i've always gotten great advice here in the past, so here goes:

does anyone have advice for completing this campaign? been working on it for a week now.

this is the one where you're pitted against Tempest (and, to a lesser extent, Serena and Karissa). you start with a fortress in the north, and can easily grab another in the south. with a little effort, you can go further south through a cave and take Karissa's stronghold and defeat her. you can even take one of Tempest's towns in the east (thanks to the Tornado spell).

but that's where it ends for me. impossible for me to hang onto all four, i always lose (raze) one or two of these and end up scaling back, and at some point my forces start getting hit with Lightning and Divine Storm as they sit in the town, though i can't see an enemy nearby. Available starting enchantments are Water Walking, Enchant Weapon, and Haste.

I don't remember this one and have no time to play, but I found an old savegame called "mission11", I think it's the same scenario.

The intresting thing is, I am allied with Karissa for some reason... I guess it's allright, as long as nobody tell Julia.
Turn 58, two heroes, 4 cold dragons and several Flyers, along some regular troops. Karissa has only one city protected by lava, but many troops around the map. Tempesta and Serena cannot have more than three cities together, and I should have enough resources to build an assassination force in less than 10 turns.

I could suggest you my standard "play defensive until you can summon Dragons" strategy, but I'm more intrested in how you lose your cities Steve. Have you had too many casualties in the previous battles? Getting swarmed by troops?

Getting hit by Divine Storm with no enemy nearby is perfectly normal, if it's really a problem build a Sanctuary. Water Walking is useless in this scenario, you have Witches with Path of Frost. Although, more in general, flying units seem excellent in this mission. As soon as you have the chance, I suggest capturing a Draconian city and producing Flyers with Enchanted Weapons, I find them second only to dragons for city sieges.

Avogadro:

thanks for the reply.
oddly, the first time i started this mission, i believe i also found myself allied with Karissa, but that route didn't work out for me, i restarted, and it hasn't happened since -- wonder what triggers that?
if by "cold dragons" you mean Ice Dragons, that's interesting -- that means you must have researched Ice Dragon from the beginning to have 4 of them by turn 58. I didn't start researching Ice Dragon until just now, and i'm well into the 60s turn-wise. If you mean the Dragon Riders, i have several of those too, but i don't find them particularly effective in battle, though great for scouting, capturing towers, nodes, etc.
How do i lose my cities? by thinking they're secure enough to send out an army, only to find out there's a large force in a nearby cave just waiting for me to leave (the AI in this game is wicked). also, i captured one of Tempest's cities using Tornado -- blew most of the opponents out of the city -- then had to raze and run when they regrouped and came after me. Didn't get to keep the town, but i was pleased to have deprived Tempest of that facility.
"play defensive until you can summon Dragons" is looking pretty good right now, haha -- i have a save early enough where i can do just that. i researched Air Elemental first, and though it's excruciating waiting so many turns, it's great when they show up -- maybe i'll switch to Ice Dragon, haven't had a single one so far.
thanks again for your response -- unfortunately, i'm getting that sinking feeling i'll have to go way back to an early save, possibly even start over. Damn.

six hours later (as they say on SpongeBob):
i now have a save where i have a firm hold on all four towns (but i've certainly thought that before), an Ice Dragon and one on the way (thank you), and better yet, i spied Tempest in his stronghold, and he's sitting in there with a Fire Dragon (ouch), and an Earth Elemental (ouch again). this is not impossible.

Ah yes, I meant the Ice Dragons, not Riders. I play a retail version in Italian, so I have to guess how they're called in English.

Anyway, I hope you didn't take my suggestion too seriously: you don't really need ten dragons to win this, or any other mission in AoW2.
That's just how I like to play and works for me, but there are surely better - and faster - strategies. Now, a couple of observations based on your previous post:

- When you use Tornado don't go for the city right away. Instead, take out the scattered troops while they're wounded, outnumbered, and outside the city walls. The main advantage of Tornado is to split up a group of enemies you couldn't beat as a whole. If the remnants are still too powerful, consider using a second tornado, or doing a couple of hit 'n run attacks with magic (that means, start a battle, but keep your units away from combat and attack only with magic; try to kill the most dangerous units and retreat once out of casting points). This may take you a few extra turns, but at least you won't have to worry about losing the city you have just captured.

- Losing cities happens. It's not necessarily a big deal, and there are even cases where it's useful to leave a city undefended on purpose.
If you have enough troops around, you can always recapture it in a few turns. In this case, you will want to sell all the structures that make the counterattack harder: City Walls and Guard Towers, but consider Barracks and Siege Factories too.

