Which Turn Based Fantasy Strategy

[Huwge]

I am looking for a turn based high fantasy strategy game. I'm considering

Disciples 2

Heroes of Might and Magic 4

Age of Wonders 2

in that order. Does anyone know if these will run on XP Pro SP2?

Also any other suggestions appreciated but please only turn based

Thanks in advance

[Gnarf]

I'd suggest Age of Wonders. (I'd also suggest the Shadow Magic standalone expansion rather than regular Age of Wonders 2, but neither's better than Age of Wonders, IMO).

[Dreamer128]

I agree with Gnarf. Age of Wonders was a truly awesome and addictive game, and neither AOW2 (which had practically no storyline) nor AOW: SM came close to topping it. If you get a shot at buying the original, take it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Huwge]

thanks for the replies so far, but will they run on XP Pro SP2. I was leaning towards Disciples as the battles looked better

[Morgeruat]

HoMM 4 is very different than the previous HoMM games, fun, but different, you don't have to wait till day one of a week to get creatures, they slowly build up all week, making it much less important to take a town on day 7 for the extra reinforcements the next day, but it also means you have to plan to be able to potentially hold a town once you take it. You can get multiple heroes per party (very nice), as well as have your minions go out without a leader (not always a good idea, but possible, great for reinforcing an existing party without needing a mule hero or a return trip to town.

[Lucern]

I'd get Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic of those. AoW was awesome and had a nice feel, but shadow magic is superior in a few ways that shouldn't be overlooked : more races with more units, better graphics, better AI, better combat, and mid-high level heroes are much better balanced.

Then again, AoW 1 has a much cooler base campaign with occasional choices in paths you can take, more players per map (big plus for me), less obviously balanced races (this can be a good thing), and your leader didn't have to really be a wizard. It also gets style points in interface design and hand painted style of portraits and such.

If you like one though, you'll like the other, and I spent hours and hours and hours on each of the AoW series. There are tons of player-made scenarios (and for AOW: SM, campaigns) for each game, and I believe there's a 3rd party converter of AoW 1 scenarios to Shadow Magic, but that's just heresay because I haven't tried it. There are also mods that add scores of units and such for Shadow Magic, and the editor is (or became after a patch, rather) much more powerful than AOW1's, which makes for cooler custom content.

I hope they make a 3rd in the series.

Oh, and I'm not sure about XP Pro. XP Home SP2 is fine afaik.

[Luvian]

Heroes of Might and Magic 4 work on XP, a couple days ago I was feeling nostalgic and installed it, took a look at it, and uninstalled it.

The game is ugly and I hate the interface. I wish I had HOMM 3 instead.

From your list I'd go with Age of Wonders.

[bakrus]

If they maked a new heroes (3rd game is the best=)) game, i would have chosen that one if it was just like or better then Heroes3... but since there is none then i would go for the AoW series ( first has the best story=))
and like Lucern said i hope they will make a AoW3=)=) and all of the runs good on XP pro SP2. ,but you`ll need at least 512mb ram.. and a good graphic card too let the games run with the best graphics..

[Morgeruat]

They're doing HoMM 5, not sure what it's all about but it's in Beta testing now.

[bakrus]

well, i`m already excited=)

if HoMM5 has improved its graphics like Civ4, age of empires , and like the rpg game Morrowind: Oblivion did from it`s provious game, then i am sure it will be a excellent game with great success=)

but as i understand.... 3DO doesn`t make games anymore.. so who make the new Might & Magic games? .. have anyone heard any news of a new M&M RPG game?