New Unit and Race Listings For Age Of Wonders: Shadow Magic Copyright 2003 By: Aspect Of Shadows For use on GameFAQs (other site uses by request to Author) Version History: Version 1.0: Initial Posting and Documentation. (7/30/03) Version 1.1: Worked on Neutral Unit Section and Info (8/5/03) ****************************************************************** Table Of Contents 1. Introduction 2. New Races a.) Race Introductions - Nomads b.) City Info - Nomads c.) Unit Tree And Details - Nomads d.) Race Introductions - Shadow Demons e.) City Info - Shadow Demons f.) Unit Tree And Details - Shadow Demons g.) Race Introductions - Syrons h.) City Info - Syrons i.) Unit Tree And Details - Syrons 3. New Units And City Addendum For Old Races a.) Elves b.) Dwarves c.) Halflings d.) Archons e.) Humans f.) Frostlings g.) Tigians h.) Draconians i.) Dark Elves j.) Orcs k.) Goblins l.) Undead 4. Neutral Units (Non-Aligned) Information 5. Contributions And Closing ****************************************************************** 1.) Introductions Hello and welcome to my first FAQ. I am hopeful that this will be useful to everyone for identifying some of the new units available in this edition of Age of Wonders (called AoW from here on). I was amazed to find out that there was a general lack of info out there on the new units and special features of the different races in this game. Indeed, it is safe to assume that many strategies have now changed due to some of the new abilities and changes to the units and cities. This has allowed for creating a fresh new feel to an already wonderful game. This faq does not cover the changes to preexisting units. Nor does it cover what the new abilities do. That will be covered in another FAQ (By me or, more likely, by someone else). What this does cover is all of the new units that were not in the last AoW (although some may have occurred in the first AoW). This will also cover the new city options that are available. Finally this FAQ will go into great detail about the 3 new races including some thoughts and strategies by me and/or by contributors. Note that ships are not listed in the unit sections, as they are common to all races and haven't changed from the last AoW. Now this FAQ is being posted on GameFAQs with express permission from me. This is not allowed for posting on any other site. If you want it on your site, just post on this message board and ask me and let me know. No part of this may be posted with out my permission. If it is posted elsewhere (by permission of course), it must be in unaltered form (i.e. no cut and paste jobs). GameFAQs is copyright by their parent company (which I forget what it is called at the moment). This FAQ is copyrighted by me, Aspect Of Shadows. Age Of Wonders and all names associated are copyrighted by Gathering Of Developers (GoD) and under license by Triumph Studios corporation. Contributions will be listed at the end of this document. All right reserved. I am in no way associated with GameFAQs, Triumph, or GoD. Please be respectful. Thanks ^___^ Alright, now on to the good stuff ********************************************************************** 2. New Races One point of note is that what I term a "Level 0" basically means that it is a unit that is available for recruitment without needing any other buildings to make available. This is the terminology that the prima guide used for the strategy guide they did on the last AoW and is used here as well. As far as the game is concerned, for the purposes of certain spells, all "Level 0" units are considered to be "Level 1" (except where noted). ---------------- (a. thru c.) The Nomads a.) Introduction The way the game describes Nomads are as follows: "Forsaken by their god Yaka, and driven from a realm of riches and power, the Nomads dream of conquest while drifting like the blowing sands of their forlorn desert home. These people are a mix of the once great Azrac Empire and their Human conquerors, who fled brutal conflicts of their own. Their culture is rich with stories of strong family tribes, fortunate wanderers, revenge and slavery. Perhaps it is because they have no set boundaries and claim no fixed kingdoms that they have embraced the decadent practice of enslaving outsiders. Every Nomad family has a tent of differing size, which determines their status in society. They are quick and able on horseback or camel, and despite the size of their dwellings, they lash their canvas and wooden structures to the backs of their slaves, camels, and their greatest beast of burden, the elephant, rendering the whole city mobile." Basically Nomads have a great deal of speed and mobility going for them. Their early units might not have the speed that the rest of their units have, so they tend to get left behind and ignored by most players (At least I do). However, once you get started up with them, they can really move on open terrain. With most of their units being mounted cavalry types in some way or aerial movement types (floating or flying), there is really just about nothing they cant catch up to. Fortunately, they are also very strong in combat abilities and are able to capitalize on this speed advantage and while at the same time run away from what few units they might have a problem with. It is interesting to note that it is also very easy to get a city up and running quickly (literally in fact sometimes, see below for details). There are a couple of weaknesses that exist but for the most part this is a very solid race to play thru the game with and can even be played thru without the need of another race's units and still be effective. b.) City Info. The most important point to stress about the Nomads is that their cities are MOVEABLE. This allows for many different strategies that are unique to only them. The process of moving a city is not a super quick process, but with some pre-planning and forethought, you can really dominate a battlefield thru sheer logistics. Some ideas to potentially consider with this ability: ---Move a wizard tower closer to the front lines in order to extend your magic relay aura over a regular combat area. ---Move a "unit factory" (i.e. a city solely dedicated to making combat units) closer to the front lines to cut down on transit time between the front for units created. ---Move a newly captured city away from an area you might otherwise have a problem defending. Especially important if its an opponent wizard's city. ---Keeping cities mobile to prevent pinpointing by human opponents (Not effective with the computer opponents as far as I've seen) In order to move a city, you have to transform it into a "caravan" unit, which is located in the 3rd city tab (the tab that normally allows for Razing, Looting, and Migrating a city) at the top under the heading "Create Caravan". There is a one time fee of 50 gold to do this and usually takes 1 turn to complete. On the next turn, your city will disappear and be replaced by a caravan unit (will be discussed later). It has roughly the same movement speed and type as a normal pioneer unit, but has it's own unit animation and appearance. When moving a city to a new location, you still have to obey the minimum city distance requirement (unless you have that rule turned off in the editor). When you find the location that you want, just order the caravan to "Build " and the caravan unit will disappear and be replaced with the city ruin location. Clicking on this will confirm that the city is under construction and will take one turn to do. The next turn after that, you'll have your original city back just the way it was, complete with the same population and buildings intact. There is no cost to rebuild your original city. Note that you dont receive any income from caravans until they become cities again. Another important aspect of Nomad cities are the Slave Pits. Besides providing you with a new unit (Pit Guards), Slave Pits also cut the production costs for rushing the current item in the production queue in half (both gold cost and population costs). This wont be too helpful at the beginning (as gold income will be a problem). However, especially in the middle parts of the game and even later, it will allow you to really get cities built up from scratch in half the time that it would normally take or to produce key units in a fraction of the time it would take. This can give you the edge you'd need to push thru your opponent's front line (as you would be able to pump out units faster then he could so long as your gold reserves and upkeep could hold out) or to establish a strong economic and military foundation. This fits in well with the Nomad's fast mobility tactics. A couple of minor points to note. First, Nomad's maintain a city terrain bonus on desert tiles and a city terrain penalty on snow. Also, Nomads are Neutral in alignment, so most any other race will be able to use them (may or may not require Peace Keeper skill or magical means...depending on your starting race). Interestingly, one weakness they do have is that a Nomad population produces none of the normal bonuses that all of the other races do (like the Frostlings and mana or dwarves and production points). So your overall initial intake of resources are lower at the beginning if you choose to start as them. However, these are minor points (at least I feel so) in comparison to what is gained. c.) Unit Tree And Details Here is the general outline of the Nomad unit tree: Level 0 - Spearman --- Caravan Level 1 - Horse Archer --- Barbarian --- Pioneer --- Ballista Level 2 - Djinn --- Elephant Rider --- Catapult --- Monk Level 3 - Pit Guard --- Chieftain --- Slaver --- Balloon Level 4 - Roc Remember to play up on the high mobility and high attack power of this race and you should do fine. :) Below are the listings for this race's units: LEVEL 0 Spearman: Nomad Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:6 Cost:20 Att:5 Dam:4 Def:4 Res:5 Hits:10 Move:28 Walking, Strike, First Strike, Throw Spear Silver: Marksmanship I Gold: Marksmanship II Requires: Nothing Notes: Great one hit archers, as Throw Spear has a better chance of hitting its target and does more damage then the average archery skill. However, has only one shot. After that, the lifespan of a spearman is very short. First Strike does help after this but expect to lose a few spearmen after you use up their ammo. Caravan: Nomad Machine Upkeep:7 Cost 50 Def:5 Res:5 Hits:14 Move:38 Erect City, Fire Weakness, Poison Immunity, Walking Silver: n/a Gold: n/a Requires: Nothing Notes: Outside of the great move score and the fact that it costs nothing to do its Erect skill but 1 game turn, you can treat these as any other Pioneer Unit. *IMPORTANT NOTE* I just found out thru the editor program that as far as the game is concerned, these are considered "Level 2" units (for the purposes of spells). But they are placed in "Level 0" on this FAQ due to the fact that its available at any point in the existence of the city (without the need of buildings). LEVEL 1 Barbarian: Nomad Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:6 Cost:30 Att:9 Dam:7 Def:6 Res:7 Hits:13 Move:28 Walking, Round Attack, Strike Silver: n/a Gold: *Under Construction* Requires: Barracks Notes: Round Attack is a good skill to have when you get surrounded or on the off chance of moving into a cluster of enemies. However, with the low def skill of this unit, the occurrence of surviving multiple units attacking it is small. Horse Archer: Nomad Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:6 Cost:50 Def:6 Res:6 Hits:14 Move:36 Walking, Mounted, Archery, Marksmanship I Silver: Marksmanship II Gold: Marksmanship III Requires: Barracks Notes: This is easily one of the best low-level archers in the game. It doesnt have "extra-long" range, but it starts with Marksmanship and it has the best move score of any of archer unit in the game Move scores are important as it allows you to move 1 extra space closer without losing an arrow shot or to move further away from an advancing unit that it cant kill in one shot before going into melee range. 