BROWNE'S BLIND BLOCKER BLOCKBUSTER! If you find yourself in a
situation where your troops are blinded but you do not have Cure or Dispel Magic,
you may still have a powerful alternative if you have Teleport. Blinded troops
CAN be teleported, and what better place than right next to your opponents
shooters? That way the blocked stack has to attack you at half strength (mostly)
and "wastes" his own spell. Or he moves his shooters to another spot
-- foregoing his attack -- and you can teleport again next turn. You need to
Teleport as soon as one of your troops gets to move because the blinded troops
won't have a turn. (source: Rich Browne )
ARTIFACT SWITCHAROO! You can make use of more artifacts by
changing them around during a turn. Artifacts that increase movement (boots of
speed, equestrian's gloves) need only be worn at the beginning of the turn.
Before combat you can change the gloves for a ring, or change the boots for
something that will help you in combat (holy sandals, necromancer's boots).
Similarly, artifacts that provide gold or resources, or increase regeneration of
spell points, need only be equipped at the beginning of the turn. Artifacts that
increase knowledge need only be worn when you recharge spell points, such as at
the end of the turn you spend in a mage guild town, or before you approach a
well or fountain. However, you may have to take a step or two with the artifact
equipped for the increase in knowledge to take effect. After your spell points
have been recharged, you can remove the knowledge-increasing artifact, and even
equip artifacts that decrease knowledge (such as the titan's cuirass, which
decreases knowledge but greatly increases spell power) with no decrease in spell
points. (source: DenverSam )
GET ON THE MAGICAL BALL WITH THE BALLISTICS SKILL Ballistics
skill has one tremendous advantage- during the targeting phase of combat (which
comes before any creatures go), you can cast a spell! Use this spell to blind/berserk
the defender's fastest troop, to do a mass haste, or a mass slow. If you have a
squire, give the squire all your troops, and head him back to a friendly town.
The main hero can attack, use his largest damage spell, and then flee. He only
needs 4 creatures (even level 1st will do) in separate stacks, 3 to absorb tower
fire, and one more to survive the round. (source: Qurqirish Dragon )
TURN A BLIND EYE TO ELEMENTAL SUMMONING Summon Elemental is
generally not worth it because Elementals have been weakened so much. Damage
spells also are less effective because everything has more HP. Spells like Blind
are now as good and sometimes better than direct damage spells. (source: Don
Wang )
MANDATORY YOUTH PROGRAM Aging can be cured. In fact, that's
probably the one condition you want to cure as soon as you can. (source: Don
Wang )
ARMAGEDDON REVISITED You can pull more Armageddon combos then
before. Efreet and Fire Elementals, and Gold Dragon are all immune to Armageddon,
though Efreet and Fire Elementals doesn't have all that much HP to duke it out
with the enemy. Diamond Golems are also pretty good for this purpose since
they're tough and take only 5% from Armageddon. (source: Don Wang )
NO MAS BOOM BOOM WITH MASS DEFUSION If you cast Mass Dispel
while laying siege to a Tower, you'll dispel (eliminate) all of the Tower mines.
(source: Dan McGraw )
A POX ON US ALL "When a month of plague occurs, the
following happens: All unpurchased creatures are cut in half All dwellings
produce 0 creatures Any dwelling which has horde building built is IMMUNE to the
effects of plague. Thus a castle with a griffin bastion produces griffins
normally. Similarly with dwarves, dendroids, imps, cerberi, skeletons, gnolls,
etc." (source: Qurqirish Dragon (Matthew Charlap) )
SACRIFICE ***THIS***, BABY! Sacrifice = Most Powerful Spell in
the Game? This is a bug (it could not be otherwise unless there's something I'm
overlooking), but contrary to the Sacrifice spell description you can sacrifice
enemy troops too and not just your own. You select Sacrifice from your spell
book, you drag the icon over the enemy unit you want to sacrifice, it says
something to the effect you can't sacrifice that, just click anyway, then click
on the unit you want to resurrect. Voila, you killed a complete stack while
resurrecting troops in one of your own stacks. In a very extreme case (which I
hope isn't possible), you could even sacrifice 30 enemy Archangels to resurrect
one Imp. (source: Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude) )
BASIC DEFENSE SENSE! Sometimes Defending makes more sense than
Moving or Waiting. Imagine a one-on-one confrontation between Minotaurs (speed
6) and Dread Knights (speed 9). Let's say the opponent is clever enough to stay
just out of range of your Minotaurs on the first turn (and the AI at hard is
excellent at staying out of range). You could move your Minotaurs closer to them
or you could tell the Minotaurs to Defend. If you don't have Slow or Haste, the
best option is Defend at the end of turn 1 because on turn 2, the Dread Knights
will get the first attack anyway. By defending, your Minotaurs get a better
defense rating (+5 in this case!) possibly meaning a few more Minotaurs will
survive the first assault that was unavoidable. This is not certain (in fact I'm
pretty certain other factors enter into this because it's not constant) but as a
general rule I think the defense bonus given by Defend is the same as the
creature level (+1 Defense for level-1 creatures, +2 Defense for level-2
creatures, etc). (source: Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude) )
BILLARD ETIQUETTE ON THE BATTLEFIELD (Or... "9 shooter
stack in the top-right pocket!") Much less useful than HOMM 2 but still
available is the "pocket formation". The objective is to surround your
best shooter stack with walkers and flyers so the enemy cannot reach it. That
way, your shooter can continue to pick its target each turn and does not have
the half-damage penalty. There are many variations on this but here's a simple
example. You use tight formation (also called close or grouped formation) in the
hero screen, you put your Griffins stack in slot number 2, the Pikemen in slot
3, the Markmen in slot 4 and your Swordsmen in slot 5. On turn 1, you move the
Griffins in front of the Marksmen therefore closing off the "pocket".
