable.
8) I suggest attacking the southeast Barbarian castles first, while the
Barbarians in the north attack each other.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Warrior Knight
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't usually make strategy walkthroughs for large maps of normal
difficulty, but this one was quite interesting. In addition, since you
have to pick one of 4 knights, it's a good scenario to practice your
knight's strategies. I will concentrate on the starting game of the
Knight castle and on general tips because so many different things can
happen.
I finished in 76 days for a score of 140 pts (Ghost rating) at normal
game difficulty. I played the blue color. So without further ado :
1) Buy 2 other heroes in week 1 : one barbarian or wizard, one knight to
combine troops.Two heroes will be scouts, one will be the warrior.
2) As a Knight, your foremost priority is WOOD !
3) A good building order for week 1 : Archery Range, Statue, Well,
Armory (for Swordmen), Tavern, Blacksmith (for Pikemen), Jousting Arena
(Farm as an alternate if you don't have enough wood)
4) Week 2 : Shipyard, Boat, Upgraded Archery Range, Marketplace
(facultative)... the rest of your money for armies.
5) Usually there is a lot of wood in the water... in those cases, build
a shipyard and a boat as soon as possible... the high wood cost is
recuperated very soon by all the flotsam and chests.
6) For most of this scenario I had 6 heroes : 3 in boats, 1 to protect
the starting castle, 1 scout and 1 warrior.
7) Go after Red opponent (Necromancer) in the north first (week 4)
8) Let the other colors beat up on each other...
9) After eliminating Red, attack the closest and/or weakest Color.
10) Concentrate on destroying one color at the time.
11) Leave the Peasants in your castles unless you have a lot of them..
they slow down the rest of your army and they're the worst troop in the
game.
12) A good first knight army would consist of Rangers, Swordmen and
Pikemen.
13) A very good second or third army would consist of Paladins,
Cavalries, Master Swordmen, Veteran Pikemen and Rangers.
14) It's always a good idea to go after Necromancer castles first..
they're usually weak and don't have a lot of missile troops.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wastelands
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a good scenario to learn how to play the barbarian. You're a
barbarian stuck in the broken Lands that must beat an alliance of the
Necromancer, the Sorceress and the Wizard. I won in 52 days for 177 pts
(Champion rating) at normal game difficulty.
1) Buy a second Barbarian hero, buy troops in your castle and combine
all the troops on your starting Barbarian.
2) Foremost priority of Barbarian is ORE ! (mine to the north-east)
3) Good building order for week 1 : Stick Hut, Statue, Den, Adobe, Well,
Garbage Heap, (Bridge if you have the ressources)
4) Week 2 : capture the village near your castle but don't upgrade it.
5) Week 2 purchases : Upgraded Hut, Upgraded Adobe, Marketplace,
Thieve's Guild
6) You will lack ore during the second week... build up your armies
instead. Build Troll Bridge when you have enough ore.
7) By the end of week 3 : attack the closest enemy castle with your big
army (15 Ogre Lords, 40 to 50 Orc Chiefs, Wolves, Goblins)
8) When you have this second castle, buy a marketplace and exchange
unnecessary ressources for ore.
9) I almost never build cyclops pyramid because I prefer to use my money
on Ogre Lords and Trolls.
10) Conquer another castle by the end of week 4.
11) With 3 castles, the rest of the scenario is pretty easy.
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who Am I?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game difficuly: impossible
Map difficulty: expert
Goal: vanquish all the opponents in 15 days. One special requirement -
nomad boots (see Day1,2,3).
Think you are weak. Heeeeheeee. Ergh+.. No!
Day 1,2,3.
Hero kills 2 skeleton armies, takes Treasure chests.Then kills lots
mummies (22). Takes halflings and kills lots of gargoyles (21), losing
first mage (no more losses yet). Takes first chest and nomad boots (I
didn't take thunder mace of dominion). Secondary skills at the end of
Day 3: advanced wisdom, advanced balistics, advanced logistics, basic
pathfinding (1-2-4-3).
Day 4,5
Capture castle. Move north (not the way you came). Don't take the town
though it's free. Easily kill () first hero. Second hero attacks you (7
mages, 6steel golems, 39 halflings) with 20 chief orcs, 5 ogres, 5
wolfes, 20 rogues. Lose just one mage.
Day 6,7
Purple has built a castle and moved out one hero who fails to capture
your castle on Day 7 because you have recruited your second hero -
wizard (warlock) . Hero moves north killing 2 u. zombie armies and
visiting well.
Day 8
Hero kills skeletons on the road, visits oasis and thus can capture
castle on that day but that is hard. The enemy hero which stands in the
gates of the castle already has a huge army: 30 chief orcs, 5 ogre
lords, 18 skeletons (uh.. his morale is gonna be bad), 4 ogres, 8 orcs.
