Understanding your decisions: Going from Beginner to

Competent.
Mage Knight is a rich and complex game. However, as much as it might take a few plays to
see all of the rules in action, for games of this weight I found the boundaries of the decision
space quickly definable. Mage Knight manages to combine an incredible variety of situations
with both narrative and tremendous player control.

Ive played around thirty games of Mage Knight and am now able to beat the Full Conquest
scenario with both cities set to the maximum (11). I have only played the game solo, but
have now used all the rules and effects in the game at least once.

I am enjoying the game now more than ever. Due to the length of the game it can take a
few plays to appreciate its many intersecting metrics. Awareness of pacing and the fluid mix
of strategic and tactical thinking also deepen with experience.

This is the first of two articles on Mage Knight strategy. The second is posted here.

Using mana

The best place to start is with mana. There are a lot of different things happening at once in
Mage Knight. Most of them can be improved with mana.

Mage Knight is built on clean infrastructure. Any card can be played sideways, as a blank,
for +1 Attack, +1 Block, +1 Movement or +1 Influence. These are the basic currencies of the
game. Each basic action tends to double this if played in the appropriate circumstances. So
Rage gives you +2 Attack or +2 Block, Stamina gives you +2 Movement and Promise gives
you +2 Influence. Once you start adding mana, the effects tend to at least double again. So,
Rage gives you +4 Attack, Stamina gives you +4 Movement, and Promise gives you +4
Influence.

There is a clear incentive to use mana as much as possible. Thats why theres a dummy
player. If there wasnt any time pressure, the game would merely be about optimizing moves
by accessing mana as much as possible. As it is, the pressure of the other players means you
have to decide what effects you can afford the time to play as stronger, and which you
cant.

Access to mana defines what you can do in Mage Knight. In the beginnings of the game your
draw will offer certain biases but the mana available will usually be a bigger factor. The
colours of mana in the source, mines, glades and some basic Actions will determine what the
most efficient path will be. As your holdings improve, there might reach a tipping point
where you need to find crystals of a particular colour, but in the beginning you should be
letting the mana guide your decisions more than forcing them when they arent there.

Understanding the quantities of the basic deck

Time and time again I hear newer players complain about movement in Mage Knight.
Movement, as well as attacking (and blocking) and using influence, involves careful planning.
This might not correspond to what you thought the game should be, but thats a matter of
taste. There is more than enough movement in the basic deck to allow players to develop
their character.

The basic deck has two copies of Stamina and March providing up to four movement, two
Swiftness for two movement, and Improvisation. Between Day tactics and mana you should
be able to reach at least one opportunity site on the first day. The reality is that there is
much more movement on offer than there is attack (or block) or influence.

The first piece of advice I would offer is to respect the terrain. Stick to the plains to start off
and only move off them when you are going to gain something. Even trying to cross
consecutive three-cost terrains can be prohibitive in the early going. You should be prepared
to give up several enticing opportunities in the initial forays if it costs you several movement
cards. With an unimproved deck and no units, defeating anything above Rampaging Orcs can
be a tough ask.

The second piece of advice I would offer is to see a bad hand for what it is: the guarantee
of seeing certain cards later in the round. I you end up with few movement cards to begin
with, and this goes for attack and influence too, you know you will see them later. This
means you can plan for having a lot of movement later, which might allow you to reach
further into the map, which has its own advantages.

Planning for the round

The last section links nicely into talking about planning for the round. The mechanical beauty
of Mage Knight shines in many areas, but its take on deck construction is executed
elegantly.

Each round you play through your entire deck. This means you can be assured of seeing
each card once but once only (only a spell considered very weak, Meditation, breaks this
rule). While there is built-in redundancy with repeats of basic actions, the random draw
means you can never be assured of having the perfect hand for what you want to do.
The different advantages to Day and Night combine with each deck cycle to demand you
really think in concrete terms about what you can achieve each round. The reality is you
cant do everything. At the beginning of the game, you will certainly be choosing one
direction through the map while forsaking others.

Planning for the round means you work out what you can do this turn, and then evaluate
what this means for what is left on your turns further in the round. For example, you might
be able to reach a village, but lack the influence to recruit the unit you want. You need to
weigh up how you will use those influence cards later in the turn, even if just as sideways
blanks.

Over thirty or so games my thought processes have become refined, but there is still a
delicious interplay between strategizing for the round and addressing the tactical
opportunities in each hand. Once you understand the basic deck and mana, the redundancy
in the deck means you can make firm plans for minimum gains each turn. However, the
order in which you draw from your deck can allow for lateral shifts in valuation, and
profitable detours!

