Rampage (campaign)

Rampage is the ninth scenario of The New Atlantis campaign in Age of Mythology: The Titans. The main objective is to defeat the Titan that is terrorizing the Norselands.

Summary
Amanra, Ajax and Kastor arrive in the Norselands and are approached by King Folstag (who Kastor initially mistakes for the Titan). Upon confirming that the Titan is destroying the nearby villages, the heroes and the Frost Giant decide to join forces in order to stop its rampage.

Objectives

 * 1) Claim the Settlement Folstag has provided and build a base.
 * 2) Stop the Titan before he can destroy all of the Norse villages. Folstag will provide Frost Giants to help fight the Titan. Folstag has the special ability to freeze the Titan – he will also summon the Nidhogg if you can hold out long enough. Beware… the Titan has the power to turn your own forces against you with the Traitors god power. The power of Ragnarok may be quite helpful here.

Players

 * Kastor (Thor) – Starts in the Heroic Age with Amanra, Ajax, Kastor, King Folstag and two Frost Giants. Three Ulfsarks will shortly be provided to build the Town Center.

Enemies

 * Norse Titan (Loki) – Begins in the Archaic Age and consists of the Titan itself and its numerous followers. They will gradually advance through the map to destroy all the villages they come across.

Allies

 * Folstag (Odin) – Consists of the six villages scattered across the map that are waiting to be destroyed by the Titan. If these are all destroyed, the scenario is lost.

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

Players should send only two Ulfsarks to follow the Folstag Flag Bearer and build the Town Center while the third builds a Temple near the starting position. Once the Town Center is built, players should begin training Gatherers and Dwarves to get the economy going. Before resorting to farming, Hunting Dogs should be researched so that the hunting of nearby Elk is accelerated. Both passes to the Town Center should be walled off while a Longhouse is being built. Meanwhile, the campaign heroes and Frost Giants should head to second village to halt the approaching Titan.

The enemy army will mostly consist of Ulfsarks, Throwing Axemen, Huskarl, Hersirs and Jarls but they will stand guard in the first destroyed village throughout the scenario if this strategy is used. The army should only advance as the Titan makes progress but players may train their own Ulfsarks and Throwing Axemen to deal with them as a precaution. Doing so will require Houses to be built to accommodate the player’s own army. Otherwise, players should train Hersirs to join the campaign heroes. Two Valkyries can be trained from the Temple to help maintain Folstag’s health in battle. They can also be used to quickly reach a hero who has fallen in order to revive them. Healing Spring can be cast near the Temple where units can retreat to if they need healing.

After taking a short break from destroying first village, the Titan will begin moving towards the second one, accompanied by a few soldiers. Folstag should be tasked freeze it before it can attack the buildings while the other units defeat the soldiers. Once they are defeated, the player should keep attacking the Titan but must fall back whenever it thaws. The Titan will attempt to destroy all villages in a specific order so it must be lured to the south end of the map. This will force it to walk all the way back to the next village on its list, buying the player extra time (if the Titan’s next village happens to be in south side, it must be lured to the north instead). Once Folstag’s freeze ability replenishes, he can freeze the Titan again. This can be repeated to gradually weaken the Titan.

Once in a while, additional Frost Giants (which Folstag calls his brothers) will be summoned from the remaining allied Norse villages and convert to the player’s control. They will head for the player’s Town Center but can be redirected to assist with the attack on the Titan. The Titan may cast Traitor on a random Myth Units the player owns that come within sight of it (it appears to have an unlimited supply of casts but will only use one every few minutes). Whenever that happens, any units close to the converted unit should be tasked to kill it before they resume attacking the Titan. When about a third of the Titan’s health remains, the next time Folstag freezes the Titan, players should cast Flaming Weapons to deal the final blow. After constructing the Town Center from the first objective, a 25 minute countdown would have begun until Folstag summons the Nidhogg at its location. This Nidhogg deals bonus damage against the Titan so if the scenario drags on, players should send it to quickly defeat the Titan. Players don’t need to wait until the Nidhogg arrives. Just as long as the Titan is dead, players will be rewarded with victory.

Loophole Strategy
An alternate approach is to send all three Ulfsarks to build the Town Center while the campaign heroes and Frost Giants head for a location in the fog of war just west of the cliff that separates the first and fourth villages. When the first village is destroyed, followers of the Titan will appear at that location, including some Norse soldiers that will immediately head for their master’s location. However, one Ulfsark will stay behind to build houses while their Gatherers begin hunting a herd of Elk. The player can kill these Gatherers to temporarily stop the Titan’s resource income. It may send its army to retaliate but the starting forces are enough to deal with them. Kastor and Ajax should be micromanaged to defeat any infantry units first as they can use their special ability against them. Players may cast the Flaming Weapons God Power now to increase their chances of victory.

As soon as the first group of Frost Giants are summoned, they can be sent to join the heroes and assist with destroying the Titan’s Houses and any nearby Watch Tower. Once the area is cleared, Healing Spring can be cast to speed up the heroes’ regeneration. The starting Ulfsark can also be sent there to build a Temple near the Healing Spring. Once they have finished healing and the Titan has moved onto the second village, players should send the heroes and Frost Giants to attack the first settlement the Titan has claimed for itself. The Frost Giants and Folstag should focus on the Town Center as they deal some crush damage while the other campaign heroes handle any soldier or newly trained Gatherers encountered. When the Town Center collapses, one Frost Giant can destroy remaining Houses while the others assist the Heroes. If an enemy Ox Carts is spotted, it should be killed right away as once they’re all dead, the enemy cannot gather additional resources.

Once the player’s own Worker Units have exhausted all the resources by the Town Center, they should be sent to the Temple to hunt nearby. It may be necessary to abandon that Town Center altogether as the Titan may send a large army to destroy it. Players can simply claim the Settlement from the first village knowing the Titan will not come back in that area. Also, now the Titan can no longer replenish its own army so players can build additional unit production buildings to finish them off. In the meantime, the heroes and Frost Giants can begin attacking the Titan itself.

Tips

 * The Titan will always worship Forseti when advancing to the Classical Age to cast the Healing Spring in the first village claimed. This one can be captured to give the player two locations where they can heal.
 * The Titan is dimwitted and can be easily made to run in circle by luring it with bait. This can be used to buy time until the Nidhogg arrives.
 * If Folstag’s health runs low he should be pulled back. If he’s rendered unconscious, the scenario will thankfully not be lost and he can be revived but this wastes valuable time.
 * The Titan will thaw faster than Folstag’s freeze ability can replenish.