You should have such secondary skills before the battle as expert
balistics (walls and tower are destroyed in 3 moves) and basic luck (2-
3-5-3). Purple has moved out his last hero. Move your 2nd hero out too.
Day 9,10
Hero stays in captured castle 2 days to defend it. Last green's hero
attacks his former castle on Day 10 and dies. Green is vanquished. Now
you have got many useful and unuseful artificats. Hero moves south (at
the end of Dau 10 you stand one step from wolves). Recruit 3rd hero
there and move out. This hero will pass the army from this castle to
main hero. 2nd hero captures purple's castle and stays there. On Day 10
2nd hero attacks last purple's hero. Purple is vanquished.
Day 11,12
Hero kills wolves, then visits 2nd level shrine. Take archers and
Treasure chests. Kill m. zombies. Other heroes don't play a role here.
Day 13,14,15
Move down the road. Red's biggest army attacks you (suffer minimal
losses if spells used properly). Capture castle to the right. Easily
kill red's 2nd hero and capture their last castle. Red is vanquished.
You get for this trick 407 pts. Congratulations!
-- Bene Armstrong
Very fun scenario of expert difficulty similar in some way to Dragon
Rider. BTW, who is that Wizard ? It's never told :-) I finished in 70
days for 216 pts (Bone Dragon rating) at normal game difficulty.
1) You start with a lone wizard, 8 Mages and some Steel Golems
2) Go north towards the village beating skeletons along the way.
3) Capture village and build castle right away
4) Hire a second hero to use as a scout
5) Takes the mines to the north-west and to the west.
6) Capture another village and upgrade to castle when you can. Try to
pick a village away from the other Colors.
7) Keep buffer armies between you and your adversaries.
8) Conquer northern castle at the beginning of week 4. Note : This is
the hardest part of the game...you have to avoid the armies until you
conquer the castle and then with the remaining troops you must defend
against his desperate attacks.
9) Beginning of month 2 : there is PLAGUE !!! Use this to your
advantage.
10) After taking northern castle and waiting a little to build up your
armies, take the boat to your west.
11) There's not enough good stuff in the water to justify any detour.
12) There's an excellent island with a lot of chests and a gold mine in
the south-west corner.
13) In the beginning of the 2nd month, I had 3 castles.
14) Now be patient and build up a good wizard army from your starting
castle.
15) Let the 2 remaining colors beat up on each other and take any
lightly defended cities.
16) By the 3rd month, it was a war of attrition, my higher number of
castles and better armies garanteed me a victory !
-- Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude)
I only used 79 days and a score of 286. Mr. Dragon said he waited the
three enemies to beat up each other is wrong. I attracted strong heroes
to the town north of the purple's base(swamp). When that hero captured
the town. Either green or purple will appear. After a good bloody fight,
one of the two heroes must lose some troops, and the other defeated. I
usually comes by and just send all the troops of that remaining hero's
to heaven. When either purple or green is weakened, I will attack the
easily send some of my titans to finish purple off. Then the other hero
sucessfully arrive the area near the desert and beat them up also. Then
these two heroes will attack red in two directions. the small opening
near the xanadu and the south opening of the snow. Red will surely be
destroyed.
1. Day1 destroy the first army of skeletons and head to the skeletons on
the sawmill
(capture the sawmill).
2. Day2 Get all treasure chests near the sawmill and capture the town.
3. Day3 kill the royal mummies north of the first town and capture the
ore and gem mines.
4. Day4 Go west and kill the pack of mummies. Go south and capture the
town nearest to you.
5. Day5 Capture the sulphur mine just near you.
6. Day6 Get haflings southeast of the second town.
7. Get the crystal mine way north of the ore mine or the in the entrance
of swamp.
8. Build castle
9. Fresh heroes are coning near you. The will turn into benifits if you
can kill them without losing lots of troops.
10. Build pen, foundry, cliff nest, mage guild, well, ivory tower and
2nd level mage guild. Then wait for money to build clould castles.
*11. If STRONG enemies are coming toward you, forget about building. Buy
rocs in first place then golems, mages, and haflings. Also left turnnel
and right turnnel will greatly help you in the battle. Don't buy any
troops unless enemies are coming and your Who am I? hero can't get there
in time.
12. Who am I should not leave any troops in castles.
13. Green and purple will gratefully kill each other for the town north
of the swamp area. You kill the one who wins(you must be stronger than
him). Don't stand between those two or three different colour's heroes.
They may attack you first. Just stand near but not to near.
