When you’re starting out in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, the first few turns matter way more than people expect. That early momentum decides how smooth or painful the rest of your run is going to be. So instead of trying to do everything at once, you want to approach those first days with a clear idea of what actually gives you value.
Splitting Your Heroes Early
The first thing I always do is split roles between my heroes. One of them is your main carry, the one who actually fights and holds most of your army. The second hero, which you should get as early as turn one if possible, is doing all the background work. Picking up resources, activating buildings, moving units around, basically handling logistics so your main hero doesn’t waste time walking back and forth. As the game goes on, you’ll add more of these helper heroes, but early on even just one extra makes a huge difference.
Build
When it comes to your first week investments, you want to think in terms of scaling. Anything that gives you ongoing value should come first. Your main city upgrades are usually a solid start because they don’t demand too many extra resources and they pay off quickly.
After that, creature buildings are important, especially tier one. These are what actually start your unit production. Even if you don’t recruit immediately, getting those buildings up early means units are waiting for you later.
One thing I highly recommend is getting a tier one mage guild early. It helps a lot more than it looks on paper, mainly because it reduces your losses in fights.
Playing Fights Smart
In the early game, your goal is to clear your surroundings with as little loss as possible. Ideally none. It’s completely fine to wait a day or two if that means you can take fights more cleanly.
Not every fight needs to be taken immediately. Focus on the ones that guard important income sources, like mines or resource buildings. Those are the fights you want to handle cleanly because they start feeding your economy right away.
Exploration
While exploring, your priorities should be very clear. Go for daily income buildings first. That usually means things like sawmills and ore mines. After that, look for higher value targets like gold mines.
Weekly resource spots are still good, but they come after your daily income is secured. And don’t ignore buildings that give you extra unit production. Those stack up fast and help your army grow without spending extra gold.
Another thing that’s easy to overlook is experience. Try not to let enemies escape in early fights. Finishing battles properly gives you more hero experience, but also law experience.
That law XP system is basically a long-term power boost for your faction. It adds up over time and can become just as important as your gold income, sometimes even more. So playing out fights instead of skipping them actually matters a lot here.
Mage Guild and Spell Value
Mage guilds don’t just unlock spells, they let you upgrade them and interact with systems like astrology points. Investing a bit into spells you use often is worth it.
Spells in general can carry fights early on if used properly, so don’t ignore that part of your progression.
Once your first week is done, your focus should shift. By then, you should have cleared most of your starting area or at least be close to it.
The next step is finding the bottleneck, that bigger fight that blocks access to a new area. That’s your gateway forward. As soon as you’re strong enough, you want to break through and start scouting beyond your starting zone.
Finding the next town becomes your next big objective. Expanding fast is what keeps your momentum going. If you can afford another hero at this stage, it helps a lot with scouting, but it’s not always possible depending on the map.
Still, the idea stays the same. Secure your area, then push outward as soon as you can.
Try to keep your main hero moving forward as much as possible. You don’t want them wasting turns going back home unless there’s a very good reason, like learning new spells.
Ideally, your secondary heroes should handle delivering units and resources to your main hero so they can stay on the front line.
Adjusting Based On Your Hero
As your game develops, your decisions will start depending more on your hero and your build. Unit upgrades are usually straightforward, offensive or defensive, but your hero specialization can influence how you build your army.
If your hero leans into magic, you might want tankier units to support that. If you’re more combat-focused, you might build differently. This is where things start to vary from game to game.
At the end of the day, the early game is all about momentum. Every action that gives you steady income, whether daily or weekly, pushes you ahead. The faster you secure those advantages, the easier everything becomes afterward.
If you can consistently build that early lead, you’ll notice how much smoother your runs feel.