Uhhh. In patch 1.8, you can't take 2 stacks of Radiance in duels. Now everything is fine: the Alliance is wiped out without any problems, and even against a strong player, there are still plenty of chances and everything depends on skill. Bravo to the developers, the balance has been adjusted. :)
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Recently, after the patch, I was figuring out how to equip a hero against an Alliance mage. It worked like a charm. First of all, against such a hero, you should only spec into Blood, as the skills from Tears aren't needed there: there's no point in reducing magic damage with Magic Resistance, since the Alliance mostly heals rather than deals damage, plus Radiance dispels. Removing shackles is also unnecessary since the Alliance has no Dark magic. But Blood skills are necessary. Blood Rage with the racial ability extension helps maintain high initiative for one of the units, allowing them to move first on the next turn. And when playing a warrior against mages, it's very important who moves first. Horde Power helped me a lot in wiping out summoned Light Elementals, and they must be wiped out quickly, otherwise they and the Radiance will paralyze all squads and that's it. In short, against the Alliance, you must go exclusively Blood.
Now for the skills. Against the Alliance, there's no point in leveling up Retaliation, as their Knights and Radiance don't take counterattacks at all. Vestals take them only occasionally because they blind, archers shoot, griffins strike from the skies, and angels resurrect. And on top of all that, someone is always standing there paralyzed, and everyone successfully hits them without a counterattack. In short, this part of the skills is definitely useless. Taking Reinforcements lvl 2 is also irrational, as it's better to spend 1 skill point on a passive.
Taking defensive cries is also rubbish, because first, our specialization is Blood, and second, we cannot let the battle drag on. It's better to deal with mages according to the Brazilian football principle: "It doesn't matter how many they score against us, we'll still score more." That's the only way, otherwise by the end, their racial ability will be much stronger than ours, and healing will restore more than our units can deal. Therefore, cries only from the Blood category. Moreover, I only take one — Press the Enemy, which allows the hero to strike twice. An absolutely essential thing if the battle drags on and units are few. (I don't say "scarce," because then we've probably already lost!) I'm sure someone will say: "What about Heroism?!" The thing is, with Alliance mages, it's important to simply strike first and basically keep striking so that no one gets paralyzed. Attack power won't be an issue — it will be ensured by the racial ability, passive skills, and the fact that our units are Orcs, meaning their damage is good.
Now, what you absolutely cannot live without is General Inner Flame. This is probably the most important skill of all we have. It allows many stacks to strike before the Radiance move (provided the panthers are still alive, of course). So: panthers have higher initiative, we move first. Cast General Inner Flame and we're off. The Alliance has another problem with Orcs — they have 3 large creatures. This is very convenient for our Cyclopes and panthers. In a lucky scenario, we take out the griffins with Cyclopes on the very first turn, after which they get another turn, boosting morale and initiative. I don't know the correct Alliance deployment yet — I've broken them quickly everywhere. Well, nothing, I'll run into a strong player eventually, and it will become clear. For now, I see problems for the Alliance everywhere with my tactics, regardless of how they deploy.
Moving on to skills. The ability to dispel in the Dark branch must be taken, otherwise petrification plus restoration on Angels or Radiance and that's it. In passives: Defense, Leadership, Luck, Attack — up to lvl 3 — totaling 12 skill points. Then Tactics 2, Ambush, otherwise we won't see a fast start. Next: Endurance lvl 3, Archery lvl 3, Cleave, Giant Slayer, Frenzy, Fortitude. Also Reinforcements lvl 1. And that's it! With such passives, our task is simply to not let everyone be paralyzed.
Regarding active skills, it might seem like there are few. But! Their recovery speed is 3 turns. And we have: General and Personal Inner Flame, Horde Power, Blood Rage, Dissipation, Press the Enemy, Reinforcements. Total 7. Plus the hero's strike. By the way, that can also sometimes be used to speed up units: after the strike, the single-use ability bar fills up, we use it and thus increase initiative — a simple little trick. General Inner Flame lasts two turns and recovers, if I'm not mistaken, in 3 turns. So it needs to be cast regularly. Plus, you can apply it individually if the General one hasn't recovered yet. Press the Enemy — 3-turn recovery, doesn't consume mana, can be applied regularly.
In short, I consider the ratio to be correct. I haven't come up with anything better. Online duels showed that it's very hard to defend against people there, even for a skilled fighter. As for the noobs, it's obvious — 3 turns, and then it's just a formality. :) And as for the hero, the best is either specialization +2 to Leadership or +2 to Attack (like Sandor from the Campaigns).
I'm curious, can anyone suggest a troop deployment for the Alliance against such a hero with such tactics?
