/vr/ - Retro Games

It's honestly one of the best strategy games of I've played to this day,
As for getting better, try google lazy faggot

>>5162945
>how do I get better at it?
google Tribute to Strategists
and then just keep playing and figuring out good stuff (good units and what not), most maps on 200% can be beaten with suboptimal strats like turtling while building up towards week 2 Capitol.
also do the campaigns, they have a smooth learning curve and naturally teach you how to use spell cheese.
whether you want to speedrun SP maps for high scores or dip your toes into competitive multiplayer, try these:
>build army first and pick gold from chests over XP unless very specific circumstances (to reach Expert Earth very fast, for example)
>only buy units that you need (5-6 unicorns week 2 can kill a lot of stuff on their own, but you really don't need to buy dwarves or dendroids at that point)
>pick a strong starting hero (Valeska, Ivor, Solmyr, Ignatius, Galthran, Shakti, Tyraxor, Drakon, Ciele, for an example from each town) as training wheels to help you win fights and snowball; Crag Hack & co. are great, but someone like Gurnisson or Luna can win fights you'd never imagine taking on
>get the HoMM3 HD+ patch to make your life easier (not to be confused with Ubisoft expansion pack)
>look up how to do stuff like a Day 1 Crypt; get used to the idea of doing something big with a very small army; maximize efficiency!
>get a lot of secondary hero scouts to maximize explored terrain and starting army, also look up the "chaining" technique
>Expert Earth is amazing and is almost always a priority magic school. Air, Water and Fire specialties are situational; huge XL maps against multiple AIs favor W or F, quick skirmishes (esp. in MP) favor A
>movement speed is everything, both in combat and the world map. Get Logistics, learn about native terrain (A hero with an army of just gnolls will move faster on Swamp than a non-Pathfinding hero with only angels). Movement rate on map is determined by slowest unit in your army - another reason to keep these Dwarves at home!

>>5163119
Also, FWIW, it seems like the community has embraced HotA as the new, semi-official expansion pack for multiplayer purposes. Whether you're a fan of HotA or not is pure skub and I'll not delve into how much I like[/'spoiler] it, but at some point you might want to try it out. The new faction, Cove, is currently at a pretty good balance point (used to be more contentious on that front) and the HotA campaign and maps are fairly entertaining. If you want to delve into hardcore multiplayer, it will be easier to do so with HotA due to the lobby functionality.

>>5163119
Also, FWIW, it seems like the community has embraced HotA as the new, semi-official expansion pack for multiplayer purposes. Whether you're a fan of HotA or not is pure skub and I'll not delve into how much I like it, but at some point you might want to try it out. No rush, though. The new faction, Cove, is currently at a pretty good balance point (used to be more contentious on that front) and the HotA campaign and maps are fairly entertaining. If you want to delve into hardcore multiplayer, it will be easier to do so with HotA due to the lobby functionality.

Only play 200% on Giant map HotA, 7 AI, all random, get your shit wrecked until you win
>t. still haven't won
>that being said I'm a giant conservative baby bad at the combat gimmicks
>unnerf Galthran

RIP Galthran 1998-2017

It's pretty ugly compared to HoMM2.

>>5162945
1. Read Tribue to Strategists
2. Get better real fast
3. Realise some time later you can't stop meta-gaming, even when playing for shit and giggles
4. Despair

>>5163418
>Graphics improved all over the board
>No longer having issues with body proportions
>No longer pixelated
>B-but muh atmushphere!
Get fucked. HoMM2 looks like shit done in Flash by bunch of high-schoolers

>>5162945
>beautiful
Game has never looked like anything but a turd.

Heroes 2 for life.

>The Virgin Restoration
VS.
>THE CHADCESSION WARS

The Virginstoration:
>8 factions, 6 of them shit, one is unplayable
>Expansions make balance even worse somehow
>Campaign is a series of retarded decisions made by bland characters who are retards, sociopaths, and sociopathic retards
>Literal death threats to devs over Forge expansion
>Mighty Gorgons
>Hero speciality: EAGLE EYE
>Underground starts for plebes
>Uninspired pedestrian soundtrack

VS.


