«

the 1.40 patch thread

http://www.dragonsword.com/forum/php...opic.php?t=116

[_r.u.s.s.]

Originally Posted by -Catwalk-

For The Fifth Horseman:

Dragon Sword (dragonsword.com) was started up almost a year ago by Flash to be an eternal torch for the Master of Magic flame. The site has grown steadily since then, and we now have an active community with a number of features for incarnated fans:
- A patch being coded by kyrub to enhance the AI, improve the interface and squash all known bugs. A test version has just been released for public consumption after many months of hard work.
- A mod being coded by Catwalk to rebalance the game for greater challenge and diversity. Input is most welcome, and if you're interested in helping there are a few parts in need of assistance.
- Large collection of MoM resources.
- A newly launched tournament where all players race to win the game fastest, all playing the same starting position but being allowed to customize your own wizard for it.
- Active forum with lively discussions about anything MoM related.

We hope you'll drop by and check us out, please take the time to register if you find it interesting.

a link like this would be a great addition to "external links" on game pages .. if only studentis finally added it

Hello guys,

I have moved up to hard level. More about that later. Otherwise the
post would get too long.

Reading through this thread I found an answer to something I had asked a few weeks ago. I was looking for a resource that would list the spells by type of spell (i.e. Chaos, Nature, Sorcery, Life, Death, Arcane) instead of listing them alphabetically. Well, that list does exist.

On page 55 of this thread deathsangel posted a link to the translation of the russian MoM-page. That russian MoM page is actually a kind of MoM-Almanach. It also has all the creatures, monsters and regular units in the game - another thing I was looking for.

However there are some mistakes on that translated russian MoM-page. For instance Warbears are listed with only 2 hitpoints per figure, but they do have 7 hitpoints per figure. I stumbled across several such mistakes. Yet even when considering the mistakes, that one is still a good page to gain an overview of the spells and the creatures.

That page also gave me the same answers about Star Fires and Psionic Blast that kyrub gave in his two recent posts. So I already realized that Psionic Blast bypasses defense and resistance like illusionary attacks.

But there is another thing I realized: Every attack-spell must have some kind of spell-save-modifier. And we are not always given the figures on these spell-save-modifiers. We only get them for those spells that have a definitive effect (such as Stoning or Death Gaze), i.e spells whith fixed outcome - not gradual outcome. But those spell-save-modifiers must exist for all attack spells and we can only guess what they are from experience.

@kyrub: Yes, I noticed the thing you mentioned about Star Fires (not hurting the last figure in a unit). I used it a lot on Ghouls (who have 4 figures per unit) and it never hurt the last figure in the unit on first try. It actually did have an effect on that figure when being cast a second time. As for that Demon-Fight I cast Star Fires on him twice and missed both times. Also I realized in later games that quite a few spells do reduced damage to a Demon. Psionic Blast does hurt a Demon but somehow does less damage than I would expect. So I assume that some monsters/creatures have a very low spell-save-modifier (lower means higher resistance) - and again we aren't always given the information about that.

There is a kind of sport among game programmers that they always tend to put some hidden stuff into games, which is not spelled out in manuals and guides - but is just for the alert players to be discovered. You might call these spellcasting mechanisms Easter Eggs.

One of the things I'm still wondering about are gaze attacks. I had my first contact with Basilisks in my first hard game and their gaze attacks were not
as deadly as their melee attacks - in fact I had a battle with 3 Basilisks and a lot of other bozos. I had 5 units of slingers, 2 units of Hellhounds and a Ninja hero (Shin Bo - but he wasn't fully developed yet). I summoned some Phantom warriors (twice I think) and cast healing a few times on the Hellhounds. All the Basilisks and the other enemy units bit the dust. I only lost the Hellhounds and one unit of slingers. The Hellhounds did a lot of damage to the Basiliks - but I made sure they got to attack first - so they would use their fire breath. I did not actually expect to win that fight. I thought the stoning gazes would just flatten me out but they were not so tough. Also I have seen a few cases where Chaos Spawns did not use their gaze attacks at all, when controlled by the AI. Do those gaze attacks actually work at a distance or just at close range?

