Test games played

[Catwalk]

I actually agree with Omniscient not being critical for Nelphine's strategy. Mine differs and is more expansion oriented, I'm almost done testing it.

[Seravy]

Started another with the above setup. Picked Heavenly Light, Holy Armor and Endurance as starting Life spells.

First wizard to cast Just Cause is Seravy - most likely White/Green.
Starting location is a tiny island. There is a "cockatrices" Nature node - Berserkers can do that one. Also a Djinn Sorcery node. Nothing else on the island. I have coal and there is room to build one more city. My Floating Island finds land nearby. Sky Drake in a Keep. Few Earth Elementals in node. Sprites in a cave - this can be done with Cavalry. Nagas in a Keep - risky, might have Air Elementals. Cavalry is fast enough and can attack them, but it's a bit too strong to fight. Djinn tower, Unicorns temple. Another Nagas keep and many Earth Elementals node.
6 Cavalry attacks the cave with Sprites. Two has Holy Armor. 3 Bears and 2 Sprites are a bit more than I asked for, but I win, losing 3 Cavalry. 440 Mana crystals, will convert these to gold and buy a Barracks. I'll also buy a Settler, there is a nice 19 pop spot on that continent.

I send a single cavalry to explore the keep. 2 Nagas, 5 Phantom Warriros. We can do this with more cavalry. running in circles ensures the cavalry retreats safely.

Found a 4 pop neutral Nomad city. 8 units all have bows. I wish I had Guardian Wind. Checking the other keep - 2 Nagas, some Phantom Warriors again. Another "many Earth Elementals" node. Sprites would be happy now.

A neutral with 3 Klackon swordsmen. Not sure if 1 Cavalry can do it but that's all I have nearby. Don't want to wait 2-3 turns to get more there. Thanks to Holy Armor, and First Strike, I win. I definitely needed this, as I'm making -6 gold a turn. Next thing to buy if I find gold will be a Marketplace or two. Taking out the first keep easily - First Strike works wonders against phantoms. 598 gold is the reward. I buy a Sawmill for my Klackon city and a Marketplace. I start building the Fighter's Guild. The other keep yields 200 gold and a 4 attack 5 skill sword which I convert to 250 mana crystals. I can buy the Fighter's Guild immediately. I decide to risk the temple with Unicorns. 9 Cavalry should be enough to kill 2 of those and 7 spirits in worst case. 2 Unicorns and 2 spirits. I lose 2 cavalry but get 600 gold. I can buy the War College too but now I'm broke again. A Barbarian hero for hire. I don't need her. I buy a Berserker instead. Bad move. 1 G and 0 MP, with -3 G per turn, and raising taxes doesn't help. Have to sell the Smithy in the Klackon city. Haven't seen another wizard yet.
I check the 1 tile Node island next to my capital - also Earth Elementals.


It's 1403 March and I still only have 2 Berserkers and a negative income. Not happy about that. My Cavalry are finally healed , so I conquer the neutral nomads. I lose 1 more Cavalry but now I have a city that can make some gold. There is nothing left to use the Cavalry for, so I decide to put 2 of them on the floating island and send them out to locate more continents. 

I see a yellow Floating Island. Belongs to Silver, 10 Sorcery, 2 Nature, 1 Life. I could trade Heavenly Light for Confusion or Focus Magic but I don't want her to have it. My army strength is at least 5 times hers and I only have 2 Berserkers so far. If I could find her cities, I could conquer them. The island unloads a settler on my larger continent. I decide to summon another Floating Island to scout the map, maybe even two more. Looks like her continent is only about 4 tiles to the north of mine.

My scout island meets purple - Satori, 10 Nature, Specialist, Tactician, Conjurer.
This is a nonstandard portrait pick - it implies VanillaH is in the game, so one more all Nature wizard. We also know the first is very likely Life/Nature, so...no one in the game has Chaos or Death. That means it'll be a much easier game, especially if I can get rid of the sorcery wizard early.

