Posts from Which faction is the most interesting to play as, and what strategy do you find most engaging?

Playing as Necropolis is very interesting. I can’t post a strategy here, of course. The opponents aren’t hiding on the forum, but playing as Necropolis in the tournament has made the game much more interesting. Playing as Dwarves, Town Elves, and High Elves is also interesting because many people play as these factions, so there are many different development strategies against each faction, and just different strategies in general. For example, Necropolis doesn’t have any problems with neutral creatures, but Town Elves do. When there are a lot of ranged neutral creatures, someone will write that they need to be taken out with stalkers and nothing else. But it’s still tempting to take some risks. In my opinion, the start for Dwarves is difficult and interesting. And when you already have a couple of dozen Town Elf archers, then you can almost effortlessly deal with neutral creatures.

The tactics for playing as a Dwarf are very diverse, which is why the race is so popular. I've written about this many times. There are many options, largely because they are versatile in terms of acquiring military and magical skills. In my opinion, it's one of the least predictable races. Although, even here, there are certain patterns.

In terms of gameplay diversity, I'd also like to mention the Demons. They have many unique perks, and overall, their skill tree is rich... But this applies to the hero's development. However, the starting phase for Demons is completely uninteresting, tedious, boring, and difficult; you just have to catch Ballistas, run around with Cerberuses to avoid slowdowns, and so on. :)

But Orcs cannot offer such a variety of perks and gameplay tactics... largely due to the lack of magic, as such.

I agree with Major.
I myself rarely play as Dwarves, but I know how others play. Playing as a Dwarf means constantly "keeping an eye on" the hero's development. That is, if you see that combat parameters are growing faster, you need to turn him into a warrior and focus on Haven to strengthen the army. If magic parameters are growing, you can create a decent Chaos mage.

And with Orcs, the entire development strategy really revolves around 3 "pillars" - Machines, Attack, and Logistics. After that, this terminator starts destroying everything in its path. This basically reflects the essence of the race - Orcs have always been known for their straightforward brutality.

Once upon a time, my favorite type of magic was chaos. What could be more convenient than roasting an enemy with a powerful fireball, occasionally adding spices like reducing defense and stunning them? That's why the Dungeon faction was my favorite (and still is)... Until I had to complete one mission (I don't remember which one, I think it was for the demons) and fight an enemy with twice the army size. That's when I took a look at the purple tab in the spellbook. And there...:smile11:
There were blindness, suggestion, and confusion (my favorite:o), and a bunch of other spells. Later, I also appreciated dark magic in the fight with Duncan (Hammers of Fate, 1st campaign, 3rd mission). And in the first campaign of the orcish expansion. It's really a cool thing...
Orcs don't have magic, and I don't like that very much. Perhaps this is compensated by their rage, but I haven't fully figured it out yet. Just like with the dwarven runes.

Are you saying that Humans and Elves have the same tactics? Heh... well, it depends on how you play, what direction you develop them in... you can go into Chaos, Machines, or Light, or come up with something else... the same goes for Humans, plus they have a unit training ability... these races are good on both small and large maps, although maybe they aren't the strongest in these games.

It's not about having the same tactics, it's just that I've played them so much (especially in Heroes 3), and I'm getting tired of it. But when I play as Necromancers:smile24: or Demons:smile51:, I get a real paranoid:D schizophrenia - a powerful fantasy plot plays out in my head, I'm drooling on the keyboard, sometimes I'm an all-powerful necromancer, sometimes I'm a demon lord, but when I play as Humans or Elves, it's like I'm burnt out, I sit at the computer and click buttons, there's animation running and jumping - it just doesn't give me any pleasure. And I'm not saying that you should feel the same way, I'm just wondering if you're a similar kind of weirdo and if playing as a certain faction, in a certain way, really captivates you, then share it, let's chat.:smile02: :smile02: :smile02:

In HoMM 5, the autobattle option works very well. In HoMM 3, it was a rather silly option that could only be used if you attacked with 10 Titans against 20 Archers. Even in that case, the computer made incredibly stupid mistakes – it could spend its last magic points on a completely useless spell. There were also instances where it would remove a heavily wounded dragon from the battle along with nine perfectly healthy units and replace them with the rest, letting them die pointlessly, and then bring the dragons back into the fight! But in HoMM 5, the computer plays very intelligently during autobattle! Once, I reloaded the game five times to defeat an enemy hero without suffering heavy losses, but I couldn't do it. In the end, I turned on autobattle and was surprised at how the computer managed to win with minimal losses, while I couldn't!

Choose Elves and focus on luck.

