The Great Hunt

The Great Hunt is the fifth map of the Voices of Babylon campaign. The goal is to make your way across the map, while picking up extra troops on the way, to find an Artifact.

Scenario Instructions
The glory of Babylon has been restored by the recapture of the city from the Elamites. King Nebuchadnezzar 1 vows that recapturing the city is not enough, however. The Elamites must feel his wrath in their homeland. Attack the Elamites in their mountainous strongholds. Find and recapture the statue of the god Marduk that they carted off (represented by an Artifact). Peoples long oppressed by the Elamites will give you aid in your quest if you can locate them.

Objective

 * Capture Artifact.

Strategy
On this map, there are seven "Elam" teams of different civilizations and colors. None of these need to be defeated to win, as long as you find the Artifact. It's quite long and risky, so save often.

You start off with a handful of Axemen in the western corner. Move south, avoiding the lions and elephants as much as possible, until you find the Improved Bowmen. Continue south, killing the Bowmen that get in your way, to find two Scouts. Your Axemen and Bowmen aren't very important from this point forward.

There's a corridor of Watch Towers ahead of you. Don't try to destroy them, just move your forces past them, and find the Cavalry units. Send the Cavalry north, past the Elephant Archers. To the east, there's a row of Sentry Towers making a wall, so it's impossible to sneak past. Go north.

You'll come across two Stone Throwers, guarded by Towers. You can save them, if you want to try to convert them, but that might be too risky; destroying the siege units are the safer option. Continue past to find a wall, behind which there's two Priests. Heal your cavalry if they're damaged, then move one of the Priests to the right (the Berry Bushes point the way). You'll get a Light Transport.

On a small island just south of the boat, there's two Stone Throwers. Send your Priests across to convert them; as long as you stay close enough, they can't hurt you. Then convert the Elephant Archers you ran past - attacking them with Cavalry will ensure that they won't try to hurt your Priests.

Destroy the Towers. Behind the Towers, there's Ballistas and Catapults, so send your Cavalry forward to destroy them. Then, there's a row of archers and a few Priests. Don't let them Convert anything important! If your archers and Axemen are still alive, send them first. Losing them won't matter.

Move towards the coast to find a transport. If you send a few units south, they can pick up three Priests that are hidden in the shallows.

There's two more Light Transports on the map, and a host of enemy Ballistas and Catapults. Placing Priests right next to them will allow you to Convert them while remaining too close to shoot. Convert as many of them as you want.

When you think you have enough, send you Cavalry, Siege units, Elephant Archers and Priests to the island to the north. The Cavalry should go first, to kill siege units. The Elephant Archers should tackle Heavy Cavalry, and the Stone Throwers and Catapults should level Towers. Heal anything that's damaged.

At the northern-most point of the map, you'll find the Artifact.