This is first version and i will probably improve on it with customization and speed in mind.
You go into your planets screen and hit ctrl+alt+a and it should spread out the planetary reserver to ultrarich and artifacts planets.
it does not account for the reserve is going down for each transfer. it just transfer a little less than 50% each transfer.
There will now be two games of four players each. The below will serve as a guideline but each game can hash out it's own ruleset.
4 Players
Base BTS
Snake Pick (Perhaps utilising the points system for picking as used in other recent games. Mapmaker/lurkers to confirm how many points per trait/civ to ensure balance)
Starting screenshots posted in thread before picking
Events OFF
Huts OFF
Vassals OFF
Barbarians OFF
Tech Trading/Brokering OFF
QUICK Speed
Difficulty: Mapmaker/lurker discretion. However, please do not make it too costly. Monarch maybe.
AI Diplomacy ONLY
Map: Either crafted or heavily edited. Feel free to get creative. But, please get lurkers to vet it heavily. I don't like the idea of any player being severely handicapped from the start. I also milldly favour a FLAT map.
Ancient Start
Who would be interested in playing? Both Gingereagle and Sian have declared a potential interest so I would reserve them a spot until I hear otherwise. I have allowed up to 6 players, but 6 would only be possible if all players are very good at playing their turns promptly and/or the timezones/times we can play align very nicely.
Perhaps, more importantly, is there any potential map maker who thinks they could put something together? There is not a significant hurry.
Spells marked Green are spells I'm 100% satisfied with. They won't be changed unless there is a very good reason to.
Spells marked Red are what I'm not satisfied with, and think requires some sort of a significant change.
Spells marked Blue are good the way they are, but might need numerical tweaking (on costs, or effect strength)
Spells marked neither are spells I don't have enough experience using and fighting against to judge.
Concept
Cheap, massive hordes of death and undead creatures, backed with powerful combat curses and direct damage for powerful early and midgame. Major advantage in magic power for superior late game, in case the previous tactic was not enough to win, mostly achieved by cutting down enemy power bases.
Strengths :
-Undead units are very cheap, might even call them "free", they often appear as an "extra" side effect of an otherwise offensive spell. They do not require overland casting skill to make, only realm that can gain forces through combat.
-Realm with most spells that boost casting skill
-Only realm that can reduce enemy power base/mana directly, without utilizing wanton destruction.
-Second best in combat direct damage after Chaos, although "damage" is achieved through resistance based spells usually.
-Summoned units are cheap and durable
Weaknesses :
-Hard to deal with high resistance enemies, although not impossible
-Lacks ways to buff own economy aside from magic.
-Undead cannot heal, although costs make them disposable. (Death units can naturally heal, though, but are still unaffected by healing spells in the Life realm!)
-Lacks ways to protect own units from harm as much as Chaos
-Enemy Death and undead creatures immune to almost everything the realm has.
Common Spells
1. Skeletons
Cost : 25
Research : Half
Maintenance : 0
Effect : Summons 6 figures : Melee 3, +1 To Hit, Defense 4, Resistance 3, Moves 2, 1 health, Missile Immunity, Illusion, Death, Poison, Cold Immunity. Cheap, about as strong as a swordmen but better immunities. Not strong on its own, but no maintenance and the ability to get buffed in large groups by Darkness makes it a pretty good common unit.
2. Life Drain
Cost : 10
Research : Normal
Effect : Target unit must resist at -4 or lose 1 health per miss on the roll as undead creating damage. Caster gains mana into the skill pool equal to 5* the damage done if wizard, 1x the health if unit.
3. Darkness
Cost : 25
Research : Double
Effect : All Death units gain +1 melee and ranged attack, defense and resistance, all Life units lose the same amount. Primarily useful for the buffing effect, as Life units are rarely used in larger numbers. Kept reduction of Life unit stats to balance out Life's ability to destroy undead, albeit this is far less effective, it's nice for flavor. Buffs not very high but tend to affect a large amount of units due to cheap Death unit costs.
4. Ghouls
Cost : 80
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 1
Effect : Summons 4 figures : Melee 4, Ranged 3 (4 ammo) +1 To Hit, Defense 3, Resistance 6, Moves 2, 3 health, Illusion, Death, Poison, Cold Immunity, Create Undead. As a ranged unit, this is a pretty decent, reusable source of undead armies. Weak for the cost on its own, but the armies it convert more than make up for that!
5. Wraith Form
Cost : 15/75
Research : Double
Maintenance : 2
Effect : Enchanted unit gains Non-corporeal, Weapon Immunity, can ignore Weapon Immunity on enemies, and has Poison Immunity. Plenty of useful, but situational effects all in one, for an ultra-versatile early game spell. A little bit on the "too good" side for a common, but that's acceptable for the realm. Stays useful for the entire game.
6. Black Sleep
Cost : 15
Research : Normal
Effect : If target units fails to resist at -2, it will fall asleep, being unable to move and losing all defense, taking full damage from all attacks.
Not much to say, this is effectively a common resist-or-die spell. Almost twice as expensive as Shatter but can affect any unit including fantastic, and eliminates ability to defend as well as offense.
7. Cloak of Fear
Cost : 12/60
Maintenance : 1
Research : Normal
Effect : Units must resist at -3 otherwise they cannot attack or retaliate against the enchanted unit. Quite effective at this resistance penalty, can make a unit immune to an entire enemy army if their resistance is low, however, offers no protection from ranged attacks at all.
8. Summon Zombies
Cost : 20
Research : Normal
Effect : Summons a unit of zombies during combat (they have create undead) A slightly overpowered combat summon that has enough health to be worth as much as 3 swordsmen or almost a halberdier on top of turning those units into undead. One of those spells where Death gets the early advantage. Zombies tend to remain useful throughout most of the game.
9. Mana Leak
Cost : 20
Research : Double
Effect : Enemy casters are drained of 5 MP per turn. An unusual approach to victory : eliminating enemy mana reserves, causing them to be unable to cast spells in combat, AND fail to summon or use spells overland to a certain extent. The ability to drain magical shots from enemy units can also turn around a battle on its own. Situational, but when it works, it's excellent. Would even work as an uncommon.
10. Weakness
Cost : 7
Research : Half
Effect : If the target unit fails to resist at -7, it loses 3 melee, and missile attack. Considering the attack rating of basic units, this can counter a unit of swordmen or equivalent for mere 7 mana at usually 100% success rate. A reduction of 3 attack can remain relevant through the entire game on multi-figure units.
Uncommon Spells
Black Channels : Removed from the game. Small buff for the unit permanently losing the ability to heal and becoming vulnerable to Life spells. Hurts more than helps.
Subversion : Removed from the game. Was useless prior to diplomacy fix when it was removed, would be overpowered if it existed now.
Berserk : Removed from the game.
1. Syphon Life
Cost : 30
Research : Normal
Effect : Same as Life Drain but modifier is -10, so 6 more damage is dealt. More effective on higher resistance enemies, or if the damage needs to be dealt quickly. If the goal is to gain casting skill (or health) for mana by targeting otherwise unimportant, weak enemies, Life Drain is the better choice.
2. Possession
Cost : 30
Research : Normal
Effect : Gain control of target normal unit if it fails to resist at -3. Recent changes to Confusion makes this feel more balanced compared to it. Very powerful but fine as is.
3. Drain Power
Cost : 100
Research : Normal
Effect : Target enemy loses 120 mana crystals and an additional 5% of their reserves. Add an equal amount of power into your skill pool. Guaranteed to be more effective at improving casting skill than just spending points on it, but requires overland skill you aren't using on other spells and enemies with abundant mana reserves. Also useful to ensure an enemy wizard cannot cast spells during combat by casting it when their remaining mana is below 120.
