I am (finally) getting started with Heroes V

[DaemianLucifer]

Which is quite often; you stressed that the Blood Furies have 16 initiative.

That means 3 attack when your enemy makes 2,and not 2 attacks when he makes one.

I did not and have never said that your Blood Furies all die before they reach the enemy. I did not and have never said and will never say that all your Blood Furies are going to die in a battle against neutrals. The point is some of them will die. You cannot reasonably expect battle after battle after battle with no Blood Furies dying, because given how fragile they are and how high they are on the AI's priority list they will get targetted, and once they do they start dying.

I wasnt refering to them all dying either.And you can expect to fight a neutral stack after neutral stack with no furries dying if you know how to use dungeon to the max.If you dont know how to play necro,you will loose a lot even with them.

I did not mean takes time to accomplish; I would certainly kill those 25 Treants with the Pixie if I had to. What I meant is that it takes time to get going. Would you attack 30 Priests with 3 Hydras? Think about it. You'd be able to Defend and hit them with your hero and let the Hydras Regenerate, but all the Hydras would die before you kill sufficiently many Priests.

3 hydras no.6 hydras yes.

Not at all. Cerberi have less HP and less defense than Blood Furies, but they reproduce faster and there are Gated targets about to tempt the neutrals and you don't have to rush the Cerberi in until your Gated creatures arrive. The Cerberi might be even more fragile than Blood Furies, but they live longer. Experience dictates this.

When fighting ranged units you cannot wait for the gated units to arive,you have to strike with cerberi as soon as you can,or youll loose a lot.They have the same life span from my experience.

Back to Heroes 5. Of course having only Hunters make you vulnerable, but you don't have only Hunters. Sylvan relies on only one unit for most of the game, as does Necropolis and to a lesser extent, Haven (Marksmen) and Inferno (Cerberi). Dungeon needs more than one unit.

HV plays way differently than HIII.So you dont use only hunters and the rest as meat shield,you use druid and hunters,and the rest as support.Necro is the only exception here because they relly only on skel archers.The rest utilize more units.

As for spells, I'll point out that casting spells cost mana. You cannot afford to cast empowered Meteor Showers in every neutral battle.

True,but you wont fight a huge battle after a huge battle against neutrals,so you need mostly one cast per 2,3 days.

So you're suggesting that Dungeon starts with their level 7 dwelling built? Such that Dungeon can deploy Black Dragons starting from day 1, because it's only fair to compare races with units backed up by everything it has?

No,I am suggesting that even during the expansion you can(and probably will)use spells.If you consider an army with hydras,you may as well consider a hero with master of storms/ice and the appropriate spell.

You've gone out of the context. Come late-game everyone has level 7s. What I mean is that before late-game, when no one has level 7 dwellings yet (unless someone has scrambled up the TeCH tree like a maniac). Compared to all other races Dungeon has relatively little offensive might without the hero (who can be neutralized by Counterspell, by Mass Haste, by Magical Immunity and so on).

Magical immunity doesnt work on dungeon,and mass haste is useless if your units dont survive the first round.

You contradict yourself. Logistics, Destruction and Attack but no Tactics. You therefore can't expect to have your Grim Raiders and Blood Furies hit the Ranged neutrals right from the start.

I bet you'll say that Tactics is under Attack. True. But what you said is you prioritize those three skills and not their sub-skills, and even if you do prioritize Tactics as a sub-skill you would still need to be level 4 or so.

Oh come on!Of course I pick up feats as soon as I can!Whats the use of IM if you dont take empowered spells?Whats the use of expert dark early on?I wont ever have expert dark without at least one mastery,and I wont ever have expert attack without at least one feat.Tactics comes as soon as I get expert attack,as well as master of ice/storms comes as soon as I get ice bolt/lightning bolt.Logistics may be the only exception here(notice may).So you need level 2 for tactics,not four.And that can be reached pretty soon.

How much does Haste add to the Hydra's initiative? After all, you're not prioritizing Light Magic. Incidentally, Succubi initiative = 10; Hydra initiative = 7.

8 with haste.12 if you use wait.And you dont need light for haste,its a level one spell.Plus with power of speed(an attack feat),its free.

The problem isn't losing creatures; it's what creatures you're losing. Like I said, I'm hardly worried if I lose 10 Zombies because that's what they're for anyway: cannon fodder. If you're losing Blood Furies you're losing killer units. There's a difference.

