@kyrubb: Yes, I noticed that thing about Starfires too. The reason why I'm paying attention to such effects is that I played Age of Wonders a lot. In AoW there are a lot of hidden features that are not mentioned neither in the manual nor in any strategy guide. For instance in tactical combat there are certain Hexes on the battle field that give extra protection. Also in AoW it matters from which direction you attack an enemy unit. I learned these things from watching the behaviour of the AI - and I learned to identify the special Hexes from experience. Then I started to use these tactics myself. Of course this takes away some of the last few advantages of the AI that were meant to make up for lack of AI intelligence - making the human player even stronger. Also in AoW some units have hidden stats that do not show in the unit screens. So I was expecting some similar hidden things in MoM and it looks like there is something there, but they differ from what they are in AoW.
Moving on to my first game on hard level, which turned out to be more like a game on impossible than like a game on hard. Yes, on my very first game on hard the RMG rolled a map that was darn tough. I played Halflings and started on a rather restricted peninsula in the South. But it was part of a large continent and it turned out that my loving companion on that continent was Kali again.
I had started at a position with no easy targets in range. The few nodes in range were all much too tough to take early on. And even some neutral Halfling cities in my range were too heavily guarded. Neutral cities of other useful races were all out of range.
This time Kali was very aggressive right from the start. This even showed in the way she greeted me when we first met, for she announced that I should not illude myself she would let me coexist with her. And she started sending troops right away - without declaring war - but it was like war anyways.
This time she did not wait a long time to send killer stacks. In fact only shortly after, there was an SoD (Stack of Doom), with two heroes in it, heading for my home city. She had cast Guardian Wind on every single unit in the stack (visible by the blueish halos on the units - and I knew it was Guardian Wind and not some other Sorcery Spell because she had used it before on another, weaker stack). I did not even have any dispelling magic yet - not to mention that my casting skill was too low to dispel a lot of Guardian Winds anyways (even though I was pumping it up as best as I could).
Fortunately there were no roads and I had noticed her SoD at a point where it would still have to travel quite some way for my home city. So I knew my Slingers were worthless. I decided to summon two units of Hellhounds. At least I had that spell. Also I started building Swordsmen. I figured I would finish at least two units of Swordsmen before her SoD would arrive. And on top of that I recalled some units that had been North-bound to attack one of Kali's cities - but my survival was at stake - so they were needed at home.
At that point Kali got "cold feet". She decided to hold back the two heroes and split up her SoD. This was a big mistake. Of course I was preparing myself to take on the whole stack as it was before the splitup. Now she only let the normal units continue - and I made mince meat out of them, not losing a single unit myself.
This led to a temporary power vacuum on Kali's border and I quickly snatched four cities from her - which gave me access to the Klackon race. But I would have to build up that particular city first...
However I could not just continue to waltz over Kali's cities. This was hard level - not normal level. So she regained strength quickly and started sending dangerous stacks again - which forced me to consolidate. At this time Sssra had conquered one of the planar towers, which was behind Kali's defense lines - so he could use Kali's roads to send his squads against me (Kali and Sssra were at peace of course). Now I had two wizards to fight against - but most of their troops were coming the same way. It did not force me to build up another defense line but it cost me much more units than it would have with Kali's troops alone.
What followed was a long stalemate with continues fighting all of the time. Battles every turn - with me struggling to replace the losses in troops.
What I managed to do was to take a few more of Kali's cities that were
situated on my side of the turf. That slowly led to a defense line with less holes in it. Then I realized that there was one Sorcery node alongside the road where Kali's and Sssra's troops were coming from. This node was only guarded by Phantom Beasts - and some Phantom Warriors. Not too hard, I thought. And I could take it without neglecting my defense - since the units bound for the node would also be able to defend against the continuous stream of buggers coming from Kali and Sssra. This worked out. I took that node - my first node in that game. And this changed things a lot - for I had Nodemastery.
