The War of Enroth Has begun

War has come to the world of Enroth, in the form of a tabletop, rank-and-file wargame designed by industry titans: Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers. The game promises to innovate and revolutionize the way you play wargames, so let’s take a small glimpse into some of these innovations.

Take the Initiative

An important aspect in Wargaming and indeed any Tabletop game, is player engagement. In today's fast paced world, no one has time to sit around and wait for their opponent to spend upwards of 5 minutes to move all of their troops, perform all of their actions and roll buckets of dice.Heroes of Might and Magic: Battles will break from the norm of “I-go-you-go” turn activation in favor of a system that will allow players to seize the initiative using their elite units with a high morale stat. This system will mean that players will have to think on their feet in order to perform counter maneuvers and attacks to catch their opponent off guard.

My Kingdom for a Card

Building an army list in Heroes of Might and Magic: Battles has been designed to reflect the beloved video game. Players will select their faction and Hero with the use of “Kingdom Cards”. These cards will determine more than just which banner you fight under, but also the type of reinforcements you can call upon during a battle. Players will have to choose wisely when to call for said reinforcements by carefully managing their accumulated resource points: Call for a smaller unit to enter the fray and help to overwhelm the opponent, or hold off for a turn to bring in a bigger, deadlier unit, such decisions could mean the difference between victory and defeat.

The Clue is in the Name

Heroes of Might and Magic wouldn’t be anything without its vast and unique pantheon of Heroes. As well as being powerful fighters, each Hero will have their own unique abilities and spells to turn the tide of battle in their favor. These spells and abilities will increase the effectiveness of their units and in some cases, such as the Necromancer Sandro, will allow fallen units to rise from the dead to fight again.

All About That Base

Let’s shake things up by going into the unique base system that will allow for fast-paced and easy game play. Aside from the Hero miniature, who will have a round base, all of the Rank-and-file units will come on square or rectangular bases. These models will then be placed on movement trays in numbers of 2-5 miniatures per tray, with 5 standard infantry, 3 cavalry, and 2 large beasts. So a unit of up to 20 standard infantry will sit on 4 trays, Making it super easy to position your troops and calculate your remaining forces.

Game types

We want players to have lots of variety with Heroes of Might and Magic: Battles, so the team have created 4 different ways to play: Open Play, Campaign Play, Organized Play, and Epic Play. Let’s explore, briefly, what each of these play styles will look like.

Open Play: Fight thrilling tabletop battles using any of the models in your collection. Pick an army, find an opponent,  set up the battlefield, and play. 
Campaign Play: Link the games you play together as you battle to carve out your own empire in the world of Enroth. 
Organized Play: Attend events and play a series of games against all comers to prove that you and your army are the mightiest warriors in the world of Heroes of Might & Magic!  
Epic Play: Fight large-scale team battles with your friends.

Designer Notes

And now a quick word from one of the pro game designers, Andy Chambers:

“I’m very excited to be working alongside my old mentor, the redoubtable Jervis Johnson, on a game as beloved as Heroes of Might and Magic. We’ve had tremendous fun already diving into the PC games and lore, and I think particularly with the kingdom cards we’ve got some great mechanics going to really connect the original HoMM experience to a tabletop game. 

The tabletop battle rules have clicked together really well, with Jervis doing all the heavy lifting and me throwing rocks from the sidelines just like in the old days when we were making games together in the 90s. It shouldn’t be a surprise, really, as we’re clocking in at a combined seventy years-worth of experience designing tabletop games (yes really), but it was still nice to see that we’ve still got it.”

We here at Archon are excited to bring this awesome new system to your tabletop in the near future. If you want to be the first to hear news of Heroes of Might and Magic: Battles, then sign up to our newsletter here.

Let us know what you think of this up and coming game on Board Game Geek and lets start a conversation.

Until next time HoMM fans, Cheerio.

Dave K