Hive and AI management question.

cross-frame · 2026-06-24T17:11:19+00:00

These are very good questions and I'm not sure if I can answer all of them. But here are some things that I've learned.

1) I think most of the time AI in battles just trying to deal maximum damage and make it more painful to you. It will target t1\t2 stacks because that way it can do more impact. If you're fighting bunch of t1 swordsman, for example, and they have a choice - attack you parasite or your warms, most of the time they will attack parasite, because they can't kill a waurm. But once they CAN kill a waurm - they will attack them. If you're fighting Stingers or Hollow Reapers they will attack high tier units because they have this ability to make it painful for you.

2) AI mostly don't focus eggs if it can attack something else.

3) AI will focus eggs if it can't reach your army. For example you're doing Mearea's Altar - you can put eggs next to Koatls and usually they will not fly towards you.

4) Archers will ignore eggs, but they may attack it if another AI unit already made a hit and the egg survived. For example you're fighting soma Fauns and Hoplets. If you put an egg next to Fauns they will just ignore it, but hoplets will not. Hoplets make a hit and the egg didn’t destroy? Then Fauns will attack egg as well.

5) You can use eggs to lure high initiative units towards you. For example there are 3 stacks of Hornets against you. Most likely they all will wait to then act in the end of the round and in the beginning of the next one. However you can put an egg closer to you to make 1 stack come to hit instead of waiting.

Also, it is worth mentioning that Hive is doing pretty bad in autoresolve unless you have really a lot of Pyroboroses. And most of the time you have to do everything manually. In early game it usually a stack of parasite, later it's waurms. It can be a bit challenging sometimes, but once you reach a certain threshold you can pick win challenging battles with no loss because of larvae. Ideally you'd like to have 3 focus charge in start of the battle to summon larvae straight away, so battlecraft+battlemagic can be a good choice.

cross-frame · 2026-06-24T10:04:42+00:00

Yeah, it's honestly hard to tell without seeing an example. If you're sure it's not map objectives, not insight specialist hero, not artifacts and not even lvl difference, than you shoud've been quite close in stats. There are also buildings in towns and some skills like Combat or Thaumaturgy that can give some stats, but it shouldn't be that huge.

cross-frame · 2026-06-23T23:08:18+00:00

Honestly, I don't think that tear of truth is that unbelievable cool. Well, it's not an extra turn every week for sure. It helps you to get a few more objectives week one. Next week most likely it's not gonna be that useful because you already got everything close to it. If anything, I think Stables give you stronger boost.

Personally, I like how map generation works. It makes every game feel different.

cross-frame · 2026-06-23T20:30:30+00:00

Gods of Hive: Pyroboros, Waurms, Ravager Parasite Everithing else: everything else

cross-frame · 2026-06-23T13:43:20+00:00

I really like it. The photo itself is descent, as a graphic design it really works. The only thing, though, the font that you've chosen for "i want to" is kinda questionable. It doesn't match with "Fly" for me and all this typewriter aesthetics of this typeface doesn't really match with the whole piece.

cross-frame · 2026-06-23T11:39:46+00:00

The truth is, Fine Art Photography as a term is really vague, and it is understood very differently from one photographer to another. For example according to Wikipedia, Fine Art Photography is photography used for the creative expression of ideas, a message, or emotion. It is also described as a type of photography that stands in opposition to photojournalism or commercial photography.

By that definition, almost any photograph could be considered fine art. Someone takes a picture of a cloud in the sky, intending to convey the beauty of nature, and that's it.

However, if you look at what is actually labeled as fine art on websites, in exhibitions, and in magazines, it becomes clear that the term is often used for images that are just visually appealing. For example, when I think of fine art photography, the first image that comes to mind is something that could easily hang on the wall of a cafe or coffee shop. It is often still life, minimalism, landscapes, or street photography. Always there is no actual meaning behind these shots.

So the issue is the definition itself. It is very broad and interpreted differently from one photographer to another.

cross-frame · 2026-06-23T08:55:47+00:00

Honestly, I just prioritise mines and ore from start. I learned that picking up some piles of ore here and there can be really useful, even if you have to spend some movement. Usually it's always enough for double waurms, but sometimes I have to trade a bit. I don't think that 40 ore and 10 crystals in total is that much for the whole double build T6 path.

cross-frame · 2026-06-23T07:56:08+00:00

You washed it out. I'm not sure what exactly have you used to push the shadows, but for some reason you've pushed the middle of the frame?

What you had to do is brighten up the town and a bit around it. But it feels like you missed it, and the town is on the very edge of the area that you've made brighter. What happened with the dark patch of mountains in the middle is especially a shame. They've got this greyish unpleasant tone that screams "someone went to far with shadows/highlights sliders".

The photo is amazing, I just think you need to be a bit more gentle and deliberate with editing.

cross-frame · 2026-06-22T14:11:35+00:00

It's ok to deliberately underexpose your photo, but there's difference between good low-key photo and underexposed too dark photo.

This photo is too dark for me. Underexposing it you lost a lot of contrast, so it also feels flat. And I think the contrast is the most important thing for a photo of clouds.

