/vr/ - Retro Games

>>4877780
6 is better than 8, even though it has less features

it just feels better and more wholesome

2nd for Gieroyki

>.4875565
>If the unit & town design was a problem, they could redesign it.
Sure. But they ended up going for 4 already existing units, making a town with only 3 new units. Slapped on default grass terrain.
I am just saying Forge was extremely poorly designed, and it would have been cool if it was more than just shitty random units from other factions with a +1 robot box tech advantage

>>4878350
>4 already existing units, making a town with only 3 new units. Slapped on default grass terrain.
That's what the Conflux is. 4 old elemental units (plus new upgraded version) and 3 new units (fairy, magic elemental and phoenix).

>>4878350
>>4878675
Also grass for Conflux's default terrain.

>>4878350
And the main problem was not the design but the sci-fi element. For some HoMM players, they didn't know anything about M&M universe. So they didn't know the Ancients, robots, blaster, etc exist in M&M universe. They were shocked because they think HoMM is a fantasy games with angels and demons. Little did they know that the creatures they thought to be demons were aliens. Also that in Greg Fulton's interview, he said angels were robots.

>>4878689
I forgot to mention there were death threats for NWC staff too. It was really retarded. It became bad and they decided it's better to cancel the Forge town.

>there are people willing to send death threats over the content of an expansion pack to a video game
Find that rather hard to believe desu.

>>4878710
I dunno. Not him, but I once got a death threat over winning a multiplayer game of Homm through the use of the artillery skill, which is apparently a terrible crime against humanity.

>>4878710
http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes3ab/forgetown.shtml

Tower is the strongest town!
Solmyr is the strongest hero!
Chain lightning is the strongest spell!

>>4878809
Chain Lightning's damage at level:
Basic: 25 + (power x 40)
Advanced: 50 + (power x 40)
Expert: 100 + (power x 40)

Armageddon's damage at level:
Basic: 30 + (power × 50)
Advanced: 60 + (power × 50)
Expert: 120 + (power × 50)

Long live the Black Dragons & Phoenix!!!

>>4878151
To expand on this read the pastebin.

8 is considered a massive step down from 6 and 7 as the dungeon design is a step down, the hirelings are massively OP, and the game has several items that don't belong (like Hammerhands for a druid class). The schedule was rushed as the game wasn't even supposed to be MM8, it was an expansion that 3DO demanded that they turn into something to sell at full retail.

Objectively 8 isn't a bad game but the flaws are obvious. Going back to 6 the lack of GM will stick out, but it is a superior game, as is 7.

Are there any M&M games set in the new (Ashan) universe? I want to learn something about how they retconned the universe, but I'm not autistic enough to read the wiki.

>>4879331
Might & Magic X: Legacy

>>4879331
10 is set in the Ubiverse, but even that barely has any effect. It mostly avoids any lore connection to any other game in either universe other than the occasional reference.

>>4879331
Since Ashan universe is not related to any of previous installments, I assume there's no sci-fi elements in it. Am I right?

>>4879331
>>4879390
Since Ashan universe is not related to any of previous installments, I assume there's no sci-fi elements in it. Am I right?

>>4878809
What's funny about this meme is how I never actually met a player who would claim that (even when I was a teen), but it's a running joke since as far I care to recall HoMM3 jokes.

>>4880105
Despite that, I like Solmyr. I used to pick him when HoMM3 was new.

>>4880216
I liked Solmyr in HoMM4 more, when he had a proper campaign

>>4879916
>I assume there's no sci-fi elements in it
God forbid, anon. Don't you know M&M is purely ISO Standard Generic Fantasy?

>>4880447
Of course it is, with the Ancients, the Guardians, Aliens, spaceships, blasters and robots.

I really enjoy the premise, design and atmosphere of MM7 but I just can't get into it.
Feels like every time I get into melee party members die quickly, like really.
Is this normal?
How do you get good at this game?

>>4881287
Western RPG usually are open world games. So you can go almost anywhere you want. But some area have tougher enemies so you must wait till you're ready to face them.

>>4881287
You can always hit and run. Try not to get surrounded. If you can't beat something alone then you are probably either in the wrong area or doing it wrong. The enemies tend to swarm in this series, so you may need to burn them down before they get to you. Finally do you have enough Endurance? If it's less than 15 that character won't have much hp. Elves particularly can be annoying this way and you need to try and get this stat up.

If you are still on Emerald Island then make sure and get the Day of the Gods pedestal at the top of the hill. If you are on the mainland then focus on killing what you can until you get some experience. For casters, Poison Spray and Sparks are really efficient in melee once you get to expert, plus dagger experts people to use 2 daggers. Older games are designed to be way less linear than you may be used to.

>>4881306
>Elves
Elves in your party because of the penalty on class creation.

>>4878719
Was it cheesing the siege with expert artillery?

How do I get good at HoTA. Give me basic tips.

>>4882348
Sort of, yeah. I had gotten implosion (from his town, we had played musical castles and he ran back to hit me in his home city), and artillery let me cast it before he had a chance to shoot the catapult, leaving him with a big necro army, most of which now had zero chance to get in.

>>4882594
what army did you use? i hope you were using tower army and shot his army to death.

>>4882607
Castle, actually.

Play Heroes 7

HoMM 3 is the best

>>4883206
I had a lot of fun making lewd maps in HoMM4.

>>4883206
Careful there with such hot takes

>>4884459
Tell me more about those maps.

>>4884594
Nothing much to say, it was mostly about (You) hunting mischievous fairies and spanking them, with multiples decision deciding how hard the spanking would be.

>>4884596
Do you masturbate while playing your maps?

>>4884608
Tried to, but no. I did that stuff as a kid, back then when I wasn't even sure why I felt all tingly when reading the word "spanking".

>>4884596
>spanking fairies
Take that, you little twerp!

>>4884628
Their faults for flying around in bikinis.
Heroes of Annihilated Empires also had cute little pixies.

>>4884621
Would you mind sharing them if you still have them? Sounds like a good laugh.

>>4884676
Not only I don't have them anymore, but they were all in French. You wouldn't understand a single thing.

>>4884678
But I do speak French. Damn, thinking about a heroes map written by a kid with the word "fessée" everywhere sounds too funny.

I just finished replaying my favorites in the M&M series. Playing with a notebook and scratching down notes and quests is one of my favorite things to do. Morrowind is another title that rewards taking notes and keeping track of details. unfortunately the same can't be said of the later titles in the series
What are some other older games/series that suit this style of play? I've always heard Ultima and Wizardry mentioned in the same vein as M&M, but I've never sat down to try one.

>>4884684
Oh god no, please stop. The memories are embarassing.
I'm glad I deleted it.
It had questions like "Allez-vous lui donner la fessée?" and then immediately "Allez-vous baisser sa culotte?"

>>4884596
>>4884638
>spanking HoMM IV sprites instead of objectively superior HoMM III ones
I have to say that I'm disappointed in the hormone-ridden teen version of you.

>>4884689
Don't tease me anon. I can't believe such a masterpiece was lost forever.

>>4884697
Except for the Pegasus, I didn't found HoMM3's sprites really spankable. And the music was usually good enough to keep me focused on the battles.
And it did gave me a minor fetish for spanking someone while being on a horse.

>>4884707
Please don't bully me.

>>4884684
Also, it wasn't that cringy. Even as a hormone-filled kid, I understood that putting "fessée" everywhere was a turn-off.

>>4882594
Catapults are immune to implosion, at least in the latest HD mod.

>>4884778
>playing """""""""HD""""""""" version
For what fucking purpose?

>>4885032
Read the pastebin before posting.

>>4885093
>"why do people play the HD version"
>"hurrhururd uddurrrrrr read teh pastebin lolilol"
>read the pastebin
>"DO NOT PLAY THE HD VERSION"
Wow that sure enlightened me.

>>4885113
He was talking about HD mod, not HD version. I told you to read the pastebin because you seem oblivious to its existence. You also don't need to type like you're on /v/.

>>4885149
But >>4885032 was talking about the HD version, and you have to bitch and moan like a retard.

>>4885153
The shitposter was implying that the person was talking about the HD version, when he was talking about the HD mod. He was wrong, so the guy corrected him, even if it was a shitpost he was correcting.

>>4885032
>>4885113
A very bad lumberjack could probably count the number of your brain cells on the fingers of his hand.

>>4885414
Ironically shitposting is still shitposting.

What's the comfiest map?

>>4885904

Why it's Warlords of course.

>>4884697
Are HoMM4 Elves female? Their portrait look feminine and they look like having breasts in battle sprite.

>>4886146
>feminine
Androgynous face

>>4886146
>>4886149
All Elves are asexual. They reproduce by singing.

>>4881287
Make sure you buff your mage first, especially with horseshoes. Invest into two elemental magics and learn expert. I suggest water and air as they give you the most mobillity around the world (water walk, town portal, enchant item - for extra money, jump, fly and very importantly - invisibility). Invisibility and good air magic score are crucial when you do the trial to side with mages/necromancers, because these dungeons are a nightmare to get done at lower levels.

Give everyone expert bow, it helps you venture into higher level places and snatch stronger gear (might wanna have a good disarm trap skill as well). Also bows allow you to kill dragons if you have the patience. You can even kill the dragon on emerald isles and get a nice piece of gear to start with.

>>4886149
Can't really spank them.

