Jump to page:
Sponsors:
+ Skill Speciality. The effect of the indicated secondary skill is enhanced by a percentage value of Hero Level x 5. Note that this percentage value is multiplied with, rather than added to, the skill value: a 10th level hero with a Logistics specialty and Expert
Logistics (30% movement bonus) receives an additional movement bonus of 15% (30% + 30% x (5% * 10) = 30% + 15% = 45%.
o Army formation selector is used to determine the amount of free space between army stacks. It's functionality is very limited - the resulting formations are different for the two setting only for armies with 2-5 slots occupied - 1, 6 and 7 armies will always take the same position, no matter which setting you use.
o Tactics selector can be used to switch off the usage of Tactics before the actual battle - on player side. This means that if your hero has Tactics skill and you don't want to use it most of the time, you switch it off here. Note that your hero will still 'use' his level of Tactics to eliminate enemy hero's Tactics, since
Tactics of one hero eliminate the same amount of levels of Tactics of the other hero (i.e. you having Expert and enemy Advanced, then in the battle it looks like you have Basic and enemy has nothing...)
o Archery skill applies to fortification fire, too! Therefore it's good to buy heroes with Archery for castle defenses (The castle usually does some 100 points of damage - and the increase comes pretty handy.)
o Morale bonuses are individual for every unit in the battle - all units use the modifier that their hero gives them, but they get morale boost from their native terrain. Also, some creatures have specific morale rules. (Undead - no morale. Minotaurs - morale always at least at +1).
o Special Abilities: (Briefly and incorrectly mentioned in the manual as "Make a Special Attack.") Some creatures have a special ability, such as the Archangel's ability to resurrect dead allied troops once per combat. When a stack of creatures with a special ability is active, just place the mouse cursor over whichever troop you want to use their ability on. Watch the mouse cursor change to an animated spell-casting icon and click to apply the special ability to the target troop. Using a special ability ends the turn for the performing creatures (but not for the target creatures). All special abilities except for the Mighty Gorgon's death stare and the
Dendroid's entangling attack are affected by spell resistancies, immunities, and Cursed Ground in the same way as hero spells are.
Alas, there is no indication whatsoever when a special attack fails due to such circumstances; the attack simply will not happen. o
Two-hex creatures: Any ranged attack on a two-hex creature is considered hampered if any of the hexes occupied by the creature shows a "broken arrow" cursor. This is true even if the cursor turns into a whole arrow on the other hexagon. Also note that both hexes of the creature can take damage from some spells (notably FireWall - if the creature moves right through the firewall, it'll take double damage - for every hex one hit. Area damage spells such as fireball, however, don't have this effect.
o Purchasing creatures: When you click on the castle/Citadel/Fort, you can not only see all stats, but by rightclicking display stats of the units and by left clicking purchase them.
III. Building
General rules on building are these:
You should always start with money a town hall. However, since the town hall, built on day 1, earns you only 1000 gold extra on Day 1 next week, you might consider building creature dwellings and benefit structures instead.
When upgrading dwellings, consider these points:
o The most important upgrades are those that increase speed of your fastest unit. This applies especially to those cases where the fastest unit of your is rather slow. Getting an upgrade to speeds like 11 means that you'll at least sometimes get first shot in battles.
o The second most important upgrades are those that increase speed of your slowest unit(s). They give you extra movement points for each turn.
o The alternative second most important upgrades are those that give your units some specials. Why alternative second-most? It's good for a barbarian to move one step faster with his orc chiefs, yet it's comparatively good (yet in different ways) for gremlins to start throwing their balls or for vampires to start drinking blood of their enemies in large scale ;-)).
o Upgrades to 7thlevel creatures are sometimes great change (i.e. behemoths)
A Town Hall built on day one will result in extra 1000 gold on first day of next week (and then extra 3500 every first day of week). The build schedules shown in other articles build it, but there may be cases where you could build some highlevel dwelling at the cost of not building the Town Hall. So, before you build your first structure, try to guess whether you will be able (gold and resource-wise) to go for some high-end dwelling that quickly, and alter the building schedule accordingly.
Always try to build most of dwellings before day one of next week. All miscellaneous buildings like Mage Guild, MarketPlace or Blacksmith can wait.
The second week should be usually aimed at building money generators including Capitol, if possible.
Ideal case: You start with two towns. One goes for the creatures and
Citadel/Castle, the other goes for money in the first week. In the second week, the first town goes for capitol, while the second stays idle. Further on, all the cash that is left after troops are purchased should go to upgrades and also lower level dwellings in the second town.
If you really don't know what to do with cash, build other structures.
