• These tactics are based on the WoW 2.0 rules used after july 27 1999.
• These tactics are just my view on certain things. They are not perfect and will not garantee success.
• If anyone thinks some of these tactics are wrong, please let me know.
• These tactics might be difficult to understand if you haven't read the WoW 2.0 rules page.

Tactics for newbies to start a game
Tactics for more advanced players
Tactics for experienced players

• Expand! You will start with only your capital shire, so try to expand as fast as possible. You can easily leave only one militia in your capital for defense, because there is no way to attack others from a distance at the start of a game. So don't bother to let your capital undefended at the start of the game. Expansion is more important. The shires around your capital shire can often easily be taken, don't think you need a great army to conquer them.

• Don't recruit. Don't recruit at the start of a game. Your city will grow at a certain percentage, so lowering your capital population will also lower your population grow. It might be usefull though to recruit in the first turn, because you can send those men along with your first scouting line. If your first scouting line would encounter another wizard's first scouting line, you will probably have more men and win quite an important fight. Do not fear the battles at the start of the game. If you take no risks you will never win this game. Also, the losses that you suffer at the start of the game will not be of any size.

• Build! There are two types of buildings. Buildings that can be built in any town and buildings that can only be built in your capital. Buildings greatly increase your economical, magical and military strength, especially the buildings in your capital, so try to build as much as possible in your capital. Sometimes you cannot build buildings because you need your peasants to work on the fields or in the mines. Don't consider that to be a great disaster. Just keep the pressure on those people of yours!

• The people need bread and games. Morale is important. Try to raise the morale of your people. They will be willing to pay more tax and they will work on the fields or in the mines without any resistance. A higher morale will also attract people from other cities, so your population growth will increase. Make sure you are popular among your people, take care of them, even treat them like your own children, because They will be the key to success. Well, how to raise the morale of your people? Open taverns and inns all over the place, feed them generously and do not tax them. At the beginning of the game, the people will consider you to be a stranger. You first need to make yourself popular, so if it is possible lower your taxes as far as possible, even consider not to tax them at all! You should only feed them generously when you are in a food rich environment. If your city is situated in the swamps, it has no sense to feed your people generously, because then they will starve the month after. If you start in a plains or grassland, I should consider to raise the food ratios for the people. Then, make the people happy by games. A great arena (not available at the start of the game) or an impressive church will probably inspire your peasants as well. A last note: Do not pay too much attention to the people in the surrouding shires (called ,1 ,2 ,3 and ,4). The people living there can only work and pay taxes. They cannot be recruited and they cannot build.

• What to research? Well, as you can read in WoW rules, there are 3 types of magic: Druidic magic, Dark magic and standard magic. You can either become a dark wizard (research dark and standard) or a druidic wizard(research druidic and standard). Druidic magic deals with the nature. You will gain your powers from the elements of nature. Druidic magic is not very aggressive, but more solid than dark magic. You will rely on great armies defended by the forces of nature instead of lone necromancers blasting away their foe with devious magic. There are two disadvantages of druidic compared to dark magic. Firstly, druidic will need more time to research. There are four areas (the four elements) to research, while dark only has two areas (dark and necromancy). Also, for the pure druidic spells you need ancient druidic artifacts. They can be found on the world or made by very sophisticated magic. The advantages of druidic spells are that the spells are very diversed. You have offensive spells (but less destructive than dark offensive spells), You have spells which enhance your economy and spells to attack your enemy from a distance. The power of Dark magic is pure destruction. Armies which totally consist of only mages can easily wipe out an entire army just by magic. They also have terrible ways to attack from a distance. (turning peasants into zombies for instance!). Sophisticated magic is needed for those spells though. The standard areas of magicks (sorcery, will, summoning and construct) speak for themselves. With 'Will' you can control the minds of savage beasts and let them attack your enemies. Sorcery includes all kinds of miscellanious spells. Summoning can be used to summon enchanted creatures, like flying sprites or deadly phantom warriors. Construct can be used to construct magical buildings and magical weapons which your heroes can use in combat. There is no big difference between dark and druidic. If you have access to a lot of druidic artifacts then druidic might be a better choice. I usually start researching the standard magic. At the start of the game you cannot know if there are druidic artifacts in your neighbourhood and it should be a pity if you already have researched dark levels when you realize you can get a lot of druidic artifacts! It is also possible to research spellcraft, but you will start with eight spellcraft and that is more than enough at the start of the game. note: You can start researching from turn four on. Many new players think they should start researching from turn 0 on, but you won't have enough research points then to research something. You will have enough resource points to research something in turn four.

• What to do with heroes, mercenaries and caravans. At the start of the game you will not have much money. The morale of the people is not very high, so they won't pay a lot of taxes as well. Heroes are often more important than mercenaries and caravans. They lead your armies, cast spells and are able to explore so called special places. Some heroes even possess special skills. I always try to hire those heroes, even it they cost me darely. The maximum number of heroes you can get on offer in one turn is two. There is no maximum number of heroes you can hire. Mercenaries are nice, but often too expensive in the beginning of the game. I suggest not to hire them before turn 10 unless you are in a special situation (you are in war). Caravans are a different story. They can be either usefull or useless, depending on what resources they have for sale/resources they want to buy. What to sell and what to buy from a caravan greatly depends on your own situation. For instance, if you have a great abundance of food, buying food will not be a very wise decision!

