OP Custom Wizard strategies - new strategies beyond MoM Classic

The excellent MoM FAQs and MoM Wiki covers some of the most well-known classic Master of Magic OP custom Wizard strategies. But how does Master of Magic (2022) change this?

This substantial guide (which is a work in progress) updates these traditional strategies to take into account both the differences between MoM Classic (1994) and MoM (2022) as well as the new Wizard traits or retorts made available by the Through the Myrror (TTM) free DLC, Rise of the Soul-trapped (ROST) paid DLC and Free Addons up to Halloween update (FREE).

Besides an assessment of individual new Wizard retorts (now known as traits) and suggested builds, we also include sections on the major changes between the two versions that will affect playing strategy.

This guide assumes prior knowledge of classic Master of Magic strategies and is suitable for returning veteran players of the original Master of Magic.

Introduction

Are you a veteran of the original Master of Magic, now known as MoM classic or MoM(94) and want a update about how the remake MoM(2022) changes things?

In particular, are you curious about how the new Wizard "retorts" now known as "traits" added by the official DLCs and content updates or changes the by now decades old and well known/well tested winning strategies? This is the right place!

Scope

This guide focuses on the new Wizard Traits and new races available from the following DLCs and free content updates (which you can turn on or off individually)

• Through the Myrror (TTM) - Mar 9, 2023 - Free
  
  
• Rise of the SoulTrapped (ROST) - Aug 28,2023 - Paid
  
  
• Halloween Free update (FREE)- Oct 25, 2023 - Free
  
  
• Scourge of the Seas (SOTS)- Feb 8,2024 - Paid (Update in Progress)

The guide is currently based on the 1.09.13 patch released on Feb 8, 2024.

This guide assumes that the reader is a Veteran of the original Master of magic(1994), and is familiar with the basic mechanics of Master of Magic as well as the classic winning strategies set out in works like

• Master of Magic FAQ[gamefaqs.gamespot.com]
  
  
• Master of Magic Wiki[masterofmagic.fandom.com]

In particular, readers should be familiar with strategies[masterofmagic.fandom.com] such as 11-book strategy[masterofmagic.fandom.com], artificer-runemaster[masterofmagic.fandom.com], strategies around using Nodemastery to take down nodes quickly[masterofmagic.fandom.com] or other common strategies like Life+Warlord+Slinger/Wolf Rider or other cheese like flying invisible warship etc.

This guide will build on the foundations from the decades of knowledge from these documents and share this author's knowledge and insights on how the new content from Master of Magic (2022), changes, extends or otherwise modifies conventional wisdom.

Major differences from MoM(94) - (I)

While MoM(2022) was created with the mandate to be as close to the MoM(94) as possible (more specifically v1.31), this was not completely achieved for three reasons

• Technical difficulties - MoM is truly a game of exceptions and to streamline the game certain spells or units were changed. For example, Web was the only spell that used melee attack damage to break through the immobilization effect[masterofmagic.fandom.com], in Mom(2022) this was changed to a roll against resistance with number of turns immobilized based on the roll (minimum of 1 turn). Similarly, changes were made to Hydras[muhagames.com], Floating island [masterofmagic.fandom.com]which are now Wandering Islands that can move on land as well as water and also fortress of flying (the replacement for flying fortress[masterofmagic.fandom.com])
  
  Some spell changed from MoM(94)!
  
  
• Lack of information - Despite being the official remake, the source code of MoM(94) was lost and was unavailable to the developers. Over the years there has been heroic efforts to reverse engineer the code and a lot of the information resides in the MoM wiki which was consulted. Still, there are parts where MoM(2022) may not follow exactly due to uncertainties (e.g. How terrain is created and assigned starting cities, and to lesser extent - rewards from lairs).
  
  
• Deliberate changes - Lastly there were deliberate changes. Many of these were concessions to modernize the game - e.g. increase based movement speed because most perceive the original MoM (94) to be too slow paced.

This is not to say MoM(2022) is not faithful to the game, in fact MoM(2022) plays very much like the original game and pretty much all strategies from the 94 game work in the 2022 game!

At launch in Dec 2022, there was an unofficial document listing 100+ differences with MoM(94) , since then quite a few differences have disappeared (e.g City unrest reduction/increase was based on % not on absolute numbers) but many still remain.

It is impossible to list all the differences, but I will list some below that might affect your game strategy.

Major changes

1. Cost of Alchemy is now 2 (up from 1) and Myrran is now 2 (down from 3).

This change was not without controversy, if you disagree you can mod it back (using the mod in the steam workshop), or play the game with 10 or 12 picks as appropriate

2. Maps are hex based now, maps are bigger

"Small" maps in remake are bigger than "huge" in classic. Tactical maps are slightly bigger.

3. Movement of most units is now default 2 instead of 1

This is a major change that is designed to address concerns of the slow pace early game. Most basic units like Spearman[masterofmagic.fandom.com] get +1 movement (so they now have 2 movement instead of 1) and Calvary type units[masterofmagic.fandom.com] and engineers and settlers gets +2 movement so Calvary get 4 movement (instead of 2) and settlers [masterofmagic.fandom.com]get 3 movement (instead of 1).

The main implication of higher overland movement is that rush type attacks are quicker to get off though this is mitigated by the fact that the maps in MoM(2022) are generally bigger and the new fortress defenses (see next section)

It is important to note that this increased speed affects tactical combat as well which has other implications. For example, now ranged units can 'kite'.

More importantly, to compensate for the increased movement in combat, most ranged units except for Slingers [masterofmagic.fandom.com]get +1 ranged. This makes Slingers a little less dominant compared to other units like say High Elf Longbowmen [masterofmagic.fandom.com]as they now have 4 ranged (instead of 3) or even normal Bowman[masterofmagic.fandom.com] now have 2 ranged (instead of 1).



4. Wizard Fortresses help defend the city by shooting "disrupt bolts".

e.g. if the defending Wizard has 5 Life books and 2 Chaos books there will be two bolts of Strength 5 life and Strength 2 Chaos that will randomly target your units (they can both hit the same or different units). The defending side will need at least one defending unit though.

Disrupt bolts from Wizard Fortress - Death and Chaos bolts!

This slows down early rush attacks. The bolts are randomly targeted but if you attack with one or a few units they will quickly wear down your units. The code says they are armor piercing but even with that it seems to bypass magic immunity too well.

So, attack fortresses with multiple units (or cast combat summons) or you will not win or at least suffer great losses. A MoM(2022) only strategy is to use Wandering island which unlike their predecessor Floating island does appear in tactical combat. As such, besides the fact that Wandering island is a far better transporter than floating island (which does not move on land but only sea), it can also as a unit to draw fire as it is beefy at 45 hit points.
On the plus side this allows you to defend your capital with a minimum defenders, just let your units run around and avoid engagement and let the fortress defenses kill off invaders.


5. Changes to Ranged boulder attack, Lucky

It is well known that Slingers particularly when enhanced with Warlord[masterofmagic.fandom.com], and Crusade[masterofmagic.fandom.com] plus a ton of buffs including Adamantium [masterofmagic.fandom.com]are nearly unstoppable due to the high number of figures.

But these next group of changes weaken Slingers[masterofmagic.fandom.com] slightly.

I've already mentioned in #3 how most ranged units like normal Bowman[masterofmagic.fandom.com] or Elven Longbowmen [masterofmagic.fandom.com]have become relatively stronger at ranged compared to Slingers.

First a slight nerf to Lucky[masterofmagic.fandom.com]. Lucky in the original MoM(94) official V1.31 gives the unit +10% rolls when attacking (to hit), defending (to block) and resistance checks. On top of that lucky also had an additional benefit, when a unit was attacking a lucky unit it's "to hit" would be reduced by +10%.

There has been debate over whether the last benefit was intended.

Unofficial community patches in MoM (94) removed the penalty for attacks on lucky units and the remake has followed.

Secondly, Ranged Boulder attacks [masterofmagic.fandom.com]has been enhanced as a counter to Slingers or other high figure units, this not just bypass target immunities but also "damage all of the figures in the unit separately". This is devastating against Slingers with 8 figures.


Ranged Boulder attacks!

Units with these attacks include

• Catapult
  
• Warship
  
• Dwarven Steam Canon
  
• Draconian Airship
  
• Soul Cannon
  
• Soulless
  
• Fire Giant
  
• Stone Giant
  
• Colossus
  
• The Captain
  
• Paragon Ghostship

Major differences from MoM(94) - (II)

The next batch of changes relates to changes to Heroes.

6. Changes to Heroes - Torin

Another popular strategy involves using 11 book life to start with the Torin spell[masterofmagic.fandom.com]. Torin[https//https] is as powerful as you remember but with a couple of catches.

Torin has always been an unusual unit that is both a hero and a fantastic unit.

According to the MoM wiki, it is a bug[masterofmagic.fandom.com] that spells like Heroism[masterofmagic.fandom.com], Holy weapon[masterofmagic.fandom.com], Holy armor[masterofmagic.fandom.com] which cannot be cast on fantastic units actually work when cast overland (though it correctly doesn't work on tactical combat) on Torin.

Not being able to quickly cast Heroism[masterofmagic.fandom.com] on him to get him quickly leveled hurts so this slows him down a bit. It also seems the Technomagic "Hero training" spell does not work on him either.

Another nerf to Torin is a result of changing the way spell casting works for units, see #9

7. Changes to Noble

Noble [masterofmagic.fandom.com]was a Hero skill that most players rightly disliked as 10 gold per turn was not much except early game and it was a skill that did not improve with levels.

This now is changed to +10 gold per level. This means if you get a Hero like B'Shan[masterofmagic.fandom.com] or the Klackon hero Phym (starts turn 1 with Hive Master) with this ability and pair it with Warlord[masterofmagic.fandom.com], and Heroism[masterofmagic.fandom.com] , you are going to get as much as +40 gold per turn!

Noble now scales by level!

BTW the game settings allow you to start with a hero with a small decrease in difficulty. The only hero you can start with is B'Shan[masterofmagic.fandom.com]. You can change this with a mod.

8. Changes to recruitment

This change is easier to explain with a picture.


Select from two heros when recruiting heroes!

When you have the chance to recruit a hero whether via a Summon Hero or Champion spell, or when they show up by chance for hire you now always pick from two choices! If you have the Wizard trait - "I need a hero!" you get to pick from three choices.


9. Changes to spellcasting and magical ranged attacks

This strictly speaking affects not just heroes but all casting units. Unlike in the original, units with magical ranged attacks do not have a shared mana pool with spell casting where magical ranged attacks reduce mana by 3. Instead, they have a fixed number of shots or "Ammo" for magical ranged attacks AND a separate mana pool for spell casting.

Magical ranged attack ammo is separated from mana from spell casting!

Without adjustments this means that heroes like Zaldron and Serena become more powerful than usual as they can both fire off magical ranged attacks and when they run out cast spells from a separate mana pool. In fact, there is an adjustment so heroes tend to have less mana pool then they had in the original, but this does not take into effect until Level 4.So this makes low level heroes like Zaldron and Serena better than usual at low levels which is good.[mythical-realms.github.io] (It's a bit more complicated than what I explained but see this note here[mythical-realms.github.io])

I personally like this change because it makes low level heroes like Zaldon much more useful on field.

One major side effect is that this weakens heroes like Torin who do cast spells via a mana pool but don't have magical ranged attacks as they get the same adjustment to their mana pool despite not having magical ranged attacks!


