Let's (kind of) Play the Heroes of Might and Magic Franchise

[Peanut]

What's this? Another let's play? Well, yes, it kind of is. The Heroes of Might and Magic franchise is one that I have some fond memories of and contains a couple of my favorite games of all time. In a few months the sixth game in this series is supposed to come out and I'm pretty excited. So, I decided to do something special and do a more casual Let's Play of each game in the series, mostly to show them off and nerd out about it. I'll still be updating the LP of Pokemon Silver I've been doing so its not like this is going to eat away time from that.

For the uninformed, Heroes of Might and Magic is a turned based strategy game with RPG elements made from the fusion of the Might and Magic franchise and the first King's Bounty game. The games are pretty unique, have some good depth and are a lot of fun to play. For each game, I will be playing a single, short scenario as the Warlock/Dungeon faction (since they're my favorite faction for reasons that will be made clear as these LPs go on) so if you want to find out what the story is in these games...well you're on your own. As I play each game, I will take time to talk about the various monsters that end up in my army.

Before I get into the first game, let me just say that the LP for this one...won't be particularly good. I've already recorded all the screenshots for it and I found that I probably should have taken a few more. I will try to fill in the blanks as I go along but there will be some details left out. Anyway Heroes 1 time!



Oh Heroes 1...your graphics and art style are so terrible. It almost makes me wonder why anyone ever thought you were a good looking game. Anyway, the scenario I will be playing is for four players. So I will be facing 3 computers all set on normal difficulty because I'm not a wimp but also not an expert at this game.



This is the world map and here we find one of the distinct features of the Heroes series (as well as any games like it). The world map is where we spend our time moving our hero (the dude in front of that nice looking castle) around, collecting resources, artifacts, etc... to build him and his army up. The Castle is our home base and is the main location we will be recruiting our army from (more on this later). If I click on it, it brings me to a completely different screen. Combat also occurs on a different screen and is started by merely clicking on the monster and enemy hero's sprites on the world map.



Behold the inside of our Castle! As I said, I'm playing as the Warlock/Dungeon factions in these games (in this game its just known as the Warlock faction) so this castle is unique to it. The buildings you see with mythical creatures standing outside are our creature dwellings. It is here that we will recruit our army. There are a finite number of them in each dwelling which is replenished at the end of each week (which takes 7 turns to complete). The other buildings are the Well (which increases all of all creature populations by 2), Tavern (which allows other heroes to be recruited) and the Thieves Guild (which gives information on the other players). Anyway, with that done, let's get some introductions out of the way. That scowling portrait of a man is my hero, Wrathmont the Warlock. Say hello Wrathmont.

Wrathmont: Hello.

And, within his army, are a stack of 7 Centaur's and 4 Gargoyle's.

Centaur
HP 5
Speed Medium
Attack 3
Defense 1
Damage 1-2
Shots 8
Cost 60
Population 8+2

A quick crash course on the stats that might be confusing. Attack, damage and defense are what is used in a battle to determine damage. The equation is something like this (Amount of Damage)x((Def's DEF) - (Att's ATT))%. A Hero also has attack and defense as well. These stats get added into the appropriate areas for the creatures in our army. Damage comes in a range adding a bit of randomness to the number's produced by this equation. There are also spells that can affect how much damage a creature produces when it attacks but I won't get too much into those this game. Speed determines when a creature can move and how far they can move when in combat and, since this is an archer, shots are the number of times it can attack from a distance. Population is how many creatures can be recruited each week and cost is how much Gold and other resources these creatures cost to recruit.

Centaurs are an awesome tier 1 creature. Not only are they archers but they also have the highest HP and attack out of the all the creatures on their level. Their defense is low but, as I mentioned, they're archers, they're supposed to attack at a range. These are the only ranged units the Warlock gets though which would be bad if the Warlock didn't have units like the next one on this list.

Gargoyle
HP 15
Speed Fast+fly
Attack 4
Defense 7
Damage 2-3
Cost 200
Population 6+2

Gargoyle's are also a great unit. Their defense is uncharacteristically high for only being a tier 2 unit, and their mobility and ability to fly makes them a force on the battlefield. These are our unit of choice for dealing with archers and they will be a main unit in my army throughout this game.

This would probably be a good time to mention that the Warlock...well his castle is kind of broken in this game. You see, all of his units are either the best for their tier level, or are close to being the best. Their cost is supposed to off set this but...really it doesn't and, once we get his ultimate unit, you'll see why.



