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This wholly independent product is the sole property of GameSpot Inc.
This guide is not endorsed, sponsored, nor otherwise authorized by The 3DO Company.
Heroes of Might and Magic III is a trademark of The 3DO Company.

GameSpot
Unofficial
Game Guide to
Heroes of Might
and Magic III
by Elliott Chin

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Copyright 1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or in any
medium without express permission of GameSpot Inc.
is prohibited. GameSpot, videogames.com, and
VideoGameSpot are trademarks of GameSpot Inc.
Computer Gaming World, Electronic Gaming Monthly,
and Expert Gamer are trademarks, and EGM is a
registered trademark of ZD Inc., and are used by
GameSpot Inc. under license. The Official U.S.
Playstation Magazine is licensed by Sony Computer
Entertainment America. PlayStation and the
PlayStation logos are registered trademarks
of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
This guide is a product of GameSpot Inc.
It is neither authorized or sponsored by, nor licensed
or affiliated with The 3DO Company. Heroes of Might
and Magic III and its characters are trademarks of
The 3DO Company. All titles, items, characters, and
products described or referred to in this guide
are trademarks of their respective companies.
ISBN 1-58422-025-2
Some images copyright www.arttoday.com

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WHAT’S INSIDE: INTRODUCTION ..........9
CHAPTER ONE: A TOWN GUIDE ..........12
Two Starting Strategies;
Military or Economic..........................................13
Castle ..................................................................16
Dungeon ..............................................................18
Fortress................................................................21
Inferno ................................................................24
Necropolis ..........................................................26
Rampart ..............................................................29
Stronghold ..........................................................32
Tower ..................................................................34
A Town Comparison Chart ................................37

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CHAPTER TWO:
A UNIT GUIDE ................................40
Castle Units ........................................................41
Dungeon Units ....................................................47
Fortress Units......................................................53
Inferno Units ......................................................59
Necropolis Units ................................................65
Rampart Units ....................................................72
Stronghold Units ................................................79
Tower Units ........................................................86

CHAPTER THREE:
COMPARISONS OF ALL CREATURES ....95
Level One Units ..................................................96
Level Two Units ..................................................97

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Level Three Units................................................98
Level Four Units..................................................99
Level Five Units ................................................100
Level Six Units ..................................................100
Level Seven Units ............................................101
All Ranged Units ..............................................102

CHAPTER FOUR:
HEROES AND SKILLS ......................104
The Heroes of Might and Magic ....................105

CHAPTER FIVE: MAGIC ..................121
Why Learn Air Magic?......................................123
Why Learn Earth Magic? ................................126
Why Learn Fire Magic? ....................................128

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Why Learn Water Magic? ................................130
The Best Combat Spells ..................................131
Spells by Town Type ........................................134

CHAPTER SIX: COMBAT ..................138
The Influence of Heroes ..................................139
Speed Factor ....................................................140
Wait or Guard....................................................141
Terrain Considerations ....................................142
Morale................................................................144
Luck ..................................................................145
Seiges ................................................................146

CHAPTER SEVEN:
CAMPAIGN WALK-THROUGHS............148
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Evil Campaign 1: Scenario 1............................149
Evil Campaign 1: Scenario 2............................152
Evil Campaign 1: Scenario 3............................154
Evil Campaign 2: Scenario 1............................157
Evil Campaign 2: Scenario 2............................159
Evil Campaign 2: Scenario 3............................161
Evil Campaign 2: Scenario 4............................163
Good Campaign 1: Scenario 1 ........................165
Good Campaign 1: Scenario 2 ........................168
Good Campaign 1: Scenario 3 ........................170
Good Campaign 2: Scenario 1 ........................172
Good Campaign 2: Scenario 2 ........................175
Good Campaign 2: Scenario 3 ........................177
Good Campaign 2: Scenario 4 ........................179
Good Campaign 3: Scenario 1 ........................181
Good Campaign 3: Scenario 2 ........................183
Good Campaign 3: Scenario 3 ........................185

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Neutral Campaign: Scenario 1 ........................187
Neutral Campaign: Scenario 2 ........................189
Neutral Campaign: Scenario 3 ........................192
Secret Campaign ..............................................194

GAMESPOT FEATURES ....................198

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WHATÕS

INSID

INTRODUCTION
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eroes of Might and Magic III is a seemingly simple game, but it has a
surprising amount of depth. The Heroes series has been likened to a
drug: It’s addictive and seduces you into playing that one last turn that
stretches on for hours. With each new iteration, the series grows bigger and better. In this third installment, we now have eight different
town types to play, over 100 creatures to command, and over 50 spells
to throw at our enemies. With a game this big, you are bound to need
a little bit of useful advice. Whether you are fighting on Queen Catherine’s behalf to restore Erathia, plying your mercenary trade for the squabbling
neutral kingdoms surrounding the lands, or a minion of the undead lords who
wish to overthrow the just government of the land, you’ll find this game to be
very challenging. We’ll provide you with helpful strategies no matter which faction you champion. This guide has everything you could possibly want:

l A detailed town guide, listing the pros and cons of each town type,
as well as providing an overview of that town’s creatures, buildings,
and magic.

A detailed creature guide, divided by town type, that lists the
strengths and weaknesses of each creature, its upgraded version, and
any special strategies for use with that creature.

l A chart that accompanies the unit guide and ranks the units by level
from best to worst so you can really see where your favorite town
creatures stack up against the competition.

l An overview of the over 100 unique heroes in the game and which
ones you can’t do without in single scenarios or multiplayer games.

l A look at the new secondary skills, which ones you want, and which
ones you don’t.

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l A walk-through of the game’s magic system, including how and why
to use the new schools of magic skills, and which spells are musthave weapons in war and adventure; this section is divided by
schools.

l A detailed guide to tactical combat, including morale, luck, terrain
considerations, and the new wait function.

l And lastly, walk-throughs for each of the six campaigns.
There is no multiplayer specific section because all the information can be
applied equally well to single or multiplayer games. Consider the entire game
guide to be both a single-player and multiplayer strategy guide.
Every prospective warlord should find something useful in this guide. It could
mean the difference between life and death in this game. Erathia is locked in a
massive civil war, pitting light against dark, and the fate of the entire realm is
in your hands. Here, then, are the keys to the kingdom. Good luck.

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CHAPTER

ONE

a town guide
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he first thing you need to consider when starting a Heroes III game is
what town type to take. In the campaigns, that decision is made for you,
but in multiplayer games and individual scenarios, you can usually choose
to start as one of eight different town types. They all have their strengths
and weaknesses, which we will explain shortly.
You should be comfortable with the town that you choose and be
aware of its creatures’ capabilities, special buildings, and magic propensities. However, during the course of a scenario, you will very likely have
the opportunity to take other town types. Your starting town should thus be
your headquarters. Most of your troops will come from here, but you definitely
don’t want to stay restricted to this town no matter how powerful it might be.
Take other town types and bolster your armies and production capability at
every opportunity.

Two Starting
Strategies; Military
or Economic
No matter what town you decide to start with, there are two general building choices you need to make. Heroes III’s town building aspect is more complex than Heroes II’s, and it provides you with a real choice between a
military buildup or an economic one. Basically, the first week of any game is
crucial. However, there are two roads you can take. You can either climb up
the “tech tree” by building all your unit dwellings and upgrading them as fast
as possible, or you can decide to pump up your economy and quickly upgrade
your town hall, acquire non-dwellings like marketplaces and blacksmiths,
while only building the bare minimum creature dwellings. The question really
is one of quality versus quantity, and it must be decided in the first week.

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Later on, there isn’t much of a question because the two paths become intertwined, but in the early game, you have to decide which of these two tracks
you’ll take.
If you go the military route and concentrate on creature dwellings, you will
get a headstart in both the type and number of troops you’ll have at your disposal. If you had a tower town, for example, you could swiftly climb to a naga
dwelling by the end of the week, thus acquiring this powerful sixth-level creature just in time for a new week of conquest. The obvious benefit is that you
can acquire stronger troops than your enemies. At such an early stage in the
game, it is crucial that you get the leg up on military strength, not only to fight
your enemies, but also to dispatch wandering monsters and take the mines and
artifacts they guard. However, the drawback to this strategy is that you are
pouring so much of your resources into building your creature dwellings that
you have none left to recruit those creatures. Sure, you’ll have that naga
dwelling, but you’ll only have enough gold now to purchase maybe one or two
of them, and nothing else. Sometimes even a few of these powerful high-level
creatures is enough to batter any wandering monsters, but if the neighboring
enemy necromancer comes at you with a horde of skeletons, your two nagas
might be in trouble. You’ll need to judge for yourself within the first two days
of the scenario whether to take this path by seeing if the surrounding land is
rich in resources and treasure chests. If it is, by all means, scramble up the tech
tree and don’t worry about the lack of gold. The powerful troops this strategy
will give you will allow you to take the gold from guarded chests, thus refilling those empty coffers.
If you go the economic route, you will be at a disadvantage in terms of the
level of creatures you can recruit. Often times, you’ll have so much more gold
than the opponent who took the military route that you’ll be able to buy sufficient lower level creatures to overwhelm his few high level creatures. Taking this
route means you won’t have the most powerful creatures at your disposal right
away, but it does mean that you will have plenty of gold to buy hordes of cheap
troops and acquire a little magic as well.
Obviously, you can choose to blend the two strategies, but a hybrid strategy
usually doesn’t end up working as well as choosing one of the pure strategies.

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Also, some towns, such as the tower and castle towns, require you to build up
your non-military parts of your town in order to access the higher-level creature dwellings, thus forcing you to take a hybrid path. The castle town, for
example, requires you to build a blacksmith for the griffin tower (a third-level
dwelling) and a mage guild for the monastery (a fifth-level dwelling). You can’t
climb up the tech tree quite as fast with this town type. The stronghold, on the
other hand, allows you to jump straight to the behemoth lair (a seventh-level
dwelling) in less than four days. Choose your town carefully depending on which
strategy you want to take.
Again, this decision is one to make in the first week. As the second week
begins, you can have the luxury of slowing your tack and mixing the build
orders. By then, if you haven’t already done so, you’ll need to upgrade your halls
and bring in a lot more cash to support your army.
In the following section, we will go over each town type, giving you an
overview and its pros and cons. We won’t actually list all the buildings a show
each requirement because that information is already on your building tree card
that comes with the game. However, we will give a general assessment of each
town’s building strengths and weakness. We will also cover the town’s creatures
in general, as well as its magic, heroes, and grail building.
Note that in this section, we’ll discuss early-, mid-, and late-level creatures:
Early level refers to levels one and two; mid level refers to levels three to five;
late level refers to levels six and seven. The terms “unit,” “troop,” and “creature”
are used interchangeably throughout this game guide.
Also note that we often say “climbing up the tech tree” or “building tree.” In
those instance, that basically means trying to build all the necessary buildings
as fast as possible to get the highest level units possible. So if you were climbing up the tech tree in the tower town, you’d build a parapet and golem factory
and the mage guild to get the mage tower, but wouldn’t build the blacksmith or
marketplace. In this instance, you are scrambling up the tech tree to get to the
archmage in four turns.

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The grail buildings are unique structures that can only be built once the
grail is found. You then bring it to one
of your towns and build a grail building without cost. Each grail building is
unique to its town type, and there can
only be one grail building in a scenario
at a time. Each grail building boosts
creature growth by 50 percent each
week, provides 5000 additional gold
each day, and it offers unique statistical benefits to each town type.

Castle
Overview: The castle town is perhaps the strongest of all town types. It has
great troops from levels one to seven, although it doesn’t have great special
buildings compared to other town types. Its magic capabilities are only average,
and its heroes—the knight and the cleric—are neither great spellcasters nor
super warriors. However, they are some of the most well rounded heroes.
Pros: Two good ranged units (one low-level and one high-level); two flying
units; unlimited retaliation with upgraded griffins; fastest unit and best
seventh-level unit with the archangel; excellent upgraded units throughout
tech tree.
Cons: Require lots of resources; more building dependencies than average;
average magic, no great special buildings; angels and archangels very expensive.

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CREATURES
Every creature, from level one to level seven, is powerful in comparison to its
same level counterpart from other towns. In the early game, the pikemen serve
well due to their high hit points relative to other level one creatures, and their
good attack and defense. The second-level unit, the archer, also provides valuable ranged support early on. This means at the beginning of a game, you can
have a good army composed of a sturdy melee stack and a ranged stack.
At later levels, the castle town continues to have good troops. The upgraded
griffin is a powerful early flying unit because it has unlimited retaliation, allowing it to counterattack against as many enemies as can attack it in a single turn
(the standard griffin can counter two attacks). The swordsman has good attack,
defense, and hit points. The level five unit, the monk, provides the castle heroes
with one more ranged unit that is among the game’s fastest and most powerful shooters. The cavalry unit is one of the top sixth-level troops, and the angel
is a great unit due to its speed and combination of damage, attack, and defense.
Castle players should upgrade their archers, griffins, and swordsmen at the
first opportunity, in that order. After upgrading these essential troops, go on to
upgrading the other creatures. All beginning castle troops are pretty good, so
there isn’t the upgrade urgency of, say, the fortress or stronghold towns. Halberdiers are faster than pikemen, marksmen gain two shots per round, royal
griffins have better speed, attack, and defense, crusaders attack twice, zealots
and champions have all-around better stats, and the archangel is the most powerful seventh-level unit in the game.

BUILDINGS
The creature dwellings in the castle have more dependencies than several other
town types. The griffin tower, for example, requires the next higher creature
dwelling (the barracks) and a blacksmith. The barracks requires a blacksmith in

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addition to the preceding buildings. The monastery requires the mage guild, and
the training grounds require a stables. The later buildings and upgrades will
require a good amount of crystal. However, you don’t always need all the preceding buildings in order to build the next creature dwelling. The monastery is
not needed for the training grounds, which itself is not a requirement for the
portal of glory. This town’s horde building is the griffin bastion, which is a powerful boon to castle players.
The special buildings aren’t very good, although the stables do add a movement boost for any visiting heroes. The Brotherhood of the Sword boosts morale
more than a standard tavern does in town defense, but it is otherwise not very
useful. The castle is also one of only three towns that can build a shipyard. This
town type’s resource silo produces +1 ore and +1 wood, while the blacksmith
builds ballistas.
The castle grail building is the Colossus, which increases weekly creature generation by 50 percent, adds 5000 gold per day, and increases the morale of all
allied heroes by +2.

MAGIC
Castle towns can only build up to level four mage guilds. Also, they don’t tend
to get the more fantastic spells like Meteor Shower or Chain Lightning. Because
this castle type doesn’t get fifth-level spells, it misses out on such valuable
spells as dimension door and implosion.

Dungeon
Overview: The dungeon is like the old warlock castle, and it is still as powerful
as it was in the old Heroes games. This town type benefits from two excellent
ranged attackers, as well as three flying units. It is also one of the most powerful towns in terms of magic. Its heroes are quite adept at spellcasting and gain

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the most destructive spells and advance the fastest in spell power. This town’s
special buildings are very useful, although they are also very expensive. In fact,
this is one of the most expensive of all towns, and it relies heavily on precious
resources like sulfur and mercury for many later buildings.
Pros: Three flying units, two good ranged attackers (both mid level); powerful
seventh-level unit; unit upgrades are significant (especially with levels 3-7
troops); powerful magic; strong in creatures from levels three to seven.
Cons: Weak first and second-level creatures; needs lots of sulfur; buildings are
expensive; creatures are expensive.

CREATURES
This castle type has several strengths, although it is weak in the early levels,
considering its lackluster level one and two troops. The troglodyte is barely
stronger than the puny imp or gremlin, losing handily to the centaur, pikeman,
or most other first-level creatures. Its upgrade is only slightly stronger, bringing
it to the middle of the first-level pack. The harpy can fly, and it has a boomerang
attack that forces other troops to run after it, but it is too weak to stand against
other town types’ level two creatures. The harpy hag, though, isn’t a complete
waste, since its attack cannot be retaliated against.
Once you go beyond those two troops, the dungeon starts to yield some
strong advantages. The next two levels of troops are strong, ranged attackers,
and the medusa also gains the ability to petrify opponents. Upgrade the medusa
quickly, though, because unupgraded medusas only have four shots! The minotaur is the strongest level five creature, and the upgraded minotaur king is close
in power to the weaker level six creatures of the other towns.
The manticore is a surprisingly weak sixth-level creature compared to the
other town types, but it serves the dungeon ranks well with its combination of
good hit points, flying ability, and cheap cost. With the addition of such creatures
as the titan from Heroes II and the new archangel, the red and black dragons aren’t

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nearly the terror they were before, but are still powerful, especially because they
are immune to magic.
When you have the chance, upgrade your troops. Obviously they are better,
although you need not do so with the urgency of, say, the stronghold or fortress
town types. You should upgrade your harpies, medusas and beholders first, for
more shots (in the latter cases) and better speed. Minotaurs and manticores
should follow next.

BUILDINGS
The buildings for the dungeon aren’t cheap. Even the harpy loft building upgrade
requires a few crystals and sulfur. The pillar of eyes building and its upgrade requires
one of each resource, in addition to gold. You will need to take and hold many mines
early on to support this town type. However, the low to mid level buildings can be
acquired fairly quickly if you do decide to scramble up the building tree. You need,
however, to build the first four dwellings in sequence, at which point the labyrinth
(minotaurs) and manticore lair are both available. There are no other building
dependencies. Unfortunately, if you want to advance beyond the mid levels, you
usually can’t upgrade even your lower level creatures until you take more mines.
There is only one horde building, and it amplifies troglodyte production.
The special buildings are among the most useful of any town types. The Battle Scholar’s academy can be built immediately and gives a +1000 experience
bonus, giving your heroes a small boost over other enemy heroes in the early
game. The mana vortex is extremely helpful because it temporarily doubles your
hero’s spell points. The dungeon can also summon an eighth-level monsters via
its Portal of Summoning, which allows the dungeon player to recruit a random
creature from any external flagged dwelling. The artifacts merchant is another
useful building because it allows you to buy artifacts. But again, to take advantage of this benefit, you really need to go out and amass a lot of resources. The
resource silo of this town produces sulfur (which you’ll need for your dragons),
and the blacksmith builds the ballista.

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The dungeon grail building is the Guardian of Earth, which gives you an additional 5000 gold per day, boosts weekly creature growth by +50 percent, and
increases the spell power of garrison heroes by +12. Combine this power boost
with the mana vortex, and the dungeon’s magical defenses are by far the most
potent of all town types.

MAGIC
This castle type is strong in magic, gaining many destructive spells at the guild. Its
special buildings also boost spell points, and thus spellcasting. The magic hero of this
town, the warlock, is one of the two most powerful spellcasters in the game (the
other is the wizard), gaining secondary spell skills and power skill points quickly.

Fortress
Overview: The fortress is new to Heroes III and is the weakest town type. Its early
troops and late troops are weak when compared to other town types’ creatures,
but its mid level creatures (the basilisk and gorgon) are actually good. This town
type does have some very useful special buildings, but it is very weak in magic. Its
heroes have good defense, toughening up this town’s otherwise weak creatures,
but even the witch lacks the magical aptitude of more adept heroes like the wizard
and warlock. If playing this castle type, jump up the tech tree to wyverns and
basilisks early to take over the map early and look to conquer enemy towns immediately. You must support your troops with magic if you play this town type.
Pros: Two flying units (one mid and one late), mid level creatures are strong;
can get wyverns very early; heroes’ defense bonus makes monsters tough; cheap
units; most creature dwellings are cheap; good special buildings.
Cons: Very weak in magic, slow troops; only one weak ranged attacker; weak
late game units.

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CREATURES
The fortress suffers from a lack of strong low- and high-level troops. The gnoll
is a fairly good first-level troop, but the lizardman, despite its ranged attack, is
one of the weaker second-level creatures. Serpent flies, and even the upgraded
dragon flies, are only useful for their speed in that they might allow you to cast
spells first, but otherwise, they are too weak to do much more than annoy your
opponents. Only in great numbers are they any good. Basilisks are surprisingly
strong compared to other fourth-level troops, and they remain one of the best
fourth-level units even when upgraded. Gorgons appear strong, but when
stacked up against such creatures as minotaurs and rocs, come out on the losing end. However, they do offer good defense and can soak up a lot of punishment for the fortress creatures. The wyvern is pretty weak for a sixth-level
creature, but has good speed and flight. Luckily, you can acquire it within three
days, so build the wyvern’s nest quickly for an immediate advantage. The hydra
is itself a strong unit, but lacking superior speed and any outstanding special
abilities, is probably the weakest of the seventh-level creatures. But it becomes
useful if you want to attack multiple enemies at once. Definitely upgrade your
troops if you have a fortress town; the troops here need the extra durability and
speed that upgrading brings.
The saving grace for the fortress creatures is their special abilities. Basilisk
petrification and the gorgon’s death stare are very useful when they do occur.
Petrification allows you to direct your attention to other creatures, and the gorgon’s
death state has a 10 percent chance to kill one enemy unit outright for every 10
mighty gorgons. The poison of the wyvern monarchs, though, isn’t nearly as useful, as it merely reduces the first creature’s hit points in the poisoned stack by 50
percent.
Even more so than other town creatures, fortress creatures need lots of magical
aid to be most effective. Use teleport spells to instantly move gorgons, basilisks,
and hydras across the map to strike immediately. If you can do this, and support
them with magical aides like bless, bloodlust, and stone skin, then your troops
will be much more effective.

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BUILDINGS
The fortress creature dwellings aren’t as expensive as those of other town types
(except for the gorgon dwelling), which saves this town from utter uselessness.
You’ll need sulfur for some late dwellings, although not to the degree of the
dungeon town. You will need to get extra wood and ore mines and find some
extra sulfur early if you want to jump to the hydra pond your first week.
In a great design decision to balance the fortress, you can get wyverns in two
turns by building the lizard den, which opens the wyvern’s nest the next day. This
gives you a tremendous jump on the competition. Scrambling up the building
tree should be a recommended strategy because as long as your high level troops
are battling other towns’ low level troops, you are fine. However, once enemy
towns have time to build up to the same level creatures, you are in trouble.
Unfortunately, you need the serpent fly hive before you can get the basilisk
pit and you need both the lizard den and the serpent fly hive for the gorgon,
which itself isn’t required for the hydra pond (which thankfully is cheaper relative to other seventh-level dwellings). That means the gorgon lair is almost like
a dead end. You are better off climbing swiftly through the rest of the dwellings,
ignoring the gorgon lair and going for the hydra pond after you get wyverns and
basilisks. In general, there are no building dependencies like with the castle and
tower towns, except for the ridiculous gorgon lair upgrade, which requires the
expensive resource silo first. The only horde building for this town increases
gnoll production.
The special buildings aid greatly in castle defense; glyphs of fear boost
defense during sieges by +2 and the blood obelisk boosts attack by +2. The permanent +1 defense modifier given by the cage of warlords is also a great boon.
The blacksmith builds a first aid tent, while the resource silo adds +1 ore and
+1 wood per day.
The fortress grail building is the Carnivorous Plant, which yields an additional
5000 gold each day, increases weekly creature growth by +50 percent, and
boosts a defending hero’s attack and defense ratings by +10.

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MAGIC
Fortress towns are incredibly weak in magic, being restricted to level three mage
guilds. This deprives them of such offensive spells as meteor shower and chain
lightning, and it also robs them of vital adventure spells like town portal and
dimension door. In the later game, their weaker troops really need strong heroes
and magic for help, so you better go looking for enemy towns to take because
there isn’t any magic here. Frenzy is a particularly powerful spell to use on
fortress creatures, which have high defense, but you’ll need to find another
town type to learn this spell; it’s fourth level.

Inferno
Overview: This town type is new to the Heroes series, and it comes in as one
of the weaker town types, although its powerful magic makes it a better bet
than the fortress towns. The creatures of this town type are relatively strong,
but suffer from weak upgrades. This town is strong in magic. Its heroes aren’t
expert at might or magic but blur the line between the two attributes. This
town doesn’t require as many resources as other town types, and it can be built
relatively quickly. It has a good early-mid game due to some good mid level
creatures and good magic, but suffers slightly until the powerful devil and arch
devil can be produced.
Pros: Prolific low-level creatures; strong in magic; can teleport between inferno
towns; fast low- and high-level creatures.
Cons: Only one ranged unit; no low-level flying units; some upgrade buildings
require precious resources; poor upgrades to creatures.

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CREATURES
The inferno units are not among the more powerful of Heroes III’s creatures. The
imp is a terrible first-level creature, but you should keep a small stack of
upgraded ones in your army to steal spell points from enemy spellcasters during combat. This is a useful special ability. The gog is a fair ranged unit, while
the upgraded magog is a dubious warrior because its area of effect damage can
harm your own troops. Compounding this problem is that the magog is slower
than most of the other inferno troops, so by the time the magog can fire, his
cohorts are already surrounding the enemy and thus in the line of fire. The hell
hounds are decent troops, but cerberi, with their ability to strike three opponents at once (without fear of enemy retaliation) are great mid level troops. The
demon and pit fiends are middle of the road creatures, tough and relatively
strong, but not in the same league as the crusader or minotaur. The efreet has
good speed, attack, and damage, and it is the lone flying unit. The devil is a good
seventh-level troop, but the upgraded arch devil is much better, able to teleport
anywhere on the tactical map and gaining a huge speed enhancement. Physically, though, it is weaker than the behemoth, dragons, archangel, and titan.
Fortunately for inferno heroes, the enemy cannot retaliate against devil attacks.
Upgrade your hell hounds as soon as you can. The other creature upgrades do
improve their respective creatures, but not very significantly, so it’s not a priority.
The horned demon, for example, only gains +5 hit points and 1 speed. You might
want to consider upgrading your imps to familiars so you can get their magic channeling special ability and upgrading efreet to gain their +4 speed jump and the fire
shield defense. As for the other upgrades, only do so when you have the luxury.

BUILDINGS
The inferno buildings are something of a contradiction. Their initial creature
dwellings don’t have excessive dependencies and aren’t that expensive. In fact,

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the hell hole (the dwelling of the fifth-level unit) doesn’t even require any
resource except gold to build. However, the upgraded buildings do need special
resources (even the gog upgrade requires mercury), so you will need to scour the
map for extra mines and resources, although not anywhere near to the extent
the dungeon player has to. The sixth-level dwelling is relatively cheap in precious resources, although it requires a mage guild before it can be built. The only
real resource dependency is on mercury, as you’ll need a lot of it for the devil
and arch devil. Fortunately, the resource silo can help. The horde dwellings
increase imp and hell hound production.
The special buildings enhance the magical abilities of inferno heroes. The
most powerful building is the castle gate, which allows you to teleport heroes
between your various inferno towns. The order of fire bestows a permanent +1
to power, and the brimstone stormclouds boost spell power during a siege. The
blacksmith builds ammo carts and the resource silo produces +1 mercury.
The inferno grail building is the fearsome Deity of Fire, which offers you 5000
additional gold each day, increases creature growth by +50 percent, and causes
every subsequent week to be the Week of the Imp—meaning, even more imps
for you, and many more imps for everyone.

MAGIC
Both hero types from this town are able spellcasters. This town is most likely to
acquire a good complement of destructive spells and creature-enhancing
enchantments. Spellcasters from this town have good power skill and should be
able to support their troops with able magic.

