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_______________________________________________________________________________
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Master Of Magic
The Complete Strategy Guide
February 10, 2003
Version 4.0
Revised by: Dan Simpson (manymoose@hotmail.com)
Original Author: Bryan Lee Jacobson (email--n/a)
Email Policy:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
If you are going to email me about this game, please put
Master of Magic as the subject. Or just MoM. Also please
realize that I am not hiding cheats or any other information,
i.e. everything I know about Master of Magic is in this guide.
If you see any mistakes, or have anything that you want to add
please email me! I will, of course, give you full credit for
your addition, and be eternally grateful to you.
______________________________________Notes____________________________________
The most recent version of this FAQ can be found at:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/game/11508.html
Here's a good message board that deals with all things MoM:
http://www.classicgaming.com/mom/board/
Revision Notes: I (Dan Simpson) did not write this faq, I am merely updating
it. The original author was Bryan Jacobson, but I was unable to contact
him. I am not taking credit for writing this, just for revising a few
things here and there, and making a few format changes. Everything changed
in the FAQ itself will have a little DS by it to signify the change.
(except for format changes) [DS]
The many additions from Dirk Pellet are annotated with a [DP].
If you are a webmaster and wish to post this on your web page, please email
me first. And if you do post this FAQ on your site, please make an attempt
to keep it up to date. There is nothing worse than getting emails from
people who saw an old version asking about things that are already in the
newer versions. Well, maybe there are worse things, but it IS annoying!
Welcome to the Master of Magic (MOM) FAQ. This FAQ is largely an
accumulation of "wisdom of the net" posted by various authors. Thanks to
all who posted. This FAQ also draws on an earlier FAQ, based on MOM v1.1,
written by Dave Chaloux. I salute Dave for his admirable work. Material
from Dave's FAQ is attributed with a "DC".
Because MOM 1.31 is fairly new, some of this FAQ is based on earlier
versions of MOM. I've tried to fix or remove anything not consistent with
MOM 1.31, but some pre-MOM-1.31-isms probably remain.
Note: Text is not identical to original posts. Often I merge similar ideas
from several posts, but may only attribute the primary source.
Many thanks to my great reviewers, including: Jay Barnett, Rob Buchner,
Dave Chaloux, Dan Hite, Nai-Chi Lee, Brian Wade, Rhonda Wilson, and
"DriveBy Billy" (spido@clark.net). Any mistakes in this FAQ are the
responsibility of the editor, Bryan Jacobson. (or of its new editor, Dan
Simpson)
Sources are attributed in square brackets, and in the case of Dave Chaloux
[DC] and myself [BLJ], I just use initials.
_______________________________________________________________________________
__________________
What's New in 4.0:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
More Dirk Pellett additions. Greatly expanded the "MoM in XP" section,
and I can now get the game to run in XP (using DoxBox)! Other small
changes.
For a complete Version History, check out the Final Words Section at the end
of the FAQ.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table Of Contents
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Introduction
1.1) What is Master of Magic (MOM)?
1.2) What is the latest patch? Where can I get it?
1.3) How can I get the 1.31 patch onto diskettes?
1.4) How can I contact / e-mail MicroProse?
1.5) How can I get the MOM strategy guide?
1.6) Where can I get the latest version of this FAQ?
1.7) Anyway to play MOM multi-user?
1.8) How can I get the MOM saved game editor? --Section moved to 12.1 [DS]
1.9) What about a MOM 2? [DS]
1.10) How can I get MOM to run in Win XP? [DS]
2) Beginner's Guide
2.1) Picking Your Wizard And Race
2.2) First Build Granary and Farmer's Market
2.3) Use a Magic Spirit as a scout
2.4) Conquer Lightly Defended Lairs
2.5) Conquer Neutral Cities
2.6) Always Hire Heros
2.7) Build Experience
2.8) Harvest Minerals Through Colonization
2.9) Developing Cities (after the Farmer's Market)
2.10) Build High-End Military Units
2.11) When you meet a new wizard
2.12) Save game before every battle.
2.13) Keep a gold reserve when you can.
2.14) In the early game, try to maintain peace and explore ruins
2.15) How do I save a game?
2.16) Spells to Avoid [DP]
3) Game Operations
3.1) What does F10 do?
3.2) What is the difference between the Floppy and CD-ROM versions of MOM?
3.3) The CD version is slow - how do I get it onto my hard disk?
3.4) Why are my ships suddenly moving at only half speed?
3.5) Why can my Trireme sometimes carry only 2 units, sometimes 4 or more?
3.6) What do the two numbers in spell skill mean?
3.7) How does the Spell Skill Bar on the Magic screen work?
3.8) I Have Spell X, Why Can't I Create An Artifact With Enchantment X?
3.9) How to get Summon Champion?
3.10) What can I do with a Death Settler? (Settler killed by life stealer)
3.11) How does the road "Trade Route" gold bonus work?
4) Strategic Info
4.1) Why aren't my bowmen, galleys, slingers doing any damage?
4.2) Jump the Ocean with Guardian Spirits
4.3) Why do Phantom Beasts do so much damage?
4.4) How To Get More Heros
4.5) How Does Multi-Figure vs Shields Combat Work?
4.6) Why does my Strength 7 hero get butchered by Strength 4 Swordsmen?
4.7) If a simple unit of swordsmen can beat a hero, what good is a hero?
4.8) Instant Champion Level Units
4.9) 8 Units Better Than 9
4.10) Phantom Warriors: The (almost) worthless unit tactic
4.11) Why can "Invulnerable" units get killed?
4.12) Missile, Magic and Weapon Immunity Can Be Penetrated.
4.13) Web - maligned, but useful
4.14) How can I cast spells in a node?
4.15) Dispel Removes Guardian Spirit Protection
4.16) Great Combo: Berserked Phantom Beast
4.17) Great Combo: Berserk and strong First Strike
4.18) Great Combo: Berserk and Regeneration
4.19) Great Combo: Invisibility + Confusion
4.20) Great Combo: Flier and Call Lighting
4.20.1) Similar Power Combos
4.21) Which units are affected by Warp Wood? (Which are not?)
4.22) Cracks Call killed my hero. How do I defend against it?
4.23) How Can I Get Treaties Started? And keep them in effect?
4.24) Just Cause Reduces Unrest
4.25) I've built everything I can - what can I do about continuing unrest?
4.26) Do NOT neglect libraries, sages' guilds, universities, etc.
4.27) Build roads!
4.28) Roads can be used against you (and how to prevent it)
4.29) When a city has minerals, build a Miner's Guild early.
4.30) Get Rid Of Your Own City
4.31) Changing Tundra to Grassland [DS]
4.32) Destroy Own Buildings for Fun (and Profit)
4.33) Scout with Surveyor [DP]
4.34) Axes, the Ultimate Weapon [DP]
4.35) Graceful Retirement for Heroes Beyond Their Prime (Or Not) [DP]
5) Favorite Races
5.1) High Men - With Paladins Rule
5.2) Barbarians - Fast Growing, Axe Throwing, Berserk Hordes
5.3) Nomads - Tough Rangers, Horsebowmen, Flying Griffins and Extra Gold
5.4) High Elves - Extra Magic and Longbowmen
5.5) Dark Elves - Magic Power Incarnate
5.6) Lizardmen - Ideal for "Small" Land
5.7) Halflings - Mighty Midgets
5.8) Trolls - A Regenerating Army That You Can't Stop
5.9) Klackons - Kill them on sight? You decide . . .
5.10) Dwarves - Productive Workers, Deadly Hammerhands
5.11) Draconians - Flying Firebreathers
5.12) Gnolls - Least favorite!
5.13) Orcs - A Well-Balanced Race
5.14) Beastmen - Another Well-Balanced Race
6) Favorite Magic
6.1) Chaos Magic (Red)
6.2) Death Magic (Black)
6.3) Life Magic (White)
6.4) Nature Magic (Green)
6.5) Sorcery Magic (Blue)
7) Favorite Wizard Starting Picks
7.1) Chaotic Warlord with support from Sorcery and Life
7.2) Famous Sorcerer Wants Heros
7.3) Quadruple Power Nodes
7.4) Life, Nature, Node Mastery
7.5) Life On Myrror
7.6) Deathmaster Warlord
7.7) Rainbow, Warlord, Sagemaster, Nodemaster
7.8) Archmage Chaosmaster
7.9) No Spell Books Runelord
7.10) Buy Your Way To Victory
7.11) Cheap Heros Fast
7.12) Archmage Chaos Channeler
7.13) Alchemist Node Master
7.14) Charismatic Warlord of the Adamantium Slingers
7.15) Champion Crusading Warlord
7.16) The Trader [DS]
7.17) Sorcerous Artificer [DP]
7.18) Triple Rainbow Node Blend [DP]
7.19) Some Strange Combinations
7.20) Other Combinations [DP]
8) Spoiler (Super) Strategies
8.1) 11 Death books - Wraiths or Shadow Demons
8.2) 11 Life books - Torin
8.3) 11 Life books - Stream Of Life
8.4) 11 Sorcery books - Flying Warships
8.5) 11 Nature books - Gorgons
8.6) 11 Chaos books (theoretical)
8.7) Free Sky Drakes (theoretical)
8.8) Blessed Enduring Invulnerable Guardian Spirits [DP]
9) Cheats
9.1) Save Before all Battles - If Outcome is Bad - Restore
9.2) Healing the undead
9.3) Exception to Planar Seal
9.4) Determine a Computer Player's Spell Skill
9.5) Estimate Opponents Spell Knowledge
9.6) Invisible defenders throw off the computer...
9.7) Get Out Of Battle Free (Retreat Without Losing Units)
9.8) Avoid The Wizard You Hate The Most
9.9) Discount On Buildings
9.10) Recycle Artifacts For A Profit
9.11) Better treasure through save/restore
9.12) Better heros through save/load repeat
9.13) Use Strategic Combat
9.14) Artifacts With Spell Charges
9.15) Use Plane Shift To Get A Node Without A Fight
9.16) Super Powered Artifacts
9.17) Super Powered Heros
9.18) Change Computer Player Personalities
9.19) Instant Mana and Spell Skill
9.20) Reveal the whole map
9.21) Preventing the Enemy From Attacking [DS]
9.22) Every Other Cheat in Arcanus (Myrror too) [DP]
10) Advanced Topics
10.1) Should I exchange spells with the other wizards?
10.2) Be Ready To Destroy An Enemy Wizard Whenever Necessary
10.3) Best Summoned Creatures
10.4) Mana allocation - advantages of allocating zero to storage.
10.5) List of known bugs (in MOM v1.31)
10.5A) Pathfinding Quirks
10.6) What are the "puns" in the weapon/artifact names?
10.7) What is a good score?
10.8) What advantages do the computer players have on impossible level?
10.9) Diplomacy: I can't keep peaceful relations with the other wizards.
10.10) How important is starting race on impossible level?
10.11) Hero List for Master Of Magic:
10.12) How can I get MOM to run on OS/2?
10.13) Manual Corrections
10.14) The Best Way to Dispel Enemy Incantations
10.15) MOM is too easy. Make it harder!
10.16) Hit Versus Shields Combat Table
10.17) Futility Combat Table
10.18) MOM improvement suggestions to Microprose/SIMTEX
11) War Stories
11.1) Any units with a harder punch than Killer Hobbits?
11.2) Time Stood Still
11.3) Those are some spearmen!!
11.4) I hope he named the outpost "Haroldville"
11.5) Jade, Queen of Darkness
11.6) Early 1.3 experiences
11.7) Another early 1.3 experience
11.8) Lo Pan - Can't Get Rid of Him
11.9) Fast Growing Races For A Better Start
11.10) Flying Invisible Warships!
