KGB wrote:

Gotta right-click -> open in new window to see the full thing.

I put Max Mana at 9 which I guess is a mistake so I have to ask but if you're not using a teleport hero how do you determine how much Max Mana you should have for yourset?

Though now I have to ask is "Sell Items" worth unticking?



Hmm. Any unit suggestions?


Oops.

Though one thing I'm concerned about is that since Ally 4 is very rare as you have to complete a Hard Quest to even get a chance of getting one (IIRC) that if I don't duplicate then I might end up never having any source of fear. I guess I could swap the Blacks to A4 and put the Drags in Reg though.


I usually do Random Map - so I guess I should drop that down?


Huh, I guess the Fear/Chaos dragons are much cheaper. I guess that's preferred?

Your Max Mana should be the amount needed to cast your most expensive spell. So if that is Teleport then that means 12 mana. You can cheat a bit on this because your max mana is increased by 1 for every mana crystal you get (quest/ruin) but I normally don't cheat more than 1-2 in case you get unlucky in ruins.

Always unclick sell items. If you are that desperate, the game is already lost and there are easier ways to generate gold (easy quests to visit your own cities).

In addition to Hard Quests, you can also get Ally 4 from hero offers and hidden ruins. But you are right you don't get many of them so what you do get should be a 'nice to have' but not required (Blacks are a popular choice). This is why many players put a summoned army here simply to control the fight order OR use a cheap cost unit so they can save the points for other places in their army set.

On Random Map games I'd personally pick a Warship or Greatship. I never use Barges (unless there is no water at all) and only use Water Elementals if it's a known water based map with Islands. Again, the points are better spent elsewhere.

Cheaper dragons helps since 2000 gold for a Black is incredibly expensive. Esp since you then need to wait to build multiple of them since they are meant to be used in groups at the front of the stack. On the other hand, you need only 1 Chaos and Fear dragon per hero stack.

KGB

This looks like a powerful statistic set,
Have you tried making a thematic set, that is removing the Balrog, Banshee, Dark Pegasi, for example and replacing them with units that would be more likely to fight with Archons and Elves,
(yes this game does not really account for good/evil mix consequences)
or conversely, removing "good" units and replacing them with "evil" counterparts?

Current set. There's probably some redundancy issues like having both Elf Cav / Archons on the set and Giants being the only source of Chaos is probably worrying.

In a search for an Ally1 that isn't cookie cutter after testing Giant Scorps - my main issue with them is that if they're fronting then there's a bit of a slow attrition issue where the Scorps dying makes the future ones significantly less effective. Only issue is that I'm paying out the butt in terms of point cost for them which rules out putting in decent Mercs which I tried to have a go at.

Got to say but I wonder what the designers were thinking making Halflings cost like 5 times as much as standard Archers because I can't quite see the power leap there.

SteamWarlord wrote:


I do have many thematic sets. Usually when you start a game you decide on the army set restrictions (teleport/no-teleport, speed/no-speed, thematic etc). I gave an example of an unrestricted set since the original poster was asking about that.

KGB

065227N wrote:


I agree on the Elf Calv/Archons. You don't really need both and should replace one of them.

But the Giants are fine for your only Chaos unit. The reason is they are good enough against any non-hero stack to give you a -1 Chaos bonus. You can easily reach +5 Chaos with your Barb (he gets Chaos for 1 point) after getting Speed as your first skill and then you are fine for big hero show downs where the enemy has high leadership. You even have the option for the Monk spell to give +1/+2 Chaos to make Giants or the Barb +4/+5 etc.

065227N wrote:


This is the price you pay for putting a 3 turn unit in Ally 1. Ally 1 is meant to have a 1 or 2 turn unit in there. So if you want Mercs you will need a 1 or 2 turn unit in Ally 1. I think Cyclops are better Ally 1 unit due to their Trample and Archery immunity than your current choice.

065227N wrote:


Halflings have over Archers:
1) Forest move and can lead stacks in the forest.
2) Lightning Immunity in that they can't be killed by a Lightning hit where Archers are before they can fire.
3) Twice as many hits so they are much better in regular combat.

KGB

P.S. You are wasting 40 points on 16 max mana when you only need 12.

KGB wrote:

I tried to shop around for something I thought would be nice to replace the Archon with but couldn't quite find anything that fit into the 52 extra points that setting max mana to 12 and dropping starting mana/gold to 0 would give me. I guess I could try again but I don't like not putting at least some kind of powerful flyer in Slot 8 because it feels bad when you hit that 20% chance at gamestart with a free Slot 8 instead of Slot 7

On the ElfCav/Archon redundancy, hmm, I guess in order to not be redundant the unit here would have to be either of Fear / Curse / Poison / Disease / Lightning / Acid - I wonder if there's any good mid-range unit for that last two.

You didn't mention Trample at all in your list of skills you could use there. It's a top tier skill that is arguable better than any that you mentioned since there are so many land units. I know you hope to summon Stone Golems via your Alchemist but that's going to happen far less often than you think given Hero 3 slot has only 20% chance of being offered and then you still have to level him up.

There is also zero reason to use a curse unit if you don't have poison/disease units/spells.

How close are you on points to something like a Silver/Gold Dragon for Slot 8 as your powerful flier? The dragon is much better than the Archon for battle purposes. If you are close, you could swap Green for Brass to save a bunch of points. Or re-arrange your existing order of units (swapping Halfling/Gnome slots may save 2-3 points, same with Giants/Elf Calv etc. You have to experiment but the rule is the cheaper unit to buy production wise always goes in the odd number slot). You might also consider going with just 10 or 11 starting mana and plan to get to 12 from a ruin or medium quest reward(s) since you will only need that 12 mana if you happen to get an Alchemist (which won't be often) AND you level up enough to want to teleport.

KGB

KGB wrote:

If I change my Manticore into a Sasquatch and then drop my max mana to 11, I can fit in a Silver in Slot 8, but isn't it still kinda redundant since it's also a Morale unit?



I'm also experimenting with this version with Mercs enabled but I imagine it's not very effective with only like 75 points to spend in that department.

Yes, with the Silver you are duplicating Morale units which isn't great. But since the Dragon costs so much you won't buy many (if any at all) so you'll mostly use Elf Calv for Morale since they are so cheap and effective. So the Silver would be a luxury for Hero stacks.


As for your newer set, I'm not a big fan of 1 hit units (Sasquatch) because they can lead to high variance battles if you get extreme good/bad luck. It's really the Warlock that's eating up too many points (144) relative to what it brings to the table (average strength/hits and doesn't fly with only powerful lightning attack).

As for your Mercs, they will be fine. They shouldn't use a lot of points (the amount you use is perfect) UNLESS you are taking a Warrior and going for Renouned in which case your Merc 3 slot is very important. I like to use Mercs to duplicate important powers that I might not have gold to buy in regulars (poor gold maps) or not get via allies or have a unique skill I might only need in a special case (like say Banshees in merc 1 if I need curse).

KGB