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    Heroes of Might and Magic V

    Game » consists of 5 releases. Released May 23, 2006

    Heroes of Might and Magic V is a Turn-based strategy game with role-playing elements. Developed by the Russian developer, Nival and published by Ubisoft in 2006, and it is the fifth main game in the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise.

    Short summary describing this game.

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    Gameplay

    The gameplay in HoMM V is the same as previous games in the series, although now the game engine is 3D.
    There are 2 types of game modes, campaign and custom game, the gameplay elements remain the same in both modes however. The campaign mode is where the story of Heroes of Might and Magic V is told, in which different races deal with the demon invasion and their problems. Custom game, as the name suggests, is well, a custom game. The player chooses from a number of different maps. The objectives of each map vary from finding the tear of Asha, to defeating all enemies to special scenarios, each map also has a size associated with it. The sizes range from normal to very big. The maximum number of players for a custom game is 8. Before starting the custom game the player may choose his faction, his first hero, a random amount of resources, gold or a minor artifact as well as a adjusting the same for the computer controlled players, or they may leave everything to chance. The player may also adjust teams and colors of each player. 
     

    Overview

    At the begining of each scenario, the player is given one hero, a town and some resources. The player then, must expand by capturing mines, dwelling and destroying creeps. Each day the player receives gold and resources from resource producing buildings such as mines or lumber mills. These objects must remain in the control the player if he wishes to gain resources. Resources are used to construct buildings and create level 7 creatures.  

    The town is where you'll recruit your armies, heroes as well as adding war machines to a hero's army. Each faction has their own unique buildings, that are unavailable to other factions. For example, the Academy faction has the Arcane Forge, where an Academy hero may add artifacts to stacks of units, improving them in the process. Heaven faction has a special Training Grounds building, where units may be upgraded to a greater level (Peasants become archers, archers become footmen etc).
    Towns also have a town level associated with them, for each building the player builds the town level increases by 1, up to a maximum of 30. The player however, does not have access to all buildings. All buildings have a town level requirement, as well as a previous building being built in the list. There are no neutral, or unoccupied towns, each town is owned by a certain player. 
     

    Heroes

    Heroes are your commanders on the battlefield. They command armies and expand your lands. Heroes have 7 slots, where the army is located. The hero himself is not limited to a certain number of troops, but rather 7 stacks of units. Each stack can have as many units as the player wishes. But each stack must only be made up of a single type of unit. The player may also choose to divide the stacks of units in other unoccupied slots. Heroes also have some RPG elements, these include.
    • Attack - increases the damage all creatures inflict.
    • Defense - increases defense of all creatures, reducing damage they might take
    • Knowledge - Increases the amount of mana the hero has by 10 for each point of knowledge
    • Spell power - Increases spell parameters, power and duration 
    The hero also has 2 other additional attributes, morale and luck. These attributes can not be raised by leveling up, but rather by skills or certain objects in the world (the increase from objects is temporary, and is only available for one battle). The higher the morale, the higher the chance that a unit might decrease the time between their next action in battle. Luck works in a similar manner to critical hits, the higher the luck, the higher the chance that a unit will inflict extra damage on attack.
    Apart from the attributes each hero has a level, heroes gain experience by defeating enemies on the field of battle. Each time a hero gains a level they can choose a new skill. There are skills that any hero has access to, and there are some skills that only heroes of certain factions have access to. A hero may only have 5 skill. Each skill also has sub-skills that become available, each hero can only have 3 sub-skills to each skill. A total of
    Heroes can also learn mighty spells, that can either improve the abilities and performance of the heroes army, or destroy and curse the enemy army. There are 4 schools of magic: destruction, summoning, light and dark magic. Destruction obviously destroys enemy armies, summoning conjures powerful elementals, light buffs your own units and dark magic curses enemy units. A hero can learn new spells either by visiting various objects on the worldmap or by visiting a mages guild in their town (the mages guild must be built, and it has 5 levels). There also higher level spells, these spells can be learned only by a hero that has a mastery of the corresponding school. For example, an Armageddon spell requires a mastery in the destruction magic school. A hero may take, and improve a magic skill on level up.
    Along with the attributes, spells and skills, a hero also has an inventory screen where they keep artifacts. There are 9 slots, each for different types of artifacts, shields, weapons, helms, necklaces, cuirasses, cloacks, boots and rings. A hero may only have 1 artifact equipped in each slot, the rest are simply kept in inventory.  Finally, each hero is unique, having a signature skill that no other hero has.
     