>>4884685
Arx Fatalis - fucking get it right now
Ultima Underworld 1&2 - If you don't take notes you might as well not play it
Wizardry 8 - not as much but would still help, especially with quest details
Wizards and Warriors - a great and massively underrated "sequel" to Wizardry, still have the papers where I was tracking my quests

>>4886539
>Arx Fatalis - fucking get it right now
Why?

>>4886630
It's really good.

>>4886532
So who can I spank besides the fairies? Harpies and Medusas are ugly.

>>4886526
Expert bow is bad and you will always be able to use those skill points better elsewhere, usually master sword or magic skills, although sometimes miscellaneous skills like merchant, identify item, or repair. For killing the Emerald Island dragon, since you have the Day of the Gods pedestal it isn't hard to strafe kill, although casting fire aura can speed up the process.

Disarm trap is a waste of time because the traps themselves can be healed through. As a rule always have the regeneration spell on all characters. The only time Disarm Trap becomes useful is in the Haunted Mansion and that is simply because they put more than a dozen chests really close to each other. Even then with enough blue potions you can still heal through them. Eventually you will usually find a disarm skill ring anyway.

>>4886630
Great atmosphere for once
Great puzzle-ish gameplay that tests your wit and doesn't limit you that much. Find the path, find the secret spot, do the right pickpocket or use the right spell. It's one of the few RPGs that reward creativity, and in relation to it your abillity to document your playthrough, and pay attention to detail. Sure it's not 100% heaven, and you'll genuinely get lost at times but the main feeling this game creates is unique.
Combat is simple as hell, spellcasting is complicated as hell, but this isn't the selling point of the game. It's the mature gameplay and the expectation that you have to survive without game crutches that makes it great.

>>4886652
In HoMM3? Pretty much nothing, except for the pegasus riders and cutscene Isabel.
In HoMM4, the sprites, and some female heroes, depending from your tastes.

>>4884596
This hentai doujin series has fairies spanking other fairies.

>>4886660
I already read it. Doesn't she get spanked with her own panties?

>>4886658
Isabel? Isn't she in HoMM5?
Are Pegasus Riders females?
>>4886661
Yep, she was spanked by her own WET panties.

>>4886664
>by
with

>>4886664
I dunno, I vaguely remember a woman in a leotard killing Lord Haart (the tutorial hero) for being the one who poisoned the old king. I don't know if it's the same Isabel then in HoMM5.
>Are Pegasus Riders females?
I think so.

>>4886668
Lord Haart was killed by King Gryphonhearts when he was raised into a lich. The King's daughter is Catherine who married Roland Ironfist.

>>4886672
I mistook Catherine and Isabel, then. Catherine was the one with a nice ass.

>>4886654
It sounds like he's playing for the first time, so I stick by my advice

>>4886676
Catherine wears skimpy chainmail. You can see her shoulder, ass and thigh. Isabela wears some kind of platemail and cloak. No fan service.

>>4886748
Pretty much, yeah. She's the spankable one in HoMM3.
Besides Pegasus Riders.
inb4 pegasus riders are actually male

>>4886752
I dare you to spank her. She looks bad ass enough to spank you.

>>4886753
Sadly, the women who can wear such sexy clothes are usually badass enough to murder you.

Pic related.
I almost discovered masturbation because of that girl.

>>4886759
>Spellforce
Haven't played it. It looks interesting.

>>4886759
Only Roland can spank her in the bedroom.

>>4886765
One of these "good idea, poor execution" kind of game.
The ass in that picture has nothing to do with the game to my knowledge, sadly.

>>4886768
If I take Roland's face and make it a mask, would that work?

>>4886770
>good ide, poor execution
It has a sequel. How bad were they?
>ass has nothing to do with the game
Good bait. But I was interested with the screenshots of the game.
>mask
I don't know. Roland could be a guy with muscle.

>>4886776
Simply put, it's a guy that tries to integrate story in gameplay.
In term of stories, it means that I spent all my game tracking a guy down to give him a trinket before getting sick of it.
And also, I accidentally crashed an even by leaving soldiers out of a town, leading to offscreen orcs being killed before the exposition cutscene was finished.

>>4886780
>it's a guy
Urgh. A game.
I'd explain more but apparently I'm better off going to bed.

>>4886780
>>4886794
I thought you were talking about the game designer.

>>4886798
The idea of the game is that you have RTS sequences, and RPG sequences. During RPG sequences, you buy building and units blueprints, items, and so on.
During RTS sequences, well, you build peasants, gatther ressources, build stuff, and train units.

Except that the way it's dealt makes it extremely restrictive, since you can only summon party members or peasants when you own a monument, who are placed by the developper. So the game is actually pretty linear.
And the French dub was awful, the elf infantry's battle banter was an unsufferably whiny "we are surrounded!".

>>4886804
So the game has 2 phases? Nobunaga's Ambition 14 has 2 phases too. The council phase where you can build cities, hires generals, do diplomacy, etc. And active phase where you move the the troops and do battles.

>>4886810
Rather than phases, it's alternative gameplay. You arrive on a new map, get an unskippable cutscene where your character says "PHEW I BETTER FIND WHAT'S HIS FACE AND GIVE HIM THAT STUFF", and then you walk around for a bit until you find a monument. If it's a hero monument, you know it's a RPG map. If it's a peasant monument, start building and gathering.
I tried Nobunaga's Ambition on Steam, didn't understood much to the tutorial, except that you can grow towns and then add new districts.
Also battles are in real time.

>>4886815
Which Nobunaga game were you playing? The Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence (NA:SOI) or Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence - Ascension (NA: SOI Ascension)? I played the SOI, haven't played the Ascension. In SOI, you play a lord and give commands each turn. Each turn has 2 phases, council then active. In Ascension you play as any character, a lord or officer. If you play as a lord, it's similar to SOI, but if you play as officer, you take orders from your lord (like Romance of the Three Kingdoms 10 and 13, same developer).

>>4886815
If you play SOI and having troubles, I recommend playing the first scenario (where Nobunaga had just been born). Play as Nobuhide (Nobunaga's father) and do the quests. You only have 1 castle and 3 fortresses. You also only have like 10 generals. Learn how to play real (tutorials are not real play). If you play later scenarios where you control huge domains and hundreds of officers, it could confuse you.

>>4886820
That one : https://store.steampowered.com/app/392470/NOBUNAGAS_AMBITION_Sphere_of_Influence/
I somehow understand the basic commands but I don't feel confident enough to try a real game.

>>4886824
That makes sense, of course.
I should add that I'm bad in Grand Strategy (in a wise way), so anything beyond a skirmish is new for me.

>>4886829
That is the SOI one. Ascension is like another game using modified game engine of SOI.

There are 2 kinds of quest. One is story quest. It depends on which ruler you choose. Only a handful rulers had story quests. Like Oda, Takeda, Uesugi, Mouri, Shimazu, Date, etc. The quests are based on historical events (this game is based from real history). The other quest type is generic quest. Most of the lords can obtain the quests (there are few exceptions), and they do not relate to any story. It's more like achivement quest. Like becoming a Shogun.

Of course if you don't like doing quest, there's an option to turn it off. Completing a quest gives you bonus.

>>4886836
Might be better to keep quests, otherwise I fear it would become boring as seen as you begin snowballing.

>>4886837
If you like Sengoku period history, you'll like the quests. I read Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa. It's the story of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Hashiba Hideyoshi aka Kinoshita Tokichirou). He's Nobunaga's general who later succeeded him as Japan's unifier.

>>4886843
Sorry, I only read Shogun by Dave Clavell.
Also I'm happy Heroes of Might and Magic didn't have cute girls in these really short kimonos.

>>4886847
Shogun uses different names from the real history. Toranaga is Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ishido (Toranaga's enemy) is Ishida Mitsunari. The Shogun story happened after Toyotomi Hideyoshi died. The land was divided into 2 faction, one who support Hideyoshi's young child, lead by Mitsunari (the West faction). And one who oppose them, lead by Ieyasu (the East faction). Then the 2 factions clashed at the Battle of Sekigahara where the East emerged victorious and started the Tokugawa shogunate.

>>4886854
I figured as much, don't worry. The events also seem to happen differently compared to real life.

>>4886847
The anime called The Ambition of Oda Nobuna (Oda Nobuna no Yabou) is a parody of Nobunaga's Ambition (Nobunaga no Yabou). In that anime, some of the characters (most of them) are gender bender of the historical figures. Nobuna is female Nobunaga. MC was thrown into another world (isekai) which looks like Sengoku period in Japan. MC likes to play Taiko Risshiden which is a spin-off from Nobunaga's game.In that game you play as Hideyoshi and do quests from Nobunaga's. There're battles too. Game is like Strategy+RPG (SRPG). The SOI Ascension takes gameplay from Taiko Risshiden.

>>4886847
I don't mind games with cute girls in sexy clothes. I play lots of eroge. Sengoku Rance is the hentai version of Nobunaga's Ambition.

>>4886864
Yeah, I watched it. It was cringy as fuck to see how tsundere Nobunaga was.
Is the Nobunaga's Ambition a big franchise in Japan or something?

>>4886873
Yep. It's older than the Romance of the Three Kingdoms franchise. Both are Koei's game. Nobunaga game first published in 1983 and the latest is Nobunaga 15 released last year (haven't played, still in Japanese as far as I know). Besides Nobunaga's it has some spin-off games like:
Taiko Risshiden (5 so far)
Samurai Warriors (spin-off Dynasty Warriors, latest is Spirits of Sanada last year)
2 games from Eiketsuden Series (Nobunagaden and Mouri Motonari Chikai no Sanshi)

But only Nobunaga's Ambition and Samurai Warriors are still active in development.

