Starting strategies

Anything else to do with the original Master of Magic
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saxxonpike
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:35 pm

Starting strategies

Post by saxxonpike »

I didn't see a thread about this in this forum yet, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

I've been playing Master of Magic for quite a few years now, ever since I got it back in 1995. (Even the dreaded move to Windows XP couldn't stop me - I bought an old Pentium 3 rig off someone and made it into an oldschool gaming platform!) Despite playing for so long, however, I haven't really refined my skills much. It wasn't until just recently that I've established an interesting way to start.

I like to start with the Alchemist retort to make this work a bit better. Right at the beginning of the game, I set the two units I have on Patrol in the city and set the tax rate to 2% for a bit of early cash flow. Then, I go into the Magic screen and set the mana up to full, which should grant 8 mana per turn. This hampers early research slightly, but I figure it's worth gaining a stronger beginning army for - especially from the raiders. Then, I use Alchemy to convert 30 gold to mana and cast the Magic Spirit spell. This magic spirit is used to explore the starting island since they can move twice in a turn. Also, they can find ruins that have no monsters in them for a quick 50 gold or mana. For the next few turns, I focus mainly on building these buildings (in this order): Granary, Marketplace, Farmer's Market, Shrine - this allows for more control over production in your city since fewer will be needed to maintain the city. I like to have a lot of food generation as early as I can get it so that I can start building defense as soon as possible. From this point there's no wrong way to go if you'd prefer to use Alchemy to convert mana to gold and Buy all your buildings, or if you want to ease up on mana production and start researching.

That's how I roll. What about you guys?
gejsiv
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:12 pm

Re: Starting strategies

Post by gejsiv »

Today must be the day of the necrobump.

Anyways.
I always go full skill with one or two in research since I always play chaos or sorcery based and chaos with skill of 200 is a fearsome sight indeed. I also go with alchemy and nomads so I can keep up my gold/magic, but also because the initial plus 1 to hit from free magic weapon is kinda nice. I use the spearmen to scout since I normally also play medium land mass and have less to worry about random encounters. Eventually he becomes replaced by a magic spirit after I've found the borders to my island.
My build order is granary, sawmill, forest guild, shrine, marketplace, farmers market, and by this point I should have found some good expansions so a few settlers than library and on my way up the tech tree. I normally play nomads, and if I notice any cities that need to be taken I throw the stables and animists guild so I can get out horse bowmen and rangers (4 move and ranged attacks, so they are good at taking things). That or a bunch of hell hounds/chaos channels, it depends on the situation really.
Iluvalar
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:57 pm

Re: Starting strategies

Post by Iluvalar »

gejsiv wrote: My build order is granary, sawmill, forest guild, shrine, marketplace, farmers market.
Really ? the farmer market so far ?
if you build in this order :
granary, marketplace, farmers market, sawmill, shrine, forest guild.
You might end those building with one more population (out of 7 it's pretty good).
gejsiv
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2008 9:12 pm

Re: Starting strategies

Post by gejsiv »

I agree with you, but because I always have the spearman go scout, if I get up to seven population I have one rebel (I tax 1.5 or 2 at all times). Therefore, I try to hit the extra production first, plus the +2 food from the foresters guild, so everything else builds faster. That way I spend less time with rebels without sacrificing my taxes. On later cities, I do use your build order because it matters less if they are revolting since I can afford the food to garrison them. Also, your strategy is perfect on the smaller map setting since then I don't need to scout as much (unless I'm lizardmen or draconian).
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