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Welcome to the Master of Magic (MOM) FAQ and Strategy Guide. This is version
1.02 of that guide. It is mostly made up of material that was posted originally
to the internet by various authors. Thanks to all who contributed. You should
be aware that some editing has been done on the articles as submitted by the
original authors. Any mistakes this may have introduced are the responsibility
of the editor Dave Chaloux. The information in this document follows this
outline:
1. What is MOM?
2. Frequently asked questions
2.A What is the latest patch?
2.B Where can I get it?
2.C When is the next patch coming out and what will be in it?
2.D. Why can't I build Dwarven Steam Cannons?
2.E Why does my Strength 7 hero get butchered by Strength 4 Swordsmen?
2.F When is Alan Emrich's Strategy Guide coming out?
3. What bugs are known to exist?
3.A Program Hangs or Crashes Occasionally
3.B Breaking non-existant pact
3.C Raiders and Non-rampaging monsters
3.D Elven Lords with Demon Wings Bug
3.E No final War!
3.F NightStalker Bug
3.G Trade Goods Bug
3.H Controlling Enemy Units Bug
3.I Guise Display Bug
3.J Twelve Units in a Stack Bug
3.K Subversion Spell Bug
4. Strategy Guide
4.A Building Strategy
4.B Comments on the races (general)
4.C Comments on specific races
4.C.1 Dark Elves
4.C.2 Gnolls
4.C.3 Halflings
4.C.4 High Men
4.C.5 Klackons
4.C.6 Lizardmen
4.C.7 Trolls
4.D Comments in general about magic
4.E Comments on specific colors of magic
4.E.1 Chaos Magic (Red)
4.E.2 Death Magic (Black)
4.E.3 Life Magic (White)
4.E.4 Nature Magic (Green)
4.E.5 Sorcery Magic (Blue)
4.F Starting Combinations
4.G Allocation of Spell Points
4.H Miscellaneous Ideas
4.H.1 Flying Warships!
4.H.2 How to deal with Flying Warships.
4.H.3 The Best Way to Dispell Enemy Incantations
4.H.4 The (almost) worthless unit tactic
5. Cheats
5.A Artifact Cheat
5.B Bypassing Planar Seal
6. Tables
6.A Hero List for Master Of Magic
6.B Expected Combat Results Table
================================================================================
1. What is MOM?
================================================================================
MOM is a game of exploration, research, and conquest based on magic. It
is programmed by SIMTEX for MicroProse. Their other game is Master of
Orion and many things are loosely based on it (for example diplomacy). It
also has similarities with such games as CIV and Warlords II. Its magic
system is color based and reminds some of "Magic: The Gathering".
You start the game with just one hamlet. You need to manage your
resources to produce and maintain armies, research magic, increase your
skill in magic, and have mana with which to cast spells. You eventually need
to get rid of all your competitors. You can do this either through conquest
or by casting the Spell of Mastery. Of course, the other Wizards in the
game are trying to do the same to you.
Like MOO it has a great deal of replayability because their are 14
different wizards to play against with various strengths and weaknesses.
At the same time, you can design your own wizard or play one of the ones
they have provided. There are also various races you can be and again
they have various strengths and weaknesses. Elves, for example, are good
at magic but they don't reproduce very quickly.
A fair amount of micromanagement is involved if you like that sort of
thing. For example, you can control the buildings that are produced in
your cities as they grow. You can also control tactical combat. On the
other hand, you can let your Grand Vizier do the micromanagement of the
towns for you. You can also have the computer take control of the tactical
combat.
This is a complex game and is probably not for the 20 minute at a sitting,
hack and slash crowd.
Contributed by: Dave Chaloux
================================================================================
2. Frequently asked questions
================================================================================
2.A What is the latest patch?
The latest patch is version 1.1.
2.B Where can I get it?
This patch is available from the following places:
1) The Microprose Bulletin Board. The # is (410) 785-1841. You need settings
of 8,N,1 and it supports up to 14.4 Kbs.
2) It is on ftp.netcom.com in /pub/game-patches and is called momv11.zip.
3) It is on wuarchive.wustl.edu in /pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/games/patches
and is called momv11.zip.
4) It is on bell.ecs.soton.ac.uk in pub/pc/games/patches.
2.C When is the next patch coming out and what will be in it?
The version 1.2 update is tentatively scheduled to be available Nov 11th...
Coming in version 1.2, a scoring system will be implemented in the game.
In other words, when you finish the game, you will be told how well you
did - and we'll probably deflate some egos along the way. ;-)
Contributed by: MicroProse