I had captured only one Klackon city from Kali. Her other cities in my range were Halfling cities. Halflings were the neutral race on that continent and she had conquered several neutral Halfling cities - then had sent out Halfling settlers too.
Unfortunately that one Klackon City that I had conquered was right next to the border and was in perennial danger of being taken back either by Kali or by Sssra. But with the extra Mana from the Sorcery node I could summon more Hellhounds and I started tightening up my defense around that Klackon city and around that Sorcery node in the middle of the killing fields. I managed to hold the defense until I started producing Stag Beetles.
By this time, however, Kali also had them. And Sssra had started sending Basilisks. I concluded I would have to build a Killer stack of Stagbeetles - buffed up with Spells (unfortunately I was missing Spell-Lock). But a rush of eight Stagbeetles at once is hard to deal with. Even if a few of them die, the rest will make it. (Only 8 Stagbeetles to leave one slot for summoning something else during the battle). So I started producing those eight Stagbeetles and then I banished Kali for the first time in that game. She started casting Spell of Return. I lost some of the Stagbeetles but the rest of them took over all of her remaining cities on Arcanum. She must have had at least one city on Myrror for she wasn't dead yet when I took her last city on Arcanum.
I had not gotten to Myrror yet and then Sssra cast Planar Seal - but this was easy for me to dispel now, as I had much more magic than prior to banishing Kali. So I got to Myrror and started giving Sssra some...
Darn, he had a LOT of casting skill!! He could blast just right through my Counter Magic spells and kill one buffed-up Stagbeetle with a single lightning at a time (adding a massive amount of mana to the spell, no doubt). And that did not exhaust his casting ability for the battle. He could cast several further spells after that!! But he was losing the battles nonetheless. By this time I was mass-producing Stagbeetles and I also had started building up a lonesome Orc City I conquered (going for Wyverns in that one - but quite a way to go still). I also started taking cities from Tlaloc. I was taking cities left and right. And I was losing none anymore. But at that point the game crashed.
Now, I had saved when I first banished Kali but I did not feel like going through the whole episode after that again. Even though Sssra was a little ahead in research (not all that much actually) it was now clear that I would eventually win this one and I had shown I could stand my man even in such a tough game.
So not all MoM games are boring - and sometimes the AI does give you a real fight. I have to say that in this one, Kali's Klackon Halberdiers gave me quite some nuisance. Even without Guardian Wind cast on them they were hard to kill with Slingers. But a combination of Phantom Warriors and Hellhounds together with Slingers did the job.
My second game on hard level was quite the opposite of my first game. Everybody started on a continent of their own and mine was very sizeable. It had five power nodes, four of which were feasable (not easy - but feasable). I took all of the feasable nodes. I played as Nomads (who have those fabulous Griffins - almost as good as Paladins). There also was a High Elf City on that continent. So this was the first game where I tried out Pegasi. But I found out that Pegasi have glass bones. They don't survive well in really hard battles on hard level. Griffins are much tougher. On one continent on Arcanum there were Highmen cities. Kali was one of my enemies again. She conquered that continent with Highmen cities before I could. But after banishing another wizard (twice - he cast spell of return), I went for Kali and took the Highmen cities from her - giving me Paladins on top of Griffins. That was pretty much it - the AI had no more chance. So that second game was quite an easy one for hard level. It really depends a lot on the map that you get. With this map I probably would have won even on Impossible level. With the other map (from my first game on hard) I wouldn't be so sure whether I would win on Impossible.
I have to add one more race to the easy-starting ones: Dark Elves. Even their Spearmen are ranged - and that makes Dark Elves real killers. You can do a lot with those cheap Spearmen that you can start building right away. Those Spearmen make a big difference when being attacked by marauders too. While marauders tend to be tougher on Myrror and nodes are more heavily guarded there, it is not that hard when you start with Dark Elves. And soon you get access to more races since neutral cities are not hard to take when playing Dark Elves.
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