So I've beaten the tutorial, and a lot things feel somewhat familiar from other games (surprise, surprise). I do have some questions, though. If anyone has experience with Master of Magic, Civilization (1-3, primarily), and Heroes of Might and Magic (1-5), comparisons would be great. Alpha Centauri could work too.

1) Perhaps most pressing, How good is the manual? I haven't gone looking for one yet, since I don't have the time to really dive into this game right now. Is it good about covering how everything works, possibly including numerical examples?

2) Is there some key or key combination that will highlight things on the map that are interactable? It would make life easier than me trying to mouse over every hex, looking for a cursor change, while I learn what the various map objects look like.

3) When migrating a city, does it essentially change the population type of the city (so a goblin city becomes a halfling city)? What other effects (beyond making the new race like you more, and the old race like you less) does this have?

4) When my ranged units were aiming at something that was on the other side of something else, sometimes a little stop sign looking thing with a number in it would appear. Is that the percent chance of hitting the object/creature that is in the way?

5) In general, what prompts a counter attack, what doesn't prompt a counter attack, and how is attack/retaliation ordered? For example, in HoMM 3, the attacker swings, then the surviving defender swings (if they have a retaliation left) (barring special abilities), while in MoM attacker and defender swing at the same time (barring special abilities).

6) What determines how many hexes a city occupies? Can this number be raised/lowered during the game?

7) Can a razed/looted city be recreated?

8) Why might you raze a city instead of looting it?

9) Anything else, especially non-obvious things, that you'd care to share? Things you wish you'd been told earlier?

Thanks, Senteria!

10) Can someone provide a description of how an attack in combat works? I'm not entirely sure which unit is swinging, when counter attacks are happening, and why my dwarf berserker swings twice and gets countered twice.

11) Also, apparently large stacks of level 1 units going after a stronger unit is basically using the "If you roll enough dice, you'll win eventually" strategy. Does this sound about right? I suicided like half a dozen berserkers into an enemy hero before he finally went down.

12) The squire AI seemed really, really terrible. What advantages/disadvantages does each level of CPU provide?

13) How do you tell whether a piece of terrain might block a shot? Some kind of spire feature in the enemy town seemed really likely to get in my way on one angle, and was totally irrelevant to the shooter I had right next to him.

14) When should you consider building infrastructure in your town?

15) How do heroes and units gain experience? My hero apparently leveled randomly one turn, while I was walking around exploring.

10. Standard is for unit to have 3 attacks. Attacker swings first, then defender retaliates, then attacker again, defender, attacker, defender. But there are several things that can change it. Extra strike skill for attacker gives him 4th attack. Double strike makes attacker strike 2 times each melee round for only 1 retaliation of defender (so 6 attacks x 3 retaliations). If defender has First strike the order switches and they "retaliate" before enemy attacks. Unless the attacker has first strike as well then both skills negate and combat proceeds normally.
Then there are things like paralysis and similar that allow attacks without fear fo retaliations.
Ranged attacks never get retaliated.
You can check most abilites on AoW Heaven. But the list is for Shadow Magic, I don't know if there is one for AoW1. But if the skill is in both games, there shouldn't be much difference. But many of those listed are not in AoW at all.


11. Yes. But it can also mean million of your units will get slaughtered for no effect if enemy has good rolls and you don't (ie. you are me). To have defense at 10 is great advantage in AoW and it makes unit really hard to kill.
In AoW 1 units will normal attacks always gets at least 3 strikes per round (unless it dies before it performs them) and defender has unlimited retaliations. So if 10 units attack defender he can get up to 30 strikes.
In Shadow Magic (and Wizard Thone) number of attacks is dependant on remaining movemement and each retal strike depletes the movement so if you first attack enemy with expendable unit (or one with high defense) you can then attack them with more precious units safely without fear of getting it killed and use it to gain XP with those units.

12. I think AI plays more defensively on lower settings and more aggressively on higher. Main difference is the higher the level the more bonuses it gets. To resources (gold and mana) and to city production (I think). Its heroes also gain XP faster than human ones.
I usually find King to be the most fitting. Lord and King are overall the best IMO.

13. Hardly.

14. When you want better units. :-) It allows for higher tier units so when you want to build something better than basic stuff, have free money and spare turns to build it you should go for it.

15. Heroes (and units) get XP for each killing blow in combat and heroes also gain 1XP per turn.

16. Are you aware that you can attack with more stacks in combat?
All armies on adjacent tiles to the one that is attacked join the combat and it can draw many armies into combat. But it can also be used for players advantage to attack smallers armies then one would have to otherwise. If there is ie. 4-hex town full of units you would have to fight several stacks but if they leave some unit adjacent to it outside the walls (AI tends to do that because it overfills its cities) and you attack that one, you can draw stack out of towns. :-)

2. I don't know of any.

3. Some races don't like you. Mostly those of ooposite alignment and you will always hard time to keep them happy. And even if you get good relations with them, they tend to decay over time. So it is better to just migrate town to one closer to your own alignment to keep them from rebelling. On diplomacy screen you can hower over various races and it will show you percentage of how much that race likes you.
But don't try to appease Syron unit. He has hard time to get along with anyone and loves to desert.
Also units have morale and supposedly the low morale not only makes them rebel but also makes them fight worse. And units are supposed to fight better on their own terrain (the same way the got higher speed in HOMM3) but I still have no idea if andhow that works.

I played the small Halfling Versus Goblin match yesterday, against an AI squire. I ended up completely rolling him, though I had to bury his hero in a pile of dead Dwarf Berserkers. The minimap was very useful, showing where units and sites were located; I claimed all the sites, but I only picked up around 4 cities.

