"Know your foe!" Good advice. Let’s take a look at those heroic do-gooders and find out what they’re really made of. Generally, the hero is better at what they do than their creature counterpart. For example, the Wizard has better spells and is faster at researching than the Warlock. So they are not to be taken lightly, and make valuable additions to your hoard if you convert them. When praying, heroes generate twice as much mana as your own creatures.

I’ve included an "Attracted by" section because in version 1.7 there are skirmish levels with Mercenary Portals that attract heroes and not creatures.

Research: No

Manufacture: No

Fighter Class: Flanker

Fighting Ability: Poor

Stun Recovery: -

Speed: Fast

Received through: Temple, creature conversion, neutral creature, Mercenary Portals

Attracted By: -

Spells: -

Special Abilities: does imps jobs.

Conversion: Easy

Dwarves are a very useful creature to have on your side, but are troublesome to be against. Dwarves don’t need lairs, though they still collect wages. I don’t think they eat, but I could be wrong. They are fantastic at mining, and chop through enemy walls much faster than Imps can. Also, they will fight when they meet enemies. Dwarves don’t make the best fighters, but because they don’t train in the normal way, and gain more experience the more jobs you set them to do. This makes Dwarf training not only free, but also beneficial, unless they are not on you side of course. Dwarves can easily be beaten in most combat situations; their primary use is doing imp jobs.

Research: No

Manufacture: No

Fighter Class: Flanker

Fighting Ability: Average

Stun Recovery: Average

Speed: Fast

Received through: Temple, creature conversion, Mercenary Portals

Attracted By: Casino + Treasury

Spells: Invisible (Level 1)

Special Abilities: Invisible to enemy keepers when on their land.

Conversion: Easy, but dies easy too.

Much like the Rouge, thieves have the ability to turn invisible, and walk around the enemy keepers’ dungeon. I pretty much ignore thieves when there is a large combat, as guards and knights are much more threatening.

Research: No

Manufacture: No

Fighter Class: Support

Fighting Ability: Poor

Stun Recovery: Fast

Speed: Fast

Received through: Temple, creature conversion, Mercenary Portals

Attracted By: Guardroom

Spells: Sure Shot (Level 1) Guided Bolt (Level 4) Grenade (Level 8)

Special Abilities: Sniper Mode

Conversion: Easy

The Elven archer is one of the best support creatures there is. Don’t ever underestimate the power of there sharp-sighted creatures. Drop a few mistresses near them and problem solved. When you convert them, they act a lot like Dark Elves, so they head for the guard room and mix with the very creatures they hate, thus making both sets of creature unhappy. There are several ways to get around this. First if all, you could have two guard rooms, and dump each set of elves in one or the other. That should keep them apart. Second, try alternating when they will be guarding, so the Dark Elves can be in the Guardroom while you train the Elven Archers in the Combat Pit.

Research: No

Manufacture: Yes

Fighter Class: Blocker

Fighting Ability: Very Good

Stun Recovery: Very Slow

Speed: Very Slow

Received through: Temple, Creature conversion, Mercenary Portals

Attracted By: Hatchery (5x5) Lair (9 tiles) Workshop (9 tiles)

Spells: -

Special Abilities: Imp/Dwarf chucking. Can wade through lava.

Conversion: Hard. Probably will need healing twice.

A Giant is a nightmare to fight against. Despite being slow, they are very tough and dish out a lot of damage. Plus they can go through Lava and reach your deviously placed traps. When fighting a group of heroes, cast a lightning spell on a giant and it will take a long time to recover, so giving your forces opportunity to inflict a lot of damage, or taking it out of the fight. Giants are great assets when converted to your side, as they are the best manufacturers in the game. Just a level 3 giant will be churning out doors and traps as if its life depended on it (and it does).

Research: No

Manufacture: No

Fighter Class: Blocker

Fighting Ability: Very Good

Stun Recovery: Slow

Speed: Slow

Received through: Temple, creature conversion, Mercenary Portals

Attracted By: Combat Pit

Spells: -

Special Abilities: -

Conversion: Hard

Knights make good fighters, but are slow. They are susceptible to electricity based attacks, and basically behave like Black Knights when they join you. Knights and Black Knight don’t get along very well, as you may expect.