Necropolis
Overview: The necropolis is a strange town. It has some great troops, but also
some terrible ones as well. This town’s strong magic and the necromancy ability

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save it during the early to mid game when it is weakest. Then at the very late
game, you need to supplement your armies with a better seventh-level creature.
The unfortunate aspect of undead troops is that their armies don’t benefit from
high morale, and because they bring down the morale of the living, it’s not a
good idea to mix undead and living creatures unless you have high morale
boosting artifacts. All things considered, this town type is average in ability.
Pros: Strong, prolific first-level troop; black knight is overwhelmingly best
sixth-level creature; upgrades are significant; three flying creatures.
Cons: Weak mid level troops; seventh-level troop only average; only one ranged
unit.

CREATURES
The creature tree of the necropolis town is a roller coaster of weak and strong
units. The first-level unit, the skeleton is relatively powerful, and the upgraded
skeleton warrior gains a much needed boost in speed. The walking dead and
wights, however, are probably the weakest creatures of their respective levels.
Even their upgrades are nearly useless, although you might want to keep a small
stack of wraiths in your army to siphon away spell points from your enemies.
The unupgraded vampire is a weak creature in speed, damage, and other statistics. However, once you upgrade it, it becomes very powerful, especially in
numbers. The ability to resurrect fallen creatures from its stack by siphoning hit
points from enemies is a valuable ability. In fact, this resurrection ability is permanent and allows necropolis players to cause serious damage in conjunction
with the power lich. You can send vampire lords into the enemy’s midst, where
the vampire lord can draw all the enemy opponents around it. Then the power
lich can lob his corrosive cloud toward the vampire and harm only the adjacent
enemy units, since undead are immune to the lich’s splash damage attack. And
if the vampire lords maintain their numbers by drawing life from the enemy by
attacking and counterattacking, the strategy can continue. Cast a counterstrike

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spell on the vampire lord and they can last even longer, drawing life and resurrecting their numbers after each enemy attack. Large groups of vampire lords
are practically invulnerable, except to ranged attacks and magic.
The lich is powerful, and the upgraded lich is even better, with more hit points
and better speed. As mentioned above, the lich and vampire lord can work
together for a lethal combo. But don’t try it with regular vampires because
without the resurrection ability, they fall too quickly for the strategy to work.
The black knight is unequivocally the strongest sixth-level creature, and the
extremely powerful, upgraded dread knight is almost as strong as the seventhlevel hydra and behemoth. The bone dragon is a weak seventh-level unit, but
the upgraded version, the ghost dragon, has a very useful skill: aging. While the
ghost dragon is still weak relative to all other seventh-level creatures, its aging
ability cuts the hit points of all the creatures in a target stack by half. A stack
of 20 black dragons goes from 6000 hit points to 3000 hit points! A force of
power liches, vampire lords, ghost dragons, and dread knights, backed by the
magic from the necropolis mage guild is a powerful force to be reckoned with.

BUILDINGS
The necropolis town has cheap low level buildings, but the higher level ones and
their upgrades are expensive in precious resources. You’ll need gems and sulfur.
The building dependencies are not exorbitant for the initial dwellings, but get
more involved for the upgrades to these dwellings (the vampire dwelling for
example requires two extraneous buildings). You don’t ever need to build the
tomb of souls (the wight dwelling), so don’t build it. You can apply the savings
towards other dwellings. Unfortunately, the fifth-level buildings and beyond
require a mage guild before they can be built. You need both the vampire and
lich dwellings for the hall of darkness (black knight dwelling).
The special buildings for the necropolis are very powerful and further the
necromancers’ special powers. The cover of darkness is a great weapon of subterfuge and covers back up a huge area around the necropolis town with fog of
war. The skeleton transformer allows you to convert any troops into skeletons.

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It is a good idea to use it to convert your walking dead to skeletons or skeleton warriors. The necromancy amplifier goes one step further and boosts all your heroes’
necromancy skills by 10 percent. The effect is cumulative, meaning the more necropolis towns with amplifiers you own, the greater each hero’s necromancy ability will
be. The necropolis is one of three towns that can build a shipyard.
In a lapse of common sense, the designers have made the blacksmith produce
the first aid tent. The resource silo produces +1 wood and +1 ore.
The necropolis grail building is the Soul Prison, which adds 5000 additional
gold to your reserves each day, boosts creature growth by +50 percent, and
increases your heroes’ necromancy skill by +20 percent.

MAGIC
The necropolis is fairly strong in magic, and its heroes are more likely to advance
in power than knowledge. The mage guild is more likely to dispense powerful
spells of destruction such as implosion and chain lightening rather than subtle
beneficial spells like prayer.

Rampart
Overview: The rampart is what remains of the old sorceress’ town. However,
it is one of the strongest town types in the game, and its ancestry should not
fool you into underestimating this town. The troops of this town type are
powerful but slow. Even the faster troops of this town type often lose initiative to the faster troops of other towns. You need to climb up the tech tree
quickly to get faster troops. Unfortunately, this town only has one ranged
unit (albeit a good one), but every unit except for the centaur has a special
ability. The magic of this town is strong, and the special buildings are very
helpful. However, the buildings are expensive to build. This town needs to
find a crystal mine quickly.

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Pros: Best first-level troop; dwarves and dendroids are very durable for their
level; good mix of fast attackers and slow but strong support troops; below
average resource cost for units and structures; nearly all creatures have useful
special abilities.
Cons: Only one ranged unit; seventh-level unit is very expensive to obtain; vulnerable to ranged units in early game; most units are slow.

CREATURES
The rampart town type has a surprisingly good mix of creatures, but most are
pretty slow, which puts emphasis on the fast pegasi and dragons. At least the
centaur and the upgraded centaur captains are the best and fastest first-level
troops in the game. The second-level dwarf is too slow but it can soak up damage, allowing your centaurs to move in for the kill. The third-level troops, the
wood elves, are good ranged units and their upgrade, the grand elf, gets two
attacks. The grand elf’s good combination of speed and attack, coupled with the
fourth-level pegasi’s speed, make up for the rampart town’s vulnerability to
ranged units in the early game. The dendroids are like more powerful versions
of dwarves, but are less useful because they are even slower. However, if you
have the teleport spell, the dendroid can run very effective interference for the
other rampart creatures. The dendroid’s special ability binds enemy creatures in
place, allowing your elves or your spellcasting hero to finish them off. The war
unicorn is a powerful sixth-level creature, especially with its magic resistance
aura. Lastly, the green dragon and the gold dragon are powerful seventh-level
creatures that are immune to all but the highest level spells.
It is important to upgrade your troops, because they are otherwise too weak
or slow to stand against the ranged fire of towns (like the dungeon) or the
quick-striking might of a town (like the castle). The wood elves should be a priority upgrade because of this town’s shortage of ranged attackers. The dwarves
and dendroids should also be upgraded as soon as possible because they are too
slow to be really useful otherwise. You should rely on magic to bolster your

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troops’ effectiveness. Silver pegasi are not only necessary for the much needed
speed they give you, but are also excellent for hampering enemy magic users,
especially in the early game when heroes only have 20-30 magic points.

BUILDINGS
The first three levels of creature dwellings are quick to come by, but you need both
the second-level dwarf cottage and third-level homestead to build the next two
levels of creature dwellings. The unicorn glade requires all the previous creature
dwellings, and the dragon cliffs are very expensive and require a second-level
mage guild. Thus, the early build up for the rampart player is easy, but the mid to
late level buildup requires a lot of resources and more time than usual. The later
buildings, with the exception of the dendroid arches, require a lot of crystal or
gems, and the enchanted spring’s need for crystal can really hurt the rampart
player’s ability to climb up the building tree. The upgrades are likewise expensive.
Take advantage of the buildings that boost your dwarf and dendroid production.
The special buildings of this town type are very useful economically. The mystic pool, which has no building prerequisites, gives you random bonus resources
each week, but don’t count on it always giving you the exact resource you need.
The treasury is also good for adding extra gold at the beginning of each week,
provided you leave enough in the “bank,” so to speak, so you can gain interest.
The fountain of fortune boosts your luck during town defense. The resource silo
produces +1 crystal, while the blacksmith builds first aid tents.
The rampart grail building is the Spring Guardian, which gives you +5000 gold
each day, augments creature growth by another +50 percent, and gives all your
heroes a +2 luck bonus.

MAGIC
The magic of the rampart town is quite strong. You aren’t as likely to gain the
ultra-powerful destructive spells of the inferno and dungeon towns, but you will

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gain very useful adventure spells and beneficial spells, like dimension door,
prayer, and resurrection.

Stronghold
Overview: The stronghold is the old barbarian town type, but it has been shaken
up considerably. It starts out weak, but it does have some particularly strong mid
to late game units. It is very weak in magic, but has some very useful special
buildings. Most notably, stronghold towns can have an escape tunnel, which
allows garrisoned heroes to flee or surrender. The heroes for this town type have
the game’s best attack skill, but are poor in magic ability. Players of this town
must strike out and conquer towns with better magic, while fielding armies of
high level stronghold creatures as soon as possible.
Pros: Good mid to late level troops; two ranged attackers (one mid and one
late); cyclops is a great ranged unit; can escape from towns under siege; can
jump to behemoths in three turns.
Cons: Weak low level troops; no castle moat; very weak in magic; no good early
ranged attacker; mid level troops are slow; only one flying unit; need lots of
crystal, wood, and ore.

CREATURES
The stronghold’s first and second-level creatures have good attack but very
weak defense and hit points. They aren’t durable and so need to get their attacks
off quickly. The goblin is actually among one of the weakest of first-level troops.
The wolf rider has the best attack and speed of the second-level troops, but dies
quickly. The wolf raider is a little better due to its two attacks and better speed,
but it doesn’t improve in durability. Don’t count on your first two level troops to
survive many skirmishes.

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The orc is now a third-level creature, and it is a poor ranged unit, weaker than
the elf and even the lower-level marksmen and magogs. You’ll have to make due
until the powerful sixth-level cyclops is available. In fact, from levels four
through seven, the stronghold boasts some powerful creatures. The ogre is very
durable and strong, and the ogre magi even more so. The roc is a cheap level
five troop that can be acquired quickly and is strong and fast. The upgraded version, the thunderbird, is faster still and has a chance to call a lightning bolt on
the thunderbird’s target. The cyclops is a strong ranged attacker, second only to
the titan, although it suffers the ranged unit’s penalty when engaged in melee.
The cyclops can also be used during castle sieges to break down castle walls
much like your catapult (cyclops kings get two attacks). Try using multiple
stacks of cyclopes to bring down enemy castles quickly. The seventh-level creature, the behemoth, is a strong brute, but is even better when upgraded, as its
special ability can set up the target for powerful follow ups by the cyclops’
ranged attacks and the quick thunderbirds. Compared to other seventh-level
creatures, the behemoth comes out on the losing end, but you can acquire it
faster than any other town’s seventh-level creature.
You should strive to upgrade your rocs and wolf riders first, because they have
the most significant offensive upgrades. Cyclopes also gain significant advantages from upgrading, but it’s usually hard to acquire them early on because of
the high crystal requirements. Then upgrade ogres and orcs. In general, the
stronghold creatures are pretty slow, which is another reason to upgrade all
your troops as quickly as possible.

BUILDINGS
Stronghold creature dwellings aren’t cheap. The later buildings are heavily
dependent on crystal, and all buildings require lots of ore and wood, although
the good news is they don’t have any cumbersome building dependencies. Of all
the town types, the stronghold has the quickest path to its seventh-level troops.
You can actually get to behemoths in three turns! Just build a wolf pen, then a

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cliff nest, and the behemoth lair dwelling becomes available next turn. And
unlike other seventh-level dwellings, it is relatively cheap. The track to the
cyclops requires an orc tower and then the ogre fort. There are thus two building paths for advancing up the creature dwelling tree (cyclops or behemoth; and
the behemoth path coincidentally deprives you of your ranged units for quite
some time), and they don’t cross over. The one horde building increases goblin
production.
Stronghold special buildings allow you to buy ballistas and ammo carts. The Hall
of Valhalla also gives each hero a permanent +1 to attack. This town doesn’t have
great siege defense—it is the only town type without a castle moat—but it does
have the very useful escape tunnel, which lets you flee or surrender from siege
battles (other towns have no option to flee during town defense). They can also
sell troops for money at the Freelancer’s guild. Their resource silo provides +1
wood and +1 ore.
The stronghold grail building is the Warlord’s Monument, which increases
weekly creature generation by +50 percent, adds 5000 gold per day, and
increases the attack strength of your garrison hero by +20 when defending
against a siege.

MAGIC
Strongholds are as weak in magic as the fortress. Like the fortress heroes,
stronghold heroes miss out on the best offensive and movement spells, and
must go in search of other towns to conquer if they want potent magic.

Tower
Overview: The tower town is weak in the early game, but it has some excellent
late game units and powerful magic. It is also very good with ranged units, with
three by the late game. Its buildings are expensive, though, with high building

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dependencies. The tower is vulnerable in the early game, because its units are
very slow and its one ranged unit, the mage, requires several buildings for its
dwelling to be built. This town needs its upgrades because it is very slow in combat. However, with its powerful spells, it can stay in the game until it gets them.
Pros: Strong in magic; powerful late level creatures; three ranged units; two flying units.
Cons: Weak early level creatures; expensive buildings and creatures; need lots
of precious resources; slow build-up.

CREATURES
The creatures of the tower start out poorly, but gain in strength. The gremlin is
vying for the title of worst first-level creature with the inferno’s imp, while the
stone gargoyle is only an average second-level creature. The stone golem is
durable but too slow to make a difference in most cases. However, with the use
of haste or teleport spells, it becomes much more useful, especially with its
inherent magic resistance.
The fourth-level mage is a good ranged unit, but you should upgrade it at the
first opportunity to gain a truly lethal ranged attacker. The magi and archmagi
are also extremely useful because they reduce the casting cost of all your spells.
During sieges, archmagi also suffer no penalties from firing over the enemy
walls. The fifth-level genie is physically very weak, and its upgrade only gains
the ability to cast random beneficial spells. It isn’t always a blessing because
you might get a useless protection from water spell when you are fighting fire
elementals or inferno creatures. The sixth-level naga, though, is powerful, as is
the upgraded naga queen—both always hit for maximum damage, and their
attacks cannot be retaliated against. The giant is only average as a seventh-level
creature, but its upgrade, the titan, is a terror on the battlefield. All the late level
creatures are expensive to recruit, so you definitely need lots of resources to
field your tower army.

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This town type could use spell support, and with the tower’s good magic, you
can have some pretty effective combinations, such as hasted and blessed
golems or archmagi with protection spells and precision. Upgrade your troops as
early a possible. The master gremlin becomes a ranged unit (the only such firstlevel unit), which gives you a needed boost in the early game. The gargoyle
needs the upgrade to gain a boost in speed, and the golem becomes even more
durable. The mage and naga upgrades should also be high priorities.

BUILDINGS
The buildings for the tower town are expensive and full of dependencies. You
can build the first three levels of dwellings easily, but then you need the mage
guild and all three previous dwellings to proceed further. However, once you
build the mage tower, you can get the naga’s golden pavilion, giving you a powerful sixth-level creature by the end of the week. (Unfortunately, building this
usually leaves you without enough resources to also build the altar of wishes for
genies). If you want to build the giant’s cloud temple, you need all previous
dwellings. All buildings from level four to seven are expensive in gold and precious resources. You will need lots of gems to support this town. Furthermore,
the upgrades to these dwellings require even more resources and dependencies.
To upgrade the mage tower, for example, you need to build the library. This town
is not one that allows for a quick advancement through the building tree. And
it requires a lot of resources.
The special buildings aid this town in spellcasting and exploration. The lookout tower can be built immediately and reveals the map in a huge area around
the town. However, to get the most use out of this building, you need to build
it in the first week (if not the first day), which will cost you a day of climbing
up the creature dwelling tree. The library grants an extra spell per spell level in
the mage guild, while the wall of knowledge permanently boosts your visiting
heroes’ knowledge. The other special building is the artifact merchant, which
allows you to buy artifacts at an incredibly steep price. You probably won’t have

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the money to use it until well into the late game. The blacksmith builds ammo
carts and the resource silo produces +1 gems. The only horde building boosts
gargoyle production.
The tower grail building is the impressive Skyship, which provides an additional +5000 gold per day, boosts creature growth by +50 percent, reveals the
entire world map, and gives garrison heroes a +15 knowledge benefit.

MAGIC
This town is very strong in magic, and is able to gain one more spell per level
than other town types, thus enhancing your chance of learning powerful spells.
This town is likely to gain movement spells and a good smattering of all spell
types. The heroes for this town gain power and knowledge quickly and are
among the game’s best spellcasters. You will be able to help your troops
immensely with the magic from this town.

A Town
Comparison Chart
So which town should you play? That depends on your style and preferences, but
for a quick look at the strengths and weaknesses of each town, check out this
chart. We rank the towns from one to eight. Of course, this ranking will invite
debate, but if you are new to Heroes and need to know what town to pick right
away, you’ll find that the higher the ranking, the easier time you’ll have in the
game. The castle town, in particular, will make this game seem easy.
We rank each town overall, and list its rating for creature strength, magic
strength, resource requirements, speed of climbing up the tech tree, and the main
resource of the town. We hope you find it useful as a quick guide to the towns.

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TOWNS

CREATURE

MAGIC

BUILDING

RESOURCE

PRIMARY

BY RANK

STRENGTH

SPEED

REQUIREMENTS RESOURCES

1. Castle

Strong

Average

Slow

High

W, O

2. Dungeon

Strong

Average

High

W, O, S

3. Rampart

Average

Low

W, O, C

4. Tower

Strong

Slow

High

O, G

5. Necropolis

Average

Medium

O, M

6. Stronghold

Average

Weak

Fast

Medium

W, O, C

7. Inferno

Weak

Strong

Average

Low

8. Fortress

Weak

Fast

Low

W, O, S

KEY
Creature strength refers to the aggregate strength of that town’s units compared to the units of other towns. This category does not account for building
speed or building dependencies, which allow certain towns to acquire relatively
powerful creatures at a faster rate.
Magic strength encompasses that town’s maximum level of mage guild (level
three for stronghold and fortress, level four for castle, level five for others); that
town hero types’ aptitudes for wielding magic; and any special magic-enhancing structures.
Resource requirements suggest the relative cost of building and upgrading the
structures unique to that town. Fortress structures cost relatively little compared to tower structures that cost great sums of gold and resources alike.
Building speed refers to the relative time it takes for that town to establish
its creature dwellings, based on prerequisites for building up the appropriate
structures. A town with high building speed, like the stronghold, can build its
seventh-level creature dwelling within days. A town with slow building
speed, like the tower, must take the time and resources to build many otherwise-extraneous structures before its high-level creatures and upgrades
become available.

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Primary resources refers to whichever resource types that town will require in
greatest supply in order to build up, and thus the types of mines that town must
strive to acquire quickly. All towns require substantial quantities of gold.

C=Crystal, G=Gems, M=Mercury, O=Ore, S=Sulfur, W=Wood

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TWO

A UNIT GUIDE
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ow that you know the strengths and weaknesses of each town type, we
can cover the individual units. Some are good on their own, while others need consistent support to realize their potential. In this section,
we’ll cover all the recruitable units and discuss their pros and cons. We
also provide some useful data, such as cost and speed, at a quick
glance. The creatures are divided by town type.

Castle Units
Overall the castle has the best collection of creatures, with powerful ranged
units, two very good flying units, strong melee units, and the most powerful seventh-level unit. This combination probably makes the castle the most powerful
town type in terms of creatures it can field.

NOTE

The numbers before the slash are the
unupgraded unit’s stats. The other
numbers are the upgraded stats.

PIKEMAN/HALBERDIER
Attack: 4/6
Defense: 5/5
Hit Points: 10/10
Damage: 2-3/2-3
Speed: 4/5
Movement: ground
Cost: 70/90
Special Abilities: None/None

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The pikeman is a great first-level unit in all respects but speed. It has better
than average attack, hit points, and damage, but is pretty slow, which makes it
highly vulnerable to ranged attackers like enemy archers, lizardmen, gogs, and
even master gremlins. You want to upgrade this troop quickly and gain the better attack and speed. Both versions of this unit are second only to the centaur
in terms of first-level power. If you have lots of pikemen or halberdiers, backed
up by archers or marksmen, you can effectively explore and take territory in your
first week.

ARCHER/MARKSMAN
Attack: 6/6
Defense: 3/3
Hit Points: 10/10
Damage: 2-3/2-3
Shots: 12/24
Speed: 4/6
Movement: ground
Cost: 100/150
Special Abilities: None/Fires twice
The archer is a slow unit, but is very useful in the early game. You can add some
pikemen to a group of archers and take lightly guarded chests, mines, and artifacts quickly. Archers are targets of opportunity and can be decimated if you face
other, faster ranged units. However, the marksman is an excellent unit, especially
because it shoots twice. In effect, the unit doubles in power, making it one of the
game’s best early ranged units, and maybe the best second-level unit as well.
Both versions of this unit suffer the melee penalty for ranged creatures (half
damage in hand to hand combat). When coupled with the fast-flying griffin, the
marksmen and halberdier combo becomes especially deadly in the early game.
The archer to marksmen upgrade should be your first castle upgrade.

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GRIFFIN/ROYAL GRIFFIN
Attack: 9/9
Defense: 7/9
Hit Points: 10/10
Damage: 3-6/3-6
Speed: 6/9
Movement: flight
Cost: 200/240
Special Abilities: One extra retaliation/Unlimited retaliations
Both the griffin and royal griffin are powerful units. Their best feature is the
ability to retaliate against multiple opponents. The griffin to royal griffin should
be your second upgrade because you need the extra defense and big speed
boost. Not only does it give you the first move in combat, but its greatest benefit is letting you engage enemy ranged units faster, limiting the damage that
can be done to your own marksmen (since the marksman is slower than most
higher level ranged units). Also, with the higher defense, the royal griffin can
survive longer to use its unlimited retaliations against the enemy units that will
inevitably swarm over it. Add griffins to your group of halderdiers and marksmen and you will have one of the most potent combos in the early game. It’s
almost as if the designers are urging you to use excessive griffins because they
created the griffin bastion, which aids griffin production. These creatures should
form a mainstay of your army.

SWORDSMAN/CRUSADER
Attack: 10/12
Defense: 12/12

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Hit Points: 35/35
Damage: 6-9/7-10
Speed: 5/6
Movement: ground
Cost: 300/400
Special Abilities: None/Strikes twice
The crusader is unequivocally the best fourth-level unit. It has great stats
that put it at the top of the fourth-level pile, but its two strikes is what makes
it such a formidable opponent that can tackle even tougher creatures like the
fifth-level minotaur and the sixth-level wyvern. The swordsman is a good unit,
but only marginally better than the royal griffin. You should upgrade your
swordsmen to crusaders after the archer and griffin. This upgrade gives you the
strongest melee force in the mid game. Casting haste on these units is very
useful, and casting a counterstrike spell on them, which gives them multiple
retaliations, makes them insanely strong. As unbalanced as it seems, adding
the crusader to your already strong castle force will give you perhaps the
strongest force in the game, vulnerable to only the dungeon town’s powerful
ranged troops.

MONK/ZEALOT
Attack: 12/12
Defense: 7/10
Hit Points: 30/30
Damage: 10-12/10-12
Speed: 5/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 400/450
Special Abilities: None/No melee penalty

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The monk is another powerful addition to the castle town and gives the castle force another ranged unit. Its weaknesses are low hit points and slow speed,
but it is cheap compared to other fourth-level units. If you are only concerned
with the monk’s attack strength, consider that the upgraded zealot gains nothing in the way of better attack or damage. However, it is faster, has a better
defense, and doesn’t have the ranged units’ penalty when attacking in melee.
The monk only attacks at half strength when engaged in hand-to-hand combat,
but the zealot attacks at full strength. Alone, the monk and zealot aren’t as
powerful as other fifth-level troops because fast troops like the thunderbird and
master genie can cross the distance of the map in two turns and kill them. However, if combined with crusaders and royal griffins, they become a powerful
force to be reckoned with. And their cheap cost will allow you to recruit a lot
to support your armies.

CAVALIERS/CHAMPIONS
Attack: 15/16
Defense: 15/16
Hit Points: 100/110
Damage: 15-25/20-25
Speed: 7/9
Movement: ground
Cost: 1000/1200
Special Abilities: Jousting bonus/Jousting Bonus
The cavaliers and champions are among the best sixth-level troops, with an
excellent combination of statistics. Their jousting bonus should be used to maximum effect. Basically, for every hex you travel before hitting your target, you
do +5 percent more damage, to a maximum of +50 percent damage. So always
attack from the far side of your opponent, running up to them and circling
around them before striking. The computer uses this to great effect and you

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should copy this tactic. The cavalier is itself a strong unit, so the champion
upgrade isn’t a priority for this town. When you can afford to upgrade, however,
this unit becomes a very powerful unit for a very reasonable price. The build
order for the cavalier dwelling allows you to build cavaliers before monks, so
you might want to consider that. However, if you do so, then you might want
to upgrade the cavaliers to champions so you can engage your opponents
quicker, reducing the damage you receive from enemy ranged attacks.

ANGEL/ARCHANGEL
Attack: 20/30
Defense: 20/30
Hit Points: 200/300
Damage: 50/50
Speed: 12/18
Movement: flight
Cost: 3000/5000
Special Abilities: None/Can resurrect dead allies
The angel is the best unupgraded seventh-level unit, and the archangel
is the best upgraded seventh-level unit. They both have the best speed,
attack, and damage for their respective levels, and are simply the most
powerful units in the game. If you have the angel, no lower level creature
will beat you in speed except for the efreet sultan and dragon fly. The
archangel is so fast it can go anywhere on the tactical map, effectively
negating any enemy ranged unit. It can also resurrect a stack of dead units,
permanently raising a number of creatures depending on how many
archangels are in the stack casting the resurrection. Not only are the angel
and archangel incredibly powerful, but they can also benefit from spells
(unlike dragons), making them even deadlier. Angels and archangels do 150
percent damage to devils and arch devils.

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A full complement of castle units, with the angel and archangel in ranks, is
arguably the most powerful army in the game. However, the portal of glory and
its upgrade are extremely expensive to build, and you need to have a lot of gold
mines and town halls to support an army of angels or archangels.

Dungeon Units
The dungeon has a good mix of flying units, ranged units, and a powerful melee
troop in the minotaur. Although it gets off to a somewhat slow start and its
army is expensive to field, the dungeon creatures are among the most powerful
units of any town. Additionally, this town’s strong magic bolsters the effective
strength of a dungeon army.

TROGLODYTE/INFERNAL
TROGLODYTE
Attack: 4/5
Defense:3/4
Hit Points: 6/6
Damage: 1-3/1-3
Speed: 4/5
Movement: ground
Cost: 50/65
Special Abilities: Immune to blinding/Immune to blinding
Troglodytes are weak first-level troops, but the upgraded infernal trogs are
fairly decent foot soldiers. They fall in the middle of the pack of first-level creatures. You really can’t expect to get far with these troops and need to instead
climb to the beholder as fast as possible.

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HARPY/HARPY HAG
Attack: 6/6
Defense: 5/6
Hit Points: 14/14
Damage: 1-4/1-4
Speed: 6/9
Movement: flight
Cost: 130/170
Special Abilities: Boomerang attack/Boomerang attack, no retaliation
The harpy is a fairly weak creature, but the harpy hag gains a considerable
upgrade in speed and gets the valuable no retaliation ability. Both creatures
have a special attack that returns them to the hex they started from when they
attack. So if you are six hexes away from a stack of pikemen, the harpies would
rush up, attack, suffer retaliation, and then fly back to their starting hex, coincidentally out of range of the pikemen’s next attack. This ability doesn’t help at
all for engaging ranged units. However, this ability is useful in conjunction with
the no retaliation ability for the harpy hag. What that means is you can rush up
to attack an enemy and then run away, forcing the enemy to chase after the
harpy hags. The harpies and troglodytes are highly vulnerable to enemy ranged
units and should beware archers, gogs, and lizardmen.

