Strategy Guide for Heroes of Might & Magic

Version 0.2 03/96

Brought to you
by Yujun Qin
http://www.egr.uh.edu/~yxq60120
yxq60120@tree.egr.uh.edu
Do whatever you want with this document. You can even print it out and burn it.
I give you the
right to do so. But if you do distribute this document, please do not alter it a
nd distribute in its
entirety.
DISCLAIMER
All parts of this game are designed by New World Computing, Inc. Some sc
reen shots
are used in this homepage and none of them should be used for any commercial pur
pose against
the interest of New World Computing, Inc.
A CRY FOR HELP
This guide is primarily aimed the new players of this game. FOR THOSE EX
PERT
PLAYERS, please oh pleeeeaaaaasssee mail me your strategies of playing. I can no
t do this
alone. If you love this game as much as I do, you would love to help others play
better wouldn t
you? If we can pool all the resources together then we can make this guide reall
y, I mean
REALLY valuable to others and more players can benefit from it. You compose a ne
w section
for this guide and your name will be in the Credit section as the co-author of t
his guide. If you
can only offer one little tip, I will still thank you by putting your name in th
e special thanks
section. I repeat, I can NOT do this alone, I need help. So let s get it going!!
Some shit you can skip
Since I put basic concepts of the game and troop types in other sections
, this document
will concentrate on strategies. However, strategy is considered more like art th
an science. You
need to feel it. I can call myself an expert player of the game but certainly no
t a strategist, not
yet. What I am offering in this guide is my own experience and some advice. I s
till called it
Strategy Guide because that s what they are all called and Advice Guide sounds lame
anyway.
Credits
Well only little old me fit here, for now.
Special thanks
The Zhou Brothers
dragonus@sfsu.edu
Rachael Tang
elthia@cnct.com (Thanks for the offer to rewrite the whole thing,
but no thanks, I will stick to my bad grammer :P)
Steve Mclnerney
stevemci@pop.mil.adfa.oz.au

Paul Harden
pokey@cyberspc.mb.ca
Stephen Young
youngs3@rpi.edu
The first thing you need to learn
I am not going to reproduce the manual here. You should read every page
of it before
you start the game. Even the letters written by Ironfist have some tips on stra
tegy. What I am
showing you here are what I think is important and my own experience. One thin
g you
absolutely need to know is how to use your right mouse click. The right click is
like help in
most cases. When you click on something you don t understand, you will see a small
window
pop up and give you some explanation. Actually you can find most information you
need by
right clicking. Like the cost for building everything, troops' status and so on.
You can also right
click on enemy heroes to find out what kind of troops and how many of them are l
ed by this
hero. Right click on enemy castles/towns shows you the defenders.
Basic Concepts
This is a fantasy strategy game, turn based. I can put the whole legend
of the game here
but, that s pretty much the whole manual is about, so read it. Of course, you can
play the game
without reading the story. What you really need to know is this:
You have one hero with one or two troop(s), normally two, and a castle w
ith minimal
improvements at the beginning of each scenario. You start your building/conquest
there. You
have several tasks to survive and ultimately win the scenario.
Castle -- Castle is the place you build all your improvements and hire your hero
es from. It s
your home, defend it. It also produces 1000 gold per turn, BTW one turn is one d
ay. Different
castle type also decides what kind of troops you can produce. Capture as many e
nemy castles
as you can, this is normally what you need to do to win in most scenario.
Towns -- Towns are
the only places in game that can be build into castles. This makes the towns al
most as useful as
castles. Towns generally are neutral at the beginning with some kind of defense
s. Always
conquer the neutral town upon discovery as you can manage. Don t start any suicid
al
operation, it will, generally, do you no good. A town is fairly easy to conquer
compared to a
castle They don t have a wall to protect itself. When you attack, it is the same a
s fighting on
plains. I recommend you to change towns into castles as soon as possible.
Mines -- You need to capture mines or you will soon draw your resource reserve e
mpty. You
will need all the resources to build city improvements, produce troops and hire

heroes. To
capture a mine and claim it yours, just have a hero walk into it. You will see a
little flag of your
color on top of it after capturing. Capture as many as you can. Always reclaim
the mine if it is
captured by other lords heroes. Don t leave those mines without checking back late
r!!
Hero -- To capture mines, you need heroes. To fight and conquer others you need
heroes. The
concept of hero is very useful in this game. A hero is needed to lead your troop
s. Without a
hero, your troops are not going anywhere but defending your castle. Hero is the
leader and soul
of your troops . A hero can cast spells when you have researched/found spells,
and with a spell
book in the hero s inventory. A hero can hold up to 14 of whatever artifacts he/s
he may find
and use them. Different types of heroes have different modifiers and abilities,
I will discuss these
later.
City Improvements -- You need to build city improvements. Most of the improvemen
ts
produces troops, the detailed list will be in the troops section. Every castle h
as some common
improvements:
Magic guild: 4 levels totally. Each level you add, you get additional spells. Wi
th magic guild,
you can also, for 500 gold, buy spell books for non-spell casting heroes like k
nights and
barbarians.
Thieves guild: Gives you information on your standings among other players in di
fferent
categories. The more guilds you own, the more info you get. But I don t really fi
nd it that useful
to build one in every castle.
Well: This one is useful. It increase the productions of your troops in that cas
tle by 2 per week.
It may not be much for peasants or sprites and such, but when you need dragons o
r phoenix, 2
units takes two weeks to produce.
Tavern: Increase the morale of your defending troops.
Shipyard: Produces ships, if you are on the sea shore; you can't build a shipyar
d if you are not
on the sea shore. Also, only one ship can dock at a shipyard at any given time.
You have to
move the boat before you can produce another one.
Troops -- You need to, of course, produce troops, to fight other lords. The stat
us and cost of
different troops are discussed in details in troops section.
Artifacts -- You will want to find and grab those artifacts available in each sc
enario. You don t

HAVE TO but it will help, well mostly. There are artifacts that will hurt you ra
ther than help you.
And once you find the artifacts, you can t destroy it nor drop it. You can't trade
it either. It
HAS to be carried on the original hero who found it. Note, only the bad artifac
ts can't be
transferred. You can trade between your own heroes good artifacts and troops. M
y advice is
this. Grab everything that you can get your hands on. If you do find a
bad artifa
ct, let this hero
carry it (you don't really have a choice there.) then, if you want, you can giv
e him minimal
troops like one of the weakest and let him fight other lords heroes, after he is
defeated, the
winning party will have to pick up the artifact up and now it s their problem. Be
ware though,
you might forget who picked up your bad luck later and fight that same hero agai
n only to find
out you got your bad luck back. So a more safe way is to keep him to dig up all
the artifacts,
then redistribute them. If you do choose to do this, remember don't keep him in
the castles that
are likely to be attacked, because when attacked the hero in the castle will ass
ume the role of
troop leader and the artifacts he carries will effect all the troops. Or better
yet, you can leave
that hero in some place where nobody will ever be. Of course you can just forget
about the bad
one just give all good ones to this hero to counter balance it and give him as m
any troops as
possible and he is still a good fighter. You can get to the point where you have
so many troops
under the command of one hero that you don't have to worry about spells, luck or
anything else.
you can kill any enemy troops within one turn. Then who cares what the hero is c
arrying.
Among the artifacts, there is a biggie in every scenario, that is buried somewh
ere. You need to
solve a puzzle to see where it s buried. You solve the puzzle by find pieces of t
he treasure map
from different obelisks. After you fit all the pieces together (don t worry compu
ter does that for
you.), you can see the red mark on the map indicating the location of the artif
act. One trick to
this is to start digging before you have all the pieces. As long as you can mak
e a good guess
where it is, start digging. You will be happy with that artifact, it s much bette
r than other
artifacts. While normal artifacts may give your hero +2 attack skill, or +2 def
ense skill, or +2
spell skills, the one that you dig up will add 12 to a skill. Artifacts are gen
erally defended by
some neutral troops on the way. After you reach for the artifacts, three things
may happen. You
may get it for free (the best), or you can buy it for 2000 gold, the worst is y
ou may find a pack
of rogues defending it. You never know which situation will happen. It s pure luc
k. So be
always prepared for a battle.

