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 What is this? In 1986 Jon van Caneghem and New World Computing released a game called Might and Magic book one: Quest for the inner sanctum. This was a RPG that has been expertly (and entertainingly) played by Thuryl. You can find the Let's Play in the Let's Play archive. As most probably know, Might and Magic was a great success, successful enough to spawn multiple sequels (9 currently). He made some more games after Might and Magic that I'm not interested in (and never played), but in 1990 he released King's Bounty. A strategy game where the objective was to recover 25 map pieces used to find the Scepter of Order before the time limit passed. A complete departure from the Might and Magic this was actually a strategy game. At the start of the game you picked your player character (carefully avoiding the word Hero) from Knight, Paladin, Barbarian and Sorceress. Throughout your journey you would recruit creatures to fight for you while your The game was well received, which apparently gave Jon an idea. What if we took that concept and combined it with my long running Might and Magic series? And thus in 1995 Heroes of Might and Magic: a strategic quest was born. Featuring mechanics based on King's bounty and set in the world of Might and Magic. It was successful enough to spawn multiple sequels as well. The most loved of these is Heroes of Might and Magic 3, which despite being released 1999 still has a very active community. In fact there is currently an ongoing LP of Heroes3 started by Spermy Smurf, though it is Legoman who is playing through the campaigns. Why this game? Every time a discussion starts I always see everyone praising Heroes 3 and while definitely deserving of said praise, in my own opinion the earlier games had a certain charm that none of the later games match. The charm stems from a combination of graphics, sounds and a healthy sense of humor. (and maybe some nostalgia sprinkled on top) I chose this game because, while I have more experience with 2/3, I have very fond memories of this game. It's the game that introduced me to Heroes of Might and Magic purely by chance (hurrah for boring BBQs) and one of the few games I have played that prompted me to seek out the game. I never found it, but instead bought Heroes2. (and later Heroes3) I poured many hours in both, mostly on single maps. In addition to the above it's a lot shorter making it a better pick for first LP tries.  Only 8 maps/levels. I did finally buy the first heroes when Ubisoft released the Heroes of Might and Magic: Complete edition in 2008. So that is the version we will be seeing. How? The game technically has 4 campaigns, one for each of the four following "races".  Knight with fabulous hair: Starting stats: 1 attack, 2 defense, 1 spellpower, 1 knowledge. Special: The knight adds +1 to the moral of the army.  Barbarian (this guy is called Antoine. There is no reason for me to point out his French sounding name): Starting stats: 2 attack, 1 defense, 1 spellpower, 1 knowledge. Special: A barbarian suffers no movement penalties for moving on rough terrains.  Sorceress  : Starting stats: 0 attack, 0 defense, 2 spellpower, 3 knowledge. Special: A sorceress can move at double speed on water and starts with a spellbook.  Warlock  : Starting stats: 0 attack, 0 defense, 3 spellpower, 2 knowledge. Special: A Warlock has a larger visibility radius in the adventure window and starts with a spellbook. But really, the only difference in the campaigns is in starting position, difficulty caused by patented Heroes of Might and Magic balance and the final levels where you take out the other factions. So for now the plan is to just play through the campaign once using the knight. Why the knight? Well, canonically knight was the victor of the war and we will try to make this happen. Though I always imagined the war would look something like this:  The game itself contains very little story, but during my research I found that the manual contains letters written by the victor, Lord Morglin Ironfist. I will be using these letters in combination with what little ingame story there is to go through this LP and hopefully liven things up from just being a set of steps. Unfortunately not all of his letters match up to what happens so the first update is a long stretch of text followed by the first week of screens. If you're not interested in the letters, just skip to the screenshot with the title screen.  I will admit I am not the best Heroes player, however I should be able to finish it as last time I played it (shortly after buying the complete edition) I came to level 5 before the computer crashed and the save was lost. Still, if you have any gameplay tips please feel free to give them. Update: Update 1: Level 1 Update 2 Update 3: Level 2 Update 4 Update 5 Update 6: Level 3 Update 7 Update 8 Update 9: Level 4 Update 10 Update 11 Update 12 Update 13: Level 5 Lord Slayer Update 14 Update 15 Update 16 Update 17: Level 6 Queen Lamanda Update 18 Update 19 Update 20 Update 21 Update 22: Level 7 Lord Alamar Update 23 Update 24 Update 25 Update 26: Final level Update 27 Update 28: Finale! Darth TNT fucked around with this message at 19:22 on Apr 18, 2015 |
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May 9, 2014 12:37
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You apparently reserve second posts.
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May 9, 2014 12:37
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Yay, looking forward to this. My first experience with the HoMM series was with number 2 so I could never really bring myself to try out the first.
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May 9, 2014 12:46
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UPDATE 1 It's long. 23rd day of the month of the Raven, common year 632 posted:
Mu-nif-i-cent: Adjective 1: Extremely liberal in giving; very generous. 2: Characterized by great generosity, a munificent bequest. I didn’t know that word. 23rd day of the month of the Raven, common year 632 posted:
This seems like a reasonable request considering the evidence.  23rd day of the month of the Raven, common year 632 posted:
 It’s much safer on the roads where there are no thieves or rogues. 23rd day of the month of the Raven, common year 632 posted:
Thus far all of my attempts at flying and lifting horses above my head have proven futile. The failed attempt at flying by Arthur has left a dent in our morale, future attempts will be made in more controlled circumstances. 23rd day of the month of the Raven, common year 632 posted:It seems that objects do not fall quite as fast when dropped and the air holds more moisture to it.  Note the name of the hills. The Varnal Hills. The word V.A.R.N. should be familiar to people who have played Might and Magic (or read about the games). It stands for Vehicular Astropod Research Nacelle, which denotes a research vessel created by a race called the Ancients. This is one of the few hints as to where Ironfist came from. VARN-4 was the location of the first Might and Magic, however whether or not it was VARN-4 that Ironfist came from is never made clear. More interesting even is that this is about the only hint/link in the games with regards to the SciFi background of the Might and Magic world. I didn't even know about the SciFi part until I read about Heroes3 Forge Town incident years after it had happened. The other hint is his name. Might and Magic contained a Lord Ironfist that gave you several missions, the most notable mission compared to this game was to find lord Kilburn who is now a recruitable hero and sports a mustache that would make Mario jealous. Nothing was ever made final on the matter, but as far as I can tell everyone agrees that M&M Lord Ironfist is not Heroes lord Ironfist. M&M Lord Ironfist is either cousin Ragnar, an ancestor or totally unrelated. 4rd day of the month of the dragonfly, common year 632 posted:
 Let's do some quick introductions to the town screen of Heroes1. The screen you have here is not one we'll be seeing in the main game, I made it in the map editor. Towns have 2 states. Village and Castle. This is the village state. It only earns 250 gold pieces a day and you can't build anything until you upgrade it to a castle. Our hero here is Lord Haart, doing his best impression of Lord The world of Heroes of Might and Magic runs on several resources, which can be seen in the lower right corner: Common: Gold, Wood and Coal "Rare": Crystal, Gems, Mercury and Sulfur. (Unless you're Heroes 6 which only has Crystal.) Gold is always required for building/recruiting. Rare materials are required for certain buildings and the highest level units. Coal and Wood are only required to build dwellings. 4rd day of the month of the dragonfly, common year 632 posted:
 He looked a bit like Chuck Norris and his strength was an inspiration to all. 4rd day of the month of the dragonfly, common year 632 posted:
 Protection, which they'll receive from me as I send them into battle. You know, this backstory to recruiting units amuses me. No, you don’t train units at their dwelling. You build the dwelling and they wander out of the woods to your doorstep. 4rd day of the month of the dragonfly, common year 632 posted:
I kept wondering, where did my money go and where did they get coppers?  4rd day of the month of the dragonfly, common year 632 posted:
Although they will not be living with us for long since they smell funny. Despite what the letter says we can't recruit them from the same town, though this does at least explain the victory screen. (which I hope to show many many times) 4rd day of the month of the dragonfly, common year 632 posted:
 18th Day of the Month of the Unicorn, Common Year 633 posted:
Apparently Ogres have much better taste and standing than most humans in this world. Peasant live in poverty in a thatched hut, meanwhile those Ogres get a fine brick house. Look at them being all superior with their fancy canes and hair.  18th Day of the Month of the Unicorn, Common Year 633 posted:
 Jep, that’s a trollface. 18th Day of the Month of the Unicorn, Common Year 633 posted:
