1) It’s a good idea to replace your techo in mission one with a moehog. It is very difficult to use all of your pieces together at once, and the techo is the least valuable of all your soldiers. The moehog you replace your techo with can move farther faster and hit more times. Two moehogs will always beat a moehog and a techo.
2) It’s also a good idea, if you can, to grab an extra set of healer grundo gear (store it on the extra moehog) as you approach mission five. You want to replace the extra moehog in mission five with a second healing grundo (assuming your first grundo has reached healing status). Once you have two healing grundos you are almost unbeatable, since not only do grundos make excellent healers, but they are usually among the strongest pieces you have both offensively and defensively (if equipped with a healing scroll and a grundo cloak).
3) Techo shields are equally good defensive upgrades for moehogs and scorchios.
4) Be VERY aware of the fact that once a scorchio with a bow reaches soldier rank it can use that bow from two spaces away. Your scorchio essentially develops a secondary role as an artillery unit which can come in very handy when trying to pick off enemies coming around your flanks or for heavy defenses in the middle of the board where the scorchio can add its firepower to pieces actually in contact with enemy units.
5) Teleporting skeiths (with or without battle axe) are really best used to stagger the advancing enemy line so that your pieces don’t get hit with a solid line of enemies, which usually affords them the opportunity to concentrate fire which will RUIN your game for myriad reasons. A teleporting skeith can be used effectively to halt advances in different parts of the enemy line simply by teleporting into blocking positions with every turn. This will make your fight go a lot smoother.
6) A captured but heavily wounded enemy piece can be used to drag attackers back from the main battle line merely by moving them behind the enemy line when you capture them (this usually will draw away one attacker because it wants to kill the weakened piece). I’ve been able to drag enemy pieces all over the board with this. Captured pieces should ALWAYS be put into use as blockers, attackers, or lost item finders and should also be pulled out of assaults by multiple enemy pieces as soon as you capture them. Using captured enemy soldiers effectively is one of the secrets to winning this game (but don’t kill anything with them, you want the kills going to your main combatants; it does no harm to smack an enemy with 16 hit points with a captured scorchio or grundo to wear it down a little before going for the kill shot).
7) If you lose a village, bite the bullet, hit the end turn now button a few times until you’ve lost, and restart the mission. You cannot get a 90 point score if you lose a village, it’s that simple. Each mission consists of three battles, so starting over any particular mission isn’t that big of a deal.
8) Don’t capture the lost item unless you are going to win the battle (in other words, don’t go for it first, unless you’re at a point where you have maneuvered a capture piece close to it; your soldiers are needed on the line). You can’t capture the lost item if you are down to two enemy soldiers, it will vanish before you can get to it. So be sure to capture it with three or more enemies still on the board.
9) The easter egg. There is an easter egg in Invasion of Meridell that can make your army almost unbeatable. Find it and use it. – Seems they completely disabled the spot on the game board, you can’t move onto it or even target the space!
These simple guidelines (even without number nine) should help just about anyone to win with a perfect score at IOM. Good luck! – Michael