Homm

Been wanting to get into this series for a long time. Where should I start? And does anyone have any tips for helping a newb get to grips with it?

I hate acronyms, it's actually right there under my username. Look!
Just start with the third game.

We'll keep not telling people what we're talking about, it'll be nice.

There's a new collection edition that has 1-5 complete editions in it. I snagged it off amazon on sale for $15. Steam only goes back to 4 I believe and it's around $10? So I think the collection hard copy is well worth it. They have full manuals on the discs too. I played the first one all weekend and it's amazing for a game from the 90s. I sampled 3 and 4 just to check the graphics but honestly have no plans to put 1 down any time soon. I would start there and just go through them all. Standard game doesn't take that long, you don't have to do the whole campaign. The first one is very simple yet elegant in design, so you can pick it up easily. Just read the manual, skip the tutorial part, just read what all the menus and buttons do and it will take about 10 mins. The interface is the only thing to learn in 1 because the rest is very intuitive.

I also got 6 on sale for under 10 bucks. Haven't loaded it yet though, will take a while to get there.

The only downside to the hard copy is it's on 5 different cds and requires cd so switching between them all is a pita. But that doesn't matter if you play only one all day I guess.

I'd be interested in some strategy discussion if this thread takes us there, though like I said just on 1 and it's not that complex to warrant a huge discussion.

HOMM 2 was one of the first games I ever played, along with first AOE.
It was a great game!
III was even better.
IV wasn't bad too, but it strayed quite far from the original HOMM concept.
V on the other hand, expanded upon the original concept really nicely. Objectively, it is probably best of the bunch, but my older self didn't enjoy the genre quite as much any more...

I am a die hard heroes fan. Its probably the game i have sunk more hours in to than any other game, and thats actually saying something. I only started playing the franchise in HOMM3 though. I would say that is the best place to start. It looks good (even now i think it looks clean and crisp), it sounds good, and it plays spectacularly well. there is also an enormous amount of content you can pick up for it.

Best place to pick it up is on GOG:

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/heroes_of_might_and_magic_3_complete_edition

Buy that and that gives you all of the original campaigns plus the 2 expansion packs, which basically triples the game size. Ask any heroes fan and they will say that 3 is by far and away the best there ever was. Then if you like it i would skip 4 and go on to 5 (and then 6). That gives you about 1000 hours of gameplaying (approx) time if you play all of them to a decent degree.

I can understand people saying that 2 is worth a shot as well. The only thing that limits you is time. If you have thousands and thousands of hours then by all means start out with 1 or 2. If your time is more limited then start out with 3. If you are a sucker for 3d graphics and cant play a game without them then start on 5.

Oh and i almost forgot, you can also get something called heroes chronicles, which is basically heroes 3 but with an extra 6 campaigns. Yet another reason why 3 is your best bet. have to buy that separate though i think.

sherbz said:

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/heroes_of_might_and_magic_3_complete_edition

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Dang, you gave away what we're actually talking about with this link.

Still think this is a better deal than gog

http://www.amazon.com/Heroes-Of-Mig...keywords=heroes+of+might+and+magic+collection

$8 more plus shipping you get four more complete games.

I'm still on 1, I just can't stop playing it! I'm sure that 3 is far better since 1 is so simplistic but it really has that "one more turn" feel to it just like civ. The campaign is brutally hard too so it takes a while. The main thing to know is dragons = win every time lol.

I am starting to notice some really dumb AI mistakes though. I was assaulting cities with paladins and cavalry, two of the fastest units, and the AI kept casting berserk on my paladins after they had moved and the AI was a barbarian with a spell power of 1. Thus the berserk only lasted one round and was worn off by the time the paladin's next move came up so it did nothing. They do this a lot with other spells too like slow. Either the AI doesn't understand rounds very well or has no way of calculating spell power duration of spells. Because when they did this same strat with an sorceress it worked obviously with the higher spell power. It's also really easy to counter their spells. Just wait til they get their first move of the round and they'll cast something, often they'll haste or bless their strongest unit, regardless of speed. This other assault he kept blessing his cyclops before it had a chance to move so I just cast berserk on it right after overwriting the bless. Worked every single round like the AI couldn't figure out to wait for me to cast first. Anyway, just a few ways they're exploitable but I guess the game would be too hard if you couldn't beat them sometimes.

