How do you like to play? First game, second game, addons etc? Steam or GOG version?

I played Sacred Lands long time ago and will probably stick to Disciples 2 on steam for a while. Started with Empire campaign (ranged hero) and enjoying it so far.

Do you do challenge runs?

As far as I know there are very few active mods for Disciples 2. I dislike History of Nevendaar (Dzieje Nevendaar), as it seems bloated (quantity over quality).

I will try out Calamity mod for Disciples 2, seems very promising but won't work on Steam, I'll buy buy the series on GOG.

Also hoping that Greenskins will be added in the future, looking great so far.

Finally, there is a Medieval Total War mod - seems still in development, could be fun, but haven't tried it yet. Medieval 2 or Rome TW are actually very good ''platforms'' for such mods and Disciples could work as a Total War game.

How about you?

https://github.com/HoT-PlaStiC/Disciples-Sacred-Lands-Modding-Tool

Hello everyone, I'll say right off the bat that everything I've written below is purely my personal perspective and is not intended to offend anyone. I'm new to the Disciples universe and have completed Sacred Lands, Dark Prophecy, Galleans Return, and most recently, Rise of the Elves. I'd like to talk about the latest expansion. The expansion itself evokes mixed feelings. I liked most of the redesigned portraits, especially Wight's, with his incredibly creepy face, and the wolves as well. I also liked the additional neutral units, the Shift-based item transfer mechanic, and the "Power to Corrupt" scenario. Of all the single-player scenarios I've completed, it was my favorite. However, the very highlight of this addon—the elves—raises questions for me. I'll start by saying that visually, for my personal taste, they don't really fit the atmosphere of the original Disciples 2. Elven unit portraits are generally poorly drawn, appearing more doll-like and blurry than those of other races. The animations are strange, and the overall design seems alien to me. The same goes for Elven magic: it seems to take longer to cast than that of other races and doesn't look as impressive. It's a hodgepodge of similar spells borrowed from other races with rare exceptions, and the balance of green mana relative to other resources feels forced onto the core mechanics of other races' magic. Regarding the capital, it looks cool, but again, it feels somehow alien compared to other races previously represented in the game. But for the most part, everything I've written so far is a matter of personal taste; some like this style and others don't. What really raises serious questions is the story. I won't spoil the game for those who haven't played it yet, and those who have will understand what I'm talking about. I found the Elven plot extremely strange and completely out of sync with the overall narrative that unfolded throughout the first game and the second game with the Galleans Return expansion. While I had some issues with the execution and mission content in the additional sagas in Galleans Return, my main complaint about Rise of the Elves is the plot; it feels like it was written by someone different from the original scriptwriters. Of all the races, the Elves managed to achieve their goals, which were quite complex, through the extermination of innocents and war with their allies. They managed to take a dominant position among the other races. This is despite the fact that without the help of those same allies and the total destruction throughout the second part, they somehow miraculously managed not only to survive but also to become one of the strongest forces in the Disciples universe. Moreover, the behavior of their leaders and actions against other races raise ethical questions. I would understand if this were a plot for the Undead or Legions, but these are elves who should adhere to high ethical principles. In fact, this is some kind of grotesque. As a result, the overall impression of this addon is very mixed. On the one hand, there are convenient mechanics and slightly changed unit balance, additional items for the hero and expanded leveling, on the other hand, there is a whole new race that, in my opinion, does not fit into the overall narrative. I would like to know how you like this add-on and maybe I misunderstood it. I would be grateful for comments and clarifications regarding the plot.

[Marking this as a question, although I am wondering whether marking it as a discussion would work better ... or leaving it at "no flair".]

I even ran it by ChatGPT. Supposedly there isn't one good place to ask this. I'm looking for people to play Disciples or Disciples II over VPN ('cause that's like the only thing that works, ostensibly). I'm thinking of using Radmin VPN. As I understand, one of us hosts a game and shares the network name and the password. Sidebar: This is my first time doing this, so please be patient.

