My wife, whom to date has yet to like ANY type of "game" is behind atm playing THIS for like her 500th hour!
My dad and I used to play chess, stratego and back gammon and somehow all of the best parts of these games are thrown into HOMM3, which by now as I am sure you can guess, is easily my favorite game ever!
The most awesome thing that this game offers in my opinion is the Hot Seat mode, in which 2 or more people can play on the same computer. Usually this favors an alliance of the "human" players, so if that isn't for you then simply play on two different computers and I guarantee you will enjoy it!