"Satori defeats VanillaH" is what I see next turn. My guess was correct. Also, haven't seen the AI do this in a while. The doomstack has to be responsible. Unfortunate, this lowers my score - but one less enemy to worry about.

I decide to sacrifice the starting spearmen to scout the "Cockatrices" node. Only one of them inside, and 5 bears. 5 Berserkers are ready, should be enough. 528 treasure, and a crappy plate mail. Melting it for another 185.

Silver casts Aura of Majesty. Not good, if she makes allies, that's gonna be inconvenient when I attack her.  Satori's graphs doubled in a turn - conquering that capital sure did a lot. She declares war because my army is the same strength as hers. Not happy, wasn't planning for a war with her right now.

Now that I have a node, I can finally start raising my skill. I load 8 Berserkers on an island and send them toward's Silver's territory. Next stack will go noding. I hope nothing nasty comes from Satori.

I find Silver's capital. Full of Sprites - 8 of them and 1 magician. Scary but Berserkers should be better. I trade for 3 spells before the attack and threaten her to get a fourth one. I realize I need a turn to put Resist Magic on the last berserker. Should have traded later. Fortunately it isn't enough time to put Heavenly Light on the capital.
I win the battle but lose 6 of the 8 berserkers. Not worth it...

Meanwhile purple steals my node while I'm busy looking elsewhere. Leaving things undefended is not the way to go but I don't really have enough troops to do otherwise. I need to put resist magic on a whole bunch of more berserkers to get Silver's remaining cities. Not that trivial with only 23 skill and only a small node (which was melded by another wizard arggh).

[Seravy]

   
I'm doing fine but purple is doing way better. I wish I could take a loan, buying a 9 stack of berserkers right now to use on nodes and earn more money. I should have ignored Silver and went after the money instead, now I can't afford noding.

I'm lucky - purple's main stacks seem to be on yellow's continent. They were hostile with each other, and although war has a higher priority, there was a small chance to roll that continent anyway. Either that, or they just haven't made it to my place yet, it's quite a distance to cover I guess.

My Floating Island discover's Satori's capital. 8 Sprites and a War Monk. Has city walls too. I'm not going to assume 8 berserkers can take this out - they might but the risk is high, walls and a hero. This wizard has Tactician too. Due to the distance, getting multiple stacks there would be difficult - it's at least 12 tiles from my nearest shore, but based on the shape of the continent, the real distance to travel is more like 25 - I don't have flight to put on the floating islands yet.

[Seravy]

Purple stacks are showing up on my larger continent. I can deal with them but lose a few buildings. I should have made horsebowmen earlier to improve my defenses - I'm producing them now though.
Next to the conquered capital, there is a Chaos Node with "few gargoyles" I easily take it out with the remaining 2 berserkers and the magicians I produced meanwhile. There is a large yellow city nearby, but I can't afford taking my units further than 2 tiles away as significant purple stacks are roaming this continent (including one that has 9 sprites - I don't want to attack that, nor do I have what it takes to do so). The node gives me an orb which is convert to 350  mana - buys 2 berserkers. I'm also maxing out my mana production and use the mana to buy more berserkers. More important than being able to cast buffs faster.
Satori has Crack's Call - not a real threat but I should avoid using heroes completely this game. Only those who produce resources are welcome. (one more reason for getting Wraith Form - you can safely use heroes against Nature wizards.)
I did get Aura of Majesty from Silver but I have no use for it so not casting it. There is only one Arcanus wizard and I'm fighting them. Maybe it would be nice to have peace, but my Berserkers can deal with her forces. The Myrran wizard is still unreachable and I have no contact.
I'm surprised those stacks don't attack the small city I have with only 1 berserker defending it. I have to assume the berserker has more total rating than a stack of 9 sprites. The AI being cautious with attacks works well but in these cases it's counterproductive. Then again, if I had Flame Strike or Magic Immunity, not attacking would be the correct move, and the AI has no way of knowing that.
I believe the Djinn node is impossible - I don't have Web. So I'm going to go after the 4 Nature nodes with Earth Elementals as soon as I finally gather 8 Berserkers. I have to keep sending reinforcements elsewhere so it's coming slowly. War between what remains of yellow and purple is now official. I hope purple wastes some of her big stacks on that large yellow city - best would be if it failed to conquer it.
Next turn the city disappears. Not only did they win but razed it. Eww.
I uncover a barbarian neutral city. 4 Cavalry, 3 Shaman. I'm surprised this wasn't conquered by anyone.
Finally, 4 spiders and a sprite attacks my 1 berserker city. That one is lost. They kill a unit of spiders though.
A good moon event! This is helping me - I have no Death books now. I can finally hit the first Nature node - 3 Earth Elementals and nothing else, gets me a Flight spell and 118 gold.
Next node has 3 Elementals too, but 5 spiders. I lose 7 Berserkers to kill the spiders, and 2 elementals are left alive. I need a new army again. Berserkers are great but they don't live very long.

