Posts from Necropolis versus Orcs.

For Orcs, it's not a problem; they have a morale cloak, plus leadership, plus War Cry.
And again, this is if the hero joins the battle before the Orc Chieftains and Goblins. Here, you also need to consider who has more artifacts for initiative.

I tried to engage in a duel for Haggeesh, gave the Cyclops Fury, and tried to damage them with Vittorio's troops. 70% was absorbed, Haggeesh has Skilled Blood Fury, and nothing changed.

True, I'm not sure how much damage he managed to do this way, but there were 350 Draconians or a little more, and I had just over 200 Cyclops.

When there's a dispute, mathematics comes into play, in this case, simple arithmetic.
How much morale will an Orc, say, level 35, add to his troops?
+3 from Leadership
+4-5 from artifacts (+2-3 if he wants a Dwarven helmet)
+5 from a war cry
+2 from the hero and his troops
Total: 14-15 (12-13), and the requirement to spend the hero's turn every 3 rounds.
Luck will be 2-4 (0-2)

How much will a Necromancer reduce it by:
-3 from Banshee's Cry on Deidre with a mini-set
-4-6 from artifacts
-6 from a spell
Total: -13-15 Morale, -5 Luck

After offsetting, the morale is approximately at zero, and Luck is slightly negative. And then, one attack from the Draconians (just one, Karl!) on the Cyclops, and they are guaranteed to lose -5 Morale/Luck

Moreover, it's not so critical whether the hero managed to cast the spell before the first weakening of the shamans. You cast a mass speed-up spell, the weakening disappears, and the Necromancer moves before the Goblins, casts Subjugation on the leaders or someone else, and it all starts.

What was said about the nerf of the Shield of Fury is not even up for discussion - 0.6 on expert. It has been tested many times, the information is in the manual for 3.1
If something didn't work for you, there are 3 options:
1. You are not playing on 3.1
2. You were relying on the assumed damage calculated by the computer, and not calculating it yourself honestly and taking into account all abilities. The program often writes nonsense in the damage. You need to calculate it yourself, and then look at the log, everything is displayed correctly there.
3. You made a mistake in the calculations. No offense.

350 to 200 is almost an increase. If there were similar ratios at other levels, then the Necromancer will have a hard time in such a battle. And why it turned out that way - the map is like that or the opponent didn't play very well - you know better. A standard average random should lead to approximately 600 Draconians to 200 Cyclops, and the ratios should be even worse at all other levels.

That's if the game is played as Deidra.

Dragons will lose a lot if they charge at cyclops.

Well, in theory, you can create negative morale, but that's still no guarantee of victory.

Goblins can be pushed a second time.

Yes, then my opponent didn't build up their Necromancer the best way, and I was only playing as orcs for the second or third time. So who knows how a battle between pros will turn out.

It seems it was the patch itself. I tried reinstalling the game and downloading the patch again, and now at expert Blood Rage absorbs 60%, as you said. No idea why it was different, most likely I downloaded some glitched patch that time.

Although there's another trick: you can collect a full dragon set and then get +1 7th lvl per day. In this regard, the orcs will have an advantage if both he and the necro collect it. The cyclops is far more powerful. And on that map, there was a good chance to collect it. I managed it as demons on the same map.

Sorcery vs. Orcs only works for Deidra; otherwise, what's the point? The exception is if you have many Castles and a Mentor; then, use Lucy and hordes of Princes, but even that is just an option.

1. Dragons aren't a pity; before version 3.1, they weren't even built in the late game due to financial considerations. It's easier to buy 6th-level units from other Castles.
2. Will they be lost? The counterattack is negated by ghosts with a 50% chance, without any consequences. There will be no counterattack with a probability of approximately 70+%, if the Dragons' turn is after the Princes'. They will have similar initiative and will move in succession. In the worst case, there are almost certainly blocked Liches at that point, which means they are useless.
3. Dragons are not protected; their task is to quickly eliminate all key stacks.
4. And we shouldn't forget that Banshees deal 30 damage each to every stack against the bitten neighbors, without a counterattack, right?

