Uh, well, the title is just a joke.

I've been interested in this game since I heard about it some years ago. I read a lot about it on its wikia: all the spells, units, heroes and wizard customization, and I thought the spell systems is especially good. I bought Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic (people compare these two quite often, right?) sometime later, but found out that the spells in it are less varied.

So why haven't I bought it already? Because back then GOG didn't accept CNY payment. And not until about 3 months ago did I find out that GOG accept CNY now. So, uh, that means I missed the most recent sale, and judging from the price history, I may have to wait another half a year to get it on another sale. Grab games at their full prices is just not my policy (especially when taking my current financial status into account). And I notice that MoM was given out as a pre-order bonus for some other game some time ago, so I wonder if anyone has a spare key that I may request.

OK, if anyone reads up to this line, maybe you would understand the title somewhat (yeah, it's not completely a joke). And honestly, I think maybe it's a good thing for me to get down voted so that I can calm down a bit and keep waiting for the next sale.

Not going to downvote you but I think there is a very good chance it will be discounted during he summer sale. A point about the game: It has amazingly bad graphics. Strange seeing how other games from Simtex were so much better in that way.

I guess a good news like this (a summer sale) is better than some down votes at calming me down, thank you buddy :)

I am generally OK with dated graphics. I think the style is more important. And we can always fix it with a graphics MOD called "imagination", can't we? ;)

Talk about bad graphics, do you play Dream Quest by Peter Whalen? It's a great Roguelike card battler which probably embodies "great gameplay and 'bad' graphics" the best. I use quotes because I kind of like it anyway, even without "modding" it.

Sorry, unknown game to me.

I bought MoM, installed it and started it after not having played it for twenty years (mainly watched someone else play) but I did not remember the graphics being so uhmm simple. For some reason I have not been in the mood for it since the two days I played it after installing but the plan is to return for sure. After a while one gets used to it as long as you can distinguish what each blob on the screen represents.

Haha, maybe it was too hard to handle all those elements with so low resolution. But honestly, I think I understand your feeling. There are some games from my childhood which "have perfect graphics" in my memory, but when I actually reinstalled them and played, oh boy, isn't this ugly...this may be one case where nostalgia actually debuffs instead of buffs, by exaggerating the datedness of a game from one's memory by contrasting.


There is a Master of Magic IME project on sourceforge, which is introduced just in another thread here: https://www.gog.com/forum/master_of_magic/master_of_magic_hd_multiplayer_remake_by_implode
Not sure if you'd be interested in it. It has higher resolution, but everything may just get even smaller as a result...

Um, just saying, I got MoM from the Summer Sale and have been enjoying it a lot!

Great balls of magic! :-)

Goodness gracious!

The simple answer is to look for weakly defended nodes. You just won't be able to crack some nodes without a lot of power in your attack.

-Look for Phantom Warriors, and maybe Naga in Sorcery nodes.
-War Bears are your target of choice for Nature nodes. If you have units that are resistant to magic attacks (and/or you have a bunch of decent ranged units), you might be able to take out sprites.
-Hell hounds are the weak guards for Chaos nodes. Fire Elementals can also be reasonably fought early.

As far as Earth Elementals, specifically: As you've found out, Earth Elementals are very, very strong creatures. You'll need several stacks of higher power units yourself in order to take one out, and you can still expect to take some losses. Your best bet is to capitalize on their two weaknesses: low speed and low defense. They hit very hard and they have a lot of HP, but they don't have a lot of defense and they only have one movement point. If you have Elves, then send in several stacks of Elven Lords and make sure your units are the ones doing the attacking. If you get a LOT of mobile archery units, like nomad Horsebowmen, then they may be able to kill an Earth Elemental.

With more information about your situation (what races do you have available, and what spells do you have?), I can try to provide more specific advice.

Thanks for sharing your insight! Quite helpful even without me offering more detailed info, IMO.

I'm playing at Intro setting (the lowest difficulty) as Horus, leading high men, 'cuz I read it from some gamefaq guide that this is a decent pick for rookies.

The continent where my capital is contains 1 chaos node, 2 nature nodes, 2 sorcery nodes and one opponent Merlin (a sage specialized in life and nature, iirc). I got Brax the Dwarf at turn #2, and thus I fought most of my battles relying on him and spells. I haven't built a single military units (in fact, no ANY units) so far, for that I thought that after securing my first nodes, it'd be a good strategy to fight my way "magically".

