Heroes of Might & Magic 7

[Bubbles]

Sorry for the OT-ness, but is there a general consensus as to the best HoMM game?

HoMM V.

 

[Icewater]

Sorry for the OT-ness, but is there a general consensus as to the best HoMM game?

HoMM6.

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No troll smiley here, boss.

 

[agris]

Goddammit

 

[octavius]

Sorry for the OT-ness, but is there a general consensus as to the best HoMM game?

Yes.

 

[Zeriel]

Sorry for the OT-ness, but is there a general consensus as to the best HoMM game?

I have deep nostalgia glasses for Heroes 2 primarily for aesthetic reasons (best art and music in the series by a longshot imo), but people generally agree that Heroes 3 is the sweetspot of the series. It remains a touchstone with the mechanics people want in a Heroes game, and it still had alright art and sound, although I'd argue some of the faction/art choices aren't as spot on as 2. The fact that every new Heroes game tries to cloak itself in the legacy of 3 says a lot about how well its regarded, though.

Heroes 3 is basically that "enough of a foundation to build something really great on, but not established enough that we're just milking it" moment in the franchise, comparable to Baldur's Gate 2 for the Infinity Engine.

 

[mhm32167]

I play mainly heroes 3 and 4. Heroes 3 is my favourite, and it seems to have the most variety in units/factions and adventure map. The different factions lend themselves to quite different playstyles. The random map generator increases replayability. Heroes 2 is fun but largely overshadowed by 3. Its worth playing for the atmosphere and music (especially the opera), but some important advances are made between 2 and 3. Heroes are more important in 4 and the skills system is interesting, but armies play less of a role. This can make the game feel stale after a while with over-reliance on heroes. Heroes 5 is similar in gameplay to 3 but the camera and graphics are annoying. The RMG isn't as good as in 3. I haven't played 6 because I don't like a lot of the changes.

Some info from the heroes community forums - edited out - turned out to be fake.

 

[Eyeball]

Sorry for the OT-ness, but is there a general consensus as to the best HoMM game?

HoMM2 and 4.

Why the fuck are you never right about ANYTHING?

 

[Grunker]

V has the best mechanics but III is the overall best game, IMO, since V is lacking in pretty much all other departments.

 

[Cadmus]

V has the best mechanics but III is the overall best game, IMO, since V is lacking in pretty much all other departments.

IV has the best mechanics but III is prettier, tighter and overall better polished.

 

[hoverdog]

IV has the best mechanics

 

[Cadmus]

IV has the best mechanics

dammit, you convinced me

 

[Zeriel]

mhm32167

From browsing those forums, it seems I'm one of the few people who like the idea of a wingless dragon. Makes me think of weird jungles and prehistoric monstrosities, so seems to fit the idea of sylvan. I like that some of the sylvan styles seem to be leaning more towards lots of monsters and beasts over a bunch of elves playing dressup, I really hope that carries over to the final game. In general that's one of the things I like about earlier Heroes games over the most recent ones: the prevalence of mythological monsters over boring variants of humanoids, even if it makes little sense for a bunch of monsters to be thrown together into one unified "town".

 

[Grunker]

mhm32167

From browsing those forums, it seems I'm one of the few people who like the idea of a wingless dragon. Makes me think of weird jungles and prehistoric monstrosities, so seems to fit the idea of sylvan. I like that some of the sylvan styles seem to be leaning more towards lots of monsters and beasts over a bunch of elves playing dressup, I really hope that carries over to the final game. In general that's one of the things I like about earlier Heroes games over the most recent ones: the prevalence of mythological monsters over boring variants of humanoids, even if it makes little sense for a bunch of monsters to be thrown together into one unified "town".

Dungeon in V had a fucking Level 6 unit that was a female humanoid with a whip... I mean christ, how boring can you get for a high tier unit (the mechancis of shadow witches were plenty cool though).

 

[Raapys]

What is this shit. Heroes 3 with WoG wins in every single category.

 

[Darth Roxor]

(the mechancis of shadow witches were plenty cool though).

3 generic shit spells + ranged attack = plenty cool?

 

[Somberlain]

3 generic shit spells + ranged attack = plenty cool?

Lot more interesting than 99,9% of the units in HoMM3

 

[Grunker]

3 generic shit spells + ranged attack = plenty cool?

