HOMM 2 : Strategy on Descendants 6 (Ivory Gates)
Sebastien Patenaude
Remember that the victory objective is capturing the Ivory Gates castle
and NOT elimininating all enemies. I won in 78 days (month 3, week 4,
day 1) suffering several interesting setbacks along the way. In HOMM 2,
"losing" is often a learning experience ;-)
1) Hire either Joseph or Ivan on day 1 and make him your main hero.
2) Buy Mage Guild Level 1.
3) Take gold from the chests (except when it gives you 1500 Xp) in the
first few days to buy a few more creature-structures in the first week.
4) Attack level-1 walkers in the first week but avoid attacking Sprites
until week 2 where they will possibly join you. Attacking wandering
shooters is up to you but prepare to suffer some losses if you do. DO
NOT ATTACK ELVES OR FASTER SHOOTERS TOO SOON ! Let the red enemies clear
them for you.
5) Capture west sorceress castle on day 1 or 2 of week 2 with your main
hero. Make sure to give him reinforcements from your initial castle
before the conquest.
6) Watch out for the red barbarians. You could maybe get attacked in
week 2 or 3 but the probability is less if you don't make your main hero
venture too far from home territory.
7) If the reds are really too close and are going in your direction,
leave the main hero inside the initial castle.
8) Brown dirt land is red barbarian territory
9) Snow land in the norhtwest is green wizard territory.
10) On week 3, I rushed out from my clearing with my main hero.
11) Avoiding or attacking the red heroes depends on circumstances.
12) Avoid the red heroes if they have lots of Grand Elves (or other
wandering stacks that are not barbarian) or if you're not sure of
winning with minimum casualties.
13) Attack the red heroes if they have been weakened significantly while
trying to kill wandering stacks.
14) There's an Alchemist Lab (mercury) north of the clearing. It's worth
taking it if you're not in danger of being attacked by red.
15) The safer option would be avoiding the red heroes entirely, going
north-northwest and capturing the barbarian castle in the center of the
map.
16) This is red's main castle. If you're lucky he doesn't have the town
in the southwest corner and you can wait him out one week for default
elimination. If you're not lucky (more likely ;-), then he has the town
in the southwest corner and you will have to capture it eventually.
17) It's possible to build the Phoenix Red Tower in week 4.
18) Red was eliminated in the middle of week 2, but not before he
eliminated 4 of my precious Phoenix with a lucky shot :-(
19) Your main army, composed of sorceress troops, can launch the
offensive in green territory from the west (north of the southwest
corner castle) or east (northeast from barbarian castle). Not knowing
the map, I decided to pick the eastern way and explore the northeast
corner.
20) There are lots of chests and resources in the northeast corner
(enough to build a Dragon Tower even) but it would have been better if
my best army had ventured in the northwest corner first as you will
discover by reading on.
21) Your barbarian army should protect your castles from green
incursions while your killer stack (main army) is busy elsewhere... or
at least weaken the green enemies a bit before they reach your important
home castles. Ideally, your barbarian castle will serve as a "buffer
zone".
22) At this time, I suffered a serious setback when scouting with my
barbarian army near the snowy green territory. I got attacked by a
super-strong wizard army out of nowhere. I surrendered but not before
being losing many troops that could have better served as garrison. I
should have stayed around my barbarian castle with my barbarian army and
NOT attract green's attention like I recklessly did.
23) After that, a powerful green army with Titans conquered my barbarian
castle and my 2 home sorceress castles. I weakened him as much as I
could with my garrisons but I could not stop his onslaught. This enemy
had Dimension Door and Summon Earth Elemental !!!
24) Little castle defense tip : you have lots of gold but no more troops
to buy ? Hire a spellcasting hero, attack the nearby enemy with only a
very fast troop, cast a powerful offensive spell (don't forget Berserker
if you have it, it's quite good), surrender, rehire the spellcaster (or
another one if he has no more spell points) and repeat.
25) How do you handle a powerful spellcaster with a Summon Elemental
Spell ? You kill all the non-elemental stacks and then surrender. That
way, the enemy will be "eliminated" because his Elementals are only
temporary :-)
26) At this time, my main army was still intact in the northeast corner
(44 Druids, 100 Battle Dwarves, 75 Elves (boosted to 139 by a wandering
stack ;-), 196 Sprites and 9 Phoenix). The poweful green invader had
been weakened and had split his army to garrison my lost castles. My
castle in the southwest corner (random but warlock in this game) had not
been attacked and had a significant army including 4 Red Dragons.
