Which HoMM to get?

[DakaSha]

HoMM3 is a great game. HoMM3 with woG is not. Take your butthurt and use it for something worthwhile like Mass Effect retard

I should put you on my ignore list right now I am so angry about your post!

You fail at sarcasm. Lets make love

 

[Karmapowered]

I've probably enjoyed HOMM 2 the most out of the series.

Also, there are many games of this kind, most of which worth a look : Master of Magics (still my favorite of the bunch), Etherlords, Age of Wonders SM, Disciples okay maybe not, Vantage Master + everything else that has been suggested in this thread.

 

[Storyfag]

I'll hop on the HoMM 3 bandwagon. 2 and 1 are also very fun to play (with a slight advantage to 2) but 3 does things just better.

5 isn't that much behind 3, truth be told. But make sure to get all the expansions, and possibly the enhanced AI mod before you try it out. The vanilla game is just lacking.

HoMM5 I'm currently in the middle of playing 'cause I only played it when it first came out and ditched it pretty fast. I'm thinking of doing the very same thing now because the entire first campaign is just ATROCIOUS. Whoever thought making AN ENTIRE BLOODY CAMPAIGN A FUCKLONG TUTORIAL should be hung by the balls. Still, #5 was basically a return to the #3 formula, with some ideas borrowed from #4 (such as spellbooks for certain creatures [AND IT MANAGED TO MAKE IT COMPLETELY FUCKING BROKEN], expanded hero customisation, etc), so, on paper, it is sorta solid. But I gotta play more of it to see for myself, though people often say the vanilla campaigns are kinda bad, and the custom missions are small as hell.

Come now, Roxorowski. It isn't so bad once you reach the later campaigns. Though I must admit I only truly enjoyed the Necromancer campaign.

Also, remember, there is no such thing as HoMM6.

I'll drink to that!

 

[spectre]

Also, if anybody plans on getting Homm 5, I recommend visiting this here place:
http://www.heroes-fr.com/en/original_campaigns.php

It allows to play vannila and Hammers of Fate campaigns with just Hordes of the East installed, retrofit with all the new features.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Any before Homo5. Fuck 3D shit.

 

[Darth Roxor]

It isn't so bad once you reach the later campaigns.

I know, I remember the Inferno campaign being decent the last time I played it... until I got blitz'd by an army of doom of 1k elven archers and LUL DRUIDZ right after capping my first city and quitting in rage. That ended my first adventure with HoMM5.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I is a charming game that's worth trying just to see the roots of the series. The sequels make spending lots of time with it unnecessary.

You may easily fall in love with II, imho it's the most beautiful looking game ever. It added skills and creature upgrades and also the necromancer castle. However, it has this "tiny" flaw - the factions are ridiculously imbalanced so for example when taking two players with more or less equal skill, choosing the knight against the warlock is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.

III - it all has been said. This is the game that stole more time in my life than any other.

IV - there are some good ideas here and some people tend to like it. Imho it's completely skipable.

V - with Tribes of the East it's a surprisingly good game with a very, very good addition that it initiative (bar). Unfortunately it also has some serious flaws - very few and very small maps, magic that suffered a serious retardation and went back to II level, absolutely hideous visuals to name a few.

VI - yeah...

Now, a quick guide to enjoy HoM&M:

1. Get a version of III that has both AB and SoD in it and latest patches as well (TPB has a version that has it all and runs from a flash drive).
2. Use the HD patch (optional).
3. Get some pals to play with.
4. Play on impossible level. Do not get used to other difficulties, start with it and learn. The game becomes much more interesting then, wars for resources have a huge meaning and there are actual c&c in developing your base of operations (like choosing whether to invest in the town hall or rather get some troops). On hard, normal and easy every game looks the same and is way too easy.

 

[Jaedar]

I prefer HommV: tribes of the east over Homm3.

Both are very solid though.

 

[DakaSha]

I is a charming game that's worth trying just to see the roots of the series. The sequels make spending lots of time with it unnecessary.

You may easily fall in love with II, imho it's the most beautiful looking game ever. It added skills and creature upgrades and also the necromancer castle. However, it has this "tiny" flaw - the factions are ridiculously imbalanced so for example when taking two players with more or less equal skill, choosing the knight against the warlock is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.

III - it all has been said. This is the game that stole more time in my life than any other.

IV - there are some good ideas here and some people tend to like it. Imho it's completely skipable.

V - with Tribes of the East it's a surprisingly good game with a very, very good addition that it initiative (bar). Unfortunately it also has some serious flaws - very few and very small maps, magic that suffered a serious retardation and went back to II level, absolutely hideous visuals to name a few.

VI - yeah...

Now, a quick guide to enjoy HoM&M:

1. Get a version of III that has both AB and SoD in it and latest patches as well (TPB has a version that has it all and runs from a flash drive).
2. Use the HD patch (optional).
3. Get some pals to play with.
4. Play on impossible level. Do not get used to other difficulties, start with it and learn. The game becomes much more interesting then, wars for resources have a huge meaning and there are actual c&c in developing your base of operations (like choosing whether to invest in the town hall or rather get some troops). On hard, normal and easy every game looks the same and is way too easy.

is homm3 on impossible actually hard?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

You are asking against AI I assume? If you are a skilled player then no (though of course it is much more difficult than on normal, where you can basically have a hero and army ready to level every AI to the ground in 2-3 weeks), there are some exceptions though, namely maps geared towards AI having huge advantage, like South of Hell for example.

