I agree with you that Heroes of Might and Magic is more a turn-based strategy game. I could never stand the annoyance of trying to raise an army in that game. I don't know exactly what it was, but marshalling my troops made me want to kill.

The best solution to Final Fantasy Tactics is something you are slightly mis-informed on though. The correct solution is Calculators. Get two or three of them with Holy and the game becomes trivial. I was ambushed by a fight against a pure Monk random encounter (single class random encounters are notoriously hard and Monks are one of the worst) and wiped them out before they could throw a single punch. Nothing beats the devastating power of Calculators once you boost their speed up.

I've got Age of Wonders....

Lords of Magic too....

I like them, but I could never quite get into them as much. Part of my love of HoM&M is probably because I've been playing since the original....(you tend to be preferential when you grow up with something)

Yeah, you're right about turn-based. I just termed it as a SRPG because of the similar combat elements and everyone knows what a SRPG is.

IGN classifies it as a Strategy Turn-based. Definitely along the lines of D&D RPG's though...it's a hit point/attack/defense wizard which is what an RPG is (for us old schoolers---many of the young ones won't know better). Lol, I like to call it assuming the role of a character with a calculator.

I stopped reading right there.  Point out where I ever used the word "best."

I have Lords of Magic as well, never liked that game though.  It just lacked polish.

And yeah, I played HoM&M a long long time ago as well.  HoM&M IV was the one I liked the best.  I preferred the Infernal and Dungeon castles IIRC.  Early game Gogs/Magogs and Beholders were very very nice.

 Yep, I agree.  The old games actually got fairly valuable--$80+ when 3DO went under.  

Ubisoft definitely left a lot to be desired on V, but oh well....

I liked the fact that the Heores were so powerful in IV and could travel on their own, etc.

I always like the Wizards because of the Titans and Genies....but damn it took resources to get them.

Some nice screenshots and descriptions there. It certainly looks like a decent game.

The Tower strongholds were very nice especially for those genies that did something to make casting spells easier IIRC.  They also had the Cyclops rock-throwers right or am I thinking of the Stronghold or something?  Those were fun.

My favorite SRPG series is Fire Emblem.

 Lol, it all blends together and gets confusing...I can't remember much anymore.

The Strongholds had the rock throwing cyclops...and Phoenix, Trolls, etc. (weak magic users, but really strong attacks/defense)

The Genies had the Ice Bolt spell which I loved.  I liked Long-Range units the best by far.  That's why I loved the Titans/Colossus...their Lightning Bolts were unstoppable.