>>4886879
A game it doesn't have a scenario editor. I'd like to add some spanking to it.

>>4886881
You're really obsessed with spanking girls in game. I don't know if someone have ever made a mod for those games. But I think you'd better make an RPG mod with spanking. I'm sure there are plenty of mod-able RPG out there.

>>4886884
>You're really obsessed with spanking girls in game
Not my fault games are fond of showing girls and women butt.

>>4886539
Thanks a ton! These are exactly what I was looking for. I just bought and started Arx Fatalis and it's really fun so far, not sure how I've never heard about it before.

This thread was taken over by weirdos. I bet they're all Russian

>>4887806
No.

>>4887806
fake news

Cmon dull fairy spank posters tell me some 1vs1 experience on Hota.
Most fun game to be played online love this shit:

Sometimes fight against noobs: I just play tower and sometimes get lucky: Two naga dwellings in my starting area on XL. Took me 2 months or something to get me really started but I got some nasty stacks of naga queens. They slice through everything like butter.
Nephela with armor speciality is really a must.

Sometimes I get to fight against good people who play the Cove faction. On small maps you get really kicked out by these fuckers. But I dont really play that faction that often. These Cove players really tear my shit up. On week 3 full out battle already and against stronghold you lose then.


I came to the conclusion that stronghold isn't really good in 1vs1 on Hota on L or M maps. The units just don't hit enough because of the hero skill build-up. Maybe it will do better with different tactic that I'm used to.

Cmon /vr gimme ur best 1vs1 experience

>>4889458
Sorry, I never played online. When I was really into HoMM3, I didn't have internet, and when I finally got internet and tried an online RTS, I was beaten so hard it completely traumatized me.

>>4886146
They do have breasts all right.
http://h4.heroes.net.pl/uploaded/galeria/elf_face.jpg
http://h4.heroes.net.pl/uploaded/galeria/art_elf.jpg

>>4886884
>You're really obsessed with spanking girls in game
Sometimes you can't help it.

>>4887806
It's not russians, the spankshitter from /nepgen/ hijacked the thread.

>>4889541
>bringing drama from another board
Fuck off newfag. We don't do things like that in /vr/.

>>4889546
I am not bringing any "drama", spankshitter brought himself here and couldn't contain his autism.
I merely inform fellow 30 yo boomers on what's going on.

>>4889549
>bringing drama from another board
I am politely showing you the door. Take it and don't come back. Nobody here care about your personal boogeyman.

>>4889551
And yet roughly 3/4 of the thread is about spanking.

>>4889553
So for retards like you, 1/2 = 3/4.
No wonder you lost your way out of your own shitty board if you can't count.
Take the door and never come back. We don't want your shitty drama here.

>>4889557
Imagine being a retard defending half of the thread (=3/4) filled by the spankfag, all the while bitching about drama.

Just so you know, the underage currently spamming his rage in this thread called a crossboard raid on us :
>>>/vg/220527419
>>>/vg/220527471

It only proves that /vg/ brings nothing but drama and trash, and therefore, crossposters are no longer welcome her.

>>4889462
What are those? Some mod for a certain game?
>>4889461
Same. But I never tried playing online. I just saw people play DotA with crazy skills in a net cafe and I was chicken out.
>>4889535
What game is it?

>>4889462
Elf THOT

>>>/vg/220527585
>Aren't these pixies rather than fairies, by the way?
There were pixies in homm3, but geniuses at 3DO thought it would be a good idea to get rid of upgrades in homm4, and so these creatures stuck being "fairies".

>>4889572
I did try online. But it was Starcraft 2, just after it came out. I remember going for a basic zerg build, and getting absolutely steamrolled so badly I never tried online game again.

It's Enclave. And ironically the best character in the game since she has a ranged attack, unlimited ammo, and even a temporary shield and a zone attack, compared to the other characters who have limited ammo, can't aim -since it's third person perspective), or have really strange melee attacks where you'll miss 90% of the time.

>>4889575
Yeah, about HoMM4. What genius thought it'd be a good idea to have different houses buildable for the different tiers of units, and what fucking retard removed the upgrades? Not to mention that playing in easy mode automatically builds everything.

And I still don't understand why devils are aligned with Death.

>>4889579
Maybe it's a reference to Plan 9 From Outer Space?

>>4889601
Maybe.

>>4889458
>play against Inferno
>lose
cyka blyat

>>4889458
Once played Homm4 online.
Took all my troops from my town, never built any defense, and mysteriously lost it out of nowhere.

>>4889458
Generally on standard Jebus (so 90% of lobby games), Flux, Castle and Dung come across as the strongest factions for various reasons. Tower and Inferno are probably the weakest. HotA necro might have the highest variance of users skill-power, because necromancy got much less forgiving and necro doesnt have the easy option for crypts and 'yards, not to mention no mobility for their heroes.

>>4889575
Are there any differences between pixies and fairies? What about sprites?

>>4890068
You can't insert penis in sprites, because they are flat.

>Monthly succ wars check

>>4890246
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhwOZyfjon0

Is it worth to invest in accuracy or just min max endurance and int/personality(1cler and 3 sor team)?

>>4890074
Insert penis in flat!

>>4878118
I love how they portayed rigues in HOMM 1. With the hats and the masks. Truly comfy

>>4890743
They look like they come from a totally different game. Then again, with how goofy homm1 looks, they kinda manage to blend in.

>>4890842
They look like a missing 3rd spy from spy&spy

Fun fact:
Scorpia, a journal for Computer Gaming World, wrote harsh review for M&M II. NWC named a monster after her name in M&M III.

>>4891026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpia_(journalist)

>>4890548
Your stats are basically pointless after 21 as scaling is terrible. Get everyone up to that and let bless/heroism carry you if you want to use melee. An item of +5 spell points will often be the equivalent of +70 int or personality. The only thing to watch out for are some of the master trainers that may take 30 in a specific stat.

If you mean at character creation then you do want endurance and int/per at 18 or 21. Luck is your stat to take from as there is a fountain in the first town that will give you +2 permanent up to 15 and it has 8 charges and the well refreshes almost every day.

>>4891026
M&M II is a horrible game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6tLKDySets

>>4891673
Yes, Scorpia, we know you love linear games.

>>4891685
She preferred adventure games than RPG.

How do I convince the fucking game to give me useful skillups? I am playing Heroes 4 and right now doing the Gauldoth campaign.
In the second map there's a life city you can take and also war academy, so I thought I'd take both scouting and tactics from them, but ever since I maxed out death magic, all I am getting are tactics skillups and the occasional basic combat.
I want some nature magic to, but the game has given me those literally between 2 to 3 times of all my level ups and that's counting also all the reloads after level ups like when I accidentally leave quick combat on for tougher opponent. I am at level 24 right now and still have basic nature magic and basic herbalism only.

>>4892774
don't play homm 4
it's an abomination and not canon

>>4892774
Did you get a class change? As long as you are still a demonologist nature should come up fairly often although some of them will be the useless summoning skill.

>>4892965
Nah, it's a good game deep down.

>>4892973
Yeah, I switched to reaver when I got the various tactics skills, because I still have only 2 points in nature magic at all. Also now that you mentioned the summoning, I did get more than those 3 offers of nature magic during level ups, but all of the ones I forgot to mention were summoning, got it offered at least 5 times and I definitely don't wanna waste points on that trash.
I don't understand why I am getting combat offered all the time even when I am a reaver, but I get nothing at all for nature magic or scounting. I would really love to have that grandmaster pathfinding by now.

Is there a way to install HoMM 5.5 without replacing the music?

>>4893158
>HoMM 5.5

get out

>>4893189
Why?

>>4891026
Imagine the outrage if someone did that to a WAHMEN today

>>4893202
He is a cuckold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKRDya3dA24

>modding HoM&M

For what purpose?

Not really HoMM realated but MM. How do I get into the older games ? I am talking about MM 3 to 5. I was trying to play Might and Magic 3 the other day and It just felt shitty, I wanted to play with with a fresh group but it seems too hard

>>4894856
That's a complicated question. Try looking for HD mods if that's the issue.

>>4894497
Moding Homm III for Homm II is better idea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUc91QrFoBw

>>4894856
Yes you probably want a new set of characters. This is mentioned in the pastebin with suggested party comps. As a rule you want to try to get around 16-18 in Accuracy, Endurance, and Int/Per (whichever is relevant if any), and at least decent Speed and Might. You can ignore luck for everyone but your Robber/Ninja. For MM3 the very start of the game can be brutal. You will wipe, a lot, until you know what you are doing. As a starter hint, I would suggest walking outside and burning the goblin hut (forward a couple spaces, turn left, and walk forward a couple spaces) and then train. Once you get to level 3 you should be able to walk around a lot easier and can continue exploring outside, although the sewers may still be a problem until you get more levels, spells, and better equipment.

How can I mod Heroes 3 easily myself? I wanna buff bad units

I feel so stupid. I new to HoMM and I started playing Heroes 3 for a day, then decided to go to Heroes 1 as I figured it'd be simpler and easy, plus I have to fullfill my chrono-centric autism about playing order. I keep on losing heroes constantly (even with the non-moving monsters on the map) and get overran by the amount of heroes the AI pumps out. I finished the first level on the campaign, but it took me 3 hours because I was trying to kill off all the other fucks (also I thought there was more dragons guarding gateway, as it said "few" instead of one when you right-click it and I wasn't paying attention at the screen at the start of the scenario). Is it normal to lose a lot of Heroes when you start out? Should I worry about my mental capacity?

