“The basic play of the game involves moving your heroes
around the map and gaining experience by completing a quest, taking
over enemy towns, or fighting free-ranging creatures or enemy
heroes. All of your heroes can recruit creatures into their
army to help fight their enemies. Some of these creatures come
directly from towns you control, others from independent buildings
around the map, and still others are unattached adventurers that
wish to join your side.”
“On the map, you’ll find treasures, artifacts, independent
buildings, creatures running wild, and resource sites (see Figure
1). The treasures give you extra gold, resources, or, in some
cases, experience points. The artifacts increase some aspect of
your hero’s skills, or his magical or creature abilities. Some
artifacts are guarded by creatures, and others you may have to
purchase….”
“Heroes have specific point values that represent their attack
and defense ability, their spell power, and their knowledge. The
attack and defense attributes determine how much strength heroes
add to their attacking forces against the enemy in nonmagical
combat, while the latter two attributes denote magical ability. The
hero’s spell power determines how powerful magic attacks can be,
while the knowledge value defines how many spell points the hero
has.”