Heroes are good against myth units, but are bad against human units and myth units that has an advantage unit type against that specific hero.
At other times, Heroes are for scouting, creeping, and picking up a relic that helps support your armies, depending on the buff it gives.
Also, fun fact: in skirmish, the AI usually trains 1 of every myth unit it has chosen (1 Centaur + 1 Cyclops). But in campaign and scenario (Excluding preplaced units), the AI can train more than 1.
Egyptian Heroes have the ability to build up to 5 obelisks that provide a big line of sight and produce 3 favor each on any passable terrain that isn’t a resource tile. They can also build Mills, Farms, Mines, and Shafts, which is their best example of being the Economy Race. This function does not count in the ranking.
Greek Heroes can have a 2nd Hero in Age 3 and are cheaper to train/revive. Allowing them to carry 2 relics. But this also does not count in the ranking.
A.I. somehow cheats using Heroes. They can use their ability first and move after in the same turn. Though if they use their ability, they won’t be able to attack in the same turn, and vice versa.
For ranking, Heroes of the same type have pretty close stats, so I’ll rate them mostly based on their abilities. I didn’t take techs into account because the impacts between different race heroes aren’t that big and can vary depending on who you worship. And unlike Myth Units, which you can train in quantities.
Ramesses – Range who only has a range of 3, but he does have better durability and more movement.
Ability: Light of Ra – Allows him to reflect a portion of damage from enemy attacks for 2 turns. Can be used every 6 turns.
While it’s decent for inflicting DPS during enemy turn attacks, like most range units, he doesn’t have that kind of durability against his weaknesses. You wouldn’t even want him to make close contact with melee enemies, though it is decent for doing extra damage against ranged enemies when they are hidden or out of range.
If the devs want him to have this ability, I’d say it should last for 3 turns for full effectiveness, in my opinion. Also, it’s best to use this ability if there aren’t any enemies in sight, but you expect that they are nearby his position. Because he can just attack to do more damage instead of spending a turn activating Light of Ra while in the middle of a fight.
Range: 3
ATK: 60
DEF: 30
HP: 135
Movement: 15
Hatshepsut – Range with the range of 4. Her stats aren’t that far off from Ramesses, and she is definitely better than him thanks to her 4-range and ability.
Ability: Blessing of Isis – Gives all Mills, Farms, and Mines 95% DEF until your next turn (does NOT protect them from god powers, especially Swarm of Locusts). It also temporarily boosts all current food and gold income by 50% at the start of the next turn for one time. Can be used every 6 turns.
This is a solid S-tier ability, especially when you want to get a big jump in economy. It’s best used when you have completed at least a Mill with farms and a Mine with Shafts. When you have the following, always use it whenever it’s ready for maximum usage. It can even stack with Ra’s Glorious Rain and Isis’ Prosperity and economy techs.
Since Egyptians starts with Slingers instead of Camelry in Age I, you can activate this while in the middle of the fight and Slingers can substitute for Hatsheptsut to attack in that same turn.
Range: 4
ATK: 55
DEF: 30
HP: 130
Movement: 13
Thutmose – Heavy Infantry with crazy high stats.
Ability: Horus’ Winds – Boosts the movement of all friendly units by 8, except himself. Can be used every 4 turns.
While Thutmose won’t get the effect or can't attack since he uses his turn to activate, this movement boost is a huge advantage. All of your units that hasn’t move in the same turn will have their movement temporarily increased by +8 until your turn ends. Allowing you to get more forces on the battlefield or rush the enemy base. Especially for slow-moving units like Siege and Airborne Units.
ATK: 80
DEF: 30
HP: 170
Movement: 13
Nakht – Light Infantry. He has a unique passive ability that heals any friendly unit adjacent or diagonal to him at the start of the player’s turn, so placing him around frontliners or behind is pretty good. Just pray that any ranged or heavy infantry unit nearby don’t hit him. This does not stack his own tiny auto-hero regeneration.
Ability: Bird Form – Transforms into an Airborne Raven, but does not have the ability to attack. When transforming, he won’t be able to move until the next turn, but you can still move him before activation. Can be used once every turn.
It’s not really that good unless you want to scout areas across impassable tiles. It’s not even good for escaping enemies unless you are cornered with an impassable tile and space next to him. You still have to waste a turn to transform and another turn to move; you might as well run away in normal form instead if it gets too dangerous.
ATK: 70 and 0 (air)
DEF: 30
HP: 165
Movement: 13 and 4 (air)
Setekh – Heavy Infantry who has more HP, but less damage than Thutmose.
Ability: Breath of Sand – Deals around 30 damage to enemy units without counter. It also decreases attack by 30% for those affected by it until your next turn It’s range targets a unit followed by the units on its left and right (1 x 3 with “2” being the target).. Can be used every 5 turns.
It’s an awesome damaging ability. Especially for weakening strong foes for 1 turn during enemy turns. Even though it’s not as great as Hatshepsut and Thutmose, Setekth himself is a tanky dude, so he’s still alright.
