8
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Opening and composition
Starting situation
Several cheap pickups, a guarded mine and a random-reward detour lie outside the town. Your main army is still forming.
Decision sequence
- Choose the mine whose recurring output funds a specific building or recruitment. Identify what it lets you buy.
- Before attacking its guard, compare enemy reach with your Archers, Elves or other shooters. The nearest fight need not be the cheapest.
- Combine the return with reinforcements and recovery of the prepared spells you need, rather than making two separate journeys.
How to choose
Judge the gain by whether you can open the next objective afterward. Winning a mine without an army able to hold the area is not automatically a good opening.
When to reassess
A random artifact has no certain value before discovery. Do not treat its best possible result as guaranteed.
Neutral fights
Starting situation
You have a strong ranged stack and slower screening troops. The enemy has no shooters but becomes dangerous at close range.
Decision sequence
- Deploy shooters with usable firing positions and place support on approach routes. Check every route rather than only the nearest enemy.
- Use early shots to weaken the stack that will reach contact first. Splitting damage may leave both threats effective.
- Before shooting again, check whether the screen will die and expose the shooters before the engagement is over.
How to choose
A screening stack is valuable through the shots it actually enables. Saving a weak screen at the expense of the entire ranged force is a poor exchange.
When to reassess
Do not assume the same ground screen provides equal safety against flying units.
Magic and resources
Starting situation
A dangerous stack blocks the route to a siege. You have one remaining prepared use of an important spell.
Decision sequence
- Identify the spell’s intended siege job: removing a shooter, stopping a fast threat or saving your main stack.
- Design a second plan for the current guard using shooting, screening or another spell. Compare the losses you actually expect.
- If the valuable cast is needed now, change the recovery route. Do not continue to the castle with a plan you can no longer execute.
How to choose
Heroes I requires tracking particular prepared uses. Overall magical strength does not tell you whether the required cast remains available.
When to reassess
Do not import Heroes II mana or daily mana-recovery rules into this decision.
Construction and recruitment
Starting situation
Before the next growth event, you can fund only part of your plan. A Well costs 500 gold; a new dwelling needs both its construction cost and later recruitment money.
Decision sequence
- List the existing dwellings whose next growth you can use. Building count alone does not show how many reinforcements you can actually afford.
- For a new dwelling, include prerequisite buildings and the first recruitment. Do not compare one complete route with only another route’s final step.
- Connect the remaining cash to the next compulsory fight. Future growth cannot recover a town you fail to defend now.
How to choose
What matters is the usable army by the deadline, not the largest future recruitment pool.
When to reassess
A Well is not a hall or recurring gold income. Assess its return through the value and availability of reinforcements.
Construction and recruitment
Starting situation
You are planning dragons. The Black Tower alone costs 15,000 gold, 30 ore and 20 sulfur and also needs prerequisite dwellings.
Decision sequence
- Follow the Maze and Swamp dependencies in the building database. Include every missing step and the daily construction limit.
- Secure scarce ore and sulfur first. A pile of gold does not remove a material bottleneck.
- Reserve money to hire dragons and keep a force that can open the map while construction continues. A completed building without recruitment is not a combat stack.
How to choose
The investment works when the stronger creature opens a new objective in time. Otherwise a shorter reinforcement route may be better.
When to reassess
Black Dragon or Black Tower prices from another game do not establish Heroes I costs.
Sieges
Starting situation
A fast or flying stack can reach a defender while the rest of your army still lacks safe access.
Decision sequence
- Identify which defending stack must be suppressed first and what will remain after your attack.
- Before committing, identify the available follow-up: another attack, shooting or a prepared spell. Reach alone is not a complete winning sequence.
- If the attacker would be isolated, consider weakening the defense or opening a route for support first.
How to choose
A breach is valuable when it removes more enemy actions than the force you spend on it.
When to reassess
Being able to enter does not mean being able to survive the defenders’ next response.
Adventure movement
Starting situation
A second island offers income, but landing commits you to several days away from your main town.
Decision sequence
- Before embarking, check the landing guard, army strength and remaining key spell uses.
- Treat a lighthouse and the Sorceress sailing advantage as travel improvements, not substitutes for combat strength.
- Choose an objective you can exploit after capture. Access to more reinforcements can be worth more than isolated loot.
How to choose
The return includes both journeys and the time your main force is absent from home.
When to reassess
Whirlpools carry their own troop-loss risk. Do not count them as a free, safe portal.
Adventure movement
Starting situation
Your main hero is repeatedly detouring to a Windmill and Waterwheel in an already safe area.
Decision sequence
- Separate personal one-time visits from weekly rewards shared by all visitors.
- Assign a safe collection route to a helper while retaining the main force for new guards.
- Compare the helper’s benefit with its cost and the recruitment you postpone to hire it.
How to choose
Saving the main hero’s movement matters when it opens another town, mine or passage sooner.
When to reassess
Do not allocate so many troops to the collector that the main expedition can no longer clear its route.
Edition and scope
Original PC Heroes I: A Strategic Quest, kept separate from Game Boy Color rules.
These editorial plans are based on the cited rules. They are not reports of personal playtesting or one army for every map.
Rule references
