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

And what if it’s not there? Later, I might already have the highest-level army in my castle, but the guild isn’t available. And it seems like Antimagic level 3 is available, but they might not grant Wisdom. Today, I encountered a really annoying warlock; I was playing as a Beaver, but the point is the same. He gathered about 40 gargoyles, 20 griffins, 60 centaurs, 40 thieves, and 35 sprites, and he’s charging ahead with a spell power of 8. In general, I struggled with him; he easily captured any castle. Luckily, I found an artifact that gives +12 to defense and gave it to my strongest hero, and I managed to defeat him. Of course, there was no Wisdom; the only wise hero, a wizard, was 0-1-4-2, which is only good for casting two Lightning spells and running away.

This is the biggest challenge when building a Knight's Castle...
Does anyone play on random maps? There aren't always nearby mines with the resources you need (ore and wood). And that's a real problem for building Paladins and cavalry. Well, forget about cavalry – they're just cannon fodder, even if they're fast, but Paladins are beasts, with their ability... To get any benefit from the army, you need to build them as soon as possible (ideally, by week 2). Otherwise, you can't build a guild properly because at the beginning, there's a fierce struggle for every piece of wood and stone (and crystals, too), and then, when a Wizard and a Warlock arrive, it's often too late. Although, for a Knight, all this magic is useless without special artifacts – combat stats are what really matter.

Sorry, what do you mean by "random maps"? It's possible that I'm just a newbie, but it seems like new maps in the second game are created in the editor. However, my version of "The Price of Loyalty" doesn't have the feature where the computer generates maps itself. As for the shortage of resources, this is a problem with any castle. It's even more of a problem with the Necropolis, as there are sometimes not enough stones for mummies, and it's a real problem with the Necromancers. Perhaps the Beaver castle is the easiest to build. That's why, in the first week, you need to try to capture the nearest enemy castle, which provides money, resources, and choices. However, on large maps (Heroes, Tundra, Enroth, Warrior Knight), it seems impossible to do this, although I wouldn't be surprised if someone could complete the Tundra campaign in 10 days.

Perhaps the Beaver Castle is the easiest to build.

Very debatable!
I believe the Warlock Castle is the easiest to build, because the Centaur Gargoyles and Griffins are enough in the first two weeks to break through all ranged blocks, even such as the Lotus Grand Elves, while the Barbarian can simply lose against such an army, even with Trolls!
And against flying units, Hydras are simply ideal; against slow-moving ground units, you can use Hydras + Centaurs, protected by a few Gargoyles.
If you can't build Hydras in the first week, then go for the "economy" (underground +500 gold) and possibly the 2nd level of magic.
But in the second week, you need to start building Dragons.
At least Dragons are not much more difficult to build than Cyclops, Paladins, or Phoenixes - but the effect they have is simply overpowered.
Of course, the tactics and construction will differ depending on the richness of the map and the opponent, but the general principle remains - 1-3 monsters at the start fight preferably against magic, until the Dragons appear - and then you can open 2, 3, or even 4 fronts...
P.S. So, the "weak" Knight has a chance only at the Slugfest, and even then, not against the Sorceress.

2 Alex_R
I still don't quite agree, especially since Paladins can be established on some maps as early as the first week, while Dragons are very rare, so building them is noticeably more difficult (in one of my articles, I calculated the cost of building a level 6 unit – it requires both sulfur and stone, among other things)...
By the way, in "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," Knights were very effective in online play in 2008.
2 Ty3o-ny3o
The random map generator in the second game is not consistently good (to put it mildly), so it is used relatively rarely, mostly for the initial "draft" with subsequent "manual" editing of the map.
2 Ergon
Ultimately, the Knight has the biggest problems with wood. In particular, this is due to the inability to upgrade Archers to Swordsmen, as well as with the higher-level units. For Necromancers, it was possible to consistently establish Vampires with a statue and a well on the first level (in several games, even Dragons!!!, of course, without Vampires), and on the second level (although not as regularly), Dragons.

By the way, in "Good and Evil," the Knight had very convincing online builds in 2008.

For the Knight against the Warlock, the only chance is to rush with 6 Paladins and all available troops on the second week, and even then, the Warlock can outsmart the Knight's army quite effectively.
From week 131 onwards, whether it's 6 or 10 Paladins, they won't be able to do anything against 4 Dragons.
On the "Good vs. Evil" map, I can't say for sure what the optimal build is for the Knight on the first week, but the Warlock definitely needs to build a Dragon Tower on the second week... overall, I think the Warlock is clearly overpowered on this map.

