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| Thread: Which castle is the best ? |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 · «PREV |
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted July 22, 2010 03:01 AM |
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Well, if you get him to 99 in all stats, then he is as good as any other (few exceptions). But even in single player, he hardly gains attack/defense therefore his lightning at 1xxx damage is not worth the 1xxx+ extra damage a good attack hero is doing with every slot, and every turn. Not to mention immunities and the pendant which is common find.
I played with him only once in MP and got slaughtered because he got mostly knowledge until level 15 or so. Before launching my first chain I already lost half of army and I learned the lesson.
Anyway someone here will tell you something about an young padawan
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val89
Tavern Dweller
The enemy of your enemy
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posted July 22, 2010 07:54 AM |
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Edited by val89 at 08:03, 22 Jul 2010.
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I see your point. Your army needs a good combination of strong units and speed, and Tower lacks way too much in both categories and fails to make up for it decently with spells. And Tower's level 6 and 7 units cost way too much, even for large maps.
That's why I've started to move away from Tower gradually, as I noticed Tower spell-casters have neither speed nor power at a reasonable price...
My new favorite town? Rampart. Note that Expert Bless is important because of the damage ranges for Rampart creatures up to level 5.
Centaur Captains are the best level 1 unit with the highest level 1 price, combining good attack with good speed.
Battle Dwarves are fast enough for your hero, and they make excellent defense against early-game rushes with their hit points. They protect Elves well. The resistance is also annoying to enemy spell-casters.
Grand Elves are the only ranged unit, but they make up for it with their 2 shots. They don't have to worry about melee thanks to Dwarves and Dendroids.
Silver Pegasi are a nuisance to enemy spell-casters as well. They are a mid-level light-but-fast type of unit, making them useful to get the first spell.
Dendroid Soldiers are like an armor upgrade to the Dwarves. They are slower, so wandering heroes should avoid them, but they have much more health and power. They are very suited to garrison defense, binding enemies that come near your Elves in place.
War Unicorns are cheap and powerful level 6 creatures. They combine decent speed, decent power, low cost, and Blinding. As a bonus, they also add magic resistance to surrounding creatures. They're a must have for any Rampart endgame.
Gold Dragons are quite a powerful and fast level 7 unit. They are vulnerable to Implosion, but can be shielded with a somewhat promising Magic Mirror (more preferable with Air Magic levels).
They have some great heroes too, with specialties like Armorer, Resistance, Logistics, 350+ Gold per day, and Intelligence.
The Mage Guild goes to the full level 5. Exceptions are Air Elemental, Animate Dead, Armageddon, Bloodlust, Curse, Death Ripple, and Fire Elemental.
Animate Dead and Death Ripple aren't a problem at all. After all, this isn't Necropolis.
Armageddon would be useful if your army consists of only Gold Dragons, so it's not missed very much.
Air Elemental and Fire Elemental aren't much of a problem, but they're the faster of the elemental types. Water Elementals and Earth Elementals are much slower, making them somewhat vulnerable.
Missing Curse and Bloodlust is pretty bad, but Elleshar starts with Curse.
Wood is a problem for this town early on, required for both City Hall requirements and the first three creature dwellings. Skip Dwarves if the cottage isn't already built so that you can build the Homestead (Enchanted Spring and Dendroid Arches have no wood cost) and break through the wood requirement barrier. Later on, find more Ore Mines to fuel the development of your Dragons. You may need a few more Crystal Mines on top of your Resource Silo and a Gem Pond for your Unicorn Glade.
The Mystic Pond is useful, but don't expect it to give you the largest amount of the resource you need most. The Treasury is good as long as you keep enough money left over at the end of the week (20000 Gold at the end of the week -> 2000 extra Gold next week).
The Fountain of Fortune is only needed if you expect to get attacked. This and the Grail building give enough luck, so having a hero like Melodia is pointless.
