New experimental version

[Nelphine]

Hum. Any other theories for how a life/chaos sorcerer (with no planar travel or astral gate that I've seen, who does not control any towers) is able to cast corruption on my capital (and only my capital; it did a second corruption on my capital when two of my nearest cities had diamonds that weren't corrupted)? Given it's my capital, I'm fairly certain I would have seen any units that did come across with planar travel (and it seems unlikely that nothing would have planar travel now if they did indeed have it earlier).

[Seravy]

No idea. Are you sure they haven't already seen your capital? If yes I can check your save and look if it is marked already scouted or not.

Meanwhile, finished a Normal difficulty game. It was surprisingly easy - I'm pretty sure that last time when a doomstack was coming was due to the bug - if a wizard's units leave the capital that can certainly allow them to have it much earlier than expected. This game I haven't met any doomstack and won in 1412 through being strong enough. I didn't even need to fight one of the wizards. Used 3 of each books except Nature (sprite are too good for testing normal) and Life, and picked Runemaster to waste the last 2 picks.
I'll do this one or two more times to be sure then move up to Advanced.

[Nelphine]

I'm sure I've never seen him on my plane. In fact I've never seen any AI within 5 squares of my capital. I'd also be surprised if rjak has seen my myrran dark elf city but he likes to famine it. I'm gine for the weekend though, so I can't get my save file till Sunday.

[Seravy]

Completed the second Normal game. This was somewhat harder - I was playing Orcs but the main difference was no early nodes.
However one wizard still only had a single hell hound and the starting units in their capital on turn ~15 when I managed to attack it using 6 common units. It seems casting Focus Magic needs to be disabled for the AI for the first 10 turns - not only is it an expensive spell, but also fails to target anything if the AI hasn't yet summoned or produced something with a ranged/thrown/breath attack.

It also seems the AI isn't allowed to target Nagas with the spell because it's not listed as a preferred target and doesn't qualify as a normal one (not ranged). Poison should be added as an exception to be a valid target.

[Nelphine]

Just as a note, halfling spearnen and halfling swordsmen, are actually not terrible targets for focus magic. They aren't so good that I think you need to include them, but I'm surprised the AI even has the restriction to not ever target something that won't be enhanced. Also, unless playing against guardian wind or maybe warp wood, I think its a complete waste to cast it on units that already have normal ranged attacks. I'd much rather cast it on swordsmen than slingers or rangers, and casting it on early nomad units is wasted.

[Seravy]

Magical raged attacks don't have a range penalty so they are quite a bit better than bow attacks.
The restriction is there because if a unit does have a ranged attack, it'll use it even if it had high melee which actually makes it weaker in combat. Unfortunately, berserkers still qualify because they have ranged (thrown) so this isn't working very well.
Do note this is targeting only. The spell has already been paid for so if no target is found, it's cancelled and that is more wasteful than putting it on a unit where it is a very small improvement only.

[Nelphine]

Right, and the difference between ranged and magical ranged (for me) isn't high enough to be worth the cost, especially on units that are slow, or have strong melee as well. But fair point about targeting only. I'd have preferred the restriction only apply to things with at least speed 3 and no ranged (or breath/thrown), because slow units tend to be early game, and getting the extra attacks could actually be more significant than changing a longbowman to a magical ranged attack.
And yeah, I figured thats why the restriction was there, which is why I brought up halfling units. Their melee sucks anyway, and with 8 figures, even a weak ranged attack can be reasonable.

[Seravy]

Last Normal difficulty game was finished, same books, but High Men. No early nodes again, and still won fairly easily.
Next will be on advanced. I'll need 100% wins using an average wizard. Unfortunately, these games will probably be twice as long at least.

[Seravy]

for the first test, I'll play this one :
6 Chaos, 6 Sorcery, Klackons

[Soviet elf]

I totally agree with Nelphine on Focus Magic. I would rather cast FM on halfling swordsmen (8 figures, +1 to hit, weak melee) than on longbowmen or nomads.
Also +1 to hit from magical weapons (and +1 from holy weapon too) applies to bows and rocks, but not magical ranged (right?), so FM can be weaker at short range. And on long range units (longbows, catapults, warships) with MW FM makes them overall worse, it's much better to cast HW on them.