Rings of Medusa - Starbyte Sent in by Henry Rushing *First one that I'm sure most people have thought out but just in case: take the highest credit possible and go to the casino. After every win save the game. This is a good way to get a lot of starting capital. * Or play fair and do it the hard way. Buy 2 wagons each with 2 horses and start trading. Hiring soldiers and beating it out at the beginning of the game is useless. If you choose method #1 then buy around 20 wagons and trade with machinery. Or if you want to bring a little spice (and other goods into the game) use the table below to know where to buy what. Incline village slaves,cattle,sheep,and cloth Inner city apples Joshua town salad Indians garden milk,cheese Hot desert fowl Mountain city iron Oak creek village parchment Maia city iron,silver,diamonds Porttown diamonds,iron,drugs Mallou town fish Palm village iron Sioux city iron Gladstone iron,diamonds,leather Loyala wheat Rock o.t. falcons swine Daredevil don beer Lonely village machines Incline village slaves Porto de chianti beef,iron *Remember to deposit all earnings in the bank to collect interest and to save the game after successful transactions. *When you've acquired a good 150,000 hire 100 scouts. Then you'll be best informed about enemy movement. When you have 250,000 buy more scouts and go treasure and ore hunting. - Or if we go again by method #1: save game, hire 1000 to 2000 scouts, find the goods, load last position and go collecting. See table one again for the best area's raw materials. *When you have enough funds start to make plans to conquer cities. Take the ones that have secret clues about treasure. *Buy your army at the beginning of the month and at best 2 or 3 times stronger that the opposing army. Better a large army than too few men with expensive weapons. When building your army concentrate on dragonriders, artillery, and archers. After a battle leave the surviving men to protect the cities. Then they do not require pay. *After the first 1,500,000 it's time to go sailing. When picking the crew always go a pay grade higher and take the most interesting characters. You'll acquire a better crew (even if it's only one man) and save money. *Islands are an ideal place to earn even more money. It's good to sell machinery and buy furs. Also treasure hunting pays off. *When you've found all the rings it's time for the last battle. You'll need 5 to 10 million, and a 40,000 strong army that is trained and armed to the teeth. *Best suited for the job are: infantry - dwarf,troll,giant,orc,ogre cavalry - elf,halfling,gnome,zwark artil. - elf,gnome,zwark scout - elf,halfling,gnome,zwark dragon. - all sorcerer - elf,gnome,zwark archer - elf,halfling,gnome,zwark On a point scale of 12 these races average 8 to 10 for the particular list they've been placed in. Us noble humans are pretty much okay at everything except sorcery. On a point scale of 12 we score 7.5 to 8.5 (sorcery 6.5). ------------------------------------------------------------------ *Now for the whopper, unfortunately only for Amiga owners (sob!) I give you the absolute cheat sheet to R.o.M. To get into the cheat mode, load the game as normal, and after you enter your name and go to the map screen immediately before doing anything else type the word desoxyribonukleinsaeure and voila! The functions are as follows: CODE - KEY - FUNCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------ Help HELP Shows cheat screen * Shift + 8 Unlimited funds S S During a battle the enemy's strength is shown. (as with the 1st ring) W W The city info icon also contains what goods are produced by the entered city. O O The positions of the opposing armies are always known also without scouts (ring 2) T T A blue lightning bolt flashes when an opposing army is standing on a treasure K K You may enter the kasern in any city, even if not occupied by you, and recruit your army with the garrison. + , Increases the game speed. 0 0 Sets funds to 0 B B You enter a battle at sea F F You enter a battle on land CODE - KEY - FUNCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------ R R At the next mouse click you enter Castle Fort Worth, are able to train men, and when finished return to the previous position. E E Jump to end sequence. esc ESC Shuts off cheat mode. As I don't have an Amiga I haven't personally been able to try this out. I hope it isn't just particular to the german edition. ------------------------------------------------------------------ *Island coordinates are useless to give as every new game generates them in new positions but one last tip: 2 of the rings can be found on islands. Happy Hunting!