Steam achievementsSuccessfully complete the indicated task to unlock the corresponding achievement. To view your achievements and stats in Steam, select 'Community', 'My profile', 'View all my games', then the game and view stats.Abstainer: Everyone knows that you are an Abstainer, because you are absolutely against the use of potions. Abuser: You are addicted to various potions. Some people laugh at you behind your back.

Disciples III Renaissance - vanilla. Disciples III Resurrection - Undead Hordes expansion. Disciples III Rebirth/Reincarnation - (don't remember. Disciples 3 Reincarnation is tactical turn based strategy RPG at it's core. You maintain areas of control for resources, towns for troops, and your small armies to move around and combat neutral.

Adventurer: When you were young, you explored all the attics and cellars in the neighborhood. And now you are filled with desire to explore the rest of the world. Architect: The cities under the patronage of an Architect are flourishing. Architects construct buildings of all types. Archmage: The Archmage can destroy enemies by using the most powerful spells. Brave: Brave heroes always rush into the heat of battle.

Builder: A Builder creates a well-rounded city. Builders are interested in many types of buildings.

Careful: A Careful hero is prudent. He studies his options thoroughly. Commander: The Commander is a great organizer, able to lead large armies of followers.

Conqueror of Cities: The Conqueror of Cities is a hero who is able to capture almost all known lands. Conqueror of Peoples: If you have captured all the surrounding lands, then you are the great Conqueror of Peoples. Conqueror of Villages: The Conqueror of Villages does not seek to capture all surrounding lands. Coward: Cowardly heroes always play it safe. Curious: You may explore a dungeon or two every now and then.

Destroyer: A true Destroyer smites all his enemies, leaving only dead bodies in his wake. Doctor: You are sickened by the sight of blood and do everything in your power to keep your followers healthy. Earth Mana Collector: You have a meager amount of Earth Magic. You rarely use Earth Magic. Earth Mana Guardian: You have collected a huge amount of Earth Magic. Nothing is impossible for you.

Earth Mana User: You have enough Earth Magic to use it any time you need. Explorer: All true Explorers map the new lands they have discovered. Fatalist: Fatalists believe in Fate and do not try to resurrect fallen warriors. Fire Mana Collector: ou do not rely on Fire Magic in battle. Fire Mana Guardian: A true Fire Magic Guardian uses a lot of the infernal energy in all his undertakings. Fire Mana User: The Fire Magic you have collected can be used to great advantage. Great Explorer: Only a hero who has visited every nook and cranny in the land can be called Great Explorer.

Healer: You take excellent care of your followers. That's why they call you the Healer! Invincible: The great Invincible hero loses only a few small battles, but wins all others. Leader: A true Leader is one who can unite several trusty heroes into a strong team. Life Mana Collector: You have been able to collect some Life Magic. Life Mana Guardian: You have a huge amount of Life Magic and your possibilities are endless. Life Mana User: You have an adequate amount of Life Magic.

Loner: Some heroes do not have much use for trusty sidekicks. They believe in their abilities only. Mason: A Mason builds only those buildings that will help the war effort. Master of Destinies: You do not allow Fate to govern the lives of your followers. You rule over them yourself. Merciless: You give no quarter to your enemies. You are Death incarnate.

Money-Bags: You are called Money-Bags behind your back. But you pay no mind to envious losers. Pacifist: Learned men call him a Pacifist, but they do not say what the word means. In any case, he rarely draws his sword.

Pauper: An empty purse does not necessarily translate into failure. Sometimes the war may be won by improvised means.

Quack: A Quack can heal various indispositions and light wounds. Quarry Owner: The amount of stone you have is incredible.

Only Quarry Owners have as much of this resource. Rich Man: Your coffers are filled with gold. A wealthy state is a strong one. Sage: Sages believe that direct conflict does not always lead to victory.

Solicitous: If your followers fall in battle, you try to get them back from the realm of Mortis. Stone Merchant: You have collected a considerable amount of stone. It is enough to build any building. Stonemason: Construction is not your favorite hobby. The amount of stone you have is not enough to build even a small town.

Strategist: You try to only engage in battle on your terms. But you also take a lot of pleasure from crushing your enemies. Taster: A Taster knows a lot about potions. That is why he uses them in every major battle. Tomb Raider: Real Tomb Raiders love to explore all kinds of ancient and mystical ruins.

