[B0rsuk]

I like Age of Wonders 2: Shadow Magic much more than Homm5 .

Homm1 was revolution.
Homm2 was revolution.
Homm3 was evolution. It was good, but not spectacular for me. Homm2 added and improved much more than Homm3.
Homm4 I have a lot of sympathy for. It has many very interesting features and changes, but it's clearly rushed and unfinished. 3DO was going bankrupt at the time H4 was being made, and it shows. At the release there were UGLY memory leaks and performance issues. Prior to Heroes4, there was a saying that you don't need a strong machine to run a Homm game. H4 broke that rule and H5 continues it. I value H4 a lot because it tried many new things, and many of them were, in my opinion, Good (like changes to combat system, simultaneous retaliation, reliable and consistent magic although it was MTG clone, castle walls, obstacles, unit choices, units that aren't piles of stats...)

I would love H5 if it wa H4 done right - with proper resources and polish. Instead, it's a bland clone of H3 with Warcraft graphics. I considered H3 good, but somewhat uninspired. In some ways, H5 is a regression compared to H3 - for instance stats and hero system, map size, editor, magic, number of spells.

I've found my H4 done right. It's AoW2: SM. Age of Wonders2: Shadow Magic plays like a cross of Homm and Master of Magic. Strong Master of Magic influences include: magic domains, global spells, summonable units with upkeep, castle sieges, and more.
Too bad AoW2: SM is aging and few people play it anymore.