Strategy Guide

1:11 Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is won with a strong economy and one main hero: build your halls up fast, hire two or three heroes early, give all the troops to one general and use the others as fast scouts, flag Sawmills and Ore Pits before anything else, attack on Day 7 so the next week's creatures are yours, and in battle shoot first, Wait for a double strike and gang up on stacks that have used their counterstrike. That is the official strategy guide's advice (Prima, 1999), which also explains how the computer thinks: from Hard difficulty up it will not start a fight it expects to cost it 25% or more of its army, which lets a strong hero block a pass. This page collects that advice for players past the Beginner's Guide; the first week's buildings are on Town Build Order. The guide was written for The Restoration of Erathia, before the expansions, so its numbers are that version's; the clip is from Ubisoft's overview of the 2027 Remake, whose narrator sums up the same loop of turning exploration into power.

Quick facts

Economy

Gold comes mostly from town halls, so upgrading them is the first job (the guide's two orders are on the build order page); the rest comes from mines and what heroes find. A Gold Mine gives 1,000 gold a day, a Sawmill and an Ore Pit 2 wood or 2 ore, and the rare-resource mines 1 a day (official guide, p.100).

• Mines before piles. When a hero is nearly out of movement and must choose between flagging a mine and picking up a loose resource, take the mine: the pile will still be there tomorrow and the mine has already paid a day (p.187).
• Wood and ore first. Town building eats wood and ore, so Sawmills and Ore Pits are the first mines to flag (p.187).
• Keep a gold reserve. Creatures not recruited wait in their dwellings, so instead of garrisoning every town, keep the gold and recruit only when a town is threatened (pp.110, 191-192).
• Let mid-level creatures pile up. Level 3 and 4 creatures "aren't particularly effective until you can get larger stacks of them (30 or more)", so leave them in town until they do (p.192).
• Sell the surplus. Late in a game, sell building materials you will not need for Gold in a Marketplace; with five or fewer Marketplaces, an adventure map Trading Post pays better (p.193).
• Start well. At the start of a scenario take gold or wood and ore as your bonus rather than a random artifact, and pick the town that is native to the starting terrain (p.5).

Heroes: one general, several scouts

1:25 The guide's core plan is to "transfer all of your Heroes' troops to a single Hero", the general, and to keep the others as scouts carrying only the fastest creature, so they cover ground (p.187): a hero's daily movement depends on its slowest creature, and Norovo, a Heroes 3 creator, notes that a hero whose slowest unit has Speed 11 or more gets the maximum (official guide, p.97). Ubisoft says the Remake will let players hand such roles to heroes automatically: collecting resources, escorting the main hero or carrying new troops to the front. Two or three heroes is "a good number for the early game"; each costs 2,500 gold, a lot in the first weeks.

• Feed the general experience. When a scout finds a pass guarded by weak monsters, park it and send the general to clear it; scouts should leave Treasure Chests for the general, who takes them as experience (pp.187-188).
• Kill enemy scouts. It slows the enemy's exploring and probably costs it 2,500 gold to rehire them (p.188).
• Rehire your own. A scout that is beaten or retreats can be hired back before the week ends, and comes back with its levels and artifacts (p.189).
• Use a transport chain. Keep the general in the field and send reinforcements to it with "troop transport Heroes" (p.190). Two heroes meeting can swap troops and artifacts, so a line of heroes can move a week's recruits to the front without the general walking home.
• Grow super scouts in mid-game. Give one or two scouts fast armies big enough to fight wandering monsters, and send them to uncover the whole map (p.189).

What each class and skill does is on Heroes and Secondary Skills. The guide's skill advice is short: spellcasters want Wisdom and a school of magic, Mysticism keeps a caster who roams far from a Mage Guild useful, and Barbarians should avoid magic skills (pp.8, 16, 30).

Exploring and fighting guards

2:07 Every move counts on the adventure map, as the Remake's gameplay overview puts it while its hero weighs a mine against a Hut of the Magi. Clearing the Shroud around your town early shows where enemies can come from and how far your safe "starting territory" reaches, including nearby Subterranean Gates, Shipyards and Monoliths (p.187). Monsters are not only obstacles: one that blocks a pass you do not plan to use keeps enemy scouts out, so leave it there (p.188). Wandering monsters grow on Day 1 of each week like town dwellings, so a stack you mean to fight is cheapest before the week turns (p.192). How the adventure map and its locations work is on Adventure Map.

An underdefended neutral town nearby is worth taking, but unless it sits somewhere easy to defend, upgrade only its hall and treat it "as a Gold Mine for now" (p.188).

Combat tactics

0:25 Battles take place on a 15 by 10 hex field, creatures act in order of Speed, and most creatures strike back (counterstrike) only once a round (official guide, pp.162-170). In the clip Norovo recommends "one stacks", single creatures split off a stack to soak up a big enemy stack's retaliation, block or bait, the same idea as the guide's gang attack opened by a cheap stack. The guide's main techniques (pp.174-178):

• Turn off auto combat. Auto combat plays your troops by the AI's own rules, which defeats the point of playing better than the AI (p.174).
• Shoot first. Concentrate your shooters on one enemy stack to shrink it before it reaches you; fewer creatures means weaker attacks and weaker counterstrikes (p.178).
• Wait for a double strike. When your fast creature can reach a slower enemy that cannot reach it, Wait so the enemy moves first, hit it, then hit again first thing next round: two blows before it acts (p.177).
• Gang attack. Only the first attacker takes the counterstrike, so hit the same stack several times in one round; open with a stack that can absorb the counterstrike, or else with your weakest, since "it's far better to lose a depleted Pikeman stack than two members of your five-member Angel stack" (pp.177-178).
• Use obstacles. Obstacles block ground troops and halve ranged damage, so tuck defenders behind them and use a fast flier to lead slow enemies around one (p.178).
• Kill the dangerous stack, not the big one. Usually the enemy's best shooter or fastest attacker, or creatures with special abilities such as the Crusader, Vampire Lord, Medusa and Basilisk (p.176).