Knight build on the first difficulty level in "Good and Evil" on a boat:
70% Paladins without Knights;
20% Paladins with Knights;
10% Knights without Paladins.

Knight build on "Good and Evil" on impossible difficulty:
50% Paladins without Knights;
40% Knights without Paladins;
10% Paladins with Knights.

It's all approximate and IMHO.

I meant problems with resources in general, not specifically with wood, as I wrote. And such problems can occur with any castle. It's good to fight griffins against neutrals, but if you go up against a beaver, it will take you down with its ogres and wolves. So, if you don't manage to get minotaurs or hydras (which are slow) in the first week, you'll have to wait for dragons and stay at home (on maps where the enemy is far away, it takes about 6-7 days to reach them). I always used ogres against beavers, but not always swordsmen. And there was a game where I was short just 1 stone for a vampire (if I'm not mistaken, you need to build mummies for vampires).
One subtlety is that griffins and gargoyles can easily defeat grendels, but the beaver has a good chance of not using trolls to attack them, but instead adding them to its own army. And to join a decent army, you need at least a 4th army, unless you have 200 skeletons, of course.
Of course, joining armies in the second game is much worse than in the first. I remember that on hard difficulty in a small scenario on Hemet Isle, I managed to recruit pikemen on the first day. Yes, it was a long time ago.
So, recruiting for free or getting something decent through expert diplomacy is also an option.

The random map generator in the second Heroes game isn't consistently good enough (to put it mildly), so it's not used very often. More often, it's used for an initial "draft" with subsequent "manual" editing of the map.

To manually create it and then play on it? But then you'll also know where all the enemy castles are! And it won't be interesting... Or am I misunderstanding?:

2 Ergon Barbarian is a tough opponent for any troops, and especially for the Knight. But there is nothing supernatural about his troops (for example, wolves have 2 defense, and un-upgraded ogres have 2 speed). The Knight has his own competitive advantages - the simplest way to reach level 6 or 5, and the defense of UN-UPGRADED units starting from level 3 is 9 (this is a significant indicator). The Knight needs a boost; without it, he will fall behind in the first week. You can play for annexation with any castle, so the Knight is no worse than others in this case. 2 Ty3o-ny3o I understand your idea: the feeling of being a pioneer disappears... In this case, take a look at the maps that are on our website. By the way, you can ask the highly respected Lux in Tenebris to create a map for the second game; he is an experienced mapmaker...

I was just playing as Necropolis with Mountain King on a King map, and I didn't do very well, finishing in 18 days. I couldn't create the same kind of chains as you did in the tournament; I only managed to get to two castles by day eight, but I had a good army (I tried to rush to the Wizard with 17 Boars and 14 Skeletons, but they stopped me; I only managed to defeat the Sorcerer thanks to about 50 Orcs and half a hundred Goblins). It felt like only a week had passed, but it was already getting tough. I continued on, with 50 Boars, 7 Wraiths, 50 Goblins, and 25 Halflings. And then, on day 11, I was attacked. It was the Barbarian, who somehow already had 10 Trolls, 12 Ogres, 80 Goblins, 15 Wolves, and 50 Sprites. A very unbalanced army. I had to pay them off. And then, Cyclops started showing up. In general, the computer-controlled Barbarian is usually the worst, even worse than a Warlock with a large army and high spell power. And those weak Wolves aren't that easy to kill. And considering that Beavers often have Leadership and Luck, if you don't have a powerful hero with even better stats, you're in trouble. I remember once, 10 Chieftains with Luck dealt 200 damage to my Titan. By the way, in my own castle, I couldn't build Vampires in the first week because the path to the Lumber Mill was guarded by almost fifty Centaurs, and they wouldn't let me pass, and I didn't want to waste ten Orcs on them. If I were playing as a Knight, I obviously wouldn't have even built Swordsmen. And if it weren't for the neutral creatures helping me, I would have failed the scenario 95% of the time. In Good vs. Evil, I put Paladins on the first week on Impossible difficulty, and headed towards the Warlock. The Warlock had a decent army, including Hydras, and he didn't let me pass with spells. I don't remember what I did then. But it's not that easy to get Dragon Riders as a Warlock on the second week; you need 30 Sulfur.

