question

[Nimrod]

I have been trying to play a game with champion units, have not been able to succed except through a cheat. When I start a new game, selecting custom. Taking only Warlord and the rest Life books. I still cannot get Crusades. Why?

[pchang]

You have been unlucky. I have chosen warlord and 4 life books and have gotten Crusade. What difficulty level are you on? The rewards you get for defeating nodes and monsters seem to be better the harder they are. I would also try playing with strong magic nodes. That seems to result in tougher monsters guarding the nodes.

[bakalov]

Crusade is Very Rare Life spell. You must have 10 Life books to guarantee it 100%. With 3 life books you have 10% chance to have it for research. So as pchang said it is just a matter of luck. The more life books you have, the better the chance. Else you must seek it as a reward from special locations, or obtain it from an enemy wizard.

[DaveV]

Even if Crusade is in your list of researchable spells, you will probably have to research a lot of other spells before you're able to research it. I don't know what the algorithm is for selecting the eight spells that can be researched, but it seems heavily biased toward lower-level spells.

[Nimrod]

I have notice the more you research arcane or rare spells, the more likly you are to get another.

Well if it is luck, then 3 out of 3 legit games with 9 Life books and warlord on Hard must be bad. Never made it past hard w/o cheating. Always ran out of magic, gold, or the AI just rushed me too fast. I hate it when they cast meteor storm.

[bakalov]

Sure, from my observations when you research a spell, with high probability you will get another from the same realm, and similar in research cost.
If you want, start a game with the suggested starting picks that has Crusade in the available spells. (you can know it very easily from the start because the hieroglyphs in the spell book can be translated - just order the book by realms via the options and look at the last life spells - there must be a spell which name is one word, 7 letters).
Make the game at impossible difficulty, though. I wouldn't bother with something less ;-)

Then post the game here and may be we can try to play it with making some logs ....

[pchang]

Try this:

Warlord, Myrran
5 life books (heal, just cause, heroism, guardian spirit)
1 blue book
Draconians

Build a swordsman right away and cast heroism - explore and conquer neutral towns

Build up quickly and eventually go around with a killer stack of adamantium airships. Between research and killing every node and ruin, there is a high likelihood you will pick up crusade.

Added this:
Find the other Myrran wizard as quickly as possible and kill him with 2 heroism enhanced Doom Drakes.

[DaveV]

Re: Try this:

Originally posted by pchang
guardian spirit

Why do you pick this spell? I don't think I've ever summoned a guardian spirit; that spell is, IMO, the least useful common spell.

I usually play with small landmass, which results in only a few neutral cities (sometimes none at all). Since the AIs are so slow at conquering them, neutral cities are a big help to the human player. Early conquest of lots of neutral cities is, pretty much by itself, a guarantee of a winning game (unless they're Klackons or Gnolls ).

[bakalov]

Sure, endurance will be better for this strat ... Guardian spirits are only good with the invulnerable guardian spirit strat ...

I like very much playing dwarves:
Myrran, Warlord, Alchemy, Archmage, 4 Life.

[Father Beast]

Originally posted by bakalov
If you want, start a game with the suggested starting picks that has Crusade in the available spells. (you can know it very easily from the start because the hieroglyphs in the spell book can be translated - just order the book by realms via the options and look at the last life spells - there must be a spell which name is one word, 7 letters).

OK, I'm confused. How do you go about that? The only time I recall seeing the heiroglyphs is when you get a new spell, and then it's just for a second.

[DaveV]

FB - hit F3 for the research spell book, then turn the left-hand page. Spells you have discovered are in clear text, undiscovered spells are in the glyphs. Each glyph represents a normal letter, and in many cases they bear a moderate resemblance to the letter substituted. It's pretty easy to break the cipher - just look for Summon Hero and Summon Champion in the Summoning section, Spell of Mastery in the Special Spells section, etc.

[Tuberski]

Re: Re: Try this:

Originally posted by DaveV

Why do you pick this spell? I don't think I've ever summoned a guardian spirit; that spell is, IMO, the least useful common spell.

I usually play with small landmass, which results in only a few neutral cities (sometimes none at all). Since the AIs are so slow at conquering them, neutral cities are a big help to the human player. Early conquest of lots of neutral cities is, pretty much by itself, a guarantee of a winning game (unless they're Klackons or Gnolls ).

I always take Guardian Spirit, that way I don't need units to protect a node.

The AI spends a lot of mana trying to defeat G. Spirits.

ACK!

[pchang]

I'm Lazy

That's why I pick guardian spirit. Otherwise, in the mid game, you have to devote troops to defending and retaking nodes. It is probably more efficient to pick endurance instead, but I'm lazy and mid game defense of nodes can be a pain in the butt.

[bakalov]

Your node can be taken in spite of having a guardian spirit in it ... And allowing the enemy to accumulate troops in nodes gives you a good opportunity to gain some extra fame. At some point of the game I am starting to look for stacks of four or more troops very intensively ....

[pchang]

The enemy still stack units on nodes. However, with a guardian spirit, you can take your time in rooting them out since it takes a lot longer for the AI to take over the node from you.