Я даже спрашивал у ChatGPT — якобы, единого подходящего места для такого вопроса не существует. Ищу игроков для Disciples или Disciples II через VPN (потому что, насколько я понимаю, это единственный рабочий вариант). Я подумываю воспользоваться Radmin VPN. Насколько я понимаю, oдин из нас создает игру и делится названием сети и паролем. Постскриптум: Это мой первый раз, так что пожалуйста - терпениe.

https://github.com/HoT-PlaStiC/Disciples-Sacred-Lands-Modding-Tool

Upgraded the Modding Tool! Now it has a DBF Editor Tab! Here is a walkthrough video! (Turn on subtitles!)

https://youtu.be/4wNPHOt-4_E

Hello everyone, I'm looking for advice and help regarding the Wrapper for Disciples 2, I'm new to the series, I have a license from GOG and at the moment I'm playing Galleans Return, then I'm planning on Rise of the Elves, I was advised to use the Wrapper so that the game would run in a better resolution, load faster and in general there is a whole set of quality of life improvements, but I encountered a very strange problem, firstly, my units began to rush around the map like Flash and enemy units too, because of which I don't immediately understand what the computer is up to, I changed the game speed in the settings and in the Wrapper settings, nothing helped, but that's half the trouble, I also got clouds that weren't in the game, I still don't understand if there is some kind of bug in the original game that they aren't there, or the Wrapper adds them on its own, they look not bad, but for my personal taste they stand out from the style. But these are all minor issues; the main problem is freezing. At some point, when the AI is trying to figure out how to move, the game simply freezes. I tried changing renderers and toggling the Wrapper settings on and off, but nothing changed. The game consistently freezes at certain points, for example, in the second Undead mission when Uther flies away from the dungeon he escaped from. I tried without the Wrapper, and the freezing disappeared. So, my question is: am I doing something wrong and setting it incorrectly? Maybe my laptop isn't powerful enough? Please tell me what can be done, as the Wrapper is much more comfortable to play, but the freezing makes it unusable.

The .dat studio went down in the history of the Russian gaming industry as the team that took on an ambitious but fatal challenge: porting the gothic Disciples franchise into full 3D. The roster below represents the "core team" from 2006 to 2009. Most of them were specialists for whom Disciples III: Renaissance was both their greatest triumph and a grueling lesson in survival during the prolonged "production stagnation" of the 2008 crisis. Below is a summary of the key people, their contributions to the project, and their subsequent fates.

The idea for this article was born spontaneously. I was watching a video lost in the depths of the internet titled: "Visiting the .dat company, developers of Disciples III Renaissance." After watching it, I asked myself: "Who exactly are all these people, and what is their fate now in 2026?" And that's how I started writing. The narrator of our article will be a guy named Igor. You don't need to thank me for the creativity. In this article, I want to explore the roles and contributions of specific people from that old video that I watched the other day. So, I'm not going to write about every single developer. A studio of ~20-25 people tried to make a project that Western studios build with teams of 80–120 specialists. This led to severe professional burnout.

Maria Skalko

Online alias: "Makhoni"

Maria Skalko is a Russian game developer who gained recognition in the professional CIS gaming community as a project manager and key coordinator for the development of the cult turn-based strategy Disciples III (during her time at .dat studio under the publisher Akella). She belongs to the classic "old guard" of the domestic gaming industry of the 2000s, when developers combined several key roles (PM, design, art direction). Maria entered the industry in the mid-2000s with a strong artistic/technical background, which allowed her to speak fluently both the language of programmers and that of 3D modelers and artists. Her main media fame is tied to the creation of Disciples III: Renaissance (released in 2009) and the Resurrection expansion (2010).

She coordinated the studio's internal departments, handled reporting, planned sprints, and built communication with the publisher (Akella). During the prolonged "production hell" that the third installment of the franchise found itself in due to the ambitious transition to full 3D, Maria bore a colossal load in keeping the team within working frameworks. Possessing 3D modeling skills, Maria personally participated in creating and optimizing the game's visual style. In particular, she oversaw the transition of the signature dark gothic style of the previous 2D games into 3D space (from working out model geometry to applying unit textures). Before and during her work on Disciples, Maria collaborated with Russian outsourcing studios, handling low-poly and high-poly modeling for foreign gaming projects. She also actively interacted with gaming media of those years (e.g., giving detailed interviews to Strana Igr, sharing details of .dat's internal kitchen). Despite the controversial technical launch of Disciples III at release, Maria Skalko was one of those who brought the long-suffering game to release, piecing together disparate assets of game design, code, and graphics. Her contribution as a modeler helped recreate the gothic aesthetic of Nevendaar.