    Worldmap, Battlefield and Battles

    The game is played either on a world map, or on a battlefield. The world map contains towns, objects, dwellings (where heroes may recruit creatures), recourse producing buildings, certain objects that increase a hero's attributes etc. The player moves his hero and manages his town from the world map, a hero has a bar that limits his movement, once the bar is empty a turn must pass before the hero can move again. Each turn takes one day, and a player may only build 1 building per day. As mentioned players will gain resources and gold each day. 
    The battlefield is where heroes fight against monsters found throughout the world, or against other heroes. They do not battle them by themselves, but by the army they command. However, a hero is very important to an army, as they increase the power of units, can attack enemy units or even use spells to help their own army, or hinder and destroy the enemy. Also, as mentioned attributes increase the power of the hero, who in turn increases the power of his/her units. Units that aren't commanded by a hero are weak, and are easy to destroy. 
    The battlefield itself is arranged in tiles, the entire battlefield has 12x10 tiles. Before the battle, the player may arrange their army on 2x10 area. Once the battle starts the player takes control of his army, that are divided into up to 7 stacks of units. Once the battle starts an initiative bar becomes visible, detailing which unit takes their turn and when, it also shows when the time for your hero's turn is. The initiative of each unit determines their turn. Units can preform several actions.
    • Wait - they wait until their next turn.
    • Defend - they defend for a turn, increasing their defense.
    • Move - they move around the battlefield, to get closer or further away from enemy units.
    • Attack - they attack an enemy unit (ranged units with the shooter ability can attack from afar).
    • Use ability - some units have a special ability they can use to help their allies or effect enemies.
    • Spellbook - few units also have spells, the spells they have are determined by the unit, the unit cannot learn any new spells.
    Each stack of units can only preform one action per turn. For example, you may command a unit to move next to the enemy, but if you did not command them to attack, they will simply stand next to an enemy. Once the action is completed, a new unit gains their turn, be it an enemy unit, or yours.
    The game has hundreds of types of units, but each faction can only recruit 7 types of units (14 due to each unit being upgradable to a better version) from their towns. Each type of unit has several statistics that include:
    • Attack - Where as hero's attack attribute increases the damage of units under his/her command, the attack of a creature reduces the defense effectiveness of enemy units.
    • Defense - Decreases the damage taken by enemy attacks (magical attacks ignore this parameter)
    • Damage - Each unit has a minimum and maximum damage parameter. So for example, Archers have damage of 2-4, so 20 archers have a chance to inflict damage anywhere between 40-80.
    • Hitpoints - Determines how much damage a unit can take before being destroyed. Archers have 7 hitpoints, so 20 archers would have to take a 140 damage before they are destroyed.
    • Morale - Units that have a high morale act more in a battle, units with a negative morale may loose their turn.
    • Luck - Increases the chance of a unit inflicting extra damage.
    • Speed - The higher the speed, the more tiles on the battlefield a unit can cross (in one turn).
    • Initiative - Creatures that have a higher initiative will have more turns than a unit with lower initiative.

    Campaign

     There are 5 campaigns, each with five missions. The campaign follows the events of Ashana during the troubled times of a demon invasion. The player will take control of many unique heroes, across 25 missions, each one varying in difficulty and length. Unlike custom scenarios or skirmishes, the heroes will carry over stat gains from previous missions, which is why it is advisable to visit each stat raising object before completing a mission. Artifacts collected by heroes, unfortunately do not carry over from mission to mission. The player must complete Campaigns in order, so that he or she may advance to the next campaign. The campaigns are as follow.
    • Heaven (Human) Campaign - The Queen "A king falls, a queen rises"
    1. The Queen
    2. The Rebellion
    3. The Siege
    4. The Trap  
    5. The Fall of the King
    • Inferno (Demon) Campaign - The Cultist "A Demon must decide"
    1. The Betrayal
    2. The Promise
    3. The Conquest
    4. The Ship
    5. Agrael's Decision
    • Necropolis (Undead) Campaign - The Necromancer "The Undead rise, the Griffin falls"
    1. The Temptation
    2. The Attack
    3. The Invasion
    4. The Regicide  
    5. The Lord of Heresh
    • Dungeon (Dark Elf) Campaign - The Warlock "A hero is forged"
    1. The Clanlord
    2. The Expansion
    3. The Cultists
    4. The March
    5. Raelag's Offer
    • Sylvan (Elven) Campaign - The Ranger "Defending honor and country"
    1. The Refugees 
    2. The Emerald Ones
    3. The Defense 
    4. The Archipelago 
    5. The Vampire Lord
    •  Academy (Mage) Campaign - The Mage "A mage confronts evil"
    1. The Defiant Mage
    2. The Liberation
    3. The Triumvirate 
    4. The Alliance
    5. Zehir's Hope


