Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era

I'm not a turn-based strategy native, but I know a tight system when I see one, and Olden Era has several of them stacked on top of each other in ways that will eat your evenings. The core loop is the classic four-step rhythm you'd expect from the lineage: explore a resource-rich map, secure mines, build out your town, then punch someone on a hex grid. What Unfrozen has added on top of that skeleton is where it gets interesting, and also where it occasionally gets messy. Six factions shipped in Early Access: Temple, Necropolis, Grove, Dungeon, Hive, and Schism. Each runs on its own internal logic. Grove leans on ranged output protected by melee screens and gets a mushroom teleporter network that effectively gives you map-wide logistics if you build it early. Necropolis snowballs via Necromancy, raising fallen enemies into skeleton stacks that compound across a campaign. Hive runs a Hivemind passive that rewards fielding a diverse unit roster rather than stacking one elite type. Schism is the deep-end option, built around Abyssal Communion, a win-streak mechanic that scales your army at the start of combat but bleeds off daily. Every faction comes with 18 heroes, each with distinct stat profiles and subclass routes, so the build space is genuinely large. Each creature type also forks into two upgrade paths, giving you 126 creature variants across the game total. The two new systemic layers are Focus and Faction Laws. Focus generates during combat whenever your units attack or absorb a hit, and it pools into charges that activate creature and hero abilities. It adds a resource-management dimension to the hex battles that goes beyond raw positioning. Faction Laws are a research tree you build through a separate Law Points economy, letting you permanently reshape how your faction plays across a run, from buffing specific unit types to unlocking new magic paths. Reviewers have noted the Law system can feel like extra busywork layered onto systems that already demanded attention, and that criticism has some weight. It is another currency, another screen, another thing that punishes you silently if ignored. The AI difficulty is the loudest complaint in the community right now, and it is legitimate. Even on lower settings, the AI can arrive in week one with a tier-7 stack that makes you question whether the economy you are building is even in the same game. Unfrozen has a patching reputation and the community is active, so expect this to shift, but walking in cold, you should know that the floor is steep. The campaign in Early Access covers only the first act, roughly half a dozen missions set in Jadame. It is well-written by series standards, but it is a preview, not a complete story. Multiplayer is online-enabled with PvP and hotseat local play, though cooperative team modes are still flagged as in development. Performance holds up in most scenarios, with frame pacing issues creeping in on large, late-game maps when AI calculations stack up. For anyone who kept Heroes III installed for the last twenty years and quietly wished someone would make a proper successor, this is the closest that target has been hit in a long time. For shooters and action players looking to branch out into strategy, the learning curve here is real and the tutorial, while functional, does not fully prepare you for what competitive play asks. Go in knowing this is Early Access with a high ceiling and a rough AI edge. The map editor is already live, which historically is what keeps these communities breathing for decades. Fred, Scout Team