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to you to decide to either cast a good spell on your troop, cast a negative spell on the computer's troop, do direct damage to the computer's troop, do global damage, or to wait.
One "goofy" thing about this game is that one spell "overrides" another spell (except when
Anti-Magic is cast). For example, if I cast
"Curse" on one of the computer's troops, he can cast "Protection" on the same turn and nullify the "Curse" spell. The only exception I believe is the effect of Paralyze stays even if you overrides it with another spell (somebody verify?). So maybe it would be good sometimes to wait for the computer to cast that negative spell on your stack and you can cast a positive spell on your stack to negate and enchant your stack with one spell.
### A player cannot cast spells or use the
Ballistas in a castle if all the troops controlled by the player are blinded, or paralyzed.
Anti-Magic - A good spell to cast over your "good" units, particularly your missile units since the computer usually targets them first with negative spells.
Armageddon (4)- A really good global damage spell when used in conjunction with a dragon stack or Anti-Magic spell. An experienced hero with high Power attribute can really do damage with these combos since his dragon troop or anti-magiked troop(s) won't be affected by this spell.
Blind - Similar to paralyze where a troops is immobile for the number of combat turns equal to the opponent's hero's Power. I believe it is weaker than paralyze because on the turn the
Blind spell wears out or canceled, the victim can attack that turn.
Lightning (2)- A good spell to take out powerful/obnoxious stacks. I love using these on the genies since they are pretty deadly with their special 1/2 stack attack and high attack attributes.
Storm - A weaker form of Armageddon spell, but still pretty good and faster to learn than
Armageddon.
View All - An OK spell. By the time you can afford to construct that 4th layer for your spell tower to get this spell, the game is pretty much done. Useful at the end when you want to locate that last castle/town of the computer to finish him off.
View Resource - Could be handy if you know what kinda resource you will need to build a certain type of building. For example, a Warlock will want to look for all the unguarded sulfur resource he can find because sulfur is necessary to construct Swamp and the Dragon Tower.
### Nifty Spell Combos
Anti-Magic + Global Damage Combat Spells
Haste + Hydra
Paralyze + Range Strikers/Castle
Pestilence + COP: Black. oops, wrong game :)
3. Cracking The AI
The computer AI in the strategic gaming industry is still in its infancy. I've posted articles about how they are mislabeling the computer in games such as Master of Magic and Master of
Orion as "AI". You might see some comparisons below to other strategy games as examples. A very very few games out there have an AI that learns from your actions and mistakes and increases its knowledge from experiences much like a human being's brain and learning abilities. I know of one chess game that can do that. Blizzard claimed that the "AI" in
Warcraft 2 also has a "Learning AI", but either it has learning disability or it just isn't true because it seems to be dumber than the AI in
Warcraft 1. Most of the games out there are based on a rule-based knowledge base AI and can not learn from user's actions. It doesn't mean you can't create a good AI with that parameter.
Heroes of Might and Magic is one of the games with a better non-learning AI.
Many games compensated the weak AI by giving the computer bonuses at a higher setting. The
Master of XXX series from SimTex/MicroProse compensated the "hard" and "impossible" AI settings by giving the computer 25% to 50% bonuses over the human opponent in resources such as gold or $$$ and production power. The bonuses are in effect from the beginning to the end of the game. In HoMM, the computer does get a compensation, but only at the beginning of the game. In some of the scenarios that's marked as "hard", the computer might start off with more resources, or a lot of resources close by, or a castle with some pre-built buildings. Once this is done however, the computer doesn't "really" (see below) get any other bonuses throughout the game. This allows you a chance to catch up and have a shot at defeating the computer because you are not falling behind by +25% to +50% every turn.
A. The case where "AI" stands for "Automatic
Intelligence"
The computer has a better sight range than the human players depends on the AI difficulty settings. On the highest setting, I believe the computer can pretty much see the whole map in the very beginning. This could be very useful in locating the necessary resources, mines, and artifacts. This advantage decreases as the games goes on because you pretty much slowly balancing out this advantage by exploring. This also explains why once you leave your castle unguarded, you might see a computer make a straight line for your castle even if he hasn't explored that area yet. Warlords 2's AI actually sends out scouts when the "hidden map" option is on.
B. The case where "AI" stands for
"Automatically In"
- Free Stacks - The computer's hero has "incredible" luck in getting country side monsters to join his group. This advantage may be OK toward the end of the game, but it can easily tip the balance of power at the beginning of the game. According to NWC, the possibility of a monster group joining your hero's stack depends on the following things: Strength of your stack, type of monsters in your stack, type of hero. More than once I saw a computer stack marching toward me with peasants, archers, and
30 gargoyles at the beginning of the game. Even if I find out which stack is joining the computer and try to get to it first, it doesn't always work. Another time I checked a computer and he had a stack with griffins, centaurs, and peasants, and when he merged with a stack of gargoyle, he got about 34 of them. I then reloaded the saved game and try to get the monster stack myself and only 18 joined me. I repeated this several times and verified it but
NWC said that shouldn't happen. The computer also seem to know which monster stack will join his hero too. I've seen the computer walk past 2 or 3 monster stacks, free resources and etc. in a bee-line to another monster stack and poof!
