Horn of the Abyss Towns

The fan-made and unofficial Horn of the Abyss (HotA) expansion adds three towns to the nine of Heroes of Might and Magic 3: the pirate Cove, added on Dec 31, 2011, the steampunk Factory, added in HotA 1.7.0 on Dec 31, 2023, and the frozen Bulwark, the twelfth town, added in HotA 1.8.0 on Dec 31, 2025 after years under the working name Kronverk (HotA changelog; CD-Action, Dec 31, 2025). All three are neutral, each has seven creature levels with an upgrade for every creature, two hero classes and a Grail building of its own. They exist only in HotA: none is part of Ubisoft's game, the HD Edition or the Complete edition, and none has been announced for the Remake. What HotA is and how to install it is on Horn of the Abyss; the nine official towns are on Towns.

Quick facts

Every stat on this page is from the HotA Crew's own documentation for HotA 1.8.1, the version current on Oct 21, 2026 (h3hota.com). Costs are gold per creature; growth is creatures per week, with a bonus building's extra in parentheses. These are HotA's numbers, not the official game's: the original towns' stats from the official strategy guide and The Shadow of Death manual are on Creatures.

Cove

The fan-made Cove is a seafaring town of pirates and sea creatures from the pirate kingdom of Regna, built around naval power and swift raids (Steam). It came with HotA's first release on New Year's Eve 2011 (CD-Action, Sep 3, 2026). Its alignment is neutral and its native terrain is swamp. Its heroes are Captains (might) and Navigators (magic), among them Jeremy, Corkes, Cassiopeia, Elmor and Dargem (h3hota.com).

Source: h3hota.com, HotA 1.8.1. Base / upgrade in each cell.

What sets the Cove apart is its level 3: the Pirate has two different upgrades, the Corsair from the upgraded Frigate and the Sea Dog, a shooter with "no enemy retaliation" and an accurate shot, from a separate Gunpowder Warehouse (h3hota.com). Nymphs and Oceanids teleport, and the Sea Witch casts Weakness on the stack it shoots. The Cove's Grail building, the Lodestar, gives 5,000 gold a day and half again the weekly growth like every Grail building, and makes every terrain native to Cove creatures: they move without penalty and gain +1 attack, defense and speed (h3hota.com). The Cove's stories are HotA's first campaigns: the prologue Under the Jolly Roger (with Captain Jeremy Albatross), Terror of the Seas (HotA 1.1, Aug 1, 2012), and the pirate prequel All In (HotA 1.7.2, Dec 31, 2024), while the Horn of the Abyss campaign (1.4.0, Jan 2, 2016) brings back the Cove heroes Bidley, Jeremy and Casmetra (HotA changelog; Steam).

Factory

0:13 The fan-made Factory is a steampunk town of halflings, engineers, machines and desert beasts, added in HotA 1.7.0 on Dec 31, 2023 together with its campaign Forged in Fire and a campaign editor (HotA changelog). GRYOnline.pl reported that the crew had planned it for early 2024 and released it on the last day of 2023, with airship travel and seven new stand-alone scenarios (GRYOnline.pl, Jan 3, 2024). Its alignment is neutral and its native terrain is the Wasteland, a terrain HotA added in 1.6.0. Its heroes are Mercenaries (might) and Artificers (magic), among them Henrietta, Tancred, Celestine and Victoria (h3hota.com). Norovo, starting a random map playthrough as the Factory in HotA, says nearly every Factory unit has some kind of ability never seen in the game before.

Source: h3hota.com, HotA 1.8.1. Base / upgrade in each cell.

50:32 The Factory is the only town with eight creature types: it has two level 7 creatures, the flying Couatl, whose upgrade, the Crimson Couatl, can make itself invulnerable for a turn once per combat, and the mechanical Dreadnought, which can be repaired by Mechanics and Engineers and can make a Heat Stroke attack on everything around it instead of moving, and both dwellings can be built in one town (h3hota.com). Its machines can be mended in battle, too: in Norovo's playthrough, Mechanics repair a damaged Automaton mid-fight. Halflings always have positive luck, Sandworms move underground (in effect teleporting), and the Gunslinger shoots first at an enemy shooter that targets it, once per round. The Factory's Grail building, the Lightning Rod, strikes every enemy stack with lightning at the start of each battle, for 7 times (4 plus the number of buildings in the town) damage (h3hota.com). Forged in Fire is a hard campaign by design; HotA 1.7.1 (Apr 6, 2024) made its Easy and Normal levels much easier (HotA changelog).

