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Rather than specific ideas and suggestions, these are just general impressions from playing HotA.
The gameplay in HotA has improved noticeably recently.
My thoughts on Inferno and Necropolis remain largely the same: no one lets you play as Necropolis, and they rarely appear in random games. I've had more opportunities to play as Inferno, and the Castle has become much faster-paced. Even with the change that requires building a magic school to upgrade fairies, it's actually a plus. Now, if a hero explores and acquires the default wisdom on the first week, they can comfortably purchase the Magic Guild on the second week to acquire air, earth, and guarantee finding armor, tactics, and a free skill of their choice. This results in always having an ideal hero and fairies for boosting weaker units. And if you're lucky enough to find shrines with psychics, it becomes even more powerful, as maximum-level units can appear on the first week with 6+ psychics and 7+ stats on the hero. On the second week, they appear even without shrines (and this is without mass magic). I haven't tested Moon much, but I haven't played many small maps either; I think it might be more interesting than Inferno in those scenarios.
Now, let's talk about the other Castles that I didn't fully cover in our previous conversation.
I'll start with Swamp – it's undoubtedly my top-tier Castle, one that you can reliably choose when starting a game (assuming Necropolis and Inferno are always banned). Although, I might place it on par with Inferno.
The core gameplay of this Castle involves starting with a Dragon hero, gathering around 100 Gnolles by level 111 (and usually finding two or three more Gnolles in resource nodes on most maps). On average, I end up with a stack of around 110-120 Gnolles by level 112-114 (after scouting the map and consolidating the Gnolles into one force). These creatures break through almost anything: they have 7 speed, excellent damage and combat stats, and leadership on the main hero, which greatly simplifies things – infantry simply doesn't survive, and all resource nodes are easily taken by Gnolles, without needing to control Lizards or pray that a stack of neutral creatures doesn't accidentally wipe out your army. I was able to defeat a level 2 Guardian with a stack of 120+ Gnolles and a level 4 Dragon without a spellbook; a level 1 Guardian falls with any starting stack of Gnolles.
Here are a few more points about playing as Swamp. The standard two native heroes in the tavern, a Gnolles box, more than two Gnolles resource nodes, and early mass slow on the Dragon hero – all these common bonuses make the Swamp army a hurricane in the first week. Overall, I really enjoy playing as this Castle in HotA, but I suspect that others will soon discover its power, and it will become more difficult to play as Swamp.
Rampart is simply a strong Castle, and you can easily find it in the top 4. The Elves on all heroes greatly simplify things, and the Unicorns still run around like crazy. The three starting stacks also add to the early-game tempo.
I've played about 20 games as Tower. I really liked the changes to the starting setup; now, playing as Tower (considering the workshops) is very enjoyable. It hasn't become a top-tier Castle, but I think it can become a solid mid-tier Castle over time.
Citadel didn't make a particular impression; it's essentially a standard Stronghold with three starting stacks, except that tactics with Cyclops have been added, but I think it only works well if you have Cyclops artifacts.
Castle is also a mid-tier Castle. If you get a lot of money and resources early in the game, and if you get Archmages, it's incredibly strong; otherwise, it's below average.
I haven't played much as Inferno, so I don't have much to say.
Port is similar; I've only played about 7-8 games, but one thing is certain: Sea Wolves are amazing.
Finally, Dungeon. This Castle is at the bottom, and the three starting stacks didn't help it; it just fell behind the other Castles. I think either the starting setup needs to be cheaper, or Trolls need to be added to bring Dungeon up to a mid-tier level.
As I continue to play HotA and make new observations, I will update this post.