1 extra space might not seem like much, but wait till you start fighting ballistae or some of the special damage types of missile attacks (like doom gaze) and you'll come to love that extra space. Easily in the top 5 for best low-level units IMO. Ballista: Machine Upkeep:9 Cost:100 Def:5 Res:5 Hits:14 Move:20 Walking, Shoot Javelin, Poison Immunity, Fire Weakness Silver: Marksmanship I Gold: Marksmanship II Requires: Builder Hall Notes: Ballistae are standard to all races, so in this faq you will find that other references to this unit will refer back to this first listing of it (except for notes on it in relation to the race itself). Basically, this is an "extra-long" range missile unit. Great for defense, but given that nothing in the Nomad army (specific units, not generic) has a move score lower then 28, this is really going to be more of a hindrance to someone rather then helpful. Unless you need the strong missile damage badly, skip these if you can. Pioneer: Machine Upkeep:9 Cost:150 Def:5 Res:5 Hits:14 Move:28 Walking, Build Outpost, Rebuild Structure, Build Roads, Poison Immunity, Fire Weakness Silver: n/a Gold: n/a Requires: Builder Hall Notes: If you've played the last AoW then you know what these do. If you havent, then their abilities list speak for themselves. Highly valuable units but always in need of escort protection or to be kept away from the front lines. All pioneers are standard with the exception of what race they create with their new outposts. So, other listings in this faq will refer back to this first listing of it. LEVEL 2 Monk: Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:9 Cost:65 Att:5 Dam:5 Def:6 Res:10 Hits:12 Move:24 Walking, Strike, Magic Bolts, Magic Strike, Healing I Death Protection, Holy Protection, Turn Undead Silver: Marksmanship I Gold: Marksmanship II Requires: Monastery Notes: Monks are standard to all Neutral races (those with a Neutral alignment in their description) As only one of the new races is Neutral, this race, it wont be mentioned again in this faq. But, basically, all of the older races that have it will have the same stats. In particular note, it should be pointed out that the monk is slower then the rest of the Nomad units. So, only use if you have need for their unique skills and only if you feel it warrants the decrease of the overall party movement score. Catapult: Machine Upkeep:9 Cost:120 Def:6 Res:6 Hits:16 Move:20 Walking, Hurl Boulder, Hurl Firebomb, Fire Weakness, Poison Immunity Silver: Marksmanship I Gold: Marksmanship II Requires: Siege Workshop Notes: Catapults are standard to all races. So any future references to them in other listings will refer back to this listing here. (With the exception of particular notes about how it works with a certain race). Hurl Boulder in general is wholly inaccurate, but when it hit it does decent damage. Hurl Firebomb is an area effect attack now in SM, but it still does only a small amount of damage (unless the target has fire weakness, of which there are alot of units that do) but the burning effect is a nice side effect to have. As far as its uses with the Nomads....it really is just too slow (8 points slower then the slowest Nomad specific unit) for it to fit into the fast strike mentality. Besides, with Elephant Riders available and the fact that most of its long range attacks are weak in one area or another (even with "extra-long" range)....it just doesnt make sense to make them unless you are desperate for a fire type attack. Djinn: Nomad Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:9 Cost:100 Att:8 Dam:10 Def:7 Res:9 Hits:14 Move:30 Strike, Floating, Lightning Strike, Lightning Immunity, Poison Immunity, Whirlwind (3 shots) Silver: Vision II Gold: Vision III Requires: War Hall Notes: This is a good unit to have as it moves fast, has float for low cost movement, and has a non-physical attack. Whirlwind is also a good special to have, as this being a melee unit there will be those occasions that you'll get surrounded. This seems to be more effective then Round attack and is just cool to watch as well. It suffers from a poor defense score, so try not to throw it against superior numbers (without back-up) or large numbers of heavy damage missile units (like Ballistae) Elephant Rider: Nomad Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:9 Cost:80 Att:8 Dam:11 Def:8 Res:6 Hits:24 Move:30 Walking, Strike, Wall Crushing, Mounted, Charge Silver: n/a Gold: *Under Construction* Requires: War Hall Notes: Basically Elephant Calvary. Wall Crushing removes the need to make catapults usually and it has a high move score. It is a solid combat unit that can dish out damage and take it too. The only weakness is its Res score so avoid units that can effect the mount itself (Druids for example) or can halt your movement (Black Spiders for Examples). LEVEL 3 Chieftain: Nomad Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:12 Cost:140 Att:14 Dam:8 Def:10 Res:12 Hits:20 Move:36 Charge, Strike, Mounted, Magical Mount, Walking, Magic Strike Bard's Skills, Leadership I, Willpower Silver: Leadership II Gold: Leadership III Requires: Champions Guild Notes: Camel Calvary :). These units are AWESOME. Also easily one of the best units of its level. Their damage is so-so, but they have all of their other scores really high. Magical Mount protects from having a feral mount, while willpower prevents them from being taken over (without outside effects like Drain Will which is very rare). It has a non-physical attack, but it's greatest effects are its Bard Skills and Leadership Abilities. Bard Skills allows you to use some of those other race's units that might of otherwise had a problem working with you and rebelled. It also allows you to take better advantage of those units that you might end up dominating thru Slavers (See Below). Leadership boosts the stats of all of the other units in your party including itself. So even those stats above are not accurate as you'd receive the bonuses as well. So to give you a complete idea of its total strength, assuming that there wasnt another unit with a higher leadership skill and without magical effects, your basic level Chieftain would have for stats (Att/Dam/Def/Res/Hits) 15/8/10/12/20...Silver Chieftains would be 16/9/11/12/21.....and Gold Chieftains would be 17/10/11/14/22......and thats not figuring your first attack against something as Charge would kick in as well with another +2 att. Simply Amazing!!! Slavers: Nomad Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:12 Cost:130 Att:10 Dam:6 Def:10 Res:9 Hits:14 Move:36 Walking, Strike, Mounted, Trap (3 shots) Silver: n/a Gold: n/a Requires: Champions Guild Notes: Slavers allow you to recruit new units into your army thru its Trap skill. Trap puts a net like web around a target (this requires a res check for the target). The net will keep the target from moving so that you can take free shots at it if you choose to. After 2 turns, the target makes another res check and if it fails that then it is considered to be dominated and it joins your party (under the normal rules for dominated units). As far as the domination goes, it has always been one of my favorite skills to use and abuse in the game....as you cant be the word free in "free units" :). However, it seems to have a smaller chance of working as opposed to a straight dominate attempt. The netting effect itself does have some tactical advantages, but I'd prefer to just leave the netted units behind and take a chance on the dominate attempt rather then kill it, unless it was absolutely too dangerous to take the chance of letting it live. It is a touch attack and it doesnt allow for retaliation so its fairly safe to use. As far as combat potential however, its really lacking. Its def is good, but its kind of underpowered for straight out slug fests...but it does have a really high move so it can run away from anything tougher then it. I typically like to make a party of 1 Chieftain and 2 Slavers and just go around and make up my own party from all of the independents or enemy units that are about :D. One more thing to point out....Slavers get experience from every unit it successfully dominates, so leveling it up even with weak stats shouldnt be much of a problem. Just watch out for units of a Life Wizard or someone with life spell spheres...as freedom will negate trap effects (until after the dominate) and it is an easy spell to get even with one life sphere. Balloon: Machine Upkeep:12 Cost:120 Def:10 Res:10 Hits:20 Move:28 Transport VII, Flying, Vision II, Fire Weakness, Poison Immunity Silver: Vision III Gold: n/a (It can't gain experience outside of some building) Requires: Master's Guild Notes: Balloons are common to certain types of Races, so any references to Balloons elsewhere in this faq will refer back to this section (except race specific notes). Balloons are transport units that have a somewhat reasonable move rate (However, compared to other flying units, its slow). But flying allows you to bypass mountains and oceans, which is a good thing. They also make excellent observation posts (just hover over a mountain and you'll be safe from most aggressors) and fair to decent scouts. They have no combat abilities, so avoid battles with them if you can. They can take up to 7 units with them. Of course, you are taking up a party slot with the balloon so keep that in mind in your tactical deployment of units. Having said all of that, it should be said that for Nomads, it will negate some of the speed of cavalry units (but it in and of itself isnt totally slower compared to other units) but for siege machines or as I like to call them, "Medic Corps" (A group of monks), they help out alot to keep them going at the same pace as the other Nomads. It should also be said that Nomads can fix that empty extra party slot for combat purposes by just taking a Slaver or 2 with them and recruiting when you get wherever you wanted to go. So Nomads can use Balloons quite effectively. Pit Guards: Nomad Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:12 Cost:120 Att:14 Dam:10 Def:10 Res:10 Hits:20 Move:30 Walking, Strike, Willpower, Strangle, Cause Fear Silver: n/a Gold: n/a Requires: Slave Pit Notes: Pit Guards are strong ground pounder types. They have an above average att score but otherwise are really nicely balanced. They can handle themselves in most occasions, but try to avoid physical protected or immune units. Strangle does damage and tries to paralyze a unit like web or entangle or others like that. If you use strangle to hold units for seduction or dominate attempts, you'll find that it wont be effective for those (as you may just end up killing the unit before the attempt). But if you use it just to keep certain units from moving so that you