Training Dummy: A general may win the war even if he loses a lot of battles. But his soldiers will call him Training Dummy. Traveler: The Traveler is a hero who does not look into each nook and cranny, searching for secrets and treasure. Veteran: A decent Veteran wins as many battles as he loses.

Walker: Walkers go straight to their destination and never turn off the road. They are not interested in exploration. Wanderer: Real Wanderers explore all the roads and paths they find. Warrior: The true Warrior destroys his enemies mercilessly and no obstacle can stop him. Wayfarer: Some heroes like to look for shortcuts and explore secret paths. Wizard: Wizards know the power of magic well, which is why they use spells quite often. Wizard Apprentice: Wizard Apprentices rely on the strength of their armies and only rarely use magic.

::UPDATE::I've scrapped this first post and am replacing it with a copy and paste of what I just posted on the Kalypso forums at at Chip's behest. It's a more refined version of the first two pages of this thread.Thanks for reading! Also: here's hoping the formatting holds up between forums.Given the. Less than stellar reaction from Russian gamers when Disciples III was first released, I was understandably hesitant about buying the game. In the end, my love for Disciples II pushed me to purchase the game through Impulse.I'm going to share my reaction to the game for people who, like me, may be on the fence, or who haven't been able to find much info (in English, at least) on the game. This review is primarily aimed at people who are familiar with the series, but I've included some basic info in the hope that newcomers will also find it useful.Let's begin simply: I like it.

The rest follows in no concrete order.Preface:There are some diversions from the Disciples II mechanics, as you no have heard. These, mainly, are the switch from the old 'front-line/back-line' combat to the hex based tactical combat style used by the Heroes of Might and Magic and King's Bounty series, and the removal of plantable rods. I'll talk about these changes more below.Despite these changes, I honestly have to say that Disciples III is amazingly true to the series' formula. The units, unit progression, town management, spell research and list, overall theme and artistic direction have all been, by and large, carried over intact. Disciples III feels like the true sequel to Disciples II. It feels strange to have to say that, but the tidbits I had heard from across the iron-curtain gave me the impression that Disciples III was not true to the series, and I have to respectfully disagree.Game-Mechanicy-Stuff:Buildings/Capital:The mechanics are identical to DII. You can build one building a turn, whether they be unit progression buildings, ore one of the three utility buildings, the Magic Tower (allows spell research/casting), the Temple (allows healing/reviving units for a fee, or the Guild (allows thieves).

Your capital is still guarded by a very powerful unit.A nice addition, though, is that your town contains a shop with some basic items and a few accessories. This saves you from searching out shops when you want to sell things, and allows you to load out parties before they leave.Units:At this point, I've only played with the Imperial faction. The units are the same as I recall from Disciples II, with a squire, an archer, an apprentice, an acolyte and a 'large' unit, the titan. (I seem to recall an angel fulfilling this role in DII, but perhaps my memory is failing me.) These units perform just like they did in the previous game.Units also progress in the exact same way, where you have to choose a career path for each class by constructing the corresponding building in your capital. A squire, like before, can become a knight or a witch-hunter, depending on which upgrade building you chose. While these career paths will fulfill largely the same role, they have enough tactical flavor that you will develop personal favorites.For instance, each of the squire's possible paths deal with doing damage to single enemies, and protecting your weaker characters from taking damage. They do this through better armour, hit points, and attack damage.

Your first choice, along this path, is whether to upgrade to knights or witch-hunters. Knights are essentially just a tougher squires with a new ability, but they lead to stronger units later. The witch-hunter, on the other hand, isn't as tough, but deals more damage with two attacks.

And he looks cooler. A later unit, the Angel, retains all the hp and armour of the class, but has a ranged lightning attack and can teleport. They all have the same overall role, but achieve it in different ways.Another example is the acolyte.

Fans of the game will know that you largely choose between two paths with the acolyte. One can heal a single party member for a large amount, the other heals all party members at once, but for a lesser amount.A quick note on neutral units: All the old ones I remember are there, and have the same feel. Peasants, thugs, those advanced-thugs, goblins, orcs, trolls, wolves, men-at-arms, zombies, etc, along with some that I don't recall, like Earth and Air elementals, shambling treant-like beings, unicorns, spearmen, giant spiders and more. Also included are some units from the races that were not included in the game (but I am betting will be in upcoming expansions.)Leaders:The leader's lineup sees some changes, but overall remains the same.

