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So you've picked up Caster of Magic and aren't really sure what you're looking at? This guide's for you! This guide does not intend to be a comprehensive list of changes made by CoM (for that you should see seravy's excellent readme). Instead, it is written for people who are already very familiar with MoM to help orient them to some of the changes. So it's kind of a Reader's Digest version of the readme, to help veteran players decide whether CoM is something they want and if so what to look for on their first playthrough.

First things first, play on Normal for your first time. Maybe try Fair if you're used to playing MoM on Impossible. The game is a fair bit more difficult and you're getting hit with a whole bunch of new stuff. Even if you've been playing for decades, you'll still likely lose your first game.

Wizard Customization

Some pretty dramatic changes, here. First, you'll notice that you now have 12 picks. The rest of the changes fall into two categories:

1. Books.

Life and Death are no longer mutually exclusive.
10 books per school is now the maximum at the start. 10 books allows you to pick 2 Uncommons to be "guaranteed," meaning you will be able to research them from the start of the game.
You generally get less starting spells (at most 5 free Common spells with 10 books).

2. Retorts. This is the big one.

All spellbook requirements have been waived.

Removed retorts: Mana Focusing

Consolidated retorts: Chaos/Nature/Sorcery Mastery, Divine/Infernal Power. The former three were combined into Specialist, which adds the Mastery bonuses to whichever school you have the most picks in at the start (including Life or Death). The latter two were melded into Cult Leader, which now only costs 1 pick (and there was much rejoicing) and no longer requires certain books.

Unmodified retorts:
Conjurer, Charismatic, Warlord. Note that they aren't the same, though. Changes to the way maintenance costs are calculated gives a very tiny nerf to Conjurer. Similarly, changes in the gains from experience levels makes Warlord a little weaker (still incredibly powerful though). Meanwhile Charismatic has received a huge indirect buff because CoM has an actual functioning diplomacy system.

Modified retorts:
Alchemist - Barbarians no longer benefit from auto magic weapons, otherwise the same.
Channeler - In addition to all its old effects, now increases the chance that combat spells will pop up for research
Archmage - Now boosts starting skill by 50%, instead of flat +10. Otherwise unchanged.
Artificer - Now only starts with Enchant Item, but ensures Create Artifact will be the first Rare spell available for research. Also in addition to its old effect of 50% cheaper item creation, also makes all Arcane spells 25% cheaper. Note that Enchant Item as a spell has been reworked to be way more useful.
Sage Master - Now confers a starting 15 RP bonus on top of original benefit.
Myrran - Big changes here. Now only costs 1 pick and no longer confers bonus power from Fortress. Picking it also "flips" enemy wizards, causing the majority to start on Myrror and only one or two to start on Arcanus.

I'm just going to put an aside in here - I love this change so much. The Myrran races are so cool but 3 picks was just way too punishing for what you got.

Famous - Now only costs 1 pick, quadruples mercenary chance, and increases odds that heroes will join at a higher level.
Runemaster - In addition to double effective dispelling, also doubles research of Arcane spells, makes all your spells 150% tougher to dispel, and increases the chance that global enchantments will pop up for research. Now costs 2 picks.
Node Mastery - renamed to Astrologer for reasons that are unclear. Instead of doubling node power production, it instead causes nodes to produce an extra 2 power for every 6 turns. This could be better or worse depending on your strategy, but it still lets you cast spells in nodes no problem.

New retorts (I've just copypasted the readme for most of these, since there's no comparison to MoM)
Aforementioned Specialist and Cult Leader
Guardian: The player's city garrisons receive a +1 Resistance, +1 To Hit and +1 To Defend bonus during combat. Cities of the same race as the one the wizard started the game with have a +6 maximal population. Costs 2 picks.
Tactician: All of your units gain +1 defense during combat. Heroes gain 2 defense, 2 resistance, and attack power instead. Mutually exclusive with Warlord. Costs 1 pick
Omniscient: Gives your cities bonuses based on your spellbooks: Gold from Life books, Research from Sorcery, Population from Nature, Power from Chaos, and Production from Death. First book in a realm gives a large bonus, each additional book gives a small bonus.