Misc. -- You may also find other strange looking things. Always remember to righ
t click if you
are not sure. Most things you walk into won t hurt you. Even if they will, you wil
l be asked if
you want to go in that place or not. This is a always a good indicator and you s
hould expect a
battle ahead. I will give some examples below but you can find these out easily.
Examples of good ones -- The fountain and ring bless your troops and make them l
ucky. The
statue give you good morale. Capturing a lighthouse increases your troops' move
on sea.
Windmill gives you a small amount of resource every week, but you have to walk t
o it every
week to receive it. Some dwellings for peasants and goblins or archers are out t
here. Also
dwellings for nomads rogues and genies. (yes, the genies in the lamp)
Examples of bad ones -- The ship wreck, grave yard and cave have monsters and gh
osts inside,
but you can always find something useful in return if you win the battle. Howeve
r, if you or
someone has already searched those places and killed all the monsters, and you s
earch again,
you will find nothing and your troops morale becomes low
??? -- The strangest of them all is the dragon city. You can consider that a goo
d place to visit if
you have a large army. After you attack the city and kill all the dragons in the
re, the rest of the
dragon will offer you 1000 gold per day and defend the city for you. And you ask
how come
there are dragons left if your army killed them all? Maybe dragons are magical a
nd can rise from
their ashes. Wait that's phoenix. OK! Baby dragons from the city's day care cent
er! Satisfied? I
didn't design the game!! Anyway, it's like a gold mine with defenders; and in ea
sy settings, other
lords never attack the city. In the harder setting, they might when they find it
.
HAD ENOUGH? I JUST GOT WARMED UP!!
Strategy -- Yeah finally :)
OK I will do it this way. I will follow the process of playing.
Standard game? Campaign game?
The first you need to do is select Standard game or Campaign game from t
he Main
menu. Multi-player game is not a issue of strategy, it depends on whether you ha
ve a buddy or
not. Now let s go back to which type of game to play. I will list the advantages a
nd
disadvantages of both game types.
Standard Game
Advantages: You get to choose the number of computer players (1-3) and their
dumbness.
You get to choose your color freely (yeah like that s important). You can set the
difficulty of the

whole game. You can choose the scenario, and after playing the same scenario for
a while you
can remember the whole map. In some scenario you start with more than one castle
. That's not
always an advantage though. Since you can't see anything on map between these ca
stles and if
you have more than one castle, guess how strong those computer AIs are!
Disadvantages: You can t really choose which type of troops to start with. One,
out of four
types of troops, is assigned to you randomly. Or it's rather a castle type that
is assigned to you.
Doesn't matter really, all the same thing.
Notes -- In the standard game selection window, there is an option called Ki
ng of the Hill
if you are a newbie, DO NOT CHECK THIS OPTION. This option makes all your enemy
stop fighting each other and beat you up first. I think it is an option for exp
ert players who want
an adventure and challenge. Another thing, although you don t get the briefing wi
ndow like the
campaign game, you can still read something explaining the scenario when you cl
ick on the
scenario you want to choose.
Campaign game
Advantages: You can choose which type of troops to start your campaign with.
You get a
briefing window before every scenario to learn what you are supposed to do in th
at scenario.
Every mission is different, not simply seek domination of the land; this make it
much more
interesting. And it does follow a story line. As simple as the story is, it's st
ill a story. To see
which type of troops to choose for campaign game, see 'troops' section. You get
to choose which lord
you want to choose to play as. Then you get asigned a castle that should be led
by this lord.
Disadvantages: You can t really set the difficulty level. You will always fac
e what the
computer throw at you. You don't have any control over it, but to accept everyth
ing. I always
think in campaign game you are always put in a less favored situation. Others l
ords may be
more advanced than you, and you always start with one castle.
Note -- In campaign games, always pay close attention to the mission assign
ed to you. If
you don t finish the mission successfully, you can t finish the scenario. You may
conquer all the
warlords, you still can t finish it. Also beware of the other warlords who may fin
ish the mission
before you, then you are in BIG trouble, namely, you lose. I found that out the
hard way.
All
the campaign scenarios stay the same at all time like standard games. Only the d
istribution of
artifacts changes every time, not the locations but the items themselves change.
This applies to

both type of games.

After you have picked the type of game, a scenario starts. Like all other strate
gy games, you
can only see a small block of the whole map, where your castle and hero stands.
You have
limited resource at the beginning. You have a level-one hero already hired leadi
ng minimal
troops. In one word, YOU SUCK. OOps, that was two words. OK so I can't count, no
surprise there, I am in college!!
The first thing you need to do is click
/ double click on your
hero AND your castle to check their status. Let s look at these.
Hero s screen: You left click on your selected hero to see info. (left click to se
lect too)
Who s my hero?
The title bar that s above all the pix is the name and class of your hero.
Like Arus the
knight. Also, the first pix of the first row is the portrait of your hero(most a
re ugly, generally no
foxy lady either :)
How experienced is my hero?
The first row of pix give you that information. There is an icon for att
ack skill. The
number showing is how much attack skills this hero can add to all the troops he
leads. The icon
and number for defense skill works the same way. Only it adds to defense. The sp
ell skill
number tells you how effective your spells are. For some spells like protection
and bless or
blind; they last as many rounds as your spell skill. For example, spell skill =
1 gives a cheesy
one round protection per spell cast. The knowledge number tells you how many spe
lls of the
same kind you can keep on your spell book. You can keep all the spell you can le
arn from a
magic guild but how many each depends on your knowledge, make sense? The last pi
cture has
three row inside. First the eagle like icon stand for morale. Click on the eagle
for your morale
info. The second row inside the picture is a rainbow like icon, which stands for
luck. Same
thing, click on icon to see your luck info. The third is a star with the word exp
on it. The
number besides it is your hero s current experience points. When you click on the
icon you see
how much more is needed for next level. When a hero gains a level, he/she gains
one point in
one of the four skills. There is no telling which one though. Spell casters have
more chance of
gaining spell skill and knowledge, knights and barbarians have more chance of ga
ining attack
and defense skills. But again you can t really tell, it s random. A hero gain experi
ence mainly by
fighting. The more powerful and greater in number of enemy you kill, the more ex
perience you
get. A hero can also visit gazebo to gain experience but only once per gazebo pe

r hero. You
can also convert gold to experience when you find treasure chests.
How strong is my hero?
The strength of your hero depends on the troops he/she leads. The hero d
oesn t actually
fight during a combat. What he does it making decisions and cast spells. So it s t
he troops who
will fight. The second row of pictures of the window tell you which kind and how
many troops
the hero is leading. A hero can lead a maximum of 5 types of troops. But you can
stack all the
troops of same type together. And there is virtually no limit to how many you ca
n stack
together. I have reached more than 200 troops myself, no problem. BTW 200 of any
troops
should be pretty powerful, except peasants, I have killed 160 peasants with one
shoot :) Some
common sense, stack as many as you can afford. An army can never be too strong.
I will
discuss the detail of these later.
Does my hero carry any goodies?
It depends on you. The last two rows of icons in the window are normally
unfilled at
first. This is the inventory of you hero. He/she carries the spell book and any
artifacts the hero
may find. Spell casters normally carry a spell book with them when you hire them
. For others
who don t have a spell book at first, you can click on the magic guild that you ha
ve build and for
500 gold you can buy one.(to do this, the hero has to be in the castle that has
the magic guild.)
The spell book is considered the only artifacts that can t be transferred between
heroes.
Including the spell book, a hero can carry a maximum of 14 artifacts. Each norma
lly affect one
skill/luck/morale of the hero, hence the troops the hero is leading.
Now you must have noticed there are different hero types here.
There are four types in this game. The following is the attributes of
level 1 heroes. Normally that's how they are when you hire them. They
improve themselves by gaining levels.
Knight
Attack -- 1
Defense -- 2
Spell Power -- 1
Knowledge -- 1
Come with spellbook -- No
Specialty -- +1 morale
Barbarian
Attack -- 2
Defense -- 1
Spell Power -- 1
Knowledge -- 1
Come with spellbook -- No
Specialty -- No movement penalies for moving over rough terrain.

