StarStorm's Strategies

Domestic

1) Build your town to the strategy you will use. If you want to take the domestic route with more money and resources, work on your Hall and their requirements. If you want a strong army early on, build dwellings.

2) It is possible to have two heroes at one time in a town. Simply go to the town screen, then click on your hero's picture, then click on the shield above it (where the town garrison is shown). This is a nice way to have two heroes be able to recharge SP, and gather creatures. Not to mention nasty surprises.

3) A nice little tip: You can leave a garrison at mines, by visiting it again, I believe. This is a very nice way to give your opponent a shock, and to protect your assets.

4) When townbuilding, worry about your most important domestic buildings (Castles, Halls, and any requirements) and dwellings. The rest is icing on the cake, and should only be built if it won't interfere with your strategy and you have nothing better to do anyway.

5) If you manage to get a hold of the Holy Grail, PLACE IT WISELY. The Colossus and the Soul Prison (For Necropolis users anyway) provide much better benefits than the Deity of Fire, for example.

6) If possible, build every day. If you cannot, prioritize your towns. The ones most likely to suffer attack are good places to start.

7) Resources that you do not use should be traded away for those you will, such as gold. A hundred gems are worthless if they're just sitting there and you don't need them.

8) Make use of external objects. Creature dwellings add to your creature production in towns. Use Garrisons (and Anti-Magic Garrisons, if possible.) Use them to your advantage, and be willing to fight for them.


Heroes

1) Pump your heroes as soon as possible. If there's a Learning Stone nearby, use it. If there's a Tree of Knowledge, visit it... and so on. Try to get all of your heroes to any ability boosting object they can reach: it will be worth it in the long run.

2) Don't be afraid to buy a couple more heroes in the first few turns. More heroes mean more area explored, and more resources. Exploration is, after all, most important at the beginning of the game.

3) DISTRIBUTE THE ARTIFACTS. A nice helmet in a hero's backpack is worthless, even if they have something better. There are no requirements to use artifacts, and even a low level hero with decent artifacts can be a force to be reckoned with, if they have a well designed army. This also prevents enemies from stealing all of your nice artifacts.

4) You can control your heroes' skills to an extent. A hero always gets the choice to advance a skill they have learned or to learn a new one on a new level. So raise their current skills until they get a new one you think would work well for them.

5) It can be to your advantage to specialize your heroes. An explorer should probably know Pathfinding, Logistics, Diplomacy, Scholar, and Wisdom (Air and Earth Magic is suggested too, for those nifty transportation spells.) A siege warrior is best with Leadership, Ballistics and Armorer. A combat intensive hero should know Leadership, Offense, Armorer, Tactics, and perhaps Artillery. A spellcaster should know Wisdom, Sorcery, Intelligence, and at least two elemental Magic skills.

6) Explorers should be equipped with the fastest units available, preferably of their own town type. Movement boosting artifacts are not out of place either.

7) Keep in mind your heroes' specialties and USE THEM. While resource specialties are in play all the time, as with skill specialties, creature and magic should be taken advantage of. For example, the Knight Valeska should ALWAYS have Archers or Marksmen.

8) Heroes left to guard cities are perfect wielders of the Legion artifacts.

9) Make sure to outfit heroes with artifacts that compliment their abilities. Don't just slap on a stat boosting artifact until you give it some thought. You usually have the time.


Military

1) Don't disdain the lower level creatures. While it may be impressive to have seven units of Level 6-7 creatures, they're not really effective as an army, in addition to being hideously expensive. Low-to-mid level creatures will be your workhorses.

2) Try to keep a variety of creatures, according to your general battle strategy. Seven varied units are better than a massive, single unit, if only for the reason that the single unit would suffer up to seven attacks a turn.

3) It's usually wise to get a large army early, so you can quickly run around gathering your initial resources. Not to mention that if your army is strong enough, the neutral, wandering units might offer to join your army, or at least run away.