• What are usefull resources at the start of the game? Gold is needed for anything, so try to have as much of that precious stuff as possible! food is needed to feed your people and soldiers. Stones and wood are needed to build buildings and recruit certain troops (eg. wood for spearmen). Iron and Mithril are mainly used to recruit soldiers. Iron can be used to recruit common troops, like swordsmen and pikemen, while mithril can be used to recruit the real power troops. Gems are needed to cast spells and sometimes to recruit troops or build buildings. In the beginning of the game gold, wood and stones will be the most important resources. You will need those stones and wood for buildings, and that gold to pay the constructors of the buildings. Do not pay too much attention to producing mithril, iron or gems at the start of a game, unless you have a great abundance of stones or/and wood off course. Food is always important, but not only at the start of the game. It is important throughout the whole game. However, if there should occur to be a turn that you cannot feed your whole population then it is not a great disaster, some people will starve and morale will drop in some shires.

• Some words about the seas. If your city is located on the ground plane (there are three different planes: Astral, ground and Underworld), then you will probably be faced by a great oceanic region. Boats are quite expensive at the start of the game, but not unaffordable. The problem is that they cost wood to be constructed, so you will only be able to build them in great numbers when in a wood rich environment. If you do not have much wood, one boat a turn is the max. Tip:If you can build DOC then your city is next to an ocean region. Usefull when you are just started and only control one shire!.

• In what order should I construct buildings?. In your capital you should order your engineers to build buildings which allow special troops, increase your magical research or raise your global morale. The buildings which increase your global morale are the most important ones. In your non capital ,5 shires I should order your peasants to construct buildings which increase magical research, which increase local morale or which increase local production (ie build LMI in a forest region). Buildings which allow more advanced units are less important (unless that region is in a warzone). The same counts for buildings which increase your defense in a town. Other buildings are less important, but I usually also build buildings which increase local tax revenues. MAR are also important if you have a great empire.

• How should I use heroes and what heroes are good? Heroes with high SC are always usefull to have. They can cast deadly spells in combat and they often have a good special as well. A MBU is also a must, but several are useless. Undercover heroes can be usefull in certain circumstances. The best undercover heroes are: THI, ROG and ASS. High SC (sc3+) heroes and warrior heroes (increase the stats of your warriors) should be in an army, while undercover heroes should spy out the terrain. MBU, DIP and other heroes of that kind should be kept on a safe place, the safest place is your castle. It is also quite usefull to keep some heroes in your capital (advisable is 4) preferably with high Awareness to spot enemy undercover heroes sneaking into your capital. I have seen empires that were ruined only because some THI in their capital. Heroes without any special and without high Spellcraft often have high movement like Tribesmen and Rangers. The best hero in my eyes is the MAG or the LIC.

• What is the most important factor in WoW? Magic and Morale. Magic often plays a decisive factor in many WoW games. The magic ranking and the economic ranking are the most important ones. Magic I explained above, and economy because economy forms the backbone of your empire. A good economy will also allow high political, magical and military ratings. A good economy can only exist when you have a high morale in all your shires. High morale increases your gold income. APP are very important. Do not fear to spend a lot of money and gems on them, they are definately worth it. Also the MCO is important. Military ranking is not very important, because it is only temporarily. If you have a good economy and magic you can easily raise a grand army. Maybe a military ranking will spread fear among your opponents though ;)

• What is the best population for a city? I usually let my capital grow to 2000 inhabitants and my other town to 1200, unless the region is a desert or arctic (maybe I am forgetting one here). These regions only have a max of 1200 pop. I let them grow to 1000. Experience has thought me the cities will have the greatest growth rate with these amounts of population.

• Some words on mercs and caravans. In the midgame, you will probably be able to raise taxes and increase your gold stockpile. Now I should hire all interesting mercenaries (with high move, with tunnelmove or with flying move, or just with interesting stats) and buy all interesting resources a caravan has for sale. I will not easily sell something to caravans anymore, unless I really have an abundance of one resource and the caravan offers good prices.

• How to defend my empire properly Your empire can be attacked from the land, the air and the underground. If your empire has coastal regions a naval attack is also possible. You should be able to counter all those possible attacks, or at least hinder them as much as you can. Land offenses can only be stopped by great armies. Naval offenses can be countered better. If you make a 'shield' of ships, preferably fishing skiffs because they also produce food for your empire, it will be impossible for naval attacks to invade your lands in one turn. With this screen you will be able to take your preparations for the attack. Ok, you loose one fishing skiff, but it is definately worth it. It will also prevent your opponent from using the high movement of his ships. Most ships have a movement of higher than 4, and when they clash with your lone fishing skiff they will be stopped. Counter flying and tunneling attacks on the same way. Just make a screen of cheap flyers and tunnelers around your island and no tunneling or flying army can enter your empire without you knowing it. Tunneling attacks can be really dangerous because you do not see tunneling units in your reports. Once in a certain game the nr1. of the rankings was wiped out because he didn't suspect a tunneling offense of his opponent! Try to watch out for tunnelers and flyers with high movement. They can attack anywhere once they broke through your screen. Make sure they can't get hold of one of your cities and be able to recruit from there!