10. City management - changes to unrest, combined effect of gold and production buildings

You start with a settler and swordmen instead of a swordmen and spearmen. As such economy, is tighter than usual (settlers cost 3 gold per turn compared to spearmen at 0 gold per turn) until you colonize a city with your settler. Also any city settled (becomes an outpost) will generate a free swordsmen.

The old strategy of keeping both spearmen and swordmen in capital to quell unrest while you crank up tax is not possible (keeping settler in your capital does quell unrest but that clearly isn't a good idea).

As of the latest 1.08.27 patch or Halloween Hotfix released on Nov 7, 2023[www.slitherine.com], the rate in which rebels are generated and suppressed now works very similar to classic MoM, essentially Unrest and its effect on rebels in classic MoM [masterofmagic.fandom.com] was based on the unrest percentage (affected by tax rate and race)* population. However in the original this figure was always rounded down while in the remake it is rounded to the nearest whole number. Also in classic, chaos channeled and Undead units helped reduce unrest but not in remake.

The combined effect of production and gold bonuses from buildings, life spells in classic was additive. In the remake this is changed to multiplicative. There is a mod to fix this .


11. Other movement changes

Pathfinding now only allows movement through any terrain with cost 1 instead of 0.5.

Pathfinding allows faster movement with 1 movement per title instead of 0.5

Enchanted Roads or Roads on Myrror cost 0.1 movement (instead of 0).


12. Artifact related changes

Transfer of artifacts cost 0 mana, so you can reuse the same artifact by passing between all heroes in same turn at no mana cost.

You can no longer add spell charges to artifacts [masterofmagic.fandom.com]like in MoM (94).

Unlike the original, while you can add spells to artifacts, they don't provide any power or charges to use for the spell.

You can "Add spell" but it does not provide charges, it only grants the hero who wields the artifact the "knowledge to cast the spell", but the mana still needs to come from the hero! This is pointless to craft because even without this artifact, heroes can already cast any spell known to their Wizard kings using their own mana.

That said, Merchants can offer artifacts with spells you can't cast. In fact, this can include specialized spells available only to special units like the Sharp exchange spell that is unique to Moma and Ilde hero unit. (You can get this unique only via the Techmagic spell Techincarnation)

There is no longer spell charges for artifacts!

Major differences by realm - Life, Death

In this section, we discuss changes by spells and abilities by realms due to differences between MoM(94) and MoM (2022).

Life

Life spells are mostly unchanged. However as earlier mentioned, bugs were closed so units that were most hero and fantastic units (both Torin from the base game and the new Moma and Ilde available from Techincarnation spell) can no longer benefit from spells and effects like

• Heroism
  
• Holy Weapon
  
• Holy Armor
  
• Might makes Right!

They do benefit though from effects that work on fantastic units so they benefit from Fantastic Warlord effects.

In the remake unlike the original, all units automatically gain +1 XP even if they do nothing (+2 XP with Veteran Warlord), this means units reach Elite/Ultra Elite/Champion faster than in MoM Classic which reduces the power of the Heroism spell.

Due to increased default movement, Endurance is probably less useful than usual.

Also Planar Travel and Planar Shift spell are reversed compared to MoM classic. In the original Planar Travel is a ability and/or spell that allows a single unit to shift freely between planes, while Planar shift spell is a time effect that moves a whole stack of units.

Plane shift and Planar travel spell.

Death

The classic MoM (94) is noted for being buggy for many death spells e.g. Cloak of fear [masterofmagic.fandom.com] , Lycanthropy.

This is now mostly fixed.

Life steal attacks used to be nerfed in the remake because their attacks were less likely to do life steal attacks damage compared to classic (long story), reducing the chance to create undead. This has been fixed and while mechanically they work a bit differently, effect-wise they are likely close now.

The improved default movement probably pushes Shadow Demons above Wraiths for 10/11 death book strategies and Shadow demons are only uncommon to begin with.

In the original, Fantastic units did not reduce undead as garrison with the exception of Undead units & death or chaos channelled units. In the remake this exception does not hold anymore.

Black Channel as a spell becomes more useful as it now has synergy with Death related retorts of Necromancer, Fantastic Warlord and Death Eater with the last partly covering the lack of healing problem.

However, in the remake, unlike in the classic, the moment you Black Channel any unit, it drops back to the maximum of Elite even if you have Warlord and Crusade turned on. Interestingly this does not apply to Chao Channels. Fortunately, any prior buff spell cast on the now Black Channeled Units even ones like Flame Blade that can be cast only on non-fantastic unit remains. You also retain any Mithril or Adamantium weapons even when Black channeled.

This can make very powerful units.

Slingers enhanced with Black Channel, Flame Blade, Adamantium weapons and Fantastic Warlord

Major differences by realm - Sorcery, Chaos

Sorcery

Minor change, Enchant Road spell is unchanged but Enchanted Roads in the remake has a 0.1 movement cost, unlike zero in classic.


Changes in spells Wandering island (formerly floating island) and Fortress of flying (formerly Flying Fortress)!

Flying fortress spell[masterofmagic.fandom.com] now known as Fortress of flying is a fairly niche spell and so the changes while regretful is probably not significant.

More significant is the change from Floating island[masterofmagic.fandom.com] to Wandering island.

The original spell created a unit that could only be used for transportation of up to 8 other units across oceans. However due to a technical limitation they couldn't do this in the remake, the replacement spell creates a Wandering island that can both walk and swim, creating a cheap, fast transportation unit.

In case, you were wondering this wandering island can benefit from spells like Endurance and Wind Mastery leading to speeds as high as 6 movement.

Another difference is while in classic, if you attack with a Floating island, you would not see the unit represented on the tactical combat. With Wandering island you do. While this unit has zero melee and cant attack, it is beefy at 45 HP and can be useful to draw fire when attacking Wizard fortresses.

This spell change is also significant in that it results in a new major strategy involving rushing with Wandering Island for mobility. It is extremely tempting now more than ever to splash one or two Sorcery spell books just to get this spell (or Word of Recall) for increased mobility for rush strategies that use slow moving but powerful units such as Life+Warlord+Slingers or for summon related strategies that use slow moving units.

Wandering Island is a beefy 45 HP unit that can absorb fortress bolt attacks!

Chaos

Next to Death, Chaos also benefits a lot from bug fixes of spells and effects that just did not work in.

As explained in the developer's diary, Hydra's are now 1 figure, though they do gain higher melee and hit points and even additional lighting and cold breath attacks. [muhagames.com].

Hydra is now 3 headed rather than 9, with other changes!

Similar, to the Nature summon Stone giant, Chaos' Fire giant also received an upgrade with Boulder Ranged Attacks which is a buff as they are now very dangerous when facing units with many figures such as Slingers or against Rogue Soultrapped.

Fire Giant gets Boulder ranged attack!

Chaos Channel as a spell becomes more useful as it now has synergy with related retorts like Fantastic Warlord. Unlike Death Channel, Chaos Channel works well with Warlord and Crusade spells. In terms of similarities, both channel spells will allow a unit to keep any prior buff spell cast on them even ones like Flame Blade that can be cast only on non-fantastic unit remains. You also retain any Mithril or Adamantium weapons even when Chaos or Death channeled.

However, a Chaos Channelled units can no longer reduce unrest unlike in the original.

Wall of fire is useless now, because the effect doesn't cover the front gate unlike in the original

Wall of fire

Major differences by realm - Nature, Arcane

Nature

Web spell is changed!

Besides Web, Nature plays almost the same.

Nature does have a lot of spells that affect movement including Earth to Mud [masterofmagic.fandom.com], Entangle[masterofmagic.fandom.com], Path Finding[masterofmagic.fandom.com] etc, and this is impacted by the fact that default movement is now up from 1 to 2.

In terms of raw difference, the Pathfinding ability now only guarantees a minimum movement of 1 no matter the terrain. This was 0.5 in the original , making the spell that granting this ability weaker.

Path Finding spell is weaker

Also note the spell Earth to Mud now targets units in the 3x3 hex area. Any unit in the 3 hex area at the time of the spell has their movement reduced to 1 for 3 turns. This is unlike the original, where the spell affects 5x5 tile area creating mud tiles, where if a unit walks into a mud tile movement ends immediately[masterofmagic.fandom.com].



Changes in Earth to mud and Entangle spell!

On the plus side many Nature Summons that were considered weak in the original is now buffed. This includes Stone Giant and Colossus due to them receiving Boulder ranged attacks which ignores all immunities and does damage separately to each figure in a unit.


Stone Giant and Colossus both gain Boulder ranged attacks!

These two Fanatstic units also happen to be single figure with a high HP, making them very good units to engage the threat of Rogue Soultrapped. This is because the Technmagic ranged attacks both ignore immunities and are armor piercing, so they isn't much to do but to try to tank the damage if they go first. Because they are single figure they also are not vulnerable to Boulder ranged attacks from Soulless or Soul Cannon.

Gaia blessing is slightly nerfed.

Unlike in the original, Gaia Blessing cities gives +2 food bonus. In the new one, there is no mention about getting the food bonus.

Gaia Blessing is 2022 remake version

Arcane

Summon hero and champion spell works the same as in MoM(94). However, in MoM(2022) whenever you get to recruit a hero whether is via spell or merchant you can now alway select from a choice of 2 heroes. This is bumped up to selecting from 3 heros if you have I need a hero! Wizard ability.





Changes to hero recruitment affects spells

You can no longer add spell charges to artifacts [masterofmagic.fandom.com]like in MoM (94).

Unlike the original, while you can add spells to artifacts, they don't provide any power or charges to use for the spell.

You can "Add spell" but it does not provide charges, it only grants the hero who wields the artifact the "knowledge to cast the spell", but the mana still needs to come from the hero! This is pointless because even without this artifact, heroes can already cast any spell known to their Wizard kings using their own mana.

There is no longer spell charges for artifacts!

Major differences in retorts

Retort changes

Change in costs of Alchemy and Myrran

Alchemy cost is now increased from 1 to 2 picks. Myrran is decreased from 1 to 2 picks. They otherwise work the same. My own personal view is that this is a difficult decision since Alchemy was clearly worth more than 1 pick, though I am unsure it is worth 2 picks.

Conjurer now affects Summon Hero/Champion

In the classic Master of Magic - the 25% discount to casting cost, research and upkeep cost do not apply to summon hero/champion spells. [masterofmagic.fandom.com]. In the remake, the bonus applies, so you can combine it with Runemaster (another 25% off) and I need a Hero! (another 25% off) for total of 75% off to Summon Hero or Summon Champion spells!

Famous gives you more fame at the start!

In the original this started the game with 10 fame[masterofmagic.fandom.com]. In the remake it's now 25 fame. I am still skeptical it is worth 2 picks (as in the original)

Effect of additional spell book from 7th onwards

In the remake, each additional spell book of one realm from the 7th book onwards reduces casting cost by 5% and adds 5% to research points invested into each realm, this is reduced from 10% from the 8th book onwards in the 1994 version.[masterofmagic.fandom.com]

In general, the value of spell books peak at 1-3 for each realm (where you get access to common/uncommon, rare, very rare respectively) with relatively less value from 4-6 books (you gain additional starting commons beyond the first 3 but for most realms you don't need that many starting commons). The next big bump in value increases from 7-9 books (adds discounts to casting) and then 10 & 11 (starting uncommon and rare spells) has yet another bump.

With the additional of powerful and efficient non-spell book Wizard traits from the DLCs, it makes a lot of sense to invest more in these Wizard traits and keep the spellbooks at 1-3 for each realm.

