More Bandits
Before he can return to Atlantis, Arkantos stops in the port of Ioklos in Greece, only to find it has fallen to bandits. He must drive them from the city and rescue the mysterious Chiron.
Starting objective: Bring Arkantos and Ajax to the prison area to rescue the hostages. (3)
Difficulty levels:
- Easy:
- Bandits have less units – less myth units in particular
- More resources for liberating the upper and lower city districts
- Hard:
- Bandits have more units – more myth units in particular
- Bandit units have more upgrades
- No Helepolis in lower district of city (6)
- Less resources for liberating the upper and lower city districts
- Titan:
- Bandits have even more units
- Even less resources for liberating the upper and lower city districts
This scenario opens with modest beginnings – just Ajax and Arkantos under your command, near the docks of the city of Ioklos. (1) Follow the path to the north and west. (You’ll encounter a few skirmishes, but not even on Titan difficulty do you have anything to worry about.) When you are approaching the prison, (3) take a quick detour south and grab the relic there (2) before continuing. Kill the guards outside the prison (3) to gain command of the Centaurs and get your next objective.
New objective: Defeat the bandits guarding the Prison (4) to free the prisoners.
Continue to along the road, now leading northeast. The guards around the prison shouldn’t provide a challenge – kill them to gain control of the buildings in the area and the imprisoned Militia and Centaurs, and enable your next objective. (If you don’t receive confirmation you’ve completed the objective, explore the area – you may have missed one of the Bandits.)
New objective: Destroy the enemy Watch Tower and Barracks (6) to gain control of the lower district of the city.
Before setting off to liberate the lower district, pay attention to the buildings now under your command. You have a limited resource stockpile to spend on improving or expanding your army. You’ll also want to grab the relic just north of the prison. (5) I strongly suggest getting the Sylvan Lore upgrade to improve your Centaurs, (since you already have quite a few of them) and you may want to build a few more units, though what you have now should be sufficient. Save the resources until you’ve captured the lower district of the city – you’ll have more units and improvements to choose from.
A word of caution though – don’t take too long in your preparations, since the Bandits will destroy buildings in the lower city district if you do not attack quickly enough – denying you of the ability to further expand and improve your army.
When attacking, lead into the fray with your heroes, who regenerate any damage done to them. Also be sure to use your heroes to dispatch enemy myth units – Anubites in particular can deal a lot of damage to your Centaurs. (They do triple damage to them.) Use your Helepolis to destroy the enemy Watch Tower and Barracks. Once you have done this, the buildings in the lower district will convert to your command, and you’ll be granted some more resources as well as being issued your next objective.
New objective: Destroy the enemy Watch Tower and Temple (8) to gain control of the upper district of the city.
Mop up any remaining enemies in the area, and don’t forget to grab the second Helepolis near where the bandit Barracks used to be. You can also gain some additional wood by sending a unit to scout the storehouse in the north-west of this district. (7)
Something sneaky you can do in this area is train Hydras at your temple, then have them demolish the walls that used to surround the Watch Tower and Barracks. (Which you hopefully didn’t destroy – this is why you used the ranged Helepolis to take out those buildings.) Once they are finished, each of them should have several heads. You can repeat the process when you capture the next area.
As with the area you just captured, the bandits will destroy buildings in the upper district if you wait too long, so don’t wait all day before attacking.
When you are finished with your preparations, head out towards the next area. Again, lead with your heroes since they regenerate damage, and use them to take on any myth units you encounter. Use your Helepolis or your Hydras to take out the bandit Watch Tower and Temple. Once again, you’ll gain control of the area, receive some more resources, and get your final objective.
New objective: Destroy the Migdol Stronghold (12) to free Chiron.
Take out any enemies still roaming around the area. Scout to the east to capture the Plenty vault (9) to gain a steady trickle of resources. Scout to the south to gain bonus gold from the Ioklos storehouse, and retrieve another relic. (11) Scout to the north (near your temple) to locate yet another relic. (10) You should now have plenty of resources as well more slowly coming in from your two relics and the plenty vault. Spend it all on units and improvements.
Also: if you take a while to make your preparations, enemy units will sometimes be generated in previous areas of the city. It won’t hurt to lose a building or two, but if you want to keep everything intact, be sure to send your army back to deal with them.
Two paths lead up to the Acropolis. The eastern one is the easier path. Use your Helepolis or build some Petrobolii from the Fortress in the upper district to take out the defensive towers and then the gate.
A significant sized army will be waiting for you on the Acropolis. However, you don’t actually have to defeat them – all you need to do to win the level is destroy the Migdol Stronghold. Use your soldiers to keep the enemy army busy while your Hydras and siege weapons plough through the wall and take down the Stronghold. Once it goes down, you’ll be rewarded with victory.