    Factions

    There are six factions in the game (with 2 new ones added in the expansion packs). Each faction has it's own heroes, towns, units etc. Obviously, heroes will have different skills, towns different buildings and units different abilities.

    Heaven

    The imperial griffin, coat of arms of Heaven
    The imperial griffin, coat of arms of Heaven
    Or the human faction, the following units are a part of the Heaven faction: peasants, archers, footman, griffins, priests, cavaliers and angels. They can also be upgraded to conscripts, crossbowman, squires, imperial griffins, inquisitors, paladins and archangels respectively. 
    When it comes to buildings the Heaven faction has a special training grounds building which allows the player to upgrade lower tier troops into higher tier troops. For example a player may upgrade peasants into archers. There are also certain skills a human hero can take, to make the training of troops cost less. Heaven heroes gain stats primarily in the defense attribute, which at high levels makes Heaven troops a bitch to kill.
    The Heaven faction, in the campaign is led by king Nikolai and queen Isabel. The Griffin Empire has a long standing tradition of royalty and worship of Elrath, the God of light. In the campaign the player will take control over queen Isabel, who is attempting to help Nikolai fight off the demon invasion, as well as Godric. A knight of many years and a disciplined warrior, he has helped the empire many times, and will continue to do so, without hesitation or question. The homeland of humans is the Griffin Empire.
     
     
      
    Detailed description of Heaven units:
    • Peasants/Conscripts - Peasants are the first tier troops, quite weak obviously, they make up for it by paying taxes. Each peasant you have under your command increases your income by +1. Conscripts on the other hand don't pay taxes, but they have a bash ability that has a chance to make an enemy not retaliate. 
    • Archers/Crossbowman - Archers have the scatter shot ability that allows them to target a 3x3 tile, inflicting damage on all enemies that find themselves in the area. Crossbowman lose the scatter shot ability, but gain the precise shot ability, which allows the crossbowman to damage units more and at greater distances, than the archer.
    • Footmen/Squires - Footmen have the large shield ability, which reduces non magical ranged damage taken by 50%. Squires gain the shield allies ability, which works the same way large shield works, but also applies to allies.
    • Griffins/Imperial Griffins - Griffins don't have flyer ability as well as always retaliate. Imperial Griffins gain the battle drive ability that allows them to cross the field and attack the enemy directly, but only after a few turns.
    • Priests/Inquisitors - Priests are ranged units, and have no melee penalty. Inquisitors gain a few spells, haste, divine strength and endurance to be precise. 
    • Cavaliers/Paladins - Cavaliers have the jousting ability, this means that their damage increase the more distance they cover to attack the enemy. Paladins gain the lay hand ability that completely heals one unit from a stack. Cavaliers/Paladins are indeed a terrible force, they can cover great distances, have a lot of hitpoints, defense and attack, making them great shock troops. 
    • Angels/Archangels - Angels are flying units, and apart from that have the best stats of all Heaven troops, next to Archangels. Archangels gain stat upgrades (obviously) but also gain the resurrect ally ability, which resurrects fallen units from a single stack. Angels and Archangels are the most powerful troops in this faction, and are therefore quite costly.  

