Introduction

What is this? 

In 1986 Jon van Caneghem and New World Computing released a game called Might and Magic book one: Quest for the inner sanctum. This was a RPG that has been expertly (and entertainingly) played by Thuryl. You can find the Let's Play in the Let's Play archive. As most probably know, Might and Magic was a great success, successful enough to spawn multiple sequels (9 currently).  

He made some more games after Might and Magic that I'm not interested in (and never played), but in 1990 he released King's Bounty. A strategy game where the objective was to recover 25 map pieces used to find the Scepter of Order before the time limit passed. A complete departure from the Might and Magic this was actually a strategy game. At the start of the game you picked your player character (carefully avoiding the word Hero)  from Knight, Paladin, Barbarian and Sorceress. Throughout your journey you would recruit creatures to fight for you while your ~~hero~~ player character bolstered them with magic. (This game was also expertly played by Thuryl whose taste appears impeccable.) 

The game was well received, which apparently gave Jon an idea. What if we took that concept and combined it with my long running Might and Magic series? 

And thus in 1995 Heroes of Might and Magic: a strategic quest was born. Featuring mechanics based on King's bounty and set in the world of Might and Magic. It was successful enough to spawn multiple sequels as well. The most loved of these is Heroes of Might and Magic 3, which despite being released 1999 still has a very active community. In fact there is currently an ongoing LP of Heroes3 started by Spermy Smurf, though it is Legoman who is playing through the campaigns.

Why this game? 

Every time a discussion starts I always see everyone praising Heroes 3 and while definitely deserving of said praise, in my own opinion the earlier games had a certain charm that none of the later games match. The charm stems from a combination of graphics, sounds and a healthy sense of humor. (and maybe some nostalgia sprinkled on top) 

I chose this game because, while I have more experience with 2/3, I have very fond memories of this game.  

It's the game that introduced me to Heroes of Might and Magic purely by chance (hurrah for boring BBQs) and one of the few games I have played that prompted me to seek out the game. I never found it, but instead bought Heroes2. (and later Heroes3) I poured many hours in both, mostly on single maps. 

In addition to the above it's a lot shorter making it a better pick for first LP tries.

Only 8 maps/levels. 

I did finally buy the first heroes when Ubisoft released the Heroes of Might and Magic: Complete edition in 2008.  So that is the version we will be seeing. 

How? 

The game technically has 4 campaigns, one for each of the four following "races". 

Knight with fabulous hair:  
Starting stats: 1 attack, 2 defense, 1 spellpower, 1 knowledge. 
Special: The knight adds +1 to the moral of the army. 

Barbarian (this guy is called Antoine. There is no reason for me to point out his French sounding name):  
Starting stats: 2 attack, 1 defense, 1 spellpower, 1 knowledge. 
Special: A barbarian suffers no movement penalties for moving on rough terrains. 

Sorceress :  
Starting stats: 0 attack, 0 defense, 2 spellpower, 3 knowledge. 
Special: A sorceress can move at double speed on water and starts with a spellbook. 

Warlock :  
Starting stats: 0 attack, 0 defense, 3 spellpower, 2 knowledge. 
Special: A Warlock has a larger visibility radius in the adventure window and starts with a spellbook. 

But really, the only difference in the campaigns is in starting position, difficulty caused by patented Heroes of Might and Magic balance and the final levels where you take out the other factions. So for now the plan is to just play through the campaign once using the knight. 

Why the knight? Well, canonically knight was the victor of the war and we will try to make this happen. Though I always imagined the war would look something like this:

The game itself contains very little story, but during my research I found that the manual contains letters written by the victor, Lord Morglin Ironfist. I will be using these letters in combination with what little ingame story there is to go through this LP and hopefully liven things up from just being a set of steps. 

Unfortunately not all of his letters match up to what happens so the first update is a long stretch of text followed by the first week of screens. If you're not interested in the letters, just skip to the screenshot with the title screen.

I will admit I am not the best Heroes player, however I should be able to finish it as last time I played it (shortly after buying the complete edition) I came to level 5 before the computer crashed and the save was lost. Still, if you have any gameplay tips please feel free to give them.  

The Let's Play Archive

Heroes of Might and Magic

by Darth TNT

Introduction

Table of Contents