Cheat Codes:
Enter one of the following codes while playing. Press F8 then type in the code and press ENTER

RESULT CHEAT CODE
All units and production turn into Tanks just for grant
Production time of every unit in all cities set to 1 hiho hiho
All units get medal purple heart
Upgrade cities to Citadels +3 king of the castle
All units turn into dragons dragon rush
99 movement for all units run spot run
1000 experience for selected hero there can be only one
Full map but now i can see
Remove fog of war on a clear day
Water turns green not easy being green
10,000 money if i were a rich man
20 Mana show me the mana
Burn down all sites burn baby burn
Conquer all cities i am lazy
Hero stats set to S:9, H:4, L:5, M:50 call me conan
New Background Music name that tune
Cities not getting mana get 1 per turn lord of the mana
Unknown lord of the mana
Unknown target practice
Unknown free free free
Unknown name that tune
Unknown learn spell

Single Player Games:
These principles apply to all human vs. computer games, whether you're in a campaign, a scenario or a random map.
Garrison! Build relatively inexpensive units in the first eight turns of owning a city. That is usually sufficient to hold off a decent attack. Then turn your production to a more time-consuming unit such as Knight Lords. We like Knight Lords because they have three hit points and the field bonus. They can take their relative strength out in the open to hold off (or at least inflict major pain on) approaching powerful stacks. Remember the two turn rule. We try not to occupy cities that are within one turn's striking distance of an enemy without being 90% sure that we can hold it for at least three turns (which is time enough to vector an adequate garrison there). This is something of a guessing game. One alternative: if you know you are going to capture a city that is within one turn's striking distance from a computer opponent (and this is a desirable city with a temple or other site attached to it), have a defensive stack following right behind your offensive stack to immediately garrison the city. If the computer really wants this city back, first it'll deal with your garrison, then it'll have try to take out your offensive stack and thus probably leave itself pretty exposed. Otherwise if the city is not easily defended, and you don't have garrison troops readily available and your offensive stack has an opportunity that can't wait three turns -- then raze it! Building a nice buffer after you've secured sufficient income and resources helps fend off the computer opponents.

Those tips are defensive in nature, because the crux of offensive strategy revolves around taking advantage of bonuses and hero "super" stacks. You will lose to the computer when your lack of a cohesive defensive strategy allows the computer to whittle away at you. Now, on to how to attack and win. At the beginning of the game, there are two important things that you should do: grab as many neutral cities as fast as you can; and avoid war with multiple computer opponents.

It's important that you expand your production base and increase your revenues as fast as possible. The computer does a great job of expanding its initial holdings and if you don't keep up, the computer will eventually overwhelm you. Concentrate on building cheap units such as Heavy Infantry or Archers. These units make good defensive units and do an adequate job against neutral cities, especially if they're led by your hero.

Secondly, avoid war with multiple computer players if at all possible. In the early stages of the game, you're just not prepared to handle multiple computer opponents. Therefore, it's best to expand in areas where it won't antagonize your computer opponent. Resist the temptation to take undefended computer cities, it's not worth it unless you plan to declare war on that side. If it's impossible to do this, check the Diplomatic Report and find the computer opponent who dislikes you the most and is also closest. This side will be the one that is most likely to declare war on you first anyway.

Once you've identified your first victim, start expanding toward him in a methodical manner. Sooner or later, you will take a city that he also wants. At this point, the computer will declare war and attack you. This is the best thing that can happen since you were planning to attack him anyway, and you don't suffer a diplomatic penalty because the computer declared war first. Concentrate on this opponent until you've wiped him out. When you have conquered all of his cities, check the Diplomatic Report and find the next likely target.

The benefit to this approach is that you can expand across the map in a methodical manner while maintaining your diplomatic rating. Instead of joining up to defeat you, the computer opponents will spend time beating up on each other. At some point, you will have more cities and armies than any other side on the map. At that time, all remaining computer opponents will likely declare war on you, but it won't matter since they're weakened and you should have a powerful revenue base and more than enough armies to deal with them.

While you're expanding across the map, be sure to have your hero explore ruins and embark on quests whenever he can. When you complete a quest, always choose Allies as your reward. You will be rewarded with a powerful unit that generally costs you too much to build at one of your own cities. Keep these powerful units with your hero to create a "super" stack. Use this super stack to take particularly difficult cities or to wipe out enemy heroes. Always accept heroes when they're offered as you can't predict when the next one will be available. Don't choose quests that require you to raze an enemy city or site, as doing so will have negative diplomatic consequences. However, don't hesitate to raze enemy cities once you're at war with them. It won't matter in that case and it's often the most effective tactic against the computer.