Yes,those druids will surelly attack zombies Oh,and I thought furries werent killer units

I was sure Silver Unicorns can reach the enemy line in the first turn, but now that you mention it, I might have had Tactics then. However: the Ranger has a big weapon the Warlock does not, and that is Ranged creatures. No race can take on Sylvan in a purely Ranged duel at this point of the game (before you misunderstand, I stress: the expansion phase). On the other hand, every race can take on Dungeon in a purely Ranged duel now.

No unit,not even dragons,can reach the end row without tactics or aura of swiftness.As for ranged duel,necro can easilly take on sylvan in pure ranged fight.And dungeon is far more supperior than you think.First,dungeon will almost always strike first,so you will loose either archers if you split your troops in fear of AoE spells,or your fast punchers(paladins/unicorns/nightmares/djinni)if you pack your troops.Next,you need to neutralize their troops as quickly as possible,which is quite difficult because of the hydras,because every turn of the hero means another ~1k damage to your troops,and thats an unavoidable damage because of the IM.You can ressist it with unicorns aura and gargoyles immunity,but just partially.

I believe Dungeon is slightly underpowered. Some people clearly don't. I'll put the difference down to style. I prefer blitzkrieg with fast movements, powerful ranged creatures and fast-moving walkers. I also prefer defensive magics such that I take next to no casualties per battle. Taken together, this means Dungeon is simply not among my favoured towns. So...

Well this is why dungeon doesnt suit you:Its made not to stand behind and endure any damage but to strike before the enemy can even see the BF and wipe them all out.Their spells arent used for buffing/cursing(except in rare cases)but for disintegrating the enemy.

Dungeon's just like every other race: Dungeon has its weaknesses and strengths. These are Dungeon's weaknesses, which incidentally coincide with those things I am most loath to give up.

Every race has its weaknesses and strenghts.Necro has weak units,haven is a bit slow,wizards are expensive as hell,inferno has a bit weak units.But necro compensates with numbers,haven with sheer HP and defense,wizards with mini artifacts,inferno with gating.As for sylvan,I really dont know what their weakness is.Maybe their wood dependancy Dungeon lacks defense,but compensates with great offense.

[wimfrits]

Come to think of it, they do deal quite some damage for their numbers...but they aren't that fast (rather in the middle-ground for not fast and not slow)

Initiative 13 counts as fast in my book.

Hydras don't regenerate that fast unfortunately. Once Ranged stacks grow in numbers you'll lose more than you gain unless you have some spells (like Deflect Missiles or Teleport) to cast. In the meantime, you have to expend mana to kill as well.

As for expending mana: true. That is, if the opposing stack is beyond a certain size. Spending a reasonable (limited) amount of mana to win without loss is fine for me. Usually 1 or 2 spells will suffice though. Sometimes no spells at all.

As for Hydras not regenerating fast enough; well, they do for me
The irony btw is that the tactic works best when enemies have more shots.

Anyway, just wondering: if Dungeon is so effective against Ranged units, what exactly is it that makes you uncomfortable with Dungeon?

I'm not uncomfortable with Dungeon. I just disagree with ppl who seem to think furies and raiders are the answer to ranged.

[Gaidal Cain]

Pardon if I sound a bit silly, but how does retal stop regen?

If your hydras retal the archers, the archers are dead. If the archers are dead, combat is over. If combat is over, there is no time for hydras to regenerate.

Wrong. If you still haven't gotten it now, you may never
get it.

OMG! It's not JJ at all. It's csarmi, masquerading

[Mytical]

Ohhhh ok . Now I get it. Didn't think of it that way. Got it .

[Meandor]

Dungeon cannot blitz the map as easily as Sylvan can.
Dungeon cannot avoid casualties the way Necropolis can.
Dungeon is severely hindered by Counterspell.
Dungeon lacks a unit to absorb retaliation with.
Dungeon cannot...

Counterspell? What the hell? Warlock and Ranger need 27 points which aren`t realistic in normal game. Only Wizard can get counterspell in normal game. And even if he will have it, he`ll spend his turn doing nothing while your units are trashing his. I doubt that academy units can beat dungeon ones when heroes aren`t casting spells, what is more dungeon has easier start so most of the time warlock will have even bigger army.

[Banedon]

Wrong. If you still haven't gotten it now, you may never get it.

Fine. At least I have the comfort knowing that I have reasons for thinking so, but you don't.

That means 3 attack when your enemy makes 2,and not 2 attacks when he makes one.

You sure? Imperial Griffins Battle Dive - opposing Ranged creature has no targets so Defend - Imperial Griffins hit with Battle Dive - Imperial Griffins physically attack opposing Ranged creature. That's two. Whatever happens after that is irrelevant, since the Ranged creature is unlikely to deal any serious damage.

