Question about Upgrades

[Mr. Krabbenstein]

sooo i struggle with one thing in this game.
what do you think are the better upgrades ? economy/more troops or the actual upgrades which make your troops stronger?
since these buildings are seperate from each other and both are buildings i never can decide what to build or what strategy is the most effective.
if someone with alot expirience could explain that would be awesome, thank you :)

[Toni 'Bō' Jones]

I don't have alot of experience but I will share how I play. For me research building decision depends on factions/resources I possess, but mostly the faction. With Loth I almost always go with more units because I want to max out amount of rats asap. Since Brother Hillar (also known as Rat King) is one of my fav wielders I would use couple of stacks of rats on him and in big numbers (and good use) they are deadly. Toxicologists/Skelles are next since you need those in big amounts too.

For Rana it's the opposite and I would almost always go strengthening their units. They are quite strong by nature so doubling on it feels natural for me. In Fact I used amount of units research only once for them (because of the lack of resources but I will talk about it later). Numbers don't always win the fight, it's the right use of them that does, so keep that in mind. Quality can often beat quantity (except smart use of rats). With Rana I try to upgrade Shamans and Cheluns (these in particular cos they are BEASTS), and also Eth'dra. You may want to increase the QUANTITY of dragons tho, cos good stack of 5 of them is a game changer, but honestly dragons are quite expensive and I rarely if ever even have access to them, and by the time I have - I'm most likely winning so research isn't that important anymore. (talking about playing vs AI).

With Barya it's 50/50. I'm experimenting with this fraction and it's by far the biggest mystery for me. Some days I feel like they are OP, and the other day I can't play for good and just mess everything up. I like them alot tho, so I just go with what resources I have or the situation I am in. Last time I played one of the trickiest map - Haven and went with upgrading their stats, and use Musketeers/Brutes in particular plus range offence upgrades AND upgraded archery skill for my wielder to maximize the best use of ranged attacks and to eliminate deadly enemy units as soon as possible. I play with 2 stacks of Muskets too so that helps alot. Add here fully buffed Dreaths (forgot their updated name) and they are VERY dangerous if played correctly. Again, this might depend on your proffered play-style, cos if you don't rely on range as much, obviously, do strengthen different units. More troops research can help too because you will almost double the amount those mentioned units and it never hurts.

Arleon - can't say much since besides the campaign (which I loved) I haven't played much so I cannot say much as well. I do love their wielders so I will play with them more.

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Now, generally, as I said, quality can beat quantity and sometimes I don't even build top tier building and just go for two research ones instead. Fully buffed and max sized low/mid tier units can do wonders, so do experiment and see what you like most.

Resources. Always keep in mind what you have at your disposal and don't just go blind in research. Do your own research and study how much things you desire would require rare materials [amber/glimmerweave/celestial ore] and act accordingly. Educate yourself beforehand on particular units you like. If you have lots of amber but it won't be useful for units/skills you want to update first, then go for ones that need amber. On some maps you will naturally struggle with some resources unless your wielder has a skill for it, so always keep hat in mind. Don't just blindly go with whatever because you will wait time (building the structure), resources (you can get some of them back tho) and basically will have a useless (for the time being) building. If you have a little bit of everything, then build marketplace, preferably couple of them and trade actively. I wouldn't build two markets in your main city, but if you have couple of small settlements you can build the additional there. When I first started playing with a friend - he told me about it and I thought of it as a meh strategy but later on stuck with it. Again, it may vary on the circumstances - if you have needed resource in abundance, skip the market game - but don't underestimate it. It's cheap to build, no resources and you can always destroy it later on. But always keep in mind resources you ACTUALLY need. And, that some units require additional resources after updates - very important too. Like Toxicologists (Loth) after updates need celestial ore so I rarely update them. For some reason I often have lots of amber and struggle with glimmerweave the most. And top tier units will always need additional rare resource as well.

last words: Adjust to the environment around you and see what's possible. And keep adapting during the game, as to quote the greatest Charles Darwin: *It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent of species that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change that survives.*

And experiment. Play with every faction and try both updates/unit numbers - you will discover what you like and what you don't, and come up with your own tactics and preferences.

[Mr. Krabbenstein]

Wow that´s what i call an Answer.
thank you very much ! ^^

[Toni 'Bō' Jones]

Pleasure is all mine.

Happy conquest ~

[Jolly the Joker]

I don't think there is a general answer. On the surface, increasing the amount of creatures by 25%, 25% and lastly 50% sounds vastly superior to just getting 10% defense or something like that, and while you need resources for both things to do, the increased creature amount needs a lot of gold and creature growth as well and the more battling wielders you need (the bigger or more fractured the map is) the less practical it is, since you also have to solve the logistics to supply your Wielders with more troops, whereas the upgrading of stats works instantaneously.
However, upgrading of stats is also done by wielders' stats, artifacts and lastly spells, while stack limits increase can come only from research, so going for that is the default thing to do, imo.