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Ancient Conquest: Quest for Golden Fleece
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FAQs/Hints by Anil
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WHY THIS FAQ?
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Ancient Conquest is a great game from the late 90's produced by Megamedia
Australia. I played a demo in 1999 and bought this game immediately.
Recently I found the game CD again when browsing through an old CD
collection, so I played it again. I was playing this game after a long
time, so tried to look for information on internet. Clearly, there is
not even a single person on the internet who has posted anything
significant about this game. So I decided to bridge this information gap
and wrote this document during school break.
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STORY
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The history of the world numbers five ages.
In the first age - the Golden Age - the ferocious overlord Cronos was
leader of the immortal deities living on Mount Olympus.
Cronos created the first mortals. They were in every way similar to the
deities save immortality, they knew not sorrow, troubles or hard work and
died painlessly when their time came.
After a time Zeus rose up among the gods, slaying Cronos and becoming
their leader. In this Silver Age Cronos's mortals began quarrelling
amongst themselves even as the immortals did. The mortals turned away
from the gods on Olympus and in his anger Zeus wiped them out, leaving
the earth empty.
The gods then created a new race to worship them, beginning a new age,
the Copper Age. These mortals loved bloody wars, each side loyal to a
different deity. In only a short time their civilisation fell into ruin
and they descended to the gloomy land reigned over by Hades, lord of the
dead.
Zeus now created a new race of mortals, strong in spirit and body. These
heroes fought great battles, proving their mettle against monsters and
other heroes alike. This Heroic Age again lasted but a short time as Zeus
became enraged with their near-godlike prowess and feared they would
challenge Olympus itself.
He plagued the earth with such a heavy rain that only twin-peaked
Parnassus and Olympus itself towered above the boundless ocean - all other
towns, hills and mountains were drowned.
After seven days of unceasing rain, Zeus unbound the sun. When the waters
receded the face of the world had changed. Continents shifted, old lands
destroyed and new lands created.
Zeus created new people and the gods removed themselves from the world.
This became the Iron Age, in which we are still living.
Now let us return to the fourth age, the age when heroes lived.
On the shores of the Aegean Sea there was the land of Hellenes ruled by
the just and wise King Eson. The land of Hellenes was rich but great
misfortunes befell its peaceful and industrious people. Many droughts,
natural disasters and enemy forays exhausted the country.
With one last hope King Eson commanded his nation to gather at the Agora:
"Citizens of Hellas! Our land is in decline. The merciless sun burns
our fields of grain, our cattle starve in their pastures, game abandons
our forests, fish leave our coast.
Enemies are despoiling our grief-filled land. The Persian hordes are
approaching our borders both on land and by sea. Even the cowardly
barbarians are harrying our coastal settlements and robbing our merchant
boats without fear.
The gods have turned away from us!
The Delphic Oracle has revealed to me the only way our land can be
redeemed from the misfortunes besetting us. To please the gods we must
send our most skilled and powerful heroes on a long and arduous expedition
to blessed Colchis to gain the Golden Fleece."
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SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
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Pentium 133 MHz PC or compatible equivalent.
Microsoft Windows 95/98 operating system with all current 32-bit drivers
for CD-ROM, video card, sound card and input devices (see note for windows
xp and vista below).
16 MB RAM.
20 MB of free hard disk space.
2x CD-ROM drive (4x CD-ROM drive required to play movies).
16-bit SVGA (800 x 600 pixel display) graphics mode.
DirectX 6.
A mouse or equivalent input device.
14.4 baud modem for modem-to-modem play.
28.8 baud modem for Internet or Wireplay play.
Note: During my testing, this game works well with Windows XP without
using any compatibility mode whatsoever. I haven't tested it on Windows
Vista though.
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KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
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ALT+P - pause the game.
Left CTRL+C - make a screenshot, will print screen to file scr###.bmp.
TAB - replace Map View with Radar Map.
CTRL+S - save game into the last made save game file.
CTRL+O - load the last saved game.
CTRL+1...CTRL+0 - assign the currently selected units to a group.
1...0 - activate the previously assigned group.
SHIFT+F1...SHIFT+F10 - assign location
F1...F10 - centre on assigned location.
SPACEBAR - hide/show the Control Bar.
ENTER - activate message mode while playing multiplayer / send a chat
message while playing multiplayer.
