Hudson quickly came to a conclusion: this was Wayne's stalling tactic. Wayne was trying to slow down the march toward his main base by using these suicidal "bait" heroes.
He smugly told Verdan in the voice channel that it seemed Wayne and Tess were not only slow in unlocking higher-tier troops, but their meager starting forces must have been depleted while fighting neutral monsters. Otherwise, someone like Wayne—who could go toe-to-toe with a Black Dragon—would never be desperate enough to resort to such suicidal behavior.
Verdan was currently struggling, surviving on the 1,000 gold provided daily by his City Hall. He was commanding a hero who was essentially a "lone commander," wandering the map to pick up unguarded resources. He placed all his hopes on Hudson's main town, as nearly his entire fortune had been handed over to him.
The next day, Wayne once again sent the useless hero "Ryan" to intercept Hudson.
CRACK! Another Lightning Bolt struck down.
Wayne still ignored his taunts, but this time, the corner of his mouth twitched into a smirk.
He glanced at Tess. Following Wayne's lead, she had hired a random hero from the Tavern and was rushing toward Hudson's army.
As soon as the two forces engaged, their screens switched to the battlefield view. Only then did Wayne see that the "random hero" Tess had picked up was actually the Wizard "Solmyr"!
Solmyr was a powerful hero from the "Tower" faction. He started with 0 Attack and 0 Defense but possessed 2 Spell Power and 3 Knowledge. His starting skills were Basic Wisdom and Basic Sorcery.
His specialty was "Chain Lightning," and he started the game with the spell already in his spellbook. Speaking of Chain Lightning, while it might not be cast as frequently as Lightning Bolt, it was undoubtedly one of the most popular damage spells in Heroes III.
It cost 24 mana, a relatively high-cost spell. As the name suggested, after hitting the first target, it would jump to the next four closest targets, dealing damage a total of five times.
If the enemy didn't have five separate units, the spell would jump to one's own troops. Beginners often found themselves dealing "a thousand damage to the enemy but eight hundred to themselves" with a single bolt.
Since Chain Lightning was his specialty, Solmyr dealt significantly more damage with this spell than any other hero.
On the other side of the battlefield, Hudson was cautiously commanding his troops to flank from both sides...
This wasn't the 2D side-view of the original Heroes III; it was a panoramic siege scene more three-dimensional and realistic than Heroes VII.
Since Wayne's main town had its defenses upgraded to a "Castle," the towering walls were surrounded by a deep, wide moat. Two arrow towers stood upon the walls, and a main arrow tower occupied the highest point of the central building.
Instead of a single, lonely archer standing on the towers as in the original game, several elite marksmen worked together, using winches to draw the heavy strings of ballistas. They placed spear-like bolts onto the tracks.
In Heroes III, the damage from defensive arrow towers was a floating number. Taking the main tower as an example, its base damage was roughly 10–15. For every new building constructed in the city, the minimum damage increased by 2 and the maximum by 3.
Given that Wayne had maximized his economic buildings but only unlocked units up to Marksmen, the damage was around 30–40. The two secondary towers on the walls dealt half the damage of the main tower.
The towers also had an independent targeting system, prioritizing units that could attack from within the walls, followed by units that could reach the walls in the shortest time.
Even if the damage wasn't considered "high" by late-game standards, it was more than enough for now.
The second bolt fired: 3 became 1...
The third bolt: the entire stack of Archers was wiped out.
Wayne had achieved his goal.
Hudson's catapult let out a heavy THUMP as it hurled a boulder. It struck the wall with a CLANG, but miserably, the rock shattered while the wall only suffered a small crack.
Since the catapult required a specific skill to be aimed manually...
After the Archers died, Hudson still had 42 Pikemen, 16 Gryphons, and 14 Swordsmen.
Because unupgraded Gryphons and the Marksmen (upgraded Archers) both had a movement speed of 6, when speeds were equal, the attacker moved first.
Hudson cast the "Haste" spell, increasing the Gryphons' movement speed by 3, bringing it to 9.
Under his command, the Gryphons flew straight forward. Since the battlefield width in Heroes III was 15 hexes, the Gryphons—moving 9 hexes—landed right in the middle.
However, the scene he saw next was his Gryphons landing in the deep waters of the moat. They took 70 damage, and 2 were drowned instantly...
De Vries was so annoyed that in a fit of rage, he ordered both the Swordsmen and Pikemen to rush toward the moat. He was waiting for the catapult to smash through the wall so his soldiers could swarm in and slaughter everything.
But before he could even raise his blade, a rain of arrows began to fall from Wayne's side.
First, the 24 Marksmen—surrounded in a corner by three stacks of split-up Halberdiers—began firing rapidly at the Gryphons that had entered their range.
Eight of these Marksmen were from Wayne's production this week, while the other 16 had been recruited through Diplomacy near his main town.
In Heroes III, ranged damage was reduced if the target was beyond half-range or if there were obstacles like city walls.
The Gryphons that had rushed forward now got to "taste" 100% of the raw damage from the ranged units hiding behind the walls.
After two volleys from the Marksmen, 14 Gryphons became 9. Then, a golden eagle appeared above the Marksmen's heads. The eagle spread its wings and showered them with golden light—representing high morale, the Marksmen gained an extra turn!
Triggering a Morale boost with only 1 point of Morale was a stroke of luck that even Wayne hadn't expected.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Two more volleys, and 9 Gryphons became 4!
It wasn't over. Besides the Marksmen, Wayne also had 28 Master Gremlins, the upgraded Tier 1 unit of the "Tower" faction. Their nickname, "Throwers," accurately described their attack: hurling large iron balls attached to chains.
This volley from the Master Gremlins reduced the 4 Gryphons to 3.
Hudson's face turned pale.
Beside him, Verdan looked at his troop bar—11 Pikemen (10 of which were just recruited from a wild Guardhouse) and a pathetic remaining balance of 10 gold. His face went ashen...
After the two waves of ranged attacks, Wayne moved two stacks of Halberdiers closer to the city gate and pulled out his spellbook.
Shua! Adela chanted the incantation for Ice Bolt, a spell almost guaranteed to appear in a Castle's Mage Guild. A bolt of frost cut through the air, bypassed the walls, and struck the Pikemen heavily.
With Adela's current 3 Spell Power, this Ice Bolt killed 6 Pikemen.
Wayne's first turn ended there.
The main arrow tower fired once: 3 Gryphons became 1. A secondary tower fired: the last Gryphon became a corpse.
By this point, the army that originally consisted of 42 Pikemen, 18 Archers, 16 Gryphons, and 14 Swordsmen was left with only 36 Pikemen and 14 Swordsmen.
On Wayne's side, aside from the 8 mana used by his hero and a few scuffs on the city bricks, he hadn't lost a single hair.