Heroes of Might and Magic III: Restoration of Erathia

CHARGE!!!

Back in the 90's when I was in middle school or something like that me and my then best friend used to be over at his place and play the demo he had for Heroes of Might and Magic II. To me it was the best game ever with fantasy characters and very slow gameplay meaning I could take my time since I never was very good with real-time games. So I wanted it for my birthday or Christmas (since they are fairly close to each other). I guess it was in 1999 cause I got a Heroes games... it just was III, not II. As a kid you know how it is, it wasn't the right thing and playing through the first campaign ended in my defeat and I felt a short burst of resentment. I wanted II, what more can I say? This year I was able to play II again and boy, everything they did in III was miles ahead of II. Even the graphics still locks nice today. The music is enjoyable and when I finally grasped how to play the game III became so much better with its heroes system. So it grew on me over the years, but to break the ice I had to break the game. So I cheated as a kid... for most of the game. Didn't help that the cheats was based on Monty Python quotes so they got stuck really fast. Good for me.

So the continents name is Antagarich? Where is Enroth?

There is a campaign although, explaining how to play the game isn't its strongest suit. Interesting story though. It begins when Catherine Ironist returns to Erathia to find it overrun by its enemies and her father slain and resurrected  as a lich-king by the Necromancer. So she sends you, the greatest commander to help drive the invaders out of Erathia by unite with Erathias allies the elves of AvLee and wizards of Bracada. You also get to play out how the invaders performed this feat and took advantage of this instability in Erathia. It culminates as Erathia invades Deya, the home of the Necromancers to free their king and find the culprit behind the events and it appears one of them is Lord Haart, one of the most distinguished knights of Erathia through many of the game (as well as the starting hero of the tutorial). You let the king kill of his murderer and Catherine performs the ritual to release her father from his lich form. There is a follow up scenario which continues the story with a renegade nation established in the contested lands after the war of restoration due to the chaotic conflict around them. To secure their haven from the surrounding nations they set out to find the grail (yes, the holy grail itself) and as the campaign ends they have established themselves as an independent nation. Really interesting story and cheating actually takes away much of it since certain events only happens after some time passed and so on which builds up the struggle and the leading characters mentioned in the campaigns. The bad part is that you hardly play as the leader, you are the commander that do their bidding. Only at the end do you take control of Catherine and Lord Haart, but your only objective is to keep them safe until victory has been reached. They should have made the starting hero for the different campaign the commander with some back-story. 

The face of a traitor... sadly he's one of the best starting heroes with his extra gold bonus

So I cheated my way though the game as young, both the campaigns and standalone maps. Now, legit since it is more fun to try out different tactics, to legitimate level up your heroes and see them turn a battle around instead of typing "nwcingoureyes" and spam archangels on your enemies.  Although if I have to restart a 4 hour map I might be inclined to pass through it if it's in the Campaign mode. Mostly I've studied the faults I made as a child and clearly an all to defensive gameplay is the culprit in my play style. When I finally get my resources in the nearby area the computer usually have so big of an army with an overpowered hero crushing my army without fail... and that was on easy. Today I can actually finish a map on easy as well holding my own during normal by speeding up my strategy by actually dare attack moderately stronger enemies, especially since I've got a hero with magic spells to save me. Which even means if I loose against the computer it usually turns to a pyrrhic victory for him (if there is only one computer AI) as if he attacks the small garrison can stand on its own with towers, wall and archers either beating him or make another pyrrhic victory since a second town sends reinforcements to drive the enemy out and continue toward his town, while well guarded often doesn't survive the special creatures like archangels. That is if the computer somehow don't beat me back to the capitol, but even the last stand can feel so damn good, especially if you win and the winning siege fanfare plays.

Well I'm f***ed

Awesome game and now they apparently they've released a HD version on steam or something like that so it's easy to check out and is a really fun game... but looking around people points to the old complete collection including the two expansion which I haven't fully explored before and it might be time for that. I mean, how hard can they be?