Posted April 17, 2025
Gattz13
New User
Registered: Feb 2010
From Slovakia
Gattz13
New User
Registered: Feb 2010
From Slovakia
Posted July 17, 2025
Alright, with Apotheosis, vanilla limits of MOM Remake are pushed hard.
On all tiers.
Which means also on the 'max final score' level.
https://imgur.com/MfprF1L
So first I tried a well known race: High Elves.
As expected, with their +10% To Hit, they could do extremely well while clearing dungeons, attacking neutral, later enemy wizard's town.
I had the soultrapped set to turn 300 or so, as I already knew they are pain in the grass.
That gave me enough time to get to Catapults and hence I could as fend them off (defend my cities) so clear their double-decker dungeons.
Victory was not easy, but I learned a lot of new spells and as I captured at least one city of Arcanus new races, I also learned about them, and trained most of their units, unique included.
Second, after I confirmed, that Catapult is strong (and effective vs Soultrapped), and needed to learn about Myrran new races, I went for Dwarves (hoping to utilize their Cannons)
To my disappointment, they lack long range, hence their higher ATT does not really bring victory by default on the battlefield.
This time I tried only Light magic, but with quite good amount of struggle, I marched through Myrran and captured neutral cities. I missed good logistics (Dwarves lack flyers and in general have low move points)
Goal achieved, Most of the races studied (not the atlantheans, tho)
Third I craved new race, so I played Thralls. Their ultimate unique unit: Vampires, looked like possibly best unit in the game (flying, regenerative, life stealing), but in real battles, their are not as great, especially as I increased the army budget for all dungeons, nodes & towers.
Not to mention, that to unlock Vampires takes tremendous effort from city development, while Thralls are not really strong on the production or other aspects.
Also, it makes sense to produce Vampires in city with Adamantite, and the biggest cities are not always with one.
Surprisingly, I had it more difficult with Vampires, than with so disappointing Cannons, as many new units are just strong: Colossus was moved to Life, and made quite stronger, Giant who remains under Nature, was also boosted a lot, Storm Giant was nerfed but still with Djinns they could harm my Vampires a lot, so even after I meticulously unlocked an army of Vampires, I could not clean every Node (good part is, that cleaning any other targets was painless, due Vampire's regeneration)
As before, enemy wizards were toothless, as they just do not use any global spells, and despite they can build large armies, and now can even utilize water travel (due Colonizers, which nearly every race now has - New, better Settler, that works like Floating Island, but only on water, but it does what it should do perfectly: AI now can colonize every corner of the map, every island, no matter how far away)
So destroying AI, despite they are harmless, is difficult, so I must go for Spell of Mastery, but nevermind, that shall grant me higher final score, right?
Fourth I craved to try Orcomancy, hence I started as Orcs - indeed, Orcomancy turns average (if not below average) orc into true war machine, able to cheaply defend (just build Shrine and mere Shaman become formidable city defenders as well early assault storm troopers). I even combined it with Pirate (you can raze enemy cities, but get positive FAME, instead negative, also get extra bonuses) - so I dominated Arcanus pretty fast and effectively, Later I was positively surprised how their Wyvern Riders can be effective, despite lacking Regen of Vampires, I had several cities with Mithril, so replenishing them was not an issue - they just took Arcanus by force... yet again, the last wizard colonized 100% of Myrran and despite I would conquer his cities, it was just to tedious. Hence I just manned all Towers, and waited for Spell of Mastery.
Playing Orcs with Orcomancy is FUN!
Fifth:
Gnolls + Irongut Gnolls (for the very simple reason: your normal units do not need food)
But boy, that was a tedious and boring play.
Despite Wolf Riders are pretty strong, they are very weak against both flyers & ranged.
New Gnoll unit (Gnoll Shaman) is strong, but slow, so running through your enemies (on the strategic map) is out of question.
This time I didn't pick Pirate, so I had to humbly use units from other races, to truly effectively clear Arcanus.
Was not fun at all. Especially fighting against Soultrapped :(
Sixth:
Drakonians, for the simple reason: Flying Catapult (Flying Ship)
Fast on the strategic map
Can hit any non-invisible enemy (with some spells, even those invisible ones) as Boulder ignores all ranged immunites.
