HOMM "Complete"

HoMM5 Gold (base game plus 2 expansions) is available on your side of the pond (see photo in post 31), but not in North America. Right now, the base game goes for $30 and Tribes goes for $30. I haven't seen Hammers in a while, but the best price I saw on it was $20. Not gonna pay $80 for the game, so I keep waiting for Ubisoft to realize they never got around to putting a handful of Gold boxes on the QE2.

Dte, don't know if you're interested but my favorite Okie online gaming store has HommV for 13.99 (and TotE for $25)--personally, the expansions don't add all that much to the game imo, unless you want to play the Dwarf faction in Hammers of Fate. I thought the game play was less dumbed down in the original.(I can't remember why now, sorry--it's been a couple of years since I played the x-packs--just remember I liked the original best.)

I think I needed the expansion packs for the single map scenerios and random map generator. I believe the former was part of HoF and the latter was included with TotE. I haven't finished a HoMM campaign since vanilla HoMM2 (pre expansion), so the actual campaigns of the 3 boxes hold little interest for me. All the more reason why I'm too cheap to plunk down the money for 3 boxes.

Yeah, that's right. Ubi snuck the map editor onto the expansion.I enjoyed the campaigns and beat all of them, something I still haven't been able to do in HoMM3 but I understand where you're coming from. As a sidenote on the editor-- it's a lot harder to make your own maps(at least it was for me) in the 3D world of HoMMV. You can download some good homemade single scenarios at Celestial Heavens as well. (They review a lot of them so you can get some idea before you dl--I like grumpy old wizard's stuff.)

Did any of you have the original boxed copies of HOMM 3 and\or HOMM 4? I'm curious as to how worthwhile the booklets and maps\charts were that came with them. The compilation DVD version I purchased didn't include anything but the disc itself, and I was thinking of tracking down original copies of the games to get those extras. I really like the laminated charts for the first 2 games that were included in the HOMM Compendium.

I bought boxes for HoMM3 and the Armageddon's Blade expansion. There was a laminated critter chart in the HoMM3 box that was cool, but I don't know that I'd pay too much money just to get that. IIRC, that was the only "extra".

I also have the original Boxed versions. I was also stupid enough to pre-order HOMM 4. Anyway the orginal box of HOMM 3 contained a huge manual ( with some commericials in it ) with the heroes logo on the front page. It also contained a chart of all the critters like Dte said. As far as armorgaeddon blade goes, I do not think it contained anything special or memorable. So if you already have it all on DVD I do not really think you need to bother.

I'd love to buy this Homm Complete too. I've been playing H5 now for about 2 months. I really only like playing Haven, so I never got into the campaigns much. I just play all the maps out there single-player. I pretty much suck at strategy games so playing the computer on normal difficulty allows me to win all the time and playing on hard or higher allows me to lose all the time My favorite map is called Battle for Honour and it has standard and TotE versions. I've played several (almost all) maps and might finally be getting a little tired of it. I may try playing a different race, but none of the other races really grab me. I'm the type that saves before each battle and tries various strategies to see which will lose the least amount of troops.

Can someone tell me about Homm-4? It sounds like once you level a hero up quite a bit it would stop being a strategy game and instead become a crpg. If you have a tough hero, do you have to still build cities/armies?

RE:Armageddon's Blade--It also has a laminated fold-out card showing the Conflux build cycle and creature needs. Other than that, nothing special-just old fashioned detailed manuals--the one for HoMM3 is about 150 pages.

@crpgnut: I also found the Haven troops my favorites, but really, some of the H5 campaigns are a lot of fun and while challenging, they aren't nearly as hard as HoMM3 campaigns. Celestial Heavens has complete walkthrus if you get stuck. The main campaign has some interesting plot twists for a strat game.

And afa HoMMIV--it's not a bad game, just quite a bit different style with the playable heros--I don't think it really gets too crpg-like because there isn't a lot for your hero to interact with except stacks and armies with opposing heros--no dialogue or quests per se, though the campaigns are quite a bit more detailed and even wordy at times. It has it's fun points, but I've never gotten really into it as I have with the other HoMMs.

Damn, I wish there was a way to get my hands on those charts without actually buying the games. There seems to be a lot more creatures\items\spells in HOMM 3&4, it's going to be a pain to constantly have to look at a pdf manual or go online to view the build ladders and spell lists.

Guess I could just print them out… athough it's not the same as having the shiny originals….

My HOMM Complete edition is on the way to me. In the meantime I would like to know if this collection includes all patches for all games and add-ons? Are they already incorporated in the install, are they in the separate directory or are they missing?
There are almost 20 patches to install if you would like to have all patched up to the latest version so it would be great if they are already included. Guess I will have to download and burn them up on a separate dvd if they are not.

Thanks

Dark Savant, as you know those of us in the US haven't seen a breath of this compilation HOWEVER thru the wonders of the internet, I googled up a thread where someone who bought it in Bucharest decided to do images and descriptions of every disk --you seem to get the idea all the games are patched but it's hard to tell; scroll down to the post where he starts talking about the game disks and there's this:

Contains:

Heroes of Might and Magic IV Complete (Original Game + The Gathering Storm + Winds of War)
Game Patches
Game Manuals

The earlier games are all listed as "Complete" so whatever that means…it sounds like at least there's plenty of documentation anyway. Maybe someone in Europe who's actually got the collection would know.