BACKSPACE - show last location of enemy attack on the map
To edit the hot keys run the Ancient Conquest Configuration program and
select the Hotkey Editor tab.
- What kind of game is Ancient Conquest?
- Ancient Conquest is a real time strategy game based around the mythical
times of ancient Greece, when heroes like Hercules and Jason roamed the
seas.
- How does it differ from other real time strategy games?
- Ancient Conquest leaves the decision of the armament of each individual
unit in the player's hands. As the game is played out with sea units, the
player can put 3 different soldier units and 6 different weapons onboard
different ship types, giving nearly infinite ways of assembling a navy.
- How does this affect the strategy side of the game?
- No longer is it enough to select a large group of units and tell them to
attack the enemy. Each ship can attack in 3 different ways, shooting,
ramming and boarding. If all the ships are equipped only with catapults, a
clever strategist can use the boarding attack and decimate a much superior
force. Lighter and faster ships are also better at ramming than big slow
ones.
- What is the story behind the campaign?
- The story is of Jason, a Greek hero who needs to sail to a distant
island to find and retrieve the Golden Fleece to lift a curse that has
been laid upon his land. Along the way he must recruit other heroes and
defeat the Persians, barbarians and other enemies of the Greeks. Various
monsters also block their path, including the horrible Gorgons and the
beautiful but deadly Sirens.
- What do the various heroes do for your campaign?
- All of them enhance the abilities of the units that are put onboard.
Some give additional defensive or attacking abilities. Others repair your
ships or even make them invincible.
- Can Ancient Conquest be played by more than one player?
- Yes, the game is multiplayer ready, over the Internet, over Wireplay,
using a local area network, IPX connection and modem to modem. Up to 8
players can play in the full version.
- How do I play over the Internet?
- To play the game with your friends press the Multiplayer Game button in
the Main Menu. In the Multiplayer Game screen you should enter your name,
select the type of multiplayer game connection you wish (for the Internet
play it will be TCP/IP connection) and the map on which you will play.
- I have built a fort but it has no weapons in it. How do I build a fully
equipped fort?
- Forts can be built by any ship. We recommend you use merchant ships and
fill the ship with the weapons that are to be transferred to the fort.
After the fort is built select the merchant ship and the load/unload
option then click on the fortress. The merchant ship will dock with the
fortress and you can transfer the weapons by clicking on each.
Alternatively build forts using your settlement or town. By default these
forts are fully armed.
- When I send a merchant ship to build forts, they have no weapons. How
can I load the weapons?
- First you have to produce weapons at a workshop, (click on the type of
weapons to produce them) then load them on to a ship and unload them from
the ship to the fort.
- How do I build big fortresses?
- You must first upgrade arming at the sage school.
- What does upgrading medium and powerful weapons mean?
- Upgrading weapons means increasing their effective characteristics, like
rate, power and the range of fire.
- How do I catch a leviathan?
- To catch a leviathan, select a boat or a merchant ship and then click on
a leviathan, or in the Control Bar go to Ship AI Options, click on the
Prepare Leviathan button and then drag a rectangle on the playing field
where the leviathans are. The ship will then hunt leviathans. It may take
some time for the ship to capture a leviathan.
- How do I kill the cyclops?
- You can clear an area of cyclops by destroying the huts which breed them
- What is the difference between boats and merchant ships?
- The merchant ship has bigger capacity than a boat. It means that the
merchant ship can gather more resources at one time. Boats are faster than
merchant ships. Boats and merchant ships perform the same functions, like
gathering amber, fishing, and catching leviathans.
- How do I automate my ships to do various tasks?
- To automate ship behaviour, select a ship or a group of ships (to select
a group of ships, click and drag your mouse on the group of ships you want
selected). In the Control Bar go to Ship AI Options and select behaviour
of your ships, like Guard, Ram Attack, Board Attack, Convoy, Patrol, etc.
For merchant ships you can specify zones of extracting amber, fish or
hunting leviathans.
- How do I exit from the self-running demo?
- To exit the demo to the Main Menu, press ALT-X or the Esc button on the
keyboard.
- I can't seem to pause the game? How do I do it?
- To pause the game, press ALT-P.
- In some campaign scenarios I don’t have certain upgrades and can't build
as many types of ships as in custom missions. Why not?
