Decline I suck at HoMM 3!

[FeelTheRads]

So, Guys....how the motherfuck is it even remotely possible to beat that one expansion campaign with the literally hundreds of azure dragons that need to be killed, each particular dragon being a one-unit army and having a thousand hitpoints? Gratuitous abuse of the berserk spell?

Armageddon's Blade? Fuck that shit, man. I get raped like a moist asshole at a gay party.
Zboj Lamignat probably did it with his eyes closed, though.

Nah, seriously, I'm not that great of a player (finished RoE and SoD, though), but I just couldn't touch AB.

Also found HOMM2's campaigns too difficult for me.

 

[Jasede]

The key to HoMM 2 was speed, speed, speed. It was really important to use every single move wisely.

Makes me want to play HoMM 2... frankly I always liked it a little better; I am just playing HoMM 3 because I never really gave it a chance. (I don't like the art style much and the music isn't nearly as good.)

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Makes me want to play HoMM 2... frankly I always liked it a little better; I am just playing HoMM 3 because I never really gave it a chance. (I don't like the art style much and the music isn't nearly as good.)

Alright, I guess I should play Heroes 2. First game was kinda simple for me.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Myeah, kinda agree with Heroes 2 > Heroes 3. Not on all accounts, but it has a charm that seems to have been lost in 3. But well, I love all of them up until 5.

 

[Jasede]

Hehehe, yeah I always defend 2 when it comes to threads where we talk about Heroes games but I never really played 3 much so I might not be one to talk. I played HoMM 3 without expansions ~50 hours way, WAY back, but HoMM 2 I played for much longer. However, this reminds me: I never played the HoMM 2 expansion either. You know, that might be fun.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Hehehe, yeah I always defend 2 when it comes to threads where we talk about Heroes games but I never really played 3 much so I might not be one to talk. I played HoMM 3 without expansions ~50 hours way, WAY back, but HoMM 2 I played for much longer. However, this reminds me: I never played the HoMM 2 expansion either. You know, that might be fun.

Just don't move any further. You'll probably end up being like this.

 

[Darth Roxor]

So, Guys....how the motherfuck is it even remotely possible to beat that one expansion campaign with the literally hundreds of azure dragons that need to be killed, each particular dragon being a one-unit army and having a thousand hitpoints?

Wait till you get to the 1k naga queens

Gratuitous abuse of the berserk spell?

Ayup

 

[SCO]

that heroes chronicles thing should have been part of the GoG executable ( for a complete game).

 

[Jvegi]

Myeah, kinda agree with Heroes 2 > Heroes 3. Not on all accounts, but it has a charm that seems to have been lost in 3. But well, I love all of them up until 5.

I used to think 2 was the best, but after playing it recently... Nah, 3 is better. 2 is just way too simplistic, the most glaring thing being the lack of variation in city builds. The art style is great, but if we were to judge them on this ground, then #1 is the obvious winer.

 

[Johannes]

Never finished HoMM3 campaigns. Got bored pretty quickly.
However, I'd recommend you to play some random maps and try different tactics/heroes/towns and learn how to play before rushing into campaign mode.
For example, over the years Necropolis + Levelled-up Moandor + Liches proved to be my best tactic.
Of course, it degrades to:
Build Mausoleum > Upgrade Mausoleum > Upgrade Moandor > Build more Liches > Fuck everyone.
Or:
Capture Necropolis > Get Moandor > Build/Upgrade Mausoleum > Build more Liches > Fuck everyone.

I mean, find your own tactic for each city before going anywhere.

Moandor is trash. The guys with a specialty for a specific unit are not generally worth it, and he has the shitty Learning skill on top of that, wasting a slot. You could do the same lich-heavy strategy better with another hero.

 

[TigerKnee]

The Basilisk specialist guy is good, because he actually comes with Basilisks to take advantage of it ASAP.

Too bad that would mean you're playing Fortress, so you're already losing out.

 

[Black]

Learn earth magic skill. Spam magic guilds in your cities until you get town portal.

You won.

But yeah, if you can't beat HoMMIII AI on the impossible difficulty then "suck" is an euphemism.