Short notes on all common structures:
o Village hall: Default building, earns 500 g/t.
o Town hall: First upgrade, earns 1000 g/t.
o City hall: Second upgrade, earns 2000 g/t.
o Capitol: Last upgrade, earns 4000 g/t, can be built only in one city per player.
o Fort: Basic military structure - adds a wall to let shooters in your garrison defend the city. Also allows building of basic creature dwellings.
o Citadel: Adds moat and arrow tower, increases base creature production by 50%, rounded DOWN!
o Castle: Adds two arrow towers, stronger walls, increases base creature production by 100%.
o Mage guilds need no big explanation, only remember that some town types are restricted in levels of mage guilds allowed.
o Marketplaces generally come to work well in large numbers. [The more marketplaces you control, the better conversion rates you get. Three marketplaces get you the same rates as trading posts.
With eight or more the rate drops to 1:2 in resources.]
o Tavern is the place where you can recruit new heroes. Usually it's already there.
o Class dependant buildings can be of use. Some help with defense, while others give some benefits to heroes. Check Way of particular castle for details.
IV. Defense strategy
Get used to computer heroes attacking every now and then your castles.
There are three main ways to chose:
1. Take and forget - where you capture a castle and enjoy the gold it provides, learn it's spells, use it's benefits and leave. The enemy soon tries to recapture, but you've not helped him any with building the castle.
2. Take and hold - where you sit in the captured castle and wait for the enemy to come. This isn't any good, since it binds your main force to that castle and also the enemy may attack a bit later, when he feels strong enough to beat you.
3. Take and expand - where you stay near the castle with some decent armies (usually the main army, whose hero runs around to flag mines and get benefits (skill boosts etc.), while you build and upgrade dwellings, raise a castle to get maximum defensive power, buy another hero, run the benefits with him, too, recruit all troops and get ready to hold the castle with its own troops against enemy raids. With two weeks' production you can move your main hero away. This approach is pretty costly, but remember one thing: if you take a castle and let the enemy retake it, all the troops that were left inside unrecruited, will be probably recruited by the enemy and you'll face them later in the battle.
And since castle defenses play first in the siege, this will usually mean more losses on your side. Of course, if you have 7thlevel troops only in the recapturing army, the towers won't score a kill and you'll gain experience for the troops you've killed.
Always think first - is the castle worth holding at all costs? Are the troops inside strong enough to defend it? Or are they weak enough so you won't waste money on them and kill them later, when the enemy has paid for them? How strong enemy forces will try to take the castle?
The AI's not stupid. It has learned much and will try it's best to strike on Day 7! So better be prepared. Defending the castles with newbie heroes has one good and one bad side. The bad side is higher losses, the good side is higher profits in gained levels, if you win.
When defending ANY castle, think well about picking targets for defensive shooters. While the enemy may have relatively strong shooter armies, his walkers/flyers are usually a bigger threat - the shooters are out of effective range - they'll score half damage on you and you'll score half damage on them! So it's better to go after the walkers, especially those standing in the moat. Also, try to notice what units are targeted by your castle defenses and how much damage they suffer. For example, if your tower scores 60 damage and targets a stack with one archer left, it would be very wise to finish it, so the next 60 points from the tower will not be wasted on this one archer. Even if you're gonna lose the battle, fight to the end and try to inflict maximum losses, unless you want to surrender to save some precious troops.
V. Hero list
Hero list with special abilities:
(Heroes marked '*' are special and will not appear in regular games, at least I think so.)
Death Knights: 1/2/2/1
Charna Necromancy, Tactics Wights or Wraiths
Clavius Necromancy, Offense +350 gold per day.