And it worked as charm.
The only downside were their a bit weaker units, (foremost less figures), so surviving the waves of Soultrapped was
difficult.
Surprisingly, I got highest score while playing Gnolls (probably I hated it so much, that I hurried for the win more, than normally?)
But I still had a lot of fun (also during playthroughts, that I didn't care to finish, when I was more-or-less experiencing with some magic/race comobs... )
What I would like to call out, is extremely useful trait for low-tier unit -> Mystics have archer with Long Range feat, making him even more deadly, than High Elven Longbowmen.
On all tiers.
Which means also on the 'max final score' level.
https://imgur.com/MfprF1L
So first I tried a well known race: High Elves.
As expected, with their +10% To Hit, they could do extremely well while clearing dungeons, attacking neutral, later enemy wizard's town.
I had the soultrapped set to turn 300 or so, as I already knew they are pain in the grass.
That gave me enough time to get to Catapults and hence I could as fend them off (defend my cities) so clear their double-decker dungeons.
Victory was not easy, but I learned a lot of new spells and as I captured at least one city of Arcanus new races, I also learned about them, and trained most of their units, unique included.
Second, after I confirmed, that Catapult is strong (and effective vs Soultrapped), and needed to learn about Myrran new races, I went for Dwarves (hoping to utilize their Cannons)
To my disappointment, they lack long range, hence their higher ATT does not really bring victory by default on the battlefield.
This time I tried only Light magic, but with quite good amount of struggle, I marched through Myrran and captured neutral cities. I missed good logistics (Dwarves lack flyers and in general have low move points)
Goal achieved, Most of the races studied (not the atlantheans, tho)
Third I craved new race, so I played Thralls. Their ultimate unique unit: Vampires, looked like possibly best unit in the game (flying, regenerative, life stealing), but in real battles, their are not as great, especially as I increased the army budget for all dungeons, nodes & towers.
Not to mention, that to unlock Vampires takes tremendous effort from city development, while Thralls are not really strong on the production or other aspects.
Also, it makes sense to produce Vampires in city with Adamantite, and the biggest cities are not always with one.
Surprisingly, I had it more difficult with Vampires, than with so disappointing Cannons, as many new units are just strong: Colossus was moved to Life, and made quite stronger, Giant who remains under Nature, was also boosted a lot, Storm Giant was nerfed but still with Djinns they could harm my Vampires a lot, so even after I meticulously unlocked an army of Vampires, I could not clean every Node (good part is, that cleaning any other targets was painless, due Vampire's regeneration)
As before, enemy wizards were toothless, as they just do not use any global spells, and despite they can build large armies, and now can even utilize water travel (due Colonizers, which nearly every race now has - New, better Settler, that works like Floating Island, but only on water, but it does what it should do perfectly: AI now can colonize every corner of the map, every island, no matter how far away)
So destroying AI, despite they are harmless, is difficult, so I must go for Spell of Mastery, but nevermind, that shall grant me higher final score, right?
Fourth I craved to try Orcomancy, hence I started as Orcs - indeed, Orcomancy turns average (if not below average) orc into true war machine, able to cheaply defend (just build Shrine and mere Shaman become formidable city defenders as well early assault storm troopers). I even combined it with Pirate (you can raze enemy cities, but get positive FAME, instead negative, also get extra bonuses) - so I dominated Arcanus pretty fast and effectively, Later I was positively surprised how their Wyvern Riders can be effective, despite lacking Regen of Vampires, I had several cities with Mithril, so replenishing them was not an issue - they just took Arcanus by force... yet again, the last wizard colonized 100% of Myrran and despite I would conquer his cities, it was just to tedious. Hence I just manned all Towers, and waited for Spell of Mastery.
Playing Orcs with Orcomancy is FUN!
Fifth:
Gnolls + Irongut Gnolls (for the very simple reason: your normal units do not need food)
But boy, that was a tedious and boring play.
Despite Wolf Riders are pretty strong, they are very weak against both flyers & ranged.
New Gnoll unit (Gnoll Shaman) is strong, but slow, so running through your enemies (on the strategic map) is out of question.
