Heroes are now being added into combat to turn the tide of war.
Beside the new hero addition, now bases can only construct alternate unit structures for your army. This means that you need to prepare a certain build against your enemy and to your play style. Like you can either choose Champion of Angel and build only one of them. Every unit have their individualize trait so you need to study them well before using the race.
Choosing either unit structure will disable the other option with a grey option which leads to unable to build.
Races of the game
The Haven town is aligned with Life magic that focuses on healing and protection spells, and makes its home on grass terrain. The creatures that can be hired are, in ascending order of level with two creatures per level, Squire, Crossbowman, Ballista, Pikeman, Monk, Crusader, Champion, and Angel. The level 1 Peasant is also associated with life.
The Academy town studies Order magic that focuses on teleportation and mind spells, and is native to snow terrain. The monsters available are Halfling, Dwarf, Mage, Gold Golem, Genie, Naga, Titan, and Dragon Golem.
The Necropolis is aligned with Death magic that focuses on necromantic and curse spells, and lives upon volcanic terrain. The creatures available are the Imp, Skeleton, Cerberus, Ghost, Vampire, Venom Spawn, Bone Dragon, and Devil. The level 1 Zombie, level 2 Gargoyle and Mummy, and level 3 Ice Demon are also related to death.
The Asylum is native to swamp terrain and studies Chaos magic that focuses on damage and attack spells. The creatures that can be hired are the Orc, Bandit, Medusa, Minotaur, Efreet, Nightmare, Hydra, and Black Dragon. The level 1 Pirate and Troglodyte and level 2 Evil eye and Troll are also connected to chaos.
The Preserve allies with Nature magic that focuses on strength and summoning spells, and is native to grass terrain. The standard available creatures are Sprite, Wolf, Elf, White Tiger, Griffin, Unicorn, Faerie Dragon, and Phoenix. In addition, the extra Creature Portal dwelling allows all other nature-aligned creatures to be purchased in a Preserve town, which include the level 1 Leprechaun, the level 2 Satyr, the level 3 Earth Elemental, Fire Elemental, Water Elemental, Air Elemental, and Waspwort, and the level 4 Mantis.
The Stronghold is based primarily on Might, cannot produce spells or heroes that start out as spellcasters, and makes its home on rough terrain. The creatures are Berserker, Centaur, Nomad, Harpy, Ogre Mage, Cyclops, Thunderbird, and Behemoth. The game's two sea-based creatures, the level 2 Mermaid and the level 4 Sea Monster, are also technically aligned with Might, although these creatures rarely appear alongside other Might creatures and can never be purchased by players.
My Perspective of the Game
My party will consist of 2 heroes, a spell caster (to buff own army or debuff enemy) and a warrior (main attacker). Your hero can venture into different classes which bonus various stats depending on his first 2 combination of skills. I would usually pump my heroes with potion of immortality too so if they fall in combat, they will automatically be resurrected. The extra potions will be activated after the guardian angel effect been used up, just recast the potion to grant another guardian angel. Heroes are way more tough and tankable than units given the right build and artifacts. Your spellcasting heroes may want to learn the various ward skills as it protect them from offensive spells by the opponent.
The skill tree for hero classes based on different skill combinations.
I would use my this main 2 hero in a party to venture out and conquer thus stacking all the experience on them. After travelling far and losing troops along the way, fret not as you can build caravans to transport troops from a town to another else you can push your troops out unto the adventure map without a hero leading them. The troops are able to battle other hero,units or neutral troops in the map or used to travel to your main hero to combine forces.
Being a haven / castle fan, I would usually play the race and the troops trait are usually along the same line. My build is to go for Ballista, Monks and Angels. I like to have a ranged army as I am confident that my angels are strong enough to tank a considerable amount of damage. Life magics are mostly defensive spells which make up for my melee shortage in my party and lastly the level 5 guardian angel spell is just sick to grant as much as up to 8 life to the unit. This means despite having an angel, it will be equivalent to fighting it 9 times per cast if you hero spell power is high.
The almighty angels are a fearsome unit on the battlefield.
Lastly artifacts grant heroes special skills throughout the battle worth venturing for. The concept of artifacts sets are back in this game too and grant a bonus of even greater buff to hero or unit. Thus many players may not enjoy this edition of heroes as all this buffs and bonuses or spells may make the heroes too OP and lead to a hero battle instead of armies hording against each other.
