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left to right Druidic (Blue), Clerical (Green) and
Magic User (Red). Experience will allow the judging of exactly how much power is present, but as a rough guide-line, the magic user glow become visible when the power is enough to cast one death spell, the druidic enough for one lightning but the clerical is easily visible long before earthquake is possible. Some players have reported that the glimmer is not visible at all, so there may be a specific hardware problem with some graphic cards.
2) Which are the best spells?
The actual damage caused by each spell is documented well in the manual in two separate places. (Pages 27/8 and 55).
One inconsistency between these two is that in one creeping doom is said to damage buildings in the other not to. This latter appears to be correct. The best spell to use depends upon the situation, if the attack from the ground forces is going in then an anti personnel type spell that does not damage buildings is best eg. death spell, if attacking the enemy capital at a distance with no immediate plans to take the province then an anti building one is better eg, meteor storm.
3)I have picked up a lightning rod from a quest.
What is the best way of using this?
If the see all option is on (fog of war off) then absolute havoc can be created by zapping an opponents rear areas, one province at a time. With luck two provinces will lose their keeps and the resulting disorder will cause these to return to neutral.
The loss of revenue and the distraction of forces to reconquer the provinces will be a help to your aims.
4)My opponent has a Mirror of Protection and I cannot use Truesight on him. Is there any way around this?
Not as such, but there are methods of getting the information that is needed. The elven hero Recon Raid is one. Indeed moving a few troops in and then retreating them will provide the same sort of information as to troop dispositions and buildings present but compared to the Recon raid will not destroy troops.
Section D Battles
1) When I simulate a battle defending a castle,
I end up losing everything and the opponent nothing. Why?
This occurs when the attacker has missile troops and the defender has none. The simulation set up places the defenders inside the castle and they will not move out until too late. The attacking missile troops behave on harass orders and the defenders are cut down. Rule 1 of castle defence is always have some missile troops or ballistas in a castle if it is likely to be attacked.
2)When I simulate a battle attacking a castle,
I end up losing everything and the opponent nothing. Why?
Did you take a siege engine in? Occasionally the computer appears to destroy the attacking siege engines early in the simulation mechanism then as the attacker has no siege engine all the attacking troops are wiped out. It is a good idea to play out all castle assaults at least until the battering rams have broken all the doors down. With catapults this tends not to happen but it has done on a few rare occasions.
3) Is simulation or playing battles better?
Some people do not like any arcade type action and so by simulating always they can have just a plain strategic game, but at the cost of less options available tactically. Simulating never leads to a retreat so this can cause problems if the opponent has built a castle since you last looked. (You DID look didn't you).Also in situlation no results screen appears and so it is impossible to tell if indeed a castle was there or just a superior force. In playing the battles fighters are much more effective than in simulation (or maybe missile troops are less effective). There are no hard and fast rules but if you are playing with lots of elves then simulate more, if not then less. As an experiment try a battle of 200 fighters against 40 elves. In simulation many fighters will be lost, in the arcade system without player interference (ie pressing F5/F6 to get the battle overview) the fighters will often not have any losses.
Section E General Hints and Strategies
1)The Satko Horde (by W.Prasetya )
Especially effective against a non spell using opponent.
Build 8 armories at your front line. With this you can make 480 fighters in a single round which you can use to sweep through the enemy's ranks. You have a good chance of making around of 200 elite troops this way.
Other players comments.
The general consensus of these are that such a province is asking to be earthquaked (or other spells) and it is a case of putting all the eggs in one basket. The main use for this tactic, possibly on a smaller scale, is in the mopping up operations at the end of the game.
Here money is not a problem and troops at the front line are easier to get into the action.
2) The Steady Stream (by R.J.Abbott)
When advancing into the opponents territory, leave a supply route of a trail of provinces with a single armory in each (two if the money is available) there is often one left by computer opponents in most provinces. Train troops each turn at each of these and move them up along the trail. At each step along the way the armory in the province will add another
60 troops (assuming one turn to train ) so that when the army reaches the front it will be sizeable.
The constant stream of troops means that the frontline force is free to advance as more troops will be entering the province that they left, hopefully preventing the opponents taking it over.
3) Crystal Balls (by W. Prasetya )
This, although listed lowest in the book, I value these better than even Rod of the Earth. You always have a paranoic feeling that the enemy is much stronger than they actually are. The crystal ball will tell you when it is time to give the killing blow to the enemy's empire.