This time I didn't pick Pirate, so I had to humbly use units from other races, to truly effectively clear Arcanus.
Was not fun at all. Especially fighting against Soultrapped :(
Sixth:
Drakonians, for the simple reason: Flying Catapult (Flying Ship)
Fast on the strategic map
Can hit any non-invisible enemy (with some spells, even those invisible ones) as Boulder ignores all ranged immunites.
And it worked as charm.
The only downside were their a bit weaker units, (foremost less figures), so surviving the waves of Soultrapped was
difficult.
Surprisingly, I got highest score while playing Gnolls (probably I hated it so much, that I hurried for the win more, than normally?)
But I still had a lot of fun (also during playthroughts, that I didn't care to finish, when I was more-or-less experiencing with some magic/race comobs... )
What I would like to call out, is extremely useful trait for low-tier unit -> Mystics have archer with Long Range feat, making him even more deadly, than High Elven Longbowmen.
Gattz13
New User
Registered: Feb 2010
From Slovakia
Posted July 18, 2025
properly (till the bitter end) played Seelie Court.
https://imgur.com/QIPHXk9
Generally well rounded race.
They even cope with illusionary enemies :
Place Fir Bolg (Seelie Cavarly) into your army, then your War Pixies can try Black-Sleep them
This tactics is excellent against soultrapped, who often have few invisible units in their army.
War Pixies have two useful spells for their disposal:
Black Sleep - we know this one well
Malicious Mischief - walking enemy cannot move 1 turn, and loses all ammo
Instead naval units (Trireme and such) they got 4-figure Mermaid, not the strongest on the sea, but formidable transport.
Leprechaun is pretty versatile hybrid unit, with one figure great against enemies with boulder attack (when fighting soultrapped, they got 2 units with boulder attack, which can decimate most multi-figure units)
Seelie ultimate unit should be Hippogryph (unique version of High Elven Pegasi - shooting flyer), but I personally rely more on their Gnomish Catapult - IMO best catapult in the game. Having 2 figures, as this catapult gains levels, despite lower initial ATT (ranged ATT) compared to normal catapult, becomes better and deadlier. This is later doubled if you add enchantments (especially Life spell Lionheart, or Chaos Flame Blade and such)
Gnomish catapult has only two restrains:
low speed (as any basic unit, only 2 move points, and are walkers, so you either let them accompany a colonizer who can get them through water easily, or get some fancy spells, like floating island and such)
Illusionary enemies. While Fir Bolgs can reveal invisible units, catapults still cannot shoot them.
Making them undead might help, but Apotheosis adds 'mirror' of black channels, if you select specific 3-picks perk, spell Sanctify, which also adds illusion immunity just like undead status, but you keep your levels (also your Warlord level) and can continue in gaining EXP.
Usually this is most exciting about them, but i left it to the end: Seelie generate 1 power per city citizen. Which makes them together with Mystics the most potent race on Arcanus magic-wise.
Of course, just like Dark Elves, Mystics and other races with this feat, they have slow city growth (-20), but that shall not be too punitive in means of long-run strategy at all.
Contrary to Mystics, Seelie can build Alchemist Tower, which would suggest to aim for Nature magic (to manipulate the world sources and get Mithril) or even trying the Soultrapped perk, which will unlock expensive, but pretty perk spell: create resource -> possibly granting Adamantium and such (even on Arcanus)
Yet, there are situations, when I am looking over my shoulder, wondering, if playing Mystics wouldn't be a bit better, like when fighting Sky Dragon - where even my otherwise favored Gnomish Catapults, cannot hit hard. I crave seemingly weak, but with few levels & enchantments, super powerful Mystic Archers, who can strike painfully even Sky Dragon from long distance. Even Hippogryps cannot deal comparable damage (but can of course do better while struggling in melee against Sky Dragon, while archers one-hit-die instantly)
https://imgur.com/QIPHXk9
Generally well rounded race.
They even cope with illusionary enemies :
Place Fir Bolg (Seelie Cavarly) into your army, then your War Pixies can try Black-Sleep them
This tactics is excellent against soultrapped, who often have few invisible units in their army.
