I'm beginning to notice a large number of similarities between the was SOASE early game works and WC:FT III works. Firstly, you pick from a free hero unit at the start of the game, which is upgradeable and has upgradeable abilities, and starts out relatively tough but ends up incredibly strong. There is also the fact that expansions(planets are guarded by NPC creeps and are a very easy way to upgrade said hero. Now the rest of the game is not at all like WC:FT III, but this part just seems really similar.