Against other towns:
Castle: Archangels go first, so the Rampart army loses initiative. Centaur Captains can outmaneuver the Halberdiers and attack Zealots while the Battle Dwarves and Dendroid Soldiers defend the Grand Elves. Meanwhile, the Royal Griffins fly over to attack the only Rampart shooter, but are lost due to both stacks of bodyguards. Silver Pegasi are quite powerful and can hit-and-run against units whose retaliation is already used up if they are not blessed. They can also be used to stop the Marksmen. Halberdiers and Crusaders will attack the Centaur Captains, who will in turn be attacked by War Unicorns, who will in turn be attacked by Champions. The Archangels will prove a nuisance if they are not eradicated by the Gold Dragons and guards. To say the least, it will not be an easy fight for either side.
Tower: Tower's over-reliability on spells has left me to reconsider. Half the creatures of Rampart have some method of making enemy spell-casters work harder. With an advantage in spells as well as speed, Dragons can stop Titans, War Unicorns can stop Arch Magi, and Centaur Captains can stop Master Gremlins, leaving the Silver Pegasi to deal with the Naga Queens while the Grand Elves get free shots. The fact that Rampart can much easier cast spells will allow the Iron Golems to be slowed down to their predecessors' speed, making them less of a threat. Eventually, Rampart will win.
Inferno: Weakish Familiars and Gogs can be taken down by a single stack of Rampart attackers. Gold Dragons beat Arch Devils, but the Devils have a slight lead in initiative. Many of the units will resist the Armageddon, making this difficult on Inferno. War Unicorns can take on Pit Lords while the armored defenders protect against Efreet Sultans. Cerberi and Horned Demons can be a threat, but Silver Pegasi and Centaur Captains can take them on. Inferno also somewhat relies on magic, especially on magic that weakens the enemy, so this may grant a victory to Rampart. Rampart creatures also have more health, and therefore, resist more Inferno attacks.
Fortress: The enemy also has only one shooter, but it is the weaker Lizardman. Dragon Flies and Wyvern Monarchs will be pummeled by the Battle Dwarves and Dendroid Soldiers while Gold Dragons eliminate the Chaos Hydra threat. Centaur Captains and War Unicorns charge the enemy Lizardmen and Mighty Gorgons, respectively. Silver Pegasi will attack the Greater Basilisks, and once again Rampart has the advantage in spells and speed. This will be an easy victory for Rampart.
Dungeon: A slight lead in initiative over the Black Dragons can keep a Rampart army somewhat alive. Scorpicores and Harpy Hags will have a tough time getting around the Grand Elves' bodyguards. However, Centaur Captains, Silver Pegasi, and War Unicorns will have a tough time getting to the Evil Eyes and Medusa Queens as well, especially with Minotaur Kings to face. Infernal Troglodytes aren't much of a threat, except in huge numbers. This may be a stalemate; it depends on both players' skills.
Stronghold: Rampart loses out this time. Battle Dwarves and Dendroid Soldiers can't do much more than defend Grand Elves while the rest of the army rushes the Stronghold shooters to be slaughtered. In the end, Thunderbirds can chip away at the Grand Elves' bodyguards' health while the remaining Stronghold army closes in for the kill.
Necropolis: Gold Dragons beat Ghost Dragons, both in initiative and in battle. The Grand Elves shoot down the Vampire Lords, leaving the Battle Dwarves to mop up whatever is left of them. Dread Knights can be taken down with spells as well as War Unicorns and/or Silver Pegasi (one stack needs to focus on the Wraiths). Power Liches can be attacked by any of the above three creatures or perhaps Centaur Captains. Battle Dwarves and Dendroid Soldiers can advance to wipe out the Zombies afterward. Either side can win, and tough level 4, 5, and 6 creatures make this especially hard on Rampart.
Conflux: Conflux out-speeds any other town with its Phoenixes. It combines speed with spells and even has some decently powerful creatures. The large amount of Pheonixes may be too much for the Gold Dragons to take down alone, requiring the help of the Grand Elves' defenders. The good news is, this is another magic-oriented town, and resistance and damper definitely help against enemy spell-casters. Try to bash the elementals with spells they take extra damage from (water against fire, fire against water, air against air, earth against earth). The War Unicorns can round up the Magic Elementals while the Silver Pegasi face the Sprites. Centaur Captains can help to destroy any remaining elemental stacks. This will be a difficult but possible victory, thanks to Rampart's magic resistance.
Well, that's all I have to say about Rampart. 
