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Heroes Community > Heroes 5 - Modders Workshop > Thread: Heroes 5.5 Impossible Strategies
Thread: Heroes 5.5 Impossible Strategies This thread is 3 pages long: 1 2 3 · NEXT»
azalen
azalen


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Known Hero
posted November 16, 2016 01:06 AM bonus applied by VokialBG on 17 Nov 2016.
Edited by azalen at 17:35, 12 May 2018.

Heroes 5.5 Impossible Strategies

I wanted to share some of my strategies for beating Heroes 5.5 on Impossible with the community.   Magnomagus and company have done an exceptional job with this mod, and I haven't seen any significant strategy threads (other than legacy TOE forum and Celestial Heavens posts).  So, I wanted to at least start the discussion.   First, let's start with Terminology:

Terminology/Context:

This guide is written primarily from the perspective of the "Let's Fight! Tote" duel map, a great practice map for getting better at the game.  This duel map shares many characteristics with other duel maps:

1) Initial Wood/Ore mines are guarded by large level 1 mobs.  Your 2nd wood/ore mine (located next to your second town) is guarded by level 3 mobs.
2) You are growing a second town along with your main town.  There are some low-level creature dwellings around the map to enhance your creature growth rate.  
3) All crystal/gem/mercury/sulfur mines are guarded by level 3 mobs
4) Access to the "artifact region", a region containing major artifact/stat buildings such as Dragon Utopias and the like, is guarded by 1 or more high-powered level 7 stacks (on many duel maps, these gate guards are a mixture of units designed to not be vulnerable to any 1 particular magic strategy).  All buildings in the artifact regions are typically guarded by level 6-7 stack that grow at impossible growth rates.
5) The "artifact region" typically connects your opponent's land area to yours.  Therefore, in order to attack your opponent, you must go through the artifact region, and kill the level 7 gate guards.  
6) A "Week 3/4/5" break refers to breaking the level 7 stack that guards access to the artifact region.

A Week 3 break means you are doing very well.  You are way ahead of the AI.  In this case, not only can you get major artifacts on your side of the map, but also take artifacts on the opponents side of the map, creating overwhelming advantage.  

A Week 4 break is about above-average.  You are ahead of the AI and have dibs on the major artifacts on your side of the map and in the center of the map.  

A Week 5 break is average to below average.  Most of the time, the AI will break around week 5, so you could be even or behind.  

A Week 6 break means you are way behind and have likely lost out on all major artifacts.  You are holding on, but could pull it out with a well executed strategy.  



To beat Impossible AI, you must recognize several things:

1) Neutral Creature stacks will almost always outnumber your army and have much higher growth rates.  

2) The opposing AI starts with a lot more resources than you do and cheats.  Expect, no matter how well you play, for the AI to have an equal to or better army than yours.  

3) Impossible AI requires that you maintain your momentum, or you will lose the game.  Taking massive losses in any one battle is usually a game killer.  However, you can not wait to get an overwhelming force, because you will fall behind the opponent and the neutral growth rate.  



There are several core tenets that you must master in order to achieve victory on Impossible:

1) Blocking:

This is the most important concept in all of Heroes 5.  The core concept of blocking is that all creature stacks, no matter how powerful, are limited by the fact that they can only attack one stack at a time (with some exceptions).  Therefore, you can greatly limit your army losses by forcing a very powerful stack to attack one of your meaningless stacks.  i.e A big stack of Arch Angels isn't going to do much to your army if they spend their attack step killing a 1 unit goblin stack.  When blocking, you want stacks you generally don't care about (usually of 1 unit each) to block and take hits so that your big damage dealers (usually your ranged units) take no losses.

-Know your Keyboard Keys: A non-obvious point to beginners (considering that most of the game is controlled with the mouse) is that you can split your creature stacks at battle setup time and on the army screen by holding down shift and clicking the unit.    

-Understand That Army Slots are a Limited Resource: Sometimes, deploying your full army isn't the best move for avoiding losses.  You only have 7 army slots, and if you take them all with valuable unit stacks, chances are they will take losses.  Many times, you are better off deploying more 1 unit stacks for blockers/decoys in those slots than your full army stacks.  A squire hero can help a main hero maximize 1-unit blocking/decoy slots by holding the main hero's primary army stacks while the main engages with most army slots filled with blocking/decoy stacks.    

-Understand your own Army's special blocking capabilities:  A number of factions go beyond just normal bloocking.  The simplest example of this is the Necropolis ghost unit with etherealness.  Inferno allows you to gate in additional blockers with their blocking stacks (provided the blocking stack has 3 units).  The Last Stand Morale perk can resurrect blockers when they die (provided there are 2 units in the stack).  Some hero specials create elementals or ghosts when stack dies, which can potentially be used for further blocking.  Dwarves can use runes like etherealness.  Finally, some units, like obsidian gargoyles, can absorb magic attacks and take no damage.

-Understand the Opponent Stack:  If it is a large stack, blocking becomes much easier, because you only have to keep off 2-3 attackers at once.  If it is a dragon stack, you should position your blocking units one tile away so their breath can't hit your ranged (if you have Tactics).

-Atacking the opponent with your ranged stack while in melee range isn't always the right move:  This allows the opposing unit to retaliate, incurring losses to your ranged units.  Sometimes, it is better to stay in defend mode and let your hero and blocking stack finish off the attacker.  

-Use terrain to your advantage.  A terrain element can act as a permanent blocker for you, enabling you to deploy more blockers in another area.  Terrain often plays a huge part in early gatekeeper stack breaks.    

-The "Thin out the immediate attackers" strategy.  With this method, you greatly reduce the units attacking your blockers, but do not finish them off.  By not killing them, these attacking units block other larger stacks from attacking your blockers.  You then direct your ranged units to thin out the larger stacks that are unable to attack.  This works well when going up against large sized creatures.  

-The perk Tactics can often help you with blocking, particularly for blocking large units (very important for barbarians protecting their Centaurs).  



Basic Blocking Primer: A Quick Primer on some Blocking Arrangements.  All of these arrangements are from lower left corner perspective where you can protect your ammo cart.  
--------------------------------------

Table:

B = 1 Unit Blocker (This can be 3 units for Inferno with Gating)
F = Main Blocker Stack (They Serve as Melee Finishers)
R = Ranged Unit Stack
L = Tough Large Level 5-7 Unit
P = Phoenix

This is a basic arrangement against small units.  Surround and protect both your ranged unit and your main blocking stack with 1 unit blockers.  Keep a 1 unit blocker stack in reserve upper left to fill in any holes.

--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
| B |   |   |    
--- --- ---
| B | B |   |
--- --- ---
| F | B |   |
--- --- ---
| R | B |   |
--- --- ---


Minimum blocking arrangement to block against large units in the corner.  Unlike small units, you need only 1 blocker to fully block, not 3.    

--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
|   |   |   |    
--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
|   | B |   |
--- --- ---
| R |   |   |
--- --- ---

Minimum blocking arrangement to block against multi tile attack creatures (Dragons, Blood Eye, Champions) and some area effect creatures (wyverns, thanes, nightmares).  Position your blockers a tile away from your ranged unit and prevent their large bodies from landing next to your ranged creature.  You need 2 blockers to protect your ranged stack at the minimum.      

--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
|   |   |   |    
--- --- ---
|   | B |   |
--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
| R |   | B |
--- --- ---

(Tactics Required) Protect your large unit (i.e. Centaurs) from small units.

--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
|   | B |   |    
--- --- ---
| F | B | B |
--- --- ---
| R | R | B |
--- --- ---
| R | R | B |
--- --- ---

(Tactics Required) Minimum blocking arrangement to block your large unit (i.e. Centaurs) from other large units.  You must protect the diagonal corner.  

--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
|   |   |   |    
--- --- ---
| B |   | B |
--- --- ---
| R | R |   |
--- --- ---
| R | R | B |
--- --- ---


Simple Blocking Arrangement utilizing level 5-7 units as large blockers for your ranged.  Usually, you will put regeneration on your large blocker (or they already have it like Hydra) and endurance buffs.  You can fill the lower right adjacent with a small blocker if necessary against small units.      

--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
|   |   |   |    
--- --- ---
| L | L |   |
--- --- ---
| L | L |   |
--- --- ---
| R |   |   |
--- --- ---


Summoning Blocking: (Credit to Elvin's Celestial Heavens Academy Guide) This blocking is designed to force your Phoenix (an excellent blocker due to being super tough and fire shield) to be constantly re-summoned in the large creature arrangement above.  You must fill all the 2x2 spaces with a 1 unit blockers so that the phoenix appears in the right spot directly above your ranged.        

