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

Yes, along the route from the castle to the foundry, a line of heroes is formed. When enough gold accumulates, swordsmen (pikemen) are purchased, passed from one hero to another, and so on, until they are upgraded. From there, they are also passed along in a chain to the main hero (squire), who no later than day 131 (preferably 127) captures the top (starting) castle of the Warlock. Depending on the availability of sulfur (presumably 20 will be enough), stones, and gold: if there is enough to build a Green Tower, then it is necessary to capture it on day 127 and build it; if there is definitely not enough (by the way, there is an external market along the way), then it can be done on day 131 (see the yet-to-be-written article "Heroic Numerology" for more details).

There's one problem here: you can build Paladins, but you need to buy an army somewhere around level 122, or better yet, 121. You might not have enough money; there's only one gold mine on each side, and the chests are scattered far apart, and we'll be spending money on heroes. There's a market, but it's about 4 days' travel from the Knight's Castle, and by then, all the resources will probably be hoarded for the Warlock's Castle.
Is the Dimension Door option not feasible? If it works, all the mines will yield around 10 resources each. Instead of Paladins, we send one hero to the market and build Cavaliers. No, that won't work either; we won't have enough sulfur for Dragons then.

2 Ergon
And on levels 121-122, you can't buy the ENTIRE army. You can transfer part of it later! There will be enough to break through what's ahead, and the chain will pass it on! And regarding this specific map, it often happened like this: a Knight with Paladins, Archers, possibly Swordsmen, and Spearmen (it's best if they're upgraded for free outside) reaches the Medusas, and buys them there! By the way, they often don't take the castle that's two turns away from the top (starting) castle for the Knight. But sometimes they do take it to buy a book there...

I won't even check the possibility of a chain right now, although of course, I believe it's possible. It's still hard for me to get used to it. I can imagine a chain in one specific area and start to master it, but mastering several chains at once is beyond my capabilities for now.

The hero gives the army (swordsmen or pikemen for upgrading in the outer building) to the next hero and becomes free. What should he do on the next turn? He can move closer to the "squire" so that he can later pass on the upgraded troops to him.
By the way (this is not about this map), an already built chain can work in both directions. Pass the upgraded troops to the main hero, take the un-upgraded ones from him - and everything goes back through the same chain - to upgrade...

It just seems that the main hero doesn't differ much from a chain hero. All chests are used to hire workers. Essentially, the main hero is the one who manages to visit, say, a gazebo, or improve a characteristic. Or, do the heroes still look different based on the skill tree (is it available when using cheats)?
So, we choose who gets Logistics at level 2, or who gets a faster path to Wisdom.
And how does it work in practice, for example, against Evil? Let's say we've captured a Warlock's castle and are targeting a Beaver. Is a chain already being built towards it, and then dragons are passed along that chain? Or is it not possible to do that here, because the clever Beaver will shorten the chain by half with its two heroes.

Ideally, you should follow the chain. By utilizing the already captured territory of the Barbarian (in the area with the upgrade that boosts either attack or defense – the Medusa hiring hall), you can track his movements. Then, transfer the army to the main hero, and use other elements of the chain as well. And somehow, you need to organize an expedition from the starting castle to the Necromancer (you'll need a lot of gold for this). There, you can try a trick: almost kill the Barbarian, but buy him off with one dragon, then finish him off with the remaining army. Then, buy the hero and the dragon in the city near the isthmus to the Necromancer, and use the dragon to defeat him.
I'll say this right away: it won't be that easy with tournament rules, because if you buy him off, you can't use that hero on the same day.
You can also play it differently, going in the other direction. Buy the remaining swordsmen and pikemen, upgrade them for free outside, take three archers and swordsmen/pikemen, and attack Dracogard. However, I'm not sure if you'll have enough troops to take it. You could take more than three archers... But even buying just one red dragon in Dracogard should be enough to defeat the entire Necromancer's army (by the third week).

Not sure. I remember when I was playing as a Sorceress and wanted to get it around week 2, it was quite powerful. I'm not sure, but it's quite possible that it even attacked a hero with 4 or 3 Phoenixes.
And I usually completed this scenario with one hero for any Castle, the others only helped slightly, which is why the result was 38 days. Of course, you need to try to complete it within 3 weeks.
To take Dragon Graveyard on day 3-3, or perhaps 2-4, you probably need about 16 upgraded Swordsmen and about 20 Archers, and even then, there are doubts.
For the Black Dragon, you need at least 3 hits from the Swordsmen, and considering that as soon as the Archers run out, the Swordsmen will start to be depleted.
The most annoying and common thing is that you draw up a plan - this one goes here, captures that, this one goes there, captures this... I can build such logical chains more easily than chains of heroes. And then one link in the chain breaks, and everything falls apart - it's like a Repin painting. We capture the Warlock's Castle on day 7, and suddenly there are no Minotaurs. And we have a meager group of Knight's troops, a weekly increase of 8 Minotaurs, but no Dragons from the Warlock. And here, instead of a blitzkrieg in 20 days, it takes almost 40, and we have to wait a week in the Warlock's Castle. Because even with Medusas, it won't be enough for an army of, say, 10 Trolls, 12 Bog Lords, 100 Goblins, and 15 Wolves. And there's still an army and a lot of Orc Chiefs in the Castle, and the wall shoots accurately.

