Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era — After Strategy

HoMM Olden Era: Mysterious Island Coming, Papyjama Joins Unfrozen

Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Mysterious Island is one of the most-played Heroes of Might and Magic III maps of the past two decades. Unfrozen has just announced it’s coming to Olden Era — and that its creator, Papyjama, is joining the studio.

Papyjama joins Unfrozen: what this hire actually means

In the Heroes III community, Papyjama needs no introduction. His version of the Mysterious Island — a scenario inspired by Jules Verne’s novel — became one of the definitive references for solo play. Unfrozen has hired him as Level Designer, with the recreation of that map as his first project.

This hire isn’t routine. Since launching in Early Access on April 30, 2026, Olden Era has focused heavily on competitive play: matchmaking, templates, PvP balance. Solo players have been waiting for a signal. That signal just arrived.

Papyjama will create additional maps and scenarios after the Mysterious Island. His role isn’t a one-off collaboration — it’s the foundation of a long-term PvE offering.

The Mysterious Island: Olden Era’s first giant PvE content

The map will be the first of “giant” size in the game, a category that didn’t previously exist in Olden Era. In Heroes III, a giant map fundamentally changed the scope of a session: between 10 and 15 hours of non-linear exploration, scripted events and interlinked objectives.

The announcement states the map is “in advanced stages of development.” No confirmed date, but the timeline suggests a release within the next major content patches.

What made the original Mysterious Island special was its chained quests, hidden bosses, and the way thorough exploration was rewarded. Recreating that in Olden Era’s engine — with its new hero mechanics, subskills, and reworked factions — is genuine design work, not a simple file import.

Patch #8: Summon Avatar reworked, competitive meta shifted

Patch #8, released late May/early June 2026, brought the most significant mechanical change since launch. The Summon Avatar has been completely redesigned: it moves from a hybrid skill to a purely magical one.

In practice, the Avatar no longer loses standard HP. Instead, it can absorb a fixed number of hits depending on the skill level: 2 hits at level 1, 3 at level 2, 4 at expert. Attack power is now tied to the hero’s Spell Power — not Attack. Expert Murmuring subskills have been rewritten to match this new logic.

The patch also closed several major exploits: the Alt+F4 disconnect abuse and the bug allowing free creature upgrades. Jebus Cross templates were enriched to make side zones more interesting. Sprint, Harmony, and Exodus were adjusted to speed up the pace of play.

Patch #10 and Early Access state in July 2026

The most recent Patch #10 focused on tactical ergonomics. Formations are now saved between battles: no more manually repositioning units before each engagement. The visual and audio display during the tactics phase has also been revised.

These changes are less dramatic than Patch #8, but they fix friction that regular players had flagged since the early weeks. The tactics phase was one of the few spots where Olden Era still felt rough around the edges.

Olden Era is currently available at 25% off on Steam. The game remains in Early Access with no confirmed 1.0 release date. Upcoming milestones from the roadmap revealed last month include a Teamplay mode planned for Q3 2026 and a matchmaking overhaul for Q4. For a breakdown of the current faction standings, the updated tier list remains the reference.

What to watch now

The release date for the Mysterious Island is not yet confirmed. “Advanced stages of development” suggests weeks to months — but without a guarantee.

The real question: how does this solo content hold up against competitive modes that have benefited from ten patches of refinement? If the Mysterious Island delivers, Olden Era will finally have a strong argument for players who don’t want to spend their evenings in 1v1 ranked.

Also worth watching: whether other Heroes III community creators join the team after Papyjama. That would confirm PvE is a structural commitment, not a one-off PR move.

HoMM Olden Era faction tier list 2026 — which army should you pick?

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Six factions, six combat philosophies

Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era crossed one million copies sold within its first month following Early Access launch on April 30, 2026 — a milestone that confirms the enduring appeal of the HoMM formula. But with six factions offering genuinely distinct mechanics developed by Unfrozen, choosing your starting army can be decisive, especially in multiplayer or on the most competitive random maps.