4) Close Opponent (by N.L.Fradkin )
If in the beginning there is another empire starting close to you, focus on taking its capital. Usually there are not too many troops there as they have all been sent out to oppress local peoples, so a quick coup is possible. If this is accomplished you get the province along with the castles and two armories.
Other players comments.
A good plan that works more often than not. One cautionary note is that the other player may have his heros in the capital and at higher levels these can destroy many troops. The solution is to send some of your own.
5) Undead Rampage (by R.J.Abbott )
Undead count as elite troops and so are lost when taking over neutral provinces at a much slower rate.
Create an undead army of 100 or so and march around the rear areas building keeps and in theory a large empire. Top up the army periodically with a raise undead spell or Rod of Necromancy.
Other players comments.
Waste of some of the best troops in the game. The
Undead are better in the front line taking out the enemy.
6) Zap Em. (My name for a tactic put forward by several people )
The high level heros of your opponents are a problem in battles and allow him to rain spells down on your empire. Find where they are and bring down the death spells on them, or even better use the mirror of life trapping.
7) Remote Island Detection ( by R.J.Abbott )
When playing the 'Fog of War' option on only the enemy's in adjacent provinces will be seen. Islands are not considered to be adjacent to each other, and as such clearing them out can be a bit of a pain. Despite the shield not appearing on the map the `move troops to' order does show if the destination province is neutral or owned by an opponent, this information allows better use of truesight spells to identify what is necessary to take on the enemy.
8) Shorts ( a list of miscellaneous comments)
Try to preserve your Druid.
On arcade selection place the Hero you wish to control first.
Send a MU/Druid to with every attack against a castle.
The game is better with multiple players.
Don't waste magic on truesight spells, soon enough a hero will find a truesight rod.
Magic use doesn't break treaties
For chaotic MU's create lots of undead.
Turn undead is free so use it. Randomly if necessary.
Section F General Questions
1) Why can't I get sound from my PC speaker?
Check your sound installation. Have you selected an absent sound card?
PC internal speaker is supported and this could be a problem with your specific set-up.
Section G Would Like List
Some sort of automatic vectoring for production.
Have the option to create an order which would cause the facility to constantly produce troops until circumstances change.
A similar point about sending heros on quests.
How about setting up a capability of sending heros on a type of quest automatically until a chosen end point is reached be it a level and/or a magic item.
A system where the computer would cede once the outcome was obvious. Finishing off can take quite some time and is not really challenging from a position where the ceding would come in.
A jump to next hero key to prevent cycling through all the troops
More maps!!
A network or modem play option.
Appendix 1 list of Opponents
Name Level Alignment Class
Nightspawn 1 Chaos MU
Arendale 1 Neutral Dwarf
Theodosius 1 Chaos Cleric
Taz Marzak 1 Neutral Fighter
Dwalur 1 Dwarf Dwarf
Eol 2 Chaos Elf
Brandifirth 2 Neutral Fighter
Moloch 2 Neutral MU
Shingen 3 Neutral Fighter
Samoryx 3 Lawful MU
Magdel 4 Lawful Cleric
Al Ruladin 5 Chaos Fighter
Erdo 5 Neutral Fighter
Zindar 6 Lawful Dwarf
Flintfoot 6 Neutral Fighter
Cor Linton 7 Neutral Fighter
Laruna 12 Neutral Cleric
Beasthunter 10 Lawful Elf
King Telehon H Neutral Elf
Rezak Xygar 12 Lawful MU
Harek 12 Chaos Fighter
Saruna 12 Neutral Fighter
M. Edrecort 15 Chaos MU
Hanni 16 Chaos MU
Hool 18 Chaos Fighter
Dimolapietra 17 Chaos MU
Porphylriel 21 Lawful MU
Hutai-Khan 21 Chaos Fighter
Huaji-Khan 21 Neutral Fighter
Chibak 24 Chaos Cleric
P. Virayana 27 Neutral MU
Dark Eye 28 Neutral Fighter
P. Woszlany 28 Chaos MU
Yavi 32 Chaos Cleric
P.McGregor 33 Chaos MU
Dambreville 35 Lawful MU
I hope that you find this FAQ useful. Version 1.1 will be released fairly soon, but I'm not falling into the trap of setting a date. What it should include is the official list of the magic items, more information on simulated combat and any further questions or comments that are sent to me. I would particularly welcome comments for the tactics section, be they new tactics or commenting on ones already present. 28th February
Richard Abbott
Magic User (Red). Experience will allow the judging of exactly how much power is present, but as a rough guide-line, the magic user glow become visible when the power is enough to cast one death spell, the druidic enough for one lightning but the clerical is easily visible long before earthquake is possible. Some players have reported that the glimmer is not visible at all, so there may be a specific hardware problem with some graphic cards.
