Heroes of Might & Magic (catch-all)

Yeah I saw that, I am so tempted to pick up Homm 2 right now but I think ill wait and see if there's a deal once Homm 3 and the Might and Magic collection are released.

I'm a huge fan of the series. I remember when I first played II as a kid. I had just gotten the demo of some magazine disk. I clicked around and my horse moved! Then he stopped. And I turned off the game. I went back days later, and mashed the keyboard. Everything went fast forward, and then I could move again! Eventually, I figured out how the game worked and this thing called "turned based". And I loved the game ever since. HOMMIII was incredible, I've been meaning to reinstall it.

Anyone know if III works well on Vista?

Harlequin.Riot wrote:

Anyone know if III works well on Vista?

It takes some work. You can find guides if you Google around a bit.

If you're willing to wait for the Good Old Games release and are willing to shell out $10, they update the games to be fully compatible with modern operating systems and usually bundle-in expansion packs, PDF manuals, soundtracks, and other goodies.

I have the discs for Heroes 3, but I'll likely buy the GOG version for the hassle-free installation and play.

adam.greenbrier wrote:

Good Old Games now has Heroes of Might and Magic 2: Gold Edition for $9.99 and will soon be selling Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Complete Edition and Might and Magic 6: Limited Edition (which includes Might and Magic 1 through 6) for $9.99 each.

Thanks for the info. XP/Vista-compatible Might and Magic 1-6 for $9.99 is a crazy deal, and HoMM2/3 are still the most fun I've ever had with a turn-based strategy game.

Now if they'd only do the same for the old Wizardry and AD&D Gold Box games...

HOMM III is still one of my favorite games, but it's one I can never find my disks for. I will definitely throw down $10 to not have to think about trying to find the disks again. BTW, if you're like me and spend most of your day in OS X, HOMM III runs great inside XP on VirtualBox.

Plant!

I'm not crazy about the removal of the resource types, although I'm not altogether surprised; it had too many that more or less did the same thing. The removal of the initiative system would bring things back in line with Heroes I-IV.

So, Might and Magic: Heroes VI is in the works. Published by Ubisoft, stated for release in 2011 and developed by Black Hole Entertainment.
Some screenshots http://www.acidcave.net/?newsnb=515#515 (not final of course, but still representative enough)
Here's the Gamescom trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBGP...

Initial impressions from the little info there is: Looks like a HoMM mod to King's Bounty. The saturation seems way off, the jungle looks pretty bad and art-style aside the graphics aren't really that good. Also, seems like they've removed a lot of the resources, the initiative system and god knows what else - looks like a seriously dumbed down/simplified version. As if all this wasn't bad enough, it will probably use Ubisoft's ridiculous DRM.

Press Release http://pc.ign.com/articles/111/11134...

Some Q&A: http://meodia.com/news/1438/might-ma...

Pulled the trigger on HOMM3 with the latest GOG sale -- haven't played any of them so hopefully it will be a good intro to the series. At $7 I guess it's not a big gamble. Grabbed Far Cry and Baldur's Gate 2, as well.

I think HOMM3 was the best of the series.

Not that it means much coming from me. I've been genuinely awful at every one of them I've tried

Thin_J,
Did you try any random maps in 3? I found that I would get utterly stomped in the campaigns, but could fare well at random maps. There was even a way to team with computer players - you would need to set the teams to half the number of players, or something similar. That made the huge maps very fun, with much turnover of cities on the outskirts of the empires, and trade between yourself and your teammates to keep things balanced.

Oh god I'm playing HoMM3 again. I bought the complete version years ago but only played one of the campaigns. For some reason it's been sitting on my hard drive for the last few years untouched and now suddenly I'm putting in 4+ hours a day. I have a pile of unplayed xbox games that is a testament to how addictive this game is.

Heroes VI combat preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF_Uh...

Hmm, not sure what to think. I haven't played a Heroes game since III and I was quite disappointed recently by both King's Bounty and Elemental. It certainly looks like they've put more thought into tactics here and I'm feeling nostalgic about some of the creature names. I'll be interested in hearing what people think about this when it comes out.

A nice person on the old Gone Gold forum sent me HoMM3 for free. I never got around to playing it.

You should remedy that situation, ASAP.

wickbroke wrote:

Thin_J,
Did you try any random maps in 3? I found that I would get utterly stomped in the campaigns, but could fare well at random maps. There was even a way to team with computer players - you would need to set the teams to half the number of players, or something similar. That made the huge maps very fun, with much turnover of cities on the outskirts of the empires, and trade between yourself and your teammates to keep things balanced.

I did, and would always feel like I was doing well for the first bit. I'd win a fight here and there, expand my territory and all that, then win some more hard fought battles later... and then suddenly there'd be one computer hero that would wander in and totally crush me. All downhill from there. Every game of HOMM3 I ever played ended that way.

Granted, I never thought to team myself with computer players.

On Friday March 11, I saw this on Steam:

HOMM VI

Available: May 24th, 2011
This game will unlock in approximately 2 months, 2 weeks, 3 days and 16 hours

This might be a day one purchase for me based on how much I loved HoMM2 and 3. But it's looking to be like HOMM5 and King's Bounty. Which I enjoyed- but not as much as I enjoyed the earlier titles. Is it just the 3D graphics that turn me off or is it really basicly the same game and I want it to be 2D because that's how it was when I was a kid? I donno...