Only swordmen drink, pikemen aren't real men. Those pikes must be compensating for something! 18th Day of the Month of the Unicorn, Common Year 633 posted:
Apparently the Elves have an agreement with the archers. Any targets in the forest are theirs, all other belong to the archers. It’s a strange world that I find myself in. 18th Day of the Month of the Unicorn, Common Year 633 posted:
Don't pick the peasants you fool! Get the magic! Sell the peasants! 18th Day of the Month of the Unicorn, Common Year 633 posted:
With that out of the way. Now watch the intro movie. This is not mine, I don’t know why but my version doesn’t play this cinematic masterpiece. It was uploaded by the people from celestialheavens.com, a Might and Magic fansite. That movie clears things up doesn’t it? Don’t you just feel motivated to slay someone for Ragnar’s greater glory? I need to conquer more land. According my chamberlain there is a town called “Gateway” not far from here. He claims that it is an important town and should we take it, it will greatly increase our strategic position in this land. It must be a huge and bustling metropolis, well guarded against any intrusions by well trained and blood thirsty men… I think I’ll send one of my knights.  Title screen, let’s get this game started.  Note how much the portraits here look like the portraits in the manual. Queen Lamanda is not amused. Also interesting is the look of Alamar.  Compared to his later portraits, it looks like Morglin did a number on him after winning.  Scenario 1: Gateway You have established a foothold in the new land. This small island is fiercely contested by three other factions, all vying to capture the strategic town – Gateway. The town is located in the center of the island, and so dominates its surroundings that the other factions will surrender to the lord that captures it. Beware the dragon guardian of the Gateway! Day1:  Lord Ironfist doesn’t like fighting himself, so our hero for today is Ambrose who looks like he stepped in something. Let’s have a look. Ambrose’s stats are the same as those of every knight. Attack and defense are added to the attack and defense scores of your creatures, while spellpower and knowledge deal with magic which we'll deal with when we get some.  The two golden birds next to his stats are our morale. We currently get a +1 for being a knight hero and a +1 for having an “army” consisting of only human/knight troops. Like most things in games, the higher the better. High morale can cause units to get another turn. Below that our luck. We currently have neutral luck. We can get both positive and negative luck by visiting sites and in addition we can find artifacts that provide positive luck. There are no artifacts that provide a debuff on your luck in this game. Luck is great since a lucky strike does double damage. Below that, our Experience. Heroes level up as they fight or visit certain places at which point they’ll randomly receive a point extra in their stats. The odds however are weighted, knights are more likely to receive a +1 on defense. Barbarians are more likely to get attack, Warlocks are more likely to get spellpower and the Sorceress is more likely to get knowledge. Our mighty army currently has 40 peasants and 4 archers. We have room for 5 different types of units and due to engine limitations I am unable to split up our horrific force of peasants into two stacks. Something that was made possible in later games. Unlike in later games we have 14 generic slots for items. Yes, we can wear 5 pairs of boots if we can find them and by god won’t we look fabulous. Now let’s look at our units.  The peasant is the level 1 unit for the knight town. They cost a whole 20 gold and are worth every penny if they would pay you that amount to work for you. They are unique in that they have a 1 for everything. Taking defense of opponents into account it means that peasants can do less damage than that you have peasants. Also, they remind me of Chuck Norris. Odds of being in our final army are zero. At least they breed like rabbits.  I do still often buy them and keep them as garrison. Archers  Archers are the knight town level 2 unit. 150 gold. They’re the only shooting unit we have at the moment which automatically makes them great...for now. They’re not exactly sturdy or fast. They have 12 shots available. If they run out, they have to use those tiny knives.  I didn’t say this yet, but the little grey block below the  It also has this nifty calender function. I wish my lock screen would look like that. All days look the same except the seventh day.  Our castle is just a castle and a thatched hut where we can recruit more peasants.  I don’t know who named the castle, but I’m not sure if it will give people a positive opinion of their soon to be king. The starting dwellings of the town are randomized. During my tests I would occasionally get a town with an archery range built. Unfortunately I couldn’t continue with that game after I learned a valuable lesson concerning let’s plays and saving often. I am above save scumming. (currently)  All the stuff we can or are going to build. Some buildings have prerequisites. Here, have a flowchart to check it out.  Most towns have some prerequisites to building, but for the knights this is another problem. In most towns you build one level and the next level is unlocked. However the knights have to build two “useless" buildings, namely the well and the tavern before they can build their higher level units. Yes, I used quotes for useless, I will explain as we get there. Also, apparently the knight castle can also be called the Farm Castle.  Our peasants take an age to get to the other side, so let’s build an archery range.  It pops into existence and people appear alongside it. You can’t see it on this screenshot, but the screen is animated. The water everywhere sparkles, the banners wave in the wind, the archers look around nervously to see if I´m watching and the peasants do what they do best. Nothing. It’s a nice touch. Fortunately, you can see the motions on the following gif.   Anyway, we buy our units and…  Ambrose takes one step to the side  and we buy another hero. Clicking their portrait shows us what they have. We have a knight who looks like Teal'c without shaving and dental plan and Agar the Warlock. Warlock it is.  He comes with a free spellbook, but no spells.  We’re picking a warlock for multiple reasons. One is that centaurs are shooters. Adding another shooter is great. Two are the gargoyles. Though not exactly strong, they are fast and are flying units. Flying is very useful since our peasants aren’t likely to see battle unless the enemy comes over to us. Third reason is that he is a spellcaster, magic is pretty powerful as we’ll undoubtedly see.  The trade screen. Agar is going to give his units to Ambrose for “safe keeping”. He keeps a single Gargoyle. Gargoyles are fast flyers and like in later games hero speed is influenced by the speed of the unit they are carrying. I need Agar to run for the gold and be part of the supply line. Try as I might, you can’t trade spellbooks. Look how happy Ambrose looks with his new army.  Agar goes for the gold and the wood.  Ambrose goes to the hut where we recruit more peasants. Almost all units can be recruited on the map from dwellings, this includes units belonging to other towns. Level 1 units join for free, making them a good deal whenever. Higher level units still have to be bought. I always found it strange that the hut here looks like a real house, but within our walls they’re forced to live in straw huts. Anyway, we attack the goblins.   They are impressed by our army and wish to join. “Wandering” stacks of units will either fight, flee or join with you upon making contact. They will generally flee or offer to join if you’re much more powerful than them. In addition, joining chance is increased if you have an army comprised of units from their hometown. Wandering is between quotes since the units are stationary, but the manual calls them that anyway. It's probably a hold over from its King's bounty roots where wandering stacks were actually wandering around the map.  Look at our army! Also, look at our morale.  Creatures don’t mind working together, but too many different alignments adds a negative to your morale. For 3 alignments it’s -1 and for 4 alignments -2. You know, considering the relative strength of the knight town I wonder if the +1 to morale is an attempt at balance. Welp, all out of movement points so let’s end this turn. Day2:  First thing to note is the movement points of the two heroes. Agar has a lot more thanks to having a fast unit.  Ambrose gets the campfire and visits the little gazebo behind it. Campfires always give low amount of money and a random resource.  The Gazebo hands out a free 1000 exp points. Exactly 1 level.  He looks thrilled at his new power. We leave the treasure chest and move to kill some peasants.  Agar flags the Sawmill and grabs the coal and flags the mine. Flagging buildings means that you claim them. Sawmills and coalmines provide you with 2 units of their resource each day.  At home we build a Tavern. It increases morale during sieges, nothing helps a siege quite as well as drunk soldiers. Really, the only reason we build it is to get swordsmen. It’s not quite useless when you get attacked, but in this stage of the battle it is completely useless and a waste of a turn. This gif also shows the magic of newer computers and older games.  Day 3:  We attack the peasants and it’s a horde! I didn’t talk about this yet, but army sizes get strange names to confuse us. army sizes posted:
