Hit-and-run

[Fewtger]

I was just scanning through these fora, when I read somewhere about hit-and-run attacks.

Well of course (like everybody) I know what hit-and-run tactics are. We all used them in games like Battlefield 2142 and Supreme Commander. However, those games are real-time.

I really have no idea how tp put hit-and-run tactics in a turn-based game (other than taking they're resources when they're not home.)
Could someone explain?

[Jolly Joker]

In HoMM hit-and-run usually means that you send a low-value-high-damage hero against a high-value enenmy hero. The most famous - or notorious - form is the sending of a hero equipped with single-creature stacks of Armageddon-resistent creatures (instead of Armageddon Word of Light and CotN may be used in H5; Meteor Shower is usually enough as well), cast the heavy damage spell doing a ton of damage and flee.
Generally all sacrificial attacks done with a minimum of creatures to do a maximum of damage before fleeing in order to attrition the army of a massive hero or even a massive guarding stack are considered hit-and-run tactics. Given enough money to rehire multiple hit-and-run attacks are possible.

[Panda Tar]

In addition to that, in Heroes 5, where it has an "initiative bar" rather than "turns", a hit-and-run approach is also possible by having a high initiative unit against low initiative ones. You can boost your unit with haste and use support spells so you won't lose units with retaliation. If the unit has great movement is also important.

It's a simple task, however you'll mostly need a hero with some supporting spells to help your units to survive, with some exceptions like having sprites or blood furies in your army.

This kind of strategy is unusual for the other Heroes series, given that they have no initiative.

[konfeta]

Addendum! With addition of the "Mentor" perk in enlightenment for every race, you can effectively use a high level hero to level up a bunch of hired heroes, load them up on magic skills, and use them to soften up your enemy with powerful AoE spells.

[Zmeio]

This kind of strategy is unusual for the other Heroes series, given that they have no initiative.

I play Homm3 many years, and hit-and-run strategy is very strong and used.
Combination with 1 phoenix and implosion spell is deadly and cheap.