If, on the other hand, you cannot liberate the city in a reasonable timeframe and don't want the enemy to benefit from it, there is perhaps a better alternative over razing: incite a revolt and let the population turn neutral. For some reasons the AI don't seem to bother with neutral cities, so chances are its army will just pass by.

well, as i say, i'm sitting pretty good at the moment (not for the first time), had to take a break for some kid-sitting, but as for your post:

actually, i did take your advice seriously in the sense that it seemed like knowledgable advice. ten Ice Dragons sounds just great right about now, but don't think i have the patience for that many turns B).

but your post raises a couple questions about strategy which i've seen mentioned elsewhere:
selling structures -- didn't even know this was possible. does it fall under the "looting" option?
inciting a revolt -- by this do you mean intiating a migration, and then leaving the town vacant? if the AI really does tend to ignore independent cities, that's a very clever strategy.
also i've seen mention of "bribing" aligned races to join your army. are you familiar with this? does it just refer to when troops "offer" to join you for such and such an amount?

cheers, and thanks for your time.

You can sell structures from the city screen. On the right you'll find a list of current buildings, select one and you should see a "sell" button light up underneath. Note that it takes one full turn to dismantle a building, and you can't product anything else in the meantime.

As for bribing, yes, it refers to hiring neutral units for money. Town guards will ask for an extra, depending on the city size. There's no way to bribe other wizard's troops or cities if that's what you were wondering. However, after their wizard is defeated, or if they defect, they will turn neutral and some of them *may* be available for hire.

About inciting a revolt, I found two ways so far: one is using the appropriate spell (from the fire school iirc, if Karissa has researched it you could get it via trade); the other way is to order a sack from the city screen (sack is the same as razing, but takes two turns and you will get some gold out of it). In both cases you shouldn't keep any troops in the city, otherwise they will try to maintain order.
Once the city has fallen into anarchy it has 50% chance to rebel every turn. WIth sack requiring only 2 turns the chance to raze it accidentally is not remote. If you don't want to risk you can always abort the command after one turn and try again.


As a side note, I've restarted the mission and played a few turns. Karissa will contact you as soon as you get close to her structures or units. She mentions to be in unfriendly terms with the other wizards, and will be glad to accept peace and alliance treaties, as long as you include a small gift (20g is enough... cheap girl). If you were at war with her by default... probably you captured one of her mines before giving her a chance to talk.

Also if you haven't already, make sure to capture the two air nodes near the starting location. Switch the Power slider to full research and that's about 80 research points per turn - enough to research Ice Dragons in 5 turns, wich appeared in my research list by turn 8.
Again, you won't probably need many of them. 10 is a serious overkill, probably enough to conquer a capital city in autobattle. See what you can do with a group of 3-4 and then decide if you want more.


edit: I'm a moron, migrating does start rebellions too.

Avogadro:

i appreciate you taking the time to respond, your posts make me realize how many aspects of this game i don't understand, haha. selling off parts of the city, and "sacking", as opposed to "razing", are two concepts i was completely unaware of -- thanks much.

i'm now convinced i'm going to have to restart this mission (for several reason's and out of sheer stubbornness), and allying with Karissa will be at the top of my list, thanks (she probably would have taken care of the Elves by now).

not be a complete nuisance, but when you get a chance, could you please explain the function of nodes? the reason i ask is because Tempest's domain seemed to stretch nearly the entire map, meaning i was getting hit with Lightning and Divine Storm in nearly every city i inhabited -- very unpleasant (i took your advice and built a Sanctuary in Merlin's nearby fortress, but with multiple spells coming at me, it just kept damage to a minimum -- i stll lost Priests on a regular basis)
anyway, i noticed when i razed a node near his (one) stronghold, it shrunk his domain considerably. unfortunately, this was only temporary -- his domain now extends to Merlin's city again. how does Tempest have such a large domain when he has no nodes (at least none that i'm aware of)?

i will certainly take your advice about full research in a new game -- fact is, i've used very few enchantments in this mission -- nearly all summons -- and i currently have nearly 2000 available research points -- i can't use them quickly enough.

as far as Ice Dragons, i currently have 4-5 of them (needless to say, they're a steady target for Lightning/Divine spells) -- i've actually tried to make a run at Tempest with these Dragons, Ecklo, and Merlin, and an Air Elemental or two, but the steady onslaught of Storm spells as i approach has me so crippled when i arrive (3- 4 turns) that an attack becomes out of the question.

i realize this sounds like a comedy of errors (it is), but i'm usually fairly competent at this game -- got through all of AoW 1 campaigns/scenarios with nowhere near the trouble i'm having here. once again, your time and advice is much appreciated. cheers.

whoa.

randomly opened a save at turn 68. Merlin was in a wizard town about three turns away from Tempest's fortress with Ecklo (heroine), two Ice Dragons, an Air Elemental, and a couple Monks. just for the hell of it, made a run at Tempest's city. only got hit with one Lightning on the way (apparently Tempest was preoccupied with erecting a force field around his castle) and took it with two monks to spare (Merlin teleported, services for Ecklo TBA). much rejoicing.
Serena remains with a fortress in the southwest, but should be a stroll in comparison. cheers.