THE CHADCESSION WARS:
>Timeless story of two brothers and their rivalry for the throne
>ArCHADbald's posse the largest conglomeration of badasses Enroth has ever seen
>Sweeping, epic, atmospheric soundtrack
>lush environments
>Ghosts will fuck you up son
>Hardcore desert wizards with giant eagles and pigs
>every faction is balanced
>Lord Kilburn

>>5163591
>>every faction is balanced

>>5163591
>Playing RoE
>Not SoD
>Pretending HoMM2 is superior
>Or just better
Delusions are often treatable, anon

>>5163625
Counterpoint: Cloak of the Balanced King

>>5163591
>every faction is balanced
not even close
>8 factions, 6 of them shit, one is unplayable
no

>>5163641
one (1) artifact class item which is not even the thing that makes necro broken
>>5163591
>Expansions make balance even worse somehow
yeah, I wonder why you can no longer get "infinite" day 1 armies by constantly hiring heroes with your entire starting cash like in RoE 1.0 and... oh, wait, HoMM2 has that. you know. with multiplayer matches dominated by whoever gets more fucking Warlocks in their starting tavern.
or how it was the expansions that buffed Lizardmen and Dragonflies to get people to notice Fortress as a powerhouse
like, jesus

>>5162945
>heard extremely good things and art looks fucking dope
>never played any strategy games in my whole life
Any tip for this bewcomer?

>>5163978
Learn to differentiate from regular HoMM3 with the "HoMM3 HD" sold by Ubisoft that only offers Restoration of Erathia and pastel, "high definition" graphics and has been pretty much entirely abandoned. Don't buy the latter; the former should be available on GoG or at a shelf of any Eastern European store, often in a 4 pack with all four of the NWC original games.
Get HoMM3 and just play the campaign, the start is easy and it will ramp up for you at a slow pace. HoMM3 campaign order is Restoration of Erathia -> Armageddon's Blade -> Shadow of Death, if you start with Armageddon's or Shadow's you might get blasted.
When you play some campaigns and some scenarios, look into HoMM3 mods (HotA is the biggest one right now) and just do >>5163119

>>5163978
>Any tip for this newcomer?
Start with this video and that expand from there:
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw8v5__Ytf4

Jokes aside, just try playing a couple of single scenarios on the easiest difficulty - if I could figure how the game when I was a 10-year-old kid that barely understood English, you should have no problems with it. You should even have an inbuilt tutorial if you are a total beginner. For anything more detailed, you have manuals and video tutorials aplenty:
>Meridian's video going through the tutorial (in case the tutorial file is missing for whatever reason): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGBM8oU7YBE
>Standard manual (somewhat outdated but still very useful): http://heroes3wog.net/download/[Heroes%203]%20Restoration%20of%20Erathia%20Manual.pdf
>Community-made manual (really high-level concepts): http://heroes3wog.net/download/[Manual]%20Tribute%20to%20Strategists.pdf

Finally, remember that the game is here for you to have fun with it - don't obsess too much over whether you're playing it right or wrong.

I just...keep revealing the map and shit, 3 days wasted that I know the AI didn't

>>5164941
unless you're playing something really empty, all that revealing of the map lets you grab loose piles of resources and fight easier monster stacks at the very least, so unless you decided to start on 200% without any understanding of what's going on, you should be simply building up.

Are you going Capitol first or army first? Capitol first generally won't let you fight a lot in the early game (hence the feeling that you are just "revealing the map" and "wasting days"), and it's best for a player's personal development to ignore the money buildings unless he's completely bottlenecked.

>>5165213
200%/all random/G/sort of know what I'm doing and improving.
What I've come to dislike about G templates is that your start zone is usually poor and the adjacent zones are usually filled with retardedly powerful shit not even your best gimmick can overcome while lacking troops.
Current game started Cove, took me awhile to get Sea Serpents (week 3), but managed to kill black dragons and get wings of flying, took a town (Dungeon) and managed to jack Orange's (Fortress) capital. only problem is now my main hero has no way to resupply and will probably just camp in Orange's town while the money starts to roll in.
Good news is anyone making a run at my other towns has to clear nasty stuff but likely won't bother the AI by the time they reach that point.

