Lords of Magic - Special Edition

Water and Air - Strategies for Fun

As all ressource gathering strategy games Lords of Magic Special Edition (LOM)
is first of all a game of economy. Who has more gets more. The identifyable
ressources are: Gold, beer, mana, (experienced) troops, (experienced) leaders.
Despite some ressource delivering dungeons (breweries, mines) the first 3 are a
direct result of the number of followers in your capitals, who work for you.
The last 2 are a direct result of winning fights - as many, as early as
possible, with as least troops as feasible (so the experience gain is spread
over less troops). Winning fights as well gains you fame, fame gains followers.
So the question is - how without cheating? That´s what this strategy guide is
about.

Conditions:
LOM on normal difficulty, no cheats, no hex editing, starting faiths air or
water, maps are Urak (fastest development) or Urak II (slower development
because temples are farher separated)

One general rule:
Avoid losses. Damage is okay, but every loss of a unit is a direct loss of
ressources (unit price) and an indirect one - experience loss. If you lose more
than 6 units one whole game or more than 10 scouts you did something wrong :-).


WATER

The strategy described should allow you (after some experience) to
- clear level 11 dungeons without losses on turn 40 latest
- train infantry/cavalry in a level 2 barracks (first upgrade) to at least
level 4 (infantry) resp. 3 (cavalry) on the same turn
- train archers in a level 2 barracks to at least level 3 on turn 21
- train mages in a level 2 wizard tower to at least level 3 (life), 4 (water),
5 (order) on turn 35
- control 4 or 5 faiths (with capitals/great temples) on turn 21


Some remarks on water:
Second best cavalry stats wise (only holy knights of order are better), fourth
best but fast infantry (behind order, death and dwarfs), fourth best but well
protected archers (mud throwers are inferior in ranged attack to elven archers,
order crossbowmen and - arguably - death javelineers. But the best armored
archers around - even better than the water infantry of the same level). Very
mana powerful mages but generally weak attack spells compared to all other
faiths. Best healing spell in game (healing water - 10 mana to heal a complete
army). Average, but very agile warriors and thiefs. Worst and weak legendary
creature, but you will detect its uses and different to all others it can be
bought in as many units as you like. By far the best ships (third best attack,
third best defence, but a 50% farther movement than the better equipped ships
and very agile). Water is one of the 3 faiths (order and death being the
competitors) that can do well completely on its own (with the exception of
mages and some flying creatures later on). And best - has neutral or better
relations to as many as 4 faiths (Life, Order, Air, Chaos). All of these start
with a not liberated temple on normal difficulty.

Much fun because of a huge design flaw in the lord editor. There is one
artifact that decides for water - the staff of drowning. The desciption says:
Drowns enemy troops slowly, heals water troops. Forget the healing portion -
the drowning is what interests. With this artifact you can two times in a
battle drown enemy troops to death, before they reach you. As - depending on
spread and your skill of targeting - the drowning applies to a lot of figures
(rule of thumb: at least 8 single figures or 3 units per attempt) you will be
able to clear low level dungeons (up to level 7) without the enemy ever
reaching you. It is the only artifact with that power buyable by starting
points in custom games on normal difficulty. A design flaw.
WARNING: The drowning is too slow especially for rock trolls and generally high
level troops (above level 3, especially sturdy ones with many hitpoints like
trolls, centaurs etc.). It can be too slow to completely prevent archers to get
one shot in - so watch your mage. It works the better the slower the enemy can
advance - which helps a lot in water breweries, life statues and all level 11
dungeons but may hurt in e.g. crystal mines and order breweries.

And here is how it goes:

Free your people
Buy a water priestess, two lizardmen and the staff of drowning, leftover spent
on gold and beer. On the Urak map you can liberate your temple on turn 2
without losses. This gains you a water warrior, a water thief and a sword for
your warrior. Include the warrior in the party, send the thief to scout the
surrounding of your new capital and to protect it against marauders. Do NOT buy
more troops the first several rounds except emergency cases (incoming
marauders) and some (2) seagulls - one for scouting, the other for temple
settlement (marauders never attack settled buildings). Why NO troops? Because
what you will get out of your buildings is level one (no experience). But every
other faith whose temple you liberate generates already level 2 (350
experience, order knghts and chaos plunderers being the exceptions). This is a
built in advantage for the artificial intelligence - which is very weak - that
now will favour you.

Get the power of Life
So let´s proceed: From your temple your party (priestess, warrior, two
lizardmen. The priestess leads, the two lizardmen are in her section , the
warrior moves in the second champion spot without attachment) heads fastest way
to elve temple (Have a look on the maps you wish to play in the map editor
before to identify temple locations if you do not know the map). This will need
3 to 4 turns. ONLY enter any dungeon on or very nearby your way above level 3
and below level 8 (and save before the 7´s - they are sometimes tricky). Let
whatever you gain by liberating the life temple protect temple and new capital
and may be clear the level one and two dungeons around. If you receive scouts,
use them for reconnaissance.

