AoW:SM players

[E.T.]

Dies AI cheat in Shadow magic?
Three "Q's":

[1]I reloaded twice to confirm this:
I confront two stacks of enemy, each identified as having eight units each [16 total].
When the battle map opens, the two enemy stacks of eight are now represented as three stacks of eight [24 units]. Ever experience this?

[2]Also, I dont always have success keeping my second stack with me while going into battle. Its apparent that stacks must be kept on adjacent hexes of grid in order to stay with each other in battle. The AI seems to have better luck here, the enemy can have two stacks several hexes apart, yet they both manage to join up in battle against me.
Ever experience this?

[3]Lastly, how many stacks can be taken into battle @ one time?

Thanks

E.T.

[Suicides-by-Steve]

1) Check the one stack of enemy units, make sure that they don't have Concealment abilities, or that Global Enchantments aren't in play. Units such as Ents standing in a group of trees for instance will be invisible, unless a unit has True Seeing or other like Global Spells.

2)No, the attacking units MUST be adjacent to the attacked unit, not the attacking unit. See below.

3) 1 hex surrounded by 6 hexes, equals 7 stacks of 8 units- totalling 56 units involved in any one conflagration. In order to ensure that units stay together, surround the attacked unit first, and then move the final attacker into the hex of the stack you want to attack. Be aware of other enemy units attached as well to the attacked hex, these units will be involved in the battle as well.

[E.T.]

Most useful this info is.

I took the benefit of my mistakes playing first 100+ turns, & restarted scenario from the begining.

Im hooked on SM now, reminiscent of late hours spent on Desciples, needing to know the outcome of that "next turn".....

Gratitude.

[E.T.]

Re: Mp3 files.

Shadow Magic gives player ability to select from multiple MP3 files in game.[first game Ive noticed to do this].

Know of a source for other similar MP3 tracks found in SM?

[Friend_Bear]

I've had SM since it was released in England early last year, and actually I will confirm that it does kind of bend the rules in its favour sometimes, regardless of skills such as True Seeing and the like, almost always it will get multiple stacks of troops into combat quite often making the player think "How the hell did it manage that?" However, its still the best AoW game so far.

[E.T.]

[1] "How the hell did it manage that?"
Lol, exactly my thoughts.

[2]"However, its still the best AoW game so far".
How does Aow: SM compare to Aow2?

[Suicides-by-Steve]

1) Never seen that before- Have you guys patched? I find it hard to believe that Units just "spontaneously" appear. I mean what game gets through (even) beta testing with mistakes like that? I would pin it down more likely on spells, abilities, and effects. There are many of them... I've played this both online and off, and have never encountered such of which you speak... LOL If you're certain that it's not a gameplay generated effect, you guys may need to update your graphic drivers. Units appearing from nowhere, labels for the next level of progression not appearing onscreen (they do on mine!) and so on, seems to point to graphical glitches.

2)Blows it out of the water in EVERY regard. In fact SM kicks even AoWII's ass. I can't wait till they get this engine in 3D...

[Friend_Bear]

For me, i've played SM extensively single and multi-player and I enjoy making my own maps and scenerios up for it since thats one of its strengths, SM severely destroys AoW2 in just about every area, I didn't like AoW2 much at all, i'm just glad SM made up for it.

As for the sudden "spontaneously" pop-ups, I didn't have that problem, the problem I had is that it often managed to get 2 or more stacks of troops into combat without one stack being the proper hex areas not that it bothered me much since when I started to go on the offensive, I go full scale with fast moving squads of valks, dragons and other nastys.

What races do you guys play? I'm always Human.

[E.T.]

Im not patched.

The unexpected appearance of additonal stacks on the battle maps are my failure to observe.

Just starting out in SM Campaign, Im playing Elves.

Cant wait to complete campaign and move onto creating scenarios.

[And_so_it_goes]

right now, i'm diggin' the orcs. led by the evil and sexy fire goddess, karissa, of course...

[Suicides-by-Steve]

For me, i've played SM extensively single and multi-player and I enjoy making my own maps and scenerios up for it since thats one of its strengths, SM severely destroys AoW2 in just about every area, I didn't like AoW2 much at all, i'm just glad SM made up for it.

As for the sudden "spontaneously" pop-ups, I didn't have that problem, the problem I had is that it often managed to get 2 or more stacks of troops into combat without one stack being the proper hex areas not that it bothered me much since when I started to go on the offensive, I go full scale with fast moving squads of valks, dragons and other nastys.

What races do you guys play? I'm always Human.

Sorry to eschew your observations, but I have never encountered extra stacks joining a battle from multiple hexes away...

From the manual- "Every party that occupies a hex adjacent to the hex being attacked will automatically enter the combat. If you want to bring multiple parties into a combat, surround the enemy party's hex with your parties, and then have one of your parties initiate the attack."

If in doubt hitting F4 brings up a hex map overlay.

Actually, I don't really care which race I play, I find the Spell Realms more important. I generally pick a selection of Death, Life, and Fire spells... heh- just like my Magic the Gathering decks... 3 Black, 2 White, and 1 Red.

[Friend_Bear]

I found that water and wind are a powerful combo, some nasty offensive spells such as Chain Lightning.

My version of SM is totally unpatched, maybe I should patch it :P But I don't play it that much anymore even though its still installed.