Part 9: Everything Arcomage
** Arcomage is a mini-game within the Might and Magic 8 world. It can be played at any inn throughout each zone, and there is even a quest to win one game at every single inn.
Arcomage is also a money-making opportunity, as the first time you win at any inn, you will receive a sum of gold. You ONLY get this the first time you win there though.
What is the game?
You will be playing cards (shown at the bottom) to attempt to meet one of three winning criteria:
Have your TOWER reach a certain height.
Have a certain amount of resources.
Reduce your enemy’s tower to 0.
I will include at the bottom of this a guide to the victory conditions at each inn. The conditions differ location to location. In-game, you can always click “Victory Conditions” in order to see what that specific location requires.
Towers and Walls:
Highlighted in yellow is your TOWER. In RED is the wall. Your wall is a protection device. Use cards to keep it high and protect your tower.
At the bottom, arrows point to two different types of damage you can cause in the game. If a card specifically says “### damage to enemy tower”, then the damage applies to the tower directly. If the card says simply “## Damage”, it will deduct from the opponent’s wall.
Say your opponent has a wall of 15, as in the picture, and you have a “20 Damage” card. The opponent’s wall will first be reduced to 0, and then the remaining 5 damage will be applied to the tower.
Read cards carefully, some might have conditions such as “If your tower is larger than the enemy wall, then 12 damage to enemy TOWER. But if not, 5 damage”. That means in that case, if you don’t meet the requirement for the 12 damage to tower, you just do 5 damage to their wall.
Any time it isn’t specified as TOWER, it means the damage first applies to the wall. If the wall is 0, the damage applies to the tower only then.
You cannot win just by making your wall very very tall, so make sure you’re focusing on raising your tower and damaging the enemy one.
Resources:: How to Read Cards
The small number on the bottom right of each card tells you how many specific resources it will take. The color of the card equals which resource it will reduce.
Brown = Bricks Blue = Gems Green = Recruits
Say you only have 5 gems and you have a card that requires 10 gems to cast. The card will be darkened and un-clickable.
If you want to get rid of a card without playing it, right click the card and it will be discarded. You may also have to do this if you don’t have any cards available to play. You will always have 6 cards in your hand.
Resources:: How to Increase Their Number (Win Method #2)
You’ve probably noticed that above those numbers in the previous point, there are big yellow numbers. Those have specific names, I’ve highlighted it above.
At the BEGINNING ONLY of each turn, the number of each resource will increase by the amount of the green number.
SO. What’s that mean? Let me zoom in on that part of the screen::
This is just default how resources begin at the start of the game. It changes per inn.
So at the start of every single round, those resources (Bricks, Gems, and Recruits) will increase by 4. So let’s say I play a card that has 0 cost (there are a few). The next time it’s my turn, all those resource numbers will say 18.
OK, back to this:
Some cards allow you to increase those bigger numbers, so that every round you add more and more. You’ll see that you can also lower your opponent’s numbers, which will make it harder to play the higher value cards that give you boosts to your tower height.
If that big number gets to a certain point- which again varies per inn- you automatically win the game, regardless of your tower height.
Win Conditions Per Inn::
** Please note: The payout happens at first *win*. It’s alright if you lose several games before winning, you’ll still get the gold.
Dagger Wound: The Grog and Grub || Tower of 30 or any resource to 100. || 600 gold for first win
Ravenshore: Kessel’s Kantina || Tower of 50 or any resource to 150 || 1000 gold for first win The Dancing Ogre || Tower of 100 or any resource to 300 || 1700 gold for first win
Alvar: Miho’s Roadhouse || Tower of 125 or any resource to 350 || 2000 gold for first win Profit House || Tower of 50 or any resource to 150 || 1500 gold for first win
Garotte Gorge: Dragon’s Blood Inn || Tower of 75 or any resource to 200 || 2500 gold for first win
Shadowspire: Black Company || Tower of 100 or any resource to 300 || 5000 gold for first win
Ravage Roaming: Bull’s Eye Inn || Tower of 150 or any resource to 400 || 4000 gold for first win
Ironsand Desert: Parched Throat || Tower of 75 or any resource to 300 || 1500 gold for first win
Murmmurwoods: Traveler’s Rest || Tower of 100 or any resource to 300 || 3500 gold for first win
Regna: Pirate’s Rest || Tower of 200 or any resource to 500 || 600 gold for first win
Once you’ve won a game at every inn, speak to Tonk Blueswan in Ravenshore (her home is across from the road to Shadowspire).
She will consider the quest completed even if you did not receive the quest before playing the games, and will give you the key to a chest outside of her home containing large amounts of gold and a rare sword.
** My tip is to play Arcomage first at every inn the first time you visit any map. That way once you’ve accessed Regna, you don’t have to worry about figuring out which one you missed.
If you do need to see the list of taverns you’ve won Arcomage at, double-click any character, click “Awards”, and scroll to the bottom.
You’ll have to look at it for each character in your inventory as whoever is selected when you start playing is considered the winner instead of the whole party.