Inferno tactics.

I suggest discussing this topic-)

I play as this castle on impossible.
Of course, I'm not a professional (since I limited myself to playing with acquaintances/LAN etc.), but in most cases, I wipe out opponents playing as Rampart/Necromancers and other strong castles (even with all banned heroes, skills, horrors of necromancy, and vampire-lord-ism permitted).
I probably haven't played for the last 5 years,
but if anyone wants to play against an Inferno player on impossible in SOD 3.2 - hit me up at 300109800.

in my experience - this is one of the weakest towns. here is the opinion on the creatures:

Funny thing - in this castle, there isn't even a single banned hero (according to various tournament rules) )

imps are trash. they play no particular role due to their weakness.

I would say - the weakest unit. Even a hero with strong combat stats ends a fight with neutrals losing imps... The unit is weaker even than a troglodyte and slower than "butterflies".
Moreover, the starting number of imps is lowered in SOD (fixed in TE). What can 1 hero with say 17 imps and 4 gogs repel? =)

magogs don't have the best stats, and upgraded ones are even doubtful because of their ability to hit their own.

Useless unit. Slow, expensive, very low attack for a second-level shooter. I only need them as meat to break through key resources.
Their upgrade is expensive and... absolutely pointless.

cerberus are a strong unit! good growth, hit hard, many times and without answer.

But weak defense. And the dmg varies too much - almost a five-fold difference between minimum and maximum. I don't build them up to efreets. And then I only build them for the purpose of accumulating in the castle for defense... Or zerg... Alas. I don't use them as an independent element of strategy

demons are ordinary walking meat without any particular pluses.

+1. I only build them to unlock higher levels. I don't use them in hero development, only for guarding the castle and zerg.

Pit lords - low health, they don't fly, special ability is doubtful in my opinion (one piece of meat resurrects another piece of meat-)))

Like the doggies, I don't build them. Since efreets can be placed without them.

ifreets are good guys! they can be put in the top three strongest 6th level along with nagas and death knights (I consider cavalry weaker, but that's IMHO)

The only strike unit in Inferno. Looking at balance - HP is a bit low (but this is a problem for all Inferno units)
Pluses - fast (very fast when upgraded),
relatively small construction requirements (3-4 buildings from the start of the game), immune to fire magic (not hit by arrows and... Armageddon muahaha - the latter sometimes becomes a key feature in the endgame, when other troops and faster seventh-level units are taken only for the right of first move...).
Efreet sultans - companions of a mobile battle mage on the map - a mage with logistics moves no worse than fighters. )

Devils are decent fighters, but health is a bit low in my opinion...

Attack is weakish, HP is low, speed is above average, but they lose in speed (right of first move) to the archangel and phoenix. The building is expensive and I often finished the game on impossible without them at all...

Inferno heroes don't stand out as anything special, but I repeat - I'm not a fan of this town and perhaps I just don't know much-))))

There are no heroes with good (cheating) skills, no logistics experts, no defence-offence specialists, no skill-mages....

But how conveniently demons develop, and especially heretics. Sort of offensive battle mages (my playstyle).
With decent chances to get any secondary skill.

Added after 11 minutes

Ha-ha! The only disbalance in HOMM3 is probably the extreme weakness of the Inferno town! For example, playing online I wouldn't dare choose this castle. :) No bonuses save it.

At the same time, the respawn around Inferno is also poor in resources - no leprechauns, mills, corpse remains etc. Often there is a lot of lava and closed spaces.

Not a single normal hero.

And among heroes "unspoiled" by unnecessary secondary skills, there aren't that many in Inferno.

I have never met a person who seriously played as this castle.

Does seriousness mean the desire to win championships?

Ideologically and visually it is perfectly thought out, but for me it remains a secret what kind of tactic can help Inferno.
It would be very interesting and curious to find someone in this thread who loves playing as Inferno! Where are you?

<-
300109800.

Added after 9 minutes

there was almost no talk about balance violation -))
the town is just weak...
question: how to make it stronger using your head and opportunities-))
rush and hack - that's an option... but what about a more prolonged game given the distance between players??

Strange, for me Inferno is exactly weak at the start, a Rampart rush on the first or second week kills me,
but if my main hero is allowed to develop, by the 3rd-4th week and beyond, Rampart has fewer chances, even considering all its HP zerg of dendroids, dwarves, upgraded centaurs etc... =)

Added after 2 minutes

I also disagree that Inferno is weak, it's just hard to develop on impossible.