    Inferno

     Cerberus
     Cerberus
    Opposite the Heaven faction, is the Inferno, or demonic faction. They are led by a single demon sovereign. In the campaign, the player will take control of Agrael, an agent of the demon sovereign, who has loyalty issues. The infernal hordes of Sheogh include imps, horned demons, hell hounds, succubi, hell chargers, pit fiends and devils. Their towns have unique buildings, like the Sacrificial Pit, any unit killed here, will give the commanding hero bonus exp. 
    Some of the units like the imps or hell hounds have a special gating ability, that allows them too call upon their brothers in Sheogh, and join the battlefield. Should the player win the battle, these summoned troops are automatically added to the losses, regardless of them making it to the end of the battle. Inferno heroes gain, primarily, the attack attribute. At high levels large inferno armies present a serious challenge, although they're defense may be low. The God worshiped by demons is Urgash, or the original dragon of Chaos, who created the demonic race. The homeland of the Inferno factions is Sheogh.
     
     
       
    Detailed description of Inferno units:
    • Imps/Familiars - Imps represent the scum of the demon world, they're cowardly, have low stats but they make for good scouts, and in large numbers can be a danger. Familiars gain the ability to steal the enemy hero's mana. Both versions have the gating ability
    • Horned demons/Horned overseers - Again, great numbers are needed to make a stack of this unit dangerous. Horned overseers gain the explosion ability, which damages every unit in their vicinity, but not the horned overseers themselves. Both versions have the gating ability. 
    • Hell hounds/Cerberus - The first truly dangerous inferno unit. Although hell hounds aren't able to take much damage, and are inferior to the cerberus version, they can cause quite a bit of damage, they can also cross great distances. Cerberus gain the no retaliation ability, which means that no enemy unit will retaliate on attack. They also have the three headed attack ability, which means that they can attack up to 3 units, if the said units are positioned correctly. Both versions have the gating ability
    • Succubi/Succubi Mistresses - The first and only ranged unit in the inferno faction. Succubi have the ranged retaliation ability, which allows them to retaliate on an attack against them, made by any ranged unit. Succubi mistresses keep the ranged retaliation ability, as well as the chain shot ability. Which means that their attack will damage 3 other units with their primary one (4 in total).
    • Hell Chargers/Nightmare - Hell chargers are the Inferno equivalent of a cavalier, although hell chargers obviously don't have the jousting ability. They also have inferior stats when compared to a cavalier. Nightmares gain the fright aura ability, which lowers the morale of enemy units positioned adjacently by -3. Both the hell chargers and nightmares have the fear attack ability, which has a chance to send an enemy unit running in dread. 
    • Pit Fiends/Pit Lords - Apart from pretty good stats,  pit fiends have a spellbook, and they know 2 spells, vulnerability (lowers enemy armor) and fireball (which deals damage in a targeted area). Pit Lords gain the meteor shower spell, which like fireball, deals damage in a target area. The target area however is greater, as well as the damage inflicted.
    • Devils/Arch devils - Both have the teleport ability, which, like flyers, allows them to ignore battlefield obstacles. Arch devils also gain the ability to summon Pit Fiends. 

    Sylvan

    Arcane archer
    Arcane archer
    The Sylvan, or Elven faction are made up of poets and artists, rangers and druids who protect their homeland as well as forests and nature in general. They boast the greatest archers found in the game. Some buildings unique to the Sylvan faction include the Avengers Brotherhood, which gives +10% chance for a critical against favorite enemies. A mystic pond that adds several random resources per week. 
    And a sparkling fountain which provides a +2 luck bonus to a defending elven army. The elves despise modern technology and are, as mentioned very protective of nature as a whole. Their heroes concentrate on defense and knowledge, and as mentioned, they have the strongest ranged attackers in the game. They also despise the undead and demons especially. The units of the faction include: pixies, blade dancers, hunters, druids, unicorns, treants and green dragons. The homeland of the elves is called Irrolan, or the Forest maze.
     
     
     