(source: Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude) )
YOU WATCH MY BACK -- I'LL WATCH YOURS Put tough slower walkers
units, such as Dendroids, close to your shooters but not next to them. The enemy
will have little choice but to fight them too if he tries to block your shooters
(blocking is putting your unit next to an enemy shooter so it does half-damage).
The tough walker stack should be close but not next to the shooter because you
run the risk of the opponent attacking that walker stack *and* blocking your
shooter, especially if it's a strong stack. (source: Quebec Dragon (Sebastien
Patenaude) )
GUERILLA TACTICS 101: LIGHTNING REHIRE A way to reduce the
strength of an approaching enemy army is by hiring a bunch of magic heroes one
after the other or the same hero several times in your town about to be invaded.
You give 3 very fast units to the hero, leave the rest of the troops in the
garrison, make the spellcaster sacrifice himself by attacking the invader, you
cast your best offensive damaging spell (such as Lightning or Meteor Shower) and
you make your hero flee or surrender right away. If the hero has enough spell
points (and now enough movement points with the patch), you can make another run
with the same hero. If not, you hire another magic hero. You repeat until you
run out of gold. You need 3 split units or more against human players, less
against the computer (a faster shooter and a spell could take out 2 units before
you can cast the spell). This trick is much less effective in HOMM 3 than HOMM 2
because units have a greater speed range and because of the patch preventing
rehired heroes from getting their full movement back on the same turn. On the
other hand, starting heroes have much greater starting armies and you could
create a decent garrison just by hiring and rehiring them. (source: Quebec
Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude) )
FLIGHTS OF FANCY (AND SURVIVAL) Some veterans might remember
HOMM 1 where you could use a fast flying unit to avoid slower enemy walking
units during a castle siege. The indestructible turret could then shoot away for
as long as it took to destroy all the enemies. With the tougher castle defenses
in HOMM 3 and a much larger battle field, this tactic has surfaced again. As the
castle defender, at the end of battles, you could potentially avoid your last
stack being killed, even get a win from what was a certain defeat, by making
your unit avoid the last enemy stacks for as long as you're able (if you managed
to destroy the catapult, you can do this forever because your turrets will stay
operational). Try to remember that moats stop the movement of walker units. (source:
Quebec Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude) )
For the first time in a HOMM game, the catapult can now be
destroyed. It has a thousand hit points and you'll likely have to use powerful
damaging spells and hit-and-run tactics with your very fast flyers but it is
possible. The main benefit of this is that once it is destroyed, the invader
cannot take out your walls and turrets anymore who will continue firing until
the battle is over. Once the enemy's spell points and flying units are gone, you
can stay cozy and safe behind your wall waiting for your turrets to do the dirty
work (in fact, let they flying enemy units come to you behind walls). Enemy
shooters are unlikely to make a difference (with the wall and distance penalty)
unless they're in much bigger numbers than your troops. (source: Quebec Dragon (Sebastien
Patenaude) )
BUT I WANT IN!... What to do if your opponent is devious enough
to destroy your catapult? You have several options : cast multiple Earthquakes,
cast Teleport to get your troops inside (you need expert water magic though) or
Hypnotize an enemy stack so it opens the main gate for you. (source: Quebec
Dragon (Sebastien Patenaude) )
GO BALLISTIC! If you got the secondary skill of "Ballistics"
and tackle a castle, target the main tower... you'll ALWAYS hit the lower tower.
