hero + qhost + wolfriders

[strach]

hi,
what do you think about a hero + ghost + wolfriders army? I mean, are ghost combined with wolfriders are good only as a defence against good hero stacks, or can you use them in more active way? do you have any experiences with such stacks?

[LichKing]

I went only once far enough to make a stack 4 ghosts+4 WR, but I wouldn't put them in a hero stack, unless it's the beginning of the game. A good hero stack is for me hero (maybe 2, DarkKnight + Paladin)+Devil+Dragon/Pegasus+Catapult+3 strong armies (blessed wizards, giants, demons..). To this kind of stack a ghost doesn't add much and it's too weak. As I see it, critical strike stacks are very expensive, and should be used ideally in active defense (like softening an hero stack not in town) or preemptive strikes on very important and well defended towns, but only when you're desperate. An early stack with hero+devil+ghost+WR(mainly for morale and movement)+4 orcs shouldn't be bad, though.

[strach]

surely that's not my first option stack, but I'm talking about situations in which you don't have possibility to create such powerful armies you are refering to. In one of my games I'm in some serious trouble, but have few cities with wolfriders and one with ghost, and was wondering if I could create some kind of threat with the stuff I got. so the question is: are ghost and wolves good only for defence, or can I do something more with them.

[KGB]

Strach,

Normally Ghosts are best used in cities where they can multiply their value by all the units in the city.

However if you have Wolfriders then a couple of Ghosts with 6 Wolfriders makes a nice stack. There is really no need to add a hero to such a stack. And it's only value is to attack an enemy hero stack. Wasting it on mediocre/weak stack is pointless and you'd be better off using regular units on stacks like that. The goal for you now is to get the Ghosts/Wolfriders close enough to the enemy hero stack to attack and then follow up with your own hero + what ever units you can bring.

KGB

[strach]

in one of my games I received (in L3 ruin) an interesting item (some kind of an invisibility cloak) and now ghosts that accompany my hero have over 60 ambush. this may seem a lot, but in fact, it's only defensive skill, since I cannot attack anyone with such weak units (even with my command and a dragon they strength will be around 40). I dont understand why they weakened the ghost to 15 - it was a rarely used unit back then, now it can be used in very peculiar situations (a large stack marching across your terrain without any backup).

so I think it is crucial to increase ghost strength to 5.

[magian]

I find the ghost fairly useful. It is the only flying unit with undead lore (very handy on some maps) and the critical stack is nice. But yeah, three turns is a long time in warlords and 1000 is a pretty hefty sum. I think a strength increase or a price drop would make the ghosty more of a staple unit (and make orcs and wolfriders more useful too).

[strach]

@ magian
price isn't the factor here - if ghost has s3 it means you can only use them in 2 types of situation: (1) attacking an unprotected hero stack on your territory, (2) defending a city full of other units. and I would like to have a chance to use ghost as offensive units.

[Jeremy]

Given that I find that ghosts already have a couple of uses, I'm not sure they need to be stronger. They aren't always useful, but for particular tasks (ruin searching and fighting againsts uber-stacks) they already fill a role.

Certainly not something that never gets built.