--- --- ---
| B |   |   |
--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
| B |   |   |
--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
| B |   |   |    
--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
| B |   |   |    
--- --- ---
|   |   |   |
--- --- ---
| B |   |   |    
--- --- ---
| P | P |   |
--- --- ---
| P | P |   |
--- --- ---
| R |   |   |
--- --- ---



2) Locking Down Stacks:

Locking down a stack is an important concept, particularly for dark magic oriented factions.  The idea is that, no matter how powerful the stack, if you lock it down, it can't damage you.  There are a number of ways to both hard lock a stack: (blind, puppet, torpor) or soft lock a stack (slow, wasp swarm, sorrow, confusion).

Locking a stack is one of the more effective ways to take on ranged units early game.  Another way to take on ranged units is to only deploy your blockers and destroy them with your hero, never exposing your ranged dealers to damage.  With this method, you sacrifice a lot of blockers, but you maintain your all-important ranged damage base.    

Good blocking combined with locking stacks is a good way to take on powerful level 6-7 gatekeepers, since both blocking and locking scale infinitely with the power of the stack.  


3) Replenishment Strategy:

No matter how good you are at blocking, there are times where your army will be forced to take losses in order to achieve a must-win goal.  This can be when you are taking on very powerful neutral gate guards (level 6-7 stacks) or ranged stacks in the early game (elvish archers and druids being good examples).  

In general, you want to replenish the losses your non-retaliatory damage dealers take (usually your ranged units).  This is where your replenishment strategy comes in.  Replenishment options can vary widely.  For Might factions, War Machines -> Tent is the most obvious strategy.  Light Magic Regeneration and Resurrection are good options.  Summoning has Arcane Armor and the ability to summon both terrain blocking (Crystal and Blade Barrier) and blocking units (phoenix, phantasmal, elementals).   Dark magic has Vampirism, albeit a level 5 spell.  Necromancers have easy mode with easy access to animate dead and necromancy talent.  

A replenishment strategy is not always for your damage dealers, but your blockers as well.  If your blocking stack dies or takes losses, you can heal/ressummon/ressurect it to block again.  


4) Spend your Money Wisely:  

If you spend money on units that consistently take losses, than you are not investing wisely.  As a general rule of thumb, you want to invest heavily in your ranged damage dealers and a blocking stack early game.   If it is a slow walker (like minotaurs and golems) or a fast glass cannon unit (like genies or griffins), I recommend avoiding spending money on those units until end game.  

For early creeping, you usually only want to spend your money on 2 army slots: your ranged stack and a stack of blockers.  You then occupy the rest of your army slots with 1 unit blockers that are split out from your main blocking stack.  The 1 unit blockers are the ones you want to take the hits and your main blocking stack serves as a melee finisher for anything that gets close to your ranged units.  

Most of the time, you want to save your money to build towards your economy (Capital in particular), your castle (for extra creature growth), your mage guild (for game changing creeping spells), and your level 6-7 dwellings (depending on faction).  So, save your money by only spending it on cheap ranged units and blockers.  

Finally, you want to focus on building your creature dwellings out before the week-end to maximize your unit production.   The idea is that you will have your max army to draw on for the end game, even though you may not be spending money on buying these creatures in the creeping phase.  


5) Building your Main Hero for the End Battle:  

While the main focus of the game is early game creeping and breaking through the high level stacks, you also need to keep an eye on building your hero for the end game.  

First of all, a good rule of thumb is that magic heroes have an easier time creeping (thanks to better replenishment and blocking options), and will usually have access to better artifacts and stats than a might hero (not always, but a general advantage).  To be successful, a magic hero usually needs to take down the gatekeeper stack before the might hero.  A might hero will struggle a bit more on creeping, and usually take more losses, but they also tend to have a stronger end game skill set than magic heroes (again, a generalization, and not always true).  

Magic heroes, however, can turn the tide with a well placed spell.  Puppet Master, unanswered, is devastating to a might hero.  Imploding that stack of Elvish Archers before they can attack is bad news for Sylvan.  Mass buffs/curses like Haste/Slow/Deflect Missile can change the game.  Summoning can often pull games out that once seemed lost by constantly resummoning powerful attackers/blockers.   Also remember that a might hero will also usually have a spell school - most commonly Light or Dark, to counteract whatever the magic hero is doing, but they won't be able to cast as fast without Sorcery.    

Where a Hero goes on the ATB bar is critical to the course of a battle.  This is where perks like Swift Mind and Distract, Hero abilities like Wind Speaker, and skills like Sorcery play an absolutely critical role.  Might heroes always want higher initiative to overwhelm their opponents with powerful, lucky attacks before they can act.  Magic heroes want to go first and cast spells often in order to survive and turn back the onslaught.  

In general, a might hero should always focus on the attack stat, and the magic hero should focus on spell power.

Here are some Templates for common hero builds.... these templates are my opinion for what core talents your hero should take to be competitive on impossible.  The rest of the skills are up to you...

Destruction Magic Hero:
A typical Magic hero Destruction package will include Max Destruction, Max Sorcery, Max Enlightenment, Max Occultism, Max Luck, Swift Mind, Intelligence, Empowered Spells, Caster's Luck, and at least one of the 50% spell damage artifacts.

Blitzkrieg Might Hero (cross battlefield first turn and wreck your opponent early):
Primary Picks: Max Attack, Max Morale, Max Luck, Aura of Swiftness, Tactics, Retribution, Barbarian's Luck, Soldiers Luck (dep on Faction).  Secondary Picks: Max Defense (with Forge Master if worried about Destruction), Max Light Magic (Master of Wrath at a minimum, the others Masters are for specific matchups), Enlightenment (Swift Mind, Intelligence).  War Machines is good for week 1-2 creeping.

Ranged Might Hero (stay back and kill your opponent with ranged units):  
Max Attack, Max Morale, Max Luck, Max War Machines, Archery, Fire Arrow, Tripple Ballista, Barbarian's Luck.  Secondary Picks: Max Defense (with Forge Master if worried about Destruction), Light/Dark/Summoning are all viable for a spell school.  Combat->Preparation is good for Might matchups.


6) Dealing with Missile and Spell Units:

There are often your toughest opponents when creeping.  Here are some pointers for dealing with them:

-If your hero has enough offense (Destruction/Summoning/War Machines/Combat hero), have the hero  kill the ranged units and do not deploy your valuable ranged units.  Instead, deploy your blocking units and break them out into individual 1-stack groups.  Now, the missile units can only target 1 unit blocking stacks while you use your hero to kill them. If you have a squire hero helping your main hero, you can shuffle your other unit stacks onto him, freeing up all your army slots for 1-stack blockers.  Now, the ranged have to kill 7 1-unit stacks to defeat you, giving your hero enough time to destroy the missile units.  

-War Machines -> Engineering beats ranged unit initiative.  This allows your ballista to tear down at least one ranged stack before they can attack.  

-Missile units can be blocked by rushing them with blocking units, arcane crystals, and summoned units.  They can also be blocked by arcane crystal and the like.  If the missile units are split up, a firewall spell that covers 2 stacks is pretty effective against them.  Soft-locking the missile units with wasp blind/swarm/sorrow/hive are other possible options.  

-Swift Mind puts your hero in front of all missile units, giving you a chance to destroy/block at least 2 stacks with an AOE spell before they fire/cast a spell.

-Keep in mind missile damage mitigation strategies.  Mass Confusion is one example.  Some factions have the ability to shield your damage dealers from missile damage like Necropolis Skeletons or Haven Squires.  If you mitigate enough damage, you can sometimes take acceptable losses from ranged engagements.  

-Mild replenishment strategies like regeneration and tent are good enough against missile units if you place them on high defense units like tier-6/7 units.  Vampirism completely dominates missile units.  

-Upgraded gargoyles and other anti-magic units are ideal for taking on mages/druids/pit fiends.  Split them into 1-unit groups and watch the spells rebound as your hero takes them out.    
     

Thoughts on Skill Perks:

Battle Frenzy:  Battle Frenzy is very powerful for several factions and should be considered practically a requirement for them.  It can deliver an outsized damage boost in the early game.  Factions that benefit in particular: Academy (Gremlins, Gargoyles), Inferno (Imps, Demons, Cerebri), Necromancer (Skeleton Archers, Ghosts), Sylvan (Dryads, Dancers, Elvish Archers), Stronghold (you want all the damage you can get for Centaur).