This tier list ranks all six factions across three axes: raw power in the current meta, accessibility for players new to the game, and versatility against both AI and human opponents.

S-Tier: Dungeon
A-Tier: Necropolis and Grove
B-Tier: Temple and Hive
C-Tier: Schism
Which faction suits your playstyle?
Faction Laws and morale: two rules you can’t ignore

S-Tier: Dungeon — the power of the Alvar Pact {#h-s-tier}

Dungeon represents the Alvar Pact, an underground coalition of dark elves, minotaurs, medusae and dragons. It is the strongest faction in the current Early Access, and that dominance rests on a single defining principle: every unit can switch between two attack modes depending on the situation. This tactical flexibility — unique to Dungeon — lets you adapt in real time to enemy compositions, counter specific threats and maintain constant pressure across all stages of the game.

Onyx Dancers rank as the best starting units in the game according to most community tier lists: mobile, versatile, they let you set an aggressive pace from turn one. Their only weakness is low Initiative, which demands more forward planning when sequencing actions compared to other factions.

Mid-game, Dungeon deepens with high-damage units that benefit from faction synergies. A fully developed late-game army with dragons is simply overwhelming when the scaling goes to plan. Dungeon rewards players who want to dominate — and equally rewards mastery of its advanced mechanics.

A-Tier: Necropolis and Grove — powerful and more forgiving {#h-a-tier}

Necropolis (Shadowspire) is the undead faction, ruled by Necromancers and Vampires. Its signature mechanic: units that fall in combat rise again after each battle as skeletons or undead, generating a continuous stream of passive reinforcements. This accumulation mechanic makes Necropolis especially threatening in long campaign games where every engagement strengthens rather than depletes the army.

Its weakness is a slow early game. Opening turns are less explosive than Dungeon’s, and impatient players may feel at a disadvantage before the snowball begins. In experienced hands on longer maps, however, Necropolis becomes very difficult to stop.

Grove (Murmurwoods) brings together the creatures of the forest — elemental spirits, fey folk and spellcasters. It is the most accessible faction for beginners without sacrificing competitive viability. Its early advantage comes from ranged damage spread across multiple unit tiers: Fauns, Faun Archers, Aqualotls and Herbomancers provide consistent backline output that teaches positioning and rear-line management naturally.

Grove also forgives early mistakes more than most factions, particularly positioning errors in the opening turns.

B-Tier: Temple and Hive — solid but more specialized {#h-b-tier}

Temple represents humans guided by the High Inquisition. Its starting cavalry is strong, its economy scales stably and its buff mechanics are among the most intuitive in the game. For these reasons, Temple is the other faction recommended for beginners: it teaches HoMM fundamentals — frontline tanking, buffing key units, controlling resources — without throwing confusing mechanics at new players.

Its power ceiling is lower than Dungeon or Necropolis in advanced mid-game, however. Against experienced players, Temple lacks the flexibility to reverse unfavorable situations. A solid faction for learning the game, less ideal for pushing competitive ladders.

Hive plays on a swarm mentality: fast units, precise strikes, quantity over individual quality. The faction shines in aggressive early rushes and quick confrontations but struggles in long attrition games where the depth of other factions expresses itself fully. Its swarm interaction kit demands a learning curve that beginners may find counterintuitive.

C-Tier: Schism — promising, watch for patches {#h-c-tier}

Schism is a splinter group of the Alvar Pact that awakened eldritch monsters from the Plane Between Planes. It is the most thematically original faction and the least optimized mechanically in the current Early Access state.

Its eldritch units have unpredictable behaviors that can catch opponents off guard — but can also backfire against their own army. This asymmetry is fascinating in theory and difficult to master in practice. Unfrozen has confirmed balance passes in its 2026 roadmap; Schism is worth reassessing after each major update.

