Combat

29:40 Battles in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 are turn-based fights on a hex grid: each creature stack acts once a round in order of its Speed, moving, attacking, shooting, waiting or defending, and each hero may cast one spell a round. Combat starts whenever a hero attacks an enemy hero, a town or wandering monsters, and the heroes themselves never fight: their creatures do, with the hero's Attack and Defense added to their own, as the official guide explains (Prima guide, p.3). Morale can give a stack a second action, luck can double its damage, and a siege adds walls, arrow towers and a moat. The numbers on this page come from the official Prima strategy guide for The Restoration of Erathia (1999) unless a later rule from Armageddon's Blade or The Shadow of Death is named. The clip, from SergiuHellDragoonHQ's HD Edition footage (Apr 20, 2017, no commentary), shows a larger battle in the 2015 HD Edition.

Quick facts

The battlefield and turn order

21:52 All combat takes place on one screen. The attacking army lines up on the left edge and the defender's on the right, with the heroes standing at the upper corners; because only heroes can start a fight, the attacker always has a hero, while the defender may be a town garrison or wandering monsters without one. Distance is counted in hexes on a 15 x 10 grid, and a creature's Speed is the number of hexes it can move each round. Rocks, cliffs and bushes are scattered at random: they block ground troops and weaken shots that pass through them, and flyers can cross them but cannot land on them (Prima guide, p.162). The guide recommends turning on View Hex Grid and Movement Shadow in the combat options, so you can see exactly how far every stack can reach (p.174). In the same HD Edition footage, a battle on rough ground shows the hex grid with the active stack's reachable hexes shaded.

Your formation comes from the hero screen. The seven troop slots, left to right, become the starting line from top to bottom, and the Formation buttons choose a spread line or a tight group in the middle. The guide calls spread "usually" better, since it is more mobile and less exposed to first-round area spells such as Inferno; tight suits an army of shooters ringed by slow defenders (pp.163-164).

4:31 Combat is broken into rounds, and in each round every stack acts once, faster creatures before slower ones. A stack's turn is resolved completely before the next stack moves (p.166). Ubisoft's gameplay overview of the 2027 Remake describes the same core: stacks "taking turns moving and attacking and casting spells".

Attacking, retaliation and shooters

0:25 Every creature can fight hand to hand: click the sword on an enemy in range, and the way the sword points sets the hex your creature attacks from. The target then strikes back. That counterstrike (often called retaliation) happens normally once per round per stack, so every later attack on the same stack that round goes unanswered; a few creatures have abilities that let them counterstrike more often (Prima guide, p.167). Norovo's first beginner tip (Dec 23, 2020) builds on this: split a stack into "one stacks" of a single creature with the Shift key, and use one to draw out the retaliation of a big enemy stack so your important stack attacks unanswered.

5:42 Shooters attack from a distance, but cannot shoot while an enemy stands next to them, and their hand-to-hand attacks do half damage When a target is at long range or behind an obstacle, the cursor shows a broken arrow and the shot does half damage (p.167). Norovo puts the range at 10 hexes: beyond that, shots do half damage, and the broken arrow cursor tells you when the penalty applies.

Damage is worked out in steps. A random number from the creature's damage range is multiplied by the number of creatures in the stack; then Attack is compared with Defense. Each point of Attack above the target's Defense adds 5% (the guide's limit is "a maximum of 400 percent"), and each point of Defense above the attacker's Attack takes away 2%, to a minimum of 30%. So Attack 9 against Defense 4 does 125% damage, and Attack 4 against Defense 9 does 90%. Bonuses such as a lucky hit or the Dread Knight's Death Blow are each worked out from that figure and added on, so a Dread Knight with both does triple damage. Damage then kills creatures one at a time from the front of the stack, and the top creature keeps any wound (pp.168-169). Creature stats are on Creatures.

Flying, waiting and defending

Flying creatures pass over obstacles that block ground troops, so they can reach shooters hidden behind rocks. They still cannot land on an obstacle (Prima guide, p.162).

Wait and Defend are the two actions besides attacking. A stack that Waits gives up its place and acts after every other stack has had its normal turn, in reverse order of Speed. A stack that Defends gains a 20% bonus to its Defense until the end of the round (p.166).

Waiting is a weapon. The guide's "Wait double strike": when your fast stack can reach a slower enemy that cannot yet reach it, Wait so the enemy moves first, then attack it; at the start of the next round your faster stack acts first again, so it has hit twice before the enemy hits once (counterstrikes aside) (p.177).

The hero's spell

Each hero may cast one spell per round, and only while one of their own troops is the active stack (Prima guide, p.170). Spells cost spell points, which a hero recharges by visiting towns (p.3). The AI's casters pick the spell that most reduces the damage their next attacker will take, whether that is a blast, Bloodlust or a defensive spell (p.172). Every spell is on Spells and Magic.

