0
v 1.1
by Kung Fu Gecko
(Garett Choy)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction
a Preface
b Spoiler warning
c Background
d Disclaimer
e Copyright
f Where to get this walk through
z Version history
2 The Units
a Light
b Dark
c Formations
3 Missions
4 Tips, Tricks, and Easter Eggs
a Tips
b Tricks and Easter Eggs
5 Cheats
1 INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this Kung Fu Gecko strategy guide. As a gamer myself, I've
often found wanting help to complete a game because I'd rather get a hint
to move in the right direction than spend hours scouring the play
map/level/whatever trying to figure out what the level designer of the game
wanted me to do. Although multiplayer mode is fun, my first goal is to
complete the single player mode. Many people have written walk throughs
which have helped me in those times where I was pulling my hair out. So
with these strategy guides, I (Kung Fu Gecko) am hoping to contribute to
the gaming community. You won't find information just transferred from the
manual; rather I want to write the gamer's interpretation of the aspects of
the game and the single player mission walk throughs. My goal is to add
value. Also, I've made this in plain text so that it is easily
transferable and simple for me to format. Sorry, I just don't have time or
the desire to make it an HTML hyperlinked document.
1a PREFACE
Myth: the Fallen Lords is a real-time strategy (RTS) game which breaks
through to new grounds. It foregoes the resource management of other RTS,
and instead emphasizes the combat and direction of your available units.
This is no mechanism for the player to generate new units, so the idea is
to direct your unit intelligently to minimize your losses (ideally zero
loss) and maximize the enemy's losses. Myth is also a true 3D game where
3D terrain and gravity play an integral role in the gameplay. For example,
positioning your archers on a hill will give you a range advantage over the
enemy's archers at the bottom of the hill. The player will also need to be
concerned with friendly fire, potentially harmful debris, grenade and arrow
blocking (and bouncing) obstacles, and many other concerns related to the
3D environment. The battlefield is viewed from a free moving camera which
looks at the battle field from a angled low-flying bird's eye view. Units
in Myth gain experience as they rack up kills. This experience translates
into faster and more accurate attacks; and can even be carried over to
subsequent levels making unit preservation a major strategic advantage.
Overall, Myth: the Fallen Lords is a great accomplishment and great fun to
play once the play gets used to the 3D system.
1b SPOILER WARNING
This walk through contains information and tips which may spoil your
experience and enjoyment of the game Myth since it reveals information
before you experience it for yourself. I recommend that you only use this
if you've played it to completion by yourself, or you are stuck and need
some hints to move forward.
1c BACKGROUND
Armies of undead warriors lead by evil undead known as the Fallen Lords
have returned to terrorize and conquer the lands. The races of the Light
have been fighting a losing battle against the Dark for many years. Now,
at the brink of extinction, you command the units of the Light in a last
effort to defeat the Fallen Lords.
1d DISCLAIMER
This document is meant for unofficial informational purposes only, and is
not for profit. It is not endorsed by Bungie. Company names, logos and
product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
holders.
1e COPYRIGHT
This document is copyright June 1998, Garett Choy. Permission is granted
to reproduce, provided it remains whole and intact. No modifications,
deletions, or additions may be made without the expressed written
permission of the author.
1f WHERE TO GET THIS WALK THROUGH
This walk through is available and is most up to date at my Myth home page
located at:
http://www.autobahn.org/~gbchoy/geckobeach/myth.html
It is also available at the Spoiler's Center:
http://www.the-spoiler.com
If you would like to comment or make suggestions about this walk through,
you can email me at: kfgecko@yahoo.com
Other Kung Fu Gecko Strategy Guides available: Sub Culture, MechWarrior 2.
Get them at:
http://www.autobahn.org/~gbchoy/geckobeach
1z VERSION HISTORY
v1.0 First published draft of this walk through.
v1.1 Added more easter eggs.
2 The Units
Every time a unit kills an enemy, it gains experience. The more experience
the unit has, the faster and more accurate/deadly the unit's attacks are.
The experience of a unit will carry over from one level to the next,
provided that the same type of unit is available in the following mission.
This makes a BIG difference and can make you feel attached to your
experienced men. I was able to carry over 5 archers through 4 missions one
time. They were so experienced that they hit almost everything that they
shot at.
2a Light
Warrior - These are your standard knights in plate mail armor. They have a
shield which can sometimes block attacks and swords used for inflicting
close combat damage upon the warrior's target. The warriors move at a
moderate pace, they aren't quick but they aren't slow either. Use these
units in groups to gang up on enemies. You won't have to worry about them
accidentally hitting each other with their swords as they hack at the
enemy, so let them horde an enemy.
Bezerker - I prefer these guys over the warrior. The bezerker moves
quickly compared to the warrior, attacks faster, and does more damage with
his huge sword. The drawback is that they have no armor and are damaged
easier. Just like the warrior, use these guys in packs to surround an
enemy.
Archer - These are my favorite units as they are great for sniping at your
enemies. The archers move slower than the warriors and much slower than
bezerkers, and have no armor. They have unlimited arrows to shoot, but
keep in mind that gravity affect their effectiveness. They require a
minimum distance between them and the enemy, but remember that if the enemy
does get too close and there is no where to run, you can have the armor
punch the enemy by double clicking on them. It is best to use these guys
in packs in a long line (formation 2, oriented towards the enemy) from the
highest vantage point possible like hills or cliffs. When the unit has
little or no experience, they are lousy shots; but with experience these
guys can really cause havoc to the enemy before they get to you. Try to
keep them alive as most scenarios tend to have archers, and the experience
of a unit carries over to the next scenario.
Dwarf - As you play, you'll probably love and hate the dwarves. These guys
are short humanoids who wield bottles of explosive liquids (malotov
cocktail style). They ignite the fuse of the bottles and throw them at
their enemy for grenade like results. Thrown into a pack of enemy units,
the dwarf can decimate armies. Units within the vicinity of the blast will
also receive damage. Because the grenade is ignited by burning fuse,
sometimes the action of throwing the bottle will blow the flame out causing
the bottle to drop harmlessly to the ground. Fallen bottles can be ignited
by the explosion of other bottles, however, so beware. You can use the
dwarf to pick up bottle "duds" (unexploded bottles) or even pick up slow
burning bottles and rethrow them. Weather conditions also affect the
effectiveness of the grenades; wind, snow, rain, and rivers can blow out
the fuses. Dwarven friendly fire is the worst friendly fire you can
imagine. It's common for the dwarf to have a tendency to throw his grenade
into the enemy at the same time your soldiers are attacking them; blowing
up not only the enemy but also your men. Use the attack-ground action when
you need to influence the dwarf to throw smarter (the computer doesn't
always anticipate the enemies future position very well). Dwarves also
have satchel charges (limited number, but they can pick up more) which can
be set on the ground to effectively create a minefield. They must be
detonated with a grenade though. A good strategy is create a group and
line of charges for a domino effect of explosive destruction. Dwarves have
the most humorous sayings. They sound like crabby old men saying, "yes,
sir!" or "move here, move there, ngyah!" when you direct them and "oops" or
"my fault" when they accidentally damage their own units, or "oh yeah!"
when they successfully blow an enemy to smithereens.
Journeyman - These guys are the healers of your party. They have a shovel
to fight with, but they are slow. Since you need them for healing or
picking up vital objects in missions, don't use them as a first line for
combat. Keep them in the back of your party ready to heal the units that
get injured.
Forest Giant - You don't get to use these guys very often, probably because
they are so awesome. They are tall, fast, strong, and can take a huge
beating. In one swat they can slap an enemy out of existence. Sometimes,
their swat is so powerful that pieces of the unfortunate enemy can go
flying into friendly units causing some damage.
2b Dark
Thrall - These lumbering zombies are slow but can cause a lot of unwelcome
damage when they get to you with their battle axes. They can hide
underwater out of sight. They tend to be bunched up in armies which are
perfect targets for the dwarf's grenade. Caught in the direct explosion of
grenades, the thrall burst to messy pieces in one shot.
Ghol - The ghols are fast nightmare creatures. The computer is pretty good
about controlling them to stay just out of harms way, then just when you
aren't looking rush in and hack your men to death. Ghols are annoying and
deadly pests whole can pick up and throw just about any small object like
an arm, a rock, bone, sword, and even wight pieces for use as a grenade.
Just like the thrall, a direct hit with a grenade will usually blow these
guys apart.
Myrmidon - I hate these guys. They are the bezerker counterpart for the
dark. They are fast and tough. One grenade hit isn't enough to kill them.
Try to weaken them as they approach and then send your warriors or
bezerkers on them.
Soulless - These are floating purple ghosts who have no limits to where
they can go. Cliffs don't stop them so remember that the can move into any
territory. They often will retreat to the safety of a cliff side where no
hand to hand combat unit can reach them. They wield spears which are
thrown at the enemy. They aren't very strong, however, so when your
soldiers do reach them they can be hacked to pieces quickly. When you
first meet a group of standing soulless, one arrow hit will usually make
the hit unit retreat out of range. Use this fact to shoot each one in a
group once to push them back. This usually spreads them apart enough so
that you can snipe at them one at a time.
Wight - Even slower than the thrall, the wight is a walking bomb. They
lumber near your men and detonate themselves for an explosion more powerful
than the dwarven grenade. Use your archers to blow them up from afar. An
exploded wight leaves chunks of explosive body parts on the ground. Both
the explosions of the chunks and the wight will spray a puss which will
temporary paralyze anyone who gets splashed.
Fetch - These are evil priestesses who can cast lightning attacks to groups
of men with obliterating results. Fortunately they aren't heavily armored
or very strong so a few arrow hits can kill them before they are in range
to use their lightning.
Shade - The worst. These are evil sorcerers who are slow but have a lot of
stamina and the most deadly attack ever. The shade will use a magic attack
that will cause the target to explode in green smoke. Anyone in the
vicinity of the exploding victim will also explode in the same manner,
which will in turn explode any one in the vicinity of that victim, and so
on. Use a pack of archers or satchel charges to kill them, or try to avoid
them completely. One good thing to keep in mind is that they will not
cross water.
Trow - The dark's equivalent of a forest giant. These guys are fast,
strong, and deadly. Surround these guys to attack and expect to lose some
men as the trow kicks your men out of existence.
Spider - These aren't really a part of the dark. They really are just
animal creatures which attack *anybody* including the dark. The spiders
aren't very strong but they are fast and can be deadly when they attack in
numbers. They are brown in color.
Queen Spider - The big mama of spiders. They are like the regular spiders
but bigger, faster, deadlier, and tougher. They are black in color.
2c Formations
Formation 1: Short Line - This formation is useful when you want to break
up your units into teams. Have them for a short line, then highlight the
rows to set your presets. This formation isn't that useful for combat
unless you want to pack your men together.
Formation 2: Long Line - This is the most useful formation for the archers.
It spreads them in a long line (hence the name) so they can rain arrows
upon the enemy. You'll need to use the gesture click to orient the long
line to be useful.
Formation 3: Loose Line - This is a wider spaced version of the short line.
It should only be used if you need your archers to attack a widely space
army (twice as wide as you).
Formation 4: Staggered Line - This causes the men to line up in staggered
fashion where each row of men is position between the row in front of them.
This is extremely useful when you are using several dwarves to lay down a
minefield of satchel charges.
Formation 5: Box - This formation should be used to bunch up your men when
they need to huddle together or squeeze through tight areas. Do not use
this when explosives are being hurled at your by the enemy.
Formation 6: Rabble - This puts the units in a "random", but approximately
equally spaced apart formation. This is good for just keeping your armies
in a pack when moving around.
Formation 7: Shallow Encirclement - This is the formation of choice when
units need to pounce on an enemy. It forms them into a wide arc. It's
particularly useful when you need to kill a trow (giant) with a bunch of
warriors or bezerkers.
Formation 8: Deep Encirclement - This is a tighter angle version of the
shallow encirclement. It is good for surrounded and enemy already near
your units, but it's not as good as the shallow encirclement because an
enemy unit will tend to attack the ends of the crescent first; defeating
your ability to surround effectively.
Formation 9: Vanguard - This sets up the men in an inverted "V" formation,
good for charging into an army of enemies. This is not a defensive
formation.
Formation 10: Circle - This literally creates a circle with your men. It's
good for guarding a unit. It's not good for surrounding an enemy because
it takes too long for the men to create the formation.
3 Missions
There is so much variation that can happen in Myth, that even if you
followed my actions exactly, you would not get the same results. With this
in mind, I have written the level descriptions with the general strategy
for the level. There are of course, several ways to complete each level; I
only present one.
Having my real-time Strategy game roots in WarCraft II, I wasn't used to
cherishing each individual unit. The goal is always to preserve your men
for as long as possible, but Myth makes unit preservation a much higher
priority since there is no such thing as unit production.
Mission 1: Crow's Bridge
Welcome to Myth. This level will teach you the basics of Myth-combat
style. Try to keep a mentality of unit preservation and always seeking to
use the environment to your advantage. You'll start off with a few
warriors on a bridge. Move them off and everyone else with them up the
road towards the city and stop at a nice hill. Move your camera to the
city and get all the men there and move them to meet up with your other men
on the hill. Set your archers up in a long line facing the bridge and
split the warriors into two separate groups to protect either side of the
archers. Several ghols will pester you so try and use the archers to
pester them, but don't lose your position. Use the dwarves to set up a
nice minefield safely in front of you. As the thrall approach, set off the
minefield as they cross it by targeting the ground of the nearest satchel
charge. The archers should weaken the thrall, and then use the warriors to
clean up the stragglers. Make sure you tell the dwarves and archers to
stop (space bar) attacking when your warriors go in. Ghols will try to
flank you so keep an eye on them. Soulless will attack as well so use the
archers to kill them. If it's safe, bring the warriors around the side to
wipe out the soulless, but don't forget about the pesky ghols. The army
will eventually retreat over the bridge.
Mission 2: A Traitor's Grave
This level will start with a peasant leading the way to the traitorous
mayor. Follow him for a bit but keep watch for the pesky ghols. Although
the peasant will seem impatient, he will wait for you or even follow you if
you don't follow. You will see them around the area of what looks like a
dry river bed. To the NE, ghols will watch you from a distance. Try to
kill a few before continuing to follow the peasant. Find high ground on
the other side of the dry bed and set up your archers in a line facing NE.
When some soulless and thrall appear, the peasant will retreat in fear.
Use the dwarf to bomb the enemy and the archers to kill the soulless while
you use the journeyman to kill anyone who gets too close to your men.
Follow the peasant N and NE to what looks like a statue. The peasant will
say, "there he is!" Have everyone chase down the group of thrall
surrounding the mayor. They are marching NW to get away. Just have the
dwarf throw his grenade at the mayor in the middle of the pack to complete
the level.
Mission 3: The Siege of Madrigal
In this mission you need to find a large army and lead them back to your
starting point. You'll start off with several archers and warriors near a
bridge over a river. You want to try and take the bridge with your archers
as soon as you can because it's the highest point in the area. Only a few
archers can fit on the bridge so leave a few back on the bank to the side
of the bridge. If you aren't able to take the bridge, that's ok, just keep
using your archers to snipe at the enemy with preference to kill the
soulless. Keep luring them in and then snipe at them. If the army
attacks, retreat the archers on the bridge and let the warriors jump anyone
who crosses the bridge onto your side of the land. Keep this up until you
clean them all out. Move your men into the open area in the center of the
village. This will be your first encounter with wights, fat lumbering
sewed up zombies which explode with a force stronger than the dwarven
grenade. Anyone surviving the blast (on the perimeter) will be covered
with puss which temporarily immobilizes them. Because of this, the idea is
to surround your tightly boxed warriors with two or three groups of
archers. You'll hear the wights' moaning as they approach. The wights
will try to sneak up on you where your back is turned so keep an eye on the
radar map. Use the archers to detonate the wights from afar. Once they
are all taken care of (no red dots on the radar) then leave the slow
archers in the village and move your warriors NE up the road. There will
be some ghols, but they aren't the army you're looking for. Keep following
the road, and off to the east of the road will be many thralls and soulless
(tons of red dots on the radar). One of your men will say, "there's the
army, let's go back to the bridge." Immediately send all your warriors
back to get the archers. Lead all your men back to the bridge killing any
wights with the archers. A small handful of thrall and soulless will have
shown up near the bridge so kill them quickly. Cross the bridge and the
mission will be done.
Mission 4: Homecoming
In this mission, you need to recover the codex with your journeyman and
then escape. He's the only one who can carry it, so you can't let him get
killed. When you first appear, your warriors will appear in the world
knot. Several soulless are waiting to shoot at you from a high point in a
coliseum. Immediately retreat the warriors away and archers will appear in
the world knot. Have them shoot the soulless but watch for any ghols; use
the warriors on them if they get close. When the archers move out of the
world knot, the journeyman will appear. Go around the east side of the
coliseum, shooting at soulless as they pester you. Avoid the west side
where there is an enemy army. Move southeast where you'll meet soulless
and thralls. Use the archers on the soulless, and the dwarves on the
thralls, then the warriors to clean up survivors who get too close. The
codex is near the ruins (Cathedral) and another party which comes into your
possession is being jumped by the enemy, but you'll probably lose them as
they get slaughtered. Finish off the murderers of your friends. Use your
journeyman to heal everyone until he's out of mandrake roots, as he will go
out of your control once you pick up the codex. Get the green/yellow
glowing codex. Follow the computer controlled journeyman with the codex to
the south east. You will be harassed by ghols, so keep them at bay with
the archer until the mission ends.
Mission 5: Flight from Covenant
This is the first mission you'll encounter the myrmidons that you will
learn to dread. They are faster and tougher than the thrall. But,
following this walk through, you won't have to fight them. As soon as the
mission starts, stop everyone. You'll be here for awhile. Send the
dwarves in to blow up the oncoming thrall, then retreat them. There are
three attacking armies to contend with so you'll be hear for awhile. Set
up the archers in a line to long range and the dwarves to do the initial
attacks. Your warriors should be split into two groups to covers the
sides. As you fight the thrall, be wary of wights lumbering into your area
and use the archers to attack them on sight. Fight the armies until you
defeat them. That road ahead of you going east is tempting but don't take
it. If you do, you will be ambushed by a huge army of myrmidons who will
tear you to shreds. Instead, go due north and make your way east through
the swamps. Along the way wights will pop up so use the archers on them.
Thralls will also attack; use archers and warriors since the dwarf grenades
won't work well at all in the mud. You should always be looking for wights
on the radar (usually single red dots) as you trek through the swamp. This
trek will have taken you around the big army you don't want to mess with.
After reaching land, you will encounter another group of thrall to contend
with. Decimate them with the dwarf and the warriors. The road you avoided
will be leading ENE at this point so follow it until it forks. The escape
tunnel is due east from the point that the road forks. The tunnel is at
the base of small hill with trees all around. Move everyone into the
tunnel to complete the level.
