/vr/ - Retro Games

Pick your fights in the early game carefully.
Going against a ranged stack can be really troublesome if you dont have fast moving units.

>>1654267
I find myself being to scared to really engage anything and then getting overwhelmed when I'm attacked

this is a good feel though

Just right click on enemy and see how many of them are there. And all of enemies are tiered so you can attack few nomads but don't attack dragons. And when fighting archers use spells.

I remember, few years back i played against some people from /v/ and similar thing happened to me, messed with wrong NPC, i was out before first week ended.

Also, necropolis OP piece of shit...

>>1654317
When you get better you will know which battles you can win. Its all about knowing each unit and tactics.
The game hasa steep learning curve but it is very rewarding.

>>1654257
Right click on enemies it tells you how many of them are there.
Most ranged enemies have a bow or a staff or something to indicate that they are ranged. So if you have no super fast moving units, just leave them.
In early game a lot of beginners make the mistake of trying to make every single move count even if means crippling themselves, sometimes just waiting is the only option you have.
Another thing if you're necro your aim should be to gain as much skellys as possible so avoid making them go vs ranged or having them take the hits (use zombies they're shit tier).
Also it's good to use the Wait button accompanied with Haste most of the times it means you get 2 shots at an enemy.
Your main hero should be a might hero, magic heros as mains are only good on S and maybe M maps.
>>1654335
Necro is pretty strong but conflux is most OP, plus necro are really weak early and in small maps.

>>1654317

I guess you are focusing on economy first. As in going straight to capitol first week. Better to run on unit creation. Like if you play necro you should try and get your vampires and perhaps liches. Even if you can't afford to buy all these units every week they will stack up and only if you get month of the plague will you actually lose anything.

also vampire lords with haste are a destroyers.

>>1654424
Conflux is broken ass castle that shouldn't have been implemented at all.
But necropolis is just on the verge of being broken as fuck.
10k skeletons, regenerating vampires, double damage death knights... I'm afraid.

Here have some music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJAfIpAzaPE

The most important heroes newbie information is this:

Few 1-4
Several 5-9
Pack 10-19
Lots 20-49
Horde 50-99
Throng 100-249
Swarm 250-499
Zounds 500-999
Legion 1000+

It's from http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes3/movement.shtml where you can get some more info on map movement range and combat speeds, not as important than knowing the number range of the descriptions, though.

You'll have your first successes without losses if you build and recruit your towns ranged units ASAP and only attack slow melee enemies. Splitting your own melee troops into multiple stacks before a battle so they can move to block access to your archer stack can help you against very tough but slow enemy melee enemies like zombies.

Have fun.

Convinced this guy is unbeatable. What the fuck is with Phoenixes?

>>1655202
Conflux is pretty OP. Phoenixes have a huge weekly growth which is just retarded.

>>1655202
Conflux is just unbalanced as fuck.

Is it recommended to have a lot of heroes? I was playing with one in a 1v1 scenario and then this cunt took over my castle and now I've pretty much already lost

>Want to play this game again
>Dig out the case
>Theme Hospital disc inside instead of M&M3
>Dig out the Theme Hospital case instead
>No M&M3 disc, just another copy of Theme Hospital
It's strange since I'm not the kind of person to keep games in different cases and I don't remember owning a second copy of Theme Hospital at any time.

>>1655319
It depends on the size of the map and the town you play.
On a large map a lot of scout heroes is pretty common. For an S map you dont really need more than 2 heroes.
You shouldnt hire a lot of heroes early since they are pretty expensive. The 2500 gold could be well spent on a dwelling or units.
I usually defeat everything with my main hero and let an accompying scout with only 1 fast moving unit pick up stuff. I also keep a train of heroes to fetch units from the castle to my main.

>>1655330
Your disk got stolen.

>>1654257
Practice your art of Necromancy.

>>1655348

Don't forget, a fair number of heroes come with troops approaching or sometimes exceeding a 2500 cost.

>>1655319

Sometimes, hiring 2 heroes right off the bat and combining armies is the best way to rush and expand.

>>1655430
>exceeding a 2500 cost
Is this really true? Sure it can come near but I doubt it ever goes over 2500 gold.

>>1655442

Well, anyone with a ballista for starters, (although I admit, ballistas suck early game), and I know Bron starts, on average, with 6 Basilisks, which is 1950 right there, along with a bunch of knolls and serpent flies. And I believe Shakti can start with around 100ish troglodytes, which is 5,000 gold worth of troops.

Offhand though, they're the only two, but it's been ages since I played.

I love the things the random map generator comes up with sometimes.
>one player can't get out of his starting area without dimension door or fly
>one player can't get out of his starting area without going through some high level creatures
>monolith right next to your town takes you right next to another player's town
>island map where all the towns are connected by land or monoliths, so nobody bothers with boats
>map where all three parts of the Cloak of the Undead King are easy to pick up, and you're playing Necromancer
>map with very few obelisks, and they're all by your town, and the grail ends up nearby, too

>>1655608

>Have this 1v1 with a friend
>He's honestly better than I am, I used to win maybe 1 game in 4.
>He's playing the inferno to keep things "fair".
>Still a step ahead of me though.
>Then he finds the grail
>Well fuck me in the ass.
>Still, owe him the main hero showdown.
>Head over to artifact merchant on the way to the doomed battle.
>Oh shit, he's selling the skull helmet.
>That's the last part I need for the armor of the damned.
>Buy
>Assemble
>Head to battle.
>He outnumbers me maybe 2.5:1 in all tiers.
>His hero has better stats too.
>Slow, Weakness, curse, misfortune.
>No expert water for his guy.
>STOMP him.
>Rush over and grab grail city.
>He (good naturedly, he wasn't really mad) grumbles about the rabbit I pull out of my hat for years.

Favorite hero?

I love using this guy with any town except Necropolis.

>>1656083
I love playing smaller maps and I primarily use inferno for its low cost and fast efreeti buildup. My favourite would be Xarfax.

>>1655375
>cloak of the undead king
>fuck all you guys

>>1654489
cant
hold
all
the
feels!

To me this is prove that PC gaming is not some degenerative process, but simply enjoying art. How can something that induces warm nostalgic feelings and memories from long forgotten adventures be bad?

Shit, Ive been playing homam series for too long.

>>1656083
I'm bit of "that guy".
Tower: Solmyr
Necropolis: Isra
Stronghold: Gundula
Rampart: Ivor
Castle: Christian
Inferno:Xarfax
Dungeon: Deemer
Fortress; I hate that town.

I don't necessarily play with them but those are preferred ones.

>>1656507
I kinda like how you got these gamebreaking artifacts. You can always rage at how OP they are.

>>1655462
>ballistas suck early game
Ballistas are great early game - especially on anyone with Artillery as a starting skill (except maybe Torosar, whose physical stats are kinda ergh, and the Ballista guy from Fortress since he seldom advances in Attack)

Gurnisson is one of my favourite heroes on 200% scenarios for that reason.

And even if they don't do much damage early game, the worst thing they're going to do is wake up a blinded stack; aside from that they can be even used to tank damage while your units are repositioning.

>>1656083
Castle: Tyris (Tactics+faster Cavaliers are very comfy, and Mullich is banned in MP)
Rampart: Ivor (again: comfy start with elves)
Tower: Neela (they don't have any other good heroes except maybe Cyra for Diplo. Solmyr is a good scout at most. Find Orrin in the Tavern)
Inferno: Marius (lack anything better and I'm gonna demon farm anyway; would rather have any Barbarian hero over a Demoniac)
Stronghold: anyone, but Crag Hack in particular obviously; can't go wrong with Gurnisson, Krellion or Tyraxor either
Fortress: Tazar (but Beastmasters are awesome across the board; can't go wrong with Alkin and Bron)
Dungeon: Shakti (100+ troglodytes for a comfy start)
Necropolis: Galthran (better Agitated Ones can't hurt)
Conflux: Monere. Special mention: Luna (extreme early game potential, but not a main hero material) Also Ciele.

What's the best strategy for attacking towns? It's easy when you have more magic, fliers, and shooters than the other guy, but I sometimes end up with a bunch of walking creatures trying to get through the moat.

>>1654510

That pic gets me every time.

>>1657887
Not attacking towns is the best option - you can lure the AI hero out of the town with a juicy scout and steal the castle from him, giving you the defender's advantage instead. This is possible to do with most AI heroes outside ones that are specifically set to never leave the town.

>>1657887

If you army is walker heavy, consider getting Ballistics, so you can blow down the gate. If you have to make the assault though, assemble just outside of full range for their shooters, try to protect yourself as best you can with magic, wait for a breach, cast haste, and then pour in through the gap. It'll get messy.

>>1657887
Fortress heroes with their affinity towards Water Magic will certainly enjoy Expert Teleport for their Hydras.

Aside from that, you have to wait for the catapult to break the walls or assemble a flyer-heavy army.

Cyclops can spend a turn breaking walls instead of hitting people. AFAIK, it doesn't matter if you have 1 Cyclops or 9999, the chance of breaking a wall is the same -- which is great because Cyclops are extremely inconvenient to get.

>>1657887
>What's the best strategy for attacking towns?

CAST BERSERK

Is there a reason Royal Griffons are so shite?

>shit attack power
>die easily
>expensive and low growth rate

>>1658438
Stick them on a hero you use for scouting. Movement rate is based on the slowest monster.

>>1658438
They're good for a 3rd level unit. What more do you want? It's not like Castle has a shortage of strong units.

>>1658438
They have high speed and INFINITE RETALIATIONS. Cast stone skin or shield on them and fly them into a group of weaker creatures.

>>1658438

Please tell me this is a joke

>tied for 2nd for most HP of t3s (Behind Iron golems, tied with Cerbs)
>9 attack, making them tied for third with the Iron golems again.
>Slightly pricier than your average 3, but that gives you

>Fast
>Unlimited retaliations
>4.5 average damage, but in a wide bend, good for a crew that will probably get Expert Water.
>High defense.

Sure, the Cerbs are probably better, and I can see someone liking the grand elves better, (although I'm not a fan of super vulnerable shooters like that), but other than one definite and one maybe, none of the other thirds even come close.

>>1658461
>>1658446
Still pretty new to this.

>>1658443
>>1658456
Good stuff thanks

>>1658461
>Cerbs are probably better
They're probably the only unit improvement that gets a base stat lowered upon improving

Cerbs are good on paper but I find myself sacrificing them to make demons instead

Grand Elves might not be the best all-around but they certainly rock at letting you beat full Crypts and what not in week 1

>>1658539

Really? I find when I play inferno, the main striking arms of my army are the Cerbs and the Efreeti. You've got plenty of imps, magogs, and whatever you pick up with Diplo to throw into the demon machine, you don't need the cerbs.


Yeah, I admit, grand elves are definitely better for creeping than they are for big battles, but then again, so is a fast, hard hitting, no-retaliation walker.

why is this game so good

>>1658559
It depends
Also I play with Diplo banned most often
When you do get 900+ demons by month 2 or so you don't need the dogs either way even though they're good units

>>1658568
>>1658559
Even with Diplomacy disabled, Inferno can snowball Demons once they unlock pit lords.

In fact at high level their entire strategy depends on sacrificing Imps to create Demons or resurrect other downed troops via sacrifice spell.

Having a few empty stacks helps with that strategy, since demons are unupgraded when created.

(or you can just run around with efreeti and rain Armageddon on everything)

>>1658568


It's been a long time since I played multiplayer, but back in the day, my friends and I used to stick mostly to medium-smallish low resource maps. (Nowadays, it seems to all be about the deathmatch super high resources and huge maps to build up to a titanic clash).

It actually stunned us when we went out into the wider world and saw how highly regarded diplo was. We always thought it was decent, but not great, because you so rarely had enough dosh on hand to buy something big.

I mean, hell, I assume you want to get all 7 dwellings at least to basic and a capitol before you start building up a mage guild? Just getting sacrifice early isn't that easy if you've got one town and you're sniping with each other to control mines.

