HOMM3 SOD: Strategy On Hack and Slash 3 "A Cage in the Hand"
Sebastien Patenaude
month 3, week 1, day 7 on my first play. In case I forget to mention it
in my other SOD strategies, I will always play at the default difficulty
level unless the scenario is at normal play difficulty in which case
I'll bost it to hard difficulty which is actually the difficulty level
where all the factions are the most equal and the AI plays at its best.
The objective in "A Cage in the Hand" is to find the Rib Cage, a chest
armor that looks like, what else, a skeleton's rib cage.
Starting Bonus: Pick the 30 Orc Chieftains
1) Beat the 10 Ogres for the Equestrian Gloves.
2) You'll come upon a sign: It says the light blue tent (the one you
need to visit to clear the way to the Stronghold) is at the setting sun
while the dark blue tent is at the rising sun. The sun rises in the east
and sets at the west so you have to take the left fork (west).
3) I captured the town on day 5
4) My build orders for what remained of the week were this:
Day
5) Tavern
6) Wolf Pen
7) Cliff Nest
5) I quickly hired 3 heroes (you might simply hire 2 now and 1 more next
week) and combined their troops on Crag Hack.
6) No need to tell you I sent each scout in a different unexplored
direction.
7) Buy troops in town for Crag Hack.
8) I cast Visions and saw it was 10 Rocs protecting the gold mine to the
south so I decided to take it.
9) Visit the dark blue tent and have a secondary hero open the gate and
take the piles of gold beyond.
10) Cast Slow on Rocs, Bless on Orcs
Week 2
11) Hire yet another hero. Have him bring more troops to Crag Hack (I
did not buy Wolf Riders)
12) Go for City Hall first.
13) Always trade at the Trading Post.
14) About 50 Orc Chieftains in front of a Sulfur Dune joined for free.
If they weren't set to friendly, it's likely other stacks will join you.
15) Do not engage shooters if they flee.
16) Flag mines during this week.
17) Stay before the Basilisk stacks, we don't know what's beyond.
18) After the City Hall is built, go for the Citadel, Castle and
Behemoth Lair.
19) There's an event giving you 60 more Goblins to recruit each week in
your Stronghold.
Week 3
20) Most mines should be flagged in your home territory.
21) I was planning to either go south or east beyond the Basilisks.
22) Build a Capitol, Resource Silo, Mess Hall and Ogre Fort if you can.
23) You might want to keep a guy permanently posted at the Trading Post,
I did.
24) Before killing any Basilisks, have Crag go underground first to
visit a black keymaster tent.
25) Against shooters, move troops close with Tactics. Tweak speeds
(Slow, Haste) so your troops strike first.
26) I decided to go south with Crag Hack. Turned out to be the best
choice
27) Trade resources for gold to buy all troops (except 14 Orcs) in the
Stronghold and transfer them to Crag Hack. Do not trade wood and ore as
much.
28) Crag Hack's army: 85 Orc Chieftains, 186 Hobgoblins, 78 Wolf
Raiders, 29 Rocs, 3 Behemoths and 28 Orcs.
29) Lo and behold, there's an Hill Forth south not far beyond the
Basilisks. You can upgrade any troops that were not upgraded yet.
30) Try to capture the Necropolis to the south by day 7 (day 1 of the
next week at the most)
31) In town assaults, fill empty spots in your army with one low-level
unit each.
32) Hire 2 new heroes at the Necropolis to explore around
Week 4
33) I killed Thant, he gave me 18 items!! He was outside the town but
even if he was inside, I think he would be beatable anyway even then. It
might even be beneficiary for him to be in the town so he cannot flee
and you do get his items.
34) Hired 2 more heroes at the Necropolis.
35) I personally like to have heroes with Artillery defend towns. One of
the latest patches implemented control of the arrow towers when your
hero has that skill.
36) Towns are often near roads. Perhaps not here, not always, but often.
37) Crag Hack took a Necropolis town in the northeast.
38) Build the Ogre Fort and Cyclops Cave if you haven't already done so.
39) Remember the trick to lure enemies to your town, keep the bulk
troops in the top row inside towns with just a few fast troops next to
the hero on the bottom row.
40) It's not always a good idea though, especially with lower-level
heroes. You can do the opposite and try to indimidate the enemy away by
putting all your troops on the bottom row.