Effect of the 10th spell book

Like in the original, the remake grants you N-1 starting commons where N is the number of spell books you have at the start for each realm. So if you have 8 Nature spell books you get to choose 7 starting commons from Nature.

In addition, the 10th starting spell book in the remake grants you not just the usual 9 commons but you also get 1 starting uncommon. While in the original, it just gives you the 9 commons. This opens up new strategies involving 10 book strategies where you leverage on a powerful uncommon. By far most obvious is to go 10 Death and pick Shadow Demons, though you can try with 10 Nature Basilisk , possibly going 10 Nature + Conjurer(1) + Nature Mastery(1) if the aim is to lower casting cost.

In the case of Shadow Demons, you can reduce casting cost to the minimum with 11 Death + Conjurer, but it is probably better to go with 10 Death + Conjurer(1) + Fantastic Warlord(1) to trade off casting cost for a stronger Shadow Demon. You can even try with 10 Death + Fantastic Warlord(1) + Necromancer(1) for even stronger Shadow demons but higher cost.

In the case of Basilisks, you can get the cheapest unit with 10 Nature + Conjurer(1) + Nature Mastery(1), is it worth trading Conjurer or Nature Mastery for Fantastic Warlord? Probably this makes less sense than with Shadow Demons since the demons are 4 figures and more impacted by the bonus of Fantastic Warlord than for single figure Basilisks. Possibility the same consideration applies if you try going for 10 Sorcery with uncommon Phantom Beasts.

Note that with Basilisk strategy, you have the alternative strategy of gaining access to the spell at the start (and in fact all Nature common, uncommon summons) with the new Nature Summoner (1) retort. You can get access to the spell with just 5 picks, 4 Nature (perquisite for Nature Summoner) + Nature Summoner (1). It will cost more to cast of course, but if you are worried about that you can add Nature Mastery (1) and additional Nature books from the 7th onward.

The 11 book in remake and original work the same, they grant you all 10 commons, 2 uncommons and 1 rare spell of the realm at the start.

The impact of settings - Soultrapped, Neutral cities and more

One of the major changes in MoM(2022) is the additional diverse ways you can set up your game.



All settings available

Among other things you can set up are the frequency and strength (from Beginner all the way up to Master) of lairs, neutral cities. The DLC Scourge of seas, brings more water based lairs, and you can control the frequency of those too. You can only set up the strength of nodes (via magic intensity) but not frequency.

Depending on the settings you use, this may have a huge impact on what strategies will work better. Often when players disagree on which Wizard traits are OP or weak it is often biased heavily by the settings they tend to play.

For example, playing the smallest maps, with plenty of neutral cities or lairs heavily benefits rush strategies and makes certain races and Wizard traits like Stonemason much better. On the other hand, playing on large maps will handicap races like Gnolls, which are designed to be rush oriented and run out of steam quickly. Larger maps make it harder for them to rush down opponents.

Mid-game Soultrapped Threat

This setting made available by the Rise of Soultrapped DLC may have one of the greatest impacts on difficulty. This determines the turn when
"rogue" Soultrapped units emerges. You will see Tech Dungeons appear and some of the units will start attacking the cities of the strongest player and/or Human player.

Tech Dungeons appear!

At reduced and normal intensity, they emerge only on turn 300 or 250 respectively and are relatively easy to handle by then.

However, they get challenging to handle if set to emerge on Turn 150 (increased intensity) and only the very best players can handle maximum intensity (turn 100).

When set to emerge in turn 100 or 150, this highly constrains the strategies you can use because you should start from Turn 1 to prepare to handle them.

First wave of defenders of Tech Dungeons!

Second wave of defenders of Tech Dungeons incoming!


In particular, when you try to clear Tech dungeons (two waves) their first volley of ranged attacks will be brutal, this is especially so with Tech priest with Techmagic ranged attacks that ignore magic and missile immunity and are armor piercing.

Rogue Soultrapped Tech priests enhanced by Tech Dungeons with bonuses!

Add Soul Cannons and Soulless with boulder attacks, and they are extremely hard to handle because like nodes, the Tech dungeons gives Soultrapped units bonuses!

Rogue Soultrapped Soul Cannons enhanced by Tech Dungeons with bonuses!

Rogue Soultrapped Soulless enhanced by Tech Dungeons with bonuses!

Yeet enhanced by Tech Dungeons with bonuses

If that was even nasty even some Rogue Soultrapped units have additional abilities on top of the standard one. Soultrapped Calvary for example are invisible, and their Halberdiers have posion.

SoulTrapped Calvary are invisible!


SoulTrapped Halberdier have posion!


The variety of ranged attacks these Soultrapped have makes it tricky to handle. Boulder ranged attacks (ignore immunities) from Soul Cannons and to lesser extent Soulless makes even buffed Slingers (typical solution) vulnerable. Even invisibility isn't a solution since they have illusions immunity.

Their only "weakness" is they aren't magical ranged attack or have the long range ability so their damage is reduced by range, so you could try to move away to increase range penalties.

But they are also complemented by Soultrapped Tech priests with Techmagic Ranged attacks (not to mention Yeets and Tech Sprites have that attack too). Like Boulders they ignore all immunities but they also have no range penalties and are armor piercing to boot! They will cut through almost anything like hot butter, fortunately they don't have illusions immunity, so you can protect your units from them prior to combat with invisibility.

As of current version, the AI also isn't very smart with use of Tech Priests, who may heal units instead of shooting their Techmagic ranged so it is possible to exploit this....

And I haven't even talked about the invisible Calvary etc. In short, when you try to clear Tech Dungeons be prepared to be damaged in the first and subsequent waves, because the opposition just has so much ranged fire power. As such Tactician Wizard trait is perfect to use to clear tech dungeons as you go first even when attacking.

A unit which is single figure (so isn't particularly vulnerable to Boulder ranged attacks) and high HP (so it can absorb hits from Techmagic ranged) is also a way to deal with them. This makes high level heros/champions with high HP or summons with "big bag of HPs" ideal.

Race wise, Klackons with their Stag Beetles, Lizardmen's Dragon Beetles are good defenders too.

Because some Soultrapped have high figures, it is also a good idea to pay them back in kind with Boulder ranged attacks! As such units like Fire giant, Stone giant, Colossus which also happen to be 1 figure, high HP units are a good idea.

Finally like all Soultrapped they are vulnerable to lightning. Hit them with Lightning bolt, Warped lightning abd Call Lightning.

Number of neutral towns, Lair density, Minimum distance between town

Number of neutral towns (None to Many) and Lair density (None to normal) can greatly alter game conditions.

Particular if they are set to "None", the map will be completely bare except for nodes and enemy Wizard cities. This is a hard setting if your strategy relies on rushing to capture neutrals and clear lairs. That said it's unclear of its impact on the AI players who may not develop as well without lairs or neutrals to capture (dependent on what race they start with).

For example, starting with Gnolls either as a human player or AI can be difficult in games with no neutrals or lairs. Gnoll's main strength is in rushing to capture lairs and neutral cities but have limited long term potential.

On the other hand, in a setting where there are no neutral towns and low minimum distance between towns and your strategy involve a colony rush with a fast growing race like Goblins or Barbarians coupled with Nature spells, you will probably find the game easier.

In general, most of the traditional MoM strategies assume a rush strategy so setting with fewer to no neutrals or lairs are usually more difficult.

A final note about recommended OP Starting combos

Many of the suggested "OP" start up combos are presented in their "purest form" by leaning as hard as they can into the theme. In many instances they can be made even stronger by more balanced builds.

For example, often reducing some of spellbooks (so you get lower discounts) and trading it off with Stonemason and/or 2 Sorcery books to get Wandering Island, is actually stronger for almost all rush strategies but are less thematic.

As such please experiment and take any recommended strategies as just a starting guide to learn from.

Fantastic Warlord (1 pick) - TTM

Overall Summary

This is the Warlord equivalent for fantastic creatures.

This bonus applies to both combat summons (e.g., Phantom warriors, Fire elementals) and overland summons (e.g., Hell hounds).

It also applies to the starting units you get from Nature Summoner (War bears) or Techmaster (Drona Scout).

An often overlooked but small bonus of this pick is it also enhances Torin from the Incarnation spell and Moma and Ilde from Techmagic's Techincarnation spell because both count as fantastic units.

Interestingly you can leverage this trait to work on not just summons but also on normal units by casting either Black Channels[masterofmagic.fandom.com] or Chaos Channels[masterofmagic.fandom.com] on your hero or other units to make them into fantastic units. Granted you normally wouldn't do that for Heroes because as Fantastic units they lose the ability to gain XP and unless they are already at the highest levels you wouldn't want to turn them into Fantastic units. However, high figure units that has reached maximum level might benefit a lot from the bonuses from Fantastic Warlord.

On paper, Fantastic Warlord feels It's less powerful than Warlord for two reasons.

Firstly, it does not increase to hit points or give to hit bonuses unlike for normal leveling. Secondly, normal units tend to have more figures than fantastic creatures, so you benefit less from the bonus. This makes it quite balanced at 1 pick.

Units that benefit more from Fantastic Warlord

Like Warlord, bonuses are applied per figure which is why Death and to a lesser extent Sorcery summons may work better given they have higher figure summons.

Some examples include

• Phantom Warriors (6 figures)
  
• Skeletons (6 figures)
  
• Werewolves (6 figures)
  
• Zombies (6 figures)

At rare & very rare tiers, Death has the only Summon with > 1 figure i.e. Death Knights at 4 figures and except for Demon Lord & Night Stalker, all their summons has at least 4 figures.

You can also make heroes (unlikely to be worth it) or normal units - Fantastic Units by casting Chaos or Death Channels. Some good units with high figures per unit to benefit from this include

• Most Spearmen (8 figures)
  
• Halfling Slinger (8 figures)
  
• Halfling or Goblin Swordsmen (8 figures)
  
• Highmen or Nomad Pikeman (8 figures)
  
  Other good 6 figure units to use includes Longbowmen, Berserkers, Hammerhands, Nightblades, Highmen Magicians, Javelineers, Goblin Boar Riders, Rusalka and others.

Fantastic Warlord vs Necromancer

Necromancer grants you darkness spell automatically in all battles, assuming you use only death units this seems to match the effects of Fantastic Warlord, but the latter is still better.

First off, Necromancer effects are not on all the time unlike Fantastic Warlord. This is of less relevance now as the AI rarely attacks with spells overland though. More significant is Darkness empowers opposing Death units as well, unlike Fantastic Warlord which only helps your unit. Early game when you are clearing lairs protected by skeletons, ghouls this makes things harder.

Also, if you have Fantastic Warlord, you can later cast Darkness[masterofmagic.fandom.com] (or similar spells like Cloud of Shadow[masterofmagic.fandom.com], Eternal night[masterofmagic.fandom.com]) on your own to double up on benefits for your death units. But if you choose Necromancer, you can't do anything to duplicate the Fantastic Warlord effect.

That said, because Necromancer's Darkness is precast it works even in nodes without needing to overcome the dispelling node's power this is a fairly powerful effect early on.

The other only benefit the Necromancer player has over Fantastic Warlord is that Darkness weakens Life fantastic units like Unicorns and Arch angels, however this is a minor benefit.

Overall, Fantastic Warlord is a versatile pick that can enhance many traditional strategies

Suggested builds

11 book summons strategies

Many 11-book strategies involve a quick summon of an uncommon or rare unit. A classic example is using Death's Wraiths or Shadow Demons. With 12 picks you can take 11 books (or even 10 book + Conjurer if you are going for uncommon summons like Shadow demons) + Fantastic Warlord. It is probably worth trading off the additional casting discount at that level for a slightly stronger summon.