BEHOLDER/EVIL EYE
Attack: 9/10
Defense: 7/8
Hit Points: 22/22
Damage: 3-5/3-5

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Shots: 12/24
Speed: 5/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 250/280
Special Abilities: No melee penalty/No melee penalty
The beholder and evil eyes would be fairly powerful units even if they didn’t
have ranged fire. Yet they do have ranged fire and thus are among the game’s
best early units. The evil eye to beholder upgrade is fairly substantial, with better attack, defense, and speed. The beholder is very important because it is your
first ranged troop. After building the troglodyte dwelling, you can build either a
harpy dwelling or the beholder dwelling. Always go with the beholder dwelling
first. Then upgrade these creatures at the first opportunity. And even if enemy
creatures do engage your beholders or evil eyes, they don’t suffer the ranged
units’ penalty and attack at full strength in hand-to-hand combat. They are
expensive as third-level troops go, but are well worth the price.

MEDUSA/MEDUSA QUEEN
Attack: 9/10
Defense: 9/10
Hit Points: 25/30
Damage: 6-8/6-8
Shots: 4/8
Speed: 5/6
Movement: ground
Cost: 300/330
Special Abilities: Petrify enemies; no melee penalty/Petrify enemies; no melee penalty
The medusae and medusa queens are excellent ranged troops, but unfortunately you need to build the harpy loft before you can build the medusa

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dwelling, meaning you can’t immediately field an army of beholders and
medusae (a potent combination in the early game). In hand-to-hand combat,
both are pretty weak, despite the fact that they don’t suffer the ranged units’
melee penalty. However, they do have a petrification ability that can turn an
enemy stack to stone. The chance to do this is only 20 percent, but the effect
lasts for three turns. When this happens, you don’t want to attack the petrified
stack again but instead use the three rounds to concentrate on other opponents
before redirecting all your attacks on the petrified stack after three turns. Petrified stacks only take 50 percent damage from the first strike and become
unfrozen after that attack. You want to upgrade medusae as soon as possible
because they only have four shots, although with an ammo cart, the penalty is
offset. Once you have medusae, you can form a formidable army with beholders and harpy hags to start conquering the countryside. Add the next-level
minotaur and you have one of the most potent armies for that level of the game.
Thankfully, medusae and medusa queens are cheap for fourth-level units.

MINOTAUR/MINOTAUR KING
Attack: 14/15
Defense: 12/15
Hit Points: 50/50
Damage: 12-20/12-20
Speed: 6/8
Movement: ground
Cost: 500/575
Special Abilities: +1 to individual morale/+1 to individual morale
Minotaurs are powerful melee units and are hands-down the best fifth-level
creature. Even unupgraded they have a deadly combination of attack, defense,
hit points, and damage. The upgraded minotaurs are even more powerful, able
to shred all lesser creatures but the crusader. The minotaur king can even tackle

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tougher troops like the wyvern and manticore. Upgrade your minotaurs at the
first opportunity because the upgrade is significant. And these creatures aren’t
even the most expensive fifth-level troops. Both types of minotaurs also enjoy
good morale, making them more likely to strike twice in the round. Amplify
these creatures with spells such as bless, bloodlust, and haste and you will have
a very deadly stack on your hands. A mid game army composed of minotaur
kings, medusa queens, evil eyes, and harpy hags is arguably the strongest army
up to that point, vying with the castle creatures of the same level for supremacy.

MANTICORE/SCORPICORE
Attack: 15/16
Defense: 14/14
Hit Points: 80/80
Damage: 14-20/14-20
Speed: 7/11
Movement: Flight
Cost: 850/1050
Special Abilities: Paralyze opponents/Paralyze opponents
The manticore and scorpicore provide speed and flight to the dungeon army,
but compared to other sixth-level creatures, they come out on the weak end.
They are only marginally more powerful than wyverns and suffer greatly versus naga queens, dread knights, and even war unicorns. Manticores are fairly
cheap, and their upgraded prices are at least commensurate with their ability.
However, notice that they aren’t really any stronger than the minotaur king
and only have higher hit points and speed. Minotaur kings should be your
backbone, not manticores. Scorpicores do enjoy a significant speed upgrade,
and are good for providing quick flying strike capability. However, you will
need minotaurs and the two dungeon ranged units to really add teeth to a
scorpicore attack. The scorpicore special ability can paralyze opponents for

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three turns. Paralysis operates the same as the medusa’s pertrification ability.
Upgrade the manticore after the beholders, medusae, minotaurs, and harpies.

RED DRAGON/BLACK DRAGON
Attack: 19/25
Defense: 19/25
Hit Points: 180/300
Damage: 40-50/40-50
Speed: 11/15
Movement: flight
Cost: 2500+1 sulfur/4000+2 sulfur
Special Abilities: Immune to spells level one to four, attack extends two
tiles/Immune to all spells, attack extends two tiles
The red dragon is perhaps the second most powerful unupgraded seventhlevel creature. Its upgrade is also powerful, but weaker than the archangel and
titan. Dragons are immune to spells, but this can work to their disadvantage as
they don’t benefit from spells like bless, bloodlust, or counterstrike. However,
this does mean that your foe can’t soften you up with any destructive spells. It
also means you can lure enemies to your dragon’s side and then cast an area
effect spell on the entire grouping of troops and damage multiple creatures
without hurting your dragon. Both dragons can attack two tiles with their
breath weapon, allowing you to harm two stacks at a time if they are small
enough to fill only one tile size. However, you can also harm your own troops
with this attack so be careful that you don’t get tricked into maneuvering your
creatures into the path of your dragons’ breath weapons.
One great strategy you can employ with black dragons is to create an army
exclusively of these creatures and then cast a powerful armageddon spell at the
first opportunity. You’ll rock your opponent for massive damage while you
escape unscathed. Only an army of archangels, gold dragons, or archdevils will

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be able to attack you before you can cast armageddon, and even then, black
dragons are powerful enough to withstand such a first strike and give you the
opportunity to cast the spell. Both dragons are very expensive, as are their
dwellings and upgraded dwellings. If you want to field these great beasts, you
must acquire additional gold mines and at least two to three sulfur mines. Both
red and black dragons do 150 percent damage to giants and titans.

Fortress Units
The fortress creatures, in general, are among the weakest creatures in the
game. This town suffers from a lack of credible ranged attacks and poor early
and late game creatures, although the fourth and fifth-level units manage to
save this town. The creatures of this town do enjoy special abilities, which you
should employ to the fullest. You can get to your high level creatures quickly,
but these creatures alone won’t be able to stand toe-to-toe with other towns’
analogous units without outside help. Frenzy is a particularly useful spell to use
on fortress creatures.

GNOLL/GNOLL MAURADER
Attack: 3/4
Defense: 5/6
Hit Points: 2-3
Damage: 2-3/2-3
Speed: 4/5
Movement: ground
Cost: 50/70
Special Abilities: None/None

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The gnoll is a decent first-level troop, but without any good support until level
four, it can’t really be counted on to be effective in battle. The regular gnoll is
durable, but lacks any significant attack strength. The upgraded gnoll marauder
is only marginally stronger. Both gnolls are also slow. Don’t go tackling other
towns’ early armies until you can climb to wyverns and get some magic. Even
lizardman support won’t make your gnoll armies that much more effective
against most other towns. Enemy armies with fast or ranged units should be
avoided.

LIZARDMAN/LIZARD WARRIOR
Attack: 5/5
Defense: 6/7
Hit Points: 12/12
Damage: 1-3/2-3
Shots: 12/24
Speed: 4/5
Movement: ground
Cost: 110
Special Abilities: None/None
The lizardman is the fortress’ only ranged unit. Unfortunately, it is very weak, even
in an upgraded state. The lizardman and lizard warrior are pale versions of the gog
and archer. They are also slow; and even the upgraded lizard warrior can’t attack
until after the marksman and magog attack. The upgrade is insignificant in attack,
because the lizard warrior only gains a marginal increase in defense and speed.
While gnolls are not terrible first-level units, lizardmen can only provide the
most superficial of support, leaving the early war parties of fortress towns at a
huge disadvantage against other towns. Should you even upgrade your lizardmen?
Maybe not, since you don’t gain any appreciable difference, and the other
upgraded level two ranged units only prove better. As the only ranged unit for this

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town, though, you do need this unit, even if it is weak. Beggars can’t be choosers
after all. It is imperative to fortify these troops with haste and precision spells.

SERPENT FLY/DRAGON FLY
Attack: 6/6
Defense: 8/8
Hit Points: 20/20
Damage: 2-5/2-5
Speed: 9/13
Movement: Flight
Cost: 220/240
Special Abilities: Dispels enemy’s beneficial spells/Dispels enemy’s beneficial spells
The serpent fly is a typical fortress unit: weak. The serpent fly has low offensive abilities, but has enough hit points to last a few attacks. Unfortunately,
surviving two blows instead of one doesn’t do you any good if you can’t mount
an effective counterattack. Armies composed of the fortress town’s level one
to level three creatures are probably the game’s weakest early game army. The
serpent fly is useful because it gives you much needed speed. Otherwise, most
of your units are too slow to attack first. You need the serpent fly’s speed
advantage to get off a useful first spell, usually haste on your basilisks.
You should upgrade to dragon flies early so you have an undisputed speed
advantage, since the dragon fly is the fastest of all units until the sixth-level
efreet sultan. Dragon and serpent flies do have one useful ability: their attack
dispels any beneficial spells on the stricken enemy stack. Divide your serpent or
dragon flies into two stacks. You can thus neutralize the magical enhancements
on up to two creatures and also retain your speed advantage even if one stack
is destroyed. You can also thus engage up to two enemy ranged units and run
interference so your basilisks and gnolls have time to rush up to the enemy. Fortify your flies with defensive spells so they can last longer.

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BASILISK/GREATER BASILISK
Attack: 11/12
Defense: 11/12
Hit Points: 35/40
Damage: 6-10/6-10
Speed: 5/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 325/400
Special Abilities: Petrify opponents/Petrify opponents
The basilisk is a surprisingly effective fourth-level unit, good in speed, offense,
defense, and hit points. It also has a petrification ability that proves useful,
although it isn’t nearly powerful enough to compensate for all the other weaknesses of this town type. Both the basilisk and greater basilisk have a 20 percent
chance to petrify opponents with the same results as medusae (frozen for three
rounds, suffer 50 percent from first attack, unfrozen after that strike). The basilisk
to greater basilisk upgrade is pretty significant, with a slight increase in attack,
defense, hit points, and speed. You should upgrade the basilisk at the first opportunity. This unit is also inexpensive. In any other town, this creature would be a
worthwhile purchase. In the fortress town, it is a necessity. You also need to bolster its strength with spells like stone skin, bloodlust, and haste to make it truly
powerful. All these spells should be available even at the fortress mage guild.

GORGON/MIGHTY GORGON
Attack: 10/11
Defense: 14/16
Hit Points: 70/70

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Damage: 12-16/12-16
Speed: 5/7
Movement: Ground
Cost: 525/600
Special Abilities: None/Death stare
The gorgon is a strange unit. Its offensive capability is fairly good, but it is
incredibly durable, with the toughest defense and hit points for its level. It is
also fairly quick, so it doesn’t have the weakness of the dendroids and ogres. The
problem with the gorgon is that you don’t need to build it in order to have
wyverns and hydras. So often, it’s better to just bypass it and go for the flying
wyvern, which you can get by day two or three, and the hydra. However, later
in the game, starting with week three or more, you’ll need the mighty gorgon’s
(not the gorgon’s) strength to bolster your otherwise weak army. You will want
to upgrade your gorgons to mighty gorgons as soon as possible, but you’ll need
the expensive resource silo first. This is a stifling building dependency and usually means you can’t upgrade your gorgons until later in the game. The mighty
gorgon has a deadly special ability, with a chance of killing one enemy creature
in a target stack outright for every 10 gorgons. So 30 gorgons have a chance to
instantly kill three archangels or three imps, after regular damage is applied;
obviously you want to save your gorgon’s attack for higher level creatures. Cast
haste and protective spells like stone skin and anti-magic on your mighty gorgons to further their lifespan.

WYVERN/WYVERN MONARCH
Attack: 14/14
Defense: 14/14
Hit Points: 70/70
Damage: 14-18/18-22
Speed: 7/11

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Movement: Flight
Cost: 800/1100
Special Abilities: Poisons enemies
The wyvern’s saving grace is that you can acquire it in two turns. Assuming
you start with a gnoll hut, you build a lizard den, and then you can build the
wyvern’s nest the next day. However, the wyvern is the absolute weakest sixthlevel creature and wyvern monarch is barely stronger than the minotaur king,
thunderbird, and even the crusader. Both wyvern types can poison their enemies,
but even that ability isn’t terribly useful. The poison ability simply reduces the
hit points of the top unit of the target stack by 50 percent for three rounds. It
is useless against masses of mid to lower troops. Meanwhile, the upgrade to the
wyvern isn’t very significant, considering the huge leap in cost. While the extra
damage helps, the speed boost is all but nullified because the dragon fly remains
a faster unit. You are advised to climb up the building tree and get this unit in
your first week, but don’t count on it adding great muscle to your armies for too
long. The mighty gorgon is more durable than this creature.

HYDRA/CHAOS HYDRA
Attack: 16/18
Defense: 18/20
Hit Points: 175/250
Damage: 25-45/25-45
Speed: 5/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 2200/3500+1 sulfur
Special Abilities: Attack all adjacent enemy creatures, no retaliation/Attack all
adjacent enemy creatures, no retaliation
The hydras and chaos hydras are in the bottom of the barrel when it comes to
seventh-level troops. While their dwellings aren’t too expensive compared to other

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seventh-level buildings, these two creatures cost much more than the behemoths
and bone dragons, which are similar in statistics. Unupgraded, the hydra is a
durable creature that can attack all opponents in adjacent hexes and cannot be
retaliated against. However, it is slow. The upgrade isn’t terribly significant, and
really distances it further from the likes of dragons and archangels. However,
because you will get the hydra fairly early compared to other towns, you will want
to upgrade your hydras as soon as possible to increase your temporary advantage.
To use this unit effectively, you want to teleport it between enemy troops and
then have it attack, where it can unleash its attack on all surrounding enemies.
If your hero has access to such spells as counterstrike and anti-magic, you can
make the hydra and chaos hydra truly formidable opponents, but you have to
find these spells in non-fortress towns. Because the two hydras and their
dwellings are cheaper than those of the castle, tower, dungeon, and rampart
towns, you can get hydras faster. Use them early to gain an advantage and try
to capture those towns before they get to their high level troops. You also need
to find powerful magic to really make these units effective.

Inferno Units
The inferno, like the fortress, suffers from some poor units. However, this town has
powerful magic to compensate for the lack of super units. The inferno has a weakness in ranged units, with only the gog able to attack from a distance. The firstlevel imp is pathetic, as is the fourth-level demon. Most other units are only
average, at best. This town’s creatures also tend to be slow in movement until the
later levels. The advantage to inferno creatures is that they are all fairly cheap.

IMP/FAMILIAR
Attack: 2/4
Defense: 3/4

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Hit Points: 4/4
Damage: 1-2/1-2
Speed: 5/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 50/60
Special Abilities: None/Spell point channeling
The imp is the weakest first-level troop, and even in numbers it is pathetic.
You will however, want to upgrade them to familiars (but only after all other
essential upgrades are made), the reason being that familiars will drain spell
points from enemy spellcasters and deposit them in your pool. Anytime a spell
is cast by the enemy, whether it targets your familiars or not, you will channel
20 percent of the spell points to your pool. This occurs for every familiar stack
in your army. So if you have two stacks of familiars, you will gain four total spell
points when the enemy casts a lightning bolt. Imps and familiars are cheap so
you can buy lots of them, but never think that they are effective troops.

GOG/MAGOG
Attack: 6/7
Defense: 4/4
Hit Points: 13/13
Damage: 2-4/2-4
Shots: 12/24
Speed: 4/6
Movement: ground
Cost: 125/175
Special Abilities: None/Area effect damage
The gog is actually a decent ranged unit. Of course, it has to be, because this
is the only ranged unit the inferno town has. The gog has a good mix of attack

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and damage, but it is slow. The magog is faster and a little stronger, and gains
the ability to damage units in a wide area. This sounds like a boon, but can be
a hindrance. Because the magog is still slower than your other inferno units, it
will attack last, but by the time its attack comes around, your own troops might
already be in the line of fire. This effectively neutralizes the magog once your
own creatures have engaged the enemy. However, you probably still want to
upgrade the magog for the speed. The strategy to employ with magogs is to
draw the enemies into a clump before attacking. Usually, you want to wait when
it is your turn till the enemy does this, and then unload on him.

HELL HOUND/CERBERUS
Attack: 10/10
Defense: 6/8
Hit Points: 25/25
Damage: 2-7/2-5
Speed: 7/8
Movement: ground
Cost: 200/250
Special Abilities: None/3-way attack, no retaliation
The hell hound is a good third-level creature with excellent attack and speed.
The upgraded cerberus gains the ability to attack three units at once and cannot
be retaliated against. However, curiously, its damage is reduced to make up for
the wider area attack. The three opponents all must be in the three hexes facing
the cerberus’ head. Upgrade your hell hounds before your other troops. Of all the
low to mid level inferno creatures, this one enjoys the most significant upgrade.
You can use teleport and multiple spell enhancements to really make the most
of the cerberi. Counterstrike will give the cerberi the ability to attack multiple
opponents multiple times. Haste is also effective with the cerberi. Build the kennel as soon as you can so you can increase your hell hound production. These
units should form the backbone of your early armies.

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DEMON/HORNED DEMON
Attack: 10/10
Defense: 10/10
Hit Points: 35/40
Damage: 7-9/7-9
Speed: 5/6
Movement: ground
Cost: 250/270
Special Abilities: None/None
The demon is very cheap, but also very weak. Its upgrade, the horned demon,
is laughable. Don’t waste too much money on these troops, as they’re really only
cannon fodder. Not only are both demon versions too weak to tangle with likelevel units, but they are also very slow. Save your money for efreet sultans, cerberi, and devils.

PIT FIEND/PIT LORD
Attack: 13/13
Defense: 13/13
Hit Points: 45/45
Damage: 13-17/13-17
Speed: 6/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 500/700
Special Abilities: None/Summon demons
The pit fiend and pit lords are somewhat of a curiosity. Statistically, they
appear strong, but in practice they don’t really complement the inferno forces

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well. They can’t survive against the likes of rocs, ogres, monks, or minotaurs,
nor crusaders. While pit fiends and pit lords deal out serious damage, they
aren’t that durable nor do they have great speed. However, if you can enhance
them with magic and haste or teleport them, they can become rather useful.
Pit lords have the special ability to resurrect fallen allied stacks as demons, but
this is not a terribly useful ability since demons are pathetic fighters. The number of resurrected troops depends on the number of pit lords doing the resurrecting, and can never exceed the number of pit lords performing the
operation. The pit fiend to pit lord upgrade is thus not very useful. You gain one
speed and the dubious resurrect-as-demons ability. The additional 200 gold is
not worth the price for pit lords.

EFREET/EFREET SULTAN
Attack: 16/16
Defense: 12/14
Hit Points: 90/90
Damage: 16-24
Speed: 9/13
Movement: flight
Cost: 900/1100
Special Abilities: Immune to fire spells/Immune to fire spells; fire shield
The efreet is a good sixth-level unit, combining speed, offensive power, and
durability. It is also immune to all fire spells, making it impervious to fireballs
and the like. It also cannot be bloodlusted, though, so peruse the fire school
carefully to see what spells can and cannot affect it. The efreet sultan is a significant upgrade because it is the fastest non-seventh-level troop (it shares the
distinction with the lowly dragon fly). This gives you a huge tactical advantage
in combat. The efreet sultan also has a permanent fire shield, which takes a
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redirects it at them. The damage occurs after the attack is completed, and
works even if the efreet sultan stack is killed. The upgrade, unlike most
upgrades for this town, is thus significant.
Use the efreeti and efreet sultans to draw in enemy opponents and then
unleash fireballs in the area, damaging surrounding enemies but leaving the
efreeti unharmed. Keep in mind meteor shower is an earth spell. Efreeti are the
natural enemies of genies, and inflict and receive 150 percent damage from
these foes. Because genies are slower and have far fewer hit points than efreeti,
this places them at a serious disadvantage to their fiery enemies.

DEVIL/ARCH DEVIL
Attack: 19/26
Defense: 21/28
Hit Points: 160/200
Damage: 30-40/30-40
Speed: 11/17
Movement: Teleport
Cost: 2700+1 mercury/4500+2 mercury
Special Abilities: Teleportation, no retaliation, reduces enemy luck/Teleportation, no retaliation, reduces enemy luck
The devil is a good seventh creature, second only to the angel in speed and
gifted with high attack and defense. The arch devil is more powerful still, but
weaker than the dragons, titan, and archangel. The devil has awesome mobility,
able to teleport instead of fly or walk. The arch devil can teleport anywhere on
the tactical map. It is the second fastest unit in the game, behind the archangel.
You should upgrade your devils as soon as possible, but both the initial dwelling
and the upgraded dwelling are expensive. The arch devil is far superior to the
bone dragons, behemoths, and hydras, but is much more expensive than its
strength would indicate. It does the lowest damage of any seventh-level troop,

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and has the least hit points. However, it is fast and has good attack and defense.
Cast spells such as frenzy and blood lust on it to increase its effectiveness. Both
devils and arch devils reduce enemy luck by one. Their attacks cannot be retaliated against. Devils and arch devils are (im)mortal enemies of angels and
archangels and do 150 percent damage to them.

Necropolis Units
The necropolis has some excellent units, but also some pathetic ones as well.
The walking dead and wights are terrible, but the death knight is an awesome
unit. This town type has strong magic to amplify its creatures, and can produce
hordes of skeletons. This town’s creatures unfortunately do not experience the
benefits of morale, although they can experience luck. Also, they are vulnerable
to the undead spell. Conversely, though, you can cast death ripple and not harm
your undead troops.

SKELETON/SKELETON WARRIOR
Attack: 5/6
Defense: 4/6
Hit Points: 6/6
Damage: 1-3/1-3
Speed: 4/6
Movement: ground
Cost: 60/70
Special Abilities: None/None
The skeleton is a good first-level troop and the skeleton warrior gains very
significant improvements in attack, defense, and speed. Thanks to the necro-

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mancy ability, you can amass a huge army of these creatures. However, the
necromancy ability produces skeletons and not skeleton warriors. Upgrade these
undead creatures early to gain their improved strength. As with all undead, use
spells that hurt the living but don’t harm the undead, such as death ripple.
Beware of destroy undead, however, because skeletons are highly vulnerable to
this spell. Skeleton armies are particularly vulnerable to ranged units until the
lich and vampire lord arrive to help.

WALKING DEAD/ZOMBIE
Attack: 5/5
Defense: 5/5
Hit Points: 15/20
Damage: 2-3/2-3
Speed: 3/4
Movement: ground
Cost: 100/125
Special Abilities: None/None
The walking dead is a poor man’s version of the dwarf: slow and durable.
Unfortunately, it has fewer hit points and isn’t even that strong offensively, nor
does it have the dwarf’s magic resistance. The zombie is only slightly better and
is still excessively slow. Both creatures are fodder for archers and other ranged
troops. It isn’t recommended to use walking dead or zombies in any instance
except as decoys for less competent commanders. Skeleton warriors are better
in attack, defense, damage, and speed. You might be better off using the skeleton transformer to convert your zombies to skeletons, or conquer a stronghold
and sell zombies for gold.
Unfortunately, you need the zombie dwelling for the higher level dwellings.
Don’t bother with the upgrade or with buying too many walking dead.

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WIGHT/WRAITH
Attack: 7/7
Defense: 7/7
Hit Points: 18/18
Damage: 3-5/3-5
Speed: 5/7
Movement: Flight
Cost: 200/230
Special Abilities: Heal wounded/Drain enemy spell points, heal wounded
The wight is a useless unit, and the wraith nearly so. You don’t ever need to
build the wight dwelling as requisite in order to build higher-level dwellings. In
most cases, then, you’re better off using the money saved to build other structures. The wight, in particular, is slow and weak. The top unit of the wight and
wraith stacks heals its wounds at the end of the round, so your stack is always
at maximum hit points each round—however, their low hit points offset the usefulness of this ability. The wraith also gains the ability to drain two spell points
from the enemy spellcaster per turn, which is useful, but are you going to spend
the money just for that ability? Once you have built vampire, lich, and black
knight dwellings, then you can consider the wight dwelling and upgrade to
wraiths. Then create two stacks and bring them along to continually add four
spell points to your pool every round. Consider very carefully whether you want
to bother using wraiths at all. The answer should usually be no.

VAMPIRE/VAMPIRE LORD
Attack: 10/10
Defense: 9/10

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Hit Points: 30/40
Damage: 5-8/5-8
Speed: 6/9
Movement: Flight
Cost: 360/500
Special Abilities: No retaliation/Resurrect dead vampires, no retaliation
The vampire is a bad unit: slow and weak. However, the upgraded vampire lord
is very powerful and jumps up in value considerably. That is reflected in its price;
it is the costliest fourth-level upgraded unit in the game. Vampires are necessary because they give the necropolis much needed range. The town has no
ranged units until the fifth-level lich, and the vampire lord is the first flying unit
with any kind of useful speed.
Vampires are weak because their speed and flight usually mean they get surrounded and bludgeoned by enemy units. Their low hit points contribute to their
quick demise. However, once you upgrade to vampire lords, that changes. Unfortunately, the vampire dwelling upgrade is expensive and requires the skeleton
transformer and the necromancy amplifier, thus delaying the upgrade. However,
once you do upgrade the vampire, it becomes immensely useful, as it is able to
resurrect units from its stack by attacking enemy units. Every time you attack,
the amount of damage you do is applied towards resurrecting fallen vampire
lords, although the resurrected number can never exceed the original total.
(Note, however, that the vampire lord life draining ability does not work against
enemies without life force, such as gargoyles or enemy undead.) So if you cause
80 hit points of damage, 80 hit points of vampire lords are resurrected, bringing two vampires back to life. If you have a large group of vampire lords, this
ability is extremely useful. Now combine that ability with the lich’s cloud of
death and you have a lethal combo. The vampire lord draws enemies around it
and can continue to stay alive by draining life from surrounding enemies. The
lich then lobs the death cloud into the vampire lord’s midst and damages all
creatures that are trying to kill the vampire lords. Casting counterstrike and
stone skin only increases the effectiveness of this combination.

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Vampire to vampire lord should be your third upgrade after skeletons and
liches (vampire lords are more important than power liches, but the lich upgrade
is easier to come by).

