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Continuation of the banquet
5-6-7-8 I won't divide by strength, the towns are roughly equal, it's more a matter of personal preference here.
Dungeon.
By and large, an off-meta town, too dependent on the spawn layout. On a good layout, it can give even Necropolis a run for its money, but on a bad one, it can get seriously bogged down. Accordingly, opinions about it are also mixed - some revere it and consider themselves lucky to get it in the draft, while others try to ban it or force it on an opponent in exchange for a stronger town.
1) The starting power is devastating, the Miner skill highlights it. This is essentially the town's main advantage. The only issue is it's not universal - against ranged or fast creatures, they can whittle down the Troglodytes, which is very painful - besides them, Dungeon has practically nothing. That is, if you lose or heavily deplete the main attacking stack, it's easier to just surrender immediately. Managing to conserve every single Troglodyte is crucial. However, if you get a good external dwelling (cats, ments, eyes), then with the portal you get a second main stack.
2) Conservatories-Hives are broken easily and effortlessly, if you haven't lost your Troglodytes. The rest of the army mainly goes for meat-shielding (if there were no external dwellings).
3) Dragon Utopias also fall normally, if you didn't mess up irreversibly at the previous stages.
4) Speed is average.
The main pain point - it's very difficult to play and fight, a lot depends on restart manipulation. Often you get tight layouts, so you need playing experience to assess the real potential of a layout. The main thing needed - a minimal-requirement Conservatory in the first days, as well as a good external dwelling for the portal. If you have this, the game immediately becomes powerful and confident.
In the end, it's a sprint town, powerful, focused on deciding the outcome of the match no later than the 2nd week. But unstable and lacking long-term prospects.
Inferno.
Another town with highly contradictory player opinions. For the same reason - strong dependence on the layout. The main dependencies are money and blocks. With a good layout, Demons crush everything, but with an average-bad one...
1) The starting army is weak. You need money for Efreeti, which might not be available immediately. Sometimes you have to end the week without Efreeti. Getting money is harder than for other towns, both due to the army's weakness and the poverty of respawns. Plus the second front is weak, maybe just Efreeti, but it's usually better to have them in the main army. The territory filling equalizer slightly simplifies the task.
2) Fighting in Conservatories-Hives is difficult until you've assembled a decent Demon stack. That is, when other towns are already actively recruiting legionaries from afar, Inferno is looking for money to buy up the army from all captured towns, and then spends tempo and timer on slicing. In small hives, slicing goes quite well though - Magogs rarely target Pit Lords if Gog-Imps are present. But if luck isn't on your side and Pits get hit, the prospects immediately become bleak...
3) The question of taking Dragon Utopias comes down to having a decent Demon stack. On the 2nd week, it's not always possible to complete all necessary preparatory work. On an average layout, you can get into the Dragon Utopia on 132-133, which is somewhat late (compared to the aces).
4) Speed is above average - Papa on dogs, scout heroes on Imps, plus Demons have the highest chance for Logistics - 10 points.
Main pain points - financial policy and slicing technique. A stayer town, time delay usually works in its favor.
Castle.
The easiest town to play, average in most parameters.
1) The starting army is decent, and importantly, easy to manage. Upgrade the Archers and go-go break whatever you see. But it's not universal, serious troubles on ranged maps. Plus, early breakthroughs a-la Shakhti-Gosha-Tiras are beyond its capability. There's a second front - Cavalry, though it appears late.
2) Strength in Conservatories-Hives is average. Just need not to mess up the positioning in Conservatories.
3) It's a bit tough in Dragon Utopias. The weakness of growth due to its incompleteness is felt. When building Cavalry with Castle in the 1st week, you can only take 3 stacks into the Dragon Utopia. Given that you ideally don't want to lose Crusaders before accumulating a decent number and upgrading them. And Pikemen alone for meat-shielding are weak.
4) Speed is average, on the 2nd week Griffin Guardians help.
Castle's main advantage, sharply increasing its chances in serious games, is having its own Angels and the possibility of upgrading preserved ones. But this prospect usually realizes no earlier than the middle of the 3rd week. More tempo-oriented towns can already noticeably outpace Castle in development by that time.
Rampart
I don't like this town, I try not to play it. The bulk of its fans are players who recently moved to TE from SoD. They still have the uber-town stereotype, which can be used by giving it to them in the draft against stronger towns.
1) The starting army is good, better than Castle's, partly due to the ability to put 2-3 Centaurs per stack in front of ranged units, reducing or completely eliminating Elf losses. But there's a strong dependence on having wood and the need to upgrade Elves on the 2nd day. While Castle can expand fairly cleanly, Rampart often needs to make a lot of strange movements in the first days to ensure normal expansion.
2) Conservatories-Hives are taken generally a bit easier than with Castle, helped by a stronger and faster army. But - dependence on gold. The town is quite expensive, so you can't always afford the luxury of going into a Conservatory having bought out the entire weekly growth. Options starting with "it depends" appear. Upgrades are desirable, which again increases the need for gold.
3) With Dragon Utopias it's fine, on the 3rd week you can break it even with native growth, without help from Wyverns/Angels. But the lack of a clearly defined main attack stack has an effect - power is spread across slots, making it easy to suffer critical losses.
4) Speed is average. Taking Kyrre is unjustified imho, Ivor is needed. On the 2nd week, Silver Pegasi help.
The town is very similar to Castle, the army is a bit stronger, but also more expensive accordingly. Plus there's no late-game prospect - Dragons are a pain to build, even on the 2nd week it's rarely possible to get them out. Ultimately, a very blunt town, predictable, and therefore not particularly interesting to me personally.
9. Tower
The weakest town. And therefore popular among top players :). For this same reason, it has a decent win-loss statistic.
1) The starting army is normal. Though slow and vulnerable to ranged units. Among the starting heroes, there's no one with Tactics - you have to give Golems to the Squire, reducing mobility. Ideally, if Tiras or Shakhti appears in the tavern - you can carry Golems in a reserve stack.
2) Difficult in Conservatories. The army is slow. Tolerable on snow, but on other terrain types, it's quite sad. You need upgrades, Haste in the spellbook, and even then it doesn't always help. Plus that's money and tempo. The number of stacks also leaves much to be desired - no Genies, and you can't take Mages inside. The taking technique is similar to Castle's, only the army is weaker and slower.
3) Very sad in Dragon Utopias. Only meat-shielding is available - Golems and Gargoyles. Taking Nagas into Dragon Utopias is very risky - Dragons love hitting them. All hope rests on Conservatories-Hives.
4) Speed is low.
Everywhere you look, there are cons. In the army, in building, and in heroes. And the prospect is weak, I've only built Titans once in my memory, but that was probably around the 4th week and on a chocolate layout where they weren't particularly needed.
Still, it makes winning with Tower all the sweeter :).
Wlk777