Air swears fealty
But your party (in worst case slightly damaged I hope? If not, try again)
proceeds to the air temple. It will reach there on turn 8 or 9. Liberate and
proceed as usual.

Now the second most important part of the fun: Either you get their starting
level 6 fairy thief or their lord is a fairie thief. GREAT. If not, buy a level
2 thief champion. Send this sucker to every pure troll dungeon or generally to
every dungeon below level 5 (on champion levels below 5) or 9 (on higher
levels) and clear this one, IF there is none or only very weak archer
resistance (on low champion level max. one unit goblin archers on level 1, on
higher levels you can get away with 2 units up to level 2). This requires
manual fight every time, cause you have to
1) move your archer to impassable terrain and watch him killing stupid victims
or
2) hit and run/hide to kill the few archers and than proceed with 1)
If you are not experienced with the sneak and kill tactics of the best thief
there is in LOM - the fragile fairie - avoid any dungeons with mages, many
archers, fast archers like centaurs, flying creatures like floating spears.
Despite this caution your thief - if handled correctly - should end up at the
elven ARCHER barracks between turns 18 and 24 on at least level 8 (gives level
3 archers in a level 2 barracks. Hint: A good reward in levels is to find and
clear the Great temple of Death. The resistance there consists of a vampire
(tank infantry), a level 4 infantry unit and 2 scouts. No archers, no mages,
only the scouts fly). This allows you (after the max. 10 turns of training) to
build the best archer in LOM on decent levels at turn 35 latest.

The support from order
Your party should meanwhile be decent in levels (likely 3 or 4 for the
lizardmen, 5 for priestess and warrior) and move straight for the order temple.
Clear dungeons in between as usual. You should arrive between turns 11 and 13.
Liberate and proceed as usual.

Chaos? Who wants chaos?
You could now move back via the air region to liberate chaos. But due to my
experience this is an unnecessary waste of time and will make you clear your
high level dungeons 5 to 10 turns later. But this is up to you - and can be fun.

And now?
So you are in the order region with a liberated temple on turn 12 and with a
level 5 priestess and a level 5 warrior. Your target is a level 7 priestess and
a level 7 to 8 warrior on turn 21 to 24. How? In general, move in the direction
of your starting water region. Try to find and clear especially level 5 and 7
breweries on your way, but level 5 dungeons or level 6 monuments are good as
well. Whenever you arrive at your region, try to use your warrior to clear
level 1 dungeons on his own or up to level 3 with the priestess but without the
lizardmen (using auto calc - after saving each time) until both reach level 7.
Now send your warrior in the water infantry barrack (it is on level 2 after
turn 21 to 24? You spared the needed ressources?) for taining, the water
priestess in the study room to learn exactly the spells Ice Bolt, Light Rain,
Riptide and (if time allows) Teleport Artifact.
If everything works you should be able to buy level 3 lizardmen and level 3 or
4 elven archers on turn 35 latest. GREAT. Build one complete army (at least 4
archers!) including your starting forces (the two lizardmen units should be on
level 5!), head 3 combined water corsair ships, move to a life, air or water
level 11 dungeon and clear this one. How do you know it is water or life? You
will detect a pattern if you play LOM more often - I leave this up to you. The
pattern is possible distance to the respective capitals and image of the
dungeon, btw. NOT the exact location - this varies a lot.

Possible spoiler:
The level 11 dungeons bear the most reward - a second staff of drowning for
water e.g. (level 11 dungeons always give the best artifact for the starting
lord of the faith. For life mages e.g. this is the resurrection staff). This
would allow you to equip a second mage in a second army (life is best) and have
instantly a second army to clear high level dungeons resp. use your starting
priestess for training. BUT in some level 11 dungeons you will find water
champions - who are healed by the drowning - and may be spiders (legendary
water creatures) which immobilize your priestess and your warrior from the
battle start. In this specific case - IF you are very good - you will win the
battle and only lose some lizardmen units. If you start with level 3 archers
and use auto calc, you may lose the encounter AND your complete army. If you
start with level 4 archers and use auto calc, you will lose any unit despite
your champions and some archer units. As you must have done a brilliant
ressource management up to turn 35 to even get everything (hey, a complete army
on 3 corsairs, two level 2 capitals and two level 2 barracks - archer and
infantry - are not cheap) a dungeon with water champs will cost you to recover
from losses. But it is fun to battle (manually, please) and it fastens
development later on (in fact, you will dictate the game outcome at your will).

So much to water, now to air.

