Game Journal Sunday 16 July 2000

Pic of the day: My heroes have once again stormed an enemy tower, and the eeevil Rjak is banished to limbo. Woohoo! :)

More Master of Magic

Here I am again! Keeping you updated on the most nerdish of nerdish things, the games I play on my computer! First, as for the strategy that I described in my previous game journal, it worked out nicely. (No big surprise, since I played at Normal level and the real experts never go below Impossible. Ahem.) In fact, it was too easy. I decided to start a new game, on Hard difficulty, and of course try out yet another tactic.

***

My new wizard is still a Myrran and an Artificer, but also a Runemaster. This means he can create items and break them, getting back double the mana he put into them. (It also halves production time further from Artificer, finally making it truly convenient to create artifacts.) As long as you abstain from casting any other spells, you have a mana factory. Mana need never be a worry anymore!

What I did with this extra mana was use it for all spellcasting. The mana from regular sources can be distributed between storage, research and skill improvement. I used almost all for skill improvement, and relied on the "mana factory" to keep the mana storage filled so I could cast all the necessary spells. The game consists largely of casting spells, after all. And building stuff! :)

Ideally this strategy is used in combination with Archmage, which lets you improve your spell casting skills faster. Sadly this is not possible if you choose Myrran. You simply cannot choose that many spell books. It's not possible to specialize in any particular type of magic either, such as my favorite white magic. Sometimes I quite miss those spells...
(I think my talent for white magic is something that has seeped in from real life. Conversely, I find myself unable to play black magic effectively.)

***

The whole point about starting on Myrror, despite the extra cost, is to get some peace and quiet until your strategy bears fruit. Imagine my surprise when I came to explore the second continent and found it teeming with dragons belonging to Horus. The manual warns that he is the least predictable of the AI wizards, but I have never before seen him start on Myrror. I did not even know it was possible. Live and learn.

Being able to produce super powerful artifacts in 1/4 time turned out to be a decisive factor in this game. I had only two ordinary heroes (not champions, the upper tier). I pumped them up with the most powerful artifacts mana can buy and made a forced march for the enemy capital city. I wasn't actually sure I could pull it off, but I did. My heroes stormed the tower and I banished Horus to Limbo. He started to cast the spell of return immediately, but he's out of the play for a long time to come. Time to turn to Arcanus. :)

***

Breaking through to the slightly less magic-filled world of Arcanus, I found that the three remaining wizards were fighting each other, as is good and proper. Poor Raven was fighting a losing battle, and greeted me as a long lost friend. We exchanged lots of spells - he had some quite nice sorcery spells. Tauron had built the largest army in the two worlds, and Rjak had started Dark Rituals in most of his city, giving him an incredible amount of mana. I was in the process of summoning four champions, so I stuck around till they were all in place, then started to fight small battles. Heroes increase their skills much faster if they win even a small victory each round. So I generally harassed Tauron, created artifacts, and prepared for the strike.

When my newest heroes started to mature (and get some good armor), I set off for Tauron's capital city. You know the script by now. High mobility, concentrated firepower, go for the jugular. No more Tauron.

After transporting in some golems to keep the peace, my heroes went on the long trek to Rjak's tower, mopping up unlucky enemies along the road. For some obscure reason, the capitol was defended entirely by wraiths. Those are disgusting beasts, but they have no ranged abilities at all. My archers and spellcasters could pick them off from a distance. Plus my paladin with magic immunity just stood at the gate and let them wear themselves out to no avail. Just goes to show that monoculture is a bad idea in general! :)

Raven is the only other wizard left. I've mopped the floor with his more powerful enemies, and given him all of Arcanus to play on except for three cities that I keep for myself. You'd think the guy would kiss my feet with tears in his eyes. Instead he's decided to declare war on me. There you have it: Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

I guess I could end the game now. Or go look for a more worthy opponents back on Myrror, such as a Great Wyrm or a herd of Sky Drakes. Anyway, I think I can tentatively conclude that the "Mana Factory" is one of the better strategies I have tried so far.