Posts from Mages – their development.

I played as the mages – I liked it. Learn the summoning spell and go for it. They have a hero who increases the chance that an enemy spell will ricochet back onto their own unit. That's a great idea. Super. The city is beautiful, and the troops are good.

yeah, but that hero has no advantages. No sane person would use spells against Jalib that target only one unit. It's more effective to use area-of-effect spells.
The troops are mediocre (Djinn die quickly, mages are weak). Rakshasas and Titans are good, but the creatures of levels 4 and 5 are lacking.

Hi! Could you please tell me if the hero named "Nazir" is any good? What are his pros and cons? Sorry for the silly question.

Pros of Nazir: He starts with Chaos magic and a powerful attack spell, which becomes even stronger as he levels up. If you're lucky, you can get the Mage skill on the second level and Secrets of Chaos on the fourth (another powerful spell, ideally Fire Wall). He clears the map quickly, and his troops include alt-upgrades for gargoyles and golems; one increases damage from Chaos magic, while the other heals with Chaos magic. Consequently, Nazir develops relatively quickly.
Cons: His skill progression is predictable for opponents (one magic is already known), and the longer the game lasts, the less useful his specialization becomes (by the third week, a mage should be using spells other than Fireball, such as summoning a phoenix, controlling creatures, or resurrecting).
Overall, Nazir is a decent average hero, but in my opinion, he is inferior to Hafiz and Nura as a starting hero, and to Ore and Razzak in a long game.

What are the advantages of using Ora in a long game?
I think it was already mentioned that for every 10 turns a hero with magic skills takes, Ora responds with 11 of her own (not a lot, but maybe I'm a little off?).

You can find Nazir's build options in this thread: /topic/at/230579/
In a long game, Ora will have Expert Wizardry + specialization, so she will cast spells more often than a hero with Wizardry, and compared to a hero without Wizardry, the advantage will be almost 1.5 times greater (somewhere it was calculated that if Ora only casts spells, then at level 25 with Expert Wizardry, her initiative will be around 15). In addition, Ora doesn't have any unnecessary skills or abilities; you can develop her as you like (for example, mana regeneration for Nura becomes very quickly irrelevant, even faster than machines for Hafiz...). But from my point of view, Razak might be better than Ora due to his exotic defense for a mage.

I try to build according to the circumstances. Ideally: If a town starts without a tavern, then we definitely build it, merge the armies of secondary heroes into the main hero's army, and move forward. It's great if the tavern is built and has 2 native heroes in it – you can transfer troops, or you can make one of them a "mother" and level up both at the same time. It's difficult, but often justified. We don't build a Fort, Stronghold, or Castle until 2-3 weeks have passed – it's too expensive in terms of money and resources. Sometimes, a Fort is built from the start, then you can also build a Stronghold, which will give a +50% growth bonus, but again – it probably doesn't make sense to do it earlier than 2 weeks. It's very good if you can get Colossi by the end of the 2nd week. Then the growth will start accumulating, and you, in turn, will accumulate gems for their further upgrade. If there are no problems with money and resources, then we look further at who to build – either Rakshasa or Djinn, or it's better to invest money in an upgrade and buying, or maybe use it for the Guild. Usually, there are problems – I rarely build Rakshasa or Djinn; if I quickly built Titans, there won't be enough money for everyone at once, so we form strike stacks of Gremlins, Gargoyles, and Golems and seize resources and money as quickly as possible.

I have a similar problem. Usually, by the end of the 3rd week, my main forces consist of golems, mages, gremlins, and taburetkas. I can't seem to make things happen faster. I'm stuck with one type of development, and that's it. I don't know how to do it better.
By the way, Rift, I wanted to ask, do you build Colossi and ignore Djinns and Rakshasa? Meaning, later on, your army consists of 4 tiers of creatures plus Titans?
And also, how do you build your Guild? (Do you try to build it first, or later, after building the unit building?)
Thanks in advance.

In my opinion, Rakshasas will be better in combat than Titans. Usually, they are my main source of damage against the enemy (especially the new ones). And also, maybe it's just a quirk, but I still build Djinns earlier, because after that, I build a structure that generates income. As a result, I don't have any problems with money later on.

I do the same, I always upgrade everything in a chain, and waiting and saving up for level 7 at the expense of equipping the entire army, IMHO, is not worth it! Their time will come when the income is sufficient.

A Fortress, Stronghold, and Castle should not be built before 2-3 weeks – it’s too expensive in terms of money and resources. Sometimes, a Fortress is built from the start, in which case you can also build a Stronghold, which provides a +50% growth bonus, but again – it probably doesn’t make sense to do so before 2 weeks.
It’s very good if you can place Colossi by the end of the 2nd week. Then the growth will start accumulating, and you, in turn, will accumulate gems for their further upgrade.

So, is it expensive to build a Fortress, Stronghold, and Castle, but not expensive to have Colossi by the second week?

I don’t want to argue; maybe it really is more profitable this way, but isn’t 3-4 extra Titans better than 2-3 growth doublings?
(because after building the Colossi, not much money will be left, and the construction of the Stronghold and Castle will be postponed even further?)

Read the topic. =) Based on what I read, I concluded that a mage needs to level up spellcasting, summoning magic, education, and magic of light/darkness/chaos, according to their preference? Another question about the new battle mages - they also deal damage to their own creatures. What's the point of them then? After all, archmages reduce mana costs by 1/4 just by being present? Also, I would like to know which creatures you upgrade to. I really enjoy playing as the Academy, but even my large army is easily defeated by the opponent on MEDIUM difficulty, especially at the beginning. I fight every day, and sometimes I don't even take a turn just for the sake of it; I try to plan several moves ahead. And still, they kill me. In addition, I tried setting up battles in duel mode: mage vs. random, and the result is always the same - defeated mages, regardless of whether I play or set up an autobattle, just to see. Conclusion - mages have some quirks that I don't know about. Please share them? =)

1. It's also good to level up mages if you get the chance, focusing on defense, logistics (Golem March), and leadership (Machine Devotion). 2. Battle Mages don't deal damage to their adjacent units, which means you can safely protect them and manually control their attacks (which is more effective than casting spells, especially with a large army). 3. Mages are indeed a strong faction. Miniatures can work wonders. For example, a miniature that boosts initiative allows mages to eliminate the enemy's archers before the first turn, fly forward with Djinns and attack someone, and then have Rakshasas (new units) run up and attack multiple targets, focusing on those that were just hit by the Djinns.

Thank you for the advice! It would be interesting to know how those who are good at playing as the Academy improve their army. Which units should be upgraded and in what situations? Also, I'd like to know more about the Magic Mirror – does a maxed-out Jhalib prevent the opponent from casting spells without consequences? Is it worth taking?

The key is that area-of-effect spells (fireball, meteor shower) don't work on the magic mirror. That is, against Jalib, you should cast area-of-effect spells, completely neutralizing the advantages of his specialization.

Gremlyns - first, for faster leveling, use master gremlyns (they resurrect golems). Then - gremlyns-troublemakers (attack 5, that's great!)
Gargoyles - it doesn't matter, they always play the role of tough meat for me.
Golems - both upgrades are good; the new ones allow you to use the following tactic:
Leave only golems, cast a wall of fire, and run them back and forth through the fire, showering them with fireballs.
Mages - when their number exceeds 50, I think it's worth taking new combat mages.
Djinns - it doesn't matter, as they don't live long.
Rakshasas - the new ones, as with their attack on multiple targets, mini-arts for luck, attack, and speed, they can decide the outcome of the battle in one hit.
Titans - both are almost the same; I prefer the new ones because of the summoning of a storm.