/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.5600695]

Finished a game of Master of Magic today. What are some old timey turn based strategy games you like?

[Anonymous No.5601015]

Castle of Siege: Road to the Lionheart for the Genesis

[Anonymous No.5601143]

>>5600695
I haven't played many honestly, at least none that are all that obscure. I mean Master of Orion and Alpha Centauri instantly comes to mind. Also interesting to see a modded out version of MoM.

[Anonymous No.5601170]

>>5601143
>Also interesting to see a modded out version of MoM.
How could you tell my game was modded?
I played on the 1.50 unofficial patch.
Only tried it for a few games now.
I've played the Insecticide mod aka 1.40 unofficial patch before.

It's a shame Implodes multiplayer high res mod doesn't work yet, he's been working on it for 15 years, maybe it's playable singleplayer in another 10 years.

[Anonymous No.5601186]

>>5601170
I assume because the whole map is visible at once you added a resolution mod.

[Anonymous No.5601201]

>>5601186
ah, naeh unofficial 1.50 doesn't have that, I added those together with alt+prntscreen and photoshop. I have a layer that cuts out the UI around the map area to make it a little faster, but I still have to move over to the next part of the map to take another screenshot. 20 shots for each plane.
You can see all the extra cursors.


This pic here is implodes mod.
It has a zoom function, but the AI seems to be broken and you can't do a lot of things yet.
Like you can't build roads with engineers, and I couldn't figure out how to cast a town enchantment last I played it. I really wish it was playable, since I love having a big map to look at.

[Anonymous No.5601310]

I wonder why Warlords III never achieved the same kind of popularity as MoM / MOO 2 / Alpha Centauri

[Anonymous No.5601349]

>>5600695
>What are some old timey turn based strategy games you like?
that one
don't really remember any others. I played one of the HoMM games for a bit but wound up being distrated by something completely different (X-Wing Alliance I think)

[Anonymous No.5601357]

>>5600695
I find it interesting how you managed to resist going wild clearing the map. All my games end with a giant spike near the end as the balance tips in my favor and I just accumulate a massive amount of power.

[Anonymous No.5601387]

>>5600695
Master of Orion 2.

>>5601310
Yeah ironic how its spinoff series are more famous. Not that they are bad, Puzzle Quest is okay and Battlecry is great, but still...

[Anonymous ~ No.5601450]

>>5600695
I played MOO1 a lot. Never got about installing MOO2 though. Loved Civ2(played PSX version though)... except the battle system.

Also played FreeCiv a lot. But it's pretty boring w/o Civ2's music and animations.
http://www.freeciv.org/

Tried to Play Civ1 for SNES for shits n giggles, but it runs so badly.

Loved King's Bounty for Genesis .Which brought my attention to HOMM1 & 3, but I sucked at them.

[Anonymous No.5601453]

>>5601310
The AI turns are very slow in Warlords 3 sadly, compared to homm1-3.
In homm the AI turns are like instant as long as you don't see what they're doing, but in warlords they move around in the same pace as you set them to.
I was trying to use cheat engine a couple of months ago to see if I could speed the process up, but no dice.
Also the game doesn't run if it is minimized, so you can't alt tab between turns. My solution when I last played it was to play it in virtualbox, that way it could think it wasn't minimized, since it was the active window in that virtualbox.
I think w1-3 were the same, but I'm not sure, haven't played w2 in 3 years I think.
Also beyond the slow AI turns, the game turns into more of a slog compared to other turn based strategy games I think, because of the vast amount of armies that you move around. in homm everything is so condensed to your heroes, in civilization you can have a lot of units sure, but the units don't move that far, and you can use the numpad to move them around quickly, and the army movements get overshadowed by the economic development of infrastructure.
While in warlords it's mostly just your army management and some questing. I love warlords 2-3 though, only played a bit of warlords 1, hated warlords 4.

>>5601357
After I had my 13 spellbooks and 6 retorts I didn't feel as motivated to clear all the ruins. I did prolong it way more than I needed too and I should've had a sharper spike going up if I didn't insist on razing so many cities because they're "in the wrong spot" even though I knew I wasn't gonna play long enough to actually rebuild the cities in the right spots.

I think I got up to like 1100 invested power in Casting Skill per turn at the end, and a casting skill of like 250(with hero assistance).