>>4895858
Well, I've never played HoMM 1, as I started with 2, but there are a number of things that take getting used to in the strategy game. The biggest is how you concentrate and use your forces. When I started playing, I made the intuitive mistake of making sure my multiple heroes have more or less equal stacks. DOn't do that. Pour almost everything you have into one main hero and give him control of 95% if not more of your army. Smash things with overwhelming force, get XP, and build that way, instead of horizontally. The armies themselves are your main bottleneck resource; and it's better to lose a town than it is to lose your main force.

>>4895897
Would you say that having more heroes is better than having just one, even if it's a bit expensive? I think my problem (not just in Heroes 1 but in HoMM 3 too) is that I'm reluctant to pay the extra money to buy more heroes in fear of losing them too soon. When I do buy an extra hero, I just keep one at the town that I own as a "back-up" or to defend my town. Some times I try to use both away from the town to cover more ground, and as you said they have roughly the same about of stacks. Usually though, I don't buy heroes, as I opt to spend the money on buildings. Being a miser is hell.

>>4895936
>Would you say that having more heroes is better than having just one, even if it's a bit expensive?
It is, but to a point of diminishing returns. Don't get heroes just to have more heroes, only get more if they have a job to do. I'm much more familiar with Homm 3, and in that, most heroes come with more than 2,500 gold worth of soldiers, so often I like to hire heroes (especailly early in the game) to merge the stacks and go on an initial attacking spree against the neutral stacks.

But even those secondaries have useful points. Movement, especially with your main attack stack, is always going to be less than what you need. So the heroes who only have 1 level 1 creature are often my scouts, the guys who pick up resources after the main hero has killed the monsters guarding them, and the guys running back to town to pick up and deliver reinforcements.

But if I've got a guy who only has a single creature, and he gets whacked by the AI? It's not a big deal. I'm more concerned about losing troops and manpower.

And another thing, don't stay back and guard the town. Expand expand expand. More expansion equals more resources claimed equals more troops and buildings, which drives another round of expansion, until you hold the entire map and win. Sitting back in your town means someone else does the expanding and eventually comes knocking with an army you can't beat.

>>4895996
Thanks, this is helpful.

>puts himself into the game
>makes himself so overpowered it practically breaks the game

Name a bigger alpha in gaming history than David Mullich

>>4897089
Lord British? The invincible NPC who can kill you in 1 hit.

>>4889458
Fuck I said stronghold but I ment Fortress... Stronghold is OP as fuck though.
Strongest faction IMHO

>>4897089
Only in russia

>>4897093
Didn't someone kill him at some point?

>>4897867
In Ultima Online, yeah. And it's usually possible to kill him in the various main series games, although actually doing so both usually requires some gimmick and it's not canon that you've done so.

Dread Lords are amongst us
Look at the both sides of the dark
Surely can't see heart through their eyes

Someone should ban this spanking bastard

>>4878689
Is this real? I don't know anything about M&M universe thh, I only played HoMM3 because I got it from a friend back in the day. Then played 6 a bit. Recently reinstalled III and we're mashing hota online. Forge looked really cool.

>>4881287
>melee party members

that's the problem
in this game only use bows and spells

>>4898572
That robot angel was a speculation. He said something like "you'll get a heart attack if I tell you the origin of angels". Since the Guardians are robots created by the Ancients and they have powers like gods, it's possible that angels are some kind of robots too. Remember, the demons (Kreegan) are aliens.

>>4899142
there is new interview with him where he says that angels are robots

sadly it's in russian

>>4882778
Go away Ubisoft. You killed HOMM and MM.

Is it ok to play with only one character in MM VIII?

Is it worth to learn meditation?

Also is it possible to display this game 4:3 fullscreen? Widescreen looks awful

>>4899628
You can, but as you should expect it will be harder. Dark Elf or Necromancer is probably your best choice.

>>4892774
nature is by far the weakest school of magic desu.
maxing death magic is also pretty stupid, i suggest you max combat first

>>4899717
You can learn meditation in the second town. Learning a spell school at character creation will grant you the first two spells in that school so prioritize them instead.

>>4899725
Death magic is largely crap until GM for hand of death but you don't go into it for the spells, you go into it to get necromancy and raise vampires to steamroll the map.

>>4899725
>nature is by far the weakest school of magic desu.
Yeah, but I wanted it for "RP" reasons, since Gauldoth starts with it already. Also the demonologist class would come in handy, because I kept using demon summoning spells fairly often for tactical reasons.
Also I meant this more as a general complaint towards how the class and skill system works. 80% of the classes suck donkey dicks and in many cases, at least for me, the only way I could get into a different class would be by spending points into useless subskills (like navigation on maps with little to no water content, summoning in general, but especially on stealth hero, etc.) before the game decided to throw something useful in that skill at me.

>maxing death magic is also pretty stupid, i suggest you max combat first
It's not stupid when you get GM necromancy. Too bad these campaigns always set you up against undead enemies for half the maps in it, so you can't even feel like god all the time.
Combat also isn't all that useful if you can actually get a decent army.

>>4897692
What do you mean?

>>4899507
>>4899142
Author of the interview posted the English translation on HC. Enjoy - http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=41078&PID=1466803#focus

>>4886539
>>4886630
Got it because of this thread and of course this is what I get when I try to run it through Steam.

I should've known better than to listen to a thread that regularly says
>play heroes 6/7!

>>4900948
> I'm too retarded to go on the internet to troubleshoot a game, therefore it is bad

Try cyanide.

>>4895049
wow that looks fun but i barely looks like HoMM3

>>4897994
>Someone should ban this spanking bastard
Literally nobody else but you care about this.

>>4897994
>Lich specialty
>Good.
>Starts with Learning
>Eeeeh?
>Knows Slow from the start
Dude's legit. Kinda under the radar because of Thant and Galthran.

So I've been interested in forge for HoMM3. Which version of mod is most up to date and where can I find it? I've found some confusing info online, some website even said hota includes forge now but mine sure doesn't.

>>4902579
There were plans to add 3 new cities by the Hota team (Cathedral, Kronverk and Forge) and there are some models floating around the internets, but in the end none were completed. Right now, Hota focuses on multiplayer, balancing issues, adding some funky neutral units and reducing the RNG factors in the game (like the recent Resistance Skill revamp).

Do you have VCMI? There's a mod for it by a Polish team (Mod Design Team) that adds Forge with shield stormtroopers, flying leeches and crab-mutants instead of cyber-zombies, nagatanks and dragon-constructs (link here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/et729te8vlre35b/MDTForge_v1.3.1.zip ).
If you want more traditional line-up but with less polish, try 'Classic Forge' (link here: http://www.mediafire.com/file/cczmymxl9j7t06q/TOWN_-_Classic_Forge_%252799.rar/file ).

As far as I know, ERA2 doesn't have a working mod yet, but there's one in the works, by fred79 from Heroes Community. It has mutated trees instead of nagatanks but aside from this, seems solid. Link to the thread: http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=41760

>>4902158
Thant, Galthran and Isra.

>>4902608
Thanks a lot, anon.

>>4902667
Vidomina is the magic version of Isra. Both have Necromancy specialty and Advanced Necromancy skill.

So, what's so bad about the newer HoMM? 5, 6 and 7 specifically.

>>4900317
New interview. Noice. Gonna read it.

>>4903036
everytthing

>>4879331
Isn't Messiah set in Ashan?

Whenever I play HoMM3, I can't help but quit sometime in the first week. Like I make a few turns or get in a fight, and suddenly every last bit of my desire to play that game vanishes. However, I can play 2, 4 and 5 normally for hours at a time. What the hell is wrong with me?

>>4904175
All you need is another human player. Precisely, you need two other human players, meaning you all self-motivate each other.
Then once you are in the grinder, you don't need anyone, aside a weekend or a leave from work due to "planned holidays"

Please suggest a good HOTA map for a yt let's play that is not too hard. I'm not that good I only played Heroes casually.

>>4904537
Province from regular HotA release should be right up your valley, Kiszak.

>>4904540
>Kiszak
Thanks. I don't know what that means.

>>4904543
Meme-streamer from Poland. He's pretty good even.

>>4886657
I wish there were more custom/unlisted spells.

Whenever I play HoMM4, I want to sex a fairy.

>>4905913
>Not a HoMM3 Naga

>>4905914
>not a HoMM4 fairy

>>4905926

>>4905930
Not sexy.

>>4905926
Spank her!

>>4905948
There are twenty-three of them. You gonna take them all on?

>>4905950
Try me.

>>4905950
I'll spank one then I'll let the French guy with fetish to spank girls in game do the rest of them.

>>4905967
>>4905984
Oh my god the spankingfags are multiplying.

>>4904175
That happens to me sometimes. The only remedy I could find is to stop playing it for some time, at least a few months. Then I usually get the urge of playing it again thanks to these threads. It's a weird cycle but not unexpected for a game I've been playing for almost 20 years.

>>4905967
>>4905984
Why spanking rather than pretty much everything else?

>beat my first map on 200% difficulty
>tfw it was only because of getting a tier 7 unit week 2
Did anyone else have a lot of trouble beating A Terrible Rumor?

