Heroes 5 - new expansion The Hammers of Fate

The expansion Heroes 5: Hammers of fate has been released and is available to buy. As a little treat we have the Heroes 5: Hammers of fate wallpaper for you to download:

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The Heroes 5 expansion: Hammers of Fate has gone gold! A quick summary of what to look forward to is as follows:

• New faction: Introducing the brand-new Dwarves faction, made up of heroic warriors and rune magic adepts who stalk Ashan’s deepest mountains and most hostile regions.
• A brand-new adventure: Featuring 15 new missions, new heroes, and improved cut-scenes, the new campaign will lead players even deeper into the dramatic events that began with Heroes of Might and Magic 5.
• Extended game experience: Includes a wealth of new spells and abilities, 5 new single-player maps, 10 new multiplayer maps, new buildings, new artefacts, and new neutral creatures, Heroes 5: Hammers of Fate gives players the tools to develop new tactics, and further their game experience both online and offline
• Improved mechanics and gameplay: Thanks to new features such as Caravans and a random map generator, players will enjoy unlimited replay ability and an even smoother gameplay experience. In addition, the simultaneous turn feature will speed up online games.

OldBoy answered some questions on Heroes 5 patch 1.4 (addon 2.0)

• Gating ability will be changed
• Planned changes to Training are moved to Heroes 5 version 1.5 (2.1)
• Sylvan town has some fixed building prices
• Resurrection spell will not be changed. And never was planned to.
• Necropolis mage guild price will be fixed
• Dwarf faction (addon) is being added considering current game balance.

New subjects on the map

	Dwarven Treasury - The treasury protected by armies of dwarves. The award - gold and gems.
	Dwarven Warren - Gives 1 measure of a casual resource in day (excepting wood and gold).
	Dwarven Garisson - Garrison of dwarves
	Library of Enlightenment - Gives +2 Knowledge and Spellpower to the hero if he is skilled enough.
	Magma Shrine - Gives runes of 1-3 circles.
	School of Magic - In this ancient tower there lives the powerful magician. He can increase by +1 Knowledge and Spellpower to the hero.
	Tomb Of The Warrior - Ancient tomb of the powerful soldier who has lost in epic battle of century back. There it is possible to find a powerful artefact, but this act of vandalism will lower Morale on 3 units.
	Treant Thicket - Horrifying thicket of the trees reminding Treants. Travellers should avoid this place though the most reckless, unfortunately, have ventured it - their skulls hang on the branches which are sticking out of thrickets, and their gold lays in a cave, serving as a bait for other daredevils.
	War Academy - Increases by +1 Attack or Defense to the hero.
	Witch Bank - Hiding place in which witches hide the extraction. The stolen treasures are well protected.

New artefacts

	Runic War Harness - Increases by +2 Defense and Knowledge to the hero.
	Bearhide Wraps - Increases by +1 Defense the hero and gives in addition 25 % of magic protection against spells of elements of Water.
	Beginner's Magic Stick - Increases by +2 Spellpower to the hero.
	Dwarven Smithy Hammer - Increases by +1 Attack to the hero and gives in addition 25 % of magic protection against spells of elements of Fire.
	Ogre Club - Increases by +5 Attack to the hero, but reduces by 5 % the initiative of all soldiers of the army.
	Ogre Shield - Increases by +5 Defense to the hero, but reduces by 5 % the initiative of all soldiers of the army.
	Rune of Flame - Increases by +1 Spellpower to the hero and gives one рунное a spell of the first or second circle.
	Runic War Axe - Increases by +2 Attack and Spellpower to the hero.
	Skull of Markal - Increases by +5 Knowledge and Spellpower to the hero, but lowers on 2 Morale.
	Tarot Deck - Increases by +1 Luck and Knowledge to the hero.
	Tome of Dark Magic - Allows to cast all spells of Dark Magic at all not possessing completely all skills.
	Tome of Destruction - Allows to cast all spells of Destruction Magic at all not possessing completely all skills.
	Tome of Light Magic - Allows to cast all spells of Light Magic at all not possessing completely all skills.
	Tome of Summoning Magic - Allows to cast all spells of Summoning Magic at all not possessing completely all skills.