Another aside here - I love this retort so much. It's very cool both conceptually and mechanically. Because the first book provides the biggest bonus, it works well with both rainbow strategies and single-school builds. Also I just have to say - while not the strongest build I've done, or even the strongest use of this retort, 10 Chaos+Omnicient+Myrran+Dark Elves is the most fun I've ever had in a strategy game.

Spellweaver: All of your overland spells cost 33% less except summoning and item creation. Mutually exclusive with Archmage, 2 picks.


So, as you can see, a fair bit to take in here. With more total picks, broadly cheaper retorts, and no spellbook restrictions, there are just a massive amount of combinations. This alone completely revitalized the game for me. I do kinda miss 11 book strategies though, even if they were mostly good for a laugh/quick win.


Overall Gameplay Changes

Faster units - 2 is now the default movement speed, with cavalry averaging around 4 and Doom Bats having 6. Only a few units (Settlers and Zombies, mostly) have 1 movement. To compensate for this, roads have been altered - normal roads provide no movement bonus and instead just negate terrain penalties, enchanted roads function as normal roads, taking 0.5 per square to move through.

Honestly this is IMHO one of the best changes the mod has made and is a reason to get it even if you don't like 90% of the other things it does. One of the biggest problems with MoM was pacing and this mostly resolves that.

Cheaper spells - Casting costs have been reduced more or less across the board. Again, such a massive, massive change for the better. A lot of spells in MoM were way too expensive for what you got, particularly at the Uncommon and Rare tiers. I summon Gargoyles now, guys. Gargoyles. And I don't regret it. Beyond this, many enchantment spells also have significantly lower upkeep - most Common unit enchants have no upkeep at all!

Lower resistance almost across the board for Arcanus races. Definitely something you want to be aware of going into your first game. Curses are more likely to stick and Poison is a fair bit deadlier.

Independent casting - Units with both spellcasting and a magic ranged attack (e.g. Djinn, Efreet, most heroes) no longer use their SP as ranged ammo, the two are independent.

Free Summoning Circle: That's right, the Summoning Circle spell is now free. As in 0 mana. As in you can always cast it instantly as soon as you've researched it. This is a really, really helpful change (Word of Recall and Recall Hero are no longer in the game, if you were wondering).

Unit templates - Most templates have been tweaked or modified in some way, but there are three changes that really stand out. First, Spearmen now have only 6 figures (Halflings and Trolls excepted). This weakens Spearmen significantly and makes them most useful for suppressing unrest or an emergency guard - if you want a garrison you're better off with Swordsmen or Bowmen. Which brings us to the second, Bowmen. Their damage has been improved significantly - they're definitely worth building now. Third, Magicians. The Magician template has been added to the Trolls and Halflings, and Magicians now actually cast spells like heroes do. They have 20 SP and will always be able to cast Fireball, but will also have access to everything the wizard has researched (but of course can only cast anything with a base cost of 20 or less).

Casting from beyond the grave - Banished wizards can still cast combat spells, albeit at always 3x cost (Channeller reduces this to always 2x cost). Only combat spells, no overland, but still. This can cost you on your first game if you're not prepared for it.

Rebalanced heroes - A whole bunch of new abilities have been added for heroes, and individual heroes have been rebalanced. Check the readme if you want all the changes, but I'm just throwing out now - be prepared to reevaluate everyone. Most of the strongest heroes are still incredibly powerful, but many of the weak heroes are now quite handy.

