Angel and Archangel

Castle creatures
Level 1
Pikeman
Halberdier
Level 2
Archer
Marksman
Level 3
Griffin
Royal Griffin
Level 4
Swordsman
Crusader
Level 5
Monk
Zealot
Level 6
Cavalier
Champion
Level 7
Angel
Archangel
Towns

Statistics
Angel
Cost per troop  3000 1
	Attack 20 Defense 20 Damage 50 Health 200 Speed 12 Movement Flying Size 1 Growth 1 AI Value 5019
Special abilities:
• Hates devils • +1 morale to creatures in hero's army
Archangel
Cost per troop  5000 3
	Attack 30 Defense 30 Damage 50 Health 250 Speed 18 Movement Flying Size 2 Growth 1 AI Value 8776
Special abilities:
• Hates devils • +1 morale to creatures in hero's army • Can cast resurrection
Portraits

Angels and Archangels are level 7 creatures of Castle. They are recruited from Portals of Glory. Additionally, Angels can be acquired from griffin conservatories.

"With their great offensive and defensive power and flying ability, angels and archangels are among the mightiest creatures in the game. Both do 150% damage when attacking devils. Additionally, the archangel is able to resurrect dead allied troops once per combat." ^{RoE manual}

Their only downsides are the lack of immunities and rather high cost (highest cost of all not-neutral level 7 creatures, both in gold and resources). Archangels are also among the strongest level 7 units recruitable from a town. They have the highest attack and defense out of all level 7 creatures that you can recruit from a town and only Azure Dragons and Crystal Dragons have higher attack and defense (Rust Dragons have the same). The Ancient Behemoth, Haspid and Titan can defeat an Archangel in a one-on-one combat (Titan can win by defending 4 times and then attacking).

Archangels have the highest AI Value of any creature in Restoration of Erathia with 8776. The only creature which gains size on upgrade.

Specialties

Angels and Archangels hate Devils and Arch Devils, which causes them to do 50% more damage to them. They also increase the morale of the hero's army by +1. The morale bonus effect lasts until the end of the combat, even if all Angels/Archangels die during the fight. Additionally, a stack of Archangels may cast Resurrection spell once per combat. The effect does not follow any of the Resurrection spell's formulas (including the effects caused by the Rockland terrain), and is always 100 health points per Archangel. Like with Advanced and Expert Earth Magic, the Resurrection effect is permanent.

Special strategy

Casting the Clone spell on a stack of Archangels before the stack has cast their Resurrection, enables the clone to cast it. Typically the Resurrection cast by Archangels is more powerful compared to a hero's Resurrection. After the clone has cast the Resurrection, it is almost preferable to let the enemy destroy it in order to cast Clone on the Archangels again. Additionally, spells like Fireball or Meteor Shower can be used to destroy the clone.

It takes three Archangels to resurrect one Archangel. Thus it could be wise to divide them into stacks with multiples of three (3,6,9...), so they can resurrect each other.

Because their damage is not based on a range of numbers, but is instead set at 50, spells like bless and curse have almost no effect on them. Because they do a precise amount of damage in combat, they are a sure-fire unit.

Casting the Frenzy spell on a stack of Archangels and then casting the Clone spell on the same stack, removes the effect of the Frenzy spell from both the clone and the targeted Archangel stack.

Trivia

In an interview with Greg Fulton, the lead designer of HoMM3, it was stated by him that the Angels and Archangels are robots created by the Ancients to exterminate Kreegans.

Restoration of Erathia and Armageddon's Blade

In Restoration of Erathia and Armageddon's Blade gems were not included in the cost.

See also:

• List of creatures