My point was for playing multi, as I almost completely disregard sp aspect of Hom&m games. Fighting for your resources from scratch makes a huge impact on how the game develops.

 

[Bulba]

You may easily fall in love with II, imho it's the most beautiful looking game ever. It added skills and creature upgrades and also the necromancer castle. However, it has this "tiny" flaw - the factions are ridiculously imbalanced so for example when taking two players with more or less equal skill, choosing the knight against the warlock is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
.

Flaw?????

ITS THE BEST PART OF THE IInd, imho that's why the 2nd is so much better than the 3rd.
and it's fair - knight troops are very cheap

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

 

[Pope Amole II]

4 has the best single-player gameplay, especially in campaigns, especially for the RPG-minded player - hell, it has better RPG combat than most of the actual RPGs out there. So fuck the retrogrades & haters, it's the best HoM&M game evah! Or, at the very least, is well-tied with HoM&M III Tournament Edition - because really, there's little sense in playing the third part without any kind of WoG enhancement at this point.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Wow, just wow, I can clearly see that this thread has tons of potential.

 

[FeelTheRads]

WOG is retarded shit.

Heroes 4 is great, though. Some stupid things, but mostly good improvements, all skills are useful, a lot more complexity, better balance, what's not to like? Worst thing they ever did was not release a random map generator, which pretty much killed the multiplayer part.

 

[octavius]

Like most others I think HoMM 3 is overall the best HoMM game and the one you should play if you are to only play one HoMM game.
After having mastered HoMM 3 it will be rough going back to HoMM 1 with it's very basic AI.
HoMM 2 had better AI than HoMM 1, and it also has some excellent user made maps. The Ghosts (from one of the expansions, I think?) kind of ruined game balance.
HoMM 3 has even better AI and lots of great user made maps (try the three Pride maps by Jason Russel). One of HoMM 3's expansions introduced the boring Conflux which was based on elementals. IIRC New World Computing had other plans, but the punters wanted elementals.
HoMM 4 I've never tried, but it's supposed to have very poor AI.
HoMM 5 was surprisingly good, despite cliche story and cringeworthy voice acting in classic UbiSoft style. The character development and skill system was far better than HoMM 1-3, IMO. 3D didn't really add anything worthwhile to the game, though.

 

[Storyfag]

IIRC New World Computing had other plans, but the punters wanted elementals.

Almost. It's not that people wanted elementals, they DID NOT want the planned magitek Forge town (which would have used the dark-side ending of Might and Magic VII as it's basis).

As a general note: 2 and 3 are the prettiest games out of the series map wise, with 3 holding a slight edge when it comes to battle and town screen graphics. Nothing really compares to a pile of gold nuggets from 2 or 3

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Being Conflux + getting armaggedon in the magic guild = ultimate

 

[octavius]

is homm3 on impossible actually hard?

Depends on the map.
On small maps the AI will defeat you before you have the chance to build up.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

is homm3 on impossible actually hard?

Depends on the map.
On small maps the AI will defeat you before you have the chance to build up.

That's what happens when you learn to play on normal an get used to the same boring pattern of "town hall - magic guild/market/smith - city hall - castle upgrades - capitol lol I'll win, amirite?".

 

[octavius]

is homm3 on impossible actually hard?

Depends on the map.
On small maps the AI will defeat you before you have the chance to build up.

That's what happens when you learn to play on normal an get used to the same boring pattern of "town hall - magic guild/market/smith - city hall - castle upgrades - capitol lol I'll win, amirite?".

No, that's what happens when you don't have the resources to build anything before it's too late.
Doesn't apply to all small maps, of course.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

You can deal with that, there are various strategies that make you strong for quick fights with little to no investments, but some castles/heroes might be fucked in such situation, that's true. It's not on small maps only, like I previously said, on Impossible South of Hell for example you might get invaded by an AI hero that will simply wipe the floor with you even if you do a perfect build up.

 

[Statik]

It is physically impossible to go wrong with HoMM3+expansions. The fourth is generally hated by most people, though there are some who like it well enough. 5 is actually pretty good, but the campaign storyline is gloriously retarded, the initial number of non-campaign maps is way too small, and really, its greatest problem is that, while decent, there is no real reason to get it when 3 also exists. Haven't played the sixth one, but by what I can gather about it, I'm not missing out on anything.

 

[Phelot]

IIRC New World Computing had other plans, but the punters wanted elementals.

Almost. It's not that people wanted elementals, they DID NOT want the planned magitek Forge town (which would have used the dark-side ending of Might and Magic VII as it's basis).

HAHA! Apparently it was just a REALLY vocal minority that absolutely did no want the planned town and NWC finally caved in (because of 3DO?) and scrambled to make the conflux town. I didn't necessarily mind it, though it certainly felt cheap having the elementals for a town all of a sudden.

Supposedly the canceled town was completed, just never released.

 

[Storyfag]

While I don't mind Conflux that much, I mind the quality of the final product. The town screen, for example, is clearly rushed. It'd look well in HoMM2, but is sub-par for 3.