Strategies
Sphinx Questions: Are those questions the Sphinx asks you getting annoying? On the Links page, go to the Astral Wizard's website, which has a huge archive of all the questions the sphinx asks in which scenario, and what the prize is if you get it right!
You should also check the Astral Wizard's site for extensive strategies on each of the hero types, building strategies, and more!
**Most of the following strategies can work in pretty much any HoMM game, whether 1, 2, or 3. If you visit my HoMM1 site, you'll notice that a lot of these strategies are the same. That's because these basic strategies and tactics are interchangeable between the three games.
Getting artifacts and treasure: Artifacts and treasures are often hidden behind trees and mountains, etc. You can't see them, but the computer sure can! To grab the goodies before the computer does, place the horse icon somewhere, and if it turns to a rearing horse icon, there's something to be had! This applies to any map location where you can do something. If there's nothing to do, there is no rearing horse.
Getting artifacts: If you try to grab an artifact lying on the ground, you may have to pay for it. If you can't afford it, then say yes anyway, and the seller will refuse to sell it. The artifact will still be there next turn when you have the cash. However, if you say no, then the artifact disappears and it is gone for the rest of the game.
Careful with your heroes: Never spread your forces too thin among many heroes. Build up 2 "super" heroes, one to protect your castle, and the other to go around conquering. You can have extra heroes as scouts, however. They can just go around grabbing resources and mines. Another note is to never let your castle hero go further than one turn's travel from your castle, or you may lose it.
Better safe then sorry... Always save your game before starting a battle, no matter how sure a win it may seem. You may want to reload and see if you can do it faster, or with fewer losses, or not do it at all.
AutoBattle: Never use the AutoBattle option! The computer just wastes your spells, and has your troops do things that you normally wouldn't do.
Do you need more troops? A good way to be sure you will be able to hire troops immediately after capturing a castle, do it on day 7, so you should be able to hire troops the next day (unless it's Week of the Plague).
How to eat up the enemy's money: If you want to try to reduce the enemy's finances, capture one of its' castles. Hire all the troops available, and leave right away. The enemy will recapture the castle, then split up it's army to leave a garrison to protect it. The castle should be easy to recapture to do it again, or the hero could be weakened enough to bump him off ;-) This is also a good trick to weaken a strong hero!
Always on the lookout: Once in a while, you should check the hero pool in your castle to see if there are any good heroes available for hire. You may get lucky and get to hire a hero with an artifact or two!
He who runs away lives to fight another day: The above tip reminds me of another similar one I use when in battle. If you are fighting a strong hero you can't beat, and you want to keep your hero's artifacts, or his army, simply surrender if you can. Next turn, go into one of your castles and rehire him (with his army and artifacts!) for just 2500
! To learn more about surrendering, visit the General Information Section.
Scouts: At the beginning of the game, hire some extra heroes to be scouts. Get barbarians for their movement bonus, and/or warlocks for their larger search radius. These guys should avoid battles (unless against Peasants, or if you have shooters) and run around grabbing resources and mines. Don't worry about losing them too much, since they're just sacrificial heroes.
Kamikaze attack: I like to call this a kamikaze attack (or hit and fade, or strike and return). Let's say there's a strong hero heading for your castle, and your strong heroes are elsewhere, or you don't think you can beat the enemy. In your castle, hire a sacrificial hero with a high spell power and the armageddon spell. Put a couple of fast troops in his army (so you can hopefully go first), and go meet the impending danger. Right away, cast armageddon. You will probably be wiped out from the blast, but your enemy should have been damaged also. Cast armageddon again if you can, or retreat/surrender. Without ending your turn, go into your castle again and hire another kamikaze hero (or the first one if you surrendered) and do it again and again, until you can't afford to hire any more heroes, or you think the enemy is sufficiently weakened to defeat with your regular army. Obviously, this won't be totally effective if your enemy has dragons in his army, so you may need to fight the enemy anyway. Another note is that warlocks are usually better for this maneuver, since they have a higher spell power at level 1 anyway, and they tend to grow stronger in that area.
Berzerker 101: This is about the potential of the berzerker spell. When in battle, cast berzerker on the fastest enemy troop. When it is that troop's turn, the hero can't dispel it because the berzerked stack acts automatically. The berzerker group will attack the nearest stack, whether friend or foe! This is a good spell to use when attacking a heavily defended castle, since being penned behind walls, the berzerked troops can just about wipe out the other troops! Beware, for the computer will use this trick on you as well!
Dragons and Armageddon: Any good HoMM fan should know that the Warlock's Dragons are completely immune to magic. Give your Warlock (or whichever hero you have) only Dragons in his army, and make him learn the Armageddon spell (needs Expert Wisdom, high Knowledge and high Spell Power to be really useful). Go around and cast Armageddon whenever you get in a battle, and watch the enemy's forces crumble. Watch out, the enemy uses this trick too!