27) My main army destroyed easily the remains of the green invading
super-hero who had ventured close to it.
28) My main army then rushed west deep into green territory... It
captured the southern-most enemy castle and then went north to capture
the secondary wizard castle Witthingham (east of Ivory Gates). Bide your
time, if there are more than a few Titans in the garrison, until an
enemy leaves the castle with those troops. Tip : Stay a day-away from
any castle to lure the defending hero outside.
29) As I had guessed, there were some unbought Titans in this castle and
a level-5 Mage Guild with a library (where Dimension Door and Summon
Earth Elemental came from).
30) The enemy is "stuck" in Ivory Gates so don't worry about it until
you are ready to attack.
31) This isn't totally necessary but I decided to retake my sorceress
castles in the southeast corner with my army in the southwest corner.
32) To win, you must capture Ivory Gates protected by approximately : 18
Titans, 87 Steel Golems, 24 Rocs, 65 Archmages and 17 Giants (more or
less depending on when you attack).
33) My army was composed of 8 Titans and my best surviving sorceress
stacks led by a very powerful spellcaster (Joseph). I won by using
fourth and fifth-level spells even though my army was much weaker than
my opponent. Spells used : Mass Haste (once), Chain Lightning (once),
Resurrect on my Titans and most importantly Summon Earth Elemental (3
times). I haven't used them but Blind, Paralyse or Berserker might be
good on enemy stacks other than Giants and Titans that are immune to
mind spells.
34) As you see, it's possible to win with a lesser army if you make good
use of the high-level spells you do manage to get.
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Per Bjerkaker
Sebastien Patenaude wrote:
>
> Remember that the victory objective is capturing the Ivory Gates castle
> and NOT elimininating all enemies.
> 6) Watch out for the red barbarians. You could maybe get attacked in
> week 2 or 3 but the probability is less if you don't make your main hero
> venture too far from home territory.
But you could really need all that gold and resources north of your
starting castle.
When I played I had the Stateman's Quill and surrendered when Red
attacked.
> 19) Your main army, composed of sorceress troops, can launch the
> offensive in green territory from the west (north of the southwest
> corner castle) or east (northeast from barbarian castle). Not knowing
> the map, I decided to pick the eastern way and explore the northeast
> corner.
>
> 20) There are lots of chests and resources in the northeast corner
> (enough to build a Dragon Tower even) but it would have been better if
> my best army had ventured in the northwest corner first as you will
> discover by reading on.
When I played I went NW and captured the Green's western Warlock Castle.
He then took it back with a super army of Black Dragons and Titans (not
many, but enough). He then proceeded to eliminate Red by taking his home
castle.
Then the computer does the error it always does, spliting one mighty
army into two weak ones and my fresh Sorceress troops had no problem
taking the Barbarian castle.
Then I went straight to Ivory gates, capturing the other Wizard castle
on the way.
On day 1 of the ?th month I was at Ivory Gates. The army looked
impressive, but the idiot computer player had two very weak stacks of
Dwarves and Druids in the front line, preventing much stronger armies
from joining the battle.
I knew it would take long time to get reenorcements, so I boldly
charged.
When the battle was over I had only 6 Dwarves left!
The closest big battle I have fought in HOMM
>
> 32) To win, you must capture Ivory Gates protected by approximately : 18
> Titans, 87 Steel Golems, 24 Rocs, 65 Archmages and 17 Giants (more or
> less depending on when you attack).
But if the Hero there has other armies with him, not all will join the
battle.
Thanks for you Strategy Articles, they make good reading.
Are all your articles available on a web site?
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Sebastien Patenaude
Per Bjerkaker wrote:
>
> Sebastien Patenaude wrote:
> >
> > Remember that the victory objective is capturing the Ivory Gates castle
> > and NOT elimininating all enemies.
>
> > week 2 or 3 but the probability is less if you don't make your main hero
> > venture too far from home territory.
>
> starting castle.
> When I played I had the Stateman's Quill and surrendered when Red
> attacked.
Lucky you, I decided that the risk of being attacked by red too soon
wasn't worth the few resources and chests I might have gotten north of
my initial castle.
> > 19) Your main army, composed of sorceress troops, can launch the
> > offensive in green territory from the west (north of the southwest
> > corner castle) or east (northeast from barbarian castle). Not knowing
> > the map, I decided to pick the eastern way and explore the northeast
> > corner.
