Homm 5 walkthrough. Inferno Campaign. Main objectives of the mission

The series "Heroes of Might and Magic" is known all over the world, as it was he who became a trendsetter in the world of turn-based strategies. We can safely say that it was these games that became the progenitors of this genre. Naturally, there are people who believe that the laurels should go to King's Bounty. This project appeared earlier and was also extremely popular. However, it was Heroes who were able to develop the idea and turn into a full-fledged series, which set the tone for how it developed in further genre turn-based strategy. The third episode is considered the classic and most successful. He has the maximum number of fans and is truly a role model. Naturally, the series did not stop at this episode, the fourth and fifth parts have already been released, and the sixth is also being prepared. In this article you will be able to learn something about the project "Heroes 5 of Might and Magic", passing it for various heroes, which is also impressive, although very different from the original games.

Campaign for the people

It starts in the game "Heroes 5 of Might and Magic" passing for the human race. You have to take on the role of a queen who is fighting to save her country. In the first mission, you will first need to hire a hundred peasants, then get another 25 swordsmen and capture the garrison with these forces. The second mission is called "Riot": you will need to capture the first castle within one week, gather an army of hundreds of archers, and then capture the enemy's main castle.

The "Siege" task will begin with clearing the territory of enemy small detachments of troops, after which you will have to create the Order of Paladins and defeat the main enemy army. In the mission "Trap" you will need to meet with the army of the count, join forces to capture the castle, after which you need to pump the Guild of Mages in this castle as much as possible, and then go to the Prophet.

Well, the last task will be a little different - here you will first play as Godric, who will save the Queen, after which you will need to capture the castle and hold it, as well as save Lord Nicholas from death. As you can see, in the game "Heroes 5 of Might and Magic" the passage is quite exciting, the plot is not banal, but the most interesting thing is that there are several more campaigns ahead of you.

Campaign for demons

In the game "Heroes 5 of Might and Magic", the passage will give you a surprise - immediately after the campaign for people, the storyline for demons will begin. In the first mission, you will be given the opportunity to get acquainted with this race and defeat the enemy hero. The second mission offers a little more variety, but your goal is still to defeat the enemy hero.

In the third mission, you will have to invade the Sacred Forest and kill the Druids. In the fourth task, you will need to defeat all the enemies on the way and capture the ship - you will need it in the next mission. The final task is largely marine. On a captured ship, you will visit several islands and destroy the creatures that live there. Heroes 5 offers you a wide variety of tasks that will become even more exciting in the next campaign.

Campaign for the undead

The game "Heroes 5" would not be a full-fledged continuation of the series if it did not have a race of necromancers. In the first task for the undead, you need to get to the castle, while avoiding meeting with the enemy, and at the end, with a normal army, repel the enemy attack. The second task is even more interesting - to find the lost mysterious city and completely rebuild it. In the third mission, you will prepare for large-scale actions - you will need to get three powerful artifacts and assemble an army of twenty

In the fourth mission, using the received power, it will not be difficult for you to find and defeat the most powerful enemy hero. Well, the last task is the icing on the cake - you need to get another artifact, then attack the enemy's capital and kidnap the king's daughter, bringing her to your city. In the game "Heroes 5" magic plays a very important role, which you can quite feel in this campaign.

League of Shadows

The next campaign - new heroes, new race. And this despite the fact that there is also an add-on called "Heroes of Might and Magic 5: Lords of the Horde", the passage of which opens up a new race for you. But for now, it is better to focus on the main storyline. In the first mission, you will need to pass tests, including in the arena. The second is a meeting with your future partner Malsara. In the third task, try to survive the raid at the very beginning of the mission, after which you need to destroy the blue player. The fourth mission is a real masterpiece, as it is a labyrinth from which you will need to get out no later than two months. But there is an obstacle on your way - an enemy hero-demon, which can be defeated only with competent pumping. Well, in the last mission you need to save Isabelle - that's all.

Ranger Campaign

Here, in the first task, it is required to keep the border without crossing it. In the second mission, your task is to capture two enemy castles. The third task is a little easier, as you will need to capture the castle, hold it during several assaults, and then go to the rescue of two heroes. In the fourth mission, you can find another hero, or rather, a lifeless body, and then investigate this murder. Well, in the last mission you will need to kill Lord Nicholas, the game will end there.

Game Heroes of Might and Magic 5, also known as Heroes of Might and Magic V, is a turn-based strategy game released in 2006.

Heroes of Might and Magic 5, being already the fifth part of the famous series, has not deviated from the principles that brought fame and recognition to the project. The gameplay is practically the same as the third part, but the action takes place in a fully three-dimensional world. The authors borrowed several ideas from the fourth part, this concerns the system of skills and abilities, in the first place.

As for the differences between Heroes of Might and Magic 5 and its predecessors, there are quite a few of them, even without taking into account the three-dimensional graphics. So, in multiplayer, the "Quick game" option appeared, thanks to which you can significantly speed up game process due to the limit on the number of moves. New modes "Duel" and "Duel 3x3" have appeared, where in the first we are invited to choose one of almost three dozen available heroes (three for each faction) and each of them has a unique ability, its own army and artifacts. The second is different in that we choose three heroes at once, and not one.

Heroes of Might and Magic 5 continues the glorious tradition of its predecessors, retaining all the best that was in the series, and at the same time pleased with the appearance of three-dimensional graphics, so fans of the series should not be disappointed.

In 2006, the next part of the famous turn-based strategy HOMM V was released by the joint efforts of Nival Interactive and Ubisoft. Now all fans of the heroes can carry out their exploits in a completely new universe, which was performed in three-dimensional graphics.

Now you can view the traces left by enemies, which can change, increase or decrease, depending on the size of the hero's army. The multiplayer has also been slightly changed, the developers have added a quick game function to it, where it became possible to set a limited number of moves to speed up the gameplay.

Cities

In Heroes of Might and Magic V, there are 6 types of cities, which are essentially the only place to hire troops and heroes. In each type of castle, only certain creatures can be recruited. For example, Haven is inhabited by brave warriors and priests who have been fighting the filth and the undead for a long time. In this type of castle, you can hire peasants who are quite mature by the fifth. But in a castle like Inferno, demons, devils and other evil spirits live. In the Dungeon, you can hire dark elves, and in the underground level, basically all the heroes are women, because of the matriarchy that reigns in this race. An Academy-type castle is inhabited by wizards and mages of varying powers. And in Necropolis it serves as a habitat for necromancer sorcerers. There is also a special kind of castle, the inhabitants of which are rarely found on the battlefield: druids, elves-archers and dendroids.

Just like in the previous parts, in the game Heroes of Might and Magic 5 in the cities you need to build different buildings, and for this you need to have enough resources. There is also a restriction on the construction of buildings - no more than 1 daily. All buildings can be improved, thereby increasing the level of the hero. Some buildings can only be built after others have been built, for example, in order to build a vampire mansion in the Necropolis, you must first build a tavern.

Some types of buildings are common to all factions, and some are available only to certain creatures. Consider the common buildings for each type of city:

Dwellings of creatures - monsters are hired here, the building is subject to modifications in order to hire higher-level creatures in the future.
- House of Elders - daily replenishes the treasury by 5000 gold coins and can be upgraded first to the town hall, then to the magistrate, and - to the capitol.
- Shipyard - in HOMM V this is a place where you can do shipbuilding.
- Forge - here you can buy diverse combat vehicles.
- Castle - the main function of this building is to strengthen the city walls.
- Market - here you can exchange resources and sell artifacts.
- Citadel - this building is also aimed at strengthening the city, because after construction a tower and a moat appear, and also accelerates the growth of all creatures living in the territory.
- Warehouse - daily replenishes the hero's property with one valuable resource, with which you can hire or upgrade level 7 monsters in the city.
- Fort - adds fortification in the form of walls to the city, can be upgraded to a citadel.
- Tavern - here you can find out information about other users and hire creatures. This place also affects the morale of the army defending the city.
- Guild of Mages - in this building you can learn magic spells.

As in previous series of the game, the special role of the Grail has not changed in Heroes of Might and Magic V, which can be built only after the hero has rare artifact called the Tear of Asha (formerly the Grail). After the construction of this amazing building, the hero will receive many bonuses that increase not only his characteristics, but also for the city in which the Grail is located, namely: creatures will begin to respawn 4 times faster, and the treasury income will increase to 5000 gold coins every day.

Characters

Unlike previous releases, the heroes have the opportunity during their turn not only to use spells against their opponents, but also to attack them.
Even if the entire hero's army is destroyed, his death is simply impossible. So it is provided by developers initially. You need to wait a certain amount of time, and then go to one of the city taverns to find your hero. It is worth noting that the character may be deprived of a number of improvements.

After the release of HOMM V, not two classes of heroes can live in each type of castle, but only one. Knights live in the castle of the Order of Order, barbarians live in the Great Horde, and magicians live in the Academy of Magic. The castle of the Northern Clans serves as a habitat for the rune priests, and the Forest Union - for the rangers. If you need warlocks, then you should go to Necropolis for them, and for demon lords - to Inferno.

The changes also affected the development system of the hero. Each character is endowed with four main parameters: 2 power and 2 magic. They can be developed as you progress through the levels. At the same time, a hero can have no more than 6 skills out of 12. It is worth noting that this number of skills must necessarily include one that belongs to racial characteristics. All skills can be developed, there are 3 development levels in total.

The development of skills leads to the opening of access to the study of several special abilities. Leveling one skill opens up access to three new skills, which are divided into common ones for all creatures, regardless of class affiliation. There are unique skills in the game that each faction has. After pumping a racial skill to the maximum, access to the study of the super ability opens.

Magic

In Heroes of Might and Magic 5, you still need to spend a certain amount of energy (mana) in order to use spells. All magical abilities are divided into 5 levels. In each city of the hero there should be a building of the Magic Guild, which is also divided into 5 levels. Each character who visits a city with such a magical structure can enter it and learn all the spells available to him. The fact is that it is simply impossible to learn all spells at once, more complex ones become available only after studying simple ones.

There are 4 magic schools in Heroes of Might and Magic V:

1. Summoning Magic - having studied the spells of this school of magic, it becomes possible to summon creatures on the battlefield.

2. Magic of Light - this magical school trains heroes with spells that give a bonus to their combat units in the form of increasing the characteristics of warriors. For example, using the "Holy Word" spell, you can inflict damage on all evil spirits on the battlefield in one fell swoop. And with the help of "Regeneration" you can restore the health level of the squad or resurrect the selected creatures. Also in this magical school they teach such a spell as "Teleport", with which all allies can be moved in a few seconds to an empty part of the battlefield.

3. Magic of Darkness - students of this school gain access to curse spells used to weaken enemies. The higher the level of a disciple of Dark Magic, the more likely he is to learn how to control the minds of opponents. With the help of "Vampirism" spells, you can turn an army or one unit into undead in order to replenish the level of health and be able to resurrect dead allies.

4. Chaos Magic - in this magical school, spells are taught that cause damage to one of the 4 elements: Fire, Water, Air and Earth.

Factions

In the game Heroes of Might and Magic 5, there are 6 factions that inhabit the universe of Ashan: the Order of Order, the Academy of Magic, the Forest Union, Inferno, Necropolis and the League of Shadows. There are also neutral creatures that do not belong to any of the above factions. There is one moment that unites all game factions - this cult of one of the dragons, which was directly involved in the creation of the world of Ashan. Each faction has its own:

Necromancers worship Asha;
- The Empire of the Griffin - to the dragon Elrath;
- Dark elves revere Malassa;
- Free cities of the East - Ilatu;
- Forest elf worship Sylanna;
- Dwarves revere - Arcata;
- Nagi - Shalasse;
- Representatives of Inferno worship Urgash;
- Mages from the Academy of Magic bow their heads before the dragon Sar-Eelam.

The plot of Heroes of Might and Magic V does not intersect with stories in any way previous parts. He tells the players about the events of a century ago, in which there was a confrontation between Urgash and Asha. Both dragons were so exhausted that they began to look for allies. Askha fought with the Moon, and Urgash with her demons with Shio. From this place, demonic beings could only escape when there was a total lunar eclipse. However, Askha and his allies created a unique artifact - the Heart of the Griffin, which instantly destroyed the demons trying to break free. The story of HOMM V begins 20 years after the last battle with the demons took place. King Nicholas wants to marry Isabelle, but there is a lunar eclipse on the day of their marriage. The wedding is invaded by demons that have escaped from Shio's prison. Their attack was repulsed, but the king of the Griffin Empire began large-scale preparations for war...

List of campaigns in the game Heroes of Might and Magic 5: "Queen", "Demon", "Necromancer", "Warlock", "Ranger", "Mage". New stories, consisting of 5 scenarios each, new heroes and adventures await the players.

Graphic arts

As stated earlier, Heroes game of Might and Magic V switched to new level- in 3D. Now you can watch your favorite characters in three dimensions at once, but it takes some getting used to. Cards deserve special praise, which can be called a masterpiece of design art. Everything is clear and worked out to the smallest detail. Lots of beautiful locations from which you just don't want to leave.

It is worth noting that a new parameter has been added to the Heroes of Might and Magic 5 cards: "initiative". With it, you can calculate how often combat units will attack enemies. The lower the initiative, the more clumsy the soldier is, who makes almost no effort to defeat the enemy, and vice versa. Also, by activating the "quick battle" mode, you can replay the battle.

The developers also worked on the interface, adding a lot of buttons and tabs, which are quite difficult to figure out quickly. It is because of the lack of intuitive control that there are many difficulties at the beginning of the game. Besides artificial intelligence has not moved to a new level, but everything also works with big interruptions and inconstancy.

Another novelty is the "ghost mode". Each hero has at his disposal a spirit that can inflict damage on opponents and on their resource deposits. The mana pool of a ghost is directly dependent on the duration of the opponent's previous turn. The spirit spends energy on movement and on its pumping. Each ghost is endowed with 6 skills that can be pumped. However, it is worth noting that the spirit works intermittently and it is a little unclear to what level it is necessary to increase its skills in order to gain 100% confidence in its evil eye or monster control.

The obvious pluses that HOMM V brought to the game include a new online mode - a duel. Now two level 15 heroes, along with their huge armies, can face each other until the one whose tactics turn out to be the best wins.

At the end of the review, we can summarize that the project turned out to be uneven and cannot receive an unambiguous assessment. A lot of innovations that essentially do not change anything, only complicate the life of the players who, in spite of everything, continue to be fans of the series.

Carly my favorite dwarf

This is not a declaration of love, this is a strategy game for the Northern peoples in the addon.
The text turned out to be voluminous, get tea or coffee and sit down in a comfortable way.

After playing 30+ games on ubi.com as gnomes in 2.0, here is my experience.
He is very different. There were several bright games against warlocks, including fights with Iranna, Sinitar and Vaishan (by the way, this was the most vigorous fight). In my opinion, the League of Shadows is now the most popular on ubi (mb because they have a lot of pretty ladies?).
Several times I played against necromancers, and specifically against Caspar, Deidra and Vlad. I had a number of games against the elves, Ossir and Vinrael were my opponents. I remember two games with the Order of Order - both against Dougal. There were several games against other gnomes (oddly enough, everyone was against Ingvar), including the only defeat at the moment, thanks to my worthy opponent, he taught me how to use level 3+ runes. I played against a strong player for the Academy only twice, so I can’t judge in general yet. Naturally, both games are against Hafiz. Until now I have not played against Inferno, but I want to compete with Deleb in the speed of character development, I am sure that I will be able to overtake. So far I haven't seen one strong strategy for Inferno without Deleb, it’s clear that no one wants to spend valuable time on gates of units and removing their responses =)
My opponents were of different levels of difficulty. It's nice that people play 2.0, that there are more people after the release of the addon, the difference is obvious, especially at night. Unfortunately, bright final battles were not often obtained. Probably due to the fact that there are only a few hardcore players in 5x Heroes, and this is unlikely to change in the future. And also quite frequent game crashes and out of sync, but that's another story.
I played on different maps. Through trial and error, I found the most suitable for the game - the City of Wonders.
So I hope that thanks to the forums and my post in particular, Nival's marketing and the relative popularity of ubi.com, I will find more worthy opponents. Who will be pleased to challenge again and again.

While there was lyrics, it's time to get to the point of the post.
I'll start with the oven. From the characteristics of the gnomes.
The characteristics of the gnomes are given differently each time, sometimes it turns out a la ranger 2-8-3-5, sometimes a la magician 2-3-6-7, sometimes 4-5-5-5 a la gnome. Because the gnomes do not have a pronounced specialization in certain parameters, but there are 20% / 30% / 30% / 20%. Even with Artful Education, a well-defined pick like 2-3-17-4 (for example, like warlocks or necromancers) does not work. I specially tried different dwarfs, I have not yet found patterns in the distribution of parameters. If someone saw, write, it's interesting.
As a result, in terms of parameters, every time something came out between a warrior and a magician.
Therefore, there is a choice which idea to develop the main character. Here are my thoughts.

Develop a gnome mage?
Experience suggests that a mega-killer-nuker does not work out of chaos.
Witchcraft usually does not stand out against the background of other parameters, knowledge too.
Usually by the level of 14-15 there is something like 5-6 or 4-7, sometimes 7-4, of course Without taking into account artifacts. For chaos magic, the most powerful option is obvious - Firelord + Pyrokinesis. This bundle is capable of causing maximum harm due to the "Mahmud, Pajigay" technology. This somehow compensates for the low sorcery of the hero, however, dwarfs are far from real killers like warlocks, magicians with the Sign of the Magician and necromancers. There are no features like a wave of lasso and a powerful growth of Sorcery. It’s also true that the priests of Arcat, who, with Permanent Luck + Soldier Luck, will regularly put a cross on the opponent’s stacks, however, even with this ability, spell damage is much lower than that of the above-described comrades.
In addition, a fireball is given every other time, and Armageddon, with a huge increase in the troops of the dwarves, seems to me controversial. I do not consider an option like dragons with Armageddon. Why? Because the initiative of the dragons is low, you can’t put everyone on one Armageddon, and seven stacks + the opponent’s hero will somehow overtake the stacks of dragons and dwarves in damage. In addition, the farther into the forest, the more likely that the opponent will cut through the chip and collect the antidote to our strategy. And each faction has them, thank God the races in the game are extremely well balanced, each has its own pleasant little things.
I see this as an additional argument against the dragon-geddon. On Veteran difficulty, you can only build level 5 magic and dragon dwellings by the 4th week, if you do not sacrifice the rest of the buildings. And if you donate walking bears with Tans, you are far behind in clearing neutrals and developing the hero.
AT real games I have come across this option twice. Against gnomes, it is also controversial. The resurrection rune, magic resistance and dwarf luck are taken from Karlie easily and quickly, and the skills from the Protection branch for dwarves are useful in any situation, I will describe the reasons below.

With the magic of light, the situation seems much nicer to me. Dwarfs take "meat", i.e. growth and abundance of hits. Mass effects from light magic are very useful, because they strengthen and strengthen troops. In addition, you can take Eternal Light and make these effects stable if we know that the opponent will remove them or interrupt them with darkness (by the way, I have never seen this yet). At the same time, all spells of the Light, except for resurrection, do not depend on the witchcraft of the hero, which is in our favor. The resurrection itself has very good performance and without high witchcraft power.
I took the magic of darkness only once, when they gave me a plague against a warlock. It helped, but I won’t draw conclusions, because there are few statistics =)
I never took the magic of the call, I will also keep silent. In their native tower, the gnomes have magic of light and magic of chaos, so I didn’t take it. And I didn’t see the rune armor spell in action by the way. And I don't know yet what kind of animal it is.

However, taking magic without the accompanying bonuses is not enough if we are going to make a gnome-mage. A combination of Sorcery and Arcane Knowledge will make it possible to make the lives of other mages hell with the help of Distraction. Even if they have Sorcery, the loss in the hero's initiative after casting the spell will be very large.
In the education branch there is another, in my opinion, a very useful ability. During the Runic rollback, creatures, when the runes are activated, return GG mana in proportion to its knowledge. At first glance, with knowledge of 6, this is only 3 mana, which is quite small. At the same time, in the decisive battle, the gnome troops use runes almost every turn, and stacks are usually 6-7. As a result, the problem with a 20% increase in knowledge can be solved by regenerating mana already in battle, if only the hero had resources and slots.
Erling and Helmar are best suited for the role of the head dwarf in this situation, and both in different ways.
Because I tried different variants- and a gnome-mage and a gnome-warrior, now I will describe the one that I liked best.

Carly my favorite dwarf II

Maybe a dwarf warrior?
The warrior turns out to be funny, but effective (may the moderators forgive me for a quote from KK).
The characteristics are again average, defense 30%, attack 20%, to be honest, neither this nor that, when compared with demons or knights.
Of the "military" skills, all are useful, and all in different ways.
Most of the branches of the dwarf troops have more defense than offense, while relative to the troops of other factions, they deal damage at the level of average values. The exceptions are thanes and dragons, both are wonderfully good, but awfully expensive.
At the same time, in terms of the growth of the troops of the first levels and the indicators of the protection of the troops, the dwarfs are on horseback, in the sense, on MedvedE.
Those who wish to do a comparative analysis of the troops of various factions can look at the manual for 2.0 and add their comments regarding the troops of the dwarves, this is also very interesting to me.
A very important detail is to support the dwarven troops with rune magic, which makes them "stronger, more agile and faster" in the final battle. A detailed and very useful guide to rune magic, along with a selection of other very interesting materials about dwarves, can be found here.

Taking this opportunity, I express my respect to Protos for collecting this information literally bit by bit - and from a variety of sources. And alexrom66 for writing and providing these great lyrics. Keep it up guys!

Another detail about the gnome troops is as many as 3 creatures with special abilities that work more often with Soldier Luck. Javelin's crippling wound is my dream after the release of 5 heroes - as it lowers both the opponent's stack speed AND his initiative. A bear paw strike means an unanswered attack + a lot of tricks like pushing stacks into a wall of fire, getting hit by thanes or just pushing away from shooters. The fire sign of the priests of Arcatus is less attractive to me, but it seems useful in conjunction with fireballs and, possibly, with a wall of fire (I still don’t know if it deals fire damage or not - however, it burns great).
Let's add here the thunderclap rune, the effectiveness of which also depends on the soldier's luck - to give one more reason to want to take this excellent skill.

At the same time, the Luck skill itself more than compensates for the relatively low damage rates of the dwarves, and in combination with runes and leadership, it makes them living machines for killing.

What is the result?
The combination chosen by trial and error helped me to win. Consisting of the main character, troops, skills and abilities and the order of building the city. The scanner-scheduler of the development of the hero also helped a lot. Here is the download link and discussion.

Since I mentioned the scanner, I'll add my 5 kopecks, there will be something to discuss at the same time. In my opinion, as long as the scanner exists, there is a chance that your opponent will gain a powerful advantage at the expense of it. I sincerely hope that the author or Nival will figure out how to solve the problems voiced in that topic. In the meantime, they are not resolved, I use the scanner. And, thank God, I don't feel lonely. More and more often I notice how in response to the Attack I took, the opponent takes Defense, and vice versa. The game mutates, players adapt.

Who is the main character?
My competition for the main gnome (GG) was won by Carly, a specialist in spear throwers. Why?
He has a soldier's luck at the start, an ammunition wagon and about 30 shooters.

Everyone who tried to play for the dwarves was surprised how MANY GEMs they need! Indeed - take out and put 20 for thanes, 10 for priests, 5 for bone breakers. And 10 more to upgrade thanes, 10 to upgrade priests, and you also need a Rune School, a guild of magicians ...

In my experience, it is useful to prioritize the construction of dwellings. Those. for what week and whom we will build. And seeks to provide an influx the right resources. Look for and purposefully fight them off neutrals.

Carly has a nice bonus for when resources are scarce. Good luck on the way. It is very convenient, because you can literally take it at level 3-4, and more than compensates for the lack of gems and gold. Having luck on the way, it turns out to take 500 gold more from the chests, the hero gets more valuables from the resource stacks on the map. Well, from all sorts of mills with gardens of cheerful people, too. Fans of thinking about strategies will easily find a use for such a skill. Personally, I take it when I need a nosebleed, and build AND thanes AND priests in the second week, and there are only a couple of piles of gems next to the mine. The case is rare, but from life.

The key plus for me is Carly's ability to quickly clear neutrals much better than all other dwarf heroes (and other heroes, judging by the multiplayer). Crippling wound + plenty of shooters + free wagon = great start. And a great start = one of the strongest advantages in heroes.
Together with the troops of the second or third heroes and cars, he cleans neutrals on the auto battle from level 3-4. With the help of the scanner, every time I check the clearing speed compared to other heroes. So far, there is only one conclusion: Carly (at least in my hands) cleans very quickly. About how and whom to clean, I will write below.

What skills should Carly take?
I will describe them as I remember, I chose from this list in 90% of games. There are two main selection criteria.
The first. To help with the cleaning of neutrals and the development of the hero. Number one here is Car Control + First Aid. Number two - Defense + Evasion + Fortitude. Neutral arrows in 90% mean losses in personnel, with evasion they are much easier to clean. Details, as promised, below.
The second priority is to help in the final battle. A few things help here. First, the knowledge of the main character of the opponent. Saw Dugal, Ossir, Elaine, Hafiz and any of the necromancers - expect 100,000 shooters. So we take Evasion and Fortitude. If you see Ora or one of the warlocks - prepare Fortitude, Reflection and Dwarven Luck.
Secondly, the scanner helps to tune in more accurately, keeping track of what and when the opponent takes his main character.
And for the principal opponents of the scanner, there is a tavern, reconnaissance and analysis of troops and the style of clearing neutrals. To do this effectively, you need to have remarkable powers of observation, to know other factions well and to conduct reconnaissance, which is not possible on all maps.

So, the list of skills.
If the School has good runes, rune magic. By the final battle, it is useful to have 5-10 resources of the desired type, more if you already have the Greatest Rune skill. I take the completed rune in 90% of cases, but the Updated one in cases where I know that the hero will have a minimum of useful magic and it will be possible to spend his moves on updating the runes.
If the main battle takes place at the level of the middle of the second month and later, I consider a full set of runes and skills for them to be mandatory. The more troops, the more useful the runes. And since at level 3 both runes are very strong effects, in combination with thanes and dragons, they allow you to send your opponent's troops to hell quickly and with pleasure.
The only question is when and where to get slots for these skills, and this seriously depends on the map and conditions.

Carly, my favorite dwarf III

Speaking of runes.
In practice, there are powerful runes, and there are situational ones. The rune of energy, resurrection, dragon form, intangibility and battle fury have earned my boundless and constant love and affection. Yes, I forgot about the berserk rune. For some reason, it is compared with the rune of energy - and is considered less important. In the final battle, the rune of energy can be used 1 time at the beginning to run. But berzerking... I don't even know how to describe it. 2 attacks for 1 ore is a kill. Imagine a thane with two attacks equipped with chain lightning. Or bear riders… Or dragons… Or any stack that hits two lucks on a double attack…
The only thing I do not advise you to do is to use the berserk rune on rugby MEDVs in the center of the field. With soldier's luck, the bear hosts will push the stack away in most cases instead of a second attack. But in the corner they give a paw twice, this is a test.
At the same time, if they gave the resurrection rune, the matter takes an even more amusing turn. It allows you to raise 40% of the fallen warriors. Those. it is most effective on numerous stacks heavily beaten by the enemy. Like spear masters, bears and warriors. Especially on the warriors from the watchtower, of whom there are already 10,000,000.

Let's get back to the skills that are useful for GG.
Vehicle control + Ballista + First aid. Makes clearing neutrals quick and easy. In the final battle, the tent removes negative effects, and the ballista finishes off the opponent's stacks. Rune machines are good, if there are slots, we take them. The rapid-fire ballista is very good, but it strikes out the tent, which is very bad. As a result, we cross out the third shot in favor of healing, if we expect harmful buffs. There is another weighty argument for the development of machine control. In the final battle, smart opponents try to quickly kill our ammo cart in order to force the shooters to go to hand-to-hand combat. Driving vehicles significantly increases the survivability of the wagon, and in our case it is worth a lot.

Leadership + Diplomacy + Rune Harmony. Diplomacy is a good skill on its own, and rune harmony is VERY strong in the final battle where the runes fly away with a whistle. At the same time, I spend runes and just for the sake of morality, it's worth it. If you are well versed in the game, you have already understood that Developed leadership is needed for runic harmony, and this is +4 to morale in the final battle if the dwarf has only native troops. And +3 if there are good strangers among the gnomes. Since +5 morale = maximum bonus, Runic Harmony replaces the skillful leadership slot in cases where we do not expect morale-lowering effects from the opponent (like the aura of fear of hellish horses, a ring or a banshee scream).
+5 morale, plus constant luck, runes and soldier luck, it's a very strong combo, trust my experience.