Satori now sent some Adamantium units. Should have expected - Trasmute is guaranteed with 10 Nature books. By pooling together all my units from the area, I beat the stack. It had a hero with them, and carried items, I get about 700 gold from melting those. I buy the War College in my other Barbarian city - now I can produce Berserkers twice as fast!
I find 3 Berserkers on what I thought is an empty floating island. I remember sending them there...but don't remember ordering them to patrol. Oh well.
I finish clearing the node with the 2 elementals. Got a nice orb, 20 skill and good stats. I keep this one, will be useful on whichever hero ends up in my fortress.

[Nelphine]

I'll answer later, but one thing I want to mention - heroism just for heroes is amazing. Warlord plus heroism can be 40 skill per turn. Just economically, heroism is better than any other common or uncommon spell. It also makes barbarisn swordsmen into monsters early game.

[Seravy]

Next node - 5 Earth Elementals and 3 Bears. Easy. Total ~900 treasure including the melted item.
Last node - 6 Earth Elementals and 2 Spiders. 1100 treasure and the Healer hero - I actually would like that to follow my armies and keep them in shape, nice find. No berserkers lost! (some are badly hurt though)
There still is a "Sky Drake" keep and a "Djinn" tower - the latter I can't do without Web. Sending a swordsmen reveals there are Air Elementals with the drake - not a problem for berserkers albeit cornering them will be a pain.
Once this one is done, I can move the stack to the continent I took from Silver which is swarming with Satori's troops. She stole my Chaos node there, I need that back, too.

I've filled one floating island with 7 horsebowmen and a priest - I'll use that to intercept transports and deal with them before they land. I want to have at least 3 of these patrolling the waters. 
I make 220 mana a turn now so I can afford spending on research and skill now.

I get rid of Silver's last outpost. Was hoping to let it grow into a hamlet but Satori's forces are getting close. This action yields the Healing spell which I needed badly.

The Sky Drake goes down easily, but I realize I have no way to see invisible units - no Summon Zombie. I wish I kept that True Sight orb. Cornering Air Elementals is not too hard with 9 Berserkers on my side - but there are a crazy number of them. At least 7. My reward for my efforts is 730 gold and a Muramasa a pretty amazing sword worth only 1300 mana crystals. I'm keeping it as I have no immediate need for more mana crystals or gold.

Satori has Gorgons! I see one in her 2 pop city. I'm going to need resist magic again.
I wish I had a way to kill Djinn. The Sorcery node near my capital bothers me. I want more Sorcery books! Unforunately, there is no way a Berserker can catch a Djinn due to teleporting. Not even 9 can do it.

She learned Earthquake, and knows where my capital is. And she is Maniacal. This is very bad news as I'm relying on normal troops and need the buildings to produce them.

I attack the city with the 2 Gorgons and 7 Sprites inside. Only 3 of the 9 Resist Magic berserkers survive. Meh. I need higher casting skill, enough to spam Lionheart ASAP. It's really far, I have 47 only. I can forget about building Amplifying Towers too, with Earthquake in play.

   
   

[Nelphine]

My bezerkers can catch move 18 doombats. You can catch djinn the exact same way. Bigger problem is if the djinn uses confusion. If they don't, its just like catching air elementals (especially if it casts invisibility).