 They want to fight, whatever will we do. Unit order is decided by speed, followed by placement in the army. If I had 2 units with speed fast and one was at the top of the army and the other at the bottom the top one would’ve gone first. Heroes1 and Heroes2 have a strange thing going on with flying units. While for other units speed determines the order in which they get their turn and determines their range of movement. For flyers it only determines when they get to go. Every flyer can go anywhere on the map at any moment. The screen is a lot smaller than in later games only five hexes high and like 6 or 7 wide.  Our hero is  The peasants are slow, so let’s huddle around our archers and let them pick off these fear inducing foes from afar. While we wait let’s see what the monsterdex has on the Gargoyles.  Gargoyles are pretty great. The level 2 unit of the Warlock faction, costing 200 gold. They are fast flyers so they get to go first a lot of times especially early game. Defense is great, but attack is a bit low. Great for blocking other archers. I always wonder if gargoyles are female. Look at that chest area. Or maybe that is my internet influenced mind and those are actually muscles to move the wings. Centaurs are ranged units, shoot to kill!  Oh my god, where is that arrow going?!  While we enjoy their look of surprise, let’s talk Centaurs. Centaurs are the level 1 unit from the Warlock town. Costing an expensive 60 gold they’re pretty great. Their medium speed means they are quite fast and their 8 shots is the same as the archer. They are probably the best level 1 unit. The only downside is that it is a 2 size unit meaning they’re easy to block.  What the hell are you shooting with? Hollow point arrows?  The peasants have no idea what hit them!  The archers, afraid to be outdone by something that’s only half the man he is try their hand. I love those expressions.  Next, EYEBEAM!  We need a dickpunching101 smilie.  Goblins are the level 1 unit for the barbarian town. Costing only 40 gold, they are the first example of what the barbarians are all about. Attack, attack and die due to bad defenses. Counting the level 1 neutral unit they are the fourth best unit, beating only the peasants in strength. Of course, one goblin is worth like 3-4 peasants, so that extra growth the peasants have on the goblins doesn’t mean a thing.  I’m not transcribing this fight. Nothing happens. Peasant kill count: 0  Next another horde of peasants. They want to fight as well and it’s a repeat of steps. We didn’t even move from our starting positions. Peasant kill count: 0  Agar gets the gold! In Heroes1 it isn’t possible to boost the income of your castle unless you find certain artifacts. As such I will be picking gold. It’s 2.000 and 1.000. In later Heroes games it is possible to boost your income. In Heroes2 you can buy a statue for an extra 250 and in heroes3 and later you can upgrade your castle for more money.  We buy an armory and another hero. We now have hairy Teal'c and a guy with a really name. He will probably be more useful in the long run so I pick him. He stays on the castle and we end turn. Day 4: We buy a mage guild allowing us to buy a spellbook for Ambrose, maybe he can use it to right the table. In better news it also allows Agar and Wrathmont to learn spells.  Not a bad selection of spells. Let’s see: Bless: You’ve probably seen that unit damage has two value’s (unless you're a peasant). A higher one and a lower one, bless allows troops to always do maximum damage. Curse: The exact opposite of bless. Protection: Troops gain a +3 on their defense. Pretty good for a defensive people like us. Wrathmont visits the Gazebo (+1 knowledge) and gets the gold (1.500). Agar visits the Gazebo (+1 spellpower) and heads home to learn spells. Ambrose heads home to learn magic and get the gargoyles, centaurs and the swordsmen we bought. He leaves the peasants behind, they won’t help much  You probably won’t see a lot of screenshots of the Swordmen in action. They are incredibly mediocre. They are the level 4 unit for the knights. Costing 250, they are infinitely better than the knight level 3 unit which is why I made this first.  Don’t give me that look Ambrose, it’s only 500.  His next target are the archers at the bottom of the screen. They are guarding an artifact. It’s a medal and medals usually mean extra morale, so it should be good. Maybe we get lucky and the archers will join us as well. Day5: I see the enemies already gallivanting about in the center. Fighting archers as a knight sucks. While we’re at the castle we buy a well so we can buy a blacksmith later. Earlier I called the well a useless building, this isn’t strictly true. The well increases the weekly population growth by 2. However in other castles I would wait to buy it until the seventh day since I prefer to get my units and go creeping as soon as possible.  Archers want to fight. The flyers need to block the archers to keep our own archers alive. We cast our first spell, so let’s talk about spells. Unlike later games, Heroes1 uses the memorization system. Knowledge determines the amount of casts each spell has, after it has been cast that number of times it is gone. We cast and promptly forget the protection spell on our archers. Spellpower determines the damage or the duration of the spell cast. That means this spell only lasts 1 turn.  Gargoyles move to block and attack the top three archers.  Our archers focus fire on the bottom two archers while the goblins and swordsmen  And we win, but lose two gargoyles and an archer.  Artifacts are always accompanied by a short blurb on how you get them. We get a medal that increases moral and a campfire. (+400 gold +4 mercury) Wrathmont parks next to the cottage and end turn. As useless as Peasants are, a legion of them at least make a good distraction so I always pick them up with the backup hero. Day 6:  We buy a blacksmith and buy the pikemen. Ambrose remembers to cast bless, takes the pikemen and the goblins and heads to the gargoyles and the enemy. We leave our single gargoyle back home. During the enemy phase I saw two yellow heroes die against their gargoyle guardians only for a third hero to beat them.  Unfortunately that sort of thing happens to fast to cap, that would’ve made a great gif.  Anyway, Pikemen. They are the level 3 unit for the knights. Costing 200 in gold, their only good point is their sky high defense (for their level). Too bad their bad hitpoints still mean that they will be dying in droves. There is a special "rule" for the knights. Every next level of their units is almost twice as good as the previous for only a pittance more. Like with the swordman and the pikeman. Also it is Pikemen and Swordman according to the manual. Day 7: We buy a jousting arena, buy the horses and give them to Ambrose in place of the goblins. This helps boost his morale through the roof again. Ambrose attacks the gargoyles.  Look at how multicultural our army is.  Anyway, we use the cavalry to block our archers from direct attack and we get a morale boost. So I ditch that plan and charge at the gargoyles.  Cavalry are the level 5 unit of the Knight town. They are fast with decent attack and are strongly affected by the bless/curse spell. They only cost 300 gold coins which is cheap compared to other towns. But what you pay is what you get is in play here. They also reaffirm the knight rule being a lot better than swordsmen for only 50 more. Unrelated, I have a fondness for cavalry attack sounds in heroes games in general. You hear a horse whinny in the distance followed by someone tossing a broom on the floor. And through the magic of Tindeck you can enjoy this sound as well.  The centaurs attack with, I’m not really sure. A piece of glass or something? It’s so tiny. They actually survive thanks to some timely moral boosts.  The pikeman pike the gargoyles.  The swordmen…drop their sword?  Finally the Centaurs had a high morale boost allowing them another attack as well and they finished the Gargoyles. I don’t know how, but I managed to miss all morale boosts. We set up our supply line and get ready for the start of a new week, without the protection of the gargoyles.  And we end the update here, it´s long enough as it is. So, what are your thoughts? This is my first attempt at an LP and there is always room for improvement. So if you have any comments positive or negative I would love to hear them. Darth TNT fucked around with this message at 18:22 on May 9, 2014 |
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May 9, 2014 12:55
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It reads well enough to me. It's interesting to compare this to Heroes 3. The monster models are so large and bright and 'cartoony' and detailed in this. I mean, look at the Gargoyles or the Old Man Archers. I hope if possible we can get music samples. Bloodly fucked around with this message at 13:31 on May 9, 2014 |
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May 9, 2014 13:29
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I'm appreciating this so far! Back in the day I actually bought a 3-pack of HoMM 1-3, and while I enjoyed 2 and 3 I never was able to get the first game to work properly on my computer, so it's cool to see what this one's all about, and how its giant-sprites and straight-legs mesh together. EDIT: One feedback piece I can give is that I'd probably would have split the letters and actual gameplay up into two separate updates with different links. Better for navigation that way. The link to the intro movie is also broken. Bloodly posted:It's interesting to compare this to Heroes 3. The monster models are so large and bright and 'cartoony' and detailed in this. I mean, look at the Gargoyles or the Old Man Archers. Yeah, the giant sprites seem sort of weird given how, despite graphical capabilities getting better, each successive HoMM game gets successively smaller sprites (and bigger battlefields). Once you consider how that also saves space for other unit graphics, though (more factions and neutrals), it kind of makes sense. Not to mention the designs of these guys are also pretty simplistic; lots of plain space and gradients. And especially in the case of 2 they managed to cram a lot of details into each unit sprite. Bluhman fucked around with this message at 15:18 on May 9, 2014 |
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May 9, 2014 14:36
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Kinda disappointed you went with the most boring faction.
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May 9, 2014 15:04
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quote:Why the knight? Well, canonically knight was the victor of the war and we will try to make this happen. Emphasis mine.
