Special note: When I write click, I mean left-click. I will specify when it is a right-click.

How to Play

Jump to: Tutorial Menu Usage Terminology 

Getting Started:

This Tutotial only applies to the PC and Mac versions and
unfortunately not the Gameboy version as the Tutorial was
not included on the Gameboy. You may still wish to read
along as a fair bit still applies. If you see a smaller, similar
looking icon, that means it applies to the GBC also with how
the mechanics work. Notes pertaining to the gameboy itself
specifically, will be in italic much like this text. 

Hate  to wade  through  rulebooks? Want  to get  familiar
with  the  basics of  the game  quickly and  just go off and
explore? You’ve  come  to  the  right  place. This  tutorial
will walk you  through a  few  turns of  the Claw scenario.
Once you have installed Heroes of Might and Magic, load
the game and we’re off.



From  the Main Menu, click on LOAD GAME.

Then click on STANDARD GAME from the next menu.

That menu will  be  replaced  by  the File Selector.

Click on  the  file name Tutorial,  to  highlight  it. The  name  of  the
file will also appear  in the purple bar just above the two buttons
at the bottom of the File Selector. Click on OKAY.


(GBC only has the Adventure Map)
Lots of stuff to  look at. The big window on  the  left  is  the
Adventure  Map. That’s your castle in the middle with your
starting  hero  sitting astride a horse at its entrance. On  the
right are a variety of controls and  indicators. Let’s explore
these for a moment. In  the  upper  right  is the  World  Map.
(Not in the Gameboy Version)

There’s a   pink box around the area of the map  that  is  dis-
played  in  the Adventure Map window. You start off only seeing
a short distance beyond your own castle. As you move your
heroes about, more of  the map will become visible.
You can scroll the Adventure Map  in a number of ways.
Move the cursor to the extreme edge of the screen and
the Adventure Map will scroll  in that direction. Give  it a
try. If you scroll too far  and  can  no longer  tell where
you are,  look up  in the  World  Map. Place  the  cursor
over  the  colored blob that  is the territory your hero has
charted and click. The castle and  the surrounding environs
are displayed again in  the  Adventure Map window.
Below  the World Map  is  a  display  showing  your  heroes
and  castles. This  is  the  hero and  castle  selector. The
handsome blue  fellow  is  the hero you happened  to start
with. There is a red outline around his box, indicating he is
the “active” hero. (In the Gameboy version, the active hero is
displayed at the bottom of the screen.)

Place the cursor over his picture and R- click  and  hold  the
button  down. A window will  come  up displaying  his  name,
statistics, and the  type and  number of troops that are accompanying
him. Release the mouse button and  the display disappears (you can
R-click on many things in the game to get this kind of quick informa-
tion). The  blank  boxes  below Yog  (your  hero) and  your
castle are for future heroes and castles.

Beneath  the  hero and  castle  selectors are  six  buttons
that will aid  in playing  the game. We’ll discuss  these as
we go through the tutorial.
The  bottom  display  is  the Status Window.

It  currently shows  the active hero and his army. Place  the
cursor over this window and click.  It now shows the amount
of resources,  towns,  and  castles  you  control. It will  auto-
matically return to the army display after a few seconds.


Click on  it again a couple of times. It will now show you
the month, week, and day. (The Gameboy version has it
displayed at the bottom of the screen.) New recruits become
available each week, so it’s wise to keep track of the time.
This tutorial begins a few days into the week so that several
buildings could be added  to your castle  to get you  into
the thick of things faster.
Place the cursor over the castle next to your hero’s icon
in  the  castle  selector and  click  (but  not on  the mono-
chromatic castle in the group of six buttons).

The castle now has the red box around it, indicating it is active.
The Status Window also changes to display your resources,
since your hero is no longer active. Click on the castle a
second time to bring up the castle display.

Along  the  top of  the castle window are  the dwelling places of
your potential recruits and the exterior of the castle. Place the cursor
over  any  of  the  four dwellings  and R-click (holding  the  button
down) to see the type of troop, number available, and  cost  per  troop.

You will notice  that nobody seems to be home at the
moment  (we  already hired  them  into  your army).

