So, how do you play this game?

[johan osterman]

If you find the game hard try the necro or the druid.

As a necro look for spots where there are lots of dead, and use your apperentice to raise the dead. He will eventually go insane and become immobile. If you raise at a terrain where there are sufficent number of corpses you will gain beast of disorder, which are somewhat similar to the eater of the dead in dominions. Note that humans killed in battle will up the corpse count. As a necro you will also collect hands of glory, you can use these to summon undeads or transform yourself. If you transform yourself into a Vamp it will cure any insanity, if you transform yourself into a Lich you will be immune from insanity. Since a lich is immune to insanity it can grow it's forces after each battle with humans. Hands of glory use is cheaper in fallen temples, haunted castles and haunted cities. Vamps Liches and Carrions are immortal, as long as you reatin you homecastle you will ressurect there when you die.

As a druid, note that the most powerful summons are only available if you are currently in a mountain or great forest square. In the great forest you can get beholders which are ridicously powerful.

If you play demonlogist or evil priestess lower your tax, or your villagers and miners will revolt from the sacrifice collection.

Kill brigands they are more likely to enter income squares than non income squares. If you find a brigand lair, clean it out, it generates new brigands if not captured. Independents only spawns in darkened map areas, so if you play a nation capable of capturing forests you will be less bothered by independents.

If an enemy summons the horsemen of the apocalypse or the inquisition be sure to have more than one citadel. They will walk towards one random citadel and capture it, and then walk towards the next. As long as they remain alive.

If you play a shaman you can use their ability to posess to let your attacks count as defense instead of offense and thus gaining firststrike advantage. Remember to posses first though, since you cannot posess troops in battle. Nightmare last 2 rounds, by using both your shaman and totem pole for 2 rounds you can posess powerful independent units like hydras, mountain giants, beholders or vampires.

Try binding elementals if you are a warlock. Don't bind waterelemtals though. I don't think they ever gained aby functionality when bound. If you have fire or earth elementals you can wait with binding them until they are damaged.

In general spellcasters are more powerful in the lategame. Warlords and nonhuman in the shortrun.

[johan osterman]

You can slow down everything in the game by pressing 3 during your turn, or speeding up by pressing 1. In battle speeed up with s.

[WraithLord]

johan osterman said:
You can slow down everything in the game by pressing 3 during your turn, or speeding up by pressing 1. In battle speeed up with s.

Wow the 's' shortcut is a life saver, esp. when its 2AM in the morning

Thank you!

[SlipperyJim]

johan osterman said:
If you find the game hard try the necro or the druid.

I haven't been successful as a Necromancer yet, but I had some very bad luck when I tried. My next game will try again.

johan osterman said:
As a druid, note that the most powerful summons are only available if you are currently in a mountain or great forest square. In the great forest you can get beholders which are ridicously powerful.

This is great advice. I just beat the game as a Druid, and it wasn't too difficult. Grab every forest, jungle, swamp, marsh, and (especially) ancient forest that you can see. Stockpile the herbs. Then head into an ancient forest and call the council of the animals. This ritual will summon a veritable HORDE of critters to serve you. Hand off the critters to another commander to keep your Druid free for more summoning duty. Supplement the critters with a few archers and crossbowmen for added killing power.

Meanwhile, stockpile MORE herbs. Head into the mountains and summon legendary critters. I got a basilisk and a bunch of chimeras this way. Both of those guys are great for clearing out hordes of chaff.

I only managed to summon the guardian of the woods (or whatever the top-level forest critter is called) twice. Once, I got a pair of giant moose. That was wacky. The second time, I got an Ent. Cool!

FYI: Many of the Druid's coolest critters (like the Ent) are vulnerable to fire. Beware of demons!

[Taqwus]

Trying a Cardinal of El in the 'Empire' age might also be easier; more high-population, high-congregation squares should let you boost your Congregation value rapidly. Once it's fairly high, you get to bless your troops, get free paladins and saints, get the inquisitors and their troops running around on your behalf...

I have stomped around as a Necromancer, but it does take finding at least a graveyard before somebody else is ready to stomp you, and pref. getting a Flesh Heap.

[Taqwus]

Tried the Druid last evening. 'Dark Ages' map, otherwise normal settings. Not one ancient forest on the continent, but... Legendary Monsters summoned in mountains are nasty.

You'll either get Chimeras (large-area fire attack, Basilisks (large-area petrification attack), or Rocs (seem to be large melee nasties), haven't noticed them doing anything too funky.

Just don't get your druid killed, as I don't think you can hire any replacements (even apprentices), unlike a Necromancer. Then all your herbs will be useless.

Odditiy: Cannibals can be domesticated?

[SlipperyJim]

Taqwus said:
Trying a Cardinal of El in the 'Empire' age might also be easier; more high-population, high-congregation squares should let you boost your Congregation value rapidly. Once it's fairly high, you get to bless your troops, get free paladins and saints, get the inquisitors and their troops running around on your behalf...

Yes, indeedy. That was my first highly-successful game. Cardinals of El rock hard once they get rolling, and it's easy to get rolling quickly with loads of potential worshippers around every corner.

The key to being a Cardinal of El seems to be maximizing your income. Bless every settlement, farm, town ... everything you can bless. When your congregation is large enough, build temples. By that point, the gold is pouring into your coffers at a ridiculous pace, and you can simply outbuild anyone. Economic warfare, baby!

Taqwus said:
I have stomped around as a Necromancer, but it does take finding at least a graveyard before somebody else is ready to stomp you, and pref. getting a Flesh Heap.

Bah. My current game is a Necromancer in the Fallen Empire, and I'm not thrilled so far. 90% or more of your uncroaked summons are worthless chaff. Only a handful of the beasties are any good at all. Now, that handful are pretty darned good....

My biggest problem with the Necromancer is the limited supply of bodies. Reanimate once, and the graveyard is practically empty! Okay, so keep moving and reanimate the corpses of your enemies, right? The problem with that strategy is that your poor apprentice is too insane to follow your armies after only a few reanimations.

If insanity wasn't a problem, I could reanimate on the road. If graveyards had a limitless (or nearly so) supply of corpses, then I could stay in one spot and summon the zombie hordes.
Unfortunately, with limited graveyards and the threat of insanity, my reanimation options are very limited. The cool feature of my class becomes something that I can't use very often.

I'm diligently saving my Hands of Glory. When I make the transition to Lich, hopefully this game will become more fun. But WOW, that will require a lot of Hands of Glory! Meanwhile, most of my expansion is being done with conventional armies. Cavalry, crossbows, and archers ... yawn.

---

By the way, try playing as a Dragon Lord. That was a blast!

[capnq]

My first win was with a Cardinal of El.

Had an amusing encounter in my current game as an Elf King. I've had a number of immobile Clackers spawn in my forests. One of them was attacked by a computer player's (a Demonologist, I think) Spirit of Fear. I lost count of how many rounds the battle ran, as they just kept throwing fear spells at each other without effect.

[Valrog]

I have stomped around as a Necromancer, but it does take finding at least a graveyard before somebody else is ready to stomp you, and pref. getting a Flesh Heap.

How did you manage to get the flesh heap?

I even raised dead at a place where the necro was "overwhelmed by the level of dead" and only got beasts of disorders.

Does it have to be cast on a particular type of square?

[Taqwus]

Think it's quite random. I've seen it from a Graveyard animation, but not dependably.