Sorceress
Attack -- 0
Defense -- 0
Spell Power -- 2
Knowledge -- 3
Come with a spellbook -- Yes
Specialty -- Move on water with double speed.
Warlock
Attack -- 0
Defense -- 0
Spell Power -- 3
Knowledge -- 2
Specailty -- Has a larger visibility radius in Adventure window.
Now this is it for heroes screen.
The Adventure window
You see the surrounding of your heroes, your castles and the places your
heroes have
been to. You can scroll this window around. For an overview of all areas, use th
e world map at
the upper right corner. You use your adventure window to move your heroes around
to fight
others and explore the unknown territories. There really isn't much strategy to
talk about in this
part. All you need to know is in the manual. :) Yeah right, what manual?! The ma
in objective in
the adventure window is to move you heroes on to as many mines and obelisks as p
ossible,
they can ONLY help you. Every turn, before you do anything, right click on all
castles, yours
and especially enemy's. You look around your castles for potential dangers, like
some sneaky
enemy heroes. If you do see one right click to find out its troop strength. If y
ou think your
defenders of the castle are stronger than the enemy troops, then just leave him
alone there. But
beware, if you don't have a hero in your castle you still may lose even if your
troops are
stronger. Because heroes have several advantages. First, heroes have spells. If
you don't have
any hero to counter cast spells, chances are half of your troops can't even atta
ck before they got
all killed. Second, heroes have artifacts to help them, to increase attack power
, defense skill and
luck and morale. I won't go too much into it right now, I will save the goodies
for later, the
combat. Last but not the least, heroes adds bonus skills to all the troop he/she
is leading. The
bonus depends on the level of the heroes, and hero's class. You can't tell any o
f the above
without 'identify hero' spell. So you can't just look at the enemy troops and sa
y 'They are weak!'
as long as the power is close to yours especially if the enemy has one of the fo
ur most powerful
troops (Paladin, Cyclops, dragon, phoenix-- look into troops section to see why
they are
powerful) take extreme caution. Since your castle is your most precious property
, defend it

carefully. If you do think you will lose the fight and you don't have any hero o
f yours close
enough to save you, you don't have to loose all your troops in your castle. If y
ou have lots of
money and all your dwellings in that castle can still give you more troops, then
get everyone of
them, even if all of your troops added together can't save the castle. Why, you
ask? So after
your enemy take over the castle, he can't recruit any more troops and you know e
xactly how
many troops he has, and probably within a week, you can get an army strong enoug
h to get the
castle back and preferably kill that enemy hero(well heroes never die, but if yo
u defeat them in
the combat they disappear). Now that you have emptied your castle, it's time to
flee. Yes flee. If
you are positively sure that you can't win that battle, you flee to save your tr
oops won't you?
You go hire a hero and let that hero lead all the troops you got and flee out of
the castle. If you
have more than 5 types of troops, leave the weakest in castle and, no choice, yo
u have to let
them die. Normally, computer's first objective is to capture your castle. So its
hero will totally
ignore the hero fled out of the castle and still go ahead and attack the castle.
The computer also
use this strategy when it sees that your troops is going to attack its castle an
d it can't defend it.
So if this happen to you, do what I do, go attack the fleeing hero first and kil
l all the troops, the
castle is empty for the week anyway, you have plenty of time to capture it later
. There is an
interesting effect caused by this strategy used by computer. When one computer p
layer attack
another computer player, the defender flee ask I describe above, so the attacker
take the castle
then it will leave without put any troops for defense. So the fleeing hero go ba
ck and take the
castle back and also leave without defense, since none of them can get more troo
ps from the
castle. So those two heroes will keep capturing and leaving the castle for ever,
without attacking
each other. Now, you have checked all your castles and make sure they are safe.
It's time to
check enemy's castles. When you right click on enemy castles you will see the de
fenders. If it's
weak then you find a good opportunity to get yourself a brand new castle. Right
click on enemy
heroes to find out their strength. After knowing what you have and what your en
emies have,
you can start planning, and move your heroes around accordingly. Also, recruit a
s many troops
as you can afford. After all, get a large army is the ultimate goal you have to
achieve for this
game. Be careful where you are stepping though, there are scattered creatures al
l around the
map. They don't belong to any lord, but they will defend their properties if you
invade their
privacy. Each such creature has the control over the adjacent squares. You can w
alk pass them

in those adjacent squares without pissing them off, but if you stop in those squ
ares, you'd better
ready to kill them all, for if you don't they will kill you. If you stop right o
n those creatures,
which means you are attacking them intentionally, two things might happen. Do y
ou want hear
the good one first or the bad one? OK, bad one first. You have to fight until on
e dies. Now the
good news, the creature may offer to join you, and you will gladly accept that o
ffer, I hope? The
surrender generally happens when your army is way to powerful for them to handle
. But, it's all
random. I forgot what happens if they offer to surrender and you don't have any
space left in
your army to hold them. Or maybe they don't surround under that condition? Anywa
y this don't
happen much. Normally, those creatures are guarding something. Maybe a mine, an
artifact, a
road to other parts of the map. Whatever it is, if you want to go through, you m
ust try your luck.
However, you don't always have to fight them. If you don't desperately need that
mine or
whatever, you can wait until other heroes kill the creature, and you can capture
the mine later.
Of course if it's an artifact then you can't get it. Sometimes, when the creatur
es are guarding an
road, they are actually acting as a defense line for you to keep other lords' he
roes away, at least
for a while. So my advise is this: do not fight them unless it is necessary, the
y usually fight instead
of surrender so don't think you can always get free troops.
Another thing you can do, in advanture window is walk to another friendl
y hero, then a
trade window come up and you can trade troops and/or artifacts between two heroe
s. This is a
way to deliver troops and/or artifacts to a hero who, for some reason, can't get
back to a castle.
You trade troops and artifacts by click the ones to be traded then the according
arrow sign. Or
if you want to exchange things, just click once on one then click once on the ot
her. Note, spells
books and cursed (bad) artifacts can't be transferred. You have to leave at leas
t one group of
troops for a hero.
You move your heroes around, sooner or later, you will encounter combat.
One cool
thing about this game is that you can actually see and control what's going on i
n combat not
random result like other games.
When you engage in a combat, you enter the
Combat Window
Attacking troops will always be on the left side, defenders on the right
. The troops of
one hero arrange in a column from top to bottom of the window. The troop that is
the first in 5
troops appear at the top. You can see the order of appearance by double click th
e icon of the
hero who is leading those troops at the left side, outside the adventure window.
The small tent

behind the line of your troops is where the hero is hiding during the combat. Yo
u can move the
mouse point over the tent and it will change to a helmet. Then click and you wil
l see all the
options a hero can do. Nothing much, cast spells, retreat, surrender, cancel.
Cast spells -- If your hero has any spells on the spellbook, it's time t
o use those
COMBAT SPELLS. I will tell you the effect of different spells in 'spells' sectio
n. Your hero can
cast spell once every combat turn. So make sure you are not helping the enemy be
fore you cast
a spell. (Yes, you can actually help your enemy by cast a spell in battle.)
Retreat -- Your hero flee, lose all troops but your hero is back to the
pool for rehiring
right afterwards. The heroes keep the experience points. artifacts. BEWARE, the
hero after
fleeing can be hired by any lord and disappears the next week. So if you want to
rehire that
hero do it quickly.
Surrender -- it doesn't sound good for a hero but it has its advantages
too. When you
surrender, generally the other hero will accept (yes only another hero can accep
t surrender so
you can't surrender to enemies without a hero leader.) After the hero accepts yo
ur surrender,
he/she will ask for ransom before setting you free. The amount depends on the nu
mber and kind
of troops. What you are actually doing is paying money to buy back your loser tr
oops. If you
can't pay or the hero declines your request, then you must continue the fight. A
fter paying, your
hero is back to the pool with experience, artifacts, all the troops and ready fo
r ALL the lords to
hire. Since you paid the money for his/her freedom, grab that guy OK? Don't be a
sucker and
let some other lord get your hero and troops.
Cancel -- You click here when you say 'OOPS, I click on the wrong icon.'
Attacking party move first. exceptions see 'troops' section. The troops attack i
n order of speed.
The fastest troop attack first. Most fast troops, and all flying units can move
to enemy and
attack in one turn, most slow units can't. So don't get part of your units to de
ep into combat
while your others units are still trying to catch up. But again sometimes you wa
nt to do that. All
depends on your strategy. Shooters are the most precious units you can get in
combat so
ALWAYS PROTECT THEM. But remember, your shooters have limited ammo so if you fig
ht
a long battle, they will run out of the arrows or whatever. After that, shooters
units suck. There
is another thing you should know in combat called retaliate. Don't think your en
emy will just
stand there dumb-founded. They will return the favor to the first one or two at
tacks they
receive, generally, see 'troops' section for exceptions. The same apply to your
units, if they are
attacked. You can only retaliate the enemy in adjacent squares, therefore, you c

