Conflux preliminary list

The Conflux faction was quickly cobbled together when the design for the Faction forge for the Armaggedon’s Blade expansion got leaked and what people saw wasn’t well received. The Conflux is made of various elemental creatures, as well as some unique new beasts and some old acquaintances that were dropped from the Sorcerer/Rampart faction.

Magister Militum has 10mm & 15mm Elemental miniatures, and I believe those might serve the purpose here. I’d probably use the lesser elementals for the basic troops (e.g. air elemental) and the Greater or 15mm for the Upgraded version (e.g. storm,) like a kind of “giant elemental.” In most cases, you just need to paint them differently to represent a related element. Unless another producer has better alternatives, this is the range I recommend so I’m not goint to link to specific products.

Keep in mind, though, that for 3d-printing, this is also quite an easy army to make except for a couple of units.

Sorcerer/Rampart Preliminary List

In HoMM3, the sorcerer faction became a more wild sylvan faction, although it still has a similar style and recognizable units. It lost some of its fairytale look (well, the whole game in general,) and with it, the sprite and phoenix units, as well as the druid, which looks like the Monk & Zealots from the Castle faction.

Necropolis preliminary list

The Necromancer/Necropolis faction changed little from HoMM2 to 3. Two new creatures were added in 3 and one became Neutral.

HoMM2:

HoMM3:

As a general rule, for this faction, I’ll reference Microworld Games Undead Range. Irregular Miniatures has a few undead miniatures (skeletons & zombies,) but MWG has a much larger catalog.

Inferno preliminary list

Inferno is an odd faction. According to the story in the M&M rpgs, they (or, at least, some of the most powerful units) are supposed to be some kind of interdimensional alien race: the kreegans. In HoMM3, the inferno creatures and heroes don’t look too much like kreegans to me, though.

In any event, this is the army list:

Although this would be a very cool-looking miniature army, the problem is that these are the monsters whose design is the least generic (there are for example, no large winged demons.) It won’t be easy to find miniatures for some of these.

Dungeon/Warlock Preliminary List

In HoMM2 the “evil wizard” archetype was represented by the Warlock faction.

Whether by design or otherwise, this faction ended up owning many mythical beasts from Greek mythology, like centaurs, griffons, minotaurs, and hydras. It also had all the dragons (except undead ones) in the game.

In HoMM3 this faction mutated into the Dungeon faction.

Two of the three dragons were kept, as well as the minotaurs. Other creatures were lost and went to other factions, but other (still from Greek mythoogy) were added: medusa, harpies, and manticores. Weird creatures like the troglodytes and the beholdes were added, too.

HoMM2:

HoMM3:

Fortress (AKA: Lizard army) Preliminary List

The Fortress faction is unique to HoMM3 so that will simplify matters a bit.

I also believe it has potential for expansion, as many variants of the basic units could be made, or new ones added. These are the units from the game:

Yes, I’m an image-editor Pro, how did you know?

Wizard/Tower Preliminary List

The Wizard (HoMM2) and Tower (HoMM3) faction share many similarities. Despite this, they are distinct enough, or quite different, depending on how fastidious you are about these things.

In their original appearance, the Wizard “biome” was some kind of dry land, desertic even. This was still the case in the Might & Magic RPG, Heroes VI, published in late 1998, where they went with a Egyptian/Arabian look. But in HoMM III (released in March 1999,) there were already many “desert/brown” factions, so maybe that’s why they were changed into the only snow faction (and they were moved to another landscape, as HoMM2 and 3 aren’t set in the same continent.)

You can still see the original desert inspiration thanks to the many cupolas and domes.

That may or may not be important, depending on how much do you care about basing and other details. In any event, these are the armies:

I have added the diamond and gold golems because, although neutral, they fit the faction.

Barbarian/Stronghold preliminary list

The Barbarian/Stronghold army is where the classic greenskin monsters from many fantasy settings were sent. Oddly enough, many of its heroes & generals are humans. HoMM IV fixed that by making the faction more human and moving some of the monsters (like the orcs) to more evil factions.

Anyway, these are the army rosters.

HoMM2:

HoMM3:

Of all the armies, this one might be one of the easiest to get as long as you get used to the idea that it won’t look exactly as in the videogame. However, for HoMM3, there are a couple of harder-to-get creatures.

Castle Preliminary list

This is a preliminary list for possible manufacturers and ranges for the Knight/Castle/”human” faction. Most will be physical products, with a few .stl files for 3d-printing if available.

HoMM2 army:

HoMM3 army:

Bases and scale

Trying to translate a video game into a workable tabletop game comes with some unexpected problems. Although this project is for now more of an artistic challenge, whatever comes out of it should feel and look playable. The main problem is that HoMM has a very unique gameplay, which doesn’t necessarily translate well into wargaming miniatures.

This is how a HoMM3 battle might look like (using the HD+ mod)