What do u always pick?

[Omega_Destroyer]

Experience early on, then my decision becomes contingent upon how direly I need cash.

[Toejam]

Depents what i need really ,mostly early in the game i go for exp if it's 1000 or more (if i don't need the money), mid game mostly money because i need it than, at the near end pure exp because i have money enough then

[myythryyn]

I've always taken and always will take the experience no matter what..I've always thought that experience was much more important..

i used to do the same thing until i started playing on hard lvl.
i took xp so i could have a strong hero. then i met the AI army.
Sure i had a strong hero, but the AI had a fully upgraded with lvl 7 unit army that was much larger than the half upgraded army i had...so i quickly changed my stradgedy....now i would say gold first, then xp later, or at least more gold than xp for the first month or two....if you dont have a fully built city with capitol within the first weeks, having a high lvl hero wont matter anymore on the harder difficulty lvls.

[asandir]

cash in the early game and exp in the mid ....

[Alamar]

I vote "it depends". In the first few days with a random hero + random faction the odds are pretty good that I will take $ ... If I can build quicker than my opponnent I should be able to clear things out more quickly with my bigger & better army ... the XP will take care of itself.

Later on [assumming that I have enough $] I will almost always take XP.

There are some heroes though that I'll take XP early on because they have certain abilities that makes sense to max out ASAP. The prime example is getting XP for Deleb so you can max out War Machines & Ballista early.

[MrSteamTank]

Campaign is always experience and in single player or multi it's always experience until I hit level 7 or 8 after which I generally go with gold unless I have an abundance of it.

[cornellian]

If it is the campaigns, then almost always experience, though in HV original campaigns you hit the experience cap before the end of the scenarios..

In SP custom maps, it is experience as well, as money is always abundant..

In MP games however I am usually forced to take cash in the first three weeks for every single creature counts and you are short of cash most of the time...

[Qurqirish Dragon]

I vote "it depends". In the first few days with a random hero + random faction the odds are pretty good that I will take $ ... If I can build quicker than my opponnent I should be able to clear things out more quickly with my bigger & better army ... the XP will take care of itself.

Later on [assumming that I have enough $] I will almost always take XP.

There are some heroes though that I'll take XP early on because they have certain abilities that makes sense to max out ASAP. The prime example is getting XP for Deleb so you can max out War Machines & Ballista early.

I would consider the prime example to be any necromancer until you have expert necromancy + raise archers + no rest for the wicked. These are the true backbone of the necro army.

[magerette]

I always grab the cash until the cash problem disappears toward the endgame.

Similar type of question:

When you have a choice of allowing a neutral stack to flee or pursuing them and doing battle for the xp, which do you choose?

I usually allow them to flee since the experience is low, but I've milked it a few times in the HV campaign maps to make sure all heroes are leveled to cap. Also, if playing necro, I will almost always fight for the extra raised skellies.

[asandir]

for necro, sure will always fight, in HV, not so much cause you will generally be able to hit level cap anyway and once you get to about level 30, xp is really not anything you need anymore (cause it's simply too much required to level up)

[Caradoc]

We had this discussion over on the Quill last month. What I got out of it is that you can't give a good answer unless you know what you would spend the gold on. The real question is whether you want the experience or what the gold will buy.

In practice, I find myself taking the gold until I have my Capitol and from then out it's experience.

[Orfinn]

Very difficult this, as said it depends on the situation.

[Idleness2]

To get anything other than experience is totally insane. Give 1000 zomies to a level 4 necro and 200 zombies to a level 12 necro and see what happens, then never pick money again.
Besides, usually u have too much money, and not enough creature generation.

[DaemianLucifer]

Not in HV.Well,at least not before 1.3 reduction in costs.And not in the begining especially.Also,if the highest difficulty was like in HIII(no money in the begining),youd always go for the cash first,and XP later.

[Idleness2]

well sure, even in heroic, the creature generation is limited by other resources like ore and crap, not gold.

[theGryphon]

It totally depends, and I think the poll misses that option. So, I didn't vote.
Early in the game I mostly pick exp., but then sometimes gold especially if it's 1000 gold for 500 exp. If I need the gold for building a structure, I definitely go for it. After having built up the whole city, I always go for exp. So, maybe I should vote exp.

[Banedon]

The rule has been gold over experience since the first Heroes game I've played, and it hasn't changed. The gold is necessary; without it you build up slower and having 2 levels more than your opponent isn't going to help you if he has level 7s and you don't.

[Corelanis]

The only time I choose xp anymore is on normal against a player worse than me, hard to find I know. You can never have to much money when chests are still on the map I mean its really rare for me to find a chest in month 5 when you probably have enough gold that 2k wont matter.

[arturchix]

Similarly to others I always take experience from chests, except when offered 500 EXP or 1000 gold. I take gold when I'm very short of it (building capitol, Heroic difficulty, beginning of map) or my hero is over level 27 when chest EXP is insignificant. But there always are exceptions.

[Campaigner]

Always gold.

You need gold to develop your town and to buy your army. If you take experience you will be delayed in towndevelopment which leads too means you'll lose a weekly production of some troops.

And experience doesn't help enought in the beginning since you don't have enough troops or spells to make use of your skills and abilities.

And I would only take experience if I don't have any use for gold lategame. And the experience would be taken with a secondary hero.