>>4906490
I have a lot of trouble doing anything at all. I love the HoMM games but I frankly suck at them.

>>4906060
Thinking men.

Dear scenic HotA map anon,
I just wanted to let you know that I stole some of your "town" designs for use in my own homebrewed D&D campaign setting, since they evoke a lot of imaginative ideas for locales and kingdoms, and I was running out of creative juice on how to fill my setting by myself.
Hope you're alright with that, and that you're alright in general. Love,
Anon

>>4908330
>Dear scenic HotA map anon
That would be me, I guess :D
>I just wanted to let you know that I stole some of your "town" designs for use in my own homebrewed D&D campaign setting
Well, now I'm really interested! Could you give me more detail on how does your campaign work? I've never played D&D but I do know it's a table-top game, so I'm interested in why did you pick any particular map and how did you implement those settings in your game.
>Hope you're alright with that
Of course, you can't steal something that had been shared willingly - you should feel free to do whatever you wish with those maps.
>and that you're alright in general
Oh, you're too kind anon - I'm great and I really hope you are as well!
>Love, Anon
<3 U2

>playing Heroes 3 on hot summer days

God tier comfy

>>4908690
>alternating homm and ccg until it is cool enough to go out and play some football

hot seat is the bantest game mode invented and imo the sole reason for heroes special status in the eastern block

>>4909015
Are you by chance one of my friends?
It's literally how we spend our holidays together: playing HoMM during rain/unbearable heat and going out to play some football and set up a grill.

>>4908690
>God tier comfy
For me it's also nostalgic as fuck. I used to spend the better part of the summer playing Heroes III with my sister. We would never play against each other so we ended up playing the few allied maps that you could find before modifying other maps to allow teams.
I know that I will probably never have the chance to spend the summer that way for the rest of my life since we live in different cities and we're 'grown-ups' now, her being married and having two kids.

The perfect map doesn't exi-

>>4910378
Looks small and boring to play. The design itself is nice, but that's it

When am I ready to play multiplayer for homm3? I can finish some of the single scenarios on impossible. Just wondering if there was a way to practice the template people use for actual multiplayer.

>>4910447
Watch the streams of https://www..
twitch.tv/dave_hun
and if you don't understand what he is doing, you aren't quite ready for MP, at least against slavs.

>>4910434
>All for One
>boring to play

>>4910378
Is this in the default game? Looks kinda shit to be honest.

I want someone to recreate my map idea - all factions on the map, each have 1 castle (starting point) + 1 neutral castle nearby, and these two are surrounded by their own favored terrain. Dungeon is unpickable - 2 neutral towns only - on a desert island in the middle of the map.

>>4910459
>Rush map to end within 3 weeks
>Interesting
You won't even notice how nicely designed it is before the game will be over.

My favorite map is Myth and Legend. You play as Greek gods, start with 2 heroes and 2 towns, XL map size. Lots of events telling the Greek myth. Perfect if you like reading Greek mythology. It's included in HoMM 3 RoE, but missing in Heroes 3 Complete.

How do I make screenshot of the map from editor like this >>4910378 ?

>>4910638
From my experience "All for one" offers too many sneak attack opportunities for proper rushing. Once the middle is cleared of monsters it turns into a stand off. Although of course you can always do easy mode by picking the right starter faction, e.g. red Tower or blue Fortress.
>>4910656
>It's included in HoMM 3 RoE, but missing in Heroes 3 Complete.
https://www.celestialheavens.com/forum/7/15980
Here you go anon. It's my favorite also. Definitely the prettiest map.

>>4910669
>>4910656
I've got Heroes 3 complete and it has Myth and Legend.

>>4910581
It's the default map in RoE.

>>4910656
I had a blast with Myth and Legend without knowing much about about Greek mythology until Tan decided to end my fun by finding the artifact while I was dominating the overworld. Still, that map is excellent and some recommendations based on it would be greatly appreciated.

>>4910581
Why Dungeon?

>Calcluate everything to get Might Shrine at the time
>Januray in this game has 28 days instead of 31
>too late arriving at Bootleg Bay at 1st February

this game made me mad

Is it me or are the Armageddon's Blade and Shadow of Death maps a LOT harder than the Restoration of Erathia ones?

>>4910972
It's you, they are piss easy.

What are you favorite and most balanced, non BS, Hota maps?

>>4908678
>Well, now I'm really interested! Could you give me more detail on how does your campaign work?
What I did was basically create a very basic universe for use for my private campaign settings. In particular, I was really interested by the way your Tower Concept works - it gave me vibes of seclusion (the Tower town is secluded by great masses of trees and mountains and gated behind a Garrison), wonder (magical creatures who dwell in their own area free of snow), and it also internally made sense (there's a shipyard nearby and places where the mages can gather their wood and other resources).
I looked at it for a while and decided to steal this design for my own version of Gnomes, who in this universe dwell in the snow (are almost all pale and white-haired), are expert mages (particularly illusionists) and are very secluded from other races due to, well, being small and frail compared to potential predators, so they learned to circumvent it with magic.
So, in my D&D campaign, if the players ever stumble upon this magical snow land, it'll be described as directly having been inspired by your Tower concept art.
I just really wanted a cool, varied locale, and your attention to detail gave me some fun ideas to use. It was really inspiring, even if it was not a 1:1 calque.

>>4911335
>In particular, I was really interested by the way your Tower Concept works
Glad to hear you like Tower concept the most. What's interesting is that was the first 'full screen' concept I've made and I'd say still my favorite of the lot.

>wonder (magical creatures who dwell in their own area free of snow)
Funnily enough, I got inspired by something I had made in Age of Wonder III (pic related) and I wanted to emulate it after the HotA 1.5.0 version introduced the Highlands terrain.

>and it also internally made sense (there's a shipyard nearby and places where the mages can gather their wood and other resources)
That's what I paid the most attention to so I'm really happy you appreciate the effort!

>my own version of Gnomes, who in this universe dwell in the snow (are almost all pale and white-haired), are expert mages (particularly illusionists) and are very secluded from other races due to, well, being small and frail compared to potential predators, so they learned to circumvent it with magic
I like them - they're distinct (different appearance and habitat) while still adhering to the tropes of D&D's Gnomes (small, curious and good illusionists).

>it'll be described as directly having been inspired by your Tower concept art
Well now you're making me blush anon!

By the way, I'm thinking about creating another faction concept but I'm left to choose between Rampart, Inferno and Fortress (excluding Conflux and Cove for the time being), so I wanted to ask you (as well as other anons reading this) what faction concept should I make next?

>>4911458
I'm a big Fortress fan and I'm curious what you'd do with them, especially given the town's "defensive" leaning - swamps eat up a ton of your movement points if your entire army isn't natively Fortress, all their heroes are defensive, and they even have a 2-hex moat. I'd imagine a secluded place that would be a logistician's hell to get through, but I'd enjoy seeing your input.

>>4910820
The Might shrine is really the only time that the calendar will feel restrictive aside from maybe the April circus. You can always go to Free Haven and use the well to at least get people to 15. The second month is in Mist so you won't have a problem, and after that you should have Town Portal to make it all trivial.

>>4911518
>I'm a big Fortress fan and I'm curious what you'd do with them
OK, that's one vote for Fortress so far.
>I'd imagine a secluded place that would be a logistician's hell to get through, but I'd enjoy seeing your input
Yep that sounds quite right - I imagine that I'll spend a lot of time just trying to create interesting terrain that would even require invading heroes to use waterwalk (or a couple of boats) to traverse through quickly.

>>4911458
My vote also goes toward Fortress.

>play hota with friend online
>he plays in polish
>ask what he's gonna play next game
>"Fortress, I guess"
>picks Tower
>ask "dude, wtf?"
>turns out in genius translation, tower is fortress and fortress is literally citadel.
Why are translations retarded?

>>4912445
My guess is that the localization team attempted to substitute the term "Wieża" (which is the direct translation of Tower) because, in the guy's mind, the "Tower" town isn't actually a tower, and you still build it up like a castle. They wanted to stick to the theme of nearly all HoMM3 towns being various, almost synonymous terms for large, defensive structures.
It makes *some* sense because, even due to the collocation "wieża magów" (mage tower), it doesn't really take away that much from the gameplay to call it something else.
However, it's still weird that they decided to use a term with a completely different root for Fortress and Tower. If they really wanted to make it a point that Tower was also a sort of castle, then they should have just called it Cytadela instead of changing up Fortress.
So I can *kinda* see where they were going with this but nonetheless it's pretty weird.

What is the reason behind the resistance change in HOTA, I was never a pro or anything but it sounds like a downgrade?

>finishing up Adventures of Jared Haret
>scared Tumlacc is going to outmacro me
>crush him anyways
Does Tower outscale Castle in the lategame if just left uncontested?

>walk up to imp stack
>message box pops up
>"My precious, hehe..."
>beat stack
>get ring of life as reward
KEK

Are Heroes 4 mods Equilibris and Greatest Mod worth trying? The description for Greatest Mod seems to be saying it can be used together with Equilibris, but is it actually working decent enough?

>>4912760
>Does Tower outscale Castle in the lategame if just left uncontested?
Yes. Better stats across the board, Library gives you a higher chance to get a game-winning spell, Archangel resurrect doesn't scale as well with huge armies, Nagas are the absolute best unit of their tier.
But Tower has a much harder time getting to that late game (trying to claim Dragon Utopias for yourself is a mess) and Castle is much easier to snowball with and win.