LICH/POWER LICH
Attack: 1313
Defense: 10/10
Hit Points: 30/40
Damage: 11-13/11-15
Speed: 6/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 550/600
Special Abilities: Area effect damage/Area effect damage
The lich is the necropolis’ only ranged unit but it is powerful. Use it in conjunction with the vampire lord in the combo described in the vampire entry. The
lich is a fairly powerful ranged attacker, and the power lich does a little more
damage, but the real strength of this unit is its area effect damage. The cloud
that the lich hurls deals damage to the target hex and all adjacent hexes. Better
still, this cloud does not affect undead troops, so the lich can hurl the cloud into
the thick of battle without worrying about harming its cohorts. At the same
time, this makes the lich less powerful against enemy undead forces; while its
attack always harms its target, the area effect will be ineffectual against
friendly and enemy undead alike.
Upgrade the lich as soon as you can to gain the extra damage and 10 extra
hit points. Both liches and power liches suffer the ranged units’ penalty in melee
combat, as they only deal half damage when fighting hand-to-hand. Cast haste
spells on them to pump up their average speed. Guard your liches with powerful spells of protection and with your other troops, since liches are valuable and
your only ranged attackers. It’s at this time that you might want to consider

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employing zombies as guards for your liches, since the key zombie weakness—
lack of speed—is negated because the enemy comes to the lich.

BLACK KNIGHT/DREAD KNIGHT
Attack: 16/18
Defense: 16/18
Hit Points: 110/120
Damage: 15-30/15-30
Speed: 7/9
Movement: ground
Cost: 1200/1500
Special Abilities: Curse opponents/Curse opponents, chance to inflict double
damage
The black knight is an awesome unit, while the dread knight is the most powerful non-seventh-level unit in the game. The black knight and dread knight
have superior attack, defense, damage, and hit points. The dread knight can
almost match blades with the hydra and behemoth. This unit is expensive
though, so you’ll need lots of resources to support a knight army. Even if you
don’t upgrade your black knights, they’ll still be extremely useful..
The black knight can curse opponents 20 percent of the time; cursed units
always deliver minimum damage. However, the dread knight has a 20 percent
chance to deal double damage, in addition to the curse. This can prove particularly lethal because of the unit’s high maximum damage. Cast spells that
enhance luck on this unit to really increase the power of the knight creatures.
Try to protect the dread knights with protective spells because enemy heroes
will often target the knights. They are expensive, so you want to keep them
alive. And in numbers, they prove very powerful so you want to hoard them. Use
them with the vampire lords and power liches, and you will present your opponent with some tough decisions on which units to attack first. You can also use

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the dread knight with the power liches’ death cloud if the enemy swarms the
knights instead of the vampire lords, although make sure you animate dead or
cure the knights if they suffer casualties.

BONE DRAGON/GHOST DRAGON
Attack: 17/19
Defense: 15/17
Hit Points: 150/200
Damage: 25-50/25-50
Speed: 9/11
Movement: Flight
Cost: 1800/3000+1 mercury
Special Abilities: Reduce enemy morale/Reduce enemy morale, aging
The bone dragon is a weak seventh-level unit, although it is cheap, fast, and
able to fly. The ghost dragon is only marginally better, but it gains the useful
aging ability. The bone dragon has very weak defense and low hit points, so it
isn’t durable. You’ll need to shore up its defenses with spells, or otherwise your
investment will crumble to inanimate bone when enemy units converge on the
bone dragon. Both dragons reduce enemy morale by one point.
Upgrade your bone dragons as soon as you can, because the ghost dragon’s
aging ability is extremely helpful. Although it only occurs 20 percent of the
time, it halves the hit points of all units in an enemy stack. So a force of 10
archangels goes from 2500 hit points to 1250 hit points. This is in addition
to regular damage. You’ll want to cast damage-enhancing spells on your
ghost dragons because maximum damage for the ghost dragon is excellent.
Luckily, neither bone nor ghost dragons are very expensive. Use these creatures, but always be mindful of their weaknesses. You won’t be able to compete against other high level troops without significant magical aid and a
host of dread knights.

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Rampart Units
The rampart creatures are generally slow, and only have one ranged unit. However, you can compensate for this weakness with the rampart’s strong magic.
The rampart has a pretty steep resource requirements for really only one building, and its building dependencies aren’t too bad. You want to upgrade your
units early to gain the much-needed speed upgrades. The silver pegasus is
important for an early speed boost, because all other troops usually aren’t fast
enough to win initiative in battle.

CENTAUR/CENTAUR CAPTAIN
Attack: 5/6
Defense: 3/3
Hit Points: 8/10
Damage: 2-3/2-3
Speed: 6/8
Movement: ground
Cost: 70/90
Special Abilities: None/None
The centaur and centaur captain are the best first-level troops, with the early
game’s best combination of speed and power. They are vital to the rampart
forces because the dwarf and elf are slow moving troops. The centaur, though,
is fast, and the centaur captain even faster. These creatures should form the bulk
of your early forces. However, their low defense needs to be enhanced via magic
spells such as stone skin. Because centaur captains are such a necessary element of your army, and because they are expensive, take care to keep them alive
with intelligent spell use.

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DWARF/BATTLE DWARF
Attack: 6/7
Defense: 7/7
Hit Points: 20/20
Damage: 2-4/2-4
Speed: 3/5
Movement: ground
Cost: 120/150
Special Abilities: 20 percent magic resistance/40 percent magic resistance
Dwarves are too slow to be of much use, but once you upgrade them to battle dwarves, they can be a strong addition to your army. Add battle dwarves and
elves to a force of centaurs and you should be able to do relatively well. The
centaurs and elves can draw fire from the dwarves, which can then engage the
enemy. Or, if the enemy chooses to attack the dwarves, you could rush in with
centaurs and attack with the elves.
Upgrade your dwarves at the earliest opportunity. The upgraded cottage
only costs 1000 gold so there is no excuse not to upgrade. Although dwarves
have a 20 percent magic resistance, the battle dwarves have 40 percent
resistance—meaning, 40 percent of enemy spells cast upon your battle
dwarf stacks will fizzle. This helps offset their low speed by discouraging
enemy heroes from attacking them with spells, although it doesn’t help
them against enemy archers. Cast a haste spell on your battle dwarves to
make them more effective. Once they gain good speed, they can become
very effective troops. Because you can build either a dwarf cottage of elf
homestead after a centaur stable, it is usually best to wait on the dwarves,
but don’t delay too long because battle dwarves are useful allies once you
can haste them.

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WOOD ELF/GRAND ELF
Attack: 9/9
Defense: 5/5
Hit Points: 15/15
Damage: 3-5/3-5
Speed: 6/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 200/225
Special Abilities: None/Fires twice
Wood elves are available immediately after you build a centaur stable so
recruit these creatures immediately and go conquering the surrounding lands.
These are your only ranged units, and they are good even unupgraded , being
faster than all unupgraded ranged units except the cyclops and titan. However,
compared to fliers like the serpent fly or royal griffin, they aren’t fast or durable
enough to withstand quick strikes. They’ll always need to be hasted or defended
by dwarves to handle the fast fliers, but they become killing machines with the
upgrade from wood elf to grand elf. Upgrade these elves as soon as possible
because they become deadly with their two strike ability. They also get a speed
boost by upgrading.
Both elves suffer the ranged units’ penalty for hand-to-hand attack, and have
very poor defense and hit points, so you need to keep centaur captains or
dwarves close by for defense. In fact, battle dwarves provide excellent defense
because their one shortcoming—slow movement—is negated because the enemy
has to come to the elf. It is a good idea to split your dwarves into multiple
stacks, choose to position your troops in closed ranks, and then have your elves
start out behind the dwarves. However, this makes you particularly vulnerable
to area effect spells.
Against other ranged units, the grand elf is very deadly. The wood elf tends to
fall before faster, upgraded ranged units, which get to attack first. It’s a good

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idea to use the centaur captain or the much faster silver pegasus to gain initiative and then cast haste on your grand elves so they can always attack first.
Amplify them with precision and bless to enhance their power.

PEGASUS/SILVER PEGASUS
Attack: 9/9
Defense: 10/10
Hit Points: 30/30
Damage: 5-9/5-9
Speed: 8/12
Movement: flight
Cost: 250/275
Special Abilities: Penalizes enemy spellcasters/Penalizes enemy spellcasters
The pegasus is a necessary evil. It is one of the weakest mid level units in the
game, but its speed is very much needed by the rampart forces, who otherwise
don’t have a unit that can win initiative for them. However, the pegasus
dwelling requires 10 crystal so it’s an expensive building, with an upgrade cost
of 5 crystal more. But you need the pegasus and silver pegasus, and the actual
units themselves are very cheap. Bolster their defenses with spells such as
shield, stone skin, and fire shield. Both pegasi have a good special ability: they
force the enemy spellcaster to pay two extra spell points for spell.
You want to upgrade your pegasi as soon as possible because the only reason
you are buying them is for their speed. However, if you do so, you won’t have
any crystal left for mage guilds or later level buildings. So you need at least two
crystal mines to support your higher end troops. Unlike the imp and wraith, the
pegasus’ spell modifying ability is the same regardless of how many stacks of
pegasi you have. So keep your pegasi together as one stack to enhance their
power and use spells to increase their durability. Use them wisely and only
attack an enemy unit after it has expended its counterattack.

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DENDROID GUARD/
DENDROID SOLDIER
Attack: 9/9
Defense: 12/12
Hit Points: 55/65
Damage: 10-14/10-14
Speed: 3/4
Movement: ground
Cost: 350/425
Special Abilities: Bind opponents in place/Bind opponents in place
Statistically, the dendroid guard and soldier aren’t that good for their level, and
their slow speed makes them pretty ineffectual except to guard grand elves. However, if you can use teleport to send them instantaneously across the screen, they
can wreak havoc on the enemy. Both dendroids have the special ability to bind
units in place. The units cannot move (they can still attack) until the dendroid
moves or is killed. You can then pummel the opponent while they can’t get away.
It’s great to bind mobile troops like champions and harpy hags. In addition, you
can attack the bound units with the grand elves and won’t break the binding.
The dendroids are the weakest physically of all fifth-level creatures, but they are
also the cheapest and most plentiful. The designers want you to use the dendroids
because they created the dendroid arches that add to your dendroid production, but
only recruit these creatures if you have the teleport spell or haste and tactics. Then
throw them at the enemy, bind their quickest troops in place, and attack freely.

UNICORN/WAR UNICORN
Attack: 15/15
Defense: 14/14

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Hit Points: 90/110
Damage: 18-22/18-22
Speed: 7/9
Movement: ground
Cost: 850/950
Special Abilities: Blinding, aura of magic resistance/Blinding, aura of magic
resistance
The unicorn is a good unit, and the war unicorn is actually quite powerful.
They aren’t the fastest of level six troops, but they are durable and have useful
special abilities. Their aura of magic resistance has a 20 percent chance of
negating enemy spells, and extends to all adjacent units, so you can have a few
guarding your elves for added protection. Like the dwarves’ resistance, the aura
doesn’t affect beneficial spells you cast.
Upgrade your unicorns early so they gain the extra 20 hit points and better
speed. However, they don’t benefit from any increase in offense. Because of
their magic resistance aura, and the ability to blind opponents, unicorns and
war unicorns should always be a part of your army. They are also the cheapest
of sixth-level troops. Fortify them with magic spells to increase their longevity.

GREEN DRAGON/GOLD DRAGON
Attack: 18/27
Defense: 18/27
Hit Points: 180/250
Damage: 40-50/40-50
Speed: 10/16
Movement: Flight
Cost: 2400+1 crystal/4000+2 crystal
Special Abilities: Immune to level one to three spells, attacks two tiles/Immune
to level one to four spells, attacks two tiles

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The green and gold dragons replace the phoenix as the strongest creature
in the rampart town. They are incredibly strong creatures that can match
devils and angels. These dragons are very similar to the dragons of the dungeon town, although they aren’t quite as impervious to magic. The green
dragon is a powerful creature, able to withstand up to level three spells and
attack two tiles with its breath weapon. Like the red and black dragons, this
two tile attack can hit two units if they both occupy one hex and are within
the same line of attack. If a large creature occupies both tiles, then the
attack will only affect that creature. You can harm your own units with this
attack so be careful that you aren’t lured into attacking your own troops by
careful placement of enemy stacks and through involuntary retaliation. For
example, assume there is an empty hex between a green dragon stack and
a dwarf stack. If a dragon fly moves to that hex in between the two stacks
and attacks the dragon, the dragon will turn to retaliate against the dragon
fly, but the two tile attack would catch the dragon fly and the dwarf in the
second hex behind it.
The gold dragon is a significant upgrade to the green dragon, and is
immune to spells from level one to four. It also becomes the third fastest
unit in the game, and gains a great jump in most stats. While it is weaker
than the black dragon in terms of hit points, it is faster and slightly superior in attack and defense. While this gold dragon is not immune to all
spells, you can still cast destructive spells around the dragon without worry
as long as you don’t use powerful fifth-level spells. You can still cast
armageddon, chain lightning, and meteor shower at enemies surrounding
the dragon and inflict serious damage. The only spell you have to worry
about is implosion. Of course, you could always cast magic mirror, which
could reflect the implosion. Unfortunately, the gold dragon can’t benefit
from any positive spells, although the green dragon can benefit from positive fourth-level spells.
Because the pegasus dwelling is expensive in crystal, you probably won’t get
dragons for awhile. The dragon cliffs have a steep cost, as do the dragons themselves, so if you want to recruit dragons, you need to hold two to three crystal
mines.

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Stronghold Units
The stronghold is a town with powerful creatures. This town lacks a really good
ranged unit until the cyclops, but you can climb up the tech tree quickly and
gain some powerful units very fast. These creature dwellings are expensive,
though. Most of the creatures here have brutal attacks but are weak in defense.
So if you use these creatures, strike first and fast.

GOBLIN/HOBGOBLIN
Attack: 4/5
Defense: 2/3
Hit Points: 5/5
Damage: 1-12/1-2
Speed: 5/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 40/50
Special Abilities: None/None
The goblin is a weak little creature but it can be recruited in great numbers
and has decent attack strength when coupled with the barbarian’s high attack
skill. For their cost, they are actually somewhat effective in large numbers,
although they aren’t ever the equal of centaurs, pikemen, troglodytes, or gnolls.
They are never durable, whether upgraded or not.
Upgrade your goblins to hobgoblins and they gain a pretty good speed boost
that makes them second to the centaur captain in terms of first-level speed.
However, they still fall easily to ranged attackers and higher level troops.
This upgrade isn’t vital, but you need the upgraded goblin barracks before you
can upgrade your wolf riders, which is an essential upgrade.

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WOLF RIDER/WOLF RAIDER
Attack: 7/8
Defense: 5/5
Hit Points: 10/10
Damage: 2-4/3-4
Speed: 6/8
Movement: ground
Cost: 100/140
Special Abilities: None/Strikes twice
Like so many other stronghold creatures, the wolf rider has good attack but
weak defense. The hit points for the wolf rider are laughably low for its level
and because it always charges into the thick of battle, you will always have
high wolf rider casualties. But, this unit is designed for quick strikes, with little consideration to the deaths that will inevitably result. While the wolf rider
is a fairly good unit, the upgraded wolf raider is much more effective. This
should be your first stronghold upgrade, as the wolf raider gains a higher
attack, speed, and two attacks.
While not as fast as the obsidian gargoyle or harpy hag, the wolf raider
does have good speed and can strike with lethal results. If Heroes III has a
shock troop, this is it. The two strikes allow it to effectively double its damage, and the higher minimum damage ensures that the attack delivers a
scathing blow. However, often times, if you are attacking a large stack of
units, you might not be able to deliver the second attack because the wolf
raider’s hit points are so low. Increase their defense with stone skin and
shield. Although you should definitely upgrade and use these creatures, don’t
expect many to survive your battles. These creatures seem ideal for engaging
ranged units but are particularly vulnerable to attacks from marksmen,
magogs, and grand elves.

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ORC/ORC CHIEFTAIN
Attack: 8/8
Defense: 4/4
Hit Points: 15/20
Damage: 2-5/2-5
Speed: 4/5
Movement: ground
Cost: 150/165
Special Abilities: None/None
You need this creature because it is the first ranged unit for the stronghold,
but it isn’t a very effective ranged attacker. It is slow and so usually attacks
after other ranged units have whittled away at their numbers, which occurs
with frightening frequency because orcs have such low defense and hit points.
So, orcs and even orc chieftains are damned on two fronts: too slow to attack
first, too weak to survive that first assault. However, because you need ranged
units in the early game to offset the lethality of enemy ranged fire, you must
recruit these creatures.
Upgrade orcs right away because you need to make them faster and give them
more hit points. Both types of orcs suffer the ranged units’ penalty for melee
combat. Orcs can be quite effective if paired with barbarian heroes with high
attack skill, although there is always the question of durability. Cast spells like
stoneskin to toughen them up in battle.
Throw these troops into your army and hope that the presence of wolf
raiders forces the enemy to ignore your orcs so they can survive long
enough to hurl their axes. Then again, this can work both ways, as orcs tend
to draw fire from your wolf raiders, which are powerful if they can actually
get in close.

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OGRE/OGRE MAGE
Attack: 13/13
Defense: 7/7
Hit Points: 40/60
Damage: 6-12
Speed: 4/5
Movement: ground
Cost: 300/400
Special Abilities: None/Bloodlust
The ogre is a powerful but slow creature that can soak up and dish out
tremendous punishment. As fourth-level creatures go, it has good attack and hit
points, but it has poor defense and speed. You want to upgrade these troops
because they gain 20 hit points and the ability to cast bloodlust, which you can
use to great effect on your wolf raiders, thunderbirds, and behemoths. Ogres are
most effective when you can cast teleport to spirit them across the tactical map.
However, they are strong enough to walk across the map and take the punishment that some low level ranged units dish out along the way.
Ogres and ogre magi dwellings are very expensive to build due to the high
wood requirements, but they are cheap units to recruit. Either way, you need
them to get cyclopes, so if you want the game’s second best ranged unit, you
need to build that ogre fort. However, otherwise, if you climb up the behemoth
path instead of the cyclops one, you can wait on ogres.

ROC/THUNDERBIRD
Attack: 13/13
Defense: 11/11

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Hit Points: 60/60
Damage: 11-15/11-15
Speed: 7/11
Movement: flight
Cost: 600/700
Special Abilities: None/Lightning strike
The roc is a stronger and more mobile version of the ogre. It has a fairly good
mix of hit points and offense, and is decent in speed. However, it is one of the
more expensive fifth-level creatures, and its upgrade is definitely not cheap. You
need lots of cash to support these birds.
Upgrade the rocs as soon as you can because their thunderbird aspect
gains 4 speed and can call down lightning on opponents. A stack struck by
thunderbirds has a 20 percent chance of also being struck by lightning,
which does 10 damage per thunderbird. With a large stack of thunderbirds,
this can be a very useful ability, especially because it ignores any defensive
bonuses the target stack might have. The thunderbird speed upgrade is also
very important for the stronghold because most of the other units are
pretty slow.
You can get the roc’s cliff nest immediately after building a wolf rider
dwelling and thus acquire two fast units within two turns. Coincidentally,
this is also the track towards gaining the behemoth. Once you build the cliff
nest, the behemoth lair becomes available the next turn. If you go down this
track, you are cutting yourself off from orcs, ogres, and cyclopes for at least
a week, but because the thunderbird is so fast and durable, it isn’t really
that big of a loss. The wolf riders also give you enough muscle and speed to
field a credible attack force. Throw in the behemoth you get next round and
you have melee force only, but one that commands considerable respect,
and all before day four! Even in the later game, the thunderbird remains a
good unit, with great speed, durability, and attack. And the chance to call
lightning is a healthy bonus. These creatures should be a big part of all your
stronghold armies.

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CYCLOPS/CYCLOPS KING
Attack: 15/17
Defense: 12/13
Hit Points: 70/70
Damage: 16-20/16-20
Speed: 6/8
Movement: ground
Cost: 750/1100
Special Abilities: Can attack castle walls/Can attack castle walls
The cyclops is the second ranged unit available at the stronghold and is much
more effective than the weak orc. The cyclops is the second-best ranged unit,
with high attack and damage. The cyclops king gains incremental increases in
attack and speed.
Both types of cyclopes can attack walls during castle sieges as though they
were catapults. Cyclops and cyclops kings attack as if they had the ballistics skill,
which means they have a better than average chance to hit the wall they targeted and destroy them. Cyclops kings attack walls twice per round. This ability
helps offset the barbarian hero’s marginal chances of learning the ballistics skill.
Building the cyclops cave is a cost-prohibitive endeavor because of the great
ore and crystal requirements. The cyclops itself, though, is very cheap, although
the cyclops king is an incredible 350 gold more! It might not be worth that
much gold, but the cyclops king is a great ranged unit and should be a part of
every stronghold force. However, given the choice between going up the behemoth path (wolf pen to cliff nest), or the cyclops path (orc tower to ogre fort),
go with the behemoth track because it is actually cheaper. The ore and wood
costs of the cyclops cave and ogre fort, respectively, are too high to be built in
the first week, while the behemoth lair actually can be built that first week.
But by the later game, definitely build up a large force of cyclops. Always be
mindful of their hit points because they are rather flimsy for sixth-level troops.

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Bolster their defenses with stone skin and cast beneficial spells like precision
and prayer to make them truly terrifying ranged attackers.

BEHEMOTH/ANCIENT BEHEMOTH
Attack: 17/19
Defense: 17/19
Hit Points: 160/300
Damage: 30-50/30-50
Speed: 6/9
Movement: ground
Cost: 1500/3000+1 crystal
Special Abilities: Reduces target defense by 40 percent/Reduces target defense
by 80 percent
The behemoth is a great brute that isn’t very fast but has a devastating
melee attack. It is also very cheap for a seventh-level unit and very easy to
acquire on the tech tree. Within three turns you can get the behemoth, provided you start with a goblin barracks. In turn one, build a wolf pen. In turn
two, build the cliff nest. And in turn three, you can build a behemoth lair. And
assuming the standard starting resources, you’ll be able to do just that and still
recruit the one behemoth immediately. Then go rampaging across the countryside while your fellow castle and dungeon players are running around with
weak archers and harpies.
The behemoth has a special attack where it reduces the target’s defense by
40 percent. It is actually a very powerful ability that can quickly set up enemy
creatures for terrible subsequent blows. Let’s assume your one first behemoth
runs into a stack of three pit fiends, which have a defense of 13 (both dwellings
can be built in the same time, producing those exact numbers after completion).
A normal attack from that one behemoth would do from 36-60 damage (assuming the behemoth’s attack of 17 and a minimum barbarian hero attack skill of

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4). On the next attack, that behemoth would do 50-83 damage to the pit fiends
because their defense was lowered to eight. At minimum damage, one pit fiend
is dead, and at maximum damage, the whole stack is vanquished, with the
behemoth suffering at most 28 damage, assuming the behemoth attacked first.
(For a full description of how attack and defense factor into combat, read the
combat section of this guide.)
The ancient behemoth is even more powerful, with nearly double hit
points and slightly higher attack and defense. Moreover, the defense reduction ability jumps from 40 percent to 80 percent! Go for the behemoth
within the first week and then conquer every mine you see to get the necessary resources to recruit ogres and cyclopes. This strategy will work well
to ensure that you get a huge jump on the competition in terms of territory
and mines claimed.
Beware of the later game, though, when other towns’ seventh-level troops
come into play. Angels, devils, the titan, and dragons are all more powerful
than the behemoth or ancient behemoth, although the defense reduction
ability is always useful. In the later game, it sets up enemies from far ranged
attacks by the cyclops kings. The ancient behemoth is not too expensive,
although you’ll want probably one or even two crystal mines to support it and
the cyclops.

Tower Units
The tower creatures start off weak but increasingly grow in power. You will have
a tough time climbing up the tech tree, though, because of the high cost of
buildings and upgrades. However, if you can survive to the late game and have
a lot of mines, you will be rewarded with some very powerful units. This town
has three ranged units and two fliers, and can be bolstered with strong magic.
The weakness of this town is speed; no unit in this town exceeds 11 speed, so
you need to be liberal with that haste spell.

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GREMLIN/MASTER GREMLIN
Attack: 3/4
Defense: 3/4
Hit Points: 4/4
Damage: 1-2/1-2
Speed: 4/5
Movement: ground
Shots: None/8
Cost: 30/40
Special Abilities: None/None
The gremlin has to be the weakest creature in the game (or maybe the imp,
but at that pathetic level, it doesn’t really matter). It will die in droves and the
wizard and alchemist don’t have the defense or attack skills to keep them alive.
However, you might want to upgrade them when you have the chance because
the master gremlins actually have a ranged attack, in addition to better attack,
defense, and speed. This gives the tower hero the game’s only first-level ranged
unit, and for a dirt-cheap price. Otherwise, in the early game, don’t expect to
win a lot of battles with this creature. Move up the tech tree and scramble for
nagas and golems.

STONE GARGOYLE/
OBSIDIAN GARGOYLE
Attack: 6/7
Defense: 6/7
Hit Points: 16/16

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Damage: 2-3/2-3
Speed: 6/9
Movement: flight
Cost: 130/160
Special Abilities: None
The stone gargoyle is a durable unit with good attack and defense, although
as with all the tower creatures, the lack of strong heroes means they aren’t as
durable when pitted up against castle or stronghold creatures of the same level.
Still, the upgraded obsidian gargoyle is fast. The sculptor’s wing, which increases
gargoyle production, is pretty cheap, so buy it early and boost your gargoyle
numbers. Getting 13 to 22 gargoyles by week two can be very useful. They also
aren’t too expensive, and the money you save because of the cheap gremlin
price means you have enough gold to buy all your gargoyles.
However, against ranged units or the strength of such towns as the rampart,
castle, or stronghold, the gargoyle might not be able to give you victory. So
you’ll still need to climb up the tech tree to sturdier units. Use the gargoyle in
the early game to achieve initiative and pester ranged units, a role at which it
excels. Running this kind of interference also gives your golems the luxury of
walking up to the front lines to do battle with the enemy troops. The gargoyles
are good for such situations, but make sure you cast a stone skin and haste on
them to toughen them up for the inevitable swarm of troops that will try to
shake the gargoyle off the ranged units. The gargoyle and the golems are good
against vampire lords because they aren’t living, and thus don’t have lifeforce
to give over to resurrect dead vampire lords. Keep that in mind when fighting
the necropolis towns.

STONE GOLEM/IRON GOLEM
Attack: 7/9
Defense: 10/10

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Hit Points: 30/35
Damage: 4-5/4-5
Speed: 3/5
Movement: ground
Cost: 150/200
Special Abilities: Suffer half damage from spells/Suffer quarter damage from
spells
Stone golems and iron golems are strong, durable, and highly resistant to
magic. Now if only there was a way to speed them up. These two units compare
favorably in defense, hit points, and damage, but they need to have a haste spell
or teleport cast on them to be really useful. They are very cheap so you should
be able to buy a lot of them. These troops suffer less damage from spells. The
stone golem only suffers half damage, while the iron golem suffers but a quarter damage. That means only ranged units or high level spells are really effective at bringing them down. So you can walk your golems over to the enemy
lines, withstand several volleys of arrows or rocks, and probably have enough
left over to pummel your opponents. Of course, it would be great if you could
keep casualties to a minimum, so upgrade the golems as soon as possible. That
way you get a faster iron golem that is even more resistant to magic and has a
better attack. Still, even with a force of master gremlins, obsidian gargoyles, and
iron golems roaming around the countryside by day five, you would lose easily
to a rampart or stronghold’s day five army. However, if you want to jump to the
powerful naga queens, you will need to hold off on the iron golem upgrade.
Remember, these units should be upgraded if you intend to use them, and
even then you must amplify their speed with haste.