>>5165238
>200%/all random/G/sort of know what I'm doing and improving.
Ah, I thought you were one of the complete newposters.
Well, I don't know much about the G-template since, truth be told, I tend to get bored with XL maps already and leave them unfinished nowadays.
How does your main hero have no way to resupply with two capital cities and wings, BTW? And can you not simply set up a chain of heroes from your main town to resupply?

>>5165240
A. It's fucking far. I took a teleporter to where Orange is and flew over a blocked. Dungeon town is not built up yet.
B. My other heroes do not have the wing s
C. wait around for Fortress troops like a dope

>>5163591
This bait is so fucking blatant it's not even fun or engaging

>>5163641
Yeah, because getting it assembles is such an easy task and it's totally the reason why necro is powerful.
You don't even have fucking counterpoints

Coveanon here.
wiped Orange and Tan, got Town portal, going to fly over a volcano and smash Blue (Inferno)
Month 2 Week 4 Day 3

>>5163978
Hell yeah, I'm jumping in this weekend for the first time. Basically, as you said, because the art just looks so good.

>>5165264
imagine being this dead inside

>>5166941
Imagine trying so hard and in the same time not at all

>>5164941
Pro-tip: Follow the roads

>realize the effectiveness of chained hero mules
>literally can no longer play the game in any other way
>get sick of the game because playing that way cheapens the concept of heroes

>>5166995
>2018
>Learns eons-old trick
>Doesn't play multiplayer with friends to have fun
Get fucked

>>5166995
shit was around since HoMM2 at the very least, as evident by stuff like Roland campaign done in 52 days

that said I'm not sure what cheapens the concept of heroes. it certainly does it less so than running around an XL map with only one hero and spending weeks picking up every single piece of wood on your way anywhere. just train more heroes if you're sick of having 7 patsies + 1 main; if the map is large enough, I think really huge/challenging SP maps benefit from having an Intelligence or Logistics specialist alongside your main hero.

>>5166995
Sounds like you should just play IV then.

>>5166995
>realize the effectiveness of chained hero mules
Me as an 8 yr old after playing for 3 turns.

>>5162945
You've got that right. We have a general, btw: >>5082757

Watching high level gameplay > reading Tribute to Strategists btw. You won't learn much just from reading ToS.

>>5167636
You won't learn shit from watching gameplay if you don't understand WHY people are doing their thing. Following someone's else gameplay without any sort of commentary from that person and/or knowing the mechanics for given action leads to the worst imaginable cancer possible - the "pro-meta". It's particularly egregious in MOBA games, but applies to anything played competitively.
So you absolutely should read ToS, solely to understand WHY things are done, rather than monkeying them like a fucking moron.
And knowing ToS, you don't really need to watch any gameplay at all, because it's all there anyway.

>>5167014
For me what makes me see them as actual heroes is them actually in fights kicking ass and gaining levels - which they can't do if they're only used a glorified valets. Luckily in proper play they'll still by taking plenty of minor fights themselves - if only to help your heavy hitters save on precious movement points.

>>5167856
Do you even use scouts? Because you sound like someone who started playing the game yesterday and is learning the ropes.

>>5167879
Of course I use scouts. Just also chain my troops such that scouts at times clear mobs.

>>5163418
Agreed

>>5163423
>Get fucked. HoMM2 looks like shit done in Flash by bunch of high-schoolers
Dumbest thing I've read all day, congrats

anyone got that kill unicorns with a couple of trogladytes image? and also how the fuck is that acheived?

>>5162945
>mfw bought Heroes III as one of those "Sold out software" bargain boxes without really knowing what it was
>ended up being one of my most played games ever

>>5168771
i've been playing it since 96. i just bought the win10 version for fuck all so i can play it on my laptop. i just stopped playing it to post this. it's an amazing game.