Of course, anything can happen. However, I have never seen a computer-controlled Castle with a level lower than 1-5 and a well on level 127 (and in some cases, even a green tower). Of course, it is also possible that the computer does not build Minotaurs or Hydras. In this case, all that remains is to tell yourself: "Well, I did everything I could, I captured the enemy Castle in time, but I was a little unlucky. But I gained additional experience, enjoyed the process of the game, and I will bring it to the end, despite the new obstacles. And next time, things will be different, and the computer won't let me down!".
It is quite possible to defeat the specified Barbarian army, but the question of how to take his Castle afterwards is not easy. In principle, with a strong knight, the defense of Gargoyles quickly exceeds 10, and Orcs in melee combat cannot offer any resistance, but there will probably be Goblins and even Ogres in the Castle:(((, so you have to rely on ballistics. Griffons will probably die in the battle with the main Barbarian forces, because someone will have to fill the ranks of archers. Medusas will survive, yes, but it is not very convenient to storm the Castle with them (I will probably describe this technique separately in a small section "On the question of storming a computer Castle with non-flying troops" as part of the work, either on tournament game techniques or simply on game techniques in the second Heroes game). Well, it's clear that you can't do without ballistics, but that's what makes the knight strong.

That would be great. I mean, the tactic with the medusas. Maybe that's what I was missing when I tried to take the Wizard's castle in Seven Lakes with the same Knight. Although, I recently had to deal with this issue in Mountain King, and in general, it's quite manageable to solve it with zero ballistics.
The computer usually builds Hydras in the first week, but Minotaurs may not always be built even in the second week. But then the guild is usually built. There might also be a green tower with one unredeemed dragon. Fighting a beaver hero who has redeemed the main armies in 2 weeks, even with dragons, is not easy. You need your own Warlock hero, who has visited at least a couple of gazebos. When the enemy army's hit points are reduced to at least 400, then you can start fighting.
In general, based on my modest results in the scenarios, I can say that on average, all castles are approximately the same.

However, by that time, the guild is usually well-established. There might even be a green Tower with a single unredeemed dragon. Fighting a beaver hero who has bought out the main armies in 2 weeks, even with dragons, is not easy. You need your own warlock hero who has visited at least a couple of gazebos. When the enemy army is reduced to at least 400 hit points, you can start fighting.

Yes, it's not easy. You can use standard methods to minimize losses: single archers to distract the enemy's strike force, single gargoyles to take out retaliatory attacks before the dragon strikes. The problem is obvious: if the computer has superior ranged power, it won't advance but will protect its archers. If it advanced, you could effectively use the speed difference between different units.
What can you realistically do with a dragon and some other troops against a barbarian if a knight hero attacks?
1. Take out the retaliatory attack and then continue attacking with dragons. This is where the advantage of building with archers that counter units with prolonged attacks (colored dragons, phoenixes, cyclops) comes into play.
2. Ideally, this attack should be timed so that in the second round after the attack on the dragon, it also takes out two units with its retaliatory attack.
3. Even weak magic from the knight can help protect the dragon. Slow, curse (if you're lucky, blind).
The main problems are the compact formation of archers, which leads to massive attacks on the flying unit, and the regeneration of trolls, as well as the large number of hit points of upgraded ogres. It might help if the barbarian, after his initial advance, goes to the left towards the village, takes it, and leaves part of his army there. If he goes to the right, towards us, there is also an option: he will take the intermediate Castle (on the way), leave part of his army there, and we will take him out piece by piece.
But what to do if he goes straight, I don't know. Theoretically, you should immediately rush to the top and take his Castle, and eliminate his hero with forces from the starting knight Castle. In practice, it's different: the forces from the starting knight Castle go to the necromancer, and there won't be enough gold for two fronts. Apparently, a chain is needed again to slip to the top and take the Castle, and then pass this dragon back to the exit from the isthmus, where another hero will be waiting (for example, the one who took the Castle on level 127 from the warlock). However, if the barbarian captures a couple of villages by this time, builds a Castle there, and breeds heroes, the game will drag on. Besides, you still have to chase him. A wizard could help here, but you can't really count on him.
However, more often than not, the barbarian goes to the left towards the village.

I really wanted to play this scenario, but it would take a long time, and I only have a couple of free hours. So, something smaller would be better. Even without long chains of actions, you need to properly manage resources in the first week, otherwise, goodbye paladins. And after that, everything should be carefully planned. The Wizard just hangs around there. And even when you play as a Wizard, the Knight doesn't help much. He's more interested in the surrounding villages and resources.
It would be great if there were guides for online play or playing against the computer within some gentlemanly rules for 15-20 of the most popular scenarios (like Pyramid, Slugfest, Teleports, Hero's Stand, etc.). In a separate thread, let's say. One message per scenario. If it's possible to play with different factions, then include specific strategies for each faction. Some of the materials are already here.
In terms of map size, the strategy is somehow incomplete. It's clear that the strategy for the Knight on Shipwrecked, Pyramid, Mountain King, and, say, Forsaken Lands is different.

Slugfest for Necromancer: capture the gold mine, sulfur mine, crystals, and resource piles to the left of the castle. Naturally, capture the lookout tower. If possible, make a dash for the area with resources and mines at the top. At a convenient moment in the first week, capture the Barbarian castle.
Slugfest for Knight: capture the gold mine and prevent the Necromancer from capturing the sulfur mine and resource piles at the bottom right.
Slugfest for Warlock: early capture of the Wizard castle and, if possible, place giants there on day 117.
Slugfest for Sorceress: overwhelm the opponent without exposing yourself to counterattacks.
Slugfest for everyone: capture the lookout tower no later than the third day (preferably on the second).
There is an excellent analysis of teleportation on our website, written by Gunnar.

There’s an excellent analysis about teleports on our website; Gunnar wrote it.

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I learned about this topic myself.

P.S. You really started quite a debate here…

I'll take a look at the teleporters later, but Slagfest seems a bit unclear. Is a sulfur mine with a few resources really that necessary for a Knight? And capturing a Sorceress, and if possible, another Castle on day 8, would be great.
As for the Giants, I don't understand where to get the gems; you can't just play with a single unit. You need to somehow pit the computer-controlled units against each other.