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May 9, 2014 15:44
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anilEhilated posted:Kinda disappointed you went with the most boring faction. They are only the most boring in design; difficulty wise, they are the most interesting, if only because all their troops are varying degrees of awful compared to the other towns. This would remain in the sequel, only to be finally fixed by HOMM 3 and onwards. Red Haven in Tribes of the East especially was bullshit broken depending on who you asked. But yeah, for this game? Good luck trying to defeat an army of equal size if you're playing Knight.
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May 9, 2014 18:32
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Bloodly posted:It reads well enough to me. Music doesn't play on my version. I think that's normal as I recall reading about it. But I do see the sounds folder on my disc, it's in 82m and apparently Audacity can convert that. I'll see what I can do. Bluhman posted:I'm appreciating this so far! Back in the day I actually bought a 3-pack of HoMM 1-3, and while I enjoyed 2 and 3 I never was able to get the first game to work properly on my computer, so it's cool to see what this one's all about, and how its giant-sprites and straight-legs mesh together. Thanks, I fixed the link. It's funny you say that. Originally it was two updates for the reason you give. But somehow that didn't flow so well when I read through it. Someone else in the sandcastle also pointed this out, so I changed it to the current set up. And those big beautiful sprites are exactly what gives these earlier games their charm. Even if it's only 2-3 frames of animation. I do miss the bigger battlefields. I remember going from Heroes2 to Heroes3 and being slightly disappointed in the the game at first. I had gotten used to big colourful sprites filled tiny movement details. (no phoenix incarnation beats the Heroes2 phoenix!) Instead in Heroes3 you suddenly get "realistic" brown stuff. I plan on comparing units in future updates. anilEhilated posted:Kinda disappointed you went with the most boring faction. Agree (though I have a fondness of the Heroes2 knight faction), but on the bright side. Plenty of reason to utilise any other castles I can find to it's max potential. Darth TNT fucked around with this message at 18:38 on May 9, 2014 |
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May 9, 2014 18:35
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Heroes 1! The one that started it all. It gets eclipsed by it's amazing sequels (2 and 3 mostly) but it's always cool to see how it all started. The Knight is by far the most underpowered faction, so it'll be interesting to see you finish this.
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May 9, 2014 21:16
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*sees thread*, Oh neat, I only started from HoMM 2. Wondering how 1 played. *sees first pictures*, Oh god, did units really used to look like that? Jesus, I am so glad that they improved their sprite work in 2. Also, belatedly, I am a big fan of knights in HoMM 2 and they seem similar in 1. I find them to actually be a lot more interesting than Barbarian who are just a bunch of "well-rounded, cover everything except flying" faction.
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May 9, 2014 23:01
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AncientSpark posted:Also, belatedly, I am a big fan of knights in HoMM 2 and they seem similar in 1. I find them to actually be a lot more interesting than Barbarian who are just a bunch of "well-rounded, cover everything except flying" faction. But it still generally is that way for HoMM2 knights. Except worse because, like here, almost all of Knight's units are melee non-flying, and each new type just gets stronger than the last. 2 is a bit better with it than 1 is, though. I just read through the stats of each unit for the Knight faction, and the paladin runs at the same speed as the cavalry. Those must be some very strong soldiers. 
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May 10, 2014 00:44
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For music, you should just find existing videos on the internet. The issue with Heroes 1's music is complicated, but if you get it from a compilation DVD, your disc will only have the lowest quality - 8-bit mono files, while the Windows 95 version actually has Redbook CD audio. The first game's Baroque town themes are just as good as the later games.
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May 10, 2014 00:49
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I haven't been able to find the themes yet. Update 2: Last time we defeated a pack of gargoyles and opened the center part of the island to find Gateway. We start at the start of day 8. Day 8: Wrathmont picks up the Peasants and heads home.  Money is a bit tight, but we buy all our cavalry, swordsmen and 2 archers. He gives the units to Agar who runs to Ambrose to reinforce his army as he scouts the center part. I saw an enemy run around here, but I don’t see him now. Also, meet Gateway, the bustling metropolis that will be a great boon to whoever takes it. It's a sorceress village. Hurrah.  I'm suspecting the peasant may not know what he was talking about, but at least there are rare resources around here. Day 9: Ambrose goes to get the ballista artifact. I can think of only a few reasons why the computer didn’t pick it up. It’s either guarded, cursed or the AI is set for moronic in the first level. I know it's not cursed because I'm not aware of cursed artifacts that look like that. Leaving only the other two options, I’m not sure which one I should be hoping for.  It’s guarded.  They look like reasonable men.  Now normally I would only post these bits as I get these units under control. However rogues are a level 1 neutral unit. They can be purchased if you can find the correct location on the map for 50 bucks. However you will probably never have them. They have skyhigh attack, but take punches like a diseased little girl. They have the same ability as the Sprites in that creatures can’t retaliate against their attacks. Usually they’re not really worth it. In case you are wondering, yes they are better than peasants. I quickly discover that my cavalry are stuck behind the tree.  Seeing how they move I notice the shrubbery. Clever positioning of my units should allow me to wall them from my archers. The pikemen can block the one near the centaurs while the cavalry and swordsmen do the same at the bottom of the map.  The archers get a lucky shot. It probably wasn’t necessary, but still nice. I think I prefer the Heroes2 lucky animation where a rainbow comes out of nowhere and arches across the battlefield to touch the lucky unit. The only downside was how long it would sometimes take, even if it was only like a second or 2.  The cavalry bolstered by the lucky shot and happy to be out of their trap decide that now is a great time for high morale. Unfortunately, they can’t reach anything due to the stupid bush! (what are those, cattails?)  Stupid small map.  Yeah, you can guess how that ended. Not a single casualty.  The ballista of quickness allows our catapult to fire twice in a siege. This is great! Back home we buy more units with Wrathmont as Agar parks himself halfway. We end our turn. Day 9: Agar gets some pikemen from home. Ambrose meanwhile decides to attack yellow. He passes through the gem mine, claiming it for the greater glory of Ragnar as he goes along. Wrathmont buys pikemen and gives them to Agar. I expect the enemy to come knocking now Ambrose has left the building. Day 10:  I was right, a barbarian immediately shows his face. I want to get this over with, so I let Ambrose continue his approach on yellow territory. Meanwhile, back home we buy another level of mage guild.  Agar will like this. Lightning bolt does 25 times spellpower in damage to a single target. Consider the health of our cavalry and the starting spellpower of the warlock and you can see how hard this can hit us. The other spell is Turn undead, which destroys one troop of undead unit. I’m not sure if they mean a stack or just one unit. I hope a stack, because otherwise it would be even more useless. There is only one undead unit in the entire game and you can’t recruit them. They are however worth fearing as they have the potential to be unstoppable.  Agar quickly heads home and learns the spell. He then moves away a bit, but stays in range of Wrathmont.  Ambrose visits the enemy gazebo (+1 atttack) and continues on. I wonder if yellow has any heroes, because I don’t see any. Day 11:  Blue decides to come looking as well.  Wrathmont buys everything we have, including the peasants and passes them on to Agar.  You shall not pass!  Meanwhile, Ambrose storms the castle.  What? Who the hell designed this castle? There’s no door. This is a problem for the knights and a reason why I was very happy with the ballista. We have no flyers and a bad shooter. Meanwhile, they have elves, who are literally twice as good as archers (They get two shots per turn) and a high damage arrow tower to back them up.  To make matters worse, castle walls ensure that our archers take a penalty on their damage. Drawbridges were introduced in the second heroes game, I have no idea why they aren’t in this one. I guess that means that the first thing king Ironfist did was start up a doors services company where he lets everyone pass freely while he searches their pockets as they pass. Anyway, the cavalry blocks the archers in case the sprites come out to play.  Good job guys, glad to see you’re eager.  I was busy typing and missed the sprite attack, sorry.  There is a hole there. Did I tell you yet that catapults can miss. Two shots and only one hits.  One hit, one miss. I miss the heroes3 ballista skill. Anyway, charge!  I blessed the cavalry, they killed the dwarves and received a morale bonus. Bye you pointy eared freaks.  Almost all our archers are dead. But at least he gets a +1 to knowledge allowing him to remember 2 of each spell.  Apparently they didn’t have any heroes. I am beginning to suspect the level of AI I am up against.  Welcome to Portsmith. Not much has been built. I always like the sorceress towns, they’re so bright and clean and the animations give it a very tranquil atmosphere. Enjoy:   Yay, lightning bolt! We also get haste and slow. Haste: Troop speed becomes fast. Slow: Slowed troops always move last and can move only one tile. One day Ubisoft should introduce the spell peasant polymorph. We need money, so no rest for Ambrose who attacks the goblins above the castle. Day 12:  Apparently passing was easy. Even better, blue decided to show up.   I can take them both, but I’m not sure if I can take them so shortly one after the other with Agar. He’ll run out of spells. Well, no time like the present.  