Fortress

From Heroes 3 wiki
(Redirected from Fortress town)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Towns
Castle Castle
Rampart Rampart
Tower Tower
Inferno Inferno
Necropolis Necropolis
Dungeon Dungeon
Stronghold Stronghold
Fortress Fortress
Conflux Conflux Armageddon's Blade
Cove Cove Horn of the Abyss
Factory Factory Horn of the Abyss

Fortress is a neutral alignment town with the beastmaster and witch hero classes. Fortress represents Tatalia.

"Fortress towns are built at the edge of swamps and are often used as bases by the Beastmaster and Witch hero classes. Their armies are primarily made up of deadly creatures — born of the swamps, and then subdued and trained for warfare. While among them there is only one ranged attack creature, Fortress units are possessed of many special abilities to offset this deficiency." RoE manual

Fortress' native terrain is swamp.

Fortress building tree[edit]

Fully upgraded Fortress
Building Category Cost
Common
 Wood
45
   Ore
40
       Gold
37000
Mage Guild
 Wood
15
 Mercury
10
 Ore
15
 Sulfur
10
 Crystal
10
 Gem
10
 Gold
4000
Dwellings
 Wood
105
 Mercury
19
 Ore
50
 Sulfur
39
     Gold
45400
Unique
 Wood
20
           Gold
6000
Total Building Cost:
 Wood
185
 Mercury
29
 Ore
105
 Sulfur
49
 Crystal
10
 Gem
10
 Gold
92400
Troop Cost / Week: 26660 Gold, 2 Sulfur

Common Buildings and Mage Guild[edit]

Halls Fortifications Miscellaneous Mage Guilds Banned spells
Village Hall Village Hall
(existing)
Fort Fort
 Wood
20
   Ore
20
       Gold
5000
Tavern Tavern
 Wood
5
           Gold
500
Mage Guild level 1 Mage Guild level 1
 Wood
5
   Ore
5
       Gold
2000
 Curse
Town Hall
     Gold
2500
       
Citadel Citadel
     Ore
5
       Gold
2500
Marketplace Marketplace
 Wood
5
           Gold
500
Mage Guild level 2 Mage Guild level 2
 Wood
5
 Mercury
4
 Ore
5
 Sulfur
4
 Crystal
4
 Gem
4
 Gold
1000
Death Ripple Disguise
City Hall City Hall
     Gold
5000
       
Castle Castle
 Wood
10
   Ore
10
       Gold
5000
Resource Silo Resource Silo (1 Wood, 1 Ore)
     Ore
5
       Gold
5000
Mage Guild level 3 Mage Guild level 3
 Wood
5
 Mercury
6
 Ore
5
 Sulfur
6
 Crystal
6
 Gem
6
 Gold
1000
Animate Dead Protection from Earth
Capitol Capitol
     Gold
10000
       
Blacksmith
Blacksmith
 Wood
5
           Gold
1000
Total Common Buildings:
 Wood
45
   Ore
40
       Gold
37000 
Total Mage Guild:
 Wood
15
 Mercury
10
 Ore
15
 Sulfur
10
 Crystal
10
 Gem
10
 Gold
4000

Creature Dwellings[edit]

Structure Base Cost Upgrade Cost Creature Max
Grw
Upg Cr
Cost
Cost/
Week


 Gnoll Hut 
 Wood
10
           Gold
400
 Wood
10
           Gold
1000
Gnoll Gnoll
Gnoll Marauder Gnoll Marauder
30 70 Gold 2100 Gold


 Lizard Den 
 Wood
5
           Gold
1000
 Wood
5
           Gold
1000
Lizardman Lizardman
Lizard Warrior Lizard Warrior
18 140 Gold 2520 Gold


 Serpent Fly Hive 
 Wood
5
 Mercury
2
   Sulfur
2
     Gold
1000
   Mercury
2
   Sulfur
2
     Gold
1000
Serpent Fly Serpent Fly
Dragon Fly Dragon Fly
16 240 Gold 3840 Gold


 Basilisk Pit 
 Wood
5
   Ore
10
       Gold
2000
 Wood
5
   Ore
5
       Gold
2000
Basilisk Basilisk
Greater Basilisk Greater Basilisk
8 400 Gold 3200 Gold


