Heroes V: square battlefield tactics and a visual ATB model
Six TotE 3.1 situations with original creatures, a commander portrait and spell icons. Compare Initiative with Speed, Wait, four-tile creatures, return attacks, hero spellcasting and Fireball’s area.
This is an excerpt with its own coordinates and conditional decisions rather than a full battle. Steps need not be three immediately consecutive actions. The timing model assumes constant Initiative without resolving combat, intervening effects or engine ordering at shared thresholds.
Reaching a target and acting again soon are different advantages
Blood Fury has base Speed eight and Initiative sixteen; Black Dragon has Speed nine and Initiative ten. This example assumes the displayed ATB order puts the Blood Fury first. The two stats alone do not determine the current queue.
The dragon’s greater movement does not mean more frequent actions. In this assumed ATB state the Blood Fury is the next threat. In the actual battle inspect its current bar position and reachable targets first.
The shooter considers hitting the soon-acting Blood Fury. The arrow subtracts no invented casualties: estimate the actual effect and whether it removes or weakens the dangerous attack. An easy distant target need not be the right priority.
Damage, spells and abilities can change what follows. Do not assume a shared round where everyone receives exactly one action. In this game Haste and Slow change Initiative rather than directly changing ordinary movement reach. Separately check spell eligibility against Black Dragon’s Immune to Magic.
Check this in the actual battle
Speed determines movement reach during one action. Initiative affects action frequency, while current ATB progress determines the upcoming order. Choose priorities by more than creature size or distance.
A mid-battle teaching example: Blood Fury can act now and the Minotaur has an assumed ATB of 0.6. Their Initiative values are sixteen and eight. These gauge values are chosen assumptions rather than an observed battle.
The starting state uses an active Blood Fury and a Minotaur at ATB 0.6. Different progress or modified Initiative changes the result. The model below lets you change that assumption without claiming to calculate the whole live battle.
After Wait the faster stack has half a gauge to refill. At constant Initiative sixteen this takes 0.3125 normalized model time. The Minotaur at Initiative eight needs 0.5 time to fill from 0.6.
In this model Blood Fury reaches another action first while the Minotaur is only at ATB 0.85. Wait did not itself guarantee the opponent’s approach. After a normal Blood Fury action the Minotaur would instead reach its next threshold first from this starting state.
Check this in the actual battle
Wait resets the acting stack to ATB 0.5. An ordinary action and Defend normally reset it to zero, with Defend also adding thirty-percent Defense until its next action. This differs from waiting for a shared round’s end in Heroes III.
A large creature needs four tiles rather than one free square
Hydra is a Large Creature with a two-by-two footprint. Footman occupies one tile. The marked obstacles leave a gap only one tile wide; any other route outside this excerpt needs a separate check.
Gray tiles are fixed obstacles in this diagram. The open C3 passage is one tile wide. The Hydra image represents one stack, while the colored footprint shows all four occupied positions.
On its available action the Footman uses the open tile. The Hydra cannot copy that route merely because the center of its image seems to fit: part of its body would overlap an obstacle.
The Footman is through while the Hydra remains before the obstacles. Check the complete battlefield for another route and the actions it needs. The excerpt neither evaluates off-image paths nor gives the Hydra flight.
Check this in the actual battle
One free destination tile is insufficient: the whole body needs room along the route. Heroes V large creatures normally occupy a two-by-two square, unlike Heroes III two-hex creatures. Flyers additionally have their own flight and landing options.
Strike and Return alone does not prevent retaliation
Base Blood Maiden has Strike and Return. Its Blood Fury upgrade additionally has No Enemy Retaliation. This example uses the Maiden and an eligible Minotaur with ordinary retaliation available.
The Maiden has its own profile and ability list. Judge its attack by that list rather than the similar upgraded Fury portrait. Both return after striking, but only the latter listed variant additionally prevents ordinary enemy retaliation.
The Maiden strikes and an eligible surviving defender can answer. Its later return does not turn this melee exchange into a safe ranged shot. Actual counts and damage determine casualties.
3. Returning changes position rather than undoing losses
The third state assumes the Maiden can complete its return. It reaches the starting position without undoing possible retaliation losses. Read the ATB again before planning another attack rather than assuming an immediate extra action.