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[url=http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Falexspl.narod.ru%2F&sl=ru&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8]And remember: you do not read.[/url]
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ohforfsake
Promising
Legendary Hero
Initiate
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posted July 22, 2010 09:00 AM |
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I like your analysis, not because I agree with everything [I lack too much knowledge to actually be able to say if I agree, or disagree], but you clearly put a lot of quality in it, in my opinion.
Here're my thoughts on rampart and tower.
Tower:
You're completely correct that tower is slow (fastest speed is 12), which I think is a huge disadvantage. On the postive side, due to some of the tower units being quite slow, I think it makes for an easy replacement of these with angels from cons upgraded to archangels which gives the necessary speed tower lacks so much. [Though I'm not certain if it's allowed by the general rules].
What really makes tower shine though, in my opinion, are, among others that you mentioned the mage guild, also the titans immunity to mind magic, making them immune to blind and forgetfullness! [Sadly also to frenzy (and bless?)] This makes the titan an extreme danger for the opponent, and since the tower have 3 formidable shooters (at least if you frenzy the master gremlins), then tower can be a really nasty encounter if you aren't going to be the one who attacks [i.e. you probably have to use a turn on mass haste, which means you'll probably have to wait what is equivalent to two turns and a blinded unit, or something like that, due to wait and mass slow + blind].
However tower is not easy to defeat when getting attacked, not only can the titan stand their ground (and behind a forcefield with haste+prayer (and probably anti magic) on top can maybe only be defeated by something as fast as phoenix (not sure how much speed haste+prayer adds), or dispelling the forcefield), but also with the naga queens as guards they really have a strong unit. The golems are also the strongest stat wise (in one on one encounters they often loose due to their low speed) for the level 3, but I think they're too slow to bring with you and I guess I'd replace these with archangels. Naga Queens and Archangels together (I think letting gargoyles and archangels take the retal is best, because genies are more of an offensive unit) can really destroy whatever may be attacking you.
But all in all, it's the mind immunity + best shooter in titans that really makes tower my second farvorite town to play with.
Rampart:
I honestly dislike rampart. They've some extremely great low units, such as the grand elves and the centaur captain, but in general all other units a sub pair in their tier or have some very irritating weakness. What I really like about rampart on the other hand is the treasury. Maybe it's just me who're a n00b (I'm the n00b after all ), but in all other towns, unless I get gold from the map, I can't afford buying every unit from the town. However with rampart, the money gain accelerates, so it's just a matter of time, before one can afford all units through the use of a treasury, especially a nice increase after clearing out some utopias. Though with the low play time I've heard about (~3 weeks in average I think), it's maybe not that weird that 1-2 utopias is plenty and then there's no need for something like a treasury.
Now what I dislike about rampart goes as follows:
I think the dwarves are too slow to take with me. I think the silver pegasi is too fragile to be sent off first into lone battle and more or less useless otherwise. They're good for their speed advantage, but that you'll get from the dragons anyway.
I think dendroid soldiers have a great ability, but are also too slow to take with me. I think the unicorns are among the worst level 6 units in the game and don't bring any tactical advantage to rampart. The blindness is nice, but it just calls for some anti magic on that given unit, so it's about blinding the fastest unit I'd guess, which sadly often also is the strongest and with the relative bad stats of the unicorn, to me, blind is just not enough extra.
Finally, Gold Dragons, I actually think they're better than black dragons, due to their speed, but they've one incredible huge weakness, and that's not the implosion thing, but rather they cannot be ressurected, unless you find the black orb. Not to mention their building cost extremely much crystal.
In my opinion, gold dragons works best like phoenix, black dragons and efreeti sultans, as armageddon scouts, but unlike black dragons and efreeti sultans, gold dragons don't come from a town where you can get armageddon and then they're slower than phoenixes, so when you get armageddon, it's not unlikely those players who already had armageddon have found a town where they can recruit phoenix units.
Also yes, the implosion is a huge weakness, because faster scouts can implode on them and run away. [Though I'm not sure if hit&run is actually allowed at all].
Anyway, I guess the positive thing about 2 slow units are that you don't have to make sacrifices when you replace these with angels and wyverns.
