Town Build Order

7:07 In Heroes of Might and Magic 3 the official strategy guide's fastest opening builds the Town Hall, Mage Guild I, Blacksmith, Marketplace, City Hall, Citadel, Castle and Capitol on days 1 to 8, one building a day, so the Capitol is standing on Day 1 of Week 2 and the town makes 4,000 gold a day. Its second, more cautious order (Town Hall, two creature dwellings, Citadel, Mage Guild I, Blacksmith, Marketplace, City Hall) gives up the Capitol in the first week for three or four dwellings producing when the new week starts. Both come from Prima's official guide to The Restoration of Erathia (1999, pp.122-123), written before the expansions; neither Armageddon's Blade nor The Shadow of Death manual changes the halls or their prices. In the HD Edition clip, a Castle town's Hall offers the Capitol, which "earns your kingdom 4000 gold per day". What each town recruits is on Towns, and the first hours of a game on Beginner's Guide.

Quick facts

How building works

Each town may put up one structure a day, and every structure has a price in gold and often wood, ore or rarer resources, plus buildings it needs first. A town begins with a Village Hall, and "under normal circumstances" a Fort and a Tavern too, the guide says (p.122), which is why both of its build orders can start with the Town Hall on Day 1. The Fort matters because no creature dwelling can be built without one (p.109).

3:58 The hall is the heart of the economy. Halls "allow you to construct other town structures and give you a daily Gold income", and the HD Edition's own build window for the City Hall lists Mage Guild Level 1, Marketplace and Blacksmith as its requirements; the guide's advice is to "almost always upgrade your halls quickly", particularly in the starting town (pp.105-106).

Source: Prima's official guide, Table 5-1, p.106. A Gold Mine, by comparison, gives 1,000 gold a day (p.100), and a Grail structure 5,000 gold a day on top of the hall (p.111).

1:29 The castle line both defends the town and raises its weekly growth; the clip shows the HD Edition's Build Citadel window promising a 50% increase to creature growth:

Source: Prima's official guide, pp.106 and 109. Other buildings that the Capitol route needs: Mage Guild I costs 2,000 gold, 5 wood and 5 ore, and lets heroes buy a Spell Book for 500 gold; a Marketplace costs 500 gold and 5 wood; a Tavern 500 gold and 5 ore (pp.62, 107-109). The Blacksmith's price differs by town.

The fast route to the Capitol

The guide's first order aims at gold before anything else: "get your town cranking out Gold income. This means building the Capitol" (p.122).

Source: Prima's official guide, p.122, "Fast Route to the Capitol".

At the guide's prices the halls, Mage Guild I, Marketplace, Citadel, Castle and Capitol add up to 27,500 gold, 20 wood and 20 ore before the Blacksmith, more than the 20,000 gold a human player starts with on Normal difficulty (p.5). The order only works because the town's own income and whatever gold heroes pick up in the first week cover the gap; on Hard (15,000 gold) and Expert (10,000) the gap is wider, and on Impossible a player starts with nothing (p.181). Flagging Sawmills and Ore Pits early is how the wood and ore arrive (Strategy Guide).

The balanced order: dwellings first

7:37 The second order is the guide's "more cautious approach, one that ensures your town's security" (p.122). Because a town usually starts with a creature dwelling or two, two more in the first week give "three or four generators producing on Day 1 of Week 2", when every dwelling adds its weekly creatures, ready to recruit as the HD Edition clip shows with Pikemen.

Source: Prima's official guide, p.123, "Balanced Creature Generation". The guide still advises working on the halls in this case, "aiming to build your City Hall on Day 1 or 2 of Week 2", and says a player who starts with a large gift of gold and resources, as some scenarios give, can build the Citadel and Castle before the week turns over for a much bigger army (p.122).

Economy first or creatures first?

3:17 Every town forces the same choice, and Ubisoft's gameplay overview of the Remake (its footage shows the Remake, not the 1999 game) puts it as a question: rush a Capitol for extra gold, add a Mage Guild level for spells, or build a new dwelling before an enemy strikes. The guide sorts every structure into three kinds: economic (gold and resources), military (troops and combat benefits) and special, and says the early decision is mostly when to build economic and when military structures, with special ones "a luxury to squeak in around the edges" (p.120). Its default is economy "unless you're facing immediate threats from enemy attack or want to engage in an early attack yourself" (p.122).

