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A player from Heroes.by, Wic, has written one of the BEST AND MOST COMPLETE strategy articles for playing as Castle, including (and very competent) descriptions of how to take all buildings for this castle in the early stages (broken down by turns) and how to develop with this castle, covering all nuances and points..
It is written very well, easy to read, and despite the article being long—as it is very detailed and complete—I STRONGLY RECOMMEND ALL PLAYERS WHO PLAY ONLINE TO READ IT IN FULL, EVEN THOSE WHO CONSIDER THEMSELVES EXPERIENCED PLAYERS
Personally, I also highlighted a few things from this article that I didn't know and which will undoubtedly help in the future when playing Multiplayer.
Tips from the Old Man (edited by Gynnar)
1. The main hero should primarily be built as a warrior. Mages are practically just as strong, but you need to arrive early with them—before the 4th week. I don't like mages myself because you have to distract yourself by replenishing mana. There are many options—so it's a matter of taste. It all comes down to personal preference. For my part, I'll add that a strength-builder at the tavern is much cooler than a mage.
(P.S Gynnar—the problem with playing as mages is that a mage constantly needs mana (since they cannot have a higher amount from the start of the game—and wells are very rare on random maps), plus good play requires early breakthroughs of strong monsters and buildings such as "cans" [strongholds], hives (for example, in the second week), where again a fighter (strength hero) is much more preferable, because in those same hives contact occurs, for example, usually immediately, before magic is used, and in Dragon Utopia, in the early stages (2nd, 3rd week)—magic may not help at all (if you haven't built or obtained magic above the third level). Also, often the main magic in battles in the early stages is mass slow and mass haste, which a strength warrior can easily learn by the end of the first week or beginning of the second, and this does not require much mana or spell power. And the main problem with mages is that on a random map you can very often find either an orb of prohibition (red, prohibits casting any magic) or a cloak of renunciation, limiting the use of magic to the 3rd level, and then the Mage is left without magic, which is a catastrophe for him...)
2. Experience helps. There are certain laws regarding how monsters act, but if you try to fully calculate them for every battle—the calculator will break and the party will last 40 hours. You can estimate: a) Monsters try to deal maximum damage; b) If possible, they block shooters; c) If possible, they try to kill troops that have low HP but high damage; d) If monsters believe they can win—they often hit strike stacks. Example—an attack on a castle. With roughly equal skills and army, towers will likely shoot at, say, Black Dragons or angels, without touching troglodytes. A separate point is e) Monsters, if they aren't playing for the win—are afraid to hit a strike stack because of the retaliation. Therefore, it's often worth monitoring the turn order of monsters—if few units remain in the first moving stack, say 3 griffins or dragonflies, they will in any case remove the retaliation from the strike stack and then hit exactly that one.
3. Everyone tries to create a decisive advantage. However, you often have to fight whenever possible. The ideal option is to scout the opponent first, but that happens rarely. So you have to try or come up with clever ways. A few comments:
a) The most overused trick, but very effective—a mage (or a strength-builder with an advantage in magic skills) attacks a castle, locks the gates and shoots them down with magic. Often this decides it; an advantage in troops is not mandatory. An approximate analog—locking, red orb, and shooting with a golden bow.
b) A combination of a red orb and a collection of slow+curse+weakness+antiluck. Or the Angelic Alliance collection. Rare, but also a technique.
c) How to conduct the final battle (in my opinion).
- Mass haste and mass slow. They must be present, especially in SoD. It's very simple here—the main thing is that the opponent casts first. Even if they hit with 7th-level stacks after casting mass haste, almost always after mass slow the troops are equalized within 2 turns. It seems elementary, but even strong players often mess up on this. I say this from personal experience.
- Furthermore, with normal troops, mass haste or mass slow can quite effectively counter implode.
- Take out strike stacks and simply 7th levels. Even if, say, medusas deal 80 damage to archangels but 300 to marksmen—hit the archangels. Exceptions are rare. And this isn't a battle with the computer—here shooters will rarely be the deciding factor.
(P.S Gynnar I don't entirely agree here; it all depends on the specific situation on the battlefield. If both players start playing defensively, force out the shooters and shoot each other (or even more so when one player has dominant shooters and, by forcing them [including with those same archangels], shoots down the other player who is trying to reach these shooters as quickly as possible—here it's better to hit the shooters after all [considering that they are more dangerous to you now, that this is the opponent's main combat stack, and that you will do much more damage than to a 7th-level unit]). But on the other hand, if the opponent's main fighting force is a 7th-level unit, with shooters serving only as an auxiliary squad and practically not planning to win the battle with them—then it's worth hitting the 7th level, of course.)
- Again—it's easy to see that combat spells act equally on all levels of troops since defense does not affect them (P.S Gynnar—meaning that lightning will do the same damage to an archangel as it would to a companion, for example, because defense doesn't work for magic). The choice of where to throw lightning becomes obvious.
- Think during the final battle, as well as during very difficult ordinary ones. Those who say "enough already, just take your turn" can go you-know-where. If you don't mind staring at the situation for 5-10 minutes—you can change the outcome of the battle. Wrong actions can lead to defeat even with a 1.5x advantage.
- Estimate if there are chances when losing a battle. If it becomes insurmountable, maybe it's worth changing the plan, killing dangerous troops and going home to develop further, while the opponent with cut-down troops may no longer be able to enter Dragon Utopia.
- Taking castles is far from always simple even with a double advantage. Killing the ballista, a combination of artillery+shooters+force field+anti-magic, red orb, and other surprises can make a castle impregnable. So you can quite comfortably stay in the castle, pressing on the opponent's nerves. This is also a tactic.
For those who want to win: (author—Old Man)
0) Desire to win! Not "I hope I win this game," but gather yourself and try. Heroes is not just a game, but a competition.