Wounds as the default

Although my advice has been somewhat general so far (it is for the uninitiated!), wounds are
a special case and proper evaluation of their worth allows for enormous leaps in
understanding.

Once you have an idea of how to do things in Mage Knight, you need to think of wounds as
expected rather than something you should avoid at all costs. It is very difficult to have the
resources to defend and successfully defeat enemies in combat without taking wounds. Your
early goal has to be to make permanent improvements to your character, and if you have to
see wounds for what they are: transient problems.

Most characters can handle a few wounds and the game gives you plenty of chances to rid
yourself of them. Glades are excellent locations for attacking Rampaging Enemies from as
you essentially buy yourself a wound. The Level 1 units in particular are excellent for
providing an effect and then wearing a wound before being disbanded. When planning for the
round, whether you have drawn Tranquility or not yet should be something you remain
aware of, as thats another wound you can mitigate, whether to yourself or a Level 1 unit.

There is word that Block will be improved in the expansion, but for now I think you should
absolutely expect to be wounded early on and that more often than not it is better to accept
one or two wounds than pass up an opportunity to gain fame when levelling up is so easy.
The restriction on hand size is a massive pain (!) early on, so definitely have an idea of how
you will heal those wounds, or at least save the wounding action for later in the round. That
said, dont avoid it.

Dont take risks

Its been stated eloquently elsewhere, but the brilliance of Mage Knight is that it provides
randomized opportunities, rather than randomized outcomes. Sure, some people love a lack
of control to drive their narrative experience; in Mage Knight you control what your character
does, with very little interference.

When you start out, dont take risks. Use the day time to know your enemy. Know whether
you will defeat it or not in advance, even if that involves taking wounds. Losing a combat
early-which I would define as either taking wounds or using abilities for no long-term
benefit-is devastating at any point for a character. You might wish you could take that Mage
Tower in the Wastes on turn one, but you will start to appreciate the game more when you
know why you cant (and better yet, why it doesnt matter).

After thirty-odd games I can tell you that Ive never once felt the board or hand provided no
opportunities, even if that was simply moving through to the next tile. As you play more you
will develop notions about what is worth risking, and I imagine this is a bigger deal in
multiplayer and even moreso in PvP.

This article was squarely aimed at the beginning player looking to gain an appreciation of
why this game is great. I will follow it up with a more detailed breakdown of expert advice
for each of the five entries above.
Understanding your decisions: from Competent to Expert.
I have written a strategy guide for beginning players looking to become competent here.
This post is for players who are already comfortable with the game but want to improve. I
dont recommend reading if you are a new player or someone who wants to discover the
game for themselves; there is a lot of tactical and very specific discussion here.

Using black mana

Its hard not to look at the spell offer and imagine playing each card at its stronger effect.
However, the truth is that black mana is tricky and should not be considered a given.

There are a few different in-game tips you should be aware of with black mana. Firstly, you
can use it in a dungeon (or tomb) during the day. This is a big deal, as brown enemies dont
have the resistances that can make a red or blue damage spell go awry (Draconis power is
wildly unpredictable if your invested in fire or ice attacks).

Secondly, you can take black mana with the stronger ability of Mana Draw, allowing you at
least one card to powerup a spell if you arent having much luck with the source. Glades can
be tough to access with their five movement requirement at night, but starting the round in
one and using Preparation can be enough.

Still, overall black mana is tough to manage for a few reasons. Needing two mana to power
the spell means you need that source mana and the other mana from elsewhere. Its very
difficult to power the spell from your own mana, and for that reason I tend to like Amulet of
Darkness even though its not highly regarded in general. The pressure a spell puts on your
crystals and other plans is immense and cannot be overstated; I think I started to have a lot
more predictable success when I focused on acquiring two quality spells, rather than simply
acquiring them ad hoc.

Every so often you will have that game where everything clicks and you wreak havoc with
strong spells; more often than not though you will need to carefully plan for the spell turn
each night and you will want to make its incredible power count. Managing mana is
important but learning to manage black mana well is a definite stepping stone towards
accomplished play.

Understanding the qualities of the basic deck

The redundancy of the basic deck means you can plan to always have a rough amount of
movement, attack, block and influence. This means you can define the worst-case scenarios;
for example, you know that you might not draw Rage, but with four cards you will have four
physical attack no matter what. This is the basis of competent play.