Let’s go after the barbarian first. He has wolves, which are fast attacking units, but take hits like slightly used bargain toilet paper. They also have ogres who are just big slow slabs of meat. If both armies would meet at the middle and just slug it out, he could win thanks to them. It’s not likely, but not impossible either. Fortunately, that would just be stupid. Instead I’ll just lightning bolt them before they even get halfway. I considered lightning bolting the wolves first, but I think I’ll do the goblins first. The wolves will probably just put themselves into a position where any of my guys can skewer them, while the goblins need an uneven amount of turns to get here. Considering that the lack of grid on the ground screws up my movement estimates this seems safer. Unfortunately, after typing this I hit the lightning bolt and forget to cap the screen. Anyway, Agar does a 100 damage on a single lightning bolt.  He lightning bolts the archer and moves the wolves in range of the goblins and possibly the peasants. Maybe they will get a kill after all.  Probably not. The gargoyles freeze in fear due to low morale. Yeah, not doing the honorable thing and meeting them in the middle was probably a good idea.  That sure is a lightning bolt. Somehow, even while hitting screenshot 6 times during the animation I manage to miss the hit pose from the Ogres. Which is too bad since it looks like they’re catching an arrow. This leaves the peasants and ends the battle. Logically the computer decides the best course of action is to blind the pikemen.   One arrow to the knee later and those peasants are reporting for guard duty.  Meanwhile, Ambrose attacks the goblins for supplies.  This goes well for them, since I notice the tree trunks and the tree at the bottom create a line with three empty spaces in the middle. My non ranged units move in there to defend my massively important archery units and slaughter the goblins like the sub human pottery makers they are.  He then goes after the peasants above the goblins to take their gold. I’m playing and I want to see my cavalry slaughter defenseless peasants while listening to the broom sound. So I move them in and have everyone wait while they get all the fun. For comparison, one stack of peasants does 4 damage to them.  Gold! We already picked up 1.500 gold + 600 gold + 3 mercury I build Stonehenge in the sorceress town to get druids.  Druids are the second best shooter of the game, but only due to the special ability of the other. They are fast and hit hard costing only 350 in gold. Since our other shooters are just archers I didn’t have to think long about buying a few. They also have an awesome sound effect that sounds like they’re firing their lasers. I wonder if they’re hiding ray guns in those sleeves. I also consistently misspell them as duirds. Day 13 The blue hero slowly moves towards my home territory. So slow in fact that I decide to ignore him for the week to change. Ambrose picks up the last chest. +1.000 gold and he flags the coal mine, while moving next to the sawmill. Wrathmont moves to the peasant cottage allowing Agar to replenish his spells and army and we wait. Day 14  This is the best week for me. Every now and then the astrologers proclaim a special week for an actual unit. During this week the growth of the unit is increased. In this case I can now recruit an additional 5 swordsmen, making a total of 11.  Ambrose heads to Portsmith and buys himself all the druids he can. He also buys the elves and sticks them in the place of the archers.  I already said it, and I will say it again elves are literally twice as good as archers. They have the same damage range, but come with medium speed, 5 extra hitpoints but one point less attack. Instead they get to fire twice per round. An all round good archer in most armies. With Ambrose’s army restocked he heads back to the middle. The actual goal of this level is to take the center town. This is the third time I’m playing this level, though it’s only the second one that is going to be finished. In my second playthrough I defeated all the enemies and took my time to take out the center town. I’m not going to do that this time. Instead I will straight up attack Gateway with my current strength, which is more than sufficient. You do get a grade at the end of the game and the grade is determined by the time it took you to finish it. I have no chance at a high score due to my “expertise”, so I will just do as I always do. Do it half assed and pretend not getting a high score is due to the computer cheating. Anyway, you get nothing extra from a high score so I don’t care. Back home Agar dumps the archers and the peasants and prepares to buy faster and more powerful units. He can combine his armies with Ambrose and we’ll steamroll Gateway and whoever gets in our way. Day 15 Agar buys 8 swordsmen and a pikeman. He then runs to the center.  Ambrose considers a detour through some archers to get the bag. If memory serves, that is a bag of endless gold. And thanks to the miracle of replaying to get better screenshots I know my memory serves me well. I also know that knowing my luck this will be the last time we see it. It provides 750 extra each day. As mentioned earlier, in Heroes1 it isn’t possible to boost your income so this is one of the best artifacts. Day 16  The computer stays away from the center. I wonder why.  Ambrose visits the fairy ring for extra luck. Agar gives him everything his little heart desires and we attack the dragons!  Dragons are the strongest single unit in the game and they are this easily. Having twice the HP of the next strongest unit combined with decent speed, an attack that can hit more than one square, high stats and flight. It’s also completely immune to magic, though this is a double edged sword. Yes, if an enemy gets a dragon things could get difficult. I don’t think this emote gets any use, but it’s definitely appropriate in most battles that involve dragons.  It’s even the right color.  Of course, this dragon is completely alone and thus no match at all.  Druids are fast shooters, so they go first. They only do 39 damage of the 200 HP. Have a sound effect. Yes, spiritual power sounds like lasers.  I cast haste on the cavalry. This allows them to cross the range in a single go. I had hoped that they could finish off the dragon.  They didn’t. You've already had two sound effect. Originally I wasn’t going to add sound effects, since in my mind the most amusing sound effects only get introduced in the second heroes. (BLAH!) But a friendly forum user called Pierzak pointed out that I was wrong. I hope you’re happy Pierzak! This means I now feel obligated to try and catch all amusing/awesome sounds. I'm still sitting on a good chance to post the Gargoyle hit sound. So listen and fear as the dragon flies over and flushes my druids through the toilet. The druids counter attack, but the dragon lives to flush another day.  The pikemen poke. [img]http://lpix.org/1672129/106youdie.png[/img] The swordsmen finish the job. It says enough about the dragons strength that almost everyone had to attack it just to kill one of them. Or maybe this says more about the Knights strength.   But before I do that, let’s talk intel. I have already shown that we can scout enemy armies by right clicking. However we can check out which enemies there are in the town. But we can’t see their estimates. Originally I couldn’t even see what was in there which is why I haven't used it yet. This is the role of the thieves guild. Portsmith has a thieves guild and it gives us more information.  In addition to its ability to provide intel it also allows us to get a bearing on our power. I never bothered to build one since I find it fairly useless. But we’re at the end of the level so we might as well build on in Bloodreign as well.  The more thieves guilds you have the more information you get. Huh, blue is richer than me.  And with the second thieves guild I can now see the estimates. Not that it matters, we’re strong. (for this level) I contemplate waiting a few days before attacking. There is an interesting thing in Heroes1. The campaign follows up on itself. Meaning if I end the level on day 7, it will be day 7 that we start on the next map. Currently it’s day 3. I would like to end on day 7 since It would allow me to buy more units the next day. In fact, I will wait. Day 17  An enemy hero approaches. I decide to do nothing.  That was unexpected. Maybe he died of old age because I took so long. Day 18  I could give chase, but never mind. I’ll just finish this level. Day 19  So close he could taste it. I actually bought some defenses there. I’m pretty sure we could take him, especially if we buy a hero. But it’s day 6 this week. So let’s attack Gateway instead.  They’re a bigger challenge than the dragon was. But seriously, this is nothing. Since this is a village and not a castle there are no castle walls, in fact there is nothing here. We cast lightning bolt on the druids. Ambrose only does 25 damage. But that is still one druid less. Hopefully mine can finish them.  These guys can take even crotch fires. Cavalry are next and they get to wait. I want the sprites to come over and the cavalry can’t reach anything.  The sprites come over and die. The elves are next and get a morale boost.  I cast haste on the cavalry and the druids shoot at the elves, killing three.  Welcome to The Matrix amateur hour. Despite what it looks like, he hit them. They counter attacked doing a whole 1 damage. The elves then piled on their 1 damage and got a face full of lance as thanks.  Look at those manly arms.  Now that I think about, if I had hasted my cavalry at the start those two druids probably wouldn’t have died. Startergie!   Level up.   I hope that horse knows where it's going, Ironfist probably can't see anything in the helmet.  Nah, I think I’ll finish my update before I continue on. I’ll be honest I didn’t show everything yet (like those blue obelisks), but I want to have something to talk about for next updates. Anyway, next time we let peasants sail a boat. Darth TNT fucked around with this message at 14:14 on May 18, 2014 |
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May 16, 2014 12:33
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A Youtube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwYS1k2A3k7Kx2MNt9O3ky7lKuSIvayUH&feature=view_all The game music site at KH Insider has the MP3 downloads. The simple way to play the game with music now is to buy the GOG version. It runs in DOSBox, and comes with the soundtrack (in their usual OGG format, I guess). http://www.gog.com/game/heroes_of_might_and_magic Compared to the Windows 95 version seen in DVD compilations, it has the following pros and cons: Pros: - As it runs in DOSBox, it has zero compatibility issues. - The music actually plays, at 16-bit stereo quality. - The mouse cursor is colored. That sounds like a minor thing, but it's pretty terrible to have to always stare at a B&W cursor in such a colorful game. Blame it on early Win95 graphical technology. Cons: - No map editor. The map editor is for Windows 95 only. - In the DOS version, the music is accompanied by a persistent white noise.