1) Make saves. At least with strong players. And then don't be lazy about watching them. The ideal option is first to try playing it yourself from day one, although few dare that—it breaks everyone.
2) How to take crypts, dwarf dwellings, naga banks, imp dwellings, medusa dwellings, "cans"—simulate on your turn or right before the battle how it will roughly go by creature turns. The main part is usually decided in 2 rounds—blocking medusas, taking down 2 piles of dwarves, or separating nagas-dwarves-imps... Not so hard if you practice, but you'll be able to calculate how likely it is to be taken and take them with different amounts of troops. You will be able to plan when and who can be split in such battles.
3) Test. If there are doubts about some moments of the game, or you think you've discovered or learned something—make a map in the editor, set the necessary conditions and check. Because few people answer questions of this kind. Or they answer incompletely. In this thread, by the way, there were such questions, and although they were answered, not entirely.
5) Test-2. "Cans", hives, naga banks and others, especially Dragon Utopia. Set up a map, troops, skills and go. 3-4 battles conducted specifically in a row can completely change the arrangement and reduce losses by 2-3 times.
6) Invent. There are templates in Heroes, but there is much more room for non-standard thinking.
7) Draw conclusions and remember. You can learn something from almost every game.
For those who just want to play:
0) Just play. And we will be the ones winning.
When to take Dragon Utopia and with what (approximate minimum options for taking Dragon Utopia) (author—Old Man)
1. On the first week, full build-up of possible troops. For different castles: angels, or horses with Castle, unicorns with Castle, nagas with Stronghold, ifrits with Castle, manticoras with Castle or Stronghold, dread knights with Castle or Stronghold, behemoths with whatever you can get, hydras with whatever you can get, phoenixes. On the second week, build up the rest.
In such a layout, Dragon Utopia (except for max) is taken with small and tolerable losses on day 141 after buying troops. Max is taken depending on skills. Standard, in general—141, skills 10 10 5 5, troops bought, we break the utopia. This is if absolutely nothing was found.
2. Build-up is roughly the same, but plus "cans" and hives. With an additional 4-6 angels or 15-20 vivas, you can go in on the 3rd week if skills aren't completely zero, or if there is mass haste and offense.
3. external dwelling. Combat strike stacks also allow going in on the 3rd week. Powerful external dwellings—almost all 6-7 levels, crusaders, druids, vampires (if they can be upgraded), minotaurs, thunderbirds, cows. Also preferable not with a completely weak hero—with 5-5 skills you might not take it.
4. Money. If on the 3rd week you put an upgrade to 7th level, some castles significantly increase their chances. Angels, behemoths, hydras are the best options; others also improve very well.
5. A little bit of everything. There are medium external dwellings, or small ones but many of them, high skills, a few vivas, a couple of angels, offense-armor-haste-shields. We go in on the 3rd and break it.
6. Necromancer with Galtran on top, first skill logistics, we beat boots or gloves, have money and imp dwellings and a few artifacts for combat skills or boosters. We enter Dragon Utopia on the second week with 400-600 skeletons and smash it to pieces.
In general, if possible, you can always approach Dragon Utopia on day 141 to minimize losses. Everything depends on whether the opponent comes—if they are scouted but no visit is planned, you can attend to other things—libraries, "cans" and so on, and break the utopia in time. This is the case if taking it on 136-137; as an alternative—141-143. That is when you won't have time to arrive on the third week with artifacts from Dragon Utopia. If you can go on 132—it makes sense to take it—the return will be great.
(P.S from Gynnar But there are games (ordinary maps, standard templates) where max utopias !!!!!! (this is where 5 black dragons+others) are broken in the second week (as happened in one of Old Man's real internet games—for those interested—I can copy the report, or find it yourselves (on heroes.by—posted together with saves)). He played not as Dungeon or Necromancer, but as Castle (got lucky with "cans", but besides luck—played very competently, built chains of heroes; if this hadn't been the case—such a result wouldn't have existed)
Copied from the topic "Tactics for Stronghold", as this post will be much more appropriate here, and in addition it is very USEFUL for beginners who are used to playing mainly against computer opponents (author—Gynnar)
Only completely weak players build money at the start, and by doing so you will lose even to medium-strength players (mid-tiers) almost constantly. Even at 200% it's worth building no more than a Town Hall, and if this building interferes with the tempo of the game (as a result, you won't be able to buy a hero for a chain or an army for a breakthrough)—then you can do without it. Finances should be built up in a captured neutral city or village on the first week (and even here there are a bunch of nuances; sometimes it's more profitable to stop building your home castle and switch to building units in a neutral one [if, for example, this castle is much stronger than yours, if there are external dwellings of creatures there, etc.]). If you managed to beat out a lot of money—then you can build troops in both castles immediately, or sometimes it makes sense to build magic immediately in a just-captured secondary town.
Why do only weak players build money at the start? Because good players immediately build an army, buy it right away and use it to beat money and resources out of various monsters (including breaking [capturing] such monetary buildings in the first days of the game as crypts, imp dwellings, and sometimes dwarf dwellings. Also many heroes are bought [sometimes up to 8 in the first days of the game] and they rush in different directions to scout and collect free-lying money and resources, while some of them are used for clever chains. As a result, by the end of the week you may even have more money than a player who went into finances and bought only two heroes, but at the same time you will have already upgraded your main hero quite well, conducted extensive reconnaissance of the territory, which will allow you to know exactly where to run at the start of the second week, and at the start of the next week you can buy up the growth and either go kill the opponent or increase your own combat power, while your enemy only begins building an army on the second [and you'll still get more money on the second week by using your upgraded hero and bought army to break buildings such as naga banks, medusa dwellings and managing to collect some free resources much earlier than the opponent thanks to a larger number of heroes])
