Fighting Strategies
Usually it is best if you keep all your army to one main hero, but on some maps (especially large ones) a second best hero might be needed for protecting your old castle or to finish the map faster (for example some maps you can win with 10 dragons... you don’t need 20... so 2 heroes with 10 dragons are better than 1 with 20)...
Try to arrange armies so you can protect your range units. Most of the time the one that can protect the archers the best wins the battle without many losses.
Try not to buy useless armies that you’ll never use, but you paid for them. For examples: peasants; zombies&mummies if you have vampires; golems if you have rocs&mages, boars are better; dwarfs can be replaced by unicorns or other slow units. Buy ranged units first, then flyers, and a few (7-10) slow units that you split in stacks of 1 to protect your archers, if you are in the beginning. It is incredible what you can do with some archers and some slow units split in several stacks (the slow units you’ll get from the starting army of the heroes you recruit)
If there is a strong monster that guard an entrance, try to attack him in day 7 rather then day 1, the extra growth could be a pain (for example the dragons from “Warlords” map)
Sometimes if you start with a good army and the computer is near you, just take the army from the second hero and go conquer him. Usually it is enough, but you can buy extra troops if you want. The important thing is to get his castle on the first week The important thing is to get his castle from the first week
If you have good morale make an army only from final level troops (Dragons, Titans, Pheonix, etc)
Make sure to always check the remaining health on your enemy’s units and yours. If your fighting identical groups but some are injured go for the one that has the least life for an easier kill. It is important to give as little chances of retaliation for enemy’s units as possible. Also if one of your important units (6’th level usually) is badly hurt and you anticipate that it will be killed at next attack better sacrifice other low level units if you can.
Tactics Tips
You can combine very powerful slow creatures (hydras, ogre) with spells (haste, prayer). They will become deadly
It is very important to loose as little troops as you can. I manage to build strategies that allow me not to lose a single unit or loose only stacks of 1.
Hit& run strategy: for when you have one strong ranger’s group that move a lot and fighting with very slow troops - I use this strategy especially when I have Titans but works ok for Mages, Elves and Druids. The thing is to move away from the creatures far enough so you can wait and not be attacked, then shoot. If they get close move again but if possible shoot them again. This take long but in some cases you can win incredible battles
Split your archers in half. Then when a group would be blocked the other one would still shoot
The Armageddon+ only black dragons strategy: very simple, efficient, but you’ll get bored easily: you have a strong group of Dragons and cast Armageddon or other destructive spells.
Hardcore strategy: I used it only in multiplayer but very rare as it was considered a cheat. With my best hero I would go with only 1 stack of 1 dragon or phoenix. The idea was that the unit is immune to fire and that I move first in the battle. Then I cast Armageddon and retreat with money. Buy the hero again and with 1 Phoenix/Dragon unit do the same thing again. It is very frustrating for your enemy.
If you have only one flyer stack some times it’s better to split it in 2 or more. I use this especially when I have only Black Dragons in my army. If f.e. you have 2 dragons and split them in 2 stacks of 1 then you’ll have 600 life for the enemy to retaliate instead of just 300. You’ll also have more time to cast attack spells and other things
If you have one group of archers and 1 group of melee fighters split the melee group in 1 strong one and 5 groups of 1. Make sure to arrange them to protect the archers (usually put in the middle or the 1 or 7’th position) and to attack with the one of the 1 stack armies before the stronger group. This way the enemy will retaliate to the 1 unit stack and the loses will be minimal
If you have only one strong group of archers (usually Halflings, Archers, Orcs, Centaurs, Elves) split the archers in 7 groups: 6 of 1 and the reaming strong one. This strategy is very effective in the beginning if you fight with a group of archers or even against some slow units. When fighting against Archers be careful to put your strong group at the 7’th position. The AI rangers will shoot units from the 1st to the 7th position so they’ll lose 6 turns until they start killing your strong group. When fighting against melee units you can use the 1 archer groups to protect your strong group. Also in some cases the ranged units can be used like melee units so the enemy will retaliate to them and you won’t lose other more important melee units.
Using Blind spell: blind all the units and fight with them one at a time. Require: high Knowledge and Spell Power
Attack flyers with only 1 strong group of slow units that has much life (f.e. Ogres, Hydras, Golem, etc). when you turn comes put them on the battle field so there a minimum of flyers that can attack them. Additionally you can take with you 6 groups of 1 rangers. Flyers will attack them first.
Every unit counts. If you can save 1 peasant do it. you never know when it will come in handy
Castle Siege Tactics
I’ll consider the case of a full build castle (moat, turrets, etc).
There will be hints to exploit the AI. In some cases the human opponent won’t make the same moves.
Also many hints from the previous rubric can be used here.
Attacker:
First it is very important to arrange your army according to your purpose and the enemy army. Try to see in advance how the battle will evolve:
You can choose to put your archer in the middle or in the 1 or 7’th position.
If you have this possibility, arrange the flyers so they will hit&block the defender's archers form the first turn.
