Games PC MASTER OF MAGIC User Manual

Download

Master

TECHNICAL SUPPLEMENT

™

Explore and Conquer Magical Worlds

HARDWARE & SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

To play

• an 80386sx processor or better (for best play, we recommend at least a

• at least 575K of free conventional memory

• at least 2.7MB of free EMS (expanded) memory

• VGA graphics or better

• a mouse

Master of Magic,

33MHz 80386 or faster)

your computer must have:

Software Compatibility Issues

Please note that this list includes only the known conflicts and incompatibilities. Since no test procedure can ever be totally comprehensive, you may run into undiscovered problems. Please consult with Customer Service if you do.

We strongly recommend that you do Windows 3.1 or Windows 95. We recommend running the game in MS-DOS mode.

We strongly recommend that you not have any terminate-and-stayresident programs (TSRs) loaded into memory when playing Not only will they decrease the amount of free memory available, thus slowing the game, but there may be unpredictable interactions.

not

run

Master of Magic

under either

Master of Magic

Configuration

As part of the installation process, you are prompted to select a few settings for your sound configuration. The installation program automatically detects the correct setup for the majority of sound cards, but you may need to change the defaults. If you do not know the correct numbers (DMA, IRQ, and such), please consult the documentation that came with your sound card.

MASTER OF MAGIC

ADVANCES CHART

Master

™

Explore and Conquer Magical Worlds

MASTER OF MAGIC

Revised Edition

Game designed by SimTex Software

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or photocopy or other

means without permission, with the exception of quoting brief passages for the purpose of review.

Introduction to

Imagine falling through time and space. You land in a world called Arcanus, a world something like medieval earth, yet one where the practiced arts of alchemy and magic are true and powerful. The creatures of fantasy (elves, orcs, klackons and such) that in our world have so far been dismissed as the products of fertile imagination, are reality on Arcanus. Here, these creatures are intelligent beings who, along with species unknown to Earth even in fantasy, form the myriad races that populate Arcanus. Beyond Arcanus there lies a mysterious second world, Myrror. Accessible only through ancient towers of wizardry or through the careful practice of some obscure forms of magic, Myrror is in all senses an alien world full of powerful magic, danger and creatures of the most fantastic ilk. The saying among wizards is that no one can truly rule Arcanus until they’ve cracked the Myrror.

Into these worlds you emerge as a fledgling wizard. Sparsely equipped with but a spell or two, you begin as the ruler of a tiny hamlet and its people. With these raw materials, you must build a thriving city, explore the two worlds of Arcanus and Myrror, expand your empire and learn new spells. In time, you will meet other wizards, each rising from equally humble beginnings, each having the same goal as you, namely conquering the worlds. How well you allocate resources, make use of your races’ potentials, seize opportunities and negotiate with other wizards determines your eventual success. In the end, though, there can be only

one

Master of Magic!

Master of Magic

Getting Started

Mouse Commands

e assume here that you understand basic mouse functionality,

• A “click” refers to placing the pointer over an area of the screen

• A “right-click” is a click with the

• “Opening a menu” requires a click on the name of the menu in the

• “Selecting” means clicking on something.

• You “run” the mouse by moving it over an image or object

• “Pressing a button” with the mouse means clicking on the screen

• “Toggling” means that you have only two options, and clicking the

like clicking and dragging. Since your mouse has two buttons, the interface distinguishes between them. The following definitions refer to their usage in this manual.

and clicking with the

menu bar.

clicking.

button.

button flips back and forth between the two.

left

mouse button.

right

mouse button.

without

The Main Menu

fter installing the

new game, click on the appropriate button.

main menu

game you were running (an option not present the first time you start

Master of Magic

start a new game.

If this is your first time playing

Master of Magic

. This menu allows you to continue playing the last

), to load a previously saved game, and to

new game button

and entering the game, you begin at

Master of Magic

or if you wish to start a

. Otherwise, click on the

CONTINUE

Clicking on this button takes you back to the game you were playing last. Note that any game in progress is automatically backed up every four turns and “autosaved” into a temporary saved game file. The autosave feature writes over the previous autosaved game in this file.

LOAD GAME

Clicking on this button takes you to the you can click on one of the saved game file names to reload that game.

game options screen

. In that screen

NEW GAME

Clicking on this button takes you to the in the following section).

new game screen

(described

QUIT TO DOS

Clicking on this button exits

Master of Magic

and returns you to DOS.

The New Game Menu

f you choose to start a new game in the whisked to this screen. Here you can decide on several parameters

(by clicking on the appropriate buttons to select or cycle through options) that will influence the nature of your new game of

Master of Magic

DIFFICULTY

Choose a difficulty level by cycling through the options (clicking on the difficulty button) until you find a suitable level. Depending on the difficulty level you choose, your wizard is advantaged (Intro and Easy settings), equivalent (the Normal setting), or disadvantaged (Hard and Impossible settings) relative to the computer player wizards. The difficulty level modifies your starting treasury. At Intro level, you start with 125 gold pieces in the treasury, at Easy you have 100 gold pieces, at Normal you start with 75 gold pieces, at Hard you start with only 50 gold pieces, and at the Impossible setting your treasury has a meager 25 gold pieces at the start of the game. The difficulty level also affects your production and population growth rates, as well as the speed with which your wizard researches new spells. In addition, with higher difficulty levels, the skill with which enemy wizards set about conquering the worlds of Arcanus and Myrror increases (at Hard and Impossible levels, they also have more spell picks than you do), while their tolerance toward your diplomatic advances, faux pas and aggressive actions decreases. We warn you, the Impossible setting is aptly named!

main menu

, you are

The Universal Help Button

IMPORTANT NOTE: Regardless of the difficulty level that you choose, on-line help is always available! Right-clicking on almost any area of almost every screen in the game provides you with “HELP” information and definitions. Clicking then takes you back to where you were in the game

OPPONENTS

Choose the number of enemy wizards (from one to four) playing against you by clicking on the how many wizards you are competing against, the number of opponents influences how rapidly you are likely to come in contact with another wizard. While contact with enemy wizards can have positive aspects (for example, being able to trade spells), it also has potential negative aspects, since tensions tend to escalate as you become more powerful. Thus, having time to research useful spells and to establish a few cities for a stronger power base before encountering another wizard definitely has its advantages.

opponents button

. Beside determining

LAND SIZE

The (small, medium and large) and the proportion of the worlds’ surface

land size button

areas that are land. Click on the the options.

In choosing a land size, consider the relative advantages of each option. Land size affects how quickly you establish contact with other wizards. Because small land sizes result in the creation of many islands separated by vast expanses of water, choosing this option generally results in delayed contact with opponents, while choosing large land sizes results in almost immediate contact.

While smaller land sizes delay contact with enemy wizards, they also hamper exploration and expansion efforts. Because new cities must be separated from pre-established cities by a minimum distance of three squares, founding new cities with adequate resources to support a reasonably sized community on small continents may be difficult.

controls the approximate size of continents

land size button

to cycle through

MAGIC STRENGTH

There are a number of sources of magic power in the worlds of

Master of Magic

based sources (such as shrines and temples). Clicking on the

button

(options are Weak, Normal and Powerful) allows you to choose how strong nodes are as a source of magic power (mana). Weak nodes produce half the magic power of Normal nodes, while Powerful nodes produce 50% more magic power than Normal nodes.

. These can be divided into two groups: nodes and city-

magic

Because magic power is vital to the spell researching and spell casting efforts of the battling wizards on Arcanus and Myrror, when nodes are powerful sources of magic, enemy wizards aggressively attempt to gain control of them. When nodes are weak sources of magic, city-based sources of magic power become relatively more important, encouraging enemies to accelerate both expansion efforts and the development of their cities.

OK OR CANCEL

Once you are satisfied with the parameters of your new game, click on the

OK button

you can click on the

to move to the next screen (

cancel button

to return to the

wizard creation

main menu

). Alternatively,

Choosing or Creating Wizards

f you are playing at the Intro (tutorial) or Easy setting, you have to choose (by clicking with your mouse on one of the wizards’

names) one of the predesigned wizards described in Choosing a Wizard. At any other difficulty setting, you have the option of

custom button

information on how to create your own wizard is described in Creating a Wizard.

choosing a wizard or designing your own (by clicking on the

Portrait

when in the

wizard creation screen

). Important

Name

Spell ranks and magic type

Special abilities

CHOOSING A WIZARD

When you run your mouse over the name of one of the fourteen predesigned wizards, you see a display of that wizard’s spell ranks and special abilities under his or her portrait.

that wizard has available for study

Spell ranks are the spell books

. Each book has a mark on its binding

which indicates the kind of magic described in the tome. The more books that a wizard owns in a particular kind of magic, the more rare and powerful spells he or she can learn in that subject.

There are five types of magic in which wizards can specialize:

• Life magic (indicated by white ankhs on the spell book bindings)

is focused on healing, protective and inspirational spells. This magic has healing spells so powerful that the dead can be resurrected. It is also the only type of magic to offer spells that allow creatures to travel between the worlds (planes) of Arcanus and Myrror. This form of magic has elements that strongly oppose death magic and some that mildly oppose chaos magic.

• Death magic (indicated by purple skulls on the spell book

bindings) concentrates on controlling the forces of darkness. This magic provides spells for summoning dead creatures, corrupting enemy wizards’ power bases, instilling fear in the hearts of enemies, blighting land and causing misfortune of all types to befall foes. Because life and death magic are so strongly antithetical, no wizard can specialize in both of these magic types.

• Chaos magic (indicated by red fireballs on the spell book bindings)

specializes in wreaking havoc on the surrounding world by twisting and warping creatures, weapons and nodes. When change alone is not enough, this magic can call forth the destructive elements of fire and lightning to do its bidding.

• Nature magic (indicated by green trees on the spell book bindings)

claims as its domain spells that encourage fertility and growth. Rooted in the land, this magic can call upon the elements of stone and water to smite enemies with earthquakes and ice bolts. This magic may also call upon the earth’s wisdom to explore areas of the worlds and see things that are far beyond the normal range of sight.

• Sorcery magic (indicated by blue diamonds on the spell book

bindings) focuses on creating illusions and controlling the elemental force of air (even to the extent that individual creatures can be endowed with the control of air through flight). When all else fails, however, sorcery magic has another area in which it reigns supreme: meta-magic, or the ability to control and resist other wizards’ spells!

In addition to the five magic types noted above, there is a sixth type, arcane magic, that requires no spell ranks to learn. Arcane magic is available to all spell casters.

• Arcane magic is the most basic of all magic on Arcanus and

Myrror. Its spells allow wizards to summon heroes (see Heroes), to create amazing objects of great power (see Artifacts) and to cast basic magic spells, such as those that remove spells that have been cast on your wizard by enemies.

All arcane magic spells are automatically placed into your spell library to learn when you are ready

. These spells, therefore, require no spell books to learn (i.e.,

you do not choose arcane spell ranks).

Below the shelf containing the spell books, you see any special

abilities the highlighted wizard possesses. These attributes are described in Special Abilities. Brief summaries of these special abilities are also included, when relevant, with the descriptions of the predesigned wizards.

What follows is a list of the fourteen predesigned wizards. If you wish

to play as one of these wizards, click on his or her name. If you wish to design your own wizard, go to Creating a Wizard.

• Ariel is a high priestess who specializes in life magic. With ten spell

books (ranks) in life magic, Ariel can learn all life magic spells. In addition to her extensive knowledge of this field, Ariel is a gifted diplomat. Her special ability (Charismatic) doubles the effectiveness of any positive diplomatic actions she takes and halves the negative impact—that is, how she is viewed by enemy wizards when she commits unfriendly acts. In addition, her charisma allows her to purchase magic items and to hire heroes and mercenaries at half price.

• Freya is an elven nymph who specializes in nature magic. With 10

spell ranks in nature magic, she can learn all the spells in this area. She also possesses the special ability of Nature Mastery, which increases the speed with which she can research nature spells. The ability of Nature Mastery makes Freya’s nature spells twice as difficult to dispel, while allowing her to draw double the normal amount of magic power from any nature nodes under her control.

• Horus is a sorcerer who specializes in both sorcery and life magic

(having five spell ranks in each of these areas). Horus is also an Archmage, which makes him particularly effective at casting spells. This ability also makes his spells twice as difficult to dispel. Interestingly, Horus is the most erratic of the known wizards and is not always fully aware of his potential. Thus, when he is controlled by the computer (as an enemy wizard), he may have radically different areas of specialization than those noted here.

• Jafar is an Arabian illusionist who understands the mysteries of

sorcery magic. With 10 spell ranks in sorcery magic there are few spells in this area missing from his spell library. Jafar is also an alchemist (his special ability is Alchemy), which allows him to interconvert gold and magic power at no cost.

• Kali is a witch who specializes in both death and sorcery magic

(having five spell ranks in each of these areas). She also has the special ability of Artificer, which allows her to draw double the usual amount of magic power from nodes under her control.

• Lo Pan is an oriental mystic who specializes in both chaos and

sorcery magic (having five spell ranks in each of these areas). Lo Pan has developed the ability to channel magic power directly from his location in the enchanted fortress to his troops on the battlefield (special ability of Channeler). This ability allows him to bypass paying higher mana rates for casting combat spells outside of his fortress.

• Merlin is a great wizard who specializes in both nature and life

magic (having five spell ranks in each of these areas). Merlin is also a sage (special ability of Sage Master), which tremendously increases the speed with which he researches (and learns) new spells.

• Oberic is an elementalist who specializes in both chaos and nature

magic (having five spell ranks in each of these areas). He also possesses the special ability of Mana Focusing, which significantly increases the amount of magic power he can obtain for his mana reserves.

• Raven is an Indian shaman who specializes in both nature and

sorcery magic (having five spell ranks in nature and six spell ranks in sorcery). In preference to developing some special skill, Raven has chosen to concentrate his efforts solely on the acquisition of spell knowledge.

• Rjak is a warlock who specializes in death magic. With nine spell

ranks in this area, he has almost all death magic spells in his spell library. Further enhancing his fearsome powers, Rjak has developed the special ability of Infernal Power. This special ability increases the amount of magic power he draws from the shrines, temples and parthenons that have been bent to his worship.

• Sharee is a voodoo priestess who specializes in both chaos and

death magic (having five spell ranks in each of these areas). Sharee is also a Conjurer (special ability), allowing her to summon creatures for far less mana than normally required.

• Sss’ra is a draconian warlock who specializes in both chaos and

life magic (having four spell ranks in chaos magic and five in life magic). In addition, he is a Myrran (special ability) which places him on the world (or plane) of Myrror at the beginning of the game. He also starts with a special race (beastman, dark elf, draconian, dwarf or troll) to control. Not bad!

• Tauron is a demonic being who specializes in chaos magic. With

ten spell books in this area, he can learn all chaos magic spells. Tauron also possesses the special ability of Chaos Mastery, which increases the speed with which he researches new chaos spells. Chaos Mastery makes it more difficult to dispel his chaos spells and doubles the magic power Tauron can draw from any chaos nodes under his control.

• Tlaloc is an Aztec priest who specializes in both nature and death

magic (with five spell ranks in death magic and four in nature). Tlaloc is also a Warlord (special ability), which automatically adds an experience level to each of his units. His units can even surpass the normal highest level for troops (elite).

CREATING A WIZARD

To design your own wizard, click on the

in the

wizard creation screen

. This option is not available if you are

playing at the Intro level or Easy level of difficulty.

Select Picture

After you decide to custom design a wizard, you choose a picture for your wizard from one of the fourteen predesigned wizard portraits. Run the mouse cursor over the wizards’ names to bring up their portraits in the frame on the left side of the screen.

Wizard’s Name

A space appears next to the portrait you chose for your new wizard. The default name of that picture’s predesigned wizard appears in this space. You may choose to use this name or enter a name of your own choosing (it may have no more than ten letters). When you are satisfied with the name, hit the e key to continue.

Spell Picks

After you have chosen a name for your new wizard, you zip to the

spell picks screen

and which special abilities to give to your wizard. You have eleven “spell picks” to divide between spell ranks and special abilities. Each spell pick can be used to get another spell book (the only restriction here is that no wizard may be versed in both death and life magic) or another special ability (some special abilities cost two spell picks; see Special Abilities).

. Here you must choose how many spell books (ranks)

custom button

when you are

Available

special

abilities are

highlighted

Current

spell rank

summary

Spell ranks

already chosen

Remaining

number of spell picks

You can select (or if you change your mind, deselect) a special ability by clicking on its name in the are available to your wizard (this depends on which spell ranks you have already selected) are highlighted in white. All special abilities you have chosen appear beneath the portrait of your wizard.

Spell ranks are selected or deselected by clicking on the “bookshelves” next to the name of the magic type (life, death, chaos, nature or sorcery). For example, to select two spell ranks in life magic, click on the second slot from the left on the bookshelf next to the word “Life.” If, later during the selection process, you decide that you do not want any ranks in life magic, click to the left of the bookshelf (i.e., on the left gargoyle). You can add or subtract ranks (as long as you have enough spell picks to do so) by clicking on different bookshelf slots until you are satisfied with your combined selection of spell ranks and special abilities. When you have used up all of your spell picks to your satisfaction, click on the

spell screen

Relevant factors in choosing spell ranks and special abilities are described in Spell Ranks and Special Abilities.

spell picks screen

OK button

. Special abilities that

to get to the next screen (the

select

Spell Ranks

Note that wizards may only cast spells they know

way to learn a spell is to research it. Wizards may only research and cast spells from those magic types for which they have spell books. Arcane magic spells are the only exception; these can be learned by all wizards and, therefore, require no spell books. Listed below are the six types of magic practiced on Arcanus and Myrror.

• Life magic (white) focuses largely on healing and protective spells.

• Death magic (black) focuses on summoning and controlling the

dead and calling into existence other manifestations of evil. Life and death magic are so strongly opposed in nature that no wizard can learn both types of magic spells.

• Chaos magic (red) can be used to control the element of fire and

the forces of change primarily for destructive purposes.

• Nature magic (green) is used to control the forces of both water

and the earth itself. While largely a constructive magic (focused on growth), nature magic can generate strongly destructive spells.

• Sorcery magic (blue) focuses on the control of the element of air

and all apparently insubstantial things. Sorcery spells can generate and sustain illusions and control the spells of other wizards in addition to more concretely harnessing the force of air for other purposes.

• Arcane magic (gray) is accessible to all wizards. All arcane magic

spells are automatically placed in new wizards’ spell libraries for future research.

. The most common

In addition to belonging to one of the six magic types (colors), each spell has a certain degree of rarity (common, uncommon, rare and very rare) associated with it. Rare spells tend to be more powerful than common spells. To be able to learn the rarer spells of a particular magic type, a wizard must have a greater degree of knowledge (i.e., more spell ranks) in that area.

When creating a wizard, you have to choose which magic types (life, death, chaos, nature or sorcery) your wizard learns and how much understanding (in terms of the number of spell ranks) he or she has in each studied area. Wizards can concentrate on one magic type or dabble in several. The only limitations are that 1) a wizard cannot have more than eleven (minus the number of special abilities you select) spell ranks and 2) a wizard cannot learn both life and death magic spells. The number of spells a wizard of spell books chosen in a particular magic area, is discussed below.

Every wizard in those spells that the wizard can research and learn. This library is composed of spell books (called ranks). Each spell rank contains cryptic information on spells of a specific type of magic (life, death, chaos, nature or sorcery). The more spell ranks a wizard has in a particular area, the more spells he or she can research in that area. Also, a wizard can learn spells of greater rarity if he or she has more spell ranks in the relevant area.