can move to other units and control the flow of battle, then you cant beat strangle. Willpower protects its from changing its allegiance from you to your enemies. Cause Fear can allow you to set up for the "Free Strike" rule with other units surrounding it, but now in SM, units dont run till it's their turn. Just make sure to leave a route for your enemy to run towards when its their turn. LEVEL 4 Roc: Nomad Creature (See Below) Upkeep:15 Cost:300 Att:16 Dam:10 Def:11 Res:12 Hits:26 Move:40 Flying, Magic Strike, Vision II, Strike, Willpower, Grasp (3 shots) Silver: Vision III Gold: Vision IV Requires: Champions Guild, Masters Guild, Sanctuary Notes: I wasnt personally impressed with this unit....but that doesnt mean that it isnt a good unit. It moves fast and has a good attribute scores...not really excelling in any one thing. It can handle just about anything that attacks it and have above average odds of coming out on top. It has willpower, but since all of those require touch attempts, this doesnt get used too much without some sort of enemy magic like double gravity or flight. The one dangerous exception is the Succubus (A Lvl 3 Dark Elf unit that is discussed later in this faq). So in that unique case its very helpful to have that skill. Grasp is an attack that doesnt allow for retaliation. Basically, your unit picks up a target and throws its 8 to 10 hexes away doing damage upon landing. As far this skill is concerned, here is my crux. For a lvl 4 unit, this attack doesnt seem to do the type of damage I'd expect. Also, I find it much more effective to surround a target and do something like Cause Fear or just use up its move points thru counterattacks. I just dont see the practicality in tossing it further away and making it harder for my other units to get to it and giving it a chance to heal/shoot missiles/etc. However, some people I've talked to like it cause it looks funny having a big bird tossing some giant or pioneer or knight all over the place................. ..........and well....I guess they would have a point as it really is funny :P. One other thing, even though there is a rider on it in the unit animation, this is considered a creature (as its without the mounted skill). This is for certain power issues. -----------------(d. thru f.) The Shadow Demons d.) Introduction The way the game describes Shadow Demons is as follows: "A mass of creatures that appeared upon the Blessed Continent shortly after Merlin claimed the Wizard's Throne and rescued Queen Julia of the elves from the rebellious wizards who sought to unleash a different evil upon the world. As Merlin worked to stabilize the lands, the Shadow Demons began appearing in the nightmares of the innocent. Rumors spread of shadowy creatures able to steal a man's soul and convert it into a squirming fetid insect linked to a common hive mind. Wizards have attempted to make deals with the Shadow Demons to use them for their own gain, but all cases have ended in disaster. Even Merlin, who sought to defeat the Shadow Demons, was instead trapped in the realm of shadows. Now they spread across the land unchecked, hungrily consuming the fear of those that inhabit the land." Shadow Demons are melee monsters, with alot of tough striking and good damage absorbing units. Most of their units are slow in comparison to other races and all of their specific units have either lightning weakness or holy weakness (meaning that races normally utilizing those attacks have a better chance against them). Nearly all of their units have magic strike, so they can strike down just about anything. Alot of them also have death based attacks, so you have to be careful with units that can defend against that as well (Ex. Undead). But even in those cases, they can usually win with sheer muscle if need be. All Shadow Demons also have night vision and most have cave crawling. So, they are very well suited to underground campaigns and battles as well and stage themselves there quite effectively. Being that they are also only one of two races that gain any benefit from shadow land (the other being Syrons) and one of only three that can fight in the shadow realm without fear of shadow sickness (the others being the aforementioned Syrons and the Draconians), it goes without saying that they can also stage themselves well for combat in the shadow realm as well. e.) City Info As stated above, Shadow Demons can use shadow land to grow crops and gain a terrain bonus from it. Terrain bonuses give city morale bonuses to that city, which can help you if you're a non-evil race who wants to keep a Shadow City around. Crops help out in the beginning alot by providing gold to your economic base....as gold tends to be scarce at the start, but as you develop a stronger economic base, starts to mean less and less. Shadow Demon populations give a boost to production in the city you're in. This can help to shave a few turns off at the start when you're trying to get those first few wizard towers going or near the end when you're pumping out units for the front line. During the mid game, however, when you're usually skirmishing the enemy rather then sending huge armies down upon them, this factor means a little less. As stated above, their cities make great outposts to help define your empire's borders in the shadow realm. A shadow city can produce a building called a "Hall Of Darkness". Basically, this gives your city an "Unholy Darkness" spell for sieges there. Unholy Darkness grants all evil units a +2 Att and +1 Dam, while giving all good units a -1 def and -1 res. This isnt that great if you find yourself up against a non-good race (and if you're fighting an evil opponent it's no help at all) but will be invaluable if your fighting includes one of the good wizards. f.) Unit Tree and Details The Shadow Demon unit tree is as follows: Lvl 0 - Larva Lvl 1 - Ballista -- Pioneer -- Spawn -- Bombard Lvl 2 - Black Priest -- Catapult -- Stag Mount -- Skimmer Lvl 3 - Harvester -- Brain -- Flame Cannon -- Spirit Lvl 4 - Lord Shadow Demons are traditionally a slow race to move around, so using siege machines shouldnt be too much of a problem for them. On the other hand, it makes it a bit harder to get in your first strike in a battle, but fortunately they usually possess strong defenses. Watch out for units that have the attack types that your units will be weak against. Here are the Shadow Demon units in more detail: LEVEL 0: Larva: Shadow Demon Creature Upkeep:6 Cost:20 Att:5 Dam:5 Def:5 Res:6 Hits:10 Move:28 Shadow Walker, Walking, Metamorphosis, Strike, Lightning Weakness, Night Vision, Death Protection, Poison Strike, Venomous Spit, Poison Immunity, Cave Crawling Silver: Death Immunity, Marksmanship I Gold: Physical Transformation (See Below) Requires: Nothing Notes: These are pretty decent missile units that can also deal with melee duty reasonably well. They are balanced for a level 0 unit. They also make good underground scouts. Larva can also transform into other Shadow Demon units thru their metamorphosis ability at gold level. When they reach that point, they will change into a random unit type and return back to a non medal experience rank. Because it is so random, I'd not bother going thru the effort to actively trying to get one to change when you could just produce them with less effort. Also, these units do poison damage and are geared for underground duties. Well, most of the underground races have some form of poison defense, so dont expect a grand showing against them. Finally, another unit (the Harvester, see below) can produce these for free thru its devour ability followed by "Spawn Larva" command. When you're paying nothing for them, then they make great physical shields and screeners, but even with the cheap cost, its not worth producing them outside of the Harvester. LEVEL 1: Ballista: (See Nomad Description) Notes: Only point to be made is that most other Shadow Demon units are slow anyways and that they lack a pure physical damage missile unit. So, these may be a good buy for them. Pioneer: (See Nomad Description) Notes: Only thing to say thats different is that their unit animation isnt the normal Pioneer one, but a unique (and kind of cool looking IMO) one. Spawn: Shadow Demon Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:6 Cost:30 Att:6 Dam:5 Def:8 Res:8 Hits:12 Move:28 Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker, Lightning Weakness, Night Vision Death Protection, Magic Strike Silver: Death Immunity Gold: n/a Requires: Barracks Notes: These are as a whole above average grunt units. Magic strike adds alot of value to them. Otherwise, use them as you would any other melee grunt. Bombard: Shadow Demon Creature Upkeep:6 Cost:50 Def:8 Res:8 Hits:12 Move:28 Walking, Shadow Walker, Bombard, Lightning Weakness, Night Vision Death Immunity Silver: Marksmanship I Gold: Marksmanship II Requires: Barracks Notes: Bombard (the command) is an area effect missile projectile that does death and physical damage. Unlike Lightning Catchers (See Syrons below), Bombards (the unit) are not completely immune to their own attacks due to that physical component. So it becomes VERY important to screen them and protect them actively. Also, again due to the two types of damage, only one other unit in the Shadow Demon unit tree (The Spirit, see below) has any sort of defense to both types so you have to be very careful on where you're aiming the attack. LEVEL 2: Catapult: (See Nomad Description) Notes: Shadow Demons are slow in general. So, taking a siege unit or two wont hurt them. Some of the higher level units have some way or another to bypass walls, so as a wall crusher, Catapults arent needed as much. As a combat unit, there is only one other unit in the Shadow Demon's unit tree that gives fire damage (the Flame Cannon, see below). Given the "issues" with the Flame Cannon, it may or may not be in your best interest to use Catapults over Flame Cannons. This will be discussed in more depth in the Flame Cannon description later. Skimmer: Shadow Demon Creature Upkeep:9 Cost:120 Att:10 Dam:7 Def:8 Res:9 Hits:14 Move:40 Strike, Shadow Walker, Flying, Lightning Weakness, Night Vision, Death Protection, Vision II, Magic Strike Silver: Death Immunity, Vision III Gold: *Under Construction* Requires: War Hall Notes: These make for very nice skirmisher units. They are able to handle themselves reasonably well in straight out one on one melees with many other flyers of comparable level. They also make great scouts with vision and night vision. Use these units to scout out any of those underground rivers and waterways or to capture unguarded neutral sites. Try to stay away from multiple missile units, if possible. Stag Mount: Shadow Demon Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:9 Cost:70 Att:9 Dam:8 Def:8 Res:8 Hits:16 Move:36 Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker, Charge, Mounted, Lightning Weakness, Night Vision, Death Protection, Magic Strike Silver: Death Immunity Gold: n/a Requires: War Hall Notes: These, otherwise, standard cavalry units are about average in every other respect to any other cavalry type with the exception of the fact that it has magic strike. This makes for a unit with longer lifespan of service in your armies and practical against some of the physical defenses. Skimmers and Stag Mounts are pretty much comparable in abilities and can be inter-mixed to form effective parties. Of