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May 17, 2014 03:49
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I really enjoyed the game aspects of the King's Bounty LP, and this is shaping up to look like fun too. As someone who's really only played the Might and Magic RPGs, the mishmash of references is hilarious, and it is ridiculously dense. Just off the top of my head reading through the first couple of updates:
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May 17, 2014 08:14
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cuc posted:A Youtube playlist: I think I'll stick to my version. Thanks for the links, I'll start adding the soundtracks starting next update. I can't understand why I couldn't find them on youtube.  I always thought the black cursor was a stylistic choice.  It never really bothered me.ManxomeBromide posted:I really enjoyed the game aspects of the King's Bounty LP, and this is shaping up to look like fun too. This is interesting. To be fair, I never played the Might and Magic games. All I know about them is stuff I remembered from Thuryl's LP or stuff I read about in online wiki's and there is surprisingly little information on the first Heroes in relation to the Might and Magic stories. (another reason to do this LP and add the letters) The only thing I do know is that Heroes1 takes place on the continent of Enroth on the planet of Enroth, same goes for Heroes2. The town name is a nice coincidence, since they are randomized. Still it makes you wonder even more what those druids are hiding under those robes.  I don't think any heroes game ties into Xeen.
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May 18, 2014 18:47
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I wish spiritual power really was lasers. We need more laser mystics in the world.
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May 18, 2014 19:40
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The toilet dragon was the best thing you didn't show off the broom sounds, though. I'll be following this.
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May 19, 2014 01:26
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I tried this game as a knight a few years ago. I gave up in frustration at how horrible the units were. Good luck.
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May 19, 2014 04:19
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Pierzak posted:The toilet dragon was the best thing It's in the first update. But here it is again. It wasn't in the test update in the sandcastle. I keep changing things after every read through because it seems better that way... until I read through it again that is after which I want to go away for a while before a final read through to find the last errors only to change things for the better again. 
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May 19, 2014 06:46
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Update 3:29th Day of the Month of the Aardvark, Common Year 635 posted:
Wait, I can’t say that. That’s not very heroic. 29th Day of the Month of the Aardvark, Common Year 635 posted:
 29th Day of the Month of the Aardvark, Common Year 635 posted:
Wait, I don’t think Ragnar would be impressed when I tell him I beat up girl hippies. 29th Day of the Month of the Aardvark, Common Year 635 posted:
I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.  29th Day of the Month of the Aardvark, Common Year 635 posted:
 29th Day of the Month of the Aardvark, Common Year 635 posted:
Iceburn! Anyway, my wise chamberlain tells me about the importance of the water trading routes. If we conquer them, we’ll be able to move our armies around much quicker and cut off the enemy supplies. It’s too bad I get seasick, but I know just who can burn and kill them all.   Your way to the mainland is blocked by the Archipelago of the Ancients, a series of four large islands, each held by a different lord. The opposition must all be subdued, and they are better led this time. Boats are a necessity – use them wisely! Ancients? Better led? Boats? You know I never realized the significance of the mention of the Ancients until now.  This is the new setting. A nice harbor town and our hero for today is none other than lord Kil Lord Kilburn was a NPC and a quest giver in the first Might and Magic. He was an exiled knight in that game. He is also a recruitable hero for Heroes 1 and 2. Considering the reason Ironfist came here you would almost think the other Kilburn was related and exiled due to these events. Either way, Kilburn later died.  Our home is not the Thundercats planet, that's spelled Thundera. Hey look, the archery is already there. That’s nice.  I have it on good authority that boats are a necessity, as such we can build a shipyard. Shipyards can (logically) only be built on coastal towns, such as the one we currently have. I think most can confirm with me that you don’t get to build them very often in Heroes of Might and Magic 1-6. Now I cheated a little bit. In most heroes games water contains a lot of flotsam and thus treasure. Thing is I wasn’t certain if Heroes 1 also had them since I couldn’t see any bobbing on the water along the coast, so I just played a few days with a boat and without saving. Does that count as save scumming? Except it didn't really help me, I still don’t know what to do, do I build a tavern for swordsmen or build a shipyard for boats to go scouting. I think I know what I need to make a good decision.  Yep, problem solved. (Feel free to yell at me if you think I made the wrong choice) We buy peasants and archers and off we go! Day 2  It’s national Shrek week. The nice thing about the new week is that my next hero will also have a starting army to go sail with.  Wrathmont, impressed by my ability to steamroll retarded AI has decided to offer his services again. I pick the Warlock again because, as always shooters and flyers make for a great combo. Much better than slow dwarves and flying hippies. (I actually love sprites and hated Heroes3 for removing them in the base game)  We also buy an armory, swordsmen and all the archers. We’re just short of an entire army, I have a feeling I’m forgetting something...meh  Oh right, a boat. I already built something in my infinite wisdom so I can’t build a harbor. Maybe I should hire a sorceress next time to get the water movement bonus. Oh well, Wrathmont spends the time by going after the treasure chest. +1.000 gold. We also find a horde of peasants protecting a passage to the other side. (you can see their trident near the edge of the screen) Seems like perfect practice for Wrathmont.  I forgot to save.  Every shot killed a stack.  Meanwhile Kilburn heads further up and encounters another group of peasants.  Day 3  Kilburn goes camping. (+500 gold +5 wood) Meanwhile people with at least one working eye have probably noticed the compass artifact. My many years of Heroes gaming tell me that this will probably help sailing somehow. I want it, preferably before I go sailing. Unfortunately it’s guarded by archers and as I’m totally above save scumming I’m not going to try and get them to join. Instead I’ll build an army and flatten them. I have to impress Wrathmont (and Ragnar) somehow.  Is there no end to them?!  Wrathmont goes exploring further.  He finds another town, or village more accurately. It’s a knight village. Day 4  Kilburn takes the sawmill and the logs and heads to the cottage. We almost have an army worthy of mention.  Meanwhile. Wrathmont heads to the cabin. I don’t remember what’s in there, but I probably want it and there are crystals next to it. I need crystals to build a cathedral for our ultimate units.  I thought so. In the snow we can’t move as far as we normally could, so that’s about all Wrathmont does. Back home we build a blacksmith. Day 5  There is a lot of stuff in the screenshot here. You may have noticed obelisks in earlier screenshots. Wrathmont is going to get one now which makes this the ideal moment to talk about it. There is also a shipwreck in the lower right corner. I’ll probably go in there to commit suicide at some point. And finally there is a portal here, maybe a way home?  Obelisks are a holdover from King’s bounty. Every obelisk gives you piece(s) of a puzzle forming a treasure map. The map shows a place somewhere in the game, which it marks with an X. Find the X, dig a hole and find the ultimate artifact. There are 4 ultimate artifacts that you can randomly get, each one gives you a +12 to a stat. Needless to say, this is great. The second heroes keeps it the same, but adds 3 more artifacts to the mix two of which add to all stats and one is a golden goose. In the third heroes the ultimate artifact is replaced by the holy grail which provides a special game breaking building once you get it to your town. In the fifth and sixth heroes the ultimate artifact becomes the Tear of Asha, a fancy name for the holy grail. I think I prefer it the way heroes1 and 2 did it. You always get attached to your primary hero and bestowing a mighty weapon unto him just feels great. It also adds more risk of losing it during battle.  In this game the map is animated, so the water moves. This doesn’t help much in narrowing it down. Wrathmont spends the rest of his movement walking to the gargoyles near the sulfur mine. I’m leaving the portal alone for the moment.  Kilburn meanwhile picks up the gold (+900) and is out of movement points. Back home we build a Jousting Arena. Day 6  Lord Kilburn heads back home, but gets something else to drink for a change.  Wrathmont confronts the gargoyles. It’s a pack.  I wish I had spells, that would make this a lot easier. As things are now I park my gargoyles in front of the archers.   "BEHOLD! OPTIC BLAST!”  