>>1658575

I've tried the heretic/efreet/armageddon game, but I've never been able to get it to work. I just don't have enough spellpower and knowledge to fully finish off a main army, and often, if I leave behind the rest of my force with a secondary hero while the main one takes some efreets, tosses the spell, and dashes, someone manages to engage the main army while it's being "held" by a level 3 idiot.

>>1658623
>sacrifice
You... don't make demons specifically out of the sacrifice spell, you use Pit Lords for resurrecting bodies.

Where's the synergy between sacrifice and diplo? It's not a top tier spell. I'm confused here.

>>1658629

See, what used to be considered the "lock" was

1) Get expert fire
2) Get sacrifice.
3) Go charging off with say, the Efreet sultans, hurt the enemy, get them killed.
4) Cast sacrifice, burn your imps to bring back the Efreet Sultans
5) use the pit lords to turn the now dead imps into Demons.


It was admittedly more something you did against a hostile army, not for creeping, but that was the "proper" way to win with the inferno back in the day.

I know most people usually only play custom scenarios, but is the Campaign worth playing for a new player?

>>1658663

ROE's campaign is pretty bad, but the other two are really good, just for the gameplay and even the story a little bit.

OTOH, if you're playing to prepare for multiplayer, I would advise against it; the campaigns encourage a couple of bad habits for multiplayer, and you'll often find yourself in situations where you have week 1 forces but a level 20 hero with an uber-artifact, which can lead to mis-estimations of what you're capable of taking in a more normal situations.

If you want to learn how to play, just go through the scenario list. A lot of the ones that came with HOMM3 are really quite good. I'd recommend Titan's winter especially, I always liked that one.

>>1654510
Is that WOG?

>>1656083
It was by pure accident that Clancy discovered he could communicate with Unicorns, but this unique ability has served him well...

>>1658623
>Nowadays, it seems to all be about the deathmatch super high resources and huge maps to build up to a titanic clash

Can you link to such a map? I'd like to give it a try.

Bumping this thread with images, because I'm bored.

HOMM3 is a grindan game

>>1658296
>Cyclops are extremely inconvenient to get.

fucking christ are they expensive

>>1661019

Well, it's more the 20 crystal to get the cave. Once you have the infrastructure, they're relatively reasonable.

>>1661028
the start up cost always has me prioritising ancient bohemoths.

>>1661065

True, true. There's nothing quite like getting the (basic) behemoth crag in week 1 and turning out a couple to beat up all those little stacks creeping, but OTOH, AB's are so much tougher than regular behemoths that you really don't want to risk too many of them.

Made some OC

>>1661152
2/2

What is your stance towards:
- HoMM 5
- HoMM 2

I saw on /v/ some hatred towards 5. Personally, I see nothing but expanded version of 3. The skill tree seems interesting and there is a lot of dependencies between skills.

As for 2, I like the way you can have 5 slots while each castle can produce 6 different units. What's more, it's the diverse in upgrading armies, though I don't know how this works in balance.

>>1661708
2 is very, very similar to 3, just with less stuff. Some people prefer the graphics style of 2 to 3.

5 is similar to 3 too, but has some nice tweaks and additions, like the skill trees. I don't like the battlefield (squares) and a lot of creatures look stupid. Pretty good game overall, but I prefer 3.

>>1661714
>I don't like the battlefield (squares)

In reality, these squares are octagons as well. at least function-wise.

>>1661708
II is okay, only stripped down version of III.

I hate V. I hate the art direction i hate cities, i hate how they just ignored IV. People say IV is the black sheep that is not HoMM game, for me it is V. For me there is no HoMM after IV.

>>1661708
HOMM2 is fun, but HOMM3 is better in every way.

5 could have been okay if they kept the ludicrous amount of skill and magic combinations that 3 had. The city landscapes were BEAUTIFUL though, I spent most of my time just circling around the castles, watching how it changed with each upgrade.

Also the art style is 5 sucked. Everyone is wearing neon dildos and 6-bladed flaming swords. All that bling bling looks okay on a single individual, like the Heroes, but looks out of place on units you are recruiting HUNDREDS of.

>>1661708
2 is great, but a bit simplistic compared to 3. 2 has my favorite art style. 5 has some great ideas (I particularly liked how initiative and speed were separated into two stats and the way combining different hero skills allowed you to specialize more extensively than in Heroes 3), but the town interface is a fucking mess and the art style is bland and uninteresting. I also didn't like the change from hexes to squares. 5 was so close to being fantastic, but I just can't get over some of its issues.

>>1656610
once the cloak is in the game (specifically in my hands), the game ended. I instantly buy first necro hero available and then the enemy has like a week to defeat me. but it is usually too late after few days

>>1664036
Yeah, that's one of the things I love about necropolis. The other is over-leveling Necromancy specialty heroes.

Any other town? You're bleeding strength with every fight you get into, only ever mitigating those losses. Every conflict need to be evaluated from a strategic perspective. Can I win without losses? How many resources is victory here worth? Can I afford to avoid this fight? It's tiring, honestly.

With good enough Necromancy you come out of battles with an army stronger than the one you entered with, more often than not.

A fight is no longer something requiring careful deliberation. It's instead reduced to a simple yes/no question - can I take them? Inevitably, the answer is yes.

>>1655608
>>monolith right next to your town takes you right next to another player's town


I hate this so fucking much.

>>1654257
I've seen this thumbnail several times now and each time I think it's a screenshot of a football vidya.

>>1665489
You just admited you are a casual.

What are you guys playing HOMMIII on?
Puppy Linux on USB Flash drive on 10-year-old laptop here.

so which was harder ? 3 or 6 ?

>>1665515
I hate monoliths in general. Does anyone know if there are templates for maps without monoliths?

>>1656083
>Castle
Loynis
>Rampart
Kyrre
>Tower
Neela though I try getting a nice hero from another faction to main if I play Tower
>Inferno
>Inferno
>Necropolis
Isra
>Dungeon
Jeddite
>Stronghold
Crag Hack
>Fortress
Tazar
>Conflux
Brissa

>>1659693
You can select templates when playing random maps. Some rich templates are Jebus Cross (4 players) and Frozen Dragons or Clash of Dragons (2 players)

>>1661154
I love it.

>>1668260
What's that map?

>>1668260
I could never get the linux version to work so I just run it in a XP VM.

>>1660989
Fucking Solmyr, or whatever the genie hero's name is, about to cast a zillion damage Chain Lightning.

Opinions on this guy? Clearly not Sandro or Half-Dead tier, but I liked his campaign and the Skeleton Archer Swarm every single mission.

And then they introduced Dark Flux.

>>1668625
I can't think of a single mission in 6 harder than any of the bullshit in Armageddon's blade. So 3.

>>1670070
What's so difficult about Armageddon's Blade? Well, maybe the start of Foolhardy Waywardness can go wrong, as well as Adrienne's last scenario if you neglect building up 8 heroes and/or make some mistakes while playing, but other than that it was easy. The Shadow of Death campaigns are another story though.

>>1670096
It's admittedly not too difficult once you understand the trick to each campaign and their missions, but the first time playing it was hell as I had a grand total of 2 strategies in my arsenal no matter what: A) rush ASAP the enemy's position B) Hole up in my castle and turtle while building a huge army. Tricks such as the berzerk spell and the like escaped my mind. Did not help that I started Heroes in general with it, as the edition with all campaigns is the one I first got, and the summary for each campaign seemed more interesting at the time than the other two.

>>1670115
I don't know, in my experience the scenarios were intimidating, but usually played surprisingly smoothly with very few retries needed. And my strategic repertoire was also limited to "expand as fast as possible" which I developed in the Restoration of Erathia campaigns.

Actually rushing often works very well in Armageddon's Blade, since the enemy often starts with a significant advantage which you need to nullify or die (most of Adrienne's and Mutare's campaigns come to mind) or the nature of the map forces you (Gelu's scenarios or all those maps with a time limit).

>>1668721
I wish random maps could turn off monoliths like you can turn off the underground. One-way monoliths with multiple exits are evil.

>>1671228
VCMI

How do I find some good custom scenarios?

Preferrably fuckhueg ones 'cause I like to get all autismal and micromanage a supply train of 20 heroes.

>>1674765
Last time I checked, Chinese and Russian websites were your best source since they seem to be the only ones that maintain a living mapmaker community while the west only plays online ladder.

Get "Unleashing the Bloodthirsty" for starters.

Does anyone have the link with the download for the HD mod for HoMMIII?
I can find the website but I don't understand shit of russian.

>>1674820
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56675299/HoMM3%20HD%20Latest.exe
https://sites.google.com/site/heroes3hd/files/HoMM3%20HD%20Latest.zip?attredirects=0&d=1

>>1674820
some other unofficial bugfix patch working for any version of homm3 that you can use HD on.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56675299/HoMM3%20HD%20Pack%20-%20SuperFix_Common%201.3.exe

>>1674791

Problem is I can't read vodkarunes or chinksigns

Also I'd rather not download some bullshit that has includes conflux or has 500 pages of fanfiction written into it

Is there no map pack floating around with a ton of scenarios?

Every fucking website I come across with maps for heroes 3 lists the same dozen or so maps that all look like complete ass.

I want to learn HoMM 3, but I'm a lazy fucker, and the in-game tutorial only references the manual. How learn video game

>>1675092
There was a massive pack I got from ed2k in about 2004. It looks like there are a few on the pirate bay now as well.

>>1674871
>>1674875
Thanks! I got it all running now.

>>1675723
Play around on the easiest difficulty setting, either random maps or readymade scenarios. I don't really know if there's any stock advice I can give you when people are starting out playing, it's just mostly a pretty steep (but fun) learning curve. /vr/ is pretty cool when it comes to helping people out, so if you've got questions about strategies or whatever, feel free to ask them.

>>1675723
Adding to what >>1675851 said, you could try the Restoration of Erathia campaigns - the first missions are locked to easy mode and offer you a ton of free units.

Play around with every town but if you want an easy time, try the Rampart town with Ivor - he starts with lots of Elves. Upgrade them early and learn how to wage battles. It's the most comfy way of playing a scenario I know about.

Aside from that, just play.

>>1675851
>>1675894

thanks anons

Bump.

I found out listening to the OST really makes me relax while doing stuff.

>>1658438
Pegasi die in even more droves. I think they're the worst 5th tier unit in the game

>>1680243
Pegasi are Level 4 units though. Of course they're very weak even compared to other Level 4 units as well.

>>1680472
Yeah, I mixed them up, sorry. Anyways, when I played Rampart, Pegasi were the first units to die. I actually preferred to get a different unit, even a decent tier 2, rather than waste money with those

>>1680685
They are really fast and pretty cheap. You can always use them as scouts and divide the stack to annoy enemy shooters.

>>1680243
>>1680685
Yeah. Only redeeming quality is their speed. Great units for scouts.

>>1654510

10/10

>>1679912

10/10

>>1654257

Attacking ? Not attacking ?
See :>>1654510

Then, you have to master Earth and Air magic (mass slow and mass haste).

If you're on a L or XL, don't focus on offensive cast. It will be useless.

You fuckin need money, so get your capitole in 7 or 8 days max (if you are able to)

>>1680968
next

The archers (well any unit attacking with projectile) focus on YOUR throwers (don't know the exact word, non english fag here).

So, let say you got 100 masters gremlins : put 93 somewhere then 1 gremlin, 1 gr, 1gr, 1gr, 1gr, 1gr, 1gr next to 'em.
Archers will focus on the weakest troops. Cast haste, and you'll close to the archers in no time, with few casualties.

No thrower in yo' team ? Same thing, except the archers will focus on your weakest unit

>>1681152
>YOUR throwers (don't know the exact word, non english fag here).

Shooters? Artillery? Ranged attackers?

>>1654257

just make sure you got your own archers m8
the upgraded elven archer, the silver plate ones, are one of the best units in the game (double attack) if I recall correctly

>>1681174

Archer, Master Gremlin, Titan, Monk, Elves, Magog, Cyclop, etc...

>>1681220
Yes, I understand, I was trying to help you find the right word. The in-game nomenclature refers to such units as "ranged attackers", aptly because they attack from a range. But you can also call them shooters because they shoot their targets. And in modern military jargon such a function would be reserved to a unit designated as artillery, though in HOMM3 the artillery is a different kind of unit entirely (one of the three war machines).

