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I'll return to the topic of Inferno. I haven't read the entire thread – I was feeling lazy. But I have a special tactic for Inferno. I developed it a long time ago, and I don't know if it's good or bad. It's more of a twisted strategy. However, I've won several times using it in offline games. By the way, you didn't consider that Inferno has Hell Gates, and as the number of Inferno Castles increases, the possibilities increase significantly.
Tactic: The goal for the first week is to buy Hell Gates and a Pit. This doesn't cost many resources, only money, so it's quite possible. Then, as quickly as possible, upgrade the units with whips. Also, don't neglect Cerberuses, Imps, and Gogs. Because, as many will agree with me, Imps are not a good unit, and they are constantly being defeated. Gogs are also a poor ranger, and Cerberuses are good, but we'll ignore them. Essentially, by attacking neutral monsters, we kill them, and from their corpses, we raise Demons. One summon at a time. The first plus is that we happily get rid of some units, while they attract all the enemies and still fight. The second is that we collect the 4th-level Demon increase from the Castle. A Demon is, of course, weak, but like skeletons in large numbers, it's an unstoppable force. In the end, the number of heroes merges into one, who travels with weak units and whip-wielders, raises skeletons, and clears out neutral territories. The second (main) hero travels with a huge number of Demons, as well as two of Inferno's best units – Devils and Ifrits, so there are no problems with Castles and archers. Another plus is that any other Castle can also easily become a supplier of "meat" for Demons. The first four levels can easily be turned into Demons... The rest are pointless. If Diplomacy is available, that's even better (from my observations, Diplomacy is very often available for Inferno).
And now, a little arithmetic: (what's better)
1) 9 Imps – 1 Demon (1 hp remaining)
2) 3 Gogs – 1 Demon (4 hp remaining)
3) 2 Cerberuses – 1 Demon (15 hp remaining)
To get one Demon, you need one whip-wielder.
Two weeks of buying Gogs turns into 10 Demons with 10 whip-wielders.
Everything is great, but it seems very difficult to implement in reality... In fact, with experience, it's very easy. This tactic doesn't slow down the expansion of borders or development. If you're not lazy, try it; I'll be interested to know what you get... In principle, we could even organize a championship in collecting Demons...
And also, IMHO, a rating of the fourth-level unit:
1) Vampire
2) Mage
3) Knight
4) Ogre
5) Medusa
6) DEMON
7) Pegasus
8) Fire Elemental
9) Basilisk