In the first turn we lose some centaurs but nothing else. With the gargoyles having had their turn it’s our turn to shine. Centaurs go first. I have them attack and realize I probably shouldn’t have. The swordsmen do great by the way, killing a gargoyle every blow and taking only 2 damage in return. I was counting on them to carry me through this battle.  Now, their moment to shine.  Look at that hate filled face as they lightly tap the gargoyles and… kill one?  Peasant kill count: 1 Archers fire and kill another gargoyle. I decide my gargoyles hang back and do nothing but block the archers. Their attacking stats are quite low and I'd prefer it if they blocked the archers for as long as possible. If they attack now, they'll incur a counter attack decreasing their HP and shortening their life as a blockade. A part of the strategy of these games comes from the fact that all units (except one) have only one retaliation. In general every unit incurs a counter attack when they attack during melee, the exception to this rule are the Sprites, Rogues and the Hydra. This means you can use two different tactics. One is to have a weak unit attack before a stronger unit to soak up the counter attack. Sure they will die, but your stronger unit remains in full health. Pretty much the only reason to do this, is if the stronger unit has already taken damage and you don't want to lose him or if you have which nothing at all (peasants). Alternatively use a stronger unit to soak up the counter attack leaving the weaker units to attack without fear of retaliation. During this fight I'll be having the swordsmen attacking first leaving the peasants to fight longer. The swordsmen can take quite a few hits whereas the peasants will die if someone looks at them funny.  And then the centaurs died.  Peasant kill count: 2 They’re on a roll!  We will miss him. Meanwhile, the swordsmen are getting hammered but are still holding on. For some reason they’re completely ignoring the peasants.  Their mistake.  Peasant kill count: 3  Hoping that no more die I have the archers do nothing. One does when the single gargoyle attacks. In later games you can gamble on this much better since they show how much HP units have left. The swordsmen finish the job.  Many were lost in combat. Wrathmont consoles himself near the campfire next to the gargoyles (+600 gold, +6mercury). Back home we build a mage guild.  That is a crap selection of spells. Let’s review: Dispel magic: Exactly what it says. It dispels all magic on a unit, not really worth it when the go to spell of the computer is Lightning bolt. It might be useful if the computer blinds us, their second most favorite spell. Curse: we know this one, this is ok. Not great, but ok. I would have preferred bless. View mines: Displays the location and type of all mines. Since I'm not talking about explosive landmines, can you guess how useful this is going to be? Please state your answer in a scale of Peasant to Dragon. Day 7  Wrathmont gets the crystal and let’s see what that breastplate is.  It’s the divine breastplate of protection which gives the wielder a nice +3 on defense. That’s a pretty solid increase. Kilburn returns home and we end turn. I’m saving my money for a good cause, I need to build my good karma and I hear you can buy Gods affection. Day 8 Wrathmont gets 2000 gold from the chest at the best possible time.  Meanwhile back home we donate our money to church. This allows us to recruit the ultimate knight level 6 unit, the Paladin. Time to start killing.  Lord Kilburn buys an army and heads out to attack the archer stacks we left alone earlier. He leaves a mighty force of peasants behind to defend the castle. Day 9  This is bad. During plague weeks we receive no new units in our dwellings, in addition any non bought units are halved in amount. In later games this also affects wandering units, it unfortunately doesn’t in this game. I didn't buy all of the pikemen yet, and with this their numbers are halved. Wrathmont gets another obelisk and attacks Woodhaven.  I wish I had remembered to put my swordsmen at the top of the screen.  Run! My archers are goners.  Despite the blockade made by the peasants my swordsmen still attack the archers. This goes on for a bit until my peasants reach the other side, at which point the balance of power swings heavily to my side.  They immediately get to work. Peasant killcount: 36  Like I said, this goes on for a while, two left.  And guess who finishes the job. Peasant killcount: 38 Screw the paladins, I have peasants!  Level up for wrathmont, spellpower +1.  Welcome to Woodhaven. Wait...all that trouble for this? At least I can replenish the army with more peasants! Thanks to a friendly goon called Cuc I can now offer you the soundtrack belonging to the castles. Please enjoy, they are really quite good.  We’ll get right on that, as soon as I find a gold mine or something. Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, Kilburn attacks the archers guarding the compass. Showing how much superior I am to most animals I don't make the same mistake twice and actually remember to reposition the units.  All my preparation for naught! Am I allowed to complain? +30 archers…Nope never mind me.  I move to get the artifact and of course things wouldn’t be that easy. Let’s take the paladins for a test drive.  We let them have the first turn and the paladins wait.  The cavalry immediately goes to work. The pike men can’t reach anything, so I have them wait.  Rogues are fast attackers and I managed to miss their attacks. They did 6 damage to my paladin. He strikes back.  Yes! The knight ultimate unit. Clad in golden armour while shouldering that massive blade they strike fear into the enemies heart...twice. These Olympic sprinters can keep up with the cavalry in speed, but quadruple their damage thanks to the skill and almost double their HP. This is the ultimate show of might for the Knights. What could possibly stop me now? Well how about all other level 6 units (though I'm not sure about the barbarian Cyclops) and some level 5 units. For comparison let's have a look at the stats of the strongest unit in the game.  Go team? At least they're much cheaper. And you know what, despite their short comings I just can't help but have a soft spot for them. What's not to like about a giant sword and that sound they make as they sprint across the battlefield.  And with this you’ve seen all two frames of attack the cavalry has.  The last guy dies to having 40 arrows stuck in his body.  It’s even better than I thought, it improves movement on sea and on land. Look out world, we’re coming for you! (+14 wood +1.000 gold.) Kilburn, bolstered by his success moves to attack the other archers. Day 10  See the effect of the compass.  They didn’t want to join our merry band.  Everyone runs to the center while the enemy takes aim. The paladin runs ahead. George the lone pikeman can’t run nearly as fast as the others and is left in the dust. I wish I had haste. I wouldn’t use it on him, but it would save me some archers.  Each shot kills an archer.  The paladin bludgeons the enemies with his sword. It looks like the archers will survive, but remember that he hits twice. They don’t survive. This does immediately highlight a problem with the paladin. They need to survive the counter attack to do their second strike. That’s no problem in this case, but it could be later on.  Now you see them,  Now you don’t. Going through this old game, I can't help but start to like that death cloud. I don't know why, but it somehow appeals more to me than the way units are hit in later games.  Victory tastes like an obelisk. That sounded like something from a bad porn movie.  My keen intellect tells me that the artifact is hidden on an island somewhere. With that, Kilburn heads home.  Wrathmont picks up the resources he finds lying around (+6 mercury) and gets to the cabin.  Dwarves? At least they joined for free and they make great garrison units.  Back in Tundara, we buy a shipyard. I mentioned that I don’t hear any music right? This game does have working ambient sound. Depending on where you are you hear different background noises. Near the sawmill you hear them sawing, near the mines you hear a pick axe and near the ocean you hear this. Guess what I hear most of the time on this map. This is starting to get on my nerves. Day 11  Wrathmont picks up the gems (+6) and the mercury (+4) and heads to flag some mines. I’m a bit lazy flagging mines since we only need it for the mages guild. Kilburn returns home and we’re short the wood needed for a boat. So we wait and end turn. Day 12 Wrathmont claims the sulfer mine and heads to the left side for gold and a crystal mine. Kilburn waits. Day 13  Boat time!  I shall name thee, the Solaris! Do you see the grey flag thing on top of the sail, the moment someone enters the boat it takes on the color of your faction. A nice little detail. And you know what, with us getting a boat and our second town I have decided to end the update here. It’s long enough I think. Next time we fight more enemies and hopefully overthrow the others.
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May 27, 2014 11:39
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Hmmmm, I'd say that being able to see mines on the map is worth... about as much as a cursed and slowed peasant stuck behind shrubbery. Heroes 4 had both a grail and lots of fancy powerful artifacts to dig up. 
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May 27, 2014 14:25
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I'd say View Mines is worth around as much as a pack of peasants. Marginally useful in the very early game, if only to find out where the enemy starts out, but no more than that.
