Fame describes the reputation of a Wizard.
Fame decreases the total amount a wizard pays for troop maintenance. In addition, more powerful heroes will only approach a famous wizard.
A wizard may obtain Fame from being Famous, hiring Legendary Heroes, banishing other wizards, capturing towns or winning major battles. Likewise any wizard losing major battles or losing towns will lose Fame.
Benefits 
Edit
Gold Upkeep Edit
Fame decreases the total amount a wizard pays for the monthly troop maintenance by one 
Gold for each 
Fame point. If a wizard has more Fame than the maintenance costs of all Normal Units and Heroes summed up, then (s)he doesn't have to pay any gold at all.
Hero offers Edit
Fame increases the frequency of hero offers. There's a small chance each round that a hero may offer his/her service for some Gold in return. At 0 Fame it's a 3% chance (doubled if Famous or playing at Intro difficulty). Every 25 Fame points, the chance increases by 1 percentage point. The chance is also divided by a factor that depends on how many heroes are already in the wizard's service (namely 1.5 + 0.5 x # heroes).
| Chances for Hero Offers | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal | 0
| 25
| 50
| 75
| 100
| 125
| 150
| 175+
|
| Famous | 0
| 25
| 50+
| |||||
| No Heroes | 3 % | 4 % | 5 % | 6 % | 7 % | 8 % | 9 % | 10 % |
| 1-2 Heroes | 1% | 2% | 2% | 3% | 3% | 4% | 4% | 5% |
| 3-4 Heroes | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 3% | 3% |
| 5 Heroes | 0% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 1% | 2% | 2% | 2% |
Additionally, certain heroes only show up when the wizard has earned enough Fame. The best heroes ("Champions") require the wizard to have at least 40 fame.
| req. Fame | Name | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 Fame
| 
| Brax the Dwarf | |
| Gunther the Barbarian | ||
| Zaldron the Sage | ||
| B'Shan the Dervish | ||
| Rakir the Beastmaster | ||
| Valana the Bard | ||
| Bahgtru the Orc Warrior | ||
| Serena the Healer | ||
| Shuri the Huntress | ||
| Theria the Thief | ||
| 5 Fame
| 
| Greyfairer the Druid | |
| Taki the War Monk | ||
| Reywind the Warrior Mage | ||
| Malleus the Magician | ||
| Tumu the Assassin | ||
| 10 Fame
| 
| Jaer the Wind Mage | |
| Marcus the Ranger | ||
| Fang the Draconian | ||
| Morgana the Witch | ||
| Aureus the Golden One | ||
| 20 Fame
| 
| Shin Bo the Ninja | |
| Spyder the Rogue | ||
| Shalla the Amazon | ||
| Yramrag the Warlock | ||
| 20 Fame
| 
| Mystic X the Unknown | |
| 40 Fame
| 
| Aerie the Illusionist | |
| Deth Stryke the Swordsman | ||
| Elana the Priestess |  1 Life Book required
| |
| Roland the Paladin | 1 Life Book required
| |
| Mortu the Black Knight |  1 Death Book required
| |
| Alorra the Elven Archer | ||
| Sir Harold the Knight | ||
| Ravashack the Necromancer | 1 Death Book required
| |
| Warrax the Chaos Warrior | ||
| ∞ Fame
| 
| Torin the Chosen | only available via Incarnation |
Mercenary offers Edit
Fame increases the frequency of mercenary offers. There's a small chance each round that a group of Normal Units may offer their services, provided the wizard has enough Gold to pay them in advance. At 0 Fame it's only a 1% chance (doubled if Famous ). Every 20 Fame points the chance increases by 1 percentage point. This means at 20 Fame the chance for a mercenary offer is twice as high as at 0 Fame.
Fame also increases the quality of mercenary offers. This doesn't mean the unit type that shows up. Instead, it means the quantity (up to 3 units) and 
Level (up to 
Elite) of the mercenaries. The game rolls two 100-sided dices (a random integer number between 1 and 100), one for quantity and one for experience, and adds the number of Fame points to both. If the result is 60 or below, then the game gives only 1 unit respectively only 
20 experience. If the result is between 61 and 90, then the game gives 2 units resp. 60 experience. If the result is 91 or above, then the game gives 3 units resp. 120 experience.
