File:ArcheryVSArtillery.png

Explanation: Imagine that on Week 1 Day 2 you have a ballista and 12 Grand Elves (7 from your town and 5 from your heroes). If your hero has 5 attack, would his army deal more damage with Advanced Artillery (e.g., a level 2 Gurnisson) or with Advanced Archery (e.g., a level 2 Jabarkas)? Figure 1 shows that in this case you need at least 17 Grand Elves for Advanced Archery to do more damage than Advanced Artillery (see I). With only 12 Grand Elves and a ballista, Advanced Artillery may in this stage therefore help you most to advance your hero and kingdom. However, imagine that on Week 2 Day 1, you buy 19 extra Grand Elves (14 from your town and 5 from a tavern hero) and that your hero, after gaining some levels, now has an attack of 9. Would this hero with an army of 31 Grand Elves and a ballista benefit more from Expert Artillery or Expert Archery? Figure 1 shows that because this hero has more than 16 Grand Elves, Expert Archery is the better choice here (see II). This demonstrates that later on in most games Artillery rapidly becomes less useful than Archery (or Offense), An exception may be maps of impossible difficulty with insufficient money to recruit extra troops, which allows heroes with Artillery to gain and possibly maintain a notable advantage. Note: The figure is also valid for armies with other ranged units than Grand Elves (e.g., 7 Grand Elves on grass equal 8 Medusas on subterranean). Special circumstances such as morale, hero specialties, archery artifacts, spells and ranged units getting killed or blocked during battle.are not factored in.