go to ItemMake.exe Item Powers and go thru all 250 items, and edit each one. then when you finds an item, you will find far nicer items for you Heroes. max attack picks, movement picks etc etc
a Staff with +6 Att ,+20 magic , 2 to 4 Flame Strike spells are awesome.
Bows with +6 Att Flaming /Lightning are nice too
Platemail /Shields +4 Movement and Endurance
Land mass Small
3 White books
1 Red book
2 Green Books ( I choose the Earth Lore spell ( Always )
1 Blue book
High Men to get the Paladins
Alchemy
Warlord
Node Mastery
Can sub out Warlord for Chrismatic, and one other pick ( usually another White book. )
also 4 White Books and Arch Mage is good too.
Trade for City and Unit spells mainly ( never trade to get summoning spells )
Crusade is always great too.
Build your cities, get to Unit Priests asap. then Paladins or Magicians next priority.
with 6 to 9 priests and 1 or 2 heroes, begin to conquer nodes and lairs.
Using Earth lore to begin seeing the world maps is a great way to begin
If an Enemy Wizard is on your Island, i suggest creating a new game and repeat game set up
Most desired spells to trade for, find in Lairs/Nodes/ or to learn :
Lion Heart
Invulnerability
Flight
Endurance
Crusade
Spell Lock
Flame Blade
Stream of Life
Regeneration
Prosperity
Giant Strength
Flame Strike
Mass Healing
Invisibility
Aura of Majesty
Chaos Channels ( save game then cast) trying for Demon Skin, or if unable to get Flight, Wings are an ok substitute)
Iron Skin
Change Terrain
2-6 Powerful Heroes, and Fully Powered Up Paladins make for an Invincible army!!
Never try to learn Spell of Mastery until All other spells have been learned!!!
trade your summoning spells for unit/city spells
Capture all other cities and build their Populations up leaving one wizard with one tiny city left
and cast Spell of Mastery beginning sometime around 1439-1441
If you plays this game often, you can even create a Duel Alphabet on paper to learn the Unlearned spell in your list
so that even without having learned the spells, you can know what spells thus knowing wether you should trade for that spell or not.
IE: You see you can learn Lion Heart, but Invulnerability is not listed.
try to trade for Invulnerability, and wait to learn the other.
As the game progresses
2 more Red. Green and Blue books, will be very handy.
My Highest end game rating was around 9200-9400 with approx 114%
)