If you have only archers, put them according to the 9’th hint I gave you at the Advance tactics section.
Don’t ever try to cross the moat with a foot unit, only if you don’t find another way to enter the castle or if the unit has a lot of life (Cyclops, Paladins, Hydra), or if you have Animate Dead spell and a lot of skeletons. Here are some strategies:
Go from the first turn with a unit and stay just in front of the castle’s gate. Most of the time the AI will come with a walking unit through the gate and attack you. After you kill the unit on the bridge, the gate won’t close anymore. This is a great advantage, as it cancels the effect of the moat.
If the first strategy doesn’t work, try to kill all the enemy ranged units with spells and other methods, and you’ll force the AI to get out from his fortress.
Of course Ballista skill is good to have, but I usually don’t take it, because I have other preferences (I'll discuss this later).
Use "stone skin" on the units that are attacked by towers: usually they are 1’st level and ranged units
Also cast "blind" on the enemy archers. If (s)he doesn’t have cure or dispel magic, then you’ll be able to approach them easily.
Cast "precision" & "bless" on your archers. Another good assault spell is "haste", especially if you have it at max.
For units that have much life, if the tower shoots at them but didn't kill them then use "cure" to heal. Next turn it will do the same thing and if you have enough mana you can win the battle without any loss. For example, at one time I had a very strong hero that was left only with a pack of Hydras and I won a battle with this strategy.
The same thing if you have Trolls. If the enemy can’t do 40 damage per turn to kill at least 1 of them, then it’s not necessary to do anything. Just kill the enemy units from a distance. Trolls can be helped with protective spells.
Use ‘wait’ command for very fast flyers and use the hit& run strategy, presented previously. This is very effective with Vampires because of the no retaliation skill.
In some situations use ‘defend’ command on the units that are preferred by the tower. For example if you have 10 archers you surely won’t do a lot of damage but with defend they might resist the towers one extra turn.
Defender:
Protect your ranged units. They are one of the most useful units when defending a castle.
Block the way to the interior of the castle. If a wall was broken by enemy ballista then you should put one stack to guard that ‘passage’ created. You can do this with 1 unit stack that is replace every turn (usually very weak creature that die from the first hit) or you can use a stack with units that have much life. The important thing here is to keep the enemy’s units in the moat as much as you can. Also the ranged units will do full damage then.
Cast slow on enemy units.
Cast blind at units that are in the moat.
If you are taken by surprise with an attack, buy a hero that has some army and the potential to use spells. Sometimes it is better to buy a hero with 2500 gold, sometimes it is good to buy units. If the hero is a caster, and I have a magic guild, I usually take the hero; if not, I prefer to take the army instead.
Defending a castle with 1 group of flyers: well I discovered this strategy in Heroes 1 (where enemy couldn’t destroy the defending towers) and I was usually with Warlocks and was attacked by Knights troops that have 0 or very little archers. It works in PH also best against Necromancers with only skeletons, zombies, Mummies and against Knights without many archers. It’s best if the enemy hero doesn’t have too much mana. The strategy is very simple: first wait. Let the enemy move. Then you move in a tile where you can’t be hit when the AI will do his next turn. Then, if you can, wait or move directly. And pray that he won’t get good morale and your towers will resist as long as necessary to kill all the enemy’s units.
Use ‘wait’ command. Maybe at the end of the enemy movements you have a better chance to make a good move. Use wait on ranged units only if you see that they could get a clean shot later, otherwise shoot when you have the opportunity cause usually if you wait when you have the chance to attack again you’ll have less archers. Use wait for flyers and the same strategy like in the Attack strategy case.
Calculate the enemy moves so you know where he could be after he moves. Position your units so that he can’t hit you from the first time, but you hit him immediately when your turn comes.
There are some situations when the enemy is too strong and you have to leave your castle, because you’ll lose a great amount of units without causing him significant damage. Try to fight only when you know that you have a chance to win otherwise buy a hero recruit the army that you can and leave in the castle a small army (usually stack of 1), so that the towers have the opportunity to shoot and do some damage to the enemy hero. Then you come back with your best hero, give him the army that you have left and elaborate a strategy. If the castle is to strong to take, go and take another castle. In Palm Heroes you don’t die after 7 days if you don’t have a castle so you have all the time in the world for you.
How to develop a hero (tips)
There are many ways you can do that and it would be probably according to the map. The hero is very important and some times it counts more then the army.
If you have enough money you can start to take experience from the chest. Also visit all the constructions that raise attributes. Save before taking a skill from the Witch Hut so you don’t spoil your hero
It’s better to take all the hard battles with the same main hero
In P.H. you are limited to chose a hero the same race as your starting castle, but if you have the opportunity to buy other hero for small maps the warriors tends to have an advantage, while on the very big maps the spell casters are quite a threat
Logistics is crucial as well as artifact that contribute to this (on rough terrains consider Pathfinder too). A hero that can move a lot will have many advantages on all the maps.
If you had the luck to take logistics, don’t take other skill till you max this one. If you take others skill, the probability to increase Logistics will decrease