Beiträge von Moriarty

I´m pretty sure many new players now know how to do full crypts day 1, especially with castle.
It´s still fact, Jebus template is played very often and most players chose Castle. Chaining tactic seem to change at the end of the first week though. For the matter of fact, Jebus is a very rich template, u will find "smaller" fights everywhere in your area, which can be done with week 1 army excluding the angel. That´s why i think it´s a good idea to "split" your heroes in 2 or 3 teams at the time u have built your portal of glory (normaly day 5). 1 of these teams should run around with that 1 angel and try to do many fights for money, to be able to upgrade your angels as soon as possible in week 2. Crypts of course help a lot here, so do smaller treasuries and stores.
However, some people seem to have problems taking a full crypt with only that 1 angel, especially if they have to do the fight with a magic hero, who has zero on attack and defense, no offense or armorer and also no good spell to cast (or no spellpoints left...).
The reason why those fights are getting close for them, is obvious....they attack the vampires in round 1...and i wouldn´t do that! What u have to prevent, is a "double-attack" in one round, means, getting hit by 2 different stacks. But this will happen in round 2 or 3 (sometimes later), when the vampires and the wights are too close to each other.
That´s why i would suggest to attack the wights in round 1! Normaly they die by retail after their attack, if it runs bad, 1 wight is left over. In round 2, you attack the skeletons (at least 15 of them die) and kill them off by retail. Your angel has suffered about 30 hitpoints damage till now, and u only have the vamps and the walking undead left (and perhaps the single wight). Now it should be easy for all players to survive that fight.

This is not meant to be for experienced players, but for those who have these problems and were scared to enter coz they thought (or even did in former games) they could lose their angel.

Angelito

Ergänzung von GabyStan

siehe Bild im Anhang:

It has nothing to do with the ammo cart, but how placing a 2 hex unit next to a berserked flying unit. Berserk is applied until the unit attacks, and in this case the unit will freeze for unknown reasons, so the spell last forever. The biggest Heroes glitch I saw in 10 years. The bad side is the high level spell, and usually by the time you get it you have the power to defeat 3 azures anyway.

Tigris

Tigris

angelito

Recently i played a couple of 2 vs 2 games in the company of some of the best players on the zone(Conan,Angelito,Jammer or Druid).Even though none was finished i learned some great tips about playing as allies.

1.The whole philosophy behind playing allied can be explained in an old saying: Mi casa es su casa.I think many players don't take full advantage of this aspect.One exemple:Let's say your ally has a wich hut near his castle that offers logistics skill, and also an university where you get offered earth magic.Wouldn't it be great for you to have those too early in the game? Of course.Just give your main hero some fodder, enter a fight, retreat your hero, then buy him in your ally castle.Then attack some stack that is close and then rehire your hero in your castle.This also goes for magic.For exemple in my latest game, my allied had exp earth magic but no slow.I had slow in my main castle.5000 gold may seem much, but exp slow is priceless.

2.The importance of a trading post is often underrated in allied games.Sometimes in week 1 one might need resources to build a certain structure, so he will need his ally to help.One exemple: to build angels week 1 on a native jebus is a bit tough.But if your ally can't get a 2nd town, it means he will need to build a marketplace in his first town, which will mess up his building(no castle or no creature dwell).Having a trading post equals having 4 marketplaces(or is it 5?:S). What is even funnier is that it also allows you to trade resources to your ally(or even to your opponents for that matter ).Also, later in the game if you decide to trade your resources for cash, you could get a better deal from the trading post.So jut send all your spare resources to your ally and he will send you the cash back.

3.Another interesting thing i have learned lately doesn't only concearn allied games, but since i found out about it in an allied game i will post it here.It is already described in this thread(by splexx i think)as the town bug.But splexx's explanantions are confusing and i always considered this as a bug so never used it.But i came to find out that all the good players use this as a way to inform themselves so i think it's fair for all the players to know it.
Here it's how it goes.When you enter your castle in the lower right side you have a small icon of your castle.If you rightclick it during your oponent's turn, you can see if he build a capitol, if he has castle, or citadel and also what units he has in.Also one important thing u can find out is wheather your oponent is double building.If you have the same number of towns, you can rightclick on your second, third town and so on and so you will find out what your oponent has build in his second, third town and so on.The thing is, if you have 3 towns and your oponent has only 2, rightclicking on the icon of your 3rd town will cause the game to crash(wich sucks).