>>1681228

Thanks dude

Where do I go to play some multiplayer HoMM3?

>>1680968
>You fuckin need money, so get your capitole in 7 or 8 days max (if you are able to)
Don't do this, because on almost all maps you can get your units out and win the map with them and gain gold from the map. Going Capitol first forces you to stay confined in your small area and it takes 5 days for the Capitol to pay for itself (and all its prerequisites).

Only Capitol first if you have to. Better to go creatures + castle (if possible) first week.

Of course against AI you can do whatever, but Capitol first teaches bad habits and probably isn't feasible on maps like Barbarian Breakout for instance. You should learn how to expand in the early game and wage battles with just a handful of units (you don't need to recruit all units to fight the map, just the necessary ones), that's the way to gitting gud.

>>1655608
I won a XL with islands on week 1 the other day. The first Island I landed on had the first enemy and there was a two way door right outside his castle to the second enemy.

>>1656083
The dungeon guy with logistics, because Dungeon is the best town and logistics is goat.

>>1668260
Old ass laptop that runs so hot that I actually burn my mouse hand if I keep it next to the computer after playing for a bit.

>>1682260
You could always clean the vent, reapply thermal paste, underclock and lower the voltage.

So the heroes 3 hd launcher crashed my game and now I'm not getting any audio at all any more.

wat do?

>>1682749
Try removing the _HD3_.ini file in the _HD3_Data folder. If that doesn't help, then reinstalling the HD mod should. At least I think that's how I fixed the same problem when it happened to me.

>>1668260
>What are you guys playing HOMMIII on?

Eyefinity 6fire setup and a steering wheel.

>>1681646
This.

More units means you can expand faster, means you gain mines faster and battle random creatures more often, and that means you get your money back AND get a lot of XP fast.

I used to play the white knight and always get XP from crates and rush to Capitol, and then slowly build a huge armada. Then I once tried going for creatures first, financing them from crates and leaving the XP behind. Going this way means you'll have more casualties, but you'll gain mines and expand MUCH faster - after a few weeks worth of turns, you'll be at roughly in the same position money and amount of available creatures, but you'll have a way better economy, more artifacts, and more ground control.

>>1682865
>Diablo 2 box
>Steering Wheel
...I must now learn to drive a Paladin.

>>1682207
How strong are dungeons units compared to other towns?

>>1684402
Good. Manticores are bad, Troglodytes are meh, everything else is either good or great.

>>1684402
They are all better than average with few if any downsides (usually their downsides are just "they aren't the best unit of that tier"), but they are also all very expensive.

Troglodytes are average in stats but have decent speed.
Harpies are weak but pretty fast, and when upgraded, enemies don't retaliate. Their "return from whence they came from" gimmick can be both a gift and a problem depending on situation.
Beholders and Medusas don't excel at anything in particular but don't have many weaknesses either - aside from maybe having low amount of shots, so they need an ammo cart.
Minotaurs have always good morale, so they work good in mixed groups. Again, they are not exceptional, but okay.
Manticores are probably the least exceptional units they have, they are pretty weak. But Scorpticores can paralyze their enemies, which is cool. But they still die too fast.
Black Dragons are slower than gold ones, but are stronger and have full magic immunity. That means a strong warlock with a few Black dragons can rain Armageddon without losses - this is aided by the Mana Vortex building. Do note however that you also cannot resurrect Black Dragons.

Dungeon also has battle scolar academy (grants heroes some exp, means all your hired heroes start at level 2 minimum), mana vortex, portal of summoning, and ARTIFACT MERCHANT. This latter is very expensive but can be a life saver.

With VCMI now ruling the scene, how long 'till we finally get a graphics update for this game? I'd kill to see a remake of this using hand drawn/2d animated graphics.

>>1684421
Making decent quality hand drawn/2d animations for 100+ units is insane amount of work. So probably never.

>>1684415
Troglodytes are cute

>>1684501
They also can't be blinded.

>>1684402
>>1684415
Manticores, while weak physically, still have the merit of being the fastest unit you'll have for quite a while.

Especially if you start with Shakti, you will rely on a powerstack of Troglodytes, and you don't want them to die to pesky shooters, so you'll send split Manticores to deal with shooter stacks while Troggies do the job.

It's also notable that Harpies are potentially good for a week 1 upgrade (only if you start with Harpy dwelling and perhaps if there are other Harpy dwelings nearby). So are Troglodytes - Shakti's Trogs make a great early game unit, Shakti's Infernal Trogs even more so, especially on poor maps. (if a map is rich you probably want mantis+castle week 1, if the map is stupidly rich - dragons week 1)

Minotaurs (Minotaur Kings!) are extremely good units for their tier; they take a moment to get to the enemy's backline, so get that Haste and completely chop someone up. Their physical stats are outstanding.

Dungeon is a strong town and it's really good for breaking banks, but it does have a few shortcomings; it's extremely risky to play on 200% due to the requirement for the Evil Eye dwelling, and the town, as a whole, is expensive. It has a pretty good late game, though, and Overlords are some of the best hero types in the game (high chance to learn Earth Magic, good primary stat distribution), with individual heroes like Gunnar, Shakti, Ajit, Dace and Damacon being very good and strong. They even have pretty good magic heroes (Alamar and Jeddite will do well to teach your main hero Ressurect, Malekith with a Magic Arrow is a good week 1 hero, Deemer's also okay, and Warlocks get a lot of Spell Power while still having Mana Vortex benefits, so they're probably the best magicians next to Battle Mages and Elementalists).

Overall their units are pretty good and Dungeon as a secondary town is always useful due to dragons, Mana Vortex and (sporadically, unless you play really long games) Artifact Merchant.

>>1682872
>>1681646

True for a S or a M map. On a L / XL, quick Capitole is essential.

If you play in hard mode, it's not one week of creature that gonna help you.

>>1684402

In general, Stronghold and Fortress are known for bein the weakest.
True, but they're good on a S/M map. Plus, Ancient Behemoth is God-tier on open battlefield.

Castle is known for bein' best faction but it's fuckin expensive.

I like Castle and Dungeon (minotaurs dude). Inferno is fragile as fuck and the Rampart is slow as hell.

Necropolis may be the shittiest. Except for lvl 4 & 6 creatures, it's fuckin lame. Unless you're on a XL map, with expert necro etc etc...

Tower is pretty cool, with archery and stuff. But titan's cost is a pain in the ass. Golems are fuckin retarded but tower is still a good faction.

>>1684678
No, it's also true on a L / XL map. You can use your initial expansion to secure precious resources quicker, and give you an early eco boost. That boost can then be rolled into getting Capitol, so you end up with the same amount of funds and creatures (factoring your early losses in) as if you went for early capitol - except you can have more artifacts, ground control, mines, precious resources, and ground control. Hell you can probably afford a silo easier too, which can help you recuperate.

I was playing early Capitol for ever until I once tried early units, and it is WAY more effective. You just have to know when and how to transition early rush into eco buildup. But this is true in any strategy game...

(note in case you don't know: precious resources = sulphur, crystals, gems, mercury)

>>1684695
Stronghold and Fortress aren't the weakest at all.
Stronghold is an amazing rushdown town and has the best hero class in the game - the Barbarian (with lots of great heroes: Crag Hack, Gurnisson, Jabarkas, Tyraxor, Gretchin) while Battle Mages are very respectable (Dessa, Gundula). They are the guys to fuck you up early on, and their fast early expansion means their late game isn't bad at all.

Fortress has some amazing abilities on their guys and also some great Beastmasters (Tazar, Alkin, Wystan, Bron, Korbac). Beastmasters are a really good hero class too - high Defense means you never sustain any losses while creeping. Mighty Gorgons are some of the best units in the game, Dragon Flies make great scouts and anti-air, Wyverns you can get day 1 or 2 on most maps (again, strong creeping) plus you get lots of them in Dragon Fly Hives, Hydras are very strong both for creeping and fights.

Necropolis is the best town in the game and it only suffers if you can rush it down, but a good player can get a legion of skeletons in a matter of 2-3 weeks.

Tower has a few annoyances (shitty heroes for the most part, large cost of units, most units pretty shit without upgrades) but it has a very good late game. Nagas are a good unit.

I'd say the one town that's seen as generally weak is Inferno. It only works if you do the painstaking process of demon farming. Heroes aren't too special. Units from tiers 1-3 are kinda bad. So is Demon on his own without demon farming. Efreeti and Devils are awesome units, but kinda expensive. To be able to even utilise them well, you have to really calculate demon farming, and that kinda sucks. I'd argue Stronghold and Fortress to be top tiers with Inferno hitting rock bottom.

>>1684415
Portal of Summoning can be OP as fuck when you're lucky. If you find a Red Dragon dwelling near your town and don't flag any other dwellings you will be swimming in dragon pussy.

>>1684831
I think generally towns are divided like this:

>OP tier
Conflux
Necropolis (on big maps)

>Balanced tier
Castle
Rampart
Tower
Dungeon
Stronghold
Fortress

>Inferno tier
Inferno

Most of the factions are actually pretty balanced, each one having his own weak and strong points. There's just a couple of factions standing out.

Damn it /vr/ now I have to play Homm3 again.

I just finished a match with inferno. Gotta say when you have a lot of inferno towns castle gate becomes really handy if you have no town portal.

>>1685585
You say that like it's a bad thing.

>>1685564
Is conflux really that good?

I mean, buying artifacts aside,

>>1685742
4 phoenixes/week alone is broken as fuck.

>>1685742
>>1685749
Along with phoenixes, they also have absurd level 6 units (mini-hydras on steroids that are immune to magic, great design) and one of the most efficient level 1 units in the game (flies, is fast [cheap scout unit], upgrade is dirt cheap and gives them non-retal; Conflux is the only town which can consistently beat a Legion of Dwarves/Golems/Zombies week 1 due to Pixies alone). Their level 2 unit is a tad expensive, but you really can't hate having 25 HP on a level 2 unit that's also a shooter (post-upgrade, naturally). Their mid-tier units aren't great, but they work perfectly well as foot soldiers and with Conflux you're going to expand superfast with Phoenixes alone anyway, so you'll outgrow your opponent and rush him down fast.

For whatever reason, their magic heroes get a bonus primary stat point (in every other town, due to design oversight I suppose, all might heroes get 6 primary stat points, magic heroes get 5, then Elementalists have 6). Luna and Ciele are some of the few magic heroes that are absolutely top tier (along with Dessa and Gundula IMHO), and work really well as secondary heroes or even mains on shorter games. Other Conflux heroes are solid, with Monere and Erdamon standing out ever so slightly.

The ability to buy any school of magic from the Magic University is also great because Expert Earth Magic opens up the single best way to creep - Mass Slow with archer units is one of the most efficient ways to creep.

And even though it barely matters in games, their grail is top notch.

>>1685564
The reason I feel like people cite Stronghold and Fortress as bad is because of poor habits from single player and campaign and always playing the game the same way. Most people I know only ever rush Capitol, always pick magic heroes (which is pointless in Strong/Fort due to level 3 magic school, and Fortress' Witches are terribly shitty magic heroes too). A very narrow playstyle is the result.

>tfw Inferno and Fortress are my two favorite towns

>>1685983
Inferno ain't so bad if you're good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lm-y2b48Y3k
Note the week of the final battle and the number of Demons.

>>1685976
>Most people I know only ever rush Capitol
Is rushing Capitol something that's worse on Fortress and Stronghold than on other towns? Just curious.

>always pick magic heroes
I used to do this as well. Then I discovered Crag Hack and Tazar, and my life was changed.

Is there any good videos of multiplayer battles?

>>1686017
>Is rushing Capitol something that's worse on Fortress and Stronghold than on other towns? Just curious.
Not him but Stronghold has incredibly cheap units and you can pump out rocs and behemoths by day 3. It would be much more beneficial early game to get all the dwellings and clear out stacks in order to secure resource incomes.

>>1686021
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4IgOhZ4UIP7PUvEEpQKj3Q
maretti's stuff is essential, he's one of the best players of this game in the world.