Where I think an expert player reveals themselves is in their management of the role
players of the basic deck: Tranquility, Mana Draw, Concentration and Crystallise. In each
round you will probably use some of these cards as sideways blanks, but the ones you use
for their effects are pivotal.

In general a strong player is aware of how they might play these cards if they are still yet to
draw them. Knowing Tranquility hasnt been used yet can allow you to take a few wounds for
a benefit and clear the damage before the round ends. This can be crucial for the health of
your deck and for units you want to keep from round-to-round. I mentioned Mana Draw
above, but I think it takes on even more significance for two more reasons: white mana
tends to be used the least in the basic deck and being able to use two mana on early turns
can be necessary to move and defeat an enemy in one turn.

Outside of character-specific abilities, Concentration is my favourite card of the basic deck

(or Will Focus!). If you are not already aware, Concentration plus Swiftness is the best
combo in the basic deck-it allows for the painless removal of most Rampaging Orcs, and
many brown enemies too. Outside of that, being able to use two cards for six movement,
influence or attack is something worth saving for. The extra mana is even useful in a pinch.
Crystallise is probably the most underrated basic Action, good for making a soft turn useful
and there is rarely a time when you dont want any crystal added to your inventory.

In some ways this is an extension of managing mana, but I see most of my powerful turns
involving one of these cards. Planning for turns where you maximise each card is the key;
often the ancillary effects are the cogs that turn the basic currencies to destructive
capacities.

Building a character

Planning how you will use your cards every turn is critical; planning how you will build your
deck can involve even more subtle layers of finesse.

Ive won plenty of games where I just jammed in as many powerful effects as I could.
However, as I started raising the levels of the cities beyond the rulebook nominations, I
found raw power just wasn't getting the job done anymore. As the game provides a variety
of enemies and interactions, so must you be prepared for them when cities start throwing
out five defenders.

There are some effects like Horn of Wrath, Banner of Fear and Wings of Night that can
eliminate the need to even think about defence. They dont come up every game. Instead
you need to be open to defeating enemies that can Paralyze, enemies with a variety of
resistances, the wrong colour Draconis blocking your way into a city, and more. Even if you
think these are only endgame situations, attacking an unseen Keep or Mage Tower still offers
a wide variety of enemies to have to be prepared for.

Developing a cohesive deck is subtle because it isnt the whole game like in the lighter fare
of games that are deckbuilding for the sake of it. However, the more I play the more I look
to build a flexible character that utilises his or her innate strengths and expected skills, but
also is prepared for the different resistances and powers Im likely to face. For example, I
might pick up an early Swift Bolt as Norowas. In early games Id then focus on having
Ranged Attack in spades. I now think this is bad in general, as you will defeat many enemies
easily but there will be that Crypt Worm in a dungeon who laughs at you. I think its more
important to be competitive in all scenarios than dominant in most and helpless in some. So
now I pass on adding Day Sharpshooting too in that situation.

Using reputation

One of the flavourful drawcards of Mage Knight is the idea you could be a good or evil
character. If you want to play that way be my guest but I think it bad strategy. Rather, I
love the reputation track as a strategic resource, and much more often see it as my hero
doing sound business or simply doing what he or she has to do to further the mission set by
the Council of the Void.

To defeat the higher city levels you need units. Not just any units, but the big gold ones that
only come out when you hit the Core tiles. These gold units are so good that I fully
recommend getting to the core tiles as soon as possible (at least when playing solo) and
learning a few of the tricks to rig the map so that you get the Core tiles where you want (as
they offer some very difficult terrain to cross). Getting those gold units can sometimes be
very hard if youve trashed your reputation early in the game.

As such I see management of your reputation as very important. Getting the bonus from a
defeated city is a bit of a bail out, but negatives to your reputation can add up very fast, as
plundering a village and burning down a monastery offer huge benefits. Unfortunately, they
are choices, and the minuses you incur for simply assaulting fortified sites are not. Its one
reason Im surprised Noble Manners is panned so much; there are very, very few ways to get
positive reputation and sometimes the map just doesnt throw out convenient rampaging
enemies. Those two-fame Prowlers or Diggers certainly lose their lustre after a few turns!

If youre playing to win you should see reputation as another resource to manage, and be
careful to keep it relatively fluid. Its one of the few things you dont get points for in the
end, so ending with -5 is fine if you want to go on some sort of crusade in the last round.
Before then though, and this matters exponentially when dealing with big cities, you want to
keep it close enough to allow you to pick up those gold units or key action or spell as soon as
possible.