Mission 6: Force Ten from Stoneheim
Your mission is to destroy a world knot. In this mission you get to use
the bezerker unit, who moves and attacks faster than the warrior. He can't
block things but you'll find he's better at killing. At the beginning, a
huge group of civilians are headed towards a shrine to pray. One of your
bezerkers tries to convince them that it's too dangerous to no avail. Move
east to the stone on the hill, the destination of the peasants. Some pesky
ghols will be skirting the area so if you get the opportunity, shoot at
them. Move everyone down the hill (NE) to the icy river. Form the archers
in a line just before the unfrozen part of the river with the dwarves to
the left. Keep the bezerkers around because the ghols will try to sneak up
on you and kill your poorly armored archers and dwarves. You don't have to
worry about the peasants unless you want to. On the other side of the
river is an army of soulless and thralls. Snipe at the soulless with the
archers. If you retreat a little, the soulless will move back to the edge
of the river, then you can go back and snipe at them again. Eventually,
you'll be able to whittle down the enemy to almost nothing. At some point
the army will attack so keep the archers in a line but not too close to the
river. Have the dwarves ready to attack the enemy just as they step *out*
of the water as the river will instantly put out the grenade's fuse,
rendering them useless. After taking care of this army, cross the river
and head NE. Along they way you will meet up with more waves of soulless
and thrall. Keep the archers on the soulless and the dwarves on the thrall
sweeping up with the bezerkers until you reach the world knot. Ghols will
attempt to run in, so don't let the bezerkers stray too far from the party
and keep and eye on the radar. Continue onto the knot and set up your
forces to be ready for the army of soulless and thrall which will beam in
at the knot. Take care of them as you have been. When the coast is clear,
set about 7 satchel charges at the base of one of the world knot pillars.
Stand back and set it off with a grenade. Alternate route: instead of
crossing the river at the north east spot, you can follow it south to a
crossing near a waterfall. I didn't use this method, but supposedly it's a
little easier.
Mission 7: Bagrada
You need to discover the fate of the lost camp. You'll start out between
two pillars. This is a good place to stay for awhile while several waves
of enemies attack you. Keep sniping at them with the archers and use the
fast bezerkers to prevent the myrmidons from attacking your flank. The
pillars can be used as cover from the soulless spears. Once the myrmidons
are taken care of, move the bezerkers back around to your men so everyone
is behind and/or between the pillars. Several armies will attack you so
try and flank soulless with the bezerkers, while your dwarves and archers
whittle the approaching army. Use the warriors to clean up anyone who gets
too close and watch your dwarves carefully. After all the waves have been
defeated, you can finally start moving east. You may encounter a few
myrmidons which will keep their distance if you keep your men together. As
you edge towards them, they will run east. Eventually they will come to a
point where they will go no further and you can snipe them with the
archers. Follow the tracks in the snow past the stone markers. Along the
way you will meet four soulless up on a hill which only the archers can
reach. Use some experienced archers to kill them and have the journeyman
heal anyone who's hurt past half strength. Move E and NE to another hill
where two more soulless are. Continue east where some reinforcements will
appear from a southern passage, while another army appears to the south
west. You don't have to fight the army if you don't move your men near
them. Join everyone together and head NE to a wide sloping ramp where a
smoldering fire is. Set up some satchel charges in a patch at the base of
the ramp and your men in a shallow circle further down. Another army of
thrall, soulless, and myrmidon will appear, so you use everyone to kill
them but don't let them go up the ramp. When you go up to a certain point
in the ramp, you will hear massive foot steps moving very quickly. A huge
blue beast called the trow will come down the ramp. Try to set off the
minefield of satchels as he enters (remember, he's FAST) and then have
everyone attack him at once.
Mission 8: Ambush at Devil's Overlook
This level is fun and frustrating. You start off with several dwarves and
a few bezerkers. Let the two dwarves picking up the satchel in the middle
of the frozen lake finish but stop the dwarves who are laying down
satchels. Move everybody to the west end of the lake. Make your dwarves
pick up as many satchel charges from the satchel pile as they can and use a
staggered formation to lay charges in the lake to create an nice even
minefield. Do this three times close enough together so they all will go
off at once. Create what will be about the shape of an army. A scout will
come running in and the first of two HUGE soulless armies will be
following. The soulless will be heading for you so make sure all your men
are position to lead the soulless over the minefield. Have a few dwarves
attack the edge of the minefield and watch the soulless go up in smoke.
Use the bezerkers to clean up survivors while your dwarves set up the
minefield again for the next wave of soulless which will already be on the
radar. Lead them over the field again and blow the second army up just
like the first. There will be stragglers so use the dwarves to take them
from the hill while you try to flank them with the bezerker.
Mission 9: The Five Champions
Your goal is to free the captive sorcerer hero Alric. If you haven't
learned to preserve your men, this is the first mission where you are
forced to. If any of your men die on this level, you fail the mission so
watch their health and heal anyone will low stamina. All five of your men
are heroes and have the skills to prove it. You start with an archer, a
dwarf, a journeyman, and two bezerkers. Just past the archway at the
starting point is a soulless to the left. Use the archer to kill him.
Your movement into the area will reveal a couple more soulless to the
right, so eliminate them with the archer and the bezerkers. Follow the
path up north where you'll encounter some ghols. Finish them off from a
distance, then the bezerker when they get close. A few soulless will be
behind them so use the archer on them. Further north is a ramp going up.
Try to set a couple satchel charges before the large army of thrall come
down it. Go up the ramp and head back SE along the top of the hill till
you reach a ramp skirting the side the wall to the canyon below. Position
your archer and the dwarf to over look the ramp, and move the two bezerkers
to be ready to kill anyone that makes it to the top. An even bigger army
of thrall will start coming up the ramp for a huge massacre! Your dwarf
and archer will rain death upon the thrall; very satisfying. But that's
not all, a second army of thrall will come up the ramp after the first for
yet another event of mass destruction. By now, the ramp is just covered
with blood and body parts. Go down the ramp and head north through a
valley of smoke holes. Hug the east wall and stop everyone except the
archer well before the north wall where a ramp is. Several soulless are
atop the wall. Use the archer to hit them with one arrow each to knock
them back if possible. If they attack, retreat the archer so the soulless
come down off the top and bezerker them to dust. Go up the ramp and follow
the top to a north-south bridge, but don't cross it. Position the archer
to the left side of the bridge entrance (facing the bridge) closer to the
group of ghols across the way. Position the dwarf on the right side of the
bridge entrance (facing the bridge). Use the bezerker and journeyman to
block the bridge entrance. The archer will be able to hit the ghols
running around on the other side. Let him kill them all unless they
attack. Return to the formation, but send a bezerker across the bridge and
down the strip of land until a bunch of ghols appear on the radar.
Immediately head him back to his post with the others and let the archer do
his job. The dwarf should take out anyone actually crossing the bridge and
any ghol lucky enough to make it to your men should be taken out by the
bezerkers. After these guys are gone, immediately send the dwarf to lay 5
or 6 satchel charges in a line down the center of the bridge (starting from
farthest to closest) and get back into position. A huge army of thrall
will come down the bridge so set off your domino minefield to maximize
kills. Clean up and head over the bridge and go east until you reach the
cliff to another canyon. Just to the south of you is a land bridge, but
don't go there yet. A huge army of thralls which pose absolutely no threat
to you are patrolling the canyon below. Just sit on the edge of your cliff
and have the dwarf and archer demolish them. Head SE to the land bridge
and get ready. Two groups of soulless are waiting to ambush you at the
exit of the bridge. Send the archer to hit the left most soulless while
the dwarf targets the left most soulless of the right group and the
bezerker go for the right most soulless. After the dwarf has blown up a
few of the right group, switch him to the left group, leaving a few of the
right group for the bezerker. Clean up and head NE. You will see Alric
suspended in a magic field surrounded by four bottles. Have the dwarf blow
up all four, and the level will be complete.
Mission 10: Out of the Barrier
Now that you've freed Alric, you guys have to escape. You still only have
the five from the previous mission. You start in the hilly desert with
ghols scattered around you, poised to attack at the right opportunity.
They are very effective when they surround you so don't let that happen.
Immediate lead everyone NE towards a single ghol and attack him, stopping
only when you are on high ground if possible. The ghols will keep trying
to surround you so keep picking off the one at the edge of their
"semicircle". They will eventually mob you so you will have to use the
bezerkers to clean up. Go to the east between two plateaus. Some soulless
will be atop the one to the right. Keep everyone out of range and move the
archer in approaching such that only one soulless is in range at a time.
You hero archer will always hit the still soulless so have him target the
first one. As soon as you hear him fire, target the next one, and so on
until all are hit. The soulless will retreat the first time they are hit,
so by doing this, you have pushed them back. Again, position the archer so
only one soulless is in range at a time and attack till it dies. You will
be able to lob your arrows over the plateau to hit the soulless. When they
are all dead, move around the plateau where the soulless were and you will
see a few ghols eyeing but avoiding you. Pester them with arrows, but
don't go too far because some soulless and myrmidons are waiting. Snipe at
what you can, keeping your men on the highest ground you can. The group
will eventually attack so use the archer to kill the soulless while the
dwarf grenades the approaching myrmidons *once*. Stop the dwarf when the
myrmidons get close and use the bezerkers to attack them. Heal anyone
who's hurt badly after the battle. Go south and look for the entrance to a
tomb like structure, but don't go to close to it. In front of it floats a
magic bow which when used (special ability) by the archer, it will turn the
victim to stone. Have everyone face the entrance head on with the dwarf in
range such that his grenade will hit right at the entrance. Position the
archer just the side of the dwarf with just enough space for someone to
walk between. Send the barbarian to the bow and immediately send them back
between the archer and the dwarf. If this was set up right, the dwarf will
lob a grenade just as some ghols are leaving the tomb which will blow them
all apart. You will be attacked by a small army of soulless and myrmidons.
Use the magic bow to stone a few myrmidons to even the score a bit. After
killing them, move east slowly. Two armies are blocking two pass ways.
Tease the closer (north group) to attack and clear them out. Then hug the
wall of the mountain to head north a bit, then east between two mountains.
You should be able to avoid an encounter with the second army which is
south of the south mountain. Keep moving east around the black-gray
mountain until you see a huge army looking away from you to the north (east
face of the mountain). When you see them, move forward slowly until Alric
says, "let me handle this." And let him. Do not attack or he won't help.
Some myrmidons may notice you and line up looking at you, but resist the
temptation to "help" Alric. Alric will converse with the evil sorcerer and
blow up his army in a spectacular display of magical power. Then he'll
engage the sorcerer in sword fight. You can help him with the barbarians.
Alric will then say follow me! Follow him or even pass him up the spiral
path up the hill to the top. Your radar will fill up with endless forces
of enemies. Get very close to where Alric stops at the top of the hill,
you may have to control each man individually, and he will teleport
everyone out.
Mission 11: Silvermines
In this mission you have to find the arm and escape through the graveyard.
Follow the computer controlled journeyman in a tight group being careful to
avoid the view of the patrol groups. As you reach the town, the journeyman
will retreat a bit to avoid the enemy. Follow him around the edge of the
stream till you reach the arm, at which point you gain control of the
journeyman. Have him quickly grab the arm and backtrack a bit into the
town. Keep everyone tight and move so that the patrol groups don't see
you. You want to head north of the town, that's where the graveyard is.
It's good to follow a patrol group that's walking away from you since
they're facing the other way. When you reach the graveyard, there is a
ramp being guarded by some thralls, soulless, and a fetch. Use the archers
to take out the fetch as quickly as possible. Fight the rest just enough
to get up the ramp (especially the journeyman) and up the north trail to
complete the level.
Mission 12: Shadow of the Mountain
This is a king of the hill mission where you must protect your flag. You
will also be fighting units of the light which have been turned to the dark
side; archers and dwarves. You have the advantage because you will be on
the hill. The large plateau hill you start on has several ramps up to it:
one to the south, a narrow one the east, and two narrow ones to the SE.
Setup the archers in a long line at the top of the hill and the two dwarves
on either end of the line. Move your warriors back. Several enemy dwarves
will attack so try killing from afar. The rest of the army will attack so
do the traditional long range fighting till they get close then send in the
hand to hand units. After the first wave is knocked out, go to the center
with the camera and move more of your units to join the units on the south
side. Reposition everyone for the second wave coming from the south again.
Although you'll see a trow out in the distance, he won't attack. Soon
after the second wave, move immediately to the east ramp where a third wave
is attacking. The third wave will first show archers, so use the hill to
you advantage by having your archers shoot from as far back as possible.
You will have longer range because you're on the hill. An army of thrall
and then myrmidons will attempt to come up the ramp so use the dwarves to
blow them up, and sweep up any who make it to the top with the bezerkers.
Last in the third wave are a bunch of dwarves who you should attack with
both archers and dwarves. You'll often end up knocking live grenades out
of the enemy hands causing chain reaction explosions. After the third
wave, head immediately for the two ramps to the SE. The biggest wave, the
fourth, will split into two to cover both ramps. A few enemy archers will
climb up the small hill between the ramps to cover their units, but you
should use your archers to take them out before the army can start up the
ramps. If you have dwarves left, have them cover the left ramp (looking
down the ramps, outwards from your plateau) to cover the thrall army coming
up and use the bezerkers to kill the thrall that make it to the top.
Meanwhile, use your archer group to attack the dwarves that are just
sitting to the right of the base of the right ramp. When the myrmidons
charge the right ramp, move your archers back and attack them with
bezerkers. The last wave will be some dwarves trying to get up both ramps.
Use the archers to take down what you can, and if necessary clean up with
the bezerkers.
Mission 13: Seven Gates
This one is pretty fun as you get to watch the enemy kill each other.
You'll start in a canyon watching thrall and soulless fight each other.
Move the warriors out of the way and line up the archers to attack any
enemy who decides you are a more worthy opponent, especially the soulless.
Mop up with the warriors as needed, then head up the path to where it
forks, but stop just as the fork reaches sight distance. Send two
individual warriors up, one to the left fork and one to the right. Once
they reveal the two armies at each fork, retreat them to your group. The
two armies will clash. If they don't, they keep retreating your men back
further away... eventually they will attack each other when you get out of
sight and out of mind. One side has fetch which is a serious advantage so
before the other army is demolished, send your archers to kill the fetch.
The surviving army (what's left of them) will attack you, but shouldn't be
a problem. Head up the right fork and stop your archers in a line on the
white rock hill. Split the warriors into two groups to cover the sides.
Then send two warriors to scout again. There is a less obvious fork ahead,
send one warrior to the right into the little swamp to the east until you
see the army on the other side of the swamp and the chase you. Retreat
your man while you send the second scout up the left fork. Two armies
should appear again so retreat the scouts back to your safe position and
let them have at it. Again, one of the armies has some fetch, so use the
archers on them. After the fight, wipe out the remaining army. Head up
the left path and move east. Another two armies are already engaged in a
fight, make sure that your use the archers on the fetch. Continue east and
you'll see a fetch running away from some thralls. Shoot up the fetch and
wipe out the thralls. Go east into the swamp and then NE to the land and
stop. Line the archers in a long line and get everyone except for one
warriors far far back. There is a shade floating around here and he can
blow everyone up with the flick of his finger. Have your volunteered
(inexperienced, but very healthy) warrior start from the left and approach
the shade. The shade will start to follow that man and have him run for
his life ACROSS the range of the archers. The shade will follow as your
archer rain arrows on him the best they can to take the shade out. Your
lone warrior may even get out alive.
Mission 14: Forest Heart
This mission starts with some doomed bezerkers and archers getting killed
by and army with a trow far off to the east. Don't panic, you can't stop
this. The camera will then zoom to where the rest of your men are. Some
foolish myrmidon are attacking your big army so end their pitiful lives.
Your job now is to find four trow generals and kill them. Lead your entire
party NE to a bridge crossing a small river. Split the archers into two
groups on either side of the bridge but not too close to the water. A
bunch of soulless are on the other side the left and several myrmidons to
the right. Put your giants near the archers to the right. Whenever the
soulless or the myrmidons get close, your archers will shoot at them so let
them pick at the enemy. A trow will cross the river so sic your giants on
him to kill him quickly. Use a couple archers to go up the bridge but
don't pass the halfway point. You want to take out the soulless if you
can. After you done what you can with the soulless, retreat the archers
back to their positions and send a bezerker on the bridge and taunt the
myrmidons to come attack. Your archers will weaken them as they cross.
Use the bezerker to engage and let the giants cross the river to flank the
myrmidons. A second trow will eventually attack so use your giants and
bezerkers to surround him. Go SE to another bridge and setup as before but
this time have the bezerker split into two groups on either sides of the
archers. Eventually, several thrall will pop out of the water to kill your
archers so don't let them. Instead, pull the archers back and let the
bezerkers thrash the thrall. A bunch of soulless are on the other side the
left and a pack of myrmidons running back and forth to the right. Peg the
myrmidons as they run back and forth until they're gone. If the soulless
attack during this time, you can send the giants on them. After the
myrmidons are taken care of, move the archers to wipe out the soulless.
Cross the bridge and head east. You'll meet up with some thrall and
soulless. Always target the soulless with the archers and mop up any
thrall that gets close to your party with the giants and bezerkers. The
giants are great for this; they can pimp slap a thrall/soulless/myrmidon
into several pieces. There is a strip of high ground paralleling the
river. It's too steep to climb the edges for everyone but the giants.
Send the bezerkers up first heading north, then the archers with the giants
just keeping up with them on the side of the high ground. As you reach the
end where the high ground lower to the low ground, you'll meet up with some
myrmidons. The thick forest will mess up your archer's aim so have the
bezerkers help the giants wipe out the myrmidons. Another trow will attack
so again, surround him with the giants and then the bezerkers. Move
everyone east to meet up with the killers of the scouting party. Do what
you can with the archers but send the bezerkers to kill the myrmidons and
the giants to kill the trow. As the battle finishes, the victory is cut
short as Soulblighter pops in a zaps all your men somewhere (to the next
mission).
Mission 15: Heart of the Stone
Your men have been captured into some magical subdimensional prison called
the Tain. To
solve this level, you will have to manipulate four towers at the corners of
the map to activate a bridge over the lava in the center of the map to the
exit. Before doing this however, you should secure the entire map. Your
men start in the bottom left side of the map. Begin your sweep in a
clockwise fashion hugging the outer walls. Approach the SW pillar but
don't enter the alcove that it's in. Position your archers in a long line
facing the pillar and cover the end of the archer line with a bezerker
group. Have a bezerker enter the pillar area and listen; you'll hear the
chittering of the four cave spiders which will drop down. Kill them and
continue your sweep. Pass a mound and near the left side of a bowl like
crater. A few ghols will attack you from the north, so lay waste to them.
