The Water Palace

The Water Palace is the seventh scenario of the Tale of the Dragon campaign in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon. The main objective is to reach the titular Water Palace and free Ao Kuang from his captors.

Summary
Having exited Diyu through a different passage, the heroes find themselves at the east sea. Zhi notices that the local villages have not been spared by the chaos as many of the building have been burnt. Concluding that Ao Kuang has lost control of his dragons, the heroes decide to put on hold their quest to reach Pangu's altar in order to help the locals rebuild.

Objectives
OPTIONAL: Find and open the hidden treasure chest.
 * 1) Build a Town Center.
 * 2) Build two more Town Centers and defend them from attacks.
 * 3) Defend your towns from the enemy and do not lose a Town Center.

Players

 * Jiao-Long (Fu Xi) - Begins in the Heroic Age with Jiao-Long, Shun, Zhi, six Peasants, four Halberdiers, six Chu Ko Nu and four Cataphracts. The available god powers are Recreation, Barrage and Imperial Examination, each having two uses.

Neutral

 * Mother Nature (Fu Xi) - consists of numerous houses, towers and docks that will convert to the player's side as they make progress. Also includes the market that is part of an optional objective.
 * Ao Kuang's Palace (Oranos) - Consists of Ao Kuang himself and some Atlantean Walls dividing the palace into sections.

Enemies

 * Rogue Forces (Shennong) - Consists of the Azure Dragons and human soldiers guarding the Settlements along the coastline.
 * Rogue Forces (Shennong) - Transport ships will carry numerous soldiers, including Fire Lances, from the Water Palace to the mainland to attack the player by the third objective.

Strategy
This guide is applied to hard difficulty. It is, of course, also applicable for the other grades of difficulty.

The heroes should be send ahead to kill the Azure Dragon guarding the revealed Settlement. Once the dragon is killed, the Peasants should begin constructing a Town Center while the heroes scout the map for Relics. The four Relics found on the mainland are Ankh of Ra, Ship of Fingernails, Black Lotus and Harmonia's Necklace, with the latter being guarded by another Azure Dragon. Each one will considerably help with accumulating resources. Once the Town Center is built, players will gain control over the various buildings surrounding it. More Peasants must be trained to construct additional buildings and gather necessary resources. There is no hunt on the map so players will need to resort to farming for food as well as generating it by building Gardens. A Temple is needed to drop off the Relics as well as War Academies, Stables and an Armory to upgrade the starting units and train additional ones. Immortals will be needed to face the many Myth Units of the Rogue Forces.

Players cannot build their own Market, but there is a way to obtain one for free. A unit of choice can scout southwest of map where a Peasant says he will reward the player if they find him a treasure chest. The latter is located atop a cliff west of the jade mine pit. It must be opened by clicking on the five columns in a specific order. If the player count the columns from up to down as 1 to 5, the combination will be 2-5-1-4-3. Once the chest is opened, the player must just bring one of their units back to the market again and watch as it will convert to their colors along with two Yak Caravans. It is now possible for players to advance to the Mythic Age and they should worship Chongli to get the Vermilion Bird Myth Unit, the Heavenly Fire technology and the Inferno god power.

Once the player has fully upgraded an army, they can attack the other Rogue Forces guarding the remaining Settlement. They may also use Barrage to weaken them. After securing the remaining Settlements, players are advised to research Masons, Architects and Rammed Earth before building the Town Centers. They should also consider building walls around all the Settlements and upgrade them as much as possible, along with some Towers and Castles for extra protection. This is critical because once the Town Centers are built, additional Rogue Forces will arrive from the sea via Transport Ships. These have had their HP increase by 1000 points, making them too durable for ships and even Towers to destroy easily. The best option is to train enough soldiers and Monks to defeat or convert them.

Once players have survived five minutes worth of attacks, they will now be able to train their own Transport Ships to reach the Water Palace. However, the Rogue Forces will spawn new soldiers and Myth Units at a remarkable speed, making it difficult for the player to replenish their army. Plus, a lot of time will be needed to constantly ferry reinforcements across the water. Instead, players should train an army of a dozen Vermillion Birds and have them fly across the sea. They can now destroy any buildings they encounter and proceed to destroy the Castle near Ao Kuang's prison. This will be made even easier by casting Inferno onto the Water Palace to weaken everything there. Once the dragon god has been freed, players will be rewarded with victory.

Tips

 * Although there are only a few Jade Mines found on the continent, players may send some Peasants on an island to the north where additional Jade Mines will be found. This of course can only be accomplished once the final objective has been reached.
 * Players should queue soldiers when the Rogue Forces attack and cast Imperial Examination in order to quickly replace any fallen soldiers.
 * It is best to keep Peasants as far away from the coast as possible to protect them from raids. A few should remain by the Town Centers to repair any damaged buildings however.
 * The enemy will not use warships during the scenario, so players may also rely on fishing for food income.
 * The is a fifth Relic on the island on Jade Mines called the Relic of Earthquake. It will grant the player one use of the Earthquake God Power if they can garrison it into a Temple. Note that doing so will replace any other Mythic Age God Power the player has with Earthquake. Casting it on the Water Palace is also risky as it may damage Ao Kuang and the final cutscene may not play if he is killed.

Loopholes
Before building the first Town Center, players can build all ten houses. Additional houses will be provided after claiming the three Settlements, allowing players to exceed the population limit. They can also build Towers along important areas of the coast to exceed the build limit of thirty. Players will need to build Gardens to help fund these constructs before building a Town Center.

The mission can be won without building all the Settlements. Players can simply send an army of War Salamanders, Azure Dragons or Vermillion Birds to attack the Water Palace before it is revealed and level all the buildings.

Closing Cinematic
After his release, Ao Kuang confirms that his dragons succumbed to the forces of chaos and went rogue. After offering to reward the heroes for their assistance, Jiao-Long asks the dragon if he knows how to reach the altar of Pangu. As it happens, one of Ao Kuang's scholars possesses a map to guide them through the southern jungles, across which Pangu is located. Jiao-Long warns that their troops should be prepared as he has heard legends of the birds ruling the south.

Trivia

 * There is a glitch in this scenario where Peasants may refuse to build some parts of a wall. This can be worked around by deleting the wall foundation and trying again.
 * Building walls directly along the coast may temporarily halt the unloading of Rogue Forces carried by Transport ships, but a bug enables them to be unloaded on the other side of a wall.
 * This is the only scenario in Tale of the Dragon where a player worships a non-Chinese major god.
 * It is possible for players to destroy the Underworld Passage at the beginning of the scenario. Doing so will not reward or penalize the player in any way.