Haven Strategy Thread

[Soviet]

I. General Strategies – Written for a medium/large-sized map under hard difficulty.

1. Faction Overview:
Haven, or more commonly known as Castle, has always been known as a more or less might orientated faction. It is no different in Heroes 5 as it relies heavily on outright power and might to beat its opponents. Magic is useful but is mostly used to boost the strength of your units. It is no surprise that the knights skill distribution mostly leans towards attack and defense, rarely getting a spellpower or knowledge stat. With this in mind, the ultimate knight would without a doubt have to carry the skills that fit his/her abilities. It would be absurd to build a knight with say, sorcery and destructive magic. You would be lucky to have all of five spellpower the whole game thus destructive magic is not a good choice. Magic damage is not the strong suit of the knight. Dark magic is also a bad choice since Havens magic school would rarely contain a dark spell.

2. Build strategy:

Week 1- This strategy will assume that your town starts with the tavern, village hall, marketplace, mage guild level one and peasant huts already built. This should put your town level at 5.

Day 1: Archer Tower - It is vital to begin creeping immediately. You will need these extra archers to help you creep along the first week.

Day 2: Town Hall - Your main hero having been supplied on day 1, money should now be the next priority.

Day 3: Blacksmith - Necessary for barracks to be built.

Day 4: Barracks - These guys should be transferred to the front lines as soon as possible.

Day 5: City Hall - On day five, your town level should be 9. This allows you to buy city hall. Do it.

Day 6: Griffin Tower - You need to begin unit production in your town as soon as possible.

Day 7: Monastery - Get them bought before the week ends.

Week 2 - At this point, the build strategy will vary from map to map, difficulty to difficulty. Buy capital as soon as possible for you'll need all the money you can get. Use good judgement on what you can build before the week ends, if you can get fort, citadel and castle up, do it. You should build these as soon as you have capital and the resources. Many times, the map won't allow this simply because of resources so try to build angels or paladins ( Maybe even both). It is hard to pinpoint a steady build at this part in the game, too many factors can change what you should and should not build. With time and practice, you'll get the idea.

3. Creeping:
The question. How to creep with Haven. The answer. Marksmen. In the beginning, always buy a second Haven hero, your receive double your army strength AND a scout. If your playing a rich map, you may also buy the second hero and reinforce your main hero with additional troops. Before leaving your town, buy archers from the tower (Which you bought on day one according to this guide) and begin clearing the mines around your town. As soon as possible, you should try to upgrade your archers to marksmen, it's a decent difference, especially vs slow walkers. You should also buy the barracks as soon as possible and buy some footman. They are very good meat shields in the beginning as peasants rarely get the job done. As soon as possible, you should retire your peasants from the battles anyway and let them collect in your town, giving you cash like the good taxpayers that they are. At this point, you should have some 40 -50 marksmen and 10 or so footman ( And any other meat shields you accumulated). Slow walkers should now be easy to kill. Simply shoot at them while defending your marksmen. As for flying neutrals and stronger ones that take up four spaces, you should use a similar strategy as above. Use the terrain when available and spread some creatures into 1's to surround your marksmen and delay an attack on you footman.
1- One Creature
2- Footman ( Or anything else you are using as a meatshield)
3- Marksmen
Try to set up your battle field against large flyers and walkers in this manner. (For those that may be a little short on common sense, always put your marksmen and defending army into a corner unless the terrain sets up a better position).

1 1 1
1 2 1
3 1

Move your 1's into different positions to delay the enemy from hitting your footman (2's) For the most part, this strategy should be used against almost all four space creatures and even some one space flyers. As for shooting neutrals, try to not fight them in the beginning, same goes for magic users. Wait until you have resurrection and hundreds of marksmen, it should be easy then. But if you absolutely must attack shooters, several strategies come into play.

If you have war machines and a decent damaging ballista, simply let footman (Or some crap that you may have collected) defend while the ballista takes them out. Same thing goes for magic. If you have eldritch arrow with a decent amount of damage, use it while meat shields are taking the hits.

If you have fast movers and/or griffins, let them move up to the shooters and render the, useless as fast as possible. If by any chance you have the spell teleport at this point, use it. Sometimes I like to use secondary heroes that I get from a tavern to wipe out the shooters or at least weaken them so my main hero does not take casualties. But if the above strategies are not practical in your game, simply use your marksmen to take those wretched shooters out. You shouldn't take that many losses.
Mines. Which should you take first and which aren't that important? Wood and ore mines should be taken day 1 - 2 regardless of losses, unless of course you have 60 piles of ore in front of you. As for other resources, they are not all that important, take them as soon as you can but don't go attacking druids for that alchemy lab, it's not worth it.