Meanwhile, a few bezerkers and an archer are beamed into the tain with you
and will appear in the bowl. Have them join you and continue north to the
NW pillar, but stop at just before you reach it. Further north, some
spiders will appear fighting a few ghols and a fetch; the spiders will
lose. Use the archers to kill the fetch first, then kill the ghols.
Continue east. Just before you get to the NE pillar, stop at the downward
slope. Another group of spiders will be fighting fetch and ghol, so kill
any survivors. Stay in position at the slope and have a bezerker go south
closer to the center. More spiders will drop down so retreat the bezerker
back and take them out with the archers. Sweep all the way south. Along
the way, you'll meet up with more spiders and ghols, but they'll be easy to
deal with. After reaching the SE pillar, head west. Just as you reach the
middle, more spiders will drop down. Kill them and move north towards the
center of the map. Just NE from this position is where more spiders will
drop, so spring that trap and kill the spiders. Move everyone to the edge
of the lava bridge. Choose three bezerkers to go to the NE, SE, and SW
pillars to activate them. Send two bezerker and a three archers up to the
NW where more spiders are waiting. Kill all the spiders. Send the archers
and one bezerker back to the center group. After they reach the center,
have the NW bezerker activate the pillar. Spiders will drop on the center
group but since you have many men there, they are easily taken out. A
bridge has appeared now that all four pillars are active, so have everyone
in the center cross the bridge. After they are through, take one bezerker
away from the pillar and the level will end.
Mission 16: The Smiths of Muirthemne
You are still stuck in the Tain, but don't worry, this is the last level in
the Tain. Hopefully your archers are veterans from the previous level.
This really helps. When the level starts, several cave spiders will be
crawling around in front of you. Kill them and get ready for several
myrmidons and a couple bezerkers to be teleported in. Send your whole
bezerker troop in to kill the myrmidons and hopefully a new bezerker or two
will survive to be added to your group. Now you are safe. To the SW of
your position is the first of four pillars. As you approach them, they
"power up" and begin to glow. Get closer, and they will fry you to charred
pieces with fetch-like lightning. Behind this pillar you can see spiders
running around. Keep everyone else back and use your archers in a long
line to take out all the spiders they can without getting too close to the
pillar; the spiders will not pass the pillars. There are three other
pillars (SE, middle of the map, and NW of the map) where you can do the
same to reduce the number of spiders behind the "protection" of the
pillars. Use just the archers to move to all the other pillars to snipe at
all the spiders they can, but make sure that no one at the SW corner is
activating the pillar there. Once the archers have killed all the spiders
near each pillar, have them return to the group in the SW corner. Send a
bezerker to the NW pillar and have him activate it, but don't get fried.
Now that one pillar is activated, the others won't go on, so send in your
archers and bezerkers safely past the pillar. You are entering the
toughest of the four pillar areas, so let's get it over with. The cave
forks; take the smaller right passage and let the archers pick at more
spiders in the cave. As you edge closer, the queen spider (big black
spider, can't miss it) will also attack so use the bezerkers to move in
once you see her coming. After all the spiders are killed, move north and
get ready. A few bezerkers and myrmidons are beamed in and are fighting.
If you get there in time, you may be able to save a bezerker. Kill the
myrmidons with the bezerkers then move further into the cave. Kill any
straggling spiders, and send in a dwarf to pick up the glowing orb amongst
the spider egg sacks. For satisfaction, you can blow up the egg sacks with
grenades if you want. Send the dwarf all the way up to the NW corner of
the map where a bowl crater and two strange pillars are. Have him move to
the bowl and he'll throw the orb into the bowl. The strange pillars will
activate and between them a shimmering portal will appear very faintly as
the dwarf goes, "whoa!" Bring the dwarf and everybody in the SW cave back
out to the center area and head towards the SE pillar. Your lone bezerker
should still be holding the NW pillar on so your party can pass through the
SE pillar. There are a good number of spiders in this cave so work your
way with the archers east into the cave. Split the bezerkers into two
groups to cover their sides. The cave will turn north, so work your way in
killing spiders. Eventually, the queen spider of this cave will attack so
swamp her with bezerkers. Clean up the spiders and have a dwarf pick up
the glowing orb then send him to the portal. Move to the center of the map
and go north to the third pillar. This cave is easier than the first two
so move in with the archers killing all the spiders with bezerkers on the
sides to attack when the mother does. Have a dwarf pick up the orb and
send him to the portal. Remember that a dwarf can only hold one orb at a
time, so you'll have to have your dwarf throw the orb he's carrying into
the portal's bowl before you have him pick up another orb. Move everyone
out again but leave someone to activate this north center pillar. Move
everyone up to the patient bezerker at the NW pillar and have him move away
so the guy you left at the north pillar is activating the north pillar.
Just like the third cave, go in with archers and bezerkers and wipe out the
spider colony there along with their queen, get the last orb and converge
everyone you have to the portal. Have your dwarves walk up to the bowl and
they'll throw in their orbs. Now walk everyone through the portal and
you're are free!
Mission 17: Sons of Myrgard
The light have reached the former homeland of the dwarves, and the dwarves
have volunteered to take it back; their personal revenge against the dark.
You start off with a hero dwarf who is an *excellent* shot with his
grenades. He can really take care of himself so long as he isn't
surrounded by several enemies. The level starts with your single dwarf
invisible. The ghols running around can't see you but if you make any
noise by entering the water or throwing a grenade, you will become visible.
You are unable to place satchel charges as the first special ability is to
call in the dwarven paratroopers. Subsequent special ability is to call in
a satchel charges bombing run (from the air). Head your dwarf to the east
until he reaches a ramp where you see some soulless guarding the wooden
stake fences. The entrance is a zig zap pattern (right,left,right) and
you'll be inside the fortress. Walk up to a hill (the right side is good)
where one soulless is and get behind him but far enough away to throw a
grenade at him. Grenade the soulless next to you and get ready to kill the
soulless that will approach you from the gate. Remember to move your man
diagonally away after he throws a grenade. It may help to target the
ground instead of the actual soulless. Ghols will individually try to
sneak up to you, but as long as you stay on the plateau, you'll be able to
kill them before they reach you. To the east is a circular area of wight
parts guarded by a few ghols. Stand on a nearby hill and set off the wight
parts with a grenade (target ground) to blow up the entire lot. Battle any
ghols near you and head south. Another pen is south holding many wights,
also guarded by a few ghols. Again, stand on a hill and grenade a wight
near the edge of the pen to start the chain reaction of exploding wights.
Disgusting... but oh so satisfying. Head north and clean up the area of
ghols. There is another set of soulless next to the practice dummies to
the north. You can either take them on alone, or call your reinforcements
now. To call your reinforcements, you want to maximize the number that
come by finding the most open space to call them. When you throw the blue-
smoke bottle (special ability, first time) several dwarves will parachute
around you. Group them separately and head to the NE corner where another
fence is. Behind here are the caves where ghols pop out from. Due to the
map design, you will almost always be exposed to two caves, which means
enemies will come from both. Don't position your men in between the caves,
rather, put them at a triangular angle from both entrances. Coax the
enemies out of the cave and blow them up. As you pass the first set
(travel in the counter clockwise direction starting south) ghols will
sometimes attack from behind, so beware. Work your way around the big hill
to battle the caves. When you've killed enough Ghols, the level will end.
SECRET MISSION: To get to the secret level, instead of sweeping around the
caves to kill all the ghols, go to the SE most cave. It's a little bigger
than the rest. If you enter it, you'll be brought to the secret level.
Secret Mission: A Long Awaited Party
This mission is purely for the satisfaction of the dwarven people. It
didn't have a strategic advantage other than possible a psychological one
on the ghols; but it sure is satisfying as it's the most blatant slap in
the face the dwarves deliver to the dark next to the final missions. There
is a huge stone that the ghols worship as their god. They drag it wherever
they go, and since they've occupied former dwarven territory for the past
years, they've dragged the stone to this location. If Balin survived the
last mission, you get him for this one. He and 9 other dwarves will blow
up the ghol guard as they exit the cave. As they exit, immediately look to
the left (north) and have all the dwarves except for Balin form a staggered
formation down the small slope so that the formation is parallel to the
mountain side. Further north is a cave with a ghol guard, but there are
two ghol patrols circling the hill even further north. The red ghol patrol
is moving counter clockwise and you'll see them coming just as your dwarves
get in formation. Have them all lay a satchel charge and then run back to
the cave entrance and form a long line facing down the slope. Position
Balin so he can easily set off the nearest charge with his accurate grenade
throws. As the ghol patrol steps over your minefield, set it off and watch
them go up in bloody carnage. Your line of dwarves and Balin should then
clean up any survivors. Without any time to lose, have the 9 dwarves go
setup another minefield in a staggered formation for the gray ghol patrol
coming around the far north hill in the clockwise direction, and then have
them come back to the long line formation in your original position.
Again, have Balin set off the minefield and then blow up the survivors
individually. If it looks like you are unable to set up in time for either
the red or gray patrols, then just stay back as they won't see you unless
you come down the slope. Let them pass, and then setup while they are
doing their circle. After red and gray patrols have painted the landscape
with their body parts, go to the NW and blow up the guard even though he's
minding his own business, then go do the same to the guard at the cave NE
of your position. North of the second guard is a slope curving around
where several ghols are guarding the entrance. You are at a distinct
disadvantage here as the ghols will always be on higher ground. I used
this method: keep your dwarves down out of harm's way and send Balin half
way up the slope. Have him throw a special ability signal bomb in front of
the ghols (hopefully it doesn't roll down the hill back at you). Just
before as the smoke starts going out, move towards the ghols until they
start chasing you and run down the hill to the half way point (if you run
too far, the ghols will turn around and go back to their original
position). Hopefully the bombing raid takes out most of the ghols. If
not, you can try again. Clear out the survivors and bring everybody up.
You will be on a grassy mountain road heading south. In the distance you
can see the stone is in the center of a valley and now you understand why
the ghols worship it. The stone looks like a huge ghol head. Around the
stone are dozens and dozens of ghols chanting and worshipping. Follow the
mountain road down and you'll encounter a bunch of ghols and some soulless.
The ghols won't attack unless you get close, so don't. The soulless
however will try to snipe at you. Use Balin to target the ground just in
front of the nearest soulless. It will take two explosion to kill, but
this is safer because you are further away. Run Balin in a zig zag pattern
to avoid the spears. Once he throws a grenade, don't let him just stand
there, retreat in a diagonal direction to reduce his chances of getting
hit. After the soulless are gone, have a dwarf try to attack the ghols and
retreat immediately. You'll be able to whittle the ghols down this way
until they are gone. Continue to the bottom of the map where you can load
up on satchel charges. It will curve east. Move everyone in a tight box
eastwards cautiously. When you see a slope leading from the mountain road
down to the valley, stop. There is a huge army of soulless patrolling in a
big circle, you may see them going down this slope. Keep your distance and
let them pass without any disturbance, just remember what ground they
passed over. After they've passed, send the 9 regular dwarves in a
staggered formation to lay a minefield in the shape of the soulless army
along the path they just patrolled and then return to their original safe
spot. Get Balin ready and speed up time until the soulless come around for
the next pass. Slow time to normal and set off the minefield to catch as
many soulless as possible. The soulless have a better range than the
dwarf, so if any soulless survive here you may have to let them pass and
set up another (but smaller) minefield. Don't go down the slope. Instead,
stay on the grassy road and continue east. You'll will reach the corner of
the map where a soulless is guarding the stacks of wight bombs, satchel
charges, and ghol blades. Again, the soulless have the range advantage,
but you now have something to even the odds: trees. Use Balin to move
towards the soulless but make sure a tree is always between you and the
soulless. In this manner, you can cut the distance between you and
soulless and be protected from the thrown spears. Go tree by tree until
you are at the tree closest to the soulless, then move from behind the tree
and bomb the soulless and move back for cover. Another ghol is just north
of the equipment piles so you will probably have to contend with him too.
Now you have to make a choice. Do you want to be safe and just stealthily
blow up the rock keeping everyone safe, or do you want to take out all the
ghol worshippers as well most likely experiencing casualties? Let's do it
the safe (but less fun) way first. Move your men along the grassy path all
the way north to the top of the map. You'll come to the road where the big
stone was dragged. Then head west until you are directly north of the
stone where none of the ghols can see you. Now where would you put the
satchel charges so that it would break the statue? It's obvious weak point
is tucked under the "chin" of the rock. Although it's tempting to get
under the chin via the drag tracks, instead, just walk four fully loaded (8
charges each) dwarves over the north side of the surrounding short wall and
box themselves under the chin. You should be able to do this without the
ghols seeing. Place all the charges the dwarves are carrying and head back
north. Have Balin stand outside of the short wall and target the ground
near the charges to set them off. The explosion will cause the rock to
break in half at the "beak". This will piss off the ghols who will start
to chase you but the level will end before they reach you. That was the
safe way, now for the tough but more fun way. Use the 9 dwarves to place a
wide spread of staggered formation satchels charges at the base of the
slope from the grassy road. The southern slope is better than the SE slope
because it's narrower. Place three groups of charges side by side and
another set or two of charges to deepen your minefield. Just make sure you
preserve at least 24 charges to bust up the rock later. To be safe, have
everyone drop the unused satchel charges in a safe place on the grassy road
to reduce the risk of a chain reaction explosion if one of your dwarves
gets blasted during the battle you are about to engage in. Line everyone
up in a long line at the top of the slop with Balin in a good spot up the
slope to set off the minefield. Choose your least experience and lowest
health dwarf to act as sacrificial bait. Have him run up behind the
worshipping ghols who are to preoccupied chanting to their god and throw a
well aimed grenade to kill about 3 if he can and then immediately run back
to the slope. He won't make it because he's too slow so after the battle
is done, remember his honor. Set off the minefield with Balin when the
horde of ghols is on the minefield and begin the gory battle with the
surviving ghols. I found that it's best to control Balin for intelligent
strikes while your other dwarves are mindlessly tossing grenades. When the
fight is over, pick up your stashed satchel charges with the surviving
dwarves and place them tightly under the "chin" of the rock. Get everyone
to safety and have someone set it off. Sweet revenge.
Mission 18: The Road North
You will start with 3 archers and 5 warriors with the mission of finding
the magic bow and returning to the spot you started. Group the archers and
warriors separately and have the warriors form a line or vanguard about a
half a screen (when fully zoomed out) ahead of the archers. Have the
archers form a line facing the warriors. The paths in the level are
relatively narrow and the way to the magic bow is to follow the blood
spots. Along the way, you will be attacked by thralls which suddenly
appear out of the ground, usually surrounding the foremost group. With the
archers trailing far in the back, they can shoot at the flanking thrall
while your warriors attack the one they see; the one's in front of them.
The first ambush you encounter will also have a soulless which crosses the
river. Retreat your warriors after killing the thrall and take out the
soulless with your archers. The bow's position changes each time, but the
blood stains always lead to it. Keep using the warriors ahead of the
archers strategy until you see the bow. Don't get excited and rush to it
as there are thralls in the ground waiting to ambush you. Have the
warriors sneak up and form a circle. When the thralls appear, take them
out with all your men. Have your healthiest, most experience archer get
the bow. This bow is even better than that turn-to-stone magic bow of a
previous level. This bow shoots bolts of lightning, as well as regular
arrows, which can demolish groups like a grenade. It also has far range,
too. You'll need this bow now because once you get it, you will be
attached by large armies of thrall. Keep you warriors from attacking the
armies and try to use the archer with the magic bow (special ability) to
lightning the armies to scrap. Don't go crazy though as you only have a
limited supply of lighting arrows. If there are a few stragglers left, use
the other guys to mop them up while the magic bow guy turns his attention
to the next group. Now that you have the bow, head back to the starting
point. Again, lead the way with the warriors, but this time when the
armies show up, have them backtrack and lightning bolt the thralls.
Thralls are slow, so if an army is "chasing" you, you may just want to move
forward. They are also stupid so when you reach the ramp, you'll zig zag
back and many thrall won't be smart enough to go *around* the corner to
reach you. Instead they'll be stuck at the cliffs wondering why they can't
get you.
Mission 19: Across the Gjol
This is the most frantic mission yet. You have a large army standing on a
large plateau overlooking a river where the enemy will come from. Split
your archers, dwarves, and warriors into two groups (even numbers of types
each). The plateau can only be reached on either side by the side ramps so
this is where the enemies will be headed. Position your archers and
dwarves in a line overlooking the left and right corners of the plateau to
rain on the thrall which head up the ramps. Ready the warriors to take out
any thrall which actually make it up the hill. Before the enemy shows up,
use the dwarves to set up a few satchel charges on the ramp and reposition
them in their line atop the cliff. The thrall armies will attack you on
both sides at the same time so you'll have to constantly move the camera
back and forth or else chaos may happen on the unattended side. Wights
will appear after the first wave of thrall so use the archers to blow them
up from afar. You'll then be attacked by another army which appeared from
land. Use the dwarves to demolish then use the warriors to mop up the
rest. During this time, keep an eye on river activity as two fetch will
appear on either side. Make sure the archers take out the fetch as soon as
possible. Set some more satchel charges on the ramps if you have time as
another large wave of thrall will approach from the river from both sides,
this time they will have soulless with them. Make sure your archers are
taking out the soulless while everyone else is attacking the thrall.
Reinforcements will arrive and will automatically walk from their starting
position to the plateau, so don't worry about them until they get there.
Use them to reinforce your lost ranks and take out the last wave of thrall
attacking. Don't worry about trying to keep veteran units to carry over
the next level since the next level only has bezerkers.
Mission 20: The Watcher
This is a really tough mission. It wouldn't be that tough if you were
given archer and dwarven units, or at least one journeyman, but you are
only given bezerkers. When you start off, head as far north as you can to
the edge of a huge swamp to the east. Scout into the swamp. Several
scattered thralls will pop out of the mud to attack. Retreat your scout
and close in for the kill with the rest of the bezerkers. Sludge through
the swamp due east till you reach land. You are trying to avoid an army of
ghol and a shade just south of you waiting at the bank. The shade can
reduce your men to scrap very easily, so you don't want to mess with him.
You'll be at the top of the map, so face the camera northwards and have
your bezerkers hug the top of the map and move east as quickly as possible.
You'll reach a river running SE so follow the edge of it without stopping
until you reach a shallow part of the river which can be crossed. By this
time, you may have encountered a few ghols, and you'll see on the radar
that an army of ghols is chasing you (and they have a very deadly shade
with them). Cross the river and sit on the peninsula and create a shallow
encirclement to get ready for the ghol attack. The shade won't cross the
river so you are safe. Take care of the ghols and move to the southern tip
of your peninsula. In some cases, the shade will teleport to the south
bank with some ghols. If this happens, then have one weakened man stand at
the bank as a distraction. Otherwise, the shade may be waiting on the west
bank for you to cross. If this is the case, then send one weakened man to
your bank and stand almost halfway in the river as far north as he can.
