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| Thread: HoMM 4 feels too difficult | |
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weilan
Known Hero
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posted March 06, 2022 02:59 PM |
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Edited by weilan at 15:11, 06 Mar 2022.
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HoMM 4 feels too difficult
I've tried a few times to play HoMM4, but never managed to get far. I usually end up disappointed, because even on the easiest difficulty, I feel like I'm playing on the hardest.
Today I tried to learn to play the game again and chose the S sized map "The Ultimate Mug of Ale" and picked the easiest difficulty. On the 1st try I was met with AIs with massive armies and I could not do anything.
Also I'm using Equilibris 3.51.
So I restarted and made it my goal to amass a huge army of my own, for the most part I was doing well, but when I went to the underworld to try and conquer my enemy, I was met with army so massive that it would take me 2+ months to get the same, and by that time the AI would have an even larger army.
I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.
People are saying that making a full party/army of heroes instead of monsters is overpowered, but I haven't really tried that and judging from the map, even if I hire other heroes, there aren't enough encounters to level them up.
So what the heck am I doing wrong?!
I have no desires to be a professional tournament champion, just to be able to win games on easiest difficulty and play and relax instead of getting frustrated.
I've played HoMM3 since 1999 and I'm still not good, but I can play on several difficulties against AI confidently.
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pyroxene
Tavern Dweller
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posted March 06, 2022 04:07 PM |
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If you play a campaign you can very well develop your main hero into a superman capable of defeating whole armies by himself.
In a regular scenario however, that is generally not going to happen. You should take at least 2 heroes in your main army for versatility. Typically one would be a caster aligned with your town, and the other a hero with tactics. The tactician is the dedicated potion/wand user and idles in combat otherwise. If you find magic skills available for learning for your tactician (in towns, or via altars/learning locations on the map), seize the chance.
Every spell school has a crowd control spell at (eg confusion for chaos, song of peace for life etc) and learning that helps immensely in clearing neutrals. They are all level 2 spells so you need advanced mastery in your spell school to learn them.
Honestly the AI in H4 is terrible and I don't think I've played a scenario where I encountered stiff resistance from one, unless the map has inbuilt scripts to bulk them up. Typically I would reach the AI area only to find a bunch of their hero tombstones near neutral stacks  . The AI is dumbest in a siege and you can take full advantage of that to defeat an AI army 10x stronger than yours in one.
I typically choose units that are ranged, can cast spells or have first strike as an ability. As you bulk up you army, consider phasing out your tier 1 units, and eventually your tier 2 unis with tier 3 and 4s. The way tactics work (i.e. being percentage based), low tier units will never be as good as higher tier ones. Furthermore low tier units have poor map mobility and slow down your hero.
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weilan
Known Hero
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posted March 06, 2022 05:32 PM |
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Edited by weilan at 17:43, 06 Mar 2022.
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This is what I'm faced against:
My hero:
https://i.imgur.com/iK9FYgz.png
The enemy:
https://i.imgur.com/Ovz8Rbp.png
I must admit I wasted a lot of time just ending turns just so I can amass a larger army and that's probably when the AI did the same.
Does Equilibris make the game harder and more challenging? Should I try to learn it without it and only use it when I actually understand what it does?
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Baronus
Legendary Hero
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posted March 06, 2022 11:29 PM |
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Yes it can be Equilibris. Vanilla game was never problematic. Xtra hard too. I see to much power of AI army.
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NimoStar
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
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posted March 07, 2022 10:04 PM |
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Play the Ultimate mod (link in my sig) and you will not have that problem.
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weilan
Known Hero
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posted March 11, 2022 10:08 PM |
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NimoStar said:
Play the Ultimate mod (link in my sig) and you will not have that problem.
I'm interested in it, but I haven't played the game before so I won't be able to appreciate the changes. I want to first learn the base game and then experience all the cool things of this mod, which reminds me of WoG for HoMM3.
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NimoStar
Responsible
Legendary Hero
Modding the Unmoddable
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posted March 11, 2022 11:00 PM |
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Well, I would point out Equilibris isn't the base game either as it alters abilities, item buying, hero progression, spells and balance.
But anyone is welcome toplay in the order they want.
And WoG is much more chaotic. Ultimate is closer to original game than Equilibris in many respects since it has less edits to the base code, the most important changes are spells.
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