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Haven: Training

Haven's Racial Skill, Training, takes advantage of the town's predominantly human forces. Training allows the player to convert a human unit of a lower level into a human unit of a higher level - at a price. The entire Training process can only be executed by Knights, i.e., Haven Heroes.

Of Haven's 7 creature levels, 5 are comprised of humans, giving you 4 possible upgrades. Of course, you're not bound to stop there, and can go on up the ladder. For example, Peasant to Archer to Footman to Priest, as is detailed in the costs table below.

There is also a weekly limit to the number of units that can be trained in a specific town, depending on which Training support buildings have been built in-town. The Training Grounds, the base building that makes Training possible, sets a limit at 7 units per week, while the Hall of Heroes upgrade increases that number to 20.

Standard Costs

The cost of training a unit is by default 3 times the usual cost of the unit it is trained into. Cumulative training (from Peasant to Footman for example) requires several steps and the costs are thus cumulative (each step is counted to enforce the weekly limit). All the costs are pre-calculated in the following table:

	Trained Unit
	150	420	2370	6120
		270	2220	5970
			1950	5700
				3750

Obviously, Training only trains the creature into the base unit, and it is your prerogative if you feel they need to be upgraded afterwards. As a note, you may train upgraded units, though the cost will be the same, and they will be converted into the same, un-upgraded unit at the higher level.

Note:
The dwelling of the creature you want to train into must be built in the town.
In Hammers of Fate, Renegade creatures do not qualify for Training, as they are not classified as Haven units, and there is no base unit of that creature.

Training Modifiers

Costs reductions can be stacked, as shown in the table below. For example, a hero with Advanced Counterstrike (-15%) and the Expert Trainer ability (-35%) can train units with a 50% discount. Additionally, if the hero has the Suzerain specialty (for instance Ornella in the scenario "The Union") and is level 10 (-18%), then the total cost reduction is 68%, leaving only 32% of the price to pay — less than the initial trained unit's price! If the reduction reaches 100%, then Training is free.

As for some other rounded-down integer values in the game, the "Nival rounding" is applied: Nival_floor(x) = ceil(x)-1, resulting in Nival_floor(150) = 149, for example.

	Training Grounds Effect: Required for any Training in this town. Allows to train 7 units per week. Requires: Town Level 6. Cost: 3500, 10, 5, 5
	Hall of Heroes Effect: Allows to train 13 additional units per week in this town, for a total of 20. Requires: Town Level 9, Training Grounds. Cost: 5000, 10, 5, 5
	Advanced Counterstrike Effect: Training costs reduced by 15%.
	Expert Counterstrike Effect: Training costs reduced by 30%.
	Ultimate Counterstrike Effect: Training costs reduced by 45%.
	Expert Trainer (ability) Effect: Training costs reduced by 35%.
	Suzerain (hero special) Effect: Training costs reduced by 2% per level of the hero: reduction = (Level-1)*2%.

The following table contains the cost summary for the various combinations of Counterstrike and Expert Trainer. In each case, the percentage of the total Training cost you must pay is shown:

	Basic Counterstrike	Advanced Counterstrike	Expert Counterstrike	Ultimate Counterstrike
	100%	85%	70%	55%
	65%	50%	35%	20%

The Counterstrike skill

	Basic Counterstrike Allows to upgrade limited number of human troops up the tier every week. Only works within Haven towns where Training Grounds facility has been built. Besides, damage dealt by knight's troops on retaliation strikes is increased by 5%.
	Advanced Counterstrike Allows to upgrade limited number of human troops up the tier every week. Only works within Haven towns where Training Grounds facility has been built. Reduces training cost by 15%. Besides, damage dealt by knight's troops on retaliation strikes is increased by 10%.
	Expert Counterstrike Allows to upgrade limited number of human troops up the tier every week. Only works within Haven towns where Training Grounds facility has been built. Reduces training cost by 30%. Besides, damage dealt by knight's troops on retaliation strikes is increased by 20%.
	Ultimate Counterstrike Allows to upgrade limited number of human troops up the tier every week. Only works within Haven towns where Training Grounds facility has been built. Reduces training cost by 45%. Besides, damage dealt by knight's troops on retaliation strikes is increased by 25%.

Associated abilities

	Benediction The Knight receives special combat ability to temporarily raise the morale, initiative, attack and defense of his troops.
	Expert Trainer Troop training in Haven towns costs 35% less than normal. Knight must be stationed within the town with Training Grounds built for this effect to take place.
	Retaliation Strike The knight receives special combat ability to guard any selected creature in his army until the end of combat by inflicting direct damage to every enemy that is attacking this guarded creature.
	Unstoppable Charge Hero's Retaliation Strike ability inflicts triple damage.

Strategies

The most noticeable step is Footman to Priest, as it converts a melee fighter into a considerably more powerful ranged attacker. Hence, if you plan on Training, the upgraded building becomes less of a priority, especially for Peasants. Peasants also provide a good financial bonus which is useful until you decide to train them into Archers.

If contemplating training, gold mines should be the first priority (aside from Expert Trainer, of course). The most effective training combination is Peasant to Archer against slower armies, while Priest to Cavalier, and perhaps more so, Archer to Footman are the most effective training possibilities against strong ranged attackers.

Unstoppable Charge

Much in the same vein as Urgash's Call and Rage of Elements, Unstoppable Charge is merely a damage multiplier for Retaliation Strike, a component of Haven's maligned Counterstrike racial skill. The main downfall it has is due to the ineffectiveness of Retaliation Strike, especially against human opponents. While it may provide a larger bonus than Rage of the Elements, the number of times it will activate is much more infrequent. Additionally, the skills (aside from perhaps Light Magic) aren't disposed to a Knight's development, putting Unstoppable Charge further out of reach.

You can discuss Heroes V racial skills with the Heroes Community.

Thanks to ThE_HyDrA for creating and looking after the Heroes 5 section of Age of Heroes!

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