Tactics

Secondary Skills
Air Magic
Archery
Armorer
Artillery
Ballistics
Diplomacy
Eagle Eye
Earth Magic
Estates
Fire Magic
First Aid
Intelligence
Interference
Leadership
Learning
Logistics
Luck
Mysticism
Navigation
Necromancy
Offense
Pathfinding
Resistance
Scholar
Scouting
Sorcery
Tactics
Water Magic
Wisdom

Tactics
	Basic Tactics: allows you to rearrange your troops just before combat, within 3 hex rows of the commanding hero.
	Advanced Tactics: allows you to rearrange your troops just before combat, within 5 hex rows of the commanding hero.
	Expert Tactics: allows you to rearrange your troops just before combat, within 7 hex rows of the commanding hero.

Tactics is a secondary skill, that allows hero to arrange his troops on the battlefield at the beginning of combat. However, if a hero is attacking another hero and both have Tactics at the same level, they cancel each other out, and neither of the heroes may arrange his army. If one of the heroes have higher level of Tactics, his skill is treated being on the same level as the remainder. For example, if hero with expert Tactics encounters a hero with basic Tactics the remainder becomes 2, which means that the hero's expert level Tactics is treated as advanced level Tactics.

Heroes with Tactics (basic) as a starting skill:

•   Boragus the Barbarian
•   Charna the Death Knight
•   Dace the Overlord
•   Erdamon the Planeswalker
•   Gunnar the Overlord
•   Ignatius the Demoniac
•   Kalt the Planeswalker
•   Lacus the Planeswalker (Advanced Tactics)
•   Mutare the Overlord
•   Mutare Drake the Overlord
•   Shakti the Overlord
•   Terek the Battle Mage
•   Thunar the Planeswalker
•   Torosar the Alchemist
•   Tyraxor the Barbarian
•   Tyris the Knight
•   Xeron the Demoniac
•   Cassiopeia the Captain 
•   Dargem the Navigator 
•   Illor the Captain 

Chance to get

Out of total 112 for Shadow of Death, and of (112 + Interference chance) for Horn of the Abyss .
Banned skills change the probability.

Town	Class	Chance to learn
Castle	Knight	7
Castle	Cleric	2
Rampart	Ranger	5
Rampart	Druid	1 (lowest)
Tower	Alchemist	4
Tower	Wizard	1 (lowest)
Inferno	Demoniac	6
Inferno	Heretic	4
Necropolis	Death Knight	5
Necropolis	Necromancer	2
Dungeon	Overlord	10 (highest)
Dungeon	Warlock	1 (lowest)
Stronghold	Barbarian	8
Stronghold	Battle Mage	5
Fortress	Beastmaster	6
Fortress	Witch	1 (lowest)
Conflux	Planeswalker	8
Conflux	Elementalist	1 (lowest)
Cove	Captain	6
Cove	Navigator	4
Factory	Mercenary	{{{21}}}
Factory	Artificer	{{{22}}}

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Overview

• The battlefield is 15 hexes wide (and 11 high).
• Usually, you need a creature with at least 13 speed to be able to reach a 1-wide creature on the exact other side in one turn. Apart from neutral or upgraded Dragons, only the following creatures can do this: Phoenix, Archangel, Arch Devil, Firebird, Efreet Sultan, Dragon Fly. Silver Pegasi and Haspids are 2-wide and have Speed 12 so they can attack a creature on the exact other side immediately as well. Angels with Speed 12 are able to attack if the creature on the exact other side is 2-wide. Ayssids, Scorpicores, Red Dragons, Thunderbirds and Wyvern Monarchs are 2-wide and have 11 Speed. They can thus reach the exact other side if the creature is also 2-wide.
• With Basic/Advanced/Expert Tactics, the distance is reduced to 11/9/7 hexes which means 11/9/7 speed is needed to immediately reach the other side (1 less if the creature you attack is 2-wide).

With upgraded creatures and Expert Tactics, all your creatures can strike immediately except:

• Stronghold: Ogre Magi.
• Necropolis: Zombies and Skeletons/Skeleton Warriors.
• Inferno: Demons/Horned Demons.
• Dungeon: Infernal Troglodytes.
• Conflux: Magma Elementals.
• Tower: Iron Golems.
• Castle: Halberdiers and Crusaders.
• Cove: Seamen.
• Fortress: Gnoll Marauders and Mighty Gorgons.
• Rampart: Dendroid Soldiers and Battle Dwarves.

Note that Haste gives on Basic/Advanced/Expert level +3/5/5 Speed. Tactics lets your army start 3/5/7 hexes farther ahead. Expert Haste allows less creatures to strike immediately than Expert Tactics. With Haste and Expert Tactics, any creature can immediately reach the other side to strike.

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Tactics is a helpful skill if used properly. It becomes really valuable on advanced and expert levels, allowing ranged units to shoot without a penalty (while it's a double-edged sword since enemy shooters will do it as well), and fliers with mediocre speed, e.g. basic Griffins, to reach the opposite battlefield edge in one turn. The latter is especially vital when sieging a town. Tactics may help to save your troops from a strong and fast enemy stack, to defend your shooters, and to avoid dragons' breath attack, Liches' death cloud, and spells like Meteor Shower which damage multiple stacks adjacent to each other.

Tactics is one of the best secondary skills in the game. At expert level, it allows a hero's army to advance 7 hexes, which is almost half of the battlefield's total length of 15. This also allows hero to arrange his troops most in suitable way for his army's capabilities. Furthermore, hero may take full advantage of the obstacles on the battlefield as a tactical element. Also a valid action is to "turtle" the troops, meaning that arrange the melee units to protect the ranged units. Combining Tactics with speed increasing spells like (mass) Haste or (mass) Prayer, allows even the slowest army to reach enemy lines on the first round of combat.

The downside of the skill is, that same level Tactics cancel each other out. When heroes with the same level in the skill confront each other, neither of them may benefit from the skill, and therefore have one secondary skill less to utilise during the combat.

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See also:

• Secondary skills