What is the WEAKEST town in the game?

[Wolfshanze]

I'm not saying they're bad... but they're probably not being as effective as they could/should be.

If you NEED to go back to your castle as a Necro, you're not doing something right. That's just the way it is... A Necro should be self-sufficient on the road... Maybe going back to pick up a few extra liches is okay, but most heroes (from other factions) return to home to restock on critters to keep fighting after attrition... if your Necro has to go back for the same reason, then you're DEFINATELY not playing to your full potential... PERIOD.

[Gus]

I'm not saying they're bad... but they're probably not being as effective as they could/should be.

If you NEED to go back to your castle as a Necro, you're not doing something right. That's just the way it is... A Necro should be self-sufficient on the road... Maybe going back to pick up a few extra liches is okay, but most heroes (from other factions) return to home to restock on critters to keep fighting after attrition... if your Necro has to go back for the same reason, then you're DEFINATELY not playing to your full potential... PERIOD.

Excuse me, but i'm asking for REASONS and ARGUMENTS why you think so. just putting words in CAPITALS and REPEATING things doesn't prove anything

[Wolfshanze]

I gave reasons... your problem of not understanding my reasons is why you don't understand how a Necro should be handled.

I was very clear in my reasons and anyone who is good with a Necro would understand what I'm saying... you just don't understand my reasons.

(Army always growing, never losing a single undead... yada, yada, yada).

[Gus]

No need to insult my intelligence, but there IS a need to stay civil, however =)

On-topic, I've read and completely understand your reasons. I'm just wondering where the authority comes from, that allows you to say that there is only one way to play Necro well.
I can understand someone saying "this is my strategy, and it seems to work quite well, and here's why i think it's good: - yada - yada - yada". I can but laugh at someone saying "If you don't play like that, you can't play the game" only 3 weeks after the release of the 1.0 version of said game.

PS: just in case i get the "i know what i'm saying noob"-line... i have played every HoMM since II.

[Belmarduk]

A good Necro is almost completely independant of his home castle. Not true of other races.

And why exactly would not being independant of the castle make someone a bad Necro player ? What would make the game so unplayable with Necro ?

The advantage of playing a necromancer is that you can keep going even when your opponents have to head back to base. Which means that while your opponent may spend 2 or 3 turns a week, especially early on running back to base, you can keep going infinitely. The only time you really have to come back to base is when you have a third level mage guild and 'need' summon creatures. For wraiths and liches.

The entire point of playing a necromancer is that while most of their units are absolute shit, they will usually have a resource advantage, their hero will have a level advantage, and their archer stack is so big that it can one-shot most top tier stacks. If you are dependant on your town, you lose that advantage, and get stuck with units that are mediocre in comparison, a paltry amount of skeleton archers, and no level gap between you and your opponent. You are throwing away the one good thing a necromancer has going for them. Which is completely idiotic.

[Gus]

Disregarding the insult (wow, can't people talk nice here ? amazing...): i know this is a good strategy. That's what i do. But i don't think anyone here can say it's the one and only way of playing necro. If you never go back to your castle, your Skeletons Archers will get blocked in melee and crushed. I think Necro has a lot more going for it than a stack of Archers.

[Campaigner]

Static numbers alone don't give the whole picture so it's necessary to say WHY you voted the way you did. I'm talking about Heroic difficulty here!

Weakest to strongest towns

Inferno comes dead last simply because everybody else are better. Inferno aren't bad, but not as good as everybody else.

Some of their troops got great initiative and speed (Cerberi) and will engage the enemy immediately but they will get pounded by the entire enemy army and with their low hp and def they will die quite easily. That is, however, their characteristic. Fast and deadly with GREAT damage capability but die quickly. Imps are like slower and less agile Hellhounds but can pack a punch (especially with the right abilities).

Nightmares are quite powerful with a GREAT special ability but two creatures cannot carry the faction on it's backs (how ironic when speaking about the Nightmare....).

And Gating is either very powerful or worse than not using it at all. Against a legion of Golems it's great. Against Imperial Griffins or Emerald Dragons it's a no-no.

But I also think that most people like to tuck away their archers in the corners and protect them with tank units and with the Inferno this strategy isn't possible since every other side got more range units.

What ultimately makes them arrive at 6th place is their resource demands. They require quite a bit of sulfur and mercury which isn't easy to hoarde.


Academy is a candidate for 6th place and only just win over Inferno because of their heroes the Wizards, Archmages and solid tankunits.
Actually it's so close that I would like to place both Academy and Inferno dead last. But I could only vote for one faction so....

With Academy it's stand and deliver that's the recipe for the day. Sounds simple enough but the important positioning of the army (Archmages) ((you gotta be lucky with how the enemy setups his army)), the insane resourcedemands and the slow units kinda sink this faction. The Academy is the most resourcedemanding faction of all (according to Jolly Joker) and that is something that you'll notice. So getting Mages isn't that easy and they're a critical unit.