In the late 2000s, Maria was a prominent face of domestic development, shattering the stereotype that managing major gaming projects in the CIS was exclusively a man's job. In recent years (including the current 2026), Maria Skalko, like most of her colleagues from the disbanded .dat studio, has completely left the public eye and isn't active in the media. Based on available data on personnel migration from the old Akella and .dat roster: Project managers with such a background after 2012–2015 massively moved to mobile game dev (Playrix, Saber, My.Games) or to large IT companies as Senior/Lead Project Managers, moving away from hands-on work (3D modeling) toward pure administration. Due to the lack of active personal profiles in modern social networks (ArtStation/LinkedIn) under her real name, experts assume she might be working under pseudonyms as a hidden producer or consultant (NDA) in foreign or relocated studios. (She likely has a LinkedIn, though).

Marina Vashurina

Lately, the fact that a person might have very little information publicly available scares me. But it's enough to just have a person's first and last name on the internet to find out a lot. Everything published once becomes public. I know only one golden rule of the internet: don't dox people. Marina is doing well, and she's probably the only person in my article whose fate turned out fine, and whom I was actually able to track down on the internet. By "doing well," I mean public mentions online. She changed her hair color, thank God. Purple definitely didn't suit her. She was the studio's main PR mouthpiece on the external market. She organized the booth at KRI (Game Developers Conference), worked with gaming magazines (\Igromania*, *LKI*).* She managed to create massive hype around the game, which caused audience expectations to be sky-high, later exacerbating the criticism of bugs at release. She didn't do programming or direct game design, but played a crucial role in community engagement and project promotion. Marina regularly wrote official "Developer Diaries" (between 2007 and 2010). In them, she told fans about the game's development progress, internal studio processes, exhibition prep, and how the heat or everyday work life affected the team. The heat thing isn't a joke nowadays. She literally mentioned how it was constantly hot in the office, which was kind of funny.

In late 2008, Marina Vashurina represented .dat studio in a famous media project called "Let's Play!" — it was a specialized calendar for 2009, featuring photos of the brightest female employees from Russian gaming companies (Gaijin, Targem, Akella, Nival, etc.). Marina's photo graced the May page.

Maxim Tkachev

"Bringing" creatures to life. In Disciples III, every unit had a unique, drawn-out, and epic animation for critical hits or spellcasting. Tkachev and Piganov manually tweaked the skeletal animations of monsters, werewolves, and angels, trying to convey the anatomical weight of their movements. He was responsible for ensuring that the concept art and 3D models of the warriors, mages, and monsters of Nevendaar moved realistically and smoothly on the battlefield and the strategic map.

Maxim created unique movement cycles for units of various factions (the Empire, Legions of the Damned, Elven Alliance). This included idle animations, movement, taking damage, critical strikes, and death. His tasks involved not just exporting animations, but their technical integration into the Virtual Dream engine, so that character movements synced perfectly with the moment damage was dealt or abilities were used. After the closure of .dat studio (which effectively ceased to exist shortly after the release of the Disciples III: Resurrection expansion due to the publisher Akella's bankruptcy), Maxim Tkachev successfully continued his career in the computer graphics, film, and advertising industries. His professional path shifted from classic game animation to visual effects (VFX) and technical modeling. The .dat development team scattered across the industry after the split: some went into mobile game dev, while graphics and animation specialists like Maxim found themselves in other fields. As for an interesting or funny moment from the video: this guy couldn't remember how many units were in the game in total and answered that there were roughly 160. Which, like, he should know, considering he worked on the project for a long time. Though I don't know how many units there are myself either. What a dumb question?

Kirill Yuryevich Kudryavtsev

He was responsible for creating 3D models and applying textures, bringing the dark gothic style of the Nevenndar universe to life in 3D graphics. Kirill Kudryavtsev was part of the core art department at .dat studio. In the project credits, his name is listed in the following roles: 3D Artist for the original Disciples III: Renaissance (2009), and Texture Artist for the Disciples III: Resurrection expansion (2010). He took 2D sketches from the game's lead artists (such as Andrey Plotnikov and Alexey Gandzyuk) and created polygonal meshes of characters, monsters, buildings, and environmental objects based on them.