(source: Emmanuel Issaly )
When Magic Plains says all spell is cast at Expert level, they
really mean it. Not only do your heroes cast at Expert level, your Master Genies
also cast their spells at Expert level, too. So instead of having one stack with
every enhancement in the book, you can now have every stack loaded with every
enhancement in the book! If possible, get as many Master Genie stacks as you can
spare without compromising firepower (after all, if you're having all but one or
two stack with Master Genies, it's almost the same anyway because you'd cast all
your spell on the one or two powerful stacks). (source: Don Wang )
A BONER OF A TIP -- PART 2! If your Necromancer has skeleton
warriors and has the rest of his/her slots full (no normal skeletons) the
resurrected skeletons will come back as skeleton warriors. (source: Steve Church
)
A BONER OF A TIP! While Titans and ArchAngels seem to only
produce skeletons when shoved into the gaping maw of a skeleton transformer,
your Hydras and Assorted Dragons are transformed into Bone when sacrificed in
the same manner. (source: DarkKittin )
ADVANCED MATHEMATICS 110! Staight from Maranthea on the message
board, this is the formula to calculate scores in HOMM 3 stand-alone scenarios.
Base Score = 200 - (days+10)/(Towns+5) + 25 (if you defeated all enemies) + 25 (if
you got the grail)
Final Score = (Base Score)(Difficulty level map was played on) In English, it
gives us this: 1. Start with a score of 200 2. Add 25 points if you beat all
enemies 3. Add another 25 points if you get the grail 4. Subtract an
inefficiency penalty: The number of days to complete - 10, divided by the number
of towns on the map plus 5 (in other words, the more towns to beat, the more
time you can take without being majorly penalized) This will give you a score up
to 250. Multiply this by the difficulty rating (0.8, 1, 1.3, 1.6 or 2) to get
final score. Theoretically, the max score would be 500 (defeat any map in 10
days on impossible while killing all enemies and getting the grail). Map
difficulty (easy normal hard, expert) seems to be irrelevant. (source: Maranthea
on the 3DO Message Board and submitted here by Quebec Dragon and Angela )
KNOCK, KNOCK. WHO'S THERE? When visiting locations that are
protected by guardians, locations such as Dwarven Treasuries, Naga Banks,
Griffin Conservatories and several others, it's often a risk because you don't
know how many troops you'll face exactly. A way to make taking this decision
easier is by always saying no when the prompt asks you to fight. You can then
right-click on the structure and you will get a rough estimate of the number and
types of creatures you'll have to fight. You'll lose a couple of steps but in
the long run it's a good way to avoid foolish battles. (source: Quebec Dragon )
SPY vs SPY In multiplayer, when it's your opponent's turn, click
in the bottom-right corner box where you see his flag. You'll see how many towns
he has and of what hall type (village hall, town hall, city hall, capitol). (source:
Quebec Dragon )
WRAITH BOMB Split up the Wraiths in your army. For each wraith
stack you have, the adversary will lose 2 spell points each turn. (source:
Quebec Dragon )
BOVINE PERSONS BOMB Split up your Mighty Gorgons in several
stacks. Several with single units and one with the rest, or all stacks of equal
numbers. Each stack, even if it contains only 1 Mighty Gorgon, has a chance of
using death stare on the target killing its top unit outright, no matter how
powerful it is. If you have more than 10 Gorgons in one stack, you could even
kill 2. See strategy for Spoils of War 3 (Greed) at the Rally Flag for more
details on how the Mighty Gorgon death stare works. (source: Quebec Dragon )
WHY MAKE ONE WISH WHEN YOU CAN MAKE THREE? Split up the Master
Genies in your army. Each Master Genie stack you have can cast one beneficial
random spell each turn. Keep in mind that although only 3 spells are shown at
one time, more than 3 spells can affect the unit. Only the 3 most recent effects
are shown. (source: Quebec Dragon )
WAR MACHINES AS DECOYS There is an additional, unforeseen
benefit to actually buying those ammo carts, healing tents and ballistas. It
will soak up damage from Chain Lightning ! The war machines are considered
suitable targets as far as that spell is concerned. You'll also see quite
regularly that the powerful enemy stacks will ignore your own living troops to
take cheap shots at those war machines in order to destroy them. Therefore that
enemy stack who could have hurt you badly wastes its attack on something that
you can easily replace. It will often happen when the retaliation of your stack
would have inflicted losses on the attacker. (source: Quebec Dragon )
BAITING THE LAME AI TIP #42! HOMM 2 veterans had learned that
the AI always targeted their strongest shooter stack first. Even if you had one
Halfling and 50 Ogre Lords next to it, that stack of enemy Dragons would attack
that lone Halfling who could never have hurt it in a million years. The HOMM 3
AI is smarter and won't always target your shooters anymore. However, it's still
not that brilliant and you can use a variation of the old shooter bait trick to
cut your losses significantly. Use split-up low-level units (doesn't matter if
it's shooter, walker or flyer but levels 1 are better) in small numbers
alongside one, two or three really strong higher-level stacks. The enemies on
the other side are likely to target those low-level units first because the
retaliation of the higher-level stacks would hurt them too much. It won't always
happen like that but it can. For example, I was attacking an opponent who had
six Black Dragons (split in two or three stacks) with four Black Dragons of my
own and my 6 other slots taken by single-units Troglodytes. The enemy Black
Dragons attacked my Troglodytes instead of my Black Dragons! (source: Quebec
Dragon )
WAITING FOR MR. BADBAR! When fighting wandering stacks composed
of walkers and flyers that cannot reach your side in one turn, it's almost
always better to make all your units wait. This gives you a double advantage.
