Olden Era Campaign Walkthrough: Act I Structure, Branching, and How to Not Get Stuck

Almost nobody has written a proper text walkthrough for the Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era campaign, so let me set expectations before we start. The game went into Early Access on April 30, 2026, and the campaign is still being built out. That means I’m not going to fake step-by-step solutions for missions that aren’t finalized or that I don’t have solid data on. What I can give you, and what actually helps, is the structure of Act I, the branching mechanic that trips people up, where you start, and the general campaign tactics that carry you through any mission Unfrozen ships.

If you came looking for “do exactly this on turn 7 of Mission 5,” that guide can’t honestly exist yet for the full campaign. The honest version is below.

How the Campaign Differs From Skirmish

The first thing to internalize: the campaign is story-driven and pre-set. Unlike Classic mode, where you spin up a random map and pick your factions and heroes, the campaign does not let you freely choose your hero. You play the protagonists the story hands you, with the armies and starting situations the mission designers set. So all that faction-picking strategy from a tier list goes out the window here. You adapt to what you’re given.

That’s not a downside, it’s just a different game. Campaign rewards reading the situation and playing well with a fixed hand, rather than min-maxing your faction choice.

Act I: The Structure

Act I is where you learn the ropes and where the one mechanical surprise lives. Here’s what you need to know.

Mission 1: Garner Hills

You open Act I at Garner Hills, and your starting army includes Minotaurs. Minotaurs are a sturdy, hard-hitting unit, so the opening mission gives you a solid melee core to learn with. Treat Mission 1 as your tutorial in the campaign’s rhythm: scout the map, clear the neutral stacks you can beat, pick up resources and artifacts, and don’t overextend into a fight your Minotaurs can’t win. The exact objectives and map layout are best read off the in-game mission briefing, but the shape is a standard “explore, build up, accomplish the story goal” opener.

The Mission 4 Branch (Read This Carefully)

Here’s the part that catches people off guard. After Mission 4, Act I hard-branches into two different paths. The campaign splits, and the route you take changes which missions you play next.

This matters for two reasons:

You can’t see both paths in a single playthrough by just continuing. Once you commit past the branch, you’re on one line.
If you want 100% completion, or you just want to see the other side of the story, you need to replay from a save made at the branch point. The smart move is to keep a Hub save (a save from right before or at the branch) so you can reload it, take the other path, and experience both lines without restarting the entire Act.

So the practical advice is simple: as you approach the end of Mission 4, make a dedicated save and don’t overwrite it. Future you, the one chasing 100% or just curious about the road not taken, will be grateful. This is the single most useful thing to know about the Act I campaign right now.

Beyond Act I

I’m going to be straight with you here rather than invent content. The campaign is still being expanded during Early Access, and the later acts and missions are subject to change and addition as Unfrozen patches the game. I’m not going to hand you fabricated turn-by-turn steps for missions whose final design isn’t locked. When the later content stabilizes, a real mission-by-mission walkthrough becomes possible. For now, the reliable knowledge is the Act I structure above plus the general tactics below, which work on any campaign map the game throws at you.

General Campaign Tactics That Always Work

Since I won’t fake specific mission steps, here’s the stuff that genuinely carries you through campaign missions in this game, regardless of the map.

Scout Before You Commit

Campaign maps reward exploration. Send your hero out to reveal the map, find resource piles, mines, and artifacts, and learn where the tough neutral stacks sit before you wander into them blind. Knowing the layout lets you plan a route that grabs the easy value first and saves the dangerous fights for when your army can handle them. Don’t march into fog of war and hope.

Don’t Dawdle

This is the classic Heroes campaign mistake. Many missions have soft or hard time pressure, and even when they don’t, sitting still lets neutral threats and any AI opponents grow while you stall. Move with purpose. Clear what you can, take objectives on a steady cadence, and don’t burn ten in-game weeks turtling in your starting town unless the mission specifically wants that.

Use Weekly Creature Growth

Your towns produce new creatures every week. A core campaign rhythm is: clear fights, return to town on the right week, scoop up your fresh stacks, and head back out stronger than the map expected. Timing your fights around creature growth, so you’re hitting big neutral stacks right after a reinforcement week, is one of the simplest ways to punch above your weight. Build the dwellings that feed your best units and keep that pipeline flowing.

Play to Your Fixed Army’s Strengths

Since the campaign assigns your hero and starting forces, lean into what you’ve got. Opening with Minotaurs in Garner Hills? That’s a melee-forward army, so set up fights where your tanky front line can grind down stacks while you protect any support. Read your units’ cards, figure out what your given army is good at, and build the fight around that instead of wishing you had a different roster.

Manage Morale and the Battlefield

The combat fundamentals from skirmish still apply in campaign fights. A single-faction army gets a +1 Morale bonus, and good morale can hand a stack a bonus action, so try not to dilute your forces with off-faction units unless the upside is huge. In the actual battles, remember the core micro: split a cheap stack to bait an enemy’s once-per-round retaliation before sending in your heavy hitter, and use positioning to keep ranged units shooting and melee units trading favorably.

Bottom Line

The Olden Era campaign in its current Early Access state gives you a clear Act I to dig into: you start at Garner Hills with Minotaurs, and the storyline branches after Mission 4, so keep a Hub save there if you want both paths. Past that, the campaign is still growing, and I’d rather tell you that honestly than feed you made-up mission steps. Lean on the universal campaign tactics, scout, don’t stall, ride your weekly creature growth, play your assigned army to its strengths, and you’ll handle whatever missions land in future updates. Check the in-game mission briefings for objective specifics, since those are the live, accurate source as the campaign expands.