MOM Hint II

[Ecthy]

have your wizards ever been attacked in melee? if so, you'd have a bit more respectof Mithril or Adamantium... I used to play with stacks of Paladins and Wizards, so I really don't see why Mithril or Adamantium should be totally useless, as you claim it...

[pchang]

Paladins do not have a magic attack. They benefit greatly from Mithril and Adamantium. With a mixed stack of Wizards and Paladins, the goal is to use the Paladins to shield the Wizards so the Wizards never have to face a melee attack. My argument is that when you have limited resources, it is better to reserve your towns with Mithril and Adamantium to build units like Paladins or slingers and use the rest to build things like Wizards. If I had enough towns with Mithril and Admantium, sure I would build everything with them.

[Ecthy]

When I send out an army to explore a part of Myrror, including ruins etc., I'm using exactly that stack... well, in some ruins they're attacked by quick units just like unicorns, so the paladins don't really have a chance for shielding them...

[Theben]

One of the nice things about adamantium/mithiril is that the MT/hill it's on can be used by a second city, doubling your army building cities.

And while dark elves are nice and all, spending 3 picks getting them seems a bit high. Especially since on Arcanus the High Elves will get you 1/2 as much mana, and cost a lot less...

And don't discount Elven Lords. Paladins are great, but only heroes get the +4 "to hit" bonus that ultra-elite Elf Lords do.

[pchang]

Do magic attacks suffer from range to hit penalties too?

[Father Beast]

Hey guys, I just had the darndest thing happen to me.

I got some guys over to Myrror, and we took over a draconian city. after a while of scouting around, I sent a settler to found a new city in what looked like a promising site. it seemed like I was waiting a long time for it to grow from an outpost to a colony, and finally it disappeared with the message "your colony at "" has failed"!!

MY COLONY FAILED?!?!

how does this happen? did they all starve to death? no maurauders or invaders or anthing like that. it just up and quit on me.

[Rex Little]

That happens a lot, FB; I've lost count of how many times I've seen it. I don't know exactly how the game figures the growth rate (positive or negative) of an outpost, but it seems to be related to the amount of food available. I'm pretty sure all my failed outposts were on low-food sites.

Speaking of outposts, I should mention a bug I ran into once. I had banished an enemy wizard, and taken all his cities, and all he had left was an outpost. When I walked into that outpost, the game crashed. I learned that in that situation, you need to let the outpost grow into a hamlet, then take it over. The enemy wizard will be defeated and the game will continue.

[pchang]

Since I always use the F1 surveyor to pick high food sites for my outposts, I have never seen an outpost has failed message.

[Rex Little]

I try to pick high food sites too, but sometimes--especially on Myrror--there's a cluster of specials that you just can't get in combination with high food. Sometimes the temptation is too great, and I build there anyway and hope for the best. Sometimes I get lucky and survive, sometimes I don't.

[Father Beast]

OK, it didn't really have a high max pop in the surveyor, but it had adamatium and nightshade, and I thought it would be a good spot.

is there anyway to guard against this?, can you send another settler to join with it? it seems lousy that I can have a huge thriving empire, and I still have to wait umpteen turns for a liitle outpost to grow up, just as if it was in the middle of nowhere.

[Rex Little]

I don't think it has anything to do with how the rest of your empire is doing; I believe the characteristics of the site itself, plus whatever random factors the game throws in, determine the growth or decay of an outpost. Adding another settler is something I never thought of, and I don't know if the game allows it. I'll have to try next time I play.

I can see why adamantium made the site attractive to you, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get nightshade. In my experience the computer player doesn't use anti-city spells that much, and when he does you can dispel them. And if he does want to cast one on you, he'll just find another city that doesn't have nightshade.

[Shadowstrike]

Hmm... is there a way to win on the harder levels without using some trick which makes the game ridiclously easy with free Sky Drakes? The game is good, but when you can get Sky Drakes for ziltch, there's something wrong..... And the AI is horrible, horrible, horrible..... Allies sit on their spellbooks, and more likely then not, they all gang up on teh human player for no good reason.

[Rex Little]

Yeah, if you use a pregenerated player the spell picks are made for you. I don't know if they're random or if the same wizard will always pick the same spells. You don't find out what they were until the game starts and you check to see what spells you can cast.

[Rex Little]

I don't play on the very hardest level ("Impossible" - and it damn near is!), but I beat the next-hardest level around 75% of the time using one of the pre-generated wizards from the game (I play a different one each game, for variety). My usual method is to start a handful of cities early, then concentrate on building at least one of them up to where it produces the most powerful unit for its race (griffons, paladins, stag beetles, etc.). Once I'm cranking those out, I can take over most neutral or enemy cities or nodes, and I proceed to do so. Generally, the game hinges on whether I can start building those top units before all the enemy wizards gang up on me.

I've never gotten sky drakes, or any other powerful summoned creature, for free. The closest I came was when I got enough Nature books to get a Great Wyrm for 100. By that time it didn't matter; the game was all over but the mopping up. The wyrm I summoned literally never saw action.

The AI is indeed horrible. If someone came out with an MOM2 which did nothing but clear up its worst idiocies, I'd be satisfied. But - "Allies sit on their spellbooks"? You had allies? I can't remember the last time one of the computer players agreed to a Wizard Pact with me, much less an alliance.

[Father Beast]

about those pre generated players...
I reread the manual, and it said that for certain amounts of spellbooks, I get to choose a certain number of spells to be available for research. I picked Horus, who has 5 sorcery, 5 life, and I should be able to pick 2 common and 2 uncommon spells guaranteed for research.

I never have seen the pick screen. does Horus automatically make the picks for me, or what? If so, how do I know what the picks are?