I just recently (3 weeks ago) bought H5 and am working my way through the sylvan campaign. Having now played all the factions (I did Mahir's Gambit scenario already) I'm trying to decide which of the town is the strongest. A popular discussion amonst many of my friends and I, even realizing the massive randomness and map dependency we've always had strong opinions, and I'm curious which you all think are best and why.
I really thought this would be a popular debate amongst ppl. but I scanned the first 5 pages of forums and couldn't find any threads on it so I'm starting my own.
1. Haven - Great early, Marksmen are buff, mid-game, I personally love gryphons, which IMO are one of the best mid-level cc units in the game and late, Archangel resurect is still amazing and Paladins are the best lvl 6 unit. An interesting sidenote: I always thought that their Ultimate Skill was the most worthless in the game, but I'm not so sure now... W/ refined mana allowing 2 recurections to be cast by your AA, you can minimize your Gryphons (or Paladins) losses when sending them in to be the Retalion Strike dummy. Yeah, you'll miss out on some other, better skills, but it's no longer the worst option available IMO.
2. Academy - Horrible early game - recource starved and not very usefull 1-3 creatures. Very good midgame - Now your magic is going and you're starting to get your ranged army into gear. Superlative late game- 3 Ranged units, tons of upgrades if you can build your resources, and Arcane Omniscience (sp?) is the second most usefull Ultimate skill in the game, and it actually gives your very usefull skills! I've heard talk of Academy being weak, and while early game I agree, once they get past that they are the town to beat IMO. The longer the game goes the bigger advantage Academy has.
3. Necropolis - Second best early game- Unlike any other town, you grow as you fight randoms. Decent mid game- Vamps are good but you can't build your army around them like in H3 and H4. Ubber mass is obviously the way to go w/ these guys, but in later stages your creatures become reletivly weak, with the worst lvl 6 - 7 creatures. I actually like necro's Ultimate skill, -6 morale to any army is game changeing, the skills are actually very good except it keeps you from getting both Defense (for Vitality) and Summoning Magic (for Raise Dead) which is the best 1,2 combo for Necro.
4. Sylvan - Strong, but resource consuming Early game - Master Hunters are awesome, but it requires lots of wood which is necessary for you to advance up the tech tree. So because you have a very strong early game (prolly the best by day 4 or so) you'll have to sacrifice the speed at which you tech. Good mid and late game if you can find the resources. I like Nature's Luck... Consistent double damage is great. It obviously loses you your +20% bonus to ranged attacks, which sucks, but I like the consistent double damage... Also, Emerald Dragons are just as good as black dragons IMO.
5. Inferno - Tough choice here. I went with Inferno because I think they have the best Ultimate skill in the game and their creatures all have very usefull skills which trigger often. Early game is tough w/ no quick Ranged units, Gating makes up for that, and Cerberus' No Retaliation also is great early game. As I mentioned insta-gating is IMO the best Ultimate Skill, and I think every Inferno should learn it. If my original hero couldn't, I'd hire one that could. W/ Pendant of Mastery... Arch Devil insta-gating is awesome, and if you happend to trigger Swarming Gate it's pretty much gg. Also MotD and Hellfire are great racial abilities.
6. Dungeon - I put them last but they are still very good. Good early game- starts w/ basically two ranged units but so very very few of them. If you lose any creatures in any kind of encounter or early skirmish you are behind the rest of the game. This is why they are so low on my list. Encountering any ranged neutral stack is game changing. In any early-mid seige they will lose large ammounts of their best creature (Blood Furies) and doesn't not bode well for them. At high levels they can just put out Dragons and Hydras and blast away w/ Empowered spells, but if you get behind you might not have enough to last. Their Ultimate skill is a joke, the best way to run a Duengon is to get Sorcery & Destructive Magic (I like Summoning too) and blasting away until the enemy is dead. Empowered Spells are just ubber strong, although this is very hero/mana dependent.
Ok those are my picks. Flame away.
You noticed I'm sure I didn't include the Dwarf faction, that's because I haven't played them yet. I've got HoF but haven't installed it yet. Please add them to your lists when you make them I'm curious how ppl. think they fit in.