4) Buy and use siege engines. They are all useful in their own way. IMHO however, your first concern should be an Ammo Cart, unless you do not use ranged fighters (and not doing so would be silly.)

5) When buying creatures, keep in mind their abilities and how you can improve them, or use them to your advantage.


Magic

1) GET A SPELLBOOK. If your hero does NOT have a spellbook, GET ONE. Magic is too valuable in this game not to have it, and a hero without one is at a serious disadvantage.

2) If you get the chance, make sure every hero you have gets the Wisdom skill. While the low level spells have their own advantages, without Wisdom, you don't have the option of using the more powerful spells, unless you can find certain relics.

3) In general, your most valuable spells will be your support spells. This makes sense, as the majority of your damage will be dealt by your army. So it's wise to know spells such as Haste and Bless.

4) On the other side of the coin, hampering your opponent's army is even better, by limiting their damage and allowing you to kill them off more easily.

5) Don't rely on SP regeneration, as it's too low to do any good. When you get low, and are sure you'll need it, run to the nearest town or Magic Well. If the hero has Town Portal, keep 30 or so in reserve.

6) Don't discount the Adventure spells. The transportation abilities are priceless, whether on attack or escape.

7) In that same thread, remember every spell has it's place, and no spell is truly useless. Most of all, be creative. You never know if it will work or not in the way you want it to, and you'll keep your enemies guessing.


Combat

1) USE YOUR CREATURES' SPECIAL ABILITIES! After all, while the Archangel's ability to resurrect is nice, it's worthless if it isn't used.

2) Use your spells. Every turn should see you casting a spell of some sort, unless you have a good reason not to. If you can't think of anything to do to your army, or anything else to hamper your enemies, do some damage.

3) Know what your creatures can do. Somebody who can attack twice should be attacking the more powerful foes. Hydras should be as far from your units as possible. Dragons should take any chance to attack two enemies at a time.

4) In general, ranged fighters should stay that way. While some do not have the melee penalty that most ranged units have, they're best used at a distance.

5) On the same vein, DO NOT move your ranged attackers unless they are under attack or you want to move them into a better protected position. It's generally better to let the enemy come to them, because moving wastes a chance to attack, even with the distance penalty.

6) Sometimes it's better to defend. Generally when a slower unit is about to be under attack by a faster one, and cannot reach them in time.

7) Don't be afraid to surrender or retreat. While surrender is very costly (especially with many high level creatures), and retreating forces the hero to lose all of their units, doing so will prevent a powerful hero (with many artifacts, possibly) from being used against YOU. Buying him/her back would be a measly 2500 Gold, which is cheap considering that your ex-hero could do some serious damage..

8) On the same token, if you can do it, eliminate the army as quickly as possible. It will give bit more experience, and it prevents the opponent from getting the hero back on their next turn. Not to mention you take all of their possessions.

9) When defending a siege, the key thing is to MAKE THEM COME TO YOU. While they're trying to batter down the walls, your ranged fighters and your arrow towers will make pin(arrow?)cushions of them.

10) Use your artifacts to your advantage. If you are sure you can defeat a foe, and don't want them to escape, use the Shackles of War. Tailor your Artifacts to what you will expect from your enemy, and what you want to do.

11) Most of all, know what your hero is capable of, your creatures are capable of, and their weaknesses. After all, according to Sun Tzu, that is halfway to winning the battle.


Multiplayer

1) Be respectful of your opponents. Just because they may not see you does not mean the Golden Rule doesn't apply.

2) If you have an ally (or allies), help them! Give them your unused resources, and the creatures they might request. After all, the longer your support stays in the game, the better chances YOU have of winning.

3) Computer controlled allies tend to be rather poor, especially as backup.

4) NEVER allow yourself to be predictable. At all times you should have a surprise in store. You're dealing with an opponent who is probably as good as you are. So play like it.

5) Many players play with a time limit on turns. Remember though that it is suspended during combat, so be patient.