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Heroes of Might and Magic seriesHoMM 3 Difficulty levels(16 posts)(16 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted November 23, 2013
So, I'm kinda new to the series and perhaps I could use some tips on how to enjoy this more.

Basically I find the game to be extremely fun at first when you're exploring a map, but come mid-game and boredom kicks in for me. My experience is different depending on the difficulty level.

On normal I can win most maps, but often it comes down to fending off some attacks, clicking on end turn countless times until I'm strong enough to conquer the map, by now there's no more exploring to be done so it's kinda boring I find.

On hard difficulty I'm usually crashed at some point by really big stacks, I'm just not as efficient as the AI in grabbing the resources needed by the time the enemy comes knocking at my door. Is it possible to recover from having your biggest army destroyed once? Dunno, but I always start over. And loading an earlier save doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

On what difficulty level do you find the game to be more fun? Any links to tips and strategies to improve my play on hard difficulty?

Cheers
Post edited November 23, 2013 by chrismrx
Posted November 23, 2013
Unless it's a Small map I prefer to play on Impossible.

Generally I try to build up the castle as fast as possible, concentrating on creature dwellings first.
Expanding aggressively, picking up resources before the CPU players is important. Use spells to find out where resources and mines are.
Hiring Heroes with Estate skill can be a good long term investment. They can do double duty as weekly resource collectors and troop transporters for your main hero.
Posted November 23, 2013
All around great site is celestialheavens.com for anything with Heroes of M&M.

The main issue most people starting out have is fighting the neutrals and gauging their strength. You see most experienced players no how to do early battles with no or next to no losses. The key to this depends on which town your using as they each have different early strats. Although pretty much all of them can really lose big if you have lots of neutral archers type units around guarding things.

Also if you lose your main army it IS possible to come back from that but you need to be able to get back your main Hero. This can happen if you retreated ounce the battle became hopeless, or surrendering to keep all remaining troops but this costs more.

Difficulty doesn't really mean much ounce your more experienced except that if you start on Normal Diff then you should be able to build your lvl 7 dwelling week 1 if your lucky.
Posted November 23, 2013
Guess I'll do some more reading and try harder then. Thank you both for the tips!
Posted November 23, 2013
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chrismrx: Guess I'll do some more reading and try harder then. Thank you both for the tips!
Well just to give you a starting idea here are some good strats for a couple towns.

Rampart - Best thing todo is start with Hero Ivor (Elves specialty) and build Grand Elves. These along with about 20-50 centaurs are enough to mow down most opposition early on.
Castle - Get Marksmen asap as they can really mow down enemies.
Tower - Master Gremlins and Mage Guild 1 asap. Between starting Hero, 2nd recruited from tavern and starting weeks you should have like 50.

Inferno - I usually go for either 3 Headed doggies and/or Efreets.

Stronghold - Build up Behemouths asap, should be able todo this within like 3-4 turns.
Posted November 24, 2013
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chrismrx: Guess I'll do some more reading and try harder then. Thank you both for the tips!
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EvilLoynis: Well just to give you a starting idea here are some good strats for a couple towns.

Rampart - Best thing todo is start with Hero Ivor (Elves specialty) and build Grand Elves. These along with about 20-50 centaurs are enough to mow down most opposition early on.
Yeah, I picked up early on the importance of ranged units and what resources to go for in order to quickly build the units I want and get some money flowing in.

What I should have mentioned is that my frustration came from the apparently stupid decision to start playing HoMM starting with the "Shadow of Death" campaign on hard. Some scenarios are really hard if you have bad timing or the wrong idea about how to win a particular scenario. The "Retrieving the Cowl" scenario in particular is what prompted me to write the original post. Duh!

At least this frustration paid off, cause I tried a couple of single scenarios/random maps on hard difficulty today and found them to be a piece of cake to win and quite fun. I should have guessed that hardly anyone bothers with the original campaigns after all these years, but yeah I'm new. :)

Thanks
Posted December 05, 2013
I've actually beaten all three SOD, ROE, and AB. when i first started the game it will take days to beat but now they're all quite easy to beat except the Kreegan alliance scenario where you need to beat melodia is quite challenging. this is the only map i need to try not to waste any movement of heroes. i will just write some keys that i think makes this game easier.