12) Everything Else in the World [DS]
12.1) Game Editors [DS]
12.2) MOM Links [DS]
12.3) Final Words... [DS]
===============================================================================
1) Introduction
===============================================================================
This section introduces MOM, and provides basic information, such as where to
get the latest patch.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.1) What is Master of Magic (MOM)?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Master of Magic (MOM), you begin as a humble wizard, ruler of a small
hamlet and a few soldiers. At first your magical powers are weak, but will
grow as you research spells and acquire magical resources. You send out
colonies to expand your borders. Your armies and magical creatures search
for treasure, expand your empire by conquest, and defend your realm from
rampaging monsters and enemy wizards. As your fame grows, powerful heros
join your cause. To win you must either defeat all the other wizards or
become powerful enough to cast the awesome Spell of Mastery. Of course, the
other Wizards are trying to defeat you.
There are 6 types of magic, and hundreds of spells. There are 14 races
to choose from, play against, and conquer. You can design your own wizard,
selecting types of magic and special abilities, or select one of 14 wizards
provided. You will be able to produce many different types of soldiers and
fighting units, and summon many different types of magical creatures. There
are more than 30 different heros with diverse abilities that may appear to
aid your cause.
MOM is programmed by SIMTEX for MicroProse. MOM and another
SIMTEX/MicroProse game, Master of Orion (MOO), have several features in
common (diplomacy, colonization, research, economic development). MOM also
has similarities with such games as CIV and Warlords II. MOM has a color
based magic system that reminds some of "Magic: The Gathering". [BLJ, DC]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2) What is the latest patch? Where can I get it?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The latest patch is version 1.31. It's size is 1499642 and it was released
in March 1995. Previous versions of MOM were 1.0, 1.01, 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3.
1.2 fixed a lot of bugs. 1.3 fixed a lot of bugs, made the computer wizards
smarter and more aggressive and made the Impossible level a lot harder by
giving computer wizards a additional production advantages. The 1.31 patch
came out soon after the 1.3 patch, and was a fairly minor revision. It fixed
some sound related crashes that severely impacted some people. It also fixed
the "auto-razing" of undefended hamlets. Finally, 1.31 can be installed on
to any MOM installation, while 1.3 was an incremental patch that required 1.2
to first be installed.
This FAQ assumes you are running MOM 1.31. Look in the Game Save/Load/Quit
screen. You should see 1.31 in small print at the bottom. If you don't see
1.31, you are not running 1.31. Get it! It is far better than the earlier
versions. This FAQ will not discuss problems in versions of MOM prior to
1.31.
The 1.31 patch is available in the following places:
A) The Microprose Bulletin Board. The # is (410) 785-1841. You need
settings of 8,N,1 and it supports up to 14.4 Kbs. Or 410 771-6240 for
28800.
Alternate numbers:
410 785-1841 410 771-1940 410 771-1941 410 785-0075
410 785-0351 410 785-0823 410 785-1410 410 785-1934
[DC, jmclaugh@uoguelph.ca (John J Mclaughlin)]
B) MicroProse FTP Site
ftp.microprose.com /pub/mps-online/new-versions/mom131.zip
[microprose3@delphi.com (Quentin Chaney)]
C) MicroProse WEB Site:
http://www.microprose.com [microprose3@delphi.com (Quentin Chaney)]
D) CompuServe in the Game Publisher's B Forum
[Tim Patterson {76004.2223@CompuServe.COM}]
E) America Online
The patch can be found on AOL by using the keyword "Microprose" and then
selecting the "software library".
[jay5941353@aol.com (Jay5941353 - Jay Barnett)]
F) The following FTP sites:
SITE DIRECTORY/FILE
bell.ecs.soton.ac.uk /pub/pc/games/patches/mom131.zip
cs.uwp.edu /pub/incoming/games/patches/mom131.zip
ftp.cdrom.com /pub/dresden/games/patches
ftp.netcom.com /pub/ga/game_patches? or /pub/games-patches?
ftp.uwp.edu /incoming/games/patches
moonbase.wwc.edu /pub/mom/momv13.zip
wuarchive.wustl.edu /pub/msdos_uploads/games/patches
[many posters...]
G) Various WEB Sites:
http://www.cyberspace.com/acroft
http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain/games.html
H) Call MicroProse customer support, and ask them to mail you the update.
MicroProse Customer Support M-F 9am-5pm EST (410) 771-1151
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.3) How can I get the 1.31 patch onto diskettes?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 1.31 patch is too big to fit on a 1.4MB diskette. If you can download it
directly to your hard disk, that's not a problem. If you have to put it on a
diskette, here are some suggestions.
A) Use a diskette formatting utility (such as MaxiForm) to get 1.6MB
out of a 3.5" DSHD diskette.
B) Use the disk-spanning option (-&) in PKZIP 2.04G to split the file
across two diskettes. The command to use is:
pkzip -& -e0 a:mom_updt mom131.zip
On the destination machine, go into your MOM game directory and
reconstruct the original MOM131.ZIP file:
pkunzip a:mom_updt
And then install the patch:
pkunzip mom131
C) Use WinZip as it has auto-disk spanning properties. Create the zip file
on the disk, and add the file, then follow the instructions. [DS]
D) Use a file utility (such as ZipSplit or Cross) to break the zip file
into smaller chunks.
E) Extract and then delete some files from the zip file. For example:
pkunzip mom131 itemmake.exe
pkzip -d mom131 itemmake.exe
This will reduce MOM131.ZIP to just below 1.44MB. Just remember to
copy ITEMMAKE.EXE onto another diskette.
[ncl@philabs.philips.com (Nai-Chi Lee)]
F) If you are on a unix account, try "split":
split -b 1000000 mom131.zip m
This will create several files, all starting with "m", and having names
like "maa" "mab", "mac", etc. The syntax for "split" may vary so check
your man page. On some machines use: "split 3000 mom131.zip m"
The "maa", "mab" etc. files will be small enough to put on to diskettes.
When you get all the ma* files copied onto a PC's hard disk, type:
copy /b maa+mab+mac+(etc.) mom131.zip
Then: pkunzip mom131
[Travis@cs.wm.edu (Travis X. Emmitt)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.4) How can I contact / e-mail MicroProse? -- section rewritten DS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microprose website: http://www.microprose.com
Support website: http://support.microprose.com
The MicroProse Game Hint Line (900) 773-HINT U.S. only
MicroProse USA Attn: Customer Support
2490 Mariner Square Loop
Alameda, CA
USA 94501
(510) 864-4550
(510) 864-4602 FAX
Email: support@microprose.com
MicroProse UK, Europe Attn: Customer Support
The Ridge
Chipping Sodbury
South Gloucestershire
England, UK, EU
BS37 6BN
44-(0)1454-893-900
(10:00-12:30 & 13:30-16:00 GMT)
44-(0)1454-894-296 FAX
(09:00-17:30 GMT)
UK BBS (14,400 baud)
44-(0)1454-327-083
44-(0)1454-327-084
Email: UKSupport@Microprose.ltd.UK
MicroProse Germany Microprose Deutschland
Markstrasse1
33602 Bielefeld
Germany, EU
Yon Montags bis Freitags
49-(0)1805 25 25 65
FAX: 49-(0)1805-252-564
(1400-1700 CET)
GERMANY BBS
49-(0)1805 25 25 64
(28,800 baud, 2 Lines)
Email: service@microprose.de
Feedback about the MicroProse support site: webster@microprose.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5) How can I get the MOM strategy guide?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An excellent strategy guide is available from Prima Publishing. It should be
available where MOM is sold, and some book stores. Or you can order it from
Prima directly 800 531-2343 (FAX 800 582-8000), P.O. Box 629000, El Dorado
Hills, CA 95762. Cost is $19.95 + $4 shipping/handling, or + $7.50 for rush
shipping. It was co-authored by Alan Emrich who reads and posts to
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic. You can e-mail Alan at cgwalan@aol.com.
Got my copy - 462 pages! Now I can find out what Magic Immunity does and
doesn't do. How combat/shields actually work! There is a discussion of
Computer Player psychology (what they do, what their priorities are, how they
engage in diplomacy, etc.) Did you know your fame must be at least 40 before
"Champions" will show up at your door? Naturally there are dozens of tables
showing exactly how things work. The book is surprisingly complete with
information on every spell, every summoned creature, and every race. Many of
the internal mechanics of the game are revealed. The writing is clear and
easy to read, and a humorous, entertaining style makes it fun.
I love this book because when I have questions, I can get answers. How much
gold do you get from roads? Now I know. Often the knowledge can
dramatically improve your strategy. I knew Swordsmen were often surprisingly
ineffective, but I didn't understand why. Now I know that the defender's
shields are re-applied to each figure's attack.
I heartily recommend this book to all MOM players. It is top quality. [BLJ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.6) Where can I get the latest version of this FAQ?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As of this revision the only place to get the latest version will be: [DS]
http://www.gamefaqs.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.7) Anyway to play MOM multi-user?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jay Barnett has produced a multi-player shell that allows you to switch
between two human players (hot-seat).
Version 3.0 of the Multiplayer Shell I wrote for MoM may be found at
ftp.uwp.edu in the /pub/msdos/romulus/cheats directory under the name
"mmom30s.exe". I plan to upload future upgrades to this same site. I can be
reached at jay5941353@aol.com.
Version 4.2 can be found at:
Try this first: http://www.proaxis.com/~jarvinen/magic/mmom42s.zip
Alternate: ftp://users.aol.com/mmoms/mmom42s.zip [DS]
The Shell provides for hot-seat play between multiple human and computer
opponents, limited to 2 human and 2 computer opponents in the shareware
version, with up to 4 human opponents supported in the registered version.
This is accomplished via modifications of the saved game files--the Shell
alters no Microprose executables or other files, except for the saved files.
It should thus in no way affect normal single-player play.
The Shell features:
- Mouse-driven interface.
- Modem or email play is possible, provided you have a means of
transferring binary files.
- A special "address the council" sub-turn to allow speaking with all
wizards, whether you've encountered them or not.
- A resign function to allow the computer to take over the position of
human players.
- Automatically transforms a multiplayer game to a normal, single player
one when only one human player is left.
- Import wizards from other games, along with a city and up to nine
non-heroic units into multiplayer games.
- A separate saved-game file system for multiplayer games to help keep your
normal slots free.
- Automatic backup on each player's turn to protect against lock-ups.
The only known abnormalities are:
Human players' exploration is shown on the same map--units are still only
seen if they are within range.
Diplomatic relations must be conducted through the "address the council"
sub-turn.
Rampaging monsters and raiders move once per human turn--i.e., twice per turn
for two player, thrice for three player, etc. Most users have actually
claimed to like this, as it makes monsters, raiders, sentries, and
garrisoning much more important elements of the game.
The total number of players is limited to 4, with a fifth "ghost wizard" who
serves as a buffer.
The Shell only allows pure hot-seat play--this means if you get attacked when
its not your turn, the computer will control your units for the duration of
the battle. It thus becomes strategically important to be in a position to
attack rather than defend, unless you consider the computer a good tactician.
The Shell requires Masters of Magic v1.2, v1.3, or v.131.
CHANGES FOR v3.0s FROM v2.xx:
- Speed increase of 65%.
- No longer necessary to manually exit to DOS between turns--the Shell now
uses hot-keys from within MoM.
- 100% compatible with sound (though 45%+ faster if used with effects
only).
- Requires only 500 bytes of free upper memory over MoM's normal
requirements.
- The Shell now requires the presence of an extended keyboard BIOS to
function properly.
- Email and modem-to-modem play have been greatly facilitated, but still
require the use of third-party communications software.
- Minor bug fixes and additional features.
Note: Microprose was in no way involved in its production or distribution,
will not support it or any changes it might make, and is in no way
liable for any damages it might cause.
