Contents:
The Intro
Title: Heroes Chronicles
Release year: 2000
Developed by: New World Computing
Genre: Turn-based strategy
Platform replayed on: PC
Just one more turn.
As I wrote in my replay of Heroes of Might and Magic II, it wasn’t the Civilization series that introduced me to the “just one more turn” syndrome.
I also wrote that the third entry, Heroes of Might and Magic III (1999), was probably my favourite in the series.
I played countless hours in the early 2000s, and have considered featuring it here on Present Perfect Gaming for a while now. The decision to actually do so was brought about from my recent discovery that the expansions to Heroes of Might and Magic III, Armageddon’s Blade (1999) and The Shadow of Death (2000), were not the only expansions…
Heroes Chronicles was a series of campaigns released in eight standalone instalments through 2000-2001, following the release of The Shadow of Death.
It appears these instalments were designed as a lower-cost entry point to the main Heroes of Might and Magic III game. They don’t feature multiplayer, single-player non-campaign scenarios, or the map editor function.
To me it looks like an early form of episodic content, which I became familiar with in the mid-2000s with games developed by Telltale Games (such as the Sam & Max series). After all, if you bought all of these Heroes Chronicles releases, I’m sure you would have ended up spending much more than the cost of the main game and its two sequels…
But I digress. How did I not know that there was more to Heroes of Might and Magic III?? It’s also been on GOG.com for over ten years and I’ve never picked up on it.
My only defence is that the “Might and Magic” phrase doesn’t appear in the title of Heroes Chronicles. (I’ll admit that’s a weak defence…)
Having just discovered the existence of Heroes Chronicles, I thought it was a good opportunity to revisit an old favourite, but be able to experience it through a new campaign.
The Game
Heroes Chronicles continues the fantasy turn-based strategy tradition established with the release of Heroes of Might and Magic (1995), and is essentially a series of standalone expansions to Heroes of Might and Magic III.
The first instalment, or chapter, in Heroes Chronicles is titled Warlords of the Wasteland. It’s actually set before the events in Heroes of Might and Magic III, and follows the rise of Tarnum, a barbarian hero. Throughout this first chapter in Heroes Chronicles, you lead Tarnum through eight campaign missions.
Gameplay is the same as it has always been in Heroes of Might and Magic. From the strategic map, you control Tarnum and any other heroes for hire you acquire. From this view, you move your heroes and their forces around the map. Each turn is one day, with heroes having a limited amount of movement available to them each day. The strategic map is all about exploration, acquisition of resources, and conquering territory.
To build your forces, you need to control and maintain your towns and castles. These bases serve to generate military units. Building new structures provides access to new units.
But to build these structures, particularly those generating more powerful units, you will need those all-important resources.
Often, to gain control of resource-generating structures, you’ll need to fight for it. This brings you to the tactical map, where you control your hero and their forces on the battlefield.
You’ll also need to head out onto the battlefield when you come across enemy heroes and towns.
It’s often the familiar formula of securing your resources, building up your forces, and taking out your enemies that will bring success in Heroes Chronicles.
There are roleplaying-game elements, as Tarnum and any other heroes you recruit can level up, mostly through experience gained from combat. Hero levels provide primary skill increases, which predominantly aid you on the battlefield.
Levelling up also provides access to secondary skills, which your heroes can utilise on or off the battlefield depending on the skill. For example, the Logistics and Pathfinding skills provide more movement and make it easier to traverse difficult terrain, where the Leadership skill provides better morale to your units on the battlefield, making it more likely they’ll gain bonus attacks.
Levelling up is important, as you lead Tarnum in each campaign scenario, and usually carry your other heroes forward as well. It’s a lot better bringing experienced heroes with you into a new mission than recruiting new ones.
Another roleplaying element is inventory management. Tarnum and your other heroes can acquire artifacts, from exploration as well as from defeated enemy heroes. These artifacts can be equipped on the hero, and can provide bonuses such as increasing primary skills in combat or increasing resource generation.
If you’re new to the Heroes of Might and Magic series, I provide a more in-depth overview of the gameplay in my replay of Heroes of Might and Magic II. Though a different game, the underlying engine is similar.
With that said, I think it’s time we join lowly Tarnum the Barbarian and see how he became an immortal king…
The Replay
The Heroes Chronicles intro video is shorter, and much less epic than the intro to Heroes of Might and Magic III. I also found it slightly confusing.
The video shows Tarnum being slain on the battlefield, before appearing before a council of ancestors in the afterlife. This council decides Tarnum isn’t ready for eternal rest just yet, and sends him back to the land of the living.
I assumed this would be the start of his journey, but the narration then addresses the audience and suggests we want to know how Tarnum rose to become a great hero. Basically, it’s one of those stories that starts at the end. I just found it out of place, and would have thought the intro video could have been used to better effect introducing the actual story.
Apparently, it is important, as the first campaign mission states that knowing where it all began for Tarnum will aid in understanding him…
Perhaps it will all make more sense once I’ve played through this first chapter, or perhaps the entirety of Heroes Chronicles. It’s an intriguing start from a narrative perspective. I know Heroes of Might and Magic III is a great game, but can Heroes Chronicles deliver a satisfying story-driven experience?
