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Heroes III · CREATURE PROFILE

Crusader in Heroes III: stats, cost and abilities

Crusader in Heroes III: Melee core and holding approaches. Practical use, abilities, weaknesses, recruitment and 35 base health.

Quick guide: where it fits

Melee core and holding approaches

Position infantry for a useful melee exchange.

Watch for: Swordsmen do not have a second attack.

Exact dwelling, growth and items →
Crusader — creature appearance in Heroes 3
Source · Game artwork

Castle · Tier 4

Crusader

Upgraded form

How to use this creature in practice

Melee core and holding approaches

Position infantry for a useful melee exchange. With Crusaders compare retaliation casualties with the strength of the second strike.

Watch for: Swordsmen do not have a second attack. Do not calculate both strikes from the initial stack size if retaliation causes casualties.

Timing, specific abilities and the follow-up plan

Speed 6 affects reach and order. Before Wait compare who still acts this round and who opens the next; delaying does not create a free extra attack.

  • Additional strike: Adds 1 further strike(s), rather than a complete new turn with extra movement.

Example for 10 creatures: 70–100 base damage for one ordinary hit before hero, defense, spell and ability modifiers. Recalculate surviving creatures before a subsequent hit.

What changes between base and upgraded forms
Swordsman / Crusader
FormAttack / DefenseDamageHPSpeedCost each
Swordsman10 / 126–9355300 gold
Crusader12 / 127–10356400 gold

This compares recruitment prices and base parameters, rather than final damage or an automatic price for a particular map upgrade.

Attack
12
Defense
12
Damage
7–10
Health
35
Speed
6
Shots
0
Base weekly growth
4
AI value
588
Occupied hexes
1

Cost per creature: 400 gold

Abilities and limitations

  • Additional strike

    Adds 1 further strike(s), rather than a complete new turn with extra movement.

Heroes connected to this creature

Normal upgrade of the specialty line (3)

The normal upgrade belongs to the same specialty line in the pinned VCMI reference. Gelu’s and Dracon’s special conversions are separate from its normal upgrades.

Reference ↗ · Ability reference configuration ↗

Where to obtain and develop this creature

This form uses the upgraded dwelling; construction cost is not the retraining price.

Growth and construction prerequisites (4)

Growth support is not another recruitment site. A prerequisite may unlock one of the recruitment forms.

Items with a specific creature relationship (2)

Read the exact item effect; the relationship may concern summoning or another function rather than a blanket buff to every form.

Reference stack cost and health

These values multiply every resource in the undiscounted reference price and full base health. Hero, equipment, spell, price and growth modifiers are excluded. This is neither final damage or battle survival nor a guarantee that the listed number is available to recruit.

Crusader · reference values before bonuses
CreaturesTotal costBase health
1
  • 400 gold
35
5
  • 2,000 gold
175
10
  • 4,000 gold
350

Reading this profile correctly

This profile uses Complete/SoD and the cited VCMI reference. HotA, WoG and other mod changes are not added. Body footprint and attack reach are separate properties.

Base growth excludes Citadel, Castle, external dwellings and other bonuses. AI value supports army generation and evaluation; it is neither a price nor experience. Ranged and melee penalties, immunity, resistance chance and spell-damage reduction are distinct effects. Neutral dragons can have higher editor levels than some internal rules use. Campaign scripts can alter ordinary recruitment.

Numerical reference source ↗

Original roster scope

141 Heroes III Complete / The Shadow of Death creatures: 126 town forms across nine factions and 15 neutrals. The Heroes 3 Wiki stat table is pinned to revision 194544; HotA branches and balance changes are removed. Abilities additionally identify the pinned VCMI reference; its internal identifiers are not blindly used as game names. War machines, siege towers and random editor placeholders are outside this creature count. Growth is the base weekly figure; costs are per creature and stats exclude hero, town and spell bonuses.