how to play heroes of might and magic IV
Within the video game genres, many people adore turn-based strategy games. Turn-based strategy games require players to take turns to make decisions and take actions, and players enjoy the experiences of trying different tactics. Heroes of Might and Magic is a game series that is famous for the amount of combinations of many decisions. The series has a long history and has produced seven games so far. Many fans of the series would consider the third game as the best one for its gameplay design. However, the one that I like the most is the fourth. Because it is not only the game introduced me to the franchise but also the one I’m familiar with the most. So, Heroes of Might and Magic IV is the one I’ll introduce.
After you start the game, you’ll see the game menu. To play the game, what you have to do is to click on “New Game” and you’ll see two types of games to choose: scenarios and campaigns. A scenario gives you a short background story to what you’re going to play and contains only one game. A campaign gives you a complete story with several games to play. There are also six different alignments to play. Each of them offers different playstyles. Let’s try a scenario called “A Tale of Two Enemies.” This is a simple game. You start with a hero, a small army, and a town. You have one enemy controlled by the computer, having the same start as you do. You can also choose an alignment for yourself and the computer, deciding the type of hero and town on each side. Then, you click on “Begin”.
At the start of the game, you’ll find yourself on a map. You have to try to be stronger in order to defeat your enemy. To do this, you should explore the map and build up your town. On the map, you can see many things, such as resources to pick up, buildings with benefits to capture, and neutral enemies to fight with. To do all those things, you have to let your army get close. Every army can only move a certain amount of distance each turn. If your army can’t move anymore, you’ll just have to wait for until the next turn. Meanwhile, within your town, there are various buildings to construct. There are buildings that allow army recruiting, strengthen defenses, and many other uses. Buildings need resources to be built, and during every turn, you can only build one.
The two things above serve one purpose which is to help army recruiting. Armies are composed of two types of units, heroes and creatures. Heroes are individuals that are able to become stronger with each level they gain. Every time they gain a level, they can choose a skill. With different choices, a hero can be a beast in combat, cast powerful spells, or give benefits to the entire army. Creatures, on the other hand, can be seen as soldiers. There are many kinds of creatures. They can be divided into four tiers. Each tier is stronger than the previous tier. One main way to recruit creatures is to use buildings in towns. Each alignment has two types of creatures of each tier. Towns can have recruit both tier one creatures of their alignments but can only choose one with the rest of the tiers. Each army has seven slots. Each hero takes up one slot. Creatures of the same type can stack together and can also take up only one slot.
Once you have your army ready, you can then march on to your enemy. Once you’ve started a battle, both armies will enter a tactical map, having each army on the opposite side. Creatures and heroes take turns to move and attack depending on their speed. When everyone has finished their actions, the cycle restarts again. But if it’s a siege battle, there will be some advantages for the defenders. Let’s say the defender has built a castle in the town, which is the highest tier of defense and gives a wall, a gate, and some towers. The attacker will have to not only break through the gate but also deal with the towers, which can give whoever stands on them a massive defensive boast. When one army is completely eliminated, the battle will come to an end.
Knowing all the basics, you can now pursue the ultimate goal of this scenario which is to capture the enemy town. Every other scenario or campaign also has its own victory condition. Maybe now you can win a game in an easier setting. But in harder difficulties, you have understood more about the game: the type of creatures you should recruit, the skills you should choose for your heroes, or the spells you should use in combat. These things and many more are what you have to explore and try out if you wish to master the game.