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available. -[GD]
h)Desolation Gorge h-->i,j,k,l you can get the skull of Krang here.
i)Stoneflow Valley j)Slag River Valley k)Cinder Flats i-->I, m, n, l j-->i,k,l,m k-->l, m, n
I) Falcon's Beak Peninsula
Dwarven Scroll can be found here
I--> m, n, p
l)Painscape Cauldron m)Accursed Woods n)Pumice Wastes l-->o,n,p m-->o,n,p n-->o,p
An interesting place - if you choose not to fight at "n", then it remains available until end of game.
o)Seething Moors p)Widowsthorn Thicket o-->q, r p-->n,q,r,R
q)Fehrdusk Forest r)Stonewrath Flats q-->s r-->n,q,Q
R) The Scalding Quagmore
R-->q, Q
Q) Roiling Wastes
Q-->n,s
s)Daemonforge Gap s-->t,n
t)Vale of the Shadowlord end of 6th continent
From: Hong Ooi
Subject: For the FAQ: Dwarven ability on continent 6
This may have been brought up already, but you can get the Dwarven ability on the last continent. The battle is at Falcon's Beak Peninsula, which is not on the map in the FAQ. I got there by taking the path
Slag River Valley -> Stoneflow Valley -> Falcon's Beak Pen
After finishing Stoneflow Valley, I received word that an enemy leader in the north had a strange ability to "move through the earth" or words like that. The only site to the north of Stoneflow was Falcon's Beak, so I decided to investigate. During the battle, I parked one of my siege engines behind a mountain range, safely out of reach of the enemy -- or so I thought. Then a LC unit moved THROUGH the mountain and hit my SE! Okay, so maybe I should have expected that from the intro... Sure enough, after that battle, I too was able to move through mountains.
Note: I haven't checked if this is the full Dwarven ability, ie the bonuses to armour and siege. Maybe it's only the move-through-mountains bit, but even that's very handy.
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 16:48:22 -0600 (CST)
From: Robbie Westmoreland
Subject: FanGen FAQ some of the battle scenarios have random maps and some have fixed maps,
It certainly makes a big difference when you play those maps - the arrangement of rivers, roads and tough terrain, the number of towns, shrines, etc., all of that can vary, along with, to some extent, the placement of the enemy forces.
Basically, any map on which towns, shrines, temples and caves don't have names is a random map.
Here's some data: 1st Continent: a, c and d are all fixed maps. Don't know about b. 2nd Continent: a, c, d, f and h are fixed. I think g and e are random. 3rd Continent: a, b, c, f are fixed. d ,e, g and k are random.
Errata to Rulebook
The rulebook is actually quite good, but it is occasionally inaccurate:
Skirmishers/ Light Cavalry in defense: (pg. 55, 56)
They take 1/2 damage to attacking units _as fast as_ or slower. If there's a morale penalty, it's very small. Much less than the morale loss they'd get if they actually took the damage, for example. Also, a clarification: apparently the probability of damage is halved, not the final damage. (This changes the probability distribution considerably; a 15 life unit will sometimes do 8 or 9 points, for example, though the mean can't go above about 6)
Spotting- 'The Spotting Trick' (see pg. 53/54)
If a unit moves into an enemy ZOC but not into an enemy unit, you get a free spot. You lose your ability to abort move but see enemy units within your unit's spotting range.
This has several implications:
You can never be ambushed if you move one hex at a time, cancel move, and then re-move to the next forward hex.
You can always find fleeing units(usually sky hunters for me) by trying a direction and, if you don't move next to the fleeing unit, aborting and trying another direction.
Is this Cheating?
It is my opinion that any game option other than reloading the game is part of the game, so is not cheating, although I'll admit this is getting iffy.
David [DWP] also thinks it's somewhat iffy, but thinks it is closer to cheating than not.
Make up your own mind. You might want to agree on this prior to PBEM games.
Retreating Pg.48
The manual claims retreating is based on "...current life and any losses..." yet I have seen a 15 life unit retreat. Something else is going on.