War Machines->First Aid Tent: This is often times the only way might heroes can get a replenishment strategy.  It doesn't have the same power level as Resurrection/Regeneration, but with your might stats, it should be just enough to keep your losses to a minimum in the early creeping weeks.      

Destruction:  Destruction magic is effective early game, but Impossible growth rates can surpass the static scaling of damage spells.  Therefore, it can be very mana intensive, and destruction's effectiveness can depend greatly on how many mana wells are available.  If you are building a Destruction hero, it is absolutely imperative to get expert Destruction as your #1 priority in the early game.  

Sorcery: Sorcery is a top pick early on, as the speed really helps you burn down stacks in the early weeks.  If you are a magic hero, you take this skill as a requirement. Sorcery also has a nice perk in Arcane Brilliance, a perk that potentially gives you +4 spell power at level 20.   All magic heroes should have Swift Mind and Sorcery.   You can also look at Mark of the Wizard, but it means you can't take Arcane Brilliance.  

Empowered Spells: Occultism, as a base level skill, isn't that great, but it allows you to obtain Empowered Spells.  Getting Empowered Spells really helps take your Destruction hero to the next level.  The idea is to have one of the 50% damage artifacts, combine it with Empowered Spells, and spam a relevant destruction spell to your artifact.  This gives you the power and mana efficiency to compete with neutral growth rates.   You can also grab Exorcism for an additional +2 spell power where spell power is at a premium in the early weeks.  

Mark of the Wizard: This perk in Sorcery is able to do some amazing things, especially when combined with dark lock down spells.  Checkout Elvin's Celestial Heavens Academy 3.1 post for some ideas.  The only problem is you have to use half of your hero's ATB to cast it, so it takes a little bit of time to get going (time you may not have)... therefore it can be good or bad depending on the speed/initiative of what you're facing.  Here are some cool things you can do with Mark of the Wizard...

-Double up Destruction Spells, particularly AOE ones.  
-Double up Ressurection
-Blind 2 targets with one spell.
-Summon double the amount of Fire Traps
-Phantom Forces 2 Units
-Cast 2 Arcane Crystals/Blade Barriers in front of multiple ranged units.

Swift Mind: Swift Mind is one of the best perks in the game.  It is very effective for the end game and helps in creeping as well.  If you are a magic hero, consider this perk a requirement and Enlightenment a must take.   It is great for a might hero as well with a typical one spell school build (light or dark).   Intelligence, another Enlightenment perk, is also excellent.  Enlightenment is a great skill in general.

Intelligence: Another winner from Enlightenment, this gives you 40% more mana.  Compare that to Arcane Training, which reduces cost by 20%, and you will see the power of this perk.    

Combat: Combat is primarily an early-game creeping skill that doesn't scale well into the end-game (similar to war machines).  Combat is pretty bad from this perspective: relying on retaliation damage (when you are trying to avoid losses) and buffing your hero damage (which scales poorly) seems to be pretty ineffective.  However, if your hero starts with it (like a lot of Death Knights), there are ways to use it effectively.  Chain Attack and Stunning Strike, when combined with martial arts, is decent when used with high initiative missile units/furies.  Retaliation strike is ok when combined with Defense->Stand Your Ground and high defense units like Battle Griffins, Ingvar dwarves, and Ancient Treants.  Preparation is decent for some factions, but it requires a lot of investment.  Combat and war machines go well together, as War Machines->Tent can resurrect your creatures, allowing them to use the retaliation damage buff without taking losses.  All in all, I wouldn't take combat if it popped up, but if your hero starts with it, there are ways to leverage it to really help your might hero creeping week 1-3.  

Soldier's Luck: This skill is very important for several factions.  The faction that benefits the most would be Necropolis with Vampire Princes and Torpor.  Sylvan has Blind with Unicorns and Warding Arrows (leading to an interesting choice between Arcanes and Master Hunters).  Fear effects from Inferno, Fortress, and Stronghold also benefit.    

Logistics:  I recommend skipping Logistics for at least the first week.  Logistics is not absolutely required for early game, and most of the things you need to do are close together.  Your main focus in the early game should be grabbing the skills you need to help your break Impossible stacks.  Logistics won't do you any good if you can't compete with the growth rate of Impossible Neutrals.

Master of Life: The perk, itself, is nothing to write home about.  However, if you have Light magic, it is an easy way to obtain the highly valuable Regeneration spell... a creeping powerhouse.  Consider taking this if you have Light magic, but haven't been able to pickup Regeneration from your Mage Guild or map.  

Pyromancy: This is an excellent perk for creeping.  It gives you 40% more elementals and guarantees you get the most useful elemental type.  These taken alone would justify the perk as a great week 1-2 creeping aid for taking down those difficult early mine guards.  However, the real power of Pyromancy is that it gives you early access to Firewall, no less than a level 4 spell (see 'firewall' in  'spells' below for its uses).   Firewall allows your summoner to skip destruction all together, and focus your skill investments in other areas.  

Master of Mind: This perk is a must-take for a dark magic user.  Obviously, it allows you to cast Mass Slow, which everyone knows is good.  However, it also allows you to cast Mass Confusion, a decent damage mitigator against ranged units in the early game.

Twilight: This perk can give you a massive +6 spell power (at level 30) for Light and Dark spells.  With the recent emphasis on spell power for Light and Dark, this is quite good.  You have to pickup Master of Abjuration to get it, but that isn't too bad as Deflect Missile and Endurance are both fairly useful.  You can still pickup Master of Wrath, so no biggie.  

 

Thoughts on Spells:

Fire Trap: Fire trap was very powerful in TOE, and remains so in 5.5.  Its impact is that it can deal effectively with slow walker units that you normally wouldn't be able to take early game.  This goes all the way up to Treants, Raks, and Magma Dragons.  You will need Expert Summoning, however, to make it good.  It also has the side benefit of being a bit more mana efficient than Destruction when going against large creatures.

Confusion: Confusion is now a level 2 spell.  It is a primarily an ok damage mitigation spell against ranged units when used with Master of Mind.  Dark, in general, is ineffective until you hit level 3, so confusion at least offers 'something'.  

Sorrow: Sorrow used to be level 1, but is now is level 3 and more powerful.  It is the first Dark spell you encounter that can effectively lock down mobs.  The catch is that it is chance based (morale and luck).  It can be a decent spell to take down a gatekeeper stack if you don't have a better option.  

Phoenix: A common strategy for an early break of gatekeeper stack is racing to lvl 5 mage guild to get Phoenix and abuse it as a blocker/attacker.  Keep resummoning it to block for your ranged units and its attack + fire shield will do the rest.  Phoenix is the main reason you can achieve the rare 'week 2' gatekeeper break.  

Firewall: Although not overpowered for its tier (tier 4), Firewall is quite good because your hero can gain early access to it through the Pyromancy perk.  Firewall is good in 2 respects: the first, more  mundane respect, is that it is pretty good against ranged stacks, particularly when they are in the 4 stack arrangement, and firewall can hit 2 stacks at a time.  The firewall will continue damaging the ranged stack if the initial cast did not initially wipe them out.  The second, much more powerful use, is the 'stacking firewall' effect.  You can stack multiple Firewalls in the same area to, in effect, hit anything that goes into that area with multiple Firewalls at once.  How you use this is you stack multiple firewalls in front of your ranged damage dealers, using your blockers to delay mobs for long enough for you to get down 3-4 firewalls right in front of your ranged.  When your blockers die, the mobs move into attack your ranged, only to die instantly from multiple firewall hits.  This achieves a 'moth to the flame' effect where everything up to lvl 7 gatekeeper stacks, simply crumple as they attack your ranged - a great gatekeeper breaking technique that can be accomplished with just skill perks and no mage guild investment.  

Hypnotize: Formerly known as Puppet Master under Dark, Hypnotize has been moved to Summoning.  Hypnotize now requires A LOT of spell power to get more than a turn or two.  This forces you to continually recast it, requiring a lot of mana.  There were some tactics in TOE history that allowed for week 2 breaks by using a puppeted level 7 to block for your ranged stack (similar to a Phoenix break).  I'm not sure if this still viable given the current large spell power requirements - I'm guessing Phoenix is the more reliable strategy.  Regardless, Hypnotize is still a highly effective (and feared) spell in the end game hero battle.  Strangely, Summoning now has BOTH of the week 2 break spells.

