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Hero's Path
A Guide containing all general tricks and rules that apply to all races in the second Heroes.
I. Exploring the area closest to the castle.
In most cases, it is very wise to buy at least one more hero besides your starting one. Of course, if you have a watchtower in front of your castle and can see from there that all paths are blocked by some stronger armies, and you only have a small space to explore, then a second hero will not be necessary... but still.
1. Main advantages of exploring with two heroes:
a. In the initial stage – exploring what is around the castle – you will usually benefit from having two heroes; with more positive heroes, development will be faster. This relates to capturing mines, resources, artifacts, and even the very fact of revealing the map. [More heroes can be used if your financial situation seems good and exploration is possible. These guys usually pay for themselves quite soon.]
b. Later in the game, when you assemble an operational force strong enough to go after your opponent, a second guy in supporting roles can be used for several things:
· taking care of resources, mines, and full exploration of conquered land (here, I often buy new heroes in conquered castles, because within a few days the money is returned in resources from captured mines.)
· holding reserve armies for your main hero
· can build up quite solid experience
· can defeat some of the roaming armies
· can take care of some minor enemy heroes/towns
2. How to choose your primary/secondary hero?
Except for the Necromancer, there is no need at all to use a hero corresponding to the castle class (and even with a necro castle, you should consider buying a hero of another type if there are no large quantities of skeleton stocks scattered around the map). How to make your choice?
A. Primary hero:
a. Knight
for both short and long tasks. Should definitely be chosen in cases where magic resources are very insufficient. In subsequent phases, knights also develop substantial skills in magic, but their main advantage is a very strong defense, closely followed by attack. Very good for armies based on walkers due to Ballistics and Leadership, but since they get Archery quite often, even operational forces based on shooters will be happy to be under the command of a knight.
b. Barbarian
for both short and long tasks. Should definitely be chosen in cases where magic resources are very insufficient. The barbarian's magic skills will remain small without artifacts. Their main advantage is definitely attack. Defense can remain surprisingly low for this hero classification. Excellent in rough terrain, they guarantee fast exploration and also staying ahead of your opponent (both offense and defense ;-)).
c. Sorceress
For short and temporary games. Their Navigation makes them a necessity for water maps. With excellent knowledge and good magic power, they are good at casting elemental magic in battle. If you manage to get some direct damage magic, they can achieve quick victories over strength-based opponents, but in the long run, they lose due to their own power stats if they happen not to get high-level spells (This is common for all magic heroes – and high-level spells – Berserk, Clone, and True Return, possibly global direct damage spells – but even in these cases, a sorceress is not it, due to insufficiently high magic power). Remarkably high knowledge is very important on longer trips into unexplored lands.
d. Warlock
If you are going to reach your opponents quickly and if their forces are weak, you can take a warlock and bet on spells. His early dominance in magic power with a slight positive tendency toward the attack skill allows him to teach the opponent lessons via direct damage spells found at the second level of the Wizard's guild, which can be built easily in most cases. In the long run, they lose to strong strength heroes with strong magical troops ;-)
e. Wizard
Being a good compromise between the Sorceress and the Warlock, their magic abilities are quite reliable, with a slight tendency toward defense. Comments apply to the two previous classes, keeping in mind that the wizard is worse than them in their primary qualities, yet better due to having fewer weak spots;-). In the long run, they lose to strong strength heroes.
f. Necromancer
They are of little use as main heroes with living armies. However, if there are substantial numbers of skeleton-providing low-level armies, it could pay off well to choose a necromancer. Within a few levels obtained from chests and gazebos (+ 1000 experience), his Necromancy skill should improve to Expert, and then comes the time to get some armies. Gaining more levels in attack/defense than other magic heroes, necromancers are not as vulnerable in battles while they still benefit from very strong spells. In the long run, they lose to strong strength heroes if their skeleton hordes are not in four-digit values – this depends heavily on the specific map.
To summarize and expand these comments on heroes, a few notes from my personal experience follow:
If you plan to use high-quality magic, make your main hero a spellcaster. However, if you plan a long-term campaign with huge involved armies, you should choose a knight or barbarian, depending on the chosen strategy, terrain, number of castles, and available unit types. On maps with easy terrain, in the presence of strong opponents nearby (and therefore a defensive strategy), many castles, and a lack of resources (and therefore weaker armies in not-so-large quantities), the knight is better, while a distant opponent, rough terrain, and numerous armies suit the barbarian.
Having a sorceress in sea-rich scenarios gives you a great advantage – by collecting resources, artifacts, and events before the opponent, you can quite possibly help yourself win the map.