War Pixies have two useful spells for their disposal:
Black Sleep - we know this one well
Malicious Mischief - walking enemy cannot move 1 turn, and loses all ammo
Instead naval units (Trireme and such) they got 4-figure Mermaid, not the strongest on the sea, but formidable transport.
Leprechaun is pretty versatile hybrid unit, with one figure great against enemies with boulder attack (when fighting soultrapped, they got 2 units with boulder attack, which can decimate most multi-figure units)
Seelie ultimate unit should be Hippogryph (unique version of High Elven Pegasi - shooting flyer), but I personally rely more on their Gnomish Catapult - IMO best catapult in the game. Having 2 figures, as this catapult gains levels, despite lower initial ATT (ranged ATT) compared to normal catapult, becomes better and deadlier. This is later doubled if you add enchantments (especially Life spell Lionheart, or Chaos Flame Blade and such)
Gnomish catapult has only two restrains:
low speed (as any basic unit, only 2 move points, and are walkers, so you either let them accompany a colonizer who can get them through water easily, or get some fancy spells, like floating island and such)
Illusionary enemies. While Fir Bolgs can reveal invisible units, catapults still cannot shoot them.
Making them undead might help, but Apotheosis adds 'mirror' of black channels, if you select specific 3-picks perk, spell Sanctify, which also adds illusion immunity just like undead status, but you keep your levels (also your Warlord level) and can continue in gaining EXP.
Usually this is most exciting about them, but i left it to the end: Seelie generate 1 power per city citizen. Which makes them together with Mystics the most potent race on Arcanus magic-wise.
Of course, just like Dark Elves, Mystics and other races with this feat, they have slow city growth (-20), but that shall not be too punitive in means of long-run strategy at all.
Contrary to Mystics, Seelie can build Alchemist Tower, which would suggest to aim for Nature magic (to manipulate the world sources and get Mithril) or even trying the Soultrapped perk, which will unlock expensive, but pretty perk spell: create resource -> possibly granting Adamantium and such (even on Arcanus)
Yet, there are situations, when I am looking over my shoulder, wondering, if playing Mystics wouldn't be a bit better, like when fighting Sky Dragon - where even my otherwise favored Gnomish Catapults, cannot hit hard. I crave seemingly weak, but with few levels & enchantments, super powerful Mystic Archers, who can strike painfully even Sky Dragon from long distance. Even Hippogryps cannot deal comparable damage (but can of course do better while struggling in melee against Sky Dragon, while archers one-hit-die instantly)
Gattz13
New User
Registered: Feb 2010
From Slovakia
Posted July 18, 2025
Started Mystics.
They might seem lame, with their only benefit in form of 1 power / citizen.
But their true power lurks in their unique archers with Long Range.
While most races have quite perky unique units, it rarely is as early unit as mere archer.
Common, just think about it: what do you need to start producing cheap archers?
Barracks, Sawmill (with just one forest in city radius) and there you go.
I was avoiding Mystics for quite some time, due their ban of Alchemist Guild. Which often grants the required edge in any war.
But having archers with long range, common, even without mithril you can just dominate in any battle.
Despite I boosted the budget for dungeons (circa by 1500 points, or more), my starting town was not coastal and my future expansion was locked by a formidable dungeon. So I took several archers and took that dungeon by storm. Despite it archers are pretty weak, in numbers they get strong. Especially as they do not care about range, so each turn they just took a step back and shot, prolonging the purely ranged combat to maximum, with few enchanments and spells, even while losing 3 of them, I won... a battle, so early into the game, very few races could walk out from as victorius. (unless lucky, by getting good hero or mercenaries .. but I started with 40 gold, not 500, and one city just cannot produce excess gold in such short time)
Later, I handled the over-water-travel problem by simply sending few water walking units (had Death Magic, so I just used wraithform, not cheap, but still affordable spell. Conquered ocean dungeon, got Dreadnought, who can carry my archers. I also developed one of my cities enough to unlock Mystic Priests (with beautiful visuals), to secure strategic map healing boost also to mitigate troubles when facing enemies with missile immunity.
