It's time for some critics.

[Zhuangzi]

To echo some of what sector said, I had a think about it and there are a couple of key reasons why I think this is about the best TBS in only 15 years of strategy gaming:

The leadership system. This is genius. Instead of there being weak and strong units like in most games, the leadership systems means that pretty much any unit is viable throughout the game. Wonderful. Black Dragons are probably the 'best' unit overall but are you going to use them with their 2500 leadership? Or do you want to go for Lake Fairies? Or Evil Beholders?

Level design (at the strategic, not battle level) This is especially true in Darion, which is just put together in such a way as to draw you into the game. While this game doesn't have an interesting story, it does lure you with the quest design. I also love the way that enemies move on the strategic view, unlike in Disciples II.

Thirdly, the battle system. I'm with sector on this. I can't remember a more enjoyable and rewarding battle system in a game. The grid is very small (usually) but this makes it like chess. This is a real STRATEGY game.

Oh, and why does everything have to be compared to HOMM 3 anyway? If I loved that game, and then someone made a successful homage to it many years later, I would be ecstatic. I'm still waiting for a real spiritual successor to XCOM, and Master of Orion 2 (i.e. not MOO3, or Galciv 1/2), and Jagged Alliance 2.

[Metathron]

Originally Posted by Zhuangzi

I'm still waiting for a real spiritual successor to XCOM, and Master of Orion 2 (i.e. not MOO3, or Galciv 1/2), and Jagged Alliance 2.

You mean Jagged Alliance 3, right? And I'm sure you know it should be released any day now, right? So no need to wax nostalgic about that!

Oh yeah, if you're thinking of getting HoMM V, take my advice and just skip the vanilla game and the first addon The Farmers of Hate, err The Hammers of Fate, and just go straight through to the standalone expansion Tribes of the East, which has all the other two have and lots more. The only thing not featured in TotE are the campaigns from the first two, but there is a (legal) mod that lets you play the original and first addon campaigns under TotE, complete with all the cutscenes and what have you, so there's really no reason to get the first two.

My favourite games of all time are HoMM II and IV. I only moderately liked V, but with TotE I grew to love it as much as the other two.

Anyhoo, IMHO its gameplay is superior to HoMM III. Long story short, I think you'd really like this game.

[Zhuangzi]

Originally Posted by Metathron

You mean Jagged Alliance 3, right? And I'm sure you know it should be released any day now, right? So no need to wax nostalgic about that!

Oh yeah, if you're thinking of getting HoMM V, take my advice and just skip the vanilla game and the first addon The Farmers of Hate, err The Hammers of Fate, and just go straight through to the standalone expansion Tribes of the East, which has all the other two have and lots more. The only thing not featured in TotE are the campaigns from the first two, but there is a (legal) mod that lets you play the original and first addon campaigns under TotE, complete with all the cutscenes and what have you, so there's really no reason to get the first two.

My favourite games of all time are HoMM II and IV. I only moderately liked V, but with TotE I grew to love it as much as the other two.

Anyhoo, IMHO its gameplay is superior to HoMM III. Long story short, I think you'd really like this game.

Any day now? I thought it had been pushed back to 2009 and maybe never? I have watched the gameplay video from last year, and there's been nothing new since then.