4. Lycanthropy
Cost : 125
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 2
Effect : Turns target unit into werewolves permanently. 6 Figures, 6 melee, +1 to hit, 1 defense, 6 resistance, 3 movement, 6 health, Regeneration, Weapon Immunity, and the usual immunities of Death units. Reasonably cheap, regenerating hordes with massive health, but poor defenses and not so massive attack power unless sporting adamantium weapons and buffs. Brutally effective in the early game, and decent for midgame if buffed. When combined with Berserk and/or adamantium, it can do well even in late game against stacks of normal units. Weak against spells that prevent regeneration, but cheap and easy to replace anywhere on the overland map.
5. Wall of Darkness
Cost : 30/150
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 1
Effect : Units can't fire missile attacks into the city from outside, unless immune to illusions. A very useful city defense spell that can turn dangerous armies of ranged units into worthless spearmen.
6. Black Prayer
Cost : 35
Research : 50% higher
Effect : All enemy units get -1 melee, defense, and -2 resistance. Stat penalty is low compared to the buffs other realms offer, but resistance penalty increases success rate of all other spells by 20%. Not sure about it, it's a good spell but I kinda dislike the "always cast this before using anything resistance based" effect. Makes other spells either too powerful if this is in effect, or too weak if not. Could be better as -1 resistance but -2 attack? Resistance penalty of all other Death spells would need to be revised, though (on whether to boost it by an additional -1 to compensate, or not, in a case by case basis). Might be best to not change it, "do not fix if it's not broken", also opens up nice combinations between realms, like Gorgons+this.
7. Reaper Slash
Cost : 32
Research : Normal
Effect : Hits the target unit with a strength 45 magical attack that is blocked by Poison Immunity. The Death realm had zero spells that were not resistance based, making it extremely vulnerable to opponents playing high resistance races. Additionally there were no sources of Poison damage besides the melee ability in the game, despite it even having a specific immunity. This spell should help both problems. By far the best damage/cost spell (aside from the common fire bolt which is seriously hindered by armor), offering 13.5 damage for 32 mana, this costs only 2.3 mana per damage compared to Doom Bolt's 4.5, however, this cannot bypass armor and is ineffective against Poison immune units.
8. Night Stalker
Cost : 250
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 1
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 7, +1 To Hit, Defense 4, Resistance 8, Moves 3, 18 health, Death Gaze -3, Invisibility, Weapon Immunity, and the usual immunities of Death units. Pretty much the same thing as Chaos Spawn except quite a lot weaker gaze, cheaper to summon, but invisible and immune to weapons. situational, but where it works, it's very powerful. Albeit the summoning is not cheap for a Death unit with no actual combat power effectiveness aside from resist-or-die, unlike other summons, this works well even if you only have one because it remains hidden.
9. Shadow Demons
Cost : 225
Research : 50% higher
Maintenance : 4
Effect : Summoning 4 figures : Melee 5, Ranged 5 (8 ammo), +2 To Hit, Defense 4, Resistance 7, Moves 2, 5 health, Flying, Regeneration, Plane Shifting, Non-Corporeal, Weapon Immunity. An extremely versatile regenerating unit, the ranged version of werewolves.
10. Blood Lust (new)
Cost : 50
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 0
Effect : Enchanted unit has double melee attack strength against normal units and is undead. A quite powerful spell, especially on regenerating units.
Rare Spells
Cursed Lands : Removed form the game. Very useless due to the presence of the AI production bonus, and because production is not very relevant in the endgame to begin with, when dozens of cities can produce troops already.
Black Wind: Removed form the game.
1. Wraiths
Cost : 500
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 5
Effect : Summons 4 figures : Melee 7, +2 To Hit, Defense 6, Resistance 8, Moves 3, 8 health, Weapon Immunity, Illusion, Death, cold, Poison Immunity, Non-Corporeal, Life Steal -3 Somewhat of a hit-or-miss unit, against armies with low enough resistance, Life Steal makes sure the Wraiths will never run out of health, otherwise they are rather poor though. The -3 modifier is high enough that most armies fall into the former category. When it does work, it's almost unstoppable.
2. Evil Presence
Cost : 100
Research : Half
Maintenance : 3
Effect : Enchanted city produces no power from religious buildings. The religious buildings and oracle produces no unrest reduction and unrest is increased by 3. Part of the power base denying spell set.
3. Terror
Cost : 40
Research : Normal
Effect : All enemy units in combat get -1 To Hit, and have to resist at -3 each turn or they skip their turn (but can still counterattack) Changed to -3 penalty which should still be high enough to be awesome.
4. Cloud of Shadow
Cost : 200
Research : Half
Maintenance : 4
Effect : When defending the city, you have Darkness, Black Prayer, Mana Leak and Terror cast on your side. Raised costs. Old comment :
(Didn't think I will ever say this for a city defense spell but this might actually be a bit overpowered because it includes the Terror+Black Prayer combo. Changing Terror can help this. Removing Mana Leak from the mix might also be a good idea, the enemy losing a bunch of power on top of being unable to move and attack is a too good if you do not even need to cast it yourself.)
5. Wrack
Cost : 40
Research : Normal
Effect : Enemy units must resist at +0 for each figure or take 1 damage for each failure. Albeit combat is faster paced, if you do manage to make it long, this will have a devastating effect on most enemies, as resistance is generally not as high as in the original. Paired with Black Prayer, up to 11 resistance enemy units can get damaged.
6. Warp Node
Cost : 100
Research : Half
Maintenance : -
Effect : Target node drains 15 power instead of generating any. Quite overpowered as is, but necessary for the power base disabling tactic. Cost should probably be at least 100-125.
7. Wave of Despair
Cost : 55
Research : Normal
Effect : All enemy units not immune to cold or magic are hit by a (240/(2+number of targets) strength attack that is reduced as though the unit's resistance was its defense. Bless and Resist Magic are ignored. Deals irrecoverable damage.
8. Zombie Mastery
Cost : 800 (+40% for AI)
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 25
Effect : Any dead normal units are raised as zombies at end of combat on your side (including your own dead units) Due to the current power of zombies, the maintenance of 25 now feels cheap for this outstanding effect. You can easily gain dozens of new zombies each turn, as long as you keep producing troops and send them into winning battles. On the other hand, even more awesome spells have similar or less maintenance.
9. Famine
Cost : 150
Research : Half
Maintenance : 2
Effect : Cuts food production of the cursed city to 1/3 and raises unrest by 25%. A decent city curse, which through the two effects combined, can put a town into a position where it starts shrinking, on top of having much fewer workers to produce things, and less food to maintain armies.
10. Dark Ritual
Cost : 150
Research : Normal
Maintenance : -
Effect : Religious buildings in the enchanted city produce double power. Unrest is raised by 1. Doubling power for (almost) free is ALWAYS an extremely beneficial effect, there is a reason why the card of the same name got banned in Magic the Gathering. An outstanding late game spell that further deepens the gap in power between you and your enemies. As it "only" doubles what generally makes up of roughly one third to half of a player's power base, it's not overpowered for a rare spell, but outstanding nonetheless.
Very Rare Spells
1. Massacre (Death Spell)
Cost : 60
Research : Normal
Effect : All enemy figures must resist at -2 or die. Might be too cheap for 50 mana, as it can potentially kill half the enemy army in even average situations, more if Black Prayer was cast. It's like Flame Strike but more powerful and disregards enemy unit defense and health. This cost makes it far too easy to spam. On the other hand, penalty is only 1 better than Wrack, which takes effect every turn even though you need to pay for it once.
