Hilariously bad strategy video from 1995

[Tiltowait]

This is from a CD-ROM games magazine that came out in 1995. The reviewer bashes Alchemy as worthless, endorses Divine Power, and says that Mana Focusing is an important pick. Node Mastery is the best pick in the game! I guess someone got a bit frustrated getting spells counterspelled in nodes. Note the title screen at the beginning: v1.1!

The ultimate wizard, according to this guide?
Warlord
Channeler
Famous
Charismatic
Node Mastery
1x Life
1x Chaos
1x Nature
1x Sorcery
Halflings

Well, you can't go wrong with Halflings + Warlord, so it's not all bad. This wizard won't be casting many spells, though.

At 8:40 the reviewer recommends Halfling Shamans and trashes Slingers as "undergunned for their cost and lack staying power." 10:40 the best unit in the game? Elven Longbowmen.

[Anthony]

Who knows what their stats were in v1.1. It's possible (if unlikely) that his advice was actually good.

[Tiltowait]

Eh, it wasn't that different from 1.2. A few spells changed, bugs fixed, and computer opponents greatly improved.

[Asfex]

at least, famous gives 15 fame, with "just couse" it gets 25 fame - to make double chances to hire mercenaries and hero just from start. (+charismatic)
combat range penalty was from .5 (in fortress and chaneller) to 5. So, chaneller greatly decreases the cost of combat spells,(and cost 1 piks?) (now, channeller gets 1., and for others penalty is 3. x max)
Frotress generates 5 just mana from the start (10 for mirror), starting casting skills always 20. good mana income from the start.
Plenty of gold , and no race penalty for unrest. seems buy any building for 2x penalty constantly, no x4 if you just start build.
There is a way to spend gold, and spending mana is not very high - so mana focusing is a profit, unless alchemy.
Death school is very bugged, change terrain crush the game....

[Tlaloc]

Lol, yes a lot of those picks aren't so good, but in fairness they didn't have decades of playtesting behind them either as many of us do.

So, chaneller greatly decreases the cost of combat spells,(and cost 1 piks?)

Channeler currently costs 2 picks.

[Scholastic]

In fact, once on Myrror those 6+ Sky Drakes nodes and lairs were wrecking all my paladins, heroes and armies. Then I had a high elf adamantium city, and decided to throw some longbowman with adamantium on the drakes...

To my surprise, the 8 longbowman stack (some space for summon buffers/drake feed) finished some 3-4 Sky Drakes lair and, with endurance to move and shoot, wiped clean the floor with drake hide. Got 2 heroes with +6 bows attached to the stack and finished Myrran nodes (plenty of spellbooks/picks).

If I recall correctly, before 1.31 bowmen could shoot twice per turn, like the 2 attacks of other units... Longbowman might be really that strong back then.

[Amadeuszx]

If I recall correctly, before 1.31 bowmen could shoot twice per turn, like the 2 attacks of other units...

Yes, they shot 2 times per tur :-)
MoM 1.1 and 1.40n are difrent games, and strategy in 1995 are difrent...

[Rakir]

The video is not that bad. It has some good insights.

Node mastery and longbowmen are strong picks and mana focusing is okay.

Things it got wrong:
Claims divine and infernal power are particulary worthwhile.
Claims alchemy is a waste.
Claims barbarians are only good for their growth and berserkers suck.
Says javelineers can move 2 (only dragon turtles move 2).
Suggests building troll shamans (expensive and trolls regen anyways).
Claims beastmen units don't have hitting or staying power (they have +1 attack and hitpoints).
Claims minotaurs are weak (they have +2 to hit).
Suggests building shamans instead of slingers for halflings.
Claims slingers have low attack and defense (8 figures and lucky...).
Claims dark elfs and halfings get along.
Makes no mention of hammerhands for dwarves.
Claims air elemental is the most troublesome enemy (great wyrm, sky drake).
Suggests perhaps going for sawmill->forest guild after granary instead of going for farmer market.
Says miner guild double minerals (it gives 50% more).

[I like Serena]

Suggests building troll shamans (expensive and trolls regen anyways).

I usually bring along a shaman with a fighting stack for healing.
However, opponents tend to kill my shamans, since they are so vulnerable.
Now when they regenerate...

