Heroes of Land Air & Sea

What business does an Elf, a Man, a Dwarf and an Orc have in Heroes of Land, Air & Sea ?

The four fantastic races will fight for dominance over the quarter land. As befits a 4X game, we will develop our kingdom, conquer new territories, fight exciting battles and do something resembling exploration.

Many people have compared Holas to Warcraft. I, however, will not do so…

It’s time to grab an axe and set out to conquer Azeroth.

Tactical war craft

If the combat was weak in Holas then I would be extremely disappointed. However, it’s the greatest Arthas of this game. The battles are fast, you can make some cool plays in them and they are mostly about predicting what our opponent can play. Well, unless you attack with 2 warriors and get a fireball on your fangs(kudos to Michał). Because when starting a fight each side can cast one spell, which can already change a lot in the conflict. Later we play tactics cards that give us bonuses to strength. These modifiers will change depending on the card played by our opponent. Let’s get ready for some solid mind games.

I enjoy combat immensely and most importantly we always have a chance to win. Even if someone attacks our single peasant. As for combat, I also like the fact that we earn points for it. It motivates us to keep attacking each other rather than camping at Crossroads.

While it all sounds great, every unit lost hurts us a lot. Especially since there is no massive option to recruit and flood the enemy with waves of new units. There is also no come-back option so you have to be careful in every battle.

My Peon

Economically, Holas has the construction of a pickaxe. Because the basis of our development is to recruit peasants. They are the ones who allow us to construct new buildings, collect resources from the map and help us follow someone else’s action. However, peasants are not just for work, work. Because, as if anything, they can also take part in battle, and for typical cannon fodder they do quite well in it.

Follow for follow

The best motif in Holas is that when someone chooses an economic action in his turn, we can copy it by sending a peasant to that action field. It blocks him for that round, but it gives us that feeling of being in the game all the time. Even in the opponents’ turn. A simple system, but at the same time very enjoyable.

Might and Magic

Spells are what significantly turn up the gameplay for me in Holas. You can make really powerful plays with them that change the situation on the board. Because in addition to the typical magic missiles and fireballs, we can teleport someone across the board by surprising them with an invasion from behind. We can greatly increase the strength of one unit so that it breaks down a wall of enemies. There are also economic spells that will give us a steady supply of resources. The best part, however, are all the counterspells and copy spells. A blue player like me loves these.

Although I moderately like the method of acquiring new spells. Because it is completely random. We don’t know what will come to us, and sometimes we can look at someone with envy as, for example, got a spell of extra construction. Overkill to the max.

Horde or Alliance?

Another big plus of Heroes of Land, Air & Sea is the asymmetrical nature of the available factions. For we have Night elves with rabbit ears who like magic, Dwarf pirates with long beards and firearms, Orcs who like to bash everything with their axes, and generic humans. This asymmetry between them mainly boils down to a favorite type of terrain or particular raw material they produce, and a few abilities that enhance their stats. However, when I play another faction I can feel the difference between them. This is also helped by the racial champions. Because each side of the conflict has 3 different heroes to recruit and they definitely deepen this asymmetry between the races.

All roads lead to Stormwind

The paths our armies can take are built to go everywhere and initiate conflict. There is no hunkering down or eternal fortification of positions. Here we must be ready for the fact that there may always be a bigger Murloc. In addition, our boats and airships help us to move quickly on the board. Although I don’t know about you, but I used them quite rarely in my games.

Exploring the outlands

Exploration of new areas boils down to the fact that as we enter a certain field on the board and if there is a token there we pick it up. It may not sound exciting, but these tokens are such events that can provide something positive or something negative for us. The unpleasant effects can be very painful for us at the beginning of the game. My favorite was such an event where I could lose a unit if I didn’t pay an ore. This could severely limit someone at the beginning of exploring new areas. It’s a bit unfair with the tokens so you have to play with the rule “life is brutal and full of ambushes”.

Gameplay time

The gameplay in Holas is fast. Maybe not as fast as Kessel Run in Bloodmyst Isle, but we definitely won’t feel bored. Because with this 4X we will spend about 2 hours per game. This is not bad. Plus the fact that we can follow someone else’s actions keeps us engaged all the time. I love such solutions.

How many Tauren does it take to milk the game?

I will surprise you and say that this is not a game for a romantic evening for two. The board is too empty and we have too much space to lie down on the map. There is not even enough to spread the legs of our towers. With games like this, there must be 4 players for there to be a full balance of fighting for every bit of available terrain.

Another surprise is that Heroes of Land, Air & Sea allows for solo play. I played, checked it out and it was pretty ok, but I would treat it more as a tutorial for RTSing. Automa attacks us and tries to score points. However, all I had to do was stay out of her areas and I was free to explore the rest of the islands.

Quality and components

In terms of quality, this will never be an Ardenweald. Although it is still not bad. The figures are pretty cool and it’s good that you can distinguish between certain units. Also cool are our capitals and towers because they give this game such a 3d lookup. Worse is the storage of all the components. Because we have to keep our buildings and ships loosely in the box. Somehow at home it doesn’t bother me, but the worst situation is with transporting the box. Particularly disturbing is the elven ship that strenuously tries to make a hole in the cover of Heroes of Land, Air & Sea.

Summary

Heroes of Land, Air & Sea is a true RTS on the board. Although the economic layer of the game is quite negligible, because it is mainly based on the management of Peons, I know why I came here. To simply fight on the map with my armies and have fun. Because the combat in this game is tactical and I like this anticipation of what my opponent can play. Everything is further diversified with spells and asymmetrical heroes. I am very eager to fight the battle to conquer Azeroth here called Aughmoore.

Final Verdict: Simply WOW

Your favorite race from Heroes of Land, Air & Sea?

Pros

• Action following
• Tactical combat
• Magical spells(fireball to the face)
• Different factions
• Cool figures
• Warcraft style

Cons

• Uneven exploration
• For 2 people too loose
• Elven ship breaking my box

[Game provided by Galakta]