Speed

This article refers to the movement of creatures in combat. For the movement of heroes on the adventure map, see movement.

Verbal descriptions of speed values

Value	Description
3	very slow
4	extra slow
5	slow
6	swift
7	extra swift
8	very swift
9	ultra swift
10	super swift
11	quick
12	extra quick
13	very quick
14	ultra quick
15	super quick
16	fast
17	extra fast
18	very fast
19	ultra fast
21	blazing fast

Speed (or sometimes movement) is characteristic of creatures. The value of speed determines how many hexes the creature can move on a battlefield. The speed also determines the initative of the creature, or in other words, the order the creatures move during battle. Additionally, the speed value of the slowest creature affects the hero's movement points on the Adventure Map.

The fastest creature in Heroes of Might and Magic III: Restoration of Erathia is the Archangel with a speed of 18. In the first expansion Armageddon's Blade and later in Shadow of Death, the fastest creature is Conflux's Phoenix with a speed of 21. The slowest creatures with a speed of 3 are Dendroid Guard, Dwarf, Stone Golem and Walking Dead. Additionally, Armageddon's Blade expansion introduced Peasant, which have speed of three. The verbal descriptions are listed in the table on the right. Curiously enough, none of the creatures have speed value of 20, but logic states that it would described as super fast.

War machines have a speed of 0, which means they can not move during combat and typically act last at the combat round. However, their value does not affect the hero's movement points.

Speed as initiative

The speed will determinate initiative of the creature. High speed value means high initiative, which means that the creature will move before creatures with smaller speed value (slower creatures). If two or more creatures on different sides of engaging armies have the same speed value, the creature on the army which did not have the latest chance to act will act first. And if it is the beginning of the battle, the attacker will have the initiative. Within each army, the unit that started (before tactics phase) nearest to the top of the screen, will move first.

Speed modifiers

There are several modifiers that can affect creatures' speed values during combat. Modifiers that affect throughout the combat and can not be cancelled are terrain, artifact and hero specialty modifiers. Additionally, spells can have increasing or decreasing effects on creatures' speed values. Creatures fighting on their native terrain receive +1 to their speed (and +1 to both attack and defense skill). There are three artifacts that affect the speed of all creature's in hero's army:

• Cape of Velocity gives +2 to speed
• Necklace of Swiftness gives +1 to speed
• Ring of the Wayfarer gives +1 to speed.

Several heroes have a creature specialty, which gives specific creatures in hero's army +1 to speed during combat. For example, Edric the knight has griffins as special ability, which means that Griffins and Royal Griffins fighting in Edric's army receive +1 to speed increasing Griffins' speed to 7 and Royal Griffins' speed to 10. Additionally, Sir Mullich has a speed specialty which means that all creatures in his army receive +2 to their speed values during combat.

Three spells can affect the speed of creatures: Haste, Slow and Prayer. These spells affect the speed as follows:

• Haste
  • +3 to speed for a single creature stack with Basic Air Magic
  • +5 to speed for a single creature stack with Advanced Air Magic
  • +5 to speed for all allied creature stacks with Expert Air Magic
• Slow
  • reduces speed for single creature stack by -25% rounded up with Basic Earth Magic
  • reduces speed for single creature stack by -50% rounded up with Advanced Earth Magic
  • reduces speed for all enemy creature stacks by -50% rounded up with Expert Earth Magic
• Prayer
  • +2 to speed for a single creature stack with Basic Water Magic
  • +4 to speed for a single creature stack with Advanced Water Magic
  • +4 to speed for all allied creatures stacks with Expert Water Magic

Additionally, Brissa, Cyra and Terek have Haste as specialty, which means that they can cast Haste with increased effect, based on hero's level compared to the level of the target creature stack. Loynis has Prayer as specialty, which works in a similar way. None of the heroes have Slow as specialty.

In the best case, the maximum speed bonus from all these modifiers is +16, or +7 in the first round of combat before the spells can be cast. A stack of Phoenixes led by Sir Mullich on their native terrain and with the best magical help available would therefore get a speed of 37. In similarly favourable conditions, the slow Dendroid Guards would get a speed of 19, making them tied with Azure Dragons or Archangels (which have the same native terrain). Heroes with a specialty in Haste or Prayer can potentially give more movement than Sir Mullich.

Fast unit chart

Listing only units allowing maximum movement (Speed of 11+):

Speed	Units
11	Devil, Master Genie, Red Dragon, Scorpicore, Thunderbird, Titan, Wyvern Monarch, Ayssid
12	Angel, Silver Pegasus, Haspid
13	Dragon Fly, Efreet Sultan
14	Ghost Dragon
15	Black Dragon, Faerie Dragon, Firebird
16	Crystal Dragon, Gold Dragon
17	Arch Devil, Rust Dragon
18	Archangel
19	Azure Dragon
20	—
21	Phoenix

Unit speed table

Town	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
	4   5	4   6	6   9	5   6	5   7	7   9	12   18
	7   9	7   8	5   6	6   8	4   6	7   9	15   21
	6   8	5   6	6   8	9   11	6   7	6   7	9   12
	4   5	6   9	5   7	5   6	6   8	7   11	11   15
	4   5	4   5	9   13	5   7	5   6	7   11	5   8
	5   7	4   6	7   8	5   6	6   7	9   13	11   17
	4   5	3   4	5   7	6   9	6   7	7   9	9   14
	6   8	3   5	6   7	8   12	3   4	7   9	10   16
	4   5	6   8	4   5	4   5	7   11	6   8	6   9
	4   5	6   9	3   5	5   7	7   11	5   7	7   11
	3   5	5   6   6	5   7	6   7   9	5   6   7	5   9	15   16   17   19

Values in gold represent the fastest creature for the given tier. Values in blue represent the fastest creature for the given faction. Values in green represent creatures that are both the fastest for their tier and for their faction. The  Corsair (with spped 7) was skipped in the table to keep the layout tidy.

See also

• Order in combat