Heroes of Might and Magic Community
visiting hero! Register | Today's Posts | Games | Search! | FAQ/Rules | AvatarList | MemberList | Profile


Age of Heroes Headlines:  
5 Oct 2016: Heroes VII development comes to an end.. - read more
6 Aug 2016: Troubled Heroes VII Expansion Release - read more
26 Apr 2016: Heroes VII XPack - Trial by Fire - Coming out in June! - read more
17 Apr 2016: Global Alternative Creatures MOD for H7 after 1.8 Patch! - read more
7 Mar 2016: Romero launches a Piano Sonata Album Kickstarter! - read more
19 Feb 2016: Heroes 5.5 RC6, Heroes VII patch 1.7 are out! - read more
13 Jan 2016: Horn of the Abyss 1.4 Available for Download! - read more
17 Dec 2015: Heroes 5.5 update, 1.6 out for H7 - read more
23 Nov 2015: H7 1.4 & 1.5 patches Released - read more
31 Oct 2015: First H7 patches are out, End of DoC development - read more
5 Oct 2016: Heroes VII development comes to an end.. - read more
[X] Remove Ads
LOGIN:     Username:     Password:         [ Register ]
HOMM1: info forum | HOMM2: info forum | HOMM3: info mods forum | HOMM4: info CTG forum | HOMM5: info mods forum | MMH6: wiki forum | MMH7: wiki forum
Heroes Community > Library of Enlightenment > Thread: Castle Economics
Thread: Castle Economics This thread is 2 pages long: 1 2 · NEXT»
ThE_HyDrA
ThE_HyDrA


Admirable
Famous Hero
The Leader of all Hydras
posted January 29, 2002 08:48 AM bonus applied.

Castle Economics

The question has plagued Heroes players for the entire duration of their Heroes playing careers (Well me anyway ). I think now, it has reached a point, where we will be able to solve which castle and efficiency program is suitable for the map, and the opponents on it, being experienced Heroes players.
Things that need to be taken into account, I feel are, the net spending cost, and the castles advantages and disadvantages, obviously. An aim here, is to build the castle up economically, without any stalls, or drawbacks.
So, this is post is about the strategy on how to use a certain castles strengths to the best ways possible, and how to hide their weaknesses.

(Info Sourced from mmportals.com)

Shall we start with the Castle town? Now we do know that it is generally quite fast, and the units deal high amounts of damage. Although the hit points of creatures are average, and the mid game units are an average assortment. The basics of castles we already know, but what and how will the special abilities of certain creatures affect other castles?
The Heroes, Clerics and Knights both have quite clear preferences on which of the four primary skills. A downfall of Castle heroes is their inability to learn Necromancy, mainly because it is the totally opposite order to Castle.
As you may or may not know, the Castle town has the highest upgraded structure cost in the game, costing 98,500 gold to complete. Another aspect that hurts the castle, is that you will need 6 gems per week to spend on recruiting Archangels, which leaves you 1 day of recuperation, and hardly allows for any further buying of any other structures demanding gems.
Since two of the creatures in the Castle town have 2X attack, it is useful to use bless and prayer to heighten the damage done. This is extremely useful against creatures with high and low hit points, for the reason that the high creatures are not as safe with the double strike and 1X retaliation, and the lower levels are disposed of more easily.
The main objective of castle troops as high damage troops, they need to deal damage as efficiently as possible, this has much also to do with speed, and that is where tactics comes in hand, as the army has the ability to advance about 1/5 of the battlefield.
A main focus on the battlefield is dealing the damage capabilities of the Castle units as quickly as possible, so one makes use of the high amount of creatures before they are deteriorated. This, doesn’t prove to be to hard, as the Castle creatures are quick, and have the aid of spells like clone and haste behind them.

Map and Surroundings:
If you are a defensive player, who likes to build up the necessary equipment to fuel the expensive Castle town, you are better off on L and XL maps under very hard and impossible difficulty. With the Castle, smaller maps and easier difficulty settings, one should be able to concentrate more on troop raising. If playing on impossible difficulty setting, you won't have any money or resources to start with (except you got the "bonus" there). So if you want to build something in the first turn you must move out with your hero and collect money and resources. If you find a treasure chest, take the money. If you locate an Ore Pit or a Sawmill take it immediately. You will need all resources sooner or later and it can't hurt to take a mine as soon as possible, but you don't need to rush things. On very hard difficulty you will recruit another hero on the first day and equip him or her with a spell book. (If it is a Knight)

With this (brief) information, you will be able roughly to figure out what towns and creatures will suffer heavily under castle, and ones, which will hurt them. But, I’ve decided to expand more on this particular topic.

