The Blacksmith Building...

[Lempface]

The tooltip for this states that it provides your armies with a ballista, that sounds like it should be a free ballista. Am I incorrect on this, because I can't figure out how to acquire said free ballista...

[klaymen]

Provides your army with a ballista = you may purchase the ballista here.

The siege machines were never free.

[Mirez]

it allows you to buy a ballista at decreased prize

[parcaleste]

If you don't have the War Machines ability and Ballista for that matters, don't even bother buying a ballista. But don't forget to buy an Ammo Cart! Esp. if playing with Sylvan, lol.

[ShadowLiberal]

If you don't have the War Machines ability and Ballista for that matters, don't even bother buying a ballista. But don't forget to buy an Ammo Cart! Esp. if playing with Sylvan, lol.

I agree with this. Unless your hero is at a very high level I find the ballista barely even puts a dent in the enemy (unless you have the ballista skill). And by the time you're at a high enough level to put a bit of a dent in the enemy (like killing 20 tier 1 creatures in a hit) it's not enough to make a real difference.

[Lempface]

I tried to get into this game several times, it seems like the perfect game for me. I really like the concept, but I seem to have an extremely hard time finding basic viable strategies. Call me stupid or whatever but I didn't start playing HoMM until number 5, then bought 3 and 4 to try them as well but the difficult ramps up so quickly after the first few missions and it seems if you didn't build your hero correctly its even harder. But learning how to build a hero isn't all that obvious either, at least to me. Anyway I think I'm starting to get a very basic understanding of how to go about it. Anyway in the first campaign the Queen (ToTE mod) I've built Isabel thus far with:

Expert War Machines
-Ballista
-Triple Ballista

Expert Leadership
-Recruitment
-Divine Guidance
-Empathy

Expert Light Magic
-Master of Blessings

Basic Dark Magic

Basic Attack
-Archery

Advanced Counterstrike

Just took the town in "The Trap" and so far so good, but as I remeber this was the mission I always struggled with and gave up on. The ballista and Divine Guidance on my Archers seems to let me kill most of the dangerous stacks before they get to act so I kind of like this build so far. Anyway, got any more tips for a beginner?

[ShadowLiberal]

Ok, a few of my tips.

See this link and the percentages under the 'basic' skills, it tells you what percentage of a chance you have of getting offered a skill you don't know upon level up. http://www.celestialheavens.com/viewpage.php?id=520 (I should note, the skills listed there and their requirements will only be correct in the TOTE expansion)

See this link for a link of all skills & abilities in original and HOF. http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/he ... ties.shtml

-If you enable cheats you CAN save your game after starting a mission, and level up your hero with a cheat code to see what skills/abilities they'll be offered on level ups to help you plan ahead, or to restart that mission until you like what skills/abilities you're offered (this can become somewhat necessary on tougher difficulties like Hard & Heroic). Since you're just going to reload the game and undo those level ups it's not really cheating in my opinion, though maybe you have a different opinion of cheating then I do.

As for tips on building a hero.

-Get Light Magic whenever possible (except if you're a necromancer), the resurrect spell is vitally important in tougher difficulties, since it helps preserve your army.

-One problem in the Haven campaign is lack of magic early on. Don't let that lull into assuming you should go for a pure Might Build. Get Light & Dark magic. Dark Magic is probably the most powerful magic school in the game, spells like Puppet Master can easily turn the tide of battle in your favor. Also mass confusion can turn those pesky enemy archers into much weaker melee units.

-Another good skill for Knights is Enlightenment, it gives you extra Attack and Defense points, at level 24 (the max level in the Haven campaign) it'll give you 12 additional points in both stats, which is a MAJOR advantage.

-Leadership & Luck are great skills to increase the power of your army, by giving them more turns and chances to inflict double damage.

-If you can't get one of the above skills, Attack can be pretty good as well, especially for the abilities Retribution & Battle Frenzy.

-When it comes to the counterstrike, I don't think it's really useful outside of the increased counter attack damage, and a few useful abilites in other skills that require counterstrike abilities (like Aura of Swiftness, & Retribution). Training is too expensive to be worthwhile most of the time, unless you're sitting on hordes of gold even after hiring all your available creatures.

-Just a word to the wise, some heroes (such as Isabel & Godric) show up as playable characters in other campaigns. So I'd suggest taking your time to get all the stat bonuses and such, even if it's mission #5 of a campaign

[parcaleste]

... Training is too expensive to be worthwhile most of the time, unless you're sitting on hordes of gold even after hiring all your available creatures...

Have to disagree here.

If you train "corectly" you don't even need to buy all of your creatures, esp. in the campaigns. Wold it be training Squires for Priests or Priests for Cavalries, doesn't matter, be sure to train them and have them in your army. Esp. the Cavalries are... OUCH in big numbers. Cast some Vampirism on them and you can whipe everything in the campaigns.

[Mirez]

yes, training is very good! Though I usually train peasants to archers. When you play with a hero like dougal it's an excellent idea to use training to get more cavalry.

[ShadowLiberal]

Since this is a related topic.

How worthwhile is the Triple Ballista skill if you can't/won't get Flaming Arrows to go with it? Is it worth getting the War Machine skill just for Triple Ballista?

[Arret]

It depends what race you are and when it shows up. If you get ballista early then I would say definitely. They won't do much to a lvl 7 creature or a late hero's army without flaming arrows, but it will still wear down a lot of creeps until you get other skills up.

There are very few races that wouldn't want attack anyway though. What are your alternative skills (or is this on a path toward an ultimate)?

[ShadowLiberal]

I was thinking for the original and HOF campaigns, where Flaming Arrow is rarely if ever an option for most sides.

Flaming Arrow isn't available in the Sylvan campaign (stupid tactics on Findan), but I wasn't sure if it was still worth investing in on him or not. I could go for flaming arrow on Zehir, but I'd prefer to focus on magic only for a wizard.

[Mirez]

good luck trying to get war machines on a ranger. If it's offered accept IMMEDIATELY! Tripple imbue ballista with meteor/implosion is ridiculously strong.

[ShadowLiberal]

I thought that a might build tended to be better for rangers from what I've read?

Going for Imbue Ballista would require Destructive Magic, War Machines, & Enlightenment (you'll need more mana with all the double/triple attacks on the ballista) and then you'd need Light Magic for troop preservation.

[Mirez]

rangers already have plenty mana, you don't need light magic but that's your choice.