In general though they do a pretty good job, they always smartly go after your ranged units, and they do a really nice job casting aoe spells like storm when it's clear they're gonna lose anyway. The AI plays like a pillaging bandit with their heroes for the most part though, lots of them with small armies raiding your mines and cities, so if you just build a super strong army and bide your time they're almost always beatable.

Also, don't play H6 unless someone pays you to do it.

Heroes III is (imho) the best part of the series.
It aged quite well and I still play it for a round or two every month. There is also some sort of HD patch out there that allows you to adjust the resolution, so the graphics look "okay" on modern monitors.

Gameplay wise, it is a good idea to get the base level of all creature spawners asap to stack the weekly unit supply - and to get a capitol to have the $ to pay them (againt AI I usually go capitol first).

I think the first Heroes of Might and Magic game was among the first, if not the first, game(s) I played.

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is among the grander of a grand series. Heroes 2 and 4 are close to it.

I personally suggest GOG for the games.

...and remember when facing necromancers:

The thing with GOG is that you can be fairly certain that old games will work on a brand spanking new computer. I couldnt get my heroes 3 to work from the disc so i had to resort to other methods. When i bought heroes chronicles from GOG it worked (almost) flawlessly.

I also feel a big hand should go to the map and campaign editor. I think ts very user friendly and anyone could build a map if they so wanted. The random map generator is also pretty decent.

Well GOG is nice since they're digital drm free, but the collection discs are a new product afaik, redone for new os. You're not buying the original games thrown into one box, it's definitely package with new installers and some sort of wrapper because I could play 1 in windowed mode and set multiple resolutions through a file menu option. I highly doubt the original supported that. It works great on windows 7.

I'd also vouch for gog. They update games regularly. With a decent backup system, their DRM scheme gives you a more perennial purchase than any disc. They often have sales too, I re-bought most of the series there and it cost me less than 17$. I didn't want to pay to replace disks that became outdated (or lost) with more disks... Also, as the years pass and time flies, I'm learning to love not having random objects like disks and game boxes in my place that I don't need to have...

I know a site that might give you good information on things within the games. Here it is.

Also: learn to regaurd peasants as useless (unless your a necromancer from HoM&M 3 and onwards, which you own peasants can be converted into skeletons) and to love the mighty cows of doom in HoM&M 3.

Heretic_Cata said:

Also, don't play H6 unless someone pays you to do it.

Click to expand...

I actually think heroes 6 is quite well done. Its DRM is a crock of utter *#'/*# though. My copy has now stopped working completely. Also, there is nothing more infuriating than getting to the end of a very long siege battle, you are just going to survive, and then your internet connection drops out and you get booted from the game

Im interested to see that a lot of people rate heroes 4. I think it has great music and the story in the first game is pretty well put together. I also think that its expansions were clearly rushed, poorly designed, and that the game itself has some questionable design options.

The extreme simplicity, repetitiveness and overall dumbing down of 6 was a major turn off. The battles were the only area that still had a semblance of the other games. And let's not remember the DRM.

I heard 6 was riddled with bugs on release and that's a big reason why it got such poor reviews. Bugs fixed now, it's supposedly dumbed down compared to other homm but I'll still give it a shot.

*Bordering on a troll post*

AoW > HoMM

At first I wasn't going to say anything because I haven't played HOMM, so what I have to say is just based off user reviews and things I have heard from others. If you haven't heard of Age of Wonders you need to check it out. I haven't felt a need to play HOMM because it seems like the majority who have played both HOMM and AOW say that AOW is better. AOW is available on GOG or Steam.

AOW is turn-based fantasy strategy like HOMM. The first AOW came out a few months after HOMM3. There are currently three games in the series: AOW, AOW2: The Wizard's Throne, AOW: Shadow Magic. After a nearly 10 year break it has been announced that AOW3 will be released later this year. AOW has a large variety of races (12-15), spells, units, etc... Combat in the game is great and can include multiple armies (all the unit stacks adjacent to the hex being attacked are included in the battle).

I recommend AOW: SM or the original AOW. Shadow Magic is a standalone expansion to AOW2, so you don't really need AOW2 because SM is better and the gameplay is similar. Gameplay in the original is a little different than the other two and it has a better single player campaign, so it is worth getting too.

Widely different mechanics between AoW and HoMM IMHO. Different focuses. The gameplay in Heroes is much more similar to Disciples gameplay than to AoW. I think all 3 of these series are great, but i never really compare them between eachother because it depends on the kind of gameplay fits the most with your play-style.