    Detailed description of Sylvan units:
    • Pixies/Sprites - Are fairy like units. Both units are flyers and they have no retaliation and spray attack abilities. No retaliation means that attacked units will not retaliate, and spray attack means that pixies/sprites will attack up to 3 adjacent enemy units. The upgraded version, sprites gain the wasp swarm and cleansing spells. The first is a targeted damage spell, the second, as the name may suggest, cleanses a friendly unit of any negative effects. 
    • Blade Dancer/War Dancer - Are typical, agile elven units. They dual wield swords. The blade dancer has no special abilities to speak of, but they're pretty good at melee, the war dancers gain the war dancers combo ability, which allows them to attack all units adjacent to them (up to 3). 
    • Hunter/Master Hunter - Hunters have the double shot ability, which, as the name may suggest, allows the hunter to strike a single stack of enemy units not once, but twice. Master hunters gain the warding arrows ability, the arrows they shoot are charmed, which have a chance to stun an enemy unit. Both units are excellent ranged units, among the best found in the game.
    • Druids/Elder Druids - They, like the hunters, are ranged units. Both have access to spells. Druids have the lightning strike and endurance spells. And elder druids can transfer their mana to the commanding hero, they also gain the stone spike ability.  
    • Unicorns/Silver Unicorns - These two units are the "cavalry" of elven armies. Fast, and able to cross great distances in a single turn, they attack the foe hard and with lightning speed. Unicorns have the aura of magical resistance ability, which gives them, and any adjacent units a 30% spell resistance. Silver unicorns, apart from the obvious stat upgrades also gain the blinding attack ability. This gives them a chance to blind a target, the target can not move or attack for several turns, unless attacked, in which case their sight returns and they can resume attacking. 
    • Treants/Ancient Treants - The tank units of elven armies. They boast massive hp and defense and are extremely difficult to take down, more so in large numbers. Treants have the entangle ability, any creature they attack becomes tangled and cannot move unless the treant stack is dead, or has moved. Treants also have the enraged ability which increases their damage and attack if a friendly stack of units is killed. Ancient treants receive the take roots ability. The wait/defend order increases their defense by 50%, and they'll retaliate against any and all attacks until next turn (unless the creature attacking has the no retaliation ability).
    • Green Dragon/Emerald Dragon - The mighty, terrifying and terrible power of elven armies. Like any level 7 troop, they are  the most powerful, and expensive troops that the elves can muster. As you might guess, both units have the flyer ability. Green dragons have acid breath, which when they attack, damage not only the primary target, but any units positioned behind the first target.  Emerald dragons gain only the immunity to earth ability, somewhat useful, but not too much. 

    Necropolis

     Vampire
     Vampire
    Where as elves worship life and nature, and humans light, the necropolis, or undead faction obviously worships death, and the Goddess of death, Asha. The low level necropolis units are weak, or slow or both. But the higher level troops are powerful indeed. The unique buildings of this faction is a one similar to the sacrificial pit of Inferno, the Shrine of Netherworld allows the transformation of living units to the undead equivalent. It's also important to note that Undead heroes have "dark energy", that they use to resurrect fallen, enemy, living creatures after the end of a battle. As "fallen" mages who practice necromancy, it's of little surprise that Undead heroes focus on spellcasting attributes. In the campaign they play a very role, where the player will take control of Markal, a wizard, banished from the Griffin Empire for necromancy. He was an adviser to King Nikolai's mother. He will offer his services to Queen Isabel, or in his words "to resurrect her favorite corpse". 
    The low level troops of this faction make up in quantity, for what they lack in quality. The higher level troops are a sight to behold, albeit a terrible sight. The units of these faction include: skeletons, zombies, ghosts, vampires, liches, wights and bone dragons.  The undead (at least in HoMM V) are a secret faction, and have no homeland.
     
     
    Detailed description of Necropolis units: 
    *Note that all undead units have the (duh) undead trait. This means that they're morale can never go below 0, but it can never go above it either. Apart from that, undead units can't be affected by poison, mind or blind related spells.

    • Skeletons/Skeleton Archers - Skeletons and Skeleton Archers (they have the shooter ability obviously) have no abilities to speak of. They're your basic cannon fodder. They suck, they really do, but as I mentioned, what they lack in quality, or power, or hp or everything really, they make up for in numbers.  
    • Zombies/Plague Zombies - They can take quite a bit of damage, especially when considering that they're a level 2 unit. They both have the enraged ability (if a friendly unit stack is destroyed, damage and attack is increased). Plague zombies also gain the weakening strike ability, which reduces the affected enemy's attack and defense by 2 (cannot go below 0).  
    • Ghosts/Specters - Both have the flyer and incorporeal abilities. It's the incorporeal ability that makes these units worthwhile. Any non magic attack launched at these units has a 50% to miss the target (maximum of 3 misses, after which a hit is guaranteed, or 3 hits, after which a miss is guaranteed). It's luck based, but definitely worth it. Specters also gain the mana drain ability, when they attack units with mana they regain some hp and even have a chance to resurrect fallen units from a stack.  
    • Vampires/Vampire Lords - My favorite undead unit. They can cover great distances in a turn or two. They both have life drain which can resurrect fallen vampires, no retaliation ability and the vampire lords gain the teleportation ability. What's not to like? 
    • Lich/Arch Lich - Both have the undead, shooter, large creature and death cloud ability. The death cloud ability (an automatic one, carried out in each ranged attack), damages not only one unit but all units in a 3x3 square. Arch liches gain 3 spells: weakness, decay, suffering.
    • Wights/Wrights - Wights, apart from large creature and undead ability have no others to speak of, but they are a powerful melee unit. Wrights gain the harmful touch ability, which always kills one unit in an enemy stack, as well as dispelling any buffs.  
    • Bone Dragons/Spectral Dragons - Bone dragons like Wights have no special abilities of their own, just the generic undead, large creature and flyer abilities. Spectral dragons on the other hand gain the cursing attack ability, which decreases the damage of enemy units.