Along the bottom of the display  is  your  hero’s portrait,
indicating  he  is in the castle. His accom- panying  troops are
displayed  in  the  row  of  boxes  to  his right. You can have up to
five different troop types in any hero’s army. Note  that  there  is one
space available  in Yog’s army,  indicated by the wood-grained horse’s
head. Let’s fill that up.

Click on the castle near the top of the screen. The upper
half of the display now shows the various dwellings that
can  be  purchased. You  already  have  the Hut, Stick Hut,
Den and Adobe dwellings  (marked  by  the  yellow  check).
The Shipyard and Pyramid  both  have  prerequisites  you
don’t  currently  have  and  are marked with  a  red X X. You
can only have one hero  in a castle at a time, so Recruit
Hero is also marked with an X X. You can R-click on any of
the  buildings  to get more  information about  them. For
now, place the cursor over the Bridge and click.

A window  comes  up  that  tells  you  that  the Bridge  pro-
duces Trolls.  It also  requires  that  the Adobe dwelling
was built in a previous turn (which we did for you already).
It will take 20 ore and 4000 gold to build. A quick glance
at  the  resources you have  (displayed on  the  lower  right
of the screen) reveals you have the necessities. Click on
OKAY.
The display shows  the castle exterior again, and  the
Bridge  is added on  the  far  left. Let’s  recruit some  trolls
to  fill out our  army.

Click on  the Bridge  and  a window entitled Recruit Troll  comes up.
There  are  three  available at  600 gold each. You are down to
1480 gold, and can only afford  two. You  can  click on  the  up and
down arrows to select the number of troops you want to recruit,  but
in  this  case,  it  is  easier  to  just  click on  the MAX  button. That will
automatically choose  the maximum that you can afford, up  to  the  limits
of how many are available. Click on MAX  if you haven’t already done
so,  and  then click on OKAY. Two  trolls have been added  to  your
castle garrison. The garrison occupies  the  five boxes above the hero’s
army. They will defend your castle  if a hero and his army aren’t around,
but aren’t involved  if  a  hero  is  there. To  transfer  the Trolls  from
the garrison  to your army,  first click on  the  trolls.

This highlights them with a red outline. Now place the cursor
over  the  empty  space of  the  hero’s  army  at  the  lower
right  and  click. The  trolls  are  now  part  of Yog’s  army.
You can  transfer  troops  from box  to box by clicking on
one troop, and then clicking on the troop that you want
them to exchange places with. You may also do partial
troop transfers if the need should arise.
There are no more troops available for now, and you are
almost broke – it’s time for Yog to go adventuring. Click
on the EXIT button on the lower right.
We are back to the Adventure Window. Note that your
hero Yog has the red border around his box indicating he
is  the active hero. Move  the  cursor around a  bit  in  the
Adventure Map. The  cursor will  change depending on
what it is over. Move the cursor over the treasure chest
that  is  sparkling  just  below  and  slightly  to  the  left of
the castle entrance. As you move  the cursor  it will
change to a rearing horse as it is placed over the chest.
The rearing horse indicates that there is an event there
that the hero can interact with. Once the horse is in the
rearing position, click. A green path of arrows  is
now displayed. This  indicates the path the hero will take.
He’ll avoid all events, encounters  and obstacles to get to
the destination you clicked on, now marked  by  a green
X.

Your  hero  can  reach any where  along  the  path where it
is green. When the path or destination turns  red,  the hero won’t
reach there until subse quent turns. Once the path is set, click on
the destination a second time and the hero will move along  the
path  towards  the  destination. Do that now.
You found some gold! You can either keep the gold or distribute it
to  the peasants for experience. At the start of each turn, you
accumulate  1000 gold  for each castle you own,  250 for each town,
and 1000 for each gold mine. Building up your castle and army  is an
expensive proposition,  so  the gold  is needed  there.

At the same time, if you take the experience, your hero’s statistics
will eventually  improve, making  him  better  in  combat
or  spellcasting. Decisions,  decisions.  For the purposes of this tutorial, click on
Yes, but learning when to choose one or the other  is  something your own experi-
ence and style will dictate.

