THE POPULOUS BIBLE
C.66 Spells and their effectiveness
Spells can only be cast by the shaman, a slow and weak but very powerful unit. Charging spells is usually crucial for Populous victory. Spells can cause a great amount of damage – but they are not neccessarily more powerful than troops. Some spells alter land, some enhance units, some create destruction - what makes this game unique is the ammount of strategy behind units and spells.
Theoretically, charging only one spell at a time is more effective, as very rarely (if at all) two tasks have the exact same priority in a game.
Usually, players will charge 1 spell at time, either they are training units or not. Online, people are usually known for being either shaman players - players that are really good using shaman, so will base most of their mana to spells (this players still train units) - or troops players - players that still charge spells, but are specialized on training huts and atacking the enemy with them. Obviously, most of the players are still called well rounded players, because they like to focus on mana and troops 50%-50% or near that.
Spells obviously have advantage over units, now the problem is most of them take longer to charge, and only a shaman can actually cast them - this means if your shaman gets killed, you will be unable to cast any spell for some seconds.
Blast is cheap and is probably the best mana-cost efficient spell on the game. It's also the most used, and being a good blaster is sometimes half the way of sucess in online games. Blast is good against any units or even shamans - try to aim it so the enemy you are blasting gets blasted to water.
Convert is really cheap, and should be the first spell you charge in levels with wildies. It's important to convert as much as you can before starting to charge other spells - and try to steal the enemy's wilds.
Swarm is really good both for atacking and defending. You can scare the enemy out of buildings (specially huts and towers). This spell is really important in online gaming.
Invisibility is efficient. With it, you can make unseen deadly atacks. This spell is specially good when used on preachers - and then, split them in the enemy's settlement. Sadly, it is rare to see this spell online.
Magical shield is one of the most cost-efficient spells in the game, and because it is so strong and cheap, people stopped to play with it online. It is specially good on preachers, warriors nd even firewarriors, and if you enemy has a defensive shaman and many defending firewarriors, this spell can help you on your atacks.
Landbridge is one of the spells that makes Populous unique. It can create land, hills, ramps, ravines, etc. It an extremly important spell in all levels. It should be used to expand your settlement or take advantage of hills, as well as side or backdoor the enemy.
Lightning is a good spell that kills any unit or shaman if hit directly (unless it has magical shield). It's very important, specially online, because of its range. Most of the times, it should be used to kill shamans - but if you see many enemy units together, don't be afraid of casting a light. Also effective to get rid of some defensive firewarrior towers when trying to atack. Lightning enemy training huts can be good to delay their troop production.
Hypnotise is nice because it's somewhat a surprise spell. It's not very common online, but it's a funny spell. Use it in large wars, to make sure you win it. it's nice to cast it on all troops, but you should focus on firewarriors and warriors. A good tactic would be hypnotising firewarriors neaby the enemy's shaman and send them to kill her - she could not be expecting it.
Tornado is good to destroy buildings - specially training huts, which will delay troop production - or can be casted on a shaman (do you really want to take the chances?). When you see many enemy troops together, it can be good too, specially if they are firewarriors, or if there is many puddles or ocean nearby.
Swamp is really anoying. In singleplayer it's really useful to cover entrances and sidedoors. Also good to cast in large ammounts of troops, as your shaman is nearby. It's rarely used online because it it extremly annoying to be played against.
Flatten is not the most cost-effective spell most of the times, except if you have a training hut near water and want to get rid of it, or if you want to expand a hill. Other than that, you can usually cast a cheaper landbridge to do the flatten's work.
Earthquake is really good, creates lava and sometimes puddles, destroys buildings and burns units - this spell is the most used offensive spell online. People alwas try to cast it in where a good ammount of buildings are.
Erode is usually weak, unless against settlements placed in hills, or against shore buildings. It can also be used as a combo with earthquake, but other than that, this spell costs just too much for its effectiveness.
Angel of Death is decent offline, but bad online, if ghost army spell is enabled. It costs too much and 2 or 3 ghost armies will totally keep him busy for most of the time.
Volcano is good overall, but really expensive, so it would be better to charge it in later stages of the game. Don't use it in army fights, because it will kill your units too - and even if you don't have units of your tribe there, the enemy can easily run away from the volcano before it explodes. Always cast in in the enemy's settlement - try to cast it in the heart of their base. Note that even if it is powerful, three earthquakes could be more devastating, for lesser mana, because the enemy's buildings are splitted or only because the enemy will be able to safe their population in time against a volcano.
Teleport is good to use if your shaman has many strong spells to cast. Make sure to cast it only to atack, never to safe your shaman - that would be totally useless.
Armageddon is a risky spell, so cast it only if you are totally sure you will win the fight.
Bloodlust is really strong, specially on warriors or firewarriors - they will ignore preaching, so thats a plus too.
Ghost army is really cheap and can be used to null an Angel of Death, or to make a shaman waste time by sending the ghosts against her, or even to kill her - if they pull her to water, as she is near the shore. They are also good when atack, to make the enemy firewarriors busy, or even to take them out of towers.
So, basically all spells can be either good or bad - it only depends on the situation. You should charge spells depending on how the game is going. If what you really need is to rush troops, stop charging spells for a while, so all your mana will be used to train troops faster.
