Stronghold third mission - is this a joke? | Forums

[JoxerTheMigthy]

Perhaps it is. A joke. But a bad one.

I don't buy nor play games with the main quest "kill 87658374658273687563428753 mobrespawns".
Yes 99% games out there are like that, well, I waste my money on those 1% where you kill something it's dead for good or you simply have a means to stop mobrespawns like in HoMM by conquering towns. Well, not in this HoMM!

What I've just discovered? That there is a map, stronghold mission 3, where you can't stop enemies from respawning by no means. Whoever made this map should get fired. They probably created that abomination thinking Diablofans who adore endless respawning will buy HoMM 6 not realizing there will be some real fans hating that map.
It seriously ruined my fun completely, solved all other faction campaigns, only this one and final left, and perhaps the best thing would be to leave this campaign unsolved for good.

Enough with the rant... Any tips on this one?
I manage to defend by using telepost with minimal losses (with reinforcements and mass heal I lose max 2 units per fight), found 6 of 7 veterans (only harpy is missing) but it's hard to explore and defend conquered forts at the same time as 3 naga heroes come attacking from two different spots.

[broui]

Perhaps it is. A joke. But a bad one.

I don't buy nor play games with the main quest "kill 87658374658273687563428753 mobrespawns".
Yes 99% games out there are like that, well, I waste my money on those 1% where you kill something it's dead for good or you simply have a means to stop mobrespawns like in HoMM by conquering towns. Well, not in this HoMM!

What I've just discovered? That there is a map, stronghold mission 3, where you can't stop enemies from respawning by no means. Whoever made this map should get fired. They probably created that abomination thinking Diablofans who adore endless respawning will buy HoMM 6 not realizing there will be some real fans hating that map.
It seriously ruined my fun completely, solved all other faction campaigns, only this one and final left, and perhaps the best thing would be to leave this campaign unsolved for good.

Enough with the rant... Any tips on this one?
I manage to defend by using telepost with minimal losses (with reinforcements and mass heal I lose max 2 units per fight), found 6 of 7 veterans (only harpy is missing) but it's hard to explore and defend conquered forts at the same time as 3 naga heroes come attacking from two different spots.

The Harpies are on an island near the necromancers. You get to them via an underground passage just NE of your town. Try to pick a slow "re-spawn" week and haul a--.

I have yet to beat this. I think I'm running out of time at present because the big fight comes in month 4 I understand.

I've tried it several times unsuccessfully. Probably my least favorite map in the 25 years I've been playing this game.

Try the walkthrough they have on Celestialheavens.com. It's certainly helped me get as far as I have, but I may have taken too long. We'll see.

Good luck.

[tabachanker2]

I feel your pain! I hated that campaign a lot. This is not heroes gameplay at all. I guess the developer couldn't program a decent AI so they reverted back to this kind of trickery.

I don't want to discourage you or anything but, if you hate this map, you're not gonna like the next one too! In this last one, they give you the impression that you can stop the enemy respawning... but they keep on appearing, and all over the map...

[JoxerTheMigthy]

Finished the map!

Didn't restart the map but was saving every turn (Isorry but I don't trust autosaves) and reloading a lot (if enemies spawn when I'm out of mana deep into exploration and can't teleport to the town).

Unlike every other map, on this one I missed to kill so many neutral stacks and didn't take all artefacts on the map. Also I didn't grab all +x might or magic available. The sidequest to kill 40 naga stacks... Um... Excuse me? That's pretty impossible to do while defending the city against 3 enemy heroes that respawn with full army every few days after you kill them and they can walk on the water so you can't chase them efficiently.

For all those who'll play the map and get frustrated like I was... A few things to do:
1. Add movement +3 bonus to your main hero (both skill and trait) you need that desperately otherwise you won't be able to catch enemy heroes easily
2. Every week check for new artefacts in the shop! You want the bow that removes ranged debuffs, you want the ring with +10 initiative and the most important you want is +4 or more movement bonus boots!
3. When you start the map, send one hero northeast and the second one east. As soon as possible recruit the third hero (I got him when first enemy spawned, but could do that earlier, and I took the champ with bonus units growth dunno which ones) and send him south
4. Even if you are on Tears path, kill the dragon then reload for peaceful solution! There are two achievements on him (slaying dragon and slaying him in less than 10 turns). Also make sure you solve that sidequest because you get Tear of Asha for third achievement on this map

I'm now onto mission 4 and I really hope it's not a disaster like mission 3. What were they thinking? I'd understand if this was a separate scenario map so you can play it if you adore endless respawns games or skip it if you despise such things... But to add this into the campaign? Can't believe it, honestly. So far the great game is getting my first minus.

[chirambo]

At the risk of being contrary, I have to say that I actually liked this map. I say that because it seemed to me like most of the maps in the campaigns followed very predictable patterns (usually one route from point A to B, just capture all towns on the way) without much shift in the gameplay. Sanctuary tears was quite interesting (it forces you to NOT take the towns) and I also liked the beginning months of the 4th Necro map. But this one, I thought, was a nice change.

Why? Because I found it to be more than a waiting game. You need to use both of your main heroes to the best of their ability. It's much more about hero movement than "grab 1000 skeletons by clicking wait for 2 months and whomp the boss". You need to carefully balance running around grabbing the free troops (which, I found, led me to owning and unstoppable army anyways) and defending your main town.

Just thought i'd voice my opinion. I like to see maps that go outside the "norm" so to speak and make you think differently. I felt that Heroes VI lacked maps where you had time limits and other means of forcing you to action. Thankfully, this broke the pattern.

[JoxerTheMigthy]

I said above, I wouldn't mind if that map was not a part of the campaign and if it was a separate scenario. In this case, I had a map where I couldn't collect stuff nor I could finish a side quest. The problem is that final fight occured at month 4 and I really didn't have enough time to explore everything when I had to teleport into the town every few days, and then chase respawned enemy heroes all over the place.

In any case... Someone said the fourth mission is also despickable... It isn't actually. I've already finished it.
Comparing to mission 3, fourth map is a pure refreshment - here you CAN stop respawns.
And because I couldn't collect set parts on map 3, on map 4 against abyssal worm I didn't have any full item set! Now I know why other faction episodes contain more than one complete set - if the game was about Stronghold only, it would be near impossible to get itemset achievements.