Look next to your hero’s portrait and you’ll see a yellow bar  indicating the
amount of movement he has  left this turn. Be aware  that  it doesn’t  start at
the very top of the bar – there are items that  can  improve his movement
beyond the normal. Yog  still  has  some movement  left, so let’s set a new
destination. Click on  the gray obelisk above and  slightly to the left of your
castle, making  sure you have  the  rearing  horse  symbol.

Note  the  numeral 2 on the  right of  the horse. That means  it will  take all
of Yog’s movement this turn, and at least part of his movement next turn to
reach there. Click to set the path. The destination  is marked with a red X
this time, indicating you can’t reach there this turn. Move the cursor over
to the button with the horse icon near the right side of the screen and click.
This  is  the Move button, an alternate command that tells
your hero to move along the path once it is set.
That’s all  for  this  turn. Click on  the  hourglass  button.

The Status Window will show  the computer players
thinking and  the cursor will become a sundial. 

Once  the cursor changes back and the Status Window reverts to
Yog’s army, you can continue.
The  red X is  now green. Click on  the Move  button and
Yog  continues along  the  path  you  set  last  turn. Read
the text about the obelisk and click on OKAY. The
Adventure Map is replaced by a puzzle, with a few of the
pieces missing so that you can see part of a map beneath
it. This map reveals the location of the Ultimate Artifact.
As you find more obelisks, more and more of the map will
be  revealed.  If you  think you are near  the center of  the
puzzle when you are  looking at the Adventure Map, you
can dig for it.( See Adventure/Action Buttons) – for now,
we’re going to push on.

Click on EXIT  in the upper right where the World Map is normally
displayed. We have returned to the Adventure Map. There is a little
house with a  red  roof  just  to  the  right of  the obelisk. Click on that
and move there. A troop of peasants would like to  join us. Click on YES.

Whoops! We  filled all  five slots available to our army, so the peasants
can’t join us. Had there been an available slot they would have  joined
us. Also,  if one of our  troop  types was  peasants,  they would have been
added to the peasants we already had (troops of  the  same  type always
occupy  the  same  slot and cannot be split within an army). Click on
OKAY. Click on the pile of wood neatly stacked to the  right of
your  castle and move  your  hero  there. A message will appear briefly in
the Status Window saying  that you have found a small amount of wood.
As you moved towards the woodpile, more of the Adventure Map was
revealed  to  you. The hero unveils the map a  set distance away as he moves
about. Just above where the woodpile used to be is a wooden struc-
ture. R-click on  it  and  you  can  see  that  it  is  a  sawmill.

The  sawmill  produces  two  units of wood each  turn as
long as you own it. Place the cursor over the front of the
sawmill  (be sure you have the  rearing horse cursor  icon)
and click. You shouldn’t have any movement  left, so  just
click on the hourglass again. Click on  the Move  button. Read
the  text,  then  click on OKAY. Note that there is now a blue
flag flying over the sawmill, indicating that you own it. It will
continue to add two units of wood to your resources at the start
of each turn until an opponent hero captures it. Below the sawmill
there’s a gray circular  item. Move to that. Text  comes up telling
you that it is an artifact. Unfortunately,  this particular artifact was
guarded by a pack of rogues. Click on OKAY to enter combat.

On  the  left  side of  the  screen  is  the moving player’s
troops  (the Attacker), and on  the  right are  the encoun-
tered  troops  (the Defender). Thus,  your  troops will  be
lined up on the  left  in any combat during your turn, and
on the  right  in any combat during another player’s turn.
Your troops are lined up from top to bottom in the same
order  that  they were  lined up  from  left  to  right  in your
hero’s display back at the castle.


(The Combat screen is positioned the same and units behave the
same in the Gameboy version, so lessons learned here apply.)
Combat  is  fought  in a  series of  rounds, with each  unit
getting  to move and  possibly attack once each  round.
The  faster  the unit’s Speed,  the  sooner  it moves  in  the
combat  round. The computer will determine which unit gets  to move
first. Your wolves are  your  fastest  unit and will  have a glowing
yellow outline when  they are ready to be moved.


