Fortress
Fortress is a Neutral alignment town, home to the Beastmaster and Witch hero classes.
Fortress represents Tatalia.
The native terrain of Fortress is Swamp.
"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." Restoration of Erathia Manual
Fortress Buildings[edit source]
Toggle Fortress Building Tree


37000

45

40

-

-

-

-

4000

15

15

10

10

10

10

45400

105

50

19

39

-

-

6000

20

-

-

-

-

-

92400

185

105

29

49

10

10

26660

-

-

-

2

-

-
Common Buildings[edit source]


-

2500

5000

10000

5000

20

20

2500

-

5

5000

10

10

500

5

-

500

5

-

5000

-

5

1000

5

-

2000


5




-

1000


5




4

1000


5




4

1000


5




6
Creature Dwellings[edit source]
Structure | Base Cost | Upgrade Cost | Creature | Max Grw |
Upg Cr Cost |
Cost/ Week | |||||||||||||||
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Gnoll Hut |
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30 | 70 ![]() |
2100 ![]() | ||||||||||||||
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Lizard Den |
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18 | 140 ![]() |
2520 ![]() | ||||||||||||||
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Serpent Fly Hive |
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16 | 240 ![]() |
3840 ![]() | ||||||||||||||
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Basilisk Pit |
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8 | 400 ![]() |
3200 ![]() | ||||||||||||||
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Gorgon Lair |
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6 | 600 ![]() |
3600 ![]() | ||||||||||||||
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Wyvern Nest |
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4 | 1100 ![]() |
4400 ![]() | ||||||||||||||
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Hydra Pond |
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2 | 3500 ![]() 1 ![]() |
7000 ![]() 2 ![]() | ||||||||||||||
Total Dwelling Cost: |
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Weekly Troop Cost: | 26660 ![]() 2 ![]() |
Unique Buildings[edit source]
Structure | Effect | Cost | ||||||||
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Glyphs of Fear | Gives +2 attack to defending Hero temporarily. |
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Blood Obelisk | Gives +2 defense to defending Hero temporarily. |
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Cage of Warlords | Gives +1 defense to visiting Hero. |
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Captain's Quarters | Horde Building. Growth +6/week for ![]() ![]() |
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Shipyard | Allows building boats if the town has access to water. |
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Carnivorous Plant | Grail Structure. +5000 ![]() Gives +10 attack and +10 defense to defending Hero temporarily. |
n/a | |||||||
Total Cost: |
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Heroes[edit source]
Creatures[edit source]
Name | Town | Lvl | Att | Def | Dmg- | Dmg+ | HP | Spd | Grw | AI Val | Cost | Special | |
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1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 56 | 50 ![]() |
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1+ | 4 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 | 12 | 90 | 70 ![]() |
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2 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 4 | 9 | 126 | 110 ![]() |
Ranged (12 shots) | |
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2+ | 6 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 15 | 5 | 9 | 156 | 140 ![]() |
Ranged (24 shots) | |
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3 | 7 | 9 | 2 | 5 | 20 | 9 | 8 | 268 | 220 ![]() |
Flying, Dispel | |
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3+ | 8 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 20 | 13 | 8 | 312 | 240 ![]() |
Flying, Dispel, Weakness | |
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4 | 11 | 11 | 6 | 10 | 35 | 5 | 4 | 552 | 325 ![]() |
Petrify | |
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4+ | 12 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 40 | 7 | 4 | 714 | 400 ![]() |
Petrify | |
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5 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 16 | 70 | 5 | 3 | 890 | 525 ![]() |
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5+ | 11 | 16 | 12 | 16 | 70 | 6 | 3 | 1028 | 600 ![]() |
Death stare 10% chance/unit | |
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6 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 18 | 70 | 7 | 2 | 1350 | 800 ![]() |
Flying | |
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6+ | 14 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 70 | 11 | 2 | 1518 | 1100 ![]() |
Flying, Poison | |
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7 | 16 | 18 | 25 | 45 | 175 | 5 | 1 | 4120 | 2200 ![]() |
No enemy retaliation, Attack all adjacent enemies | |
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7+ | 18 | 20 | 25 | 45 | 250 | 7 | 1 | 5931 | 3500 ![]() |
1 ![]() |
No enemy retaliation, Attack all adjacent enemies |
Town Names[edit source]
Unless specified by the mapmaker, towns will generate with a random name. Fortress towns will use one of these following names:
Backwater | Coolmire | Deadfall | Deadwood |
Drakenmoor | Edgewater | Hermit Cove | Lostmoor |
Marshank | Marshchoke | Marshwall | Mossden |
Mosswood | Mudshire | Silt | Stillbog |
If there are more Fortress towns on the map than possible names, they will use names taken from other towns.
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. So the Fortress moat is considered as the best moat in the game due to usefulness thanks to two-hex wide that make harder to attack a Fortress castle without support of shooters, flyers and spells.
- 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. They are also good creatures in terms of speed per cost ratio for scouting heroes at early game and/or towns with slow armies.
- 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 and Todd 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 big focus on Defense, combined with the fact that Fortress only has one shooter, makes it more difficult for it to win battles without casualties, 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 level 1 creatures, and there is no upgraded level 1 creature slower than Hydra; among level 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 as much as Efreet Sultans, and 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 weeks, you'll most likely be outpaced by other players or NPCs. Pick a strong beastmaster 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).