Unit pictures
Unit pictures examples are, well, way wrong.
Archers' defensive fire (pg. 46, 48, 56)
Archers don't get defensive fire against enemy missile attacks on units adjacent to the archer. This is not clear in the manual, IMHO.
Appendix 1 errors:
Valira has 17 armor, not 170.
Krindel's spell should be P, not PM.
Malkin's spell says VOD. (It's really Whirlwind -[PK])
Problems with the game:
Does the A. I. cheat?
(By cheat I mean does it do things with units a human cannot)
Yes. The AI will cast a spell(e.g. death wounds) early in the turn, I saw this in an all deaths unit(due to death wounds spell). I repeated to verify the unit always did only deaths. AFTER the unit which had had death wounds cast on it had moved and attacked the Conjurer moved. This is impossible for a player to do.
The Balanced Army check
Allegedly to force the players to have a balanced army, the A. I. goes nuts if you 'over-specialize' your army and research. I've seen 7 4-shield max grade units pop from a town when I had an unbalanced army on hard. I hate this. I don't know what the designers were thinking. If you want to force this, write scenarios needing varied unit types.
There is no good rationale why the Shadowlord should get cosmic recruits if you have a specialized army. This really pissed me off the first(well, as yet, only) time I played on hard. Do useless research and have a few token varied units if you want a specialized army, I guess.
Tactical Hints (basic)
Ideal matchups for attacking
Generally, skirmish vs. melee missile vs. skirmish melee vs. missile maximizes advantages. Also, Cavalry vs. Skirmishers(the unit type, not L.C.) is optimum. Most of the time you won't actually do this though. Like attacking like is usually the _worst_ matchup(!), although frequently necessary.
When casualties are acceptable the less xp a unit has, the less it loses when it suffers a death. I'm less concerned about inexperienced units' casualties for this reason. Recruit to full strength ASAP, however, else you get effectively diminished xp for the rest of the combat...
Raise dead units make deaths close to irrelevant, however.
When should I cast force march?
Force March is a spell castable by Heavy Infantry. The simplest way to use it is to cast it before you move, which gives you two extra movement points. You may cast it before or after your normal move.
Sometimes it's best to cast it before you move, for example:
You start on a road, and want to move through two more roads, across two clear hexes, and through two more road hexes. The cost is: 2/3 * 2 + 3 * (1)(road to clear, clear to clear, clear to road all cost 1) + 2/3 =5
You can move there for five movement points, but if you split the move in half (one 3 move and one 2 move) you won't make it, as you won't keep the fraction of a movement point between the two moves.
More often, however, taking two separate moves is to your advantage. You can cross rivers in a single turn, or move through two squares of mountains.
Toying with the enemy: maximize your xp
Especially early, don't be in too much of a hurry to finish off your opponent.
You can get lots more xp if you let units retreat and rest. (this can get very boring, however.)
What should I research?
Everything. Otherwise the computer will screw you over for having an unbalanced army. (grrrrrr.)
Of course, first get the stuff you use upgraded, but don't let your useless research lag too far behind.
The spotting trick
See errata. Questionably fair.
Which character is best?
All IMHO:
Early in the campaign: Marcas, Calis, Krell, Mordra
Late in the campaign: Krell, Marcas, Calis, Mordra
Krell is great late in the campaign because of Phoenix Hawks. Beginners should have an easier time with Marcas and Krell. Experienced players will have fun with the other characters. All of the above is arguable.
What Now?
Who wrote this, anyway? Who helped?
Tim Firman - Primary author
This article is Copyright ¸ 1996 by Tim Firman. All rights reserved.
[SD] Sebastien Dupre
[DP] David Pollock
[KMW] Kum Ming Woo
[GD] Gary Durfee
[ML] Mike Lay
[PK] Pekka Karjalainen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright ¸ 1996 Tim Firman.