2. Final Wave (Death Wish)
Cost : 1000 (+40% for AI)
Research : normal
Effect : All enemy normal units must resist at +0 or die on the overland map. Note : for some reason I thought this has a -2 modifier, but it does not. Given the number of units affected, I'm not sure if raising the penalty to -1 or -2 would be reasonable. None of the help or CoM's docs contain any references to raising the penalty so I probably wasn't planning to do it and just remembered wrong afterwards. However, as it is now, Black Wind is superior, and costs less, although it only hits one stack, you don't need more to advance and take a city. I wrote the next part assuming it was -2 :
Considering the current amount of resistance on average units, this might be a rather valueable spell now, even capable of killing heroes who neglected wearing resistance equipment. Also helps prevent the "too many units, production failed" situation which can easily arise during longer periods of peace. Chances are you could kill the affected normal units anyway during combat, but mass-killing them will both force other players to rebuild troops, slowing down city development, and the military shift towards you can help a lot in diplomacy.
3. Animate Dead
Cost : 50
Research : Normal
Effect : Revives a dead nonhero unit in combat, and buffs it +1 to hit, attack, defense and weapon immunity. If unit was own, it remains after end of combat, too. A great spell that can revive pretty much anything powerful, helping immensely in combat. It even gets buffed, ensuring that if the enemy army has multiples, yours will be victorious over at least one more copy of the unit, allowing you to animate that as well, continuing the chain. Changed to affect Death units as well, unless they are already undead, so your Death fantastic creatures can now be saved (and buffed) by it!
4. Annihilate (Word of Death)
Cost : 41
Research : Normal
Effect : All figures in target unit must resist at -7 or be disintegrated, this spell ignores Death Immunity. If the unit is fantastic, resist at -5 instead. Also lacking naming sense, and "Death" would not go well with "ignores death immunity". Annihilate sounds better?
Otherwise it's a great spell, and by far the best of its kind in the game (although Disintegrate is a close second for being guaranteed if the resistance criteria is met). Costs 41 to ensure Caster 40 death units (currently Demons) cannot use it.
Made it better against heroes and normal units since it was slightly lacking for the best such spell in the game.
5. Eternal Night
Cost : 800 (+40% for AI)
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 15
Effect : All combats have Darkness in effect. All enemy nondeath units lose 1 resistance (including overland!). All enemy cities produce half as much power from Religious buildings. Rather minor effects on their own, but all together in one package shifts the game's favor towards the caster significantly.
6. Evil Omens
Cost : 1250 (+40% for AI)
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 25
Effect : All enemy spells cost 50% more to cast. All enemies will use fewer spells against you, both overland and in combat. Not much else to say about this, it's a great effect.
7. Pestilence
Cost : 250
Research : Half
Maintenance : 5
Effect : Enchanted city loses 1 population per turn if over 10 pop, otherwise 10% chance to lose one per existing pop. Unrest increases by 2 in the city. Best city destruction spell in the game, due to lost population but unaffected buildings, the affected wizard will be unable to pay the maintenance of their armies, and will lose all their normal units eventually, but reasonably quickly. Wins the game on its own, even without adding other curses.
]8. Summon Demon (new)
Cost : 41/205
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 3
Effect : Summons a Demon. Only summoning spell available both in combat and overland. Demons are 1 figure : Melee 14, +1 To Hit, Defense 5, Resistance 7, Moves 2, 12 health, Weapon Immunity, Missile Immunity, Illusion, Death, Cold, Poison Immunity, Flying, and either Caster 40 (always if summoned overland) or Life Steal -4, Death Touch -4 (randomly if summoned in combat).
Haven't had much chance to use this, so I don't know how good it actually is. Offers a high caster ability for the cost so it's definitely worth it for that purpose (if summoned in combat, it's effectively free), and the "death" version can be good against anything lacking 14+ resistance. The idea behind this spell was to offer an unusually cheap creature for the abilities included (flight, missile and weapon immunity, as well as death/caster).
Also, casting Focus Magic on an overland summoned demon can open up Animate Dead, Word of Death and Death Spell for use to wizards who did not get those spells, making it a pretty awesome combination.
Note : Costs below 41 are not possible because that would allow the Demon to summon itself.
9. Death Knights
Cost : 420
Research : Normal
Maintenance : 8
Effect : Summoning 4 figures : Melee 12, +3 To Hit, Defense 8, Resistance 10, Moves 4, 8 health, Weapon Immunity, Illusion, Death, cold, Poison Immunity, Life Steal -4, Armor Piercing, First Strike A significantly improved Wraiths unit that strikes first to deliver life stealing prior to the enemy attacking back. Cost might be too high though? Although more situational than other very rare units, it is extremely powerful, so hard to judge. Even if Life Stealing does not work well due to high enemy resistance, this has enough armor to fight most enemy normal units and even some fantastic creatures. 10 resistance means it's slightly vulnerable to spells that destroy summoned units, though.
10. Demon Lord
Cost : 1500
Research : 50% higher.
Maintenance : None, reduces maintenance of army total by 10 instead.
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 25, Ranged 20 (8 ammo), +3 To Hit, Defense 10, Resistance 14, Moves 4, 35 health, Weapon Immunity, Missile Immunity, Fire, Stoning, Illusion, Death, Cold, Poison Immunity, Life Steal -5, Summon Demons x3, Doom Bolt Spell, Cloak of Fear, Quick Casting Although not the strongest unit as far as raw power goes, despite being the most expensive, Demon Lords offer an incredible array of abilities and are armies on their own, not only capable of summoning demons, but those demons being capable of summoning their own zombie followers! They are very hard to damage, and regain the lost health easily though Life Stealing, so only other Very Rare creatures or highly powerful heroes can hope to defeat it.
Death
Cost : 400
Books required : 3 The best "resist or die" weapon ability, this has a penalty of -3. Still only affects a single figure which means a higher cost would be unreasonable. Wraith Form
Cost : 400
Books required : 2 Same as the common spell. Useful due to unremovable protection from Crack's Call, something all heroes need.
Cloak of Fear
Cost : 200
Books required : 1
Now with "resist at -3" like the normal spell and unit ability, this is finally worth enchanting into an item. Cheap because it generally only helps against units you typically fight in the early game only.
Shadow (new)
Cost : 500
Books required : 3 Weapon only, Hero gains half of his/her base melee attack in form of a thrown attack, which replaces existing thrown attacks on the hero if any existed. Flavor text is "damages enemies through cutting their shadow", something often seen in supernatural stuff, and is an appropriate explanation on how it can damage flying units from below. No effect if hero already has a non-thrown ranged attack in the ranged attack slot. (breath, or actual ranged, heroes don't have gaze)
Spells marked Green are spells I'm 100% satisfied with. They won't be changed unless there is a very good reason to.
Spells marked Red are what I'm not satisfied with, and think requires some sort of a significant change.
Spells marked Blue are good the way they are, but might need numerical tweaking (on costs, or effect strength)
Spells marked neither are spells I don't have enough experience using and fighting against to judge.
Concept
The realm of Sorcery is mainly about manipulating magic itself, preventing enemy spells from taking effect, banishing enemy fantastic creatures, and such. Spells are generally tactical or defensive, and related to the elements of Air and Water.
Strengths :
-Countering and dispelling enemy spells
-Powerful options for combat spellcasting
-Only realm with a spell to help in diplomacy, and one of the two realms that can directly increase Casting Skill by spells.
Weaknesses :
-No spells that boost or weaken economy in any way
-Second worst realm at summoning and direct damage
-Buffs do not directly increase stats on units, but provide more tactical benefits.