4.Another important thing in allied games is working together.If your oponent is heading in an unknown territory and you are in position to help, send scouts to open his path(as his scouts will probably occupied chaining his troops).
Hope this hepls a bit

50 sprites vs 30 zombies on grass. Sprites move 10, zombies move 4. Sprites have no retaliation.
Wait, attack, run away, wait, attack, run away.

Not a big deal.

50 sprites vs 30 dwarves on grass. The same, you might say. Well - not really.
First of all, there can be a battle dwarf stack. Second, dwarves can get morale.
Third, 6-7 stacks can corner you.

Now dwarves do 2.4-4.8 damage each. It means that a single stack of dwarves can do 12-24, killing 4-8 sprites. Sounds like a disaster? Yes! Can you prevent them from getting good morale? Nope (you'd need sorrow or oppression). Now look at this from the other side: your sprites do 50-150 damage per round (I assumed 5 attack and 0 defense on the hero). Dwarves are dumb, but won't go into sure death. Only a single dwarf would attack your big sprite stack (kamikaze) if he has another choice. Does he? Yes he does! Use 7 stacks of sprites, 6*1 and 1*44. That'll save your butt so many times that you'll lose count.

You can also avoid being cornered that way - just lure the stacks where you want them to be with single sprites.

You used safety play and distraction (Stiven had a good word for the latter one).

You have 60 sprites and want to attack 6 psychic elementals. The good news is: they are in one stack.

You have to do 300 damage total. 60 sprites do 48-144 damage. You need 3 attacks (or even more). You can't do more than 2 in a row. That's too bad, suppose you did only 145 damage total. 4 psychics live killing 8-16 sprites each.

The same: use 5*1 sprites (6*1 if you are scared). You have a lazy method and a faster one with more losses.

Lazy way: all sprites wait, psychics move. All stacks attack. Sprites back to corner, minions follow and corner it (as if it were a shooter). Psychics move closer. Sprites wait, psychics kill 2 stacks. Sprites attack, etc...

This is called defending your "shooter". Any main stack can be a shooter.

Smart way: all sprites wait, psychics move. All sprites attack. All sprites move back, one single sprite moves behind the psychic elementals IN range. Psychics are back to starting position. Repeat.

This method is called martyr (it's the candy method, really).

Goblins with the speacialist move 6 and with just 35 goblins you can easily kill hordes of level 1's with 4-5 speed.

Hit and run is more difficult this time. Since you don't have no retaliation, you have to estimate your damage well. This includes calculations pre-fight (what you will face and in how many stacks). For example, 36 goblins faced 6*11 troglodytes. Another things: defending against morale (keep at least one single stack close to your main stack), keep half the stacks lured away (with candy, if needed!). You can even surround your main stack if needed (shooter protection).

Note: you will face 5-7 stacks because you are considered weak by the AI. Do not bring additional creatues, 5 wolves do not help much but can convince the AI using less stacks making you lose some units (not too much though if you are smart enough to take retal away).

For some reason you have only elves in your army (20-25) and are to face horde of pikemen with Ivor.

You have two choices:

1, You use single elf stacks to defend your main stack(s) from morale.
2, You try shooting even at half range if opposing pikemen/halberdier stack can reach you with morale in one turn. Or just move away and wait till they get in range.

n my last game there were too many things to do to use 1 big army. So I used 22 grand elves as first army, 35 goblins (goblin spec hero) as second. A bit later (day 5) I had a third one: 3 dendroids, 2 centaurs, 1 unicorn and 3 pegasi (the other two pegasi was used on scouts/chainers).

First opponent: 5*7 riders + 7 raiders. No spells used. Result: 2 centaurs lost.

Second opponent: 3*15 pixies + 15 sprites. Result: no losses.

Third opponent: 5*15 gnolls, 15 marauders. Result: no losses.

