Gohan 28's Guide to Lords of Magic -------- Contents -------- 1. Introduction 2. How to Play 3. Lord Types 4. The Faiths 5. Pros and Cons 6. My Strategy 7. Copyright Info 8. Contacts Introduction ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Lords of Magic is a really unique game. It has elements of an RPG and a turn based ruler game. Think of a combination between Final Fantasy and Lords of the Realm 2. Turn based conquering with real-time combat, every battle getting your units experience to gain levels. You can research spells at libraries and use them in battle. Thieves have the ability to steal from and subdue enemies. You can form alliances and crush them in a heartbeat. You worship different faiths, which is what determines the course you'll take, all the way to the point of destroying Balkoth, Lord of Death. Now, onto the guide to help you get there! How to Play ----------------------------------------------------------------------- First off, you should know this game is a turn based system. Those familiar with Lords of the Realm should have no problem with this. But those who are new to it, here's how it works: Each unit has a different amount of movement. Some, like the seagulls, have great movement, while basically any followers of Earth have terrible. The bigger the group, chances are the slower you'll be, unless they all have great movement. Eventually you won't be able to move any more. In order for them to move again, you'll have to click the thing in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. After every Faith is done moving, you can again. Units: Every unit has their strengths and weaknesses in battle. Warriors are amazing at close up combat, while thieves should stick to ranged attacks and subduing champions (warriors, thieves, mages) and mages should stay at the back firing spells at the enemy. Then there are the non-champion units, the cavalry, infantry, both come in groups of 3. They're position is at the frontline with warriors. There are item throwers, who stay back with mages fling stuff (rocks, sticks, axes, etc.) at the enemy. All units can only reach a certain level: Lords: 12 Champions: 10 Anything Else: 5. The one exception is the order cavalry, knights, who, at the Cathedral of knighthood, can become level 6. There are a few other units too: Elementals: Only available to the Air, Earth, Fire, and Water Faiths. They're powerful, but don't gain levels. Creatures: Every faith has a creature, much like an Elemental but weaker. Scouts: These lil' guys have no combat talent in the slightest bit. They're used to explore the land of Urak. Ships: These can be used to scout the waters of Urak or transport your units over the waters. Legendary Creatures: Once you have your Mage tower to Level 3, you can summon legendary creatures from your Great Temple. Each faith has two, one stronger then the other. The stronger one requires the special building of the Great Temple to summon. Each, with the exception of Water's Giant Spiders, can be called just once. They're all INCREDIBLY strong. I defeated Balkoth with just the Ice Drake! All start and stay at level 15. Special Buildings: Each of these require that the Great Temple be yours and that a certain building be at a certain level. Each has it's own special trait. Air: Shrine of Teleportation. You move 20 steps for the cost of 4 with this. Earth: Holy Gateway. You can warp to any Great Temple the you own. Water: Holy Spring. Once per turn, a group may come here and refill all HP, Movement, and Mana (used for magic). Fire: Great Forge of Eternal Flame. Any fire champion who comes here becomes more powerful. Warriors get stronger weapons and mages get more Mana. Order: Cathedral of Knighthood. Any Paladin who comes here gains a level. Knights can reach level 6 here. Chaos: Barbarian Arena. Once per game, any Chaos units can trade 20 HP for 400 EXP. Life: Shrine of Vitality. Anyone who worships Life may rest here and gain back all HP. Death: Altar of Sacrifice. A mage may execute a prisoner here and receive 1000 EXP., all HP, ad extra Mana equal to the unit's level. Every seven days, 2 mana will be taken away until the mage is back to normal. Great Temples: The Great Temples are the center of worship for the faith. Balkoth has infected each one with vile scum. If you liberate the Great Temple of your faith, followers will build you a stronghold in the capital. Stronghold: After getting a Stronghold, followers will come there to be appointed to do jobs. Sticking them places will get you resources. Placing them in the market gets gold, magistrate fame, temple crystals, and in the tavern you'll get ale. You can get more resources by conquering buildings (gold mines, crystal mines, breweries, and statues). Faiths: What faith you choose determines your course throughout the game. More in Pros and Cons. Balkoth: The Lord of Death, and the big bad guy in the game. He makes sure everytime you play, the Faiths Death and whoever is your big enemy (opposite faith. Fire-Water, Air-Earth, Chaos-Order, Life-Death) are well established and even have legendary creatures. I've already covered more then