I am going to guess 15-20 years ago i played a game that was top down, and turn based.
Ill spare my recollection of the game play. I was playing more outside than gaming at by a long shot at the time.

but i hope these things stuck in one your heads like it did mine.

1. When you crit/killed a unit with archers, there was an animation of shorts on the units portrait.
several arrows would strike the portrait and then blood would run down the unit card/portrait. LOVED this hahah

2. also you had a hero unit that could search dungeons and level throughout the game.

3. there were probably a dozen races to play
and i am pretty sure that the main bad guy was named bane??

thats all i remember!!!
other than i loved this game to death!!

hope one of you knows what game im referring to!
Thank you!!!

It might be one of the Warlords Battlecry games. If it is, you can get them here on GOG:

https://www.gog.com/game/warlords_battlecry
https://www.gog.com/game/warlords_battlecry_2
https://www.gog.com/game/warlords_battlecry_3

For a moment i thought you were asking for help making a name up for a game you made Characters animated and getting hit sounds like M&M 6. But blood going down the portrait/cards... nope, no clue.

Neither of those sadly.
but thanks for posting really appreciate it!

My WAG would be a Fire Emblem game, but to which, I'd have no clue.

Now I'm really curious. Anyone found the game yet?

One more try, maybe it's Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria from 2003. It seems to fit most, if not all, the features
you described.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YyonO1y-fo&list=PLhEimNcqoxk6mhZm2AI7LVdS05ggobSP1

NICE!!!!!!!

Ok so this wasnt it.
BUT!!! it was damn close. very similar style.

this sparked something no apparent reason. I remembered it was "special edition"
Hit the youtube machine and here it is!

Warlords 3: Reign of Heroes (which ironically is not the special edition, that was warlords 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZTjELi26Kk

Not my video.

Thank you all for the help, awesome group here.