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This article is about the campaign scenario. For the technology, see Rampage (technology). |
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[]
- Claim the Settlement Folstag has provided and build a base.
- 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[]
Player[]
- Kastor (Thor) – Starts in the Heroic Age with Amanra, Ajax, Kastor, King Folstag and two Frost Giants. Three Berserks will shortly be provided to build the Town Center.
Enemies[]
- Norse Titan (Loki) – This player starts the game with the Titan, along with decent numbers of Throwing Axemen and Huskarls. They will not attack the player unless provoked, and will actively attack Folstag's outlying villages. After successfully destroying the first village,the Huskarls will convert to another player with same name
- Norse Titan (Loki) - This player begins in the Archaic Age. It will start building its base on the first village after being razed by the Titan. It will actively attack the player and play similarly to a Random Map AI at the start of the game. After the Nidhogg arrives, this player will dedicate its army to protect the Titan. They do not attack Folstag's villages
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 Berserks 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 Elks 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 the second village to halt the approaching Titan.
The enemy army will mostly consist of Ulfsarks, Throwing Axemen, Huskarls, 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. The Healing Spring God power can be cast near the Temple where units can safely retreat to if they need healing.
After taking a short break from destroying first village once four minutes has passed, the Titan will begin moving towards the second village located at the northernmost area of the map, accompanied by a few soldiers. Folstag should be tasked to freeze it before it can attack the buildings while the other units defeat the soldiers. Once all enemy troops have been eliminated, the player should keep attacking the Titan and 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 the southern part of the map, 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.
Every six minutes, additional Frost Giants (which Folstag calls his brothers) will be summoned from the remaining allied Norse villages and convert to the player's control. The number of Folstag's Temples still standing determines the amount of Frost Giants to be spawned. Saving all of the remaining villages as fast as possible by stalling the Titan will allow more Frost Giants to support the attack, making the scenario quicker to complete over the long run. They will head for the settlement closest to the player's starting location by default but can be redirected to assist with the offensive if needed. The Titan may cast Traitor on a random Frost Giant or any other myth units the player owns that come within its line of sight. The enemy has 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. If played on a moderate or easier difficulty, the Nidhogg will be summoned as soon as the game begins regardless if the Town Center is built. 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, however. Just as long as the Titan is dead, the player will be rewarded with victory.
Alternative strategies[]
Indirect approach[]
An alternate approach is to send all three Ulfsarks to build the Town Center while the campaign heroes and Frost Giants head for the westernmost area on the map just west of the cliff that separates the first and fourth villages. The player may choose not to build the Town Center immediately and instead build it later, or not at all. If the player decides to not build the Town Center for the remainder of the scenario, the player may alternatively use the starting resources to build a Barracks and several Houses to support the production of Hersirs and Throwing Axemen. When the first village is destroyed, followers of the Titan will appear at that location, including some Norse soldiers that will immediately head for the now unclaimed settlement. However, one Ulfsark will stay behind to build additional Houses and a Watch Tower while their Gatherers begin hunting a herd of Elk. The player can kill these Gatherers and destroy all of the surrounding houses in the area to temporarily stop the Titan's resource income. The enemy may send its main army to retaliate but the starting forces are enough to deal with them despite being heavily outnumbered. Kastor and Ajax must 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. Once the area is cleared, Healing Spring can be cast if the player has not yet done already to speed up the heroes' regeneration. The starting Ulfsarks can also be sent there to build a Barracks or a Temple near the Healing Spring if the player has not yet done so.
Once four minutes have passed, the Titan will leave the first village and will bring the offensive onto the second village. By this time, players should have cleared the westernmost area by now and should send the heroes to attack the first settlement the Titan has claimed for itself. As soon as the first group of Frost Giants are summoned, they can be sent to join the heroes and assist with the attack on the first village captured by the enemy. The Frost Giants and Folstag should focus on the Town Center as they deal crush damage while the other campaign heroes handle units around the village. Once the Town Center collapses, the Frost Giants can be sent to destroy the remaining Houses and all other unit production buildings while the Heroes attack other units scattered around the village. If an enemy Ox Carts is spotted, it should be killed right away as once they're eliminated completely, the enemy cannot gather additional resources.