Understanding the risks

In my advice to new players I talked about not taking risks. Well, there does come a point
where you understand the game system enough to be able to make decisions about what
you dont know. The key is knowing the parameters of the enemy classes.

The brown enemies are most important, as you never know who you are going to draw, and
they can be summoned. You also fight them without units and in Monster Dens and
Spawning Grounds for great rewards. The most dangerous enemy you will face is Medusa, as
you can never afford to be Paralyzed, and with six attack very rarely can you lose a unit to
her. Having access to the Determination for five block card helps here, but accessing four
ranged attack is better in most situations. After Medusa you need to have an answer to the
Crypt Worm with six fortified health and Gargoyles with four physical resistance. Werewolves
and Minotaurs are slightly more palatable, but they can still dole out the wounds. It can be a
tall order, but defeating these enemies often bestows upon you a substantial bounty.

Beyond this being prepared for the various resistances and abilities is paramount. While
some abilities, like Swiftness, are relatively weak, most need some sort of plan and knowing
the city can help too when it comes to Brutal or Poison, which can get out of hand quickly
when present in numbers. This point reinforces the need to be flexible, but also to scout
cities and other enemies wherever possible.

As you become more proficient and look to ramp up the pace of your games you will take
risks with the enemy classes that can leave you needing to Rest or disband several units.
Dont automatically assume this is a bad thing. One of the wonderful things I discovered
about Mage Knight was that even at a high level those rules I dismissed as chrome or worst-
case scenarios can actually work in your favour. I won one game where I had to rest and
spent the rest of the round sitting in a glade patching my deck up. I thought I was done for
but the benefits I gained from the Tomb were immense. It definitely made for a novel game.

Conclusions

Im not someone who likes to own a lot of games. I like to find the games I consider best-in-
class and play them rather than sample endless iterations of the same mechanisms or
themes over and over. I like to master games and still have them reward me for playing
them well.

Mage Knight met my expectations for a modern epic game and then exceeded them. Not
only does it do a good job capturing the aesthetic and narrative of adventure games like
Legend of Zelda, the adaptation of the deckbuilding mechanism feels at once appropriate and
meaningful for a game of this type. To be able to create a game of this depth and complexity
into what is really a neat package of components is a triumph.

All gushing aside, it wouldnt matter one bit if Mage Knight didnt justify what is really a
substantial time commitment, particularly for a young parent like myself, to make. It
absolutely does. As a puzzle, the blending of strategic and tactical thinking is richly
presented, but frankly also in an accessible way that is cohesive and satisfying.

I hope I have gone some of the way to convincing you of the tremendous value in this game
and if you have been frustrated by initial experiences, stick with it!
A Strategy Guide to Mage Knight
I love playing this game. Every game of Mage Knight I play is challenging because of the
complexity of this game. In this document Ive put together my thoughts on strategy in
Mage Knight. As I only play the Solo Conquest, this strategy guide is written to solo play, but
I expect that most concepts also apply to multi-player games.

Ive come to a list of 8 tenets which I find important in every game of Mage Knight Ive
played. Understanding these tenets made me a better player, scoring more points, and
enjoying the game even more than I already did.

Here we go.

Tenet #1 Know your deed cards

In Mage Knight you use your deed cards to order your character around. The beauty of this
game is that every round you know in advance which deed card youre going to draw. You
just dont know the order you will draw them. If you havent drawn a card from your deed
deck yet, you know it will have to come, remember this.

I listed 'knowing your deed cards' as the first tenet as I think this is one of the most
important aspects of the game. A thorough knowledge of your cards and what you can do
with it is essential in optimizing for a round.

Theres one trick I find very useful. At the beginning of each round, I write down all the cards
in my deed deck. So, in the first round youll start with the sixteen basic cards. During the
course of the game more cards are added to the list (or perhaps removed from it). Every
time I draw a card, Ill highlight this on my list. Every time I play a card Ill also note this.
This way Ill always know what cards there are still to come and which cards Ive already
played. I use this knowledge to optimise the actions I want to do in the remainder of the
round.

Knowing your cards starts with understanding the characteristics of your basic cards. Your 16
basic cards consist of (the numbers dont add up because some cards give you multiple
options):
- 7 cards to give movement;
- 4 cards to attack or block;
- 2 cards to range attack;
- 3 cards to influence;
- 3 mana management cards; and
- 1 card to heal

With the knowledge you have of all the cards in your deed deck, the knowledge of the
current cards in your hand and the knowledge of discarded and future cards, all together
give you the knowledge of the possible actions you can do in (the remainder) of your round.
This knowledge is essential in planning and optimizing your round (see Tenet #2).