course, they are just as well in pure teams as well. Black Priest: Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:9 Cost:65 Att:5 Dam:5 Def:6 Res:10 Hits:12 Move:24 Walking, Strike, Black Bolts, Death Strike, Healing I, Death Protection, Turn Undead Silver: Death Immunity, Marksmanship I Gold: Marksmanship II, Unholy Champion Requires: Monastery Notes: Black Priests are standard to all of the evil races. So all are the same for stats on each of them. Black Priests provide a much needed healing support for many of the evil armies (as very few units for evil races are capable of healing themselves). They are also capable of turning the undead, should you find yourself fighting them. As melee units, they are just too weak (but they do have a nice res score), but as missile units they are effective. Their projectile attacks are death based damage so they are capable of bestowing cursed status on units. As far as the Shadow Demons goes, they move slightly slower then the bulk of their army, but as speed isnt a factor in a Shadow Demon group, this shouldnt matter. They dont have shadow walker, so they arent useful in the shadow realm like the rest of the group and should be held off on till you intend to make a move on the surface world. LEVEL 3 Harvester: Shadow Demon Creature Upkeep:12 Cost:180 Att:12 Dam:10 Def:10 Res:10 Hits:26 Move:28 Strike, Night Vision, Walking, Devour, Shadow Walker, Lightning Weakness, Death Protection, Magic Strike, Cave Crawling Silver: Death Immunity Gold: n/a Requires: Champions Guild Notes: Harvesters are armies unto themselves. The devour skill has an excellent chance of killing an unit instantly. But it doesnt stop there, on the next turn after a successful devour, it becomes capable of producing a Larva unit (free) . Not that Larvas are going to put the fear into your opponent's eyes, but having a bunch of them swarming around can provide you with alot of screening units or arrow shields while you go around eating stuff and replacing your losses. In and of themselves, Harvesters are also excellent combat units and can also cave crawl so they can be used for underground domination campaigns against any of the races there. Much like the rest of the Shadow Demon army, they are slow, so fast missile units will be a problem. But, as Larvas are missile units as well, you can provide your own missile units to take out those types. A very well balanced and deadly unit, indeed. Brain: Shadow Demon Creature Upkeep:12 Cost:200 Att:10 Dam:6 Def:10 Res:18 Hits:20 Move:28 Strike, Shadow Walker, Floating, Night Vision, Death Protection, Magic Strike, Magic Relay, Leadership II, Steal Enchantment Silver: n/a Gold: *Under Construction* Requires: Champions Guild Notes: While they have decent physical defense and excellent res scores, these units dont make good melee units. They have magic strike and steal enchantment is good against opponent wizards, but it is really too valuable to lose it in such a manner. No, its value comes from being a support unit. It has leadership II, which gives a big boost to your armies. But the big call to fame is magic relay. With this, it can extend a magic aura for you in 5 hexes in all directions around the unit. This can be beyond huge for deep strikes into enemy lands and can also be used to provide protection to your towns till they can get their wizard towers up. Actively protect these at all cost. Flame Cannon: Machine Upkeep:12 Cost:130 Def:7 Res:7 Hits:18 Move:20 Walking, Poison Immunity, Flame Throwing, Fire Immunity Silver: Marksmanship I Gold: Marksmanship II Requires: Masters Guild Notes: A few other races have Flame Cannons outside of the Shadow Demons. So any other references to Flame Cannons will refer back to this description. One interesting point to mention is that even though they are machines, they dont share the usual fire weakness like all other machines. This can be a real surprise for the opponent player who might not be paying attention. Flame Cannons project a cone of fire and are capable of hitting many units at once. They can do decent damage and can bestow the burning status on units. A very serious problem with them is that they are SUPER slow. In fact, on the battlefield, they can only move one hex before they are already in medium movement distance (and thus unable to use their flame throwing skill). Now, on the other hand, Catapults can do hurl firebomb and hit up to 7 targets (as highly unlikely as that is) and do a minor amount of damage and have a better chance to hit or use this and hit around 13 or 15 targets maximum (again unlikely) and do decent damage but be hardly able to move and also have a very good chance of hitting your own units cause of the wide angle of fire. So the choice is up to you. As far as the Shadow Demons go, they dont really need either unless you have to have a fire type of damage (as their dam scores are typically hi for their specific units). Personally, I like Frost Cannons better (see Syrons below) as I feel that freezing a target is more useful then just doing an extra hit of damage per turn on fire. Spirit: Shadow Demon Creature Upkeep:12 Cost:120 Att:12 Dam:8 Def:10 Res:10 Hits:14 Move:36 Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker, Night Vision, Death Protection, Magic Strike, Physical Protection, Floating, Concealment, Holy Weakness, Pass Wall, Energy Drain, Lightning Immunity Silver: Death Immunity Gold: n/a Requires: Hall Of Darkness Notes: Here is another killer of a unit in the Shadow Demon's arsenal. It's stats are average, but it has a great move and it has physical protection. Physical protection reduces any physical damage by 50%. This practically gives it alot more staying power then it stats lead one on to. It can hide in dense vegetation thru concealment and pop out to be a very nasty surprise. Pass Wall will allow it to start tearing up siege defenders as opposed to wasting time tearing down walls or gates. Lightning Immunity gives it a very important role against the Shadow Demon's arch nemesis, the Syrons (see below) , though it now has to watch out for holy attacks (and makes it weaker to a race like the Archons). Energy drain makes it harder for units to make an effective counter attack against you, as it lowers stats for the battle....so try hard to strike first with this unit. To top it off, it gets death immunity at silver (like just about all the other Shadow Demon units) so it can even fend off units like the Undead effectively (using its death and physical defenses). Concentrate on Harvesters at the beginning of level 3 production, but move to Spirits in the mid game and stick with them all the way thru the end game for your premier level 3 units. LEVEL 4 Lord: Shadow Demon Humanoid (Male) Upkeep:15 Cost:300 Att:15 Dam:13 Def:15 Res:13 Hits:30 Move:28 Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker, Shadow Shift, Night Vision, Death Immunity, Magic Strike, Death Strike, Wall Crushing, Cause Fear Willpower, Holy Weakness Silver: Lightning Protection Gold: Lightning Immunity, Unholy Champion Requires: Masters Guild, Champions Guild, Sanctuary Notes: Shadow Demon combat units keep getting better and better as you go up the unit tree....and truly the Lord is an absolute terror to be facing on the battlefield. It's almost disgustingly powerful with its high stats (though res is kind of average) and Physical/Magic/Death attack. It can crush walls and with a high dam score, its a very good chance that you'll tear down a wall on the first try. Cause Fear allows you to institute the free strike rule for other units, but this almost seems like a waste as the Lord can kill alot of things on the first try. Willpower prevents your terror from becoming someone else's terror against you. It doesnt start getting lightning defenses till medal levels, but once it does it will do a number on many Syron units. But the really evil thing about these units is the shadow shift skill. Once you have a couple of Lords in a party, all you have to do is move around the shadow realm and keep poking holes thru to the surface world, crush everything you see and can get your talons on, and pop back before an effective counterattack can be mounted against you. It's a beautiful thing indeed! :) The only weaknesses are that its slow on the move (much like the rest of the Shadow Demons) and that it has holy weakness, so watch out for Archons...but if you can get a gold level Lord going, you'll find that unholy champion will swing things back to you favor again. :D Have lots of fun with this unit! -----------------(g. thru i.) The Syrons g.) Introduction The way the game describes Syrons is as follows: "The Syrons are the original inhabitants of the shadow realm, from when that world was clean and filled with light. They explored the cosmos, employing the powers of magic to perfect their world. Then the Shadow Demons came. For thousands of years, the Syrons battled the Shadow Demons, but over time their exhausted world was consumed in darkness. For generations, the Syrons were enslaved, used as food and forced to attend to their captors needs as the demons slumbered and waited for a new world to consume. Every time they attempted to break free, they were met with unfathomable horror and torture. As a result, the Syrons live in a fog of hopelessness, expecting nothing but a life of misery. Their once strong spirits bear the weight of a thousand generations of doomed children. They may possess the power to defeat the Shadow Demons, but lacking the ability to dispel their dismal past, the Syrons will remain trapped food to grow a new batch of hungry monsters eager to enslave another world." The Syrons seemed to be geared towards being an "anti-race"....by that I mean that they are geared towards combat against Shadow Demon units (or others who share their weaknesses). This is not to say that they cant deal with other race's units, but really they shine against the Shadow Demons. It's kind of like how the Archons are good units, but have alot of them geared towards fighting Undead units. Same concept. I've never been one for playing a race that is limited in effectiveness on purpose, but that's not to say that they're not fun to play with. You should be ok with fighting against any of the evil units, but if you're going against one of the good or neutral races primarily, you're in for quite a battle. There are some unique tactical advantages to using them and they have a wide range of attack types. There are also some unusual facts about their units that you're going to have to get used to as well. h.) City Info Syron cities are one of two city types that can grow crops on Shadow Lands and also gain a terrain bonus from it. (The other being the Shadow Demons). Terrain bonus will help you if you're a non-good race in possession of one and the crops can help you early on with cash flow if you end up in the shadow realm early or at the very start. Of course, over time, this advantage loses importance. Syron populations produce mana and that can also give you a good early on advantage that will lose importance over the course of the game (but this will stay important longer then the other factors). Of course given all that was said, its important to note that they also happen to make preferred outposts to post in the shadow realm to protect your empire's boundaries there, 
as given that they gain those advantages plus the fact that all