They got some redeeming factors though. Powerful shooters and casters are an obvious one and the miniartifacts another one. Their hero the Wizard the last one. With his high knowledge he will NEVER stop casting spells, and with Expert Sorcery and the various abilities he will do it quite often. Light and Summoning magic are the best schools too since with Summoning Magic you'll clone your Archmages (Phantom Forces is one of the top 3 spells) and with Light Magic you'll remedy every curse the enemy throws at you. At high proficiency you can even resurrect your troops.


Haven comes at 4th place and is the easiest town to play. All their units are useful and Light Magic makes them very powerful. Adding to their good sides are their low resourcedemands except for gold, powerful and easy to develop heroes and the Training ability.

Too much to type. I'll finish the rest later.

[Belmarduk]

Disregarding the insult (wow, can't people talk nice here ? amazing...): i know this is a good strategy. That's what i do. But i don't think anyone here can say it's the one and only way of playing necro. If you never go back to your castle, your Skeletons Archers will get blocked in melee and crushed. I think Necro has a lot more going for it than a stack of Archers.

When you have 2000 skeleton archers and the spells 'phantom forces' and 'raise dead', then there should never be a worry about being blocked in melee. If your opponent gets close you screwed up, and even if they make it that close, you're still talking about four digit damage in melee.

Sure, there are other ways to play necro. However, what I and Wolf are saying, is that those ways suck.

[Gus]

Sure, there are other ways to play necro. However, what I and Wolf are saying, is that those ways suck.

And who are you, you two, to be so confident in that? What is it that backs up your claims ? Hundreds of MP games ? The shared experience of months of online play ? No, wait, it's: 3 weeks since the final release.

[Belmarduk]

...Basic logic.

Being 5-10 levels higher than your opponent, holding most of the artifacts, controlling most of the resources and having thousands of ranged attackers is better than staying in/close to your town and having a matching number of units to your opponent, especially given that Necropolis units are crappy because of their immunity to bad morale, poison, and easy raising. Virtually anyone vs Necropolis with matching forces is almost always going to go in the favor of the opponent unless the necromancer has all of his endgame skills.

Which he probably won't have if he's sitting close to home all the time waiting for his bone dragon stack to grow.

[Gus]

Oh yeah, i get it now. So the opposite of "never going back home" is "staying home all the time" right ?
You've never studied logic, have you ?

[Belmarduk]

Okay, so you go too far and end up having to spend 4-5 days trying to get back home. Time that you could have spent getting another 150-200 skeleton archers.

[Gus]

You have to find neutrals to kill, for that. And that you CAN kill with minimal losses. Of course, in a map with zillions of stat boosters, eldritch wells everywhere, and easy-to-kill level1 all over the place... =)

[Gaidal Cain]

Okay, so you go too far and end up having to spend 4-5 days trying to get back home. Time that you could have spent getting another 150-200 skeleton archers.

Yes, not needing to return to town is a wonderful advantage when everyone can just setup a chain anyway and use it to get reinforcements to the front line in one turn .

[Wolfshanze]

Okay, so you go too far and end up having to spend 4-5 days trying to get back home. Time that you could have spent getting another 150-200 skeleton archers.

Yes, not needing to return to town is a wonderful advantage when everyone can just setup a chain anyway and use it to get reinforcements to the front line in one turn .

Gee... how much did you spend (3,500GP per hero a pop) to get that chain?

[Gus]

to average to 3500, you'd need 6 heroes total (so 5 + main).

[Wolfshanze]

to average to 3500, you'd need 6 heroes total (so 5 + main).

The bottom line being a Necro doesn't need to blow Gold on Heroes, he doesn't need to waste turns going home, he doesn't need to spend mana summoning creatures to his cause... HE'S SELF-SUFFICIENT.

That's the point, and all of your money-spending, turn-wasting, home-staying, excuses don't equal FREE SELF-SUFFIENCY.

[Gus]

The bottom line being a Necro doesn't need to blow Gold on Heroes, he doesn't need to waste turns going home, he doesn't need to spend mana summoning creatures to his cause... HE'S SELF-SUFFICIENT.

but his units are so cheap, and he can raise so many, and he pwns so many neutrals, he must swim in gold right ?

That's the point, and all of your money-spending, turn-wasting, home-staying, excuses don't equal FREE SELF-SUFFIENCY.

emphasis mine: you studied logic at the same place as Belmarduk, right ?

[Gaidal Cain]

Gee... how much did you spend (3,500GP per hero a pop) to get that chain?

Say 10000 gold, for three heroes. Hardly much worse than the fourhero-chain you'd have gotten for same price in H3. Or, I hire just one hero and send him over. Or use Summon Creatures. Point is that you shouldn't be using your main hero to run back to your main town for nothing but creatures, regardless of if you're playing Necro or not. And I rather doubt that a Necro with only a big stack of Skelly Archers and perhaps a few Zombies he got on day one is going to stand a chance against a full force from any other town, regardless of whether you post in all-caps or not.

[Gus]

regardless of whether you post in all-caps or not.

well, you MUST realize THAT posting in CAPS is how REAL pros do.
that's the WAY it is, DEAL with it.