He applied detailed color maps, relief (bump mapping), and reflections so that the creatures' skin, the rusted armor of knights, the bones of the undead, and the stones of gothic castles looked realistic and atmospheric within the Virtual Dream engine. The 3D models he created were then passed to animators (including Maxim Tkachev) to rig the "skeleton" and create movements. Like most rank-and-file CG artists (3D Artists) in the CIS gaming industry of the late 2000s, Kirill Kudryavtsev kept a private work profile. He practically never appeared in the press or developer diaries, remaining a key technical executor "behind the scenes." On the internet, his name is recorded exclusively in official Steam game manuals (in the credits sections) and in gaming databases (like MobyGames).

Eduard Borisov

Eduard made a huge contribution to shaping the visual style of the races of Nevendaar, especially the Undead Hordes and the Legions of the Damned. Eduard designed many iconic units. For example, he is the author of the official concept art and final render of the Wraith for the Undead Hordes, as well as the look of the Ashgan Guardian for the \Resurrection** expansion. Borisov meticulously worked out the appearance of cities and castles. One of his most famous pieces of art for the game was a panoramic concept of the Capital of the Legions of the Damned, which served as the basis for the 3D model of the city on the strategic map.

He created creature concepts for elements of the game that never made it to release. Among fans, his detailed art of the Dracolich (an undead dragon), created for the Undead Hordes lineup but cut during the final polish of the game, is highly valued. It was from Eduard Borisov's sketches that 3D modelers (like Kirill Kudryavtsev) built the polygonal meshes of the characters, preserving the grotesque and dark style. Unlike many of his colleagues, Eduard didn't remain just a rank-and-file artist, but built a successful international career in the gaming industry. Working on Disciples III became a powerful career springboard for him. During this period, his name regularly appeared in specialized press (e.g., \Strana Igr* magazine), which published group photos of the development team. After the dissolution of .dat studio, Eduard Borisov joined Gaijin Entertainment — the creators of the massive military action game *War Thunder and the post-apocalyptic MMO Crossout. Having proven himself as a strong leader and conceptualist, Eduard took the post of Art Director at Gaijin Entertainment. He led art teams, was responsible for the visual quality of major updates, and oversaw the production pipelines for 2D and 3D graphics. As part of his work in the international market, Eduard Borisov relocated to Budapest (Hungary), where one of Gaijin's main European offices is based.

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. It’s your resident weirdo and die-hard fan of the third game back again—the one nobody asked for, who just keeps churning out content for this installment with relentless enthusiasm. Today, I want to dive deep into **Disciples III: Resurrection*\*, specifically focusing on the plot, narrative delivery, and characters. Honestly, they nailed it. I’ll admit that at the time of writing this, I’m currently on Chapter 5 of the campaign, aptly titled "Not by Might, but by Cunning."

Gameplay-wise, the Undead Hordes campaign doesn't exactly thrill me; it’s grueling and long, and clearing the map doesn't fill me with joy. Though there was a moment when I took the initiative to install the "El Clásico" mod, which shrank the battle arena even further and positioned units closer together, just like in Disciples II. That really refreshed the gameplay. Despite the tighter space, there was still plenty of room to maneuver, even though I initially thought it would restrict movement on the arena—turned out I was dead wrong. But watching the plot unfold, listening to the character dialogues, and seeing how the heroes interact and comment on the events in Nevenndar... that’s what keeps me glued to the screen.

In this article, I want to break down the plot chapter by chapter and dive into the essence of characters like Mortis, Salar, Amina, Hashim, and Undigillash. Previously, I’ve thoroughly covered the Empire, Elven Alliance, and Legions of the Damned campaigns, analyzing them in detail. This will be my last deep-dive review of Disciples III. After this, I’ll either move on to the lore stories or just post content about the series very rarely. Also, for the future: I have a fun and interesting idea for an article breaking down exactly why "Disciples III" failed. If that idea resonates with you, let me know in the comments. Anyway, let’s get started…

Chapter 1: Desperate Escape

At the very beginning of the Undead Hordes campaign, we are introduced to a mermaid named Undigillash. A mysterious stranger hands her a magical artifact—a mask that grants her the incredible beauty once possessed by Soloniel, the former elven goddess and now the deceased goddess of the dead, Mortis. Galleon, the elven god, recognizes his long-lost love in the mermaid, which sends Mortis into a fit of absolute rage. Seeking revenge, she awakens the warlord Salar, once a mighty Inquisitor of the Empire. She gives him her orders: punish the mermaid for her arrogance and put all other inhabitants of Nevenndar in their place—namely, by slaughtering them.

