Posts from Start behind the LE.

It's no secret that a quick start is one of the most important conditions for victory in Heroes. So, I'd like to discuss this for the Elven faction. Here, you can share secrets about clearing neutral creatures, building up your army, and so on. When playing as the Elves, I encountered many problems at the start. And on those maps where the strength of the monsters is above average and there are no nearby buildings for hiring units, or there are only buildings for Fairies, it becomes very difficult and unpleasant to miss a day or two waiting for (an upgrade for the Fairies, or an upgrade for the Elven Archers, in the case of a hero specializing in them, and a building for Archers only appears on day 5-6!). And our task is to move quickly from one monster to another, collecting resources and unnecessary artifacts with other heroes, and any losses at the beginning are very critical. So, I would like to know the opinions of experienced Elven players and their strategies for development and leveling up. :smile04:

Well, I'll explain as best as I can:
A lot depends on the map; if it's small, you need to focus on upgrading the right units to clear out the neutrals. Also, prioritize luck, archers, and knights with wind magic (their high defense will be helpful at the beginning), plus some druids and a high-level unit (if you have enough wood)...
Besides luck, you should have attack and ranged attack, and preferably some light magic (chaos isn't very effective). (Stone Skin or Haste – both are mass buffs).
In longer games, it's different; it's better to build ents and dragons as quickly as possible and take gold from chests more often so you can upgrade your castle and capitol.)))
And, of course, hero development: if you have a mentor, you don't need to worry about missing out on skills, but otherwise, be careful when choosing them....
And I almost forgot: single units, and again, single units – they are our everything in the early stages... If enemy units can reach our still-weak units, you can count on losses, but single units will help prevent that!

Playing as Winghelm, I never had any problems at the start. But since we're on this topic: The map is small, and the game isn't too long: 1) As Ereb mentioned above, tier 1 creatures are the key to success. It doesn't matter what race they are, the main thing is that they are there and take the hits. The best tier 1 creatures are probably golems and gargoyles – they are quite strong compared to the others. 2) On day 7, a Mystic Fountain must be built. If you're lucky, the following week will give you a bonus to wood, so you won't have to change resources. 3) We capture mines mainly in the second week, although if there are slow melee creatures in the mines, you can take everything in the first week. But such cases are quite rare. 4) From the beginning of the second week, archers and dancers must be upgraded. With them, we can break through almost anyone without losses. Divide the archers into 4 squads for greater efficiency in luck and morale. Use the dancers for the final, deadly blow. 5) It is desirable to develop Light magic, but if it doesn't appear or there is no guild bonus (unless, of course, we learned it in some shrine), then take "Haste." Logistics is always welcome, especially if there is a lot of grass on the map; it makes sense to develop "Native Lands." Education will be a good acquisition; additional experience and stats never hurt. Luck and leadership will also be very useful. In the leadership branch, empathy must be developed, especially if we are going down the path of Chaos magic.

Here, every single day counts, and even each move of every unit is extremely important, because on small maps, either you reach the center first, or your opponent does, and whoever gets there first wins. I won't consider the "Wing" strategy for now, as it's a more complex and hardcore option without archers.
And small maps imply that it's necessary to clear all possible useful objects in the nearby area and reach the zone with strong/very strong neutral creatures by the first week.
And we won't have enough wood to upgrade our Blades or any Ents.
This even raises the issue of whether the main hero should return to the base for a spell and to cast a counter-spell, because the journey to the castle can take about 3 days, which is extremely critical!
So, the problem I have is clearing mines, artifacts, and wood piles on days 2-4, when they are guarded by archers or furies. Often, I need to take down a horde of centaurs first.
In such games, a fort or a capitol is practically never built; all forces and resources are thrown into capturing strategically important objects as quickly as possible.
I'm not even talking about former allies; it's practically impossible for an elf to do anything against rushers, unless we get 3 elven heroes, and among them are Osiris and Wing :)))

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Against former allies, the elf is quite capable in combat; the only undeniable opponent there will be Kaspar with his plague tent. However, I don't understand: if you encounter very strong neutral creatures in the first week, how are you going to kill them? Un-upgraded dancers are weak, and lurkers aren't exactly a joy to fight either.

Well, on the first week, I'll be ready, meaning on its 7th day, and on the 8th day, reinforcements will arrive, and we'll need upgraded Archers.

What map is it, at least? If not former friends, then what's there?

Generally, this doesn't always work out, and it's not always advisable under certain conditions, but I'm saying that all priorities should be set to maximize farming speed. And if there's a condition involving random heroes, or you don't want to take an orphan, and there's no recruitment for troops outside the city (mainly, the availability of archer recruitment is the deciding factor), then the Outpost becomes a nightmare! That's where I need the help of elven specialists.:smile33:

Added 4 minutes later
Maps: Art of Strategy, Key to Victory, Underground Treasures, Grab and Run, Contested Island. In principle, they are all similar, but it works best on Art of Strategy, on the red spawn point. Another question: how to deal with the Trickster from the Elven faction, with the Rangers? I mean, what are your thoughts on what to deploy in battle, whether to deploy everyone, how to detect invisible units, and if you take Keen Mind, can you manage to hit single units with a volley of arrows?