A few of its finer points:

• Spell Book first. If the starting hero has no Spell Book and will not be back for weeks, a Mage Guild I on the first turn plus a 500 gold Spell Book gives the hero five spells right away; otherwise build the Town Hall first, but not for long, since Mage Guild I is needed for the City Hall (p.107).
• Dwellings are a risk as well as an army. Building up a town's creature production and then losing it to a siege hands the work to the enemy, so build dwellings where you can protect them; upgraded dwellings are "a good investment" (p.110).
• Do not buy what you do not need yet. Creatures that are not recruited pile up in their dwellings, so with a gold reserve a town can be left nearly empty until an enemy hero is close (p.110).
• Marketplaces are for prerequisites. The merchant always wins on a trade, so the Marketplace is mainly a step toward the City Hall and the Resource Silo (p.108).
• Mage Guild limits. Stronghold and Fortress stop at Mage Guild III and Castle at IV, and heroes without Wisdom gain nothing from Mage Guild III or above (pp.62, 107), so a might-focused town gets less from the higher guilds.

Town by town

The build orders are the same for every faction; what differs is what the side buildings give. All from Prima's official guide (pp.62, 107, 109-111) and, for the Conflux, the Armageddon's Blade manual (p.13).

A Resource Silo costs 5,000 gold and 5 ore and needs a Marketplace (p.108). Tower and Dungeon can add an Artifact Merchants (10,000 gold), and Stronghold a Freelancer's Guild (1,000 gold) that buys unwanted creatures; the Conflux has a Magic University where visiting heroes learn any of the four schools of magic (AB manual, p.13).

Building in captured towns

A second town is not automatically a second Capitol project. The guide's advice for new towns (pp.123, 188, 190):

• Upgrade the hall, little else. Halls repay themselves fastest, so develop them in any town you expect to keep long enough; the only halls not worth building are those "you're sure the enemy is going to take from you before you can recoup your investment" (p.106). An exposed town is best treated "as a Gold Mine for now" (p.188).
• Do not build the enemy's town for them. Dwellings and Mage Guilds far from the front help nobody, and a town that changes hands back and forth drains creatures, time and resources (p.123).
• Build a second center where it pays. On large maps or with long supply routes, a well-defended town near the front can become a second recruiting center (pp.123, 190).
• Let the AI build it. If the enemy is about to take an underdeveloped town you want, the guide suggests letting it, since the AI will often start with economic buildings, then retaking it before its dwellings fill up (p.193).

Only one Capitol may stand in a kingdom (p.106), so a captured town's hall stops at the City Hall while you hold a Capitol elsewhere.

Emergency builds

3:48 When an enemy hero is coming and a town has no creatures stockpiled, building a new creature dwelling buys "a week's worth of its creatures" at once, enough to deter a scout, the guide says (p.193); the Remake's overview names the same move, a new dwelling "to recruit before an enemy strikes your town". Every dwelling also fills on Day 1 of the week, which is why the guide suggests attacking towns on Day 7, so the new week's creatures are yours (p.192).

Frequently asked questions

What should I build first in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3 the official guide builds the Town Hall on Day 1 in both of its build orders, raising the town's income from 500 to 1,000 gold a day; the fast order then goes Mage Guild I, Blacksmith, Marketplace, City Hall, Citadel, Castle and Capitol.

How fast can you build a Capitol in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3 the earliest is Day 8 (Day 1 of Week 2), building one prerequisite a day from a town that already has a Village Hall, Tavern and Fort, according to Prima's official guide (p.122).

How much gold does the Capitol make in Heroes 3? A Capitol makes 4,000 gold a day in Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and costs 10,000 gold, compared with 2,000 a day for a City Hall, 1,000 for a Town Hall and 500 for a Village Hall (official guide, p.106).

Can you have two Capitols in Heroes 3? No: Heroes of Might and Magic 3 allows only one Capitol in a player's kingdom, so every other town stops at the City Hall, as the official guide notes (p.106).

What does the City Hall need in Heroes 3? In Heroes of Might and Magic 3 a City Hall costs 5,000 gold and needs a Town Hall, Blacksmith, Mage Guild I and Marketplace; the Capitol then needs the City Hall and a Castle, which needs a Citadel and a Fort.

Should I build creature dwellings or the Capitol first in Heroes 3? Heroes of Might and Magic 3's official guide puts the Capitol first unless you face an early threat or plan an early attack, and offers a balanced order with two dwellings and a Citadel in the first week for safety.

Sources

• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Prima's Official Strategy Guide, Tom Ono, Prima Publishing, 1999 (pp.3, 5, 62, 100, 105-111, 120-123, 181, 188, 190, 193)
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade manual, The 3DO Company, 1999 (p.13)
• Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death user manual, The 3DO Company, 2000
• Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake - Gameplay Overview Trailer, Ubisoft, Aug 26, 2026 (video)
• Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD Edition - 4K GAMEPLAY, SergiuHellDragoonHQ, Apr 20, 2017 (video)