I've been playing a lot of HOMM3 recently. A lot. I finished all of the single scenarios for RoE, the campaign for RoE, and all the single scenarios for AB. Then I got started on the AB campaign.

I got to the third map and it's a large size map. I stare at all the black fog of war. I contemplate the "hard" difficult level the map registers as. I realize: I'm not a very good HOMM player and finishing this map is probably going to take 4-8 hours.

I stare at the black fog of war.

Forget this. I need a break.

I love HOMM, but sometimes... man... I just wish it didn't feel so overwhelming.

The "Armageddon's Blade" campaign for the AB expansion is definitely the hardest one (it's the equivalent of the "final" campaign for RoE and SoD), and AB is pretty darn hard anyway. It's about twice as long as the others, and the later missions border on insanity. And you don't have the benefit of SoD's item sets or adjustable difficulty settings, either.

HOMM in general is so addictive that I have a tendency to play it nonstop and then get burned out on it. I often will play a skirmish map or two to get back into the "fun" HOMM groove, as opposed to the "hard work" HOMM groove. I also like to periodically replay the Dungeons and Devils campaign for RoE because it's so darn fun (especially the Fall of Steadwick) and also because it's a total breeze compared to a lot of the later missions.

You could also try playing some of the SoD campaigns. Yog and Gelu's campaigns are both a lot of fun as well.

Man, I hear you there. What I described in my post actually happened a few days ago. Since then I decided to give RealMyst a shot since I bought that some time ago here on GOG and never installed it. Beat that in like five hours. I remembered the puzzles seeming so hard when I was younger, but they actually weren't.

Then I finished a playthrough of the first three episodes of Heretic (old. school.).

Finally, I got started on Deus Ex 1, which I haven't played since I beat it the year it came out.

I figure after that I'll be ready to finish the Armageddon's Blade campaign. :^)