Syrons can shadow walk can make for quite an effective barrier 

against your enemies.    Syrons can also build the "Hall Of

Stars", which grants a permanent "Holy Light" spell over your

city for the terms of sieges.  Holy Light gives all good aligned

units +2 att and +1 dam while giving all evil units -1 def and

-1 res.  This is great if you're attacked by an evil race, but 

again, against a neutral or good or pure good opponent it wont 

be as much help as normally (and against good or pure good it 

wont help you at all as everyone those alignments would be 

affected by it).  One final point, Syrons seem to gain a great

advantage thru building war shrines as alot of the Syron's units

start out weak, but gain a ton of new and powerful abilities as

they gain medal levels.  See the unit tree and details for more

info.


i.) Unit Tree and Details

The unit tree for Syrons is as follows:

Lvl 0 - Prospector

Lvl 1 - Lightning Catcher -- Spellbinder -- Ballista -- Pioneer

Lvl 2 - Rider -- Shadow Runner -- High Priest -- Catapult

Lvl 3 - Giant Warrior -- Changeling -- Frost Cannon -- Astral Sprite

Lvl 4 - Forceship

A very nice thing to note is that Syrons possess all attack types with

the exception of poison attacks.  So, protections and immunities are

usually not an issue!  Interestingly, while many units start out weak

from the Syrons, if you're patient with them, they start to gain all

sorts of special abilities as they gain medal ranks.


The details of the Syron's units are below:

LEVEL 0


Prospector:      Syron Humanoid (Male)     Upkeep:6  Cost:30
Att:4  Dam:4  Def:6  Res:8  Hits:7  Move:28
Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker, Vision I, Concealment, True Seeing
Silver: Vision II
Gold: Vision III
Requires: Nothing
Notes:  These make great scouts or sentries on the shadow or surface
        worlds.  Concealment allows them to be invisible in dense
        vegetation.  True seeing allows you to see other races' 
        Concealed units.  This is actually an effective combo.  If
        you try to use them in combat however....well lets just say
        you dont want to.  They have good def and res scores...but 
        their att and dam scores arent that good and they have a 
        piddly 7 hits so it wont take much to kill them.  Given that
        they are also expensive for a level 0 unit, they dont make 
        good cannon fodder either.  So try to stick to using them for
        non combat duties.

LEVEL 1

Lightning Catcher:    Syron Humanoid (Male)    Upkeep:6  Cost:55
Att:4  Dam:3  Def:6  Res:8  Hits:8  Move:24
Strike, Shadow Walker, Walking, Lightning Strike, Hurl Lightning,
Lightning Immunity
Silver: Marksmanship I
Gold: Marksmanship II
Requires: Barracks
Notes:  Yeah they have crappy att and dam scores, but just be 
        grateful they have them at all!  Lightning Catchers are the
        missile unit of the race.  They also happen to be able to 
        enter into melee (not that you'd ever want to).  This can 
        be a good thing if enemy melee units should close in on you
        (and it had better be as with a move of 24, you're not running
        away from anything :P ).  Lightning also carries the added side 
        effect of stunning a target for one turn should it take effect.
        This can allow you to hold targets for your own melee units to
        come in and clean up for you.  But you have to remember that 
        these are missile units and not try to put them in harm's way
        as they have some of the worst hit scores you'll ever see for
        a Level 1 unit.  They dont shoot normal arrows or projectiles
        like other races' missile units, but rather shoot an area 
        effect projectile that affects the target hex and all hexes
        surrounding it.  This projectile also does lightning damage 
        and therefore carries the chance of stunning units.  For the
        unit as a whole there are plenty of cases where this can be a
        good thing, but being that its only an area effect thing, you
        have to be real careful where you aim it or you may hit your
        own units and stun them as well.  So its useful in only certain
        situations and preferably if they can get the first shot in
        before the enemies melee units reach your party's front line
        (which is very hard to do in the shadow realm as everyone can
        move farther there).  It's important to note that Lightning
        Catchers are immune to stunning from and damage from lightning,
        which includes their own projectiles, so dont hesitate to put 
        your own catchers in the area effect if someone is on top of
        you.  All in all they make a better showing on the surface or
        underground then in the shadow realm and are even better 
        suited for defense rather then offense.

Spellbinder:     Syron Humanoid (Female)     Upkeep:6   Cost:50
Att:7  Dam:6  Def:6  Res:9  Hits:12  Move:24
Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker, True Seeing, Steal Enchantment
Silver: Lightning Protection, Lightning Strike
Gold: *Under Construction*
Requires: Barracks
Notes:  These are a very specific unit suited towards fighting an
        opposing wizard's army (and only then if he/she/it has been
        majorly enchanting their units) or a wizard's heroes (again
        if its enchanted which is more likely).  Steal Enchantment 
        has a high success rate so once you get into range you are
        pretty much set...so long as you get the first shot in at 
        least.  Once you steal an enchantment, it becomes an
        enchantment for your Spellbinder free of charge (however, 
        you still have to pay for upkeep for the enchantment after
        the battle for each turn its active).  True seeing allows
        you to see concealed units, but these dont make good scouts
        when you have prospectors who have been more geared towards
        that duty.  Despite the abilities, unless you're fighting 
        something enchanted, they are very poor melee units with a 
        very low move score and a somewhat low hits score (but they 
        do have a nice res score).  If your stuck in the low range of
        units, stick with Lightning Catchers and try to push for 
        stronger melee units further up on the tree.  Of course, if
        you are forced to stick with this unit, try to level them 
        up as fast as you can, as they get Lightning Strike and
        stronger defenses as they go up.

Ballista:   (See Nomad's Listing For Stats)
Notes:  Outside of what is listed in the Nomad's listing of Ballista,
        The only Syron specific info that can be given is that this
        will be one of your few missile units that wont be an area
        effect attack and that they are not much slower then your 
        earlier units and even some of the later units.  So these will
        be more important to a Syron army then to others.  It's also
        important to note that this is of course physical damage which
        very useful to them as their race specific missile units shoot
        Lightning and some units are lightning resistant or immune
        (Ex.: Djinn, Northern Glows, some other Syron units, etc.)

Pioneer:    (See Nomad's Listing For Stats)
Notes:      (See Nomad's Listing For Info)


LEVEL 2


Catapult:   (See Nomad's Listing For Stats)
Notes:  Substitute Giant Warrior for Elephant Rider in the Nomad's 
        notes and you'll have the same thing for the Syrons.  One
        other point of note is that, it might be a bit more important
        to have this unit for them for general combat, for many of the
        stated reasons above for Ballistae for Syrons.  This gives them
        a fire damage unit and given that there are holes in the Syron
        general unit strategy, can help them in some battles.

Rider:        Syron Humanoid (Male)       Upkeep:9  Cost:80
Att:9  Dam:8  Def:8  Res:6  Hits:16  Move:36
Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker, Mounted, Charge
Silver: Lightning Protection
Gold: Lightning Immunity, Magical Mount
Requires:War Hall
Notes:  This is a very average cavalry unit.  However, being a shadow 
        walker does give them certain advantages in the shadow realm.
        Dont expect to be wowed by them, but they are geared towards
        combat in the shadow realm against units suffering shadow 
        sickness and should primarily be used as such (or as general 
        scouts as they have a very good move score).  They gain 
        stronger defenses as they level up.

