This page contains general information about HoMM4 that does not fit into any of the other sections of the site.
Resources
One main aspect of the Heroes of Might and Magic series is building up your towns and hiring troops before going out to conquer. To do this, you need resources. There are seven of them, as shown in the table below. Of these resources, Gold is by far the most important- if you have no Gold, you won't get anywhere. All structures and troops have a cost in gold. Wood and Ore are the next most important: you need Wood and Ore to build almost all structures in your towns. Then there are the rare resources: Crystal, Gems, Mercury, and Sulfur. These are needed for most structures you build, including the mage guilds and Town Halls, as well as the higher level troop dwellings. The 4th level troops also require, in addition to Gold, one or two units of another resource (not necessarily one of the rare ones).
| Gold | Wood | Ore | Crystal | Gems | Mercury | Sulfur |
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The picture below is the same as you would see while playing the game. This bar appears on the bottom edge of the game screen. It keeps track of how many of each resource you have. This way, you can see at a glance what you have or don't have.
Alignments and Alliances
A key feature in Heroes IV is alignments. There are 6 alignments in the game: Chaos, Death, Life, Might, Nature, and Order. Each town type is aligned with a certain type; each creature is of a certain alignment; and each alignment (except Might) has a school of magic based on that alignment.
Another feature closely related to alignments is alliances; each alignment is allied with two other alignments. To see this more easily, look at the following diagram. It shows that the alignments on either side of a single alignment (and joined by lines) are allied with that alignment.
Note that Might, being in the middle, has no allies.
Related to the alignments is the hiring of heroes. In any town's tavern, you can hire might and magic heroes of the alignments allied with that town. It goes the same way as in the diagram. This means that in the Life town, the Haven, you can hire not just heroes aligned with Life, you can also hire heroes of the Nature and Order alignments. Note that, again, because it is in the center and has no alliances, Might is treated differently. Because Might is a (usually) magic-free alignment, in the Stronghold's tavern, you can hire might heroes of all alignments. But no magic heroes. You can hire absolutely any type of hero at taverns located on the adventure map.
Artifact System
Similar to Heroes III, Heroes IV has an artifact system where certain artifacts are equipped on certain parts of the body. Something interesting to point out is that in Heroes I and II, you didn't have to choose a position to put your artifacts in, thereby allowing you to equip multiple swords, shields, helms, etc! In the Heroes III and IV scheme, you can only equip one sword, one shield, and so on. This is, of course, more realistic and practical.
Below is an image, with letter codes, showing the artifact slots for a typical male Barbarian hero (the background picture changes according to the hero class, and the sex as well. The artifact slots are also in slightly different positions from class to class). To find out what a certain marked slot is in the picture, just look up the slot code in the table, and read the matching description.
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Spell System
Those who have played Heroes III will be familiar with it's magic system. For those who haven't, the magic spells in Heroes III are divided among the four elements: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. For a hero to learn spells past the 2nd level of any of the schools, the hero must learn a skill allowing greater proficiency in that school. Learning Air Magic, Earth Magic, Fire Magic, or Water Magic gives the hero the ability to learn higher-level spells in those schools, and allows the hero to cast those spells to greater effect.
Heroes IV has a similar system; it it different in that you must learn a school of magic to be able to learn any spells from that school, not just the 1st or 2nd level ones. Also, there are five levels of proficiency, as opposed to three in Heroes III. Besides the difference in the number of levels of skill, there are also more magic schools in Heroes IV. As opposed to Air, Earth, Fire, and Water magics from Heroes III, Heroes IV has Chaos, Death, Life, Nature, and Order magics. As you might have guessed, these spells are of the same alignment as the various towns, heroes, and types of creatures in the game. Barbarians are not associated with any type of magic, so there is no magic school for the Might alignment.
In each of the towns (except the Stronghold, of course), you can build a school of magic (different names in different towns) which teaches spells aligned with that town type. In those towns, you can also build structures that allow you to learn spells from allied alignments. For example, in a Life town - a Haven - you can learn spells from the Life school, as well as from the Nature and Order schools. To learn more about alignments and alliances, and their effects on learning spells, read the section on this page titled "Alignments and Alliances".
You can find out more about these various magic schools and their levels and effects on the Secondary Skills page.
Few, band, company?
| Desc | Range |
|---|---|
| Few | 1-4 |
| Several | 5-9 |
| Band | 10-19 |
| Dozens | 20-49 |
| Scores | 50-99 |
| Company | 100-249 |
| Hundreds | 250-500 |
| Host | 500-999 |
| Legion | 1000-2499 |
| Thousands | 2500+ |
The Grail
A special artifact in the game is called the Grail. You get it by visiting Oracles on the map, which reveal a section of a puzzle map. When you've visited enough Oracles (not necessarily all of them), an 'X' will be shown on the puzzle map, and if you know where it is on the overworld map, you can go there and dig. If you go to the right spot, and nobody beats you to it, dig and you'll find the Grail.
