Posts from Tactics for playing as the Dwarves.

But if you have Chaos well-developed, you can recast the Warlock, taking advantage of the much larger total HP and the resurrection rune.
Option for consideration #2. Necromancer. (My favorite example, I always use it) You stand in a group, waiting... the Hell Knight casts Punishing Strike along with something else... and the enemy hero, with 40+ magic skill (this happens not so rarely), casts Mind Control with increased target initiative!!! And the target is a group of tough 6th-level units that also attack with lightning. Then, he casts the Rune of War Frenzy on them, at your expense, and attacks everyone standing nearby (and your units are diligently waiting in attack formation...). What to do? Half of your army is gone, there are tons of Necromancers as always on the Erlangs, and they are casting Mind Control... Anti-Magic on the Erlangs (if you have it, of course) - and they no longer have acceleration or Punishing Strike, nothing that you cast on them... and the Necromancer has a huge choice: either continue casting Mind Control, or cast dark mass spells (he will have time to cast 2 spells, because after Anti-Magic, your hero will have to wait a full turn), or cast Vampirism on someone, or summon a Phoenix, as he sees fit...
Option #3. Demon. An evil demon arrives, drains all your mana (you don't have education, some people even find it funny to read about it, so you have little mana), and gradually weakens you with Darkness, casts Berserk, Mind Control, or halves your defense with Fireballs... and you have nothing to answer with, you slowly wither away without mana, and then reinforcements arrive for the demon, about 50%... Although it's not even needed, in this case, you will kill yourself with Berserk and Mind Control... it's not pleasant.
+1

Actually, the player wasn't looking at how quickly these three factions defeat the Gnomes, but rather at what might happen if they retreated to a remote location and tried to fully utilize their Hirdu.

The thing is, the enemy's troops might be positioned in such a way that we won't have the opportunity to deploy our troops in a tight formation. It's unlikely that the bonus for a single stack will even reach 5. Again, if we're going on the offensive, someone will still remain in the rear (these are archers and possibly someone for cover), which also won't provide much of a bonus. When defending, and even with tactics, you can perfectly position your troops so that the bonuses are noticeable, but what's the point if they can be scattered during the battle? After all, the stacks won't stay in their starting positions all the time. Unless it's against a barbarian, and even then, he can only attack after using his war cry. He casts "war cry" (+10 to attack and +1 to speed at level 20), and all the efforts with formations go down the drain. And if there are no obvious attackers and defenders on the battlefield, the troops will be randomly scattered, and it's quite a difficult task to organize a formation effectively without hindering attacks on key enemy stacks.

I disagree with the summoning part... The dwarves' troops are among the best in the game in terms of efficiency; with approximately the same ratio of troops, the dwarves are stronger than many, and extra reinforcements won't hurt, especially if you summon troops wisely, they won't get in the way. I don't find the Ring of Exile very often. You also need to upgrade Exorcism and take Chaos. This setup is only possible if you're going for a solo campaign. It's not profitable to sit in defense because the demon will overwhelm you with darkness, and you won't be able to use light effectively; the imps won't let you. Not to mention the demon's powerful ballista, which will also do a lot of damage.

You can hardly deal with Demons. Maybe a hero will fall sooner if they have a sharp mind... Otherwise, there's no chance. Only if you're lucky with artifacts and the ranged attacks hit sooner. In general, a Demon can easily slow down our troops at the beginning and then speed up its own with an aura, and that will be a complete disaster. Whether you like it or not, you'll end up in a defensive position.
And Divine Vengeance simply works wonders with minimal spellcasting. Damage exceeding 1K is quite realistic.

P.S. I don't play on random maps because they turn out to be terrible. On the original maps, you're unlikely to find several identical artifacts. Only if you're looting one utopia after another on some Outlands, but you know that you definitely won't be able to do that against a human player. I only bothered to collect a full dragon set in a game against the computer, but I didn't manage to do it.

I'm not arguing that Divine Retribution is an overpowered spell, but it's not very effective at the beginning of a battle, and it's not an area-of-effect spell either, which is not very convenient... so I'm sticking to my opinion...

P.S. You're missing out by not playing on random maps; many of them are very interesting, and besides, the chance that the game can turn in the most unexpected way increases (which is what I like about them). Ordinary maps just get too boring over time, and you know them so well that you can play them with your eyes closed, and you know all the loopholes and where everything is. IMHO, but that's boring...

Which hero should I choose as a starting hero?