The shade will follow him as much as possible. Now sneak across the
southern most crossable part of the river with small (4 or 5) groups of men
and have them hug the river shore (SW) till they are out of sight of the
shade. Keep the groups moving after each other as ghols will attack your
men along the river. You will have to take care of several ghols at this
point. Go around the SW tip end of the river. You may receive
reinforcements (more bezerkers) from a hill just NW of the tip; if not,
come back later and you may receive them then. Go south. If the shade
didn't teleport, mentioned above, then you will encounter him now as he
will teleport to this area of the map. Try to retreat back to the north
bank of the river you just came from and try to lead the shade up to the
peninsula where you first took refuge. Move the weak bezerker to the
southern tip to try and get the shade to follow him. Lead the rest of the
group back to the SW tip, being careful not to attract the shade's
attention again. If you are unable to do this, then you will have to
contend with the shade. (In which case, good luck!) Head SE till you
reach a large plateau with a ramp at it's SW corner. You may receive more
reinforcements along the way if you hug the south part of the map. A line
of soulless are guarding this ramp and they refused to be teased into
following you so you'll have to storm up the ramp. Once you've gotten up
the plateau, split your men into three groups to attack the three lines of
soulless. You'll lose a bunch of men in the process of killing the
soulless. Behind the soulless lines, is the stone figure, a circle of
thrall surrounding it, and a larger circle of ghol surrounded them. The
ghol have wight packets to throw at you if you get too close so try not to
bunch up your men. Apparently, they have very strict orders to guard the
statue. You can send three bezerkers in to kill one single ghol without
any of them moving. However, once you hack up the second ghol, all the
ghols will attack. After hacking the second ghol, retreat the three
bezerkers back to their group and have your troops kill all the ghols. The
thrall still haven't moved, and they won't. These thrall are zombie walls.
They are tougher than regular thrall, but won't move so hack them up with
the surviving bezerkers and then destroy the statue. Bloody battle, wasn't
it?
Mission 21: River of Blood
In this mission you start just outside the entrance of the city walls.
Fortunately, you have a variety of men again. The entrance is blocked by
wooden stakes, so for now, you can't reach the enemy and he can't reach
you. Use your archers to lob arrows at the myrmidons on the other side and
they will run away without any casualties. Use the dwarves to grenade the
blockade until they it's blown away. The first group of myrmidons is small
so send in your giants to slap them out of existence, and bring them back
outside the city. In the distance, a trow commander and a bigger army of
myrmidons approach from the north. They'll stop and wait though. Have the
dwarves setup satchel charges (two rows of four) in a west-east line just
inside the entrance and retreat them. Setup another line of charges in the
entrance and retreat them back to the archers, leaving just one dwarf at
the entrance. Bring one giant in again and tease the army to attack you.
Immediately move your giant to the entrance, but don't actually leave the
city. Have the dwarf blow up the charges to take out most if not all of
the first wave of the second army of the attacking myrmidons. Use the
giants to clean up stragglers. The rest of the myrmidons will attack so
retreat everyone outside the city and have the dwarf (who now has
experience from blowing up the minefield) to set off the entrance charges
when they are neared by the myrmidons. With the obliteration of his men,
the trow will now attack so surround him with the giants and the bezerkers
to finish him off. If you scan the camera around, you'll hear massive trow
footsteps in every direction except the right (east) so head that way,
hugging the wall. Split your bezerkers into two groups to cover the ends
of the line of archers, and have your giants stay with the left bezerkers
(farthest from the wall). When you reach some randomly placed lines of
stakes, you'll notice another army of myrmidons and a trow just beyond
them. Move the dwarves up behind the right most stakes, but not too close.
The myrmidons will attack in two groups, one to the left which will be
dealt with by your giants and left group of bezerkers, and the right group
which will be reduced and hurt by your dwarves and archers and cleaned up
by the right group of bezerkers. Look at the wall for an easter egg. The
trow will attack so surround him with your giants and bezerkers. Then move
to the SE corner of the city and edge your way north. A fetch will head
towards you so use your archers to wipe her out. If necessary, use the
giants as back up. I almost panicked from what I saw next. That fetch
didn't come alone, she came with several other sister fetches. That group
would be able to wipe you out with heavy loses to you but they tend to
attack only one or two at a time. Regroup your men and head north after
all the fetch have been killed. You'll reach the river of blood. Get your
men into a westward facing formation with the archers in the center and
their sides covered by bezerkers. Edge your way west and you'll encounter
a small group of myrmidons and a fetch before you come to the bridge
crossing the river of blood. Across the bridge is a big trow, and three
fetches surrounded by two armies of myrmidons. Setup up your archers (the
low health ones) and dwarves on either side of your bridge entrance, with
the dwarves closer to the bridge. Have your giants cover the actual
entrance with the bezerkers in deep or shallow encirclement behind them.
Send two archers onto the bridge to shoot at the trow from a distance.
He'll just stand there and take some punishment before he backs up and the
fetch attack. When this happens, retreat your archers off the bridge and
let your other archers whittle the fetch. Mop them up with the giants.
The trow will attack after, so wait till he gets to your side of the bridge
(archers and dwarves attacking from afar) and then swamp him with both
giants and bezerkers. Soon after the trow dies, the myrmidons armies will
attack one at a time. Retreat your giants and bezerker to a better
position just off the bridge and attack them as they reach your side of the
bridge.
Mission 22: Pools of Iron
This is a really fun level because you get to control Alric the avatar.
He's about as slow as a warrior, but really fast and deadly with his sword.
But the best part of him is his special ability to cast the same spell the
shades can. He can only use the spell four times, but he can eliminate an
entire army. You'll start out with just Alric standing on a cliff. A few
single myrmidons will be running around. Engage them to hand to hand
combat one at a time. They'll do minimal damage to you. Walk down the
narrow ramp (west) into the desert valley below. Head north west and
you'll encounter a few more wandering myrmidons. You'll eventually see a
huge army of myrmidons walking in a nice pack towards you. Stop moving,
and then cast the spell ("T") on the first myrmidon. The spell works like
this: the unit you target will blow up in green smoke, and then the next
unit within the vicinity of the blast will go up in green smoke the same
way. This causes a domino effect which can potentially destroy the whole
army. This domino effect is like a chain reaction, so you want to target
the unit which is at the beginning of an imaginary line running through
every unit once. If you use this type of thinking, you'll usually blow up
the entire army. After killing the army, head due south, but don't go any
further west. To the west is a Greek like structure where two trow are
waiting, and you don't want to activate them just yet. As you head south,
you'll encounter some more individual myrmidons, and then another big army.
Use your spell once again on the army. Sometimes the single myrmidons will
just run away when you chase them. You want them dead, so stop Alric and
have him face away from the myrmidon. The myrmidon will turn around to
attack your back; but just as it gets close, have Alric turn around and
attack the pathetic undead. Continue south till you see the world knot and
have Alric move there. The computer will control him and he'll act as the
broken knot pillar and beam in an army of bezerkers, dwarves, and archers.
Setup your groups and have them back up against the south wall on higher
ground slightly west of the knot. Have a bezerker go to the south west
corner until another big army of myrmidons shows up then retreat him back
to your party. Have Alric blow the army up with a spell and clean up any
stragglers with your men. By this time, another myrmidon army from the
north west corner will be reaching you. Again, have Alric blow the army
up, but make sure your bezerkers aren't near the enemy when he does this.
Again, clean up any stragglers. The trow will attack so swamp them with
your men. Alric is now out of spells so use him like a bezerker from now
on. Enter the structure and pass through it heading west until you reach
the bloody water beach. An army of thrall will emerge from the bloody
water. Peg them with arrows for as long as you can and then attack with
the bezerkers and Alric since he has no more spells. Further north along
the beach is another army of thrall which will emerge from the water. You
can attack them in the same manner. Move all your men into the bloody
water to end the level.
Mission 23: The Last Battle
This is the toughest combat level in the whole game. Even with a variety
of units, it's not going to be easy. At the beginning, you men will be on
a small peninsula in the bloody waters. Bunch up all your units into a box
except the archers. Have them get ready as several fetch from the waters
will attack. After killing several fetch, head everyone down the peninsula
and then west on the land until you reach another Greek like structure. A
lone myrmidon scout will be north of the structure, but he'll run away to
warn his buddies once he sees you. You won't be able to catch him so don't
worry about it. Follow where he goes till the land curves northwards to a
slope. You could chase the myrmidon down with bezerkers until he is
trapped, but don't bother. Go up the ramp a bit and you'll see a bezerker
unit waiting for you. He'll tell you, "hurry! Balor is coming!". Follow
him up the hill and you'll receive more units. You'll also see Alric, but
you can't control him. You'll also see the standard erected behind Alric.
Get everyone away from the standard for now. Balor will come and engage in
a conversation with Alric, then Balor will blow up with standard and anyone
standing to close to it. Move the archers into a long line at the edge of
the hill where Alric was standing and set up your dwarves to the left and
two bezerker group right and left of the archers. A huge army is waiting
at the base. The thrall will attack first. You should be able to take
most of them out with the archers and dwarves. After the thralls will come
the myrmidons. You'll probably have to mop up with the bezerkers. Two
fetches will arrive so put priority on them with the archers. After that's
clear, Alric will say, "we mush follow him!" and head over to another
structure in the desert valley. Keep your men where they are, but set up
their formation again. Send one bezerker next to Alric just to get him to
move to the next destination; the structure. Balor and Alric will talk
again and Balor will shower Alric with bloody dwarf heads telling him that
the rest of the legion has been destroyed. Alric will blow up the line of
myrmidons and retreat. You'll then be attacked by the armies of fetch and
thrall. Again put priority on the fetch with the archers and kill the
armies. Make sure you don't lose too many bezerkers because you're going
to need them. Alric will again say, "we must follow him". Group your
bezerkers into two groups of three, and a third group with the rest. Alric
will go up to the top of a hill looking into a bowl like canyon with a pool
of blood. Fetch are in a semicircle along the opposite edge of the bowl.
Have the archers form a long line on your edge of the bowl, have the two 3-
man bezerker group form to the left and right of the archers just inside
the bowl, and have the dwarves go just below the archers. Put the last
group of bezerker behind the archers. As soon as your party arrives at
these location your specified, Alric will walk into the base of the bowl
and talk to Balor once again. Don't wait. Have the archers target the
nearest fetch to the right and move the 3-man bezerker groups down a bit.
After Balor and Alric finish talking, the fetch will enter the bowl and
surround Alric in a semicircle and pound on him with lightning. Alric is
tough, but not invulnerable so while this is happening, have the left 3-man
bezerker group start killing fetch from the left, and the right 3-man group
from the right. Have the archers and dwarves shoot at the last fetch the
bezerkers will reach (the fetch in the middle of the semicircle). While
they do this, move the third bezerker group down straight through the pool.
Once the fetches have been killed, myrmidons will attack so clean them out
with the bezerkers. After the myrmidons have been dealt with, move what's
left of the bezerkers the left away from Alric, and move what's left of the
archers and dwarves up the bowl to the right a bit. Now the climax of the
battle! Balor will come and attack Alric but Alric will surprise him with
a magic device which freezes Balor. Alric will scream, "kill him!" Only
your bezerkers can do damage to Balor so send them in and surround him to
hack him up until his head falls off. Alric will teleport you out and
you'll hear Alric get ready to blow up several huge myrmidon armies.
Mission 24: The Great Devoid
This is the last level of the game and isn't really that hard if you play
it safe. You'll start with four dwarves, some archers and bezerkers, and a
journeyman. Choose one dwarf (preferably the most experience) and have him
drop all of his satchels, and then have him pick up Balor's head. Have the
other three dwarves pick up the satchels. Explore to the east. You'll
pass through the open area, a forest, and then come to a river. There are
two sections to cross: north and south. Don't cross the river just yet.
Explore along the river through the woods till you get to the north
crossing point. Someone will say, "I've got a bad feeling about this."
Once this happens, immediately move everyone back to the clearing where you
started from. Bunch everyone up into a box except for the archers. Split
them into two groups and have them form a line on each side of your men
facing outwards. Wights will lumber in so use the archers to blow them up
from safe distances. After the wight attacks are done, go to the north
river crossing area. You can see where the water is too deep, so set up
two groups of four archers in a line on the bank (up hill a little) of the
river. Move the useless dwarves back out of harms way and put the
journeyman between the archers, and back a little. Move the bezerkers back
as well. Use one bezerker to step foot in the muddy water and retreat.
This should have caused an army of soulless with two fetch to approach.
The fetch will stay on the opposite bank, but the soulless will attack.
Your archers should take them all out. Some more wights will probably
attack from the river, so blow them up. Then a group of archers to kill
the each of the fetch at the same time. Hopefully, they will kill them
before being fried. Reposition your archers at the bank in a line again
and send a bezerker to the middle of the river, and retreat him. A second
wave of soulless and fetch will approach. Again, use the archers to wipe
out the soulless, and heal anyone near death with the journeyman. This
time, more wights are attacking from the rear so use the archers to kill
them safely. The fetch won't cross the river, so don't worry about them.
After taking care of the wight threat, go kill both fetches with the two
archer groups at the same time and then have the entire party cross the
river. Move east and quickly position a long line of archers on a thin
hill with white color tone just past a crater. More soulless and fetch
will be approaching, and this is the best vantage point to be in when they
arrive. Shoot the fetch first, then the soulless, making sure to heal any
weak archer with the journeyman. Make sure you conserve one mandrake root
of the journeyman, as you will need it later. Move everyone due east till
you reach a hill with a few trees on it. Face south, and move down the
hill just a bit. When the ground starts to look rocky, you are reaching
the area of the great devoid. Do not enter the rocky area. Wights will
shamble in from the west and south west so use the archers again for them.
At one point, you'll see 6-8 wights walking in a line towards you. Blowing
the first one up causes a nice chain reaction. But the nightmare is ahead
of you to the south. Guarding the great devoid are some soulless, wights,
fetch, and Soulblighter himself. Soulblighter is extremely fast and tough
and he can chop up all your men easily. There is a trick though: the
journeyman's heal spell with the mandrake root does the opposite to undead.
With the journeyman, you can kill Soulblighter with one spell. The problem
is, before you can finish casting the spell, Soulblighter will have chopped
your journeyman, completely breaking his concentration. To do this right,
send two bezerkers with the journeyman. Have them line up in a shallow
encirclement with the journeyman on the right. Slowly edge them up to
Soulblighter and when he runs at you select the journeyman and push "T".
Just as Soulblighter is about to reach the first bezerker, target him.
While he's hacking at your poor bezerker volunteer, your journeyman will
sneak up and cast the spell. During this time, the first bezerker will die
and Soulblighter will hack up the second one. After the completion of the
journeyman's spell, Soulblighter will freeze and turn into ravens which
will fly away. There are two fetch patrolling together around the mouth of
the hole. Pull your bezerker and journeyman back and send in the archers
to kill the fetch. Three soulless will get into the act so kill them too.
More wights will show up but again, they are easy targets for your archers.
Move the dwarf carrying Balor's head to the edge of the hole and he will
automatically throw the head in. Hurray! You did it... then the dwarf
will go, "uh oh..." and powerful magic energy will nuke the whole place.
Man, what a depressing ending. The sense of dread goes on and on... but
what a great game!
4 Tips, Tricks, and Easter Eggs
4a Tips
- Always use archers and dwarves from high ground if possible. This
increases their range and reduces accidental bounce back of grenades.
- Learn the formations
- Learn to use gesture click to orient your formations
- Don't forget that your dwarves have satchel charges. Using a minefield
on the enemy really can make or break a battle.
- Don't have your dwarves toss grenades in the same spot at the same time.
Grenades go off at slightly different times and the first explosion will
send the other soon-to-explode grenades flying in random directions;
sometimes into you.
- Always try to long range your opponent. Cut them down a bit with the
dwarves, then peg them with the archers. Finally, as what's left of the
enemy nears you, send in the warriors and/or bezerkers to finish them off
AND tell your archers and especially the dwarves to STOP attacking.
- If an enemy is running away from you, stop your men and have them look
away (with the gesture click). The enemy will probably try and take
advantage of this and move to stab you in the back. As he nears, attack
him.
- Veteran units are extremely valuable. Build up less experienced units
when it's safe and easy pickings. Veteran units will carry to the next
level so long as the next level scenario has those units. If the next
level does not have those units, then the veteran experience is lost. Use
the mission guide in section 3 of this guide to determine if your
experienced units will carry over.
- The journeyman's heal spell also instantly kills undead.
- Targeting the ground near a stationary enemy with the dwarf often will
not cause the enemy to run and so you can kill them by surprise.
- You can select and direct your units while paused!
- Use programmable presets. Cover your archers with a group of
warriors/bezerkers on each end of the archer long line.
- The fastest units are your giants, bezerker, and warriors, in that order
so use them as scouts or taunts.
4b Tricks and Easter Eggs
- Go inside the buildings of the village in "Crow's Bridge". There is a
butcher shop with a bloody table and knives hanging on the wall. You can
also use the dwarf blow up some barrels on the sides full of food stuff.
- Look for the trailer and peasant easter egg in the SW corner of "A
Traitor's Grave"
- In "The Homecoming", there is a statue holding a book which it title "the
Book of Lanreb" Lanreb is Bernal spelled backwards. Mark Bernal is one of
the art and level designers for Myth.
- In "Force Ten from Stoneheim" check out the nice waterfall along the
south end of the river.
- In "The Five Champions": Instead of fighting the soulless just before you
save Alric, have the bezerkers rush up and destroy all the jars except for
the east on. Have them stand behind Alric and when the soulless throw
their spears, one accidental hit to Alric and he will jump out of the
containment field and waste the soulless.
- In "Silvermines": As you approach the entrance to the mine, several bats
will fly out.
- In "Sons of Myrgard": When you call in the reinforcement paratroopers,
some dwarves may have dysfunctional parachutes and fall to their death.
- In "River of Blood": On the inner south east wall are the Latin words:
"OSCULARIS TUI MATRIS CUM OS ISTE" which translates to "You kiss your
mother with THAT mouth?"
- In "The Last Battle": What does it say where Balor was standing when he
rains Alric with Legion dwarf heads? It says, "ODERINT DUM METUANT"
translated, "Let them hate, provided that they fear."
5 Cheats
CTRL and "+" : Automatically win the single player level
CTRL and "-" : Automatically lose the single player level
To access all 24 single player levels:
Hold down the space bar on the title screen and click on "New Game".