For example, if your wizard has two spell ranks in death magic, he or she automatically gets five common spells, two uncommon spells and one rare death magic spell in his or her library. Although you cannot choose all of the death spells in that library (you can only choose one common death magic spell that is definitely there; the rest are randomly chosen by the program), you can be certain of having this many potential death magic spells to research and learn. The table entitled Spell Ranks shows how the number of spell ranks in a particular magic area affects how many spells (of a particular rarity) a wizard has in his or her spell library.

The number of spell ranks that a wizard has in a particular area of magic also dictates which spells the wizard can acquire through trade or when exploring dungeons, towers, ancient ruins and other places. For example, if a wizard cannot learn (i.e., if the wizard has fewer than three spell ranks of that magic type), then he or she can trade or exploration. Note that acquiring spells through trade and exploration is a quick and simple means both of learning new spells and of expanding a wizard’s spell library. Researching spells can take a considerable period of time.

Master of Magic

never

acquire very rare spells of that magic type through

can

learn, based on the number

has a spell library which represents

any

very rare spells in a particular area

Table A: Spell Ranks in the Appendix shows the total number of spells (of each rarity) you learn and the number of guaranteed choices you lock in, based on the number of ranks you choose in a color or magic type.

Special Abilities

Beside choosing spell ranks when you create a new wizard, you can use one or more of your eleven spell picks to endow your wizard with special abilities. Available choices are highlighted in white. Note that several of the special abilities have prerequisites. As an example, for the special ability Infernal Power to become available (become highlighted), you must have chosen at least four spell books in death magic.

To select or deselect a special ability, click on its name when you are in the yellow with a checkmark next to their names (on the right side of the screen); they also appear below your wizard’s portrait. The special abilities available are listed and described below:

• Alchemy allows a wizard to directly interconvert gold and magic

• Archmage increases a wizard’s spell casting skill by ten. It is also

spell picks screen

power. The conversion process normally results in a loss of 50% of the starting material (you convert 100 gold into 50 mana). With Alchemy, you can convert on a straight one-for-one basis.

twice as difficult for an enemy wizard to dispel an Archmage’s spells.

To become an Archmage, a wizard must have a minimum of

. Selected special abilities are highlighted in

four spell books in one of the magic types.

• Artificer allows a wizard to make powerful magic items at a

significantly reduced cost (33% less than normal). Artificers also start the game knowing the arcane spells of create magic item and

create artifact, so that they can use their ability from the outset.

• Channeler allows a wizard to cast combat spells without paying any

extra costs. Normally, a wizard must pay extra mana to cast a combat spell anywhere other than his or her “enchanted fortress” (e.g., starting city). This surcharge represents the mana that is dissipated over the distance between the wizard’s power base (at the enchanted fortress) and the battle site. Channelers are much more efficient at transferring the necessary magic power and, therefore, do not have to pay extra mana to cast spells during combat in locations outside their enchanted fortresses.

• Chaos Mastery enhances a wizard’s use of chaos magic in many

different ways. This skill doubles the magic power that a wizard can draw from chaos nodes under his or her control and increases the speed with which the wizard researches new chaos spells. In addition, chaos spells cast by a wizard with this special ability are twice as difficult to dispel.

spell ranks in chaos magic to choose Chaos Mastery.

• Charismatic gives a wizard a great advantage in all interactions

with other wizards, mercenaries, merchants and heroes. This ability allows a wizard to purchase artifacts from merchants at half price and to hire mercenaries and heroes at half the usual cost. In addition, a Charismatic wizard obtains twice the normal effect from positive diplomatic actions he or she initiates and suffers only half the normal penalty for negative diplomatic actions.

A wizard must have a minimum of four

• Conjurer allows a wizard to cast summoning spells at 25% less

than the usual cost.

• Divine Power dramatically improves the effectiveness of shrines,

temples, parthenons and cathedrals in cities owned by a wizard. The magic power obtained from these city-based sources is increased by 50%, and the pacifying effects (ability to reduce unrest in a city’s populace) of these institutions are enhanced.

A wizard must have at least four spell ranks in life magic before you can choose Divine Power. This special ability costs two spell picks.

• Famous doubles the rate at which a wizard is approached by

heroes and mercenaries looking for work and by merchants selling valuable artifacts. This effectively increases the options a wizard has in rounding out his or her armies and armory. Famous wizards also start the game with a significant amount of fame (see Fame), while wizards without this ability start with very little!

This special

ability costs two spell picks.

• Infernal Power is the death magic counterpart to Divine Power. All

shrines, temples, parthenons and cathedrals in cities owned by the wizard yield 50% more than the usual amount of magic power. These institutions are also more effective than normal at reducing local unrest.

A wizard must have a minimum of four spell ranks in death magic to choose Infernal Power. This special ability costs two spell picks.

• Mana Focusing increases the effectiveness of the mana drawn

from a wizard’s magic power reserves by 25%. In other words, every four mana the wizard uses to cast spells counts as five.

wizard must have at least four spell ranks in one magic area to select this special ability.

• Myrran places a wizard on Myrror at the beginning of the game

(otherwise, all wizards start on Arcanus). Myrran wizards may choose to begin the game with one of the special races (beastmen, dark elves, draconians, dwarves or trolls) that are otherwise not available to starting wizards. Because Myrror is a world richer in magic than Arcanus, the Myrran wizard’s enchanted fortress generates double the magic power of an equivalent fortress on Arcanus.

This special

ability costs two spell picks.

• Nature Mastery markedly enhances a wizard’s use of nature magic.

This special ability increases the speed with which a wizard researches new nature spells. It also makes nature spells cast by a wizard with this special ability twice as difficult to dispel. Finally, Nature Mastery allows a wizard to draw double the amount of magic power from nature nodes he or she controls.

A wizard must have a

minimum of four spell books in nature magic to choose this ability.

• Node Mastery doubles the amount of magic power that a wizard

draws from nodes of all types.

A wizard must have at least one spell rank each in chaos, nature and sorcery magic before he or she can select Node Mastery.

• Runemaster improves the strength of all spells cast by a wizard

(spells cast by a Runemaster are twice as difficult to dispel than normal). This ability increases the speed with which a wizard can learn arcane (i.e., gray-colored, “generic”) magic spells and also allows a wizard to cast arcane magic spells at a reduced cost.

wizard must have at least two spell ranks each in any three different magic types to select Runemaster.

• Sage Master greatly increases the speed at which a wizard

researches

all

spells.

A wizard must have a minimum of one spell book in at least two different magic areas to qualify for this special ability.

• Sorcery Mastery enhances a wizard’s use of sorcery magic in many

different ways. This special ability increases the rate at which a wizard researches new sorcery spells and doubles the amount of magic power that the wizard can draw from sorcery nodes under his or her control. In addition, Sorcery Mastery makes sorcery spells cast by a wizard twice as difficult to dispel as normal.

A wizard must have a minimum of four spell ranks in sorcery magic to select this ability.

• Warlord improves the quality of a wizard’s troops. All troops under the

wizard’s control gain one extra level of experience over their actual training and experience. While troops cannot normally achieve a level higher than “elite,” equivalently experienced troops under a Warlord’s control fight at an “ultra-elite” level.

This special ability

costs two spell picks.

Select Spells

After you have allocated your eleven spell picks to spell ranks and

special abilities, click on the

screen

to advance to the

OK button

at the bottom of the

select spells screen

spell pick

Number of

guaranteed

spells per

degree of

rarity

Names of

guaranteed

spells

The

definitely

select spells screen

in your spell library. Most of the spells in your spell library (the

allows you to choose which spells are

spells which you can eventually research) are randomly determined by the computer when it creates the game world. However, if you choose enough spell ranks in a particular magic area, you can guarantee the presence of a few specific, key spells in your spell library. Note, these are

not

spells that you know (i.e., can cast) at the beginning of the game;

they are simply spells that you can eventually research.

When you enter the already highlighted in yellow with a check mark to their left. These are the default spell selections. If they are satisfactory, just click on the

button

at the bottom of the screen to continue. If you wish to make your own selections, click on the currently selected spells to deselect them, then select your own choices (a list and description of all available spells is given in the Spellbook supplement) by clicking on the spells you want. The number of spells you may select in each rarity category is indicated on the top line of that category’s section. Chosen spells are highlighted in yellow. When you are satisfied with your guaranteed spell selections, click on the

select spells screen

OK button

to go to the next screen.

, notice some spells are

Select Race

After you have chosen your guaranteed spells, you zip to the

race screen

you chose the special ability Myrran (see Special Abilities). Myrrans start on the world of Myrror and have the choice of beginning the game with beastmen, dark elves, draconians, dwarves, or trolls—as well as any of the remaining nine “regular” races. All other wizards begin on Arcanus and may barbarians, gnolls, halflings, high elves, high men, klackons, lizardmen, nomads or orcs.

To select your villagers, click on one of the highlighted races; races

that are not highlighted are not available.

Although choosing a race at the beginning of the game is an important decision, a “poor” selection for your specific situation should not be viewed as irreversible. You can always set out to conquer neutral cities which are populated by other races more useful to your needs. This allows you to ultimately make use of many races’ special advantages and abilities.

Basic information on the capabilities of most races (and those races that differ from the norm in these areas) is shown below (For specifics see Table B: Race Comparison in the Appendix). The values given for production of an item per person are on a per-game-turn basis. A “person” represents 1000 beings, symbolized by a single figure in the

city screen

. The races available for your starting city depend on whether

only

choose from one of the other nine races:

(see City Population).

select

• Food: All races harvest two units of food per farmer except for

halflings, which produce three.

• Production: All races are equally productive (one production unit

per worker) except for klackons, which are 50% more productive than everyone else.

• Gold: You determine how much gold each town generates by

setting the tax rate. By default, the tax rate starts at one gold per figure, but you can set it anywhere from one-half to three gold per figure, in half coin increments. Dwarf workers produce double the tax rate, and nomads produce 50% more.

• Magic Power: Only four races have an inherent ability to generate

magic power! Beastmen, draconians and high elves can each produce half a unit of magic power per person. Dark elves are the most magical of all races and can produce one unit of magic power per person.

• Maximum City Population: Some races are less tolerant of

crowding than others. Their cities have lower maximum population sizes as follows: trolls and dark elves have four fewer people per city; dwarves have three fewer people per city; draconians, gnolls, high elves and klackons each have two fewer people per city than “normal.”

• Population Growth Rates: Races have different population growth

rates. Normal population growth rates depend mostly on the difference between the maximum size of a city and its current population. The larger this difference, the faster a city grows. The population growth rate can be found on the parenthesis after the actual population. Of the races, draconians, gnolls, klackons and nomads have slow growth rates; dark elves, dwarves, high elves and trolls have the slowest growth rates of all the races. Lizardmen have fast growth rates; barbarians have the fastest growth rates of all. Outpost growth rates reflect the abilities of races to establish new cities. While not identical to population growth rates, outpost growth rates roughly correspond to the races’ population growth rates.

• Natural Dispositions: Some races are inclined to get along with

other races even after they capture one another’s cities or after one of their cities is captured. Others races tend to seethe with anger and rebellion when their cities are taken and have, in general, such an intense aversion to other races that even when other races’ cities, this hatred generates a large rebellious contingent in the populace. Generally, halflings are the most congenial race of all and very little unrest develops among their townsfolk when their cities are controlled by other races, or when they control other races’ cities. Barbarians, gnolls, high men, lizardmen, nomads and, surprisingly, orcs are also pretty easy going vis-à-vis occupation policies. Dark elves, dwarves, high elves, klackons and trolls, however, can create plenty of unrest when their cities are occupied or their race conquers another race’s city among this listing. Particular animosity exists between the high and dark elves, between the dwarves and elves, and among the trolls, dwarves and elves. Any combination of these is likely to require a conqueror to build several religious institutions just to keep the rebel populace in check. (See City Population, Building Types and Imperialism for more information.)

city screen

they

conquer

Select Banner

After you have chosen one of the predesigned wizards, or upon completing the creation of your own wizard, you enter the

screen

. Click on one of the five banners (green, yellow, blue, purple or red) to select the color your troops will follow. After you choose, the program generates the worlds of Arcanus and Myrror according to the parameters you selected in the generation, the program also determines which non-guaranteed spells are in each wizard’s spell library. When creation of the new worlds is complete, you are plunked onto the game, in control of a city bearing a flag of your chosen color.

new game screen

main movement screen

select banner

. During world

of the

Select Home City Name

The last step before starting to play a game of deciding whether or not to accept the default name for your wizard’s home city. After the worlds are created, you have the option to alter the name of your starting city or to accept the default selection. In addition, if you have chosen to play on the Easy setting, you are asked if you wish to use the grand vizier to manage the production of buildings in your cities (see Grand Vizier). With that decided, you are ready to start playing!

Master of Magic

Beginning the Game -

The Main Screen

MAIN MOVEMENT SCREEN

Reduced

map (world

window)

Status

window

Upkeep

summary

window

Next turn

button

Buttons

Main movement view

The main movement screen of

Enchanted fortress

Master of Magic

is where most of the game play takes place. This introductory section contains a very brief description of each area of the main movement screen. The sections that follow describe each of these areas in detail.

There are seven buttons (game, spells, armies, cities, magic, info and plane) across the top of the screen. Clicking on these buttons takes you to new screens or menus.

• The

game button

takes you to the

game options menu,

from which

you can load and save games.

• The

spells button

takes you to a list of spells that you can currently cast. At the beginning of most games, the only spell in this spell book is magic spirit (an arcane magic spell described in the Spellbook supplement).

• The

armies button

takes you to a screen that shows all armies and heroes that you currently control. At the beginning of the game, you have no armies, so this screen is empty.

• The

cities button

takes you to a list of your current cities and outposts. At the beginning of the game, the only city on this list is your starting city (a.k.a. your “enchanted fortress”).

• The

magic button

takes you to a screen where you can examine and modify how your magic power is being distributed over the areas of spell research, spell casting skill and mana reserves. There are a series of empty “mirrors” or gems at the top of this screen that eventually display the faces of any opposing wizards in the current game; these mirrors are the means by which you communicate with all known wizards.

• The

movement screen movement view

gold and mana in your reserves.

mana you are producing every turn. If one of these numbers is colored red, then you are losing the displayed amount of that item each turn! When this happens, you probably want to take appropriate measures to correct this per turn deficit spending (you’re not the US Government, after all!). Note that surplus gold and mana are added to the amounts shown in the status window each turn, while surplus food is converted to gold at a rate of one gold piece per two surplus food units. The

upkeep summary window

for an active unit to move.

turn button

and takes you to the next turn in the game. This updates all of your economic, diplomatic and research data by one turn and allows your units to start a new turn of movement.

main movement view

that represents your starting city (aka “enchanted fortress”). All exploration, troop movement and building of outposts and roads takes place in this viewing area.

info button

advisor buttons

world, your spell library, other wizards, etc.

plane button

Myrror. At the beginning of the game you have no means to travel to a different plane. Eventually you will be able to use the

button

to move troops between these two worlds.

The

reduced map (world window)

The

status window

The

upkeep summary window

In the bottom right corner of the

The largest section of the

. Clicking on this button means you are done with this turn

takes you to a long list of advisors. Clicking on the provides you with important information about the

switches you between the worlds of Arcanus and

. Clicking on a site on this map centers the

on that site.

below the reduced map shows the amount of

is replaced by the

main movement screen

. Here you can see a small town with a flag on top

is on the top-right side of the

shows how much net gold, food and

unit window

main movement screen

when it is time

is the

is occupied by the

plane

main main

Game

licking on the

screen

Save slots

The

game options screen

to quit to DOS and to adjust game settings.

SAVING

To save a game, click on one of the eight slots in the middle of the screen. A cursor appears. Type in a name or short description for the game in progress and then click on the screen. If there is already a name in the saved game slot you selected, you can either save the current game under that name (by clicking on the

save button

the name in the slot by backspacing over the current name and typing in a new one. After hitting the e key or clicking the immediately return to your game.

game button

after selecting the game in that slot) or you can change

takes you to the

can be used to save and load games,

save button

game options

at the bottom of the

save button,

you

To load a previously saved game, click on the slot in which that game was saved. The name or description of that saved game is highlighted. You can then click on the saved game.

load button

to resume playing the

SETTINGS

Clicking on the

screen

. The following list of settings can be toggled on or off (by clicking on them), depending on your preference. A check mark appears in the small box to the left of each setting that is currently on.

settings button

takes you to the

game settings

Sound Effects should be turned on if you wish to listen to the sound

effects. This setting is ignored if your sound card does not support digitized speech.

Background Music should be turned off if you do not wish to have

continuous music playing in the background during your game.

Event Music should be turned on if you wish to hear special music

when various events occur.

City Spell Events should be on if you wish to be notified when city

enchantment spells are cast on your cities or those of other players.

Overland Spell Events should be on if you wish to be notified when

overland enchantment spells are cast on your cities or those of other players.

Summoning Events should be on if you wish to be notified when

summoning spells are cast.

End of Turn Summary should be turned on if you wish to see a

summary scroll at the end of each turn. The information contained in the summary is the same as that obtained by consulting with your Chancellor (see Chancellor).

Automatic Advice should be turned on if you wish the computer to

supply you with suggestions on what you should be doing during your game. Experienced players can turn this option off.

Random Events should be turned on if you wish random events to be

part of your game (see Events).

End of Turn Wait should be on if you wish to be prompted to press the

next turn button

once all your units have moved.

Strategic Combat Only should be on if you wish

place under the computer’s control. Turn this off if you wish to conduct your own tactical combat. Note: with this option on you need never witness combat at all; you are simply informed of the results.

Additional Unit Information should be on if you wish to keep an extra

combat unit display window

provides information on remaining ammunition, mana and health of the active unit (see Combat).

Enemy Moves should be turned on if you wish to view the movements

of enemy troops that are within your range of sight.

Enemy Spells should be turned on if you wish to be informed when

other wizards cast spells.

Spell Book Ordering should be turned on if you wish to have the spells

in your spell books arranged in sections by spell categories (i.e., city enchantments, creature summonings, etc.) rather than by color (life, death, chaos, nature or sorcery).

Spell Animations should be turned on if you wish to view the

animations that apply to any spells that you have successfully cast.

Show Node Owners should be turned on if you wish to see the magic

aura around controlled magic nodes. The magic aura is the same color as the banner of the controlling wizard.

Expanding Help should be turned on if you wish to view help

information (obtained by right-clicking on areas) as a graphic that expands/emanates from the area in question.

open during combat. This window

all

battles to take

Click on the

settings to return to the

OK button

when you are finished adjusting the game

game options screen

QUIT

You can quit to DOS from the

the

quit button

at the bottom of the screen.

game options screen

If you simply wish to return to the game from the

screen

, click on the

OK button

by clicking on

game options

Spells

licking on the

spells that you know

spells such as city enchantments, unit enchantments, summoning spells, etc.) are visible. At the beginning of the game, the only spell in your spellbook is likely to be magic spirit, a common arcane

summoning spell described in the Spellbook supplement.

The casting cost of a spell is shown to the right of the spell’s name

in your spellbook.

spells button

and

that can be cast overland (i.e., noncombat

takes you to your spellbook. Only those

Dog ear:

click here

Casting

Bookmark:

click here to

close book

to turn

page

cost

Length of

time to

cast spell

The length of time (in turns) it takes to cast a spell is indicated underneath the spell’s name by the number of colored symbols (spells that can be instantaneously cast show “Instant” instead of symbols). For example, if you wish to cast a specific nature spell and there are four green tree symbols beneath the spell’s name, then it takes an estimated four turns to cast the spell (the actual time may vary if the amount of mana being spent per turn for spell casting is altered).