You still have the Ranger, Archmage, and Fighter, and Thief leaders (the fighter is now a 'Warrior Nun'), but with the removal of rods you do lose the Rob Planter leader. Leaders have all the usual fantasy attributes (Strength, Dexterity etc.), and statistics covering leadership, strategic and combat speed, as well as 6 resistances tied to magic system.

All of these can be increased in one way or another as the game progresses.Leveling up and customizing your leaders has changed, but in my opinion it is better system. When you reach a new level you have two sets of points to spend. First, you receive points to spend on your leader's attributes to make them stronger, tougher, less likely to be hit, etc. Second, you receive points to use unlocking new bonuses and special skills. Disciples III uses a new grid-based system, which I find to be very similar to the system used, I believe, by Final Fantasy 11 (Or whichever one had Vaan and the jungle-dwelling, barely-dress bunny women).It works like this: Each leader has a grid, the contents of which are based on their class. The grid isn't entirely square, and has a few holes in it, just to make it more interesting. Each square or tile in the grid has some sort of bonus on it, from the mundane (+2 strength, +2 combat moves, +10% fire resistance) to more useful abilities and unique skills (+1 leadership, multi-attack, revive dead), Working from roughly the center of the grid, you spend a point to unlock an adjacent tile, which, in turn, gives you access to its neighbors.

The better skills are located around the edges of the grid.I'm a fan of this system. I like that I can see all my options, and this helps me plan towards specific goals. If I'm feeling underpowered, I can head work towards unlocking a leadership boost so I can include another unit in my party. For my archmages, I like trying to grab all the intelligence bonuses to increase my damage.

The graphics and visuals of this game are very much improved and you will feel that certain shaders have been added. Restaurant empire tycoon ii.

It's a very easy system to get into.You still choose the profession of your main character from the classic three: Warlord, whose parties regain some HP each round, Archmage, who can cast two strategic spells per turn and has access to better spells, and Guild Master, who collects more resources, and whose Thief leaders are more powerful. There isn't a lot more to say about that, as it is also unchanged.Magic:As far as I have seen, the mechanics behind spell research and casting, as well as the spell lists, are the same.

You still need to build a Magic Tower to allow spell casting, you still can research one spell a day, and you can still cast one spell (two for Archmages) a day. The spell lists depend on faction. The Imperials get the usual line-up. Level one, for instance, includes a heal spell, an armor spell, a weak damage spell, a weak summon spell (living armour). One that I don't recall (sorry!). It's the same list as DII. I haven't looked into the other races, but I expect the same to be true.A new addition, though, is that you can now create magic runes based on the spells you have researched.

Despite the name, these are essentially scrolls from any other game. They are single-use versions of your spells which can be used in combat. There is a little more to it than that, but it gives you an idea.Strategic Map:The Strategic Maps, or World Maps, work just like they did in DII. Your party travels around the world expending movement points, looking for enemies, treasure, random goodies, and magical sites which can grant temporary or permanent bonuses, heal your party, or refill some of your movement points, allowing you to explore further. Neutral enemies usually guard treasure, special sites and main paths.

For an old Disciples player, this is all familiar.Oh- and the neutral enemies are all familiar.There are a few additions to the map, the first is in the form of dungeons. Dungeons are like other combat encounters except that they are refreshed every 10 turns, so you could return and fight its inhabitants again.The second addition are Nodes, which have replaced the Rod mechanic of DII. I'm not a huge fan of this system, but I can see some of the benefits of using it.Rods/Territory:This is the first real difference between DII and DIII. Instead of a leader who can plant and remove rods, which allow you to lay claim to territory, the game now uses Nodes. Nodes, by-and-large, act like rods, but have a fixed location.If a player captures a nod, it begins spreading their territory outward from it. When mines and other such resource generating locations pay out to whichever player controls the territory in which they reside.

Each race's territory has a different visual style. In Imperial territory the trees are a lush green and the ground is covered in grass. In Elven territory, the land is in a constant state of autumn. The trees are all orange red and brown and the ground is covered in fallen leaves.Once a node has been captured, it becomes host to a guardian spirit. This spirit becomes more powerful and gains new abilities over time, and must be defeated if another player wishes to capture the node for themselves.Combat:This is the main departure from the series. Combat now takes place on a tactical hex-based maps, very much like in Heroes of Might and Magic and King's Bounty. Your party members can now move around during combat, to try and gain an advantage against enemy units, or to sneak around and attack weaker enemies hiding in the back.These tactical maps contain two types of special features.