It was...interesting. Just to try it out, I custom built the hero with all the movement abilities and max sight range bonus. He wasn't much for combat, but he could move nearly anywhere.

3 attacks fits in with what I was seeing. I wasn't sure if they were separate attacks, or if that was just the animation for damage to be assigned. This means a 3 damage unit actually can do up to 9 damage; good to know.

So the defending space is what determines who is in the combat? That might explain why only two of the three stacks I had lined up participated in the combat. This means you could get up to a 6-on-1 fight going? Exception being cities, where every stack in any city hex will participate?

Isn't this only in AoW3? Or, at AoW2? I'm sure there are combat penalties in AoW3 thought, cause they are outright mentioned. If it rolls. I belive damage can be also random. One time it hits you for 1hp... and a moment later it kills you. Everystack connected to the one that is attacked get's suck into the battlefield, unless they are not hostile (so if your two allies fight each other near you army, you won't participate in their battle).
Yes, if you manage to surround someone, you can get a 6 armies vs 1 army.
About cities: No. The above rule applies to cities as well, which means you can pull out enemy units. Only in later games attacking someone stacked near city will turn it into siege. Here, in AoW1, because AI sometimes plays it dumb, you can take some heat off main battle by pulling said units - only those on adjacent hexes to the attacked unit participate.

And something "I wish I knew"? Well... always protect and develop heroes. You probably know that if your avatar dies it's game over, but hero with some levels basically becomes Tier 4 unit. And given that you can aquire one of the best skills as well... Think about those berserkers. I doub he was Def 10 kinda guy. ;)

AI Squire is pretty stupid. Higher AI levels aren't much brighter, but they do get humongous gold, mana, and production bonuses to help them out.

Hit the Heaven Games site for specific data and strategy.
AoW:1 strategy page: LINK
AoW:SM strategy page: LINK

The one caveat between playing the AI and against Humans is that people are much, much, much more devious (annoying). They won't fall for the "suckered into attacking a stack of archers behind a wall" strategy that the AI falls for over and over... Also, you lose all tactical control in Human vs. Human battles which can create interesting results. You still control the Human attacking the AI, but not AI attacking the Human.

It was talked about in the past that it is supposedly the case in AoW 1 as well.
Not 100% sure it is true, though. Not even 80% sure. Yeah, I haven't mentioned this. The damage stat of unit is its max damage not given damage. So 3DMG unit can do either 1, 2 or 3 damage with each of its attacks.
So the higher the stat the more random it get and in SM, where the stats go up to 20, it is not uncommon to do 19DMG with 1 attack and only 1 with next strike by 20DMG unit.

I had my avatar in the battle against my opponents avatar. What would have happened if both of our avatars died in that battle?

Also, can a city be large enough that not every stack in the city enters a particular battle? What happens if I kill everything in one corner of the city, leaving enemy units in an opposite corner? Interesting. I noticed that he started withdrawing pretty much everything as I advanced, finally cowering behind his city walls and ceding all sites in his initial valley to me. He did send a flyer to retake a site, but it didn't survive my turn. This is pretty much expected, which is partly why I'm really not ready to get into MP yet. That, and I'm not sure how well I'll endure the long losing streak I expect to encounter. ;)

Just play Vitek and your odds go up dramatically!

I wish I could use this trick.

You have no idea how badly I want to mark this as the solution.

Play both sides of a 2 player map. Surely ONE of you will win.

Well... it's mostly theoretical question, but I would assume you would lose - you gdom would fall, too.

City itself can't go beyond 4 tier, just as units. And while attacking unints in the city it shouldn't be possible to pick them off, unless the 'tactic' mentioned before - if there is no units outside the walls that are adjacent to defenders, nothing can be done about that.
Still - if you do pull them out, there will be just empty hex on the city - you will still have to fight your way to get it, but on the plus size - less enemies to face. And if you manage to pull out the enemy leader... his units will get frienzed behaviour pattern on the global map.

And, if I recall correctly - it's possible to occupy a city, if there are no walls and there is empy city-hex. It should stop them from 'working', so to speak.

Well... sadly, but that's pretty much what it can be done - make them aggressive and give them resources to do so. :P

That's why I don't play it... although, playing with friends against AI is amusing as always. :D I'm... not sure I understand you. There is only quick battle in PvP? Hmm... I can't remember this. Then again... maybe it's mentioned in manual? Cause it should be - I doubt it's in tutorial. Then again - while I love maunals... I never touched it. Yay for live time experience. :D

Semi-correct. It makes it much more random and fairer at the same time. The AI is an idiot in tactical battles, but with quick battles, it's an idiot on behalf of both parties. Morale of the story = never risk a unit in a battle with another human unless the reward is worth the risk!

When you attack an AI controlled enemy (indie or Wizard), you still fight in the normal tactical map. But when you attack a human controlled enemy, it automatically goes to quick battle. It also does not give you the option to retreat because your opponent may have concealed support units which would be revealed during the "Are you sure you want to attack?" phase.

And during the AI turns (indie or Wizard), you have no control of your battles so all attacks upon you are quick battles. Make sense?

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I agree that playing with friends against the AI is fun, but it is ten times more fun playing a free for all map with AI and friends. You quickly learn their go-to tactics and moves. One vs one is tough because the min/max player has an advantage, but a 3, 4, 5, or 6 player map allows the opportunity to gang up on the experienced player. :-)

AoW:SM was the first game I've ever played with real live human opponents on this thing called the internet. I can't go back to playing the AI only now. Humans are so much more creative, though Southern is probably not happy with my creativeness right now (we're playing a crazy 1vs1 map).