an't retaliate any

shooter unless you are standing next to them.
When it's time for one of your units to move, you would see that unit be
ing highlighted.
You can skip this unit and go on to the next one by clicking on 'skip' button at
the bottom of the
screen. But if you do that, the unit you skipped lose that turn.
There ar
e three situations you
may get into when you start your combat: combat on normal terrain, attacking a c
astle, and
defending a castle. Attacking and defending a town is the same as fighting on no
rmal terrain.
When fighting on normal terrain, everyone has the same advantage/disadva
ntage. You
just move your troops around and do your normal fighting.
Castles
When attacking a castle, you have to use catapult to break the castle wa
lls before you
can walk up to an enemy unit and attack. You flying troops are not limited to th
is, they can fly
into the castle bofore you break the wall. Your shooters units' damage is reduce
d when
attacking over the castle wall. You can only fire your catapuls once each turn,
and it takes two
hit tat the same section of the wall to break that section. The catapult aim at
a random section
every turn. You can't control it. You can fire twice if you have an artifact c
alled ballista of
quickness. See 'Artifacts' section. Catapult can not be destroyed.
When defending a castle, you have castle walls to keep enemies away from
you. You
can't walking out either. You can use shooters to attack them and flying units t
o fly over castle
walls to attack. The same apply to your enemy. You have a guarding tower shootin
g fire
arrows, once each turn. The damage of arrow depends on the number of city improv
ements you
build inside the castle. The guarding tower can not be destroyed. Hell, it can't
be seen either.
Now you need to know all the changing mouse pointers during combat.
Running man -- When you see this, you know you can move the highlighted unit to
the place
where you put your pointer.
Flying man -- Same as running man, you only see this when the highlighted unit
can fly.
Sword -- This means you can attack whomever you are pointing at with your highli
ghted unit.
Arrow -- You can shoot there. You see this only when the shooters of yours are h
ighlighted and
they have arrows left.
Red X -- You can't move/attack there.

? -- It changes to ? when the pointer is on one of your units. Click and you see
the troops info
window come up on the screen. Click on this often during the combat to see if an
y of the troops
are low in hp and need a heal. (Yes, you will have heal spell.)
Helmet -- I already told you.
Now that we got the basics out of the way, it's time to fight.
The BIG question, Do I or Do I not choose Auto-combat?
This is a bit tricky, since both auto or manual combat have drawbacks. F
irst let's talk
about auto combat. It is a good choice for newbies. For more experienced players
I would
suggest manual combat. Playing auto-combat is like watch a cartoon, it takes the
fun out of
game-play. But if you have absolutely no idea what is going on, then forget abou
t the fun part
and just keep your men( or some kind of creatures) alive ok?
First let's look into what's happening when you choose different combat options.
Auto Combat
There really isn't much strategy involved on your part. Computer does everything
for you. And
computer always follow one single strategy in combat.
Normal terrain.
How computer casts spells
Each turn, if you have any combat spells available, the computer will tr
y to use it.
Typically, it casts 'protection' on your shooters unit first, then 'bless' eithe
r your shooters or one
of your currently attacking units. Computer casts other spells generally when it
's needed. But
computer try its best to cast one spell per turn ( The max allowed ) until you r
un out of combat
spells. Sometimes, and I have no idea how computer calculates that, it will forc
e your hero to
cast some destructive spells like storm. It will hurt both enemy and your own un
its. I highly
oppose the usage of this kind of spells unless you are on a suicidal mission. Th
ere are only two
spells in the game that will hurt all troops, 'storm' and 'Armageddon'. Use thes
e with extreme
caution!! You could kill your army with it. But over all, computer does a fairly
good job on spell
casting. The only problem is you need to go back to your castle to restock your
spells at least
every two battles, if you let computer do all the spell casting. Oh, also, the '
fireball' may hurt
your own troops if they are one square away from where the fireball explodes.
How computer moves the troops around and fight
The computer will always move your slow units before the shooters to for
m a protection

shield. By slow I mean the units that can't move to the enemy and attack within
one turn. That
will include all the units with 'slow' speed and most 'medium' speed units, unle
ss you cast 'Haste'
on them. The units with 'fast' speed and flying units will all go attack enemy s
hooters units first.
Well... That's about it for dumb computers. It just wait until enemy units are w
ithin attack range
then attack it. Otherwise, only shooters will attack. And computer always attack
the enemy
shooters first. This is the strategy the computer use when attacked by you. But,
of course, if the
attacking unit can't get to the enemy shooters, it will attack anyone in its way
. This should be
obvious. That's all to it for auto combat.
Draw backs of auto combat.
Doing auto combat is tend to waste your spells. Even if you know you can
crush your
enemy in one or two turns and you don't really need to cast any spells on your t
roops, the
computer will still do it until you run out of scrolls and have to go back to a
castle for a refill.
When I was playing, I generally let a hero with some strong army wonder around a
nd fight for a
while before I get them back to a castle, so if I use auto combat all the time I
will be in trouble.
Spells can be extremely helpful in combat. You will see.
Auto combat does not always move and attack according to situations. For
example,
when you encountered those neutral creatures groups, they are normally all the s
ame type of
troops, but they split into 5 groups with around 5 units each. So, when you get
into those kind
of combat and enemy is all shooters, the strategy computer uses is fatal to your
troops, if you
use auto combat that is. You see, when you are facing 5 shooting units, they sho
ot at your
shooters at least 5 times in one round. If all your walking units are just stand
ing in front of your
shooters trying to protect them like the computer will always do, your shooters
suffer
unnecessary damage. The troops can't block arrows, arrows always hit the target.
For your
shooters alone, to kill all the enemy you need at least 5 turns. If you walk th
e other units toward
the enemy, even if they can't attack within one turn, most of them can attack th
e enemy in the
second round and save the shooters. (Shooters can't shoot arrows when an enemy u
nit is
standing next to it, and they do much less damage without shooting). Another exa
mple, if you
have one of the following 3 units, you'd better not do any auto combats: Dragons
, phoenix, and
cyclops. The problem with these units is that they are extremely powerful. They
are also the only
units in the whole game that can attack 2 squares instead of 1 for normal units.
During auto
combat, computer only see to it that dragon/phoenix/cyclops do hit the enemy. It
doesn't care if