    Academy

     Mage
     Mage
    Or the mage faction, is compromised of units of a magical nature such as Djinns and Colossi or constructs such as golems or gargoyles. The mages are inherently arrogant, sometimes dangerously so. Their "moto" is “No Gods, no Masters. Knowledge is Power, Power is Freedom”. Sound familiar? In any case, Mages help others only when it's in their interest to do so. Which is why many humans and elves hate them. Some unique mage buildings include Artifact Merchant (sells artifacts) and Arcane Forge (allows a mage hero to make artifacts for units, effected by the Artificer hero skill). 
    Academy units include: gremlins, golems, gargoyles, mages, djinns, rakasha rani and colossi. The Academy faction is obviously based around Arabic culture. Their heroes obviously gain mostly knowledge and spellpower, and are a faction that values magic over might. A lot of their army is compromised of spell casters and it is advisable for the player to invest in schools of magic (summon,destruction,dark and light) for their heroes. The Academy homeland is called "The Silver Cities".
     
     
     
    Detailed description of Academy units:
    • Gremlins/Master Gremlins - As most level 1 units, gremlins are far from powerful, but as far as level 1 units go, gremlins are some of the most useful. Again, they make up in quantity what they lack in quality, but they're also capable shooters (for level 1 units). Both versions have the shooter ability, but master gremlins get the repair ability, which allows them to repair a war machine (balista, medic tent and ammo cart) or golems once per battle. Remember not to feed them after midnight.
    • Stone Gargoyles/Obsidian Gargoyles - Both have the flyer, enraged, immunity to lightning. Not bad second level units. Obsidian gargoyles gain immunity to both fire and cold, making them great against enemy spell casters.  
    • Iron Golems/Steel Golems - Both have mechanical, immunity to slow and magic proof abilities. The difference being that iron golems have a 50% magic proof and steel ones 75% magic proof. Steel golems also have unlimited retaliation ability, making them good 3rd level units.
    • Mages/Arch Mages - Mages are shooters, casters, have no ranged penalty and have magic attack. Magic attack damages everyone in a line of attack, making mages/arch mages a bit complicated to use, mages also have fist of wrath and cleanse spells. Arch mages gain the energy channel, that alter the cost of hero spells by 25%. Arch mages gain the fireball and righteous might ability.  
    • Djinns/Djinn Sultans - Djinns are large, flying creatures that have the random caster ability. They can cast random curses on enemies. Djinn Sultans gain better stats, but no special abilities.
    • Rakshasa Rani/Rakshasa Raja - Rakshasa are lion looking creatures, they're both large creatures and have the no retaliation ability. Rajas gain the dash ability, which makes them miss one turn, but they'll act in more turns.
    • Colossi/Titans - Colossi are large creatures and have immunity to mind control. They're pretty slow compared to other level 7 creatures, they can't fly and they have no ranged attack. Titans on the other hand, gain the shooter, call lightning spell and no melee penalty ability. Like all other level 7 creatures, colossi and titans are the most powerful, and expansive.

