Finished HOF... thoughts (AND SPOILERS)

[winterfate]

Um, I was wondering: Is it possible to beat Laszlo's army with brute force (units only)? During my playthrough, I had to resort to Armageddon (and btw, it was the closest victory ever...I had one wounded Magma Dragon left after all was said and done ). It seems his army is made to dwarf (pun intended) yours...greatly. He has like 10 to 1 odds.

Right now, I'm at Campaign 3 Mission 3 and I must say...someone at Nival ADORES urgency (that second level was insane...reach the garrison in two weeks...ok, done. Reach the second garrison in 3 weeks ...ooook, done! Reach the final frontier garrison in 4 weeks... ).

Thank God that in mission 2 there's no final hero fight .

Haha,nice one winterfate!

Thank you, Elvin!

[Gaidal Cain]

Um, I was wondering: Is it possible to beat Laszlo's army with brute force (units only)?

Yup. The only time I used the dracageddon were on the 4:th map, when trying to reach Duncan.

[winterfate]

Wohoooo! I finished the expansion pack campaigns. I must say I liked them a lot more than the ones for the original.

*spoiler alert*

(even though in C3M3 I didn't reach the Dragon Hideout in time and Raelag had to fight an army 10 times his own; against Thralsai).

I can't believe how seamless Biara's new plan was (the good guys beat each other up and the bad guys retreat with an army). I only hope that Zehir and Findan come back for the next one (Zehir for nostalgia and Findan cause he's Sylvan ).

*end spoiler alert*

[HodgePodge]

… I only hope that Zehir and Findan come back for the next one (Zehir for nostalgia and Findan cause he's Sylvan ).

Me too. The absence of the Sylvan in HoF Campaign was the most disappointing part of HoF. I hope the Sylvan (& Findan) returns in the next expansion.

[winterfate]

Me too. The absence of the Sylvan in HoF Campaign was the most disappointing part of HoF. I hope the Sylvan (& Findan) returns in the next expansion.

I agree! . I've played the Elves consistently since 3 (I would say 2 but I played Knight/Sorceress 50/50 back then), and I adore them! Master Hunters have to be the most broken level 3 unit in Heroes of Might and Magic history (in general).

Seeing how the campaigns ended this time, I think this is how the order for the next expansion will be:

1. Dungeon (Raelag and the Free Cities)
2. Haven (Isabel and Freyda)
3. Mixed (we'll see!)

If it works EXACTLY like this...I hope the mixed campaign has lots of Sylvan (and a pinch of Academy...for balance ). In the end though, we'll have to see.

[Gaidal Cain]

Err, you do know that the story about the Demon Messiah is continued in DMoMM, right?

[Mytical]

Only some of us (like me) do not particularly like the style of DMoMM. I have never been a big fan of fprpg. That is just me however. So no DMoMM for me. I prefer games like Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, Diablo (either), and such. Or stategy games like Warcraft (any), Civ, MoO (2 only), and such. Can't forget heroes (even 5 has a lot of potential still).

[Gaidal Cain]

Yes, but it still means that you won't get the continued story in any heroes expansion...

[addicted]

I recently got HOF and have been playing it thru the xmas holiday (in the 2nd campaign).. So far I have been really enjoying the expansion and think it is a great improvement to the H-5 original. I hope they come out with another expansion soon...

[Elvin]

Yes, but it still means that you won't get the continued story in any heroes expansion...

Three cheers for wikipedia

[lotusreaver]

Glad you guys enjoyed the snarky story summary.

I'd have to say that in terms of gameplay, I had the most difficulty with the final chapter of the Dwarven campaign (Laszlo). Pretty much every one of my failures ended the same way. Basically, Wulfstan would have all the best units. However, they'd only be tough enough to defeat Laszlo with the extra support of a moat, towers, and walls. In other words, I had to wait for Laszlo to invade Tor Hrall to stand a chance.

Problem is, Laszlo would always go after Duncan. And since you can't have two armies in a castle, Duncan would wander around the snowfields, get chased down, and be utterly crushed. "Game over."

My two options were: (1) Leave Tor Hrall with Wulfstan and chase after Laszlo. If I did that, Laszlo would defeat Wulfstan every time. (2) Stay in Tor Hrall and wait for Laszlo to invade. Then, defeat Laszlo with the extra aid of the Fortress.

