HOMM 3 : Strategy for Song for the Father 3 "For King and Country"
Sebastien Patenaude
probably why I delayed so long before writing it. That and the fact I'm
so lazy ;-) Next up are the expansion pack campaigns. The first campaign
I will tackle is Dragon's Blood. Finished 3 of them and I can already
say they're much more interesting strategically-speaking than the
Restoration of Erathia campaigns. I hope this remains true for the other
campaigns).
This particular strategy is based on the non-expansion pack version of
this medium map. I noticed that if one used the Armageddon's Blade CD,
this scenario was set at expert difficulty while if one used the
original Restoration of Erathia CD, this scenario was set at hard
difficulty. The savegames are even more confusing, they say the map
difficulty is expert and the game difficulty is hard. The game
difficulty can be significant because at expert, the human player starts
with 5000 less gold and a little less of each resource (compared to
hard) while the computer gets regular bonus resources (not that much but
still). In any case, this scenario was so easy and anticlimactic,
especially for the last scenario of the last campaign that you should do
well either way. It's your 3 partially built towns against 2 Necropolis
towns. You start with eight strong starting heroes (between levels 10
and 15 for me) while the other side starts with a few wimpy level 1
heroes (if that's not an unbalanced scenario in your favor, I don't know
what is). If you want to play it like I played it, use the heroes3.exe
executable and your original HOMM 3 CD (load the savegame if you have
one), if you'd like a little more challenge, use the h3blade.exe
executable and your Armageddon's Blade CD. On my first and only try at
this map, I finished on month 1, week 4, day 5 and totally by surprise
too because I did not know all the enemy towns were taken. I expected a
more decent opposition, some kind of surprise, anything, in the
underground.
0) All the bonuses are excellent. I took the Spellbinder's Hat, giving
you all the level 5 spells, but I intentionally chose not to use Fly or
Dimension Door. The saddest part is that even without any such bonus
item, you'll win easily anyway (unless you take too long to attack and
even then, you still overproduce your opponent)
1) Lord Haart should serve as Queen Catherine's squire. Keep your
friends close and your enemies even closer ;-) . Give the Spellbinder's
Hat (or Tome of Earth) to your best spellcaster later in the week.
2) You'll quickly see that the northwest corner is packed with nice
piles of resources. To reach it, you'll have to make an hero go east
from the Tower until you see a way up, then you can go west.
3) The week 1 building orders are a bit different than usual because the
towns were already partially built.
Tower
1) Golden Pavilion
2) ----
3) Castle
4) ----
5) Capitol (not sure if I built it so soon or not, I probably did)
6) Altar of Wishes
7) Cloud Temple
Rampart
1) Dendroid Arches
2) Dendroid Saplings
3) Unicorn Glade
4) ----
5) Castle
6) ----
7) ----
I mostly ignored the Castle Town: building the Monastery on day 1 and
then the Castle structure on day 7.
4) Trade if you need to do so. Start by trading away sulfur and mercury
(but never all of them). You can also trade gold for gems if you like.
5) Take notice that the Rampart starts with a level 5 Mage Guild.
However, Catherine and Lord Haart start next to the Castle. Have them go
inside and buy spellbooks.
6) Make one of your heroes, expert in earth magic, cast View Earth so
you can get to know the lay of the land. If one of your heroes has
advanced skill in air magic, then View Air is another spell you want to
cast regularly to keep track of enemy heroes.
7) Buy Tower troops (except Golems & Gremlins). Also buy Castle troops
except Pikemen and Crusaders. Don't buy any Rampart troops for now
(except perhaps a few Silver Pegasi for heroes passing near so they can
maximize their movement)
8) Your spellcasters (clerics, druids, warlocks, etc) should be able to
easily defeat stacks protecting mines simply through the use of magic
even if they have relatively few troops.
9) Get gold from chests for now.
10) You'll have to visit the Huts of Magi regularly since the
Necropolises' Covers of Darkness are in effect.
11) Important items to get: Endless Sack of Gold northeast of the
Rampart, Equestrian Gloves northwest of the Castle.
12) Try to flag Sawmills and Ore Pits first.
13) Don't forget about the spell Destroy Undead that you might have used
very little, if at all, until now.
14) I beat a stack of Ghost Dragons by splitting up my army in 7 stacks
and casting spells. It was close and perhaps I should have added some
Unicorns. I suggest waiting until week 2 or 3 if you're not as
aggressive as I am. The rewards for clearing that stack are extremely
worthwhile: they include a Crown of Dragontooth (knowledge and power +4,
a Red Dragon's Flame Tongue Sword (attack and defense +2), a necklace of
Dragonteeth (power and knowledge +3) and Sandals of the Saint (4 primary
skills +2).
15) The statistics of my highest-level spellcaster (Deemer the Warlock)
were 6,7, 18 and 17 with those items.
16) By the end of week 1, most of your territory (the green grass
section) should be explored (this does not mean, all stacks should be
necessarily defeated!)