(For the GBC version, you highlight the unit so that shows up and
press B to bring up the unit into screen.)
R-click on them to see their statistics. Now move  the cursor around
the  field. You can move the wolves to any position on the  field
where you see the yellow Running Man  icon. All you need to
do is click on the spot you want them to move to. A red X with a
circle behind it indicates a spot they can’t move to. Some terrain may
be impassable (usually marked by a tree,  pit,  bush,  the odd  flow of
lava,  etc.). Don’t move just yet.


(Press Start to bring up this screen on the Gameboy version)
On the extreme left is your hero’s tent. Place the cursor
over  the  tent – when  the  cursor  changes  to a  yellow
helmet, click. A window will pop up with Yog’s lovely vis-
age, his statistics, and a group of four buttons. These are
the Hero’s Combat Options. Starting on  the  left  is  the
Cast Spell  button  (the  crystal  ball). Yog doesn’t  have
any  spells.  For  now,  the Cast Spell  button  is darkened
and can’t be selected. The next button to the  right
is  the  Retreat  button  (the  running  knight).
Retreating  loses  all  of  your  hero’s  troops,  but  he’ll
make  his way  back  to any of  your  castles with  his
experience and artifacts  intact and can be recruited
again. The next button  is  the Surrender option  (the
white  flag). This  is  similar  to  the Retreat option,
except you must pay a penalty to the opposing hero.
However, all  your  troops  stay with  your  hero. The
more  troops,  the bigger  the payment. To  surrender,
there must be an opposing player’s hero to surrender
to, and  these  rogues don’t  have one. Click on  the  last
button (four arrows) to exit the Hero’s Combat Options.
Your wolves  are  still waiting  patiently  for  orders. Click
on  the  button  in  the  lower  right. (Gameboy Users
perform a similar action by highlighting the active unit and
pressing the A button when  shows.) All of  the  rogues
will  come  charging  forward,  but won’t  be  able  to  reach
you. Time  to soften  them up a bit. When  the goblins
come  up,  just  click on SKIP  again. Your  big  purple  troll
should be glowing now. That big rock he is holding can be
thrown. Place  the cursor over  the nearest  rogue. The cursor
becomes an arrow,  indicating  you  can  fire  at  the
troop without moving. Go ahead and  click. The  rock  is
thrown  (R-click on  the  troll  to  see  how many  shots  he
has  left) and  the  rogue  troop  is greatly diminished or
wiped out. (Pressing B on a ranged unit while in combat will
do the same thing in the Gameboy Version as there is no right-
click in it.)  Do the same with the orcs. Your ogre troop is
the slowest, and can’t get close enough to attack. Have
him lumber forward a bit.
All the units have moved and a new round starts. Some
of the rogues may have moved before your wolves.
That’s  okay. There will  probably  be  one within  range  of
your wolves’ movement  in any case. Place  the cursor
near the closest rogue pack. It should change to a sword.

(In the Gameboy Version, you choose the direction after
selecting the enemy unit using the sword cursor.)
The direction the sword  is pointing  from  indicates where
the wolves will  be when  they attack. There are definite
tactical considerations, but  for the purposes of this
demo, it doesn’t matter which direction. Choose one and
click. Your wolves will  leap  to  the attack. Any  rogues
that  survive will  then  strike  back. That  is  normally  the
end of that particular combat , but wolves have a special
ability that allows them to attack a second time. They’ll
do  this automatically  if any  rogues  from  the attacked
troop are still standing after the first attack.
With the basics of combat under your belt, this tutorial
now abandons you to your  fate  (don’t whimper, you
should  be  able  to  dust  those  rogues with Yog’s  army).
Feel  free  to  continue on with  the  scenario,  referring  to
the manual as  questions arise.  In  two more  turns,  new
recruits will be available at your castle. It might be wise
to recruit a second hero, build up his army (while staying
put  to guard  the  castle), while Yog  explores  the  coun-
tryside. Happy adventuring!



Portions of the above are excerpts from the Heroes of Might and
Magic game manual and are copyright New World Computing.


Using the In-Game Menus.

Text like this is for the Computer version
Text like this is for the Gameboy Version

Opening Menus: (Skip to Gameboy) (Adventure Menus) (Combat Menus)


Adventure Menus: (Computer) (Gameboy)


Here is the Adventure map. There are many clickable areas here that all to something different here.