To turn to another page of your spell book, click on the dog-eared upper corners. To close the spell book without casting a spell, click on the red bookmark at the bottom of the book.

To cast a spell, click on the name of the spell. To change the spell you are casting, click on the new desired spell. Note that when you change spells, any magic power you have already invested into casting the original spell gets transferred to the new spell; any invested magic power that is “left over” after this transfer (i.e., the new spell has a lower casting cost than the original spell) is permanently lost.

Name of

spell

Type of

spell effect

You may simply stop casting the current spell (indicated in glowing letters) by clicking on that spell; you are then asked to confirm that you wish to cancel the spell.

For more information on different types of spells and spell casting, see the Spellbook supplement.

Armies

licking on the This screen provides a complete list of all your armies and

heroes and gives you access to the through the army list quickly by using the arrow buttons that are

same map square are grouped together on the

located on either side of the list. Units that are

Hero portrait

Hero units

Army units

Upkeep summary for all units

Reduced map window

armies button

takes you to the

items screen

armies screen

. You can move

stacked

in the

Name of

highlighted

unit

Clicking on such a group of stacked units takes you directly to the map square which the group is occupying.

Placing your mouse cursor over a unit on the list highlights that unit and causes the following:

• All current enchantments on the highlighted unit are listed in the

unit enchantment window

• The location of the highlighted unit is shown as a blinking white dot

in the troops and cities are shown in this the color of the controlling wizard.

reduced map window

underneath the army list.

underneath the army list. Enemy

Unit

enchantment

window

reduced map window

as dots in

• Right-clicking on the highlighted unit presents a detailed

description of the unit (see Basic Units Information). You can dismiss the unit from your army by clicking on the

dismiss button

You can also remove any enchantments that were cast by your wizard from the unit by clicking on the enchantment icon.

• Clicking on the highlighted unit activates it and finds the unit for

you by taking you to the map square it is occupying in the

movement screen

main

In the bottom-left corner of the

armies screen

is the

upkeep window

This displays how much total gold, mana and food is required each turn to maintain your armies. Most armies and enchantments require some sort of maintenance cost. The

upkeep window

is a way for your wizard to conveniently examine and readjust the numbers of armies (by dismissal) and enchantments (by removal) so that any upkeep costs can be adjusted to reasonable values.

Clicking on the

at the same position you were when you entered the

OK button

returns you to the

main movement screen

armies screen

ITEMS

Clicking on the The

items screen

are currently being used by your heroes or in storage in your (a holding area for unassigned items).

Hero

Item carried by hero

Item slots (staff and 2 rings)

items button

takes you to the

items screen

allows you to view, move and destroy artifacts that

fortress vault

Anvil

Treasur y

summary

The

items screen

Stored

item

displays the artifacts that each of your heroes is currently using in a series of slots next to the hero’s portrait. Each hero can carry up to three items: a weapon, a special item (such as a magic orb) and a piece of armor or a second special item. Up to four additional artifacts may be stored in the fortress vault (indicated by four slots in the lower left window of the

items screen

IMPORTANT: The three slots next to each hero’s portrait are limited to holding specific types of items. Some slots can only hold special items (such as rings and orbs), while others are suited to holding armor (mail and shields). Below is a chart of the slots and the sorts of items they can hold. Note that the weapons and armor a hero can be equipped with depend on the hero’s type; some heroes are mages, others are warriors, etc.

Slot For Artifact Artifacts Allowed

Sword Icon Axe, Mace or Sword

Bow Icon Axe, Bow, Mace or Sword

Staff Icon Staff or Wand

Staff crossed with Sword Icon All Weapons

Armor Icon Any type of Mail/Armor, Shields

Ring Icon All Miscellaneous Items Right-clicking on any item in the screen displays a list of attribute

enhancements the equipped item provides.

Clicking on an item allows you to now looks like the item). The item can then be (by clicking on the appropriate slot next to the recipient) or to the fortress vault.

If moving the artifact does not require moving it to a new map square (indicated by the phrase “Same Location” in light blue below the names of those heroes occupying the same map square as the current owner of the item), the move costs nothing.

If transferring the artifact requires moving it to a new map square (indicated by the phrase “Item Teleport” in red below the name of the planned recipient), attempting to do so calls up an

window

. You are asked if you wish to pay the required twenty mana to

move the item (you must have enough mana to move the artifact).

Clicking on the reserves and moves the item to the requested location. If you click on the

no button

If you obtain too many artifacts to store or divide among your heroes, you may them on the anvil in the lower left corner of the an artifact over the anvil adds one half the base creation cost of the artifact in mana to your mana reserve (see Artifacts).

yes button

, you are returned to the

break

extra artifacts by picking them up and clicking

pick up

an item (the mouse cursor

moved

to another hero

item teleport

removes twenty mana from your mana

items screen

. Breaking

In addition to providing ways to view, move and break artifacts, the

items screen

portraits, see Basic Unit Information) and to move to the specific location of a hero (by clicking on his or her portrait) on the

movement screen.

If you are short of either mana or gold, you can use the

in the

button

Clicking on the

allows you to examine heroes (by right-clicking on their

items screen

to get to the

to interconvert these two goods. Click on the

conversion screen

OK button

. See Alchemy for more information.

returns you to the

armies screen

main

alchemy button

alchemy

Cities

licking on the screen provides a list of all your cities, including specific

information on each city’s production and current

structures or troops being built by a city.

enchantments. This screen also provides a way to alter the

City summaries

Treasur y summary

City enchantment window (no enchantments)

cities button

takes you to the

cities screen

. This

Reduced map window

The listing of cities forms the largest part of the can scroll through the list by clicking on the arrow buttons on either side. The information provided on each city includes the city’s name, the race of the occupants, the population size, gold production per turn, production points per turn, the structure or troops currently being built and the length of time to complete the current project.

You can highlight a city by placing the mouse cursor over the city’s line on the list. Any enchantments on the highlighted city appear in the

city enchantment window

city appears as a blinking white dot in the the list. The locations of other cities appear as colored dots in the

reduced map window

controlling wizard.

under the list. The location of the highlighted

reduced map window

, where the color of each dot is that of its

cities screen

. You

under

Clicking on the highlighted city takes you to that city’s

(see The Hamlet and the City Screen). Right-clicking on the highlighted city calls up just that city’s Production Screen) in which you can alter the city’s current project without leaving the

Click on the

city screen

OK button

to exit the

production screen

cities screen

city screen

(see

Magic

licking on the

screen

your magic power base, current spells you are researching or casting and how your available magic power is divided between researching, reserves and spell casting skill. The to communicate with other wizards, to obtain information about other wizards, to adjust how your magic power is being allocated and to use alchemy to interconvert gold and magic power.

. This screen contains portraits of all known enemy wizards (there are no faces in the frames at the beginning of the game, but don’t worry, your opponents eventually introduce themselves), a list of overland enchantments, information on

ENEMY WIZARDS

Across the top of the (or gems). At the beginning of the game the mirrors are empty, but as you meet other wizards, their portraits occupy these mirrors. You can use these mirrors for a number of purposes:

magic button

magic summary screen

takes you to the

magic summary

also provides a means

are a series of mirrors

• Quickly determine the

wizards’ faces are rimmed by the color of their banner type.

• Determine the

wizards’ faces, phrases like “neutral” or “hate” summarize the current status of your relationship with a particular wizard.

• Obtain

•

information

or her portrait. Doing this calls up a detailed character sheet for that wizard; see Enemy Wizard Statistics.

Communicate

portrait. This calls up the can form or break treaties, exchange spells and take other diplomatic actions. For more information, see The Art of Diplomacy.

status

with an enemy wizard by clicking on his or her

banner color

of your relationship with a wizard. Below the

about an enemy wizard by right-clicking on his

communication screen

of an opposing wizard. The

from which you

MAGIC SUMMARY SCREEN

Enemy

wizard

portraits

Status

Overland

enchantments

window (no

enchantments)

“Locked”

wand

• Observe the status of wizards’ relationships with each other. To the

right of each wizard’s portrait you may see a series of icons including scrolls, doves and crossed swords. These icons are colorcoded to match the banner colors of the other wizards, including yours. A scroll icon indicates that there is a wizard pact or alliance in effect between the wizard in the portrait and the wizard whose banner color matches the ribbon on the icon. Similarly, the crossed swords icon indicates a state of war exists, while a peace symbol icon indicates a peace treaty is currently in effect. If no icon appears, those rivals are in a neutral state (i.e., not at war, nor under the terms of a formal peace treaty, wizard pact or alliance). See The Art of Diplomacy for more details.

MAGIC SUMMARY

The left side of the information on how your magic power is being used. Basic magic information for your wizard is listed:

• Spell casting skill is the amount of mana per turn that you can

channel into casting overland spells. It is also the amount of mana you can cast during one battle. Fledgling wizards start with a spell casting skill of five unless they are also Archmages (see Special Abilities), in which case they start with a spell casting skill of fifteen. Note that if a wizard has a hero with spell casting skill residing in his or her enchanted fortress, half of that hero’s spell casting skill contributes to the wizard’s overland casting ability (see Casting Overland). Channeling heroes have no affect on a wizard’s combat casting. A hero’s contribution to this skill is

magic summary screen

contains important

indicated by a second number in parentheses following the spell casting skill. This second number is the total current spell casting skill of the wizard, taking any heroes’ contributions into account.

• Magic reserves is the amount of total mana you have on hand for

casting spells. You can make more efficient use of this mana if your wizard has the Mana Focusing ability (see Special Abilities).

• Power base is basically the amount of magic power or mana you

are drawing in from all sources (magic nodes, religious institutions, special resources and wizard guilds) per turn.

• Casting shows the spell, if any, you are currently casting.

• Researching shows the spell you are currently researching.

• Summon to shows the city where your summoned magic creatures

appear.

Above this basic magic information are adjust how much of your total magic power you allocate to your mana reserves, researching efforts and spell casting skill. Each wand is appropriately labeled and the amount of magic power being devoted to each area (after adjustments for any special abilities, research points accumulated from institutions of higher learning, etc. have been made) is indicated underneath the wands. To adjust the ratio of magic power being allocated to an area, click and drag the “colored liquid” inside the wand to the desired level. The other wands simultaneously readjust their levels. To hold the percent (ratio) of magic power being devoted to a particular area constant, click on the head of that wand (the crystal glows bright to symbolize that its ratio bar is “locked”) before adjusting the levels in the remaining two wands. Click on the head a second time to unlock the wand’s ratio bar.

three wands

which can

OVERLAND ENCHANTMENTS

This section of the enchantments currently in effect. The enchantments are shown in the banner-color of the casting wizard, except for enchantments cast by your wizard, which are listed in dark print.

remove

letters), click on the spell in also ends any maintenance you were paying for that spell.

If you wish to wizards, you must cast (by clicking on the

movement screen

book; see Spell Casting) disjunction, disjunction true or spell binding. After casting one of these spells, you can choose which global enchantment you wish to eliminate.

Right-clicking on a global enchantment calls up its description.

one of your wizard’s global enchantments (in dark

and then clicking on the appropriate spell in your spell

magic summary screen

shows any global

the overland enchantment window

dispel

global enchantments that were cast by other

spells button

in the

. This

main

ALCHEMY

If you are short of mana or gold, you can interconvert these two resources through the use of alchemy. Click on the get to the

wizard has the special ability of Alchemy (see Special Abilities), all such conversions result in a loss of half the starting material! That is, if you convert 100 gold into magic power, you obtain only 50 mana points.

of the conversion (gold to magic power or magic power to gold) suits your purposes. Then click and drag the black and gray arrow in the center of the window until the amount of mana or gold you are converting (called

transmuting button

the also an the

screen

exit by clicking on the

conversion screen

Conversion screen

Do not, however, recklessly interconvert gold and mana. Unless your

Click on the arrow button between OKand

) is correct. Let go of the mouse button and click on the

to make the conversion. Click on the

magic summary screen

alchemy button

conversion screen

upon exiting.

When you have finished with the

if you change your mind. Note that there is

in the

items screen

from the

items screen,

(see Armies). If you entered

magic summary screen,

OK button

alchemy button

cancel

until the direction

cancel button

you return to the

to return to

items

you may

Info

licking on the cartographer, apprentice, historian, astrologer, chancellor, tax

collector, grand vizier) who can provide valuable information to your wizard.

info button

calls up a list of advisors (surveyor,

SURVEYOR

Clicking on the

movement screen

(

surveyor window

on the

main movement screen,

squares revealed in the

The surveyor’s information includes statistics for a potential city built on the selected map square: the potential maximum population of a city built at that site and any bonuses such a city would get to its production and gold revenue because of nearby terrain features.

The information displayed in the terrain type and any special terrain features (minerals, crystals, wild game, etc.), including their bonus effects on food, gold, power and production. See Terrain Types and Terrain Specials for more information on specific terrain types and features.

Click on the exit.

surveyor button

(see Status Window) with surveyor information

). By running the mouse cursor over visible map squares

surveyor window

cancel button

replaces the

you can see information about the map

surveyor window

at the bottom of the

status window

also includes the

surveyor window

of the

main

Surveyor

summary of

effects for

indicated

square

CARTOGRAPHER

Clicking on the Myrror (you can switch between the two maps by clicking on the dog ear in the lower right corner). These maps only show those areas of the worlds that you have already explored.

The information displayed on the maps includes known cities (the color of cities matches the banner-color of the controlling wizard), military units and other structures (towers, temples, ancient ruins, etc.). To the right of the map is a key which shows the banner-colors of all known wizards.

World

Explored area

cartographer button

brings up maps of Arcanus and

City flags (colors indicate owners)

List of known

wizards

Dog ear

Clicking on a part of the map returns you to the

screen

, with the

Clicking on the word “close” returns you to the

screen

main movement window

centered on that location.

main movement

APPRENTICE

Clicking on the library. All the spells that you have already researched are legible in this book. All of the spells that you will in a runic script.

Spell category

Potential spells

Known spells

Bookmark: click to exit

apprentice button

eventually

takes you to your complete spell

be able to research appear

Spells in the apprentice’s spellbook are divided into categories: summoning spells, special spells, city spells, enchantments, unit spells, combat spells and research spells. The research spells are those that you can learn at this time. The spells that you are currently researching and casting appear in glowing letters.

To turn the pages of the apprentice’s spellbook, click on the dog ears in the upper corners of the pages. Click on the bookmark to exit.

HISTORIAN

Clicking on the of Wizards’ Power. This graph shows all known wizards’ power over time. The power of a wizard is the combined value of many things including army strength, total magic power drawn from all sources per turn, and spells that wizard has learned.

historian button

takes you to a graph called History

The History of Wizards’ Power graph also compares your wizard with all known enemy wizards. Each wizard’s power is represented by a colored line corresponding to the wizard’s banner-color. A key in the upper left corner shows each wizard’s name printed in the same color.

Click anywhere on the graph to exit this screen.

ASTROLOGER

Clicking on the

screen

. This screen shows a comparison of your wizard with all

known enemy wizards.

astrologer button

takes you to the

current status

The

Strength, Magic Power and Spell Research. The sections each have a bar

current status screen

graph that compares all known wizards in terms of the relative strength of their armies, the total magic power drawn per turn, or the total research cost of all the spells learned by each wizard to date. The wizards are each represented by banner-colored bars next to their names, where the relative lengths of the bars reflects the relative “power” of each wizard.

Click anywhere on the screen to exit.

is divided into three sections: Army

CHANCELLOR

Clicking on the

that occurred during the

Click anywhere on the screen to exit.

chancellor button

game turn.

unrolls a scroll that lists the events

TAX COLLECTOR

Clicking on the

which you can set the taxes for the people in the cities you control.

Tax rates can be set in increments of one-half gold coin per townsperson. Tax rates at the beginning of the game are set at one gold piece per townsperson. Elevating taxes increases gold revenues, but decreases productivity by increasing the level of unrest in a city. Decreasing taxes has the opposite effect (see Gold).

If you wish to set a new tax rate, click on the desired rate. If you decide not to change the current tax rate, click anywhere else (outside of the

tax window

movement screen

tax collector button

) on the screen. Both options takes you back to the

takes you to the

tax window

main

GRAND VIZIER

Clicking on the can select or deselect computer-controlled production of buildings in your cities. This function is automatically on if you are playing at the Intro setting and off if you are playing at Average or harder settings. At the Easy setting, you receive a prompt at the beginning of the game asking if you wish to use the grand vizier to control what your cities are building.

If the grand vizier is on, you do not receive prompts when your cities complete projects. If you wish to examine what your cities are producing or if you wish to change what they are making, you can enter the

screen

(click on the

right-click on any city whose production you wish to change. See Cities and Production Screen for more details.

grand vizier button

cities button

in the

takes you to a window in which you

main movement screen

cities

) and

MIRROR

Clicking on the screen contains all sorts of relevant information about yourself (and is almost identical in set up to the reveals information about your foes; see Enemy Wizard Statistics).

The mirror shows all of your spell ranks (as spell books), special abilities, total gold reserve, total mana reserve, your fame and a list of all your heroes (including their class and level).

Exit the

Fame

A wizard’s fame influences how readily mercenary troops (see Mercenaries and Heroes) approach a wizard. As your fame grows, you pay less gold per turn to maintain your total number of troops. In addition, your rising reputation tends to draw more experienced mercenaries than it did before. Mercenaries who approach you may ask for a lower initial payment to join your cause (though they always ask for something).

mirror button

mirror screen

takes you to your

enemy wizard statistics screen

by clicking.

mirror screen

. This

that

Wizards start with very little fame unless they have chosen to be Famous, in which case they start with 15 fame points (see Special Abilities).

Fame is slowly accumulated through conquest (of neutral or enemy cities), establishing new cities, and the recruitment of Legendary heroes (see Special Unit Abilities). For each new city that he builds, a wizard earns one fame point. For conquering hamlets, villages, towns, cities and capitals, a wizard earns 0, 0, 1, 2, and 3 fame points, respectively.

Plane

licking on the

views

in Arcanus and Myrror. Currently-active units that can shift between planes (because of their location in a tower of wizardry or city with an astral gate, or because of a special ability) move between Arcanus and Myrror each time you click the

plane button

shifts you between

main movement

plane button.

Status Window

status window

screen

displays your total gold reserve and total mana reserve.

on the right side of the

main movement

Upkeep Summary Window

ppearing underneath the

main movement screen

window

. Most of the time this window contains information on

the net gain or loss of gold, food and magic power per turn.

requires gold, food and magic power, it is important to pay attention to what is happening in this window. If at any time, you are or mana every turn, the number in the red. If there is not enough food to maintain troops, they start dying off! A running deficit of gold or mana, however, does not generally result in an immediate loss of units or enchantments. Instead, gold and mana are taken from your treasury (total gold reserve) and your total mana reserve, respectively. Once these reserves are depleted, units and enchantments can no longer be maintained.

Because maintaining units and enchantments and casting spells

status window

is an area called the

upkeep summary window

Then

they start disappearing.

on the right side of the

upkeep summary

losing

gold, food

turns

BASIC UPKEEP INFORMATION

Upkeep Type Notes

Gold To pay normal troops and non-noble heroes

(maintenance cost reduced by wizard’s fame);

To maintain buildings Food To maintain normal troops (1 food per unit) Mana To maintain the presence of summoned creatures;

To maintain enchantments and continuous spells

If you are not generating a sufficient amount of food

your troops, you may go to one of your city screens and adjust the number of farmers and workers so that you are producing enough food (see Food).

