Posts from Round table Auto-translated

I'll reveal my secret (which castles I don't like playing against).
Currently, my castle scheme and rating are as follows:
1. Rampart (cheap and effective + Kirr is awesome) and Dungeon (I'm afraid of a rush from Shakti) - I always try to eliminate these:
2. Castle, Necropolis, Conflux, Swamp, Stronghold - I eliminate them in any order, as I consider them to be approximately equal in strength.
I usually don't eliminate the last one because I like playing with it.
3. Inferno and Tower - if possible, I always leave these for my opponents as the weakest.

And if I were to arrange the castles in the order I would play them:
1. Stronghold
2. Rampart, Necropolis, Swamp, Castle (no difference)
3. Conflux, Dungeon
4. Inferno, Tower

The easiest ones to start with:
1. Rampart
2. Dungeon with a Shaker
3. Castle
4. Swamp
Basically, when playing as Cherk, you have to rely on these.

And here's a ranking of the most interesting ones to me; I sometimes try to learn from them:
1. Inferno
2. Tower
3. Barbarians
4. Swamp
5. Dungeon
6-7. Castle and Rampart

And here's my ranking (this refers to my preferences, not the overpoweredness of the factions):
1) Castle, Stronghold (the most stable and evenly balanced factions)
2) Fortress (fast and powerful, but I don't really enjoy the swamp gameplay)
3) Necropolis, Dungeon (roughly equal. Dungeon is more fun at the beginning, Necropolis later on. Unstable factions)
4) Inferno (the only problem is the low initial attack power, but otherwise it's a very interesting faction)
5) Tower, Conflux (I'm not very good at playing with them)
6) Rampart (a strong faction, but I don't like playing with it and I don't let my opponents play with it either)

And I almost always try to ban in such a way as to leave a non-standard pick, but things like Rampart-Dungeon are always easy to ban. My preferences: 1. Dungeon (one of the few factions with which even I can do a decent rush) 2. Fortress (a rather unpleasant town if you play almost without losses; by the end you get an army that is very hard to kill) 3. Rampart (usually nobody wants to ban it, so there's a chance to play for it, or leave something like Rampart-Tower) 4. Castle (read too many reports, lost to Invisibility, and now I try to play a Necro hero when playing this town) 5. Inferno (just like it, despite everything, and yet if the choice is between Inferno and Castle against Rampart, I'll take Castle :)) 6. Stronghold 7. Tower — this is if without Conflux and Necro. With them, they are in 1st and 2nd places respectively. Almost always don't mind playing Inferno if I ban second and the opponent doesn't mind banning Rampart, Dungeon, and Necro, but that rarely happens. I don't really like Barbarian and Tower, and since the first one is often eagerly taken, I try to leave it.

Maybe someone hasn't seen it yet; here's some statistics about the Castles. :)

In my opinion, Rampart, Castle, Dungeon, and Swamp have very good initial offensive power. Each of these castles has its own starting, powerful units, with which you can gain a good momentum...
I can't say anything about Necropolis and Inferno, as I don't play with them; they have weak castles, and accumulating skeletons for offensive power is just a waste of time...
It's very good to start with Tower, as it has a powerful unit right away, and if you also find a second native hero in the tavern, then you can gain a significant momentum...
You can play with Stronghold under certain conditions, which often don't work out for me, and like with Inferno and Necropolis, you need to know how to play with these castles!

The easiest to "manage," IMHO: Castle, Rampart, and Swamp. That's why I mostly pick them. Shakti and I have an "unfortunate love":D. Tower is very specific and way too slow (average unit speed). As for the others, I honestly have no clue how to approach them:smile32: (for example, how to take the Dragon Utopia early as Barbarians if nothing was sacrificed for one-hit kills, or how to start with the other 3 factions:confused: ...). The strongest on a SoD map for an average player is still Rampart: 2 harmonious and fast striking stacks from the start, the fact that having a level 2 building isn't critical, generally good speed and bulk, useful abilities, undoubtedly excellent starting hero skills, etc.

I don't know where to post this. Kash and I were playing on 8mm6. He was Rampart, and I was Dungeon. We agreed to restart on slow roads, and, as usual, the first generation turned out to be exactly that, but something happened. Can anyone explain it?

for reference – these are the first few seconds of the game.

