Just out of curiosity, why don't you like chains? In my opinion, it only adds to the game's playability. That is, it creates opportunities for mobile troop transfers and surprise attacks.
I don't like it because it's too time-consuming. You have to gather all the heroes in one place before the growth happens. What kind of game is it when you're constantly tied to a castle? In Heroes 4, you run around the map, capture a town, wait for the caravan, replenish your army, and then continue. If you don't replenish, that's fine, everything accumulates. But in Heroes 3, it resets...