Greetings from Greece

Greetings from Greece is the third scenario of The New Atlantis campaign in Age of Mythology: The Titans. The main objective is to defeat General Melagius.

Summary
The ships from the Greek colony that have fled the Atlantean attack have arrived to General Melagius’ Fortress and warn him of the imminent attack. Melagius orders his Kataskopos to pass on the message to their allies to send reinforcements while instructing his men to strengthen their defenses. Meanwhile, Kastor arrives looking for an explanation for the attacks on New Atlantis. His soldiers note that resources are scarce, but they were granted visibility to all the Plenty Vaults of the land.

Objectives

 * 1) Claim Plenty Vaults to gain resources.
 * 2) Continue to fight for additional Plenty Vaults, build an army, and kill General Melagius.

Players

 * Kastor (Oranos) – Begins in the Heroic Age with no means of advancement as there is no way to build a Town Center. Initially only starts with Kastor, four Murmillo, one Citizen, a Sky Passage, a Transport Ship and one Plenty Vault on an offshore island. Over the course of the game, additional reinforcements with arrive through the Sky Passage.

Enemies

 * General Melagius (Zeus) – Has many units, who are trained from buildings located west of Sikyos, tasked into patrolling the Plenty Vaults. Also has statues of himself scattered across the landscape which will grant blessings to the player when destroyed. His soldiers will attack the player periodically.
 * Sikyos (Zeus) – Constitutes of most buildings in the city north of the map. Those will create units to help protect General Melagius.
 * Polyphemus (Hades) – Solely consist of Polyphemus himself and Cyclopes guarding a cave filled with Goats and one Plenty Vault. Will not attack the player unless they venture into his caves.
 * Enemy forces (Zeus) – Will cast Ancestors in the cave of Relics as soon as the player approaches the Relics. Has other buildings and units scattered in places of interest on the map.

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

Defending the Sky Passage and capturing the Fisheries
The first Citizen should be tasked into building a Palace to protect the Sky Passage from attacks while Kastor heads to the nearest Plenty Vault to claim it. The first wave of reinforcements should arrive shortly and will consist of two more Citizens, an additional four Murmillo and an Oracle. Once the Palace is complete, the initial Citizen should build a Wall beyond it to protect the Sky Passage while the other two gather Gold and Wood. Kastor should now standard guard in front of the Palace with some of the Murmillo behind him. The others can be sent to follow the coast until they spot a Villager. Following it will reveal Melagius’ fishing operation and destroying his statue will cause the Docks and Market to convert to the Atlantean design while the Houses will be destroyed. There is no need to kill the Villagers as they will never attempt to build anything. The Murmillo can just return to the starting point, taking the Cow with them, while the Fishing Ships can be assigned to the fish shoals.

Melagius’ first attack will consist of Hoplites who do bonus damage to buildings due to Zeus’ bonus. They are already upgraded to Medium Infantry so the player may cast Shockwave to gain the upper hand. The Citizens must not get killed as they cannot be replaced; if the Hoplites break through the walls, all Citizens should garrison in the Palace for protection. Melagius may follow up by sending a Cyclops, Minotaurs and even Medusae to attack but Kastor can handle these Myth Units on his own. When the coast is clear, one Citizen can be sent to wall off the Market and Docks, starting with the opening closest to the caves. The Docks cannot be replaced so if they are attacked, units should be dispatched to rescue them. Players should also invest some resources to upgrade their Walls as early as possible. Afterwards, they can build two Military Barracks to continue producing Murmillo and Arci and begin to upgrade them, starting with the Medium Infantry technology. The Levy Mainline Units and Heavy Infantry technologies should also be researched when resources are available.

Five minutes in the scenario, additional Murmillo and another Oracle will arrive from the Sky Passage. Around this time, the trees and Gold Mine may be depleted so any idle Citizens can build Farms and an Economic Guild to research all farming technologies to increase the Food income. The excess amount of Food can be traded at the Market for other resources as needed. Melagius’ third attack will consist of Hippikons, a Nemean Lion and Bellerophon. The Murmillo should be able to defeat most of that army just fine but Kastor should always attack first as he can regenerate and be revived.

The caves of Polyphemus
In preparation for the next skirmish, players should build a Temple near the first Plenty Vault that was captured and research Heart of the Titans. They should also research Heroic Renewal from the Palace. That way, whenever soldiers become severely wounded, they can be upgraded to heroes to regenerate HP. Around the time Melagius attacks a third time, a Caladria will emerge from the Sky Passage. The enemy will not have a lot of archers available to strike her down, but this valuable healer should still be protected as she cannot be replaced. After that attack and when the player has a decent number of soldiers to guard the Sky Passage, a handful of Murmillo heroes should escort Kastor and a Citizen to the fisheries. If Melagius sends Myth Units when Kastor is absent, Valor should be cast on the soldiers to create instant heroes. Once there, the Citizen can standby while the heroes move onward towards the caves of Polyphemus to claim the next Plenty Vault.