MAGE/ARCHMAGE
Attack: 11/12
Defense: 8/9

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Hit Points: 25/30
Damage: 7-9
Speed: 5/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 350/450
Special Abilities: Reduce your spell cost, no melee penalty/Reduce your spell
cost, no melee penalty, no ranged penalty
The mage is the second ranged attacker the tower gets, and it is able to deliver
lethal blasts from long range. The archmage can do so without the ranged
penalty (in most cases, ranged attackers only do half damage at long range,
which is anything beyond 10 hexes, or behind cover; the archmage ignores this
penalty). Both the mage and archmage also do not have the ranged units’ melee
penalty. Another ability both magi have is that they reduce the casting cost of all
your spells by two. A magic arrow is only three spell points, while a haste is only
four. The major weakness of this unit is low speed and low hit points.
Upgrade these units early, because they gain more hit points, speed, and better attack. However, the upgraded dwelling requires the library, delaying the
upgrade. Also, the mage dwelling itself is expensive and requires both the golem
and gargoyle dwelling and the mage guild before it can be built. Once you do
get these units, though, you will have a powerful ranged attack that can decimate many lower level armies. Use the archmage whenever possible and keep
iron golems on hand for protection. Employ obsidian gargoyles to interfere with
any enemy ranged units that might attack your archmagi, and then have your
master gremlins throw in some extra ranged attacks. This formation can be a
formidable force in the mid game.

GENIE/MASTER GENIE
Attack: 12/12
Defense: 12/12

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Hit Points: 40/40
Damage: 13-16/13-16
Speed: 7/11
Movement: flight
Cost: 550/600
Special Abilities: None/Spellcaster
The genie and master genie become available after you build the mage tower.
These creatures are fast and deal good damage, but are somewhat low in hit
points. Compared to other fifth-level troops, they are only average. However,
once you upgrade the genies, they gain a few new abilities. Statistically, they
stay the same except for speed, in which they receive a significant boost. They
also gain the ability to cast one random beneficial spell per round. This spell
must be cast in lieu of an attack. Sometimes it can be very helpful, such as when
it is a prayer or mirth spell, but other times, it could be a useless protection from
water against fire elementals or a counterstrike spell on royal griffins. However,
in the later game, when you do use it as a secondary spellcaster to bolster your
naga queens and titans, consider creating two master genie stacks so you can
cast two additional beneficial spells. You also have twice the likelihood of getting a good spell.
Because you can either build a genie dwelling or a naga dwelling, consider
what sort of strategy you want to employ first. If you want to muscle your way
through with magi and nagas, go for the nagas. However, that is an expensive
strategy. You can build two genies for every naga, so you could instead opt for
the genies’ speed. Let them lead your armies by giving you initiative and letting
you cast spells first (something the tower hero is always good at). If you do go
this route, it is imperative that you upgrade to master genies because of their
superior speed. You also then need to upgrade your golems because they
become your chief muscle with this strategy. However, by the late game, genies
and master genies become pretty weak, falling alarmingly fast to enemy ranged
attackers and losing in head-to-head confrontations with other melee units. So
where does this unit stand then in the later game? Not very well on its own two
feet (if it had feet), so support it with spells and other units.

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Genies are mortal enemies of efreeti and efreet sultans and do 150 percent
damage to them. Unfortunately, efreeti are twice as strong and also do 150 percent damage. Don’t engage efreets or efreet sultans.

NAGA/NAGA QUEEN
Attack: 16/16
Defense: 13/13
Hit Points: 110/110
Damage: 20/30
Speed: 5/7
Movement: ground
Cost: 1100/1600
Special Abilities: No retaliation/No retaliation
The naga is a strong creature, but extremely expensive. The naga queen is
even more powerful, but costs an astounding 1600 gold. That’s 100 more than
the seventh-level behemoth. The reason why this unit is so costly is because it
always deals maximum damage, and because it invites no retaliation. However,
it is slow.
When you finally build the mage tower, you can either build a genie dwelling
or a naga dwelling. The naga dwelling is usually preferable because its occupant
is an excellent combination of power and defense. However, you should plan on
upgrading it because it really needs the extra speed to be truly useful. Of course,
this entire strategy requires a high amount of precious resources, like mercury
and gems, so if you do go this route, make sure you selected extra resources as
your starting bonus in the scenario selection screen.
The naga has good attack and defense, and does a minimum of 20 damage,
but you still want to upgrade it as early as possible because the naga queen
does 30 damage and has 2 more speed. For all that though, you will pay 1600
gold per naga queen. Because the naga queens are so expensive, you will really

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need to watch over them carefully. That 1600 investment has to be kept safe,
so cast plenty of haste, stone skin, counterstrike, prayer, shield, bloodlust, and
bless spells on your naga queens. This is where the master genie could come in
handy in the later game as you use it to cast spells on the naga queens. If you
do go for naga queens, you can get them by day six or seven, so make use of
them and scour the countryside for mines and treasure chests. You’ll need those
extra resources and gold.

GIANT/TITAN
Attack: 19/24
Defense: 16/24
Hit Points: 150/300
Damage: 40-60
Shots: None/24
Speed: 7/11
Movement: ground
Cost: 2000+1 gem, 5000+2 gems
Special Abilities: Immune to mind spells/Immune to mind spells; no melee
penalty
The giant is simply a durable seventh-level unit, but the titan is a juggernaut
of strength and resilience. Both the giant and titan are immune to mind altering spells like hypnosis and berserk. The giant can do some serious damage and
is actually fairly strong, but it is slow and ground-bound, and thus vulnerable to
ranged attacks. While the giant’s cloud temple is relatively cheap, the upgraded
dwelling is not. Odds are that you will get giants and then have to wait awhile
before you can upgrade them to titans. In that case, use them exactly as you
use naga queens. Soak up damage, cast plenty of protection and enhancement
spells (bless is particularly good) on them, and then break apart enemy armies
while the master gremlins and archmagi fire away from afar.

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Once you can upgrade the giant, do so because the titan is a fearful monster.
It gets increased attack and defense, double hit points, and gains a ranged attack,
making it by far the most powerful ranged unit in the game. It can also attack
melee units without penalty and does 150 percent damage to black dragons. The
titan and giant both do a great deal of damage (the most in the game, in fact),
but the titan is clearly more durable and useful due to its ranged fire. Once you
get the titan, just sit back and blow your enemy to pieces. They will have to come
to you, whereupon the titans will still dish out lethal damage. The only weakness
of the titan is its speed, which is most inferior to the archangel, arch devil, and
upgraded dragons. Be prepared for that inevitable first strike from those units,
since you won’t be able to attack first even with a haste spell. The key, once you
do survive that first attack, is slowing down the enemy and speeding up your own
troops. You’ll still want to cast haste and other protection spells to defend
against those units, but also cast slow and sorrow on the enemy.

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THREE

COMPARISONS OF
ALL CREATURES
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o now you have a good idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each unit.
You know that the archangel is the best unit in the game, that you should
upgrade your wood elves and archers above all other creatures in their
respective towns, and you know not to build the wight or demon unless
you want to know what it feels like to lose them. For an even more direct
look at how the units compare to each other, we also have unit charts
organized by level so you can see how units stack up against like-level
creatures, how much they cost relative to each other, and how useful they
really are. While we do rank every creature within its level, some creatures are
terrible on their own (as reflected in the rankings), but are sometimes useful
when enhanced by spells or used in conjunction with other units. Refer to individual unit entries for details.
Lastly, there is a comparison chart for the game’s ranged units, because it is
so important to see who attacks first in archery duels and who is simply better.
As with the other charts, it ranks the units from best to worst. You might be surprised at some of the results. Use this chart to gauge whether and when to
attack enemy ranged units.
There are two charts for each level. The first lists the regular versions of the
creature, while the second lists the upgraded version. Also, the creatures are
ranked from best to worst.
F=can fly, R=has ranged attack, S=has special abilities, T=teleports.

Level One Units
CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

centaur

2-3

pikeman

1-3

skeleton

1-3

gnoll

2-3

troglodyte

1-3

SPECIAL

Continued on page 97

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SPECIAL

CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

goblin

1-2

imp

1-2

gremlin

1-2

SPECIAL

CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

centaur capt

2-3

halberdier

2-3

skel warrior

1-3

inf troglodyte

1-3

gnoll maraud

2-3

hobgoblin

1-2

mast gremlin

1-2

familiar

1-2

SPECIAL

Level Two Units
CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

wolf rider

2-4

100

gog

2-4

125

archer

2-3

100

stone gargoyle

2-3

130

harpy

1-4

130

F, S

lizardman

1-3

110

dwarf

2-4

120

walking dead

2-3

100

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CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

marksman

2-3

150

R, S

wolf raider

3-4

140

harpy hag

1-4

170

F, S

obs gargoyle

2-3

160

battle dwarf

2-4

150

magog

2-4

175

lizard warrior

2-3

130

zombie

2-3

125

Level Three Units
CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

griffin

3-6

200

F, S

hell hound

2-7

200

wood elf

3-5

200

beholder

3-5

250

R, S

stone golem

4-5

150

orc

2-5

150

serpent fly

2-5

220

F, S

wight

3-5

200

F, S

CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

grand elf

3-5

225

R, S

royal griffin

3-6

240

F, S

evil eye

3-5

280

R, S

cerberi

2-5

250

iron golem

4-5

200

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CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

dragon fly

2-5

240

F, S

orc chieftain

2-5

165

wraith

3-5

230

F, S

Level Four Units
CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

magi

7-9

350

R, S

basilisk

6-10

325

medusa

6-8

300

R, S

swordsman

6-9

300

ogre

6-12

300

pegasi

5-9

250

F, S

vampire

5-8

360

F, S

demon

7-9

250

CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

crusader

7-10

400

vampire lord

5-8

500

F, S

archmagi

7-9

450

R, S

greater basilisk

6-10

400

medusa queen

6-8

330

R, S

ogre magi

6-12

400

silver pegasi

5-9

275

F, S

horned demon

7-9

270

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Level Five Units
CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

minotaur

12-20

500

roc

11-15

600

lich

11-13

550

gorgon

12-16

525

genie

13-16

550

monk

10-12

400

pit fiend

13-17

500

dendroid

10-14

350

CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

minotaur king

12-20

575

power lich

11-15

600

thunderbird

11-15

700

F, S

mighty gorgon

12-16

600

master genie

13-16

600

F, S

zealot

10-12

450

pit lord

13-17

700

dendroid soldier

10-14

425

Level Six Units
CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

MIN DMG

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

death knight

15-30

120

1200

cavalry

15-25

100

1000

Continued on page 101

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CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

cyclops

16-20

750

efreet

16-24

900

F, S

unicorn

18-22

850

naga

110

1100

manticore

14-20

850

F, S

wyvern

14-18

800

F, S

CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

MIN DMG

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

dread knight

15-30

120

1500

champion

20-25

110

1200

naga queen

110

1600

war unicorn

18-22

110

950

efreet sultan

16-24

1100

F, S

cyclops king

16-20

1100

R, S

scorpicore

14-20

1050

F, S

wyvern monarch

18-22

1100

F, S

Level Seven Units
CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

angel

200

3000

red dragon

40-50

180

2500+1S

F, S

green dragon

40-50

180

2400+1C

F, S

devil

30-40

160

2700+1M

T, S

giant

40-60

150

2000+1G

bone dragon

25-50

150

1800

F, S

hydra

25-45

175

2200

behemoth

30-50

160

1500

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CREATURE

ATTACK

DEFENSE

DAMAGE

SPEED

COST

SPECIAL

archangel

250

5000

F, S

titan

300

5000+2G

R, S

black dragon

300

4000+2S

F, S

gold dragon

250

4000+2C

F, S

arch devil

200

4500+2M

T, S

ghost dragon

200

3000+1M

F, S

ancient behem

300

3000+1C

chaos hydra

250

3500+1S

All Ranged Units
The letter and number in the parentheses after the unit name refers to the town
type and the creature level (The titan is a seventh-level tower unit).

ATTACK

DEFENSE

HIT POINTS

DAMAGE

SPEED

titan (T/7)

300

40-60

cyclops (S/6)

16-20

lich (N/5)

11-13

monk (C/5)

10-12

mage (T/4)

7-9

medusa (D/4)

6-8

wood elf (R/3)

3-5

beholder (D/3)

3-5

orc (S/3)

2-5

gog (I/2)

2-4

archer (C/2)

2-3

lizardman (F/2)

2-3

mast gremlin (T/1)

1-2

CREATURE

(TOWN/LVL)

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ATTACK

DEFENSE

HIT POINTS

DAMAGE

SPEED

titan

300

40-60

cyclops King

16-20

power lich

11-15

zealot

10-12

arch magi

7-9

grand elf

3-5 (x2)

med. queen

6-8

evil eye

3-5

marksman

2-3 (x2)

magog

2-4*

orc chieftain

2-5

lizard warrior

2-3

mast gremlin

1-2

CREATURE

(TOWN/LVL)

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FOUR
HEROES AND SKILLS
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ow you know the town types and the units. Ready to choose a hero to
lead your armies? We won’t actually describe and rank the dozens of
unique heroes, but we’ll give you an overview of each town’s hero type
and their strengths and weaknesses. We’re also providing a chart that
lists the heroes’ likelihood to gain secondary skills with level advancement. You can thus tell which heroes are more likely to gain leadership
or wisdom. Unlike the rest of the guide, we won’t divide this section up
by town, instead describing the heroes in general.

The Heroes of
Might and Magic
Each town has two hero types, a might character and a magic character. Obviously one is better in combat while the other gains better spell power. However,
between each town type there are big differences in ability. The barbarians are
the best attackers, better than even the knight class, while the warlock is always
more likely to gain greater spell power than the druid. For a list of all heroes,
check out the last section of the Heroes III manual.

MIGHT CLASSES
The eight might classes are alchemist, barbarian, beastmaster, death knight,
demoniac, knight, overlord, and ranger. So, which might character is most
powerful? Well, the barbarian of the stronghold is hands-down the best in
attack and is more likely to advance in attack than any other primary skill. The
beastmaster of the fortress has the best defense and is more likely to advance
in defense than any other primary skill. The alchemist is the weakest might
character, but has the best magic skill of all might characters. The overlord is

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the second best spellcaster in this group. The ranger deserves special mention
because it is close to the beastmaster in terms of starting defense. Here are
the basic starting stats for all might characters (the numbers are attack,
defense, power, and skill, respectively), as well as the percentage chance of
advancement in each skill. Advancement in these primary skills levels out after
ninth level for every class.

CLASS

STARTING STATS

CHANCE

Alchemist

1/1/2/2

30/30/20/20

Barbarian

4/0/1/1

55/35/5/5

Beastmaster

0/4/1/1

30/50/10/10

Death Knight

1/2/2/1

30/25/20/25

Demoniac

2/2/1/1

35/35/15/15

Knight

2/2/1/1

34/45/10/10

Overlord

2/2/1/1

35/35/15/15

Ranger

1/3/1/1

35/45/10/10

TO ADVANCE

MAGIC CLASSES
The eight magic classes are battle mage, cleric, druid, heretic, necromancer,
warlock, witch, and wizard. The most powerful spellcaster is the warlock,
while the most knowledgeable is the wizard. Both these classes are atrocious fighters. The druid, like the ranger, has good defense, while the witch
is a surprisingly able spellcaster. The battle mage is practically a fighter
with a limited knowledge of magic. Here are the basic starting stats for all
magic characters, as well as the percentage chance of advancement in each
skill. Advancement in these primary skills levels out after the ninth level for
every class.

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CLASS

STARTING STATS

CHANCE

Battle Mage

2/1/1/1

30/20/25/25

Cleric

1/0/2/2

20/15/30/35

Druid

0/2/1/2

10/20/35/35

Heretic

1/1/2/1

15/15/35/35

Necromancer

1/0/2/2

15/15/35/35

Warlock

0/0/3/2

10/10/50/30

Witch

0/1/2/2

5/15/40/40

Wizard

0/0/2/3

10/10/40/40

AND

MAGIC III

TO ADVANCE

While all heroes belong to a class, each hero is unique and thus has a unique
ability. We classify them by the following groupings: creature specialists, spell
geniuses, merchants, and talents. Creature specialists are found in the might
classes, while spell geniuses are found in the magic classes. Merchants and talents can be found in both classes. These terms are not used by the game and
were coined by us to more accurately identify the different groups of hero special abilities. What follows is what each category means and how useful they are.

CREATURE SPECIALISTS
The creature specialist has one creature for which it bestows a bonus above the
normal bonus for the hero’s attack and defense rating. Fiona the demoniac, for
example, specializes in hell hounds and cerberi, while Sorsha the knight specializes in swordsmen and crusaders. Creature specialists boost the speed,
attack, and defense of any such creatures serving in their army. The speed
bonus is an immediate +1 to speed. The attack and defense ratings, though,
don’t become available until the hero attains the same level as the creature.
Thus, Fiona won’t grant her hell hounds a +1 to attack and defense until she
reaches third level, the same level as hell hounds. Sorsha likewise won’t benefit
her swordsmen until she reaches fourth level. Only hire a creature specialist as
your starting hero in a multiplayer game or individual scenario if that hero

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specializes in first- or second-level creatures. The boost in speed and attack for
archers that Valeska brings to your forces is very powerful in the early game,
especially because you gain an immediate speed advantage over other ranged
units. In all other cases, you are better off hiring creature specialists after
you’ve started the game.
Recommended starting creature specialists: Piquedram (gargoyles), Gretchin
(goblins), Tyraxor (wolf riders), Drakon (gnolls), Galthran (skeletons), Valeska
(archers), Shakti (troglodytes)

SPELL GENIUSES
The spell geniuses have one spell that they can cast at greater proficiency than
a normal spellcaster. Spell geniuses thus cast spells with increased efficiency,
dealing slightly more damage, having longer durations, or other increased
effects. The most important aspect of a spell genius, though, is that they start
play with that particular spell, no matter what level it is. The most powerful
spell geniuses can thus serve as an awesome early bonus. Solmyr, for example,
is a wizard that starts play with chain lightening, which means he can obliterate four low-level enemy stacks at once. Such an ability cannot be underestimated in the early game as it gives you a huge tactical advantage. All spell
geniuses start with enough spell points to cast their spell.
Recommended starting spell geniuses: Melodia (fortune), Xyron (inferno), Aislinn (meteor shower), Deemer (meteor shower), Solmyr (chain lightening), Cyra
(haste), Thant (animate dead)

MERCHANTS
These heroes give extra resources to their ruler each day. Rissa the alchemist,
for example, produces +1 mercury per day for you. Caitlin the cleric produces

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350 extra gold a day. In a week, that’s 6 extra mercury for you to build that naga
dwelling, or 2000 extra gold for buying more troops. For scenarios or games
where you are playing a resource heavy town, the merchant is a must.
Recommended starting merchants: All

TALENTS
The talent begins with a 5 percent bonus to any one secondary skill, and
gains a 5 percent bonus to that skill for each subsequent level. There are
heroes with a 5 percent bonus to ballistics or necromancy, or to first aid and
eagle eye. Some talents are useless because they specialize in useless skills
(Voy the witch doesn’t benefit from her navigation bonus if there’s no water
to be found). But some, such as Tazar the Beastmaster, complement their
troops wonderfully. He has an armorer bonus and makes his already tough
fortress creatures even tougher. In most cases, though, despite a specialization in a good secondary skill, you should start with a powerful spell genius
or a merchant—that’s because those effects are immediately noticeable,
while talents only become useful after the hero is high level.
Recommended starting talents: Mephala (armorer), Gunnar (logistics), Lord
Haart (estates)

SECONDARY SKILLS
The new heroes have also brought with them new secondary skills. The number
of skills has increased considerably since the last game. Some are still extremely
useful, while other old skills were adjusted to become useful. And then there are
new skills that have filled the always-present niche of useless “skills.”
All heroes can learn up to eight secondary skills, with each hero type more
likely to learn one of the 28 skills depending on its class. Each skill further has

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three levels of ability: basic, advanced, and expert. Obviously, higher level indicates a greater proficiency in the respective skill.
A very important addition to the skills system are the new magic skills. Magic
is now broken into four schools, which correspond to the four elements. You can
still cast spells regardless of your skill choice, but you will be much more effective with spells of a given school if you acquire that school skill.
The way we’ve organized our skills section is by skills. Rather than give you each
hero type and show what skills they are likely to acquire, we thought you’d rather
read by skills. So if you want to see which heroes are first to learn leadership, you
can see that it is the knight. That way, you can tailor your hero and castle choices
by skills you want to obtain, We think it’s a more useful way to giving you the
information you want. We’ll run down each skill and give you an overview of just
how important it really is, as well as which heroes are most likely to learn the skill.

AIR MAGIC
This allows you to be more proficient in such good attack spells as chain lightning and lightning bolt, but this school is really best at movements spells like
haste, dimension door, and fly. This school also has some useful beneficial spells,
which are a must for sorcerers looking to better their movement and troops.
Basic skill in air magic reduces casting costs by one point per level of spell.
Likely students: Wizard, alchemist, cleric.

ARCHERY
This skill is great if you are using lots of ranged troops. At the highest level, you
are inflicting 50 percent extra damage. Not every hero needs to have this skill,
but it is a good idea to have around three heroes with this skill and designate
them as your heavy artillery. Couple this skill with luck and leadership for an
unstoppable force.
Likely students: Ranger, barbarian, beastmaster, demoniac, overlord

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ARTILLERY
The artillery skill is only really useful in the hands of a hero with high attack,
since the ballista’s damage is heavily dependent on this statistic. That makes this
a good skill for heroes like the barbarian, knight, and overlord. However, heroes
from towns with a lack of ranged units should take this skill because it gives
them an additional ranged unit. That means characters like the ranger and beastmaster. If you want to bolster your armies with an additional ranged attacker, get
this skill. Magic classes should not bother with this skill because it does require
high attack. Note this skill is useless unless your hero commands a ballista.
Likely students: Beastmaster, barbarian, overlord, ranger

ARMORER
This skill is potent when used with fortress units, and is also good for protecting otherwise poorly armored creatures like stronghold units. This is a valuable
skill for any hero to know. Armorer is definitely a worthwhile acquisition
because it means you suffer less damage in every battle for every unit. At basic
level, the bonus is 5 percent; 10 percent for advanced armorer, and 15 percent
for expert level. Use this with such skills as leadership, archery, luck, and offense
to creater killer might characters.
Likely students: Beastmaster, ranger, alchemist, demoniac, overlord, barbarian

BALLISTICS
Ballistics is a very useful ability for taking over enemy castles, as it ensures
your catapult deals damage to enemy walls, and allows you to aim its attack.
However, don’t make every hero learn this skill because it’s better to just have
two heroes learn it and become your siege commanders. Couple this ability
with the archery and armorer ability and the siege commander will also be able

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to whittle away at siege defenders faster while suffering less damage from the
towers of the castle under siege. While magic classes can learn this skill, it is
better for a might character to learn it instead, since it really is most potent
when combined with other offensive skills.
Likely students: Knight, witch, barbarian, beastmaster, overlord, demoniac,
death knight, alchemist, heretic, warlock, battle mage

DIPLOMACY
This was one of the more useless skills from Heroes II, but it is much better in
Heroes III. As you advance, you are more likely to recruit wandering monsters.
In the later game, when you have lots of gold, this ability becomes useful for
amassing hordes of troops. And at the expert level, it’s not really a question of
whether or not a wandering stack will join you, but whether you want them to
or not. You’re more likely to get wandering monsters to join if you have a stack
of the same creatures in your army. Of course, you don’t want to give this ability to every hero, and only one hero should really have this ability. If one hero
already has diplomacy, avoid it for all your other heroes.
Likely students: Cleric

EAGLE EYE
This skill wasn’t very useful in Heroes II and it isn’t very useful in Heroes III,
unless you are a witch or battle mage, in which case you want to advance to
expert level and learn some fourth-level spells. Unfortunately, using this skill
pretty much assumes that you are going to be battered by many harmful
spells in order to gain any benefits. In multiplayer games, human opponents
are very likely to cast magic, so as a witch or battle mage, you can chase after
enemy warlocks or wizards, bet on them casting a spell or two, and then finish them off with your troops. Wizards, warlocks, and other powerful magic

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classes shouldn’t bother with this skill at all because you’ll learn plenty of
magic from your town and other conquered ones as well. And you don’t have
a magic deficiency that would necessitate learning this skill. You should
instead concentrate on learning all the schools of magic and a few other, more
valuable skills.
Likely students: Witch, warlock, necromancer, druid

EARTH MAGIC
This magic skill is an extremely useful skill to acquire, as are all the magic schools.
Earth magic offers some truly destructive spells, including meteor shower and the
most powerful attack spell of all: implosion. This school also has town portal and
anti-magic. Basic skill in earth magic reduces casting costs by one point per level
of spell. Ideally, your spellcasters should try to master all schools.
Likely students: Necromancer, warlock

ESTATES
Estates is a skill you want several heroes to have, especially if you have an
expensive town type to support. It isn’t really necessary to have every hero
acquire this skill, but if you have at least half of your heroes learn this skill, you
are gaining an extra 2000 gold a day at expert level. A little extra spending
money goes a long way in Heroes III, so learn this skill.
Likely students: Knight, wizard, warlock

FIRE MAGIC
Like the other schools of magic, you want to learn this skill to achieve true mastery of all magic. That can be tough, but fire magic is a potent school to add to

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your arsenal anyway. Bloodlust, curse, and blind are in this school, as are
armageddon and fireball. Basic skill in fire magic reduces casting costs by one
point per level of spell.
Likely students: Heretic, warlock.
Unlikely students: Ranger, beastmaster

FIRST AID
This skill is used in conjunction with the first aid tent. Without this skill, the first
aid tent is pretty useless, but if you learn this skill, you can eventually heal 100
hit points per turn with the first aid tent. Of course, the healing only applies to
the first creature of one stack. What expert level means is you can effectively
heal up to sixth-level troops. Advanced level lets you effectively heal up to fifthlevel troops, and basic skill lets you heal up to fourth-level troops. You don’t
want too many heroes learning this skill.
Likely students: Cleric, witch, druid, wizard, beastmaster, warlock.
Unlikely students: Necromancer, death knight

INTELLIGENCE
This skill is great for spellcasters who don’t advance in knowledge as fast as
the wizard. It can also be learned by wizards who want to have gargantuan
spell reserves. You get an immediate boost in spell points with the basic skill.
Use this with the mysticism skill, and with the familiar, wraith, and mage
creatures to really maximize your spell points. This is a good skill for every
spellcaster to consider.
Likely students: Wizard, warlock, witch, druid, cleric, necromancer, heretic

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LEADERSHIP
Every hero should learn this skill if he can, with the exception of the necropolis
heroes. With leadership, you can boost your army’s morale to a permanently
high number and even mix and match multiple town creatures without any ill
effect. Being able to attack twice is a bonus that cannot be dismissed.
Likely students: Knight, overlord, ranger, beastmaster, barbarian.
Unlikely students: Necromancer, death knight

LEARNING
Acquiring learning helps you gain more experience than usual, and can eventually boost your experience gained by 15 percent. It doesn’t only affect experience gained in combat, but also from chests and dungeon battle scholar
academies as well. If you want to advance quickly, learn this skill. It also helps
in the later levels when experience totals are so steep to advance a level. However, given the choice, there are other abilities such as leadership and luck that
are much more useful.
Likely students: Alchemist

LOGISTICS
Logistics is a great ability because it lets you cover more of the map, finding
more treasures and mines, or catching up to or fleeing enemy heroes. Combined with pathfinding, this is a really useful skill. Every hero can benefit from
this skill.
Likely students: Demoniac, battle mage, beastmaster, overlord, barbarian,
alchemist

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LUCK
Luck along with leadership are the two most powerful non-magic school skills.
Luck gives you a good chance of scoring double damage with every attack. Make
every hero learn it. For more on luck, read the combat section.
Likely students: Druid, ranger, cleric

MYSTICISM
All your spellcasters should learn this so they can replenish their spell points
away from home. Less knowledgeable spellcasters also want this because they
have so few spell points to begin with. You’ll want to advance to expert level as
soon as possible.
Likely students: Heretic, warlock, witch, wizard, cleric

NAVIGATION
This ability is almost useless. All heroes travel much faster on boat already. And
how often will you really be jumping onto a boat and staying there? Despite the
fact that this is a very potent upgrade, there are still better skills to learn.
Likely students: Knight, beastmaster, death knight, witch.
Unlikely students: Battle mage

NECROMANCY
Every necropolis hero should get this and advance to expert level as soon as
possible. The necromancy amplifier in the necropolis towns only enhances this
ability, making the skeleton hordes a very real and dangerous possibility. Only

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the necropolis classes can learn necromancy. Even the dungeon heroes no longer
learn necromancy.

