Fortress
| Towns | |
|---|---|
 Castle
| |
 Rampart
| |
 Tower
| |
 Inferno
| |
 Necropolis
| |
 Dungeon
| |
 Stronghold
| |
 Fortress
| |
 Conflux 
| |
 Cove 
| |
 Factory
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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 creature dwellings
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 boats)
- 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
| Resource | Basic | Upgrades | All |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
28900 | 25500 | 91400 |
 |
70 | 50 | 175 |
 |
45 | 20 | 105 |
 |
0 | 0 | 10 |
 |
0 | 0 | 10 |
 |
7 | 12 | 29 |
 |
17 | 22 | 49 |
| Troop cost/week: | 26660 + 2
| ||
Common buildings
| Halls | Fortifications | Miscellaneous | Mage Guilds | Banned spells | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Village Hall | Village Hall (existing) |
Fort | Fort
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Tavern | Tavern
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Mage Guild level 1 | Mage Guild level 1
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| File:Town Hall large.gif | Town Hall
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Citadel | Citadel
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Marketplace | Marketplace
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Mage Guild level 2 | Mage Guild level 2
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| City Hall | City Hall
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Castle | Castle
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Resource Silo | Resource Silo ()
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Mage Guild level 3 | Mage Guild level 3
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| Capitol | Capitol
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Blacksmith |
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Mage Guild level 4 | Mage Guild level 4
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| Mage Guild level 5 | Mage Guild level 5
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| Total Common Buildings: |
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Total Mage Guild: |
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Heroes
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 and 
Fire Magic are not available for beastmasters.
Necromancy, 
Resistance and 
Interference are not available for witches.
Creatures
| + colspan = 14 style="background-color:#Template:Blue 0; font-size: 120%; color:white; height:28px;" | Fortress creatures | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Town | Lvl | Att | Def | Dmg- | Dmg+ | HP | Spd | Grw | AI Val | Cost | Special | |
 Gnoll Gnoll
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1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 56 | 50
|
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 Gnoll Marauder Gnoll Marauder
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1+ | 4 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 12 | 90 | 70
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 Lizardman Lizardman
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2 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 4 | 9 | 126 | 110
|
Ranged (12 shots) | |
 Lizard Warrior Lizard Warrior
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2+ | 6 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 5 | 9 | 156 | 140
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Ranged (24 shots) | |
 Serpent Fly Serpent Fly
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3 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 20 | 9 | 8 | 268 | 220
|
Flying, Dispel | |
 Dragon Fly Dragon Fly
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3+ | 8 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 20 | 13 | 8 | 312 | 240
|
Flying, Dispel, Weakness | |
 Basilisk Basilisk
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4 | 11 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 35 | 5 | 4 | 552 | 325
|
Petrify | |
 Greater Basilisk Greater Basilisk
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4+ | 12 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 40 | 7 | 4 | 714 | 400
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Petrify | |
 Gorgon Gorgon
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5 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 16 | 70 | 5 | 3 | 890 | 525
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 Mighty Gorgon Mighty Gorgon
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5+ | 11 | 16 | 12 | 16 | 70 | 6 | 3 | 1028 | 600
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Death stare 10% chance/unit | |
 Wyvern Wyvern
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6 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 18 | 70 | 7 | 2 | 1350 | 800
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Flying | |
 Wyvern Monarch Wyvern Monarch
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6+ | 14 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 70 | 11 | 2 | 1518 | 1100
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Flying, Poison | |
 Hydra Hydra
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7 | 16 | 18 | 25 | 45 | 175 | 5 | 1 | 4120 | 2200
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No enemy retaliation, Attack all adjacent enemies | |
 Chaos Hydra Chaos Hydra
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7+ | 18 | 20 | 25 | 45 | 250 | 7 | 1 | 5931 | 3500
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1
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No enemy retaliation, Attack all adjacent enemies |
User Commentary
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.)
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 like Efreet Sultans, and significantly 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 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).