[Anonymous No.5601461]

>>5601450
I've enjoyed playing a bit of freeciv multiplayer, but last I played it singleplayer I realized that the resources disappear when you change the terrain, that bothered me enough that I quit on the spot. I mean it makes sense that parrots don't become grain or whatever, but I'm just too used to have it functions in civ2 that I couldn't handle it.

I'm okay with civ2s battle system, but it feels like a long siege wherever you fight because of the heavy defensive bonuses.

[Anonymous No.5601638]

>>5601015
>Castle of Siege: Road to the Lionheart
Are you sure that game exists? I can't find it on Google.

[Anonymous No.5602015]

>>5601453
I remember IV being way to broken. I think I played Undead and killed everything and everybody with tier 1 units. But I can't remember exactly.

I kinda have the itch to play Darklords Rising now, where would I get it? It's not on GOG? Is Pirate the only option? Does Steve Fawker hate money?

[Anonymous No.5602025]

>>5602015
>Does Steve Fawker hate money?

I think Steve isn't in control of the IP anymore and isn't receiving money from it, so he can't put it on GoG/Steam and doesn't care if you pirate it.

[Anonymous No.5602036]

>>5601450
>Tried to Play Civ1 for SNES for shits n giggles, but it runs so badly.
Civ 1 for DOS is ultimate comfy. DOSBox is really great to run it.

[Anonymous No.5602124]

>>5602036
Are Warlords and Warlords: Battlecry two different franchises, legally speaking? Who owns them now? I checked out Infinity plus 2, apparently the successor to Infinity interactive, they're creating some puzzle games and similar, but they still fairly often mention Warlords on their twitter. Is Steve with them?

[Anonymous No.5602161]

>>5602015
I'm tired and lazy so I just copy and paste a short guide I posted on /v/ in january:

Get VirtualBox
Get the an image file for an older operative system, like XP
set up a virtual pc in virtualbox and install XP there
install guest additions on that virtual pc and make a folder that is shared with your main os and the virtual pc
install warlords 3 darklords rising within the virtual pc
>
Now you have two options
You can move the installed folder into the shared folder, and then from there move it over to your main OS. Then you can play it.
There's an issue, and that's that the AI turns are long and the game will pause when you alt tab.
So instead play it within the virtual pc, since then the game can remain the active window and I can shitpost while the AI do their turns.

Also consider the 1.02 patch, and remember to add -wincursor to the filepath so the game doesn't freeze after a turn.


Banewars Campaign and the Drak-Dum campaigns are the only good campaigns.


https://www.myabandonware.com/game/warlords-iii-darklords-rising-a02
http://www.warlorders.com/warlords3-dlr/downloads
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

[Anonymous No.5602284]

Nice idea OP. This is supposed to be a fucking imageboard, after all. Here's the map of my full-blown fame farming autism

>>5601170
>How could you tell my game was modded?
looking at it carefully, I guess there is a city in the arctic whose catchment area goes off screen, which is not allowed in 1.31... you also won't get new mineral deposits from dead volcanoes, since it wasn't implemented properly

[Anonymous No.5602305]

>>5602284
sweet, no cursors too
>dem volcanos
nice bridges too, I've read about the trick to make them, but I've never attempted them before.

>you also won't get new mineral deposits from dead volcanoes, since it wasn't implemented properly
Yeah I read that they actually added the new mineral, before the volcano itself removed the resources on the tile, so any potentially new minerals would just get instadeleted.
This was the first time I've actually had any new minerals spawn, I remember trying to get them to spawn before when I played on 1.3.

That's 1.31 right?
1.40 or 1.50 removed lakes since they messed with the AI, and made it so towers of wizardry didn't spawn on too small islands iirc.

How much fame are you up to?
I was reading about score yesterday and read that farming fame was the best way of increasing your score since its cap is way way higher than the other score sources.

Here are just the maps from 3 years earlier of my game.

[Anonymous No.5602312]

>>5602305
sharee killed ariel really early

[Anonymous No.5602415]

Age of wonders: warhammer factions, great music, great art, leaders can level up and learn skills, you can upgrade towns, magic is actually powerful.

[Anonymous No.5604142]

[Anonymous No.5604510]

does Age of Wonders count?

[Anonymous No.5604521]

>>5602415
>Age of wonders: warhammer factions
Is this some kind of mod? I can't find anything on it

[Anonymous No.5604561]

>>5602305
>removed lakes since they messed with the AI
please elaborate

[Anonymous No.5604570]

>>5600695

Gemfire and Dark Wizard

[Anonymous No.5604606]

>>5601170
Why 1.50? Isn't there already a 1.51?

