Posts from The essence of the tactics when playing as the Dark Elves. Auto-translated

And the most modest ones talk about it.

Can you specify the day, level, and stat progression?

Orson is a peculiar fellow and not always strong, although sometimes he just goes berserk.

But this is also a kind of gameplay: one overpowered unit against another. It's somewhat reminiscent of the third game, where there are also very few hero and build options. But my opinion is that if you want to ban an opponent's hero, give them the right to ban one of yours as well.

Skilled Summoning + Earth Lord, Crystal, SP=7, 30 mana units.
This is enough, although more mana wouldn't hurt.

3 casts. Each crystal deals 340*2=680 damage. In total, 2040 – approximately 10 dragons. There are 24 of them at the maximum. So, you need to make the dragons attack each other, but it doesn't seem very reliable. I'll test it when I have time. If you have a ready-made replay, please share it here. It is clearly related to the topic.

If you're going to use Darkness, you need an expert-level spell; 3 rounds clearly won't be enough, and you should also practice placing the Crystal strategically.

Quite advanced, because 3 rounds is all our invisibility lasts.

Impressive, especially at that level. But the chance of getting a Crystal is still only 1/3, but if you get it, it's a sin not to use it. Things are much worse with mines, especially with a Black Dragon.

Fist, by the way, was used extensively by me in Utopias. Usually, the racial skill is ignored at the beginning, and the damage dealt to Black Dragons is simply laughable. But Fist can be both Empowered and Lucky, and it doesn't get weakened.

And there's another trick in Summoning that few people use - Exorcism. It's fun to fight Demons with it. It gates Nightmares; a Trap is placed where the gate was. When they appear, they take double damage immediately from 4 mines and then disappear...

And it's a pleasant thing to take out an enemy Necromancer's Phoenix with a single cast...

Even the simplest combination of Mass Slow + Fire Warriors is a very powerful thing.

Cast it and watch as the guys in fire wait and burn. And if there's also Plague and Wall...

Under a Warlock, any spell is transformed, but overall, I don't really like Fist.

That's also a method, but the Trap under the Mage's Sign is even better (especially against Orcs) and more versatile.

But an experienced Necromancer will more often prefer to cast Shield on a strong stack.

But where do you get so much mana? We don't have Chaos Magic.

You might as well dream about invisibility for Assassins.

Leto shouldn't try to grab a piece of the center; instead, with as much mana as possible (there are wells before the bridges), he should attack the enemy and bombard them with Chaos. For this purpose, Kifrah looks optimal.

It's strange, but Letos doesn't seem like such an overpowered hero to me. At least, in theory, it sounds good, but in practice, it often turns out the opposite. Firstly, he desperately lacks mana.

It turns out that Plague can only be cast once, and its ability triggers very rarely, and I don't understand why he's even better than machine gunners at clearing out enemies...

And why does he need Dark Magic, since it requires a lot of mana and is designed for those who have problems with spellcasting, but the Terran Enchanter has the opposite problem - he lacks mana.

Explain in more detail why specifically Kifrah.

It's strange, but Letos doesn't seem like such an overpowered hero to me, at least not in theory. In practice, it often turns out the opposite. First of all, he desperately lacks mana. As Mdance said, this can be mitigated later with Education or Wizardry, but in the early game, it's just terrible. In the first few levels, you can only cast Plague once, and its Aura rarely triggers. And I don't understand why he's even better than the Mechanists at clearing out enemies...

And why would Temple heroes need Dark Magic, since it requires a lot of mana and is designed for heroes who have problems with spellcasting, but Temple heroes have the opposite problem – they lack mana.

Explain in more detail why specifically Cyra. I think that even Erin (if you already have witches) would be better in this regard. By that time, she will have Chaos magic and attack already developed, and besides, her witches will support her with their volley fire, and thanks to the attack and tactics, the troops themselves will deal excellent damage.

The ability doesn't trigger that rarely. And he's better than the Mechanists for one simple reason – he's a Warlock. And therefore, he has Slow. The Mechanists don't have Slow, which means they will suffer some losses. In particular, this is fully evident in battles with Druids and Archmages.

And in the mid and late game... Recently, a build for Cyra was developed, specifically as a power hero for the mid and late game. In practice, it hasn't been tested yet, but it might turn out to be a deadly combination. So, the minimum set of skills:
Leadership up to Empathy
Logistics up to Surprise Attack (it's a pity that you can't get Keen Mind with her)
Education with Attraction (Scholar + Keeper of Secrets for the same Empathy)
Attack up to Haste
Spellcasting.
And Elemental Affinity is welcome.
The battle takes place as follows – the troops are accelerated, and with their morale and initiative, the time between casts is significantly reduced. Then, Cyra only teleports Minotaurs, moving them up in the turn order. And under her, these "bulls" simply go wild. (As an option – Riders, so that they "ride" along the entire enemy army)

I've heard this somewhere before :)