Check this in the actual battle
Returning to the starting position and suppressing retaliation are separate abilities. Do not assign Blood Fury’s rules to its base predecessor without checking. Also establish whether the attacker survives and can actually complete the return.
Sorcery and qualifying mass spells recover ATB differently
Zehir is the illustrative commander outside the field. This example assumes Haste is actually learned and Master of Wrath is present for its mass variant. It does not assign those conditions to Zehir’s starting profile.
After ordinary Haste the hero has its own ATB recovery rather than simply sharing creature Speed order. Basic, Advanced and Expert Sorcery leave 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 after casting. Hero attacks and arbitrary special abilities do not automatically inherit that benefit.
2. The actual perk mass variant has its own recovery
Master of Wrath unlocks Mass Haste. Alongside its eligible-allies coverage this specific mass category has faster hero recovery, leaving ATB 0.5. The diagram uses the original Haste family icon rather than inventing a separate one.
Expert Sorcery on an ordinary spell and the qualifying mass variant give two different recovery values. Do not add them into a reset of 0.8. Another cast needs a new hero action, mana and the spell’s own conditions.
Check this in the actual battle
At the normal hero Initiative of ten an ordinary cast resets ATB to zero, 0.1, 0.2 or 0.3 by Sorcery rank. Qualifying Light/Dark mass variants from Master of perks reset it to 0.5 without adding Sorcery again. Merely hitting multiple targets does not establish that special mode.
Fireball can include allies in its three-by-three area
The commander knows Fireball and has enough mana in this example. The enemy Hydra’s whole body lies inside the marked area, and a friendly Archer starts in the same zone.
The nine orange tiles form the considered Fireball area. Look beyond the Hydra in the middle: the Archer is inside too. Ownership does not automatically exclude a stack from this ordinary area hit.
Move the Archer outside the zone only on its actual available action. If it acts after the hero, consider delaying the cast or choosing another plan. The opponent is not frozen meanwhile; recheck ATB order.
In the third state the Archer stands outside the same area while the Hydra remains inside. Confirm the actual preview and target eligibility in the real battle. The diagram subtracts no hypothetical HP or promises a hit outcome.
Check this in the actual battle
Check the area and eligible targets before confirming. Fireball includes allies. A larger body changes occupied space; the diagram invents neither hit count, damage nor casualties from that alone.
This teaching model calculates the next ATB threshold at constant Initiative. Input progress is an assumed mid-battle state; the game does not normally display its numeric value. Time is normalized rather than measured in seconds. The model resolves neither combat, intervening changes nor engine ordering at a shared threshold.
Base Speed and Initiative of the selected reference creatures. Spells, equipment and other modifiers are not added to these numbers.
The bars show both gauges at the first reached threshold. The model does not predict later actions after that event.
Defend also grants thirty-percent Defense until the next friendly action. Other abilities and final Defense rounding are not calculated here.
The same default example without controls: Blood Fury Initiative sixteen, Minotaur Initiative eight and its ATB 0.6.
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Default action comparison
Considered friendly action
Blood Fury
Minotaur
Earlier threshold
Ordinary action
0.625
0.5
Minotaur
Wait
0.3125
0.5
Blood Fury
Defend
0.625
0.5
Minotaur
Hero spellcasting and Sorcery
The second model assumes a hero at Initiative ten. A faster mass variant means the qualifying Light/Dark spell from a Master of perk, such as Mass Haste from Master of Wrath. An area hit such as Fireball does not itself define that category.
Hero ATB after casting
0
Normalized delay at hero Initiative ten
1
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Hero spellcasting and Sorcery · Initiative 10
Sorcery mastery
Hero ATB after casting
Normalized delay at hero Initiative ten
No Sorcery
0
1
Basic Sorcery
0.1
0.9
Advanced Sorcery
0.2
0.8
Expert Sorcery
0.3
0.7
Reading the calculation
Time remaining is (1 − ATB) × 10 / Initiative. After an ordinary action the acting stack starts at zero; after Wait it starts at 0.5. Equal calculated times are marked as a shared threshold without choosing engine ordering.
Rules are checked against the community TotE 3.1 manual, coordinated by Age of Heroes with Ubisoft and Nival support. Authors include Stéphane Fidanza, Valera Koltsov and Paolo Angelo Sossi. Explanations and diagrams are original editorial work; source paragraphs are not reproduced.
