Old friends
While in pursuit of Gargarensis, Arkantos is waylaid on an island where he must rescue some old friends from becoming bacon.
Starting objective: Gather at least 10 pigs.
Difficulty levels:
- Easy:
- Circe has less starting units
- Circe has less Towers
- Hard:
- Circe has more Towers
- Titan:
- Circe has even more Towers
This scenario opens in the south of the island, (1) where our heroes have been turned into boars…apparently because that’s what Greek sorceresses living on isolated islands do to uninvited visitors. Your initial objective is very straightforward. Simply follow the path, kill anything that goes after your pigs, and liberate all of the pigs you come across. (You have to knock down the fences on each of the pens, then move one of your boars inside to convert the pigs.) You only need 10 to progress through the mission, but each one is an additional free unit, so grab all of the pigs you come across.
Once you have enough pigs, your next objective will be revealed.
New objective: Get the boars and pigs to the Temple of Zeus. (2)
Follow the path to the Temple of Zeus. Circe’s soldiers pose no threat at the moment – they will not attack while your units are in pig form. As your units come near the Temple, they will be turned back into human form, and you’ll find yourself with a small army of Hypaspists and Peltasts, some villagers, and a Priest. (Try to look after the Priest – if you don’t choose Apollo, you’re unable to heal your units otherwise. The Restoration GP is only good for one battle.)
New objective: Build up and defeat Circe by destroying the Fortress at the heart of her citadel. (6)
Now it’s time to establish a base. You should have seen a free settlement just to the east of the Temple, (3a) build a Town Center here. You can claim another settlement to the south (3b) later on for additional population. Additional gold can be found to the northwest (4a) and to the southwest (4b) – the latter will prove a lot less likely to be harassed by Circe’s soldiers.
There are five relics scattered around the island (marked with *‘s) that are all easy to get to – grab these while building up.
Circe employs Petrobolii, so you can’t rely on your Town Center or a Fortress to hold back enemies, you’ll have to get out and fight. Begin training soldiers as soon as possible – the only counter unit she doesn’t employ are Prodromos, so your best bet is to focus on Hippikons. (You can also get the resources to mass Hippikons easily, thanks to the plentiful gold on this map.) If you get the Labyrynth of Minos upgrade, Minotaurs are also more affordable, and make very durable all round units. Use your Priest to heal injured units between attacks.
Once you have a satisfactory army to repel attacks, set about advancing to Heroic [and Mythic, if you wish] so you can train some siege weapons. Dionysus’ Hydra and Hephaestus’ Colossus are both good building killers, but ordinary Petrobolii or Helepolii will suit our purposes if you don’t want to go with those gods.
Once you are satisfied with your army, it’s time to attack. The north entrance to the Citadel (5) is more lightly defended and will provide you with a quicker entry. Once you have downed the gate, focus all your siege weapons on the Fortress. (6) Circe will appear after a few moments and begin attacking your units – you don’t have to defeat her, simply keep your siege and MU’s intact long enough to knock down the Fortress. Once it goes down, you’ll be rewarded with victory.