enough, because everything above is in the manual. This was just covering the important stuff. I would cover more, but reading the manual and typing anything I find important in the manual is boring me out of my wits! Lord Types ----------------------------------------------------------------------- When you choose you lord, your really choosing where your talents will lie. Warrior: Unless your playing as air, I suggest this. Your talents lie on the battle field with superior attack power. Mages: I suggest not to pick this one, as you never know any good spells to start with, so your gonna be sitting in a library for a while before you can go to the battle field. I always hire two mages, the stronger one for battling with and the other to research spells. Thief: Only choose this if planning on being air. Thieves have good ranged attack and movement, plus some extra skills, but the skills are all that are of interest here. Air Thieves use these skills the best. Thieves can subdue enemy champions and get info out of them, then kill 'em for the hack of it. They can also steal stuff. The Faiths ----------------------------------------------------------------------- What faith you choose is probably the most important choice you'll make. Here's some info on each: The Elemental Faiths: Air: Known for the Storm Giant Mages, who control the weather of Urak. Many of the units in this faith fly, increasing movement. Legendary Creatures: Thunder Drake, Ice Drake Great Temple: East of Capital Earth: The strong and stubborn dwarf people worship Earth. The units are all very slow moving. Legendary Creatures: Rock Giant, Great Worm Great Temple: West of Capital Water: This faith is made up completely of Amazons and their pets. They have the best boats around and have the power to turn water into land. Legendary Creatures: Serpent, Giant Arachnids Great Temple: South of Capital Fire: These guys have the strongest warriors, but could use some help with Defense. The Mages have have O.K. Mana but some GREAT spells. Legendary Creatures: Dragon, Fafnir Great Temple: East of Capital The Arcane Faiths Life: The elv people of Urak all worship Life. These guys have always confused me. Though they worship Life, they're quite deadly on the battle field. Legendary Creatures: Pegasus, Phoenix Great Temple: North-West of Capital Death: The followers of Death live in the dark corners of Urak and are like a plague, killing anything they come in contact with. Long ago Death was banished, and now has come back for revenge. Legendary Creatures: Vampire, Lich Great Temple: East of Capital Order: The Order followers believe everything in the universe has it's place, and that everything is part of one large plan. Order warriors are renowned for they're offensive and defensive balance. Legendary Creatures: Warrior Spirit, Sir Lancelot of the Lake Great Temple: North-West of Capital Chaos: These barbarians have no rule what-so-ever. They go around, plundering villages and capitals as they please. Legendary Creatures: Cyclops, Hydra Great Temple: North-West of Capital Pros and Cons ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Each Faith has it's strong and weak points. And here they are! The Elemental Faiths: Air Pros: Best Legendary Creature. Craftiest Thieves around. Great spells, and many flying units. Great movement. Cons: Weak Cavalry and Infantry Earth Pros: Great Legendary Creature. Best Warriors around. Incredibly useful Special Building. Cons: Worst movement in game. Enemy Faith is Air, so they get the Ice Drake right away. Water Pros: Can summon Legendary Creature more then once. Best Ships. Can change Water into Land. Great Special Building. Has water units that outclass any boat. Cons: Terrible Legendary Creature Fire Pros: Second best Legendary Creature. Warriors have Highest Attack in game. Great Spells. Cons: Warriors have lowest Defense. Mages have low Mana. Worst Thieves. Worst Ships (bet you saw that coming). The Arcane Faiths Life Pros: Can resurrect the fallen. Live in center of the Good Faith's (Water, Life, Air, Order) area. Only Death is strong, as it's the enemy faith. Great Ranged Attack. *Note* In my book, this is the best faith. Cons: Pretty bad Legendary Creature. Most have bad attack. Cons: Um... Not much here. Not great legendary creatures. Death Sorry, but I'm not gonna tell you anymore about Death then I have. Don't wanna ruin the big part of the game or give away the surprises when you're able to play as it. Order Pros: Units have a great balance between Attack and Defense. Special Building gives free level. Can get Level 6 Cavalry. Can summon a Spirit Warrior for a battle for free. Cons: Lives right in the middle of where Marauding Parties tend to hang out, meaning you'll be fighting them off all the time. No time to conquer enemies. Also, pretty lousy Legendary Creatures. Chaos Pros: Great Legendary CreatureS (yes, both are great). Great Offense. Warriors require only Ale. Cons: Terrible Defense. Pathetic spells. My Strategy ----------------------------------------------------------------------- O.K., it took me quite a long time to beat this game, experimenting with