 Gorgon Lair 
 Wood
10
 Mercury
5
 Ore
10
 Sulfur
5
     Gold
2500
 Wood
5
   Ore
5
       Gold
2000
Gorgon Gorgon
Mighty Gorgon Mighty Gorgon
6 600 Gold 3600 Gold


 Wyvern Nest 
 Wood
15
           Gold
3500
 Wood
10
 Mercury
10
         Gold
3000
Wyvern Wyvern
Wyvern Monarch Wyvern Monarch
4 1100 Gold 4400 Gold


 Hydra Pond 
 Wood
10
   Ore
10
 Sulfur
10
     Gold
10000
 Wood
10
   Ore
10
 Sulfur
20
     Gold
15000
Hydra Hydra
Chaos Hydra Chaos Hydra
2 3500 Gold
1 Sulfur
7000 Gold
2 Sulfur


  


[[File: Creature portrait small.gif link=]] [[|]]
[[File: Creature portrait small.gif
link=]] [[|]]
Total Dwelling Cost:
 Wood
105
 Mercury
19
 Ore
50
 Sulfur
39
     Gold
45400
Weekly Troop Cost: 26660 Gold
2 Sulfur

Unique Buildings[edit]

Structure Effect Cost
Glyphs of Fear Gives +2 attack to defending Hero temporarily.
             Gold
1000
Blood Obelisk Gives +2 defense to defending Hero temporarily.
             Gold
1000
Cage of Warlords Gives +1 defense to visiting Hero.
             Gold
1000
Captain's Quarters Horde Building. Growth +6/week for Gnoll Gnoll / Gnoll Marauder Gnoll Marauder
             Gold
1000
Shipyard Allows building boats if the town has access to water.
 Wood
20
           Gold
2000
Carnivorous Plant Grail Structure. +5000 Gold/day, +50% creature growth
Gives +10 attack and +10 defense to defending Hero temporarily.
n/a
Total Cost:
 Wood
20
           Gold
6000

Heroes[edit]


Banned secondary skills:

Some skills are not available for certain hero classes, which means they can only acquire them from Scholars, Witch Huts (except for Necromancy and Leadership, if not allowed by a map-maker), Seer's Huts, Events or Pandora's Boxes.

Necromancy Necromancy and Fire Magic Fire Magic are not available for beastmasters.

Necromancy Necromancy, Resistance Resistance and Interference Interference Horn of the Abyss are not available for witches.

Creatures[edit]

Fortress creatures
 Name   Town   Lvl   Att   Def   Dmg-   Dmg+   HP   Spd   Grw   AI Val   Cost   Special 














Gnoll Gnoll 1 3 5 2 3 6 4 12 56 50 Gold  
Gnoll Marauder Gnoll Marauder 1+ 4 6 2 3 6 5 12 90 70 Gold  
Lizardman Lizardman 2 5 6 2 3 14 4 9 126 110 Gold   Ranged (12 shots)
Lizard Warrior Lizard Warrior 2+ 6 8 2 5 15 5 9 156 140 Gold   Ranged (24 shots)
Serpent Fly Serpent Fly 3 7 9 2 5 20 9 8 268 220 Gold   Flying, Dispel
Dragon Fly Dragon Fly 3+ 8 10 2 5 20 13 8 312 240 Gold   Flying, Dispel, Weakness
Basilisk Basilisk 4 11 11 6 10 35 5 4 552 325 Gold   Petrify
Greater Basilisk Greater Basilisk 4+ 12 12 6 10 40 7 4 714 400 Gold   Petrify
Gorgon Gorgon 5 10 14 12 16 70 5 3 890 525 Gold  
Mighty Gorgon Mighty Gorgon 5+ 11 16 12 16 70 6 3 1028 600 Gold   Death stare 10% chance/unit
Wyvern Wyvern 6 14 14 14 18 70 7 2 1350 800 Gold   Flying
Wyvern Monarch Wyvern Monarch 6+ 14 14 18 22 70 11 2 1518 1100 Gold   Flying, Poison
Hydra Hydra 7 16 18 25 45 175 5 1 4120 2200 Gold   No enemy retaliation, Attack all adjacent enemies
Chaos Hydra Chaos Hydra 7+ 18 20 25 45 250 7 1 5931 3500 Gold , 1 Sulfur  No enemy retaliation, Attack all adjacent enemies

Town names[edit]

Unless specified by the mapmaker, towns will generate with a random name. Fortress towns will use one of these following names:

Backwater Coolmire Deadfall Deadwood
Drakenmoor Edgewater Hermit Cove Lostmoor
Marshank Marshchoke Marshwall Mossden
Mosswood Mudshire Silt Stillbog

If there are more Fortress towns on the map than possible names, they will use names taken from other towns.