The first campaign mission sees you needing to defeat the current lord of the barbarian clans, Rabak, so Tarnum can name himself king. Nothing too serious, then…
The story is front and centre during missions, as over the first few turns you get a lot of narrative text. The overall objective of this campaign is to overthrow the Wizard-Kings who rule the land once held by the great barbarian conqueror, Jarg.
This first mission is on a small map, which usually means the scramble for territory and resources will be swift and brutal.
I took Tarnum east, and soon found another barbarian town to liberate.
Towns are important, as they provide you with income each turn, as well as generating units to hire each week.
The story continues to develop, as Tarnum soon learns that the people no longer remember the time of Jarg. As such, Tarnum decides to seek out bards across the land, the storytellers and holders of history. Tarnum is hoping the bards will be able to help the population reclaim their identity and therefore support his aim to reconquer the barbarian lands.
Over the first two weeks, as well as taking over another barbarian town, Tarnum had levelled up multiple times and acquired a gold mine (increasing daily income). He now controlled the northern half of the map.
For a look at the gameplay over the first two weeks, check out my video on YouTube:
It was now time to turn Tarnum’s attention south, to seek out Rabak, and strengthen his claim to becoming King of the Barbarians.
So far, playing on the normal difficulty setting, progress had been straight forward. This first mission had been relatively low power, where you quickly muster your forces and start marching forward. This wasn’t going to be an epic battle—it was going to be a set of quick skirmishes.
Playing Heroes Chronicles came naturally to me; my experiences with Heroes of Might and Magic III had served me well. It all came back to me, particularly how to build up your towns and manage your resources. By the time I headed south, I had built up a reasonable force to hunt down Rabak.
Sadly for Tarnum, he discovers there are only four bards left. Like progress on the strategic map, the story progresses quickly in Heroes Chronicles.
At this point in the mission, I acquired a second hero. Though I didn’t need to in order to be victorious in this opening mission, knowing that I could bring this other hero forward into the following mission meant it was strategically advantageous to do so. A levelled-up second hero is better than acquiring a level one hero in the next mission.
It wasn’t long until I located Rabak and sized up his strength.
Tarnum was more than ready for this fight.
With Rabak defeated, his home base quickly fell.
Tarnum’s success has not gone unnoticed among the Wizard-Kings—the next mission in Heroes Chronicles sees Tarnum with a target on his back.
Instead of fighting barbarians, this mission sees you taking on a new opposition in Tower towns and units. The Tower town is one of eight original town types in Heroes of Might and Magic III. In this first chapter of Heroes Chronicles, you use the barbarian-themed Stronghold town type. Across the eight campaign missions, you only end up experiencing four of the eight town types, so Heroes Chronicles is more tightly focussed (or restrictive, depending on how you look at it).
The second mission also takes place on a small map, and with three Tower towns to conquer, there wasn’t going to be much room to move without coming across the enemy.
Moving quickly, I managed to take the Tower town to the northwest, and secured the western front.
This also meant access to Tower units.
Pressing the advantage, I led Tarnum east and took the Tower town in the northeast.
Nearing the end of this mission, I also managed to upgrade my Stronghold town to provide the strongest units: Behemoths (and the upgraded version: Greater Behemoths).
The final town was no match for Tarnum’s forces now.
The third mission changed up the victory condition. Instead of just conquering all enemy forces, there was a time limit. The remaining bards had been captured, and were now being ransomed in exchange for Tarnum’s life. The bards will be executed in three months’ time…
This mission was again on a small map, but the approach to the captor was restricted and linear due to the need to access a series of border guards across the map in order to progress into new territories.
At the start of the third week, one of the bards is executed.
Finding the border guards didn’t prove too challenging, and I managed to find the Tower town where the remaining bards were being held captive early in the second month.
Tarnum and his army made short work of the defenders, and the bards were freed.
The next mission sees Tarnum attempting to “unite” more forces under his banner. This time, you head into the Mudlands, which happens to be in the middle of a civil war.
You’ll be battling the Fortress towns, which produce armies of deadly creatures like basilisks, wyverns, and hydras.
But before you can lead Tarnum into the harsh, swamp-infested territory, he receives a captivating visitor.
It seems Tarnum will have a love interest in this story. Yalla, this mysterious warrior, informs Tarnum of what he’s up against, with three factions fighting amongst themselves.
She wasn’t wrong, as I hadn’t even managed to get Tarnum into enemy territory before one faction was eliminated.
For a few turns, the attention turns to Yalla’s story, but it isn’t long before it’s back to the mission at hand. This mission is the first in Heroes Chronicles to take place on a larger map, and once you head north the terrain is more difficult to travel over on the strategic map.
On larger maps, you’ll need to manage your supply lines. As I took Tarnum north, I used my other hero to transport the additional units to him each week.
Heading north, I didn’t encounter much resistance, and soon took the northeast and eliminated another faction.
