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| Thread: 15 years down the road: How a HOMM3 player oftentimes develops | |
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SavoyTruffle
Tavern Dweller
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posted March 12, 2018 02:25 PM |
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15 years down the road: How a HOMM3 player oftentimes develops
I've been playing this game for 15 years. On and off, sometimes having more time, sometimes no time at all. Experience as well as forum posts here have made me think that a great many players have a story more or less like mine.
Quite hilariously, first I thought this game had only one map. That Free for All was the game, all there was, period. But it was fun so I played Free For All so many, many times that I could still sketch that map pretty accurately, though I haven't played it for (almost) 15 years.
I was fond of Diplomacy and I was really fond of magic. I was convinced that Adela and Cyra were supreme heroes. Oh boy, wandering around with those girls (all alone, of course, no one followed them) and having all those new recruits for free. So I had armies with creatures from 4 or 5 factions, lots of Stone Golems here, hordes of Battle Dwarves there. I just couldn't understand why so many of my creatures lost their turns. Oh, by the way, to begin with I also didn't understand, indeed I found it very unfair, why this Gunnar guy would always run so fast when my heroes didn't. Also, how damn unfair that he would cast this Haste thing, and have his entire army attack when I couldn't do anything! I remember desperately clicking while yelling "It's my turn now, it's my turn now!". Needless to say, it was not.
And so I suppose it didn't take long before I started picking Logistics. Aside of that, I picked all the magic schools I could possibly get up the sleeve. I played several games when I truly rejoiced when Cyra was an expert of all four schools of magic. Oh triumph when I was browsing my spell book and saw her classified at an expert of every single spell...! And so I was also fond of Intelligence and Sorcery. That meant more damage spells could be cast - with greater effect - and watching spells and their effects on the battlefield was just about the best, even better than browsing the spell book of a true expert hero. Wow, my 2 K implosion just wiped out a stack, and watch that Chain Lightning, man...! Needless to say, I was the chairman of Solmyr's local fan club.
In those early days, I played a whole lot with my favorite kid by the time, the 5 year old son of a very good friend. He was really fond of visual effects and so we were marveling at watching the visual effects from our spells. It's not to find excuses, that's simply how it was.
And so my first favorite faction was Tower (you guessed it). And Master Genies were just about the greatest, even more spells! Indeed, they can be put to good use, even if I did not do it by that time. And inside that Tower, Cyra was the invincible queen. I still remember my initial shock, and I have memorized the part of the map it took place on, when I first had her wiped out. Most likely by a might hero.
Suppose I started picking might skills before I turned to might heroes, too: Offense and Armorer first, sometimes Archery, then Tactics. Farewell Intelligence, Sorcery, Fire Magic, Water. And emphasis on Earth, if possible Air Magic, too. Learning the power of the combo Tactics, Air and Haste was quite a revolution.
Having realized this game is all about raw might (and speed), of course I also had to exaggerate that. So when Cyra and Adela were sent into retirement, they were replaced by Crag Hack, Tazar, Neela sometimes, as she enabled me to keep on playing Tower from time to another. Today, I haven't played Tower for years and the last time I tried to, I figured out I had lost all grips on that faction (rectified: I never had any grips on that faction, not even when I played it every day).
The Crag Hack/Tazar period went on for just about as long it took to realize it wasn't too much fun, at least not against the AI, as they were simply too over-powered. About the same time, my brief flirtation with Conflux also ended, for the same reason.
Oh, and then WOG arrived. Indeed, it had been there for a few years but then I discovered it, too. It's quite a different game, you have to play it differently, particularly stack experience changes everything: You have to fight and fight and fight from early on. If you take too long, your creatures with low stack experience will have trouble when facing opponents who have leveled up faster, even if you have the numerical advantage. Realizing the need of developing your army really soon affected my whole initial build-up.
Nowadays, I'm playing Dungeon, Fortress, Stronghold, Castle, and Rampart. With main heroes who are playable as mains without being over-powered, oftentimes creature specialists with good starting skills and good skill probabilities: Shakti, Dace, Alkin, Gretchin, Gundula, Edric, Sorsha, and Ivor. If the kings and queens pop up in tavern, I'll take them, but really I'd rather have them like late month 2 or so, to prevent them from being too supreme: Gunnar, Tazar, Crag Hack, Kyrre, Dessa too, to a certain degree.
My most recent turnaround took place after watching some games Maretti once streamed: This made me focus on collecting 8 heroes ASAP. And now? Still some light years away from the level of him and other experts, currently I focus on fine-tuning my chaining, fighting more from early on, and breaking earlier. 15 years down the road and still discovering new things to this remarkably deep game: "All I know is that I know nothing", as Socrates put it a few centuries before our time. 
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phoenix4ever
Legendary Hero
Heroes is love, Heroes is life
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posted March 12, 2018 04:30 PM |
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Nice, long story dude.
My almost 19 year old story, with this amazing game, is nothing like yours though. 
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firespirit
Famous Hero
with warm hands
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posted March 12, 2018 07:31 PM |
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An interesting read! I can remember going through some of the same phases you did. So how long did you keep playing Free For All before you found out there were other maps?
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sirironfist
Known Hero
King of the ogres
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posted March 12, 2018 09:42 PM |
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Great story.
I first watched my brothers playing this game when I was 6. (it was Homm2 back then, but Homm3 came in soon) One of my brothers just opened the map editor everytime before playing and created himself a hero with 7x 9999 titans each, later azure dragons when the expansions came out.
I became a master in building my own Homm battles with various types of toys.
When I was 8 I had access to a very old computer that I somehow managed to install Homm3 on. I remember it took me several seconds just to enter a town and then again several seconds to leave it again. I played Barbarian Breakout and lost every single time.
The first time I played Homm2 on my own I was so proud when I was able to recruit rocs.
Well basicly this game has accompanied me throughout my whole life.
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SavoyTruffle
Tavern Dweller
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posted March 13, 2018 11:53 AM |
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firespirit said:
How long did you keep playing Free For All before you found out there were other maps?
About a month or two, I think - when I played the game pretty often.  Still remember that "aha!" experience when I realized there were other maps, too. And how great it was to find out.
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Erdamon
Adventuring Hero
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posted March 13, 2018 04:18 PM |
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A touching story told by an artist soul. I too identify with some bits. A truly great game indeed.
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted March 13, 2018 05:11 PM |
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15 years later I still spam Gunnar and Tazar in my games. Guess some things never change 
I do prefer Gundula over Crag Hack tho 
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batoonike
Known Hero
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posted March 15, 2018 06:20 PM |
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I saw older guys playing kings bounty. 10 years later got a computer and borrowed cd from neighbours to play russian heroes 3 without understanding a word. I spent all money and lost hero in one game and quitted. I didnt realize there is passive income.
Played some wcl later. Currently occasional ffa on xxl patch and self created template.
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