>>4912445
>hmm what to play, I know! I ask my opponent what he's going to play and then pick something that counters him
>HE SAID FORTRESS HOW HE DARED TO PICK TOWER, NO FAIR
outsmarted by pole, marvelous

>>4912914
but the town selection screen is visible to everyone at all times

>>4912910
Thanks a lot for the explanation.

>>4912906
"Can be used together with Equilibris" means it won't conflict with eq files.
They are two separate mods.

>>4912726
I heard they want to avoid random stuff. The old resistance gives a chance to resist a spell. The new resistance gives penalty to opponent's spell power.

>>4912914
Dude we play mainly as allies.

>>4913131
How boring. The first HotA change I don't like.

>>4913302
Well, the penalty to opponent's spell power also nerfs a broader variety of spells, as it nerfs the amount of turns a buff or debuff will last on units, for instance.

>>4913362
Not him, but how often does that matter? It's rare as hell that two armies with major heroes have battles that last more than 5 turns.

>fix Resistance
>don't fix Eagle Eye

HotA team what are you doing?

>>4913392
>HotA fucks up Resistance completely
>Thorgrim goes from top 3 heroes in the game to fucking bottom tier scouting fodder
>People are OK with it

>>4910656
>>4910669
>>4910691
>>4910723

>Play (likely replay, I think I played all the RoE maps back in the day, but I really didn't remember it.) Myth and Legend from the quasi-recommendation in this thread
>Blow through the AI like wet tissue paper
>Midway through Week 4, have annihilated 2 enemies completely, and crippled two more.
>Have 10 cities, I don't think anyone else has more than 3.
>Haven't found the grail yet but I control the area where I think it is so it can't be used against me.
>Can't be assed to finish the scenario because really, what's the point? I'm completely ascendant already.

This happens every single fucking time I play on L or XL maps.

>>4899530
3DO did, really.

>>4878118
How do I stop being bad at HoMM3?
I'm new and just play the standard 3 or 4 player free for all as necropolis, and despite my best efforts to build fast I just constantly get overwhelmed.

Is there something I'm doing wrong?

>>4913884
>Is there something I'm doing wrong?
Probably. What are you doing? How quickly are you losing these games? What are you building and recruiting? How are you dividing up your armies between your heroes? How many heroes are you getting?

>>4913962
I typically do fine mid and early game, but late game it just seems like the AI have infinite resources and can shit out a ton of units super fast that I didn't even know what possible

In the 4 way free for all, I'm typically second, even when I have the game set to 80% I think it is so it should be easier to win these matches but I just can't compete with the fucking tsunami of units they have.

>>4914030
How are you defining "early game" and "mid game"? When is this avalanche of units hitting you?

>>4914058
When it turns to about 1v1 it turns to shit because it just gets crazy with the amount of shit they have compared to me, and I'd have half the map and so do they

>>4914107
I'm really trying to help you, but I can't without precise information. How long is this taking? What day is it? How big is your army by that point? How big is what the AI fielding? How well developed are your cities? What is your build order?

>>4914139
Typically Month 2 week 3-4,my army is usually max capicity in terms of what I can build, about 3/4th's the AI at 80% resource whatever, and my build order is based off some shit i found on google

>>4914151
If you're doing a 4 man map (presumably medium sized) and you're waiting around to the near end of month two, you're dawdling. Build faster, creep faster, strike faster. Make sure you're building dwellings, but above all, make sure you're building troops early and often. Especially if you're playing on Easy, don't prioritize those gold generating buildings, get your dwellings out first, and get at least the 1-6 ones before starting to get upgrades. Your creatures accumulate even if you don't build them. Don't have your main hero do much beyond kill neutral stacks and strike at enemy cities. Have a contingent of lower level guys with 1 fast creature picking up the loot and ferrying reinforcements. Concentrate your XP and your forces; you should have one clear primary guy who has the bulk of your army and pretty much all of your battle artifacts.

And of course, don't let someone get to the grail before you do.

>>4914242
>>4914151
And just to elaborate, (I'm the guy who wrote>>4913749 upthread). I'm currently lackadaisically playing Myth and Legend. That's an XL map with an underground. I'm playing on 160 because I'm feeling a bit lazy, and it's currently month 2 week 2. I have completely eliminated 4 of my 7 opponents, and crippled two more. You can and should be moving fast. Most games are effectively over by the end of the first 3 weeks. If you don't have a clearly winning position by then, you're probably losing.

>>4914242
>>4914248
Thanks for the run down, does the resource thing at the start not determine difficulty? It determines the game's resources?

>>4913884
Protips how into Homm3

first days build creature dwellings and hire as many creatures as possible
then conquer all small creatures nearby and their mines. Conquest is much more profitable in first week than building town halls

divide archer units into two units

do not move slantwise, this takes more move points than moving straight

in later weeks(when you conquer mines nearby your castle) do not take slow units(like dwarves, ents) with you they are only for castle defense

I am curios about one thing, so here's a question to all the people here that play any of the Heroes games against other players, does anyone actually utilize garrisons or has their units guard mines?

>>4914504
You put units to guard a mine when you end your turn near one, so that you're left with only your fastest ones when you end your turn, which gives you more movement points on your next turn.

>mfw One Way Monolith Exit

>>4914506
I know about that trick, but I meant more of a permanent/long-term guard.

>>4913749
Play maps like Unleashing the Bloodthirsty where you are constantly challenged by massive, "set" armies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJUezWiFqVM
Just look at this.

>>4914518
>there no way back and no town portal spell

>>4914471
>do not move slantwise, this takes more move points than moving straight
Not always and not really.
Normally, moving diagonally over a square grid had the advantage of moving you further away. HoMM3 has an anti-cheating measure for this, by making diagonal move cost 4/3 of what "straight" lines in given terrain cost. Depending on how rounding is done due to hero's skills, terrain and type of road (if any), moving diagonally either costs the same or is marginally more expensive (we are talking 2-4 movement points here, while the slowest hero possible starts each turn with 1500 movement points)

It's 2018. For past 20 years, HoMM3 was THE ONLY game to apply this simple "4/3 diagonal tax" on movement. All while other games moved to inferior hexes, because their designers were too fucking dense to just make diagonal movement equal it's cost with non-diagonal via a single line of script.

>>4912445
Possibly because they are just really vague terms.

Castle, Fortress, Stronghold, Tower all sound very much alike. When I played HoMM3 for the first time I could barely differentiate between them. Tell someone to come up with 4 vastly different civilisation concepts for each of the terms, I guarantee that any non-Heroes player won't come up with "generic medieval knights, swamp faggots, orc barbarians and snow virgins"

Now try to have all these vague terms translated into another language. No wonder it*s a mess.

>>4914504
In H5 obviously depending on the map and location you want to leave very few here and there so that for example empty or rather 1 unit empty heroes don't snatch it from you.

In H6, when you do conquer a town it is impossible for your mines in that zone of control to get taken except if the hero just stays on top of it, really shitty design if you ask me.

As for H7 they reversed the above mentioned change from 5 but still, I think you can't garrison a mine but what you can do is that you can build garrisons inside towns so for example you build a vampire garrison and from that turn your garrison will have a set number of vampires(they grow each turn to a certain limit) but they're not an army unit as in you can't take them away from the town in which you built the garrison, they're what you would call a static defense unit.

>>4912445
It's even better, because people just call "towns" "castles" and it makes perfect sense in Polish, hell, is supported by the translation.
All the issues with Polish translation can be tracked back to the first, semi-official version of it, which was done by some moron with a dictionary at hand. While later translations fixed a lot of things, stuff like Tower being "Forteca" and Fortress ending up as "Cytadela" already sticked.
Besides, nobody calls it "Cytadela". It's just "Bagno" (Bog) in the lingo.

>>4914709
>nobody calls it "Cytadela"
Uh, I call it "Cyta".

>>4914252
Difficulty level will determine your starting resources. It will not affect resources on the map.

>>4913398
> HotA fucks up Resistance completely
No, it doesn't.
> Thorgrim goes from top 3 heroes in the game
He was never a top or even a good hero, idiot.

>>4914662
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt0-R13YUWk

1:35 to 2:40

>>4914869
>Post random Polish guide
Funny, because I'm Polish

And he's still wrong, using own hunch rather than actual game data. The reason why he can't make the final moves when applying diagonals is due to the amount of points needed is not enough, despite still having some points left. Lo and behold, those 2-4 points do stack!

>>4914864
>t. HotA incel
Resistance is completely borked with this rework. It's literally the most stupid shit they could do with perfectly sound skill, in fear that oh noes, there is a random factor in a game!
And please tell us all how hero resisting 2 out of 5 spells thrown at him by level 20 isn't top of the roster, while being a fucking Ranger, one of the best classes that are in the game.