Castle does well against:

Dungeon:
As the creatures are well catered for by all aspects of Castles hard hitting department. The Archangels, Champions, and Crusader will usually outplay the Black Dragons, Scorpicores, and Minotaur Kings. Although the only problem is the Scorpicores Paralysing attack, as it can put a serious halt in your advance.

Necropolis:
Life vs. Death, and spells come in very handy with this town, as they generally counter one another! The number of skeletons is probably one of the biggest threats of the Necropolis town, as the Necromancy skill can see experienced heroes with over 600 skeletons. They are dealt with predominantly from your shooters, zealots and marksmen, while the crusaders and Champions dispose of the Ghost Dragon, and the Archangels can focus on the Dread Knights.

Stronghold:
An advantage against the Stronghold for the Castle town, is that they predominantly focus on the offensive aspect of battles, and care little in the ways of defence, which suits Castle particularly well, as they can easily cut them down with heavy hitters. The only trouble is, that the stronghold are also very proficient in the ways of attacking, so the best strategy to have is hit them as hard as soon has possible.

Castle suffers against:

Rampart:
As they are resistant to many direct damage spells, and are relatively quick at high levels, and match Castle troops in many ways. Also they have high HP, so it will take longer for your own troops to cut them down. Therefore, you are better off using spells on yourself, such as mass bless.

Inferno:
Inferno heroes especially heretics are quite proficient in Fire and Earth magic, so they may use the Armageddon and Berserk spells to quickly cut down forces, but not caring much about their own. A good way to get rid of Efreets is using shooters, as the fire shield effect cannot come into play. Pit Lords can prove a nuisance, when the constantly keep resurrecting Familiars every time you defeat them, and the three headed Cerberi are always a threat. Devils are easily catered for by the Archangels, and if you must attack Efreets by hand-to-hand, it should be completed by Champions or Archangels.

Yes, the Castles is very strong, but it also pays for that, literally with the cost involved in recruiting those pricey upgrades. The Castle’s strength lies within its creatures and spells, and without the necessary combination, Castle can get flattened by the Inferno and Rampart towns.
These are the average statistics for creature growth and accumulation:
Having a fully built up town with all upgrades, you can recruit 2245 Hit Points per week which is average. You have to pay 29580 Gold and another 6 Gems for them, so the average HP cost you roughly 13.2 gold which is second, only to Inferno. The HPs do the most Damage of all towns, relatively (per HP) as well as absolutely.

If you know these facts already, please contribute with your knowledge, and provide us with your town strategy, since it is beneficial to all to share information around, so that everyone learns from it.
Please, if I am wrong in a certain area of my post, please don’t hesitate to point it out, since I am sure there will be some.
I hope this proves helpful to the newcomers to Heroes and the Community.
The vibe or meaning of this post is to help with castle strategies, and how effectively the money is spent on a town’s creatures and hero investments. If you have questions, please ask them here.

____________
"Dragons may breathe fire, but Hydras have many heads." - The Creed of Hydras
"As the Dragon drew its breath, the Hydra pounced, swiftly but powerfully, and the Dragon was defeated.”

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | PP | Quote Reply | Link
Thunder
Thunder


Responsible
Famous Hero
posted January 29, 2002 06:50 PM bonus applied.

I disagree with Inferno part. They have low health and get easily scrippled by Castle troops due to their high damage.
Berserk and Armageddod are only spells which make advantage for Inferno.

If you see Inferno hero with Efreets only near your area, take only your Arch-Angels (in single stack and provided you have Anti-Magic) and you can easily take them out (in normal circumstances). If you don't have Anti-Magic but do have expert Haste, take your Champions and Royal Griffins with you. With Haste in effect your Angels, Champions and Griffins should usually be able to take Efreets out without Efreets getting turn. Would the opponent had divided his or her Efreet Sultans, divide your troops to as many stacks as he or she has.

