Help with H4 Dragon Golems

[cjlee]

I have been playing H4 for many years by now and for all its flaws it is my favorite version of Heroes. It is really all about Heroes in my mind, and the closest by far to an RPG version of HOMM.

Now there are many units in H4 that I am not good at using, for the simple fact that they never play much of a role in my playing style or my strategies.

One of these is the Orc. The orc does hardly any damage, even when in the hundreds. When playing Chaos I go for bandits for the mobility and the offensive skills, I get Medusas for their death stare, and I try to save all my money for Efreets and Dragons. Hiring Orcs is usually only when I have money. And that doesn’t happen much with Chaos, since thieves can usually not steal as much as Order’s Lords can produce. But orcs usually don’t make or break a game.

There is another unit that I am terrible at using. It is the Dragon Golem. And playing them well is much more important. There are many situations where you simply don’t have enough resources for Titans. Or else enough resources for both titans and genies. (And for the sake of mobility and leveling up quickly usually I go for as many genies as possible.)

I am posting here to see what you guys have to say about Dragon Golems. I am just tired of not playing them well.

Everytime I get Dragon Golems, I can never march them across the battlefield fast enough. Partly is the fact that I often lack tactics, but even with tactics usually the size of these creatures, plus the obstacles that they cannot pass, means that they can’t charge across the battlefield and apply their mighty First Strike ability.

If I have don’t have teleport, things usually get worse. I sometimes even have to waste my range attackers’ turn to walk aside so that the Dragon Golem can reposition.

And of course there are the usual complaints about these creatures. Being mechanical is pretty useless, since they can’t be healed. When you are Order, you usually don’t have to worry about your side being Beserked or Hypnotized, since it is so easy to Dispel anything. And the low HP on a dragon golem is like a magnet. Practically all enemy casters will blast them with spells. The lack of chaos ward is really fatal to them since the main damaging spells are from chaos.

So what’s the use of a dragon golem? To protect halflings while they fire away? To protect genies? I find it much more effective to use genies with titans, than genies with Dragon Golems, because at least genies can image the titans and put these illusions to work right away, while if they image the Dragon Golems the image is often stuck in some uncomfortable place and simply can’t be used.

[wimfrits]

Difficult! On the one hand DG outclass Titans in damage and tactical use (much the same as white tiger vs elves). On the other you cannot use them in a lot of battles if you want to preserve them. Genies' illusions help against ranged units but I recognize the getting stuck thing Picking the right formation helps with that but it still feels a bit clumsy.
I often did pick them for the hero map movement speed, though speed would be determined by the slower genies. And then I got frustrated by switching DGs in and out of my hero's army. And there'd be a slower (mages) army trailing anyway that might as well include Titans.

[Taro]

In general using - titans are better than dragon golems. But you can have DG faster than titans, so I think that thing is balanced.

Combination of gennies and titans is better especialy for siege combats, but in the field I don't see much difference. Yes, sometimes cloned DG get to some bad place and they can't move, but as for me this is rare situation.

You have to notice that with some gennies and one 4th level unit you can explore map just with clones. That means if you can have DG fster, then you can explore map faster. Why wait for titans.

I don't mean DG is super powerful unit, it's average. But I will not say it's totally useless.

[cjlee]

In general using - titans are better than dragon golems. But you can have DG faster than titans, so I think that thing is balanced.

Combination of gennies and titans is better especialy for siege combats, but in the field I don't see much difference. Yes, sometimes cloned DG get to some bad place and they can't move, but as for me this is rare situation.

You have to notice that with some gennies and one 4th level unit you can explore map just with clones. That means if you can have DG fster, then you can explore map faster. Why wait for titans.

I don't mean DG is super powerful unit, it's average. But I will not say it's totally useless.

HMM, I have definitely found the speed bonus to be a huge advantage. Order being as slow as it is already, we need anything possible to increase the speed especially when facing Death. (I don't know how common it is for other people, but when I face Death players, they always have Death Knight, Necromancer, and Pathfinder thief and Death faction is really fast if they choose the imp-ghost-vampire-dragon route. Knowing exactly what the Death player will field is no help, because Order is always extra slow and weak)

I also find Dragon Golems the single best counter to the Death faction, since they are immune to many Death faction spells as well as Bone Dragons' Fear.