First, my priority is rushing the forts rather than collecting resources. before you start just look around the map and find the fort locations. every fort is connected to paths so follow the paths. after you know where some of the forts are restart the game and rush the forts. if you rush early most forts barely have enemy units. if you developed your heroes well, have decent ranged units, and use magic well you can beat larger enemies easily and capture forts early in the game. instead of going around collecting resources i would just go straight to the forts from the start. i find that the later you capture the forts the harder it gets. this is probably because you get all the gold and units that the enemy would have gotten and use the forts as defense against them.

Second, develop your heroes as much as possible in each scenario so you're better equipped on subsequent scenario. dont beat the level until you have sent your heroes to most of the skill buildings and acquire decent magic. for example, if the objective is to eliminate all enemies, corner the last enemy fort so they stay inside the fort while going around with your main heroes to skill buildings like library of enlightenment or school of war. there are also towns like fortresses that have skill buildings(cage) that give you defense stats. if the scenario has a time limit try to put off beating the map till you build up your heroes. also if your towns can develop magic up to level 4 develop them and get effective magic. if you have a hero with scholar you can teach all your other heroes his or her magic. this goes a long way to beating the following levels.

Third, learn at least one of the following magic : town portal or dimmension door. town portal is probably used more frequently since it's only a level 4 magic while DD is level 5. if you have these magic moving around the map becomes much easier. town portal allows you to gather your units from several forts and makes it easy to defend forts from enemies. dimmension door helps you cover a large distance in one turn. in order to fully utilize these magic you will need to get earth and air magic secondary skills. if you have either of those magic the game gets quite easy. referring back to the last paragraph, i would usually get town portal for all my main heroes before moving on to the next scenario.

Fourth, build your heroes effectively. save the game before you visit any secondary skill learning building so you can reload if it's an unwanted skill. there are varying opinions about the best secondary skills but imo the essential ones are logistics, wisdom, earth magic, air magic, and tactics. moving around the map fast helps a lot so logistics is obviously important. without wisdom you can't learn high level magic including town portal. earth magic helps you use town portal and also effective spells like slow, implosion, and resurrection. air magic helps you use DD and has haste, chain lightning and fly.

There are countless other strategies that can help in the game but these are ones i feel are the most important. most battles i can win by using quick combat mode and beat most maps within 3 months of game time or well before the time limit. also setting the hero and enemy speed faster helps shorten the real time.
Post edited December 05, 2013 by mfranchise
Posted December 05, 2013
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mfranchise: Most battles i can win by using quick combat mode.
This is a HORRIBLE tip for ANY new players to ever use. QUICK COMBAT SUCKS big time.

The only exception to this is if you only take like level 7 units and are strong enough that even the comp cannot lose them. Otherwise you will take very stupid losses and use up your magic pool stupidly.
Posted December 06, 2013
^^ THIS big time!!
Posted December 18, 2013
I've only recently gotten to Expert difficulty as Hard was no longer being a challenge, that said, I would say the realization that made me switch from Normal to Hard was that one dragon is better than two hundred goblins. If your goblins stack loses 199 hit points, you're down a whole lotta goblins but if your dragon loses 199 hit points, he's still going to see the next fight. And the sooner you get your top unit dwelling and upgrade to a Castle, the better, that's the meta game on Hard difficulty. Stronghold is noteworthy for your ability to build both the Behemoth Lair and a Castle during the first week, and having three behemoths at the start of the second week makes a world of difference. Same goes for the Necromancer castle in Heroes of Might And Magic II. Same goes for the Castle faction in some campaign missions.

The problem I had when I played on Normal difficulty was to treat all my units with care, hire all of them, take them all with me as I explored the map. Eventually I realized I was doing everything wrong.

First, at the start of a game, the sole purpose of your weaker units is to be sacrificed in order to secure the necessary resources and mines to build the top tier dwelling and a Castle. Hire a lot of heroes, and every time one runs out of move, pass your army onto another hero and continue to liberate mines and resources.

