Heroes 3: List your buying priorities (units)

[Toge]

Cash is hard to come by in Heroes III and income from one town alone (28K/week) isn't enough to buy one week's worth of upgraded creatures. I usually need 2-3 castles to feel comfortable. Anyway, what do you guys priorize when buying troops when you're strapped for cash? Is one Archangel always better bargain than 20 Royal Griffins?

Let's make a list. First unit is the one you must have, seventh is the one you buy when you have abundance of gold to spare. I'm not any good in the game but to kick off the thread I'll list mine.

Castle:
Marksmen, Griffin, Crusader, Archangel, Champion, Zealot, Halberdier

Rampart:
Grand Elf, War Unicorn, Silver Pegasi, Gold Dragon, Centaurs, Dendroids, Dwarves

Tower:
Naga Queen, Arch Mage, Titan, Master Gremlin, Obsidian Gargoyle, Iron Golem, Master Genie

Inferno:
Efreet Sultan, Cerberi, Arch Devil, Pit Lord, Horned Demon, Magog, Familiar

Dungeon:
Evil Eye, Medusa Queen, Black Dragon, Minotaur King, Harpy Hag, Scorpicore, Infernal Troglodyte

Fortress:
Dragon Fly, Mighty Gorgon, Wyvern Monarch, Greater Basilisk, Chaos Hydra, Lizard Warrior, Gnoll Marauder

Stronghold:
Ancient Behemoth, Orc Chieftain, Ogre Lord, Thunderbird, Wolf Raider, Cyclops King, Hobgoblin

Necropolis:
Vampire Lord, Dread Knight, Power Lich, Ghost Dragon, Wraith, Skeleton Warrior, Zombie

Conflux:
Phoenix, Storm Elemental, Ice Elemental, Magic Elemental, Energy Elemental, Magma Elemental, Sprite

[Suleman]

I'm not all that sure about the Sprites. They aren't very powerful, but they're useful and really cheap.
It's Ogre Mage, not Ogre Lord, and I usually take Thunderbirds right after Behemoths. Then again, I'm not a very good player.

[Avonu]

and income from one town alone (28K/week) isn't enough to buy one week's worth of upgraded creatures.

That's not true:

Cost of buying all upgraded creatures from one week in towns:

1. Stronghold: 24530 (+2 crystals)
2. Rampart: 26620 (+4 crystals)
3. Fortress: 26660 (+2 sulfur)
4. Necropolis: 26920 (+2 mercury)
5. Dungeon: 27205 (+4 sulfur)
________________

6. Inferno: 28090 (+4 mercury)
7. Conflux: 28500 (+4 mercury)
8. Castle: 29580 (+6 gems)
9. Tower: 30800 (+4 gems)

So, it's important only for Inferno, Conflux, Castle and Tower which units you buy first. In rest of towns you can buy all of units.

[Paulus1]

For the towns that can't afford a full weeks production, these are the ones I wouldn't buy:
Inferno: 2 imps
Conflux: 1 magma elemental
Castle: 26 halbardiers
Tower: 12 Iron golems + 3 obsidian gargoyles

[Pol]

I usually optimize and just build my party to be more powerful than nearest enemies. With good hero it will acumulate power, and of course with time, it's like a snow ball falling from the tophill, rolling on more and more of vicious snow.

(Or somehow like that. )

That means that I'm, almost never, buying full production. For example if that would be Inferno it will be some imps 30-15 (usually starting pack with hero), some more magogs, few of demons or hounds and power core like pit friends/lords or sultans. Three is enough generally. Mostly enough to crush pitifull stacks of nearest enemies.

Of course I'm deliberately leaving some stacks in the town for accumulating purposes. That can provide a certain level of surprise (and also extra care).

[MagusofStars]

So, it's important only for Inferno, Conflux, Castle and Tower which units you buy first. In rest of towns you can buy all of units.

You're assuming that he's only got one town and thus can fully devote his entire 28k resources to it. How often does THAT happen? It's far more common to have 2-3 towns, so the creature costs can be doubled, but your gold is only increased 50%. And you might also be paying out cash to help build up your secondary towns too.

Castle:
Archangel, Marksmen, Royal Griffin, Crusader, Champion, Zealot, Halberdiers.

Rampart:
Grand Elf, Gold Dragon, War Unicorn, Silver Pegasi, Centaurs, Dendroids, Dwarves.
Note that Dendroids get moved up a bit if I don't have any already present, but I'm not using them for damage, so the total number doesn't matter too much.

Tower:
Naga Queen, Titan, Arch Mage, Master Genie, Master Gremlins, Gargoyles, Golems.

Inferno:
Efreet Sultan, Cerberi, Arch Devil, Pit Lord, Familiar.
No sense buying Horned Demons (Pit Lords give me them free) and Magogs end up shooting myself in the foot (literally) far more often than they matter.

Dungeon:
Black Dragon, Minotaur King, Harpy Hag, Evil Eye, Medusa Queen, Scorpicore, Infernal Troglodyte

Fortress:
Mighty Gorgon, Dragon Fly, Chaos Hydra, Wyvern Monarch, Greater Basilisk, Lizard Warrior, Gnoll Marauder

Stronghold:
T-Bird, Ancient Behemoth, Orc Chieftain, Ogre Lord, Wolf Raider, Cyclops King, Hobgoblin

Necropolis:
Vampire Lord, Dread Knight, Power Lich, Ghost Dragon, Wraith, Zombie.
I practically never buy Skeleton Warriors from town. Buying a few per week is rather inefficient when you're getting several hundred free. Instead, I often just wait till there's a nice horde of them, then buy them all at once to send out with a new Hero.

Conflux:
Phoenix, Storm Elemental, Ice Elemental, Magic Elemental, Sprites, Energy Elemental, Magma Elemental.

[Avonu]

You're assuming that he's only got one town and thus can fully devote his entire 28k resources to it. How often does THAT happen? It's far more common to have 2-3 towns, so the creature costs can be doubled, but your gold is only increased 50%. And you might also be paying out cash to help build up your secondary towns too.

And how often you have second hero with estates or +350g/day speciality? Or artifact or mine which give you additional gold per day? Or you have gold from treasure chests or gold piles? Or you not bought all units from last week, so you have more then one week creatures grow in castle?
There are far are more option how get more/less gold tu buy creatures, but I talked about how much units you can by income from city with capitol - so which fraction are self-sufficient.