Posts from Tactics for the Castle.

Strategy for playing as Castle

Since I play at a 200% level, I will try to describe my strategy:
It is necessary to build:
During the first week:
1. Town Hall, which gives 1000 per turn; Market, Magic Tower, Blacksmith
(Blacksmith is needed for the Barracks with Crusaders).
2. Town Hall, which gives 2000 per turn, and Archers or Barracks

During the following weeks:
3. Barracks or Archers, Monastery (Zealots), CAPITOL.
4. If there is enough money and resources, then Angels.
5. Horses, Griffins.

During battles: (we are talking about upgraded units)
1. It is necessary to use the following unit privileges:
- Pikemen: for the first level, they are one of the best, because they have 10 hit points and
don't move too slowly.
- Archers: good for the first weeks, because during battles for castles, towers
shoot at them first, so it is better to take more of them for capturing the castle
as cannon fodder. (It's great if there are ~500 of them)
- Griffins: GOOD as suicide units, because they counterattack many times and
their growth
is also impressive. (It's great if there are ~250)
- Crusaders are good in themselves, because they hit the target twice (like archers
shoot), and their defense is also not bad. (It's great when there are 200-250 of them)
- Zealots (Monks): shoot well, do not suffer much when capturing a castle, if
there are archers in the army (see above). (150-200)
- Horses: move well, have a bonus for attack range (the further the unit-victim is, the more damage the Horses inflict). (100-150)
- Archangels: The 3 most important properties: they go first, add one to the
hero's morale
and can heal quite well. (50-100 {if 100, then hide}).

2. If all CASTLE units are present in the army, then when capturing a castle:
a). Wait with the Archangels.
b). Wait to see if anyone comes out of the castle, if not, try to
send
griffins to the archers (defenders of the castle), bomb (preferably) the bridge with a ballista and
enter with horses, then with crusaders.
c). Fight, using all the properties of the units, and at the end of the battle, do not forget
to heal with the Archangels those who suffered the most or who you feel very
sorry for.

3. If all CASTLE units are present in the army, then during a battle on the ground:
a). Wait with the Archangels.
b). Wait to see if anyone approaches the archers, if not, let them go into action.
c). Griffins, horses, and crusaders fight depending on the location of the enemies.
d). Do not forget to heal your units with the Archangels.

I tried playing as Castle in a single-player game, since I rarely pick it, or rarely get to play it. On an SM template at 160%. First roll - 2 external dwellings of Marksmen, but only one road to a secondary hero and into ГО + no road through the swamp. I went in there with a weak hero with a Gnoll, found an exit into a treasure zone. On 2 respawns there are 3 trees, but two are far away; on the second one I went into the swamp treasure zone, hit blocks, then came back, found another exit, the main hero was Valka, it was very tough to fight, barely took a Dragon Utopia on day 141, a mess overall, no Griffin Conservatories at all.
Second roll - here there's a block into one secondary hero with a horde of Gogs, but the other path is fine. Again, two external dwellings of Archers and 1 of Crusaders. On day 121 - Wystan starts with a minimal Griffin Conservatory, on day 124 with 9 Angels + distracted by Valka on a mine tree, maybe a mistake, maybe not, because I didn't collect money along the way. Day 126 - break the home Dragon Utopia with 9 Angels and Tier 1 units, losing an Angel, +40000. But still not enough for Archangels, have to sit in the Castle to replenish mana. On day 127 I can't reach ГО, but I break another Griffin Conservatory, so by day 131 I have 14 Angels + Book of Earth + Earth expertise, overall decent + all the army intact. I concluded that the only cool theme of Castle is the Archangels. It's also nice to quickly run around under Stables in week 2, but there are plenty of downsides too. So, without Archangels, blue Castle is roughly on the level of red Inferno, or even weaker.

He concluded that the only cool thing about Castle is Archangels. It's also nice to quickly run around stables in the second week, but there are plenty of downsides. So, without Archangels, blue Castle is roughly on par with red Inferno, or even weaker.