2) Which are the best spells?
The actual damage caused by each spell is documented well in the manual in two separate places. (Pages 27/8 and 55).
One inconsistency between these two is that in one creeping doom is said to damage buildings in the other not to. This latter appears to be correct. The best spell to use depends upon the situation, if the attack from the ground forces is going in then an anti personnel type spell that does not damage buildings is best eg. death spell, if attacking the enemy capital at a distance with no immediate plans to take the province then an anti building one is better eg, meteor storm.
3)I have picked up a lightning rod from a quest.
What is the best way of using this?
If the see all option is on (fog of war off) then absolute havoc can be created by zapping an opponents rear areas, one province at a time. With luck two provinces will lose their keeps and the resulting disorder will cause these to return to neutral.
The loss of revenue and the distraction of forces to reconquer the provinces will be a help to your aims.
4)My opponent has a Mirror of Protection and I cannot use Truesight on him. Is there any way around this?
Not as such, but there are methods of getting the information that is needed. The elven hero Recon Raid is one. Indeed moving a few troops in and then retreating them will provide the same sort of information as to troop dispositions and buildings present but compared to the Recon raid will not destroy troops.
Section D Battles
1) When I simulate a battle defending a castle,
I end up losing everything and the opponent nothing. Why?
This occurs when the attacker has missile troops and the defender has none. The simulation set up places the defenders inside the castle and they will not move out until too late. The attacking missile troops behave on harass orders and the defenders are cut down. Rule 1 of castle defence is always have some missile troops or ballistas in a castle if it is likely to be attacked.
2)When I simulate a battle attacking a castle,
I end up losing everything and the opponent nothing. Why?
Did you take a siege engine in? Occasionally the computer appears to destroy the attacking siege engines early in the simulation mechanism then as the attacker has no siege engine all the attacking troops are wiped out. It is a good idea to play out all castle assaults at least until the battering rams have broken all the doors down. With catapults this tends not to happen but it has done on a few rare occasions.
3) Is simulation or playing battles better?
Some people do not like any arcade type action and so by simulating always they can have just a plain strategic game, but at the cost of less options available tactically. Simulating never leads to a retreat so this can cause problems if the opponent has built a castle since you last looked. (You DID look didn't you).Also in situlation no results screen appears and so it is impossible to tell if indeed a castle was there or just a superior force. In playing the battles fighters are much more effective than in simulation (or maybe missile troops are less effective). There are no hard and fast rules but if you are playing with lots of elves then simulate more, if not then less. As an experiment try a battle of 200 fighters against 40 elves. In simulation many fighters will be lost, in the arcade system without player interference (ie pressing F5/F6 to get the battle overview) the fighters will often not have any losses.
Section E General Hints and Strategies
1)The Satko Horde (by W.Prasetya )
Especially effective against a non spell using opponent.
Build 8 armories at your front line. With this you can make 480 fighters in a single round which you can use to sweep through the enemy's ranks. You have a good chance of making around of 200 elite troops this way.
Other players comments.
The general consensus of these are that such a province is asking to be earthquaked (or other spells) and it is a case of putting all the eggs in one basket. The main use for this tactic, possibly on a smaller scale, is in the mopping up operations at the end of the game.
Here money is not a problem and troops at the front line are easier to get into the action.
2) The Steady Stream (by R.J.Abbott)
When advancing into the opponents territory, leave a supply route of a trail of provinces with a single armory in each (two if the money is available) there is often one left by computer opponents in most provinces. Train troops each turn at each of these and move them up along the trail. At each step along the way the armory in the province will add another
60 troops (assuming one turn to train ) so that when the army reaches the front it will be sizeable.
The constant stream of troops means that the frontline force is free to advance as more troops will be entering the province that they left, hopefully preventing the opponents taking it over.
3) Crystal Balls (by W. Prasetya )
This, although listed lowest in the book, I value these better than even Rod of the Earth. You always have a paranoic feeling that the enemy is much stronger than they actually are. The crystal ball will tell you when it is time to give the killing blow to the enemy's empire.
