So I installed this game and want to play it thoroughly. I completed the tutorial and now I am overwhelmed by the number of campaigns and scenarios.

Therefore I would like to ask where to start? Campaigns or scenarios?

Campaigns, I plan to play the base ones first, then the add-ons. Regarding scenarios, is it possible to distinguish between base and add-on scenarios?

Thanks a lot in advance.

It is possible to differentiate vanilla from expansion scenarios. When seeing them in a list, you'll see one of the sorting options is by the version it belongs to. Those with the blue shield with the griffin are from Restoration of Erathia (vanilla game), those with a sword are from Armageddon's Blade (first expansion) and those with the skeletal mugshot of Sandro are from Shadow of Death (second expansion).

Smaller scenarios with Defeat All Enemies conditions, like All for One (belongs to RoE), are good for familiarizing with the game. The RoE campaigns are the easiest, so you can also start there (note - starting with either of the expansions' campaigns without prior knowledge is pure suicide ;) )

Besides the first campaign, make a SMALL random map vs. 1 opponent and play it a few times. Try different approaches and see how they develop.

But it's important to play Heroes 3 Basic Training Map
http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=14076


Tells you the fine points of combat, movement and so on. It would take you MANY games to figure this stuff out on your own.

Thank you all for the valuable input. It is a shame I cannot mark more posts as answers.

I still have nightmares from trying to beat Jihad on Impossible...not saying I put weeks into it or anything ("just" a few days -- got tired of bashing my head against a broken map), but compared to most other maps on Impossible? Holy cow.