[Anonymous No.5604892]

>>5604561
>The generated terrain cannot contain closed water bodies cut off from sea, in other words there are no lakes. Lakes are impossible to handle for the AI and cause them to be unable to properly use ships to transport armies. (480)
There are 5 proper lakes there I think: >>5602284
maybe more depending on how diagonal water movement works
Kali even summoned a floating island for a 2 tile lake

[Anonymous No.5604917]

This was a pack of mods for Civ 2. Some were just retooled Civ games, but there was an XCOM one where the mechanics changed and it was more like high level strategy XCOM.

There was a cool Midgar one too and one where the US invaded Iraq to take out Saddam with laser tanks in 2020.

[Anonymous No.5605219]

>>5604917
I need to try that one day.
I think I have a brief memory seeing it at a friends place in the 90s, but I'm not sure.

I've played a ton of civ2, but the only scenarios I've played were the alien invansion, rome and ww2.
Rome & ww2 were in the standard civ I think.
Alien invasion was in some other pack, had a few other scenarios, but they seemed very meh.
Played invasion a few years ago and it was pretty fun. As aliens it was way too easy iirc, but as any of the human civs it was pretty fun and interesting.
Judging from my screenshots I seem to have needed nukes in the end because of the op alien units.

[Anonymous No.5605248]

>>5602305
Thanks. It's a game I have been playing for a few minutes here and there for several years. Haven't touched it in a while so perhaps I will. Around 1150 fames so far...

>>5604917
Loved the cd soundtrack for Fantastic Worlds

>>5601453
The cd soundtrack for warlords3 was more hilarious than good, but I liked them, too.

[Anonymous No.5605286]

>>5605248
>The cd soundtrack for warlords3 was more hilarious than good, but I liked them, too.
I don't think warlords 3 soundtrack is so bad,.
Warlords 2 though had one cancerous fucking tune. When you finished a quest it started playing until you ended your turn, it was so annoying I sometimes rushed the turn just to end it asap.

[Anonymous No.5605440]

>>5605286
The war3 one had this glorious corniness. Bells, drumrolls, and holy synthesizer choirs. Barely qualified as music but was great to listen to anyway.

[Anonymous No.5607382]

Is that an Air Elemental?
This is a fan-made mod, right?
Is it allowed to summon Air Elementals outside combats?

[Anonymous No.5607560]

These days I bounce between MoM and PG2. I'd probably play MoM more often if the early game wasn't so slow.

[Anonymous No.5607843]

>>5607560
If you like MoM & PG2, you should play Fantasy General.

[Anonymous No.5607850]

>>5607382
>Is it allowed to summon Air Elementals outside combats?
You could probably use word of recall during combat(that you lose) to get air elementals on the world map

[Anonymous No.5607937]

>>5607850
Yeah that's what I did.

WoR the air elemental, and then everyone else, in order to lose the combat, and the air elemental will persist

[Anonymous No.5607945]

>>5607937
is it permanent (not unsummon after next combats)?

[Anonymous No.5607986]

>>5604510
Its copy pasted MOM with furryshit so kinda

[Anonymous No.5608087]

>>5607986
only question is if aow2 is old timey enough yet
aow1 is old timey enough

[Anonymous No.5608209]

>>5607945
Taking it into combat later on will not unsummon it, no. And it has normal turn-by-turn maintenance costs.

It's possible that 1.4 or 1.5 fixed this unintentional "feature" of the summons, I wouldn't know, I generally don't do mods.

[Anonymous No.5608224]

>>5608209
show demigod black knight

[Anonymous No.5608398]

>>5601310
>>5601453

I recently installed Warlords IV. I supposed the last one was the best, I am wrong?

[Anonymous No.5608415]

>>5608224
roland > mortu

[Anonymous No.5608427]

>>5604510

What is the best Age of Wonders?

[Anonymous No.5608438]

>>5608398
>I am wrong?
Yes

[Anonymous No.5608449]

>>5608415
I don't know, the constitution gives some nice safety for things like catapults and giants. Craftable wraithform items is also nice.

Torin+Roland+Elana > Mortu+Ravashack though

[Anonymous No.5608486]

>>5608449
torin the chosen is based hero ebah

[Anonymous No.5608494]

>>5608486
I don't know.
I might rank mortu and roland above him because of their first strike.

