Hack and Slash
Back to Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Hack and Slash is a difficult campaign featuring a young barbarian called Crag Hack. A wizard named Sandro finds Crag and hires him to find the pieces of the Armor of the Damned. In each of the missionsy you’ll need to establish a base and then head out to find the artifact.
Before continuing to the later missions you’ll want to make sure you have expertise in Earth Magic and the Slow and Town Portal spells. Having Tactics is also an advantage as is Intelligence because Crag Hack doesn’t get many points in Power and Knowledge.
Bashing Skulls
The Hack and Slash campaign is incredibly difficult so I recommend training up Crag Hack as much as possible. For this mission you start with 40 Goblins, 20 Wolf Riders or 15 Orcs. Take the Orcs if you like ranged units or the Wolf Riders for speed.
You don’t begin with a town so follow the road to the northwest, take out the enemy hero blocking the path and take over the Stronghold town to the west.
Quickly build up to Behemoths and take over the hive to the south west to pick up a few Wyverns. Now you’ll want to break through one of the groups of Dragons blocking the path to the north. Then take over the Necromancer towns.
Visit the Dark Blue Keymaster’s Tent on the western edge. You’ll need this to get through to the Red Keymaster’s Tent on the north edge. Go through the underground tunnel to kill the horde of Trolls. Come back up and go through the quest guard in the northwest. Take over the Tan town in the very northeast corner to complete the mission.
Black Sheep
This mission is incredibly difficult and you’ll need to get lucky to beat it. You start in the northeast with one Stronghold. Spend a bit of time clearing the area and trying to get some of the creatures to join you. You’ll need to visit the Refugee Camp and hope for a powerful unit.
When you are ready break through to the west and visit the Keymaster’s Tent. Unfortunately it’s guarded by 2 Fairy Dragons so hopefully you got lucky with stacks of creatures joining you or with the Refugee Camp.
Pretty soon the Red enemy will go through the border guards or through the one-way portal. and you’ll need to sneak past them to the lands to the south. Take over the Red Castles and build up an army with their troops. The Red player will most likely take over your lands to the north so you’ll need to get busy taking over their resources and towns to the south.
Take the portal over to the island in the southwest and go underground to fight Marzeth for the Blackshard of the Dead Knight to complete the mission.
A Cage in the Hand
For this mission you start with 40 Wolf Riders, 30 Orc Chieftans aor 5 Ogres. Head along the road to the south to find the Keymasters Tent and then come back to take over the neutral Stronghold.
Build up your town, recruit units and take over the Red Necromancer town to the south. There is a Hill Fort near here where you can upgrade all your troops. Continue west to the next Necromancer town but be prepared for powerful heroes to come through the Red Garrison to the south.
The enemy heroes are powerful spellcasters so you’ll generally need a much bigger army then them. If you have the Town Portal spell it will make getting around to all the towns to pick up reinforcements much easier.
Go through the Red Garrison to the south and start looking for the Rib Cage. One of the Liches has it in one of the protected areas. To get through you’ll need to visit the Black Keymaster’s Tent in the underground near to your first town. Once you find the Rib Cage the mission will be complete.
Grave Robber
For this mission you start with a Barracks, 10 Wood and 10 Ore or the Equestrian’s Gloves. This is another difficult mission. You begin with one Stronghold in the northwest. The three Necromancer towns are protected by the Black Border Guard which you can’t reach.
Flag all the Guard Houses, Archer’s Towers and Griffin Nests for the extra units. Defeat the creatures guarding the prison to the west to free the hero Slash. He’ll have a small army with him.
You are blocked off from the enemy for now. You’ll need to visit the underground caves for the Red and Blue Keymaster’s Tents. Take the underground exit to the south. Find the small island and take a boat over to flag the Green Keymaster’s Tent.
Open the Green Border Guard on the southern edge and head underground. Take the other exit and open the Blue, Red and Green Border Guard. Fight the hero Charnath who has a pretty large army with 30 Ghost Dragons. Once you defeat him the campaign will be complete.
Next: Birth of a Barbarian
Back: Elixir of Life