Money problems

[Blackadder]

I have started a mage/impossible game. I am level 5 and still in Darion doing whatever I can with most stacks on strong +.

My trouble is money as I cannot afford a full strength army in one and when I get enough money to make one through wins and treasure finds a significant proportion will get wiped out but I only get about 1/3 of the money needed to replenish them.

I have just died and have 5800 gold yet that is not enough to get myself a full strength army, I can get myself probably 3/4 full and I will probably lose 1000 gold worth of troops in my next fight but only gain 250 gold for winning. This net deficit is leaving me short and very soon I will have no money left.

I have sold all my scrolls and some items but I don't want to sell the items I need as that seems pointless because the troops do not last long.


In fights my tactics are to slow the enemy down, and attack with magic/range and try and make sure when an enemy gets through it is only one so I can swarm him, make sure he retaliates against my chosen troop and when they are dead I move on. I do try and reduce losses but the enemy troops are so big and mine not big enough to avoid significant damage from them.

I don't have sacrifice, or gift, or hypnotise or many spells that are recommended and I have never been able to afford inquisitors as all my money is gone every single time just to make a full army of troops and they are too expensive.

Any advice available?


I played my first time as warrior on normal and I found it far too easy, this time I like the challenge of the actual fights but the lack of gold is making it so difficult and soon it will be game over by default.

[Fatt_Shade]

Good job deciding to try imp game, it`s totally different game then normal/hard
But you really got big leap from warrior to mage/imp, since he is hardest to start with for lack of leadership/big army and strong spells caused with low intellect. How are you with rage spirits ? So my advice is to go with crowd control tactics :
1) get some thorns/royal thorns if available and use their summoning on corpses, they aren`t important for battling enemy units, as in making them lose turns to kill while you dmg with rest of army (meat shield idea). And since they are summoned units cost nothing and you have no losses
2) beholders evil normal, are great for their % to sleep enemy units.
3) griffins/royal snakes are best units to have at early phase of game.great lds/hp ratio and good other stats. Or any other no retaliation combo other snakes with special 1 hex far attack, or marauder/robber with special mace attack.
4) i asked for rage spirits, because on early stage you should have Zerock and Sleem and they have nice controling skills - wall, and gloth armor, use them whenever you can.
5) try leading 1 archmage. Use his magic shield all the time on you`re melee units in middle of enemy army (griffin/snakes). Dont use battle mage skill they arent dmging units, but support so use magic shield and telekinesis to move around enemy away of you`re ranged, or to position you`re tanking units better to block enemy path. Other reason i say only 1 archmage is enough is lower your army total leadership is comparing to enemy, more exp rage spirits get in battles, and 1 archmage have same shock% with his lightning attack as 100 of them and he have lowest dmg of all 4th lvl units, so dont rely on him to kill, but to control battlefield (magic shield, telekinesis, shock%).
6) get somewhere marauders ( only 1 is enough, same reason like archmages), they have 2charges loot corpse and with it I cleared first locations (darion , arlania, verlon forest, swamp) and got to freedom islands with 1,4million gold. 1 thing is i got gift spell and recharged them at least 1 time/battle, but even without it i got 1500-2500 gold from 1 marauder per every battle , just keep him away from enemy units until you kill 2 stacks, run in there loot and run back. If you want ofc you can keep full lsd worth of them and attack enemy also, but i`m suggesting way to save gold and 1 marauder get same gold as 100 with loot skill.
7) spells - dont use spells that give much bonuses to you`re units, since mage have lowest lds, but use spells that weaken enemy : fire arrow, poison skull( they both lower enemy moral if burn/poison effect), trap (among best spells in game), target (if available is great also, cast on you`re strongest unit, and enemy will attack it while you kill them with spells/spirits/other units).
8 ) if you already lost units in battles, i`m guessing no loss isn`t your goal, so why not kill turtle, go to freedom islands and pick whatever isn`t nailed to ground (i dont know how good you are in kiting- luring enemy to move from treasure, and taking it without fighting them) and see what units are available there,maybe you get lucky and pick something useful. And if you do this, finish quests that dont need fighting (
9) you already started imp game on original game, but still in darion locations. I suggest to try this mod, it`s great http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=29080 (maybe not imp start, but try hard diff first, it should be challenging enough). check description and if interested try it out, creator changed and made some things much more interesting you`ll have fun. But warning : it`s harder then regular impossible game (enemy heroes give bonuses to their units, like you with some skills), can have 2xSpell cast/turn like mage with higher magic, some lower your units resistances ( -% to physical or magic . . .) and so on.