I have it, and there are no separate folders for patches, so I guess any patches are incorporated in the install. It's sort of hard figuring out which versions it includes though, because of all the "gold" and "complete" stuff, but here are the version numbers I found in the readmes and executables:

- Heroes 1 - 1.0
- Heroes 2 - is just listed as "Heroes 2 Gold"
- Heroes 3 - has the version number "Complete 4.0", which is fairly useless. I don't really know which version of "Shadow of Death" it has.
- Heroes 4 - says it has the improvements from patch 2.2 and 3.0 - should be fully patched
- Heroes 5 - installs 1.5 - looks like there is a 1.6 patch, don't know why it's not included, maybe it was released after HOMM Complete
- Heroes 5 - Hammer of Fate - 2.1 - fully patched
- heroes 5 - Tribes of the East - 3.0 - 3.1 exists

Guess I`ll have to wait and see for myself. It is strange as it seems some parts are fully patched and some are not. As far as I know these are the latest versions:

Heroes of Might and Magic I - v1.2
Heroes of Might and Magic II - v1.3
Heroes of Might and Magic II The Price of Loyalty - v2.1
Heroes of Might and Magic III - v1.4
Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade - v2.2
Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Shadow of Death - v3.2
Heroes of Might and Magic IV - v3.0
Heroes of Might and Magic IV: The Gathering Storm - v3.0
Heroes of Might and Magic IV: Winds of War - v3.0
Heroes of Might and Magic V - v1.6
Heroes of Might and Magic V: Hammers of Fate - v2.1
Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East - 3.1

What is really annoying - you can`t get many of them patched up with a single patch so you must use several patches for some games to be fully patched.

Originally Posted by magerette
<snip>
And afa HoMMIV--it's not a bad game, just quite a bit different style with the playable heros--I don't think it really gets too crpg-like because there isn't a lot for your hero to interact with except stacks and armies with opposing heros--no dialogue or quests per se, though the campaigns are quite a bit more detailed and even wordy at times. It has it's fun points, but I've never gotten really into it as I have with the other HoMMs.

I must say I totally disagree. HoMM IV is indeed a very bad game (I guess unless you play it with other players). The AI in that game is less than bad … is G.W.Bush bad. You could see the enemy's armies go back and forth doing nothing, leaving towns empty all the time, etc. For a strategy game, when the AI strategy is non-existent, well, the game just can't work.
HoMM 3 and 5 on the other hand are much better. 3 has the best AI if I remember correctly (haven't played it in many years), and 5 is also good, and the stories are more scripted, if you like that (in HoMM 3 it was just text between missions).

Originally Posted by wolfing
I must say I totally disagree. HoMM IV is indeed a very bad game (I guess unless you play it with other players). The AI in that game is less than bad … is G.W.Bush bad. You could see the enemy's armies go back and forth doing nothing, leaving towns empty all the time, etc. For a strategy game, when the AI strategy is non-existent, well, the game just can't work.
HoMM 3 and 5 on the other hand are much better. 3 has the best AI if I remember correctly (haven't played it in many years), and 5 is also good, and the stories are more scripted, if you like that (in HoMM 3 it was just text between missions).

As I said, i didn't get all that into HoMMIV and it's been years since I played it. I know that I got some enjoyment out of it--I seem to remember there being a pirate campaign I liked--but over-all the game never grabbed me. I agree on your observations of 3 & 5. The worst thing about 5 for me was getting used to the camera--I think King's Bounty did a way better job with their 3D implementation.

I've seen it yesterday for 29 Euros on the Internationale Spieletage.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough money, but I'm planning to buy it for myself as a birthday present anyway. I assume it's still available in localö Gamestop shops (it was, at least a few months ago.)

On the other hand, I bought a booster of what's called an "Heroes Of Might & Magic IV Collectible Card & Tile Game". I didn't know that this existed.

The link on the the back of one "terrain card" leads to this : site : www.dgagames.com

There I indeed found something :

http://www.dgagames.com/HMM/HMM.html
http://www.dgagames.com/HMM/HMM5.html

Interesting. I never knew that.

Necromantic Alrik?

HoMM is the best turn based strategy game series. HoMM 3 especially has a warm spot in my heart.

The weakest thing about HoMM is its AI. HoMM 5 would have been an excellent game if the AI was challenging without cheating.

Even more thread necromancy !

I bought a specimen for myself today as a belated birthday present to me.

I haven't unpacked it yet … Will do so now …

Edit : They have used non-standard boxes for the CDs/DVDs … These don't have the inner … what is it called ? the thing which normally goes through the hole of CDs in normal cases is missing. It's just not there. Instead, the CDS & DVDs are held in place by some sort of brackets (?) at the border of these … I just call them "plastic inlays" … Don't know a better word for it …

This non-standard thing makes the CDS & the DVDs go loose very easily. And I do hate scratches on them …

I would still love to see this released in NA.