If we are considering HoMM series, you should also consider Age of Wonder series, Specifically Age of Wonder: Shadow magic.

HoMM 1-3 had that annoying aspect where you had to keep picking up troops recruiting from structures. Which made the town portal spell in HoMM 2 too powerful (also your main piller of death troops, being able to fly across the map was also too powerful)

Kings Bounty
Eador
a lot of games.
Actually heroes of M&M not best of the RPG strategy (or RPG or strategy ganres). And M&M in general. Too much titles in series. "Thanks" 3DO. No good plot.

So find favourite Heroes part - and that all. Heroes3 or heroes5. And forget about others.

HOMM3 is my favorite for might and magic I couldn't say

I liked might and magic 7

HoMM II is probably a better (as in simplified) introduction to the mechanics of the series without overwhelming a new player with tons of units and upgrades, but once you're comfortable with all the bits and pieces I would move onto HoMM III. Both are very good games.

HoMM V is also quite nice, especially if you *must* have 3D graphics or suffer from spritephobia.

HoMM IV is also not bad, but rather a spin-off of the mechanics IMHO and should be left last, but definitely checked out.

+1, especially if dark fantasy is your thing.

Start with M&M 10 , it is the latest.

Try HOMAM II first - it might be hard going back after HOMAM III, and HOMM2 is really great! I like it more than three, but I did play it first. Also the original soundtrack is better, if you check the subforum, it has a guide on how to play the game with the original and not the expansion (which replaced the castle themes with new ones).

MM1-5 and 6-9 are completely different, so it depends if you want realtime, open world, gridless with optional turn-based combat, or turn-based gridbased.

Also HOMAM V+, DM and MMX are all in different universe by Ubisoft, they're not the original company's game. Ubi bought the franchise and rebooted it, so I suggest skipping those or playing them after the original games (HOMAM 1-4 and MM 1-9). People say HOMAM 6-7 suck, and V isn't as good as 2-3 (and 4, that one ).

agree , i played mostly III and then the V
IV is not bad just heroes are way way stronger , 1 barbarian hero without any army could defeat huge armies easily:D

I've only played MM6 Mandate of Heaven and... I don't know. Way too much overhead with no explaination lots of dungeon crawling and very little in the way of understanding anything.

Then watching someone do a solo game where 1 party member is alive and the other 3 are pack zombies and they did more in 2 hours i watched then i did in 3 weeks playing it.