Ok I have explained this to people so many times I decided to write a guide for it.
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to recruit a hero go to your inn and choose one, it has a little explaination about them their. To appoint a mayor go to your feasting hall and click appoint mayor.
So when you are looking for a hero to recruit it is best to get one with at least 65 or more of any one of Politics, Attack, or Intelligence. Each of these skills do a different thing.
Politics
When a hero with high politics is mayor it will make upgrading/building faster, and it will increase the resource production. Your mayor should always be this unless you need to recruit/research something (will explain further down).
Attack
When a hero with high attack is mayor it will decrease the unit recruitment times ***it needs to be mayor when you start the recruitment, it will not help once you have started the recruiting***. Also when you are attacking valleys, cities, and NPC's attack is a big help, I am not sure how much it does, BUT IT DOES!
Intelligence
When a hero with high intelligence is mayor it will decrease the research times ***it needs to be mayor when you start the research, it will not help once you have started to research something***Intelligence also helps with scouting
so there is a trick here, your politic hero will always be mayor EXCEPT...what you can do is before you research/recruit appoint the specialized hero (intelligence/attack) as mayor, then do your thing, immediately after put your politic hero back as mayor and it will stay the same time. This is VERY helpful, and can decrease times by the hours, if it is a high lvl skill.
You really only need one hero specialized in Politics, and one in Intelligence, the rest should all have good Attack.
Any questions ask me in Evony,
24lbPizza
Subject: All You Need To Know About Heroes 
Mon Sep 14, 2009 5:27 pm