20. Archipelago

Enemy Tribes: Dakini

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

Permanent spells you can get: Angel Of Death

Temporary Spells you can get: Landbridge, Flatten, Firestorm, Volcano

Buildings you can get: None

Vehicles you can get: None

This is a somewhat difficult level, in that you really get screwed in the land department. Not only do you start out with only 6 Braves, while the Dakini have their entire settlement complete, you are stuck among a series of very small islands. Luckily, there are a lot of trees and Wildmen nearby, and if you can use Land Bridge and/or Flatten effectively you should be able to build a sizable settlement quickly. To start out with, Convert all of the Wildmen that are on your island and start building. You should have space for at least 2 Huts, a Temple, and a Warrior Training Hut. You should start on your Training Huts as soon as possible, as the Dakini give you very little time before they send boats over with raiding parties. Start charging Land Bridge when you have your Huts up and train some Warriors and Preachers to meet any attackers. Since the Dakini have to land on the coast, Blast is actually very effective against them since it will often knock enemy followers into the ocean. Be sure to target the enemy Shaman first before she can cast Tornado on any of your buildings. With space as tight as it is you won't want any damaged ground.

When you have the ability, you'll want to cast Land Bridge to the small islands to the northeast and east. These islands have groups of trees that will add to your nearby resources. Also use Land Bridge to flatten out the land near your Reincarnation Site so you can build there. Remember if you stand your Shaman near the coast and cast straight along the ocean you'll raise a rectangular strip of land out of the sea. Do this a few times to expand the area you have to build on so you can crank out a Firewarrior Training Hut and as many Huts as you can fit. I expanded towards the east, since I already had Land Bridges in that direction, and the Dakini island is to the west. Once you have Firewarriors and enough trees nearby you should set up a perimeter defense. A bad thing about this level is that you don't have access to Balloon Huts, but neither do the Dakini. They will always attack from boats, and usually from the south side of your starting island. You'll want to concentrate your Guard Towers there, and since there's usually an abundance of wood in your settlement building Towers around the rest of your perimeter won't hurt.

At the same time you're building up your defenses, be sure to start training more Warriors and Preachers to be your standing army. When you get your defenses and your settlement built, you should start going after the Stone Heads in this level. Only one Stone Head appears at a time, and worshipping it causes the next to appear. The final prize is Volcano, which is very useful in the center of the Dakini settlement. The first Stone Head is the Land Bridge one, located on a very small island south southeast of your settlement. Either cast Land Bridge across the other islands to get there or use a boat. Be warned that the Dakini will attack your worshippers, and then worship the Stone Heads themselves. This isn't so much of a problem for the first two Stone Heads, though. The Land Bridge Stone Head triggers the Flatten Stone Head, located on the second island northeast of your Reincarnation Site. This, in turn, triggers the Firestorm Stone Head, located on the island northwest of your settlement. Be careful with this one, as worshipping it will trigger a Firestorm at the location of the Stone Head, probably killing your worshippers.

It is worth it, though, because it also triggers a Volcano in the circular bay by the medium sized island to the north. On top of this Volcano will be the Volcano Stone Head, though you might want to wait for the lava to die down before sending your worshippers. For this one, be sure to have some guards on hand to fight off Dakini raiders. While you're worshipping these objects and finishing off your settlement, you should also be building up a ground attack force of Warriors, Preachers, and Firewarriors. Without balloons you will be forced to take the fight to the Dakini on the ground, and I recommend whatever force you used before getting balloons to do so. Adjust the numbers of your force for the larger Dakini population, or just be careful about how you manage your attack. You may want to build boats to transport your people, but the Dakini settlement is not very far from your own. Casting Land Bridge along the west coast should raise some land that puts you in range to cast another Land Bridge directly to the Dakini settlement.

Before you do that, though, you should send your Shaman over, probably in a commandeered boat, and worship the Angel of Death Vault of Knowledge. There are only a few defenders near the Vault, and Swarm or Hypnotize should help you get past them. Once you finish worshipping the Vault you will have one use of the Angel of Death, which you should cast immediately. Even though your Shaman is limited to the ground, you should be able to maneuver through the Dakini settlement and use Volcano, Firestorm, Tornado, and basically cause whatever other damage you like. I managed to cause substantial damage with my Shaman alone, and could send in my army to do whatever mopping up remained. One final note about this level, the Dakini have and will use Angel of Death on you, so be prepared for it.

You should have 10 or so Firewarriors as early on as possible to guard against enemy boats, and when the Dakini use the Angel of Death you should order all of your Firewarriors to move as close to the Angel as possible. They will fire at the Angel for a little while, and then all run off when it swoops in on one of them. As soon as they stop running, reorder them to move near the Angel and repeat. This will provide enough firepower to eventually kill the Angel, getting rid of it a lot faster than it normally would take. This tactic also draws the Angel away from the people in your other buildings, so you don't have to repair them. You will take casualties, though, so send some more Braves to be trained as Firewarriors when fending off an Angel of Death.