I already read the Strategy guide by Dan Simpson (the version with added contents by Dirk Pellet and others).

@Pex: Well, I'm still a kind of Noob at MoM - so I went for the easier races first. But when my average level games began turning into "zoogames" with the easier races I started to try out some of the harder races too. Lizardmen and Klackons actually did not result to be that hard. Klackons have a big production bonus so you get a lot of money when you set cities to Trade Goods. I invested that money to stand up cities from othere races that I conquered. Also when playing Lizardmen I ended up getting a lot of money - even more than when playing with Klackons.

But I find Halflings and Nomads and High Elves to be the two easiest races to start with. Nomad Horsebowmen are not as overpowered as slingers or Longbowmen are. So you can gradually increase the difficulty level without having to go a full level higher. That's actually a nice feature of the game. I find Barbarians more difficult to play than Lizardmen or Klackons - even though Barbarians grow fast. Gnolls are quite weak too. Yes I do like their Wolfriders, since you get them earlier than you would get Paladins. It much dependes on what the Random Map Generator gives you.

So I change races regularly. What I mostly keep is my spell array. I like to start with Nodemastery plus Alchemy. Then I pick 4 Sorcery, 2 Nature, 2 Life and one Chaos. In Sorcery I pick Phantom Warriors, Counter Magic and Guardian Wind as my initial picks. In Life I pick Guardian Spirit (less work to protect those power nodes...). In Nature I pick Resist Elementals. Actually I find Resist Elementals to be more important than Guardian Wind because the AI just loves units with magical ranged attacs. Also Resist Elementals is more important than the Web spell. In Chaos I can't pick anything with just one spellbook. But I try to trade for Hellhounds if I don't get to research them myself (Hellhounds is what I would pick if I had a second book in Chaos). And I try to trade for Psionic Blast, Holy Armor (or other protection such as Stone Skin or Iron Skin - Heroism if Holy Armor is not up for grabs) and Just Cause if I don't have them. I will go for Warbears, Nagas or Sprites if Hellhounds aren't up for choice at all. But I prefer Hellhounds. Giant Spiders are also great as a kind of Life-Saver for your heroes if you get to bite more than you can chew. The AI units often seem to avoid the spiders (even though they aren't as deadly as the AI thinks they are - but it works). But I buff up the Spiders with some spells...

Guardian Wind, Resist Elements and Resist Magic, can be cast on Hellhounds (or Warbears, or Giant Spiders...). Holy Armor and other Life Spells cannot be cast on most of the summoned units. Healing can be cast on them though. That's important to know when you cast Chaos Channels on a unit. If you want it to have Holy Armor or Lionheart better cast that first - as long as it's not a Chaos Creature yet.

Btw. the Demon in the nasty fight did avoid my Fire Elemental. I never managed to get even close to the Demon with the Fire Elemental. The Demon always chose a route to avoid it. The Fire Elemental actually cannot attack a Demon by itself, it has to wait until it gets attacked. I was hoping the Demon would attack it but no go.

With the "Jack of all Trades" approach I have with my spell picks, there is a lot of potluck. So sometimes there are spells missing that I usually rely on. Then I have to figure out how to make do without them - live without Healing for instance. That's where part of the fun of the game comes from. So I learned how to live without the Just Cause spell - and now on hard level I find that the enemies like to dispel Just Cause a lot - so I don't even cast it and put the Mana elsewhere. Once you realize that Spearmen only consume one unit of food and farmers produce at least 2 units of food - then you find that it pays to turn rebels into farmers with spearmen garrisons. Of course later in the game you will want stronger units than that.

[Pex]

I've got a new job but in another city, which is why I'm able to come on here only on weekends. I'll try to write a longer reply to some post when I have more time and to check dragonsword.com as well.

Btw, spell guide that you can dnload from abandonia has spells grouped by realms, but you still have to go to alphabetical order part to read descriptions.