I ultimately finished the chapter with a little bit of luck. It just so happened that during one of the restarts, Laszlo finally lost interest in chasing poor Duncan and went for Wulfstan instead. Then, I finished him off in Tor Hrall. Yeah...

[Elvin]

I was lucky enough to get armageddon and ignite early in the campaign and that alone weakened Laszlo greatly.Ignite killed quite a few of my troops but I had firedragons

[lotusreaver]

Lucky you, hehe. Armageddon certainly would have made things much easier.

Another impression I had upon playing this game is how much I missed the novel-length text that appeared in the original Heroes IV campaign. Not only was it especially well written, but it also brought depth to the characters in a way that (beating a dead horse here) in-game cinematics can't.

A nice way to incorporate both story and pizzaz would have been to integrate shorter and less repetitive cinematics into crucial moments of each chapter (capturing a key castle, defeating a hero, etc.) while retaining the novel-length text at the beginning of that chapter.

But I do have to give Ubi and Nival some credit. At least this expansion tied in with the story of the original campaign. It would've been terrible if we were stuck with another Spazz Maticus.

[Elvin]

The H4 texts I found exceptional.Tawni Balfour,Gauldoth and Emilia stories were a good read but I doubt Nival has that artistic touch that storytelling requires.H3 had interesting stories on artifacts and leprechaun gardens(:)).It had a certain magic feeling that now seems hollow,a thing of the past.

[Mytical]

Well Duncan should have town portal, I led poor lazlo arround by the nose with duncan, built up my town army (lazlo's units no longer grow as much if at all when he is on your side of the garrison) until they had enough to thrash lazlo and just stomped him into the ground . Take Duncan to the left of your town for about 2 days then wait till laz is within range to get him next round, town portal, wait a day (as now lazlo needs to get back to your town, and take duncan to the right...rinse/repeat. You never run out of mana, you don't have to fear lazlo (he can never catch you) and meanwhile your army is growing by leaps and bounds. If he attacks your town instead of Duncan all the better .

[FreshHope]

After some trials, i discovered a 'deep secret' to Laszlo's planned downfall. From the start of the map, he is stopped by a legion of phoenixes (in heroic diff). That is what held him there until something is triggered, in which will remove the legion of phoenixes, thereby freeing him to chase after Duncan (and Wulfstan). These are the 3 triggers :

1) Attack the Dwarven Treasury on the NW region;
2) Touch the Library of Enlightenment on the east zone;
3) Defeat the garrison troops.

Any of these 3 when activated will trigger a script to remove the legion of phoenixes. Hope these will help

[Marzhin]

I think Laszlo goes after the nearest hero. For instance he started chasing Duncan, but I approached my Wulfstan a bit and he went for Wulf instead. I just had to lure him to Tor Hrall for the final battle.

As a side note, my father was watching while I was playing this battle (he's a huge Heroes fan too) and commented : "That's the closest victory I ever saw !" Then we watched the cutscene and he understood nothing to what was happening

[lotusreaver]

After some trials, i discovered a 'deep secret' to Laszlo's planned downfall.

Excellent find, FH!

[Metal Wolf]

So, I finished HOF yesterday and I enjoyed it a lot, that and HeroesV in general are my favorite HOMM titles after Heroes2...

Despite their flaws (many odd and unexplained events), the cutscenes of HOF were WAY better and more interesting than the original H5 IMO... I mean, no heroes who just wave around their staves/swords but actual "action" and plot development (they still have work to do about it, though). Some parts even amused me and made me laugh (Wulftsan,Duncan)... if the next exp. pack's cutscenes will be better than HOF's cutscenes to the extent of HOF's cutscenes superiority to the original H5's, we may recieve something which is truely excellent!

However, I was dissapointed that there was no cinematic ending movie or even a better game-engine based movie like we had on special occasions (Nicolais's death, Agrael fighting an Inferno hero,Nicolai's turning into a vamp, ect.) but a simple cutscene...

In conclusion, I had fun and it was more than worth it, as soon as a patch comes out I'll play some scenarios since I definately want to taste more of this game...

[Elvin]

That's how I felt too. The ending should always have a good cinematic but it was a nice experience nontheless.