Glad to hear of your progress Steve. :) Now if you haven't finished the mission already, take the time to research some more spells and abilities for Merlin. They will carry onto the next air mission. Domain is generated by Mage Towers, Heroes and Magic Relays, and only if your wizard is in a Mage Tower. Otherwise, he/she is the only source of Domain. Elemental Nodes (Air, Fire, LIfe, etc) have another function: to generate Power, wich in turn is used to produce mana and research points. They don't normally generate domain, unless wizards use an Elemental Mastery spell such as http://aow2.heavengames.com/gameinfo/magicspells/air.shtml#air_mastery. It's a very expensive spell to research and maintain, and chances are the computer won't use it in a normal game.
Keep in mind that Domain can be extended by upgrading Mage Towers. The taller they are, the larger area they cover. If Tempest's domain is so large, I bet he has a city near the center of the map with a fully upgraded Mage Tower. Also, and this is no small detail, allied Wizards can use each other's Domain as if it was their own.

As for how you can protect your units: if you need to move them on the map, spread them as much as possible, groups of 2-3 units away from each other. This will make them a less desirable target, and even if a Lighting is casted on one, not every group will be hit.
For units stationed in a city it's a different story, you can build a Forcefield (requires Mage Tower III) to shield them completely, but that will most likely just make Tempest and Serena use their magic on another town. Unless you expect the city to be attacked by ground it's probably not worth the cost.

On the other hand, Lightning and Divine Storm are very expensive spells, if Tempest and Serena are using both in the same turn, they deserve to score some kills to be fair. :)
Besides, in a way they're harming themselves as much as you, wasting mana and casting points wich would be better used on summons and battle spells. After using Lighting, they will have very few casting points left, if any. Sieges and ground battles are going to be much easier on that turn. Does this mean you move Merlin along with your troops?

thanks Avogadro, your post is exceptional.

yeah, i was totally stunned -- watching the grandkids, pulled out a random save file, figured what the hell, made a run, and accomplished something i'd been banging at for a week and a half. just goes to show... uh... something.

research carrying over: by the time i chased down Serena (Elves), i had no spells left to research (you mentioned you're replaying the mission, so remember: her city in the southwest isn't her only wizard tower -- imagine my surprise when she teleported).

domain: your information on "domain" is impressive and much appreciated, and you put my confusion to rest -- Tempest had, in fact, cast the Air Mastery spell. it showed up as a largish bubble on the map, and not being familiar with this spell, i supposed it applied only to the bubble area -- little did i know.

protecting my units: in a way (and purely accidentally), i took your advice. what happened was, i had an Ice Dragon hovering over the mountains near Tempest's fortress, monitoring his strength and taking the odd Lightning/Divine spell. as i made my approach, the Dragon, for some reason (proximity?), took the brunt of the spells (i took only one Divine spell), and as you predicted, between that and the force field, Tempest had little spellcasting ability remaining for the actual attack.

finally, do i move Merlin with my troops?: well, i simply can't abide having him sitting in a city unoccupied, haha -- not once i've got him at Spellcasting V and he's got 60 spellcasting points (credit for that strategy to forum poster Sentaria). i certainly like to have him on hand for a battle of any significance. i make sure he's in powerful company so we don't get ambushed, and 99 percent of the time i command my battles tactically (as opposed to auto combat), so the AI doesn't put him at unnecessary risk (truth be told, it's my secondary heroes i worry about in autocombat -- the AI seems to want to throw them right into the thick of it. Merlin can always teleport, but i'm often dismayed to find where he reappears).

Avogadro, your advice on this mission, and the finer points of this game and its strategy, has been invaluable. much appreciated.

It's no problem at all, I'm glad to help. Just one last couple of things: when you say wizards "teleport" in truth they actually "die", or rather, are banished into a sort of limbo. If they still own a city with a Mage Tower, then they can get back from it, otherwise is game over for them. This is true for Merlin too.
Whenever I want to save a wizard from defeat, be it ally or enemy, I just give him\her a small city with a Tower, if I can afford that. Then I'm free to mind my own business for a few more turns.

While I can see the appeal of Merlin fighting back to back with his troops, you're taking a lot of risk by doing so. Apart from not having magic support for your cities anymore (wich would be crippling for me, as I actually count more on magic than troops to win my battles) shrinking your domain causes several smaller issues, such as magic creatures not healing (unlike other units, they only regenerate hit points when inside their summoner's domain) or domain-wide spells becoming almost useless.
Not saying it cannot work, just that you're making your life harder, there's no sensible benefit to keep your wizard in battle except for roleplay reasons and maybe to help in the first few turns.

Anyway, that's all from me, happy holydays! :)