Hello everyone!
I just began MoM, already loving it.
I have a pair of questions:

1) I summoned Sprites for explore and kill small groups of enemies. In battle they have 4 ranged shots and then only melee. Well, after I used all the shots I start moving the Sprites around, but they are like having unlimited moves, with the enemy doing nothing. Can you explain what is happening?

2) On the magic menu, the Casting Skill Ratio is useful just for improve the casting skill number below? If yes, when should I put some points there, when I need to cast spells with more mana?

3) Speaking of magic menu's staffs, how do I increase the magic power?

Thanks to everyone

Welcome to the party, Hrafnagudh. Glad you're already having fun; don't forget to stop by the hors d'oeuvres table.

1) More than likely, the enemies you happened to face won't attack flying creatures, unless attacked directly. Or perhaps they're behind the walls of a castle, and are reluctant to leave its protection. Either way, the battle will time out after 50 rounds, resulting in a technical draw.

2) Casting skill takes by far the longest to grow, so invest as many points as you feel you can spare, as early as you can. Research will automatically grow anyway whenever you construct certain buildings (libraries, sages guilds, etc.) or take over cities that have those places already built. A high casting skill allows you to cast overland spells more quickly, but also more (and more powerful) combat spells in battle.

3) The magic power you have available comes from taking over (and melding a magic spirit with) nodes, from building shrines, temples, etc., and from certain races' inherent magical abilities. To allocate how much of this power goes to mana, research and skill, you drag up and down each wand; you can also lock and unlock a wand (by clicking the gem on top) in order to more precisely allocate where those points go. In a pinch, you can even burn gold to make mana (and vice versa); the Alchemist skill lets you do so at a 1:1 ratio, instead of the standard (and wasteful) 1:2.

If I misunderstood any of what you were asking, or if you have follow-up questions, fire away.

I see TwoHandedSword has already given basic answers to your questions. I'm here to talk your ear off with details and extra data. ;)

First thing to know: are you using the basic GOG install? There is an Insecticide mod/patch (there is a stickied thread with information) that a number of people use. There is also a Help file replacement around somewhere, which replaces nearly all of the text that you can see by right clicking on stuff. I use the basic GOG install, and my answers will be in line with that. The AI won't move its units if there is nothing for them to do. Your sprites fly, and most units can't initiate an attack on flying units (the attacker needs to be able to fly, or have certain abilities (examples include "Thrown", "Fire breath", and "Stone Gaze"). The computer won't bother chasing the sprites around the field if the unit doing the chasing can't do anything even if it catches up. If the unit has ranged attacks, it will shoot at you, but it won't give chase after running out. Most Barbarian units would happily chase the sprites, since most of their units have a Thrown attack which will allow them to initiate an attack on the flying sprites (assuming they could catch up to the sprites).

THS mentioned the 50 turn time limit. After 50 turns (both attacker and defender get 50 turns each, with Defender going first), the battle will automatically end and all attackers will retreat. Normally, retreating will cause the game to roll dice to see if any retreating units are lost during the retreat, but those dice are NOT rolled when the 50 turn limit is hit. Also, the battle will count as a victory for the defender, so any dead defending units with regeneration will return to life, etc.

Note that if you are defending a city with a flying unit, if enemy units can get into your city, they WILL start walking around in it even if they can't touch your flier (especially if they can't touch your flier). Any time an attacking unit walks on a "city tile" during combat, there is a chance the city takes some 'extra' damage (maybe more buildings will be lost, or more population killed). So a single unit of sprites can keep an army of walking paladins from actually conquering an unwalled city, but the paladins are going to try and wreck the city before the battle ends. If the sprites are blocking the city gate, then the paladins won't bother moving (because they can't get in the city). Yes, the Skill slider is for increasing your casting skill. As THS said, your casting skill is slow to increase (it takes roughly 2x+1 power points to increase your casting skill by one point, where "x = current casting skill"). The Archmage retort will multiply the amount of power you spend on increasing your casting skill, otherwise it just depends solely on how much power you've been putting into it. Start early, and put in as much as you can spare.

Your casting skill determines both how much casting you can do in any given combat, and it also determines how much mana you can channel into casting spells each turn on the overland map. Any given combat gets a full allotment of your casting skill (regardless of number of combats in a turn), and none of those combats affect the amount of casting skill you have available for casting overland.

Mana crystals can be found in lairs, nodes, or enemy wizard towers. Alchemy (the ability on the Magic screen, not the retort) can be used to convert gold into mana, or vice versa (one of the things the Alchemy retort does is make the conversion a 1:1 ratio)

Spells can be found in lairs, nodes, or enemy wizard towers. Spell research points can be provided by certain city buildings or hero abilities.