Defense + Evasion + Fortitude. Already wrote about it. I take against heroes with many shooters. These are necromancers, Ossir, Dougal and other training enthusiasts.
Defense + Reflection + Fortitude against warlocks. Inexperienced warlocks think that with the help of huge nukes like earth shock and meteor shower they can defeat the crowds of dwarves. And they collect the main character as a pure magician - with witchcraft, education and the luck of a sorcerer. Dudki. There is enough meat for everyone, and the troops of the dwarves under the runes, luck and morale carry away their ordinary troops with a whistle.
Skilled and strong warlocks try to take out the huge growths of fat gnomes with a combination of huge nukes and powerful blows from furies and riders. They take the attack, sometimes, if you're lucky, the leadership. Defensive Hird + Preparedness helps with this. Such a bundle allows you to respond to all attacks, including attacks from hydras and furies.
She also helps from the gnomes, who, under the guidance of Ingvar or Ibba, often resort first to tactics and energy runes.

Light magic + skills depending on the spells in the guild. I already wrote about the benefits above, in my opinion, the most effective magic for dwarfs.
Ideally, you always want skillful light magic + resurrection, in real life I received this bundle only twice. But the punishing blow and acceleration = mass acceleration + massive punishing blow, this is a test. Especially if both spells were given in the guild. Again, the scanner helps to understand this already on the first turn of the game. And this, in turn, helps in choosing a winning strategy.

Attack + Battle Madness + Shooting + Tactics. I take it less often, the priority over protection and light magic is lower. Why? Permanent soldier's luck gives a double increase in damage. Light magic increases damage, strengthens and speeds up troops. And the runes too.
And the attack in patch 2.0 increases damage by 15%, besides, this skill eats up valuable hero levels. And why take a skill, the effect of which can be compensated by others?
However, if you gave the Boots of the Wanderer, the tactic is useful for the guaranteed hit of the thanes and bears on the first turn. Combat frenzy is often more useful than shooting, because opponents, having seen Carly from the first move, try to cripple spear throwers or an ammunition cart. And the priests in the second place, because the wall of fire and evasion are burning. And they do it right.

What troops?
At quick game and the lack of gems - Warriors, Spear Masters, Bear Masters. Improvements are expensive, but worth it.
If there are enough gems, we choose priests or thanes, improvements for bears and small gnomes will have to wait.

Who came first - the Thane or the priests?
If the opponent likes shooters - priests are the first 100%. In other cases, thanas, because they are very strong.

Who 100% do not take.
Berzerkers with bonebreakers. No matter how I twisted it, I did not see 100% benefit from them. Less hits than bears, characteristics are not higher, speed is lower, the only advantage is the maximum initiative among the troops of dwarfs - 12 (bears have 11). The fury of the berserker seems to me a very ambiguous ability, and the brass knuckle lovers themselves are an easy target. In addition, their dwelling requires gems and wood. And both of these resources are usually valuable and run out quickly. As a result, I say a strict no to berserkers and save gems for thanes and priests.

What and when to build?
If the city level is 1.

First day - Tavern. The troops of the second or third hero are simply necessary for a quick sweep of neutrals and the development of the main character. The third hero is useful for reconnaissance and additional troops, I decide whether to take him or not depending on the map. In addition, starting from the second day, he brings troops and military vehicles to Carly, while the second collects resources for the main dwarf.
Second day - Halls of Shields. More midgets, more troops, all for Carly, all for victory.
Third day - Forge or Halls of Blades, whichever is more useful - a tent with a ballista or additional javelin throwers. And Carly has a cart already at the start.
The fourth day - see the third day, according to the residual principle.
Fifth day - Rune School or Mages Guild, depending on the availability of gems at the start and nearby lands. If they are enough And for the thanes And for the priests, the school of runes. Otherwise - the guild of magicians.
Sixth day - town hall. Otherwise, by the beginning of the second week, we will be overtaken by an economic crisis (on Veteran difficulty, of course). If for some reason there is a lot of gold, the Chambers of the Black Medved.
Seventh day - see the sixth day, according to the residual principle.
Day 8 and beyond - depending on the circumstances, priority #1 - Capitol on day 14, priority #2 - thanes and/or priests in the second week.

If the level of the city is 3 (usually it is a built tavern and a fort), then there are many options and the final one seriously depends on the map and the nearest neutrals.
In any case, by the end of the week you need to have at least 3 buildings for troops, a town hall and a choice of Mages Guild or Rune School.

He promised to write how I clean neutrals.

Carly, my favorite dwarf IV

What is at the start?
About 30 javelin throwers, cart, troops of additional heroes. In the early days, a ballista with a tent also joins this. On the first day of the second week - an increase in javelin throwers. I note that at the start, Carly has no runes or magic, so for the first days he stupidly pokes neutrals with his ... wand. But then useful spells appear, especially from chaos magic, which greatly facilitate the cleaning of complex neutrals, I will list the neutrals by category.

Dumb meat. These are peasants, militias, landlords, demons, devils, bone warriors, fairies, dryads, mountain defenders and warriors, simple and plague zombies, ordinary demons. Their diagnosis is autoboy death. With a soldier's luck, all of the following are sent to hell by express. In rare cases, you have to play against fairies, dryads and devils yourself. How does it work?
The main principle is several stacks of shooters, several stacks of cover from among the troops of additional heroes, in difficult cases we substitute units from cover to remove a retaliatory attack. To do this, we set up 2 stacks of shooters, 1-2 multiple stacks of cover and 2-3 ones. Spear throwers cripple neutrals, reduce their initiative and (!!!) movement speed. Therefore, we attack the stacks of neutrals in turn with them until the crippling wound works. And we remember the formula for soldier's luck when we put troops on the field. In addition, the more stacks of shooters, the greater the chance that Crippling Wound will work - especially with Carly's built-in soldier luck =)

Arrows and others. These are gremlins and older gremlins, infiltrators and assassins, bone archers, javelin throwers, spear masters, archers, crossbowmen and renegade archers. Here, in 100% of cases, losses, if there is no control of the machines and first aid. What helps to significantly reduce losses?
1-2 stacks of shooters, 1 multiple stack of cover, and 3-4 stacks of 1 fronts. Best suited for the role of dummy units are MEDVEDs (although it's a pity), gargoyles and dancers - all of them run up to the shooters on the second move. Their task is to run and stand stupidly in front of the shooters, holding back their shots until the defenders of the mountains run up.
There is trick number 1 here. If Ingvar was given as the second hero, you can not put up your shooters at all. 60+ mountain defenders with losses, but will take the shooters away due to the built-in evasion. And for further cleaning of the neutrals, as you will see, we will need the defenders only as dummy units. The main work will be done by javelin throwers, a hero and, if any, war machines.

Which of the above should not be attacked immediately?
Rogue archers, a horde of archers, a horde of javelin throwers, a horde of elder gremlins. It is better to clean them up with a tent, since the skill of driving machines is given to the gnomes with a 15% probability, and the forge is a passage building for the town hall in the city.

Fast meat. These are ordinary and fiery demons, dancing with blades and with death, beasts and furies, various bears, hellhounds and cerberuses. Tactics differs from blunt meat only in that the stacks of shooters should either be placed in different angles, or covered with units. Here it is important to choose the right amount of shooters in the stack for the optimal operation of the soldier's luck. I'm bad with numbers, I do it on intuition and experience. Each crippling wound that triggers significantly reduces the loss of personnel, so it is worth choosing the right number of shooters before each such battle.
A separate subspecies of fast meat is stone and obsidian gargoyles and steel golems. They all move briskly and are immune to crippling wounds. So we clean them with the help of shooters covered with units.

There is a very interesting trick number 2. If you tightly cover the shooters with units and leave the neutrals with an unprotected ballista with a tent, they will most likely kick the cars instead of the troops. This is where the skill of controlling machines comes in handy, which increases their survivability. I checked it many times, the veteran very often works on difficulty. You understand, in this situation, you can also clean complex neutrals like lizard riders and others like them, in extreme cases, you will have to buy new equipment =)

Dumb meat-2. These are swordsmen, men at arms, zealots of the faith, various minotaurs and iron golems. The difference compared to blunt meat-1 is only in the number of shooters necessary for stripping. For example, for a group of “many swordsmen”, 2 increases in spear throwers are desirable, if you have not yet mastered the subtle art of taking neutrals aside with dummy units. Golems, by the way, are in this category due to their very low speed and initiative. They are easy to clear and without a crippling wound, stupidly poking the hero and arrows.

To clear the rest of the neutrals, more troops are required, but otherwise the principles remain similar. It is useful to remember that the archlichs have a plague, thanes and jarls pierce the formation of ones through and to death. And the royal griffins dive at the shooters on the first move (on veteran difficulty), against them it’s worth collecting the shooters in one stack, covering it with ones, and leaving it nearby free place for retreat.
Trick number 3. Starting from 2-3 weeks, the GG accumulates 4+ stacks of different troops. And to clear the neutrals from now on, you need 1-2 stacks of shooters, 1 numerous stack of mountain defenders or warriors, and a unit of cover. The neutrals themselves love to take revenge on the MEDVs and poorly standing troops. As a result, it is necessary to have troops at hand and as many units as possible in battle. The following helps here. Usually, a second hero follows on the heels of the GG to collect resources. He is in front of difficult fights and it makes sense to give away "extra" stacks. And after the battle, he will return them back. It's better to lose a single one than the valuable meat of the Medvedevs.

That's it. Why did I call it "Carly, my favorite dwarf"?

Because, thanks to Nival, another one appeared in the game strong hero which I like to play and win.

Thank you for reading this far!

I will be glad to your comments and thoughts, write.

Life is change, chaos, debauchery and suffering. Death is peace, order and eternal beauty. From the very first releases of the series to the present day, the castle of necromancers has undergone all sorts of upgrades. Even within the framework of the fifth heroes, the changes took on a global and irreversible character, which forced the adherents of the Necropolis to develop new tactics and strategies for the development of their heroes and cities. What is the cost of the Dark Energy innovation alone!? In the current version, such drastic changes have not occurred, however, you still have to be sensitive to innovations. But first things first.
Our recommendations are addressed to fairly experienced Hero fans, but also to players who are starting to master the wisdom of Heroes, they will, I think, be interesting and useful.

Let's start, perhaps, with the most important and difficult issue - the definition of the supreme commander. It is important not only to learn how to choose the right hero, but also to develop in the most appropriate way. On the first day of the first week, we have a starting hero, and one more is available in the tavern (we won’t count on luck when you can hire as many as two necromancers there). Let's take a closer look at the eight candidates:

Vlad, "Resurrectionist". Once one of the strongest, and now it is experiencing a decline in its former popularity. Is it logical? Of course, the time of the "Inhabited Mines" has already passed (although in tournaments for the passage he still firmly holds the leadership bar), and the specialty does not give a very tangible plus (at level 21 - an additional +5 to witchcraft when calculating the spell "Raise the Dead ”), but it is still too early to write it off to the archive. It's all about his starting skills - having the basics of Summoning magic, he quickly gains the "Fire Warriors" skill.

Why is the strategy about playing on the Forsworn Land map?
This map became popular due to its very small size, lack of monsters between starting locations players and the opportunity to play a duel within just one hour. Which is very important when playing on, where any delays are fraught with disconnects, desynchronization, disappearances of the enemy in real life and other bummers. By the way, in terms of duration, my games rarely exceed 30-40 minutes. Probably from the rarity of strong players on .

What is in this text?
Below I will describe the following: the choice of the difficulty level for the game, the features of the Outcast Lands, the choice of the main hero, the features of conducting reconnaissance, the choice of the main troops, the order of building the city, the order of development of the hero, the best ways to clear neutrals, an overview of four strong options for playing against Kaspar. And a bonus: what to do when the opponent is from beginners, but fancies himself a hero.

What is the essence of the strategy?
Kaspar, Rogue Lands, Veteran difficulty, minimal casualties, large army.
Kaspar is the only necromancer able to nullify early game neutral clearance losses by specializing in a tent. With the strategy described below, victory is achieved by gathering a large army in a short time and one powerful blow to the opponent.

What difficulty level do I choose?
I will describe it for playing on Veteran difficulty, as I choose it for the game as the most balanced.
On the Hero, the advantages of the necropolis are obvious, I always suggest reducing it to Veteran in order to even the odds.
On the Warrior, the game becomes easy and uninteresting - a lot of resources, weak neutrals, all buildings are available, there is no need to make a choice - build whatever you want, no need to think. For me, this means 5-6 heroes with long troop transfer chains, easy wins against neutrals, and long turns, which gets boring quickly.
On the Veteran, resources are limited, which makes it necessary to carefully choose a strategy and fight for all available resources on the map. And in such conditions it is easy to see the strength and experience of the opponent in action. And the game becomes more interesting.

What are the features of the Outcast Lands?
The card is classified as “regular” in size. Games traditionally take place between the blue and red players. Reds start in the northwest, blues start in the southeast. There is an underground part on the map, the entrances to which are guarded by very well-fed monsters. It is useful to remember the two gold mines, the dragon utopia, the magical stream and other tasty things that are on the surface. Before starting the game, I highly recommend that you view the map through the editor. You can download the map file for viewing in the editor from here:

The distance between the starting cities is small, there are no barriers in the form of monsters on the way to the adversary. Which often means a 'rush' game where the first encounter occurs within the first two weeks - and sometimes the last for either side. The levels of heroes on this map only rarely exceed level 10, most often the first battle takes place between heroes of levels 5-8.
An important feature when playing on the Lands is the surface of the ground around the starting castles. For Red, it's grass, which means no movement penalty for heroes of all factions. And for the blue ones, this is the ground, which is a native type of terrain for necromancers, heroes of other factions move noticeably slower there even with a bunch of Logistics + Pathfinding skills. You can read more about territory types and homelands in the excellent HeroesV Guide here:
I take this opportunity to express unconditional respect to the creators of this manual for the insanely useful titanic work =)

Which Necromancer do I choose when playing in the Forsworn Lands?
My choice is between Vlad and Kaspar.
In my experience, the other Necromancer specializations provide significantly less useful effects when playing this map. After all, the full potential of Lucretia, Deidra, Orson and Ravenna is revealed closer to levels 10-12, while the main battle on ZG often takes place much earlier - already at levels 6-9.

Vlad is a Raising from the Dead specialist, has Basic Summoning Magic and Lord of Life at the start. Able already from level 3 to inhabit the mines with ghosts, which can be attached to the main army. His specialization is still relevant despite the massive spell nerf in patch 1.3. It now costs 9 mana and reduces the hitpoints of the target stack by 1/5. The main disadvantage of Vlad is the need to replenish mana at the wells and in the city, which slows down the development of the character and getting necessary resources from the map.

Kaspar is a specialist in healing and maiming enemies through a first aid tent, has the Basics of driving machines and the First Aid skill at the start. With some luck, already from the third level, he receives the Plague Tent skill, which turns the first aid tent into a portable rocket launcher capable of inflicting heavy injuries on enemy units (with the exception of mechanical creatures and undead).
The combination of a tent that can resurrect its troops and raise dead means the lowest possible losses when clearing neutral monsters. The main disadvantage of Kaspar is the lack of magical skills at the start.

Based on this, my choice is to play as Kaspar. I choose Vlad only if the opponent plays for the necropolis and is ahead of me, taking Kaspar for himself.

If the opponent chooses Vlad himself, I take Zoltan, who already from level 3 can get a very useful skill Lord of the Dead (+1 to knowledge and + 5% to raise undead in addition to Necromancy), and his specialization gives a chance that Vlad can raise skeletons only 1 time. Zoltan also progresses through the levels faster and gains bonus stats, which is quite nice if the game drags on.

Necromancer Tactics in the Outcast Lands II

Is it worth doing exploration on this map? And if so, how?
Yes, it's worth it. In addition to obtaining information about the opponent, it is worth considering that there are a large number of resources unprotected by neutrals on the map. This means that the scout hero will also be able to collect some of the things available to the enemy, which gives an advantage in development.
In addition to the scout hero, it makes sense to start each turn by watching the news of the thieves guild. There you can find out the parameters of the strongest enemy hero, which at the beginning of the game sometimes tells you exactly what he is doing. For example, if our opponent plays red Inferno and is going to visit us from the second day, then on the way he will have only two chests, one dolmen of knowledge and one tree. And by changing his parameters, it will be possible to judge whether he ran to us immediately or decided to spend time clearing neutrals.

What troops does it make sense to bet on?
I'm not offering you anything original here. Our main troops will be skeleton archers, they will be covered by zombies, ghosts and vampires, sometimes liches. Since the main clash takes place in the second week, I suggest forgetting about useful troop upgrades. And focus on the rapid creation of a large army.
Players are given a level 3 castle at the start, so the choice between liches and vampires is relevant for the seventh day of the first week and determines who grows more in the second week. In the future, it makes sense to have both dwellings.
From experience, due to the small size of the map, it does not come to the construction of the Dragon Tomb, and the wights represent the strongest unit of the necropolis in the Outcast Lands. And with the strategy that I will describe below, it will not come to the dead =)

What and when to build in the city?
The first day is the cemetery.
Such a move gives 20 additional skeletons that help with clearing the mine and sawmill.
The second day is a graveyard.
On the second day, we get 50-70 skeleton archers, with which we can clear neutrals with a minimum of losses.
The third day is the magic guild.
Firstly, without a guild, you cannot build a bone pillar, which is necessary to increase the raised skeletons and implement the strategy of a large army. Secondly, if the guild has Slowdown, there is a weighty argument for the hero to take a very strong combination of Dark Magic - Master of the Mind. Or, if a magical arrow or stone spikes fall out, meditate on chaos magic. In any case, I write down the received spells on paper and, when offered to take this or that magic, I check the list. Due to this, it turns out to avoid stupid situations when you take a magic skill, and the guild does not have the spells you need for it.
The fourth day is the bone pillar.
Skeletons are our happiness. +10% necromancy means more skeletons. 10 sulfur is expensive, but the effect justifies the cost. An important detail - it makes sense to build a pillar at the beginning of the turn, so that after the battle Kaspar is already under its effect..
The fifth day is the cursed crypt. First of all, I really like zombies. When clearing neutrals, these troops are indispensable. And in a decisive battle, a stack of zombies very often strikes a decisive blow. Secondly, you can't build a town hall without a crypt.
The sixth day is the tower of spirits. In the first week, the influx of gold is easily provided by collecting badly lying resources from the map. But the number of troops cannot be provided in any other way. The second reason is my liking for ghosts. And their super powers to evade any harm. Which is indispensable in the decisive battle, and even when clearing neutrals. There is nothing better than seeing a stack of gremlin masters led by Hafiz shoot at an incoming stack of Wraiths and… miss! Or how Sinitar launches enhanced lightning at them for 1000000 damage and receives the inscription "miss" in response ...
Day 7 - Vampire Manor or Mausoleum. Another dwelling to increase the number of troops. The seasoned reader knows that liches in the first week of Veteran difficulty are only possible if you manage to collect some sulfur. On the other hand, I prefer liches to vampires when I know that the opponent is going to bet on large numbers of living archers covered by other troops. In other cases, I like vampires more due to the unanswered attack and self-healing.
Eighth day - market or forge. Usually on the evening of the seventh day, Kaspar returns to the castle to learn spells, restore mana and recruit troops. And since we don’t have a town hall up to this point, the money becomes quite small. However, I usually expect to build the Capitol at the end of the second week, and it requires a level 15 city. Therefore, I build something inexpensive on this important day. If gold allows, and the hero does not have an ammo wagon, I choose a forge. If there is not enough money - the market.
Ninth day and beyond. I put the buildings in such a way that by the end of the week I have accumulated 10,000 gold for the Capitol. Priority number 2 is the citadel, priority number 3 is the presence of five troop dwellings at the end of the week.

What do the heroes do during this time?
On the first day, I hire two. The necromancer gives Kaspar everything except 4-5 zombies and runs non-stop towards the enemy to collect badly lying resources and reconnaissance of the territory. Necromancers run on the ground without a penalty, which means that regardless of color, this feature will speed up the movement of reconnaissance.
The second hired, most often a hero of a different faction, gives the entire army to Kaspar, receiving 1 zombie in return. His task is to collect resources and artifacts behind Kaspar for the first few days, take the mines, and then, having given everything of value, run to collect free resources on our side of the map. At the end of the week, he should stand by the mill if we play for the Reds, or at the garden of the merry folk if we play for the Blues. To get fresh resources on the first day of the second week.
What does a scout do?
His task is to run to the only passage in the middle of the map, from where the opponent can come running. And, further, to collect the maximum amount of resources before meeting with his intelligence or the main army. And in battle, escape, killing the maximum troops of the adversary. To do this, zombies are divided into 4-5 stacks one by one and placed separately so that more than one is not hooked by stone spikes and fireballs. By the way, if the opponent was greedy and gave his scout 1-3 units, most likely our intelligence will defeat him.
What does Kaspar do?
His task is to make a short journey through the nearest dolmens of knowledge and experience chests to the castle. During the journey, Kaspar clears neutrals and, very importantly, avoids collecting free resources. There are collectors for this, and his task is the development and capture of key objects. At the same time, he should visit the castle again as soon as possible in order to learn spells and restore Mana. Most often this happens at the end of the seventh day, when intelligence is already far away, and the second hired hero is already standing at the point of issue of gold. By this time, its level should be in the region of 5-8, depending on the neutrals that have fallen to us.
Priorities in developing his skills and useful tips on clearing neutrals are below.
If I plan to strike an opponent quickly, then on the first day of the second week I buy another hero, if only the availability of gold allows. Usually they give one necromancer, which means another nts skeleton archers and 7+ zombies. And if it's Orson, then generally a holiday - 27-33 zombies. If Orson was given in the first week, it makes sense to specifically attack his opponent with him and escape according to the scheme described above. At the beginning of the second week, he will most likely return - but with new zombies!
After leaving the castle at the beginning of the second week, Kaspar goes to the opponent, along the way clearing the neutrals already in the territory of the adversary. And then there are two options - either a meeting in an open field, or a siege of his castle. In the first option, the advantage is on our side - due to the high efficiency of the plague tent and the numerical advantage (and often in the advantage in the level of the hero). In the second case, it makes sense to attack the castle in the third week after receiving fresh reinforcements. Describe a specific recipe for further development events seems to me impossible, because the number of options is incredibly large.

Necromancer Tactics in the Outcast Lands III

How to develop Caspar?
There are two main priorities in the first week: machine control and necromancy.
Driving vehicles is a very powerful skill in the early game. The Plague Tent not only reduces losses, but is also capable of inflicting significant damage both when clearing neutral monsters of levels 3-5, and when skirmishing with an opponent's hero. At the end of the first week, with skillful control of the machines, this marvel of technology takes away a week's increase in archers in one go. Or raises the growth of skeletons to "life".
The probability of increasing Knowledge upon obtaining the next level for them is only 15%. If the hero has only 10 mana, he can only raise the fallen undead once, while the tent works three times per battle. Therefore, the plague tent also saves the hero's mana, which is a great help for necromancers at the first levels.
After patch 1.3, the number of hit points at the tent inspires confidence, and the First Aid skill returns the whole tent if it was demolished in battle by adversaries. Therefore, among the skills to control machines, the number 1 priority is the plague tent, then the ballista. The catapult is relevant only if the enemy is a fan of sitting out in the castle. In addition, skillful control of vehicles around the base gives a 50% chance of destroying the towers of the city or the gate. By the way, it’s especially good when the starting city is Adad-Usur, in it the ballista is sold at the usual price of 1500 gold versus 4500.
Among the skills of necromancy, the priorities are as follows. Eternal Ministry is number one in the first week. For it significantly reduces losses when stripping neutrals. Raising archers is priority number 2 in the first week, because at the end of the week Kaspar will return to the city and give each skeleton a bow. But in the second week, the priorities change exactly the opposite.
I avoid taking the banshee's cry. The reasons are as follows. Living neutrals usually have a positive morale, -1 to it only reduces the chance of them getting an additional turn, but it is impossible to intimidate them with a cry without Deirdre's specialization. And golems, gargoyles, and the undead just don't respond to morale drops. In this case, the opponent's troops most often have +2 morale, and the shout has the same effect on them as on neutrals. If Haven is playing against us, and even a strong leader (which is very rare), -1 will not give a powerful effect.
Decreasing initiative by 10% is a strong bonus. However, its influence is stronger, the faster the enemy troops. And the weaker the units are slower. There are quite a few very fast troops, which means that the cry will have a strong influence on the initiative only in some cases. For my taste and color, the situational skill is not worth a slot, especially if we play fast and Kaspar will be level 7-9 by the time of the fight. Much more important are 100% useful skills that will be needed in every battle, and we will leave the scream to Deirdre, she screams better than Kaspar.
Starting from the second week, I add the following priority: get a magic skill.
The options are as follows - dark magic + skill, depending on the learned spell. In my opinion, the most useful would be TM + mind lord = mass slow and TM + curse lord + spirit link = mark of the necromancer. The first makes the moves of our troops more frequent, the second helps to restore mana in battle and cast more spells, which is very important, given the low knowledge of necromancers. TM + lord of pain makes sense to take against lovers of living shooters of 1-2 levels, if they gave a plague on the second level of the tower. This spell has an amazing effect on the number of troops of 1-2 levels, surpassing the shock spells of chaos magic in terms of victims at times.
Summon Magic + Life Lord is the second strong option. Due to the high level of Sorcery and the presence of the Raise the Dead spell built into each necromancer, we will restore even more troops - and even faster.
Chaos magic is a good choice if you somehow manage to get a second level in the guild with lightning or an ice block, and get an artifact with an increase in harm to them. AT long game lord of cold + deadly cold deals unexpectedly huge damage.

What situational development options are useful?
I choose them when playing with strong opponents, when the game gets long. The purpose of this option is a fine "tuning" for a specific enemy. For example, against Sinitar, a bunch of Developed Defense + Fortitude + Reflection helps = our troops are thicker and his spells do 1/5 less damage.
Against archer lovers, I go for Advanced Defense + Fortitude + Evasion, especially if I'm expecting Ossier with 10,000,000 archers.
I rarely take popular skills such as Logistics and Offense.
Why not logistics? The Forsworn Lands is a small map, with many narrow passages, grass and dirt as the main terrain (after all, traditionally games are played between red and blue, without dungeons). Using the strategy described here, it is not difficult to plan movements in such a way as to exclude the possibility of chases (in which Kaspar, without logistics, is frankly weak). Due to early reconnaissance, it is possible to see the key passages on the map and, if necessary, block them with the hero. And with a quick game, Caspar manages to run from his castle to the adversary's castle on the seventh day.
On the other hand, if you take logistics early, you will have to sacrifice either collecting skeletons using necromancy or controlling machines, which will increase losses during clearing neutrals.
Why not attack? First, the strategy is based on the abundance of our troops. And victory is achieved through numerical superiority. We have a couple of hundred archers in the middle of the second week + 40-80 zombies + 15-20 ghosts + 10-11 vampires or 6 liches + plague tent + ballista and cart. The opponent has a two-week increase in troops + his possible equipment - possible losses during the clearing of neutrals, which we compensate for the tent, the Raise from the dead spell and the Eternal service skill.
Secondly, the main characteristics of necromancers are protection and sorcery. And the choice of defense-boosting skills plays to our strengths, giving a greater effect. A nice addition is the fact that the effect of the popular skill Battle Frenzy can be partially mimicked by obtaining a bloodstone necklace from neutrals or from an artifact merchant's shop.

Necromancer Tactics in the Outcast Lands IV

How to clear neutrals in the first week?
The level of Caspar, his strength and the number of skeleton archers with whom we will go to the adversary depend on how many neutrals we can clear during the first week.
The main priority in clearing is the ratio between troop losses and experience gained. The second priority is collecting skeletons. By the way, it is useful to remember that skeletons do not rise from undead, golems and elementals.
What kind of troops do we have to clear? Usually this is 50-70 skeleton archers, 20+ zombies, maybe a few ghosts or a vampire (Lucretia brings him with her) + living troops of the third hero.
General principle: use raising the dead on skeleton archers only if we cannot raise them with a tent. Zombies and living troops play the role of defenders of the shooters and are not subject to rise. Ghosts and vampires are only placed on the battlefield if the neutrals are strong and the battle is very important. For example, if we clean the crypt or there are two chests behind the neutrals.