-5 Luck/Morale on key Orc stacks in the early stages of the battle = victory for any faction. Cyclops move rarely, hit weakly, and Fury wears off quickly.

This is not always the case. I'll use your battle as an example: the Chieftains moved before the hero, but the Goblins had to be brought up. This is a standard scenario: the Chieftains have more initiative than the hero, and the Goblins have comparable initiative. (The Staff clearly reduced the initiative bonuses of artifacts). Please read the logic carefully, and you'll understand what I mean.
At the time of the Necropolis hero's turn, it is already known whether the Chieftains and Goblins have been demoralized. Let's consider the options.
1. No one was demoralized.
Then, the hero can cast Mass Haste and move BEFORE even the Chieftains, casting Subjugation on them. There is an even better option: if the initiative on the Chieftains is displayed as 11-12 (or less), you can cast Shout, Mass Haste, and Subjugation before their turn and the Goblins' turn, of course. As a result, Subjugation will take effect in the first round.
2. Morale on the Chieftains, no morale on the Goblins.
Immediately cast Shout. The hero's and Chieftains' initiative will be approximately equal, but the Chieftains will almost certainly move next, due to the previous accumulated difference. There is no point in bringing up the Goblins; the spell is still active. Either accept the situation as in the previous point or press the Wait button and hope that you will move before the hero again; fractional initiative values are not displayed, and this is not well known. However, this will only delay Subjugation for a short time, because
there will be no positive morale.
As a result: Subjugation will take effect either in the first or second round.
3. No morale on the Chieftains, morale on the Goblins.
This is the most difficult option to calculate. The first thing will be Shout, but I can't say how many rounds it will take for Subjugation to take effect. It may be in the first round if the Goblins move before the hero after morale. Or it may be much later. However, the probability of this scenario is 1 in 4, and the probability of a very bad outcome within it is approximately 1 in 2-4. As a result: about 10% of problems with Subjugation.
4. Morale on the Chieftains, morale on the Goblins. After Shout, the task is reduced to point 1, but with a shift of 0.5 rounds.

What can ruin all these arguments? The intervention of a Barbarian hero, because he can also speed things up. The degrees of freedom increase, and it becomes difficult to calculate, so I'm too lazy. A rough forecast is that it will be difficult for the hero to cast the spell, and therefore it will take a long time.
But another question immediately arises: what will the Cyclops do without the hero and Chieftains speeding them up, with their miserable initiative, speed of 4, and morale/luck of -5? That's right, they will walk for a long time and die quickly.

Here's what we've been discussing for a long time, a pro will figure it out in a couple of seconds and do it.

And it's great that we figured it out. But you understand that the damage that your Orc received through Fury needs to be multiplied by (0.35/0.2) = 1.75. This could have been a significant correction to the outcome, or it might not have been.

If you have a Dragon set, then you place 2 stacks of Shamans, 4 Chieftains of 60 each. The hero gets tactics, speed aura, etc. Cyclops tear everyone apart, regardless of the faction and the level of players on both sides. Fans of the mentioned "frenzy" tactic are delighted.
And there is only one question left: why play a map where the outcome is known in advance and does not depend on the level of play? All factions can be initially sorted by the strength of level 7 and not worry.

By the way, Hitenran is very effective against Orcs, in case you didn't know.

Recently, I played a late-game match with a friend. Necromancer (Lucretia) against an Orc (Hagesh), both with Creature Attack (CA). The Orc couldn't handle the vampires under the effects of Vampirism and Heavenly Shield. And that's despite the fact that I didn't even use Dominate.

I'll add based on my sad experience... I don't recommend taking Free Cyclops for long campaigns...

I remember an archangel teasing me... two of them attacked my 200+ Cyclops...
they didn't do any damage... mine hit them with clubs, and... my 1000+ centaurs went to the afterlife...
I was just speechless!
Now I take Bloodeyes...

Added 5 minutes later
for those who still prefer Free Cyclops...
never place them next to your own troops...
Freedom in the concept of a Cyclops is a very "peculiar" thing.

I'll add based on my own experience... I don't recommend using Free Cyclops in long campaigns.