Sweeping west, it wasn’t long until the civil war was ended with the submission of the third faction.
This victory brought the halfway point in this first chapter of Heroes Chronicles. The next mission was to be a long, hard-fought battle through a heavily fortified region.
This mission saw the introduction of the Castle town, with its clerics and knight heroes marshalling ground troops and cavalry alongside griffons and angels.
Taking place on another large map, you learn that nobody has ever been able to conquer this mountainous territory. It would take a large force to be the first.
At this point, there was a certain sameness to the missions that was beginning to frustrate. You always start each mission with a Stronghold town, with very few structures and a very small force. So each mission so far in Heroes Chronicles, you have to go through that same build up of structures and forces.
At least in this mission, there was the novelty of another new enemy to take on, and a new town type to manage once I’d started capturing them.
It wasn’t a particularly challenging mission, but it did take a while to fully explore the map.
In the end, I had entered the fourth month when the final town was captured.
Now when I complained just above about each mission restarting you with a small force, which thematically didn’t always make much sense as you’ve usually just amassed a rather large force in the previous mission, the next mission resorts to using the story to justify it.
Yes, that’s right. Having just put together a force so large and strong that it could conquer the mountain passes for the first time in history, you lose it all to a trap. An ambush.
Once again, we find Tarnum weak and surrounded by enemies.
From the narrative perspective, this mission, and the one following it, were about regrouping and building a force that could finally defeat the Wizard-Kings. From a gameplay perspective, these two missions just felt like they extended the campaign out for no good reason.
I also didn’t like the direction the story was taking, with Tarnum seemingly more extremist in his desire to wipe out the mages from the map.
The penultimate mission felt particularly egregious when confronted with peasant rebellions.
Tarnum believes the local populace is either with him or against him. Despite the peasants’ fear that siding with Tarnum will lead to retribution from the Wizard-Kings, Tarnum mercilessly slaughters them all.
I found it hard from this point to separate the story in Heroes Chronicles from the game I was playing and enjoying.
I wanted to play the hero, but this felt anything but heroic.
The final mission and conclusion of this first chapter of Heroes Chronicles did provide me with clarification and closure, however.
The mission itself was long, and fairly linear. It takes place on a large map, but it isn’t all accessible from the beginning. You also lose any other heroes you had built up.
It provided its challenges, where for the first time in the campaign I had heroes and towns defeated.
After nearly four months, I finally found the portal to the location of the final border guard tent.
Tarnum could then cross the border and lay siege to the final town loyal to the Wizard-Kings.
The campaign was over. The barbarian lands were liberated. But what of Tarnum? Would he become a benevolent leader, or despicable despot?
The Verdict
Let’s get back to that closure I mentioned just above.
Remember how in the beginning of the campaign it was stated that knowing where Tarnum came from will aid in understanding him, and why he was judged unworthy of the afterlife?
Over the course of the campaign, Tarnum had turned into a tyrant.
So it was foreshadowed, and it did come to pass.
In the beginning it was about liberation, but as it progressed it became about conquering and subjugating. Heroes Chronicles tells a descent-into-madness story of a flawed hero.
I’m not opposed to playing morally ambiguous characters, or exploring difficult themes. The lack of agency is what ultimately troubled me.
Heroes of Might and Magic is a series portraying good versus evil; there are good heroes and evil heroes. Heroes of Might and Magic III introduced neutral towns and heroes, and interestingly, Tarnum’s Stronghold town type is one of these neutral towns. Narratively then, it seemed there could have been space for Tarnum to make a choice along the way. In the game, this could have provided mission choices and alternative pathways.
This was actually featured in Heroes of Might and Magic II, where at the outset you choose to play the good or evil campaign. Even mid-campaign, there is a choice where you can turn traitor.
I understand it wouldn’t have been canon, as Tarnum already had a back story, and Heroes Chronicles provides his origin story. But that doesn’t matter, as we see this in gaming, particularly often in real-time strategy games like Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. There’s always a canon ending to each instalment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play it a different way.
I appreciate that incorporating story into real-time-strategy and turn-based-strategy games isn’t easy, as success in these genres largely depends on the strength of the gameplay. But it can be done well, like in the Command & Conquer series. Those campy cutscenes don’t distract or take away from the core gameplay, but enhance the experience.
In Heroes Chronicles, I like the intention of a story-driven campaign, but the amount of narrative text was substantial enough to become an annoyance, and the lack of choice led me down a path I didn’t enjoy.
As for the actual gameplay, Heroes Chronicles continues the excellence established in Heroes of Might and Magic III. Even after many years, it all came flooding back to me, and felt immediately comfortable. There was something cathartic about how intuitive it was to play, being so familiar with the gameplay.
Playing on the normal difficulty level, I found the campaign very easy to progress through. Veterans of the series might want to play at a higher difficulty.
As I stated earlier, I wanted to know whether Heroes Chronicles could deliver a satisfying story-driven experience. Perhaps the other chapters improve upon this start.
But just remember, in this first chapter of Heroes Chronicles, you’re on rails, and there is no exit at the next station if you find yourself wanting to get off.
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