These here's some stuff to help you out during your solo campaign. I'll be adding more tips, and if
any of you have some better ones please mail me and I'll credit you :-)
Updated: 15 June, 1998
- Read all the tips at startup!
- Be aware of the enmy's tricks. They've got a knack of leading ya into ambushes.
- Remember to order ur men to stop firing projectiles("H" key) once melee ensues. I've lost
more men from friendly fire than from the hordes of Darkness.
- Cannon fire and archers kicks ass. Always position them with clear Line of Sight(LOS). I
just love it when my cannon scores a direct hit and all those limbs go flyin..and besides it's a
morale killer to get hit by cannon fire, the enmy will just haul ass once 3 or more of them
goes down
- Whn firing magic bolts/projectiles, from Wizard or Grudgebringer sword, remeber to lead
your shot cos u will miss the faster enemy units
- Archers and wizards are fodder when it comes to melee or cannon fire. But they rule from
longer range.
- Always take out the enemy wizard ASAP. Necromancers can be very annoying.
- Likewise, note that wizards do not need LOS to cast most spells. Use this to good effect.
Cast a flame spell on suspect areas of the map and watch them BURN.
- Some regiments are w you temporarily(indicated by diagonal arrow). I don't usually bother
replacing their dead, unless of course you lost most of everyone, in which case Reload :-)
- Use the wizard to teleport n bait the enemy. or just to check out ambushes. Once u uncover
the enemy quickly teleport back and ready your archers and cannons.
- Higher elevation i.e. hilltops, etc. gives u better LOS and improves firing accuracy for
projectiles. If the enemy shud gain the higher ground, you might attempt to surprise attack
them w a cavalry rush from their blind spot. Never go headlong into enemies up a slope. It's
a great way to lose friends. Or failing that, pound them w your cannon. Your accuracy may
be a bit skewed but by the law of averages, u *will* hit those bastards eventually.
- Employ combined arms. A cannon by itself is not going to stop a horde of wights. Throw in
some archers and hit em w spells and uhhh...other area-effect ordnance :-)
- Always protect your cannon guys. These men can't fight for shit. I usually place my infantry
nxt to them.
- Always check the map for extra caches of gold after a battle. In the first map, there's one
across the river in the village.
- You can use the CTRL and mouseclick to set waypoints.In deployment phase use this to
move your men out of the start box into a better postion; some scenarios really box u in.
- Other helpful Keyboard commands are F for Fire/Target, H for Halt/Stop Firing, CTRL +
mouseclick for positioning your troops, "+" and "-" to set your troop formations.
- Help your buddies. Once you wipe out an enemy regiment (animated death potrait) quickly
move them to other friendlies still engaged in melee. I know...I forget sometimes and had the
cavalry out somewhere doing nothing, telling war stories while their infantry mates are being
torn to shreds.
- Make sure you wipe out ALL the bad guys. Some of them carry gold and magical items so if
you let them escape ...
- The Wizard can teleport behind enemy lines, flame the Orc Rock Lobber crew and teleport
back to safety. Repeat until Orc Rock Lobber crew is no more. Never try this with an
enemy wizard cos he'll just waste u with his magic bolt.
- During battle, toggle occasionally between the real time terrain and the map(hit SPACEBAR
or TAB). This way you can better gauge enemy postions, strength and tactics. And respond
accordingly. Besides, during big battles, this gives u a breather :-)
- The Steam Tank isn't as tough as it's made out to be. It's more a mobile artillery unit than a
"real" tank. Two bolts from a wizard and my tank was toast. Two direct hits from an Orc
lobber and bye bye Steam Tank. The only thing it can shake off to some degree are arrows
and bolts, and even then I don't advise driving headlong into such units. Take a zig-zag route,
that'll mess up their aiming.
- Use your Grudgebringer Cavalry or Wizard to scout ahead for enemy ambushes. Both units
can make fast retreats back to your waiting archers and cannon units.