Lords and stuff. I started pretty well, but then I always plummeted down. Then I found this strategy, and beat the game in about 4 hours! Oh, and remember this simple rule: Save Often. O.K., first choose to be a Life Warrior. Now, in the custom area (click custom when you choose warrior), choose to have an Elven Thief and Mage with you. Bring them both up to Level 2. Now buy the spell Spirit Arrow. Spend whatever you have left on Gold and Crystals. If you have points left, but not enough for more resources, add some EXP. To your lord. Once you spend it all, begin. First, head North-West and liberate that tree, which is your great temple. A strong Thief and Mage will join you. Now, send the Mage you started with to the Library (probably won't make it this turn. Finish trip the next turn) and disband your thief. Now combine your two new guys with your lord and enter the great temple. Right click and then interact with the capital. Remove any followers who are working in the Magistrate and place all of your followers in the Market and Temple. Next turn, put your Mage in the library and get her studying whatever you want. Bring your lord to the capital and heal him in the temple. Now go conquer the level 1 places near the capital (the closest ones). Start heading north with your lord. You'll eventually find the Water Great Temple. Liberate it, and you'll get more resources, units, another capital, and another lord! At the capital, place any followers in the Tavern, Temple, and Market. Place your Amazon lord and any other water units (excluding seagulls, the scouts) in the capital to guard it. You should now send your scouts around to see the land. Start heading south again, healing at the Life capital, and head South until you find the Order capital. Head North- West and liberate this Great Temple. Place your new lord and troops in the capital. Place followers in the Tavern, Temple, and Market again. Every time you get followers anywhere, put 'em in these places. Now head North back to your capital and heal. Go North-West and you'll start seeing snow. Find and liberate the Air Great Temple. Now, if there are any Storm Giant Mages around, which there should be, and he should be a high level (mine was level 6), get rid of your Mage and add him. Join your original Mage with the Lord of Air and place them in the capital. Send your lord back to the Life capital and guard it. Now the resources should be pouring in at about 50 Ale, Gold, and Crystals per turn. If not, conquer some nearby mines and stuff. Now, here's what you should do, in this order: Upgrade Atmos (the Air capital) to Level 3 Upgrade the Air Mage Tower to Level 2 Build a Shrine of Teleportation Upgrade the Air Mage Tower to Level 3 Summon the Ice Drake This may take awhile, saving up for the resources to do this, but it's worth it. This is the strongest thing in the game! Every part of it (movement, attack, defense, ranged attack, and HP) gets the Legendary ranking! It has an awesome attack called Cast the Breath, where it will breath a wide ranged attack that's mega powerful and will take down almost anything it hits! With this in your arsenal, nothing can stop you! Make the thing fly North and conquer Chaos, taking out their lord, conquering the capital, and liberating the Great Temple. Heal the Drake, if need be. It doesn't matter what happens now, just keep the Drake and a lord alive. Now keep flying north and conquer Earth, if you want summoning a Great Worm, a useful fighter who's almost as good as the Drake (has no ranged attack and mediocre movement). Now fly to I believe the West and conquer Fire. You should, but don't have to (I didn't) summon Fafnir, as he's the second best Legendary Creature. Now it's time to look for Balkoth. Keep Fafnir and the Ice Drake as close to each other as possible (you can't join them). When you do find him, and note that even though you don't see Balkoth on the who you're facing area, he's there, as he's really a Necromancer, send in the Ice Drake to take care of what he can with the "Cast the Breath" attack and nail Balkoth a few times, as I think me beating him with just my Ice Drake was a fluke (I was breathing ice on Balkoth and he seemed to be throwing his scythe, but at my angle he kept missing). Now send in Fafnir to finish the job with his ranged attack if the Ice Drake lost. When he starts to get weak, Balkoth should try and run. If he does and escapes, save, attack again, and Auto-Calc. It's not as fun as killing him yourself, but if he keeps escaping, you'll never kill him! Balkoth himself is strong, but he made one fatal error: he had weak party members with him! They were all about level 2! Congrats, you've now beaten Lords of Magic! Copyright Info ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2000 Gohan 28 Lords of Magic is a Trademark of Impressions and Sierra Studios Any unauthorized distribution, posting on another website, etc. is strictly prohibited. All Rights Reserved Contacts ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Primary E-Mail- gohan28@mailcity.com Secondary E-Mail- jgabel@dcwis.com ICQ Info- Nickname- SS Gohan Number- 40115584