When I play against the computer, I really like elleshar his intelligence speciality means a lot of mana, and often with the right spells, you can take out any army of the computer, where all that's needed then is sufficient mana.
Some notes of what you wrote:
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Inferno: Weakish Familiars and Gogs can be taken down by a single stack of Rampart attackers.
I don't think inferno will be using those units, maybe magogs, but otherwise I'd guess they'd be made into demons.
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Gold Dragons eliminate the Chaos Hydra threat.
I'd never go offensive like that on a foretress town with my level 7 while their mighty gorgons mostly will have to walk past some centaurs and war unicorns to use the death stare.
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Necropolis: Gold Dragons beat Ghost Dragons, both in initiative and in battle.
Maybe, but all I'd ever use ghosts for are to aging high hit points units anyway, and since I believe it's a level 5 magic, it's likely you'll loose quite a lot of golds when the skeleton army hits.
Quote:
he Grand Elves shoot down the Vampire Lords, leaving the Battle Dwarves to mop up whatever is left of them.
I think that's rather unlikely actually, due to the general low strength of the rampart tiers and assuming you've put your golds into attacking ghost dragons, you really need war unicorns to deal with vampire lords, otherwise I'd guess they'd probably heal off easily.
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Living time backwards
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted July 22, 2010 09:39 AM |
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Edited by angelito at 09:39, 22 Jul 2010.
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Quote:
I like your analysis, not because I agree with everything [I lack too much knowledge to actually be able to say if I agree, or disagree], but you clearly put a lot of quality effort in it, in my opinion..
Without criticizing too much, val89 really put a lot of effort in his analysis, but it rather lacks in quality. But this may not be such a big thing, because he obviously lacks in online experience. I bet he has never played vs a human opponent before, or at least against someone who has some online experience.
@ val89
If you would now start to get games vs human opponent (via gameranger for example), and let's say play around 50-70 games, and then come back and read your post here, you would slap yourself in the face, 100%!!
Just the way you describe the fight Castle vs Rampart shows you only had battles vs AI.
No half decent rampart player would care about battle dwarves. Keep in mind you need at least 1, sometimes even 2 slots in your army for the units you get from conservatories and / or from dragonfly hives.
I' rather have 8 angels or 50 wyverns on my hero than 75 battle dwarves..
Your Solmyr does very little extra damge with his chainlightning. There is a thread here in the library where Xarfax (iirc) explained the outcome of all spell specialists.
So the only good thing is, he has the spell already from day 1. But is this really that helpfull?
Can you use it when fighting crypts or dwarven treasuries in week 1?
How often can you use it before you run out of spellpoints?
A might hero gets +5 attack during level ups, while Solmyr gets +5 spellpower. The might hero makes 25% more damage with EACH unit in his army due to those 5 extra points, while Solmyr could cast with little extra damge (if he is able to cast it anyway).
And the bigger your army growth, the less important are damage spells.
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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TheSATAN
Tavern Dweller
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posted July 22, 2010 10:16 AM |
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Quote:
Quote:
I like your analysis, not because I agree with everything [I lack too much knowledge to actually be able to say if I agree, or disagree], but you clearly put a lot of quality effort in it, in my opinion..
Without criticizing too much, val89 really put a lot of effort in his analysis, but it rather lacks in quality. But this may not be such a big thing, because he obviously lacks in online experience. I bet he has never played vs a human opponent before, or at least against someone who has some online experience.
@ val89
If you would now start to get games vs human opponent (via gameranger for example), and let's say play around 50-70 games, and then come back and read your post here, you would slap yourself in the face, 100%!!
Just the way you describe the fight Castle vs Rampart shows you only had battles vs AI.
No half decent rampart player would care about battle dwarves. Keep in mind you need at least 1, sometimes even 2 slots in your army for the units you get from conservatories and / or from dragonfly hives.
I' rather have 8 angels or 50 wyverns on my hero than 75 battle dwarves..
Your Solmyr does very little extra damge with his chainlightning. There is a thread here in the library where Xarfax (iirc) explained the outcome of all spell specialists.
So the only good thing is, he has the spell already from day 1. But is this really that helpfull?
Can you use it when fighting crypts or dwarven treasuries in week 1?
How often can you use it before you run out of spellpoints?