[Anonymous No.5608508]

>>5608224
More than you ever needed to know about Mortu.png

[Anonymous No.5608515]

>>5608508
>Item with no name
Did you artifice those items or did you edit the item names from the item editor?
What the hell is Maxwell House Instant Cafe?

[Anonymous No.5608537]

>>5608515
Artificed. No use itemmake. Maxwell House Instant Cafe is a misc item for the misc slot. I am very satisfied with the product.

There is a rumor going around that itemmake is responsible for the bug systematically restricting which of the preset items you can find in treasure, be careful with it.

[Anonymous No.5608540]

>>5608508
>>5600695
heh, identical armor, even the icon

[Anonymous No.5608568]

Man I really need to get back into playing this, it's just so hard not to be a cheap bitch and stop myself from doing an 11 book run, I think I'm actually fucking terrible at the game when I'm not spamming wraiths or some other baby strat.

[Anonymous No.5608572]

>>5608540
oh shit naga

[Anonymous No.5608596]

>>5608568
AI gets such insane boosts on impossible, not sure I can win without a baby strat there.
Maybe on a small land size world. I think I was close once a few years ago, had a garbage build of a mix of nature/chaos, for the raise volcano+change terrain dream, high elves. All the other arcanus wizards swarmed my island because I made too many cities though(like 4), so I was pushed into 1-2 cities for a long time before I was able to push out with elven lords.
I conquered my island and I was on my way to a wizard tower on another island to get to myrror, because myrran kali with dark elves started the spell of mastery.
Didn't get there in time.

[Anonymous No.5608784]

>>5600695
how does one get into MoM anons?

[Anonymous No.5608809]

>>5608784
It's not up on abandonware, but if you know torrents you can just get it there.
Otherwise buy on gog.

I'd play on official 1.31 at first.
Then maybe try insecticide, or 1.50 later on.

Then just start a game and customize your own wizard, or pick one of the presets.
I suggest normal difficulty for your first time.

Experimentation is fun in MoM, but if you want some babby strats I can tell you some.
The Wiki is pretty good.

[Anonymous No.5609416]

>>5608784
>>5608809
I'd mention that the original game came with a 150 page manual. Some of the details might not match up with the game especially for 1.31, but there's a lot of reference material there like upgrade charts, race comparison charts, and spell lists. There are descriptions of all the game mechanics.

I haven't used it in years but I know when I first played the game I read it through several times. I have no idea how much of a difference that made in my appreciation of the game.

[Anonymous No.5610778]

>>5608809
>>5609416
Thanks for all the tips anons!

[Anonymous No.5610795]

I wish there was a map editor for MoM

[Anonymous No.5610863]

>>5609416
There's also an official strategy guide. Was published by Prima. More game mechanic details are explained in the guide. You can find both in the net.

[Anonymous No.5610867]

>>5610795
There is. But it's for 1.31 only. You can edit the wizards, the spellbooks and the map. You can modify special resources on the map (like adding adamantiums on arcanus).

[Anonymous No.5612130]

>rare event fairly early on

[Anonymous No.5612134]

>>5610867
i mean, like fixed maps to play.

[Anonymous No.5612147]

>>5612130
>gift drom a god
noice

[Anonymous No.5612187]

Started with Planar buff and Incarnation.
Got Shuri and Torin buffed with it so they've started moving around on Myrror.

[Anonymous No.5612192]

What are some retro TBS with great singleplayer?

[Anonymous No.5612202]

>>5612192
heroes of might and magic 2,3, disciples 1&2, civilization series, master of orion 1&2, master of magic, x-com, jagged alliance 1&2, age of wonders series. I might be missing some

[Anonymous No.5612204]

>>5612192
I think most of the great ones also have great singleplayer. Of the ones that come to my mind I think only Warlords 1 is lacking in singleplayer, I'd only play that multiplayer at this point.

Warlords 2 Deluxe, Warlords 3 Darklords Rising
Homm2, Homm3
Homm1 I suppose, but I think homm2 makes it redundant, while I don't think the same goes for homm3 & homm2.
Civ2, Master of Magic, Age of Wonders.

[Anonymous No.5612226]

>>5612192
>>5612202
>>5612204
i like the idea but LoM sucks.
it's very unbalanced.
great music, especially Order theme.