AI: Oh baby is the AI better. They fight smarter, they cast smarter, they build smarter. Like I said at the start, be prepared to play a few difficulty settings lower than you're used to.
high rated
Cities and Races

Changes to cities

Revised tech trees - building requirements have been totally revamped, and are now generally divided into a bunch of smaller trees based on function. This was the thing I was least sure about when I started the mod and part of the reason why I went so long without it, but I really think it's been a great change. It allows you to devote your cities to certain specializations more or less from the get-go and every time you get a new city, you need to think about what you most need and how that city can fill that need.

Another important note here is that Armorer's Guilds and Fantastic Stables are now delayed and will not appear at all in the build queue until January 1406. Based on the discussion I've seen on the RealmsBeyond forum, just about everyone seems to agree that this is a fairly inelegant and suboptimal solution but no one can think of a better idea.

Added and removed buildings: The Armory, Temple, and Shipyard are no more. Halberdiers now require a Fighter's Guild, Galleys a Shipwright's Guild+Fighter's Guild, and the Temple's bonuses have been diffused among the other religious buildings. In their place we now have the Magic Market (flat +6 power), Colosseum (Fame and Unrest reduction) and Amplifying Guild (flat +7 skill!!! But it's also incredibly expensive in production and upkeep).

Revised buildings - The buildings themselves have also seen some changes, particularly the lower-tier ones, which focus more on actual yields (i.e. Sawmill gives a raw +6 production and Marketplace a raw +8 gold rather than modifiers), whereas more advanced buildings provided multipliers. Higher tier buildings are mostly the same, albeit normally with less prerequisites and tweaked cost and effects. This is most noticeable with the Wizard's Guild which is actually not economically worthless. Oh, also, Sawmill and Miner's Guild have had terrain requirements waived (Forester's Guild has not).


So, from a strategy perspective, what does this mean? It means that there are five kind of cheap "core" buildings that provide a very strong return on their investment: Sawmill (production), Granary (growth), Magic Market (power), Library (research), and Marketplace (gold). A lot of early city planning revolves around determining what need you want your city to fill and giving it the corresponding core building, then expanding on that. It really makes building cities a lot more fun.


Changes to races

There's been a lot of tweaking to units and abilities here and there and some pretty significant tech tree overhauls for some races, so I'm just going to touch on the big changes.

Barbarians - Most units now have Pathfinding (which functions like roads, i.e. every square costs 1 movement instead of 0.5). Barbs can't build Alchemist's Guilds and don't get buffed from the Alchemist retort, but do all have an innate +1 to hit. Also their Setters are cheap. They get two new units:

Gladiators (requires Colosseum): Tankier Berserkers. Decent damage output, but their main draw is high defense, shields, and HP. 3 figures.
Spellzerkers (requires Wizard's Guild): Again decent damage output, not as tanky as Gladiators but they can cast spells as if they were Magicians.

Gnolls - Slightly less restrictive tech tree than vanilla and on top of extra damage their template units get +1 movement. They have lost access to Bowmen. They get one new unit:

Jackal Riders (Armorer's Guild). Cavalry with solid stats and Cause Fear. Oh, and did I mention it's 8 figures? Yeah, it's 8 figures. How many of you are planning a 9 Life Warlord Gnoll run right now?

Halflings - Mostly the same. Each Halfling citizen now generates 1 research (Hobbits be mad curious, yo), and as mentioned above they now get Magicians and are the only race with 8 figure Spearmen. They have also lost access to Bowmen ("Wait, Halflings could build Bowmen?" - half the people reading this). No new units.

High Elves - Again, mostly the same. Their tech tree has expanded to include all religious buildings, which is nice, and Pegasai are now 4 figures and as a result are pretty solid units. Longbowmen are no longer as noteworthy. No new units.

High Men - Big, big, big changes here. The most notably change is Paladins no longer have Magic Immunity. In its place, they received Death and Illusions Immunity, so kind of like the off-brand Magic Immunity. Since they were the lynchpin of the High Men's power, the rest of the race has been retuned a little to compensate for that (though Paladins are probably still the strongest normal unit in the game). Part of this is that all their buildings are 15% cheaper. The rest comes in the form of two new units:

Crusaders (Shrine + Fighter's Guild). Take Swordsmen, make them 8 Figures, buff them up, give them the ability to cast Healing. Essentially a defense-oriented complement to Pikemen.