Common Spells
Word of Recall : removed from the game. Overpowered, by far the most overpowered spell in the entire game. With this you can have your unbeatable stack of 9 units appear wherever needed, whenever needed, making all other armies, both defensive or offensive, unnecessary. This spell beats having a long term strategy 100% of the time.
Dispel Magic True : removed from the game. Redundant effect.
1. AEther Sparks
Cost : 12
Research : 100
Effect : Does a strength 20 magical attack to target unit. That unit loses half its remaining mana and ammo if having a magical ranged attack. A direct damage spell that is weaker than average and is not illusion (all common Sorcery spells did Illusion damage!), but comes with a useful side effect, to open up more choices in early game combat.
2. Confusion
Cost : 18
Research : 100
Effect : Save at -2 or become confused. Confused units have a 25% chance per turn to : a. Do nothing, b. move randomly, c. be unaffected, d. be controlled by the enemy for the turn. Confused units, like Possessed or Binded units, always die at end of combat, unless the spell is dispelled, and cannot regenerate. Changed to enforce the death of the unit like other "gain control" effects. Since the unit is effectively dangerous to its allies, attacking them randomly, the winner's army can't afford to keep them alive. Already had this effect when "retreating exhausted", but not when winning, which was inconsistent. Having some doubts about this solution, but without this, Confusion might be a bit too weak now that bugs are fixed. I would definitely like to hear opinions on this one, it's a major change to an already useful spell, which might end up being overpowered.
3. Focus Magic (new)
Cost : 80
Maintenance : 2
Research : 100
Effect : Enchanted unit has +15 Caster ability, and +3 magical ranged attack. If no magical ranged attack, add one. If nonmagical ranged attack, convert to magical but do not add +3. The game had no way to buff magical ranged attacks (which feels very Sorcery-like), no way to buff "caster" ability, and no way to grant a ranged attack to a unit not having one. This spell does all 3, opening up some interesting new combinations.
4. Resist Magic
Cost : 5/25
Maintenance : 0
Research : 100
Effect : Enchanted unit has +5 resistance against everything except poison. Can be very helpful against an enemy that relies on resistance based spells, but the unit can still get hurt by anything else, so a low cost and rarity is fair for this situational and incomplete protection. +5 resistance, while a lot, does not always provide immunity, either.
5. Guardian Wind
Cost : 10/50
Maintenance : 0
Research : 100
Effect : Enchanted unit gains Missile Immunity. Most late game units have rock or magical ranged attacks which are unaffected, making it a fair common spell. Missile units are still able to attack your other troops unless you buff them all.
6. Nagas
Cost : 70
Maintenance : 2
Research : 80
Effect :Summoning 3 figures : Melee 5, +1 To Hit, Defense 4, Resistance 7, Moves 3, 5 health, First Strike, Poison 4, Swimming. Extremely devastating against early game low resistance race normal units, but very easy to counter by anything that has poison immunity or high resistance. Pretty high cost and inefficient if poison cannot be taken advantage of. Decent for early access to other continents.
7. Phantom Warriors
Cost : 15
Research : 100
Effect :Summoning a unit of Phantom Warriors in combat (original stats, but 7 figures) Does illusion damage but you have to get close to the enemy and attack them, which is enough of a limitation to warrant being more cost-effective than Psionic Blast. Now that the "units not affected by buffs the turn they are summoned" bug is fixed, these might be quite a good choice in battles where many such effects are present (Sorcery node, Prayer, Metal Fires, etc)
8. Psionic Blast
Cost : 20
Research : 200
Effect : Does a strength 16 Illusion attack to the target. A strength 16 attack translates to about 4.8 damage on average, making this about half of a doom bolt, but without the reliability of fixed damage. Phantom Warriors deal more damage if the enemy is in range (7x3=21 strength attack), even though they also costs 9 mana less but you usually can't do that when attacking. However, compared to Doom Bolt's damage to cost ratio for def ignoring damage, this can't get any better.
9. Blur
Cost : 25
Research : 200
Effect : Friendly units in combat have a 25% chance to not take damage for each point of damage dealt to them. Not as good as Prayer, but is not trying to be either, and comes at a lower cost. Still almost as good as a -1 hit on all enemies.
10. Floating Island
Cost : 50
Maintenance : 1
Research : 50
Effect :Summons a Floating Island Same as always, but now offers an actual "floating" area during combat on which the units stand. Ships cannot enter this area. (although walking and swimming units can.) Quite powerful against lower class ships, as they cannot fight back when attacked through range. Higher class ships have ranged attacks of their own to retaliate. Overall this boost in power is probably not going to be a threat to balance, as it only affects naval combat, which, although now more important, is rarely the decisive factor in victory since controlling the ocean provides no actual resources, merely transportation.
Uncommon Spells
Wind Mastery : removed from the game. Uninteresting global enchantment with a pointless and underwhelming effect. Seas can be crossed by many ways that do not use ships.
1. Aura of Majesty
Cost : 200
Maintenance : 5
Research : 400
Effect : Diplomatic relations with everyone gain +2 per turn, every turn (and +4 the turn it is cast) Might be too good at +2, although not being at war does not win you the game, the enemy will get stronger the more you wait. The problem I believe is, while the spell doesn't matter much below -40 relation (guaranteed war) or above +20 (AI will offer you a wizard pact), the gap in between these (especially considering most relations start near 0) can be closed by the spell in mere 5-10 turns. After that point it accelerates the Wizard's Pact into an Alliance at a crazy rate, and then you can force the AI to declare war on anyone you wish (unless they are also allied with that wizard.), the entire process taking only about 20-30 turns, which means it's fast enough to do so to the first wizard you meet even before you have contact with anyone else (especially if you are carefully not exploring too much), so you pretty much start by already having an ally.
On the other hand about 50% of the wizards are pretty much immune : Militarist and Expansionist will declare war even if they like you although only if your army is lacking, and Chaotic will just break whatever treaty anyway. Everyone else though can be brainwashed, even Maniacal.
I feel reverting this to +1 might be better?
On the other hand the above requires you to accelerate research into this, cast it for 200, maintain for 5 and take the risk of having no one to influence. So if the effect would be twice as slow that could just make it too weak.
I really don't know.
2. Counter Magic
Cost : 50
Research : 400
Effect : Creates a counter pool of 80. Enemy spells have a (cost/80 cost) chance for success, failing that, they get countered, in which case the CM pool is reduced by 10 for the next spell attempt. The formula is new, and allows 100% success for spells more expensive than Counter Magic itself. In general, it is only a good choice against cheaper spells, which is a reasonable limitation for a common.
3. Spell Lock
Cost : 100
Maintenance : 1
Research : 400
Effect : Spells on enchanted units cannot be dispelled except this one. If enchanted creature is fantastic, it isn't affected by anti-fantastic creature spells that instantly destroy them. With lower mainenance costs on unit enchanetments in general, there is a much better chance you'll want to use this, and it was cheap to begin with, so no need to buff. However, the ability to counter a possible very expensive dispel or disechant by merely spending 20 to recast the removed spell lock – if it was even successful – is now gone as it is limited to overland only.
While it used to be brutally effective against the AI since you could recast it and the few lost enchantments after every taken city, I expect this to change in 2.6, where the AI can and will target buffed stacks with Dispelling Wave, if they have the spell.
It also has a cap on how much they want to use Dispel Magic, so spell lock+lots of buffs will not force the AI to always dispel even instead of critical spells like Call Chaos or Disintegrate or High Prayer.