For the end game hero battle, be careful of what you hypnotize on the ATB bar.  The juiciest target may not be the best if the enemy hero gets to go before that target and cleanse/immunity the hypnotize, effectively nullifying your spell turn..  So, try and get the best target that goes before the enemy hero so that you can use it at least once before it is cleansed.  

Regeneration: The power of Regeneration is that it is only a level 3 spell, but it can serve as an overpowered replenisher strategy you need to take on the powerful neutrals.  The reason is that, when placed on a level 7 stack, it makes that level 7 stack a very effective blocker that can mitigate big hits with their high defense and regenerate their losses later.  In particular, a simple arrangement of a level 7 unit in defending mode buffed with regeneration, blocking for a ranged unit in the corner, is a simple and very effective creeping arrangement.  

Celestial Shield + Regeneration: A powerful creeping combo, you first cast regeneration on your level 7 (which lasts a number of turns), and then continually refresh Celestial Shield on your Level 7.  Your level 7 will now be able to take huge huts from massive gatekeeper stacks while blocking for your ranged.

Chain Lightning: Recently moved from Tier 4 to Tier 3, Chain Lightning is actually quite good at the 3 slot.  It isn't limited by the bounds of traditional AOE, as it can hit units wherever they are when the initial target is well placed.  If you have Trident and the Master of Storms perk, it becomes a very good creeping spell.

Phantom Forces: Another summoning winner, this spell really shines in end game battles.  Note that this spell does not depend on spell power and can be used very effectively by might based heroes.  In fact, might hereoes don't even need summoning skill, as duplicating a level 1 stack with battle frenzy can be extremely effective.  The summoned units have great initiative as well, so the odds are good they will get to attack if you phantom forces something coming up om the ATB bar.  If you are a might hero, definitely keep a look out for scrolls/summoning books with this spell on it - they are worth equipping.

Vampirism: This is easy mode creeping.  It is very simple, get Vampirism... place it on your level 7.  Laugh as you creep everything that isn't a mechanical or undead with ease.  An Overlord Red dragon stack, in particular, is very dangerous when buffed with Vampirism.        


Thoughts on Starting Artifacts:

1) Beginner's Magic Wand/Breastplate of Eldritch Might - Early spell power makes a tremendous difference for magic heroes in the early weeks.  

2) Elemental Waistband - This is a very powerful starting artifact for magic heroes that have Summoning.  Grab Summoning, pick Master of Conjuration as an early perk, and your summoned elemental stack is going to be much better than any stack you encounter week 1.  All you have to do is put up some 1 unit blockers for dummy targets, and let your elementals do the dirty work.

3) Phoenix Feather Cape - Obviously, it benefits Fireball oriented destruction heroes.  Non-obviously, it benefits summoners big time by buffing the Firewall spell that you get with Pyromancy.  This allows summoners to bypass destruction all together without even bother to invest in mage guild.  

4) Ring of Caution - This is a decent artifact to get your might hero stats going.  +3 Attack and + 3 Defense is a lot of stats for a minor artifact, and the speed penalty isn't really a big deal as most might heroes will be relying on missile units and blocking formations early anyway.



1st Week Gate Guards and the Gatekeeper Stack:

When you start a game, one of the greatest impacts on your success, can, surprisingly enough, be due to something as simple as the identity of the wood and ore mine guards.  A bad guard that incurs many losses on turn 1 can force you to avoid the mine until you have a solution that doesn't involve losing half your damage dealers.  The worst guards are: Dungeon 1st level units, Sylvan 1st level units, and Academy 1st level units.  The easiest are Haven 1st level units, Necro 1st level walker units, Stronghold 1st level units.  The rest are somewhere in between.  Not getting the wood/ore mines within turn 3 can have a major impact on your creeping rate, because town building depend greatly on wood and ore early.  In general, you should be able to deal with all 1st level units except the aforementioned top 3 within turn 3 of week 1.

The Identity of the Gatekeeper stack can also delay your creeping.  If you see Dragons, Storm Titans/Titans, Seraphs (Divine Vengeance) that means very bad news for you.  Ghost Dragon are the easiest, followed by Cyclops, Devils, and Magmas (vulnerable to blocking and fire trap). Arch Angels are somewhere in the middle.



Breaking the Gatekeeper Stack (Know your Level 7s):

Breaking a Gatekeeper Stack that blocks you from artifacts, stat houses, etc.. is often the difference in the game.  Here are some of the strategies I use for each type:

Arch Angels/Seraphs: Although Arch Angels stats are intimidating, they do have 2 significant weakness - they can only attack one unit at a time and they are vulnerable to Dark lock down.  Therefore, you need to arrange your blockers carefully to take the huge hits that they deliver.  Be careful where you line up your large creatures, as Angels can hit those 1st turn if they are adjacent.  When taking on Arch Angles, make sure to spread out your ranged damage on multiple angel stacks  the first turn (don't focus fire one stack) to get them to burn their Resurrection on each other .  Use a combination of good blocking and dark magic lock down to take the Angels down.  Seraphs are an incredible pain because of divine vengeance - for that, not much to say other than get resurrection/tent.  

Arch Devils/Arch Demon: Devils are simply an easier version of Arch Angels.  They can't reach your army on their first turn as an Arch Angel can, so you get 1 extra turn to manage things.  The main thing you need to watch out for is "Teleport Other" on your ranged stack.      

Magma Dragons/Lava Dragons: Magmas are very tough and have dragon breath, but they still have all the disadvantages of large, slow walkers.  Summoning, with Fire Trap, and summoned blocking objects like Arcane Crystal/Blade Barrier/Phantasmal forces, help keep these guys away form you.  Use dragon blocking tactics against them.  Also, Mass Slow and Sorrow works on them, soft locking them for the ranged kill.  Of the 2, Lavas are easier to deal with because you can use your finisher without taking fire shield damage.

Blood Eye/Untamed Cyclops: Cyclops have higher initiative and speed than Magma dragons and have Dragon Breath-like multi-hits.  If there is a good way to block them with the terrain, you can use Summoning blocking.  Otherwise, Dark soft locking is the better bet.  Use dragon blocking tactics.  Otherwise, you should be able to take these guys down, as they are not as tough as Magmas.  

Ghost Dragons: Ghost dragons are the easiest 7th level to deal with.  Good blocking is sufficient to take them down.    

Storm Titans/Titans: Now we get to the "trouble" stacks.  These guys will absolutely destroy your ranged stack if left alone.  If they are Storm Titans, you can range block them by Summoning spells and rushing small blocker units at them.  If they are Titans, they have a ranged special that can't be blocked (you are really unlucky if you get them).  Dark soft locking, particularly sorrow and mass slow have pretty good impact.  If you have great level 5 spells like Arcane Armor, Resurrection, or Vampirism, you can take them with your level 7 stack alone and leave your ranged units at home.  If you don't have Resurrection or Vampirism, sometimes Regeneration on your level 7s and Dark soft locking can be enough.    

Crystals/Emeralds/Red/Black Dragons: All these guys are very bad news for you.  You can use dragon blocking tactics with the Tactics perks to keep them off of you on the 1st turn.  Otherwise, you will need a powerful replenishment strategy on your level 7s like Arcane Armor + Regeneration, Resurrection + Regeneration, Vampirism, etc... Like Titans, it may be a better idea to leave your ranged at home and let your level 7s (buffed with level 5 spells) and blockers fight it out.  Crystals and Emeralds are vulnerable to Dark, so mass slow at the beginning combined with dragon blocking will slow down the damage, allowing your replenishment strategy to keep up.

Phoenix: Dealing with Phoenix is similar to dealing with Arch Angels.  They are vulnerable to good blocking because they can only attack 1 unit.  You don't want to use finishers on them because of fire shield, so just keep your ranged and hero firing away at them through the resurrection.    


Faction Notes:

Sylvan:  

Sylvan is the most powerful might faction in my opinion, primarily because of the higher than average initiative of their units.  Dryads and Elvish archers make for a very powerful start (I like to use blade dancers as blockers).  Arcanes are still OP (captain obvious).  Dryads with battle frenzy are incredible finishers.  Druids are good, but you have to split stack them to maximize lightning bolt, reducing your blocking slots, so I usually skip them while creeping.  Emeralds and Unicorns round out the roster.  Sylvan doesn't really have much trouble at any point of the game.  

Their might heroes are all ridiculous.  Ossis is crazy at all points of the game.  Wyngaal is exceptional in the end game hero battle.

