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As a kid me and my friends would play HOMM2 constantly. I got so good at it I recently went and beat every single map on hard difficulty. (Somehow I'd always end up with a barbarian hero with 25 attack, and an army of of titan, lich, druid, elf, titan).

So I went on over to GOG and thought hey, maybe I'll try out HOMM3.

I've played about 6 times on small/medium maps and gotten smoked 4/6 times. When I played as Barbarian, I was able to win (the Behemoths are cheap and strong, plus barb heroes are the best), but I tried playing with Fortress and I get crushed every time. It seems like even if I defeat 3-4 enemy heroes, they somehow always come back with an even stronger force.

The main difficulty I have is, do I spend the first week (a) increasing my town's tax revenue with the City Hall / Capitol? or (b) Upgrading everything? or (c) just buy the generators and leave the upgrades for later? or (c) just spend all money on buying low level units? In HOMM2 it was so simple, just build the statue, the well, and you're done with town infrastructure upgrades!

I'm sure I can figure it out myself with time, but any strategy suggestions would be appreciated.
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CFrederick: The main difficulty I have is, do I spend the first week (a) increasing my town's tax revenue with the City Hall / Capitol? or (b) Upgrading everything? or (c) just buy the generators and leave the upgrades for later? or (c) just spend all money on buying low level units? In HOMM2 it was so simple, just build the statue, the well, and you're done with town infrastructure upgrades!
It depends on the type of map you're playing and what difficulty you're playing at. For smaller maps it's usually better to go for creature dwellings first so that you can start building an army come week 2 and quickly expand and take the fight to your opponents. On larger maps where you won't be running into other players for a while it can be better to try to get a strong economy going first; this is especially true if you're playing on the higher difficulties (and thus start with fewer resources). Upgrades to creature dwellings should typically only be purchased once you have most of the base dwellings build and have your economy going strong. However, there are a few exceptions where the upgrade gives the creatures a significant boost in effectiveness (e.g. gremlins to master gremlins, or vampires to vampire lords).
Good to see you again DarkPhoenix.

So since I'm playing on a small map, it's better to play Starcraft-style and just focus on bringing a solid bunch of low-level, non-upgraded units over to the enemy. (ie the 3 Zealot Rush). Interesting, I'll try it out and see how it goes.
I wouldn't recommend rushing any enemy castles (towers will cut you down easily until you have a bit more substantial force), but being able to grab resources and contain your opponents early will give you a large advantage as the game progresses (especially if you're able to catch their heroes outside of towns when you have significantly stronger forces- just avoid battles of attrition). In smaller maps you'll be heavily competing for resources and mines, so being able to get out quickly and grab as many resources early while keeping your opponent contained is essential.
Thanks.

I tried what you suggested, and on the small map I was playing ("Arrogance"), I sent out a 1-gnoll hero to grab all the stuff floating in the oceans and any easy-to-grab resources. For my main hero I just focused on getting a good solid force of basilisks and gorgons together. Once I had beaten one enemy, I reassigned the initial scout hero to guard his lands and sent the main hero underground to deal with the other guys. By then I had about 7 hydras, so I made a hydras-only hero to mop up enemy scouts. Game was won.

You're right about contianing the enemy, it's really important. I also found that there is no reason to just buy everything as soon as you can buy it. I saved a lot of money by ignoring the temptation to hire Wyverns (who are really useless, despite how they look like dragons) and not upgrading anything until I was sure I had enough money to buy all the good troops at the beginning of the next week.

Thanks again for the tips.
Wyverns are actually quite good once you upgrade them to Wyvern Monarchs. Fortress is a great town for smaller maps because it's easy and fairly quick to rush to Wyvern Monarchs and be cranking them out at week 2. Combined with Serpent Flies you can have a very quick, mobile force that can often take enemy towns very early in the game with minimal losses.
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DarrkPhoenix: Wyverns are actually quite good once you upgrade them to Wyvern Monarchs. Fortress is a great town for smaller maps because it's easy and fairly quick to rush to Wyvern Monarchs and be cranking them out at week 2. Combined with Serpent Flies you can have a very quick, mobile force that can often take enemy towns very early in the game with minimal losses.
You might have a problem with grand elves, at least until you upgrade the Serpent Flies.
Yeah, I meant Dragon Flies. Serpent Flies just don't have quite enough mobility to be useful.
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DarrkPhoenix: Yeah, I meant Dragon Flies. Serpent Flies just don't have quite enough mobility to be useful.
With Fortress you have to rely more on the creatures' special abilities to make up for less raw damage. Especially the Flies, Gorgons and Hydras.
nice to see you are giving III a go, all of the games in the HOMM series are good in their own way, even 4 to some extent