vasyasd
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Patch 3.1, first week: Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Warriors – building up to the Bone Pillar (if I named it correctly, 150 Dark Energy). Second week: Vampire Lords and Archliches (splitting them into stacks so they can be resurrected) and economy.
Third week: dedicating it to the Guild of Mages to find out what spells they have.
First, level up heroes to Necromancy. Then, choose one of two options: take a Mentor (this provides a bonus, similar to the Bone Pillar, and also boosts the number of leveled-up Necromancer heroes; alternatively, you can take a hero with leadership and level them up to become a Treasurer, converting all troops into undead). Or, focus on leveling up magic.
We don't build or raise Zombies, Ghosts, or Death Knights. We only raise Archers and their upgraded version, all types of Vampires, and all types of Liches. You can visit the castle once to learn more magic and upgrade your army (this will be the second or third week).
If the map is large or has many players, add Death Knights to the squad – they are just cannon fodder and I never upgrade them. I don't build Dragons, but if I do, I only build Astral Dragons.
This results in squads arranged on the map like this:
1st stack: Archers in the corner of the map with a supply cart.
2nd stack: Skeleton Warriors, positioned in front of the Archers, making up 10% of the Archers' size or at least 1 unit.
3rd and 4th stacks: Archliches and Liches. The first stack (Archliches) is protected by a buff from skeletons – protection against ranged attacks.
5th stack: Vampires, positioned two squares away from the Liches (we don't want Cerberi to attack the Vampires and Liches). Closer to the hero, meaning further from the enemy – they need two turns to move across the map anyway.
So, that's roughly how it works.
Another well-known strategy is to use stacks of Archers with one Zombie each in the early game – I call this a "combat Zombie." Otherwise, they are useless. This way, they at least do something – they take damage.
After that, assess the situation: is there a lot of gold on the map (treasure chests), or none at all? If there isn't, head towards races like Dungeon (if you know this, visit them by the end of the second week) because their army is expensive, they probably haven't gotten many good spells yet, and they have low mana. In this case, Vlad with the Sign of the Necromancer will be useful – [CENSORED] his resurrection. He will be in a situation like this: he uses Fury, deals damage, and shoots Assassins (poison doesn't affect you). (He will also lose some Assassins to the Archers). He will see you, try to buy whatever he can, but it won't save him. At this point, consider his morale: an army from one castle has 1 morale, an army from two evil castles has 0 morale. Add some good races, and you get a 20% chance of reducing his morale. He has a Tavern and a Fort (the appearance will tell you). If he's feeling confident, know that he has wasted a lot of gold, and this won't allow him to buy good units or build a Capitol next week. The nail is already in the coffin, just because you appeared on the horizon.
Oh yes, and always choose the artifact as the starting bonus and pray to the Devil/Ashu for boots with 50% resistance to plague or a Tarot card (10 mana and 2 mana regeneration per day, 10% luck is useless).
That's roughly how it works. I always choose Vlad as my first hero because I don't know what I'll get, but I want to advance without losses... (he will have Resurrection in his spellbook at the start).
Don't listen to Lucretia; he never stormed castles with the Sign of the Necromancer without a chance of winning. He suggests taking Intelligence (leveling up Logistics... a 25% movement bonus for the hero at the start, instead of the Necromancer Sign)