[jay5941353@aol.com (Jay5941353 - Jay Barnett)]
Another possible location:
ftp.cdrom.com /pub/dresden/games/cheats/utility
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.8) How can I get the MOM saved game editor (EDMOM)?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section moved to 12.1 [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.9) What about MOM 2? [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As of this writing (June 14, 1999) MicroProse has part of the team from Birth
of the Federation working on a sequel to MOM, but any such game would be a
very long way off. [CNET Gamecenter]
It is now July 18, 2000, and I have heard NOTHING else about MoM2. Does this
mean that there is no MoM2 in the works? No, but it isn't really a good
sign.
I have also heard (May, 2001) that the performance of Master of Orion III
might influence whether there will be a MoM2. So, go out there and buy a
copy of MoO3 when it comes out.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.10) How can I get MOM to run in WinXP? [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There are some settings you can try, first, followed by some programs you
can download which may work. This may not even be JUST a XP problem, but
could also be caused by modern hardware.
With Just XP...
Open the game directory. (My Computer } C: } MPS } Magic... or wherever you
put it)
Right-click the MAGIC.EXE and select PROPERTIES
- under the PROGRAM tab click "advanced" and check the path to the
autoexec.nt and config.sys (these should be in the system32 folder).
Make sure to check the TIMER EMULATION box.
- also under the PROGRAM tab, unselect the CLOSE ON EXIT box
- under the MEMORY tab uncheck all the boxes and set all options to AUTO
- under the COMPATIBILITY tab select "Run in mode for: WIN95"
- under the SCREEN select FULL SCREEN
- click APPLY, then OK
That created a little PIF file (MAGIC.PIF) that uses the MSDOS logo. When you
run the game later, double-click the PIF, not the original EXE.
Repeat for WIZARDS.EXE
Open the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder and edit the AUTOEXEC.NT and REM out
*everything* except (that is, make sure the word REM appears at the beginning
of all lines except):
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 P330 T3
Next open up the CONFIG.NT and check to see if the following is there:
dos=high, umb
device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys
files=40
Nothing else should be without a REM.
Attempt to run the game, and pray. If that doesn't work, you can try any
of the following three methods.
AbandonLoader:
http://abandonloader.gamport.net/
Is a program designed to run old games in new Operating Systems. Download,
select MOM from the games list, and run.
Features
VDMSound automated support (NT/2000/XP only) for emulating old sound cards.
Picture previews (bitmap sizes are 160x100).
Over 200 Games currently pre-configured.
On-the-fly shortcut execution.
CPU Slow down feature.
Editor's Note: I couldn't get this one to run, but other people swear by it.
DosBox:
http://dosbox.zophar.net/
Of all the methods here, this is the only one I could get to work, but it is
SLOOOWWWWWW...
Simply download and extract to a new DOSBOX folder. Run. Next you'll need
to mount your actual hard drive... so type this:
mount c c:\
Then type:
c: [enter]
cd mps [enter]
cd magic [enter]
magic
Special Keys:
=============
ALT-ENTER Go full screen and back.
CTRL-F5 Save a screenshot
CTRL-F7 Decrease frameskip
CTRL-F8 Increase frameskip
CTRL-F9 Go full screen and back.
CTRL-F10 Capture/Release the mouse.
CTRL-F11 Slowdown emulation.
CTRL-F12 Speedup emulation.
Special keys might freeze your game.
VDMSound
This one is built into the AbandonLoader above, and should be used if you
simply get the "insufficient memory" issue. Once installed, you run the
game with it by right-clicking the game and selecting to run with VDMSound.
http://ntvdm.cjb.net/
===============================================================================
2) Beginner's Guide
===============================================================================
Here are some tips to help you have more success and less frustration in your
first few games.
[Many, including tommi@rama.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Thomas Stockheim)
jrk3g@darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU (Jeffrey Robert King), Andrew B Potratz
{ap2a+@andrew.cmu.edu}, rhondaa@hpdml92.boi.hp.com (Rhonda Wilson),
BLJ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1) Picking Your Wizard And Race
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For beginners, Life, Chaos or Sorcery are the easiest. Death and Nature
are the hardest. You could choose one of the pre-made wizards: Ariel=Life,
Tauron=Chaos, Jafar=Sorcery, or Horus=Life and Sorcery. For a custom wizard,
you could choose Warlord, 1/2 Chaos and 1/2 Life. High Men are a good race
for beginners because they can build all the buildings you need.
If you choose the Myrran Ability (3 choices) the best race to be are the
Draconians. Why? They can fly! If you work it right you will never ever
need to build a navy! The only way to guarantee that you are alone on Myrror
(if you are doing a custom wizard) is to use the Sss'ra picture. This
doesn't work with the latest patch of the game (v1.31). [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2) First Build Granary and Farmer's Market
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In every city, follow this sequence: 1-Builder's Hall, 2-Granary, 3-Smithy,
4-Market Place, 5-Farmer's Market. The Granary and Farmers Market produce
population growth and food. Interrupt the sequence to build military units,
if needed.
Alternatively... Since I always *immediately* set my tax level to 2.0, and
leave it there unless I conquer unusually hostile cities, I find it better to
build a shrine before the market. It not only gives 1 mana and enables
shamans, but it increases total income as much as the market would (the extra
tax payer), for the same cost. Then I sometimes do a sawmill before a
market, because it will enable bowmen and increase productivity allowing me
to complete the later buildings faster. Now, if I'm just starting, I do the
market first for the money, but later in the game I have plenty of money and
want to put up the buildings as fast as possible, so I sometimes go for a
forester's guild and miner's guild even before a market. I realize this is
in the section of advice to beginners, though. [DP]
As you construct any building that adds to your food count in any way, make
sure to change some of your farmers to workers. (unless you have a large
military and need the extra food) [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.3) Use a Magic Spirit as a scout
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 1 mana the maintenance cost is pretty low, and Magic Spirits can move
two squares per turn, and over water. Even better - cast Endurance on it.
Another thing you might want to do with your MS Scout is use it to explore
all the ruins/temples/etc., but don't actually fight the monsters inside.
You just want to find the empty lairs. [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4) Conquer Lightly Defended Lairs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the early game, this will bring in much needed mana and gold. Leave tough
lairs alone until your army gets stronger. A lightly defended lair consists
of Phantom Warriors, War Bears, Giant Spiders, Skeletons/Zombies, etc.
Although these could be more difficult, depending on their numbers. The HARD
lairs are monsters like the Great Drake, Great Wyrm, Sky Drake, etc. [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.5) Conquer Neutral Cities
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conquering neutral cities will rapidly grow your empire and tax base.
You will need a bunch of soldiers and helpful magic. Life: Heroism,
Lion Heart, Healing. Chaos: Fire Elementals, Eldritch Weapon, Flame Blade.
Sorcery: Phantom Warriors, Confusion, Counter Magic.
...Lionheart? At 200 casting, you could summon some really good stuff, and
you'd have to have 11 life books to be able to throw this at all, in the
beginning. In-combat casting cost for lionheart is 40, and you won't have
that much casting skill for a long time, so that's not a startup option
strategy. And... counter magic?? You were talking about *neutral* cities,
right? These aren't neutral cities garrisoned by warlocks are they? [DP]
Don't just conquer any neutral city that you come across, however. Make sure
that it can be easily added to your empire (if it's in the middle of enemy
territory, you might want to pass it by). Also make sure that the race is
favorable to your goals. Typically I leave Nomads alone, but raze Klackons
to the ground. Good races to take are: Human, Barbarian, Orc, High Elf,
Dwarves, Dark Elves, Draconians, and Trolls. You can, of course, take other
races and use them just for one particular thing (like the Lizard's Turtle),
but remember that cities require a lot of support from you! For more
information on the various races check out section 5. [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.6) Always Hire Heros
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When heros show up, hire them. There are some exceptions to this. First off,
only hire what you can afford (if you are making 2 gold a turn, and the hero
requires 2 a turn, you may want to wait). Second never hire a 6th hero. Once
you have 5 any you hire in addition will be REPLACING an exisiting hero.
After all you never know when you'll get a better hero! [DS]
Mercenaries may help very early in the game, but often later in the game, it
is far cheaper to make your own units. The best mercenaries to hire are those
which you cannot produce on your own. For example if you are Dark Elves and
you get the option to buy an Engineer you TAKE IT! [DS]
I hire all heroes, and go use the worthless ones to explore nodes and ruins
to see what's there. If you kill them off before they make a level, instead
of disbanding them, you won't lose any fame and they won't bother you later.
About the only mercenaries I ever hire are engineers and war trolls. The
other really good units never seem to offer until later in the game when I
can build them myself with admantium instead of hiring weaker units for the
same upkeep. Since you can't build war trolls with admantium, I'll take any
that I can get, from any source. (And I'd LOVE to be able to hire Settler
mercenaries, but I've never seen any.) [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.7) Build Experience
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Experience makes heros and fighting units stronger (spearmen, swordsmen,
cavalry, bowmen, etc.) Experience comes from winning battles. To build
experience put units in as many battles as possible (even if they aren't
needed!), and make sure they don't get killed. Experience is also gained at
the rate of one point per turn...
...Unless the unit is undead (killed by ghoul or wraith, etc). Strangely,
undead units DO learn from armsmasters! Is there elite after death? Yes!
(This can also be a pain, if you ghoul-kill some ultra-elite unit owned by
a warlord, and accidentally leave it sitting with an armsmaster -- it will
revert to merely elite, instead of staying ultra-elite.) [DP]
New heroes should be part of the attacking force but should be held back from
melee. It takes a few levels before heroes become effective combat units.
Be patient, they can eventually become the most powerful and coolest units in
the game.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.8) Harvest Minerals Through Colonization
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Build new outposts near minerals. The outpost will turn into a hamlet
faster, and will produce more income. Also, use the surveyor (F1 key) to
place your outposts in locations with a high "maximum population".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.9) Developing Cities (after the Farmer's Market)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- When you see a rebel in the city's population bar, make a building that
reduces unrest: Shrine, Temple, Parthenon, etc. (you may want to build
these before you see the Rebel!)
- As early as possible, increase production with Sawmill, Forester's Guild,
Miner's Guild. That way, later buildings will be built more quickly.
- As you can, speed up spell research by building in every city: Library,
Sage's Guild, Alchemist's Guild (for mana), University.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.10) Build High-End Military Units
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To win tough battles, build high-end military units and beef them up with
experience and magic spells. It is usually better to build one Pikemen or
Paladin than a horde of Spearmen. However, don't assume that your 1 Paladin
can beat an entire horde of Spearmen! (especially if they have good
experience)
However... Pikemen have so few hits and low enough defense/resistance that
I've never bothered with them after the few times I tried them.
Bowmen/shamans/sprites just slaughter them, and you lose your expensive unit.
When I meet them in battle, I laugh and blow them away. Barbarian spearmen
are better, having lower build cost and upkeep and nearly as much attack,
half of which comes before the enemy gets to attack at all, plus you get
eight units instead of just one. Of course, it makes a difference what
you're up against: units with large defense, like wyrms, your spearmen are
useless, and pikemen are better. But for run-of-the-mill stuff, 8 spearmen
are better than 1 pikeman. [DP]
You don't need military buildings in every city. Your capital, or your
largest city (if it isn't the capitol) will probably be your main military
production center. Build Barracks, Armory, Fighter's Guild, etc. in the
cities dedicated to military production.
In your military cities set farmers to a minimum. Use other cities for
farming.
Your military cities also need an Alchemist's Guild. This gives newly
created fighting units "magic" weapons with a +1 to-hit bonus. This makes
their weapons 33% more effective!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.11) When you meet a new wizard
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you meet a new wizard exchange as many spells as you can, and try again
after you pick up new spells.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.12) Save game before every battle.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While you are learning, save game before every battle. Whether you win or
lose, consider reloading and replaying interesting battles. Each time, try
something different in the way of tactics, spells or even summoned
creatures. Be imaginative. By fighting the same foes in different ways,
you get a feel for what tactics and spells are the most effective. If your
creative new tactic fails, just reload and try again. It's not whether you
win or lose - as long as learn from it.
