11-06-2003 23:17									#1
	MoM strats Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Faq was very disappointing, especially those parts that discussed the weaknesses of particular magic types. all 11 book magic types are feasible:

11 life: stream of life + unicorns, or torin.
11 death: wraiths
11 chaos: doom bolt or beholder looking thing
11 nature: flying cows
11 sorcery: flight + invisibility + storm giant.

even minimal book strats work with decent retorts or arcane spells.

The only reason why the game is hard on impossible is that the game, like all 4xX games made by microprose is that the cp's cheat like crazy. so, while you are struggling with your granaries and such, the cp's already have begun expansion and/or aggression.

You can match their speed by using any of the 11 spell book strats listed above, or by using races that do not build most of the buildings (trolls, barbarians, hobbits, etc.)

on impossible, i find that the 11 book strats are usually overkill, especially if you luck out on the map and get additional spell books early along with an enemy wiz who is strong in those books for trading/farming, such as 11 life + 1 sorcery + 1 nature + 2 enemy wizes with sorc/nature books, eg lo pan and the nature chick.

my favorite strat:
2 sorc, nature and chaos books
1 life
node mastery
artificer
whatever else you want with leftover books.
picks: floating island, phantom warriors or psyhic bolt, fire bolt or hellhounds (one summon, one attack, doesn't really matter which branch.)
immediately start making weapons/jewelry. armor can come later. preferably start with a bow and look for the pathfinding hero or the dervish. you can skimp on most mods on the bow, only important ones are movement and attack.
build whatever you want. ignore stables and docks, unless you need it for something else, such as nomad/hobbit food trees.
research heroism or other good life spell.
feel free to trade create weapon/artifact right away if you see anything decent, like spell blast, heroism, pathfinding, healing, etc.

use the dervish to take out medium nodes/ruins, as you build your power base, build stronger weapons. (for extra safety, wait for recall hero. bow heros only have 7 shots. recall hero has 0% chance of death, while fleeing might lose the hero and more importantly, the artifact.) use crappy heros that add to your casting power as additional storage slots, especially that low level dude that adds to research.

aim for:
staves with max mana/attack
armor with max movement (you only need 1-2 for warrax and mystic x, all sorc heros only use staves and jewelery.)
jewelery with max mana/attack/movement
You might also want a high level bow, because sometimes elorra is the only decent hero to show up late in the game.

Save one strong node/ruin near your summoning circle to kill the crappy heroes so they don't come back.

best heroes:
even crappy sorc heros can rock if they roll with arcane power. send them out to fight. if not, save them to add to your power base.
my faves:
magnus
warrax
mystic x
aerie (do not send him against strong nature nodes. ye have been warned.)
morganna the witch
hero who always has wind walking
have them beat up on weak monsters until they have 22 or so total damage from their base attack. then, send them against the strong nodes/ruins/towers.
any hero who is too fragile for fighting should be kept in your home city at all times.

Other fav strats:
myrran w/ dark elves, trolls, or draconians. whatever other picks, doesn't really matter.
barbarian berzerkers with life books or nature books.
death books and captured undead army. best way to build them is to harvest soldiers from neutral towns.

	12-06-2003 00:57									#2
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

heh i just tried, and it's a lot harder than i remembered.

	02-10-2003 15:09									#3
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

I never do 1 book of a colour only, it sucks. 2 books is quite weak as well.

I prefer 3 of chaos, sorcery and nature each, plus node mastery and some random else

	02-10-2003 18:11									#4
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quote: Originally posted by Ecthelion I never do 1 book of a colour only, it sucks. 2 books is quite weak as well.

I disagree. The AI is usually very cooperative about trading spells. Having one book also allows you to find spells of that sphere in nodes or AI city ruins. Over the course of the game, one book in a sphere can yield a nice set of spells you wouldn't have access to otherwise. I'll admit that it's not much help at the beginning of the game, though.

	02-10-2003 18:37									#5
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true, but you cannot research them on your own, and spell cost decreases with books as well, so you pay more for spells when you have less books.

	02-10-2003 20:13									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

I'd rather max a school out and hope to find other books in ruins. I've always been partial to Chaos but will play any.

	02-10-2003 22:11									#7
	Increase Your PM Length

Ecthelion - you need at least 8 books in a sphere to get any discount on casting cost, so the only difference between one book and three (your stated preference) is 2 starting spells and 8 more spells in the research list. I probably find more spells than I research during the course of the game.

Harry - I have some favorite spells in each of the spheres, and some of the best combinations require multiple spheres. I find it a lot easier when I have a few books in each color (except black, of course).

	04-10-2003 15:31									#8
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Dave, finding spells is nice, but the chance to find a real good spell in a ruin is lower than that to find another book

	06-10-2003 16:50									#9
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Not in my experience. I have only found books on a few occaisions, while I find spells much more frequently. Usually they're common spells, but I've found some rare spells (a lot more often than I've found books). The AIs are usually happy to trade any spell they have for, say, Move Fortress. Then I can shop the traded spell to the other AIs, and one found spell can add half a dozen spells to my books.

	08-10-2003 03:06									#10
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

I'll go through games where I don't find any books and some where I'll find a bunch, like four, plus all the retorts. Finding extra books gives me something to find in ruins besides Chump's Axe of +1. I'll always take a spell.

	08-10-2003 14:18									#11
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

I f you have one book in the realm, you may have only common and uncommon spells. 2 books give access to the rare spells and 3 books give access to the very rare ones. With 3 books you can get all the spells from the realm if you can find them - from other wizards, ruins, research. Also the enemy wizards will not trade the rare and very rare spells if you do not have the proper amount of books. 4/3/3/3 books in different realms gives you access to 173 spells (4*40+13 arcane) and this is the maximum you may have.

Normaly each additional book gives 4 spells for research but this may not be true if you have traded/found spells.

	08-10-2003 16:51									#12
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bakalov - I didn't know about lack of access to higher-level spells with 1 or 2 books. Very interesting.

	08-10-2003 17:14									#13
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

I didn't know that three books would give access to upper level spells. I know I've chosen low book counts for sorcery and chaos but I don't know that I was able to research either of the drake spells without a greater investment in books.