Gremlins and older gremlins, scouts and assassins, bone archers, archers and crossbowmen (only if the last squad or a lot).
We put 2 stacks of zombies on the field (1+ all the rest, both stacks in the center) and shooters (in the corner), we hide the rest of the troops. We focus the archers and the hero on one stack of neutrals, crawl towards it with a lone zombie (to block it later), the rest of the zombies crawl to another. Neutrals will focus our archers until the zombies come within striking distance, so we heal the skeletons with a tent, remembering that it has 3 charges. Zombies can only be healed if the skeletons have already been healed.
If there is already a plague tent and we can kill a stack of shooters with one shot, we think about the consequences and decide to heal or cripple according to the situation.
"Pass" if you lost few zombies and not a single archer.

Stone and obsidian gargoyles, swordsmen, common and plague zombies, minotaurs, iron golems, common and fire demons dancing with blades.
We put archers on the field in a corner, surround them with three stacks of zombies (1 + 1 + all the rest), separately in the center we put a lone zombie (OZ) or two, if there are enough slots. We expose the rest only if there are a lot of neutrals. And preferably in another corner, to save until better times. Alternatively, if there are a lot of neutrals, we use the living ones as the OZ in the center.
We focus the hero and archers on one stack of neutrals, move the HP towards them so that she (it?) is in the radius of their attack. At the same time, it is desirable that she distract one of the stacks to herself. So that he can run as long as possible to the shooters and their guards.
As soon as the neutrals killed the HP and got to the main group in the corner, the damage of the archers increases dramatically. Now the task is to give a minimum of zombies and 0 archers. If it worked out - zachot.

Demons and devils - similar to the previous paragraph, with one exception. We clean them either with the second hero for the sake of chests or a dolmen of knowledge or Caspar, if we know where he will restore mana. Which these geeks will pull out of him on the first move.

Separate evil - dancing with death. They are best cleared when there is a plague tent + skillful machine control. We expose the zombies in one stack in the center, the archers in the corner, around them 3 OZ, we hide the rest. Then we focus the stacks one by one with the hero, and with the archers, with the tent for the first time we cripple the dancers, then we heal the archers. We put the HP around the archers in defense while they are alive (until the first arrival of the archers). Zachot if you lost few archers and few zombies.

What strategies are strong against this one?
I have seen four of them so far.

Deleb, Inferno
The first one is called Deleb, she is a demon lord, a ballista specialist, and just a hellish woman =).
Her ballista usually shoots twice, and each time it throws a fireball that hits targets around the main one. Hits accurately, hits painfully, skeletons fly away to another world with a whistle.
When meeting face to face in an open field, I do this:
A) I divide the skeletons into 2-3 packs, put them in the center, put the usual protection from ghosts and zombies at a distance of 2 cells on the sides so that they don’t get caught by ballista or stone spikes.
B) I play the game “who will bury whom first”: I try with the help of a tent, a hero and archers to carry away his units faster than he mines. In this game, I have such advantages - a strong spell to raise the undead and the ability to return troops with a tent. And he has endless ballista shots and an abundance of mana against our poor knowledge and a tent that only works 3 times. Moreover, the imps will suck out a piece of mana, which is already so small.
There are two possible responses from this:
Quickly clear the neutrals closest to your castle along with the crypt and build at least a citadel by the time he arrives. If the arrival is expected in the first week, at the expense of the logistics received along the way and the bonus from the morale fountain (which is very rare). If Deleb reaches our castle at the beginning of the second week, God himself ordered to take the gain of the second week and fill her with her demonic hmm ... face =)
In any case, before meeting her, it makes sense to teach Kaspar first-level magic in the hope of attacking spells like stone spikes or a magic arrow. And increase the amount of mana with one of four options: take initial education and mana attraction, take a +1 bonus to knowledge with combat (easier if we play as red), take a magic stream with combat and double our mana (if the enemy is not a fool, he will catch us there), purposefully develop dark magic to the sign of the necromancer and regenerate mana already in battle.
Several useful tips and observations:
1. Do not agree to play against Deleb on Hero difficulty - this will give the adversary more advantages than us. The same goes for the choice of colors - for red, she gets a significant advantage if she gets logistics along the way. So, if you play against such a frankly unbalanced hero, then on Veteran and Red.
2. You don't need a special ability to win for Deleb, which attracts many players who want an easy victory. But the games against her are fast - once he took her troops away, threw her back to the castle, but for now the demon runs to us for the second time, we raise the hero and recruit skeleton archers.
3. A good answer for a ballista would be Defense Basics + Reflection, the ideal option would be Developed Defense + Reflection + Fortitude, although most likely you will have to sacrifice necromancy. And, of course, it makes sense to take your ballista to shoot back the reinforcements called from behind.
Hafiz, Academy
A strong and popular answer to Kaspar is Hafiz from the academy with the ability to control machines. By the middle of the second week, his gremlins usually have the characteristics of higher vampires, and the adversary almost always plays on defense - covering the gremlins with golems and gargoyles, summoning elementals, attacking with genies and mages.
It is very important by the time of the meeting to have a higher level than his. From my experience, power over machines works less often if Kaspar is higher than Hafiz in levels. And more often, if vice versa. In addition, this skill takes the tent with some probability. And Hafiz often lacks first aid skills, not to mention the plague tent. And the magical skills of this magician by the middle of the second week are rarely well developed compared to Nazir or Ora.
Therefore, for the decisive battle, I use the following tactics.
I expose two stacks of skeletons in the corners, if there are lychees, put them in the center. In the center I put the rest of the troops - ghosts with vampires and a stack of zombies. Priority targets for archers are mages, then master gremlins (MG). There will be 2-3 stacks of mages, so 2 stacks of skeletons will find targets. Ghosts in such a fight play a key role. Their task is to get to the MG and stand next to them, making it difficult to shoot. An experienced mage will try to kill them as soon as possible with mages, MGs, or their spells. Therefore, it makes sense to be ready to treat them with a tent or raise them from the dead.
The role of the vampires in this fight is to cut out the attacking genies and cripple the MG guards so that the ghosts get to them. If the liches are on our side, their target, of course, is the MG, because by the will of Nival their attack for some reason damages the golems and gargoyles. With which the adversary will cover the MG.

Necromancer Tactics in the Outcast Lands V

Vittorio, Order of Order
The battle against Vittorio, the siege engine specialist from Haven, looks similar. Experienced players try to quickly prepare archers from the peasants. So by the time of the fight, there will be more of them from the horde. Which means a similar arrangement on the battlefield to Hafiz - archers or crossbowmen in the corner (or in the corners), next to swordsmen or men at arms with large shields (one or two stacks), royal griffins (one or two stacks) in the center. If there are monks, then usually in the opposite corner from the archers (they are afraid of lich attacks and do it right). If there are knights or paladins, then they put them in the center next to the griffins to intercept our vampires and ghosts. Vittorio is strong with a three-shot ballista, some of his opponents take Lead for the sake of Inspire and Aura of Speed ​​and Offense for the sake of Tactics and Retribution.
Therefore, our answer to such a strategy would be Advanced Defense + Evasion + Fortitude. Dodging will reduce the damage from shooters and ballistas, I won’t repeat about durability =)
In a fight, I put a stack of skeletons in a corner, diagonally from it a stack of zombies, in case of an attack by knights or ordinary griffins. Vampires, ghosts - in the center, if there are lychees - in the other corner. The adversary usually launches the royal griffins into the sky, aiming at the skeletons. Therefore, I put only one stack of skeletons, which, after the move of the griffins, should simply step aside. At the same time, the high initiative of the griffins sometimes allows them to land before the skeletons move:<.
Priorities for attacking with skeletons and a tent are griffins, monks and archers. The task of the vampires with ghosts is to block the archers. Zombies guard our archers and often finish off the gryphons after they fly. An important detail is the enemy tent, which not only heals and raises from the dead, but also removes harmful spells. Therefore, the damage makes sense to destroy the opponent's stacks between the turns of the tent - or spread the damage across different stacks to make it harder to heal.

Sinitar, League of Shadows
For dessert, I left tactics against Sinitar, the warlock. His strengths are powerful spells and thick troops. By the end of the second week, 6 cave hydras with regeneration allow the adversary to play his favorite game of attack-spell-hit-escape. Yes, and the intelligence of warlocks most often strives to attack Kaspar and, having patted the skeletons, run away.
What do I do with intelligence? I expose a stack of zombies (at least 20) against the usual 7 scouts. The tent heals the zombies, while the hero methodically knocks the spirit out of the scouts.
What do I do with the main character? If the game is fast, then the alignment is usually like this. He has 2-4 stacks of one hydra, furies, minotaurs and scouts. Everyone plans to stand on the defensive, except for the furies. I deploy all troops with an interval of one cell with the letter G to avoid getting hit by stone spikes and fireballs. Skeletons in the corner, zombies nearby, vampires and ghosts further. Targets for archers and tents - furies, hydras. Usually one charge of the tent is enough to stop the furies from running. By this point, they usually manage to bite off painfully once or twice due to the huge initiative and the initial randomness during the arrangement. Then the zombies crawl forward, and the game is reduced to a focus of troops of hydras and minotaurs and healing and raising their own from the dead. In terms of meat, tent, and Raise from the Dead, I have never lost an early battle so far. Often the adversary throws lightning once and flees to the castle. At the same time, part of the dead returns due to eternal service, and Kaspar runs on.
During a late battle (end of the first month), it makes sense to prepare by picking up Developed Defense + Reflection + Fortitude. The second counter against warlocks are the archlichs. Even for the sake of building them alone, it makes sense to clear the mines. What's the matter? But the fact is that, in addition to the hydras, the rest of the warlock's troops have a relatively small number of hits. And extremely vulnerable to the plague spell. Which two stacks of archiliches in the final battle pretty quickly impose on the adversary's army. And the warlock has a serious choice - to hit the skeletons with Ground Slam or do it with the archliches.

At the moment, I have not seen a single strong strategy against my elves. Yes, and there are somehow few fans of eared ones if you play on the Outcast Lands.

Thank you for your interest and patience! I am sure that this text is an occasion to discuss interesting moments in the game for and against the Necropolis in the Outcast Lands.

Bonus: how to play against newbies for the sake of ranking
Before I met really strong players on , I had many encounters with beginners. Who fancied themselves experienced and seasoned. And still, due to the buggy rating system, in which the numbers in the profile do not guarantee the presence of a skill, I stumble upon them. Such games are interesting to me only if a person is mature, educated and wants to learn how to play well. In such cases, it is pleasant to talk, and it is not a sin to continue acquaintance. In other cases, you have to listen to crying about bugs, developers' mistakes, etc., when the adversary starts to lose, but I don't like it.
Against such beginners (and there are enough of them), I play _very_very_ aggressively. Those. having captured the mines on the first day, I immediately run Kaspar after the scout. The third hero at the same time catches up with Kaspar on the third day and brings either a ballista with a wagon of ammunition or a pack of zombies. Along the way, Kaspar does the following things:
A) cleans the Dolmen of Knowledge in the middle
B) comes to drink from a magical stream, which is very useful if knowledge did not drop out during development
C) takes all chests for experience. At the same time, which is very important, I choose, first of all, two things - Necromancy and control of machines. And of course, a plague tent, as soon as the opportunity presents itself. I ignore the rest of the skills, because with each new skill branch opened, the chance is lower that they will give us the things we need, like the plague tent, ballista, and catapult. And of course I take skills like eternal service and banshee scream only if they don’t offer necromancy or machines. I take the rise of archers if I have overcome half of the way - and it is not possible to give back the skeletons for an upgrade.
D) cleans the crypt if there are 100+ archer skeletons and 20+ zombies. The only problem with the crypt can be if it has 5 liches or 5 wights. We focus the dead with the hero, cover the shooters with zombies or ghosts, and while they are running towards, we feed 1-2 units to buy time. The liches are more interesting - we divide the living troops in different corners, try to save the charges of the tent for the end of the fight, let the liches shoot the archers, and ignore them until we bury the rest of the inhabitants of the crypt. The fact is that liches have only 5 charges in their staffs, after 5 shots they slowly creep towards us, which makes them easy prey for the remaining troops, while the hero picks up the skeletons and heals them from the tent (you probably know that after raising skeletons tent works even better for them =)).
E) Purifies neutrals that don't look like archers, high vampires, or druids with archmages. At the same time, the monsters of the first three levels, when meeting with a hundred archers, are in a hurry to replenish their troops. Melee-monsters up to the third level are not even discussed. Who else can be cleaned up with a minimum of losses? A squad of unicorns, a squad of nightmares, a squad of hydras, a squad of simple griffins, a squad of genies - the tactics are one and the same. We cover the archers with zombies and ghosts, send lone zombies forward or, if it is very important, ghosts. Since all the monsters described above are large creatures, it is often commonplace to stop them by blocking the road with suicide bombers. It makes sense to send them to the other world stack by stack, focus with the hero, tent and archers and put the defenders in defense. With a little practice, the losses when clearing these creatures will be minimal - like 3-4 zombies and / or 1 ghost.
E) if necessary, visits the well. It is in front of the entrance to the territory of the blue.

When meeting with enemy reconnaissance, I hide both skeleton archers and their ordinary colleagues, because the adversary usually focuses them with his hero or spells before running away from the battlefield.
Victory in such games occurs on the 7-8th day in the area of ​​the opponent's castle.

Barbaric Technique on the Warpath I

By tradition, let's briefly get acquainted with the contenders for the role of commander-in-chief - and also, according to tradition, we will make a division into sprinters and stayers, although, just as applied to barbarians, this division is rather arbitrary. So, in the first group we brought typical rushers...

Haggesh is the leader of the centaurs.
The vast majority of players, without hesitation, take it at the start of the game - the presence of almost three dozen shooters in her army and their total increase by +1 to attack / defense for every two levels allows you to immediately get a fairly powerful punching fist, before which many are powerless neutrals. In addition, her specialty increases the starting initiative of the centaurs - at high levels, it is almost a 100% guarantee to make your volley first. However, in this very strength, oddly enough, lies its main weakness - it is Haggesh from the entire line of barbarian heroes that is the easiest to leave without specialization.

Tilsek - Khan's fist.
Those who do not dare to take Haggesh take it. A strong hero with Machine Fundamentals and equipped with a ballista - starts as fast as Haggesh. Even without the "First Aid" skill (but with the presence of the tent itself), he is able to clear strong neutrals with minimal losses (a few units of simple goblins), using the "Rage" skill of his orc warriors.

Krag is an intruder.
Introduced into the game by the will of the developers in memory of the unforgettable Crag Hack from the third heroes. Good at the start, but it reveals itself especially brightly closer to the finish line in the fight against high-level creatures - it is able to defeat hordes where Haggesh centaurs cannot do without serious losses.

Argat is a bloodhound.
Of all the walkers (Grock, Rutger) the fastest in all respects - her specialization brings more movement points and the start, thanks to the same "Logistics", is successful. On maps densely populated with neutrals with the presence of the "Path of War", he clears both his own and enemy lands with a hurricane - and this leads to the fact that the enemy does not have enough time to successfully complete his development.

In the second group, we conditionally included heroes whose specialties are most fully revealed in protracted games - however, one should not think that their start is much worse and we are dealing with outsiders.

Keegan is the goblin king.
At one time, I happened to test a pair of Keegan-Haggesh - in almost all cases, it was he who was ahead of the leader of the centaurs in development. It's all about having the basics of "Leadership", which becomes skillful pretty quickly, and thanks to this, both centaurs and goblins in battle begin to walk like clockwork. In addition, this hero has the most direct path to the Super ability, and we will definitely talk about this later. The second part of the specialization causes some regret - the cancellation of betrayal is not very relevant at the start and does not play a role at all in the final battles - however, one can understand the developers who managed to take into account the disadvantages of Ingvar's sharp increase to the detriment of other heroes.

Haruna is a blood drinker.
Along with Keegan, he is also one of my top five favorite barbarian heroes, and just like Keegan, is underestimated by most players. Her specialty is more clearly felt, the higher the level of the heroine - however, her start, thanks to the rapid receipt of "Fire Arrows" (usually no later than level 4-5), is very good.

Goshak - Khan's blade.
Strengthens assassins, executioners and leaders. Has a developed "Blood Wrath" (which instantly becomes skillful) and "Help" - the main prerequisites for a successful start to the game.

Shak-Karukat is a wyvern tamer.
Gives an increase to his wards in the form of 2 health units for each level, starting from the first - compared to the already mentioned imbalanced Ingvar, this is not so noticeable (in quantitative terms), however, the presence of the "Basics of Protection" makes it very likely that you will soon receive the BDP - and with it punching, as you know, is greatly facilitated.

Hero development

Let's talk now about the possible ways of development of our heroes (and heroines). But first, let's deal with the so-called "Universal Development Scheme", which includes obtaining power skills - "Attack", "Defense", "Machines", "Leadership" and the fifth item "Luck", "Logistics" or "Education" (in depending on the map or random drop of a particular skill, for example, in a witch's hut). It enjoys considerable popularity among the players, not so much due to the well-known simplicity of execution, but because of its viability.

In "Attack" without exception, all skills are useful to the barbarian - it's a pity that you have to choose only two out of seven possible ones (why two? - because we take "Battle Madness" with any attacking scheme). For example, "Tactics" would help to cover the centaurs (or, for example, the goblins located in the very corner - the cyclops during the assault on utopia) in the process of placing troops before the start of the battle - otherwise you have to spend the initiative of the goblins covering units. Still, two options are usually most common: leaving for the "Fire Arrows" through the intermediate "Shooting" or striving for the "Devil Strike" (taken after the "Help" and "Stunning Blow") - we recommend the latter development, as the most optimal, because the effectiveness of "Fire Arrows" (and in general "War Machines") drops in a protracted game; in addition, there is an alternative way to replace the "Fire Arrows" - about it a little later. There is also a wonderful skill "Retribution" (damage increases by 5% for each unit of morale) - its influence is noticeable in the later stages of the game and it is equivalent to "Devil's Strike". True, there is also a significant minus - although the barbarians are perhaps the only race that can disperse the morale indicator to the area of ​​\u200b\u200b12-15 units, the bonus damage from "Retribution" will still not exceed 25% (this limit is set by the developers in order to maintain balance) . However, and this is a lot, which the reader will be able to see for himself in a battle where a large number of creatures participate.

Defense is an essential skill for all races, and barbarians are no exception. The most popular is the desire to get the "Battle to the last" (colloquially - BDP), which is taken after the "Evasion" - then instead of units of goblins, twos are used in the penetration and it is already possible to eliminate a fairly strong large-sized neutral guard with almost no losses (with "First Aid" - so and without loss). The second branch is getting "Resilience" and then - "Deep Defense" (very effective when punching through the regeneration of wyverns or when taking utopias). The "Readiness" skill, in our captious opinion, is unlikely to ever come in handy and is an empty acquisition - instead of it there is a good alternative in the form of "Reflection" (reduces magic damage by 15%) or "Resistance" (the hero receives a one-time increase in the defense parameter by +2), although instead of the latter we prefer "Protect us all" - not only increases defense by +2, but also adds 1st level creatures to the army. However, all this occurs in the main character episodically - and most often "Evasion", "Fortitude" and "Reflection" are taken with various additions in the form of BDP or "Deaf Defense".

Barbaric Technique on the Warpath II

In the evolution of the Fifth Heroes, engineering thought did not stand still, and the unique skill "Goblin Help" appeared in the "Machines" - now the hero, if he has a cart with ammunition in the army, is replenished every day in the form of a trapper. Most often practiced by several secondary heroes, but occasionally used by the main one in a protracted game - you need to remember that this skill is one of the intermediate ones on the way to the "Pure Rage" super skill. However, for an easy start, it is more important to quickly get "Ballista" and "First Aid" - increasing your own and leveling the effects of enemy damage in one bottle. Ideally, this bottle is also filled with "Rapid-Fire Ballista" - since the "Plague Tent" is practically useless in breaking through neutrals (its damage is incomparable with the damage of centaurs or ballista) and can only occasionally come in handy in the final battle (for example, it is guaranteed to deal with a phantom), and "Catapult" followed by "Brimstone Rain" [after the intervening "Goblin Aid" and "Strength vs. Magic"] is good in a long game with superpower tendencies. There is an important nuance here - it often happens that at the initial stage of development they don’t offer “Machines” in any way - and therefore the hero has to fill in the previously taken skills and abilities in anticipation of better times. It is important here not to be nervous about this (a barbarian is able to successfully carry out a rather complicated penetration even without equipment), but to correct his development - after about the 15th level of the "Machine", if they were not offered earlier, it is better not to take it at all and switch to other branches development - the benefit is to choose from (see paragraphs above and below).

We can observe a similar picture in terms of skills in "Leadership" - two lines of development with slight variations: "Diplomacy" with "Empathy" (and here, perhaps, the only acceptable alternative in the form of "Treasury Management") and "Gathering troops" plus "The rapture of battle" and then "Inspiration" (as one of the ways to a super skill) or "Aura of speed" - the last skill will be recommended by us for taking, especially since in the attacking scheme of Maxim Sorokin (more on it later) - this is an important link.

Now we have smoothly approached the notorious "fifth point" (see note), which includes something that for some reason could not be taken earlier.

So, Mrs. Luck. And here we also see all the same two lines of development - however, even more subtle (that is, meager) than higher: "Magical Resistance" with "Barbaric Luck" and "Soldier's Luck" with "Deadly Failure". True, in practice, these two thin lines merge into one, as thin as these lines - this is due to the fact that the bug with "Barbarian Luck" has not been fixed to this day - this skill reduces the damage received by the barbarian units from magic by a constant 5% - neither a ten- nor, moreover, a fifteen-percent reduction can be achieved even with the "Luck" parameter of five or more units! "Luck on the road" (as well as "Trophies" and "Asha's patronage") - remained the prerogative of minor heroes.

A similar situation can be considered in "Education" - leaving for "Mentoring" (after the obligatory "Military Knowledge" and "Attraction of Magic"), which is relevant in long games, occurs as often as taking the "Fire of Rage" skill - its effectiveness is very significant, and for this reason we recommend it. "Endurance" and "Dark Revelation" are taken, as a rule, only when there is nothing else to choose from.

And in Logistics, even these traditional thin threads practically turn into one - in fact, nothing can replace the effectiveness of the "Search for a Way" - "Way of War" link. Of course, it can be diversified with an addition in the form of "Looting" (in our opinion - the very thing) or, at worst - "Reconnaissance" or "Tread of death" (they also have their positive aspects) - however, there is a strong feeling of the uniqueness of the option when all the visible variety of skills. (Very important: the "Sharp Mind" skill is an important part of Maxim Sorokin's attacking scheme (see below)).

Antimagic

Now it's time to talk about anti-magic directions - all the more, in our opinion, here lies the "only correct" solution to the issue of the development of the hero. With the seeming obviousness of the choice of one or another skill (depending on the race / hero of the enemy), there are options here, the choice of which is influenced by what we are striving for in the end. Let's proceed to a more detailed consideration, but at the beginning (for better assimilation of the material presented by the readers and in order not to repeat it again in the future), we consider it necessary to make the following clarification: "Corruption" increases the cost of enemy spells by 50%; "Hold" shifts the caster on the ATV scale by 25% (and it can also throw the latter into a negative position - in other words, the shift is always at least 25%); "Weaken", as the name implies, when calculating the effect of spells, reduces the spellcasting power of the enemy by the same 25%.

The least effective of all anti-magic is considered by many to be "Anti-darkness" - after all, the spells "Subjugation" and "Berserk" that are most unpleasant for orcs, it only slightly weakens, as it were. However, in fact, this "slight" weakening is very sensitive for the caster - "Berserk" even at the expert level only lasts 1 turn and therefore you have to repeat this procedure constantly (and it's not a fact that it's successful - because "Magical Resistance" can work, if it is, of course, there is), and now it will no longer be possible to subdue the cyclops, and, in general, when calculating the effect of the spell, you need to minus another 25% (cumulatively with "Weakening Darkness", which also removes 25%). So not only against Letos, this muffling can be recommended. Of the skills, in our opinion, the standard combination of "Corruption", "Weakening" and "Hold" looks best - if only because "Weakening Strike" reduces the target's attack by only 3 units, and "Cursed Earth" significantly loses in its effectiveness in a long game and can be good only in the early stages of the game, and in the fight against invisibles (however, against the latter there is another, no less effective way - see the tactical moments section).

Another unpopular anti-magic is Summon Silence. Still, not to take it, for example, against necromancers, would be an unforgivable mistake - after all, it is important for us not only to knock out his main trump cards in the form of "Raising the Dead" or "Fire Trap" - the skill "Return to the Void" (base - "Strength against magic") and "Foggy Veil" (base - skill "Weakening the Call") will also be useful - the first in the fight against the phoenix or the summoned elementals (of course, and against the demons summoned from hell), the second - to reduce the initiative (by 20% ) and damage (by 10%) to enemy infantry units (of course, in a game with elves, "Anti-Summon" is rather exotic - however, God himself ordered to take it against Dirael). Other skills ("Hold the Summon", "Corrupt the Summon"), we believe, should be taken when for some reason we do not take the above "Fog Veil" with "Return to the Void". (Very important: the artifact "Ring of Banishment" also weakens the magic of the Summon - its effect is cumulative with the "Summon Mute".)

Barbarian Technique on the Warpath III

Here, "Mute Chaos" is already more appreciated by players - especially in the early stages of the game, when the barbarian is very sensitive to shock spells, not only emitted by warlocks (even knights and elves with their ridiculously low spellcasting parameter deal decent damage with a regular "Magic Missile"). In addition, there is also an excellent replacement for "Fire Arrows" - the "Fiery Fury" skill, which is taken after the "Corruption of Chaos", allows you to inflict an additional ten percent damage to all our units (including the ballista) with the elements of fire. Very important: against an enemy BDP, "Fiery Rage" is effective at any game time frame! The only thing that needs to be clearly understood is that the effectiveness of this skill is not very noticeable in the early stages of the game and is useless against creatures that have protection from fire. In addition, it will not be possible to combine "Fiery Fury" and "Fire Arrows" - their effects do not stack, and additional damage to the ballista in the form of 50 units for each shot will not be accrued (in fact, this is an obvious bug, but you need to know about it! ) is another reason to think about optimal development. "Mana Explosion" has a double effectiveness - against sorcerers in the army of the enemy, it is effective in the early stages of the game; in protracted ones, its role noticeably decreases (and sorcerers already do more damage with ordinary shooting) - however, this skill cannot be called useless, if only because of the well-known factor of unexpected surprise.

Well, the last anti-magic - Dim Light - we also like its powerful potential. There is a very attractive piercing option ("Stormy wind" [basic skill "Light hold"] + "Protection from fire" [basic skill - "Strength against magic"]), which will prove itself well in the final battles, and there is also an interesting scheme focusing on the daughters of the sky - with the skill "Secrets of Light" [taken after "Corruption of Light"], they enter the battle by inflicting cross-strike with chain lightning on the enemy (this damage can still be doubled with Sar-Issa's half set). It goes without saying that "Anti-Light" is good against dwarves, elves, academics (and even in the case when they develop not magic of Light, but Chaos) - a bunch of skills "Storm wind" - "Protection from fire" claims to be some kind of universality applications. Very important: Dimming Light does not reduce the level of spells cast on light unicorns as a result of the Child of Light skill.

War cries

Briefly about "Battle cries". The skill itself is quite interesting in a protracted game, and even in combination with "Empathy". In addition, such skills as "Scream of Rage", which doubles the number of rage points received by our troops from the hero's battle cries (cumulatively with "Fire of Rage"), and the anti-magic chain to "Distraction" [through intermediate "Development of Combat cry" and "Mighty cry"]. All in all, this skill is quite useful in the presence of popular shouts like Fury of the Horde and Frightening Roar, but not only with them - which we will mention later.

Racial skills and abilities are best taken in this sequence - "Support", then bringing the "Wrath of the Blood" to a skillful level, and only then "The Memory of Our Blood" and "Strength vs. Magic". This is based on the effectiveness of these skills in penetration - in it, "Help" brings the greatest benefit.

A little about hit runs

At the very beginning of the release of "Lords of the Horde" one could hear a lot of indignant exclamations of barbarian players: indeed, the confrontation between a ten times stronger army of orcs and a handful of hunters looked rather ridiculous; among other things, after two or three such "battles" a tenfold superiority in manpower disappeared and the warlock called for reinforcements and won an easy victory. However, these troubles were caused, rather, by a misunderstanding or, perhaps, by the confusion or inexperience of the players - both in version 3.0 and in the current 3.1, the trappers who went into invisibility were easy to detect with the help of traps set by trappers - you just need to remember the cells with located on them with stealth (this is easy to do at the very beginning of the battle, when the hunters are just preparing to jump into the unknown) and set traps in them. There is another well-established method - the daughters of Heaven with the skill "Secrets of Light" (or any two items from the set of Sar-Issa - and even better both the skill and artifacts!) Immediately get the opportunity to deal damage with "Chain Lightning" - their initiative the same as that of the hunters, and almost always manages to destroy most of the invisible ones who did not have time to hide.