To get stronger warriors:
During a level, type PizzaParty to make your warriors more powerful.
by Kung Fu Gecko
(Garett Choy)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction
a Preface
b Spoiler warning
c Background
d Disclaimer
e Copyright
f Where to get this walk through
z Version history
2 The Units
a Light
b Dark
c Formations
3 Missions
4 Tips, Tricks, and Easter Eggs
a Tips
b Tricks and Easter Eggs
5 Cheats
1 INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this Kung Fu Gecko strategy guide. As a gamer myself, I've
often found wanting help to complete a game because I'd rather get a hint
to move in the right direction than spend hours scouring the play
map/level/whatever trying to figure out what the level designer of the game
wanted me to do. Although multiplayer mode is fun, my first goal is to
complete the single player mode. Many people have written walk throughs
which have helped me in those times where I was pulling my hair out. So
with these strategy guides, I (Kung Fu Gecko) am hoping to contribute to
the gaming community. You won't find information just transferred from the
manual; rather I want to write the gamer's interpretation of the aspects of
the game and the single player mission walk throughs. My goal is to add
value. Also, I've made this in plain text so that it is easily
transferable and simple for me to format. Sorry, I just don't have time or
the desire to make it an HTML hyperlinked document.
1a PREFACE
Myth: the Fallen Lords is a real-time strategy (RTS) game which breaks
through to new grounds. It foregoes the resource management of other RTS,
and instead emphasizes the combat and direction of your available units.
This is no mechanism for the player to generate new units, so the idea is
to direct your unit intelligently to minimize your losses (ideally zero
loss) and maximize the enemy's losses. Myth is also a true 3D game where
3D terrain and gravity play an integral role in the gameplay. For example,
positioning your archers on a hill will give you a range advantage over the
enemy's archers at the bottom of the hill. The player will also need to be
concerned with friendly fire, potentially harmful debris, grenade and arrow
blocking (and bouncing) obstacles, and many other concerns related to the
3D environment. The battlefield is viewed from a free moving camera which
looks at the battle field from a angled low-flying bird's eye view. Units
in Myth gain experience as they rack up kills. This experience translates
into faster and more accurate attacks; and can even be carried over to
subsequent levels making unit preservation a major strategic advantage.
Overall, Myth: the Fallen Lords is a great accomplishment and great fun to
play once the play gets used to the 3D system.
1b SPOILER WARNING
This walk through contains information and tips which may spoil your
experience and enjoyment of the game Myth since it reveals information
before you experience it for yourself. I recommend that you only use this
if you've played it to completion by yourself, or you are stuck and need
some hints to move forward.
1c BACKGROUND
Armies of undead warriors lead by evil undead known as the Fallen Lords
have returned to terrorize and conquer the lands. The races of the Light
have been fighting a losing battle against the Dark for many years. Now,
at the brink of extinction, you command the units of the Light in a last
effort to defeat the Fallen Lords.
1d DISCLAIMER
This document is meant for unofficial informational purposes only, and is
not for profit. It is not endorsed by Bungie. Company names, logos and
product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
holders.
1e COPYRIGHT
This document is copyright June 1998, Garett Choy. Permission is granted
to reproduce, provided it remains whole and intact. No modifications,
deletions, or additions may be made without the expressed written
permission of the author.
1f WHERE TO GET THIS WALK THROUGH
This walk through is available and is most up to date at my Myth home page
located at:
http://www.autobahn.org/~gbchoy/geckobeach/myth.html
It is also available at the Spoiler's Center:
http://www.the-spoiler.com
If you would like to comment or make suggestions about this walk through,
you can email me at: kfgecko@yahoo.com
Other Kung Fu Gecko Strategy Guides available: Sub Culture, MechWarrior 2.
Get them at:
http://www.autobahn.org/~gbchoy/geckobeach
1z VERSION HISTORY
v1.0 First published draft of this walk through.
v1.1 Added more easter eggs.
2 The Units
Every time a unit kills an enemy, it gains experience. The more experience
the unit has, the faster and more accurate/deadly the unit's attacks are.
The experience of a unit will carry over from one level to the next,
provided that the same type of unit is available in the following mission.
This makes a BIG difference and can make you feel attached to your
experienced men. I was able to carry over 5 archers through 4 missions one
time. They were so experienced that they hit almost everything that they
shot at.
2a Light
Warrior - These are your standard knights in plate mail armor. They have a
shield which can sometimes block attacks and swords used for inflicting
close combat damage upon the warrior's target. The warriors move at a
moderate pace, they aren't quick but they aren't slow either. Use these
units in groups to gang up on enemies. You won't have to worry about them
accidentally hitting each other with their swords as they hack at the
enemy, so let them horde an enemy.
Bezerker - I prefer these guys over the warrior. The bezerker moves
quickly compared to the warrior, attacks faster, and does more damage with
his huge sword. The drawback is that they have no armor and are damaged
easier. Just like the warrior, use these guys in packs to surround an
enemy.
Archer - These are my favorite units as they are great for sniping at your
enemies. The archers move slower than the warriors and much slower than
bezerkers, and have no armor. They have unlimited arrows to shoot, but
keep in mind that gravity affect their effectiveness. They require a
minimum distance between them and the enemy, but remember that if the enemy
does get too close and there is no where to run, you can have the armor
punch the enemy by double clicking on them. It is best to use these guys
in packs in a long line (formation 2, oriented towards the enemy) from the
highest vantage point possible like hills or cliffs. When the unit has
little or no experience, they are lousy shots; but with experience these
guys can really cause havoc to the enemy before they get to you. Try to
keep them alive as most scenarios tend to have archers, and the experience
of a unit carries over to the next scenario.
Dwarf - As you play, you'll probably love and hate the dwarves. These guys
are short humanoids who wield bottles of explosive liquids (malotov
cocktail style). They ignite the fuse of the bottles and throw them at
their enemy for grenade like results. Thrown into a pack of enemy units,
the dwarf can decimate armies. Units within the vicinity of the blast will
also receive damage. Because the grenade is ignited by burning fuse,
sometimes the action of throwing the bottle will blow the flame out causing
the bottle to drop harmlessly to the ground. Fallen bottles can be ignited
by the explosion of other bottles, however, so beware. You can use the
dwarf to pick up bottle "duds" (unexploded bottles) or even pick up slow
burning bottles and rethrow them. Weather conditions also affect the
effectiveness of the grenades; wind, snow, rain, and rivers can blow out
the fuses. Dwarven friendly fire is the worst friendly fire you can
imagine. It's common for the dwarf to have a tendency to throw his grenade
into the enemy at the same time your soldiers are attacking them; blowing
up not only the enemy but also your men. Use the attack-ground action when
you need to influence the dwarf to throw smarter (the computer doesn't
always anticipate the enemies future position very well). Dwarves also
have satchel charges (limited number, but they can pick up more) which can
be set on the ground to effectively create a minefield. They must be
detonated with a grenade though. A good strategy is create a group and
line of charges for a domino effect of explosive destruction. Dwarves have
the most humorous sayings. They sound like crabby old men saying, "yes,
sir!" or "move here, move there, ngyah!" when you direct them and "oops" or
"my fault" when they accidentally damage their own units, or "oh yeah!"
when they successfully blow an enemy to smithereens.
Journeyman - These guys are the healers of your party. They have a shovel
to fight with, but they are slow. Since you need them for healing or
picking up vital objects in missions, don't use them as a first line for
combat. Keep them in the back of your party ready to heal the units that
get injured.
Forest Giant - You don't get to use these guys very often, probably because
they are so awesome. They are tall, fast, strong, and can take a huge
beating. In one swat they can slap an enemy out of existence. Sometimes,
their swat is so powerful that pieces of the unfortunate enemy can go
flying into friendly units causing some damage.
2b Dark
Thrall - These lumbering zombies are slow but can cause a lot of unwelcome
damage when they get to you with their battle axes. They can hide
underwater out of sight. They tend to be bunched up in armies which are
perfect targets for the dwarf's grenade. Caught in the direct explosion of
grenades, the thrall burst to messy pieces in one shot.
Ghol - The ghols are fast nightmare creatures. The computer is pretty good
about controlling them to stay just out of harms way, then just when you
aren't looking rush in and hack your men to death. Ghols are annoying and
deadly pests whole can pick up and throw just about any small object like
an arm, a rock, bone, sword, and even wight pieces for use as a grenade.
Just like the thrall, a direct hit with a grenade will usually blow these
guys apart.
Myrmidon - I hate these guys. They are the bezerker counterpart for the
dark. They are fast and tough. One grenade hit isn't enough to kill them.
Try to weaken them as they approach and then send your warriors or
bezerkers on them.
Soulless - These are floating purple ghosts who have no limits to where
they can go. Cliffs don't stop them so remember that the can move into any
territory. They often will retreat to the safety of a cliff side where no
hand to hand combat unit can reach them. They wield spears which are
thrown at the enemy. They aren't very strong, however, so when your
soldiers do reach them they can be hacked to pieces quickly. When you
first meet a group of standing soulless, one arrow hit will usually make
the hit unit retreat out of range. Use this fact to shoot each one in a
group once to push them back. This usually spreads them apart enough so
that you can snipe at them one at a time.
Wight - Even slower than the thrall, the wight is a walking bomb. They
lumber near your men and detonate themselves for an explosion more powerful
than the dwarven grenade. Use your archers to blow them up from afar. An
exploded wight leaves chunks of explosive body parts on the ground. Both
the explosions of the chunks and the wight will spray a puss which will
temporary paralyze anyone who gets splashed.
Fetch - These are evil priestesses who can cast lightning attacks to groups
of men with obliterating results. Fortunately they aren't heavily armored
or very strong so a few arrow hits can kill them before they are in range
to use their lightning.
Shade - The worst. These are evil sorcerers who are slow but have a lot of
stamina and the most deadly attack ever. The shade will use a magic attack
that will cause the target to explode in green smoke. Anyone in the
vicinity of the exploding victim will also explode in the same manner,
which will in turn explode any one in the vicinity of that victim, and so
on. Use a pack of archers or satchel charges to kill them, or try to avoid
them completely. One good thing to keep in mind is that they will not
cross water.
Trow - The dark's equivalent of a forest giant. These guys are fast,
strong, and deadly. Surround these guys to attack and expect to lose some
men as the trow kicks your men out of existence.
Spider - These aren't really a part of the dark. They really are just
animal creatures which attack *anybody* including the dark. The spiders
aren't very strong but they are fast and can be deadly when they attack in
numbers. They are brown in color.
Queen Spider - The big mama of spiders. They are like the regular spiders
but bigger, faster, deadlier, and tougher. They are black in color.
2c Formations
Formation 1: Short Line - This formation is useful when you want to break
up your units into teams. Have them for a short line, then highlight the
rows to set your presets. This formation isn't that useful for combat
unless you want to pack your men together.
Formation 2: Long Line - This is the most useful formation for the archers.
It spreads them in a long line (hence the name) so they can rain arrows
upon the enemy. You'll need to use the gesture click to orient the long
line to be useful.
Formation 3: Loose Line - This is a wider spaced version of the short line.
It should only be used if you need your archers to attack a widely space
army (twice as wide as you).
Formation 4: Staggered Line - This causes the men to line up in staggered
fashion where each row of men is position between the row in front of them.
This is extremely useful when you are using several dwarves to lay down a
minefield of satchel charges.
Formation 5: Box - This formation should be used to bunch up your men when
they need to huddle together or squeeze through tight areas. Do not use
this when explosives are being hurled at your by the enemy.
Formation 6: Rabble - This puts the units in a "random", but approximately
equally spaced apart formation. This is good for just keeping your armies
in a pack when moving around.
Formation 7: Shallow Encirclement - This is the formation of choice when
units need to pounce on an enemy. It forms them into a wide arc. It's
particularly useful when you need to kill a trow (giant) with a bunch of
warriors or bezerkers.
Formation 8: Deep Encirclement - This is a tighter angle version of the
shallow encirclement. It is good for surrounded and enemy already near
your units, but it's not as good as the shallow encirclement because an
enemy unit will tend to attack the ends of the crescent first; defeating
your ability to surround effectively.
Formation 9: Vanguard - This sets up the men in an inverted "V" formation,
good for charging into an army of enemies. This is not a defensive
formation.
Formation 10: Circle - This literally creates a circle with your men. It's
good for guarding a unit. It's not good for surrounding an enemy because
it takes too long for the men to create the formation.
3 Missions
There is so much variation that can happen in Myth, that even if you
followed my actions exactly, you would not get the same results. With this
in mind, I have written the level descriptions with the general strategy
for the level. There are of course, several ways to complete each level; I
only present one.
Having my real-time Strategy game roots in WarCraft II, I wasn't used to
cherishing each individual unit. The goal is always to preserve your men
for as long as possible, but Myth makes unit preservation a much higher
priority since there is no such thing as unit production.
Mission 1: Crow's Bridge
Welcome to Myth. This level will teach you the basics of Myth-combat
style. Try to keep a mentality of unit preservation and always seeking to
use the environment to your advantage. You'll start off with a few
warriors on a bridge. Move them off and everyone else with them up the
road towards the city and stop at a nice hill. Move your camera to the
city and get all the men there and move them to meet up with your other men
on the hill. Set your archers up in a long line facing the bridge and
split the warriors into two separate groups to protect either side of the
archers. Several ghols will pester you so try and use the archers to
pester them, but don't lose your position. Use the dwarves to set up a
nice minefield safely in front of you. As the thrall approach, set off the
minefield as they cross it by targeting the ground of the nearest satchel
charge. The archers should weaken the thrall, and then use the warriors to
clean up the stragglers. Make sure you tell the dwarves and archers to
stop (space bar) attacking when your warriors go in. Ghols will try to
flank you so keep an eye on them. Soulless will attack as well so use the
archers to kill them. If it's safe, bring the warriors around the side to
wipe out the soulless, but don't forget about the pesky ghols. The army
will eventually retreat over the bridge.
Mission 2: A Traitor's Grave
This level will start with a peasant leading the way to the traitorous
mayor. Follow him for a bit but keep watch for the pesky ghols. Although
the peasant will seem impatient, he will wait for you or even follow you if
you don't follow. You will see them around the area of what looks like a
dry river bed. To the NE, ghols will watch you from a distance. Try to
kill a few before continuing to follow the peasant. Find high ground on
the other side of the dry bed and set up your archers in a line facing NE.
When some soulless and thrall appear, the peasant will retreat in fear.
Use the dwarf to bomb the enemy and the archers to kill the soulless while
you use the journeyman to kill anyone who gets too close to your men.
Follow the peasant N and NE to what looks like a statue. The peasant will
say, "there he is!" Have everyone chase down the group of thrall
surrounding the mayor. They are marching NW to get away. Just have the
dwarf throw his grenade at the mayor in the middle of the pack to complete
the level.
Mission 3: The Siege of Madrigal
In this mission you need to find a large army and lead them back to your
starting point. You'll start off with several archers and warriors near a
bridge over a river. You want to try and take the bridge with your archers
as soon as you can because it's the highest point in the area. Only a few
archers can fit on the bridge so leave a few back on the bank to the side
of the bridge. If you aren't able to take the bridge, that's ok, just keep
using your archers to snipe at the enemy with preference to kill the
soulless. Keep luring them in and then snipe at them. If the army
attacks, retreat the archers on the bridge and let the warriors jump anyone
who crosses the bridge onto your side of the land. Keep this up until you
clean them all out. Move your men into the open area in the center of the
village. This will be your first encounter with wights, fat lumbering
sewed up zombies which explode with a force stronger than the dwarven
grenade. Anyone surviving the blast (on the perimeter) will be covered
with puss which temporarily immobilizes them. Because of this, the idea is
to surround your tightly boxed warriors with two or three groups of
archers. You'll hear the wights' moaning as they approach. The wights
will try to sneak up on you where your back is turned so keep an eye on the
radar map. Use the archers to detonate the wights from afar. Once they
are all taken care of (no red dots on the radar) then leave the slow
archers in the village and move your warriors NE up the road. There will
be some ghols, but they aren't the army you're looking for. Keep following
the road, and off to the east of the road will be many thralls and soulless
(tons of red dots on the radar). One of your men will say, "there's the
army, let's go back to the bridge." Immediately send all your warriors
back to get the archers. Lead all your men back to the bridge killing any
wights with the archers. A small handful of thrall and soulless will have
shown up near the bridge so kill them quickly. Cross the bridge and the
mission will be done.
Mission 4: Homecoming
In this mission, you need to recover the codex with your journeyman and
then escape. He's the only one who can carry it, so you can't let him get
killed. When you first appear, your warriors will appear in the world
knot. Several soulless are waiting to shoot at you from a high point in a
coliseum. Immediately retreat the warriors away and archers will appear in
the world knot. Have them shoot the soulless but watch for any ghols; use
the warriors on them if they get close. When the archers move out of the
world knot, the journeyman will appear. Go around the east side of the
coliseum, shooting at soulless as they pester you. Avoid the west side
where there is an enemy army. Move southeast where you'll meet soulless
and thralls. Use the archers on the soulless, and the dwarves on the
thralls, then the warriors to clean up survivors who get too close. The
codex is near the ruins (Cathedral) and another party which comes into your
possession is being jumped by the enemy, but you'll probably lose them as
they get slaughtered. Finish off the murderers of your friends. Use your
journeyman to heal everyone until he's out of mandrake roots, as he will go
out of your control once you pick up the codex. Get the green/yellow
glowing codex. Follow the computer controlled journeyman with the codex to
the south east. You will be harassed by ghols, so keep them at bay with
the archer until the mission ends.
Mission 5: Flight from Covenant
This is the first mission you'll encounter the myrmidons that you will
learn to dread. They are faster and tougher than the thrall. But,
following this walk through, you won't have to fight them. As soon as the
mission starts, stop everyone. You'll be here for awhile. Send the
dwarves in to blow up the oncoming thrall, then retreat them. There are
three attacking armies to contend with so you'll be hear for awhile. Set
up the archers in a line to long range and the dwarves to do the initial
attacks. Your warriors should be split into two groups to covers the
sides. As you fight the thrall, be wary of wights lumbering into your area
and use the archers to attack them on sight. Fight the armies until you
defeat them. That road ahead of you going east is tempting but don't take
it. If you do, you will be ambushed by a huge army of myrmidons who will
tear you to shreds. Instead, go due north and make your way east through
the swamps. Along the way wights will pop up so use the archers on them.
Thralls will also attack; use archers and warriors since the dwarf grenades
won't work well at all in the mud. You should always be looking for wights
on the radar (usually single red dots) as you trek through the swamp. This
trek will have taken you around the big army you don't want to mess with.
After reaching land, you will encounter another group of thrall to contend
with. Decimate them with the dwarf and the warriors. The road you avoided
will be leading ENE at this point so follow it until it forks. The escape
tunnel is due east from the point that the road forks. The tunnel is at
the base of small hill with trees all around. Move everyone into the
tunnel to complete the level.