Suggests building shamans instead of slingers for halflings.

I guess it should suggest to build 1 shaman for 8 slingers.

Claims air elemental is the most troublesome enemy (great wyrm, sky drake).

Air elementals are the most troublesome.
So you've finally built up a stack of longbowmen or slingers and invade a sorcery node.
It should be easy because it only has phantom beasts or below...

Of course this is only important if you play an iron-man type of game (no reloading).
But either way, when it happens I know I have lost the game, whether I keep playing or not.

Great wyrms and sky drakes are not so troublesome.
You will typically simply leave them alone until after the game has been decided.
It's not as if they walk out of their nodes.

Another troublesome enemy is the Demon.
If he shows up unexpectedly, he will decimate your non-magic units - and they can't even hit him!
If he shows up in your capital, even reloading won't help.

Night stalkers can also be unexpected, but at least those won't cause too heavy losses.

[Torin]

Posted this earlier in a wrong thread.

Sorry for necro this but its not easy to find a forum to discuss strategy of this game. Ive played from back then and ive played in the original patch.
In the original patch the game always crashed on my computer when wraiths attack so i had to kill them with ranged units. It also crashed at other instances. And yes, some picks costed less and some picks were different. Runemaster made your spells harder to dispel instead of stenghting your own dispel spells.

So the point I want to make to the OP. Ive used almost a similar wizard as the video and I know why they called the ultimate mage. Its not weak at all. I use right now

Agressive Build

Alchemy
Warlord
Famous
Charismatic
Node mastery
1Life (or 1 death wich is more difficult) 1Chaos 1Nature 1Sorcery

Lizardmen/Klackon

I use this build and no summon hero/champion because they are cheesy also no wraiths.
Its very fast and you need no extra buildings. Simply swordmen can conquer any indy city. Lizards get more HP. Klackon more defense. A lizard javelineer is very strong as are the turtle and beetle. Alchemy gives magic weapons to the primitive races. I try to make a strng stack fast to get extra books from ruins. Charismatic and the varied books makes me more able to get a lot of spells from the other wizards.

This other build I call Amigo wich is similar but weaker

Charismatic
Node mastery

3 life 2 sorc 2 fire 2 nature

Barbarian

This build is very challenging because its weak but getting 2 books gives you more trading choices. After I recently read prima strategy guide, a pdf of an old guide that explains at detail EVERITHNG i learned that life magic gives a bonus to relations similar to charismatic and death a minus.

barbarian are the race thats gets the least unrest in you other races cities.

The goal of this build is to archieve the ultimate wizard. That is having "ALL" the spells. First trade to all of the other wizard spells. (you need to have 3 spellbooks in a magic to get the good ones) Maybe 4 books to the really rare such as move fortress, time stop, etc. Im leaning towards that you need only 3 books so youll need 1 extra of each element. Also this applies when banishing a wizard, the spells you can get use the same limits. You will only get arcane spells from an all death rjak. And no rares if you only share 1 book.

You really dont need to give spells at all you just do spell brokering. And after that get the rest of the books to get the spells you have missing. Save and reload if needed to get acually books insted of other stuff. Life and death books are found in ruins. You will be missing death spells ofcourse.
Imagine having:
Healing-Call ligthning-Flame strike-Invisibility-Magic immunity-Invulnability-Wind Walking-Spell Lock-Earth Gate-Flight
Torin-Warrax-Malleus-Markus-Alorra-Roland Maybe Yramarag or elana replacing someone. The rest of the stack made of Sky drakes. Of course its an overkill but the goal is getting the ultimate stack of units.

Troll shamans would be the healers of your killer stack. Its the only reliable healer because you don even need to enchant them for protection. They suck up all ranged attacks till they die, and they dont really die.

Prima strategy guide:
http://www.oldgames.sk/en/game/master-of-magic/docs/

Some Cheesy builds

All death, summon wraiths
(from several guys in youtube)

Runemaster-Artificer 5 sorc 2 life 2 nature
(from this guy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtQBxdAo6JM

Channeler-Conjurer-Nature mastery-Node Mastery
4Nature 1sorc 1fire
(my cheesy build, summon sprites, then profit)