Posts from Humans vs. Undead

Decided to play Heroes with a friend after a year (currently using version 1.6). The problem is that my friend decided to play as the (in my opinion) eternally overpowered faction, Necropolis (Undead). I spent a long time thinking about which faction could counter the Undead and chose Haven (Humans). But I lost hope when I started losing my units to NPCs. He, on the other hand, wasn't losing anyone (resurrecting and killing opponents with vampires). Now I'm racking my brains on how to win at all, because soon we'll be fighting each other, not NPCs)). Can you suggest a tactic while there's still time?

What version is this? The one where the Necropolis has a lot of skeleton archers? Well, after training peasants into archers, the humans won't be worse off (the hero is Dugald). If it's the version with dark energy, then there can't be any talk of the Necropolis cheating. Turn monks into cavalry if you're playing for a long time. That is, one of the most important priorities is money. Selling artifacts helps a lot, and the heroine Elaine is also helpful.

This is the version where he has dark magic... I'm confused because, even with a good army, he can raise Archliches in the first week, even though he has fewer Liches in his army.

How long have you been playing?
If it's been more than a month and a half, they have practically very little chance.
Try to build the Capitol in time and capture the gold mines.
Visit the tavern more often, and as soon as Elaine appears, buy her immediately and assign all the peasants to her. It's also a good idea to develop a secondary hero a little (get Skilled Counterattack and Experienced Commander skills).

I would choose Axel as the main hero. At some point, you need to start mass-producing monks into cavalry, and if you have enough money, turn knights into monks, and then turn these new monks back into cavalry.
I also couldn't believe it at first, but even though there are a lot of necromancers, their troops are extremely weak, and introducing dark energy is too much of a weakening (how many liches can he raise in a week? 7-8, no more).

It's true, however, that on a small map, the necromancers have a good chance of winning. In this case, it's better, in my opinion, to choose Dugal and prepare archers from peasants as quickly as possible.

It’s not about the troops. As a Human player, you absolutely need to get Antimagic or, at the very least, Purification; otherwise, he’ll defeat your troops with your own Paladins.

It's not about the troops. As a Human, you definitely need to get Antimagic or, at worst, Purification; otherwise, he'll defeat your troops with your own Paladins.

Berserk doesn't work on Paladins, and finding Subjugate is difficult.
However, Light is definitely a good skill to develop for Humans against Necropolis; you can even learn Storm Wind against Ghosts, Vampires, and Dragons.
You can separate the first Paladin to heal your own troops or remove retaliation; if you have many Paladins, it might be worth dividing them into two stacks, although you need to assess the situation.
In principle, there are two main approaches: a cheaper one is Dugald with good magic resistance and a defensive playstyle, or Axel with a focus on attack and, in general, also with magic resistance.

It's tough to find a suitable subordinate.
Firstly, the Dark Magic specialization is in the Dungeon guild; secondly, you can use Utopia; and thirdly, if they play on a random map, the Tomb of Shadows hasn't been cancelled yet. Plus, you can always take another castle and develop the guild there (Demon or Human - they also have Dark Magic specialization).

You yourself wrote the well-known solution to the problem – antimagic. And Necropolis has vampirism and unholy word in addition to mind control at level 5, so the probability of finding mind control in your castle is only 33%.

About Knights: you can remove Berserk or use Vampire subjugation.

Yes, especially against Zealots or Griffins....
When playing against Haven, it's better not to stall the game as some do when facing Skeletons; instead, run when they aren't training many Paladins and Armored Archers, and if you don't manage to escape, time will play against the Necromancer himself! And the trick could be this: Godric can learn both Darkness and Shadow Magic in the late game to get Darkness in order to obtain Twilight, but it's a debatable choice!

What worries me most is the divine retribution when fighting against the Necropolis. And on a large map in the late game, even if Haven has many paladins, they can still be defeated by skeletons and liches and/or blinded by vampires. The others aren't a problem because there will be far fewer of them (all units will be preparing).

we are talking about version 1.6, so blinding with vampires is out of the question. I just think that immunity to Berserk for Paladins appeared in version 3.0.
Slowing down also helps against the undead if you manage to cast both slow and haste (if it's a skilled spell and also Twilight), which will slow down the Necromancer.

Slowing down enemies is good, but most battles are decided in the early stages when Knights reach and destroy a couple of stacks. To counter this, I recommend the following:
1. Never fight on Haven territory.
2. Find at least 2 artifacts from the Death set (speed -1).
3. Be sure to learn tactics.
4. And, of course, have overwhelming numerical superiority.
With this setup, the Knights won't reach you, and you can take them out with skeletons and liches, as well as damage them with a Berserker with Blood Fury. Then there will be much fewer of them, and the damage will not be as great. The others will not pose much of a threat.

I'm not very good at judging people, but here's my opinion: You should take an additional hero, Elaine, and have her absorb the peasants. You don't need peasants on the main hero; instead, take archangels and seraphs because the Necromancer's liches will take down a lot of warriors. Use Archon to resurrect the seraph (if he's badly wounded). And on the seraph, use Divine Wrath on the liches; more than half of them will die. Also, if you take Light and Purification, Subjugation or Berserk won't matter. And if you use mass buffs, cast Skin, Swiftness, and Blessing, plus something else. Or: Level up Light, Defense, and Magic Power. Use the Divine Words spell again. Take an additional hero, Elaine, and have her absorb the peasants. Instead, take a stack of armored warriors and a stack of Zealots. Use the armored warriors to remove debuffs, and the Zealots to deal two hits at once or remove misses from spirits. You can also take two stacks of Paladins and use them to remove debuffs; one Paladin removes Subjugation from the Necromancer, and the other removes it.

Well, I don't think Necromancer is stupid either; he won't control those who will be eliminated on the next turn, and 2 stacks of Knights represent a significant weakening of Haven. The same applies to Archangels and Seraphs – you can first eliminate the Archangels and then the Seraphs, and there is magic resistance against the God-Blessed. Zealots with Armored Lancers look good, but only if there is a teleport. And in general, if you deal with cavalry here, no Zealots with Armored Lancers will help.