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The main focus of Heroes of Might & Magic 3 (HOMM3) is the heroes. Heroes lead stacks, or groups, of armies that they obtain from castles they own and other special locations on the map. You obtain armies, and build the structures at castles you own necessary to get them, by gathering resources. Gold is the main currency, but you also will need raw materials like wood and gems. These can be found scattered around the map in little piles that you can pick up and are also gotten through mines that you control. Mines will provide a set number of a given raw material each turn. Inevitably, each scenario you play is about strengthening your forces by capturing castles and adding heroes to your army so you can cover more ground.
Heroes don't actually participate physically in combat, but their influence is very great. Heroes can be proficient in the use of magic, which can be cast during combat to improve the abilities of your armies or weaken/damage your enemies. Heroes have four main skills (attack, defense, knowledge, and power) that are used in combat to determine how well your units will attack and defend and how powerful your spells will be. There are eight different castles in the game and each has a battle-oriented and magic-oriented hero associated with it.
Combat-oriented heroes see greater increases to attack and defense as they move up experience levels, while heroes that use more magic will see their knowledge and power levels increase. In addition, they can have up to eight secondary skills that can be basic, advanced, or expert level. The skills allow them increasing proficiency in the use of certain spell schools, movement across land or sea, or other such abilities. Finally, artifacts give more bonuses to heroes and can be found throughout each map, although they are never gained without at least a little fight.