A Town Guide

Tower

Overview: The tower town is weak in the early game, but it has some excellent late game units and powerful magic. It is also very good with ranged units, with three by the late game. Its buildings are expensive, though, with high building dependencies. The tower is vulnerable in the early game, because its units are very slow and its one ranged unit, the mage, requires several buildings for its dwelling to be built. This town needs its upgrades because it is very slow in combat. However, with its powerful spells, it can stay in the game until it gets them.

Pros: Strong in magic; powerful late level creatures; three ranged units; two flying units.
Cons: Weak early level creatures; expensive buildings and creatures; need lots of precious resources; slow build-up.

Creatures
The creatures of the tower start out poorly, but gain in strength. The gremlin is vying for the title of worst first-level creature with the inferno's imp, while the stone gargoyle is only an average second-level creature. The stone golem is durable but too slow to make a difference in most cases. However, with the use of haste or teleport spells, it becomes much more useful, especially with its inherent magic resistance.

The fourth-level mage is a good ranged unit, but you should upgrade it at the first opportunity to gain a truly lethal ranged attacker. The magi and archmagi are also extremely useful because they reduce the casting cost of all your spells. During sieges, archmagi also suffer no penalties from firing over the enemy walls. The fifth-level genie is physically very weak, and its upgrade only gains the ability to cast random beneficial spells. It isn't always a blessing because you might get a useless protection from water spell when you are fighting fire elementals or inferno creatures. The sixth-level naga, though, is powerful, as is the upgraded naga queen - both always hit for maximum damage, and their attacks cannot be retaliated against. The giant is only average as a seventh-level creature, but its upgrade, the titan, is a terror on the battlefield. All the late level creatures are expensive to recruit, so you definitely need lots of resources to field your tower army.

This town type could use spell support, and with the tower's good magic, you can have some pretty effective combinations, such as hasted and blessed golems or archmagi with protection spells and precision. Upgrade your troops as early a possible. The master gremlin becomes a ranged unit (the only such first-level unit), which gives you a needed boost in the early game. The gargoyle needs the upgrade to gain a boost in speed, and the golem becomes even more durable. The mage and naga upgrades should also be high priorities.

Buildings
The buildings for the tower town are expensive and full of dependencies. You can build the first three levels of dwellings easily, but then you need the mage guild and all three previous dwellings to proceed further. However, once you build the mage tower, you can get the naga's golden pavilion, giving you a powerful sixth-level creature by the end of the week. (Unfortunately, building this usually leaves you without enough resources to also build the altar of wishes for genies). If you want to build the giant's cloud temple, you need all previous dwellings. All buildings from level four to seven are expensive in gold and precious resources. You will need lots of gems to support this town. Furthermore, the upgrades to these dwellings require even more resources and dependencies. To upgrade the mage tower, for example, you need to build the library. This town is not one that allows for a quick advancement through the building tree. And it requires a lot of resources.

The special buildings aid this town in spellcasting and exploration. The lookout tower can be built immediately and reveals the map in a huge area around the town. However, to get the most use out of this building, you need to build it in the first week (if not the first day), which will cost you a day of climbing up the creature dwelling tree. The library grants an extra spell per spell level in the mage guild, while the wall of knowledge permanently boosts your visiting heroes' knowledge. The other special building is the artifact merchant, which allows you to buy artifacts at an incredibly steep price. You probably won't have the money to use it until well into the late game. The blacksmith builds ammo carts and the resource silo produces +1 gems. The only horde building boosts gargoyle production.

The tower grail building is the impressive Skyship, which provides an additional +5000 gold per day, boosts creature growth by +50 percent, reveals the entire world map, and gives garrison heroes a +15 knowledge benefit.

Magic
This town is very strong in magic, and is able to gain one more spell per level than other town types, thus enhancing your chance of learning powerful spells. This town is likely to gain movement spells and a good smattering of all spell types. The heroes for this town gain power and knowledge quickly and are among the game's best spellcasters. You will be able to help your troops immensely with the magic from this town.