14. Attacked From All Sides

Enemy Tribes: Dakini, Matak, Chumara

Starting Spells: Swarm, Lightning, Convert, Landbridge, Invisibility, Swamp, Hypnotise, Tornado, Erode, Earthquake

Permanent spells you can get: Flatten, Firestorm, Magical Shield

Temporary Spells you can get: Angel Of Death, Earthquake

Buildings you can get: None

Vehicles you can get: None

As the name of this level suggests, you will be attacked from all sides on this world. You start out on the largest continent, which runs east west around most of the planet, with a small stretch of water between the west most end and the east most end. The Dakini settlement is far to the west, and the Matak settlement is on a high plateau to the east. Your settlement is located on a narrow strip running north and south directly west of the Matak settlement. If you remember From The Depths, you can guess this isn't a good thing. Even worse, the land west of your settlement is extremely hilly to the point where you won't be able to build anything on it without the Flatten spell (which the Matak have). Moreover, there are no good choke points, so setting up defenses against Dakini ground incursions will be time consuming if you intend to stay on the lowlands with your Reincarnation Site.

Because the Matak are way too close for comfort on this world, I suggest some radical tactics. Instead of building up your settlement and army and attack when you have overwhelming forces, send the 9 Braves you start with to build a Temple immediately. Only charge Convert and Land Bridge and get as many Wildmen over to your side as you can. Once you have the Temple done, start training 10 Preachers. When you have enough mana for one use of Land Bridge, create a ramp from your settlement up to the Matak plateau, preferably on the north side where most of their buildings will be. Send your Preachers up to the Matak as they finish training and start charging other spells. Keep the Braves you've Converted working on something (even if its only patrolling a Guard Post) so you'll have mana for your spells and training.

If you've been quick then the Matak won't have their own Temple and your Preachers will be able to walk up and Convert every Matak Brave they see. Watch out for the Shaman, because even though she may only have Blast that can still do damage and disrupt your Preachers. Also be aware of a Dakini spy trying to set your Temple on fire about when the 10th Preacher has been trained. Once the Matak have been dispatched, take your Shaman up to the Plateau and cast Convert on the Wildmen up there. There are usually a few very large groups of them and you should be able to get 40-50+ Braves from Converting Wildmen and the Matak. Also head to the south end of the plateau and cast Convert on the Wildmen near the Stone Head.

This is the Angel of Death Stone Head, and that spell will come in handy. When they're done worshipping it, the Stone Head will cast a flatten spell to bring the worshippers up to the level of the plateau. Now you're faced with a choice. You should have a significant number of Braves and a few Preachers left. You can continue to build your settlement in the area below the plateau or you can set up a few Guard Towers and move your entire settlement to where the Matak were (damaged ground from their old buildings not withstanding). If you choose to do this then you need to close off the Land Bridge ramp you made to get up to the plateau in the first place so the Chumara and Dakini cannot harass your mostly defenseless Braves while they're setting up your buildings.

You can close off the ramp by getting the Flatten spell from the nearby Vault of Knowledge and casting it on the top of the ramp. Make sure all of your followers are evacuated to the top of the plateau before you do this. If you're finding that with the raids of the other tribes you're losing too much time to set up your settlement by trying to relocate to the plateau they don't try it. You can still build near your Reincarnation Site, though you'll probably want to move some buildings up to the plateau when you run out of room. Though at that point you'll have most of your settlement in place. Just keep a contingent of Warriors and Preachers on hand to deal with Dakini raiders from the west. Regardless of where you decide to put your settlement you'll need Firewarriors quickly as the Dakini also attack with balloons from the east across the water.

Lastly, the Chumara attack you from boats that seem to always land north of your Reincarnation Site. Build 2 Firewarrior Guard Towers and 2 Preacher Guard Towers along the north coast and you should be able to blunt any attack from the sea. The interesting thing about this level is that the times I've played through it I've noticed that none of the three enemy tribes seem to build Firewarrior Training Huts. The Dakini seem to use their balloons as transport for other follower types. I've seen the Chumara build one once, but they didn't train many Firewarriors when they did. What this means is that you can roll over them with very small numbers of balloon riding Firewarriors simply because without Firewarriors of their own the enemy tribes cannot fight back.

If they do have Firewarriors, be careful, and always take out the enemy Shaman when you see her. Lastly, because you're the one with the air advantage now, you can try an alternate strategy of blitzkrieg. Once you've taken out the Matak like I've described and converted all of the nearby Wildmen (there are a lot of those buggers on this planet) you should have around 50 Braves. Build only a Guard Tower, Firewarrior Training Hut, and Balloon Hut on the Matak plateau, in addition to whatever defenses you need. Next train the Firewarriors you need and build balloons for them to ride and wipe out the remaining tribes. I've be able to do this without building a single Hut.