Luck is certainly good and important, but leadership is also worth considering. There are very useful perks there, such as: speed aura or empathy + light magic, and the Battle Mage skill itself is important.
Winged + Light Magic (mass haste, mass smite, mass stone skin) + attack + leadership (empathy or aura) + luck + logistics (quick mind) = awesome.
You can also go with: empathy + chaos + alt-druid + education + luck + attack/defense = awesome.
There are many different strategies.

I think it's not worth focusing on light-skinned races in Castle.

I agree with Legolas89 and Nevil :) I generally prefer ranged combat, and elves have the most developed archers (as I think). Plus, their racial ability, luck stat, and I've also come to like Summoning magic recently (the Banish skill is indispensable against demons and necromancers).

If I happen to find the Tactics skill, I always choose it. It's one of the best skills in the game! For us, a battle starts with a larger area for deploying troops. After all, all ranged units are dangerous only at a distance – you can't shoot from a bow or cast spells in melee combat. So, Tactics allows us to reach them from the very first turn. Large creatures can block the path for 3-4 ranged units at once if placed diagonally between them. However, this is a double-edged sword. For example, the AI rarely considers blocking several of our ranged units at once, but it will still try to reach them with all its might. Therefore, the tactical mode helps to position them closer together and surround them with infantry from all sides.

O.o That perk is good, but nothing prevents your opponent from using a different tactic... And then, you won't be able to spread your forces too much:)...

I generally prefer ranged combat, and elves have the most developed archers (as I think). Plus, their racial ability, luck upgrade, and I've also come to like Summoning magic lately (the skill of Banish is indispensable against demons and necromancers).

I understand, but elven archers are vulnerable to magic (chaos, light (Divine Retribution, in a sense), darkness (mind control spells))...
And Summoning is not their primary school, but if you find it, it will be very effective.
The Light Elves are a great race, but they have a drawback - a very slow start. It's difficult to play as them in online games, but in the mid or late stages of the game, the Light Elves are very strong.

As for the undead... here, it's a rather monotonous tactic, in all parts, no matter what you do, it always comes down to a swarm of the undead... + dark magic (chaos, summoning)... that's really boring. IMHO.... and playing as them is mostly good on large maps, although it might be more interesting on smaller maps...

The more I play as the undead, the more diverse the strategies become.
The undead have a bad start (of course, it's not comparable to the Elves) - this must be a joke!

I think you should play as either the Demons, focusing on opening gates, or the Orcs, as they are strong with a good army and the "Wrath of the Horde" ability. The Elves have good racial abilities. For the Undead, you can quickly build up your army. For the Dwarves, you need to be good at using runes. The Mages have many archers and strong, large creatures. And the Dark Elves, if you take Assassins and Shadow Lords (level 2 upgrade) and upgrade all the others to level 3, will have a strong army. In general, when building an army, you should choose the highest possible upgrade level.

in general, I think you should play either as Demons, focusing on opening portals, or as Orcs, as they are strong if you have a good army and the "Wrath of the Horde" ability. Elves have good racial abilities. For the Undead, you can quickly build up your army. For Dwarves, you need to be good at using runes. For Mages, you have many archers and strong, large creatures. And for Dark Elves, if you take Assassins and Shadow Lords (level 2 upgrade) and upgrade all the others to level 3, you'll have a strong army. In general, when building an army, you need to choose the highest possible upgrade level.

There are many different nuances and strategies; you can't rely on just one.

I just can't bring myself to play the elves, it's boring, a hassle, etc.

You will, you will.
Believe me :) sooner or later, you always end up playing other Factions)

SE has the most initiative-heavy units

Lie. The Furies are by no means shining examples of chastity and holiness, but their init is 16.
And the demons, they have many high-initiative warriors. As for SE, maybe the fairies, the dragon, and the useless swordsmen, but they are far from the fastest in the game.

with SE - go for Luck

Damn. I've always wondered why many consider Luck to be a purely elven essential skill?) Maybe it drops for them more often, but it's good for any hero. Absolutely. Whether it's Gorgutz with a stick-shooter, or a lover of scorched rags riding an elephant.
I try to take it always.

Necros have a bunch of diverse tactics

I can only guess two. A rush with Caspar's tent, or the standard scheme. That is, skeletons-zombies-liches-vampires. With studying death and, often, summoning. That's all. Well, maybe I'm ignoring perversions like diplomacy with free undead gathering across the map;)

Regarding the subject..
The most interesting to play are TE, Inferno, Orcs, Dwarves. Why specifically them?
Because the others lack variety. Humans, forest-dwellers - just shooting creeps with archers. Necros - you couldn't imagine anything more monotonous. Meat-meat-meat-liches, vampires. Dilute it with darkness.
Mages.. well, it's more interesting here, but not by much. The main difference from Dhoine and Seidhe - instead of cool shooters, you have magic blasters. Well, gremlins fart around. Mages deal damage. And gargoyles make lightning more usable. Although the creatures themselves are interesting.. mini-arts are nonsense, I almost never made them. If there were extra resources for them, it was already the end of the game. Although they give substantial bonuses. But what can you do..