Morale and luck

Luck is checked every time a creature attacks: good luck can double the damage, bad luck can halve it. Morale is checked on a creature's turn: high morale can give it a second action that round, and low morale can make it lose its turn (freeze) (Prima guide, p.165).

Luck starts at zero. Morale depends on the army's mix: how many town alignments it holds and whether it mixes undead with the living. The Luck secondary skill raises luck and Leadership raises morale; map sites such as the Rally Flag and Faerie Ring, artifacts, and the spells Mirth, Sorrow, Fortune and Misfortune change them too (p.164). See Secondary Skills.

9:01 Creatures fighting on their town's native terrain get +1 Attack, Defense and Speed: grass for the Castle and Rampart, snow for the Tower, lava for the Inferno, dirt for the Necropolis, subterranean for the Dungeon, rough for the Stronghold and swamp for the Fortress (pp.165-166). Norovo adds that a battle is fought on the terrain where the defender stands, so the ground under an attacking hero does not count.

Tactics

19:23 The Tactics secondary skill lets a hero rearrange the army before the battle begins. Both heroes' Tactics levels are compared: one level higher lets you place troops up to 2 rows from your edge, two levels higher up to 4 rows, and equal levels give neither side the choice (Prima guide, p.164). The guide uses it to push slow attackers forward, pair your creatures against the right targets and tuck shooters behind obstacles (p.176). In the HD Edition footage, a battle on grass opens with this placement phase: shaded hexes on the left mark where troops may go, and the bar shows Next Creature and Start Combat.

War machines

War machines are bought at a town's Blacksmith, which sells one machine depending on the town: the Ballista in the Castle and Dungeon, the First Aid Tent in the Fortress, Necropolis and Rampart, and the Ammo Cart in the Inferno, Stronghold and Tower (Prima guide, p.110). Every hero owns a Catapult. Machines do not move, act after every creature, get no bonus from the hero's Attack or Defense, never counterstrike and are immune to poison and Blind (pp.158, 170).

Source: Prima guide, p.158.

Three secondary skills take control of the machines. Artillery lets the hero aim the Ballista, which then fires twice and can do double damage; Ballistics lets the hero aim the Catapult, gives its shots a chance of more damage, and at Expert makes it fire twice a round; First Aid lets the hero pick the tent's target and heals more (p.158). Since Armageddon's Blade, a hero with Artillery can also control the arrow towers when defending a siege (The Shadow of Death manual, p.10). The guide's advice is to buy machines whenever the budget allows ("every little bit counts"), and to attack enemy machines when a fast creature has nothing better to hit, since a destroyed machine is gone from the hero's inventory (p.159).

Sieges

5:29 A siege happens when a hero attacks a town with a Fort, Citadel or Castle. The Fort gives walls, the Citadel adds a moat and an arrow tower, and the Castle adds two arrow towers and upgraded walls (Prima guide, pp.106, 109). The defenders start behind the walls. Ground troops cannot walk around walls, so they wait until the Catapult breaches them, and a creature that enters the moat stops there until the next round (pp.162-163). The Remake's overview sums sieges up the same way: "Towers punish hesitation. Moats slow the bold."

The Shadow of Death made every moat dangerous: each town's moat (water for the Castle, brambles for the Rampart, land mines for the Tower, lava for the Inferno, a boneyard for the Necropolis, boiling oil for the Dungeon, wooden spikes for the Stronghold and boiling tar for the Fortress) damages a troop when it enters and at the start of each turn it stays there, while the Tower's land mines explode on contact (The Shadow of Death manual, p.17).

7:33 The defending hero cannot retreat from a siege, except from a Stronghold that has built its Escape Tunnel (Prima guide, p.170). The guide's best day to attack a town is Day 7 of a week: you hold it on Day 1, when its dwellings refill, and can recruit the new creatures yourself (p.192). Norovo's siege tip: the arrow towers prefer to shoot units near the bottom of the field whatever their size, so an attacker can put single-creature stacks in the bottom army slots to draw their fire away from the big stacks.

Retreat, surrender and defeat

A battle ends when one side has no creatures left, unless a hero-led army retreats or surrenders first. Rules from the guide (Prima guide, p.170):

• Retreat: the hero loses the whole army but keeps every artifact, and waits in your Taverns for the rest of the week, where you can hire them back.
• Surrender (only against another hero): you pay the winner gold equal to half the total recruiting cost of your army, and the hero goes to your Taverns with army and artifacts intact.
• Defeat: the hero loses all artifacts to the winner and also turns up in your Taverns.

After the week ends, any of these heroes returns to the general pool and may appear in anyone's Tavern. The guide also notes a trick: a hero far from home can attack an enemy hero, then surrender or retreat, and so "teleport" back to a town to be rehired (p.192).