Watch the HP's, use the trees as candies (better said: spider webs ) and hunt them down. I almost lost a tree to the wolves. The gnoll fight was very hard, those bastards do a lot of damage.

With positive morale, you get a chance to make a second action (only if you have already made one!). The probabilities are: 1/24, 2/24 and 3/24 for +1/2/3 morale respectively. It is capped at +3.

With negative morale, your troops have a chance to freeze in combat. The probabilities are: 1/12, 2/12 and 3/12 for -1/-2/-3 morale respectively. It is capped at -3.

Yes, and you can do it too.
Just think yourself into the AI's place. It's strategy is quite simple, you will see some guidelines in this forum. Just read back a few pages.

For example, in this particular fight (sprites vs dwarves) you can make the dwarves chase your single sprite stacks.

You also know what they will sttack if they have a choice: they'll prefer attacking a single stack to the 44 sprites stack.

It's very simple and logical. I said, dwarves are dumb, but don't like to die. They do not cooperate either. The only cooperation you can see is that a single dwarf attacks your main stack (because the damages done to the two sides are comparable) and then the others go after it (they do not like to be retaliated upon).

So it will be my final post here. I wanted to write it, because anyone must know what mistakes equals loss, but nobody writes here more and I have no to tell you anything else. And Frank left us

1. If you are red, if you can see your opponent near you (he/she can atack you this day) and need to restore your mana, staying in castle with mage guild WON'T help you! Because your opponent is blue, he will atack you THIS day and you won't have you mana restored.

SOLUTION: If you can't save your castle without mana this day, take all units you can buy, move faster to nearest well or second castle. Sometimes it's easier to kill opponent atacking castle with mana than defending - without it.

2. If your main hero moves fast (for example, expert log + boots of speed), he often opens mew parts of land, not your second heroes. If you see empty castle, you usually like to take it, don't you? And after it most of us likes to stay in castle until next day to restore mana (if you just built mage guild) or to increase your movements for next day placing all units in castle and keeping with the speedest unit. Often this means your death. If your opponent can see you, he'll collect all units he have and atack you in this castle (good players usually have "chain of heroes" to move units from castle to main hero spending 1 day). This way you lose your main hero with lots of units at all, because you can't surrend in castle.

SOLUTION: If you need to restore mana first of all, you need to build mage guild, sleep your second hero in this castle (if you have him near ) and stay in castle by main hero with all your units. If someone atacks you, you can retreat or surrend saving your main, because he isn't in castle (second hero sleeps here!). But your mana will be restored next day.
If you need to increase your movements next day, build tavern and second hero (-es) and explore around castle. If you can't see anybody dangerous, you can stay in castle with your main, removing all slow units. But if you play against Kyrre, this may not save your life

3. If you like to move fast, for example, with angels only, and have no money to surrend, NEVER explore with your main hero! Angels are easy to be killed with lots of middle units At best you'll lose all your angels and kill some enemy units, at worst (if opponent has blind + slow or only blind) you'll lose all angels and your main hero. Sure if you are quicken with dragon flies, harpy hags and other emaciated units, never explore main hero with them - they can be killed easier than angels

SOLUTION: Use a lot of heroes to explore land and one more hero to quicken your main each turn. Your main must move to the direction you need; or if you have to explore with main, keep your full army with him. Nevertheless if you want to increase your main hero's speed and explore, divide your fastest units for 7 stacks. But your opponent may be adroitly than you, and atack you with 7x1 archdevils (if you used 7x2 divided dragon flies to increase movement). I like to use thick unit (as 1 behemoth) and death ripple to kill such "clever" guys

4. Taking crypts at the beginning of the game, remember, that maximum random contains 10 vampires! Are you sure you can kill them? Plus 10 wiches, 20 skeletons and walking deads. Especially playing BB template, where are a lot of crypts at necromanser's land (+1 to all their speed)?

SOLUTION: Tazar at day 3 with 2 wyverns, 18 lizards, 2 serpent flies and 40 gnolls CAN'T kill this maximum random at necromanser's land. Ivor with 15 green elves, 45 centaurs and 5 pegasus - maybe. Losing the most part of his units, because vampires will be faster than elves turn 1 (they will atack after pegasus).

