Video games - Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia

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	Video games - Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia

Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia is a turn-based strategy game developed by New World Computing for Microsoft Windows and released by the 3DO Company in 1999. An Apple Macintosh port was released by 3DO, and a Linux port was released by Loki Software, both later that year. It is the third installment of the Heroes of Might and Magic series. In contrast with the "cartoonish" graphical style of previous games, Heroes of Might and Magic III has a more subdued, serious look.

Story

Following her marriage to King Roland Ironfist of Enroth (as referred to in Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven
), Queen Catherine returns home to Erathia to find that the kingdom has been overrun by the united forces of the Overlords and Warlocks of the kingdom of Nighon and the Demoniacs and Heretics of the Kreegan kingdom of Eeofol. The invasion is being commanded by Catherine's father, King Gryphonheart, who has been assassinated by a traitor within his own army and revived as a lich by the necromancers of Deyja during his daughter's absence.

The game's story unfolds primarily through a series of seven playable campaigns, which alternate between the perspective of Queen Catherine and her allies, and the forces of the invading armies.

Long Live the Queen documents Catherine's return to Erathia, and her initial attempts to reestablish a beachhead in the kingdom by enlisting the aid of Erathia's traditional allies, the angels and the griffons.
Dungeons and Devils tells of the Nighon and Eeofol conquest of Steadwick, the capital city of Erathia. The campaign alternates between the dungeon and inferno alignments, and allows the player to choose which of the two alignments to play as in the final map.
Spoils of War stars a mercenary working for both the fortress and stronghold alignments, and depicts the fighting between the two alignments. Like Dungeons and Devils, the player may choose between these two alignments for the final map.
Liberation is available for play only after the preceding three campaigns have been completed. It documents Queen Catherine's alliance with both the elven kingdom of AvLee and tower alignment, the reconquest of Steadwick, and the eventual retreat of the invaders from Erathia.
Long Live the King is available for play only after Liberation has been completed. It serves as a prequel to the other campaigns, as it follows the necromancers' plot to ressurect King Gryphonheart as their undead leader.
Song for the Father is available for play only after Long Live the King has been completed. With the armies of Nighon and Eeofol on the retreat, the necromancers of Deyja switch their allegiances and ally themselves with Queen Catherine's alliance to help destroy the undead King Gryphonheart.
Seeds of Discontent is a bonus campaign only available for play after Song for the Father has been completed. Years ago, both Erathia and AvLee fought over land during the Timber Wars and now the people who live in the disputed region make preparations to fight for their independence.

Gameplay

The basic gameplay mechanics of Heroes of Might and Magic
and Heroes of Might and Magic II
remain unchanged in Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia. As before, the player controls a number of generals (or "heroes"), who command troops comprising various types of creatures, usually inspired by myth and legend. These troops are divided into stacks: each hero has space within his or her army for up to seven stacks of creatures. Creatures of the same type can be united into a single stack. During conflict, damage inflicted by stacks of troops is cumulative: two individual troops with a damage rating of 5-9 can be placed into a single stack with a damage rating of 10-18. Battle takes place on a separate screen, which comprises a grid consisting of 165 interlocking hexagons. Heroes do not participate directly in battle, but their statistics and skills increase the effectiveness of their armies, and they have the ability to cast one magic spell per combat round.

Heroes have four statistics that determine their effectiveness in battle: attack, defense, magic power, and knowledge. The hero's attack and defense rankings are added to the ranking of troops within that heroes army during battle. Magic power determines the strength of any magic spell cast by that hero, and the number of magic points available to the hero are determined by multiplying that hero's knowledge ranking by ten. Each hero can be trained in up to eight different skills, which can have a number of different effects, such as increasing that hero's magic proficiency, statistical ranking, or the distance he or she can travel across the map screen in one game day. Each skill is divided into three levels (basic, advanced, and expert), which determines the strength of the skill effect. In addition, each hero has the ability to equip a variety of artifacts to gain various bonuses, including increased attack and defensive ratings.

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