If you need more gold

have many options: you can increase your tax rate (see Tax Collector); construct buildings that increase city revenues (marketplace, bank or merchant’s guild); conquer neighboring cities or build new ones to increase your base productivity; convert mana into gold through alchemy, sell buildings, and dismiss extra troops or expensive heroes.

If you need more mana

summoned creatures, you also have several options: you can alter how much of your total magic power per turn gets funneled into your mana reserves (see Magic); summon magic spirits or guardian spirits to meld with new magic nodes; construct buildings that produce magic power (shrine, temple, parthenon, cathedral or wizard’s guild); conquer nearby towns or build new cities to increase your potential magic power base; convert gold into mana through alchemy; destroy magic artifacts to release mana; dismiss summoned creatures, and remove expensive enchantments.

to maintain your troops and buildings, you

to maintain your enchantments and

to maintain

Main Movement Screen

main movement screen

exploration and other purposes, view cities and surrounding

terrain and keep an eye on previously discovered enemy cities and enemy troop movements.

The

movement screen

The

main movement view

centered in the window.

main movement view

and can be scrolled by right-clicking on map squares.

adjusts so that the map square you chose is

is where you may move units for

is the large map on the

main

QUICK INTRODUCTION TO GETTING AROUND THE MAP

Right-clicking on

The Hamlet and City Screen). If the city is enemy owned or neutral, you cannot examine the determine the race occupying the city, the city’s production, and the troops garrisoned there, as well as which buildings have been constructed.

cities

on the map calls up their

city production screen

city screens

. However, you can

(see

Right-clicking on your own cities also calls up their

city screens

From there, you can quickly determine the city’s productivity and the nature of its latest project. You may activate patrolling units on city squares from this screen (by clicking on them). You may also enter the

city production screen

by clicking on the

change button

below the city’s

current building project.

On the

main movement screen,

you may choose the destination of active units (outlined in red) that you control by clicking on the destination map square. You may activate inactive units by right-clicking on them; then click on the individual units appearing in the

unit window

so that their backgrounds fill in with color (see the following section). If you have an active unit, hitting the C key on your keyboard centers the

main movement view

Right-clicking on stacks of enemy units calls up a

on that unit.

unit list window

which briefly describes all of the units in the stack.

More details on what can be done from the

main movement screen

follow in the next section.

UNIT ACTIONS

When units are first built (by cities), summoned or hired, they appear as map square of the wizard’s city that has his or her summoning circle. Hired units (including heroes) appear on the map square of the wizard’s enchanted fortress. Finally, units that were constructed within one of the wizard’s cities appear on the map square of the city in which they were built.

the

active

(outlined in red) units. Summoned units appear on the

All active units may do one of the following (most options appear in

unit window

on the right side of the

main movement screen

Active

unit

(stack)

Individual

units

Movement

options

• Move by clicking on an allowed destination map square or by

hitting the keys on the numeric keypad. When units are moving over long distances, a “G” appears on their pictures. Right-clicking on a unit or stack that is traveling over a long distance reveals, with tiny boot symbols, the exact path over which it is traveling.

• Pass or decide not to move for a turn by clicking on the

button

(the unit may be reactivated by right-clicking on it);

• Wait until other units have moved or other actions have been

performed before deciding what to do (by clicking on the

button

);

• Patrol by clicking on the

remain in the current map square. While patrolling, units have an intrinsically higher Scouting ability (see Special Unit Abilities) which allows them to see one map square farther away than normal (usually, while active, only the best Scouting ability of all units in a stack is operative). Note that most units have an intrinsic Scouting ability to see one map square away and flying units can normally see two squares away; patrolling extends these scouting ranges to two and three, respectively. Patrolling units appear grayish and only become active again if you right-click on them to open up the

window

Some units can perform special activities:

and then click on the unit you wish to activate.

patrol button

. Active units set to patrol

done

wait

unit

• Build roads: Engineers can build roads (click on

After selecting this option, click on the destination square for the road which you are building. A direct path is plotted (and a road built along this path) from the map square the engineers currently occupy to the destination square. To change the destination square while building a road, activate the engineers and click on a new target map square after hitting the

to cross rivers but not oceans

turns per square to complete, depending on the terrain type (see Building Roads). Multiple engineers working on the same road speed up this process. Engineers that are busy constructing roads show an “R” on their pictures.

• Purify: Priests and shamans can purify corrupted land (click on

purify button

priests could purify a square of corrupted land in 5 turns).

• Meld: magic spirits and guardian spirits can meld with nodes (click

meld button

draws the magic power from the node and sends it to the controlling wizard. Nodes can be stolen from enemy wizards in this way as well. Note, however, that a node that was taken by a

), a process that takes ten unit-turns (for example, 2

), sacrificing themselves to provide a channel that

build button. Roads are allowed

. Finally, roads require from two to six

build button

guardian spirit can only be stolen 25% of the time; the rest of the

time, the spirit that is attempting to meld with the node dies.

• Build outposts: settlers can build outposts (click on

on map squares that are at least three map squares from any other city.

build button

)

Unit Movement

Every game turn, you cycle through all active units (only patrolling units must be specifically activated). The map window centers on the active unit (outlined in red) and a of the screen (in place of the the map on the currently active unit by hitting C on your keyboard.

If you simply wish to move the active unit, you can click on an allowed destination square (a destination is allowed if a valid path can be found). If the destination is too far away to reach in one turn, the unit “remembers” where it is supposed to go. On subsequent turns, the unit continues to make its way to the destination square.

Note that you can examine a unit’s path by right-clicking on it after it has completed its movement for the game turn. You can then change the unit’s destination or path by clicking on new map squares. On the following turn, the unit (or stack) follows its new path.

unit window

appears on the right side

upkeep summary window

). You can center

Unit stack

Destination

square

Path

Also note that a unit stops moving when its preset path would cause it to enter a map square occupied by an enemy city or unit. This allows you to decide whether you wish to alter your path, or stop and engage in combat by entering an enemy city or a square occupied by enemy troops.

Upon reaching the destination, if the unit (or stack) has any movement points left, it appears as one of that game turn’s active units (with the remaining movement points left to allocate). If the unit has no movement points left, it becomes active again during the following turn.

If you wish to do something other than move an active unit, click on the appropriate button in the

unit window

Note that units can move in stacks of up to nine units. When they move in stacks, the unit with fewest and most limited movement points governs how far and over what terrain the entire stack can move (see Movement Modes).

If you wish to split a stack into smaller stacks (of one or more units), click on the individual unit pictures in the you wish to move as one stack are highlighted and all the units you wish to leave out of the current stack are grayed out. Move the stack of highlighted units. Repeat this process for the units that you left behind by right-clicking on the remaining stack to activate it and proceeding from there (either splitting the remaining stack or moving the remaining stack as one).

You may also split a stack by waiting until the stack has stopped moving. Then right-click on the stack and all units with movement points left become activated. These units can then be moved away from the remaining units. This is a fast way to split a stack into smaller stacks by the speed of the individual units.

unit window

until all the units

Special Unit Movement: Sailing

Triremes, galleys, warships, air ships and floating islands can carry other units over oceans. These “sailing units” may only travel over ocean squares (of course, air ships can travel over land as well as sea). When sailing units are next to land, they act as de facto land squares for purposes of loading and unloading troops. That is, nonflying units can walk on or off sailing units adjacent to a land square.

When a sailing unit moves away from a land mass, it carries on board the nonflying units stacked with it. These nonflying units are automatically placed “on patrol” inside the ship. This means that when the ship pulls up alongside another land mass, the “patrolling” units on the ship do not automatically activate. Instead, to activate a unit that was carried by a ship, right-click on the ship to open the Then click on the units you wish to activate. You can move these nowactive units onto land.

Note that, when leaving a port, a departing ship automatically takes a number of it, chosen at random. So, be careful when you pull a ship out of port (a city). You might want to wake up any patrolling units in the city’s garrison that you want to keep there, so they do not accidentally set sail! One interesting point is that

capacity of a vessel

you like).

patrolling

units corresponding to its carrying capacity with

heroes do not count toward the carrying

(feel free to add them to an already full ship, if

unit window

World Window (Reduced Map)

reduced map(world window

movement screen

Any active unit appears as a small blinking white dot on this map.

Cities appear as colored dots (city color is that of the banner of the controlling wizard; neutral cities are brown).

The white square in the in view in your

Clicking on an area in the

screen

on that location. This provides another convenient means to get

“around” the world.

main movement screen

displays a smaller rendition of the world map.

reduced map

world window

) to the right of the

delineates the area currently

centers the

main movement

main

Unit Window

unit window

This window appears on the right side of the

screen

whenever it is time for an active unit (stack) to move or

when you right-click on a unit or stack in the

view

or a

All units that appear together in the

stacked (no more than nine units may be stacked together).

Grayed out units in the

movement points for the turn.

Clicking on a unit in the Right-clicking on a unit displays the unit’s statistics (see Basic

Unit Information).

The

unit window

DAMAGE

A colored bar appears below units that have sustained (and not yet healed from) damage; an uncolored or “empty” bar is present when a unit is undamaged. A green bar indicates that the unit is still fairly healthy, but has injuries of up to 1/3 of its normal hit points. A yellow bar indicates that the unit has lost between 1/3 and 2/3 of its total hit points.

A red bar indicates that the unit is severely injured

than 1/3 of its normal hit points left.

EXPERIENCE LEVEL REPRESENTATION

A series of circles of different colors and numbers are used to represent unit experience levels (see Experience Levels).

Rings: Number and Color Experience Level of Normal Troops Experience Level of Hero

is extensively described earlier in Unit Actions.

city screen

unit window

provides some unit information at a glance:

are either patrolling or out of

activates it.

main movement

are currently

, having fewer

1 Silver Regulars Myrmidon 2 Silver Veterans Captain 3 Silver Elites Commander 1 Gold Ultra Elites Champion 2 Gold Champions Lord 3 Gold Not applicable Grand Lord 1 Red Not applicable Super Hero 2 Red Not applicable Demi-God

WEAPON TYPES

If the unit is wielding certain magic weapons, this is represented by a small sword on the unit’s picture. The sword is red for flame blades and

eldritch blades, white for blessed and mithril weapons and purple for

adamantium weapons.

MOVEMENT MODES

Different units are capable of moving in different ways and at different speeds. In the of movement points left to the unit (stack) as well as any special movement modes. See Table C: Basic Movement Types in the

Appendix.

Planar Travel

Traveling between the planes (worlds) of Arcanus and Myrror can take place under the following circumstances:

• Units in a tower of wizardry can move between planes (click on the

plane button

• Units in a city with an astral gate (life magic spell) can move

between Arcanus and Myrror.

• The special unit ability Planar Travel allows certain units to travel

back and forth between the two planes without regard to location. These units can only move between planes (when outside of towers of wizardry or cities with an astral gate) while stacked with other units if all the units in the stack have Planar Travel. The global enchantment planar seal negates this special ability.

unit window,

in the

main movement screen

the bottom edge shows the number

Movement between planes occurs when you click on the

button(main movement screen

true. Units capable of moving between planes (due to their location or a special ability) appear in both Arcanus and Myrror when you click on the

plane button

destination map square) in whichever plane you prefer.

. Simply move them in the normal way (click on a

) if one of the above conditions holds

plane

Teleporting Between Cities

It is possible for units to teleport between two cities if both cities have earth gates (nature magic spell). This teleportation costs one movement point for the unit. Teleportation is automatically used when you select a city with a friendly earth gate as the destination square (see Unit’s Actions and Movement) for a unit stationed in another city with an earth gate.

Next Turn

licking on the

main movement screen

(or turn). This button only appears when all units (except those on patrol) have been given orders.

button

the next time period after all units have been allowed to act.

automatically, an End of Turn Summary appears if you have selected that option from the game settings (see Settings). At this time, gold, mana and resources are collected and allocated for construction and maintenance; damaged units heal, and movement points for all units are replenished.

If the End of Turn Wait setting (see Settings) is off, the

never “pops” up. Instead, the game automatically advances to

When you click the

next turn button

moves the game to the next time period

next turn button,

in the bottom right corner of the

next turn

or when the turn advances

Basic Exploration and

the Hamlet

The following sections focus on the basic information necessary for

you to expand your territories and build up your cities.

Exploring the Worlds of

Arcanus and Myrror

hile the worlds of Arcanus and Myrror are similar in many ways

draconians and delicate and mysterious dark elves, creatures the likes of which are rarely (if ever) seen on more-mundane Arcanus. The nodal magic sources on Myrror are twice as strong as those on Arcanus, while two of the rarest magic elements in the universe exist solely on Myrror: adamantium and crysx crystals.

troops have captured a tower of wizardry or (if a wizard is learned in life magic) until the wizard has learned to cast spells that allow planar travel, the wizard must stay on his or her home world.

limited to his or her home world. Exploration is a vital element in

of Magic

other wizards and develop an ever-increasing magic power base and knowledge of spells.

your colored banner. Only the smallest area around this hamlet is visible (you have to explore the rest).

(each having some basic land masses, oceans and seas, creatures, magic sources and minerals), Myrror is a fantastic world with an almost-alien, mystical richness of creatures, magic and elements. There are creatures like flying fire-breathing

All new wizards start on one of the two worlds. Until a wizard’s

Until your wizard can travel to a different plane, your exploration is

Master

. It is only through exploration and expansion that you meet

When you start the game, you see your hamlet (a small city) flying

Cityscape

window

Resource

window

City map

window

City

enchantment

(none)

Garrison

window

(no troops)

Production

window

Population

row

As you build troops, summon creatures and hire mercenaries, more and more of the world becomes visible and accessible to you. Moving troops into the black, uncharted reaches beyond your cities (see Unit Actions) reveals more of the surrounding lands. If you have some knowledge in nature magic, you may be able to get an early start on exploration by learning the spell earth lore if it is in your spell library (see Spellbook supplement). This spell allows you to permanently view huge, unexplored areas of either world.

MAP SQUARES

Both worlds are divided into small sections called map squares. Each map square is characterized by a terrain type. Terrain types offer different potential resources in terms of total food production, gold and manufacturing (nonfood production). Each terrain type also has a certain chance of containing special resources (described in Terrain Specials). Finally, terrain can affect how quickly creatures and other units travel.

TERRAIN TYPES

Table D: Terrain Types in the Appendix lists the different terrain types on Arcanus and Myrror.

TERRAIN SPECIALS (MINERALS, BIOTA, NODES AND STRUCTURES)

Table E: Terrain Specials in the Appendix lists the special minerals, plants, animals, nodes and buildings that can be found on various terrain types and the effects of having these terrain specials in cities.

Building Roads

The rate at which engineers can build the terrain special “roads” depends on the terrain type. Table F: Road Building in the Appendix indicates how many game turns it takes a single engineer unit to build a road over different terrain types. More information on building roads can be found in Unit Actions.

WANDERING MONSTERS

Raiders and rampaging monsters may appear from time to time, exploring the worlds in the same manner as you probably are. Raiders are bent on capturing cities they find, while monsters are merely interested in destruction. The frequency with which these units appear and their strength depends on the difficulty setting of the game. When raiders take a city, it reverts to neutral control. When rampaging monsters win, there is a chance they trash a city so thoroughly that it becomes a ruin, and a lair to explore.

The Hamlet and the

City Screen

he hamlet in which you begin the game is your first source of workers, settlers, gold, magic power and spell research points.

Your home base, as you first see it, looks like a small settlement with a waving flag. The flag is your wizard’s banner-color, and all

flag. Enemy cities display the controlling wizard’s banner, while neutral cities fly a brown flag.

movement view

to bring up the information about your city and the necessary tools to take it from a tiny hamlet to a thriving city.

CITY POPULATION

inhabitants. The inhabitants of the city are generally productive and either spend their days farming or working in some other capacity. The number of people who farm are shown on the left, while the workers are congregating on the right.

(by farming) to feed all the inhabitants of the city are automatically sectioned off on the left side of the population row. These farmers cannot be turned into workers; however, they do contribute to the production of the city (producing half as many production points as workers; see Resources). The rest of the population is composed of workers, who are automatically assigned non-farming jobs in order to keep productivity high.

be turned into farmers (and farmers in this group may be turned back into workers) by clicking on a figure in this group. That figure changes type (from farmer to worker or worker to farmer), and all people to his or her left become farmers; all the townsfolk to the right become workers. The numbers of farmers and workers can be readjusted whenever necessary to keep productivity high while producing an adequate amount of surplus food to feed hungry troops.

workers rebel.

productive workers, refuse to do any productive work

still manage to consume just as much food as they did before. You cannot change rebels into workers or farmers. You can only address the condition that spawned them to end their rebellious state.

subsequent cities you conquer or build are marked with such a

As cities increase in size (population), their appearance in the

Right-click on the picture of your hamlet in the

Across the top row of your hamlet are small figures representing the

The minimum number of people necessary to produce enough food

The workers in the group on the right side of the population row may

On occasion, civil unrest may grow to the point that some of your

changes appropriately.

city screen

The rebels, shown in a group to the right of the

. This screen contains all of the important

main movement view

. However, they

main

CITY SIZE

Cities are named according to the number of inhabitants, as indicated on the following table.

City Name Population

Hamlet 1–4 Village 5–8 Town 9–12 City 13–16 Capital 17–25

RESOURCES

The cities in resources: food, production points, gold, magic power or “mana,” and spell research points. These resources are represented in the

window

books, respectively. Larger quantities (10 units) of each resource are represented by sacks of flour, anvils, stacks of gold, large stars and open books, respectively. For example, two sacks of flour and three loaves of bread represent the production of 23 units of food by the city’s farmers. Similarly, four stacks of gold and one gold coin represent the production of 41 gold pieces by the local townsfolk. The various resources are described in the following sections.

of the

Master of Magic

city screen

can produce up to five different

resource

as loaves of bread, pick axes, coins, stars and

FOOD

Food is necessary to support both city residents and normal troops. Food comes from farmers (two food units per farmer) working the land around the city and from special institutions (granary and farmer’s market). Certain things can modify the amount of food produced by the city’s lands, such as famines and the presence of a forester’s guild.

While every city automatically allocates enough farmers to feed the populace (if possible), it does not necessarily allocate enough farmers to produce the surplus food required to maintain normal troops. (A normal unit requires one unit of food per turn.) Keep an eye on the

upkeep summary window screen

. Whenever the net food per turn drops below zero (negative numbers appear in red), you may wish to convert another citizen to a farmer in one of your cities to ensure that your troops are fed. If you neglect to take care of this immediately, units start dying!

In the the citizens to the left. Slightly separated from this food and to the right are the surplus food units which are used to maintain your troops.

citizens spoils quickly, your towns sell these goods and obtain one gold piece for every two surplus food units.

city screen

Because food in excess of what is required to feed troops and

on the right side of the

, the food row shows all food necessary to maintain

main movement

In addition to feeding townsfolk and troops, production has an impact on the growth rate of the population. The greater the difference between the number of people in a town and the total number of people that can be fed in the city, the faster its growth rate. This growth rate is further modified by the type of race in the city (some races naturally reproduce more quickly than others; see Select Race) and various city enchantments.

