Lol, I was bored today so decided I would make a little tribute to my all-time favorite Strategy RPG.

I've played a lot....I've played the Disgaea's, the Fire Emblems, FF Tactics, Jeanne d'Arc, and many others....and although most are wonderful, none compare to the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise!

Heroes of Might and Magic I-V

For any who have not played these games, you absolutely must if you're a strategy RPG fan. I can't possibly recommend anything higher. The scope of these games is HUGE. So much to do..so much strategy, so much exploring, so much freedom, so much playtime.

Online and single player.

Oh, and it includes a map creator to design your own and a random map generator so you never get bored of the same damn maps!

I'll include some pics and videos....

Trailers: http://www.gametrailers.com/game/1989.html

The Gist:

You have a hero, wandering the world map....

The hero must find a town, build it up, recruit an army and other heroes, gain experience, find resources, defend against enemies, find articfacts, etc.

Huge storyline unfolds as you play different sides of the story.

Your main Parts are:

The World Map - This is where you find resources, artifacts, experience boosters, mines, enemies, allies, other castles, towns, etc. You have a certain # of movement points per day. When your turn is over, it's the enemies turn.

Your Castle - You can conquer many different castles and have many different types. This is where you build your kingdom and recruit your army. Some of the different types of castles are Wizards, Humans (knights), Demons, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Dark Elves, Necromacer, etc. Each castle has its own unique strengths and weakness...it also has unique army recruits.

Battle Screen - This is just a typical SRPG battle where your army can take on the enemy. You can gain experience, etc. VERY involved with tons of differnet creatures and spells.

Anyhow, here are some screenshots:

The Human's Castle: (Shows some of the troops at the bottom...the # is the number of each type of troop you have. Also shows the amount of resources you have at the top....Wood, Ore, Mercury, Crystal, Sulfur, Gems, and Gold)

This just shows some of the upgrades you can make inside your castle. (For recruiting new types of units, increasing power, better defense, more heroes, more income, better population growth, new spells, new skills, etc.)

The Mage's Castle:

Battle Screen: Here is an army trying to take out a castle...more castles, means more income, more unit types, more power, etc. Once again, the #'s beside each unit are the amount of creatures you have in each stack. The bottom gives the order of which unit's turn it is. The battle screen has 360 degree viewing rotation and you can zoom in or out. (Lol, it even has an auto combat for those who suck at strategy games if you want...so you don't have to be any good to enjoy this game)

Zoomed in battle...angel (most powerful Human unit) healing fallen troops.

This shows one of the heroes and her current level, etc. HUGE amount of hero customization and leveling up. Massive skill trees. It also shows the current troops under the heroes command. The tabs lead to different screens with skill trees, upgrades, artifacts equipped, etc.

World Map: This is the best part of this game. Exploring the fog! Finding artifacts, enemies, skill boosters, mines & resources, and treasure chests, haunted ships, graves, new lands and castles, etc....huge amount to do. The faster you can explore the map, the bigger advantage you have. Each of your heroes gets a certain amount of movement points on the world map each turn. (Once again, 360 degree camera and zooming abiltiy)

Man I hate Heros of Might and Magic... its sooooo time consuming... its a really fun game to play but there are some things that bothered the hell out of me...

Why does the hero need to go back to the castle to get new troops ??? Are they not going to find the way ??? Thats some BullS**t right there...

And the fact that you allways need to take your hole army all over the place to win battles... that way another enemy hero can take your stronhold with two archers and a dog named scruffy.... so you have to take you hole army back to the home base to reclaim it... by the time you have done that the two archers and scruffy can take back the castle you just fought over... and if you ever split up your army you run into a big enemy army and have to run away loosing all your stuff.... aaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh

Sorry but that game as fun as it was made me go insane many times over...

The heroes going back to the castle to pick up new troops is because Ubisoft is dumb...

In Hereos of Might and Magic IV the troops could move on their own and so could the heroes (with no troops, just alone even). Ubisoft improved the graphics when they took over, but really hurt the gameplay.

Lol, the second part is strategy though! You can't take your whole army everywhere you go...you have to leave a big enough army at home to defend the castle and take a big enough army to still explore and conquer territory safely. You have to manage multiple armies...the people that make one all powerful army and try to leave waste in their wake are the ones that usually die easily because they can't defend ground.

I guess the difficulties and frustrations are some of the things I love the most about it.  I've been playing the game with all the expansions since Heroes of Might and Magic I....so I've mastered the highest difficulty modes on it for the most part. 

But whats the point of attacking your enemy with half an army when he has a full one and castle advantage ??? Thats like bringing a knife to a gunfight... IMO those games had serious balance issues... but man some of the battles were fun as hell :)

Might and Magic III was a great game, if its the one I'm thinking of.

I think the best SRPG is Final Fantasy Tactics, though.

I dislike Heroes of M&M as well.  The battles were thorughly predictable, the units uncustomizable, and the micromanagement of production was annoying. 

It's also not an sRPG in my opinon, it's a TBS (turn-based strategy) game.

And Tactics is poo.  Finshed my 2nd playthrough of it last week.  I'd actually left off at the Airship Graveyard.  The solution to beating the game for me was:  Two Swords + Speed Break.  

Yeah I think Ogre Battle 64 was the best. I agree with Words Of Wisdom. HOM&M series is Turn based strategy. Not Strategy RPG.

Oh, and Dragonlord...

If you like HoM&M, you might like the Age of Wonders series.

I love Heroes III and still play it to this day, but in my opinion nothing has matched the quality experience Tactics provides to this day.

Heroes III is the best in the series for me. I haven't played HoM&M 5 yet, but I don't like the idea of 3D.