• Which druidic artifacts are important? The SRO is the most potent one. You only need one for yourself. The SSM is also usefull and you only need one for yourself. The SLA and the SSP are only usefull when you have alot because they are used for combat spells.

• Some battle tactics. Your great armies should include heroes which enhance your troops, like KNI, BAR, MAR. They should have the troops under the command and they should be equipped with MSW/FSW and/or DAR. In your armies you will need cannonfodder, hard hitting troops and archers. The cannonfodder is needed to take the damage. Especially against armies with a lot of archers or with a lot of dark heroes, some cannonfodder is important. It will make sure none of your hard hitting troops (MGU) will die in the shooting face or magic phase. Your archers will be able to inflict some damage before the battle starts. The archers will also make sure that any small army you encounter will be easily wiped out before he even gets a chance to do something. Don't rely to heavily on archers, after the first round of combat they have loosed much of their value. If everything is alright, your hard hitting troops should finish the dirty job after the first round. In big battles try to have more heroes than your enemy (at least more LD) which will allow you to have first strike, an important factor in many battles. If you can afford cast IML or HBS in large battles. Make sure though that you don't trigger those spells too low! They cost a lot of gems. I am personnally not so fond of WAS/TOS, I never cast them in battles. If you have a quality army (mainly consisting of PIK/MGU) it is wise to cast DAR/MIS. It is wise to trigger at least one MBL on 50 1. It will make sure you will not blow lone heroes away with SPD! Also set one SPD/IST/FBA on 1 2. This one will be triggered if someone summons a DLO or any other creep on your army.

  Mounted troops I do not use in great armies. They will be made useless by the BOG and you will not be able to use their high movement. Use mounted troops to do a 'Blitzkrieg' on your enemy. Attack him on his whole border with small armies of mounted troops. They will strike faster than foot troops and thereby eliminating his troops before he can hit. Fast troops will make the game confusing for your enemy as well, he cannot predict where your next attack will be. He might make a grievious mistake because of that which may have mean the end of him.

• Some words on logistics If you survived the midgame and the start of the game, you empire is probably fairly big at the end of the game. Some cities will be totally isolated and soldiers recruited from there will probably need some turns to come somewhere. Therefore a good infrastructure is needed. It is possible to move/teleport heroes (with high movement) to those isolated regions and teleport your troops from there, but this is a very expensive way of travelling. It is better to make a sort of 'highway', a network of portals through your whole empire. in my empires the largest distance for troops to move to the nearest portal is three turns. Assuming you will recruit in every town every turn in the endgame this will cause a continual move of soldiers through your empire. It will also spare you time every turn. If you recruit all your towns down to 1200 inhabitants, you will have the same amount of troops to recruit each turn. Place an '@' in your orders, and you only need to change the trooptype every turn. Below the '@' place another '@attack'. The attack move will lead to the nearest portal. This will cause a continual increase of troops in the shires you have portals. If you open a certain amount of portals every turn (depends on number of portals) you can transport your troops all over the empire without any problem or gem cost. You spare the gems for the battles. Watch out to use a portal in your capital. You will need to lower your town defenses then!

• What are the best spells in the game? The best spells are: BET, BCR, APO, NCO, AWA, ESH.

• Is a POP a must? yes, if you can afford it.

• Surprise your enemy. Try to surprise your enemy with all kinds of attacks. Try to confuse him with your battles. If you cause that your opponent has 40 battles a turn he may have been fallen asleep reading the 39th, while the 40th is of mayor importance ;) NCO heroes through his empire. Print out his map and stick it onto your dartboard to determine your next designation for your NCO hero. A really good combo is to give your NCO hero an army of 100+ PLWOL. It will allow you to trigger your combat spell some higher and it will allow you to pillage the land where you NCO to. Also send small tunneling armies to him. He will have a tunneling defense, so send tunneling heroes behind them (if you have SRO). If his defenses are broken these tunneling heroes can pop up where you want. It is also nice to let undercover heroes hover about the enemy's capital ;) Watch out for storm though! If you are dark and don't have access to these spells, then use SRI and SDL to make the enemy go mad. Stick the map on your dartboard again (zooming in on his capital this time) and throw a dart to determine where the next pack of zombies will come!

• How to get druidic artifacts if the tower is in hostile land? Just send an undercover (with water walking if you need to pass some oceans) to his lands and dig up an artifact.

• Combo astral <==> CRS This is probably the best combo of WoW. Set all your production to gems and convert a part of your gems to food every turn. A FOD:1 GEM:x shire would turn into FOD:x WOD:x STN:x IRN:x GEM:x MIT:x! That's worth it I promise.