These are 'top 5' map lists submitted by members of the map-making community. Lists are in descending order (ie favourite at the top). Not all of the maps have been reviewed so there is no "score" column.
Thomas Robenhagen
| Map Name | Map-Maker | Size | Version | Comment |
| A Wind of Thorns | Wimfrits | C | WoW | What is there possibly left to say about this campaign; it’s splendid! By far the most entertaining game of Homm 4 I’ve played so far. It’s exciting, humorous and beautiful decorated. If you haven’t played it, it’s a must! |
| The Science of Darkness | Rakne Fne | C | STD | Rakne Fne’s understanding of the game’s scripts and his great sense of humor makes this campaign excellent. It allows you to learn various additional skills for your hero, which can be combined in numerous ways. Along with this, the game changes; according to the skills you develop, you’ll be able to complete events in different ways. |
| My Brother’s Keeper | Psychobabble | M | TGS | An excellent ‘educational’ map. It’s extremely well balanced – forcing the player to use his skills and resources in the best possible way to complete it. Playing it taught me several new tactics, which were superior to the tactics I commonly used. In all, the map made me a better player. |
| Draconic (WoW) | Veldrynus | XL | STD | One of Veldrynus’ masterpieces, the map offers a nearly endless supply of good entertainment and great battles. Along with this, one of Veldrynus’ trademarks is his radical map designs; the decorations are used very creatively and is a delicacy to the eye. |
| The Economist | Rakne Fne | L | EQU | Yet another of Rakne Fne’s creations. Again, his extensive scripting system offers new and exciting experiences. The map is well balanced and the ‘lease-artifacts’-scripts offers much fun to the game. |
Wimfrits
Wimfrits' criterion for this list were: "playable (in terms of memory usage), decently balanced, practically bug-free, fun, innovative, challenging and living up to a more or less unique concept. I only found 4 that match this standard."
| Map Name | Map-Maker | Size | Version | Comment |
| The City | Ghostwriter | C | Most indulging story ever put into a HoMM map, perfectly adapted to player progress through a complex scripting system. Excellent challenge and many innovative and fun features. While playing, one can truly be sucked into another world. [Ed. Wimfrits has tested this nearly completed campaign and it will hopefully be publicly released - sometime]. | |
| Pirates L.T.D. | Ururuam Turuam | XL | STD | A completely out-of-the-ordinary map, providing a refreshing multiplayer experience. |
| The Hundred Years War | Rakne Fne | C | WoW | A really well balanced and pretty much constantly entertaining campaign with a genuine historical background. |
| My Brother’s Keeper | Psychobabble | M | TGS | A solid and tightly regulated RPG map, with a well-implemented hints and tips system. Also an excellent way for the inexperienced player to learn a trick or two. |
Charles Watkins
"Let me begin by saying that there are many, many maps I have enjoyed and the ones listed here are ones I thing deserve special recognition. The maps I like best are L/XL maps suited for solo play."