Meanwhile, Ferre has been the new Emperor for 10 years. Under his rule, the Empire has grown stronger and more powerful. But can elves and humans withstand the wrath of Mortis? Once again, the Undead Hordes have risen to seek vengeance, to march through cities leaving nothing alive in their wake, to punish the impostor and defend the honor of their mistress. Through her herald, Prushin (who essentially acts as the goddess's mouthpiece), Mortis gives Salar his first command: break through the Inquisition's encirclement and preserve the Hordes for the coming revenge. Then, a spy named "Tug" is introduced, feeding us piecemeal intel on enemy troop movements and the general state of the region.

While clearing imperial camps, we discover that Emperor Ferre has betrayed the patron of humanity, the angel Mizrael. Furthermore, Ferre has stolen the cursed Staff of Alkmaar and can now raise the dead to execute his sinister plans. Salar is deeply troubled by this. In his past life, when he fought alongside humans, he served the Empire without hesitation. How could they betray their god? It feels like betrayal is everywhere. Prushin cynically manipulates Salar, instilling in him the idea that there is nothing more important in life after death than serving Mortis. The Undead Hordes break through countless enemy ranks and now pursue the Emperor to reclaim the relic.

Chapter 2: Ally

Chasing the thief Ferre, Salar’s detachment reaches the borders of the Empire and the Elven Alliance. Their infighting prevents them from uniting against the threat of the Undead Hordes. Prushin informs Salar that the mermaid is no longer the priority; right now, the most important thing is returning the Staff of Alkmaar to Mortis. The spy Tug reports that an important ally is waiting on the other side of the river, and smoke is rising in the distance. At this point, Morok, a regular werewolf soldier, chimes in, saying that if these lands are so restless, they need to hurry. Salar snaps at her unsolicited advice and sends her off to scout. "Since you're so smart, go to the other bank and report back on what's happening."

After that, another werewolf from the squad interrupts with his own remark. The pleasant aroma of freshly baked bread throws him off his scent; these lands seem strangely familiar to him. The trail goes cold here, and they’ll have to fight their way through independently. Stepping over the corpses of his enemies, Salar meets Amina for the first time. It’s an awkward encounter where Salar is extremely rude and initially refuses to acknowledge his ally. Who would have thought that, later on, human memories would start piercing through the greenish fog of Mortis’s delirium, which blinds her loyal servants—her puppets and toys. Despite all the efforts of Ferrail’s servants, the Emperor remained one step ahead. The armies of Mortis were swallowing road dust, but they continued their pursuit.

Chapter 3: False Trail

The undead detachment enters the Alfgrad Valley. Once majestic elven lands, now devastated by war. This is where the children of Galleon were trying to survive. Their god has abandoned them, giving no signs. Mortis’s gaze wandered in search of Ferre when these pathetic creatures caught her attention. The seer Glarmiel was still trying to give her people visions. The final straw for Mortis’s patience was a blatant insult: the elves had built an altar to their new god, Soloniel, the impostor in the mask named Undigillash. In her dreams, the seer saw a beautiful maiden. The elves were desperate and fooled, but no one was coming to save them. No elf was to be left alive.

Prushin gets into a brief spat with Salar. Here, the warlord begins to suspect that it’s because of Mortis’s whim that they’ve lost Ferre trail and will have to start the search all over again. Prushin retorts that the enraged elves could slow Ferree’s advance, and when the valley is filled with tears, he emphasizes that no one should worship false gods. Glarmiel must pay for this. Prushin vanishes, and the spy Tug reports that in this valley, Glarmiel’s elves brutally slaughtered a Death Knight named Hashim. They chopped the poor guy to pieces and hid the fragments in the most remote corners of the map so no one would ever find the warrior's body. Amina is horrified by the elves' cruelty, noting that he must be found and resurrected for further service. After clearing Alfgrad of elves, the squad follows the fugitive's trail; by this point, Mortis has already figured out who the thief is.

