Posts from Online game strategy on various maps

Let's first consider the strategy for playing on the Teleports map.

Yellow color

On this map, usually both players play as warlock (since there are 2 dragon cities), one player is green and the other is yellow. Each color has its own advantages: green has significantly more money, a nearby and unguarded gold mine, an additional village (the second one) on their respawn, and extra ore and wood mines, as well as faster passage to the red and orange AI, and to the second dragon city; for yellow, the main advantage is usually having enough sulfur to frequently build dragons on the first week without any resource or money exchange (and for this color it's almost always possible, even in bad layouts). Another advantage of yellow is that there is a teleport on their territory (respawn) where, besides artifacts, there is also a dragon city; green also has a teleport leading to artifacts on their respawn, but no dragon city there.

Therefore, the main task for the first week is to manage to build dragons during the first week.

First day of the game: The warlock (wizard) (hero #1) who comes with you at the start—send him down with one gargoyle (everyone understands that heroes should run with a single unit of the fastest possible creature—then their move on the next day will be much faster), and he collects all chests up to the water (he should be able to collect all chests except for a pile of ore; for this, we take chests and the gold pile only horizontally, not diagonally). The wizard (hero #2) who comes from the Tavern—send him immediately to the sulfur mine visible above; he clears it (mine guards are weak everywhere except for precious gems), and does not run further. Next, buy another hero (#3) (purchase priority: barbarian, as this hero type is best suited for the main role, considering that fighting the opponent will mostly be done with dragons without magic and the artifact zones and dragon cities—treasure—are snow, desert, and lava, so the pathfinder specialty is desperately needed), then a native hero (warlock), then a knight (if no barbarian came, he takes the main role), then a mage (since there is an external dwelling of hobbits not far from the castle, and boars can be distributed to heroes instead of gargoyles—as many shooters might be standing there (if they are shooters, we fly in with gargoyles immediately and block them (do not attack), while archers shoot them down)), then a sorceress (for bless magic and butterflies, which also have an external dwelling near the castle)). Send the purchased hero down and to the right (with one gargoyle—taking the army) so that he takes another chest and captures the ore mine. Next, buy another hero (#4)—he runs up and as far left as possible, then buy another hero (#5)—give him the army from the last three heroes, send him up to the sulfur mine; he reaches the wizard hero and gives him the slow troops (usually the turn ends here; if not, he runs one more cell straight up), while the wizard captures the sulfur mine with the slow troops passed to him by the last hero.

Second day of the game: Hero #2, who took the sulfur mine, gives the troops to hero #5; the latter clears the sawmill guard and returns the army to hero #2, (then hero #5 runs back to the sawmill, takes chests and resources there, and captures the mine), hero #2 gives the army to hero #4—he rides out and retakes the gem mine at the bottom on the other side of the castle (if the mine is guarded by strong stompers (nomads, pikeners), it's better not to give centaurs, but rather unnecessary archers that came with a hero (from barbarian or knight); if there are none, then single centaurs) and, having taken the mine, runs to the very bottom, clears the guard, and takes 3 piles of resources; hero #1 takes the pile of ore and rushes up; hero #3 takes the ore mine, visits the +1000 exp hut, and turns back.

Third day of the game: Hero #5 gives troops to hero #2—he clears the +1000 exp hut and enters it; then hero #1 takes the army from him and also enters the +1000 exp (all heroes passing by who haven't been in the +1000 exp must enter here); hero #2 runs up diagonally to the mill with one gargoyle; hero #1 clears the mercury mine guard, then clears the hobbit external dwelling guard and takes the hobbits from the dwelling; the other two heroes run toward the +1000 exp hut above.

Fourth day of the game: Hero #1 gives the army to hero #2—he clears the medusa external dwelling guard, captures the gold mine, and runs to the dwarf external dwelling (I usually don't take the village, with rare exceptions when there is a lot of money and a second market is needed, but having a lot of money on this side is extremely rare; also the village is heavily guarded and you can lose part of your troops there, which we need for clearing the passage guard); hero #1 runs to the mill, positioning himself so that hero #2, after taking the dwarf dwelling and collecting resources, manages to pass the army to hero #1; hero #4 (usually this should be the future main hero, as strong units are needed to clear the heavy guard of the gem mine)—runs to the AI passage guard (any guard can be cleared except ghosts (even mages and crazy druids are blocked by gargoyles, while hobbits (up to 50 of them) and centaurs shoot them down)); hero #5 runs to the chests and resources guard near the crystal mine on the left, and hero #3 collects chests and resources near the mercury mine and captures the mine itself.