>>1686017
Basically what >>1686038 said. When you can have a level 7 dwelling and castle in week 1 at your leisure, there's no reason to go Capitol early. On richer maps Fortress can often get hydras week 1, but on pretty much any map a Fortress player can easily afford wyverns around day 2, and wyverns are very strong for creeping (fast, block shooters and will be the beefiest unit on the battlefield in the first week, though obviously you don't want to lose any precious Wyverns).

Also, Stronghold is a great rusher town (high attack heroes, Rocs are fast and beefy, Behemoths are available much earlier than other level 7 units) so obviously you don't want to sleep through your advantage when it can

Also, rushing Capitol is generally bad on most towns with a few exceptions. A lot of towns have a great early game capacity that goes to waste with Capitol rushes - Rampart can do a lot with just Grand Elves and even more with Unicorns (obtainable week 1), Dungeon (esp. with Shakti) has a very strong early game too (just needs Manticores to block shooters) unless on 200% (where Evil Eye's dwelling requirement is really risky). You want to build up units first.

Is there a balance mod? Something that fixes inferno, conflux and necropolis.

>>1686202
There is a patch like that and I'll try to find it for you, but I'm afraid you'll be hardpressed to play it online with anyone because the game is so set in stone, most people just play on the base game since this is what they know and opinions on what is unbalanced and what isn't actually vary quite a lot.. It still has 5 solid, balanced factions, after all, and even the maligned Inferno can see the spotlight -- it's just less likely.

To fix imbalances, online players just apply rules. They mostly ban heroes starting with Logistics and Diplomacy, disallow Diplomancy and Necromancy, and do a bunch of other stuff. Some Russian leagues, instead of straight up banning Necro and Conflux, merely limit them (Necro isn't allowed to improve Vampires, build Skeleton Amplifier, or utilize Isra or Vidomina, AFAIK, and Conflux, I believe, can't upgrade Phoenixes, Air Elementals and Pixies).

>>1686227
http://www.celestialheavens.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8806&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 Okay, I think this is it.

>>1686227
Thanks Ill check it out. But I kinda expected some balance mod which is actually widely used and accepted by everyone. I guess VCMI could change that.

Is there any good xl map pack anywhere with only free for all maps?

All I'm finding is fucking shite

>>1684695

>Rampart
>slow

They got two slow units, the rest of them are all fucking sonic fast.

>>1656083
>Favorite hero

Grindan

>>1686889
You can't into Rampart without dorfs and treants, anon

>>1686943
Just leave them at home, get a different town, and double-build with something. If you still have any Elves left (an Archery), some Titans and Archmagi can fill the two spots instead.

Dwarves and dendroids are decent units but they're useless for creeping and slow you down horribly.

>>1686986
That's true. But dwarfs are sturdy as hell, and big stacks can be a nuisance if used properly

>>1685976
So, the biggest reason why Conflux op is because of Mind/Magic elementals, Phoenixes and Magic Academy which boosts already good mages they have, because while pixies are kinda annoying, I think they somewhat pay for their strengths with absolutely meh tier 2-4 units with low grown rate plus earth/magma elementals is the worst tier 5 unit in the game.

>>1687048
>absolutely meh tier 2-4 units with low grown rate plus earth/magma elementals is the worst tier 5 unit in the game.

Strongly disagreed as to the Storm Elementals since a 25 HP shooter is a very useful thing (even if a tad expensive) and they might be one of the best level 2 units in the game. Tier 3 and 4 are meh, Tier 5 is terrible -- but with Conflux's fast expansion you'll replace the useless stuff with Wyverns from Dragonfly Hives or Angels from Griffin Conservatories, or perhaps units you got from another town while double-building.

Conflux wins at expansion, so it eats you alive early or late. Playing against Conflux on a small map is a nightmare, Phoenixes just roast you.

>>1687161
Actually Ice Elementals are among the best of their tier as well. They outclass all other Level 3 shooters by a mile, and out of all Level 3 units only Iron Golems are close in terms of stats (golems have more attack and life, but much lower damage). Agreed about other Conflux units, though. Air/Storm Elementals are so good because they are pretty much Level 3 unit relegated to Level 2 for the purpose of creating Conflux.

Heya /vr/. I bought HoMM3 complete off of GOG and installed the HD patch. When I hire new heroes from the tavern, only the first 2 have the proper number of units - any others past the first 2 only have 1 unit. This doesn't happen if I play it off my disc copy of RoE. Anyone know why and how to fix it?

>>1690209
This is normal for the most current version of the game. If it wasn't in raw RoE - and I haven't played that in a while - then I suppose they patched that in for balance issues or something (on rich maps you can easily have 6 heroes week 1 to explore and chain units and still buy dwellings, imagine if each came with a full army).

The first two recruitable heroes every week will have full army, anymore heroes bought on the same week will only have 1 unit and that's perfectly normal.

>>1690231
Yeah, in Vanilla RoE you could do shenanigans like 100 master gremlins day 1. Just found out it was changed in version 1.4 - I never updated my game so I never learned about the change until now. Thanks!

What does Haste specialization do? Does it make Haste give more speed, or does it make Haste last longer?

>>1690295
I guess (without any solid basis) it does a little bit of both.

>>1690237
You can still do that AFAIK, Main hero usually starts with decent amount of Gremlins + usually 1 hero of same faction + buying them day 1 with upgrade.

>>1690305
Yeah, but you need some luck with that still. Wish Tower had a Gremlins specialty hero. Actually, wish Tower had any good heroes (alchemists would be great if they didn't always start with one useless skill)

>>1690309
Dunno I think the shit heros is what makes them balanced, I mean especially on rich maps Tower can get pretty strong especially since they have so many shooters.
It's fine though you can always just get other heros from Tavern and only thing you'll lose is +1 morale.
Also Solomyr is actually pretty strong on small maps maybe Medium too but that might be pushing it.

>>1690314
Solmyr is a good secondary and a good rusher but his creeping power is proportionate to the amount of wells on the map IMHO.
And yes Tower has a pretty strong late, but it takes a while to get there and Tower has other weaknesses early that hamper their growth (they can't break banks/utopias early on at all because of slow units, for instance.)
The one trash skill doesn't even bother me that much; Scholar can still mean an easy way to teach the main hero Implosion / Chain Lightning / Ressurection, or just a simple Magic Arrow / Slow / Haste at the beginning.
I'd love to like Tower, but on 200% I hesitate to pick them (and playing lower diff% against AI is kinda pointless if you know what you're doing) and against humans I'm always afraid I won't have the proper jumpstart.

>letting a top-tier General get to Page 9

I thought better of you, /vr/tual troopers.

>>1691382
I never really looked at this image, but >having Tower, Dungeon and Rampart units all in one army

>>1691587
I *think* there is also a single wraith there.

>>1691658
Yup, there is.

>>1691587
I still don't understand why that Champion wields the Soul Reaver

>>1684446
step it up

>>1692294
>31k power liches
Necropolis is balanced guise

>>1692294
Okay.

>>1692334
1-hit-kill 1400 Azure dragons.

>>1692334
how? and i'm talking about the titans and bronze dragons'

did you just play for 29340239 years even though you won?

Does anybody know this?

>>1692645
Wandering monster stacks have 2 important parameters: their willingness to join a hero and "quantity does not grow".

As long as the wandering stack is not Savage (who never join), and quantity is set to grow, they have a chance of joining you for greater glory. Higher chance if you already have the same type of units in your army, and even higher if you have diplomacy.

Monster stacks cap at 4000 when growing naturally. So I had 1 stack of Titans (4000) and 4 stack of Rust Dragons (16000) joining me.

What I'd like to see is the damage figure on what happens if those 16k rust dragons decide to hit a single Efreet Sultan.

>>1692294
>negative skeleton warriors
wat

>>1692659
Ah right, couldnt imagine how you'd get them otherwise. Thanks!

Also, lately ive been playing homm3 again, with Wog for the first time

Any tips/recommendations for settings, maps, whatever, to have the most fun games?

>>1692665
Some sort of 16-bit signed integer (−32,768 to 32,767) that rolled over from ~32k to ~(-32k).
Weirdly, it caused graphical glitches and the stack would refuse to move more than one hex in battle.

>>1692659
oh, one more question

How do you play a game for that long without not already having won (or lost)?
I'd like to have such lengthy games but i always win after a few months at most, or lose very early on due to stupid mistakes

>>1692686
I think you can get way more than 32k units though.

I know that primary skills go up till 127 (but are displayed only up to 99) and then overflow to -127 (and then they are considered 0 until they again reach a positive number).

Money can overflow as well but I'm not sure about the exact value. I think it was 4 billion. You can only reach that high with multiple Rampart treasuries.

>>1692694
Not all maps are about destroying every enemy. Some have a specific goal like collect x resources or defeat y monster. And, over 15 years of mapmaking, people reached the point where they can build absolutely ludicrous maps, built so extremely tightly that every single cell has a dual purpose (such as a hidden path you can only go to if you access an unpassable - but accessible - map object).

And of course you can still play to just explore every corner of the map even after you finished destroying the enemies.

>>1692694

play on huge maps with monster strength turned up

>>1692721
would you have links to such maps?

>>1692721
You can, but it seems moving a stack larger than ~32k is glitched. As long as you don't touch it, you can keep adding to it.

>>1692302
Well, it isn't balanced, but even without Cloak of the Undead King.
That artifact puts the "over" into "kill".

>>1654257

anything that isn't ranged or flies (or casts spells), or has some really good special ability like no-retaliation is kind of trash in homm

>>1654510

to this day whenever something is said to be a few or several i assume it's 1-4 and 5-9

>>1693247
>to this day whenever something is said to be a few or several i assume it's 1-4 and 5-9

You aren't the only one.

>>1692294
I get that the point of the picture is to show off just how broken Necropolis is but
>Glyph of Gallantry on a Necromancer
>Using all four of the orbs

>>1692302
Necropolis is balanced, Skeletons before at least a month or so are weak, Wraiths are shit, zombies are worst level 3, Vamps need a huge amount before they become relevant but they are strong. Liches are pretty expensive and don't have that great of a growth rate strong as well. Dread knights best level 6 in game and Skelly Dragons are probably the worst level 7 in the game.

I think most people that consider Necro to be OP just play vs the AI and do the usual messing around for years then come at the AI with stacks of skeletons and win. Meanwhile vs human it's really difficult to pull off unless you're playing an XL map as the other guy will most likely find you and just destroy you in the first month.

>>1684421

Check out The Succesion Wars, modding heroes 3 in the art style of heroes 2. Looks beautiful

>>1693772
>Confirmed for never having played online

>>1656083
every time.

Which tower heroes are good?

>>1694228
They're almost all bad to be honest. Neela has a good specialty, but also starts with scholar, other than Solmyr (good specialty) and Cyra (ok specialty and great starting skills. I also like Theodorus but he's objectively very mediocre.

>>1693869
>Confirmed for playing vs retards.

>>1693772
>Skeletons before at least a month or so are weak
See >>1693869. A good player will have harvested his critical mass of skeletons on a large map (and no one picks necro on small maps anyway; their weakness when you will meet in week 2 is acknowledged) by week 3-4. How? Necromancy Amplifier + a few Necro heroes + Vampire Lords + chaining to maximize your battles = win. Especially with Strong monsters on where a bunch of Vampire Lords with a bit of patience can easily take on Throngs of Troglodytes or other junk that usually shows up on Strong Monsters randoms.
> Wraiths are shit, zombies are worst level 3
Level 2, to be precise. And sure, but you don't care for them and leave them in town, because...
>Vamps need a huge amount before they become relevant but they are strong
...Vampire Lords can move around the map in stacks of 7-10 and completely decimate any living creature on the map making for the easiest creeping ever.
>Liches are pretty expensive
Okay. Sure. You don't rely on them to win, though, and once you do buy them, they remain a solid shooting unit.
>Skelly Dragons are probably the worst level 7 in the game.
True, but oh well, you can't have it all, and they're still 150 HP fliers that aren't even particularly expensive. Even in spite of having bad-to-mediocre units from three tiers, they still somehow manage to rule.