- In the campaign you get new technologies (new terrain objects, weapons,
ships and spells) as you progress from mission to mission. This is to
allow a new player to gradually become familiar with the game and to make
the campaign more challenging for advanced players.
- How do I build bomber ships in custom mission?
- You cannot build bomber ships until you upgrade arming and armour at the
sage school.
- What is the best way to kill the cyclops?
- The best way to kill the cyclops is to use the bomber ships. The more
upgraded your armour and weapons are the faster you destroy their hut.
This minimizes damage to your bomber ships as well.
- Why is it that the game is so slow for me?
- To regulate the speed of the game, select the Configuration of the Game
tab at the bottom of the Control Bar and regulate the speed with the help
of the Game Speed trackbar. We recommend you run the game on a Pentium 200
or better for best performance.
- How do I cast magic?
- You need to build the Temple of Sea or Temple of War in order to use
magic spells. Click on the Get Magic button to learn each spell. To cast a
spell click on the appropriate magic and move the cursor over the playing
field to the place where you want to cast the spell.
- Why is it that I get a grey cursor and can't cast magic?
- Some magics have limited range and they will only work within a certain
distance from the corresponding temple.
- When I play against the computer in the custom mission, the computer
ships attack me so fast. What can I do to protect myself?
- There are several ways of protecting from enemy attacks. Here are two
effective ones: build big fortresses which will effectively protect your
terrain objects, alternatively build boarder ships, set to board attack in
their behaviour and move them half way between your settlement and the
enemy ships.
- How does upgrade arming work in the workshop?
- When you select the Upgrade Arming sub menu you will be able to see 3
rows of buttons which upgrade rate, range and power of weapons. The upper
row is for crew weapons, middle row for medium weapons and lower is for
strong ones. To get the ability to produce strong weapons you have to
first upgrade arming at the Sage School.
- How does the upgrades work in the Smithy?
- At the Smithy you can upgrade 3 types of armour and 3 types of ram:
regular, silver and golden. Armour upgrade reduces damage to a ship
covered by the corresponding type of armour. Ram upgrade increases damage
that is inflicted by the corresponding type of ram.
- I can't repair a ship, it is greyed out? What am I doing wrong?
- You have not upgraded your shipyard to a dock. Only the dock can repair
damaged ships, the shipyard can only produce them.
- In the beginning when I build a town, there is no option to build a
merchant ship. Why can't I build a merchant ship?
- You have to upgrade your settlement to town. You will be able to do the
upgrade if you have already built a moorage, shipyard, smithy, workshop
and you have 500 units of money. Select your settlement and choose to
upgrade to town.
- How do I unload or reload items into a port or moorage?
- To unload/reload a ship, first select the ship, then right click over a
moorage or a shipyard till the cursor changes to the proper type (triangle
formed by 3 arrows) and then left click the mouse. The Control Bar will
split into 2 parts: one will show the content of the ship the other the
content of the settlement/town to which the moorage/shipyard/dock belong.
By clicking the icons of the contents you can upload them to the moorage
or shipyard.
- If I catch a leviathan do I get money and fish?
- Yes, each leviathan earns you 5000 units of money and 2500 units of fish.
- I want to see the whole map, how can I do that?
- Use the TAB key to swap between the actual and the radar map.
- How do I minimize the game?
- Use ALT-TAB key combination to switch between programs.
- Are there any keyboard shortcuts I should know of?
- See HOT KEYS.
- What is the difference between the different difficulty levels?
- Different levels of difficulty mean different types of Artificial
Intelligence. The harder the level the harder the computer Artificial
Intelligence is to beat.
- Can I sell back items? How do I do that?
- All objects can be sold back except fortresses built by ships. To sell
an object, select the settlement/town that built that object, if you are
going to sell a ship, it should be docked to the shipyard/dock of that
settlement/town. Click on the Sell Item button in the Control Bar and then
click over the object you want to sell.
- I can't build anything at the shipyard. All the ships are greyed out but
I have all the necessary amber and fish.
- Most likely there is a ship in the front of the shipyard which is
occupying the area in which ships are built. Move this ship out of the
area.
- What is the "default arming" box for?