Lot more interesting than 99,9% of the units in HoMM3

He also neglected to mention on-hit effects. So yeah, that is actually quite a lot for a HoMM unit.

EDIT: Also, Shadow Mistresses have invisibility but can't shoot. They're pretty fun to play.

 

[Darth Roxor]

3 generic shit spells + ranged attack = plenty cool?

Lot more interesting than 99,9% of the units in HoMM3

He also neglected to mention on-hit effects. So yeah, that is actually quite a lot for a HoMM unit.

Shadow witches (the base unit) don't have on-hit effects :sperg:

Also, on-hit effects are quite common in homm 4&5

 

[Grunker]

3 generic shit spells + ranged attack = plenty cool?

Lot more interesting than 99,9% of the units in HoMM3

He also neglected to mention on-hit effects. So yeah, that is actually quite a lot for a HoMM unit.

Shadow witches (the base unit) don't have on-hit effects :sperg:

Both of their upgrade version do. Or did you think we were somehow only permitted to talk about the unit's non-upgraded version for some reason?

Also see my edit.

EDIT: I see we have both been playing through the game recently. Are you just playing skirmishes or are you playing the campaign too?

 

[Cadmus]

3 generic shit spells + ranged attack = plenty cool?

Lot more interesting than 99,9% of the units in HoMM3

He also neglected to mention on-hit effects. So yeah, that is actually quite a lot for a HoMM unit.

Shadow witches (the base unit) don't have on-hit effects :sperg:

Also, on-hit effects are quite common in homm 4&5

I dont remember for sure if V did it but in VI every fucking unit had like 7 passive and active abilities. Everyone was special so in the end no one was, that really pissed me off.

 

[Somberlain]

I dont remember for sure if V did it but in VI every fucking unit had like 7 passive and active abilities. Everyone was special so in the end no one was, that really pissed me off.

I thought that was the best part of HoMM6. It was a lot more interesting than the older games, where most units were all the same, looks and some stat differences aside. HoMM6 sucked for other reasons.

 

[mhm32167]

mhm32167

From browsing those forums, it seems I'm one of the few people who like the idea of a wingless dragon. Makes me think of weird jungles and prehistoric monstrosities, so seems to fit the idea of sylvan. I like that some of the sylvan styles seem to be leaning more towards lots of monsters and beasts over a bunch of elves playing dressup, I really hope that carries over to the final game. In general that's one of the things I like about earlier Heroes games over the most recent ones: the prevalence of mythological monsters over boring variants of humanoids, even if it makes little sense for a bunch of monsters to be thrown together into one unified "town".

I wouldn't really mind a wingless dragon. It would help to distinguish from other dragons e.g. black. The increasing use of humanoids over mythical beasts is related to factions based more around race than themes in the ubisoft heroes games. I prefer the NWC approach, e.g. Rampart in HOMM3 (from the manual) "... Ramparts, which are built by creatures in allied defense of the unspoiled wilderness regions of Erathia." The only faction really based around a race was Castle "Castle armies are primarily composed of human men-at-arms, though these towns have also formed an alliance with the griffins and are under the protection of angels." I find units like the blade dancer uninteresting. I don't mind if the first or second lineups win, but hopefully emerald knight is more than an elf in armour.

 

[bloodlover]

What is this shit. Heroes 3 with WoG wins in every single category.

Check out Horn of the Abyss.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Are you just playing skirmishes or are you playing the campaign too?

Now playing the Tribes of the East campaigns.

I thought that was the best part of HoMM6. It was a lot more interesting than the older games, where most units were all the same, looks and some stat differences aside.

Units had plenty of difference between them all the time. Even on T1 level, the ways you'd use pikemen, skellingtons and goblins were completely different.

And even still, most of the abilities were added in HoMM 4 and later carried through to HoMM 5 (with some changes of various kind). HoMM 6 actually fucked it up because they put like a hundred million billion abilities on EVERY FUCKING UNIT, which was simply a clusterfuck to keep up with for one, and second, once every unit becomes a unique snowflake, the novelty and uniqueness very quickly wears off.

 

[mhm32167]

Some info with images of some of the proposed sylvan units: https://mmh7.ubi.com/en/blog/post/view/creatures-of-irollan

Emerald knights don't seem too interesting so far. Marzhin confirmed in the comments that phoenix upgrade will be lunar. Earlier info on the heroes community forums regarding the stronghold vote turned out to be fake.