So what sort of build order is ideal? What buildings should I be building right from the beginning and what sort of creatures should I be buying? Is there a good ratio at the beginning of whether I should invest in buildings or creatures?

Also, how many heroes should I be developing?

I have been normally playing as Castle and I now feel I have a decent grasp of the game so I am trying to play on hard but I am getting destroyed. I've mainly been playing on XL maps with many opponents though if there is a big difference in build order between small and large maps I'd be interested in knowing that as well.

Links to guides, threads, etc. discussing these issues would be grand as well (especially if they also delve into other races besides Castle).

Building order depends on the map and difficulty. On Impossible you start with no resources, so you need to develop your town hall at least for a bit and, of course, pick up anything that is not nailed down on the adventure map. On the other hand on lower difficulty you have something to start with, so you can go for some creature dwellings and start capturing. Also smaller map means earlier conflict with other players, therefore you will need something for defense.
Consider going for resource silo ASAP when it grants you precious resource and you (will) need it badly, for example for level 7 creatures or their dwellings with no such mines nearby.

As for heroes, at least one main, with strong army to clear the way, and one other to follow him and capture/collect. If you are on larger map with fewer cities, unless you have expert Earth Magic + Town Portal spell, consider hiring a few more heroes for ferrying troops to your main hero.

There are some very good threads on all this. Scroll through the pages and you'll find lots of gems.

Something short, though:

Factions play differently. Some start out strong, some not so strong, some need to step up from basic creatures to become strong. You'll find much of this out on your own, but you'll for the most part be fine with what you probably already know -- if you don't get hit, you can't die. And you have no replacement cost for lost troops. So ranged fighters like archers are incredibly powerful. Develop them ASAP. Sometimes the first level is fine for a while, and sometimes the second level is so powerful (or the first level so weak) that you'll want to upgrade them fast. You'll figure it out fairly quickly. The biggest exception I've found so far is with the undead, whose vampire lord is incredibly powerful all through the game because he self-resurrects. He's worth developing before the liches and at the expense of all else.

Otherwise, get every hero you can if he costs less than the value of his troops. Use them to run errands like grabbing gold and gems from windmills and picking up freebies on the ground. When you get one who generates gold or gems, keep him and, if you have to, discard an old hero who doesn't come with any interesting attributes. With a bit of luck, your heroes will form an important part of your economy all by themselves.

Check some threads out for more goodness. There really is a lot of good stuff already there for you.

This is a difficult request. Every side/faction is different(to some extent or other) and on top of that strategies vary from campaign to single scenario to random map and single player to multi. And of course there is the matter of personal tastes which also figure in and the below suggestions are only my preferred strats.

I will assume SP and will not address specific sides much for this:

Week one, day one: I build Town Hall or Mage Guild first.

The reason for going with Town Hall is sheer pragmatism and greed. The sooner you get your 'money making' structures, the more money they will provide you in total for that map.

The reason for going 'Mage Guild' is because the added nearly half dozen spells make it a bit easier to take out monster stacks on day one or two or three. Also the sooner you get the 4th and fifth level mage Guild, the sooner you MAY get essential spells like Town Portal, Dimension Door etc.

Week one, day two: I build whatever I did not build of the two above options, aiming for the 'City Hall' upgrade(which requires Town Hall, Mage Guild, marketplace and Blacksmith).

Week one, day three:

Market Place. We need City Hall by day 5. Plus you may well find yourself with extra of one type of resource and need of another and hence the marketplace can be used in a pinch.

Week one, day four:

Blacksmith. Both for City Hall and getting either the Ballista or the first aid tent. I do not recommend getting an ammo cart. Liches and Magogs will target it to damage two of your stacks for the price of one and 99% of battles do not last long enough for this device to matter.

Week one, day five:

City Hall. Doubles income to $2,000 a day. This is important.