Some people also like the 11-book life + Torin run. In which case the 12th pick of Fantastic Warlord helps Torin out a little, though you do trade off a 5% discount from an additional book.

Building on Demonologist

The new Demonologist trait not just gives you a new lesser Shadow demon spell, but you start with one as well.

A Lesser Shadow demons unit!

Lesser Shadow demons gives you a fast start, and the spell is much cheaper than regular Shadow Demons. However, this is at the cost of them being weaker both on a per figure and also there are only 2 figures rather than 4 in normal Shadow Demons. I find even a pack of 9 Lesser Shadow demons often struggles against stronger opposition.

Hence, Demonologist + Fantastic Warlord combo extends the period for where you can use Lesser Shadow demons.

Along the same theme, if you are doing Death summons try Demonlogist + Fantastic Warlord + Necromancer to stack further bonuses!

Example: Fantastic Warlord (1) + Demonologist (1) + Conjurer (1) + Necromancer (1) + Death (3) + Chaos (3, Hell Hounds + Fire Elemental) +2 spare picks, which you can weave in Channeler (2) to further reduce unit upkeep by another 50% or pick 2 Sorcery to get Wandering island.

Or go Death(7), Chaos(1) if you want to just go Lesser Shadow demons with 5% more discount.

Creating undead with Orcmancer

Orcmancer gives all orc units life steal. Using this on ranged attacks like Shamans, makes it easy to create undead units.

This automatically suggests Necromancer, Death Eater but as mentioned Fantastic Warlord is probably better, though you can of course combine both! Imagine a 8 figure undead Slinger boosted with Fantastic Warlord and Necromancer! You can even throw in Demonologist (optional).

Example: Fantastic Warlord (1) + Conjurer (1) + Demonologist (1) + Necromancer (1) + Orcmancer (2) + Death Eater (2) + Death (3) + Chaos(1)

Fantastic Warlord (1 pick) - TTM - Part 2

Combat summons + early node hunting

Fantastic Warlord works also on combat summons. So, one combo is Fantastic Warlord + Conjurer + 10 sorcery books and then spam Phantom warriors.

Another combo involves going Node Mastery and hunt nodes with your summons.

Example : Fantastic Warlord (1) + Conjurer (1) + Node Mastery (1) + Sorcery Mastery (1) + Sorcery (4, Phantom Warrior, Confusion, Psionic blast) + Chaos (2, Fire elemental or Hell hounds) + Nature (2, Sprites) - this allows mirror matches with the same units to be fun since your Fantastic Warlord gives them a upper hand at nodes.

You can also choose the Nature variant 4N+1S+1C and go with Tactician (2), allowing you to use your Sprites to clear nodes or lairs by shooting first or casting first in nodes!

In Rise of Soultrapped DLC, you can wield Techmagic which starts you with Power seeker spell to quickly find appropriate nodes that you can take down & can get the combat summon spell of a Tech Sprite (15 mana).

A Tech Sprites unit!

A solid unit improving on Sprites because it has the Techmagic ranged attack that works like magical ranged (no range penalty), bypasses magic and missile immunities and armor piercing. This can be used with Node mastery.

Example : Fantastic Warlord (1) + Techmaster (2) + Node Mastery (1) + Conjurer (1) + 3 chaos (Hell hounds, Fire elemental) + 1 Nature + 3 Sorcery (Phantom Warrior, Confusion).

Skeleton/Ghoul rush

Example: Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Death Eater (2) + Conjurer (1) + 7 Death (Skeleton, Ghoul, life drain etc.).

Using this build, you should be spamming either Skeletons or Ghouls. With Necromancer and Fantastic Warlord in play, Skeletons (6 figures) are almost as good combat wise as Ghouls (4 figures) and about 3 times cheaper. That said Ghouls can create undead which is nice.

In either case, Skeletons under the effect of Necromancer and Fantastic Warlord are very tough, they can take down Bears/Nagas/Phantom Warriors 1 on 1 easily (thanks to immunity to illusions) , all for the cost of just 18 mana. With death eater, you can usually be at full health or near full health after each combat.

Skeletons enhanced with Fantastic Warlord and Darkness from Necromancer!

This strategy of Skeletons is also compatible with the idea of doing Death Channels on Slingers and other powerful units (see below).

Other Summon synergies

Of course, this trait works well with anything that encourages Summoning, so this in theory helps Nature Summoner as it starts you off with a unit of War bears as well as all common and uncommon nature spells.

However, this probably isn't a very strong start since War bears benefit minimally from Fantastic Warlord (only 2 figures) & Nature Summoner locks you out of casting discounts from Conjurer which is valuable for discounts. The following is the best you can do.

Example: Fantastic Warlord (1) + Nature Summoner (1) + Nature Mastery (1) + Nature (9) for 30% casting off.

You might be better off just going for Nature Mastery (1) + Conjurer (1) + 10 Nature (pick either uncommon Nature Summon) for a huge 60% off.

Unit based strategies with Black Channels and Chaos Channels

Fantastic Warlord is clearly a summons-based strategy. However, with Chaos Channels and Black Channels you can convert any other unit to a fantastic unit to benefit from Fantastic Warlord. It's highly unlikely you would want to do this for Heroes, because they benefit far more from levelling (and can level further) and they benefit less from the buff, being one figure only.

But how about normal units with higher figure counts?

Enhanced Death Trolls

Death Channels gives more bonuses than Chaos Channels, but with the huge disadvantage of being Undead, with the lack of healing being the biggest issue.

That is why the traditional Death Troll strategy[masterofmagic.fandom.com], works as the lack of healing of undead does not matter for them due to regeneration. In the remake, one can double down further on it by adding Fantastic Warlord. You do not take Warlord or Veteran Warlord because in the remake, when you Black channels a unit, it's maximum level drops to Elite (for some reason this doesn't apply to Chaos Channels). It does keep any buff from previous spells that only affect non-fantastic units (e.g. Flame blade) and bonuses from Mithril, Adamantium.

Example: Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Myrran (2) + Stonemason(1) + 7 Death (any 6), take Trolls

Technically speaking you need at least 8 Spell books to be guaranteed to have Black Channels in your Spell book to research, which you can get if you drop say Stonemason. With 7 books, you have a 70% chance of not counting the possibility of getting it via trading or treasures but the power of Stone mason for rush is hard to say no too.

This strategy is somewhat compatible with the Skeleton/Ghoul rush from above, where you start off with cheap summon units to conquer and slowly move towards Black Channel of your race unit, though there is anti-synergy with Deatheater if you choose to swap it for Stonemason.

Slingers + Black Channel

But what if you don't play trolls and don't have regeneration?

Slingers with 8 figures benefit the most from Black Channel (+2 attack, +1 ranged etc), but the lack of healing is an issue. That is where Death Eater comes in. Unlike usual Slinger builds you may not want to use Warlord, because in the remake, when you black channel a unit, it's maximum level drops to Elite (for some reason this doesn't apply to Chaos Channeled). It does keep any buff from previous spells that only affect non-fantastic units (e.g. Flame blade) and bonuses from Mithril, Adamantium.

Slingers are also very potent when Black Channelled because they gain undead immunity to illusions allowing them to easily take down invisible targets like Air elementals.

Example: Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Death Eater (2) + Death (8) - Choose Halfings

You can also try reducing the Death books to 6 and go for Myrran(2) to hope to get some Adamantium or go for Chaos (2) for buff spells or even go down to 7 Death books for the powerful Stonemason(1). However, you are not guaranteed to get the uncommon Black Channel spell unless you have 8 books, though odds are you will have it as 7 Death books gives you (70% chance) and 6 Death books gives you (60% chance) and that is without considering trading, finding it as reward etc.

You can also experiment with any high (6 or 8 figure) unit. Ranged units are usually favoured but Goblin's Boar-riders with 6 figures. first strike and high mobility are a possibility.

This strategy is compatible with the Skeleton/Ghoul rush from above, where you start off with cheap summons to conquer and slowly move towards Black Channel of your race unit.

Slingers + Chaos Channels

Example: Fantastic Warlord (1) + Warlord (2) + Life (2, choose Heroism) + Chaos (7, choose Hell Hounds, Fire Elemental, Eldritch Weapon etc ) - Choose Halfings

This runs very similar to traditional Life Warlord Slingers, so you race to Ultra-elite Slingers with backup from Hell Hounds, Fire Elementals enhanced by Fantastic Warlord. Later in the game there is a 70% chance you can get Chaos Channel and cast it on the Slingers. Unlike Black Channel, Chaos Channel does not cancel out the effects of Warlord.

You might also want to squeeze Stonemason in there....

Settings or races best with

This trait works well in most situations and is less affected by the settings selected unless you use the Node Mastery variants which depends heavily on nodes strength.

Stonemason (1 pick) - TTM

Overall Summary

The initial version of Stonemason gave all your capital race units engineer skill and all cities (including capital cities) would automatically get city walls.

This wasn't considered strong because you had to pay the maintenance of 2 gold per turn for city walls and early game you couldn't afford it and you would sell it off for the free 50 gold. But that wasn't worth a pick. This trait was later buffed to +10 prod per turn in their capital and is now indeed a strong pick.

While +10 prod doesn't seem a lot, it adds up since it is +10 every turn. For example, a typical rush race unit that is often used is Gnoll Wolf riders or Halfling Slingers, both cost 100 prod. In the early game, a difference of +10 prod per turns means cutting build times by >50%!

If you like to play the economy game, you will also appreciate that all units of your initial race can be engineers and build roads....and to get the most out of this, you may consider selecting races that don't already have engineers (any race but Beastman, Draconian, Dwarves, High Men, Klackons, Orcs, Soultrapped).

Stonemason is really one of the strongest picks but shines the most if you are playing a rush strategy where you can quickly generate a stream of units that will ramp up your power quickly as they conquer things.

Stonemason is probably not as good in tall games, though even in such situations they do help you build infrastructure faster and are useful too.

Suggested builds

Any rush strategy that involves creating normal units to rush down the opponent should consider squeezing in Stonemason.

Life + Warlord strategies

Everyone knows of the time-honored Life, Warlord, Lionheart, Admantium etc. Slingers. Other similar strategies involve rushing with Gnoll races. In almost all these strategies it is probably worth squeezing in Stonemason (1) for the prod boost per turn.

A MoM (2022) only variant involves taking Goblins + Myrran refugee (so you start in Arcanus) + Warlord + alchemy + Life. Instead of Gnoll Wolf Riders go for the even nastier Goblin Boar-riders. They are far superior to most Calvary, not only do they have the usual first strike and superior mobility, but Goblin boar riders also have stun ability and Earthwalker. On top of that they have 6 figures instead of the usual 4. Buffed to Ultra elite with other buffs on top they are a fearsome melee unit matched only by top tier more expensive units like Hammerhands, Berserkers (both 6 figures) and possibly Pikeman (8 figures) etc.

Example - Stonemason (1) + Warlord (2) + Myrran Refugee (2, choose Goblin) + Life (2, choose heroism) + Chaos (2, eldritch weapon ) + Nature (1). With the remaining picks you could go for Alchemy (2) or more spell books.

Might makes Right! strategies

Might makes right! gives all your normal units and heroes combat regeneration but limits you to a maximum of two spell books, which makes it a rush strategy off the bat. Adding Stonemason makes sense here of course.

