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A few words about peasants in Heroes 5. Undoubtedly, this unit isn't the most beautiful, but it's the most useful. When playing as Haven, you simply need to choose the hero Ellaine at the start, and in the tavern, recruit whoever you find. In the first week, your "main" hero is almost always available. After that, Ellaine focuses exclusively on supply and recruiting peasants in the territory. As a reminder, on the map, peasants are recruited for free in a quantity of about 20, and with Ellaine, they bring in 2 coins per day. This is actually quite beneficial. If there are no free dwellings in the territory, it's better to upgrade the peasants, and then let things unfold as they may. Victory in Heroes 5 largely depends on luck. Your personal luck, Player, and not the hero's luck.
I have to disagree with you about upgrading peasants. Firstly, building an upgrade structure requires costs. Secondly, upgrading the peasants themselves also requires costs. Thirdly, upgrading peasants is a loss, as upgraded peasants don't bring in money (and all losses are undesirable for people, as you need to upgrade troops, which requires a lot of money). Fourthly, it's better to upgrade peasants to archers if you're going to do anything with them at all. That's my opinion