Can Boshko do it?

[Bosh]

Will give beating MoM on impossible while never casting any magic besides arcane?
Going to give it a shot with dwarves...

[Bosh]

aaargh, was trying to get it to work on my new computer and the silly thing's telling my I don't have enough conventional memory. What to do?

[Skanky Burns]

What OS?

[MariOne]

https://www.classicgaming.com/mom

has some page dedicated to making MoM work on a non-DOS OS.
Crucial point is that you need lot of EMS memory available.
You "could" otherwise make a DOS-bootable floppy.
I frankly can't recall whether EMM386.exe would fit on a 3.5"... it was at least 6 years since I last did something like that. Besides, if you don't have DOS, you could have the files be sent you by email, but you could never make a floppy DOS-bootable, as to write the proper info on tha boot record you need to use the SYS A: command (i.e. you must have access to an already running DOS), or to duplicate the floppy from an already existing one.

I must still have my DOS floppies somewhere, but I'm sure you could fetch some easier than having them shipped overseas to Bolivia from Italy...
___

Pardon me, but if I'm not mnistaken "never casting any magic besides arcane" means that you don't actually need any spell rank (books)...
So, you have 11 picks available for retorts.
Many retorts would be tho ruled out by the lack of the required ranks in one or the other realm...

Let's see you chose dwarves, this means that you used 3 picks for Myrran.
You could then go with
2 Warlord
1 Alchemy

With the 5 left I frankly wouldn't know whether to pick Channeler/Artificer (2 or 3 picks?)
or
Famous/Charismatic (2+1=3 picks)

And I can't recall offhand whether Runemaster would be actually useful without ranks or even if it requires any to be available...

[Father Beast]

Originally posted by MariOne

Pardon me, but if I'm not mnistaken "never casting any magic besides arcane" means that you don't actually need any spell rank (books)...
So, you have 11 picks available for retorts.
Many retorts would be tho ruled out by the lack of the required ranks in one or the other realm...

Let's see you chose dwarves, this means that you used 3 picks for Myrran.
You could then go with
2 Warlord
1 Alchemy

With the 5 left I frankly wouldn't know whether to pick Channeler/Artificer (2 or 3 picks?)
or
Famous/Charismatic (2+1=3 picks)

And I can't recall offhand whether Runemaster would be actually useful without ranks or even if it requires any to be available...

in my version of the game, it wouldn't let me use my last pick on a single pick retort. i had to use my last 2 on a 2 pick tetort or be forced to choose a magic book. but that's just a detail.

as I recall, runelord reduces the cost of all arcane spells. but I just looked in my book, and found that you need to have spell picks to choose it. too bad, since with artificer and runelord, you can have unlimited mana by making items and breaking them.

and by the way, I have a report from a year or so ago from a guy I was working with who said he was able to win on impossible with no spell picks. plowed his way through to spell of mastery and cast it.

[MariOne]

Indeed, thanks FB.
picks without books:
3 Myrran
2 Warlord
1 Alchemy
1 Artificer
2 Famous

now, you're left with 2 picks.

Charismatic costs 1 and it would indeed be rather useful, halves hiring costs and helps diplomatic relations.

But then you'd be forced to pick 1 book, because you can't begin the game with a pick unused.

Or, you pick Channeler which costs 2 picks.
But Channeler is useless without combat spells.
Well, you'd spend those 2 picks only for casting Dispel Magic, Disenchant Area, and Recall Hero, without distance penalties...

I tested it with Charismatic and 1 Life book.
I picked dwarves S'sra as custon mage.
1st 2 attempts in no more than a dozen turns some mage from Arcanus had breeched thru a tower and sacked me!
At 3rd attempt, I got Fangs early and cruised thru.
I ended even to gain 7 Life books and 1 Sorcery as nodes/temples bonuses, but I did not cast any spell other than arcane ones.

I have a question (of course it's just a house rule, so everyone can make it for himself as he likes, but I'd ask your opinion):
when you say that you won'ìt cast any spell other than Arcane ones, do you indend "you as a mage"?
How would you consider then those spells that strictly speaking are not cast by you, but by your Heroes or special units?
For instance, Serena or Priests come with a Healing spell.
Magicians with a Fireball one...
Often, you would like to battle on "auto", and you can't avoid those spells to be cast...

___

A tougher variant would be then to renounce to Myrran.
You'd play with:
Warlord
Alchemy
Artificer
Famous
Charismatic
Channeler
Conjurer (?)

[Rex Little]

1st 2 attempts in no more than a dozen turns some mage from Arcanus had breeched thru a tower and sacked me!

Are you sure he came from Arcanus? Every time I've played as Sss'ra, some other mage has also started on Myrror. The computer just tacks "Myrran" onto his usual abilities.

[Father Beast]

Originally posted by Rex Little
Are you sure he came from Arcanus? Every time I've played as Sss'ra, some other mage has also started on Myrror. The computer just tacks "Myrran" onto his usual abilities.

a bit from the MoM faq (I think) was that you when you make a custom wizard with myrran, if you choose Sss'ra's picture, you should be alone on myrror. both times I tried it, using the planar seal strategy, and trying the no books method, it worked for me. using the no books method, I was also overrun by armies from arcanus, but I'm sure they were from arcanus.

I don't know if that applies only when you're custom making a wiz with Sss'ra's pic, or just playing as the pregenerated Sssra.

[Rex Little]

I'll have to check that out. I've never played as a custom wizard, using Sss'ra's picture, starting on Myrror. I've used the pregenerated Sss'ra, and I've started on Arcanus with a custom Sss'ra, but that's it.

[Bosh]

I use WindowsXP, it worked just fine on windows 95 IIRC....
and I'm in Connecticut, not Bolivia not matter what my flag may be

[MariOne]

The game I was on the road to winning, I started a custom S'sra on Mirror, and there was a (very soft, at impossible!!!) myrran Rjak fortress pretty close to me. Wiping him out early was a sure key to dominance in that game.
The 1st 2 lost games I had no evidence of their fortress, but saw their unit come "from" an open tower (can't tell if they came *thru* the tower or just walked thru the tile)...

One thing I didn't new: you're limited to 6 abilities with a custom mage!
Thus, for a true-no-books game:
- you NEED to pick Myrran
- you also must get Warlord, Famous, Channeler
- you can complete the mage by picking only TWO out of these 4: Alchemy, Artificer, Charismatic, Conjurer

As Charismatic is much more useful than Channeler with no books, if you want to susbstitute the ability you must pick one book to fill in...

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Father Beast


a bit from the MoM faq (I think) was that you when you make a custom wizard with myrran, if you choose Sss'ra's picture, you should be alone on myrror. both times I tried it, using the planar seal strategy, and trying the no books method, it worked for me. using the no books method, I was also overrun by armies from arcanus, but I'm sure they were from arcanus.

I don't know if that applies only when you're custom making a wiz with Sss'ra's pic, or just playing as the pregenerated Sssra.

That depends on difficulty level, according to the Strategy guide, it's possible to have 2 other Wizards with you on Myrror at Impossible difficulty.

[Bosh]

hmmmm have heard of dos emulator thingies that let you play all these old dos games a lot easier but couldn't find any. anyone know of one?

[MariOne]

Hey, do you want my old 386dx40?
MoM played OK on it!
(I think it had16 Mb ram, 400Mb HD, Dos 5.0 & Win3.1...)
I would only charge you the shipping costs

[player1]

Pretty good 386!

In those days standard 386 had no more then 4Mb RAM, and 100MB HDs.

Does is have sound card?