Mission 6: Force Ten from Stoneheim
Your mission is to destroy a world knot. In this mission you get to use
the bezerker unit, who moves and attacks faster than the warrior. He can't
block things but you'll find he's better at killing. At the beginning, a
huge group of civilians are headed towards a shrine to pray. One of your
bezerkers tries to convince them that it's too dangerous to no avail. Move
east to the stone on the hill, the destination of the peasants. Some pesky
ghols will be skirting the area so if you get the opportunity, shoot at
them. Move everyone down the hill (NE) to the icy river. Form the archers
in a line just before the unfrozen part of the river with the dwarves to
the left. Keep the bezerkers around because the ghols will try to sneak up
on you and kill your poorly armored archers and dwarves. You don't have to
worry about the peasants unless you want to. On the other side of the
river is an army of soulless and thralls. Snipe at the soulless with the
archers. If you retreat a little, the soulless will move back to the edge
of the river, then you can go back and snipe at them again. Eventually,
you'll be able to whittle down the enemy to almost nothing. At some point
the army will attack so keep the archers in a line but not too close to the
river. Have the dwarves ready to attack the enemy just as they step *out*
of the water as the river will instantly put out the grenade's fuse,
rendering them useless. After taking care of this army, cross the river
and head NE. Along they way you will meet up with more waves of soulless
and thrall. Keep the archers on the soulless and the dwarves on the thrall
sweeping up with the bezerkers until you reach the world knot. Ghols will
attempt to run in, so don't let the bezerkers stray too far from the party
and keep and eye on the radar. Continue onto the knot and set up your
forces to be ready for the army of soulless and thrall which will beam in
at the knot. Take care of them as you have been. When the coast is clear,
set about 7 satchel charges at the base of one of the world knot pillars.
Stand back and set it off with a grenade. Alternate route: instead of
crossing the river at the north east spot, you can follow it south to a
crossing near a waterfall. I didn't use this method, but supposedly it's a
little easier.
Mission 7: Bagrada
You need to discover the fate of the lost camp. You'll start out between
two pillars. This is a good place to stay for awhile while several waves
of enemies attack you. Keep sniping at them with the archers and use the
fast bezerkers to prevent the myrmidons from attacking your flank. The
pillars can be used as cover from the soulless spears. Once the myrmidons
are taken care of, move the bezerkers back around to your men so everyone
is behind and/or between the pillars. Several armies will attack you so
try and flank soulless with the bezerkers, while your dwarves and archers
whittle the approaching army. Use the warriors to clean up anyone who gets
too close and watch your dwarves carefully. After all the waves have been
defeated, you can finally start moving east. You may encounter a few
myrmidons which will keep their distance if you keep your men together. As
you edge towards them, they will run east. Eventually they will come to a
point where they will go no further and you can snipe them with the
archers. Follow the tracks in the snow past the stone markers. Along the
way you will meet four soulless up on a hill which only the archers can
reach. Use some experienced archers to kill them and have the journeyman
heal anyone who's hurt past half strength. Move E and NE to another hill
where two more soulless are. Continue east where some reinforcements will
appear from a southern passage, while another army appears to the south
west. You don't have to fight the army if you don't move your men near
them. Join everyone together and head NE to a wide sloping ramp where a
smoldering fire is. Set up some satchel charges in a patch at the base of
the ramp and your men in a shallow circle further down. Another army of
thrall, soulless, and myrmidon will appear, so you use everyone to kill
them but don't let them go up the ramp. When you go up to a certain point
in the ramp, you will hear massive foot steps moving very quickly. A huge
blue beast called the trow will come down the ramp. Try to set off the
minefield of satchels as he enters (remember, he's FAST) and then have
everyone attack him at once.
Mission 8: Ambush at Devil's Overlook
This level is fun and frustrating. You start off with several dwarves and
a few bezerkers. Let the two dwarves picking up the satchel in the middle
of the frozen lake finish but stop the dwarves who are laying down
satchels. Move everybody to the west end of the lake. Make your dwarves
pick up as many satchel charges from the satchel pile as they can and use a
staggered formation to lay charges in the lake to create an nice even
minefield. Do this three times close enough together so they all will go
off at once. Create what will be about the shape of an army. A scout will
come running in and the first of two HUGE soulless armies will be
following. The soulless will be heading for you so make sure all your men
are position to lead the soulless over the minefield. Have a few dwarves
attack the edge of the minefield and watch the soulless go up in smoke.
Use the bezerkers to clean up survivors while your dwarves set up the
minefield again for the next wave of soulless which will already be on the
radar. Lead them over the field again and blow the second army up just
like the first. There will be stragglers so use the dwarves to take them
from the hill while you try to flank them with the bezerker.
Mission 9: The Five Champions
Your goal is to free the captive sorcerer hero Alric. If you haven't
learned to preserve your men, this is the first mission where you are
forced to. If any of your men die on this level, you fail the mission so
watch their health and heal anyone will low stamina. All five of your men
are heroes and have the skills to prove it. You start with an archer, a
dwarf, a journeyman, and two bezerkers. Just past the archway at the
starting point is a soulless to the left. Use the archer to kill him.
Your movement into the area will reveal a couple more soulless to the
right, so eliminate them with the archer and the bezerkers. Follow the
path up north where you'll encounter some ghols. Finish them off from a
distance, then the bezerker when they get close. A few soulless will be
behind them so use the archer on them. Further north is a ramp going up.
Try to set a couple satchel charges before the large army of thrall come
down it. Go up the ramp and head back SE along the top of the hill till
you reach a ramp skirting the side the wall to the canyon below. Position
your archer and the dwarf to over look the ramp, and move the two bezerkers
to be ready to kill anyone that makes it to the top. An even bigger army
of thrall will start coming up the ramp for a huge massacre! Your dwarf
and archer will rain death upon the thrall; very satisfying. But that's
not all, a second army of thrall will come up the ramp after the first for
yet another event of mass destruction. By now, the ramp is just covered
with blood and body parts. Go down the ramp and head north through a
valley of smoke holes. Hug the east wall and stop everyone except the
archer well before the north wall where a ramp is. Several soulless are
atop the wall. Use the archer to hit them with one arrow each to knock
them back if possible. If they attack, retreat the archer so the soulless
come down off the top and bezerker them to dust. Go up the ramp and follow
the top to a north-south bridge, but don't cross it. Position the archer
to the left side of the bridge entrance (facing the bridge) closer to the
group of ghols across the way. Position the dwarf on the right side of the
bridge entrance (facing the bridge). Use the bezerker and journeyman to
block the bridge entrance. The archer will be able to hit the ghols
running around on the other side. Let him kill them all unless they
attack. Return to the formation, but send a bezerker across the bridge and
down the strip of land until a bunch of ghols appear on the radar.
Immediately head him back to his post with the others and let the archer do
his job. The dwarf should take out anyone actually crossing the bridge and
any ghol lucky enough to make it to your men should be taken out by the
bezerkers. After these guys are gone, immediately send the dwarf to lay 5
or 6 satchel charges in a line down the center of the bridge (starting from
farthest to closest) and get back into position. A huge army of thrall
will come down the bridge so set off your domino minefield to maximize
kills. Clean up and head over the bridge and go east until you reach the
cliff to another canyon. Just to the south of you is a land bridge, but
don't go there yet. A huge army of thralls which pose absolutely no threat
to you are patrolling the canyon below. Just sit on the edge of your cliff
and have the dwarf and archer demolish them. Head SE to the land bridge
and get ready. Two groups of soulless are waiting to ambush you at the
exit of the bridge. Send the archer to hit the left most soulless while
the dwarf targets the left most soulless of the right group and the
bezerker go for the right most soulless. After the dwarf has blown up a
few of the right group, switch him to the left group, leaving a few of the
right group for the bezerker. Clean up and head NE. You will see Alric
suspended in a magic field surrounded by four bottles. Have the dwarf blow
up all four, and the level will be complete.
Mission 10: Out of the Barrier
Now that you've freed Alric, you guys have to escape. You still only have
the five from the previous mission. You start in the hilly desert with
ghols scattered around you, poised to attack at the right opportunity.
They are very effective when they surround you so don't let that happen.
Immediate lead everyone NE towards a single ghol and attack him, stopping
only when you are on high ground if possible. The ghols will keep trying
to surround you so keep picking off the one at the edge of their
"semicircle". They will eventually mob you so you will have to use the
bezerkers to clean up. Go to the east between two plateaus. Some soulless
will be atop the one to the right. Keep everyone out of range and move the
archer in approaching such that only one soulless is in range at a time.
You hero archer will always hit the still soulless so have him target the
first one. As soon as you hear him fire, target the next one, and so on
until all are hit. The soulless will retreat the first time they are hit,
so by doing this, you have pushed them back. Again, position the archer so
only one soulless is in range at a time and attack till it dies. You will
be able to lob your arrows over the plateau to hit the soulless. When they
are all dead, move around the plateau where the soulless were and you will
see a few ghols eyeing but avoiding you. Pester them with arrows, but
don't go too far because some soulless and myrmidons are waiting. Snipe at
what you can, keeping your men on the highest ground you can. The group
will eventually attack so use the archer to kill the soulless while the
dwarf grenades the approaching myrmidons *once*. Stop the dwarf when the
myrmidons get close and use the bezerkers to attack them. Heal anyone
who's hurt badly after the battle. Go south and look for the entrance to a
tomb like structure, but don't go to close to it. In front of it floats a
magic bow which when used (special ability) by the archer, it will turn the
victim to stone. Have everyone face the entrance head on with the dwarf in
range such that his grenade will hit right at the entrance. Position the
archer just the side of the dwarf with just enough space for someone to
walk between. Send the barbarian to the bow and immediately send them back
between the archer and the dwarf. If this was set up right, the dwarf will
lob a grenade just as some ghols are leaving the tomb which will blow them
all apart. You will be attacked by a small army of soulless and myrmidons.
Use the magic bow to stone a few myrmidons to even the score a bit. After
killing them, move east slowly. Two armies are blocking two pass ways.
Tease the closer (north group) to attack and clear them out. Then hug the
wall of the mountain to head north a bit, then east between two mountains.
You should be able to avoid an encounter with the second army which is
south of the south mountain. Keep moving east around the black-gray
mountain until you see a huge army looking away from you to the north (east
face of the mountain). When you see them, move forward slowly until Alric
says, "let me handle this." And let him. Do not attack or he won't help.
Some myrmidons may notice you and line up looking at you, but resist the
temptation to "help" Alric. Alric will converse with the evil sorcerer and
blow up his army in a spectacular display of magical power. Then he'll
engage the sorcerer in sword fight. You can help him with the barbarians.
Alric will then say follow me! Follow him or even pass him up the spiral
path up the hill to the top. Your radar will fill up with endless forces
of enemies. Get very close to where Alric stops at the top of the hill,
you may have to control each man individually, and he will teleport
everyone out.
Mission 11: Silvermines
In this mission you have to find the arm and escape through the graveyard.
Follow the computer controlled journeyman in a tight group being careful to
avoid the view of the patrol groups. As you reach the town, the journeyman
will retreat a bit to avoid the enemy. Follow him around the edge of the
stream till you reach the arm, at which point you gain control of the
journeyman. Have him quickly grab the arm and backtrack a bit into the
town. Keep everyone tight and move so that the patrol groups don't see
you. You want to head north of the town, that's where the graveyard is.
It's good to follow a patrol group that's walking away from you since
they're facing the other way. When you reach the graveyard, there is a
ramp being guarded by some thralls, soulless, and a fetch. Use the archers
to take out the fetch as quickly as possible. Fight the rest just enough
to get up the ramp (especially the journeyman) and up the north trail to
complete the level.
Mission 12: Shadow of the Mountain
This is a king of the hill mission where you must protect your flag. You
will also be fighting units of the light which have been turned to the dark
side; archers and dwarves. You have the advantage because you will be on
the hill. The large plateau hill you start on has several ramps up to it:
one to the south, a narrow one the east, and two narrow ones to the SE.
Setup the archers in a long line at the top of the hill and the two dwarves
on either end of the line. Move your warriors back. Several enemy dwarves
will attack so try killing from afar. The rest of the army will attack so
do the traditional long range fighting till they get close then send in the
hand to hand units. After the first wave is knocked out, go to the center
with the camera and move more of your units to join the units on the south
side. Reposition everyone for the second wave coming from the south again.
Although you'll see a trow out in the distance, he won't attack. Soon
after the second wave, move immediately to the east ramp where a third wave
is attacking. The third wave will first show archers, so use the hill to
you advantage by having your archers shoot from as far back as possible.
You will have longer range because you're on the hill. An army of thrall
and then myrmidons will attempt to come up the ramp so use the dwarves to
blow them up, and sweep up any who make it to the top with the bezerkers.
Last in the third wave are a bunch of dwarves who you should attack with
both archers and dwarves. You'll often end up knocking live grenades out
of the enemy hands causing chain reaction explosions. After the third
wave, head immediately for the two ramps to the SE. The biggest wave, the
fourth, will split into two to cover both ramps. A few enemy archers will
climb up the small hill between the ramps to cover their units, but you
should use your archers to take them out before the army can start up the
ramps. If you have dwarves left, have them cover the left ramp (looking
down the ramps, outwards from your plateau) to cover the thrall army coming
up and use the bezerkers to kill the thrall that make it to the top.
Meanwhile, use your archer group to attack the dwarves that are just
sitting to the right of the base of the right ramp. When the myrmidons
charge the right ramp, move your archers back and attack them with
bezerkers. The last wave will be some dwarves trying to get up both ramps.
Use the archers to take down what you can, and if necessary clean up with
the bezerkers.
Mission 13: Seven Gates
This one is pretty fun as you get to watch the enemy kill each other.
You'll start in a canyon watching thrall and soulless fight each other.
Move the warriors out of the way and line up the archers to attack any
enemy who decides you are a more worthy opponent, especially the soulless.
Mop up with the warriors as needed, then head up the path to where it
forks, but stop just as the fork reaches sight distance. Send two
individual warriors up, one to the left fork and one to the right. Once
they reveal the two armies at each fork, retreat them to your group. The
two armies will clash. If they don't, they keep retreating your men back
further away... eventually they will attack each other when you get out of
sight and out of mind. One side has fetch which is a serious advantage so
before the other army is demolished, send your archers to kill the fetch.
The surviving army (what's left of them) will attack you, but shouldn't be
a problem. Head up the right fork and stop your archers in a line on the
white rock hill. Split the warriors into two groups to cover the sides.
Then send two warriors to scout again. There is a less obvious fork ahead,
send one warrior to the right into the little swamp to the east until you
see the army on the other side of the swamp and the chase you. Retreat
your man while you send the second scout up the left fork. Two armies
should appear again so retreat the scouts back to your safe position and
let them have at it. Again, one of the armies has some fetch, so use the
archers on them. After the fight, wipe out the remaining army. Head up
the left path and move east. Another two armies are already engaged in a
fight, make sure that your use the archers on the fetch. Continue east and
you'll see a fetch running away from some thralls. Shoot up the fetch and
wipe out the thralls. Go east into the swamp and then NE to the land and
stop. Line the archers in a long line and get everyone except for one
warriors far far back. There is a shade floating around here and he can
blow everyone up with the flick of his finger. Have your volunteered
(inexperienced, but very healthy) warrior start from the left and approach
the shade. The shade will start to follow that man and have him run for
his life ACROSS the range of the archers. The shade will follow as your
archer rain arrows on him the best they can to take the shade out. Your
lone warrior may even get out alive.
Mission 14: Forest Heart
This mission starts with some doomed bezerkers and archers getting killed
by and army with a trow far off to the east. Don't panic, you can't stop
this. The camera will then zoom to where the rest of your men are. Some
foolish myrmidon are attacking your big army so end their pitiful lives.
Your job now is to find four trow generals and kill them. Lead your entire
party NE to a bridge crossing a small river. Split the archers into two
groups on either side of the bridge but not too close to the water. A
bunch of soulless are on the other side the left and several myrmidons to
the right. Put your giants near the archers to the right. Whenever the
soulless or the myrmidons get close, your archers will shoot at them so let
them pick at the enemy. A trow will cross the river so sic your giants on
him to kill him quickly. Use a couple archers to go up the bridge but
don't pass the halfway point. You want to take out the soulless if you
can. After you done what you can with the soulless, retreat the archers
back to their positions and send a bezerker on the bridge and taunt the
myrmidons to come attack. Your archers will weaken them as they cross.
Use the bezerker to engage and let the giants cross the river to flank the
myrmidons. A second trow will eventually attack so use your giants and
bezerkers to surround him. Go SE to another bridge and setup as before but
this time have the bezerker split into two groups on either sides of the
archers. Eventually, several thrall will pop out of the water to kill your
archers so don't let them. Instead, pull the archers back and let the
bezerkers thrash the thrall. A bunch of soulless are on the other side the
left and a pack of myrmidons running back and forth to the right. Peg the
myrmidons as they run back and forth until they're gone. If the soulless
attack during this time, you can send the giants on them. After the
myrmidons are taken care of, move the archers to wipe out the soulless.
Cross the bridge and head east. You'll meet up with some thrall and
soulless. Always target the soulless with the archers and mop up any
thrall that gets close to your party with the giants and bezerkers. The
giants are great for this; they can pimp slap a thrall/soulless/myrmidon
into several pieces. There is a strip of high ground paralleling the
river. It's too steep to climb the edges for everyone but the giants.
Send the bezerkers up first heading north, then the archers with the giants
just keeping up with them on the side of the high ground. As you reach the
end where the high ground lower to the low ground, you'll meet up with some
myrmidons. The thick forest will mess up your archer's aim so have the
bezerkers help the giants wipe out the myrmidons. Another trow will attack
so again, surround him with the giants and then the bezerkers. Move
everyone east to meet up with the killers of the scouting party. Do what
you can with the archers but send the bezerkers to kill the myrmidons and
the giants to kill the trow. As the battle finishes, the victory is cut
short as Soulblighter pops in a zaps all your men somewhere (to the next
mission).
Mission 15: Heart of the Stone
Your men have been captured into some magical subdimensional prison called
the Tain. To
solve this level, you will have to manipulate four towers at the corners of
the map to activate a bridge over the lava in the center of the map to the
exit. Before doing this however, you should secure the entire map. Your
men start in the bottom left side of the map. Begin your sweep in a
clockwise fashion hugging the outer walls. Approach the SW pillar but
don't enter the alcove that it's in. Position your archers in a long line
facing the pillar and cover the end of the archer line with a bezerker
group. Have a bezerker enter the pillar area and listen; you'll hear the
chittering of the four cave spiders which will drop down. Kill them and
continue your sweep. Pass a mound and near the left side of a bowl like
crater. A few ghols will attack you from the north, so lay waste to them.