Example - Stonemason (1) + Might makes right! (5) + Warlord (2) + Life (2, heroism). With the remaining picks you can go for either Alchemy (2) or Veteran Warlord (1) etc.

Most starting races are fine here, but you can consider Lizardman (higher armor + hitpoints + water mobility works well with regeneration), warlike races like Barbarian or Gnolls etc. Gnoll Wolf Riders with movement of 5 work well with combat regeneration as you can run around evade units to heal up in combat. Draconians that fly are good too. As a plus, Lizardman, Barbarian, Gnolls do not naturally have engineers...

Settings or races best with

The Stonemason is such a strong versatile pick, it is tempting to use it with almost everything (similar to prenerfed Alchemy at 1 pick).

However, because the Stonemason production bonus is an absolute amount rather than relative % bonus, the longer the games go on, the less significant its bonus. As such it shines the most in the smallest maps. But even then, it is not too bad for playing tall.

Still Stonemason is strongly aligned with rush strategies so any setting that is favourable to rush is useful. Besides map size, higher frequency or density of neutrals and/or lairs is also helpful because it gives targets for rush unit to take over.

Lifebringer (1 pick) - TTM

Overall Summary

For clarity all units from your starting race gain the healer skill[masterofmagic.fandom.com]. This makes units heal faster (+25% of max HP, default is 5% outside cities)

Lifebringer gives all units of starting race - Healer skill

Giving you the Resurrection a uncommon spell at the start is nice (400 Research) and all but you are unlikely to use it so early.

This has been buffed further in the latest 8 Feb, 2024 update to give you discounts of 25% when casting Resurrect, Heal and Mass Healing

Overall, this is a borderline weak trait and isn't recommended for now unless you are rushing with Calvary unit and need additional healing.

Settings or races best with

Nature Summoner (1 pick) - TTM

Overall Summary

Getting all Nature common and uncommon summon spells sounds wonderful. This includes spells for summoning War bears, Sprites, Giant Spiders, Cockatrices, Basilisk which saves you a ton of research and once you have summoned them, their upkeep is 50%. You also can more quickly research Nature uncommon spells.

Starting with a unit of War bears from turn one isn't bad either.

Unfortunately, this Wizard trait cannot be combined by Conjurer (or Channeler) which hurts since discounts to casting of 25% is something you want. You can still add Nature Mastery to reduce casting cost by 15% though.

As always if you have turned on the first free DLC, you must consider if it is worthwhile to put in Fantastic Warlord (1), to get slightly stronger summons but typically trading off for slightly more expensive summons.

Overall, this is a slightly weak but somewhat playable option.

Suggested builds

Full Nature Summoner + Fantastic Warlord

Example: Nature Summoner (1) + Nature Mastery (1) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Nature (9)

Fantastic Warlord is obvious synergy, and Nature Mastery gets you the valuable 15% casting discount. 9 Nature books gets you another 15% casting discount, for a total of 30% off.

The nice thing about this combo is you get all 10 nature commons, 8 from the 9 Nature books and the remaining 2 are summons you get via Nature Summoner anyway.

If you aim is to get off a Nature Unsummon as fast as possible, typically Basilisks, you might be better off just going for Nature Mastery (1) + Conjurer (1) + Nature (10) without Nature Summoner, pick one of the 3 uncommon Nature Summons, probably Basilisk) for a huge 60% off.

You get less flexibility compared to using Nature Summoner because you only start with 1 uncommon Nature, while the Nature Summoner can vary between summoning Spiders, Cockatrices and not just Basilisks from the very start.

Partial Nature Summoner + Fantastic Warlord

You don't have to go full tilt into Nature though. The coolest thing about Nature Summoner is that at the low cost of 5 picks, 1 for Nature Summoner and 4 required Nature books you can get all common, and uncommon Nature summons at the very start!

Consider how normally to get a uncommon Nature summon you need at least 10 Nature books (and that gets you only 1), getting it with just five picks is powerful. Sure, it is more costly to cast compared to going full Nature and Conjurer and Nature Mastery, but you can splash other colors like White for buffs, Blue for mobility (e.g. Wandering Island).

Settings or races best with

NA

I need a hero! (1 pick) - TTM

Overall Summary

I need a hero! starts you off with two spells - Summon Hero (Research Cost of 500) and Summon Champion (Research cost of 1250).

The one extra choice (pick from three instead two) when recruiting heroes is also helpful but given that the default now allows you to select will two, one more choice doesn't usually help that much.

I need a hero! allows you to select from 3 choices!

Note that despite the name of the Wizard trait it doesn't automatically give you a starting hero unlike Hivemaster but since Feb 8, 2024 patch, it gives you a 25% discount to casting Summon hero/champion.

Overall, I think this is a decent but maybe a touch underpowered ability.

Suggested builds

Example: I need a hero! (1) + Conjurer (1) + Runemaster (1) + Warlord (2) + Artificer (1) + Life (2, heroism) + nature (2, Giant Strength or web) + Chaos (2, Eldritch Weapon)

This is the classic Runemaster + Artificer combo but you start off with Summon Hero/Champion,

Both Conjurer and Runemaster give you 25% each off casting Summon hero/champion, so you can cast Summon Hero at a 75% discount from turn 1 and finish the casting at say around turn 6.

If you get the Kraken's Eye reward, you can lower casting of arcane spells by another 25%, so with these three Wizard traits, you can now cast Summon hero/champion for free! This is more a fun fact than a realistic strategy because by the time you can get the Kraken's Eye reward you probably won by then.

Kraken's Eye lowers casting of arcane spells by 25%

Settings or races best with

High elves that generate power would be nice....

Goblin Race (Myrran Race) - TTM

Work in progress

Techmaster (2 pick) - ROST

Overall Summary

This is a hard to evaluate trait because it has a bunch of perks. Firstly, you start off with a Drona Scout.

A Drona Scout unit!

With movement 4 and Scout 2 it is one of the best scouting units in the game. That said with only 1 figure and being a fantastic unit, it isn't meant for early buff tricks.

You also get vanilla +5% discount to research, but discounts to research are generally the weakest perks.

For this benefit it all comes down to the spells you are given access to in Techmagic, are they worth 2 picks?

You get the spell to summon the Drona Scout (30 mana, 1 mana upkeep) and the Power seeker spell at the start which automatically reveals the location of all the nodes including the defenders of it on the plane. Given the cheap cost, it is probably worth casting, particularly if your strategy involves early node hunting with Node Mastery.

Power Seeker spell reveals all nodes!

Other spells you get

• Tech sprite (common, combat only) - 15 cost gets you a Tech sprite , pretty decent unit with Technmagic ranged attacks (bypass magic and missile immunities and is armor piercing)
  
  
• Magic bullet (common, overland and combat) - 35/10 cost, fills up your ammo to maximum and adds +2 ammo more to any non-fantastic unit with normal ranged attack (including boulder). This becomes +3 for constructs. The ranged attack also bypasses weapon immunity.
  
  
• Hero training (common) - 120 cost, all heroes are pushed up to captain. Two notes, in the remake this won't work on Heroes who are also fantastic units - which includes Torin and the Moma and Ilde (similar for heroism). Heroism spell overrides this effect as it brings the hero to Commander immediately. This spell does overlap with Warlord and Crusade though.
  
  
• Multidigger (common) - 30 cost, summons a 4 figure multipurpose unit - it can do engineering, crush walls and meld nodes.
  
  
• Mass shielding (uncommon, combat only) - 25 cost, all friendly units get large shield which gives +2 shield vs ranged attacks.
  
  
• Reconstruct (uncommon, combat only) - 20 cost, returns construct unit that died in tactical combat. But it will disappear after combat even if you win.
  
  
• Techincarnation (Rare) - 500 cost, Techmagic version of Incarnation. Their version of Torin, Moma and Ilde is also a fantastic unit (with advantages and disadvantages),and can also be resummoned again when lost.
  
  
• Extract minerals (Rare) - 300 cost Creates a random resource (including adamantium!) in a hex. Must be at least 1 hex away from a resource.

The following are combat only spells granted by the Moma and Ilde hero.

• Sharp exchange (5 mana) - all friendly units get armor piercing, but caster loses 5 HP
  
  
• Heart sacrifice (5 mana) - by sacrificing 2 HP, the opposing wizard is blocked from casting magic for 1 turn.

Both are crazy potent, for example imagine using Sharp exchange to make Soultrapped Tech Priests and Tech sprites whose Techmagic ranged attacks already bypass all immunities now becomes armor piercing. Or combine it with boulder attacks of Soulless, Catapult and Steam cannons such that they will be even more of a multi-figure killer unit.

The Heart sacrifice spell is particularly potent to lock out the opposing Wizard from casting, but both are fairly late-stage strategy.

Whether this is worth 2 books I suspect depends on whether any powerful combos or synergies can be found with the spells.... Are the spells worth it or is it better to go from 1 realm spell book to 3 (which unlocks the possibility of finding rare and very rare spells)?

Suggested builds

Node Mastery + Power seeker spell

Node Mastery strategies often rely on quickly finding the right node with the right defenders to take down. Techmaster gives you the Power Seeker spell from the start to help with this and once cast all nodes on your chosen plane will be marked and you can even see what guardians are defending them!

The requirements of Node Mastery require multi realm play (1 book each in nature, sorcery and chaos) while Techmaster requires at least 3 books in 2 realms, so it isn't a stretch to try to combine them together.

I can think of two variants, the first where you go for mastery for cheap summons (example below goes for Sorcery mastery but nature or chaos mastery works too)

Example: Techmaster (2) + Node Mastery (1) + Sorcery Mastery (1) + Sorcery (4, Phantom Warrior, Confusion, Psionic blast) + Chaos (3, Fire elemental, Hell hounds) + 1 Nature

or the version which uses Fantastic Warlord which is probably better with stronger summons.

Example: Techmaster (2) + Node Mastery (1) + Conjurer (1) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Chaos (3, Fire elemental, Hell hounds) +Sorcery (3, Phantom warriors, Confusion) + Nature (1)

Instead of raiding nodes with the usual Phantom warriors, sprites, Hell hounds, fire elementals, as Techmaster you also have the choice of 11 mana Tech spirites. They are worth considering because of their tech magic ranged attack that ignores magic and missile immunity. That said they don't benefit from the node auras...

A Tech Sprite unit!

Other builds

There might be a case to go for a hero strategy to exploit Hero training spell, but currently I need a hero! that probably isn't worth the cost.

Settings or races best with

Soultrapped race!

On paper, it seems a non-brainer to take the race Soultrapped.

As a race they have very slow population growth but have a unique feature of +5 pop growth per mineral in the city's catchment area. The extract mineral spell can help with this, though do note that it's a rare spell so you won't have this option until mid game.

Almost all the normal units you can build are considered constructs so Reconstruct spell works on them. The Magic bullet spell also works especially well on their ranged units giving +3 ammo because they are constructs. This includes Soul Cannon (from 6 to 9 ammo), Soulless (from 4 to 7 ammo) but it won't work on Tech priests or Yeets or Moma and Ilde because they use magical ranged attacks.

Races with powerful ranged units like High Elves Longbowmen, Hafling Slingers might also benefit from getting Magic bullet cast on them. Extract mineral spell might also help if you are too lazy to find a city location with the right minerals and you might get lucky and get adamantium!

Lack engineers for the race you choose? You can either choose Stonemason or get Techmaster so you can summon Multidigger.

