Guide to Stomp AI

[Frans Ferdy]

Look guys, I don't know what is happening here. I played 4 games so far of this.
Demo - Normal - Chaos Stage
Release - Challenging - Five Kingdoms
Release - Hardcore - Master of the World
Release - Hardcore + - Dangerous Vacation
And so far, the only mode that was actually challenging was Hardcore +, I had to Load/savescum the game 4 times to win.

I steamrolled the AIs in every other game. People are commenting on how HoMM3 is more balanced, but I used to be stomped in HoMM3, here it is the other way around.

And I have been playing very sloppily, not even building all buildings in the cities, forgetting to buy units, etc.

My guess is that you guys are focusing in the wrong skills with you heroes, or are wasting too many units in the early game.
Several people complained about Decay, well, it does seem to be one of the worst factions, and I didn't play with it in this game because Decay sucked in HoMM3 as well, so I avoided out of trauma.

Here is a guide:
How I have been doing:
First day, build tavern, hire 2 extra heroes, buy all armies in the city, move all units to the one hero(out of 3) that seems to have the best 'growth' skill tree, go around killing the weakest monsters with this one hero, focus on Easy or Moderate enemies. Every time you pick a chest, take the Exp for the hero. Only allow main hero to pick chests and artifacts, Use the other 2 heroes to pick Obelisk hints and resources in the ground, do not pick these things with the main hero, you have to save his step count. These heroes will always be your weakest and are basically your delivery boys.

Your main hero should have skills in his tree that allow you to grow your army or make it stronger(Necromancy, Creation, BloodWarping[Best skill], Dragonkin) and as an extra skills that allow you to make your units sturdier(like Legion, Armorer, Offense). If you have Bloodwarping, then Champion is also good.
Your first hero should be the one creating a huge army, so total focus on army growing skills.
Also, Summon magic, Duplicate, Mirage, Heal are good magic to help preserve your real army during/after battles

During the first week you should buy in your city buildings that make creatures, to supplement your weak starting army, as soon as the basic creature buildings are built (and also maybe Fort if you manage in Week 1), buy Champion Statue, so your next heroes will have the Bodyguard skill. Also mage guild as soon as your hero is level 3~. Infirmary is also very important.
Your second strongest hero would be bought after the Champion Statue, it should have a skill tree with abilities that boost his army strength the max.
if your first hero is strong, the Bodyguard skill will make a nice army for your second in command, so the stronger you make your units, the more this free army is effective.

The following skills all combo together and the more you have of them the better:
Swarming, Grudge (main) -> Bloodlust + Legion + Armorer + Archery + Recalcitration + Destruction + Ofense
Leadership and Fortune are also nice.

In my last playthrough in Hardcore+, I also noted that the heroes with Bodyguard skill always go back to your city if they lose a battle, So you can use them to weaken strong enemy groups.
After acquiring the Champion Statue, buy 2 heroes. Now go to a "Hard" or "Challenging" group of monsters and attack them with your bodyguarded hero, he will loose, get some Exp, and go home. Now attack with the second hero, same thing, now hopefully, the enemy monster group isn't that strong anymore, finish it off with your main hero.

Regarding Necromancy skill, you don't have to use Mana to buy creatures with it, you can pick Drain, stockpiling "soul energy" and once you have enough you can summon the necromancy creature for free.

You should use your main heroes steps wisely,
Extra:
The sooner you take a city of type Pyre, the sooner you will win the game, since BodyGuards + Hellgate is a very strong combo by itself.

[State Mandated Heterosexuality]

just started a hardcore+ bought a hero with bodyguard ran it into an army and it died immediately

[Baywatch]

Honestly, I wouldn't bother with the second hero in your starter town unless you're in a very large starting area. No reason you shouldn't be able to scout it out and collect free pick ups week 1 and then aggressively clear week 2 to set yourself up for a strong offensive in week 3 if you plan out your moves.

No need to follow any rigid build order to win at hardcore+. If you aren't playing with randomized skill trees a good chunk of the available heroes have a very strong skill tree and some have a skill tree that just makes it a breeze. As a rule of thumb a good skill tree is one that can be focused towards a single strategy and that's probably the majority of them.

Stacking unit buff / spawning skills can be quite strong but, that's just a tiny slice. There are some very strong caster builds and of course devour builds which typically is a unit spawning / buff build but I'm bringing it up because I saw no mention of it. If you've got resurrection and any skill that increases your mana regen anything else can be considered overkill.

Build your infirmary, don't take fights where you're going to be taking a lot of casualties unless absolutely necessary and really focus on doing something particular with your skill tree and you should do just fine

[riskylifie]

The game would be so cool with a campaign and if the bots weren't "harder" simply because they started with more. It's just a lazy tactic. This is why games aren't fun any more. Everything is skewed to make you have to go engage in an internet forum.

[Kamiyama]

I always tried to get infirmary, upgrade for the starter units, a second unit building, and the fort during week 1 so I with more units to recruit on week 2. I never thought about getting the champion statue week 1 but you make a good point about recruiting a second hero with the bodyguard skill.

Will Champion heroes always have the bodyguard skill? Or is it a RNG thing?