Posts from Slayer of the Summoner

Battle against an elementalist who spams air elemental summons.
Question - how can I minimize losses?

Well, a complete answer in a few words is impossible: it all depends on what troops, artifacts, spells, and skills each opponent has. The Cloak of Negation or the Sphere of Inhibition won't allow you to cast elemental summoning spells, but you also won't be able to cast magic higher than level 2, or any magic at all.

Well, I can't give a complete answer in just a few words: it all depends on what troops, artifacts, spells, and skills each opponent has. The Cloak of Negation or the Sphere of Inhibition won't allow you to cast Summon Elementals, but you also won't be able to cast magic higher than level 2, or any magic at all.

The save file is attached.

It's not possible to get artifacts (and hasn't been for the past 2 weeks) due to the location of the spawn point.

It was a long time ago, when I was playing against the AI on a random map, and in a long game, my hero was very well-leveled, like this:
I encountered an AI that started spamming 100 Earth Elementals, it was insane. Only the fact that I outlasted it in mana saved me; it was spawning Elementals, and I was resurrecting my army.

How can you minimize losses?

It's better to start a new game.

It's better to start a new one.

Okay, thank you.

Battle against an elementalist who spams air elemental summons.
Question - how can you minimize losses?

Just kill all the main units, i.e., those that were initially in the army, and then buy your way out with gold. As a result, your hero appears in the tavern with the remaining army, and the opponent loses his hero because he has no army left, and all those he summoned disappear!
If there is no money to buy your way out, just run away and then buy a new army in the tavern, even if it's without any units, but at least the main hero will remain, and all the artifacts will be preserved, while the opponent will have neither an army nor a main hero.

The hero is poorly developed, the castle has a huge army, and there are a lot of unnecessary artifacts that can be sold in the artifact oasis, either at a regular price or by exploiting a bug to sell them at the maximum price.
For 4 months, the hero and army are too weak, and the map is not explored enough.
For the Dungeon faction, the best choice would be Gunnar (a hero who is a super runner), and two heroes specializing in resurrection, which is perfect for a beginner.
Another piece of advice: create chains of heroes to transfer the army to the main hero, or better yet, have 2-3 strong heroes, but a chain always helps, especially when there is no portal, flight, or dimension door, as in your case.
Another point... forget about level 1 monsters, except for Pixies in the second month, because your movement speed (the number of tiles you can travel in a day) depends on the speed of the slowest monster in your army. For example, a Trog has a speed of 4. Also, it's not profitable to buy them, build improvements for them, or provide additional growth; it's better to spend that money on improving dwellings of levels 2-3-4-5-6-7.
Regarding Tuesday skills, remember! Always take Wisdom, Earth, and Air. Choose Defense (15% damage reduction in battle) - this is the most beneficial skill. Shooting and attack are useless, except for two heroes: Crag Hack and Garun, who specialize in attack, and Orin, who specializes in shooting; in their cases, it's noticeable. In all other cases, it's a waste of skill slot. The 5th and 6th skill slots should be used for Pathfinding or Logistics, Tactics or Leadership, or Intelligence (you rarely have a lot of mana).
Read the articles about the 3 heroes, their movement range, skill choices, and spells.
Or you can write to me in a private message, and I'll give you some advice, as I'm already an expert in Heroes, and I've been playing since the first game... and to this day, Heroes remains my favorite game.

The hero is poorly developed; the castle mainly contains a huge army, and there are many unnecessary artifacts that can be sold in the artifact oasis, either at a normal price or using a bug to sell them at the maximum price.

The problem is that the enemy has flying units, a portal, and a town gate, and they have also scouted my town. So, the moment I move the army away from the town, I will lose it and won't be able to reclaim it.

