Posts from We are clearing out the neutral creatures.

How do you deal with neutral creatures in online games? For example: accumulate your army until you are sure of victory, or immediately try to level up your hero, ignoring the losses. The most pressing problem is: what to do with neutral archers if they are already guarding the necessary mines at the beginning of the game. And who goes after the Druids? I think you can't avoid losses when fighting them.

First of all, in Lords of the Realm, the developers kindly provided us with the ability to find out what danger a particular neutral creature poses to us. "Medium danger" means the strength of the neutral/enemy army is comparable to yours. "Low" means 1/2 the strength of your army, "very low" means less than 1/2 the strength of your army, "high" means the army is stronger than yours, and "no chance" – well, that's obvious. Secondly, the start depends on the hero you choose. It's easier to start the game with heroes who specialize in ranged creatures. Also, some heroes have an advantage because they start with a spell. Sometimes, to strengthen your army at the start, it makes sense to build a tavern and hire a hero from it. I don't usually have any particular problems with ranged units of levels 1-2, but it's still very difficult to avoid losses. The only ones that cause trouble are ranged units because they can deal terrible damage, but fortunately, their initiative is 8, which is the lowest among all ranged units. And it's scary to even think about levels 3 and 4... There are elven archers, succubi, and druids. It's impossible to defeat them in the early stages without losses, and they can guard a strategically important mine.

Sometimes, to strengthen your army at the beginning, it makes sense to build a tavern and hire a hero from it.

I think it always makes sense, except maybe when you have little money, then it's not worth it.
Major is right, it all depends on the hero. For example, the Protector among the Dwarves defeats everyone up to level 3; he doesn't need any Thunder Defenders, his strength is incredible!
Then, at the beginning, the Healer among the Dark Elves is also good; he has spells and a bonus.
But usually, I try to clear the map without losses, so I'd rather skip a turn than waste my army. But when you have an additional hero, you can roam the map without interruption, first defeating the weak and then, as your forces grow, moving on to stronger enemies. In my opinion, this is the most optimal tactic.

For each race, you need to use a different approach, although in most cases, one method works. For dealing with melee units, it's quite simple – if you have fairies/furies, you shouldn't have any major problems, except perhaps with melee units with high initiative. But there aren't many of those at the early levels. If you don't have either of those, then you have a hero who shoots magic, or decent ranged units :) or you're a Gnome (Necromancer) – thick and numerous :)
You can take a hero with a ballista at the beginning. Heroes with ballistas, as you know, deal with neutral creatures more easily.
In battles with enemy ranged units, the Dungeon is the easiest.
Use invisible stalkers and shoot them down with заклы (zakly), followed by finishing them off with your first units.
When playing as Inferno or Academy, etc., you deploy thick troops, such as demons, gargoyles, zombies, armored units, etc., and then shoot with a ballista/заклы (zakly)/or engage your troops in melee combat. Therefore, at the early stages of the game, these seemingly less useful troops play a crucial role and die in huge numbers. Although it's not a pity to lose them.
The Necromancers are very lucky here; the new skeletons are great for dealing with ranged units.
To deal with mages, again, you need to deploy thick troops, preferably with magic resistance. Although this is more difficult.

Yeah, dealing with neutral creatures at the beginning is a problem. It's not hard to capture mines, but then I don't know what to do. It seems like you need to develop as quickly as possible, but there are no troops, and it takes a long time to accumulate them due to the growth rate (I mainly play as Dungeon). And while there are few troops, there's a chance of losing the Furies, which are worth their weight in gold. And even when you have a decent army, I still try to be as careful as possible with neutral creatures, which is why my hero isn't very developed, but the army is almost equal to the total growth during that time, which is worse, I don't know, maybe you need to find a compromise.
But Haven archers, like most other creatures, don't cause any problems at all – Stalkers are 100% effective against them, and that's a huge advantage for Dungeon. But there are problems with the new Elven archers; sometimes they move before the Stalkers, even though they have lower initiative. In a game against the AI, I save before attacking them, and in online games, I probably just won't attack if they're not guarding anything particularly valuable.

First of all, in the Warlords expansion, the developers kindly provided us with the ability to find out what danger a particular neutral creature poses to us. "Medium danger" means the strength of the neutral/enemy army is comparable to yours. "Low" means 1/2 the strength of your army, "very low" means less than 1/2 the strength of your army, "high" means the army is stronger than yours, and "no chance" - well, that's obvious)). Secondly, the start depends on the hero you choose. It's easier to start the game with heroes who specialize in ranged creatures. Also, some heroes have an advantage because they start with a spell.

I don't really pay attention to this. I've beaten enemies with "no chance" twice. Apparently, this system doesn't take into account the players' abilities)).

Regarding the topic:
I mostly play as the Warlock, and now I'm playing a lot as Lethos. I do this: I build a tavern (if it hasn't been built yet) and then upgrade the War School, buy a second hero, upgrade the Scouts to Rangers, and go to clear out everyone with plague, without any losses, I can even take out quite powerful (up to level 4) neutral creatures. I quickly gain levels, and so on, until the beginning of the third week. On that week, I return to the Castle, buy all the troops, and go to the enemy. I also level up Chaos and either Sorcery or Education, as a result, I have enough mana for both Chaos and Darkness.