Knowing your deed cards helps you when choosing new cards as a reward from combat,
levelling up or buying cards with influence. When you know youre a little light on movement
cards, youll might choose to pick up that movement advanced action, skill of spell card. Or
pass to pick up another influence card, if youve already got to many of them.

The key thing to remember is that knowledge of your deed cards is essential to become a
better Mage Knight.

Tenet #2 Plan, plan, plan

Mage Knight is a game of planning. At the start of a round a lot of the variables are known in
advance; you know your hand cards, you know what cards are still in your deck, you know
your (possible) enemies, and you know your desired path to go. At the start of every round
imagine what you want to accomplish that round. Then optimize your turns and actions to
realize these goals.

Also take into account goals youd like to realize the next rounds (like revealing a core tiles
to be able to recruit elite units, or find the first and/or second city). Dont simply wander
around. Use your turns and actions wisely.

Every round you have around 5 to 7 turns and the cards in your deed deck (which you know,
remember Tenet #1). These two (turns and cards) are your limitation. The time you have to
pre-analyse your turns and actions is limitless! Exactly this is what I love about the game of
Mage Knight. Analyse and optimize. Plan how to use your cards (both the cards in your hand
and the cards you will draw the next turns) en turns optimally.

You can plan in advance how to beat every (possible) enemy. You even know all possible
enemies you are able to encounter when flipping an enemy token. Take all possible
unknowns into consideration when pre-analysing and planning your combat(s).

Mage Knight is not a game of luck. So, dont base your strategy on lucky outcomes.

Tenet #3 Understanding Tempo

As an former Magic: the Gathering player I borrow the excellent concept of Tempo from this
good old card game (for more reference see here). Tempo is the concept around your pace,
being able to do more things, doing it more quickly, and gain an advantage over your
opponent.

In Mage Knight you play against the notorious Dummy player. This means you play a fixed
(but unknown in advance) number of turns each round. To be able to get the most out of
your turns you need to gain Tempo. How do you increase Tempo in Mage Knight?

One of the most important Tempo gainers is to level-up quickly. When you level-up youll get
more strongly. Youll get advanced action cards, skills, youll be able to recruit more
companions and youll be able to increase your hand size. All of this will give you more
resources to get the most out of your turns. Levelling-up quickly increases Tempo.

Another way to gain Tempo is to increase the number of cards in your hand. An example is
plundering a village if you can handle the reputation loss. Or increase your hand size with
keeps or certain tactics cards.

Youll gain Tempo if youre able to gain new cards cards with little costs to actually get them.
Burning down a monastery plus gaining enough fame to level-up if you can easily beat every
purple enemy, would be a good trade off.

One thing that clearly decreases Tempo are wounds. Personally, I hate wounds. Wounds
slow you down. A few wounds are fine, but dont clog your deck with them, youll lose Tempo
(more on wounds in Tenet #8).

Always be on the lookout to increase Tempo and not to decrease it. If youre able to use only
few cards to conquer a keep, gain fame to level-up, gain a good advanced action card and
skill, increase your hand size, and are able to recruit a great unit the next turn, youll clearly
increase Tempo. If on the other hand youre a bit too weak when entering an adventure site
and are not able to defeat the enemy plus leaving the site with a couple of wounds, youll
clearly be decreasing Tempo.

Every round youll have to optimize the use of your turns and cards and increase Tempo.

Tenet #4 Mana management

Mana is what powers the Mage Knight. Mana provides actions. It doubles the power of most
basic action cards. You need mana to cast spells and power your units more stronger
abilities. To get to most out of your cards and turns is to use mana wisely.
When managing your mana dont solely rely on the source. Most of the time you can only
use one die from the source. It is uncertain into which color youll reroll the die.
Furthermore, the source might become depleted in the course of the round.

To increase the effectiveness of your cards and units you need to have additional sources of
mana. Gain crystals and mana via skills (Arytheas Dark Fire Magic is a really great one), via
cards (like the different bolts and rings), via units (like the mages), and via magical glades
and crystal mines.

Youll also have to appreciate the mana management cards in your 16 starting cards. Try to
get to most out of Crystallize, Mana Draw, and Concentration (Will Focus for Goldyx). If you
find yourself playing these cards sideways means youre doing something sub-optimally.

