So I bought Disciples 1 and 2 on the promo and after playing the first one for a little bit it seems pretty simple to the point where I get bored pretty fast. The actual combat doesn't seem that good, (It mostly seems to come down to "Have all you units attack. All enemy units attack one guy. Heal that guy. Repeat.") And all that I seem to do on the overworld is to grind on neutrals or run around opening treasure chests. Am I just supposed to be building random buildings or hiring new leaders or what? And I never actually figured out how to actually hire units (the tutorial isn't exactly too indepth). Am I missing something or is this game just really simple?

It has simple mechanics, but it´s not as simple as it seems at the beginning. There are really tough missions later on and you have to decide carefully where to spend your income and what to do. I like it.

There are a couple of different ways to hire units. The first and most obvious way is to click on your capital or other city/town under your control and click the troops icon. Click on an open space on the left and your choices of units will appear.

The other way that I know of and probably more toward the real answer for your question is that there are camps/shops on the map to be found. The places may vary in visual depiction based on what map/campaign your playing. Enter one and like a shop the dealer will show you his mercs for hire. You can buy monsters or neutrals of all kinds for a price. Again you have to uncover the shop via exploration, just like all other shops where you can buy additional spells or items or training.

Hope this helps you.

Well, the second game is a bit more complex - starting with giving you a defend option instead of an attack, reducing damage for the defending unit by half. At any rate - it's more complex than it seems, you just have to look away from the combat and perceive the game as a whole (bear in mind that I didn't really like the first game, yet loved the second)

It depends on what you're comparing it to.

Disciples is often compared to Heroes of Might & Magic. Have you played that?

I've played a fair amount of both games, and I tend to like Disciples better--but I think HoM&M is probably the better game.

When I play HoM&M, I often get frustrated. In tactical battles, it turns out I don't have enough ranged units or can't protect my ranged units, or maybe the enemy hero casts a "blind" spell on the units I was counting on to win, and I don't have anything to counter that spell with. It can get a little complicated. On a strategic level, I'll get a couple heroes leveled up and build what I think is a butt-kicking army, and then suddenly I find myself face-to-face with an enemy hero , and it's obvious that his vastly superior army will wipe me off the map in no time. I've occasionally run into that even when playing on Easy level.

So for me, Disciples is a pleasant relief. Tactical battles are pretty straightforward: there are just six fixed unit positions, and you can only attack the rear rank with melee weapons after the front rank is cleared; so you don't usually need any finesse, but just common sense. Still, luck and skill both figure in, so you have to keep an eye on what's happening and adjust as the fight proceeds. Nevertheless, I click the "auto" button for many battles; often there's no need to personally direct the combat.

Strategically, the Disciples maps are set up to channel your armies in certain directions. There's not usually a lot of choice in where to go, so you just keep moving forward, capturing everything you can. But you still have to beware of ambushes and gauge when you're strong enough to attack a city or enemy army. And it pays to prep your attacking force with combat spells or soften up the enemy with destructive spells. Scouting is also important, and that's what thieves are for.

I'd say Disciples is a much less demanding game than HoM&M, but it's still not a no-brainer. I've had to work pretty hard to get through the Disciples 2 saga three times and develop level-10 (or higher) leaders for each of three factions. I'm currently working on doing that with the Empire faction, and it's still challenging--even on the Average level. I'm still not ready to try Disciples on Hard level.

Bottom line: If you're an experienced gamer with a mind like a steel trap, Disciples may indeed be too easy for you. But if you're a regular Joe like me and just slop around with a game, trying to have a pleasant experience with it, you may find plenty in Disciples to amuse and challenge you.

Don't neglect defend and wait commands. Also, if you're facing units you can face roll, it's better to take units out of your party so that experience is funneled into fewer units. Then that level up units can help your lower level units level against tougher mobs.

I'd say Disciples is simpler, but that gives much more strategic weight to each decision you make in the game. In HoMM it doesn't really matter that much if you pick up that particular resource or not, and the difference of 3 Wolf Raiders usually doesn't change the outcome of the game (except very early in the game). In Disciples losing one simple unit could mean the defeat of the whole game. Casting that spell or not may change the outcome of the battle totally. How you arrange your army in slots is absolutely crucial (whereas in HoMM if you switch the places of goblins and wolf raiders, again doesn't change much in most cases). Switching one unit to healer may mean you decimate that neutral monsters, or they decimate you.

In short because there are less factors and those factors are clearer, you need to (and can) have more things in control in Disciples and plan ahead, to min-max, whereas in HoMM you can sometimes skip this, or that, or leave that to luck. In Disciples you can almost mathematically predict the outcome of a battle (except those damn misses), whereas if you'd try to have everything in control in HoMM you'd go crazy due to sheer number of factors and your turns would last ages (ever tried thinking if it's worth buying a full stack or not because you'd need that 125 gold to get that crucial upgrade in a castle you'll conquer 5 turns later? didn't think so).

Ofc i'm referring mostly to higher difficulty levels where your choices do matter at all, and when you can lose your game.

In short Disciples is faster-paced game for control freaks that want to keep their hand on every single aspect of their kingdom and want every click to have an impact, whereas HoMM has zillions of features that are cool and flashy but don't affect the otucome that much (still the ones that DO count amount for enough strategic depth).