Heroes of Might and Magic IV
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Heroes of Might and Magic IV is a turn-based strategy game developed by New World Computing and published by the 3DO Company for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers in 2002. An Apple Macintosh port was subsequently developed by Contraband Entertainment and released by the 3DO Company. The fourth of installment of the popular Heroes of Might and Magic franchise, it was the last to be developed by New World Computing.
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[edit] Story
Following the events of Heroes Chronicles: The Sword of Frost, Gelu, the leader of the Forest Guards and wielder of the Armageddon's Blade, attacks Kilgore, the barbarian king, in an attempt to claim and destroy the Sword of Frost. When the Armageddon's Blade and the Sword of Frost clash in battle, the result is a massive explosion which destroys the world of Enroth. Many of the inhabitants of the planet, however, have managed to escape through mysterious portals that lead them to another world, called Axeoth. Included among the refugees are many of the heroes of previous installments of the series, and many return to their old ways shortly after arriving on their new home.
The story of Heroes of Might and Magic IV unfolds primarily through the game's six campaigns, each of which establishes how the major kingdoms of Axeoth were forged in the wake of the Reckoning and the arrival of the refugees on Axeoth. Each of the campaigns centers on a faction leader, and tells the story of how that leader came to prominence. Unlike Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia, all of six campaigns are accessible from the beginning, and each unfolds as a stand-alone tale.
In The True Blade, Lysander, a loyal knight formerly in the service of Queen Catherine Ironfist, rules over the nascent kingdom of Palaedra, inhabited mainly by refugees from the kingdom of Erathia. His command, however, is challenged by a usurper named Sir Worton, who claims to be the only surviving heir to the Gryphonheart dynasty. Many of Lysander's generals are drawn to Worton, forcing the lord to expose Worton as a fraud or lose control of his kingdom.
At the start of Glory of Days Past, Waerjak, a barbarian chieftain, despairs over the changes that have come over the barbarian community. In the wake of Kilgore's death, his people have descended into interfactional strife, and are in danger of wiping themselves out. Intent on restoring Kilgore's barbarian kingdom, Waerjak sets out to prove his strength and to subdue his rivals, guided by his mentor Tarnum.
The Price of Peace tells the story of Emilia Nighthaven, the peasant daughter of an Enrothian glassblower. On Axeoth, however, she finds herself taking command of a community of frightened refugees and forging them into the kingdom of Great Arcan. Queen Emilia's success, however, attracts the attention of Gavin Magnus, the Immortal King and his genie servant, Solymr, who seek to prevent Axeoth from meeting the same fate as Enroth by magically depriving its entire population of their free will.
In Elwin and Shaera, Elwin, a simple elf from the Elven kingdom of Aranorn (mainly populated by survivors from AvLee), is in love with Shaera, but their romance is threatened by a powerful rival for Shaera's affection. Elwin's continued pursuit of his beloved plunges the region into internecine war, and whoever emerges the victor will not only win Shaera's hand in marriage, but the throne of Aranorn, as well.
Half-Dead relates the tale of Gauldoth Half-Dead, the half-human, half-lich victim of a necromantic spell that he cast to save his life, yet it went horribly wrong. Tired of living on the scraps of food he can steal from fearful villagers, Gauldoth unites the forces of the undead into a powerful and feared kingdom, but he is forced to act as a protector for both the living and the dead when a powerful being from another dimension arrives with plans to end all life in the universe.
A Pirate's Daughter introduces the only daughter of a famous pirate, Tawni Balfour. Tawni inherits her father's ship and crew following his unfortunate death. Sailing down the coasts of the Gold Sea, Tawni intends to claim the her father's mantle as Axeoth's most feared pirate captain.
[edit] Gameplay
Heroes of Might and Magic IV introduces a number of major changes to the series as detailed below.
Unlike previous games, where they had little active role in combat, heroes are now present on the battlefield with their troops. It is now possible to have armies with more than one hero, or with no heroes at all, although armies without a hero are incapable of performing certain tasks, such as capturing enemy towns or structures. Both the adventure and combat maps have been converted to a fixed-view isometric 3D display. The traditional hexagon-based battle grid has been converted into a much higher-resolution square-based grid, making it easier to feature units of different sizes. However, the lack of the easy to visualize hexagons has been criticized for reducing the ability of the player to use terrain to a strategic advantage (especially tricky is anticipating the paths of ranged attacks, both offensively and defensively). Non-hero spellcasting units are now given proper spell selections. Retaliation now occurs simultaneous with the attack, and ranged units are now capable of retaliating against ranged attacks. Each individual troop unit now has its own movement allowance on the adventure map, and units can be split off independently of the main army; however, the tradeoff is that troops can no longer be "shuttled" from hero to hero in order to move an army large distances in a single turn. Logistics have further been restricted by the elimination of the "Dimension Door" spell, as well as "Fly" and artifacts that allow flight, with the only remaining long-distance movement spell being "Town Gate," which only takes an army to the nearest town. This, in turn, is partially compensated for by the elimination of the need to revisit resource-producing structures each week, and the introduction of a new Town structure, the Caravan, which can be used to move troops and Heroes invisibly and rapidly between towns, as well as bringing troops produced at external dwellings directly to a town.
