Heroes of Might and Magic Download (1996 Strategy Game)

Heroes of Might and Magic is an intriguing blend of role-playing, strategy, and conquest. You play a general, fighting up to three human or computer opponents, warring for the resources and magic that make up the strange lands you live in.

While you take care of affairs in your castle, your hero-generals roam the lands fighting monsters and taking control of assets in your name. They will also fight against enemy generals and learn to cast spells that can harm your enemies or help your forces win combat.

The color of your standard--red, blue, green or yellow--determines the type of troops your castle can raise and maintain. You start off with two basic types of troops, and add to your defenses and the armies of your heroes by buying structures for your castle. A Den, for example, produces wolves, and a meadow produces unicorns. Only one type of structure can be raised per day. Some require more than gold, such as another type of structure or some valuable commodity like gems, mercury, wood, ore, crystal, or sulfur. While you cannot produce these on your own, you can capture mines, sawmills, and alchemist shops that will produce them for you.

But you are not alone in this land. Up to 3 other opponents, computer or human, share the island with you and are competing for the same resources. In addition, there are hordes of lesser foes scattered across the land, some who may decide to join your hero's forces, and others who will battle with him to the death--his or theirs. There are also some commodities scattered around the land free for the taking, provided you get to them first. And each other player will have a castle and general of their own.

You can set the color of your own standard, and the intelligence level of your opponents, from dunce to genius. As you do, the difficulty factor of the scenario decreases or increases, forming a multiplier that is used to calculate your final score.

Games can be played in standard or campaign mode and with between one and four players. Campaign mode is a series of linked scenarios. As soon as you successfully complete one, you are introduced to the next. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to keep your forces from the earlier scenario.

Combat in Heroes of Might and Magic is turn-based, showing your forces and your enemy's ranged against each other on the field of battle. You can move and attack with ease by merely pointing and clicking with the mouse, or have the computer run the battle in auto mode.

Whatever your feeling on strategy games, Heroes of Might and Magic is definitely different than anything you might already have played. Give this one a try.

Graphics: Graphics are nice and clear. Even the battles are not too bloody, but show forces exploding in a shower of blood when the last of that kind is defeated. Despite this, it has an almost cartoonish feel that will offend no one.

Sound: Sounds are especially clear, and many of the monsters can be distinguished from each other by their sound.

Enjoyment: This game is very enjoyable and fun to learn.

Replay Value: Variations are endless, as are the possibilities for replay.

Heroes of Might and Magic is a turn-based strategy game in which the player takes on the role of one of four different heroes: the warlock, sorceress, barbarian, or knight. As the hero the player must build up his or her castle by adding different buildings to earn different units to strengthen the hero's army with. Units include dragons, cyclopes, phoenixes, paladins, and many more fantasy creatures. Bulidings and units cost money and resources. Buildings can also be upgraded to unlock new unit types.

Another aspect of the game is exploring the world and discovering treasures, spells, mines to gather resources, nomad camps, magic lamps, ultimate artifacts, and more. The game uses a top down map in which the player can move his heroes a number of spaces each turn. Whenever the player encounters an enemy hero or castle a battle is shown in a close-up view.

During battles all the player's units are shown as stacks. The player can move these stacks around on a hexagonal grid. Different units have different movement and attack capabilities requiring different strategies to use and overcome.

The goal is to defeat all opponents by conquering their castles and defeating their heroes in battle. The player must also defend his own castles from enemy attacks. The player's heroes can collect spells to use in battle and can boost the units under their command, but they otherwise don't have a presence on the battlefields. The heroes collects experience points in typical RPG manner which boosts its stats. In addition items can be collected for additional bonuses.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

People who downloaded Heroes of Might and Magic have also downloaded:
Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Heroes of Might and Magic 2: Gold Edition, Heroes of Might and Magic II (Deluxe Edition), Heroes of Might and Magic 4, Heroes of Might and Magic V, Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings, Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans