Suggested Haven Builds

[Abraxos]

Hello
I'm new to the forums and have been playing HoMMV for about three weeks now. I've tried every faction except Sylvan and Haven. Haven doesn't seem to have much written about it, build wise? I am playing Hotseat games with friends and would like to give Haven a try. Can you guys suggest some great builds to strive for and strategies, heroes etc. I'm interested in skills and abilities to shoot for (and ones to avoid). I've gotten antsy waiting on the Haven strategy guide so any advice would be welcome. Thanks in advance....

[Angelspit]

Which reminds me that we need a Haven town guide,
if anyone would like to share his or her knowledge...

[ShadeOfSandro]

Hey guys, I'm actually working on a Haven beginner's guide, I'm just wondering what i do with it when I'm done, do i post it? Or is there someone I should send it to?

[DaemianLucifer]

Send it to the green orc,hell know what to do with it

[Abraxos]

I was thinking
Leadership or Luck ???
Luck
Logistics
Light Magic
Attack- Archery
War Machines- Catupult

But I'm not sure what synergizes well with Haven and which special skills/abilities they get. If anyone feels like posting their basic build till a guide gets posted or correct my basic attempt above or add to it, it would be appreciated.

[Grumpy Old Wizard]

I was thinking
Leadership or Luck ???
Luck
Logistics
Light Magic
Attack- Archery
War Machines- Catupult

But I'm not sure what synergizes well with Haven and which special skills/abilities they get. If anyone feels like posting their basic build till a guide gets posted or correct my basic attempt above or add to it, it would be appreciated.

I would chose luck over leadership if you are not taking both. I am not a big fan of war machines. You might want to consider either defence or dark magic (Haven favors both light and dark magic.)

GOW

[Alamar]

For fairly long games that aren't too terribly resourch rich:

Hero skills:
Counterstrike -- Racial skill ... Maxing it won't hurt but it wouldn't be my first priority. Note: Getting the Training perk is mandatory for long games.

Leadership -- A must have. If you get offered Estates very early in the game it's an OK subskill but otherwise it's not so great.

Luck -- Another must have. The soldier's luck ability is also useful.

Light Magic -- I always like the mass buffs and possibility of resurrection. The "mass" perks are nice but I'd only get the ones that go well with the spells in your spell tower.

Logistics -- The further your hero can more the more things they can do. Pathfinding is nice if there's rough terrain.

Assuming that you have another slot [that's not eaten by your hero's starting skills] then there are several good ones. I think Dark Magic is fine in places ... Offense is fine with Archery, Battle Frenzy, etc. War Machines isn't too bad esp. [catapult is nice for sieges]

Almost everyone on this board knows this but you may not have figured it out yet. Try NOT to upgrade peasants because a peasant will give you 1 gold per day per peasant [tax payer ability]. The upgrade to Conscript loses this ability and is often considered a terrible waste of money.

Some time in the game [when depends on map size and lots of factors] you'll want to train as many peasants as possible into archers and then upgrade those archers to Marksmen. If you have the money this gives Haven a SERIOUS boost in power.

[Abraxos]

Thanks much!

[Gaidal Cain]

I would chose luck over leadership if you are not taking both. I am not a big fan of war machines. You might want to consider either defence or dark magic (Haven favors both light and dark magic.)

For Haven, Leadership has much better abilities. Divine Guidance can save your butt, and Aura of Swiftness is perhaps the best ability Haven has (not that it has that many good abilities to start with). And you get to choose your third ability to boot.

[Sh33m4]

I play almost exclusively haven and I agree that Leadership is very good.

Here is what I do (under IDEAL circumstances):
Leadership
-Divine Guidance (awesome with cavaliers)
-Aura Of Swiftness (good in general)
-Diplomacy

Light Magic
-Master Of Blessings
-Guardian Angel (I still think it's a good ability)
-Master Of Wrath

Luck
-Magic Resistance
-Soldier's Luck
-Resourcefulness

Attack
-Archery
-Tactics (especially for cavaliers, coupled with Aura of Swiftness)
-Retribution (cool with leadership)

Logistics (obvious)
-Pathfinding
-Familiar Ground
-Death March

[LordErtz]

Light Magic:
Abjuration, Wrath, Blessings

Dark Magic:
Mind, Curses, Fallen Knight

Leadership:
Divine Guidance, Swift Aura, xxx

Luck:
Soldier's luck, Magic resistance, Resourcefullness (if nothing else)

Attack:
Archery, Battle Frenzy, Retribution

Your choice: War machines w/ ballista, defense with protection, evasion, and vitality, and the other ones dont seem to do it for me.

[Mightor Magic]

Attack- Tactics, Archery and Retribution.

goes with

Leadership- Estates, Divine Guidence, Aura of Swiftness

then there's

Defense- Evasion, Vitality, Protection

coupled with

War Machines- Catapult, Ballista, Triple Ballista
or Logistics- Pathfinding, Familar Ground, Death March

And the Magic Skill

Light Magic- All Masters for quicker casting.

Dark Magic- All Masters for quicker casting.


Why not Luck instead of Defense? Counterstrike. You do more damage on Retaliation strikes than on normal attacks. Use it to your avantage. Great with Infantry and Flying Units. Plus, you get more Defense points than Attack so you might as well make use of them.

Leadership plus Tactics plus Aura of Swiftness: Great for your Cavaliers but godly for your Gryphons. Be sure to mass Haste them for many, many attacks {Maeve is great for this}.

You can switch to a ranged army when you upgrade your Peasants to Archers but keep a good amount as Archers. The area attack will always come in handy as a backup to the Marksman {Great with Dougal}.

Dark Magic: Don't bother with Fallen Knight as +5 Spellpower, -1 Morale is an awful trade for 50% faster casts on all Mass and Area spells. Laszlo is a good candidate to go Dark. Best spells: Mass Suffering and Mass Weakness. With his Defense and Vitality, let them try to take him down. Confusion and Slow, not so good unless you have a Ranged Army.

[Orfinn]

Which reminds me that we need a Haven town guide,
if anyone would like to share his or her knowledge...

I was exactly thinking the same, guess because humans are boring that there havent been any guide....yet

[sylvanllewelyn]

In MP games, you often don't have enough gold, so you need to make a choice. If you've noticed, to upgrade the alter of light to the alter of heaven, you need 30000 gold and 20 ore. Training grounds plus hall of heroes together costs less than 10000g. With expert trainer, I usually don't bother with archangels, and make sure I upgrade all my peasents into marksman (85g each). With divine strength and expert light magic, the extra marksmen are worth a lot more than the difference between archangels and angels.

[Sir_Toejam]

Dark Magic: Don't bother with Fallen Knight as +5 Spellpower

well, there are a couple of advantages that balance out the morale hit:

better power means more units either raised or resurrected, and better decay and word of light spells, as a minor bonus, your curse/bless spells that depend on power last 5 rounds longer.

It can be a worthwhile tradeoff, depending on circumstances in a multiplayer game. It really seemed to fit from a storyline perspective (if nothing else) by giving it to Isabel in the campaigns.

[Orfinn]

Yup can balance out the morale penality by either having morale boosting artifacts or skills, as leadership.

[Caradoc]

Maybe this is a radical approach, but ...

I usually initially neglect Counterstrike on my main hero and develop it rapidly on a secondary hero that will sit in the castle and crank out Marksmen. And that's where all my gold goes -- as many Marksmen as I can afford. After that, Crusaders. (Paladins are not worth the upgrade cost IMHO. Angels are not worth buying so I don't even build the dwelling.) Then it's all about Attack, Morale, and Initiative.