Unit advancement strategies

[MRDNRA]

Hi guys I was just wondering what kind of unit advancement strategies everyone else uses. I tend to generally advance units according to their traits regardless of if they gain abilities if I were to give them another advancement.

For example, using the HttT campaign I have just started, by some very lucky occurrence I have managed to recruit the following units with traits:

Elvish Shaman, quick, resilient (for me ideal to level to druid due to quick trait (if it had been quick, dextrous (or even strong) however I would level to sorceress due to dextrous))
Elvish Shaman, strong, dextrous (ideal to level to sorceress)
Elvish Archer, quick, strong (to level to ranger due to strong trait)
Elvish Archer, quick, dextrous (to level to marksman due to dextrous trait)
Elvish Fighter, quick, resilient (level to captain due to quick trait (though if strong would have levelled to hero)
Elvish Fighter, strong, dextrous (level to hero due to strong trait)

So generally, those are the kind of level ups I would aim for under ideal (as in this case) circumstances. However, as mentioned above, I do still tend to prioritise some traits over others, for example, with the first shaman, if it had been anything other than quick resilient or quick intelligent I would level to sorceress for the extra damage potential even though it would mean forgoing a healer at least temporarily. Is this advisable or should I in some cases at least early on aim for specific abilities such as healing or leadership at the cost of the additional damage the traits would bring from another advancement line.

[nuorc]

Hm, makes sense leveling and calculating the traits in, but to me, it looks somewhat like a luxury 'problem'. When I'm desperate to get a healer, I'll probably just take the first chance to do so. I think healers are very valuable (especially if the enemy has poison!), I prefer them in pairs and at every significant part of the front... The more villages are available, the less healers I need, and so on.

When recruiting and leveling I also look at the average damage (type) I'll deal/take and the average battle situation/terrain. I like white mages, but when I have to burn undead during the night, I take more of the reds, while the reds don't do significant damage against some drakes. When I have enough magic fire-power, I probably get no marksmen, but if I often have to take out enemies on good def terrain and don't have mages, I need marksmen.

I also think that abilities/specials are very important, e.g. I just get the Elvish Captain for his leadership (and try to get him to lvl3). The more big baddies - that you can't safely kill in one turn - play a role, the more important is 'slow'. And there's also healing, skirmish, poison..., where I just recruit a unit for its later ability.

If you have the choice, sure, use your units the most efficient way. But the 'additional damage' you mentioned is often dependent on the situation, e.g. a lone hero/champ holding a position vs a general moving with fresh recruits or teaming up for a boss-kill.

[taptap]

You can't plan for each and every recruit how you level him/her in detail --> there will be losses on the way and necessity always wins against long term planning. Still, the veterans I keep recalling tend to be quick, resilient or quick, healthy (if dwarves) or quick, fearless (if troll or heavy infantry). I wouldn't underestimate intelligence, for units going all the way to L4 it saves a lot of XP that could easily level two other L1 to L2.

[MRDNRA]

I can see the points you both make. I realised earlier when playing through another level, if I levelled all the quick, non strong fighters I had (about 3 or 4) to captain then I wouldn't need all of them anyway! The same with marksman, I already have 1, but that is probably all I will need throughout this campaign, although I may level another one just in case. So I think it's a case of, while abilities are useful, I won't be going for too many at the cost of maybe not using half of them ever again. Of course, keeping back ups is still a good idea, but only to a point I suppose. I would still select certain traits for the levelling of units with these abilities of course, but not level all units with the same traits up to get those abilities once I already had enough. (I did actually manage to successfully level all my recruits from the first mission without losing any of them so far though!)