Demonologist (1 pick) - ROST

Overall Summary

Love 11 book death strategies with Wraiths or Shadow demons? This gives you a variant strategy.

The cool thing about Demonologist is you don't even need to cast a spell; you start with Lesser Shadow demons!

A Lesser Shadow Demon unit!


You also get the unique spell to summon Lesser Shadow demon, it's base is 60 mana, but because Conjurer is mandatory you can usually cast it at 45 (25% off from Conjurer) and the cheapest you can cast it at the start is 36 (40% off, due to 9 death books (15% off) + Conjurer (25% off))

Also nice is unlike Nature Summoner, this does not prevent you from combining this with Conjurer (it's mandatory even) for discounts on the spell. You even get the Possession spell (350 RP) researched free.

That said Lesser Shadow demons are far weaker than Shadow demons as they have fewer figures (2 vs 4) and weaker individual stats. They do have the same flying, regeneration, magical ranged attack, plane shift capabilities though they become almost useless in mid to late game against top tier opponents.

As such it might be worth giving up a book or two (5% discount or 3 mana discounts per book) in exchange for Fantastic Warlord and/or necromancer to make lesser shadow demons stronger.

Suggested builds

Conventional strategy

There's a short window before Lesser Shadow demons even 9 of them might become useless against stronger opposition. Hence it might be worth while picking Fantastic Warlord and/or Necromancer to make them stronger.

Example : Demonologist (1) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Conjurer (1) + Chaos(1) + Death (8)

or you can even combine Fantastic Warlord with Necromancer for stronger summons, but Lesser Shadow demons cost more.

Example: Demonologist (1) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Conjurer (1) + Chaos (1) + Death (7)

or if you really want the cheapest lesser shadow demons but weaker, see the next version.

Example: Demonologist (1) + Conjurer (1) + Chaos (1) + Death (9).

This gives your Lesser Shadow demon spell 40% off and you can cast them at 36 mana.

It is tempting to add the other death related trait - Death Eater to Demonologist but because Lesser Shadow demons has regeneration they don't need it. Necromancers feel mostly inferior to Fantastic Warlord as I mentioned in those sections.

Orcmancer builds

Orcmancer units have built in life-steal and have potential to create undead. This suggests adding traits like Necromancer, Fantastic Warlord and maybe even Death Eater. But this is a huge investment in picks that do not help the starting Orc units, so one idea is to combine with Demonologist who DO benefit.


Example: Demonologist (1) + Orcmancer (2) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Death Eater (2) + Conjurer (1) + Chaos (1) + Death (3)

You would do the usual Lesser Shadow demon enhanced by Necromancer + Fantastic Warlord tricks but this time backed up by Orcmancer life stealing Shamans. Blast away early game with your magical ranged attacks!

With this build there is some anti-synergy since Death Eater does not help your Lesser Shadow demons with regeneration so one idea is to drop Death Eater for Warlord.

Example: Demonologist (1) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Conjurer (1) + Necromancer (1) + Warlord (2) + Orcmancer (2) + Chaos (1) + Death (3, life drain)

You could go try dropping Necromancer for Veteran Warlord etc.

Settings or races best with

Myrran refugee (2 pick) - ROST

Overall Summary

This trait is a bit controversial since it costs the same as Myrran at 2 picks.

Benefits that Myrran provides over Myrran Refugee includes

• Quicker access to mineral rich cities like Adamantium
  
  
• Wizard fortress generates + 5 power more
  
  
• Time to develop on the plane alone (though with the through the Myrror DLC, there is a higher chance of seeing more native Myrran Wizards than in classic)

Myrran Refugee gives up all this to let you start at Arcanus where your overpowered Myrran race will find it easier to break lairs and nodes as compared to in Myrror. Is this really worth the trade-off?

I would say probably not unless you have a build very customized to rush down Wizards or nodes.

Suggested builds

Might makes right! rush strategies

Might makes right is like the ultimate rush trait and as you can imagine it works well with Myrran Refugee if you want to choose a Myrran race to rush with in Arcanus.

Example: Might makes right! (5) + Warlord (2) + Life (2, Heroism) > Myrran Refugee (2, pick troll) + Veteran Warlord (1) or Stonemason (1)

Whether you select Troll (+3 HP regeneration!) or Draconian (flight + regen) or Goblins (fast moving high figure Boar Riders) you want to rush down opponents on Arcanus.

Settings or races best with

Clearly, you should go with Trolls, Draconians, Dark elves , Dwarves or Goblins might work too. This is designed for rush so the rush favoured settings like smallest map, 100% density for lairs etc applies.

Veteran Warlord (1 pick) - ROST

Overall Summary

Warlord is clearly a OP trait, definitely the most OP of the classic game rivalled only by maybe alchemy at 1 pick. How does Veteran Warlord which requires Warlord compare?

Veteran Warlord gives all normal units +1 XP per turn even if they do nothing. Given that the remake, unlike the classic version already gives units +1 XP per turn even doing nothing, this further speeds up how fast they level even if they don't get into fights.

With Veteran Warlord, units automatically take 10 turns (instead of 20) to get to Veteran, 30 turns (instead of 60) to get to elite, 60 turns (instead of 120) to ultra elite.

Even more interestingly, you start with a extra Swordmen unit. The main issue with this Swordmen unit is that it costs 1 gold and 1 food and in early game this might put a slight strain on your economy. Still, you can always increase your tech rate to x2.0 and garrison your 2 swordmen in a city which in a typical start will yield you 4 extra gold that should offset the 1 gold and 1 food.

Overall though, you probably want to use the extra swordmen for offense purposes or at the very least for clearing ruins so a combo that maximises your extra swordmen power is ideal.

Suggested builds

Might makes right! strategies

Might makes right! is the pick that makes your starting units extremely powerful so this is an obvious combo.

The following is a good base to build on - Veteran Warlord (1) + Might makes right! (5) + Warlord (2) + Life (2, heroism)

A good try is to go Myrran refugee (again easier to rush enemies) to get Draconians for flight + regeneration combo of Swordmen. Otherwise go for Stonemason (1) + maybe Barbarians

But if you are going for value for the extra Swordmen try the following

Example : Veteran Warlord (1) + Might makes right! (5) + Orcmancer (2) + Warlord (2) + Death (1) + Stonemason (1)

This gives you TWO swordman who have death immunity, life steal, +5 resist, combat regeneration, engineer skill.

Also, as Orcmancer, you gain a temporary 5 CS to use during combat for each figure (not unit) lost. This makes it work nicely with combat regeneration which ensures any figures in a unit lost (as long as the whole unit is not totally destroyed) can be restored quickly.

Settings or races best with

Best races are clearly militaristic races like Gnolls etc. You want to rush so rush friendly settings like smallest maps are ideal.

Might makes Right! (5 pick) - ROST

Overall Summary

This is extremely pricey at 5 picks but is still a steal. All your non-fantastic units and even non-fantastic heroes (but this excludes Torin and the Tech magic heroes Moma and Ilde) get "Combat regeneration".

This is weaker than Troll regeneration in that if your unit with combat regeneration dies in combat it remains dead even if you win the battle. You also do not automatically restore to full hitpoints at the end of every combat even if you win.

On the other hand, this gives you +2HP per turn which is stronger than normal Troll regeneration.

Because you don't get healed to the maximum after each combat, you can maximise your HP at end of combat with cheesy tactics like running around to restore all units to per HP before dealing the final blow.

The main limitation is you can't choose more than two spell books at the beginning of the game, however this does not prevent you from finding new spell books from tough nodes or defeating Wizards.

Suggested builds

To Troll or not to Troll

The cool thing about Might makes right! is that it stacks if you have Troll regeneration. This means your troll units get +3HP regeneration per turn plus the usual benefits of regeneration after combat ends.

Example: Might makes right! (5) + Warlord (2) + Life (2, Heroism) + Myrran Refugee (2, pick troll) + Veteran Warlord (1) or Stonemason (1)

You probably also want Myrran Refugee rather than Myrran for rushing.

Orcmancer variant

Want the ultimate starting unit? Combine Orcmancer AND Might makes Right AND Stonemason and have starting units that have +3 resist, death immunity, life steal, combat regeneration and engineer? Throw in Veteran Warlord and you start with TWO such units that gain experience fast.

Orc Swordman with combat regeneration + Life Steal + Engineer!

As Orcmancer, you gain a temporary 5 CS to use during combat for each figure (not unit) lost. This makes it work nicely with combat regeneration which ensures any figures in a unit lost (as long as the whole unit is not totally destroyed) can be restored quickly during combat.

Imagine a scenario, your Orc Swordman get hit and loses 1 figure, you gain +5CS. End of turn, combat regeneration heals up 1 figure. Next turn, you get hit and lose one figure again....

Example: Might makes right! (5) + Orcmancer(2) + Warlord (2) + Veteran Warlord (1) + Stonemason (1) + Death (1) - You might want to switch out Stonemason (which helps with rush) with something else like 1 more death book (select black sleep)

Traditional rush Life + Warlord strategies enhanced

Might makes right makes traditional life + warlord strategies so much better. The following is a good base to build on - Might makes right (5) + Warlord (2) + Stonemason (1) + Life (2, heroism)

You can go traditional Gnoll wolf riders where you can use your movement of 5 to outpace opponents to heal. Or you can put on Myrran refugee (again easier to rush enemies) to get Draconians for flight+ regeneration combo. If you choose Goblins, you can use Boar riders in a similar way to Gnoll Wolf riders.

Death + Regeneration tricks

Everyone is familiar with the Death Troll strategy[masterofmagic.fandom.com], you could in theory take Might makes Right to give combat regeneration to any other race you want and play similarly.

Example: Might makes right! (5) + Warlord (2) + Veteran Warlord (1) + Stonemason (1) + Fantastic Warlord(1) + Death (2)

This probably doesn't work as well.

The idea is that you could choose say Haflings, which will now have combat regeneration. Eventually cast Black Channel (if you can get the spell) on say Slingers or any good high figure melee unit and watch the bonus stack with Fantastic Warlord and Black Channel. The problem with this idea is you might not get Black Channels as you only start with 2 spellbooks (20% chance without finding it via treasures). There's also some anti-synergy with Warlord because Black Channeled units drop back to Elite unit at most.

Also combat regeneration is not as good as full Troll Regeneration or even possibly the Death Eater ability.

Settings or races best with

This is one of the strongest Wizard trait in the game and works with mostly every setting. But it might be better on smaller maps if you choose to do a rush strategy.

Soultrapped Race (ROST)

Work in progress

Orcmancer (2 pick) - FREE

Overall Summary

Orcmancer gives 3 main benefits. The most minor one is it gives orc units Death immunity. Probably the most significant benefit is it gives units lesser Life steal 1.




Orc units that gain these abilities include

• Spearmen
  
• Swordmen
  
• Engineers
  
• Shamans
  
• Bowsmen
  
• Halberdiers
  
• Cavalry
  
• Magicians
  
• Wyvern riders

It is important to note that this Life steal attack applies not just to attacks with melee but also if you attack with ranged and magical ranged attacks!

So, for example if you race to build Orc Shamans and use their ranged abilities early game if sufficient damage is done (50% of HP) via Life steal and the unit dies it may be raised as a undead version under the control of the Wizard!

Of course, this is a very weak version of Life steal with only -1 to resist so units above 11 resistance will never be hurt that way unless you find some way to lower resistance.