- Marked Default Arming checkbox means that all objects are built with
default arming. If you want to arm newly built objects on your own, mark
the checkbox off. Be aware that in this mode all newly built objects will
be built without arming and you will have to reload them with the weapons
you like them to have.
- Why can't I board the fortresses?
- Because a fortress is a terrain object. You cannot also ram them.
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RESOURCES
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There are four kinds of resources in this game. Once depleted, resource
supplies replenish a few times and then finally exhaust.
1. Amber: Shines like gold, and is available at multiple sites on shores.
Once depleted, amber supplies replenish a few times and then finally
exhaust. Building and ship repairs cost amber.
2. Fish: Staple food of the islands, required to build almost everything.
Repair does not require fish.
3. Leviathan: Gigantic but harmless sea creature. You can catch it with
any of your boats or merchant ships. When caught, one leviathan yields
5,000 amber and 2,500 fish.
4. Ship wreckage: When a ship sinks, it leaves behind a wreckage of
barrels. You can move one of your own ships over this wreckage area to
recover partial amber (5% of ship cost) from the wreckage - very useful if
you're running low on resources.
SETTLEMENT
This is a basic structure. It builds all terrain objects. In a settlement
you can train armed crews, which are necessary for equipping ships and
fortresses.
Cost: 400 amber
PORT
Port is intended for loading/unloading crews, weapons, and natural
resources between a ship and the settlement.
Cost: 200 amber
WORKSHOP
Workshop produces and upgrades weapons.
Cost: 700 amber
SHIPYARD
The shipyard builds ships.
Cost: 400 amber
SMITHY
This produces and upgrades armour and ram.
Cost: 800 amber
TOWN (upgraded SETTLEMENT)
After you upgrade settlement to town you will get the ability to build
sage schools, temples and upgrade shipyard to dock.
Cost of upgrade: 500 amber
DOCK (upgraded SHIPYARD)
This upgrade allows you to repair ships.
Cost of upgrade: 600 amber
SAGE SCHOOL
Allows further upgrade of armour, weapons, ram and speed of ships;
develops technology of producing Greek unique ships.
Cost: 900 amber
FORTRESSES
There are 3 types of fortresses that differ in life level and fire power.
SMALL FORTRESS
Cost without arming: 600 amber
Default non-upgraded arming: 4 Gastrafeteses
Cost with default non-upgraded arming: 800 amber
Default upgraded arming: 1 Gastrafeteses, 1 Catapult with stones, 1
Ballista with lead shot
Cost with default upgraded arming: 770 amber
MEDIUM FORTRESS
Cost without arming: 1,000 amber
Default non-upgraded arming: 2 Bowmen, 5 Gastrafeteses
Cost with default non-upgraded arming: 1,310 amber + 400 fish
Default upgraded arming: 1 Bowman, 2 Gastrafeteses, 1 Catapult with
stones, 1 Ballista with lead shot, 1 Catapult with lead shot
Cost with default upgraded arming: 1,270amber + 200 fish
BIG FORTRESS
Cost without arming: 1,500 amber
Default non-upgraded arming: 2 Bowmen, 5 Gastrafeteses, 2 Ballistas with
lead shot
Cost with default non-upgraded arming: 1,950 amber+ 400 fish
Default upgraded arming: 1 Bowman, 1 Javelinman, 1 Gastrafetes, 1 Catapult
with stones, 1 Ballista with lead shot, 1 Catapult with lead shot, 1
Onager
Cost with default upgraded arming: 1870 amber + 400 fish
A fortress can be built by a settlement/town or a merchant ship. Users
cannot keep heroes inside a fortress but they can keep treasures in it.
One settlement can build a limited number of fortresses, which is defined
by their total strength. A Small fortress has a strength scale of 1,
medium 2 and big 3. A settlement can erect number of fortresses, with a
maximum strength scale of no more than 15. For example, a settlement can
build 15 small fortresses, or 5 strong ones, or 7 medium ones and 1 small,
etc. However, if you reach the limit of fortresses built by one settlement
you may build additional forts using your merchant ships.
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TEMPLES
By building temples you get the opportunity to use various kinds of magic,
which will help you achieve victory.
A. In the TEMPLES OF SEA (cost: 1000 amber) you can develop the following
kinds of magic:
(Research cost of every new magic is 1000 amber.)
