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Age of Wonders II: Shadow Magic Campaign Guide
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Ver. 1.1

Age of Wonders II is copyright 2003 Triumph Studios and their
affiliates.

This guide is copyright 2003 Guiler (guilersk@earthlink.net)

This guide is for personal use only and may not be sold, bartered,
or used for any purpose that involves profit, including but not
limited to, money, favors, slaves, and/or human babies. Unauthorized
copying of this Guide will result in your horrible, agonizing
destruction.

I have beaten the game. If you want/need info on scenarios I haven't covered
yet, go ahead and email me and I'll see what I can remember. I am in the
process of replaying the campaigns now.

If you have further and/or better tips on how to beat the campaign, mail me
at .

I. BASIC STRATEGY
II. TIPS AND TRICKS
III. CAMPAIGNS
JULIA 1: NORWOOD
JULIA 2: MOUNT ABYDOR
JULIA 3: SANCTUARY WOODS
KE-NAN 1: THE HORN OF KESH
KE-NAN 1: DRAKAR OASIS
KE-NAN 3: MOUTH OF AMTAR
MEANDOR 1: JUNGLE OF UMBURA
MEANDOR 2: URLAND FIELDS
MEANDOR 3: PHOBIAN EMPIRE
O'NERON 1: EASTERN PASS
O'NERON 2: LAND OF SHADOWS
O'NERON 3: SUNBIRTH MOUNTAINS
MERLIN 1: THE HIVE

VERSION HISTORY:
1.0 initial release. Through Meandor 2.
1.1 through end

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I. BASIC STRATEGY
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My strategy is not necessarily the only or even the best one, but
I've beaten the game, so I have to presume that it's a playable one,
and since you're probably reading this to find help on how to beat the
game, I have to presume that it could be at least a little helpful.

My strategy takes advantage of the new features of Shadow Magic, so this
might not work so well for the original (sorry). In particular, I take
advantage of the new Item Forge (which all races have access to, so it's
not a race-specific ploy).

The heart of the strategy is this:

STEP 1: GET A HERO

Since you get a hero in nearly all of the scenarios, and right near the
beginning, at that, this should not be a problem. And since they're cheap,
nay free, to upkeep, paying a heroes salary is not an issue--just make sure
their morale doesn't crash too low.

STEP 2: LEVEL UP THAT HERO

Since heroes are only slightly more sturdy than wet noodles at level 1,
you don't want to send your hero out alone. Get a bunch of infantry (cavalry
is better) and archers and strike out in search of adventure--adventure being
a couple of weak, easily killable units.

Hit the enemy units with arrows, block their attackers with your infantry/
cavalry, and hit them with spells--whatever you've got...but don't kill them.
Instead, have your hero deliver the finishing blow. A unit only gets XP for
the units that they finish off. Thusly, if a dragon inflicts 18 points of
damage, and then your hero delivers 3 more damage and the target dies, the
hero gets all the XP.

Sooner or later, that hero is going to gain a level, and get a choice of 3
skills to gain or improve in. What you choose is very important, but the
choices you are given are random (within a certain pool of choices for that
race and class) so if you get some choices you don't like, just reload the
game. Your hero does not gain anything other than what you select for him/her.
You get no free hp, attack, defense, resistance, anything, other than what
you assign to him/her.

With this in mind, this is my order of preference for abilities that you
get for your hero:

LIFE STEALING: This ability is awesome (assuming your hero can hit the
enemy). Every time you hit in combat (unless the target is a machine),
you get 2 hp back. While it might not seem like much, when combined
with PHYSICAL PROTECTION and DOUBLE STRIKE, you're taking a lot less
damage and regenerating up to 12 hp a round. At that rate, you're
pratically invincible.

REGENERATION: get back all your hp at the beginning of any game turn.
This saves a lot of time (running back to town, or just resting in
place) and/or mana (casting healing spells over and over).

DOUBLE STRIKE: Rare as a level ability, but easy to craft onto a
weapon, this ability is truly awesome. For each 1 attack your enemy
gets, you get 2. That's twice the potential damage output. In my
opinion, it's really overpowered if abused (and I abuse it).

HEALTH: Only take this to 3 or 4...no more than 5. The most +move
you can get is +10 (total move 50) at rank 3, and getting many more
hp than 30 doesn't really help that much. It's better spent on defense
or special abilities at that point. If you really need that much health,
you're doing something wrong. Actually, if you get Explorer (+20% move
on all units) and 1 level of health, you will reach max speed. Still,
you're going to need a little bit of a health buffer.

HEALING: Especially if your wizard does not have access to the spell,
you need this ability if you're in a tight spot to keep your heroes
alive.

DOMINATE: If you can get it, get it. You not only remove an enemy,
but you make an ally at the same time--a disposable ally, that the
enemy will suddenly concentrate on destroying. In doing so, they
ignore your heroes, which can then give the enemy a pounding.

DEFENSE: Keep the hero alive, no matter what. If s/he dies, you're
screwed unless you've got Resurrect Hero, which you don't get in
many scenarios. Often, it has to be earned through quests.