This week, Steve Barcia and the MOM team are hammering in lots of new
stuff for the AI. When the next patch makes its way out there, it will be
known as "The AI patch." Steve promises no more easy military victories
for MOM players. Cities and, especially, enchanted fortresses will have
tough nuts to crack. He promises that most games will be won in the
future, not through military conquest, but by casting the Spell of
Mastery.
Frankly, I can't wait. :-)
PS - That patch will also make gold much more scarce. Better watch your
budgets in the future, too.
Contributed by: Alan Emrich, MOM book coauthor

2.D. Why can't I build Dwarven Steam Cannons?
Get the patch. Also, you need a miner's guild.

2.E Why does my Strength 7 hero get butchered by Strength 4 Swordsmen?
The answer is that there is strength in numbers. The 4 "swords" that it
shows in the upper right combat window represents the strength of one
swordsman in the unit. Humans typically have 6 humans in a unit.
Here comes the math. Each "sword" represents a 30% chance of doing one
"heart" of damage to an opponent. Each "shield" represents a 30% chance
of blocking a "heart" of damage. When all "hearts" are blacked out the
unit is dead.
Let's assume that this hypothetical hero has 7 "swords", 5 "shields",
and 8 "hearts" (this would make hime pretty close to The Rogue in stats).
Let's also assume that the swordsmen are Highmen Regulars. This will
give each figure in the unit 4 "swords", 2 "shields", and 1 "heart" a
piece.
Now the melee starts. All melee combat is simultaneous. The hero swings
and typically does around 2 "hearts" damage (30% x 7 "swords" = 2.1).
All of the swordsmen swing and typically do around 7 "hearts" damage (30%
x 24 "swords" = 7.2). After the damage is calculated each side gets to
shield itself. The hero typically stops around 2 "hearts" (30% x 5
"shields" = 1.5, we'll round this up to 2). This means that he will be
taking around 5 "hearts" damage this round. He only has 3 left. The
swordmen take their damage one figure at a time. Each figure typically
will shield 1 "heart" (30% x 2 "shields" = .6). So the first figure
rolls his saves and stops 1 "heart". Unfortunately, there are 2 "hearts"
of damage to apply so he takes the unshielded "heart" and dies. Now
there are 5 swordmen in the unit and one hero who has taken quite a
beating this round. If he goes another round he will most likely die. I
guess it wasn't a good idea to attack those swordmen.
This example showed one round of combat with no modifiers. Typically,
there will be quite a few modifiers due to experience of units, special
abilities of units, and the use of magic and items.
Contributed by: Brian Wade (FLEBO@AOL.COM)