OFFENSE
This skill should be sought after by barbarians and heroes with powerful
and fast strikers. This ability only affects hand-to-hand combat, and doesn’t benefit ranged units at all (which instead benefit from the archery skill).
The wolf raider and crusader gain the most benefit, and all fast troops also
become much more powerful. This skill should be learned by anybody who
engages in lots of melee combat. When this skill combines with such heavy
hitters as the archangel and black dragon, it can create startlingly powerful forces. At expert level, your 50 damage angel will do 65 damage without any other adjustments. With high attack ratings, this skill becomes
even better.
Likely students: Barbarian, knight, battle mage, overlord, death knight, demoniac

PATHFINDING
Pathfinding is a valuable skill because it lets you walk on rough terrain without
penalty. You’ll never walk across it like it was road, but the elimination of any
movement penalty of terrain like swamp and snow is a huge boost. Heroes
already have their native terrain bonus, and pathfinding won’t boost that, but
there are plenty of different terrain types, and pathfinding ensures that you
move the same in every one. The ability to cover great distances per day is a
huge advantage in Heroes III. Learn pathfinding and also learn logistics to
increase the benefit.
Likely students: Beastmaster, barbarian, ranger, necromancer

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RESISTANCE
Every might class should have resistance as one of their character’s eight skills,
because it grants up to 20 percent magic resistance to all your units. The effect
is not cumulative with the dwarf or unicorn magic resistance, but even rangers
can benefit from this skill. Resistance only affects enemy spells so you’ll still be
able to cast beneficial spells on yourself. Couple this with other powerful skills,
such as armorer and leadership, and you could create for yourself a super hero.
Magic characters almost never learn this skill.
Likely students: Ranger, demoniac, barbarian, overlord.
Unlikely students: Wizard, warlock, witch

SCHOLAR
Only one hero need have the scholar skill, and he can then teach magic to all
your other heroes. Give this skill to a hero with logistics and pathfinding so he
can continually run after heroes to teach them all the most powerful magic. For
this skill to really be useful you need to advance in skill as quickly as possible.
Having a scholar out in the field eliminates the need to bring all your heroes
back to town after a new mage guild upgrade. However, don’t go overboard with
this ability and remember that fifth-level spells can’t be traded.
Likely students: Wizard, warlock, druid, witch, necromancer

SCOUTING
This ability isn’t very useful, especially later once the map has been revealed. It
just shows you in one turn, the next two tiles you’ll see next turn. This doesn’t
really justify purchase when you have skills like offense, fire magic, and resistance.
Likely students: Ranger, barbarian, beastmaster

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SORCERY
This skill should be learned by all spellcasters because it allows you to do
15 percent more damage per spell cast. It can affect damage and durations
alike. If you are fond of casting implosion, chain lightning, and armageddon, take this skill for some even more destructive firepower. If every magic
class in your army had this skill, you would have a potent array of spellslinging warriors.
Likely students: Warlock, witch, wizard

TACTICS
This skill is extremely useful in combat. Add this to your hero with leadership, luck, logistics, armorer, offense, and resistance, and you can almost
will victory during combat. With tactics, you first compare your tactics level
to your enemy’s. If you are three levels up (basically you have the expert skill
and he doesn’t know what tactics is), then you can place your troops anywhere within seven hexes of your starting position. At lower levels, the
range at which you can place troops is shorter, either five or three depending on your skill relative to the other player. If you both have the same skill
level, then you begin combat normally. This skill can all but doom ranged
units. You can thus rearrange your troops and place them closer to the
enemy line, ensuring that you can engage the enemy in one round. Also, if
you find yourself needing to shelter your archers or set up a straight charge
to an enemy, or even move your troops around obstacles, you can do all that
before combat even starts. This is a great skill to have, and several heroes
should learn it.
Likely students: Overlord, barbarian, knight

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WATER MAGIC
If you are lucky enough to learn all four magic schools, you will be a god among
sorcerers. The school of water magic has some very useful spells, including teleport, prayer, and bless. It could serve you well for complementing your troops,
but isn’t very strong in offensive magic.
Likely students: All equally poor

WISDOM
This skill is necessary if you want to cast any spells beyond the second level, so
of course it is a skill you want all your heroes to learn.
Likely students: All magic classes, alchemist

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FIVE
MAGIC

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his game is called Heroes of Might and Magic for a reason: Magic is a
huge part of the game. All heroes can cast spells, and indeed, without
magic, you are almost assured of losing. Certain town types need magic
to compensate for weaknesses. Other towns become unstoppable by
virtue of their magic. In Heroes III, there are two types of spells: adventure spells and combat spells.

Adventure Spells: These spells are spells you cast on the strategic map when
you are not in combat. They tend to be movement or information spells. While
the benefits of these spells aren’t as obvious as a great fireball, they should not
be overlooked. Certain spells like fly and dimension door give you unparalleled
freedom of movement, allowing to jump across obstacles to flee enemies or find
hard to reach spots with hidden riches. It’s not unheard of for gold mines to be
placed in nearly inaccessibly parts of the map, but with a fly spell, you can simply bypass all the tricky terrain. Adventure spells also include a few spells that
can tell you the location of mines and artifacts or the exact strength of an
enemy army. These spells are also useful because they give you valuable information that could be hard to come by otherwise. Of all adventure spells, dimension door and town portal are probably the most useful, as they give you the
ability to teleport across the map. The benefits of these two spells are great,
especially on large maps where it would take you too long to walk back to town
and replenish your troops.
Combat Spells: These spells are easy to understand—they are cast in combat
to further your goal of winning. Some spells are offensive in nature, meaning
they deal direct physical damage to the enemy or weaken the enemy in some
way. Other spells are beneficial, meaning they can be cast to enhance your
army’s strength and speed. There are also protective spells that can reduce
your chance of harm. Then there are miscellaneous spells that are hard to
classify, such as resurrection and animate dead. All these spells have their uses
and it is the wise Heroes III player who studies the spells and brings them fully
to play in combat.

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We’ve organized this section by schools of magic. Dividing all the game’s
spells into the four schools of magic—air, earth, fire, and water—is a new concept for Heroes III. You can still cast any spell you want, provided you have the
secondary skill of wisdom, without every worrying about the schools of magic,
but you wouldn’t be taking full advantage of the game’s magic system. Because
every spell falls into a school, by learning the secondary skill pertaining to that
school, you can cast a particular spell with increased effect. An expert in fire
magic would cast a fireball spell with greater effect at a lower cost than a spellcaster who didn’t know the skill. Both expert and novice could cast the fireball,
but whereas the novice’s spells would barely singe the enemy, the expert’s fireball could obliterate an entire stack. So obviously, if you are going to play to win,
you want to master the game’s four schools of magic.
This section deals with the schools of magic and lists the most powerful and
useful adventure and combat spells in that school. This method should show you
exactly why you want to master a particular school of magic so next time you
have the choice of learning fire or earth magic, you can make an informed
choice. You’ll also learn which spells are the must-have incantations to put in
your spell book, because only the most useful spells of each school will be listed.
Let’s take a look at just how powerful each school can be.

Why Learn Air Magic?
Air magic provides you with some the game’s best adventure movement spells,
and also boasts some very useful beneficial and protective spells. Here are the
spells of this school that you want to master.

ADVENTURE
Dimension Door (level five spell): Dimension door allows you to teleport to any
location on your immediate screen, except into obstacles or water. A novice

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casting this spell may do so twice per day. This spell is incredibly powerful
because it gives you the unprecedented mobility. Becoming an air expert allows
you to cast this spell four times a day, giving you the ability to sometimes travel
four days’ distance in one day.
Fly (level five): The fly spell is also a useful movement spell, although not as
much as dimension door. With this spell, you can travel across any terrain, but
must end up on land at the end of your turn. A novice casting this spell can fly
at 60 percent of his normal movement allowance. An air expert can move at his
full 100 percent allowance. Again, being able to move freely on the strategic
map, and thus zip to your castle and replenish your creatures with haste, is a
valuable ability.

OFFENSIVE SPELLS
Hypnotize (level three): This spell allows you to take direct control of an enemy
stack and command it as if it belonged to you. This spell is great because it not
only gives you a bonus stack, but also robs your enemy of one of his units. Use
this spell to take your enemy’s fastest unit or most powerful ranged attacker
and then use it on him. If you decide to attack a hypnotized stack, it won’t retaliate. A novice can control up to ((powerx25)+10) health of units. An expert controls ((powerx25)+50) health worth of units.
Chain Lightning (level four): You want to learn this spell because it can
strike up to five enemy troops. You call down one lightning bolt that hammers the first target, and then the lightning strike arcs to the next nearest
enemy target for half damage, and then to the next target for half of that,
and so on. The last target thus suffers a fraction of what the first one suffered, but this spell is still enormously useful because it can strike up to five
enemy targets in one round. Be careful though. This spell must hit five targets before it ends, so if there are only four enemies, the last arc will hit the
closest one of your stacks. A novice casting this spell does ((powerx40)+50
damage) with the first strike, and the spell hits only four stacks. An expert

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does ((powerx40)+100). This is the second most powerful area effect spell in
the game, behind armageddon.

BENEFICIAL SPELLS
Haste (level one): This spell is essential because it increases your unit’s speed
by three points. An expert of air magic can cast this spell with spectacular
results: all of your units get a +5 bonus to speed. This alone is a great reason to
become an expert in air magic.
Fortune (level two): Fortune is a good spell because it raises a unit’s luck rating by one. Obviously, an expert can cast this spell at even greater efficiency,
affecting all your units and giving them a +2 bonus to luck. Because luck allows
your troops to attack for double damage, this spell is particularly useful, especially when cast at expert level.
Precision (level two): Precision increases one ranged unit’s attack rating by
three. At expert level, this spell affects all your ranged units and grants a +6
bonus to attack. As with all beneficial spells, precision is most powerful at the
expert level. Cast it on your ranged units to do some serious damage. Also cast
bless (water magic) on your ranged units to do even more damage.

PROTECTIVE SPELLS
Air Shield (level three): This spell is essential to cast on your own ranged units
and slow troops because it reduces the damage you take from missile attacks.
A novice can affect only one unit and reduces damage by 25 percent, but an
expert affects all allied troops and reduces damage by 50 percent.
Counterstrike (level four): This spell is powerful because it gives one unit the
ability to retaliate against one additional attack. Extra counter attacks are always
good, especially if you also increase the unit’s attack and defense so it can with-

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stand enemy blows and return vicious counter thrusts. An expert of air magic can
affect all allied troops and gives them each two additional retaliations.
Protection from Earth (level three): This spell is great because it reduces damage taken by earth spells, which includes meteor shower and implosion. A
novice casts this spell on one unit and reduces damage by 35 percent, but an
expert affects all allied troops and reduces damage by 50 percent.

Why Learn
Earth Magic?
Earth magic contains the game’s most powerful offensive spell and also has
some useful protection spells, as well as the vital town portal adventure spell.

ADVENTURE SPELLS
Town Portal (level four): This spell allows you hero to teleport to the nearest
unoccupied town (a garrison hero doesn’t count as occupying a town). Novices
simply teleport to the nearest town at a huge movement cost, but experts can
specify a town before teleporting and take less movement points to do so. This
is a great spell for returning to town to recruit troops. If you have dimension
door (air magic), you could then dimension door your way back to the front
lines. A trip that might have taken a week can be taken in two days.

OFFENSIVE SPELLS
Slow (level one): This spell is useful for the same reason that haste (air magic)
is: It makes you faster, although this spell does so by slowing down your enemy.

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A novice reduces one enemy stack’s speed by 25 percent, while an expert affects
all enemy troops and reduces speed by 50 percent.
Meteor Shower (level four): This spell affects a three by three hex area and
deals ((powerx25)+25) damage. At expert level, it does ((powerx25)+100)
damage. This spell is a must because it can affect multiple creatures,
although it isn’t as strong as chain lightning. This is one of the game’s better area effect spells.
Implosion (level five): This spell is the only magical means of destroying large
numbers of seventh-level creatures. A novice can deal ((powerx75)+100) damage, while an expert does ((powerx75)+300) damage. This is the game’s most
powerful offensive spell and can wipe away whole stacks of archangels and
titans. The only defense is anti-magic or, to a lesser extent, protection from
earth (air magic).

PROTECTIVE SPELLS
Shield (level one): This spell protects the unit from hand-to-hand damage. A
novice affects one unit and reduces melee damage by 15 percent. An expert
affects all units and reduces damage by 30 percent.
Stone Skin (level one): Stone skin increases one unit’s defense by three when
cast by a novice. An expert affects all allied troops and increases defense by six.
Protection from Air (level two): This spell protects against lightning bolt and
chain lightning. Novices affect one unit and reduce damage by 30 percent,
while experts reduce damage by 50 percent for all allied units.
Anti-Magic (level three): This protective spell is very powerful, but remember
that it also prevents you from casting any more beneficial or protective spells
on the target. A novice makes the unit immune to spells of level one to three.
An expert makes the unit immune to all spells. After casting this spell you can
fling destructive spells left and right without worrying about catching your unit
in the area of effect.

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MISCELLANEOUS SPELLS
Resurrection (level four): This spell is fantastic because it allows you to
resurrect dead troops that have fallen in that particular battle. It cannot
reach back to previous tactical battles to resurrect troops that have died
before the current battle. A novice resurrects up to ((powerx50)+40) health
of units but only for the duration of the battle. However, an expert can resurrect ((powerx50)+160) health of units permanently. It pays to be an expert
in this field of magic.

Why Learn
Fire Magic?
Fire magic has a collection of powerful offensive spells, and also some good
beneficial ones as well.

OFFENSIVE SPELLS
Blind (level two): Blind is great because it completely incapacitates one enemy
stack until it is attacked. The spell lasts for one round per power. If a novice
casts the spell, the deactivating attack causes the blinded creature to retaliate
at 50 percent attack rating. If an expert casts this spell, the deactivating attack
invites no retaliation. This spell is great when you are being attacked by multiple strong enemies or lots of ranged units. Just blind several enemy stacks and
you cut the army down to size, allowing you to escape missile fire or deal with
the enemy stacks one at a time. Take advantage of blinded units and cast multiple detrimental spells on them.

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Armageddon (level four): This spell is highly destructive but it affects all units
on the screen, including your own. It does ((powerx50)+30) damage to all units on
screen. Experts do ((powerx50)+120) damage. Only use this spell if you are going
to lose anyway and don’t care about losing the hero or otherwise command creatures that are immune to this spell, such as red, black, and gold dragons, efreeti,
and any unit with an expert-level anti-magic (earth magic) on them. If you can
escape harm, this spell does a terrific amount of damage to all enemy units.
Berserk (level four): This spell is great for turning the enemy against itself.
When a novice casts this spell, it causes the target to attack the nearest enemy
within one hex. That is usually one of its allies (an enemy stack). If there is no
enemy in sight, the berserk unit won’t attack but will instead move. An expert
casting this spell causes the berserk unit to attack the nearest troop in 19 hexes.
Inferno (level four): This spell is special because it affects the target hex and
all hexes within two hexes for ((powerx10)+20) damage. As offensive spells go,
it doesn’t do that much damage, but it does affect a huge area. Experts do
((powerx10)+80) damage.

BENEFICIAL SPELLS
Bloodlust (level one): This spell increases the attack rating of a hand-to-hand
unit by +3. This spell doesn’t affect ranged units. An expert affects all allied
troops and increases attack by +6.
Frenzy (level four): This spell can be extremely deadly when cast on a unit with
high defense. Basically, all defense is converted into attack points, giving the
unit better offense but no defense. At expert level, the attack increase is 200
percent of the unit’s defense, instead of only 100 percent. If your witch has this
spell, it is a good on to cast on fortress creatures.
Slayer (level four): This spell gives your unit a +8 attack bonus against dragons, behemoths, and hydras. An expert also conveys the bonus when attacking
angels, devils, and titans.

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PROTECTIVE SPELLS
Fire Shield (level four): This spell doesn’t actually protect against damage, but
it does harm the attacker, When an enemy attacks the shielded unit, it suffers
20 percent of the damage it dealt. If an expert casts the fire shield, the enemy
unit suffers 30 percent of the damage it dealt.

Why Learn
Water Magic?
Water magic has a variety of beneficial spells, although it lacks more powerful
destructive spells. Perhaps its most powerful spell is teleport.

ADVENTURE SPELLS
Water walk (level four): This spell allows you to walk over water as long as you
end your turn on land. This spell is good for traversing lakes that might otherwise force extended delays or detours. Novices water walk at 60 percent of their
movement rate, while experts walk at 100 percent.

BENEFICIAL SPELLS
Bless (level one): Bless causes the targeted unit to attack at maximum damage, which is a great boon when you have a unit like the cavalier, which has a
damage range of 15 to 25. Novices affect one unit, while experts bless all allied
units and give them a +1 to damage per unit in the stack. This can have a dramatic effect on large stacks of low-level units.

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Cure (level one): Cure rids one unit of all negative conditions, such as poison
or even wounds. It can cure up to ((powerx5)+10) hit points. Experts cure all
allied troops and heal 20 more hit points.
Mirth (level three): Mirth increases your morale by two points, which is great
if you don’t already have good morale, since high morale allows you to attack
again. This spell is useless when cast on units with already high morale though,
because the ceiling is 3 morale. Novices affect one unit with a +1 bonus, while
experts give all units +2 morale.
Prayer (level four): This is a fantastic spell that increases attack, defense, and
speed. A novice affects one unit and bestows +2 to those three stats. An expert
give a +4 bonus in those stats to all allied units.

MISCELLANEOUS SPELLS
Teleport (level three): This spell is very important because it allows you to instantaneously whisk slow troops to the front lines of combat. A novice can teleport
one unit to any location on the tactical map, except across moats and walls. An
expert can teleport a unit through a wall. Units that are otherwise too weak
because they are slow, such as dwarves, dendroids, and golems, become powerful
when they can actually engage the enemy without being shot down while crawling across the map. Use this spell to give these slow units superior mobility.

The Best Combat Spells
Seeing the spells divided by schools allowed you to see the benefits of learning
each school of magic. But if you are in combat and want a quick reference to
show you the most useful combat spells at a glance, and all in the same location, then look no further. These aren’t all the spells you could cast in combat,
but they are the most important ones to know.

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OFFENSIVE SPELLS
(DIRECT DAMAGE)
Death Ripple (level two, earth): light damage to all living creatures, doesn’t
affect undead
Destroy Undead (level three, air): harms all undead for light damage, doesn’t
affect living
Frost Ring (level three, water): light cold damage that affects all units surrounding the target hex, but not that hex itself
Chain Lightning (level four, air): hurls lightning at five creatures
Inferno (level four, fire): huge fireball that affects five by five area
Meteor Shower (level four, earth): rains boulders on a three by three area
Implosion (level five, earth): does massive damage to single creature stack

OFFENSIVE SPELLS
(INDIRECT DAMAGE)
Curse (level one, fire): lowers enemy damage
Slow (level one, earth): lowers enemy speed
Blind (level two, fire): freezes enemy unit
Disrupting Ray (level two, air): lowers enemy defense
Earthquake (level three, earth): damages enemy’s walls during siege
Forgetfulness (level three, water): cause enemy ranged unit to “forget” ranged
attack
Hypnotize (level three, air): gain control of enemy unit

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Misfortune (level three, fire): lowers enemy luck
Weakness (level three, water): lowers enemy attack
Berserk (level four, fire): enemy unit attacks his own ally
Sorrow (level four, earth): lowers enemy morale

BENEFICIAL SPELLS
Bless (level one, water): unit does maximum damage
Bloodlust (level one, fire): increase attack rating, melee
Dispel (level one, water): dispels magic
Fortune (level two, air): increase luck
Precision (level two, air): increase attack rating, ranged
Mirth (level three, water): increases morale
Frenzy (level four, fire): adds defense to attack rating
Slayer (level four, fire): increases attack against seventh-level creatures
Prayer (level four, water): increases unit’s attack, defense, and speed

PROTECTIVE SPELLS
Air Shield (level one, air): reduce damage from ranged attacks
Shield (level one, earth): reduce damage from melee attacks
Stone skin (level one, earth): increase defense rating
Protection from Air (level two, earth): reduces damage from lightning and
chain lightning

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Anti-Magic (level three, earth): grants immunity to magic
Protection from Earth (level three, air): reduces damage from meteor shower
and implosion
Counterstrike (level four, air): unit gets additional retaliations
Fire Shield (level four, fire): any enemy suffers portion of damage it inflicts on
shielded unit
Magic Mirror (level five, air): reflects direct damage offensive spell on an
enemy unit

MOVEMENT SPELLS
Haste (level one, air): increase a unit’s speed
Teleport (level three, water): teleport to any location on the screen

Spells by Town Type
What spells you can learn depends heavily on the town you play. Some spells,
like magic arrow, are available at every town. Some spells, like Death Ripple, are
available in only one town, in this case, the necropolis. For the spells that are
available to every town, some towns have a greater chance of learning that particular spell than other towns. The fortress town, for example, is more likely to
get Teleport than the stronghold town. Here is a chart that shows the percentage chance for each town to learn a particular spell, organized by spell level.
The number under each town entry is the percentage chance that the town’s
mage guild offers that spell. A mage guild offers five first-level spells, four second-level spells, three third-level spells, two fourth-level spells, and one fifthlevel spells. The tower town can build the library, which adds one extra spell per
spell level to the mage guild.

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STRONGHOLD

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Summon Boat

Water

View Earth

Earth

View Air

Air

Magic Arrow

All

Shield

Earth

Protection from Fire

Fire

Prot. from Water

Water

Dispel

Water

Cure

Water

Bless

Water

Curse

Fire

Bloodlust

Fire

Stone Skin

Earth

Haste

Air

Slow

Earth

Scuttle Boat

Water

Visions

All

Disguise

Air

Quicksand

Earth

Fire Wall

Fire

Ice Bolt

Water

Lightning Bolt

Air

Death Ripple

Earth

Protection from Air

Air

Precision

Air

Weakness

Water

NAME
ADVENTURE SPELLS

Continued on page 136

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Disrupting Ray

Air

Fortune

Air

Blind

Fire

Remove Obstacle

Water

Land Mine

Fire

Force Field

Earth

Earthquake

Earth

Frost Ring

Water

Fireball

Fire

Destroy Undead

Air

Air Shield

Air

Prot. from Earth

Earth

Anti-Magic

Earth

Animate Dead

Earth

Mirth

Water

Misfortune

Fire

Hypnotize

Air

Forgetfulness

Water

Teleport

Water

Water Walk

Water

Town Portal

Earth

Chain Lightning

Air

Inferno

Fire

Meteor Shower

Earth

Armageddon

Fire

Continued on page 137

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Fire Shield

Fire

Resurrection

Earth

Prayer

Water

Sorrow

Earth

Slayer

Fire

Frenzy

Fire

Counterstrike

Air

Berserk

Fire

Clone

Water

Fly

Air

Dimension Door

Air

Implosion

Earth

Magic Mirror

Air

Sacrifice

Fire

Fire Elemental

Fire

Earth Elemental

Earth

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SI X

COMBAT
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actical combat is obviously a huge part of Heroes III. Once all your troops
are recruited and your buildings bought, victory is decided on the battlefield. But there are a lot of things to consider in combat besides which
troops to throw at your enemy. Spells have a great influence on combat,
as do luck, morale, heroes, and even terrain.
In this section, we’ll discuss various factors that can influence combat.
We’ll start with the importance of heroes and your units’ speeds, and follow with the two new functions of Heroes III combat: wait and guard.
We’ll then discuss obstacles and terrain. Following that are morale, luck, and
sieges. Spells of course affect combat, but they are covered in spells section.
Most of that section is devoted to the tactical use of spells, so refer to that for
tips and overviews of effective spellcasting in combat.

The Influence of Heroes
During combat, attack and defense factor heavily into the battles. Basically,
every time two stacks meet, the computer compares the attacker’s attack rating against the defender’s defense rating. For every attack point above the
defense rating, the attacker does 5 percent more damage, but if the defender
has a higher defense than the attack, then every point of defense above the
attacker’s attack skill results in 2 percent less damage. For example, assume an
angel attacks a minotaur king. The angel has 20 attack, 20 defense, and deals
50 damage. The minotaur king has 15 attack, 15 damage, and deals 12-20 damage. When the angel attacks the minotaur king, it does 25 percent more damage (20 attack minus 15 defense equals 5 multiplied by 5 percent), so it delivers
63 damage to the minotaur king, which is now dead. But if the minotaur king
had attacked first, it would do 10 percent less damage (20-15=5x2 percent),
doing 11-18 damage.
Where heroes come in is they add their attack and defense skill to that
of all the creatures in their army. Let’s say that a dungeon overlord with 10
attack and 11 defense is commanding the minotaur king, while a cleric of

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1 attack and 0 defense is commanding the angel. Now, when the angel
attacks, it does 10 percent less damage (26-21=5x2 percent), dealing only
45 damage. Now the minotaur king lives, and when it attacks, it does 25
percent more damage, (25-20=5x5 percent) doing 14-24 damage. This is an
extreme example because the minotaur is so much weaker than the angel,
but when commanding creatures of similar level, a heroes’ attack and
defense skills can turn the tide of battle. It is thus important to increase
your heroes’ attack and defense skills. With high attack, even lowly hobgoblins can become awesome killers, which is the idea behind giving the
barbarian such high starting attack. Keep the attack and defense modifiers
in mind in combat, so you can judge for yourself whether an attack will
succeed and fail and whether you can stay for that one last round or
whether you have to flee.
Some heroes also have a specialty in a particular troop, which further
enhances the attack or defense of the given unit. Any hero who has a creature
specialty gives that unit a bonus +1 to attack, defense, and speed.

Speed Factor
Speed is a very important statistic in battle because it decides who goes first.
Basically, the unit with the higher speed goes first, giving that creature’s owner
initiative, meaning he can act first. You could thus have a dragon fly in your
army and be ensured of first action against any army composed of first through
fifth-level troops. You could thus flee or cast a spell before the other hero could
even act. You can see why high speed and initiative are important because you
could immediately slay an enemy archer stack with a lightning bolt or haste
your lizardmen stack. In the first example, you have already taken away one
enemy stack before the enemy hero could react, while in the second example,
you have ensured that your lizardmen fire before the archers. When two units
of the same speed meet in battle, the attacker goes first. So if a hero with royal
griffins attacks a hero with obsidian gargoyles, the royal griffins, being the

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attackers, would go first. Keep speed in mind before attacking any enemy army.
If you take an army of dwarves, stone golems, and zombies to battle marksmen,
grand elves, and zealots, you will be dead before you can move because your
three stacks are slower than the slowest stack on the enemy side. Speed cannot
be underestimated as a deciding factor in combat.