User commentary

[Show user commentary]
[Hide user commentary]
Some may find the information in this section subjective or irrelevant.

  • While among them there is only one ranged-attack creature, Fortress units possess many special abilities to offset this deficiency.

Pros:

  • High defense (Defense themed town)
  • With a two-hex moat and several buildings which increase the stats of the defending hero, a Fortress castle is a real pain to attack. So the Fortress moat is considered as the best moat in the game due to usefulness thanks to two-hex wide that make harder to attack a Fortress castle without support of shooters, flyers and spells.
  • Hand-to-hand troops with excellent specials (Dispel, Death Stare, Petrify, Poison).
  • Dragon Flies are extremely fast. They share 8th place by speed among town units with Efreet Sultans (not including 7 level creatures, these two are fastest in the game), being faster than all creatures in Tower and Stronghold - and it's on level 3! For early development, it rocks, since the hero may simply rush through the map having Dragon Flies only (even basic Serpent Flies are ok, as their speed 9 is decent); and in a big battle, they are a major problem since they remove positive spells casted on enemy units and cast Weakness, making them less effective. They are also good creatures in terms of speed per cost ratio for scouting heroes at early game and/or towns with slow armies.
  • Their swamp native terrain makes them move much faster than any hero (without pathfinding) in the swamp.
  • The Wyvern Nest is very cheap and has very low requirements compared to the other level 6 dwellings, allowing the Fortress town to get level 6 units in their army early even on impossible difficulty.
  • Bron is the only hero in the game to bring level 4 units - Basilisks - with him at the start of the game. (Except Illor and Todd in HotA.) Horn of the Abyss

Cons:

  • Fortress creatures have the lowest attack ratings of all towns.
  • The heavy focus on Defense can be disadvantageous in many cases, as a hero with high attack can kill their enemies before they have a chance to attack back. Attack can therefore be used as a type of defense, while defense cannot be used as offense.
    • The heavy focus on Defense combined with the fact that fortress only have got one shooter makes it more difficult for fortress to win battles without casualities than the other factions.
  • Magic, Mage Guild is limited to level 3.
  • Some creatures have poor stats (in Shadow of Death, as well as Restoration of Erathia patch 1.3 and Armageddon's Blade patch 2.1, some stats for Lizardman/Lizard Warrior and Serpent Fly/Dragon Fly were increased, but overall they are still relatively weak).
  • Very slow 7 level creature, especially the basic version (with speed 5, Hydra is slower than six lvl 1 creatures, and there is no upgraded lvl 1 creature slower than Hydra; among lvl 2 melee units, only Dwarf, Walking Dead, and Zombie are slower). Moreover, Chaos Hydras are more expensive than Ancient Behemoths who are stronger, faster and more resilient.
  • Wyverns are on the bottom of the 6th level, have low HP, and are too expensive for their strength (Monarchs cost as much as Efreet Sultans, and more than War Unicorns).
  • With two fragile fliers (lvl 3 with 20 hp, lvl 6 with 70 hp) and one low-level shooter, the Fortress has a very hard time invading other towns properly. So Expert Ballistics, Expert Teleport and/or Expert Earthquake are a must.

The fortress is a "Defense" themed town. It's evident all throughout the design of this faction. The castle itself has a double-thickness moat, and many tough, resilient creatures such as Basilisks, Gorgons, and the immovable Hydra which can make fortress hypothetically the hardest town to siege. Even the native terrain of swamp plays into this theme because many opposing heroes will be severely hindered in the area around your town.

Unfortunately, having a tough defense is usually not ideal strategy in Heroes III as it is a game that favors aggression and outward expansion. Most players rank the fortress as among the weakest towns, and typically if you don't expand to other towns in the first few weeks, you'll most likely be outpaced by other players or NPCs. Pick a strong beastmaster as your hero and begin pounding on wandering creatures as early as possible (you'll suffer losses, but fortress creatures are hard to wipe out).


See also[edit]