HOMM III Help Please

[runesword forger]

HOMM III Questions (Yeah, we're a bit late to the party)



My son Abe was hugely into the Gamecube and Wii Fire Emblems, but the followup was difficult. I tried some quality RTS computer games on him, but the real time thing kind of leaves him cold. Kids these days....



I thought about downloading Shining Force II from the Wii virtual console, but I didn't play that series and I'm unsure whether it would measure up. I'd welcome opinions on it.



The updated Phantom Brave coming for the Wii seems perfect, but that's not until June. But a couple days ago, in the local Half Price Books, I found a copy of Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete for ten bucks.



I can already tell he's hooked. I don't know if the later versions were a big improvement, but HOMM III is fun on a stick. The mix of elements has an undeniable pull.



Questions:



Is there an option to make your turn end when you move the full movement on the overland map? It seems silly to mouse over to click the turn over icon every time. Or is there some reason for not auto-ending?



When it flashes over to show some enemy moving on your turf, sometimes it's difficult to know exactly where? Is there an easy way to find the enemy that popped?



Are we supposed to do something in the Spell building (wizard's tower?). We have spells. We've upgraded the building. Do we buy spells there?



I haven't gotten around to making another leader yet. How is that done? How many should I make and when and what type, or is that not important? I think I want at least one other leader to help protect the home base, right? Should he stay inside or just in the vicinity?



Is the human vs. human thing good? Hotseat or over an internet connection? Does it even support an internet connection?



Any great mods out there?



Is there really good Strategy Guide or Wiki out there that isn't a bazillion pages long? I keep finding ones that are fond of analyzing formulas.

[slikster]

1. When it flashes over to show some enemy moving on your turf, sometimes it's difficult to know exactly where? Is there an easy way to find the enemy that popped?

2. Are we supposed to do something in the Spell building (wizard's tower?). We have spells. We've upgraded the building. Do we buy spells there?

3.I haven't gotten around to making another leader yet. How is that done? How many should I make and when and what type, or is that not important? I think I want at least one other leader to help protect the home base, right? Should he stay inside or just in the vicinity?


1. That's all you get.

2. Heroes visiting a town automatically learn new spells while there.

3. You have to hire them at a tavern (which you may have to build). I think it's recommended that you have one or two main heroes and a few additional ones to do logistics.

[anaqer]

E is a hotkey for "end of turn" (no way to make it automatic).

You don't need to buy the individual spells - if a visiting(!) hero has a spell book and good enough Wisdom, he learns them automatically.

Additional heroes can be bought in your Tavern (as long as no other heroes are in town). Hero management is a matter of taste, but I don't like too many of them... one for major fights and exploration, two others to transport troops from castles to the primary hero / fight easier battles / collect regenerating resources. I only go above three heroes the huge maps.

[bigdaddygamebot]

I thought about downloading Shining Force II from the Wii virtual console, but I didn't play that series and I'm unsure whether it would measure up. I'd welcome opinions on it.



.


Can't help you with HOMM III BUT...great find.

Shining Force II is spectacular and should click with him.

Ogre Battle JUST came out today or yesterday on the Wii and it is pretty exceptional as a strat game. It's pseudo real time outside of combat and turn based in combat with oodles of combat types.

[copet]

Can't help you with HOMM III BUT...great find.

Shining Force II is spectacular and should click with him.

Ogre Battle JUST came out today or yesterday on the Wii and it is pretty exceptional as a strat game. It's pseudo real time outside of combat and turn based in combat with oodles of combat types.

HOMM III is great!! But I must say, Shining Force II is one of the greatest games I have ever played, and I think I'll get spooky in here (my bro) to confirm that. Great fun, especially for a kid, unless he has been corrupted by todays games and values graphics over everything else :D

[Miramon]

There are various things you can do in HoMM without movement, such as adjusting your towns, so I don't think it would be generally desirable to end a turn when you are out of movement.

Note by the way that there are many great user-created scenarios and campaigns out there once you run out of the ones that came with the game.

[Justin Fletcher]

When it flashes over to show some enemy moving on your turf, sometimes it's difficult to know exactly where? Is there an easy way to find the enemy that popped?
No. The overland map is hidden when the enemy moves, so you can really only see the ending position (which will be a small colored dot on the map).

What you can do, though, is click on the flag icon for Adventure Options, and then choose "Replay Opponent Turn" to see the move as many times as you like. You can also choose "View World" which shows you enemy heroes much more clearly (colored shield icons).

I haven't gotten around to making another leader yet. How is that done? How many should I make and when and what type, or is that not important? I think I want at least one other leader to help protect the home base, right? Should he stay inside or just in the vicinity?A large part of the strategy is making these decisions. Can you risk leaving a town defenseless or with a skeleton crew so that you can use the majority of your troops for battle? Do you spread your troops too thin if you have too many heroes? Should you use heroes as a supply chain to get reinforcements to the front line quickly? Should you try and level all of your heroes so that they're all competent in battle or concentrate on making one hero unbeatable?

The answers depend on whether you're playing the campaign or a scenario and on the layout of the map. In the campaign, there's little reason to concentrate on any hero but your primary one because it is usually the only one that carries over from mission to mission. This leads to "superstacking," or making one ungodly hero with a bunch of weaklings playing supporting roles. But this gets more dangerous as you go along, especially on larger maps with underground passages and a larger opposing force. Nothing is worse than winning a tough battle on one side of the map only to see some bastard waltz into your town practically unhindered on the other. A stack can be super, but it can't be omnipresent.

Is there really good Strategy Guide or Wiki out there that isn't a bazillion pages long? I keep finding ones that are fond of analyzing formulas.In my opinion, the best strat guide is the troop index in the manual. Print that sucker out and have it handy as you fight. The best players know what each creature can do and how to properly use them, so they also have ideas on the best way to counter them. For example, knowing that you should always try to slow down or fence in cavaliers or champions so that they don't get their 5% per hex traveled attack bonus can be the key to victory.

That said, here's (http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes3/heroesofmightandmagic3iii.shtml) a site that might help.

[Scott Kevill]

Is the human vs. human thing good? Hotseat or over an internet connection? Does it even support an internet connection?

H3 does have Hotseat, but the game has such low requirements that it will run on anything, so it'd probably be easier on LAN or internet.

It is still played online by quite a lot of people on GameRanger (http://www.GameRanger.com/).

Even if you are doing a LAN game, you'll probably still want to use GameRanger, since even on a LAN, it solves a lot of the common networking problems that you can encounter with games like H3 that use DirectPlay.

[runesword forger]

Thanks, all.

We are getting up to speed.