I wasnt refering to them all dying either.And you can expect to fight a neutral stack after neutral stack with no furries dying if you know how to use dungeon to the max.If you dont know how to play necro,you will loose a lot even with them.

Not if you're up against Ranged creatures with no Hydras yet.

3 hydras no.6 hydras yes.

See what I mean by 'takes time to get going'?

When fighting ranged units you cannot wait for the gated units to arive,you have to strike with cerberi as soon as you can,or youll loose a lot.They have the same life span from my experience.

It depends on whether the Ranged creatures aim the Cerberi. They might very well aim the Familiars.

HV plays way differently than HIII.So you dont use only hunters and the rest as meat shield,you use druid and hunters,and the rest as support.Necro is the only exception here because they relly only on skel archers.The rest utilize more units.

I was going to cite JollyJoker's post, but I won't. The Hunters are the key units. Because Sylvan is blessed with another Ranged unit, Sylvan has more options and more Ranged firepower. Of course you don't use just Hunters and the rest as a meat shield. Do you use Archliches as a meat shield with Necropolis?

Oh, and having thought about it, I'll give Dungeon's key unit as the Blood Fury.

True,but you wont fight a huge battle after a huge battle against neutrals,so you need mostly one cast per 2,3 days.

Once I put together my Sylvan army I can reasonably expect to fight two battles a day as I blitz a large map (this begins to happen on Week 2). In smaller maps it doesn't happen.

No,I am suggesting that even during the expansion you can(and probably will)use spells.If you consider an army with hydras,you may as well consider a hero with master of storms/ice and the appropriate spell.

Your original post was directed at Black Dragons.

Magical immunity doesnt work on dungeon,and mass haste is useless if your units dont survive the first round.

Sure it works. It reduces damage. And explain why the units don't survive the first round. The destructive damage is of course great, but seeing it's the end of the game, both sides are bound to take casualties.

Oh come on!Of course I pick up feats as soon as I can!Whats the use of IM if you dont take empowered spells?Whats the use of expert dark early on?I wont ever have expert dark without at least one mastery,and I wont ever have expert attack without at least one feat.Tactics comes as soon as I get expert attack,as well as master of ice/storms comes as soon as I get ice bolt/lightning bolt.Logistics may be the only exception here(notice may).So you need level 2 for tactics,not four.And that can be reached pretty soon.

Do you mean you can take a Learning Stone (or whatever it's called in Heroes 5) and immediately be offered Tactics?

8 with haste.12 if you use wait.And you dont need light for haste,its a level one spell.Plus with power of speed(an attack feat),its free.

You have not only to outspeed the Succubi, you have to avoid them. That's not going to be easy without Teleport.

Yes,those druids will surelly attack zombies Oh,and I thought furries werent killer units

Whoops, I meant finesse units. Finesse units are generally not as valuable as killer units, but in the case of Dungeon, with no killer units at the beginning, something has to give.

No, Druids won't surely hit the Zombies; they'll probably aim the Skeletons (Animate Dead time). If I end up losing Zombies it's probably because of walkers.

As for ranged duel,necro can easilly take on sylvan in pure ranged fight.And dungeon is far more supperior than you think.First,dungeon will almost always strike first,so you will loose either archers if you split your troops in fear of AoE spells,or your fast punchers(paladins/unicorns/nightmares/djinni)if you pack your troops.Next,you need to neutralize their troops as quickly as possible,which is quite difficult because of the hydras,because every turn of the hero means another ~1k damage to your troops,and thats an unavoidable damage because of the IM.You can ressist it with unicorns aura and gargoyles immunity,but just partially.

In a purely Ranged fight Necro beats Sylvan only after Necro amasses an unstoppable army of Skeleton Archers, and even after then it is by no means a guaranteed victory. Sylvan has two killer Ranged units; Necro has one (if you classify Archliches as support).

As for Dungeon, yes, you will lose creatures. You have to - it's Dungeon's greatest strength, and if one race beats the other without losing anything something's seriously gone wrong. You don't need to neutralize the Hydras however. They haven't been Teleported, and if they are Teleported, the hero won't have casted a destructive spell.

Well this is why dungeon doesnt suit you:Its made not to stand behind and endure any damage but to strike before the enemy can even see the BF and wipe them all out.Their spells arent used for buffing/cursing(except in rare cases)but for disintegrating the enemy.