you have another unit standing in the line of fire and get killed by your own dr
agon. This
happened to me a couple of times and can be very annoying if the units got kille
d is one of your
shooters. After that, I abandoned auto combat totally.
Attacking/Defending Castles
During the attacking and defending of castles, if you choose auto comba
t, the computer
generally use the same tactically planning. Definitely the same as far as spell
casting is
concerned. However, computer does send more walking units to stand near the cast
le wall to
wait for the breaking down of the walls. Other than that, it's the same.
Manual Combat
Normal Terrain.
Now here, you can use some strategy. First you notice that your mouse point chan
ges
according to its position. The most important of all, the sword sign changes poi
nting directions
when you move it around the body of the enemy. It shows how you attack, the hand
le points to
where you would stand, and the blade points in the direction of your attack. It
doesn't seem
much at first, but it's proved to be an important thing to consider when conduct
ing a combat.
What you want to do is to keep most enemy away from your shooters and let the re
st of your
troops attack them with the help of shooters from behind. One way of stop a unit
moving is
send an unit next to them. Or use a unit to block the way. There are rocks and t
rees and so on,
that have already blocked some of the road. The first thing you need to do is su
rvey the whole
battlefield to see how you can use those 'blockers' toward your advantages. Effe
ctively using
those road blockers and your units can keep most of enemy at their side of the b
attlefield and
annihilate them. Another thing you need to remember is that no unit can move to
an occupied
square period. So if you are clever enough, you can use enemy units to block the
ir own troops.
Of course, they will attack your blocking units like crazy so use the unit with
considerable
strength to this job. If you send a unit to stand inside the semicircle made by
three enemy units,
all of them will attack your unit instead of moving around them even if they can
.
One note on blocking, there is no way you can block any flying units. Th
ey can fly to
wherever they please to.
Another importance of knowing the direction of your attack is when you h
ave the three
units I talked about earlier that can attack two spares. You want to make sure
that your other
units aren't in the line of FIRE. Also check if another enemy unit IS in the li
ne of fire and you

can attack both within one turn.

Always leave at least one unit to protect your shooters preferably one o
f the slow
moving units since the enemy flying units will always go after your shooters. Th
en send the rest
to attack and block enemy units. If your flying or fast moving units aren't stro
ng enough to take
the first round, then move them slowly with the others and form a steady line to
prevent
undesired encounters. And again, flying units will just go over your head.
Always use more than one unit to attack one enemy unit unless your are s
ure that the
enemy unit is so weak you can finish it in one or two turns.
Shooters should always try to kill the enemy shooters first. After that,
if your shooters
are strong(great in number, etc.) you should try to eliminate a whole group of e
nemy troops
alone. If your shooters aren't so strong, then try to help your attacking units
to finish their fight
quicker so they can go on to the next battle. As the saying goes, 'it's an art,
not science.' go with
your feelings. Watch for ammo though. The shooters' ammo normally lasts 8 rounds
. After that
they attack by hands and become almost useless.(Druid and trolls will be still g
ood attackers
even after their arrows are gone.) Don't worry, after the battle is done, they
got new supplies
and will have the full load for the next battle.
Other than these, you just walk/fly to your enemy and attack. Flee if yo
u have to. You
flee to prevent you experienced hero to abandon you. If you make a mistake by at
tacking
someone or you got attacked and you are sure that you can't win, you can surrend
er and buy
back your troops.
For spells casting during the battle, I will put them in the spells sect
ion using comments
to each spell. It will be easier to write this way.
Attacking Castle
Generally you do the same thing. You just need to handle an extra castle
wall before
you have a clear path to attack. Your flying unit can get in only if there are s
pace left inside.
Sometimes you can't find any space inside the wall. Then you have to wait until
the catapult to
break at least one section of the wall. Line up your attacking units along the
wall and wait for
the walls to be broken. your troops will be stopped upon entrance between the br
oken walls,
hence block the way of your own troops. So castle attacking is normally a one-on
-one even
two-on-one, three-on-one situation. Always send in the strongest walking troops
. By strongest
I don't mean the type. You may have 2 dragons and 500 swordsmen, then the swords
men is
stronger than the dragon. To find out the detailed info on your troops move your
mouse over
them and click on the troop with that question mark. Also read the section about
troops in this

guide. Don't forget to let your shooters help opening up pathways into castle, b
y killing the
enemy that's blocking the way, or kill some weak troops inside the castle to ope
n up space for
your flying units. You will have to cast protection on your shooters or they wil
l suffer some
heavy casualties.( Those damn flaming arrows from the watch tower!) Don't leave
any units with
shooters to protect them unless enemy has flying units.
After I take over a castle, I don't normally leave it empty like the com
puter does most
the time. I don't leave any of my own army there either. I recruit if I can. If
I can't, I let my here
stay there a week. This somehow slows down your quest but, you don't lose your c
astle too
easily.
Defending the castle
Your walking units wouldn't do anything until your castle wall break dow
n. Shooters is
the most important and you should start shooting the first round. First at their
shooters,
hopefully, with the help of the watch tower, you can kill enemy shooters. Then e
nemy flying units
if there is any. Then shoot at the strongest enemy units to, at least, cut down
its size to minimize
the damage they do. At the meantime, line your troops along the wall to fill all
the spaces. Also
send out your flying units if they are strong enough.
That's about it for combat. Isn't it exciting?
Troops info (listed by type)
You can actually find all those info by right click on the troops icon m
ost the time,
sometimes even left click will do. I list all these so you can have a list handy
. All the numbers in
cost means gold, unless specified. Growth is per week. Morale and Luck are all n
ormal for all
the troops. Only under the leadership of a hero those attributes will be changed
. For some
reason, those basic troops like peasants and goblins are more effected by heroes
' modifier as
powerful troops like cyclops and dragons are less effected. At least that's what
happened to
me.
The troops are listed in order of increasing power (loosely), The word in follow
ing the troop
name is the dwelling needed to recruit those troops.
Knight/human troops
In Campaign game Lead by Lord Ironfist. Color red.
]Peasants (Thatched Hut)
Attack -- 1
Defense -- 1
Damage -- 1
HP -- 1
Speed -- 1
Cost -- 20
Growth -- 12

Specialty -- None
Comments -- The weakest troop as soon as you can afford, discard peasants until
you suddenly
remember it. Only more than 1000 of them stack together can do something. But yo
u still need
to use them at the beginning of the game, if your home castle is knight/human ca
stle.
Archer (Archery Range)
Attack -- 5
Defense -- 3
Damage -- 2-3
HP -- 10
Speed -- Slow
Cost -- 150
Growth -- 8
Specialty -- Shooter, 12 shots per combat.
Comments -- Basic Shooters. I can't think of anything else right now. I will let
you know when I
do.
Pikemen (Blacksmith)
Attack -- 5
Defense -- 9
Damage -- 3-4
HP -- 15
Speed -- Medium
Cost -- 200
Growth -- 5
Specialty -- None
Comments -- Can be used both as defenders or attackers just stack lots of them t
ogether.
Swordsman (Armory)
Attack -- 7
9
Defense
Damage -- 4-6
HP -- 25
Speed -- Medium
Cost -- 250
Growth -- 4
Specialty -- None
Comments -- Same as Pikemen
Cavalry (Jousting Arena)
Attack -- 10
Defense -- 9
Damage -- 5-10
HP -- 30
Speed -- Fast
Cost -- 300
Growth -- 3
Specialty -- None
Comments -- The best attacking units before you can afford to build a Cathedral.
Paladin (Cathedral)
Attack -- 11
Defense -- 12
Damage -- 5-10