Let's try to keep the discussion about the Knight in this thread, as there are many other topics in the section (for example, a general one), where you can discuss other questions.
In "Good and Evil," Alex_R clearly described the strategy: in the second week, with 6 Paladins and the rest of the army, capture the Warlock Castle and then move on to the Dragon Castle. By the way, with good luck, you can upgrade Pikemen and/or Swordsmen for free from the outside. Plus, pick up some Medusas along the way. Of course, by the time of the assault, the hero will already have some skills, in particular, Ballistics and Leadership (otherwise, it will be difficult).
Now about the fifty Centaurs near the lumber mill. You need to eliminate a large number of Centaurs (20-49) near the lumber mill. And I clearly see from your posts that you can do this, you're just hesitant to sacrifice your army. The combat tactics are also well known to you, so I'll just remind them for less experienced players (although everything is described in my analytical materials).
What is the strength of the Centaur?
In their ranged attack and 5 health.
And what is their weakness? In their low attack and defense, low damage, and penalty in melee combat. Also, in their two-tile size, which means that a single-tile unit with a speed of 4 (for example, Goblins, unupgraded Pikemen, Skeletons) can reach the Centaurs across an empty field in two turns.
The simplest way to break through: buy a Warlock hero with Gargoyles and break through without losses.
A little more difficult: buy a Fairy hero and break through, losing some Fairies.
In the case of playing as the Necropolis Castle (not the Knight Castle), everything is much simpler. There is also the option of buying a Wizard (with Pigs, of course). The Pigs are equipped for the fast-moving units, and the Necromancer takes Halflings for the attack, while the Skeletons, with acceleration (preferably with 1 Pig), deal with the Centaurs. In this case, the Halflings are lost, the Pig may survive, but it's unlikely (under normal circumstances, it can withstand 2 attacks from blocked Centaurs and dies only from the third), and a few Skeletons are lost, which are immediately replenished. Of course, the lumber mill is worth these losses. How to divide the units is a difficult question; intuitively, I would suggest dividing 21 Halflings into 10-10-1, hoping that the Centaurs will destroy less than 15 Halflings per turn (then they can withstand 7 shots), but you can also miscalculate. Melee combat begins on the second turn.

I would suggest 19+1+1 halflings, 1 wild boar, and a stack of skeletons (if there are more than 20 skeletons, you can use two equal stacks instead of one single halfling).

In the first round, use speed on the 19 halflings and move the wild boar forward.
The halfling eliminates about 8 centaurs, meaning one full stack of skeletons moves forward, and the 19 halflings die, let's say, from 4 shots – although this is not certain.
In the second round, use speed on the skeletons if they weren't positioned opposite the enemy – although you can also position them opposite.
The wild boar covers 2 stacks of centaurs, and the skeletons eliminate 1 stack. One centaur remains free and shoots at the single halfling... after that, you can either save the halfling or the wild boar.
If there are about 50 centaurs, only the skeletons survive, plus maybe a single unit. If there are 25-35 centaurs, then several halflings will also survive, along with everything else.
P.S. The same applies to a Knight with his native troops when breaking through archers with greater speed than his own archers – in the first round, it's better to use speed on the archers, and in the second, on pikemen or other units with medium speed

I would suggest 19 + 1 + 1 halflings, 1 boar, and a stack of skeletons (if there are more than 20 skeletons, you can use two equal stacks instead of one single halfling).
In the first round, we use haste on the 19 halflings and send the boar forward.
One halfling can take out about 8 centaurs – so, we send a full stack of skeletons forward, and 19 halflings die, let's say, from 4 shots – although that's not certain.
In the second round, we use haste on the skeletons if they are not facing the enemy – although we can also position them to face the enemy. The boar covers 2 stacks of centaurs, and the skeletons eliminate 1 stack, leaving 1 centaur free to shoot at the single halfling... after that, we can either save the halfling or the boar.
If there are about 50 centaurs, only the skeletons and maybe a single unit will survive; if there are 25-35 centaurs, then several halflings will also survive, along with everything else.
P.S. The same applies to a Knight with native troops when breaking through archers with higher speed than your own archers – in the first round, it's better to speed up the archers, and in the second, pikemen or other medium-speed units.

Excellent battle analysis from Alex_R; the formation and spellcasting are very convincing!
P.S. Regarding the knight with native troops. It would be better to add a unit with flying creatures to the knight's army instead of a necromancer; otherwise, the losses will be greater. However, if only a necromancer is available in the tavern and the game is online, the tactic of speeding up the archers in the first turn is interesting (we shoot, presumably, at the fourth or fifth stack, so that in the second turn, we can block 2-3 stacks with pikemen).

Are you referring to a chain of heroes for the Knight on Good and Evil? It takes a long time to do, and it might end badly, as beavers are running around nearby. I wouldn't risk it; just have the main hero and a hero-squire to improve turns and maybe for the joined units. Although, of course, I've changed my tactics a bit to be more aggressive lately. As for the sawmill, capturing it still seems less worthwhile compared to getting 2 stacks of boars and 3 stacks of orcs for free.