@kyrub: Yes, I noticed the thing you mentioned about Star Fires (not hurting the last figure in a unit). I used it a lot on Ghouls (who have 4 figures per unit) and it never hurt the last figure in the unit on first try. It actually did have an effect on that figure when being cast a second time.

So you witnessed the same effect?? Baffling.

And no, -to resistance has nothing in common with THIS, that belongs to another group of spells, the resistance based spells: Black sleep, Confusion (-4), Vertigo, Dispel Evil etc.


By the way, you may download the unofficial patch from the link above if you want some bugs in game fixed.

@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.

MoM unofficial patch updated to 1.40d
(with some important bug fixes and AI improvements)

http://www.dragonsword.com/forum/php...opic.php?t=116


Also, there's a small MoM tournament running at the webpage.

Soo... how about a nice little link to us in the Notes section instead? The site is doing great, and I'm confident that many MoM fans would be interested in what we have to offer, if only they knew we existed

As kyrub mentions, we have a small tournament going which has all contestants playing on the same map with different wizards. Wizards are created according to a new cost system:
25 picks
Books cost 2 picks (Life books cost 3 because Life is crazy broken)
Cost of retorts are rebalanced and cost roughly twice as much
Races also cost a number of picks, starting at 1 pick for gnolls and ending at 8 picks for dwarves

There are also a few extra rules to abide by:
Magic Spirit may not be used for exploration
Heroes may not be hired, only summoned or found
Whoever defeats all AI wizards fastest wins the tournament

Come check us out!

This is my game report for the tournament at DS. Not all pictures have been uploaded yet.


I start investing in skill to get enough to cast Black Sleep in combat, which will be my second research choice after Just Cause. My swordsmen go off exploring, dwarves are sturdy little buggers, the two together can most likely take a neutral city with ease if one is nearby. I start producing a granary.

I discover a small peninsula to the east

Just Cause
Invest in skill
Explore
Granary
Peninsula east
Hell Hounds west, don't investigate yet
Marketplace
Many zombies west
Advisor tells me there's a city to the west
City has 5 high men cavalry, not good news. I retreat with my swordsmen after finishing immediate exploration efforts.
Several good city sites found
Housing to pop 6 -> Shrine -> Library -> Sawmill -> Sages Guild

Oh shit... 6 cavalry charging my 2 veteran dwarf swordsmen Going to send one swordsmen against them, do damage until it's almost dead and then retreat. Hopefully it'll live so I can continue doing this. And hopefully kyrub didn't fix the bug that keeps the AI in place :P If he did, I'm dead now. Also rush building a unit of dwarf swordsmen. From scratch. Costing me 180

Yay, kyrub didn't fix the bug yet and I'm still alive! Now I have 3 swordsmen against 6 recruit cavalry, 3 of which I wounded pretty good. I'm going to do another raid and build another unit of swordsmen at normal speed (only takes 2 turns). Took out two wounded cavalry units this time and escaped again! I do another raid next turn to play it safe. Sadly, my unit of veteran swordsmen succumbs after taking out two full cavalry units. The rate this is going I can take out 6 cavalry units comfortably with 4 swordsmen if I want to take that pesky high men city soon. I decide to go for it, as my production is high enough to churn out swordsmen rapidly now.

Just Cause -> Black Sleep

I send 5 swordsmen to wipe out the hell hounds and take the human city Cantebury. I'll wait with the zombies, my swordsmen are roughly the same strength as zombies and I don't want to lose a bunch in case there are 6+. One unit of swordsmen will hit by the time I invade Cantebury. Meanwhile I'm building settlers in Copy Cats, will build two settlers before teching for magical weapons and hammerhands.

...and then two units of phantom warriors decide to come pay me a visit. Seems like it's the turn 50-trigger that sent them at me :P I'm just going to let them invade me and hope they won't burn the whole place down, this game is a disaster so far.

