Rampart Units

The rampart creatures are generally slow, and only have one ranged unit. However, you can compensate for this weakness with the rampart's strong magic. The rampart has a pretty steep resource requirements for really only one building, and its building dependencies aren't too bad. You want to upgrade your units early to gain the much-needed speed upgrades. The silver pegasus is important for an early speed boost, because all other troops usually aren't fast enough to win initiative in battle.

Centaur/Centaur Captain
Attack: 5/6
Defense: 3/3
Hit Points: 8/10
Damage: 2-3/2-3
Speed: 6/8
Movement: ground
Cost: 70/90
Special Abilities: None/None

The centaur and centaur captain are the best first-level troops, with the early game's best combination of speed and power. They are vital to the rampart forces because the dwarf and elf are slow moving troops. The centaur, though, is fast, and the centaur captain even faster. These creatures should form the bulk of your early forces. However, their low defense needs to be enhanced via magic spells such as stone skin. Because centaur captains are such a necessary element of your army, and because they are expensive, take care to keep them alive with intelligent spell use.

Dwarf/Battle Dwarf
Attack: 6/7
Defense: 7/7
Hit Points: 20/20
Damage: 2-4/2-4
Speed: 3/5
Movement: ground
Cost: 120/150
Special Abilities: 20 percent magic resistance/40 percent magic resistance

Dwarves are too slow to be of much use, but once you upgrade them to battle dwarves, they can be a strong addition to your army. Add battle dwarves and elves to a force of centaurs and you should be able to do relatively well. The centaurs and elves can draw fire from the dwarves, which can then engage the enemy. Or, if the enemy chooses to attack the dwarves, you could rush in with centaurs and attack with the elves.

Upgrade your dwarves at the earliest opportunity. The upgraded cottage only costs 1000 gold so there is no excuse not to upgrade. Although dwarves have a 20 percent magic resistance, the battle dwarves have 40 percent resistance - meaning, 40 percent of enemy spells cast upon your battle dwarf stacks will fizzle. This helps offset their low speed by discouraging enemy heroes from attacking them with spells, although it doesn't help them against enemy archers. Cast a haste spell on your battle dwarves to make them more effective. Once they gain good speed, they can become very effective troops. Because you can build either a dwarf cottage of elf homestead after a centaur stable, it is usually best to wait on the dwarves, but don't delay too long because battle dwarves are useful allies once you can haste them.