MAGIC OF WHIRLPOOL allows you to create whirlpools at the selected area
Cost: 5000 amber + 1200 fish
Range of magic around the temple: 12 cells
MAGIC OF REEF allows you to create one of 2 kinds of reefs: constant
(which is always seen over the surface of water) and disappearing (which
hides and emerges from the sea).
Cost: 5000 amber + 1200 fish
Range of magic around the temple: 12 cells
MAGIC OF WIND allows you to select direction of wind (or calm) for a
certain period of time.
Cost: 400 amber + 100 fish
Range of magic around the temple: unlimited
MAGIC OF WATERSPOUT creates a waterspout in the selected area for a
certain period of time.
Cost: 2000 amber + 500 fish
Range of magic around the temple: 15 cells
MAGIC OF VIEW deletes clouds over the selected area of the playing field.
Cost: 250 amber
Range of magic around the temple: unlimited
MAGIC OF MONSTER creates a monster, which attacks enemy ships in the
selected area.
Cost: 4000 amber + 1500 fish
Range of magic around the temple: 12 cells
B. In the TEMPLES OF WAR (cost: 1000 amber) you can develop the
following kinds of magic:
(Research cost of every new magic is 1000 amber.)
MAGIC OF FLAME increases the strength of all your weapons for a certain
period of time
Cost: 6000 amber + 1500 fish
Range of magic around the temple: unlimited
MAGIC OF LIGHTNING strikes and destroys all enemy objects unprotected
from magic, annihilates the land in the area of the strike.
Cost: 10000 amber + 2500 fish
Range of magic around the temple: 12 cells
MAGIC OF FIREBALL attacks enemy objects in the selected area for a certain
period of time.
Cost: 3000 amber + 700 fish
Range of magic around the temple: 12 cells
MAGIC OF PHANTOM OBJECT makes a selected object invisible for a certain
period of time.
Cost: 1000 amber + 100 fish
Range of magic around the temple: 15 cells
WEAPON SHIELD gives 80% protection from usual weapon attacks of the
enemies to your objects.
Cost: 1000 amber + 100 fish
Range of magic around the temple: 15 cells
MAGIC SHIELD protects from or reduces damage of magic to your objects.
Magic protection neutralizes magic of lightning, magic of flame, gorgon's
and siren's influence (though ships are still attracted to a siren under
the influence of her magic singing they do not take any damage from her).
It gives 80% protection to your objects from magic of sea monsters,
fireballs and waterspouts. Magic protection does not protect your ships
from magic reefs and whirlpools.
Cost: 1000 amber + 100 fish
Range of magic around the temple: 15 cells
Being a naval strategy game, ships are the heart of this game.
Each civilization has 2 merchant and 8 military ships. 6 military ships
are common for both civilizations and 2 are unique for each civilization.
Ships differ in cost of building, speed, ability to pass over shallow
waters, capacity for cargo, weapons and armed crew, armour and ram (device
used for attacking).
While playing the game, ships are influenced by wind strength and
direction. With a tail wind, ships reach their maximum speed and with a
head wind they get their minimum speed.
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A. MERCHANT SHIPS
Merchant ships are intended for exploring the map, collecting amber,
fishing, hunting leviathans and carrying cargo. They have no weapons or
ram to attack other ships. They cannot initiate boarding attacks even if
they have armed crews onboard, although when they are boarded, the armed
crews onboard can effectively repel the attack. All merchant ships can
pass over shoals.
MERCHANT SHIP
Cost: 400 amber + 200 fish
Terrain objects needed for building: Shipyard, Town
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B. WARSHIPS
Warships are intended for attacking enemy objects as well as guarding
merchant ships and towns. They have a ram, armour and they can carry
weapons. Only warships can take heroes onboard. Unlike merchant ships
they cannot collect amber, hunt for fish/leviathans or carry cargo.
Players may change the weapons on warships to alter their battle
characteristics.
RAMMER is the most effective in ramming enemy ships.
Cost without arming: 800 amber + 300 fish
Minimum cost with default non-upgraded arming: 925 amber + 300 fish
Cost with default upgraded arming: 1010 amber + 500 fish
Terrain objects needed for building: Shipyard, Town
MEN KILLER is intended mainly for killing enemy armed crews.
