NargottЧто за интересный вопрос, в оригинале тащит тот, кто раньше пришел, раньше пробил охранки и раньше убил оппонента. Тот, кто больше копил, всегда проигрывает.

Correct, on original if you manage to get early to the hoarding opponent his specialization is not viable for the battle.

Hero specialization strength depends on the map specifications.

large maps good specializations:
- Hoarding specializations
- creature attack/defense spec

Small maps good specializations:
- Narrow magic specializations are very good on small maps where the final fight occurs month 1-2. They give a good edge after a few levels that other heroes just do not have.
- Different War machines specializations

Poor maps good specializations:

- Economic specializations (gold/resources) are good on maps with low or no resources (Belt templates have only wooden and ore mines on the map).
- knowledge based heroes are also good if combined with resource artifacts which are common.


Have in mind that although some specializations seems stronger they will not be that good in practice because when a hero can use something strong (spells/abilities) or have something in surplus (creatures?) this means he will need more of other things to spend like mana or resources. In heroes 5.5 gold and mana are not endless. For example Dungeons are the strongest Destruction casters due to their high chance of spellpower gain but this is compensated by a mediocre mana pool.

The same goes for Archilius. Yes you can higher 25%/33%/50% more liches but you have to find the money for them.

Same goes for economic heroes - they give some resources/gold which does not seem that important but at the end you have larger army (castle is developed faster, able to purchase additional troops from dwellings) than the enemy because he cannot purchase it all.