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For those intrested in the new race...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 28 / 29
Date: January 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It has become my way to write reviews about the new things in games, in particular how new races play. Having recently bought Hammer of Fate, I figured I would do the same again.

This expansion finishes what Heroes 5 started, i.e. the creation of a great Heroes game in 3D. 5 was a fun and enmeshing game that was almost as good if not AS good as Heroes 3, the benchmark of the series. Now, with the inclusion of this expansion, it is PROBABLY better.

By this I mean the expansion has the long awaited random map generator which makes for insane re-playability. It includes the caravans from Heroes 4 which means you no longer need extra heroes to run from castle to castle trying to keep one hero with a full army. Caravans also allow a town to buy from the numerous autonomous creature buildings you mark, a great addition.

Now let's move on to the new race that is a... interesting addition. If you care enough it is easy to look up creature stats online and see attack power and defense and all but I will give a general descript.

When I first started playing this race, I hated it. The primary start creature is the Defender, possibly the WORST start creature in the game. They have weak attack, health and speed. In their basic form Defenders do 1-1 damage. That means AT BEST you will do the damage of the number you have in the stack. 50 Defenders will do 50 or less damage... probably less. No big deal right? Peasants for the Knights are weak but with archers it's no biggy. Well... the next unit is called Spearwielders and they are awful too. With a piddly 4(?) shots and weak damage these shooters will be out of spears long before you reduce an enemy enough to send in the Defenders. And, as most players know, most early games come down to the 1st 2nd and 3rd tier of units. Which brings up the Bear Riders.

Bear Riders are supposed to be the fast attackers of the early Dwarf game. They are hopeless at it. Again, lack of speed at attack power plus only 25 hit points means that, unlike griffons, you can't hold back and wait for a certain kill. The enemy will more likely reach you first. Thus, early game can be a rough run for Dwarfs.

However, something funny happens when Dwarfs upgrade their creatures. Defenders become Shieldguard and now their attack is better, they are a great counter to fast movers like Paladins and they have a decent turn of speed. Spearwielders become Skirmishers and double their shots. Even the near worthless Bear Riders become Black Bear Riders whose special actually knocks back enemy units and stops a counter attack. From being the 3 worst units in the game, the Dwarf 3rd tier units are now some of the best. This trend continues through all the Dwarf units, with the exclusion of Fire Dragons, which rock from the start. Thanes, tier 6, are pretty poor. Their weak attack is supplemented by a lightning attack so they always kill twice what the computer says but besides being meat shields they lack punch. Warlords move fast, strike fast and do a great single range attack. Brawlers...bad. Berserkers have a no retaliation attack that tears through weaker units. And Runic Priests are ok but Patriarchs are better. And the Dwarfs grow fast. REAL fast. All their creatures populate in unheard of numbers so players can afford to lose a few more.

As an added bonus, the Dwarf special ability, Rune making, gives Dwarf army's a dangerous unpredictability. The Rune of Speed gets even the slowest creature across the map in one turn. There is a number of others that give attack bonuses, revive creatures and shield them from attack. You can't trust a Shieldguard to stay on his side of the map and only attack once. In fact, I would say this ability is probably the best CREATURE COMBAT special ability of any race, though that is arguable.

Finally, the Dwarf town is the hardest to crack in the game yet. With numerous extra defense walls, rune mines under the wall and a special that puts as many as 2K extra Shieldguard in your army, chances are any army will take losses in excess of the gain when attacking a well garrisoned town. And this defensiveness plays well to the Dwarf army, which can sit back, let the towers do their thing and kill any flyers that come over the top.

So... The Dwarfs.

Fun? Sure. Fire and Magma Dragons stumble around the map with great sinister and make for good times late in game. Dwarf Heroes add a great unpredictability to the game as well.

Powerful? Not entirely. Until a player upgrades his creatures even wild armies will be difficult to kill and that means slow recourses early in game.

Cheap? Not at all. To even stand a chance against other players Dwarfs need to buy TONS of extra buildings and upgrades. If anything, the Dwarf early game is deadly to Dwarfs,

A good addition? Absolutely. Weaknesses aside, once the Dwarfs get rolling, they are a powerful enemy.