The add-on includes the following key features:

New faction: Introducing the brand-new Dwarves faction, made up of heroic warriors and rune magic adepts who stalk Ashan’s deepest mountains and most hostile regions.

A brand-new adventure: Featuring 15 new missions, new heroes, and improved cut-scenes, the new campaign will lead players even deeper into the dramatic events that began with Heroes of Might and Magic 5.

Extended game experience: Includes a wealth of new spells and abilities, 5 new single-player maps, 10 new multiplayer maps, new buildings, new artifacts, and new neutral creatures, Heroes of Might and Magic V: Hammers of Fate gives players the tools to develop new tactics, and further their game experience both online and offline.

Improved mechanics and gameplay: Thanks to new features such as Caravans and a random map generator, players will enjoy unlimited replayability and an even smoother gameplay experience. In addition, the simultaneous turn feature will speed up online games.

From Nival

Okay, Nival has given the Heroic Coner all the stuff, so if THEY lift the lid I can do it too.
So here is the big deal.
The Red Haven units are alternative Haven upgrades. Although they are named "renegades" they are NOT the renegades storywise (the renegades are the regular Haven units at least as far as I understood the story.)

So here are the alternative Haven upgrades:
Level 1: Brute (Tax Payer; Shield Bash)
Level 2: Crossbowman (Shoots; Rapid Fire)
Level 3: Vindicator (Cleave)
Level 4: Battle Griffin (Large, Flyer, Unlimited Retal, Battle Frenzy)
Level 5: Zealot (Shoots, No Melee Penalty, Caster)
Level 6: Champion (Large, Champion Charge)
Level 7: Fallen Angel (Large; Flyer, Life Drain)

Fallen Angel and Life Drain did it for me.

Rapid Fire isn't explained yet.
Cleave: If this creature’s attack kills at least one creature in the target stack, it performs an additional strike.
Battle Frenzy: Every next retaliation strike performed by this creature inflicts damage 1.5 times as great as the previous one.
Champion Charge: If this creature has walked more than 2 tiles when attacking, it also inflicts half damage on the stack standing in the line of attack immediately behind the primary target.

Ah, come on people. Get the grey cells in your brains working. Use your imagination a bit.
1) There will be stat differences. Sure, the Brute has Shield Bash AND Taxpayer, but I'm pretty sure that his stats won't be as good as the Militia's - he will come with less HPs, I'm rather sure. I'd say furthernore that the Zealot will have a different spell set. But who can say how things go stat-wise? Not me, that's for sure.
2) Will the "renegades" be available for regular mp play, or, in other words, has this feature a meaning beyond the campaign? Well, as someone pointed out, no, it can't be, because then Haven had an unfair advantage - and there is no way to "pick" at this point.

DISCLAIMER: Let me tell you first that O have no idea how the gameplay looks, and I have no idea about anything else beyond this first addon. I don't know more than you here. So this is just SPECULATION!! Please keep that in mind. I'm NOT trying to leak things out, I'm just thinking aloud.

But let's try and think a bit over it. This feature was not to be disclosed. Why? If this was intended to be a once-only feature, why that secrecy?
Second, would Nival work on a set of alternative monster upgrades - and throw it all away, idea and all? I don't think so.
That leaves a lot of room for speculation about the next addon. In theory we have two more possible towns, Orcs and Nagas, which would bring the possible total to 9. We furthermore have the Free Cities, whatever THEY are. And we have the possibility of an expanded alternative upgrade feature for all towns.
Now, the Renegades seems to be a complete set of troops. I have difficulties to imagine a completely optional build which would give you an option to mix all the types, like, Brute, Marksman, Vindicator, Imperial Griffin, Inquisitor, Champion, Fallen Angel. I can much more easily imagine a set-wise pick, play Haven A or play Haven B - which would basically double the amount of available towns if they would do it for all towns. Because it would be a LOT easier to implement and to balance and you can make units of the different sets sufficiently different. I mean, if it would all be optional you couldn't have one set with a very balanced line-up and one with a few sub-standard and a few excellent ones because you could combine the excellent with the balanced ones - it cries no-brainer. Which leaves the either-or option.
Which is an interesting prospect, if you ask me.

Written by Jolly Joker

Dwarven Creatures and their Abilities

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