North

North is the twenty-second scenario of the Fall of the Trident campaign in Age of Mythology. The main objective is to have all the player’s units reunited and then destroy Loki’s three Temples.

Summary
Still in pursuit of Gargarensis, the heroes make it to the mysterious and frigid north lands. However, the Cyclops triggers an avalanche that scatters the troops over a large area, leaving them at the mercy of the weather and the wolves. They will need to reunite and build a base while they fight off Loki’s followers. Destroying the god of trickery’s Temples will put an end to the attacks.

Objectives

 * 1) The avalanche has split your forces. Reunite them and claim a settlement.
 * 2) To escape the pass, defeat Gargarensis’ forces by destroying three enemy Temples.

Players
Arkantos (Thor) – Starting in the Archaic Age (or Classical Age on Easy and Moderate difficulty), the player’s forces are scattered into six groups:

Group 1: Arkantos, one Hersir and two Throwing Axemen.

Group 2: three Hersirs.

Group 3: one Ox Cart, one Gatherer and three Dwarves.

Group 4: two Gatherers and one Dwarf.

Group 5: Amanra, one Hersir and three Throwing Axemen.

Group 6: One Hersir, one Raiding Cavalry and two Throwing Axemen.

Enemies
Gargarensis (Loki) – This temple will be the most well defended and will regularly send packs of Fenris Wolf Brood and armies of Ulfsarks. Numerous Gatherers are busy gathering resources atop the acropolis where the Temple stands.

Green (Loki) – Will periodically attack with Frost Giants and Mountain Giants.

Purple (Loki) – Will periodically send three Einherjars to raid the player’s Gatherers.

Orange (Loki) – Consists of a few Fenris Wolf Broods hidden in the fog of war waiting for the player’s units to come within sight.

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

Do not let any groups except 1 and 5 move around as they will be spotted by enemy Fenris Wolf Brood and do not stand a chance against them. Even the Hersir have their attack reduced to 3 so they will suffer greatly. Arkantos or Armana on their other had still have good stats and can regenerate so they stand a better chance to kill any unit hiding in the Fog of War. There are also Arctic Wolves about but they are less of a threat. One of the two heroes should help regroup all the forces while the other seeks out a Settlement and begins the construction of a Town Center.

There is a Settlement directly south of Arkantos’ group which is the safest to claim on the map as it is surrounded by cliffs. It also has lots of Elks and Wild Boars available for hunting nearby. The available hero should also grab the nearby Relic which will provide a free trickle of Gold. Once the other hero has met with the other groups, they should head immediately to the Town Center under construction.

Once the Town Center is built, it will provide two more Dwarves, one Ox Cart and one Ulfsark. Dwarves should be trained to build up the economy as Thor enables them to gather Food just as fast as Gatherers and wood only slightly slower. Doing so will save Food necessary to train Hersirs. The available Gatherers should be tasked on Wood needed for the construction of buildings and the training of Throwing Axemen to counter the attacks of enemy Ulfsarks. The narrow pass to the south should be completely sealed to block enemies and force them to take the route around the cliff where the player’s units can wait in ambush. Next, a Temple and Dwarven Armory must be built to advance to the Classical Age and get access to all of Thor’s unique technologies. A good portion of the scenario will be spent playing on the defensive so it is best to worship Forseti to get the Healing Spring. He also provides the Hall of Thanes technology which will be useful in combating the many Myth Units that will be encountered.

The First of Loki’s Temples will be immediately north of the player’s base. It is best to take it out as soon as possible as they train Mountain and Frost giants who can deal great damage to buildings. Once about ten Hersirs and Throwing Axemen have been trained, they can be sent, with Arkantos and Amanra in the lead, to destroy the wall and the Temple within then quickly return to the Healing Spring. The Hill Fort can be ignored as they do not train units are merely there for defense.

Next is the Purple Temple located south-east where the Einherjars come from. It is just as poorly guarded as the Green Temple so the same kind of army can be sent to deal with it. Destroying both Temples early on stops their attacks completely and so makes the scenario less stressful. Gargarensis will always worship Tyr upon advancing to the Mythic Age so some soldiers should stay behind the guard the worker units to protect them from the impeding Fimbulwinter God Power.

The Dwarven Mine God Power should only be cast once the player advanced to the Heroic Age, around when the available Gold Mines should have run out. Either Heroic Age minor god has its uses. Skadi improves Throwing Axemen and her Frost God Power can stop enemies from moving while their buildings are destroyed. Meanwhile, Bragi’s Flaming Weapons God Power temporarily strengthens all units, making soldiers more likely to take out a Hill Fort without the need of siege weapons.

Gargarensis’ Temple should be the last target as it is well guarded by a Town Center and Longhouses. The Temple also produces packs of Fenris Wolf Brood which will have their attack and speed increased to maximum due to their combined strength. Individual wolves should be killed one by one to slowly lower the strength of the pack. Once they have been dealt with, all other buildings can once more be ignored as the target is only the Temple. Once all three Temples have destroyed, the player will be rewarded with victory.

Outro Cinematic
The heroes found that their only pass into Midgard has been completely sealed by the avalanche and must find an alternate route. Amanra senses that someone is watching them and goes to investigate. As it happens, Brokk and Eitri are hiding behind nearby boulders, observing the heroes.

Trivia
Ajax and Chiron are absent in this mission. While it is possible that Chiron was on another ship yet to arrive, this is strange for Ajax who should have been sailing along with Arkantos, as seen in Old Friends.