If you engage Inferno hero whom has possibly Berserk with him or her (usually you should rely on that opponent has Berserk), you should deploy your troops like this (from top to bottom = from left to right):  Crusaders,  Royal Griffins, Halberdiers, Arch Angels, Zealots, Champions, Marksmen. Expert Berserk can effect at most on four stacks out of seven (if cast on middle troops). If Berserk is cast on the turn of Arch Devils or Efreet Sultans, it has to be cast on the Royal Griffins (otherwise opponent would rely on the chance that you don't have cure or dispel and/or expert Water Magic, Anti-Magic is a nuisance too). So only Royal Griffins are effected and you can dispel or cure on the turn  of Champions. If Anti-Magic is cast on the turn of the Cerberi, it will be cast on Zealots (so they got crippled after the Arch Angels have retaliated) and you can counter the Berserk on the turn of the Crusaders. If the Berserk is cast on the turn of the Pit Lords, only unit effected will be the Crusaders and you can counter on the turn of the Marksmen. If opponents wait with his or her spellcasting, you should cast (advanced at least) Anti-Magic on Arch Angels before the last two turns of your creatures.

If your Arch Angels can kill the Arch Devils in one blow and you have expert Haste (casting and attacking with Champions and Crusaders. If THEY can take the Efreets out, you can attack with all troops before opponent gets move in), consider the following deployement (from top to bottom = from left to right):  Marksmen, Zealots, Champions, Arch Angels, Royal Griffins, Crusaders, Halberdiers. Only shooters (which propably have been blocked with Efreets, if they survived) or Crusaders and Halberdiers are affected. Crusaders kill the Halberdiers and won't get damaged too much. If your Arch Angels can kill the Efreet Sultans (but not Devils or you don't have mass Haste), blind the Devils and kill Sultans and move the Campions and the Griffins.


Tactics advantage will reduce the effectivity of Berserk (greater the advantage, the more it reduces).

If you should be so ill-fated that you don't have any means to counter the Berserk, deploy your troops as following: Crusaders, Marksmen, Royal Griffins, Arch Angels, Halberdiers, Champions, Zealots. Wait with the Arch Angels (it would be foolish to waste their turn if it appears that opponent doesn't have Berserk, however, if you know that he or she has Berserk move or attack with your Arch Angels), and cast a defensive spell like shield or stoneskin right away (or high damage spell on opponent).
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
attila
attila


Known Hero
Young Warrior
posted January 31, 2002 02:35 AM

plz 4 my sake and all others shorten that up i hate reading so if ya dont mind could you make that any shorter
____________
¤¤¤ Attila ¤¤¤

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
sos
sos


Known Hero
posted January 31, 2002 08:50 PM

nice theory Thunder, but in a real battle things dont always work your way

first off, it's very likely that Inferno will have more troops than castle, because 1. Inferno is easier to build and 2. Inferno can raise deamons.


second, in a real battle you dont know what spells your opponent has. So you are first with AA and what do you do?

If you don't have anti blind artie or antimagic, you almost always must cast first and possibly attack, otherwise you will get your AA blinded on the wait turn of ES or AD. In this case there are 3 spells that will greatly benefit Castle - clone, prayer, and especially FRENZY. Frenzied your AA will kill 1 AD for each AA (for high level heroes) and although the AA will be defenseless after that losing the AD is a huge loss for Inferno. If you dont have 1 of these spells, you dont have that much options. Mass slow or mass haste wont do you much good.
If you attack with AA as a first move they will probably be dead in round 1 or severely crippled. If you wait with AA, you are risking being attacked with AD, and armagedoned on the ES turn. Another option for inferno is mass protection from fire first round and armageddons from there on.

Another nasty surprise may be Sacrifice. This spell will bring back (permanently) a large number of devils sacrificing some (not many) imps. Cast in the right moment this spell is a killer.

How about force field? Devils will be vulnurable only to shooters/spells.
Frensy - especially good for devils.
Berserk - you already covered this, but in practice its more difficult to neutralize it.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
dragonsister
dragonsister

Hero of Order
MapHaven administrator
posted February 01, 2002 04:14 AM

Quote:
plz 4 my sake and all others shorten that up i hate reading so if ya dont mind could you make that any shorter


Some things take time and thought to say, describe, cover - and *I* like reading long, thoughtful articles!  I like collecting them, too - I have a few on MapHaven (http://heroes.mycomport.com/).