Finally, the rate of food production can be increased by building an animist’s guild. This building allows individual farmers to harvest 50% more food than normal; the total amount of food a city can produce, however, is not affected. An animist’s guild, therefore, allows more of the town’s citizens to focus on production instead of farming.

potential

food

Starvation

When a city does not produce enough food to maintain its populace, townsfolk start dying. Every negative food noted on the

summary window

of famine. Famine in a town is indicated by the word ‘starvation’ in red letters at the top of its

translates as a loss of one townsperson per 20 turns

city screen

upkeep

PRODUCTION

A town’s workers generate two production points apiece (except for dwarves and klackons, who produce three apiece) and are responsible for the bulk of a city’s production (farmers produce half as many production points as workers). A city’s production can be further modified by the race occupying the city, the surrounding lands (deserts, forests, hills and mountains increase productivity), city buildings (sawmills, forester’s guilds), and various enchantments (such as cursed

lands and Gaia’s blessing).

A city’s production points are used to construct buildings and troops (see Buildings and Normal Units).

GOLD

You obtain gold by taxing the citizens of your towns. Note that productive citizens pay taxes. Taxes are set by the Tax Collector (click on the

info button

collector button

can range from zero to three gold pieces in increments of one half gold piece.

While the tax rate affects how much gold you are earning per turn, tax rates also affect the productivity of your workers. This is reflected in the level of unrest in your towns. Higher tax rates generate more dissatisfied townsfolk (rebels) at two times the tax rate, while certain institutions (shrines, temples, parthenons and cathedrals) and spells (Gaia’s blessing and stream of life) decrease the level of unrest by decreasing the number of rebels. Furthermore, the wizard special abilities Divine Power and Infernal Power make local religious institutions more effective at decreasing unrest (see Special Abilities section). Note that certain spells (including cursed lands, pestilence, famine and evil presence)

of the

). Tax rates start at one gold piece per townsperson, but

main movement screen

increase

unrest levels.

and then on the

all

tax

In addition to tax rates, other things influence how much gold you

earn. Cities built on rivers or oceans increase commerce and income (see Terrain Types). Institutions such as marketplaces, banks and merchant’s guilds generate additional income (as a percentage of the collected taxes). Producing trade goods instead of buildings or troops provides a great deal of gold from trade (see Production Screen). Cities with some terrain specials (silver, gold or gems) generate a constant stream of extra income as well. Finally, roads that connect cities to one another provide additional income from trade.

Gold is necessary to maintain buildings and some troops. The amount of income per turn required to maintain the town’s buildings is indicated in the gold row by the darkened coins to the right.

Gold in excess of that needed to maintain buildings goes first toward paying upkeep for your troops. Any remaining gold gets placed in your treasury (gold reserves).

MAGIC POWER

There are many ways for a wizard to obtain the magic power required to learn and cast powerful spells. Magic power can be drawn from nodes (discussed in the Magic Power and Nodes section), obtained as treasure when exploring creature lairs or after destroying enemy wizards, from breaking artifacts and from various city sources. City sources of magic power are listed below.

• Races: Some races (beastmen, dark elves, draconians and high

elves) automatically generate magic power by virtue of their magical natures (see Select Races).

• Institutions: Fortresses, shrines, temples, parthenons, cathedrals,

alchemist’s guilds and wizard’s guilds generate magic power (see Buildings).

• Minerals: Cities built near sources of mithril, adamantium, quork

and crysx crystals obtain additional magic power from these resources every turn (see Terrain Specials).

RESEARCH POINTS

Beside magic power, there are specific research points that can be generated to contribute to learning new spells. Spell research points are generated by institutions of learning such as libraries, sage’s guilds, universities, oracles and wizard’s guilds.

CITYSCAPE AND URBAN RENEWAL

In the lower left section of the This window contains a graphic representation of the city and its buildings. As you complete buildings or other structures, they appear in this area. To examine the contents of a city, run the mouse cursor over this window; the name of the structure appears.

city screen

is the

cityscape window

By right-clicking on a building in this window you call up an

information scroll about the structure.

To sell a building, you can click on it (you only receive half of its construction cost in gold). The only structures that you cannot sell are fortresses and summoning circles.

CITY ENCHANTMENTS AND CITY WALLS

The

window

spells that you have cast appear in white letters, while those cast by enemy wizards appear in the color of the controlling wizard. Having nightshade as a resource in your city (see Terrain Specials) and a building that can make use of this resource (religious institutions, see Buildings), significantly increases a city’s ability to resist enemy city enchantments.

(to eliminate their upkeep costs), click on the name of the spell in the

city enchantment window

(wall of darkness and wall of fire; see Spellbook supplement). Only one magic wall can encircle a city at any one time; however, a city can have standard city walls (an option in the in addition to a magic wall. The Wall Crusher ability that some units have only applies to the standard city walls, not to magic ones (see Special Unit Abilities).

the disenchant area or disench ant area true spells (see Spellbook supplement).

city enchantment window

. Enchantments affecting your city appear in this square. The

To remove enchantments that you have cast on one of your cities

Some specific city enchantments create magic walls around the city

To dispel city enchantments that you have not cast, you must use

appears to the right of the

production screen

; see Buildings)

resources

CITY VIEW WINDOW

In the upper right section of the showing the map squares that contribute to the city’s production.

city screen

is a

city map window

GARRISON WINDOW

Underneath the nine units may be garrisoned in a city at any one time. Any troops currently stationed in the city or on the city’s map square appear in this window. To activate a unit in this window, click on the unit. Rightclicking on a unit in this window calls up the Basic Unit Information).

city view window

is your garrison. A maximum of

unit statistics window

(see

BUYING OR CHANGING PRODUCTION

In the lower right section of the

window

. The building, unit or other item you are currently producing is shown in this area, along with how many turns remain before the project is completed. The amount of production (in terms of production points) already invested in the project is graphically shown by gold coins in this window. The amount of production remaining before the project is completed is shown as darkened coins.

city screen

is the

production

There are three buttons below the

production window

• Buy: Clicking on the

current project—if you have enough gold in your treasury. The more you try to speed up a building project, however, the more you have to pay to get it done (all that overtime work...). So, you have to pay more for each remaining (i.e., needed) “production point” to complete a building that you just started than for one that is already half completed.

• Change: Clicking on the

screen

(see next section), where you can decide which project to work on next. Note that you do not lose the effort you have placed into any current project; those “production points” get diverted into your new project. However, surplus production units (if you change production to a structure that “costs” less to build)

• OK: Clicking on this button returns you to the

screen

buy button

change button

allows you to pay to complete your

takes you to the

will

main movement

production

be lost.

Production Screen

production screen

can construct on the left side of the screen, a list of all normal

units or troops you can recruit on the right and a window in the center of the screen that provides detailed information on your current construction project.

To choose or alter your current construction project, click on one of

the building names or troop types along either side of the

screen

. This also calls up information about that building or unit.

has three parts: a list of all buildings you

production

The information displayed about buildings includes the construction cost in production units, the maintenance cost, the structures and units that you will be able to build after you have constructed this building and any other important effects this structure has.

The information displayed about units includes their construction costs and statistical information (number of hit points, defense rating, special abilities, etc.). Detailed information on unit types is included in Normal Units and Table I: Standard and Race-Specific Units in the Appendix.

When you have chosen a project, click on the bottom of the screen to confirm your selection. If you decide to make no changes in what the city is building, click on the button returns you to the

city screen

OK button

cancel button

at the

. Either

BUILDINGS

You are notified whenever one of your cities has completed construction of its latest project. At this time, you are whisked to that city’s

city screen

default project for a city that has completed construction of a building or unit is “Housing”. This option invests production into new housing to encourage city growth. Cities can also devote their production to a number of other things: buildings, troops and trade goods. Troops are discussed in Normal Units.

Cities can only produce those buildings for which they have the requisite materials (terrain types), previously constructed buildings (for example, construction of a temple requires prior construction of a shrine) and knowledge (race-dependent; see Select Race).

Buildings require a certain total number of production points before they are completed. The length of time, then, that it takes a city to produce a particular building depends on the number of workers it has, the tax rate and any other productivity modifiers (see Production). The construction of troops follows the same principle. However, housing and trade goods (chosen from the city can divert production to generating more townspeople (by building housing to increase the growth rate) or more gold (through trade goods).

If you have sufficient gold reserves, you may choose to buy a building or military unit instead of constructing it (see Buying or Changing Production).

Buildings have maintenance costs, which are automatically paid from your income every turn. Maintenance costs in excess of income are drawn from your gold reserves. Buildings or military units for which there is insufficient gold to pay these upkeep costs either disband or die (military units) or are automatically sold at half price (buildings and city walls). If the required gold to maintain units and buildings is unavailable, military units disappear (those with lower upkeep costs are the first to go) before buildings (which are randomly sold).

so that you may choose a new building project. The

production screen

) are ways in which a

Table G: Building Types in the Appendix shows the cost to

produce and maintain the different buildings. If any previously constructed buildings or terrain types are necessary for the construction of a building, this is also indicated. The special effects of having a building in a city are listed; these may include special troops or buildings which you can now construct because you have the required building in place, increases in food, magic power, production, etc.

TROOPS

The

buildings. By clicking on one of the unit types listed along the right side

production screen

of the

production screen,

Basic Unit Information), including its production cost. The selected unit can then be confirmed as chosen for construction by clicking on the

OK button

Note that when a unit is completed, you are not informed about this in the same way as you are when a building’s construction is finished. Instead, as soon as a unit is complete it becomes active (outlined in red). You are automatically taken to the new active unit, at which time you can decide whether to station the unit there (select it elsewhere (click on a target map square in the

screen

). See Unit Actions for specific information on what units can do.

Once a city starts producing a unit type, it continues to do so until you change its production to something else. The city does automatically revert to producing housing, as it does when a building project has reached completion.

Building An Army contains extensive information on the available units and creatures in

at the bottom of the

allows you to create units instead of

you call up information on that unit type (see

production screen

patrol

) or move

main movement

Master of Magic

not

Expansion and Meeting

Your Neighbors

After you’ve oriented yourself to the basic tools in it is time to start taking some action! While the earliest parts of the game involve exploring the immediate vicinity of your hamlet and maybe constructing a few buildings, the next stage of the game requires that you take a little more control of the situation. It is time to start seriously exploring and expanding into the rest of your starting world, maybe even poking your nose into the other plane of existence. As you expand your territory, you develop more cities, take over some nodes (for magic power), learn more spells and meet your competitors.

Master of Magic

Expansion

xpansion in You can either build settlers (see Production Screen) to

establish outposts or conquer existing cities. The best approach for your wizard depends on where he or she starts the game and how “built up” the neighborhood is already.

THE OUTPOST

To build a new city, you first have to go to the one of your other cities (see City Screen) and click on the

button

. When you have constructed a settlers unit (note that it “costs” a townsperson to build this unit), decide on the best location for your new city. Spend some time examining the terrain in areas that are clear of other towns. The terrain types within two map squares of a city map square (specifically, all the squares except for the four corner squares in the 5X5 area centered around the city) determine the maximum population for the city and the special resources available to the city; a synopsis of a city’s potential on a selected map square is accessible via the

surveyor button

sections for relevant information.

Note that you can only build new cities on map squares that are at

least three map squares away from all other cities on the same world

you start a new city only three map squares away from another city, however, the map squares that both cities share (as a result of being built so close together) yield only 50% of their output to each city. Land that is shared is demarcated in the 1/2 in the shared map squares.

When you have selected a suitable site for a new city, send your settlers to that map square and select the build option. The settlers then quickly build an outpost (which you get to name) and populate it (i.e., the settlers disappear). The outpost starts with one population unit that is one-tenth of the size of a normal city population unit. The outpost has to grow to contain ten such “mini” population units before it expands into a hamlet.

Right-clicking on an outpost displays the window has slots for ten houses. Each house that is filled in represents one mini-population unit. Grayed-out houses are empty, and the number of empty houses indicates how many more residents the outpost must acquire before it becomes a hamlet.

Master of Magic

. See the Surveyor, Terrain and Terrain Specials

city map window

can take place in one of two ways.

production screen

of the

city screen

outpost window

settlers

. If

by a red

. This

Every game turn offers the outpost a chance to grow or decline in size (outposts can be deserted). The direction and speed of growth depends on a number of factors:

• Race: Some races are better at establishing new cities than others (see Select Races).

• Potential Food: The more food the surrounding terrain (within two squares of the outpost) can potentially produce, the more rapidly an outpost grows.

• Resources: The presence of minerals, ores and gems in the surrounding lands increases the likelihood that an outpost grows quickly.

• Spells: Some enchantments naturally encourage growth (Gaia’s

blessing, stream of life), while others (famine, evil presence, pestilence and chaos rift) definitely discourage growth and

development.

IMPERIALISM

As an alternative to expanding peacefully by building new cities, you have the option to conquer pre-existing cities. The best way to do this is to spend some time examining nearby neutral (or if you are in a really feisty mood, enemy) cities.

To examine a city, right-click on the city in the

screen

. This shows a modified you can see the race that is populating the city and the buildings in the city. If the city you are viewing is not within scouting range of any of your troops, this lack of information about the troops within the city is indicated by the message “No Report”. You can also view the troops garrisoned in a neutral or enemy city by running the mouse cursor over the small unit pictures above the unit types). Pay particular attention to the race populating the city. If you conquer the city, you can use this race to build troops, settlers and buildings. Their abilities (see Select Race) contribute to your cause. Choose wisely!

The rest is up to you. You must decide whether you have an army of

sufficient strength and numbers to take over your target city (see Building An Army). If you feel that your army is strong enough, you can activate the units (click on the city in which your troops are garrisoned) and move them toward the target city. Remember that you can stack no more than nine units together on any map square. If you wish to construct an army out of units coming from several different locations (for example, if you are building troops in two different cities), amass all of the troops in a convenient location before approaching your target city. You may also choose to wear down the city a little bit first by casting debilitating overland enchantments at the target city (see the Spellbook supplement).

city screen

(see City Screen) in which

cityscape window

main movement

(this identifies the

Finally, when you are ready to conquer the targeted city, just move

your stack of units onto the city. This immediately initiates a combat sequence (see Combat) with your army pitted against the city’s garrison. If you are victorious, the city suffers a few losses (in buildings and population) and then becomes yours. It erects a banner of your color, and the city’s production contributes to your reserves, magic power, spell research, etc.

Conquering a city generally causes a certain degree of additional unrest there. If the conquering race (defined as the race of the city where the wizard’s enchanted fortress resides) is different from that of the captured city, again, unrest may result. Conquered cities, then, generally have a higher base unrest level (i.e., number of rebels) than cities that have been built up from outposts. As a quick guide, additional rebels following a city’s capture range from 0 to 4 figures in its population row. Halflings, as either conquering races or conquered races, tend to cause the smallest increases in unrest levels; dark elves, klackons, high elves and dwarves, on the other hand, tend to cause the largest increases in local unrest levels. One way to handle any heightened levels of unrest is by quickly building religious institutions (shrines, temples, parthenons or cathedrals). See Building Types and Select Races for a few more details.

Magic Power and Nodes

s the game progresses, it becomes important for you to establish a strong magic power base (in order to learn new spells more

quickly, to fatten up your mana reserves, to increase your spell

summoned creatures you can afford to maintain). The earlier you do this, the better, as any early increases in magic power “income” per turn constitute significant increases in the relative amount of magic power you have to devote to your magic skills.

shrines, temples, parthenons, cathedrals, alchemist’s guilds and wizard’s guilds), races that naturally produce mana, special minerals and magic nodes. See Select Races, Buildings and Terrain Specials for information on the races, buildings and minerals that increase magic power.

generate large amounts of unharnessed magic power. Magic nodes come in one of three types: chaos, nature or sorcery (there are no life or death magic nodes!). These nodes can be utilized by any wizards, but wizards with certain special abilities (Chaos, Nature, Node or Sorcery Mastery) are able to make exceptional use of some or all of these magic nodes (see Special Abilities).

for use by your wizard, the game, nodes are occupied by vile creatures. Once these creatures have been eliminated (by moving an army over the node square and defeating the creatures in combat), you can send a magic spirit or guardian spirit to the node.

casting skill and to increase how many enchantments and

There are four major sources of magic power: buildings (such as

Magic nodes are places in the worlds of Arcanus and Myrror that

In order to redirect the unharnessed magic power from the nodes

you must capture the nodes

. At the beginning of

Both magic and guardian spirits are summoned creatures (see

Summoned Creatures and the Spellbook supplement) with a special ability that allows them to “meld” with nodes. When such a spirit steps into a node square, the option for it to “meld” appears in the

window

as it is reforged into a channel that directs the node’s magic power to the controlling wizard.

squares surrounding the node develop a colored aura that matches their controlling wizard’s banner. The number of map squares that display this aura represents the size and strength of the magic node. The larger the area, the stronger the node (i.e., the more magic power it generates).

stolen by simply moving one of your magic spirits or guardian spirits to the node. While this operation is only successful 25% of the time for nodes melded to a guardian spirit (if the current controlling wizard had a guardian spirit meld with the node), it is still an effective strategy, especially if you can protect the node. Note that you can meld the stronger guardian spirits to nodes that have already been melded to a magic spirit.

setting was used when starting the game (see New Game-Magic). Powerful nodes are 50% more powerful than normal nodes, while weak nodes are only half as powerful as normal ones. Note that nodes on Myrror produce twice as much magic power as nodes on Arcanus.

affect creatures within their spheres of influence. Creatures from the same magic realm as a node have enhanced attack strengths and defenses when in combat on squares from which the node draws its power (the same squares that are covered by a visible aura after a spirit melds with a node). See Magic Nodes for more details.

been altered by the warp node spell). This enchantment must be removed before the node can be normally used.

(see Unit Actions). Melding with the node obliterates the spirit,

After a magic spirit or guardian spirit takes over a node, the map

Nodes that are currently controlled by an enemy wizard can be

The magic power generated by nodes depends on which Magic

In addition to being a valuable source of magic power, nodes can

Note that no spirit may meld with a warped node

(a node that has

unit

Spell Research

uring the bulk of the game, research efforts (learning newer and

more powerful spells) are extremely important. The speed with which you can research new spells depends on several things.

• Spell Research Points: Buildings such as libraries, oracles, sage’s

guilds, universities and wizard’s guilds, as well as heroes with the Sage ability (see Heroes and Special Unit Abilities) who form part of your army, can contribute to the speed with which you can learn new spells. Each spell research point contributed per turn from these sources counts toward the research cost of each new spell.

• Magic Power: Your total income of magic power per turn

determines how much magic power you can direct toward spell research. Magic power is obtained from a number of sources, including buildings (shrines, temples, parthenons, cathedrals, alchemist’s guilds and wizard’s guilds), minerals (mithril, adamantium, quork and crysx crystals) magical races (beastmen, dark elves, draconians and high elves) and magic nodes (see

Buildings, Select Race, Terrain Specials and Magic Power And Nodes). The relative amount of magic power devoted to spell

studies can be adjusted in the

• Special Abilities: Some of the special abilities that wizards can

have (see Special Abilities) increase the rate at which they learn new spells. For example, Chaos Mastery increases the rate at which a wizard learns new chaos magic spells.

• Spell Ranks: If a wizard has restricted his or her research to the

point of acquiring eight or more spell books in that area, his or her efforts in that particular magic field proceed at a more rapid rate than normal (see Spell Ranks).

Beside acquiring new spell knowledge through diligent study, a wizard can learn new spells through exploration (examining ancient ruins, towers of wizardry, etc., see Terrain Specials) or trade (see The Art of Diplomacy).

magic summary window

(see Magic).

Meeting Your Neighbors

hen you get close to another wizard’s territory for the first time

various later points throughout the game) you may wish to “size him up” and start talking with him or her.

(i.e., when you get within scouting range of one of their cities), that wizard initiates contact with you. Contact may also be established when another wizard gets within scouting range of one of your cities. When you first meet another wizard (and at

ENEMY WIZARD STATISTICS

There are several ways to assess the threat posed by another wizard.