The first are objects such as logs, stalagmites, and boulders, which are impassible and break up the map. The second are tiles which grant a strong bonus to either ranged, melee, or magical attacks (and healing spells). Using these tiles will make battles much easier to handle.

Letting your enemy use them is a bad idea. In some tougher encounters attacking from bonus tiles is the key to victory.As I mentioned earlier, units are largely the same as in DII.

And, while the tactical combat has changed, the unit roles and strategies have not. Parties that were viable before, like my old favorite 'assassination squad' with a ranger, assassin, and two melee units/one large unit, work just as well as before.You do have to put some more thought and effort into it though. You have to work harder to protect your support and ranged units, or work at circumventing your enemy's melee units so you can strike at their support.

Many units, now, have special abilities. Titans can cause an earthquake which damages all enemies, Imperial Assassins can poison, some daemonic units have life draining attacks, etc etc. These can all be used in place of a unit's standard attack or heal.A new mechanic is 'Cover.' When a unit which can cover (namely, front-line units) stands next to another friendly unit, he is covering that unit. Should that unit be attacked in melee, the covering unit (if within reach) interrupts the attack with one of his own, possibly killing the attacker before they can do damage. If the attacker survives, it carries out its attack, only against the unit which provided cover, not the original target. This rewards you for careful placement of units, and allows you to better protect your weaker support units.There are some combat options I enjoy.

The first is auto-combat, which will play out both sides of the combat in real-time, and can be toggled, so you can jump back into control at any time. The second is resolve combat, which will finish the combat in a matter of seconds, but still follows the same combat mechanics.

To clarify, some automatic resolutions in games don't play through the combat using the same mechanics as manual combat, but instead use different systems which are easier to compute. DIII doesn't take that route, for which I am glad.Party sizes are generally the same, and can be improved a little as leaders level up. Not a lot to say here, it's essentially the same as before.Overall, I feel the tactical combat is interesting and fits, but suffers from a lack of polish and some poor combat AI.The combat log doesn't scroll properly, and as a longer battle continues, current info either isn't added, or is properly brought to the top, and you are left with outdated messages.There is a real lack of information that you would expect in combat. While you can look at whether a unit is buffed or debuffed, you can't find out what the actual buff or debuff is. Likewise, there is no description or tool-tip in regards to special abilities for enemy units, (or units you don't have access too/haven't yet recruited).

Likewise, this holds true for abilities on a leader's skill grid. You won't know what it does until you 'purchase' it.Also, I feel that the spell casting units are underpowered a bit. I haven't used the higher-level ones, but the apprentice and it's next two upgrades leave me underwhelmed, and I wonder if the imbalance continues throughout the class.There are some bugs with the combat, namely inconsistent AI. Enemies like to focus on a specific target and will generally continue attacking that target until one of them dies. Unfortunately, this means enemies are prone to ignoring units they could kill, if only they would switch targets.

Also, if there is no path to their preferred target, will sometimes just stand in one spot until an opening presents itself.In Auto combat, I have noticed some of my ranged characters don't seem to be attacking every round. I need to test it a bit more, but I think I'm correct.

This is a big annoyance.In a funny reverse of that problem, I have noticed that one of a story-line character's skills does nothing when I use it manually, but does work during auto-combat.That's a lot on combat, so lets move along.Visuals:Disciples III is a good looking game. It's not amazing, but modern 3D combined with the dark, somewhat Gothic, art style of the Disciples games combines too create a game easy on the eyes. Oddly, though, the game lacks some standard options such as AA. The game doesn't need it, it's pretty clean, but I do notice a difference when I force AA through my gpu.The world map has some nice touches, such as swaying trees, day/night lighting, and, in Elven territory, falling leaves that I can only describe as pleasant and calming.Character models are pretty fleshed out, and certainly have their own character and style.I do have one complaint, though, and that is that the color pallet used in the game is a little too limited. This is a result of the series' visual style, as a whole, which has largely focused of grey, white black, silver, brown, green and red. Other than the trees and grass, almost nothing in the game is 'vibrant.'

