SERIES "Castles and Races. An Analytical Textbook by Qwerty for Heroes 2 Fans"
Training Course 1.
Training Course 1.
Heroes II: Initial Overview of Castles
or
Cities and Their Inhabitants.
________________________________________or
Cities and Their Inhabitants.
Brief Introduction.
The materials you are about to study were written by me between September 2004 and mid-2006.
This was preceded, naturally, by gaming experience, the study of previously written materials, and the creation of information-analytical tables. The basis of my presentation is reference information, while my primary focus was on comparative characteristics. Different fragments of the text were written at different times, so the material currently lacks stylistic and literary unity – perhaps someday a "fourth edition" will appear (you are currently reading the third), which will be a truly unified work at the intersection of science, art, and sport, celebrating the magnificent strategy – "Heroes of Might and Magic. Part 2".
Perhaps to start, I should roughly outline the place of the second part of "Heroes of Might and Magic" among other versions of the game using a few distinctive features.
1. HOMM1 and HOMM2.
First: HOMM2 has 2 more castles ("titans" and "Necromancer").
Second: a "grid" appeared on the combat field, the number of unit speeds increased, and game tactics changed slightly.
Third (perhaps the most important): skills and secondary abilities appeared.
2. HOMM3 and HOMM2.
First: different heroes of the same class have different starting troops.
Second: different heroes have different specializations; this is likely the main difference;
Third: the magic system changed - different schools of magic appeared, along with the resulting features;
Fourth: extremely important: the ability to wait ("wait") appeared during battle, not all flying units reach the enemy immediately, and damage from a ranged attack at full distance is halved. All this brought global changes to battle tactics.
Fifth: the Dungeon was added.
3. HOMM4 and HOMM2.
First: a hero can fight without troops, and troops without a hero. This is a key difference.
Second: the magic system of the world changed.
Third: a large number of troops gained their own magic.
Fourth: the process of assaulting/defending castles changed fundamentally.
Nevertheless, HOMM4 turned out to be more similar to HOMM2 than one might have assumed: starting heroes of the same type are equal, unlike in HOMM3.
A few words regarding the differences in HOMM2 versions.
In the updated HOMM2 (The Price of Loyalty, Gold), a number of objects appeared that added dynamism to the game, although it is not easy to definitively evaluate their significance.
1. A building appeared in the Necromancer castle. In my translation, for some reason, it is called "holy" (absurd), but in reality, it is a necromancy booster that adds an additional 10% of raised skeletons to all Necromancer heroes. Moreover, the effect of these objects in several castles is cumulative!!! My assessment: the addition of this object, especially in the case of several Necromancer castles, makes Necromancers extremely dangerous opponents!
2. Objects where elementals can be hired for money. I consider this addition positive for the game's dynamics.
3. The Stable. This is a structure on the terrain, visiting which allows the hero to have a larger movement reserve during the week. In addition, cavalry are upgraded to champions there free of charge. This undoubtedly increases the chances of the Knight castle.
4. The Crypt or whatever it's called.
In this structure, one can hire witches. The presence of witches in the army in the vast majority of cases means a technical victory. That is, a victory that does not depend on the player's skill or random circumstances and requires no intellectual effort from the player. Building other creatures is also unnecessary. Gold is not needed.
In my view, including this element in the game is redundant.
For your information: there is a way to fight witches (provided the player using witches lacks the magic "Haste", "Mass Haste", "Anti-Magic", "Remove Spell", "Heal").
Black Dragons. On the first turn, cast Mass Slow. And starting from the second turn, Armageddon. When witches are close - fly away. Repeat until complete destruction. But the computer doesn't think of this ...
I want to specifically note that almost all the material was written BEFORE the release of "Heroes VI".
Now a few words about the current state of HOMM2.
By my estimates - HOMM2 currently shares 3rd-5th place among computer turn-based strategies, losing in popularity to HOMM3 and HOMM5. The main reasons for this are primarily the lack of a quality random map generator (and it is precisely its presence that lies behind the success of HOMM3!), as well as insufficient balance of the castles. Experienced players have long since learned to bypass the second aspect (how is another question), but as for the generator ... Yes, it practically doesn't exist. And that is why, after playing HOMM2 for a year or two, people abandon it for a year, and then return to it again, and so on. Alas, I am not a programmer, so my dream that a normal random map generator will one day appear in HOMM2 remains only a dream ...
For ease of presentation, I will conditionally divide all players into five groups:
beginners;
amateurs;
veterans;
fathers;
grandmasters.
Tips for beginners.
If, after reading the previous posts, you have hesitations: maybe I should try(?), I can dispel all doubts: absolutely!
Where to start learning to play?
A good option: with the "old" campaigns: Ronald and Archibald. By completing these two campaigns, you will be playing at a fairly decent level and will enjoy both the gameplay process and the plot.
If you encounter any problems while completing the campaigns - write to us, we'll help!