>>1696067
Sorry man, but when pretty much every serious league (Tournament of Honor, the Russian ones or whatever else is there) bans or limits Necro (AFAIK, if not outright banned, the current rules do not allow you to upgrade Vampires or build the Necromancy Amplifier or utilise Isra or Vidomina for creeping), you can't just claim something like that.

>>1694228
Tower heroes have this problem where Alchemists get a pretty stupid selection of stats (they will advance very evenly, so your main hero will be like 5/5/5/5 once he levels up, which can be a boon, but is usually unwanted) and Wizards prioritize Knowledge over Spell Power.

Still, Neela is probably the best Tower hero and is even a contender for one of the better heroes in the game because Armorer specialty is great and also elevates Tazar and Mephala to be the top tier. Scholar is a waste on main, but it still can make your life easier by perhaps helping your main hero learn Chain Lightning / Ressurection / Implosion, and in the very early game hiring a magic hero with Slow or Haste or Magic Arrow just to teach his spell to Neela can be very beneficial. Anyway, once Neela levels up, it's really hard to hurt her troops, which is especially useful for creeping with Nagas.

Torosar's Ballista can potentially be useful but Alchemists have low ATK so he will pale in comparison with Gurnisson or Pyre. Still, he starts with Tactics, Mysticism can have some use early game, and the Ballista is always useful, you can fool the AI to hit it instead of your troops.

Solmyr is horribly overrated as a main hero by single players. His spell specialty pretty much only means that he gets Chain Lightning; it doesn't get that much stronger as he levels up, compared to any other mage, and he'd probably fall off completely compared to a Sorcery specialist like Malekith. He makes for a great scout, though, but his early game is rather reliant on wells (either that, or returning to town a lot).

Cyra has Haste specialty (and Tower has slow armies, so that works) but more importantly she starts with Diplomacy and it's a horrendously broken skill. It's extremely OP.

Aine is a decent honorable mention only because she gets +350 gold per turn (useful on 200% difficulty) and has Wisdom and Scholar which can be useful on a secondary for teaching your main hero.

>>1696195
So basically I recommend you to either start with Neela and groom her to become your main (Armorer specialty more than makes up for Alchemist shortcomings) or start with an early-game oriented magic hero (Solmyr or Aine) and pray to god you get a good might hero in the tavern. The best hero for Tower is probably Orrin (Knights have mediocre stat distribution but Orrin's Archery specialty is awesome for Tower for obvious reasons), but any Barbarian will do well (especially Jabarkas who starts with Archery, and Barbarians have great stat growth), also Overlord (great chance to get Earth Magic and solid heroes including Dace, Shakti, Damacon and Gunnar) and Beastmaster (Tazar, Alkin, Wystan).

Hotkeys:

arrows, numpad 2-4-6-8: move hero up-down-left-right
numpad 1,3,7,9: move hero 45-135-225-315 degs

space: activate the object you are standing on. No movement consumed or needed

e: end turn
enter: tick button
d: dig in map, defend in battle
w: wait in battle
i: map info
h: next hero
m: resume hero movement on next day
tab: use the chat, or enter cheats if you are a nigger

You can schedule keys, for example if you build in a town and press enter then e while the building animation is going, then after it's done you'll exit the town and end your turn.

Just stopping by to say that anyone who hates Fortress is a fag.

I recently finished HoMM 3 (Complete, also played chronicles as well)

Is Heroes IV worth it? been hearing a lot of negative stuff about it

>>1656524
>Fortress; I hate that town.

Say that to my face not online and see what happens.

>>1696575
I don't recall Mighty gorgons having those skills (outside death stare)

>>1696565
It's very different than the rest of the series. You should try it if you're curious, I know some people like it.
IMO It has some good aspects, but overall it's a disaster.

>>1696565
>>1696587
My main gripe is that your hero is either a god of war or a giant target, purely dependent on the time elapsed. They just die every fucking combat that has more than a moderate amount of units.

>>1696714
Yeah, heroes in combat suck. Most builds can be thrown out the window altogether because any random shooter or spell one-shots them for most of the game unless you're playing campaign.
I think combat was the worst thing about it. No grid. Random clutter on half of the screen. No way of telling where you can pass. Units look and move retarded.
In 4 I liked the skill and spell system, caravans, the fact that stuff like windmills worked automatically. Some little touches like the terrain changing on the city screen. Music was very nice too.
Probably in the minority here, but I liked that there were no upgrades. It just felt cleaner that way, 99% of upgrades in 3 are just +attack +defense +speed +shiny parts on the model anyway. You basically never use unupgraded units after the first few weeks outside of few cases.

God i love Fortress, such fun fights. Dispell and weakness with flies, often free kills by Gorgons, no-retaliation 360 hydras, poison from wyverns, a shooter, basilisk' stoning. Glorious castle defense battles. My favorite hero is Andra, just love a shitton of mana and that look of an old black witch. Castle looks and sounds good too.

Is there a place I can read up on strategies and the like
I feel like I have a decent grasp of the basics but I still can't come close to pulling off some of the crazy things I see others do

>>1696828
Just google, there's plenty of places. You can learn all by yourself with time tho.

>>1696806
>Music was very nice too
Only a few of 'em. A lot was just ear rape.
Absolutely loved the campaign, though. And how almost all artifacts had a small story to them when you picked them up.
e.g.,
>You pick up an artifact
>In HoMM 3, then most of the times it just says "you found an artifact"
>In HoMM 4, you get a small story about the artifact you picked up.

>>1696915
>And how almost all artifacts had a small story to them when you picked them up
3 did have that, but I believe HD disabled it.

>>1696929
Huh, I did not know that.

>>1696828
You might be looking for Age of Heroes site and Heroes Community forum.

>>1696929
In h3 the story would be very short and simple. H4 has much more interesting messages.

>>1696827
Damn shame they're the weakest.

>>1697030
Lol no. Not in a million years.
They excel at poor maps because all they really need is wood and some sulfur later on (and not even that much), they're a much better choice on 200% and sometimes even 160% than Tower or Dungeon for sure.
Beastmasters are one of the best hero classes in the game period. Tazar might even be the best hero in the entire game, and Alkin, Korbac, Drakon and Wystan are all very solid.
Sure, Witches are shit, but who cares about magic heroes anyway?
You get your Wyverns day 1 or 2 (or at least week 1 if playing on Impossible) and proceed to shit on all the neutral monsters because early level 6 flying unit on heroes that start with 4 Defense so you don't lose anything.
Once you get Hydras then the map is yours. Three Hydras (plus maybe the Cure spell) on a decent Beastmaster can alone clear Dragon Fly Hives and smaller Griffin Conservatories with some micro, and they're cheap.
Dragon Flies make for amazing scout units.
All of their units have useful specialties, especially Mighty Gorgons. Specialty reliance kinda makes them shat on by Necropolis, but Necropolis shits on everyone if armies are developed and fully upgraded anyway.

Really the weakest town should be considered Inferno if anything, but they're not even the weakest, they're just very situational and tactical in use, plus Demon farming requires effort; it's easier to win with Castle, Rampart or Stronghold.

>>1696915
It's obvious to me that 3DO had a good team of writers since Chronicles. Vanilla HoMM3's campaigns had almost non-existent fluff, while Chronicles and IV were filled to the brim. And to be honest, I loved the shit out of the writing, it was really good at drawing you inside the game's world

>>1697119
>Really the weakest town should be considered Inferno if anything, but they're not even the weakest, they're just very situational and tactical in use, plus Demon farming requires effort; it's easier to win with Castle, Rampart or Stronghold.
So they're the weakest

>>1698116
Yeah, but in the sense that they still win games. They're not completely unviable.

>>1698123
WotG fixes stuff as well

>>1660989
holy shit, that's awesome.

>>1661708
HoMM 5 could have be good without the Warcraft artstyle and those abysmal city screen.

>>1698116
God, what an annoying way to differentiate towns. Can't you just enjoy the game, you schmuck?

>>1698150
I'm sorry did I slander your townfu or something

>>1698138
>abysmal city screen
That was the best part of the game dude, what the hell is wrong with ya?

>>1698153
No, but the "weakest/strongest town" debate is so old, and it didn't mater back then, it doesn't matter now. It's pointless.

Oh, and i'll kill you for hurting my townfu, bitch.

>>1698125
And introduces its own flavor of broken.
I don't like WoG but it's a cool mod, I just don't like it when people claim it's HoMM3 Done Right or something.

>>1698165
How does it not matter that the towns are different and that some towns are better than others?

>>1698248
Of course they are, but going "X is weakest because it's the weakest" doesn't really say a lot

I've been to discussions where Tower was considered top tier because muh Solmyr, and Conflux was weakest because apparently Earth Elementals are their most important unit

>>1698248
>some towns are better than others
In some situations. Some are more straightforward, simple to play. It's wrong to call some town weak or strong because most of things that influence a game is "outside" the towns - map, hero, artifacts, neutrals, magic, player's decisions. You know, lots of stuff, lots of situations, lots of outcomes. That's why Heroes are popular.

>>1696806
I'm always too poor to buy even unupgraded units.
How can you afford upgrades? :(

>>1698341
In HOMM3?
Buy only the units you need (so fuck those Walking Dead, Dwarves and Golems, you've got a bigger fish to fry; a couple of Nagas or Wyverns can do a lot of fights, and level 7 units can win fights alone). Get a reasonable amount of dwellings (even all of them) before you focus on economy. Then upgrade the important/cheap dwellings - for example, when Tower, Mater Gremlins and Master Genies are supercheap as an upgrade and they yield a very useful benefit compared to their "flat" versions, so get those.

>>1697119
All of that is nice and all but the lack of any worthwhile magic, and their horrid ability at sieges makes them pointless unless all you want to do is just sit around and defend since that's the only thing they excel at.
Let's not forget that Tazar is one of the banned heros AFAIK.

Inferno are weak true and most of their units are expensive and fragile but at least they can make up with some decent magic and demon farming.

>>1698485
>since that's the only thing they excel at
>banned heros
Go back to reading wikis and/or playing ladder, boy.

>>1698485
>All of that is nice and all but
Yeah, nice argument.

>>1698485
Expert Water Magic + Teleport for Hydras and Gorgons. So much for your "lack of worthwile magic" AND "weak at sieges" arguments. As for sieges, they also almost always get Earthquake in their Level 3 Mage Guild.

>>1698485
>any worthwhile magic
The worthwhile magic in this game is Expert Slow, Expert Haste, and then stuff like Blind, Expert Shield, Expert Bless etc. and some other stuff - note these are all level 1-2 spells, but they are the ones winning you games. That's all easily achievable even by a Fortress mage guild. Town Portal, Resurrection, Dimension Door and Fly, you can find in other towns you conquer (or Pandora Boxes, or Tomes of X Magic), and finding those spells is a lottery anyway, even for "high magic" towns (I've just had a chill compstomp 200% game where I've conquered two Dungeons and one Tower and all of them had Fire Shield and Counterstrike at level 4, for crying out loud)
Beastmasters also have a pretty good chance at getting Expert Magic AND some good skills to roll with it (Offense, Logistics, Armorer) instead of being stuck with shit like Mysticism.
>and their horrid ability at sieges
Sieges don't happen online anyway, and against the AI, you should be just fine with teleporting Hydras and Gorgons and flying Wyverns and Flies in.
>unless all you want to do is just sit around and defend since that's the only thing they excel at

That... doesn't make any sense. "They have high Defense, so they're only good at turtling?" Nigga, high Defense, Tazar or not, means I can creep at my leisure and lose less units than someone who has no physical stats at all. And then, in the endfight, I won't crumple to a Crag Hack.

Tazar isn't even banned, because he is not born with Logistics, Diplomacy or Necromancy. Nor does he have the Sir Mullich passive. Mephala or Neela aren't banned either, BTW.

>>1698649
I was pretty sure he was banned same for Crag hack anyway haven't played online in ages so hazy on rules.

I don't usually take any of them into account due to how the opponent will most likely have the exact same spells and can just much counter you, which is why all I am doing is just judging them based on the fact their guild stops at 3.

Their units have high defense and terrible attack making them crap in sieges, might gorgons are scary but unless you got teleport they're just sitting there, lizards are one of the worst shooters in the game hydras aren't something to brag about either.

