I'll be honest - I like overkill.  Huge, obscenely powerful armies obliterating each other, zillions of creatures, high level heroes, powerful artifacts, all that good stuff.  And I like Ultima.  The whole series, ever since playing the very first Ultima on an ancient Apple ][.  Even Pagan.  Yes, there, I've said it.  I liked Pagan.  So there.  But anyway, I thought it'd be cool to bring Britannia to Heroes, so here it is.
 

Requirements:
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Heroes of Might and Magic III: Armageddon's Blade
Heroes of Might and Magic III: Shadow of Death
-or-
Heroes of Might and Magic III Complete

Download the map here (150k)
 

Installation Instructions:
Unzip the map file into the "maps" directory in your Heroes III directory.  Run Heroes III.  Pick the "Ultima" map.  Play.  Enjoy.
 

Map details:
- XL Map, 2 levels
- 8 Players, all available to play as human
- 8 unique viewpoints on the events of the world
- A Horde of events that should amuse hardcore Ultima fans
- Lots of custom heroes from the various Ultimas
- All the combo artifacts (I know it sounds munchkin-like, but you really won't get more than one or two each time you play unless you go far out of your way)
- Bonus quests that are sometimes difficult, but won't take your heroes away from the action for too long
 

For the Parents:
Although it contains some twisted humor and makes evil sound like fun, it's basically pretty clean.  We'll rate it about a PG-13.
 

The Players:
- Each player has a different personality and perspective on the events that occur during the game.
- Most players are (plotwise) generally evil, since otherwise they wouldn't fight each other.
- Some players have an easier time than others, just due to their location on the map.  Don't expect balance.
- Everyone has a primary town, with a secondary town that's not too hard to find, always the same town type as the primary.

Here are the different sides:

Red - Terfin, home of Great Evil
Blue - The Castle of Our Liege Lord British
Tan - The Ruins of Prideful Magincia, now home only to corpses
Green - Empath Abbey, bastion of love
Orange - The Lycaeum, home of the greatest scholars in the land
Purple - The Great Stygian Abyss
Teal - The Militant Keep of Serpent's Hold
Pink - Secret, Underground Ambrosia

Comments on Locations (minor spoilers)
 

The Dungeons:
Every major Ultima dungeon is in the game, and I've tried to make each dungeon special in some way (usually consistent with at least one Ultima) so they don't get too boring, so there's almost always a theme.  Also, each of the dungeons contains a combination artifact broken into pieces and guarded by strong monsters.  Every starting town is near a dungeon, and some island starting locations were so cramped that they have some of their mines underground.
Comments on Dungeons (minor spoilers)
 

The Music:
If you're fortunate enough to have MP3's derived from Ultima 9:Ascension, they make really cool background music for this map.  Although the only publicly available MP3's were Stones (chamber) and Good vs Evil, there was (and might still be) a CD available from Origin with all the music.  Here are my suggested mappings:
 

Heroes File	U9 File	Heroes File	U9 File	Heroes File	U9 File
AITheme0	Valoria Evil	ElemTown	New Magincia	Rough	Britain Evil
AITheme1	Undead Lo	FortressTown	Dragons Lo	Sand	Trinsic Evil
AITheme2	Moonglow Evil	Grass	Stones (chamber)	Snow	Yew Evil
Combat01	Good vs Evil	InfernoTown	Gargoyles	Stronghold	Buccaneer's Den
Combat02	Humanoids	Lava	Terfin	Surrender Battle	Minoc Evil
Combat03	Undead Hi	LoseCastle	Dungeon	Swamp	Paws
Combat04	Dragons Hi	LoseCombat	Death Tune	TowerTown	Moonglow Good
CstleTown	Hail Britannia	MainMenu	Walking	Underground	Skara Brae Evil
Defend Castle	Skara Brae Good	NecroTown	Ambrosia	Water	Valoria Ships
Dirt	Minoc Good	Rampart	Yew Good	Win Battle	New Magincia End
Dungeon	Rats & Spiders Lo	Retreat Battle	Dungeon Trans	Win Scenario	Britain Good

Other Stuff:
Custom Heroes start with slightly improved stats (except Katrina - she's "special").  Use them.  Also, we actually bothered to give all the custom heroes a short bio, so check those out (click their picture in the Hero Window).  Here's a free sample featuring an enemy from Ultima 7:
"Poor misunderstood Horance.  All he wanted to do was extend his lifespan so he could continue his research into Sprituality, but something went tragically wrong and the towne of Skara Brae got a massive flaming enema.  Now he lives underground, neither living nor dead, and the greatest tragedy of all is that he has no servants."

There are a lots of tavern rumors, but for some reason HOMM3 picks its own lame rumors more often than I'd like.  Still, they're worth checking, as mine sometimes have valuable clues.

There are a few B5 references here.  No, make that a few shameless B5 references here.  I figure they made the entirety of Serpent's Hold into a ST:TNG reference in U7, so I get to have a sci-fi indulgence too.  Fans should recognize them instantly, but I think they stand well on their own.
Miscellaneous Spoilers
 

Disclaimers for the Ultima junkie:

Disclaimer One:
I took great liberties with the Ultima saga.  Many things are different, or in the wrong place, or completely made up, just because I thought it'd play better.  Any complaints (How come my favorite NPC isn't there?) will be read out loud using the voice of the comic-book guy on the Simpsons.

Disclaimer Two:
The premise of the plot is cheesy.  This isn't really a spoiler, since it happens to everyone on day one:  Some sort of time disturbance has happened so that I could justify putting elements from most of the Ultima series on the same map.  The rest of the plot is less cheesy, or at least somewhat amusing.
 

Credits:
Cas Dunlap - Concept, Program to Import U4 Map into Heroes3, Some Terraforming, Most Map Design, Most Towns and Dungeons, Most Events, Some Custom Heroes, and this no-frills Web Page
Chad Dunlap - Most Terraforming, Some Map Design, Some Towns and Dungeons, Some Events and Custom Heroes
Richard Garriott - Original Map Design, Original Concept, All Ultimas
3DO - Heroes III, which is my favorite strategy game ever

Send comments to:  ultimamap@martrol.com

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