Again, I think this is a conscious choice on the part of the developers, but I would have appreciated a little more colour, especially in characters.All-in-all, though, I think the art team did a fine job translating a 2D game.Interface, General UI:While the art is great, and the interface looks nice enough, I find it, at times, less that intuitive. The lack of tool-tips and general info I mentioned earlier is a problem that extends to this portion of the game.The area which lists your leaders only has room to display 3 at a time, and it isn't readily apparent that it scrolls through them. Add to that the fact that, for humans at least, each of the leader portraits are very similar, causing me to look twice in order to tell which hero is which.Additionally, the mini-map doesn't display everything it really should. It will display cities, parties, and nodes (and territory), which are the bare minimum in my view. I'd like, at least, to see resource buildings, shops, and recruitment sites to be included.Not that it is all bad. I'm pretty sure the buttons that lead directly to the build and research screens are a new addition, and I'm thankful for them.Gameplay-Contenty-Stuff:Tutorial:While the tutorial has some neat features, I felt its. To be too indirect, and this combined with some bugs in the help menu really spoiled my first impression of the game.The tutorial, while heavily scripted, only makes use of the in-game help menu to teach you basic concepts.

This menu is pretty cool in that it gives you a short video along with each topic, but the list contains maybe 20 topics, and doesn't include any sort of glossary, or information on anything beyond the most basic concepts (How to move, how to end turn, how to use items, how to save and load, the basics of combat etc.). Also, the written text is pretty damn brief.

The manual goes into more, but not nearly enough for my tastes. Back on topic, though!The tutorial is designed so that as you proceed through the little map, the help menu pops up, open to the topic that is relevant to your situation.

When you first run out of movement points, it opens to the topic telling you how to end your turn, and so on. Unfortunately, when I ran through the tutorial, this didn't work properly.

Every time the help page opened, it displayed the last topic I was looking at. So while I could guess what was happening, some people will only see a help page popping up once or twice a turn for no reason at all. Even I was annoyed.Campaigns:Disciples III really recovers after the tutorial.

There are three campaigns, one for each race (Humans, Elves, Daemons), and while I haven't tried the other two, the human campaign so far has been great. The story is pretty typical of any fantasy game, but the individual maps/missions are put together really well, offering great balance, pacing, and plenty of side quests/missions to mix things up. A high degree of work and polish went into the campaigns.I have been very happy with this portion of the game.Scenarios:This is a bit of problem. Scenario maps, in DIII refer solely to single-player only, highly scripted maps, but not to general single or multiplayer 'skirmish' type maps.

This is not a distinction I had initially made, and I was dismayed to discover there was only two scenarios, and one was the tutorial! I'm hoping that there are more, and that they were only left out because of delays in localization.' Skirmish' Maps:I'd originally missed these, as they were located under multiplayer, which is, at the moment hot-seat only, though rumor has it Russian players have a beta version of network play.There are 5 skirmish maps, 4 two-player maps, and a three-player map.

Any of the races can be set as AI, so these maps work just as well in single player. Still, the lack of greater variety is a letdown.Bugs and general issues:Bugs:One of my concerns was over how buggy it seemed the original Russian release was. I'm happy to say, though, that aside from the AI combat bugs (which are a real concern), I have only encounter 2, and both are minor.First, the mouse will sometimes stick after a dialogue scene. Hitting Esc fixes this. Second, accessing the help menu during combat will distort the game's colours, rendering text in a fuzzy white, and turning the rest of the screen various shades of hot pink. If I close the help menu, it reverts to normal.Otherwise, nothing. No CTDs, no game breakers, just inconsistent AI, one broken skills, and a glitch tutorial.Voice Acting:The narrator, despite doing a good job in Disciples II, and Kohan I & II, does a really bad job in this game.

He delivers his dialogue in monotone, and varies the speed of delivery at odd moments. It's poorly done and really distracting!Localization:By and large it has been flawless. But there are a few minor issues, such as the Warrior Nun being referred to in some instances as 'Girl Warrior,' Node Guardians being referred to using 2 or 3 different names, and two separate and unique units with the name 'Imp.' Old Problems:Disciples III inherits one problem that has always bothered me in the previous games: secondary and tertiary (and so on) parties are difficult to train! This is more true in the campaigns than the skirmish maps, as the campaign missions (or at least the ones I have played thus far) seem to be balanced around your main party, which is a fair bit more powerful than subsequent parties, and which, frankly, kills all the early enemies and takes all the good loot before you can afford to get a second party going.Like I said, this is an old problem, stemming from a limited number of weak, early encounters, a more powerful initial party, and the game's unforgiving combat. Disciples III has some changes that help relieve this, namely a greater number of, and easier access to, useful items, dungeons you can revisit, and recruitable mid-level neutral units.

