I'm thinking of getting either HoMM3 or HoMM5 but can't quite decide which one, if any, will fit my needs best so thought I'd ask any King's Bounty lovers who also play Heroes of Might and Magic for their advice.

So, what I love about KB is the exploration and the battles which can be fought when I'm ready for them. I can just gallop around the countryside and fight with troops that are just available for me to buy. This gives me the freedom to try out different fighting strategies AND get an ongoing story to follow without getting stressed about the other 'player' grabbing all the goodies and becoming too strong to beat whilst I'm there just enjoying the view. I do tend to just explore the landscape with no eye to speed and fast expansion.

Anyway, as you've probably guessed, I'm not really terribly good at strategy games but thought that HoMM 3 or 5 in either sandbox or hotseat mode looks like they might be a close experience to the KB games. Is that right? And if so, which of the two HoMM games, if any, will give me a closest KB experience?

Thanks in advance.

I'd say HoMM3 is closest to King's Bounty. It has many scenarios that focus on your main hero and don't contain so much running back and forth.

But all HoMM games have the annoying aspect of enemies continuously stealing back your stuff so you sometimes need hours to progress even a small step in the story.

There are plenty of RPGs with strategical turn-based combat and a good story progression, though!

For example: Blackguards, Divinity: Original Sin and Shadowrun Returns.

KB has more adventure and story than most HoMM szenarios, but there are campaigns in all of the HoMM games where several szenarios are linked together with an ongoing story and development of characters.
They can be similiar to the KB experience, because of the story telling and change of environments in the progressing scenarios.

Single szenarios have more focus on tactics and strategy than KB, although there are a lot of fan made maps around which still can contain a lot of story and adventure.

You might want to try out the Heroes Chronicles - a series of campaigns that bridge HoMM 3 to HoMM 4.

Thanks for the replies. I've decided against HoMM due to the fact that it seems that I'll have to play with one eye on the opponent and as I like to take my time I can see a frustrating experience waiting for me - and heaven knows life is sometimes bad enough without it spilling over into my gaming world too.. ;)

I'm tempted though by the Divine Divinity series - especially now they are on sale - so I may well just treat myself to them instead and be done with it. Mind you, having said that, I've just started replaying Crossworlds GOTY so that should occupy me for quite a while :)

Once again, many thanks for the suggestions +1 to both of you.

Mind you that the Divinity games in the bundle do NOT have turn-based strategic combat, they are a whole different genre compared to the new, crowdfunded game Divinity: Original Sin.
Better watch some videos first to see if you'd like them!


And I get what you mean. I do like all HoMM games, but I always get really frustrated by enemy heroes constantly stealing my stuff and me having to walk back and forth all the time. That's why I started to only play the HoMM campaigns with cheats, creating big armies in all the castle I conquered so they can't be stolen and I won't have to walk all the way back to them. The AI cheats like crazy anyway, so it's just fair. =p

But HoMM really is more fun in multiplayer, where nobody cheats and you will win a lot faster than in the campaign because you can deplete the enemy's resources.

So generally, I can't really recommend HoMM to a King's Bounty fan that doesn't like strategical multiplayer aspects.

Did you know that there is a real old King's Bounty game from 1990 too? It doesn't really have a story other than "collect map parts and find the artifact", but it has constant progression and is quite fun albeit hard.

I played Divine Divinity when it first came out many moons ago and quite enjoyed it so I succumbed and bought the bundle whilst it is on offer. I thought it might be a good time waster especially now as I'm changing internet provider and they have informed me today that I may have to wait up to 10 days for them to get me back online. As you can imagine I'm really not happy about that but on the bright side at least I've already downloaded my games so I should be able to keep myself occupied! Although I am worried about what bundles I'll be missing whilst offline... I've got D:OS on my wishlist and will get that as soon as the price drops, it's a bit too much for me right now. Still it's not like I'm going to run out of games any time soon now I've added the three Divinity games to my library :)

I have heard of the original KB game, I have even voted for it here so hopefully it'll turn up one day. I'm looking forward to eventually playing it.

Anyway, thanks for the HoMM info, I've now taken it off my wishlist :)

There is at least one 1P map in HoMM3, just sort the available maps by player #, that gives you a very similar experience to a short KB.

Many thanks - I'll make sure to pick the game up in the next sale :)

I'm very late to your thread, but I was reading your description of what you're looking for in a game, and it occurred to me you might like the first Spellforce.

It's got real-time combat, not turn-based. I prefer turn-based myself, but I didn't mind the combat in Spellforce. HoMM is very strategy oriented even though it has a story. Spellforce has strategy like a typical RTS game of the Warcraft/Starcraft sort, but it's a hybrid of that and a cRPG. You have heroes who gain levels, visit cities, buy equipment, talk to NPCs and go on quests. The RTS part of the game is mostly in support of that; it's not the main focus.

I didn't like the Spellforce sequels, but I liked the first one quite a lot. I've never seen another game quite like it, either.

Just a suggestion.

Thanks for the suggestion. I picked up Spellforce II on a whim (in one of the sales) a while ago but haven't gotten around to playing it yet. As you recommend the first one though I might wait until the next sale and then give it a go. Once again, thanks for the recommendation :)

Nobody recommended Disciples 2 to you?

The battles are possessed of a simpler tactical nature (you have at most six units; they are all in fixed places on the combat map; they can retreat from combat but not swap positions with others during combat) but it is turn-based and thus as leisurely as you wish to make it. Also, your main city is guarded by such a powerful unit that the AI can not beat it, and so even if you lose some ground, you can just wait a few turns, get some more gold, and buy another hero and army.

It's more like HoMM3 than it is like King's Bounty, but it's still an excellent game. You might want to to put it on your "buy when on sale" list.

Thanks for the recommendation, am willing to give it a go when next on sale :) As a matter of interest though, what makes Disciples 2 better than Disciples 1?

In my case, Disciples 1 is pretty buggy. It crashes a lot. Disciples 2 is more polished and far less buggy. I don't remember having any technical problems with it. 2 also has some expansion of units and spells and other things you would expect from a sequel.

On the other hand, I like the art direction of Disciples 1 better. Disciples 2 is very dark - too dark and grey for my taste. Still the art is a big selling point for both titles. They have great style.

Overall they're pretty good games, similar to HoMM in many ways. They're solidly in the strategy genre with only elements of the cRPG.