If you click on the Castle in each Castle you have the option to build various structures to give you access to other creatures or to provide spells to your Hero. You can only build one a day so you have to choose wisely while also keeping your resources in mind.



After pummeling some Rogues with my newly newly, built up army, I managed to aquire an artifact. In all of the Heroes games, Artifacts are equipment you give to your hero that improves his stats or give you some other bonus (like extra gold each day). This artifact allows Wrathmont to move farther on the map then he normally could, which makes him a much more mobile wrecking force.

Wrathmont: Wait...if I'm ridding a horse how do these boots make me move farther?

...shut up Wrathmont...



Remember that chest in the first picture? Well I got it. Chests always contain a certain amount of Gold in them or, sometimes, an artifact. If its gold, you are given the choice of either taking the gold or giving it to your peasants for experience. I've always favored experience over gold since it is the most consistent way to improve your hero but there are times when it is more cost efficient to take the gold instead of the experience. Either way, Wrathmont needs levels so experience it is!

Wrathmont: I can feel the power building up inside! Soon the world will bow before me!!!

Don't get too power hungry Wrathy, by the time this LP is done...you'll be upstaged by one of your creatures.

[Peanut]

Occasionally there are creature dwellings on the map as well. In my local area, there was a place for me to recruit Peasants straight from their thatch roof cottages.

Peasants
HP 1
Speed Slow
Attack 1
Defense 1
Damage 1
Cost 20
Population 12+2

Peasants are the tier 1 creature for Knights, so seeing them should give you a good idea of just how good Centaurs are. Really their only strength is their high population and that awesome beard (seriously, those dudes look like Leonidas with long, blonde hair). Other then that, Peasants are the worst creature in the game. This would become a trend in the rest of the Heroes games all the way up to this day. I'll be getting rid of these Peasants soon by garrisoning them but, since we need more units, I'll be using them for now.

Wrathmont: And I'll be glad to be rid of them as well! I don't need no Peasants stinking up my army...literally.

Griffin
HP 25
Speed Med+fly
Attack 6
Defense 6
Damage 3-5
Special Unlimited Retaliation
Cost 300
Population 4+2

Also Griffin's! Griffin's are a tier 3 creature and fill a similar role as the Gargoyle. However, as you can see they are slower and have less defense as them so, they aren't as good at taking damage while harassing archers. However they do have a special ability which allows them to retaliate multiple times (normally creatures only retaliate once a turn). Retaliation is weaker then attacking normally and only occurs after a creature has been attacked. So its not that good but every little bit of damage helps and these guys can dish out when they are in combat.



And here's the end of the week. As I said, populations for creatures increase at the end of each week. Sometimes, instead of saying "the week of the Gopher" or some other animal, it will list a unit instead. This means that any dwelling (or random army standing out in the world map) that contains these units will end up with extra units on top of what they would normally get. If you get lucky, this can really boast your army and put it over the top...or spawn Dragons all over the map...

Wrathmont: Shhh...we don't want to spoil there majesty...

Right...



To end this update, its time to introduce the battle screen. Heroes kind of works like chess except each piece represents numerous monsters (represented by the number next to them) and each piece gets its own turn. Heroes are allowed to cast a spell during these turns once a round (a round being when all the turns occur). These battles can have a bit of strategy. For instance, archers, like my Centaurs, loose their ability to fire projectiles whenever an enemy creature lands in adjacent hex to them. Most archers are also terrible at hand to hand combat...so we don't want this to happen. In this battle, though, it doesn't happen and I clean up these goblins with little ease. The Peasants still didn't do anything in case your curious...

Wrathmont: Stupid Peasants! Don't they know I'm paying them to be cannon fodder?!

They're the cheapest unit in the game...so...

Wrathmont: Well jeez, if you think like that then these Peasants will never progress in society now will they?

...you know I really don't like you right now...

[Maledicte]

Oh wow. It's been AGES since I've played this (well, watched it being played >.>) and that was only one time. Man, memories....will love to see how this plays out!

Haha, peasants. Their attack is hilarious, we had one attack once for giggles. *poke poke*

[Peanut]

Haha, peasants. Their attack is hilarious, we had one attack once for giggles. *poke poke*

The Peasants will have their day...one day...



...but not right now. Instead there will be Hydras!