[Anonymous No.5612245]

>>5612192
>>5612202
>>5612204

[Anonymous No.5612636]

ASSIMILATE

[Anonymous No.5612676]

>>5612636
That's beautiful.

Also I thought civ1 only had random maps.

[Anonymous No.5612884]

>>5612204

What´s the problem with Warlords IV?

[Anonymous ~ No.5615289]

>>5608784
>>5608809
Try to remember all the bugs in the game.
For official patch, check the wikia.
https://masterofmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Buggy_Features

For new bugs created by the insecticide fan patch, check the readme?

The "cause fear" bug is especially bad for some strong summons in melee combat. NEVER use any Fear equips and spells on your heroes.
https://masterofmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Cause_Fear#Known_Bugs

[Anonymous ~ No.5615303]

>>5612134
custom maps like in HOMM1? nope.

[Anonymous No.5616307]

>>5601170
I tried the insectizide, Caster of Magic and Aureus mod.
Did not like any of them, and prefer the original. The mods do have some good ideas, but since the AI is crazy stupid and cheating at the same time, the game is essentially around exploiting its imbalances. Love going full chaos or full sorcery.

[Anonymous No.5616401]

>>5612676
Only Earth map. There are map editors out there, and even scenarios, like WW2 in Europe.
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/may-2008-gotm-world-war-two-europe.276242/

[Anonymous No.5616637]

>>5616307
Caster of Magic's AI is smarter than vanilla. Most cheap tricks I used didn't work.

[Anonymous No.5616651]

>>5616401
>Civ 1 WW2 map
Noice.

[Anonymous No.5616673]

>>5616307
Never heard of Aureus.
Caster of Magic changes too much stuff so I haven't tried it, it's a mod in the true sense and not just an attempt at a patch.
Insecticide barely changes anything other than some bug fixes, and improved ai.

>but since the AI is crazy stupid and cheating at the same time, the game is essentially around exploiting its imbalances. Love going full chaos or full sorcery.
Not really sure what you mean, going full into anything is exploiting its imbalances. And you don't need to do that below impossible difficulty.

[Anonymous No.5616702]

>>5616673
>Not really sure what you mean, going full into anything is exploiting its imbalances. And you don't need to do that below impossible difficulty.

yeah its not only about playing on impossible though. It is the awesome combinations of overland enchantments that break the game somewhat but are only really achievable by going fully into one realm. Which makes the early game difficult. Aureus mod and Caster tried to make the game much more balanced, removing very powerful spells etc. Unfortunately this make a game last forever and given the insane amount of micromanagement required, ends up not being fun at all. Unless you have sever autism maybe.

[Anonymous No.5616721]

>>5616702
>yeah its not only about playing on impossible though.
And if you play on hard and lower you don't need to exploit its imbalances.

>It is the awesome combinations of overland enchantments that break the game somewhat but are only really achievable by going fully into one realm.
That's not true.
Going fully into one realm lets you start with 1 rare spell giving you big tempo.
You'll still get a bunch of rare and even very rare spells going way lower than that. Your complaints aren't coherent.

[Anonymous No.5616795]

>>5616721
I have never looked at it in such detail desu. I thought one needs at least 12 books of one realm to get all spells. Except for the full Black magic exploit using wraths, I dont find the other ones to be terrible exploitative. But whatever, that still doesn't make me like those mods. Although I liked those Beetles in the aureus mod. They had digging ability like the worms.

[Anonymous No.5616804]

>>5616795
What part of insecticide don't you like?

[Anonymous No.5617037]

>>5616804
I don't remember. Maybe I even confuse insectizide with the original version, which I got from GOG. I really love the combat system in these games, also in Master of Orion. Way superior than fx Civilization.

[Anonymous No.5618439]

[Anonymous No.5618502]

>>5615303
sad bois

[Anonymous ~ No.5619215]

>>5616673
>below impossible difficulty.
Only time I beat impossible was when I got lucky with an early game summon with 13 green books(used mod that changed the stats of pre-made mages), and destroyed a poorly defended tower while most of the enemy mage's stronger were outside of the town.

[Anonymous ~ No.5619218]

>>5619215
>while most of the enemy mage's stronger UNITS were outside of the town.

[Anonymous No.5619294]

>>5607986
>buddy says go play Age of Wonders it's the exact same as that Master of Magic game I'm always talking about
>play it
>it's shit
No, go away.

