Minotaurs

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Minotaur Information Pages
Minotaur Buildings Overview
 * Ziggurat
 * Tower
 * Walls
 * Ramparts
 * Arena
 * Lookout
 * Ironworks
 * Pen
 * Eyrie
 * Ale Store
 * Altar of Sartek
 * Henge

Minotaur Researches Overview
 * Hand of Sartek
 * Training
 * Eagle Eye
 * Farseeing
 * Iron Clad Horns
 * Iron Shod Hooves
 * Shield of Sartek
 * Axe of Sartek
 * Wind of Sartek
 * Morale
 * Dwarven Brew
 * Summon Mana
 * Berserker
 * Rage of Sartek
 * Shaman
 * Spirit of Sartek

Minotaur Armies Overview
 * Thrall
 * Minotaur
 * Axe Thrower
 * Basilisk
 * Sheep
 * Bat
 * Gnoll
 * Catapult
 * Battering Ram
 * Minotaur Shaman
 * Griffon
 * Minotaur King
 * Frost Dragon
 * Storm Dragon
 * Skull of Sartek

Overview
The Minotaurs are one of the most dangerous races available in WBC3. With natural access to one of the best spell spheres (Pyromancy), a balanced mix of very tough, powerful and high cost units and the extremely peculiar benefit of building and eating sheep to regain health, opponents will be hard-pressed to find a hole in Minotaur defenses. Carnage and destruction only aids them further as Minotaurs also have numerous ways to gather free resources. Whether it's from toppling enemy buildings for metal, turning Basilisk victims into stone, or assassinating enemy units for gold, they certainly wont be hard pressed by the expenses of their units in a reckless game.

Pros

 * Units tend to be powerful and resilient.
 * Have access to two operable buffing abilities that can be used together to make their already-powerful units much more powerful.
 * Through the use of killing units and destroying buildings, they can acquire free resources in the form of Gold (assassinating), Metal (destroying buildings) and Stone (kills from a Basilisk).
 * All core units and the Minotaur Hero can eat harmless animals to regain HP and cure Illnesses that would otherwise render the unit temporary useless.

Cons

 * A hard start, due to inefficient builders, as well as large and expensive early buildings.
 * Units tend to be expensive, while nearly all of them tend to have very long training times.
 * Missile units are slow or/and have short range.
 * Towers aren't offensively great and have undesirable side-effects when garrisoned with Axe Throwers, one of their two missile units that can garrison towers.

Units
Minotaurs have a small but adequate selection of units. The upgrades available to these units make the race shine. Unlike most other races, the first combat unit available (the Minotaur) will remain a critical component of your force all the way until you launch your final assault on your opponent's base. With improved morale, combat, and dwarven ale/berserker skills, the simple minotaur infantry unit becomes a rampaging force of destruction. Gather a small bundle of these, pass them a beer and light them on fire - then try your best to steer them towards the enemy base, where they will demolish every tower, enemy unit, and building in sight. Minotaur Kings are the best tank unit among the generals available in the game, but like the support units, ultimately they are not necessary for the final assault either, although they most certainly can help with their nuclear 120 armour piercing slashing damage (the target can be as resistant or as armoured as it likes, only combat is able to save it because the ignore armour ability just cleaves straight through all resistances whether they're on a unit or building). If the enemy have Dragons and any Titans, Minotaur Kings counter them so ridiculously well they'll never bother spending that much resources again (unless they somehow have an entire flock of Dragons). Gnolls are something of a novelty, useful particularly for engaging or scaring away most enemy heroes, who will not want to risk the chance of being assassinated (if you have loads of Basilisks, getting essentially free Gnolls is pretty useful should you need a bit of swarming). Other than that (and if you don't use Basilisks), Gnolls are completely and utterly pointless to quite an amazing extent.

Minotaur Axethrowers leave something to be desired in the range department, and are usually not worth using unless you're either battling against a crushing resistant race (like the Orcs) or a swarm playstyle race where the axes can travel through multiple enemies. Minotaur Shamans are powerful when upgraded and can provide an alternative means to berserk your Minotaurs if you haven't already researched Berserker. Other than that, Shamans provide a supportive role to the Minotaur army. A few support units (Axe Throwers, Basilisks or Shamans) are advisable to engage enemy fliers, but the siege units are hardly needed. Upgraded Minotaurs nearly always perform a better job, are cheaper and take less unit cap up than Battering Rams and Catapults should only really be used in defence or against a swarm race due to their really low speed. Basilisks are an interesting unit for the Minotaurs, they provide some nice cold damage and petrification bonuses at relatively low cost (60 Gold). Keep in mind however, that Basilisks do use up 2 unit cap, so it is advisable to keep a leash on their production.