Week one, day six:

Citadel. Needed for the 'Capital' upgrade(which doubles the income for your starting city to $4,000) and also increase the unit 'growth'(numbers of creatures produced by creature structures which you will start building in week two) and provides a single tower(which can be controlled if you have a hero with the "artillery" skill at the town) for defense.

Week one, day seven:

Castle. Needed for "Castle" and adds two more towers as well as incre4asing unit growth.

Week two, day one:

Capital. Increases starting income to $4,000 per day. Costs 10k...

Week two, day two:

Second creature building(you start with the first most of the time). In general I am trying to get to ranged units and speedy units asap. Having even three liches plus 32 skeletons is way better than having 32 skeletons and NO liches for example.


...and so on.

In general I avoid carrying slow creatures(speed 4 or less) because it slows movement on the adventure map and those slow units seldom make a big difference in attacking enemies. The exceptions being when I don't have much choice(early in game or just had 2k Iron Golems offer to join me or some such). They are best left to defend towns.
For specific towns there are additional factors such as if playing "Tower" it is better to split a stack of two or three master genies into TWO stacks(and leave golems at home) of 1 or two ea. because of their spell casting ability.
Similarly it is better to maintain two stacks of skeletons(or liches if you happen to have the cloak...;)) than to include zombies in your army because of how the necromancy skill works and because it leaves you the opportunity to allow a stack to join you(such as a stack of mummies or rust dragons or some such).

Some general tips for developing your heros:

1)Avoid "Eagle Eye" at all costs. The ONLY time it might make sense to give a hero this skill is if the other option is "Navigation" on a land-locked map. This skill is worthless.

2)Skills like "Estates" and "Artillery" should be taken by garrisoned secondary heroes but not by your main(s). Estates is a decent one to take by several secondary heroes since the more heroes who have this, the more money you will rake in each day. "Artillery" allows you to control which targets the towers in your town aim for.

3) "Scouting", "Pathfinder", "Logistics", "Navigation"(on maps with water) and such are good for secondary heroes you are using as scouts to flag mines, gather loose treasures, reveal map etc. But try not to add these to your main(at least until you get the essential skills I talk about next).

4) Your main should prioritize skill selection as follows IMO:

a) Wisdom - Need this to cast 3rd level and higher spells.

b) Earth Magic- Town portal, animate dead, resurrection, slow, shield, stone skin and implosion are all Earth spells. Enough said.

c) Ballistics - Some will disagree pointing out that later in the game you will probably have troops which can fly or otherwise ignore walls and do so faster than the enemies but I find this skill usually saves me a lot of time and troops in the early to mid game and even a good deal into the late game(I usually play necros on extra large random maps though).

d) Air Magic - I find this one a bit more valuable than "water"(I won't take "Fire Magic" at all if I can help it) because I usually play necro(and so the "bless" type spells are no good for me) but also because "Haste", "Dimension Door" and "Fly"...

e) Diplomacy - Certainly not needed by your main but CAN help a LOT! Makes it far more likely for neutral stacks you attack to join you(for free or for money).


Some skills become more valuable for certain c
factions and less valuable for others. For example "Leadership" is decent for Castle and other 'living' factions(i.e. NOT necropolis, Conflux or(to a lesser extent) Tower) but is worthless for undead and elementals and gargoyles/golems. Likewise Necromancy or worthless to heroes with units that are not undead for the most part.

"Luck" is like Leadership but increases the chance for bonus damage in combat instead of increasing chance for extra attacks. I avoid it unless it is a choice of either Luck or Eagle Eye or some such.

"Archery" is okay for Tower(which has three ranged unit types), Castle(which has two ranged and one of which gets two shots), Stronghold(two ranged) etc. Even Rampart(one ranged but they get two shots and are fairly quick) but is less so for Necropolis heroes who only have liches(unless you happen to get the Cloak of the Undead King built which enables your necromancy skill to raise liches(at "Master" skill level) rather than skeletons.

The other skills which boost damage(sorcery, offense etc.) or reduce damage(i.e. "Armorer") do not really help much and I do not recommend choosing such unless there are no better options.