In the of an enemy wizard. This calls up a screen that is almost identical to your own Mirror screen (see Mirror). Here you can see the spell ranks (books), special abilities, total gold reserves, total mana reserves, fame and hero list of the enemy wizard. In addition, you get a brief synopsis of that wizard’s personality and objectives and the current status of your relations (including any treaties) with the wizard (see the following sections).

portrait, you’ll find a brief synopsis (like “neutral” or “unease”) of your current relationship with him or her.

magic summary screen

In the

magic summary screen

(see Magic), right-click on the portrait

itself, below the enemy wizard’s

Comparative information is also available through your Historian

(

History of Wizards Power

vital information concerning the relative army strengths, magic power and spell research efforts of all known wizards (including yours). See Historian and Astrologer for more details.

graph) and your Astrologer. The latter holds

ENEMY WIZARD PERSONALITY TYPES

An important part of assessing what you are up against is paying attention to the personalities and objectives of enemy wizards. These traits are based on the kinds of magic they practice and exert a powerful influence on your diplomatic relations with them.

Wizards’ personalities influence how they deal with other wizards:

• Aggressive wizards attack any time they feel that they are in an

advantageous position.

• Chaotic wizards have severe mood swings and, as a result, are

completely erratic. They may feel peaceful sometimes and wildly aggressive at others.

• Lawful wizards believe in dealing openly and honestly with others.

Never spontaneously attacking those with whom they are on good terms, these wizards react fiercely and decisively when unprovoked attacks are launched against them.

• Maniacal wizards display an unabating hostility toward all others.

Positive diplomatic actions toward them go almost unnoticed, while negative ones are noticed almost before they start!

• Peaceful wizards believe in compromise and harmony; they are

likely to seek peace even after aggressive actions are taken against them.

• Ruthless wizards need no reason to attack. Their thought on the

subject of war is that a strong offense is the best defense. They have no moral qualms on the issue of sacrificing their own people on the altar of conquest.

Wizards also have different fundamental philosophies on how best to allocate their resources:

• Expansionist wizards are most interested in controlling vast

territories and view settlers and the establishment of new outposts as the most effective means to this end.

• Militarist wizards believe strongly in establishing large and powerful

armies.

• Perfectionist wizards are interested in urban development. They

focus primarily on city improvements, both through the elevation of new buildings and the casting of positive city enchantments.

• Pragmatist wizards believe in a balanced approach to reaching the

objective of conquering the worlds. In their quest, they focus in roughly equal measure on expanding territories, building adequate armed forces and spell research.

• Theurgist wizards thirst for knowledge and focus a large part of

their resources on spell research.

THE ART OF DIPLOMACY

At the beginning of the game, each pair of wizards has a diplomacy rating that is designed to reflect the inherent suspicions and prejudices that differences between beings can generate. The general rules are that

1) every spell book (rank) that two wizards share makes them feel friendlier toward each other, and 2) spell books in life magic always generate positive diplomatic feelings, while books in death magic always generate a sense of distrust and concern. Note that wizards who specialize in death magic are intrinsically suspicious, even of other practitioners of this art.

Your diplomatic relations with enemy wizards depend primarily on your actions. Positive diplomatic actions on your part improve relations, while negative diplomatic actions harm relations. Like most things, diplomatic relations tend to slide back to their base level (the original state of affairs) when you do nothing at all. Note that all diplomatic relations are easier if your wizard is Charismatic (see Special Abilities).

Diplomatic actions that are viewed positively by your opponents are the kinds of things that you would view positively if done for you by an enemy wizard. When you are trying to establish positive diplomatic relations with another wizard you can give gifts (tribute), trade more powerful spells for weaker ones, attack that wizard’s enemies (those wizards with whom he or she is at war), establish and maintain wizard pacts or alliances and cast spells that affect the wizard’s opinion of you (aura of majesty). Note that you may not cast positive spells (such as positive city enchantments) on another wizard’s cities or properties in an attempt to improve diplomatic relations with that wizard.

Diplomatic actions that are viewed negatively include obviously aggressive acts such as attacking the opponent’s cities or troops, casting spells that negatively affect the opponent’s cities and other properties, breaking treaties, casting the game-ending spell of mastery (see Winning and Losing), summoning powerful fantastic creatures and building up excessively large armies near the opponent’s cities. When one wizard eliminates another from the game by force, other remaining wizards get quite upset with the conquering wizard. Negative diplomatic actions also include actions that provoke feelings of envy in your competitors, such as having more cities or more magic power than they have! Finally, the death magic spell subversion generates a great deal of contempt for one enemy wizard, creating a great sense of ill will toward him or her. A quick note on reputation: every treaty you break labels you as untrustworthy and (although it has the greatest effect on the wizard with whom you broke the treaty). Just remember that every time you break a treaty (even accidentally!), the rest of the world knows and remembers.

permanently

worsens your relations with all wizards

So how do diplomatic relations affect your interactions with other wizards? Basically, the relations your wizard has with other wizards determine how they weigh your behavior. If a wizard is loyal toward yours, he or she is likely to put the kindest interpretation on your actions; a wizard who thinks yours is lower than snail slime despises him or her on principle and, therefore, dislikes almost everything your wizard does. The status of your relations determines how easy it is to form wizard pacts, to trade for spells and to form alliances. If relations are very poor, there is an increasing probability that your opponent will attack you.

Quick Notes on War

If you attack an opposing wizard’s city, that is viewed as an automatic declaration of war.

While enemy wizards may view your accumulations of wealth and magic power with envy, they despise opponents significantly weaker than themselves. If an enemy perceives that he or she is much stronger than your wizard, there is a good chance that the enemy wizard will start a war with you.

Finally, once you have started casting spell of mastery (the successful completion of which ends the game, leaving the caster victorious), every other wizard in the game, regardless of prior relations, will declare war on you.

Trading, Treaties, Alliances and Pacts

To start communicating with another wizard, click on that wizard’s portrait when you are in the by clicking on the wizard appears flanked by gargoyles. The eye color of the gargoyles is a measure of your opponent’s feelings toward you. The eye color ranges from deep shades of green to vivid red, with green representing positive relations, yellow representing neutrality and red representing anger and negative feelings.

How a wizard feels toward you also defines the limit of his or her patience when dealing with you. Each time you beseech a wizard on any given subject, whether she accepts or rejects your proposal, you wear down her patience a little bit more (of course, if she rejects your proposition, you wear it down a lot faster!). As her impatience increases, her willingness to accept your propositions decreases. Over time, though, her patience toward you slowly returns. Therefore, try not to ask for a lot of things during a single parlay with another wizard. Ask about one or two items today, and then let a few turns pass before bothering that wizard again. In this way, you can keep an opponent’s patience toward you high so he or she is more likely to accept your proposals.

Underneath the wizard is a series of conversational options. Click on any conversational option to select it.

magic button

magic summary screen

in the

main movement screen

(enter this screen

). The

• Propose Treaty: This option gives you a chance to improve and

solidify relations with another wizard, and calls up the following possibilities:

a) Wizard Pact: This is basically an offer for a nonaggression

agreement that only has a chance of acceptance if you are on good terms with the other wizard (gargoyle eyes are green). You and your opponent agree not to attack each other and to stay out of each other’s territories (specifically, by not moving into squares adjacent to one another’s cities). If you violate this treaty, you will be enjoined to leave. If you do not leave, you have broken the wizard pact and you are remembered for having done so by all opponents. The longer a wizard pact is in effect, the greater the improvement in your diplomatic relations with the other wizard.

b) Alliance: An alliance is an exceptionally strong wizard pact. In

addition to the terms of the wizard pact, you are expected to come to the aid of your allies (by declaring war on those that threaten or attack them). Likewise, your allies are expected to come to your aid when your wizard is threatened by others. The longer an alliance is in effect, the greater the improvement in diplomatic relations between the allies.

c) Peace Treaty: Peace treaties are established when both parties

want to end a war. Generally, your opponents are more willing to consider this option (or to suggest it) if you are inflicting heavy losses on their armies and cities. Of course, an opponent wizard is far less interested in peace when winning a war! In spite of this, when a city changes hands, peace talks are often considered. Then, as long as aggressive actions (in either direction) cease, relations stabilize and peace treaties may be formed. Once a peace treaty is in place, the opposing wizard will not attack you for about the next dozen turns. If you attack him or her, however, during this 8 to 15 turn period that the peace treaty remains in force, you will be viewed as untrustworthy and negatively remembered by all wizards for the rest of the game!

d) Declaration of War on Another Wizard: When you are on good

terms with another wizard, you may consider asking for his or her help in fighting another enemy. The likelihood that someone agrees to help fight depends on the relative strengths of their diplomatic ties to the other wizard and to you.

e) Break Alliance with Another Wizard: When you are on good

terms with another wizard, you may ask him or her to break a pact or alliance with an enemy wizard. This is a good first step to take when trying to get him or her to agree to declare war on that enemy.

f) Forget It: This option takes you back to the main conversation

screen to select another option.

• Threaten/Break Treaty: This is one way of notifying other wizards

about your plans. It is also a way of getting other wizards to try to appease you by giving them an opportunity to offer tribute; they may also try to appease you by declaring a de facto, unilateral

peace treaty with you (see notes on peace treaties above). Finally, this approach may be used to try to goad your opponents into breaking treaties so that you do not have to take the permanent negative diplomatic penalty for doing so yourself! Your options (depending on the state of your relations with them) are as follows:

a) Break Wizard Pact: You no longer agree not to attack your

opponent, nor to stay out of his or her territories (specifically, you can now move into squares adjacent to one another's cities). You are remembered by all opponents for breaking a pact. However, to court another wizard who hates your former pactmate, it may be necessary.

b) Break Alliance: In addition to negating the terms of a wizard

pact, you no longer agree to come to the aid of your allies (by declaring war on those that threaten or attack them). Likewise, your allies no longer come to your aid. Again, your reputation suffers, but breaking an alliance allows you to reposition yourself in global politics.

c) Threaten to Attack: Threatening to attack is the only situation

under which other wizards may 1) offer to appease you with gold, mana or spells; 2) cower and declare a unilateral peace treaty; 3) ignore what they view as mere posturing on your part; or 4) get angry and immediately declare war on you! In making these choices, they consider their total power compared to yours (see Historian).

d) Forget It: This option takes you out of these potentially

dangerous diplomatic waters and back to the previous screen.

Note that a threat to attack is not the same thing as actually breaking a treaty.

• Offer Tribute: You can try to improve your relations with enemy

wizards by giving them gold, magic power and spells. The amount of an item that you give (in relation to how much they already have) determines how positively a particular tribute affects your diplomatic relations with the other wizard. Of all gifts, new spells are the most highly valued and exert the greatest diplomatic effects. In addition, other wizards always remember you favorably if you have ever given them spells as tribute and take this into account during future interactions with you.

• Exchange Spells: Finally, wizards can trade spell knowledge with

each other if they have spell books (ranks) in the same magic realms. Wizards can receive a new spell in trade only if they do not already know the spell and if it is one they could have learned in some other way (based on how many spell ranks they have in the spell’s magic realm, see Spell Ranks). Note that if you exchange more powerful spells for weaker ones, the difference in their values earns you positive diplomatic points with the other wizard (as “change”)! Note that, sometimes, deals with other wizards are open to haggling, and you may have the option to influence their final decision by offering them a little extra gold or magic power to get them to accept your proposal.

• Good-bye: When you get tired of communicating with the other

wizard (they may leave first if you wear them out with too many questions or requests), click on this option to return to the

magic

summary screen.

Building An Army

At almost every point during wizard to construct (or to have nearby) units or creatures of various types. During expansion phases, your wizard builds settlers. When taking over magic nodes, your wizard summons magic or guardian spirits from other realms. Exploration of other parts of the world, plundering ancient ruins and braving creature lairs all require at least one group (stack) of units traveling together as an army. Eventually, protecting your cities and precious magic nodes will require troops as well.

There are two fundamentally different types of units: normal and fantastic. Arcanus and Myrror. following sections describe the kinds of units you can build, summon and hire.

Normal units

are those formed by the races that populate

Fantastic units

Master of Magic

are summoned creatures. The

, it behooves your

Normal Units

ll units; whether fantastic or normal, have common basic features that are described in the next section. A detailed list of

normal units and their special features are in Table I: Standard and Race-Specific Units in the Appendix.

BASIC UNIT INFORMATION

Information about units can be obtained by right-clicking on their pictures in most of the game screens. This calls up a

window

. This window shows the size of the unit (i.e., the number of figures it has), its cost (in magic power or gold) or its upkeep cost (depending on the screen), the unit’s attack strengths, defense, resistance to magic, movement capabilities, the unit’s experience level and special abilities (see Special Unit Abilities), if any.

Units may also be dismissed from this

clicking on the

dismiss button

unit statistics window

unit statistics

Unit Size and Healing

Every unit has a specific number of figures in it. The number of

figures in a unit is shown in the picture in the upper left corner of the

unit statistics window

fantastic summoned creatures) to eight.

When a figure within a unit dies (which occurs when the total damage done to the unit is equal to or greater than the number of “hits” or “hit points” of an individual figure), the attack strength of the entire unit goes down by the attack strength of the individual figure.

If your troops win a battle, damaged units that have lost individuals during the battle can slowly regain them. That is, individual figures “regenerate” even when units cannot (units can normally regenerate only if they have Regeneration as a special ability, see Special Unit Abilities). You can view this “regeneration” as your units recruiting replacements over time. Within damaged units, individual figures will heal slowly over time. Healing rates are 5% of total hit points (of the undamaged figure) per turn when units are outside of cities, 10% when garrisoned in cities, and 15% when garrisoned in cities that have an animist’s guild. Finally, when units occupy map squares with Natural Healers (see Special Unit Abilities), they heal an additional 20% of their total hit points per game turn!

. This number ranges from one (for some of the

Cost and Upkeep

Normal units cost production units (or their equivalent in gold) to build, and both food and gold to maintain. The upkeep costs of normal units are based on their construction costs: one gold piece per turn for every 50 production units. In addition, every normal unit requires one food unit per turn. Whenever maintenance costs (either gold or food) cannot be met, units start dying (the units with lowest upkeep costs disappear first).

Fantastic units are summoned creatures. Since their “cost” is really the magic power required to summon them, their upkeep costs are in magic power. The upkeep costs for the various summoned creatures can be found in Table J: Summoned Creatures in the Appendix.

Movement

At the top of the and movement type (walking, flying, swimming, etc.) of the unit. This information is represented by a number and a symbol (such as a boot for walking and wings for flying). The number is the and indicates the number of squares a unit can move per turn either in combat or overland. The symbol indicates the type of movement of which the unit is capable. These movement types are described in detail in Table C: Basic Movement Types in the Appendix.

unit statistics window

is information on the speed

movement speed

Melee Strength

The melee (hand-to-hand) attack strength of a figure in a unit is indicated in the the word “Melee”. Each sword represents one basic attack (where each attack has a 30% chance of doing one point of damage). The number of swords, then, is the total amount of damage the unit can theoretically do to an opponent in melee combat.

Weapons that provide by alchemist’s guilds) or spells that have the same effect (holy weapon) increase the probability that each basic attack meets its mark (i.e., the 30% chance goes up by 10% per bonus point). If units are fighting with mithril or adamantium weapons or with plain magic weapons that have been created by their local alchemist’s guilds (see Table G: Building Types in the Appendix), special icons indicating this appear in the lower half of the “adamantium” or “magic weapon” icon.

Spells and special abilities (such as Might) that increase

strength

increase the number of “swords” in the

them as well as attack on their own, potentially giving them several opportunities every turn to inflict damage with their melee weapons (sword icons). Both the attacker’s and defender’s melee attacks can be defended against; each attack-and-defense segment gets resolved simultaneously (see Combat).

, increase the number of basic attacks a unit gets (i.e., they

During battle, units can respond to all melee attacks directed against

unit statistics window

bonuses to hit

unit statistics window

by the number of swords next to

(magic weapons constructed

. That is, you see a “mithril,”

attack

unit statistics window

Ranged Attack Strength

In the can conduct attacks over distance (ranged attacks), this row contains a

unit statistics window

series of casts ranged magic attacks) or its ranged attack). As with melee attack strength, the strength of a ranged attack is indicated by the number of small symbols in the ranged attack row.

symbol represents one basic ranged attack, which has a certain probability of doing one point of damage to the target.

a missile or rock-throwing attack meets its mark. These distancedependent penalties for non-magic ranged attacks do not come into play until the target is more than two squares from the attacker. See Ranged Attack under Combat for more details.

number of ranged attacks a unit can conduct during combat is generally limited as indicated in the ranged attacks have preset limits, heroes that have magic ranged-attack capabilities may throw magic bolts at a cost of three mana apiece. The mana they expend in throwing magic attacks is their own, and when their magic power is depleted they cannot throw any more magic attacks until their next battle.

bows

(if the unit uses a missile weapon),

Ranged attacks are handled in the same way as melee attacks. Every

The longer the distance to the target, though, the less likely it is that

Because ammunition is expended in launching ranged attacks, the

, there is a ranged attack row. If a unit

fireballs

rocks

(if the unit uses rock throwing as

active unit window

(see Combat). While most

(if the unit

Defense

The armor row in the of shields, the defense rating of the unit. Each shield represents one chance (30%) to stop one successful basic attack (one damage). Damage that is not stopped decreases the hit points of the defending figure. If the defending figure dies, then the next figure (if any remain in the unit) becomes the defender.

Note that defense blocks both non-magic and magic melee or ranged attacks. The following attribute, ability to resist spells

unit statistics window

only

indicates, by the number

resistance

, describes a unit’s

Resistance

The resist row indicates, by the number of crosses, the level of resistance to spells (including resistance to some special abilities such as Poison Attacks, Life-stealing, Gaze Attacks, etc.) of the figures in the unit. Every level of resistance adds 10% to the chance of successfully resisting negative magic spells cast on the target. For example, if a unit has four crosses, this indicates that the unit has a base chance of 40% of resisting enemy spells.

Hit Points (Hits)

Hits, represented by hearts in the number of hit points each figure has within a unit. When a unit takes damage, the number of hit points left (for the damaged figure) is symbolized by the number of undarkened hearts. The number of darkened heart symbols represents the number of hit points lost (i.e., total damage taken) by that figure. A figure dies and is removed from the unit when it loses all of its hit points. The hits row of the

window

figure in the unit steps forward.

is then replaced by a row of undarkened hearts as the next

unit statistics window

, indicate the

unit statistics

Experience Levels

Fantastic (summoned) creatures do not gain experience levels, but normal units and heroes do. The experience level of a unit is indicated in the

unit statistics window

ranging from recruit to champion.

Experience levels for normal units can increase in several ways: with the passage of time, through fighting (and surviving) battles, by being stacked with heroes that are Arms Masters (see Special Unit Abilities) and through magic (heroism, crusade). In addition, some institutions (fighter’s guild, war college) raise the levels of newly created normal units. Warlord wizards (see Special Abilities) have troops that are always one experience level in skill ahead of their counterparts’ (i.e., wizards who are not Warlords).

Special note:

not gain experience

Experience levels are indicated on the unit pictures (in the

normal units that have become undead creatures do

(see Special Unit Abilities).

movement screen, armies screen, city screen

silver and gold.

. Normal units can have experience levels

main

, etc.) by colored circles of

Increases in experience levels are associated with commensurate

increases in various unit statistics. Table H: Normal Unit Bonuses for Experience in the Appendix shows how unit statistics rise with experience. The indicated bonuses reflect increases to the unit’s base levels for the indicated attribute.