Lastly, since Minotaurs can consume any critters, it may be useful to keep a pile of sheep available to patch up any Minotaur forces that survive (including the hero). Sheep are the cheapest purchasable unit in the game, so it's tempting to try to find a way to abuse that. Unfortunately, the Illusion Transform spell does not work on Sheep. You can however use Call the Dead on piles of Sheep bones (the Sheep which have been fed to Minotaurs or slaughtered by hitting Ctrl+D) to produce a large army of Skeletons (can use them as arrow/tower fodder whilst a wave of Minotaur Shamans, Basilisks and/or Catapults lay siege). Simpler but less effective, you could just use a huge flock of Sheep as fodder for a wave of Minotaur Shamans and/or Basilisks.

Buildings
The Minotaur buildings don't offer much others don't. The hardest part of the game may be the very start, as Arenas cost 100 Gold and 200 Stone (quite a lot for your main infantry building), Thralls are poor at constructing buildings and so they usually take a long time to build (not to mention the cost of Minotaurs is 100 metal, so you'd better hope to start off with a truck-load of resources at the start of the game). That's not to say that the Minotaurs are in any way rushable, but they may find it more difficult to control areas of the map without quick access and support of basic infantry units (which many other races usually get). Access to mana acceleration research isn't possible until HQ level 3 (which is quite early, especially for such a physical-based race). The main HQ building is one of the largest buildings in the game (which may prove troublesome, especially in small or cramped maps), but be thankful that you really won't need to build any more than 2. Minotaur towers offer a good amount of both hits and damage, making them easier to defend than most towers. Basilisks can really help to construct a wide range of Minotaur buildings as well, so if you are in the need of Stone don't hold back on producing a few of them.

Heroes
As if the drunken burning minotaurs weren't fun enough, the Minotaur hero has access to one of the best magic spheres in the game, Pyromancy (Soul Flame is great for buffing units prior to an assault). Accordingly, Pyromancer is a good option. One of the more notable spells is Firebreath, which does not cut off unit damage bonuses from research so Minotaurs can potentially throw fireballs which deal 30 damage (at spell level 1).

In terms of melee combat heroes, the Minotaur Monk is one of the best in the game, benefiting from a heavy hit and ever increasing attack speed to land more and more of them. A Warrior would be tougher and regenerate faster (depending on what skills you invest in) but would suffer lower attack damage, attack speed and movement speed. The Chieftain can also provide nice synergies for both Ferocity and Mighty Blow, though there are few options available with the class' other skills.

If the difficult Minotaur economy is more of a concern, there are a couple of choices available. An Assassin provides gold for every successful assassination, which is very useful for construction, research and units such as the Basilisk. A Bard can use Diplomacy and Divination spells in addition to producing plenty of Gold with the Wealth skill (though a Knight Bard could be used instead to get useful synergies in both Leadership and Divination, at the cost of losing level 30 access to Pyromancy and not being able to eat sheep). If Gold isn't wanted, a Tinker or Daemonslayer could potentially be useful. The Daemonslayer provides Metal via Smelting whilst also acting as a physically resistant melee combat hero. Alternatively, the Tinker has access to Smelting, Alchemy spells and Quarrying if Basilisks are problematic to utilise.

Counters

 * Minotaur units and researches usually cost a lot of Metal. Make sure to remove Ore mines from their possession at all costs.
 * Minotaur units tend to take a great deal of time to produce. If the Minotaur army has been dispatched or is otherwise engaged, pressing advantage against them could significantly hinder or even lose the Minotaur player the game.
 * As with Barbarians, Minotaurs have the Thrall builder, one of the worst in the game for construction. This, combined with expensive and awkwardly large buildings makes the Minotaur's early game slow (such as the Arena and Ziggurat respectively). Keeping the pressure on a Minotaur player might mean an early game-over for him/her.