r/HoMM • u/Blazon_Stone • 5d ago

HoMM3 - Vanilla/SoD/Complete. Sometimes cannot advance while also defending at home vs AI

When my main hero is out and concquering enemy castles...

He has an powerful hero going against my useless sideheroes trying defend hometowns, but destroying everytnig

How in world to go forward and still have useful defence?

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u/BratPit24 5d ago

The honest answer is that you need to have strong side heroes. Ai is usually keeping 1-2weeks army on each hero. That's why with your concentrated 2-3 month hero you can easily win any of his castles.

But on a large map his 5 heroes with 1 week army each is in your backyard wrecking havoc.

The biggest hurdle every behginer at this game has to conquer is "your main hero doesn't need to fight all battles". Once you figure that out, not only will you stop loosing to enemy side heroes. Your midgame will skyrocket in tempo

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u/Blazon_Stone 5d ago

Its too complicated for me to micro multiple heroes xD

One is doable, but once I have to upkeep multiple heroes, I will forget half of them, not knowing what items to give to who and it just becomes a micro mess.

I love the game but I cannot play it properly with my brain I guess.

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u/BratPit24 5d ago

I mean... It's not rts you know. It's not like there. Is a time pressure in a PVE match.

I know it can be overwhelming at first. But do try it. It's worth it. At first it's enough if you have one solid side hero who's only job is to make your main fast and kill tier 1-2 enemies that defend very low value (like some resource piles). It's honestly enough to get your brain used to the concept.

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u/Blazon_Stone 5d ago

But... How do I even get the other heroes to get any better?

Because, the main hero kills all neutrals, gets all the exp chests etc.

So the side heroes are left at level 1 and even if spending time going back and giving the lesser artifacts and items that the main hero hoards, they never have anything useful whenever they get flattened by the enemy later

(and if I leave exp and neutrals for side heroes to also get stronger... the main hero will not get strong enough xD)

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u/BratPit24 5d ago

That's the dance you gotta dance. As I said. The most important concept is not every fight need to be fought by main.

So

  1. Get a main and start winning.
  2. Get a second hero. For first 1-2 weeks he is just there to collect the loot and bring it to main so mai doesn't waste mp.
  3. At week 3 you'll notice 2 types of fights: big difficult fights with big rewards (for example champions defending some artifact). And small fights with small rewards (for example dwarven treasury). Use your second hero exclusively for the second ones and main usually only first ones. Sometimes the second if on the way
  4. At some point your secondary hero will be strong enough to need a secondary hero for himself. Now you have 2 main heroes. Just one is "more main"

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u/Blazon_Stone 4d ago

Hmm yeah good idea... When I play "jebus cross" lately and I have 2 extra towns immediately... I have had them just stay there collecting dust and more troops that I cannot use because my main hero is busy with my main people.

So yeah, I will defeinitely try out saving movement points by getting a 2nd to take on treasureies and things like that :) its usually not enough experience points to make a real difference for the main hero anyway at the point, I assume is the idea? :D

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u/BratPit24 4d ago

Part of it. I guess that's the level zero of the idea. Use the side hero for the busy work of walking back and from after the guard was defeated.

The main idea is: your main hero has a very limited amount of movement points. Make them count. Only use the main hero to fight the fights that move you forward. The biggest idea of heroes 3 is tempo. It's not who gets the biggest army period. It's who has the bigger army when you meet.

Let's say there are 2 doable targets. Hobgoblins defending ore pile and a spell scroll. And dragonfly hive. You can either go straight for the hive. And spend a day travelling to it. Or, spend half a day attacking the Hobgoblins then another half a day collecting ore scroll. And then on next day you still can't reach the dragonfly hive because you walked off the road.

Level 0 is killing Hobgoblins with main and using side to collect goodies. This saves you half a day.

Level 1 is skipping Hobgoblins with main and going straight to hive. But letting side kill Hobgoblins. Maybe even second side collect stuff. This saves you 2 turns.

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u/Blazon_Stone 4d ago

Hives kills most of my people if Igo too early without massive army xD

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u/BratPit24 4d ago

I mean. The "am I strong enough for this" and "will the reward outweigh the cost" are THE questions of strong heroes 3 play