Heroes of Might and Magic

Anybody remember/played this series? I have very fond memories of it from my childhood, particularly of II and III :)

I personally like II the best, what with the overall graphics design and general game mechanics, though I agree that III feels more polished and its content-heaviness ensures INSANE replay value.

Never played I much, and IV was too different for me to get into it, but I think V is still pretty decent, and plan on buying VI when it comes out this fall.

Oh, and the music is awesome too. Thank you Paul Anthony Romero.

Which one's your favourite?

IV, as I've indictated in the past on this forum.

edited 8th May '11 4:15:16 PM by Kerrah

I've played 3 a couple times. Mostly, I spent my time trying to see how many Medusa Gorgons I could stack up.

There's a page for Might & Magic Heroes VI.

Everything sucked after 3DO lost the license to their franchise :(

You mean New World Computing?

Ehh I think Nival made some interesting changes in V, namely the spell system. One thing that always annoyed me about III and to a lesser extent II was that Blind and Mass Slow could beat just about anything, and in the case of III, it is easy enough to get Expert Earth Magic, in order to Mass Slow-abuse early on. V made, in my opinion, a good compromise between the largely hero-external magic system of II and the too hero-dependent system in III.

That is to say, with V I think the problem is precisely that though there are some good changes, there are problems with their implementation. Though the 3D town screens are nice enough, it just isn't as satisfying as being able to see from the outset a whole town rise before your eyes. It also doesn't feel very smooth, what with how often it is difficult to steadily tech up in terms of creature dwellings, and with the clunky camera and slow enemy turns (better than in IV though iirc). While I love the idea of alternate creature upgrades in Tot E, the choice between one and the other is often too obvious (Arcane Archers, anyone?).

That said, what are your favourite factions? I like Sorceress the most in II, what with her fairly balanced tiers, good speed, spellcasting ability, and awesome phoenixes :P In III I remember playing Conflux the most, before I found out they're op. I just always loved the concept of elementals and other anthropomorphic things made out of inorganic material :P

I will always love the warlocks. Particularly in V, where their skills let them go crazy with destruction magic.

I really liked Order in IV. They had the best campaign, too.

I never got into Heroes 5 because it didn't come with a map editor.

Only the initial release. One of the expansions to V added an editor, though at the moment I can't remember which.

It was too late by then. And no random maps either. Sometimes, you've gotta fuck graphics and just use tiles.

Well, they have those now too.

Really, V was missing a lot until Tribes of the East came out. Particularly with regards to balance.

HOMAM 5 drove me away with its lackluster campaign, pitiful story and very limited non-campaign content before it could convince me to buy an expansion.

I mean, I could never finish the third mission of the second campaign due to the insane difficulty curve. They literally barred about 50% of the content of the game (and about 75% of the story) from me because I'm not good enough to beat that mission with the elves.

Then I heard that there was an easy difficulty setting in one of the patches to the game, but I was never able to patch the game properly because I'd have to download all the patches from third-party sites and install them in correct order without missing one.

It's a bizarre game where I mostly liked the GAME part of the game (the mechanics, etc.), but it was like the thing didn't want me playing it, and was trying to drive me away.

edited 10th May '11 1:41:40 AM by Kerrah

Ooh, just noticed this thread. I've never played any of these games, but I watch an ongoing LP of HOMM III by TheMeInTeam. As of his latest uploaded video, he's in the Shadow of Death campaign.

I love the battle music in this game.

I've always had a fondness for the Necromancers, although having Bone Dragons as the Level 7 unit annoyed me a little, especially since the Level 6 creatures were much cooler. I mean, 3 gave you Dread Knights and 5 gave you the freakin' Grim Reaper! (Or it was a fairly good copy, at least.) The Bone Dragon, by comparison, was underwhelming. To quote Indy, "It belongs in a museum."

Oh, I follow his LP too! Watching it made me realize how much of a noob I was playing the game as a kid... I never really used many heroes besides my main, and in battle I would just charge all my melee units forward, not unlike the AI XD

Bone Dragons are awesome in Ho MM 2. I think they are the most efficient creatures in terms of cost:damage, and their dwelling isn't too expensive either. Only their Average speed is lacking in comparison to other level 6's. That, and I think the Ho MM 2 dragons all look badass, especially compared to the ones in III.

I seem to remember bone dragons being so cheap that you only needed like... 5 of a resource (Sulfur? Gems?) to get one up the first week in II.

I actually liked Heroes V, admittedly I only played it AFTER all the expansions. It was broken balance-wise of course (but then again, so was heroes III, and arguably worse) and I loved the skill-wheel.

Holy. I can't believe this. IV may be the black sheep of the series, but I think it's got one of the most beautiful and varied musical scores out of all games I've played.

btw, for those interested, new LP episode by the TheMeInTeam!

edited 10th May '11 12:59:12 PM by Rafmagn

IV may not have been that great gameplay wise, but it easily has the best soundtrack in the series.

By the way, to embed videos it's:

[[ youtube:dg-PeVbuBIc ]] (no spaces)

Which gives you:

edited 10th May '11 12:57:59 PM by Mezzopiano

Thanks! I'm still trying to get the hang of how things work here.

edited 10th May '11 1:00:56 PM by Rafmagn

Come to think about it... The base storyline for Heroes V was probably the stupidest romance plot I've seen in a while. (Before you mention Twilight, I haven't read it.) It got better with the expansions... but seriously, Raelag? The Uriah Gambit doesn't work if you do it that obviously.

Random thoughts:

• Loved the unit designs in general (Archangels especially.)
• The presence of Dark Elves seemed a little derivative.
• They killed Khengi! The bastards!

I was a bit sore about seeing the Dungeon's harpies and manticores replaced with Stripperiffic dark elves. I don't really have a problem with fanservice in general, but really, there's a limit. At least we still kept the minotaurs, hydras, and black dragons...

Heh- I loved playing through III when I was younger. Should buy it off GOG.com sometime and run through it again (assuming I ever catch up with my 'to be played' pile- I had the complete collection 1-3, but when I moved last, I discovered that all I still had was the box. Apparently I loaned it to someone >.<). I was fond of... hrm. Tower, Stronghold, and of course the elementals... Conclave, or something? *checks* Right, the Conflux.

For Tower- three different ranged units? Yes please. The enemy is halfway across the map... and my Master Gremlins, Archmages, and Titans have already melted their faces off. I don't think I ever had more than half the enemy force get into melee range with me when I was playing them... and if they did get into melee range, they promptly got mauled by Master Genies and Obsidian Gargoyles. Pity the Iron Golems were so slow as to be basically useless... I also liked the magic-centric focus of Tower, since it fits my playstyle nicely. Usually

Stronghold? Heh. They're the ones I played when I just wanted to turn my brain off, charge in and wreck the place. And Cyclops and Thunderbirds were just Bad Ass.

Conflux were just plain fun- I liked the hefty pile of flying units, and the elementals all looked awesome... and I loved charging my multiple-thousand pixie stack in and annihilating everything in their path. Yay for stupidly overpowered Tier 1s!

As for the others... I tried IV, and never got very far. I'm not even entirely sure why- probably the unfamiliarity, lack of anyone to play against, and the odd game-design choices. V is on my to-be-played pile, ever since it glitchraped my savegame. And, the best part is, it did it right at the end of an intensely irritating mission that I had finally managed to beat after a ridiculously long time of trying.

I had 1 and 2 for my gameboy colour when I was a kid and now I have V for my computer. It's pretty cool and I love the necromancer's secondary power of rolling the "R" sound to a frankly inhuman level.