> >
> > 20) There are lots of chests and resources in the northeast corner
> > (enough to build a Dragon Tower even) but it would have been better if
> > my best army had ventured in the northwest corner first as you will
> > discover by reading on.
>
> When I played I went NW and captured the Green's western Warlock Castle.
> He then took it back with a super army of Black Dragons and Titans (not
> many, but enough).
> He then proceeded to eliminate Red by taking his home
> castle.
That's cool. For once, the computer opponent proved "useful" ;-)
> Then the computer does the error it always does, spliting one mighty
> army into two weak ones and my fresh Sorceress troops had no problem
> taking the Barbarian castle.
Yes this is an AI "error" but very minor compared to when the computer
scraps his Titans to get a few Peasants from a hut :-) I know this is an
extreme example but I saw similar terrible AI mistakes happen.
> Then I went straight to Ivory gates, capturing the other Wizard castle
> on the way.
> On day 1 of the ?th month I was at Ivory Gates.
What month ?
> The army looked
> impressive, but the idiot computer player had two very weak stacks of
> Dwarves and Druids in the front line, preventing much stronger armies
> from joining the battle.
Amazing ! I didn't think the AI would transfer secondary troops to an
hero stuck protecting the castle.
> I knew it would take long time to get reenorcements, so I > boldly
> charged.
> When the battle was over I had only 6 Dwarves left!
> The closest big battle I have fought in HOMM
> > 32) To win, you must capture Ivory Gates protected by approximately : 18
> > Titans, 87 Steel Golems, 24 Rocs, 65 Archmages and 17 Giants (more or
> > less depending on when you attack).
>
> But if the Hero there has other armies with him, not all will join the
> battle.
As I wrote before, this surprises me very much.
> Thanks for you Strategy Articles, they make good reading.
> Are all your articles available on a web site?
Check out my signature and follow the link. Most of my HOMM 2 articles
are there (map strategy and reviews : Council of Generals ; general
strategy articles : Freeman's Foundry ; spellcasting tips : Mage Guild).
I hope you enjoy your visit :-)
Per Bjerkaker
Sebastien Patenaude wrote:
> > The army looked
> > impressive, but the idiot computer player had two very weak stacks of
> > Dwarves and Druids in the front line, preventing much stronger armies
> > from joining the battle.
>
> Amazing ! I didn't think the AI would transfer secondary troops to an
> hero stuck protecting the castle.
It is a while since I played, but I do remember that a rather large
stack of Giants didn't show up in the battle. I have seen several times
that the AI recruits a new hero in a castle with a large garrison. Then
instead of tranferring the Hero's weak armies to the castle and the
strong Garrison to the Hero, the computer mixes troopes with no regard
to morale or speed. This does not seem to be the case in my battle,
unless I have confused Druids with Sptites.
The AI does not seem to like haveing large armies. Sometimes, when the
computer player is confined to a small area, and I invade, instead of
joining all it's small armies under one strong hero to crush me or
protect it's castle, it hires another lvl 1 hero.
The hero sits happily in the castle with 2 weak armies in the front,
making it easy for me to take the castle. The strong heroes goes round
visting mines and I just sit in the castle until the heroes abandon the
AI.
The AI in this game is so utterly pathetic that I often wonder why i
bother to play it at all. If the game was not so incredibly good in
other areas, like tactical combat, exploration, strategy (what buildings
to build and in which castles etc.) and character development. There is
just the right amount of resource managment.
I could go on forever about how the AI SUCKS in this game, but let me
mention:
The AI mixes troops with no regard to morale and speed.
The AI never reacts to an invasion, even when it outnumbers me 100 to 1.
I guess my hero is outside it's "range".
The AI defend it's castles poorly. Often it has a weak garrison and a
hero with weak armies just a few hexes from the castle. It is piece of
cake defeating both, but with the hero in the castle in could be
difficult.
The AI never seems to use killer spells like Blind (my personal favorite
compared to level), Mass Slow and Mass Haste. It nearly always casts
Disruting Ray on the largest stack with best Defense, but then attacks
another unit.
Thr AI never takes advantage of the special abilities of Dragons,
Cyclops, Phoenix and Hydras.
The AI always uses it's flyers to attack shooters regardless of how many
shooters I have.
The list is endless, but the worst cases have already been mentioned
before.
I think the poor AI is a disgrace and makes HOOMII a flawed masterpiece.
I have only one wish for HOOM 3. Make the AI much better.
Per