wow, you really care a little too much about animations in a strategy game without an A+ budget and a limited audience due to not having an established ip created by a company that not only develops games, don't you?

then drink your warm milk and go to bed.

no, it could have not been said more diplomatically. Not in the slightest. Thinking it over, I was actually too diplomatic...

I'm sorry, but anyone who honestly claims that a complex turn-based strategy game is "pretty much ruined" by the simple fact that combat animations are not as hip as in MMH6 deserves no diplomacy at all, not even the faint one from Legendary Heroes. Again, not because the AI is stupid, not because combat mechanics suck, not because city management is lacking.... because combat animations are not as snappy as in MMH6...

The problem is this is a slow burning game, when you have a game like that you need various treats. Animations and spell effects are those treats.

 So when that is underwhelming it brings the whole thing down.

Alright, I think this is a bit much to the artists over at Stardock. First off, the artwork is consistent throughout the game that is a HUGE plus. I think the artists over at stardock have done a fine job.

I do like great looking graphics and that is a very nice thing to watch and see the animations do. But those artists do not have to deal with over

330+ different distinct weapons.

170+ different armors

All of which have to dynamically produced not only on the tactical screen, but the sovereign creation screen, the unit picture (which updates during the game), the diplomacy screen, and the strategic map.

If the graphics were set to that of Might and Magic VI, you would require them to OVERHAUL the entire system, to ONLY run on 64 bit computers with a good chunk of memory, maybe somewhere around 8+ gigs (I'm only guessing because i wouldn't know how much memory each of these items would graphically be). I know that are basically at the cap of 3+ gig right now for memory that a 32 bit system can read, and will utilize the 64 bit memory to a certain extent.

Before we criticize them completely on bad animations and graphics, and say it is a money issue. You are basically running your entire base out of the game because they couldn't have the system requirements to run such a game. Let us not forget that there are other factors as to why they chose the animation style they did (which I approve of deeply). I for one haven't seen a game that has this magnitude and I can see these armor pieces show up on ALL of my units and all of my picutres dynamically.

Lords of Midnight on the iOS..... what the!?!?  How did I not know of such things, awesome!

The OP could have been a little more diplomatic, but his is an attitude I think that will become more prevalent as kids who cut their teeth playing Angry Birds or Farmville or even WoW get older and start buying their own games. 

These are people who learned that you don't play games to play, you play games to get rewards. 

Of course, all games dole out rewards to one extent or another.  Even LH provides rewards (loot, levels, lore, etc.), but it does so in a very understated way.  So you find a new awesome axe, but even though it does more damage it still just acts like any other axe.  You champion levels up, but there's no fireworks, just a dialog letting you pick from a number of significant, but sometimes mundane, traits.  There's no stars to pick up, no fanfare, no fireworks, the game doesn't tell you how great you're doing or offer to share your achievements on Facebook. 

It's as though they're expecting you to just enjoy playing the game for its own sake.

To be clear, I'm not judging.  I wrote this post because to a certain degree I actually agree with the OP.  The game should have more fanfare and fireworks.  It should tell you how great you're doing and the axes should all have their own animations.  More sparkle would really only make the game better, IMHO.

the animations are well done as are all the graphics in this strategy game. The only thing ruining this game for "you" is you.

But somebody has said that each weapon should have there own special animations... that's down right outrageous and coming from

Oh quit lying about this already.

In MMH6 there are dozens of dynasty weapons and there is animation for only 2 types, staff-like and sword-like. Just like in Mass Effect there are 5 types of animations: shotgun, sniper, pistol, assault rifle and submachine gun.

So here there would be less than 6 animations total just for weapons.

Besides that ridiculously transparent lie, what is really important are animations of your heroes and creatures in combat, which I showed in the video in the opening post.

Also animations are far more important than graphics since animations can never get outdated like graphics do.

i kinda like fallen but then i havent tried heroes6

It's one of the juiciest fantasy games you can find, the art-style, visuals, animations, hero variety, faction variety, tactical options in combat..all of it is outstanding and definitely the best animations ever you can find in this genre of turn based games.

But the strategic layer/economy is somewhat simplistic.

Wow, if this is the audience Stardock caters to then no wonder...

In HoMM6 there are ~25 units on the map at the same time. FE:LH features hundreds. HoMM6 has static animations for almost all units, FE:LH requires a vast amount of animations to allow for different weapontypes, abilities with those types, and mounts.

HoMM6 animations were incredible. FE:LH are average, but not bad. And given the above, I'm satisfied.