Playing the Campaign:
Your strategy during the campaign scenarios should not be too different from playing against regular computer opponents. The difference is that some sides will start the scenario already at war or allied with you. Try to focus on Lord Bane or Lord Sartek if you can, otherwise pick the side that's closest to you for your initial victim.

Since the campaign is a series of linked scenarios, you have the ability to bring your top three heroes from scenario to scenario. You will also find that at the end of each scenario you will have the opportunity to bolster your side's points. With this in mind there are two really basic recommendations:

Build up your heroes, especially magic users, early. Having three level ten heroes (We like a Warrior with a couple of Paladins and/or Priests) going into the latter stages of the campaign will make the pesky tactics of the AI a little less troublesome. To do this, take Quests. Additionally, make sure at least one of the non-questing Heroes is active taking cities or searching ruins. After the first three scenarios you should have major world-class Heroes, so protect them well. The extra heroes that are given at the beginning of each new scenario are usually gravy, but are useful for defense.
Be wise in spending your bonus points on the units. Would you rather have a Knight Lord in two turns or a Pegasi in one? Our recommendation is to take the Pegasi, but you may focus on different units. Use your point purchases to solidify that strategy, whatever your favorite unit might be.
On to the more tactical stuff. As we mentioned above you have a pretty limited side. You'll find some troop types aren't worth much while others are worth a bunch. Our favorite offensive units are the one-turn Pegasi, and our favorite defensive units are a combination of Infantry, Knight Lords and Pegasi. This is, of course, after you have built sufficient garrison troops. Here's our basic strategy, although given each scenario's differences, it varies a bit.

While building up your heroes, select focal cities. That is, select and occupy cities that can be defended more easily by one powerful stack than having to cover vast distances with multiple stacks. Often you will find it much more fun to have a stack with open field bonuses (thus our affinity for Knight Lords) in a city that can reach a pretty good number of surrounding cities in one turn. This way, when the enemy tries to approach a city that doesn't have a strong defensive presence and falls just short, you have a stack in a nearby city that can ride out and crush him in the next turn!

With these focal cities, use a point city as your vector point, choosing a city close to the front. Use this city to vector your offensive units. This could be your Catapults in early scenarios and later becomes your Pegasi. In any event, if you have the surrounding cities garrisoned and protected by a defensive stack, you'll find that vectoring all offensive production to this city is a very useful tactic.

Playing in a Multi-Player Game:
One of the biggest changes in Warlords III is the simultaneous movement system in multi-player games. This new movement system allows for some new strategy while presenting new challenges. You have the unpredictable nature of human opponents and the relative randomness of map placement, as well as plain old dumb luck (like when your neighbor gets the castle right next to yours and then finds three dragons on the first turn!).

Given these factors, there are some things you can do to ensure some success. Defense is a key. Many an unsuspecting opponent can be taken out by a single bat running rampant through undefended cities! So keep some Archers in the back line cities as garrison troops. Granted, one stack of archers won't hold off a super stack, but with the missile bonus, you will inflict some pain.

Here are some more things to watch for:
It is vitally important to keep an eye on what the other human players are doing. A handy tool for this is the Army Report in the Reports Menu button. This report will show the location of all armies in the game at any given time. Learn to check this report frequently during a turn. It allows you to see if anyone is sending armies toward your cities or your heroes.
Try to get to as many ruins as possible. There's only a finite number on each map and you shouldn't allow your opponents to gain all the magical items and allies that these ruins hold.
If you're playing a game with Hidden Map turned on, one of your first priorities should be to scout the entire map.
Some human players like to raze cities instead of capturing them. The best tactic against these players is to fight fire with fire. Once you start razing their home cities, it will force them to hold at least a few cities. They will also be in a worse position as newly captured cities usually have weaker defenses and no production. You could also just turn off the razing cities option.
Flying units are extremely powerful in a multi-player game. Even a Giant Bat can cause a fair amount of damage if an opponent is foolish enough to leave his home cities undefended.
The Invisibility spell is incredibly powerful for obvious reasons. A deadly tactic is to have your hero cast an Invisibility spell and send him with an entire stack of flying creatures toward your enemy's rear.
Finally, the ability to create a custom army side for multi-player games opens up much room for debate as to what would make up the ultimate side. Individual preferences vary, but this is what we prefer: Our regulars consist of a Giant Bat (not only for flying, but for view as well), Dwarf Crossbows, Pegasi, Knight Lords and Dragons. You get this group on a roll and it can be a lot of fun. Then, you'll take the "No Mercenaries" option, with your Allies being Pegasi, Air Elementals, Dragons and Dust Wyrms. You should have a Barge and your heroes should be a General, Paladin, Priest, and Wizard. You want an eight unit stack, turn "sell items" off, and start everyone with 172gp and a max of 13 Grey Mana.