Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Kaspa's Strategy Guide
v.1.0
Armies
It's important to get the right mix and arrangement in your
armies. Keep slow-moving creatures close to your archers to protect
them. Try to have flying units to tie up enemy archers. If the whole
army is from the same type of a castle, it'll improve the moral.
The thing I like to do is combine two or more average armies
into one tough army. You can engage the tougher army in a battle,
while the weaker one runs back to the castle stealing resources and
grabbing free units on the map or purchasing nomads, rouges.....
Another trick is to split a group in your army into multiple
groups. For example 20 sprites into two groups of 10 each. That really
helps tie up groups of archers. When not firing the archer's hits are
much weaker. After the battle you can regroup them into one unit
again. For people not aware of this feature, all you have to do is
hold shift, press on the unit you want to split, and then click on an
empty space.
Building
Developing castles is difficult, with all the structures you can
build in the beginning. First you should be aware of what resources
you need, and go after them. The market in only one castle is a rip
off.
Since there are so many different castles I'll help you one by
one: week one
Knight Castle
day 1 - archery range/day 2 - statue/day 3 - well/day 4 - tavern/day 5
- armory/day 6 - blacksmith/day 7 - jousting arena
Sorceress Castle
day 1 - archery range/day 2 - mage guild/day 3 - statue/day 4 -
stonehenge/day 5 - fenced meadow/day 6 - cottage/day 7 - well
Wizard Castle
day 1 - pen/day 2 - cliff nest/day 3 - statue/day 4 - foundry/day 5 -
mage guild/day 6 - well/day 7 - Ivory tower
Barbarian Castle
day 1 - stick hut/day 2 - den/day 3 - statue/day 4 - adobe/day 5 -
bridge/day 6 - upg.stick hut/day 7 - well
Necromecer Castle
day 1 - pyramid/day 2 - statue/day 3 - thieves guild/day 4 -
graveyard/day 5 - mansion/day 6 - well/day 7 - upg.mansion *
Warlock Castle
day 1 - crypt/day 2 - statue/day 3 - maze/day 4 - nest/day 5 -
swamp/day 6 - well/day 7 - waterfall
* - 20 of them upgraded are almost unbeatable.
Experience
Your hero's experience is very important, you can get it in
many ways. Winning battles, artifacts, or treasure chests. Always take
the experience points. For example with a high estate skill your hero
will earn money like a castle. The other skills can make all the
difference in combat. With expert diplomacy you can walk up to just
about any group of creatures, and they'll want to join you.
Note that leadership is wasted on a necromacer, since the undead
have no morale changes.
After playing for a while, and getting into the game you'll know
who you can and can't attack. Sometimes it's better to run, then fight
and loose. When you are about to loose, it's better to retreat then
get killed. By retreating your hero will be available for purchase
with all his experience and artifacts.
When you know your enemy is going to retreat, use a blind or
paralyze spell. This skips his turn and you can kill him off. That
will get you more experience, his artifacts, and the enemy won't be
able to buy him on the next turn.
Spells
There are many spells in Heroes 2, so develop your spell power
and knowledge as much as possible. During a battle some good spells
can win the thing for you. Usually drinking from a well, restores all
your used up points. Some of the best spells are
Chain lightning - strikes for units at once, and might even hit yours
if you're standing too close
Steel skin - decreases the amount of damage from enemy creatures
Summon earth elemental - gives you a and additional unit to help out
If you see a hero casting a fantastic spell locate his castle.
Try to take it over, and you'll gain access to that spell and others.
Artifacts
Artifacts play a very important role in the game. They help out
in almost every way, some get your stats up, make you walk farther,
not use as much spell power, make spells stronger.......of course it's
not all good. There are spells of misfortune, transfer those to a
throwaway hero, or one that will never enter battle. Someone might
even try selling them to you, and since you cant't always see what
you're buying save the game before you buy or run over an artifact.
Seas
A new feature let's you explore the sea, so you might buy a boat
and go looking for goodies. The resources gained will probibly pay
back for the boat, and give you more.
Towns
Taking over towns in the beginning of each game is very easy,
there are only small armies defending it. Convert the towns into
castles as soon as possible. Towns add 250 gold to your income; castle
give you a 1000 gold. Another thing is that the castles let you build
strong armies, and towns will only supply you with the weakest
monsters available.
Castle techniques
If you're defending a castle you can add additional towers to
fire at the enemy each round. There's also the moat which stips the
enemy unit for one round (doesn't apply to flying creatures.)
Hero types
The manual tells you that barbarian and knight heroes are poor
in the endgame, but don't believe it. Give them a castle belonging to
magic-casting types, and hand them a few spell-enhancing artifacts:
they rule in short and medium-lenght games. Those attack and defense
bonuses offr more then any fireballs or other spells most enemy mages
can throw.
Necromancers should be sent after every larger group of minor-
league monsters in sight. Liches can destroy huge numbers of peasents
very easily. This is an easy way to gain experience, and some of the
slain enemies will areis as undead to serve you.
Each week check the out the new heroes available. There may be
one with well-trained skills. No hero is as might as a barbarian with
some spell-enhancing artifacts, or a warlock with several
attrack/defense-related artifacts. In other words help out your heroes
weaknesses with artifacts.
Playing tricks
If you are a beginner here are some hints to give you a good
start in the game. At the start of each scenario you'll notice a few
artifacts around. Grab them to see what their powers are, if they
aren't what you like reload the win scenario and start over. The
placement will be the same, but the artifacts will be different. I
found the endless pouch of gold especially usefull, it helps you boost
your gold in the early stages.
Your main hero should have the powerful monsters that you can
afford, and the all the artifacts that will boost his stats. Take this
hero and forge a gouge in their defenses. Find the weader heroes and
dereat them as quickly as you can. This will make your enemy spend
2500 gold on new heroes not on more armies.
Sometimes, when there's a strong hero coming to your town, buy
all the available monsters, and leave the slow ones in the castle.
Then take your hero, and run away. The computer will take over the
castle, leave, and leave a small army to protect it. What you have to
do now is wait untill the sixth or seventh day and recapture it. This
gives the computer some time to build additional facilities for you,
and gives you the castle one day before new monsters arrive.
Don't bother investing in captains. They're pretty weak, and if
your castle is captured, you'll end up facing your own soldier as a
foe. Always try investing in a new hero when your castle is about to
get attacked.
Always build a strategy according to the conditions of your
scenario. If you're near enough the location of a hidden artifact,
send a throwaway hero there to do nothing but dig. If your goal is to
conquer a town, scout the area and build a very powerful force to
overwhelm it.
Also look for desert areas with magic lamps. These contain
genies, the best armies you can buy on the road. They give a great
advantage if you grab them at the beginning of a game.
Cheats - 8675309 view the whole map
911 win the current scenario
/nwc access the game's debugger to use change
HEROES2W.EXE to HEROES2W.EXE/NWC