Shadow Runner:     Syron Humanoid (Male)     Upkeep:9  Cost:120
Att:9  Dam:6  Def:8  Res:6  Hits:14  Move:28
Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker, Shadow Shift, Death Strike, 
Death Protection, Lightning Protection, Double Strike
Silver:  Vision I, Death Immunity, Lightning Immunity
Gold: Vision II *Under Construction*
Requires: War Hall
Notes:  These are good first attack and harassment units.  Their 
        stats are slightly underpowered in general, but they 
        make up for it in abilities.  Death attacks can cause
        curse which prevents healing (should they escape from 
        you or beat you) and reduce some abilities in your enemies.
        They strike twice each attack turn which is always a good 
        thing and boast a couple of protections as well.  But to
        get the most out of them, you have to learn to effectively
        abuse the shadow shift skill.  Shadow shift allows a unit to
        go back and forth from the surface world to the shadow world
        at a whim.  You can use this to do quick probes of an area or
        to pop in to enemy territory and assassinate stragglers units
        on the way to the front line.  It wont do good against units
        with strong def scores, but against most else it can be a very
        nasty surprise for your opponent.  Also, being that it does
        death damage, it can be quite effective against good aligned
        units which traditionally lack any form of death defense.  
        So if you find yourself up against those type of opponents, 
        make sure to have liberal use of these units to stop them.
        At higher levels, they start to grow even tougher.

High Priest:     Humanoid (Male)    Upkeep:9    Cost:65
Att:5  Dam:5  Def:6  Res:10  Hits:12  Move:24
Walking, Holy Strike, Holy Protection, Strike, Holy Bolts, Healing I
Turn Undead
Silver: Marksmanship I
Gold: Marksmanship II, Holy Champion
Requires: Monastery
Notes:  All good aligned races can produce High Priests.  So this 
        description of them can apply to the other races High Priests
        as well (though they wouldnt be in this faq anyways).  
        Basically, what can be said for High Priests can also be said
        for Monks (See Nomads) and Black Priests (See Shadow Demons) 
        with the exception that they do holy damage and fire holy bolts.
        As far as how they fit into Syron battle plans, they provide a
        different type of projectile type for them which is always 
        helpful for them with their unusual missile attack types.  For
        that reason alone, it makes them useful.  As far as melee is
        concerned, however, dont bother as Astral Sprites also have 
        holy strike (see below) and better stats then High Priests.  In
        many cases, they move at the same speed as some of the Syron
        units and therefore wouldnt hinder the troop movements of
        your parties while providing their healing skills.  So try to
        include some in your mid game (or even late game sometimes)
        strategies if you feel it warrants it.  Of course, if you're
        going up against the undead then it goes without saying 
        about their usefulness then as well. :)


LEVEL 3


Giant Warrior:     Syron Humanoid (Male)     Upkeep:12   Cost:180
Att:14  Dam:10  Def:11  Res:11  Hits:25  Move:28
Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker, Wall Crushing, Lightning Strike, 
Lightning Immunity
Silver: Cold Protection, Fire Protection, Death Protection,
        Poison Protection
Gold: Cold Immunity, Fire Immunity, Death Immunity, Poison Immunity
Requires: Champions Guild
Notes:  Now here is a REAL combat unit.....up until this point, its 
        hard to find a solid attack unit.  Lots of times, you have to
        rely on guile and hit and run tactics with the Syron's lower
        units in order to make up for their sometimes lacking stats.
        Not so with this unit!  This unit can wade into battle and just
        beat the snot out of just about anything.  An interesting 
        strategy you might like to try is that these units possess
        Lightning Immunity (in addition to their own lightning strike)
        and that means that those area effect lightning attacks from
        your Lightning Catchers (See Above) and/or your Forceships
        (See Below) will not matter if you should have to put them 
        in your target area.  So try this.....Go in with a couple
        of Lightning Catchers (say 2) and a Forceship...then fill
        the rest of your party slots with Giant Warriors.  Have the 
        Giants charge the front line of your opponent and force them 
        to stay tangled up with them instead of going for your front 
        line and your Catchers.  Meanwhile start pelting stragglers
        on your first turn of combat and try to stun them while your
        Giants deal with the main bulk and stunning stuff themselves.
        you'll find that you'll be able to handle greater numbers 
        this way and keep your opponent off balance and unable to 
        mount an counter offensive on you.  Another strategy is to
        have teams of Changelings (See Below) and Giants.  Have the 
        Giants soften up targets and stun them and then gang up on
        those targets with Changelings till they kill one, then 
        convert that changeling that scores the kill and follow up with 
        the rest be repeating the process.  This is a great way of
        getting your Changelings alot stronger thru higher level units
        that they wouldnt normally be able to take on their own.  If
        you're lucky enough to get one to gold level, then you'll find
        that alot of things wont be able to hurt it at all. :D All
        in all, you cant go wrong with using Giant Warriors in your
        overall combat strategies.

Changeling:        Syron Humanoid (Male, At least I think its male :O )
                   *Please note that race, unit type 
                   *(Humanoid/Creature/Machine) and even sexual 
                   *types can be and may very well change over the
                   *course of the lifespan of this unit
Upkeep:12  Cost:150  Att:10  Dam:6  Def:12  Res:10  Hits:15  Move:24
Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker, Vision II, True Seeing, Changeling
Silver: Vision III *Note: Only applies to initial starting form
Gold: *Under Construction*
Requires: Champions Guild
Notes:  General combat wise, they are not super great...with a crappy
        dam score, low hits, and low move scores...they arent going
        to score you major victories on their own.....at least in
        their initial forms that is :P.  Changeling's call to fame is
        in taking on the forms of the last unit that it kills.  
        Complete with abilities, stats, movement types.  So if you
        were to kill a really strong monster (say a Orc Warlord for
        example) with one, on your next term all you'd have to do is 
        select "Changeling(Warlord)" and *poof*, you're a Warlord all 
        of the sudden.  This can therefore change this lackluster unit
        into a real killer...but make sure not to change it into 
        something weaker (to follow the example some more, lets say 
        that now as this Orc Warlord, you kill an Impaler and by some
        lapse in judgment you think that Impalers are better cause 
        they have a cooler name. :P :P :P :P so you click
        "Changeling(Impaler)", well then *poof* now you're an Impaler
        and knowing your luck then and/or karma you get killed by 
        some no name Halfling Peasant....well guess what? You're dead!
        And you'll never make that mistake again, now will you? :P :P )
        You can only change into the form of the last unit you've 
        killed and whatever option there was in the Changeling command
        before is lost forever...however you'll always maintain the 
        form that you're in forever until you tell it otherwise, so 
        there is no risk in killing a bunch of little units with your
        new form...for you'll always be that till you chose otherwise
        (again with the example, till you kill that Orc Glutton with 
        your Warlord :).....assuming that you dont like your Warlord
        better anyways, which is up for debate with lots of players
        :D ).  The only thing that will never change is the units 
        alignment...it will always stay good (Again with the example,
        you may have a Orc Warlord, but it will be a GOOD Orc Warlord
        :P ).  This is good, as you may have the Hall of Stars going
        at that point and wouldnt want it adversely affected by your 
        own city.
        *VERY IMPORTANT INFO ON A GAME BUG*
        There is a bug I've noticed with Changelings.  While you always
        keep your alignment, no matter what your form, you will not 
        always keep your race...if you change into something, you will
        become that race.  I once turned a changeling into a Goblin
        Butcher.....It kept the alignment, but became a goblin, as 
        expected right?  Well, being that I was starting as Syrons,
        I naturally had bad relations with the Goblin race, for 
        obvious reasons.  Well, all of the sudden my new Changeling
        Goblin Butcher takes on the morale of the goblins as well and
        gets a terrible morale rating and rebels against me the next 
        turn!  It's still a good aligned unit and was a Syron at one
        time, but now it gets treated as an evil unit and therefore
        HATES me!  I know that this was probably not the intentions
        of the developers, but if you're unable to turn to anything
        without risk of it turning against you due to race, then it
        SEVERELY makes this unit mostly useless as you're very likely
        to be fighting evil units due to the focus of this race.  I 
        hope the right person reads this and it gets back to the 
        developers as the Syrons cant afford an useless unit given 
        the lack of a solid combat potential (no matter how strong
        Giants are, if they run into a lightning protected or immune 
        unit, they become a little less capable of handling problems,
        which makes a strong unit not needing lightning very important!)

Frost Cannon:        Machine             Upkeep:12  Cost:130
Def:7  Res:7  Hits:18  Move:20
Walking, Poison Immunity, Fire Weakness, Frost Blowing, Cold Immunity
Silver: Marksmanship I
Gold: Marksmanship II
Requires: Masters Guild
Note:  Some of the other races will have this unit as well.  So any
       other occurrences of this unit in this faq will refer back to
       listing. (With the exception of Race specific notes)
       Frost Cannons are basically short range "projectile" units
       and that term is used loosely.  Think of it like a ground
       based and slow and not as maneuverable dragon......without the
       melee ability.  For a level 3 unit, they are very weak and
       open to melee units so actively protect these if you
       use them.  One strategy that might be effective is to put 
       two guards one step in front and one step to the left and
       right of the front of this unit in the direction that you 
       intend to fire.  That way you can screen this unit from 
       melees and not get hit by the cone shaped attack area.  In
       particular this is also good for another reason specific to
       Frost Cannons.  Frost Cannons do cold damage and cold damage
       can sometimes cause the "freeze" condition.  Frozen units
       are unable to move and are unable to retaliate against the
       first attack that it takes (after that, the unit is no 
       longer frozen).  So after freezing units, you can move in 
       with your screening units and mop up the survivors.  As far
       as the Syrons are concerned, it is the only unit they have 
       that has cold damage available to them and is a (somewhat)
       missile unit as well.  So these do have some significant
       importance to the Syron general attack strategy.  However,
       as far as choosing between level 3 units to start building
       first, this should usually be last on that list unless you
       have a real need for a cold based attack (maybe you're 
       fighting Tigrians or Draconians with cold weakness)....
       and even then you should probably go with sheer attack
       power usually.  But I will say that I prefer these to the
       Flame Cannon units (see above).

