Hobo2 said:

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Haven: It is OK in my mind to have a faction that is almost or entirely composed of people holding different weapons. Haven is within its rights to have humans with spears, humans with crossbows, humans with swords, humans on horses, and humans with staves. I think they probably cross the line by having three units that have swords. Sword and shield, two handed sword, and twin swords are all nominally different, but it really pushes the limit.

That being said, I would prefer it if they had more heraldric monsters. The Dire Wolf or Griffin is fine, but having both Dire Wolves and Griffins would be even better. Dire Wolves, Griffins, and Unicorns or Wyverns or something would be better still. What they have for Haven in Heroes 7 is minimally acceptable, but it would have been better if they had figured out how to have less people with swords and more mythical beasts.

Stronghold: I have pretty much no problems with any of the Stronghold lineups from a thematic standpoint. I really liked the look of the Heroes 6 Stronghold, where they made they dress up like various actual tribes from around the world rather than just shallow Conan-style "barbarians." Their problems have always been mechanical rather than lineup. In Heroes 6, a game which revolved almost entirely on loss minimization, they were the only faction to have no intrinsic healing or temporary troop creation. That made them mechanically bad, but I don't see anything wrong with Orcs, Ogres, and Goblins in tribal outfits per se. They can have any or all of Harpies, Behemoths, Thunderbirds, Centaurs, Trolls, Cyclopses, Dire Wolves, or even other stuff altogether. It's a very forgiving faction. It just has to work with the mechanics the edition offers.

Academy: This is also a pretty forgiving faction. Basically you just need Genies and Mages, and everything else is optional. The Mages don't even have to be a particular race. You could announce that the Academy Mages were Gnomes, Dwarves, or Gremlins and have them be really short. Or you could have them be Humans, Elves, or Lizardfolk and be normal size. You could have them be giant bugs or tiny halflings, it really doesn't matter. Tower/Order/Academy has had the basic race changed on them repeatedly and it honestly doesn't seem to matter. The other creatures in the faction similarly change a lot, and that seems OK as well. I miss the Naga when she isn't there, but life does go on. I don't think they even need the Titan, and I'd be inclined to put the Titan into the Dungeon with Medusae and Minotaurs to get a Greek thing going. If Academy is going for a more middle-eastern theme, they can always poach some more of the Conflux themes and get Phoenixes and Elementals or use some of the Persian monsters like Rocs and Manticores. I'm fine with them having a construct subfaction that is anywhere from large to non-existent. They could have any or none of: Gargoyles, Golems, Steam Dragons, Droids, Repair Droids.

Sylvan: Probably the most forgiving faction. Any number of critters from the old Morale Class C plus anything else you want from an AD&D Druid's forest friends list until you run out of spaces.

Necropolis: Next to Sylvan, the most forgiving faction. I don't think this faction was really done wrong in any version of the game (except obviously HoMM 1, where they didn't exist). They can be made of any amount of skeletal, ghostly, or fleshy undead monsters. They can even have any number of living units, so long as those living units agree to wear a lot of black and listen to The Cure. Heck, those living units don't even have to wear clothes, as long as they look like the kind of creature that would wear black and listen to The Cure if they wore clothes at all. Kings Bounty, Heroes 6, and Heroes 4 had living demonic units in the Necro army, and that was fine. Personally, I'd go with an agriculture theme, with scythes and flails and peasants for the vampires to eat, but I think pretty much anything the developers go with will be OK.

Inferno: One word: Boring. The Inferno is mostly just Hell Hounds and a pile of red skinned people with horns and/or wings. The only interesting unit introduced since Heroes 3 was the Breeder, and that was weird and kind of dumb. I think the only thing to do with this faction is just to drop it entirely until you can come up with at least five units that aren't "a red skinned dude with horns."

Dungeon: Ubisoft has handled this faction terribly. They are supposed to be a creature heavy faction, but instead we get a pile of Elves with just a couple of monsters. That's exactly wrong. I honestly don't care whether the basic population of the Dungeons are Dark Elves or Troglodytes, but whichever it is I don't want to see more than one unit on the list being from the townfolk. Everything else should be monsters. I don't care which monsters you choose, but there'd better be a lot of them. Heroes 5 had four Elves with different weapons. That was insulting. Personally, I'd go for a Greek theme, where the Dungeon populace wore togas and they got Greek monsters like the Medusa, Minotaur, Centaur, and Titan, but it would be completely OK if they went full D&D craziness and had Beholders and Soul Flayers and Cave Crabs and such. Or something else entirely. The only bottom line is that there needs to be a lot of creatures and if there are four Elves again that will be three Elves too many.

Sanctuary: Basically OK. It does the full Japanese thing well enough. My only real problem with the lineup is Spring Spirits, because those aren't conceptually different from Snow Maidens or Water Elementals. Heck, they don't even look different from Water Elementals, it's just a palette swap. Like everything in Heroes 6, it spent too much time ramming its faction color down our throats, but if you swapped the Spring Spirits out for something else from Japanese lore (like an Oni) that isn't "another female water spirit."

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