Hydra
HP 75
Speed Slow
Attack 8
Defense 9
Special Attack all adjacent squares]http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/2673/heroes11.png[/IMG]

As you can see here, one of the other player's has been killed by the AI, which means one of the Computers has at least two Castle's and access to twice the resources I have. This could be trouble, so I immediately begin to mobilize a force to expand north, into the middle of the map. On this map, the middle contains an extra town (which can become a Castle) as well as some mines for resources including Gold. For Warlock's, gold is very important since all of their units are so expensive. While I'm at this, though, I decide to get another Hero to protect my home base as well as transfer units around.



Meet Jojosh the Barbarian.

Jojosh: Jojosh smash good!

No, Jojosh collect good.

Jojosh: Ah...

Jojosh is a Barbarian, one of the other factions, so he starts with different troops.

Goblin
HP 3
Speed Medium
Attack 3
Defense 1
Damage 1-2
Cost 40
Population 10+2

Goblins are an ok Tier 1 unit. They aren't as good as Centaur's but they are better then Peasants. In large numbers, they could be somewhat useful but I won't be getting them in large numbers.

Orc
HP 10
Speed Slow
Attack 3
Defense 4
Damage 2-3
Shots 8
Cost 140
Population 6+2

Orcs are an ok Tier 2 archer that are somewhat comparable to the Knight unit called Archers. They can put up a little bit of a better fight at close range but, really, they aren't that great. Still Jojosh needs troops so these guys will be sticking with him for a while.



Meanwhile, I've managed to get my second to last unit!

Minotaur
HP 35
Speed Medium
Attack 9
Defense 8
Damage 5-10
Cost 400
Population 3+2

Minotaur's are a solid Tier 4 unit. They've got the best overall stats of that level of units and have the highest damage. Their speed is also good enough that they can be used in an endgame army. Needless to say, these guys are going to be an important part in invading that central region. So, why not test them out on the Griffin's separating my AI opponents from me.



A solid army of Griffin's gives me a somewhat difficult fight. And, not surprisingly, my Centaur's are the one which take the punishment. In all honesty, I probably should have positioned them in the lower corner of my army so I could kind of defend them better, but hindsight is twenty twenty.



The end result are heavier casualties then I would have liked. 19 Centaur's is a pretty big loss, especially since they're my only Archers.



But, their are heroes to smash so I must press on! When you fight another hero, their avatar (or a tent in this case) appears on the battlefield. Heroes, like you, can use spells to make the battle go in their favor so battles against them are more difficult then with random creatures. On top of this, the AI has a tendency to build lots of useless "scout" heroes who run around, grab what resources they can, and then run away. This would be an example of one of those armies. These are an easy target for Wrathmont to gain some more experience so I can't pass them up. However, they do cause some damage to my army and, specifically, chip away at my Centaur stack. This begins to become a problem...



...in this fight. Ok not really...Basically my army is strong enough to beat any good army the computer has at this point (this being one of them...well before I destroyed most of the other units...). Those purple things holding a rock are trouble. Those are Trolls. I won't go into too much details but they are basically they strongest ranged unit in the game. My Gargoyles are currently blocking them so they won't fire at any of my units, allowing my Centaur's and Griffin's to clean them up. Right now Wrathmont is rolling thanks to his superior force, but his numbers are dwindling.

Wrathmont: Bah! They cannot handle the power of a Warlock of my magnitude! Soon they shall all fall to my horde's might!

This I cannot disagree with.



And here's why...see that in the background? That black tower. Well it allows me to recruit the Warlock's strongest creature and, coincidentally, the strongest creature in the game by far. But I'll talk about them in the next post...first Dwarves!

Dwarf
HP 20
Speed Slow
Attack 6
Defense 5
Damage 2-4
Cost 200
Special 25% Magic Resistance
Population 6+2

To explain where these guys came from, some creatures on the map will ask to join your army. If you have space, you can recruit them in. At best, this can give your army a nice boost, at worst it provides you with some Garrison units. Dwarves are the Sorceresses' Tier 2 unit. They would be the best Tier 2 unit in the game if they weren't so slow. Their 25% Magic Resistance gives them a 25% chance to not be unaffected by enemy spells. This makes them a very tough and sturdy unit. But, I have no use for them, so into the Castle they go. Jojosh will be taking those 15 Hydras pretty soon though...

Jojosh: Jojosh smash?

Maybe...

Jojosh: Jojosh smash!:grin:

[Hiryu]

Yea, the art for the monsters in battle are strange. I've only played 2 and 3, and those were good.