Wait or Guard
New to Heroes III combat are the wait and guard function. These bump the simplified tactical combat of Heroes III up a few notches. Previously, you simply
could attack, cast spells, or end your turn. Now, you don’t have to just attack or
hold still.

WAIT
With the wait function, you can do just that. However, all creatures will go
through their turns, from fastest to slowest, before you can go again. So, say you
have an army of grand elves and battle dwarves attacking an army of skeleton
warriors. Your grand elves would go first, but if you wanted to wait, you would
command them to wait. Then the enemy would move his skeleton warriors and
then you would move your battle dwarves. Then the grand elves would get their
chance to move. You would then have to attack, move, or guard, since you cannot wait twice in one round. When multiple units decide to wait, they move in
reverse order, so the last unit to wait (which is the slowest unit), has to move first.
In that previous example, if all three stacks decided to wait, the battle dwarves
would have to move immediately after they waited, since they were last to wait.
The wait function is very important for setting up attacks. Your ranged units can
often wait for enemy units to get within closer range so they can fire without range
penalties. If the grand elves had fired first, instead of waiting, they would only
strike at half strength. However, if the grand elves wait for the skeleton warriors to

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move before they fired, they would be able to strike for full damage. You might
also choose to wait if you wanted a slower unit to attack first. Let’s replace the
grand elves with centaurs. You could have the centaurs wait for the battle
dwarves to attack the skeletons first. Why? That way, the skeleton warriors’
retaliation is wasted on the more durable dwarves. Then, when the centaurs
attack, they won’t suffer a counterattack.
You should always have your ranged units and weaker attackers wait to strike
melee units, unless you suspect you have to attack before the enemy can unleash
a spell like blind or berserk. You also don’t want to wait during sieges when the
enemy isn’t going to move anyway. But in open battle, where enemy melee troops
have no choice but to rush your ranged units, you are better off waiting for the
units to come to within range before firing. Of course, when engaged against
other ranged units, you still want to attack first. But against melee units, waiting
could make the difference between a half damage sortie and a full assault.
As for your weaker troops, such as serpent flies or pegasi, it’s a good idea to
wait for your more durable attackers to suffer an enemy counter attack and
then strike after the enemy stack has expended its one retaliation.

GUARD
The guard function has replaced the end turn button for Heroes III. Now, instead
of ending your turn, you put the creature on guard. What this does is end the
stack’s turn but increases its defense rating by 20 percent until its next opportunity to act. Your hero’s defensive bonus factors into this, so a hero with a high
defense rating will yield greater benefits to defending creature stacks.

Terrain Considerations
Just as terrain affects your movement on the strategic map, so too does it affect
your units on the tactical map. Different terrain types have varying effects on

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tactical combat. Basically, creatures fighting on their native terrain gain a +1
bonus to speed. Golems and gargoyles fighting on snow terrain, for example,
move one hex faster. (For a list of each town type’s native terrain, read your
Heroes III manual)
Another type of terrain that affects combat is obstacles such as lakes, stalactites, and rocks. These will impede the movement of your ground troops,
although the terrain doesn’t affect fliers and devils when moving. Obviously,
obstacles can be used to tactical advantage.
There are two other types of terrain that affect combat, in a much more drastic fashion than just extra movement. These two terrain types affect your spell
casting.

CURSED GROUND
The skull-laden, bleak landscape of cursed ground is so bereft of life that it can’t
even support the casting of magic. During combat on cursed ground, no spells
may be cast. Keep this in mind. If you are poor in magic but your opponent is
not, lure him to battle on cursed ground. Also remember this when assaulting
towns built on cursed ground. Such towns also dampen all spellcasting. Just
remember that when battling on cursed ground, no magic can be cast, and your
fight will be determined by raw physical strength. On the strategic map, no
spells can be cast either. Thus you need to leave the cursed ground before casting such spells as vision and town portal.

MAGIC PLAINS
Magic plains have the opposite affect on spellcasting. All spells cast on magic
plains are cast at the expert level, even if you don’t have the spell skill for that
school of magic. A fireball cast in the magic plains would do the maximum
range of damage, while a haste cast in the magic plains would speed up all your

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units. Your power and knowledge are still used to determine how many spell
points and how much damage is done, but the modifiers, range, and area of
effect can be increased by the magic plains’ spell-boosting properties.

Morale
Morale can play a large role in combat. Basically, every creature except for the
undead, can be influenced by morale. High morale gives you a chance to act
again in combat. Low morale can potentially freeze you and cause you to lose
that unit’s turn. The Heroes III manual lists the specific effects of morale, but it
bears repeating. The following factors can influence morale:
Leadership skill: +1 to army morale per level (basic, advanced, or expert)
All units in army are of one town type: +1 to army morale
More than two town types of creatures in army: -1 to army morale per town
type of creatures beyond two
Any undead in army: -1 to army morale
Mirth spell: +1 or +2 depending on spell skill
Sorrow: -1 or -2 depending on spell skill
Visiting special map sites: +1 to +2 depending on type of site visited
The following creatures have individual morale considerations:
Undead: All have neutral morale
Minotaur: can never go below +1 morale
What does morale actually do for you? Well, one morale gives you a +4.2 percent
chance of acting again, two morale gives you a +8.3 percent chance of acting again,
and three morale gives you a +12.5 percent chance of acting again. Negative morale
has the same percentage chance of freezing a unit. Each unit has a chance to be
affected by morale, so high morale can result in a lot of double attacks. For that

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reason, the leadership skill is a very important one to learn. With it, you can be
inflicting double attacks and movements in virtually every battle. Artifacts that
boost morale, as well as sites on the map such as rally flags, can really help out significantly. Certain spells, such as mirth, can have a positive effect on morale,
although the percentage chance for a second act can never go beyond 12.5 percent.
Morale can only affect a unit when it is conducting its turn, so morale cannot allow a second counter attack.

Luck
Luck is just as important as morale, and luckily, there is a skill that can enhance
that quality in your troops as well. The following factors can affect luck:
Luck skill: +1 luck per level (basic, advanced, expert)
Visiting luck sites: +1 or +2 depending on site
Fortune spell: +1 or +2 depending on spell skill
Misfortune spell: -1 or -2 depending on spell skill
What luck does is give you a chance of inflicting double damage. At one luck, you
have a 4.2 percent chance for double damage, at two luck, the chance is 8.3 percent, and at three luck the chance is 12.5 percent. As with morale, your chance cannot go any higher than that. So say good luck shone on a group of ten griffins—that
group, which would normally attack for 30-60 damage, would do 120 damage!
Unlike morale, luck can affect you even if it’s not your stack’s turn. So if you
are retaliating against an enemy attack, you still have a percentage chance for
good luck. For units that can strike twice, only one of the attacks can benefit
from good luck, but it can be the first or second strike. There is no such thing
as bad luck in the game; it can only help you.

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Sieges
Sieges inevitably become a big part of Heroes III games because it all comes
down to taking over someone’s castle. Of course, if you are a weak town hero,
such as fortress hero or inferno hero, you almost need to conquer enemy castles
to gain better troops. Here, then, are a few tips on siege offense and defense.

ON THE ATTACK
l Go into sieges with fast units. A force of dwarves and golems is incredibly
ineffectual in town sieges because they’ll take too long to get to the town walls,
even if your catapult manages to knock them down.

l Bring in ranged units. You need to be able to strike at the enemy behind
their castle walls, so you need ranged units. At least several stacks will be good.
However, know that if the enemy town has upgraded to a castle (the highest
fort upgrade, not to be confused with the castle town type), he will be able to
fire at you with three archery towers. Your ranged units will not escape
unscathed, but they are still necessary for winning sieges.

l Bring in flying units. Flying units can fly over walls, so they are a great asset
in sieges. They still have to obey their normal movement ranges, though.

l Better your chances by having siege-friendly skills. Ballistics is the obvious
skill here. Have at least one hero who has expert ballistics and designate him as
siege master. Your catapult will fire twice and be almost assured of knocking
down walls. You might also want to have the archery skill so you archers can be
more effective from long range.

l Have magic that can negate the walls and moat. Teleport is the perfect spell for
bypassing the moat and town walls. However, you must have expert water magic skill
before you can teleport behind walls. Earthquake is also a good spell for destroying
sections of wall immediately. Expert earth magic obviously offers better results.

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ON THE DEFENSE
l Upgrade your fort. The fort determines what kind of defenses you have. No
fort means the battle occurs in the open plains (or snow, depending on terrain).
A fort gives the town a castle wall and a moat. A citadel grants a central archery
tower. The castle adds two secondary archery towers and doubles the strength
of your walls.

l Upgrade your town. The strength of your archery towers is dependent on
the strength of your town. The damage and attack strength is higher if you have
the maximum mage guild level for your town and have more town buildings.
Having no mage guild and only one or two buildings will make even three towers less effective. The two secondary towers attack with the same skill as the
central tower, but only do half damage. Each tower makes its own targeting
decision, and can attack the same unit as the previous tower or a new one.

l Bring in ranged units. Because walls protect you, you will be able to attack
from afar while the enemy has to wait for his catapult to do its job, which could
take several turns. Your towers will do some good damage, but having a few
marksmen or wood elves will make the killing even more disheartening for your
enemy. While your ranged units cut down his advancing troops, you can laugh
with impunity.

l Have tough units for defense. Now is the time to buy those dendroids and
iron golems, because the enemy has to go to you. You also have the benefit of
three ranged units in the form of your towers. The longer you can survive, the
better your chances, so enlist those high hit point, high defense creatures for
garrison duty.

l Have magic that will help in siege defense. Slow is an obvious boon for you,
as you could and should slow down his flying units. You could also cast destructive spells on his units, although you can’t target the catapult.

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CHAPTER

SEVEN
CAMPAIGN
WALK-THROUGHS
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he strategies and information you’ve read up to this point are applicable in
multiplayer or single-player games. The knowledge you have on town and
unit strengths, as well as the best uses for magic and the nuances of hero
skills, will doubtless carry you to victory. However, that’s not to say we’re
going to leave you high and dry for the single-player campaigns. There are
six campaigns (seven if you count the secret campaign), and we thought
we’d offer some reconnaissance and a few hints for each campaign scenario.
You’ll do fine if you are armed with the advice from the preceding sections,
but a little extra help won’t hurt, especially with Erathia’s peace on the line.

CAMPAIGN INDEX
EVIL CAMPAIGN 1
EVIL CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 1
GOOD CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 3
NEUTRAL CAMPAIGN
SECRET CAMPAIGN

Evil Campaign 1:
Scenario 1—
ÒA Devilish PlanÓ
Objective: To find and kill the Gold Dragon Queen

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Starting notes: Your heroes are limited to twelfth level, but your eight
strongest heroes are available to you in the final scenario of evil campaign one.
Only level, primary and secondary skills, and experience carry over. Troops and
artifacts do not.
Bonuses for starting hero (you can pick one):

l One scroll of slayer
l An Armor of Wonder (increases all primary statistics by +1)
l 100 imps

As seen here, several green dragons guard the gate to the underworld where
the Gold Dragon Queen lives. However, first you need to disarm the
border guard by finding the keymaster’s tent.

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Starting town: Inferno
Starting resources: 30W, 15M, 30O, 15S, 15C, 15Ge, 29000G
Other towns: There are five towns for the taking. The closest is an unguarded
rampart town close by your town, about one day’s ride to the southwest. The
way will be guarded by a band of low level creatures, but the castle itself is
unoccupied. There other four towns are a castle town in the southwest corner,
another castle town in the middle of the map, and two rampart towns, one in
the northwest corner, and another on the far north side of the map. All of these
have either a village or town hall and no fort, and only the rampart town in the
northwest corner can build additional buildings.
Notes: The Gold Dragon Queen is hiding in an underground cave in the middle
of the map. Aside from the dragon guardians in the underground lair, you will
only face opposition from one enemy nation, the elven kingdom of AvLee, which
controls a few castle and rampart towns on the surface of this map that will
give you only token resistance.
You can choose either starting bonus. The 100 imps are extremely helpful
because they allow you to attack wandering monsters immediately and take
mines and treasure chests quickly. If you don’t take the imps, you might have to
wait a few extra days to get recruit enough troops to take on those same wandering monsters. The slayer scroll seems useful, but by the time you are ready to
take on the green dragon guardians of the underground, you are probably strong
enough that you don’t really need it. As for the armor, it will help from the
beginning of the scenario, but not as much as the 100 imps.
You start in the southeast corner of the map. Recruit two extra heroes at the
beginning of the scenario so you can explore more of the map and take mines faster.
Because your heroes are limited in their level in this scenario, you might want
to simply take the gold instead of the experience when you find treasure chests.
Despite your large sum of starting gold, you will need a lot of it to build and
upgrade your town and recruit troops. Your heroes will have plenty of other
opportunities to gain experience throughout the scenario.
In order to get to the dragon queen’s underground lair, you’ll need to first get
past a green border guard by visiting the green keymaster’s tent in the very

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southwest corner of the map. The actual border guard and subterranean gate
are in the north of the map. Once you bypass the guard, you’ll see the gate
guarded by a pack of green dragons. If you can get past this, the scenario is
practically won. Once you enter the gate, you’ll find the dragon queen to the
south. This underground region is very small. If you want some experience, there
are treasure chests to the west and east, guarded by packs of green dragons.
When going south to the dragon queen, you will have to go through a few green
dragons first. The dragon queen herself is but a regular gold dragon (27A, 27D,
40-50dmg, 250hp). You’ll defeat her with laughable ease and win the scenario.

Evil Campaign 1:
Scenario 2—
ÓGroundbreakingÓ
Objective: Capture all enemy towns and defeat all enemy heroes.
Starting notes: As with the previous scenario, your heroes are limited to
twelfth level, but your eight strongest heroes are available to you in the final
scenario of evil campaign one. Any troops or artifacts on those heroes will not
transfer, however.
Bonuses for starting hero (you can pick one):

l Start with a Pillar of Eyes (beholder dwelling) in your town
l Start with a level one mage guild
l Start with a Battle Scholar’s Academy
Starting town: Dungeon
Starting resources: 30W, 15M, 30O, 15S, 15C, 15Ge, 30000G

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This scenario is pretty straightforward, but you’ll gain much needed treasure
and artifacts by taking the dungeon town and the nearby Dragon Utopia.
That way, you’ll have the resources to support a bid to win the entire map.
Other towns: In the underworld, there are four additional dungeon towns.
All but one start with only a village or town hall and no fort. They are scattered to the north and west of you. Two of these towns cannot build forts
and are little more than gold resource centers. One can build everything
except for a dragon cave. The dungeon town that is in the far northwest corner comes with a prebuilt fort and can build every structure. On the surface,
there are four towns. There is a tower town in the southwest corner, a castle
town in the northwest corner, a rampart town in the northeast corner, and
another castle town in the middle of the map. All these towns have severe
building restrictions.

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Notes: You start in a dungeon town in the southeast corner of this map’s subterranean underworld. This scenario is basically a massive military campaign. You
first order of business should be to hire a few heroes and fan out across the
underworld’s cavernous mazes. Take the dungeon towns scattered throughout
the underworld and start building up a large force. You really won’t be bothered
at all in the underworld so just concentrate on consolidating your strength there.
When you feel you are strong enough, venture onto the surface. On the surface, there are four enemy towns: two castles, one rampart, and one tower.
There are subterranean gates nearby each of these towns except for the castle
of Whistledale in the northeast corner of the surface. Simply take your two most
powerful heroes, load them up with your best units and sweep across the surface. The good guys won’t put up much of a fight.
If you need extra gold, there are two gold mines for the taking. The easiest
one to get is on an island in the far north of the surface map. It is accessible
through an subterranean gate. The harder but more rewarding gold cache is in
the very northwest corner behind the northeastern town of Castigare. There is
a gold mine, a dragon cave, and a Dragon Utopia guarded by a few black dragons and a lot of red dragons. It’s dangerous, but the gold mine and treasure are
worth the risk. Inside the Dragon Utopia are four artifacts and 30000 gold. (sandals of the saint, crown of dragontooth, golden bow, and emblem of cognizance)

Evil Campaign 1:
Scenario 3—
ÓSteadwickÕs FallÓ
Objective: Capture the city of Steadwick within three months.
Starting notes: You get to use the eight best heroes from one of your previous
two scenarios.

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To defeat General Kendal, it’s best to lure him out of this castle. He has a
massively powerful army. His artifacts are randomized, so beware if he has
the Orb of Inhibition, which prevents all spellcasting in combat.
Bonuses for starting hero (you can pick one):

l Begin with the heroes from scenario one
l Begin with the heroes from scenario two
Starting towns: One inferno, one dungeon, and one castle
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: Nothing underground. On the surface, there are five towns you
can capture, not including Steadwick. The two closest to you are a rampart town

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directly north of your inferno town and a castle town to the west, just before
the magic garrison on the map. There is a tower town in the far southwest corner of the map, and a castle town about two days ride east of that (placing it
in the middle southern part of the map). The other town is a castle town in the
northwest. The earlier you capture them, the better. Some are not initially
guarded so you can sneak in and take them with little fighting. However, the
longer you wait, the more likely you are to face resistance at these towns.
Notes: You have three months to take Steadwick. It sounds like a lot of time,
but you’ll find that’s not the case. The force garrisoning Steadwick is mighty,
and led by General Kendal, a knight with awesome stats. He has 19 attack, 20
defense, 12 power, and 10 knowledge. He leads an army composed of champions, zealots, archers, crusaders, and griffins, whose numbers total more than
400! What that means is that his armies will do anywhere from two to three
times the damage to you unless you can build up a hero with the same stats as
his. Unfortunately, you don’t have time to build up your hero.
Take the enemy towns on the surface to get more gold and then build up your
dungeon and inferno towns to acquire dragons and devils. Steadwick is surrounded on all sides by steep mountains, but there are three garrisons (positioned like the points of a triangle) through which you can pass to get inside.
However, each garrison is guarded by over two dozen each of zealots, champions, and royal griffins. When fighting at the garrison, note that no magic may
be cast there. On the adventure map, you will see sparkles glittering over the
garrison, denoting its magic dampening aura.
For the first month, you’ll be pretty much left alone, so build up that dungeon
castle and get minotaur kings and dragons. Expand to the surface map and take
some enemy towns. In the second month, expect enemy heroes to go after your
captured surface towns and otherwise harass you.
When you take on Steadwick, make sure you have powerful magic and hundreds of units. Try to draw General Kendal out of Steadwick’s fortifications by
hanging back a few paces away from the castle. End your turn and he’ll sally
forth from Steadwick to confront you. You’ll be free of his tower archers and
won’t be hampered by the town’s moat. If you wait till the last minute, General

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Kendal will have over 200 griffins, 100 crusaders, 90 zealots, 175 archers, and
several dozen champions and cavaliers. Against this force, you’ll need to use
spells such as blind to incapacitate whole stacks so you can deal with each stack
one at a time. Good luck.

Evil Campaign 2:
Scenario 1—
ÓA GryphonÕs HeartÓ
CAMPAIGN INDEX
EVIL CAMPAIGN 1
EVIL CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 1
GOOD CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 3
NEUTRAL CAMPAIGN
SECRET CAMPAIGN
Objective: Bring the Spirit of Oppression artifact to the city of Stonecastle
within three months.
Starting notes: Seek out the Seer. By completing his quest you can carry the
reward to the next scenario.

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This is one of three Seer’s Huts on this map. The other two are above ground.
Upon completing their quests, you’ll receive the Spirit of Oppression.
Choose a bonus (you can pick one):

l Start with a scroll of death ripple
l Start with one black knight
l Start with a skeleton transformer in your town
Starting towns: One necropolis town
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: None besides Stonecastle.

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Notes: In order to animate the body of King Gryphonheart, you need to capture
the castle town of Stonecastle. You have three months to find the Spirit of
Oppression artifact and bring it to Stonecastle in order to complete the animating spell. Start with the death ripple spell or the black knight and you’ll have
a good advantage.
Stonecastle is in the middle of the map, to the south of your necropolis. This
map is very small, but garrisons block your way to Stonecastle. Luckily, they are
only lightly defended by pikemen and archers. There are three Seer’s Huts, and
its only after you’ve finished all their quests that you’ll get the Spirit of Oppression. One Seer is above ground, right next to your town. The second Seer’s Hut
is underground, awhile the third one is also above ground but on the diagonally
opposite side of the map.
The biggest challenge in this scenario is finding the Spirit of Oppression. Once
you do that, just march into Stonecastle with your largest army.

Evil Campaign 2:
Scenario 2—
ÒSeason of HarvestÓ
Objective: You must accumulate 2500 skeletons in three months.
Starting notes: You can carry artifacts found behind border guards to the next
scenario.
Choose a bonus (you can pick one):

l Start with a Vampire’s Cowl (+10 percent to your necromancy skill)
l Start with a Necromancy Amplifier in your town (+10 percent necromancy
to all heroes)

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Find the border guards and take the artifacts behind them,
because they will carry over to subsequent scenarios.

Start with Unearther Graves in your town (adds to skeleton production)

Starting towns: One necropolis
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: Two rampart towns and one castle town are on this map. The castle is located at the very far southwest corner of the map. One rampart town is
in the middle of the map, while the other is located in the northwest corner.
Notes: You should start this scenario with the necromancy amplifier because it
will affect all your heroes. It will also make it easier for you to get vampire lords
quickly.

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There is no underground to this map, so all your fighting and exploring is done
above ground. However, you will start off on an island on the very northeast part
of the map. There is one ship waiting by the shore, so take your strongest hero
across the river to the mainland to the west and start killing weak wandering
monsters. You’ll want to build a shipyard early to get your other heroes across.
Your starting heroes will begin at second or third level, giving a little of a headstart in power.
There are two border guards on this map with artifacts you can thus take with
you to the next scenario. One is located in the far northwest corner, above the
rampart town, while the other border guard is located in the west of the map.
There is also a prison behind this west border guard where you can free the hero
Sandro, who is equipped to bolster your forces with even more skeletons. You
need not destroy every town to win this scenario, but simply need to amass
2500 skeletons. Do so by any means necessary; make sure and have necromancy
amplifiers at every town, make your heroes experts in the necromancy skill as
quickly as possible, and even resort to recruiting creatures like centaurs and
dwarves in order to convert them in your skeleton transformers. Also, when you
encounter wandering monsters that begin to run away, never let them flee.
Finally, keep the skeletons you’ve resurrected out of the action; you don’t have
any to spare, so keep them safe.

Evil Campaign 2:
Scenario 3—
ÒCorporeal PunishmentÓ
Objective: Defeat the Death Knight Mot.
Starting notes: You will have any artifacts you carried over from seers in the
last scenario.

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Take the 25 zombies and get a headstart on capturing mines and artifacts.
Then go for Mot, who is surprisingly weak.
Choose a bonus (you can pick one):

l Start with the Pendant of Death (makes you immune to the Destroy Undead spell)
l Start with a scroll of Protection from Earth
l Start with 25 zombies
Starting towns: One necropolis
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: There are three necropolis towns not counting the fortress where
Mot is waiting. One is in the southwest, the other is in the middle of the map,
and the last is in the northeast.

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Notes: In this scenario you must destroy Mot, who resides in a necropolis to the
far southeast. The 25 zombies will help you get an early start; the other bonuses
won’t prove useful. The way to Mot is winding and snakes through mountains
and garrisons. Beware, because several garrisons reside on cursed ground, preventing the casting of magic in combat.
If you need to acquire resources and artifacts to increase your power, there is
a rich underworld, but it is only accessibly by a whirlpool in the northeast corner of the map. You’ll need to go to an external shipyard in the northwest to
build a ship if you want to travel there.
Once you engage Mot you will find he is nowhere near as powerful as the last
hero you faced, General Kendal. Mot has two attack, five defense, four power,
and three knowledge. You may face him within his castle, but Mot is also
inclined to wander about collecting resources. He will be protected by a large
host of necropolis creatures, but by the time you reach him, you will have equivalent forces.

Evil Campaign 2:
Scenario 4—
ÓFrom Day to NightÓ
Objective: You must capture all towns and defeat all heroes.
Starting notes: You will have any artifacts you carried over from the last scenario.
Choose a bonus (you can pick one):

l Start with a scroll of death ripple
l Start with the Dead Man’s Boots artifact (+15 percent necromancy skill)
l Start with three ghost dragons

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The last castle town to be captured is accessible by this narrow strip of land,
or by a subterranean gate that opens just east of the town.
Starting towns: Three necromancer towns
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: There are five towns. Three already have forts, while the other two
do not. Three are lined up along the middle of the map, from west to east. The
fourth is in the southwest corner, and the fifth is in the southeast.
Notes: This scenario is a scorched earth mission where you must conquer everything. Be prepared for a long haul. The ghost dragons will be a huge asset in the
early game.
There are roads leading from your three towns to all the other towns in this
scenario. Simply follow them south and take the enemy towns. You’ll find that

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the sooner you go forth and attack, the easier this scenario will be. It gets harder
if you allow the computer opponent to build up.
The underworld is rich with resources, chests, and artifacts, so be sure to send
at least one or two heroes down there to pick up the goodies while you press
onward in your attack of the Erathian towns.

Good Campaign 1:
Scenario 1—
ÓHomecomingÓ
CAMPAIGN INDEX
EVIL CAMPAIGN 1
EVIL CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 1
GOOD CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 3
NEUTRAL CAMPAIGN
SECRET CAMPAIGN
Objective: Capture the town of Terraneus.
Starting notes: Your heroes are limited to sixth level, but your four best will carry
over to the next scenario. Artifacts and troops don’t carry over, but spells do.

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To get to the dungeon town, you need to enter through the subterranean gate
and then navigate a winding series of tunnels. The entrance on the surface
world is in the southwest of the aboveworld continent.
Bonuses for starting hero (you can pick one):

l Start with a first aid tent
l Start with 14 extra pikemen
l Start with five extra crystals, gems, mercury, and sulfur
Starting towns: One castle
Starting resources: 30W, 15M, 30O, 15S, 15C, 15Ge, 30000G
Other towns: There are three castle towns for the taking. These are all above
ground. One is directly north of your starting town, at the very top edge of the

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map. One is in the very middle of the map, and the other is in the southwestern
corner of the continent. All have been conquered by the dungeon overlords of
Nighon and thus are garrisoned by both native creatures and dungeon ones.
Notes: Your hero starts just outside your town, surrounded by archers and
pikemen. Don’t worry, they will join you, thus adding immediately to your
army.
Regarding the starting bonus, you don’t need the extra 14 pikemen
because there are already recruits waiting in the countryside to join you
when you start. A first aid tent isn’t really that useful in the early game, so
go for the extra resources so you can build upgrade your mage guild and
barracks faster.
Terraneus is a dungeon town located underground. You’ll need to access it
through a subterranean gate located in the snowy terrain nearby the castle
town of Plinth. That is located in the southwestern part of the continent. You
can either get their by foot, fighting your way through wandering monsters,
another enemy castle, and the rough terrain, or get their by boat. Getting their
by sea is much faster and safer; just skirt along the southern coast of the continent and when you see a castle called Plinth in the far west, you can make
for shore.
When you come across treasure chests during exploration, you should opt for
the gold because you can’t advance beyond sixth level anyway, and you will
have plenty of opportunities to gain experience. The gold will enable you to buy
creatures at an accelerated pace and take on Terraneus earlier, thus lessening
the likelihood that you would face a large dungeon garrison there.
The dungeon town of Terraneus has to obey the same rules as you as far
as building up, so if you attack earlier you’ll face a less formidable defense.
But if you wait too long or take the long route to the subterranean gate
and thus give your enemy time to build up, you could be facing a larger
force of dungeon creatures. Keep in mind that in this scenario you cannot
recruit angels.