Once the player's own Worker units have exhausted all the resources by the Town Center, if the player decides to build one either at the starting location or at the site of the first village, they should be sent to hunt nearby. If the player has built a Town Center near the starting location, 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 if the player has not yet done so, knowing that the Titan will not come back to that area. Also, with economic production of the enemy ceased by this time, the Titan can no longer replenish its own army. 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.
Direct approach[]
Instead of sending all heroes to attack the westernmost area on the map and spend time building an army by immediately building a Town Center or other unit production buildings, the player may rather choose to defend the first village immediately by freezing the Titan with Folstag and attack the Huskarls and other infantrymen accompanying the Titan. Although heavily outnumbered, the starting units should be enough to take out most, if not, some of them. Once the first wave of Frost Giants have been spawned, they can be redirected to assist in defending the first village. By prolonging or preventing the destruction of the first village, the trigger that will spawn additional enemy units belonging to the followers of the Titan will remain dormant for the rest of the game, as long as the remaining buildings are still standing.
Once all enemy troops have been eliminated, the player may choose to lure the Titan to any desired location on the map and fight it there. Although the player has the option to fight the Titan near the first village for the remainder of the scenario, players should avoid close contact to any building belonging to the first village that is still standing since the destruction of these remaining buildings will allow the trigger to spawn additional enemy units. Even if that were to happen, the campaign heroes and additional support provided by the Frost Giants should be more than enough to finish all of them off. The player also has the option to lure the Titan to the unclaimed settlement near the initial starting location of the player. The advantage of choosing to fight the Titan there is that the player will no longer need to micromanage and redirect all Frost Giants to the desired location, since all Frost Giants by default will move towards that area. If the player decides to lure the Titan there, the player will have to micromanage the heroes and avoid moving too fast whenever approaching a new village. If the player loses sight of the Titan when encountering a new village, the Titan will attack the nearest building and bring the offensive on that village instead. Regardless of the location of the fight, the scenario should be straightforward and simple to complete once all enemy troops accompanying the Titan have been eliminated.
Tips[]
- In case the Norse Titan army advances through Forseti when advancing to the Classical Age, they will 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 not be lost and he can be revived by other units but this wastes valuable time since Folstag will have to recharge the special ability all over again.
- If all units are attacking the frozen Titan, the player should keep a watchful eye on Folstag since the recharge time of his special ability can be used to approximate when the Titan will thaw, which is around half the time it takes for Folstag's freeze ability to fully recharge. Once slightly over a third of Folstag's ability has been recharged, all the other units that are attacking the Titan should be moved to a safe location, but still close enough to engage the Titan when the time is right.
- To the southernmost part of the map lies the Gaia's Book of Knowledge Relic, guarded by three Arctic Wolves. Pick this up and garrison it inside a Temple before facing Ymir, as it grants a bonus against Titans.
- The Heroes of Ragnarok can deal significant amounts of damage vs the Titan. It is recommended to use them in the final attack, once the player can afford to lose their economy.
Trivia[]
- Despite not being available to Thor, the player worships Njord as the Heroic Age minor god in this scenario.
- It is possible that the Titan stop its "rampage" by being stuck at the fourth village (the one's located on the center of the map). In this way, the player can take the time to complete the scenario without being pressured.
- To make this happen, at least one of the two Houses from the southernmost edge of the fourth village must remain. Before the Titan can destroy the last House, the player can lure it near the second village and freeze with Folstag. Before the Titan can return to the fourth village, the player may task some infantry to build a wall close to the now-vacant Settlement on the fourth village (make sure to leave a small gap to prevent the Titan from circling around the enemy base and end up going for the last House on the fourth village). When the Titan returns, it will destroy the Wall the player has built. After destroying the Wall, the Titan will stop beside the Settlement which seemingly to be on a defensive attack stance, which will prevent it from straying far from its position, hence it will no longer be able to reach the last House and it will be stuck on the fourth village
- This is the only appearance of Folstag's unit. In Fall of the Trident, he was only mentioned, and in The Golden Gift, he was represented by a Frost Giant.
Gallery[]
