Then you will love HoMM 2+3. They are even better. :-)

Yeah, I have a feeling I will like all of them. I've booted up all five from here and was pleasantly surprised at how similar all of the games felt - each one building on the previous rather than completely dismissing what had come before. Though the grid-based maps in V will take a little getting used to after the hex-based maps in the first four, heh.

I did find a copy of the Heroes of Might & Magic strategy guide at a bookstore recently. Covers the Win 95 version. Hope GOG will get the rights to that one as there are some exclusive maps to that version that sound like fun. =)

Flynn

For me, MM7 stands head-and-shoulders above the other games in the series.

Anything older than MM6 had severe balance issues. Mages were punished with ever-increasing SP costs as they leveled up (and abilities cost gems). Meanwhile melee fighters received free extra attacks per turn as they leveled (in MM2, a level 255 barbarian could attack 64 times a turn. Insanity.)

MM6 turned the combat balancing tables the other way. A lot of people mocked it as "Magic and Magic". Gone were the multi-attacks as a leveling perk, instead, melee combat could only increase damage a small amount with skill level (and on certain weapons only). Gems as a resource cost were gone, and mages now received some good damage increases for leveling their skills.
MM6 had a myriad of other balancing issues, mostly left over from the earlier games in the series - it's obvious that the players complained, and they were mostly fixed in MM7.

MM7 - the crowning achievement of the entire series. While MM6 had more detail in buildings/architecture and a larger game world, MM7 bested MM6 in every other way. 9 character classes, with elemental/self magic hybrids. Armsmaster skill and grandmaster skill tiers means that knights are no longer irrelevant. Mages also got improved abilities, with the costs of light/dark magic going down.
MM7 also had the most original and unique storyline in the series, with 2 paths - in one path, you finish building a portal to other planets, on the other path, you actually conquer the world. It is also the only Might and Magic game where the main quest isn't about saving the world.
MM7 also had the best character and item sprites. Items and characters in MM6 and also MM8 (3DO was having budget issues when MM8 was being built) looked like they were drawn in Microsoft Paint. In MM7, all of the sprites look smooth and professional. I have yet to see any game that makes 640x480 resolution look better.

MM8 could have been a good game, but 3DO (the publisher) had budget issues and the developers had just thrown out the planned storyline for MM8 due to negative reviews from fans. The option to change your party mid-game was a welcome improvement, and MM8 also further improved combat balance, but otherwise it was rushed, had relatively little content, had a smaller game world than MM7, and also had the most unoriginal bland storyline of any Might and Magic game. It's obvious that MM8 was the "beginning of the end" for the series.
I would say that MM8 is worth playing just because it combines the best of MM7 combat with a flexible 5-character party, but it's nowhere near the legend that MM7 was.

MM9: mostly not worth it. MM8 had mediocre sales, and as a result, 3DO took Might and Magic development away from Jon van Canegham (the original writer of the series) and set up an entirely new team (which had never built a game before) to build MM9 using their new Lithtech full-3D engine. MM8 was heavily criticized because it did almost nothing to improve on MM7's graphics and was considered outdated. In the age of Unreal, Quake, and other 3D engines, Lithtech was 3DO's answer to demands for ever-increasing graphics and 3D quality.
Turns out it was too little, too late. 3DO actually went bankrupt while MM9 was being developed, and the developers were forced to rush it out the door while it was in alpha testing. MM9 was glitchy at best and unplayable at worst, and it was obvious that it was rushed from the lack of endgame content. Supposedly MM9 is playable with community-made patches.

That's not insanity.
Having a lvl 255 characer is insanity.

Not sure I agree that melee is better than magic in the early games... in MM1 and MM2, my mage was my most powerful character, once he got a few levels and learned better spells. Being able to damage multiple enemies with one spell is incredibly useful. My melee characters could only ever down one enemy per turn which simply isn't enough for most battles. In MM4-5 I also remember using my spells often, although I think my melee characters were more powerful (it's a long time since I played, memory is fuzzy).

Also, you (and others in these forums) are really encouraging me to try MM7, even though I prefer the earlier games to MM6. Maybe I'll actually find the time to play MM7 one day....

Favorites are the Xeen games (4-5 and Swords) and MM7. If you want a cool, immersive RPG where you can explore to your hearts content and get awesome diverse loot and meet interesting npc's I'd recommend the latter. If you want a great min-max stat crazy old school dungeon crawl experience, then I'd definitely say to play 3-5 first. :)

MM6
Without hesitation.

I haven't played them all yet, but so far, 6 is my favorite, the Xeen games are up there close to it.

All for Might and Magic VI.

What's amazing about both the Ultima and Might and Magic series is the nearly identical paths they took toward becoming the defining CRPG sagas.

Both had their first two titles released during the primitive infancy of computer gaming. Both had volumes 3-5 really start to flesh out some superb story and gameplay. Both ended up having volumes 5 and 6 being regarded as all-time great RPGs. Both had 8th volumes that were enjoyable but universally seen as flawed but are viewed better in hindsight. And both series were destroyed by a 9th volume that was rushed out by a mega-studio in a barely-playable state and most fans refuse to even acknowledge they exist.

In this case, the answer for Might and Magic is almost certainly 6 or 7 depending on your preference. However, none besides 9 are outright BAD. 1 and 2 are simply a tough go for some due to the technical limitations of the time. 3-5 don't suffer from that as much. But 6 and 7 hit in the sweet spot between retro and modern.

It's more than just how retro / modern they are though... 6 and 7 play very differently from 3-5. I enjoyed MM6, but found portions got tiresome as I fought through hordes and hordes of enemies. I also felt that the locations didn't have quite as much personality as I remembered from 4 and 5 (although I played those a long time ago).

M&M 7; M&M 6 being second.

In MM7 you can get your own castle, so that's all you need to know - hop to it and start playing! ;)

Awesome. Can you renovate it and improve it like Newcastle from Clouds of Xeen?

I do intend to play MM7 but my backlog is so big right now, it won't be any time soon. I'm sure I'll post about it here when I finally get around to it, though.

Yep, you can renovate and improve it, so if you like that you'll be happy but I haven't played Clouds of Xeen. :)