The wizard's wisdom can be useful with some powerful spells, such as Berserk, which is the best way to use the enemy's own strength against them.
A necromancer can be justified if large numbers of roaming armies for creating skeletons are located nearby – recruited skeletons make excellent garrison troops.
My usual practice: hire a Barbarian (if I am not sure that I will need a knight to protect border castles), and concentrate experience on him. In many cases, I manage to get Wisdom, so I can use some good spells from captured castles. However, Knight heroes have a higher probability of acquiring wisdom, increasing magic power, and most importantly, knowledge.
The barbarian should also try to get Archery and possibly Ballistics, since shooters are not strong enough to rely on exclusively, especially against armies based by the opponent on shooters, such as Wizard or Sorceress.
This concept of relying on strength ultimately has only a few weak spots, but those do not apply to games against AI. The holes are Paralysis and especially Berserk. With such spells, a good spellcaster can kick your army. You must be careful with the application of magic. The only good remedy is those pendants that protect against them. Oh, well, in general, if the opponent makes a mistake and gives you the opportunity to dispel those spells, DO it! (Best when using Anti-Magic.)
Direct damage magic (perhaps except Armageddon) is not such a big threat because with large armies, the damage caused by them can be fully offset by favorable spells on your troops – for example, Bless on 30 crusaders gives an average of +300 damage, equal to casting Lightning at magic power 12; Mass Bless on a whole army gives even better results compared to Chain Lightning.
The only things I miss when they are in the game are making long trips using Dimension Door, but a) it doesn't always become possible, b) one way or another, after some dozens of games won by DDing, this thing becomes "drilling" (Lit. Ed. Note: great term, isn't it? Now it's called cheating. This is from the diplomacy series in the third heroes), since it spoils most author designs.
Note that these recommendations are valid for specific hero classes and concern general usage strategy when fighting other heroes. That is, it is naturally assumed you are fighting armies belonging to exactly a specific type of hero. All these strategies assume all those armies included in the battle (for pedants: five out of six possible, best choice under specific circumstances...). If there is any army absence, strategies must be reworked to reflect this. If an army is added (from other castle types or neutral troops), strategies must be reworked. Too many combinations arise that I am not going to consider.
Obtaining secondary skills:
Check the Path of the specific class to see which skills best suit your troops and strategies.
There are some general rules that can be followed. See the 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 conditions cover anything from map size, number of castles, type of main hero, type of most used troops, amount of available resources, and all other things to terrain types.
Of course, the hero class is very important. That is, Leadership and Luck provide a much better advantage for Strength Heroes, whose unit damage ratings (which benefit from their skills) are generally high. On the other hand, for mage skills, such as Mysticism and Expert Wisdom – they are a necessity because they expand his strong features.
B. Secondary hero:
. Knight
Used mainly for defensive purposes – if you need a hero to command the castle garrison (and have no strong spells there), use a knight. For active use, there is nothing significantly good about him.
a. Barbarian
Can also be used for defense instead of a knight, but in rough terrain, he is an excellent resource collector – the one who runs between all weekly-available sources of something. If your main guy is a barbarian, try to make another accompany him on long trips, picking up all resources, etc. (If your backup guy cannot keep pace with the main one, he somewhat loses his importance in the two-hero strategy.)
b. Sorceress
Use whenever open sea is nearby – try to improve navigation quickly in gazebos, etc., and run out to pick up everything on the water before your opponents can do so. No other real use.
c. Warlock
Used in very early stages as an explorer. Leave him only with his gargoyles and let him help reveal the map. Try to get Expert Scouting to improve his work as soon as possible.
d. Wizard
No great use for. The only good thing is that the hero arrives linked with several boars and therefore can reach a good speed simply by diverting halflings.
e. Necromancer
Almost useless. Comes with slow parts and no specific good skill. However, if you have tons of peasants and other low-level skeleton-providing foam (Lit. Ed. Note: "foam"! Appreciate the language and style!) nearby, you can take a necro, use a few levels to improve necromancy, and then, before transporting one or two weeks of castle production to your main hero, beat these armies and use skeletons – either with the necro as his main troops or with the main hero as an addition to his striking force (if he has some leadership).
I personally prefer taking warlocks as secondary heroes if I don't need a barbarian (due to terrain) or if I need to get more troops for the primary hero when I take the same class (which is always offered in the first week). Why a warlock? Ideal for exploration – has Scouting, and very fast units at the start – can even split gargoyles with the main hero, thus giving me two fast explorers right at the beginning.
