When to buy production.

[ams16]

Assume you are in a large FFA game, with a big map. When do you stop taking heroes and save up for production of an important unit?

I tend to buy Spiders, Pegasi, and Dragons. Sometimes I buy Archons or Devils, and maybe Griffons. But usually only after I have about 3 or 4 heroes.

[ezras]

There have been several thread discussing the pros and cons of buying production, dragons and other allies in particular, versus saving up for hero offers with dragons. if you only have a few heros and you save up enough money eventually you will almost always get a hero with 3 dragons or 3 strong allies offered to you (if you wait long enough it will happen virtually every turn.. Do you have the time to wait that long??? You'll need a lot of cash. In big maps where i knew the battle would last 30+ turns and I had 2000+ cash on hand after a few turns I have bought dragons early (within the first 6 turns) they pay off well. But by turn 16 you have to start vectoring them to the front line. SO now a dragon takes 6 turns to generate and get into battle.

Find those other threads. They are long and explain things much better.

[Pillager]

I often only buy expensive production when I have 3500-4000+ gold. At this point heroes will simply charge you more for the same number of allies...so there isn't much point in saving up past 4000.

[ezras]

Yeah, pillager is absolutely right about that.

[strach]

that's a good point pillager, when I have over 2000 I always use this extra money for some small improvments: city walls and production (especially dwarves or pikmen in port cities), and sometimes something more expensive: like catapults etc.