A might hero gets +5 attack during level ups, while Solmyr gets +5 spellpower. The might hero makes 25% more damage with EACH unit in his army due to those 5 extra points, while Solmyr could cast with little extra damge (if he is able to cast it anyway).
And the bigger your army growth, the less important are damage spells.
You're an assett to the community angelito, and I enjoy reading what you post. I noticed whenever I look for information, the answers alot of the time end up in your posts. Thanks.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted July 22, 2010 05:34 PM |
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Quote:
No half decent rampart player would care about battle dwarves. Keep in mind you need at least 1, sometimes even 2 slots in your army for the units you get from conservatories and / or from dragonfly hives.
I' rather have 8 angels or 50 wyverns on my hero than 75 battle dwarves.
It is regrettable that the nowadays strategies and tips are only accorded to templates. Some players, even in MP may not like them and play old fashion, fixed maps. As many did during 6-7 years. And then those battle dwarfs have their place, and they are a very good fodder, strong HP and high immunity. The use of templates remove at least 1 creature from each town, while minimizing the use of magic high spells, because everything goes too fast.
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ohforfsake
Promising
Legendary Hero
Initiate
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posted July 22, 2010 06:58 PM |
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Am I right that you're thinking of the slow and sturdy type of scout who usually go with monsters that are slower, but in return either have higher hit points or spell resistance (like dwarves, zombies and golems), so these scouts when they find opponent scouts actually have an advantage in defeating them?
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Living time backwards
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angelito
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
proud father of a princess
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posted July 22, 2010 08:11 PM |
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Quote:
Quote:
No half decent rampart player would care about battle dwarves. Keep in mind you need at least 1, sometimes even 2 slots in your army for the units you get from conservatories and / or from dragonfly hives.
I' rather have 8 angels or 50 wyverns on my hero than 75 battle dwarves.
It is regrettable that the nowadays strategies and tips are only accorded to templates. Some players, even in MP may not like them and play old fashion, fixed maps. As many did during 6-7 years. And then those battle dwarfs have their place, and they are a very good fodder, strong HP and high immunity. The use of templates remove at least 1 creature from each town, while minimizing the use of magic high spells, because everything goes too fast.
This has nothing to do with templates Salamandre. Hives and cons are present on all random maps. And even if not, I'd probably rather split eiter my grandelves in 2 stacks, or maybe split my silver pegasi to get a first retail and then hit strong afterwards. I think this is more effective than having a bunch of little dwarves.
In the beginning, they just slow you down (you hardly find time to upgrade them in the first week I presume...), it is all about cents, elves and unis. Later, they are just too weak.
Even in my former "single player life", I hardly used those guys with my main.
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Better judged by 12 than carried by 6.
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Salamandre
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Wog refugee
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posted July 22, 2010 09:26 PM |
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Different times, different styles. Of course not talking about the obvious, if one got x angels and has xx dwarves on the other side, he will take the angels. But if he has not angels and has a big bunch of dwarfs, then would be stupid to let the dwarfs out for a final fight (obvious too). They are also wonderful units for countering hit and run, kill scouts early game, keep gold mines (it is amazing how much more time last your gold mine in the middle of map ie if you only let one of those to guard) and they seem to me to get quite often morale. Also when fighting magic heros they are more reliable than gran elfs, assuming we are early game, depending of races speed, spell power etc.
An infinite possible situations leads to infinite strategies. That's why we still play it.
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Fauch
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted July 23, 2010 02:48 AM |
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Edited by Fauch at 02:56, 23 Jul 2010.
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inferno seems near undefeatable in the rare cases you can get at least 3 of them with castle gates. their numeric advantages during sieges is huge. not counting your heroes can travel super fast without using any mana or movement points.
dungeon can be really strong, if you can find an adventure map dwelling for red dragons. that's +2 dragons to recruit per week, in your castle, instead of +1 for other castles. if you don't have enough gold, I guess you would drop level 6, 1 and 2
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Spikebeardie
Tavern Dweller
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posted July 30, 2010 01:27 AM |
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I like the dungeon, but that's just my opinion. The creatures are expensive, though...
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[url=http://my.gpxpl.us/Vaporeon+Girl] [/url]
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