Beneath the Surface

Gargarensis is about to open the Norse underworld Gate, but do the heroes have enough troops to stop him?

Starting objective: Kill the Fire Giants that guard the Gate Ram (8) before the Tartarus Gate opens.

Difficulty levels:

  • Easy:
    • Start with more upgrades
    • Gargarensis has less units in Niflheim
  • Hard:
    • Start in Classical Age instead of Heroic
    • Gargarensis’ forces in Midgard start with more resources
  • Titan:
    • Gargarensis’ camp in Midgard (6) has defensive Towers
    • Gargarensis’ forces in Midgard start with a lot more resources

This mission opens near the Well of Urd’s portal in Niflheim. (1) This scenario is broken into two areas – Midgard forms the left side of the map, while Niflheim, (the underworld) is on the right. You can move units between the two realms with the Well of Urd – which is essentially the same as Apollo’s Underworld Passage.

Your village is in Midgard. (2) A huge amount of hunting is to be found on this map – research Thor’s Pig Sticker upgrade to let your villagers gather even faster. You won’t even need to think about farms on this scenario. There is no gold in Midgard except in Gargarensis’ camp, (6) so send gold miners through to the underworld to gather. As always, establish a strong economy – continue pumping villagers and dwarves until you have a solid resource income.

Gargarensis’ forces in the underworld will remain passive during the mission, so they won’t bother you if you don’t bother them. You’ve also got plenty of time before the gate will be opened. So, grab the relics that can be found here and send your heroes back to Midgard. The first relic is just northwest of the Well of Urd, (1) another can be found directly north, (3) and a third can be found to the northeast, (4) though you will have to defeat several Fire Giants to reach it. The final relic on the map is near a large number of Gargarensis’ units, (5) and isn’t really worth retrieving.

While you can ignore the enemies in the underworld without much problem, Gargarensis’ forces in Midgard are a different matter. Their camp is located in the north of the map (6) and, if you leave them alone they will generate regular of attacks on your town. This won’t pose a significant threat except on Titan, but it’s still wisdom to deal with it as soon as possible. On easier difficulties, send your heroes north to the enemy camp as soon as possible – you should be able to harass Gargarensis’ Ulfsarks and prevent them from getting a Longhouse and Hill Fort up. Hence they won’t be able to generate units to attack you with. (Chiron is particularly suited to this due to his speed and ranged attack.) You should then proceed to kill any villagers outside the safety of the Town Center until it looks like there’s nothing much alive left in the village – don’t be afraid of the TC fire, your heroes can more than stand it.

On harder difficulties, you’ll need to build up in order to wipe out the camp, and you’ll need siege weapons or MU’s to get rid of the Town Center and Hill Fort.

So, it’s time to being training an army. Gargarensis’ forces in Midgard tend to use Ulfsarks and Raiders, his forces in the underworld are chiefly Trolls, Throwing Axemen and Jarls. Create a balanced army – Skadi’s Frost Giants should prove useful since they can both help take out the buildings in the camp to the north, (6) and they can deal with Trolls and Fire Giants in the underworld too.

Once you are satisfied with your army head through the Well of Urd and attack. You can encounter less resistance from Gargarensis’ forces by taking the less obvious route to the north (7) in order to reach the gate. (8) Once you reach it, focus on taking out the Fire Giants. Once they go down, you’ll be rewarded with victory.

On to mission 29

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