Posts from The difference of offline play in Heroes II and Heroes III.

Respect to the author of the topic; this is a very important topic because many people want to play the second game (nostalgia + it's still a great game), but when they start playing, they find that many things are different compared to the third game, and they have forgotten what and how after so many years. Since there wasn't a similar article before, and it's too much trouble to learn everything again on their own, they sadly return to the third game. I remember how I struggled in the early games of the second installment when I started playing with Lovelass, and how I first realized that there was no "wait" command in the second game :o, and then I wondered why the vampires weren't regenerating, even when they were biting a large stack of creatures and not killing anyone, and many other things. Deep Mike lost his first game after playing several games because he didn't know that you could simply block a teleport with a single unit, and he almost lost to Leosan earlier because he didn't know that, after entering a teleport, you can't exit by pressing the spacebar, as in the third game, but you have to move back and forth (and there were phoenixes standing on the other side, it was a HotSpot map, the second one). Now, a player who decides to relive their youth and play this great game doesn't have to learn through trial and error and by asking other players; they can just read this, and they'll be well-informed and ready for battle...

By the way, I remembered something else – this isn't described in the article, and it should be added:
In the second game, you can't, like in the third game, revisit an object or enter/exit a teleport without moving away from the object and then back to the object or teleport. As a result, visiting an object or teleport multiple times in a single game day is limited by the length of the hero's turn. In the third game, you don't need to take any steps for this purpose; you just need to press the spacebar and visit the object or enter and exit the teleport an unlimited number of times during a game day.

A couple more points.
1. Starting army, third game. It is necessary to add the words, "and the hero Bron may even have units of the fourth level - basilisks."
2. Magic of movement to the city. In the third game, this spell belongs to the School of Earth, and depending on the degree of development of the magic school, it can transport the hero to the NEAREST city or to a CITY of his choice. In the second game, these spells are divided into two: a fourth-level spell that transports the hero to the nearest city (as when there is no Earth magic in the third game), and a fifth-level spell that transports the hero to any of his cities of his choice (as with advanced Earth magic in the third game).
3. Ally. In the second game, you can attack an ally, capture his mines, castles, and other objects.
In the third game, you cannot attack an ally, but you can learn magic from him, buy a magic book in his city, send him resources, etc.

I don't see this anywhere :) :
The "Summon Ship" spell in the second part is radically different from the third. In the second game, if there is no external ship, then summoning a boat is simply impossible..., in the third game, this problem is solved - having a secondary "Water" skill at the "Expert" level, a boat is summoned, regardless of whether it exists or not.

Thank you. Also, while I remember, you can add that resources are lost in the mill, water mill, and mystical garden (mushrooms and the druid under them - FAQ:D), if you spend the night in these structures when the week changes (Heroes II)

Thank you. Also, while I remember, it's worth adding about the loss of resources in the mill, water mill, and mystical garden (mushrooms and the addict under them - FAQ), if you spend the night in these locations when the week changes (Heroes II).

I'll add my two cents.

In Heroes 2, you can hire someone to defend the castle, I think... something like a hero, and in the third game, you can place a hero in the garrison.

A section on magic is definitely needed...

Absolutely right, in Heroes II you can build a Captain who will command the defense, and specifically cast magic!!!

Plus, the ditch (or its substitutes) in the third Heroes game deals damage, while in the second game it simply delays units and doubles the damage they receive!

3. The probability of joining also depends on the hero's internal strength criterion, which is calculated in a tricky way (unknown). It is known that it definitely depends on the hit points of the hero's armies, the hero's Attack/Defense (including artifacts), and possibly on the distribution of hit points among stacks (many hit points in one stack is better than spread out).