When you can hire your top tier unit, hire nothing else but your top unit, give them to your best hero, and let that hero go on a rampage while scouts follow, both to relay the top units fresh from your city to your hero but also collect the resources your hero will liberate. Resources from this point on should go toward building a Capitol and building the remaining creature dwellings, not recruiting weaker units (I dunno for later difficulty levels but on Hard difficulty, it's Castle before Capitol.) When you've got enough money, and preferably before one of them Month of the Plague event, you can hire your weaker units. Unless your big hero is about to get crushed by a very strong rival, give these weaker units to a different hero to explore and secure a different part of the map.

There are times where a Magic hero is better than a Might hero, notably on a very small map where you don't have much time to build ginormous monster stacks and experience before the inevitable clash with your rivals, but the longer the game goes on, the stronger a Might hero becomes since as you gain resources and develop castles, monster stacks exponentially become bigger, and since leveling up requires more and more experience, a Magic hero's spell power can no longer keep up with the stack growth. It's at this moment that primary skills like Attack and Defense and secondary skills like Offense and Armorer really shine in maximizing your opponents losses and minimizing yours. Heroes whose specialties are Offense and Armorer (like Crag Hack) are fan favorites for that very reason.

Remember that there is some instances where the top tier unit in a faction isn't the strongest unit. Necropolis' best unit is the Vampire Lords early on and the Skeletons late in the game. A stack of twenty Vampire Lords can lay waste on most monster stacks surrounding your castle on the second week and this without losing any unit.

Mind you, there are factions I have troubles with, both because I've very rarely played with them and because it is impossible to build the top tier creature dwelling on the first or second week, like the Tower and Dungeon factions, and I've only recently begun to play on Expert difficulty, but on Hard, what I listed above and what some of the previous poster said, really helped me to master this difficulty. Heroes of Might and Magic is a strategy game with bits of roleplaying thrown around, not the other way around. Whatever you do on the first weeks must go toward getting resources to hire the biggest stacks of the baddest monsters, to secure more resources and castles, to get bigger and badder monsters.
Post edited December 18, 2013 by blueskirt42
Posted December 18, 2013
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blueskirt42: There are times where a Magic hero is better than a Might hero, notably on a very small map where you don't have much time to build ginormous monster stacks and experience before the inevitable clash with your rivals, but the longer the game goes on, the stronger a Might hero becomes since as you gain resources and develop castles, monster stacks exponentially become bigger, and since leveling up requires more and more experience, a Magic hero's spell power can no longer keep up with the stack growth. It's at this moment that primary skills like Attack and Defense and secondary skills like Offense and Armorer really shine in maximizing your opponents losses and minimizing yours. Heroes whose specialties are Offense and Armorer (like Crag Hack) are fan favorites for that very reason.
The top 4 Might Heroes are probably

1. !!!CRAG HACK!!! (Stronghold) - By far and away the absolutely BEST might Hero by far. For a better understanding of his special here is what it does. It's a bit tricky as it gives a % of a %. If he had Expert Offense, which gives your troops +30% damage, he gives + 1.5% extra damage per level (5%*30%). So at level 20 He would give your guys a boost of 60% damage (30 from Expert Offense and 30 from the 20 lvls).

Also since every point of attack your guys have over their targets defense gives a +5% bonus to their attack as well, Crags insanely high Attack skill boost increases their damage even higher. He starts with Advanced Offense only leaving the other 7 slots open for whatever you want. This makes him super for ANY town to use. He starts with 4 Attack, 0 Defense and 1 Knowledge and Spell Power.

2. TAZAR (Fortress) - 0 Attack, 4 Defense, 1 Knowledge & Spell Power. Starts with Advanced Armorer.
3. MEPHALA (Rampart) - 1 Attack, 3 Defense, 1 Knowledge & Spell Power. Starts with Basic Armorer & Leadership.
4. NEELA (Tower) - 1 Attack, 1 Defense, 2 Knowledge & Spell Power. Starts with Basic Armorer & Scholar

These 3 Heroes all have the same specialty of boosting the Armorer Skill by 5% per level. Expert Armorer Reduces PHYSICAL damage done to your troops by 15%. Basically by an extra 3% for every 4 levels. OR 0.75% per level but since this rounds down it maximizes the benefit to have your lvl in multiples of 4. At level 20 you are reducing damage by a total of 30%.

