Posts from Which creatures from the alternative upgrade options do you choose?

You probably mean the first turn of the Knights. Of course, there might be no one in their path. But, for example, there are demons, nightmares, and cerberuses that can be targeted in this way. And no one is forcing you to send them against the enemy at the very beginning. When his army is a little more spread out, it becomes quite feasible to target more than one. And the Knights will tear through demons with their gate ability. But if they dealt full damage with this ability, it would be an awful imbalance! No ignoring defense would compare to that.

But nevertheless, certain conditions must be met for their ability to be used. And for now, we only deal a quarter of the damage... Hydras also deal a quarter of the damage, but they are much more useful.

Even if their ability is generally weaker than ignoring defense, it’s too late to change anything now; they probably won’t make any radical changes… But they could have come up with something better. As I said before, I agree and tend to favor the regular Riders.

But overall, if you don't take into account Hydras and Riders, the upgrades for both are roughly equivalent. I used to think that all the new units were the best, but now I don't even know which will be more useful – Hunters or Assassins? Or Mistresses/Queens? It's hard to say. But against Orcs, I would probably choose Archers, as they can quickly engage in melee combat.

In reality, it doesn't really matter which alt upgrades you choose. I tried them all extensively and for a long time, but...

...it only matters in a few cases, depending on which faction you're fighting and whether you're attacking or defending a castle.

For example, if you're a Necromancer and fighting against another Necromancer, you should definitely choose new (5) Liches, as the old ones won't be able to hit the entire area anyway.
(1) You should only take Archers from the Necropolis at the beginning for quick leveling; after that, feel free to take new, more durable Skeletons. Everything else is a matter of taste.

If you're playing as the Sylvan faction, you need to look at your hero. If your hero isn't leveling up with physical damage and attack, then taking new (1) Nymphs or new (6) Treants doesn't make sense. And you should only take old Archers if you have an artifact that removes the range penalty...

For the Dwarves, it's even more vague. Although, there are a couple of cool tricks when defending a castle, like using new Harpoon Gunners to pull enemies onto mines.

And what’s the point of the Necromancer’s hero units? Is it their invisibility? The spells are the same, but they can’t shoot. So, I almost always take the old women;)

Archers for Necropolis and fast leveling – what does that have to do with anything? Necropolis archers deal such a ridiculous amount of damage that you don’t even need to think about them. But if you take Battle Fury and a necklace, then it will be truly amazing. And for fast leveling, the new units are just right – they are tough, strong, and if they die, it’s not as bad as losing archers. So, if you gather a hundred skeletons, then it’s worth giving them bows.

How can you level up a hero for specific stats? They choose them automatically when leveling up. And even if you take skills, chaos still rarely appears for Elves, and it’s not very useful. There’s no spell power. By the way, I tried the new Druids in such situations… I was disappointed; they’re terrible. Not impressive. Even with them, the hero casts very weakly. Elves are not meant for chaos; they need light. And here, no channel is needed.

Yes, the new Mistresses are stronger when invisible and have increased stats. Also, the old Mistresses deal half damage at distances greater than half their range (like most ranged units) and have a penalty in melee combat (again, like most ranged units). But these new ones, along with Stalkers, tear through shooting/spellcasting neutral creatures like nothing. Although, against races with high attack but not very high defense, it's better to use the old Mistresses; otherwise, they'll be destroyed in melee combat. But against neutral creatures, the new ones are definitely better, and in the final stages, it depends on the situation.

Come on, they're against neutrals. There are Hunters to counter them. What are the Mistresses for? This is level six. They don't appear right away, to put it mildly. And the upgrade isn't cheap. So, using them for clearing is, at the very least, foolish, as usually everything is already cleared by that time. I didn't like them. And with slightly enhanced stats... what can you get from them besides analyses? Shooting is much more useful, don't you think? And they shoot quite well. Although, in principle, they are mainly needed because of their spells.
In my opinion, it's a weak upgrade; the developers didn't have enough imagination. They could have added another spell. That would have been equivalent. But as it is... in my opinion, it's terrible. They still don't fight very well in melee. They are much worse than Rakshasa/Nazgûl/other paladins. A quick attack is rare. I defeated 15 Mistresses with 60 mercenaries, with approximately equal hero stats and without using magic on either side.

Well, regarding upgrading, it depends on how lucky you are with resources and those who guard them. I usually upgrade them quite quickly. And they can cast spells quite successfully, even while invisible, and then finish off those who get close. Although, at distances closer than half the map, the Mistresses are definitely more useful. But if the enemy gets close to them, it will be bad, while the Mistresses can at least defend themselves with full force.

I wanted to ask (off-topic): is it supposed to happen that when you click a lot of buttons in the editor?

I've come to the conclusion that the game now offers a choice. Some creatures are better for defense, while others are better for attack.
And I sometimes mix creatures for a hero. For example, in the Necromancer campaign, I had 2500 Warrior Skeletons (level 3) and 2000 Skeleton Archers (level 2). At the beginning, I calmly bombard the enemy with archers, and when the enemy army approaches, I protect the warriors with archers.

an alternative upgrade appeared to balance all the factions... sometimes it's beneficial, and sometimes it's detrimental...
in my opinion, the alternative upgrade significantly weakened the Dungeon faction... depriving them of archers and a creature immune to spells.

Firstly, no one has deprived any faction of creatures. If you don't like the new ones, no one prevents you from using the old ones. And haven't they given something in return instead of magic resistance or ranged attack for creatures? For example, 1.5x damage without a counter or an ability that makes them partially visible/invisible? Invisible creatures are very useful against neutral creatures. And the new dragons will be useful against factions that don't specialize in dark magic or chaos.

Nothing special. Most of the time, these new battles don't differ much from the old ones, except for a slightly increased initiative and amount of health, but it's still much more enjoyable to use them.

Yeah, right. As a matter of fact, creatures have abilities in addition to parameters like initiative and hit points. Do you think stalkers and assassins are the same? Or dragons? Or enchantresses? Or... I could go on forever.