Nucleon plays only on the two last levels of difficulty: maybe you're playing at a lesser one.
The higher the difficulty setting, the more important Marksmen become. That's because you simply won't have the resources to build your Royal Griffins! Think about it logically. Even on Impossible difficulty, you can recruit Marksmen with relative ease (their dwelling is definitely cheap), while Royal Griffins take more effort as well as being less effective.
Nucleon assuredly build his castle in the second week. Well before Archangels a)come into play and b) reach the venturing army.
You did not understand what I meant. I will not attempt to siege a town with a Castle inside in the second week.
And yes, send your Archangels over the ennemy's defense first occasion you've got; this way, they'll get mangled and will be too busy to lose a turn healing something, unless they decide to die to ressurect these precious Marksmen.
Ah, but you're doing the same with your Dragonflies! Again, you fail to understand what I mean. If you're up against neutrals, then the Archangels simply will not die (they're far too powerful for that). If it's against a large AI army commanded by a hero, then it would be time to alter tactics and not charge in with the Archangels.
You "talk" like if you last battle would be your second one.
Are you telling me I
must lose Marksmen in
any battle? Can you honestly hold up to that? Have we not given you more than sufficient proof that
in any battle except a castle siege, it is unlikely the Castle player loses more than a few Marksmen?
You implies Tactics, and even then, you won't escape the Magogs' fireball or the Liches' Death Cloud. That's good to rely on Tactics, but if it is essential to your strategy, you might have a flawed one.
Tactics is not essential, and it is (again) remarkably dumb to group units together against Magogs and Liches. I remember you once commented that we must be like water - ever changing, always ready to counter the opponent's strategy. It applies here. If the Ranged units I'm facing are Magogs and Liches, you can be sure I will not group my units together without neutralizing that Ranged stack first.
If they can't take damage, then why are they always targeted, for crying out loud? As if Nucleon wounded them Himself on purpose!
Because you're not using them properly! You
have to defend Marksmen, because they cannot take damage! If the AI hits your Marksmen and kills a significant amount of them, it only proves that you've some way to go before you master Heroes 3.
Yes, that's reasonnably possible; Once the Griffin bastion is built, you get 10 griffins plus the fortification bonuses. On the other hand, an early stack of lvl 5 monsters would likely be limited in numbers. And of course, this is going to cost a few losses; Any guesses regarding who will bite the bullet?
No one's saying you can't win. But you will lose an enormous portion of your army, and because of that it is your expansion that will be curtailed, and it will be you who fails to deploy Angels at the start of week 3.
What you really can't buy neither are Angels after 13 days if you are that timid in your early conquests.
What timid? As far as I can see, it is you who will have to be timid, since you happily lose 50% of your army against Liches.
Well, that's a bit beyond that. If you are attacking, say, a Griffin conservatory (and many will, as soon as they can), you will suffer losses to your Marksmen. Same thing if you encounter Dragonflies, Elves, Evil Eyes, as well as a plethoria of other occurances where shooting and/or speed is involved.
If it's a Griffin Conservatory, then things change. Here Marksmen will almost certainly die, and it is a good death, because victory gives you Angels. I definitely wouldn't mind losing 30 Marksmen and gaining 5 Angels.
Nucleon maybe don't use them "properly" as in "some die", but He uses them at His advantage nonetheless, believe you Him.
Your advantage is remarkably small then. Just how much of an advantage do you gain? I assure you that with Marksmen I can
claim every mine and
capture every loose resource and
seize any towns (if they don't have Castles built in them) in a typical map like All For One,
with little or no losses. Tell me Griffins can do the same.
Second week is ambition time; That's where Nucleon would take on more sizeable oppo to get an early advantage. If lvl5 monster are encountered, they will likely guard, say, a passageway, shipyard, or "treasure coves". Rarely a mine. That's also where He would take on any Griffin Conservatory, even if it costs him a sizeable percentage of His whole force. It doesn't matter anyway, as He would now have 3-5 Angels and another production in a few days' time.
Without a sizable stack of Marksmen, Castle cannot hope to take out a Griffin Conservatory in Week 2 (in fact, I do not think Castle can defeat a Griffin Conservatory at all in this time on Impossible difficulty). 100 Royal Griffins spread all around is too much.
-Postpone conquest during a crucial time
-Need 20k gold, 5 woods, and 12 of every other ressources (but in ore, where you gain 5) more, creatures cost themselves being out of the equation. We need a most generous map.
-Forget about buying a lot of these at the start of week 3.
-Forget about Cavaliers in the near future.
Regarding postpone conquest - this is completely wrong, because a Castle force using Marksmen and Crusaders is as strong as one using Marksmen and Royal Griffins, even stronger.
Regarding resources - this can be farmed for, and we do not need a most generous map. Remember the map All For One? Would you call that generous? Yet I managed to achieve Green Dragons by the end of Week 2.
Regarding not being able to recruit them - this is irrelevant, because as long as the dwelling is built I will have more of them than you. If I enter the final battle with 5 Archangels against your 3, I will have a huge, perhaps decisive, advantage.
Regarding not getting Cavaliers - so what? So what when Angels are so much stronger and Crusaders can do all the tanking in the meantime?
The construction of the three Griffin Buildings (you can delay the bastion at a pinch) is amazingly cheap at a good time, so you can still have the Capital on week two. That's kinda difficult to achieve if you sacrifice all of your ressources on the Portal of Glory.
Equally, by sacrificing the Capital on week 2, if it means I build the Portal of Glory and you don't, I will do it.
You remember how the inside of a conservatory is? No tactics there. Nucleon expect that the Marksmen's role in there will be to attract first attacks and absorb retaliation (this time, yes). So what? That's 12-20 guys at the max; Make that 6-10 survivors. That hardly makes any difference even two weeks later.
Neither will 6-10 Lizard Warriors.
6-10 of any level 2 unit will be insignificant come the final battle.
How about winning with Master Gremlins? Will you use all of the Tower's ressource to insure Master Gremlin survivability?
Yes, I would. But Master Gremlins are far less important than Marksmen, and ensuring their survival isn't so important.
What He can claim however, is that He engaged very few armies where He didn't obliterated the present hapless Marksmen, with facility.
Then he is wrong. I have engaged very many neutral stacks with Marksmen and didn't lose a single one. Perhaps at this point it would suffice to list down the neutrals Marksmen may face.
A good stack of Marksmen, paired with some Crusaders and maybe Halberdiers, will take out:
1. All level 1 neutral stacks with zero or almost zero losses.
2. All level 2 neutral stacks except Storm Elementals with zero or almost zero losses.
3. All level 3 neutral stacks except Dragonflies, Grand Elves and Evil Eyes with zero or almost zero losses.
4. All level 4 neutral stacks with slight losses (this requires spell-casting though).
5. By facing level 5 neutrals, it is reasonable to assume even higher level creatures to be available.
Yes, Nucleon tends to let that slip sometimes. Someone who's picking the conversation here may think that He dislike Marksmen; Once again, that's not the case; He greatly appreciate them, but only as much as somebody likes any disposable thing; they have their uses, they help you pass a certain point, but that's it...
Nucleon is wrong. Marksmen continue to be useful up to the last battles, and a large stack of Marksmen will deal great damage there. A stack of 250 Marksmen in such a battle cannot be easily looked over, while an equal stack of 250 Zombies can be (relatively) ignored.
csarmi - What did you vote for? Marksmen?
