Which campaign first

[gourley4p]

Hello! While we wait on release day with eagerness, I thought it might be fun to find out which campaign you single player fans will tackle first if we can pick them in any order. Feel free to share why you want to play that faction first.

[Madaxe]

I will probably kick off a skirmish map with Necro and also start the Stronghold campaign. Those are the two races I haven't played at all yet.

[gourley4p]

Those are the two races I haven't played at all yet.

So for you, the newness of the play experience with a faction will play a role? I felt that tug, too. I will cast my vote and post soon.

[Pol]

I would be going traditionally with Haven.

[gourley4p]

I would be going traditionally with Haven.

Is that traditional because it is your favorite faction, or is it tradition because Haven always seems to the central faction in the story?

[gourley4p]

My thought process...

Do I play a faction I don't really like first to get it out of the way?
Typically, I do not like to play Haven or Stronghold. With Haven, I get tired of this faction being given so much spotlight time. It seems everything revolves around them somehow, and the other factions are just supporting actors in the Haven story. Plus, their magic focuses more on buffs while I prefer offensive magic and debuffs.

With Stronghold, their lack of magic doesn't suit my play style. I wonder how the Heroes VII story for Stronghold will go. I notice that only a couple of the creatures have the Demonic Lineage trait, so I am curious if we will see any explanation about how the faction has evolved from magically engineered soldiers designed to fight demons to its own society. Why did the gnolls join, etc?

Do I play my favorite faction first since I will be burning to learn the story?
Usually, I like the story lines for the Necropolis heroes most. Also, I enjoy the Necromancy mechanic. I could play it first, but then I have burned through it. Still, it's tempting.

Do I play the faction whose mechanics I enjoyed most in beta?
Much to my surprise, I found the Dungeon creature lineup to be a joy to play in beta. Plus, the heroes have access to some good offensive magic. This faction fits me well even though I do not usually enjoy its lore.

Or do I simply play one of the two remaining factions, Academy or Sylvan, both of which fall in the middle for me?
I used to love Academy in Heroes III, but the construct mechanic in Heroes VII was less enjoyable to me. In fact, the entire creature lineup just didn't inspire (though I still would buy a cabir plushie). At the same time, they have good magic heroes.

Then there is Sylvan. I never got to test the Treant mechanic in beta. That one is weird. It seems odd to have your champion creature immobilized in the battlefield, but it could be neat to see how it synergizes with Blade Dancers. Plus, I loved the Pixies in beta. I felt they did a good job replacing the pathetic stacks we remember from Heroes III with a functional unit that could wreak some havoc because of its initiative and no retaliation trait. Mix int he fact that Sylvan heroes have a good balance of might and magic, and this becomes intriguing.

My vote: Sylvan

[Pol]

@gourley4p
B is right, Heroes were always Haven centric. From some unknown reason, this faction, representing us, was always having strong voice in Heroes Universum. So I always start here with campaign.

But speaking for H3 my favourite faction was Fortress. They were most fun.

What faction will be most fun here I don't know. Will say, after I will play, once.

[Madaxe]

Those are the two races I haven't played at all yet.

So for you, the newness of the play experience with a faction will play a role? I felt that tug, too. I will cast my vote and post soon.

Yep, correct. I want to try all of the factions. I may switch up on who I start with in the campaign...if the story flows better in a certain order, but to my understanding it was kind of designed to be pretty free flowing.

[gourley4p]

But speaking for H3 my favourite faction was Fortress. They were most fun.

Same here

[Avonu]

I don't know yet if I would play the game at all, but from a little data-mining I have done, I would choose Academy as my first campaign and maybe Sylvan/Dungeon as second one.

[Coldy]

Started with Academy, I'll go for it chronologically. :\

[Rife]

Started with Academy as well. Don't know if it's the reworked metamagic skill or the fact you start with so many skills right out the gate but magic is feeling SO much better than it was in the beta.

[gourley4p]

Yeah, I have been pleasantly surprised by how many improvements came between beta 2 and launch.

[BB Shockwave]

@gourley4p
B is right, Heroes were always Haven centric. From some unknown reason, this faction, representing us, was always having strong voice in Heroes Universum. So I always start here with campaign.

But speaking for H3 my favourite faction was Fortress. They were most fun.

What faction will be most fun here I don't know. Will say, after I will play, once.

Same here. Loved the Fortress, but sadly since Ubi came along, they re-dwarfishbed it into something unrecognizable.

I am still debating whether to play this at all. I never finished HOMMV and left VI before even one campaign, they were so bad. I am getting more enjoyment out of King's Bounty Crossworlds and Age of Wonders 3, and my time for play is limited.

[BB Shockwave]

Started with Academy as well. Don't know if it's the reworked metamagic skill or the fact you start with so many skills right out the gate but magic is feeling SO much better than it was in the beta.

reworked? How? Little info on that? Their site says nothing.

[Rife]

They changed how it worked completely, and the spells feel more even and more powerful as a result. And yes, the website is not really forthcoming with game mechanics in a lot of places. Metamagic used to work (or was supposed to anyway, but I could never really tell if it did which said to me it was a serious problem) where you would get certain effects by kind of chaining buff/debuff spells. Now it works on sort of a counter system, where every round your metamagic bonus increases by 1 (or two if you choose a certain skill and have a small pyramid warfare unit). Every Metamagic mastery level increases the metamagic bonus cap (3/5/10) and the bonus is added to your magic skill when casting (doubled if you choose a certain skill). When you reach the metamagic bonus cap in battle, the casting rank for all spells increase regardless of your actual skill in that magic school. So in effect, the longer a battle goes on, the more powerful your spells get. It is quite awesome, but note it just increases the power of spells, you don't get the extra effects of the spells unless you've got the actual skills.

[Akul]

I will play the maps in chronological order, alongside other HoMM maps from earlier games.

[gourley4p]

So, I should finish the Sylvan campaign tonight. I really have enjoyed it so far. It has had a fun theme and decent encounters. So far, I would say the second map is the most challenging, but we'll see how I feel after tonight.

Up next for me likely will be Stronghold. I don't really enjoy that faction much, so I would like to get it out of the way. That said, I have had some chances to interact with Stronghold in Heroes VII, and I look forward to powering up an offensive juggernaut of a hero and blasting through opponents.

[gourley4p]

So, I did finish the Sylvan campaign tonight. I really like the map design on the fourth stage. I started the Stronghold campaign and am enjoying the challenge of the first stage so far.

[Madaxe]

So, I did finish the Sylvan campaign tonight. I really like the map design on the fourth stage. I started the Stronghold campaign and am enjoying the challenge of the first stage so far.

I played two skirmish maps, one as Necro and one as Stronghold. Had fun, though the game bugs/performance and AI need attention. So, I decided to try some of the campaign next. Decided to try the Sylvan campaign on your comments that you enjoyed it. I agree with many comments about the "still" shots of the Councilor Table, that it comes off awkward and really screams "We ran out of money!" But, that being said, I overall like the 2-D stills during the opening mission and I like the dialogue method during the mission so far. Story seems interesting enough.

Game has been pretty stable for me.....for which I evidently should feel extremely fortunate