Posts from Counter-heroes in duel mode (3.1).

Well, everyone praises their own swamp. I came up with a random map, and now everyone says that duels are pointless. Brain used to say the same thing about the standard – that playing only in the TE standard is boring. Learn to play, and then criticize. And by the way, I played your map and participated in a tournament; there's also a lot of imbalance there (no enchanted and miniature artifacts, etc. – imbalance of troops – when two strong players play, the one who gets lucky with artifacts and army will clearly win. Don't compare these two completely different modes!

There are enchanted and miniature artifacts, randomness is greatly limited, and the balance is well-tuned. You should at least play it first. Don't confuse "Random Tactical Arena" and "Random Map."

I'm interested in the Karl-Shak pairing (in reality, this pairing is quite boring for many). Who is stronger, and is it worth playing Shak defensively?

Ultimately, the advantage is more on Karl's side. But a definitive answer cannot be given. Here, Shak needs to eliminate the ballista with Ogres as quickly as possible, which will be difficult, as the ranged attack of Cyclops deals damage in the range of 100, and there will probably not be many Shamans at the moment when they can use Chain Lightning. Erls should be attacked with Shak's direct attacks; the bears are quickly eliminated by Wyverns, but Spearman will be the ones to deal with the Stone of Prophecy, and it will be difficult to reach them. I don't remember ever playing this pairing; I think I'll test it with someone on the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Complete in the near future.

I'll post a couple of replays, including one where Shak defeats Helmar, a rather interesting pairing, as it is believed that Helmar has more advantages here. However, there is nothing complicated about it; at the very beginning, we use Battle Cry so that the Cyclops reach the enemy on the first turn, and then Shak deals direct attacks to the Lava Golems. In the end, at the end of the battle, there will be a bunch of Goblins left, which are not very easy to burn with Chaos without magic, and Divine Retribution will not help much either. In general, at the end, the advantage will be with Shak with his frequent direct attacks.


Razaz vs. Sinistar: here, the opponent made several fatal mistakes that distanced him from victory. First, he left the teleporting Golems near the Red Dragons, when it would have been better to attack the latter. As a result, the Golems were easily destroyed physically. Secondly, one of the stacks of Gremlins had a miniature of magical defense; here, it would have been better to combine the two stacks.

Ibba vs. Garnua: again, the opponent was messing up from the very beginning, using something unclear instead of Runes of Invisibility. In addition, the opponent positioned three of his stacks at a dangerous distance from the free Cyclops, who eliminated almost everyone with luck. I finished off the remaining Dragons with a retaliatory attack from the Shamans with support and direct attacks from Garnua.

Ravenna vs. Orson: here, everything is as it should be, but I almost fell for the enemy's trick when he left mana for 3-4 resurrections and began to position the remaining troops so that they could be easily destroyed by Meteor Shower and thus burn all the mana.

And I'll also allow myself a little off-topic)) I play both regular duels and RTA (Random Team Arena), and they are equally interesting to me. However, at the moment, I don't have as much time for online games, so if I do play, it's in duels. But I get just as much pleasure from playing RTA. I don't see any limitations in duels at all; there are quite a few controversial matchups, considering that there are 24 duel heroes, and therefore 276 different matchups. It is quite difficult to learn the tactics for each side for all battles, which is what makes duels interesting. And the skill of the players is of great importance here; sometimes it happens that even counter-heroes lose. In short, tastes differ, and I don't understand the negativity towards duels, especially since this topic was not created for that.

Yes, the Shakh-Helmar battle is instructive. Here are replays: 1st battle – how to play against a Mage; 2nd battle – how to play as a Mage; and the 3rd battle is just an example of what the price of luck is in Heroes:smile09:

What’s the point of all these words and comments? So, did he manage to outplay the opponent or not? And what’s your Ubi account? I’ll tell you who you are. This tactic with Shaka against Karl involves shamans charging mana, Shaka speeds them up, and together with the cyclops, they destroy both the ballista and the war wagon. Then, they simply sit in defense until Karl’s archers run out of ammo. While this is happening, Shaka cuts down dragons and Erls. In principle, Karl has a better chance, but this tactic can still put the opponent in a kind of stupor, and he will rush forward.

Esteemed experienced duel players!
In this thread, someone mentioned that Shaque is a stable counter-hero to Ogre, as his ability reduces Ogre's magic to 3, making it difficult to use Chaos magic effectively. I myself have used a tactic based on summoning magic, which is quite effective for Ogre: on the first turn, place a mark on the mages, then phantom them and the Rakshasas, position the mages so that they are not reached by the Wyverns, and use the Djinn to cast Luck on the mages and Rakshasas. Then, physically destroy the enemy hordes. The mages can target the Ballista, and also try to eliminate the Shamans, whose chain lightning is dangerous for the phantoms. If the opponent destroys the phantoms, repeat the process; if the phantoms are still alive at the time of Ogre's turn, you can cast traps under the sign, as they deal more damage than Chaos.
This worked against not very experienced players. Questions:
1) How would Shaque play in such a situation?
2) Is all of this still relevant in version 3.1 (I played in version 3.0)?

What's with all these words and comments? Did you actually play against the house spirit or not? And what's your Ubi account, and I'll tell you who you are.