Galthran Necromancy, Armorer Skeletons
Isra Advanced Necromancy Necromancy skill
Moander Necromancy, Learning Liches
Tamika Necromancy, Offense Black Knights
Straker Necromancy, Resistance Walking Dead
Vokial Necromancy, Artillery Vampires
*Lord Haart Advanced Necromancy Black Knights get +5A, +5D, +10Dmg
Necromancers: 1/0/2/2
Aislinn Necromancy, Wisdom Meteor Shower spell
Nagash Necromancy, Intelligence +350 gold per day
Nimbus Necromancy, Eagle Eye Eagle Eye skill
Sandro Necromancy, Sorcery Sorcery skill
Septienna Necromancy, Scholar Death Ripple spell
Thant Necromancy, Mysticism Animate Dead spell
Vidomina Advanced Necromancy Necromancy skill
Xsi Necromancy, Learning Stone Skin spell
Barbarians: 4/0/1/1
Crag Hack Advanced Offense Offense skill
Gretchin Offense, Pathfinding Goblins
Gurnisson Offense, Artillery Ballista (above 4th level)
Jabarkas Offense, Archery Orcs
Krellion Offense, Resistance Ogres
Shiva Offense, Scouting Rocs
Tyraxor Offense, Tactics Wolf Riders
Yog Offense, Ballistics Cyclopes
*Duke W. Boragus Offense, Tactics Ogres
*Kilgor Offense, Tactics Behemoths gain +5A, +5D and +10 Dmg
Battle Mages: 2/1/1/1
Dessa Wisdom, Logistics Logistics skill
Gird Wisdom, Sorcery Sorcery skill
Gundula Wisdom, Offense Offense skill
Oris Wisdom, Eagle Eye Eagle Eye skill
Saurug Wisdom, Resistance +1 Gem per day
Terek Wisdom, Tactics Haste spell
Vey Wisdom, Leadership Ogres
Zubin Wisdom, Artillery Precision spell
Rangers: 1/3/1/1
Clancy Resistance, Pathfinding Unicorns
Ivor Archery, Offense Wood
Jenova Advanced Archery +350 gold per day
Kyrre Archery, Logistics Logistics skill
Mephala Leadership, Armorer Armorer skill
Ryland Leadership, Diplomacy Dendroid Guards
Thorgrim Advanced Resistance Resistance skill
Ufretin Resistance, Luck Dwarves
*Gelu Leadership, Archery Trains Sharpshooters
Druids: 0/2/1/2
Aeris Wisdom, Scouting Pegasi
Alagar Wisdom, Sorcery Ice Bolt
Uland Adv. Wisdom, Ballistics Cure spell
Coronius Wisdom, Scholar Slayer spell
Elleshar Wisdom, Initelligence Intelligence skill
Gem Wisdom, First Aid First Aid skill
Malcom Wisdom, Eagle Eye Eagle Eye skill
Melodia Wisdom, Luck Fortune spell
Logistics (30% movement bonus) receives an additional movement bonus of 15% (30% + 30% x (5% * 10) = 30% + 15% = 45%.
o Army formation selector is used to determine the amount of free space between army stacks. It's functionality is very limited - the resulting formations are different for the two setting only for armies with 2-5 slots occupied - 1, 6 and 7 armies will always take the same position, no matter which setting you use.
o Tactics selector can be used to switch off the usage of Tactics before the actual battle - on player side. This means that if your hero has Tactics skill and you don't want to use it most of the time, you switch it off here. Note that your hero will still 'use' his level of Tactics to eliminate enemy hero's Tactics, since
Tactics of one hero eliminate the same amount of levels of Tactics of the other hero (i.e. you having Expert and enemy Advanced, then in the battle it looks like you have Basic and enemy has nothing...)
o Archery skill applies to fortification fire, too! Therefore it's good to buy heroes with Archery for castle defenses (The castle usually does some 100 points of damage - and the increase comes pretty handy.)
o Morale bonuses are individual for every unit in the battle - all units use the modifier that their hero gives them, but they get morale boost from their native terrain. Also, some creatures have specific morale rules. (Undead - no morale. Minotaurs - morale always at least at +1).
o Special Abilities: (Briefly and incorrectly mentioned in the manual as "Make a Special Attack.") Some creatures have a special ability, such as the Archangel's ability to resurrect dead allied troops once per combat. When a stack of creatures with a special ability is active, just place the mouse cursor over whichever troop you want to use their ability on. Watch the mouse cursor change to an animated spell-casting icon and click to apply the special ability to the target troop. Using a special ability ends the turn for the performing creatures (but not for the target creatures). All special abilities except for the Mighty Gorgon's death stare and the
Dendroid's entangling attack are affected by spell resistancies, immunities, and Cursed Ground in the same way as hero spells are.
Alas, there is no indication whatsoever when a special attack fails due to such circumstances; the attack simply will not happen. o
Two-hex creatures: Any ranged attack on a two-hex creature is considered hampered if any of the hexes occupied by the creature shows a "broken arrow" cursor. This is true even if the cursor turns into a whole arrow on the other hexagon. Also note that both hexes of the creature can take damage from some spells (notably FireWall - if the creature moves right through the firewall, it'll take double damage - for every hex one hit. Area damage spells such as fireball, however, don't have this effect.
o Purchasing creatures: When you click on the castle/Citadel/Fort, you can not only see all stats, but by rightclicking display stats of the units and by left clicking purchase them.