Fifth day of the game: Hero #2 passes the army to hero #1, who in turn passes it to hero #5—hero #5 clears only the chests and resources guards at the crystal mine and the crystal mine guard itself, then passes the army to hero #4—the future main hero; he clears the first passage guard, collects chests along the way, and stands before the second passage guard with one gargoyle. Hero #5 takes the army from him and follows him; heroes #2 and #1 also follow; hero #3 runs to the crystal mine to collect the chests and resources whose guards were just cleared, and captures the crystal mine.

Sixth day of the game: Hero #4 clears the second passage and enters the AI territory, running up and to the left (toward the wood mine); hero #4 must not be accelerated at this moment under any circumstances, as the blue AI will likely attack him on its turn; heroes #1, 2, 5 follow the main hero but at a distance, since this is AI territory and it likes to attack heroes without an army; they collect resources (if any are left uncollected by the AI).

Seventh day of the game: Hero #4, after defeating the AI that attacked him, clears the sawmill resource guard and runs to the blue AI's castle; one of heroes #1, 2, 5 runs right to capture the sulfur mine; another hero runs toward the sawmill to collect chests and resources whose guards were cleared by the main hero; one hero runs slightly back to create a chain from the castle for passing the dragon... Hero #3, having collected resources and money at the crystal mine, runs to the +1000 exp booth so that next week a hero from the home castle can reach him and give him a dragon to pass further along the chain.

Buildings on the first week—if gargoyles were built, then build one of the buildings that bring money (either cellar or statue), market, and all units up to dragons with the well; if no gargoyles, then just market and all units including dragons with the well.

First day of the second week: From this point, I will describe the general game development, as you now need to think and analyze depending on the moves of the opponent and AI.

On the first day everything is more or less clear; a green dragon is passed along the chain (you're unlikely to have enough money for more on the first day, since you also need to buy a hero to pass the dragon through the long chain to the main hero). The blue AI is captured, and in its castle, the main hero buys a book.

The next day a little green dragon is passed to retake the village from the AI and the mines to the right of the AI's castle. Heroes from the first week partially run to the AI's castle to study second-level magic (it's always built there), while some collect money and resources near the AI.
And here, as for where the main hero should go next—there are several options:

First (the worst)—to buy up an army and run at the opponent. It is the worst because:

1) You definitely won't be able to reach him by the end of the week (since, naturally, you'll be running unaccelerated with a full army).
2) You don't know if he also built dragons or not; if so, running to him is pointless, as he will then attack you at the start of the third week with full growth and not with green dragons, but red or black ones.
3) You don't know what guard the opponent's teleport has; if it's weak, even without building dragons on the first week, by retaking artifacts, gold, and resources behind the teleport, the opponent will be twice as powerful as you in terms of stats by the time you reach him. Considering that after building dragons he can immediately turn them black (while you only have greens, even if more, but with much lower stats for the main hero), you'll likely just lose the battle, and you'll have neither money nor skills since you spent all second week simply jumping toward the opponent's castle.

The second and third options depend on what teleport guard you have on your respawn:

If it is weak, then you pass one little green dragon to another power hero (knight or barbarian) or an upgraded dr hero—and send him through the passage on the right along the water (where the blue AI's mines and village are) toward the red and orange AI to capture them (or just for scouting, killing the opponent's starting army and scouts, and collecting resources); the main hero rides to the teleport; in the home castle, green dragons are turned into red ones and passed to him (together with shooters so that they take hits instead of dragons), and the main hero clears the teleport and captures the dragon city and artifacts there.