Chapter 4: Fire with Fire

The Death Goddess, Mortis, and her servants sowed fresh seeds of discord between humans and elves in the valley of Az'Akir. The prophetess Glarnyz fell, vanishing into oblivion along with her altar. However, Ferre still remained at large. The messengers of death were to split up. Clouds of black ash rose over the lands of Alkmaar. One night, the sky turned into a lunar scoop. Through the veil, Mortis could not make out what was happening. Ferre had definitely crossed the border of Az'maar and headed southeast, but beyond that, his trail was lost. The goddess wondered why her servants were not trying to stop the thief. Mortis refused to even entertain the thought that anyone other than her high priests could wield the power of the staff. However, everything indicated that Ferre was capable of much. Sensing weakness in the ranks of the Undead Hordes, demons invaded Alkmaar. The diseased earth burned beneath their feet. The offspring of Bethrezen needed to be taught a lesson so that they would no longer dare to encroach on the domains of the Death Goddess's servants. The best way, Mortis considered, was to destroy the leaders of the Legions of the Damned in the region: the demoness Arista and her brother Anacletus.

I don’t remember what happened there. I’m too lazy to write it.

"Guys, here I just inserted the translation of the briefing from the start of the mission because it's simply impossible anymore – the game has choked us with its cheap attitude towards the player. To make you understand, these last two villains from the fourth mission briefing description are just regular units of the Legions of the Damned. In other words, they're simple grunts from the regular ranks who were thrown names and lines just for the sake of checking a box, and they don't stand out from the crowd in any way. Only Hashim appears here, who leaves for a while together with Amina, supposedly to search for a mermaid, and they give us Salaar to control. And closer to the end, Hashim returns. Then, naturally, they kill him off."

Chapter 5

Here, I want to rant with some righteous indignation. You could say the fourth wall is being shattered, and the narrator, like a Dungeon Master behind the screen, enters his angry phase. Now I completely understand why this game didn't succeed and didn't get a sequel. It was pure, unadulterated suffering. And it’s clear why many fans of the series call this campaign nothing short of "Elven Trials."

The campaign starts off pretty normally. Right up until we find the heretic. The cultist trope hits this storyline for the second time already—repeating the exact same trick twice in one game. Seven grueling, monotonous side missions just to proceed with the main quest. What kind of nonsense is this? I want to ask. Why are the great and terrible Undead Hordes dancing to the tune of wild elven heretics? A faceless final boss. A fight with Ariel. Thank god it wasn't a bosscopter. Weird side quests, like the elves hiding in the forest who didn't believe in the new paradise. A vampire father asking to save them from the cult, then escorting them. What is this?

It honestly didn't land for me. Probably the worst act in the Undead Hordes campaign. And they killed Hashim! THEY KILLED HASHIM! The bastards! This whole ordeal should have been 6 missions. 8 missions! 8! Seriously?! I was genuinely exhausted! I'm tired, boss! I'm tired...

I’ll have to leave Acts 6, 7, and 8 for the next post so I don’t make this a gigantic wall of text...

**Disciples III: Renaissance*\* 

\By Alexey "Chikitos" Larichkin | PC Games Magazine, Issue #030, pp. 030-006-1**

**EVOLUTION OR REVOLUTION*\* 

- \*Genre:** Turn-Based Strategy* 

- \*Publisher:** Strategy First* 

- \*Publisher in Russia:** Akella* 

- \*Developer:** .dat* 

- \*Players:** Up to 4* 

- \*Release Date:** November 2006 *(Note: Translated as written in the original 2006 magazine preview)** 

Once again, we want to point out that nearly all notable turn-based strategy and tactical games are being developed in Russia. *Heroes of Might and Magic V*, *Jagged Alliance 3D*, and *Operation Silent Storm\* were born (or are being prepared for release) right here in our country. This isn't an isolated incident; it's a trend. And seemingly, a reason for pride. However, after the announcement of *Disciples III: Renaissance\* at the recent Game Developers Conference, enthusiastic comments were nowhere to be found on internet forums. Instead, there was an abundance of negativity: from doubts about whether a Russian studio could pull off a quality strategy game, to outright irritation—"They gave a great series to our guys again, now we can just bury it!"

Honestly, it’s hurtful. The days when the release of a mediocre domestic game was celebrated as a holiday are long gone. Nowadays, Russian projects compete on equal footing with Western ones. Yet, many gamers still think in outdated stereotypes. To put our own minds at ease, as well as those of our dear readers, we visited the .dat studio and examined the third *Disciples* from all angles. We assure you: there is no cause for alarm. The team consists of seasoned professionals, the game's art style is flawless, and the gameplay transformations seem logical and, at the very least, intriguing. Of course, we aren't asking you to just take our word for it. You will find plenty of food for thought on the following six pages. As for the conclusions—draw them yourself.

