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Ways of Heroes - a HOMM3SOD Strategy Guide, (C) 1999-2002 Viktor Coyot Urban
Version 2.0, supposedly final.

Contents of AllInOne HOMM3 FAQ:

Chapter I: General Game Guide
Chapter II: Combat Guide
Chapter III: Troop charts - efficienty comparison and more
Chapter IV: Castle guide
Chapter V: Rampart Guide
Chapter VI: Conflux guide
Chapter VII: Tower guide
Chapter VIII: Stronghold guide
Chapter IX: Fortress guide
Chapter X: Inferno guide
Chapter XI: Necropolis guide
Chapter XII: Dungeon guide
===============================================================================

Chapter I: General game guide

Contents:

I. Exploring your vicinity (and what comes before it) - the basic guidelines
on choosing factions and heroes, using and developing them effectively.
The main part of this guide.

II. Map structures and other info

III. Building strategies

IV. Defense strategies

V. Hero list.


I. Exploring your vicinity

In most cases it is very wise to purchase at least one more hero to your
starting one. Of course, if you have an observation tower in front of your
castle and can see from there that all ways out are blocked by some stronger
armies and you only have a little space to explore, a second hero won't be
needed... yet.

1. Main advantages of twoor-more-heroes exploration:

a. In early stage - that 'round the castle' exploration - you will
usually profit from having two heroes by having more goodies
gathered quicker. Applies to mines, resources, artifacts and even
the fact of uncovering the map. [More heroes can be used, if your
financial situation seems good and exploration is possible. These
guys usually pay back quite soon.]

b. Further in the game, when you assemble a task force strong enough to
go after your enemy, a second guy in backup can be used for several
things:

o takes care of resources, mines and full exploration of
conquered land (here I often purchase new heroes at conquered
castles, because within a few days the money is back in
resources from taken mines.)
o holds backup armies for your main hero
o can build up quite solid experience
o can take out some of the wandering armies
o can take care of some minor enemy heroes/towns

2. How to select your primary/secondary hero?
With the exception of necromancer, there's no need at all to use a hero
corresponding with the castle class (and even with the necro castle, you
should consider buying another type if there's not any large quantities
of skeleton reserves (aka 1stlevel troops) scattered around the map).
However, a hero aligned to your starting castle will bring in troops that
could be of use!
Sometimes (when a ranger comes with two stacks of dwarves or a necro with
walking dead) you may ignore this benefit. So, how to make your choice?

A. Primary hero/castle: Since both might and magic heroes exist in each
castle and every hero is unique, choosing primary castle and primary
hero is quite complicated. First, for the castles:

+ Castle: Balanced troops, rather slow, more emphasis on
the top troops.
+ Rampart: Rather fast troops, good specials, best
1stlevel troop.
+ Tower: Good specials, strong 7thlevel troop, numerous
1stlevel.
+ Stronghold: Offensive troops, cheap 7thlevel troop.
Good 5thlevel.
+ Fortress: Defensive troops, nasty specials - dangerous
7thlevel troop.
+ Dungeon: Rather offensive troops, best 2ndlevel troop.
Black dragons ;-)
+ Inferno: Offensive troops with two non-retaliated
attacks and good specials.
+ Necropolis: Good specials, cover of darkness structure.

Second, for the heroes:
I prefer might heroes to the magic ones, because in most
cases the might ones still get some experience in magic.

Might heroes can develop magic schools, and since bigger
armies benefit more from misc. spells than from damage
spells, with the only exception being Armageddon ;-), might
heroes should be better in the long run, when they can get
enough spellpower and knowledge to be able to cast Bless,
Slow or Haste every now and then.

Necromancer may be worth it if large amounts of skeleton producing
wandering armies are located nearby - the recruited skeletons make
excellent garrison troops.

My usual practice is to hire a might hero (unless I have access to
some high-level magic and/or magic skills boosting structures and
artifacts) and concentrate the experience with him. In many cases I
manage to get Wisdom, so I can use some good spells from captured
castles. In fact, probability of not getting wisdom for might hero
is next to zero.

There are only two situations where a strong magic hero is better:
Both of them are based on Fire spells. One of them is Armageddon,
but that requires the magic hero to also have some spell-resistant
unit. The other one is Berzerker at

Expert level. With it, up to 5 armies are often forced to fight each
other and the only solution will be mass Cure or Dispel.

Direct damage spells (maybe except Armageddon) aren't a big threat,
because with large armies the damage caused by those can be
compensated by supportive spells on your troops - with big enough
armies, MassBless beast ChainLightning. (Of course, you need an
expert magic school for that...)

Getting secondary skills:
CheckWay ofparticular class to see which skills suit the
best your troops and strategies.