DragonSister
http://heroes.mycomport.com/

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Aculias
Aculias


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Pretty Boy Angel Sacraficer
posted February 01, 2002 07:23 AM

If you can concentrate on getting earth or air magic at expert lv which usually have 1 or both of them & knowing (orless they have the speed artifact) that arch angels are one of the fastest in the games, you can caste mass haste, slow or even bless if you have water.
Example is for the rampart.
mass haste your arch angels will go first ,after goldies then your griffens.
Your shooters will also go first.
Gold dragons are so hard to build compared to the arch angels.
If you have water you can caste mass prayer that will work.
Maybe teleport but I usually dont use it.
____________
Dreaming of a Better World

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
sos
sos


Known Hero
posted February 01, 2002 10:25 PM

lol Aculias

so you cast mass haste on your AA turn just to have your army mass slowed on the goldies turn? Nice tactics, lol

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Aculias
Aculias


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Pretty Boy Angel Sacraficer
posted February 01, 2002 11:03 PM

Well it takes awhile to build golds, it's hard enough to build greens & in theses cases I would rather cast slow on them if they have the golds.
T silver pegasi is not that strong but fast & the dwarfs & the dendroids are to slow as it is.
If they have golds I garuntee you will have some good spells to cast on the elves.
If the golds want to come & attack well be my guess.
Without taking chances I have to use my spells first though, can not afford to have his elves go first, orless I have implosion. (alot of golds).


____________
Dreaming of a Better World

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Ichon
Ichon


Responsible
Famous Hero
posted February 02, 2002 03:23 AM

good points sos

Sacrifice is very good spell, and not bad at all for Inferno. Inferno can usually get his AD wasted two times and sac the imps then the magogs. Of course the p[enalty is not being able to cast any other offensive magics, and that can hurt if forced to sac round 1. Otherwise though... as for Beserk- Thunder made good points about the tactical line-up for Castle going into battle, there is only so much you can do there. Hitting hard and hoping you kill enough HP round 1 that a beserk won't matter that much is usually the best bet, unless armies are huge and no way to kill enough HP to reduce stacks to 0, or enemy blocked well and no CL or meteor.

The one thing that makes saying anything about battle sort of impossible is that you rarely know exactly the spells of opponent. You can make really good plans if you know, if you don't- being able to adapt is more important than anything else besides artifacts.

I would say for Castle casting anti on AA is almost always good idea. That way AA aren't blinded, beserked, or imploded. Of course, you better do it first round or its pointless, and that means AA can't be hastened after that possibly giving first move in rnd 2 to enemy. Also, castle usually has less HP than other towns because if you built AA week 1, then you can't build cavaliers also. So you will from 2-4 less 6th level than enemy. Sometimes important # when your crusaders are also not very many yet.



 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
andiangelsla...
andiangelslayer


Disgraceful
Famous Hero
posted February 03, 2002 04:42 AM

archdevils are considered weak often, 1 point is they dont do much damage. that isnt true, coz they got a good attack skill compared to most units, you cant only see the damage of 30-40. also very good defense and no retaliate makes up for the only 200hps. of course spells can hurt them, but also the less hp - the faster resurrected. they fast as hell, so overall its dumb to say archdevils are bad and inferno sux, inferno is strong, and those tests from wiggy where they didnt win a battle are bullsnow, inferno has fast units so the dumb comp moves them to front where they get ganged
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Aculias
Aculias


Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Pretty Boy Angel Sacraficer
posted February 03, 2002 06:53 AM

Ok lets see
Familiars one if the fastest 1st lv creatures in the game, weak as heck other then that but personally my fav 1st lv creature because when you have a big army, they most likely want to use a spell on theirselves or one of my strongest heroes.
Is'nt channeling a *****.
Magogs or even just gogs are the only shooters & not the best shooters but I like them, if you have a bunch of them well lets hope they dont go first too soon
Cerebi are probally one of the best 3rd lv creature, with their no retalliation attack possible to hit up to three at once.
Horny demons well not much to say about them for they have no specials but have ok stats
Pit lords have a really strong attack & their defense is ok, but their specialty is great.
Sultans one of my fav in this game & sometimes I even think that they are more powerful then reg devils not archs.
They are fast, they fly with great attack & hp.
Their powershield is very powerful if you know how to use it right.
Arch Devils or regular devils are excellent.they have great attack power which can cut any enemy to size & if they were faster then Archangels I would fsvor then anytime.
Their no retalliation is great.
I like having high morale when playing with inferno.


