OK, having accumulated some more experience with HOTA Cove by finishing maps of different sizes, I am sharing my thoughts.Ĭove, like Fortress and Stronghold, is a faction that depends a lot on might. It’s not like Fortress and Stronghold, where you can get high level flyers early on and press that advantage to seize a second castle.
Heroes 3 horn of the abyss how to#
I still have no clue how to play Cove to the best of its abilities. I have yet to devise any strategy that is particularly useful for Cove. Right now I am still new to this faction, and my views may change. But I just can’t see any strategic use for Haspids. Storm Hydras are fantastic defenders against superior numbers. Behemoths are important for barbarians to attack overwhelmingly, doing as much damage in a short time as possible. Black Dragons are crucial for casting Armageddon and being spell immune. Phoenixes for instance, are invaluable because they guarantee a first spell casting. But again, they don’t contribute to their side as much as other units’ tier 7s do. Haspids’ attack is only marginally less than Archangels’. Tier 7: Sea Serpents and Haspids are by far the strongest Tier 7 units, especially with their poisonous ability. How does it contribute to Cove heroes who tend to have high attack? What strategies are good for playing Nixes? This Tier 6 isn’t a great contributor to battlefield attack it just winds up being a big stack that the enemy loves to blind. Unfortunately all it means is that Cove has a Tier 6 unit that is difficult to kill, and which can accumulate in great numbers over time because it survives better than anyone else. They have high defense and abilities which ignore enemy attack value. Tier 6: Nix and Nix Warriors are clearly Behemoth inspired, but in a defensive way. I get the impression they are inspired by certain Fortress creatures. Tier 5: Sea Witches and Sorceresses: they auto cast weakness or disrupting ray on the enemy when using ranged attacks. Cove’s only flying unit is level 4 which makes it harder to keep them alive and in numbers sufficient to have any serious effect on the enemy ranged attackers – since the main purpose of being flying and able to cross the battlefield in one move, is really to reduce the enemy ranged. Thunderbirds, the sole flying unit for Stronghold, are level 5 and already very easy to kill. But even worse for them is that they are level 4. Ayssids are basically Rocs who attack twice unless they don’t manage to kill something on their first attack. This is unlike how the Mighty Gorgon contributes to their faction, by making tier 7s wary of approaching the melee-oriented Fortress faction.
![heroes 3 horn of the abyss heroes 3 horn of the abyss](https://lutris.net/media/games/screenshots/homm3-campaigns.png)
Their ranged ability makes it sound as though they are dangerous, but level 7s will probably fly over and hit them first thus depriving them of the ability to use accurate shot. But I would not advise relying on Sea Dogs, because their growth is low and they get killed a lot so it is a long time before you can get them in sufficient numbers to scare level 7 enemies. These are by far the most useful Cove guys, because of their accurate shot which is essentially an adjusted version of Mighty Gorgons’ death stare. I hire these guys because they are there to be hired, but can easily get other mercenaries that are more useful. Even zombies have more value for their side, since they are capable of spreading disease. They don’t lend anything special to the faction or battlefield. So they die very quickly and never succeed in doing anything useful. What is the use of ice immunity? How often do battles turn on the use of ice bolt? Even worse, as teleporters and level 1s they are always targeted. I can’t claim to be an expert in anything: This is just my opinion after only half a day’s worth of gameplay. But much worse that that – I found them boring.
![heroes 3 horn of the abyss heroes 3 horn of the abyss](https://games-cdn.softpedia.com/screenshots/Heroes-of-Might-and-Magic-III-Horn-of-the-Abyss_3.jpg)
I don’t find Cove all that powerful in actual gameplay. So I decided to play through myself and see how it worked out.
![heroes 3 horn of the abyss heroes 3 horn of the abyss](https://www.meme-arsenal.com/memes/d179372401e43c756e58d15dd6366b16.jpg)
![heroes 3 horn of the abyss heroes 3 horn of the abyss](https://www.instalki.pl/images/newsy/01-2020/heroes_3_horn_of_the_abyss_1.6.jpg)
All 9 other factions could not hold their own against the haspids in regular combat.īeing a reasonably experienced player, I suspected that Cove was not overpowered despite the fact that they clearly have the best Tier 7 by a wide margin. What drew my attention to HOTA recently? I saw a video online pitting their Tier 7 units, sea serpents and haspids against all other factions’ Tier 7s. That said, I am starting to find this a boring faction. It works smoothly and there are no strange graphics quirks. The Cove faction is well polished, and comes across as a genuine, gamemaker-created faction.