About creatures and their alternatives

We have already mentioned the usefulness of trappers in repelling the raids of hit-runners; their role is also great in normal penetration - even units slow down various neutrals quite well, and their combat initiative is higher than that of goblin shamans. In addition, there is also a whole 2 points more health, which is of great importance. It would seem that the issue here is unambiguously resolved in favor of trappers - however, there is one important nuance: in the later stages of the game, they can completely block enemy magic. To make it easy to calculate the required number of blockers even without a calculator, you should keep in mind the following formula: (sorcerer level + spell level + 17) * 25; i.e. a 10th-level hero casting a 4th-level spell will be blocked by 775 goblins; if you need to block a level 5 spell cast by the same hero, you will need 800 goblins already. A level 30 hero with a level 5 spell is blocked by 1300 goblins. In general, in fairness, even a single goblin shaman has a chance to block an enemy spell - but there this probability is not too high (however, always at least 5%!). So, in the final at a later date, you have to think about who to give preference to here.

But with the centaurs, the situation, on the contrary, is very simple. Here, fighting centaurs are out of competition - both due to a higher health parameter, and due to the absence of a penalty for hand-to-hand combat. The maneuvering of nomadic centaurs is more of a minus than a plus - as a result of running back, they fall under the blows of several enemy units and, as a result, quickly die. In addition, they suffer greatly from "Fire Walls" or "Fire Traps".

Most players give their sympathy to the warmongers - again, because of the difference in health (and here it is very significant - as much as 8 points!). However, Orc fighters have their own trump cards - initiative is above average (11 units versus 9 for warmongers) and the Assault skill. True, to increase the likelihood of the latter triggering, you should take care of acquiring the "Soldier's Fortune" - but it's worth it.

The Daughters of Heaven and the Daughters of the Earth are roughly equivalent to each other - you should just understand that if your army is focused on the power melee attack, then the Daughters of the Earth will be in favor here (as well as the trappers); if you got the regalia of Sar-Issa or developed the "Secrets of Light" - then the choice of the Daughters of Heaven is no longer in doubt.

The situation is the same with the executioners / leaders. It all depends on your development option. For example, in the previously mentioned attacking scheme of Maxim Sorokin, an important role is assigned to the leaders - accelerated by the daughters of the Earth, they practically do not participate in direct hand-to-hand combat and use their "Leader's Order" skill to alternately adjust cyclops, warmongers or sorceresses.

In a situation with wyverns, the choice is rather determined by the enemy - against necromancers, paokai should be taken not only because of the immunity to "Blind" or the uselessness of the dark wyvern's "Animal Venom" skill, which does not affect undead, elementals and mechanisms, but also because their ability Scavenger can confuse the cards of an enemy hero planning to use Raise Dead. In general, these improvements are approximately equivalent, but in most games they are almost never found, perhaps because of the main disadvantage of these creatures - "Blood Wrath" does not affect them in any way, as a result of which their survivability is sometimes lower than that of the same warmongers.

Barbaric Methodology on the Warpath IV

Free cyclops have 10 units less health, and often catch friendly creatures - as a result, many prefer to take blood-eyed cyclops into their army. However, the free ones have a good ability "Crushing Blow" - a chance to throw the target to the end of the ATV scale and the ability to break fortress walls and gates (although the latter is effective when the number of cyclops is around 20 goals \ for each damage inflicted on fortifications is 10 units).

Brief summary by levels:

I - 50%-50%
II - 20%-80%
III - 45%-55%
IV - 50%-50%
V - 50%-50%
VI - 60%-40%
VII - 50%-50%

A bit about barbarian magic (or battle cries)

The most popular among the players were "Frightening Roar" and "Fury of the Horde" - sometimes it even comes to the point that the main reason for the defeat is called bad luck with the loss of the desired cry: instead of "normal" they gave "weak" ("Word of the Leader" or "War Cry" ). However, "bad luck" is caused primarily by the inability to use "unfavorable" calls (or ignorance of their features). Indeed, no one will convince me that the "Battle Cry" (in essence, an enhanced analogue of the general "Punishing Strike") is an empty acquisition. At high levels of the hero (above 20th), and even in combination with "Mighty Cry", not only exceeds the attacking bonus of "Punishing Strike", but also gives +1 to the speed of all his creatures (of course, it also adds rage points) . The only negative is that the duration of the call is only one turn; however, in combination with Empathy and Masterful Warcry, this disadvantage is almost invisible. The "Word of the Leader" is extremely effective against low-level troops (goblins, centaurs and warmongers) - it is undesirable to use it against, say, cyclops due to the peculiarity of causing direct damage to the hero (comparison for example - a hero of level 21 kills with a direct attack 8 creatures of the first level, 6 - the second, 4 - the third, ....., 1 - the seventh - to lose 1 cyclops or 8 goblins, the difference is noticeable).

About urban planning

Barbarians are able not only to sow death and destruction, but also to build very interesting structures. We are interested in the priority order of construction in the first or second weeks - because this is where the foundation for future victory is laid. Usually, a scheme is practiced with the construction of a citadel on the 7th day (in order to get an increased increase in the main punching fist in the form of centaurs and goblins at the beginning of the second week) - on some maps (for example, "Outcast Land"), in the presence of a fort, they also manage to stick a dwelling for shamans - then on Monday, the gains are transferred to the commander-in-chief by a chain of secondary heroes, and he conducts the final battle. The main thing here is to take care of a sufficient amount of the necessary resources (primarily ore and mercury) - usually, even when playing on the "hero" difficulty level, you can successfully solve these tasks. There is another scheme - the fastest laying of the lair of wyverns. Here it is already more priority to have wood and sulfur. However, the wyvern variant is quite rare - due to the later appearance (usually in the second week), high cost, and when difficult-to-pass neutrals (forest archers, archmages, archdruids, etc.) are located in key strategic positions.

Attack of Maxim Sorokin

The attentive reader above has already had to deal with the mention of this surname. The turn has come to get acquainted with one of the many developments of this talented person, known in the heroic world as Psionic. The attacking potential of his great idea is most clearly revealed in protracted games, when he manages not only to gather an impressive amount of manpower under his banner, but also to acquire good artifacts and, perhaps more importantly, to get his hero the right set of skills and abilities. We will start with the latter (remembering Shakespeare's saying: "Last but not least").

In general, it would be useful to immediately mention that it was developed as an alternative response to elven aggression - in the final battle, almost half of their troops (and under the control of Vingael - almost all) manage to go before the enemy’s move and destroy most of our army and, as a result this - we are waiting for an inevitable defeat. However, it is possible (and necessary!). As in ancient times, here, too, everything rests on three pillars - that is, skills: "Aura of speed", "Storm wind" and "Sharp mind". Here is a complete list of the necessary skills and abilities: skillful "Leadership" ("Gathering troops" + "Speed ​​aura" (required) and "Battle intoxication" (recommended)); skillful "Mute Light" ("Hold Light" + "Storm Wind" (mandatory); "Protection from fire" (recommended for penetration, but may come in handy in the final)); skillful "Logistics" ("Intelligence" + "Sharp mind" (required, but usually taken before the final battles through retraining from a mentor, and before them, the recommended "Search for a path" is practiced in preliminary penetration of neutrals in conjunction with the "Path of War" and "Looting") "); skillful "Attack" ("Tactics" (mandatory - most often relevant for leveling a similar enemy skill; very important: against Nibros (Inferno faction) you need to take any other skill, since he levels our "Tactics" with his specialization, at the same time while retaining the ability to use your own), "Battle Madness" (recommended, but in our opinion almost mandatory) + "Retribution", which can be replaced with "Stunning Blow"); the fifth - the choice between "Protection" (in most cases, it is preferable ) and "Luck", which in this context seems more appropriate to us, especially enriched with "Soldier's Luck" and "Magic Resistance"... Those who know how to compare disparate factors together will immediately turn Please note that the key value in the proposed development scheme is given to the "Speed" indicator - all the skills that affect it are used here. Therefore, a good addition to it is the "Boots of Speed" artifact and at least two items from the "Embrace of Death" set - although personally I would prefer "Dragon's Leggings" instead of boots. Of the creatures, leaders are required (drive cyclops), divided into 2-3 squads, daughters of the Earth (also divided into 2-3 squads) and 1 squad of free cyclops (although they have both speed and initiative 1 unit lower than those of the blood-eyed) taken with Crushing Blow. At the very beginning of the battle, our daughters apply Haste to the leaders and cyclops, the barbarian hero shouts out the Battle Cry (not only a significant increase in the Attack parameter, but most importantly: +1 to speed! ) and after that you will not envy the enemy troops who fell under the power of the Cyclopes destroying everything in a row.

Briefly about artifacts

In conclusion, let's touch on the issue of equipping our hero a little. Unfortunately, the weapon of might special racial set is very rarely seen in action - the catch is that the barbarian can get the most benefit from owning it in the early stages of the game - but the whole question is: how to get them? And in the middle and late stages of the game, when we can get them, it turns out that instead of them there are more useful things (for example, "Shield of the Dwarf King" or "Fiery Dragon Tongue"). In addition, the following bug is associated with this prefabricated artifact - contrary to the description, when using "Help", our hero does not move along the ATV scale. In general, everything found on the road (taken from neutrals) is usually put on the hero, but in the later stages of the game there is already a choice - here artifacts that affect the initiative of creatures, as well as the "Pendant of Mastery" and "Golden Horseshoe" will bring the greatest benefit. Very important: the following bug is associated with the full set of "Dwarven Kings" - the level of "Stoneskin" and "Evasion" applied at the beginning of the battle depends on the mastery of Light magic; therefore, for barbarians who are unable to learn magical sciences, these spells are cast at the "No Skill" level, that is, they only give +3 defense and 25% damage reduction from ranged attacks. Alas, Dimming the Light does not improve the situation either.

Protection and Treasure of Dragon Utopias

1. General Provisions

The reward received for winning the Utopia depends only on the type of Utopia (a detailed description of the types is below).
Plundered Utopia is updated after 28 days. Unplundered Utopia is NOT updated after 28 days.
The entire reward is generated at the beginning of the game, that is, it is unchanged upon loading.
2. Types of Utopias

2.1 "Random" Utopias.
"Random" Utopias are characterized by a randomly generated garrison and the number of gold coins received as a reward.

Main characteristics:

2) The number of stacks of dragons in the garrison is 2.
3) Composition: random combination of two stacks from two groups, one stack from each group:
Group 1: 9 green dragons, 7 emerald dragons;
Group 2: 6 twilight dragons, 4 black dragons.
Thus, there are 4 different combinations of garrisons:
1. 9 green dragons + 6 twilight dragons.
Spawn Chance = 25%
2. 9 green dragons + 4 black dragons.
Spawn Chance = 25%
3. 7 emerald dragons + 6 twilight dragons.
Spawn Chance = 25%
4. 7 emerald dragons + 4 black dragons.
Spawn Chance = 25%
Note: The chance of one of the four garrisons spawning is calculated from the 40% chance of a "random" Utopia spawning. That is, in the general case, the probability of the appearance of a certain garrison will be equal to: 0.4*0.25=10%.

4) Reward:
1. Gold: 12000-20000. The value is determined by a random generator and does not depend on anything.
2. Artifacts:
1) 1 relic + 2 great artifacts. Probability ~ 90%
2) 1 relic + 3 great artifacts. Probability ~ 10%
3. Spells:
2) 2 spells of the 5th circle. Probability ~ 50%
Note: (points 1,2,5 are common for all types of Utopias)
1. The classification of artifacts is taken from the manual.
2. Spells are chosen randomly from those possible to learn, but not learned by the hero (in the case of learning several types of magic, the received spells can be from different or from the same school of magic).
3. If 2 spells of the 5th level drop out as a reward, but there are no unlearned spells of this level, then they are replaced by 2 spells of the 4th level (but not vice versa). If 2 spells of the 5th level are rewarded, but there is only 1 unlearned spell of this level, then the second spell is lost (i.e. spells of different levels cannot be rewarded).
4. Spells below 4th level cannot be obtained.
5. Traveling spells can also be obtained: "door of dimensions" (equals to 4th circle) and "portal to the city" (equals to 5th circle), but they require the required level of the hero.

2.2 "Non-random" utopias
"Non-random" Utopias are characterized by a predetermined garrison and the amount of gold coins received as a reward. They are divided into 2 types:

2.2.1 First type.

Main characteristics:
1) Probability of spawning = 40%.
2) The number of stacks of dragons in the garrison is 4.
3) Composition: 8 green dragons + 6 twilight dragons + 4 emerald dragons + 4 black dragons.

4) Reward:
1. Gold: 20000.
2. Artifacts:
1) 2 relics + 3 great artifacts. Probability ~ 90%
2) 2 relics + 4 great artifacts. Probability ~ 10%
3. Spells:
3 spells 5th circle. Probability = 100%.
Note:
You can't get spells below 5th level.

2.2.2 The second type.

Main characteristics:
1) Probability of spawning = 20%.
2) The number of stacks of dragons in the garrison is 3.
3) Composition: 6 twilight dragons + 5 black dragons + 11 ghostly dragons.

4) Reward:
1. Gold: 14000.
2. Artifacts:
1) 1 relic + 2 great artifacts + 1 small artifact.
Probability ~ 10%
2) 1 relic + 2 major artifacts + 2 minor artifacts.
Probability ~ 80%
3) 1 relic + 2 major artifacts + 3 minor artifacts.
Probability ~ 10%

3. Spells:
1) 2 spells 4 circles. Probability ~ 50%
3) 2 spells of the 5th circle. Probability ~ 50%
Note:
1. If 2 spells of the 5th level drop out as a reward, but there are no unlearned spells of this level, then they are replaced by 2 spells of the 4th level (but not vice versa). If 2 spells of the 5th level are rewarded, but there is only 1 unlearned spell of this level, then the second spell is lost (i.e. spells of different levels cannot be rewarded).
2. Spells below 4th level cannot be obtained.

3. The probability of obtaining artifacts.

The probabilities of obtaining various artifacts in Utopias are different even for a specific group, approximate data are given here.

Publisher in Russia: Nival Interactive / "1C"

Introduction

Important note: all description is tied to the passage on the Normal difficulty level

Game version: 3.0

Rage of the Tribes introductory campaign

Mission 1. "A Murder of Crows"

The Will of Asha Campaign

Mission 1. "Last Soul Standing"

Mission 2. "The Grim Crusade"

Mission 3. "The Bull's Wake"

Mission 4. "Beasts and Bones"

Mission 5. "Heart of Darkness"

To Honor our Fathers Campaign

Mission 1. "Collecting Skulls"

Mission 2. "One Khan"

Mission 3. "Father Sky's Fury"

Mission 4. "Mother Earth's Wisdom"

Mission 5. "Hunting the Hunter"

Flying to the Rescue Campaign

Mission 1. "Dark Ways and Deeds"

Mission 2. "Tearing the Veil"

Mission 3. "Summoning The Dragon"

Mission 4. "A Flamboyant Exit"

conclusions

Ratings

Graphic arts: 75%
Sound: 80%
Game process: 75%

General impression: 77%

In general, the rules remained the same as those familiar to us from the previous "Heroes" (especially the third part). Heroes walk around the map and lead armies of fairy-tale creatures; when colliding with an enemy, including a neutral monster, a tactical fight occurs. All of this is step by step.

Armies are acquired in cities; to do this, you need to capture the city (if it is not yours initially) and rebuild the necessary buildings in it. There are seven resources, as has been customary since 1995: gold, wood, ore, mercury, sulfur, crystals, gems. All of them are mined in the mines (which must be captured for this), collected on the map, and the city itself produces gold and the "main" resource of the race.

All this has always been. But if you look a little deeper, the changes will appear immediately.

Tip: if you want classic "hero" gameplay without scenario frills, you should play network cards. The single player maps here are like mini-campaigns.

City and economy

In the early Heroes, building in the city was arranged according to the principle of "tree": to create, say, a green tower, you need to have a labyrinth and a swamp (plus a fair amount of gold, sulfur and ore). Now requirements in the form of “such and such buildings are needed” are encountered, but not very often.

The main parameter in construction is the so-called level of the city: it is simply the number of buildings already built in it. So if a monster needs level 10 for a dwelling, it doesn't matter what 10 buildings you build. Improvements to existing buildings also count.

Note: in the lower right corner of the right menu during construction there is a button that allows you to see those buildings that cannot be built yet (due to the level or lack of other necessary objects). Turn this mode on immediately and do not turn it off. It is completely incomprehensible why this “good service” was needed - to hide most of the building menu from the player. Otherwise, you won’t understand - the level of the city is not enough or something specific is needed.

What can be built right now is shown in green (available improvements - in blue), what lacks resources - in red, already completed buildings are drawn, as they say in heraldry, "in the proper colors."

The buildings of the races do not differ too much. Therefore, in the chapters on races, we will talk about the special buildings of each race, and here - about what is the same for all. True, the requirements may differ slightly; for example, in the Academy, in order to build a town hall, it is necessary to create a magic guild, which is quite natural, while other cities do without it.

Monster dwellings. They are called differently, but it is always clear from them who lives in them: for example, the "garden of unicorns" or "workshop of gremlins." All buildings have an improved version, some also have an "extension" attached to them, accelerating their growth.

The house of elders and its improvements determines the rate of money growth in the city (house - 500 gold per day, town hall - 1000, magistrate - 2000, capitol - 4000). Upgrades require city levels 3, 9, and 15, respectively, and the capitol can only be built in one city per nation.

This is important: if you already have a capitol, then by capturing the enemy one, you will automatically destroy it.

The magic guild grants heroes in the city the right to learn spells; range is random. The first level of the guild opens the first circle of enchantments, the second - the second, and so on. On the first three circles, 3 spells are given, then their number decreases. Building guilds is not as expensive as it once was: the first level requires 1 unit of each of the rare resources, the second - 2 each, the third - 3 each, the fourth - five, the fifth - 10. In the second "Heroes", I remember, already 4 units were needed for the second level.

The market allows you to exchange one resource for another; the rate, as before, depends on the number of markets (with one market, for example, 20 units of ore or wood, 10 units of a rare resource, or 5000 gold) are spent for one rare resource. Improvement of the market - warehouse - gives 1 unit per turn of a key rare resource for the race. Another building coming from the warehouse gives random resources once a week.

Note: the concept of a “key resource” is no longer as rigidly defined as it once was. For example, for the Dungeon, sulfur is considered to be such, but the development of the city is quite in need of crystals and gems.

The fort and its improvements strengthen the city; in addition, the next step - the citadel - increases the growth of creatures by one and a half times, and the castle - by 2.

The forge allows, as in the third "Heroes", to purchase combat vehicles - a first aid tent, a ballista and an ammunition cart.

This is important: one of the main advantages of owning such a cart is that the enemy AI has an irresistible passion for destroying it, and this often saves the lives of much more valuable units. Passion, by the way, is unjustified, since the battles in the fifth "Heroes" are quite fleeting and dynamic, and most shooters do not have time to run out of charges. The AI ​​also likes to mock the first aid tent. But less.

Resources are mined, as before, in deposits or in the form of “gifts” freely scattered around the map. Fans of the old Heroes will quickly notice that on many maps, the mines and sawmills are much more heavily guarded than has been customary until now. True, the initial amount of resources at low difficulty levels is such that sometimes you can build a dragon dwelling without collecting anything at all. Unless, of course, you try to build everything.

In general, we can say that managing has become easier and at the same time more interesting. Choosing the order of actions is now far from being as banal as in previous series. Quite often, to hire "higher" monsters, you do not need anything other than the level of the city; but you have to choose the right moment. The main thing is, as far as possible, to quickly rebuild the town hall, magistrate and capitol, and not put things off indefinitely: gold will certainly not be enough.

One of the most important questions when managing is whether it is necessary to improve the dwellings of monsters. Previously, this question was almost always answered with “Yes! Of course! As soon as possible!”, now it is not so obvious, because the improvements are very expensive and can seriously slow down development. But for the sake of convenience, we've introduced an "upgrade rating" for each monster that you'll be introduced to in the Races chapter.

How to fight

As in all NoMMs, except for the fourth part, life stops without a hero. Only the hero has the right to lead troops into battle (and also for a walk), only he explores the map and captures prizes. At the same time, at least one soldier must be with him, otherwise the hero, offended by such inattention to himself, goes on a distant pilgrimage and can later, if the chip falls like this, be hired again. And not the fact that to you.

Everything returned to the ideals of the third part, you say? Yes, not so. In battle, the hero no longer stands aloof, sometimes conjuring something.

Initiative and move order

The whole structure of the battle has changed. Now there is no such thing as "blue move" and "red move". Each fighter, including the leader, has his own initiative, that is, his own turn. If earlier monsters with initiative 10 simply acted every turn before creatures with initiative 5, now during the time when the lazy creature makes one action, the smart monster will have time to walk twice. As a result, the initiative becomes almost the most important characteristic.

At the same time, the concept of "move" has changed. That is, for example, most creatures can respond to an attack once per turn - this means once in the interval from one to another of their actions.

In order not to get confused in this system, a strip with the order of moves is displayed below the battlefield, and you can see the sequence of actions. Just don't treat it as the final one: it's modded by morale effects. Due to the high spirit, the creature sometimes moves closer to the top of the list in the order of moves. During the fight, morale can grow from defeating enemies - in other words, from destroying enemy fighters. But you can count on the fact that the enemy turns will not move to the top of the list on your turn; favorable changes for each side occur only when that side moves.

If the warrior whose turn it is to move has nothing to do at the moment, he can either skip his turn by increasing his defense (D key or center menu button), or postpone it by shifting his initiative “later” with no other positive effects. This is done using the W key, but there are no tools for this in the menu, and therefore not everyone knows about this possibility.

Hero in battle

Accordingly, the hero also has his own initiative and his own move, and only then can he use his spells (and not when he wants to).

And if there is no reason to conjure him right now? Then he can make a normal attack on one of the enemy creatures. The strength of the attack depends on the level of the hero; however, it doesn't seem to deal normal damage, but instead kills some fixed number of creatures, quite a small amount. In other words, in the absence of strong arguments against it, it is more profitable to attack the “fattest” of the enemy creatures if the hero kills at least one creature from the squad with his attack. By attacking weaker opponents, he will remove significantly less hit points. In general, this attack is not strong enough to outweigh the effect of the spell; but still it is worth considering. In particular, because it reduces the role of high-level beings.

The hero himself is still nothing but the destruction of his army, cannot be hurt. You can't direct your attacks at him.

Creature Actions

Ordinary creatures can attack in melee combat, some are also capable of shooting or casting (or both). You can also move, but after that, only melee attacks, no shooting, and no spells are allowed.

The "grid" of the battlefield is no longer hexagonal, but a regular square. And the bulk of the creatures occupy one cell on it, but many (the “large creature” property) occupy four at once, in a square. Thus, they often block the path, sometimes even (if there are many obstacles on the field) blocking each other.

If any spell or ability hits the area and hits at least one of the four cells of the "big creature", it will be hit. And it doesn't matter if the fireball covers, say, one or all four cells with a genie - the damage will be the same. But you can aim with such a spell at any of the cells of the creature - the effect differs in which additional cells will be covered.

Combat vehicles (ballista, catapult, first aid tent, ammo cart) cannot move, but act on their own and can be destroyed, including by spells.

The damage of most shooters depends on the distance: at a long distance it is halved, the same happens if the shooter fights in close combat. Magic depends only on the number of creatures in the squad. The mana of the spellcasting creatures is their own, not borrowed from the hero, and is restored after each battle. The shooter cannot shoot if there is an enemy next to him, but this does not prevent the magician from conjuring.

A melee attack is retaliated; it is calculated after the damage is dealt, so if everyone is dead, there will be no one to answer. Only succubi can respond to shooting. If the opponent has already answered since his previous move, he usually cannot do it again; whether he answers or not will be seen when you move the attack cursor over him.

There are also special abilities of creatures that always work or (like, say, blinding by a unicorn) randomly. Other abilities are under your control. But about this - in the chapter "Race".

What can heroes do?

The role-playing system is not too different from the fourth part of the game. Namely, the hero has:
classic basic parameters, unchanged since the first "Heroes" - attack, defense, witchcraft, knowledge;
skills developed to one degree or another, and abilities dependent on them;
a set of spells in the book;
equipment;
secondary parameters calculated from all this: luck, morale, maximum amount of mana;
current amount of mana.

Now - in more detail.

Nothing fundamentally changed with the basic parameters. Attack and defense are added to the attack and defense of your creatures. Thus, the hero constantly affects the parameters of his entire army, regardless of his actions. Sorcery is a magical power, the number by which the damage of combat spells is multiplied, as well as the duration (in turns) of all continuous spells. Knowledge is multiplied by 10, and you get the maximum amount of mana - magical energy.

The equipment, as was customary from the third part, is divided into positions: the hero can carry one headgear, one weapon, one shield, and so on, all the “surpluses” are put into a duffel bag and do not work. It's a pity, between us, but realism requires sacrifice, and for some reason many do not refuse it.

Spells are determined by what magical guilds or individual buildings the hero has visited - and what strength of magic his skills allow him to learn. By default, only level 1-2 magic is available to the hero, everything else must be obtained through abilities.

But with skills, the system is so serious that it deserves a separate chapter.

Hero Skills

The skill system is organized like this. There are several basic skills that increase from level 1 to 3, and abilities that can be learned through them. Some abilities need to be learned in order to gain a new skill level.

Sounds simple... it's actually not that simple. The trick is that so many skills are specific to the type of hero. Let's say a knight has not only his own line of skills (“Counterstrike”), but also a whole series of addict skills that are available only to him. Let's say, where a knight gets a quick-firing ballista, a ranger gets the opportunity to enchant its projectiles with his own spells, and a magician learns to steal other people's war machines ...

However, let's try to present this system in an accessible form, dividing the skills into groups. Moreover, in the official manual of the game, alas, there is not a word about this ... Whereas this information is very important: often you have to learn a useless skill only to get to the next one in the chain, which is very necessary.

Education

The group's basic skills - primary, secondary and higher education - give respectively + 10%, + 20% and + 30% bonuses to the experience gained (any, including battles, chests with experience, and so on). In addition, for primary education, it increases by one basic parameter for 4 levels (including those already scored!), For secondary education, one for 3 levels, for higher education - 1 for 2 levels. In other words, a hero with a higher education actually increases his base parameters by one and a half times! These ones are distributed in the same way as the usual ones, scored for levels - that is, randomly and with the same probability. A warlock is more likely to get a bonus to witchcraft, a mage - to knowledge ...

In protracted games, education is the undoubted key to victory. Don't you dare ignore it.

Education opens access to secret knowledge, self-contemplation and the skill of a scientist. The first is the former "eagle eye", a chance to learn the spell used against you. The second simply increases the maximum mana by one and a half times. Considerably! And the title of scientist allows you to exchange spells between heroes; the advantage is very controversial, if it were not for ...

The fact is that it is the scientist in most classes (the ranger and the warlock need knowledge of the secret) that gets access to the special skills of this group, unique to the classes. Like that:
Magician: Skills witchcraft reward and graduate. The first is +2 to witchcraft and 1000 gold, the second is +2 to knowledge and 1000 experience.
Demon Lord: Keeper of the Secret and Dark Revelation. The first - +2 to witchcraft, the second - an instant gain of a new level.
Knight: the same as the magician, but in reverse order.
Ranger: Forest Cunning (+10% Critical Strike when using Avenger) and Secret Keeper.
Warlock: Dark Revelation and Arcane Reward.
Necromancer: Lord of the Dead (+1 Knowledge, +5% Necromancy), Dark Revelation.

This is important: here and below, special skills are listed in the order they were acquired. That is, a magician, in order to become a graduate, first needs a witchcraft award, and a knight - vice versa. Many skills, as you can see, are repeated - in these cases, I describe them once when they are mentioned for the first time. If you notice an unfamiliar skill in the list of requirements - look for it in the class skills of the corresponding character.

Attack

The basic skills of this group increase the damage dealt by your fighters in hand-to-hand combat by 5%, 10% and 15% respectively. Please note - the efficiency is lower than it was before! Nevertheless, the attack is very helpful in fleeting games.

The attack makes available the following skills: shooting - +20% damage from shooters, tactics - the space for deploying troops expands by one row of cells, combat frenzy - +1 to the minimum and maximum damage of creatures. Please note: this skill can increase the usefulness of low-level creatures by one and a half times!