If your guard is strong, then you buy up all green dragons and "papa" himself runs to the AI with 4 green dragons, but doesn't get distracted by the red one, running straight to the orange AI; having reached the teleport, he checks the guard; if weak—he clears it and captures the dragon city at the end of the second week. If strong—he first captures the orange AI, buys up its growth (since you won't be able to pass your own), and then clears the strong teleport guard with it (you can clear any, as the main hero will already be leveled up by fighting monsters along the way and visiting stat boosters). Then you have two ways to merge the army with new growth from your dragon castle and teleport the main hero back to the home castle to clear your own teleport:

1) Send a hero (or even two or three, for speed, depending on the situation) by boat (after building a shipyard), preferably a sorceress, to the orange AI's artifact zone; there at the teleport this hero can sail close to the shore (but cannot land) and the main hero can pass troops to her, then crash into monsters or AI and immediately buy back in the home castle and run to his own teleport.

2) Attack the AI with the whole army and immediately surrender (of course, this only makes sense if there's enough money), but this method is much faster and more mobile; in the absence of a town portal, this is its paid replacement (if you have the feather artifact, it's even better as it reduces surrender cost 10 times); then "papa" can immediately buy back in the village near the teleport (which you should capture with hydras-minotaurs by building a castle there) and immediately rush to the teleport for artifacts and the dragon city without wasting days waiting for troops.

Then all that's left is to go and hunt down the opponent (not forgetting to plug teleports with some hero so the opponent cannot take growth in dragon cities or gold mines and other resources there).

P.S. Regarding the choice of phoenixes (sorcs)—of course, this choice exists, but I think it's not the best for the following reasons:

1) Since there are dragon cities on the map, the main combat stack is dragons, and it will be much stronger if you add more dragons to it rather than having separate dragons and separate phoenixes.
2) All AI have magic built and powerful mages running around—and while capturing an AI on the second week with one green dragon is quite realistic by killing its whole army, this is unlikely to happen with a phoenix (even two), as the AI will kill the phoenixes (sorcs) with magic.
3) Phoenixes can be killed by hit-and-run wizards of the opponent who also level up strongly on this map; if they attack the main hero one by one, whose army has phoenixes and other units with single gargoyles, then although phoenixes have more speed, you can't kill all the gargoyles, and after casting magic and killing a phoenix, the wizards will buy back to repeat it on the next turn.
4) And phoenixes themselves are much weaker than dragons, plus magic works on them (and in the final battle—barbarians as main heroes often have very high magic power thanks to artifacts and boosters; while against a warlock magic is useless (against the main strike stack of dragons), only with magic can you take out the most dangerous enemy monsters against phoenixes).

Although, of course, there are pluses:

1) Higher movement speed for the main hero than a warlock on gargoyles.

2) Cheaper building of phoenixes than dragons, and accordingly, a greater chance to buy them all at once.

3) The ability to trick the opponent using the so-called power method (main phoenix squad + 1 phoenix). When the main squad moves—hit one of the enemy monsters; when the single phoenix moves—buy back. But this only makes sense against a warlock if the opponent's main hero moves with the whole army, not just dragons. (Since by this time the opponent's main hero will have very high defense, and it's quite possible that even a full squad of phoenixes won't kill a single dragon (when playing against Preds, my 7 dragons didn't kill a single one in his army when I hit his dragons (his hero had huge stats))).

P.S.S. As for clearing the passage only at the start of the second week (judging by the next entry in Captain's strategy description: "The week ends with the boss standing near the exit from respawn")—this is weak play, as it gives the opponent a full two to three days, which is critical if playing against a strong opponent. The passage should be cleared by the 5th day of the first week at the latest when playing yellow; and it's entirely possible to manage to retake and eat everything on your respawn using clever chains (I have shown and explained in detail how to do this above).

STRONG PLAY BY A GOOD PLAYER CONSISTS IN USING SECOND AND THIRD HEROES TO DO EVERYTHING FASTER THAN THE OPPONENT AND NOT GIVE THEM THE DAY OR TWO NECESSARY TO GAIN AN ADVANTAGE OVER YOU.

P.S.S.S. Discussion regarding what I wrote is welcome... (but everything must be clearly argued, not just "this is all nonsense, knights rule this map, period").

Let's start by considering a strategy for playing on the Teleport map.

