Thank you.
Some of my fav articles;Stealth
Some units are masters at hiding and sneaking. Tribal warriors, scouts and spies are examples of common units with the ability to sneak. Stealthy units can enter enemy territories and move unseen.
Contents
[hide]
Catching stealthy units
Units in a province that are set to hide or sneak can be discovered
by patrolling troops. A roll is made of the destealth strength for the
patrolling units in the province against the stealth strength of the
hiding army. Provincial defense of 10 and over will also start to look
for stealthy units on their own.
Stealthy units are found if the Destealth strength + 2d25(open-ended) > Stealth strength + 2d25 (open-ended)
Stealth strength
The stealth strength of a commander can be calculated by adding up the following numbers
- a base value of 40
- the Stealth value of the commander
- -1 for each stealthy unit in his army with stealth attribute < 10
Destealth strength
The destealth strength is based on a number of attributes of the patrolling units:
- their precision (×2 for commanders)
- their action points, or 30 for units with the flying ability (×2 for commanders)
- 20 per point of their patrol bonus skill, not multiplied for commanders
All of these values are added together and divided by 20 for the destealth strength value.
The following factors also influence the destealth strength:
- Each two points of unrest subtract one of the Destealth strength. (Capped at 100 unrest)
- Province defense minus 9 if the province defense is at least 10. (This value cannot be reduced by the unrest).
Questions about stealth that are not yet known
- What does a stealth value > 10 on a unit do?
- Who wins in case of a tie. The manual has known to be wrong in these edge cases.Verify
- Does each patrolling commander have his own destealth check together with his troops, or is it one check for all.Verify
- The unrest malus, is this for each patrolling commander, or just the total?Verify
- Does each hidden commander have his own stealth rating, or is it all added together, and if you find one you find them all.Verify
- How do all the different abilities influence stealth and destealth.Verify
Early
Battlefield Spells
Lightning Bolt Excellent against both heavy enemy troops and SCs without resistance.
Fireball One of the first real army smashing spells. Like all fire evocations, goes great with Phoenix Power.
Raise Skeletons Perfect for defeating smaller sized armies with no losses. Also deadly against SCs that don't have enough reinvigoration.
Body Ethereal
A key early buff for pretenders, it can also be used to make elite
troops nearly invulnerable to unsupported armies in the early game.
Immobilization Spells
The best way to stop a Rush
consisting of a low amounts of units such as blessed sacreds,
tramplers, or a awake SC gods is to hold them immobile. Then normal
troops either bash them, or shoot them with arrows. Most of these spells
are useful because units will always be stuck at least one turn. And
while they are immobilized they are easier to hit. The early spells are:
Earth Meld Alteration 2 -- 
2 Holds a large amount of troops. AOE 5. Drawback is the high fatigue. Affected units use strength to break fee. Earth Grip - 
1 is the single target variant.
Tangle Vines Conjuration 1 -- 
1 Small area of effect (1), affected units use strength to break fee. Works better in forest and growth provinces.
Vine Arrow Evocation 2 -- 1 Single target, also causes damage. Affected units use strength to break fee. Works better in forest and growth provinces.
Prison of Fire Thaumaturgy 4 -- 
3
Holds large amount of troops. Area of effect (3+). Morale check to
break free. Inflicts damage (1d4 AN) when units breaks free. AOE variant
of the single target Bonds of Fire - 
1 spell.
False Fetters Alteration 1 -- 
2
Holds a group of units. Area of Effect spell (2+), scales with higher
levels of air. Magic resistance check to break free. Initial effect is
also countered by a MR check.
Slime Evocation 1 -- 
1 AOE 1, MR resist. Targets hit are slowed, reducing attack, defence and action points.
Numbness Alteration 3 -- 
2
AOE 1, precision 100. Targets are frozen, causing attack, defence and
action point reduction, and causes fatigue damage each round.
Summons
Call of the Winds
For patrolling, defending a sieged castle, or just getting an extra
commander. Not useful for a siege, the black hawks have low strength,
and a siege penalty.
Middle
Battlefield Spells
Flaming Arrows Simply put, if you have access to archers and fire magic, this spell should be top priority.
Wrathful Skies The earliest whole battlefield killer, not always easy to use but well worth it. Make sure you cast Storm first.
Thunder Strike The nightmare of any units without shock resistence. The only difficulty is getting enough air magic to keep spamming it, Storm along with Summon Storm Power help greatly with this. Wind Guide is also a great boon.
Soul Slay
One of the first good counters available to SCs. It is usually
reachable if you have any astral mages at all, since you can use Communion Master, Communion Slave, Power of the Spheres and Light of the Northern Star to boost their power.
Rain of Stones Not always the easiest path combination to acquire, but if you can it will devastate the mages of many nations.
Summons
Revive Bane Lord Banelords are the chassis of choice for light raiders, or to be equipped with items to counter tougher SCs.
Late
Battlefield Spells
Army of Gold Extremely useful for countering the most common weakness of troops, lack of protection.
Fog Warriors Probably the most powerful army buff spell in the game. Even the weakest of troops become almost untouchable by normal means.