Meanwhile, a few bezerkers and an archer are beamed into the tain with you
and will appear in the bowl. Have them join you and continue north to the
NW pillar, but stop at just before you reach it. Further north, some
spiders will appear fighting a few ghols and a fetch; the spiders will
lose. Use the archers to kill the fetch first, then kill the ghols.
Continue east. Just before you get to the NE pillar, stop at the downward
slope. Another group of spiders will be fighting fetch and ghol, so kill
any survivors. Stay in position at the slope and have a bezerker go south
closer to the center. More spiders will drop down so retreat the bezerker
back and take them out with the archers. Sweep all the way south. Along
the way, you'll meet up with more spiders and ghols, but they'll be easy to
deal with. After reaching the SE pillar, head west. Just as you reach the
middle, more spiders will drop down. Kill them and move north towards the
center of the map. Just NE from this position is where more spiders will
drop, so spring that trap and kill the spiders. Move everyone to the edge
of the lava bridge. Choose three bezerkers to go to the NE, SE, and SW
pillars to activate them. Send two bezerker and a three archers up to the
NW where more spiders are waiting. Kill all the spiders. Send the archers
and one bezerker back to the center group. After they reach the center,
have the NW bezerker activate the pillar. Spiders will drop on the center
group but since you have many men there, they are easily taken out. A
bridge has appeared now that all four pillars are active, so have everyone
in the center cross the bridge. After they are through, take one bezerker
away from the pillar and the level will end.
Mission 16: The Smiths of Muirthemne
You are still stuck in the Tain, but don't worry, this is the last level in
the Tain. Hopefully your archers are veterans from the previous level.
This really helps. When the level starts, several cave spiders will be
crawling around in front of you. Kill them and get ready for several
myrmidons and a couple bezerkers to be teleported in. Send your whole
bezerker troop in to kill the myrmidons and hopefully a new bezerker or two
will survive to be added to your group. Now you are safe. To the SW of
your position is the first of four pillars. As you approach them, they
"power up" and begin to glow. Get closer, and they will fry you to charred
pieces with fetch-like lightning. Behind this pillar you can see spiders
running around. Keep everyone else back and use your archers in a long
line to take out all the spiders they can without getting too close to the
pillar; the spiders will not pass the pillars. There are three other
pillars (SE, middle of the map, and NW of the map) where you can do the
same to reduce the number of spiders behind the "protection" of the
pillars. Use just the archers to move to all the other pillars to snipe at
all the spiders they can, but make sure that no one at the SW corner is
activating the pillar there. Once the archers have killed all the spiders
near each pillar, have them return to the group in the SW corner. Send a
bezerker to the NW pillar and have him activate it, but don't get fried.
Now that one pillar is activated, the others won't go on, so send in your
archers and bezerkers safely past the pillar. You are entering the
toughest of the four pillar areas, so let's get it over with. The cave
forks; take the smaller right passage and let the archers pick at more
spiders in the cave. As you edge closer, the queen spider (big black
spider, can't miss it) will also attack so use the bezerkers to move in
once you see her coming. After all the spiders are killed, move north and
get ready. A few bezerkers and myrmidons are beamed in and are fighting.
If you get there in time, you may be able to save a bezerker. Kill the
myrmidons with the bezerkers then move further into the cave. Kill any
straggling spiders, and send in a dwarf to pick up the glowing orb amongst
the spider egg sacks. For satisfaction, you can blow up the egg sacks with
grenades if you want. Send the dwarf all the way up to the NW corner of
the map where a bowl crater and two strange pillars are. Have him move to
the bowl and he'll throw the orb into the bowl. The strange pillars will
activate and between them a shimmering portal will appear very faintly as
the dwarf goes, "whoa!" Bring the dwarf and everybody in the SW cave back
out to the center area and head towards the SE pillar. Your lone bezerker
should still be holding the NW pillar on so your party can pass through the
SE pillar. There are a good number of spiders in this cave so work your
way with the archers east into the cave. Split the bezerkers into two
groups to cover their sides. The cave will turn north, so work your way in
killing spiders. Eventually, the queen spider of this cave will attack so
swamp her with bezerkers. Clean up the spiders and have a dwarf pick up
the glowing orb then send him to the portal. Move to the center of the map
and go north to the third pillar. This cave is easier than the first two
so move in with the archers killing all the spiders with bezerkers on the
sides to attack when the mother does. Have a dwarf pick up the orb and
send him to the portal. Remember that a dwarf can only hold one orb at a
time, so you'll have to have your dwarf throw the orb he's carrying into
the portal's bowl before you have him pick up another orb. Move everyone
out again but leave someone to activate this north center pillar. Move
everyone up to the patient bezerker at the NW pillar and have him move away
so the guy you left at the north pillar is activating the north pillar.
Just like the third cave, go in with archers and bezerkers and wipe out the
spider colony there along with their queen, get the last orb and converge
everyone you have to the portal. Have your dwarves walk up to the bowl and
they'll throw in their orbs. Now walk everyone through the portal and
you're are free!
Mission 17: Sons of Myrgard
The light have reached the former homeland of the dwarves, and the dwarves
have volunteered to take it back; their personal revenge against the dark.
You start off with a hero dwarf who is an *excellent* shot with his
grenades. He can really take care of himself so long as he isn't
surrounded by several enemies. The level starts with your single dwarf
invisible. The ghols running around can't see you but if you make any
noise by entering the water or throwing a grenade, you will become visible.
You are unable to place satchel charges as the first special ability is to
call in the dwarven paratroopers. Subsequent special ability is to call in
a satchel charges bombing run (from the air). Head your dwarf to the east
until he reaches a ramp where you see some soulless guarding the wooden
stake fences. The entrance is a zig zap pattern (right,left,right) and
you'll be inside the fortress. Walk up to a hill (the right side is good)
where one soulless is and get behind him but far enough away to throw a
grenade at him. Grenade the soulless next to you and get ready to kill the
soulless that will approach you from the gate. Remember to move your man
diagonally away after he throws a grenade. It may help to target the
ground instead of the actual soulless. Ghols will individually try to
sneak up to you, but as long as you stay on the plateau, you'll be able to
kill them before they reach you. To the east is a circular area of wight
parts guarded by a few ghols. Stand on a nearby hill and set off the wight
parts with a grenade (target ground) to blow up the entire lot. Battle any
ghols near you and head south. Another pen is south holding many wights,
also guarded by a few ghols. Again, stand on a hill and grenade a wight
near the edge of the pen to start the chain reaction of exploding wights.
Disgusting... but oh so satisfying. Head north and clean up the area of
ghols. There is another set of soulless next to the practice dummies to
the north. You can either take them on alone, or call your reinforcements
now. To call your reinforcements, you want to maximize the number that
come by finding the most open space to call them. When you throw the blue-
smoke bottle (special ability, first time) several dwarves will parachute
around you. Group them separately and head to the NE corner where another
fence is. Behind here are the caves where ghols pop out from. Due to the
map design, you will almost always be exposed to two caves, which means
enemies will come from both. Don't position your men in between the caves,
rather, put them at a triangular angle from both entrances. Coax the
enemies out of the cave and blow them up. As you pass the first set
(travel in the counter clockwise direction starting south) ghols will
sometimes attack from behind, so beware. Work your way around the big hill
to battle the caves. When you've killed enough Ghols, the level will end.
SECRET MISSION: To get to the secret level, instead of sweeping around the
caves to kill all the ghols, go to the SE most cave. It's a little bigger
than the rest. If you enter it, you'll be brought to the secret level.
Secret Mission: A Long Awaited Party
This mission is purely for the satisfaction of the dwarven people. It
didn't have a strategic advantage other than possible a psychological one
on the ghols; but it sure is satisfying as it's the most blatant slap in
the face the dwarves deliver to the dark next to the final missions. There
is a huge stone that the ghols worship as their god. They drag it wherever
they go, and since they've occupied former dwarven territory for the past
years, they've dragged the stone to this location. If Balin survived the
last mission, you get him for this one. He and 9 other dwarves will blow
up the ghol guard as they exit the cave. As they exit, immediately look to
the left (north) and have all the dwarves except for Balin form a staggered
formation down the small slope so that the formation is parallel to the
mountain side. Further north is a cave with a ghol guard, but there are
two ghol patrols circling the hill even further north. The red ghol patrol
is moving counter clockwise and you'll see them coming just as your dwarves
get in formation. Have them all lay a satchel charge and then run back to
the cave entrance and form a long line facing down the slope. Position
Balin so he can easily set off the nearest charge with his accurate grenade
throws. As the ghol patrol steps over your minefield, set it off and watch
them go up in bloody carnage. Your line of dwarves and Balin should then
clean up any survivors. Without any time to lose, have the 9 dwarves go
setup another minefield in a staggered formation for the gray ghol patrol
coming around the far north hill in the clockwise direction, and then have
them come back to the long line formation in your original position.
Again, have Balin set off the minefield and then blow up the survivors
individually. If it looks like you are unable to set up in time for either
the red or gray patrols, then just stay back as they won't see you unless
you come down the slope. Let them pass, and then setup while they are
doing their circle. After red and gray patrols have painted the landscape
with their body parts, go to the NW and blow up the guard even though he's
minding his own business, then go do the same to the guard at the cave NE
of your position. North of the second guard is a slope curving around
where several ghols are guarding the entrance. You are at a distinct
disadvantage here as the ghols will always be on higher ground. I used
this method: keep your dwarves down out of harm's way and send Balin half
way up the slope. Have him throw a special ability signal bomb in front of
the ghols (hopefully it doesn't roll down the hill back at you). Just
before as the smoke starts going out, move towards the ghols until they
start chasing you and run down the hill to the half way point (if you run
too far, the ghols will turn around and go back to their original
position). Hopefully the bombing raid takes out most of the ghols. If
not, you can try again. Clear out the survivors and bring everybody up.
You will be on a grassy mountain road heading south. In the distance you
can see the stone is in the center of a valley and now you understand why
the ghols worship it. The stone looks like a huge ghol head. Around the
stone are dozens and dozens of ghols chanting and worshipping. Follow the
mountain road down and you'll encounter a bunch of ghols and some soulless.
The ghols won't attack unless you get close, so don't. The soulless
however will try to snipe at you. Use Balin to target the ground just in
front of the nearest soulless. It will take two explosion to kill, but
this is safer because you are further away. Run Balin in a zig zag pattern
to avoid the spears. Once he throws a grenade, don't let him just stand
there, retreat in a diagonal direction to reduce his chances of getting
hit. After the soulless are gone, have a dwarf try to attack the ghols and
retreat immediately. You'll be able to whittle the ghols down this way
until they are gone. Continue to the bottom of the map where you can load
up on satchel charges. It will curve east. Move everyone in a tight box
eastwards cautiously. When you see a slope leading from the mountain road
down to the valley, stop. There is a huge army of soulless patrolling in a
big circle, you may see them going down this slope. Keep your distance and
let them pass without any disturbance, just remember what ground they
passed over. After they've passed, send the 9 regular dwarves in a
staggered formation to lay a minefield in the shape of the soulless army
along the path they just patrolled and then return to their original safe
spot. Get Balin ready and speed up time until the soulless come around for
the next pass. Slow time to normal and set off the minefield to catch as
many soulless as possible. The soulless have a better range than the
dwarf, so if any soulless survive here you may have to let them pass and
set up another (but smaller) minefield. Don't go down the slope. Instead,
stay on the grassy road and continue east. You'll will reach the corner of
the map where a soulless is guarding the stacks of wight bombs, satchel
charges, and ghol blades. Again, the soulless have the range advantage,
but you now have something to even the odds: trees. Use Balin to move
towards the soulless but make sure a tree is always between you and the
soulless. In this manner, you can cut the distance between you and
soulless and be protected from the thrown spears. Go tree by tree until
you are at the tree closest to the soulless, then move from behind the tree
and bomb the soulless and move back for cover. Another ghol is just north
of the equipment piles so you will probably have to contend with him too.
Now you have to make a choice. Do you want to be safe and just stealthily
blow up the rock keeping everyone safe, or do you want to take out all the
ghol worshippers as well most likely experiencing casualties? Let's do it
the safe (but less fun) way first. Move your men along the grassy path all
the way north to the top of the map. You'll come to the road where the big
stone was dragged. Then head west until you are directly north of the
stone where none of the ghols can see you. Now where would you put the
satchel charges so that it would break the statue? It's obvious weak point
is tucked under the "chin" of the rock. Although it's tempting to get
under the chin via the drag tracks, instead, just walk four fully loaded (8
charges each) dwarves over the north side of the surrounding short wall and
box themselves under the chin. You should be able to do this without the
ghols seeing. Place all the charges the dwarves are carrying and head back
north. Have Balin stand outside of the short wall and target the ground
near the charges to set them off. The explosion will cause the rock to
break in half at the "beak". This will piss off the ghols who will start
to chase you but the level will end before they reach you. That was the
safe way, now for the tough but more fun way. Use the 9 dwarves to place a
wide spread of staggered formation satchels charges at the base of the
slope from the grassy road. The southern slope is better than the SE slope
because it's narrower. Place three groups of charges side by side and
another set or two of charges to deepen your minefield. Just make sure you
preserve at least 24 charges to bust up the rock later. To be safe, have
everyone drop the unused satchel charges in a safe place on the grassy road
to reduce the risk of a chain reaction explosion if one of your dwarves
gets blasted during the battle you are about to engage in. Line everyone
up in a long line at the top of the slop with Balin in a good spot up the
slope to set off the minefield. Choose your least experience and lowest
health dwarf to act as sacrificial bait. Have him run up behind the
worshipping ghols who are to preoccupied chanting to their god and throw a
well aimed grenade to kill about 3 if he can and then immediately run back
to the slope. He won't make it because he's too slow so after the battle
is done, remember his honor. Set off the minefield with Balin when the
horde of ghols is on the minefield and begin the gory battle with the
surviving ghols. I found that it's best to control Balin for intelligent
strikes while your other dwarves are mindlessly tossing grenades. When the
fight is over, pick up your stashed satchel charges with the surviving
dwarves and place them tightly under the "chin" of the rock. Get everyone
to safety and have someone set it off. Sweet revenge.
Mission 18: The Road North
You will start with 3 archers and 5 warriors with the mission of finding
the magic bow and returning to the spot you started. Group the archers and
warriors separately and have the warriors form a line or vanguard about a
half a screen (when fully zoomed out) ahead of the archers. Have the
archers form a line facing the warriors. The paths in the level are
relatively narrow and the way to the magic bow is to follow the blood
spots. Along the way, you will be attacked by thralls which suddenly
appear out of the ground, usually surrounding the foremost group. With the
archers trailing far in the back, they can shoot at the flanking thrall
while your warriors attack the one they see; the one's in front of them.
The first ambush you encounter will also have a soulless which crosses the
river. Retreat your warriors after killing the thrall and take out the
soulless with your archers. The bow's position changes each time, but the
blood stains always lead to it. Keep using the warriors ahead of the
archers strategy until you see the bow. Don't get excited and rush to it
as there are thralls in the ground waiting to ambush you. Have the
warriors sneak up and form a circle. When the thralls appear, take them
out with all your men. Have your healthiest, most experience archer get
the bow. This bow is even better than that turn-to-stone magic bow of a
previous level. This bow shoots bolts of lightning, as well as regular
arrows, which can demolish groups like a grenade. It also has far range,
too. You'll need this bow now because once you get it, you will be
attached by large armies of thrall. Keep you warriors from attacking the
armies and try to use the archer with the magic bow (special ability) to
lightning the armies to scrap. Don't go crazy though as you only have a
limited supply of lighting arrows. If there are a few stragglers left, use
the other guys to mop them up while the magic bow guy turns his attention
to the next group. Now that you have the bow, head back to the starting
point. Again, lead the way with the warriors, but this time when the
armies show up, have them backtrack and lightning bolt the thralls.
Thralls are slow, so if an army is "chasing" you, you may just want to move
forward. They are also stupid so when you reach the ramp, you'll zig zag
back and many thrall won't be smart enough to go *around* the corner to
reach you. Instead they'll be stuck at the cliffs wondering why they can't
get you.
Mission 19: Across the Gjol
This is the most frantic mission yet. You have a large army standing on a
large plateau overlooking a river where the enemy will come from. Split
your archers, dwarves, and warriors into two groups (even numbers of types
each). The plateau can only be reached on either side by the side ramps so
this is where the enemies will be headed. Position your archers and
dwarves in a line overlooking the left and right corners of the plateau to
rain on the thrall which head up the ramps. Ready the warriors to take out
any thrall which actually make it up the hill. Before the enemy shows up,
use the dwarves to set up a few satchel charges on the ramp and reposition
them in their line atop the cliff. The thrall armies will attack you on
both sides at the same time so you'll have to constantly move the camera
back and forth or else chaos may happen on the unattended side. Wights
will appear after the first wave of thrall so use the archers to blow them
up from afar. You'll then be attacked by another army which appeared from
land. Use the dwarves to demolish then use the warriors to mop up the
rest. During this time, keep an eye on river activity as two fetch will
appear on either side. Make sure the archers take out the fetch as soon as
possible. Set some more satchel charges on the ramps if you have time as
another large wave of thrall will approach from the river from both sides,
this time they will have soulless with them. Make sure your archers are
taking out the soulless while everyone else is attacking the thrall.
Reinforcements will arrive and will automatically walk from their starting
position to the plateau, so don't worry about them until they get there.
Use them to reinforce your lost ranks and take out the last wave of thrall
attacking. Don't worry about trying to keep veteran units to carry over
the next level since the next level only has bezerkers.
Mission 20: The Watcher
This is a really tough mission. It wouldn't be that tough if you were
given archer and dwarven units, or at least one journeyman, but you are
only given bezerkers. When you start off, head as far north as you can to
the edge of a huge swamp to the east. Scout into the swamp. Several
scattered thralls will pop out of the mud to attack. Retreat your scout
and close in for the kill with the rest of the bezerkers. Sludge through
the swamp due east till you reach land. You are trying to avoid an army of
ghol and a shade just south of you waiting at the bank. The shade can
reduce your men to scrap very easily, so you don't want to mess with him.
You'll be at the top of the map, so face the camera northwards and have
your bezerkers hug the top of the map and move east as quickly as possible.
You'll reach a river running SE so follow the edge of it without stopping
until you reach a shallow part of the river which can be crossed. By this
time, you may have encountered a few ghols, and you'll see on the radar
that an army of ghols is chasing you (and they have a very deadly shade
with them). Cross the river and sit on the peninsula and create a shallow
encirclement to get ready for the ghol attack. The shade won't cross the
river so you are safe. Take care of the ghols and move to the southern tip
of your peninsula. In some cases, the shade will teleport to the south
bank with some ghols. If this happens, then have one weakened man stand at
the bank as a distraction. Otherwise, the shade may be waiting on the west
bank for you to cross. If this is the case, then send one weakened man to
your bank and stand almost halfway in the river as far north as he can.