Sylvan Might heroes have an alternative path than pure might by picking Arcane Avengers, Triple Ballista, and Flaming Arrows.  This combination gives you the destruction skill, which you should promptly max out.   This skill has the potential of casting 3+ destruction spells every ballista shot, extremely powerful if you are able to load up on spell power artifacts and have enough mana (enlightenment/intelligence highly desired here).  As an added bonus, imbue arrow doesn't seem to take any ATB, so your hero acts immediately after doing it, making the combination even better.  This build is definitely something worth considering as it gives you even more devastating offense at the expense of say, defense (which you don't really need at these offensive levels).  

Sylvan has a powerful magic game by way of the highly overpowered Druid Channeling ability (giving your hero an insane spell power boost).  You have to 'steal' mana using using your dryads, which only works against enemy heroes, and then use channeling with your druids.  Because it only works against heroes, it isn't useful for creeping.  However, it is still very effective in the end-game - it just costs 2 creature actions.  

Sylvan magic users can also abuse the Pristine Unicorn's Child of Light ability.   Child of Light comes into play when spamming Resurrection, as each Resurrection regenerates your Unicorns as well, doubling your resurrection throughput.  This makes it very difficult for your opponent to keep up.

The spell Regeneration is extremely powerful for Sylvan creeping to the point where it is arguably unbalanced.  The reason is that their level 7's higher initiative means it takes turns faster than other level 7s, triggering the regeneration effect each turn, effectively increasing their regeneration rate relative to other level 7s.  Regerarion for Sylvan is almost as good as Vampirism, minus the undead/mechanical inflexibility of vampirism.

Sylvan's main weakness is a few end game scenarios when their Emeralds can get puppeted or their Elvish Archers get obliterated with destruction.  It comes down to a Swift Mind vs creature initiative war, and the ability for Sylvan to counter/resist spells.

Power Gamer's Corner:

One of the most devastating offensive builds in the game is the Ossir "Glass Cannon" build.  The idea is to do an Arcane Avenger build with Ossir, which makes him a devastating triple threat: Powerful Ballista Shots, Triple Destruction Spells, and high powered Arcane Archers.  

If you want to feel like you 'broke the game' with the highest damage spikes possible in the end game battle, than Anwen is your man.  That doesn't necessarily mean he is the best might hero as his special doesn't really help you much in the creeping phase, and adding damage to Lucky, Avenger strikes is something of a "win more" strategy against opposing creature stack.  I still like Osis and Wyngaal more.

The build for a generic, successful Sylvan might hero is quite simple: Get Tactics, Aura of Swiftness (and +1 speed boots if you can find them) so the majority of your units cross the battlefield in one turn.  Get +1 damage abilities like Berserking, Necklace of Bloody Claw, Nature's Wrath to make your Sprites and Wind Dancers extremely scary offensive units.  Load up on Luck, Initiative Artifacts, and pick your opponent's units as Avenger units.  On the 1st turn, you will deliver a level of hurt to your opponent's army that they likely will not recover from.


Power Gamer's Corner:

Ylthin is probably the most interesting Sylvan magic heroes, as her Unicorn buffing hero special maximizes the Pristine Unicorn's Child of Light ability.  She does start with Light Magic, which isn't ideal in the early game, but she can be very powerful late game hero because opponents will simply not be able to keep up with her Unicorn's stats and her light spells continually buffing/ressurecting them.  

Elleshar isn't anything special, but he has the right starting skills and the right hero specialization emphasis.  


Dungeon:  

Dungeon is a very map dependent faction.  Uniquely, their primary ranged unit (Furies) are a a melee unit, which you can't totally block for (Assassins have too little growth to be effective).  This makes them a "close run thing" for every battle (kinda annoying), because you can never completely block for Furies.  Movement upgrades like Tactics/Winged Boots/Aura Swiftness are of high value so your Furies can reached opposing ranged units on their 1st turn.  

Dungeon magic heroes have the unique ability to engage in "Stalkers only" creeping, where the hero becomes the primary damage dealer while the Stalkers stay invisible.  This allows you to save all of your money and race to dragons.  

Dungeon has a major issue with their "replenishment" strategy.  They don't have easy access to Light, so it is either Tent or an all out blitz of destruction and dark spells to keep losses to a minimum.  If you get Vampirism, it is creeping easy mode.  As an Overlord, you really want War Machines->Tent bad to keep your Fury numbers up.  

Early end game, Dungeon is very effective, as destruction effectiveness can surpass creature growth at the point where you first get 4th-5th level spells and have one of the 50% spell damage artifacts.  However, you must press your advantage, as destruction scaling falls off after that.  Also, Vampiric Red Dragons, commanded by an Overlord, can be very effective stack, and one of the main reasons for playing a Dungeon might hero.  

Power Gamer's Corner:
Yrwanna stands head and shoulders above all other might heroes (sorta the dungeon version of Gorshak).  She is capable of breaking gate keeper stacks before end of week 3 as her stalkers are tremendous offensive units with a solid might build.  With Yrwanna, get Encourage and Aura of Swiftness immediately (so Furies can reach their targets first turn) and then get War Machines->Tent.  Spam Encourage to keep taking extra turns with Furies.  During the late game, get as many initiative enhancing artis as possible to maximize your Fury turns.  

Power Gamer's Corner:
Raelag is the best of the magic heroes with his hero special.  Initiative suppression gives Raelag the time to fit in those all important Dark and Destruction spells before the enemy stack can act.  Raelag is ideally suited to stalkers-only creeping, allowing you to save all your gold and resources for dragons and spells.

The most amazing thing you can do with Raelag... get Staff of the Netherworld, combine with Intimidate hero special, and land a Swift Minded Mass Slow.  Sorry opponent - you have next to no Initiative.  

Honorable mention goes to Kastore... mainly because, unlike Raelag, he begins with summoning, and summoning combined with stalkers-only creeping is very effective.  His special is situationally useful, generating extra elemental blockers from your blocking stacks when they die.  


Inferno:  

This faction has been improved significantly with the change to gating.  Before they used to really, really struggle with creeping.  Now, they creep fine, but they play a bit differently than other factions.  

The issue with Inferno is that they don't get Succubi in large enough numbers early game to serve as an effective ranged force, so they have to depend somewhat on gated imps and demons to do some of their damage.  Consider Battle Frenzy an absolute requirement.  Breaking the gatekeeper 6-7 stack often depends on your Cerebri as they are high damage and non-retaliatory, but can also be destroyed in a single hit - so be careful.  

Gating is primarily used to summon blockers and finishers.  One of the secrets to using gating properly is to have just enough in your blocking stacks so that they can gate in additional 1 unit blocking stacks i.e. 3 units in your demon stack so that they summon an additional 1 unit blocker.  This allows you to gate in tons of blockers to help you take out those gatekeeper stacks with minimal losses.

For creeping, I recommend Succubi Mistresses over Seducers as you need a good ranged force going forward, and Seducers don't act fast enough or long enough with seduce to be good against neutral stacks.  At the end game, you may want Seducers more for second puppet - just remember they have lower initiative, and you are taking away a significant offensive component from your army.  

Like Dungeon, Inferno suffers from replenishment strategy issues.  War Machines and Tent are highly desirable for the early game to reduce your delicate unit losses and assist your Succubi with ballista.  

One of the frustrating things about Inferno is the huge damage range of their units.  They would benefit greatly from mass divine strength, but only sorcerers have access to light magic.  

End game you are looking at dark magic and all out blitzkrieg attack.  If your opponent has an answer to dark spells, you are kinda in trouble.  Of the heroes, I like Jezebeth a lot, as she makes succubi chain shot very dangerous.  

Power Gamer's Corner:

My pick for best might hero is Jezebeth.  Unlike other heroes that enhance creatures, Jezebeth's Succubi actually attack 4 units with chain shot, really maximizing the special.  Being a gatekeeper, she also gets the key skill sets to be a decent Dark/Destruction caster.  


Power Gamer's Corner:

My pick for best magic hero is Zydar, the only hero with both Windspeaker hero special and Empowered Spells (Something Jhora doesn't have).  Zydar is capable of week 3 breaks - he just has to deal with the fact that Demon units are pretty bad for spell caster support.  Use a lot of squire hero, 7 1-unit stack tactics with him so that you have time to burn things down.  I personally skip Gating with Zydar in favor of maximizing destruction spells.