[Peanut]

Dragon
HP 200
Speed Med+fly
Attack 12
Defense 12
Damage 25-50
Special Immuned to Magic; 2 Hex attack
Cost 3000+S
Population 1+2

Dragon's are the best creature in the game...even though they look like Barney. They have the most HP and the creature which has the second most only has half the ammount they do. Their Attack, Defense and Damage output are all the highest in the game. On top of this, their attack can actually hit two hexes, allowing them to attack 2 creatures in certain situations. Oh and they are immune to all magic. And by all magic I mean even spells which damage them or help them. This might seem like a double edge sword, but it isn't. Dragons are powerful enough on their own that even without that ability, they probably would be the best creature in the game. This just makes them broken and turns the Warlock into a death machine whenever he gets them.

Wrathmont: Tell them about the gamebreaker!

Ah yes, the gamebreaker. In this game (and the later Heroes games) there is a spell called Armageddon. It does massive amounts of damage but targets your own monsters as well. Of course if your army only consists of Dragons...well then you'd be immune to it.

Wrathmont: And, since Warlocks have the necessary stats to dish out loads of damage with spells, it becomes and even deadlier combo. So see, soon I will be raining down fiery death upon my foes who were too foolish to not surrender before my might!

Sadly, no, I didn't get Armaggedon this game so no fiery death for you.

Wrathmont:...no fun...



But Wrathmont doesn't need it. 1 Dragon is enough to push his army from strong, to overwhelming. Now imagine what would happen if he had more of them?



Behold, 4 Dragons! And a decently strong army to test them out on.



He surrendered after I wiped the floor with most of his force. Still, he did take out almost all of my Centaurs which is bad fortunately...



I captured that town in the middle and built a Castle their. This is a Knight's castle so I can recruit Knight units here. Since I need Archers, I might as well take Archers.

Archers
HP 10
Speed Slow
Attack 5
Defense 3
Damage 2-3
Shots 12
Cost 150
Population 8+2

Archers are a tier 2 unit for the Knight. They...aren't that great. But they do deal more damage then the Centaurs I have and, since I need a ranged unit, will become a part of my army. They do have an absurd number of shots to waste, so that's good.



Now this, is a clash of two end game armies. The Sorceress on the other side has the strongest force I've seen yet but will it be able to stand up against these Dragons? BTW The units at the bottom of the screen are Ogres and Swordsmen. I'll let you figure out which is which.



1 Round. That's how long it took for her entire force to get wiped out. To give a longer explanation, the Sprites (top corner) Tried to attack my Archers only to get mauled by the units I moved around them. They all died. It then became time for my Dragons to move. I moved them to attack the Trolls. Thanks to their two hex attack, they also hit the Ogres as well, both stacks were completely wiped out. The Swordsmen then attacked my Dragons who responded by retaliating and wiping all of them out as well. And I didn't loose 1 Dragon...yeah Dragons kind of own...



With that fight taken care of, I decide to hire another hero to guard the middle town and the mines surrounding it so my Hero can take his force and start taking main Castles. So I got Tyro the Knight. A man who is sure to have a wonderful, long...



...short...short story. But it will be an epic one!

Wrathmont: No it won't.

Oh come on man, I'm trying to make his death seem somewhat noble.

Wrathmont: It was humiliating and a complete slaughter. And gave me a chance to kill another army. That's all that matters and that's all that needs to be said.



Well...Wrathmont is right...Tyro didn't exactly do to well but no real damage was done. And Jojosh is bringing some fresh Dragons to add to our already sizable stack. Oh and he'll also get a chance to smash things.

Jojosh: Jojosh feel like Christmas has come early!

It has Jojosh, it has.

[Peanut]

Yea, the art for the monsters in battle are strange. I've only played 2 and 3, and those were good.

2 and 3 are generally considered the best in the series and also have better art for the creatures (for the most part). 1 was good for its time though but...yeah the art just is weird...



Anyway, with Jojosh smashing any armies trying to mess around in the middle of the map, Wrathmont can now start taking Castles. Here's the first one.



And it wasn't a challenge. But when you have 9 Dragons, not much is.



And, after another short battle, Red's last castle falls. All that's left is to do is beat this last hero. But you know, I wonder what Jojosh is doing...



Jojosh: Peasants smash!!!!!

...maybe I shouldn't leave him alone...