A Guide containing all general tricks and rules that apply to all races in the second Heroes.
I. Exploring the area closest to the castle.
In most cases, it is very wise to buy at least one more hero besides your starting one. Of course, if you have a watchtower in front of your castle and can see from there that all paths are blocked by some stronger armies, and you only have a small space to explore, then a second hero will not be necessary... but still.
1. Main advantages of exploring with two heroes:
a. In the initial stage – exploring what is around the castle – you will usually benefit from having two heroes; with more positive heroes, development will be faster. This relates to capturing mines, resources, artifacts, and even the very fact of revealing the map. [More heroes can be used if your financial situation seems good and exploration is possible. These guys usually pay for themselves quite soon.]
b. Later in the game, when you assemble an operational force strong enough to go after your opponent, a second guy in supporting roles can be used for several things:
· taking care of resources, mines, and full exploration of conquered land (here, I often buy new heroes in conquered castles, because within a few days the money is returned in resources from captured mines.)
· holding reserve armies for your main hero
· can build up quite solid experience
· can defeat some of the roaming armies
· can take care of some minor enemy heroes/towns
2. How to choose your primary/secondary hero?
Except for the Necromancer, there is no need at all to use a hero corresponding to the castle class (and even with a necro castle, you should consider buying a hero of another type if there are no large quantities of skeleton stocks scattered around the map). How to make your choice?
A. Primary hero:
a. Knight
for both short and long tasks. Should definitely be chosen in cases where magic resources are very insufficient. In subsequent phases, knights also develop substantial skills in magic, but their main advantage is a very strong defense, closely followed by attack. Very good for armies based on walkers due to Ballistics and Leadership, but since they get Archery quite often, even operational forces based on shooters will be happy to be under the command of a knight.
b. Barbarian
for both short and long tasks. Should definitely be chosen in cases where magic resources are very insufficient. The barbarian's magic skills will remain small without artifacts. Their main advantage is definitely attack. Defense can remain surprisingly low for this hero classification. Excellent in rough terrain, they guarantee fast exploration and also staying ahead of your opponent (both offense and defense ;-)).
c. Sorceress
For short and temporary games. Their Navigation makes them a necessity for water maps. With excellent knowledge and good magic power, they are good at casting elemental magic in battle. If you manage to get some direct damage magic, they can achieve quick victories over strength-based opponents, but in the long run, they lose due to their own power stats if they happen not to get high-level spells (This is common for all magic heroes – and high-level spells – Berserk, Clone, and True Return, possibly global direct damage spells – but even in these cases, a sorceress is not it, due to insufficiently high magic power). Remarkably high knowledge is very important on longer trips into unexplored lands.
d. Warlock
If you are going to reach your opponents quickly and if their forces are weak, you can take a warlock and bet on spells. His early dominance in magic power with a slight positive tendency toward the attack skill allows him to teach the opponent lessons via direct damage spells found at the second level of the Wizard's guild, which can be built easily in most cases. In the long run, they lose to strong strength heroes with strong magical troops ;-)
e. Wizard
Being a good compromise between the Sorceress and the Warlock, their magic abilities are quite reliable, with a slight tendency toward defense. Comments apply to the two previous classes, keeping in mind that the wizard is worse than them in their primary qualities, yet better due to having fewer weak spots;-). In the long run, they lose to strong strength heroes.
f. Necromancer
They are of little use as main heroes with living armies. However, if there are substantial numbers of skeleton-providing low-level armies, it could pay off well to choose a necromancer. Within a few levels obtained from chests and gazebos (+ 1000 experience), his Necromancy skill should improve to Expert, and then comes the time to get some armies. Gaining more levels in attack/defense than other magic heroes, necromancers are not as vulnerable in battles while they still benefit from very strong spells. In the long run, they lose to strong strength heroes if their skeleton hordes are not in four-digit values – this depends heavily on the specific map.
To summarize and expand these comments on heroes, a few notes from my personal experience follow:
If you plan to use high-quality magic, make your main hero a spellcaster. However, if you plan a long-term campaign with huge involved armies, you should choose a knight or barbarian, depending on the chosen strategy, terrain, number of castles, and available unit types. On maps with easy terrain, in the presence of strong opponents nearby (and therefore a defensive strategy), many castles, and a lack of resources (and therefore weaker armies in not-so-large quantities), the knight is better, while a distant opponent, rough terrain, and numerous armies suit the barbarian.
Having a sorceress in sea-rich scenarios gives you a great advantage – by collecting resources, artifacts, and events before the opponent, you can quite possibly help yourself win the map.
