I've purchased 3 earlier and I love it! Should I buy any other?

1 and 2 are both earlier games, meaning some mechanics peresent in 3 won't be there. That said, 2 is my second favourite from the series (after 3) and is generally considered an excellent game. 1 can be tough and a bit rough at the edges.

4 introduced changes that were not very popular with the community. It's still a good game, though what makes me dislike it is its unbalanced Combat secondary skill. Also: bland story.

I like 5. It undoes some of the changes that 4 brought and introduces others that are quite decent. Also: bland story.

So in summary, if I were you and enjoyed 3, I'd be buying 2 and trying it out. The graphics and engine might feel "older" but I believe you'll enjoy it.

Hmm..I guess 2 and 5 would be best then?Especially 2?

Oh, I understood the campaigns were 4's strong point?

Not storywise.

And due to the unbalanced Combat campaign, not gameplaywise: the first level was "normal"; Sometimes second too. But after that due to hero carryover, if you invested in Combat then 3rd+ levels of every campaign consisted of Hero going with a single stack of fast units and mopping up everything in his path.

I imagine single maps might be better because you don't start with strong heroes, so you have to invest in units and non-Combat skills if you want to survive at the beginning.

Also, in the second expansion campaign, you could see in places that the game was rushed with 3DO going bankrupt. Some maps with lots of "empty" spaces. Well, not empty but it fels like it was filled with anythig in a hurry.

It was blatant with the existence of Heroes Chronicles.

...you used units? That would slow down your conquest! :O

Quite the opposite. Units are only there to speed you up.

Hero has (19?) adventure map movement by default if alone. But he gets howevermuch the slowest unit in his stack has. By taking a single stack of fast units (genies, phoenixes... etc) you can cover much more adventure map area per turn.

What did you do with all the movespeed boosters scattered around the campaign maps? I seem to recall a fairy or something might boost him from 38-ish to maybe 41, but it wasn't worth the hassle of trying to keep a sprite alive. By the time a Phoenix, Mantis, etc. would be available, they couldn't catch up to the hero.

I'd always use my hero to flag everything anyway, which meant he'd spend enough time near the starting town flagging mines... etc till the time I could build even a weak fast unit. Depending on map layout high level fast units might catch up with him or not.

But keeping the weak unit alive never seemed to be an issue. The hero would be the target of most attacks anyway.

The only hassle was actually with the nature hero who'd randomly summon slow units.

Yeah. I took to filling all available party slots with Sprites, or not getting the Summoning skill in the first place.

And having multi slots with sprites could be annoying. With a single slot + hero, the slot was usually easily defendable. 6 slots meant the AI often went for them.

It has been so long that I don't remember many of the details, just that it usually wasn't worth the clicks to try and keep the campaign hero accompanied by something to boost their speed. Mantises and Phoenixes were okay, being strong enough to be worth the clicks, and sprites were fast enough, but most creatures weren't worth the trouble.

HoMM 2 is the best one. It has fantastic game mechanics, fantastic music, fantastic graphics and an incredible fairy-tale and sword & sorcery atmosphere.

HoMM 3 is very close to HoMM 2 in quality and has a little more of everything.

HoMM 5 is a good game as well, although it has very bad art direction compared to 2 & 3 but the city screens are nice looking. The game mechanics are interesting so it is worth to play if you can stand the World of Warcraft style of graphics.

HoMM 1 is a game I really like a lot as well but I would only recommend it to people who are already fans of the series. Especially fans of HoMM2. Compared to HoMM 2 the graphics are more caricatured, like in some books for children, but it also reminds me of some medieval art. The music is nice and atmospheric. The gameplay is simpler and more streamlined compared to HoMM2, but it is also a lot more difficult. At least for me.

HoMM 4 is a game I should have played more. There are some mechanical problems with this game but it is still very playable. The music and story is often praised.

HoMM 6 and 7 are games I haven't played but from what I've read they are no good.

HoMM 1 - 4 was made by the same team but HoMM 4 didn't get the development time it needed because New World Computing's parent company had financial problems.

HoMM 5, 6 and 7 was made by three different teams hired by Ubisoft.

Custom maps (or random maps in HoMM 3) are usually the most fun way to play these games. If you prefer to play a campaign HoMM 2 has a very good and charming campaign.