Many campaigns are dickish enough to have TP banned from mage guilds. It's impossible to get it through normal means.
1. Fuck shit like implosion, most of the time it ain't worth it unless you're running a levelled up hero vs weak armies. Low level expert spells is where it's at. Haste, Slow, Bless, Curse, Prayer etc win battles for single digit mana points.
2. Not all upgrades are worth buying. Most upgrades that only give units some measly hp etc are bad, at least at the beginning. Upgrades that give units an additional attack (grand elves) or special abilities is what you want.
3. Have multiple heroes running. Preferably one for fighting stuff and others for picking up free resources, capturing mines and so on. Keep in mind that when you buy a hero he also comes with some units, so give them to your main.
4. This isn't common knowledge- slow units slow down your hero! When I was a kid I studied HoMM 3 manual religiously and I don't think it was mentioned there. Leave stuff like dwarves, ents, zombies etc at home and you'll be surprised how much quicker you move.

 

[Kirkpatrick]

Also, might heroes are better than magic ones. So, in that campaign, I'd recommend ditching Gem until somewhere near the end of scenario, and then level her up. Until then, hopefully you'll find a nice might hero in the tavern, doesn't need to necessarily be a rampart one. Build creatures first, then economy buildings. Also, sometimes with rampart is not a bad idea to build elves asap, and upgrade them too. Grand elves are powerful as hell, and you'll have much less trouble clearing the map with them. Chaining is great as well, position your heroes that one can fight a battle or two and still manage to reach other hero, and then that one can do it as well.

Also, difference between Easy, Normal and Hard, Extreme and Impossible is that with latter ones, save for less resources, AI also remembers that it has Wait option. Will not do that on Easy or Normal.

 

[baturinsky]

Might hero needs army. Magic heroes can kick asses by themselves. Very good as supports in campaigns.

 

[SCO]

Considering that in HoMM3, heroes are defeated if they don't have at least one unit on the field besides themselves, i doubt that is true.

:nitpickertroll:

 

[TigerKnee]

There ARE strategies where you do stuff like get Mr Chain Lightning Wizard Genie whose name I forgot and then basically just do "Chain Lightning -> Flee on First turn with fast unit" to annoy your enemies.

 

[General Maxson]

There ARE strategies where you do stuff like get Mr Chain Lightning Wizard Genie whose name I forgot and then basically just do "Chain Lightning -> Flee on First turn with fast unit" to annoy your enemies.

Yeah, and lose 2500 gold every turn...

 

[Malakal]

There ARE strategies where you do stuff like get Mr Chain Lightning Wizard Genie whose name I forgot and then basically just do "Chain Lightning -> Flee on First turn with fast unit" to annoy your enemies.

Ahh yes, Solmyr. After you level a bit you can do the same with Armageddon and a phoenix/black dragon.

The Basilisk specialist guy is good, because he actually comes with Basilisks to take advantage of it ASAP.

Too bad that would mean you're playing Fortress, so you're already losing out.

Fortress isnt actually bad if you play it the way its meant to play - making your units get hit and retaliating. And the units you get there are top notch, some tiers are easily one of the if not the best in the game. Gorgons anyone? Chaos hydras?

Never finished HoMM3 campaigns. Got bored pretty quickly.
However, I'd recommend you to play some random maps and try different tactics/heroes/towns and learn how to play before rushing into campaign mode.
For example, over the years Necropolis + Levelled-up Moandor + Liches proved to be my best tactic.
Of course, it degrades to:
Build Mausoleum > Upgrade Mausoleum > Upgrade Moandor > Build more Liches > Fuck everyone.
Or:
Capture Necropolis > Get Moandor > Build/Upgrade Mausoleum > Build more Liches > Fuck everyone.

I mean, find your own tactic for each city before going anywhere.

Moandor is trash. The guys with a specialty for a specific unit are not generally worth it, and he has the shitty Learning skill on top of that, wasting a slot. You could do the same lich-heavy strategy better with another hero.

The skeleton hero is banned in most serious MP games due to how cheesy he can get. Other than that specific skeleton tactic I agree tho.

 

[octavius]

Jasede, if you want easy try the Heroes Chronicles instead.

There ARE strategies where you do stuff like get Mr Chain Lightning Wizard Genie whose name I forgot and then basically just do "Chain Lightning -> Flee on First turn with fast unit" to annoy your enemies.

There was one single player map for HoMM 3 where using "Chain Lightning -> Flee on First turn with fast unit" to whittle down the the extremely well defended enemy city was the only way to win.

I remember trying to complete HOMM I and, say what you want, but I couldn't do it.

In later levels, enemy hero's would come to my castle so fast with their huge hordes that they swiped the floor with me.
And that level where you had to find that thing in one certain spot was a nightmare.

That's because you left your castle undefended. The HoMM1 AI is very basic; it will home in on your undefended castle if there is a free way to it, even if there are other interesting, but defended stuff between.