5. You are ready to defend your castle anainst your opponent. Maybe he'll take it, maybe not - doesn't matter. You have castle built and want turrets to do their work. Sure, if you play not against Solmyr, it's better to have some of your units divided with 1 per heap, to increase the number of rounds that you're alive (to let turrets do their work, or to cast with great damage). For example, defending human castle, you have not-bought some griffins and swordsmans. You move hero in castle, buy as much units as you can and place this way: swordsmans - 1 griffin - 1 griffin - 1 griffin - 1 griffin - 1 griffin - griffins stack. It's right. But where is your hero? If he's sleeping into castle, all is ok. But if no, before combat all separated griffins will be in 1 stack again. This thing (using fodders) needs to close your archers using tactic too.

SOLUTION: Don't quicken your hero defending castle

6. And one offensively thing. Maybe you won't lose because of it, but it would be very pity. Do you ever seen words "The box is empty" taking pandora box? It's because there are, for example, all spells 5th lvl and you have wisdom advanced.

SOLUTION: Don't take pandoras that are guarded with lots lvl 6 units and stronger with basic wisdom. Don't take pandoras that are guarded with lvl 7 units with advanced wisdom.

That's all I wanted to say. Good luck, learn from your mistakes.

Some things about playing dungeon.
It's not my best castle and I try to play it better from time to time, learning and getting experiense playing it. So, listen and fix my mistakes

1. Dungeon is one of the castles that's difficulty to play, but one of the strongest.

2. Dungeon has the best set of heroes. If "log born" aren't banned, you can chose Gunnar with tactic at start. Tactic needs to close evil eyes, harpies and general stack of trogs from damage with single troglodites. And it's very useful when fighting later against strong archers to block them with manticores or minotaurs with tactic expert.
If "lvl 4 spells" heroes aren't banned, you have a chose between 2 resurrecters and 1 meteorist Jeditte and Alamar aren't useful at M map, because has no earth magic at start and can't resurrect a lot. Then Deemer is more useful, because if you have a well near castle, he takes levels too fast with meteor. Remember this: Alamar has scolar and wisdom at start, so you can pick him, get about 3-5 levels and then learn resurrect spell with your fighter main hero if he has wisdom advanced. It's useful at L-XL maps.
If you play 200% difficulty at the strong map you can select Damacon (350 gp per day), but I never do this because of other nice heroes.
One of the best main heroes is Shakti (trogs specialist) wich starts sometimes with 110+ trogs! So I prefer to play him at 160-200% difficulty if Gunnar is banned. Playing him at 160% you should buy second hero, upgrade trogs day 1 and play Shakti with 150 troglodytes and speed 7 of them. It is a POWER! For example, Shakti (and Galthran sometimes) can take griffin conservatory with 1-2 angels at day 1!
Dungeon has nice caster heroes (spell power 3, knollege 2 at start) so you can take monks dwelling (hi Frank ) with theese heroes. Getting levels, they take only sp and knol, so I dont like them as mains
Lots of other dungeon fighter heroes has tactic at start (Dace has tactic and offense) so all of them are good to become main hero.

3. Early game with dungeon means "kill anything with trogs and don't lose them". Maybe you'll say "NO", but dungeon archers are too expensive and weak at the beginning of the game, so you'll fight with trogs. Not to lose them is use tactic (or without it) and make a wall of single trogs before your general stack of them. Trogs does a lot of damage (especially with bless) but dies too fast. So you should play using them only as damagers. It's easy to kill melee-atack monsters with dungeon, but be careful of such units as lots swordsmans, basilisks, pegasus and so on - when trogs begins to take damage, they'll die soon. Sure, fighting against archers means tots loses of your general damagers. Avoid it you can upgrading harpies and using tactic advanced or more - to block archers with single harpy, waiting while trogs come to enemy

4. Dungeon is dangerous to play at 200% diff, because evil eyes needs 1 of all resourses to build, and all 4+ units needs evil eyes to be built. So playing 200% you need to pick sulfur as starting bonus.