Special abilities:
Mage: Greek fire (ballista ignores defense and deals additional fire damage) and cold steel (troops deal additional cold damage). Shooting opens access to all this.
Demon Lord: Devilish Strike and Haste. The former enhances Mark of the Damned, granting a 40% chance to double damage. The second allows you to cast an acceleration spell for free. For all this, you need to have the sign of the damned (a unique skill of the demon lord).
Knight: punishing blow (damage dealt by troops increases depending on morale) and acceleration. Access opens battle madness.
Ranger: forest rage (+1 to the maximum damage of all creatures of the Forest Union) and Greek fire. Access opens battle madness.
Warlock: Same as Knight, but access is unlocked by tactics.
Necromancer: cold steel, haste. Access opens battle madness.

Basic skills reduce melee damage by 10%, 20% and 30% respectively.

Defense makes dodge (-20% shooting damage), reflection (-15% magic damage) and fortitude (+2 hit points) available. The entire bouquet is recommended primarily to demons and knights.

Special abilities:
Mage: resistance (+2 to the hero's defense) and endurance (the stone skin spell is cast for free). Access opens reflection.
Demon Lord: Fiery Retribution and Silent Defense. The former enhances the Hellfire ability and makes it usable in a counterattack. The second makes it possible to increase the defense of troops by 60% in one action. For all this, you need to have hellfire (a unique skill of the demon lord). Access opens evasion.
Knight: Silent defense and fight to the last (if an enemy unit destroys yours with its unit, one creature with 1 hit remains alive). Access opens endurance.
Ranger: the same as the knight, in reverse order.
Warlock: Reflection unlocks resistances and Fortitude unlocks Stamina.
Necromancer: Grave Cold and Resistance. Grave Cold is a spell cast on an undead unit, after which it deals additional cold damage in combat. Access opens reflection.

Basic skills increase luck by 1, 2 and 3 points respectively. They make available luck on the road (all prizes found contain more resources), soldier's luck (more often uses uncontrollable abilities of creatures, such as unicorn blind), and magic resistance (reduces spell damage of the entire army by 15% and gives a chance to completely dodge spells). Luck is useful for almost all heroes, and it gives excellent skills.

Special abilities:
Mage: Asha's patronage (Asha's tear will be dug up, even if the location is not entirely accurate) and trophies (each battle won brings some resources). Access opens luck on the road.
Demon Lord: Wide Hell Gate (has a chance based on luck to summon twice as many demons with the gate) and fatal misfortune (reduces opponent's luck by 1). Access opens soldier's luck.
Knight: the same as the magician.
Ranger: Elven luck (25% chance to increase damage) and fatal misfortune. Access opens soldier's luck.
Warlock: Arcane Luck (double damage chance extends to spells!) and Asha's Favor. Access opens soldier's luck.
Necromancer: Fatal failure only, and requires a Banshee's Wail to open.

Leadership

Basic skills increase morale by 1, 2, 3 units. Access to the management of the treasury (+250 gold per turn), diplomacy (increases the chance of joining creatures, and not the swine that existed before under this name!) and the collection of troops (increases the growth of fighters of levels 1-3, but only if , if the hero stays in the castle on the last day of the week). The usefulness of these skills is rather doubtful, except perhaps for diplomacy.

Special abilities:
Mage: Machine Loyalty (War Machines and Golems become susceptible to morale bonuses, but not to morale minuses). Access opens the management of the treasury.
Demon Lord: Master of the gate. Increases reinforcements from hell by 20%. Access opens the collection of troops. Perhaps the demon is the only one worth aiming for the leadership special ability.
Knight: Inspire (the ability to make unit moves more often) and Speed ​​Aura (all units move 1 space further). Access opens supervision (knight skill).
Ranger: Forest Leader - +2 attack and... dance with death reinforcements, the size of which gets more impressive the more time has passed since the start of the game. A very strange habit! Access opens the collection of troops.
Warlock: aura of speed, access opens the gathering of troops.
Necromancer: Herald of Death (all neutrals who join are turned into undead of the same level). Access opens the collection of troops. It would be great, but why would a necromancer need leadership as such - the undead are inherently immoral ...

Logistics

Increases land movement speed by 10%, 20% and 30% respectively. Unlocks navigation (speeds up navigation by 50%, but seas are almost non-existent on current maps), pathfinding (cuts 50% penalty for rough terrain) and reconnaissance (+4 to vision radius and the right to see the exact number of creatures in enemy troops ). One of the most valuable branches of development: everyone needs speed!

Special abilities:
Mage: golem march (golems get +2 to speed and initiative and finally become efficient fighters) and surprise attack (the hero receives a teleportation spell, and it increases the initiative of the transferred creatures). Access opens finding the way.
Demon Lord: Fast Gate Opening (Gate opens 60% faster) and Surprise Attack. Access opens finding the way.
Knight: Homeland (+1 Speed ​​in Grasslands) and Death's Step (+4 Speed ​​in Siege). Access opens finding the way.
Ranger: silent hunter (very valuable in a multiplayer game: the enemy sees only the strongest creatures of the hero, moreover, without indicating the number) and native lands. Access opens finding the way.
Warlock: Sudden attack and death tread. Intelligence opens access.
Necromancer: Death Walk and Silent Stalker. Access opens finding the way.

Machine control

Basic skills provide a whole series of effects: they increase the attack and damage of the ballistas, the effect of the first aid tent, the ammo carts increase the attack of shooters by 1, 2 and 3 points respectively, and the catapult gets a 30% (40%, 50%) chance to shoot down a tower or gates.

From these follow the ballista, catapult and first aid skills. They allow you to control the relevant devices manually, in case of destruction they restore them after the battle; in addition, the ballista and catapult in this case shoot twice in a row.

Special abilities:
Magician: power over machines (stealing one machine from the enemy at the beginning of the battle) and ground shaking (the hero receives an earthquake spell, which also injures and stuns all opponents behind the wall). Access is opened by a catapult (for concussion, you still need to be able to absorb artifacts).
Demon Lord: Sulfur Rain (another shot for the catapult) and ground shaking. Access opens catapult.
Knight: Rapid Fire Ballista (one more shot for the ballista). Access opens, of course, ballista.
Ranger: enchanted ballista (the effect of an enchanted arrow - a ranger ability - also affects the ballista) and a rapid-fire ballista. Access opens ballista.
Warlock: Earthquake and Plague Tent (allows the tent to deal damage). Access opens catapult.
Necromancer: Plague Tent. Access is provided by the first aid tent.

sorcery

Basic skills reduce by 10%, 20% and 30%, respectively, the pause between spells in combat. They provide access to arcane knowledge (all spells are 20% cheaper), wisdom (all spells of the 3rd circle are available), and mana regeneration (mana is restored twice as fast).

Special abilities:
Mage: counterspell (extinguishes the opponent's next spell, costing twice as much mana as it cost) and volatile mana (each spell is reduced in cost randomly, up to 50%). Secret knowledge opens access.
Demon Lord: Exploding Corpses (Bodies destroyed by the Soul Eater sometimes explode, dealing AoE damage) and Arcane Revelation (+2 Spellcraft and a new spell in the book). Access is granted by the Soul Eater.
Knight: Arcane Advantage (+100 mana for a short time and +2 spellcasting permanently). Secret knowledge and prayer open access.
Ranger: arcane revelation and counterspell. Access unlocks mana regeneration.
Warlock: Volatile mana and counterspell. Access unlocks mana regeneration.
Necromancer: Undead protection from magic (-20% damage to your undead from Chaos magic) and secret advantage. Access opens wisdom.

Chaos magic

Basic skills increase the effectiveness of chaos magic and allow you to learn spells of 3, 4 and 5 levels, respectively. They unlock the skills Firelord, Coldlord and Stormlord: these enhance fire, cold and lightning spells respectively, with fire getting a chance to weaken the enemy's defenses, cold to freeze, and lightning to stun. Most heroes who rely on spells pay tribute to this school.

Special abilities:
Mage: Drain Magic (reduces magic damage to your minions by 20%) and Fiery Rage (all your fighters and archers deal additional fire damage). Access opens a magic mirror.
Demon Lord: withering flame (hellfire hits one and a half times stronger) and mana burst (burns the enemy's conjuring creatures with fire every time you cast a spell). Access opens the lord of fire.
Knight: fiery rage. Access opens the lord of fire.
Ranger: Mana Explosion and Chaos Mystery (+2 Knowledge and a new Chaos Spell). Access opens the lord of fire.
Warlock: Secrets of Chaos and Mana Burst. Access opens a dark ritual.
Necromancer: Deadly Cold (increasing the spell of cold, they are guaranteed to kill at least one creature) and the secrets of chaos. Access opens the lord of the cold.

light magic

Basic skills increase the effectiveness of holy magic and allow you to learn spells of 3, 4 and 5 circles, respectively. They open access to the skills that grant blessing, righteous anger and magical protection. These abilities give massive variants of spells, respectively: divine power and disenchantment, punishing blow and acceleration, evasion and stone skin. Bulk options cost twice as much as regular ones.

Oddly enough, demons, warlocks and necromancers have access to this as well - and they even have special abilities in this school...

Special abilities:
Mage: seal of light (enemies cost twice as much Light magic) and secrets of light (for all spellcasting creatures, the cost of spells is halved). Access opens magical protection.
Demon Lord: Fire Protection (Reduces fire damage to all your creatures by 50% and allows you to ignore the effect of the fire lord). Access opens magical protection.
Knight: guardian angel (after defeat in battle, the angel resurrects the strongest squad and saves the hero) and the secrets of the world. Access is granted by the giver of blessings.
Ranger: spirit of light (all enemy flying creatures get -1 to initiative and speed) and protection from fire. Righteous wrath opens access.
Warlock: secrets of light and burden of darkness (spellcraft +3 with spells of Darkness and Light). Righteous wrath opens access.
Necromancer: burdened by darkness. Access is granted by the giver of blessings.

Dark magic

Basic skills increase the effectiveness of dark magic and allow you to learn spells of 3rd, 4th and 5th circles, respectively. They unlock the Hexlord, Mindlord, and Painlord skills - they give massive spell options (at double the cost): Weaken and Infirm, Slow and Distract, Destruction Ray, and Plague.

Special abilities:
Mage: seal of darkness (reduces magic damage to your creatures by 20%) and dark replenishment (if your spell did not work on the enemy, you get mana back for him). Access opens the master of the mind.
Demon Lord: Dark Replenishment, Weakening Strike (weakness is added to the effect of Mark of the Damned). Access opens the master of the mind.
Knight: Fallen Knight (-1 Morale, but +5 Shadow Casting) that weakens the blow. Access opens the lord of curses.
Ranger: cursed ground (as soon as an enemy creature moves, it takes damage depending on the level of the hero) and a seal of darkness. Access opens the lord of pain.
Warlock: Darkness replenishment. Access opens the master of the mind.
Necromancer: spiritual bond (if you cast this spell on a unit, then when they receive damage, the necromancer will restore mana) and cursed earth. Access opens the owner of curses.

Summon Magic

Basic skills increase the effectiveness of summoning magic and allow you to learn spells of 3, 4 and 5 levels, respectively. They unlock the master of life (+4 to spellcasting for raise dead and magic fist spells), master of spells (same effect for summoning elementals and phoenix), and master of earth (fire trap, earthquake).

Special abilities:
Mage: Banish (eliminate creatures summoned by the enemy) and foggy curtain (enemy arrows reduce damage and initiative by 10%). Access opens the lord of the spell.
Demon lord: fire warriors (the hero receives a spell to summon elementals, which always summons fire elementals and is 40% stronger than usual) and elemental balance (if the enemy summons elementals, they also appear in you, and of the opposite element). Access opens the lord of the spell.
Knight: elemental balance. Access opens the lord of the spell.
Ranger: Veil of Mist and Warriors of Fire. Access opens the lord of the earth.
Warlock: Exorcism (chaos magic deals double damage to summoned creatures). Access opens the lord of the spell.
Necromancer: inhabited mines (inhabits the mine with ghosts) and exile. Access opens the master of life.

We've listed the paths available to all classes (it's amazing that necromancers and demons can travel the path of Light - gosh!). Now let's talk about the unique schools of each class.

The basic skills of these schools, as a rule, are realized with the help of a special building, which is built in the city of the corresponding race. That is, if you do not have an elven city, then the avenger skill will not help you much ...

The mage's base skill family is called Artifact Master. This is a very interesting thing: it allows you to create a sort of mini-artifacts for your troops that strengthen a single unit. The first three levels of the skill give the right to one artifact effect (that is, there can be a maximum of three), the fourth reduces the cost of all mini-artifacts by half. As a result, the magician's weak creatures turn out to be noticeably stronger than they could be (the weaker the creature, the more important the effect of the artifact is for him).

Of these follow:

Magic mirror reflects spells (with some probability) at a random target. Yours or someone else's - as it turns out.

Mark of the Wizard is a great ability: a kind of free spell that is cast on a unit, after which your magic affects it much more.

Absorption of artifacts - in battle, you can "eat" an artifact from a creature, turning it into mana. Very rarely needed.

Arcane omniscience - the right to use any spell in the game. Simple and tasteful ... You don’t even need to look for them - they themselves will be found.

Demon Lord

Demons have perhaps the most valuable skill of all: they train their creatures to summon new demons to the battlefield. This is called opening the gate. Each squad can do this once per battle and bring reinforcements to 25% (at the following skill levels - 30%, 35%, 40%) of their strength. It becomes a separate detachment; if all the unsummoned troops of the demon are destroyed, the summoned ones will scatter themselves. At the end of the battle, they will leave you anyway.

Mark of the Damned is a spell that deals damage to a creature if it moves, attacks, or otherwise acts. The additional abilities described above further enhance the sign's effect.

Hellfire - 30% chance for any creature attack to deal an additional fire hit, depending on the strength of the creatures and on the witchcraft of the hero. The mana for this operation is deducted from the hero, so this is a rather ruinous business.

Soul Eater - Restores mana by absorbing corpses. In the presence of hellfire - a necessary thing.

Call of Urgash - reinforcements from hell arrive instantly.

Knights are masters of the mysterious art called "counterstrike". The counterstrike gives an increase in the retaliatory strike to the troops (+ 5%, 10%, 20%, 25%, respectively), but we love him absolutely not for that. The main thing is the ability to ... transfer your creatures to the next level! For example, from peasants - to archers, and those - to swordsmen ... Agree, such an opportunity changes a lot. Just keep in mind that this is not at all free - the knight must take care of a very tight wallet. Well, training rooms are needed.

This is important: unfortunately, the improvement of the troops is not preserved during this operation. That is, take at least simple archers, at least highly skilled crossbowmen - all the same, ordinary swordsmen will turn out of them.

An experienced military leader reduces the cost of the retraining process by 10%. Useful, but not too "conceptual".

Surveillance is a pretty funny thing: it allows you to select your squad and deal damage to everyone who attacks it. But if you develop it to an inexorable strength, when the damage at the same time triples - this is a very serious ability! Especially good against AI, whose attacks are too predictable.

Prayer - when applied at once, it increases the initiative, morale, attack and defense of all its troops.

Ranger

The Ranger's base skill, Avenger, is one of the strangest in the game. It allows you to select one (two, three, four) sworn enemies, against which your troops will then deal double damage with a 40% chance. Moreover, the normal and "advanced" versions of a creature are considered different ... Moreover, in order to declare someone a "sworn enemy", you first need to prove it - to kill at least a double weekly growth of such creatures. True, by doing this, you can choose at least the usual, at least an improved version of the selected creature. Oh yes, and you need to do this in the avengers guild.

In short, it won't be easy. In principle, in a multiplayer game this can bring an important advantage (if only you have one opponent), but it is damn difficult to implement it. It seems to me that the requirement to interrupt the double weekly increase was already redundant. However, perhaps I just haven’t understood something in the subtle ranger soul yet. (And why it was so stupid to translate it, spoiling your own work, I didn’t understand either. Oh well.)

The additional skills of this school somewhat improve the impression.

Downpour of arrows. Attack immediately on all "sworn enemies" in the enemy army, and with triple damage. Not bad, but ... with the above said, it is not often applicable.

Deadly shot. When shooting at an enemy, the hero's level increases by 3, and if the enemy is a sworn enemy, then the damage is doubled, and at least one creature will certainly die.

Enchanted Arrow. Something worth fiddling with "death shots" for. From now on, you can cast spells on arrows, and the target, in addition to the damage from the shot, will also receive the effect of the spell! That is, once at the beginning of the battle, having loaded your arrows, you can shoot and cast spells every turn! True, all this is done at the expense of the hero's mana, but the effect is very good. Moreover: it applies to a shower of arrows, and even to an enchanted ballista, which, by the way, shoots three times per turn! In general, there would be enough mana ... By the way, you can borrow it from the druids.

True luck. All attacks of your troops are always lucky. True, it is necessary to completely pump luck (including special skills), but what a result!

Warlock

Irresistible Magic allows you to overcome the magical protection of creatures, dealing 20% ​​(40%, 50%, 75%) damage to protected creatures. The usefulness of this is very moderate, it is not so often that you will encounter magical protections. Although, of course, there is still a surprise for the enemy!

The dark ritual allows you to fully restore mana by skipping a turn. Warlocks never run out of mana (knowledge grows slowly), so…

Sense of the elements. A strange thing, it also needs a special building. Allows you to feel which elemental spells will now inflict increased damage on a particular enemy. Only often there is not enough spell repertoire for this. Elemental Fury further enhances this ability.

Arcana wave. All combat spells get enhanced versions - twice as expensive, one and a half times more effective.

Summary is not the most valuable set of abilities, although it allows you to quickly deal with the enemy. Powerful, but a demon, a necromancer or a knight looks, perhaps, more convincing.

Necromancer

What necromancers do is not difficult to guess, right? Necromancy skill raises 5%, 10%, 15% or 20% of the fallen in the form of bone warriors. But at the same time, it is weakened compared to previous games by the fact that it does not work with undead, structures (golems) and elemental creatures (gargoyle). However, he is beautiful in this form! And if you consider that with the proper use of charms and abilities, the necromancer practically does not lose his troops ...

Rise of archers. This needs to be learned as soon as possible! From now on, necromancy does not raise warriors, but skeleton shooters, which are many times more useful.

Eternal slavery. After the battle, you can raise one of the dead units of the undead.

Banshee scream. All living get -1 luck, morale and -10% initiative. And if you strengthen it with a scream of horror - the enemies will receive -6 morale!

The strongest set of abilities, which, in my opinion, can only compete with the demonic one. True, the armies of necromancers are mediocre ... but you can’t do it all at once?

Order of Order (knight)

Table 2 Troops of the Order of Order

Peasant 1 1 1-1 3 4 8 - 20
Rookie 1 1 1-2 6 4 8 – 30
Archer 4 3 2-4 7 4 9 10 50
Crossbowman 4 4 2-8 10 4 8 12 80
Latnik 4 8 2-4 16 4 8 - 90
Squire 5 9 2-5 26 4 8 – 130
Griffin 7 5 5-10 30 7 15 – 260
Royal Griffin 9 8 5-15 35 7 15 – 360
Monk 12 12 9-12 54 5 10 7 650
Inquisitor 16 16 9-12 80 5 10 7 900
Knight 23 21 20-30 90 7 11 – 1250
Paladin 24 24 20-30 100 8 12 – 1550
Angel 27 27 45-45 180 6 11 - 3200, 1 cr.
Archangel 31 31 50-50 220 8 11 - 4200, 2 cr.

At first glance, the Children of the Light are not very impressive with their military might. With the exception of the angels, they are way behind most other races, especially in hit points. But do not forget that the knights train them! And this means that with a properly built economy, a knight can gather such an army that it will not seem small. What will happen if all the crowds of peasants are made crossbowmen? What if…

Most often, the Order makes itself into a ranged army of monks and crossbowmen, leaving the griffons to deal with the enemy's mages and rangers.

Peasant and militia

The only useful feature of a peasant is that he brings a coin per turn. But on the other hand, on some maps you can get so many peasants ... He is a mediocre fighter, to put it mildly, but no one sends him into battle. First, let him earn money, and then we will give him a bow.

The militia is much more convincing in battle (damage is one and a half times more, hits - two!), and besides, sometimes it hits with a shield, but nevertheless it is not necessary to improve it. Firstly, it is worth taking away the pitchfork from the peasant and handing over the halberd, as he, the bastard, immediately stops working and paying dues. And secondly, if you really strengthen the peasant - so up to the archer, half measures are inappropriate here!

Archer and crossbowman

The basic shooter of people is good because there are a lot of them - after all, you can recruit from a peasant. In addition, he hits areas - that is, his arrows deal half damage to the target's neighbors.

Its crossbow counterpart boasts greatly increased damage, as well as the fact that at a distance of 2-3 cells it takes more hit points. True, it shoots a little slower and has forgotten how to hit the squares.

Should it be improved? In general, yes, the crossbowman is indeed much stronger (tight formation is not so common these days ...), but there is one consideration against it. The fact is that we will always have a choice - to recruit more archers from the blue-legged peasant or to buy shooters more expensive? And for both tasks, money will often not be enough.

Armor and squire

Both are able to close themselves with a shield (which reduces damage from arrows by half), both sometimes hit with a shield, preventing the enemy from responding to their blow, and if an ally dies, they become furious. These gentlemen are very cheap, they are superbly protected - even at the fourth level, few people compete with them, but they hit incredibly weakly. In general, the ideal "tanks" ... but how to lure the enemy into them?

The squire has an additional advantage: his shield covers not only himself, but also his neighbors from arrows. Therefore, at least a little bit of them will be extremely useful to you, especially in the fight against the legion of necromancer archers or elven flying units. But it is not at all necessary to transfer all men at arms into squires - for the enemy this is not such a tempting goal, a small detachment will be enough for you. In addition, squires are very expensive compared to men at arms.

Is it worth making men-at-arms out of archers? If that's the end goal, then no.

Griffin regular and royal

It flies, is immune to blindness (why would that be?) and, as it has been customary since time immemorial, answers all opponents. Decent damage - in general, the griffin looks quite decent compared to other fighters of the same level. But... if there is even the slightest possibility, don't lead them into battle, make them royal. Indeed, in the enhanced version, this handsome man becomes the best means against magicians and shooters!

The royal griffin, on a special command, soars into the skies and disappears from the map, only to fall in a dive on the enemy after a while. He will not respond and will take double damage, and the griffin will land somewhere to the side. While the bird is flying, no one can do anything with it, but when it returns ...

One trouble: you need to choose the target as a cell on the field, and not as a detachment. The target will crawl away - alas and ah. And if you suddenly forget and bring your squad there ... the griffin doesn’t care what to peck. That's why it's only good against mages and archers. But in this case he knows no equal.

monk and inquisitor

A fairly powerful shooter, which makes little sense to block - in melee he has no penalties. If you improve it, the damage will remain the same, but the hit points will increase greatly, and the attack and defense will increase.

And besides, he will become a magician (12 mana points) and learn to cast strengthening spells (acceleration, endurance, divine power). But just for the sake of this, you should not spend money on strengthening a large detachment - witchcraft power does not play a big role here. Yes, and the enhanced version costs almost one and a half times more expensive. So do not rush to create the Holy Inquisition.

Knight and paladin

Big, attacks from a running start, excellent damage, but there are not enough hits, from which the knights die too quickly. And yet it is an important striking force, and one that moves quickly and often.

Attacking with knights and paladins must be done from a distance: this gives + 10% damage for each square passed! And not necessarily in a straight line: let yourself rush around the target, also an option.

If you upgrade him to a paladin, he will not improve his characteristics much, but he will learn how to heal (monks, you see, they can’t, but this one can!). The ability is valuable, but there is not always time to use it - there are many other things on the battlefield.

Angel and archangel

A large flying creature with guaranteed damage is a short description of the angel in this game. It can not be compared in power with a black dragon or a titan, but it is quite conducive to the rest. In the Arkhangelsk incarnation, it flies faster, all characteristics are higher, but most importantly, it resurrects allies; and the one who loses the least in battle will sooner or later become the winner.

It's hard for me to write about him: I don't like angels in computer games. They don't fit the style. No wonder that in the "heroic fantasy" you almost never find them. But if you leave this moment aside, a good fighter will turn out.

Inferno (Demon Lord)

Table 3 Inferno Troops
Fighter Attack Defense Damage Hits Speed ​​Initiative Shots Cost
Bes 2 1 1-2 4 5 13 – 25
Damn 3 2 2-3 6 5 ‘13 – 45
Demon 1 3 1-2 13 5 7 - 40
Fire Demon 3 4 1-4 13 5 8 - 60
Hellhound 4 2 3-5 15 7 13 – 110
Cerberus 4 2 4-6 15 8 13 – 160
Succubus 6 6 6-13 20 4 10 6 240
Demoness 6 6 6-13 30 4 10 6 350
Hell Stallion 13 13 8-16 50 7 16 – 480
Nightmare 18 18 8-16 66 8 16 – 666
Cave Demon 21 21 13-26 110 4 8 – 1550
Cave Lord 22 21 13-31 120 4 8 – 1850
Devil 27 25 36-66 166 7 11 - 3666, 1 sulfur
Archdevil 31 29 36-66 199 7 11 - 4666, 1 sulfur

This race is also strong in the first place with its hero. If the demons are put in the service of a "non-native" leader, there will be little sense from them. The demon must fly to hell for reinforcements, otherwise it is a bad, useless demon!

In addition, almost all need to be improved, it's not that bad. In its original version, the demonic host for the most part causes healthy laughter in opponents. Where to get money?

But don't worry - in the company of a competent master, the demons will show themselves!

In addition to summoning allies, demons are good at speed; against shooters and mages, they thus perform very well.

Bes and devil

This small dohlyatinka is present on the battlefield not to fight, but to "work" with enemy mana. The demon only eats it, but the devil carefully brings it to you. And therefore, by the first meeting with the enemy hero, demons must be improved!

The devils fight, however, also not bad ... but they are very expensive. Since their ability is useless in battles with neutrals, and their hit points are low, you need to be careful with them.

Demon normal and fire

Pa-a-akost! Try to find at least one creature of the second level, so that it is worse than an ordinary demon! He’s sick, he’s no good anywhere, kick him with your feet, it’s not a pity. The only ability is rage (increased when an ally dies).

If you improve it ... well, in this form, it at least looks like something. In addition, it is trained by an explosion to damage all enemies around it. Let's face it: without acquiring fire, a demon is not fit for a demon. There is an opportunity - increase it, no - spend these creatures on anything, it's not a pity.

Hellhound and Cerberus

Again dohlyatka? Not certainly in that way. The dog runs briskly across the battlefield and attacks twice as often as other thoughtful characters. And if you strengthen it, then they stop answering her, and she hits three squares at once. In general, not bad.

It is necessary to strengthen the dogs, because then they live much longer. They are flimsy, do not need them under retaliation ...

Succubus and demoness

And here is the best news! Succubus is one of the best shooters, who also knows how to respond to shots (a unique ability!). True, there are few hits. But the true potential is revealed only when strengthened: then the demoness pleases us, neither more nor less, with chain lightning!

But beware: if you bring a mortal offspring with you, and do not use exclusively evil spirits, then chain lightning, having broken the chain, may inadvertently not figure it out and shy away at your own. She recognizes demons...

The main thing is to take care of succubi and demoness! This is your most important combat potential. Alas, the enemies are also aware of this.

Hell stallion and nightmare

Decent and incredibly fast combat unit. The unicorn, perhaps, will be stronger, but not so rapidly rushing across the field. With an attack, a horse with good chances makes the enemy retreat; in this case, he does not answer and runs away to the edge of the map, having lost all the accumulated initiative (!). This means that a couple of detachments of such horses can pretty much drive the enemy; not to mention the fact that they easily destroy the defensive system.

Well, if you strengthen it, it will become even faster and more powerful, and within a radius of three cells around it will give enemies -3 to morale. Considering that it is large in itself, this is a rather large area.

Cave Demon and Cave Lord

A hefty creature, and even a magician - conjures a fireball and reduces the enemy's defense. True, in close combat he is so-so, but is it important?

But again, we understand that its potential cannot be revealed without amplification. In this case, he gets a new spell - a meteor shower, and, which is especially nice, a "shearing sword": this contraption is guaranteed to kill at least one creature when attacking or counterattacking. Can you imagine how nice it is to frolic with dragons?

This is interesting: not everyone knows that the extremely popular Vorpal Sword in games, which cuts off the head with one blow, comes from Alice Through the Looking-Glass, where they fought with Jabberwock like this. The authors of the game therefore translated it as "shearing". Remember - “Zy-yy! - cuts the sword ... "?

But still, do not rush to definitely strengthen the cave dwellers (how do they fit in a cave with such dimensions ?!): after all, the enhancement almost does not affect the combat qualities, and from the magic of the fireball, in principle, it is enough.

