(As a fore-note, I’m not sure if this goes here or in GQ. Video games are a part of cafe soceity in my mind, like movies or television. If the mods disagree, you have my apologies).
So! I downloaded the 1.03 patch, hearing that Blizzard made the game a bit more balanced and gave the computer some difficulty levels, thereby fixing the “I’m building my second farm and they’re attacking me with Night-Elven tactical nuclear strikes” issue I had.
The problem is that even on easy, they’re still stomping all over me like the great Monty Python foot. I think I have a good grasp of the game (of the humans, at least); I know what I’m doing, and I’m fairly squared away. I start creeping by the first night (with a hero and five footmen) and expand my base to other goldmines when necessary. I level my heroes. I keep a good round amount of units–a hero, some footmen, some riflemen, knights, a few priests and a spell caster usually make up a preset for me, with some ariel units as a second preset. And yet when it comes to battle I find myself getting smashed. Any ideas and/or solutions?
What are they attacking you with? That could be a factor. The game is kind of like paper scissors rock, in that each unit type has a strength vs something and a weakness vs something (usually).
The main problem I can speculate is a possible lack of micromanagement. Vs undead, you should have many advantages, since dispell can kill LOTS of skeletons at a time really the only big risk is fighting a dual aura army (Death Knight with Unholy Aura and Dreadlord with Vampiric Aura) which allows undead to keep their units alive pretty well. The Lich has been improved, but once again chalk it up to micromanagement. Vs Night Elves, footmen’s Defend is good since most of their attacks are piercing. Orcs are pretty bad now and due to most of their unit costs you could easily outnumber them in a battle.
You might want to try altering your build order, or changing what hero you pick first. Also, the order of skills you pick could be a factor. When I am fighting with my hero+army vs their hero+army, I usually focus-fire their hero. With lots of ranged units, this is pretty easy, also laying on negative buffs like slow bogs them down. A Paladin with Devotion Aura, combined with Knights and priests autocasting Inner Fire gives you Knights that can have about 20 armor. With 980 HP (and the Priest’s heal AND Paladin’s Holy Light) this makes for an army that is hard to kill under the right circumstances.
I don’t play humans much (actually, only twice, when i accidently forgot to switch it from random to orcs in random team games [yet i won both matches…odd]). But the computer wipes the floor with me when i’m orc. I beat it maybe 10-20% of the time, and usually only if i defend like mad (towers), don’t run into their army while creeping, and target their hero constantly. you can double click towers to select all of them, then focus fire on the hero unit. The comp will retreat when the heros are dead. And creeping by the first night is still to slow, with orcs i’m going by 9 o’clock. i know footmen are weaker, but you can still get the weanie creeps, like the gnoll master and wimp that usually hang out by your base, while you have a small force. just micromanage so the guy being attacked gets moved out of danger before he gets in the red, then bring him back when the enemy has switched targets.