Phoenix and Elemental Storm: Phoenix are immune to Elemental Storm, so you can load up your army with Phoenix and teach your hero Elemental Storm. Go out and do the same as you would do with Dragons and Armageddon- same effect, except to a lesser degree. This way's better in that Phoenix will almost always go first, and they are much cheaper.
Pendant of Life and Death Ripple/Death Wave: The Pendant of Life makes the wearer's troops immune to Death Ripple and Death Wave. So if you have this artifact, you can cast Death Ripple or Death Wave without having to worry about it affecting your own troops. And it doesn't matter whether you or your opponent do the casting. This is a good tactic to use early in the game to quickly eleminate weak enemy armies.
Sirens: If you visit the Sirens when traveling on a boat, you wil gain experience proportional to the number of troops lost in the process. That said, don't bother coming here unless you have a lot of troops, otherwise you won't get much out of it. Visit with a large number of troops, and you will get a LOT of experience. Do keep in mind that you permanently lose your troops by visiting the Sirens, so be careful! This is a good method for gaining experience if you have a large army, and losing some troops wouldn't bother you much.
Moving further with slower troops: A hero's movement is limited to the speed of the slowest stack in his army. Meaning, if your slowest stack is a bunch of Hydras, the hero will move at the speed of those Hydras. However, there is a loophole. If a hero is in a castle until the next turn, move all his stacks into the castle EXCEPT for the fastest one. When that hero's next turn comes, move all the stacks back into the hero's amry, and voila- the hero's got some extra movement despite the slower troops! This also works if you are directly adjacent to an allied hero- do the same as you would in a castle. This is a good method for keeping slower, but stronger troops (Hydras, Ogres, etc) in your army while being able to move faster.
Castle defenders: If a hero is inside a castle when attacked, any army inside the castle will join the hero IF the hero has any empty spaces in his army. If there are no empty spaces int he hero's army, the castle troops wil stay in the castle for the duration of the battle; however, if the defending hero loses, the troops in the castle will flee. Be aware that if a castle army does join the defending hero, and he wins the battle, those troops stay in the hero's army- make sure to put some defenders back in your castle before leaving!
Keep your shooters seperate: If you put 2 shooting stacks next to each other, the computer will send a creature over to stand between the shooters and block their ranged attacks. Always postion your shooters away from each other! An ideal location would be to put shooters in different corners of the battlefield- this way, they can only be attacked from 2 directions instead of 3.
No access: If a particular map (and there are some!) requires you to find the ultimate artifact to win, you should place some strong heroes so they block access to some of the obelisks so the other players cannot find that piece of the puzzle. Your other heroes should go and visit as many obelisks as they can, then try to find the ultimate artifact. This tactic puts the enemy at a bit of a disadvantage, since they have less of a map to go with.
For newbies: If you are new to Heroes of Might and Magic, you should to go with a random hero type in each game you play. This allows to familiarize yourself with the different hero types. Then you can choose your preference. This is important because all heroes are different- they have their own strengths and weaknesses. Play each of the types so as to determine these differences, which will give you an edge when playing the game later.
Whirlpool revelations: When you use a whirlpool on the water to travel to another section of the map, keep in mind that the first trip is a gift of sorts: there is no penalty for the first time. Aftet that, however, you will lose some of your weakest troops each time you use this watery doorway. A good idea is to have a stack of level 1 troops, (level 1 troops go first), which diminishes each trip. Make sure you keep that stack full, and you'll have no problem.
Troop dwellings: You often see places on the map where you can recruit troops into your army- either for free, or for a fee. If you visit these locations early in the game, your army could be sizeably increased. Like troop structures in your castle, these dwellings refill with troops each week. However, there are not so many produced in following weeks as there are in the first week of the game. The moral: be the first one to visit!
Save, save, save: Another blurb about saving your game: save well, and save frequently. Save if you are going into a battle; save if you are going to grab an artifact (it may not be worth the trouble, you may have to fight for it, etc); save before leaving your castle if an enemy hero is in sight; save before entering a Demon Cave, and so on.
Marketplaces: One of the additions to HoMM2 is the marketplace in each castle. It allows you to exchange one resource for another. For example, if you had a lot of gold, but needed more mercury, you can just click on the marketplace in any of your castles (providing it's been built, of course!) and trade a certain amount of gold for some mercury. The marketplace is an essential structure: besides the creature dwellings and castle, I consider the marketplace to be one of the most important buildings you can build in a castle. If you're so close to building another structure, but can't because you're short 2 wood, go to the marketplace. If you need more gold to hire troops in your castle, trade some of your other resources to raise the necessary gold. At first, when you only have 1 castle with a marketplace, the exchange rate is not very good. However, if you get more than one castle with a marketplace, the rate improves considerably.