HoMMIII campaigns are piss easy due to hero transfer. Even if the maximum level is hardlocked you can quickly get ridiculous stats by visiting places and gather a vast collection of spells thus turning the game into a rapetrain where you are the driver.

Try to complete the game ASAP in-game time instead, both for a more challenging game and for a better score.

 

[TigerKnee]

Fortress isnt actually bad if you play it the way its meant to play - making your units get hit and retaliating. And the units you get there are top notch, some tiers are easily one of the if not the best in the game. Gorgons anyone? Chaos hydras?

Nah, Fortress is still one of the weaker factions in the game. I'll give you Mighty Gorgons for their ability to randomly kill off Tier 7s, but Hydras are slow as shit walkers and Sonic Sez that's no good.

Of course, it's kind of hard to "tier" factions in the game, because someone is going to show up and go "in situation X, faction Y is the best!" e.g What if Dungeon gets resource screwed, then the low maintenence factions will win! (which I find unsatisfying, it's like winning by Mana Screw in M:tG)

Which is good on the part of the developers, but I think I can do it with "this faction has a high/low probability of winning overall." I'm not going to go into much detail, I'm lazy.

Borkked: Conflux
This faction was a hackjob thrown together at the last minute because some people got extremely pissy and mailed death threats to the devs for the gall of wanting to include a sci-fi faction in HoMM. What a shock that it's broken in six million ways (Tier 6 Hydras that are magic immune wtf).

OP on larger maps: Necro
Farm nine billion skeletons and go to town. That's on large maps, but on smaller maps they're still really solid because upgraded Vamps, Dread Knights and Liches are all really good units..

Consistently Good while still being strong late game:
Castle
Rampart

Both factions can play "cheaply" while still having options for ramping up if you find resources. Castle basically has the best Tier 7 unit in the game and other solid units.

Rampart's kind of a weaker Castle IMO, barring niche circumstances.

Both factions have a ranged units that get Double Shot as an upgrade making creeping a breeze.

Strong but susceptible to resource screw:
Tower
Dungeon

See title.

Dungeon's really bad at this (the Beholder's building seems to be custom tailored to piss off people at Impossible difficulty with its "1 of every resource" cost). Cool special buildings though!

"Cheap" Factions:
Stronghold
Fortress

See title. Better stomp someone's face early and conquer a 2nd town ASAP to get stuff you need like more spell support!

I put Stronghold over Fortress because they can do things like rush Behemoths more easily compared to Fortress. Also they got a unit that can siege walls, which Fortress REALLY REALLY wants to do.

Fortress has some niche advantages like being good on Swamp Terrain, Tazar being a completely nuts hero with how he turns your units into walls, etc. Bad match-up against Necro sucks though! (Undead are immune to Mighty Gorgons special)

Red Headed Stepchild:
Inferno

Bad stats overall, wrong element focus (Fire's the worst), lacking specials (Yes, I totally want Magogs to complicate things!). Not resource-cheap.

 

[Black]

What about Conflux?

 

[Misconnected]

I only realized how badly I suck at HoMM III when I started playing with my friends. I thought I was pretty decent, I could finish the campaigns and all, and they swept the floor with me in no time.

Heh, me too. HoMM3 MP was when I realised playing SP doesn't make you good at playing a game, it makes you barely adequate at playing an AI. It's really too bad HoMM3 was so badly balanced, because it really is a game you can get unbelievably fucking great at if you apply your grey matter.

 

[Wyrmlord]

The key to all HoMM games is "Don't stall or wait. Get things done NOW."

Don't wait till later before capturing a new town. Get ready to capture one as soon as possible, and get it defended NOW, rather than wait for having enough money to build a large enough force.

Perfectionists don't win strategy games, because they always wait till the "right" moment to do something.

 

[Johannes]

The key to all HoMM games is "Don't stall or wait. Get things done NOW."

Don't wait till later before capturing a new town. Get ready to capture one as soon as possible, and get it defended NOW, rather than wait for having enough money to build a large enough force.

Perfectionists don't win strategy games, because they always wait till the "right" moment to do something.

What's perfectionism got to do with lazing about for no reason? I'm often very much a perfectionist, but that means I'll try and bash my head over and over again until I get something right - optimising until I have my production sequence patted down to as fast as it can realistically be.

 

[Storyfag]

OP on larger maps: Necro
Farm nine billion skeletons and go to town. That's on large maps, but on smaller maps they're still really solid because upgraded Vamps, Dread Knights and Liches are all really good units..