Hero Duo's

[tabanli]

I played a few games and I lost most of them. From what I saw, there are several interesting hero duo's. Here is my favorite, I call them:

FAST AND FURIOUS, Horse Lord with Valkyrie.

Advantages: Valkyrie gives you attacking leadership bonus and Horse Paladin gives you land leadership bonus.

Strategies: Early in the game use Light-Heavy Cavalry, Wolf Rider, Giants and even light infantry, anything with 15-16 moves or more. Mid game you can get an Elephant or Mammoth for further move bonus and land moral bonus and use them with Battering Ram and Yeti. Later in the game get few units from your standard heavy hitters Great Archon-Devil-Red Dragon-Green Dragon based on your opponents strategy. Also train Wizard near the center since he is the only one who can catch up with your hero stack and replace your occasional losses. Barbarian is always welcome and he levels up faster here than running solo. Stay away from Catapult, Element, Medusa, Spider even Gryphon for your hero stack since they will eventually slow you down.

Beware: Flyers may slow you down on the roads since it takes them 2 moves to go one unit for them where for the landers it takes 1 move to move 1 unit. If you have flyers on your hero stack, you may need to move them separately. But be careful and calculate the moves carefully. You don't want to end up splitting your hero stack.

Drawback 1: You will loose the hero battle to the Assassin, but there is no way he can catch up with you unless you are not careful. If your opponent is using ambushers you can add Mammoth, Yetis, Ghost or Ranger for further protection.

Drawback 2: This doesn't work on the hills and it doesn't work on the path through the hills, so be careful where your hero stack ends up. You are safer on the outside if you stay on the green. The only way you can be safe in the cities is with Great Archon (against enemy leadership) and Devil (against enemy morale) .

Drawback 3: Probably not the best duo for a small map where there is a chance of early encounter with a well developed Barbarian, Assassin or Paladin.

What is your favorite Hero Duo and what is your strategy?

[KGB]

Valkrie/HL seems kind of silly to me. They have the same bonus (Leadership) so nothing stacks. They are vulnerable in cities/hills/forest/swamp/water etc. These 2 heroes should never travel together.

The Ranger has become one of my favorite new heroes because she pairs so well with my Barbarian. This stack can literally go solo (just 2 heroes) thanks to the Barbarians power.

Strategy: The Barbarian does the heavy lifting with his strength reaching 65 very quickly and then focusing on reaching 4 hits then increasing his movement to 16 and finally 5 hits. The Ranger provides the handy +3 stack move at L2 to get the Barbarian moving at 17 until he gets his own movement increases at L6. She also searches L1 ruins at 100% giving a chance to get Ragnarok (+10 attack for the Barb is HUGE) or other item goodies. With her improved learning (starts at 110%) she can eventually provide warding (something the Barbarian always welcomes) letting the Barbarian crush hordes of Orcs and eventually Wolfriders with impunity. Both heroes obviously take Water/Flying walk bonus early if needed (ie depending on map) to allow lurking on water/mountains.

This combo is meant purely for raiding the enemy cities once you finish with neutrals. Your goal is to raze/plunder out the enemy until they surrender since you won't be capturing and holding cities (a duty for other heroes/non-hero stacks). You can even destroy weaker non-assassin hero stacks at L4 thanks to the Barb's 65 strength.

KGB

[magian]

Actually, I can see the value in Tablani's duo. The valkyrie can have huge attack bonuses vs cities and the horse lord can provide huge defense in the plains. They are just asking for Mr. grand archon (and friends) to swoop in and take them out though.

I have tried to get that ranger + barbarian stack working for a number of games now. However, fate (or my own general recklessness) has prevented me from really abusing this clearly glorious combo.

[Versace]

I like Valkyrie+Horse Lord also. They make a great raiding stack. Horse Lord only has to be level 4 to have +25 on plains and Valkyrie is +14 attack already at level 4. You can just buy these heroes and they are ready straight away. Add one elephant and maybe a unicorn and the rest heavy cavalry and go deep into enemy's heartland and burn any city you take. This stack has huge movement too so it can go deep and is hard to catch. Your opponent pretty much has to attack you to prevent you from burning everything, making your heavy cavalry a cool 72! (25+10+12+25).

[Versace]

KGB"s Barbie and Ranger duo seems great too. I would not want to spend a total of 4 points for flying but have these lovebirds ride on the back of an eagle instead.

[tabanli]

I like Valkyrie+Horse Lord also. They make a great raiding stack. Horse Lord only has to be level 4 to have +25 on plains ..................add one elephant................... making your heavy cavalry a cool 72! (25+10+12+25).

I think there is a cap at +25 stack bonus (not the terrain bonus). So Heavy Cavalry can be 60 max, which is still huge considering Barbarian max is 65.

Objectively, I like the unicorn version better than elephant version. However I often have an elephant with Horse Lord or Valkyrie to begin with. Elephants gives some security to Valkyrie. Also you may delay the last part of the land leadership (+15 leadership is acceptable with the elephant) and get speed bonus instead. Elephant also gives boost to Battering Ram, Crusaders or Barbarian if you have them in the stack.