Really -- not to cheat by restoring it, but because the game will PROBABLY
screw up, crash, cheat against you, or futz up somehow. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.13) Keep a gold reserve when you can.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Merchants won't offer to sell magic items to a poor wizard. Also,
mercenaries and heroes check you bank balance before they knock on your door.
Plus if you ever start running a deficit, you will want some money to fall
back on. (and if you need to you can always spin it into Mana) [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.14) In the early game, try to maintain peace and explore ruins
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By exploring ruins and lairs, you will gain wealth, mana, spells, an
occasional enchanted item, and all important experience for your units and
heroes. If your scout reports something really difficult (Death Knights,
Great Wyrms, Drakes, etc) come back later when you have the right units to
deal with the attackers. Nodes are generally harder than ruins but when you
can conquer them the treasures are greater and (using Magic Spirits) they
produce mana income every turn.
Tip: Save it before you enter any ruin/node/etc. This isn't just about
survival (i.e. you may get whupped in there!), but about which treasure
you get after the battle! If you get something you didn't want (a bad
item) then reload and try again! [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.15) How do I save a game?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You have to click in a slot, and then type to name the saved game. Then a
Save button will appear and you can click on it to save. After there is a
name in the slot, just click on the slot to get the Save button.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.16) Spells to Avoid
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spells the player should NEVER throw:
Famine (absolutely no effect)
Cloak of Fear (works backwards, ENTIRELY against the player)
Subversion (works backwards, or at best is worthless)
Suppress Magic (supresses a Spell of Return)
Spell Ward (ONLY keeps out creatures, has NO other effect)
Flying Fortress (only hurts the player)
Spells the player should never throw under these circumstances:
Word of Recall / Recall Hero on a regenerating unit (no effect)
Word of Recall / Recall Hero if you need to use the hero soon
(it ends up with 0 or even negative figures left)
Chaos Channel on barbarians (you lose the thrown weapons)
Doom Mastery while producing new barbarians (lose thrown weapons)
Metal Fires while all units are chaos channelled (no effect)
Confusion, Creature Binding, Animate Dead on *all* of the
powerful creatures in a battle (you'll get no fame)
Animate Dead on any dead enemy units (they come back on his side
after the battle is over)
Water Walking on a unit with Wind Walking (it overrides it)
Path Finding on a unit with Wind Walking (it DOESN'T override it)
Enchant Item / Create Artifact enchanting any of the following:
Cloak of Fear (works backwards, against the player)
Doom (cuts attack strength in half)
Invisibility (no effect in combat)
Wraith Form (only gives you water walking)
Spells the player should throw only with great caution (crashes the game):
Magic Vortex (don't throw too many in one battle)
Call Lightning
Raise Dead
Animate Dead [DP]
===============================================================================
3) Game Operations
===============================================================================
This section addresses various mysteries about how MOM operates.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1) What does F10 do?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Auto-save your game to the "continue" file.
[sisquash@netcom.com (Simon Chiu)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2) What is the difference between the Floppy and CD-ROM versions of MOM?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No difference in the game play. The CD-ROM version saves disk space. [BLJ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.3) The CD version is slow - how do I get it onto my hard disk?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The 1.3.1 README.TXT has directions on how to do this. [BLJ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.4) Why are my ships suddenly moving at only half speed?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Somebody cast Wind Mastery. Look in the Magic screen.
[bdb0004@jove.acs.unt.edu (Barry D Bloom)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.5) Why can my Trireme sometimes carry only 2 units, sometimes 4 or more?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is confusing you is that heros don't contribute to the total. Also,
any Fliers, Water-walkers, or non-corporeals in the stack do not contribute
to the total. Aside from that, the carrying limit is:
Carries Moves Costs Melee Range Shields Hearts
Trireme 2 2 60 4 - 4 10
Galley 5 3 100 6 3 (x8) 4 20
Warship 3 4 160 8 10 (x99) 5 30
Air Ships 0 4 200 5 8 (x10) 5 20
F. Islands 8 2 50 m - - 0 45
The carries column indicates the correct number. However, there seems to
be a bug that sometimes lets you exceed the load limit, especially if the
ship is a Galley and it also contains heros.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6) What do the two numbers in spell skill mean?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If your spell skill is listed as 42(32), the number inside () is your actual
spell skill, while the number outside is your effective spell skill,
augmented by 1/2 of the spell skill of any spell casting heros currently
residing in your Fortress city.
Heroes only contribute casting skill if the spell you are casting takes more
than one turn. eg: if you have 105(60), then you can cast only one Change
Terrain (50) spell a turn, but Summon Hero (300) will only take 3 turns,
not 5. [v119matc@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu, BLJ]
Wrong. If you spell out so no spells are "instantaneous" then start a change
terrain, the 45 points you get from the heroes goes toward that spell, and
should leave you with 60-5+x available immediately at the beginning of the
next turn, which you can use on a change terrain, making two of them per
turn. I use this method all the time casting the more expensive city
enchantments at the end of a game. Heroes give me 280, the spell costs 300,
I start it at the end of the turn and it's done, leaving me with just 20
points less than my skill to use on the next turn. Now, if you have 49
points left and cast change terrain, you're wasting all but 1 point of the 45
they could have given you, and you only get one change terrain spell per
turn. But that would be dumb. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.7) How does the Spell Skill Bar on the Magic screen work?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The three bars show how your powerbase mana is allocated. The first bar is
how much goes to mana reserve (storage), for spell casting later. The second
bar is how much goes to spell research. The total shown under the second
bar includes the mana you put in plus Libraries, Sage's Guilds, etc. You can
put in 0 from your power base and still get research done, if you have
Libraries, etc.
The third bar improves your spell skill. Mana from the third bar goes into a
pool, and when the pool gets to 2 times your current skill, your skill goes
up a point. Note: If the pool totals more than 2x, the excess is not wasted,
but carries over for the next increase. If your current skill is 30, you
will have to build up a pool of 60, to bump your skill up to 31.
Archmage gives you a starting 10 pt spell skill bonus, and a 50% bonus to the
mana added to your improvement pool. For example, if your powerbase is 60
and each bar is getting exactly 1/3, you are putting in 20 mana, but the
number added to your pool and shown under the bar will be 30. Also, the
starting 10 bonus points are in addition to the normal "pool" process. In
other words, if you are an archmage and your skill is shown as 30, that is
the 10 bonus points and 20 normal points. When the pool gets up to 40, your
normal points will bump to 21 and your spell skill will be 31.
[danhite@aol.com (Dan Hite), BLJ]
Tip: When you are finished with Research (you have all the spells you'll
ever get), then be sure to drop the Research bar down to 0.
Surprisingly this often gets you a few extra points in the other 2
bars. [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.8) I Have Spell X, Why Can't I Create An Artifact With Enchantment X?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Manual, Table M (p. 146) shows what you need for specific item
enchantments. It is controlled by how many books you have in a color, not
which spells you have researched. If you have 7 Sorcery books, you can
create an artifact with Haste even before you know the Haste spell. Haste is
the highest requirement, a lot of enchantments only require 2 or 3 books in a
color. On the other hand, to put spell charges in a Staff or Wand all you
need is to know the spell. [Brian Wade (FLEBO@AOL.COM)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.9) How to get Summon Champion?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is an arcane spell so you should always be able to research it, but it may
be late in the game. You will get it sooner if you have fewer spells to
research (fewer books, more retorts). Also, if you take Artificer you have
2 fewer spells to research. You may be able to trade for Summon Champion
with other wizards. [yl1@cs.buffalo.edu (Yong Xiang Li)]
If you do a no magic book set of starting magic picks, you will get summon
champion early on. However, with no spell books, you will have a limited
group of champions to draw on. Warrax requires at least one Chaos magic
book. Roland requires Life. Rayashack, Death magic. Alorra, Nature. [BLJ]
That may seem to "make sense", but it is NOT true. I've seen the Chaos
Warrior show up many many times when I had no chaos books. Just looking
at the other wizards in the saved games I have available proves it isn't
true. In my experience, the only heroes who care which books you have are
priestess/necromancer, and paladin/black knight. (And, of course, Torin.)
You never get the Life heroes unless you have Life books, and same for the
Death heroes. But the other champions can join you or answer a summons no
matter what your books are, proven fact. Indeed, the Elven Archer casts
two sorcery spells, so why would anyone associate her with nature? [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.10) What can I do with a Death Settler? (Settler killed by a life stealer.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing. (There was a small hoax on the net describing a way to get the
death settler to build a death city that would produce skeletons, zombies,
etc. as troops.)
PS. To: [tommi@kaa.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (Thomas Stockheim)] for starting
the hoax, I salute you! [BLJ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.11) How does the road "Trade Route" gold bonus work?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You get gold bonuses for rivers, ocean shore, and roads. The Surveyor (F1)
shows you shore and river bonuses. To calculate the road bonus. Suppose
City A and City B are connected. If City B has a population of 20, multiply
by 1% if A and B are different races, or .5% if same race. Lets suppose they
are the same race, so we get: 20 * .5 = 10%. This bonus applies to the
Base Gold Income, which is the total of taxes, and gem, gold and silver
mines. So if taxes and mines add up to 20, the road bonus would give you
20 * 10% = 2 GP.
The river, shore and road bonuses are limited to a maximum. The maximum
is 3% times city population. Suppose in the example above, City A
also had 20% worth of shore and/or river bonuses. In that case, the total
bonus would be 30%, but city A would only get the full benefit if City A
has at least 10 population.
Note: You get the shore bonus when shore squares are included in city limits
but you only get the river bonus when the city is built directly on the
river.
[BLJ, p. 122 of the MOM Manual, MOM Official Strategy Guide]
===============================================================================
4) Strategic Info
===============================================================================
This section contains an assortment of strategy tips and suggestions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1) Why aren't my bowmen, galleys, slingers doing any damage?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your missile firing troops (bowmen, slingers, galleys) have a to-hit penalty
at longer distances. If you are not doing damage, you need to get closer to
your target. The distance penalty is -1 for 3-5 squares of distance, and -2
for more than 5. (If a units has "Long Distance" (Longbowmen, Catapults)
the penalty is -1 for 3 or more squares distance.)
Note: Heros (and others with 2 movement) can move 1 unit toward an opponent
and then fire.
[BLJ, jrk3g@darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU (Jeffrey Robert King)]
Units can move until they have .5 points left, and then fire, no
matter how far they moved. A hero can use this to avoid drakes while
cutting them to pieces in the same turn. [DP]
You can use this to your advantage by moving AWAY from an enemy firing at
you, to maximum range, and waiting until the idiot has finished wasting all
his arrows, then moving in for the kill. I used this once against 8 steam
cannons, which blew away the previous "Pickett's Charge" tactic I tried.
Second attempt, I didn't lose anything, because at long range, their few
hits were almost always blocked by my defense. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.2) Jump the Ocean with Guardian Spirits
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few guardian spirits can often go across the ocean and take a weakly
defended neutral city on another continent, allowing you to spread your
empire across twice the area you would otherwise have, without worrying about
ships or flight spells. Even better are nagas or sprites if you can get
them.
[cbyler9312@aol.com (CByler9312)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.3) Why do Phantom Beasts do so much damage?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They have illusionary attack that ignores defense (shields). In other words,
they attack as if your shields are 0. Solution: Phantom beasts and other
illusionary attacks will only have normal attack results against units
enchanted with True Sight, or anything with Immunity to Illusions. [BLJ]
Or you could just kill them with a ranged attack before they ever get near
you. The Dark Elves very rarely have anything to fear from Phantom Beasts!
[DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.4) How To Get More Heros
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the game progresses make sure you keep some gold in reserve. A hero that
will require 300 GP to be hired, won't show up unless you have 300 GP. You
will attract better heros if you increase your fame, by conquering cities
and beating groups of 4 or more. Use F9 to see what your fame is. [many]
Just because a hero comes along, doesn't mean that you should hire the bum.