The numbers behind it: every point of Attack over the target's Defense adds 5% damage (up to 400%), every point of Defense over Attack takes off 2% (down to 30%); shooters do half damage in melee and cannot shoot with an enemy adjacent; and each point of luck or morale gives about a 4.2% chance of double damage or an extra action (pp.162-170). More on Combat.

Magic

8:36 A Mage Guild gives spells to any hero with a Spell Book who visits, Mage Guild I to V offering five, four, three, two and one spells of levels 1 to 5, and a hero casts one spell per combat round (pp.107, 162-170). Heroes without Wisdom learn nothing from Mage Guild III or above, and a Mage Guild restores spell points to heroes who start a new day in the town (p.107); as Norovo points out, that means the points come back at the start of your next turn, so a hero about to be besieged should save them. Two of the guide's tricks rely on magic or the purse: a hero with Advanced or Expert Town Portal can jump to a threatened town with its whole army (p.193), and a hero far from home can attack an enemy and Retreat or Surrender to be rehired at a town, keeping the army if it surrenders before taking losses (p.192). Every spell and school is on Spells and Magic.

Timing attacks

Dwellings and wandering monsters grow on Day 1 of every week, so "if you attack a town, the best day to do it is on Day 7": you own it on Day 1 and its new creatures garrison the town or join your hero (p.192). The guide's game plan runs in three stages (pp.186-191):

• Early game: explore, flag nearby mines, develop the first town, kill weak monsters with the general.
• Mid-game (from about week three or four): the starting town is built up; take the general out, take nearby neutral towns, beat weaker heroes, open as few fronts as possible and eliminate weak players.
• End game: pick the first strong rival carefully (not one others are already beating, or you inherit their war), wear down its territory town by town and keep two or three strong heroes on the attack.

The AI at Hard, Expert and Impossible

Difficulty changes what everyone starts with and what the computer earns:

Source: Prima's official guide, Tables 8-1 and 8-2, pp.181-182 (The Restoration of Erathia).

The combat AI "is playing at full strength" from Hard; it gets no cleverer at Expert or Impossible, only richer (p.171). From Hard up it also builds every day, develops towns aggressively, hunts the Grail once a quarter of the Puzzle Map is revealed, and hires more heroes the higher the setting, up to six each on Impossible (pp.182-183).

The guide's key to beating it is its caution. At Hard and above the computer "normally initiates combat only if it thinks that it will win without losing more than 25 percent of its forces", and will not stop a hero within reach of yours unless it can win easily (pp.184-185). So a strong hero "controls" a circle as wide as its movement: park it at the mouth of a pass and the AI stays bottled up, as long as the army is strong enough to worry it. The same caution makes enemy heroes run from a stronger army; to catch one, use a weak hero as bait with your strong hero a day behind, then hand the army over and attack (pp.185-186). The AI also always builds around its "best Hero", the one with the highest primary skills, and its stronger heroes take the armies of weaker ones when they meet (pp.183-184), so beating that one hero breaks its offense.

On Impossible a human starts with no gold or resources at all, so the opening is about collecting every pile and flagging every mine within reach before thinking of the Capitol.

At Easy and Normal it is the opposite: the AI underrates your armies, attacks heroes it cannot beat and rarely retreats, so the guide suggests setting up lopsided fights and grinding its creatures down (p.186).

Multiplayer is different

The guide's AI tricks do not work on people. Against humans the Day 7 timing, mines and the main-hero plan still apply, but nobody refuses a fight at 25% losses. Horn of the Abyss, a fan-made, unofficial expansion with its own online lobby, has a "Tournament rules" option that applies common restrictions for online play (HotA FAQ). See Multiplayer and Competitive Scene.

Frequently asked questions

How do you beat Impossible difficulty in Heroes 3? On Impossible in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 you start with no gold or resources while the computer gets 10,000 gold and up to 50% more gold income, so grab every pile and mine early, keep one strong main hero, and use the AI's refusal to risk losing 25% of its army to block it at passes (official guide, pp.181-185).

What is the best strategy in Heroes 3? The official guide to Heroes of Might and Magic 3 says games are "won or lost on the Adventure Map": upgrade halls fast, flag mines early, give one general all the troops and the experience, scout with cheap fast heroes and attack towns on Day 7.

How does the Heroes 3 AI work? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3 the computer rates every possible move and picks one of the best, builds its offense around its strongest hero, and from Hard difficulty avoids fights it expects to cost 25% or more of its army, according to Prima's official guide.

Does the Heroes 3 AI get smarter on higher difficulty? No: in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 the combat AI is at full strength from Hard, and Expert and Impossible only give the computer more starting resources and higher production, the official guide says (p.171).

What is chaining heroes in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3 it means using extra heroes to pass troops forward so the main hero stays in the field; the official guide calls them "troop transport Heroes" (p.190).

Should I use auto combat in Heroes 3? Heroes of Might and Magic 3's official guide advises against it, because auto combat plays your troops by the AI's rules, which usually costs more creatures than careful manual play (p.174).

Sources

• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, Tom Ono, Prima Publishing, 1999 (pp.5, 8, 16, 30, 100, 107, 110, 162-193)
• Frequently asked questions, Horn of the Abyss (HotA Crew), read Oct 21, 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)