You can either use spells like Mindstorm (-5)[masterofmagic.fandom.com] or Black prayer (-2)[masterofmagic.fandom.com] from the original game to maximise the impact of life steal abilities or use Goblin's Druid curse ability (-1)

Also note the hero Bahgrtu the orc warrior[masterofmagic.fandom.com] gets the same bonus including Death immunity and Life steal from this. It's unlikely his life steal effect stacks with hero artifacts with -save effects.

Finally, interesting but hard to exploit is that you gain temporarily 5 combat skill during tactical combat for each figure lost. Note this is per figure lost (e.g. spearman have 9 figures) and not per unit lost. Early game, this might help you cast spells even if you have not built up your skill yet.

Suggested builds

Orcmancer + Might makes right!

Orcmancer and Might makes right! together could be overkill.

But it's an option if you want your starting swordmen to be armed to the teeth, with good protection including death immunity, combat regeneration and life steal.

There might be a bit of anti-synergy between Might makes right! and Orcmancer since combat regeneration means you rarely need the healing from life steal. Still the undead creation you get from Life steal ability is very desirable.

As Orcmancer, you gain a temporary 5 CS to use during combat for each figure (not unit) lost. This makes it work nicely with combat regeneration which ensures any figures in a unit lost (as long as the whole unit is not totally destoryed) can be restored quickly.

Example: Orcmancer (2) + Might makes Right! (5) + Warlord (2) + Veteran Warlord (1) + Stonemason (1) + Death (1)

This build ensures you have 2 starting swordmen who are both extremely powerful, while Stone mason speeds up production of more. You could even try to squeeze in Alchemy (2) for Veteran Warlord (1) + Stonemason for (1) the magic weapons but I doubt it is worth a trade.

If you anticipate your Life steal abilities creating many undead, you might want to swop out either Stonemason, Veteran Warlord or both with Fantastic Warlord.

Example: Orcmancer (2) + Might makes Right! (5) + Warlord (2) +Fantastic Warlord (
(1) + Stonemason (1) + Death (1)

Normal Non-Might makes right builds

If you like to go all in to support the undead, you can drop Might makes right! and get all 3 Death related traits from the Halloween update (Orcmancer + Necromancer + Death Eater).


Example : Orcmancer (2) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Death Eater (2) + Warlord (2) + Veteran Warlord (1) + Death (3, life drain)

In one game i played, in the early stage I gained a undead halfling swordman thanks to Orcmancer shamans. And with eight figures and undead they were boosted hugely by fantastic warlord AND necromancer!

Demonologist builds

The main issue with going Necromancer and Fantastic Warlord with Orcmancer is that your starting units don't benefit from the 2 pick investment and it's not guaranteed your Life steal attacks will create undead. So why not combine with Demonologist that starts you off with Lesser Shadow demons that DO benefit.


Example: + Orcmancer (2) + Conjurer (1) + Demonologist (1) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Death Eater (2) + Chaos (1) + Death (3, Life drain)

You would do the usual Lesser Shadow demon enhanced by Necromancer + Fantastic Warlord tricks but this time backed up by Orcmancer life stealing Shamans. Blast away early game with your magical ranged attacks!

With this build there is some anti-synergy since Death Eater does not help your Lesser Shadow demons with regeneration so one idea is to drop Death Eater for Warlord.


Example : Orcmancer (2) + Conjurer (1) + Demonologist (1) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Warlord (2) + Chaos (1) + Death (3, life drain)

You could go try dropping Necromancer for Veteran Warlord etc.

Settings and races best with

Necromancer (1 pick) - FREE

Overall Summary

At first glance, this looks like a reasonable trait. Darkness is probably one of the most common spells death wizards use (second only to Black Prayer) so getting this automatically turned on in combat looks useful.

Unfortunately, as a trait it is almost 100% dominated by Fantastic Warlord which

1) Gives you the same effect but works on ALL fantastic units while the Necromancer effect works only on Death realm fantastic units. Also notice that Fantastic Warlord only empowers your fantastic units (including death), while the auto darkness spell granted by Necromancer helps your opponent's Death units as well. This is particularly relevant early game when you are clearing lairs with weak Death fantastic units like Skeletons and Ghouls.

2) works as a permanent Buff , while the Necromancer effect only helps in tactical combat (granted as of current build, the AI almost never attacks you overland with spells).

3) Even if both 1) and 2) were not relevant, a death only player who chose Fantastic Warlord over Necromancer would have the OPTION to cast spells like Darkness[masterofmagic.fandom.com] (or similar spells like Cloud of Shadow[masterofmagic.fandom.com], Eternal night[masterofmagic.fandom.com]) to further buff their death units while the necromancer player would be out of luck.

That said, because Necromancer's Darkness is precast it works even in nodes without needing to overcome the dispelling node's power (unless you have Node Mastery)

The other only benefit the Necromancer player has over Fantastic Warlord is that Darkness weakens Life fantastic units like Unicorns and Arch angels, however this is a minor benefit compared to the disadvantages.

As such, the best and probably only viable way to use Necromancer is to double up with Fantastic Warlord to get double the effect.

You also start with the new unique spell undead hero which is often overlooked but probably for good reason.


Undead Hero spell revive dead hero as undead!

This is similar to the Life spell - Resurrection, except the dead hero is brought back to life as an undead / with black channels cast on them, on top of that you also get life steal attacks -1.

I am doubtful most players will use this spell. Even if you have Necromancer + Fantastic Warlord + Death Eater to make the most of the undead status of the hero (on top of the base bonuses from Black channel) the fact that it is undead means it can no longer gain bonuses from levelling (it does keep any bonuses prior from natural XP gain). This is a huge loss for heroes who not only gain stats bonus as they level but their abilities (e.g. caster, leadership, might) increase as well. As such this is worth doing only mid to late game when your heroes are demi-gods or near that level.

Suggested builds

Skeleton/Ghoul rush

Example: Necromancer (1) + Death Eater (2) + Conjurer (1) + 7 Death (Skeleton, Ghoul, life drain etc.).

Using this build, you should be spamming either Skeletons or Ghouls. With Necromancer and Fantastic Warlord in play, Skeletons (6 figures) are almost as good combat wise as Ghouls (4 figures) and about 3 times cheaper. That said Ghouls can create undead which is nice.

In either case, Skeletons under the effect of Necromancer and Fantastic Warlord are very tough, they can take down Bears/Nagas/Phantom Warriors 1 on 1 easily (thanks to immunity to illusions) , all for the cost of just 18 mana. With death eater, you can usually be at full health or near full health after each combat.

Skeletons enhanced with Fantastic Warlord and Darkness from Necromancer!

Enhanced Death Trolls

The traditional Death Troll strategy[masterofmagic.fandom.com], will Black Channel Troll units as the lack of healing of undead does not matter for them. In the remake, one can double down further on it by adding Fantastic Warlord. You do not take Warlord or Veteran Warlord because in the remake, when you black channel a unit, it's maximum level drops to Elite (for some reason this doesn't apply to Chaos Channeled). It does keep any buff from previous spells that only affect non-fantastic units (e.g. Flame blade) and bonuses from Mithril, Adamantium.

Example: Necromancer (1) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Myrran (2) + Stonemason(1) + 7 Death (any 6), take Trolls

Technically speaking you need at least 8 spellbooks to be guaranteed to have Black Channels in your spellbook to research. With 7, you have a 70% chance not counting the possibility of getting it via trading or treasures but the power of StoneMason for rush is hard to say no too.

Slingers + Black Channel

Slingers with 8 figures benefit the most from Black Channel (+2 attack, +1 ranged etc), but the lack of healing is an issue. That is where Death Eater comes in. Unlike usual Slinger builds you may not want to use Warlord, because in the remake, when you black channel a unit, it's maximum level drops to Elite (for some reason this doesn't apply to Chaos Channeled). It does keep any buff from previous spells that only affect non-fantastic units (e.g. Flame blade) and bonuses from Mithril, Adamantium.

Example: Necromancer (1) + Death Eater (2) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Death (8) - Choose Halfings

You can also try reducing the Death books to 6 and go for Myrran(2) to hope to get some Adamantium, or go for Chaos(2) for buff spells or even go down to 7 Death books for the powerful Stonemason(1). However, you are not guaranteed to get the uncommon Black Channel spell unless you have 8 books, though odds are you will have it as 7 Death books gives you (70% chance) and 6 Death books gives you (60% chance) and that is without considering trading, finding it as reward etc.

Demonologist builds

There are various ways to combine Demonologist with Fantastic Warlord and Necromancer but this is my preferred way. The lesser demons aren't as cheap as they can be to summon (but still cheap) but you maximise their power.

Example: Fantastic Warlord (1)+ Necromancer (1) + Demonologist 1) + Conjurer (1) + Chaos (1) + Death (7)

Orcmancer builds

Orcmancer's life steal ability makes it easy to create undead. This asks for it to be combined with Necromancer + Fantastic Warlord.

Example : Necromancer (1) + Orcmancer(2) + Fantastic Warlord(1) + Deatheater(2) + Warlord(2) + veteran warlord(1) + Deathbooks(3 , life drain)

For more rush fun, use Might makes right!

Example: Necromancer (1) + Orcmancer (2) + Might makes right! (5) + Warlord (2) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Death (1)

Demonologist + Orcmancer builds

Also you can combine both Demonologist AND Orcmancer. The problem with investing in Necromancer/Fantastic Warlord and be Orcmancer is that at the start the investment in Necromancer/Fantastic Warlord does nothing. Why not add Demonologst, which does start with Lesser Shadow demons?



Example: + Necromancer (1) + Conjurer(1) + Demonologist (1) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Death Eater (2) + Orcmancer (2) + Chaos (1) + Death (3, life drain)

In the above build, you have rush potential with Lesser Shadow demons (buffed by Fantastic Warlord and Necromancer) and your Orcmancer units have the potential of creating more undead which will be powered up by Fantastic Warlord/Necromancer

Settings or races best with

Death Eater (2 pick) - FREE

Overall Summary

This addresses one of death's weaknesses, that their units do not heal naturally.

Regains 50% is a little ambiguous but I think as long as your unit is less than 50% damaged (either >50% of HP if one figure, or if you are left with more than half the figures of the unit standing), you will be restored to full health. As such the smart strategy is to spread damage around in combat.

Because most of the high-end death units mostly have a way to self-heal either via Life steal attacks (Wraiths, Death Knights, Demon Lords) or more importantly have regeneration (Lesser Shadow demon, Shadow demon, Werewolfs) this reduces the impact of Death Eater.

Still if properly combined with other traits like Necromancer and Fantastic Warlord, it is quite useful on low end and mid-level Death summons particularly Skeletons and Ghouls.

I actually think this trait is a little underpowered at 2 picks compared to Fantastic Warlord or Necromancer but when used with the other two is fairly decent.

Suggested builds

Skeleton/Ghoul rush

Example: Death Eater (2) + Necromancer (1) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Conjurer (1) + 7 Death (Skeleton, Ghoul, life drain etc.).

Using this build, you should be spamming either Skeletons or Ghouls. With Necromancer and Fantastic Warlord in play, Skeletons (6 figures) are almost as good combat wise as Ghouls (4 figures) and about 3 times cheaper. That said Ghouls can create undead which is nice.

In either case, Skeletons under the effect of Necromancer and Fantastic Warlord are very tough, they can take down Bears/Nagas/Phantom Warriors 1 on 1 easily (thanks to immunity to illusions) , all for the cost of just 18 mana. With death eater, you can usually be at full health or near full health after each combat.

Skeletons enhanced with Fantastic Warlord and Darkness from Necromancer!

