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Succeeding in Sacrifice requires a firm grasp of the interface, structures, spellcasting, and combat techniques. This section describes various general and combat strategies for mastering mana management, spellcasting, formations, and getting the most out of your god. General Strategies As in most real-time strategy games, careful planning and resource management must first precede effective combat. Use this section to better understand your deity, manage mana and manahoars, and organize your forces. God Stuff Knowing your god's units and spells (outlined in the walk-through section and in the statistics sections of this game guide) is a key to conquering the single-player missions. Charnel The god of death features some interesting spells related to death (including the man himself!) and, better yet, others that provide important abilities during combat. The animate dead spell (level 4) can be cast on a blue soul to regenerate the fallen soul right there. This saves you the time to gather up the soul and summon the replacement unit. Wailing wall (level 6), a particularly interesting Charnel spell, summons a wall of tortured souls that scream out in agony - with a cool side effect of draining the mana of all creatures stuck within. It's quite useful on ranged guardians and effective in battle situations. Death (level 9), Charnel's superspell, summons an imposing grim reaper to hack up enemy units. Make sure your own units are far away when death is around, however; it will turn on your units if they're too close. You can lure death back to the enemy by just running and letting it follow your scared manahoars! James With his wormlike head and stand-up-comedian voice, James seems like a benign enough fellow. But if you play through the single-player campaign as one of James' wizards, you will find that he has several very powerful toys in his arsenal to bestow upon you. While James' lower-level spells are nothing out of the ordinary, his three highest-level spells are monumental. Bombardment (level 7) is one of the best spells for softening up guardianed manaliths, often accomplishing your goal all by itself. Bovine intervention (level 8) earmarks any enemy unit for automatic destruction, and the souls pop up blue and ready to snag. His highest-level spell, Bore (level 9), is something to fear indeed. Bore cuts a hole in the ground, and all souls that drop through it are lost from the mission. An enemy whose clustered units are unaware of this spell's casting will suffer mightily as a result. Spells that kill many enemy units may be overcome by collecting the souls and retreating to regroup, but bore puts a heavy lid on anyone's hopes of recovering. Persephone On the surface, Persephone is a goddess of peace, and her spells and boons reflect this nature. After you play through the single-player missions, however, you may find your good impression of her tarnished. Regardless, when you play as Persephone's wizard, you will often be rewarded for any acts of kindness you perform or any acts of needless violence you avoid. Her trademark spell is rainbow (level 4), a healing spell that hops from its first target to any nearby damaged creature, continuing on through a total of five targets. Rainbow really frees up time at no real cost, since its mana drain of 300 is identical to that of the normal heal spell. One high-level spell that stands out for Persephone is charm (level 8), the only way you can acquire units that you otherwise cannot summon. Charm takes a little while to cast, so you should shield yourself (with ethereal form or whatever other shielding spell you possess) before you charm a creature. This spell can be cast through intervening obstacles, making it possible for you to hide behind manaliths or boulders or trees as you chant. Pyro The god of fire specializes in really hot stuff. Flames and fire are Pyro's best friend, and most of his spells are focused on the dangerous element. The dragonfire spell (level 4) summons a flame-shaped dragon to swoop down and attack numerous enemy targets. Explosion (level 5) causes the area under a targeted unit to explode, damaging nearby units (effective on weakening guardians). Rain of fire (level 7) provides a large area of effect damage, but be careful, because you can also take damage. Finally, Pyro's high-level spells, blind rage (level 8) and volcano (level 9), are arguably the most effective. Blind rage causes targeted units to attack one another - a great setup for an attack. And even though volcano is stationary, it causes incredible damage (which lasts for a while), so enemies can flee. However, fleeing makes them a good target for follow-up or a flanking strike. Stratos The mysterious Stratos commands most elements of weather, and his spells reflect his skills. The freeze spell (level 3) can temporarily freeze an enemy in place. Cast it on a unit and immediately follow up with a concentrated attack. Chain lightning (level 4) fires a bolt of lightning that shoots through tightly packed enemy creatures. Punish the enemy for poor formation use by firing chain lightning to weaken packed forces. Frozen ground (level 6), similar to freeze, can freeze any units underneath the targeted ground. Finally, cloudkill (level 8) summons an electrical storm to obliterate an enemy force. Keep in mind that the enemy can retreat from the danger (you're also vulnerable to its attack if you're close enough). Corner the enemy, if possible, and watch cloudkill (or your flanking units) pressure the enemy into a confused defeat.
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