A dream build unique to Inferno faction is the idea of having 2 Puppets on the battle field at once with Seduce and Puppet Master.  The main issue is that Seducers have low initiative, so to pull it off, you probably want Agreal to pump Seducer Initiative (he's kinda a bad hero otherwise)      


Dwarves:  

Dwarves have been significantly nerfed by moving Charge rune to 3rd tier and higher cost to runes.  Because of the higher costs of runes, you don't want to use them as part of your normal creeping - instead, save them for major gatekeeper battles and the end game.  Dwarves struggle a bit to creep, lacking a great ranged unit, but it is made up for by a ridiculous end game.  

When looking at Dwarven heroes, look for the ones whose special helps you get through the early game creeping phase (where Dwarves struggle).  You don't need a hero special for the end game as Runes + a standard might build is good enough, so focus on getting through the early game.  This is why I favor Ingvar (hyper powered dwarves) and Karli (the Dwarf that pumps harpooners) as the best might heroes.  Battle Frenzy is a high pick for dwarves as they have a lot of high number units with low damage ranges that benefit greatly from it.  

Dwarves possess the toughest level 7 unit, but interestingly, they are hard to use when creeping because you can not tent/regen/resurrect them.  You might be better off considering Thanes and regeneration if you have an expert light hero when creeping mid game.  If you can get the new Celestial Shield, that is ideal for your Magma Dragons.  I usually don't buy magma dragons until the end-game hero battle phase.  

Dwarves have pretty easy access to Light Magic and War Machines, so replenishment in combination with runes is workable.  Ethereal rune is a good early rune to use for avoiding losses.  

Power Gamer's Corner:

Ingvar is clearly one of the top heroes in the game.  Super powered Dwarves combined with War Machines->Tent (Ingvar conveniently starts with Advanced War Machines) is a devastating creeping combination that can crush week 1-2 with ease.  The idea here is to abuse Mountain Guard's Defensive Stance Ability (+10 defense if they remain in their starting position).  If you get Stand Your Ground under Defense (which gives you a massive 30% defense bonus), and combining with Ingvar's dwarf stat bonus, the Mountain Gaurd's defensive value gets absolutely insane.  You can have them simply sit in defense mode and have them kill units on retaliation strikes.  Combat (for the big retaliation damage bonus since your dwarfs will being doing a lot of retaliation) and Retaliation Strike (so Ingvar, himself, can get on in the action as things fruitlessly pound your invincible dwarves) is very powerful.  Add in War Machines->Tent to resurrect any minor losses you take, and you have yourself a 5 star creeping hero.    


Academy:

Academy gets access to the premier tier 1 ranged unit in Gremlins.  Gargoyles make good, cheap, tough blockers and have magic immunity which can be used against problem stacks like druids/wizards.  Again, get Battle frenzy and Bloody Claw Necklace.  Gremlins get very powerful and Gargoyles can do surprising damage when you have both, giving them finishing capability.   Academy has a great end game as well with initiative boosting artificer artifacts.  

Academy has a powerful creeping game due to the combination of ranged gremlins, mages and titans.  Mages are nice, but not absolutely required for creeping.  Just race to Storm Titans to lock up the creeping game.  You can save money on Raks, Genies, and Golems until you really need them for the end game.  

Storm Titans work very well as combination ranged attackers/blockers.  Get Regeneration, put it on your Storm Titans, and they will both block for your Gremlins and dish out ranged damage.  Combo regeneration with arcane armor, and Titans can take neutrals on their own.  

Although Academy units are not overwhelming, their strength comes from their ability to best maximize and adapt to what the map and random skills gives them.  Library and Artifact Guild are what provide this flexibility.  The most common strategy for the end game is to load up on init artificer creature units, and soft lock your opponent with mass slow/mass haste.  Then, with the ATB bar at your command, have your way with ranged units and follow up spells.  

Power Gamer's Corner:

Havez used to be a very a powerful hero with Gremlin special.  The idea was to battle frenzy, amulet of the bloody claw, and then add init, attack, and health artifer to make your gremlins an insane, game dominating stack.  Drop a swift mind haste, and your gremlins would have 20+ initiative.    

However, artificer nerfs have toned done Havez.   He is now just above average.  

Power Gamer's Corner:

Jhora is still the clear cut best Academy magic hero, as she has been since TOE.  Wind speaker is the best magic hero special in the game.  Combining Jhora's hero special with all the support Academy town gives to casters: emphasis on missile units, Library, and Artifact Merchants, makes Jhora just feel 'right'.  Jhora's only negative is she doesn't get empowered spells, making her tend towards light/summoning builds.

Honorable mention has to go Theodorus, who has a good spellpower special and begins with advanced summoning->master conjuring, a very good set of skills to start with indeed.  


Necromancer:

Necromancers have the easiest creeping in the game... for the magic heroes.  The formula is simple: get Skeleton Archers and necro up even more Skeleton Archers.  Also, get Battle Frenzy.   Ghosts are epic blockers with etherealness.  Take losses? Raise dead.  Need some extra offense?  You've got spell power for destruction.  There is no doubt that Necros are fun to play because they have all the answers for creeping.  

The same can not be said for Death Knights, which like Dungeon and Inferno, struggle a bit to replenish their units.  They do have the option of going Necromancy if they don't get Tent or Summoning, but it isn't ideal.  

Necros must creep fast to win, because their units are weak compared to the competition.  Their level 7 is the worst level 7 and their level 6 is only average.  So they had better beat their opponent to the artifact stash in order to compensate with better stats.  They also don't get the benefit of morale on their troops, and their initiative is decidedly mediocre compared to opposing might factions.  

Thanks to 5.5 changes, Necros now make great destruction heroes.  So, they represent a triple threat of dark, destruction, and summoning.  This is the source of their true power in the end game.  Note that Necromancers get access to Shatter Light and the highly valuable Storm Wind perk - this allows you to get your spells off before dragons/angels/devils tear your weak units apart.  

Death Knights are interesting, but are somewhat behind the 8 ball due to lacking morale boosters and weak units.  They have to compensate for this with their unit's immunity to dark and using dark magic on the opposing faction.  One of the things I like about Death knights is that they can get diplomacy without too much penalty (you don't need herald of death because the town building allows you to do that).  This allows you to potentially grab a game swinging stack during the game.  Most death knights start with combat, which gives them easy access to stunning strike week 1.  

As a side note, spend your necro points on Skeletons early and Wraiths later.  Wraiths are your main end game unit, not dragons, and you get a decent return on your necro points for them.  If you have Lucretia, get vamps instead.  

Power Gamer's Corner:

Lucretia is a very strong hero with her vampire special and starting with easy access to stunning strike.  

Ornella's magic resistance makes her very difficult to deal with for a magic faction.  The combination of might talents, necro-immunities, super-high magic resistance, and shatter light means she can virtually disable the opponent's magic strategy.    

Power Gamer's Corner:

Sandro is the clear cut best necromancer.  There is something about him that just plays well with Necropolis.  He starts with the right skills, has great support with ghost blocking units, and emphasizes spell power... what more could you want?    


Barbarian:

The power of the Barbarian town lies in the Initiative of Centaurs.  Nomads have Initiative 11, which is high, but you want to hit blood rage level 2 as fast as possible to give them +2 Initiative.  Add in commanding presence from Warlords, and they hit 14 Initiative - the only ranged unit that rivals this initiative are late-game artificer gremlins.  Now, add in Warlord Command Other and the Word of the Chief War Cry, and they turn into deadly rapid fire machine guns.  In order to use Word of the Chief, you are going to need War Machines->Tent to make sure you are not permanently damaging your centaur stack.  Now, top it of with Combat->Chain Attack->Stunning Strike, which allows you to use your Centaurs to effectively control enemy unit initiative.  

Creeping, you are going to be using Goblin Trappers and Centaurs.  Centaurs are large, making them difficult to block for, particularly against flying units that can cross the battlefield turn 1.  Tactics helps you to arrange blockers before combat begins to prevent this.  Trappers slow down enemy units and provide blockers for your Centaurs.  It is absolutely critical that you get War Machines->Tent both to keep your centaur numbers and to replenish losses from using Command Other/Word of the Chief.  

You will have a tough decision to make on your attack skills.  All barbarian might heroes are taking Retribution, leaving one skill slot for either archery Archery or Tactics.  Archery is very attractive for your core unit, Centaurs, but you will also will want Tactics to help your Cyclops cross the battlefield 1st turn in the end game battle.  Tactics also helps you arrange blockers for your large size centaurs at the beginning of combat.

End game, we have the usual Dark counter to Barbarians, so Shatter Dark is a necessity if you think you are up against a Dark Magic hero.  It is critical in the end game that your Cyclops and Ogre units can cross the battlefield turn 1.  Aura of Swiftness and Tactics are very important to get your cyclops multi-hit off.  Angry, blood raged Cyclops and Centaur delivering huge, lucky attacks on their first turn is what wins you the game for Barbarian.  

