Hi,

I've not played a lot of strategy games before and never played any of the HOMM series but seeing that they are in the promo sale thought I might dip my toe, so to speak. However, I'm not sure which one to get so thought I'd ask for some advice :) I'm not into deep micro management and If it's any help I love the King's Bounty games. Any advice?

Thanks :)

HoMM 3 is considered the peak of the series.

HOMM3 is considered the peak, but I honestly have no idea why that is. It seems like a mantra nowadays; no one actually tells you why that is.

I've played 3, 4 and 5, none of them very extensively.

4 is probably the most different of the bunch. It tries to focus more heavily on the story than 3 or 5. It has some in-mission dialogue and written word that was handled by crappy cutscenes in 5 to tell the story.

4 also changed the hero mechanic and made heroes like regular troops that can die in battle and so on. A good idea maybe, but I think it was handled quite badly in the campaigns. See, you would lose the mission if an important hero died in battle, but some / many / all missions would basically force you to use your important heroes because they are so powerful. So when you go against enemies that have instant-kill abilities, it's just total shit and pure luck whether you lose or not.

4 also cut down the amount of factions and the amount of creatures also, I think. The city management was nice in that you had to choose which of the creatures of each level you want. You could only have one or the other of level 4 creatures for example. It also had caravans to easily ferry troops from town to town.

5 has the most interesting combat system in my opinion. You don't have hard-cut turns like in King's Bounty, but every unit has an initiave value, based on which they get turns in combat. So a high-initiative unit might move, say, 2 or 3 times in the time a low-initiative moves once.

Umm, I don't think I really have much more to say. I don't believe any of these are similar to King's Bounty, though. Just simply don't believe people who say King's Bounty is like HOMM. If you think first-person RPGs are similar to first-person shooters, then maybe. I don't.

I'd say I had the most fun with 3, but it might just because I played it first and hadn't gotten bored of the thing by the time I got to 4 or 5.

If you like King's Bounty, definitely go with 3.

HoMM3 had better AI and quest system than the previous games, and was all in all a very solid game.

HoMM4 I haven't tried.

HoMM5 was similar to HoMM3, but was in my experience more buggy. The change to 3D maps didn't add anything either. The story and voice acting was the typical cringeworthy Ubisoft quality of the time. But, it had the best skill system and character development of any of the HoMM games I've played.

HoMM6? Shitty DRM means no money for you from me, UbiSoft.

As others have mentioned HoMM3 is arguably the best of the series (although I admit I still have a special place in my heart for HoMM2 as well, just due to the charm of it). As for why this is, in terms of gameplay HoMM3 really got the balance right in terms of all of the factions being quite viable, while still being quite unique. The art style of it is also arguably the best of the series, making it quite appealing visually even after all these years. There are also a massive number of fan-made maps for it in a variety of styles, so you can usually find plenty of maps that suit your preferred play style (whether you prefer open maps that lead themselves more to a grand strategy approach, or more linear maps focused more on challenging tactical battles).

Maybe you guys will crucify me but honestly I think Heroes 5: Tribes of the East is the best game in the series because it added a lot of variety to the HoMM 3 formula. Nival did a tremendous job on the last expansion pack to HoMM 5

I actually think 2 is the best, with 3 coming in a close second. The vast majority of people seem to think 3 is the best though (and I can understand why), so I'd say starting with 3 is your best option (although if you want to disregard everyone else's opinion and listen only to me, go with 2 =D)

Yes, HoMM II is the best part. And HoMM V/VI aren't parts of the HoMM franchise. Please do not mix New World Computing's HoMM world with Ubisoft crap.

"UbiSoft crap" was still better than Heroes Chronicles., Tarnum...

Thanks for the help and suggestions. I think I'll probably go for Homm3 and maybe Heroes Chronicles too. That way, I'll get a good taster and can always complete the series at a later date :)

Heroes Chronicles is a good start for newbies.

HoMM3 is my all time favorite strategy/TBS game, like ever!

I have HOMM V on steam but my laptop is old and not for gaming, so gameplay is laggy. I also own Disciples 2.

Should I buy HOMM III? How is it different than these two titles (except for no lag)?

HOMM 2 has incredible charm. It's combination of bright colors, upbeat music, and cartoonish characters somehow blended perfectly to make the game both cheery and soothing. Also, the vampires went "Blah" like Bela Lugosi or Count Chocula, which I never get tired of. There's this great lightness and humor about the game. You can't help but smile while you play it.

HOMM 3 has a darker color palette. The music and sound effects are good, though there isn't much ability to choose between having all of them off/on or some of them. I love so many, but some irritate after a while and you can't turn them off without playing silently. The balancing is good enough that people choose very different ways to play, and factions (undead, castle, fortress, etc.) too, and can still come out winners.

If I recall correctly, both have random maps, with changeable settings (monster strength, faction type, starting hero type, starting bonus type, difficulty level, number of opponents and allies, whether to play maps with water in them or not, and how much) that make the games almost infinitely replayable. If you are stuck on one type of map and setting and eventually tire of playing all the many maps that fit with every faction you enjoy (boy will this take a long time!), then HOMM 3 has many extra user-made maps you can try. I think HOMM 2 probably does, but I haven't played it since it first came out.

When I first got HOMM 3, I thought nothing could beat HOMM 2. But I'm so happy with HOMM 3 I've never gone back to HOMM 2 to find out if I was right.