That's unfair, Pash, you're wrong... Castle with a starting Val'ka, I think, on SOD (смке), blue should dominate Inferno. I don't really like him myself, Ramp seems nicer – not so dependent on wood, and with two strike stacks from the start, plus with speed boost for horses at least 6 speed. But in one game, I only once managed to easily take a fat tree at the start of week 2 (after minimal cons) exactly as Castle – I'm still a noob in that regard:D. Strangely enough, Val'ka and similar heroes get mostly the right and proper skills:) – Orrin all 3 times when he was my main in online games took Logistics as first level-up. Archangels – no comments, horses are great 6th-level units, also Crusaders are magnificent, and Marksmen in terms of usefulness in the first 1-2 weeks are definitely among the top 10 units of all towns – hordes of walkers up to 5th level are actually wiped out by them alone:cool: .

I once messed around in single player with the infinite movement cheat - started all random on 8mm6, got some Castle mage, minimal archers, their external dwelling was found, but not immediately, took Yog the Barbarian from the tavern as my main; killed the built-in computer fairly easily, and then until the end of the first week without adding cheated troops, purely from map resources - ate almost all of it on week 1, ultimately taking a small Dragon Utopia on day 116 or 117 with minimal losses, and before that there was a dwelling-3 with mass oil - without losses (there was already 1 Angel), 50 upgraded demons without oil and without Angel, 2 horses + the rest (Marksmen and small fry) - without losses, 78+16 upgraded eyes (expert Tactics) with an army of about 28 Marksmen, 2 horses, a bunch of pokemons (around 40), 1 Angel, 3 Pegasi from the external dwelling and some other small fry, maybe swords - lost only the extra Pegasi:eek: , I was just amazed by the combat capabilities of the native Castle army!!

Oh, and by the way, I noticed a small quirk about blue Castle: it always has external dwellings (at least those I've seen, blue Castles) - at least 2nd or 1 + a bunch of cons (trees). I can't figure out why this is, apparently Vikk did research on colors, but for me regardless of whether I play as it or against it, it's consistently been that way:confused: .

Where did you get 50 demons and an Eye of the Elements on the first map? Or is this a cheat for infinite turns? P.S. I didn't understand the utopia on map 116 and the tier 3 consultant back then.

I’m not saying I had them in my army, those demons with eyes! But finding such neutrals is never really a problem, even on week 1 and without unlimited movement :smile32:. The whole joke was that this was actually beaten with native troops plus a few bits from a couple of external caches. The map is random 8mm6: the eyes were guarding a Pandora’s Box at my starting respawn, and the demons were sitting in the underground, not even a treasure zone.

Finding such neutral creatures is never a problem, even in the first week.

Hmm... that's interesting. How many level 4 creatures are there at 200% difficulty? Somewhere around a group (10-19). This means you need to recruit at least 3 such groups of monsters in the first week. To do this, you also need to gain diplomacy skills, reaching the expert level, and have enough money to hire the monsters... I wouldn't say it's such an "easy" situation.

Hmm... that's interesting. How many level 4 creatures are there at 200% difficulty? Somewhere around a group (10-19). At a minimum, you need to recruit 3 such groups of monsters in the first week. For this, you also need to increase diplomacy to the expert level, and also get monsters with money... I wouldn't say that this is such a "problem-free" situation :)

You guys are something else, as VLK777 says, I'm "writing in Russian in white":) : I killed these neutrals, not recruited them or conjured them up with cheats and fought without the help of "conjured" troops:), but mainly (90%) with my own troops from 2 castles starting from the first week!

Bone, what was the map like?

Random 8mm6 map with 6 companions and the killing of one's own companion at the beginning of the week, along with a large number of archers. In the adjacent zone, there was a rampart without a village, but with 2 hidden spots.

I've been playing as Castle for a long time. On higher difficulties, archers are a lifesaver, but they become less effective later on. You can take Turis and cavalry, use 3 stacks to defeat enemies, and use them to clear out mobs in the early game. It's great if you get Sir Mulric and find a ring or amulet, or even better, a cloak; then victory is almost guaranteed. With large armies, it's good to have a strong mage with an air expert. Archmages go first, applying speed to everyone, and you can almost use all your units on your first turn: skip the archmages, send griffins into melee, and then resurrect the griffins with the archmages; you can also resurrect the archmages. For swordsmen, use Blessing and after the first hit, they attack twice. In the first week, I build archers, a prefecture, upgrade the archers, a forge, barracks, and a citadel, and then I focus on generating income and building cavalry.

Capitol... and in all caps, too.