>>4914960
Not that other anon, and I also disagree with you.
>And please tell us all how hero resisting 2 out of 5 spells thrown at him by level 20 isn't top of the roster
Because the scaling boost to Resistance is meaningless when the meta is about casting Mass Haste on your troops and taking the first strike, and the moment your Resistance *fails* to negate Slow, Blind or whatever (2 out of 5 is a 40% chance, which is pretty hard to rely on), you are fucked, whereas Offense and Armorer (and especially their specialties) are consistent and useful throughout the entire fight. Resistance also doesn't make any difference outside of the final battle scenario, because it hardly ever comes up when fighting neutral mobs.
As such Thorgrim is only a safeguard against Implosion-reliant enemies. Not a reliable one, either.
With the HotA change, an Expert Resistance hero lowers Spell Power by 30% rounded down. High Spell Power mages can get significantly cut down on the scaling. That's actually significant. It also works on ALL their spells - if the enemy attempted to leverage huge mana reserves and level 4/5 magic against you, his Resurrects are less effective, his Implosions chunk your troops for less, his Earth Elemental spam produces fewer units.
>while being a fucking Ranger, one of the best classes that are in the game.
Definitely not in the top 3. They have solid overall heroes and are certainly better than Knights or Demoniacs, but they also get offered Luck and Resistance (which, as you can see, I hardly value as much as you do). If I had to pick a generic Ranger or a generic Barbarian, Battle Mage, Overlord and sometimes even Elementalist, I'd probably pick the latter.

since when did HotA have a online lobby??

>>4915292
Since a long while ago. Enjoy.

>>4915294
this is amazing! i didnt realise people were still making new stuff for this game

>>4915298
HotA is continously in development, so is the HD mod.

>>4915298
There's also the HD+ mod (not to be confused with HoMM3 HD by Ubisoft) that makes processing everything faster and smoother (such as splitting armies or the ability to Quick Combat trash fights and decline the result if the computer messed it up too much).

>>4915303
is the HotA team still planning on adding one more castle? i remember reading they wanted to add a new one

>>4915305
I dunno.

>>4915305
You mean in addition to Cove?

>>4915307
Yes

>>4915225
>As such Thorgrim is only a safeguard against Implosion-reliant enemies. Not a reliable one, either.
Also not the anon you are replying to, but saw enough shit with Thorgrim to respect his angry rant. It might not be top-tier as he claims, but he definitely has a good spot in multiplayer. Dunno... upper middle class hero, if that means anything to you? So not completely OP, but this is part of the charm - he's less likely to be outright banned, while people have a tendency to ban Offense and Armourer experts.
As for HotA, I don't care, because I don't play mods nor find any appeal in them, so for me then can do whatever the hell they won't, doesn't affect me in the slightest.

>>4915330
>Dunno... upper middle class hero, if that means anything to you?
Which is not what he said. He asserted Thorgrim is among the best heroes in the game. He is not. He was painfully niche even in SoD. Now if he said that Thorgrim is a good hero, I'd agree, but reeeeing about how Russkies ruined HoMM3 for the umpteenth time over a change that doesn't even necessarily destroy a hero whose power was certainly niche is just silly to me.

>>4915381
I think you might have some serious issues with reading comprehension...

russkies did nothing wrong. infact they improved the game by a ton
this is a fact.

>>4913398
If anything, the changes in how Rsistance works make Thorgrim stronger than he was. Instead of having 20 + Level % chance of blocking spell thrown at him, he has debuff on all spells cast on against him.
I mean sure, not getting hit by a Chain Lighting is better than being hit for less damage, but always being hit for less damage is better than not being hit at all sometimes.

>>4915446
>Nothing wrong
>What is 99% of features in WoG

>>4915446
>russkies did nothing wrong
They still haven't released the Succ.

>>4915471
i bet you play hota lmao

>>4911189
"Glorious Days", "Strait of Storms" and "Broken Compass" are great

I have yet to find the stamina for any of them XXL maps

>>4915529
I play vanilla. Both your mods suck ass.

>>4878118
>>4878151

the series is complete shit after HOMM2, but no one here will get why

>>4916924
Nice hot hipster opinion.

>>4884596
You know what else need a good slap on the ass?

>>4916942
Oh me oh my.

Is it worth to invest in body mind spirit magic while there is light magic?

>>4916924
1/10, made me reply

>>4916931
Not him, but hipsters died out about 3-4 years ago.

>>4915470
Not him, but don't be ridiculous. When you have the Big Fight, it's not going to be implosions and Chain lightnings you're worried about; it's the mass buffs and debuffs, spells like blind. HoTA resistance is absolutely worthless for protecting you against those kinds of spells, except that it lowers their duration. But if you've got two high level heroes with big armies, the battle's going to be over before 70% of the other heroes power duration is used up.

Where Resistance well and truly shines is when your opponent tries to cast Mass Slow and banks on you having everyone too slowed down to move anyone before he whales on you with his whole army, and you have 1 or 2 guys shrug it off giving you the chance to cast mass haste and interrupt his combination. HOTA's resistance can't do that.

>>4916942
What is that pic from?
For your question >>>4903368

>>4917292
>second paragraph
This desu.

>>4917292
Also not him, but this is my main complain about HotA's rework on Resistance - it cancels out the random factor of casting spells against your enemy. Doesn't matter what hero, Resistance is one of those skills that have little application, but if they trigger, the side casting the spell is essentially fucked.
In case of HotA, casting side is always on a win, because -2 turns out of 20 is bullshit and -20% damage is also bullshit.

>>4917292
Even the AI loves casting Blind on your strongest stack, eg. Arch Angels.

>>4917353
>slapping the face
>when the ass exists for that purpose

>>4916931
>>4917090
have fun playing a game that was supposed to be chess, but got turned into JRPG

>>4916942
Pic related?

>>4917292
Fucking this.
And HotA fags will still going to defend this shit anyway

>>4919191
Nice post number.
I wish HotA implements features like WoG. You can enable/disable a specific feature.

>>4919697
The only reason I stick to WoG myself is the fact I can turn off all of it, aside the option for accumulating guardians and monsters inside on-map dwellings and having option to upgrade them on-map. For me those are features that should have been always implemented in the game.
Meanwhile HotA is "all in" mod and fuck most of their changes, half of which are put to rug out any sort of RNG from the game.

>>4917353
Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World

>>4915305
>>4915307
>>4915308
Hota member here:
Yes, we've already added enough small elements so adding more for the sake of adding would feel wrong. Making new castles now are one of our top priorities. But team isn't active at summer time, so don't expect anything too soon.

>>4919815
Please make resistance change toggleable.

>>4919815
Please make Resistance change toggleable.

>>4920030
I'm not in charge for that. Plus Hota wants to remain non-optional, like original games and addons.

>>4884697
Finally understood what you were referring to.
Sorry guy, I only had vanilla HoMM3 to play as a kid, I didn't know about the Conflux.

And it's for the best, my hormone-ridden younger self would've blew a few blood vessels over THESE.

Okay, whoever said that Conflux was OP either exagerrated, or I'm shit at picking up fights.
At any rate, I lost the battle, and then the game.

>>4920134
I'm going to guess the latter, since you apparently decided to pick a fight against Lots of tier 2 units with a starting hero complement.

>>4920156
I STILL WON

>>4919815
>Hota member here
Hey, you guys did a great job with adding a native terrain for Conflux and you made some beautiful-looking decorations for the Highland as well as the other terrains.

>>4920134
>I didn't know about the Conflux
That's okay anon - glad to be the one to introduce them to you!

>>4920168
Just got HoMM3 Complete on GoG. I preferred the first title screen.

>>4920165
And how many losses did you take?

>>4920089
What fucking for?
No, seriously, what for? I never understood this obsession with HotA to be considered "real". You are doing a mod. You aren't original developer, you aren't making anything really new, you just tweak around existing game. Yet you absolutely refuse to act accordingly, instead maintaining this farce of being oh so serious game developers. This buffonade is part of the reason why I'm turned off from HotA.
It's pretentious for its own sake and the current Resistance change is something that is just plain and simply stupid idea. But it's forced with everything else... so I prefer to not play than have inferior setup of perfectly fine skill. Want to fix skills? Work on Eagle Eye.

>>4920207
I lost my army, my town and my self-esteem, but I won on a moral level.
And I'm developping a boner for HoMM3's pixies.

>>4920168
Thanks! I showed your map screens (if you are that anon who made it) to the team a while ago, and they liked it!

As for highlands, my personal impact on this terrain was very small - I wasn't active at that time. But when next time you'll see small puddles of water, think about that anon from 4chan :D

We have plans to add at least 1 more new terrain, but that will probably be added with 11 town and be it's native terrain.

>>4920245
Please do not skip lines like that. It bothers me a bit.
It's also a giveaway you're a reddit regular.

>>4920230
>What fucking for?
E-sports.
HoMM3 mp is a serious business and the quality of multiplayer is extremely important to the hota team.

>>4920230
Eagle Eye is not changed yet because there wasn't main skill fixing implemented yet. I dunno why they decided to change resistance on it's own. Maybe because of the feedback from online gamers. There are 2 "pros" on the team so their opinion on balance is usually taken in account.

Now as for "why no options". Isn't it's obvious? While you and that guy doesn't find our mod to be a successor to the original game, 10 other folks will enjoy the same "Launch the game, Play the game" action they used to. And Please stop telling nonsense like
>you aren't making anything really new
Because we do, in a borders of existing game.
You want us to make new game from a scratch? Why should we bother if we just want to improve the game we love?

>>4920251
Never posted on reddit.

>>4920261
Sure you didn't, fellow redditor.

>>4920259
Thank you for reviving my favorite game. HotA is pretty much perfect as far as I'm concerned.

>>4920292
you just can not satisfy everyone :(
There are always people who think the addon is bad only because it's fan-made, it's bad because it fixes old problems (kills the soul), it's bad because this particular gamer hates pirates etc.

But for every angry homm fan there are hundreds of happy ones. Haters gonna hate, this how life works.

You won't believe how many iterations some content may take! The Ogre's Fist artifact had 40 different 3d models before final graphics was made.

