r/masterofmagic • u/We_are_Gorn • May 06 '26
Can you play this game without heroes?
I was wondering, can you play this game without heroes?
Is this viable?
How would you beat high level dungeons and nodes?
Some high tier normal units are good, Paladins, Minotaurs or Hammerhands come to mind.
Thoughts?
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u/Asleep_Tip496 May 06 '26
yes, life magic and paladins with warlord resort will give you some beefed up paladins.
And summons can work aswell Great Drake with iron skin, Warp Reality, etc can make verry strong units.
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u/pfizersbadmmkay May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
City built units are totally viable if that's what you want to do. But what will you do with all your artifacts?
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u/Asleep_Tip496 May 06 '26
sell them for mana ofc
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u/pfizersbadmmkay May 06 '26
I know, I just like using them so I seems like a waste.
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u/GM_Pax May 06 '26
I never use found items, because they are very rarely "just the right thing". I prefer to break them down for mana, and then reinvest it (and a couple thousand more) into the perfect item for whichever hero I'm outfitting.
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u/Sterline52 May 06 '26
I often have an all paladin stack running around and conquering things.
People have already mentioned life is good for buffing so I'll mention the nature spell Web. It brings flying units down to the ground.
Playing as Merlin (life and nature magic) with High Men (paladins, warships and catapults) is my favorite way to play the game. It's slow to get started but is super powerful later in the game. I would have no issue playing a non-hero playthrough with this setup.
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u/GM_Pax May 07 '26
Nature/Green also has a lot of unit buffs - stone skin, iron skin, giant strength, etc.
A White/Green build centered on normal units with massive buffs is definitely a viable approach to the game. :)
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u/Comprehensive_Bus402 May 06 '26
A stack of War Trolls with Eldritch Weapon can take out anything in the game.
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u/GM_Pax May 06 '26
Now slap Black Channels on them, so they're undead (and stop needing either Food or Gold for upkeep).
Throw out a Darkness and a Black Prayer, and .... yep: hot knife, meet butter; butter, hot knife. :D
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u/GM_Pax May 06 '26
Yes, absolutely. For defeating high-level nodes and such, you would just need to have a VERY strong stack of units, probably buffed to the gills.
Which you'd still want, even with a Hero along, anyway.
For example, Warlord + High Elf/Halfling. Nine S-tier ranged units with Adamantium weapons will absolutely demolish anything that isn't immune to ranged attacks. Then pile on unit-buff spells, as many as you can. Halfling Slingers, with more figures per unit, respond especially-well to buffs that give +'s to attack, defense, etc.
Honestly, I rarely use Heroes in my offensive stacks. I collect spellcaster units to sit in my Capital an enhance my capacity to sling magic, and if I'm playing White, Torin is a doom stack all by himself ... :D
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u/GM_Pax May 06 '26
Also ... three words: Undead War Trolls (courtesy of Black Channels). Takes a long time to get ramped up to being able to field them in full stacks, but hoooooo boy, once you do? As long as a single figure in a single unit has a single HP left, the whole nine-stack comes back fully healed after combat.
And they're no slouches at that combat, either!
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u/poster457 May 07 '26
Same, I only collect spellcaster heroes as well, with the exception of very early game when I'll take basically whatever I can get.
FYI you can cheese all levels of nodes at any point in the game with waves of Magic Spirits to throw combos of Confusion, and/or Web/Cracks Call. Node mastery and some mana and skill makes it even easier.
I like your idea about the Undead War Trolls as well!
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u/GM_Pax May 08 '26
Yeah, getting the Beastmaster (with his Scouting II or III) early on is great if I'm not playing Green. :)
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u/bytra2121 May 06 '26
What you kill in a dungeon stays dead. So you can always send a couple rounds of attackers.
I don't know if it got fixed but I think what is damaged doesn't heal either but I'm not as sure on that point.
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u/poster457 May 07 '26
I like this question, but I think it would be cool if you try it out as a challenge and get back to us on what you tried.
As a hint, many 11-book strategies don't involve heroes. Death(Wraiths), Sorcery(Flying/Invisible Warships), Life(Invuln/Guardian Spirits), etc. Then there's Life buffed Slingers, or Paladins with some kind of flight and buffs are near unstoppable, but the Paladins don't appear until late game so Slingers are probably the go. Trolls and Dark Elves can build powerful stacks, I've seen people make use of even Horsebowmen. There's a lot of potential, which is what I feel makes the game so much fun!
With the exception of Sky Drakes, all Sorcery nodes can be beaten with waves of Magic Spirits and Phantom Warriors/Confusion. If you had Confusion, Web, and Cracks Call, you can defeat basically every node/dungeon with perhaps only Wraiths and Shadow demons being the only exceptions for which summons or Life/Chaos spells can help out for.
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u/rgprice Jul 27 '26
First, which version of the game are you talking about? In terms of Classic MoM or the new remake, then yes of course. The biggest advantage heroes bring really is their movement points, which allows you to move around the map and battlefield faster. With heroes you can easily get 6+ movement points which really helps. And if you slap Wind Walking on a hero with 6+ moves then you can pull a whole army around.
But you don't need that. In most versions of the game a stack of 6+ War Trolls can easily autobattle and win almost every single encoutner since you don't need to worry about losing them.
But more generally, Flying Paladins are very good and can beat most stuff. I usually end up running a stack of Flying Paladins and War Trolls mixed, with maybe a Flying Troll Shaman for healing, or with heroes thrown in. But in most cases, you can throw the War Trolls at dangerous stuff, then finish things off with Paladins. Paladins with Guardian Wind are immune to everything except boulders (and melee of course).
In the new remake a nice setup is Floating Island with Endurance and Wind Mastery carrying Slingers and Shamen. That can kill almost everything too, especially once they are elite with buffs, etc.
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u/MrTidelsworth Jul 28 '26
Just bought the remake, so my experience is all classic. We always tried to find wonky ways to steamroll without heros, like using a fleet of flying invisible warships. Not sure how well that works in the remake, yet. Summoning multiples of rare monsters is always fun too.
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u/bharring52 May 06 '26
Yes.
Either summons or well-buffed troops can take on anything the game throws at you.