16. Bloodlust

Enemy Tribes: Dakini, Matak, Chumara

Starting Spells: Swarm, Lightning, Convert, Landbridge, Invisibility, Swamp, Hypnotise, Tornado, Erode, Earthquake, Flatten, Firestorm, Magical Shield

Permanent spells you can get: None

Temporary Spells you can get: Bloodlust, Angel Of Death

Buildings you can get: None

Vehicles you can get: None

No longer do the enemy tribes simply raid your settlement, they actually attack with 10-20 ground troops and their Shaman. Expect a few Preachers and Spies to drop in from balloons, and don't expect them to simply wait while you get ready for their attacks. I found this to be a very challenging level, and I hope whatever advice I can give you will help you through it. This world is mostly covered with land. The Matak are to the east of your settlement, right on the other side of a ridge. The Dakini are to the northwest and the Chumara are to the southwest. Further west past the Dakini and Chumara settlements is a large plain which leads to the Matak settlement. The only large body of water is to the north of your settlement, but none of the tribes uses boats in this level anyway. West of your settlement is a small hill that breaks up the land into a north and south path to your territory, and just west of that hill is the one use Bloodlust Stone Head.

To the northeast on the other side of the ridge is the many use Bloodlust Stone Head, but you won't be able to reach it easily at the start of the level. All of the other tribes start with most or part of their settlements complete. The Dakini have the most buildings, next to the Chumara, and the Matak have only a few Training Huts at the start. You have 6 Braves, whoopee. Start by immediately building Huts and Converting the few Wildmen that are nearby. Both space and wood are at a premium in your area of the map, so build carefully. You'll want to get a Temple and some Preachers as soon as you can. If you get there before they die, there are some Wildmen on a peninsula to the southwest of your Reincarnation Site. To get them back to your settlement would run them through the Chumara settlement, and they'd never make it. Instead, build a Guard Tower and some Huts on that peninsula, and start charging Land Bridge so you can connect your settlement to those buildings.

If you want to, you can also send some Braves to worship the Bloodlust Stone Head that you can get to. You may get a message that other tribes are worshipping the other Stone Head, but there's not much you can do about it. For defense you'll want to do several things. When you get the mana, cast Flatten on the south end of the hill west of your settlement to extend it further south. Next, take your Shaman to the top of that hill and cast Land Bridge southwest to the large plateau next to the Chumara settlement and the southern peninsula. This will raise a sheer wall that will cut off the southern ground pass into your settlement. If you do it right, the Chumara will always follow the edge of that wall when attacking, so you can lay down some Swamps right in their path. To cover the northern route into your settlement, build four Guard Towers (2 Firewarrior, 2 Preacher) starting at the north end of the west hill. The Towers should be slanted to the northeast, back toward your settlement.

If you slant them northwest (as you might obviously do to block off the pass), you'll get them too close to the Dakini settlement and they'll send out raiders. You'll be able to set up the Towers before you can alter the land much, so if the Dakini start raiding while you're setting up your defenses you might not be ready for them. Once you're well established and have a large standing force, you can build some new Towers so the followers inside have a better view of oncoming forces. Space in the area where you build Guard Towers isn't limited, but the available wood is, so be careful not to chop down all the trees in the area. Lastly, the Chumara will eventually start attacking the southern peninsula; so cast Flatten on the overlooking hill until you expand it into the sea. This will block off ground attacks, but the Chumara will often send balloons so be ready. The greatest threat to your settlement is the enemy Shaman. She will almost always accompany the large attacking forces, and this time she has no qualms about casting Lightning on your Guard Towers or Swarm on you grouped forces.

Keep Swamp charged as often as possible, and try to get a balloon for your Shaman to ride around in ASAP. You might also try to build Guard Towers above the avenues of enemy approach if you choose to wall off your settlement with the existing ridges. You may have to weather a few major attacks from the enemy before you can get the upper hand on them, but fortunately they tend to withdraw after a little while in combat. Just be careful of enemy Preachers taking your forces right out from under you, and try not to let them destroy your buildings. Space is tight on this level, and damaged ground will not help you. Once you get a handle on defending your settlement and increasing your population, start building your balloon armada. This will help you devastate incoming attackers, so long as the enemy Shaman doesn't cast Swarm on them. Once you get balloons you can also send some followers north to worship the Angel of Death Stone Head.

Use the Angel when you've taken out most of the enemy's Firewarriors, or they'll just kill it. Also, when you have balloons and full charges on your spells you should send your Shaman to soften up a tribe before you send in your Firewarriors. Be careful of enemy Firewarriors, especially Guard Towers, and lay waste to as much of their settlement as you can. I would start with the Matak, as they are literally right on the other side of the ridge from your settlement. They will cast Erode on parts of that ridge a few times, but you can just set your Shaman on the top of the ridge and Flatten/Land Bridge it back to impassability (no reason to fight a war on more than one front). After the Matak are destroyed you have your choice of the Dakini or Chumara.

I went after the Dakini because they were larger and launched attacks more often, though the Chumara do tend towards balloon raids (as did the Matak). Just keep your forces far enough away from the enemy Shaman until your own Shaman softens them up, and then repeat the air raid with your balloons. Once you take out one of the tribes this level gets a lot easier. Other random notes about this level. I mentioned that you may not be able to stop enemy tribes from worshipping the other Bloodlust Stone Head, at least not without opening a Land Bridge over to the Matak side of the ridge. When you have balloons you can send your Shaman over to cast Swamp on the Stone Head, and that'll slow down their worship efforts for a while. If you want to use Bloodlust, you'll probably want to take out the Matak before you try. Just be on the lookout for enemy raiders/Shamans.