All Rights Reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
h)Desolation Gorge h-->i,j,k,l you can get the skull of Krang here.
i)Stoneflow Valley j)Slag River Valley k)Cinder Flats i-->I, m, n, l j-->i,k,l,m k-->l, m, n
I) Falcon's Beak Peninsula
Dwarven Scroll can be found here
I--> m, n, p
l)Painscape Cauldron m)Accursed Woods n)Pumice Wastes l-->o,n,p m-->o,n,p n-->o,p
An interesting place - if you choose not to fight at "n", then it remains available until end of game.
o)Seething Moors p)Widowsthorn Thicket o-->q, r p-->n,q,r,R
q)Fehrdusk Forest r)Stonewrath Flats q-->s r-->n,q,Q
R) The Scalding Quagmore
R-->q, Q
Q) Roiling Wastes
Q-->n,s
s)Daemonforge Gap s-->t,n
t)Vale of the Shadowlord end of 6th continent
From: Hong Ooi
Subject: For the FAQ: Dwarven ability on continent 6
This may have been brought up already, but you can get the Dwarven ability on the last continent. The battle is at Falcon's Beak Peninsula, which is not on the map in the FAQ. I got there by taking the path
Slag River Valley -> Stoneflow Valley -> Falcon's Beak Pen
After finishing Stoneflow Valley, I received word that an enemy leader in the north had a strange ability to "move through the earth" or words like that. The only site to the north of Stoneflow was Falcon's Beak, so I decided to investigate. During the battle, I parked one of my siege engines behind a mountain range, safely out of reach of the enemy -- or so I thought. Then a LC unit moved THROUGH the mountain and hit my SE! Okay, so maybe I should have expected that from the intro... Sure enough, after that battle, I too was able to move through mountains.
Note: I haven't checked if this is the full Dwarven ability, ie the bonuses to armour and siege. Maybe it's only the move-through-mountains bit, but even that's very handy.
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 16:48:22 -0600 (CST)
From: Robbie Westmoreland
Subject: FanGen FAQ some of the battle scenarios have random maps and some have fixed maps,
It certainly makes a big difference when you play those maps - the arrangement of rivers, roads and tough terrain, the number of towns, shrines, etc., all of that can vary, along with, to some extent, the placement of the enemy forces.
Basically, any map on which towns, shrines, temples and caves don't have names is a random map.
Here's some data: 1st Continent: a, c and d are all fixed maps. Don't know about b. 2nd Continent: a, c, d, f and h are fixed. I think g and e are random. 3rd Continent: a, b, c, f are fixed. d ,e, g and k are random.
Errata to Rulebook
The rulebook is actually quite good, but it is occasionally inaccurate:
Skirmishers/ Light Cavalry in defense: (pg. 55, 56)
They take 1/2 damage to attacking units _as fast as_ or slower. If there's a morale penalty, it's very small. Much less than the morale loss they'd get if they actually took the damage, for example. Also, a clarification: apparently the probability of damage is halved, not the final damage. (This changes the probability distribution considerably; a 15 life unit will sometimes do 8 or 9 points, for example, though the mean can't go above about 6)
Spotting- 'The Spotting Trick' (see pg. 53/54)
If a unit moves into an enemy ZOC but not into an enemy unit, you get a free spot. You lose your ability to abort move but see enemy units within your unit's spotting range.
This has several implications:
You can never be ambushed if you move one hex at a time, cancel move, and then re-move to the next forward hex.
You can always find fleeing units(usually sky hunters for me) by trying a direction and, if you don't move next to the fleeing unit, aborting and trying another direction.
Is this Cheating?
It is my opinion that any game option other than reloading the game is part of the game, so is not cheating, although I'll admit this is getting iffy.
David [DWP] also thinks it's somewhat iffy, but thinks it is closer to cheating than not.
Make up your own mind. You might want to agree on this prior to PBEM games.
Retreating Pg.48
The manual claims retreating is based on "...current life and any losses..." yet I have seen a 15 life unit retreat. Something else is going on.
Unit pictures
Unit pictures examples are, well, way wrong.
