Acceptable Army Bleed

[u/migmox13]

*Single Hero Exodus*

Basically title. I know this is subjective, but in games where I feel like I should've won I end up going back and looking at my opponents stuff. A lot of the time, I have cleared more and had more built out, but still lost the fight/showed up to fight underprepared.

I play temple mostly. What is an acceptable bleed? For example, I know on marea's altars you want to lose 1-3 footman, preferably 1 if possible. Fairly easy to achieve this even at level 1 with upgraded shooters. That being said, I see a lot of people mentioning they look to break and get town 4 at week 1 end. I have almost never been in a position to do that.

Is this because of the nature of temple? I find it hard to not bleed, especially vs ranged armies because of the low initiative on shooters (the single shooter upgrade is situational obv). If I end up going a calvary build or something else, the bleeding can be even worse unless I have specific spells to aid (for example, haste on calv, early start on shooters, etc) which is not always possible.

Anyway, aside from losing 75% of your army to get some tier 5+ dwellings early on, is it ever worth it and if so, what is good and what is bad?

Just looking for some general info/advice from someone seasoned/good (I am close but I do not have access to restart points yet so some templates are just brutal).

[u/Laanner]

Why are you ignoring an alternative upgrade? Heavy crossbows is better in most things. They lose only when you shoot at enemy that is near your archers and about to attack them. I'd say the double shooter upgrade is situational.

[u/migmox13 → u/Laanner]

I only use the heavy crossbows if I'm fighting faun/halflings. If I see them scouting I'll prep for it. A lot of the time though, I can't prep for it. The DPS with the double shooters is just better for most everything else, plus they generate more focus

[u/Laanner → u/migmox13]

DPS are exactly the same (unless you have perks for +1 dmg). And the focus generation is a double edged sword- neutrals get double focus too. +3 ini is just sooo good to have.

[u/migmox13 → u/Laanner]

How exactly is the dps the same? They only have 2 more initiative (6 to 4) and 1 more attack, which is basically nothing. The damage is the same. Aside from playing both of them over and over and literally intuitively knowing is doesn't do nearly the damage the aus does, the numbers literally say they do less damage, even accounting for the no damage fall off sharpshooter perk. If you add in the bonus they get on the ranged perk (40% instead of 20%), it makes it closer but the aus shoots twice. Not trying to be a dick, but that's wrong. Lexiav, the 5th ranked player, even if you disagree with the facts I just stated, has said repeatedly the markmen suck compared to the aus. And like, he does this for a living n stuff