____________
Dreaming of a Better World

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Thunder
Thunder


Responsible
Famous Hero
posted February 03, 2002 05:55 PM
Edited By: Thunder on 4 Feb 2002

So, was I saying that Inferno as a town is a total bull***t? Nope! I was saying that the Castle have a better chances to win Inferno than Inferno have Castle (albeit only slight and depending on the skill of the players, map and luck). None of the towns are weaker or stronger than others (except Conflux, which is a way too powerful and thus unbalanced). Read my texts more carefully in future. And all the things people listed on behalf of the Inferno I knew, and some of them I have even written (if you look it out from older topics).

Inferno might not be an expensive town but most of its troops are (and especially Pit Lords). Arch Devils aren't bad units (their weaknesses are their high cost, low health (200) and damage (30-40) while their strenghts are their high attack (26), speed (17), defense (28), no retalition against them. -1 luck is only a small advantage as there is no negative luck), but against Arch Angels (A30, D30, Da50, speed 18, H250 and the hate-relationship with the Devils) they will perish (of course there have to be much less of them than there is Arch Angels if AAs can take them out with their first strike (or Castle hero should have a very high attack skill and offense while Inferno hero has a low defense and no armorer) which is a rather rare thing to happen).  

I didn't said that Berserk is an easy spell to counter, which was the reason why I put so much thought on it (compared to Armageddon atleast). Berserk is an exceptionally good spell for the gameplay as it demands most strategies to counter it than any other spell in Heroes 3. Still the Berserk isn't uncounterable (and doesn't work against Necropolis as it's mind spell).

Berserk is also available for every town (Inferno and Tower have the best chances to get it) but some hero types have hard time to get Fire Magic. So, what about if both Castle and Inferno have Berserk and on expert level and both heroes know that opponent has it (both have visited the same town where the Berserk is)?
This might occur: Arch Angels attack creatures on the place where Castle won't cast Berserk (or the place where they cast Berserk ). Inferno casts Berserk (on the area where Royal Griffins are but it doesn't reach Champions (Royal Griffins are top). Castle casts Berserk on the turn of the Champions, et cetare.

Creatures with high attack skill (higher the attack skill compared to the defense, the more they suffer), low health damage and offense will suffer most under Berserk while creatures with armorer, high defense, high health and low damage will suffer least.

Would the Arch Devils be next to the Efreets (and there is relatively few Efreets compared to Arch Devils and/or Inferno hero has high attack skill and low defense skill) cast Berserk on them (doesn't even has to be on expert level) and attack them with the Arch Angels. The Devils will complete the job for you. And you can now move the Champions and Royal Griffins also.  

Of course, the Resistance will help against Berserk too (the thing I forgotted to mention).

And sos, the anti-berserk strategies do work in practise (especially the dispel/cure strategy) it depends just on the situation. And sometimes you do know what spells opponent has. Examples: your ally told them to you, you have had fight before against that particular hero, you have seen that opponent got Tome of Fire Magic and both of you have visited the same Mage Guild.

Never be without a plan. And never rely on it.  


____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Moon
Moon


Adventuring Hero
posted February 03, 2002 11:21 PM

Wiggies tests suck completly. Same as giving Necro few Skellis is giving Inferno few Demons.