Yellow

On this map, both players usually play as Warlocks (since there are 2 Dragon cities), one player is green, and the other is yellow. Each color has its own advantages... for yellow, the main advantage is usually the abundance of sulfur, which allows you to summon dragons frequently, even without much effort, on the first day (and this is almost always possible with this color, even in unfavorable situations).

I'll just add my two cents – not because I disagree or want to argue, but because this is my perspective on the map.

On the Teleport map, mages are strong for yellow.

The author of the previous post is right – it's almost always possible to summon dragons on the first week without much trouble... but then there's not enough money for them :( – and that's why you lose momentum, especially if, as the author said, you don't take the second town.

I play as yellow on this map, and on the first week, I build Phoenixes, take all the mines, and the town. The week ends with the hero standing near the exit from the starting area. On day 121, 4 Phoenixes are summoned, but there's still not enough money to buy out all the creatures. After that, it's simple – the yellow hero easily manages to defeat the computer-controlled faction and meet the green opponent (it always takes longer for the green opponent to reach the location at 121).

In this case, the green player can only hope that the yellow player won't manage to bring up the remaining unbought troops, or that the opponent will make a mistake, or that they will get lucky with their teleport, where they might find good artifacts.

And also, on this map, the difference in the teleport guards is very significant – some get Hydras or Unicorns, while others always get Black Dragons.

I've finished writing my post about playing on the Teleports map as the yellow player and also edited it to make it easier to read – if anyone is interested, give it a look... I wanted to write a strategy for playing as the green player on Teleports, but I've already spent several hours finishing the post for the yellow player, and it's two in the morning, I'm tired... :smile39: I will definitely write it in the future (I can tell those who will be playing Teleports as the green player in the coming days that you need to buy more heroes than when playing as the yellow player. By day 6 of the first week, you must clear the path from your starting point to the computer castles, and on day 5, you must stand with your main hero, fully upgraded, in front of the path. At the same time, you must control all resources and money and capture the village near the path by day 6. If you have a lot of money, ore, and wood, build a Castle there (this is also necessary to place a Market there and increase the chances of trading for sulfur to build dragons). To achieve all this, you need to build chains of 7-8 heroes and fight in two directions at once with two armies (one direction upwards from your starting Castle, and another to the right and downwards)). It is also quite possible to build dragons early on as the green player, although the chances are still less than when playing as the yellow player). I also want to write similar guides for other maps in Heroes II that are often played online for each side (there aren't many balanced and playable maps for Multiplayer in Heroes II), but I don't know when I'll be able to do that, given my typing speed... (I've written the main principle of how to play, using chains of heroes to quickly capture money and resources and explore the map, and from there, you need to figure out for each map how many heroes to buy initially and which directions and goals should be prioritized). But I will be very happy if anyone else writes a turn-by-turn strategy for playing on any map (specifically, turn-by-turn, because descriptions like "in the first week, I captured resources, took a village, in the second week, I killed a computer castle, and in the third week, I defeated the opponent" can be read in regular reports on the Portal)

Well, since discussion is encouraged, let's continue :) A weak strategy? Four Phoenixes attack an opponent who, if he was foolish enough, went with only one Dragon? And especially if, after capturing a resource, the opponent runs around using teleports?... The description of Gunnar doesn't say anything about how the opponent will act... and he's unlikely to give such an advantage... And about the Phoenixes... only a magic missile affects them – that's 10 rounds of combat! As a rule, after capturing the central resource, I move all my troops to the passage to the green resource and transfer 1-2 Phoenixes to the left hero... he usually defeats even a Knight, who is already running around with upgraded Riders, without any problems... and I clear the mines while keeping an eye on the green resource, to see if anyone appears ;) As soon as someone appears, 1-2 Phoenixes can be easily transferred back to the main hero. P.S. I also want to mention another bug with the teleports – on one of the islands, one obelisk cannot be visited, and according to the rules, it shouldn't be possible to dig up a Grail... but I've found a Grail there twice! So, future opponents, keep this in mind and agree in advance whether it will be allowed to dig up a Grail without one obelisk or not. P.P.S. to Gunnar: What army usually breaks through the passage to the resource on day 6? Besides 50 Hobbits... I, and even when playing with Dust, rarely managed to break through the passage on day 6... usually there are about 20 strong monsters there... it's true that the passage can be broken through, but: 1. There's no money to buy starting troops – you have to build Dragons or Phoenixes! 2. Such a victory may turn out to be Pyrrhic – there's a combat resource nearby with level 2 magic ;) Even if you defeat it... it will be very difficult to take its Castle... and then your opponent will show up on a white horse and wave at you with 4 Phoenixes ;) There's another way – on day 7, land with a Sorceress from the sea near the resource ;)