Devil and archdevil

The famous teleportation of devils is no longer as powerful as it once was: it is limited by distance! Yes, the devil can easily jump over a wall or stone, but what's the point?

Strengthening does not make the devil stronger (only healthier), but gives him the right to revive the killed cave lords. This creates a good, but very expensive combination. Therefore, do not rush to pay exorbitant prices - you will probably need the devil more in hand-to-hand combat. And it doesn't cost that much. Is there a thing that is more expensive than a black dragon! Well, for what?!

League of Shadows (warlock)

Table 4 Shadow League Troops
Fighter Attack Defense Damage Hits Speed ​​Initiative Shots Cost
Scout 3 3 2-4 10 5 10 5 60
Assassin 4 3 2-4 14 5 12 5 100
Beast 4 2 5-7 16 7 14 – 125
Fury 5 3 5-7 16 8 16 – 175
Minotaur 5 2 4-7 31 5 8 – 140
Guard Minotaur 5 2 4-7 35 5 8 – 200
Raptor Rider 9 7 7-12 40 6 11 – 300
Dark Rider 10 9 7-14 60 8 11 – 450
Hydra 15 12 7-14 80 5 7 – 700
Cave Hydra 15 15 9-14 125 5 7 – 900
Twilight Witch 18 18 17-24 80 4 10 4 1400
Lady of the Shadow 20 20 17-27 90 4 10 4 1700
Twilight Dragon 25 24 45-70 200 9 10 – 3700, 1 sulfur
Black dragon 30 30 45-70 240 9 10 - 4500, 2 sulfur

For many years, Warlock led all sorts of monsters from the Underdark ... and suddenly it was decided to give the army at least a relative national unity. From now on, this is the army of dark elves, sung by Salvatore. Drow, to put it simply. And although some minotaurs remained in their ranks, this is just a concession to a glorious past. And dragons and hydras nicely fit into their ranks ... But more on that in the "Source of inspiration", the chapter "OPTIONAL".

The League of Shadows is extremely convincing with their low-level creatures; at medium-high, it looks worse, but then the black dragon itself appears, which, like at all times, remains the most dangerous creature in the game.

In addition, the warlock himself stands out among other heroes with magical power and provides worthy support to his army. Unless the special abilities of the heroes of the League are so-so, but these are already trifles.

The weakness of the League troops is that they have few good shooters at medium and high levels and no, except for the dragon, flyers. This means that in the assault on cities, the League looks pale.

Scout and Assassin

The best fighters of the first level. Dot. They shoot - however, with half the force, but they have no disadvantages in close combat. But what is their half power? This, by the way, is the full damage of some gremlin master! Despite the fact that hits - God forbid everyone, the initiative is simply excellent ...

And if the scouts are strengthened, there will also be poison, which works for three moves after the shot. And such an army (and you can recruit a lot of them!) Will work great not only at low levels. In general, beyond praise.

As for the gain, you can wait with it until the average levels of fighters appear, but if possible, no further.

These guys are worth a lot of money. But they are worth it. And in the early stages, the advantage in combat that they give is more important.

Beast and Fury

Again - huge damage for his level and a huge initiative, however, the defense let us down a little. Beast, like the harpy from the fourth "Heroes", returns after the attack; and the furies still do not answer.

In the first battles, the beasts are irreplaceable. They can, for example, block some archers - cut others. Who else can do that? Subsequently, they are less relevant than assassins (they still shoot and are poisonous), but at first they provide the dark elves with a reliable advantage.

Minotaur and Minotaur Guardian

A brave minotaur always has morale no worse than +1... but a normal general usually doesn't have less, except perhaps in the presence of an infernal horse. The minotaur is poorly protected, but its hit points are the envy of everyone, and it hits pretty hard. In general, it is not a mystery how to use it under such conditions.

Until cavalry, druids and other high-level fighters appeared on the battlefield, the minotaur is the king of battles. He is especially good at destroying demons who cannot shoot.

Minotaur Guardian, with almost the same characteristics per attack, strikes twice. But it also costs half as much.

Raptor Rider and Dark Rider

Magnificent fast cavalry; like the paladin, it takes acceleration in the attack. Only depends on this is not damage; for each cell they pass, the enemy loses 20% defense, up to 0.

The attack of the dark horsemen surprisingly cheerfully demolishes all kinds of genies and other well-protected creatures, which should be used; however, they themselves are not very tenacious, and in AI they simply cause an irresistible desire to shower them with hats, lightning and fireballs. And therefore, a buff that increases their hit points by 1.5 times should be a desirable goal! In addition, the dark horseman strikes twice during an attack - once he himself and once his lizard, however, with half the strength.

Take care of the lizards, they are tender and vulnerable. Keeping some decent cavalry into the late game will ensure that they are very wow against dragons too! With a running start, 20 horsemen, even with luck, take down five dragons with one blow. That's almost four times what they cost! Remember about such unusual opportunities, so few people know how.

Hydra and cave hydra

A healthy lazy creature that attacks three cells at once (and in the enhanced version - all six, but where can you get so many enemies?). And furious, and the enemy does not respond, and hits in abundance, and God forbid everyone armor ... only until she moves her tail, all your fighters are like twice. And therefore it is suitable mainly as a living barrier, and then so-so. However, AI shooters and mages are very fond of harassing hydras, apparently out of love for difficult tasks.

Twilight Witch and Mistress of the Shadow

I'm probably wrong about something, but I don't like this lady. It shoots pretty hard, really, but you can't get a lot of them. Her magic is stupid - it slows down and weakens, somehow unconvincingly. True, the mistress of the shadow in melee attack with a whip often hangs one of her spells on the victim. But still not very convincing. The witch does not pull on the key striking force. I once tried to take them into service in the early stages, I thought the witches would show themselves - nothing like that. Some rakshas would be in their place ...

Yes, and the reinforcement is quite unconvincing. It gets a little steeper, that's all. Moreover, he learns the spell of absent-mindedness - also a gift to me. In general, it is clear: at such levels, the warlock himself should conjure, not otherwise.

Twilight and black dragons

So fanfare! The most powerful monster in the game has arrived!

Yes, the black dragon is still worth all its glory. And he flies, and breathes fire, and is immune to magic (alas, his younger brother twilight is the last to be deprived), and the attack is the strongest, and the most hits. In general, it has no equal, period.

Should it be strengthened? Yes, a thousand times yes! Let yourself be worth 4500 coins, even if your spells do not work on him, at this stage your troops will suffer the most from enemy magic. So, the black dragon is the weapon of victory!

Forest Union (Ranger)

Table 5 Troops of the Forest Union
Fighter Attack Defense Damage Hits Speed ​​Initiative Shots Cost
Fairy 1 1 1-2 5 7 12 – 35
Dryad 2 1 2-2 6 7 14 – 55
Blade Dancer 3 2 2-5 12 6 11 – 65
Dancer with death 4 3 3-5 12 6 15 – 90
Elven Archer 4 1 4-7 10 5 10 12 125
Bowmaster 5 4 5-8 14 5 10 16 190
Druid 7 7 7-9 34 5 10 5 310
Archdruid 12 9 9-14 33 4 10 7 425
Unicorn 12 12 10-20 57 7 12 – 700
Battle Unicorn 17 17 10-20 77 7 12 – 900
Ent 19 27 7-17 175 6 7 – 1200
Ancient Ent 19 29 10-20 181 6 7 – 1500
Green dragon 27 25 30-50 200 8 12 - 3500, 1 gem.
Emerald Dragon 31 27 33-57 200 9 14 - 4700, 2 gems

Elves are a light, dynamic race, strong at a distance. In close combat, she has to rely on fairly expensive creatures, and therefore the main weakness of the elves is fully consistent with the canons of fantasy. Hard-to-recover losses.

The elf player must be fast and energetic, otherwise he will lose the heavy tread of warlocks, necromancers or mages. His main strength is in the mid-game, at which time he has to solve most of his problems.

Often, if creatures like demons or archmages guard a valuable nook, he has to leave his shooters to a spare hero - otherwise the losses will be more important than any prize. Elves take care of their own.

Fairy and Dryad

And the fairy with wings byak-byak-byak-byak ... Well, small, well, dead, but it flies, and they don’t answer it! And with her transcendent initiative, she will have time to bite twice, or, if she fights with enemy melee, and not arrows, she will bite and fly away. And don't underestimate her!

Losing fairies is not as bad for your health as losing archers, so you can afford not to save on them if something happens. If you upgrade them to dryads, they will cast a swarm, but not too much. While it's fun to have a first-level creature with magic, it's not always possible to afford it. However, the dryad is in all respects much stronger than the fairy, and you should not give it up in the heat of the moment.

Blade dancers and death

Frisky (after improvement - indecently frisky!), But not too powerful melee. True, no special abilities. That is absolutely. Somehow even indecent.

If strengthened, the ability appears - to hit all the enemies around, with half strength (the main goal is with full). There is only one argument against strengthening the dancers: the fact is that at high levels they have nothing to do, like flies die despite their astonishing speed. Maybe it's better to go to the druids as soon as possible.

Elven Archer and Master of the Bow

The elf is known to always shoot twice. And this one is no exception. He is one of the two main fighters in your army.

Its amplification gives pluses, in general, to the secondary characteristics for the shooter: hits, defense. Only now his arrows get a chance to slow down the next action of the enemy. But still it is desirable to improve the elves as soon as possible. Why? Because losses in elves in the early stages of the game lead to defeat in the later stages. Take care of elves and druids like the apple of your eye! Their double shots will be the mainstay of your army's striking power until the very end, even when dragons appear.

Druid simple and supreme

And these gentlemen, like the elves, serve as the basis of the military force of the Forest Union. And they also need immediate reinforcement! True, it is much easier for them to understand this: archdruids are almost twice as powerful and only one and a half times more expensive. And to the lightning in their book of spells, stone spikes are added that hit several cells at once.

The arch druid is without a doubt the best shooter of his level, he is surpassed only by liches, titans and witches, and there are doubts about the latter - after all, the druid also conjures very relevant magic. In general, this is the main fighter of your army ... and, of course, the main goal of your opponents. Be carefull.

Unicorn simple and fighting

The "workhorse", a strong and fast fighter, also occupies 4 cells, that is, it effectively covers the shooters. What is especially valuable - gives neighboring cells 30% resistance to magic, that is, it saves your elves and druids from hostile lightning.

The characteristics of the unicorn are quite convincing, and it will give a lot of extra chances to the rifle brigades of your army. If buffed, he'll get the famous Unicorn Blinding plus a pretty massive stat boost, so it's definitely worth doing... even though he does a pretty good job in the base variant.

Ent common and ancient

Ent is a pronounced tank. He has more hits than other level 7 fighters, and he surpasses equal levels by one and a half to two times. Protected almost like a black dragon (and better than a green one). Is the damage inconclusive? Well, it’s not necessary, because the ent binds the enemy to itself with roots, and he is simply forced to fight with the ent. It is a pleasure to tie a pack of vampires to yourself in this manner and watch them unsuccessfully try to drink birch sap from an ent.

By strengthening it, you will give the ent the right to go on the defensive when he is even better protected than usual and responds to all opponents. But... usually it is not required. If you have money problems, you can easily do without it.

dragon green and emerald

Like a dragon ... but not really. Without magic immunity, a valuable reptile will be burned on the spot. And it doesn't matter that it has a lot of hits and breathes two cells like a real dragon: it's still too easy to kill. He has only one serious advantage: he is fast, unlike most 7-level heavyweights.

Improve it ... there is no need if the money is not in abundance. Earth immunity? Unconvincing. By this point, you can always switch to lightning, fire and ice. Does it hit a little harder? No reason to pay for it almost one and a half times more. And, although you usually want to strengthen your main creatures, the dragon will easily wait for its turn. Until there is a lot of money.

Necropolis (necromancer)

Table 6 Necropolis Troops
Fighter Attack Defense Damage Hits Speed ​​Initiative Shots Cost
Bone Warrior 1 2 1-1 4 5 10 - 17
Bone Archer 1 2 1-2 5 4 10 8 30
Zombies 1 2 1-2 17 4 6 – 45
Plague zombie 2 2 2-3 17 4 7 – 65
Ghost 4 4 3-7 8 5 10 – 100
Ghost 4 4 5-7 12 5 10 – 140
Vampire 6 6 6-8 30 6 11 – 240
High Vampire 9 9 7-11 35 7 11 – 350
Lich 15 15 12-17 50 3 10 5 700
Archilich 19 19 16-20 55 3 10 6 900
Death 24 22 20-25 95 6 11 – 1400
Herald of Death 26 24 25-30 100 6 11 - 1800
Bone dragon 27 28 15-30 150 6 11 - 2400, 1 h.p.
Ghost Dragon 30 28 25-35 160 7 11 - 2900, 2 Hb

The undead are incredibly cheap, but although many of their fighters are rather weak on their own, they easily win in numbers and special abilities. Flyers, arrows... And most importantly, of course - a necromancer, raising more and more archers. A thousand shooters is a force, even if each takes only 1-2 hits!

The undead are very mobile, tenacious, only the inability to have a high morale harms them. All in all, a solid choice.

Bone Warrior and Archer

As they say in Ukraine, it's great to beat the dad in a herd. Skeletons are made by a necromancer from everything that moves, and it would be better if they were shooting, because skeleton fighters are still of little use. At first, this is not a strength, but soon there will be a lot of them ... I guess comments are superfluous.

Zombie simple and plague

Weak, slow, one joy - a lot of hits ... Combat rage does not improve them too much either. Strengthening - with each hit, the target loses 2 points of attack and defense. Useful, but you have to hit for a very long time to get a decent effect, but who will?

In general, zombies are needed so that there is something to spend in the early stages. Then - ballast.

Ghost and ghost

The ghost is then needed to bring the enemy to a frenzy: an incorporeal dirty trick with a 50% probability rejects any physical attack. If not for this, there would be little sense from them - they don’t fight with 8 hits at this level.

If strengthened, they will learn to steal mana, but not from the hero, like hell, but from the troops - and due to this, restore their ranks. Well, of course, but who will let them go to the magicians?

Vampire and Supreme Vampire

Joy, beauty and pride of any necromantic army. The vampire is not responded to the attack, and he (even without amplification, not like in the second "Heroes"!) Heals and resurrects his squad at the expense of the killed enemies. Vampires should not be lost in any case!

It is imperative to strengthen them: it's not that they will learn to jump over obstacles, it's just your main combat unit. There are situations when vampires are irrelevant, but ... rarely.

In battle, the main thing is not to expose them to the ents, who fix them in place and deprive them of the opportunity to fight for their lives.

Lich and Archlich

Only one magician in the army of the undead, and only one shooter above the first level, and all rolled into one ... but what a! Shoots at once on the area of ​​3 to 3 cells, while causing gigantic damage. Steeper than him in shooting only titanium.

However, liches will certainly be killed. And rob.

He becomes a magician only after strengthening, and receives only one really valuable spell - the plague. It's especially great against creatures with high initiative - primarily off-suited elves and demons.

Death and the herald of death

This creature in your army has a very definite and fixed role: to destroy the enemy "heavyweights". To do this, it must be improved; then he is guaranteed to kill at least one enemy creature, and also removes all positive spells from the unit.

The undead have a big problem with dragons, treants, devils, and so on: apart from the herald, almost no one can fight them effectively. The conclusion is clear.

Bone and ghost dragons

Another "almost a dragon, only quite small." Any self-respecting dragon, even a green one, brings such cubs for training. Perhaps the weakest of the creatures of level 7. And even the curse that appears after strengthening does not make him much more noble. But where to go? There is no other!

Academy (mage)

Table 7 Academy Troops
Fighter Attack Defense Damage Hits Speed ​​Initiative Shots Cost
Gremlin 2 2 1-2 5 3 7 5 22
Master Gremlin 3 2 1-2 6 5 11 7 35
Stone gargoyle 3 4 1-1 15 6 9 - 45
Obsidian Gargoyle 3 5 1-2 20 7 10 - 70
Stone Golem 5 5 3-5 18 4 7 – 90
Steel Golem 6 6 5-7 24 4 7 – 130
Mag 10 10 7-7 18 4 10 3 250
Archmage 10 10 7-7 30 4 10 4 340
Genie 13 12 12-16 33 7 12 – 480
Sultan of jinn 15 13 16-22 40 8 12 - 700
Rakshasa princess 25 20 15-23 120 5 9 - 1400
Raja Rakshas 25 20 23-30 140 6 8 - 1770
Colossus 27 27 40-70 175 6 10 – 3500, 1 stone.
Titanium 30 30 40-70 190 6 10 5 4700, 2 stones

The first levels of the Academy troops will hardly please you, although they are cheap. You will have to fight mainly with magic. True, with a little training, your hero will be able to supply this little thing with mini-artifacts, and this must be done by all means. Without them ... in general, you will see.

Things begin to improve with the advent of magicians and genies. But in general, the army of the Academy was and remains weak. All hope is on the spell of the hero. Playing for him is not easy, but exciting.

Gremlin and master gremlin

The shooter, although frail, but still. However, if you strengthen it with an artifact, it will play, and how.

Strengthening it is only needed to repair golems with it. It's not bad to put golems under attack and not suffer losses ... but it's not very cool. All in all, don't expect much advantage from Gremlin Masters.

Gargoyle stone and obsidian

Take 1 hit per attack? I would be ashamed in front of my friends! In general, don't expect a gargoyle to kill anyone, even after being buffed. This creature is needed only and exclusively to block the shooters. It flies, somehow. In general, do not regret, do not call, do not cry ... and do not improve.

Golem stone and steel

The golem is designed to take a hit. A lot of hits, durable, protected from magic. In addition, the gremlin masters repair it, and after strengthening it, it responds to all attacks.

The only question remains - who will shoot the hits? And so, in general, not bad.

Mage and archmage

Your first strike force. Guaranteed 7 damage, no distance penalties, plus magic fist and cleansing enchantments. Keep in mind that the mage hits in a straight line, hitting everyone in the path of the projectile to the very end of the map, his own and others. This makes it extremely difficult to defend him; but if you had to block the magician's view - he still has a spell. In general - a worthy fighter, only flimsy. And make no mistake - druids, for example, are much stronger.

The archmage, his senior colleague, has studied the fireball, but we also love him for the fact that he reduces the cost of the spell hero. And almost twice as many hits.

Jinn and the Sultan of Jinn

One of the strangest fighters. Casts... random dark magic spells. What kind of luck. It also flies. At first glance, it is unconvincing, and there are few hits, but at the second it turns out to be very worthy.

Having strengthened, the genie also learns light magic for his comrades-in-arms. But it’s still somehow better, it invests more souls, or what? In addition, it starts to fly faster - and from that moment it suppresses enemy shooters well.

Princess and Raja Rakshasas

Here is the first warrior of the Academy, which is good without any “buts”. Mighty, strong, and the enemies do not answer. Quite copes one on one with the majority of equal opponents.

A strengthened Rakshas can, by skipping a move, speed up his actions in the future. If you do not urgently need to suppress the enemy's shooters - this is a very useful feature.

By the way, when the Rakshas is strengthened, it changes gender. Original solution, don't you think? However, in the third "Heroes" this was also, I remember.

Colossus and Titan

The famed titan is the strongest shooter in the game, is immune to mind control, and has no melee penalties. In addition, he has lightning, though weak compared to his shot (but sometimes comes in handy). True, he is a little expensive, but he is quite a worthy fighter of his level.

And the colossus? What about a colossus? He doesn't shoot. And therefore not needed. Never. Do not even think about spending money on it, unless the need has really pinned down.

School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Before proceeding to the description of spells, let us briefly recall the rules. In order to learn a spell, you need to visit the city where it is in the magic guild, visit the temple with this spell, or get it from another of your heroes (which requires the scientist skill).

Enchantments of the first and second levels can be learned by any hero (the process of "purchasing a book of enchantments" for weakly magical characters has sunk into the past). For subsequent levels, one must have knowledge of the basics of the appropriate school of magic (3rd level), advanced (4th level) or skillful magic (5th level). In addition, the wisdom skill gives you the right to learn any level 3 spells, and omniscience (a unique mage ability, very difficult to obtain) gives you access to all spells at once. There are also scrolls with spells.

The above skills, in addition to access to charms, affect their strength, and quite significantly.

This is important: the system, when the damage from combat spells was directly proportional to the magical power of the magician, has sunk into the past. For example, a magic arrow (without additional skills) removes 48 + 8 * K hit points, where K is the caster's sorcery. And lightning - 11 + 11 * K hits. Therefore, with a low value of witchcraft (up to 12), the magic arrow will be stronger, and with a high value, lightning strikes more painfully. Fortunately, learning all this by heart is not necessary: ​​the right mouse button will tell you how much this or that spell takes down in your hands, taking into account all the parameters and skills.

More details - below, in the section "Sorcerers on the battlefield", the chapter "Additionally".

A number of skills add massive or enhanced versions of spells; such spells are, of course, more expensive.

Now let's list the spells that exist in the game.

Travel spells
These spells are learned in the guild, like all others, but the process differs in one feature: they do not require a skill, but simply a certain level. They are used, as the name suggests, not in combat, but when moving around the map.

Ship call. As usual - calls the ship to the magician. To do this, it is necessary that a free ship exists, and also that it is possible to board it in this place (you need a sort of shallow water - heroes do not jump into a boat from a steep bank). Spell level - 2, anyone can learn. Costs 4 mana.

This is interesting: it would be a mistake to think that such a spell has no strategic use. For example, in a mission where boats are in short supply, sometimes it is possible to "pull" someone else's boat with a freshly bought hero and block the enemy army on the island ... Why "freshly bought"? So after all, if the hero gets off this boat, it will be teleported back ...

Summon creatures. Marvelous spell - summons your creatures from the nearest city (not from the hero standing in the city!). The price is 1 mana per item, so it is not profitable to summon any small fry. The spell is level 3, you need a level 10 hero.

Astral gates. This level 4 magic takes us around the map; but it's very difficult to figure out where you can teleport and where you can't. Magic can only be used at the start of a turn. Sometimes this is a weapon of victory (to jump over an obstacle and go behind enemy lines ...), but conditions for use are far from always created. Requires level 15. Costs 15 mana.

This is important: are you planning a risky assault, and reinforcements are preparing at home? Don't forget to call them ahead of time. Then the nearest will be a freshly captured city ...

Portal to the city. Moves the hero with the entire army to the nearest friendly city for 20 mana and "eats" the rest of the movement for a turn. Requires level 20. Enchantment level 5.

Summon Magic

This includes all enchantments that add creatures to the battlefield (except resurrection), and something else. You will find the numerical parameters of spells in table 8. Spells of the 5th level are described in full in the text.

Table 8 Summon Magic

Magic Fist 5 20 + 4 * K 30 + 6 * K 40 + 8 * K 50 + 10 * K
Fire trap 8 2 traps 4 traps 6 traps 8 traps
Summon Wasp Swarm 5 10 + 2 * C 20 + 4 * C, 20% Slow 30 + 6 * C, 40% Slow 40 + 8 * C, 60% Slow
Raising the dead 6 120 + 15 * K 160 + 20 * K 200 + 25 * K 240 + 30 * K
Create a phantom 6 4 level 5 level 6 level 7 level
Earthquake 7 100 200 300 400
Summon Elementals 9 Elementals Elementals Elementals 2 * Elementals
Wall of fire 8 50 + 10 * K 50 + 10 * K 50 + 10 * K 75 + 15 * K

Note: why are the parameters given for skill levels at which the spell cannot be learned? Because of the skill of wisdom, scrolls and so on.

1 level

Magic fist. A typical combat spell, although not very strong. But… it deals regular physical damage, not magical damage, and therefore ignores magic defenses.

Fire trap. Creates several traps on the battlefield that explode if stepped on (they are not visible to the enemy). A spell of dubious usefulness is very unpredictable. Skills do not change damage (it is standard - 50 + 10 * K), but the number of traps.

2 level

Raising the dead. Revives your dead; if they belonged to the undead - then permanently, otherwise until the end of the battle. The most important spell - it can prolong the battle many times over. There is an opinion that its level was somewhat underestimated... The total hit points of animated creatures depend on the magical power.

Summon wasp swarm. Without special skills, this is just a very, very weak combat spell. But if you have trained summoning magic, then the spell not only removes hit points, but also moves the target back on the stack of actions, that is, makes it act later than it could. In the right hands, it works wonders... but when used thoughtlessly, it is almost useless.

This is important: the spell power for the last effect does not play a role at all!

3 level

Earthquake. Powerful damage to the fortifications of the city. The amount of damage depends on the level of mastery of summoning magic (but not on magical power).

This is important: according to the description, the ability "lord of the earth" increases spellcasting power during an earthquake. It is quite possible, since, according to my observation, the effect of the spell does not depend on the ability either. Did you not learn something?

Create a phantom. Makes a copy of your squad, which, however, disappears at the first hits taken from it. A spell of questionable usefulness, rather a delay, although it works well against neutrals. Summoning magic skills determine the maximum level of a creature that can be copied.

4th level

Wall of fire. It stands and fires at everyone who passes through it. It lasts as many moves as the mage has magical power.

Summon elementals. Summons elementals; their appearance depends on the type of territory where the battle is taking place.

This is a bug: as we found out right in the process of playing the "Duel Club", in duel mode this spell can cause the game to freeze. The fact is that the choice of the type of elementals in a duel is random, and it is thrown separately for each of the parties. Can you imagine what will happen if they do not agree?

5th level

Heavenly shield. Covers the unit from attacks, softening blows. It cuts damage taken in half, but its durability is finite (meaning it also has its own hit points of 300 + 30 * K).

Summon Phoenix. Once upon a time, the phoenix was an ordinary fighter of the "forest" faction, and now it is the Most Important Monster in the game. There can be only one phoenix on the battlefield. Its parameters directly depend on your magical power and level: attack and defense - 10 + 2 * level, damage - from 10 * K to 15 * K, hit points - 300 + 30 * K. Initiative and speed are constant - 15 and 7, respectively.

Thus, for example, a level 30 hero with 20 witchcraft summons a phoenix with 900 hit points, which removes 200-300 hit points with one blow without taking into account attack-defense ... Such a bird feeds chicks with dragons!

Chaos magic

Everything is quite simple here - all spells belong to the category of "hitting" and differ only in damage and area of ​​effect. True, special skills (lord of fire, storm, cold) add additional effects to these spells. Fire spells begin to destroy the target's defense, lightning - to stun, cold - to slow down.

Detailed parameters of chaos spells can be found in table 9.

Table 9 Chaos Magic
Mana Spell No Skills Basics Advanced Magic Artful Magic
Magic Arrow 4 48 + 8 * K 56 + 8 * K 64 + 8 * K 72 + 8 * K
Stone spikes 5 24 + 8 * K 32 + 8 * K 40 + 8 * K 48 + 8 * K
Ice Arrow 6 60 + 12 * K 72 + 12 * K 84 + 12 * K 96 + 12 * K
Lightning 5 11 + 11 * K 14 + 14 * K 17 + 17 * K 20 + 20 * K
Fireball 6 11 + 11 * K 14 + 14 * K 17 + 17 * K 20 + 20 * K
Ring of cold 7 60 + 12 * K 72 + 12 * K 84 + 12 * K 96 + 12 * K
Meteor shower 8 15 + 15 * K 15 + 15 * K 20 + 20 * K 25 + 25 * K
Lightning chain 8 20 + 20 * K 20 + 20 * K 20 + 20 * K 25 + 25 * K
Ground shock 9 20 + 20 * K 20 + 20 * K 20 + 20 * K 40 + 40 * K
Armageddon 12 15 + 15 * K 15 + 15 * K 15 + 15 * K 30 + 30 * K

1 level

Magic arrow. One goal. The damage is not elemental, so protection from fire, lightning, and so on will not help.

Stone spikes. They hit with a “cross” in 5 cells. As with other "area" spells, if the spikes hit several cells of a large creature, this does not increase the damage. Earth Element.

2 level

Ice arrow. One target, cold damage.

Lightning. One target, lightning damage.

Elemental aside, the difference between the two is that Frostbolt does a lot of damage at low levels of Affliction, while Lightning does a lot of damage at high levels. Take a look at the table: the arrow has a large "base" damage, while the lightning has a higher multiplier.

3 level

Fire ball. Hits a 3x3 square, fire damage.

Cold ring. Hits the same square, but without the central cell, cold damage. It greatly contributes to the destruction of creatures that have surrounded your fighter, without harming the latter.

4th level

Meteor Rain. Square 5x5, Earth damage.

Lightning chain. It hits on the merits, then half the strength on the one closest to it (does not distinguish between friends and foes), and so on - a total of 4 targets.

