Editing Fortress

{{towns}}
'''Fortress''' is a [[alignment|neutral alignment]] [[town]] with the [[beastmaster]] and [[witch]] [[hero class]]es. 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."{{-}}<sup>[[Restoration of Erathia Manual Page 92|RoE manual]]''</sup>

Fortress' [[native terrain]] is [[swamp]].

===Fortress creature dwellings===
* [[Fortress creature dwellings|Gnoll Hut]]
* [[Fortress creature dwellings|Lizard Den]]
* [[Fortress creature dwellings|Serpent Fly Hive]]
* [[Fortress creature dwellings|Basilisk Pit]]
* [[Fortress creature dwellings|Gorgon Lair]]
* [[Fortress creature dwellings|Wyvern Nest]]
* [[Fortress creature dwellings|Hydra Pond]]

===Fortress specific buildings===
*[[Blood Obelisk]] - (+2 [[Defense]] to heroes defending against a siege)
*[[Cage of Warlords]] - (+1 [[Defense]] to visiting hero)
*[[Captain's Quarters]] - ([[Gnoll]] [[horde building]], +6/week)
*[[Glyphs of Fear]] - (+2 [[Attack]] to heroes defending against a siege)
*[[Shipyard]] - (allows to buy [[boat]]s)
*[[Carnivorous Plant]] - ([[Grail]] building, +10 [[Attack]] and [[Defense]] to heroes defending against a siege, as well as 5000 gold/day and +50% creature growth)

==Fortress building tree==
[[File:FortressBuildingTree.png|left|600px]]

[[file:Fortress-in.png|thumb|right|Fully upgraded Fortress|500px]]

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="white-space:nowrap; text-align: center; float:right"
! class="unsortable" | <span title="The type of resource required.">Resource</span>
! <span title="Cost of building the Citadel, the Castle, and all base creature dwellings, including any associated prerequisites.">Basic</span>
! <span title="Cost of upgrading all creature dwellings, including any associated prerequisites.">Upgrades</span>
! <span title="All buildings built and fully upgraded.">All</span>
|-
|{{Gold}}||28900||25500||91400
|-
|{{Wood}}||70||50||175
|-
|{{Ore}}||45||20||105
|-
|{{Crystal}}||0||0||10
|-
|{{Gem}}||0||0||10
|-
|{{Mercury}}||7||12||29
|-
|{{Sulfur}}||17||22||49
|-
!colspan=2| Troop cost/week: !!colspan=2| 26660 {{Gold}} + 2 {{Sulfur}}
|}
<div style="clear:both;"></div>
===Common buildings===
{{Common buildings|Fortress|First aid tent|+1 {{W}} & +1 {{O}}|bs1={{-}}[[file:Curse.png|Curse|link=Curse]]|bs2=[[file:Death Ripple.png|Death Ripple|link=Death Ripple]] [[file:Disguise.png|Disguise|link=Disguise]]|bs3=[[file:Animate Dead.png|Animate Dead|link=Animate Dead]] [[file:Protection from Earth.png|Protection from Earth|link=Protection from Earth]]| no_4 = | no_5 = }}

==Heroes==
{{switch|tag1=sod|tag2=hota|switch1=[Switch to Horn of the Abyss]|switch2=[Switch to Shadow of Death]|style1=color:blue;|style2=color:blue;}}

{{switch_content|tag1=sod|tag2=hota|content1=		{{hero table|bgc=#{{Green 2,5}}|head=!+ colspan = 14 style="background-color:#{{Green 1}}; font-size: 120%; color:white; height:28px; text-align:center;" {{!}} Fortress heroes (Shadow of Death)}}
		{{Fortress hero table}}
{{T!}}|content2=		{{hero table|bgc=#{{Green 2,5}}|head=!+ colspan = 14 style="background-color:#{{Green 1}}; font-size: 120%; color:white; height:28px; text-align:center;" {{!}} Fortress heroes (Horn of the Abyss)}}
		{{Fortress hero table (HotA)}}
{{T!}}}}

===Banned secondary skills===
Some skills are not available for certain hero classes, which means they can only acquire them from [[Scholar (Adventure Map)|Scholar]]s, [[Witch Hut]]s (except for [[Necromancy]] and [[Leadership]], if not allowed by a map-maker), [[Seer's Hut]]s, [[Event]]s or [[Pandora's Box]]es.

{{ss|Necromancy}} and {{ss|Fire Magic}} are not available for [[beastmaster]]s.

{{ss|Necromancy}}, {{ss|Resistance}} and {{ss|Interference}}{{-wh}} are not available for [[witch]]es.

==Creatures==
{{creature table|bgc=#{{Blue 1b}}|head=!+ colspan = 14 style="background-color:#{{Blue 0}}; font-size: 120%; color:white; height:28px;" {{!}} Fortress creatures}}
{{Fortress creature table}}
|}

{{user commentary|
* While among them there is only one ranged-attack creature, Fortress units possess many special abilities to offset this deficiency.

* [https://www.celestialheavens.com/viewpage.php?id{{=}}443 Strategy Guide for Fortress from Jolly Joker on Celestial Heavens]

===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.
*Hand-to-hand troops with excellent specials ([[Dispel]], [[Death Stare]], [[Petrify]], [[Poison]]).
*[[Serpent Fly and Dragon Fly|Dragon Flies]] are extremely fast. They share 8th place by speed among town units with [[Efreet and Efreet Sultan|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 [[Dispel|remove]] positive spells casted on enemy units and cast [[Weakness]], making them less effective.
*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]] in HotA.) {{withhota}}

===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 {{sod}}, as well as {{roe}} patch 1.3 and {{ab}} 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 [[Behemoth and Ancient Behemoth|Ancient Behemoths]] who are stronger, faster and more resilient.
*[[Wyvern and Wyvern Monarch|Wyverns]] are on the bottom of the 6th level, have low HP, and are too expensive for their strength (Monarchs cost like [[Efreeti and Efreet Sultan|Efreet Sultans]], and significantly more than [[Unicorn and War Unicorn|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 months, you'll most likely be outpaced by other players or NPCs. Pick a strong witch 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).
}}{{end of user commentary}}

== See also ==
* [[List of creatures]]
* [[List of creatures (HotA)]]
* [[List of heroes]]
* [[List of heroes (HotA)]]

[[Category: Fortress]]
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