P.S. to Gunnar: Which army usually breaks through to the computer's Castle on day 6? Besides 50 Hobbits...
With me, and with Dust, we rarely managed to break through on day 6... usually there are about 20 strong monsters... it's possible to break through, but:

Well, how many times have we played together that I remember playing as Yellow, and we last played as Green, with a Sorcerer against a Sorcerer. Maybe there were times when I didn't break through, but I don't remember which race I was playing, most likely I was capturing a village, because then I would build a Castle there and get income, and the village was probably also strategically important - I wanted to build troops there.

In general, it strongly depends on the strength of the guard and how much of your army you managed to preserve. If there are slow, lumbering units, then, of course, you break through and there are no problems. Sometimes, you deliberately take out small groups in front of them so that you have enough for the ransom on the first day, if you decided to gain more experience and collect more chests to level up your hero.

And besides, you're talking about Sorcerer vs. Warlock. My opinion is this: Yellow Sorcerer will perform better than Green Warlock if she goes for a well-thought-out, prepared rush, because she will definitely build Phoenixes, while it's much harder for the Warlock - he has to rely on luck. + she takes the Castle, and here it's also important what race he is, if it's a Nark or a Sorcerer, then everything is good. Nark can even rebuild the Castle (that's why I even remember a scenario where you deliberately don't rush, capture it 1-2 days later, but with a Castle). And only if you don't delay and rush with 4 Phoenixes on the second week! And in general, the map is rich, it's not a problem to build Dragons - Warlock is the best here, at least because of the Dragon City and "antimagic," and what's there to guess about!?
Only often, by agreement, they play different options, for example, Warlock-Warlock doesn't appeal to me at all, because it's not interesting, and I prefer Yellow because of the possibility of building Dragons. That's why we play Sorcerer-Sorcerer, Sorcerer-Nark, or Sorcerer-Wizard, again, an option with a rush, and other possible combinations.

Well, since discussion is encouraged, let's continue :)

A weak strategy? Four Phoenixes attack an opponent who, if he was foolish enough, went with only one Dragon? And especially if, after capturing a resource, the opponent runs around using teleports?...

The description of Gunnar doesn't say how the opponent will act... and he's unlikely to give such an advantage.

And about the Phoenixes... only magic arrows affect them – that's 10 rounds of combat! As a rule, after capturing the central resource, I move all my troops to the passage to the green area and transfer 1-2 Phoenixes to the left hero... he usually defeats even a Knight, who is already running around with upgraded Riders, without any problems... and I clear the mines, keeping an eye on the green area... as soon as it appears, 1-2 Phoenixes are easily transferred back to the main hero.

P.S. I also want to mention another bug with teleports – on one of the islands, one obelisk cannot be visited, and according to the rules, it should be impossible to dig up the Grail... but I've found the Grail there twice! So, future opponents, keep this in mind and agree in advance whether it will be allowed to dig up the Grail without one obelisk or not.

P.P.S. to Gunnar: What army usually breaks through the passage to the resource on day 6? Besides 50 Hobbits...
With me, and even when playing with Dust, it was rarely possible to break through the passage on day 6... usually there are about 20 strong monsters there... of course, the passage can be broken through, but:
1. There is no money to buy starting troops – you need to build Dragons or Phoenixes!
2. Such a victory can turn out to be Pyrrhic – there is a combat resource nearby with level 2 magic ;) even if you defeat it... it's very difficult to take the castle... and then your opponent will arrive on a white horse and wave at you with 4 Phoenixes ;)

There is another way – on day 7, land with a Sorceress near the resource ;)

I'll answer in order (I'm glad the discussion started)

1) By "weak strategy," I mean that breaking through the passage only in the beginning of the second week is too late, thus you are giving the opponent resources and money between him and the blue resource, but, worst of all, you are slowing down your own game, because at the beginning of the week, both your main hero and the secondary heroes should be in completely different positions than before breaking through the teleport (it's impossible to reach the blue resource in just 2 days, even with Phoenixes + you lose the bonus from the blue resource – and that's also important...).