4. Spell Blast
Cost : 50
Research : 400
Effect : Counters the overland spell being cast by a wizard overland, but have to spend mana equal to the amount spent on the spell. A very powerful spell, however, now it causes a diplomatic penalty when used, proportional to the full cost of the targeted spell, which removes the greatest abuse of Sorcery magic, hindering other players while they are at peace with you.
5. Vertigo
Cost : 10
Research : 400
Effect : If target unit fails to resist at -4 in combat, it gets -3 To Hit and -1 To Defend.
6. Dispelling Wave (Disenchant True)
Cost : 25+
Research : 400
Effect : Attempts to dispel all enemy positive spells on a targeted overland map square, or all enemy spells in combat (except combat enchantments). Has 1 effectiveness per 2 mana. Changed to only work on enemy buffs overland, so Disenchant Area is still useful to remove curses. Disenchant Area can no longer remove buffs from enemy cities and units on the overland map. This makes city defense buffs more useful, and gets rid of the AI's disadvantage of not being able to tell when a city needs to be disenchanted prior to starting combat.
Starting at 2.6 the AI will be able to use this as though it was a "curse" type spell (think spell blast, drain power or corruption) meaning they will only use it if having hostile intent. They'll seek out the spot on the map with the most unit and/or city enchantments (some having more priority than others) and target it there. I expect this to cut down on super buffed spell lock hero (or other) doom stack abuse a little.
7. Flight
Cost : 22/110
Maintenance : 2
Research : 400
Effect : Enchanted unit is flying. Not much I can say about this, it's a good buff.
8. Water Elemental
Cost : 150
Maintenance 3
Research : 400
Effect : Summons a Water Elemental.
Melee 14
Magic ranged 14 (4 ammo)
Armor 7
Resistance 7
Health 15
+2 to hit
9. AEther Binding
Cost : 400
Maintenance : 20
Research : 800
Effect : Add power to skill pool equal to current casting skill each turn (not updated, check this). Dispel Magic, Dispelling Wave, Disenchant Area and Disjuction is twice as effective. Effectively increases casting skill by 1 every second turn. Quite powerful, but due to the faster pace of the game, not overly so. Now serves to replace the "True" version of dispelling spells as well, without wasting spell slots.
10. Phantom Beast
Cost : 35
Research : 600
Effect : Summons a Phantom Beast in combat. Health of the Phantom Beast is increased by 5 to 25. A quite powerful combat summon, that doesn't do much more damage than Phantom Warriors, but has far more health, so it lasts longer unless fighting high attack enemies in theory, but needed extra health to actually do so.
Phantom Warriors do 21 swords worth of damage and you can summon almost 3 from the cost of the beast. The beast would need to survive at least 3 attacks to perform better, and at the original 20 health this was extremely unlikely. A stack of halberdiers (6 melee, +1 to hit) is expected to do 14.4 damage to the beast on every attack due to zero armor. Generally still worse than warriors against high end units, however, can do acceptable against illusion immunity, offers a better presence in combat, and can be quite potent if buffed (especially with Iron Skin or Invulnerability). Cost restored to 35 to compare more favorably to warriors as well.
Now that ongoing effects like prayer are applied to summoned units immediately, this can be quite powerful. The AI can and will target summoning spells near enemy units in combat starting in 2.6, making this spell one of the best ways Sorcery wizards can deal with super powerful heroes.
Rare Spells
Disjunction True : Removed from the game. Redundant.
1. Uranus' Blessing (new)
Cost : 200
Maintenance : 7
Research : 1600
Effect : Enchanted City gains the following benefits :
-Start combat with a 70 strength counter magic on the defender's side.
-Wizards' Guilds, Alchemists Guilds produce 10 more power
-Amplifying Towers give 4 more skill
-Units are built as though an Alchemists Guild was present, even if it is not. Aims to be a diverse buff spell like Gaea's Blessing, but on magic related functions.
While it's massively powerful, it takes over 40 turns to pay for itself even if all buildings are present so it is by no means always the best choice. I think it's fine the way it is. The 50 Counter Magic also means you won't be able to use a 70 CM so you're actually more vulnerable to high end spells than you otherwise would be (but of course save a lot of mana in the process).
2. Mind Storm
Cost : 35
Research : 1600
Effect : Enchanted enemy unit in combat has -3 melee, -5 ranged/thrown/breath, -5 resistance, -5 defense. A powerful, crippling debuff to most stats, but slightly less effective on melee attack to balance it out. Resistance reduction is high enough to allow hitting almost anything with any curse, giving this spell huge combo potential.
3. Air Elemental
Cost : 50
Research : 1600
Effect : Summons an Air elemental in combat. Starting at 2.6, Air Elementals have Armor Piercing, 15 melee, +1 to hit, 7 armor, 9 resistance, 5 movement and 10 health. Buffed up slightly but not sure if it's really necessary. The original strength of this creature was forcing the enemy to retreat (since they either can't fly or can't see invisible) however the AI is far better at countering both of these strategies now. As a combat unit it was barely better than a Fire Elemental (although the -1 to hit on enemies from invisibility is huge, this is a 50 mana creature with the stats of a 20 mana one still) and in most cases way inferior to a phantom beast (mainly in damage but often even in durability!), so I added Armor Piercing and raised armor back to 7. It's still a lot weaker than the only other equal rarity summon, the Earth Elemental so I guess it's fine.
4. Invisibility
Cost : 30/150
Research : 1600
Maintenance : 4
Effect : Enchanted unit is invisible
5. Wind Walking
Cost : 200
Research : 1600
Maintenance : 7
Effect : Enchanted unit has Wind Walking
6. Banish
Cost : 35
Research : 1600
Effect : Each figure in target fantastic unit must resist at -4 or be disintegrated. A powerful spell that can kill almost any fantastic creature aside from some very rares. Even those are not out of reach with some resistance lowering curses! Effect is identical to "Exorcism" replacement of Dispel Evil, but the modifier is so much higher that it offers entirely different possibilities, unlike the original Dispel Evil which had an identical modifier.
7. Storm Giant
Cost : 330
Research : 1600
Maintenance : 5
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 18, Magical ranged 18 (4 ammo), +2 To Hit, Defense 7, Resistance 9, Moves 3, 25 health, Missile Immunity, Armor Piercing, Wall Crusher. Compared to Stone Giants, this is slightly more damaging, but a lot less durable (5 armor is a lot) and almost as expensive. Overall a little bit weaker than average but more versatile due to armor piercing.
8. Magic Immunity
Cost : 35/175
Research : 2400
Maintenance : 10
Effect : Enchanted unit has Magic Immunity. No longer blocks breath attacks. Extremely powerful protective spell for an extreme cost. Blocks almost everything except melee and missile ranged attacks.
9. Stasis
Cost : 25/125
Research : 800
Effect : Target stack must resist at -5 or be unable to move each turn on the overland map. Target unit must resist at -5 or be unable to act for the rest of the combat if used in combat.
10. Flying Fortress
Cost : 200
Research : 800
Maintenance : 3
Effect : Only flying units may enter the city tiles during combat. All units defending enchanted city gains flying ability which cannot be removed by Black Sleep and Web. Don't have enough experience with this spell. AI now knows what spells to use against it in combat. Needs testing on how powerful it is at stopping enemies. Starting at 2.6 the AI can dispel on the overland map again, although only Sorcery wizards will be able to.
Fixed a lot of bugs in this so it now actually does what it is supposed to instead of letting land units attack through it.
Very Rare Spells
1. Spell Binding
Cost : 1200 (+40% for AI)
Research : 8000
Effect : Steal a global enchantment, 100% success rate. Extremely powerful spell that wins the game, or at least forces enemy wizards to waste most of their skill and mana on dispelling and recasting their own enchantments. Would be overpowered as anything else except Very Rare Sorcery.