HP -- 50
Speed -- Fast
Cost -- 600
Growth -- 2
Specialty -- Attacks twice per round.
Comments -- They are fast, they are strong. But not too strong comparing to oth
er troops in
their rank like dragons and phoenix. In my opinion, even hydras are better. The
only advantage
is it's cheap. It's even cheaper than some basic troops of other type of castles
. And its growth
rate is 2 instead of 1 like others.
Barbarian / Plains troops
In Campaign game lead by Lord Slayer, color green.
Goblin (Hut)
Attack -- 3
Defense -- 1
Damage -- 1-2
HP -- 3
Speed -- Medium
Cost -- 40
Growth -- 10
Specialty -- None
Comments -- Most basic troop of this type. But you can see, much better than pea
sants. Ideal
for shooter defending early in the game.
Orc (Stick Hut)
Attack -- 3
Defense -- 4
Damage -- 2-3
HP -- 10
Speed -- Slow
Cost -- 140
Growth -- 8
Specialty -- Shooters, 8 shots per combat.
Comments -- Basic shooter, great in growth rate. Stack a lot of them together.
Wolf (Den)
Attack -- 6
Defense -- 2
Damage -- 3-5
HP -- 20
Speed -- Fast
Cost -- 200
Growth -- 5
Specialty -- Attacks twice per round.
Comments -- Always tag it alone for attacking. Does double damage and fast.
Ogre (Adobe)
Attack -- 9
Defense -- 5
Damage -- 4-6
HP -- 40
Speed -- Slow
Cost -- 300
Growth -- 4
Specialty -- None
Comments -- Nice for castle defense. Of course you can use it for attack but co

nsidering its
speed, it's ideal for defending.
Troll (Bridge)
Attack -- 10
Defense -- 5
Damage -- 5-7
HP -- 40
Speed -- Medium
Cost -- 600
Growth -- 3
Specialty -- Shooters, 8 shots per combat. Regenerate HP.
Comments -- The best shooter unit in game. Author's choice award :)
Cyclops (Pyramid)
Attack -- 12
Defense -- 9
Damage -- 12-24
HP -- 80
Speed -- Medium
Cost -- 750 + 1 crystal
Growth -- 2
Specialty -- Attack 2 spaces, 20% paralyzation.
Comments -- Relatively cheap and a good attacker/defender. HP a little low. Spee
d is quite
slow.
Sorceress / Forrest troops
In Campaign game lead by Queen Lamanda, color yellow.
Sprite (Treehouse)
Attack -- 4
Defense -- 2
Damage -- 1-2
HP -- 2 Speed -- Medium/fly
Cost -- 50
Growth -- 8
Specialty -- Enemy can't retaliate
Comments -- If you have lots of them then use them. The most spendable unit in g
ame. Gather
more than 200 of them then use them.
Dwarf (Cottage)
Attack -- 6
Defense -- 5
Damage -- 2-4
HP -- 20
Speed -- Slow
Cost -- 200
Growth -- 6
Specialty -- 25% magic resistance
Comments -- The castle defending unit for this type. Ideal for non-hero defendin
g castles
considering its specialty.
Elf (Archery Range)
Attack -- 4
Defense -- 3
Damage -- 2-3
HP -- 15
Speed -- Medium

Cost -- 250
Growth -- 4
Specialty -- Shooters, 24 shots per combat, 2 shots per round.
Comments -- Best among basic shooters. A little expensive for its rank.
Druid (Stonehenge)
Attack -- 7
Defense -- 5
Damage -- 5-8
HP -- 25
Speed -- Fast
Cost -- 350
Growth -- 3
Specialty -- Shooters 8 shots per combat.
Comments -- A good attacking/shooting units only next to trolls.
Unicorn (Fenced Meadow)
Attack -- 10
Defense -- 9
Damage -- 7-14
HP -- 40
Speed -- Medium
Cost -- 500
Growth -- 2
Specialty -- 20% Blind (the enemy not itself!!)
Comments -- Use for defense, use for attack. it's good for anything, only the gr
owth rate is low.
Phoenix (Red Tower)
Attack -- 12
Defense -- 10
Damage -- 20-40
HP -- 100
Speed -- Fast/Fly
Cost -- 1500 + 1 Mercury
Growth -- 1
Specialty -- Attacks 2 squares.
Comments -- The best. Also the most expensive next to dragon.
Warlock / Mountain troops
In Campaign game led by Lord Alamar, color blue.
This is considered the best group of units in the game but they are very expensi
ve and low in
growth rate.
Centaur (Cave)
Attack -- 3
Defense -- 1
Damage -- 1-2
HP -- 5
Speed -- Medium
Cost -- 60
Growth -- 8
Specialty -- Shooters, 8 shots per combat.
Comments -- The weakest in game. I think it's here to balance all the other powe
rful armies.
Gargoyle (Crypt)
Attack -- 4
Defense -- 7
Damage -- 2-3

HP -- 15
Speed -- fast/fly
Cost -- 200
Growth -- 6
Specialty -- None
Comments -- Use it only if you don't have griffins. One advantage is gargoyles
have a higher
defense point.
Griffin (Nest)
Attack -- 6
Defense -- 6
Damage -- 3-5
HP -- 25
Speed -- Medium/fly
Cost -- 300
Growth -- 4
Specialty -- Unlimited retaliation
Comments -- Bring a whole bunch in your party. Considering its specialty, it is
a good if not the best 'road blocker' in the game. Also ideal for castle attacki
ng and defending.
Minotaur (Maze)
Attack -- 9
Defense -- 8
Damage -- 5-10
HP -- 35
Speed -- Medium
Cost -- 400
Growth -- 3
Specialty -- None
Comments -- I use them most for defense but it is balanced. If you can live with
its speed it's
OK to attack too.
Hydra (Swamp)
Attack -- 8
Defense -- 9
Damage -- 6-12
HP -- 75
Speed -- Slow
Cost -- 800
Growth -- 2
Specialty -- Attacks all adjacent spaces; enemy can't retaliate
Comments -- Take these hydra anywhere with you. They are proven to be better th
an paladins
if not cyclops. It's best used as 'road blocker' and castle defender. If you hav
e
'Haste' spell, then use this to attack. It could compare to the power of dragon.
Well almost.
Dragon (Black tower)
Attack -- 12
Defense -- 12
Damage -- 25-50
HP -- 200
Speed -- Medium/fly
Cost -- 3000 + 1 Sulfer
Growth -- 1
Specialty -- Attacks 2 squares. Immune to spells.

Comments -- What can you say? They are dragons. Nothing can slow them down. With
20 or
30 stacked together, they guarantee to wipe everyone off the map. I used 5 drago
ns in the 1st
scenario of the campaign game and I never met any match.
Miscellaneous troops,
You can not build the dwellings for these creatures in your castle. You have to
find their
dwellings and recruit them there. You cannot recruit ghost units, they are enemi
es.
Rogue (Wagons)
Attack -- 6
Defense -- 1
Damage -- 1-2
HP -- 4
Speed -- Fast
Cost -- 50
Growth -- N/A
Specialty -- Enemy can't retaliate.
Comments -- Considering the cost and attack skill, you may want to recruit them
when you find
them. Use them to attack early in the game. Facing some powerful enemy, they die
rather
quickly. This type of troop is very unbalanced.
Nomad (Tent)
Attack -- 7
Defense -- 6
Damage -- 2-5
HP -- 20
Speed -- Fast
Cost -- 200
Growth -- N/A
Specialty -- None
Comments -- Can be used as substitute for Cavalry, but not quit as good. I will
say it's your
call. Not something that you definitely need to go after.
Genie (Lamp)
Attack -- 10
Defense -- 9
Damage -- 20-30
HP -- 50
Speed -- Fast/Fly
Cost -- 650 + 1 gem
Growth -- N/A
Specialty -- 10% chance to cut the size of enemy unit in half. (!!!! This is goo
d, Hello there.
Wake up !!!)
Comments -- What do you feel when you find a lamp with genies ( yes pl.) inside?
They are
good. Grab them whenever you find the lamp. But before you go pick up the lamp,
make sure
you have the money for at least 10 genies. I have not seen a lamp with more than
10 genies
inside. Not yet. If you don't have enough money, you can't get all the genies an
d the ones you
left in the lamp will disappear with the lamp. Also make sure, the hero who pick
the lamp up has

an empty slot to put the genies. If not you can't get the genies either.
Ghost (Shipwreck and graveyard)
Attack -- 8
Defense -- 7
Damage -- 4-6
HP -- 20
Speed -- Medium/Fly
Cost -- You can't recruit them.
Growth -- N/A
Specialty -- For one creature killed a ghost is created.
Comments -- The most annoying troop in the whole game. Don't even touch them unl
ess you
have 'turn dead' spells and/or you know every one of your troops can stand one r
ound of ghost
attack without dying and kill the ghost in one round. They are in shipwrecks, gr
aveyard. If they
are outside, you will see the icon.
Spells info (list in no particular order)
Advanture spells.
You cast these at the adventure window.
Level 1
View Mine -- Display the location and type of all mines on the map.
Level 2
Summon Boat -- Summon the nearest boat (unoccupied)
View Artifacts -- Shows all the artifacts on the map.
Level 3
Identify Hero -- Shows you the statistics of an enemy hero and who many troops h
e is leading.
View Heroes -- Displays the location of all heroes.
View Resources -- Display the location and type of all resources.
View Towns -- Displays the location of all towns/castles.
Level 4
Dimension Door -- Move the hero who cast it to any space visible in the adventur
e window.
Town Gate -- Teleport the hero who cast the spell to the nearest friendly castle
or town.
View all -- Show the entire map.
Combat Spells
You cast these in Combat window.
All spells can be used on both side. So before you do any spell casting
in combat, make
sure you are helping your armies not the enemy OK?
The spell with * is better used on your own units.
The spell with ** can be used on both sides to see a positive effect. Li
ke 'Dispel Magic'
can be used to heal your own troops of negative spells, while remove positive sp
ells on enemy
units.
Level 1
Curse -- Cursed units can do only minimum damage.
*Bless -- Blessed units do Max. damage.