Take a close look at what they can do, and decide whether you need that hero,
or if you might get a better one later. Also if you have enough Life Books,
you WILL want to cast Incarnation to get Torin the Chosen. [DS]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.5) How Does Multi-Figure vs Shields Combat Work?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Frequent question on the net: My Swordsmen unit, 6 figures, 4 swords. Is it
a 24 sword attack or six separate 4 sword hits? The answer is the second.
This makes a big difference, depending on the number of shields the opponent
has. For example, a new Stag Beetle has 1 figure, a 15 attack and a 7
defense, while new Swordsmen have six figures with a 3 attack and a 2
defense.
In a fight, each Swordsman has a .3 * 3 = .9 chance of scoring a hit.
However, on average, the Stag Beetle's 7 shields will block 7 * .3 = 2.1 hits
of damage. That means that the Swordsmen will only injure the Stag Beetle
when by luck the Stag Beetle's shield roll below average. Each attack the
Swordsmen do make 6 attacks, improving the odds somewhat.
The Stag Beetle will, on average, score 15 * .3 = 4.5 hits, with Swordsmen
shields stopping only 2 * .3 = .6 hits of damage. The Beetle will tend to do
4.5 - .6 = 3.9 hits of damage each round.
This gives you a reason to play races with higher shields, such as Trolls,
Klackons, and Lizardmen. If you just look at figures*swords, Catapults look
pathetic compared to swordsmen. But against high shield opponents, they
are valuable. The same with high hit, low figure summoned creatures.
[jfardal@infinity.ccsi.com (John Fardal), BLJ]
I think the second part is wrong -- the stag beetle will be blocked by the
first swordsman's defense until it does one hit to kill it, then will have to
overcome the defense of the second swordsman, and so on -- so it will
actually do
4.5 - .6 = 1 (killed it) + 2.9,
2.9 - .6 = 1 (killed it) + 1.3,
1.3 - .6 = .7 (might or might not kill it),
thus killing 2 maybe 3 swordsmen on average, instead of 3 probably 4.
I guess I'll have to run experiments on this, also. [Later: verified my
original theory on this one, anyway. EACH figure gets its own defense
against an attack that killed the previous figure.] [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.6) Why does my Strength 7 hero get butchered by Strength 4 Swordsmen?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The answer is that there is strength in numbers. Let's say we have High Men
Veteran Swordsmen with 6 figures, 4 swords, 3 defense, and 1 heart per
figure, versus a brand new Spyder The Rogue with 7 swords, 5 shields and 8
hearts. Neither unit has any "to-hit" bonuses.
First round: Each sword represents a 30% chance of landing damage, for each
figure in the unit. Each swordsmen figures will average 4 * .3 = 1.2 raw
hits. But Spyder has 5 shields, representing five 30% chances to stop a hit
of damage, averaging 1.5 stops per attack. Basically, the Swordsmen have to
get lucky and roll a little better than Spyder to slip a hit past his
shields. The table in section 10.16 indicates that a 4 sword figure will, on
average, manage to slip .4 hits past a 5 shield defender. Given 6 figures,
we could predict 6 * .4 = 2.4 hits of damage. Lets round to 3, and say
Spyder takes 3 hits of damage, leaving 5 hearts. Spyder's 7 swords against
the Swordsmen's 3 shields can expect to get in 1.3 hits of damage. Lets say
Spyder gets 1 hit and that will take out the first swordsmen figure.
Second round: Five swordsmen figures: 5 * .4 = 2 hits. Spyder is down to
3 hearts. He does the same attack as last round, doing another hit of
damage, taking out a second swordsmen figure.
Third round: Four swordsmen figures: 4 * .4 = 1.6 hits. 1.6 is closer to 2,
so let's take away 2 hearts, leaving Spyder just one. Let's say Spyder gets
a little lucky this time and round up the expected 1.3 hits to 2 hits. The
first hit takes out a third swordsmen figure. The second hit goes on to
figure number 4, but figure 4 gets to roll his shields. Each of 3 shields
gives a 30% chance of stopping the hit. Let's say one of them does, and
figure 4 survives.
Fourth round: Three remaining swordsmen figures: 3 * .4 = 1.2 hits. Spyder
only had 1 hit left, and dies. But first he gets to swing at the swordsmen,
killing 1 figure.
The Swordsmen have 2 of 6 figures left, and Spyder is dead. Basically,
each Swordsmen figure had an uphill battle with 3 less swords and 2 less
shields, but the swordsmen unit had 6 figures to attack with. Also, it is
hard for Spyder to kill more than one figure per round because shields get
reapplied when extra hits are passed along to the next figure.
However, this analysis is a little biased against Spyder. At a couple of
points we rounded the Swordsmen's hits up. If we had rounded down, Spyder
could have been victorious. Also, we gave the Swordsmen 60 experience
(Veteran level), but Spyder none. Once Spyder gets 20 experience he will
get an additional sword, shield and heart, making him much tougher.
Finally, don't forget random chance. In the first round, the swordsmen get
6*4 rolls against Spyder. If the swordsmen's rolls are high and Spyder's
shield rolls are low, he can get killed right there. Another time Spyder
could roll high and the swordsmen roll low, with no damage to Spyder at all.
[BLJ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.7) If a simple unit of swordsmen can beat a hero, what good is a hero?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some reasons why heros are often more useful than regular fighting
units:
- Heros can use magic artifacts that add to "swords", "shields",
movement, and can give special abilities. Most importantly,
artifacts can give additional "to hit" bonuses.
- Heros ultimately get more benefit from experience because regular
units only get 3 experience promotions, but heros can get 8
experience promotions. Elite regular units get a +2 strength
improvement, but fully promoted heros get a +8 strength improvement.
"To hit" bonuses are the most important. Unless you have Warlord
and/or the Crusade spell, a regular unit can only get +1 to hit.
But at the top two levels a hero has +2/+3 to hit. This means each
"sword" has a 60% chance of doing damage. It is true that your hero
may not be too useful until he/she gets some significant experience.
- Heros can have powerful/useful special abilities such as Leadership,
Might, Prayermaster, Legendary, Spell Caster, etc.
- Defender shields are applied per attacking figure, so a beefed-up
hero hitting with 24 will do more damage than a 6 figure unit
hitting at 4*6=24.
- Heros have cool names and pictures.
[BLJ, MOM Official Strategy Guide]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.8) Instant Champion Level Units
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you cast heroism on a unit when you have the crusade spell active, it
immediately becomes ultra-elite. If you are a warlord, it becomes Champion
level. Can you say butt kicking time? This also applies to altar of battle
+ crusade + warlord = ALL your units start out Champion level. Fun!!
[jrk3g@darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU (Jeffrey Robert King)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.9) 8 Units Better Than 9
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I like to organize my units into 8-unit squads mostly consisting of home-
grown troops rather than summoned creatures. Why 8 and not 9? Sometimes,
when you take out a tower, you can get prisoners. When I have a squad
of 9, I never get prisoners. [mlee@thetis.royalroads.ca (Malcolm Lee)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.10) Phantom Warriors: The (almost) worthless unit tactic
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In my latest game I have been playing a sorcerer/life combo. One of the early
(and cheap - 10 mana) spells you get is Phantom Warriors. These guys do NOT
hold up very well against better units. However, I find myself using them a
lot (even though I have much better things I can summon now). Why?
Because, the enemy AI will often target them instead of your better
units for destruction! With the missile attacks, etc. going at these
hapless creatures, it lets your better units close and get the job done
with minimal casualties first.
Just because a summoned unit is no good does not mean that it is worthless!
[David Chaloux, DC]
Man, I use phantom warriors extremely often -- it's my #1 choice for a
sorcery spell when I can only take one. Have 50 spell skill? Every lone
spearman unit comes complete with his backup of 30 phantoms (5 units) to
hold off that wandering war bear! [DP]
And, you DO know about the phantom warrior / word of recall bug, right?
If the summoned creature is recalled, and the battle ends in a draw, it
stays around after the battle, at your summoning circle! NO overland
casting cost, and a flying caster hero can hit the war bear's cave and
come away with skill/30 phantoms (or skill/55 beasts later in the game)
without interrupting the master's spell. So what if they don't "hold up"?
They're almost free! [DP]
And yea, summoning a phantom warrior gives the enemy wizard something to
blast with a psionic blast / lt bolt, that might have killed your hero,
until he's out of spells. (But it's a waste of time to give targets to
shamans/archers; the phantoms are only good for one shot from those). [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.11) Why can "Invulnerable" units get killed?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Invulnerability gives two benefits. First is Weapon Immunity, which simply
increases shields to 10 for normal weapons. The second benefit is the
negation of the first 2 hits of damage that make it past the unit's shields.
For example, suppose a 30 strength Fire Bolt hits an Invulnerable unit, and
does the statistically predicted 30 * .3 = 9 hits of damage. Say the unit
happens to have 9 shields, and they do a little better than average, this
time stopping 4 hits of damage. 5 hits remain, but Invulnerability negates
the first 2. The remaining 3 hits of damage take out 3 hearts.
[schafer@walleye.network.com (Martin Schafer)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.12) Missile, Magic and Weapon Immunity Can Be Penetrated.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Magic Immunity offers complete protection against magic spells except for
Doom Bolt, Web, Warp Wood and Cracks Call, Black Prayer, Dispel, and
Disenchant. It provides a 50 shield defense against magic ranged attack.
That will typically stop 50 * .3 = 15 hits of damage, but very powerful heros
with lots of to-hit bonuses can punch through that much defense. Also, Magic
Immunity does not help against Doom/Chaos artifacts or Doom Gaze. It is a
subtle point, but Magic Immunity also doesn't work against invisibility.
Not checked, but suspect Magic Immunity does not work against: Blur, Warp
Reality, Mind Storm, light/darkness spells and possibly Disintegrate.
Doom bolt does NOT work against magic immune units -- paladins laugh at
warlocks! (And warlocks laugh at pegasi, pegasi laugh at paladins; rock,
scissors, paper, anyone? *grin*). As for warp wood, I highly doubt it
works against magic immune units, but I can't remember offhand ever seeing
a bow-shooting unit immune to magic. *Every* area effect spell affects all
units, whether they're magic immune or not, and this includes blur, warp
reality, black prayer, entangle. It does not include spells that affect
units individually, like wrack or call lightning (both of which have serious
bugs, by the way), or terror. [DP]
I remember being amazed the first time I accidentally fired at a sky drake
and DID DAMAGE! I thought it was impossible, but I finished the battle
blowing away all of them without working up a sweat. I wonder, does armor
piercing make that only a 25 defense? It was a chaos warrior who did it.
And apparently, Eldritch Weapon is very useful in cutting through the
protection, effectively reducing it to a 34-point defense. Note that
Eldritch Weapon IS effective against magic-immune creatures, so your hero
can hit Sky Drakes MUCH easier. (Also very nice vs. Guardian Wind, when
your huntress has Eldritch Weapon.) [DP]
Missile Immunity protects from arrows, slings and javelins, but not rocks
(Giants, Catapults, Steam Cannon, War Ships and Air Ships). The protection
is also 50 shields, but very powerful heros and Champion slingers with many
to-hit bonuses can punch through.
It's a hoot shooting skeletons with a Huntress. :) And again, Eldritch
Weapon is more useful than one more + to hit, because it reduces it to a
shield effectively blocking 10 damage instead of 15. Even with the claimed
"champion slingers with many to-hit bonuses" I've never been able to punch
through Guardian Wind without Eldritch Weapon's help. (And note: Guardian
Wind on a LUCKY unit (halfling or hero), or when Prayer is in effect, blocks
20 hits on average!) [DP]
Weapon Immunity is pretty wimpy. It doesn't apply to attacks from fantastic
creatures or magic (alchemy), holy or flaming weapons. Even against "normal"
weapons it only offers 10 shields of protection. If a unit has 10 shields
already, weapon immunity adds nothing.
