Heroes3: What's Your Favorite Town Type?

[Andemagne]

ok I know the game is over 3 years old, but anyway.....

what's your favorite town type in HOMM3 and why?

[Shadowstrike]

Necropolis. Check the nickname and avatar. No actually I like the ghost dragons. And my endless horde of skeletons to conquer the world! *evil cackle*

[loinburger]

Necropolis. No need to worry about morale, and enough skeleton warriors to make pretty much anybody choke. Plus, liches are cool.

[SnowFire]

It always interests me how HOMM3 turned upside down many of the strengths and weakness of HOMM2's castles (the Knight & Sorceress castles most notably). Anyway, first a rating by power:

1. Knight (Castle)- No question about it. For whatever reason, they decided to make Knights rule. You have everything in this town you could possibly want- strong early units, some flying support and good ranged help, and a level 7 unit that doesn't require rare resources to build (and a somewhat reasonable amount of rare resources to build the structure- it's easier to get 10 of everything than to get 30 of 1 thing, and then keep on paying it to build your creatures). Basically, the Knight castle can do it all with a mix of everything. Not a single one of their units is bad, and many are notably good. And oh yes, the best Level 7 doesn't hurt either. Their only weakness is the capping of the mage guild at level 4, which still isn't that bad (lvl. 4 spells might be more important to get than level 5 spells anyway).

2. Wizard- A bit more focused than the Knight, the Tower still sports an amazing array of death in its ranged destruction. Sure, golems aren't much to write home about and gargoyles die a bit easily, the Tower is still quite good, along with some of the nastier heroes for hire. And the Nagas are among the best choppers around. Only problem with the Tower is that it can get exorbitantly expensive in both gems & gold.

3. Rampart & Necromancer- Good baselines. They both can be a bit slow, and Ghost Dragons & Pegasi are a bit underpowered, but on the whole, good castles with a theme (although I'm still annoyed that they took the super-mobile all-offense Sorceress strike force and replaced it with the "Might of Trees" zillions of HP but really slow Rampart).

5. Dungeon- Like the Tower-, kind of. It's overcosted in that you're constantly scrounging for gold & sulfur, but Medusas & Scorpicores really aren't worth as much as they want. Still, not a total failure.

6. Beastmaster & Barbarian- It's fun to have a very physical hero, but the level 3 mage guild limit is noticed a bit more here. Also, the fact that they have the only non-flying level 7 units is also noticed... a certain strike.

8. Inferno- Just plain sucks. Sucks sucks sucks. There are only two units worth a darn here: Efreet, which are tough, strong, fast, & have that inherent fire shield (quite nice); and Devils, which are decent, but they're a level 7 unit- come on, all level 7 units are good. Every other unit here will get smashed by the equivalent unit in the Castle, and doesn't cost enough less or breed fast enough to make up the difference (Horned demons are a good example, they cost 50 less or something and suck a lot more than crusdaers, and you get 10 per week instead of 9 or some other trivial difference). I'll add that it also always amuses me how Cerberuses have LESS attack power than Hellhounds...

Didn't play around enough with the Conflux in AB to really rank it.

That all said, I play based on flavor, and I was annoyed how the flavor of the Knight & Sorceresses castles was changed, as noted above. I liked the massive wave of human ground troops in HOMM2! Why the need to make them so flexible now? It also annoys me that Crusaders/Paladins aren't top level units anymore, I liked there being at least 1 top level unit that was a human. Crusaders ruled too! So in terms of flavor, I most enjoy playing the Barbarian, Necromancer, & Tower castles, because I feel that their buildings & units fit them the most. In that order.

[CapitanGarlic]

I liked the Wizard, myself, for all of the ranged attacks. But I generally prefer having a moat rather than landmines, it's just more useful.

[Zkribbler]

Ramparts - Give me dragons!

[Rasbelin]

Rampart - Grand Elves and War Unicorns are my secret recipe.

[moomin]

Towers. Nothing beats the gremlin rush, even if they eventually toned it down. Then you need to take over a few ramparts to eventually rack up your gold, but that's another story. Oh, and isn't Solmyr nice?

Great break-down, Snowie. Still, you can't seriously say you prefered Homm2 knights? They were more underpowered than even Homm3 inferno...

[ColdWizard]

i preferred castles

[SnowFire]

Raseblin: Yup. Those and Centaur Captains are the best units that the Rampart has to offer... often times, because I so wanted to play a fast moving attack force, I'd make an army of just those troops (and Dragons, if I had 'em).

MPT: And nah, I think the balance in HOMM2 is wonderful, myself. I agree that the Knight castle has probelms do to its massive lack of flexibility (it's a huge horde of ground troops backed by Rangers), but don't forget that Knight heroes almost always get massive ballistics, which helps soften the pain. And I like that style, darn it. I will say that if the Heroes 2 castles were a bit unbalanced, it would be because the Warlock castle is a wee bit too good (considering they have the Dungeon, strong early units, & the best level 6).

I always wanted to make a Heroes III map featuring an Enrothian warlock travelling to Erathria and suddenly finding his Centaurs, Gargoyles, Griffins, Minotaurs, & Hydra massively bickering with each other for no appearnt reason (going from +1 Morale, all troops of same castle to -3, 5 different castle types). And then customizing the castles you conquer so that you're continually stuck with morale problem type units.