This is pretty much reason why I think they're weak in sieges.

Don't get me wrong they have their own advanatges as well e.g you can get hydras or wyvrens easily in the first few days or if you're 200% easily in first week which helps you clear almost all of the camps but I just don't see their strengths in taking over towns.

I figured this would be the best thread to post ths in.

>GOG Summer Sale
>HOMM pack
>I only have III

Are 1, 2, 4, and 5 worth it?

>>1698696
2 is fun but 3 adds so much more, haven't played 1 4 is horrid and 5 is just meh.

Depending on the price it could be worth for just 2.

>>1698686
>I don't usually take any of them into account due to how the opponent will most likely have the exact same spells and can just much counter you, which is why all I am doing is just judging them based on the fact their guild stops at 3.
If all you're going to do is counter each other with Haste, Slow, Dispel, Cure, Curse, Bless, whatever else, then you don't need spells past level 3, now do you?

Hell, I haven't seen a highly-developed mage guild online in a long while. Most of the time someone is lucky and gets a scroll of Ressurection or somewhere.

>Their units have high defense and terrible attack making them crap in sieges
On the other hand - once you get them past the walls

Anyway sieges aren't the be-all and end-all. You can always starve out your opponent and deny him everything on the map while he starves to death in his town, and AFAIK townsitting is even forbidden. Also, Expert Ballistics.

And speaking of sieges, Fortress is great at defending in them because of the 2-hex moat.

>Don't get me wrong they have their own advanatges as well
Fortress wins a lot of games, they're strong, just not in the blatant way that, say, Castle is.

>>1698696
HoMM2 is a very fun game with a beautiful artstyle and the most fun campaign IMHO (especially the Peasant Uprising in Archibald's campaign is a joy). It also plays quite differently from HOMM3 in many respects (heroes level up slower, magic heroes are much stronger, towns have way more binary strengths [e.g. don't ever play Knight if you're going for late game])

You don't need to play HoMM1. The storyline of the campaign is explained in the intro of HoMM2's campaign, and the game itself plays like HoMM2, just without the two bonus factions, upgrades and a ton of other convenient stuff. The game has a very fun, "fairy-tale" look, but in hindsight it might look very goofy to you. Skip HOMM1, nothing wrong with that -- HOMM2 completely expanded on it in every way, and is a straight-up sequel.

HOMM4 is a fun game in the series which I think got too much flak. Its sales contributed to 3DO/NWC's downfall and it had some dubious concepts, but it also has some pretty cool campaigns. The main problem with this game is that it's ugly. It does have fans, though. Take a risk with that one.

HOMM5 tries to be HOMM3 but IMHO falls short. It certainly looks pretty, but I couldn't get into it.

tl;dr: Definitely try 2.

Anoby tried the new town? Horn of Abyss mod is pretty damm awesome.

I want to play the campaign again but I'm afraid of that last cheap ass Crag Hack level. How in the hell are you supposed to beat that? Any tips for leveling throughout Crag Hack's campaign to prepare for it?

>>1698843

>Its sales contributed to 3DO/NWC's downfall

Not entirely true...

3DO was already going bankrupt at the time of HMM4. It was due to bad management or something like that. They tried to save the company by concentrating on Legends of Might and Magic (an FPS), so H4 and Might and Magic 9 developers had to work on it parallel to Heroes and MM.

However, LoMM, which was supposed to save them, flopped and H4 and MM9 were released too early (too short deadlines, not enough devs and testing...). Consequentially, 3DO went bankrupt together with NWC (the real developers, 3DO was concentrated on the finances).

Bottom line: the bankruptcy definitely wasn't H4's fault.

>>1699236
Ah. Thanks.
I also remember Heroes Chronicles as being a last-ditch effort to milk some cash from HOMM3.

>>1699156
Is it out and translated?

>>1699307
Yes, the translation was released back in January.

>>1661158
You got this pic in digital form or higher quality?
It is great.

>>1699478
I only got that picture.
I found it in an old thread at heroescommunity.com

>>1692659
Well, test it in map editor then?

bump

>>1655358
What, someone stole it and put a copy of Theme Hospital inside it just to fuck with him? Who would do that?

>>1703627
The jews.

dem black dragons tho

God damn it /vr/, why does this general die so easily?

>>1706489
Nobody actually plays the game.

>>1707415
but thats not true. I play it pretty often.

How do you play HOMM III? Online multiplayer? Against the AI? What settings/personal restrictions? Mods/maps?

>>1699173
pls respond. It's coming soon and I'm scared, this made me ragequit last time I tried. It's the one where the enemy towns are locked out of your reach and they have one way teleports right up into your shit

>>1708310
i recently installed it for the sake of nostalgia because i used to see it over a decade ago at a friend's house and whenever he's coming over we're playing random maps. 's fun even though i have basically zero experience with this game.

>>1707415
That is so not true
Lot of people that i know play it. It is interesting phenomenon here in the slavlands, HoMM III is something every person knows about, you are not a true slav if you don't play HoMM. Its like cultural thing. Even I often go at my friends workplace, he works as security in abandoned factory, and we play it to death. Its one of those games you never delete from your drive.

>>1708310
I did all of those things, hotseat is by far most fun one especially when you cant be bothered to go away if you are playing against someone during their turn. Somehow it always turns into cheesy explanation of your diabolic plans against your totally "unsuspecting" enemy.

My favourite map is Viking We Shall Go. Never tried any of the mods.

>>1708442
I played shitload of WoG, but in the end I went back to the vanilla. Well not vanilla, I use HDmod which is great. some neat little things, like distribution of troops between heroes (oneclick button to transfer whole stack and when you transfer last stack, one unit will automatically remain in source hero, saves time)

And here in czechnologystan we play it a lot. Its one of the few games I play with waifu. But she likes homam II more because of that cartooney look.

>>1709635
That's sweet. I wish one day I'll have a wife who'll play HoMM with me.

>>1709705
Hah! You won't.

>>1709705
This was pure coincidence as she plazed vidza with her sister, games like lion king and legend of kyrandia. And Homam II.. The seed was put in the ground long before I knew she existed. During that time I mzself was addicted to Homam III.

and to keep discussion on the topic
>>1698686
check this article http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes3/creaturesfortress.shtml

Lizard warriors are now prettz fucking great. having same health as tier 3 elves. Sure they shot just once, but they pack a punch and sustain damage. Do not underestimate units that you considered always as worth fuck all.

I play this game since I think 1999 and am still finding new aspects (like, visiting off-castle stables upgrades cavaliers)

>>1708442
>>1709635
I never thought I would ever want to move to eastern europe, but if this is true, it's a valid reason to.

Anyway, is Heroes Chronicles fun?

Anyone up for some online Heroes action one of these days? I know we will never finish it but it will be fun.
We could set it up trough Gameranger.

>>1710469
Chronicles are pretty worthwhile, general story behind whole saga is entertaining and consistent (at least as consistent as story involving main character fighting for nearly every available nation could be). Difficulty levels are pretty balanced, from babby tier for those who simply want to know the plot behind The Reckoning of Enroth, to actual challenges. Also missions are usually more complex than generic resource collecting - castle building. Give it a chance (in chronological order!) if you like both the game mechanics and M&M lore.

>>1668260
How do I get my HOMM3 to look that good?

>>1712205
What?
There is no graphical enhancement in that picture. If you're talking about how well the scenery has been placed, that's part of the (custom) scenario.

Though if you want HOMM to look better, you might want to check into the HD mod.

>26 days, 9 hours

I'm proud of you, /vr/.

>>1712205
This Anon

>>1712229

is correct. I didn't do anything but install mods and expansion packs. Hopefully, OP will add links and such to his next HOMM3 general (hint, hint).

>>1696929
What the fuck. Why would they do that? I hate it when autists remove the fun flavor stuff for no goddamn reason.

>>1712752
I believe the main reason is because most people who play HD are fairly seasoned players who are familiar with most artifacts, so keeping the stories would be redundant.

>>1712946

I agree with your theory, might&magicbro. I don't know how the Zeldafans put up with all of that needless narration and tutorial stuff after all these years.

>>1712946
Well, the difference here is that including the story only makes the screen that pops up when you pick up the artifact larger, it doesn't interfere with anything or take up any extra time. I usually skip reading them too because I've seen them so many times, but it's just a neat little addition that gives the game some extra soul, don't see what advantage there would be in modders being nofunallowed about it.

>>1712976
Well, the difference here is that including the story only makes the screen that pops up when you pick up the artifact larger, it doesn't interfere with anything or take up any extra time. I usually skip reading them too because I've seen them so many times, but it's just a neat little addition that gives the game some extra soul, don't see what advantage there would be in modders being nofunallowed about it.

>>1713010
It would be much more interesting if someone wrote out a bigger lore for artifacts, creatures and towns. Modding that in would be cool.
But as it is right now reading the same small notes everytime isnt that much interesting.
VCMI could add so many possibilities for the game but only if the community gets the work done.

I'm getting HoMM3 from GoG. Do you guys recommend getting any of the others or is 3 generally superior?

>>1713942
They're all worth getting in a way. 1 is more of a historical curiosity, 2's very similar to 3 but not quite as complex and different in a few ways but still worth playing, 3's fantastic, 4 is extremely polarizing but you may like it so you may as well get it when it's cheap, and 5 is basically 3 if it had an uglier art style and dumber campaigns. It's pretty good otherwise though not as good as 3.

>>1713016
>allowing fans to create their own lore
Please don't.

>>1714675
2 is actually way more similar to 1 given the fact that four of the towns are a complete, direct lift from HOMM1. These four towns also have the same heroes as in HoMM1 (with certain exceptions; fan-favorite Sandro starts out HoMM1 as a Warlock and becomes a Necromancer in HoMM2's expansion pack) Certain HoMM3 concepts are born in HoMM2 (like the secondary skills) but HoMM2 is really more of a direct upgrade of HoMM1. So if you can only buy either one of the two, get HoMM2; the HoMM1 campaign is pretty basic and its result is told you in the intro for HoMM2.

Whats your favourite scenario map /vr/?

>>1718006
Warlords
Played it to death with my brother on LAN
I miss those times ;_;

Know it's not retro, but is Heroes VI worth looking into? I never hear it discussed anywhere.

>>1718058

easily the worst heroes game of them all

>>1718058
>I never hear it discussed anywhere.
There's a reason for that.

>>1718058
It's simplified V with similar exaggerated art style. Nothing terribly wrong with it, but it's completely unnecessary.

R.I.P

>>1718058
I got it just because it came in a bundle with the other five games.What I played was atrocious.

>always online Uplay
>artstyle is like in V except worse and edgier
>no bright colors and everything is way too dark and grey, feels like the game takes place in a basement
>towns are nothing exceptional and have no life to them or attitude
>music is bland
>battles are overtly focused on the creatures' special abilities
>learning how to develop a hero takes a while and feels like a chore
>campaign is simply shit

>>1722865
this picture implies capitol rush is viable when it's one of the first habits you have to knock off when transitioning from single to multiplayer

>>1723989
I only play single player on Hard and as I've started to suck less I've found building a solid army and just taking all the loot I can find by force to be almost always a better solution.

>>1710529
Speaking of which, I'm down as fuck, beating up the AI is getting old.

Blown the fuck out.

New version of HotA is out. Haven't tried it yet but pretty hype.

>>1654257

I could never get into this because of the god-awful CG character models. Loved the first two, though. Still do.

Is it anywhere near as good?

>>1725187

In terms of gameplay I'd say it's much much better than the first 2. Same gameplay at the core, but more stuff and various little improvements.

>>1724179
>>31 days, 5 hours in

:)

>>1718006
That reminds me of arcade cab Gauntlet, and HoMM at the same time.

Favourite troops?

For me I love arch-devils, not the strongest level 7 but used right they are devastating. No retaliation is pretty damn strong.

Second is the lowly troglodyte, I just always get a chuckle seeing them plod along the battlefield. I want a pet trog.

How do I get into this game?
Everyone always seems so stoked about it, and I want to understand what makes it fun, but when I play it I just don't get it?