Trading posts: A trading post can be visited on the map screen. It provides the same exchange rate as if you had 4 marketplaces. Like I said above for marketplaces, these locations can be very useful if you're short a few resources. Additionally, it could be useful when you only have 1 or 2 marketplaces, and want to get a better deal.
Medusas: When you visit ruins on the map screen, you can recruit Medusas. They might not seem like much at first, but they are fairly good additions to a weak army. They also have the ability to turn their enemies to stone when attacking. This is the same effect as a blind or paralyze spell, rendering the target immobile.
Quick hiring: You know how, when you have several castles, it's such a pain to go to each of them and recruit new troops each week? Here's a shortcut for you! On the map screen, access the Kingdom Overview screen. Click on Castles/Towns to view each of your castles and towns. Beside each one, there will be pictures of the available troops to be hired there. Just click on the pictures to hire the troops as you normally would, but this works much faster.
Don't get shocked: Be careful when you cast Chain Lightning. If any of your troops are too close when the spell hits your enemies, they'll get zapped too. Also, be aware that Chain Lightning hits 4 stacks. So if, at the beginning of a battle, your enemy has only two or three stacks, the effect will hit some of your troops too.
A Necromancers best friend is: Death Ripple and Death Wave. Since a Necromancer normally has undead troops, and since the aforementioned spells don't affect the undead, he can cast the spells without taking any damage.
The computer remembers: A nice new feature in HoMM2 is that when you right-click on a place you have visited recently, a message will appear saying so. This can be very useful for avoiding unnecessary detours.
Shadow grids: Yet another new feature in HoMM2 is that you can enable shadow grids when in battle. What this does is, when it's your troops' turn, you can easily see where and how far that stack can move. No more moving the mouse around to find the right spot, like in the last game. If you don't want the shadow grid, you can disable it in the Combat Options by clicking on the Combat Options button in the lower-left corner of the battle screen.
Know your destination: In HoMM1, stone liths took you to another random stone lith on the same map. However, they are paired up in this game. You can tell because they look different. You can more reliably plan your trips now.
Blockage: Like in the previous game, you can stand on a particular stone lith and not move, blocking access from the other side. This is a very useful tactic for keeping unwanted visitors out of an area. It can be any hero that does the blocking- doesn't need a big army.
Visions: Make good use of the new Visions spell. What it does is, when you cast it, the hero can see the exact number of troops in a wandering army no more than 3 spaces away. You will also be told whether they will join you or choose to fight. Visions helps you avoid extra, unnecessary battles.
Skeletons galore: When playing as a Necromancer, get into a lot of battles with weaker troops such as Peasants and Sprites. When you win, your Necromancy skill will generate some Skeletons from the dead for your army. Make use of this skill to massively balloon your skeleton stack in size.
No resurrections here: If you are fighting a hero who can cast Resurrect, have one of your stacks stand where one of the enemy's defeated stacks were, so they cannot be resurrected. I hate it when the bugger keeps bringing back his Titans!
More Ghosts: If you have some Ghosts in your army, have them attack only level 1 troops (Peasants are best!). Because every troop killed by Ghosts becomes a Ghost, your Ghost population should increase greatly. Ghosts will then be a very important part of your army, because of their 'reproductive habits' and a large stack will be very strong.
More Genies are better: If you have a lot of Genies in your army, try to split them into multiple stacks befoore going into battle. Smaller stacks do less damage, BUT there's a better chance of the Genies using their special abilities. 10% of the time, a Genie's attack will cut the number of troops in a target stack by half! Having more stacks of Genies increases the chance of quickly whittling down an enemy army.
Ghosts galore: Here's a way to get a HUGE army of Ghosts. Now, any HoMM fan should know that whenever a Ghost kills another creature -even another Ghost- the creature becomes a Ghost. Get some Ghosts in your army, for a good hero, teach the hero Mirror Image, and beat up some weak troops like Peasants so the Ghost stack can increase in size. Now, get into a battle with Ghosts- wandering armies, shipwrecks, or abandoned mines- and do the following. Cast Mirror Image on your Ghosts. Allow an enemy Ghost to defeat the mirror image, which absorbs the defeated Ghosts. Normally, when a mirror image is defeated, it just disappears. Not in this case, though. The defeated Ghosts are absorbed into the attacking stack, so that stack's now much larger. Defeat that stack, and your Ghost stack should be considerably larger. Do this over and over, visiting a magic well or staying in a castle when necessary to regain spell points. Then do it again. If you have enough spell points, try to blind, paralyze, or slow some of the enemy Ghost stacks so they can absorb your mirror image one at a time, in which case you can do this trick multiple times in one battle. And the neat thing about getting more and more Ghosts is that they become more and more numerous, and get stronger and stronger. Eventually, your Ghosts will be more than a match for Black Dragons or Titans! Swwweeeeet...