..but the "interesting echelon" has its own zest. TE - they are simple to play, but terribly interesting. All these dances with a single stack of Furies among hundreds of knights, powerful breakthroughs of defense with riders, precisely calculating damage and counterattacks, teleporting hydras into the center of the enemy horde, calculations of invisibility and mana (even if it's on the verge of cheating :)), and so on, and so on.
Dwarves.. they aren't easy at first. The fat ones die slowly, but they don't swing hammers very nimbly themselves. The shooters are weak, until you grade them into harpooners. So we hold on - on the fat of the defenders and the sticks of the throwers. But! You can play as Ibbo, and chase the enemy across the battlefield with bears like a baby :) the new ones) they are much more fun)
And here is the salt - the adrenaline is pumping, because bears are melee. You can't just shoot everyone with a bow or crossbow. You have to use tactics (:)), skillfully use runes, distribute living weight across enemy stacks, remembering the need for high unit density for Soldier's Luck to trigger, specifically - the ability) the risk of losing troops is more than paid for by the sea of fun and joy when breaking through the simplest neutrals, not to mention heroes.

Orcs. Poor things. "300 passportless-partans". That is - miserable haters of pumpkin juice and masochistic brooms crashing into the crotch. They have no magic. But they have Tilsek. With a ballista and a miserable handful of warmonger warriors, he cleared half the map for me and captured the enemy castle. They also have Haggesh. Her unnatural entourage gives a great start. And one more little orc spent his whole life rioting and climbing fences. Once he fought a crowd of other kids in a tent. Since then he's been called Krag, from the sound he made breaking his peers' skulls - "krraag! krraag!". Everyone fears and respects him because once he destroyed as many as "seven with one blow" fat, stupid giants. But the main thing is - they were all injected at birth, except for the wyverns, with a "Beijing cocktail", some Chinese junk that allows normal existence only while moving and in a furious attack. This unusual feature adds spice specifically to playing the greenskin followers of WAAAAGH!!! Greenskins? Well, yes. They've just tanned a bit.

But the main course is Hell. That very place from which Nimus sometimes visits Leli's dreams. Inferno.. how much is contained in that word. Playing them, compared to other races, is incredibly difficult. Especially now, when Delebs have stopped delivering normal powder for the ballista and instead deliver crappy powder from a tiny "corsair-1". How to play them? Is it possible to lead a bloody massacre with the Inferno? It seems to me that the developers of both 3 and 5 are afraid of church condemnation, and therefore make Infos difficult to master :D but, nevertheless, we live. Imps - dead, frail.. demons - fat, weak. Dogs - scary, biting, but thin. Nevertheless, - we live. And we fight. We use various tactical perversions, such as: "okay, bush, let's see.., and I'm in a house!", "that doesn't count, that was a summon from the gates, bugaga, stupid creeps!", and even "come on, catch me, iron wreck, just don't run onto the blade of my seasoned colonel's axe", and so on.
As you can see, life for sinners is in full swing, very cheerful indeed, and "I will cut zhear throats", right in the best traditions of the "rapid onslaught of a rotten army of the dead", only funnier, faster, and more spirited. It becomes especially funny when, hoping for a win, you crash horses and dogs straight into a crowd of enemies, sparing not your own belly, because the deal is this - either we get them, or they get us, literally one dash decides it.
And storming castles is really fun - one sneaky, long-tongued saboteur from the Terrible Infernal Gates opens the door for the main contingent, distant fat ones fly over the walls with the help of jetpacks and catapults, and suddenly from the gaping space of the earth comes a mean uncle who looks like a metalhead and brings with him rottweilers with skate-ogres.
That's how fun we live. Join us. It's not too late to commit a mortal sin! Everything is in your hands! Maybe even a razor - any means are good for a journey to the cheerful Auchan hell!

Loken, you've made me happy, you really have. Regarding the strong Elves – I easily defeated them in the last few games:smile18:. My friend and I enjoy long, drawn-out maps and epic final battles, and with Necropolis and Haven, I completely crushed the Elves:smile10:. I'm very pleased with that, of course. Since we were playing on the same computer, there was a different dynamic, as you can see the opponent's moves. But the fact remains: on large maps, in the final stages, Elves don't dominate:smile30:. I played a bit with the Orcs, and it's great – constantly pushing forward is awesome, but you can waste too many troops, of course.