**Dispel Magic -- Removes all spells from the receptian.

*Protection -- +3 defense.
**Teleport -- Move one troop to a random unoccupied square on the battlefield.
Slow -- Slow down the enemy units so they move one square a turn and attack last
.
Level 2
*Anti-Magic -- Protects the units from all spells.
Blind -- Blind troops can only retaliate. The damage to a blind troop cancels th
e spell.
*Cure -- Cures ALL your troops of all negative spells.
Lightning Bolt -- Does 25x hero's spell power damage to one troop.
*Haste -- Haste troops speed up to FAST.
Turn Undead -- Destroy one group of undead creatures, namely ghosts.
Level 3
Berserker -- Berzerked units will attack the nearest troop for one round.
Fireball -- Does 10x spell power to all adjacent squares.
Paralyze -- Paralyzed troops can't retaliate; damage to paralyzed troops cancels
the spell.
*Resurrect -- Heals 50x spell power to a single creature in a single group.
Storm -- Does 25x spell power damage to ALL units on the battlefield.
Level 4
Armageddon -- Does 50x spell power damage to ALL troops on battlefield.
Meteor Shower -- Does 25x spell power damage to all adjacent squares.
Note, the level there is the level of your Magic guild not the level of your her
o. Different Magic
guilds in different castles gives you different spells. So do not ignore the dev
elopment of all
magic guilds.
Artifacts info (what I found out so far)
I think I got everything. If you find any artifact that is not listed
here, please mail me.
ULTIMATE ARTIFACTS
You dig these up after you solve (or think you solve) the puzzle. There is only
one in every
Scenario.
Ultimate Book of Knowledge -- +12 knowledge.
Ultimate Sword of Dominion -- +12 attack.
Ultimate Cloak of Protection -- +12 defense
Ultimate Wand of Magic -- +12 spell power.
Adds to Attack
Thunder mace of Dominion -Giant Flail of Dominion -Power Axe of Dominion -- +2
Dragon sword of Dominion --

+1 attack
+1 attack
attack
+3 attack

Adds to defense
Armored Gauntlets of Protection -- +1 defense
Defender Helm of Protection -- +1 defense
Stealth Shield of Protection -- +2 defense
Divine Breast Plate of Protection -- +3 defense.
Adds to Spell Power
Caster's Bracelet -- +2 spell power

Witches Broach of Magic -- +3 spell power

Arcane Necklace of Magic -- +4 spell power.
Mage's Ring -- +5 spell power
Adds to Knowledge
Minor Scroll of Knowledge -Major Scroll of Knowledge -Superior Scroll of Knowledge
Foremost Scroll of Knowledge

+2
+3
---

knowledge.
knowledge
+4 knowledge
+5 knowledge.

Adds to Morale
Medal of Courage -- +1 morale
Medal of Honor -- +1 morale
Medal of Distinction -- +1 morale
Medal of Valour -- +1 morale
Adds to luck
Gambler's Lucky coin -- +1 luck
Lucky Rabbit's Foot -- +1 luck
Golden Horseshoe -- +1 luck
4-Leaf Clover -- +1 luck
Adds to
Endless
Endless
Endless

money
Purse of gold -- +500 gold per day.
bag of gold -- +750 gold per day.
sack of gold -- +1000 gold per day.

Misc
Ballista of Quickness -- Catapults attack twice a round.
True compass of mobility -- +move on land and sea.
Traveler s boots of Mobility -- +move on land.
Nomad's Mobility Boots -- +move on land.
Sailor's Astrolabe of Mobility -- +move on sea.
BAD BAD BAD (cursed artifacts)
Fizbin of Misfortune -- -2 Morale.
Dwelling info.
Float charts
Knight Castle
--}Archery Range
/
Castle ---} Thatched Hut |--} Well ---} Blacksmith\
/--} Jousting Arena
\
|--}|
--} Tavern --} Armory /
\--} Cathedral
Barbarian Castle
--} Stick Hut
/
Castle ---} Hut |--} Adobe --} Bridge --} Pyramid
\
--} Den
Sorceress Castle
--} Tavern --} Cottage
|
Castle ---} Treehouse --} Archery Range --} Mage Guild
|
-------------------------------|

-} Stonehenge --} Fenced Meadow --} Red Tower

Warlock Castle
---} Nest --} Swamp --\
|
|--} Black Tower
Castle ---} Cave --}Crypt --} Maze --/
Dwelling cost
Terms
G -- gold
O -- Orc
W -- Wood
C -- crystal
S -- Sulfur
Gem -- Gem
M -- Mercury
Cost for converting tent to castle -- 20 w, 20 o, 5000 g
Common dwellings that can be built in all casltes
Mage Guild
Level 1 -level 2 -level 3 -level 4 --

5
5
5
5

w,
w,
w,
w,

5
5
5
5

o,
o,
o,
o,

2000 g
4 c, 4 s, 4 gem, 4 m, 1000 g
6 c, 6 s, 6 gem, 6 m, 1000 g
10 c, 10 s, 10 gem, 10 m, 1000 g

Thieves' Guild -- 5 w, 750 g

Tavern -- 5 w, 500 g
Shipyard -- 20 w, 2000 g
Well -- 500 g
Knight Castle dwellings
Thatched Hut (peasant) -- 200 g
Archery Range(Archer) -- 1000 g
Blacksmith (Pikemen) -- 5 o, 1000 g
Armory (Swordsman) -- 10 w, 10 o, 2000 g
Jousting Arena (Cavalry) -- 20 w, 4000 g
Cathedral (Paladin) -- 20 o, 20 c, 5000 g
Barbarian Castle
Hut (goblin) -- 300 g
Stick Hut (Orc) -- 5 w, 800 g
Den (wolf) -- 1000 g
Adobe (Ogre) -- 10 w, 10 o, 2000 g

Bridge (troll) -- 20 o, 3000 g

Pyramid (cyclops) -- 20 o, 20 c, 6000 g
Sorceress Castle
Treehouse (sprite) -- 5 w, 500 g
Cottage (Dwarf) -- 5 w, 1000 g
Archery Range (elf) -- 1500 g
Stonehenge (druid) -- 10 m, 10 o, 2500 g
Fenced Meadow (unicorn) -- 10 w, 10 gem, 3000 g
Red Tower (phoenix) -- 20 m, 30 o, 10000 g
Warlock Castle
Cave (centaur) -- 500 g
Crypt (gargoyle) -- 10 o, 1000 g
Nest (griffin) -- 2000 g
Maze (minotaur) -- 10 gem, 3000 g
Swamp (hydra) -- 10 s, 4000 g
Black Tower (dragon) -- 30 o, 20 s, 15000 g
General Hints and Tips for game
This section deals with
me. Also questions
others ask me. You can consider
epetition of what I
have already wrote about in the

plays.
specific issues that you may encounter in the ga
this mainly a FAQ or Q&A section. There may be r
early sections

In Campaign game which lord / queen should I choose?

