Ah...forgot about the beetles. Been years since I last played AoW 1.
And I never got the Warlocks mods to work. :-(

Damn, now I don't know what to do.. mod or not?
Does the campaign normally work with it?

Anyway, I like the game.
It seems similar to Homm2, but with better graphics and larger battles.

Aren't there shorcut keys, though? (e.g: skip unit turn)
Aren't there indicators for units yet to move or with unused special skills?

Fairly certain Enter or Ctrl-E ends turn in AoW1, though it's been eternity since I played it last.

I always considered AoW closer to Master of Magic and more interesting than HoMM2+3, mainly because you didn't just stack 200 units together and steamroll stuff, instead you made do with what you could get to work together and tried to surround enemies before attacking.

Liked AoW 1's multiplayer, only played it once, but ended up winning with a LOTR style play. Got mashed into a corner, while the other player was amassing all his armies to utterly crush me and show how big his victory was. I managed to sneak a small group out of my city, under cover of the woods, sneaked that small band through enemy lands until they stood at the enemy hero's tower. All units but his hero had left. My units had climbing and scaled the walls and stabbed his main character to death, giving me the game victory because he wanted to gloat.

AoWSM was good as well, played that a lot. Never got really into AoW2, but if you want a good laugh, make sure you set simultaneous turns, then play the tutorial. At least the CD release build you'd learn to use a spell to freeze water, then march across. But as you go on the water the enemy will cast a spell thawing the ice and drowning your units, essentially meaning the tutorial was impossible to complete without setting turn classic turns.

Regarding unmoved units. I believe there's a next unmoved unit button, think there was a key for that as well. Also you could in battle see whether the little orb by them was faded out to indicate the unit had taken its move

My main problem with AoW 1 compared to SM and HoMM, was that it was too tedious to line up the units before every battle.

Btw, I couldn't find much info about the hero skills.
And I spent all the points in.. 2 abilities O_o'

@phaolo:
Well... I never mod it or SM with unofficial patch, always had fun. :)

About hero skills... well, yeah. But you know, if you make sure to level the hero up, he becomes the monster. I, as of present, played AoW3 the most, but the hero mechanics are closer to AoW1 here than to AoW2. And believe me - you can create a hero who could eat, literally, a dragon. All by himself. Or two dragons, in fact.

@PetrusOctavianus:
Well... the map are bigger, no? So I kind of understand why it's getting on someones nerves.

OMG the hero lasts for the full campaign, unlike Homm.
I like it, but.. every decision counts then!

I chose Regeneration and Domination as skills.. did I make a mistake?
The second always failed so far and the first one seems too slow :\

Also, are the transfers between maps fixed or depend on results?
Is it better to stay more on each map to gather experience and items? (Homm only considered speed at the end of the campaign)

I too long since I played myself... but I would say no. Healing is quite important, especially on a leader <cause he dead - your game dead>, and Domination... well. Look at the game - most attack miss, right? That's the kind of a game it is - 1 or 0. But if you manage to dominate someone, you are given a free soldier. Good as canon fodder, and well - you can always use up enemies movement points and/or make him immobile, then take your chances with domination/seduction.

Thanks :)
Btw, how many hero levels are there?
I'd like to increase my stats and add more skills, like Archery.

Ah also, I choose 3 different orbs but that resulted in level 1 spells only..

lvl 20 is max in AoW 1.

Don't worry - max. amout of sphere is 7, so you will have a chance to get more powerful ones. Still - to max something you need... 4?

Senteria, maybe you remember better - how much spheres is needed to get every spell for said sphere?

You need 4 in one element to get all the spell in the chosen sphere. You can make things diverse and spread your love for different spheres but you will not get the end-game magic. But there are plenty of lower level magic spells that are quite handy. Personally I love wind and water. Haste and healing are great. When you just start out in the campaign in age of wonders 1, you only get 3 spheres to choose from. However later on during the campaign you will get to choose two more. And then another two to get a maximum of 7. Choose wisely. Be diverse or focussed on one element. The choice is yours. =)

Yeah, I always picked wind and water for the campaign. Chain Lighting has much longer range than any archer since you can target the ground and it will "jump" to the nearest unit. And no wall could stand up to Great Hail.

Oh yeah, I chose air, water, life : )

Ah, how do I increase my max mana?
Damn, this game needs a manual.
(I've found some guide, but many info is missing)