And just as I leveled this army properly, later added some enchantments, they become pretty unstoppable. Outside of Sorcery Node, they could take down even fast Sky Dragon (as it was not boosted by node, and I could cast spells properly... even mere Black Prayer helps)
I was missing tactician, Such precious perk just for this kind of strategy (shoot enemies before they shoot you)
And eventually properly expanded in all directions.
One of my adversaries had Myrran Refugee... and selected Thralls - who, when played properly, can be truly deadly... especially when stacking Indoctrinators in their army (let it be offensive or defensive / city guardian army)
AI luckily invested more into impalers, who are not weak by any means, but for my archers are just a tasty snack.
As I got a hero, and some mediocre artifacts, I sent him to conquer smaller, insufficiently protected cities, to speed my conquest. During the effort, he stumbled upon the main capital city of my enemy.. and just out of curiosity, tried to attack (with my intention to pull him out of battle, after observing his guardians)
Only with difficulty you could imagine my deep surprise, after the game calculated basically flawless victory:
https://imgur.com/7vwIqVs
I personally blame the strong looking, but in real combat kind of meek Vampires.
https://imgur.com/1kkbFzB
Vampires have perks to behold, like regeneration, life stealing, flying... or piercing bite (that delivers extra damage after every attack) and not too shabby stats on top.
My hero was no super hero at all, equipped with mundane objects, without any magical properties, just with below average bonuses (+1..3 ATT / DEF... simply weak two weapons and one low-cost armor)
On the other hand, I was not surprised at all, when out of the three wizards, the strongest and was leading Orcs and had Orcomancy perk.
The last wizard on Arcanus led Kobolds, and tried his best to utilize their strengths, but to no avail.
The fourth wizard was on Myrran, and I was certain he won't get through my boosted Towers anytime soon.
With my archers, I defeated one Soultrapped Dungeon after another, and slowly conquered Arcanus, and eventually got to Spell of Mastery
Despite not having all the map parameters on highest difficulty, I still scored pretty high :)
Truth is, that I waged a bloody war and by not having many strong armies (only like 2 stacks, then like 4 stacks of weaker armies, that just hunted enemy settlers or neutrals and cleaned the mess the 2 main armies created)
all three enemy wizards I was in war with, were fighting back, letting me generate quite some FAME (which I believe is translated into final score), and I also cleaned 100% of all dungeons on Acanus (+one tower, which I manned with one of the 2 major armies, and was occasionally attacked by the poor sod, who decided to play as Goblins, ridiculously weak race versus strong ranged units, just like my Mystic Archers are)
https://imgur.com/NBHEKsX
Surprisingly, not only I had fun, but during the complete playthrough, I never felt that I had to struggle. I could fend off AI wizards' counterattacks, rabid soultrapped,
BTW, does anyone know how to change / mod the amount of neutral wandering (traveling) monsters. Their total power is simply weak. Especially compared to neutral soultrapped, who dispatch full-house armies (9 units, rarely less, but never less than 7)
You know... after you defend successfully against 3 mech priests, 2 cannons. 3 giants (1 figure dudes throwing boulders), and few of their invisible cavalry or flying halberdiers... and then 2 war bears attack... it is like "WTF, what do you want?" while you stand proudly on top of your impenetrable city wall, looking through the debris of dozens of destroyed machinery... and 4 figures of 2 war bears approach you, just to die in vain.
I bet there must be somewhere in the scripts a seed / budget for wandering armies, that random generate(from dungeons, nodes, towers...), right?
They might seem lame, with their only benefit in form of 1 power / citizen.
But their true power lurks in their unique archers with Long Range.
While most races have quite perky unique units, it rarely is as early unit as mere archer.
Common, just think about it: what do you need to start producing cheap archers?
Barracks, Sawmill (with just one forest in city radius) and there you go.
I was avoiding Mystics for quite some time, due their ban of Alchemist Guild. Which often grants the required edge in any war.
But having archers with long range, common, even without mithril you can just dominate in any battle.
