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Hello! This applies only to Heroes 3.
I've been playing Heroes for 15 years. Here's what I've learned over those 15 years (I didn't understand it before, lol):
1. Any spell (from the Earth, Fire, Air, or Water book) can be critically important at any given time. Yes, there are definitely some spells that are super popular, like slow/fast, blindness, Armageddon, etc. But I've won or survived many times thanks to very inconspicuous spells.
I remember one case. A Barbarian wiped me out on a very large map. He was constantly buffing his enhanced creatures using "Sacrifice." There were about 40 of them + he also had incredibly high morale and luck. These creatures destroyed me in a few turns, even though I was initially stronger in terms of troop numbers. I tried to replay it many times, but I was always defeated without a chance. I don't remember the nuances anymore, but blindness didn't help me then. He even managed to cast frenzy on the creatures, and with one blow, he almost wiped out my main stack.
EVERY spell is important! Absolutely!
2. You can play skillfully or amateurishly with any type of city. I prefer Rampart.
3. On large and complex maps, where large armies roam without the "Wisdom" skill, they are practically doomed to defeat. This skill is a MUST-HAVE.
4. Try your best to become an expert in Earth + Air magic. Ideally, all four would be helpful. Water is often not used at all. Although, very rarely, thanks to the "Clone" spell, you can work wonders, especially when defending.
5. Every week on Monday, don't forget to check for new heroes; outstanding specimens with a bunch of fancy artifacts may appear.
6. Thoroughly learn the artifacts that can be combined. Very often, they are not collected because people don't know that they create a systemic effect. In 1000 maps, I only managed to collect "Might of the Dragon Father" once (it consists of 9 separate artifacts). It is quite often possible to get "Sniper Bow" or "Wizard's Ring." Very rarely, "Legion Statue." I've never collected the Angel Alliance; I had 5 out of 6, but not all 6.
7. The collection of skills has always caused huge debates, and here it's purely a matter of taste, of course. As with magic, there are no BAD skills. Every skill can be critically important, but there are some that are super popular. But anyone will say that without wisdom, there's nothing to do on large maps; the chances are close to 0. It has always been difficult to live without Earth magic on any map. Several times, I lost on large maps only for one reason - there was no Earth magic. In this regard, cities with phoenixes have some advantage, I would say convenience.
Unless you can live without "Estate," "Education," and many will say "Literacy" too! Ha! I have a case about literacy that happened only once. I think it will never happen again.
Case: It was a long time ago; I don't remember the details, but I remember it for life and I greatly appreciated "Literacy," although before I thought it was total nonsense. Very large map. Huge distances. My main hero wandered somewhere. Suddenly, an opponent flew to my castle, and there were only 3 turns left. I can't return in 2-3 weeks - it's impossible to make it in time. There's no one to put in the castle - they'll be wiped out without problems + there's no money (25K for large maps is a small amount). There was also a feature that I was an expert in Earth magic, but there was NO teleport to the city. And I was looking for this magic with all my might, building everywhere I could up to the 4th level. And it turned out that in one of the castles, a portal to the city was built, but I didn't have time to learn it, but there was some secondary hero with expert learning ability, and he learned all the magic, ran up to my hero, and the portal was transferred. As a result, my main hero teleports right in front of the enemy and wipes him out hard. There were a lot of other nuances. It seems that in this castle, I had a huge unbought crowd (this is normal for large maps when troops are not bought for weeks because there is not enough gold). If the computer had captured the castle, I would have been badly defeated.
Many criticize "Eagle Eye," but I assure you that there will be moments when ONLY thanks to Eagle Eye you will be able to win in the end.
8. It is a hundred times more beneficial to have ONE strong hero than TWO of medium strength (when the crowd is scattered). The opponent can almost effortlessly destroy your 2 medium heroes, and you can almost effortlessly destroy him with the same troops, but in one strong hero.
9. When completing campaigns, the core + 2 auxiliary heroes often carry over to the next map. Personally, I NEVER level up the auxiliary heroes anymore. I've had a lot of problems on the last maps when they all have to survive. It came to the point that secondary heroes were trailing behind the main one. They cannot be left alone because the enemy will easily kill any of them. On the last levels, the enemy is extremely strong and comparable in strength to your main hero.
10. There are maps on which you will not be able to win in a reasonable time without an expert in Earth + Air magic (city portal + spatial gate). Flying doesn't always save you. Usually, these are large maps with a lot of cities (there may be a total of more than 100) + a lot of teleports. The opponent scatters the cities terribly.
11. With a city portal (expert Earth magic also) + gate (expert Air magic), the victory is sometimes achieved thousands of times faster than without it. On some maps, winning becomes almost impossible without a city portal in a reasonable time.
12. Very often, one inaccurate move or one wrong spell separates defeat from victory. You need to be a hyper-expert to feel these nuances. I often don't feel it! By playing correctly with magic, you can defeat an opponent with a loss of your troops of 5%, and by playing incorrectly, he will annihilate you, losing 5% of his troops, lol.
13. What is the best proportion to pump attack, defense, magic, knowledge? I pump everything very proportionally. There was a case on a big map when the hero had the following stats: 23 23 23 23 - perfect balance) An imbalance in one direction can severely harm you, of course, not always, but it can) It's been tested! I don't pay attention to the type of hero, whether he's a mage or a warrior - I try to pump them equally. If defense is less than attack, then when choosing 100%, I take defense, etc.
14. There are missions on the maps that are impossible to pass if the skills were not collected correctly. The default game difficulty is: unreal.
15. Always try to play only on the unreal difficulty level, when EVERYTHING is at zero at the start. This will make you feel the importance of every resource.
16. Placing a Grail in a castle is a great achievement and mastery!
Everything I wrote is purely subjective. I'm not a pro player; I play for my own enjoyment, etc.
And finally, there was a very amusing case today. I was replaying the "Frozen Blade" campaign from the Chronicles. In the last mission, you need to conquer the city of "Volye" faster than Jela does (your main enemy, the main antagonist). You play as some Tartum. You are given 1 azure dragon at the start. It turned out that Jela teleported to my castle on the 2nd DAY of the game, lol. Tartum immediately caught him, and, most importantly, Jela did not escape the battle, lol. That's not all. On Monday, I see Jela in the tavern (he's some N level) + he has Armageddon's Blade, lol). So I immediately buy him. As a result, both players who are supposed to reach the city of Volye play for me :smile40: :smile40: :smile40:. I checked capturing the city of "Volye" with both of them - they gave me the victory in both cases, lol - I flipped the game))
P.S. Heroes 3 is a very subtle, complex game with billions of billions of possible developments. No matter how you play, you can always play better, and then even better, and then even more and more and more...