2. Mass Invisibility
Cost : 80
Research : 6000
Effect : All friendly units in combat are invisible. A powerful buff that penalizes all enemy units by -1 to hit, as well as making the entire army immune to ranged attacks of all forms, and even against enemy spells in some situations.
3. Suppress Magic
Cost : 1200 (+40% for AI)
Research : 8000
Maintenance : 50
Effect : All overland spells must resist the same way as against Counter Magic in combat, but Suppress Magic counts as a strength 1000 counter pool that does not lose effectiveness over time. Success rate is 100% at 500 MP. Cost reduced to 1200 to allow more reasonable chance of dispelling.
4. Spell Ward
Cost : 150
Research : 3000
Maintenance : 1
Effect : Enchanted city is protected from spells of that realm. Fantastic creatures of that realm are penalized by -2 To Hit, -4 defense and resistance in the city. Spells of that realm cannot be cast during combat. Being able to enter is more AI friendly and less overpowered, but the penalty is large enough that even the best fantastic units are reduced to be only minor threats. The AI learned to use this spell correctly in 2.5x and will now make sure it doesn't penalize its own garrison. It also selects the realm to ward against smarter.
6. Creature Binding
Cost : 50
Research : 4000
Effect : Takes permanent control of a fantastic creature if it fails to resist at -4. Works on units with Illusions Immunity.
Improved version of Banish, this also give you the creature.
7. Haste
Cost : 50
Research : 6000
Effect : Enchanted unit gains haste (attacks twice per attack) This ability feels quite off-color, and it is somewhat overpowered, although reasonable for Very Rare. Effectively a Berserk without drawbacks. I think it would be more fitting for Chaos, but that realm has no need for it, Sorcery on the other hand lacks offensive options entirely for combat, aside from illusion based damage. On the other hand, casting this on high end fantastic units like Sky Drakes is outright overpowered, especially since Sorcery units tend to be hard to damage/kill to being with.
Changed to only work on attacks, not counterattacks, this might make it actually balanced.
8. Sky Drake
Cost : 500
Research : 8000
Maintenance : 15
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 28, Lightning Breath 21, +3 To Hit, Defense 10, Resistance 14, Moves 4, 30 health,
Flying, Magic Immunity, Illusion Immunity. Quite a lot weaker than Great Drake and for more mana, but is immune to magic and illusions which is a great advantage on a unit of this power.
Reduced breath to 18.
(Feels a bit too superior to Great Wyrm though, having more armor, two attacks of almost identical strength (one of which pierces armor like the Wyrm), and three valuable abilities in exchange for 1/3 less health and no teleportation at the same cost. While the melee attack of 25 is fair, Lightning Breath should probably be toned down to ~18.)
9. Great Unsummoning
Cost : 700 (+40% for AI)
Research : 3000
Effect : All enemy fantastic creature units must resist at -3 or be disintegrated. Due to misleading help text, I assumed this has a -2 resistance penalty, but game code reveals it is -3. Although all very rare creatures (except Death Knights) are unaffected, it still is a very powerful effect against most rare or lower creatures AND a pretty nice counter to Doom Mastery and Zombie Mastery. See page 6/7 of the thread for the discussion about this, I hope it'll be now as good as it should by only hitting enemies and coming cheaper and earlier.
10. Time Stop
Cost : 1500 (+40% for AI)
Research : 8000
Maintenance : 100*turns elapsed since the spell was cast
Effect : Enemy wizards do not get an overland turn. No resource is being generated while the spell is in effect. As all other resources are disabled, this effectively allows you to get extra overland casting opportunity, and troop movement for mana crystals, which is still a very very powerful effect.
Item Powers
Phantasmal
Cost : 1000
Required books : 4 A very powerful effect, balanced by the fact that illusion immunity negates it.
Guardian Wind
Cost : 150
Required books : 1
Haste
Cost : 1200
Required books : 5 Extreme cost, for an extreme power, this doubles the effectiveness of any melee hero and even helps for ranged. Would be better as a Chaos enchantment but, see spell for reasons why it stays Sorcery. Combining it with Illusion is especially worrying, though. Cost might be too much now that haste no longer grants double counterattacks?
Resist Magic
Cost : 300
Required books : 3 Offers more resistance than the highest you can currently enchant into items, which is enough of a reason to have a cost that is not cheap.
Magic Immunity
Cost : 2500 but cannot enchant it, only find on predefined artifacts.
Required books : - Unremovable immunity to pretty much everything that could kill a hero except from one spell, is just a bad idea. The enchantment, although powerful, can at least be dispelled.
Teleportation (new)
Cost : 1200
Required books : 5
Grants +1 To Defend, +1 movement, teleportation movement type.
The realm of Chaos generally promotes destruction through direct damage and powerful, but simple, cheap and brutal creatures generally lacking the wider array of abilities found on creatures of other realms but being very good at doing one specific thing : killing enemies. While there are spells that have highly random elements, which the realm's name implies, these aren't the core of the realm, as that would be hardly reliable or fun in a strategy game.
Strengths
Direct damage
World destruction
Boosting damage output
Good selection of powerful, but simple creatures
Weaknesses
Lacks means of protecting your units
Spells marked Green are spells I'm 100% satisfied with. They won't be changed unless there is a very good reason to.
Spells marked Red are what I'm not satisfied with, and think requires some sort of a significant change.
Spells marked Blue are good the way they are, but might need numerical tweaking (on costs, or effect strength)
Spells marked neither are spells I don't have enough experience using and fighting against to judge.
Common Spells
1. Hell Hounds
Cost : 40
Maintenance : 1
Research : Normal
Effect : Summoning 4 figures : Melee 4, Fire Breath 3, +1 To Hit, Defense 2, Resistance 5, Moves 3, 4 health. Used to be one of the best common summons in the game, now after all the rebalancing, this creature feels slightly unimpressive. Roughly as powerful as a unit of Cavalry in health and defense, and having identical cost, but requiring mana and casting skill, I feel it should be buffed up a very slightly. The ability to attack flying units is excellent at this early in the game, though. The main concern is the attack power, although 2x 3 attack is pretty good in theory, almost everything in the game has enough armor aside from Spearmen and ranged units to significantly reduce that damage. An increase to 4 melee might be needed.
2. Corruption
Cost : 40
Research : Half
Effect : Corrupts the target land square. It destroys enemy minerals which is good, although not exactly what you usually want to cast in the very early game. Reduction of food and production bonuses from terrain has a marginal effect on the enemy because the other tiles and cities will still produces resources, but it can critically hurt a city on bad terrain with only a few tiles of food producing land. Can be useful against enemies that play a race with no Shaman or Priest unit. Becomes obsolete as soon as you get Raise Volcano. Due to the common ability "Purify" removing this spell is not an option, but the effect feels somewhat underwhelming. The catch with this spell is, if you are actively at war with the target, you will eventually get the terrain at which time this spell will backfire, and the effect only helps on long term. If you aren't at war, you don't want to cast this because you can't stop them from cleaning it up, and it would also worsen relations, making them start a war at which point, see previous sentence.
Not sure how to make this useful, and the game does need this spell for the AI to cast it against you.
Would need to test whether spamming it against an enemy can cause enough food shortage to actually help winning an early game war. I suspect not, since shore tiles cannot be corrupted but produce food anyway.
9. Flame Blade
Cost : 10/50
Maintenance : 1
Research : Half
Effect : Enchanted normal unit gains +3 melee attack, and +2 missile or thrown attack and can ignore Weapon Immunity. At a boost of 3, this is now as good as Lionheart's offense part, which is good enough for an uncommon spell.
