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| Thread: Stronghold: what path to take? |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · «PREV |
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zsa
Famous Hero
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posted October 25, 2001 12:40 AM |
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Almost always entreances are blocked by stronger or weaker monsters. Few maps I know are without blocking mosnters (Battle for Honor and a type of random in which u have no blocking momster and a whole bunch of castles).
And ya, I had recently an encounter like yours Haile. Played a random medium , not very rich, and after i built homestead, I decided to go for the capitol because of the lack of money. Then, in week 2, came my opponent, dungeon, playing gunnar and he defeated my main that was going around there fighting stacks of creatures. Of course he won (he had the troops till minotaurs), and I surrendered and returned to my castle. Of course he didn't dare attack me in the castle so he took my ore and wood mines and moved around there. He also took an unicorn glade which was near my castle (he had a medusa bank). I waited patiently till the begginig of the next week and attacked him. Suffered some casualties but defeated him.
Next week I bought all my troops (including greens) and he didn't buy all his troops, he didn't even have manticore lair or capitol. Why ? Because he didn't have enough money. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't a weak player , but he didn't have much gold on the map either  .
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wiggy_wam
Promising
Famous Hero
local pirate
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posted October 25, 2001 06:11 AM |
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*smile*
Zsa, I can tell just by your strategies that you are a VERY experienced random map player. . .
You should get your bachelors degree in economics
As for me, I am only an experienced 200% player, who has played every HOMM3 campaign (and even ALL the chronicles) on 200%.
Under 200% there exists a different strategy than normal. On 200%, you'd be DAMN lucky to build behemoths week 1... ESPECIALLY to build a castle too!
ok, back to normal difficulty ... an objective view:
Now, in choosing between capitol and behemoth lair ... most likely your income is 2k, (unless it's a toh map, then your income is 3k - 5k) Now assuming your income is @ 2k, by building behemoth structure one week earlier, such would set back your capitol structure by ONLY 5 days (assuming you purchase no creatures) . . . the differential from those 5 days would be 10k, or in other words, in a poverty situation, you are sacrificing an extra 10k for 2 behemoths. . . and in most case scenarios, towards the end of the game (after capitol is built), you would give your left nut for 2 more behemoths! <-- which is worth more than 10k
In summary, if you choose gold over creatures, you will lack creatures;
If you choose creatures over gold, then depending on how well you recover your economy, you may not lack anything, or you may lack gold.
I suppose it is a matter of this kind of preferrence:
"which do you fear more, being broke? or getting your @$$ beat?"
there exist MANY random map situations (or 200%) where poverty is a GREATER losing threat than having less lvl 7 critters
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- wiggy ... who has a crush on Rob's models. Well ... the ones his age (18-26) 
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zsa
Famous Hero
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posted October 25, 2001 06:57 AM |
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Yep, U R RIGHT
Thanx , Wiggy , this is what I've been saying here.
Flexibility is the key!
P.S. : And Wiggie , don't give away your left nut, you're gonna need that
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haile73
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted October 25, 2001 09:34 AM |
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Misunderstanding
Quote:
Almost always entreances are blocked by stronger or weaker monsters. Few maps I know are without blocking mosnters.
sorry, I must have misunderstood you. I thought you'd mean that the entrance of your home castle is blocked. Such things won't occur in Encounters. Of course other strategic entrances (monoliths etc.) are guarded on Encounters maps.
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zsa
Famous Hero
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posted October 25, 2001 10:08 PM |
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Quote:
[
sorry, I must have misunderstood you. I thought you'd mean that the entrance of your home castle is blocked.
LOL , no , on maps like that I usually restart; this goes both for me and my opponent.
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Undead_Knight
Known Hero
Hero of Chaos
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posted October 25, 2001 11:45 PM |
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stronghold strategy
I think that building of cyclopes is waste of crystals, 20 crystals is enough to upgrade beh. lair and the best way to win with stronghold is to attack with ancients while your opponent has only not upgrated lev 7 monsters.Btw I didnt see built cyclopes in all my ToH games.
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wiggy_wam
Promising
Famous Hero
local pirate
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posted October 26, 2001 03:39 AM |
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you got a good point there undead knight, we havn't even mentioned the economy of crystals ...
that brings up a whole new question: behemoths and cyclopses, or just ancient behemoths?
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zsa
Famous Hero
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posted October 26, 2001 04:06 AM |
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Crystal Managment
Here is my opinion:
1. If u got a good crystal flow (mine or resource sillo at rampart or artefact) go fist for the Cyclopes, then, after some time, upgrade your behemoths. That is , of course if u are not badly pressed by your computer
2. If u don't have a constant crystal flow or if u are badly pressed by oyur opponent, go for the Ancients.
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Ichon
Responsible
Famous Hero
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posted October 26, 2001 06:48 AM |
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methods
Well, for one thing as stated before, ToH maps are very, very rich! I've never had a problem on those maps getting both cyclops, and behemoths week 1. Or else getting just behemoths, but also city hall-you give up castle doing that, but that +2000 gold per day can be enough to make it matter. It's better to have 5 ancients week 3 then 6 behemoths. Whatever seems good at the time. Scouting out the neutral towns which almost all ToH maps provide for your side is important to the decision. Now, for randoms- I actually think going for Capitol is the better decision most often. Sure you might occasionally end up only a couple days away from your opponent once the monsters are cleared out, but you aren't screwed for sure even then, it depends on how aggressive your opponent is. The main reason going for gold is better on those randoms is for buying scouts. Scouting is very, very important. The second reason is so you can afford to buy upgrads for any neutral towns you get real fast. Maybe only to level 3-4 with low resources from not many mines, but you will still gain a production advantage more quickly. Even if the game only lasts to the 3rd week which is fairly often in randoms you will be better off going for the gold. With capitol day 1 week 2, you should be able to get 7th that week by trading and scrounging etc, and also afford to replace all your low level troops that lost some #'s fighting thru the map week 1. Your opponent meanwhile will be struggling to fund his expansion by week 3 unless some lucky circumstances. And this is on 100%. 100% and 130% play nearly the same. Anything higher than 130% it's better to go for capitol in almost all cases. So many games I thought it might have been a mistake when I see my enemy bearing down on me week 2 or early week 3, but if I stay holed in my castle, by that point in the game he won't have upgraded troops so early, and his hero will be fairly weak, the castle is enough to tip odds in your favor during that time. If he assaults you or hangs around in your area till end of week 3 or week 4 he just killed himself.
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zsa
Famous Hero
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posted October 26, 2001 09:36 PM |
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Very good analysis Ichon - going for capitol is not a newbie tactic. It is just another way to watch things. And a random map is usually very different from a toh map - many times, you should go for capitol(day 1-3 of week 2) instead of creture dwellings.
Oh, and in my previous post I was also talking about randoms.
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wiggy_wam
Promising
Famous Hero
local pirate
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posted November 01, 2001 09:01 AM |
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hehe, I won without the behemoths week 1
yes, believe it or not, he was also at a much higher ranking than me.
Now you might ask, why would I do such a thing as go for the cyclopses, when I could have chosen behemoths instead...
well, it's because on day 3, I found a witch teaching archery, and I also found: "the golden bow" (guarded, of course)
it was a beautiful battle (for me). his dragons waited ... then ... WAFOOMP! 10 cyclopses took down 2 dragons.
therefore some new advice: if you have the golden bow and expert archery ... well, you know
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted December 27, 2004 10:46 AM |
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Revived.
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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