Yay, I live! They didn't even destroy any buildings, although the gold loss sucks. What sucks worse is that I could have turned it into mana, as I need a bunch of mana for the Just Cause spell I'm busy casting.
http://i50.tinypic.com/slkzgn.jpg
Cantebury is well defended... I can't even cast Black Sleep yet, only got a casting skill of 12 with my pathetic power base of 5. I'll charge boldly! I figure I'll lose 2-3 swordsmen, which will be well worth it. Sucks that I didn't bring just one more unit, could probably take the city without casualties if I had another.

They're all regulars, this looks tough. I'll move to the right, hoping that their left units will step on each other's feet enough to delay them a bit. I need to use suppression tactics here to win, they have a pretty big impact on units without a bonus to hit.

Bloody AI cleverly regroups, denying me the opportunity to snag the two front cavalry units. I'll keep bravely advancing backwards to the right.

This is interesting, the AI moved left for some reason. They have fewer units threatening me now, but will also face fewer attacks by me this turn. I think this gives me a small edge, as their 3 rear units can't even tough me next turn.

I sacrificed a damaged front unit by moving it bottom left, this succesfully lured the foolish cavalry down there. In the meantime, I can pick them off a few at a time. My elite swordsmen are highly effective, I think I'll win this with just two units lost.

Victory! 2 units lost as predicted, my elite swordsmen survived and another is at 39 exp. I'll leave the swordsmen here as garrison and supplement with a unit of high men spearmen, then build another garrison force back home in Copy Cats. I raze the armoury in Cantebury as I'm not planning on using it anytime soon. Cantebury is quite the backwater town, pathetic compared with the glory of Copy Cats. Still, they may prove to be a useful servant race as they are able to supply me with dirt cheap garrison units. Even if it can't grow further, it starts out with a pop of 7 and has both a granary and a library. I might also go for some cheap settlers to settle the less desirable locations.

November 1404 (I've completely forgotten to keep track of time): Our cause is just! We can now go subjugate alien races without compromising our ethics, the magics say so. Apparently I took a screenshot of having to refuse Shuri at this point, rather than casting Just Cause.

Another unit of settlers has been completed, I'm sending it south to check out the game down there and hopefully found a decent city. War Bears hits and I start summoning one, will be using it to explore with solo at first.

Farmer's Market done in Cantebury, built a unit of spearmen to free up some dwarf swordsmen for further exploration. Will be putting out cheap settlers here to settle the less hospitable spots while my more capable dwarves get the lucrative ones. Summoned a unit of war bears and grew my first dwarf outpost to size 2 in October 1405. Also started a new dwarf outpost to the south, not in a very good position. Finishing up on Temple in Copy Cats, will get Forester's and Miner's Guilds as well before teching up to hammerhands and Alchemist's Guild. Endurance hits the year after and I start on Dispel Magic since Summon Hero is not yet available.

I've explored my starting continent and found no other neutral cities. There's a bunch of easy lairs, so I'll grab all the available land straight away, and start gearing up for killer stacks in maybe 5 years.


December 1406: Merlin conquers the tower and drops by to say hi. His troops don't stay at the tower, so I'm going to rush through and see if I can get a foothold there quickly.

Merlin's fortress discovered, quite weakly defended. But my forces are weak, I can't take advantage of his weakness.

September 1407: Summon Hero hits, I'll be using this one a lot!

December 1407: Exploring the immediate surroundings on Myrror, locating a single spot for my dwarf settlers. His cities are placed horribly, blocking a lot of valuable land.

The north east spot will do nicely, adamantium dwarf troops are unbeatable. I'll pour generous funds into crashing up this settlement at lightning speed. A few turns later I discover that there are unsettled lands to the south on Myrror, I quickly send my settlers there to stake a claim before Merlin spots his oversight. He's supposed to be an expansionist too :P

May 1408: This is what I'm talking about! In just 16 turns I'll have a full stack of hammerhand veterans with magic weapons + a unit of war bears for pathfinding, ready to kick ass. This game may be salvaged yet, I'm betting I can take on Merlin pretty soon.