4. Fire Elemental
Cost : 20
Research : Normal
Effect : Summons a Fire Elemental (now has Weapon Immunity). A rather weak single figure combat summon, with a unique speciality : Weapon Immunity, which is pretty much a guaranteed win against early game normal units not having magical weapons. Not very Chaos-like, but definitely powerful enough, and occasionally useful in the midgame as well (if enemies without magical weapons attack). I don't see too many options on how else to make it useful though, and early game Weapon Immunity is needed somewhere to provide a use for magical weapons and spells that grant them. This is one of those parts where a spell needs to do what it does for overall game balance, even though it is not matching the realm it is in.
5. Shatter
Cost : 8
Research : Double
Effect : Target normal unit must resist at -2 or their melee, thrown and missile attack is reduced to 1. Effectively makes a normal unit unable to fight for half the price of Black Sleep, but with much more restrictions.
6. Warp Creature
Cost : 10
Research : Double
Effect : Target unit must resist at -5 or suffer one of these effects at random : 0 resistance, halved defense, halved attack. Weaker than Shatter on the correct type of unit, but in exchange works on everything and offers a wider array of outcomes, this spell is quite versatile and can deal with most enemies. Resistance reduction can be taken advantage of by applying the other debuffs with a 100% chance. As it often takes multiple castings to have the desired outcome (or other resistance based spells following the resistance debuff), this spell is more useful in battles consisting of only one or two, very powerful enemy units.
7. Fire Bolt
Cost : 10
Research : Normal
Effect : Does a strength 20 Fire magical attack on the targeted unit. The most basic direct damage spell with no particular strengths and weaknesses. Very cost-effective but due to somewhat low base power, it's not as powerful against high armor or number of figures.
8. Wall of Fire
Cost : 100
Maintenance : 0
Research : Normal
Effect : All units trying to enter or attack into the enchanted city suffer a strength 10 fire attack to all their figures. Although strength 10 to all figures is quite overpowered for a common, this is limited to defending your own cities, balancing it out.
9. Warp Wood
Cost : 10
Research : Normal
Effect : Destroy all remaining missile ammo on a target unit. A cheap, effective way to deal with enemy bowmen and similar early game units, and occasionally useful against a high end hero.
10. Disrupt
Cost : 5
Research : Half
Effect : Destroys targeted section of city wall. A seemingly useless spell that actually can be quite decisive. For the low cost of 5, negating 2 out of the 3 defense bonus provided by the wall is not bad, and the ability to enter the city from unexpected directions to hit enemy ranged units first can win an otherwise impossible battle.
Uncommon Spells
1. Raise Volcano
Cost : 50
Research : Half
Effect : Turns target land square into a volcano that produces power to the caster. Destroy existing ores, 20% chance to produce a new ore. Volcanoes have a 1% chance to turn into mountains pet turn. The stronger version of Corruption, this one cannot be removed by Purify and even if it does revert, Mountains still don't produce any food. Assuming an average lifetime of 100 turns for the volcano, twice the cost comes back in power.
2. Fire Storm
Cost : 180
Research : Double
Effect : Hits all figures in all units on targeted map square with a strength 12 fire magical attack. Does almost as much damage as the original game's Flame Strike, although for 180 overland cost which is not cheap. Still, casting this on most garrisons ensures an easy victory in the following combat.
3. Immolation
Cost : 12/60
Maintenance : 2
Research : Normal
Effect : Enchanted unit has Immolation (when attacking an enemy unit in melee, all figures in that unit are hit with a strength 10 fire attack.) Quite powerful and pretty valuable against most early and midgame units due to hitting all figures. Cheaper than fireball and if used properly, can trigger the effect several times, but it does need you to have a unit fight the enemy in melee.
4. Fireball
Cost : 15
Research : Normal
Effect : Hit all figures in the target unit with a strength 10 magical fire attack. An excellent direct damage spell to use on multi-figure units, it can usually wipe out midgame or weaker normal units entirely.
5. Gargoyles
Cost : 110
Maintenance : 1
Research : Normal
Effect : Summoning 4 figures : Melee 5, +1 To Hit, Defense 9, Resistance 9, Moves 3, 4 health, Stoning Immunity, Poison Immunity, Flying. Extremely hard to kill for an uncommon creature, Gargoyles can be a pretty good counter against low to mid tier multifigure units and anything that relies on poison such as Nagas, too.
Raised melee to 5, reduced cost to 110.
Main intended role for unit is to stall, while you clear out enemies with spells, or cast immolation on it so make it do good damage. I'm not sure if the 5 melee is necessary but it sure helps making the unit more useful without the above tactics, in which case it was pretty worthless without this buff.
6. Chimera
Cost : 250
Maintenance : 6
Research : Normal
Effect : Summoning 4 figures : Melee 10, Fire Breath 6, +1 To Hit, Defense 5, Resistance 8, Moves 3, 8 health. Expensive but very powerful midgame unit that hits hard, is pretty durable and...not very good against resistance targeting spells.
7. Fire Giant
Cost : 125
Maintenance : 3
Research : Normal
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 18, Magical Ranged 12 (3 ammo), +1 To Hit, Defense 5, Resistance 7, Moves 3, 18 health, Mountaineer, Fire Immunity, Wall Crusher. Gave this +3 health and the Fireball Spell, lowered cost to 125. See old comments below.
(Costs as much as a Stag Beetle but is actually not any stronger aside from having a rather limited ranged attack despite being a summoned unit. This has been buffed up several times but is still kinda unimpressive. Giving it a Fireball Spell ability, more armor, or more health could be needed.)
8. Lightning Bolt
Cost : 25
Research : Normal
Effect : Hits the target unit with a strength 35 armor piercing magical attack. Not much to say about this, one of the best uncommon nukes in the game, second only to Reaper Slash which does not pierce armor and is blocked by Poison Immunity.
9. Mystic Surge
Cost : 25
Maintenance : 1
Research : Normal
Combat only unit enchantment. The enchanted unit gains 3 movement, 2 defense, additional random buffs, but loses 2 resistance, counts as fantastic for the duration of the battle, cannot be healed during the battle, and is lowered to 1 remaining hit point at the end of battle. 10. Chaos Channels
Cost : 50
Maintenance : 0
Research : Half
Effect : Enchanted creature randomly gains Flight, +3 Armor or a strength 4 Fire Breath. All 3 effects are pretty decent (Fire Breath might be a bit underwhelming though, most units have enough armor to block it), especially as this is the only way Chaos can buff defense or enable flight, but the main selling point is turning the unit into a Chaos creature, which both makes it immune to some normal unit only curses, and makes it benefit from spells that power up Chaos Creatures (Chaos Surge, Survival Instinct, Warp Reality).
Rare Spells
1. Efreet
Cost : 450
Maintenance : 9
Research : Normal
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 15, Ranged 18 (8 ammo), +2 To Hit, Defense 7, Resistance 12, Moves 4, 27 health, Fire Immunity, Caster 40, Flying. Attacks slightly better than a Catapult, and is as good as a Stag Beetle in melee. Also casts spells for 40 MP and flies. That's all really nice but 500 might be too expensive for a creature that is merely good at doing magic damage, so reduced to 450. 400 Might be too cheap.
2. Warp Lightning
Cost : 30
Research : Normal
Effect : Hits target with lightning bolts from strength 12 to 1. Can deal even more damage than Doom Bolt for less MP, but is inefficient on targets buffed by Elemental Armor, Invulnerability, or those having extreme armor.