Despite I boosted the budget for dungeons (circa by 1500 points, or more), my starting town was not coastal and my future expansion was locked by a formidable dungeon. So I took several archers and took that dungeon by storm. Despite it archers are pretty weak, in numbers they get strong. Especially as they do not care about range, so each turn they just took a step back and shot, prolonging the purely ranged combat to maximum, with few enchanments and spells, even while losing 3 of them, I won... a battle, so early into the game, very few races could walk out from as victorius. (unless lucky, by getting good hero or mercenaries .. but I started with 40 gold, not 500, and one city just cannot produce excess gold in such short time)
Later, I handled the over-water-travel problem by simply sending few water walking units (had Death Magic, so I just used wraithform, not cheap, but still affordable spell. Conquered ocean dungeon, got Dreadnought, who can carry my archers. I also developed one of my cities enough to unlock Mystic Priests (with beautiful visuals), to secure strategic map healing boost also to mitigate troubles when facing enemies with missile immunity.
And just as I leveled this army properly, later added some enchantments, they become pretty unstoppable. Outside of Sorcery Node, they could take down even fast Sky Dragon (as it was not boosted by node, and I could cast spells properly... even mere Black Prayer helps)
I was missing tactician, Such precious perk just for this kind of strategy (shoot enemies before they shoot you)
And eventually properly expanded in all directions.
One of my adversaries had Myrran Refugee... and selected Thralls - who, when played properly, can be truly deadly... especially when stacking Indoctrinators in their army (let it be offensive or defensive / city guardian army)
AI luckily invested more into impalers, who are not weak by any means, but for my archers are just a tasty snack.
As I got a hero, and some mediocre artifacts, I sent him to conquer smaller, insufficiently protected cities, to speed my conquest. During the effort, he stumbled upon the main capital city of my enemy.. and just out of curiosity, tried to attack (with my intention to pull him out of battle, after observing his guardians)
Only with difficulty you could imagine my deep surprise, after the game calculated basically flawless victory:
https://imgur.com/7vwIqVs
I personally blame the strong looking, but in real combat kind of meek Vampires.
https://imgur.com/1kkbFzB
Vampires have perks to behold, like regeneration, life stealing, flying... or piercing bite (that delivers extra damage after every attack) and not too shabby stats on top.
My hero was no super hero at all, equipped with mundane objects, without any magical properties, just with below average bonuses (+1..3 ATT / DEF... simply weak two weapons and one low-cost armor)
On the other hand, I was not surprised at all, when out of the three wizards, the strongest and was leading Orcs and had Orcomancy perk.
The last wizard on Arcanus led Kobolds, and tried his best to utilize their strengths, but to no avail.
The fourth wizard was on Myrran, and I was certain he won't get through my boosted Towers anytime soon.
With my archers, I defeated one Soultrapped Dungeon after another, and slowly conquered Arcanus, and eventually got to Spell of Mastery
Despite not having all the map parameters on highest difficulty, I still scored pretty high :)
Truth is, that I waged a bloody war and by not having many strong armies (only like 2 stacks, then like 4 stacks of weaker armies, that just hunted enemy settlers or neutrals and cleaned the mess the 2 main armies created)
all three enemy wizards I was in war with, were fighting back, letting me generate quite some FAME (which I believe is translated into final score), and I also cleaned 100% of all dungeons on Acanus (+one tower, which I manned with one of the 2 major armies, and was occasionally attacked by the poor sod, who decided to play as Goblins, ridiculously weak race versus strong ranged units, just like my Mystic Archers are)
https://imgur.com/NBHEKsX
Surprisingly, not only I had fun, but during the complete playthrough, I never felt that I had to struggle. I could fend off AI wizards' counterattacks, rabid soultrapped,
BTW, does anyone know how to change / mod the amount of neutral wandering (traveling) monsters. Their total power is simply weak. Especially compared to neutral soultrapped, who dispatch full-house armies (9 units, rarely less, but never less than 7)
You know... after you defend successfully against 3 mech priests, 2 cannons. 3 giants (1 figure dudes throwing boulders), and few of their invisible cavalry or flying halberdiers... and then 2 war bears attack... it is like "WTF, what do you want?" while you stand proudly on top of your impenetrable city wall, looking through the debris of dozens of destroyed machinery... and 4 figures of 2 war bears approach you, just to die in vain.
I bet there must be somewhere in the scripts a seed / budget for wandering armies, that random generate(from dungeons, nodes, towers...), right?