Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era

Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era combines empire building, turn-based tactical battles and RPG mechanics in a world of mythical creatures, spellcasters and champions. Explore a world of secrets and dangers in a narrative campaign about impending doom, or build cities and raise armies to conquer procedurally generated and hand-crafted maps. You can play solo or online with friends, in classic and new game modes.

Factions and heroes

Choose from six factions, each with its own heroes and units: the armored knights of the Temple, the elemental spirits of the Grove, the fire-breathing dragons of the Dungeon and the animated corpses of the Necropolis are among them. Their different units and abilities support varied tactics. Vampires and liches can drain life and raise fallen warriors, griffins can counterattack multiple times, and knights can lead powerful charges. Other abilities let units teleport beyond their usual movement range, summon reinforcements or hinder opponents’ spells and abilities.

There are over a hundred unique heroes, each with a starting army, skills and spells. As they gain experience, heroes can affect your empire and its forces in different ways: one might speed up army travel, while another improves unit initiative, favors recruiting a particular unit or generates resources.

Build your empire

You begin with one town, where you can construct buildings, recruit and upgrade units, and hire more heroes. Build structures to recruit stronger unit variants, or find creature dwellings on the map to add units from other factions to your army. Capture additional towns to bring reinforcements closer to the front and station garrisons to defend them; you can develop each town to suit the needs of its front.

Explore beyond your towns to find structures that provide resources, arcane power or defensive support. Each turn gives your heroes limited movement points, making every route a choice: you might head for a well to restore mana, or detour for treasure while risking that an enemy is nearby. Landmarks may be guarded by powerful armies, but defeating their guards can yield valuable rewards, including weapons, armor, rings and other magical trinkets. The right artifacts can strengthen a weak army or create unexpected combinations.

Tactical battles

Battles pit warriors and spellcasters against one another, from footsoldiers to hydras, phoenixes and minotaurs. Heroes cast spells from four schools of magic to damage enemies or strengthen allies. Turn-based combat rewards combinations of units, heroes, spells and artifacts, and even a skeleton warrior can become a serious threat with the right support. Ranged units can fire across the battlefield, opponents close distance quickly, and spells can strike from anywhere.

You earn Focus by dealing and taking damage, then spend it on powerful unit abilities. These can increase damage, defense, initiative or mobility. For example, a Graverobber can summon Skeletons, a Locust can leap to a nearby corpse and consume it for buffs, a Hierophant can heal weakened units, and an Arbitrator can teleport an allied unit forward. If the odds are overwhelming, you can pay to flee and fight another day.

Maps and game modes

Play on procedurally generated worlds or hand-crafted maps made by the developers and community members using the in-game map editor. Explore varied biomes and treacherous terrain, uncovering paths, chokepoints and alternate routes guarded by creatures and armies. Send out heroes to reveal opportunities and threats, race opponents to points of interest and secure the resources needed to build your economy.

The game includes a non-linear narrative campaign, skirmishes against the AI and battles against other players across three game modes.