Special Abilities and Enchantments

Any special abilities and unit enchantments appear as icons in the bottom half of the removes them (if they were cast by your wizard). Right-clicking on the enchantments or abilities describes their effects.

Attribute modifiers (both positive and negative) from enchantments and special abilities (see Special Unit Abilities) or from carrying special items are always incorporated in the statistics shown on the

statistics window

current). The only exception is if the attribute modifier is conditional in some way (for example, ranged defense provided by shields (see Artifacts) only applies to defenses against ranged attacks); in this case, the modifier is not reflected in the number of swords or shields in the

unit statistics window

(i.e., the number of swords and shields is always

. Clicking on the enchantments

unit

LIST OF ALL NORMAL UNITS

Table I: Standard and Race-Specific Units in the Appendix shows all of the units that can be built from considered to many or all races), while others can only be built by a particular race.

unit. Any racial requirements are listed, as is the cost, (in production units) of building the troop. Note that upkeep costs for units are one food plus one gold piece per fifty production units in building cost.

the unit (symbolized in the the ranged attack strength (bows). The ranged attacks are described as follows: an 8 Magic (3) ranged attack is a strength eight magic attack that can be thrown three times during a single battle.

(crosses) and hit points (hearts) of each unit. Movement speed and type are indicated as well as any special abilities (descriptions of these can be found under Special Unit Abilities).

normal

units. Many of them are standard types (i.e., units available

Each unit type is followed by a number indicating total figures in the

Also indicated in the table is the melee (hand-to-hand) strength of

Also shown are the defense ratings (shields), resistance to spells

city production screens

unit statistics window

. These are all

by sword icons) and

Summoned Creatures

hile the summoned (fantastic) creatures are similar in many

maintain these fantastic beings. Unlike normal units, they are fully mature when they arrive and, therefore, gain no experience while on Arcanus and Myrror.

ways to normal units (see Normal Units), they are also different. They are beings that have been summoned from other planes of existence to the summoning circle of a wizard and bound to his or her will. It costs magic power both to summon and to

While all summoned creatures bear the marks of the magic realm that begot them, those that have been called by and formed from the power of death magic (including undead creatures) are special in many ways. They are considered Cold, Poison and Death Magic. They do not heal as normal units or even as other fantastic creatures do. Instead, the only way they recover from damage is if they have special Regeneration skills or through the use of Life-stealing Attacks. (see Special Unit Abilities for exact details on the various kinds of immunity, Regeneration and Life-stealing Attacks here mentioned). Although they do not heal easily, creatures of death tend to cost a lot less in maintenance than creatures of comparable power from other realms of magic.

Table J: Summoned Creatures in the Appendix shows the kinds of creatures that can be summoned in figures in a summoned unit is indicated, as is the magic realm from which it is called. Upkeep costs (in mana), melee attack strength, ranged attack strength, defense, resistance to magic, hits (hit points), movement speed and type are all indicated on this table. Any special abilities that characterize the summoned creatures are also listed. (For more information on basic unit statistics or special abilities see Basic Unit Information and Special Unit Abilities.)

Ranged attacks are described according to the following example: a 4 Missile (3) would be a missile attack of strength four which the unit could launch no more than three times during a single battle.

creatures of death

Master of Magic

and have immunity to

. The number of

Mercenaries and Heroes

rom time to time, wandering troops and heroes ask to join your cause. Note that the more famous your wizard, the more frequently

wandering troops approach you and the more likely these

arrive in groups of one to three units. Note that nonhero mercenaries are always some normal (i.e., non-fantastic) type. Mercanaries of the Myrran races only approach wizards who have contact with Myrror in some way, such as wizards who own a city on Myrror, an astral gate, or a tower of wizardry. A higher fame level increases the chance that more units approach at one time. See Fame for more information.

fee for more experienced units) to join you and upkeep costs (in gold and food, although heroes require no food). If you agree to let them join your forces, the initial payment amount is withdrawn from your gold reserves and the unit (activated) appears in your enchanted fortress. The special ability Charismatic (see Special Abilities) or a higher level of fame allows your wizard to hire troops at a lower initial cost. After you have hired mercenaries or heroes, they are under your control and do not leave until they die or you dismiss them.

mercenaries are at higher experience levels. Mercenaries generally

Most of these units require both an initial fee (in gold, with a higher

HEROES

Heroes are mercenaries of exceptional abilities. Not only can they wield powerful artifacts (see Artifacts), but they also frequently possess unique skills that enhance the controlling wizard’s capabilities. Heroes are also able to acquire experience levels far beyond those of normal troops!

When heroes come to a wizard’s enchanted fortress looking for work, that wizard is not obligated to hire them. If a wizard refuses to hire a hero, he or she leaves only to return (with a higher experience level) at a later date. However, level advances accrued in this way stop at the Commander level (see Table K: Hero Experience Levels in the Appendix), so no hero approaching you for hire is ever more experienced than this. The only exception is “The Chosen” (described below) who can be resummoned after dying.

can work for your wizard at any one time

appear if you already have six in your service!

There are a total of 35 hero prototypes in specific features and statistics of most of the heroes vary from game to game, and some of the heroes only show up if your wizard has knowledge of life or death magic. The mightiest of the heroes (“The Chosen”) can only appear when summoned (see the spell incarnation in the Spellbook supplement). Note that when you hire heroes, you can rename them.

If a wizard is impatient to acquire new heroes, the wizard can cast the arcane spells summon hero, summon champion or the life spell incarnation to summon a hero to his or her enchanted fortress (see Spellbook supplement). The summoned hero waives his or her initial hiring fee in this case. Note, however, that a wizard is not obligated to hire a hero summoned in this way.

Heroes are unique beings and, if they die, unless they are resurrected (a life magic spell), they never return! The exception to this rule is that “The Chosen” (summoned by casting incarnation, another life spell) can be resummoned. This hero returns upon summoning with the same experience he had when he died!

When heroes die, the powerful artifacts they carry become the property of the victor. If, however, the hero dies or disappears because one of the following spells is cast: banish, cracks call, disintegrate, dispel evil, holy word or unsumm on, any items he or she is carrying disappear with the hero.

Just as for normal units, right-clicking on the hero pictures in most of the game screens brings up the hero’s

unit statistics windows

appear in the bottom half of the window. Clicking on the lower arrow shows all of the hero’s special abilities (see Special Unit Abilities). Clicking on the upper arrow takes you back to the regular window. The hero’s

unit statistics window

is equipped (see Items and Artifacts).

Abilities that are unique to heroes are Agility, Arcane Power, Arms Master, Blade Master, Charmed, Constitution, Inherent Spell Knowledge, Leadership, Legendary, Might, Noble, Prayer Master, Sage and Spell Caster (see Special Unit Abilities for descriptions of these skills). Many of these skills give increasing benefits as a hero gains experience levels. The bonus that a hero is currently getting from being skilled in an area is numerically shown in the hero’s some heroes (either due to chance or because of their natures) are intrinsically better at some skills than other heroes. Depending on a hero’s intrinsic ability in an area, he or she can be up to twice as skilled in a particular special ability than normal (at the expense of being less skilled or unskilled in other special abilities).

differ slightly from those of other units. Arrows

also shows the items with which he or she

unit statistics window

Note that only six heroes

and that new heroes do not

Master of Magic

unit statistics window

. The

. Hero

. Note that

Experience levels are indicated on the heroes’ pictures (in the

movement screen, armies screen, city screen

(silver, gold and red, see Experience Level Representation).

Table K: Hero Experience Levels in the Appendix shows the

increases in a hero’s statistics for increasing experience levels.

, etc.) by colored circles

main

Special Unit Abilities

any units have special abilities that make them different from

defines all of the special abilities available to units.

only to heroes are indicated by an asterisk

variations of all hero special abilities that give an additional 50% bonus.

Special Ability Properties

other units. Even standard units are often granted special abilities by the race of the troops. In addition, many special abilities can be added to units by casting enchantments on them (see Spells and Spell Casting). The following table

Abilities available

(*). There are “super“

LIST OF SPECIAL UNIT ABILITIES

*Agility . . . . . . . . . . . Increases hero’s defense (shields) by one per

*Arcane Power. . . . . . Increases magic ranged attack strength by one

Armor-Piercing

Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . Halves defense (shields) of defender (rounded

*Arms Master . . . . . . Adds two experience points per turn (per

*Blade Master . . . . . . Increases chance to hit on all attacks by one

(+ #)Bonus to Hit . . . Increases the chance to hit by 10% per bonus

Builder . . . . . . . . . . . Can build roads.

Cause Fear . . . . . . . . In melee combat, opponents may be so

*Charmed . . . . . . . . . Resistance rolls always succeed.

*Constitution . . . . . . . Increases hits (hearts) by one per experience

Creates Outposts . . . . Can build outposts.

experience level of the hero.

per experience level of the hero.

down).

experience level of the hero) to all units (excluding other heroes) in the same stack as the hero at the end of every turn.

(i.e., by 10%) per every two experience levels.

number (#).

paralyzed with fear that they are unable to attack; the probability of this occurring depends on the defender’s resistance (crosses).

level.

Creates Undead . . . . . This basically creates new undead creatures

Creature

Summoning. . . . . . . . Allows unit to summon a creature (specified by

Death Gaze . . . . . . . . Before engaging in melee combat (offensive or

Death Touch . . . . . . . Immediately after engaging in melee combat

Doom Gaze . . . . . . . . Before engaging in melee combat (offensive or

Fiery Breath. . . . . . . . Before engaging in melee combat (when

Fire Immunity . . . . . . Immunity from Fiery Breath, Fire Elemental,

First Strike. . . . . . . . . When attacking, unit deals damage before melee

Forester . . . . . . . . . . In Forests, gain one movement point per square

Great Wind

Walking. . . . . . . . . . . Allows the unit’s entire stack to fly overland.

Holy Bonus . . . . . . . . Increases attack strength (swords), defense

when units are destroyed in combat. If killed units had more than half their hit points destroyed by a creature with the Creates Undead ability, then they rise from the dead after combat under the control of their former enemies! The new undead units have the same abilities they did before, Undead units cannot be created if a map square already had nine units on it. Note that undead creatures are viewed as creatures of death!

the special ability of the unit) instead of attacking during a combat turn. Summoned units are randomly placed on the combat screen and do not last beyond the duration of the battle itself.

defensive), each adjacent opponent must either resist the Death Gaze or die. If killed, the opposing figure has no opportunity to counterattack.

(both offensive and defensive), one opponent figure for each creature with Death Touch must resist the touch or die instantly.

defensive), an enemy unit automatically takes damage equal to the strength of the gaze, with no defense possible. If opponents are slain by the gaze, they have no opportunity to counterattack.

attacking only!), opponents must withstand Fiery Breath. Opponents slain by this breath cannot counterattack.

Efreet magic attacks, Immolation, Fire Bolt, Flame Blade, Fireball, Wall of Fire, Metal Fires, Fire Storm, Stone Rain, and Meteor Storms.

attacks, but after gaze attacks.

for all stacked units.

(shields) and resistance (crosses) of all friendly units in combat by bonus level of holy bonus; only the best Holy Bonus applies at any one time.

but now they can no longer heal

Illusory Attack . . . . . . Attacker ignores defender’s armor (shields).

Immolation . . . . . . . . Every opponent engaged in melee combat is

Immunity to Cold. . . . Unit unaffected by cold attacks: Ice Bolt, Ice

Immunity to

Death Magic . . . . . . . Unit unaffected by spells causing death and fear:

subjected to a strength four fire attack; this occurs at the same time and in addition to melee combat.

Storm.

black wind, death spell, death wish, life drain, ter ror,

etc. Immunity to

Illusion . . . . . . . . . . . Negates Illusory bonus of Illusory Attacks; Unit is

unaffected by Illusory spells: mind fires, vertigo,

word of command; Unit can see Invisible enemies.

Immunity to

Missiles . . . . . . . . . . . Unit unaffected by all missile attacks (bows).

Immunity to

Spells . . . . . . . . . . . . Unit unaffected by spells of any type or by

*Inherent Spell

Knowledge . . . . . . . . Spells accessible to the hero (such spells are not

Innate Spell

Ability . . . . . . . . . . . . Allows some units to cast specific spells once per

Invisibility . . . . . . . . . Opponent suffers a penalty of one on his chance

Large Shields. . . . . . . Adds two to defense (shields) against all ranged

*Leadership. . . . . . . . Increases melee attack strength by one per three

*Legendary . . . . . . . . The hero adds one point to the wizard’s fame for

Life-stealing

Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . Replaces the standard melee attack with a

ranged magic attacks.

necessarily part of the wizard’s spell book);

these spells appear during combat.

battle; referred to in creature and unit

descriptions as “Can cast X once per battle,”

where X is the specific spell.

to hit (i.e., has a -10% chance to hit); Immune to

ranged attacks unless attacker is in an adjacent

square.

attacks (including missile, magic, rocks). It also adds

+2 to defense against thrown and breath attacks.

experience levels of the hero to all normal units

on the battlefield; note that Undead, Black

Channeled or Chaos Channeled units which were

once normal do not get this bonus. Only the

highest Leadership bonus applies.

every three experience levels he or she has.

Increases frequency and strength of mercenaries

approaching the wizard, while decreasing their

hiring costs.

resistance check. The opponent (defender) must

make a resistance check for each point of the

attacker’s melee strength (swords). For each failed check, the opponent loses one hit (heart). For every two failed checks, the attacker gains one hit. If the opponent is killed and more than half of his total hit points are stolen in this way, the unit becomes undead (the same rules as those for the Create Undead special ability apply).

Lightning Breath. . . . . Before entering melee combat, the attacker

Long Range . . . . . . . . Long range missile attacks are not penalized by

Luck . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adds one to all of unit’s rolls: attack, defense

Meld With Nodes . . . . Allows magic and guardian spirits to merge with

*Might. . . . . . . . . . . . Increases melee attack strength (swords) by one

Mountaineer . . . . . . . In mountains and hills, only pay one movement

Natural Healers . . . . . Heal 20% of damage sustained in combat (per

Negate First Strike . . . Nullifies attacker’s First Strike special ability, but

*Noble . . . . . . . . . . . No upkeep cost. Contributes ten gold pieces per

Non-Corporeal . . . . . . All overland movement is one movement point

Pathfinding . . . . . . . . For any overland map square, get one

Planar Travel . . . . . . . Unit can move between planes (Arcanus and Myrror)

Poison Attack . . . . . . Defender must resist for each strength unit of the

Poison Immunity . . . . Unit unaffected by Poison Attacks.

*Prayer Master . . . . . . Increases all resistance rolls for all units on the

breathes an Armor-Piercing Lightning blast at the opponent (see Armor-Piercing special ability). Units slain by Lightning Breath may not counterattack. The strengths of specific lightning attacks are indicated in Table J: Summoned Creatures in the Appendix.

more than one (see Ranged Attacks).

and resistance (i.e., a plus 10% modifier to hit with each sword, a plus 10% chance to block with each shield, and plus 10% modifier for all resistance checks).

magic nodes so they can channel the node’s magic power to your wizard.

per experience level.

point per square for all stacked units.

game turn) for all units stacked with healer. This healing is in addition to the normal healing that occurs after damage. Does not heal dead or creatures of death units.

has no effect on breath, thrown or gaze attacks.

turn to the wizard!

per square. Non-Corporeal creatures can pass through walls and have Stoning and Weapon Immunity.

movement point per square for all stacked units.

at will.

poison attack or suffer one damage per failure. Poison attacks are in addition to melee attacks.

battlefield by one (10%) per experience level. Only the best Prayer Master or Resistance to All applies.

Purification . . . . . . . . Ability to remove (clean) corruption from a

Quiver . . . . . . . . . . . The total number of ranged attacks remaining to

Regeneration . . . . . . . Unit heals one hit (heart) per combat phase and,

Resistance To All . . . . Increases resistance (crosses) of all friendly

*Sage . . . . . . . . . . . . Increases controlling wizard’s spell research

Scouting . . . . . . . . . . Increases the range a unit can see overland by

*Spell Caster . . . . . . . Unit can cast spells during combat without

Spell Casting

Ability . . . . . . . . . . . . Allows a fantastic unit to cast any combat spells

Stoning Gaze . . . . . . . Before engaging in melee combat (either

Stoning Immunity. . . . Unit is unaffected by petrification: Stoning Gaze,

Stoning Touch . . . . . . Makes one enemy unit resist or be turned to

Teleporting . . . . . . . . Unit can move to any free square on the combat

square. Purification requires four turns.

the unit for the current battle. All ammunition is

replaced after each battle. The quiver shows the

number of shots (arrows) left for that particular

battle.

immediately after combat, heals completely. If

the unit’s side is victorious, the unit comes back

to life (fully healed) if it was destroyed during

combat. If the unit’s side lost, the unit stays

dead.

units in combat by the bonus level of the ability.

Only the best Prayer Master or Resistance to All

bonus applies.

points by three per experience level.

the ability’s level. Flying units normally have a

scouting level of two, others have a level of one.

drawing on the wizard’s reserve. Each level of

spell casting gives the hero 5 spell casting skill

points (mana “on tap”) per experience level. The

hero increases the wizard’s spell casting skill by

one half of his or her own spell casting skill

points if on the same square as the enchanted

fortress (see Spell Casting).

within its magic realm (life, death, chaos, nature

or sorcery) using the specified total amount of

magic power per combat.

offensively or defensively) the adjacent

opponent figures must resist or be turned to

stone. Figures petrified before combat begins

may not counterattack.

Stoning Touch and Petrify.

stone (per creature with Stoning Touch) in

addition to other melee attacks. While touch

attacks occur during melee combat, their effects

are delayed until after melee combat is finished,

so petrified units may counterattack.

map for a cost of two movement points.

Thrown Weapons . . . . Thrown weapons are used before entering a

Undead Creature . . . . Creatures that are Undead cannot heal by any

Wall Crusher . . . . . . . Ability to destroy a section of stone wall 50% of

Warped Creature . . . . Warped creatures have been either positively

Weapon Immunity . . . Unit nearly unaffected by attacks from normal

Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . Traps enemy unit. Escape from a web requires

melee attack and are effective against flying units in neighboring squares. Note that thrown attacks are in addition to normal melee attacks. Opponents slain by Thrown Weapons may not counterattack.

means. While they gain the benefits of death magic creatures (i.e., Immunity to Cold, Poison and Death Magic), they are also susceptible to spells that target such creatures.

the time if unit is adjacent to the target wall section. This probability falls to 25% if the target wall section is attacked at range. Units with this ability melee attack adjacent enemy units across wall sections that they destroy that turn. When conducting ranged attacks, wall crushers also attack an enemy unit that is in the targeted wall square. If the wall is not crushed, the defenders receive the wall’s full benefit against the attack. If the wall crumbles, they don’t.

changed by Chaos Channels or negatively altered by Warp Creature. Warped creatures are susceptible to all magic that affects chaos magic creatures.

units that do not have mithril, adamantium, blessed or flaming weapons; unit’s defense (shields) increases to 10 (if not already at or above 10); this ability has no effect on attacks from fantastic creatures.

breaking the web (doing melee damage to the web equivalent to 12 hits). Creatures that have been trapped by a web may not fly for the remainder of the battle. A unit with this ability may throw a web once per combat.

