How do you play? (playstyle)

[impy]

1. i save before every battle. it is down to a fact i only play no loss impossible with extra challenges to make it very very difficult. It is the only way that gives me buzz after game has been conquered standard way.
2. i personally despise kitting, unless required for specific purpose arising from my challenges - demon line up etc. Kitting is sort of on the border of cheating, but then not everyone wants to play like a pure angel. It makes the game significantly easier and ruins otherwise interesting and challenging first 20 levels or so. Also, each game on the market has some (intentional?) weaknesses which can be exploited. Remember gremlin rush with wizard in original hmm3? here it is summoning dragons with ancient scroll at the beginning, black knight strategy, troll strategy..
3. i do not read about other people strategies until i have mastered game myself and still feel satisfaction when discover something new. currently playing with single red dragon and discovered invisibility, spell which i never used before, for example
4. Never used wanderer scrolls before k'tahu, apart from experience scroll.
5. i now use scanner i'm afraid. again it is down to a fact that i push for the extreme and do not want to game fall apart around level 40 due to one artifact not found. I'm not a student anymore so time is precious

[Droom]

The best way is to use the tools you've got. It wil give you the deepest satifaction.

For example, all i could get were pirate/robber tools and they were dying bad. So I just ploughed though the strongs in Verona, hugh losses, so what?

Don

[KongMysen]

Originally Posted by impy

Remember gremlin rush with wizard in original hmm3?

I have absolutely no clue, what you mean. - and I've played alot of HoMM3. I'm not sure how you rush in HoMM3 at all...

[Zechnophobe]

Also, seems odd to refer to 'homm3' as the original, when even of the HOMM line it is clearly the third installment heh. I don't recall rushing gremlins either, but it has been a LONG time since I played that game.

[impy]

Originally Posted by Zechnophobe

Also, seems odd to refer to 'homm3' as the original, when even of the HOMM line it is clearly the third installment heh. I don't recall rushing gremlins either, but it has been a LONG time since I played that game.

here we go then..
original hmm3 refers to first instalment in homm3 series, can't remember the name, before armageddon's blade and shadow of death expansion packs came out. these expansion packs removed this wizard's exploit, where especially with solmyr (remember him? - chain lightning) creeping was piece of cake even on impossible difficulty.

Gremlin rush strategy: wizards had superbly easy access to shooting unit. For 1000 coins and no resources you upgraded gremlin tower, which was doable on the first turn. Recruited wizard heroes (either new or retreating from battle) had cca 70 unupgraded gremlins in their starting army. Before expansions came out you could recruit unlimited number of heroes and they all would have cca 70 gremlins. So what you did on your first game turn was buy 3-4 heroes, upgrade gremlins a you had straight away 300 shooters. creeping was done the following way: split gremlins in two groups and 5x 1-2 gargoyles for their protection, off you go.
Later expansions lowered starting number of gremlins to 30-40, and after hiring first two heroes, new offered heroes in tavern for hiring had only one unit, which eliminated this strategy.
I played hmm3 for good few years, really good times. Anybody played Vengeance is mine map from Andrew Tanzi?

[TemjinGold]

You're referring to Heroes 3: Restoration of Erathia. Grem rush was so brutal we started banning it in multi until the expansions came out.

[Zechnophobe]

Oh, I see now. Yes, I remember that change from the expansion now! Mr Lightning was bar far the best hero in that. I completely forgot about that quirk of the game. He started with Chain lightning, and cast it better right? What a pimp.

(And I see what you mean by 'original' homm3 as meaning no expansions yet, makes sense to me ).

[KongMysen]

Wow, it's been too long since I played the game..

I don't remember being able to buy more than 1 ekstra hero with units pr week, så appearently that's the huge difference between Restoration of Erathia and the expansions. - Besides their numbers.

Solymr was by far the best Wizard, but this strat was never banned in my multiplayer games. (I only played lan games, so I'm not even sure how online games are). Maybe because Castle was superior and creeping also was easy here, with peasent guarded Marksmen. Maybe because I don't recall any multiplayer games from before Armageddons Blade, Even though I did play a few HoMM2 games with my friends.