Still, I find training up extra parties to be a somewhat longer and more tedious process than running around being awesome with the initial partyTL;DR: Or Summary:Disciples III is a good, solid game, that stays surprisingly true to it's roots while managing to update one of the series' more dated mechanics. In fact, it recaptures so well that which made Disciples II a great game that you will likely find yourself falling into old habits and strategies without noticing it at first.

The campaigns are very well constructed and highly polished, but other game modes suffer from a lack of content. The new combat system suffers some definite bugs and a lack of polish, but shows real potential. If you liked Disciples II, you will almost certainly enjoy this.

If you liked King's Bounty or HoMM, you may well enjoy this.-Louist. Wow, didn't realize. It says it won't be available worldwide until July 13th. Hmm, well, I loved D2, so, Louist, please do play it and tell what ya think of it.I was a little let down by the fact it only has three races (Legion, Elves, Humans) but that's a minor thing I guess.Louist, yeah, seems like I read that the initial release was a bit buggy and like I mentioned they only have three races, but I think the initial release (in Russia only I guess???) had or is having the bugs worked out. Oh, and translated of course from Russian.

D'oh, I didn't look closely enough at that release date! It was in the New Release section of impulse, and I didn't look further than that. Either way, I've purchased it, so I'll let you know in a few weeks x.xAs for only three races, DII only started with 4, if I recall correctly (human, undead, daemons, dwarfs?) It's a bit of a let-down, but being a TBS junkie, I can't say no. And I to hope that the time between releases has gone into bug-fixing as well as localization.Just get the Russian one What do you mean you don't speak Russian? J/KDefinitely let us know how it is.

I was a big fan of 1&2 and my wife likes 2. Atomic society review. If it's any good at all I'll end up having to get it for her if not for my-self.

Hey now, I've had a lot of crappy pizza, beer or no. I mean, have you tried Domino's? It's a pity I crave it when drunk, because every year it morphs into something a little closer to cardboard.Setting issues with Akella aside for now, A lot of the strategy games I enjoy these days are coming out of eastern/northern Europe.

My favorite publishers right now are Paradox and 1C. The west still seems fixated on RTS titles (Firaxis is a notable exception) and the good ones are pretty far between. Sins was good, don't get me wrong, but when we do a LAN session we are much more likely to load up WC3. Despite being what-6 or 7 years old?-It still has that lasting appeal that many since don't.

Elemental, of course, is shaping up to be something I will find as gripping, if only I could find a decent counter to the AI's amazing ability to recruit a million championsBut. Disciples III. I'll let you all know. First Impressions (Mid-Tutorial):Largely objective Pros and Semi-Pros:.The game, despite what you may or may have not read is certainly a Disciples game. The town management is identical, though there is now a merchant in your capital, and I am pretty sure that was not the case in DII.

Being able to equip a leader from the get-go or sell off items without having to find a merchant shop is a great addition to the game.Unit progression is not only handled the same, but at first glance, at least, is based around the same units. Squire can upgrade to knight or to witch hunter, etc.

I haven't leveled any up yet, as I'm still in the tutorial, but we'll see if there is any greater customization.Leaders are largely the same. Your main character is one of the three main classes of the previous game with the same bonuses (archmage can cast spells twice a day, guild-masters generate more resources). There are some changes to the recruitable leader roster, though. Gone are the rod planters. A new one in the tutorial is the Warrion Nun. I named mine Joan.Armies can be larger.

There are 9 unit slots in addition to your army leader, allowing for, one assumes, larger armies. (original had 6, yes?) However, I don't have the leadership on either of my heroes to fill even half those slots.They've beefed up the stats. There are a bunch of them, from mainstay attributes like Strength, Dexterity, etc, Initiative, magical resists (6-one for each element), combat movement, and cover.

There aren't so many as to be confusing but more than in DII. On level up, leaders can allocate 3 stat points.While I haven't had it come up in combat yet, the tutorial tells me that I can tell stronger units to cover adjacent weaker ones, allowing those stronger units to interrupt attacks against their squishy friends. Looks promising, but I wont know until it comes up.Leader skills are a bit different. Instead of choosing from a couple options as you level up, you get three points which you can spend on a grid system. The grid (I'll post a picture later if I can figure out my photobucket account info) seems to be different for each class, and each square contains a stat boost (+2 strength) or special ability. You start out in the middle of the grid, and work your way outwards in whatever direction/order you want. The best abilities are out at the edge of the grids (resurrection, double attack, etc).The game is good looking.

