Игры HoMM3 for fun

20.06.2017 MuPCeP (blue, random, Inferno, random, Nimus) def Faoz (red, random, Stronghold, random, Dessa), Jebus cross, 231.

I barely remember the beginning of the game. We played for over 6 hours, I think) After clearing the dwellings, I remember leaving only the "Griffin Conservatory" - I wouldn't have been able to take it without losses. I remember I forgot to build the "hounds", which forced me to take a stack of harpies into an empty slot. I found the "Sphere of Inhibition", but at that time, looking at the stats of my best heroes, I didn't see a use for it. Due to inattention, I decided that a couple of objects in my zone were blocked (as it turned out later, this wasn't the case), which caused me to lose time and several potential reinforcements for my army... I upgraded the devils closer to the end - almost right before the "finale". The choice of main hero was between Fiona and Nimus. The former came early, and thanks to one good player on YouTube, she was leveled first) Around week two, if not three, Nimus came, which, combined with two dwelling spawns in the zone, made her my main hero.
We sat down to play this match three times. I didn't want to take unnecessary risks and lose the army, so I only managed to leave the starting zone at the beginning of the second month. But at least it was clean), albeit barely. After that, it only got "more fun" - I could forget about easy fights. The first obvious stroke of luck was the sword giving +5 to all stats, guarded by 32 hydras - their speed was 2... Thank goodness for the acquired Earth Magic and the found altar with Slow) The second turning point was the loss of two stacks of levels 1 and 2, due to inexperience... But, having gotten off with such minimal (and that's no joke) losses, we found imperial griffins and marksmen in the "Pandora's Boxes")
After that, thinking "where can I upgrade them", we find a castle on the very next turn)) After upgrading them, we quickly "tank" 4 Rust Dragons without losses and claim the last valuable artifacts for this game.
The opponent was the first to come at me, and, to my dismay, took a valuable artifact, captured an empty castle, and, flying over the mountains, disappeared. Then, by mistake, I revealed my main hero while transferring troops... Knowing about "Fly", and expecting it to appear at any moment, I still focused on collecting Pandora's Boxes, hoping to get a stronger stack. His second visit wasn't long in coming, and in an instant his hero captured my main castle...
Without Haste, it would have taken me more than two turns to march to the castle, and there were only two days left until the end of the week. In the end, making my first move "as is," I try to transfer the troops to my second strongest hero, level 20, and, taking a defensive position with him, I cast Haste. The opponent, seeing the situation (having entered my area, he took the lookout tower), abandons the castle and leaves to collect skill points. The start of my day 7, and, as luck would have it, I'm 2-3 tiles short of capturing the empty castle... I take it with another hero, but there's no way I can defend it.
Day 1 of God knows which week, and the opponent, on his turn, buys 3 of my arch devils and upgrades 2 of his own... Nothing to be done, and standing in front of my castle I realize - this is it, the "finale"... Some would say it was all over for me, but on my side I had 3... 4... as many as 5 significant advantages)
1 - by all "accounts" my army was stronger.
2 - the previously unused artifact "Sphere of Inhibition" would tie the opponent's hands.
3 - 2 stacks of my marksmen, versus 0 for him.
4 - Tactics + 3 flying stacks.
and finally...
5 - the catapult skill at "Expert" level

I probably won't describe the battle itself) I'll only say that there were likely mistakes on both the opponent's side and mine. Thanks for the game!
...and yes) Glory to Nimus and her Infernal spawns!