I think Witch Doctors/Shamans are terrible, so I wouldn't bother with them.  Barbarian units are utter garbage for spell caster support.      

As far as might heroes go, I think that Gorshak is clearly the best hands down.  


Power Gamer's Corner:

Gorshak can become a devastating ranged machine gun when built correctly.  The idea is simple: get Centaurs and get Executioners for Commanding Presence and Order of the Chief.  Combine Order of the Chief and Word of the Chief to turn your Centaurs into a machine gun (assuming you have tent to replace their numbers). Replace your Centaur losses from the Chief abilities with War Machines->Tent.    


Haven:  

Haven is a dull "Timmy" town full of overly strong "stats" units.  They don't have the initiative of Sylvan, but their units make up for it in raw stats.  Crossbowmen are your primary ranged unit, who can devastate high level units if they get close with their specials.  They do, however, suffer from low initiative, so you will need to block effectively for them and they are vulnerable to higher init ranged units of other factions.

The 3 ingredients you need to creep successfully are Crossbowmen, Squires (to minimize all the ranged losses your crossbowmen take), and War Machines->Tent (to resurrect your crossbowmen).

If you are a Paladin, one of the high early picks is divine strength, as it helps your Crossbowmen who have a huge damage range.  

One of the main strategic aspects they bring to the table is the Griffin specials, forcing opposing ranged units to move/redeploy, or get hammered.  It is only semi-useful for creeping, but it can change the nature of the end game hero battle.  Irina, the Griffin Specialist, has the potential for a Preparation build with Battle Griffins (taking advantage of their unlimited retaliation).  It isn't amazing or anything, but at least it gives some variety to Haven play style.    

Haven's level 4, 6 and level 7 are all really strong, but they do have to watch out for Dark on Angels (they certainly have the tools to deal with it, though), and Destruction on Cavaliers.  I personally like Seraphs for creeping due to their free regeneration ability.    

Haven struggle early, but benefits from strong units in the end game.  




Final Power Gamer's Corner... Azalen's Awards to Individual Heroes:


1) Best Creeping Hero:

This one is easy.  It is Ingvaar hands down.  Ingvaar is capable of not just week 3 breaks, but EARLY week 3 breaks.  Ingvaar buffs dwarf stats (already a good 1st level unit), gives them hit points, and buffs their stats.  However, the big abusive ability is the Mountain Guard's +10 defensive ability if they do not move from their original position.  This ability is not that big a deal at first glance, but when combined with Ingvaar's special, it becomes monstrous.  War Machines->Tent and Defense->Stand Your Ground->Vitality are high picks here.  Combat->Retaliation Strike->Preparation are also good picks, as you will be depending on dwarf retaliation a lot.  Attack->Battle Frenzy->Retribution makes your dwarfs devastating offensive counter punchers.  

Ingvar dominates consistently on practically any map.  

2) Most Frustrating GOOD Hero:

Yrwanna is the pick here.  Yrwanna furies are offensive power houses, but man are they a pain to keep alive.  Expect to do a lot of reloading as your fury stacks crumple to single hits.  Yrwanna is a very good hero, but every battle is a "close run thing" coming down to your Fury initiative beating out the stack.  

3) Best Magic Hero:

This one is difficult, because magic heroes depend a lot on their town's units to give the time they need to cast their spells.  Dungeon has stalkers, which are excellent magic support units.  Necromancers have ghost blockers and skeleton archers.  Academy has an array of ranged units.  Inferno has, well... Inferno isn't the best magic support town - depends on basic good blocking (gating requires a skill investment that you probably don't want to make).  

Starting skills and spells also have a big impact on a magic hero's success.

Artifact guilds are important to magic heroes, as obtaining a 50% damage artifacts and spell power artifacts can be critical to your success.  Academy's library is also immensely helpful.  

There are some magic heroes that just "feel right" with the town.  A good example is Sandro (the Heroes version of Vecna), who has great starting skills, great town unit support, and a helpful hero special.  
   
Having said that, Windspeaker is definitely the best hero special.  The heroes that possess Windspeaker are Jhora and Zydar.  More spells/faster spells is far, far better than moderate buffs to spell power and the like.  Raelag's initiative suppression is also a decent skill.

If you put a gun to my head, I'd say Zydar is the best magic hero.  Even though he can struggle week 1 because demon units are bad spell caster supporters, and he doesn't have access to artifact guild and the like, he still is the only hero with Windspeaker and Empowered Destruction spells.  


4) Most Fun to Play:

Gonna have to give it to Sandro.  Necromancer town, in general, is a fun town, and Sandro does a great Vecna impression.
 
5) Best Overall Hero:      

If you take both creeping prowess and end game prowess, I'd have to say its something of a tie between Ossir and Ingvaar.  Both are capable of week 3 breaks (though Ingvar is more consistent).  Both bring devastating end games.  Ossir is a devastating multi-threat with Arcane Archers, Triple Ballista Imbued Bolts, Might Avenger Strikes, and Destruction magic.  I would also give an honorable mention to Wyngaal, whose special is the nuts endgame, but isn't that helpful for creeping.  

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yogi
yogi


Promising
Famous Hero
of picnics
posted November 16, 2016 04:27 AM

great post
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Elvin
Elvin


Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
posted November 16, 2016 06:42 AM

Thumbs up
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magnomagus
magnomagus


Admirable
Legendary Hero
modding wizard
posted November 16, 2016 01:10 PM

Thank you for your detailed guide, now I have something to link to when I get complaints again the game cannot be beaten on impossible
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Raenus
Raenus


Famous Hero
Grouchy curmudgeon
posted November 17, 2016 11:33 PM

Thoroughly enjoyed reading that, easily QP material in my opinion. Thank you.

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azalen
azalen


Responsible
Known Hero
posted November 18, 2016 05:48 AM bonus applied by Galaad on 31 Dec 2017.

Thanks guys.  I was inspired by Elvin's Celestial Heavens guides.  I learned a lot reading those guides and hope to do the same for other players.  

I'll do my best to continue improving this post.  Any feedback is appreciated.    

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strigvir
strigvir


Adventuring Hero
posted November 18, 2016 07:36 AM

How do you counter Dark Magic as Dungeon/Inferno?

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azalen
azalen


Responsible
Known Hero
posted November 18, 2016 04:50 PM
Edited by azalen at 16:56, 18 Nov 2016.

strigvir said:
How do you counter Dark Magic as Dungeon/Inferno?


Luck->Magic Resistance->Warriors Luck.  You can also look for magic resistance boots in the artifact guild and switch up to black dragons if you are really concerned about it.  Otherwise, you counter it 1 for 1 with your own dark spells.  

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dace
dace


Hired Hero
posted February 24, 2017 01:40 PM
Edited by dace at 13:45, 24 Feb 2017.

azalen said:

Inferno:  

This faction has been improved significantly with the change to gating.  Before they used to really, really struggle with creeping.  Now, they creep fine, but they play a bit differently than other factions.  

The issue with Inferno is that they don't get Succubi in large enough numbers early game to serve as an effective ranged force, so they have to depend somewhat on gated imps and demons to do some of their damage.  Consider Battle Frenzy an absolute requirement and try to start with Necklace of the Bloody Claw.  Breaking the gatekeeper 6-7 stack often depends on your Cerebri as they are high damage and non-retaliatory, but can also be destroyed in a single hit - so be careful.  

Gating is primarily used to summon blockers and finishers.  One of the secrets to using gating properly is to have just enough in your blocking stacks so that they can gate in additional 1 unit blocking stacks i.e. 3 units in your demon stack so that they summon an additional 1 unit blocker.  This allows you to gate in tons of blockers to help you take out those gatekeeper stacks with minimal losses.

For creeping, I recommend Succubi Mistresses over Seducers as you need a good ranged force going forward, and Seducers don't act fast enough or long enough with seduce to be good against neutral stacks.  At the end game, you may want Seducers more for second puppet - just remember they have lower initiative, and you are taking away a significant offensive component from your army.  

Like Dungeon, Inferno suffers from replenishment strategy issues.  War Machines and Tent are highly desirable for the early game to reduce your delicate unit's losses and assist your Succubi with ballista.  