Knights (Stables + Fighter's Guild). Basically secular Paladins. Stat-wise they're almost identical to Pallies, but they lack all the bells and whistles that make Paladins so good. Still pretty strong, and 5 movement is always nice.

Klackons - More or less as you remember them. One notable change is that while they don't have Magicians, they can still build Wizard's Guilds, allowing you to turn their massive production potential into magic power. No new units.

Lizardmen - Again more or less as you remember them. Tech is slightly less restricted and their Settlers have extra movement, cementing them as a great race for REXing. One new unit:

Carrack (Forester's Guild, coastal city). As odd and counterintuitive as it might seem, Lizardmen's biggest problem was their lack of a ship. Not only did it mean that they had no way to bring heroes and summoned troops across continents, but Lizardmen units are too slow to catch ships. With the massive improvements CoM made to naval AI, this showed that Lizardmen were ironically the race that had the hardest time defending their shores. Enter the Carrack: It allows your mammalian units to cross the seas with you, and it turns your Lizardmen into the aquatic version of mounted infantry, riding the boat to get to the battle.

Nomads Kind of the same. They lose Granaries and Farmers Markets, but they get a big bonus to Resistance, cheap Settlers, and weak ranged attacks on their Spearmen and Swordsmen. I think there's also a buff in there due to a change in the way trade bonuses are handled? I dunno. In any case, mostly as you remember them, Rangers are a bit further down the tree (Armorer's Guild) but stronger to compensate for it. Horsebowmen still rock.

Orcs Their units are cheaper but that's more or less it. Wyvern Riders got an indirect buff with Arcanus resistances being lowered. Oh! And their cav and halberds finally conform to the templates (in vanilla MoM Orc cav and halberds lack the First Strike and Negate First Strike abilities, respectively). They do get one new unit:

Horde (Armorer's Guild). Essentially Halberdiers with shields, slightly better stats, and 8 figures. But 8 figures combined with Negate First Strike makes these guys pretty solid Lord/Paladin killers with a bit of TLC.

Beastmen As you know them. Centaurs are much stronger but now require a Fighter's Guild. Manticores have three figures instead of two.

Dwarves. The race itself is mostly as you know it, but the tech tree is different. Dwarves now get all religious buildings but no magical buildings (though they do get Alchemist's Guild). Hammerhands are now at the Armorer's Guild, Steam Cannons at the University, and Golems at the Mechanician's Guild+Fighter's Guild. Oh yeah, they get Mech Guilds now. Neat.

Dark Elves. Slightly bigger tech tree (can build everything but Maritime Guilds). Nightblades have been pushed back to the Armorer's Guild. Warlocks retain their original "Cast Doom Bolt" function rather than getting a spellbook like Magicians do. One new unit:

Apprentice (Library, Smithy). Basically a weaker version of Magicians, though with 6 figures. They cast spells (14 SP rather than Magicians' 20) and essentially fill two roles: Giving the Dark Elves a bit of staying power before their high-end units come online, and making up for the fact that Warlocks can only cast the one spell (but oh what a spell it is).

Draconians. Doom Drakes have been majorly buffed but shunted all the way back to the Armorer's Guild, boo. Air Ships now get Wind Walking. Their Bowmen are weaker and they've lost Shamans, to instead be replaced with:

Saints (Pathenon, Shrine). Basically a tankier version of the Priest template. Gives Draconians a ranged/support unit with a bit more staying power.