5th level

Earth Shock. The most powerful single target spell.

Armageddon. Covers the entire battlefield - their own and others. Fire damage. For the happy owners of creatures immune to magic... But it is very difficult to use it - because of the ability to pierce even dragons with spells.

Light magic

In addition to the already traditional enhancements of all sorts and the "holy word", teleportation landed here. We can say that this magic is good for not very strong sorcerers, who, however, received a couple of abilities from the corresponding branch. Because mass accelerations and other similar spells applied at once to the entire army are a thing! Separately, they, in principle, are also nothing, but they pay off much worse.

The spellcasting power of light magic is only really important for level 5 enchantments and for disenchantment. In all other cases, it determines the duration of the spell, which means that 3-5 units are quite enough.

The parameters of light spells are in table 10.

Table 10 Light Magic
Mana Spell No Skills Basics Advanced Magic Artful Magic
Divine Strength 4 50% 65% 80% 100%
Acceleration 4 10% 20% 30% 40%
Disenchant 5 40% 60% 80% 100%
Stoneskin 6 3 6 9 12
Punitive blow 6 3 6 9 12
Evasion 6 25% 40% 55% 70%
Antimagic 7 No Special Effects
Teleport 8 No special effects
Holy word 11 16 + 4 * K 16 + 4 * K 16 + 4 * K 64 + 8 * K
Resurrection 9 60 + 15 * C 60 + 15 * C 60 + 15 * C 240 + 30 * C

1 level

Divine power. Increases damage from enchanted fighter's attacks. More precisely, it sort of "moves" the minimum damage to the maximum. It depends on the skill in light magic how close the minimum to the maximum is. For example, if the damage is 10-20 hits, then a beginner in light magic will reduce the distance by 50% (see table) and get 15-20 hits, and with developed magic (80%) - 18-20 hits. As you might guess, this spell works best on creatures with a wide range of damage - like crossbowmen or most demons (no matter how strange it may sound from the point of view of common sense). And, say, magicians or dryads, divine power will not give anything at all.

Acceleration. Increases the fighter's initiative by a certain percentage of the original. The most important spell of the school, it is especially good to cast on shooters and on "runners" like the hellhound (I wonder why demons always turn out to be the best targets for light magic?).

2 level

Removing the enchantment Removes enemy spells cast on fighters. The probability of success depends on the magical power. The base probability is given in the table, but the ratio of the strength of the magician who cast the spell to the magician who removes it changes this probability.

Stone skin. Increases the target's defense by a fixed amount.

3 level

Punishing blow. Increases the target's attack by a fixed amount.

Evasion. Reduces damage from enemy shots by a very significant percentage.

4th level

Antimagic. Removes all spell effects from the target and makes it immune to magic. Can only be cast on own troops.

Teleport. Teleports a friendly target to another location on the battlefield.

This is interesting: teleport is the only combat spell in the game for which neither magical power nor skill in the corresponding magic is important at all.

This is important: on the duel server, many are misled by the fact that for some heroes, after teleporting a squad, they get a plus to the initiative and, as a rule, an extraordinary move. They consider this a regular effect of the spell, and completely in vain: this property is not a spell, but the “Sudden Attack” ability.

5th level

Holy word. Like Armageddon, it hits the entire battlefield, but only deals damage to the undead and demons. Unfortunately, it also differs from Armageddon in penny damage, and therefore is used infrequently.

Resurrection. Revives dead soldiers. This spell, in fact, is weaker than Raise the Dead, but Raise revives only for the duration of the battle (and only undead - for good), and Resurrection is permanent.

Dark magic

It is similar to light magic, only it does not strengthen its own, but weakens its enemies. Many of these enchantments are simply mirrored to the corresponding "light" spells. In addition, control and immobilization spells got here. Like light magic, dark magic is not too demanding on the magical power of the magician - skills in this area are more important. For most spells, only the duration of the spell depends on witchcraft.

Parameters - in table 11.

Table 11 Dark Magic
Mana Spell No Skills Basics Advanced Magic Artful Magic
Attenuation 4 50% 35% 20% 0%
Slow 4 25% 30% 35% 40%
Destruction beam 5 3 4 5 6
Plague 6 2 turns 3 turns 4 turns 5 turns
Distraction 7 50% 70% 90% 100%
Weakness 5 3 6 9 12
Berserk 8 1 turn 1 turn 1 turn 2 turns
Blind 9 No Special Effects
Suggestion 12 No special effects
Unholy word 9 16 + 4 * K 16 + 4 * K 16 + 4 * K 64 + 8 * K

1 level

Weakening. Approaches the maximum damage of the creature to the minimum; the logic of action is the same as that of the divine power, only the effect is the opposite.

slowdown. Complete inversion of "Acceleration". Even the numbers are the same.

2 level

Destructive beam. A permanent spell that lowers the target's defense. It can be applied multiple times and the effects stack (but the defense does not drop below 0). Witchcraft power does not play any role.

Plague. The spell puts the fighter in bed and inflicts damage whenever the target takes an action. The damage is 32 + 8 * K, and the duration depends on the skills in darkness magic.

3 level

Absent-mindedness. With some probability (see table), the target will skip its turn.

Weakness. Reduces creature's attack; acts like a punitive blow, but vice versa.

4th level

Berserk. The creature considers everyone around as enemies and attacks the closest fighter to it (combat vehicles - they count).

Blindness. The target has no effect until someone attacks it. As before - a long-term and reliable way to take the enemy out of the fight, but the duration was greatly reduced - K / 4 moves.

Note: the enemy is still not completely powerless against Blind. You can try to "wake" the enchanted with area-of-effect spells or similar attack effects (like dragon breath... um).

5th level

Suggestion. Places the target under your control. Duration - K / 4 moves.

Unholy word. Reverse spell to "Holy Word" - deals damage, just as penny, to everyone except the undead and demons.

Six campaigns

Since the campaigns of the game tell a single story, they can only be completed (in the traditional way, without using special files) in order - like this, as described below.

Campaigns correspond to the six types of heroes in the game; however, your main character is not taken from the list of characters available in the multiplayer game. Some, even at a cursory glance, do not look at all like their colleagues ...

This is important: in each campaign, your main character will move from mission to mission, retaining all the acquired skills and parameters, but not artifacts. Why was such a strange decision made? Apparently, because a limited set of slots for equipment would make the search for new prizes uninteresting from the middle of the campaign...

This is important: you can find the mission cards on the August LCI poster.

Queen or Knights start and lose

Don't trust a young girl

The device is more complicated than a pomelo.

tourist song

This campaign will not cause you any difficulties: it is, in fact, educational. You will be shown for a long time and strainedly, “how they play it at all”, and so that you do not get lost in an abundance of opportunities, in the first missions they will cut to the very ears the ability to build buildings and make troops.

As you know, in RTS since the days of Dune 2, it has been customary to introduce vehicles into campaigns little by little. It would seem, what does the "Heroes" have to do with it? That's what I thought, nothing...

Note: do not forget about the main skill of the knights - counterstrike. Thanks to him, you can, by building a training camp, turn your peasants into archers, swordsmen, and so on.

The young King Nicholas prepares to repel the invasion of the demonic legions. He intends to do this without allies: the dwarves in the coffin saw an alliance with people and marched in the continuation, the elves were too battered by the last war, and the leader of the magicians Cyrus is too much on his mind. Do not negotiate with necromancers? So, you have to rely only on yourself.

Whether the king knows what he is doing is a big question; subjects almost aloud doubt the military knowledge of their young ruler. However, he himself is not too sure of himself - and therefore sends his wife, Queen Isabelle, to a safe (as he believes) place. Giving her the knight Godric and the nun Beatrice as companions.

But the queen does not want to sit in a safe place at all. On the contrary, she is determined to help her husband. This is what we will do with her.

First of all, the queen violates the will of Nicholas in relation to the allies. No, we won't fight alone. Beatrice goes to persuade the elves, Godric - Cyrus (which would be much more correct to translate as "Cyrus"). Well, since these annoying guardians have been fused, you can fight yourself!

Mission 1. Queen, or Get Together, Working People

In the rear of the kingdom of Nicholas, not all is well. The serfs have sensed that power is not firmly held. The cry flew - "every man for himself, save yourself, who can!".

Part of the people is still loyal to the royal family and joins at the first request. The rest intend to resist both her and the demons (if they appear here).

And our task is simple: to gather 100 infantrymen and 25 men at arms (as many as possible) and storm the fortification in the south. You are not supposed to have a castle, look for volunteers ...

On the map you will find many farms where they go to your service for free. For men at arms (they are hired in the barracks) money is needed, but not too much. Yes, and among the free detachments of volunteers is quite enough.

The only thing that should be advised here is: do not get into a fight for the sake of gold. You won't need it in large quantities.

Mission 2. Rebellion, or Onion Mountain

It's time to get the base. To do this, we will suppress the rebellion of archers from the city of Long Bows (well, why not “Velikiye Luki”?) ... This must be done in a week, otherwise the detachment got tired and the queen has not seen a mirror for a month now ...

Taking the city is easy. It is necessary to hire archers in the nearby tower and, bypassing those monsters that do not block the path, turn at the first fork to the west. And there is also Luke. Then it will be possible to calmly engage in the shooting of the local fauna and the accumulation of experience.

Now the queen wanted to accumulate 100 archers and take another city - Ash (it is located in the far northeast corner of the map). One hundred archers can be accumulated just by sitting in one place (especially since the speed of the campaign is not taken into account anywhere - eh, where are you, Hall of Fame?). But it's better not to sit still, but to move around, gathering the inhabitants of the surrounding towers, barracks and farms.

Having recruited a hundred shooters, you can safely go on the assault; especially since the griffins that have settled on your road will gladly join the rightful queen. The enemy army is also big (70 archers, crowds of peasants), but the griffins will suppress the fire, and your arrows will do the rest.

Mission 3. Siege, or Harvesting of horns and hooves

The queen settled in Yasen (now it is the southwestern corner of the map). As it turned out, the area was infested with devils, stags, hellish dogs and other dirty tricks. Gotta clean up!

Having fun hunting for every infernal trifle, one should not forget that this is only the beginning: when the intelligence of the demons is swept away, the demonic general Kraal with a quite serious army will come after it. Therefore, we need to rebuild the city in parallel with clearing the area - well, at least up to the knights.

In addition to evil spirits, there are enough people loyal to the people around - peasants, men at arms, shooters; both in free form and in houses for hire. Additional sources of gold can speed up the development of the city and the purchase of an army: a mine guarded by cave lords and a bag guarded by higher vampires. Both are not too easy prey, but in the middle phase of the mission it will be possible. On the map you will find the location of all key objects.

When the area is freed from wandering evil spirits, Kraal will come to visit us. We're ready, aren't we?

Mission 4. Trap, or Wrong Demon

Beatrice succeeded in her negotiations with the elves; Ambassador Faydaen (in the English version - Findan; in my opinion, a much more elven name) promised to send blade dancers. We need to meet reinforcements (although a sensible military adviser would certainly inform the queen that the dancers are, to put it mildly, not the best troops of the elves).

The first step, however, is to do self-preparation. Isabelle skipped a few lectures on magic, and now it's time (?) to make up for lost time. For this, the holy father asks only to attach a couple of floors to the guild of magicians, otherwise there is nowhere to teach students. True, this should be done in the city of Svetlolesye, which, unfortunately, does not belong to us. Let's fix it, shall we?

Lightwood, as it is easy to see on the map, lies from us to the northwest, and along the way, a lot of resources, a temple with a spell and other gifts are found. A torn road leads to Svetlolesye; there is a direct reason to take the city first, and only then to study the side branches.

This is important: if you see neutral monsters on the map that are blocking a dead end with ... other neutral monsters, do not twist your finger at your temple and do not pass by. This curious natural phenomenon almost certainly means that the monsters in the cul-de-sac are mentally prepared to join you. There are such knights on this map, but in general you will meet this in the campaign more than once or twice.

Lightwood is ours, the guild of magicians is rebuilt. Now it would be time to go to a rendezvous with Faidaen. But - alas: the bridge to the west is destroyed. As usual in such cases, the seer nearby suggests the right decision - to look for the boots of levitation in the crypt, which is nearby underground.

There are many monsters standing guard over the shoes, but Isabelle defeats them with the help of Light Forest reinforcements and is ready for new challenges. (If you recaptured the aforementioned knights from the demons, then most likely there will be no problems, otherwise quite serious fights await.)

As a matter of fact, that's all (although those who wish can frolic to their heart's content in the back streets of the map). You can go towards the elves ...

…well, not exactly elves, to be exact. Beatrice leads us straight to the lair of the demon Agrail. And she is not Beatrice, but Biara - a succubus in the service of the same Agrail. Our mentor and friend did not survive the long dangerous journey.

The demon, however, behaves somehow not demonically at all. No to break out into a dull, drawn-out laugh, like his girlfriend Biara; instead, he makes some strange hints that Isabelle might have confided in him. They, they say, "disappear together", and he, the demon, will protect her. Completely, poor fellow, gone crazy in the society of succubi. After such a dirty trick and the death of Beatrice - it's time to rely on his friendship!

Mission 5. Sunset of the King, or Why did we wait for you?

Fortunately, in addition to Beatrice, Isabelle also has Godric; even though he could not cope with the call for help from the magicians, he himself was at the right time in the right place. And with a decent army. It remains to be hoped that under the guise of a faithful squire is not some ... hellish horse.

Isabelle languishes in a dungeon under Dunmoor. We must capture both Dunmoor and the dungeon (and quickly, until Isabelle died from grief and the sweet society of demons). And Godric draws hope for victory in the idea of ​​finding the Tear of Asha - the sleeping goddess-dragon, for which it is necessary to decipher the map, which is stored in parts in the obelisk.

Dunmoor is to the north, and to the east lies the land of demons. As soon as Dunmur falls under the onslaught of Godric, the demons will crawl from there like cockroaches, just have time to fight back. But since there are two heroes under our command - Godric and Isabelle, one will defend the city, and the other will search.

This is a bug: at first, I tried to immediately break into the demonic country and destroy the threat lurking in it. I defeated the army of the future invasion and from the video I was surprised to learn that Isabelle was already with me. Apparently, the game developers could not imagine such a turn of events...

The demons do not sleep, and the first to visit is an old acquaintance - Agrail. It is much more pleasant to meet him behind a reliable wall, even though demons are known to be able to call for reinforcements from portals right behind the wall.

Having deciphered the map of the obelisks (you can see the place where the Tear lies on our map and in the picture next to it), you get at your disposal a rapid increase in troops and other joys of life. And Isabelle, having calmed down about the defense of Dunmoor, instructs Godric to take the fort in the southeast and go towards Nicholas.

In the southeast, by the way, there are two forts: demons climb from behind one, but we can’t take it. The other one is quite right. We go out to meet Nicholas... only to see him killed right in front of our eyes. Some kind of ridiculous you, death ...

A worshiper, or a dissident from the underworld

Good people expected bloodshed from him, but he ate a chizhik.
M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, "Bear in the province"

This time we have to command demonic armies on behalf of an old acquaintance - the demon Agrail. No, Agrail is not an enemy of all living things, and in general it is not yet very clear what is happening to him. One thing is clear: it was not out of sadism that he offered Isabelle to trust him. Perhaps this is love?

Mission 1. Betrayal, or Harun ran faster than a deer

First of all, Agrail and his good friend Biara must save their necks from Godric. The queen's squire had a lot of urgent questions for them. Our lord and master probably also has some complaints about the failed task, but we will deal with this later. First - get to the lands of Shio, the domain of demons.

Speed ​​is everything in this mission. Fortunately, with the very first level, we are offered to improve logistics, nearby the monks guard the shoes of speed (the monks bite painfully, but without acceleration it will be harder), and soon the stables will also come across. Let's run!

Our goal - the gate to the dungeon - is located in the southeast, and the path is blocked by a red gate, from which you should find the key.

First, let's run along the western corridor (at the end of it there are demons ready to stand under our banner), after which we rush east along the forest path to the tent of the red key. From there, the portal will take you directly to the goal ...

It may turn out that, despite our efforts, the enemy will still firmly sit on our tail. In this case, Agrail has a non-trivial decision in his position - to seek refuge in the church. It would seem that there is a demon to do, but come on…

The caves are not fraught with danger; but you shouldn't get too soft, otherwise we'll call Godric.

Mission 2. Promise, or Vertical Racing

Agrail finally decided to stand in opposition to his master. Biara supports him in this - in the hope that Agrail will take the place of the ruler and will not forget his old friend.

The Overlord sent his trusty General Vayer to retrieve an artifact called Griffin's Heart. Weyer and I start the race in two symmetrical corridors. We must not be late - and at the same time come to the Heart with a worthy army. By the way, I recommend taking succubi as a starting plus.

There is not much to write about the race; I will only say that you will have enough time to gather troops. Weyer isn't in too much of a hurry either.

In the finale, two battles await us: with the knight Stefan, the keeper of the artifact, and, of course, with Vayer. Wyer is a great force overpowering you, but... that won't stop you, will it?

This is a bug: the developers don't seem to expect you to be able to handle Wire. Whether you lose or win this last fight, the ending is the same: Agrail and Vayer fence in the artifact hall, and it follows from the conversations that Vayer considers himself the winner. Silly!

And after talking with the enemy general, we are greeted by a ghostly image. Druid is easily recognized by characteristic horns. He introduces himself as Tieru, and we are slightly ashamed at the monitor that we do not know who he is: Tieru is clearly known to every literate inhabitant of the world. Agrail is determined to find Tiera and talk with him about how to go against Kha-Belekh, the lord of Inferno.

Mission 3. Conquest, or the Story of a Hot-tempered Poet

The path to Tier lies through the country of the elves. We'll have to fight our way through, as well as break into the source of druidic magic. I wonder if Tieru realizes that with his sweet invitation he doomed the elven lands to swords and fires?

It would be possible to agree - Agrail has nothing against the elves, but, alas, along the way, a very hot-tempered elf Gilraen got caught. Offended by the fact that Agrail had the audacity to defeat him right at the Inferno castle, he declared war on us. We'll have to capture three elven cities...

This mission is strange - in that we will have to fight with troops that are not inherent in us. The druids have declared "the month of forest creatures", and in forest castles they grow twice as fast. In addition, the possibilities of our infernal castle are very limited: higher demons are not available. The conclusion is clear: we quickly capture the nearest forest city (Vinlan), since it is literally protected only by willpower, and we begin to rebuild. (Probably later, when the elven cities gain freedom, the demons will reproach the former colonies that they “developed with their money” ...)

Note: although the elves, of course, do not know how to use our Gate skill, but under the command of Agrail they hit with hellish fire regularly.

Having taken Vinlan, let's not rush beyond measure: we will gather resources around and get a decent army. Well, at least it’s worth growing up to the Ents. Elven cities do not bother us yet. But development should not be delayed either.

Don't miss the fort on the hill north of Vinlan. It is not easy to clear it of elemental guards, but if it can be done, it can save money on building upgrades.

Ur-Kharg, the demonic base, doesn't need much rebuilding. And you can make a reserve army out of it for the second hero: anyway, someone will have to protect Vinlan from the invasion.

There are two enemy cities, in the northwest and northeast. We get to the first one in the usual way, along the road. The second can be reached through the north of the map, by a long detour, but this is not our way: there is a ford across the river, and this road is half as long. Finally, having overturned the ents and druids in the center of the map, we victoriously complete the pogrom in the elven lands.

And Gilraen Agrail will not touch. He now has a thin and tender soul, and he will not let the elven poet die for the sake of stupid revenge. Biara, presumably, is at a loss ...

Mission 4. The ship, or what are the demons embarrassed about?

Only now does it dawn on Agrail that Tieru seems to be living on an island. Demons can swim, but not well, not far.

Ships are built in the city of Erivel, in the very north of the map. You just have to get there and take the city. Sounds easy...

In reality, everything is somewhat more difficult. First, the path is blocked by a serious garrison. Secondly, the forest army of Agrail is melting before our eyes, and not from battles, but from desertion. There are two ways: honestly take the garrison or ... negotiate with the twilight dragons that live in the dungeon. They want "only" a hundred elf archers to be devoured for leading Agrail by a detour.

In any case, you will have to take both the underground demonic city and the elven cities on the surface, and gather the elves in separate houses. But is it to feed the dragons? Even Agrail feels a little... awkward about making this deal.

Note: if you still decide to negotiate, then keep in mind that any surplus of elves will be devoured by the dragons without unnecessary ceremonies, and it is pointless to take exactly 100 with you - some will scatter, and there will not be enough elves.

The battle for Erivel is unavoidable; we are confronted by a fully trained army of elves with emerald dragons in considerable numbers. The main thing here is not to get into close combat. While the enemy is likely to have better arrows, Agrail must have a giant advantage in magic.

Mission 5

Before us - the sea with a porridge of small islands. But there is a peculiarity: the fog of war does not part in front of the ship, and you cannot enter it. Throughout the mission, we push it with all our might through the magician's houses on the islands. The islands are connected by underground tunnels, in which there is no particular threat to Agrail. Especially since all the demons join our dissident.

In general, the whole task is to run for a long time and remove the fog. If something raises doubts, pay attention to the map. By the way, a cartographer lives in the southeast of the sea.

The meeting with Tieru is amazing for both parties. We will finally find out why Agrail behaved so strangely ... and it ends with the rebirth of Agrail into something else. But more about that in due time!

Necromancer, or Bony Helping Hand

I promised you a dragon's head... So here it is.
- And I promised you the hand of the princess. So here she is.
joke

While Kha-Belekh, numb with amazement, admires the arrogance of his commander, and Isabelle suffers for Nicholas, a certain Mr. Markel, a necromancer (each has his own flaws ...), is ready to lend a helping hand to the suffering queen. The position of that one is very unenviable, and Markel, whatever one may say, is not a stranger - it’s not for nothing that some of Isabella’s relatives have been resting in his burial ground for a long time ...

Meanwhile, Isabelle's kingdom is in strife. The dukes, the archbishop and other brethren demand the enthronement of anyone, but not the widow of Nicholas. And for some reason Isabel is sorry to give it away...

Mission 1. Bait, or Let the elephants run

However, while Markel has only a small army and many insidious plans. Moreover, there are some difficulties on the way to Isabelle: patrols of magicians roam on the road riding on faithful elephants. It is worth getting caught by at least one in the eye - and the case is lost.

But there is a way to replenish the troops - at the expense of all the surrounding undead, who joyfully join Markel for free, although not at full strength. Fighting with mages is still futile, but this will help to bypass neutral monsters.

The first step is to find a way to cross the river. There are enough fords, but some of them end in a dead end. On the map you will find what you need.

On the way to the ford, you need to collect troops, other utilities (resources are useless - they won't be useful!) And elude the patrol elephants, hiding in the nooks and crannies of the map. Don't get too carried away with collecting experience: getting level 10 on this map is very easy, but you won't be allowed to go higher anyway.

On the other side, it remains to go down into the underground passage and, having defeated the hydras and twilight witches of the underground, exit on that side. The moment is very successful: a rebellious knight appeared under the walls of the city. Having dealt with his army, Markel will receive his audience with Isabelle ...

Markel's proposal is simple: bring Nicholas back to life. Well, not quite to life, of course ... but they don’t measure the pulse of a gifted spouse! Yes, at the same time, you will have to quarrel with Cyrus, the archmage king, but he has already refused to help Godric, and very impolitely, which means that the alliance has already been broken ... In general, Godric is against it, but no one asks him. Union concluded.

Mission 2. The first difficulties, or Titanic efforts

Our necromancer does not yet have his own base, where it would be possible to produce the undead dear to his heart. It is necessary to capture Mythograd - the old necromantic fortress - and rebuild the dead hordes there. Well, at the same time, in order not to get up twice, take the nearby city of the Academy, where the first object for the ritual conceived by Markel is stored.

Therefore, Markel acts in the same team with Godric. Godric, in addition to bringing in reinforcements, is responsible for training archers from peasants and monks from swordsmen. The mutual hatred of our two heroes is not a hindrance to the cause.

First of all, you need to master the southern continent, having acquired a mine and a sawmill, as well as collecting all the undead (which still regularly joins Markel). Then you can swim across the sea. Some authorities recommend avoiding "orange" maritime patrols; I don't think this is healthy. It is better, on the contrary, to destroy them all: then you don’t have to guard your city, this is one, and the extra skeletons will not interfere, these are two.

Mythograd is taken without problems, but then ... There are two ways to the city of the Academy, Hikam: through the garrison and through the portal. The portal is guarded by about 100 titans; at the sight of this modest guard of honor, a ghost hiccuped behind me, even though it had not breathed for seven hundred years. It's hard to believe, but it's even worse with the garrison...

Having gathered all my forces (254 crossbowmen, a dozen ghost dragons found nearby, more than 600 skeleton archers ...), I managed with this team not without difficulty. As it became clear later, it was worth getting an ammunition cart. After this “warm-up” of taking the city itself, I somehow didn’t even notice ...

Mission 3. Invasion, or checkmate to the bishop

Our suspicions have been confirmed: Markel plans to bring Nicholas back as a vampire. In fact, a skeleton or a ghost is somehow not at all suitable for an agreement with Isabelle ...

Our base is Mythograd, and together with Isabelle (who plays the role of an auxiliary hero under Markel), we have to get the missing artifacts to vampirize Nicholas. And at the same time complete a few more tasks "as you go." This mission is truly gigantic in size.

It is best to start the expansion with the landing of Markel (namely, him) on the southeastern peninsula, where they are waiting for us - bone dragons ready to serve the wrong cause. Isabelle, meanwhile, will take up the development of the shore on which fate has thrown you.

This is important: you definitely need 10 dragons, sooner or later a task to collect them will come to light.

Then it's time to move on to the cities of the Academy. It would make more sense for Markel to work at the same time as Isabelle, with the Queen taking care of the city to the west and Markel the rest. There are no difficulties with the first cities, except immediately after landing. And then the dark begins...

An elven ship arrives to help Cyrus, and we are not allowed to ignore it - the purpose of the mission urgently requires to deal with the invaders. This task is easier to entrust to Isabelle, that fleet is not so large, because Markel will first have to overcome three garrisons, one more dirty than the other, and then fight face to face with the king-archmage himself (and at the same time Markel’s fanaberia still require to collect 1000 skeletons - to Fortunately, this is not difficult, since there is an abundance of material for them).

The staff - one of our targets - is capable of turning academies into necropolises. In other words, nothing prevents us from settling in the desert and polluting the cities there. But it’s a little pitiful to do this - after all, in the last city you just can’t hire anyone ...

It is not yet possible to fight Cyrus face to face - he slipped into another reality through a monolith. In pursuit!

Mission 4. Assassination of the ruler, or Markel in the Looking Glass

Well, did someone really think that we would leave the archmage alone? Especially since he once killed our teacher, Sandro (the same one who smiles at us from the cover of the July LCI)? Of course, in doing so, he cleared the path to a brilliant career for the modest student of Markel ... but we will forget this detail for now.

The mission is reminiscent of Agrail's run across the islands to Tier: a long chain of monoliths leaves us little choice. Tips here, perhaps, to nothing, just take a look at the map. We must reach the end along a long path, collect the keys from all the tents and catch up with Cyrus. That's all…

There is no need to collect resources (perhaps, except for gold). Losing a fight with Cyrus, in my opinion, is absolutely impossible.

Mission 5. Ruler of Erish, or Flying Necromancer

Our Cupid Markel can't connect Isabelle with Nicholas! Now the vile Godric intervened, who decided that “it’s wrong to revive Nicholas in this way,” took the amulet to Hickam and locked himself from the inside. And Hickam, as we remember from mission 2, is surrounded by mountains.

But Markel came up with a vile plan: in a prison not far from the starting city of the knights, the young daughter of Godric is languishing (for what?), with her help we will lure the old warrior out of Hickam. We just need to gather more troops first.

As soon as the gates of the prison open (or maybe even earlier, if we are developing very slowly), a couple of magicians with rather big armies come to visit us. However, before this, Markel does not care much, the main thing is that Isabelle does not remain completely without protection.

Godric did not come for his daughter, but sent angels. Well, it's no worse: Markel makes wings out of their feathers and flies over mountains! Hikam is equipped with a good garrison of titans, colossi, rakshasas and other academic living creatures, and after the "academicians" die, Godric's personal guard enters the battle - angels, paladins, swordsmen and archers. But that's no longer a hindrance...
So, everything you need is finally gathered at Markel's! Godric is in chains; Markel suspects excessive mercy in this, but the queen knows for sure that we will definitely need him for the plot.