I sent magic spirits and Brax to scout the continent, and after got crushed by all kinds of node guardians several times, I gave up and decided to try my luck somewhere else. As I ventured further (yeah, there are like, 3~4 nodes very close to my capital, closer than most of the other encounter zones), I got some free resource and even a couple of spells from some ruins. And I met Merlin at that time. His capital, I dunno, seemed to be located at a rather bad spot. It was surrounded by seas, and had only two ways out: a grassland to the north, and a nature node to the northwest. I came in contact with him when Brax reached the grassland tile at the north of his capital, and I thought, "Well, looks like that he is trapped now, since he probably has some trouble fight through the nature node just as I do, and his personality probably won't let him consider the option of fighting through the tile Brax occupies. Maybe I should just try to take him down." Then after several tries (S/L), I managed to Confuse (got from conquering some encounter zone) the war bears he had, and his own gnoll soldiers stood no chance against those bears (plus heroismed Brax, maybe), and he was banished.

Excited by the victory, I decided to try my luck with those nodes again. As mentioned before, there were 5 nodes:
1. both sorcery nodes contained 3 units of phantom warriors each, and as you said, they are the easiest, though I got Brax killed repeatedly until I realized that I can just summon as many phantom warriors myself to kamikaze them XD
2. one of the nature node, the one to the northwest of Merlin's starting city, was guarded by only one unit of spiders, so I took it with heroismed (and maybe holy armored?) Brax;
3. the other nature node has the earth element I mentioned as its guardian, and Brax always got one-turn-killed by it. I read from wikia that it may be better to take it down with units with ranged attacks, but I haven't investigated much in building units, so... and the normal bowmen of high men seem quite weak to me, with their strength 1 ranged attack. Now I'm a bit lost, as I don't know if there's a way to tackle this node now, or I'll have to build up my army first, and if it's the latter case, what units should I built? Btw, Merlin's capital is populated by gnolls.
4. the chaos node is guarded by 4 units of hellhounds. After having got Brax burned down to ashes a couple of times, I'm not sure what should I do now.

I also conquered some towers so far (not wizardry tower, just ordinary ones), most of which are occupied by undead creatures, and I researched and learned the life spell Star fire to shower them with. I feel that as an Archmage, this is a quite Horus way to do things, especially now that I have some power to further increase his casting skill.

Now my magic spirit just found another continent. I don't want to leave Brax idle at home, but I'm not quite sure how to conquer the remaining nodes.

I think my post was too long, so here's Part 1 of 2
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High Men are one of the better races in the game. They don't have anything special in the early game, but they have an incredibly strong late game line-up, and their mid game is decent. The only building they can't build is a Fantastic Stable, which has no inherent bonus.

Spearmen are mostly for keeping rebels pacified. They won't put up much of a fight, especially without spell support. Swordsmen are only slightly better. High Men have baseline spears and swords; they are cheap, and you get what you pay for.

High Men can build Pikemen. Pikemen are a little flimsy, but they have good offense.

In the end game, High Men Paladins will rock some faces. Paladins are durable, hit hard, move quickly, and are magic immune.

Most races don't have much problem being ruled by High Men, which is also a plus.

Bad news: Brax is one of the worst heroes out there, even among the most basic heroes. There are a few heroes that fare even worse than he does (poor Tumu!), but not many. Not to say that he's a terrible unit, just don't be afraid to sacrifice him for better heroes.

Start building up your normal unit military. Every 50(?) turns or so, independent neutral monsters will spawn from some indy city or lair/tower/node/etc and start looking for trouble.

Life and Sorcery don't have many good early game summons. Phantom Warriors are great in their niche, but they only last for one battle. Life DOES provide some very, very good unit buffs, so make units.

Don't forget to send a Magic Spirit to meld with any nodes you clear so you can start reaping the magic power they provide. I find it helpful to also park a unit on a node after I've melded, so an AI player can't sneak a spirit in and steal it from me without my noticing; a spearman is sufficient since the unit is basically an alarm system.

Stronger node guardians are things to tackle later in the game. It usually isn't worth your time and effort to try and crack a node guarded by an Earth Elemental when you are sitting on only two cities. Build some settlers and found some new outposts instead.

It happens. I've started a game basically in the middle of a desert, making my capital mostly worthless.

Thanks again for (the 1st part of) your advice!

Brax: yeah, I knew from wikia that he's one of the weakest, but I figured if I got him early, he might still provide some edge, since I can save some time by delaying building my army and focus on building the economics early on.

Normal units: I also found that neither swordsmen or spearmen reliable, and thus have been hesitating about building any unit so far. As for pikemen and paladins, I still have a long way to go, it seems.

Magic spirit: yeah, I melded the nodes I took. That's the main reason why I value them so much after all. Yet again, since I haven't built any normal units, I didn't sent guard for them. But maybe it's not that urgent in my case, since the continent is solely occupied by me now, and it's located at the NW corner of the world, so I only need to guard against south and east, in which directions my scout spirits are marching.

Now that I read through your opinions, I have the feeling that the most significant underlying problem of my play for now may be that I don't have much idea about the building part. What to build and when to build them? It's a problem to me. So far I've focused solely on civic building, trying to improve the population growth and production rate (granary-market-farmers market-settlers-sawmill). I was not really sure as to if I should built sawmill, miners guild or ship wrights guild right now.