- Watch out for those mounds of earth in some missions. Homes to the living dead just waiting
for the unsuspecting soul to come traipsing around their cubby holes.
- Get your Wizard to cast Dispel Magic on your troops engaging enemy wizards. This gives
them some immunity against those life sucking spells or whatever it is the bad guy tosses your
way
- Once your troops start complaining that their swords aren't able to inflict damage on the
enemy e.g. "Our swords go through them!", enage the enemy unit with your trusted
Grudgebringer sword or any magic weapons you have.
- ALWAYS face the enemy. No matter how battle hardened your troops are, if the enemy
overwhelms them from the rear, the men/horses will panic. Sometimes I unintentionally leave
men facing the wrong way whilst a band of brigands come charging at them from their blind
spot. Yes, the element of surprise does count towards troop morale
- Remember to pull out your cannon troop units from a multi unit melee if it seems the fight isnt
going your way cos they stand a v good chance of dying. Let your stronger units take over.
In most missions I keep my Infantry close to the cannon.
- Don't u just hate those Arrer Boyz? Next time they fire arrows your way, charge! They will
need about 2 seconds to reload and by that time your Cavalry will be over them. Arrer Boyz
are real pussies so you'll have no problem wiping them out.
- Don't bother using the Steam Tank to fire at entrenched enemy units. Just drive over them.
Orcs make cool squishy sounds when run over.
- Wizards can cast Flamestorms which can block enemy LOS. As well as yours :-)
- You can also use Flamestorms to route the enemy into your 'kill zone'
- Master the Art of Banner reading. Instead of scrolling all the way to a particular unit to give it
orders, just click on its Banner which is always visible from anywhere and issue fresh
commands. This saves time especially when you're tied elsewhere.
- Likewise, the arrows beneath the banners gives you the status of a unit. White = idle, Red =
in melee, Yellow = routed. Lookout for idle units during battle! Your troops need to be
instructed everything and will end up idle once their target has been routed or destroyed.
- The Wind of Cold spell cast by the Ice Wizard has an extremely long range.When there is a
break in the fighting, the Wind of Cold can be targetted at distance regiments to pick them
off. They just stand there and take it most of the time. By moving the wizard around, you can
cast the spell in the direction of possible finding places. I found this particularly useful when
defeating the hand by picking off the chariots, archers and the Hand itself. - by Dean Laban
- In a mission with the steam tank (#10 Great Forest III) one of enemy regiments carries a
powerful artifact called Banner of Wrath. Once per a magic cycle it casts one to six bolts on
enemy troops. Quite funny. I equipped my Bright Wizard with this toy and a Wand of Jet
and this, actually, changed him into one man army :) I usually cast this banner and then
several burning heads on any enemies in range - by Kris82
- for mission 5: it's easy, don't deploy u gun and move u troops direct on the far east with their
back against the houses... it'll be a pièce of cake... il lost 5 guys! - by MagicDen
- Normally the mortar is not very effective against moving units, as the shells tend to fall behind
the target (the spot where the unit was when the mortar was fired). Usually I target archer
and magic units with the mortar, since these will come to a stop and the mortar can lock on.