Giants...or Titans? If you want to get Titans, and you've built the first-level Cloud Castle, don't bother buying Giants, unless you know you won't be getting Titans anytime soon (eg not enough gems). The reason I say this is because upgrading Giants to Titans costs more than buying Titans outright! For your reference, building a Giant costs 2000 and 1
and upgrading a Giant costs 6000 and 2. That comes to a total of 8000 and 3. Comparatively, buying a Titan costs 5000 and 2. If you know you will not be getting Titans for a long time (if at all) then go ahead and hire Giants. Otherwise, it's very expensive to hire Giants and then upgrade them.
Cpatain's Quarters: One structure that can be built in every castle is the Captain's Quarters, which houses a captain to help in defending a castle when no hero is present. Save your gold. Do not build the Captain's Quarters. Why? Two reasons. 1: the captains all have very weak statistics, and do not gain levels or improve like heroes do. Second, if you build a Capatain's Quarters in a castle, and an enemy captures it, you will have to fight that same captain to get it back. They are loyal only to the the castle they live in- not the player who builds their domicile.
Want the ultimate artifact? If you're a good player, you'll know that visiting an obelisk on the adventure map reveals some of the map showing the location of the ultimate artifact. If you visit all of the obelisks on the map, then the whole map will be shown. However, you don't HAVE to visit every one of them! Just go to 5 or 6 or 7, so it reveals enough for you to figure out where the artifact is. Then send a throwaway hero or two to dig in the approximate center of that area shown on the obelisk map.
Get rid of cursed artifacts: If you happen to get any of the cursed artifacts, you can get rid of them by giving them to a throwaway hero and then dismissing that hero. Alternatively, have that hero with the cursed artifacts be defeated by an enemy hero. The enemy hero will get them! The downside to this method is that you may wind up getting those artifacts back when you defeat enemy heroes. If you are playing Price of Loyalty games, watch out for the alchemists' tower- for a fee he can remove your cursed artifacts for you.
Cheap trick to find the ultimate artifact: Just pick a good area of the map where you think the ultimate artifact is and start digging. Save often. If another hero finds it before you, just reload a previous save, and dig where he found it. Tadaaahhh!
Get those expert skills! I have found, when you go up a level and have to choose between 2 secondary skills, that it is best to upgrade skills you have already before getting new skills. This way, you will have a few expert skills instead of seven or eight basic skills spread out, whose effects would be less noticeable.
Treasure chest math: You know that if you go to a treasure chest, you can choose between gold or experience, right? You can choose from 500 exp or 1000, 1000 exp or 1500, or 1500 exp or 2000. Well, any time is a good time to take the experience, and then there's really good times. If you choose to take the 500 exp, most likely it won't do you much good at the moment ie: no level-up. If you know you only need 500 or less exp to level-up, then by all means take it. However, here's some math logic for you. When choosing between 500 exp or 1000, keep in mind that 1 experience point will cost 2 whole gold pieces. With 1000 exp or 1500, experience points are 1.5 gold pieces each. And finally, in the case of 1500 exp and 2000, experience points only cost 1.33 gold each. What this means is, take the experience from the 1500 exp chests, and take gold the rest of the time. It's "cheaper" that way. However, if you badly need the gold, then take the gold. If your financial situation is good, then take the experience.
Treasure chest addendum: Treasure chests are great for gaining quick levels for a new hero. However, as he goes higher in level, he will require more and more experience to reach another level. So when you find a treasure chest now, either take the gold or let one of your weaker heroes get the experience. Getting a few treasure chests' worth of experience will not be enough to help a high-level hero get another level.
Castle defense: Ever get annoyed with those slow troops of yours that never actually get into a battle? Leave them at home! Slow-but-strong troops such as Ogres, Dwarves, and Hydras make excellent garrison troops for defending your castle. They slow down your hero, and take all day to get across the battlefield. However, the defense and speed is perfect for protecting the homestead. Just let your arrow towers work on the enemy!
Castle defense 2: If a hero is attacking your castle, work down his army to 1 or 2 slow stacks. If you have a fast or flying stack, it can avoid the enemy's troops while your towers pound the enemies. This actually works! This trick saved me in one of my HoMM1 games: there was a stack or Ogres attacking, and I had a stack of Elves defending my castle. They just kept walking away whenever the Ogres got close, while my tower wasted those Ogres.
These are just a few strategies that I have developed during my experience with HoMM2. If you visit other HoMM sites (try my links page first), you can find many strategies written by other people.