III. Building
General rules on building are these:
You should always start with money a town hall. However, since the town hall, built on day 1, earns you only 1000 gold extra on Day 1 next week, you might consider building creature dwellings and benefit structures instead.
When upgrading dwellings, consider these points:
o The most important upgrades are those that increase speed of your fastest unit. This applies especially to those cases where the fastest unit of your is rather slow. Getting an upgrade to speeds like 11 means that you'll at least sometimes get first shot in battles.
o The second most important upgrades are those that increase speed of your slowest unit(s). They give you extra movement points for each turn.
o The alternative second most important upgrades are those that give your units some specials. Why alternative second-most? It's good for a barbarian to move one step faster with his orc chiefs, yet it's comparatively good (yet in different ways) for gremlins to start throwing their balls or for vampires to start drinking blood of their enemies in large scale ;-)).
o Upgrades to 7thlevel creatures are sometimes great change (i.e. behemoths)
A Town Hall built on day one will result in extra 1000 gold on first day of next week (and then extra 3500 every first day of week). The build schedules shown in other articles build it, but there may be cases where you could build some highlevel dwelling at the cost of not building the Town Hall. So, before you build your first structure, try to guess whether you will be able (gold and resource-wise) to go for some high-end dwelling that quickly, and alter the building schedule accordingly.
Always try to build most of dwellings before day one of next week. All miscellaneous buildings like Mage Guild, MarketPlace or Blacksmith can wait.
The second week should be usually aimed at building money generators including Capitol, if possible.
Ideal case: You start with two towns. One goes for the creatures and
Citadel/Castle, the other goes for money in the first week. In the second week, the first town goes for capitol, while the second stays idle. Further on, all the cash that is left after troops are purchased should go to upgrades and also lower level dwellings in the second town.
If you really don't know what to do with cash, build other structures.
Short notes on all common structures:
o Village hall: Default building, earns 500 g/t.
o Town hall: First upgrade, earns 1000 g/t.
o City hall: Second upgrade, earns 2000 g/t.
o Capitol: Last upgrade, earns 4000 g/t, can be built only in one city per player.
o Fort: Basic military structure - adds a wall to let shooters in your garrison defend the city. Also allows building of basic creature dwellings.
o Citadel: Adds moat and arrow tower, increases base creature production by 50%, rounded DOWN!
o Castle: Adds two arrow towers, stronger walls, increases base creature production by 100%.
o Mage guilds need no big explanation, only remember that some town types are restricted in levels of mage guilds allowed.
o Marketplaces generally come to work well in large numbers. [The more marketplaces you control, the better conversion rates you get. Three marketplaces get you the same rates as trading posts.
With eight or more the rate drops to 1:2 in resources.]
o Tavern is the place where you can recruit new heroes. Usually it's already there.
o Class dependant buildings can be of use. Some help with defense, while others give some benefits to heroes. Check Way of particular castle for details.
IV. Defense strategy
Get used to computer heroes attacking every now and then your castles.
There are three main ways to chose:
1. Take and forget - where you capture a castle and enjoy the gold it provides, learn it's spells, use it's benefits and leave. The enemy soon tries to recapture, but you've not helped him any with building the castle.
2. Take and hold - where you sit in the captured castle and wait for the enemy to come. This isn't any good, since it binds your main force to that castle and also the enemy may attack a bit later, when he feels strong enough to beat you.
3. Take and expand - where you stay near the castle with some decent armies (usually the main army, whose hero runs around to flag mines and get benefits (skill boosts etc.), while you build and upgrade dwellings, raise a castle to get maximum defensive power, buy another hero, run the benefits with him, too, recruit all troops and get ready to hold the castle with its own troops against enemy raids. With two weeks' production you can move your main hero away. This approach is pretty costly, but remember one thing: if you take a castle and let the enemy retake it, all the troops that were left inside unrecruited, will be probably recruited by the enemy and you'll face them later in the battle.
And since castle defenses play first in the siege, this will usually mean more losses on your side. Of course, if you have 7thlevel troops only in the recapturing army, the towers won't score a kill and you'll gain experience for the troops you've killed.
Always think first - is the castle worth holding at all costs? Are the troops inside strong enough to defend it? Or are they weak enough so you won't waste money on them and kill them later, when the enemy has paid for them? How strong enemy forces will try to take the castle?
The AI's not stupid. It has learned much and will try it's best to strike on Day 7! So better be prepared. Defending the castles with newbie heroes has one good and one bad side. The bad side is higher losses, the good side is higher profits in gained levels, if you win.
