a few questions, thoughts concering heroic setting

[Ecthelion1224]

finally achieved a win on a heroic difficulty map, was a custom rmg extra large map, the custom template with 14 available towns on it. played with stronghold as starting town, kragh as starting hero, 3 computer opponents, free for all.

played defensively at first, clearing out my entire starting area with my main hero before attempting to expand. i think this was key, as any time i attempt to rush asap into an adjacent area, i seem to over extend myself and get either my capitol taken or have to abandon the town i'm seeking to conquer or just conquered.

curious if anyone else plays on heroic setting on extra large maps, and if so, how do you go about it? i'm sure the answers/strats are as varied as the people playing.

rushing into an adjacent area swiftly, securing it, and possibly continuing on seems to be the way to avoid an enemy buildup of extremely large stacks. just seems staying in my starting area to collect artifacts and level my main hero is a gamble. i feel the only thing preventing me from getting rushed myself on my one victory was the 3 computer players, who had to have been tearing each other up first before any set eyes on me.

the ai can see the entire map, yes? seems any time you move just far enough away from your main town, they will seek to invade quickly before you have time to get back to it.

i suppose the general starting strategy thats worked for me is to clear my starting area with my main hero, tagging all resource generating spots first before artifact collecting. secondary heroes seek out external creature dwellings as soon as possible, and then work to either troop transport or shuttle between windmills and gardens to add precious resources those first few weeks. build strategy is to get all primary creature dwellings up before focusing on upgrades, even getting the castle up and running for the +50% creature growth before the upgraded buildings.

then i'll break thru whatever creature is guarding the undergroud staircase or two way portal to get to the next area.

my strategy then changes somewhat, and may be too much of a wall of text to enter in here at the moment. last game took 9 months (the heroic setting one), and my previous successful extralarge maps on hard difficulty took me just as long.

does that seem like a reasonable time frame? or are others able complete them faster? mid game i do tend to hold back at a point, defend, and work on leveling and gearing 1 or 2 other secondary heroes.

any pointers/suggestions or just relating one's own experiences with heroic difficulty would be appreciated.

[Banedon]

Don't have much time to post right now, but you might want to read this: viewtopic.php?t=10079

[Ecthelion1224]

aye, have read that thread while waiting on ai turns last week. curious as to what the map's name is, as i'm not seeing a 2v2 large map as part of the standard tote maps.
guess i need to scale down my attempts at heroic mode, trying some of the smaller ubi maps, as i likely will not be playing against a human on an extra large map. any suggestions as to which are fairly balanced?

[Variol]

I have only played a few maps, even though I've had the game for years. The old PC was just a bit too slow. Even the new PC is a bit slow on enemy turns, but it was developed by Russians after all.
I find normal difficulty to be fine for me right now. ..not like I'm gonna win a prize or anything anyway.