HoMM III: Best level 1 creature

[Yurian Stonebow]

Voted for the Halberdier.

This well trusted and professional low level infantry unit of Erathia can easily be described as the best of its level in Heroes III. Let the facts speak for proving the value of my argument: 10 hit points, medium speed (5, 6 on native terrain), good attack and defense values (6 and 5) and also the undocumented but nice specialty: immune to Cavalier and Champion charge bonus. Damage value at 2-3 makes this unit less dependent on the Hero casting the "Bless" spell.

And of course, let us not forget the stylish Erathian blue-and-white uniform of his.




Yurian

[Bethel]

Master Gremlins.

But I'll take Ranged Attacks over Melee any day.

[BigThingWithHolesInIt]

For me this sort of ties between Centaur Captain and Skeleton Warrior. First of all it makes no sense to leave Necromancy out of the equation. Of course it's not like they clone themselves, so technically it may be no feat of theirs, but it's not like you would be having them in your army if you weren't a Necropolis hero. Assuming a regular, M or larger map where wandering stacks appear frequently, it won't be long until your stack of Skellies does damage and has HP equal to your stack of Dread Knights.
The point is that in practice, it makes no sense to compare Skeletons to any other unit 1:1, because it will not occur except a few times in the first week.

That said I'm still going to vote Centaur Captains, because they are multi-purpose units that work great together with Unicorns (killing off what they didn't blind), Dendroids (choosing who will get the retaliation) and they are also great against all archers except Titans. Halberdiers would be even better if they were as fast.
Being two hexes is useful too (blocking Elves, one hex less to cross initially, etc). There's the odd terrain obstacle but you'll generally get Tactics as a Ranger anyway.
Cents are not good at taking damage but usually the opponent will not deal with them right away. I find them much easier to preserve than Hobgoblins who basically serve the same purposes (but are clearly all-around inferior).

Sprites and Master Gremlins don't compete except maybe on small maps, for the simple fact that one round of castle fire takes out about a week's production of them (and they will get targeted nearly always). Without Resurrection and at least Advanced Earth Magic (or a few Archangels among your ranks), you just can't maintain them and make good progress at the same time.

[Suleman]

Voted for the Halberdier.

This well trusted and professional low level infantry unit of Erathia can easily be described as the best of its level in Heroes III. Let the facts speak for proving the value of my argument: 10 hit points, medium speed (5, 6 on native terrain), good attack and defense values (6 and 5) and also the undocumented but nice specialty: immune to Cavalier and Champion charge bonus. Damage value at 2-3 makes this unit less dependent on the Hero casting the "Bless" spell.

And of course, let us not forget the stylish Erathian blue-and-white uniform of his.




Yurian

Do they really have that?

[Pacifist]

Something to note when doing fights betweem units of different speeds (specially when it involves sprites) is that the slower unit doesn't have to move, it can defend instead for the first round . Still didn't vote, still thinking

[AWellTrainedFerret]

I voted skellies for one reason: They're free.

Face the facts; you can talk stats, in which centars are better. You can talk strategies, in which matser grems and sprites are better. But in this game, you will only be relying on you lvl 1s for the first week only. After that, they are fodder, meant for one purpose; absorb tower/retal/silly AI attacks. Which means after week one, skellies are by far and away the greatest unit. Hell, late game, skellies are the only lvl 1 unit that can actually mean anything on the battlefield.

[Muszka]

Do they really have that?

Yes, they have it, but it's rare to face Heaven with Heaven, and even rare to go with Halberdiers against Champions.

Hell, late game, skellies are the only lvl 1 unit that can actually mean anything on the battlefield.

Don't forget Centaurs and the Sprites what can be just as easily resurrected how easily they die, also the Halberiders are usually there since AI rarely attacks them if you even bring them with you. Also Goblins can pack some damage and the 3-4 Archangels your Troggies can kill can eaily turn a battle.

[Deni]

voted hobgoblin

[Bimbasto]

Voted Skeleton. Is it best or not for me hard to say, just like it.

[MagusofStars]

Voted Centaurs. Solid stats and enough speed to actually be tactically useful in battle. Sprites' no retaliation and Master Gremlin's shooting are both slick and handy early on, but once you're past the first couple weeks, they get slaughtered.

[Lord Lakely]

Halbardiers for me

However, Centaur Captains are faster and a bit more usefull in End-game, I like Hallies more.

[overall]

hmmm... favorite creatures in H3 i'm gonna pick 3...


1. my absolute favorite is Infernal Troglodyte... i usually like to get thousands of thes little bastards with that poitles little stick in their hands x) i like that they dont have eyes like many underground living creatures dont have eyes... and upgraded colors are very nice...


2 . Grand Elfs makes loads of damage design is nice they have this light armor and small dagger.... Marksmans are very fine too...


3. i was thinking to put Skeletons third place but actually im going put Naga Queen here... has arms and swords and colors are nice and i like those blades sound effect... maby bit slow unit but she will get there eventually x)

[zeus-online]

My pick is the skeleton.

No, not the skeleton warrior....The skeleton!
Thanks to necromancy specialists you can mass thousands of those guys, making them far more useful than any other lvl 1 creatures.

The one i like the best is probably the master gremlin though.

[YAZ]

I ran a simulation in which every level 1 creature fought every other level 1 creature in a round robin tournament (a total of 36 matches). Obviously, this doesn't take into account numerous gameplay considerations, but is nonetheless a good measure of head-to-head strength.

All battles were AI combat, on neutral ground, with no hero actions or any stat modifiers. I simulated combat alternating which creature was attacking and defending. If a creature was leading by 2 battle victories at any point - it was declared the winner. If the score was tied 3-3 after 6 battles, the match-up was declared a draw. One point was awarded for a win and 0.5 points for a draw.

In an attempt to evaluate both the upgraded version of the creature and the creature class as a whole, I actually ran two separate simulations. The armies for each of the simulations were as follows:

1. One stack of 100 upgraded creatures
2. One stack of 100 of base creature + one stack of 100 upgraded creatures

The results were slightly different between the two: