Posts from Axel versus Laslo.

I wanted to share an interesting game I recently played against Laslo. We were playing on a heavily modified Dragon Pass map with a mentor and a lot of mobs. Both of us were level 35. We intentionally didn't take any magic skills. Our skills were: education, leadership with inspiration and empathy, attack, defense, and logistics with native lands. I was playing as Axel, and by the time of the final battle, I managed to gather 350 Knights of Isabel. My opponent, Laslo, gathered about 1000 Zealots. We were roughly equal in terms of artifacts. My army was a quarter smaller than his because training so many knights required significant financial investment. To be honest, I was completely confident in my victory and thought that with a single strike, my Knights would wipe out his armored units. But in the end, it turned out that out of 5 battles, I only managed to win against Laslo's armored units in 2 of them. When I wiped out 45 of his angels and all of his archers with a single strike of my knights, leaving him without two units, I thought the battle was practically won. But with that damn fury and native lands with inspiration, his armored units started to simply rage, having an attack value of around 80, they were able to eliminate half of my Knights in one turn without luck. From 350, he easily eliminated 100-150 knights with two strikes from a zealot. I was using an 8-tile movement boost, dealing 6 times the damage, and killing about 200-300 armored units, but in return, I was taking incredible damage. In the end, all my army and his armored units were left on the battlefield, and his hero with empathy was effectively inspiring them, so they moved often, and there was practically nothing to attack them with except for the Knights. My 45 angels could only kill 45 of his armored units, after which they took damage in return that simply halved them. The tactic of blocking cells to prevent the Knights from retreating worked great. By trapping them in a ring and not letting them accelerate, my opponent simply killed them with his zealots, speeding up their turns with inspiration and not worrying much about a counterattack from 350 knights, because in return, without acceleration, he would only lose about 80-100 armored units. In order to somehow counter them, it was necessary to spend turns retreating the knights and attacking the armored units with an acceleration boost, but with native lands and boots of speed, his armored units could move up to 7 tiles and successfully close the distance, killing other units on their way with a single strike.
As a conclusion, from observing the game against Laslo, playing as Axel, the most effective strategy would be to initially attack his armored units with the knights, and not other units, so that the armored units cannot gain fury from the deaths of their comrades. Because if you don't attack them first, the subsequent battle will most likely be lost. I won one of the battles simply by luck, attacking him first, luck activated, and I was able to eliminate 500 armored units and a stack of crossbowmen behind them. In the second battle, luck didn't activate, the setup was different, and the armored units that I couldn't attack on the first turn halved my surrounded knights. It is noteworthy that the rest of my army and his army were simply for show; they triggered morale and accelerated my hero's turn, who in turn inspired, in my case, the knights, and in his, the armored units. They were also needed to be used as bait for the armored units and knights so that they couldn't counterattack the desired units.

What are you talking about, Master? Absolutely not! If we're talking about the late game, as in the topic, then yes. But Axel has a poor start, Laslo has a better start, and Dugal has an even better start! And the start is very important for most online games.
At level 35, it doesn't matter as much.

In reality, there are many possible actions, both for you and for him. For example, you can cast Subjugation/Berserk on the infantry, you can equip the hero with as many artifacts as possible that reduce morale, so that the opponent cannot take advantage of Sympathy, you can learn the Distraction spell, so that his hero moves rarely and yours often... In the worst case, you can kill his infantry with Divine Retribution, etc.

Anyway, Axel is the strongest hero among humans; there is nothing to discuss here. I would put Miv in second place (if the game is in the late game). With Keen Mind and Acceleration, you can move 2-3 times more often than your opponent.

You are right in many respects. But Laslo also has many tactics and options. For example, armored units with vampirism. Since they will be undead, they cannot be controlled, blinded, or affected by berserk or dispel. Moreover, practice shows that it makes no sense for humans to control units with low initiative, because Paladins simply remove all negative effects. Therefore, it is better to control Paladins and kill them with armored units. In fact, I have already tried a similar tactic, and as a result, Laslo with vampirism killed his own troops and mine, and I could not stop them in any way; they even had enough 8 initiative. + Laslo can go into Light with antimagic and dispel, so it makes no sense to take Darkness against Hevan, because both the hero and the Paladins and Zealots remove negative effects. I even once encountered Laslo with summoning magic and armored units, which was a complete surprise to me.
Miv as a hero is very interesting to me. Soon I will try the tactic of keen mind, general speed, and converting all armored units into ranged adepts. I think I will develop their initiative to 20 and Paladins to remove all negative effects from the adepts. Adepts remove positive effects from the unit they are attacking, so I think they will be effective in large numbers with high initiative.

On the weekend, I will finish the game of Razaar against Laslo. I have divine vengeance and a sudden teleport spell for golems, and my opponent Laslo has darkness magic and vampirism. I think I have every chance to kill him with divine vengeance, and it's good that Laslo didn't go into Light with antimagic.

Fanatics of faith under vampirism is a classic. But you can fight it. For example, by using a sharp mind and casting antimagic on the fanatics before the opponent's turn (if possible, I don't remember). + if you're lucky, find Sandro's artifact. Or, as I said, take wizardry with distraction, empathy, and - morale against the enemy. This way, you can basically have your hero move twice per turn. The first time, remove the enchantments from his fanatics or massively slow down his troops; the second time, buff your troops, either with mass acceleration or something else.

If you cast antimagic on the Knights to prevent them from gaining life leech, that's a good tactic, thanks! - You won't be able to affect their morale, because every self-respecting Laslo goes for leadership, empathy, and inspiration (even if you manage to reduce it by -5, it will simply negate his leadership, but it won't go into the negative). Distraction with magic doesn't affect the inspiration skill, because it's not magical, but physical.

I didn't think about Inspiration... so it will work even if Zealots have Anti-Magic? In any case, if the enemy hero isn't prepared for this, they will move less often. You can take advantage of this by slowing down their creatures or speeding up your own, and everyone can work together to take down their armored units while everyone else watches. Or, you could take Summoning magic and constantly cast Phantoms on Knights or Archers.

Added 1 minute ago
We need to check about Anti-Magic. I don't remember if it can be cast on enemies.