Merchant offers Edit
Fame increases the frequency of merchant offers. There's a small chance each round that you may purchase a Magical Item for some Gold. At 0 Fame it's only a 2% chance (doubled if Famous ). Every 25 Fame points the chance increases by 1 percentage point (up to a maximum of 10%). In contrast to Mercenary and Hero offers, the quality of the offered items doesn't increase with the number of Fame points.
Score Edit
Once the game has ended, Fame is also used to calculate the final Score. Before the difficulty multiplier is taken into account, 1 Fame is worth 2 points (including temporary Fame granted by Legendary Heroes). That's worth as much as finishing the game one turn earlier, or having acquired 2 more spells, or having 4 more townfolks.
Sources for Fame Edit
There are numerous ways of gaining and losing Fame. Thereby, one must differ between the global fame of a wizard and temporary sources of fame. For example, choosing the Famous retort adds +10 points to the Fame of a wizard globally, whereas casting the spell Just Cause adds 10 points temporarily.
The global fame of a wizard can never fall below 0. If a wizard casts Just Cause and razes a neutral town afterwards, (s)he will still have 10 Fame (0 global fame + 10 temporary fame). However, if a wizard is Famous and razes a town, (s)he will have less than 10 fame ( <10 global fame + 0 temporary fame).
Changing Town Ownerships Edit
Conquering Towns will increase the global Fame of a wizard, provided the town harbours at least 9 population units (after capture?). However, razing a town at capture will decrease the global Fame, in fact by an even bigger absolute value than conquering.
If the captured town is home to an enemy wizard (Wizard's Fortress present), then another +5 Fame points are added to the successful wizard.
Likewise losing a Town to Raiders, Rampaging Monsters or to an enemy wizard will decrease the global Fame of a wizard, in fact by the same amount as razing.
| Name | Size | conquer | raze or lose | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hamlet | 1 to 4 | +0
| -1
|
| Village | 5 to 8 | +0
| -2
|
| Town | 9 to 12 | +1
| -3
|
| City | 13 to 16 | +2
| -4
|
| Capital | 17 to 20 | +3
| -5
|
Major Battle & Losing Heroes Edit
Up to +2 global Fame points can be earned by winning a battle: +1 point if 4 or more enemy units are slain (summoned units do count, enemy units switching sides do not count), +1 point if at least 1 very rare enemy Fantastic Unit is slain (resp. Fantastic Unit that has a mana budget of 600 or higher).
Likewise up to -2 global Fame points can be subtracted by losing a battle: -1 point if 4 or more own units are slain, -1 point if at least 1 very rare own Fantastic Unit is slain.
In a lost battle, further global Fame points can be subtracted if a hero dies: To determine the number of lost points, the game takes the Hero's Experience Level, divides it by 2 and rounds the result down. Thereby, the lowest Experience Level counts as level 1. That means, -1 point subtracted if a 
Myrmidon or 
Captain dies, -2 points subtracted if a Commander or 
Champion dies, and so on.
Famous Retort Edit
If a wizard owns the Famous retort at start, then (s)he begins the game with 10 global Fame. Likewise, +10 Fame points are added, if a wizard finds this Retort in a Treasure (not really sure, needs some testing).
Just Cause Edit
As long as the Life spell Just Cause is active, +10 Fame points are added temporarily.
Legendary Heroes Edit
As long as a hero with the Legendary Hero Ability serves for a wizard, (s)he will gain some Fame points temporarilly. It's +3 multiplied by the hero's level if basic Legendary, and +4.5 multiplied by the hero's level if Super Legendary (rounded down).
Defeating an Enemy Wizard Edit
You are awarded 5 fame for defeating or banishing an enemy wizard. This is in addition to Fame points gained for defeating his fortress city. Note: you are not notified of this award in the game.