Artifacts

he artifacts that you currently have in your possession can be viewed by entering the

view an item, right-click on its picture. Artifacts can be used by heroes (artifacts are placed in slots next to the heroes’ portraits in the

anvil in the

Artifacts can be acquired in one of several ways: as treasure from creature lairs and ancient ruins, from merchants and by casting the arcane magic spells enchant item or create artifact.

items screen

) or destroyed (clicking an artifact over the

) to obtain mana (see Items).

from the

armies screen

. To

MERCHANTS

From time to time, wandering merchants present you with the opportunity to buy powerful artifacts. If you agree (click on yes), the gold to buy the artifact is taken from your treasury (gold reserve). You are then whisked to the that you can give it to the appropriate hero or store it in your fortress vault. Bear in mind that a Charismatic wizard (see Special Abilities) gets a significant discount on merchants’ goods!

items screen

(see Items) with the new artifact, so

CREATING ARTIFACTS

Once your wizard has learned either the arcane spell enchant item or

create artifact, you can start making unique magical items for your heroes

to wear and wield. Note that the difference between these two spells is the strength of the enchantments that can be embedded in the artifact; items made by casting create artifact are potentially far more powerful than those created by enchant item. (Only enchantments costing 200 mana each (or less) can be placed in an artifact using enchant item. Create

artifact allows enchantments of any cost to be embedded in an item.)

To make an item, cast the spell enchant item or create artifact (click on the spell name in either spellbook). You then enter the

creation screen

You may now choose what kind of item to make. Note that not all items can hold all enchantments (see Tables L: Non Spell-Specific Artifact Enchantments and M: Spell-Specific Artifact Enchantments in the Appendix for details). Appropriate items include weapons (bow, axe, mace, sword, staff or wand), armor (chain mail, plate mail or shield) and miscellaneous items (cloak, gauntlet, helm, orb, pendant or ring).

See the special note about the

Magic

on page 150 for information about creating the random artifacts that

you find in ruins.

Itemmake

utility included with

artifact

Master of

Spell-

specific

Selected

enchantments

are

highlighted

Cost so far

To choose an item, click on the button with the name of the item type and then scroll through the pictures, using the arrows in the upper left corner of the

artifact creation screen

(by clicking) until you are satisfied with the appearance and the type of item. Notice that the item itself (without any enchantments) has a base price in mana, shown in the lower right corner of the screen. If you change the item

after

you have started choosing enchantments to place into a new artifact, any inappropriate enchantments just disappear.

The kinds of enchantments which you can add to your artifact are shown. Select the enchantments you want to place in the item. You may place up to four enchantments in an item. You can remove previously selected enchantments (which appear highlighted) by clicking on them again. Notice that the cost in mana to “cast” or create the item, shown in the bottom right corner of the screen, rises as you add enchantments.

Be aware that offensive and defensive bonuses (increases in attack strength or accuracy and increases in defense ratings) cost twice as much as usual when placed into miscellaneous items as when they are placed into weapons or armor!

All enchantments embedded in the artifacts are permanent, cannot be dispelled and require no maintenance!

The enchantments that can be placed in an item are of five basic types: non-magical offensive, non-magical defensive, movement, general magic and spell-specific:

• Non-magical offensive enchantments include bonuses to hit (at

10% per point) or bonuses to attack strength (swords). These bonuses apply to the hero wielding the artifact.

• Non-magical defensive enchantments include bonuses to defense

(shields) and bonuses to resistance (crosses). These bonuses add to the hero’s defense and resistance values.

• Movement enchantments increase the combat and overland speed

of the hero wearing the item.

• General magic enchantments include:

a) Spell Skill which can raise the hero’s spell casting skill by the

specified amount.

b) Spell Charges which embed the stated number of combat

spells (that can be thrown once per combat turn by the hero wielding the item) into the artifact. Your wizard must already know a combat spell before he or she can embed it into the artifact. The cost of embedding a particular spell is related to the casting cost of the spell.

c) Spell Saves which decrease the target’s ability to resist (i.e.,

their number of crosses decreases by the specified amount) subsequent spells thrown by the wielder of the artifact.

• Spell-specific enchantments are those similar or equivalent to

spells of the same name.

Table L: Non Spell-Specific Artifact Enchantments in the

Appendix shows the enchantments (other than spell-specific ones) that

can be placed into different items. The maximum level of the particular enchantment is indicated. All lesser levels of the shown enchantments may also be embedded in the item. For example, if, under the Attack column, you see +6, that means that the item can be enchanted with a +1, +2, +3, +4, +5 or +6 bonus to attack strength (swords). The item then allows its wielder to attack with the chosen attack strength bonus; the increased number in swords also appears on the hero’s

statistics window

Table M: Spell-Specific Artifact Enchantments in the Appendix

shows the list of spells that can be embedded into various items. To place a spell in an item, you need to have sufficient knowledge (enough spell books) of the indicated magic realm. The table is divided into the known magic realms so that, for example, all enchantments requiring life magic ranks are placed together. Not all items can hold the listed spells, so the table includes appropriate information to that effect.

The rule for the spell-specific artifact enchantments is that those spells with defensive properties or that enhance certain attributes endow the wearer of the item with those same properties. Spells that are offensive in nature (i.e., weapons) exert their effects when the wielder attacks opponents. Unless otherwise indicated, an enchantment exerts effects just as a spell of the same name does. Only those spells specifically cited in the table can be placed in the noted artifacts.

After choosing the enchantments you wish to place into your artifact, you may click on OKto start casting the artifact you just designed. The length of time it takes to create (“cast”) the artifact depends on how much the artifact costs in mana, the spell casting skill of your wizard and how much mana you are earning per turn. Note that creating very powerful items can get extremely expensive and can take a very long time! Create artifact and enchant item may be stopped as all normal spells are, by clicking on the spell in the wizard’s spell book (to access spell book, click on the

screen

spells button

on the

main movement

unit

Combat and Spell

Casting

Now is the time to focus on the nitty-gritty aspects of becoming Master of Magic. To conquer the worlds, your wizard has to engage in some combat and a lot of spell casting. While you may avoid the details of combat by toggling on the game settings (see Settings), there is no way to avoid learning some rudimentary spell casting. The following sections should help guide your way through both combat and spell casting in

ombat begins when your wizard’s armies enter an overland square occupied by creatures or enemy troops, or when enemy

troops step onto map squares occupied by your units.

you may wish to examine those troops. To do so, right-click on the stack of enemy units in the that describes all of the stacked units in a one-line format. Enemy units use the same statistic icons as your troops. You can see a unit’s melee and ranged attack strengths, defense, hit points, speed and movement type (see Basic Unit Information and Table of Basic Movement Types). If you are planning to invade a neutral or enemy city, you can determine the number and type of enemy troops there by right-clicking on the city square in the whenever you move a unit onto a map square that contains creature lairs, uncontrolled magic nodes, and similar structures, you are always given an indication of what opponent to expect in combat if you enter the square. You may then decide whether or not your current stack of units is prepared to meet the challenges ahead—before battle is joined.

Before stepping onto a map square occupied by enemy troops,

main movement view

strategic combat only button

Combat

. A

main movement view

under the

Master of Magic

unit list window

(see Imperialism). Finally,

appears

Defender’s

enchantment

window

Combat unit

display

Active window

Spell

information

window

Attacker’s

enchantment

window

Active unit

window

Should you decide to forge ahead (or if an opponent’s troops move

onto a square occupied by your units), you enter combat.

Combat takes place on an invisible grid, with both armies arranged in a square-like formation on opposite sides of the battlefield. The defender gets to move some or all of his or her units first. The attacker moves next and, from then on, the defender’s units and the attacker’s units take turns until one side is victorious (having successfully killed all opponents). The only exception to this is if, for some reason, combat is not completed after 50 turns (for each side). In this case, combat ends and the remaining invaders return to the map square they were in before the battle started.

There is one other exception to battle to the death: if you feel your cause is hopeless, you may click the troops from battle. All of the action (movement, attacks, casting spells, etc.) in the combat screen takes place by clicking on appropriate map squares, units or buttons.

Underneath the combat grid (the battlefield) are two

windows

node, enemy wizard, etc.) and one on the right for the attacker. Combat enchantments that are active for either side (such as darkness and true

: one on the left for the defender (this can be a neutral city,

flee button

to disengage your

enchantment

light) are indicated in this window.

Between the two

information window

The your wizard’s spell casting abilities for the current combat.

• Skill is the total amount of mana that your wizard can use to cast

• Mana is how much magic power your wizard has in reserve.

• Range is a distance modifier for the cost of casting spells in battles

spell information window

spells for the entire battle.

that are far from the wizard’s enchanted fortress (see Spells in Combat).

enchantment windows

, the

action window

is devoted to statistical information on

are three areas: the

and the

active unit window

spell

The to direct actions other than movement and attacking.

action window

• The

spell button

during combat (see Spells in Combat).

info button

that may affect the current battle, including overland enchantments (such as Crusade), city enchantments and nodes.

flee button

Fleeing units (except for heroes) have a 50% chance of disbanding in the attempt; heroes are immune to this at the Intro and Easy settings and suffer a 25% chance of death otherwise. Note that defending units that have fled from combat try to enter an unoccupied map square; if they cannot find one, all fleeing units die (including heroes).

auto button

computer, which makes all of your units’ moves and casting decisions for you.

wait button done button

during that turn again by clicking on its picture in the combat screen.

contains a set of six buttons which can be used

allows you (or spell casting units) to cast spells

provides important information about anything else

allows your army to attempt to flee from battle.

relinquishes control of the battlefield to the

cycles to the next unit in your army that can move.

ends a unit’s turn. The unit can only be made active

The

unit (a red outline surrounds the active unit’s square on the combat

active unit window

grid). Next to the unit’s picture are tiny symbols with numbers. These symbols represent melee attack strength (sword symbol), ranged attack strength (with symbols of a bow, fireball or rock for missile weapons, magic ranged weapons and rocks, respectively, depending on the active unit’s ranged weapon type) and movement points left (with wings or boots depending on whether the unit flies or not).

In addition, a unit’s picture. When this bar is green, the unit has two-thirds or more of its total, full strength (the sum of all the figures’ hit points in the unit) hit points left. When this bar is yellow, the unit has between one-third and two-thirds of its hit points left. Finally, if this bar is red, the unit is severely injured and has less than one-third of its hits points left.

A unit can be activated by right-clicking on the three-dimensional picture in the combat grid. Alternately, you can cycle through all friendly units that still have movement points (activating them as you cycle) by clicking on the

Note that as you run the mouse cursor over the map squares of the combat grid, the squares appear outlined in blue.

damage bar

wait button

shows information about the currently active

runs along the bottom edge of the active

Squares that are not valid as targets for an active unit’s actions show a red “X” when the mouse cursor moves over them

(attacking or movement) show different symbols (described in the following sections). Right-clicking on friendly or enemy units calls up a

unit statistics window

Finally, if you have toggled on the

in your

display

window can be toggled on and off by pressing L on the keyboard. The

game settings window

open in the upper right corner of the combat screen. This

combat unit display

during battle, including the remaining ammunition (if relevant) of the active unit, mana and health of the “front” figure in the active unit.

of the unit (see Normal Units).

contains some useful information to have available

. Valid target squares for actions

additional unit information button

(see Settings), you have a

combat unit

MOVEMENT

Each unit may move up to its normal movement point allowance per combat round. An attack requires half of the unit’s total movement points, while moving within the battlefield requires one movement point per square for most terrain types. Exceptions to this are shown in the following chart.

To move an active unit (see above section), move the mouse cursor over empty squares on the battlefield until you see that the cursor has the appearance of a small winged boot. Any square over which you see this winged boot is a square to which you can move the currently active unit. To move your unit to a specific map square, click on the destination square.

A unit’s turn is over when it has no more movement points left (or when you click on the

done button

in the

action window

Combat Movement and Terrain

All terrain not listed in this chart costs one movement point per square.

Terrain Movement Points Per Square

Cities Hills 2 Rivers 2 Roads Rough (Dirt) 2 Tree 2

⁄2

MELEE ATTACKS

Melee attacks are initiated by moving an active unit into a square adjacent to an enemy unit. Next, click on the enemy unit (the mouse cursor appears as a pair of crossed swords) to attack. The fundamentals of melee attacks and defense are described in the sections Melee Strength and Defense. Basically, when somebody hits somebody else, the defender gets to poke back, and attack and response are simultaneously resolved. The only exceptions are that breath attacks, gaze attacks, thrown weapons, and units with First Strike (see Special Unit Abilities) get to act before regular hand-to-hand combat is initiated. Figures in units or even whole units may die as a result of such attacks— before ever getting a chance to counterattack.

The only melee combat restriction is that the only way nonflying units can melee attack flying units is through the use of breath attacks, gaze attacks, thrown or ranged weapons—from an adjacent square. Normal melee attacks cannot be initiated by nonfliers against fliers. However, once a unit has conducted a breath attack, gaze attack or thrown attack against a flying unit, the flying unit gets angry, descends and forces the attacker to engage in normal melee combat. See Table

N in the Appendix.

Melee Combat Example

During your combat turn, your basilisk unit finds itself starting next to an enemy unit of elven lords with a regular experience level (i.e., they have an extra sword and cross icon to supplement their starting abilities). Note that fantastic (i.e., summoned) units never gain experience. Both the basilisk and the elven lords are completely undamaged; they have no enchantments on them and the battlefield is unenchanted. You are determined to have your basilisk attack those elven lords for all they’re worth. After placing the cursor over the elven lords (whom you refer to in a derogatory manner as “Elvis” lords) so that the crossed-swords icon of melee combat appears, you click on them to start melee combat.

Gaze attacks are resolved before regular melee attacks. Since the basilisk has the Stoning Gaze ability, this attack is resolved before the hand-to-hand fighting of the melee attack. Each of the four figures in the elven lords unit must make a saving throw against your Stoning Gaze attack or be turned to stone (eliminated). Elven lords have a fantastic innate resistance ability of 9 (i.e., they are born with nine crosses in their statistics). The basilisk’s Stoning Gaze has a minus one save modifier, lowering the elven lords’ resistance to eight. Since the elven lords are at regular experience level, though, they gain an extra cross, bringing their total back up to nine. Each cross increases the chance to resist spells and special magic attacks (such as the basilisk’s Stoning Gaze) by 10%. With nine crosses, each of the four elven lord figures has a 90% chance to resist the gaze attack. Unfortunately for the elves, one of them fails. Its figure is removed from the unit, and the unit’s damage bar turns green and fills to three quarters of its length (to reflect the loss of that figure from the group).

Now both units simultaneously swing at each other in melee combat—meaning that the results of both their efforts against each other are applied concurrently (thus, any figure destroyed in this simultaneous exchange still inflicts whatever damage it can upon the enemy before being removed from play). Let’s calculate the basilisk’s attack against the remaining three elven lords first.

The basilisk has a melee attack strength of 15 (i.e., it has 15 sword icons on its statistics). Thus, the computer makes 15 die rolls for it, each with a base 30% chance to hit. With a little luck, the basilisk scores 5 hits from among those die rolls. The elven lords, in response, have a defense strength of four each (each figure has four shield icons among its statistics). So, the first elven lord figure steps up to defend against the basilisk’s 5 incoming hits. The computer rolls four dice (one for each shield), each with a base 30% to negate a single hit. Unfortunately, it completely misses and all five hits are scored against that elven figure. Since each elven lord figure only has three hits (i.e., three heart symbols on its statistics), it is killed and the two remaining hits are applied against the next elven lord figure. That figure gets to use its full complement of shield icons, making four rolls against the same 30% chance to stop a hit. With better luck than the last figure, it manages to block one hit, and so suffers the other. Thus, after this melee exchange, two elven lord figures remain standing in this unit, the foremost of which has taken a single hit (one of his three heart symbols is darkened).

Before applying these devastating results to the elven lords, however, the computer lets them swing back at the basilisk. Each elven lord has an attack strength (number of sword icons) of six (five for their starting value, +1 for their troop status of “regulars”). Thus, the three figures in the elven lords unit throw a total of 18 attack rolls to score hits on the basilisk. Like all units, elven lords have a base chance to hit with each attack roll of 30%, but elven lords have a special ability, giving them a +2 bonus to hit. This increases their chance to hit by 20% (+10% per bonus point), giving each of their 18 attack rolls a modified chance to hit of 50%.

The results for the elven lords are lucky, and they land 13 hits on the basilisk. For its part, the basilisk has a defense strength (shields) of four. However, since the elven lords also have the special ability of armor piercing, creatures trying to block their hits can only use half of their shields (rounded down). Thus, the basilisk makes its measly two

defense rolls, each with that base 30% chance to stop a single hit. Luckless, the basilisk suffers all 13 blows, reducing its full strength of 30 hits (hearts) down to 17. Now, the losses to both units are applied. The elven lords’ damage bar is glowing yellow and slightly less than half full (having lost half its figures and with a hit against one of the remaining ones), while the basilisk’s damage bar gleams yellow but noticeably than half full (having 13 damage hits against its 30 total hits).

With half your unit’s moves remaining (melee and missile attacks only use one-half of a unit’s moves), you again place the crossed-swords cursor over the elven lords, figuring that your wounded basilisk can finish off the two figures that remain standing defiantly against you. Failing your gaze attack against each of the elven lords again—that pesky high 90% resistance roll —melee combat quickly ensues.

Unaffected by injuries to surviving figures (i.e., by any darkened heart symbols on their statistics), both units attack with full vigor. The basilisk throws the same 15 attacks rolls (sword icons), each with the same 30% chance to hit, but scores only three hits this time. The first elven lord (the one with only two of its three hits remaining) rolls its four defense rolls (shield icons), each with a 30% chance to negate one hit, and misses completely. So, two of your three hits are applied to destroy that figure, while the remaining one meets the last elven lord figure’s four defense rolls. He manages to block the last hit. The last elven lord figure is undamaged, but his unit’s strength bar wanes red, showing only 25% of its full strength hit points remain.

Before

the basilisk. They each roll their six attacks, for a total of 12 throws, each with the same 50% chance to hit as before. Luck is still with those swinging elves, for they land another eight hits against your wounded basilisk. With its two defense rolls, the basilisk manages to block a single hit, so another seven hits are applied against it, and seven more of its hearts are darkened. With a total 20 damage, the basilisk now has only 10 hits left, so its strength bar is colored red and filled to one-third of its length. The red nubbin graphically symbolizes the amount of damage your basilisk can still take before dying.

be used when elven lords are conducting their own attack against another unit (i.e., during their turn, by expending their own movement points). The First Strike ability does not apply when units with it are defending themselves against another player’s melee attack. However, when the elven lords attack the basilisk (as they would next, if our example continued), both the Stoning Gaze and First Strike attacks are conducted simultaneously. Thus, any elven lords that are stoned can still get in a “parting shot” against the basilisk.

four figures might choose to flee rather than to press an attack. A unit that flees has a 50-50 chance of escaping alive to recover darkened hearts and “recruit” new figures until it is full strength once more (see Unit Size and Healing).

suffering those losses, though, the elven lords swing back at

Note that although the elven lords have First Strike ability, it can only

Of course, any unit that loses 75% of its strength and three of its

Games PC MASTER OF MAGIC User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

TECHNICAL SUPPLEMENT

HARDWARE & SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

ADVANCES CHART

Getting Started

Mouse Commands

The Main Menu

The New Game Menu

Choosing or Creating Wizards

Game

Spells

Armies

Cities

Magic

Info

Plane

Status Window

Upkeep Summary Window

Main Movement Screen

World Window (Reduced Map)

Unit Window

Next Turn

Production Screen

Expansion

Magic Power and Nodes

Spell Research

Meeting Your Neighbors

Building An Army

Normal units

Summoned Creatures

Mercenaries and Heroes

Special Unit Abilities

Artifacts

Combat and Spell

Casting

Combat