Cost without arming: 600 amber + 200 fish
Minimum cost with default non-upgraded arming: 680 amber + 400 fish
Cost with default upgraded arming: 710 amber + 400 fish
Terrain objects needed for building: Shipyard, Settlement, Workshop
SHIP KILLER is a small ship, abilities of which are aimed at destroying
hulls and buildings.
Cost without arming: 700 amber + 200 fish
Minimum cost with default non-upgraded arming: 800 amber + 200 fish
Cost with default upgraded arming: 825 amber + 200 fish
Terrain objects needed for building: Shipyard, Settlement, Workshop
BOMBER is awkward to use but the most powerful ship. It is the most
effective in attacking enemy fortresses.
Cost without arming: 1300 amber + 400 fish
Minimum cost with default non-upgraded arming: 1550 amber + 600 fish
Cost with default upgraded arming: 1610 amber + 800 fish
Terrain objects needed for building: Shipyard, Settlement, Workshop,
Sage School
BOARDER is a slow warship that has the most powerful armed crew.
Cost without arming: 900 amber + 200 fish
Minimum cost with default non-upgraded arming: 980 amber + 500 fish
Cost with default upgraded arming: 1070 amber + 1000 fish
Terrain objects needed for building: Shipyard, Settlement, Workshop,
Smithy
ROYAL SHIP is the most diverse ship, able to perform different tasks. It
is ideal for carrying heroes. Only Royal ships can be flagships.
Cost without arming: 1100 amber + 400 fish
Minimum cost with default non-upgraded arming: 1280 amber + 600 fish
Cost with default upgraded arming: 1390 amber + 900 fish
Terrain objects needed for building: Shipyard, Settlement, Workshop,
Smithy
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C. UNIQUE GREEK SHIPS
FIRESHIP is a small ship that has ballista with Greek fire *. Cost: 700
amber + 200 fish
Terrain objects needed for building: Shipyard, Town, Workshop, Sage School
QUICK LIME SHIP can carry catapult with quicklime *.
Cost with quicklime catapult only: 900 amber + 200 fish
Cost with default upgraded arming: 960 amber + 400 fish
Terrain objects needed for building: Shipyard, Town, Workshop, Sage School
* These weapons are produced only on these particular vessels and cannot
be removed from them. You can upload an additional weapon to a Quick Lime
ship.
Armed crews can damage enemy crews only. They differ in their
effectiveness in killing enemy crews at a distance and in boarding attacks.
The experience of the crew plays an important role in boarding attacks and
in the accuracy of fire. The larger and more experienced crew you have,
the better your chance of capturing enemy ships and the less chance of
missing enemies. If a boarding attack is not successful for your ship, it
loses all its crew and the ability to board and becomes defenseless
against boarding attacks until you add a new crew to the ship.
BOWMEN are the most effective in killing enemy crews at a distance.
JAVELINMEN are useful in killing enemy crews at a distance and in boarding
attacks.
Weapons are characterized by their effectiveness in damaging crews and
hulls. They differ in strength of fire, fire rate, range and minimum range.
Weapons may be:
Medium, which inflict moderate damage to a ship:
Scorpion, Gastrafetes, Catapult with stones
Strong, which inflict serious damage to a ship:
Ballista with lead shot, Onager with lead shot, Catapult with lead shot
Weapons only produced with unique ships.
Ballista with greek fire, Catapult with quicklime powder
Heroes modify the abilities of a ship they are on.
JASON
The ship that has Jason on board will never get into a whirlpool or strike
a reef.
THESEUS
Skilled warrior, he increases strength and range of fire of the ship he is
on.
ORPHEUS
Legendary musician. Creatures will not attack the boat that Orpheus is on.
ZETES
Son of Boreas, the god of wind. Zetes increases ship movement so it can
move against cross-wind as fast as with a tail wind and it cannot be
damaged by a waterspout.
HERCULES
Mightiest of all mortals, turned demigod, makes the warship invincible.
ARGUS
Builder of Argo, repairs the boat he is on and increases its resistance
to monster attacks.
ATALANTA
Warrior famous for her speed. Increases accuracy and rate of fire.
ODYSSEUS
Man known for his cunning mind, protects the ship he is on from Sirens
and Harpies.
PERSEUS
Defeated Medusa Gorgon and possesses a mirror shield that protects a ship
from other Gorgon attacks.
Monsters are hostile both to players and enemy objects.