On the right you may notice a bar with a town icon like this . Clicking that brings you to the Town Screen. I'll go over that later.

You may also notice the picture of your current hero in the next bar over, in this example it looks like . Left clicking on him brings up the Hero Screen. That yellow bar next to his face is the amount of movement he has available to use this day (each turn is a day, every 7 turns is a week).


You may also notice these 6 boxes as well. Each posesses a different function when clicked on.


The Next Hero button will move the screen to and select the next available hero. If you only possess one hero, it selects the only hero you have. (Pressing H on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)


The Move Button will allow your hero to move to the area you have already highlighted with your mouse.(Pressing M on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)


An example of the path the hero will follow after you have clicked on the screen.


The Kingdom Overview Button will bring up a screen detailing the resources, towns, heroes and mines you possess as well as your current income. (Pressing K on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)


It shows how many of each type of resource, town, hero and mine you possess.


The End Turn Button will end the current week and allow your heroes more movement, it will also add to your income depending on what resource producing mines, towns and artifacts you control. (Pressing E on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)


The Adventure Options button brings up another submenu with several other options in it. (Pressing A on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)


The Game Options button brings up several game options. (Pressing G on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)




The Topleft Adventure Option icon is the View World button. (Pressing V on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)


This screen comes up when you use the View World button (or hotkey). It also comes up when you cast any of the "view" spells that will reveal the locations of artifacts, resources, towns, heroes, etc.

The Topright Adventure Option is the Puzzle Map Button. (Pressing P on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)


The Puzzle map screen will show a puzzle that reveals small portions gradually every time you visit an obelisk.

The Bottom Left Adventure Option is the "Cast Spell" button. (Pressing C on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)


When you click on the Cast Spell button or press the hotkey, it being up this screen. You can turn the page for more spells if you have more using the folds in the upper left and upper right. Click on any spell to cast it or click exit to leave your spellbook.

And finally the Bottom Right Adventure Option is the Dig Button. (Pressing D on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)

Digging is the only way to find the Ultimate Artifact (or in Campaign level 3, the Eye of Goros). It requires a full say from starts to finish and also requires smooth ground.



The Game Options Screen allows you to choose several important options.

New Game will allow you to abandon the game you are playing and start a new one on a new map or a campaign game. (Pressing N on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)

Load Game will allow you to load a previously saved game (or an autosave as well). (Pressing L on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)

Save Game lets you save all of your current game data for later use and for loading with the Load Game option (useful for if you're about to go into a nasty fight and might want a do-over. Or if you're limited on time.) (Pressing S on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)

Quit is Self Explainatory. (Pressing Q on your keyboard is a hotkey for this button)

Music allows you to change the music's volume level or turn it completely off if you wish.
Effects does the game as music, but for sounds effects.
Speed is how quickly heroes traverse the adventure map, faster speeds show less animation (look less nice) but make the game move a little quicker.
Autosave is a very handy feature to automatically save every turn or two. You can turn it off if you wish (may speed up the game on much slower computers).
Show patch shows the movement path your hero will take when you click an adventure map object, useful to keep on.
View enemy movement is another thing I'd recommend keeping on. It lets you see what the enemy is doing on their turn.




There are several different sections here, the top row shows the hero's portrait and stats. For more information see How Heroes Work.

The next row shows the hero's allegiance (which colour owns him/her currently) and which creatures the hero controls. (In this case, 8 centaurs and 4 gargoyles)

If you should ever need to, you have the option on this screen on dismissing creatures (using the Dismiss button on the bottom left) from your hero's army (for example, if you need to remove a stack to purchase a different creature type if you are short on room).

The Bottom 2 rows show the Artifacts the hero posesses (in the cast, just a spellbook).

You may right-click on any object on the screen to obtain further information about it. (Creatures, Artifacts, Statistics)




Combat Menus: (Computer) (Gameboy)

An Example of how the game works:

Similar example, but for gameboy.

The text in this document is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. Anyone is free to use, copy, modify and re-distribute this work as long as they agree to the terms in the license.