It joins his stack of monsters and then turns toward my hero to attack him. From my experience, I found the monsters stacks are more likely to join me if I have the same monster types and a strong stack.
C. The case where "AI" stands for "Automatic
Instill-energy"
Ummm.... the "Instill Energy" phrase is borrowed from Magic: The Gathering :). This might just be my imagination, but have you noticed how the computer unit always get "lucky" and does twice the normal damage, and high moral and get two attacks. In the mean time, you're carrying a four leaf clover and the horse shoe and all the moral medals and your units still attack like a normal troop?
AI Faults
### The "Can't catch me" trick. If you are defending a castle and have fliers, even if it's only 5 faeries, keep them around. If the computer is attacking with slow monsters, you can just fly from one corner of the screen to another while your ballista does its damage to the computer monsters. Watch out for the "haste" spell. The computer doesn't use this trick.
### The "Teleport" trick. If you have more than 1 dimension doors, you can pretty much get most of the artifacts without having to deal with the guardian if there's an open space by it. Normally, once you move next to a guarding monster stack, you'll have to battle with them, but with dimension doors, you can teleport right next to them, pick up the artifact, and teleport out. I first learn this trick from watching a computer doing the exact same thing!
- The AI will often leave a castle weakly guarded if it has a hero to send out. If a strong computer stack comes your way and you can't defend your castle, you might want to leave the castle and have the computer take over it. It will then proceed to split his stack into 2 weaker ones so you'll have a better chance to defeat the computer or take back the castle.
4. Tips on different creatures
Knight
Peasant - Not too good at all, even if you have high stats heroes. Slow, low damage, you might want to have some to fill slots to protect your range strikers or from a castle being invaded.
Archer - Slow, but they do good damage in a large group.
Pikemen - Pretty good and cheap defense, especially when protecting range strikers.
Swordsmen - Another good, cheap attacker/defender.
Cavalry - Very good attacker and defender for the price. It's fast so they get to do most of the damage first.
Paladin - Cheapest Elite creature you can get.
They do really good damage and double attacking make them very dangerous.
5. Tips on Campaign
One "goofy" thing about this game is that one spell "overrides" another spell (except when
Anti-Magic is cast). For example, if I cast
"Curse" on one of the computer's troops, he can cast "Protection" on the same turn and nullify the "Curse" spell. The only exception I believe is the effect of Paralyze stays even if you overrides it with another spell (somebody verify?). So maybe it would be good sometimes to wait for the computer to cast that negative spell on your stack and you can cast a positive spell on your stack to negate and enchant your stack with one spell.
### A player cannot cast spells or use the
Ballistas in a castle if all the troops controlled by the player are blinded, or paralyzed.
Anti-Magic - A good spell to cast over your "good" units, particularly your missile units since the computer usually targets them first with negative spells.
Armageddon (4)- A really good global damage spell when used in conjunction with a dragon stack or Anti-Magic spell. An experienced hero with high Power attribute can really do damage with these combos since his dragon troop or anti-magiked troop(s) won't be affected by this spell.
Blind - Similar to paralyze where a troops is immobile for the number of combat turns equal to the opponent's hero's Power. I believe it is weaker than paralyze because on the turn the
Blind spell wears out or canceled, the victim can attack that turn.
Lightning (2)- A good spell to take out powerful/obnoxious stacks. I love using these on the genies since they are pretty deadly with their special 1/2 stack attack and high attack attributes.
Storm - A weaker form of Armageddon spell, but still pretty good and faster to learn than
Armageddon.
View All - An OK spell. By the time you can afford to construct that 4th layer for your spell tower to get this spell, the game is pretty much done. Useful at the end when you want to locate that last castle/town of the computer to finish him off.
View Resource - Could be handy if you know what kinda resource you will need to build a certain type of building. For example, a Warlock will want to look for all the unguarded sulfur resource he can find because sulfur is necessary to construct Swamp and the Dragon Tower.
### Nifty Spell Combos
Anti-Magic + Global Damage Combat Spells
Haste + Hydra
Paralyze + Range Strikers/Castle
Pestilence + COP: Black. oops, wrong game :)
3. Cracking The AI
The computer AI in the strategic gaming industry is still in its infancy. I've posted articles about how they are mislabeling the computer in games such as Master of Magic and Master of
Orion as "AI". You might see some comparisons below to other strategy games as examples. A very very few games out there have an AI that learns from your actions and mistakes and increases its knowledge from experiences much like a human being's brain and learning abilities. I know of one chess game that can do that. Blizzard claimed that the "AI" in
Warcraft 2 also has a "Learning AI", but either it has learning disability or it just isn't true because it seems to be dumber than the AI in
Warcraft 1. Most of the games out there are based on a rule-based knowledge base AI and can not learn from user's actions. It doesn't mean you can't create a good AI with that parameter.