ATTACK: Sometimes the best defense is a good offense, especially
if you have LIFE STEALING.

STRIKE: DEATH STRIKE, HOLY STRIKE, and the like
aren't bad, but MAGIC STRIKE can be gotten with the unit spell
ENCHANT WEAPON. Don't waste a Level on it. Likewise, DARK GIFT
gives you DEATH STRIKE, so if you have DARK GIFT, skip DEATH
STRIKE.

BARD SKILLS: Very useful for keeping up morale, especially if you
have party members of differing alignments. Remember that if you
lose some battles elsewhere, it can negatively impact the morale
of your whole empire, including your heroes, who you -don't- want
to lose. Bard skills also help keep Dominated units in line.


STEP 3: WHILE LEVELING THAT HERO, BUILD UP A TOWN

Ideally, you want this town to have everything, but the absolute
minimum you want it to have is a teleport portal, item forge, and
force field, as well as any and all production facilities you can
muster.

Now you can start crafting items for your heroes. While many of
the items in the game are great, particularly the armors and shields,
most of them just don't give you what you need to crush the opposition
beneath your heel.

STEP 4: CRANK OUT THE ITEMS

These things are expensive--I hope you have some cash laying around.

Build the items in this order, if you can. If a hero already has the
ability listed, or you don't have access to that ability, skip it and
put on the one next in line.

RING (~1200g)

PHYSICAL PROTECTION (Can be provided by enchantment 'liquid form', but
it's expensive and dispellable, whereas a ring is not)
REGENERATION (Rarely a hero ability)
STATIC SHIELD (A spell with expensive upkeep, dispellable, but easily
the best all-round unit enchantment you can get)
HASTE (Can be provided by an enchantment)
WILLPOWER (provided by many spells and/or unit abilities)

If you still need something to put on there, put on PASS WALL or some
kind of PROTECTION that your unit is not yet protected against yet.

ATTACK (~850g)

LIFE STEALING (mentioned above under hero abilties)
DOUBLE STRIKE (mentioned above etc)
FIRST STRIKE (this is really a personal choice; with first strike and
static shield/lightning damage, you will often prevent an attacker from
doing any damage to you at all because you'll stun him before he can
hit you)
LIGHTNING STRIKE (only if you don't have access to static shield)
COLD STRIKE (adds another 'stun' ability and can dovetail with lightning
attacks)

USE (~1200g)
DOMINATE (take control of the enemy--a fabulous ability)
DRAIN WILL (remove the WILLPOWER from an enemy so you can DOMINATE him--
works great on enemy heroes!)
FIRE CANNON (takes down walls and fliers like nothing else)
HURL LIGHTNING (an area affect ranged attack that stuns? Are we in
Midgard? The only reason I take CANNON above it is that a
mis-timed throw with HURL LIGHTNING can stun half your army and screw you
up pretty bad. Use with caution, and lower your risk with the 'seeker'
spell.)
PHASE (gets you anywhere on the board in an instant, and 1 attack when
you get there. Precious, precious phase...)

Feel free to make more USE items with WEB, TUNNELLING, and anything else
you might need--MARKSMANSHIP is a great addition and can be added on a USE
item to give any missile attack +3/+3 (at level 3)--missile attacks like
FIRE CANNON, which already has a heinous attack and damage.

With this standard arsenal, any hero can:
get back hp in battle (life stealing)
stop the enemy from hurting him (physical protect, first strike, static shield)
do a ton of damage (double strike, static shield)
take over the enemy (dominate, drain will)
take down enemy fliers and walls (fire cannon)
be ready to fight at the beginning of any given turn (regeneration)

and also possibly
move across the map really fast (haste)
not be dominated (willpower)

5 CRUSH ALL OPPOSITION BENEATH YOUR HEEL

Pour all the unit enchantments you've got on your tanked up heroes and go
steamroll the enemy. You can actually have minimal defense at your towns if
you have a really fast hero stack and teleport portals at all of the cities.

In combat, you will often be outnumbered if you're going with the small
fast parties, like I use. As a result, fight next to each other and put your
back to a rock or a tree to prevent yourself from being completely surrounded.
Make liberal use of spells like 'Holy Light' and 'Sacred Wrath' to weaken and
demolish the opposition.

There are 2 primary things to watch for; first, if you are in the enemy's
domain, he might 'dispel' your heroes, which will weaken them; a good reason
to rely more on items than enchantments. Second, your heroes can get surrounded
easily. Put them next to each other and against obstacles to keep them from
being whacked on by 6 enemies at once.

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II. TIPS AND TRICKS
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-Remember, if you run into enemy Hero units, try to Dominate them if you
have the items. If they have Willpower, do a Drain Will on them first.

-If you find yourself in a battle with a couple of stacks of enemy troops
and you have a decent spellcaster on your side (30 mana), consider the
following trick: if you have Sacred Wrath, cast it. Then, have the hero
cast it. Just 2 castings should wipe out most or all of the regular