November 1408: First settlement planted down south, with 3 gold mines! That'll net me 18 gold per turn. Love dwarves, practically instant return on all investments.

Super Blademaster + Might is awesome, although he might be difficult to keep alive. I'll make sure to keep him away from enemy wizards until he's levelled up considerably. He can help my hammerhands mop up on nearby lairs, time for spring cleaning.

Great find! And I can afford a sandwich too.

September 1409: I spot the western behemoth node being cleared. Should I go after the node or his fortress? Or build up some more? I can't just seal off the tower, as I have budding settlements on myrror. I decide to go for the throat! However, I can probably take the node without him declaring war. So I'll grab the node first, then his fortress. Hammerhands will be pouring in to assist my assault, Merlin is going down. Hmm, he just cancelled our wizard pact because I keep checking out his cities Time to speed up my plans.

Splitting up my armies, two hammerhands and Fang going to the node and the others going for the tower. I don't have Endurance on all yet, breaking off with a small group will allow me to speed up considerably. I'm running low on funds, even though I'm pulling in 123 gold per turn. My new settlements are extremely thirsty for gold to get up and running in a hurry, and my mana expenses alone amount to 66 gold per turn. It's important to remember that even dwarves run out of cash at some point. My settlements are growing fast now, I expect my economy to be booming within a year.

DUN DUN DUN. Hammerhands are pouring out of my capital headed towards the fortress, and his defenses are still weak. His fortress is defended by giant spiders, completely useless against my hammerhands (and pretty useless in general). From what I can see of his empire, conquering all his cities would likely boost my power base by around 60. With that much power I'd boost my casting skill massively in order to be able to cast Black Sleep and Healing repeatedly in combat.

First skirmish with Merlin at the tower. His first ice bolt took out 2 figures of hammerhands, hardly a threat. I'll make sure to keep Hair Ball away from him, though. Merlin lobbed another Ice Bolt at the same unit to kill another 2 figures and ran out of mana or skill, letting me win the battle easily without casualties. Merlin is now tense... I decide to ease up on the spellcasting for a while, giving preference to development of settlements.

Someone is being testy... The AI does seem to react a lot more rationally with the patch, kudos to kyrub. He seems to have casting skill of 100, sufficient for two max strength ice bolts.

Freya feels like barging into Hair Ball who's just razed a klackon village to the ground. Fortunately, I have Recall Hero. She's offering to trade me either Holy Weapon or Holy Armour for Just Cause. It's tempting, but I'll hold out for a bit hoping for something better. And I'm already busy casting Endurance on my hammerhands, I don't have mana to spare. My economy is also struggling to keep up, spending 40 mana per turn eats up over half my income.

Hair Ball has found a large, rich island to the north east which I need to go colonize. I still haven't finished colonizing my starting island, and there's plenty space on Myrror as well. Dwarves don't expand that well, 150 production per settler stings even with the econ bonuses they get. I stand poised to attack the node and two of Merlin's cities, I'm hoping to catch him on low mana to reduce the damage done. Maybe I'm waiting too long, I can win easily even with 2 large ice bolts thrown at me.

I decide to go for it, no point in waiting. My casualties will be minor and he'll bleed some mana. He's no tactical mastermind:
35
kyrub, fix! I lose two units of swordsmen, facing 2 doom drakes + 2 war bears + 2 draconians. He keeps casting Healing and Heroism all combat, failing well over half.
36
I take on Merlin head first, crushing the puny doom drake defenses of one of his bigger cities without losing a single unit. The spoils of war are generous, 450 gold and a very useful city:
37
It even has an animist's guild for healing and food production. And it gives me a whooping 20 power! This doubles my power base from 19 to 39. This game is going to pick up speed fast now
38
Random mana short, shouldn't give me much trouble. If anything, it might even help me as my economy is based on gold rather than mana. With a little luck, Merlin is struggling now. And his fortress is struggling big time:
Still defending with giant spiders... Really need to improve the AI's troop selection algorithms somehow. Either that, or balance units better so no choices are as useless as this.
40
And now he disbanded his giant spiders... I take the city without breaking a sweat, and get Holy Armour + Create Artifact in the ruins. And he's defeated rather than banished, means I can't mooch other spells off of him. I'll swipe all his other cities in a hurry and then crank out some draconian spearmen to explore Myrror in a hurry.
41
I have a LOT of money now, and substantial armies. Question is what to do with them. Priority lists:
MAGIC
1) Put Endurance on a full stack of hammerhands so they can blitz ahead
2) Get massive casting skill
3) Summon more heroes
4) Enchant my hammerhands with Holy Armour
5) Finish research on Summon Champion and get some kickass heroes (probably won't get them in time to make a difference)