4) Close Opponent (by N.L.Fradkin )
If in the beginning there is another empire starting close to you, focus on taking its capital. Usually there are not too many troops there as they have all been sent out to oppress local peoples, so a quick coup is possible. If this is accomplished you get the province along with the castles and two armories.
Other players comments.
A good plan that works more often than not. One cautionary note is that the other player may have his heros in the capital and at higher levels these can destroy many troops. The solution is to send some of your own.
5) Undead Rampage (by R.J.Abbott )
Undead count as elite troops and so are lost when taking over neutral provinces at a much slower rate.
Create an undead army of 100 or so and march around the rear areas building keeps and in theory a large empire. Top up the army periodically with a raise undead spell or Rod of Necromancy.
Other players comments.
Waste of some of the best troops in the game. The
Undead are better in the front line taking out the enemy.
6) Zap Em. (My name for a tactic put forward by several people )
The high level heros of your opponents are a problem in battles and allow him to rain spells down on your empire. Find where they are and bring down the death spells on them, or even better use the mirror of life trapping.
7) Remote Island Detection ( by R.J.Abbott )
When playing the 'Fog of War' option on only the enemy's in adjacent provinces will be seen. Islands are not considered to be adjacent to each other, and as such clearing them out can be a bit of a pain. Despite the shield not appearing on the map the `move troops to' order does show if the destination province is neutral or owned by an opponent, this information allows better use of truesight spells to identify what is necessary to take on the enemy.
8) Shorts ( a list of miscellaneous comments)
Try to preserve your Druid.
On arcade selection place the Hero you wish to control first.
Send a MU/Druid to with every attack against a castle.
The game is better with multiple players.
Don't waste magic on truesight spells, soon enough a hero will find a truesight rod.
Magic use doesn't break treaties
For chaotic MU's create lots of undead.
Turn undead is free so use it. Randomly if necessary.
Section F General Questions
1) Why can't I get sound from my PC speaker?
Check your sound installation. Have you selected an absent sound card?
PC internal speaker is supported and this could be a problem with your specific set-up.
Section G Would Like List
Some sort of automatic vectoring for production.
Have the option to create an order which would cause the facility to constantly produce troops until circumstances change.
A similar point about sending heros on quests.
How about setting up a capability of sending heros on a type of quest automatically until a chosen end point is reached be it a level and/or a magic item.
A system where the computer would cede once the outcome was obvious. Finishing off can take quite some time and is not really challenging from a position where the ceding would come in.
A jump to next hero key to prevent cycling through all the troops
More maps!!
A network or modem play option.
Appendix 1 list of Opponents
Name Level Alignment Class
Nightspawn 1 Chaos MU
Arendale 1 Neutral Dwarf
Theodosius 1 Chaos Cleric
Taz Marzak 1 Neutral Fighter
Dwalur 1 Dwarf Dwarf
Eol 2 Chaos Elf
Brandifirth 2 Neutral Fighter
Moloch 2 Neutral MU
Shingen 3 Neutral Fighter
Samoryx 3 Lawful MU
Magdel 4 Lawful Cleric
Al Ruladin 5 Chaos Fighter
Erdo 5 Neutral Fighter
Zindar 6 Lawful Dwarf
Flintfoot 6 Neutral Fighter
Cor Linton 7 Neutral Fighter
Laruna 12 Neutral Cleric
Beasthunter 10 Lawful Elf
King Telehon H Neutral Elf
Rezak Xygar 12 Lawful MU
Harek 12 Chaos Fighter
Saruna 12 Neutral Fighter
M. Edrecort 15 Chaos MU
Hanni 16 Chaos MU
Hool 18 Chaos Fighter
Dimolapietra 17 Chaos MU
Porphylriel 21 Lawful MU
Hutai-Khan 21 Chaos Fighter
Huaji-Khan 21 Neutral Fighter
Chibak 24 Chaos Cleric
P. Virayana 27 Neutral MU
Dark Eye 28 Neutral Fighter
P. Woszlany 28 Chaos MU
Yavi 32 Chaos Cleric
P.McGregor 33 Chaos MU
Dambreville 35 Lawful MU
I hope that you find this FAQ useful. Version 1.1 will be released fairly soon, but I'm not falling into the trap of setting a date. What it should include is the official list of the magic items, more information on simulated combat and any further questions or comments that are sent to me. I would particularly welcome comments for the tactics section, be they new tactics or commenting on ones already present. 28th February
Richard Abbott
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- Fantasy Empire FAQ by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50
- Fantasy Empire hints by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50