[BLJ, MOM Official Strategy Guide, danhite@aol.com (Dan Hite)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.13) Web - maligned, but useful
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Web spell may be almost worthless while attacking a city, but it is quite
useful for attacking monster lairs. Especially with ranged attacks. Your
archers/mages hit them, they can't hit back. And early on, it helps you take
nature nodes with sprites in them; the web lets my foot units hit the sprites
without waiting for the sprites to finish their magic attacks off. Even
after the web is gone, a flying unit is grounded for the rest of the battle.
Web can also be useful in delaying, say, a behemoth (move 2) for a turn; it
is a low cost spell for caster heros (like the Beastmaster) to cast, while
you cast something more powerful. [Aaron P Teske {at2u+@andrew.cmu.edu}]
Worthless!?? Web is my #1 choice for nature spells when I only get one.
Talk about a save-your-ass spell! It's useful in SO many situations I can't
think where to start. How about: maurauding demon, your city has walls,
your garrison of a long draconian spearman laughs at the webbed demon who
can't come in, instead of dying to it, and you win the battle for 10 mana.
Five gorgons vs your three spell-casting heroes. Web them, blow away the
one that gets free each turn, never take any damage. Enemy hero attacks,
never gets a chance to cast his counter magic spell. Enemy defending with
a pegasus, all you have is a paladin, you win the battle for 10 mana. Two
arch angels in the temple, you have hammerhands and slingers. Instead of
losing your slingers, you kick ass for 20 mana. Etc etc etc etc... Man,
when I play without nature magic, I could just DIE for a web spell! Doom
Drakes wanting to eat your sage for lunch have to go through your war trolls
guarding the gate first... steam cannons in the enemy city get one shot
and fall silent... the great wyrm never gets to hit the two spell casters
standing there chipping away at it with their 10-point missile attacks...
geez, and he said "almost worthless"!??? Web is more WORTHWHILE than half
of the rare spells and some of the very rare spells! [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.14) How can I cast spells in a node?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nature spells don't fizzle in nature nodes, and sorcery and chaos spells
don't fizzle in nodes of their type. Node fizzle is like a 50 mana dispel,
so a 5 mana Fire Bolt has a 5 / (5 + 50) = 9% chance of success, while a 50
mana Air Elemental has a 50 / (50 + 50) = 50% chance of success.
[BLJ, MOM Official Strategy Guide]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.15) Disenchant Area Removes Guardian Spirit Protection
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(From someone's news post:) Casting Disenchant Area on a node can wipe its
Guardian Spirit meld defense. [danhite@aol.com (Dan Hite)]
Does NOT! It tells you there is nothing there to dispel, and won't let
you cast the spell. Now, *maybe* if there's a unit sitting there with some
unit enchantment on it, and it lets you cast the spell, it *might* dispel
the guardian, but I seriously doubt it. I suspect someone wasn't paying
attention when one wizard's magic spirit took over a node from another
wizard's guardian spirit. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.16) Great Combo: Berserked Phantom Beast
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For combat summoning, nothing can beat the death/sorcery combo of a BERSERKed
Phantom Beast. [umblazew@news.cc.umanitoba.ca (Dennis Andrew Blazewicz)]
On the other hand, Berserk costs 30, and Phantom Beasts cost 35. If you have
enough Death books to get a good discount, this combination may be good.
Otherwise, you may be better off with 2 Phantom Beasts, especially if you
get a discount on Sorcery. [BLJ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.17) Great Combo: Berserk and strong First Strike
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Berserk spell is a good combination with strong first strike units such
as Death Knights or Paladins. Your attack strength doubles, making it
possible to kill almost anything with first strike. When you kill on the
first strike, the 0 defense doesn't matter.
[wagnere@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Erwin Wagner)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.18) Great Combo: Berserk and Regeneration
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another great combo - Berserk + Regeneration. Your suicidal unit dies, but
as long as you win, it comes back! [Brian Wade (FLEBO@AOL.COM)]
Also, invulnerability, luck, prayer, high prayer or blur will make your
killer berserk units last longer. [danhite@aol.com (Dan Hite)]
Not! Invulnerability, yea. Blur, barely. Prayer, high prayer, luck:
absolutely useless! If the defense is 0, there's not much difference
between blocking .4 x 0 and blocking .3 x 0, right? And gee, it's sorta
hard to cast berserk AND prayer, isn't it, seeing as how one is Death and
the other is Life? [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.19) Great Combo: Invisibility + Confusion
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because of his special invisibility ability, ShinBo is my favorite hero...
I send him into ruins, temples etc., then all I do is cast confusion on one
of the monsters, then press "done done done..." until the monsters (always
basilisks, earth elementals and various others) are all dead in a "repeated"
operation. I found that that is a great way to get good treasures.
Of course, with 5 sorcery/2 and 2 of any thing else and runemaster
+ artificer... I can create any good artifact I want fast enough, but that 's
another story. [blood@jolt.mpx.com.au (Edward Chan)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.20) Great Combo: Flier and Call Lightning
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If the node has no flying units, missile units or web-casters, just tough
ground units such as Great Wyrms, send in a single flying unit and cast Call
Lightning. This will work against most neutral cities too. Instead of Call
Lighting, Wrack might also work, but not against death or high resistance
creatures.
Magic vortex also works GREAT on ruins, or on klackon cities that are
worthless anyway, but bad for taking any cities you want to keep. [DP]
What if you haven't discovered Call Lightning, but you really want to take
over those nature nodes on Myrror? Send in a Draconian spearmen, and cast
Cracks Call to take out those pesky Great Wyrms one at a time. Use save/load
cheat if you are really *really* desperate.
[ncl@philabs.philips.com (Nai-Chi Lee)]
Yup, though I consider it a half-bug that *merging* monsters are affected
by Cracks Call (not to mention Earthquake, overland). I mean, get real!
Other things you can do to Wyrms are black prayer / black sleep, mind storm
/ black sleep, mind storm / confusion, or mind storm / petrify. Cracks call
works best, even though it shouldn't work at all. And if you can animate
dead and can kill one wyrm, use it to kill more, and animate them (invisble
or flying heroes help here) to kill the rest. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.20.1) Similar Power Combos
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Or invisibiltiy and call lightning, or flight/wrack, or invis/wrack (as in
the night stalker/wrack combo). Once you have the casting skill to throw
black prayer and wrack in the same battle, you can take out most ruins and
almost every city that way. Even halfling shamans and slingers can die to
that, if they aren't too high level yet. Trouble is, it doesn't leave you
with undead garrisons like ghouls and wraiths do, so you have trouble with
unrest. The advantage of using wrack instead of call lightning is, it's one
spell class easier to get, being rare instead of very rare. And Wrack's bug
works in your favor instead of against you like Call Lightning's bug. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.21) Which units are affected by Warp Wood? (Which are not?)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Effects: Bowmen, Longbowmen, Horsebowmen, Javeliners, Slingers, Rangers,
Centaurs, Pegasi, Heros with bows, Galleys. Does not effect: Rocks, as in
Catapults, Steam cannon, War Ships, Airship and Giants that throw stones.
[BLJ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.22) Cracks Call killed my hero. How do I defend against it?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cracks Call is quite difficult to defend against. Here are some ideas
that might help:
- Note: Magic Immunity doesn't help.
- Flight: Spell or artifact. However, you are still vulnerable to the
combination of Web and Cracks Call. Any wizard that has Cracks Call
is likely to have Web. Also, enchanted flight can be dispelled.
- Invisibility: If they can't see you, they can't Crack you. Again,
if enchanted, vulnerable to combination of Dispel and Cracks Call.
Although... If they can't see you, they can't "dispel" you. They have
to use the more expensive (research and casting) "disenchant" instead.
Biggest trouble with invis as a defense against cracks call is the
ghoul-summoning wizard who also happens to know cracks call. [DP]
- Counter Magic: Reduces further the chances of a successful Cracks
Call, but it still is possible. Given a 50 power Counter Magic,
chances of success per cast are: .25 * 20/70 = 7% chance of success.
- Wraithform protects you from Web and Cracks call. There are 8
artifacts which grant Wraithform, so you might be lucky enough to
get one of those. Wraithform is a rare Death spell, so you probably
won't have it unless you have a lot of Death spell books.
- Check how much mana the wizard has. If it is not too large, take
a stack of spearmen and attack one by one, until the wizard has used
up his mana. He can't get more until it's his turn, so you are
safe from Cracks Call, and other combat spells. Strategic combat
is even better for this because it uses up the wizard's full spell
skill every time. Of course, it will do the same to you, so only do
it if you have mana to spare, or you have alchemy and can turn your
mana into gold first.
- Power Drain. It's the best damn "counter magic" "anti-cracks call"
"anti-lightning bolt" "anti-psionic blast" "anti-doom bolt" spell you
could ask for! Throw it right before attacking, leave him with 0 mana
left, and the enemy wizard's casting skill or spell knowledge is
utterly irrelevant! Sure, it doesn't work very well in mid-game when
the enemy wizard has 20 cities and more mana piled up than you can get
rid of, and you still have to watch out for heroes, but early and late
in the game, it's awesome. [DP]
- Stack of invisible units. The computer players usually don't have
a very high mana balance. You can use the Magic screen + right click
on their picture. If the balance is fairly low, send in invisible
units one by one. Each round the computer player will cast spells,
you just hit done. Bleed the computer player down to zero. They won't
get more mana until their turn. Now you are safe from Crack's Call
or other spells. This won't work if they have Flame Strike or other
non-targeted damaging spell (Wrack, maybe others).
- The mana leak spell will drain 5 mana per combat round from the wizard.
If you can make the battle go for the maximum 50 rounds that is 250
mana! For example, if you have a flyer to attack a city with only
non-flyers. When the mana is gone - no more Cracks Call.
[BLJ, Drew Fudenberg, DC]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.23) How Can I Get Treaties Started? And keep them in effect?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A note on diplomacy. The stronger you get, the more difficult it will be to
maintain good diplomatic relations with the other wizards and the more likely
they will be to declare war on you. They will not allow you to grow strong
unchecked. [from the v1.31 patch README file]
See 10.9) Diplomacy: I can't keep peaceful relations with the other wizards.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.24) Just Cause Reduces Unrest
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just Cause does more than increase your fame. It reduces the unrest level in
all of your cities by one. I cast it as soon as I can and move my tax rate
up to 1.5, and rake in the gold. [disney@cybernetics.net (Dennis Disney)]
He should move it up to 2.5 at that point, and rake in the gold. I didn't
figure out the optimum tax rate for over a year of playing the game, so I'd
guess most people just leave it at 1. But check it out: set at 2, with a
pair of troops in the city and at least some temple-type buildings, you can
keep unrest down to 0, 1, or 2, and get double the tax from all the rest.
When I'm playing death magic, I usually end up with 6 or 8 undead troops
as a garrison, and I can often set the tax rate to 3.0 without causing much
unrest at all. With life magic, Just Cause is as good as two troops in
every city, and I usually find a 2.5 rate is best until I take a lot of
neutral mid-size cities; then I have to drop it back to 2.0. But it's
silly to set it less than 2.0, except in rare cases at the beginning of a
game. (In the very rare and difficult case of playing Klackons from the
start, at least you have the advantage of taxing at 2.5 on turn 1, and
raising to 3.0 as soon as you have a shrine.) [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.25) I've built everything I can - what can I do about continuing unrest?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Reduce taxes (if you don't need the money)
2. Ignore it (it won't kill you)
3. Cast Just Cause (reduces 1 unrest in every city!), or Stream
of Life or Gaia's Blessing on the restless city
4. Garrison troops in that city. Every 2 units reduce 1 unit of unrest.
This makes Halflings a joy to conquer, since local riot police (aka
spearmen) can cheaply pacify the populace permanently. They only cost one
food to maintain, and every pair of them brings a rebel into line to
produce three food and pay taxes. Actually, any race has this advantage
when the city has an Animist's guild.
