just started earth 2 mission -- WTF?
first you start out being chased by Serena's forces until you're whittled down to 3-4 troops (at least i couldn't outrun them), then you get relics that you haven't had the time to build up manna to teleport, then you're sent up to Anon, where nothing's happening. THEN, when you get back down where you started (the only place to go, really), you get absolutely decimated by an onslaught of reapers and bone horrors.

(ok, so i just started this mission and i suppose there's a solution somewhere, but in the meantime, any of you geniuses remember this particular pleasure cruise?)

You can do it the hard way: attack Serena main city with all your have. It's difficult but doable

Or you can cross the river and take the Elf city. Pick up some resources to build
a wizard tower. There is also an Archon city which can join you for free

Visite http://aow.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/index.cgi for advices
The veteran players have stopped playing the campaign long time ago. But there is always some lone wolfs who play single player scenarios and campaigns

thanks for the reply gzip.

actually, there's also a cave nearby where a group of dwarves will join you (for the right price). enlisted them and captured the elf town across the river. also got a female Archon hero (from the city you mention) who could equip the artiifacts, and when i took Gabriel's advice and went to the ruins in Anon's territory up north, the artifacts made a strong group of fighters materialize -- the more artifacts you acquire, the larger the group, i believe.
oddly, i needed to do little more from this point but hold Nekron's forces in check (the Reapers are brutal) and confine Serena to her one fortress, while Anon took the strongholds one by one.
thanks again for you response -- are you playing this campaign, or did you do that from memory?

[As a postscript to anyone else who may be fighting this mission, i would suggest maintaining a presence at the towers leading to Serena's stronghold in the south, since once your "allies" capture them, you are basically denied access (extremely annoying, and in my opinion, a flaw in the game). Apparently there's a backdoor to this stronghold through which Anon moved his forces (a cave or teleporter), but i never found it. in addition, spell-wise, i would hold out for summoning an Angel or three -- even though it may take over twenty turns to do so. research this spell from the start, because Angels are the only force capable of standing up to the Reapers and large groups of unicorns.]

I played it 2-3 years ago. BTW, i think that you talked about Life 2 mission, you fly from Serena
after Julia get kidnapped. Objectif is evacuating Merlin i think. Merlin must reach a teleporter
in the cave right under Nekron city :). So kill Serena and Nekron is not giving you the victory
but it's more challenging isn't it

I began to replay the campaign 2 weeks ago, i finished Fire but then had to much works until now so i'm still on Water 1

gzip: you may well be right -- i'm getting my campaigns mixed up. i'm now on Air 2, and even now i can't think back and remember what's what B).
The only thing i recall about Water 1 is that when the Spirit challenges you to take the city to the south (across the water), by all means do it -- it will become a wizard tower and your base for all further operations. So build a galley immediately in the large town where you start (the small city to the north is almost more trouble than it's worth -- constantly harrassed by troops coming through the teleporter). and speaking of teleporters, they're are a huge factor in this mission -- scout them out as soon as possible and found out what goes where -- some have 3/4 destinations. cheers.

Finally finished the AOW2 campaign :)
The last scenario lasts only ~30 turns (because i was running around recruit heroes and collecting items)
I will attack AOW Shadow Magic now

The special missions are the "bonus" scenarios. They don't have any impact
In general, it's easier than the 1st one because you have researched all
spells/skills and have you hero leveled (around 15-20 level, they are almost
invincible) Keep your heroes alive, it's your most precious units.
The Fire 3, Life 3 and Earth 3 are the most interesting

The Death missions are difficult, you have almost no ally and the enemies
are powerful.
A trick for Death 1: if you loot or wiped out 2 hafling towns, you will get 1
hero and some useful units
Death 2: Necron is in your North, it's the only wizard with the same alignment
with you (Death - evil). so you don't need to migrated cities. The teleporters
are dangerous because the enemies can appear near your main cities
Your only ally wizard (the Dark elf) can be defeated by those teleporters.

The final mission can be brutal: no ally, every wizards have maxed out heroes
equipped with powerful items (like flying dragon with physical immunity)
There is a trick at the beginning that make your life easier (you get more
heroes) :). I didnot build anything, almost every golds are for recruit those
heroes. Once you killed their master, they are free for hire
It's the reason why i finished it in about 30th turns.
(It's not cheating, don't worry) When you will be there, explore the map some
time then i can learn you the trick. I also played in a normal way but it's take
a lot of turns to kill them all