[Anonymous No.5619357]

>>5619215
I've done it with 11 life, 11 death, 11 chaos, 11 nature, 11 sorcery and
artificier-runemaster when I have 5 sorcery(I believe magic immunity is required).
Tried with 4 sorcery for the craft combo once so I could start with archmage, but then they just nuked my heroes to death so I believe 5 sorc is required for impossible.

I think the problem with a lot of other non babby strats is that there's always a wizard that can get spell of mastery going before you're prepared to push out, or you just get overwhelmed by someone casting flamestrike 4 times each combat.

Tried a few weeks ago with something I thought was an easy babby strat
4 death, alchemy, infernal power, myrran as trolls, I did manage to rush down the other myrran wizard, but my autism perfection made my city expansion slower than it ought to me. I had one stack of black channeled shamans+a hero that I was moving around on arcanus with but I couldn't find Rjaks fortress in time.
Then Ariel blocked my way on arcanus with her warships, so I couldn't take the faster sea route, also she put up Life Force which stopped me from making more black channeled trolls, and then Rjak could attack me on myrror and use his Death spell on my non undead troll stacks.

[Anonymous No.5619361]

>>5619294
I think they're fine, but MoM is better.
I played aow1 and aow2 before MoM, aow2 used to be on my 3x3 but when I played MoM it got replaced.
Mostly the campaigns are good.

[Anonymous No.5619451]

>>5619361
mom: shadow magic is comfy.

But MoM never got surpassed imo

[Anonymous No.5619541]

>>5619451
They're lacking in economic development, and they have nothing on the wizard build startup of MoM either.
One thing I miss is larger battles from aow.

[Anonymous No.5619567]

>>5619361
I just got AoW3 (I know, not retro) because I heard it was a spiritual successor to MoM. Tutorial campaign main character is a stronk woman main character and story about an elven court or something. And it's a rogue, which is another major difference I notice. The flexible, open-ended (and fun) Wizard build system is replaced with a rigid class system. You pick one of 7 classes and that determines your entire ability set. I haven't played through a map yet so I may be missing something but it seems like a downgrade to me.

[Anonymous No.5619574]

>>5619567
Yeah a downgrade, as I said "but MoM is better".

I played a bit of aow1, then a ton of aow2, then I think I may have finished the campaign of aow1, but not sure and then I got into MoM.
When AoW3 came out I played the dreadnought campaign and I liked it, but not really the ending.
Then when I started up the elf campaign I quit in the first missions because they were talking about honorable orcs like it was some warcraft infested shit, and didn't seem like aow1-2 anymore.
Haven't played since, but will give it another go in the future. I think there are too many problems with the base mechanics, so there's no chance it can be better than MoM, but good enough for some variety.

>The flexible, open-ended (and fun) Wizard build system is replaced with a rigid class system.
Yeah aow games don't really have that from what I've seen.
aow2:sm tries giving some nuance to wizard creation, but fails and makes it worse than aow2.

[Anonymous ~ No.5619973]

>>5619215
And it was 12 green books. Typo. Though that extra green book didn't really help. Pure luck there.

[Anonymous ~ No.5619996]

>>5619541
I bought AoW games on GOG but never got about playing them. Sounds that the combat mechanic favors defensive tactics unless you overwhelm the enemy with numbers.

[Anonymous No.5620053]

>>5619574
>>5619541
yeah even back then I recognized that the battle system was probably the weakest aspect of the game. It's not bad but it's easy to imagine much more interesting and elaborate combat scenarios than was possible in MoM.

[Anonymous No.5620158]

>>5619996
>Sounds that the combat mechanic favors defensive tactics
AoW2 at least.
Holing up with 6-8 ranged units and 0-2 melee units(to block the gate when it breaks) in watchtowers or towns can go a long way.
In towns you can safely have 3 stacks defending a city and have them fight together iirc.

AoW1 my knowledge is a bit lacking.. I remember it favoring having 1 hero with lifesteal killing everything.
Since heroes in aow1 never get tired, and retaliate forever they could easily become immortal through just some atk+def and lifesteal.
In AoW2 a hero could be overwhelmed and run out of movement even if he was a god, at least giving the other side a chance.
In AoW3 it got worse and better, flanking and backstabs made you suffer more for getting exhausted, while in aow2 a hero could stand there and take it when they were tired while their movement recovered... unless you had a Warlord with a skill that made them retaliate forever, then you could get more op than in aow1.