Before starting, let's make clear that not all info about the expansion has been (officially) revealed yet. Do not mistake this page with a complete description of what the full addon will be. Of course, anything here is also subject to change. We will update this page with new official information when it is available, but we won't be spreading rumors or leaked or stolen content.
Introduction: Hammers of Fate
Announced officially on August 30th, 2006, the first official Addon for Heroes of Might and Magic V will be called Hammers of Fate. It is slated for release in November 2006 and will include a new race that had been alluded to in the map of Ashan provided with the Heroes V Collectors' Edition, the Dwarves. The town, the Fortress, is similar in name only to its Heroes III counterpart, as its inhabitants possess the racial specialty of 'Runes'. The Dwarf hero will be the Runemage, and their mount of choice is the Mammoth.
Dwarven Skills and Abilities
Dwarven are specialized in Rune Magic, and have all kinds of abilities tied to these runes. Learn more about them on the Dwarven Abilities page.
Dwarven Heroes
Discover the 4 Dwarven heroes that have been released already on the Fortress Heroes page.
Dwarven Creatures
All the dwarven creatures are detailed on the Fortress Creatures page.
The various creatures the dwarves have at their disposal consist mainly of their own kind. Much in the same vein as the humans with a distinctly different level 7 creature, the Dwarf line-up is not overly varied and lacks flying prowess.
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Of course, as expected, the Dwarven creatures come complete with various new special abilities that have never been seen before in a Heroes game:
- Armored. This creature is resistant to all spells and effects that decrease Defense.
- Berserker Rage. When this ability is used, this creature drops its Defense to zero for the time being, and has the same amount of Offense increase, then attacks the nearest target automatically without suffering the retaliation strike (activated ability).
- Crossfire. The creature has the attack area shaped as a cross.
- Magma Shield. When this creature undergoes a melee attack, the attacker suffers Fire damage in the amount depending on its attack's force.
- Mark of Fire. When attacking, this creature has a chance to damn the target, which will result in all the Fire damage suffered by it within a certain period of time being doubled.
- Paw Strike. This creature has a chance to push the target one tile aside and zero all the Initiative the target has accumulated.
- Shield Wall. Damage suffered by this creature from enemy attack is 10% less per every tile the attacker walked to hit.
- Stormstrike. Besides usual damage, this creature strikes the target with lightning (non-magical damage), which then hits another enemy creature if there is one standing next to the target, and further on, until the chain interrupts. The lightning's force is equal to that of the attack.
- Stormbolt. Once per battle, this creature can attack any chosen target with Storm Strike (activated ability).
- Wound. In a successful attack, this creature has additional chance to decrease the target's Speed (-50%) and Initiative (-30%).
Renegades
The Heroes V Expansion will be the first to feature 'Renegades'. These are seemingly rebellious units who have been ostracised from their community. The story goes that a band of Haven followers break away from the mainstream town and form their own crusade against the demon army. These renegades oppose their own faction (Haven) and wear the colour red. They cannot be purchased in-town - the only way to recruit them is from the adventure map.
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The Renegades are alternative upgrade units, and are listed below with their respective abilities:
- Enforcer. (Taxpayer, Shield Bash)
- Crossbowman. (Shooter, Rapid Fire)
- Vindicator. (Cleave)
- Battle Griffin. (Large, Flyer, Unlimited Retaliation, Battle Frenzy)
- Zealot. (Shooter, No Melee Penalty, Caster)
- Champion. (Large, Champion Charge)
- Fallen Angel. (Large, Flyer, Life Drain)
Apart from a life draining level 7 unit (Life Drain is the Vampire ability!), you can see 4 brand new abilitites (in italics) in this list:
- 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.
- Cleave. If this creature's attack kills at least one creature in the target stack, it performs an additional strike.
- Rapid Fire. (no description yet).
New Neutral Units
The expansion will feature 4 new neutral units:
- Wolf. (Pack Hunter, Howl)
- Snow Ape. (Unlimited Retaliation, Agility)
- Mummy. (Undead, Hexing Attack, Caster)
- Manticore. (Large, Flyer, Poisonous Attack)
As you can see, these have new abilities as well (in italics):
- Agility. This creature gains a +30% Defense bonus for the next turn per every tile it walks.
- Hexing Attack. After a successful attack, the target creature also suffers the effect of one of the following curses: Weakness, Slow, Suffering and Vulnerability. All the effects are equal to those of Expert-level spells.
- Howl. Once per battle, this creature can summon a friendly stack of equal power.
- Pack Hunter. When this creature attacks a target, all the other stacks of the creatures of the same type able to do so attack it, too.
Miscellaneous
There will be three campaigns, one featuring the Haven Renegades and another centered on the Dwarves.
Caravans will be available in the add-on!
As previously stated, the expansion is scheduled for a release near the end of the year, and will also include all hitherto patches and, indeed, the map editor, too. Additionally, 10 new multiplayer maps and 5 new single player maps will be made available in the expansion. The much awaited random map generator and the simultaneous turns option for multiplayer will be included as well.
Official Sources
- Might and Magic official site.
- Heroes 5 developer Fabrice Cambounet on Ubi forums.
- Heroes 5 German translator "Jolly Joker".
You can discuss Heroes V - Hammers of Fate with the Heroes Community.
Thanks to alexrom66 for some of the information on this page.
Thanks to sfidanza for the work on this page.
Thanks to ThE_HyDrA for creating and looking after the Heroes 5 section of Age of Heroes!