And here's Part 2 of 2 (got distracted)
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Something to keep in mind about Phantom Warriors: They have no defense, so they fall apart like a house of cards as soon as a stiff breeze hits them. However, their Illusionary Attacks ignore the defense of whatever they are attacking. They cut Brax to pieces because he takes every bit of damage they dish out (up to 30 damage in a Sorcery node!). If a target is immune to Illusions, then the illusionary attack ability has no effect and the unit's defense applies as normal (the phantom warrior still gets their normal attack, they just don't bypass the defense of a unit that is immune to illusions). Don't send Phantom Warriors against undead units; the phantoms will be cut to pieces without having any effect.

Something else to remember: any creatures within the influence of a node (like in the node itself) that match the node's type receive +2 to their melee attack, all ranged attacks, defense, and resistance. Phantom Warriors are Sorcery creatures, so they get +2 attack, +2 defense, and +2 resistance while fighting within a Sorcery node. This bonus applies to attackers and defenders, so your Phantom Warriors get that same bonus. HOWEVER, if a unit is summoned mid-battle, they don't get the bonus immediately; it will be applied starting on the next round the unit is in the battle. So don't summon your Phantom Warriors within a Sorcery Node and immediately attack with them; let them be in combat for a round so they have those extra stats. Hell Hounds are stronger in Chaos Nodes (their fire breath also gets a +2), and Nature creatures are stronger in Nature Nodes.

Yet another thing to remember: the stats that are displayed on the creature stats screen are the statistics that each figure in that unit has. A unit of Phantom Warriors has 6 figures when at full strength, so when it attacks it will throw 6 swings at an enemy (one per figure) where each swing is strength 3. Each PW has 1 hp, so if the unit takes 3 damage, it will lose 3 figures, and it will then only throw 3 swings (each at strength 3) when it attacks. A Holy Armor spell will give each figure within a unit +2 defense; buffs and debuffs have a bigger effect when the target has more figures. On the flip side, a unit with more figures loses combat effectiveness much faster when it starts taking damage, while a single figure unit will fight at full power until it is dead.

Earth Elementals have 25 attack and +10% hit chance before counting the Nature Node bonuses. That is a lot of damage thrown at anything the Earth Elemental attacks. Each sword icon has a base 30% chance to hit, so the Earth Elemental's hit bonus gives it 25 x .4 = 10 damage on average per attack (again, pre-node). Your Brax probably has only 5 or 6 shield icons, which each represent a 30% chance to block a point of damage, so he blocks about 2 damage per attack on average. All unblocked hits go straight to his HP total.

You'll need to swarm the Earth Elemental with units that have high attack values, and you'll need to expect most of those units to die in the process. Gnolls are actually really good for this, since they have an innate +2 attack for their units. If you have Heroism and Holy Weapon, then you could possibly build a stack of 9 Gnoll swordsmen, enchant all of them with both spells, and send them in. They might be able to deal enough damage to kill the Earth Elemental before being wiped out. A stack of 5 or 6 buffed High Men pikemen should be able to kill the Earth Elemental, though again most of them will probably die. 9 pikemen is expensive, but they'll certainly be able to get the job done. 5-6 buffed Gnoll Wolf Riders should be able to get the job done, and they might have enough durability to survive a single exchange with the Earth Elemental; swing once then back up and let someone else take a swing. Feel free to mix gnolls and high men together in your attack; any units you control have no problems mixing with any other units you control.

Alternatively, ranged attacks can bring it down if you have enough fire power. Bowmen only have 1 ranged strength at their lowest experience level, but they'll get better with some levels (Heroism to the rescue again!). I'd probably just build the Gnoll wolf riders, since surviving wolf riders are still excellent to send on other attacks.

Buffed Gnoll infantry or Wolf Riders will be sufficient. Make sure that you initiate the attacks as often as possible, since Fire Breath is only used when the possessor initiates an attack.

Archmage is an excellent wizard ability. Make sure that you are spending as much power as you can spare on the Skill slider (in the Magic screen) to increase your casting ability; Archmage provides a bonus to all power you spend on increasing your casting skill.

Build an army of normal units. :)

Gnolls are an aggressive race. They can't build many buildings in their towns, but all their units hit pretty hard. If you only have one Gnoll city, then I'd suggest sending out one or two Gnoll settlers to found some extra cities. 2-3 Gnoll cities are more than enough to generate a flood of Wolf Riders. Assuming you only have access to Gnolls and High Men, then fill the rest of your continent with High Men cities. Boats and Floating Islands can carry your wolf riders to other continents. While the Gnolls attack, the High Men can be building infrastructure to support your empire and eventually build end game units (like paladins) to pick up the slack when the Wolf Riders falter.

Thanks again for all this detailed info! I guess I should start to invest some time in learning about the races and their normal units on wikia. Now that I think about it, I've known my enemies quite well (through wikia), but haven't known my own arsenal as well...