Your units have the first strike and some of your shooters will not have the
broken-arrow range penalty (shooters have a 10 hex range, beyond that, they
inflict half damage). (source: Quebec Dragon )
LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN! This has been true since HOMM 1 and it
hasn't changed for HOMM 3. It's always better to attack on day 7 and day 1 of
each week before the enemy has a chance to buy more troops. It works on day 1,
too, because your day 1 turn is before the computer's day 1 turn; so its troops
are unbought when you attack. You can sometimes capture lightly defended or
empty castles that way. Most importantly, you can hire all those troops yourself
while preventing the enemy from getting those reinforcements. It's also quite
possible that the enemy will buy new structures for you during that week from
which he'll not really be able to benefit from. Letting the computer build stuff
for you will save you a lot of gold and resources. Against human players, this
is different, it's not always the host who goes first each turn anymore, it's
now the player picking the color that's higher in the advanced options list. On
smaller maps, this is a tredendous advantage as you can bring day 1
reinforcements from your own town (by hero chain) and attack the enemy's town
before he has the change to buy day 1 troops of his own. (source: Quebec Dragon
)
JUST ADD BEER AND GOLD! Hiring more heroes on day 1 from your
tavern is something that most players should do. Players will often start
exploring with only their starting hero, possibly buying just one more, and
staying with only 1 or 2 heroes for the rest of the week, sometimes longer.
Learn that often more heroes sooner are better. As a general rule of thumb,
hiring 2 or 3 additional heroes on day 1 is a good idea at hard difficulty. At
normal difficulty, hire 3 or 4 extra heroes. It's not an exact science though,
so go with your instincts and particularly what you see of the immediate area
around your town. If you see lots of gold piles and chests, hire more heroes. If
it looks pretty barren, hire less. Combine practically all troops (don't forget
to buy troops from your starting town) on the same hero who will become your
main hero, fighting the majority of battles, and who will climb levels quicker
than the rest of your heroes. If possible, try to hire heroes associated with
your main town so you have less problems with morale. (source: Quebec Dragon )
A GHOST (DRAGON) OF A CHANCE! If you have Ghost Dragons, fill
your open slots with one single Ghost Dragon in each. Make sure they attack
before your main stack. Let them attack the opponent's main stack (for instance,
Titans). You have a good chance (20% for each Ghost Dragon stack you use) of
aging them (halving the hit points of all members in the stack), making it
considerably easier for your main stack of Ghost Dragons to finish them off. The
first single Ghost Dragon who attacks also takes up the retaliation. (source:
Jaxe )
WAR MACHINES DON'T FIGHT BACK! Troops with multiple grid attacks
(dragons for instance) should be positioned when attacking to angle their attack
down (or up) through a first aid tent, ammo cart, or ballista. This way, they
can hit the enemy troop on the other side of the war machine and not suffer a
retaliation! (source: Paramjot Oberoi )
GENIE BOMBS OUT -- GENIE POWERUPS IN If you like high level
units (6 or 7), a good way to go is to form one or two stacks of those guys and
as many stacks of Master Genies as there is space left. The Genies can cast a
lot of magic -- just about all of them useful except for Frenzy, which is sort
of a double-edged sword. (source: Don Wang )
THE HILL FORT'S A SWELL FORT! The cost of upgrading troops at a
Hill Fort: Level 1: Free Level 2: 25% of normal cost Level 3: 50% of normal cost
Level 4: 75% of normal cost Level 5: normal cost Level 6: normal cost Level 7:
normal cost (source: Quebec Dragon )