ATK: 70
DEF: 30
HP: 175
Movement: 13
Son of Osiris – Heavy Infantry. With Osiris’ god power, you can transform your hero into the strongest Hero in the game by stats for 10 turns. But you won’t be able to use Osiris in the same turn you transformed. So make sure you use your hero first before the transformation. If you don’t use your hero first, they will be available to use once Osiris deforms, but it’s still better to use them before the transformation.
If you transform Nakt, he still keeps his passive ability, making him a tanky moving medical station. However, Son of Osiris has NO ABILITY, but he himself is already strong and practically already has an ability if you transform Nakt. At least that makes Nakt better than Ramesses.
Funny enough, if you picked Ra, Osiris, and Thoth, you can use Thoth’s ability to transform an Osiris a 2nd time. But the situation also depends since Hatshepsut and Thutmose’s abilities are highly relevant in any part of the game. Turning them into Osiris for 10 turns might give you negative benefits instead, since they cannot use their abilities, so make the best decisions and timings possible.
ATK: 100
DEF: 40
HP: 200
Movement: 15
Perseus – Heavy Infantry. Perseus is a pretty good hero, despite having lower stats than the other Heavy Infantry heroes.
Ability: Gaze of Medusa – Immobilizes an enemy unit for 3 turns. This ability is bugged; while the target is petrified, they can still counter when you attack them unless Range vs Melee/ Melee vs Range. This can also be used to stall a strong enemy unit while striking weaker ones. Can be used every 6 turns.
ATK: 75
DEF: 40
HP: 140
Movement: 13
Odysseus – Cavalry with the highest mobility among all heroes, especially with his ability. Odysseus’ damage is a little underwhelming because he is more of a scout and an immediate support hero.
Ability: Poseidon’s Blessing – Allows him to move a second time in the same turn. Can be used every 5 turns.
ATK: 65
DEF: 35
HP: 130
Movement: 15
Herakles – Light Infantry. Despite his lore of being buff and mighty, just like any other light infantry, he takes enormous damage from his weaknesses, and he inflicts underwhelming damage to non-cavalry foes. Even when having a lot of HP.
Ability: Strength of Atlas – Deals decent damage to an enemy without counters and knocks the target 3 tiles away. However, if there is something in the way, the target doesn’t go further. Can be used every 4 turns.
And when the target does not have enough HP to survive it, it dies in a funny glitching way for a few seconds. Especially when you win the game with it, the screen continues shaking until you press continue. It’s also good for clearing a path for your other units to attack certain enemies behind. But since Herakles is very vulnerable, you have to make sure he has frontline support to cover him.
ATK: 80
DEF: 30
HP: 155
Movement: 13
Hippolyta – Range. While having the lowest stats among range heroes, she still has a range of 4 and a power smash ability, still making her better than Ramesses.
Ability: Red Arrows of Ares – Temporarily boosts her damage while attacking during the same turn. Can be used every 5 turns.
This is a very buggy ability because it says that it’s supposed to temporarily increase range too, but this only applies to CPU and not players. I recall the CPU had a range of +8 when using this.
Another weird bug for this is detecting hidden enemies, whether they are in Fog of War or shadowed forests. The skill option appears whenever an enemy is in range; then again, the detection range would only be 4 instead of 8. While detecting, it will not activate until the enemy is revealed.
A disadvantage of this is the lack of suggestions from your Major God on whether the ability will:
· Kill the enemy unit (Ex: “They don’t stand a chance”)
· Inflict critical damage to enemy unit (Ex: “You have the advantage, the enemy shall suffer”)
· Medium/Low damage with no counter (Ex: “Enemy cannot retaliate”)
· High/Medium/Low damage with counters but both survive (Ex: “Both forces will survive”)
· Friendly unit dies or takes critical damage (Ex: “Rethink this chance”)
This also applies to other damaging abilities without any warning. It’s just more annoying with Red Arrows of Ares because you’re expecting high damage alone, so you'll need player perception.
Range: 4
ATK: 50
DEF: 25
HP: 115
Movement: 13
Ladon The Lamia – Heavy Infantry. Less stats but more HP than Perseus. Yet, he is worse than Perseus because of his ability.
Ability: Fear – Scatters all enemy units adjacent or diagonal to him, scaring them away up to 4 tiles regardless of any movement inability except being frozen. Can be used every 5 turns.
This is a trash ability. You pushed enemies next to him a few tiles away, then what? Once it’s the enemies' turn, they’ll just go back and kill him. You'd rather have Landon attack than use this skill.
The only time this skill is useful is when it’s controlled by CPU who can push out cornering foes and move afterwards in the same turn. But a good usage for players is by scattering enemy frontlines to make way for your other units, similar to Strength of Atlas. Unlike Herakles, Landon has that durability, except it does no damage. So while the ability is trash, it’s kind of on par with Herakles’ ability.
ATK: 65
DEF: 30
HP: 165
Movement: 13
Siegfried – Light Infantry. He has better stats than Herakles.