Trolls Slightly larger tech tree (including Magicians, as mentioned above) and War Mammoths have been buffed. Other than that, Trolls remain the enjoyable regenerating brute force machines they always were.
Magic

I'm obviously not going to recap all the changes Seravy made to the magic system in CoM. Not only would that take forever, but it would cheat you out of the fun of discovering things for yourself. But I am going to briefly sketch out the changes each school has undergone and highlight a couple key Common spells.


Life

The plane control elements of this school are gone entirely and the hard shut-down of Death and Chaos has been mostly removed, too. (As an aside, this is something I'm not sure I like - I really enjoyed both those elements of Life, particularly from a flavour standpoint. However gameplay-wise it's a drastic improvement). Otherwise, it's more or less what you'd expect, just moreso. Your unit and city enchants are cheaper and stronger than before, but pay attention - some of your unit enchants are now overland only and can't be cast in combat. Also note that your nuke spells - Star Fires and Dispel Evil (now called Exorcise) can now target any fantastic creature, not just Chaos or Death ones.

Life looks pretty similar at Common level, it's not until higher tiers that the differences start to appear. In fact the only new spell is that True Light has been axed in favour of Heavenly Light, which is now very different: It makes defending units stronger in combat and causes the city to produce +3 power. This means that Life has a city enchant it wants to plunk down on as many places as possible right from turn one, which is cool.

Early game Life is mostly the same, though. Get some units, drown them in enchantments, and point them at the enemy.

Spell highlights:
Divine Order, which replaces Planar Seal, has some very cool effects. Check it out.
Altar of Peace gives a research bonus based on your overall relations with other wizards. If you can somehow manage to max out relations with all other known players, this could give you an additional 24 research per city. While that will almost never be achieved, particularly on higher levels, it's just such a cool spell concept.
Stream of Life is now an Uncommon spell, although to compensate it now just reduces unrest by 3 instead of eliminating it entirely.


Sorcery

Sorcery is possibly the school that feels the most similar to its vanilla version. There's a couple things of note here. First, gone are the "True" spells - or rather they've been consolidated into a single Uncommon overland enchantment, Aether Binding, which increases the effectiveness of your Arcane dispelling. Blur and Counter Magic have swapped tiers. Any unit under the effects of Confusion at the end of combat dies irrecoverably. Oh, and Focus Magic. Focus Magic is a common unit enchant that gives +3 to a unit's ranged magical attack as well as an extra 15 SP if the unit can cast spells. More importantly, it gives a 3 strength ranged magical attack to any unit that doesn't have one (this overrides other types of ranged attacks, except Breath attacks which get increased by +3 as well). So, yeah. A common unit enchantment that can turn any unit into Shamans, Shamans into Magicians, and Magicians into death machines. The downside is that it's very expensive - most Common unit enchants don't have any upkeep, this spell has 2, and costs 80 to cast to boot.

The real potential of Focus Magic is its combo potential, though. I'm sure some of you are already thinking "Wait, touch attacks work on ranged attacks, right? So if I go Blue/Green and cast Focus Magic on Cockatrices, they'll be turning to stone at range?" Hell yes brother. "Wait, if I go Blue/Red, then not only can Focus Magic make the breath attacks of my Hell Hounds, Chimera, and Channelled units much stronger, but if I cast it on an Efreet, it will both increase its ranged attack damage and its casting skill, allowing it to cast Doom Bolt?" You better believe it.

See, I think Focus Magic is an amazing addition that functions as a sort of microcosm of a lot of what makes CoM so great.

a) It meets a need the base game was lacking (in this case, ways to buff ranged magical attackers)
b) It feels very fun and very powerful but still balanced (in this case by its high cost)
c) It fits Sorcery very well conceptually
d) It fits Sorcery very well mechanically (while I love playing pure Blue, I've always felt that of all the schools, Sorcery is the one that combos the best, and Focus Magic only adds to that).