There are some general rules to follow. See description of advanced
skills below for most of them. Many of the skills are just generally
good (Luck, Leadership) while others are case-specific (Mysticism,
Wisdom, Logistics, Ballistics) where the conditions cover anything
from Map size, number of castles, type of main hero, type of most
used troops, amounts of resources available and all other things up
to terrain types.

Of course, the hero class is very important. I.e. Leadership,
Offense and Archery provide much better advantage to Might Heroes,
whose troop damage ratings (that profit from their skills) are
generally high. On the other hand, for a spell caster skills like
Expert Wisdom are a must, because those expand his strong features.

B. Secondary hero:
[In the following, percentages for level advancement are averaged
for heroes with 20 levels! The advancement in first 9 levels is a
bit different, generally with more emphasis towards the skills
native to that hero. So that barbarians get 55% levels on attack
below level 10 and only 30% later... yet I used the averaged
number.]

a. Defensive purposes: For castle garisson with troops that will
do little apart from just standing behind the walls while the
towers shoot the enemy, BeastMasters are the best, with 45% of
their advancements going into Defense Skill, followed by
Rangers, Knights and other might heroes. However, if your
castle troops are bound to use offense (i.e. shooters, fast
flyers or tough walkers), you might care for a barbarian with
43% of levels gained raising his attack. But, on the other
hand, if the castle you're defending has a mage guild with some
supportive spells (namely Cure/Dispel), you might try to get a
hero with some knowledge to be able to remove negative spells
like Blind.

b. Offensive purposes: If you need the hero to become another
primary hero, you already know the algorithm for choosing
primary heroes.

c. Miscellaneous (aka secondary) purposes: The true secondary hero
should be of some use. A scout/picker should have fast troops.
Check the hero recruitment for details - you're looking for
Logistics, Pathfinding and/or scouting, especially for those
guys that will peddle troops to front lines.

Since the heroes now have different secondary skills, there
is no recommendation like 'I usually take warlocks'...
however, there are several all-round good picks:

+ Caitlin, Clavius, Octavia, Nagash, Damacon, Jenova, Aine and
Lord Haart are moneymakers (all get +350/day, only Haart has
Basic Estates with 5% bonus, so he'll need a few levels...)

+ Thane with Advanced Scholar makes a good spell-transporter, but
there are others with basic scholar - a few learning stones or
trees of knowledge will be on almost every map.

+ Voy is the super-sea scout with navigation and 5% bonus.

+ Deemer has Advanced Scouting - a good pick for early
exploration.

+ Rissan, Calid, Saurug and Sephinroth produce 1 magic resource
per day, each different. Remember that 25 days with this hero
will pay back with a few marketplaces, if you don't need the
resource.

Also remember that the two-hero strategy doesn't implicate use of
ONLY two heroes, but AT LEAST two heroes. The larger the map, the
more heroes may be used. Generally in L or XL maps, at least one
secondary guy should have aggressive ambitions, should visit all the
skill boosts and pick good secondary skills, because his time will
always come.

The so-called backup guy should be taking his share of experience.
Especially later, when the main hero will need large amounts of
experience to advance, it's usually better to let the chests and
minor battles to the backup guy, because he'll profit them much
more. The only exception should be the case when the main guy
desperately NEEDS to upgrade some advanced skills.)

The main purposes of the backup guy are carrying reinforcements,
killing minor enemies and wandering armies and sometimes possibly
softening up enemy resistance, even at the cost of sacrificing
himself.

If the secondary hero survives, he might often 'inherit' all the
main hero's armies - especially if you happen to capture enemy
castle with some 7th level troops left inside unpurchased. In that
case the main hero buys all the big guys and those often carry more
firepower that his entire regular army. In this moment, the backup
guy becomes sort of another main hero and at those moments you
really appreciate that you've already let him to get some levels.)
[Or, if he's still pretty weak, you might consider giving HIM the
dragons, who tend to take minimal losses, grab some quick experience
by defeating wandering armies etc. - and later switch the armies.
This applies in cases where the main hero's army relies very much on
his skills and with the weak secondary guy would suffer many losses.
A good example would be a knight with archery, luck and leadership,
while the secondary guy is a spellcaster...]

There might be a bunch of 'tertiary' heroes that can take care of
collecting resources, gold and armies from self-refilling sources
(usually one hero can do that easily) and for shuttling
reinforcements to the front lines. Those guys need no experience,
but should (if that doesn't mean BIG delays) visit learning stones
and possibly trees of knowledge (if they're for free) to try and get
scouting, logistics or estates). Also, buying a hero to scout and
claim mines near a captured castle is usually worth the 2500 gold.
The fresh information from scouting (even if he dies there) may
navigate your main guy towards new enemies. And with some
marketplaces, even a few days' worth of those mines production will
repay the gold back if needed).