Which faction suits your playstyle? {#h-pick}

Playstyle	Recommended faction
Complete beginner	Grove or Temple
Aggressive, early tempo	Dungeon or Hive
Economy and long attrition	Necropolis
Map exploration, campaign	Necropolis or Grove
Advanced mastery, multiplayer	Dungeon
Experimentation, asymmetric play	Schism

Faction Laws and morale: two rules you can’t ignore {#h-tips}

Faction Laws are chains of upgrades unique to each faction, unlocked through points accumulated during combat. These progressive bonuses define your army’s identity from mid-game onward. Two players running the same faction can produce very different results depending on their Law choices — this is one of the layers of depth that sets Olden Era apart from a classic HoMM game.

Army morale: units from different factions within the same army suffer a Morale penalty that reduces their stats in combat. Prefer single-faction compositions or split factions across two distinct heroes if you want to leverage cross-faction synergies without the morale hit.

With 90% positive reviews on Steam and one million copies sold, Olden Era is one of the most successful strategy releases of 2026. Our full Early Access review and the breakdown of the 1 million sold milestone and 2026 roadmap give you a complete picture of where the game stands today.

HoMM Olden Era: 1 Million Copies Sold and an Ambitious Early Access Roadmap

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era Crosses 1 Million Copies and Reveals Its Early Access Roadmap

Released in Early Access on April 30, 2026, Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era — developed by Unfrozen, published by Hooded Horse — surpassed 500,000 copies sold in its first 72 hours. On May 28, 2026, the studio announced crossing the one million copies milestone in under a month, simultaneously releasing a detailed preliminary Early Access roadmap.

One million copies, concrete timelines, and structured stages: this revival of the legendary strategy franchise is built to last.

Where Is the Game Now?
Stage 1 — Q3 2026: Teamplay and Advanced Map Generator
Stage 2 — Q4 2026: Matchmaking, Subclasses, and Replays
Long-Term Goals: Underground, Roguelike, and Full Campaign
What This Means for the Franchise

Where Is the Game Now? {#game-state}

The Early Access already features six playable factions — Temple, Grove, Dungeon, Necropolis, Schism, and Hive — with customizable heroes, city development, and turn-based tactical battles on hexagonal battlefields. The game is priced at $39.99 on Steam and is also part of PC Game Pass since launch.

Since April, Unfrozen has shipped several patches: multiplayer UI improvements, turn-timer refinements for fairer online matches, crash fixes, and a new “Moderate” difficulty setting. For a full look at the game’s launch state, check out our HoMM: Olden Era Early Access review.

Stage 1 — Q3 2026: Teamplay and Advanced Map Generator {#stage-1}

The community’s most requested feature leads the roadmap. Stage 1 (planned for Q3 2026) includes:

Teamplay Mode — team vs team (2v2, 3v3) against other players or AI. Unfrozen confirmed this is the single most-requested feature.
Advanced Random Map Generator — more customization options: density settings, zone types, and events for greater variety.
Hero Skills Rebalance — in-depth revision of the skill system to break rigid metas and encourage build diversity.
Emote Wheel Update — social experience improvements for online play.

Stage 2 — Q4 2026: Matchmaking, Subclasses, and Replays {#stage-2}

Stage 2 (Q4 2026) focuses on competitive infrastructure and class depth:

Matchmaking System Rework — redesigned queue for more balanced games, especially in ranked modes.
Subclass System Rebalance — revising advanced class progression for more viable tournament diversity.
Observer Mode & Replays — watch live games or review your own battles; essential for competitive improvement.
Alternative Creature Upgrade Rebalance — upgrade choices should carry greater strategic weight.

Long-Term Goals: Underground, Roguelike, and Full Campaign {#long-term}

Beyond the two stages, the roadmap lists general Early Access objectives:

Feature	Details
Underground Layer	A simultaneous map level with unique terrain, objects, and music — a HoMM III hallmark
Thieves’ Guild	Return of the espionage institution from the classic series
Tier 8 Neutral Creatures	High-tier neutral creatures populating the maps
Map Editor Improvements	Enhanced editor and map-sharing between players
Ironman Mode	Permadeath for the solo campaign
Match Statistics	End-of-match data for performance analysis
New PvE Mode	An alternative co-op or solo mode in development
Roguelike Mode	Procedural runs — currently being explored
Complete Solo Campaign	Finalizing the game’s main story

The Underground Layer is particularly anticipated — it’s one of HoMM III’s defining mechanics, and its absence in the current build remains the clearest sign that the game is still under development.

