Steadkwick's Fall | Campaign - Dungeons and Devils Heroes III HD Edition Guide

It's more beneficial to select heroes from the second mission.

Before you start the mission, you will have the opportunity to select between two starting bonuses - one will give you access to all your heroes from the first map of this campaign, while the other one will transfer those from the second mission. The choice, essentially, is optional, but your heroes will be transferred with any experience they managed to acquire, and while the second mission had several times more opportunities to gather experience, you should definitely select those from the second mission. This guide assumes that you take heroes from the "Groundbreaking" mission.

If you've managed to level the heroes from the "lucky 8", which were transferred to this mission, while collecting as many spells as possible in the process, your task is going to be a lot easier. In the first days of the mission those heroes, who have access to powerful spells, will be your greatest asset - with that type of a hero you will be able to easily defeat armies several times stronger than yours, even by having a lone, single unit in the hero garrison. There are rules for that - don't attack enemies who are extremely fast and will be able to reach your unit(s) in a single move, nor target any shooters.

It's only a 12th level hero, but even with that your task will be several times easier.

Besides those 8 heroes, you will have three different cities at your disposal - Inferno and Dungeon (points S1 and S2 on the map), giving you access to everything, as well as a Castle type (point S3 on the map), which, unfortunately, can't be developed properly, as it has most of its buildings locked (that is why it will serve the purpose of a gold generator).

Start off by constructing several buildings in your cities - Marketplace in the Inferno, Chapel of Stilled Voices in the Dungeon, and Inn in the Castle. Build any units available in all of those cities and transfer them between 3 heroes - the best choice is to give them to heroes with powerful magical capabilities, which will allow you to defeat stronger foes. If you don't have enough "magical" heroes, any, developed will suffice. If you have more than 3 heroes focused on magic, you can leave any of them (besides those 3 mentioned earlier) with a couple of units (even a s ingle one will suffice - the best ones are those slow units, with a lot of health and / or defense). Additionally, remember, that some units are highly resistant (Dwarfs, Golems, Elementals, some level 6-7 units), or totally immune (like Black Dragons) to magic - don't attack them with your magic-wielding hero.

In normal conditions, this battle would, at best, end with serious casualties - thanks to magic I lost none!

Because of the fact, that you have two cities, which can be fully developed (Inferno and Dungeon), you must choose which one you should focus on during the early game (later on resources are no longer a problem, so you can develop several cities at the same time). The best choice is to focus on the Dungeon city and rush the Dragon Cave, to gain access to your 7th level units, Dragons, as soon as possible. Not only that the upgraded version is practically the strongest unit in the game (with a complete magic immunity!), you can travel to the bottom right corner of the underground (to the East from your Dungeon city) to visit a Dragon Cave (point POI1 on the map) - this building, after you've defeated a couple of Red Dragons, will allow you to recruit those Red Dragons every week! If that wasn't enough, it will increase your Red Dragon weekly growth in the Dungeon city by 1! It means, that if you build a Castle, you will be able to recruit 4 Dragons a week! With this amount of those powerful units no foe will pose any threat to you.

General Kendall will probably have a lot stronger army, regardless of the day in which you attack him.

Your enemy (at the beginning ) has only a single hero - General Kendall, which, unfortunately for you, will have a huge army in his possession, regardless of the day in which you decide to attack him. Your goal during this mission is to capture the Steadwick city, which is guarded by this very hero. His city (of Castle type) is located in the Western section of the map (point W1 on the map) - it's surrounded by a mountain range, and if you want to get inside, you will have to break through one of the garrisons (points G1, G2 and G3 on the map). You have 3 months to capture the Steadwick city - yes, you don't have to fight with General Kendall, you just need his city.

Besides the cities, with which you start, you can conquer a few additional ones, controlled both by your enemy, as well as neutral ones. Two enemy cities can be found to the West from your own cities on the surface - the first one to the West from Inferno (point W2 on the map), and the second one from your Castle (point W3 on the map). In the upper right and lower left corner of the map you can find two neutral cities (respectively: Rampart and Tower - points N1 and N2 on the map), and in the upper left corner of the map there's the last Castle city, controlled by the Red player.

Because of the fact, that your enemy won't be harassing you that much (he will hire new heroes, but they won't have enough army to pose a threat, especially when you use your magical heroes), you can focus on developing your Dungeon city and exploring the map - focus on artifact hunting, in case you end up having to fight with General Kendall.

Dungeon, first week development:

• Day 1 - Chapel of the Stilled Voices
• Day 2 - Labyrinth
• Day 3 - Manticore Lair
• Day 4 - Dragon Cave
• Day 5 - Citadel
• Day 6 - Castle
• Day 7 - Marketplace

Inferno, first week development:

• Mage Guild lv. 1
• Marketplace
• City Hall

Build only those three buildings - the resources will be used to develop the Dungeon city, and as soon as you construct a City Hall you will have a lot more gold. A serious development of this city can begin during the second week, while making sure that you've constructed at least 6 creature buildings in the Dungeon city.

Castle, first week development:

• Inn
• City Hall

Your Castle have a very limited building possibilities, with the lack of 6th and 7th level units, so you should focus on a single thing - generating as much gold as possible. Build the two mentioned buildings, and during the latter turns you can get a couple of Mage Guild's levels, or construct a City Hall to have a bigger gold income - there's no point in building the army, as you won't have access to the strongest ones.

And here's the city you need to conquer - watch out for the pesky Kendall!

If you managed to build all the mentioned buildings, you should have 6 Red Dragons at the start of the second week - 4 from the city and two from the Dragon Cave, which must first be conquered. Use the "weakness" of Red Dragons, their limited magic immunity (only 1-3 levels) and defeat them with powerful spells, such as Implosion, or Inferno, or, in extreme cases, Chain Lightning. With the proper spellpower of your hero, you will be able to finish the fight in one, or two rounds. Don't rush against the Black Dragons which are nearby - they are immune to magic and will rip you to shreds.

From this moment on focus on Dungeon city only - upgrade all your units (the faster you gain access to Black Dragons, the better), and in the meantime develop your Inferno city (Castle can be omitted, with the exception of City Hall and Mage Guild). Try to rush the Capitol - Red Dragons use up extreme amounts of gold. Give all your Red Dragons to one hero, and transfer the rest of your troops to another one and use him/her to clear the map faster.

There are two methods to capture the Steadwick city - you can either decide to fight General Kendall, or use a little ruse. The first option is extremely difficult to execute, as your enemy will probably have a lot stronger army at his disposal - you will have to use magic and plan your moves accordingly if you want to defeat him. The ruse mentioned earlier is about dragging Kendall out of his "playground" - to get to him you will have to go through one of the garrisons. Before you do so, however, the enemy won't attack you - this can be used to lure him out, while the other hero captures his city. To do so, set up two heroes by the garrisons - each one must be standing near a different one. Break through the garrison with the "lure hero" and provoke General Kendall to attack you - you can either stand in one place and wait for him to come at you, or move back a bit to lure him out further from his guard post. While the other hero keeps Kendall busy, use the second one, break through another garrison and take the enemy city, which should have almost no defenses. After you've captured the enemy city, the mission will end!