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Axle_the_Red's Heroes of Might and Magic III (PC)
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| [March 29, 2011 12:23:42 PM]
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Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Complete Edition: Tuesday March 29th
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (HoMM) is a turn based strategy game for the PC. Players can play against the computer or other players (up to 8 total players at a time). The game takes place in a fantasy setting with dragons, undead, and all manner of creatures inbetween. The object of the game varies per map but ranges from total conquest to resource acquisition.
Pregame:
While choosing a map, players have the option of selecting a town, a hero, and a starting bonus. There are a total of nine towns to choose from. Half of the heroes available to each town are geared towards "might" (military power) or "magic" (spell casting). The available starting bonuses are extra gold, extra resources, or an artifact.
Heroes:
Heroes are the player's generals. Each hero has a specialty which is either in a creature type or a secondary skill. Aside from this, each hero also has four stats: attack, defense, spell power, and knowledge. Attack and defense both affect the troops a hero commands. Spell power dictates the effectiveness of a hero's spells. Knowledge multiplied by ten are the hero's spell points. Secondary skills can be acquired by levelling up or through other miscellaneous means. Secondary skills affect many different aspects of a hero from their combat abilities to additional resources gained per turn. Additionally, heroes can carry artifacts which in effect act as stat boosters or interchangeable secondary skills. As heroes level up, they gain plus one of one of the four stats.
Towns:
Towns are a player's base of operations. Each town has a number of structures in common with others as well as unique structures it can build. Only one building may be constructed a turn, as well as a limit of only one building per type (a player cannot build two of the same creature dwelling). Common to each town are seven creature generating buildings. These seven buildings create a number of creatures the player may pay gold to recruit to their army. Additionally, each creature building may be upgraded to purchase an upgraded form of the creature from then on. Common to all towns are also taverns (recruit heroes), a marketplace (trade resources), a town hall (generates income), a mage guild (learn spells), and a fort (provide creature growth and defenses for the town). Each town has a number of unique buildings in addition to these which provide such benefits as additional spells, additional creature growth, the ability to purchase artifacts, and other benefits. In order to stay in the game, a player must own at least one town. If a player is without a town for seven days (turns), they will automatically lose. On each map it is possible to find non alligned towns and claim them.
Resources:
HoMM uses wood, mercury, ore, sulfur, crystal, gems, and gold. Resources are used to build structures as well as recruit the more powerful creatures. Players may use their heroes to "flag" (capture) a structure on the map which produces a certain number of a resource per day. Each resource is important, but should the player find themself in excess of one and in want of another, they may use a marketplace to trade resources. The greater number of marketplaces owned, the better trade rates available.
Creatures:
There are seven creatures associated with each town, plus one upgraded form of each creature. Creatures are often referred to as levels one through seven in reference to their power (seven being the highest). To balance this power, creature growth is enacted on each town. Based on certain factors (a town's fort/upgraded versions, external dwellings owned, etc.) only a certain number of creatures are generated to be purchased at a town per week. On the first day of each week, players may purchase as many creatures as are available (per creature growth). When creatures are purchased, they are placed into a "stack" with a number showing how many creatures of that type are currently a part of the stack. Stacks may be split, but only a total of eight slots for creature stacks exist at a town (seven for heroes). Each creature has its own stats (attack, defense, speed, health) as well as possible special abilities (cast spells, do additional damage to another creature, etc.). Creatures not associated with any town are also available should a player encounter a dwelling to recruit them from.
Combat:
Combat takes place in a few different ways: hero vs hero, hero vs wild monsters, hero vs town, and hero vs town with hero present. There are minor differences in these combat types. In any combat, a player's creature stacks will be represented on screen by a graphic of the creature type and a number showing how many are left in the stack. To defeat your opponent, simply defeat all his creatures. Heroes do not directly take part in combat. They provide passive benefits (their stats) as well as may cast one spell per round (all creatures have had a turn to move/attack). A hero may retreat (able to recruit them again in town with everything but their creatures intact) or surrender when faced by an enemy hero (pay a gold sum to retain creatures as well as everything else). Creatures may move and melee attack, but ranged units must choose to fire or move. However, a random "morale boost" (which can be affected by many different means, mostly artifacts) may allow creatures to take a turn twice. Generally, creatures are either melee or ranged. Melee creatures must attack units directly next to them while ranged units fire a projectile. The further away the unit being fired upon is (as well as across any obstacles in the battlefield) affects the damage dealt. Additionally, when ranged units are adjacent to an enemy unit, they may not fire and may only melee attack. As all units are subject to morale, they are also subject to luck. Luck randomly appears when attacking and doubles the damage dealt. When attacking an enemy town, their defenses come into play. Depending on the level of fort they have built, the battlefield will have a moat lining the castle wall as well as zero to three archer towers which provide extra damage per round. The defending town gains an advantage in the form of a wall which keeps all units out except flying units, as well as providing additional damage.
