HoMM clone? You're kidding. Right?

Well, back then me and my friends called every TBS a HoMM clone :)

Ah.
That explains it. :)

The game asks for the cd after installing a mod called dark lord. Seems mods doesn't work with this release. Still worth the money, but the whole idea was to play some of the mods.

Just got it, shamefully, i admit, i've never played this one before, mostly because in 1999 i was loosing interest in games, due to the rise of 3d and some other factors. But i get to pick out the gams after 10 years, so it's a lot of fun, like picking out forgotten bands from the past. ;)
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Oh, and CubicPlayer will love that soundtrack! :D
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I was just about to look for that one, may [but considering it's size; should] come in handy. Thank You.:)

it's about time :P
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:) Lets see how long this one lasts :P lol Free for all...

I bought it last night and I'm already enjoying it - I've never played anything like this before! Quite entertaining, although even after playing the tutorial I'm a bit lost.
I'll have to pick up the third when it comes out - I'd like a random map generator to play with later :D

The second and third play quite differently just so you know.

Errr...differently how? Generally speaking, I mean.

I'll do a cut and paste with modifications from the AoW forum so if something seems a bit off that's why. :)
In the first only troops that can knock down or ignore walls can attack towns with walls or other buildings with walls like towers.
In the second and third every troop can go right up to a gate and knock it down. This greatly change how you play and lots of other things like how aggressive you play and the time it take to finish a scenario.
Here's a quote from Corbeau. I hope he don't mind me quoting him.
"Age of Wonders 1 is quite different compared to Age of Wonders 2 (and Shadow Magic), particularly in terms of the single-player experience. While the latter are more polished in every way, they also lose that over-the-top epic feeling that Age of Wonders 1 captures so well."
My answer to his post:
I agree on both accounts. Aow made you care about your troops because you typically didn't have that many of them. In the others a viable tactic was a horde of cheap troops outmanoeuvering a opponent with a smaller but better army. I really dislike that all troops can break down gates.
Another thing that really change the gameplay is that towns can't grow in AoW. You can upgrade them but they can't get bigger. In the other games they can grow and that is a huge difference regarding how you manage your empire. For example it change the strategic importance of cities. In AoW it was very important to get a big city before the others and many maps have only a few maxed cities which makes for a lot of battles around them for control. In the second and third that strategic element is much diminished.
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Also how you develop your heroes when they go up a level is changed. In AoW you can choose more or less freely what abilities they get (Some are inherent to specific heroes.). In the second and third you get a choice of three stats or abilities to improve so it's much more restrictive.

Very interesting! Thank you! I think I'll still get AoW3 though, it sounds like with 1 and 3 I'll have a good sampling, two seems superfluous if you have three.

Lol I put another Code up for grabs.... figured someone would see the dots and snag it... So far no takers hahah :)

I get five separate blocks? :/
Almost 7am... Must... sleep... GL to others...

Numbers are spelled out :P
hhehe 10 min to 8am here and I think I got maybe an hours worth of sleep already back at work....
Crappy... I left out a letter at the end U :P lol sorry about that... crap i was tired.
But yeah now it works, and only one number :)