I hope i gave you some ideas how to save gold on troops, if any questions post here i`ll try to help. Good luck

[Blackadder]

Thanks for the advice fatt_shade, that was a pro's advice.


1) Royal thorns were may favourite troop in my first playthrough although I haven't found any yet. I have been ignoring thorns so far as they seem weak but I will get some in my army now as that is a good tactic and one I used in my last game.

2) I haven't found any yet but their special will be key when i do

3) Royal snakes were my staple in my first playthrough and I am about to get them now. I haven't got any griffins yet bar 2 eggs.

4) My rage box isn't great as I forgot for ages that I had to click on them to get them to work. I have Sleem and Zerock but only recently.

5) Great idea which I have encorporated now in my last throw of the dice army. If I cannot break even now I am screwed as I have taken all the treasure I can without having to face a big army. I have 1 archmage and he did the business in the last battle protecting my swordsman and ancient bears. The enemy does like to target him with ranged though so he may not survive long.

6) I have not found any yet but I will use them when I can. It is a shame about the morale penalty though as it will affect my other troops.

7) Trap is my favourite spell but I hate it when they sidestep around it, lol. My archmage's telekinesis can help there. I don't have alot of good spells but I mainly use fireball, magic poleaxe, trap and healing.

8 ) I was half trying to do it with no loss but I have lost twice so that went out the window. If I have to start again I will try but I doubt I could do it. I cannot kill the turtle I don't think as I am not strong enough. It has 4000 hit points and I am not that hard hitting which is a shame as I remember there being a lot of gold over there.

9) I read about that mod last week, it looks great but I thought I would wait until it is thoroughly tested and out of beta before trying it.


I went around and found all the underground treasure I could and also all the items I could get by luring and have my last gasp army. I have had 1 fight and now I am left with

archmage 1, inquisitors 14, swordsman 34, ancient bears 6 and a free slot which I am going to buy 1800 worth of royal snakes with.

I then have to go after all the armies which complete cash missions and hope I can make a profit. I need to make at least 12,000 before my army is dead, 8,000 at the least or I will reach a dead end.

[Fatt_Shade]

No prob my friend, just keep going and have fun. As for HoMM3babies mod, it is made by 1 man, and there is couple bugs, but i finished it 3 times with every class once and help found some of problems, in first play there were allot of them, but that was 4 months ago and many of those bugs were found and fixed. Last game i played was 2 weeks ago with paladin and everything were great no problems, but ofc it`s you`re choice i just recommended it for new experience and some ideas i liked in it (rebalanced spell system, challenging enemy heroes, nicer skill changes . . .).
Other note :
1) Did you take wife ? She gives nice bonuses and ofc item slots. My advice for marauders i forgot to mention that i had Rina then, and my marauders had 3 speed, and were easy to move them around without losses.
2) Whenever you find some item that is quest connected try to use it, right click and use option. For example stinky elixir that witch give you to destroy alchemist cauldron may give you 100-150 exp points depending on hero class. If you kill Noric zombie hero in swamps use his bag and find gold inside, i`m not sure how much but it`s 100+ i think. Before you return lost town chronicles to mage school use it and get some spell scroll from it and so on . . . Many quest items have something inside them, try using every one.
3) if you have fire arrow, use it instead magic axe, it`s similar dmg for same mana cost, but have burn% which decrease enemy units stats. Other than that use whatever you have at disposal, since Darion is first location and hardest to start for lack of everything (units, gold, items, spells).
4) uprgade your rage box asap

[Blackadder]

I haven't got a wife yet but I am halfway through the feanora quest so I will have one soon.

I have marauders now and they make me about 900 a round which helps me loads and I took a shot and threw all my runes into chaos magic 2 and it is paying off in fights.

I also got awarded a griffin king feather worth 23,000 from the witches daughter so if push comes to shove (I have trade 3) I can sell that if times get hard. I am half leaning towards keeping it could be useful.

Thanks for tip 2, I never would have thought to do that.