I wanted to make a minimal review of all the castles in the third heroes version of Hota 3, which is currently being played on Twitch. The first castle will be the one that I had to play for the most and like doing it. 



Features of the Castle

• is considered expensive. To build angels you will need 20,000 gold, to upgrade to T2 another 20,000. That is, without gold at respawn, it is difficult to develop.
• the strongest unit of the seventh level in the entire game. Yes, angels are considered the strongest unit.
• no access to the guild of mages of the 5th level. Only spells of the 4th max,
• heroes are mostly adherents of the school of Water magic: Bless Prayer, Clone. These are water spells, with expert skill mass blessing, mass prayer and clone of the unit become available during the battle, not one appears, but three:

Heroes

Unfortunately, at the competitive level, streamers playing for the castle always choose one hero without alternative, this is Valeska, since she boosts growingt by x3 times or even more, compared to the start on other castle characters. 

This happens due to the summation of several of Valeska's bonuses:

• archers on the castle, if you upgrade them to t2, have a double shot, which means double damage.
• Valeska starts with three stacks of archers
• She specializes in archers, every two hero levels, their damage and defense increases by 20%:

• Valeska's secondary skills: shooting - increasing damage from ranged units by 10% for each level, leadership - a chance to catch another turn on a unit

That is, all the skills are summed up and you get an uncontested imba, since the other heroes of this castle are an order of magnitude worse if you start with them. 

On the first day, we upgrade archers, transfer an army from a native hero, buy up the remains in the castle and we get a stack of Crossbowmen, with units in the form of pikemen, for taking the simplest objects, and even medium-difficulty guards, from the first day! 



Building a castle

Depending on the amount of gold that the randomizer poured into your respawn, as well as the type of map you play, one of three strategies for building in the castle is chosen after the third day: 

Day 3



On the first day of the week, we upgrade archers, on the second, as a rule, we put a forge. On the third, we put barracks, which opens access to Swordsmen, but they are rarely used, only if there is a stack. And also, after the barracks, a fork appears depending on the amount of gold at the respawn: 

Not enough gold



If there are very few funds, and the economy is at zero, there is nothing to take objects for gold like gnomes, crypts, or they simply do not exist, then, as a rule, they stick Griffins, and on additional days of the week they put a prefecture, a citadel, etc. Develop the economy. 

Average gold



When funds are normal, but not enough to stick angels, sometimes they build horses, and in the second week after the increase, you get 4 horses in the army, with which you can win more objects than with Griffons. And if there is a stable at the respawn, then you can upgrade more horses in T2 to Knights, and for free. Also, having stuck a stable in the castle, you have an increased number of move points until the end of the week, you can loot more objects. 

Lots of gold



The dream of everyone who plays for the castle is to have enough resources at the respawn to build an angel portal. And in the second week, together with them, you can loot almost everything, unless of course, this is not a dragon utopia.

General view on unit upgrades:



Swordsmen and monks are not used that often in the early game. And horses too. More towards the end of the game, when there is a stack, the army is upgraded to t2 - these are fanatics and crosses. 

That seems to be it, nothing more to say about Castle, and... don't forget to buy a ballista in the forge