...Anyway. A couple of other quick notes: You get a new Uncommon summon, Water Elemental. Note that it's an overland summon, not a combat summon like other elementals. Mechanically it's more like a Giant than an Elemental. Check it out for a great example of a modder matching the aesthetic feel of the base game. Also be aware that Storm Giants have fallen off a bit. They aren't really weak, mid-tier summons is just a much more competitive field than it was in vanilla.


Nature

Man has Nature received a makeover, especially at the low tier. War Bears are now one of my favourite Common summons and are everything a bear unit should be in an MtG-themed strategy game: Good offense, good defense, good price. Stone Skin, Giant Strength, and Wall of Stone have all been axed in favour of more exciting things. We now have Fairy Dust, a spell that does a small amount of cold damage to every figure, Fireball-style; Wild Boars, a combat-only summon spell that again does a great job matching the base game's look, and Nature's Eye, which in addition to scouting now also produces research. On top of that, Earth Lore has been buffed to now reveal site guardians in its casting effect, and Earth to Mud has received a massive indirect buff from the change in the movement system. It's now one of my favourite spells.

IMHO in vanilla, Nature was dealt a really raw deal in the early game, but in CoM it's so much fun. The new spells also do a great job of nailing the overall theme for Nature, both conceptually and mechanically.

Other highlights:
Giant Spiders. These guys are now very fast (5 movement) and they absolutely destroy most normal units. Not great if you're looking to clear nodes, but insane if you're looking to clear cities.

Transmute can now turn some metals into Adamantium. However also note that metals have been buffed across the board, meaning this isn't the no-brainer it might seem to be.

Cracks Call is nerfed. Basilisks have been replaced by Giant Lizards who don't have Stone Gaze but do have Regeneration in a weird simultaneous buff/nerf. Gorgons have much higher stats but are now only three figures. They're also ground-bound medusae, now, which is my least favourite change. Bring back the Mighty Moos!

Oh, and if you're wondering, Entangle has been modified to compensate for higher movement speeds, removing 2 movement/turn.


Chaos

Chaos is another school that looks very similar. In fact it has only one new spell, though it does have a couple of instances of "Same spell, different name." However, despite remaining mostly the same, its magical repertoire has received a lot of tweaking. At Common level, Fire Elementals now have Weapon Immunity (an ability that itself has been buffed, Eldritch Weapon has been replaced by Flame Blade, Wall of Fire does more damage, and your curses like Shatter and Warp Creature now carry heftier save penalties. In general, Chaos functions the same way it did in vanilla, just better.

Highlights include:
Fire Giant: Man, this might be one of my favourite summons now. Its ranged attacks are magical and it can cast Fireball (in the way that vanilla Magicians did, not through a spellbook). It's a very reasonable amount of power and versatility for a very reasonable price, and I highly recommend partaking.

Efreet: IMHO this was, bar none, the worst summon in the game in vanilla. Now it's one of the best. Just try it out.

Death

Like Chaos, Death got hit a fair bit with the "Keep the spell the same but arbitrarily change the name" stick, but whatever. At Common tier, Death has undergone a few changes. Terror and Dark Rituals aren't gone but they are up in Rare now. Replacing them is Wraithform, and a new combat summon Zombies. Zombies are now a fair bit weaker than they were in vanilla but they also share the Ghoul's Create Undead ability, allowing you to make your own in-game Zombie Apocalypse. Speaking of Ghouls, they now have a magical ranged attack. Yup. They still Create Undead, they still do Poison, they just can now do it from across the battlefield. A really cool unit. Some really fun strategies have evolved around these alone. Balancing this out is the fact that Black Sleep has now been changed so that any unit effected by it is immune to being revived as an Undead (the description says the spell destroys the nerves required to raise as an undead, which is a nice touch).

The fact that across the board resistance scores are lower and save penalties higher obviously benefits Death more than anyone else. Weakness now compensates for its slightly lackluster effects by having a whopping -7 save penalty, making it virtually guaranteed against many enemies.

Oh, and did I mention most of your summons can heal naturally now? Skeletons can't, and created Undead can't, but everyone else can.