The Grail is not immediately useful; to make use of it, you must take it to a town you own. Upon entering the town, you will be asked if you want to build the grail structure in that town. If you say Yes, the grail structure will automatically be built - it doesn't cost you anything, but does count as having built something in that town on that turn.
The appearance and effect of the grail structure is different depending on the type of town it is built in. To see what it looks like, and what it does, just go to the Towns page and have a look on the page for a specific town. One effect that is common to all towns is that the grail structure generates an extra 3000 Gold per day - not bad!
Retreat or Surrender?
If you are in a battle and it does not look good for you, you can choose to fight it out (and maybe lose), or you can retreat or surrender. Retreat and surrender are similar in that you end the battle right away by leaving the battle. Read on for more.
When you retreat, you lose all the troops in your army, and your hero (you must have a hero to be able to retreat) will instantly return to the nearest town that you own. Note that you cannot retreat from a battle if you are within sight of one of your towns - the game will tell you that you are too close to town to surrender. While you lose your army, you still get to keep the hero, which may be worthwhile if it's a good hero or has a number of artifacts you don't want to lose. Note that it costs you nothing to retreat besides the army you lose in the process. Retreat is always an option for you if you are not too close to town, or you or the opposing hero do not have the Shackles of War (an artifact that prevents retreat or surrender by either side in combat). You can retreat from a battle with enemy heroes/armies, and from neutral armies.
An alternative to retreat is to surrender. When you choose to surrender, you will have to pay the other army a sum of gold which is equal to half of the total cost of your army. This can be quite a lot if you have a large army and/or many upper-level troops. On the other hand, unlike retreat, you keep your army and hero (if any). Like retreat, your army instantly returns to the nearest friendly town. The amount you have to pay to surrender is affected by whether you have the Diplomacy skill, and changes from level to level of the skill if you have it (e.g. higher levels of Diplomacy will more greatly decrease the amount you have to pay). You can not surrender to neutral armies (what would they do with the gold?).
If you are in battle, the enemy hero may offer to surrender. This usually happens if the hero has a good army and/or artifacts, and is outmatched. If you accept, the battle ends, the hero goes home with his army intact, and you get paid a (potentially large!) sum of gold. If you decline, the hero may fight it out (and win or lose), or might just cut his losses and retreat. Usually, unless you are absolutely determined to beat that hero, it would be a good idea to take whatever gold you're offered (unless you know you can defeat the hero before he can retreat). Even if you don't get to defeat the hero, you get some of his gold! His loss and your gain!
Statistics
All heroes and creatures have natural statistics; these include how many hit points the character has, or how much damage it does in melee combat, or how many shots it has, and so on. The list that follows shows the names for all statistics, the pictures representing them in the game, and their descriptions.
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Morale
All heroes and creatures have this statistic. Morale affects how soon in combat a hero or creature gets to act, and how much damage it does when attacking. The higher the morale, the sooner it gets a turn, and the more damage it does. The lower the morale, the longer it takes for the hero or creature to get a turn, and it does less damage.
Morale can be affected by a variety of things: artifacts, spells, certain skills a hero may have learned, visiting certain locations on the map or in town, and what creatures are in the army. Morale has a base rate of 1 if all the creatures in the army are of the same alignment (not counting heroes). For each other alignment added to an army, the army loses 1 point of morale. If you combine undead troops with any other troops (besides those aligned with Death), the army loses 2 points of morale. Undead, however, are unaffected by morale.
The pictures above show the different levels of morale. They are, from left to right, maximum negative morale, neutral morale (where there is simply no effect), and maximum positive morale.
Luck
Another statistic all heroes and creatures have is luck. Luck determines how much damage a hero or creature takes from an attack. The higher its luck, the less damage the creature takes. And when luck is lower, the creature takes more damage.
The pictures above show the differnet levels of luck. They are, from left to right, neutral luck (where there is simply no effect), and maximum positive luck. There doesn't seem to be a graphic for negative luck in the game, although you can have negative luck; the picture seems the same as neutral luck.
Town Cost Comparison
The table below compares the cost of fully building each town. The totals for a town include the cost for every structure in that town, even both of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level creature dwellings, even though you would only build one of each.
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| Academy | 105500 | 150 | 147 | 15 | 49 | 6 | 10 |
| Asylum | 98000 | 143 | 129 | 12 | 9 | 31 | 42 |
| Haven | 103500 | 199 | 155 | 32 | 21 | 0 | 0 |
| Necropolis | 97750 | 132 | 122 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 35 |
| Preserve | 104000 | 178 | 100 | 23 | 23 | 27 | 7 |
| Stronghold | 105250 | 156 | 146 | 46 | 5 | 18 | 7 |