2) I didn't write anywhere that the green player will let a hero with one Dragon through to you; it's absolutely unreasonable for him to do so, just as it is to capture the blue resource (I won't go into the details of his development in the second week now, as I'm late for work :), but capturing the blue resource is not in the green player's plans under any circumstances, even if it's his own Warlock). I wrote that it makes sense to let a hero with one Dragon through to the yellow player if the main hero has gone to deal with the teleport on his own territory. And the hero with the Dragon is sent more for reconnaissance, to intimidate the green player (he doesn't know how many Dragons your hero has, and 1 and 4 are written the same way), to kill the green player's scouts and even the main hero who came out of his territory with the army from the first week, to take resources and money from the red resource, and to take (if possible) the red resource. Well, if a hero with one Dragon is attacked by the green player with several Dragons or the red resource with an army that cannot be killed by one Dragon (although I managed to do this both times), then you simply buy your way out, because no one will kill your Dragon in the first round, and the hero will have already completed his mission of reconnaissance and breaking through the passage, which absolutely does not prevent the main hero from maintaining his pace and developing further (but this appearance of the Dragon could affect the opponent's plans and pace, as he might think that they are not coming with one, but with 4 Dragons, and that another army is somewhere behind with another hero, and if he cannot defeat the Dragons, he will not risk it and will retreat from his territory to the red resource and defend himself – which is exactly what you need so that you can calmly pass by the passage to his territory and start calmly taking money, resources, and the red resource, while the main hero is doing his job).

3) Ice arrows and ice rings also affect Phoenixes, and the red resource usually has a level 3 guild by this time, and even if the red resource's main hero has magic power of 5-7 in the second week, even two ordinary arrows will be enough to kill one Phoenix (and the resource's army is often large, and you won't be able to deal with it with only two Phoenixes in one or two rounds) (I barely defeated it with a green Dragon and upgraded Gargoyles, the Dragon had less than 20 health, although I was also taking damage from the Gargoyles and blocking the archers).

About the Grail – it seems that it is forbidden to dig it up in online games according to the Portal rules...

About the army that defeats the first guard of the passage (the second is much weaker) – it's Hobbits (the main attack force), Centaurs (the second attack force), and other troops that are taken depending on the guard of the passage (this is either Gnomes with a nearby ambush (a good combat force for the Barbarian), or Medusas with a nearby ambush (we buy them, depending on the need, depending on which guard it is, I bought them only once), this is a detachment of Butterflies in the beginning (also a powerful force) and Gargoyles + remnants from other heroes, if there are any. Regarding the point that it makes no sense to buy a starting army to break through the passage if you need to save money for building a level 6 building, the passage is usually broken through precisely for the sake of money, which lies between the guards of the passage and at the resource (including sulfur at the sulfur mine of the resource, if you are very unlucky), and so that you don't lose the pace of the game (this is no less an important reason for breaking through the passage early, I described above why).

The guard of the passage is defeated by the army that I indicated without any significant losses of combat forces (you can practice and check this yourself, I played a lot for the yellow color (much more than according to the reports) – that's why I can say this), except for the case when it is guarded by ghosts – you will not be able to defeat this guard in the first week, but this can happen very rarely (it happened to me only once in all the games for both colors) – consider that you were just very unlucky then...

The victory over the resource will not be Pyrrhic, because even if it comes out with a Lightning spell (and this is also very rare, usually it attacks you on the 6th day with an arrow, because in the castle at the beginning there is only level 1 magic – but they can give Lightning or Ice Arrow in a treasure chest of level 2 nearby), the resource is still defeated (although there are few troops left, but you will save all the Hobbits, as a rule, but the archers will be destroyed). But you shouldn't care about this junk from the ambush, because on the first day of the second week, you will already capture it with a Dragon without losses (instead of just coming out of your territory in the second week, as you suggest) and then you will defeat it.