41) I lost my Stronghold, I do not remember if I was trying to lure the
enemy there, probably not.
Month 2, week 1 (week 5 overall)
42) I took back my Stronghold on day 2
43) It was quite frustrating, the enemy had bought everything so I lost
one week's worth of creature production.
44) I did have control of the territory before the garrisons. I was
hunting down red heroes.
45) Cleared white tent in the northeast corner.
46) There are 2 Dragon caves on the southwest island after the white
border gate. Keep an hero there to buy Red Dragons each week. When you
have a decent number (say 6 or 8), upgrade them to Black Dragons at the
Hill Fort. I used a secondary hero with Necropolis troops to clear the
Dragon Caves. They're protected by 3 Red Dragons each.
Month 2, week 2 (week 6 overall)
46) Bought all Stronghold troops, brought them to Crag Hack after
upgrading them at the Hill Fort. I intended to invade red's home
territory beyond the garrisons.
47) In an amazing feat of timing, Straker a red super-hero with
statistics of 20,33,14,14 (!!!) came through the eastern garrison with
an army stronger than mine!
48) I decided to wait one wek so Crag Hack would have more troops. I
even had him retreat all the way back to his Stronghold.
49) With a secondary hero I sacrificed, I saw Straker had 43 Power
Liches, 63 Wights, 19 Dread Knights, 51 Vampire Lords, 7 Ghost Dragons
and 2 Black Dragons. Naturally in your game, his army might be different
and he might come out of hiding at another time but do not underestimate
him. I tried beating him before waiting the following week and Crag Hack
got defeated.
50) Curse and mind spells don't work against Undead.
51) You can flag mines away from red to delay his progress especially if
you're concerned he might be going for your main town.
Month 2, week 3 (week 7 overall)
52) Seeing red invade, I made sure my better armies were staying safe in
towns.
53) With fresh troops added, Crag Hack tried to defeat Straker again and
won this time. Kill one stack or two at a time. Keep the Vampire Lords
for last.
54) Surprisingly, this is the kind of scenario where you might benefit
from staying put in town and building up a little, at least after the
towns before the garrisons are taken.
Month 3 and beyond
55) I finally launched an assault past the garrison. I went through the
eastern one that did not prevent spellcasting. It's also the best choice
because there are 10 Dread Knights less you don't have to deal with.
56) I mixed undead units with Stronghold units: Power Liches and Dread
Knights. Vampire Lords would have been great too.
57) The east garrison is protected by 50 Power Liches and 45 Vampire
Lords. Slow the Vampire Lords, keep troops ungrouped.
58) Crag Hack had expert Air, Earth and Fire magic by level 20.
59) You will soon find out that you cannot get by a gate and conquer the
last Necropolis town.
60) One of the "alcoves" beyond the black border gates should have the
item you seek. They did say it was in possession of Liches didn't they ?
61) The Rib Cage is not in the Warrior's Tombs. In fact, they will only
ruin your morale because most will be already visited. If you don't want
to lose time, check tip 64 to see where it is hidden.
62) At the western garrison (the sparkly one near the Dragon Caves), the
garrison has 45 Vampire Lords, 50 Power Liches and 10 Dread Knights. No
magic can be cast.
63) For that battle, if you want to fight it, advance the Behemoths,
Dread Knights and Vampire Lords with Tactics.
64) The Rib Cage is protected by a horde of Power Liches in the
southeast corner (4 stacks of 16)
65) Since you cannot destroy completely your red opponent and if you
already know where the rib cage is located, you might wonder at why you
could not simply sneak through the eastern garrison sooner (say month 2)
when Straker is away. The reason is simple, you cannot afford to lose
Crag Hack and if your army is not strong enough, you will get attacked
first by red heroes. Of course, you might want to take the risk anyway
but in my opinion, it's more fun to take care of Straker and venture
forth in the red territory kicking butt and taking names later on. I
even delayed a bit because I wanted to explore those different alcoves
in case one of them had something special.
--
\ \
\\---\\ The Quebec Dragon
_\ \ -=(UDIC)=-
_\(o\ \o)
_\/\ \ \ Strategy, news and review editor of the
_\/\/\ @--@ Astral Wizard's Heroes of Might & Magic site
_\/\/\/ \VVVV/ http://www.astralwizard.com