Summons
Tartarian Gate
Perhaps the defining spell of the late game, it provides some of best
SC chassis available along with much magic diversification. Works best
with Gift of Reason to make more of them commanders, and Gift of Health or The Chalice to heal afflictions (other healing methods will not work on undead).
Golem Construction Golems make excellent lighter SCs due to their mobility in using Teleport and Returning.
Other
Forge of the Ancients A global enchantment so powerful, the only real downside is often scaring the rest of the world into attacking you.
Arcane Nexus Often even more powerful than the forge, but also harder to cast.
Earth Attack Very good for taking out support mages, and a common outlet for earth gems in the late game.
Wish Most often used as a gem factory by wishing for gems, but it does have other uses.
Items by Construction Level
Level 2
Dwarven Hammer
An indispensable item, one that no experienced player would do without
as late game approaches. Considering item forging often accounts for
more than half of gem use, a 25% savings (actually as high as 33%, it
depends on the exact item price and rounding) can amount to the
equivalent of huge gem income. If your nation/pretender is not equipped
to make Dwarven Hammers, strongly consider trading for them in an MP
game.
Eye Shield An excellent shield option for only level 2, in the hands of a high defense unit such as a Vanjarl, the Eye Shield
can blind those attacking it, reducing their Attack and Defense to 0.
This shield remains a viable option throughout the game, and is
especially effective counter to powerful costly units with low attack,
like the Jotun Woodsman of Utgard and Jotunheim, since it effectively cripples them but leaves them on the payroll.
Horror Helmet The wearer of this helmet gains a +0 Fear aura. This is of lesser value to anything without any intrinsic fear, but even +0 Fear
triggers a morale check for nearby units while lowering their morale
every round. Often, this makes the Horror Helmet the best helmet for
any thug or SC taking on PD or normal armies. However, any bearer who
already possess a Fear aura will gain +5. For this reason the Horror
Helmet can be even more valuable for certain units: including units with
Awe, Death magic, or intrinsic Fear.
Demon Whip (CBM only; normally, this is a Level 6 item.) A 'poor man's Fire Brand'.
This item is cheaper than the Fire Brand, while still supplying the
AoE fire effect on hit. However, it does very little damage besides
this AoE effect (and anything with fire resistance won't be harmed by
it) and unlike the fire brand provides no fire resistance of its own.
Despite this, the Demon Whip can allow some early game strategies that
allow players to quickly field effective thugs before researching higher
levels of Construction.
Besides this advantage, the Demon Whip is just cheaper than the Fire
Brand, and if a unit doesn't need the fire resistance, and can be
reasonably sure it won't face anything else with fire resistance, than
the Demon Whip is a more economical choice.
Level 4
Frost Brand
The Area of Effect damage caused by the use of brands enables the user
to clear out entire squares of attackers with a single attack. This is
almost essential when facing large armies of chaff. In addition, the Frost Brand provides Cold Resistance 50.
Fire Brand
The Area of Effect damage caused by the use of brands enables the user
to clear out entire squares of attackers with a single attack. This is
almost essential when facing large armies of chaff. In addition, the Fire Brand provides Fire Resistance 50.
Rune Smasher An excellent item to boost your mage's penetration, useful in conjunction with certain overland attack spells, like Leprosy and Mind Hunt as well as with battlefield spells like Charm and Enslave Mind/Master Enslave.
Vine Shield
The Entangle ability of the Vine Shield enables its wielder to take on
large numbers of units since many of those will get caught up in the
vines and unable to attack. A useful item for raiders / thugs.
Level 6
Water Bracelet
As the cheapest magic booster in the game, the water bracelet has a few
unique applications, in addition to the usual booster roles. With cost
of only three gems with a hammer, it is actually conceivable to mass
produce water bracelets for battle mages. Battle Mages that can make use
of them fall into two main categories: w2 mages that could deal
dramatically more damage with w3 for Falling Frost, or w3 mages that could cast Living Water on land with w4.
Shield of Gleaming Gold
The shield of gleaming gold is generally an item reserved for low cost
thugs where awe can do the most good- with one of these, frost brand, a
luck pendant and some kind of armor, it's very easy to build something
that can tackle most PD. On true SCs it is usually replaced by a Charcoal Shield, which has fewer vulnerabilities (such as undead swarms).
Level 8
The Chalice
Very useful artifact that heals afflicted units in same province as the
wielder. Notably, it is the only means of healing afflictions on
undead units. For this reason it is frequently combined with Tartarians,
which are both undead and afflicted when summoned. The Chalice is
considered one of the most powerful artifacts in the game primarily due
to this specific use.
Gate Stone
In the end game, the ability to move large powerful armies across the
map can be critical, and is usually done via powerful Astral mages.
However, the Gate Stone provides any commander access to the Astral Travel spell.
Research boosters by Construction Level
Level 2
Owl Quill +3 research, 5 air gems
Level 4
Skull Mentor +9 research, at 10 death gems the best item to increase research in the game.
Level 6
Lightless Lantern
+6 research, for 5 fire gems (cheap!) - has a slight chance to give
wielder a horror mark. So don't use it on important researchers.
