Fighting magic hero enemies...

[kalistan]

I have played some of HOMM6, and I am on the last board of the Haven campaign, and I am having problems. I am even playing it on easy, and the enemy sends many heroes who are of the magic type. These heroes (magic) drain my heroes armies when they use multiple fireball and chain lightning against my armies...after two or three of these magic subtype heroes, my army is drained and in shambles.

Is there any strategy or setup that counteracts these heroes using mass damage spells. I noted in previous episodes that when my army becomes very large the enemy heroes stop casting chain lightning and fireball or what not, but in the fourth episode of the haven campaign I can't get that far. It does no good if they pick away at me after three magic heroes and now my army is completely decimated. What counteracts this problem? If I come up against a might hero I don't have near the casualties, yet a magic hero with almost no army to speak of rips me a new one, and there goes half my army.

I'm not the best strategist when it comes to the game, so treat me as a noob and give some good advice. Thanks!

[Ell1e]

Well, first of all, have you looked at the walkthrough? Fighting three heroes in a short time is usually something you can and should avoid.

I don't know where you are in the mission, but if you're in the beginning stages (that's the part I had the most problems with), you probably only have basic troops, which for Haven means really low initiative. You should try to get Glories as soon as possible so that you can get the first turn.

My favorite defensive spell for these situations is probably Mass Celestial Armor, it'll absorb a good amount of damage from group spells and lets you conserve troops better. It's not too expensive even for a Might hero.

There's nothing you can do about the enemy heroes casting Fireball on the first turn, but those spells have a cooldown and your goal should be to end the battle before that runs out.

If you play online and have it, Arachne may not be bugged anymore, but healing 15% of your damage for free is still great.

[wimfrits]

Damage spells have been boosted while healing is reduced. I agree that chain lightning and fireball can be a real nuisance.

My most used counter-method is to simply deploy just 1 or 2 (strong) stacks and make sure damage done is regained quickly. Life drain helps. Especially combined with heroic charge. If you're using a magic hero, summon light elemental can heal your units when retaliating.

Another method is to quickly reduce number of enemy stacks and then prevent enemy hero action by disabling the remaining stack(s) through taunt and pacify. And heal in between.