At least he should have Secrafice all Imps and Magogs vs. Demons
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Lord_Echo
Lord_Echo


Famous Hero
Ranger of the good
posted February 06, 2002 02:57 PM

the stronghold gots the cheapes cratures in all HOMM 3 right?
____________


Don`t be simple, be complx-

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Thunder
Thunder


Responsible
Famous Hero
posted February 06, 2002 03:38 PM

Cheapest creatures (upgraded only):
Level 1: Sprite (30 gold)
Level 2: Zombie (125 gold)
Level 3: Orc Chieftain (165 gold)
Level 4: Horned Demon & Silver Pegasus (275 gold)
Level 5: Dendroid Soldiers (425 gold)
Level 6: Magic Elemental (800 gold)
Level 7: Phoenix (2000 gold +1 mercury)

Most expensive creatures (upgraded only):
Level 1: Centaur Captain (90 gold)
Level 2: Storm Elemental (250 gold)
Level 3: Ice Elemental (375 gold)
Level 4: Vampire Lord (500 gold)
Level 5: Thunderbird & Pit Lords (700 gold)
Level 6: Naga Queen (1600 gold)
Level 7: Arch Angel (5000 gold +3 gems)



 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
sos
sos


Known Hero
posted February 06, 2002 03:42 PM

it's funny that many people considered sprites to be the best level 1 unit, and Centaurus captains - the second best, and a Captain cost as much as 3 sprites

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Moon
Moon


Adventuring Hero
posted February 07, 2002 11:09 AM

Thats already in Account. If you count same numbers, Sprites suck completly, with 50per Week, they are great
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Sir_Elric
Sir_Elric


Responsible
Famous Hero
Having a bad hair day.
posted July 02, 2002 03:58 PM
Edited By: Sir_Elric on 2 Jul 2002

Cyclops are a favorite shooter of mine in AI games but in MP I rarely go strong hold because of the high crystals needed.
Even though the Behemoths are relatively easy to build.
____________
Neverwinter Nights - "City of Melnibone"
Direct connect - ausnwn2.dyndns.org:5121

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
angelito
angelito


Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
posted December 27, 2004 04:01 PM

Revived.

Interesting first posts.
Is there anyone who can go on with the next towns and their economics?
____________
Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
ElectricBunny
ElectricBunny


Known Hero
Pimp My Box
posted December 19, 2007 01:53 PM

Quote:
The question has plagued Heroes players for the entire duration of their Heroes playing careers (Well me anyway ). I think now, it has reached a point, where we will be able to solve which castle and efficiency program is suitable for the map, and the opponents on it, being experienced Heroes players.
Things that need to be taken into account, I feel are, the net spending cost, and the castles advantages and disadvantages, obviously. An aim here, is to build the castle up economically, without any stalls, or drawbacks.
So, this is post is about the strategy on how to use a certain castles strengths to the best ways possible, and how to hide their weaknesses.

(Info Sourced from mmportals.com)

Shall we start with the Castle town? Now we do know that it is generally quite fast, and the units deal high amounts of damage. Although the hit points of creatures are average, and the mid game units are an average assortment. The basics of castles we already know, but what and how will the special abilities of certain creatures affect other castles?
The Heroes, Clerics and Knights both have quite clear preferences on which of the four primary skills. A downfall of Castle heroes is their inability to learn Necromancy, mainly because it is the totally opposite order to Castle.
As you may or may not know, the Castle town has the highest upgraded structure cost in the game, costing 98,500 gold to complete. Another aspect that hurts the castle, is that you will need 6 gems per week to spend on recruiting Archangels, which leaves you 1 day of recuperation, and hardly allows for any further buying of any other structures demanding gems.
Since two of the creatures in the Castle town have 2X attack, it is useful to use bless and prayer to heighten the damage done. This is extremely useful against creatures with high and low hit points, for the reason that the high creatures are not as safe with the double strike and 1X retaliation, and the lower levels are disposed of more easily.
The main objective of castle troops as high damage troops, they need to deal damage as efficiently as possible, this has much also to do with speed, and that is where tactics comes in hand, as the army has the ability to advance about 1/5 of the battlefield.
A main focus on the battlefield is dealing the damage capabilities of the Castle units as quickly as possible, so one makes use of the high amount of creatures before they are deteriorated. This, doesn’t prove to be to hard, as the Castle creatures are quick, and have the aid of spells like clone and haste behind them.

