Cerberus

Cerberus is the eighth scenario of The New Atlantis campaign in Age of Mythology: The Titans. The main objective is to defeat the Titan attacking Egypt.

Summary
The Titan Cerberus has arrived in an Egyptian City and begins to wreck havoc. By casting meteors onto a pyramid, it reveals a gate to the Underworld from which numerous Myth Units begin to spawn under its command. Meanwhile, Amanra, Ajax and Kastor find a Son of Osiris working on reviving the Guardian who should be able to defeat the Titan.

Objectives

 * 1) Build up your forces and protect the Son of Osiris while he recharges the dormant Guardian.
 * 2) Use your Guardian to destroy the Titan Cerberus.

Players
Forces of Amanra (Set) - Starts in the Heroic Age with Amanra, Ajax and Kastor as well as a handful of units within and around a decent sized town. The player is unable to train their own Camel Caravans.

Neutral
Camel Caravan (Ra) – these stranded Camel Caravans will wait at six locations for the player to find them. Once found, they will convert to the player’s colors but will become vulnerable to attacks.

Enemies
Followers of Oranos (Oranos) – Begins in the Archaic Age but will be able to train Atlantean soldiers regardless of the age they’re available in. They have a Town Center and Citizens that gather resources to fund their soldiers.

Underworld Spawn (Oranos) – Consists of the many Myth Units that will appear from the fiery pit leading to the Underworld. Those will initially consist of Tartarian Spawns but can include other Myth Units from all civilizations.

Cerberus (Hades) – Consists solely of the Titan that is destroying the Egyptian City. Its HP have been slightly boosted for this scenario but its position remains visible to the player at all times.

Egyptian City (Ra) – Consists of a city being destroyed by Cerberus and is no threat to the player. Once it is fully destroyed, the Titan will move on to attack Amanra’s Forces.

Allies
Sebennytos (Ra) – Begins in the Archaic Age and is the nearby allied town where Camel Caravans can be sent to trade with. Will otherwise do little to help the player.

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

Building defenses and locating Camels
Every first few second counts in this scenario so players should first pull back the Son of Osiris for the time being as the scenario will be lost if he is killed. Instead, the campaign heroes, the Oracle hero, the Axemen, the Hyena of Set and Priests should be brought to the Guardian’s position to push back the imminent enemy attacks (the Son of Osiris can still attack but must stay out of reach). Amanra will quickly note that there is no Gold to mine so they will need to locate Camel Caravans around the map and send them to Sebennytos’ Town Center. The fast-moving Chariot Archers can be sent to quickly locate the Camel Caravans at the following six locations: Oranos’ Followers will mostly send a variety of human soldiers while the Underworld Spawn player will send Myth Units to the Guardian’s location. Additional Priests can be trained from the Town Center and Temples to defend against both types of attacks as they deal bonus damage to Myth Units and the human soldiers have low defenses. Kastor and Ajax should stand in front as their special attacks are enough to instantly kill un-upgraded human soldiers (including the horseback riding Turma). At the same time, more Laborers should be trained to maintain the economy and construct buildings. Both enemies will attempt to sneak into the player’s base via the paths between the cliffs located between the bases of Amanra’s forces and Sebennytos. While searching for the Camels, Laborers must build Walls in the passes leading to the base to slow down the attacks (while making sure to create gates to enable the Camels to enter the city). As soon as they are finished, the Laborers must pull back as they risk being attacked by Tartarian Spawns who can leap over Walls. If one of the Walls is breached, Plague of Serpents or Ancestors can be cast to stall the enemy until heroes can be sent to defend. Once the passes are walled off, they can be upgraded to Stone Walls and even further if resources permit. Once a good defense has been established, players can queue production of Priest and send them by the Guardian while the Son of Osiris resumes reawakening it. Other Priests should be trained to guard the walled passes.
 * 1) Three Caravans east of the Town Center in a shaded area
 * 2) Two Caravans northeast of the center of the map by some farms
 * 3) Two Caravans on a cliff located southwest of the player’s temple
 * 4) Four Caravans northeast of the west corner of the map
 * 5) Two Caravans southwest of the Guardian
 * 6) Two Caravans north of the gates to Sebennytos’ city.

Awakening the Guardian
Monuments must be built to generate Favor needed to research Nephthys’ technologies that strengthen Priests. Also, a Migdol Stronghold must be constructed near the Guardian for protection as the attacks will continue throughout the scenario. While the Myth Unit attacks will gradually become less frequent, Oranos’ followers will begin sending larger armies of soldiers. What makes this enemy especially dangerous is that they receive a 10% movement speed boost thanks to Oranos’ bonuses. They can also cast the Shockwave God Power to scatter and stun the player’s units.

The player can save resources need to advance to the Mythic Age; if they do, either Minor God can be worshiped but Thoth does provide the Book of Thoth technology that will allow Laborers to gather resources faster. They can then cast Vision on the Followers of Oranos’ base and cast either Meteor or Tornado on their unit production buildings to slow down their attacks (this may not be possible if they choose to worship Theia as they can cast Hesperides to block God Powers). Advancing will also enable the player to research Coinage at the Market which will increase the speed of the Caravans. Once Oranos’ Followers advance to the Heroic Age, they will begin training armies of Contarius. Players may choose to build Barracks to train Spearmen who are cheap and will do bonus damage against those or even Camelry and War Elephants from the Migdol Stronghold they already built. However, Priests can just as easily handle them as they can constantly heal one another and Contarius have very low defenses. The Animals of Set who appeared at the Temple can be sent to assist the Priests in defending the Son of Osiris.

The remainder of the mission consists of playing on the defensive until the Guardian awakes. It is best to keep queuing units until the population limit is reached. Houses should also be built to increase that limit while an Armory will be needed to improve all existing units. If the Titan begins moving towards Amanra’s Forces before the Guardian is awake, players can send lone Priests to distract it or lure it away. When the Guardian does wake up, it can simply be sent straight to the Titan to attack it. Once the Titan is dead, the player will be rewarded with victory.

Additional Tips

 * Oranos’ Followers will attempt to send Citizens to build Sky Passages near the player’s Town. The vicinity should be scouted to detect and kill them.


 * To complicate matters further, the enemy will make three attempts to sneak their units into the player’s base via Rocs. Even more Priests and possibly a Watch Tower should be placed near the Temple closest to the player’s Town Center to thwart that attempt.


 * Towers should not be built by the walled passes until the players has at least upgraded their walls once and has Priests standing by to protect their Laborers from attacks. Laborers build very slowly so they will not be able to finish a Watch Tower before the enemy arrives.
 * After researching Hands of the Pharaoh, players may task one of their Priests to collect the few Relics located around the map. The technology is useful regardless as it increases Priest range.

Loophole
It is possible to win the scenario without using the Guardian. Players may ignore the Guardian altogether and focus on their defenses and economy. As Cerberus lacks the ability to regenerate at high speed, it can simply be defeated by a large army of Priests (though they should still be wary of other enemy soldiers who will intervene).

Trivia

 * This scenario is one of two where the Guardian appears, the first being Light Sleeper from the Fall of the Trident campaign.
 * Despite fighting his forces for so long in Fall of the Trident, Amanra worships Set in this scenario.
 * This was likely a decision made by the creators simply to prevent the player from creating a second Son of Osiris.
 * This scenario is considered the most difficult by numerous Age of Mythology players, especially on the Titan difficulty.