Also, mortar fire can keep a magic unit moving and thus not throwing spells. You can target
your mortar on a chokepoint where enemy units have to pass, although the slow refire rate
makes this a doubtful tactic. Finally, the shell lag can be used to good effect when the enemy
sends a column of units at you. Target the lead unit. The shell will fall behind it, but often will
hit the follow on unit. Just make sure to switch targets before the lead unit closes with your
troops. Keep this in mind when you are dealing with rock/skull lobbers. Spread you units
across a line rather than in a column, keep them moving, and you will almost never suffer any
losses. If you have to have a column of units (your starting postion in the ice battle near
Kislev), you may want to leave plenty of room between units - by Jason Clevenger
- I disagree with your tactics for the Troll attack in mission 17. I used artillery, archers and
wizards as much as I could, and lost only 3 men (2 cavalry, 1 infantry?). Trolls are
vulnerable to fire (can't regenerate), so use fire spells! Only about 3 of the Trolls came far
enough to charge, I found that the Ogres were great at defeating them.- by Johan Runeson
- For the first 8 to 10 battles or so dont bother putting down half of your regiments as they will
pobably end up getting cut up into pieces, e.g. on Axebite pass the drawfes can easily
replace your own infantry without too many loses. Although your guys lose out on
experience you can spend the extra cash on more men and amour.- by NORTH A1
- You said to use your ice mage to kill the hand......well....i found a better way. Do everything
as normal....but instead of sending your ice mage up, teleport your bright mage w/ staff of
osirus up behind the hand. The hand will turn around and not attack you, his escorts will not
attack you either. They will run down towards your units at the bottom. The hand only takes
one hit with the staff and his dispells dont work!! - by Vaevictis
- a tip in the game says you can drop an item so the enemy after you will stop to pick them up.
I did this and the enemy used the banner of wrath on my troops! So if you need to drop
something drop a useless item but what exactly is useless if you bothered to arm yourself
with it in the first place - by Mike E. Wallace
- found a sneaky way to complete the Moussilon-scenario with the BlackGrail Knights without
too much losses. After fending off the initial attacks, send in your Grail Knights towards the
Black ones. Engage them somewhere in the middle of the field and immediately target your
mortar and cannon on the melee. This will probably wipe out your knights, but they'll be
leaving anyway. I tried this two times, once reducing the black ones to two, the second time
wiping them out. - Paul Vosselmans
- The flagellant troops are the worst unit and next are the greatswords. I used them on suicide
runs carrying the heart of woe. Losing them is no great loss as towards the end you will have
more troops than you can deploy anyway - Vernon Andrews
- Found a sneaky way to kill the dreadking without losing a single man when he attacks. First
you want to kill all the mummies that are on the battle field and the closest skull lobber. Then
move your steam tank up to the nose of the face, drop a disspell on it. Wait untill the dread
king attacks your tank via charge then run over the bastage ;p Squished dreadking alla steam
;p BTW Flaggelants are a VERY good unit unlike what this other guy said. - Osiris
//TheMercs//
- Here's a tip for Dark Omen: When you fight against the Black Grail Knights a good tactic is
let them come to you when all of the other enemy units are dead (except archers, but they
won't move too much anyway). The best is leading them to you with the cavalry, especially if
they have the Shield of Ptolos. The Knights will run after you, so direct every missile attack
at them. When they are very close just cast that "stun spell" with your Bright Mage (sorry I
forgot the name). They will stand in front of your troops, unable to do anything... yeah the
mortar comes handy in this case... :) - Szabolcs Erdelyi
- I finished dark omen recently. And I found a neato use of the 2 wizards. Cast the spell that
freezes a group with the ice mage (is that spell called blizzard? i forgot) then use your fire
mage to cast flame storm. Hehe the enemy doesn't whether they should wear bikini's or a
wintercoat ;)
I had a bunch of fun with the last mission. Near the end there were 4 groups of mummys left
and I had left the steam tank, the fire mage and my cavalry. The mummy's target the cavalry
and will keep running after it. But the cavalry is much faster ofcourse, so they wound up
running in circles :) Meanwhile I casted stuff at them with my wizard, shot m with the steam
tank and used my banner of wrath extensivily.