End game you are looking at dark magic and all out blitzkrieg attack.  If your opponent has an answer to dark spells, you are kinda in trouble.  Of the heroes, I like Jezebeth a lot, as she makes succubi chain shot very dangerous.  I don't particularly like Inferno as a magic town, but if you want to live the dream of 2 puppets at once, I'd probably go with Agrael to make sure your seducers get off their puppet in time.    




Hi folks, I'm looking for an optimal strategy with inferno using HOMM5.5 in impossible single player games (playing on huge random maps). Any help will be much appreciate, espacially for the 1st 3 weeks.

I forgot to say that I play with "tax mod" and disable all the capitols in the castle!


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dredknight
dredknight


Honorable
Supreme Hero
disrupting the moding industry
posted September 25, 2017 08:42 AM

By impossible do you mean creature strength or game difficulty? What are those values?
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Auron1st
Auron1st


Hired Hero
posted November 22, 2017 09:17 AM
Edited by Galaad at 19:26, 31 Dec 2017.

Perhaps quote reply will unlock (quality work, on pair with HoMM 5.5, thx)

azalen said:
*snip*

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Galaad
Galaad

Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
posted December 31, 2017 07:27 PM

Azalen, for keeping your post updated and improving it with time I have decided to award you another +QP.
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Magog
Magog


Hired Hero
posted February 01, 2018 10:47 PM

azalen said:

1st Week Gate Guards and the Gatekeeper Stack:

When you start a game, one of the greatest impacts on your success, can, surprisingly enough, be due to something as simple as the identity of the wood and ore mine guards.  A bad guard that incurs many losses on turn 1 can force you to avoid the mine until you have a solution that doesn't involve losing half your damage dealers.  The worst guards are: Dungeon 1st level units, Sylvan 1st level units, and Academy 1st level units.  The easiest are Haven 1st level units, Necro 1st level walker units, Stronghold 1st level units.  The rest are somewhere in between.  Not getting the wood/ore mines within turn 3 can have a major impact on your creeping rate, because town building depend greatly on wood and ore early.  In general, you should be able to deal with all 1st level units except the aforementioned top 3 within turn 3 of week 1.



May be we play in different games, but my wood mine guarded by 48 bears in 4 stacks(2 base and 2 upgraded). How do you suggest to beat them in first turn? Is it possible at all?

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Gidoza
Gidoza


Famous Hero
posted March 02, 2018 04:13 PM

Something that struck me as interesting about the Destruction Magic package - that one of the points of H5.5 was to diversify the skill set because in H5 Vanilla most of your skills were chosen for you; but it seems that things haven't actually changed all that much...

Love the tactics section!

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thGryphn
thGryphn


Promising
Famous Hero
posted March 21, 2018 07:22 PM

Awesome work, but I really wish you indicated (only) the most recent changes in a different color each time you update... It's hard to keep track

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fidanas
fidanas


Adventuring Hero
posted April 07, 2018 12:52 PM

Very good post, indeed. Although it might needs a fresh 'n up, since some mods changes, alter those kind of strategies nowdays.


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surprix
surprix

Tavern Dweller
posted May 18, 2018 06:50 PM

Could someone register himself playing the "Let's Fight! Tote" duel map on impossible and post it here?

It would be very helpful to see how you put in practice all the strategies and what other tactics you use.

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bulya
bulya


Adventuring Hero
posted December 30, 2018 11:02 AM

Which one do you call the gate keeper?

Is it the one that seperates the 2 towns with the bottom part of the isle where mostly tier 6 and tier 7 mosters guard very nice ways to improve, or is it the one that guards at the two way portal from the place there to the place I can get to the underground?

I passed the first one on week 4 even though I did many mistakes (like forgetting to claim an ore mine after beating the guards for like a week, building the hero in a wrong way, etc), so it doesn't seem as hard as you describe there.
In case its the one guarding at the two way portal at the place I can get to the underground, then at what week should I get through the first one?

(I actually hope I'm playing the right map...)

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dredknight
dredknight


Honorable
Supreme Hero
disrupting the moding industry
posted December 30, 2018 02:39 PM

@bulya, gate keeker (better known as border guard) is the NPC stack that is guarding the entry/exit or teleport between 2 areas.

Breaking on week 3 means that he managed to get out of the starting area by breaking the guards on week 3.
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Bulya
Bulya


Adventuring Hero
posted January 01, 2019 01:27 AM

Hello,

I just completed the Lets Fight! map on the highest difficulties.

First, I want to confirm I did it on the highest difficulties. I played the "Lets Fight! tote" map on the H5.5 HC10 version, with the Difficulty set to impossible and Lookhead Depth set to Impossible as well. I didn't set the faction of my opponent, he got Sylvan, so may be there is a faction the AI plays better with.
I hope the HC10 version of H5.5 keeps it being hard as it was at the time the post was written. Let me know otherwise.

Second, I played the game after a long break and in no more then 2 days I managed to do it, even though I read above that this is a very hard thing to do. I am familiar with many of the stuff written in the opening post as I played a lot before, but still I thought it will take me more then 2 days to do it.

I did it on my 6th attempt, but many of the first ones were confusions and mistakes I didn't want to continue with due to not playing the game for a long time (didn't remember the ways of building a good hero, not remembering the proper alternate picks for creatures, etc), playing the map for the first time, and wasting too much time on unimportant things (like fighting fights I could have avoided in favor of getting further on my quest), etc (many of those attempts ended on week 2 with me being disappointed with the build I'm headed for with my hero or being way too late with capturing the main mines, which made me start all over again with another try).

I did it with Fortress and Ivangar as my main hero as this is what I remembered best from the last time I played the game like 2 years ago. Is it easy with Fortress? I'm used to play the might factions and build might heroes. From my read of the opening post it seemed like it was written by someone who prefers magic heroes, but I could be wrong about that.
I might try switching a faction or at least the main hero, as it felt a bit simple at some parts, on my 6th attempt I had a very good hero build that allowed me to break the Arch Angeles that guarded the 2 way portal on my side during week 4 (like day 4 or day 5 of that week).

Does the AI plays better with magic factions / heroes? If so I might give him one. As on one hand I quite rushed to his side of the map, but I turned to be stronger then him. His army was a bit stronger then mine by means of numbers, but still, its the AI we are talking about, and if I had waited for my reinforcements, may be our armies would have been even.
So if there is a faction the AI plays better with I'd like to know about it, as the challenge was actually breaking quickly to his side of the map, and if I had taken a bit more time it would have been easier I think. I did it because the thread mentions several times that finishing the game early is important as the AI grows way faster then I do, but it didn't really feel like that.

Considering Fortress, I didn't make a single Brawler, and didn't use any bears (all the creeping was done with the first 2 tier units, and later on tiers 5 and 6 joined).
Some years ago (like 4) I remember using bears quite a lot for creeping, but I wasn't familiar then with all the creeping techniques I learned later when I started to play on difficulty levels way higher then I was used to at the time. Was it a good decision, or do bears and brawlers have their place in the Fortress arsenal?

A mistake that I thought I did on my 6th attempt is not investing in light magic even though I had an opportunity to grab it in one of my early level ups (I preferred a clean hero build over the opportunity of getting light spells). Eventually I barely used magic at all, and the combat abilities of the early game remained part of the main fight (though I couldn't rely on them as heavily as I did during the creeping stage).
I wonder if it was really a mistake, or is it a fine way to play with so little magic. Runes do the job partially in the late game, but it made me rely so heavily on ore that I barely had any during all the phases of the game (unlike wood for example).

Please let me know if there is a faction the AI plays better with, or may be a faction I can pick to make my life harder. I'm not an expert of doing it with magic heroes, so in case you suggest a different faction / hero I'd rather play with a might hero (and preferably a might oriented faction). I played Sylvan a lot like 5 years ago, but in case its just about getting arcane archers and some blockers I think I'd be doing similar conclusions, so may be a different faction, other then Sylvan will be better (though in case playing Ivangar with his mighty tier 1 units was the real key to my success, I can try switching him for some other main hero or try Sylvan for now).

May be some good creeping strategies weren't described that well in the opening post, as starting from mid week 2 I simply used mountain guards and retaliation strike to beat most of the guards I encountered (I ignored shooters / casters if they guarded something unimportant and if I had to fight them there were back-ups plans that didn't cost as much army). And it included tier 6 guards as well (with that difficulty level it was 50 mountain guards beating like 50 tier 6 guards).
The investment I had into defense seemed to pay-off in the later stages of the creeping, and a might build was way more then enough vs what the AI had to offer in the main fight, so its not something that should be ignored.

Can you answer the questions I mentioned, as I'm a bit confused after doing it in less then 2 days...

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