Warlock, or Someone in Elven Skin

I was once strange
Nameless toy...
m / f "Cheburashka"

While knights, demons, magicians and necromancers dance around Queen Isabelle and try, each in their own way, to console her in her grief, somewhere far, far away, the children of the Underground do not have a leader. Well, no, that's all. Lost. A new one is needed.

We present a promising candidate. Young, handsome, magical to the extreme, perfectly kept in the saddle of an iguanodon of an unusual pink color. And the name is something vaguely familiar: Railag.

Mission 1. The leader of the clan, or Only one should remain

There were a lot of candidates. According to ancient Dark Elven custom, they are supposed to make democratic elections by polishing each other's faces. Of course, not personally, they are not some kind of barbarians: with the help of loyal subjects. Whoever puts more underground people is worthy of being a ruler. After all, it has long been known that the main function of the leader of the drow clan is to regulate the population of this pretty tribe so that they do not devour the rest of the world ... But I seem to have digressed.

These are the rules. We are given a month to assemble an army, after which all applicants are transferred to the dungeon for a deadly fight.

The city was not initially rebuilt, but nothing prevents you from quickly building all the "incubators" in it, up to the dwellings of the twilight witches (dragons are still not allowed for us), and also improving everything or almost everything. Part of the resources is hidden behind a nearby portal. Fast and elegant mission.

This is interesting: according to some reports, 90% of players are feverishly looking for the entrance to the dungeon for half the allotted month. There is no need to do this - everyone will be delivered there automatically!

All the heroes line up in a ring around the magic well, and the games begin. There are few tricks in the final battle (more precisely, the chain of battles), but there is one simple tip: save enough movement points to take one last sip from the well.

Mission 2. Expansion, or Where did the dragon cry?

The leader of the clan is not bad, but a good leader of the dark elves always aims for emperors. We need to unite the clans

The soothsayer Malassa, a dragon who lives by the lake almost next to the city, will help in this. Her advice is simple and disgusting: to find Asha's tear, that is, to collect information from all the obelisks and ...

The map in front of us is cyclopean in size and also two-story. The upper part is occupied by a variety of resources, and below are unconnected underground cities. One is ours (by the way, it is almost completely rebuilt - only the dwellings of witches and dragons are missing!), the rest are the orange player, that is, the clan of the Shards of Darkness. We do not like this clan and we will fight to the death with it.

But the cowardly Shards do not want to fight to the death: as soon as we capture the first city, they begin to try to send messengers to another clan. This must be stopped, otherwise the mission will be lost.

The nearest city - to the south of ours - is the best developed. And it’s worth starting with him until their hero becomes cooler than Railag. Almost the whole army can lie down there; what to do, the vicissitudes of war. But after that, with us is a city with already improved black dragons, plus another heroine, a level 10 warlock Shadia; having heard about the exploits of Railag, she is ready to help him to the best of her ability.

From this point on, war becomes more and more like a beating. Together, with an armory of two fully rebuilt cities, Railag and Shadia should not face any problems, except that they need to keep an eye on the messengers. If suddenly two heroes are not enough, then in the southwest, behind the garrison of people, there is a prison in which the necromancer Vlad, who is ready for exploits for the glory of whoever, is languishing with a retinue of (it's easy to guess) vampires.

And everything would be great if it were not for the need to look on a huge map for the place where Asha cried. Rogue sculptors have placed obelisks everywhere, including dungeons and the most disgusting nooks and crannies. In general, if you get bored looking for a place, a picture will help.

Mission 3. Cultist, or the Conquest of Hearts

There is only one major clan left that is not ready to join our ranks: the Hardhearts. This is because they are on friendly terms with the demons and hope that overseas will help them.

The clan is large and plentiful, inhabited a giant dungeon and built as many as seven cities in it. We have a long and tedious war in a vast labyrinth. Well, at least there is nothing on the surface - except for the bridge, on which infernal armies materialize from time to time.

At first, we don’t have a city at all, but there is tasty prey nearby. Another city - within a few days of travel, then you have to jump through the portals.

In fact, the trick is not to successfully storm cities, but to deprive the enemy of powerful heroes. Vaishan is the most dangerous; this warlock is not inferior in charms to Railag himself and, moreover, is armed with very unpleasant artifacts. In addition, the sorcerer, as befits a true dark elf, tries to get out of the battle in time. But a third hero will also be added to us (alas, not forever).

Sometimes another general of demons appears from the overworld. After the third defeat, the demons calm down, and the task of subduing them is considered completed.

Having captured the last, seventh city, Railag looks into the magic mirror - and learns both about Markel's tricks and that Kha-Belekh, enraged by the successes of the necromancers against his hordes, sends our old acquaintance Vayer after Isabelle. And without it, they say, do not return ...

Here Railag will have to remember the past. He rushes to Isabelle's aid. I wonder what Shadia thinks about all this?

Mission 4. March, or Strange Races

Just something to do - take the key from the red keeper and go through the gate, guarded by a couple of hundred armored men. True, our army must be sought with a magnifying glass, but spells are more than enough. The main thing is to beware of demons and devils that threaten to leave us without mana; this is where it’s just not bad sometimes to let Shadia forward in order to spend the mana of more than one hero.

Alas, the keeper of the key is killed by the demon Grol. And instead of a short road, we have a long run through the dungeons.

There is nothing to tell here; better take a look at the map. Monoliths form a bizarre mess. You need to "drive" Grol to the surface and take away the key. This, in general, is all.

Mission 5. Railag's offer, or the Queen of nonsense

Now you have to go through, as Railag put it, "the old vile Shio." The goal is the imperial border, it is at the opposite, southwestern end of the large tract.

This is important: both heroes, Railag and Shadia, must certainly get there. I was very puzzled when I couldn't complete the mission because I left Shadia in the rear. No, I don’t understand this: it seems that it is not involved anywhere else ...

The entire tract is planted with garrisons; and if at first they are quite tough (Railag from somewhere dug up not just an army, but a super-army - a dozen and a half black dragons, for example), then soon hellish dogs begin to be considered not hundreds, but thousands.

Anyone who has reached this mission has long since learned by heart that the garrisons in this game exist mainly to bypass them. So here too. Looking for the key to the red gate in the imperial outpost to the north of the road (by the way, here you can get combat vehicles!), Railag goes back a little and goes into the dungeon through the said gate.

There the defense is much weaker. There is a fork between the "red" and "green" roads; both lead to the goal, but the red one is a little more difficult, and the green one does not lead directly to the goal, you need to go through one more garrison.

We get artifacts in the tent, we pass the last outpost and ...

Hooray, everyone is here: Railag, Shadia, Isabelle, Markel, Vayer. But the dark elf will have to fight the demon - the rest are here, for the company.

This is interesting: at first I thought that Vayer should be defeated first of all, - so, in general, the script dictated. And I got along with Vayer even before the last garrison; it was very difficult (the archdevils went to tens, a thousand dogs ...), but they succeeded. What was my disappointment when I found out that I had done the feat in vain: after passing through the gate, the “scenario” Weyer appears with an insignificant army. 9 archdevils! Ha!

Of course, Isabelle rejects Railag's offer of protection and protection. For what? Thanks to the underground leader for the timely help, but Markel and I have important things to do. The kingdom must be restored. Revive your dearest spouse.

“Someday I'll get tired of saving her life,” says Railag, who by this point was not recognized only by the most incurious player. As I understand it! To be honest, this process is already starting to bore me too ... In my opinion, without Isabelle, the whole world would be much happier. Even if you do not think about why Kha-Belekh needed it.

Ranger, or Strategic Virshi

You haven't forgotten that once upon a time the Griffin Empire had allies, right? Well, of course - the king of the elves and the archmage Cyrus. Cyrus refused to help (and had already paid the price at the hands of Markel), and the elf did not have a chance to answer - Beatrice did not get to him. Here we will deal with the elven leader.

Of course, King Alaron himself will not be trusted with us: not by rank. Instead, we have been given a brilliant diplomat and poet, a former ambassador to the court of the Griffin Empire, Mr. Faydaen. The one Isabelle hoped to meet under Brightwood, remember?

In the campaign, this gentleman intimidates enemies by reading freshly composed battle verses. At least I hope they are combat. I'm already scared.

Mission 1. Refugees, or Try to be everywhere more often

Fleeing from the Griffin Empire. They run to us, the elves, because, you know, there is nowhere else - not to the dungeons to Railag, hydras run there and eat children. Being decent humanoids, we cannot let them in, which puts the elven kingdom in a strange position relative to the Empire (in which the power finally went to the necromancers: Isabelle is a little out of her mind, because she finally realized what kindness she had rendered to her beloved spouse).

Faydaen was entrusted with the following: to guard five border outposts, not to succumb to provocations, not to try to strike back and not to take a single step beyond the walls.

Fortunately, the outposts must be protected not alone: ​​they already have a garrison, and a rather big one. And Faydaen is here more for insurance.

This is a very, very strange mission. If you know how to conduct tactical battles well enough, then until the very end of the mission, Faidaen is needed at the front like an elf with a razor. He can calmly walk around the map, indulge in self-improvement, lazily gather troops ... Outpost garrisons will do just fine anyway. And gaining level 12 on this map (they won’t give you more) is not a problem at all.

The mines are also useless: we are still not allowed dragons, and the starting supply is enough for the rest. Only firewood and, of course, money will be required.

If you want to know in advance where and when to expect an attack, you can clear the way to the cartographer. Then you will see the approach of enemies some time before the battle (a cheaper way is to use the observatories, but they have a very small view).

Sooner or later, the necromancers will get bored with weekly visits to our border, and an old friend, Biara, with a demonic army, will come to their aid. That's what we were preparing for, gathering troops, working up levels. If the fighters were not transferred in vain, then no problems are foreseen.

Mission 2. Emerald, or Where dragons hibernate

Lest it seem to us that the elves are alone in all this disgrace without sin, Alaron admits that it was because of him that Alex, Isabela's father, died. No, he didn't betray him, he was just... a little too slow. Elves, they are like this: they sit down to think, compose poems, and then it turns out that their friend-ally died of old age twenty years ago ...

But Alaron, apparently, surpassed even elven standards. At the very least, the emerald dragons considered his behavior inappropriate and hid. Guess who will be looking for them.

The area where the dragon nests are located is infested with demons. We'll have to take all three of their cities. The first one hardly resists; we can easily reach it through the dungeon. There we will get the first emerald dragon - and information on how to look for his fellow tribesmen.

This mission, unlike the previous one, is one of the most difficult in the game. To find dragons, you need to visit six obelisks. Some of them are guarded, for example, forty devils or fifty ancient ents. Each obelisk opens one group of dragons on the map (there are 3-5 of them). According to the condition of the problem, we need to collect 20 dragons. And this means that not only all the groups must be found, but also no one should be lost! That is, they are practically useless in combat. It is better to hide behind the walls of the city.

But this would not be a problem if it were not for the highly developed city of Inferno in the northeast. Almost from the first move, everything is there, including the devils, and it is extremely difficult to resist him. And to combine both of these activities ... And yet, as luck would have it, in the mission "very low ceilings": only 6 levels are allotted to Faydaen for everything about everything.

It is very difficult to give any reasonable recommendations here. Just a tough test of strategic and tactical skill. Demons can come to your home, pinch in a narrow bay (if you go to fight a city in the southwest), intercept at sea ...

I once managed to pull off the trick I wrote about in the Camping Spells chapter: locking up a demonic army on an island. Not for long, they still had a source of boats somewhere, but this gave a decisive pace. But I'm not sure that such a maneuver can be "reproduced in a series." This is more luck than strategic success.

Mission 3. Defense, or Scheduled Necromancers

How everything is running! While Faidaen was slaying the devils with murderous rhymes, the capital was besieged and even, one might say, taken. We, that is, the player, are given command of the garrison of the city during the assault, but it will be truly amazing if we manage to defend the city. (However, this is no reason not to try: the more enemies we put in, the fewer will remain.)

As soon as the city fell, Faidaen appears, all in white. With him - twenty dragons and many other living creatures. Taking the capital back is a matter of technique.

And now the most important thing begins. King Alaron is tired of life. Further command is in the hands of Faidaen. And we know what to do - look for Tiera (do you still remember him?). But first you need to provide a decent defense of the city.

"Worthy defense" is ten dragons (you can green), thirty fighting unicorns and fifty supreme druids. In addition, the defense must be commanded by someone; for this purpose, two elven commanders should be released from imprisonment. Presumably, it is customary for elves to command according to the Roman principle - two consuls ...

Finding commanders is not too difficult: you just need to swim across to the southern coast and go around the long gut of the road in a circle. On the map you will see one of the dungeons, and the other is located in the dungeon, which, contrary to custom, is quite simple.

There is only one subtlety: weekly necromancers come to the capital with a friendly visit (the first two, by the way, are already on their way). Therefore, it will not be possible to take the whole army with you; it is recommended to leave at least half of the elves and probably the druids in the capital, and even in this case it will not be particularly easy. In order to make life a little easier for yourself, you need to capture the elven city in the bay and immediately start bringing reinforcements from it to the capital.

Of course, you need to hire a hero to defend the capital. Have you ever seen a hero reach level 12 without leaving the city at all? BUT? Here is something!

On a note: for such cases, the skills of the avenger are especially useful. You see who is on the way, and, starting with the second necromancer, you can customize your "sworn enemies" according to the composition of his army.

Mission 4. The Will of Tieru, or Latecomers to Summer

And here we are again - in the Tieru archipelago. That is, Faydaen is there for the first time, and we have already been - in the bosom of Agrail.

This time there is no "predatory fog", Tieru removed it, but since the coasts of most of the islands are steep, we will still have to wander underground.

The mission is in many ways similar to Agrail's Decision: you still have to manage on your own and collect the "volunteers" of your faction (almost all the warriors of the Forest Union join you), still go through an intricate chain of islands. There is also a drawback: you need to collect some artifacts "against the undead" in parallel. In the plot, they are not a tail sewn on a mare, apparently added just so that “déjà vu” does not arise.

Alas, no matter how fast Faydaen is in a hurry, it turns out to be too late: the lords of the demons Nebiros and Biara showed up to Tier. And if we manage to deal with the first one, not without difficulty, then Biara does her dirty work. And we are left with only the ghost of Tieru for conversation.

He grimly mocks the late Alaron (and at Faydaen's attempt to pull him up, he notices that, they say, I can - I'm also deceased), and explains why Kha-Belehu Isabelle. It turns out that according to her plan, she should give birth to a cute baby who will pull Kha-Belekh out of the Fiery Mountain, in which he is imprisoned. Somewhere I read it ... Well, in order to prevent this unpleasant outcome for everyone, it is necessary to erase the sign of prophecy from Isabelle's forehead. Archmage Cyrus would be the best fit for this, well, and in his absence, his son, Zehir. The scroll that will do this has already been written by Tieru - and taken away by Biara. Let's catch up!

Biara is not far away, and this final push should not cause big problems, unless Faydaen lost his entire army in the fight against Nebiros. Hamit succubus, it should be noted, very professionally ...

Well, soon you can go to Zehir. True, there was one little thing left. On our lands - how could we forget! - roams with a sizable army of the highest vampire, also known as Nicholas. Before dealing with Isabelle, it would be a good idea to put her hubby to rest first!

Mission 5

After the departure of Faydaen, things went surprisingly well for the elves (apparently, the lack of poetry helped), and they almost coped with clearing the country of undead, non-existence, hatred and evil spirits. With one small exception, which is called ex-King Nicholas.

The task is simple: kill Nicholas. But it would be a mistake to think that we will be allowed to do it so simply.

The first step is to visit the prophet in the northwest of the map, so that he tells how vampires are killed. There is no hint that this should be done, and yet it is so; otherwise, we will have to kill Nicholas many, many times (and his modest army of a couple of thousand skeleton shooters, several dozen dead, etc.) to no avail.

The first step is to assemble the troops; the fact is that, in addition to our goal, a lot of necromancers roam the swamps, each with at least a thousand shooters. It won't seem like much. It is worth trying to find the Tear of Asha, so things will go faster. Some advise, having captured the cities of necromancers, to build a horde of the living dead, but, in my opinion, this is not our way; among other things, native archers are much better at shooting bony crowds.

The prophet (by the way, don't even think about appearing to him as a non-main character - he won't even talk) for his services requires four spare parts of ancient dwarf kings, which are stored in the dungeon. We'll have to conduct a large-scale campaign; in principle, no one forces us to touch the cities of the undead, but it is better to get rid of them, otherwise the wandering necromancer heroes will not give peace.

In exchange for dwarven relics, we get a flock of phoenixes; it is they who will provide sunlight, without which you cannot kill a vampire.

This is important: phoenixes must survive until the end of the battle, and - oh horror! - in natural, not resurrected form. Otherwise, you will be severely disappointed. Some dead, flawed phoenixes were slipped to us (our heroes call birds 10 times heavier); therefore, they should not be exposed at all.

Magician, or They found each other

But let the army be led by someone more mediocre -
We will perform well without an army ...
M. Shcherbakov

Well, the magician turns out to be the last among our alter egos. Yes, not simple - the son of the late Cyrus, tormented by Markel, that is, now - the king-archmage, despite the fact that so far only the first level ...

Since school, Zehir (that's the name of the archmage) has been able to summon elementals. Moreover, the dead of his troops also turn into elementals, which will come in handy more than once.

Mission 1

Zehir needs to prove that he has learned something: take the city and grow up to level 10 along the way. If you choose genies as the initial plus, then there is no problem; to fight, in which case, there will be elementals. So Zehir will live most of his career. Why does he need troops? Just keep hitting while their lord and master deals with the enemy!

It's impossible to make a mistake. For sure - do not go to the desert, Zehir has not yet been recognized, and even native "academic" troops will not join.

Mission 2. Liberation, or What Lies Bad

Remember when we once captured the Silver Cities? Well, we are given the opportunity to repeat this, but for the other side.

There are two ways: fast and tedious. The boring one consists in the accumulation of titans, and the fast one looks like this: having grown to rakshasas, we quickly look out through the monolith to the other side. We are noticed by the main enemy hero (part-time the only one with a decent army). We run back (carefully - this is not a system of 2, but of 3 monoliths, and you may need to jump twice) and bring the brat on your tail to your castle (I hope, fully fortified). There you will put it with great losses, and then you can safely frolic and capture those two of the Silver Cities that have become necropolises.

This is important: there are practically no crystals on this map. Not a single mine within reach. Save!

More cunning - with Al-Safir; there already is a decent (and very) army. The key is in the crowds of elementals. While the enemy is killing the genies (for some reason they are very annoying), you can have time to accumulate hundreds of three of these useful little animals. A fire elemental during an assault is what you need!

Now Mifograd is waiting for us (it is in the south, we will have to swim). The main thing here is not to be distracted by any nonsense, like a meeting committee at the landing site from a ship of a couple of hundred knights (!). We don't need to fight them at all. Are we magicians or what? Astral gates to the other side, and let this shock knight battalion stare with stupid eyes at the deserted beach. And the city of the Imperials is also not necessary to take, it does not threaten us. All eyes are on Mythograd. By the way, if you stand very close to the coastal knights, you can call for reinforcements from your city (go further away - and one of the necropolises will be the closest).

Mission 3. Triumvirate, or Spiders agreed

Zehir enters the lands of the Empire. He does this in a strange way - without the retinue appropriate to the king-archmage. Therefore, it is worth choosing Rakshasas at the start, they will help you survive until victory.

We need to save Godric from prison and meet another ally - Faidaen. But let's start with Godric: he lives in an almost unguarded dungeon at the eastern end of the road, in the inner loop of this giant "roll". In parallel, you can capture a bunch of mines; not that they were vital, but useful.

Godric will easily negotiate with the garrison (and take him to his squad). But in order to please the old warrior, it is necessary to capture all four imperial cities. Let's do it simply: Godric will lead the troops, and Zehir - several knights or angels, so that he will not be immediately trampled, and will manage, as usual, with magic. Then we go south - meet with Faidaen.

A very strange scene follows here ... We learn about three artifacts (oh my God!), Which help Markel, and which must be taken away from him. The heroes share the authority to select artifacts, and from the outside it may seem that it is necessary to go looking for artifacts. So, this is a mistake.

It is necessary to gather troops and all together go to fight Markel (he lives in the city to the west of the place where the heroes met). We will have to fight him three times - each hero once, so we need not one, but three armies.

For the first time, Markel has unlimited mana and the ability to constantly, even without a separate action, summon more and more undead to the battlefield (note: for victory, as usual, you don’t need to destroy those called!). The second time - only the call of the undead. The third time we fight as usual, but he has a larger army and outside the walls of the city.

The first battle is fought by Zehir: he needs to be given thicker and stronger troops, like angels. The second is Godric: he also needs mainly hand-to-hand fighters. We fuse all the shooters to Faydaen so that he smokes out the brat from behind the walls (the ents are enough for cover, the dryads will also come in handy - as you know, they lure the shooters of the fortress on themselves). Goodbye Markel...

Mission 4. Alliance, or Triple Jump

In this mission, we need to get to Isabelle. The map is shaped like a trident, and our heroes (still the same trio) start in different places on the south side.

There is absolutely nothing difficult in the task, if you don’t yawn and quickly, almost without stopping, pick up the earth in your hands, moving north parallel to each other. The army, of course, will come in handy for you, but not so much ... The speed here greatly simplifies things.

Having reached the northern cities, we meet two more old friends - Railag and Shadia. After making sure that we are not faced with the task of killing Isabelle without fail, Railag will agree to accompany us. That is why we did not need an army: his troops, with a small addition of ours, would form an assault detachment. I recommend entrusting the command to Railag: he is usually well versed in siege weapons, and his magic is the most lethal.

Alas and ah! Our Shadia turned out to be fake, just like Beatrice used to be. And hiding under it is the same tireless Biara. Which at the last moment and slips away with Isabelle in her paws. But... he forgets on the floor the unneeded Heart of the Griffin (remember, Weyer and I fought for him?), and with his help, our young talent Zehir will send everyone to Shio. In pursuit!

Mission 5. Hope of Zehira, or Repeat until the curtain closes

This fight continues until the wall is destroyed. She is "taken" by catapults and everything that hits the squares.

Oh God! Someone at Nival liked the idea of ​​killing Markel multiple times.

In this monstrous mission, we have everything - everything! - do four times. Each hero will get his chance to punch Biara in the face, then destroy the castle walls with catapults (this is a separate battle!), Then grapple with Kha-Belekh himself.

During the battles, demons and undead are summoned in abundance, so be careful. And this time, it is also necessary to destroy those called up during the battle! They appear instantly and often close to your ranks. And Kha-Belekh also pours waves of fire. But it is quite possible to cope, and, I would say, even simpler than with Markel: our heroes gathered a very impressive army, I don’t understand where on the way to Shio!

And then what? Well, sort of like a happy ending. But you haven't forgotten the name of the next Might & Magic game, have you?

Combat arithmetic

Not everyone is interested in the exact battle formulas, but a real strategist must imagine exactly what will happen if you increase the squad by several creatures or add one unit to your defense. Therefore, we bring to your attention detailed game formulas.

Squad attack by squad

To calculate the damage that will be dealt by an attacking unit to a defender, you must first take the minimum and maximum damage dealt by the attackers and apply to them all modifiers that affect damage directly (for example, Blood Claw Necklace).

After that, random damage is taken within the specified limits for each of the creatures - and summed up over the entire squad.

1 + (attack of the attacker - defense of the defender) * 0.05, but not more than 3
if the attack is less than the defense, then the damage is multiplied by

1 / (1 + (defender defense - attacker attack) * 0.05), but not less than 0.1
if they are equal, then the damage does not change.

Finally, luck is taken into account: a positive one doubles the damage, a negative one divides it by 2. If the attack is carried out using shooting, and the distance is more than 6 cells, then the damage is divided by two; it is also divided by two if the shooter attacks in close combat.

When all modifiers are taken into account - the damage is rounded up to the nearest whole number.

Let's see how it works with an example.

Let's say 10 armored men attack 10 fire demons. Taking into account the pluses for the hero, the characteristics of the armored man are attack 6, defense 10, and the demon - 3 and 4, without pluses: he is wild.

Damage from one armored man - 2-4, from 10 - 20-40. We took ten random numbers from 2 to 4 and got, for example, 30 (average expected damage).

Modifier: the attack of the armored man is greater than the defense of the demon, which means we have

1 + (attack - defense) * 0.05 = 1 + 2 * 0.05 = 1.1

We multiply - it turns out 33 hits. The demon has 12 hit points, which means we killed two of them, and took 7 hit points from another one.

And if the demon attacked the man-at-arms? Damage from 1 to 4, we get an average of 25 hits. Attack 3 is less than defense 10, we have:

1 / (1 + (defense - attack) * 0.05) = 1 / (1 + 7 * 0.05) = 0.74

Multiply, it turns out 18.5, round up to 18 hits. 1 man-at-arms dies, 2 hits are removed from another one.

It's interesting that although average damage is the most likely to happen with this method of calculation, many people think that it will usually be above average. The reason for this belief is simple: the fact is that the game often shows the approximate number of those killed, “cutting off” the upper limit by the number of fighters in the squad. For example, if the unicorns have to kill 50-100 gremlins, and there are only 70 of them in the squad, she will show us the numbers 50-70. And it will not be at all surprising that most often all 70 gremlins will actually die.

Hero's Squad Attack

The damage dealt by the hero is calculated differently. For this, a plate is used (see table 1) and a formula.

Table 1 Damage dealt by the hero
Creature level Level 1 hero Level 30 hero
1 2 12
2 1 9
3 0,8 6,5
4 0,5 4,5
5 0,3 3
6 0,2 2
7 0,1 1,5
8 0,01 0,15

The table shows how many creatures the attack of a hero of level 1 and 30 kills, respectively. As you can see, it doesn't matter what defense they have or how many hit points they have; an attack, say, on ancient ents and on knights works the same way, even though the first hits have twice as much.

This is interesting: what is a “level 8 creature”? After all, there are only 7 levels in castles? And this is a phoenix that can only be summoned by a spell. As you can see, the hero's attack against him is depressingly ineffective!

And if the hero is not level 1 or 30? You can build a graph in the form of a straight line through these two points and calculate. In formula form, it looks like this:

Losses = Tab1 + (Level - 1) * (Tab1- Tab30) / 30

Here Tab1 and Tab30 are the values ​​from the table corresponding to the level of the target creature.

Here is such an unusual system.

Wizards on the battlefield

And by what rule is the power of spells of conjuring creatures calculated - druids, magicians, cave demons, dryads? It turns out that the formula is very unbanal, it is far from a direct proportion ...

So, let's take the number of creatures in the squad and divide by their base growth per week. Multiply the result by 10, take the whole part and add 10. From the resulting number you need to ... take the decimal logarithm, then multiply it all by 21, subtract 22 and take the whole part again.

Head spinning? No wonder, it's meant to be. No one in their right mind and solid memory will count all these numbers in the midst of a battle. What you really need to remember is this:
The more creatures in the squad, the slower the growth of witchcraft power. Therefore, it is often more profitable to divide a large squad of magicians into two smaller ones. You can read more about this in the tips of the demon masters (LCI #8/2006).
As long as the number of fighters in the group does not exceed about six times the weekly increase, you can not engage in these shuffles and lead them in one squad. Further, the usefulness of separation increases rapidly.

Of course, this is just a guess. Therefore, in the future, we will provide tables for calculating damage from spells in the tips of the masters. And then from these calculations and break your head for a short time.

We will save...

From a long game on single maps (in the previous "Heroes", as we all remember, campaigns were given a more modest place), many "heroists" developed a conditioned reflex - when taking a chest, automatically press to gain experience. In campaigns, this approach, frankly, does not pay off.

We have "very low ceilings" on the opening missions, almost always reaching the mission limit long before it's over. In the final - there are no ceilings, but still money often turns out to be more expensive than experience. After all, the most passing fight there brings 5-10 thousand experience points ...

Source of inspiration

The authors of the game, apparently, are very fond of the Warhammer Fantasy universe, as well as the tabletop tactical game based on it. They are not the first: even the famous Warcraft borrowed a lot from there ... by the way, do you know where the tradition of making orcs and goblins greenskins came from? Yes, that's right from there.

Well, in the fifth "Heroes" love for Warhammer found its expression in the inhabitants of the Dungeon. Dark elves are unmistakable. Here is the famous riding lizard, originally called "cold" - Cold One; and furies, who do not hide their close acquaintance with the rabid witches of Cain; and favorite domestic animals - hydra and black / twilight dragon, and very familiar features are seen in the guise of a cave hydra. Shadow mistresses and assassins with the famous elven crossbows are also clearly akin to the game (although these images seem to be everywhere where the dark elves appear). Only the minotaur in this company wormed its way in from the outside - apparently, in order to maintain continuity from the sorcerer's castle of the first parts of the game.

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