I sure hope they get the multiplayer component to run a little more stably this time around. My brother and I used to play HOMM 2 and 3 all the time against one another but they sure seemed to crash out and lose sync a lot.

Giant Bomb has a quick look: http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-...

As a HoMM n00b I beseech ye all: how do you deal with enemy kill stacks, both sedentary and led? The "base building", recruitment, and exploration I can figure out by (a lot) of trial and error, but my game pretty much ends when I endure my first real defeat. How do you scope out an enemy's strength without a spell? I know this is a recurring complaint from HoMM dabblers, and it's really the thing that kills my growing ardor for the game. What am I missing, here?

Also, any great sites with suggested builds or playstyles, particularly for HoMM3? Thanks!

Which game are you playing?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Which game are you playing?

HoMM3, mostly. I've also dabbled with HoMM2, but get stopped cold by the same thing: an enemy kill stack, and usually an enemy kill stack guarding a road or mine that I covet. I'm learning to recruit more forces than I think I need, but that creates a situation where more heroes are sitting idle, just waiting for the monster buildings to refresh. So my take on the game is that it's very brittle: you're either fighting and exploring, or you're stalled waiting for additional troops or REALLY stalled with your top hero back in the Tavern.

I know I'm missing some nuances of this game, which is why I write.

I'm working from memory here, so I apologize if any of this is inaccurate.

I can't remember if this feature was in HOMM3 or if it was just added with HOMM4, but if you mouse over or click on an enemy stack, you should be able to see what creatures are in the stack and get an idea of how many are in there (i.e., "lots," "a few," etc.) How much each of each creature those words represent varies from creature to create (e.g., a "few" black dragons is not the same as a "few" minotaurs).

I know that in HOMM4 and 5, you'd just flat get a message when you did this that says "[Hero] cannot defeat them" or "[Hero] would crush this army like a bug." Leveling up some of the scouting abilities will also give you exact numbers for what you're up against. But, at the end of the day, even in those games, it's all about learning what you can handle. If an enemy stack says that it has "lots" of Gorgons, you need to learn whether or not what you have can handle lots of Gorgons. In HOMM4, I got to where I could tell whether I'd beat an army or not based on what was in it rather than on what the game told me, but that was just experience and learning strategies for different enemy types.

I'm not sure that helps.

It does help, thanks! But I'm a bit surprsied how tough that makes it on n00bs (though you all have survived, so maybe it's a steep learning curve?) HoMM3 does say "Lots" "Few", but then the player needs to gauge whether or not he can handle those specific creatures. In my current scenario, I was mopping up all the guard stacks and then walked into a wall of Liches that burnt me down. However, they were so close to the other assorted demons and imps I din't think they'd be all that strong. That's how you learn, I suppose!

Thanks!

These games do have a steeper learning curve than more modern games. They're not afraid to, like you said, stick a really tough enemy into an area with a lot of weaker enemies, or to rely on players learning which enemies are tougher than others. A few tips, though:

  • Play all of the different factions to get an idea of the relative power level of the various creatures. The later you can build something in your town, the harder it will be to kill those creatures when you encounter them on the map.
  • The graphic for an enemy stack that doesn't have a hero will always be the highest level creature in the stack. This doesn't mean that the stack is only that enemy or that that enemy will be the toughest, but it can give you a general idea of about what level the mob as a whole will be.
  • Lower level enemies can still be really deadly in high numbers. I've seen players completely destroyed by gigantic stacks of level one creatures (skeletons, fairies, etc.) The AI will almost never, ever do this, but if you end up doing some multiplayer, keep an eye out.
  • There's usually a pattern to how tough enemies will be based on what they're guarding. Typically, lumber mills, quarries, and low-level artifacts have weaker creatures. Higher level resource pits like gem mines and crystal mines will have tougher enemies; likewise, shortcut roads between territories will be guarded by tougher enemies. Gold mines tend to have enemies the next level up, and rare artifacts will have the strongest enemies on the map.

This might help:
Few: 1-4
Several: 5-9
Pack: 10-19
Lots: 20-49
Horde: 50-99
Throng: 100-249
Swarm: 250-499
Zounds: 500-999
Legion: 1000 +

Ubi announced Heroes of Might & Magic III HD for Windows and iOS/Android tablets which is slated to arrive at the end of January 2015. No word yet if this includes the expansions in the package (campaign count doesn't seem to imply that's the case)

Also, they're using Steamworks for the PC version and not UPlay. I'm not sure I'll buy this for PC, but I'm excited that they're finally putting this on a tablet.

shoptroll wrote:

I don't think this warrants a new thread but Ubi announced Heroes of Might & Magic III HD for Windows and iOS/Android tablets which is slated to arrive at the end of January 2015. No word yet if this includes the expansions in the package (campaign count doesn't seem to imply that's the case)

Also, they're using Steamworks for the PC version and not UPlay. I'm not sure I'll buy this for PC, but I'm excited that they're finally putting this on a tablet.

I've bought that game like 6 times. What's 2 more I guess. Though it might be a deal killer if it doesn't have the expansions.

Oh cool, the gameplay is still great but it needs a facelift badly. Dare we hope for a HD version of the regular M&M series? MM1-5 would be nice on a tablet.