AMAZON
Militant woman armed with a bow.
CYCLOP
He throws stones at all types of objects that appear to be near their
dwelling house. To get rid of the cyclops you must destroy their hut.
MINOTAUR
He throws axes that damage your objects similar to a Scorpion's attack. To
get rid of minotaurs you must destroy their dwelling house.
SIREN
A sea creature, partly woman and partly fish in form, whose singing
attracts ships towards rocks and whirlpools.
GORGON
She turns ships near her to stone (temporarily), but she has a limited
amount of power, i.e. the more ships you have near her, the less damage
she inflicts. It is advisable to attack her with a group of ships.
HARPY
She mainly damages armed crews. She will revive after being damaged or
killed. To get rid of her, you have to destroy her nest.
FLYING DRAGON
When it flies it throws its teeth that spawn other monsters, such as
minotaurs and cyclops on land and crocodiles and sharks in the sea. It
dwells in a castle.
SEA CREATURES
Sea creatures damage ships. They consist of:
Crocodile, swordfish, shark and sea-serpent.
Wizards dwell in huts from which they cast various spells, which damage
ships and objects no matter to whom the objects belong.
WIZARD OF WIND casts waterspouts and head winds.
WIZARD OF FIRE casts fireballs over approaching ships.
Wizards are resistant to their native magic. For example, if you attack a
wizard of fire with a fireball or a wizard of wind with a tornado, their
huts won't take any damage.
Treasures are intended to give players some advantages to help them
achieve victory. Caution - at other times they may prevent victory.
Treasures may be by themselves or hidden inside other objects such as
ships, forts, towns, monsters or their dwelling houses. Ships and forts
can store one treasure, a Royal ship can store two, while a town can store
an unlimited amount.
Treasures are of the following types:
1. The Golden Fleece. A magical artifact that restores life levels, weapons
and crews automatically.
2. Treasures that give you a certain amount of fish or money. (Looks like a
big barrel floating in sea)
3. Treasures that give you a weapon. (Looks like a circular metallic box
of brown color with gold platings)
4. Treasures that give you the ability to cast magic. (Looks like an
elongated water jug)
5. Treasures that give you protection from fire. (Looks like a cup with
fire in it)
6. Treasures that increase your armour. (Looks like a wooden triangle with
a shield on it)
7. Treasures that increase speed and ramming ability of your ship. (Looks
like a wooden triangle with picture of a ship ram on it)
8. Treasures that protect one of your ships from being boarded. (Looks
like a wooden stick with a halo around it)
9. Treasures that make objects resistant to fire and Gorgon's magic.
(Looks like head of a white statue)
11. Treasures that restore life level of armed crews. (Looks like a cup
with a red heart in it)
12. Scrolls that provide players with an ability to upgrade their
technology level once delivered to their town. Scrolls are used only in
missions. (Looks like a scroll, obviously)
In addition, there are unique treasures that attract heroes to your side.
You must get these treasures before a new hero can join your campaign.
1. Magic oar for Jason.
2. Magic horn for Zetes.
3. Magic harp for Orpheus.
4. Ariadne's clew for Theseus.
5. Magic sword for Hercules.
6. Magic hammer for Argus.
7. Magic bow for Atalanta.
8. Mirror shield for Perseus.
9. Golden statuette for Odysseus.
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MOST UNIQUE FEATURE OF THE GAME:
=========================================
The ship artificial intelligence control is the most unique feature of
this game, not seen in any other contemporary games. You can set the type
of behavior of a ship. For example, I prefer most of my royal ships and
the Argo ship to be on "guard" (fire on enemy ships from its position) and
"board" (try to board enemy ships that are within reach. I also set all
ship killers on ram AI. Similarly, remember to set the AI of enemy ships
according to your liking as soon as you convert them by boarding.
You can set a certain number of behaviour models for military ships. Ship
AI options are intended to free you from excess clicking over your ships.
To set a behaviour model, do the following:
1) Select a military ship or a group.
2) In the Control Bar, press the Ship AI Options icon - leads you to the
Ship AI Menu.
3) In the Ship AI Menu, enable required ship behaviour by putting
checkmarks in the relevant icons:
- GUARD icon. When this icon is marked the ships will fire at enemy
objects. If it is not marked the ships will not guard and the Fire on
Aggressor option will be disabled.