Not great, and some people might be turned off by the gritty art direction, but in a way it stays true to the previous game, and all in all it looks pretty good.World map seems to be the same, your heroes have a certain amount of move points, you collect one-time resources and visit sites for temporary (and perhaps permenant?) buffs. You come across neutral enemies blocking your path, etc etc etc.Your town still has an all-powerful guardian as in the previous game, as well as room for a garrison and 1 visiting party.

All the same.Spells look the same. There are three types of mana for (I assume) three magic schools. The spells in the tutorial look identical to the ones in Disciples II.

A healing spell, an armour boosting spell, a damage spell, a mind resistance spell, and summon living armour spell, etc.No bugs yet!Largely objective Cons:.The tutorial isn't great, so far. It's very linear, progression wise, but doesn't explain things as well as it should. The tutorial instead largely relies on a single help window with about 20 topics. Each topic is then explain with a bit of text and a video demonstration. The video is a really nice touch, but it's kind of small and not the best quality, so I found myself replaying them and squinting.The UI isn't as intuitive as it could be.

It's not confusing, but it is awkward.Largely Subjective Combat thoughts:This is where I heard a lot of negative things. I have to say, I kind of like it.The combat in DIII is very much like the old HoMM (Or more recently, Kings Bounty and Armoured Princess) style of a hex map. In fact, it is like what we are expecting out of tactical combat in Elemental, unless I'm completely mistaken.Instead of a unit representing dozens or hundreds of men a la HoMM and KB, it only represents a single unit, as they did in Disciples II.You can move units around the grid (which contains terrain and special hexes which offer bonuses) to attack enemies, block choke-points, protect your ranged units, etc.

Its a lot like Kings Bounty in that respect. This means that unlike the previous game, you can ignore the enemies 'front-line' troops and get to their support if they leave them open.Units still perform the same function. An acolyte ONLY heals a single unit. A squire ONLY makes a melee attack, so this part feels the same.I like it.Final thoughts on my first impression:I like it. It is, with one exception, most certainly a Disciples game. The combat mechanics have changed, but still seems to fit.

If you liked Disciples 2, and you like Kings Bounty, I think you will like this game.I'll likely add more to this post once I've finished the tutorial or played through a bit of the campaign.07. A little more on combat, now that I have finished the tutorial.I was wrong about all units having only a single action. Some have multiple, (especially the enemy units I fought!) but my Titan did have a neat Earthquake ability that he could use to damage every enemy instead of attacking, though his standard attack was significantly stronger, if only against a single opponent.There are some other nice touches to combat. Mousing over an enemy will tell you how much damage you will do, and what your miss or critical% is.

At the end of battle you can also look at the details of how much damage each of combatants did, or how many kills, and similar info. Serves no real purpose, but is a nice touch. (Despite doing a lot less damage than my Warrior Nun, one of her squires got all 4 kills in a combat. Take that, feminism!)I'm about to try the campaign.

Here's hoping it is less linear. @ Louist,Thanks Louist. Tis good info there. I absolutely loved the gothic, gritty, art style of the D2 game. Probably my favorite art style of any game I have ever played.

So, that is a huge bonus for me.@ Raven,Yeah, I hear ya. In my case I have a ton of games that I have purchased and just haven't gotten around to playing. So, I need to prioritize and really start cutting back on any future game purchases. So I am really appreciative for any feedback on this one.

In fact this game is the reason I got Elemental. I had it in my mind to either get this one or Elemental, and it came down to whichever one was available. Honestly I am a bit surprised that it is coming out.@ OMG,Cool.

If you get a chance, I'd love to hear any feedback on what you think. @ Raven,Yeah, I hear ya. In my case I have a ton of games that I have purchased and just haven't gotten around to playing. So, I need to prioritize and really start cutting back on any future game purchases. So I am really appreciative for any feedback on this one.

In fact this game is the reason I got Elemental. I had it in my mind to either get this one or Elemental, and it came down to whichever one was available. Honestly I am a bit surprised that it is coming out.You know what's really sad? I still have some games from two years ago when my wife bought me my X-Box 360 that I haven't played yet.