In all seriousness, this is probably my favorite screenshot from this entire let's play, both because of the background behind it and the expressions on the monsters faces. Seriously, the Peasants look so freaking intense in this picture while the Griffin's kind of have a "Oh crap" look on their face. I can almost see a massive horde of Peasants bounding over the terrain, with pitchforks in hand, ready to crush 2 Griffins just kind of chilling. The scene is sort of funny since, while seeming epic, it centers around a terrible unit. That stack of Peasants contains 163 of them. Its at numbers like these that Peasants become somewhat useful. They also become useful when you cast buffing spells on them like Haste. Haste increases the speed of monsters and can turn a stack of Peasants into a decently fast moving army. However, they still aren't really really useful and only managed to kill 1 Griffin. The remaining Griffin retaliated killing 23...so yeah, epic Peasant charge wasn't so epic. Oh and while we're here...

Pikeman
HP 15
Speed Medium
Attack 5
Defense 9
Damage 3-4
Cost 250
Population 5+2

Pikeman are the Knight's tier 3 creature. They've got great defense but have way too little HP to be as useful as some of the other tier 3 creatures. Still, with numbers like the ones I have in this army, they are pretty useful.



Anyway, in a not so epic battle, I managed to clean out the last hero for Red, eliminating them from the game. The fight did give me another artifact.



This artifact increases our heroes attack by 3. This means those Dragons are hitting with even more damage then they normally would...



Speaking of Dragons, my most recent Hero recruit is bringing 4 more to Wrathmont. This guy really doesn't do much so I won't even mention his name.

Arie: Ahh...

Well all that's left is to beat Yellow. Surely an epic battle awaits Wrathmont as he attacks the last Castle in the game!



...that has 1 Hydra in it...seriously that's what it had. Honestly,the battle wasn't even worth showing, it ended almost instantly.



However that wasn't the end. As it turned out, there was one hero remaining. Yes, its time for the final duel!

[Peanut]

Well it isn't a very strong army, but at least its stronger then that one Hydra.



Still, as I said it isn't very strong, and I've pretty much taken it out in one round...yeah pretty easy finale...



And bam, Yellow is vanquished. And I've won the game.



At the end of each game, your scored on how you did. As you can see I did...ok, I probably would have had a higher score if I'd kept some more of my units alive. Anyway, that's it for Heroes 1 and now, its time to move onto a much better game...Heroes 2!

[Maledicte]

Peasant revolt!* Yeaaaaargh!

*sadly less epic than it sounds.

[Peanut]

So you know what I hate? Delays. Doesn't matter where they are they're annoying. Well at least I'll have several more months to work on this since Heroes VI won't be out until September.

But onto happier things like Heroes II!


This is probably my favorite game in the series, and after playing it again, I have to say I'm impressed with how well its held up. There are a few new factions but, for the most part, this is just a more polished version of the first game. So, unless a unit has been changed or is new, I will be skipping over the stats and abilities for most of them.



The map I choose is somewhat interesting. It's for three players and each player gets 2 Heroes to start with. The map is also pretty wide open with lots of places to explore and a whole bunch of extra towns that can be taken.



Long time no see Arie.



Alamar is effectively stronger then Arie by 1 Centaur. However, Arie does have a head start on experience. Either way, both heroes are going to be responsible for the initial exploration and resource gathering stages. If I can keep both of these guys alive for the entire game, they could end up being very, very powerful...



The Castle of Middle Gate...its kind of barren right now...



I don't believe I explained Chests adequately enough in the last game. Basically you have a choice to either get whatever amount of Gold is in them (2000, 1500, or 1000) or experience (1500, 1000, 500). The rule is you always take gold when you get a chest with 1000 gold in it and then situationally take gold or experience with the other chests. In this case, we're going experience.



And this is why. Alamar has leveled up giving me a choice of two abilities to add to him. Ballistics improves our use of siege weaponry while Navigation makes it easier to move in ships. Ballistics is the better choice for a map like this where water is rather scarce.



Occasionally you find campfires scattered around the map. These are a great way to get some extra resources. Though not many and not ones which we usually need...



This is what just about every mine and sawmill does in the game. Though there are some differences in amounts and what resources you get.



And Alamar has leveled up again. Leadership increases a hero's morale (which occasionally allows units to get an extra turn) while Wisdom allows a hero to learn better spells. Both are great choices though, since I already have wisdom, I choose leadership.