Posts from Flying units in Heroes 2.

2 PReDS
Thank you for your help, all posts have been corrected.
2 Drill
By "grandmothers," I assume you mean spirits/ghosts/phantoms. Yes, they are strong, but in practical gameplay, they are not encountered very often. The reason is that they don't join your army, and the burial mound (where you can hire them) appears on a very small number of maps.
2 Ergon
In principle, if the battle takes place near the dragon lair, it might make sense to assemble your army differently and take the dragonlings themselves? Then 1-2 red dragons could significantly strengthen the necromancer's troops.
PS. According to updated data, vampire lords are not the best unit for taking the dragon city because they only regenerate by killing enemy units. So, it makes sense to use Alex_R's tactics as a basis and experiment with them.

2 PReDS
Is something wrong? Yes, in the second Heroes game, vampire lords regenerate health when they attack any unit, including dragons. And the guide about the differences between the second and third Heroes games was not written by me, but by DmitriyAS.

:D
Well, let's put it mildly: it's just a little bit off. I know who the author of the guide is. I also know that vampires in the second game are omnivorous. I also know about the commendable habit of a charismatic leader to analyze game situations away from the company. But something tells me that one feature was overlooked.

Yes, playing Heroes "blindly" without a computer played a trick on me, and as a result, I unintentionally misled...
Here is a post from Sir Catch, the Rector of the school of basic mastery for Heroes II:
"Nuances of Vampire Lord regeneration in Heroes II and III.

As it recently turned out during a discussion on a friendly resource, even experienced Heroes players do not know the differences in Vampire Lord regeneration between II and III. Moreover, after studying the regeneration mechanics in one version, they extrapolate them to the other, which can mislead less experienced players.
So:
1. Heroes II. Vampire Lords regenerate from absolutely all monsters, including undead, elementals, golems, and gargoyles.
Heroes III. Vampire Lords regenerate only from living monsters; they do not regenerate from the aforementioned ones.
But almost everyone knows this point.
2. Heroes II. Vampire Lords regenerate only from killed units.
Heroes III. Vampire Lords regenerate from wounded units as well.
3. Heroes II. Vampire Lords regenerate only in full; that is, if they kill monsters totaling less than 40 HP per turn, they do not restore their numbers.
Heroes III. Vampire Lords can regenerate partially. That is, even when dealing damage equal to one HP, one unit of our vampire stack will be restored (provided all others were fully healthy at the moment of the strike).

Now let me explain with examples.
We have a stack of vampires (here and hereafter, upgraded ones, meaning Vampire Lords) and a stack of goblins. Suppose the vampires fly in and attack. The goblins, in turn, strike (80) and take down two vampires. The vampires strike back and deal 50 damage. In II, one vampire is restored, but fully. In III, two vampires are restored, but the last one will be "wounded," having 10 health.
Next. We have a stack of vampires and a stack of Black Dragons. The Black Dragons strike and destroy 3 vampires (120). The vampires strike back and deal 50 damage. In II, not a single vampire will be restored (since there are no killed units). In III, two vampires will be restored (one fully, the second with 10 HP). But! When, in the course of the battle, the vampires hit a mortally wounded Black Dragon—for example, the Black Dragon has 20 HP left and the vampires finish it off—then: in II, a Vampire Lord will restore 300 (!) HP, meaning 7 (or 6, if the last unit in the stack had more than 20 damage) bloodsuckers will rise from hell, whereas in III, only 20 HP will be restored from what remained of the Black Dragon. And that might not even be enough to restore a single vampire.
Knowledge of these nuances often wins battles fought with vampires. For example, we have a stack of tanky, high-HP monsters (Ogre Lords, Hydras, etc.). We estimate how much damage our vampires will deal and realize we are just a bit short of killing a unit. Then we remove some HP using a faster monster (gargoyle, lich, etc.) or via magic, for example, from a shooter. Or we cast Bloodlust on the vamps to increase their damage. In the end, the monster is killed, and the vamps are restored. This works especially well against particularly tanky monsters, from which several vampires, rather than just one, can be restored. In III, however, one should generally attack monsters with the lowest defense so that the vampires can gain the maximum amount of health (although every battle has its peculiarities; it might be worth blocking shooters or, conversely, finishing off a powerful monster that can deal substantial damage to the bloodsuckers).
And for both versions, it is true that defensive spells are very effective for vampires (Stone Skin for both versions, Steel Skin (2), Shield (3)), as well as those that increase the attack level (Bloodlust, Dragon Slayer (2), Slayer (3)). Also, Destructive Ray and Curse on enemies."
Thus, all calculations regarding the confrontation between the Black Dragon and Vampire Lords were erroneous; I will either delete or correct my posts on this matter shortly. By the way, in connection with the above, the first-level spell "Bloodlust" looks particularly attractive for a Barbarian with Vampire Lords, as it lasts three turns regardless of magic power.

Why are they considered incorrect? The number of vampires is calculated correctly; due to the retaliate ability, 12 upgraded vampires can take down a black dragon. And if they really do restore 6 or even 7 vampires immediately upon the dragon's death, then the loss will be minimal. I haven't fought them that often, so I don't remember exactly how they regenerate. I thought that roughly one would die per turn, but the black dragon can withstand about 5 rounds.
Actually, I remember using 18 of those creatures and some smaller units, led by a Knight, to eliminate a hero-sorceress with a very strong army (without phoenixes, though), and I almost didn't lose anything (I think it was River Crossing).

Wizard movement... It's a powerful ability.
And gargoyles are the least appealing.