The skill system has also undergone a significant overhaul, and all Heroes of a given class start out with the same skills; the player has slightly more control, though, over the development of the Hero than in previous versions of the game, and Heroes can "evolve" into over 40 different specialized classes, based on which combination of skills they select. There are 9 different skills (5 of them magic-based), each of which has 4 sub-disciplines, which in turn have 5 levels of progression, and an individual Hero is limited to a maximum of 5 of the 9 skill sets. A small number of these skills are shared with earlier versions of the game, and some of the new skills can dramatically affect strategy (e.g., a Hero with Grandmaster Stealth is invisible to all hostile or neutral Heroes and creatures). Troop units can no longer be upgraded, and the number of unit levels has been reduced to four. Every level has two possible units, but each town can only build one creature dwelling per level. For example, an Order-aligned town can build either an Altar of Wishes (produces Genies) or a Golden Pavilion (produces Nagas), but because Genies and Nagas are both level three creatures, both structures cannot be built at the same time. The exception to this involves level one creature dwellings, both of which are allowed to coexist within the same town. The creature dwellings themselves now accumulate new creatures every day, as opposed to the start of each new week.[4]
A number of Heroes IV innovations raised controversy among old players; this can be said about daily creature growth, simultaneous retaliation, lack of creature upgrades previously found in Heroes II and Heroes III, and the treatment of heroes as units. Eventually, Heroes V disregarded almost all new features of Heroes IV, reverting to Heroes III-style gameplay, but then the game was criticized for the removal of useful features like caravans and flaggable windmills and water wheels.[citation needed]
[edit] Town Alignments
The eight town alignments of Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia have been reduced to six. Five of these alignments correspond to a particular type of magic (life, chaos, nature, death, and order). The sixth alignment (might) emphasizes physical combat over magic.
- The Haven town is aligned with life magic, is comprised of mostly humans and makes it home on the grasslands. The creatures that can be hired are, in ascending order of level with two creatures per level, squire, crossbowman, ballista, pikeman, monk, crusader, champion, and angel.
- The Academy town studies the magic of order and are native to snowy land. The monsters available are halfling, dwarf, mage, gold golem, genie, naga, titan, and dragon golem.
- The Necropolis is aligned with death magic and live upon volcanic land. The creatures available are the imp, skeleton, cerberus, ghost, vampire, venom spawn, bone dragon, and devil.
- The Asylum is native to swampland and study chaos magic. The creatures that can be hired are orc, bandit, medusa, minotaur, elfreet, nightmare, hydra, and black dragon.
- The Preserve allies with nature magic and is native to grasslands. The creatures are sprite, wolf, elf, white tiger, griffin, unicorn, faerie dragon, and phoenix.
- The Stronghold is based primarily on might, rather than magic, and makes its home on rough terrain. The creatures are berserker, centaur, nomad, harpy, ogre mage, cyclops, thunderbird, and behemoth.
[edit] Expansion packs
Two expansion packs were released for Heroes of Might and Magic IV, The Gathering Storm and Winds of War. Neither of these expansions were released for the Macintosh version of the game.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Phlux, et al. "Heroes of Might and Magic IV." 1 April 2002. MobyGames. Last accessed on 21 January 2006.
- ^ Chris McVeigh. "Heroes of Might and Magic IV: New Heroes for a New World." November 2002. Apple - Games. Last accessed on 21 January 2006.
- ^ Rocco J Carello. "Macintosh Heroes of Might and Magic." 3 May 2004. Last accessed on 21 January 2006.
- ^ Harukaba. "Heroes of Might and Magic IV → Overview." 12 May 2005. Celestial Heavens. Last accessed on 21 January 2006.
[edit] External links
- Elrath Map Vault - Heroes of Might and Magic Map Vault / Archive
- Heroes of Might and Magic IV at MobyGames
- Heroes of Might and Magic IV at the Internet Movie Database
- Heroes of Might and Magic IV at the Open Directory Project
- Gamestats.com rating (cf. HoMM3)
- Age of Heroes - Heroes of Might and Magic fan site that features over 100 pages of Heroes IV information
- Celestial Heavens, fan site with news, features and discussions about Heroes of Might and Magic IV
| Might and Magic | I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX |
| Heroes of Might and Magic | I:ASQ | II:TSW | II:TPoL | III:TRoE | III:AB | III:TSoD | Heroes Chronicles | IV | IV:TGS | IV:WoW | V | V:HoF |
| Spinoffs and related titles | Arcomage | King's Bounty | Quest for the DragonBone Staff | Crusaders | Warriors | Legends | Dark Messiah | MM Mobile | HoMM Online |
| Fanmade titles | Swords of Xeen |
| CCGs | Heroes IV |