Someone sell me on this game.

>>1725683
Local multiplayer.

>>1725625
>arch-devils
Oh man, last time I was playing a relaxing compstomp with a friend

But yeah, Efreeti and Devils are some of my favourite units; they alone can redeem Inferno's weaknesses. Efreeti are just so good to creep with early on, and Devils are super fun and tactical (Devils + lotsa spell points + forcefield = free utopia).

Aside from that I kinda like Battle Dorfs (sadly they're not a priority when I want to win with Rampart, but they look really cool and a sizable stack of those, accumulated over a few Ramparts, can be nice in fights), Mighty Gorgons and Minotaur Kings.

>>1725683
Once you learn the rules it gets pretty addictive (it has that "just one more turn" charm to it), various ways you can advance your heroes and play the game, and as was pointed out above, it's a pretty fun game for some socializing, especially in Eastern Yurop where everyone knows how to play it and everyone loves squatting around the computer waiting for their turn.

>>1725719
>Oh man, last time I was playing a relaxing compstomp with a friend
...I ended up soloing a stack of 130 dendroids with 3 Devils and Expert Slow basically asked friend to go make a long phone call or whatever else he needed to do that day.

had a brainfart and didn't finish the thought before skipping ahead

>>1725719
I always found Efreeti a bit to fragile, that goes for most of Inferno troops though. I really wish cerberi were a bit higher level with a little more HP, they are great but just die too easy. I would swap horned demons and cerberi with stat changes accordingly.

>>1725683
I really like building magic heroes for some towns. There is a limit to how much fun can be had with that though. Otherwise I love going mental with building skeleton stacks, getting the collection of artifacts that allow raising liches just breaks the game though. Lastly, going full turtle with a fortress town and seeing how long you can last when the comp has all the other towns is fun. I never really finished the campaigns, I prefer random maps.

>>1725738
Another fun exercise if you want to try out something different is making the most of ballista specialists, particularly Gurnisson (4 ATK). It's really surprising how much you can do with a ballista and a couple of fodder.

As for Efreeti, they might not have a lot of HP, but they're fast, they're what Inferno needs to reach shooters early, and 5-6 of them can be a standalone force clearing out weaker creeps (hordes of Halberdiers or other such trash).

Cerberi are kinda weird for me; I usually sacrifice them for demons. They're good units individually, I just usually want more demons and free up the slot for Dragonfly Hive Wyverns or whatever other shit.

There's a GOG sale going on for 1-5 along with Chronicles for $18.

Is it worth it? I've only played 3

>>1726456
I don't care about 1 and 2. 4 is great, but it is contentious, 5 is decent, I really like the hero leveling system in 5. If you like 3 then I would say to go for it.

>>1726456
that is some serious jewing, just pirate it. 2 has best graphics and music, give it a test ride.

>>1725935
>As for Efreeti, they might not have a lot of HP, but they're fast, they're what Inferno needs to reach shooters early, and 5-6 of them can be a standalone force clearing out weaker creeps (hordes of Halberdiers or other such trash).

Also, you can abuse armageddon

>>1725683

I have no idea how to sell a person on this game, anon. Personally, I feel that if you like RTS, retro, and multiplayer, you would be suited to this. There is a learning curve involved, however. Not as steep as, say, Starcraft, but a learning curve nonetheless.

>>1726816
RTS? I don't think that means what you think it means anon. Homm is a TBS.

>>1726816

>not as steep as starcraft

Starcraft is an RTS, and is nowhere near as complicated as any turn-based strategy game. Twitch play and units that have strengths and weaknesses are nothing next to the long-term planning and strategy required by your Masters of Orion/and or Magic, or any of the HOMM games.

>>1726816
>>1726842
True, true. Mea culpa, mea culpa.

>>1726842
>>1726862

>>Getting destroyed fom all sides, with no chance at recomp or reconcilliation

I thought this game was turn-based :(

>>1686021
>>1686079
that guy also has a twitch channel where he regularly streams games. It's definitely interesting if you want to get better at the game

Hey can you guys help me remember A map I played once? It was two player, the map split evenly in to two sides. You had multiple random castles on each side and they were connected via a bridge with really powerful monsters so you would only fight the enemy late into the game. Pretty sure but not 100% that it isn't AB.

Why is Conflux so strong?

>>1729118
Because they have REALLY good level 1,6 and 7 troops, and a level three shooter as their level two.

>>1729118
Also Magic University for easy Earth Magic, the second-best (after Battle Mages) magic heroes (Ciele and Luna stand out, but Elementalists as a class have a bonus primary skill point at the start compared to other magicians), Planeswalkers are a very solid hero class (Monere in particular) and they pretty much have little in terms of drawbacks. The not too attractive level 4 and 5 is still viable and with Conflux you're very likely to get another town early and double-build for a mixed army, or just claim easy Dragonfly Hives/Griffin Conservatories for Wyverns and Angels.

>>1729321
That was really in depth. I wasn't expecting this, thanks a lot man.

>>1729208
Fairies are good? Is it because of their movement speed?

>>1729351
When upgraded they're no-retaliation flyers that come in huge numbers. They let Confux creep with zero risk of losses from turn fucking one.

>>1729351
To be honest the most important stuff comes from >>1729208 , the other stuff is just a bonus. Were the overpowered units toned down, Conflux still would remain quite solid.

To add on to >>1729358 Pixies lend themselves really well to utilization with Luna making her the single best scout in the game, just check this shit out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G29vSPGbDPY
dude is sure lucky the gremlins didn't spawn with a master gremlin stack

ye also ur president scrapped a clean water plan as soon as it was fucking finished. It seems abbot has a competitor

>>1670065
Well heroes 5 was still trying it's own new retconned stories so Markal seemed a bit silly like everything in the story of heroes 5. He was fun to play though.

>>1696565
>>1696714
>>1696806
It's because no one seems to understand how to play heroes IV properly. They play other heroes which are about armies and strategy and get wiped out in heroes 4 due to the fact that heroes 4 has the heroes participating in combat.

The trick to heroes 4 was always to get strong heroes and only support them with the army and not the other way around. You start building your first hero with the help of an army of mainly shooters and you always get grandmaster combat, archery and melee. This means they shoot twice, hit in melee twice while also encountering the enemy before they attack and have ridiculous endurance. Then you can get other skills that enhance your heroes like magic. Before this happens you'll usually be around level 10 when you want to get another hero and stack that to your main hero. By this point you'll want to shed your army of useless creatures and either keep only shooters or high tier units in the group or get rid of them completely (just stack them into a castle for defense) and start fighting battles with only your heroes. They both get the same experience from battles and they share any stat upgrades and chests found on the battlefield.

You can carry a whole team of new heroes into difficult battles with one good hero and get them lots of experience that way. Get one of them to specialize on magic and they can buff the entire army of heroes to basically godlike levels when you get to around lvl 20.

There are a couple exceptions to this strategy but most campaign maps are easily won with just your main hero and another random lower level one helping him with buffs and or combat.

Aside from that Homm IV has some of the best music in the series in my opinion and the best written campaigns not including the expansions. Aside from the heroes chronicles series it's the only heroes game where I really wanted to know what happens next in the campaign stories.

>>1718058
The artstyle is in my opinion one of the best with them going for more realism in the characters and the animations are very nice. Like heroes 5 it's a fun strategy game but like heroes 5 Ubisoft can't write a good story to save their life so the campaign suffers for it. Also the sanctuary town is like a joke with their engrish speaking samurai heroes and japanese monsters.

>>1731238
>It's because no one seems to understand how to play heroes IV properly. They play other heroes which are about armies and strategy and get wiped out in heroes 4 due to the fact that heroes 4 has the heroes participating in combat.
>The trick to heroes 4 was always to get strong heroes and only support them with the army and not the other way around. You start building your first hero with the help of an army of mainly shooters and you always get grandmaster combat, archery and melee.
Yeah, that's why it sucks. I don't want to worry about my wizard dying every combat because I didn't take combat skills. If I wanted heroes in combat I would play Disciples or something.

>>1722865
big map = early economy
small map = early army

>>1731557
This is wrong because if you go for economy on a big map then you're restricting yourself to your little haven without exploring and fighting (which yields you gold, and also XP) and you also miss out on at least a week's worth of creatures (since in your first week, you'll only go for economy buildings), potentially more since economy buildings are also a large investment (in gold, especially).

Really pretending there's a discussion between "early economy" and "early army" is pointless. Most players have the bad habit of going early economy no matter the scenario. The people who know how to play go army until they can no longer sustain themselves and have to go for economy - which is how games tend to go on 200% on poor templates. On most online matches fought on 130%-160% - you'll get week 7 units and Castle with no issue way before you even complete your City Hall.

The only town I've seen go for Capitol early in a competitive match is Tower, and that's on a poor template, and the player still had Castle and giants by week 3.

>>1731503
Well you don't NEED grandmaster combat and infact sometimes you just luck out on what skills you get. In some of the heroes 4 expansions you'll play a wizard without any combat skills but it's still possible to make them godlike. Especially with summoning and life magic combined with aoe damage spells is pretty hard to beat. You can cast a pretty powerful shield that takes forever to break down on the caster and he'll just regenerate health more than you can damage him.

>>1731892
My question is how do you manage with only those weak numbers of units you get in the first week to explore enough for it to be profitable.

You'll more than likely run out of money and/or resources before the next week if you try to get everything up front and even then the creature numbers won't be enough to make a big difference unless we're talking of at least tier 5 units. Then it takes you a lot longer to gather the money to buy economy AND keep buying new creatures than it would've if you went for economy straight away if you're not strong enough to take over like half of the map in the first couple weeks.

>>1732437
>My question is how do you manage with only those weak numbers of units you get in the first week to explore enough for it to be profitable.
By fighting smart, splitting stacks into fodders, and only going after what I need. Taking on Treasuries, Naga Banks, Griffin Conservatories, Dragonfly Hives is just a matter of prior calculation. Ivor/Rampart or Shakti/Dungeon can break Dwarven Treasuries and Crypts on the first week.
>You'll more than likely run out of money and/or resources before the next week if you try to get everything up front
I can buy all the dwellings I want and then sit on them for a while. I don't need to buy everything in week 2, all I need is a couple of choice units. Depending on how rich the circumstances (map and difficulty) are, by week 2 I can be rocking Angels already, Cavaliers+Marksmen, just a powerstack of Cavaliers or so, all sufficient to clear the map and deal with many things (Cavaliers and Angels both block shooters). I don't need to buy all the units, just the ones to fight the map.
>and even then the creature numbers won't be enough to make a big difference unless we're talking of at least tier 5 units
I get to be more active and take more resources off the map early on. Given that most maps on non-200% difficulty settings at least let you have level 6 dwelling with castle, I'd figure that if you are good and don't lose troops, the advantage of having at least a full week worth of bonus army is worthwhile.
An economy rusher limits his options severely in the meantime, and he'll always be at least a week behind in troops and will have less XP.
I'm always going to be a week ahead on flagging mines, taking towns, breaking banks.
Meetings between 2 online players, even on large maps, can happen as early as week 3 or 4, too.

>>1732496
Hell, if you need one more example: someone calculated the other day that Shakti with upgraded Troglodytes on Day 1 can potentially take on a Red Dragon's Nest. It's risky, requires precise knowledge and falls apart if the Dragon gets morale (losses become too large), but the idea exists. It's of course much safer if you wait a few days and strike sometime further into week 1, of course.

Most of the stuff you break for money, XP and creatures, like Treasuries or Crypts, however, are easily claimable on Day 1 if you know what you're doing with little losses. This is why you don't need to rush Capitol; fighting makes more money.

Fucking Russians, man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THoToVR9UwQ

>>1734028
That fight didn't seem very hard. I remember much worse stuff in UtB for example

>>1731503
>If I wanted heroes in combat I would play Disciples or something.

i think it would have a much better rep if it was not called heroes

Also, iirc there is a life spell which grants all your troops invulnerability and your opponent could do nothing about it which is a bit bs

>>1734384
Guess I just need to git gud.

Do we have a /vr/ guide on the most practical combos and uses for spells?

