Attack Skill

Attack Skill

Weekly Growth = 15 per week (Horde +8)

None

Mana Steal: Familiars transfer 20% of enemy hero spent spellpoints to their own leader

Upgrade Value = Optional but Useful

Imps are probably the least useful 1st level creature. As with the Pixies, get their horde building immidiately to get many of them to fight with early on. This will help them stand a better chance in battle against enemies.

Familiars get a good stat increase from the poor Imps, so they have much more value. Still, get a large amount of them for maximum effectiveness.

Attack Skill

Attack Skill

Weekly Growth = 8 per week

Ranged

Ranged - Fireball Attack: Magog's ranged attack hits all units around the target

Upgrade Value = Optional but Useful

Low speed and low Defense somewhat hamper a Gog's ability to survive assaults, but not their ability to shoot down enemies. Gog's have good damage for driving enemies back from whence they came.

Magogs are fast and furious, with improved Speed and Attack over regular Gogs. Their Fireball attack is great for doing extra damage to groups of enemies, but be careful not to hit your own units - it will hurt even allies who are immune to fire!

Attack Skill

Attack Skill

Weekly Growth = 5 per week (Horde +3)

None

3-Headed Attack: Cerberus's attack hits all units in front of it - No Retaliation

Upgrade Value = Important

These evil hounds have a big bite, with very high Attack and Damage, Hell Hounds can rip enemies to shreds. Send them out to take a chunk out of enemy lines, and purchase the Inferno's second horde building to multiply your army of evil canines.

If two heads are better than one, then three must be spectacular. Cerberi have three times the ferocity, and three times the attacks, hitting all enemies in front of them is preferred. For their size, Cerberi are actually quite fast. The Teleport spell is your friend when looking for a way to use these cool creatures more effectively.

Attack Skill

Attack Skill

Weekly Growth = 4 per week

None

None

Upgrade Value = Unnecessary

Demons are the vanilla flavor if you consider all level 4 creatures ice cream. They have no special abilities and mediocre stats, but they happen to be the cheapest 4th level unit as well. Oh well, I guess you get what you pay for.

A Health increase and some more Speed add some spice to your boring Demon. Horned Demons cannot hold there own too well in combat, but are best used to back up more reliable units, such as Cerberi or Pit Lords.

Attack Skill

Attack Skill

Weekly Growth = 3 per week

None

Raise Demon: Pit Lords can raise a stack of Demons from a dead stack of allies once per battle; amount of Demons raised is based on amount of Pit Lords and amount of health of the stack of destroyed units; each Pit Lord can raise about 1.4 Demons, but the number of health of all the Demons raised cannot exceed the amount of health of the destroyed stack; Example: 36 Pit Lords can raise 51 Demons from a destroyed stack of 100 Hell Hounds with 25 hit points each, because the Pit Lords’ capacity of 36 x 50/35 = 51 Demons limits the Hell Hounds’ potential of 100 x 25/35 = 71 Demons. With 100 Pit Lords, the number of Hell Hounds becomes the limiting factor, and 71 Demons are raised

Upgrade Value = Optional

Pit Fiends are comfortable on the field with good, balanced stats and great Damage for level 5 units. They have average movement and Speed, which allows for varying melee capabilities. The AI tends to target Pit Fiends when attacking, so use them as distractions or sacrifices to allow your units to get an advantage when facing tough enemies on the field.

Pit Lords hardly offer any stat boost over Pit Fiends, but they can revive their defeated allies as Demons to overrun enemy forces. At higher level multiplayer, this ability is necessary for the Inferno to do well because of overall low Health of its units, so weaker units are sacrificed to provide many Demons in an Inferno army.

Attack Skill

Attack Skill

Weekly Growth = 2 per week

Flying - 150% damage versus Genies and Master Genies - Immune to Fire Magic

Flying - 150% damage versus Genies and master Genies - Immune to Fire Magic - Fire Shield: Deals damage to any unit that hits Efreet Sultan with a melee attack; damage is based on number of Efreet Sultans

Upgrade Value = Essential

Very good Attack and Damage give the Efreet good melee potential, but that potential is offset by the Efreet's low Defense. Still, Efreet can do noticeable damage to enemy ranks in short amounts of time and from far distances.

The low Defense of an Efreet is raised when it becomes a sultan. Efreet Sultans have very high Speed, and a fire shield that hurts enemies who attack them; this is especially useful when Efreet Sultans are attacking enemy ranged units, if anyone comes up to attack the them, they get hit with the Fire Shield. A good more gold is required to buy these helpful units, but it is a small price to pay for their prowess in battle.

Attack Skill

Attack Skill

Weekly Growth = 1 per week

Teleport - 150% damage against Angels and Archangels - No Retaliation - -1 Enemy Luck

Teleport - 150% damage against Angels and Archangels - No Retaliation - -1 Enemy Luck

Upgrade Value = Essential

Devils are fast, which is their main point over other high level units. Good Defense and good Damage help the Devil to deliver punishment to its enemies, usually Angels, who it hates. Devils can teleport across the battlefield quickly to kill ranged enemies with ease because of No Retaliation.

Archdevils get huge improvement in all stats, especially Speed. Archdevils are the fourth fastest unit, only surpassed by the Phoenix, Archangel, and Azure Dragon. Archdevils can travel the entire battlefield in one teleport; this helps when slaying enemy ranged attackers or retreating when the situation gets dangerous.

Attack Skill

Teleport - No Retaliation - Immune to Fear - Soul Steal: 50% chance to petrify target of a Hell Baron melee attack for 3 rounds - Fear

1 per week

The Hell Baron displays no spectacular feats like some of the other level 8 special units, but its specials do improve on what it is already good at. Turn an enemy to stone by stealing their soul, or make them run away in fear. For this lord of terror, use the same Devil/Archdevil strategy: Go for ranged enemies fast and without relent. The new abilities of a Hell Baron just gives it some breathing space from scared, would-be attackers in the process. (Note that the Hell Baron is only available in the Wake of the Gods add-on to Heroes III)