Every race has its weaknesses and strenghts.Necro has weak units,haven is a bit slow,wizards are expensive as hell,inferno has a bit weak units.But necro compensates with numbers,haven with sheer HP and defense,wizards with mini artifacts,inferno with gating.As for sylvan,I really dont know what their weakness is.Maybe their wood dependancy Dungeon lacks defense,but compensates with great offense.

Perhaps, and until I finish the Dungeon campaign I won't press any more arguments. After all, I might be wrong (or I might simply have built Raelag wrongly; he doesn't have Teleport right now).

wimfrits - Regarding the Familiars, it's not initiative, it's speed. The Familiars don't quite qualify as a fast puncher to quote DaemianLucifer; they take time to reach over the map. And if they have to stay out of range of Ranged creatures as well, it might be three turns. That's not good.

As for Hydra regeneration, they oddly don't for me...as in the battle against the Succubi, I lost 5 Deep Hydras. To regenerate them all would have required me to stall another 10+ turns, not easy. I'll have to fight more battles like that and see.

OMG! It's not JJ at all. It's csarmi, masquerading

Tell csarmi to finish the Chaos / Death battle that's still in the Heroes IV forum (though you did lock the topic, but if csarmi wants to finish it, do unlock it). I believe I have csarmi cornered; the mass Chaos magics is the end.

Counterspell? What the hell? Warlock and Ranger need 27 points which aren`t realistic in normal game. Only Wizard can get counterspell in normal game. And even if he will have it, he`ll spend his turn doing nothing while your units are trashing his. I doubt that academy units can beat dungeon ones when heroes aren`t casting spells, what is more dungeon has easier start so most of the time warlock will have even bigger army.

I didn't say Dungeon has to face Counterspell in each and every battle incidentally. And, you know, I thought Dungeon's main offensive power is their hero.

But then again I've never played Academy, so I'm not going to argue this, either.

EDIT: Oh yes, one more question. How does Dungeon deal with fast walkers (for example, Djinn Sultans)?

[DaemianLucifer]

Not if you're up against Ranged creatures with no Hydras yet.

Ok,now you are just being silly.You cannot argue that sylvan is better because its master hunters are killers,and dungeon needs to wait to get hydras.Deep hydras can be gotten much sooner than master hunters because of the wood cost(dont know how this is with 2.0 though),so if you dont have deep hydras you dont have master hunters either.And you can beat ranged units far more easily with warlock than with a ranger(deploy just minos then spell them to death).If you fight ranged units with just hunters dancers and sprites you are bound to loose some hunters.

See what I mean by 'takes time to get going'?

Day 8.Day 15 if you are playing a very resource poor map.

It depends on whether the Ranged creatures aim the Cerberi. They might very well aim the Familiars.

They might as well target the assassins,so?

I was going to cite JollyJoker's post, but I won't. The Hunters are the key units. Because Sylvan is blessed with another Ranged unit, Sylvan has more options and more Ranged firepower. Of course you don't use just Hunters and the rest as a meat shield. Do you use Archliches as a meat shield with Necropolis?

Yup,in 99% of battles.

Oh, and having thought about it, I'll give Dungeon's key unit as the Blood Fury.

In 85% of battles it is.But not alone.Alone they are almost useless.

Once I put together my Sylvan army I can reasonably expect to fight two battles a day as I blitz a large map (this begins to happen on Week 2). In smaller maps it doesn't happen.

I said big battles,not battles.You can as well fight a few battles with dungeon using just hydras and raiders and casting no spell at all.

Your original post was directed at Black Dragons.

No it wasnt:

Again,its useless to say without spells(even though furries pack quite a punch even without spells)because we dont compare just bare units,but units backed up by everything you have.

Maybe I shouldve said backed up by everything you have at the moment to make it more clear,but thats what I meant.

Sure it works. It reduces damage. And explain why the units don't survive the first round. The destructive damage is of course great, but seeing it's the end of the game, both sides are bound to take casualties.

First that reducion is pittiful.Gargs receive 50% of the damage(which is still around 700 at least),and so do emeralds and blacks.The rest receive either full damage most of the time,or just slightly reduced damage.Even with magic aura kicking in you still do half damage or so.

Because dungeon strikes first,and strikes hard.And because furries have no retal,and there is turn retal so your raiders will strike at full force,you may loose these two units,but you will cripple the enemy alot by eliminating either its ranged units or its heavy melee units(paladins and such).

Do you mean you can take a Learning Stone (or whatever it's called in Heroes 5) and immediately be offered Tactics?

