Luck in getting the right stacks

[Rainalkar]

I consider this really to be a major factor on heroic. Not so much for some castles, such as haven that needs only ore and wood, but if you play some other town and there is like lots of archmages (seen plenty times) guarding some crucial mine you could well be screwed. The archamages especially, their fireballs are horrifying, druids with lightning bolts, and succubi mistressess are probably the worst neutrals you can face, because, while you get to fight the really big guards (like several archangels) you will amass a great army and develop your hero, maybe get a magic school etc., however when fighting these lvl4 you army and hero are generaly too weak to win without heavy lossess, and waiting a week or so is generaly unacceptable if you want to win.
It is really more than bad luck playing academy against another academy, having to fight succubi mistressess for gem mine, while the opponent tears through the griffins with golem-gremlin tactic. What do you think?

[Bardolph]

I play on hard in the campaigns, so I don't know exactly how big is the difference, but I think that if you leave that mine to capture it the last you should be fine. I wanted to battle a stack of druids on the second week but I knew that I will take many losses so I attacked them on the fifth week and they ran away.
Also if you need a type of resorce you should consider building Resource Silo early, multiple marketplaces or Mystic Pond, depending on what do you need and what you can build.
I know these are beginner tips, but I would like to hear more advanced tips on resources if you know some.

[Rainalkar]

I would actually like to hear how to defeat 35 archmages early

[vicheron]

I would assume that a Wizard with Magic Mirror commanding a stack of Obsidian Gargoyles or Steel Golems are good against neutral casters like Archmages. Alastor with Expert Sorcery and Master of Mind would probably be good too. As for the Necros, once you get Raise Dead, neutral stacks pose very little problem. For Haven, either get Irina or don't fight neutral casters until you get Royal Griffins. Leave all your other creatures out of the battle, split the Griffins into all your empty slots and just have them all battle dive the enemy. Sylvan's kind of screwed. Dungeon's kind of screwed too but if they get tactics, Dark Raiders and Blood Furies will be able to hit the enemy and hopefully kill enough of them so they won't cause too much damage.

[DaemianLucifer]

I would actually like to hear how to defeat 35 archmages early

Cheat,suffer great losses,or attack with a ncero.

[zhuge]

I would actually like to hear how to defeat 35 archmages early

I usually don't do the fight at all.
Mages, Druids are some of the units I tend to avoid in the early game. If they're guarding a mine/resources/artifact/structure I'm sure the same benefits can be had elsewhere or later for a lesser price.

If they're part of a bottleneck you must fight to get to enemy territory then that's just sheer bad luck.
But if I had no choice but to battle it out, I would not bring fragile units which cannot deal damage in the 1st round like Blood Furies. They're just too precious to lose to Fireballs. Probably some shooters and a good number of fast, damaging and reasonably tough stacks (able to reach Archmagi in 2 rounds and high initiative). Early on I think Griffins aren't too bad in that regard, Nightmares would probably do fairly well too.
Of course if you also had Tactics and could get your units to strike in the very first round then that would be best.

The spells you hero can cast plays a big role too. Having Blind would be nice or any other disabling spell, like Lightning Bolt with Master of Storms which Stuns and delays turns.

[DaemianLucifer]

Funny thing is(but not haha funny),that youll prefer fighting a large stack of sollosi that a small one of mages,or even sprites.Heroes must return to being mortals.

[Caradoc]

These creatures are not so hard to defeat, but they are hard to defeat without taking significant losses. The level 6/7s tend to be slow, allowing you to pursue some tactics against them.

With Inferno and a hero with good initiative and Teleport, you can 'port an Imp over to take the hit while your Cerberi and Nightmares get into position for the kill.

With Tactics and a fast creature, you can often do the same. They key here is to strip your army down to allow for several sacrificial stacks to keep the shooters/casters busy while the others deal with them.

Finally, you can exploit the Ai targetting algorithm by including sacrificial stacks of the creatures they like to go for. For instance a single Master Hunter will almost always attract fire, provided there are no larger stacks of Hunters or Master Hunters.

[DaemianLucifer]

With tactics,it all comes down to luck.Either youll set your units the right way and kill the enemy with no losses,or luck will be against you and youll have significant losses.Rather stupid.

[Bandobras Took]

With tactics,it all comes down to luck.Either youll set your units the right way and kill the enemy with no losses,or luck will be against you and youll have significant losses.Rather stupid.

A false either/or? I agree that is rather stupid.