5. When you want to upgrade harpies (1k +2 sulf +2 cryst) count your sulfur before! Have you 5 + 4 + 20 for manticores, lvl 2 mage guild and dragons? (I usually forget about lvl 2 mage guild before dragons (()

6. Dungeon has universal set of army, but it's very expensive. You can play any combination you want - minotaurs kings + beholders + infernal trogs, or manticores + medusas + evil eyes, or evil eyes + medusa queens + infernal troglodytes, or reds + scorpicores (then put dragons before scorps to have them 1st atack because they have equal 11 speed). It depends on your money and resourses. For example, you have lots of money and magic gardens around (40 gems you have ), but have mo sulfur. Then you can build minotaurs with castle (week 2 diff 200), then upgrade them and have 8(9 on your land)-speed unit, that can kill enemy archers with tactic expert (2~5 lvl Shakti) at 1 round. Buy evil eyes, infernal trogs and medusas (if you have money) - and you'll kill anything that can shoot, fly or creep

7. Magic pool (don't remember this name) that doubles mana. Computer playing dungeon NEVER builds it. So visiting computer dungeon castle build it first do double your mana
Visiting magic stones (don't remember they name too ( - that gives you +1 sp or knol for 1k) with main hero you should chose spell power because of magic pool you have!
Don't keep second heroes in castle at day 7 (exceptually you have something of legion) - they'll take it instead of main hero.

8. Dragons. Playing resurrecter remember that "nerve cells aren't restorable and black dragons aren't resurrectable". Maybe you don't need to upgrade them?
If computer (or player) CAN atack your dragons the way that they'll retalliate to your army too, it'll DO it. So place your dragons between 1-hex units if you have more than 4 different units in army.
Remember that blacks are immune to all magic. Use is at 100% effectiveness. Playing against casters they're the best. Playing against heroes that have mass slow - too (especially if you have mass haste but move later than him).
If you see several fairy dragons, take 3 blacks and nobody else in this combat! Fairys can do nothing against them. But they can kill reds with meteor or chain lightning.
Entering utopia with blacks you have time to cast mass haste. Then scorpicores will move ealier than golds, and minotaurs - ealier than greens and reds. If it's Shakti... he-he, sometimes trogs atacks ealier than greens and reds

9. Taking crypt with Shakti place general stack of trogs at 1st place - to kill vamps 1st turn. Taking it with other hero with infernal trogs at your land don't take harpies with you - you must have speed 6 and atack vamps 1st time.

That's all now. I'd like to listen some criticism and some add-ons.

So, portal of summoning.
Playing dungeon never take dwellings you don't need such as peasants and skeletons.

Build portal of summoning if you have external dwellings you need, but count your ore before (remember that dragon building requires 15 ore and other dungeon buildings requires it too).

If you have 2+ external dwellings, remember: next week you can buy in portal of summining units, wich dwelling you last visited. For example, if you flagged dragons and troglodytes dwellings, when it's new week, visit troglodyts dwelling BEFORE dragons dwelling.

Playing other castles having 2-nd (3-rd...) dungeon castle and some external dwellings, don't forget to build portal of summoning. Once my friend won a game playing wisard having giants dwelling and 3 dungeon villages... Count the number of titans per week

First time sorry for my bad English, because I'm Russian

I attentively read this topic, but didn't found anything about fortress. I made angry, because it's one of my most likely castles, so listen about it.

1. Don't forget that wyverns needs only lisards to be built. So if starting difficulty 160- (with resourses 5-10 wood and ore) and if lisards are already built, you can build and take 2 lvl 6 units at day 1!

2. Playing fortress you always start at swamp, which has /2 movement penalty for every units except fortress. So when you buy 3rd hero (he usually is not fortress hero) to take mines, gold and resourses, remove all his units to castle and buy 1 gnoll. Because a hero with 1 gnoll (speed 4) will move on swamp FASTER than a hero with angels only!!! And this is the reason that when you take conservatory in swamp, remove taken angels from your main hero until you leave swamp! If your main has minimum speed 5 (upgraded lisards) and angels, you will move half as speed-5-army on the land.

