Where the original Heroes of Might and Magic proved the formula, its 1996 sequel perfected it. Two warring heirs, a map full of mines and monsters, and armies led by wizards on horseback - Heroes II is the purest expression of the turn-based strategy RPG.

The economy of adventure

Every hero point spent on logistics, every gold piece spent on griffins instead of a second hero - the game is a chain of delicious opportunity costs. The campaign writing is fairy-tale bright, and Rob King and Paul Romero's score is still the soundtrack of choice for a thousand strategy evenings.

Legacy

Heroes III (1999) may have the deeper metagame, but many veterans never left II: its sprite work, its pacing, its gentler difficulty. The free open-source engine VCMI now runs both, and the GOG release keeps the original alive.

Verdict: the definition of "one more turn" a decade before Civilization claimed the phrase.