Gameplay:
Players manipulate their heroes around a preconstructed map in order to accomplish a specific goal defined before play (usually defeating all other players). Each hero has a set amount of movement he/she can use per turn before being unable to travel further. Once a player has used all their actions (or has decided to finish without enacting anything else), they may end their turn and the next player's turn begins. The map has a fog of war style covering except after a part has been uncovered it stays that way. Scattered about the map are many different structures, artifacts, resources, and creatures which may help or impede the player. Any number of effects can be associated with the multitude of structures in HoMM. Many buildings were simply taken from a town and made into a standalone structure (creature dwellings are a common example of this). Some of a town's unique structures may also appear on the map. There are too many different types of structures present in HoMM to name, but generally speaking the majority of them boost morale or luck, give resources, or allow learning of a skill. Players must take what they can from other players, amass an army to overtake their foes, and do so before their opponents do the same.
Play Session One:
For the first play session, I choose a campaign mission on "hard" (one level above easy). In this mission, my goal was to acquire an artifact called "The Ring of Vitality." I would lose the scenario if I lost all my towns and didn't capture one for a week or if I lost my main hero named Gelu. I started with one town (Rampart) and one heor (Gelu) whose specialty was "Sharpshooters." This specialty allowed Gelu to upgrade elves (a Rampart unit) into sharpshooters (who incur no range or barrier penalty). Sharpshooters turned out to be very powerful. However, it seemed the majority of my enemies started out much further developed than I did, and I had to fight an uphill battle. Often I would begin to explore a certain area and then run away as a hero of a much higher strenght than i could handle would appear. After many restarts, I did finally acquire the ring. I would like to note that often making one mistake (from mistakes such as "didn't recruit enough creatures" to simply "being in the wrong place") would spell the end of your gameplay session. Thankfully, it is possible to save at any point during your turn. It seemed highly beneficial to know where everything on the map was and less beneficial to have a strategy.
Play Session Two:
For the second play session, I choose a four player map with the Tower town and the easy difficulty. The goal was simply to conquer every other player. In this playthrough, I was placed in a position with unfavorable terrain, and therefore had a severe movement penalty. It seemed unfair to have been dropped into a condition I couldn't control. As I continued to explore, suddenly out of nowhere, two of my enemies appeared, but both were quite underpowered compared to me. They seemed to throw themselves at me and make foolish mistakes often. I did not finish this playthrough as a game takes many many hours to finish, but I don't doubt I would have won.
Overall:
HoMM is a seemingly deep strategy game. Players may employ a number of tricks to get ahead or swindle other players out of towns/resources/etc. However, when playing against the computer, the difficulty seems to be off kilter. Easy difficulty involved being under challenged while one step up involved barely hanging on. There are four higher difficulties past "hard." I feel these difficulties don't increase the AI's thinking capability as much as it "cheats." I suspect opposing players start out with more resources, creatures, and better heroes than the player does. This is an artificial jump in difficulty as it isn't a tweak in difficulty but a tweak in impossibility. Instead of being marginally impossible it could be completely impossible (if you decided to choose the hardest difficulty).
Nonetheless, HoMM is a deeply engrossing game. There is enough micromanagement to be fun while not being too inclusive. Playing against computers can only be so fun, but playing with humans can be much more so. Allies are assigned on certain maps which make for a fun experience, and on maps without allies, temporary alliances can be forged. It adds an entire new dimension to the game.
The only complaints I have about HoMM are the length of time it takes to play a game and the unforgiving nature of the difficulty settings. An average game on an extra small map takes around two to three hours to complete (the largest map is labelled XL). The difficulty is unforgiving in that losing your strongest hero is often a death sentence (as you are also losing a good chunk of your troops), and computer players will beeline straight for your town (regardless of if they know where it is) upon your hero's defeat. Despite these flaws, HoMM is a highly addictive and fun game.
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Axle_the_Red's Heroes of Might and Magic III (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 29 March, 2011
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