My favourite spell is meteor by the way (I didn't use the ice mage as much as you did). 4
meteors after each other really makes the ground shake :) (I almost finished it one of the first
times around but the enemy group had picked up my banner of wrath. I casted a meteor on
the group and the meteor was deflected back at my cavalry. That sight makes a grown man
cry :) PS thanks for the great page and all the tips on it. I think there are a lot more potions
of strength in the game. I managed to get one in the 'Hand of Nagash'-mission and on the
mission where you get the spell-eater shield. Sometimes enemy units use them before you kill
them. (Indicated by the orange particles) - Philippus Baalman
- I have a little tip about DO: In the final mission with the Dread King I found very useful to
use "temporarly imobile spell" like Snow Blizzard and other (I could only use SB, my bright
mage didnt have big level).You can cast it on mummies, providing you with enought time for
two shoots with mortar or you can use Steam tank to make pancakes of them or flamestorm
to fry them. This spells can be very good use on Dread King. cast spell and fire from all the
guns (I didnt have to use my melle units on him :-)))))) ). -Hrvoje Ratkajec
- I played a lot this weekend and when I got to Mission 24 I tried your solution and after
several attempts I found that placing All your archers/crossbow men in a semicircle to west
facing NE. Place them so that the SSL not can see them behind the trees near the windmill.
Behind the archers place the mortar. At the end of the semicircle to the south place the
canon. The add Cavalery, Ogres, Your main infantry and pistoliers. These must be placed so
that they are set to move to the SE corner of the map.Start by wiping out all skelton artillery
with you own artillery - It worked for me with no casualties. No infatry will attack as long as
you wait. Then take a round as you described with the pistoliers to lure the enemy infantry to
you and shoot them to pieces with your artillery. All the enemy infantry can be lured to you
this way and be disposed of easliy.Finally remove the SSL with the Grudgebringers.I was
newer shot at by the SSLs once! Try it out! - Carsten Schwartz
- Here is something about Dark Omen that nobody seems to mention. People think the
Mortar is a poor weapon against moving targets, but I think it's awesome! All you have to
do is, instead of targetting the enemy banner, just aim ahead of the target, adjusting where
you shoot depending on the direction and speed of the target. Sure, it means you have to
pay a little more attention to the Mortar instead of your other troops, but you can launch
attacks when the enemy is a LONG way away. Just aim at the ground ahead of them, hold
fire, do what you want, and 15 seconds later your mortar will be ready to go again. :) You
can really shred some flesh with this. I use the same tactic with my Bright Mage's Burning
Skull spell, and the Grudgebring sword.-Cameron
- Hi... ive been playing Dark Omen alot recently and got together to play a couple multiplayer
games with a friend and noticed a really effective combo if you like to play with the undead.
During the game, i was trying out my new undead army (9kgc, 2SSLs, 2units level
1blackgrail, 1 unit level1 wights, 1 level2 necromancer, all decked out with artefacts... there
may be some archers involved too but i dont remember at the moment ;) Well, we played
the "blighted towers" map and unfortunately he got the high ground. He was playing the
WAAAGH! Urgat army b/c he hadnt built one of his own yet. He put his rock lobber on the
cliff towards the back and proceded to pound the hell out of my army. He managed to
destroy my necromancer (he didnt have teleport :( my wights and one unit of blackgrail
before i decided he had won and charged with my other unit of blackgrail. I rode to near the
top of the screen and noticed that he had a trap waiting... he had units of boyz straight ahead
and 3 units of assorted boarboyz and biguns waiting behind a copse of trees. Well, i rode my
knights in and proceeded to wreck his entire army. These knights were armed with the
sword skabskrath (sp?), so every mana phase i would be able to take out an entire unit of
foes, no matter which unit. The fear induced by the sword in combination with the knights
innate fearfactor caused any unit i faced to rout and be run down like grass by the knights. I
proceeded to kill 4 units of assorted boarboyz/biguns a unit of boyz a unit of arrer boyz (he
did not fire into any of the melees, thank goodness) and his rock lobber... ohh and a shaman
too who for some reason was frozen (he couldnt move or cast) without even taking a single
loss! just goes to show how powerful the blackgrail/skabskrath combo is... imagine what
level 3 or 4 blackgrails could do!!!! - Garou Kin
any other tips please mail it to:
sturmlord@mailexcite.com
BACK