What's so surprising? It always happens when Red leaves the game. The computer simply puts its starting hero at the top and buys a second one. :D

1. Ramp - everyone loves it - they understand how to play :)
2. Castle - Valeska with a horde of archers. Though if a Necro hero digs up even one skeleton, I make him the boss.
3. Dungeon - Shakti, just troglodytes; often many don't build manticores.
4. Fortress - Tazar or Wystan; you can immediately build Wyverns... though more often and logically you build Serpent Flies and use them to send out scouts.
5. Tower - I like playing Torosar - the Tactics skill protects Gremlins from neutral creatures' morale.
6. Barbarian - Gunnisson or Crag Hack - birds, sometimes Orcs or a Goblin upgrade on week 1, day 1 and go. Goblins are easily placed in the town on week 1. Often lucky with artifacts at the respawn.
7. Necropolis - Galthran is allowed on this map :) - if the 3rd hero has a lot of meat units, build the Skeleton Transformer on week 1, day 1; otherwise, build magic and go. Like with Dungeon, you usually don't need to build the 6th level units.
8. Inferno - Pyre is the starting hero, immediately buy her a spellbook and go far from the castle, preferably onto the grass. By mid-week 1, Pits and Efreeti will clear whatever remains around the castle. Devils are often built on week 1.
9. Conflux - even complete novices manage to build Phoenixes, so they almost always get banned :)

to SpiriTT:
I only just noticed the date now - 112, at first we didn't notice it with you, we thought Clavius came as a starting hero. Apparently, the 111 computer somehow played for the blue side. Shackter must be in Castle, set up Eyes, bought Clavius, bought everything out, and is sitting tight :)
Overall, they sometimes behave strangely.
In the same game, the green Jabarkas surprised me.
Something like this: I'm standing half a turn away from his castle (the Citadel was placed on 114)), but there are blockers in the way, so it's fine, the Citadel remains empty for tomorrow, both green heroes are roaming around, collecting stuff. I bring Centaurs from the hideouts, break through the blockers, capture the Citadel with Kirya, drop the Dwarves there, return to the same spot, the army gets taken away, Kiryusha is on a Pegasus, one turn away from Jabarkas. I think - he'll attack at night, and without losing movement I'll get home with the little Pegasus. But he doesn't attack! :confused: Runs off to collect some more, the pest...
In another game, the native purple player on the fifth week (well yeah, we dragged it out a bit)) placed Gold Dragons for me, how he did it - I have no idea, he never left his spawn. And he even bought out the entire five-week army, if only I could learn to play like that..

6. Barbarian - Gunnisson or Crag - birds, sometimes orcs or upgraded goblins on 111 and forward. Bears are easily built in the castle on week 1. Often lucky with artifacts on respawn.

Easily bears in the castle? Would be nice if someone made statistics of reports how often this "easily" is?

8. Inferno - Pyre starting, immediately buy a book for her and go far from the castle, preferably to grass. In the middle of week 1, pits and efreets will clear what's left near the castle. Devils are often built on week 1.

But until the middle of week 1, Pyre is idle in half of the setups if she doesn't leak. Good if you gather enough for pits or efreets, really great if you have the gold to buy them. About devils already mentioned above))))). Fresh example - recently decided with Sanal to play Inferno vs Inferno - 50% of setups are unplayable, we re-rolled and gave up.

9. Conflux - even total beginners manage to build phoenixes, so it's almost always banned :)

And here I'll argue)) - I often don't ban Conflux for the opponent because its start is quite difficult and you need to know how to play it to get birds on week 1. Especially when lacking level 2 from the start.

Added after 6 minutes

5. Tower - I like playing Torosar - the tactic protects gremlins from neutral morale.

Tower is a good castle, but I take Aine from the start - chance to learn papa from Solmyr, Demer, etc., and also from the castle too and stable 2000 per week.
Stumbling block - resources for building mages by day 3-6 are not always found. And that means either losing tempo and going somewhere deep into the respawn for the needed pile or farewell nagas.

P.S. We got peckered to "zeh best" - there will be an opportunity to prove I'm wrong)))))

8. Inferno - Start with a Pirate, immediately buy a book for it and head away from the castle, preferably towards the grass. By the middle of the first week, the Pirates and Ifrits will clear out what remains around the castle. Devils are often placed on the first day.

Quite the comedian :)

9. Conflux - Even complete beginners manage to build Phoenixes, so it's almost always eliminated.

I agree with Javdet. Beginners eliminate the Conflux because fighting with unupgraded Fairies is a pain - that's one. Second: it greatly depends on whether the heroes will get a stack of Air creatures and whether they will be built. And third - the difference between having Psions in a Citadel and Birds in a Fortress is very significant.

And one more thing, were you hinting at me about the Birds on the first day?

to SpiriTT:
I just noticed the date now - 112...

Still funny)