3. Playing difficulty 200% you need first to build town hall, buy 2nd hero (theese things - in any order) and build wyvern dwelling at week 1. Better is to build a city hall and wyverns, but it's usually hard to take 40 wood at start

4. The best fortress hero is Tazar (armorer specialist). He starts as other beastmasters with 0 4 1 1 and takes defense only But it's good not to lose army in combats. Beware getting 3rd level! At start Tazar has advanced armory, so when he got lvl 2, you are between take expert armory and a new skill. If it's logistics or tactics, this is not a question, but if it's leadership or archery, remember, that if you don't take it, next (3rd) level you will be between two basic skills, which may be eagle eye and navigation

5. Playing at 200% difficulty you should know, that hero Bron (vasilisks specialist) is only one hero, which has unit 4 specialisation and takes them at start. He has 3-7 vasilisks at start and can kill (with other units from second hero, such as 35 gnolls and 6 lisards) for exumple, horde of 60 boars. No one hero except Shakti and Galthran can do it at day 1.

6. Playing rush games (where opponents meets ealier than week 4) upgraded serpent flies are the best units to block enemy archers. They has 13 speed and can atack (or fly without atack if it's only 1 serpent) 1-hex archers standing in front of them on any land, and they has 14 speed at swamp, so they can simultaneously block 2 arching units. 13 speed of serpents and only 2 merc and sulf for upgrade makes your turn first against any opponent if you atack him (except upgraded pegasus on the grass, if you has tactics, and opponent doesn't has), so you can cast mass haste or mass slow first if you have it.

7. Remember, that fortress castle is one of castles who needs water nagic expert more than else. Mass bless fery needs for lisards warriors (2-5) and serpents (2-5). Teleport hydras near to enemy archers is fast than move them with speed 5. Teleport mighty gorgons to enemy lvl 7 units equals their death.

8. Btw, about gorgons. Stone gas kills about <mighty gorgons number>/10 units more (sometimes 11 mighty gorgons kills 2 units more). So if you take utopia with Tazar 10 17 5 5 stats and 30 gorgons, you can atack 6 reds with them. 3 will die from damage and 3 will die from stone gas. Mighty gorgons are the best instrumets against lvl 7 units. Don't forget that you need to have a resourse silo to upgrade them, so build it as soon as possible after capitol - you will have 5 more wood and ore if you built it 5 days ealier.

9. Fortress is one or the most powerful castles for the following reason: it cat take additional wyverns killing serpents (don't remember this building name). Regularity is <serpents number>/7.5. Any castles only takes them, but fortress can upgrade them. The easiest way of takng them is following:
Take 1-2 hydras and enter. Kill all serpents. That's all If your hero isn't Tazar or if your Tazar has lesser than 8 defense, max random (18*5 serpents) can kill you 1 hydra, so you can take 1 your serpent additional to hydra, to cast shield ar stone skin. Even if you lose hydra, you will take 12 wyverns here

When you use the berserk spell you must think about this features before:
1. If it's not expert, playing against great armorer like Tazar, it's better to cast blind or damage spell, because units will atack each other with their hero' atack and defense skills. Berserked units will do a little damage.
2. Remember that berserk can be dispelled as other spells, if your opponent have a time to do it. So cast it only if he CAN NOT dispell.
a) If you are faster than your opponent, cast berserk at his fastest unit. Sure, if they're not gold/black/bone/ghost dragons or undeads.
b) Wait while opponent casts at this round, then cast at unit, who DIDN'T MOVED this round, or at his fastest unit. But cast that way they could atack enemy units.
c) Wait, then cast at the unit, who will atack the next. It's the best strategy This way you can chose target for berserk to inflict maximum damage.
3. Casting berserk you must destroy maximum units. But remember that units that takes damage from berserkers will retalliate if they can.
So, it's better to cast bers at 2-striking units as crusaders.
Also it's good to cast at units standing near the great stack of archangels.
It's good choise to cast bers at begemoths or at units that can strike begemots.
Cast bers at wyverns if they're near mighty gorgons - they will take stone gas with retalliation.
Cast bers playing against stronghold! Its heroes and units has the great atack and little defense.
Do NOT cast bers at archers, hydras, hags, pixies and other units that won't take retalliation.
CAST bers at 200 grand elves blocked with other units playing against Kyrre or Ivor because of their archery skill
Good luck!