17) We are now in week 2 and your objective should be to get the Dragon
Cliffs at the Rampart and possibly attack your first Necropolis
18) You can Dimension Door or Fly past garrisons but I did not do so
myself in case the player didn't have those spells (no Spellbinder's Hat
or those particular spells in their Mage Guilds)
19) My main army was ready for invasion by mid-week and went north from
the Rampart. The army was composed of 9 Monks, 26 Royal Griffins, 12
Silver Pegasi, 34 Marksmen, 21 Grand Elves (could have used more), 88
Centaur Captains and 12 Crusaders (notice the emphasis on speed and
shooters). I wanted to reach my first enemy town by the end of the week.
20) Because the necromancer's territory is mostly in Cursed Land (i.e.
no magic), either Catherine or a strong might-oriented hero should
command this army. Use Town Portal to get them to the Rampart sooner.
21) I also had a reserve, led by Lord Haart, comprised of 23 Archers, 41
Halberdiers, 28 Pikemen, 30 Zombies and 37 Walking Dead (those 2 last
stacks joining for greater glory). That army did not go in Necro
territory, it stayed at the frontier.
22) At least 2 heroes should visit external creature dwellings each
week.
23) Decided to go after a Cyclops Stockpile with a secondary army that
included 48 Gremlins, 10 Walking Dead, 5 Wights, 18 Zombies, 9 Archers
and 81 Skeletons (used Ice Bolt at 190 points of damage per shot). Only
got 4 of each resource. In hindsight, it was not really worth the risk.
If there had been more Cyclops (than just 20), I might even have lost.
24) The main army reached the first enemy Necropolis on day 4 of week 2
(follow the road). 3 Turrets protect that town. Wait until there's no
hero inside it to make your life easier. If an enemy hero does not want
to come out by the end of the week, bait it out with a wimpier hero you
can surrender. This trick is less easily exploitable than in HOMM 2, but
it still works. A very good case scenario is when you can catch the
enemy outside the town defenses because he could not kill your "bait"
hero and return. Of course, an even better and most clever scenario, is
to take the town from under his nose while he's outside ;-)
25) It's quite possible to go from the garrison to that Necropolis in
just one day if you use Catherine (who has the Logistics skill).
26) Remember to cast View Air to keep track of enemy heroes.
27) Stay in the Necropolis with Catherine and let any big enemy hero
attack you there. With the turrets and your better statistics, you can
even defeat stronger armies than you could have imagined.
28) If I had "rushed", I could have reached that second Necropolis in
week 2 but I chose not to do so. I suggest you don't either.
29) Let Lord Haart stay at Rampart (or one day away from it) so you can
bring reinforcements from there in week 3. Of course with Town Portal,
there are no such "logistical" problems.
30) If you wanted to play "dirty", you could use 2 Silver Pegasi, attack
an approaching invading necro army, blast it with a devastating Chain
Lightning, surrender your hero and rehire at the Necropolis... Something
to keep in mind if you get in trouble. Oh by the way, use your best
spellcaster if you do this, the enemy will appreciate the special
attention ;-)
31) I did better than I thought and managed to buy both the Dragon
Cliffs and the Portal of Glory by the end of week 2 (turns out they
weren't really needed but I kept expecting stronger opposition)
32) Do not go past the second garrison until you have reinforcements
33) In week 3, your objective is to capture the second Necropolis on the
surface (which also turns out to be the last one, there's no town
underground).
34) On day 2, trade resources for gold except gems and crystals.
35) Buy Monks, Crusaders, Royal Griffins, Marksmen & Halberdiers at the
Castle. Buy Silver Pegasi, Centaur Captains, Grand Elves and optionally
3 Green Dragons at the Rampart.
36) Reinforce Catherine with those troops before assaulting the second
necro town in mid-week. If you have Town Portal, reinforcing her should
be very quick.
37) If you want to play it safer, attack in week 4.
38) I fought and defeated an enemy army of 20 Power Liches, 192 Skeleton
Warriors, 37 Wraiths, 28 Vampire Lords, 14 Dread Knights and 11 Ghost
Dragons. How did I do it? I used 2 Chain Lightnings and Destroy Undead.
I lost 14 Royal Griffins, 9 Silver Pegasi, 7 Marksmen, 19 Crusaders, 25
Centaur Captains and 15 Grand Elves, so the losses were not as severe as
one might think. For that town assault, you might want to use your best
spellcaster instead of Catherine. That's your choice.
39) I replaced my decimated Crusaders with 3 Green Dragons and the
somewhat depleted Silver Pegasi by 188 Halberdiers. Might still be
strong enemies running around so it's always better to be prepared.
40) During that week 3, I also bought Tower troops (except Giants,
Golems and Gargoyles) and attacked the garrison southeast of it. I then
flagged most of the Necropolis external dwellings there while killing
heroes around that area. Do not waste your gold on the troops inside
those dwellings.
41) In week 4, I just had to hunt down the last enemy heroes in the
underground.
I completed the Song for the Father campaign in 87 days for 1385 points
and a rating of Lich.
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