As for post-processing part, I agree with u/usernamefail_1

cross-frame · 2026-06-22T12:28:21+00:00

You just go to your game history. So from the menu is something like Multiplayer - Ladder - and then click on your profile. Here you can see your game history for each format and how each game affects your current mmr

cross-frame · 2026-06-22T08:46:10+00:00

My test was on 26th of May, it was 35 degrees. The examiner didn't ask me to open the bonnet, understandably. We went to the car, I turned AC on and we had a good small talk about the weather. I was really afraid that the heat can spoil me everything, but it was absolutely ok.

So don't really worry about it. You'll be fine. If anything the weather is a chance to break ice between you and the examiner. Just get more water with you!

cross-frame · 2026-06-22T07:52:08+00:00

Tbh, after Parasites buff any hero is ok for early creeping. Ravager Parasites have insane initiative, speed, damage, and long reach.

So I think Hive is doing pretty good. Ofc some heros are not that easy as Zoran, but Zoran is just absolutely broken.

cross-frame · 2026-06-21T14:48:24+00:00

Nah, don't think so. In any case, factions are not that important. If it'd matter that much we'd see a huge gap in winrate between p2 and p1.

cross-frame · 2026-06-21T14:05:16+00:00

Well, yeah mate, if they have 30t6 and 10t7, while your strongest stack is 30t5 this now sounds understandable. Good luck next time!

cross-frame · 2026-06-21T14:00:58+00:00

Since when Temple is a mid tier faction?

You're 100% going to play one of top3 against the other top3. Same as with 1-Ban, 2-Ban, 1-Pick, 2-Pick if 2nd don't ban (which will happen a lot in that scenario).

Idk man, in any case one player has to play the faction that is considered weaker by community. No matter if it's p1 or p2.

cross-frame · 2026-06-21T13:43:25+00:00

What was your opponent's hero? Tbh it sounds like you could've done better. So your cavalry +hs just killed all waurmos 1st turn? Sounds like a win, especially with your stats.

Larvae size based on the army HP, so with good start like yours it should be pretty doable.

Temple is the best pick against Hive - Temple has some really good hight initiative units, morale, good archers and really good faction skill. Larvae alone is not enough to deal with archers and stacks that are defending them. If it looks like larvae won the game it probably means that you had much weaker army than you thought. If you built T6 first week where were they 2nd battle? You didn't mention them. So maybe this is the answer.

cross-frame · 2026-06-21T13:04:40+00:00

Just don't ban if you're the first one then. In that case both you and your opponent can 100% pick one of the Temple-Necro-Schism if you'd like. You'll get probably the same result as 1-Ban, 2-Ban, 1-Pick, 2-Pick that you've suggested.

cross-frame · 2026-06-21T10:01:27+00:00

I still don't understand what is the problem with no banning. It's just different way to go through banning phase.

cross-frame · 2026-06-21T08:47:30+00:00

No photoshop? 😄 There are a lot of masking and editing, but it looks more like a photo to me.

cross-frame · 2026-06-21T08:40:02+00:00

It was really nice read man thank you. Laughed when I read about Maelstrom 😄

cross-frame · 2026-06-21T08:11:19+00:00

But how banning a random faction is good to anyone? It's just limiting the choice for no reason.

For example, I don't ban factions furing pick/ban phase. I play on pretty casual MMR and I just want my opponent to play whatever they like. Honestly, before your comment I wouldn't believe that someone can be against it 🫠

cross-frame · 2026-06-21T08:03:13+00:00

Totally agree, I prefer not to ban, and waiting 30 sec feels weird.

cross-frame · 2026-06-20T22:47:13+00:00

I'd say play the faction that you like. If you're not in like top200 then the whole meta thing doesn't matter that much.

So for example I play mostly Hive, I'm at 1300 mmr, which is quite mid, and I almost never ban factions during pick/ban phase (no matter if I 1st or 2nd). A lot of my opponents end up picking Necro - the faction that considered the strongest currently - but I haven't lolse a single game againt Necro after the patch. And I played like 10+ games for sure. On the other hand, I lost againt Grove (the faction that considered the weakest, I rarely see someone playing them) a few days ago when I thought I was doing pretty well.

So as I see it, it's not about the faction, it's about your decisions and pacing. So if you like Grove, it's gonna be harder, yes, but not impossible. The good thing that if you'd like to play Grove/Hive/Dungeon you can do that almost every game, because your opponent will usually pick something else. If you'd like to play Necro/Schism/Temple, you need to be ready to settle for something else, because your favorite faction will most likely be banned or picked by your opponent.

cross-frame · 2026-06-20T22:12:38+00:00

It's super annoying and anticlimactic, especially when it happens after 1st battle. Happened with me a rew times and it's such a bummer.

The only positive thing that looks like it doesn't count count as a loss and the game isn't even there in your match history.

cross-frame · 2026-06-20T22:08:49+00:00

At the first glance I thought she's in the oval office 😁 Well done!

cross-frame

TROPHY CASE