By the 5th level you are sure to get it offered at least once.

You have not only to outspeed the Succubi, you have to avoid them. That's not going to be easy without Teleport.

No you dont have to avoid them.You have to endure their initial attacks,then you have 4 turns before they reach you.Theyll do half damage then,so you can regenarate enough.

No, Druids won't surely hit the Zombies; they'll probably aim the Skeletons (Animate Dead time). If I end up losing Zombies it's probably because of walkers.

Yup,in the case of necro its not important.But what about sylvan?You are bound to loose hunters or druids.What about academy where your mages will suffer?Its not just dungeon that gets its key units stricken first by the ranged neutrals.

As for Dungeon, yes, you will lose creatures. You have to - it's Dungeon's greatest strength, and if one race beats the other without losing anything something's seriously gone wrong. You don't need to neutralize the Hydras however. They haven't been Teleported, and if they are Teleported, the hero won't have casted a destructive spell.

Um,with any race you will loose units in end fight.And in really long fights,its the neglected tanks that survive in the end.So its treants,hydras,zombies,squires,golems and demons.Hydras win this mach easilly.Thats,of course,asuming both armies were the same power,which isnt very likelly to happen.

As for Hydra regeneration, they oddly don't for me...as in the battle against the Succubi, I lost 5 Deep Hydras. To regenerate them all would have required me to stall another 10+ turns, not easy. I'll have to fight more battles like that and see.

Heres a quick analysis of 40 succubi fighting 7 hydras.For simplification,lets say the succubi are in 2 stacks,and lets say that every 10 succubi deal 75 damage to hydras(more than average),65 with defend(again much more than average),and that hydras regenarate 30 hp each round.And lets say that hero does 140 ice bolt damage(sp of 6).

So first,succubi stack one acts,deals 150 damage,kills one hydra.Hero acts,does 140 damage to other stack and kills 7 succubi,freezing the rest.Hydras regenerate,one resurrects,then defend.The frozen stack acts doing lets say 90 damage,killing again one hydra.Hero freezes the second stack killing 7 succubi.Hydras regenerate 30.Lets say that both stacks now hit hydras for 90 damage,killing one more(hydras lost 360 in total).Now hero kills 7 more.Hydras regen 30(are at -330 now).Succubi does another 90,hero kills off the last 6 in one stack.Succubi do another 90(hydras at - 510 now),and hero freezes them.Hydras now regenerate 30 and wait.Succubi do lets say 30,hero kills 5 with normal attack.Succubi have 2 more shots,and 3 turns before they manage to reach hydras,so hydras can regenerate(using wait)210 hp,making them at -300 now.You teleport them to the far side,and gain another 4 turns,which gains you lets say 150 more.So you need just one more turn of hydras before they are all resurrected.This was negating heroes defense,empowered spells,and such,whith which this would be even easier.

Tell csarmi to finish the Chaos / Death battle that's still in the Heroes IV forum (though you did lock the topic, but if csarmi wants to finish it, do unlock it). I believe I have csarmi cornered; the mass Chaos magics is the end.

Where is that guy anyway?

EDIT: Oh yes, one more question. How does Dungeon deal with fast walkers (for example, Djinn Sultans)?

Freezing and/or stunning does quick work of those.You just have to make sure they dont reach you on turn on.Theoretically,you can beat them with 3 stacks of 1 minotaur

[fly away]

the neglected tanks that survive in the end.So its treants,hydras,zombies,squires,golems and demons.

I didn't quite follow the full conversation and maybe what you are saying is contextual, but I wouldn't call golems the neglected tanks. They are one of the key units for academy and always go forth to fight... and die :-)

[DaemianLucifer]

Yeah,well the academy doesnt seem to have any neglected tanks.Weird how they are considered so underpowered then

[fly away]

Weird how they are considered so underpowered then

Maybe because they don't even have the basic things like the tanks:)

[Sir_Toejam]

Again,its useless to say without spells(even though furries pack quite a punch even without spells)because we dont compare just bare units,but units backed up by everything you have.

anybody thinking that a warlock can't survive with a handful of furries and some support units should try the third campaign in HOF. half of the first map relies on your ability to correctly utilize your little handful of dungeon units, and once you get the strategies down, you quickly learn just how valuable in the open field a handful of furries are.

the person who mentioned that you can kill most stacks with just furries and raiders is correct. 75% of the time on the first 4 maps, the two stacks (one furries and one raider) was all i really needed. it was a bonus if i had some matriarchs along to cast righteous might and slow or confusion. speed and postion is the key; tactics and the skill that boosts speed by one are quite useful. fireball with the fire skill is a great thing to use before (or between) attacking with your furries and raiders.