5. Kill Klackons on sight (raze Klackon cities...)
[gunzler@netcom.com (Mitch Gunzler)]
Right on! Here's a tip: you lose fame doing that, based on the size of
the city. If you attack with a flier, fly INTO the city and stay there
without fighting for 50 turns. You'll do massive damage to the
population, making the city smaller next turn. Do this until it's smaller
than 5 THEN raze it, and you lose less fame. Downside is, you'll destroy
buildings, so you won't get the money for them when you raze it, and
sometimes garrisons go away, so you won't get the 1 fame if there's less
than 4 left in the final battle. You also won't get the experience for the
garrisons that went away, but I'd say overall, it's better to keep as much
fame as possible. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.26) Do NOT neglect libraries, sages' guilds, universities, etc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do NOT neglect your 'civilian' sources of research: libraries, sages'
guilds, universities, and wizards' guilds. These sources will often give
you twice as much research as you have powerbase, from these sources alone.
An advantage in spells is decisive - a small number of invisible or flying
units with ranged attacks can wipe out a much larger stack of units without
magical aid. And it need not be said that call lightning plus a flying unit
is absolutely devastating against non-flyers . . . just sit back and wait,
they'll die sooner or later.
[jrk3g@darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU (Jeffrey Robert King)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.27) Build roads!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Build roads! Even better, if you have sorcery magic, make all your
roads enchanted roads (zero movement cost). You can defend your whole
kingdom with one stack, and get units to the front line instantly.
Always put 4 engineers in a stack and have them build together.
They'll build one square of road every turn on most terrains, the
fastest possible rate... [Andrew B Potratz {ap2a+@andrew.cmu.edu}]
Not!! I've got a secret, nyah nyah nyah!
Ok, I'll tell you: It's YAB (yet another bug) -- you can move the engineer
off the square after telling a different one to build the road. The game
figures the time to build based on how many are there at the time, then you
move them away and have THEM build roads, too. One engineer can build on
grass in 1 turn, so if you have a wind walker carry them (a djinn will do,
or put Jaer to work), you can build FIVE squares of road, IN LINE, in one
turn, with FIVE engineers, so long as the last one is on grass, the next to
last on river, and so on. The first can be on mountain or swamp, the worst
terrains.
Even better, cast endurance on your engineers, and they will not only walk
faster, they will build twice as fast. You can use 3 "enduring" engineers
to do the work of 5. Dwarven engineers also build twice as fast, normally,
and with endurance they are four times as good. If you don't have a wind
walker to spare, there are other solutions: path finding/endurance will let
you build three squares per turn if the last is grass; mix a high elf unit
with dwarven engineers to get pathfinding without the spell, add a ranger
to any type of engineers, or "play leapfrog" to get almost the best rate.
Or cast flight or chaos channel (hoping for flight) on them. Just remember
only one engineer has to stay behind to finish the road.
On Myrror, where all roads are enchanted to begin with, a wind-walker (even
if he flies at 2) with 10 engineers can build 10 new squares of road per
turn, so long as any ONE of them is grass and they're all adjacent to the
existing road! It's YAB: a unit leaving the stack of a wind-walker can move
its full movement allowance, then still have .5 movement left. It can do
this over and over and over and over in a turn so long as it always moves
back to the wind walker and moves away again. So, move 5 engineers onto the
mountain, tell one to build a road (one turn), move the other four back down
the enchanted road to the wind walker. Repeat. Move the last engineer onto
grass; because of the bug it still has movement, and builds the road. You
can extend ten different roads in ten different directions, one step per
turn, using only ten engineers and one wind walker. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.28) Roads can be used against you (and how to prevent it)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enchanted roads on Myrror can be used against you. If you make a road
grid that connects all your cities, rampaging monsters can get on it
and scoot to some undefended city. [jbrown@u.washington.edu (Jeffery Brown)]
Solution: place Paladins or other troops along the roads in strategic
locations so that troops must go around off the road or attack that unit.
They are slowed down by one turn {min} allowing forces to be brought up to
protect nodes and/or cities. [spido@clark.net (DriveBy Billy)]
Nightblades make good invisible sentries. Enemies can't just go around
because they don't know the Nightblades are there. [bing@its.bldrdoc.gov]
Even better, if an enemy wizard bumps into the nightblade / night stalker
and summons four or more phantoms/elementals, you just stand there and when
the battle is over, you gain 1 fame! AND your nightblade gains experience
for each of the summoned creatures it never hurt at all! (YAB...YAB..)
If he only summons three phantoms/elementals, you can still gain 1 fame
(and 8 experience) by killing one of the original attackers and leaving
the phantoms standing there looking stupid. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.29) When a city has minerals, build a Miner's Guild early.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have any mines nearby, build a Miners Guild early. If you left click
on the gold on the City Screen, it will tell you how much gold you are
getting from a mine. If you get any, build a miners guild.
[Bill Poitras, DC]
Miner's guilds only give half the value of mines, rounded down, and cost
3 gold upkeep, so there's no point building them until the city is large
enough to make the *production* from them useful for building other things.
Even if there were two gem mines, a miner's guild would barely pay for
itself. Exception: dwarven cities, which double the value of the mines,
so miner's guilds are worth double also. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.30) Get Rid Of Your Own City
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a way to get rid of one of your own cities. Perhaps it is blocking
a mineral deposit, or perhaps it is a Klackon city that wish you had razed
when you had the chance. Just set it to produce "Settlers". Each Settler
will reduce the population by 1K. When the population drops below 1K, the
last Settler gets up and goes, leaving nothing behind! You can either use
the settlers or disband them.
Note: Sell off all the buildings in the city first.
The smaller the city, the quicker this process goes. You will need to buy
part of the production of the last settler or two. You have to admit, this
is more humane than simply killing Klackons on-sight, Also it doesn't reduce
your fame. [BLJ]
It can be very expensive or very slow to get rid of Klackons that way. I
say: why be humane? They're bugs! And the fly-in-to-destroy method saves
most of the fame (see above). [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.31) Changing Tundra to Grassland
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Normally, tundra cannot be changed by the "Change Terrain" spell.
However, if you cast "Raise Volcano" on the tundra and
then cast "Change Terrain" three times, you get beautiful grasslands.
For 350 mana, you have converted a tundra to grasslands. Expensive, but
cool. This trick will probably also work with "Raise Volcano" and
"Gaea's Blessing".
[John M. Ewing, john.ewing@cnsw.com]
...Yes, it does. If you don't have Change Terrain, but do have Gaia's (note
spelling) Blessing, you just bomb all the tundra near a city and let the
Blessing convert them to hills. You won't get grasslands, but hills will
give you a 3% bonus to production. You can also bomb swamps and deserts
near your cities, and eventually they become 1/2 food and 3% production,
which is better than the original terrain. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.32) Destroy Own Buildings for Fun (and Profit)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because of the way the game was written, once you have the Spell of Mastery,
you should immediately TEAR DOWN every library in every city where it isn't
required for an alchemist's guild. And most especially, tear down every
magician's guild that isn't being used to produce warlocks or magicians.
This will provide an immediate pile of gold, save you upkeep, and in the
case of magician's guilds, increase your mana income you can use on skill.
Every time you capture a city, TEAR DOWN any buildings you don't need, and
aren't likely to need anytime soon, like for several examples, a shipyard
in a city that's nowhere near to building a merchant's guild, a stable in a
city that's nowhere near to building an animist's guild, an armorer's guild
in a city you aren't going to build a war college in, a fighter's guild and
armory and barracks in a city that is never going to produce units, and a
smithy in a city that will take over 60 turns to finally get a builder's
hall, granary, and a shrine before it can finally start working on a market.
There is no reason to pay the upkeep on the smithy for all those turns while
waiting for the other buildings to be completed. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.33) Scout with Surveyor [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To locate an enemy city on the edge of an area you haven't mapped, use the
surveyor. It will tell you whenever you point to a spot within three steps
of a city, even if you can't see it. You can also tell where nearby cities
are in unmapped areas by noticing any "shared" terrain near your cities.
E.g. if only the northeast and north-northeast squares are shared with
another city, you know exactly where that city is located: two spaces
northeast of your north-northeast space.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.34) Axes, the Ultimate Weapon [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If a hero uses thrown weapons, an axe will add to the thrown value as well as
the melee value, providing a double benefit. A bow adds only to bow attacks,
not melee, a staff or wand adds only to magic missile attacks, not melee, and
a sword or mace adds only to melee, not thrown, but an axe adds to both. If
you're enchanting a weapon, you should almost always make it an axe for that
reason. Besides, an axe can be +6 attack, more than a sword (+3) or mace
(+4), which helps a first-strike hero greatly also. By the time you have
enough skill to be worth the time to enchant an item, you'll probably have
either a thrown-weapon or first-strike hero somewhere.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.35) Graceful Retirement for Heroes Beyond Their Prime (Or Not) [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When you've decided to disband a hero, and you know you never want that
same hero again, don't just disband it. If you kill it off in a battle that
you win, you won't lose any fame, and you won't have to worry about getting
that one again in a summons or offer. And if the hero is too tough to get
killed by anything nearby, you CAN throw Cracks Call on your OWN heroes! Be
sure to remove all the items first!
===============================================================================
5) Favorite Races
===============================================================================
This section covers various people's favorite races, and why they like them.
Look in Table B at the back of the Manual. It gives you an overview.
Of course, one should plan to take over cities manned by other races. The
starting race determines how you play at the start. Later in the game the
choice of starting race has less impact. [Drew Fudenburg, DC, BLJ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1) High Men - With Paladins Rule
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paladins are great! Their innate immunity to magic, generous shields, first
strike and armor piercing capabilities make them excellent offensive weapons.
Paladins can destroy a lot of lesser units without even taking damage.
Adding a little magic can make them even better. Missiles can hurt them, so
Guardian Wind is a great addition to any paladin. They can't first strike
what they can't hit, so if you can, cast Flight on them (in or out of combat)
or cast Web on their opponent. Paladins have to fight "negate first strike"
enemies, such as Pikemen, on more even terms, so be careful. With a few
precautions, your Paladins can mow down just about everything.
The building capabilities for High Men allow them to make very advanced
cities that produce a nice cash flow, be sure to use it. (bank, mechanicians
guild, merchants guild, etc...) [Matt Carlson, DC]
Races which produce warships (High Men, Barbarians and Orcs) are good if you
decide to rule the sea. 2 warships together are good enough to keep the
opposition from landing troops on your soil, unless of course they are
escorted by Warships (for some reason the computer almost never produces
warships).
High Men (humans) are a great balanced race. No special abilities, or
strange troops like Stag Beetles, or Griffins, but like in many fantasy
games, humans can pretty much produce all "normal" troops (Paladins,
Magicians, Priests, Warships). [Bill Poitras, DC]
One thing bad about Paladins is they take a lot of buildings to produce, and
also quite a few turns just to build one unit. If you're up against someone
like Tauron who is constantly destroying your buildings and reducing your
production rate, you find yourself unable to reinforce/replenish your armies.
Paladins also don't do very well against Griffons or other flying units, I'm
unable to take advantage of first strike.
[rainbow@apxws48.ih.att.com (Rob Buchner)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2) Barbarians - Fast Growing, Axe Throwing, Berserk Hordes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
These guys reproduce quickly, and benefit immensely from experience gains.
Both normal and thrown attacks increase with level.
[jrk3g@darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU (Jeffrey Robert King)]
Berserkers make good ground troops. Barbarians also produce Warships, good
for ruling the sea. [Bill Poitras, DC]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.3) Nomads - Tough Rangers, Horsebowmen, Flying Griffins and Extra Gold
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget Nomad griffins (flying, first strike, armor piercing) and
pikemen (negate first strike, armor piercing)! And don't forget about their
rangers! That PathFinding ability is ever so nice. Put it all together,
and Nomads are one fine race - they're my fave.
