films
music
health
fiction
games
science
relating
websites
postcards
wargames
At its simplest, HoMM is a turn-based territorial strategy game: gameplay revolves around control of cities and resource sites, which provide the wherewithal to build up a (hopefully) all-conquering army. City management in itself is fun, as each type of city (of six or so in the original game, more if you purchase the expansion pack) has its own wide range of buildings that allows recruitment of the various unit types available to that position. Buildings and military units have a cost associated with them in any of ten or so resource types, such as gold, lumber, iron, and gems. Resources are produced by installations that can be found dotted on the map, and must be claimed for your side in order to benefit from their production.
The game works on daily turns within a weekly cycle. Every turn/day, resources produced by claimed installations and gold produced by your cities are added to your stockpiles, and every seven turns, city buildings receive a fresh supply of units ready to be recruited. Combat units not recruited will normally remain available for purchase, accumulating from week to week, unless a Plague turn is randomly announced when all buildings reset to zero.
The central feature of the game, though, as suggested by the title, is the Heroes. These are the only units that can move around on the map, and each Hero can lead an army of up to seven different types of combat units; crucially, there is no limit on the number of each type. So a Hero can lead an army of hundreds of units, and in the larger scenarios, this is indeed common. And this isn’t all—Heroes have a touch of role-playing as well. This is because they accumulate experience, mostly through battle, but there are also map features that grant experience points, which on reaching various predefined thresholds gives an increase in level. Level increases bring with them an addition to one of their basic statistics (attack strength, defence strength, magical strength and number of spell points available), and a randomly determined secondary skill. These secondary skills add a great deal of variety, as the list is very large, and lead to some degree of personalisation of the Heroes. They also allow specialisation for different tasks. As do artefacts: basically objects to be found in-game that provide bonuses (in some cases negative ones) to one or more skills of the leader that carries them.
I mentioned magic: this is another pleasingly well-designed feature. Each city type can build a Mage’s Guild, which can be upgraded to a maximum of five levels. Each level grants a few additional spells that are learned by any Hero that visits that city, with the spells increasing in strength as the Guild’s level increases. But not all spells are available at all Guilds, so visiting more than one Guild type is usually necessary to make the most of one’s spell-casters.
And, finally, combat. Whenever two hostile armies meet, actions moves to a tactical combat map. This is a grid of approximately 12x15 hexagons. The armies are arrayed on opposite sides of this, and combat commences. This takes place in rounds, with each unit type having the opportunity to move and, if in range, attack in each round. The order in which units move is determined by their speed ratings, although several factors such as spells and morale can affect whether units move or not in any given round. Heroes are present as well, and while they take no part in the actual fighting, they can have a significant effect on the outcome by use of their spell-casting abilities. If the battle is an assault on a city, the defenders will benefit from the presence of any fortifications that have been built in the city.
I can’t recommend HoMM strongly enough—it’s a very original game that has been carefully improved with each successive version. It comes with a wide range of scenarios and campaigns, and as if that weren’t enough, it ships with a scenario and map editor that allows players to produce their own scenarios. As a result, hundreds of scenarios are available on the Internet.
There are three different games in the line-up at the moment: the original Heroes of Might and Magic III; an expansion pack, Armageddon’s Blade (which adds more of everything: city types, heroes, combat units, artefacts, scenarios, etc); and the newest addition, Shadow of Death. This is a strange one—it isn’t an expansion, but a standalone game, and therefore full-priced. It apparently includes the original game and a new set of scenarios and campaigns. The consensus is that if you own the original games it’s an expensive way of acquiring a few new scenarios. But if you are new to the series, it’s probably a good deal.
Chips & Bits have these games, and Amazon.co.uk carries Heroes of Might and Magic III.
We receive a commission—at no extra cost to you—from the businesses we refer you to. If you decide to purchase something that we have recommended, please do so by following the links from our website. Thank you!
back to index
| |
| |
.