Mana management also means that you have to match your available mana to your cards
and units. As you already have a great knowledge of your cards (see Tenet #1), you know
what colors of mana you would require to play them optimally. Build your mana resources to
match your cards and visa versa. For instance, if you have gained a lot of blue crystals via
Goldyx crystal craft skills, you better have enough great blue cards or units to use these
crystals for. Just collecting crystals for the greatest loot achievements scoring is not optimal.

Special attention has to go to the use of black mana. Black mana is really powerful. With it,
youll be able to cast the strong effects of spells and use the Altem Mages strong attack
ability. There are some things the remember with regards to black mana. Firstly, you can
only use black mana during the night and in tombs and dungeons (or using Amulet of
Darkness). Secondly, there are no black crystals, black mana only exists as pure mana. So,
know how to get black mana. Fortunately, you have some options to get black mana: the
source, your basic card Mana Draw, magical glades, Altem Mages first ability, some of
Arytheas skills, or by using the strong effect of some artifacts. Plan and use your black mana
carefully.

Tenet #5 The importance of units

Units give you actions just like deed cards, but units have some advantage over deed cards.
Firstly, units dont occupy a slot in your hand. Secondly, your units are available to you right
at the start of the round. You dont have to draw them yet.

Adding units gives you more options, but remember that you have to increase Tempo when
you do (see Tenet #3). So, dont spend too much influence, cards and turns on weak units.
If you have to make a detour and spend valuable cards and mana to recruit some Herbalists,
youll clearly be decreasing Tempo and playing sub-optimally.

At the start of a round you know where you can recruit units. Determine if youll have
enough influence to recruit them efficiently. Then, as always, plan your turns carefully, use
your current hand cards and future cards optimally, and be able to recruit at the right
moment and increase Tempo.

Elite units are strong. Youll really want these guys. They give the diversified army (see
Tenet #7) youll need. To be able to add the elite units to the unit offer youll have to get to
the core tiles quickly. Ill always try to reveal the first core tile at least at the second day, so
Im able to recruit elite units from the second night on. Tempo matters.

Remember that units need mana for their stronger abilities. Take this into account with your
mana management (see Tenet #4).

Personally I like units a lot. Ive assaulted level 8 cities with just a line-up of good units (and
enough mana) and only basic action cards, and beaten all the enemies. You dont need spells
to finish a city.
To be able to recruit units, especially the higher level ones, youll need to pay attention to
influence and reputation. You start the game with three influence cards: Promise (Noble
Manners for Norowas), Threaten, and Improvisation. These cards provide a good start, but
youll probably need more influence to be able to recruit the higher level units. This is even
more true when the optimal future path youve planned involves the loss of reputation by
assaulting keeps and mage towers or burning a monastery, and there are not much
rampaging enemies around.

Again, know your deed cards (you havent forgotten Tenet #1 I trust) and make sure if you
need to add more influence by adding advanced action cards, artifacts, and skills which
provide influence. You might also use unspent units to provide influence (Illusionists,
Peasants).

Always be very careful managing your reputation. Units are just too strong, so I dont like to
be unable to recruit them because of some wasteful and meaningless plundering, burning
down, or assaulting. I tend to hover around the 0 reputation spaces. You lose Tempo if you
have to kill Marauding Orcs to increase your reputation. These enemies just give too little
fame in mid-game.

Off course, be flexible. When the board offers a lot of tombs, dungeons, and monastries,
youll might need to have less focus on units, but more on strong spells, artifacts and
advanced actions cards.

Tenet #6 Understanding spells

If you have a look at the spell cards, youll see theyre strong. But, and this is a very big but,
you have to be very very careful with spells. Spells cost mana and its strong effect even
costs two mana. And most of the time, theres no abundance of mana (see Tenet #4).

When it comes to spells, its better to have one or two devastating spells, then to have
several mediocre spells. Its quite difficult to play multiple spells with strong effect because
of the large amount of mana required (especially to get multiple black mana). Having
multiple spells in your hand and ending up playing some of them sideways is not optimal.

I think most spells are just nice. And there are only a few spells worthwhile to make a detour
to a mage tower to get them. If I see these spells in the spell offer, I will strongly consider
getting them: Expose / Mass Expose, Tremor / Earthquake and Wings of Wind / Wings of
Night. Off course, if I already have a comparable artifact (Banner of Fear, Horn of Wrath) I
probably consider otherwise.