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Good Campaign 1:
Scenario 2—
ÓGuardian AngelsÓ
Objective: Capture all towns and defeat all enemy heroes.
Starting notes: Your heroes are limited to twelfth level, but your eight best
heroes will carry over to the next scenario. You will start this scenario with your
four best heroes from the previous scenario.

This town is guarded by angels, but don’t fear, they will join you.
Take the time to take the experience and treasure around the town as well.

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Bonuses for starting hero (you can pick one):

l Start with one angel
l Start with three zealots
l Start with a scroll of prayer
Starting towns: None
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: There is a castle town up the road to the north of your starting
position. There are also four towns underground, at each corner of the map.
They are two dungeon and two inferno towns.
Notes: You start this scenario without a town and must capture one in seven
days or lose. Of the three starting bonuses, the angel will aid you the most.
You start in the southwest corner of this small map, but there is a road
directly underfoot. Just follow it north and you will arrive at the town of Fair
Feather. Several angels block your way on this path, but they will join you, thus
bolstering your army. Fair Feather is unoccupied so you can simply walk in and
take the town.
The other remaining towns lie underground. There are two subterranean
gates, one in the west and one in the east of the surface map. In each of the
four underground corners there is an enemy town for the taking. There are two
dungeon towns and two inferno towns. You shouldn’t have much trouble at all
on this map because of the angels, who can destroy pretty much anything the
enemy throws at you. Take the two external portals of glory next to Fair
Feather to increase your angel production in the town. Explore and take experience with the treasure chests you find so you can beef up your heroes for the
next scenario.
If you find that the enemy towns underground are well fortified (depending
on how long you waited to attack), you can just wait and build up more angels.
There are two gold mines underground to help fill your coffers.

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Good Campaign 1:
Scenario 3—
ÓGriffin CliffÓ
Objective: Flag all sevengriffin towers
Starting notes: You will start this scenario with your eight best heroes from the
previous scenario.

The griffin towers are all located along the north edge of the map,
but they’re guarded by garrisons and wandering griffins.

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Bonuses for starting hero (you can pick one):

l Start with the Golden Bow artifact
l Start with the Lion’s Shield of Courage artifact
l Start with the Endless Sack of Gold artifact
Starting towns: Three castle towns
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: There are two inferno towns and two castle towns to conquer here.
There is one of each on either side of the map, west and east. The two inferno towns
already have forts, but the two castle towns do not. There are also three dungeon
towns in the underground of the map. These are fully developed and garrisoned.
Notes: Of your three starting towns, only one has a fort already built. You must
build this military structure at the other two towns. Gold will be scarce in the first
few weeks, especially if you want to upgrade all three of your towns. Although the
Lion’s Shield of Courage is a fabulously useful item, you might want to take the
Endless Sack of Gold instead so you do have enough gold in the early going to
build up your towns. Besides, your starting heroes will already be pretty powerful.
The griffin towers are located at the far north of the map. The seven towers
are divided into two groups. The first three are clustered in the middle of the
northern edge of the map and surrounded by mountains. The only way in is
through a red border guard. The keymaster’s tent for this red guard is located
near the top of the map, closer to the west side. The other four griffin towers are
split two apiece on the west and east side of the northern edge of the map. Each
is located at the end of a long path through the mountains. A garrison blocks the
start of each path, while at the end of the path (the foot of the griffin tower) are
packs of griffin guards. The four garrisons each contain hordes of familiars and
infernal troglodytes, and lots of hell hounds, harpy hags, demons, and evil eyes.
During this scenario, don’t expect the computer to let you build up freely so
you can capture the seven griffin towers. It will come after you with several substantial forces early on. To the north of the two inferno towns are subterranean
gates. Beware of dungeon heroes coming out of the ground and attacking you

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with their armies. Take the two inferno towns and then build castle gates in
each one so you can teleport back and forth between the west and east sides of
the map and take on any enemy heroes that might try to sneak into your territory. Once you have these towns, you can start building up an army to sweep
across the north and take the towers. It shouldn’t be too hard.
You can venture underground if you want to put an end to further dungeon overlord attacks. There is a Dragon Utopia in the underworld, which you can attack for
some powerful artifacts. However, the goal of the scenario is to flag those seven
griffin towers, and as long as you can hold off any dungeon heroes that might
come through the subterranean gate, you probably don’t need to venture underground. The griffin towers and their garrisons are actually pretty easy to overcome.

Good Campaign 2:
Scenario 1—
ÓSteadwickÕs LiberationÓ
CAMPAIGN INDEX
EVIL CAMPAIGN 1
EVIL CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 1
GOOD CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 3
NEUTRAL CAMPAIGN
SECRET CAMPAIGN

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Objective: Capture the town of Steadwick
Starting notes: Completing the Seer’s quest allows you to carry a reward to the
next scenario (doing so will give you access to locked artifacts in the next scenario)

There are two gates into the underworld. Take this one, since it is unguarded.
The gate to the south is guarded by several black dragons.
Choose a bonus:

l Start with 10,000 extra gold
l Start with two archangels
l Start with two titans
Starting towns: One castle and one tower

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Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: There are six towns you could take above ground. There is a castle town in the southeast, an inferno town in the east, and a rampart town in
the northeast. Two castle towns lie to the north and northwest. The other town,
a castle, lies in the middle of the map. There are three dungeon towns below
ground.
Notes: Speed is of the essence in this scenario. Attack quickly and you will face
fewer defenses. Take the archangels because they give you great movement and
are superpowerful. The titans will prove similarly effective. Sweep across the
east and travel northward, taking any towns along the way. Use your hero with
the archangels or titans to plow across the map, fighting anything that gets in
his way, while another tails behind and actually claims the mines and other
valuables left undefended in the wake of the first.
The way to Steadwick is blocked, so you will need to travel via the underground passages in order attack the town. There are two subterranean gates.
The closest one to you is in the east, just above the southeastern castle town. It
is guarded by black dragons, so don’t go there. Instead, to the far north there is
another subterranean gate that is completely unguarded. Travel that way and
you’ll have an easier time.
Because there are so many enemy towns along the way, you do need to travel
fast and take as many towns as you can. That way, you prevent the enemy from
building up. There is a bonus on this level in the far northwest of the map.
Guarded by several devils is a prison, and inside is General Kendal. He doesn’t
have an impressive army, but he has great statistics and skills. Free him early
(your two archangels and a few cavaliers or nagas should do the trick) and you’ll
gain a powerful hero with which to storm Steadwick.
Once you enter the underworld, travel west to find the gate that leads to
Steadwick. You’ll want to try and siege the two dungeon towns you encounter
along the way. These will prove difficult to hold on to, but the key is to keep
transferring your castle units to the front lines, via a network of heroes.

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Good Campaign 2:
Scenario 2—
ÓDeal with the DevilÓ
Objective: You must capture the town of Kleesive
Starting notes: There are border guards that hold artifacts. If you get past
them, you can carry the artifacts to the next level.

The way to Kleesive is guarded by archdevils, but you should try to take it as early
as possible, because the enemy only gets stronger the longer you wait.

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Choose a bonus:

l Start with a scroll of Protection from Fire
l Start with a scroll of Ice Bolt
l Start with a scroll of Precision
Starting towns: Two castle towns, one rampart town
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: There are four inferno towns, not counting Kleesive. These four
towns are in the east of the map, arranged around the city of Kleesive.
Notes: It is time to rescue Queen Catherine’s husband, Roland Ironfist, who is
held by Kleesive. You start in the west of the map, and the forces of Kleesive are
arrayed in the east, behind a massive wall of black mountains.
Your rampart town and one castle start with forts, but the other castle
town is a simply town with a hall. You should be able to build up both your
fortified towns simultaneously. The way to Kleesive will not be easy, and your
starting bonus isn’t anywhere near as helpful as it was in the previous scenario. The mountains in the east form an effective wall, and there are only a
few gaps that lead into the area. However, each gap is guarded by pit lords
or arch devils. Once you get past them, you will find that the area is rich with
chests and gold, but the more valuable caches are guarded by demons or
other creatures.
Kleesive itself will be well fortified by the time you arrive there. Obviously,
the longer you wait, the stronger it becomes. There is only one way into
Kleesive, but that way is blocked by several arch devils. Until you can destroy
them, you won’t be able to siege Kleesive—unless you get dimension door. Try
to get the artifacts behind the border guards, as they will carry to the next
scenario.

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Good Campaign 2:
Scenario 3—
ÓNeutral AffairsÓ
Objective: Capture all towns and defeat all enemy heroes

Take the artifacts behind the guard so you can carry it to the next scenario.
In this scenario, you need the pathfinding skill, because most of the terrain is swamp.

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Starting notes: You can use artifacts you carried over from last scenario. These
artifacts will open new border guards, allowing you to take even more artifacts
to the next scenario.
Choose a bonus:

l Start with expert logistics
l Start with the Shield of the Dwarven Lords (+2 defense)
l Start with the Centaur’s Axe (+2 attack)
Starting towns: Two castle towns and one tower town
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: There are six towns on this map to conquer. There is a fortress
town in the northwest, another fortress town in the far west, castle town in
the lower middle of the map, another castle close to your starting position,
a stronghold town in the southeast, and a second stronghold town in the far
south.
Notes: In this scenario, the wizards are coming to your aid in the KrewlodTatalia border skirmish. Your two castle towns start with only a hall, although
your tower town does come with a fort. Although you start on the grasses,
almost the entire map is composed of swamp. The expert logistics ability might
be a good starting bonus to take. If you can, you might want to also recruit
beastmasters or witches at your tavern, since they are more likely to learn
pathfinding, which makes the way easier in the swamp.
As with most of these scenarios where you need to conquer the entire map,
you want to strike quickly. You’ll want to visit the border guards and get the
artifacts that can carry to the next scenario.

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Good Campaign 2:
Scenario 4—ÓTunnels
and TroglodytesÓ
Objective: Capture all towns and defeat all enemy heroes.
Starting notes: You can open up border guards here with artifacts you have
carried from previous scenarios.

The way to the last dungeon town is guarded by minotaurs and a garrison,
but you can drop in through the backdoor—a subterranean gate accessible
from the surface world by an island in the east of the map.

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Starting bonus (Choose one):

l Hero begins with expert navigation
l Three level one mage guilds
l One level three mage guild
Starting towns: One castle, one rampart, and one tower
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: There are five dungeon towns all below ground.
Notes: This map is large, but most of the action occurs below ground. The surface map is a huge ocean with a strip of land on either side. You start in the
west, but can travel to the east side and plunder its chests and gold.
As to the starting bonus for this scenario, you will probably want to take the
three level one mage guilds, since your towns are fairly isolated and resources
in fairly short supply. Build up an army as soon as you can and start taking the
underground town by town. There are three subterranean gates on your strip of
land, one next to each town.
Once you enter the underworld, you’ll have a very hard walk ahead of you. The
way is winding, and garrisons block the way to each dungeon town. However,
they aren’t very heavily defended, consisting mainly of harpies, troglodytes, and
beholders.
The five dungeon towns are all sprawled across the map. Two are located
in the southern half of the underworld, two others are in the northern half,
and the final one is in the east. The way to that town is guarded by many
minotaurs. Also near this town is a Dragon Utopia, which you can conquer to
gold and artifacts. You can also opt to get to this last eastern town by the
subterranean gates on the surface world, which are on the eastern strip of
land on the other side of the ocean. That way might be easier. There is a lot
of ground to cover, but also a lot of treasure and artifacts to be found to aid
you. Good luck.

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Good Campaign 3:
Scenario 1—
ÓSafe PassageÓ
CAMPAIGN INDEX
EVIL CAMPAIGN 1
EVIL CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 1
GOOD CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 3
NEUTRAL CAMPAIGN
SECRET CAMPAIGN

Objective: Bring the necromancer, Nimbus, to the town of Highcastle with the
Statesman’s Medal artifact.
Starting notes: Nimbus and your seven strongest heroes will carry over t the
next scenario.
Starting bonus (choose one):

l Start with Boots of Speed (increases hero movement over land)
l Start with basic logistics
l Start with 2,500 extra gold

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Bring the necromancer to your town in the southwest, but beware the two necropolis towns.
You also have to disarm the three border guards before the necromancer can proceed
Starting towns: One castle town
Starting resources: 15W, 7M, 15O, 7S, 7C, 7Ge, 15000G
Other towns: There are two necropolis towns to the north of your castle.
Notes: Thankfully, there is no time limit for this scenario. And the map is also
very small, meaning Nimbus doesn’t have very far to travel. Nimbus starts in the
far northeast corner of the map, and you have to bring him south along the road
to your castle in the southwest. Unfortunately, the way is blocked by three border guards, so you have to find the tents that will dismiss the guards.
The red tent is in the southeast corner of the map. The blue tent is in the
northwest corner, and the green tent is in the far north. Don’t let Nimbus die,

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and beware of the necropolis towns, which lies directly in your path. Nimbus
starts with the Statesman’s Medal so there is no need to look for it. Just open
the guards and bring him a strong escort to travel back to Highcastle.
You’ll want to take the Boots of Speed artifact because you can always learn
logistics. The boots will stay with you and add to your logistics skill once you do
learn it. This is a surprisingly easy mission, and you should be able to eliminate
the opposition quickly and with little trouble. However, you shouldn’t rush to
complete your objective prematurely; take the opportunity instead to clear the
entire map and boost as many heroes as you can to the maximum level this scenario will accommodate. You’ll want powerful heroes for the next mission,
which is more difficult.

Good Campaign 3:
Scenario 2—
ÓUnited FrontÓ
Objective: You must capture all enemy towns and defeat all enemy heroes.
Starting notes: At the end of this scenario, your six strongest heroes will travel
with you to the final scenario, where you will meet up with Lord Haart and
Queen Catherine.
Choose a bonus:

l Start with 35 royal griffins
l Start with 35 iron golems
l Start with 35 grand elves
Starting towns: One necromancer town, one castle town, one rampart town,
and one tower town

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Take the grand elves and march north with all haste. The zombies will fall before your swift
might and you’ll be able to take a necropolis town within a few days of the scenario beginning.
Starting resources: 15W, 7M, 15O, 7S, 7C, 7Ge, 15000G
Other towns: There are four enemy necropolis towns arrayed in the northwest
and a castle town guarded by a blue border guard slightly northwest of the middle of the map.
Notes: So it appears that the necromancers have decided to become your allies.
You will still be facing a sizeable necromancer army though. With your four towns
you are sprawled over a half of the map, from the southwest to the northeast.
However, in the northwest of the map lie a concentration of necropolis towns and
monsters. Don’t think that you control your section of the map, though, because
there are plenty of wandering undead here guarding mines and treasure.

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Take the grand elf bonus because these ranged troops will prove the greatest
starting asset. Their speed and attack make them more useful than the golems, and
even the griffins. By the way, if you are looking for your starting army, they begin
play garrisoned in their respective town, so the elves start in the rampart town.
With these elves you can quickly march north and take at least one necropolis town before the computer mounts a credible counterattack. This will be very
easy because you’ll find that most of the wandering undead that block your way
north are slow zombies. The garrisons guarding the way into the necromancers’
territory also aren’t too well defended. However, they are situated on cursed
ground, so magic won’t work. If you can claim some of the enemy territory early
on, the opponent will be hard-pressed to reclaim his land.

Good Campaign 3:
Scenario 3—
ÓFor King and CountryÓ
Objective: Defeat all enemy towns and heroes
Starting notes: This is the final battle.
Choose a bonus:

l Start with the Helm of Heavenly Enlightenment (+6 to all primary skills)
l Start with the Tome of Earth Magic (gives you access to all earth spells)
l Start with the Spellbinder’s Hat (lets you cast all fifth-level spells)
Starting towns: One castle town, one rampart town, and one tower town
Starting resources: 15W, 7M, 15O, 7S, 7C, 7Ge, 15000G
Other towns: There are two necropolis towns, one in the northeast and another
necropolis town further northeast of it.

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Beware the cursed ground below all the garrisons of this scenario.
It will make getting to the necropolis a little more difficult.
Notes: This is the final scenario of the game. You cannot lose Queen Catherine or
Lord Haart. If you do, the scenario is automatically lost. Although all the starting
bonuses are powerful, consider choosing the Spellbinder’s hat. You gain the very
powerful implosion spell, as well as the dimension door spell. And even though
Catherine and Lord Haart are knights, the hat lets anyone cast fifth-level spells.
Dimension door is especially useful to exploring the map and jumping between castles to recruit troops for a super army. Your castle town starts in the southwest,
your rampart town starts in the southeast, and the tower town starts in the northwest. The necropolis towns are in the northeast. The way there is guarded by high
mountains and garrisons, which are themselves planted on cursed ground. In fact,
almost all the territory surrounding the necropolis towns is cursed ground, limiting

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your magic casting ability. Fortunately, the actual necropolis towns themselves are
on dead vegetation or dirt, where magic can operate normally. The garrisons are
lightly defended with skeleton warriors, zombies, wraiths, and vampires, but you
could even dimension door past these if you have the Spellbinder’s Hat.
Although your objectives lie on the surface to the northeast, there is an
underground with plenty of powerful artifacts. You may not even need them,
however, as you should have built up powerful heroes by now, which will prove
more than capable of handling the insubstantial enemy presence in this map.
Employ your spells and best troops as outlined in the rest of the game guide and
you will eventually find victory. Good luck.

CAMPAIGN INDEX
EVIL CAMPAIGN 1
EVIL CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 1
GOOD CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 3
NEUTRAL CAMPAIGN
SECRET CAMPAIGN

Neutral Campaign:
Scenario 1—
ÓBorderlandsÓ
Objective: Flag all mines

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Starting notes: Your heroes are limited to twelfth level, but your eight best can
carry over to the final scenario of this campaign. Creatures and artifacts don’t
carry over, but spells do.
No bonus/Select a starting hero (you can pick one):

l Korbac the Beastmaster (specialty: serpent flies)
l Verdish the Witch (specialty: first aid)
l Random hero
Starting towns: Two fortress towns

Of all the mines to capture, the gold mine is the most difficult to locate. To get there, find
the magic portal, which is located between two border guards in the west of the map.

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Starting resources: 30W, 15M, 30O, 15S, 15C, 15Ge, 30000G
Other towns: There are three castle towns on this map, on the southeast and
east sides of the map. Two only have halls and no military fort, but the town of
Cornerstone (located far south of your initial fortress town by following the
road south), has a keep. The castle towns can’t really be built up since most castle buildings are locked out for this scenario.
Notes: The good thing about this scenario is that there is no underground.
The opposition is also fairly weak, and won’t really mount much of an attack
against you. You can actually just wait about two weeks, building up to
wyvern monarchs and chaos hydras, while exploring your side of the map. (A
mountain ridge cuts this map in two diagonally. Your side is to the west, and
the enemy side is the east.) Then split your army between two heroes. Have
one hero run around taking all the mines while the other captures the
enemy towns.
The only mine that might present a problem is the gold mine in the south of
the map. It is accessible only via a magical portal. The portal is located at the
southwestern edge of the swamp and is guarded by a red border guard. The keymaster’s tent for this guard is actually close to your first fortress, only about a
day’s ride to the north if you follow the road.
This map has two lumber mills, two ore mines, two sulfur mines, one crystal
mine, two gem ponds, and one gold mine. Flag them all and you win.

Neutral Campaign:
Scenario 2—
ÓGold RushÓ
Objective: Amass 200,000 gold

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Starting notes: Your heroes are limited to twelfth level, but you can carry your eight
best to the next scenario. Creatures and artifacts don’t carry over, but spells do.
Bonuses for starting hero (you can pick one):

l Start with three thunderbirds
l Start with two cyclops kings
l Start with the one ancient behemoth
Starting towns: Two stronghold towns
Starting resources: 30W, 15M, 30O, 15S, 15C, 15Ge, 30000G

A huge cache of gold is behind this border guard, but you need to find
the keymaster’s tent to pass. If you get this gold, you’ll acquire 100,000 gold.

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Other towns: There are four castle towns. There is one castle town on your
continent to the northeast. One castle town is located on the southeastern
continent, and the other two castle towns are on the northeastern continent.
The easiest way to those continents is via the underground passage.
Notes: This scenario shouldn’t be too hard. It’s a tossup between the three
starting bonuses. All are good. You can take one of two approaches with this
scenario. You can either take over all the mines and the one town on your continent, or journey through the one subterranean gate on your continent to venture forth and conquer the other two continents on this map. Both are
accessible through the gate or by purchasing a ship from an external shipyard
on the southeastern coast of your continent.
If you decide to stay put, you can easily win this scenario, but it will take a
little longer and your heroes won’t gain nearly as much experience. What you
do is simply build up two large armies, watch the subterranean gates for any
encroaching enemy heroes, and then wait for your treasury to fill to 200,000
gold. There is one more town on your continent that can contribute to your
efforts, and two gold mines on this continent as well.
If you decide you want to take the strategy of complete domination, it will be
significantly harder, but you’ll get a lot of gold quickly. The best way to get gold
is to travel north of your strongholds, where you will see ten piles of gold
blocked off by a red border guard. Each pile is worth 10,000 gold. The keymaster’s tent to this border guard is on the northeastern continent. However, blocking the way to this tent is a purple border guard. Fortunately, the tent to this
guard is right next to your first stronghold town. Once you get past the purple
guard and enter the red tent, you’ll be able to open up the red guard and take
the ten piles of gold. And if you can survive on the northeastern continent, you
might as well take the two castle towns and the two gold mines there as well
and end the scenario quickly.

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Neutral Campaign:
Scenario 3—ÓGreedÓ
Objective: Capture all towns and defeat all enemy heroes.
Starting notes: You can choose to start with your eight best heroes from scenario one or two.
Choose a side (you can pick one):

l Fight for Tatalia (fortress) and use your heroes from scenario one
l Fight for Krewlod (stronghold) and use your heroes from scenario two
Starting towns: Three towns (one already with a fort, and two with only a hall)
Starting resources: 20W, 10M, 20O, 10S, 10C, 10Ge, 20000G
Other towns: There are five towns to capture, not including the three towns
that belong to the enemy. These five towns consist of three castle towns and
one fortress and one stronghold. The three castle towns are clustered together
in the middle of the map. The one neutral fortress town is in the southwest of
the map, while the neutral stronghold town is in the northeast. Your enemy’s
three towns are located diagonally opposite you on the map.
Notes: There are advantages to fighting for either side. All things being
equal, the stronghold has an advantage over the fortress, but the terrain in
this map is a great equalizer. If you play for Krewlod, you can climb up the
tech tree quickly and get thunderbirds and behemoths. However, no matter
which side you play, the terrain for most of this map will be swamp, and here,
the fortress heroes and creatures have the advantage in terms of mobility. So
if you choose Krewlod, you’ll have the better creatures, but if you choose
Tatalia, you will have better movement throughout the map, and thus an easier time getting mines and chests. No matter who you fight for, however,

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Your enemy lies diagonally opposite you. If you need gold to fund the war effort,
visit these offshore gold mines. The rest of the map requires you to trudge through
swamp, so learn pathfinding. You’ll need mobile heroes to make the most of your gold.
there is a smattering of Erathian resistance in this map, so you’ll be fighting
both the enemy (either Tatalia or Krewlod depending on your allegiance) and
a few castle towns of Erathia.
If you are Krewlod, the going will be pretty rough in this scenario because the
swamp will slow you down. Even if you are a fortress hero, the map is pretty
maze-like so you’ll still spend a lot of time walking in circuitous routes to enemy
towns and locations. You will need lots of gold to win this scenario, and there
are two islands off the southern shore of the continent that each contain two
gold mines. If you can take these two islands, you’ll be set for gold. However,

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each mine is guarded by a horde of gorgons so only attempt to take them when
you have a large enough army.
Impassable mountains surround each nation’s starting location, so you’ll only
be able to venture forth via two well guarded garrisons. Each garrison has
dozens of level one to level five troops of the opposing nation. There is no time
limit, so you just have to amass lots of gold, build up a huge army and sweep
across the map. Beware of the Erathian forces as they won’t go down without
a fight. Good luck.

Secret Campaign
CAMPAIGN INDEX
EVIL CAMPAIGN 1
EVIL CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 1
GOOD CAMPAIGN 2
GOOD CAMPAIGN 3
NEUTRAL CAMPAIGN
SECRET CAMPAIGN
We don’t want to ruin the surprise of the secret campaign. All we’ll say is that
it is there, and the way to access it is simple: just beat the game. When you
finish the last good campaign, the secret campaign will open. There are three
scenarios in the campaign, dealing with the aftermath of the war. If you want
to be completely surprised, then don’t read further. We won’t provide a full
walkthrough, but here is a quick breakdown of each scenario.

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SCENARIO 1
Objective: Find the grail in two months.
Notes: In this artifact, you basically have to visit all the obelisks and locate the
grail in two months. Success means immediately winning the scenario. You can
start with boots of speed, a few pegasi, or gold (the boots are good for the
movement points). You play as a rampart hero. There are no enemy heroes to
fight, just wandering monsters and the time limit. Bands of dwarves and elves
will join you in the beginning to bolster your starting armies because you can’t
build anything at your town.

There are no enemy towns to fight here, but there are plenty
of wandering monsters. Visit the obelisks and find the grail.

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SCENARIO 2
Objective: Your ranger hero, Ryland, must bring the grail to the town of Welnin
and build the grail building.
Notes: You can start with either extra gold, a few dendroids, or a level three
mage guild. Welnin (which starts under your control) is at the bottom southeast,
and Ryland is at the northwest. You can’t really build much at Welnin. There are
three enemy towns here so watch out. The road will be long and arduous.

Your ranger starts up at the top of the map and must wind his way down south.
Be wary of enemy heroes that might attack you or your town

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SCENARIO 3
Objective: You must build a capitol at Welnin.
Notes: You can start with dendroid soldiers, dendroid guards, or extra wood.
You will find that wood is hard to come by in this scenario, so consider taking
the extra wood. The objective here is a lot harder than it looks. Just hold off the
enemy heroes and watch those lumber mills, which the enemy will try to snatch
at every opportunity.

Although you only have to build a capitol to win this scenario, you shouldn’t hang back.
Take and guard the mines on the map because the enemy frequently steals them from you.

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F E AT U R E S
THE BEST GAME GUIDES ON THE WEB
ARE ONLY ONE CLICK AWAY!

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With hundreds of nonplayer characters and locations, dozens
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SIMCITY 3000 GAME GUIDE
http://www.gameguides.com/guides/sc3k/
Earthquakes. Fires. Riots. Taxes. UFO attacks. All in a day’s
work. You set the agenda and tone for the city, zone and
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It’s lonely at the top. But you don’t have to go it alone.

ALPHA CENTAURI GAME GUIDE
http://www.gameguides.com/guides/alphacen/
Your paths to world domination or technological superiority
are many and varied. But should you find the journey more
daunting task than you surmised, and the goal a little
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become the master of Alpha Centauri.

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