Fortress

Towns

Castle

Rampart

Tower

Inferno

Necropolis

Dungeon

Stronghold

Fortress

Conflux

Cove  Palace 

Factory  Grotto 

Bulwark  Forge 

Palace 

Grotto 

Forge 

Forge 

Forge 

Forge 

Forge 

Fortress is a Neutral alignment town, home to the Beastmaster and Witch hero classes.

Fortress represents Tatalia.

The native terrain of Fortress is Swamp.

"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." ^{Restoration of Erathia Manual}

Fortress Buildings

Toggle Fortress Building Tree

Building Category

Cost  

Common Buildings

37000

45

40

-

-

-

-

Mage Guild

4000

15

15

10

10

10

10

Dwellings

45400

105

50

19

39

-

-

Unique Buildings

6000

20

-

-

-

-

-

Total Building Cost

92400

185

105

29

49

10

10

Weekly Troop Cost

26660

-

-

-

2

-

-

Common Buildings

Halls

-

2500

5000

10000

Fortifications

5000

20

20

2500

-

5

5000

10

10

Miscellaneous Buildings

500

5

-

500

5

-

5000

-

5

1000

5

-

Mage Guild

2000

5

-

1000

5

4

1000

5

6

Banned Spells

Creature Dwellings

Building

Cost  

Creature

Max/Wk

Cost/Wk

Gnoll Hut

Upg. Gnoll Hut

Lizard Den

Upg. Lizard Den

Serpent Fly Hive

Upg. Serpent Fly Hive

Basilisk Pit

Upg. Basilisk Pit

Gorgon Lair

Upg. Gorgon Lair

Wyvern Nest

Upg. Wyvern Nest

Hydra Pond

Upg. Hydra Pond

400

10

-

-

-

-

-

1000

10

-

-

-

-

-

1000

5

-

-

-

-

-

1000

5

-

-

-

-

-

1000

5

-

2

2

-

-

1000

-

-

2

2

-

-

2000

5

10

-

-

-

-

2000

5

5

-

-

-

-

2500

10

10

5

5

-

-

2000

5

5

-

-

-

-

3500

15

-

-

-

-

-

3000

10

-

10

-

-

-

10000

10

10

-

10

-

-

15000

10

10

-

20

-

-

Gnoll

Gnoll Marauder

Lizardman

Lizard Warrior

Serpent Fly

Dragon Fly

Basilisk

Greater Basilisk

Gorgon

Mighty Gorgon

Wyvern

Wyvern Monarch

Hydra

Chaos Hydra

30

18

16

8

6

4

2

1500

2100

1980

2520

3520

3840

2600

3200

3150

3600

3200

4400

4400

-

7000

2

Unique Buildings

Building

Cost  

Description

Glyphs of Fear

Blood Obelisk

Cage of Warlords

Captain's Quarters

Shipyard

Carnivorous Plant

1000

-

-

-

-

-

-

1000

-

-

-

-

-

-

1000

-

-

-

-

-

-

1000

-

-

-

-

-

-

2000

20

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Gives a garrisoned hero +2 Attack while defending in siege combat.

Gives a garrisoned hero +2 Defense while defending in siege combat.

Gives visiting allied heroes +1 Defense permanently.

Horde Building. +6 Gnoll and Gnoll Marauder growth per week.

Allows the player to purchase boats if the town is next to water.

Grail Structure. +5000 Gold/day. +50% creature growth. Gives a garrisoned hero +10 Attack and Defense while defending in siege combat.

Heroes

Name	Class			Specialty		Skill 1		Skill 2		Spell
Bron	Beastmaster			Basilisks		Basic Armorer		Basic Resistance
Bron	Beastmaster			Basilisks		Basic Armorer		Basic Interference
Drakon	Beastmaster			Gnolls		Basic Armorer		Basic Leadership
Wystan	Beastmaster			Lizardmen		Basic Armorer		Basic Archery
Tazar	Beastmaster			Armorer		Advanced Armorer
Alkin	Beastmaster			Gorgons		Basic Armorer		Basic Offense
Korbac	Beastmaster			Serpent Flies		Basic Armorer		Basic Pathfinding
Gerwulf	Beastmaster			Ballista		Basic Armorer		Basic Artillery
Broghild	Beastmaster			Wyverns		Basic Armorer		Basic Scouting
Mirlanda	Witch			Weakness		Advanced Wisdom				Weakness
Rosic	Witch			Mysticism		Basic Wisdom		Basic Mysticism		Magic Arrow
Voy	Witch			Navigation		Basic Wisdom		Basic Navigation		Slow
Kinkeria	Witch			Learning		Basic Wisdom		Basic Learning		Slow
Verdish	Witch			First Aid		Basic Wisdom		Basic First Aid		Protection from Fire
Merist	Witch			Stone Skin		Basic Wisdom		Basic Learning		Stone Skin
Styg	Witch			Sorcery		Basic Wisdom		Basic Sorcery		Shield
Andra	Witch			Intelligence		Basic Wisdom		Basic Intelligence		Dispel
Tiva	Witch			Eagle Eye		Basic Wisdom		Basic Eagle Eye		Stone Skin

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

Town Names

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

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• 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.)

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 big focus on Defense, combined with the fact that Fortress only has one shooter, makes it more difficult for it to win battles without casualties, 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 level 1 creatures, and there is no upgraded level 1 creature slower than Hydra; among level 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).

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See also

• Town Comparison
• List of creatures
• List of heroes