Tunnels and Troglodytes | Campaign - Liberation Heroes III HD Edition Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Key points of Heroes of Might & Magic III: HD Edition - Tunnels & Troglodytes mission - Liberation
Cities, which belong to the player from the very beginning of the mission.
An enemy garrison building - to get to the other side, you must first defeat the units garrisoned there.
Guard - "a" stands for the Guard Tent, while "b" indicates the Guard Tower, which can be passed after visiting the Guard Tent.
The entrance to the underground - "a" stands for the entrance itself, while "b" indicates the exit leading to the surface.
A mirror entrance - "a" stands for the entrance, while "b" indicates the exit.
Points of interest - visiting, or capturing it can make the mission a lot easier.
This icon represents the place, in which the player can complete the main goal of the mission - it can either be the task to seize an artifact, defeat a certain enemy, or simply capture a city.
This icon represents key mines, which should be captured in order to complete the mission.
Neutral cities, which can be captured.
Cities, which belong to the enemy player.
At the beginning you will choose from: Expert Navigation, Mage Guild lv. 1 in each of your starting cities, or a Mage Guild lv.3 in your main city. The best option is to take three Mage Guild lv. 1 - not only that it will allow you to save a lot of resources, it will speed up construction by a great degree.
Begin by constructing those buildings in all your cities:
- Day 1 - Marketplace
- Day 2 - Blacksmith
- Day 3 - Town Hall
After the third day you will have 6k gold income. Afterwards, construct those buildings in your Tower city:
- Day 4 - Mage Tower
- Day 5 - Altar of Wishes
- Day 6 - Golden Pavilion
- Day 7 - Cloud Temple
During the second week try to build a Capitol in one of your cities, and build Castles in every one of them. Remember to not stay still - use the time to flag all the mines in the area and collect all the treasures and artifacts as well. Near the Tower city (to the North) there's a Hill Fort (point POI1 on the map), so you can easily upgrade your troops - which will soon by used.
At the arrival of the third week, recruit all your troops from the Tower city (point S3 on the map), and head to the mentioned Hill Fort to upgrade them. Afterwards, send the hero to the underworld through the entrance located South from your Castle (P2a). After arriving there, head North, where you will find an artifact (Spellcaster's Hat) protected by a swarm of Zombies (about 300 units - POI2 on the map). The encounter is rather hard, but it's well worth the effort - the reward is an artifact which grants access to all level 5 spells to the wearer!
After recruiting the army for Astral (Tower hero), focus on building up your remaining cities, so that you have access to all units up to level 6 (ignore Angels and Green Dragons at the moment, as you won't have enough resources to hire them all). With the beginning of the 4th week, hire all Castle / Rampart units, give them to the appropriate hero (Christian for the Castle, Jenova for the Rampart) and buy a boat at the shipyard, located on the beach, East from the Tower city (point POI3 on the map). Use it to explore the huge sea terrains - there are dozens, if not hundreds of treasures scattered around here. Why take an army you may ask? Because there's a number of smaller islands here, where strong monsters (like Gold Golems) can be found. To collect treasures faster, you can bring an extra one, or two heroes along with the one with army. At the center of the sea there's a Cartographer, who will reveal the whole sea for 1000 gold. After you've collected all the sea treasures, head East, break through Water Elementals and land on the shore. There's a couple of mines and treasures here, as well as a number of underground entrances (points P4a, P5a and P6a on the map), which lead directly to your main enemy city.
Your task is to get underground and capture all 5 enemy cities located there - before you do so, hire all the units for your third starting hero (Christian / Jenova, depending on who you've sent to clear the sea). You should also get back to Tower with Astral and recruit all the new units - you can also hire a new hero, give him the troops, order him to visit the Hill Fort and after upgrading those units deliver them to Astral directly underground.
Send Astral underground through the entrance North from the Tower (point P3a on the map), and as soon as he arrives there, send him East, go through the Southern garrison (G5) and capture the enemy city (W2). Send the second hero to the underground entrance between Rampart and Castle cities (P1a) and as soon as he arrives there order him to go through the South-Eastern passageway, through the garrison (G1) and to conquer the enemy city located North (W1).
After capturing those two cities, order Astral to go through the Southern garrison (point G6 on the map), and then to go East, until he reaches another garrison (point G7), behind which you will find the third enemy city (point W4). The hero, who took the Northern city, should go through the Northern garrison (point G2), then head East, through another garrison (G3) and conquer the fourth, penultimate enemy city (W3). There's only one city left. To get there, send Astral through the garrison located North from the city he just captured (G8) and the second hero through the Southern one (G4) - they should meet in the middle, right next to two Medusas Nests. The enemy city is located East from their position - the last garrison awaits you there (G9) and the strongest enemy you've faced so far.
To win this battle, you will need a strong army, as well as magic - Astral comes to the aid, together with his artifact granting him access to all level 5 spells. With a proper artifact configuration, as well as high enough level, Astral will be able to (with the help of Implosion, for instance) deal more than 1000 damage with his spells! Start the encounter by casting beneficial spell onto your troops or a negative one onto the enemy units, or try to disable one of the enemy shooters with your Blind spell. If the enemy has Red, or Black Dragons, focus your units onto them, and let Astral to fight the rest of the enemy forces with his spells. Remember that the enemy is alone, and you have 3 armies at your disposal - if one of your heroes fails, you can use another one to defeat the enemy.