Gargoyles have a number of significant advantages.
1. High speed (6) allows them to quickly engage ranged units or cast spells.
2. Defense of 7. For a level 2 unit, this is a very significant stat, which again allows the gargoyle to hold out for a considerable time against engaged ranged units.
For example, 3-4 gargoyles accompanying a secondary hero can break through 10-19 grand elves in the first week (with the support of the rest of the troops, of course); without them, this task is either solved with significant losses or may be unattainable...
Rooks are good, that's for sure, 40 hit points and they are quickly summoned!

Gargoyles are very effective; recently, six of them with an attack of 8 and high luck wiped out a troll belonging to a hero.

As I understand it, the main advantage of griffins is that they can endlessly retaliate against attacks, right?

Also useful for blocking and destroying small archers. They can be built on the first day if you have enough money. A Knight with 4 Griffons, 8-10 Gargoyles, and 15 Centaurs can effectively defeat Archers, Rangers, Orcs, Chiefs, Elves, and Halflings. Now, let's take a Knight hero with his native army, meaning something like 13 Archers, 50 Peasants, and 5 Pikemen. This army is completely unsuitable for fighting archers; at best, you could add 20 Halflings to it. However, it might be better to fight with Archers against 15-20 Dwarves.

2 PReDS
Thank you for your help, all posts have been corrected.
...

To fully solve the problem, we need to figure out where it is more advantageous to place vampires: in a corner, so that only two dragons attack, or in the center, so that three dragons attack and blow each other away?

It is desirable to position the Vampire Lords so that the dragons die after THEIR attacks, because when the green dragon dies after an attack from the Vampire Lords, the latter will immediately recover 5 units. The Vampire Lords will find it difficult to withstand three attacks. Perhaps it is possible to position the Vampire Lords in the upper corner with the idea of delaying the encounter with the black dragon. That is, so that we are attacked by the second and third stacks in order, after which the fourth and fifth stacks enter the battle (NOT the first). Technically, this is done as follows:
A Knight or Barbarian hero. Arrangement: Vampire Lords (let's say 18), 1 peasant, 1 peasant, 1 peasant, 1 unupgraded archer. Although it is much better to replace 2 peasant squads with two squads of, for example, pigs from the starting mage hero. Then the red dragon will move BEFORE the Vampire Lords, that is, they will be able to attack from their corner already in the first round. Magic - the ideal option is Bloodlust, because it will last for three rounds, despite the low magic power parameters of the warrior hero.
In this case, we can time the battle so that in the end we are left with the Vampire Lords against the black and green dragons. At the right moment, we defeat the green one and revive 5 units. Then the battle becomes 1 on 1. It seems that 18 Vampire Lords have a chance to emerge from this battle without losses. This is variant 141, as you have probably already guessed. The remaining troops under the control of the necromancer hero went in one direction, and it was only possible to accumulate enough resources for upgrading and buying Vampire Lords by the 4th week, so they took some dragons and opened a second front with the warrior hero (and both the Vampire Lords and the red dragons have the same speed - 5).
If, however, you need to take Dragon City on 131, then it is better to use Alex_R's tactic.

Ideally, the hero should be decent, preferably a Knight with stats like 6-7-2-2. A simple Necromancer, like one with stats 1-0-3-3 without Animate, and with 90 skeletons and 4 dragons, will suffer heavy losses. You'll have to take down the Black Dragon in 3 hits.

Yes, after some consideration, the option you suggested also seems like the best one.
For example, everything can be implemented like this.
Start with a Necromancer. Buy a Warlock hero, and send him with one Gargoyle for scouting (which is what he's good at). The Necromancer quickly levels up Necromancy to Expert. Then, start gathering skeletons. As soon as you build the first guild (which is needed for Liches, and they are needed for Dragons), buy a Knight. Buy him a spellbook, put him on a Gargoyle, and send him off to level up. The main Necromancer and the Knight meet at Dragonspire. Give the Knight 3 Centaurs, 1 Gargoyle (if not, a fourth Centaur), and 100+ skeletons. With a good outcome (200 skeletons and low morale for the Dragons), the Knight will only take 3 hits. After that, the Knight gives the remaining skeletons to the main Necromancer, and he himself, with the Red Dragons, continues on. Later, Bone Dragons will join the main Necromancer's army, and Vampire Lords will join the Knight's army. Thanks to the Expert-level Leadership at that point, you can recruit troops in other castles (but with a speed of 5+, for example, Druids, Grand Elves, and of course, Gargoyles: for the first turn and to remove retaliation). It's best to carry out the "capture of Dragonspire" operation on day 137; then, on day 141, there will already be 3 Dragons.

The ideal scenario would be capturing Dragon City 117; such an opportunity recently arose, but on the Thunk map. However, there, the Knight was exceptionally strong.
As for the Vampire Lords, on another map, they were simply defeated due to their weakness. I attacked a gold mine with 8 units + 20 skeletons, led by a Necromancer hero of level 3-4. The mine was guarded by 7 Mages and 2 Archmages, I believe. The Lords were quickly wiped out, and only about 3 Mages perished. So, they need to be around 18 in number to represent a real force, and a hero with high attack and defense would also be desirable.

18 units – that’s 141. Besides, Mages and Archmages are quite powerful; they have a huge attack and no penalty in melee combat... Maybe it would have been better to take 3 Halflings, Centaurs, or Gargoyles with me? Then, speed up the Vampires, go forward, get the first turn in the second round, and speed up the Skeletons... It should work...
If there are no starting bonuses (like genies from a lamp, etc.), it’s very difficult to take Draco-grad on 117, IMHO. I took it on 127; there are different options, and it can be done with different factions (I took it as a Barbarian without any problems).

Yes, the map was challenging there, and the mine was very far away; perhaps a few centaurs could be recruited from the hero-warlock.
Of course, Heroes II is not Heroes III, where you can acquire Utopia on the second day. Only with a decent starting army or a very strong hero can you take it quickly.