When defending ANY castle, think well about picking targets for defensive shooters. While the enemy may have relatively strong shooter armies, his walkers/flyers are usually a bigger threat - the shooters are out of effective range - they'll score half damage on you and you'll score half damage on them! So it's better to go after the walkers, especially those standing in the moat. Also, try to notice what units are targeted by your castle defenses and how much damage they suffer. For example, if your tower scores 60 damage and targets a stack with one archer left, it would be very wise to finish it, so the next 60 points from the tower will not be wasted on this one archer. Even if you're gonna lose the battle, fight to the end and try to inflict maximum losses, unless you want to surrender to save some precious troops.
V. Hero list
Hero list with special abilities:
(Heroes marked '*' are special and will not appear in regular games, at least I think so.)
Death Knights: 1/2/2/1
Charna Necromancy, Tactics Wights or Wraiths
Clavius Necromancy, Offense +350 gold per day.
Galthran Necromancy, Armorer Skeletons
Isra Advanced Necromancy Necromancy skill
Moander Necromancy, Learning Liches
Tamika Necromancy, Offense Black Knights
Straker Necromancy, Resistance Walking Dead
Vokial Necromancy, Artillery Vampires
*Lord Haart Advanced Necromancy Black Knights get +5A, +5D, +10Dmg
Necromancers: 1/0/2/2
Aislinn Necromancy, Wisdom Meteor Shower spell
Nagash Necromancy, Intelligence +350 gold per day
Nimbus Necromancy, Eagle Eye Eagle Eye skill
Sandro Necromancy, Sorcery Sorcery skill
Septienna Necromancy, Scholar Death Ripple spell
Thant Necromancy, Mysticism Animate Dead spell
Vidomina Advanced Necromancy Necromancy skill
Xsi Necromancy, Learning Stone Skin spell
Barbarians: 4/0/1/1
Crag Hack Advanced Offense Offense skill
Gretchin Offense, Pathfinding Goblins
Gurnisson Offense, Artillery Ballista (above 4th level)
Jabarkas Offense, Archery Orcs
Krellion Offense, Resistance Ogres
Shiva Offense, Scouting Rocs
Tyraxor Offense, Tactics Wolf Riders
Yog Offense, Ballistics Cyclopes
*Duke W. Boragus Offense, Tactics Ogres
*Kilgor Offense, Tactics Behemoths gain +5A, +5D and +10 Dmg
Battle Mages: 2/1/1/1
Dessa Wisdom, Logistics Logistics skill
Gird Wisdom, Sorcery Sorcery skill
Gundula Wisdom, Offense Offense skill
Oris Wisdom, Eagle Eye Eagle Eye skill
Saurug Wisdom, Resistance +1 Gem per day
Terek Wisdom, Tactics Haste spell
Vey Wisdom, Leadership Ogres
Zubin Wisdom, Artillery Precision spell
Rangers: 1/3/1/1
Clancy Resistance, Pathfinding Unicorns
Ivor Archery, Offense Wood
Jenova Advanced Archery +350 gold per day
Kyrre Archery, Logistics Logistics skill
Mephala Leadership, Armorer Armorer skill
Ryland Leadership, Diplomacy Dendroid Guards
Thorgrim Advanced Resistance Resistance skill
Ufretin Resistance, Luck Dwarves
*Gelu Leadership, Archery Trains Sharpshooters
Druids: 0/2/1/2
Aeris Wisdom, Scouting Pegasi
Alagar Wisdom, Sorcery Ice Bolt
Uland Adv. Wisdom, Ballistics Cure spell
Coronius Wisdom, Scholar Slayer spell
Elleshar Wisdom, Initelligence Intelligence skill
Gem Wisdom, First Aid First Aid skill
Malcom Wisdom, Eagle Eye Eagle Eye skill
Melodia Wisdom, Luck Fortune spell
Jump to page:
Sponsors:
Other files from this game:
- Heroes of Might & Magic 3 trainer by System on 14/03/2006, 06:30
Start the program - it's self explaining - Heroes of Might & Magic 3 trainer by System on 14/03/2006, 06:30
+16 trainer - Heroes of Might & Magic 3 savegame by System on 14/03/2006, 06:30
- Heroes of Might & Magic 3 trainer by System on 14/03/2006, 06:30
Trainer for v1.13 - Heroes of Might & Magic 3 document by System on 14/03/2006, 06:30
- Heroes of Might & Magic 3 editor by System on 14/03/2006, 06:30
Resources editor - Heroes of Might & Magic 3 hints by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50
- Heroes of Might & Magic 3 FAQ by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50
- Heroes of Might & Magic 3 cheats by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50
- Heroes of Might & Magic 3 FAQ by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50