[Juggler]

Rampart
My second favourite is necropolis

[Main_Brain]

Rampart? That Arent Dragon that are .. dunno WannabeDragons!
Only Dungeon has the True Gem of teh Game Black Dragons.. Love at first sight is all I can say
The lack the cool Special of the Angels but hey they fight alot better
Eyes of Death Minotaurs Black Dragons are teh Critical Units the Rest is nice but not essential IMO

Tower is also Damm cool as it bears the Best RangedAttackers alltogether..

Necropolis i cant play.. my style is more a small force of Strong Creatures than Skelletoncollecting ;=)

[DarkCloud]

Well, I'm no ace at the game and have never played the Conflux, but my favorite would have to be: The Tower
Amazing magic, best units, best design.

The worst: Fortress.
Useless useless useless

Gnolls? Lizardmen?
ugh

[DarkCloud]

As for the castle, I have heard that it is the best city, but I have never enjoyed it especially if I have to build it up... It takes forever to build up if you have to build Pikemen's home after building a fort, etc. before you can build anything else.

Inferno- quite fun. and the connections are very useful

Necropolis- I never figured out how this work, but after reading some strategy guides, I think I can now figure out how to raise the dead.

Rampart- Centaurs, Dwarves, Elves and Dendroids- some of my favorite units
I can beat anyone with a stack of 150 Battle Dwarves, 20 dendroids and 200 centaurs

Dungeon- fairly bad.

[Andemagne]

well, its Castle for me all the way. I don't play the game anymore with out playing with Castle. its propably over 2 years since I last played some other town.

Dungeon, Tower and Conflux come in second (dunno in what order).
and Inferno and Fortress are the worst.

and why all this?
Castle's Archangel is fastest unit in the game (well Conflux's Phonix is faster, but after you kill them of, Conflux army is dead/finished), so you get to cast the first spell, with mass haste, 6 of your stacks get to attack before the enemy(ok, maybe 1 in the middle) and that's a BIG advantage. tower and dungeon have good forces but if they don't out number Castle's forces, they don't stand a chance, and experience has taught me this. and Castle has Knights => castle player has better moral and gets more free/new turns, a BIG advantage.
and Castle is also strong in the early game also, which is nice.
(this is what I think, if you disagree, that's ok.)

[thinkingamer]

1. Conflux and Castle

2. Necropolis and Dungeon

3. Tower, rampart, Fortress and Stronghold

4. Infierno (+1 if your main hero has expert earth magic w/ resurrection and shield)

[DarkCloud]

What are the bonuses of the Stronghold?

I liked the Orcs and Thunderbirds, but the Ogre Magi were a bit too slow to be much use. Does the stronghold have anything really good?

[St Leo]

Cyclopes?

[Andemagne]

Originally posted by DarkCloud
Does the stronghold have anything really good?

noup. after a second tought, Stronghold is as bad as Inferno and Fortress. Cyclops are only thing even near worth mentioning.

[SnowFire]

Well, as the one person who voted for the Stronghold: 'cause it's neat! The music is great, and you really do get to feel like you're carting a Barbarian army around. Quite flavorful.

That said, powerwise, the Stronghold is pretty pathetic. Your troops are nothing special throughout the ranks (I'm not even that huge a fan of Cyclopes). Makes it nice & challenging though, if nothing else.

I still think that it's better than the Inferno, though. While lots of Stronghold units might be classed "below average," it's not like virtually every unit is classed as "sucks," which is true with the Inferno (with those 2 exceptions). I'd rather have an all-in-all slightly cut-rate army, than a pathetic army with 2 quality stacks.

[DarkCloud]

Cyclopsi are good, but expensive, and everytime I go through a waterpool, they drown
-

Inferno have great Pit Lords, Devils (but too expensive) and Cerberi

The magogs can be used VERY well for defensive purposes.

-
Final Note: Can anything be as bad as the fortress

[monolith94]

My favorite of the whole series is playing as a wizard in homm2.
In homm3 they're well balanced and I enjoy playing as most of them. I had a 'fortress phase' where I tried to do all of my fighting with it. Man that was tough, but neat! My next challenge is to play through the Oni demo without using weapons except my hand/feet.

[Galvatron]

And once again the Necros but Inferno are on their trail (I love the teleporting devils).

The Stronghold and the Fortress are both rather useless (the units are too weak; even the Level-7 monsters are nothing but laughable).

[DarkCloud]

Ancient Behemoths are worth the money
Fortress- ick. I agree

[axi]

I like the tower because it's a beautiful landscape. And I have a special liking for the gremlins and the Titans.

[MattyBoy]

I'm with Andemagne - Castle.

[moomin]

Tower. All the way. But I've already said so.

Fortress is worse than Inferno, though. I'd take Inferno over Fortress every time.

[loinburger]

My biggest problem with Necros is that you need to rely on spells too heavily. Without being able to cast Teleport and Mass Haste early, you'll often bog down when the enemy charges you. Expert Tactitian is an absolute must-have (hopefully the enemy hasn't invested very heavily in it), and if you can pick up a few Angels or Devils or neutral Dragons to up your initiative (and replace the useless Walking Dead), then so much the better (just hope that you come across a morale boosting artifact somewhere).

Inferno isn't so bad, especially since it can field one of the best Armageddon armies.

[DarkCloud]

like the tower because it's a beautiful landscape. And I have a special liking for the gremlins and the Titans.

That's the problem with the Necromacer's city... It's too dark... at least the inferno is a bit light with their reds... The necromacer's city is too depressing

[moomin]

But then it's actually useful. Unlilke the Inferno