ECONOMY/LOGISTICS
1) Establish a ferry connection to Freya's continent, I'm confident I can take her down immediately after grabbing Merlin's abandoned cities.
2) Find the remaining wizards with Hair Ball (levelling him up on weak lairs and cities in the process)
3) Keep building up my economy to allow for more stacks of hammerhands
4) Build up Dover (my northern human town, size 18 max and currently at size 6 with basic econ built up) to churn out paladins, just in case I run into a really mean chaos wizard
5) Establish a transplanar highway, utilizing the two additional towers I've discovered near Merlin's cities. With a little luck I'll be able to reach most of Arcanus through these, and with myrran roads I can move at lightning speed!

I'm skipping further expansion, I have more than enough economy at this point. Taking neutral cities should be sufficient expansion.
42
She declares war the turn after I defeat Merlin, cleverly sensing that she's next. But her posturing will be in vain, I doubt she'll be able to put up much more of a fight than Merlin.
43
Trying to take a small klackon city defended by 4 swordsmen, this happens :/ I was convinced that Hair Ball was invincible and just put him on auto combat. Nothing much happening otherwise, plodding along steadily.
January 1413 stats:
Total upkeep 102
Power base 156
Casting skill 41
Income 393
44
I'm building up a large task force of Draconian Bowmen (elite + adamantium) as the tower I found only leads to a useless small island. My hammerhands are landlocked, so I've started building triremes in Dover (up north, by the tower).

I'm losing momentum here, further economic development helps me little as I already have the forces I need for victory. Draconians are busy exploring Myrror and some have been sent to Arcanus as well.
45
Freya attacks! Her troops go down without casualties, though. I only face useless spells.
46
I'm lazy about building defenders for my draconian cities, so a few zombies razed one.
47
I conquered Merlin's cities during the mana short, as evidenced by the huge mana hike after it ended. I'm gaining 1-2 casting points per turn now. Not sure if I should enchant my units or summon heroes. I decide to grab a few champions, they're too much fun to pass up.
48
Turns out this wasn't Freya's main continent after all, time to go hunting.
49
Time to go lizard hunting as well, just discovered a big draconian city he owns. I might have to approach him with a little more care, he ranks highly on the power chart.
50
I've had a group of bowmen besiege a lair of great wyrms for a long time, taking out one at a time. My patience pays off handsomely, Archmage is going to help a lot.
51
Sweet, one of my favourite spells. Not really all that useful for its cost, but I like terraforming.
52
Not bad at all! I wonder if I'll get any use for him in combat, but this is an excellent mix of skills. Well protected with Constitution + Agility, strong offensive capability with Blademaster + Constitution (even though he only gets 5 mana per level) and Armsmaster can do a lot for my stacks. Time for Magic Spirits and lots of Endurance now.
53
More time has passed with boring troop movement, and I'm poised to invade Oberic's fortress. My invasion forces consist of 6 hammerhand units and 13 units of elite draconian bowmen with adamantium weapons. His defenses consist of 4 stag beetles, 2 sprites, a unit of orc cavalry, a unit of klackon halberdiers and the Huntress. I decide to go in with all bowmen, should be a walk in the park. My stats as of January 1415 are as follows:
Total upkeep 189 (61 fame lowers it to 128)
Power base 230
Casting skill 97
Income 624
54
He's using Warp Wood, not a bad idea but it'll probably be too slow to take out just one unit per turn. I have Black Sleep as backup in case I can't kill them fast enough. I do in fact manage to take out his archer hero with Black Sleep first round.
55
Final battle against Oberic, also easy.
56
I get Cracks Call and Life Drain.
57
Final battle against S'ssra shortly after.
58 I get Resurrection and Guardian Spirit. I drained his mana with a few fake attacks before combat in order to get an easier battle and ensure he wouldn't respawn. His ranged units cost me 2 bowmen. I decide to resurrect my trusty Hair Ball!
59
Riiight.... Just wanted to see if she'd go for it
60
Taking on Freya's fortress, getting Basilisk and Star Fires for my efforts. She starts casting Spell of Return as she had too much mana for me to drain pre-combat.
61
Trying to take one of Freya's cities with a single unit of hammerhands in order to speed up my victory. I land Black Sleep on two of the basilisks and my hammerhands cream the rest.
62
Final battle! I decide to give Hair Ball another chance to prove his worth in auto combat, this time with decent magic items.
63
He's just about to prove himself to be a useless fuzzball once more, but he lives! And it wasn't the final battle after all, I forgot about her northern city. Ninja Cat rushes to the rescue with a small band of archers:
64
65
I get Dispel Evil and Stone Skin.
66
Final score. Forgot to note down the month, I think it's late 1415.

