Posts from Barbarian magic suppression skills... Auto-translated

by the way, what about Phoenixes? Can one survive a single hit?

We played that match twice - with Darkness and (just for fun) without it.
With Darkness, the Orc lost without a chance. Without Darkness, I lost, but the Phoenix wasn't defeated. They just tore my army apart. Strangely, I had a full Darkness skill, but not a full Summoning skill. I didn't have Walls or a Hive. Maybe if I had used walls, I could have won without Darkness...

Therefore, I stick to my opinion - Anti-Chaos and Anti-Summoning significantly reduce magic power. But Anti-Darkness doesn't have much of an effect.

A well-developed Warlock or Necromancer can have a Phoenix under Shield withstand an attack from hundreds of Black Dragons. The question is whether the Orcs can gather that many troops. ;)

You just confirmed my words: Darkness defeated the Orcs. And in the second match, your opponent, judging by all, simply didn't touch the Phoenixes, assuming there were more important targets. Or are you saying that they were hit by at least 2-3 stacks and still survived? HA-HA, what a funny joke. And by the way, what about the Wrath of the Horde? Not using it with such numbers is a crime.

So, let's break it down: lords with 2000 hit points are certainly a formidable opponent, but I don't see anything catastrophic. With that many, Horde Fury will quickly deplete their hit points (by the way, what about Phoenixes? Will one of them survive a single hit?).

And, of course, we'll be targeting vampires first (preferably before the hero's turn).

Next, mines: 250-70%=75, that's not serious, a wasted hero turn.

Now, imagine for a moment what the opponent can do with Darkness in just a couple of turns, even with it being heavily suppressed!

The Shield will have 2000 HP for about 4 weeks, and how much damage will "Wrath of the Horde" deal? And don't forget that killing goblins and centaurs is not a very long process. After that, you can completely ignore "Wrath of the Horde." It only gets worse because the necromancer will definitely have more than one growth per week thanks to the converter. 40 lords per week is more than realistic. It is very likely that you won't reach anyone with your first move because having 2 artifacts from the racial set is quite common. And the effectiveness of vampires doesn't decrease from 1 "Rise Dead," and sometimes it even increases. With a run, you won't collect just one mine, and you'll take damage and have your wrath reduced. Let's say you hit 4 mines, i.e., absorbed 700 damage. For example, a stack of 100 Warmongers will have 1100 * (700/2000) = 385 wrath reduced. They can't recover from this, and they'll be killed immediately. I agree that Darkness is usually more effective, but what if you have a set of spells, and what if you don't? We look for other options and find them.

And one more thing: your friend made a big mistake by taking Wolf Riders instead of Executioners.

In conclusion, I will say that it will be much easier for me to play against a Hero with Summoning magic than against a Hero with Dark magic. Therefore, I develop Anti-Magic (Dark), but not Anti-Summoning.

It's quite possible by week 4. Although, I still don't see anything terrible about this situation. I'll have time to unleash the Horde's fury once, and there won't be enough undead to counter the "furious" orcs. It's not that easy to kill centaurs and goblins if your opponent hasn't moved past being a beginner.

2) Don't forget about the Aura of Swiftness. It's more likely to be obtained than two artifacts from the collection (by week 4), so there's a good chance of getting vampires or dealing a lot of ranged damage if you're playing as Haghesh.

In conclusion, I'll say that it will be much easier for me to play against a Hero with Summoning magic than against a Hero with Dark magic. Therefore, I'm leveling up Anti-Summoning instead of Anti-Dark.

Would you really ignore your subordinate Warlords?!?! They wouldn't ignore you either! So you're wrong about Anti-Summon. And as for the Executioners, they would have reached you and at least hit you a couple of times. In the end, getting beaten by your own troops is unpleasant in any case - not just by Executioners, but also by a Cyclops (berserker). I mentioned the Executioners because your Phoenix would have a hard time. And as for the statement that "with Anti-Summon, he could have won" - that's complete nonsense; you would have simply crushed him with Darkness (which includes much more than just Subjugation).

P.S. As confirmation of my words, here's the match described by Mdance above - the Phoenix wasn't killed, but the army was torn apart.

This isn't confirmation;)
Don't forget, I had Darkness, but the second time, as agreed, I didn't use it. 6 levels down the drain. If there wasn't Darkness, there would be something else.
I'm just referring to a situation where the opponent has both Darkness and Summoning (which is the case in more than half of the situations – the standard "gentleman's set" for a Necromancer). And in this case, Anti-Summoning would be more effective than Anti-Darkness, in my opinion.

For this reason, if the choice is "either/or" (although you can, of course, max out both), I believe it is more advisable to invest in Anti-Darkness and not invest in Anti-Summoning!
That's my overall thought. Are you going to argue with that?

Of course;)

Look: In the replay, my Special Points (SP) are around 44, right? In the battle I described, Lethos had 51 SP. Without any agreements – that’s just how the map is. Accordingly, the Phoenix’s parameters were even higher. Out of all the Darkness spells, I only used Subjugation on the Leaders and Vampirism on the Phoenix in that battle. How would Anti-Darkness weaken these spells? Practically not at all. But Anti-Summon would severely reduce the Phoenix’s parameters and decrease its Shield. Besides the fact that the Shield would have less HP, the absorption would be 25% instead of 50% – a huge difference, wouldn’t you agree?
And I think it’s pointless to immediately level up 2 Slows. And Crippling won’t be as effective, and you’ll have to give up something else...

If he had Anti-Summon, he could bombard him with various mass Darkness spells - in my opinion, that would be much more effective!