things get a whole lot different if you are sieging a castle (which fortunately doesn't happen until you are much further along), as the turrets down your poor furries right quick, so at that point i only would take the tougher units in (matriarchs and raiders), and mainly rely on spells.

funny, but I've never needed to utilize the "hydra-wait" strategy to take out ranged units, the furries and the raiders work fine for everything but elder druids, pretty much. That's both in the original and in HOF. It sounds fine, but requires a bit too much patience for me. I usually only make hydras if i have teleport assault, or if I think i will be defending in a siege, as they make great door-stops. maybe even the best door stops.

another thing... if you don't want to risk taking light magic, war machines is a good thing both in the open field and in castle sieges; advanced war machines plus healing skill will resurrect the furrie losses, and having a decent catapult skill can help keep your raiders from standing around during a siege.

oh, and last but certainly not least, taking sorcery with the magic insight skill is fantastic for warlocks, as you have a good chance of getting the phantom spell, and you really only need to cast in on your furries to both protect them (the AI will always prioritize the phantoms first) and if you time it right (or are lucky), get double attacks from your new furry stack.

I usually go that way instead of summoning magic, because of the other benefits of the sorcery skill are so great for warlocks.

Plus with power of speed(an attack feat),its free.

even better, in 2.0 you get MASS haste free with that feat.

EDIT: Oh yes, one more question. How does Dungeon deal with fast walkers (for example, Djinn Sultans)?

back up your furries a step during deployment. wait a turn, then attack. djin have poor defense and poor hps.

Day 8.Day 15 if you are playing a very resource poor map.

well, day 8 you would have 3, you'd have to wait until the third week (day 15) to get 6 (or more with cit/castle). not sure i would head out with only three.

Because dungeon strikes first,and strikes hard...

oh, but you simply must check out Raelag's "upgraded" special for HOF...

+1% initiative to your critters, -1% to enemy critters, per level.

when you hit level 6, that becomes effectively a 20% difference in initiative between your side and theirs, on average. (as the initiative values round to nearest whole number). when you get over level 20, it's just brutal. your furries can always act 2x per round; sometimes 3x per round, or even 4 if they get a moral boost. add mass haste or if you found a ring of speed, and it's likely they enemy will never get a chance to do anything at all if it's a neutral stack.

it's a really fun special.

[Jolly Joker]

Yup. It was me who mentioned it, Sir T, and it was me who didn't even know that Hydras' Regeneration does Resurrect as well because I don't need them most of the time.

[asandir]

it's a really fun special.

unbalancing though?

[Mytical]

Edited do to Mod request.

[DaemianLucifer]

oh, but you simply must check out Raelag's "upgraded" special for HOF...

+1% initiative to your critters, -1% to enemy critters, per level.

What was the reason for doing this?Reducing their initiative was powerfull enough.

[Sir_Toejam]

refer back to when i mentioned the lack of logic and Nival.

haven't a clue why they changed the special for HOF, but it is pretty nice.

I actually made a mod to give it to ylaya instead of the useless special she starts with, and found it to be just right for the first few maps of that campaign.

[wimfrits]

the person who mentioned that you can kill most stacks with just furries and raiders is correct. 75% of the time on the first 4 maps, the two stacks (one furries and one raider) was all i really needed.

Strictly speaking, 75% of the time, 1 fury is all you really need

On heroic, furries and raiders against ranged units means casualties though.

[Jolly Joker]

Playing Sylvans on heroic means serious building problems, though.

[Sir_Toejam]

unbalancing though?

well, by the time you get Raelag in the campaign, it really comes in handy, so for its particular usage, no, it's not unbalanced.

I did some extracurricular experimentation with it by giving it to the main character instead, and yeah, it becomes a little on the heavy side once you hit level 20. kind of like casting both mass haste and mass slow at the same time automatically when you enter combat.

no more overpowered than the necro ultimate, or actually casting mass haste and mass slow, though.

[Gaidal Cain]

well, day 8 you would have 3, you'd have to wait until the third week (day 15) to get 6 (or more with cit/castle). not sure i would head out with only three.

Hydra dwelling can be built day 7 if you bypass Raiders, which you might wish to do if you plan on using the above strategy.


Also, for some other people:
Mod note: If you wish to complain about the length of the discussions, do it somewhere else. This thread is well on topic, and should saty so. Posts deleted.