Auto combat and the AI

Auto combat lets the computer fight for you (the Remake keeps an Auto Combat mode, which Ubisoft says still lets you "seize full control the moment the stakes rise"), and the 1999 guide says to avoid it: the computer then fights your troops by its own rules at Hard difficulty, which defeats the point of playing better than the AI (Prima guide, p.174). The combat AI plays at full strength from Hard upward and gets no harder at Expert or Impossible. At Normal its creatures never Wait or Defend and it ignores multi-hex attacks; at Easy it also ignores your counterstrikes and never retreats or surrenders (pp.171, 173). The AI "does the math" on every attack, but its weakness is that it "doesn't really look beyond the current round" (p.171).

Combat advice from the guide

The official guide's tactics, from pp.174-178:

• Shoot first. Concentrate your shooters on one stack before anyone goes hand to hand, so it hits back with fewer creatures.
• Gang attack. Hit a stack that has used its counterstrike with several of your stacks; only the first attacker takes a counterstrike. Open with a stack that can absorb it, or with your weakest: "far better to lose a depleted Pikeman stack than two members of your five-member Angel stack."
• Strike first. Let the enemy walk into range by Waiting your fast troops, then hit it before it hits you.
• Pick targets. Kill what will hurt you most over the battle, often the best shooter or the strongest fast stack; the guide singles out the Crusader, Vampire Lord, Medusa and Basilisk as more dangerous than their stats look. Leave a Blinded or Paralyzed stack alone until the turn before it wakes.
• Use the terrain. Hide melee troops behind obstacles from shooters, guard your backs against obstacles, and against slow ground armies lead them around a large obstacle with a fast flyer while your shooters fire.

The full approach to winning, on the battlefield and the map, is on Strategy Guide.

Combat in the Remake

5:43 The Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake, due in 2027, keeps the hex-grid battles in 3D (God is a Geek, Aug 26, 2026), and PC Gamer's hands-on noted a new option to see enemy movement ranges (Aug 26, 2026). Ubisoft's overview adds a free camera to watch battles "from any angle" and tooltips with "all the intel on your troops and the enemies". More is on What's New in the Remake.

Frequently asked questions

How does morale work in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3, positive morale gives a creature a 4.2%, 8.3% or 12.5% chance (at +1, +2 or +3) to act again in the same round, and negative morale gives the same chances to freeze and lose its turn. Morale comes from the army's mix of towns and of undead and living troops, the Leadership skill, map locations, artifacts and spells.

How does luck work in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3, luck is checked on every attack: at +1, +2 or +3 a creature has a 4.2%, 8.3% or 12.5% chance of doing double damage, and negative luck gives the same chances of half damage. Luck starts at zero and is raised by the Luck skill, artifacts and map sites.

How do you retreat in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3 a hero can retreat from a battle (except as the defender of a siege), losing the whole army but keeping every artifact, and can be rehired from your Tavern for the rest of the week. Surrendering to another hero keeps the army too, for gold equal to half its recruiting cost.

How do sieges work in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3, attacking a town with a Fort, Citadel or Castle starts a siege, in which defenders stand behind walls with arrow towers and a moat, and the attacker's Catapult must breach the walls before ground troops can get in. In The Shadow of Death and later versions every moat also damages troops that enter it.

What do war machines do in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3 the Ballista shoots a random enemy each round, the First Aid Tent heals 1 to 25 health of an allied stack, the Ammo Cart gives your shooters unlimited ammunition, and the Catapult attacks town walls in sieges. The Artillery, First Aid and Ballistics skills let the hero aim them and make them stronger.

Should I use auto combat in Heroes 3? The official Heroes of Might and Magic 3 strategy guide says to avoid auto combat, because the computer then fights your troops with the same rules as its own Hard-level AI, wasting the advantages of careful play. It is a time saver for fights you cannot lose.

Sources

• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, Prima Publishing, 1999, pp.3, 106, 109-110, 158-159, 162-178, 192
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death User Manual, The 3DO Company, 2000, pp.10, 17
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade manual, The 3DO Company, 1999, p.4
• Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake Coming 2027, Steam Debut Falters, God is a Geek, Aug 26, 2026
• I've played Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Remake, and I still can't believe we're getting 2 HoMMs in the same year, PC Gamer, Aug 26, 2026
• Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake - Gameplay Overview Trailer, Ubisoft, Aug 26, 2026 (video)
• Heroes 3: 14 Beginner Tips & Tricks to Instantly Improve Your Play, Norovo, Dec 23, 2020 (video)
• Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD Edition - 4K GAMEPLAY, SergiuHellDragoonHQ, Apr 20, 2017 (video)