[fishkin@parc.xerox.com (Ken Fishkin)]
HORSEBOWMEN! Their cost is only 60 production points, and they have both
a decent ranged attack and melee attack. Now they are toast against High Men
Magicians, or ultra-elite slingers or Longbowmen, but against most normal
units in the early going, they rock! Since they have a speed of two, they can
move just beyond melee range, and then unleash their missiles, to avoid the
range to-hit penalty.
I find that on Impossible level, fast development is imperative. A stack of
eight horsebowmen and one ranger can move four spaces over any land terrain
every single move. Horsebowmen are available with stables, and Rangers only
a bit later. And you can build eight horsebowmen and a ranger in the same
time it would take to build 3 Paladins or Elven Lords.
If you start off with a Nomad city, you should be able to explore and
overrun your home continent pretty early on. And this is really important
at impossible level, when your opponents get so many advantages. Finally,
nomads produce 50% more trade revenue. [cox@tachyon.unx.sas.com (Jim Cox)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.4) High Elves - Extra Magic and Longbowmen
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elven longbowmen have nice range, and can really impact the early and middle
games, especially when going after magic nodes early in the game). However,
they have the drawback of taking a loooong time to produce, so expect rough
going at the start. [dbe@crl.com (Dale B. Elliott)]
High Elves are cool. They're the only Arcanus race that gives you mana
simply by existing (based on the size of the population), and longbowmen are
EXTREMELY deadly, and VERY cheap. All you need is a sawmill and a barracks
to start making them. [icarus@titan.oit.umass.edu (DOUGLAS W HIGGINS)]
High Elves produce Elven Lords (powerful ground troop) and LongBowmen (good
missile troop) and also can produce Magicians, which are pretty powerful.
[Bill Poitras, DC]
They tend to rebel a bit in the late game due to the lack of parthenons,
cathedrals, & oracles. Still, this is tolerable, and the innate power makes
up for lack of upper religious buildings to a considerable extent.
[jrk3g@darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU (Jeffrey Robert King)]
High elves can't even do parthenons, and they have big problems with unrest
because of it, so even with elven lords and longbowmen they aren't that
great. [DP]
Actually, the magic bonus isn't that great in the late game. Since a High
Elf city can only have a max (and unlikely to get that high) of 25 population
the max magic from population and religious buildings is 15. The magic
produced from any city that has a cathedral is 10, no matter what the
population. The fact that you can't produce "purifiers" means that you are
subject to Corruption. In addition, you don't get the riot suppression.
Counter-point, to my previous statement. The +1 to hit and Forester is
great.
[Brian Wade (FLEBO@AOL.COM)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.5) Dark Elves - Magic Power Incarnate
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Dark Elves are just too good. Once you have a wizards guild you can get
Warlocks - 8 or 9 fireballs in ranged attack! Plus defense ignoring Doom
Bolt! You also have healers. Their fantastic stables produce Nightmares
which are a somewhat rare combination of flying and ranged attack (but they
only have 2 figures). Dark Elves are just too good! [Jacob Jonsson, DC]
Even Dark Elf spearmen are pretty tough. With 8 figures and a ranged attack
of 3 (Elite), you get a 24 ranged attack. Not bad when the maintenance is
only 1 food! [BLJ]
A single Nightblade is a good city defender - too good! Since the computer
can't see anyone to attack you can just click on AUTO and wait for time to
run out. Then you win by default. [mbarnes@cs.montana.edu (Michael Barnes)]
I just love them, half for the warlocks, half because they pump my power base
so high I can work up a massive casting skill in a hurry. And another half
because those spearmen get a 24-point missile attack at essentially no
upkeep! They get all the good buildings except cathedral, they build the
only naturally invisible units (with very little investment), and one of the
very few walking units that can get first strike against flying units, the
only unit that gets auto-kill against most heroes and nasty creatures (two
bolts from warlocks, and the demon lord is history), and they look and sound
so *cool*. [DP]
Dark Elves are pretty tough, but you use up 3 picks to get them. Also, they
cause high rebellion rates in enslaved races.
[Brian Wade (FLEBO@AOL.COM), BLJ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.6) Lizardmen - Ideal for "Small" Land
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Swim for early exploration. Especially beneficial on "Small" land. Also,
surround a land mass with Dragon Turtles and kill every ship that ventures
out. [dbe@crl.com (Dale B. Elliott)]
Lizardmen are rather restricted in their buildings and units, but early on
swimming settlers are great, and dragonturtles come online sooner comparable
units (eg Stag Beetles). Contrary to the v1.31 readme Lizardmen can build
Armorer's Guilds and in fact need to do so to enable Dragon Turtles, which,
btw, cost only 100 not 120 as stated in the MoM manual.
[danhite@aol.com (Dan Hite), Drew Fudenberg, DC]
Lizards are pitiful: no sawmills or miners, very little mana and
research, terrible unrest, lousy farmers, useless units. The only thing
that makes them any better than Klackons is water walking and extra hits.
They are pitiful because without sawmills, forester's guilds, miner's and
mechanician's guilds, their productivity absolutely SUCKS, even ignoring that
without foresters and animists they can barely feed themselves, even ignoring
that most of them are rebels because you can't do parthenons, cathedrals, and
oracles. Lizards are almost as bad as Klackons, and I always raze them. [DP]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.7) Halflings - Mighty Midgets
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Halfling farmers produce 3 units of food (other races, 2). That makes it a
lot easier to support big armies. (Races that can build Animist Guilds
can get this advantage late in the game.)
Lucky also makes shields 40% effective instead of 30%, lifts the base To-hit
from 30% to 40%, and adds an extra resistance (cross).
Halfling slingers have numerous advantages, and can be the best range attack
regular unit. Unlike Paladins, they require only a few buildings and can be
available very early in the game. They are lucky, giving a plus one to hit,
defend and resist. Most important, they have 8 figures, so each enhancement
produces 8 hits of benefit. Elite Slingers typically do 4*8*.5=16 hits
damage. By comparison, Elite Longbowmen, another contender for best range
attack regular unit, do 6*6*.5=18. But, if you add in Lion Heart (+2),
Mithril (+1), and Warlord to get Ultra-elite, you have Ultra-elite Slingers
with 7*8*.6=33.6 and Ultra-elite Longbowmen with 9*6*.6=32.4. With Crusade,
Adamantium, Flame Blade, or Giant Strength the slinger's get further ahead of
the Longbowmen. Because they both get +1 to hit, Slingers and Longbowmen are
better than just about any other missile attack regular unit.
[cptstern@Cyberquest.com (CaptStern) and BLJ]
Giant strength does not increase missile attack. Leadership does, but only
half as much as the increase to melee strength. (I.e. it takes a SUPER
leadership at level 9 to give a +4, divided by 2, a +2 to missile strength;
8th level superleadership, or normal leadership, can only increase missiles
by 1 at most.) Lionheart should be mentioned here, since it does increase
slings and arrows (but not magic missiles), and is GREAT on slingers. [DP]
Slingers at recruit level still have 8 figures and the lucky bonus. But
don't expect them to single handedly take out powerful monsters until they
have at least *some* of: ultra-elite or champion rank, mithril or adamantium
weapons, lionheart, flame blade, Giant Strength, holy weapon, leadership or
holy bonus. Slingers with a lot of enhancements can punch through the 50
shields of missile immunity. Halflings and death magic do not make a strong
combination.
[BLJ, wagnere@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Erwin Wagner)]
If what you say about defense being per-figure is true, I don't see how a
single slinger figure could ever hope to overcome a 50 defense. If it hit
8 out of 8 it would probably still all be blocked. If you're talking about
a unit with admantium, flame blade, lionheart, holy bonus (arch angel, not
paladin), superleadership, high prayer, AND crusade/warlord, then geez...
throw all that onto a hammerhand, and you'd have a 42-hit unit that throws
150 points of attack with a +4 bonus. Giant Wyrms would run off screaming.
By the time you can do all THAT, you can just send in Roland or Fang and
kill the missile-immune unit with a single first-strike attack, or drop a
doom bolt or flamestrike on its head, and never mind the slingers. And it
is worth noting that slingers only get 6 shots. [DP]
Slingers are nice, but not by themselves enough of a reason to choose
Halflings - Halflings have many other disadvantages compared to more advanced
races such as High Men, Nomads, or High Elves (lack of university, and all
that is derived from it, can really hurt), and all three of these races have
a rangestriking troop comparable to slingers. (It need not be mentioned that
a unit of High Man Magicians, which are missile immune, will wipe the floor
with slingers.) [jrk3g@darwin.clas.Virginia.EDU (Jeffrey Robert King)]
A side comment, missile immunity against a beefed up slinger unit is not good
enough. Not to mention I'm killing one magician unit per turn via magic
spells. Slingers are also highly resistant. Not to mention when I close the
distance magicians die of fright (no defense, no hearts). You can counter
missile weapons, you can counter magic range attacks (mana leak, resistance
spells, defensive bonuses, magic immunity, etc). But when all is said and
done, slingers have a pretty good secondary attack, ie melee combat. Not
true for magicians. [rainbow@apxws48.ih.att.com (Rob Buchner)]
I'm just about convinced Halflings are the best starting race. You don't
realize how convenient the food production bonus and the unrest reduction is
until you play any of the other races. Indirectly this compensates for any
mana/research shortcomings. Halflings translate into more gold, more troops,
faster production, quicker expansion. And the clincher is that 4 slinger
units can just about defend a city against all attacks even without the
support of Life magic. It is such a joy not to constantly lose back captured
cities. And finally, slingers can be built quickly and easily with minimal
support costs. I can expand my empire at a faster rate. This means that
halflings may even have a mana/research advantage, through faster conquest.
At least any shortcomings are minimized.
[rainbow@apxws48.ih.att.com (Rob Buchner)]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.8) Trolls - A Regenerating Army That You Can't Stop
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TROLLS RULE. They regenerate every turn in combat, so if the enemy moves the
same speed as you you can just outrun him and heal. Even if its a full stack.
Also computers in cities usually just sit there and wait for you to approach,
so your troll can fight them one by one and heal in between. War Trolls are
especially powerful because their 2 movement allows them to outrun most units
while healing.
I started recently with trolls and with the 2 trolls that I started the game
with I was able to take over half of Myrror. They are extremely powerful.
Note that trolls get 4 HP instead of one the spearmen usually get and also
+attack. Trolls also come back to life if they die in a battle but you win
the battle. [Mike 'Krazy' Donais, DC]
And just think what you can do with an invisible Troll or two. Hit, run
away, heal, repeat. [bing@its.bldrdoc.gov -- Bill]
Death Troll! Trolls are not too bad in the early game time, but the troll's
best unit 'War Troll' has no excellent skill, or other benefit, besides
regeneration. However, with Death magic, trolls have a good strategy. Among
Death spells, there is 'Black Channel,' which makes a unit more powerful
with an extremely low upkeep (1 mana). However, it also makes the unit
undead, meaning that that unit cannot be healed. This is 'Black Channels'
shortcoming. Now, if you make (WarTroll + Black Channel) all is good: War
Troll have more status, and its upkeep (4gp,1food) is reduced to '1 mana'.
Since War Troll has intrinsic regenation, 'unhealing' is no matter.
Merit 1: 1 mana upkeep
Merit 2: 'unhealing' weak point is covered by regeneration.
Now, I play 'Death Troll'. I started with Warlord+Myrran+Alchemy+Death
Spell. Because trolls can't have alchemist guilde, Alchemy is a good pick
(alchemy gives units magic weapons). With warlord unit can be champion. In my
play, I wait until War Troll becomes a champion, then cast 'black chann