    Dungeon

     Dark Elf Assassin
     Dark Elf Assassin
    Or Dark Elves are rebels of the Sylvan faction, who long ago accepted the goddess or dragon of darkness and secrets, Malassa. The motto of the dark elves is “We rule the shadows, and someday the shadows will rule everything”. The dark elves have no real allies to speak of, as their use of assassins and dark magics make strangers weary of them. They are divided into clans, who are often in a rivalry at one point, or another. Some unique Dungeon buildings include Hall of Intrigue which increases the knowledge of all Warlocks by 1 (cumulative with other castles). Trade Guild sells Artifacts, at the beginning of each week gives some random resource. Altar of Elements that supports Elemental Chains racial ability, displays elements on own creatures what allows to plan attacks inflicting more damage. Creatures with opposite elements deal more damage to the enemy. 
    Units included into the dungeon faction are: scouts, assassins, blood maidens, minotaurs, dark raiders, hydras, shadow witches and shadow dragons. The homeland of the darks elves is called Ygg-Chall, or the dark bellow. Dark elves prefer to build underground, where there are shadows and darkness aplenty. Warlocks (dungeon heroes) prefer spell casting and dark magics. 
     
    Detailed description of Dungeon units: 
    • Scouts/Assassins - Scouts have shooter, no melee penalty (and ironically), ranged penalty. With the ranged penalty scouts will inflict less damage in combat, but unlike most ranged units, they'll have no trouble in melee. Assassins are identical to scouts in abilities, except they gain a poisoned attack, which damages the enemy each time at the beginning of their turn.
    • Blood Maidens/Blood Furies - Blood maidens are lightly armored, and have few hitpoints, but thankfully they make up for it in abilities. They have the strike and return ability. Once you attack an enemy, a blood maiden (and blood furry) will attack and return to their previous spot, no other unit in the game has this ability. Blood furies also gain the no retaliation ability.
    • Minotaurs/Minotaur guards - Minotaurs are pretty good offensive units, they have the bravery ability, which means their morale will never go beneath +1. The guard variation gains double attack, two attacks instead of one? Awesome. 
    • Dark Raiders/Grim Raiders - Are the Dungeon equivalent of cavalry. Dudes not unlike assassins ride on reptilian type creatures. Like cavaliers and paladins, dark/grim riders have the rider charge, which works similarly as the jousting ability. For each tile covered, the riders will inflict more damage. Both versions of riders have the large creature ability. 
    • Hydras/Deep Hydras - Both creatures  have the large creature, three headed attack, enraged and no enemy retaliation abilities. Deep hydras gain the regeneration ability, each turn they regain 30-50 hp. Three headed attack attacks up to 6 adjacent enemies, where as cerberus only attacked 3.
    • Shadow Witch/Shadow Matriarch - They're hot, that's number one. Secondly, the shadow witch has the shooter and caster abilities, they have the vulnerability, righteous might and slow spells. Shadow matriarchs gain whip strike ability, as well as the confusion spell. Whip strike only works if the matriarchs are attacked in melee and there's a chance that the matriarch will cast one of the following spells: slow, weakness or berserk.
    • Shadow Dragon/Black Dragon - 7th level creature, you know how it works by now, most expensive most powerful. They're both flyers and large creatures, shadow dragons also have the fire breath ability, which works the same way as acid breath. An attack will damage both the primary target, as well as any enemy units behind the first target. Black dragons gain one very nifty ability, magic immunity, 100%. This unfortunately leaves it immune to friendly spells as well.

    System Requirements

      • OS: Windows® 2000/XP (only)
      • Processor: Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ 1.5 GHz (Pentium® 4 2.4 GHz recommended)
      • Memory: 512 MB (1 GB recommended)
      • Graphics: DirectX® 9 compliant w/ 64MB RAM (128 MB recommended) (see supported list*)
      • DirectX Version: DirectX® 9 or higher
      • Sound: DirectX® 9 compliant
      • Hard Drive: 2 GB
      • Multiplay: Broadband internet connection

    *Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:

    • NVIDIA GeForce 4 / FX / 6 / 7 families (GeForce 4 MX NOT supported)
    • ATI Radeon 8500 / 9000 / X families, Matrox Parhelia
    • Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported.

    Prequel

    A prequel entitled Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes was developed by Capybara Games in 2009 for the Nintendo DS. The game spawned a different gameplay style which, in addition to some turn-based strategy, is a lot more of a puzzle game. The game is set about 40 years before the events of Heroes V, and include characters like Anwen and Godric in their youth.

    A HD remake for the XBLA and PSN downloadable services was released in 2011.

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