creature dwellings or economy buildings on week 1?

[pikeman93]

For week 1, which tends to be more effective on most maps? Getting a city hall up ASAP, or getting all the creature dwellings up?

Thanks.

[GreatEmerald]

This poll is missing the "depends on the map" choice.

[Pitsu]

In order to do well you need an army that can take neutrals around your town. The faster you capture mines and collect treasures the faster you develop. Unless the map is extra poor, dwellings are higher priority.

[Tress]

Depends on lots of factors, like how much resources you start with and you can get on adventure map, what race you play(for example rampart simply MUST get grand elves but can delay most other units), proximity of other players, and strength of local monsters.

Generally though(unless I am rushing) city hall for me is usually priority along with important units that can speed up clearing of vicinity(grand elves,other shooters)
Of course before end of the week you should try to get important dwellings up, so you get weeks stock in them, but generally by pressing too much on production facilities(and especially if you are new player and haven't yet learned to win most fight without casualties, which in turn mean that after several fights your army will lose critical mass of units that can clear monsters and access loot) you will get gold blocked and wont be able to afford units even though you have them in dwellings. ,Also such scenario delays city hall/capitol even further.
Anyway concentrating on at least city hall, is safe play, while fast expanding with extra units is somewhat gamble and requires more skill.

[Spin]

I almost always go for Capital as quickly as possible (week 2 day 1,2 or 3). The long-term benefit to me is much greater than the short-term benefit of capturing things from minor stacks. I play on Hard Diffuculty however so this is fairly easy, playing on expert makes it more difficult to do this.

To be honest, going for early capital almost never has problems, unless the opponent has a massive amount of units early on and can attack you before you get a castle.

[LoDebar]

Building creature dwellings is pointless if you don't have the money to recruit them, so definitely start with City Hall / Capitol.

[Salamandre]

1) Vs computer it does not matter, if you feel comfortable to have early capitol, go for it and enjoy, AI will certainly forgive you.
2) Vs human, you will get slaughtered if you try capitol first. Always. Human does not forgive.
3) It depends highly of the faction you use. It is not recommended to go for Capitol, for example, when playing stronghold because you can have behemots day 2-3. With behemots you will get much more gold around than capitol. Castle, on the other side, has a much slower start and the 7th dwelling costs a lot. Tower is even slower, if you delay by building capitol first, you will get titans only 3rd week, so you are toasted. Only giants sucks badly.

[Pitsu]

1) Vs computer it does not matter, if you feel comfortable to have early capitol, go for it and enjoy.
2) Vs human, you will get slaughtered if you try capitol first. Always.

QFE. Of course "dwellings first" option does not mean that you have to get all 7 dwellings up and upgraded before going for economics. City hall prerequisites aren't expensive, so it is likely that you get the hall before some dwellings. Against AI i play impossible with no starting resources and still go for 3-4 key dwellings before city hall.

[Salamandre]

Yes, for example castle has a higher chance to allow city hall, because you already built 2 of the requisites. Other towns do not require blacksmith or mage guild to go further. Some players prefer to go for city hall instead of castle, assuming they got angels before second week.

What I love so much in this game is that you have to adapt an unique plan to each faction or map. There is no safe "I will do this in every case". I once played a game with dungeon where I got Shakti with 140 trogs (combined) first day. There was a dragon dwelling near my town, which I took day 1. What was my second day build? Portal of summoning, of course, then capitol, because I had everything I needed to fight first and second week (4 dragons day 8).

[Banedon]

You *HAVE* to get creature dwellings first. Economy is great and all, but until you reach your key creatures (which creatures depend on which faction) that allow you to creep effortlessly, economy takes a back seat. Going for City Hall first is nice and dandy, but a player who shoots for creatures first WILL expand faster and therefore win.

Not much of a choice; I don't get what the people who went for economy first were thinking.

[Kristo]

Not much of a choice; I don't get what the people who went for economy first were thinking.

Maybe they were...

• playing against the AI on a larger map on low difficulty
• not playing Barbarian Breakout
• forgetting that your creature dwellings cost more than just gold

What the OP should take away from this is from a new player's perspective, it's really a hybrid approach. In the first week you have to focus on getting your faction's critical creature ASAP (we have that list somewhere I think) and then you can switch over to City Hall.

[Dstr]

it depends on the difficulty you're playing and whether map is rich or poor.
if i see a lot of treasures gold i go for dwellings, if not for economy.

[Banedon]

What the OP should take away from this is from a new player's perspective, it's really a hybrid approach. In the first week you have to focus on getting your faction's critical creature ASAP (we have that list somewhere I think) and then you can switch over to City Hall.

That's the idea, for sure. You also need to put up as many dwellings as possible before the start of the new week. Week 2 is the time to focus on economy, not week 1. Week 1 is the time to stockpile as many creatures as you can while hiring those critical to your creeping.

(Personal) critical creature list:

Castle: Marksmen -> Crusaders
Rampart: Grand Elves + Centaur Warchiefs
Fortress: Basilisks + Gorgons, Dragon Flies are quite important too
Tower: this race never quite suited me; Master Gremlins + as many Iron Golems as is necessary I suppose
Inferno: Efreet Sultans
Stronghold: Thunderbirds
Dungeon: Evil Eyes
Conflux: Storm Elementals
Necropolis: all the mid-tier creatures

[Bersaglio]

Rampart: ... + Centaur Warchiefs

No such creatures exist in the game. Only Centaur Captains. Try to play the game first.

[jeff]

Ok this is tiring, people posting in this forum without saying which Heroes you are talking about. Bandon and others are assuming H-III I guess from his dwelling list. In H-I, II, III creature dwellings are probably more important as you get the new creatures at the start of the week only. One reason I no longer play those, where in H-IV creatures being supplied throughout the week gives the edge to the Town/City Hall to increase the gold supply.

So I did not vote as I won't try to read minds.

[Salamandre]

No such creatures exist in the game. Only Centaur Captains. Try to play the game first.

Are you sure?

[Kristo]

Bersaglio, please be more respectful. I assure you Banedon knows what he's talking about. Unless Centaur Warchiefs are a WOG addition I'm not familiar with, it's probably just a translation difference between game versions.

[GreatEmerald]

Rampart: Grand Elves + Centaur Warchiefs
Fortress: Basilisks + Gorgons, Dragon Flies are quite important too
Tower: this race never quite suited me; Master Gremlins + as many Iron Golems as is necessary I suppose
Stronghold: Thunderbirds
Dungeon: Evil Eyes
Necropolis: all the mid-tier creatures

I've never heard of Warchiefs either... But anyway, these are the points that make me wonder. How are Centaurs good? They are fast, true, but then they have basically no defence to speak of and an army of them will dwindle very fast on every battle.

Why Basilisks? They are slow, even if hard-hitting, but there is little special about them.

Yea, I can't think of anyone special in the Tower, but I'd say upgraded Magi for their spell point boost and the fact that they are decent ranged troops. Obsidian Gargoyles are also pretty nice for their speed and relatively high defence.

Thunderbirds? They are easy to get, but, like Centaurs, they have little defence, which leaves them easy prey to most enemies. They aren't that strong, either, if we don't count the lightning bolt ability.

Again, Evil eyes? Is there any reason to prefer them over Medusae? Minotaurs and Manticores are also very important.

For Necropolis, it's basically Vampire Lords, unless you're surrounded by undead or Conflux troops

[Salamandre]

I've never heard of Warchiefs either... D

Umm no, it was only a joke directed to Bersaglio disrespectful post. They don't exist

[GreatEmerald]

Umm no, it was only a joke directed to Bersaglio disrespectful post. They don't exist

Why you forger!