Heroes of Might and Magic is one of the games with a better non-learning AI.
Many games compensated the weak AI by giving the computer bonuses at a higher setting. The
Master of XXX series from SimTex/MicroProse compensated the "hard" and "impossible" AI settings by giving the computer 25% to 50% bonuses over the human opponent in resources such as gold or $$$ and production power. The bonuses are in effect from the beginning to the end of the game. In HoMM, the computer does get a compensation, but only at the beginning of the game. In some of the scenarios that's marked as "hard", the computer might start off with more resources, or a lot of resources close by, or a castle with some pre-built buildings. Once this is done however, the computer doesn't "really" (see below) get any other bonuses throughout the game. This allows you a chance to catch up and have a shot at defeating the computer because you are not falling behind by +25% to +50% every turn.
A. The case where "AI" stands for "Automatic
Intelligence"
The computer has a better sight range than the human players depends on the AI difficulty settings. On the highest setting, I believe the computer can pretty much see the whole map in the very beginning. This could be very useful in locating the necessary resources, mines, and artifacts. This advantage decreases as the games goes on because you pretty much slowly balancing out this advantage by exploring. This also explains why once you leave your castle unguarded, you might see a computer make a straight line for your castle even if he hasn't explored that area yet. Warlords 2's AI actually sends out scouts when the "hidden map" option is on.
B. The case where "AI" stands for
"Automatically In"
- Free Stacks - The computer's hero has "incredible" luck in getting country side monsters to join his group. This advantage may be OK toward the end of the game, but it can easily tip the balance of power at the beginning of the game. According to NWC, the possibility of a monster group joining your hero's stack depends on the following things: Strength of your stack, type of monsters in your stack, type of hero. More than once I saw a computer stack marching toward me with peasants, archers, and
30 gargoyles at the beginning of the game. Even if I find out which stack is joining the computer and try to get to it first, it doesn't always work. Another time I checked a computer and he had a stack with griffins, centaurs, and peasants, and when he merged with a stack of gargoyle, he got about 34 of them. I then reloaded the saved game and try to get the monster stack myself and only 18 joined me. I repeated this several times and verified it but
NWC said that shouldn't happen. The computer also seem to know which monster stack will join his hero too. I've seen the computer walk past 2 or 3 monster stacks, free resources and etc. in a bee-line to another monster stack and poof!
It joins his stack of monsters and then turns toward my hero to attack him. From my experience, I found the monsters stacks are more likely to join me if I have the same monster types and a strong stack.
C. The case where "AI" stands for "Automatic
Instill-energy"
Ummm.... the "Instill Energy" phrase is borrowed from Magic: The Gathering :). This might just be my imagination, but have you noticed how the computer unit always get "lucky" and does twice the normal damage, and high moral and get two attacks. In the mean time, you're carrying a four leaf clover and the horse shoe and all the moral medals and your units still attack like a normal troop?
AI Faults
### The "Can't catch me" trick. If you are defending a castle and have fliers, even if it's only 5 faeries, keep them around. If the computer is attacking with slow monsters, you can just fly from one corner of the screen to another while your ballista does its damage to the computer monsters. Watch out for the "haste" spell. The computer doesn't use this trick.
### The "Teleport" trick. If you have more than 1 dimension doors, you can pretty much get most of the artifacts without having to deal with the guardian if there's an open space by it. Normally, once you move next to a guarding monster stack, you'll have to battle with them, but with dimension doors, you can teleport right next to them, pick up the artifact, and teleport out. I first learn this trick from watching a computer doing the exact same thing!
- The AI will often leave a castle weakly guarded if it has a hero to send out. If a strong computer stack comes your way and you can't defend your castle, you might want to leave the castle and have the computer take over it. It will then proceed to split his stack into 2 weaker ones so you'll have a better chance to defeat the computer or take back the castle.
4. Tips on different creatures
Knight
Peasant - Not too good at all, even if you have high stats heroes. Slow, low damage, you might want to have some to fill slots to protect your range strikers or from a castle being invaded.
Archer - Slow, but they do good damage in a large group.
Pikemen - Pretty good and cheap defense, especially when protecting range strikers.
Swordsmen - Another good, cheap attacker/defender.
Cavalry - Very good attacker and defender for the price. It's fast so they get to do most of the damage first.
Paladin - Cheapest Elite creature you can get.
They do really good damage and double attacking make them very dangerous.
5. Tips on Campaign
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Other files from this game:
- Heroes of Might & Magic cheats by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50
- Heroes of Might & Magic FAQ by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50