Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has reinvigorated one of our favorite old-school strategy game series. There are only a select few games that fit this specific, yet beloved sub-genre of tactical battles, hero progression, and kingdom management.
‘HoMM-like’ isn’t exactly a commonly-used tag on Steam — but maybe it should be!
Whether you’re just starting to explore this incredibly deep genre, or you’re a long-time veteran, here are our favorite HoMM-like strategy games that scratch that Olden Era itch.
Age of Wonders 4
- Best Part: Create your own faction!
- Worst Part: Over a half a dozen expansion packs (and counting) can make this an overwhelming entry for new players.
My personal favorite game on this list, the Age of Wonders series can trace its roots almost as far back as Heroes of Might and Magic. The AoW series also been experiencing a nice renaissance over the last decade by Triumph Studios, with Age of Wonders 3, Planetfall, and now Age of Wonders 4.
While Age of Wonders also focuses on hero progression and tactical army battles, it borrows just as much from the Civilization series with resources, cities, and territories — as well as diplomacy, and multiple paths to victory. The fourth game is particularly exciting for completely unlocking factions, allowing players to create whatever race, culture, and society they wish to lead, and further customizing their faction through researching a variety of magical tomes throughout the game.
Broken Alliance
- Best Part: Immersive writing and voice acting make it more of a true role-playing game than most tactical strategy games.
- Worst Part: Full-time development has been paused, per the developer.
At first glance, Broken Alliance looks like a typical HoMM-clone, but it’s actually more of a traditional fantasy RPG, with a free-roaming overworld, and turn-based battles. The pixel art and animations are incredibly impressive, as is the storytelling and voice acting, especially for a tiny indie game.
The tactical combat, while obviously drawing inspiration from HoMM’s hex-grid battlefield, utilizes a unique card-based system, with limited stamina for each unit. The Early Access version features two of the four playable factions, the Nordic-inspired Anchorage, and the creepy cultists of Phobos. Sadly, the developer has paused active development for the forseable future due to lack of funding.
Heroes of Science and Fiction
- Best Part: An excellent sci-fi redesign of Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
- Worst Part: Some weirdly long load times and optimization issues.
The name may be a bit on the nose, but to be fair, the strategy game’s original name was Silence of the Siren (which is also the name of its cool multi-faction campaign).
In case you can’t tell, this is essentially a sci-fi version of Heroes of Might and Magic 3. But calling it a re-theme or reskin would be a vast disservice; Heroes of Science and Fiction is an excellent turn-based strategy game with its own original factions. It features some clever ideas that builds upon the classic formula, such as consumable and tradeable pickups, upgradable mines, and the ability to build some structures, such as turrets and mining drones, directly on the map.
We also really enjoyed the soundtrack, and the snappy writing and dialogue during the campaign missions. Who doesn’t want to play as hilariously corrupt, self-serving communist space-moles?
Hero’s Hour
- Best Part: Hero’s Hour 2 has been announced, and published by Hooded Horse (same publisher as Olden Era).
- Worst Part: Real-time combat may be too blasphemous for series fans.
The oldest game on this list (by only a few years) is Hero’s Hour, a pixelated HoMM-like with a major departure from the formula: real-time combat!
All the usual HoMM stuff is there: multiple factions of fantastical units, critical hero progression, castle and income management, and exploration of a world map in typical turn-based faction. But when armies clash, the game shifts into a chaotically delightful mess of dozens, if not hundreds of units going at it in real-time autobattling. Suddenly that stack of 40 goblins becomes 40 tiny, pixelated goblins!
We may miss the strategy of turn-based battles, but there’s no denying how well autobattling works within the HoMM framework. Plus, it has the added bonus of taking far less time to play through an entire map.
Songs of Conquest
- Best Part: Not just a name; each campaign mission features a unique bardic tale!
- Worst Part: No beautifully rendered (and orchestrated!) separate city screens.
The first thing you’ll notice about Songs of Conquest is its absolutely gorgeous pixel art. The second thing you’ll notice, at least for series veterans, is all the interesting ways Songs of Conquest attempts to rebalance and redefine the familiar HoMM gameplay.
For example, instead of mana pools, every unit helps generate Essence during combat, which is used to cast spells. Range units have strict limits on their range, while melee attackers can freely attack enemies who leave their range. Unit stats are capped at certain amounts, and heroes have to upgrade the Command skill to even field more than four stacks of units. Plus, maps with different elevation levels!
These interesting changes breathe new life into the genre, without radically altering what makes us love it in the first place.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is currently available via Steam Early Access. Read our review for more.
