Fans of small but beloved fantasy RPGs are about to get a surprise from the tabletop space. It appears that a crowdfunding campaign will be starting soon for a Heroes of Might and Magic board game adaptation.
The news was broken today through an article on Dicebreaker. Polish-based game developer Archon Studios, the same team behind Wolfenstein: The Board Game, have announced that they acquired the license of Heroes of Might and Magic from Ubisoft. They plan on launching a Kickstarter campaign for a board game adaptation of Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia. It's a series that has been around for 21 years and balances exploration with turn-based mass army combat.
It's a series that Archon has a lot of nostalgia for. “In Poland, this game was one of the most iconic games we played. Basically, every kid in the late 90’s played the Heroes’ games, and we are crazy happy to turn our childhood love into a miniatures-based board game,” said Jarosław Ewertowski, Archon Studio’s CEO. “Working on this license is like being a teenager again, but this time, we are the authors, and tons of fans from all over the world are looking at us with great expectations regarding the quality,”
Because of this, the Heroes of Might and Magic board game will do its best to reflect its source material. For example. the map will be hex-based with players beginning in a starting village with additional hexes being added to the map to simulate a fog of war effect. Furthermore, there will be military units as well as mythical creatures (medusas, dragons, etc.) that the player can recruit into their army. In addition, they can unearth artifacts and learn potent magic to further assist their units.
As for how combat will work, the article is decidedly mum on details. As of right now, Archon describes the combat as "chess-like" but didn't go into further details. There will be 30 different miniatures for the board game as well as detailed cards with battlefield details written on them. The artwork will be handled by Iana Vengerova, whose previous work includes Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder RPG.
The Kickstarter for the Heroes of Might and Magic board game will go live in November of 2022.