Orcmancer + undead creation

Orcmancers give orc units Life steal so it is fairly easy to generate undead. As such you can try the standard death enhancing package of Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Death Eater(2)

Also if you manage to get Black Channel, it might be worth it to cast on your Orcs which have built-in life steal abilities.

Example: Death Eater (2) + Orcmancer (2) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Warlord (2) + Veteran Warlord (1) + Death (3, Life drain, Skeleton)

Slingers + Black Channel

Slingers with 8 figures benefit the most from Black Channel (+2 attack, +1 ranged etc), but the lack of healing is an issue. That is where Death Eater comes in. Unlike usual Slinger builds you may not want to use Warlord, because in the remake, when you black channel a unit, it's maximum level drops to Elite (for some reason this doesn't apply to Chaos Channeled). It does keep any buff from previous spells that only affect non-fantastic units (e.g. Flame blade) and bonuses from Mithril, Adamantium.

Example: Death Eater (2) + Fantastic Warlord (1) + Necromancer (1) + Death (8) - Choose Halfings

You can also try reducing the Death books to 6 and go for Myrran(2) to hope to get some Adamantium, or go for Chaos(2) for buff spells or even go down to 7 Death books for the powerful Stonemason(1). However, you are not guaranteed to get the uncommon Black Channel spell unless you have 8 books, though odds are you will have it as 7 Death books gives you (70% chance) and 6 Death books gives you (60% chance) and that is without considering trading, finding it as reward etc.

Settings or races best with

Hive Master (2 pick) - SOTS

Overall Summary

Hate playing Klackons because all captive races become nearly unplayable with +20% unrest? Take this and the disadvantage goes away and they all start with base 0% unrest.

Think that's not enough for 2 picks? How about starting with a hero? This is something you don't get even with "I need a hero!"

You start with a hero - Ph'ym


This hero, Ph'ym is pretty decent, near-champion level, giving you Magical Ranged, Sage to prop up your early research as well as arcane power (10 MP).


Ph'ym's Hivemind ability


He also gets Hivemind, every Klackon unit that goes into battle with your hero gets +10% to block.

Klackon units that get Hiveconnected gains +10% to block

But I left out his most important ability- Noble!

Ph'ym has noble!

Even at base level, noble gets you +10 gold per turn. Given how Klackon's inherent -20% unrest for Klackon cities works, experienced Klackon players will raise taxes from turn 1 for a lot of gold to flow in. Having Noble from turn 1, double downs on this.

Want more? Now every Klackon unit in battle increases the casting skill of the Wizard by 5 points. So for example if you enter battle with two Klackon Swordman, your Wizard automatically gets 10 more casting skill to use. Interestingly enough, the Ph'ym hero does not trigger this increase.

This seems to be better most of the time than the somewhat similar effect Orcmaster brings where Orc figures have to die before they gain the bonus.

Overall, Klackon Hivemaster looks like one of the strongest 2 picks, arguably comparable to even Warlord, though if you hate Klackon's for lack of building options this might still be a hard sell.

Suggested builds

Life Warlord

An obvious strategy here is to double down on the fact you are starting with a hero so what else is there but Warlord.

Further double down by getting life books and selecting Heroism as a starting spell. I barely need to spell out the rest.

With Warlord you will start off Ph'ym at Myrmidon, which means noble now gives you +20 gold! As you are Klackon you will also definitely crank up the tax rate from turn 1, giving you as much as 40 gold per turn on turn 1.

Obviously, you will try to spend your first turns casting Heroism on Ph'ym and once you will get a champion level hero by turn 10! This gives you +40 gold from him alone, while sage ability gives you 15 RP.

Champion level Ph'ym

Ph'ym is a monster at champion level and given you are life, you will likely buff him up further with holy weapon.

Another cheap tactic is even if you do not choose to go for heroism early or during the first few turns while you are casting, Ph'ym at Mrymidon level has 20 mana and has enough mana to cast heroism on himself in battle! This is definitely something you should do.

For the other picks you can go however you wish, in the example below I went for more production with Stonemason and spellbooks for Life and Chaos. But you can splash for Sorcery, Nature as well for particular buff spells.

In fact, Hivemaster + Warlord + Life is so strong the default Wizard, Queen Xar'xla is probably the strongest default Wizard, rivaled only by Grendel. The Queen build runs with Power to the people at 2 picks. I consider Power to the People to be fairly priced and not over powered but it works decently well here since you probably will go for high populations.

Another interesting idea is to go for Tactician (2 picks), allowing you to go first when attacking. This can be useful given you start with a magical ranged hero and try attacks lairs defended by ranged units like Sprites.

I can also make the argument for Veteran Warlord (1 pick), as the additional Warlord is enhanced by Ph'ym's Hivemind and Hivemaster gets you another +5 Casting skill in combat, while the additional +1XP per turn benefits Ph'ym as well.

Artificer is nice of course.


Example: Hivemaster (2) + Warlord (2) + Stonemason (1) + Life(3, Heroism, Holy weapon) + 2 chaos (Eldritch weapon)

Sea Master (2 pick) - SOTS

In progress

+1 movement on overland map for swimming, incorporeal is great value for rushing.

Overall Summary

Suggested builds

Sorcery is good with Wandering island (espically) , nagas. Nature has some spells too like water walking

Death units are great too due to incorporeal units (Wraiths & Shadow Demons). Might also worth with Demonologists strategies that start with lesser shadow demons.

Good races are Lizardmen and Scourager

Odd ones are guardian spirit. Heroes Slithers, Big Barta and phym

Example:

Power of the People (2 pick) - SOTS

In progress

Overall Summary

Suggested builds

Example:

Pirate (3 pick) - SOTS

In progress

Overall Summary

Suggested builds

Example:

Tactician (2 pick) - SOTS

Overall Summary

Tactician has two effects.

Firstly, all your units gain +1 movement in tactical combat. This could be useful, if you have a ranged unit with a lot of ammo and this allows you to run around to fire off your shots before engaging in melee with melee only units when normally you would not be able to keep out of melee range.

In theory, even if you don't have ranged capabilities, the +1 movement will allow you to position yourself better so you can take the first blow to make the most of special abilities like Fire Breath of Hellhounds (that only works if you attack) but in practice the AI is bad at positioning so you can almost always get the first blow anyway.

But, it is the second and more major effect which allows you to go first whether attacking or defending that makes the steep cost of 2 picks worth considering. Note that the description isn't fully accurate, as a Tactician you will almost always go first except when you are attacked by a Wizard with Tactician as well. The more accurate description for Tactician is that you go first when attacking (on top of the usual defender goes first of course).

Clearly going first where you usually go second can have significant effects. These include

1. You can get off the first spell. This can be critical especially against other Wizard kings or units that can spell cast.

2. You get to shoot them first with ranged or magical ranged attacks.

3. You get to close in on their ranged units faster or neutralize them with your spells, or ranged attacks before they can shoot you with their ranged attacks. (Consider teleporting Unicorns acting first) This helps a lot when clearing lairs with Sprites, and in particular Tech Dungeons with a ton of scary ranged units like Tech Priests.

One thing to note as stated in the description, if you attack a Wizard's Tower, you do get to act first, cast the first spell, but this is AFTER the Wizard fortress shoots out a disruption bolt.

It is hard to price Tactician, but my instinct is that it clearly isn't as strong as Warlord which is also 2 picks but is decent especially if you fair it with the right picks or race.

Tactician also rarely gives you a big early advantage, except for perhaps clearing nodes or lairs but unlike other Wizard traits, the value of Tactician remains and arguably increases as the game goes on, as by mid game, you and your fellow Wizards as well as ranged units themselves get powerful and the ability to go first becomes every more important.

Suggested builds

Example: Nodemaster strategy - gets to cast spell in node! goes first.


Example: Tactician(2)+Warlord(2) + StoneMason(1) + Life (at least 3, pick Heroism and buff spells) + Sorcery (2, pick Wandering island) + Slingers

You can't get more obvious than this. Going first benefits ranged or magical ranged attacks, the strongest and most efficient way to get ranged is with cheap Slingers. Just do the usual pile on with Heroism, Life, Heroism, Lionheart, Holy Weapon etc and with Tactician it is even way more effective than usual, because your Slingers don't need to withstand a first wave of ranged attacks and you can get through early raids with little to no damage. As always you might want to mix in some Sorcery for mobility, StoneMason for production etc.

Bored of Slingers? You can substitute them with High Elves - Long Bowsmen (the next best ranged units), Dark elves units all have magical ranged attacks but these tend to be weak attacks, Warlocks are cool though. March ten Warlocks into any lair or Capital and be guaranteed to cast a first turn 10 doombolts + Wizard spell to top it up should scare the pants off everyone. Soultrapped also has many ranged and magical ranged units such as Soul Priests and Souless.

Units with boulder attacks like Dwarven Steam Cannons, Draconian Airships, Catapults are nice too etc but these aren't quite early game units.

Example: Lesser shadow demon or shadow demon strategy - demonologist

other Good Summons with ranged or magical ranged might include Nature Sprites which suggests Nature Summoner. Techmagic has tech spirities and they also have spells that boost ranged

Other good summons - Nature (Spirities), nature summoner, , tech incarnation

Not so good - storm giants, djinn, demon lords, drona scout - tech master

good spells - countermagic/heart sacfrice, flame strike, barrage, high prayer, dark prayer

Example: Hivemaster strategy (hero)

Others could warlock, Catalpse, dark elve, airships (super fast speed) built in magical ranged etc but generally these are not early strategies.

movment fanatcti - tactian + sea master + life endurance, + nature

Sea Hunter (1 pick) - SOTS

In progress

Overall Summary

Suggested builds

Example:

Conclusion

The first edition of this guide was written in Dec 2023 based on the 1.08.27 patch. As such, officially there has been at most 12 months of play since launch.

While the remake is similar enough to the Master of Magic classic that a lot of the old strategies apply there are enough changes to the rules to reconsider some aspects and of course the new options added by the DLCs and updates are barely explored at this point (Dec 2023)

More importantly, this guide is limited by the knowledge and skills of your humble author, who favors a rush style of play on smaller maps which biases the advice given in this guide.

I expect this guide to be substantially changed and improved as time goes by and new content and strategies are found.

I welcome your constructive comments and feedback

TheWizardLord
Dec 23, 2023

Acknowledgements

Thanks to "Narf the Mouse", "Guts13", "Mr. Frosty L" for reading, commenting and providing feedback, all errors remain my responsibility.

[Thewizardlord]

Thanks for your comment.

It's true that fanastic units do not reduce unrest except undead in classic. However according to the MoM wiki , chaos channelled units do still count for unrest reduction.

https://masterofmagic.fandom.com/wiki/Chaos_Channels .

That's the part mentioned as a difference. Though I guess it's more a bug in the original.

[Gaunt]

There is a typo in about this text
In the original, Fantastic units did not reduce undead as garrison with the exception of Undead
I think its did not reduce unrest

[Celay]

Great content, but it would be helpful to have recommendations on which builds are nice to play, and how they compare with the more classic builds that are well described on the wiki.

[Fieswurst]

Fantastic Guide Thank you for your work!!!

[Brusix1984]

Fantastic guide.

[aeroth]

Great guide

[GeorgeJJR]

Very nice, thanks.

[Gorbash]

Nice work, absolutely worth reading.
Well written, Thanks mate.

[Mors Avis]

Very nice rundown of the new traits and possible combinations!

[Bisonours]

Much needed guide. Expertly written. Thanks à lot !