Other highlights:

Your overland curses are pretty rad now. Drain Power now takes the mana you stole from the enemy and dumps it into your Skill production for the turn. Warp Node now transfers the stolen power production to you. Evil Presence now also kills the effects of Alchemist Guilds, Barracks, and War Colleges. Lots of fun stuff in there.

Shadow Demons have Storm Giant syndrome - it's not that they're weak, they've just stayed more or less the same while their environment became more competitive.
Oh well, but one could read ReadMe with changelist by oneself...
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Griantor: Oh well, but one could read ReadMe with changelist by oneself...
Could and should. I'm just trying to provide a more general overview.
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Griantor: Oh well, but one could read ReadMe with changelist by oneself...
avatar
KingCrimson250: Could and should. I'm just trying to provide a more general overview.
And it was helpful!
Excellent overview, thanks for sharing this. Seravy's detailed, thorough readme is great, but overwhelming at first, so it's nice to start with this high-level summary.
Post edited May 06, 2020 by jjsonique
Thanks for the guide. Very helpful.
"Score Modifiers" which is info missing from the wiki, manual and virtually all other online sources. cut and pasted from description file:

#OPT AUTOMATIC COMBAT
AUTOMATIC COMBAT
Score modifier : 1x
All combat results are determinated by the same calculation process the AI uses to resolve their battles against other AI players or neutral targets. As the result is calculated using complex formulas, it will be usually accurate but might be slightly different from the outcome when playing the same battle manually.
Enabling this option can help finishing large scale games against many opponents faster, but you lose your chance to use combat spells or take advantage of several unit special abilities.
#OPT AGAINST THE WORLDS
AGAINST THE WORLDS
Score modifier : 2x
All other wizards are in a permanent alliance and at war with you. Diplomacy is disabled.
Mutually Exclusive with Sandbox Mode.
#OPT WORLD EQUALIZER
WORLD EQUALIZER
Score modifier : 0.5x
Players are divided evenly between the two planes, instead of the player's starting plane generating more and the other plane fewer opponents.
Mutually exclusive with Race to the Unknown and I Am The Boss, Inverted Worlds.
#OPT INVERTED WORLDS
INVERTED WORLDS
Score modifier : 0.4x
Inverts the number of wizards between the two planes - the player's starting plane will have fewer wizards while the other plane has more.
Mutually exclusive with Race to the Unknown, World Equalizer and I Am The Boss.
#OPT RACE TO THE UNKNOWN
RACE TO THE UNKNOWN
Score modifier : 0.75x
All players start on the same plane as you. Towers have halved monster budgets. Plane Shift appears for research as if it was an Uncommon spell and has halved casting and research cost. Opponents will prioritize breaking towers and researching Plane Shift higher than usual.
Mutually exclusive with World Equalizer, Inverted Worlds and I Am The Boss.
#OPT EASY LAIRS
EASY LAIRS
Score modifier : 0.9x
Lair monster and treasure budgets are halved and monsters with a cost of 300 or higher are never included. Available high quality treasure is reduced.
#OPT DUMB NEUTRALS
DUMB NEUTRALS
Score modifier : 0.85x
Neutral armies are never allowed to use stalling strategies.
When "Automatic Combat" is also enabled, neutral units lose flying and invisibility for battle result calculations.
#OPT MONSTERS GONE WILD
MONSTERS GONE WILD
Score modifier : 1.3x
The overall strength of all rampaging monster groups is 50% stronger, however the maximal strength of each individual monster in the stack remains unchanged.
Neutral cities will send larger raider armies than usual.
#OPT TARGETING AID
TARGETING AID
Score modifier : 0.94x