What This Means for the Franchise {#franchise}

One million copies in under a month — for an Early Access title in a franchise that had been dormant for years — sends an unmistakable signal: the demand was real. Unfrozen delivered something solid enough to win over players well beyond nostalgic HoMM III fans.

The roadmap is clearly structured with concrete timelines, a sharp contrast with vague Early Access projects that keep milestones intentionally fuzzy. If Unfrozen delivers on the Q3/Q4 schedule, Olden Era could reach a very complete state before end of 2026, well ahead of a full 1.0 launch.

Whether you’re a HoMM III veteran or new to the franchise, this is a strong moment to jump in.

Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era — Early Access Analysis After the Million-Copy Milestone

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A Million Copies Settles the Credibility Question

On May 28, 2026, Unfrozen announced that Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era had passed one million copies sold. The milestone landed less than a month after its Early Access launch on April 30. Sales say nothing about the content itself, but they change the question. The franchise has already come back commercially. What does this Early Access build contain once the launch noise fades?

Ten years separate the quiet release of Heroes of Might & Magic VII in 2015 from this comeback, built by independent studio Unfrozen and distributed by Hooded Horse. In between, the franchise mostly survived through mobile spin-offs and re-releases, never through a genuine turn-based successor. This gap explains part of why the million-copy figure landed so hard in strategy circles.

This piece does not claim any hands-on time with Olden Era. It analyzes what the studio and the Steam listing confirm, faction by faction and system by system, without repeating the unverifiable numbers and impressions that circulated at launch.

An Early Access Build, Not a Finished Release

Worth stating plainly before going further: Olden Era is sold and presented as Early Access, not a full release. Every system described below should be read with that distinction in mind. A Faction Laws tree or a game mode confirmed today can still be adjusted, expanded, or rebalanced before version 1.0, and Unfrozen’s own communication doesn’t claim otherwise.

That structural caution shapes how the rest of this article should be read. Each section describes a system confirmed by Steam or by Unfrozen, not a verdict on its balance or its staying power over long sessions. Making that call needs playtime this article doesn’t claim to have.

Six Confirmed Factions at Early Access Launch

Early Access ships with six playable factions: Temple, Dungeon, Schism, Grove, Necropolis and Hive. No seventh faction has been confirmed at this stage by Unfrozen or by the Steam listing; any longer list circulating online is community speculation, not official information.

Each faction has its own Faction Laws tree and its own active abilities, two systems covered in more detail below. That architecture, more than the raw faction count, is what carries the real promise of the game: reviving the series’ turn-based formula instead of settling for a graphical reskin of Heroes III. Six factions at an Early Access launch is a solid number for this kind of release; whether that number grows is for version 1.0 to prove, not for this article to predict.

Judging that roster against a franchise entry’s full, post-expansion lineup would be an unfair comparison at this stage. Olden Era is a first Early Access build, not a finished product with years of content updates behind it. The fairer question is whether these six factions play differently enough from each other to justify the wait, and that’s a question only the Faction Laws system, detailed next, can really answer.

Faction Laws and Active Abilities: the Two Systems to Watch

Unfrozen presents the Faction Laws system as the mechanic that separates each side beyond its unit roster. In practice it’s a ruleset unique to each faction, unlocked over the course of a match, that reshapes how that faction is meant to be played. Without direct access to the game, there’s no way to judge real balance here. Only the structure of the system is confirmed by official sources, not how it feels across a full campaign.

Active abilities round out that system in combat: they trigger on command, unlike passive bonuses that apply automatically every round. Together, Faction Laws and active abilities form the customization layer Unfrozen points to as the justification for Early Access rather than an immediate full launch.