Treasure Chests. Money or experience? Simple decision(for me a at least). All 1000 chests should be taken for money. The 1000 and 1500 exp chests should be taken in the beginning to help your hero develop and creep. If money on the map is scarce, take the gold, you'll need it. Towards the end of the game, it should be up to you treasury. If your over flowing with coins, go for the experience but if you have enough but could use more, take the gold. At the end of the game, 1000 exp won't help that much since your hero will already be leveled up.


4. Hero Development: I will explain hero development by outlining specific skills that are crucial to success and others that aren't very practical.

Attack: 15% increase to damage is a large boost for any faction, let alone Haven. Your units will pack a nice punch and the perks are great for Haven as well. These are not all of the side skills, only the ones I would recommend.

Archery - Increases ranged damage by 20%... Your marksmen are the most important unit you have and giving them more power is aways welcome.

Battle Frenzy - Increases all unit’s maximum and minimum damage by 1. Your marksmen have a damage output of 2 - 8. Battle frenzy would make it 3 - 9, increasing their damage output significantly. Don't forget about the peasants either. Towards the end of the game, you will probably have close to 1000 of them and that extra +1 damage is extremely helpful.


Enlightenment: The extra experience and stats that you get with this skill is amazing and I would recommend it with any faction. Sadly with Haven, it is a rare choice but if you ever get to choose it, do it in a heartbeat. This is very good when paired up with Attack and Defense. I don’t really worry about getting any of the abilities as they aren’t extremely useful for Haven.

Intelligence - Increases maximum mana by 50%. Your hero does not get many knowledge stats so I'd say if you low on mana, get this.


Logistics: Typically, I like to always get this skill but lately, I've scrapped it for other skills. I'd say if your map has a lot of roads and green grass, pass. Otherwise you probably will want this boost in movement.

Pathfinding - If the terrain is very rough, this is a no brainer.

Dark Magic: No.


Destructive Magic: No.


Summon Magic: Guess what? No.


Light Magic: In my opinion, this is the only magic you should be getting as Haven. All the others are simply not worth it. Light Magic is important for creeping (Resurrection) and the final battle. Haste, Divine Strength, Righteous Might, All good spells to mass during your battle with your opponent to help you units win. (All side skills should be taked for mass spells.)


Leadership: Many may disagree but if I were you, I would not take leadership. + 3 to Morale is simply not good enough to waste on a whole skill when you could have attack or defense. It really doesn't trigger very often.( For me at least. By all means if your very lucky and have it trigger ten times with only 10% morale, go for it.) That same + 3 to morale can be accumulated using terrain objects (Leadership Flag) before the final battle.


Luck: When luck triggers, it can be devastating for the defender. Double damage is huge and I would recommend this skill for haven.

Magic Resistance - Gives units 15% Magic Resistance. Take it. Very useful against magic users.


Defense: You'd be surprised how helpful 30% less damage is when in your final battle. One of the most important skills for Haven. Your units need to be able to take a lot of punishment and this skill gets that accomplished. The perks are great as well.

Vitality - + 2 hp to all creatures. Great for marksmen and peasants

Protection -15% magic resistance. I never say no to magic resistance, it's very helpful when it triggers in the final battle.

Evasion - Decreases ranged damage by 20%. If your opponent has a lot of shooters, this is very helpful, let alone against Sylvan.


War Machines: Don't take this unless your Vittorio.


Sorcery: You simply don't have any room for this.

5. Player versus Player. This whole guide is written for player vs player.

6. Tactics. In a typical player vs player battle your main army will consist of mostly level 1 - 6 creatures. Angles will be hard to come by but you may have some. The key to victory with haven is using all your forces while supporting them with magic. The paladins can do heavy damage to your opponent on the first turn and you should attack with them across the field, gathering more damage. Your Griffins should dive on a creature that is strong yet seldom moves (Shooters). Peasants and Squires should defend your marksmen unless your in a position where you feel they are safe, then move the peasants in, they can pack a punch. Your priests should play a support role, using magic to help your other troops, preferably marksmen. When mana is out or the spells aren't useful, commence the firing. Your marksmen should target enemy creatures to which they will do most damage. If an enemy creature comes to close, annihilate it with your marksmen. A handy dandy trick is to teleport your marksmen in front of a very strong stack so it's precise shot comes into play. With one shot, almost any creature stack can fall but be careful. Make sure you can get the shot in and then get the marksmen defense. Angles can be used to block archers or defend your own marksmen, you probably won't have that many.

[Soviet]

Reserved for part II. Will be posted in a few days.

II. Faction Specific Strategies.

[Corribus]

Nice, soviet! Will give it a thorough read-through soon.

[Destro23]

Nice article, alot of very useful information here.