I will answer in order (I'm glad the discussion has started)
3) Ice Bolt and Ice Ring still affect Phoenixes (and by this time, a level 3 guild in the Red faction is usually already built), and the main heroes of the Red faction often have magic power 5-7 at level 2.

1. Phoenixes are not affected by cold.

2. The Red (this is, if I'm not mistaken, the upper faction) will not try to use attacking magic against Phoenixes; it will cast protection, curse, etc., and only when it sees that it can finish them off with an arrow, it will use it.
I always defeat the Red faction this way ;)

3. Hobbits, centaurs, fairies, dwarves... even three different stacks already reduce morale by 1..
The risk is significant because antimorale usually affects the hobbits.

4. At the beginning of the 2nd week, there is a part of your own native troops (ZD) and you can buy reinforcements for the faction... again, different troops... It's better to have 3 ZD, right? ;)
To meet the enemy...

5. Such a rush, as described by Gynnar, is IMHO beneficial when you know that the central faction is of your blood

Since I've been mentioned, I'll join in as well. Breaking through the passage after day 5, or in extreme cases day 6, is critical for both colors in my opinion. Moreover, this should be done even if everything on your native respawn went perfectly and there were enough resources and money for rebuilding; sometimes it's far more important to collect free loot to prevent it from falling to your opponent. I've never played against Sorceress, but I suppose voluntarily staying put on your own respawn until the start of the second week, counting on cheap rebuilding and recruitment, could end badly. Blue struggles to eat their own respawn early. The opponent in the central zone and on Blue's respawn, regardless of color, can, if not interfered with, gather so much that it's enough not only for rebuilding dragons, but also for an upgrade and purchase. So, in my opinion, when playing as Sorceress, you also need to break through guards, but with a slightly different goal — to prevent a more expensive opponent from eating too much.

Experience shows that only Ghosts prove unbreakable on the first. Vampire Lords, Archmages, and Battle Trolls look tough, but they're usually fewer than 15. They can be broken through with troops from pickups. I've broken through 20 Strong — Grand Druids without problems (and not with a Might hero or without magic), that seemed to be the count; the rest of the walkers pose no issues at all. Speaking of pickups, by the way, it's often advantageous to play as Knight for Green, especially if several heroes appear in a row (if any readers are just starting to master online — look at your leisure at the devastation a hundred Peasants can inflict on neutral ranks when used wisely). And for Yellow too, given the motley nature of the company, you need to grab the lead as quickly as possible if a Barbarian is chosen. Since the key stack is usually 1 (Hobbits for Green, Archers for Yellow), even minimal negative morale can put you in a deep hole; I fully agree with Captain. When fighting low-level units against neutrals of level 4-5, which are usually at the passages, morale -1 will cause trouble every other time, or even more often, so when forming a mixed stack, I carefully watch which way the bird's wings tilt.

Teleport guards are perhaps the most problematic aspect of this map. Black Dragons, Titans, Phoenixes are certainly unpleasant, but I think none of them compare to Genies.

1. Cold does not affect phoenixes.

2. Red (this is, if I'm not mistaken, the top computer) will not try to use attack magic against phoenixes; he will cast protection, blindness, etc., and only when he sees that he can finish them off with a shooter will he use it.
I always take out Red like this ;)

3. Hobbits, centaurs, fairies, dwarves..even three different stacks already give morale minus 1..
a considerable risk — because anti-morale, as a rule, will affect the hobbits.

4. The beginning of the 2nd week — you have some of your own native troops (GD) and can buy the computer's spawn..again different troops..Wouldn't it be better to have 3 GDs? ;)
to meet the enemy...

5. Such a rush, as Gunnar described, IMHO is beneficial when you know the central computer is of your blood :)

1) Here you are right — ice also does not affect Phoenixes...
(I was never strong in theory; when I started playing the second ones online, the first games — I didn't even know that monsters don't wait like in the third ones :D, however, due to the practically identical principle of strategy in the game, as in the third ones (I described this principle at the end of my first post) — I immediately started winning...)