Every modular rule tree carries the same risk: if one Law clearly outperforms the rest, the entire tree collapses into a single optimal path and the promise of customization falls apart. That’s something only time and a community that has picked the system apart can verify — not launch-day marketing copy.

The opposite risk exists too. A tree that’s too flat can make every choice feel interchangeable, which kills strategic interest just as effectively as one Law that clearly outperforms the rest. Between those two traps, Unfrozen’s margin for error is narrow, and it’s exactly the kind of tuning an Early Access period is supposed to sharpen before a final release.

Solo Content: Tutorial, Campaign Act One, and Ready-Made Scenarios

Solo content in Early Access is deliberately limited: a tutorial, the first act of the narrative campaign, and a handful of ready-made scenarios playable independently of the main story. That reduced scope lines up with Early Access status — Unfrozen doesn’t promise a complete campaign at launch, and neither does the store listing.

A player who wants a full, complete narrative experience right now won’t find it in Early Access yet. But for anyone testing the core strategic loop — exploration, town management, tactical combat — before committing to version 1.0, this slice is already enough to get a feel for the game’s skeleton.

Classic, Single Hero and Arena: Three Modes, Solo and Multiplayer

Three modes ship with Early Access: Classic, the full formula of exploration, town management and combat, and Single Hero, a leaner variant built around a single commander. Arena rounds out the lineup, geared toward faster, more direct fighting. All three are playable both solo against the AI and in multiplayer, which gives Early Access several distinct entry points.

A player short on time can stick to Arena for quick matches, while a series veteran will likely head straight for Classic to find the franchise’s full loop. How these three modes balance against each other over the long run is a question only sustained community playtime, spread across months, can settle properly.

Multiplayer being available across all three modes from day one of Early Access is worth flagging on its own. Many strategy titles push that piece to a later update, precisely because it demands heavy synchronization and anti-cheat work. Shipping it at launch says more about where Unfrozen puts its priorities — competitive online play — than any marketing statement could.

The Million-Copy Milestone: What It Actually Changes

The May 28, 2026 announcement puts Olden Era among the fastest strategy Early Access titles to reach that threshold in recent years. For an independent studio like Unfrozen, that number most likely secures funding for the rest of this year’s promised roadmap — it doesn’t guarantee anything about the finished game’s quality.

The practical consequence for players is different. A title that has already hit this sales level statistically stands a better chance of getting real ongoing support than a niche Early Access release struggling to fund its own roadmap. That’s not a quality guarantee, but it’s an economic signal that would be dishonest to ignore when weighing the risk of buying into Early Access.

This signal should still be read for what it is: a sales figure, not a quality score. An Early Access title can sell a million copies on nostalgia for the license alone, then stall on content if the studio doesn’t follow through. Nothing in the May 28 announcement prejudges what comes next — it simply documents a strong commercial starting point, one to weigh against the update pace the community observes in the months ahead.

What to Watch Now

Top priority to track: how balance shakes out across the six factions once the community has fully theorycrafted the Faction Laws trees. A second priority is how quickly Unfrozen adds campaign content beyond the confirmed first act. What to avoid for now: buying purely on the promise of a complete campaign, since that content remains limited to its first act at this stage.

Anyone deciding whether to buy in now versus waiting for a later Early Access build should weigh two things separately. The first is whether the current strategic loop — exploration, town management, tactical combat across three modes — is already enough to hold interest. The second is whether they’re comfortable with systems that may still shift before 1.0. Those are two different risk tolerances, and conflating them is how buyers end up disappointed by a build that never claimed to be finished. For more on the game’s commercial trajectory, our post-million-copies roadmap recap covers the next steps the studio has announced.

Developer: Unfrozen.
Publisher: Hooded Horse.
Platform: PC (Steam).
Price: $39.99.
Status: Early Access since April 30, 2026.
Steam App ID: 3105440.