During combat, attempting to cast a single target spell on an enemy unit that is unaffected by that spell due to immunity or other abilities will display a warning message and the spell will not be cast, allowing the player to reconsider.
If the option is not enabled, casting spells on targets immune to the spells is possible, but it'll have no effect.
Please note that enemies might still be unaffected by a spell if their Defense or Resistance is high enough to block the entire effect, but there will be no warning given for this case.
#OPT STANDARDIZED
STANDARDIZED
Score modifier : 0.9x
Enemy wizards cannot be custom and have to use the default book and retort picks.
Mandatory on Easy difficulty.
#OPT PLANE OF WATER
PLANE OF WATER
Score modifier : 1.15x
Land to sea ratio is 1 to 9 instead of the normal 1 to 5. Mutually exclusive with Plane of Earth.
#OPT PLANE OF EARTH
PLANE OF EARTH
Score modifier : 0.8x
Land to sea ratio is 1 to 3 instead of the normal 1 to 5. Mutually exclusive with Plane of Water.
#OPT LEAVE ME ALONE
LEAVE ME ALONE
Score modifier : 0.7x
AI wizards will consider land tiles in an area of 6 around the human player's settlements as unavailable for building cities.
#OPT SANDBOX MODE
SANDBOX MODE
Score Modifier : 0.5x
AI wizards will never turn hostile towards the human player and will never declare war, unless it's the result of a warning or a response to being attacked by the player.
Mutually exclusive with Against the Worlds.
#OPT ORDER PLEASE
ORDER PLEASE
Score Modifier : 1x
AI wizards cannot be Chaotic.
#OPT SMART FAMILIAR
SMART FAMILIAR
Score Modifier : 0.92x
When approaching a lair, node or tower, your familiar will predict battle results for you.
#OPT NO TRADING
NO TRADING
Score Modifier : 1.25x
Neither the AI nor the human player is allowed to trade spells.
#OPT NO OVERLAP
NO OVERLAP
Score modifier : 0.7x
All cities have to be built at least 5 tiles apart instead of 4.
#OPT CONTINENTAL LORD
CONTINENTAL LORD
Score modifier : 0.85x
When enabled, your starting location will be on the largest continent on your plane.
#OPT TREE MASTERY
TREE MASTERY
Score modifier : 1.0x
When enabled, all players start the game with Tree of Knowledge already researched and cast, allowing the construction of Armorer's Guilds, Fantastic Stables, and Linking Towers.
This option is not recommended.
#OPT UNDEVELOPED START
UNDEVELOPED START
Score modifier : 1.0x
All players start the game with halved casting skill and power generated from their fortress city. The fortress cities have 1000 less population and players aren't given any Settler units at the beginning.
Enabling this option will delay various ingame features that depend on turn count by 20, such as the appearance of rampaging monsters or amount of power generated by Astrologer.
#OPT DISCONNECTED
DISCONNECTED
Score modifier : 0.95x
Reduces the number of Towers of Wizardry that connect the two planes to 40% the normal amount but a minimum of 2.
#OPT EVERYTHING NICE
EVERYTHING NICE
Score modifier : 0.75x
Land and City destruction spells are banned. No player can obtain any of the following spells :
Corruption, Raise Volcano, Evil Presence, Warp Node, Planetary Mastery, Doomsday, Armageddon, Meteor Storm, Drought, Pestilence, Call the Void, Chaos Rift, Earthquake
Please be aware that even if you previously selected to start the game with any of these spells, you will not get them.
#OPT I AM THE BOSS
I AM THE BOSS
Score modifier : 0.3x
The player starts alone on their plane. All other wizards start on the other plane.
Opponents will prioritize breaking towers and researching Plane Shift higher than usual.
Mutually exclusive with the other options that change wizard distribution between planes.
#OPT TREASURE IMPACT
TREASURE IMPACT
Score modifier : 0.75x
High quality treasure available in lairs, nodes and towers is drastically increased.
AI players will prioritize hunting for treasure higher and will customize their wizards to prepare for it.
How can Armorer's Guild appear in 1406 if game starts at 1500?