Only taking out 1, maybe 2 mage towers in one game is more than enough. Ive played a lot
of games without conquering a single mage tower and still score more than 200 points.

Tenet #7 Have a diversified army

Dont solely rely on physical attacks. Add units and deed cards (and if needed some skills) to
have fire and/or ice attacks and blocks. Add different forms of resistance. Also siege
(fire/ice) attacks are important to have later in the game when taking down cities.

With a strong diversified army, you can kill every enemy you encounter efficiently. Its
advantageous to have different attack options in your arsenal when assaulting a city. Having
a great line-up of elite units surely helps you on this (see Tenet #5). Furthermore, having
such a strong diversified army also decreases to number of wounds you have to take (see
the next tenet).

Tenet #8 Be careful with wounds

Its a tough world out there in the Atlantean Empire. Your Mage Knight encounters a lot of
different foes like Orcs and Draconum. He has to assault keeps and mage towers. He will
capture heavily guarded cities. Its not strange to see him get a scratch or two.

Ok, let move on from this theatrical image. In this game getting a few wounds is not that
bad. But (another big but) you should only be willing to get a few wounds under the
condition that the rewards youll get in return are worth it, and/or youre making a giant leap
to realize your game objectives. Remember, this game is largely plannable (see Tenet #2).
When pre-analysing and optimizing a round and its turns you have to take into consideration
the wounds youre willing to take.

The most important drawback of wounds are the huge decrease of Tempo (see Tenet #3).
Be very careful with them. The wounds itself make you lose Tempo because they clog your
hand and deck. But youre also losing Tempo when you have to get rid of the wounds. If you
have to take a healing card from the offer, it means you to have to pass on another
(probably more meaningful) card. If you have to go to a magical glade, village or monastery
to heal, youll lose valuable actions. Even if you play Tranquillity to heal, youll lose its ability
to draw cards. Remember that wounds make you lose Tempo.

In all the Solo Conquests games where I scored more than 200 points, I had a maximum
number of only 2 wounds at the end of the game. Most of these games I had 0.

Concerning wounds on units, you should try to minimize wounded units. Especially elite
units. As you have to pay healing point equal to the level of the units, it costs you a lot of
healing points to get rid of the wounds on elite units. More importantly, you cant activate
your wounded units and valuable actions are lost.

Concluding thoughts
For me, understanding these 8 tenets strongly helps me to end Solo Conquest scenarios
above the 200 points hurdle.

Knowing your deed cards, be able to plan your turns, understanding tempo and mana
management are the most important concepts of the game of Mage Knight. Combine this
with the importance of units, your understanding of spells, having a diversified army and
prudence with wounds, and youll be playing Mage Knight much more efficiently. And with
that youll probably enjoy the game even more.
Solo \ co-op strategy tips
Let's collect some solo\coop strategy advice.
Here's what I've figured out so far:

Fill your unit slots - try to get all your unit slots filled when possible. These are free power.
Get some gold units if possible. If you don't have a lot of influence, consider picking up Call
to Arms if it's available - casting that on two nights can get you two great units. The level 4
units are exceptionally powerful - if you are getting a free unit from ruins or from call to
arms, try to wait until gold units are exposed if it's feasible to do so.

Reputation is a resource - it's okay to spend it. If you're having trouble powering up,
maybe that artifact you get from burning a monastery will help.

Adventure!: Ruins are great - you can use your units and the enemies are not fortified. Lots
of them will give you good rewards - artifacts, spells, maybe even gold units. In a solo\coop
game, I only do the mana ruins when I need the 7 fame in order to quickly level up. I don't
bother with them late-game - they're not helping you hit the cities. Dungeons are not so
hard - with a spell or some advanced actions you can take out most brown enemies, and a
free spell or artifact is a great reward for the early game.

Easy on the keeps: Keeps are not that hard to assault, but you don't actually get a
permanent reward for taking them. It's good to break into one if you can recruit some nice
keep units, but I'd watch out for loading up too heavily on keeps otherwise - unless you can
find a keep near a city, you won't be able to leverage the keep card draw in the endgame.
Mage towers are preferable to me - another spell in the deck is always good.

Tech up, burn down: In the later game there's a rhythm of building up resources and then
burning them down for a big attack. It's okay to break those artifacts if it gets you a city.
Burn through your crystals and wound your units if you have to. Prepare for those big turns
by crystallizing mana, buying units, hitting ruins and spawning pits in order to get a crystal
stockpile. Maybe you pillage a village. There's no prizes for ending the game with a high
reputation score.

