Help!! Cannot complete Invasion campaign!

[Katran1]

I cannot defeat the Invasion campaign. The Orange players are way too strong. If I try to build up my armies, they come and wipe me out. If I try to rush through, they wipe me out. The best I've been able to do is capture two towns, but I lost so many troops in the process that the Orange player easily wiped me out. I don't have any patches (unfortunately I have a foreign version of the game and don't know enough about eastern European languages to know which patch to install). I've consulted several walkthroughs to no avail. I just cannot seem to build up enough strength quickly enough to defeat this campaign. Help!!

[Katran1]

I cannot defeat the Invasion campaign. The Orange players are way too strong. If I try to build up my armies, they come and wipe me out. If I try to rush through, they wipe me out. The best I've been able to do is capture two towns, but I lost so many troops in the process that the Orange player easily wiped me out. I don't have any patches (unfortunately I have a foreign version of the game and don't know enough about eastern European languages to know which patch to install). I've consulted several walkthroughs to no avail. I just cannot seem to build up enough strength quickly enough to defeat this campaign. Help!!

[tomerp]

which difficulty level are you playing? I don't remember the details, but convert all your creatures to undead (in a necro city) and use markel to sweep the map. With raise dead you shouldn't be loosing any units. copy the map from a walkthrough and just rush at castles immediately.

[Katran1]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry it's taken me so long to get back to you. I thought I had turned on my email notifications and since I never got one I assumed no one had replied. I've made sure to turn them on now.

I'm playing on the easiest level, with no patches (I have a foreign language version and don't know what language it is, and so don't know what patch to put on). The problem is the orange player has a massive army almost from the start, and I just cannot seem to build up an army that can beat it. The best I've done so far is take one Mage town and convert it, but it cost me so many troops that I was quickly defeated afterward. If I spend all my time and money trying to build up Markal, an orange player comes along and wipes out Isabel. So either way I lose. I've tried rushing, and get wiped out. I've tried waiting and building up an army, and get wiped out. I don't know what to do.

[Katran1]

Ugh! Even the ELVES slaughter me. I don't get it. Every walkthrough says this campaign is easy. What am I doing wrong?!

[Katran1]

It's me again. I gave up on the Invasion campaign awhile ago because I just couldn't beat it and I was getting too frustrated. Now I've picked the game up again, and I decided to go back to a previous save and start the whole Markal scenario again, thinking that maybe I just hadn't buffed him up enough. Well, I still can't beat the Invasion campaign. The orange guy outnumbers me 5-1 easily and he has powerful spells that I just can't match.

I even tried using the cheat mode out of frustration, but I can't even get that to work. My game won't run when I alter the game file as instructed.

I'm about ready to give up on this game unless someone can give me some better ideas.

[Normandy09]

I will try and remember what I did for you. I didnt spend a whole lot of time on island, but while on it I only got gold buildings for haven town, while keeping Isabel in my beefed up necropolis (undead dont care who their leader is). Once I left, I took it pretty easily, grabbing any undead neutrals I can find (which there are a lot of). Once I did, I took the far left town first. This provided an easy defense point, for the only way to it was by boat, giving you extra warning. The elves come down the river just to the right of the town, I hit it as quickly as I could (be careful, its a time battle). When I did that, I took it slowly. When you capture one town, orange gets two heros with pretty large armies, your best bet is to capture the town just across the river from the first one, and use it as a defense post. I waited to get the third town until after I made sure those big heros were gone. Once they were dead, I walked into the third town. After that, it is just a matter of getting a big enough army, and going through the garrisons.

If this does not help, and you have put it on easy, then I am sorry. But when reading the walkthroughs, as a hint, dont follow them word for word. I have had to use a couple for a few missions I was getting mad at, but not once did I follow it word for word until the end, I always would see something that could be done better, or easier, or something, and go from there.

Good luck.

[Greg1038]

This one appears hard, but it's not because the AI is dumb and the map lets you escape the hard battles. Do what Normandy said, and also this:

When you take Markal out (he's your main guy, not Isabel, although she can scout a bit) make sure you create another low-level hero to travel with him because you need somebody to take excess troops off of him. Because all undead join Markal, and some of those troops (and troops he buys and troops he raises) will be upgraded and some not, he runs out of slots for troops pretty quickly. Once you get the Hill Fort (NE I think) you can have your low level hero ferry un-upgraded troops to the Hill Fort for upgrades while Markal continues his rampage.

Also, that orange player is so buff that he will be able to chase you out of some of your towns, including your starting towns, for a long time until you build up your strength. But the map is set up so you can always run off to his castles while he takes yours, and you can get your own castles back after he takes them and leaves. The enemy in HOMM3, of course, would never let you off so easy, but that's another topic.