Heroes of Might and Magic III - Macintosh

With a huge roster of heroes, monsters, and artifacts, you control your personal corner of Erathia. The heroes go out to accumulate treasure and wipe out monsters on your behalf. In the meantime, you improve your land holdings, further strengthening your tactical position.

Quick thinking and shrewd tactical judgment are required to come out on top in this intrigue- and danger-filled world. Like many current strategy games, players do not have to settle for merely besting a computer. Network and online play are available for those wishing to test their mettle against a live opponent.

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is accessible to less serious gamers (those who don't wish to determine whether an orc can beat a power lich), but it provides combat statistics and a wealth of information to hard-core number crunchers. This admirable flexibility makes it a game that will appeal to anyone interested in sword-and-sorcery gaming. --Alyx Dellamonica

Amazon.com Product Description
Receiving news of her father's death, Catherine Ironfist, Queen of Enroth, sails for Erathia to attend her father's funeral. Fearing the worst, she assembles a military fleet as her escort. Arriving on the coast of Erathia, Catherine finds an allied wizard's tower, devastated from battle and abandoned, and learns Erathia is falling to its enemies. Mustering local armies, Catherine marches to Erathia's capitol, restoring lost land along the way. While rescuing Erathia's besieged capitol, Catherine discovers her father was poisoned with a goblet of wine. Setting herself up as queen, Catherine goes to war to restore Erathia's borders and discover her father's murderer. In the course of war, in an attempt to counter Catherine's recent successes, her enemies resurrect her buried father as an undead "lich" and make him general of their armies.

In Heroes III, you control the actions of heroes to complete mission objectives in a variety of conflicts taking place in the mythical land of Erathia. As heroes travel across the land with their armies, they can explore, seek artifacts, and find treasure, as well as lead their armies into battle. Towns can also have armies garrisoned for their defense and act as centers for recruitment, the learning of magic spells, and trading. Towns you conquer become part of your territory. You may develop your towns to provide yourself with offensive, defensive, and logistical advantages.

Missions can be self-contained single scenarios, linked together into multiscenario campaigns, or played as multiplayer scenarios against other human players across a network. While a vast array of predesigned scenarios come with the game, you can also create your own using the Map Editor tool.