It's hard for all castles without starting resources, isn't it? =)

Added after 3 minutes

So again, a proven tactic in online battles:
I start with Inferno, with a useless player (7 gogs and 25 imps), only an imp pit nearby, I buy a second guy (8 gog 23 imps),

A starting hero never has 8 gogs. From 4 to 7 (LOL!).

Added after 4 minutes

I start with Inferno, with a useless player (7 gogs and 25 imps), only an imp pit nearby, I buy a second guy (8 gog 23 imps), bought out gogs and imps in the town, transferred everything to one hero and got... 23 gogs and 79 imps, with this army I went to slaughter everyone, while building up the town; at the start of the week I again bought imps and gogs and while the main hero was leveling, I built the whole town in 2 weeks, and on the 3rd week with a 2-week growth, I moved further ... conclusion: won the map on the 6th week.

You can play like this with any castle and hero (and other castles are much easier). And apparently, at normal difficulty level and monster strength=easy? :) How many imps will you have left after meeting neutral shooters of levels 1-2 and fast (6+) melee flyers (monster strength=max)?

Added after 3 minutes

Either on the second week or even on the first... By the second, Inferno will have cerberus and they aren't weak either ))

23 grand elves are in no way comparable to 23 gogs... The former will kill the latter with a score of 8:1.

Added after 4 minutes

The army is normal - I'm not saying anything!

23 gogs and 79 imps - is that a normal army? And on impossible, it's wasteful. Slow units will be smashed to pieces by shooters, 6+ melee flyers; imps cannot tank, gogs have weak attack (the weakest second-level shooter without upgrade), penalty in close combat...

ADD: Only now did I notice that I was replying to posts in the thread dated back to 2007-2008. =)

Added after 37 minutes

Sorcery does not "very well" increase magic damage. only by 15%..

For a sorcery specialist, there is also a dmg bonus with each level. It happened that one cast was enough to wipe out the entire monthly brood of an opponent's castle in seven slots (e.g., Armageddon on expert fire and with an orb)...

Added after 12 minutes

In Inferno it is IMPOSSIBLE to learn blessing

What's the problem with learning this low-level skill from a scroll or a first-level tutor around the castle? =)

Added after 34 seconds

Archdevils in a 100 vs 100 fight, all other things being equal, lose only to archangels... they win against everyone else.. :D

Will the heroes just be smoking on the sidelines? In a match-up with archdevils, living dragons easily win.

Added after 56 minutes

Well, getting efreets on the first week only works at 130%)))

And at 160% with starting 10000 gold and 4 of each colored resource, is it hard to build up? If you don't count stones, but you can even do it without leaving the castle...
That's why for me it's only interesting to play on impossible, without starting resources - that's where building efreets on the first week (without a stronghold - there still won't be enough money to buy so many efreets immediately)
depends not only on colored resources and a large number of "stones" (ore), but also on money, which may simply not be on the respawn (terrain specifics with an absence of buildings like mills or leprechauns)... But it's still feasible.

Added after 13 minutes

Regarding a certain tactic for Inferno, it was suggested to build efreets immediately and go with them. That's where the uncertainty lies. These are level 6 units and they are built one by one; you can't build them like swamp wyverns. From this comes the conclusion: it's not always advisable to bet on efreets. And what if you are on a small map? Or resource-poor? If, for example, we play as Castle or Rampart, then the tactic may come down to building archers and clearing the territory with this small army, which ensures the capture of mines and resources almost without losses. In Inferno, shooters are weak, and you can only pass without losses using efreets, as was noted. But to build them, you need different resources and five levels of creatures built, except for dogs probably.

Provided that we appear on the first day with a second-level dwelling, then 2 more buildings are required before efreets
to be built; you can do without a sawmill (by picking up 10 wood somewhere), only one stone mine - demons and musthave first-level magic guild (efreet upgrade doesn't require anything supernatural like a second-level magic guild or silo)

Added after 10 minutes

Yes, indeed, efreets are placed without dogs and spawns of evil, but you still build 3-4 buildings (the lake of efreets itself, demons, magic and if not then the palace of vices). Time - minimum 3-4 days on a map sufficiently rich in money and resources. This is without building either a municipality or a prefecture. Does anyone actually play like that here? Let's not idealize the situation and say that such things happen. Usually there aren't enough resources on the map to use efreets as a tactic for gathering resources. Better off with gogs somehow.

Added several months later.
Investing in troops at the start - I play like that now too, and not always on a resource-rich map.

Two efreets will help earn (pay back) more money (and especially other resources) than sitting in the castle and saving up for a municipality... Or running around with a feeble suicide army of imps and gogs. =)