Heroes of Might and Magic

In a way, Factory being metal and desert-themed makes the transition from 3 to 5 more natural. It's a better merger than somehow putting Necropolis and Inferno together in 4 at least. Makes it look like the Mages learned science and ditched Slavery inbetween games.

It doesn't look bad like Inferno. Tier 6 creatures are incredibly frail but their ability completely changes the AI to the point some ranged AI units prefer to run towards them instead of shooting. A few of them early on can help you clear a ton of annoying stacks on the map without chipping at your level 1-2 units.

Facing them is going to be a headscratcher because it will be tough to prioritize. You won't want spiders in the middle of your shooter stacks, you'll want engineers dead ASAP, but that means not focusing Juggernauts or Worms, or their two ranged units (and the upgraded Halflings hit hard, real glass cannons).

Edited by Bexlerfu on Jan 3rd 2024 at 11:28:51 AM

Well, that's mostly incidental, seeing as 3 and 5 were made by different devs. Funny you mention ditching slavery though; isn't the genesis of Ashan!Orcs that they were bioengineered to fight demons - and then turned into menial labor with no rights by the Free Cities after the fighting was done? (laying the subtlety on thick, Heroes 5)

The units in Factory are more synergistic and specialized, which isn't really a thing in Heroes 3 much (beyond, incidentally, Inferno's Demon-raising from your cannon fodder Imps); each unit normally would stand on its own in any army. (barring a few general exceptions like the Undead)

Although, one thing Cove and Factory have in common is that they're both fast; their slowest units have 6 Speed (incidentally, both of these units have growth-boosting buildings, so you're free to amass them as garrisons; they're also fairly superfluous so you're free to leave them in town) which might not seem like much but contributes to their overall faster movement on the world map (especially with Logistics receiving a hefty nerf in HOTA). Only Inferno and Conflux share that with them from the base game.

The Ashan Wizards kept making new slave races too, and they always rebelled.

I guess by V (chronologically the latest in the Ashan games) they decided it was not working out and just BUILT their workforce.

Edited by M84 on Jan 3rd 2024 at 7:41:41 PM

I'm having trouble with one of the Archibald missions, so I've done a couple of standard scenarios to see what they're like... And the second one I do, supposedly of very high difficulty, has the hero that is required to kill to complete it die two weeks into the scenario, giving me a top score for having done nothing.

lol

I might redo it, just to see if it happens again and I might have a different, less anti-climatic experience.

Edited by Resileafs on Jan 3rd 2024 at 4:14:23 AM

Wow - I regularly look at the HOMM page on this Wiki, but I didn't know there was such a robust thread for it until yesterday!

I'm not Eastern European, but the game is basically synonymous with childhood nostalgia for me; my dad got it from a college friend and it was one of the first things he did with our new computer when we came to the States. In fact it (along with Red Alert 2) might've been my first introduction to the very concept of a video game.

Since I grew up into the kind of nerd who has to do everything chronologically, when I decided to dive back into the series a few years ago I started with I. Got quite a few war stories to tell about my curbstomps and near-misses ("Playing With Fire" in AB? The first part was straight-up unplayable if I didn't have Advanced Town Portal, but it got a lot funner after that. Expert Summon Earth Elemental basically meant I could run around the map like an IV hero with nothing but a pack of Dragon Flies; when you can pop 60-stacks onto the battlefield ad nauseum no enemy army matters), but...

I haven't been able to play III for years, not since my old computer got totaled in an accident. My new one for some reason refuses to launch the game no matter which edition I try.

Which, uh... leads me to ask, at least some of you guys have some expertise on diagnosing computer problems, right? Is there any chance I could get you in a one-on-one analysis of what exactly is wrong with mine, hopefully fix it so III can run? I've got Windows 10 (apparently this is a common Problem OS with the game, but I know too many other people who can make it run without a blink), and I can hunt up any other spec as long as you tell me where to look for it.

(Yes, I know about the HD mod. Tried it, don't care for all its aesthetic changes - especially on the spellbook.)

The version that I'm running (as well as versions of Heroes 2, 4, and 5) have been acquired on GOG; the platform works on optimizing these old titles for new systems. I've had no issues with any of these games now on Win 10, and you can get them DRM-free. (looking at you, "Heroes of Might and Magic 3 HD" on Steam)