Astral Sprite:      Syron Creature      Upkeep:12   Cost:120
Att:12  Dam:7  Def:12  Res:16  Hits:15  Move:36
Strike, Shadow Walker, Floating, Holy Strike, Resurgence
Silver: Lightning Protection
Gold: *Under Construction*
Requires: Hall Of Stars
Notes:   With a high move score, these make good scouts to push back
         the black unexplored darkness area.  As far as combat goes,
         they do have good stats in most areas, but they really get
         nerfed in the dam stat, meaning that they'll have a hard 
         time scoring a kill because they'll be unable to get 
         significant damage going on their attacks.  At least they
         have a higher dam score then the initial Changeling form
         however. :P  But, with a low hits score as well (just like 
         the initial Changeling form), not being able to score a KO
         blow fast enough makes it a liability.  Resurgence is a 
         saving grace however.  If you use them as fast first strike
         units and throw them at the enemy with a reckless abandon 
         while you keep some missile units back behind them or some
         other melee units to clean up, then it wont matter how many
         of your sprites die...just so long as you win the battle, 
         they'll all come back.  Never use a sprite solo in a battle,
         because odds are against them of surviving.  An important 
         note to mention is they also do holy damage and that is
         key when you go up against lightning protected or immune 
         units or the undead.  They also have a really high res score,
         so try to take out units with dangerous special abilities
         before they get to the rest of your army (Ex.: Slavers,
         Nymphs, Spider Queens, etc.)


LEVEL 4

Forceship:            Machine              Upkeep:15   Cost:300
Def:10  Res:10  Hits:25  Move:40
Transport VII, Vision II, Fire Weakness, Poison Immunity, Magic Relay,
Floating, Hurl Lightning
Silver: Marksmanship I, Vision III
Gold: Marksmanship II, Vision IV
Requires: Masters Guild, Champions Guild, Sanctuary
Notes:  The notes associated with the uses of hurl lightning with 
        Lightning Catchers (see above) also apply to Forceships with
        a few changes.  Forceships cant retaliate against attacks so
        never let an enemy close to melee to you.  Forceships also 
        dont have lightning immunity so, again, never let the enemy
        close the distance to you.  Forceships do have a VERY high
        move score, so they can outrun any aggressor and they have 
        floating so they move with more efficient effort.  Now I do 
        have to wonder why this unit doesnt have flying instead of
        floating, but thats a debate for another time.  Since they
        have so much in common, its hard not to make a comparison to
        the Human Air Galley, so I'll make it here and you (the 
        reader) can decide on what is better.  Both are machines and
        both have transport and vision abilities.  The Air Galley 
        shoots javelins (like a ballista) and they do significant 
        damage to a single target (at "extra-long" range and being
        a flying unit, traditionally without height/obstacle problems
        usually).  The Forceship shoots an area effect projectile
        that can effect 7 hexes (the target and surrounding hexes)
        and does lightning damage which means all hit have to do a
        res check or be stunned.  More units have lightning defenses
        in the game then physical defenses, so less targets will 
        fall to the Forceship's main attack then the Air Galley's.
        However, stunned targets cant fight back and your other units
        will have an easier time cleaning up the mess with units that
        cant fight back as opposed to just merely (hits wise) weakened
        units from the Air Galley.  Forceships doesnt fly so 
        obstacles/height are a factor but it is still an "extra-long" 
        range attack.  Both move the same distance and have the same 
        basic stats and skills common to all machines.  Air Galleys 
        now have the "ram" skill which is an AWESOME attack against 
        air units (only) that does damage and forces the unit to the 
        ground(and has no limit to its number of uses).  The Forceship 
        extends a magic relay (and not just a small one like a hero
        takes with it, but a fairly good size one that extends 2
        hexes in all directions surrounding the Forceship) that
        promises the ability to be able to use your magic anywhere
        that forceship goes and all areas around its in its magic
        sphere of influence.  So, Air Galleys seem to be more 
        capable in combat itself while the Forceship provides more
        tactical advantages on the main map screen both before and
        during the start of the battle.  Which is better is up for
        debate and of course it would have to depend on the 
        circumstances at the time.  Of course the easy answer is that
        both are great and just have both with you :P.....but you
        cant have what you always want.

************************************************************************

3. New Units And City Addendum For Old Races

*Under Construction*

************************************************************************

4. Neutral Units (Non-Aligned) Information

This section is for units that are not associated with any of the pre-

existing races, but are rather available to all in some sort of manner

or another.  Neutrals dont conform to the normal conventions of the 

rest of the units in the game for many reasons:

-  They dont have the usual upkeep costs that you may see thru pattern

   like the other units.

-  They are harder to gage as to what level they are for partly the 

   reason given above.

-  They may be purchased thru sites that are available on the map and

   are available on a first come, first serve basis in this instance.

   (In other words, there will usually be only 1 or a couple of a said

   type of unit available and once all of them have been bought, there

   will be none left).

-  They may also need to be captured thru will type of attacks 

   (Ex. Domination, Control Animal, Seduce, etc.) and may, as far as

   I seen so far at least, not be available for purchase.  Thus this

   recourse may be the only way to get them.  Also, there may be a 

   special unconventional method to get one too.

-  Most neutrals cant adjust their morale and will always be at 

   okay morale no matter what (much like machine units).  There are 

   exceptions to this rule.  Also, most neutrals are just that....

   neutral......when it comes to their alignment and therefore can

   be used by just about anyone.  Again, there are exceptions to 

   that rule.

Some guessing and assumptions will be used therefore on certain 

things, but for the most part should be wholly accurate from 

practical experience.  So this section will have a slightly altered 

layout for units here and may take a little bit to complete as the 

neutrals can be a little hard to find and can be even harder to get.  

The methods listed for aquiring a unit are only those that I've 

confirmed myself in getting one.  So, there may be other methods that

I dont know about.

Again, this faq will cover all new units from SM and not anything 

from the last AoW (#2), but there is going to be one exception to 

this rule from the first unit description on this section and its 

reasoning will be given in its note section.


--------The Neutrals


Wolf:       Level 1     Creature
Upkeep:5     Cost:15     Alignment: Neutral
Acquired By:'Call Of The Wild' Spell, Domination type attacks,
           Control Animal, Purchase thru sites (typically 
           Critter Dens, though rare)
Att:7  Dam:5  Def:5  Res:5  Hits:10  Moves:34
Strike, Animal, Forestry, Walking
Silver: n/a
Gold: *Under Construction*
Notes:  I know that this unit was in the last AoW, but I wanted to
        include this here as it was almost impossible to get one
        in your army as they never appeared in the Campaigns and I
        never saw one on any game I played on there.  I knew of its
        existence from the Prima strategy guide that I had that had
        them listed.  However, now there is a way to acquire one thru
        the use of a spell called "Call of The Wild" (a high level
        life spell that randomly gives you certain units each turn).
        But, given its low level and that it requires such a high
        level spell to get one, its pretty much a waste to get it.
        Of course you can always just capture one now as it seems to
        me that the computer will now randomly put some on maps that
        it makes.
        For all of this info and explanation, its sad to say that 
        it really isnt all that good.  Seriously weak and unable to
        reasonably handle anything by itself, these units are not
        really suited to combat at all.  It does have a good move,
        however, and forestry allows for it to clear thru dense
        vegetation in a hurry.  So early exploration and scouting
        are really more geared towards them.  Use them as you would a
        light cavalry unit and you should do fine.

Dire Penguin:  Level 2     Creature
Upkeep:7   Cost:80    Alignment: Neutral
Acquired By:  Domination type attacks, Control Animal,
             Purchase thru sites (unknown what type typically)
Att:7  Dam:6  Def:7  Res:8  Hits:20  Move:34
Strike, Animal, Cold Immunity, Life Stealing, Swimming, Walking
Silver: n/a
Gold: *Under Construction*
Notes:  Of all of the new units out there, this has to be my favorite
        one of them all.  Not only are they funny to watch, but they
        have a very surprising death animation too.  It's not just a
        giant penguin anymore.....now its a giant, possessed, 
        man-eating, FAT penguin! :)
        In combat, it has some weak stats.  However, it does have a
        good hits rating and really nice move rating.  It can swim,
        so it makes it useful to explore the larger water levels and
        , with cold immunity, makes it a frostling's worst nightmare
        (and makes one wonder why they got rid of it out of their 
        towns in the first place :P ).  But the big bonus is life 
        stealing.  With it, it can wade into battle and take out 
        many lower level units and can even ding up higher level 
        ones.  With a little nurturing, these can make a very 
        effective amphibious corp. and/or fast strike group.  Its
        too bad that they are so hard to get and find (as I've yet
        to see them for sale anywhere), as who wouldnt be afraid of
        an army of penguins :D.