Comments about the game:
- It was risky to go scouting with my first two swordsmen units. It cost me 9 gc per turn for a total of 100 gc or so, and money is tight early on. Obviously, had I found a neutral city I could conquer it would have paid off handsomely.
- My exploration was quite poor, as were my logistics. I could have won a year or two earlier with better map knowledge and troop movement.
- War Bears and Black Sleep did very little for me all game. I should have simply gone for roads instead and not bothered with war bears. Endurance wasn't much use either, it's too expensive to enchant a whole stack. If I were to replay the scenario I'd pass on all 3 of those.
- Economy generally worked out well, but I probably had too much economy focus early on. This delayed my production of hammerhands, which was crucial to securing the game. As soon as I defeated Merlin I cruised on to victory at lightning speed, the extra income from his cities was far superior to that from my expansions. Dwarf settlers at 150 are just too expensive. I fell into the trap of trying to max out my starting island rather than just taking one or two good spots. Going for a single settlement at the coal/river site would have been far more profitable.
- Going for Draconian Bowmen was a really good decision which shaved many years off of my victory date. They had plenty strength for taking on my enemies and flying was (obviously) a major asset in inter-continental warfare. If I didn't have access to adamantium weapons, going for air ships would probably also have worked out decently since the cities were already developed sufficiently.
- I didn't face any counter attacks all game, this was most likely due to me playing with 1.40d which contains a problem with counter attacks. I might have a quick replay without reporting using 1.40c to see if it plays out entirely differently.
- I had a big problem with my weak casting skill most of the game, Archmage would have helped significantly with that. Losing my Nature and Death book for Archmage would probably help a lot.
- Speed construction started getting way boring mid-game, and I just allowed resources to pile up. I'm really looking forward to having this changed in the mod, if it turns out to be possible.
- Reporting was more effort than expected, and it got a lot messier than expected
- If I were to go again, I'd go with the following setup:
1x Life (Just Cause)
1x Nature (Earth Lore)
1x Sorcery (Word of Recall)
Archmage
Warlord
Dwarves

Word of Recall, in combination with Summoning Circle, would have been an extremely efficient means of getting my troops where I need them. I'd like spent most of mana all game on this spell, after exploring the world with Earth Lore. Earth Lore would have been invaluable early on, saving me lots of time.

[dosraider]

Oh my, nice post -Catwalk-, shame it's gonna get completely buried in this topic, maybe you should create a new topic in
Favorite oldies and newbies.