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May 27, 2014 15:06
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Caustic Soda posted:I'd say View Mines is worth around as much as a pack of peasants. Marginally useful in the very early game, if only to find out where the enemy starts out, but no more than that. So... Largely a waste of 2000+ gold if you know the maps, or have a map that starts with dragons between you and them (a common thing)? Gotcha. But yeah, it's very not useful, although I remember casting it once or twice for funsies. At least it's not View Resources!
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May 27, 2014 17:40
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Darth TNT posted:
All things considered, the Paladin really is a solid deal. Similar attack and defense scores are good, while the Damage range easily balances out thanks to the double-strike. They're tied with the Sorceress' tier 6 for fastest (though flying kind of counteracts that), and probably the best part is that they're super-cheap for the top tier. With what you could buy to get the dragon, even discounting that sulfur, you could get a troop of 5 paladins, which on average does 4 times as much damage as the dragon would, and in total can take 50 more points of punishment. The only problems include the middling HP per unit, meaning that the damage does drop off as the troop takes casualties, and the whole fact that it literally obsoletes every other Knight unit. After you get Paladin, a knight's army is basically going to be Paladins, Archers (provided they don't find any better shooters), and whatever other good faction/tier units they can find. But yeah, the battle with the Gargoyles really highlights why flying units are pretty much the worst thing to fight; they cross the map instantly and just swarm your shooters. Also doubly bad for knight and barbarian, since those are the only two factions in the first two games with no flying units. Yeah, legitimate faction balance really wasn't a consideration in HOMM until the third game.
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May 27, 2014 17:59
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Bluhman posted:
Some would argue 'not even then'. Others would argue 'that has NEVER been a consideration'.
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May 27, 2014 18:38
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Bluhman posted:All things considered, the Paladin really is a solid deal. Similar attack and defense scores are good, while the Damage range easily balances out thanks to the double-strike. They're tied with the Sorceress' tier 6 for fastest (though flying kind of counteracts that), and probably the best part is that they're super-cheap for the top tier. With what you could buy to get the dragon, even discounting that sulfur, you could get a troop of 5 paladins, which on average does 4 times as much damage as the dragon would, and in total can take 50 more points of punishment. The only problems include the middling HP per unit, meaning that the damage does drop off as the troop takes casualties, and the whole fact that it literally obsoletes every other Knight unit. After you get Paladin, a knight's army is basically going to be Paladins, Archers (provided they don't find any better shooters), and whatever other good faction/tier units they can find.
Pierzak fucked around with this message at 19:33 on May 27, 2014 |
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May 27, 2014 18:41
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Pierzak posted:Do dragons/]phoenixes have the two-tile breath attack in the first game? Because it's quite a powerup. And the other thing is the dragons' complete and utter invulnerability to magic. Including Armageddon Yes, the Dragon and the Phoenix and the Cyclops have a two-tile attack that only works at certain angles. I think the double attack for the Paladin was supposed to make up for this.
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May 27, 2014 19:05
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Bloodly posted:Some would argue 'not even then'. Others would argue 'that has NEVER been a consideration'. It is way better, though; at the very least, they made sure each faction now has a 2-tier upgrade for all units, and has units that fill in each niche of Melee/Ranged/Flyer. Also, how flyers don't have infinite move-range, so they don't hard-counter ranged units. But true, there are some weirdly powerful bonuses that some factions get (Harpy's ability to heckle enemies without retaliation, Gorgons having petrification, Necromancers still tromp around with billions of skeletons, and their vampires are still ridiculous, too) - and in the middle of that Castle's claim to fame is pretty much just having units that are kind of powerful numbers-wise.
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May 27, 2014 19:33
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Bluhman posted:It is way better, though; at the very least, they made sure each faction now has a 2-tier upgrade for all units, and has units that fill in each niche of Melee/Ranged/Flyer. Also, how flyers don't have infinite move-range, so they don't hard-counter ranged units. Then 3 gave them the insanely broken Angels and their equally broken upgrade, Archangels. And suddenly, Castle gains enough power to stand up to stuff like Black Dragons and Phoenixes.
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May 27, 2014 20:05
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Darth TNT posted:
I cannot unsee this breastplate as a crocodile head (or alligator? Whichever one has the rounded nose) Nice to see the older HoMM games get some love, as much as I love Heroes 3 I still hold Heroes 2 near and dear to my heart
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May 27, 2014 22:22
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Darth TNT posted:Our home is not the Thundercats planet, that's spelled Thundera. Tundara was the Air/Ice town in M&M 2. Darth TNT posted:
And this is the first case I've seen where Heroes went and directly influenced the M&M games themselves. Obelisks show up in M&M6, one per region, with a bunch of random letters and underscores on them. Once you collect them all, you can line them up and get a stanza or two of incredibly terrible poetry which then hints at the location of a fabulous treasure. M&M7 does the same but there are fewer zones, and thus fewer obelisks, and thus the doggerel is shorter and as a result way less terrible. Less is more, puzzle writers! I bet 8 does as well but I haven't played 8 yet so I don't know for sure. Also moderately hilarious: the journal function in those games keeps track of the messages for you so you don't have to write it all down, but it does it with a variable width font, which makes it basically impossible to read off the screen, so you have to write it all down anyway. 
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May 28, 2014 06:53
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JamieTheD posted:So... Largely a waste of 2000+ gold if you know the maps, or have a map that starts with dragons between you and them (a common thing)? Gotcha. But yeah, it's very not useful, although I remember casting it once or twice for funsies. At least it's not View Resources! Please don't give the AI any ideas for my second level mage guild. I don't know what the map looks like, it's been too long since I last played. However I operate on the old design logic that if there are 4 faction and I have 1 corner logically the others are spread in the other 3 corners. Xenocides posted:Yes, the Dragon and the Phoenix and the Cyclops have a two-tile attack that only works at certain angles. I think the double attack for the Paladin was supposed to make up for this. It works on all 6 angles of the hexagon. AradoBalanga posted:Well, that was the case for the Castle faction for the first two games. They were the middle-road guys who could do okay but needed some tactics to compete with more powerful factions. I never liked the addition of the angels in Heroes3. I always associate angels with good and pure and it felt like a very cheap way of making the castle town the designated good guys of the story. Not to mention that surrounded by Gorgons that look like a completely different mythological beast, wyverns, thunderbirds, evil eyes and the like that Angels are a very boring creature of myth to add. I originally disliked the inferno faction for the same reason, until I found out the story line reason for them. Angels as far as I know don't have a reason for being there. Aces High posted:I cannot unsee this breastplate as a crocodile head (or alligator? Whichever one has the rounded nose)  [insert heroes2 love fist here]
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May 28, 2014 07:22
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Darth TNT posted:It works on all 6 angles of the hexagon. I could be remembering wrong but I remember it not working if you use a two-hex monster from directly above or beneath with the monster filling both spaces straddling the target. Then again, that makes sense because there is no hexagon along that path. You hit an edge.
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May 28, 2014 07:45
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ManxomeBromide posted:
M&M7 only had one fewer obelisk, it wasn't that much shorter. Still terrible poetry, mind. 8 only had nine obelisks, so they dispensed with poetry and puzzles and just made it a straight message, albeit without spaces between words. Then they made the treasure only available on one day out of the entire in-game year, completely negating all the effort spent making the puzzle simpler. 
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May 28, 2014 07:58
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There are people who would argue that Heroes II has a unique approach to balance that only needs a little tweaking. I recall a fan patch changed the Black Dragon growth to -1, so that the Well is required to produce 1 Black Dragon per week. NWC people hinted on message boards that the Heroes III angels are something created by the Ancients. The Heroes III gorgons, like many things in fantasy video games, are directly derived from D&D gorgon. The wikipedia entry has links to real myth creatures it assembles better: Khalkotauroi and Catoblepas.
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May 28, 2014 08:29
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Darth TNT posted:What I loved about the heroes2 knight town was how it seemed like they had no bad units (except Peasants) after upgrading. All of them were pretty speedy with decent defense.
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May 28, 2014 21:36
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well it's just easier if you have a "good" side and an "evil" side, as the campaign for Heroes 2 shows, Roland's a Wizard and therefore a good guy, whereas Archibald is a Necromancer (or Warlock, can't remember which) and all his cronies are Necromancers so he's an evil guy. Also regarding my crocodile plate, I think I always see that because of how the plate tapers at the bottom and most chest plates don't taper like that so it looks more like a mouth to me, every time
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May 30, 2014 07:38
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