While this may not seem as good a bonus at first glance as CragHacks it's important to note that it reduces Melee and Ranged damage whereas Crag only increases Melee. Tazar is ranked first because he starts with Advanced Arm and like Crag has the other 7 slots open whereas Mephala and Neela are both burdened with a not so good skill clogging things up. Also Tazar and Mephala are more likely to get Defense skill on level ups thus improving troops survivability even more.

Note Attack is usually twice as effective as Defense in this game because of the following.

- Every point of Attack the Attacker has OVER the defenders Defense increases their damage by 5%. So have a total of 20 Atk over his defense doubles the damage your unit does.

- However each Point of Defense above the attackers Attack only reduces damage by 2.5% (This is rounded down so is best in multiples of 2 which reduce attackers damage by 5%) THEREFORE you would need 40 Defense more than his attack to take no damage (Note you cannot reduce damage by lower than 1 from an attack.).

If anyone needs this clearer or has a question about a specific situation you can either post here or pm me and I would be happy to answer. Hope this helps you all.
Post edited December 18, 2013 by EvilLoynis
Posted December 18, 2013
Oh yes, errata to the "Castle first, Capitol second": Unless if you're swimming in ludicrous amount of resources, If you have two or more cities at the beginning of a mission, one city should progress toward the top tier creature dwellings and a Castle, while the others should develop the City Hall. Developing two creature generating cities is the best way to get stuck with no top tier units and no cash to hire your endless number of weak creatures.
Posted December 24, 2013
Truthfully it depends which map I am playing on whether or not I go Capitol before lvl 7 creatures. Not to mention which town I am and they are. I really like to play Small maps where I get to mix it up early.

I forgot to add Orrin (Castle) to the list of MIGHT Heroes. His Specialty is Archery giving it a 5% boost per level. He starts with 2/2/1/1 stats and Basic Archery + Leadership.

Expert Archery increases your RANGED Damage by 50%. Each Level Orrin has increases this by 2.5% (Remember this rounds down so is best in multiples of 2) so at level 20 It effectively DOUBLES the damage of your Ranged units (+50% Expert Archer + 2.5%*20) NOT taking into account the added Atk boos your heroes stats give as well.

Now I would Rank Orrin 5th because sadly Archer type units are out numbered big time.
It's also odd but the best towns for him may be Tower (Master Gremlins, Arc/Mages and Titans) or Dungeon (Evil Eyes and Medusas) imho as Tower has 3 units that will benefit, ranks 1/4/7, and Dungeons Eyes and Medusa are only rank 3/4, are easier to get and more chances for xtra external dwellings.

Truthfully though when I play Castle I much prefer Valeska for her Archer specialty or Loynis for his Prayer (not to mention being my namesake).

PS story of my names origin came about because Prayer works on Undead guys while Bless does not. Mass Prayered Undead army assault is just deadly hehe and was just so Evil...
Posted December 28, 2013
try to play not on difficulty raising to impossible but do something like this:

go on hard mode, random maps works best.. upgrade to castle and go for 7tier only. Make 2attackers with 7 tier only or you can create your own rules.. And almost all game just play with 6-7 tier creatures. Works very well for me. Not boring :)
Posted August 28, 2014
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mfranchise: Most battles i can win by using quick combat mode.
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EvilLoynis: This is a HORRIBLE tip for ANY new players to ever use. QUICK COMBAT SUCKS big time.

The only exception to this is if you only take like level 7 units and are strong enough that even the comp cannot lose them. Otherwise you will take very stupid losses and use up your magic pool stupidly.
I never said anything about quick combat being a good strategy. I simply said mid way through the game I could fight most enemies using quick combat without losing any army at all after building up a big army and this is a huge time saver. Why waste time doing the fights when u won't lose any units using quick combat? In the beginning you should of course do the combats and minimize losses. Simply by following bigger picture strategies like not focusing on gathering resources but rather rushing the forts in the beginning of the game and developing heroes effectively you can easily beat almost every scenario in this game. All of those micromanaging strategies you mentioned about using particular heroes like crag hack and strongholds are not even needed.
Post edited August 28, 2014 by mfranchise
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Heroes of Might and Magic seriesHoMM 3 Difficulty levels(16 posts)(16 posts)
(16 posts)