I tried different approaches, used various heroes, and confused the AI. I led the main hero into a portal and gathered reinforcements, sold artifacts. My advice: create a random map, open it in the map editor, and look for the "Cartographer" object for both the Dungeon and the main Castle. Place them near your castle, save the map, and from the start, reveal both maps. When creating the map, specify the castles that the enemies will play as and exclude Necromancers (so they don't use "Veil of Darkness"). This way, you'll see how the AI plays, what it does, and what it doesn't. This will help you gain experience. In the map editor, place 7 valuable resources of each of the 4 types, 15 wood and ore, and 30,000 gold on the ground, and set the most difficult mode when starting the map. You'll have an equal amount of resources and money at the start compared to the AI, but it will play at full strength, and you'll learn.
There's also a specific algorithm for building structures in each city. When creating the map, always choose: Very large map, with a Dungeon, no water, strong monsters, 8 players, no teams. If you like the "Dungeon" castle, choose Gunnar as your starting hero. Here's the building algorithm: Day 1 - Town Hall, Day 2 - Harpy Nest (upgrade the building immediately - this is your most powerful unit for the first 2 months), then combine armies and give Gunnar only the upgraded harpies, and give the other heroes troglodytes and cyclops. Day 3 - Level 1 Mage Guild, Day 4 - Forge, Day 5 - Market, Day 6 - Stronghold, Day 7 - Castle. Week 2, Day 1 - Mage Tower, Day 2 - Capitol - all economic issues are resolved. Then, hire harpies and a new hero with harpies, add him to Gunnar. Day 3 - Resource Stockpile (we're gradually moving towards dragons, accumulating sulfur). Day 4 - Cyclops Lair, Day 5 - Medusa Lair, Day 6 - Level 2 Mage Guild, Day 7 - Manticore Lair. Week 3 begins, and this week we build dragons! Don't rush to upgrade, save up money so you have enough to hire cyclops, manticores, dragons, and harpies. Medusas are usually useless in the army; their damage is almost the same as cyclops, and sometimes even less, and they are 1 square slower. If you're starting to break through the "Snake Nest" and "Griffin Conservatory," you need 2 slots for new units. Remove troglodytes and medusas.
So, your army of cyclops, medusas, and troglodytes is transferred to the second hero. Troglodytes are divided into groups of 1 (double-click on them in the hero's window). Use troglodytes to protect cyclops and medusas. Gunnar's army consists of upgraded harpies and manticores. Then, you break through everything you can. If it's difficult with harpies and manticores, add cyclops, medusas, and troglodytes. Don't forget to upgrade the troglodytes, but don't hire them; just transfer and upgrade them with other heroes. It's more profitable to buy a hero with an army than to hire them. Sometimes, warriors and ballistas will be cheaper with a hero than buying them separately. Also, having many heroes means scouting and a chain for transferring the army from the castle to the main 2-3 heroes, or exchanging artifacts and monsters between them.
Another trick: when attacking the "Snake Nest," divide the troglodytes into groups of 1, creating 4 squads, and leave 3 squads of manticores, medusas, cyclops, or minotaurs. This will reduce the loss of important harpies or other units, as the AI usually attacks the squads in which it can kill at least someone. Another trick: you can wait for the enemy to approach and send one troglodyte against him. He will die in response, but the enemy will no longer respond, and then you can attack him with the entire army without a response. This is how I defeat huge enemy armies. I often place a "looter" hero near the main hero, who carries 20-30 level 1 units.

Good luck! Write if you have any questions!
I look forward to your comments and suggestions!

Yes, to avoid unpleasant situations like the one described in the first post, it's important to develop quickly from the start and attack the enemy first, before they become too strong and their mana reserves allow them to "overwhelm" you, or before they acquire powerful, high-level spells. Just yesterday, before going to sleep, I had a similar situation: I attacked the enemy several times, and each time he defeated me, and he won precisely by summoning a large number of stacks of elementals; if it weren't for the elementals, I probably would have been able to defeat him; it's true that he has more "hit points," but I have more mana.