Map and Surroundings:
If you are a defensive player, who likes to build up the necessary equipment to fuel the expensive Castle town, you are better off on L and XL maps under very hard and impossible difficulty. With the Castle, smaller maps and easier difficulty settings, one should be able to concentrate more on troop raising. If playing on impossible difficulty setting, you won't have any money or resources to start with (except you got the "bonus" there). So if you want to build something in the first turn you must move out with your hero and collect money and resources. If you find a treasure chest, take the money. If you locate an Ore Pit or a Sawmill take it immediately. You will need all resources sooner or later and it can't hurt to take a mine as soon as possible, but you don't need to rush things. On very hard difficulty you will recruit another hero on the first day and equip him or her with a spell book. (If it is a Knight)

With this (brief) information, you will be able roughly to figure out what towns and creatures will suffer heavily under castle, and ones, which will hurt them. But, I’ve decided to expand more on this particular topic.

Castle does well against:

Dungeon:
As the creatures are well catered for by all aspects of Castles hard hitting department. The Archangels, Champions, and Crusader will usually outplay the Black Dragons, Scorpicores, and Minotaur Kings. Although the only problem is the Scorpicores Paralysing attack, as it can put a serious halt in your advance.

Necropolis:
Life vs. Death, and spells come in very handy with this town, as they generally counter one another! The number of skeletons is probably one of the biggest threats of the Necropolis town, as the Necromancy skill can see experienced heroes with over 600 skeletons. They are dealt with predominantly from your shooters, zealots and marksmen, while the crusaders and Champions dispose of the Ghost Dragon, and the Archangels can focus on the Dread Knights.

Stronghold:
An advantage against the Stronghold for the Castle town, is that they predominantly focus on the offensive aspect of battles, and care little in the ways of defence, which suits Castle particularly well, as they can easily cut them down with heavy hitters. The only trouble is, that the stronghold are also very proficient in the ways of attacking, so the best strategy to have is hit them as hard as soon has possible.

Castle suffers against:

Rampart:
As they are resistant to many direct damage spells, and are relatively quick at high levels, and match Castle troops in many ways. Also they have high HP, so it will take longer for your own troops to cut them down. Therefore, you are better off using spells on yourself, such as mass bless.

Inferno:
Inferno heroes especially heretics are quite proficient in Fire and Earth magic, so they may use the Armageddon and Berserk spells to quickly cut down forces, but not caring much about their own. A good way to get rid of Efreets is using shooters, as the fire shield effect cannot come into play. Pit Lords can prove a nuisance, when the constantly keep resurrecting Familiars every time you defeat them, and the three headed Cerberi are always a threat. Devils are easily catered for by the Archangels, and if you must attack Efreets by hand-to-hand, it should be completed by Champions or Archangels.

Yes, the Castles is very strong, but it also pays for that, literally with the cost involved in recruiting those pricey upgrades. The Castle’s strength lies within its creatures and spells, and without the necessary combination, Castle can get flattened by the Inferno and Rampart towns.
These are the average statistics for creature growth and accumulation:
Having a fully built up town with all upgrades, you can recruit 2245 Hit Points per week which is average. You have to pay 29580 Gold and another 6 Gems for them, so the average HP cost you roughly 13.2 gold which is second, only to Inferno. The HPs do the most Damage of all towns, relatively (per HP) as well as absolutely.

If you know these facts already, please contribute with your knowledge, and provide us with your town strategy, since it is beneficial to all to share information around, so that everyone learns from it.
Please, if I am wrong in a certain area of my post, please don’t hesitate to point it out, since I am sure there will be some.
I hope this proves helpful to the newcomers to Heroes and the Community.
The vibe or meaning of this post is to help with castle strategies, and how effectively the money is spent on a town’s creatures and hero investments. If you have questions, please ask them here.



Wow long post I really think that deserved a QP.

Anyway my point is that if you are playing on a map with low resources   then use Conflux. Look - everything is really cheap plus you get cheap but really good Sprites and numerous, as-good-as-devils Phoenixes as well. The Sprites and the low level shooters allow you to storm mines early on. However, for resourceful maps you need Tower. Titans, nagas and genies are certainly worth it (though I miss the times in homm5 where mages can cast spells). Thanks for a good thread and I really admired Thunder for his great post too.
____________

 Send Instant Message | Send E-Mail | View Profile | Quote Reply | Link
Jump To: « Prev Thread . . . Next Thread » This thread is 2 pages long: 1 2 · NEXT»
Post New Poll    Post New Topic    Post New Reply

Page compiled in 0.1363 seconds