3. Doom Bolt
Cost : 41
Research : Normal
Effect : Target takes 10 unpreventable damage. Most reliable direct damage spell in the game. Even more potent as there is no Righteousness to block it, although Healing Charge can counter it if the unit survives.
4. Flame Strike
Cost : 60
Research : Normal
Effect : All enemy units are hit by a strength 30 fire magic attack in combat. Quite damaging but the price is steep, and average damage is only 9 per unit (further reduced by armor). Only the weakest units die to casting this once, but most armies eventually get wiped out if spammed repeatedly.
5. Doom Bat
Cost : 400
Maintenance : 7
Research : Normal
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 16, Doom, Defense 7, Resistance 9, Moves 6, 30 health, Flying, Immolation. Now a rare, because there were too many uncommon summons. Doom damage like Chaos Spawn, but this one is faster, stronger, more expensive, and lacks the gaze attacks.
6. Magic Vortex
Cost : 50
Research : Normal Effect : Summons a Magic Vortex which does damage to any units nearby and destroys buildings if moving through a city.
Despite the random nature, this is an extremely damaging spell which can turn around otherwise unwinnable battles.
Haven't had the chance to use it in an actual game since I started modding, though.
7. Blazing March (renamed Metal Fires)
Cost : 50
Research : Normal
Effect : All friendly units in combat gain +3 melee, missile and thrown attacks (including fantastic units). Also cumulative with Flame Blade. New name is necessary because the original implies requiring a "weapon" so no fantastic units. Aside from that, the effect is satisfying, often superior to even Prayer (not to High Prayer though, and no defense part). Very good for the large amount of multi-figure units Chaos realm has and great for most normal units as well.
8. Chaos Rift
Cost : 300
Maintenance : 5
Research : Normal
Effect : Hits 5 units randomly with strength 11 lighting bolts each turn, and 5% random chance for each building inside to get destroyed per turn. Pretty efficient at destroying buildings, the city enchanted by this is unlikely to remain capable of producing good military units for long. Even weakens defenses on top of that. Effectively a free Earthquake every 8 turns so it's better in cost after 16 turns.
9. Chaos Spawn
Cost : 350
Maintenance : 8
Research : Normal
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 1, Multigaze 4, Defense 8, Resistance 10, Moves 2, 22 health, Causes Fear, Flying. Fills a similar role as Gorgons but is more fragile, while cheaper and more powerful at gaze attacks. Relies on finding low resistance enemies heavily, it has minimal damage output otherwise. Due to the vulnerability to ranged units, high resistance units, and having slow movement, cost most likely needs a reduction, 350 might be fair instead of 400.
10. Doom Mastery
Cost : 666
Maintenance : 18
Research : 33% less
Effect : All new units built are automatically enchanted by Chaos Channels. A pretty useful spell considering the advantages of being a Chaos unit, moved to rare for better accessibility and more reasonable cost.
Very Rare Spells
1. Disintegrate
Cost : 50
Research : Normal
Effect : Target unit in combat with 9 or less resistance is instantly disintegrated. My favorite combat spell in the game. Simple and efficient, you click on something and it dies, never to come back. If they have too much resistance, you need to lower it first, but there are heroes with spells for doing that in the game.
2. Meteor Storm
Cost : 800 (+40% for AI)
Maintenance : 10
Research : Normal
Effect : Destroys random buildings in all enemy cities. Enemy figures outside cities are hit with a strength 6 magical attack each turn. Hurts everyone else and even prevents new outposts from growing into cities. Can also stop certain types of units from ever reaching you for an attack. A pretty powerful spell.
3. Armageddon
Cost : 1250 (+40% for AI)
Maintenance : 40
Research : 33% higher
Effect : Randomly raises volcanoes on enemy territory, and all enemy cities have +2 unrest. Probably the strongest global enchantment in the game. Not only does it permanently destroy terrain, making it impossible for enemy empires to survive on long term, but also increases own power base by a sizeable amount (~+400 can be expected after a while)
4. Doomsday
Cost : 1000 (+40% for AI)
Maintenance : 20
Research : 33% higher
Effect : Randomly corrupts enemy territory, and all enemy cities have +5 unrest. The "small" version of Armageddon. The unrest is a major blow to the economy of all other players, and corruption, if unchecked, eventually destroys their cities. Feels redundant, might be better as a rare, but honestly this is far too nasty for anything but Very Rare. Removing it and replacing with a completely new global enchantment is another option, but the other enchantments already pretty much cover everything there is to destroy perfectly. A flat +5 unrest, although not the most interesting, is a significant and unique effect (Armageddon also adds some, but the amount on it is far less, not enough to really matter on its own).
5. Apocalypse
Cost : 65
Research : Normal
Effect : Hits all enemy units with one of the following at random : Doom Bolt, Disintegrate at -3, Warp Creature at -15, Strength 30 fire attack, unresistable Confusion, Warp Lightning, Chaos Channels, Healing Charge
6. Hydra
Cost : 480
Maintenance : 11
Research : Half
Effect : Summoning 9 figures : Melee 9, Fire Breath 6, +1 To Hit, Defense 4, Resistance 12, Moves 2, 10 health, Regeneration. Twice the health of any other units, and regeneration makes this creature pretty difficult to kill. Weak against armored targets (unless buffed) but unstoppable by anything else.
7. Great Drake
Cost : 500
Maintenance : 15
Research : Normal
Effect : Summoning 1 figure : Melee 39, Fire Breath 35, +3 To Hit, Defense 11, Resistance 15, Moves 4, 40 health, Flying. By far the creature with the highest raw attack power, and no other tricks involved.
8. Warp Reality
Cost : 75
Research : Normal
Effect : All nonchaos units in combat have -2 To Hit. When using chaos units in the army, this spell cuts enemy damage output to 33-60% without hurting the caster. Extremely powerful but slightly situational, I'm having doubts about the raised costs for this. It stacks with other - To Hit modifiers though for a nearly unstoppable combo. Now a very rare, which is suitable for the power level.
9. Call the Void
Cost : 500
Research : 33% more
Effect : All units in city take 12 doom damage, all buildings and population has a 66% chance to be destroyed. Land around city becomes corrupted randomly. A surprisingly affordable cost for wiping out most of a city. Usually one is enough to severely damage it, two and it won't recover for the rest of the game! Repeated spamming can even clear out defending garrison entirely.
10. Chaos Surge
Cost : 1000 (+40% for AI)
Maintenance : 30
Research : 33% less
Effect : All Chaos units in game (including enemy units) gain +3 melee, +2 Breath, +2 resistance. Multiples cast by other wizards are cumulative but additional copies only add +1 to each stat instead of the full bonus. Now provides a large enough bonus to be worth a very rare slot.
Item Powers
Flaming
Cost : 300
Books required : 2
Albeit an uninteresting bonus to attack which you can get anyway, I do like the idea of Chaos being able to enchant 3 more attack strength into weapons than anyone else.
Lightning
Cost : 500
Books required : 3
Armor Piercing is always a good ability to have.
Doom (Chaos)
Cost : 1200
Books required : 4
Guaranteed damage is awesome, and makes + To Hit unnecessary.
Destruction
Cost : 600
Books required : 4
Changed to destroy the entire unit instead of top figure, making it different from the cheaper resist-or-die item powers.
Inner Fire (new)
Cost : 500
Books required : 3 Enchanted unit has Fire Immunity, Cold Immunity and Immolation.
Online Users
There are currently 78 online users. »2 Member(s) | 76 Guest(s) Dreylin, Miro
![[Image: CPFC_zpskgyr7jme.jpg]](http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d168/GingerEagle1969/RB-PBEM/CPFC_zpskgyr7jme.jpg)