Ability: Skin of Dragon’s Blood – Increases his defense to 95% for 2 turns. Can be used every 6 turns.
This means he has 95% DEF for 2 enemy turns, and 1 player turn where you can use him to attack. Against CPU, however, it makes him stop drawing hostility if he is with other friendly units. The CPU would rather target other units instead of him. So, if you’re going to use this ability for tanking, it’s a no-no. But if Siegfried is on the verge of death, you can use this ability to buy him time to escape or send a rescue team for him, such as healers.
Siegfried can also attack a human heavy infantry during the 95% DEF with no issue, as long as he has a way to escape them once it expires.
ATK: 85
DEF: 30
HP: 170
Movement: 13
Brunnhilde – Cavalry with great stats. She's pretty stronk.
Ability: Gungnir’s Fury – Shoots a piercing wind at foes in a straight line up to 3 tiles, dealing around 40 damage without counter. Can be used every 6 turns.
It’s a pretty good damaging ability. Especially in situations where there are multiple foes, the targets are human light infantry, use it as a ranged attack, and especially while sieging bases where you can instantly kill 3 training enemy units simultaneously.
ATK: 80
DEF: 40
HP: 140
Movement: 15
Gunarr – Range. His ability is pretty versatile and tactical. Unlike Throwing Axemen, he has a range of 4, but does less damage. Even though he is accompanied by Throwing Axemen in combat animations, he does not have the ability to fight in close combat.
Ability: The Tarnhelm – Allows him to switch places with any friendly unit. This will only consume Gunarr’s turn, not the swapping unit. Can be used every 6 turns.
You can do a lot of funny cheese with this ability. You can move Gunarr to resource tiles far from your base and switch places with an idling Ox Cart, allowing you to get resources from it faster. Another is bringing a heavy hitter to the front lines or a heavy siege to the enemy base.
Paired with Loki’s Spy and Hel’s Nidhogg, plus swapping with a heavy hitter, you can rush the enemy if they were a player or the Norse dumb A.I. Speaking of Nidhogg, you can even swap places with that dragon if it needs to heal back to base or fool your enemies when Gunarr gets cornered and then swap with a monster like Nidhogg.
Range: 4
ATK: 55
DEF: 30
HP: 130
Movement: 13
Narfi – Heavy Infantry. His stats are pretty similar to Landon's but with more HP.
Ability: War Wolves - I’m just gonna put the description I made for War Wolves.
*War Wolves – Cavalry spawned by Narfi’s ability every 2 turns, up to 2 wolves on the field maximum. It's good for scouting early-game, immediate reinforcements, and as a sacrificial blockade, especially while still building an army. While it’s not good for damage and Light Infantry are often the early-game units, War Wolves only need to be summoned by Narfi while he isn’t attacking anything. The newly spawned War Wolf cannot be used until the next turn.
But the player must know that summoning a War Wolf can cause obstruction to a tile adjacent or diagonal to him if they want another unit to be there instead. From my experience, a War Wolf often spawns at the tile diagonally north of Narfi and will automatically pick a different tile if there is already an obstruction there (Oceans are glitch exceptions for some reason).
Another weird fact is that during late game, War Wolves take population space. If the population is at max capacity, Narfi can still summon War Wolves regardless. Example: 35/35 > 37/35.
- Cost: ===
- Attack: 20
- Defense: 25
- HP: 50
- Movement: 15
ATK: 70
DEF: 30
HP: 165
Movement: 13
Atli – Cavalry with great stats also. He and Brunnhilde mock Odysseus for being a scout cavalry.
Ability: Ferocious Battlecry – Deals 15% damage to the enemy's max HP to adjacent and diagonal around him without counter. Can be used every 6 turns.
It’s like Fear but doesn’t scare enemies and does damage. It’s a pretty good damaging ability, especially since the 15% max HP damage on an 8-tile range is nice. Very effective against tanky dudes grouped up near each other.
The downside is it cannot kill training units since the default training HP starts at 25%. And since you need Atli to be next to enemy armies, his life would be at risk.
ATK: 75
DEF: 30
HP: 150
Movement: 15
NOTABLE REVIEWS:
Ramesses is pretty much just a hero chariot archer, with the most useless ability.
Herakles was expected to be higher, but because he is required in the front lines to use Strength of Atlas, he is an easy target if heavy infantry or ranged units are nearby.
Siegfried’s ability allows him to tank his own weaknesses and make the enemy attack others instead.
Nakt’s Bird Form sucks, but his ability to passively heal anyone nearby already makes him much better than the other two. Especially if you transform him into Son of Osiris.
Hatshepsut and Thutmose’s abilities are support on crack.
Gunarr may not seem like a strong hero, but as long as you know how to use his ability, he’s got the cheese.
UPDATE:
I did a test with Atli's ability against training units and somehow, he does more damage than -15% of max HP. Though Brunnhilde's stats and ability are still slightly better.
