Fire In The Mist

Fire In The Mist

Fire In The Mist

Mode : Singleplayer

Players : 2

Stone Heads : 3

Vault of Knowledges : 1

Alliances : N/A

Difficulty : Medium

Introduction

"I am troubled--my visions are strangely clouded. I sense a powerful spell nearby that will aid me in our battle with the Chumara, yet is lies across the water. I sense our enemy have boats and will use them to attack us. I must seize their boats, find this spell and destroy them."

Info

• Enemy tribes: Chumara
• Worship Objects:
  • Stone Head--2 Tornado, 4 followers to worship
  • Stone Head--1 Earthquake, 4 followers to worship
  • Stone Head--1 Volcano, 5 followers to worship
  • Totem Pole--Land Bridge, 1 follower to worship

Walkthrough

Introduction

Welcome to the first world with the Fog of War. Do you hate it as much as I do? I thought so. The Fog will cover most of the entire planet until you send one of your followers to explore that area. After that, the Fog is lifted and you will be able to see whatever is going in the areas that you have explored. This means if you scout out enough of the land away from your settlement you’ll be able to see raiding parties before they get to you, just like in other maps. The downside is that you can’t see what’s going on in areas you haven’t explored, like the enemy settlement. The composition of the Chumara settlement and how their followers are moving will be unknown to you until you attack. You will be able to see the shape of the land on the map screen wherever the Fog is in place, just not the people and objects on that land. You will also be able to see black squares on the world view where there are buildings underneath the Fog, so you can get a general idea of how the enemy’s buildings are laid out. Fortunately, the Fog of War is only active on a few levels in P:TB.

Strategy

The land on this planet takes the form of a long strip running south- southwest and north-northeast. Your tribe starts at one end of the strip, and the Chumara at the other end. Because the strip of land wraps itself around the entire planet, the Chumara settlement is actually to the southwest of your settlement, but unless you take a shortcut by boat or Land Bridge you’ll have to trek all the way across the planet to get to them.

Begin as usual with building huts and Converting Wildmen. Grab three Braves and have them follow your Shaman while she scouts out through the Fog of War looking for more Wildmen. You’ll find the Tornado Stone Head southwest of your settlement near the coast in the Fog. Even if you can’t see it, you’ll be able to hear it when you get close on the map screen. After getting that spell, continue southwest and you’ll find the Earthquake Stone Head at the top of a high hill leading towards the Chumara settlement. Here you might want to set up three Guard Towers because the land is narrow and it makes a perfect choke point to stop overland raiders.

The Totem Pole across the water will open a Land Bridge between the Chumara section and yours, and the Chumara worship it almost immediately after the level begins. There’s really nothing you can do to stop them, so just build up your settlement and place your defenses where they seem appropriate. Because the enemy now has boats, and they _will_ use them, you have to change your defensive strategy. They will raid your settlement with a few boatloads of followers, but well placed Preachers near your Reincarnation Site should keep them from doing too much damage. The real threat in this level is the Chumara Shaman, who can use both Tornado and Volcano. That’s right, I said Volcano. One of those in the heart of your settlement after the Shaman lands will definitely ruin your day. To counter this, I recommend that you establish a perimeter of Guard Towers around your settlement and staff them with Firewarriors. Place the Towers so the firing ranges of the Firewarriors overlap. When a boat come by, your sentries will attack, and as they move out of range of one Tower, they’ll come into range of another. In this way you can knock out the enemy from their boats and kill them before they even step foot on your settlement. Be sure to have Preachers and Warriors nearby in case a few do make a landing.

Once you kill a raiding party from a boat, you can now steal the Chumara’s boats. Boats and balloons are the only things (other than followers) that can be taken from one tribe and claimed by another. Just order one or more of your followers to enter the boat and it’ll be yours, at least until the enemy finds it empty and takes it back. Be warned, unattended boats will sink after a while, though boats with at least one follower in them do not sink.

Once you have a boat, put your Shaman in it and head for the small island with the Volcano Stone Head. At the start of the level there will be plenty of Wildmen here to Convert, but if you get here later they may have all died off, so take some Braves with you to worship the Stone Head. The Chumara will send a party to attack your worshippers, but hopefully they’ll get there after you get Volcano.

Once you have Volcano and a boat, you can head over to the Chumara settlement and do what they’ve been trying to do to you, throw a whole bunch of lava all over their nice buildings. While you’re here, you can also grab the Boat House Vault of Knowledge at the southern tip of their settlement. A well placed Volcano, along with Tornado and Earthquake, can severely damage the Chumara, and then you can take your army and wipe them out. Because of the Fog of War and the fact that they like to stick Braves in boats, you may have a little difficulty hunting down the last follower to end the level, but keep looking and he’ll be found. Note that you do NOT want to cast Volcano during your attack, because even though the effects do not harm your Shaman, it will harm your followers.