Ugh, and I was wondering what kind of maps you play on, where you have to fight your way to strong neutral creatures as early as week 1. "Art of Strategy" is the sweetest map for Wing, it's on this map that I built up a great elf army on the "Heroes of Might and Magic" game. "Disputed Island" is more challenging, but choosing elves is still possible. And you have to fight phoenixes there, at the earliest by the middle of week 3, earlier than that it's just impossible. Trying to "hit and run" with an elf is so dangerous that only an incompetent player would do it. Kill 7 scouts/assassins/hunters, add them to your list of sworn enemies, and woe to that dark elf who tries to "hit and run" you.

I completely forgot about these maps... because I haven't played on the Heroes of Might and Magic Online platform, but I used to play long games against strong opponents and gained experience each time.... now I don't really play on such maps anymore(((
How do you play, on the Heroes of Might and Magic Online platform or in hotseat mode? Maybe I can offer some advice if you play online with a friend, but if it's hotseat mode, then I'm out.

I stopped playing Heroes a long time ago; those endless disconnects and desynchronizations finally drove me crazy. So, I sometimes play in Hamachi, but it doesn't happen often anymore, as I still haven't gotten enough of StarCraft 2.

Yes, I also play through Hamachi and on Uplay.

Added 2 minutes ago
By the way, I played pretty well in the StarCraft beta, reaching the semi-finals, sc2tv champ =)
I haven't bought SC2 yet, but maybe I will, and we can play.

Aaaaaaaaaaa... Blizzard is attacking... someone hold me... I prefer Warhammer 40k))...
Sorry for the off-topic.

That's really true. Starting as the Light faction is very difficult if you don't start with Ossir and there are no archer dwellings nearby. With such a start, losses during the initial exploration are inevitable. At the same time, you have to choose between either a slow start, but preserving your troops and gradually building up your castle without improvements, or improving archers as quickly as possible, and if possible, fairies or dancers, but then the castle construction is very much slowed down. They will tell me that this is compensated by resources and experience, but this depends on the map. If the resources are not right, i.e., not wood, crystals, and gems, then these resources will not be worth the losses among the army. If we talk about small maps like "Former Friends," then delaying for just a couple of days means defeat. On such maps, you can only fight effectively if you have Ossir (and if Wing also appears, it's even better).
Units of level 1, as mentioned here, are very helpful. And it is also desirable that these level 1 units are not from Sylvan's castle, in order to minimize losses. I usually buy another hero from a different castle in the tavern, along with his troops, and they become such level 1 units during the initial exploration. It is better, of course, to take good heroes as well. If a necropolis or demon appears as the second hero in the tavern, I don't buy such a hero so that morale doesn't drop. About splitting the archers, this has already been said, and it is correct in almost all cases, except when the opponent is not a very strong melee fighter of level 6-7. In this case, it is better not to spread out your forces and surround the main attacking stack with supporting units.

I also noticed that the development in the first week and the types of neutral creatures in the mines are decisive. If these are melee fighters, even strong ones, then there are fewer problems, but if, for example, they are druids, succubi, or mages, then if you are a little unlucky, the losses can be very serious. Logistics also helps a lot on medium and large maps; you can get to the opponent and resources earlier, and if you are slow and develop slowly, then well-developed logistics helps you quickly catch up. I take it right away, and recently I have started taking scouting with Order and Upkeep. Of course, this is not for maps like "Former Friends"; it is not needed there at all.

With archers, level 1 units, especially fairies, help not in defense, but in attack, to cover the archers. If morale works, then it is possible to cover some stacks of archers with these level 1 units, and the other stacks will defeat our archers. As a result, only the level 1 unit is lost, but it is still a pity, since every warrior counts for the elves.

For example, on "Disputed Island," it is better to defeat phoenixes with archers, ents, and nymphs. Phoenixes are fast, they regenerate, and they have a fire shield. And ents are tough, and it's not a pity to lose them. My opponent, playing as humans on "Disputed Island," suffered serious losses when defeating them. And I took only forest archers, 2 stacks of ents to cover them all (I had Wing with the tactics skill), and nymphs to regenerate the ents. The losses were minimal.

I'll write more if I remember anything. Recently, I have become good at playing as the Elves on the "Yubileynaya" map.

I think if you take Wing and build archers, and ignore the dancers, everything will be fine. Build a warehouse quickly to avoid having to deal with mines. And of course, nymphs and ents easily defeat everyone. Overall, this is one of the strongest duos in terms of synergy. And also, druids are very helpful in the early stages. The most important thing is to protect the archers, not the druids, because in the endgame, archers are more important, and druids shoot worse. And of course, you need to aim for Spell Power, then Wing becomes truly dangerous.