Posts from How to win with a “weak” Knight?

Let's share some secrets on how to win with one of the weakest factions in the game – the Knights.
I personally really like this Castle, but the stats for levels 1 and 7 are just ridiculous.
Right now, I've started (well, I'm continuing) a game on a random scenario. At the very beginning, I found an artifact (lying right on the road) that prevents both sides from using magic. It helped me a lot in the beginning, even without a single magic book, to deal with the Necromancer and the Wizard. In the middle of the game, when all the mages already had over 8 points of magic power, and the armies were constantly being divided and re-divided, I also crushed everyone with minimal losses. Now I'm about to storm the main villain's Wizard Castle, and I think I'll succeed.
In addition to the artifact, I'm essentially playing the entire game with just one hero (the others are only needed to deliver reinforcements to him). There's no point in splitting up the already weak units. So, I'm walking around with 40 Paladins, 70 Swordsmen, and 80 Pikemen, and I'm crushing all the mages...

What is your tactic when playing with this Castle?

Colleague, to describe the tactics, I suggest dividing the gameplay in the second installment of Heroes of Might and Magic into three types: 1. Offline tournament game. 2. Online tournament game. 3. Non-tournament offline game for enjoyment, without scouting the map, played at a leisurely pace, without saving and reloading. Please clarify which type of game in the second installment of Heroes of Might and Magic you are referring to when discussing tactics.

About the third one. A fan-made map for personal use. As usual, the random map generator didn't impress me, creating a completely unbalanced map, but I decided to play it through for the sake of the experiment. Specifically, to test the abilities of the Knights when playing without magic.
P.S. I'm just an amateur!

Ty3o-ny3o, hello. When playing as Castle, I focus on diplomacy, as I do with all other factions. I haven't been able to create a map for 3 heroes yet... I've already made and am testing a map for 2 heroes. It will be very interesting, with many sphinxes. I highly recommend it. Oh, I almost forgot! Qwerty, you have so many awards... the page barely loads... ;)

2Tu3o-pu3o
Started responding. Will post the link when the response is fully ready.
And for now - welcome to the tournament! And Lux in tenebris - we're waiting for you too!

No, I'm not suitable for tournaments. But on the topic, after playing through my scenario, I can summarize. Knights are indeed weak. All of them, except for Paladins. This is the only real unit that, with decent attack skill (around 10), cuts enemies to shreds like they're snacking on seeds. Considering the double strike and simply divine health compared to the rest of the weaklings, it's a lifesaver for a player who has chosen this Castle. The backbone of the army. But that's not enough. All units are infantry, and the archer with his 10 HP dies very quickly. In the end, only infantry remains, without any flying units. Defenseless against mages, trolls, liches... I see two paths: either replace the first two Knight units with someone more worthy (Elementals in PoL, for example), or leave the units alone (they're weak anyway) and focus on developing in a magical direction. I won the game only because I completely deprived the AI of the chance to cast spells – I took a special artifact. Difficulties arose only with Titans and Dragons (red ones). Fakes, Barbarians, and Necromancers without magic are easily defeated. But this is more of a coincidence. This is to show what happens when a Knight, pumped up in terms of combat stats, fights a mage who is more developed in the magical field.

Ty3o-ny3o, it's a shame that you're not suitable for tournaments. Try again!
And regarding (How to win with a "weak" Knight?). My opinion is: there are no weak factions, only incorrect gameplay. Secondly, I often play as Haven. I really like it. Everything is mathematically balanced. This faction can be built faster than most, in most cases. Consequently, it also allows for a stronger hero.

Lux, I'm not arguing. If you constantly do small, annoying things to the computer, you can win with any faction. But, for example, if both players (out of only two) live independently, develop on their own, and then, after a month or two, meet... a Wizard and a Knight. Who will win? What specifically needs to be considered on the battlefield?

You need to see which hero you're up against. If it's a mage, mass haste or antimagic are strong arguments. In a couple of months, you'll likely capture a number of villages that can be rebuilt into castles. For example, into a dragon castle or a titan castle. This way, you can reinforce the knight's troops with 1-2 more units from another castle.

2 Ty3o-ny3o
I have partially answered your question in the posts at /topic/at/225094/ and the one that follows it. Keep an eye on these posts; there will be updates, additions, and continuations.
Have a good game!

It was a meticulous effort, I must admit. Although I don't really like such a harsh tactic (probably that's why I'm not interested in tournaments).

No matter how many times I play as the Knight, the strategy is always the same: capture something that's weakly defended. If it works, great; if not, we start over. Otherwise, all those long, fair battles led by a Knight hero with 10 Crusaders and 50 Rangers will end badly. He'll win 2-3 local battles and then lose everything. For most maps, I take the Beaver as my second hero, and he becomes the main one. Because Pesfindin is incredibly powerful almost everywhere, and no one has ever died from a lack of Leadership. Ballistics will help, but Wisdom isn't that important. Then, the Beaver levels up on 1500 experience chests and gazebos, we gather whatever army we can find, and by the beginning of the second week, we can already set off, especially if the goal is to defeat the Warlock. If we capture his Castle on the 13th-14th day, and use the money saved from not buying a bunch of living creatures, and the sulfur we collected somewhere, to build Green Dragons, then we don't need to worry about how many Crusaders our hero can defeat in one turn against the Warlock and his Lightning spells. Of course, this is an ideal scenario, but it has happened exactly twice. I somehow managed to take his Castle, barely surviving with about 5 Pikemen. Then, the Warlock arrives with 5 Hydras, 15 Griffins, and 30 Centaurs, but he can't defeat the Green Dragon because the Castle's defenses are strong, and the hero bought a spellbook in the enemy Castle. The hero's stats are something like 9-4-2-2. Of course, there are glitches in the AI where, on the 8th day, an empty or almost empty Castle is available, so you can just walk in and buy any army. But that doesn't always happen. In Seven Lakes, I managed to capture the Wizard's Castle on the 8th day, arriving from the island, and once there were even Giants there! But more often, there are 2 Mages and Golems, and no matter how many Medusas you buy along the way, even if there are 5 of them, and even with some Goblins joining, they can't defeat them. And sometimes, the Wizard doesn't even let you get close to the Medusa Hut. So, this setup leads to success 95% of the time.

It's also a good idea to cast the bless spell on a Knight in golden armor. This way, his damage will be 10-20, but with bless, it will be 20, and he'll have two attacks dealing 20 damage each.

Unfortunately, this is the first army that Lightning and other nasty spells are directed at. So, very often, Paladins or Crusaders, who are not easy to create, appear once or twice, and then they are simply gone. In general, the strategy against a Knight is elementary. A Warlock with, say, 5-3 stats, a couple of Gargoyles, and three Kentauros can deal with him. If the Knight is slow, the Warlock can hit him with Lightning two or three times and then run away. Then, a Beaver with his army arrives, and the Knight hero is no more. Playing as a Knight is worse than playing as a Necromancer, especially on King difficulty. Sometimes, Swordsmen are not even built in the first week, the army is slow, and if the Castle is located somewhere in a swamp, it's a complete disaster.

but you can cast antimagic on it, right?