One thing I would point out is your stance on dark magic. I've found dark magic to be extremely useful for Haven and the knight, the mage guild carries dark magic all the way to level 5, and the knight even has a perk called Fallen Knight which increases his/her spellpower when casting dark magic by 5. I've found dark magic crippling to armies who cannot cleanse it, bolstering even further the havens dominance on the field.

Otherwise really nice!

[Soviet]

Nice article, alot of very useful information here.

One thing I would point out is your stance on dark magic. I've found dark magic to be extremely useful for Haven and the knight, the mage guild carries dark magic all the way to level 5, and the knight even has a perk called Fallen Knight which increases his/her spellpower when casting dark magic by 5. I've found dark magic crippling to armies who cannot cleanse it, bolstering even further the havens dominance on the field.

Otherwise really nice!

Yeh, I agree with you. Dark magic can be useful at times but it just does not find space in my hero. I tend to just go light magic and keep it simple.
It just that what if you don't get the spell or spells you need, you practically have a whole skill wasted. Not a risk I'm willing to take, I'll take the easy way out.

[Elvin]

A few things: Dark are just as accessible as light spells from the mage guild, you will get them anyway. And apart from the level 2 spells and curse of the netherworld all else is useful to have and with more spellpower than with light

Archery and battle frenzy are good but tactics and retribution are superb. +25% extra damage at maz morale and maneuverability against those that would try to block your paladins in the first turn.

Leadership not only helps with retribution but has some most interesting abilities. Divine guidance may cause your paladins to strike at a dangerous stack just before it plays. It can counter freezing/stunning/wasp swarm and can be unpredictable to the opponent. And aura of swiftness that although I get rarer it gives a much needed +1 speed. Usually I don't have the levels to spare.
And it helps a lot your slow marksmen in the beginning. Buffs are good but mana is not endless.

[Soviet]

A few things: Dark are just as accessible as light spells from the mage guild, you will get them anyway. And apart from the level 2 spells and curse of the netherworld all else is useful to have and with more spellpower than with light

Archery and battle frenzy are good but tactics and retribution are superb. +25% extra damage at maz morale and maneuverability against those that would try to block your paladins in the first turn.

Leadership not only helps with retribution but has some most interesting abilities. Divine guidance may cause your paladins to strike at a dangerous stack just before it plays. It can counter freezing/stunning/wasp swarm and can be unpredictable to the opponent. And aura of swiftness that although I get rarer it gives a much needed +1 speed. Usually I don't have the levels to spare.
And it helps a lot your slow marksmen in the beginning. Buffs are good but mana is not endless.

I don't deny that leadership has it's perks but the skill itself is not good enough for my hero.

May I ask what you would sacrifice for leadership?

[Elvin]

Defense or logistics. Defense because I prefer to boost my offensive potential and logistics because you have stables. As it is my basic skills are attack, leadership, light but it depends. Defense is useful vs inferno or sylvan but I'd rather finish a battle earlier against dungeon or academy for instance.
Luck is hard to resist when offered but I may not always get it

[Corribus]

Call me crazy but I like to have ballistics for Haven. Offensive spells for haven are nonexistent (unless you get Dark,which IMO isn't a bad option) and castle garrisons will make mincemeat out of your archers/marksmen. You need to get those walls down, and fast. A strong ballista and healing tent don't hurt, either.

[Elvin]

Luck can make up for that, the catapult can be lucky too I like warmachines but it's a shame not being able to have a good ballista. Knowledge+attack don't gve that much of a bonus so unless I get Vittorio I keep clear of them.

[Corribus]

The catapult can get good luck but not good morale - strange, no?

[Elvin]

With a wizard it can But even if a man is in charge of the ballista it's easier to believe that he had a lucky shot in weaker walls than he got a good morale and shot faster

[Corribus]

You and your cursed logic!

[Elvin]

*bump*

[Kalah]

What's the point of bumping all these threads? Did you have anything special to add?

[parcaleste]

... Dark Magic: No...

I totally disagree! Dark + Fallen Knight + Light + Twilight = Opponent With Pants Down

+ With the Leadership you can get Divine Guidance and Empathy, which makes the casting coming REALLY fast.

[Tensho]

Why marksmans??Wtf
Crossbowmans are way better...max range is the ultimate thing for creeping.And why griffins?Unless upgraded they suck...(too much resourses to upgrade them in week 2,aint saying its impossible through)
I always go for a few squires and vindicators.1 squire gives -50% ranged dmg to all your army...bye-bye nasty shooters!(wth mass deflect,they might make 1 dmg)
And vindicators...well,double dmg,pure strenght

And besides...better to buy priests than griffins.You get mage guild+more rangepower

[Elvin]

The guides were for HoF Tensho.

About the bumping they were in the private forum and were moved here yesterday but for some reason they got buried with the older threads. Some may find them useful, we did not write them for fun.