>>1734028
I don't understand why he took his sweet time to kill those archangels after the other army was dead. Was there a requirement to how many units can be lost or something? Seems to me like buffing his units was quite enough without debuffing him slowly with disrupting ray and then taking mroe time to resurrect everyone.

>>1734829
Because he wanted more units alive for the next battle?
It's better taking more time to make sure you come out on top with the least amount of loss.

>>1734028
https://www.youtube.com/user/ricrvc/videos
Here, have an educational channel.

>>1734829
His meticulousness is the reason he has such a huge army in the first place.

>>1734028
>Many people think that God of Air is too strong to defeat
So basically, many people can't defeat the Airman?

>>1734853
Those are pretty impressive.

>>1734848
why not just shoot and blind after the slow?

>>1661152
Stop sexualizing the Mights and Magics.

How do I get good at Necropolis in II and III?

I want to skeleton farm beyond my spookiest dreams.

>>1738672
In III, get Vampire Lords, Necromancy Amplifier, and train a bunch of heroes into Expert Necromancy, then give each a bunch of Vampire Lords and win all encounters through micro (Vamp Lords can self-ressurect through their lifesteal). Use this method to explore the shit out of the map while constantly harvesting. Flag all the low-level dwellings you won't use anyway and meticulously get them to the Skeleton Transformer to make more Skeletons. DO NOT upgrade Skeletons, because if you have your army slots filled, you'll only raise Skeleton Warriors - which would be good, except in that case, for balance purposes, you only harvest 2/3 of the skeletons you'd ordinarily have. Only upgrade Skeletons if it's the final battle brewing soon and you can afford the time. Make good use of all the "It's Harpy week! Suddenly the whole map is shat up with random Harpy stacks!" for your skeleton harvesting purposes. Start with Galthran for +1 skelly speed (helpful while creeping and exploring) and a potential starting army of around 100 skeletons.

>>1738680
One thing I've wondered for Necropolis for a while: What do you guys prefer to be your main: Galthran or one of the two Necromancy specialists?

Oi vey.

I can easily shit out 30,000 a week, but this is a huge joke.

>>1738992
Eh its not like you have anything important to spend all that money on anon, buy dem madafakas

>>1739349
Already hunted them down like the skeleton pigs they were.

>>1739360
Necromancing undead units makes no sense at all. Silly homm3 devs.

>>1739375
Using diplomacy on undead seems just as silly.

>>1739375
Well it's just bringing the dead back by animating their remains, right? I don't see why just picking up the pieces and making them walk shouldn't work.

>>1738992
Is that your main? 3k skellies on month 4 is weak.

>>1739405
Still brushing up with necromancy. Any suggestions on how to boost it?

>>1739414
This guy did all the talking. >>1738680
Practice makes perfect anon. Every fight should increase your amount of skeletons. Then you just steamroll through the map.

>>1668260

Repeating this question. I'm curious to see/ if you guys are playing on modern systems and such with tweaks/hacks/, or if you are just straight 'Nuxbros/Macbros, whatever.


Also: For the anon who asked me many moons ago where that map was from, it's "The Shadow of Death" expansion. I don't remember the specific map, though.

>>1740142
I normally run it on my shitty laptop at 1440x900. Sometimes I'll get really bored when keeping an eye on my buddy's kids and hook it up to his 80-inch flatscreen. Shit's ridiculously gorgeous from so far away.

>Tweaks
I try and keep the game as vanilla as possible, minus modified resolutions and the HD mod.

>>1738686
Galthran has a better start, is less likely to lose Skeletons in battle, and starts with Armorer.
Isra is great, but I usually relegate him to harvester duty if I get to have both Galthran and Isra. Both make fine mains though.
I never make Vidomina my main, she always gets harvester duty because magic heroes just aren't too good, especially if I want to go full late-game (and if I'm playing Necro, you betcha I will), and she doesn't really give a spellcasting edge that Ciele, Luna, or even Solmyr do.

>>1740321
>80-inch flatscreen

That has to be pretty as all hell. Do you have to adjust your cursor speed?

I don't see any reason to optimize Necromancy usage unless you're playing multiplayer, becasue it's not like you're ever gonna need all those skeletons agaisnt the A.I.. Unless you're playing on Impossible, I guess.

Fortress is so goddamn satisfying to play. All units on a single strong hero, just ride around and destroy any enemies that get bogged down in your nightmare swamp terrain, venture out for hit-and-runs and never get caught.

>>1741391
Yep. Not for exploring the areas, but for being able to reach the sidebar within an hour.

>>1741403

And Dragon Flies if you really need to haul ass with a non-main hero.

>>1741391

HNG

>>1726862

TBS is my favourite genre, but Starcraft requires more strategy and skill than every turn-based strategy game ever made dude, and in particular it demands so much more of your intellect because you have to make all the strategic decisions extremely quickly.

After years of loving 3, I finally tried another game in the series: 5, and I have to say, a lot of the changes are improvements. The biggest ones are probably the skill system. The fact that each skill unlocks 3 abilities allows you to have a lot more cool stuff that you couldn't take in 3 because they just weren't worth a whole skill slot, like getting pathfinding and navigation through logistics, or first aid through war machines (or the fact that first aid is actually good now)

The magic schools are WAYYY more balanced, hero builds vary a lot more. Also whether you can learn level 3+ spells is now determined whether you have skill in the school of that spell, and there's no more Wisdom to waste a slot. Also it's nice that now every faction has a unique skill, instead of necromancy alone. The other change that I really love is separating 'speed' in terms of who gets to take their turn first, and how much of the map you can cross in one turn in to two stats. Combat is much deeper than a double moving mass slow/haste game now.

There are a few things I dislike, of course, like each faction only having one class instead of a might class and a magic class each like in Heroes 3, or Dungeon being Dark Elf themed now, which I believe makes it less unique since there's already an elvish faction, but overall I feel like this game is an improvement. Keep in mind I'm still running through the vanilla campaigns and have yet to try the expansions yet. I'm looking forward to teh Dwarven Fortress faction, I'm wondering why heroes didn't have a dwarf faction sooner

>>1654510
Zydar's face is just perfect.

Why does Isra and Vidomina not start off with a second skill?

Is starting with Advanced Necromancy really that great?

>>1743094
It's consistent across the board - a hero can start with either two basic secondary skills or one advanced skill (examples of the latter are for instance Crag Hack and Tazar).

It's slightly more preferrable to start off with two Basic skills because if you keep leveling a single skill up (for instance you started with Adv. Offense and next level you chose Expert Offense over Basic Pathfinding) then afterwards, on the next level, you have to choose from a random pool of 2 skills and sometimes it might be a shitty choice between Ballistics and Scouting or something. But it usually doesn't matter that much.

But in general, the sooner you have Exp Necromancy on your necromancers, the better, so Isra/Vidomina do have a harvesting edge.

>>1742462
>Starcraft requires more strategy and skill than every turn-based strategy game ever made dude

guess again

pic related

>>1742462
>Deep and complex strategy
>ZERG RUSH ZERG RUSH
>Deep and complex like you don't even know
>This is what Starcraft players believe

>>1743239
Not him.
While you can write about pro-level Starcraft games with a very large amount of depth, for most people Starcraft will be a game of inputting the correct Korean-derived build order and then just reacting to what's going on in the game. I agree with the notion that you can become semi-decent (or even a foreign pro - look up IdrA's Brood War career) by being 100% mechanics and 0% strategy. There have been some brilliant strategic minds in the Starcraft scene though that more than made up for their mechanics with genius understanding. It's part of what made Starcraft such a good esport. But for most people playing it, they will just emulate the current top tier strategies, often without really understanding their strength, and winning just because of better execution.

I think it's partially true for certain turn based strategy games - I can beat Civilization 2 with little effort on Deity by just using the tried and true algorithms (spamming a ton of cities into Monarchy rush at the beginning into Monotheism rush later for Michelangelo to sustain Republic and/or big populations, and then spam Crusaders or continue growing) Most strategy games, turn-based or not, have a ton of patterns that you want to exploit as much as possible - in HoMM3 for instance splitting your main stack into small stacks for fodder purposes to fool the AI into cutting your losses.

Anyway this is a HoMM3 thread.

>>1743196
chess is pleb as fuck
most of the game is book memorization bullshit and the best players are computers

even a novice sc player can beat the computer on the hardest level

if you're going to make an argument like this, at least suggest go instead of chess so you don't sound like a complete retard

>>1742462

RTS games require a different skillset. I'm not putting the RTS skillset down at all, and I liked the original Starcraft although I don't generally care for the genre, but RTS games just aren't as complicated.

In terms of design, they're basically about balancing out unit statistics.

>>1743283
Because the best chess computers are on the same technical level as the best Starcraft AI of course.

>>1743283

>go instead of chess
>muh grorious nippon

Yes I know it's originally Chinese. I doubt you do.

>>1743283
You're cherrypicking there.
Computers heavily influence chess, this is true. And it's very difficult if not impossible for a human grandmaster to defeat a computer, sans some loopholes where you just "tire out" the engine like Nakamura did a few times.

The reason is AI in chess has been researched and developed way, way more extensively than the AI in Starcraft or any other video game. Brood War only recently got some AI mods and there even have been Brood War AI competitions but they mostly rely on the computer being able to do a ton of things at once - the best external BW AI is the one that always plays mutalisks and micromanages them perfectly because Mutalisks are a high skillcap unit. No strategical calculation here, just mechanics. It's way harder to code a competent AI for SC because there's way more variables than an 8x8 board and 16 pieces on each side where it's easy to calculate.

I don't know any computer game where the AI is competent; most of the time it just relies on perfect reaction time and even turn based strategy games often have pretty dumb AI that can be played around with. Civilization or Master of Orion's AI wasn't exceptional in the slightest. HoMM3 AI isn't, either - anyone competent should be able to beat a random map on 200% consistently.

Chess is still a massively complex game and even book memorization can only get you so far. A parallel can be made where low levels of Starcraft can be dominated by just cramming a good build order against each race while Chess equivalent would be a decent Sicilian. But that's only going to get you a good advantage in the early game, you still need a good mid and late.

I mean, if I was going to be an asshole, I'd point out how in Starcraft you can win entire tournaments by just going cheese and 5 pool and whatever other timing rush and then comparing it to high level chess tournaments being decided on Carlsen killing everyone with the scholar's mate. But it's not the same thing at all.

>>1743283
>most of the game is book memorization bullshit and the best players are computers
>even a novice sc player can beat the computer on the hardest level

this is how stupid blizztards are

the one thing you're right about is that Go is an infinitely better strategy game than Starcraft

>>1725625
Mighty Gorgons, free kills for everyone! Hydra is close second, no retaliation 360 looks fantastic.

>>1742502
Tribes of the East introduces one of my favourite changes in the series. Alternate upgrades for units. It allows more customisation for armies and I'm a fellow who deeply enjoys customisation.

>>1742502
>I'm looking forward to teh Dwarven Fortress faction
It has quite boring unit design: dwars, dwarf, red dwarf, dwarf on a bear, old dwarf, giant dwarf, LAVA T-REX.

>>1742502
Thanks for this, I've been reluctant to look into it much mostly just because of the dumb art style and the orientation towards D&D fantasy cliches like Dark Elves and Dwarves instead of classic mythological creatures. Might have to stop being a grumpy faggot.

>>1743756
It should have been
Dog (Tame)/War Dog (Tame)
Macedwarf/Mace Lord
Axedwarf/Axe Lord
Swordsdwarf/Sword Lord
Hammerdwarf/Hammer Lord
Marksward/Crossbow Lord
Giant Cave Spider (Tame)/War Giant Cave Spider (Tame)

Are there any heroes in the game you hate with all of your might and magic?

Pic related for obvious reasons.

>>1743756
>Human with spear, human with crossbow, human with sword, griffin human on horse, human with energy blasts, angel

>>1744521
Why Gelu? He's a campaign hero and he shouldn't appear in a normal game (unless the mapmaker enabled him).

Overpowered heroes are, AFAIK:
Crag Hack
his Fortress counterpart (armourer)
necromancy specialists
logistics specialist (Kyrre?)
Mullich