Overall, playing as the Sylvan faction on the global map is quite challenging, as constant economic difficulties arise, and developing heroes and cities is not straightforward. Furthermore, the Rangers are at a disadvantage at the start, making it difficult for them on "fast" maps. Therefore, the Sylvan faction is not very suitable for beginners taking their first steps in HOMM V.
The probabilities of gaining core skills upon leveling up: defense – 45%, knowledge – 30%, attack – 15%, magic – 10%. Regarding skills, the picture is as follows: the most likely skills to obtain are luck and logistics (15% each), followed by sworn enemy, defense, and education (10% each), then leadership, magic of light, magic of chaos (8% each), and attack (6%). The least likely skills to obtain are enchantment (4%), as well as mechanics, magic of darkness, and magic of summoning (2% each). As we can see, the Ranger is a warrior with a good chance of gaining combat skills. However, these are not the only factors determining how we will fight in the game. We will focus on the hero's abilities and troops. And we will discuss them in the next chapter.
Among combat skills, the Ranger can most easily gain luck, defense, and education; however, considering the specifics of his army, attack and leadership are equally valuable. On the one hand, this wide range of choices provides greater freedom in development and makes the Ranger less predictable for the opponent, but at the same time, it can be difficult for the player to decide. After all, out of these five skills, he should ideally choose only three. The remaining two should be allocated to logistics and one of the schools of magic.
What combat tactics should we choose?
Thanks to our strong ranged troops, we can sit in defense and destroy enemies with accurate shots. But on the global map, this tactic makes our army vulnerable and weak. It is much more effective when all troops act as part of a cohesive, unified army, where all types of creatures are represented, and each is used to its full potential. With our first move, we destroy almost the entire main army of the enemy. Therefore, the most effective tactic looks like this: immediately attack the enemy with fairies, dancers, unicorns, and dragons. They are supported by archers and druids, protected from enemy melee units by ents. Then, if the initial attack is successful, we continue to press; if the enemy withstands our first onslaught, we can switch to defense. Here, the outcome of the battle depends on the ents and archers.