The shade will follow him as much as possible. Now sneak across the
southern most crossable part of the river with small (4 or 5) groups of men
and have them hug the river shore (SW) till they are out of sight of the
shade. Keep the groups moving after each other as ghols will attack your
men along the river. You will have to take care of several ghols at this
point. Go around the SW tip end of the river. You may receive
reinforcements (more bezerkers) from a hill just NW of the tip; if not,
come back later and you may receive them then. Go south. If the shade
didn't teleport, mentioned above, then you will encounter him now as he
will teleport to this area of the map. Try to retreat back to the north
bank of the river you just came from and try to lead the shade up to the
peninsula where you first took refuge. Move the weak bezerker to the
southern tip to try and get the shade to follow him. Lead the rest of the
group back to the SW tip, being careful not to attract the shade's
attention again. If you are unable to do this, then you will have to
contend with the shade. (In which case, good luck!) Head SE till you
reach a large plateau with a ramp at it's SW corner. You may receive more
reinforcements along the way if you hug the south part of the map. A line
of soulless are guarding this ramp and they refused to be teased into
following you so you'll have to storm up the ramp. Once you've gotten up
the plateau, split your men into three groups to attack the three lines of
soulless. You'll lose a bunch of men in the process of killing the
soulless. Behind the soulless lines, is the stone figure, a circle of
thrall surrounding it, and a larger circle of ghol surrounded them. The
ghol have wight packets to throw at you if you get too close so try not to
bunch up your men. Apparently, they have very strict orders to guard the
statue. You can send three bezerkers in to kill one single ghol without
any of them moving. However, once you hack up the second ghol, all the
ghols will attack. After hacking the second ghol, retreat the three
bezerkers back to their group and have your troops kill all the ghols. The
thrall still haven't moved, and they won't. These thrall are zombie walls.
They are tougher than regular thrall, but won't move so hack them up with
the surviving bezerkers and then destroy the statue. Bloody battle, wasn't
it?
Mission 21: River of Blood
In this mission you start just outside the entrance of the city walls.
Fortunately, you have a variety of men again. The entrance is blocked by
wooden stakes, so for now, you can't reach the enemy and he can't reach
you. Use your archers to lob arrows at the myrmidons on the other side and
they will run away without any casualties. Use the dwarves to grenade the
blockade until they it's blown away. The first group of myrmidons is small
so send in your giants to slap them out of existence, and bring them back
outside the city. In the distance, a trow commander and a bigger army of
myrmidons approach from the north. They'll stop and wait though. Have the
dwarves setup satchel charges (two rows of four) in a west-east line just
inside the entrance and retreat them. Setup another line of charges in the
entrance and retreat them back to the archers, leaving just one dwarf at
the entrance. Bring one giant in again and tease the army to attack you.
Immediately move your giant to the entrance, but don't actually leave the
city. Have the dwarf blow up the charges to take out most if not all of
the first wave of the second army of the attacking myrmidons. Use the
giants to clean up stragglers. The rest of the myrmidons will attack so
retreat everyone outside the city and have the dwarf (who now has
experience from blowing up the minefield) to set off the entrance charges
when they are neared by the myrmidons. With the obliteration of his men,
the trow will now attack so surround him with the giants and the bezerkers
to finish him off. If you scan the camera around, you'll hear massive trow
footsteps in every direction except the right (east) so head that way,
hugging the wall. Split your bezerkers into two groups to cover the ends
of the line of archers, and have your giants stay with the left bezerkers
(farthest from the wall). When you reach some randomly placed lines of
stakes, you'll notice another army of myrmidons and a trow just beyond
them. Move the dwarves up behind the right most stakes, but not too close.
The myrmidons will attack in two groups, one to the left which will be
dealt with by your giants and left group of bezerkers, and the right group
which will be reduced and hurt by your dwarves and archers and cleaned up
by the right group of bezerkers. Look at the wall for an easter egg. The
trow will attack so surround him with your giants and bezerkers. Then move
to the SE corner of the city and edge your way north. A fetch will head
towards you so use your archers to wipe her out. If necessary, use the
giants as back up. I almost panicked from what I saw next. That fetch
didn't come alone, she came with several other sister fetches. That group
would be able to wipe you out with heavy loses to you but they tend to
attack only one or two at a time. Regroup your men and head north after
all the fetch have been killed. You'll reach the river of blood. Get your
men into a westward facing formation with the archers in the center and
their sides covered by bezerkers. Edge your way west and you'll encounter
a small group of myrmidons and a fetch before you come to the bridge
crossing the river of blood. Across the bridge is a big trow, and three
fetches surrounded by two armies of myrmidons. Setup up your archers (the
low health ones) and dwarves on either side of your bridge entrance, with
the dwarves closer to the bridge. Have your giants cover the actual
entrance with the bezerkers in deep or shallow encirclement behind them.
Send two archers onto the bridge to shoot at the trow from a distance.
He'll just stand there and take some punishment before he backs up and the
fetch attack. When this happens, retreat your archers off the bridge and
let your other archers whittle the fetch. Mop them up with the giants.
The trow will attack after, so wait till he gets to your side of the bridge
(archers and dwarves attacking from afar) and then swamp him with both
giants and bezerkers. Soon after the trow dies, the myrmidons armies will
attack one at a time. Retreat your giants and bezerker to a better
position just off the bridge and attack them as they reach your side of the
bridge.
Mission 22: Pools of Iron
This is a really fun level because you get to control Alric the avatar.
He's about as slow as a warrior, but really fast and deadly with his sword.
But the best part of him is his special ability to cast the same spell the
shades can. He can only use the spell four times, but he can eliminate an
entire army. You'll start out with just Alric standing on a cliff. A few
single myrmidons will be running around. Engage them to hand to hand
combat one at a time. They'll do minimal damage to you. Walk down the
narrow ramp (west) into the desert valley below. Head north west and
you'll encounter a few more wandering myrmidons. You'll eventually see a
huge army of myrmidons walking in a nice pack towards you. Stop moving,
and then cast the spell ("T") on the first myrmidon. The spell works like
this: the unit you target will blow up in green smoke, and then the next
unit within the vicinity of the blast will go up in green smoke the same
way. This causes a domino effect which can potentially destroy the whole
army. This domino effect is like a chain reaction, so you want to target
the unit which is at the beginning of an imaginary line running through
every unit once. If you use this type of thinking, you'll usually blow up
the entire army. After killing the army, head due south, but don't go any
further west. To the west is a Greek like structure where two trow are
waiting, and you don't want to activate them just yet. As you head south,
you'll encounter some more individual myrmidons, and then another big army.
Use your spell once again on the army. Sometimes the single myrmidons will
just run away when you chase them. You want them dead, so stop Alric and
have him face away from the myrmidon. The myrmidon will turn around to
attack your back; but just as it gets close, have Alric turn around and
attack the pathetic undead. Continue south till you see the world knot and
have Alric move there. The computer will control him and he'll act as the
broken knot pillar and beam in an army of bezerkers, dwarves, and archers.
Setup your groups and have them back up against the south wall on higher
ground slightly west of the knot. Have a bezerker go to the south west
corner until another big army of myrmidons shows up then retreat him back
to your party. Have Alric blow the army up with a spell and clean up any
stragglers with your men. By this time, another myrmidon army from the
north west corner will be reaching you. Again, have Alric blow the army
up, but make sure your bezerkers aren't near the enemy when he does this.
Again, clean up any stragglers. The trow will attack so swamp them with
your men. Alric is now out of spells so use him like a bezerker from now
on. Enter the structure and pass through it heading west until you reach
the bloody water beach. An army of thrall will emerge from the bloody
water. Peg them with arrows for as long as you can and then attack with
the bezerkers and Alric since he has no more spells. Further north along
the beach is another army of thrall which will emerge from the water. You
can attack them in the same manner. Move all your men into the bloody
water to end the level.
Mission 23: The Last Battle
This is the toughest combat level in the whole game. Even with a variety
of units, it's not going to be easy. At the beginning, you men will be on
a small peninsula in the bloody waters. Bunch up all your units into a box
except the archers. Have them get ready as several fetch from the waters
will attack. After killing several fetch, head everyone down the peninsula
and then west on the land until you reach another Greek like structure. A
lone myrmidon scout will be north of the structure, but he'll run away to
warn his buddies once he sees you. You won't be able to catch him so don't
worry about it. Follow where he goes till the land curves northwards to a
slope. You could chase the myrmidon down with bezerkers until he is
trapped, but don't bother. Go up the ramp a bit and you'll see a bezerker
unit waiting for you. He'll tell you, "hurry! Balor is coming!". Follow
him up the hill and you'll receive more units. You'll also see Alric, but
you can't control him. You'll also see the standard erected behind Alric.
Get everyone away from the standard for now. Balor will come and engage in
a conversation with Alric, then Balor will blow up with standard and anyone
standing to close to it. Move the archers into a long line at the edge of
the hill where Alric was standing and set up your dwarves to the left and
two bezerker group right and left of the archers. A huge army is waiting
at the base. The thrall will attack first. You should be able to take
most of them out with the archers and dwarves. After the thralls will come
the myrmidons. You'll probably have to mop up with the bezerkers. Two
fetches will arrive so put priority on them with the archers. After that's
clear, Alric will say, "we mush follow him!" and head over to another
structure in the desert valley. Keep your men where they are, but set up
their formation again. Send one bezerker next to Alric just to get him to
move to the next destination; the structure. Balor and Alric will talk
again and Balor will shower Alric with bloody dwarf heads telling him that
the rest of the legion has been destroyed. Alric will blow up the line of
myrmidons and retreat. You'll then be attacked by the armies of fetch and
thrall. Again put priority on the fetch with the archers and kill the
armies. Make sure you don't lose too many bezerkers because you're going
to need them. Alric will again say, "we must follow him". Group your
bezerkers into two groups of three, and a third group with the rest. Alric
will go up to the top of a hill looking into a bowl like canyon with a pool
of blood. Fetch are in a semicircle along the opposite edge of the bowl.
Have the archers form a long line on your edge of the bowl, have the two 3-
man bezerker group form to the left and right of the archers just inside
the bowl, and have the dwarves go just below the archers. Put the last
group of bezerker behind the archers. As soon as your party arrives at
these location your specified, Alric will walk into the base of the bowl
and talk to Balor once again. Don't wait. Have the archers target the
nearest fetch to the right and move the 3-man bezerker groups down a bit.
After Balor and Alric finish talking, the fetch will enter the bowl and
surround Alric in a semicircle and pound on him with lightning. Alric is
tough, but not invulnerable so while this is happening, have the left 3-man
bezerker group start killing fetch from the left, and the right 3-man group
from the right. Have the archers and dwarves shoot at the last fetch the
bezerkers will reach (the fetch in the middle of the semicircle). While
they do this, move the third bezerker group down straight through the pool.
Once the fetches have been killed, myrmidons will attack so clean them out
with the bezerkers. After the myrmidons have been dealt with, move what's
left of the bezerkers the left away from Alric, and move what's left of the
archers and dwarves up the bowl to the right a bit. Now the climax of the
battle! Balor will come and attack Alric but Alric will surprise him with
a magic device which freezes Balor. Alric will scream, "kill him!" Only
your bezerkers can do damage to Balor so send them in and surround him to
hack him up until his head falls off. Alric will teleport you out and
you'll hear Alric get ready to blow up several huge myrmidon armies.
Mission 24: The Great Devoid
This is the last level of the game and isn't really that hard if you play
it safe. You'll start with four dwarves, some archers and bezerkers, and a
journeyman. Choose one dwarf (preferably the most experience) and have him
drop all of his satchels, and then have him pick up Balor's head. Have the
other three dwarves pick up the satchels. Explore to the east. You'll
pass through the open area, a forest, and then come to a river. There are
two sections to cross: north and south. Don't cross the river just yet.
Explore along the river through the woods till you get to the north
crossing point. Someone will say, "I've got a bad feeling about this."
Once this happens, immediately move everyone back to the clearing where you
started from. Bunch everyone up into a box except for the archers. Split
them into two groups and have them form a line on each side of your men
facing outwards. Wights will lumber in so use the archers to blow them up
from safe distances. After the wight attacks are done, go to the north
river crossing area. You can see where the water is too deep, so set up
two groups of four archers in a line on the bank (up hill a little) of the
river. Move the useless dwarves back out of harms way and put the
journeyman between the archers, and back a little. Move the bezerkers back
as well. Use one bezerker to step foot in the muddy water and retreat.
This should have caused an army of soulless with two fetch to approach.
The fetch will stay on the opposite bank, but the soulless will attack.
Your archers should take them all out. Some more wights will probably
attack from the river, so blow them up. Then a group of archers to kill
the each of the fetch at the same time. Hopefully, they will kill them
before being fried. Reposition your archers at the bank in a line again
and send a bezerker to the middle of the river, and retreat him. A second
wave of soulless and fetch will approach. Again, use the archers to wipe
out the soulless, and heal anyone near death with the journeyman. This
time, more wights are attacking from the rear so use the archers to kill
them safely. The fetch won't cross the river, so don't worry about them.
After taking care of the wight threat, go kill both fetches with the two
archer groups at the same time and then have the entire party cross the
river. Move east and quickly position a long line of archers on a thin
hill with white color tone just past a crater. More soulless and fetch
will be approaching, and this is the best vantage point to be in when they
arrive. Shoot the fetch first, then the soulless, making sure to heal any
weak archer with the journeyman. Make sure you conserve one mandrake root
of the journeyman, as you will need it later. Move everyone due east till
you reach a hill with a few trees on it. Face south, and move down the
hill just a bit. When the ground starts to look rocky, you are reaching
the area of the great devoid. Do not enter the rocky area. Wights will
shamble in from the west and south west so use the archers again for them.
At one point, you'll see 6-8 wights walking in a line towards you. Blowing
the first one up causes a nice chain reaction. But the nightmare is ahead
of you to the south. Guarding the great devoid are some soulless, wights,
fetch, and Soulblighter himself. Soulblighter is extremely fast and tough
and he can chop up all your men easily. There is a trick though: the
journeyman's heal spell with the mandrake root does the opposite to undead.
With the journeyman, you can kill Soulblighter with one spell. The problem
is, before you can finish casting the spell, Soulblighter will have chopped
your journeyman, completely breaking his concentration. To do this right,
send two bezerkers with the journeyman. Have them line up in a shallow
encirclement with the journeyman on the right. Slowly edge them up to
Soulblighter and when he runs at you select the journeyman and push "T".
Just as Soulblighter is about to reach the first bezerker, target him.
While he's hacking at your poor bezerker volunteer, your journeyman will
sneak up and cast the spell. During this time, the first bezerker will die
and Soulblighter will hack up the second one. After the completion of the
journeyman's spell, Soulblighter will freeze and turn into ravens which
will fly away. There are two fetch patrolling together around the mouth of
the hole. Pull your bezerker and journeyman back and send in the archers
to kill the fetch. Three soulless will get into the act so kill them too.
More wights will show up but again, they are easy targets for your archers.
Move the dwarf carrying Balor's head to the edge of the hole and he will
automatically throw the head in. Hurray! You did it... then the dwarf
will go, "uh oh..." and powerful magic energy will nuke the whole place.
Man, what a depressing ending. The sense of dread goes on and on... but
what a great game!
4 Tips, Tricks, and Easter Eggs
4a Tips
- Always use archers and dwarves from high ground if possible. This
increases their range and reduces accidental bounce back of grenades.
- Learn the formations
- Learn to use gesture click to orient your formations
- Don't forget that your dwarves have satchel charges. Using a minefield
on the enemy really can make or break a battle.
- Don't have your dwarves toss grenades in the same spot at the same time.
Grenades go off at slightly different times and the first explosion will
send the other soon-to-explode grenades flying in random directions;
sometimes into you.
- Always try to long range your opponent. Cut them down a bit with the
dwarves, then peg them with the archers. Finally, as what's left of the
enemy nears you, send in the warriors and/or bezerkers to finish them off
AND tell your archers and especially the dwarves to STOP attacking.
- If an enemy is running away from you, stop your men and have them look
away (with the gesture click). The enemy will probably try and take
advantage of this and move to stab you in the back. As he nears, attack
him.
- Veteran units are extremely valuable. Build up less experienced units
when it's safe and easy pickings. Veteran units will carry to the next
level so long as the next level scenario has those units. If the next
level does not have those units, then the veteran experience is lost. Use
the mission guide in section 3 of this guide to determine if your
experienced units will carry over.
- The journeyman's heal spell also instantly kills undead.
- Targeting the ground near a stationary enemy with the dwarf often will
not cause the enemy to run and so you can kill them by surprise.
- You can select and direct your units while paused!
- Use programmable presets. Cover your archers with a group of
warriors/bezerkers on each end of the archer long line.
- The fastest units are your giants, bezerker, and warriors, in that order
so use them as scouts or taunts.
4b Tricks and Easter Eggs
- Go inside the buildings of the village in "Crow's Bridge". There is a
butcher shop with a bloody table and knives hanging on the wall. You can
also use the dwarf blow up some barrels on the sides full of food stuff.
- Look for the trailer and peasant easter egg in the SW corner of "A
Traitor's Grave"
- In "The Homecoming", there is a statue holding a book which it title "the
Book of Lanreb" Lanreb is Bernal spelled backwards. Mark Bernal is one of
the art and level designers for Myth.
- In "Force Ten from Stoneheim" check out the nice waterfall along the
south end of the river.
- In "The Five Champions": Instead of fighting the soulless just before you
save Alric, have the bezerkers rush up and destroy all the jars except for
the east on. Have them stand behind Alric and when the soulless throw
their spears, one accidental hit to Alric and he will jump out of the
containment field and waste the soulless.
- In "Silvermines": As you approach the entrance to the mine, several bats
will fly out.
- In "Sons of Myrgard": When you call in the reinforcement paratroopers,
some dwarves may have dysfunctional parachutes and fall to their death.
- In "River of Blood": On the inner south east wall are the Latin words:
"OSCULARIS TUI MATRIS CUM OS ISTE" which translates to "You kiss your
mother with THAT mouth?"
- In "The Last Battle": What does it say where Balor was standing when he
rains Alric with Legion dwarf heads? It says, "ODERINT DUM METUANT"
translated, "Let them hate, provided that they fear."
5 Cheats
CTRL and "+" : Automatically win the single player level
CTRL and "-" : Automatically lose the single player level
To access all 24 single player levels:
Hold down the space bar on the title screen and click on "New Game".
To get stronger warriors:
During a level, type PizzaParty to make your warriors more powerful.