The wizard's wisdom can be useful with some powerful spells, such as Berserk, which is the best way to use the enemy's own strength against them.
A necromancer can be justified if large numbers of roaming armies for creating skeletons are located nearby – recruited skeletons make excellent garrison troops.
My usual practice: hire a Barbarian (if I am not sure that I will need a knight to protect border castles), and concentrate experience on him. In many cases, I manage to get Wisdom, so I can use some good spells from captured castles. However, Knight heroes have a higher probability of acquiring wisdom, increasing magic power, and most importantly, knowledge.
The barbarian should also try to get Archery and possibly Ballistics, since shooters are not strong enough to rely on exclusively, especially against armies based by the opponent on shooters, such as Wizard or Sorceress.
This concept of relying on strength ultimately has only a few weak spots, but those do not apply to games against AI. The holes are Paralysis and especially Berserk. With such spells, a good spellcaster can kick your army. You must be careful with the application of magic. The only good remedy is those pendants that protect against them. Oh, well, in general, if the opponent makes a mistake and gives you the opportunity to dispel those spells, DO it! (Best when using Anti-Magic.)
Direct damage magic (perhaps except Armageddon) is not such a big threat because with large armies, the damage caused by them can be fully offset by favorable spells on your troops – for example, Bless on 30 crusaders gives an average of +300 damage, equal to casting Lightning at magic power 12; Mass Bless on a whole army gives even better results compared to Chain Lightning.
The only things I miss when they are in the game are making long trips using Dimension Door, but a) it doesn't always become possible, b) one way or another, after some dozens of games won by DDing, this thing becomes "drilling" (Lit. Ed. Note: great term, isn't it? Now it's called cheating. This is from the diplomacy series in the third heroes), since it spoils most author designs.
Note that these recommendations are valid for specific hero classes and concern general usage strategy when fighting other heroes. That is, it is naturally assumed you are fighting armies belonging to exactly a specific type of hero. All these strategies assume all those armies included in the battle (for pedants: five out of six possible, best choice under specific circumstances...). If there is any army absence, strategies must be reworked to reflect this. If an army is added (from other castle types or neutral troops), strategies must be reworked. Too many combinations arise that I am not going to consider.
Obtaining secondary skills:
Check the Path of the specific class to see which skills best suit your troops and strategies.
There are some general rules that can be followed. See the 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 conditions cover anything from map size, number of castles, type of main hero, type of most used troops, amount of available resources, and all other things to terrain types.
Of course, the hero class is very important. That is, Leadership and Luck provide a much better advantage for Strength Heroes, whose unit damage ratings (which benefit from their skills) are generally high. On the other hand, for mage skills, such as Mysticism and Expert Wisdom – they are a necessity because they expand his strong features.
B. Secondary hero:
. Knight
Used mainly for defensive purposes – if you need a hero to command the castle garrison (and have no strong spells there), use a knight. For active use, there is nothing significantly good about him.
a. Barbarian
Can also be used for defense instead of a knight, but in rough terrain, he is an excellent resource collector – the one who runs between all weekly-available sources of something. If your main guy is a barbarian, try to make another accompany him on long trips, picking up all resources, etc. (If your backup guy cannot keep pace with the main one, he somewhat loses his importance in the two-hero strategy.)
b. Sorceress
Use whenever open sea is nearby – try to improve navigation quickly in gazebos, etc., and run out to pick up everything on the water before your opponents can do so. No other real use.
c. Warlock
Used in very early stages as an explorer. Leave him only with his gargoyles and let him help reveal the map. Try to get Expert Scouting to improve his work as soon as possible.
d. Wizard
No great use for. The only good thing is that the hero arrives linked with several boars and therefore can reach a good speed simply by diverting halflings.
e. Necromancer
Almost useless. Comes with slow parts and no specific good skill. However, if you have tons of peasants and other low-level skeleton-providing foam (Lit. Ed. Note: "foam"! Appreciate the language and style!) nearby, you can take a necro, use a few levels to improve necromancy, and then, before transporting one or two weeks of castle production to your main hero, beat these armies and use skeletons – either with the necro as his main troops or with the main hero as an addition to his striking force (if he has some leadership).
I personally prefer taking warlocks as secondary heroes if I don't need a barbarian (due to terrain) or if I need to get more troops for the primary hero when I take the same class (which is always offered in the first week). Why a warlock? Ideal for exploration – has Scouting, and very fast units at the start – can even split gargoyles with the main hero, thus giving me two fast explorers right at the beginning.
Орден Феникса – харизматический :) лидер