A long way from home

Chiron and some new allies must recover the third Osiris Piece from within a great Tamarisk tree.

Starting objective: Seek help from the desert nomad camp to the east. (2)

Difficulty levels:

  • Easy:
    • Additional towers in Nomad camp (2)
  • Hard:
    • Less gold piles on map
    • Gargarensis launches additional attacks when the Tamarisk tree (6) is being cut down
  • Titan:
    • No goats in Nomad village, almost no hunting
    • Gold pile south of village (4) is guarded by a tower and two Scorpion Men
    • Tamarisk tree (6) is guarded by two towers
    • Only one additional settlement
    • Mummies do not attack Gargarensis’ units

The scenario opens near an Oasis in the southwest of the map. (1) You command Chiron, a handful of Axemen and Cavalry, two Ox Carts (which are pretty much useless for anything but novelty value – you can’t empower resource gathering at an ox cart) and a Priest. You’ll be informed you should seek out the Nomad camp (2) – which should prove easy given it’s just a few steps to the east. Once you arrive, it will convert to your control.

New objective: Send Laborers to cut down the Tamarisk tree (6) and recover the head of Osiris.

Optional: Destroy the ancient tombs (3) to halt the Mummy attacks on the village.

Queue up some villagers, just focus on food for now. You don’t need to worry about gold for the time being since you start with a large stockpile of it, and wood is very rare on this map, so you’re going to have to try and manage without using too much of it. Start with the goats, then begin farming – there is some hunting to be found, but it’s easier to defend your villagers when they remain in the camp.

You get five tents on this mission, which boost your pop by 10 respectively, but can’t be replaced. Gargarensis’ forces will launch frequent attacks that arrive from both sides of the village, (and include siege weapons later on) so it’s probably an idea to protect these tents by building your other structures around them as you expand your camp.

The tombs the villagers mentioned are directly east of the camp, (3a) and in the west corner of the map. (3b) These will, at regular intervals, spawn a pair of Mummies, who’ll make their way to your village and cause some general mayhem. Mummies go down very easily to heroes, but they instantly kill any human unit they target with their special attack, so be sure to keep your units as far out of their way as possible. Unless you’re playing on Titan, the Mummies will also attack Gargarensis’ units if they encounter any on the way to your camp…but they still pose more threat to you than to the enemy, so you’re going to have to deal with them. Preferably soon.

The tomb to the east (3a) is a stone’s throw from the camp, so head east out of the camp and attack it with your modest army. When it nears 0 HP, you may want to draw most of your units away, since two Scarabs will spawn when the tomb is destroyed – they do a lot of pierce damage to surrounding units when they die. (Chiron can deal with these guys easily on his own anyway.) Once the tomb goes down, you’ll be rewarded with 1000 gold for your efforts.

If you’re playing on Titan, you’ll want to take this opportunity to use your army to clear out the gold pile to the south, (4) so you can send miners here soon. (This is the safest of the gold mines on the map, since enemy units will not be going near it.) Send Chiron in first to deal with the Scorpion Men, then take out the tower with your other units. Even if you’re not playing on Titan, head here anyway to grab the relic – it reduces MU cost. Another useful relic can be found a little northwest of the camp, (5) which boosts building HP.

The second tomb (3b) is a lot further out of your way but should prove easy to find – simply head west, and cross the river, and continue west again. (Try to keep out of range of the towers on Gargarensis’ camp.) Repeat the same process as with the previous tomb and you’ll be rewarded with another 1000 gold. Detour south to find two relics before returning to your camp.

Now it’s time to focus on building up a bit. You could head out and start chopping down the Tamarisk tree straight away, but you don’t quite have the army to defend Gargarensis’ attacks while your villagers work yet. Gargarensis’ initial attacks on your camp are composed of Spearmen and Anubites, but later in the mission – and when you are at the Tamarisk tree – he will use a much larger spread of units. So go for a balanced army of your choice – though it would probably be unwise to focus on wood heavy units due to the lack of lumber on the map. I found MU’s to be quite useful on this mission, since Gargarensis’ forces only built a handful of priests. Sphinxes with their respective upgrades are quite cost effective units, and Petsuchos’ are very effective long ranged units as well.

If you want, you can attack Gargarensis’ camps (7) to reduce the frequency of his attacks while you are building up. The two closer camps, (7a/7b) are not difficult to cripple – take out the Temple and Barracks in each to stop them generating attacks. The main camp (7c) is a lot harder to take out, and probably not worth the effort.

Once you have a decent army, head out to the Tamarisk tree. (6) Once you’ve eliminated the feeble resistance there, send in your villagers – around 30 can work on the tree at once. You might want to set up walls blocking off approaches to make it harder for Gargarensis’ units to get to your villagers. (Don’t build walls with hopes of keeping him out altogether though – it’s not worth it. That’s what your army is for.) Now all you have to do is defend your villagers for the time necessary to cut down the tree. Once it’s down, you’ll be rewarded with victory.

On to mission 19

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