FC: First, I think the dwarves are a race that was eagerly expected ? I hope they will fulfil these expectations! They are a tradition in fantasy worlds and they couldn’t shy away from fame in Ashan. We indeed have other factions in mind but the dwarves were the logical next step in terms of history and game balance.
Q: What are the main abilities of this new faction?
FC: Dwarves will have a specific magic school, the rune magic. They are the only ones who can access and use it. They have runes on themselves or on their equipment. The rune mage (the dwarven hero) commanding the army can activate these runes by spending resources (not mana). So you will have to be careful of choosing the right moment to activate them and not waste resources! Runes will have various effects such as allowing a unit to attack twice or to dispel any negative spell effects.Q: What kinds of units will be available to the dwarven faction? Can you give us more details on 1 or 2 creatures?
FC: Here are a few details on one nice unit, the Berserker. It’s basically a storm of flesh and armour and pointy bits. It may be a dwarf storm, but not one you would like to encounter! It’s a melee fighter with very powerful offence and immunity to mind control. They can also charge the enemy for improved damage, but at the expense of all defence.Q: It seems some of the dwarves will look like gigantic dwarves, is it due to gameplay or design?
FC: One of the dwarf units is a giant dwarf indeed – ending up as quite a normal height?. We are talking about the Thane, who is a clan elder, a warrior imbued with magical abilities. They actually need to be quite big if they want to be able to wield the huge axe they carry around. This axe is imbued with magical runes of thunder and his allows them to add a chain lightning effect to each of their strike or to cast once per battle a Storm Bolt attack.Q: Where does the add-on take place in Ashan? Will we have new environments?
FC: Yes, from the screenshots released you see that the dwarves there are situated in a new, snowy environment. They mostly live in the mountains north of the Griffin Empire, a fact that was already guessed by the people who looked closely at the Ashan map provided in some game editions?. The add-on scenario will bring you there and also underground to settle a few accounts the dwarves have with some of their neighbours.Q: What is the background of the dwarves? Why did they remain silent and hidden in H5? Who is the main opponent of the dwarves? Who is their leader?
FC: The dwarves are led by their king, Tholgar. He was once a brave warrior but has grown complacent and is now relying on counsellors. One of them, Hangvul, leads the belief that dwarves should only care about their own problems, and thus led them to isolationism. This is also helped by the fact that they have lost contact with their god, since the death of the Haven king Alexey. Perhaps the fact that they didn’t help at the time is being punished? The ravaging civil war in the human kingdom will awaken the dwarves and also their hatred of the dark elves, which they fought in the “war under the mountains”.Q: Why did you decide to put another dragon as the lvl7 creature for the dwarves? Why do you introduce so many dragons in the game?
FC: Dwarves worship Arkath, the dragon of fire, so it quite sensible that fire dragons appear to help them, just like the dark elves and Malassa. Dragons are at the core of Ashan, the world of Might and Magic. If I do the calculation correctly, only half of the factions had a dragon as a tier 7 creature, so that’s the fourth, which doesn’t strike me as overwhelming ?Developed by Nival Interactive, Heroes of Might & Magic V: Hammers of Fate will be available in November 2006.
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