Posts from Playing as the Sylvan faction (Disciples 2).

We discuss how to play, which units to develop, what composition to use, and the advantages and disadvantages of creatures and heroes. Part two.

My composition: a mage hero, an archer (depending on my mood), a sylph, and three centaurs.

Maybe it's the only time I played through a campaign with a hero-warrior. I took two captain-type heroes, one healer, and two archers as companions.

Captains? I remember taking them once. They became annoying after every other battle because they kept leveling up. And their damage is relatively weaker compared to Barbarians, and I always prefer damage over defense. I only take Sylphs because they heal more, even though Dancers have higher hit points.

I haven't played much with the Elves, mostly going through the "Rebellion" Campaign, and I don't think I've ever played them online. They seemed too weak at the beginning. Of course, I put Centaurs in the front line and developed them further towards the wild ones – they don't have very high initiative, but they do good damage, and the additional damage from critical hits is quite good, although the captains seem decent too. Instead of one Centaur, you could also use a warrior hero, but he's too weak for the initial battles with the Elves, so it's better to use an archer hero; a Dryad is also good, but again, they lack hit points.
Why Centaurs specifically? There's simply no alternative to them – a Griffin doesn't count. Is there any logic other than Elven logic in building their lair? It's expensive, and in the end, you just get a large bird without any special abilities.
Next are the archers. As a rule, the Elves should always have the best archers, and here the selection is the richest, so there's plenty to choose from. I almost always developed a regular scout into a Stinger (the one with poison). As the level increases, the parameters and damage increase, including the poison damage. I rarely took its alternative – in theory, 2 shots are better than one, and the total damage should be higher, but if the archer misses, its effectiveness immediately decreases, and it seems that they can't attack different targets, which is not very good in battle. There's also a branch with elemental archers – high initiative + additional fire or ice damage to choose from, so there's not much difference – one has more damage, and the other has slightly stronger effects.
There's not much to say about the healers – mass healing and then, depending on your preference, either defense for one turn or against fire or air; I always chose based on my mood.
And finally, the mages – they're quite weak, as is the entire Elven army at the start. The only variety is the fork: if a beautiful Archon deals more damage with lightning, then its scruffy-looking wild elf counterpart is a bit tougher and, in addition, reduces the armor of enemies with each lightning bolt. Unfortunately, the city guards are immune to this ability, which is a pity.
By the way, in the expansion pack, I encountered a race of dark elves, and they have a rather interesting campaign. It seems that they either died or fell under the control of Mortis. In general, they are distinguished by a specific arsenal and not very pleasant magic. I had to struggle a bit in the final mission of their campaign – if the paralyzer hits, you can consider the battle lost

adding a critical hit mechanic seems to work well

I still don't understand the sacred meaning of a critical hit. Is it a stable bonus that ignores armor? If so, it makes sense. Otherwise, you can simply increase their damage without any complications.

and it seems they can't attack different targets

The thing is, they can, if I remember correctly. But I often found it too tedious to build this branch, and they also consume a lot of resources. Plus, you need to upgrade the centaurs and the healer...

in the add-on, I encountered a race of dark elves

Unfortunately, you can't play as them, there are just a few units. And that's a pity. They are VERY powerful and hard to defeat, and they always caused me a lot of trouble.

I still don't understand the sacred meaning of a critical hit. Is it just a stable bonus that doesn't care about armor?

Edited: OFFENSIVE in message

Unfortunately, a critical hit is just a simple addition to damage; it doesn't ignore armor, or at least I haven't noticed it. Moreover, you can't deal more than 300 damage in one hit, and as the base damage increases, the critical hit will decrease.

Critical Strike - a simple damage bonus.

Oh well, too bad. But still, it hits harder than a Knight.

The Plate Mail unit, due to its frequent upgrades over a long distance (after 5 upgrades, the Plate Mail will have 2 upgrades of the Barbarian, and it takes longer to upgrade to the Barbarian), will outperform its competitors in terms of damage. Also, its armor is good, so I always choose the Plate Mail. In general, I like it when the front line is upgraded frequently; you don't have to worry too much about healing them, and the damage and health will improve as a result.

With an Archer, you can shoot at two different enemies, just like with any other unit with two attacks. And two shots are much more useful than one – if you miss once, you'll definitely hit the second time, but with one shot, you miss and that's it. Although, based on my own preferences, I choose the Ice Guard, but I admit that the Marauder is better.

I already wrote about the composition of the squad in the discussion thread about my favorite race, but I'll repeat it: Hero-Warrior (even if weak, but I don't see the point in taking a Mage or Archer – there are plenty of castle units for the second line, but there's nothing to cover them), two Plate Mails, two Ice Guards (water attack eliminates the need to take a Mage against creatures with physical immunity), and the last Sylph – a healer with air protection.

I always take the Knight.

Hmm. In the last scenario of the campaign for the Elves, I was given a Knight, and I leveled up two Barbarians. So, the Knight wasn't very eager to outpace them. Rather, the Barbarians quickly caught up and even surpassed him in damage. However, after each battle, there was plenty of experience – enough to level up the hero.

two Ice Golems

And why not Fire Golems? Or are you afraid of running into a Dragon?

I just like ice. Otherwise, I would have chosen Marauders.

Centaur lancers, a warrior hero, three archers – the cutest build ever. Centaur berserkers are weak. One of the rare cases where I prefer a warrior over a guildmaster.

Apparently, you haven't had the chance to assess a couple of mages with 50 initiative in the back row.

I just enjoy precisely eliminating enemies, haha.

But it's also inefficient!

It’s very effective indeed!