Dragon Hatchling:  Level 2   Creature
Upkeep:7   Cost:100     Alignment: Neutral
Acquired By:  Purchase thru sites (typically Dragon Roosts),
             Will drained domination attempts
Att:13  Dam:8  Def:9  Res:14  Hits:10  Move:34
Fire Breath (3 Shots), Strike, Dragon, Dragon Growth, Fire Immunity
Flying, Magic Strike, Poison Immunity, Vision II, Willpower
Silver: n/a
Gold: Physical Metamorphosis (See Below)
Notes:  Dragon Hatchlings are excellent combat units for a level 2
        unit.  Excellent att and res scores coupled with decent dam
        and def scores (for a level 2 unit) make for a great lil unit
        and the combo of magic strike and fire breath is a killer.
        Flying gives it certain defense advantages typically 
        associated with flight as well as being able to go almost
        anywhere.  Vision II makes it a decent scout, too.  Of
        course its in your best interest to keep it in combat as much
        as possible.  This is because of its ability to become any
        dragon at random upon reaching gold rank.  There is no such
        thing as a sucky dragon, so unlike other units with some
        form of physical metamorphosis skill, it is usually in your
        best interest to help it level as fast as you can and actively
        defend them.  This is especially true as it has a lackluster 
        move as opposed to most other flyers and a very low hits score.
        Despite being a good unit, its usually not worth the effort to
        capturing one in the wild (as it requires the Drain Will skill
        and some way to deal with its flying status in addition to 
        trap or dominate).  One final point is that what dragon you get
        may or may not be compatible with your starting alignment.  
        Nothing is more stressful then playing a good race and getting
        8 Dragon Hatchlings up to gold only to find that 7 of them turn
        into Black Dragons.  >.< 

Oneron:     Level:1   Humanoid (Female I think)
Upkeep:6  Cost:30  Alignment: Good
Acquired By:  Domination type attacks, Purchase thru sites
             (not normally occurring as far as I've seen), 
             Discovered (Special)
             (See notes below for more details)
Att:5  Dam:6  Def:10  Res:8  Hits:20  Move:36
Walking, Strike, Shadow Walker
Silver: Vision II
Gold: *Under Construction*
Notes:  *IMPORTANT NOTE*
        There is one (maybe more but only a few if so) occurrence that
        this unit occurs naturally in campaign mode.  This unit is not
        to be confused with the wizard "Oneron" that you can choose to
        be at the start of a game.  This unit has no item slots for 
        start and can therefore not use items like heroes and wizards.
        Also you can (theoretically) have multiple "Onerons", but the 
        game would have to be manually edited to allow for so, as the
        game never uses this unit in the creation of random maps.  
        Also, this one has an upkeep unlike the wizard "Oneron" and 
        doesnt carry an innate magic relay or cast spells like heroes
        and wizards.
        Having gotten all of that out of the way, the Oneron unit makes
        for an excellent screening unit.  It has an unheard of def 
        score for a level 1 unit and an excellent res score also.  It 
        moves at the same pace as a cavalry unit (but without any of 
        the movement terrain bonuses some might have like forestry)
        and has a high hits score.  It has mediocre att and dam scores,
        so it makes a better showing on defense then offence.  One
        unusual twist is that at silver it gets a vision skill rating,
        so at that point they start to make excellent scouts and 
        exploration units.  This is a top notch early unit, but its 
        too bad that the only way to get this normally is to make a 
        game yourself manually (having the computer make one for you
        wont give you a chance to get one).

Black Dragon:    Level:4   Creature
Upkeep:15     Cost:350      Alignment: Evil
Acquired By:  Physical Metamorphosis from Dragon Hatchling,
             Will drained domination attempts, Purchased thru sites
             (typically thru Dragon Roosts, but VERY rare)
Att:16  Dam:12  Def:12  Res:16  Hits:35  Move:40
Flying, Cause Fear, Magic Strike, Vision II, Strike, Fire Immunity
Dragon, Magic Immunity, Willpower, Death Immunity, Poison Immunity
Black Breath (3 shots)
Silver:  Marksmanship I, Vision III, True Seeing
Gold: *Under Construction*
Notes:  These are one of the ultimate units for the side of evil.  It's
        not so much that they have insane stats in any one area 
        (though its att and res scores are very high) as they are just
        very well balanced in abilities.  They can fly around and just
        breathe on enemies (thru black breath) and wipe them out.  But
        even if running out of ammo for its black breath, it is far 
        from helpless!  Willpower and a host of immunities make for a 
        very tough nut to crack.....ESPECIALLY magic immunity!  There
        is only one other unit in the game that I know of (The Golden
        Dragon, see below) that has this skill and the typical logic
        for most players is that magic attacks are the veritable
        "cure-all" to get by immunities and protections.  But once you
        have a Black Dragon (or a couple), you can really tear up your
        opponents and take most of their dangerous "magic strikers" and
        "magic missilers" so that your other units can move in.  If you
        find yourself on the unfortunate receiving end, the only way to
        reasonably take one down is with very strong melee attackers 
        that fly (as their high res scores can prove a problem for
        webbing and magic to bring them down to the ground) or strong
        cold, holy, lightning, or physical missile attacks (so Archons,
        Syrons, and Frostlings will have a SLIGHTLY easier time of it 
        as they traditionally use these attacks).  Never fight these
        unless you have large established groups of units and even 
        then expect to lose some of those units.

Golden Dragon:     Level:4     Creature
Upkeep:15      Cost:350     Alignment: Good
Acquired By:  Physical Metamorphosis from Dragon Hatchling,
             Will drained domination attempts, Purchased thru sites
             (typically thru Dragon Roosts, but VERY rare)
Att:16  Dam:12  Def:12  Res:16  Hits:35  Move:40
Flying, Cause Fear, Magic Strike, Vision II, Strike, Fire Immunity
Dragon, Magic Immunity, Willpower, Holy Immunity, Poison Immunity
Divine Breath (3 shots)
Silver: Marksmanship I, Vision III, True Seeing
Gold: *Under Construction* 
Notes:  This is one of the ultimate units for the side of good.  Just 
        substitute in divine for black, death for holy, and Undead for
        Archons in the Black Dragon description (see above) and you'll
        have the description for the Golden dragon.  One interesting
        point about them that's different from the Black Dragons is 
        there is no other unit in the game with the skill divine breath
        (except maybe thru magic items for heroes and wizards).

Parasite:          Level:1       Creature
Upkeep:6         Cost:50         Alignment: Neutral
Acquired By:   'Infect' spell, Domination type attacks, Purchased thru
              Sites (not normally occurring as far as I've seen)
Att:5  Dam:5  Def:5  Res:6  Hits:6  Move:28
Walking, Infect
Silver: Death Immunity
Gold: n/a (It cant gain experience outside of some building)
Notes:  There are in reality two different varieties of Parasites in 
        the game.  The ones that you summon thru the 'Infect' spell 
        will actually not appear unless you kill the target that was
        infected and there are other units still left to kill.  These
        types will disappear after the end of a battle and do not stick
        around in your army.  The other type are the ones that you hire
        from sites.  These types do stick around and can go to silver
        medal rank thru the use of an arena, but on their own, do not
        gain experience and cant go to gold medal rank as such.  I also
        think that much like the Oneron unit (see above), they are not
        naturally occurring units available in games, even in a 
        randomly generated game, but are rather units that occur only if
        they are placed there in a manually created game by the user.
        As far as it is as a unit, it is a very unique case, in that it
        has a skill that no other unit has called 'infect'.  Ignore the 
        att and dam scores for this unit as infect has its own att score
        and does no damage.  Rather, when successful, it cause the 
        Parasite to enter into the target unit and gives the physical 
        weakness skill to the infected target, thus making it easier to
        kill by other units.  Upon the death of the target, the Parasite
        reappears in the hex the enemy unit was, unharmed and ready 
        to infect other targets.  Remember, this unit cant do any damage
        on its own, so don't use it without other units to escort it.  
        Infect is a rather low level death spell, so if you're playing 
        as a death wizard or multi classing with death magic, then you 
        may be seeing a lot of these.  It's weak defensively, so try to
        avoid fast moving or ranged units if you hire one. Of course, if
        you used magic, then don't bother protecting them as there are
        not going to be around anyways.
  
************************************************************************

5. Contributions And Closing

I'd like to thank the following people for their help on this pet 

project of mine:

*No Contributions From Others Yet*

I'd also like to thank GoD and Triumph for this wonderful game and for

listening to its players on what they would of wanted in here.  Thanks

should also go the site that has this posted for letting me get this 

much needed guide out to the public (with my permission of course).



Thanks again and I hope to see you on the boards!

Aspect Of Shadows (8/4/03)   ^v^