I did a little playing around with numbers to see if I could gain some
insight into the combat system. Here is some of what I learned.
1) Given Identical Stats (corrected for # of units), the unit with the
fewer # of figures will on average win.
Say that we have a unit of six skullcrunchers with each unit rated
7 offence(Swords), 3 defence (Shields), and 2 hits(Hearts). This gives
a total ability of 42 offence, 18 defence, and 12 hits. Say it is fighting
a unit of browbeaters with only 1 figure with stats of 42, 18, 12. Who
will win? The browbeaters have it hands down. Here is why.
First round
Both do 12.6 hits. 5.4 of those hits are defeated. This means the units
take 7.2 hits. The skullcrunchers just lost 3 figures and one of the
remaining figures is half dead. The browbeaters still have their
one figure they started with.
Second round
Browbeaters do the same amount of damage and the skullcrunchers die.
The skull crunchers hit for 6.3 hits but 5.4 of those hits are
defeated. The browbeaters lose another .9 hearts but the unit
survives.
2) The way advancement works, it heavily favors the units with more
figures. This is because you can one sword and one cross when you
advance a level. However, remember that swords and crosses are multiplied
by the number of figures in the unit.
3) Plusses in the too hit are extremely significant. Say we have the
same two units we started with but this time the skullcrunchers have
+1 to hit (40% chance each sword hits instead of 30%). The browbeaters
do the same damage as was originally calculated. However, the skullcrunchers
now do 16.8 hits - 5.4 defeated = 11.4 hits actually landed. About half
the time, the skullcrunchers will blow away the browbeaters in the first
round of combat.
NOTE: The above is over simplified since defence is done one figure at
a time. This favors the single figure unit even more than show above.
Thanks to Brian Wade for pointing this out to me.
Contributed by: David Chaloux

2.F When is Alan Emrich's Strategy Guide coming out?
... So far, it's shaping up to be 28 chapters (my usual books are about 15!),
plus appendicies. We've got a ton of hard data and formulae, plus a zillion
strategy tips. I think it should hit the shelves around January, with any luck.
Contributed by: Alan Emrich

================================================================================
3. What bugs are known to exist?
================================================================================
How much time have you got? Seriously, in its current form (v1.1), it still
has quite a few bugs but it is playable.
Some of the known bugs with this patch follow:
3.A The programs still hangs or crashes occasionally. Some specific
instances are detailed below.
3.A.1 Has anybody else noticed that casting flame strike crashes the game
with a "not a valid sound file" error? I was sure they would
fix such an obvious bug in v1.1.
Contributed by: sungod@worf.infonet.net

The problem of the "missing sound file" only occurs when I have sound
turned off. If I re-enable the sounds, then the problem goes away.
(I checked with a save file)
Contributed by: Paul D. Walker

3.A.2 Last night I discovered another annoying lockup - whenever the opposing
wizard cast ice bolt, the sound bite would play, but no spell animations
would be shown, and the combat screen would lock up. The mouse could move,
and ctrl-alt-del would reboot, but nothing else.
Contributed by: Tyson Tu
3.A.3 Well, where before I would have random crashes and crashes related
to hitting the Plane button, now I seem to have crashes when
somebody casts an overland enchantment - usually "Death Wish".
Contributed by: Jason Woods
3.B A wizard I had a pact with asked me to break my pact with another
wizard...but I didn't have one.
Contributed by: Ron Pepper
3.C MOM v1.1 introduces a new annoying bug. The raiders and rampaging
monsters can no longer move around to attack city or unit.
Contributed by: DKurniawan
3.D My chaosed elven lords with demon wings could not attack some gargoyles.
Both sides showed wings. fortunately I had enough archers.
Contributed by: Daniel F H Kassiday
3.E I just played a game out, casting the spell of mastery. What ever
happened to the "final war" once you start casting it anyhow? My
relations stayed good with all the computer opponents up until the
spell completion.
Contributed by: David Pugh
3.F Last night I was playing a later nighter when I summoned a
Nightstalker and sent him running across the countryside to a town of
mine on the front lines. As this unit passed enemy units the enemy
units would engage in battle with it (even though it's supposed to be
invisible but only seems to be once in combat), *but*, once in the battle
screen the enemy units, no matter what type or how large a stack, would
simply FLEE because, I'm assuming, they couldn't see any units because
they Nightstalker was invisible. In the process of fleeing they would
lose half their stack. So, with this tactic it's possible to take out
incredibly large armies with *ONE* Nightstalker.
Bug!
Contributed by: Pigdog from SF Bay

3.G Trade Goods Bug