2) Here, you might also be right — this needs to be checked directly in the game playing as Phoenix, but when I went to Red with an army from the second week from Green without dragons — he was blasting me with magic non-stop (well, either way — he can finish with a shooter, as you yourself pointed out — and that's half or even more of a phoenix's life if a mage attacks you). And considering that phoenixes will be hit by everyone anyway, and my little dragon barely survived against the fighter (who couldn't be hit with magic)
- then the chance of losing two phoenixes seems greater to me than losing a dragon and a few gargoyles.

Generally, I wrote in the first post that after dragons, starting as Phoenix is one of the most justified options, and also argued in detail why playing as Dragon is still preferable, and what advantages Phoenix has over other castles. So far, no one who posted below has added anything new, either for or against either nation, to the pros or cons.

3) Actually, when I wrote that you need to take hobbits and centaurs into the first battle, and others depending on the circumstances — I was precisely referring to anti-morale. Sometimes I don't take centaurs if there are no mages, liches, or druids on the way (and if the listed shooters are present — then only gargoyles and hobbits with centaurs) (because centaurs are hard to protect (surround with units), their damage is only 1-2, and hobbits have 1-3, and, most importantly, the quantity — hobbits are often close to 50 — and that's already strength. I prefer, if there are tramplers, to take either dwarves and fairies, or, if there are serious tramplers, then also add medusas, but as Barbarian — this risks anti-morale...

4) I don't understand what you mean by point 4? I never wrote that you need to combine the computer's spawn with your own native nation (unless the computer is your own native one, but even then, I give the entire army from the castle only before the final battle; otherwise, daddies teleport with red dragons, greased minotaurs, and gargoyles). I wrote that this spawn, eventually, can be bought out and will be useful for various tasks for other heroes (diversion and reconnaissance in the enemy's rear, capturing villages, resources, and even capturing another computer, while the daddy is busy with something more important)

5) Again, I didn't understand you :( (well, you could formulate your thoughts in more detail, at least as I do). What do you mean by the word "rush" in what I wrote? I didn't write anywhere that you should go into a frenzy for the computer's sake. If you mean an early break through the passage — then I think I've already chewed it over in detail, explaining what it's for. In my opinion, capturing the computer before its growth appears is far from the reason for which you should break the passage.
[reasons again (I won't write more)

1) Collecting and capturing money and resources from the computer near its castle (because otherwise it will be difficult in the first couple of days of the second week to buy out all the dragons at once, or even to upgrade to red ones) (and often also to actually build the dragons, since even as Yellow there are situations where there is no sulfur (and an extra pile near the computer's mine is sometimes a lifesaver), and no money for dragons (as happened with me and Deep Mike — in several chests there were artifacts, but most were minimal, and only thanks to breaking through the passage both he and I could put dragons in the first week)

2) (the most important, in my opinion, this is clear to everyone) So as not to lose tempo in the game, and at the start of the week to have the main hero be 2 days further ahead than with a late breakthrough, accordingly, having far more options for further play and strategic maneuvers.

3) and only the third reason is killing the computer, and even then, this is done primarily not for the additional money and army of the computer, but so that the main hero can learn magic there (buy a spell book) and so that the computer doesn't interfere with scouts normally collecting money and resources at its respawn and doesn't break chains by killing decoys with a single gargoyle. (therefore it is absolutely irrelevant whether it's your computer or not, in this case)

Hmm, what are you arguing about again, whether to break through the mud or not? :-) Of course, break through – that’s the obvious choice! The goal is clear: speed and gold on the first day! How to do it, with what, what tactics to use, and which units to hire from the reserves – that’s up to you to figure out based on the situation, play, and test. And, of course, you need to keep an eye on the negative morale. Only Ghosts cannot be broken through, no matter how hard you try. If you messed up somewhere, didn’t play cohesively, or didn’t use a Warlock, or didn’t have Warlock heroes with gargoyles, then it might not be worth trying to break through, because of the high losses and the severe negative morale that could lead to a complete defeat.

Actually, you could just play a challenging scenario and prove which tactics are better. ;-) It’s a shame that not everyone has the desire for that option. ;-)

P.S. We definitely need Mike here too... ;-)

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Actually, they could play a controversial match and prove which tactic is better. ;-) It's just a shame that not everyone might be willing to do that. ;-)
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Let's play sometime; I haven't played with you on Teleports yet.