- A reference guide and manual in Russian for Heroes 3.

I thought that the monster recruitment settings are determined at the start of the game and do not change during the game: “At the first launch of the game, the probability of a unit joining is randomly determined.” (FizMiG). But my army remained the same (minus one stack)!

If you removed a stack that belongs to the same castle as the units against which the attack was made (Black Dragons), you significantly reduce your chances... Sometimes, taking just one unit from the enemy's home castle into your army is enough to significantly increase the probability of recruitment. Also, the total "strength" of the army matters – removing one stack reduces its quality. This is what we are observing in this situation. BUT: if it was simply a regrouping of troops to reduce the number of stacks in battle, check at the same time whether the artifacts responsible for attack/defense have changed. Here, every little thing matters.

In another case (“Edge Island”), phoenixes wanted to join, and I decided to take them with another hero of the same race, with creatures of the same race – the phoenixes rushed into battle!

Compare the Attack+Defense sum of both heroes. The higher the sum, the greater the probability of recruitment. Sometimes, just one point makes the difference. Also, the "Diplomacy" skill matters.