Research: No

Manufacture: No

Fighter Class: Blitzer

Fighting Ability: Excellent

Stun Recovery: Slow

Speed: Slow

Received through: Temple, creature conversion, Mercenary Portals

Attracted By: Training Room

Spells: -

Special Abilities: -

Conversion: Very Hard.

Guards make excellent fighters. If I ever see a guard with a level of 3 or more I make sure I hit it with a few lightning bolts before my creatures attack. They are lethal with their pikes as they have a long range that gives them an advantage, and can take a fair amount of damage before they go down. Guards aren’t really much good for anything other than fighting. Make sure they do train occasionally, as they enjoy guarding so much that they do neglect the training room. Royal Guards are just like guards, just better.

Research: Yes

Manufacture: No

Fighter Class: Support

Fighting Ability: Very Low

Stun Recovery: Fast

Speed: Fast

Received through: Temple, creature Conversion, Mercenary Portals

Attracted By: Graveyard

Spells: Heal Creature (Level 1) Haste Self (Level 4) Armour (Level 8)

Special Abilities: Praying

Conversion: Hard

Monks are very, VERY weak. You can easily take then out with the lighting spell. I’d advise you do this quickly though, because two or three Monks will happily stand at the back and heal those heroes that are fighting. They can be useful on your side. They generate a lot of mana when praying at the temple. Don’t put them anywhere near the enemy, they will die horribly!

Research: Yes

Manufacture: No

Fighter Class: Support/Flanker

Fighting Ability: Poor

Stun Recovery: Fast

Speed: Very Fast

Received through: Temple, creature conversion, Mercenary Portals

Attracted By: Temple + Library

Spells: Lightning (Level 4) Armour (Level 8) Whirlwind (Level 10)

Special Abilities: Pray. Fly.

Conversion: Average

Ever wondered why you don’t see any fairies less than level 4? Because they’d be useless! Under-grown fireflies. When fairies get to level 4 they receive the Lightning Spell, which stuns its’ target as well as causing damage. This can make fairies dangerous when they have knights/Guards with them. They are not very tough, but can fly out of trouble. The best ways to take them out is with support troops or cripple them with the lightning spell. They make fairly good researchers.

Research: Yes

Manufacture: No

Fighter Class: Support

Fighting Ability: Poor

Stun Recovery: Average

Speed: Average

Received through: Temple, creature conversion, Mercenary Portals

Attracted By: Library

Spells: Fireball (Level 1) Firebomb (Level 4) Super Firebomb (Level 8)

Special Abilities: -

Conversion: Average

Wizards are very scary when they get the Firebomb spell, but not really much of a threat before then. They are weak in combat; mistresses can take them out no probs. I usually convert wizards because they are really good at researching, and generate a lot of mana when they pray at the temple. Wizards are purely offensive, and so don’t have the Heal creature spell like the Warlock. When monks are around though, it’s not a problem.

Fighter Class: Blocker

Fighting Ability: Very Good

Speed: Normal

Special Abilities: each Lord of the Realm has in him possession one of the portal gems which you must collect. In the majority of the campaign levels, it it your mission to destroy him and take this portal gem for yourself.

Conversion: don’t know

Fighter Class: Blocker

Fighting Ability: Excellent

Speed: Normal/Fast

Special Abilities: none

Conversion: very hard

Fighter Class: Blocker

Fighting Ability: the best

Speed: Slow

Special Abilities: when on his own land, his health will restore itself.

Conversion: don’t know

King Reginald is your arch adversary. You will face him on level 20 of the campaign. He is an excellent warrior and you should be wary of him.

Fighter Class: Blocker

Fighting Ability: Invincible

Speed: Slow

Special Abilities: the stone knights cannot be killed buy anything on this earth!

Conversion: can’t convert them

The Stone Knights are your final obstacle to open the portal to the portal to the Sunlit Kingdom. They cannot be killed by any of your regular minions, and will slay them all horribly. However… there is someone you can call on for help… if you see what I mean.