[Seravy]

This continent has 2 of Satori's cities left - one guarded by 9 Sprites, I'm not going near that, it's not worth the cost in berserkers, and one more with only 3 crappy units. Aside from that, a tower with "few Behemoths", I don't think my Berserkers without offensive buffs can handle those, especially now - I'm pretty sure we buffed their armor. Also a temple with 1 Werewolf and 6 Ghouls, I quickly clear that out, but lose a berserker. I'm going to need to start invading Satori's main continent soon - has about 16 cities.
Meanwhile I keep sinking boats with formidable armies. Without Sorcery books I'd be in serious trouble.

1410 and I still only have a power base of 340 - and I own every single node (aside from that one Sorcery) on all land I conquered. This kind of power is inadequate for using rare spells - only 54 skill and even the research cost is hard to afford. Especially when mana is spent as gold on more berserkers. I have Lionheart but can only afford it in combat - in overland it would take 3 turns to cast once. I'm researching Inspirations which would be a nice counter to the Earthquakes - build faster so there is more stuff to destroy elsewhere, keeping my capital away from attention. But at this casting skill, using it on every city would take several years. I wish I had AEther Binding instead of Aura of Majesty.

My bezerkers can catch move 18 doombats

How? Mine only move 3...the few with Endurance move 4 but I can't afford that on every one of them. 50 skill is too low. But let's say I can cover the entire field with move 3 berserkers (might be able to, if I spread them out) so teleport can't save the djinn. Problem is, by the time I do that, the Djinn gets to shoot, what, 5-6 times? That's a lot of dead berserkers, especially against 2 Djinn. Probably not enough survivors to actually reach them. And then there is Dispelling Wave (if I did have the skill to put Endurance on all)

[Seravy]

Before heading for the main continent, there is an island with 1 city - I send the next 8 berserkers there. I conquer the city easily, only losing 2 units. The island has 2 Chaos nodes, a ruin and no more enemy troops.
"few chimera", "colossus", "chaos spawn".
Probably should keep berserkers away from the latter...or maybe not, with LH and RM they have 13 resist. I'll need spearmen for these to make sure no nasty extras come along like 8 spiders or 6 fire giants.

The first Chaos node is 4 Chimeras and some Fire elementals. Easy, albeit my berserkers will need to recover after this. A Holy Word spell is my reward.

I decide to take out that last city on my continent. 2 Gorgons, 5 Sprites, a Berserker and a Shaman this time. However, we've beaten one like this before and this time there is no city wall. Not really worth for the city, but worth because this is the last place on my continent that is producing enemy units. I can kill everything coming from the sea so that makes me safe from further attacks. 4 surviving unit out of 9...that's not so bad.

the other Chaos node is nothing except two Chaos Spawn. The conquered city can produce Magicians - might be better to use those for this job. The colossus place is 2 of those and nothing else - this looks like a job for Berserkers indeed. 4 Berserkers die but I win - 700 treasure, a Vertigo spell, a Warlock hero, and a...Brave Mace. The hero is nice, comes with Super Ritual Master. The rest are kinda crappy for such a hard battle.

[Nelphine]

Oh absolutely you're going to eat a lot of shots. Djinn are probably the worst thing to fight. Holy armor and ultra elite bezerkers helps a lot though. I lose bezerkers, and raise dead. Save some mana for healing so you can hit them with max figures. Djinn are definitely not an easy target - I just mean you can.

And dispelling wave against djinn is a blessing - it means no confusion.


Take nodes everywhere. The whole goal is to have all the nodes, even in the dead middle of enemy territory. But that's also why I try to hold peace with massive army strength - without a war they won't doomstack my nodes, and nothing else will randomly attack a single ultra elite bezerker guarding a node. Of course if at war, I lose the bezerker, but even just at peace, nothing attacks my nodes.

Finally: inspiration is a godsend. It let's you build bexerkets in one turn - never spend gold on them again. Two cities like that and no non warlord AI will ever catch your army strength again. Four cities and you should have a larger army strength than four impossible AI combined.