Bulwark

The fan-made Bulwark is the frozen island of Vori, a confederacy of Snow Elves, Kobolds, Yeti and Jotunns (Steam), added in HotA 1.8.0 on Dec 31, 2025 with new heroes, creatures, dwellings and the Runes skill (HotA changelog). CD-Action called it one of the mod's oldest ideas, long known as Kronverk, with Nordic, Scottish and Siberian influences (CD-Action, Dec 31, 2025). Its English name is Bulwark; it is not the original game's Stronghold. Its alignment is neutral and its native terrain is snow. Its heroes are Chieftains (might) and Elders (magic), among them Dhuin, Spadum, Kynr and Allora (h3hota.com).

Source: h3hota.com, HotA 1.8.1. Base / upgrade in each cell.

The Bulwark's signature is Runes, a secondary skill of its own: a hero with Runes lets the creatures in the army build up to 3, 6 or 9 rune levels during a battle (by skill level), each level adding, in turn, +2 attack, +2 defense and +1 speed; a stack gains two rune levels when it takes damage and one when it attacks (h3hota.com). Bulwark heroes learn it in the town's Sieidi of the Runes (so can any hero with Scholar), and the upgraded Altar of the Runes adds a rune level to the player's units at the start of combat; Yeti Runemasters benefit too. The town is hard to besiege: its walls, gate and towers each take one more hit than other towns', and its Grail building, the Spirits of the Forebears, adds 20 to the defense of a hero defending it (h3hota.com). The War Mammoth gets +100% defense when it defends, and the Jotunn can teleport an allied stack once per combat. The Bulwark has no campaign yet: it was not ready for 1.8.0 and is still missing from 1.8.1, and the crew has not given a date (HotA changelog).

Playing the new towns

On HotA's own maps, a map maker decides whether each new town is allowed; on maps from the original game, the Cove, Factory and Bulwark are available whenever Castle, Rampart, Inferno, Dungeon and Stronghold are (h3hota.com). On random maps a zone without towns can become one of theirs when its terrain is swamp or sand (Cove), Wasteland (Factory) or snow (Bulwark). All three are played online through the fan-made HD mod's lobby, and HotA's tournament rules cover them (h3hota.com). Ubisoft says it is in contact with the HotA team, but the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake has only the nine official towns announced, as of Oct 21, 2026 (GRYOnline.pl, Sep 9, 2026).

Frequently asked questions

How many towns does Horn of the Abyss add? The fan-made Horn of the Abyss adds three towns to Heroes of Might and Magic 3, the Cove, the Factory and the Bulwark, for twelve towns in all.

What is the Cove in Heroes 3? The Cove is a neutral pirate and sea town on swamp, added to Heroes 3 by the fan-made Horn of the Abyss on Dec 31, 2011; its level 3 Pirate has two different upgrades, the Corsair and the Sea Dog.

When was the Factory added to Heroes 3? The Factory was added by the fan-made Horn of the Abyss 1.7.0 on Dec 31, 2023, with its campaign Forged in Fire; it is not in the official Heroes 3.

What is the Bulwark in Heroes 3? The Bulwark is the fan-made Horn of the Abyss's frozen twelfth town of Kobolds, Snow Elves, Yeti, Mammoths and Jotunns, added in version 1.8.0 on Dec 31, 2025 and long known as Kronverk; its heroes use the new Runes skill.

Is Kronverk the same as the Bulwark? Yes. Kronverk was the long-used working name of the Heroes 3 Horn of the Abyss town released as the Bulwark on Dec 31, 2025.

Which Heroes 3 town has two level 7 creatures? The Horn of the Abyss Factory has two level 7 creatures, the Couatl and the Dreadnought, and both can be built in the same town.

Are the Cove, Factory and Bulwark in the Heroes 3 Remake? No. Ubisoft has announced only the nine official towns for the Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Remake, as of Oct 21, 2026; the Cove, Factory and Bulwark belong to the fan-made Horn of the Abyss.

Sources

• Horn of the Abyss documentation, HotA Crew, HotA 1.8.1, read Oct 21, 2026
• Horn of the Abyss: Online gaming rules, HotA Crew, read Oct 21, 2026
• HotA changelog, HotA Crew, versions 1.0 (Dec 31, 2011) to 1.8.1 (Aug 25, 2026)
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Horn of the Abyss, Steam, read Oct 21, 2026
• Zapowiadany od dawna nowy zamek trafił do Heroes 3, CD-Action, Emilia Wyciślak-Swoboda, Dec 31, 2025
• Heroes of Might and Magic: najnowsze informacje, CD-Action, Maciej Szymczak, Sep 3, 2026
• Heroes 3 z nowym zamkiem i kampanią dzięki Horn of the Abyss, GRYOnline.pl, Adrian Werner, Jan 3, 2024
• Zapytaliśmy twórców Heroes III Remake, jak chcą uspokoić fanów, GRYOnline.pl, Przemysław Dygas, Sep 9, 2026
• Heroes 3: FACTORY Gameplay Showcase, Part 1 (HotA Mod), Norovo, Jan 21, 2024 (video)