Just a quick update:

I finished Disciples III and ended up not liking it much after about 50% into the game. It was rather repetitive and I kept hitting the level cap halfway through a map. The end was rather anticlimatic.

I was able to get Disciples II up and running properly in an XP VM. I got over the artwork; it's a bit dated but it does have a style that you can appreciate.

Also, Etherlords I/II can be purchased on Impulse/GameStop.

You should also consider to check out the "Age Of Wonders"-Series (Parts I & II + Shadow Magic)! For infos: http://www.ageofwonders.com/

BR

J.B.

I never liked disciples 2; others do but I found it boring and well just plain yucky. However, age of wonders (esp age of wonders shadow magic is great). There are fantastic player made maps (both single and multieplayer) @ http://aow.heavengames.com ; highly recommended but of course being 10 years old the graphics are very dated.

Very strong rumors that a brand new aow 3 will come out this year (no clue how it will compare to the old version; but the same developers are making it so hopefully it will be no worse :) )
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I prefer age of wonders to homm (which I think of being 'dumb' down even though it came first) but homm 3 was indeed fun the last time I played. LIke the op I found homm 5 to be rather dry and easy.

I'm actualy really liking HOMM VI right now. The crashing is annoying but the game is awesome and totally unexpected is that I think it is the best HOMM single player of all. The campaings are epic. I haven't tried multiplayer yet because unless they fix the city crash bug, MP would be unplayable.