The Counterattack mission is one of eight tutorial challenges in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, and it is widely considered the trickiest of the set. You command 10 Sunspear Cavaliers (Champions) and six single-stack Temple Griffins, with a choice between an eastern path against basic Hive Queens or a northern path against tougher Hive Huntresses. The encounter is rigged so that a single retaliation will wipe most of your cavalry, which is exactly what the lesson wants you to learn how to avoid.
Quick answer: Press Wait at the start of every round so your stacks act last, bait each Hive Queen's retaliation with one griffin, then finish the queen with cavaliers from the maximum possible distance to maximize jousting damage. Block remaining queens with lines of griffins so they cannot reach your champions.
Mission setup and victory condition
You start with one Temple hero leading a fixed army. The objective is to defeat the enemy stacks on the chosen path with minimal losses. Either path completes the challenge, and clearing all eight tutorial challenges grants the Bachelor of Heroism achievement.
| Detail | Eastern path | Northern path |
|---|---|---|
| Enemy | Hive Queens (basic) | Hive Huntresses (upgraded queens) |
| Stacks | Three queens, one is a 2-unit stack | Three single huntresses |
| Difficulty | Lower (slower enemy movement) | Higher (more damage, more reach) |
| Your army | 10 Sunspear Cavaliers, 6×1 Temple Griffins | 10 Sunspear Cavaliers, 6×1 Temple Griffins |
Core mechanics that make the fight winnable
Three rules drive every decision in this battle. Memorize them before clicking attack.
- Wait pushes a stack to the end of the round. If you wait with everything on turn one, the queens move first. After they finish, your turn comes around again immediately on the next round, giving you two consecutive activations.
- Killing a stack outright cancels its counterattack. If a single cavalier strike removes the entire enemy stack, no retaliation occurs.
- Cavaliers gain damage per hex traveled before striking (jousting bonus). The further a cavalier moves before contacting an enemy, the harder it hits. Always charge from the farthest reachable hex.
One more detail matters. A stack that has already used its retaliation that round cannot retaliate again, so a sacrificial griffin attack "burns" the queen's retaliation and opens a safe cavalier strike.
Eastern path: Two single Hive Queens and a 2-unit stack
This is the recommended path for a clean clear because the basic Hive Queens have lower movement.
Step 1: During the tactics phase, push every unit one hex forward. This shortens the distance for later cavalier charges.
Step 2: On turn one, press Wait with all stacks. Do not attack anything. The queens move toward you and end their turn first, which gives you priority on round two.
Step 3: When your cavaliers act on round two, ride around to the back of the closest single Hive Queen and attack from the opposite side. Moving the maximum hexes triggers the jousting bonus, and the resulting damage kills the full stack so no counterattack lands.
Step 4: Eliminate the second single Hive Queen the same way. Approach from a flanking direction so you maximize hexes traveled, and confirm in the damage preview that you will kill the full stack before committing.
Step 5: Only the 2-unit Hive Queen stack remains. Send one griffin in first to absorb the queen's retaliation. Do not attack with cavaliers yet.
Step 6: Reposition your cavaliers as far from the queen as possible, ideally to a far corner. Wait with the cavaliers if needed so the queen is forced to attack a griffin instead.
Step 7: On the following round, charge the cavaliers across the maximum hex distance and strike from behind. With the retaliation already burned and the jousting bonus at full value, the remaining queen falls, and the mission ends.
Northern path: Three Hive Huntresses
The northern fight uses the same logic but demands tighter spacing because the huntresses move further and hit harder.
Step 1: In the tactics phase, move each stack one hex forward to gain charge distance.
Step 2: On turn one, wait with every stack. The huntresses advance and end their turn, handing you initiative on the next round.
Step 3: Charge the central or top huntress with your cavaliers from a hex directly above her, traveling as many hexes as possible. The jousting bonus combined with the full cavalier stack kills her in one hit, with no retaliation because the stack is removed.
Step 4: Wall off the next huntress with four griffins on the side that faces your cavaliers. Keep the remaining two griffins back as bait. The wall prevents her from reaching the champions.
Step 5: On the following round, keep waiting with the griffins and pull the cavaliers to the top-right corner. Expect to lose two griffins to huntress attacks. That is the intended trade.
Step 6: Place the four surviving griffins as bait pairs, two in the top-left corner and two in the bottom-right corner, so each remaining huntress chases a different group. This separates the two enemies.
Step 7: Wait again, then ride the cavaliers into one of the isolated huntresses with a maximum-distance charge. Removing the full stack avoids retaliation.
Step 8: Reposition diagonally opposite to the final huntress with all remaining units. Wait one more time, then finish her with a long-range cavalier charge to win the battle.
How to know it worked
The challenge ends the moment the last enemy stack dies on the chosen path. The Counterattack tile in the Challenges menu will show a completion mark. Once all eight tutorial challenges show that mark, the Bachelor of Heroism achievement triggers automatically.
Common reasons the mission fails
| Failure | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Most cavaliers die in one hit | Attacked a queen without burning her retaliation | Send a single griffin in first to soak the counterattack |
| Cavalier strike does not kill the stack | Charged from too few hexes, so jousting damage was low | Reposition with Wait, then charge from the maximum reachable distance |
| Queens reach cavaliers anyway | Griffin wall left a gap or blocked the wrong side | Form a continuous line on the side facing your champions |
| Lost initiative on round two | Acted instead of waiting on turn one | Restart and wait with every stack on the opening round |
| Unable to finish the last 2-unit stack | Cavaliers too close, low jousting damage | Move cavaliers to the far side of the map, wait, then charge |
The lesson the mission teaches is simple once the mechanics click. Wait to control turn order, sacrifice cheap griffins to remove retaliation, and always charge cavaliers from the longest possible path. Apply those three rules in sequence and either path resolves cleanly, with the achievement following once the rest of the challenge set is cleared.