It depends. When you choose a lord, you are actually choosing the type o
f castle/troops to
start your game with. After you decide, you will always start the campaign scena
rio with that type
of castle. For details on lord/castle combanation see the troops section. Everyo
ne has his/her
preferences on types of troops. After one game or two, you will have your own pr
eference, too. For
starters, Knight casltes give you cheap and relatively OK troops. Babarian/Sorce
ress castles both
have 2 kinds of shooters and good for castle attacking. Warlock castle give you
powerful troops (
advanced troops are more powerful) but very expensive. I always pick soceress ca
stle for no reason.
Guess I like the shooters and phoenix. I suggest the starters to choose Knight c
astles or Babarian
castle.
What should I do the first day?
In most games you start with one castle and one hero on the first day. Y

our first mission is

to explore the surroundings and pick up near by treasures, artifacts or whatever
that is NOT
GUARDED. You don't have the stroops needed to fight. So don't even stop near any
creatures. Don't
forget to build a dwelling in your castle. You can build one a day. Then hire an
other hero. Don't
think you would need that 2500 gold for something else. Your reserve is generall
y enough for several
days of building, and you do need at least two heroes at the start of the game.
What should I do the first week?
By now you should have at least two heroes, but don't go over three sinc
e you don't want to
split your troops to too many heroes. You don't have many troops yet. Don't even
consider the third
hero for at least a week or two. DO remember, however, to build one dwelling eve
ryday the first
week. Build dwellings that produces armies first. When you ar low in funds or yo
u can't build the
dwellings then build well and mage guild. This should open up more dwellings for
you to build, since
some dwellings requires the building of well or mage guild first. Leave the Thie
ves guild and Tavern
to the last. Send your heroes to explore the nearby land. Don't go too far thoug
h. You can't go
very far without fighting. One thing you can do is to give all troops to one her
o and send them
exploring, while the other one with minimum troops go around pick up goodies, an
d protect your
castle in case other lord find you too fast. Don't leave the castle empty.
Should I fight those creatures to get to the mine/artifact?
It depends. You can look up the troops section for relative strength of
troops. The creature
guarding the mine/artifact is normally in 5 groups of 4-5 creatures per group, u
nless they are
paladins or dragons. That will be 1-2 per group. Compare that to your army's str
ength and make a
decision. If the guarding creatures are slow and you have shooters then you have
an advantage. If
it's the other way around then you have disadvantages. The problem will be the s
lowly walking troops
suffer from the shooters while walking close. If you have some flying units then
you can use them to
tie up enemy shooters, genereally 3 of them if your flying units stand in the mi
ddle. They can't
shot with an enemy unit next to them and their hand-to-hand damage suck. The sam
e apply to your
shooters so when you distribute your troops in hero's window, put the shooters a
t the beginning
and/or the end of all the troops. That will put them in the corner of the combat
window. Then you
don't need as many troops to surround them to protect them. Now if you need that
mine desperately
then you have to fight that creature to get to it. But sometimes you can walk ar
ound the creatures
and capture the mine. Don't fight the creatures that are blocking the road. They
can at least slow
down your enemy's approach. When you feel you are ready and strong enought to ex

pand beyond that

point.
The enemy took all my castles what should I do?
If ALL of your castles are gone, you should get a message telling you th
at you need to get
your castle back within 7 days or you are doomed. Do it!! Gather all the heroes
together and combine
all the troops/artifacts on the most powerful hero. Use the rest hero to attack
ONE castle to weaken
its defense then use the hero with all the troops to take it over. If you fail,
you either start a
new game or load the game again, assumming you have saved it earlier. If you did
win this battle,
it's likely you won't have the strength to take over another castle for a while.
What you should do
is defend the only castle you have, and let other lord fight each other. Most of
them will get
weakened or even conquered. While they are fighting, you should use all your res
ources and gold to
build powerful armies. But watch your resources, they may run out. Even if you a
re not fighting
others, keep an eye on everyone. I recommand you turn on the view enemy move opt
ion. When you see a
castle with weak defense near you, your chance is here and grab it. Go attack it
and defend it. Then
you have more gold coming in and you can build more armies. This way you can com
e back into battle
and hopefully win this scenario. You should attack the weakest lord when you hav
e the chance. There
is a good chance that you may wipe him off the map. Then, you have the foundatio
n to fight the one
most powerful lord that is left. The only disadvantage is the one left over may
be too powerful when
you are finally ready to face him. But don't be discouraged by it. This is the t
ime your start
saving on dragons and phoenix or cyclops. Stack whole bunch of those on one or t
wo of your heores
then go kill. Most enemy heroes have their troops spread over on everyone of the
m. You can gather
all of your troops and you can kill them without a lot of difficulties.
An enemy hero is approaching my castle, I don't have enough defense, what should
I do?
Ok, first make sure if you have any hero that CAN defeat the approaching
enemy with
"Demension door" spell. If so, you maybe able to teleport that hero in time for
the fight. If not,
do you have money? I am talking about 5k or 10k even. If you do, you can do a co
uple of things. One
thing you can do is buy up all the troops avialable in that castle and a hero to
lead them. Let the
hero flee out of the castle. The computer AI wouldnt attack them, he will go for
the castle. I
talked about this strategy earlier in this doc. Go find it. Another thing you ca
n do if you have 'Storm'
or 'Armageddon' spell then you can hire a WARLOCK/SOCERESS to go on a suicidial
mission. Only give
them the original troops that came with them and let them go fight the enemy. Ca
st 'Storm' or

'Armageddon' upon contact. This should wipe out all your units but that should t
ake care some of the
enemy too. If you have money just keep doing this until you run out of money or
the enemy got beat
up and can't take your castle no more. Oh another thing, if your castle does not
have a lot of
improvement in it, then it's not a bad idea to lose it to the enmey. Under one c
ondition though,
make sure you can take it back very soon. After you take it back, you might get
extra improvments
built by your enemy. If you take all the troops away and take back the castle wi
thin a week then you
can get the extra improvements easily since the defense in castle is weak.( the
computer can't get
more troops out of the dwellings.) If you DO have lots of improvement and you DO
want to defend your
army, there is another thing you can do, only if the approaching enemy is low on
shooters and
flyers. You can get some flying units, buy them from dwelling or hire warlock/so
ceress who comes
with flying units. Your weak flying units will get attacked last. So you can hid
e it in one corner.
let all other units fight and kill as many enemy as possible, make sure you do s
hooter and flyers
first. Always hide your flying units in one of the four corners of the battlefie
ld where enemy can't
reach within one turn. Remove spells on the flyers if needed. For each round, yo
ur guarding tower
will shoot flaming arrow at the enemy and if you keep the flyers out of the reac
h of the enemy, the
enemy will get killed after several turns by the arrows. One note though, if the
enemy has a fast
moving unit there is a chance that it will catch you. It happened to me once. :(
This does not
always work but worth a try if you are desperate.
Ideas I read about:
Things in this section are not written by me. I am just copying it, norm
ally without
approval of the origianl auther. But since I am not selling this, it should be o
k and I will give
the authhor credit. If you read your idea here and don't want me to use it drop
me a mail ok?
Shuttle (Joe Novicki) -- This is the original text written by him on PC game onl
ine magzine or
something close. :) sorry don't remember the name.
Say a large army is about to strike your castle, which is defended by a
very weak hero. you
have a good army close by, but it can't reach the castle to drop off needed defe
nders. Your weak
army can reach the good army to trade units, but it can't get back. Solution: Mo
ve the weak hero out
just one step from your caslte. Buy a new hero. Have the new hero go out, trade
units with your good
army and head back to the castle. Now your weak army should be able to reach the
new army, make the
trade and get back to the castle to better defend it. ... More heroes can be thr
own in if needed.

Cheats
The only cheat code known, at least to me, is 101495 you type it in when
you are at the
adventure screen. Since keypad is used for movement control, I recommand you use
the top row of the
keyboard to do this. The affect of this code is the same as 'view all' spell. It
will reveal the
whole map to you. You will see everything going on on the map during the whole s
cenario.
There are also two stand-alone save game editors and a module for Universal Game
Editor. You can go
to my web page at http://www.egr.uh.edu/~yxq60120/hero/hero.htm and click on che
at to find the links
for download.