Spell skill is all about how much power you spend on that slider each turn. A number of things give power points. Religious buildings (like the Shrine) give power. Certain magical races give power per population (high elves give 1/2 power point per high elf citizen in your empire). Nodes provide power to you if you have a magic/guardian spirit melded with the node. Any volcanoes that you created (chaos magic) will provide one point of power each.

Certain retorts will multiple certain sources of magic power. For example, Node Mastery will multiple the power you receive from nodes you control.

Thanks to all, anything really exaustive. I didn't considered that the sprites were flying actually, I thought they were levitating or something like this.
Question about the nodes: do I need to have a city near them or when I meld a spirit in them I just get their power? And, what is exactly the difference between chaos nature and sorcery nodes?



Also, about the patches (I'm using the gog version) there is something really useful? Because so far I'm feeling pretty good with this

There isn't a levitating ability in the game. Instead, you've got Flying, Sailing, Wind Walking, (Plain) Walking, Pathfinding, Swimming, Forester, Mountaineer, and Non-Corporeal. Check the unit card (right click on the unit) and these abilities will be displayed there (except Walking, the default). On the overworld map, the current movement type for a stack will be displayed via a small icon indicator on the right side, near the icons showing which units are in the stack.

Flying, swimming, or non-corporeal will let a unit cross water. Forester + Mountaineer in the same stack will allow the whole stack to move with Pathfinding. Nope, no cities needed. All you need is a magic spirit (arcane spell that everyone always starts with) or a guardian spirit (a common Life spell) to meld with the node. This will use up the spirit, and you'll start gaining power from the node.

Be aware that any rivals (including you) can send a spirit to meld with a node that someone else (including you) has already claimed with a spirit, so remember to defend your nodes (I usually drop a single spearman unit on the node, to let me know when someone else is trying to claim it). A magic spirit will always be overwritten by an invading spirit, but a guardian spirit has a 75% chance of killing the spirit attempting to take control of the node (in which case the current owner will retain ownership).

There are three kinds of nodes: Chaos (looks like a volcano), Sorcery (the pool of shimmering blue), and Nature (a glowing forest). There are no Life or Death nodes. The main differences are the type of map tile the node is (chaos = volcano, sorcery = grassland, nature = forest), and the magic alignment of the node. Also, certain events affect certain kinds of nodes (ex. a Green Conjunction global event will cause all Nature Nodes to generate more power than usual for as long as the conjunction is in effect, while a Red Conjunction will instead cause Chaos nodes to generate more power than usual). The Nature Mastery retort will multiple the power generated by Nature nodes controlled by the Wizard with the retort, while Chaos and Sorcery Mastery will do the same with Chaos and Sorcery Nodes.

Each kind of node is aligned with a particular branch of magic. A node will automatically attempt to dispel any spell cast during combat at the node's location, unless that spell is of the same branch of magic as the node. So a Chaos node will attempt to dispel a Web (Nature) or Healing (Life) spell you cast while fighting in the node, but it won't try to dispel a Fire bolt (Chaos) spell that is cast. This dispelling effect applies to both sides in the combat, and only applies when actually fighting on the map tile that contains the node. Be advised that nodes are very, very good at dispelling spells. The node will only try to dispel the spell when it is first cast; if a spell isn't dispelled, the node won't try again in a later combat round (though if you cast the spell again, the second cast is subject to being dispelled). This functions basically the same as a very powerful Counter Magic spell (a sorcery spell).

Each node has an additional effect within its area of influence. You can see the area of influence when a spirit (controlled by any player) has melded with the node; it is the map tiles that show the sparkles. Any summoned creature aligned with the same branch of magic as the node will get +2 to most of its combat stats while fighting in a tile that is influenced by the node. So a unit of Hell Hounds will get +2 to most stats while fighting within the influence of a Chaos Node, while Sprites will get that +2 while fighting within the influence of a Nature node. By default, the node's map tile will always be within the node's area of influence; since the initial node defenders will be summoned creatures of the same school of magic as the node, the initial defenders will always have this bonus! I'm told the AI is a lot better, and there are a number of bug fixes and other changes in the Insecticide patch/mod. Check the sticky thread about it for details. In the meantime, feel free to enjoy the base game as is (which is what I do). Learn the ropes first, then try out the mod.

There's also <span class="bold">this thread I posted several years ago</span>, which covers almost all of the changes through version 1.40n. The very latest patch, which I believe is 1.40o, is super buggy and best left alone.

The help text mod is called PLIGHT.

PLIGHT - Psyringe's Lush In-Game Help Text

It's not absolutely 100% accurate, but it's much, much better than the vanilla help text. I recommend it heartily, especially for new players who want to learn the game.