Archers' defensive fire (pg. 46, 48, 56)
Archers don't get defensive fire against enemy missile attacks on units adjacent to the archer. This is not clear in the manual, IMHO.
Appendix 1 errors:
Valira has 17 armor, not 170.
Krindel's spell should be P, not PM.
Malkin's spell says VOD. (It's really Whirlwind -[PK])
Problems with the game:
Does the A. I. cheat?
(By cheat I mean does it do things with units a human cannot)
Yes. The AI will cast a spell(e.g. death wounds) early in the turn, I saw this in an all deaths unit(due to death wounds spell). I repeated to verify the unit always did only deaths. AFTER the unit which had had death wounds cast on it had moved and attacked the Conjurer moved. This is impossible for a player to do.
The Balanced Army check
Allegedly to force the players to have a balanced army, the A. I. goes nuts if you 'over-specialize' your army and research. I've seen 7 4-shield max grade units pop from a town when I had an unbalanced army on hard. I hate this. I don't know what the designers were thinking. If you want to force this, write scenarios needing varied unit types.
There is no good rationale why the Shadowlord should get cosmic recruits if you have a specialized army. This really pissed me off the first(well, as yet, only) time I played on hard. Do useless research and have a few token varied units if you want a specialized army, I guess.
Tactical Hints (basic)
Ideal matchups for attacking
Generally, skirmish vs. melee missile vs. skirmish melee vs. missile maximizes advantages. Also, Cavalry vs. Skirmishers(the unit type, not L.C.) is optimum. Most of the time you won't actually do this though. Like attacking like is usually the _worst_ matchup(!), although frequently necessary.
When casualties are acceptable the less xp a unit has, the less it loses when it suffers a death. I'm less concerned about inexperienced units' casualties for this reason. Recruit to full strength ASAP, however, else you get effectively diminished xp for the rest of the combat...
Raise dead units make deaths close to irrelevant, however.
When should I cast force march?
Force March is a spell castable by Heavy Infantry. The simplest way to use it is to cast it before you move, which gives you two extra movement points. You may cast it before or after your normal move.
Sometimes it's best to cast it before you move, for example:
You start on a road, and want to move through two more roads, across two clear hexes, and through two more road hexes. The cost is: 2/3 * 2 + 3 * (1)(road to clear, clear to clear, clear to road all cost 1) + 2/3 =5
You can move there for five movement points, but if you split the move in half (one 3 move and one 2 move) you won't make it, as you won't keep the fraction of a movement point between the two moves.
More often, however, taking two separate moves is to your advantage. You can cross rivers in a single turn, or move through two squares of mountains.
Toying with the enemy: maximize your xp
Especially early, don't be in too much of a hurry to finish off your opponent.
You can get lots more xp if you let units retreat and rest. (this can get very boring, however.)
What should I research?
Everything. Otherwise the computer will screw you over for having an unbalanced army. (grrrrrr.)
Of course, first get the stuff you use upgraded, but don't let your useless research lag too far behind.
The spotting trick
See errata. Questionably fair.
Which character is best?
All IMHO:
Early in the campaign: Marcas, Calis, Krell, Mordra
Late in the campaign: Krell, Marcas, Calis, Mordra
Krell is great late in the campaign because of Phoenix Hawks. Beginners should have an easier time with Marcas and Krell. Experienced players will have fun with the other characters. All of the above is arguable.
What Now?
Who wrote this, anyway? Who helped?
Tim Firman - Primary author
This article is Copyright ¸ 1996 by Tim Firman. All rights reserved.
[SD] Sebastien Dupre
[DP] David Pollock
[KMW] Kum Ming Woo
[GD] Gary Durfee
[ML] Mike Lay
[PK] Pekka Karjalainen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright ¸ 1996 Tim Firman.
All Rights Reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- Fantasy General editor by System on 14/03/2006, 06:30
For more information please read manual.txt - Fantasy General FAQ by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50
- Fantasy General hints by System on 09/03/2006, 09:50