I've never been able to beat the computer, even on the hardest level, but I can reload and replay many times until I'm happy with the outcome, with minimal or no losses. ))))
Right now, I'm enjoying the Knight faction. I always start with upgraded archers and divide them into 7 squads. The enemy attacks and runs away. I shoot them down. If they attack without mana, they usually retreat with almost no losses on my side. The heroes decide the outcome: Sir Mullich due to his +2 speed bonus, Oren due to his 100% ranged attack bonus at level 20, and Valeska due to her charged archers. But I also really like Touris with her tactics and charged champions. Sorcha and her powerful knights with their devastating double strike are also good, and the specialist for griffons with armor works wonders (a deadly combination: several archangels and upgraded griffons, which respond to everything, and thanks to "Armor" and increased defense/attack stats, they turn into terminators, tanks, and killing machines in sieges).

Another great tactic is "hit and run." For example, 2 Phoenixes or 1, 4 Efreet or Golden, Black Dragons ++++ ARMAGEDDON... it's just devastating. I was able to destroy 15 archangels by the end of the XL map. The enemy was building up an army for 4-5 months in a confined area, which sometimes happens on random maps. I flew in through a dimension door or by flight and solved everything with one Armageddon. Sometimes there are setbacks... the enemy has monsters with immunity, summons fire elementals, or has artifacts that prevent spellcasting or good magic resistance, sometimes War Chains, but as a rule, almost everyone falls. Even if I don't manage to destroy everyone, having 2-3 "HIT-and-RUN" units can seriously weaken the enemy's army, and then I finish them off with my main hero. Another important thing is to send heroes with fast monsters, with speeds of 6-7-8-9, for scouting, and divide them into 1 unit per 6 slots, so they can cast magic 1-2 times and then run away to the tavern.

Added 11 minutes ago

Yes, to avoid unpleasant situations like in the first post, you need to try to develop quickly from the start and attack the enemy first, when he is not yet so strong, and his mana reserve does not allow him to "suffocate" you, or he does not yet have powerful high-level spells.
Just yesterday, before going to sleep, I had a similar situation: I attacked the enemy several times, and each time he defeated me, and he "won" precisely by summoning a bunch of stacks of elementals; if it weren't for the elementals, I probably would have defeated him; he has more "meat," but I have more mana.

I can't crush him in the first month because the map is very large, there are 7 enemies, and I also start with 0 in all indicators, because otherwise it's not interesting. As a result, I fall behind in development by a month without the initial 30,000 and resources, but then I catch up. It takes 27,500 to build up to the capital, so I only collect them by the end of the 2nd-3rd week. And sometimes I'm completely surrounded by archers or a horde (crowd) of ranged units and just wait for my troops to accumulate, but then I go and crush everyone, even though I have 2-3 times fewer troops

Here is my game from today, and an example of how to develop and explore the map when there is no "city portal," "dimensional door," or late-game "flight" ability.

2 Zellogi
I recommend you read the thread "Tactics for Dungeon." The build order you suggested isn't very good on most maps. Even a simple phrase like "buy heroes, find high-level creature nests, capture them in the first week, build a portal - and you'll be happy" is more effective. If we're talking about powerful stacks in the first week, then in 90% of cases, it's Trogolodites. You can improve them if you manage to get them quickly.

Here's an algorithm for building structures: Day 1 - Town Hall, Day 2 - Harpy Nest (upgrade the building immediately - this is your most powerful unit for the first 2 months), then combine armies and give Gunnar only the upgraded harpies, and give all other heroes the troglodytes and cyclops, Day 3 - Mage Guild level 1, Day 4 - Blacksmith, Day 5 - Market, Day 6 - Citadel, Day 7 - Castle, Week 2, Day 1 - Magister's Hall, Day 2 - Capitol - all economic issues are resolved.

Sir, you're talking complete nonsense.
What kind of Magister's Hall and Capitol are you talking about:smile48: You'll give the person some bad advice...