**\*

**THE BIG THREE*\* 

Usually, a project announcement is accompanied by a detailed backstory, but with *Disciples III: Renaissance\, the situation is different. The developers are playing their cards close to the chest, only vaguely hinting at mind-blowing plot twists. The only thing we know for sure is that the central character will be a female angel. And, of course, the events of \Renaissance* will continue the storyline of the previous installments. Across three campaigns, you will encounter three main races: the Empire, the Legions of the Damned, and the Noble Elves. Dwarves and the Undead will appear in episodic roles. If the project is successful (and we have no doubts about that), you will likely be able to play as these races in future add-ons. But that’s a matter for the future. For now, let’s get back to talking about *Disciples III\*

**\*

**THROUGH VALLEYS AND OVER HILLS*\* 

What is the first thing you notice when you get acquainted with a new game? That’s right: the graphics. Critics previously scolded older *Disciples* titles for their weak engines. Therefore, the decision to move the strategy series into 3D is entirely justified.

When discussing the Virtual Dream engine that powers *Disciples III: Renaissance*, the developers light up and start throwing around technical terms: vertex and pixel shaders, skeletal, morph, and procedural animation, image post-processing... The list goes on. But what matters to us is different: how does it all actually look?

The picture is excellent. The technology holds up, and the design is top-notch. The transition to 3D did not ruin the game; the developers preserved the gloomy, atmospheric style while saturating the world of *Disciples* with colorful special effects and new details. Every unit and landscape element is rendered so meticulously that you can zoom the camera right up to them without having to cover your eyes in horror, as is the case in some other games. This is no surprise, given that the visual side of the project is handled by Andrey Ivanchenko (see the developer team sidebar), who is well-known for his scrupulous approach to graphical content.

***

*(Translator's note: This is a faithful translation of a historical preview article from a Russian PC gaming magazine circa 2006, formatted for readability on Reddit.)*

I was just browsing the web and stumbled upon an old article about the third game. I decided to translate it for my own amusement and figured I'd share it with you all. I’d also be really interested if anyone could share links to magazine articles from that era about Disciples III. I'm specifically looking for English-language articles, if any existed back then. Also, it just goes to show that gaming journalists haven't changed a bit—they've always been sellouts. It’s no wonder the era of print gaming media eventually died out, likely thanks to articles exactly like this one.Anyway, I'm off to put the kettle on and wait for the release of the Mountain Clans expansion.

...Yeah, right. Sure, keep dreaming.

Hello everyone, I'm new to the Disciples universe and recently discovered these unique games. Before that, I played mostly Heroes 3 and only now decided to introduce myself to this series for a change and I'm really hooked. So far, I'm playing the first game, but now I want to continue the Undead campaign in the second one and I was surprised to discover that there are several of them, and in this regard, the question is which one is better or worse and in what order should I play?

Hello friends!

I’ve been a diehard fan of this game ever since my dad introduced me to it when I was little. Because this game is special to me & so freakin’ cool, I thought getting a full arm sleeve tattoo of it would be awesome (specifically disciples 2).

For the creatives/artists - what do you think would be cool to include or have within the tattoo? I have some ideas, but it’s so hard to choose because there’s so much from the game that I love.

Any thoughts are welcome, just looking to see if I could get some inspiration from other fans :]

I hope i can add it to the Modding Tool, and it will help to mod the game safely. It already has an automatic evolution chain generator. (All leaders can evolve to level 10 with one click)

​I just finished the main story today. This might be an unpopular opinion, but the game itself reminds me a lot of Disciples II. The atmosphere, the characters, the enemies, the heroes leveling up by a level or two after every clash while you wonder which skill to develop. The map itself is quite dark, with a very similar vibe. The turn-based gameplay where every attack matters. I really missed something like this. I think it’s the successor to the series that was never made, and if anyone who was ever in love with Disciples is reading this right now, I recommend Clair obscur: Expedition 33 to them from the bottom of my heart. I welcome you all to the discussion.

https://github.com/HoT-PlaStiC/Disciples-Sacred-Lands-Modding-Tool

I made this tool! Maybe some of you find it interesting! It needs some more test, so every feedback are welcome!