I myself don't like how much job goes into the trashbin, but it helps the content to be as perfect as we can make.

>>4919768
Never play it. Which version is it?
I started with MM3 in PC.

Has anyone ever made an open world campaign in Heroes 3? Like a map without an objective?
I've made really basic ones just to relax and mess around but I'm wondering if there are some more detailed ones out there

>>4920475
DOS

>>4920475
It's the DOS version, it should be in the OP pastebin. Generally we feel 1 and 2 didn't age all that well compared to later entries, but if you are looking for a harder Might and Magic they will work.

Dumb question about scoring in Homm 3. If I find the grail but win a scenario before I have a chance to bring it to a city and build the grail structure, do I still get the extra points?

>>4920245
>>4920259
>>4920330
Hey HotA anon, I have a question for your team - is it possible for your coders to implement a copy/paste area function in the HotA map editor, which is something I read people were able to implement in WoG's map editor?
I'd like to take all those various concept maps I've made and merge them into a single map but doing it manually would be a Herculean task at this point.

>>4920945
probably quicker to test on a custom map than asking here

>>4920254
And this is why e-sports are cancer

>>4920259
>And Please stop telling nonsense like
>>you aren't making anything really new
>Because we do, in a borders of existing game.
t. delusional modder
>Why should we bother if we just want to improve the game we love?
Your "improvement" boil down to tweaking numbers around and adding bullshit faction. Now you are making bullshit tweaks in skills. Soooo much improved!
Want to know the difference between your mod and WoG? WoG is OPTIONAL. If I don't like some feature from it, I can simply turn it off. Which I do.
In case of HotA I'm forced to take entire pack in, all the shit I hate included, because fuck me, right?

>>4920134
This could be doable with upgraded Pixies. 6 stacks of 1 fairy each + 1 main stack with the rest. Turn one wait on each stack, after the lizardmen shoot (should probably all target the main stack) move to the middle of the map as much as the range allows. Turn two move next to the lizardmen without attacking (except for main stack, main stack attacks normally), blocking their ranged attack.

>>4914695
> dat filename

>>4921856
But upgraded pixies aren't as sexy as vanilla pixies.

>>4921857
I hate the skill system in HoMM5. It's hard to get the ultimate skill in the center.

Semi-casual Homm 3 player here. I'm mostly a 160 player and can win about 95% of all games and maps on 160 without too much trouble. I'm trying to make the jump to 200, where I can win some of the time but not reliably. Any good maps to recommend to practice 200 skills?

Some M&M runs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbqyxs3m5aw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7ZiydXgYbU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdfI9fjC0qE

Some M&M runs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbqyxs3m5aw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7ZiydXgYbU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdfI9fjC0qE

I beat those 3 campaigns but the rest of them won't unlock. What am I doing wrong?

>>4922365
Campaigns are save-specific. You have to create a campaign save after beating one. Then load that save and beat another, then save again. Continue until you've beat them all.

>>4922378
W-what If I saved all of them on the same file?

>>4922378
That's as bad as Quake.

>>4889576
miss 90% of the time?

you have to aim the melee in Enclave, like in Rune.

>>4922408
But you can't aim the melee. The guy still does the same animation whenever you look.

>>4922382
I hope you like doing all but one of them again. 'New Game -> Campaign' starts a new campaign save. You have to use 'Load Game -> Campaign -> the save you used' to keep your progress.

>>4922365
www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes3/Campaigns%20Completed.CGM
Try this savefile and don't fuck up anymore, okay, Anon?

>>4922436
>>4922476
I already used cheat code to clear them again.

>>4920259
>removing the random element from a game played on literally random maps

>>4922378
>Campaigns are save-specific. You have to create a campaign save after beating one.
That was so retarded. When I was I kid I went through the four campaigns of SoD without being aware of that fact and had to replay them because of that.

>>4920259
Thanks for all the work you guys are putting into this.

We are having HoMM3 Complete game at Gameranger.

Room: /v/
Password: rage

Welcome to join us for fun. We have 2 players already, could use couple more.

>>4924539
why not just go to the server provided with the Hota mod?
I don't even know how to play vanilla HOMM3 anymore ;(

>Succ trailer has 74k views
>gameplay testing is ogre "3. Gameplay test is in fact ended: what works, does work, and what shouldn't work, does not do that. For now we are busy preparing the actual release, but we appreciate the intention very much."
Are you ready for the Succ /HOMM/?

>>4924750
this

Tell me about hidden/non obvious mechanics in h3. Like I never realized unit speed affect hero's movement points.

>>4925094
Defending gives you +50% defense, and doesn't stack with spells.

>>4925094
Look up "Tribute to strategist HoMM3"

are there any mod towns worth checking out? not talking about full expansions like hota, just individual towns

Are there any templates that let you accumulate lots of Cyclopes? I think the building is called Wolf Raider Picket or something.

Sup hommos what version of homm3 is the community playing?

>>4926291
Not cyclops stockpile?

>>4926658
H3 Complete + HD mod (+ HotA). Check out HotA if you want an online lobby (even for plain Shadow of Death) I think.

>>4920134
At the very least split your stacks, you mook.

>>4921861
I'm pretty sure vanilla Pixies have enough speed for that as well.

>>4921607
It's possible. You need to patch Hota editor first

The patch: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3qvlqzzlauga9wu/gf_me_patch.dll?dl=0

Now put it into the same folder as map editor exe, create a desktop shortcut, right click on it, in the line "object " add

/p:gf_me_patch.dll

so you get
"C:\Games\Heroes of Might and Magic III\h3hota_maped.exe" /p:gf_me_patch.dll
or whatever address it is to your hota folder.

Now launch the shortcut and follow red arrows on screenshot - should be self-explanatory. The only catch is: you should not close the editor. So
1) open map with stuff you want to copy
2) copy it
3) open aother map \ create new
4) paste
You can't work with 2 maps at the same time sadly.

How fucking dare she do that without asking

>>4927191
>It's possible
Holy shit, it's actually working! I cannot express my gratitude enough for your decision to share this with me anon.
Is this something you've made or was it done by somebody else in the HoMM community?

>>4927325
No, it wasn't made by me. It's GrayFace's job.
I'm just your friendly Hota-team member who's job is some 2d/3d graphics and a few maps.

>>4927401
>I'm just your friendly Hota-team member who's job is some 2d/3d graphics and a few maps.
Hey, you keep doing you HotAnon. By the way, are you planning to continue the "Horn of the Abyss" campaign?

>>4927262
I really wish there was an option to deny the training. WoG technically allows you to un-learn skills, but the building for doing so spawned... twice for me? And I'm playing WoG since fucking '11. Never really understood why you are automatically trained in new skill.

>>4926658
SoD release from 2001.
If you play anything else, you are doing it wrong.

>>4927409
story wise it's finished. The new stories will be told (thus, new campaigns added) with additions of new castles.

>>4927262
>>4927415
>I really wish there was an option to deny the training.
It's in HotA :^)

>>4927262
That's why you send an expendable scout hero in first.

How do I git gud with the Tower? I literally have trouble winning maps with them that I can clean up with the weakling Inferno of all people. But they just start so fucking slowly and are so resource intensive that I can't get my ball of expansion rolling fast enough, and by the time I'm built up one of the AIs seems to have run away with the game.

>>4927639
Shame you also have to take all other HotA's shit with the package, like the latest rework on Resistance.
HotA fixes grand total of TWO things, both minor and insignificant:
- witch hut training isn't obligatory (something you can work-around by sending scout hero first or just reload on SP)
- Naga Bank gives gems instead of sulphur (a literal non-issue that HotA team insist is a bug, but really isn't)
Everything else is pure trash.

>>4927653
>Faction like any other
>The only issue is resource cost
Stop being a bitch and simply play. By week 3 any difference is nulled.

>>4927776
By week three I've usually knocked out two players and absorbed their cities. That's not something I can do with the Tower and it's a major issue. You win the game by creeping fast and the growth you get from it.

>>4927653
>AI comes at you with huge army
>bezerk all his shit and laugh at him

>>4927775
>- Naga Bank gives gems instead of sulphur
I'm pretty sure it gives sulphur because you can already get a shitton of gems from Mystic Gardens

>>4928015

You rely quite heavily on Master Gremlins in the early-game. Also archery is a skill you'll be quite interested in when playing tower and will increase your power nicely. The thing you really want that is difficult to get is the mage tower (5 of each resource). When you get master genies, split them into stacks of 1 and buff like crazy.

>>4927653
>>4928015
Get Aine or Solmyr as your starting hero and rely on them as a stepping stone while mass-buying tavern heroes until you get *any* Barbarian or Overlord. Rangers work too due to penchant for Archery. Anyone who starts with Archery (particularly Orrin, but nothing wrong with Jabarkas or Ivor) is a great boon. Then just learn to fight really well with Master Gremlins while teching to Nagas. If you can get at least Nagas + Citadel week 1, you're gucci - with non-retal Nagas can solo a ton of tough shit. Then just creep, creep, creep and get Giants as soon as possible to start stockpiling them to turn into Titans later. Rely on Nagas and Master Gremlin + Master Genie synergy (you can split Genies into multiple stacks of 1, each casting a different spell on your powerstack - Bless/Precision hurts when it happens). You can get some Giants for map clearing, but I prefer not to fight with them much as they're squishy and not particularly attractive on the frontline - just an average-speed walker that REALLY sucks to lose even one of, compared to something like a Behemoth or Hydra.