At the start of the mission you will
be attacked from the north. Quickly
switch your Spearmen and archers to
stationary position and you should be
able to kill the attackers without
taking any loses. The mission starts
with two new units - Centurion and
Physician. The Centurion is a
commanding officer and gives troops
in his area of influence (blue
circle) combat bonuses. These bonuses
increase the more battles he
commands. The Physician automatically
heals injured troops within his area
of influence (green circle), and can
also be instructed to heal specific
units. Physicians cannot bring troops
back from the dead.
March north up the road to Talagatta.
As you approach you will be attacked
by enemy infantry and bowmen. Once
the defenders have been killed,
attack the garrison building on the
north-west side of the village. Do
not attack the village itself. Once
the garrison has been destroyed, the
village chieftain will be evicted
from the village, so be ready to
fight him. Demote one unit (either
spearmen or archers) to form a unit
of Auxiliary Infantry, with which to
build a new garrison. Finally, move
your Centurion into the village to
allow troops to be recruited.
Each village has a population pool
from which troops may be recruited.
In Talagatta's case, the total
population is 200. Each of the three
recruitment options available in this
mission decreases the population by
30. While population recovers slowly
over time, initially you will only be
able to train six new units. There
are further limitations on current
army size, neither of which is
immediately relevant: Unit Control
Points (total head-count limit for
the mission, currently 500) and Troop
Control Points (total unit-count
limit for the mission, currently 50).
Feel free to keep pumping out new
archers and spearmen; at least until
you need your Centurion again to
command the battle.
Construct a defensive tower just to
the east of the village, and place
some archers in it. Shortly
afterwards two waves of light enemy
troops will attack from the east.
Once their attack is over build
additional troops - you will struggle
with only 3 or 4 units, but 10 will
be plenty :-) . Once training is
complete, order your Centurion to
return to commanding the troops. Now
attack the enemy tower (3 on the map
above).
There are two alternative approaches
to the tower. The direct road via the
stone bridge (4 on the map above)
forces your troops to march directly
below the tower and then loop back
onto elevated ground before they can
assault it. The alternative ford
crossing (5 on the map above) avoids
fighting close to the tower. There
are additional enemy troops lurking
in the woods, both on the route to
the tower and just to the south of
the tower. The tower itself is
guarded by a small enemy force.
Attack the tower using archers, who
will set it alight. Melee attacks
against towers tend to do less
damage, and inflict greater
casualties on your troops. If you
have trained some additional troops
the battle should be quite
straightforward. |
