1

Phantom warriors are actually weaker than spearmen, but have one special power that makes them death on wheels for most normal units: Illusionary Attacks. They essentially have a 100% chance to hit, ignoring all armor, unless the unit has Immunity to Illusions (cast True Sight if you have it, I think it's a white magic spell). They also have to be summoned onto a battlefield, and vanish when the battle is over, which means you won't see them coming. On the other hand, it also means there is a strict limit on the number that can be added to any one battle, and using that mana pool up prevents the casting of other, more dangerous spells, like Guardian Wind (or High Prayer).

As for the slingers... they'll become worthless if your opponents cast Guardian Wind (-100% chance to hit with ranged physical attacks), and it's an early Blue spell like Phantom Warriors. They're not a whole lot more powerful than Archers, unless you build them in a town with a Mithril vein and an Alchemist's Guild, in which case they become the stuff of legends (8 man units, +2 to hit, damage, and armor per man, can hit opponents with physical attack immunity). Or get a settler to Myrror, and put them near an Adamant vein for a unit that can bring down Red Dragons in two shots. The extra two men per unit Slingers get is their strongest suit, once the Halflings' weaker base attack and defense strength is compensated for with enchanted weapons and armor.

2 Ahh, so that's the mechanic that makes them so nasty... unit size.

I love ranged units in MOM; with melee, it's always a matter of attrition, and you never know when your unit is going to die.  But there's nothing like putting together a stack of wizards and healers led by Xarrax and Mystic X (with 30+ dmg from custom-built items) and 1-turn curb-stomping most enemies.

3 Yeah, you have to be careful about going ALL ranged, though.  Eventually some wiseguy comes along with an army of all unicorns (which teleport anywhere on the field) and eats your army.  Happened to an army of cuddly and loveable Night Elf warlocks I had, once upon a time.

4 Regenerators can be bad news, too. After your missile troops have run out of ammo, the trolls regenerate and eat you for lunch. (I've done that.)

5 And that is why I always use Night Elf Mohawks instead!

Seriously, I forgot how much fun that game is.  I remember now, it was probably the one I hated losing the most when I finally jumped to Win'95.   Whatever bean-counter convinced the Powers That Be that there was still money to be made in these old games, I'd like to thank him.

6

I think every magic type has some units that can teleport... Green mages can summon Great Wyrms (the weakest of the dragons, but still devastating), Red mages have Irfits, Blue mages have Djinn, and Black mages have ... Wraiths? I think... I'm pretty sure Blue can also cast Teleport spells, though that eats mana that could be used to summon a Phantom Beast or two instead.

One of the things I liked best about MoM was how they treated multiple-figure units realisticly... they often seem pretty underpowered, but their attack strength and hit points are effectively multiplied by the number of figures in the unit... until those figures start dying. One advantage single-figure units have is that their attack power remains the same no matter how much damage they take, until they die. Not to mention many low-level spells that subvert the usual "apply attack damage to a single figure till it dies, then apply the remainder to the next figure until it dies, etc." by inflicting damage to each figure in a unit, devastating units with multiple low HP figures but doing little damage to units with one or two figures with high HP.

There was a surprising amount of strategy involved in every single combat, in spite of the fact that the terrain was never really much more than a flat board that occasionally included a city wall on one side. I think the only other time terrain ever actually played a factor in combat was in "floating island" battles over sea, where the terrain would be half land (on the side of the stack riding the floating island) and half water.

7

Blue mages also have air elementals. They don't teleport but they're invisible except when next to an opponent, and they're completely immune to missiles.

The one I fought was also immune to my champion who was using a magical weapon. I had to flee from the battle because I couldn't figure out any way to hurt the damned thing.