| Map Name | Map-Maker | Size | Version | Comment |
| The Menace | Bernhard Kiessling | L | WoW | Challenging but not overly difficult. Some amazing scripts. Humor. Many interesting locales. I'm always impressed to see a version number like 4.1. You get to amass a huge army, and trust me, you are going to need it. |
| Around the Calendar | Ururuam Turuam | L | WoW | Most imaginative premise and layout. Many interesting and well balanced battles. Ururum Tururum's best work, in my opinion. My first time through, I wandered around senselessly and soon fell 'behind the curve' and had to restart. Next time I knew what I was doing and coasted to victory. |
| Shadow of the Dragon | Qrystal Dragon | L | WoW | Best of the picture maps due to its sustained storyline. Enormous scope. One way to spot a good map is to check the size of the binary and this one comes in at a whopping 555K. Like a lot of XL+UG maps, you spend an awful lot of time marching to battle. By the end you are fabulously wealthy. |
| Water Wyrd | Qrystal | L | WoW | I had to include one of Qrystal's maps and this one is a particular favorite. As usual, it is has a lighthearted narrative, extensive scope, and many interesting features. The only problem is having to chase down all your opponents amongst a myriad of little islands -- gets a bit tedious at the end. And there's really no reward for finishing, so just play till you've had enough. |
| Strages | -Olorin- | L | STD | You probably won't see this on other lists, but I included it because of its nifty arrangements of landscape and adventure objects. I've always like maps where the maker has done more than just scatter objects and guards randomly around. These may not make sense, but they are fun to look at. Don't ask me what strages are. |
Veldrynus
| Map Name | Map-Maker | Size | Version | Comment |
| The Last Chance | Ansy | M | STD | I like RPG maps, especially if they are made so well like this one. The first version of this map was in russian, and it looked so well, that I got a rarely strong desire to play it, therefore I've sent an e-mail to the author asking about an english version. After this once came out, I didn't had the reason to be dissapointed in this masterpiece, it was a great fun to play it. The battles were from the begining to the end challenging, because unlike in the most RPG maps the main hero didn't became a superhero too soon. The decorations were also superbly done. There might be better maps than this, but The Last Chance is my actual number one. |
| The Pains of Glory | Joel Arbuckle | M | WoW | This is absolutely the best looking map I ever saw! The decorations look terrific, and the realism of the scenery is superb. Small lakes full with lillypads, partially frozen rivers with huge waterfalls, nice autumn and northern pine forrests, small villages, everything on this map is placed with care to the detail. The scenario is intended for multiplayer games, and it is very well balanced without placing the exaclty same resources and advenutre objects close to the different players. Unfortunately this map is no challenge is the single player mode, but it is still worth trying this well designed masterpiece. [Ed. This is a user made map which appeared on the Winds of War CD as part of the map conest] |
| Sunken Empires | Aczl | XL | STD | There are very few maps so full of details. The immense number of adventure objects, treasures and artifacts are amplifying the size of this two level XL map. The decorations are well done and very dense. Creating such a map without the Object Painter option of the H4 WoW editor is a tiresome and time consuming work. Respect to the author! For a long time this was my favourite map. |
| Angels are Back | Ururuam Tururam | XL | WoW | As far I can remember, this was the first map with a minimap created using Slava Salnikov's tool, the H4Util. The result is simply a beautiful XL picture map. The graphics of the map itself are sometimes a bit chaotic (thanks to the alternating terrain), but in overall okay. The best points of this map are: the main heroe's special ability to summon angels and, the good control over the difficulty. The only dissapointing feature of this map, is the long AI turn times. This map became maybe the most important source of motivation for me, to create such a nice picture map myself. |
| Planeswalker II | Thomas Robenhagen | C | WoW | Some time ago, I had the pleasure to playtest this 7 maps campaign made by Robenhagen. Originally inspired by the game Planescape: Torment, the campaign follows the journey and quest of the sword-archon Ramiel, trough the planes of Haven and Hell. The interesing story, good scripting and the unique atmosphere of the various scenarios, are making this work very enjoyable. The most innovative aspect of this campaign, is the usage of the black, void sections. I highly recommend it! |
Sarvi
| Map Name | Map-Maker | Size | Version |
| Taming the Brew | Qrystal | M | TGS |
| My Brother's Keeper | Psychobabble | M | TGS |
| The Menace | Bernhard Kiessling | L | WoW |
| Elemental Isles | Lort Arturius | L | TGS |
| Disenchanted Forest | Qrystal Dragon | L | TGS |
Rakne Fne
| Map Name | Map-Maker | Size | Version |
| The Menace | Bernhard Kiessling | L | WoW |
| On a Necromancer's Trail | Mace | L | WoW |
| Sunken Empires | Aczl | XL | STD |
| Water Wyrd | Qrystal | L | WoW |
| Yamuna | Sarvi | M | STD |
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