Although combat-focused maps are easy to get into, some things can often get overlooked. Particularly in the preparation phase, where you are not likely to have a streamlined approach before you play a few games. Any guesses what those might be? :)
Let's see how many you got!
- Forgetting to buy an Ammo Cart, particularly as Fortress or Academy. If the battle is long, you will 100% run out of shots and that can lose you a winnable game.
- Not checking the hero specials before you level up. Marbas for instance has little benefit versus Stronghold. Helmar is not likely to have Destructive lest he wastes his special. Etc.
- Buying artifacts and using mentor before you buy your army! The mentor is notorious for wasting large amounts of money without giving you what you want so you should know when to cut your losses short ^^' Getting greedy with the artifacts merchants can also come at the cost of less army. It is recommended to either buy all or most of your army first, especially if you are playing a might faction.
- Buying artifacts that use the same slot, you'd better take a moment to consider what goes where!
- Picking Warmachines against a faction that is likely to have Cold Death or has many shooters(like Academy or Fortress). High risk of getting your ballista destroyed fast.
- Underestimating how much Knowledge you need because you prioritised might stats. You may have to recast because of low duration or enemy opposite spells. You may have to use Raise Dead. Mana is not to be neglected :)
- Getting more than 1 magic skills with factions other than Academy or Necro. You will have more spellcasting options.. but also less might skills! The more passive skills, the better.
- Not checking spells before levelling! If you don't know your available spells, you can't plan your spell masteries. Or a specific magic school may not be worth picking at all.
- Not checking available spells from the schools you don't plan to get. Normally this would be pointless but in this game, everything has a Nival% chance to happen! Your knight may never get offered Light but if you know your Dark spells you'll be able to adapt.
- Picking more than 3 skills without picking the needed perks for your build. Very easy to lose control of your levelling. Everytime you do that, the memory mentor is rubbing his hands greedily.
- Using mass defensive buffs or curses vs Destructive. That will make the opposing army less threatening but won't protect you from the incoming enemy hero nukes :) What you'd rather have is mass offensive buffs to help you finish the battle faster. Frenzy/Puppet/Mass Decay can also help but less so - Unless you have Emerald Slippers, high spellpower and the other side lacks defense stats/skill.
- Buying spells from the Arcane Library before creating mini arties with artificer. Spend too much sulfur/mercury and you won't be able to equip Initiative artifacts!
Bonus one for the oldies:
Forgetting to buy Ballista/Tent when going Warmachines. Thankfully can no longer happen because Tent/Ballista perks are scripted to give you their respective Warmachine :)
Cheers, happy gaming!
I forgot an actually important one.
- Attacking with a weak unit stack and subjecting yourself to a painful retaliation, while your magic-focused hero is capable of dealing with the enemy units directly (with Summoning, Dark or Destructive magic). Not all hero builds have the same win condition. More might-heavy builds depend on dealing damage with their units but if your hero can do the heavy lifting, there is little need to put your units in harm's way. Sometimes it's better to just defend.