Heroes 4 has been a deception for many. I have barely played it when it came out so I gave it another try.
I used equilibris mod.
One thing I hate is that units can move without hero. So I never use this feature.
AI is terrible, far less than H3. Sometimes very slow to build, and does not always attack even if it can win the fight.
In combat, it is decent, just not great. Although it is exceptional at killing heroes.
Surrendering and fleeing are too powerful in h4. You can do hit and run, which is vastly overpowered. Not even mention you can do it with campaign heroes. So I don't use this feature, neither I allow enemy heroes to surrender.
AI is good at massing a big army as it was in H3. And when its heroes has high tactic, it is particularly dangereous.
After playing most campaigns, I found them too easy (playing in advanced all time) so I defined my own rules:
- no reload during a campaign
- no surrender, no flee
- you can't win a fight with dead heroes, revive in town does not count as it makes town fight too easy.
- no potion use. They are just overpowered and AI does not use them
- don't hire heroes except a few cases where one is allowed
- don't use caravan. This feature is overpowered.
With those rules, game become a lot more challenging ! Keeping your hero alive from beginning to the end requires a lot of attention and knowledge. I now really enjoy this game, somehow more than H3 because hero development is more satisfying and since he can die (which ends the campaign unless someone can revives him), it makes fights very challenging, especially first map of each campaign. Even final map can be highly difficult and restarting is painfull.
I am currently playing gathering storms campaigns and I will add my feedback for each one later.
Heroes 4 - my review
-
aigleborgne
- Lurker
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 01 Jul 2023
Re: Heroes 4 - my review
Alita campaign, my favorite one
Alita starts as dark priestess. I like keep it as such but it is a lot easier to switch to paladin.
The first map is brutal, orange get one free angel each week or so. But you will first fight red and neutrals, so orange will invade with a larger army than mine.
The first death town might be guarded by ghost. If so, I skip it and take the 2nd as ghosts always focus my archers.
Getting vampires asap is top priority while getting a large army of ghosts. Many love cerberus but IMO, ghosts are better: fly, great defense, high speed, and invualable aging ability that saved my hero more than I can count.
Freeing Allenvale quickly without loosing your town is not always easy. Enemies have ballista and you won't be able to retake your castle in early stage.
I like to rush for necromancy artefact, along with both towns amplifier, it allows to build a large skeleton force. I put them in front of my heroes, as a pilar. They block all range attacks, which is a safe place for heroes (I'm using the last formation)
Allenvale focus on tactics and combat secondary while Alita will try to get master life magic as I really want GM on map 2. Nature town can teach you level 4 spells, so it is all good.
I like to teach advanced life to Allenvale, it is invaluable to have heal, heavenly shield, and song of peace.
Reaching level 18 is easy, even for Allenvale but it will take a bit more farm for him.
Map 2 is moderately easy, just very tedious to kill red. It is a lot better to take phoenix over faerie because they will greatly benefit from tactic (which is between M and GM on map 2).
My strategy is to let orange capture red towns, so I have only one town to protect and then focus on red heroes.
Reaching level cap is tedious, you need to let orange with 3 or 4 towns so he can mass units.
You have 2 towns with level 5 spells plus a life conversatory. I pray to get resurrection as it helps a lot in next maps.
Map 3 is easy but level cap 32 is very hard to reach!
Once my starting zone is cleared, Allenvale will stay in life town and protect it with balista and archers.
Even with castle, he might be attacked by very large armies and it won't be that easy. Ballista are a key to victory. By that time, Alita will dominate map with crusaders and angels.
Once I have life shield, I wait 1 or 2 months, then seeking for large armies, which provide no challenge for my army but not so easy to keep my hero alive (angels will keep their spell for her, but sometimes imps ruin this strategy).
Final map might be the most difficult depending on what is happening. Enemy have 2 high level heroes and a decent army with about 10-20 bone dragons which is dreadful with M-GM tactics. Sometimes, he even had a few evil sorceress. Difficulty is high if they are all in the same army. If Alita has Hand of Death, it is all good as none of their heroes has Magic Resistance, as long as you can cast it on them (line of sight!).
Now, you don't need to destroy their army, just to capture their main town. I would avoid any confrontation depending on setup.
On my last run (finished today), Alita was a paladin, so it was easy. Their heroes were together but no bone dragons.
I will now retry and keep her as dark priestess.
Alita starts as dark priestess. I like keep it as such but it is a lot easier to switch to paladin.
The first map is brutal, orange get one free angel each week or so. But you will first fight red and neutrals, so orange will invade with a larger army than mine.
The first death town might be guarded by ghost. If so, I skip it and take the 2nd as ghosts always focus my archers.
Getting vampires asap is top priority while getting a large army of ghosts. Many love cerberus but IMO, ghosts are better: fly, great defense, high speed, and invualable aging ability that saved my hero more than I can count.
Freeing Allenvale quickly without loosing your town is not always easy. Enemies have ballista and you won't be able to retake your castle in early stage.
I like to rush for necromancy artefact, along with both towns amplifier, it allows to build a large skeleton force. I put them in front of my heroes, as a pilar. They block all range attacks, which is a safe place for heroes (I'm using the last formation)
Allenvale focus on tactics and combat secondary while Alita will try to get master life magic as I really want GM on map 2. Nature town can teach you level 4 spells, so it is all good.
I like to teach advanced life to Allenvale, it is invaluable to have heal, heavenly shield, and song of peace.
Reaching level 18 is easy, even for Allenvale but it will take a bit more farm for him.
Map 2 is moderately easy, just very tedious to kill red. It is a lot better to take phoenix over faerie because they will greatly benefit from tactic (which is between M and GM on map 2).
My strategy is to let orange capture red towns, so I have only one town to protect and then focus on red heroes.
Reaching level cap is tedious, you need to let orange with 3 or 4 towns so he can mass units.
You have 2 towns with level 5 spells plus a life conversatory. I pray to get resurrection as it helps a lot in next maps.
Map 3 is easy but level cap 32 is very hard to reach!
Once my starting zone is cleared, Allenvale will stay in life town and protect it with balista and archers.
Even with castle, he might be attacked by very large armies and it won't be that easy. Ballista are a key to victory. By that time, Alita will dominate map with crusaders and angels.
Once I have life shield, I wait 1 or 2 months, then seeking for large armies, which provide no challenge for my army but not so easy to keep my hero alive (angels will keep their spell for her, but sometimes imps ruin this strategy).
Final map might be the most difficult depending on what is happening. Enemy have 2 high level heroes and a decent army with about 10-20 bone dragons which is dreadful with M-GM tactics. Sometimes, he even had a few evil sorceress. Difficulty is high if they are all in the same army. If Alita has Hand of Death, it is all good as none of their heroes has Magic Resistance, as long as you can cast it on them (line of sight!).
Now, you don't need to destroy their army, just to capture their main town. I would avoid any confrontation depending on setup.
On my last run (finished today), Alita was a paladin, so it was easy. Their heroes were together but no bone dragons.
I will now retry and keep her as dark priestess.
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