Use the cheatsheet: Before you go into a dungeon or ruin, you can look at the back of the
rulebook and get an idea what kind of enemies are in there. Maybe you don't know what's
there, but you know your hand can easily kill 3 of the 4 possibilities - it's probably worth
going in. If half of the possible draws are going to wreck you with attacks you can't block or
afford to absorb, maybe you come back later.

Prepare to attack the cities: In a solo or coop game, you know for sure that you have to
hit a city in the endgame, so you know you're going to be coming up against fortified city
defenders. From the cheatsheet you know that they have lots of resistances and lots of
elemental attacks - find some ways to deal with this. I swear by Expose, but there are other
good options. Just keep your eyes open for them in the offer, especially the spell offer.

Take some wounds: - It's better to take 2-3 wounds and clear a site than to wait for the
next day. If you're not taking a wound or two, then you're not using the full power of your
tranquility and the magic glades. If you can trigger a orc or dragon fight while on a glade,
you can even get the free heal at end of turn - sometimes taking the wounds to hand and
then using tranquility\glade is substantially more efficient than trying to block.

Get some movement: - the core tiles are full of swamps, lakes, and mountains. You will
want some extra movement to make it through the midgame and to set up your final
assaults without having to blow your whole hand. I love to pick up Pathfinding if it's
available, but if you can't get that, there are lots of other good options. I love Ambush and
Agility, but almost all of the movement powers are good in some way. Refreshing Walk is a
nice way to get a little extra healing in your deck. Wings of Wind is good for fixing any
movement problems too. I usually end up casting it at night to get across some mountains.
Pacing: In my ideal solo game I'd be hitting city 1 on day 3 and then I can spend all of night
3 hitting city 2. In practice I can't always pull that off - sometimes I need to hit them both in
night 3 if I don't have enough good stuff yet in day 3. If you know that in night 3 you only
have to take one city, then you can spend some time setting up the assault or massaging
your hand to get the exact spells you want and getting in the perfect position. I like to use
my movement points to get right up next to the city (maybe even in a glade next to the
green city) so that you get all the movement out of your hand (except for the one you need
to do the assault!), and you also get to reveal the garrison. Hopefully you can then look at
your hand and figure out if you can take the city.

Try, try again: It's okay to assault a city twice if you can only take out half of the garrison
on the first go.

Know your strengths: Where possible, try to line up your mana production with your mana
consumption. If you've got mana artifacts or mana character skills, try to match those with
the spells and unit abilities that you're using. Arythea can turn wounds into red and black
mana, so then maybe you can afford to buy more red spells or fire golems. Norowas has
skills to generate white and green mana, so you know you'll be able to cast those spells no
matter what the source rolls for you. Don't gain the character skills that give +1 siege attack
unless you've got some siege powers to stack it with. (catapults, golems, spells, crushing
bolt)

Figure out your endgame: I've come across two main strategies for dealing with the
endgame - you're probably either going to go heavy ranged\siege or heavy attack\block. If
you're going ranged\siege, then you need multiple ranged attacks, and you probably need
expose or tremor in order to remove fortifications from the cities. If you go this route, you'll
break down the fortifications and then kill all the enemies with ranged attacks so you never
have to block. If you're not going this route, then you're probably going for heavy attack
power (flame wall, blood rage, stuff like that) Since you'll have to block before you can
attack, you'll need either big blocks, or things like whirlwind and wings of night to prevent
attack phases. Be careful mixing these approaches - picking up a few ranged attacks without
expose\tremor to back it up will just make you sad when you assault the cities. A few ranged
attacks are never bad - you can use them to take out ruins and dragons and such, but be
aware that they aren't fully effective against the cities without some other support. Be wary
of leaning heavily on blue and red spells for your endgame blockbusters - fire\ice resistance
on the city defenders can ruin your day.

Easy on the healing - This is just my personal experience, so maybe somebody can
counteract me. I have had trouble finding a way to use the really powerful healing spells. If
you are planning to wound your units and then heal them, then you've stopped an attack,
but you've also lost the opportunity to activate the unit in the the battle. You want to have
the big healing spell near the fight time so you don't spend a ton of time covered in wounds,
but you don't want it during the actual turn that you do the fighting, because it's a dead card
during the fight. For these reasons I haven't been able to get a lot of value from the healing
spells or the regeneration action as compared to other more active abilities - maybe you
guys can tell me what I'm doing wrong