Posts from Haven tactics.

Why build a Fortress at the end of the week if you don't immediately build a Stronghold afterward? Maybe it's better to build something more useful instead of a Fortress; 5000 resources could be spent more effectively. 6th-tier guild of Mages, 7th-tier guild of Monks.
Farms won't provide much benefit either.

And, perhaps, it's not worth building out the Castle branch up to the Capitol. It costs a lot of money, and the +50% bonus isn't very effective because Griffins, Unicorns, and Angels haven't been built yet.

I agree with Avenger here. I wouldn't build a Fortress in the first week either. It's better to build a Tower and train Monks. If resources allow, simultaneously develop the Town Hall branch – this is an effective strategy. As for training, I personally don't start it before the middle of the third week, because it's pointless.

Thanks for the advice regarding the Fortress; I'll keep it in mind. By the way, regarding training, what do you think about training archers from the first week if I build training halls instead of a Fortress? After all, having 20-40 red crossbowmen as reinforcements at the beginning of the game is significant. What do you think, is it a worthwhile endeavor, or is it better to...? By the way, what could be better?

If, from the start, there’s an Ash’s Tear in the town (I’ve seen such a map), and gold mines nearby, you can start training archers from the first week. Otherwise, there won’t be enough money for training or for the Capitol (IMO).

Why would you do that? It's fine if you're playing on Recruit or Warrior difficulty. But if you're on Veteran or Hero, you definitely shouldn't do it, as it will ruin your entire development. Maybe it's acceptable if an evil Warlock is heading towards your Castle on the second week, in which case upgrading a few peasants to archers might help you survive. Otherwise, I don't see any other good reasons to do it.

I played... Everything is correct, as the others say about the Capitol, and we should thank them for that. By the way, could you also explain how the "War Machines" skill affects archers? I've read that it gives +1, +2, +3 to damage, but is that a significant amount in practice, and is it worth investing in War Machines at all? Maybe there's something else I should develop instead? What are the priorities for the Knight in this regard? My game usually ends around level 15-20...

If it’s not a long game, up to level 15, then training machines, especially the ballista, is quite useful for clearing out neutral creatures. It’s very good to start with Vittorio as your hero. In practice, increasing the attack of archers at the beginning doesn’t help much, and it’s not worth it in later stages of the game. I recommend leveling up to the rapid-fire ballista. You can also take a tent in the first week, but if it doesn’t drop, then it’s better to take a catapult instead. Taking fire arrows as an attack skill also won’t hurt.

If your favorite hero isn't Vittorio, I don't think it's worth investing in siege weapons. People don't have a growing knowledge stat that affects the damage of ballistae. And they don't have enough space for siege weapons (leadership, luck, defense, attack, light-dark magic). You'll have to sacrifice something. Logistics and education can also be very useful.

I already wrote that they will be effective only in short games. Because triple damage from a fire ballista is quite good. Regarding knowledge: it's not that little, actually. 15%... It's quite enough for weak Knight magic and machines.

The thing is, by level 15-20, you can only max out 3-4 skills on Expert difficulty, so on small maps, you have to choose. And that brings up a question. Is the "War Machines" skill more useful than, say, "Luck," "Logistics," or "Defense"? I'm already taking those three with Dugal's existing attack, but maybe I'm underestimating "War Machines"?

The ballista is enhanced not only by knowledge but also by attack power. And the Knight has a decent attack. Overall, 45% of level-ups enhance the ballista. However, it's still far from the Demon or Barbarian.

I don't play short games, and I don't level up the ballista for the Knight. I rely more on the strength of the soldiers.

I propose the following tactic for Haven. To clarify, this tactic is designed for a large-sized map with 6-8 players, where the monsters are strong, and the difficulty is Veteran. The main idea is as follows: by the seventh day of the first week, you should have built Training Grounds and trained 7 Archers. On the first day of the second week, train another 7 Archers, after which all Archers are upgraded to Red Archers. When playing as Dugald, you will have 70 Red Archers; if playing as another hero, such as Vittorio, you will have 55. With these forces, on the fourth day of the second week, you can eliminate a neighboring player and the monsters guarding the path to them. Very few neighbors will be able to survive such an attack. The gold obtained from the neighbor's castle will compensate for the training costs, which, by the way, will amount to only 5500 gold, 10 wood, 5 ore, and 5 sulfur. You should also deduct at least 1000 gold from this amount, which you will spend on building another structure, such as farms. Moreover, even after eliminating the neighbor, you will likely have enough forces to defend against attacks for the next week or two. The value of the gold, wood, and ore obtained during this time is difficult to overestimate, especially at the beginning of the game. By the end of the second week, you will have a Capitol. There are two potential drawbacks to this strategy: first, you may be short of two units of ore to upgrade the Archers, and second, you will have to take gold from the first four treasure chests. Usually, both Vittorio and Dugald can obtain the extra ore and the four treasure chests. Just don't forget about it. In the worst case, if the resources are distributed very poorly from the very beginning, you can abandon this strategy.

Question ---- does the retribution effect apply to ranged attackers?

As far as I remember, yes. Correct me if I’m wrong.

I was just playing as Laslo on Veteran difficulty against the Empire. My hero got a random artifact, and it turned out to be the Diadem. I got a little lucky with the creatures; there were only Harpooners and Nomad Centaurs, but they weren't guarding the mines. In the first week, I cleared the Crystal and Sulfur mines with upgraded Archers, Peasants, and Soldiers (I didn't have any Armored Swordsmen yet). Here's what I liked about playing as Laslo: 1. I leveled up Attack as my second skill (aiming for Retribution). 2. I took Prayer and Basic Leadership. 3. The creatures were easily defeated. I attacked a group of 100 Warmongers with 40 Armored Swordsmen, 47 or 57 Archers, and 140 Landlords, and I gained two levels with zero losses (well, one Landlord did die). By level 17, my hero was developed like this: * Advanced Leadership * Attack skill with Retribution and Mass Slow * Defense skill with Fortitude (at the start), Evasion, and Deep Defense * Counterattack skill with Prayer and Experienced War Leader ... My advice to those who like to play as this hero: try not to attack the Empire hero with 15 Wild Ents (the Empire hero's defense was around 20) because of your ability and luck; they'll kill about 25 Armored Swordsmen, but the counterattack will be much tougher: maybe 3-4 Ents will die. If they cast Slow on your Armored Swordsmen, save your mana for a second cast of Mass Slow (attacking the enemy in their castle was difficult; it would have been easier in the open field). There were 190 or fewer Armored Swordsmen. That's how it went