AIR

The strategy described should allow you (after some experience) to
- clear level 11 dungeons without losses on turn 45 latest
- train infantry/cavalry in a level 2 barracks (first upgrade) to at least
level 4 (infantry) resp. 3 (cavalry) on the same turn
- train archers in a level 2 barracks to at least level 4 on turn 21
- control 4 faiths (with capitals/great temples) on turn 11
and is even more fun than the water strategy (cause you HAVE to fight more as
there is no decent magical help early on)

Some remarks on air:
Fragile but speedy in general. Eagles are NOT infantry - but they make the best
scout you can buy. Fairie slingers are EXTREMLY fragile - but they fly and are
used best on impassable terrain where only mages, archers or flying creatures
can reach them. Wind riders are weak but extremly fast and agile. Best thief
available, impressive and far going warrior. Be careful wth this one, however.
The stats DO NOT reflect a hidden aspect of LOM - reaction time. Air warriors
can and will be immobilized by some very weak but fast troops - the recovery
time after every blow will prevent the warrior from hitting even once. Result
is, he gets killed where even the weak elven warrior champion would win. Needs
side and back protection to score hits. Impressive mage, deadly on high levels,
best damage spell with chain lightning once researched. 3 high level air mages
with chain lightning can clear a level 11 dungeon on their own. But nearly
defenceless and as slow in recovery (and spell speaking time!) as the warrior.
Thief levels fast, mage and warrior level slowly. Arguably the best legendary
creature (Ice Drake) and the second best temple creature (Thunder Drake,
inferior only to the Fire Drake). In general, while with water auto calc can be
used with sufficient experience in how many troops for which dungeon, with air
you most always can do better with your personal leadership in battle. Auto
calc favours sturdy units (a good defence like order, death, water or dwarf)
over agile and fast ones. Has neutral or better relations to the 3 good faiths
(Life, Order, Water). All of these start with a not liberated temple on normal
difficulty.

Most fun because of a second design flaw in the lord editor. There is one
artifact that decides for water - Aramaugs amulet (AA). The desciption says it
all: Immobilizes enemy troops in a wide range for a certain time (good enough
for 4 to 5 shots, btw. Immobilization time increases with level of champion).
Tricky to use correctly with a thief on its own - experiment, observe and
conclude on your own. A thief with this amulet together with a chain lightning
air mage is death for any army - the immobilization gives the mage the needed
time to cast multiple times unthreatened. THIS is the tool that provides the
thief the sometimes much needed time to kill opposing archers before moving to
impassable terrain and killing everything else from there.
WARNING: Although the air thief is the most fun in LOM I can imagine (once
cleared a level 11 dungeon with this guy on his own) it requires skill to play
correctly. Prepare for much saving and playing battles again and again until
you found the pattern for success. But there is virtually no other unit that
can clear dungeons as fast on his own - even on low levels if lucky with the
army composition of the marauders inside. Has his biggest problems with mages
(his low hit points), mid to high level archers, flying creatures and opposing
thieves (who often are inferior in range or damage, but much better protected
with double or triple the hitpoints). Is literally immune to the most
troublesome units in the early gameplay - the trolls, rock trolls, golems,
vampires and every other tank like infantry.

And here is the general strat:

Buy a level 5 air thief in the lord editor, Aramaugs amulet and some gold/met
ressources (about 10 each) to speed up development. No other troops! The strat
is pretty much the same as with water - free the great temples of Air, Life,
Water and Order (in this order). Should be finished by turn 11 latest!. Take
out every dungeon up to level 7 on your way, if army composition inside allows
(Trick: First thing you do when battle opens in pause mode is hide. Then you
can take your time to judge if the resistance is not too much. If it is - just
flee hided. With an air thief you should be always successful fleeing).
As you HAVE to level one or more heroes together with your air thief though, do
this by picking up suitable heroes from the other faithes (warrior and mage).
Preferably lord heroes - they have better stats. After entering a battle let
the accompanying heroes flee. If need to, expose your air thief shortly to lure
the opposing forces from the trail of your party members. After your party
heroes have escaped, clear the dungeon with your lord thief. The goof thing is
- any experience acquired will be distributed among ALL members of your party,
even the ones that fled! You should be able to develop a warrior to level 7 and
a mage to level 5 to 6 this way before turn 21. As a rule of thumb: A level 7
warrior of every faith can train level 3 riders OF HIS OWN faith in a level 2
(second level) barracks. This is because the levels are not the same number of
acquired experience points for each faith - they are relative to the
weakness/strength of the faith in the hero category. A level 8 order warrior
has much more experience points than a level 8 elf. But you get elve riders
trained to level 4 with a bit above 1,200 training points - but you need more
than 2,000 for order knights. The knights are inherently stronger than the
elven riders - level 3 knights outmatch elven level 4 riders any time (it is
the opposite with mahges, though). So DO NOT try to train order knights to
level 3 with an elven warrior on level 7 - you will be disappointed :-).

And first of all - have fun playing.

Regards

Thorsten