Recently I've been thinking about the classic Heroes of Might and Magic games once again. For some reason, even though I liked the HOMM games from 3-5, I reinstalled the 4th one more often. I've only played the single-player campaigns for fun (I can only imagine how much longer the games would take player versus player). Might be a controversial statement to most HOMM fans, but what I liked about the 4th instalment that made it unique was the fact that you get to have your heroes actually fighting in the fray, whereas in the other HOMM games they mostly just cast spells from the back line. Players can also level them up and have them scale ridiculously into the later stages of the scenarios. It was memorable witnessing the progression of each unique hero during their quests. It was nice to see a legendary lone hero able to take on seemingly overwhelming opposing armies and prevail, or to have a small elite group of heroes working together to overcome insurmountable odds. Kind of reminds me of what I intend to do with this new opportunity that I've been working hard on lately. I want to feel like a Might and Magic(k) Hero who can rally an army to work together towards a great cause and to form a small elite team of go-now partners dedicated to helping others and achieving success. It would be truly epic and magic made into reality.
One of the things I've learned during my time playing Heroes of Might and Magic that resonates with me right now is the concept of the pyrrhic victory. In the game, players must raise armies, recruit new heroes, collect and manage resources, capture camps, garrisons or other strategic points on the map, and achieve victory by defeating all opposing heroes and armies and conquering their towns. The challenge is in making the most of every turn (day) and making the best decisions that carry forward with ripple effects that culminate into the mid and late-game. Do you build more creature habitats to increase growth for your armies first, or build a Tavern so that you can recruit more heroes sooner? Would you focus on amassing a legion under the command of a single hero, which could allow you to steamroll most hostile creature camps, gain lots of experience for your primary character and collect lots of powerful artifacts, making your hero stronger against your rivals' heroes? Or balance your armies under multiple heroes which could allow you to increase productivity, handle logistics better and scout further on the map, but risk losing battles if engaged with a mightier opponent? I usually like to build one hero and army up until they are doing well before I work on building new heroes to expand and hold my territories. Going back to the idea of pyrrhic victory is that in this game, if you do not achieve an overwhelming victory with each battle, you will end up losing chunks of your army until you no longer have an advantage, which means that your army loses momentum and is more vulnerable to defeat in the next battle. Especially if you build that character up and invest all your time and resources on them. There are numerous opponents to battle in each map and it is crucial to always have the strength to fight during the most pivotal times. So like in real life, don't overexert yourself each day because you still have all the future days in your life to live and you'll need to be strong enough to keep up the momentum in a sustainable way.
One of the things I've learned during my time playing Heroes of Might and Magic that resonates with me right now is the concept of the pyrrhic victory. In the game, players must raise armies, recruit new heroes, collect and manage resources, capture camps, garrisons or other strategic points on the map, and achieve victory by defeating all opposing heroes and armies and conquering their towns. The challenge is in making the most of every turn (day) and making the best decisions that carry forward with ripple effects that culminate into the mid and late-game. Do you build more creature habitats to increase growth for your armies first, or build a Tavern so that you can recruit more heroes sooner? Would you focus on amassing a legion under the command of a single hero, which could allow you to steamroll most hostile creature camps, gain lots of experience for your primary character and collect lots of powerful artifacts, making your hero stronger against your rivals' heroes? Or balance your armies under multiple heroes which could allow you to increase productivity, handle logistics better and scout further on the map, but risk losing battles if engaged with a mightier opponent? I usually like to build one hero and army up until they are doing well before I work on building new heroes to expand and hold my territories. Going back to the idea of pyrrhic victory is that in this game, if you do not achieve an overwhelming victory with each battle, you will end up losing chunks of your army until you no longer have an advantage, which means that your army loses momentum and is more vulnerable to defeat in the next battle. Especially if you build that character up and invest all your time and resources on them. There are numerous opponents to battle in each map and it is crucial to always have the strength to fight during the most pivotal times. So like in real life, don't overexert yourself each day because you still have all the future days in your life to live and you'll need to be strong enough to keep up the momentum in a sustainable way.
"Life's not a race but a marathon"
Another key concept is leverage. As mentioned above, you can get more done on the map with more heroes under your command. Each hero is fundamentally the same in terms of gameplay, except for some unique traits. Each new hero when starting out, should move to the training camps that increase their stats, rally a small army to help them win easy battles and gain experience to level up. You repeat the same successful processes with every hero, in every map, in every game, while learning the rules better and adapting as times change. In business, you want to teach, manage and support your team so that they can do what you do, if not better. Eventually you can retire and still reap the rewards from your efforts in helping to empower people to help other people. Learning and finding what works and what doesn't and just keep going and never give up. Your efforts will compound exponentially just like the heroes in many popular RPGs as they scale into the late game.
There are a lot of parallels to be drawn from video games that relates to real life. I could go on and on but I should sleep. If anyone still reads my blogs just know that I only have time to dump my ideas here and not really enough time to edit anything. I'm no English major and I don't get paid for this so please understand. I hope I'm at least able to get the point across and invoke some inspiration in a few readers. I've always been inspired by video games and want to refine how I express myself so that people can better grasp what I want to communicate. One day though I'll write a book and have every word, sentence and paragraph properly edited to make it easier for the reader.
There are a lot of parallels to be drawn from video games that relates to real life. I could go on and on but I should sleep. If anyone still reads my blogs just know that I only have time to dump my ideas here and not really enough time to edit anything. I'm no English major and I don't get paid for this so please understand. I hope I'm at least able to get the point across and invoke some inspiration in a few readers. I've always been inspired by video games and want to refine how I express myself so that people can better grasp what I want to communicate. One day though I'll write a book and have every word, sentence and paragraph properly edited to make it easier for the reader.