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

Well, I've always been a proponent of Summoning for the Warlock precisely because of the versatility of this school. Before version 3.0, I played as Vaishan because having a Trap from the start allowed me to quickly defeat large groups of powerful neutral creatures early in the game. And, accordingly, I also invested in Chaos (along with Summoning). But in the early stages, I only went up to the Secrets of Chaos (for the powerful spell and Knowledge), as it was much easier to obtain them. By the way, I used Fist to the Full in Utopias. Usually, people initially ignore the racial skill, and the damage dealt by 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, and when they appear, they immediately take double damage from 4 mines and then disappear... And it's also nice to one-shot the opponent's Phoenix or Necromancer with a single cast...
Now I'm playing as Lethos. Darkness + Summoning is a really powerful combination. Even the simplest combination of Mass Slow + Fire Elementals is a very powerful thing. And I don't even need to talk about a Phoenix under Vampirism... It's a pity they removed Fire Wall from Summoning – it was a pretty good spell, very suitable for Hunters – the same principle as Plague. Cast it and watch as the guys in the fire wait and burn. And if you have both Plague and Wall...

Hold on, I don't understand. The Wheel says that exorcism enhances Chaos magic spells, dealing 100% more damage. What do traps have to do with it?

Where???

No, seriously - the option looks promising in theory. And all the skills have a decent chance of appearing. The only thing is that Kif's start is a bit slow, but this shouldn't matter in a long game...

Guess in three tries. Here's a hint: NOT in Karaganda.

I'm generally in favor of starting with one hero in a long game, and then making another the main hero if the map allows. It's a pity that the Golem costs 6 mana, not even 5, and there are too few Hunters. But for a long game, you need to come up with something for the Academy, because many players tear it to shreds with a Chaos hero, and it's not great in other matchups either.

So, it turns out that the starting hero needs to develop Mentorship to help our Kifrah begin her ascent to the position of Malassa's punishing hand.

Stalkers and Furies aren't very effective until they're upgraded. And how do you get Cavaliers in the first week? They require a level 9 Castle, and there are only 7 days in a week. If you build something every day (which is usually the case in the first week), it's impossible to build Cavaliers.

In general, I believe that both building up your Castle and developing your hero should be tailored to the map, so I don't think there's a universal "building plan" that exists. But there are, of course, general principles.

If anyone is interested, you can read my report on Nival about testing Lethos on a specific map.
(Warning - it's very long...)
http://forums.nival.com/rus/showpost...postcount=2876