14. After purple's armies are very weak but another hero to go attack
green in the dessert with about 5-6 titans, Who am I's going to attack
purple with also 5-6 titans.
15. After purple and green got destroyed go straightly to red's base and
destroy him too.
NOTE: there should be only two heroes or a third to transport armies.
Don't let people capture your main wizard castle. Remember on the west
end of the swamp there's a castle too. Sea traveling is not nessary. You
may tell some junk heroes to get the artifacts in the isle south
westward of the map.
-- Smarties
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Winterlands
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first time I played this I started in the Southwest corner of the
map as a Necromancer. (Yellow)
A major key to victory in this scenario is given in the introduction;
i.e. you will need lots of heroes. I was using three of them in the
first week and wished I could afford more. The reason for this lies not
only in the size of the map (large), but also because there are a large
number of recruiting stations to make use of. For example there are
Halfling Holes, Archer houses, Wagon camps, Medusa thingies (I forgot
what they are called). In fact, immediately to the southwest of the my
starting castle was 3 Halfling holes! I collected about 75 of the
friendly little Bilbo's in the first week!
There are two towns nearby the starting castle in the southwest. They
are not too heavily guarded, and may be conquered by week 3. The first
town lies immediately to the west, and the other northwest through a
mountain passage into snowy country. Meanwhile, your other heroes should
be operating under one directive: EXPLORE!!
Once you get these two towns converted into castles, then the real
action begins. By this time, your other heroes will have explored much
of the region to the north. They may have discovered Green's castle. Get
your main hero up there quickly to take this castle because he tends to
leave it guarded by a mere token force. It's a long journey to get
there, so If you have the cash and wood, build a shipyard and a boat in
your main castle and sail right up to his doorstep!
IMHO, once you get this castle (it will be your 4th) the rest of the
game is fairly easy. Just be on your guard with the portals nearby that
may provide easy access for the enemy. But, also, use the portals to
your advantage and take the initiative.
Finally, don't forget to get the multitude of artifacts that are
scattered everywhere! It's helpful to have your haste spell ready
against the guardians of these artifacts. I found that the first strike
made a big difference.
Overall, this is a very fun to play scenario. There is a wide variety of
terrain and castle types. You will pretty much experience everything
Heroes of Might and Magic II has to offer with this scenario. (Not too
different from Lost Continent in that regard). Also, the first few weeks
are relaxing because you spend more time discovering things instead of
desperately defending yourself as in other scenarios.
Final Note: Some players will probably recommend buying a boat early and
getting the goodies in the ocean. I think this is a good idea, but
sometimes you can achieve the same result by defeating an enemy hero and
taking all the artifacts that he collected in the ocean thus saving you
the work. Although you miss out on the wood & gold, it's not a terrible
loss in the scheme of things.
-- Scagon Dragon (Jeff Scanga)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
XIII. DISCLAIMER
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Unpublished work Copyright 1999-2000 Joseph Andro Artanto.
This FAQ and everything included within this file cannot be reproduced
in any way, shape or form (physical, electronical, or otherwise) aside
from being placed on a freely-accessible, non-commercial web page in
it's original, unedited and unaltered format. This FAQ cannot be used
for profitable purposes (even if no money would be made from selling it)
or promotional purposes. It cannot be used in any sort of commercial
transaction. It cannot be given away as some sort of bonus, gift, etc.,
with a purchase as this creates incentive to buy and is therefore
prohibited. Furthermore, this FAQ cannot be used by the publishers,
editors, employees or associates, etc. of any company, group, business,
or association, etc., nor can it be used by game sites and the like.
It cannot be used in magazines, guides, books, etc. or in any other
form of printed or electronic media (including mediums not specifically
mentioned) in ANY way, shape, or form (including reprinting, reference
or inclusion), without the express written permission of the author,
myself. This FAQ was created and is owned by me, Joseph Andro Artanto
(arsin@indosat.net.id). All copyrights and trademarks are acknowledged
and respected that are not specificially mentioned in this FAQ.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
XIV. CREDITS
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
-Thanks to God.
-Thanks to Rob Merrit for his artifact list.
-Thanks to Sebastien Patenaude for his too many to count contributions.
-Thanks to AstralWizard for his artifact/spell explainment.
-Thanks to Dragos Stanciv for his guidance for expert.
-Thanks to Kaspa for the idea.
-Thanks to New World Computing.
-Thanks to you, readers! Goodbye! if you have any contributions,
suggestions, comments, critics, or anything, just e-mail me
(arsin@indosat.net.id)or(ICQ:55139575). You also can visit me at:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dragon/3939
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Unpublished work Copyright 1999-2000 Joseph Andro Artanto.