Not Bad, Not Great, Some Expected

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 20 / 24
Date: November 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The first expansion to the Heroes V is not a bad one. I wonder if they included features here intentionally so as to justify an "expansion pack" or if they were really pushed up against a time frame and simply decided to wait until this release to include the Random Map Generator and the other (albeit minor) features.

I do appreciate the new artifacts and abilities because they enable me to make better customized maps (in my humble opinion). The dwarves are pretty cool to play with and the campaigns are alright.

Overall this expansion is kind of typical of what you'd expect nowadays. Basically, the game producers hold off with some nice features and release them separate from the base game. Monetarily speaking, in this case, the base game will cost you about $30 and the expansion will be another $30. For $60 you bought a pretty cool game, but I still think it is too expensive. This, however, is the norm nowadays.

The Heroes V game is a great upgrade in the series, only I would price this first expansion pack around $15 to be fair. But then again, everything costs what consumers are willing to pay for them.

To close, if you love Heroes V, this expansion won't be coming down in price any time soon, so you might as well decide HOW MUCH you love the base title. I would think this pack would delight the diehards more than anybody else, especially those who enjoy the customization more than the installation-provided scenarios. The Random Map Generator turned out to be a great product, and the added items, etc. make you want to be more creative and use more of the game's new tools.

Very Nice Add-on

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: November 29, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The add-on is well worth the money:
1. The cut scenes are more fluid and not choppy and the characters mouths actually move.
2. The random map generator should have been included in the original, but at least its in this expansion pack.
3. The campaigns are creative and fun to play, the storyline is a little weak, but the acting is better. The storyline spins off of the original campaign storylines. I believe it would have been better to start with a fresh storyline.
4. There are a lot of added features that are not advertised such as additial artifacts. The dwarven faction was very creatively designed maintaining good game balance.

Heroes of Might and Magic - Hammers of Fate Add-on

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This add-on adds new playable races and new creatures, but the two new features that I like the best, are; the random map generator, and the troop caravans. You can now make an endless number of fun to play maps, that seem more user friendly to me. Also, you can now move new troops from towns or external sources to the town of your choice. You no longer need to devote a hero to transporting troops. I have played all of the previous Heroes of Might and Magic, and this new 3D version is the best yet. Way to go Nival Interactive (Software Developer).

expansion pack makes better

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: June 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

When I purchased HMM5 I was extreamly disappointed with it. But now the expansion pack has made up for HMM5's shortcomings. 4 things have been added:
1. Caravans. These were missing but now have been added. Love this aspect.
2. Random map generator. There weren't very many single senarios, but now you can quickly and easily create as many quests as you want!!!! WOW!
3. New town. Dwarves. Starts out weak but becomes really hard to beat.
4. A timer. There is now a time limit for each turn. I didn't really like this feature. In the other HMM games, I could step away from the game anytime I wanted for as long as I wanted, but now if I step away - I come back and find I've lost several turns. Of course you can set the timer anywhere from 1 minute per turn to as much as 10. But this can really slow the game down because each enemy has that long! It can take more than 1/2 hour real time between turns!

One major con I found was that the game has a tendency to slow up on me, freeze and/or crash a lot.

Hereos of Might and Magic Hammers of Fate

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 6
Date: January 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Heroes 5 was a surprisingly good upgraded to the series. The graphics are tremendous and really standout. HOF is a must have, with the Dwarfs and caravans added make the play much better and balanced. You do need to have a good video card to play, I had to replace my 64M card with a 256M card to get the highest quality graphics and to speed up the movement.

GREAT GAME, JUST KEEPS CRASHING

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 13
Date: March 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

GREAT GAME, BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL, BUT HAS A MAJOR UNSOLVABLE PROBLEM, KEEPS CRASHING AND LOCKING UP MY COMPUTER.

Fun game for a LAN party :D

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It's pretty fun single player, but I definitely prefer to play this with a couple friends. Either HotSeat or via-LAN.
The addition of the Dwarves was pretty cool and the new Runic Magic is pretty pwn too.
Either way I recommend this game for anyone who has HoMMV.
Good stuff.

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