Tactics

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Secondary skills
 Air Magic
 Archery
 Armorer
 Artillery
 Ballistics
 Diplomacy
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 Earth Magic
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 Fire Magic
 First Aid
 Intelligence
 Interference Horn of the Abyss
 Leadership
 Learning
 Logistics
 Luck
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 Offense
 Pathfinding
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 Scholar
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 Tactics
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 Wisdom
Tactics
Basic Tactics: allows you to rearrange your troops just before combat, within 3 hex rows of the commanding hero.
Advanced Tactics: allows you to rearrange your troops just before combat, within 5 hex rows of the commanding hero.
Expert Tactics: allows you to rearrange your troops just before combat, within 7 hex rows of the commanding hero.

Tactics is a secondary skill, that allows hero to arrange his troops on the battlefield at the beginning of combat. However, if a hero is attacking another hero and both have Tactics at the same level, they cancel each other out, and neither of the heroes may arrange his army. If one of the heroes have higher level of Tactics, his skill is treated being on the same level as the remainder. For example, if hero with expert Tactics encounters a hero with basic Tactics the remainder becomes 2, which means that the hero's expert level Tactics is treated as advanced level Tactics.

Heroes with Tactics as a starting skill:

Chance to get

Out of total 112 for Shadow of Death, and of (112 + Interference chance) for Horn of the Abyss Horn of the Abyss.
Banned skills change the probability.

Town Class Chance to learn
Castle  Knight   7
Castle  Cleric   2
Rampart  Ranger   5
Rampart  Druid   1 (lowest)
Tower  Alchemist   4
Tower  Wizard   1 (lowest)
Inferno  Demoniac   6
Inferno  Heretic   4
Necropolis  Death Knight   5
Necropolis  Necromancer   2
Dungeon  Overlord  10 (highest)
Dungeon  Warlock   1 (lowest)
Stronghold  Barbarian   8
Stronghold  Battle Mage   5
Fortress  Beastmaster   6
Fortress  Witch   1 (lowest)
Conflux  Planeswalker   8
Conflux  Elementalist   1 (lowest)
Cove Horn of the Abyss     Captain   6
Cove Horn of the Abyss     Navigator   4
Factory Horn of the Abyss     Mercenary   8
Factory Horn of the Abyss     Artificer   3


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Some may find the information in this section subjective or irrelevant.

Overview

  • The battlefield is 15 hexes wide (and 11 high).
  • Usually, you need a creature with at least 13 speed to be able to reach a 1-wide creature on the exact other side in one turn. Apart from neutral or upgraded Dragons, only the following creatures can do this: Phoenix, Archangel, Arch Devil, Firebird, Efreet Sultan, Dragon Fly. Silver Pegasi and Haspids are 2-wide and have Speed 12 so they can attack a creature on the exact other side immediately as well. Angels with Speed 12 are able to attack if the creature on the exact other side is 2-wide. Ayssids, Scorpicores, Red Dragons, Thunderbirds and Wyvern Monarchs are 2-wide and have 11 Speed. They can thus reach the exact other side if the creature is also 2-wide.
  • With Basic/Advanced/Expert Tactics, the distance is reduced to 11/9/7 hexes which means 11/9/7 speed is needed to immediately reach the other side (1 less if the creature you attack is 2-wide).

With upgraded creatures and Expert Tactics, all your creatures can strike immediately except:

Note that Haste gives on Basic/Advanced/Expert level +3/5/5 Speed. Tactics lets your army start 3/5/7 hexes farther ahead. Expert Haste allows less creatures to strike immediately than Expert Tactics. With Haste and Expert Tactics, any creature can immediately reach the other side to strike.


Tactics is a helpful skill if used properly. It becomes really valuable on advanced and expert levels, allowing ranged units to shoot without a penalty (while it's a double-edged sword since enemy shooters will do it as well), and fliers with mediocre speed, e.g. basic Griffins, to reach the opposite battlefield edge in one turn. The latter is especially vital when sieging a town. Tactics may help to save your troops from a strong and fast enemy stack, to defend your shooters, and to avoid dragons' breath attack, Liches' death cloud, and spells like Meteor Shower which damage multiple stacks adjacent to each other.

Tactics is one of the best secondary skills in the game. At expert level, it allows a hero's army to advance 7 hexes, which is almost half of the battlefield's total length of 15. This also allows hero to arrange his troops most in suitable way for his army's capabilities. Furthermore, hero may take full advantage of the obstacles on the battlefield as a tactical element. Also a valid action is to "turtle" the troops, meaning that arrange the melee units to protect the ranged units. Combining Tactics with speed increasing spells like (mass) Haste or (mass) Prayer, allows even the slowest army to reach enemy lines on the first round of combat.

The downside of the skill is, that same level Tactics cancel each other out. When heroes with the same level in the skill confront each other, neither of them may benefit from the skill, and therefore have one secondary skill less to utilise during the combat.


See also: