Posts from Online School of Mastery

Hey, is there anything similar to a guide on how to play with the Castle faction or the Tower faction?
I've been playing with it for a long time, and now I'm really interested in learning how to play it correctly.

In the article, Vic mentioned a difficulty of 160%, not 200%. At 200%, the current Multiplayer templates are unplayable. This is due to the following reasons: firstly, the impact of one player having chests and resources directly near their castle becomes too significant, allowing them to quickly buy an entire army, start fighting and leveling up, and even hire helpers, while the other player has nothing nearby (only one minor chest), forcing them to skip turns for almost the entire first week (obviously, in a game between players of equal skill, this is critical). Secondly, the game itself takes much longer (although the initial turns are very fast). This is because at 160%, many heroes are bought on the very first day, who, in a chain reaction, clear the starting area in a couple of turns, conduct reconnaissance, while at 200%, due to the lack of money and, as a result, an army, on the second day, they have to do things that would be done in the first week at 160%, and on the third day, they do things that would be done on the second day at 160%. Thirdly, at 200%, a lot of time is spent on restarts, as, in addition to the standard restarts (on the 1st and 3rd days), there are also restarts based on the mine block, if a chest is not found within a certain time, and so on. As a result, it becomes less of a game and more of a series of restarts... That's why people don't play at 200% anymore.

Thank you for the detailed explanation; we already tried 160% yesterday. Everything became clear on the second week on Medium, and on the third week on Large

- Mass Haste and Mass Slow. They are a must, especially in SoD. It's very simple here — the main thing is for the opponent to cast first. Even if they attack with stacks of 7 after casting Mass Haste, almost always after Mass Slow, the armies are equalized within 2 turns. It seems elementary, yet even strong players often mess this up. Speaking from personal experience

- Additionally, with normal troops, Mass Haste or Mass Slow is a viable counter to Implosion.

And what are mass haste and mass slow, stacks, implosion:smile41::cool:

Mass Haste – a general speed boost. Mass Slow – the same, but a slowdown effect. Implode – an explosion spell.

Stacks are slots for troops; in Heroes of Might and Magic III, a hero has 7 of them (or maybe I don't remember how stacks work in other Heroes games).

Dude, all the strategies here are based on 160%, and we're playing at 200% :( Our group is still in the Stone Age :) I'm really looking forward to getting a response in the newbie thread so we can start catching up to you guys :)

In the game, a situation often arises where several powerful units are dealing with ranged neutral creatures. For example, when playing as Swamp, a hero with 2 Wyverns attacks a group of Lizardmen. The Lizardmen split into several stacks, but we managed to block all the ranged attackers with two units after maneuvering. As a result, each Wyvern is surrounded by several stacks. In what order should the neutral stacks be attacked to minimize the damage they inflict? (This also makes sense in a situation, for example, when 2 Wyverns are surrounded by stacks of Centaur Captains, or one Bear is surrounded by a group of Faeries, i.e., the difference in speed and the lack of magic prevent effective maneuvering). 1. For simplicity, let's consider a situation where one of our units destroys exactly one neutral unit per attack. This means the battle will last (total number of neutrals) / 2 rounds. In each round, 2 units will die. During the neutral creatures' turn, our unit receives the same amount of damage, but the retaliatory damage is different. Since the battle lasts the same number of rounds in any case, we need to minimize the retaliatory damage – therefore, the most optimal strategy is to attack the stack with the fewest units. Check: for example, one of our units attacks 2 neutral stacks, one with 7 units and the other with 3. The battle lasts 5 rounds. Our unit goes first, and the neutral stack with seven units goes first. Let's calculate the retaliatory damage if we attack the largest stack: (6+4+2+0+1)*x = 13x (x is the damage of one enemy unit; for simplicity, let's assume it is fixed). If we attack the smallest stack: (2+0+4+2+0)*x = 8x. The damage inflicted by the neutrals during their turn: (9+7+5+3+1)*x = 25*x. The total difference in damage is 20%! As a result, we get the following general rule: if several neutral stacks have a different number of units, attack the stacks with the fewest units first. If several stacks have the same number of units, attack the one that goes last (using the same scheme, you can calculate the total damage). 2. In reality, of course, we don't have fixed damage, but then you can take the average damage as a basis; the overall result does not change. 3. If the damage inflicted by our unit is less than the health of the enemy unit, then all the calculations remain valid. 4. If our unit destroys more than 1 unit per attack, it may be more profitable not to finish off a stack, for example, one with a single unit, but to attack a larger one. This depends on whether the lost damage when attacking the smallest stack will offset the difference in retaliatory damage if that damage had destroyed several units from another stack. For example: we have one unit that destroys exactly 5 neutral units. There are 2 neutral stacks, one with 8 units and the other with three. How is it more effective to attack? The battle lasts 2 rounds. Let's calculate the total damage: if we attack the stack of eight, we receive 3x in response + 6x during the neutral creatures' turn = 9x (x is the damage of one neutral unit); if we attack the stack of three, we receive only 8x damage. Therefore, in this case, it is more profitable to attack the stack of three units first. 5. If our unit has a retaliatory-free attack, it doesn't matter in what order to attack the neutrals (only here you need to avoid wasting damage when small stacks remain). 6. If a battle occurs where one of our powerful units runs ahead, and we have ranged support behind, then the ranged units should destroy the largest neutral stacks. P.S. I don't think there was such a topic on the forum, as I wouldn't want to repeat myself.

...
The troop deployment before the attack is as follows:

(3 water elementals) (1 butterfly)
(45 maxmen) (5 cavalry) (1 butterfly)
(64 pikemen) (1 butterfly)
....

Round 1:

Cavalry move: attack the lower group of griffons on the left, so that after the attack, the cavalry stands right next to the left side of the battlefield.
...

Even considering that the attack is planned on grass terrain, the cavalry (ungrained, speed 7, on grass 8) cannot attack from that distance, as it is 9. If they are upgraded (and this can be done for free in about 90% of cases in the outer stable), it is better to swap them with the butterfly from the 7-stack, then the range before the attack and occupying the desired cell will be 10 cells.

Dimon, read my post about this battle CAREFULLY. Before the deployment, it says:

The army consists of: 5 griffins, 45 marksmen, 64 pikemen, and 3 water elementals and 3 butterflies (army that came from another hero on the second week).

How do you take hives? You can't breed anything there. Just take them and fight back. And even if you split them, it's not a given that they'll attack with single units... Plus, these hives are usually heavily guarded from the outside.

Sorry if I'm asking something obvious. After watching FireToSky's videos, I had a question: how can I quickly exchange an army and artifacts between heroes? Is there a button I don't know about? Please enlighten a beginner.

al1nka, there's a special program that facilitates quick troop transfers. I'll attach it at the bottom of the post.

In Heroes of Might and Magic III, the number of units you can take from a Hive depends on the Hive's defenses. Kostya Derti has already written about this. There shouldn't be any problems inside the Hive itself; the key is to eliminate the defenders (if there are Angels or similar powerful units, split them into individual units – this helps a lot). Try it out, and with experience, you'll get the hang of it. Good luck.

I learned a lot of interesting things.

Do you have anything about playing as the Tower faction? Preferably with a Wizard hero. I just find Wizards more interesting, and the Tower has three ranged units, which is appealing.

[DISCUSSION] Tactics for Tower
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