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Faq was very disappointing, especially those parts that discussed the weaknesses of particular magic types. all 11 book magic types are feasible:
11 life: stream of life + unicorns, or torin.
11 death: wraiths
11 chaos: doom bolt or beholder looking thing
11 nature: flying cows
11 sorcery: flight + invisibility + storm giant.
even minimal book strats work with decent retorts or arcane spells.
The only reason why the game is hard on impossible is that the game, like all 4xX games made by microprose is that the cp's cheat like crazy. so, while you are struggling with your granaries and such, the cp's already have begun expansion and/or aggression.
You can match their speed by using any of the 11 spell book strats listed above, or by using races that do not build most of the buildings (trolls, barbarians, hobbits, etc.)
on impossible, i find that the 11 book strats are usually overkill, especially if you luck out on the map and get additional spell books early along with an enemy wiz who is strong in those books for trading/farming, such as 11 life + 1 sorcery + 1 nature + 2 enemy wizes with sorc/nature books, eg lo pan and the nature chick.
my favorite strat:
2 sorc, nature and chaos books
1 life
node mastery
artificer
whatever else you want with leftover books.
picks: floating island, phantom warriors or psyhic bolt, fire bolt or hellhounds (one summon, one attack, doesn't really matter which branch.)
immediately start making weapons/jewelry. armor can come later. preferably start with a bow and look for the pathfinding hero or the dervish. you can skimp on most mods on the bow, only important ones are movement and attack.
build whatever you want. ignore stables and docks, unless you need it for something else, such as nomad/hobbit food trees.
research heroism or other good life spell.
feel free to trade create weapon/artifact right away if you see anything decent, like spell blast, heroism, pathfinding, healing, etc.
use the dervish to take out medium nodes/ruins, as you build your power base, build stronger weapons. (for extra safety, wait for recall hero. bow heros only have 7 shots. recall hero has 0% chance of death, while fleeing might lose the hero and more importantly, the artifact.) use crappy heros that add to your casting power as additional storage slots, especially that low level dude that adds to research.
aim for:
staves with max mana/attack
armor with max movement (you only need 1-2 for warrax and mystic x, all sorc heros only use staves and jewelery.)
jewelery with max mana/attack/movement
You might also want a high level bow, because sometimes elorra is the only decent hero to show up late in the game.
Save one strong node/ruin near your summoning circle to kill the crappy heroes so they don't come back.
best heroes:
even crappy sorc heros can rock if they roll with arcane power. send them out to fight. if not, save them to add to your power base.
my faves:
magnus
warrax
mystic x
aerie (do not send him against strong nature nodes. ye have been warned.)
morganna the witch
hero who always has wind walking
have them beat up on weak monsters until they have 22 or so total damage from their base attack. then, send them against the strong nodes/ruins/towers.
any hero who is too fragile for fighting should be kept in your home city at all times.
Other fav strats:
myrran w/ dark elves, trolls, or draconians. whatever other picks, doesn't really matter.
barbarian berzerkers with life books or nature books.
death books and captured undead army. best way to build them is to harvest soldiers from neutral towns.
11 life: stream of life + unicorns, or torin.
11 death: wraiths
11 chaos: doom bolt or beholder looking thing
11 nature: flying cows
11 sorcery: flight + invisibility + storm giant.
even minimal book strats work with decent retorts or arcane spells.
The only reason why the game is hard on impossible is that the game, like all 4xX games made by microprose is that the cp's cheat like crazy. so, while you are struggling with your granaries and such, the cp's already have begun expansion and/or aggression.
You can match their speed by using any of the 11 spell book strats listed above, or by using races that do not build most of the buildings (trolls, barbarians, hobbits, etc.)
on impossible, i find that the 11 book strats are usually overkill, especially if you luck out on the map and get additional spell books early along with an enemy wiz who is strong in those books for trading/farming, such as 11 life + 1 sorcery + 1 nature + 2 enemy wizes with sorc/nature books, eg lo pan and the nature chick.
my favorite strat:
2 sorc, nature and chaos books
1 life
node mastery
artificer
whatever else you want with leftover books.
picks: floating island, phantom warriors or psyhic bolt, fire bolt or hellhounds (one summon, one attack, doesn't really matter which branch.)
immediately start making weapons/jewelry. armor can come later. preferably start with a bow and look for the pathfinding hero or the dervish. you can skimp on most mods on the bow, only important ones are movement and attack.
build whatever you want. ignore stables and docks, unless you need it for something else, such as nomad/hobbit food trees.
research heroism or other good life spell.
feel free to trade create weapon/artifact right away if you see anything decent, like spell blast, heroism, pathfinding, healing, etc.
use the dervish to take out medium nodes/ruins, as you build your power base, build stronger weapons. (for extra safety, wait for recall hero. bow heros only have 7 shots. recall hero has 0% chance of death, while fleeing might lose the hero and more importantly, the artifact.) use crappy heros that add to your casting power as additional storage slots, especially that low level dude that adds to research.
aim for:
staves with max mana/attack
armor with max movement (you only need 1-2 for warrax and mystic x, all sorc heros only use staves and jewelery.)
jewelery with max mana/attack/movement
You might also want a high level bow, because sometimes elorra is the only decent hero to show up late in the game.
Save one strong node/ruin near your summoning circle to kill the crappy heroes so they don't come back.
best heroes:
even crappy sorc heros can rock if they roll with arcane power. send them out to fight. if not, save them to add to your power base.
my faves:
magnus
warrax
mystic x
aerie (do not send him against strong nature nodes. ye have been warned.)
morganna the witch
hero who always has wind walking
have them beat up on weak monsters until they have 22 or so total damage from their base attack. then, send them against the strong nodes/ruins/towers.
any hero who is too fragile for fighting should be kept in your home city at all times.
Other fav strats:
myrran w/ dark elves, trolls, or draconians. whatever other picks, doesn't really matter.
barbarian berzerkers with life books or nature books.
death books and captured undead army. best way to build them is to harvest soldiers from neutral towns.
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