OK I've been playing some serious HOMM6 over the past 2 weeks; sometimes whole days

I could definitely have done something more constructive with my time but never mind. One of the things I really like about that game (and HOMM3, which I used to play, and it remains a classic game that's aged very well) is the wide variety of creatures that each army has and all of their varied abilities - this got me thinking about FE.

By and large the armies consist of men (or humanoids) with different configs of weapons and thats great as the core of an army, but I'd quite like to see some fantasy monster goodness to supplement these armies too.

Now there are some nods by Stardock in this direction e.g. Summon spells and the civ allies techs but nevertheless armies rarely include them, and there are some very good reasons for this:

1) The civ tech allies make it ridiculously hard to get hold of these monsters - the monster dens are as rare as hens teeth and are often faction restricted anyway (damn it!) so more games than not I don't use these units even if I have the techs. Also, to use these units you need to clear the defending monsters, so they are often superceded when you get them anyway, which is so ass backwards to me

2) Many of the ally monsters are also humanoids, which is kind of unexciting.

3) Many of the monsters are outright weak and you wouldnt want to use em anyway, plus they are sometimes solo units!

Monsters in armies should be fun, but it's so hard to do at the moment and the benefits are so minor that it's hardly worth the hassle, so some suggestions on how to expand on this area of the game:

Make it easier to recruit monsters, some suggestions are:

A) more dens that players can build on placed on the map - a wider variety too

B ) allow all players to build on all dens but give the factions affinity for different monster types that allow them to recruit at a significant discount and have a raised cap on those units - there could be some limits such as kingdoms not recruiting demons but these should be much looser than currently I think

C) this is a bit radical but WTH - allow players to recruit from all monster dens (attacking them pacifies/subjugates the den rather than removes it) - dip cap in the recruiting costs & unit caps will place a limit on the number of troops anyway

D) allow players to spend dip cap and gold (needs both) to bribe monsters on the map - if a faction has an affinity for those monsters, they get a discount bribing them - would require civics techs so it's not available right at the start, so the monsters still limit expansion and the dip cap costs will make it hard to bribe many of them. The later civics techs give discounts in recruitment from dens and bribing and expand the range of monsters that can be bribed

Beef up humanoid monsters:

If we are going to have humanoids as recruitable monsters then can we at least form them in squads and larger groups? How about being able to change their equipment and give them items that you can give to normal troops? Even better, how about you can equip them with a special roster of equipment for that monster e.g. magic warpaint for wildings - as you research better weapons this could lead to improved equipment for these monsters which represent a synthesis of the monster tribes ideas plus your factions - some of these humanoids are supposed to represent primitive cultures so there could be some cool tribal mysticism voodoo stuff maybe

Beef up the bigger monsters!

The monsters roaming around the map are wild but if they can be tamed then their raw power could be harnessed and married with the benefits of civilisation to create some very frightening things. Some ideas off the top of my head:

1) Armour plating for pretty much all the monsters - as you research armour you should be able to upgrade your monsters with armour too, of course it should cost ALOT to upgrade them but all monsters should be able to wear some form of armour plating/barding if it's been crafted to fit and the monster has been trained to use it - the only real exception is the elementals and shrills

2) Weapons for monsters - if you have the tech, why can't you give your troll a steel lightning mace rather than a tree stump? Again, it should cost alot, but it should be doable - because a troll is dumb, it should be limited to blunt weapons but it should get weapon upgrades. Other monsters could get things like spiked plating/helmets to boost their attack so weapons need not be totally restricted to monsters with hands

3) Monsters as mounts - I want to be able to ride a dragon or a spider - maybe it should only be champion and level restricted (you would need to be brave!) but it should be doable

4) Magic and monsters - some of the monsters could be augmented by magic items - e.g. elementals should be given elemental items that correspond with their type - e.g. runestones, weapons - they could be supercharged according to how many of the respective shard you control

5) Flesh golems! Magnar has flesh magic - maybe they could make some scary frankenstein monster creations?

This post is much longer than I initially thought but I wanted to throw these ideas out there - fantasy armies should have monsters and they should be meaningful. Hopefully Derek will pick up some of these ideas and run with them.