gain mana back

[Ryastar]

I am assuming here that you are a mage (you didn't mention your class), based on the fact that you are relying on spells to win your battles

The usual tactic involves dryads, which you should be able to find somewhere in the elven lands. Dryads have an ability to summon a group of thorns once every 3 turns, i think, and every stack of thorns has the ability to summon thorns from a corpse once per battle. Using this, you can easily gain tons of groups of thorns running around. Use these thorns to box in the last remaining enemy troop (preferably a no-retal enemy (in which case the size doesn't matter), but this works, with caution, on any non-flying stack, in which case, the bigger it is, the better(you don't want it to die from your retaliation)). In another spot, put two stacks of thorns, of any size, and put magic spring on both of them. Then cast cloud of poison over top of them. With their 50% poison resist, they won't die quick, and your 10 mana will turn into 45 (assuming lvl 3 spell, and two turns taken casting). Obviously, you can use more stack and more springs to get more at once, but that is harder to pull off. Regardless, this strategy can be used indefinitely, with your summoned thorns keeping the enemy occupied (supplemented by the dryad's lulaby if the enemy is of level 1-3 and not immune to mind spells), and to give you mana.


The best way to get an enemy to attack something is the target spell, if you can find it. It forces the AI to attack that stack, if it can.

As for chargers, they are fairly inefficient, costing a lot of rage, and not giving you very much rage or mana back, and certainly not as much rage as you spent. You can use rage drain to gain rage back, but this will slowly kill the opponent's forces, so it's not as efficient. The inquisitor's holy rage skill also applies here, though it doesn't give all that much rage.

I'm also assuming here that you have the concentration skill maxed, which is the easiest way to regain mana, giving you 6 per turn. Also note, that starting at turn 10, mana regen and rage gain is halved (from sources other than abilities), and i forget how it works from there. I believe that no more mana or rage is gained after turn 20, though i may be wrong.

Another general tip. If you find that only hypnotize and phantom and the like are allowing you to win, and even then with losses, you might need to consider changing your troop lineup. As a mage, i've had the best success with (and would recommend):
Sprites (main damage dealers)
Dryads (support abilites)
Hunters (with the spell dragon arrows, my answer to black dragons, as well as just a very good all-around ranged troop)
Inquisitors (for res, if you can't find the spell (story of my life as a mage))
Another stack, based on my discretion and what is available. (possible examples: green/red dragons, evil beholders, shamans, lake fairies, knights)

If you completed the holy indulgence quest back in the freedom isles, you should have the artifact "anga's ruby", which, apart from giving you a nice little bit of leadership, also greatly improves any female troops (like dryads and sprites), turning sprites into awesome killing machines, and dryads into a good support unit that has its turn before most other units.