- RAM ATTACK icon. When this icon is marked the ships will attack enemy
ships by ramming them.
- BOARD ATTACK icon. When this icon is marked the ships will board enemy
ships when attacking them.
- FIRE ON AGGRESSOR ICON icon. When this icon is marked the ships will
fire at aggressive enemy objects.
or give an advanced order:
- CONVOY icon. To select a ship or a group to be convoyed, click on the
CONVOY icon and then press the left mouse button and without releasing it
drag a rectangle around the objects to be convoyed.
- SCOUT icon. Click on the SCOUT icon and then click on the area of the
playing field that the selected objects will scout. Scouting means that
the selected object will go to the selected area of the playing field and
then return to its initial position unless attacked en route in which case
it returns to the initial position immediately.
- PATROL icon. To assign patrolling behaviour to the selected objects,
click on the PATROL icon and then click checkpoints on the playing field,
which the ships will patrol.
- GUARD ZONE icon. To mark the zone that will be guarded by the selected
objects, click on the GUARD ZONE icon and then press the left mouse button
and without releasing it drag a rectangle that will define the zone to be
guarded.
- ATTACK ZONE icon. To mark the zone in which any enemy object will be
attacked by the selected ships, click on the ATTACK ZONE icon and then
press the left mouse button and without releasing it drag a rectangle that
will define the zone.
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SOME USEFUL TIPS
=========================================
1. Destroying enemy fortresses:
Take down the small towers first, then medium, and finally big fortresses.
Some areas will have a lot of fortresses, making it difficult to destroy
them. In such a case, approach the area from one corner with 4-5 ships.
At least three of them should have high board power, to board any enemy
ships that come to defend. Keep the bombers behind. I advise against
taking rammers in such an attack fleet - they're more useful against boats
rather than fortresses. It is not necessary to destroy a fortress
completely - just keep hitting it till its fire power drops down to zero.
Once the fire power is zero, the fortress is just like a dead artifact,
you can focus on the next active fortress then, saving time. You can
finish these fortress off later, as time permits. Barbarian fortresses are
an exception - they retain a lot of fire power even after being hit a lot
- you have to destroy them completely - there are no options to leave
them and move on.
Later in the game, you should build quicklime ships for enemy fortress
control. These ships don't do much damage, but their quicklime shots
paralyze the enemy buildings and ships (they look white under the effect
of quicklime and can't do a thing).
Enemy fortresses towards the end missions tend to have more big catapults
etc. rather than bowmen or scorpions. This makes them very damaging to
your ships, with one important exception. The big catapults etc. cannot
fire on your ships if your ship is immediately next to it. Try to use this
to your advantage by moving your ships very close to them. This will
protect your ships from their high-power catapults etc.
---------------------
2. Destroying Barbarian colonies:
Barbarian colonies: Barbarian ships originate from barbarian fortresses.
When attacking a barbarian fortress, you should park one of your just
against the barbarian fortress - this prevents the barbarian fortress
from building new ships. When you board the barbarian ships, you cannot
convert them - the barbarian ships simply sink - therefore make sure you
take royal ships and bomber ships rather than boarders.
Carrying artifacts through the game: After completing one mission, you
will lose all artifacts you gained in that mission except those carried
by Argo ship or those dropped at one of your settlements. Therefore, you
must carry all (two)useful artifacts on the Argo ship or your settlements.
Boats and merchant ships stay idle once the resource they're gathering is
exhausted. To increase their catchment area, click on the boat/ship, click
on Resources button, and then choose a resource (amber or fish) and
click-drag the mouse over a large area covering more than one resource
locations.
---------------------
3. Using barbarian attacks to your advantage:
Final mission: Barbarian ships often choose to synchronize their attacks
with yours. This is a good thing because you can let their ships take the
beating whereas you take down their towers. If you see any barbarian ships
attacking enemy town at the same time as yours, hold your ships from firing
at the barbarian ships - you can take them down once the Persian settlement
is destroyed.
The Persian ship of the dead is very resistant to boarding attacks, possibly
immune. You should refrain from boarding those ships - instead, ram into
them. One ram shot is enough to take it down easily.
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TO DO NEXT
=========================================
Write mission-by-mission walkthrough, maybe next year. Or maybe you can give
a it a headstart!
