get that bull out of my grove!

[PrinzMegaherz]

And Spornsjarl (I think, the Vaetti hero for Jotunheim) is not only a *stealthy* commander, but also much better at it than other stealthy commanders available to Jotunheim AND also has *standard*. No more routing! He won't be *as* *good* as stealthy Holy-4 prophet would, but he might be just enough.

I never said all heroes are bad.
But if you look at R'lyeh, you will see that their heroes are capable of dealing with elemental kings/queens.

By "better summons" I actually thought about something bane lord sized. He is a midgame summon, not invincible, but there are only few heroes able to beat him when both meet unequipped. Take the log guy for example.

[Endoperez]

Perhaps the heroes are part of the overall balance? Now, T'ien C'hi, who is often said to be too weak, has strong heroes. They might not be able to kill Bane Lords, but they have wonderful abilities and all of them are highly thematic.

Also, the point of all heroes is not to fight. Some can command more units that your normal commanders, some have special abilities (Master of the Iron Crutch! ), some offer your nation magics they don't usually have (that high), some are just thematic, some offer more of what you already have and some are combatants. Good or bad, it doesn't really matter. They weren't developed to rival gods! Good heroes are special abilities of some nations, just like type of armies, heat preference, priestly power and magical specialisation mentioned in their description.

Also, imagine your opponent's face if Spornsjarl the Vaetti Hero (or champion, or whatever) gets the Heroic Hitpoints -ability and doubles the hitpoints of his bigger "friends"... That will probably never happen, but who knows. This is
Dominions II, after all!

[PrinzMegaherz]

Also, the point of all heroes is not to fight.

I completely agree with you. The Tien Chi heroes are very usefull and thematic. I think that most caster heroes like the harpy queen for pangaea add something special to their nation, like a new magic path or some other special ability (like the pan assasin). I was writing about pure melee heroes.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
Also, the point of all heroes is not to fight. Some can command more units that your normal commanders, some have special abilities (Master of the Iron Crutch! ), some offer your nation magics they don't usually have (that high), some are just thematic, some offer more of what you already have and some are combatants.

And some heroes are just there to make you curse and grumble that you didn't get somebody else, once you've seen them a few times and realized that they can't seem to do anything useful except walk in circles around your territory.