Polyphemus and his Cyclopes will attack the heroes but they can be defeated easily. The heroes can now move further north in the caves to collect Goats and reveal an Underworld Passage. The heroes and Citizen should enter it to be transported to another cave filled with Relics where a Sky Passage should be built. The Passage must be finished before the heroes grab the Relics because approaching those will cause the Enemy forces player to cast Ancestors. The Heroes will defeat the Minions easily but they may attack the Citizen. The heroes can now use the Sky Passage to quickly bring the five Relics back to the Temple. The Citizen should return to Polyphemus’ Cave to build a Sky Passage near the Underworld Passage. Melagius may send soldiers to claim the Plenty Vault in the cave, but they will not notice either passage, enabling players to quickly reclaim that Plenty Vault whenever necessary.

Claiming the northernmost Plenty Vaults
Once the army has been fully healed back at the starting point, some Destroyers can be trained from the Palace. They can join Kastor and his army in the Sky Passage and return to the cave of Relics. This cave also leads behind Melagius’ outer base west of Sikyos. The player’s army can now destroy all the buildings, starting with the Academies and Archery Ranges so that they cannot replace their soldiers. At the same time, another Plenty Vault in that area can be captured. If an army made up mostly of Peltasts arrives to retaliate, players may cast Chaos to increase their chances of victory or send their newly arrived Contarius through the Sky Passage to join the fight. Around this point of the mission, almost all reinforcements will otherwise consist of additional Murmillo.

There are some Walls near the cave entrance and breaking through these will grant the player quick access to a nearby Plenty Vault guarded by Serpents and Medusae. Kastor and some Destroyer heroes should move passed the gates and attack the Watch Towers guarding the Plenty Vault. Once those are destroyed, they can proceed to defeat everything guarding the other Plenty Vault to claim it. Once that is accomplished, one Citizen can be tasked to build a Sky Passage there to enable the army to quickly return to the starting position to heal. It may be necessary to defeat the nearby wolves as they will attack the Citizen.

Claiming the remaining Plenty Vaults
Melagius has a massive army (which he calls his royal guard) made up mostly of Cavalry and Myth Units that patrols his various Plenty Vaults. If the General himself is attacked, he will call that army to return to Sikyos to defend him. While preparing for that assault, the player should send a skirmish to destroy a Melagius Statue near the first Plenty Vault found in the open plains. Doing so will summon several friendly Sentinels that will guard a pass between two cliffs. These will not last very long as Melagius will waste no time in sending units to defeat them, but they will thin out the enemy forces and buy the player some time. As Melagius’ soldiers struggle to reclaim Plenty Vaults while passing through these obstacles, players can send their own units quickly through the Sky Passages to maintain control of them. Whenever an encounter occurs, the Chaos God Power can always be cast to thin out the enemy forces. As the player’s income should have increased considerably by this point, Murmillo, Arci and Destroyers should be trained until the population limit is reached as a large army will be needed to take on Sikyos, the General and his royal guard.

It is possible to avoid the royal guard altogether and win the scenario as they will require some considerable time to return to Melagius if he’s attacked. Aggressive players may choose to seek it out to outright defeat it and have a better chance at securing the Plenty Vaults. However, doing so may only grant Melagius the population space needed to replace them so he can better protect himself.

Defeating General Melagius
Before taking on the General himself, the army should return to the starting area to heal and to be fully upgraded. Enough units should be trained to reach population limit, which can be increased further by building Manors (the player is given a large boost in population limit at the beginning of the scenario so these did not have to be built until now). When the population limit has been reached, as many units as possible should be converted to heroes and then travel through the Sky Passage to exit where the Medusae and Serpents once stood guard. The army can now attack the nearby gate which will attract the attention of Minotaurs and Myrmidons. The Arcus Heroes can defeat them both while the melee units push through straight for Melagius’ position. While the melee units attack Melagius’ guards, all the Arci should focus entirely on the General. Once his health drops low enough, the player will be rewarded with victory.

Additional Tips

 * Before trading resources at the Market, the Tax Collectors technology should be researched to reduce the cost of buying or selling resources.
 * One Oracle can be tasked to stand still by the fisheries. His LOS may help detect attacks heading towards the starting point.
 * Players should consider researching the Safe Passage technology as early as possible to help their Sky Passages protect themselves and to lower their cost.
 * Near the center of the map is one more Melagius statue. It may be guarded by a Manticore but destroying it will grant the player with additional Favor which can be used to convert more soldiers into heroes.

Closing Cinematic
After defeating Melagius, Kastor and Krios notice that the Egyptians and the Norse have sent reinforcements to help the Greeks. As the Atlanteans are still at a disadvantage when it comes to numbers, Kastor determines that there are too many to fight in Greece. Krios initially believes Kastor intends on retreating, but the Atlantean General has a different idea.

Trivia

 * Although Polyphemus is a child of Poseidon, he worships Hades in this scenario.