I don't play on Ubi, I play through Hamachi, I don't care about their rankings.

Esteemed experienced duel players!
In this thread, someone mentioned that Shaka is a reliable counter-hero against Or, as his ability reduces Or's magic skill to 3, making Chaos magic less effective. I personally used a tactic based on summoning magic, which is quite effective for Or: on the first turn, place a mark on the mages, then summon phantoms and rakshasas, position the mages so that the wyverns can't reach them, and use the djinn to cast Luck on the mages and rakshasas. Then, physically destroy the enemy hordes. The mages can target the ballista, and also try to eliminate the shamans, whose chain lightning is dangerous for the phantoms. If the opponent destroys the phantoms, repeat the process; if the phantoms are still alive when it's Or's turn, you can place traps under the sign, which deal more damage than Chaos.
This worked against not very experienced players. Questions:
1) How would Shaka play in this situation?
2) Is this still relevant in version 3.1 (I played in 3.0)?

In principle, it's a good tactic, and it also works against several other heroes. In this situation, Shaka will probably attack only with wyverns, lightning, a tent, and his hero (who moves quite often to kill the phantoms). Of Or's magic, I would also highlight the wall of fire, which reduces defense, and cold, which slows down the enemy. But in any case, everything depends on the amount of Luck Or has and the morale of Shaka. In principle, Shaka can play purely defensively here and wait until the mages run out of ammunition and Or runs out of mana.
By the way, when playing defensively against Karl with Shaka, you can encounter a situation where the paoka are crippled (stunned), and they won't participate in the battle, which can lead to an easy defeat.

Thanks! I dealt with the Wyvern using Rakshasas and Djinns, first weakening it with Phantoms or something else that was expendable in that situation (Golems, Gargoyles). I also used Cold to increase physical damage. It's unthinkable to eliminate Shaka's entire army with just mages; they'd run out of spells. Their attacks were more about psychological warfare, and the enemy would attack. I tried to eliminate the Shamans as quickly as possible using mages.

Added 16 hours and 11 minutes later
This topic hasn't really discussed the matchups between Necromancers. But if the first two pairings are more or less clear, the third one is extremely interesting to me. First, the simpler ones: Lethos vs. Erin, I don't know where Erin can gain an advantage; Lethos's magic takes the most effective fighters out of the battle (Charm on the Fury, then Berserk on someone, and there's nothing to remove it). Sinithar vs. Erin: Only Armageddon can save Sinithar, because Erin's army simply doesn't allow Sinithar's troops to move and do anything. Accordingly, everything depends on Sinithar's luck and Erin's morale. Finally, for dessert: Lethos vs. Sinithar. I'm interested in the tactics of both, what spells to use, and whether to attack or defend. When playing as Lethos, I used Charm on the Red Dragons, Mass Slow, and then other mass spells or teleport, depending on the situation. When Sinithar ran out of mana, I cast Vampirism on the Witches. I tried different tactics when playing as Sinithar, but I usually lost. In the end, I started using this tactic: Meteor Shower, then Cold or Shock on the Dragons, and finally Armageddon. Nevertheless, the tactics for Lethos could be different, which would also affect the game as Sinithar. In any case, I think Lethos has the advantage. I'm waiting for comments.

Letos's tactic is exactly like that; playing as Sinistar involves first hitting the large stacks of units with spells until there's only enough mana left for Armageddon, and then finishing everything off with Armageddon, hoping for good luck.

There’s this female character named Erin. In version 3.0/3.1, she seems to have everything she needs – a strong army (in attack) and decent magic, but she still loses to almost everyone. So, the question is: who is she usually pitted against?
When playing as her, I usually use the speed-up spell on my first turn, and then, depending on the amount of mana, I use either a regular lightning spell or a chain lightning spell (I rarely use area-of-effect spells because the witches’ ability doesn’t work, although against Jaliba, it’s the only option).
I’ve encountered a couple of Erin-Knight matchups, and I was playing as Erin. In general, by the end, I had witches left, while the Knight had either archers and some heavy unit (Griffons and/or Inquisitors), or a siege engine and some heavy unit, and then the Knight casts Slow, which Erin can’t remove...

Razazak might be a match for her, as well as Dirael. In 3.0, she could compete with Ravenna, but now Ravenna has become stronger. She performs well against the Hive faction. Also, you can try her against Garuna and Haghesh. By the way, I'll post a recent save file of Jalib against Vitya.

Please explain where I should put this file so I can view it.

C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\My Games\Heroes of Might and Magic V — Tribes of the East\Profiles\WisTrit

By the way, I noticed something a while ago related to the "education" skill of duel heroes. My Letos had a varying amount of mana – sometimes 60 (as in the manual), sometimes 75, and sometimes 90. Anwen had between 40 and 70, and Jalib also fluctuated, but it wasn't that significant – 160 or 170. I think it's obvious that the amount of mana, say, for Letos, seriously affects the battle tactics. So, the question is: is this a bug, or was it designed this way to make the game more interesting? If it's the latter, then it speaks well of Nival :)

I personally noticed this with Helmar (all skills, attack, and defense changed, and it was visible right before the duel).
But regarding Letos, 60 and 90 – that's a very significant difference.