Guys, thank you so much for this topic, because neutral creatures, especially ranged ones, are my weakness. In principle, when playing as Ilfina, I confidently use a unicorn against level 1 ranged units and support it with a tent, and in general, against neutral ranged units, I run to the middle of the field and then directly towards them. When druids appear, I attack the neutral units with lightning, while upgraded fairies attack them with a swarm of wasps; if they are not machines or undead, I respond to ranged attacks with ranged attacks. But in the first week, I generally avoid attacking anyone above level 2... Maybe it's wrong, but it's for safety's sake. Otherwise... in campaigns, neutral units are a headache for me at the beginning. Closer to the end of the campaign, they are just easy to defeat (although in the fourth game, in "The Gathering Storm," my heroes were already running around alone from the second mission), but otherwise, it's a real challenge. For the Sylvan faction, Ossir and Diraell are good at clearing out neutral units, in my opinion - again, the strategy is to rely on ranged attacks.
I wrote this nonsense so as not to go off-topic.

Well, when playing as Haven, the main thing is to upgrade the archers, and the neutrals are eliminated very quickly. However, by that time, there is almost no wood left, and you also need to build a castle... In general, you need to get through this period, and the neutrals will no longer pose such a threat, and losing, say, 10 dancers is not so terrible. As for Dungeon, it's a bit easier in terms of neutrals; the main reason I don't attack for a long time is the fear of losing my Fury units. But when playing as Inferno, I can't seem to deal with the neutrals for a long time. Maybe someone can suggest a tactic?

I played a bit with the demons, but let their fans not criticize if the tactic seems simple. The point is that if the neutrals are slow and infantry-based, you just run around and attack with your hero. Against archers, it's better to quickly build units that can block them from the first or second turn without any problems – Cerberuses and Altgarde Demons, and it's also good to place a Succubus nearby. A Ballista can also help with this.

I can't seem to deal with the demons and the neutrals for a long time. Maybe someone can suggest a tactic?

Well, you can do what Drakosha suggested: Take Deleb, catch a ballista, and run around with one dog, avoiding slow melee units while the ballista does its work; or you can catch a tent and then start summoning imps and try to... the main thing is to get Deleb's machines upgraded in the first three days, with a ballista or a tent. It's much easier to take out ranged units with the new demons, especially with the support of a tent.
Or you can take Grog with teleport to block ranged units if you don't have alt-demons.

I'm a fan of demons. ;) I can say that the "run around with the hero and attack" tactic isn't stupid at all; sometimes it's the only thing that saves you. Although, you need to calculate the number of movement squares and the turn order down to the smallest detail. In general, it's incredibly time-consuming, but effective. If you're playing as Deleb (or any other engineer), you need to get Fire Arrows as soon as possible. Then clearing out neutral creatures will become easy and enjoyable. I remember killing 20 unupgraded Nightmares with 20 unupgraded Demons. I positioned them like this: 5 demons in each corner, and five diagonally. This is how I always protect ranged units from four-square creatures. And the ballista quickly and quite painfully eliminates everyone. It's also lucky when you find a Marksman or Spikes in the guild. After upgrading Succubi, everything goes almost like clockwork, because Imps are primarily good not for taking control of a unit, but for blocking its attacks on your warriors. As for Elves, I can say that you shouldn't bombard the enemy with a swarm of Dryads. You can, of course, divide the Dryads into many stacks for greater efficiency, but if there are already about a hundred of them, it's better to just fly in and attack. And if you take Nymphs (it's strange, a Dryad is a subspecies of Nymphs), they already have quite decent damage, and they quickly destroy everyone. Pixies are a cheat. ;) And yes, you need to upgrade Marksmen as soon as possible and you can't lose them under any circumstances. Therefore, in battles with Stalkers or Assassins, it's better not to deploy them at all. By the way, recently I've been disappointed in the blue Marksmen. I'm more often upgrading Elves into the good old Archers. And, Waishan, it's better to have fewer troops, but be more upgraded. Higher level magic, stats, and skills. Remember, there's even a sad story in the tavern about a Warlock who won battles with great losses, but was well-upgraded.

Regarding the tactic of using Demons against slow melee units: In campaigns, I do the following: I surround my creatures with summoned units. When neutral units approach, my summoned units are already out of their reach. While they are fighting the summoned units, ballistas and the hero deal the main damage, and then the main troops finish them off (this works best against large creatures, as you can block them with fewer units, for example, you can block Ents in the middle of the field).

IMHO, in the latest add-on, Deleb is not the best choice. Her fireball has become more like fireworks. It looks nice, but the damage is negligible. However, the ballista itself is certainly helpful.

If I see Deleb in the tavern, I immediately buy her and take her machines, regardless of the faction I'm playing.

You can defeat neutral creatures with minimal losses using Necromancers. Sacrifice one unit to take the hit, and then resurrect it at the end of the battle. And thanks to the Town Portal spell, you can build a Necropolis army even without a Necropolis castle (for example, in mission 2 for Necropolis in version 1.6).

Yes, but no one remembers that there are spells like forgetfulness and blindness, but that's only if the magic is strong enough. There are also spells that reduce the enemy's speed. You can use them to outmaneuver and shoot down enemies as they approach. In general, if I'm playing as Dark Elves or Mages, besides the main hero, I buy two more of my own units in the tavern and transfer all the troops to them. It works. The army becomes three times larger, and that means more archers. And then, forward, to the barricades!