A Way Out is the eighth scenario of the Tale of the Dragon campaign in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon. The main objective is to free the Vermilion Birds from the enemy stronghold.
Summary[]
On their way to Pangu's altar, Jiao-Long and the others have come to realize that the map provided by Ao Kuang has not been useful to them as they are not familiar with the jungle they're in. Suddenly, they are startled by a cry from above and the Vermilion Bird of the south reveals itself to them. It promises to guide them to Pangu if the heroes can help free its brethren of whom it lost control.
Objectives[]
- Free the nearby rocs. Kill all enemy forces guarding the rocs, using forest fire to get there if necessary.
- Free the captured vermillion birds. Reach the Vermillion birds by using forest fire on bamboo trees that block your path. Kill their captors when you find them.
- Destroy the enemy stronghold. Destroy the enemy buildings at their stronghold where the final Vermillion birds are held.
Players[]
- Jiao-Long (Nü Wa) - Begins in the Heroic Age with no means of advancement. Controls Jiao-Long, Shun, Zhi, six Peasants, two Scout Cavalry and ten Halberdiers. Will be granted several uses of Forest Fire as they explore the map.
Neutral[]
- Mother Nature (Shennong) - Consists of the Rocs and Vermilion Birds trapped by the enemy. They will convert to the player's colors if freed.
Enemies[]
- Rogue Forces (Shennong) - has military buildings scattered across the jungle and the ability to spawn armies made up of nearly every type of Chinese unit and even Kataskopos. Destroying their Towers and the units guarding them will free the captured Vermilion Birds and Rocs.
Strategy[]
Regular strategy[]
This strategy is applied to hard difficulty. It is, of course, also applicable for the other grades of difficulty.
Players should immediately have some Peasants build a Town Center while two more wall off both upper passes and the lower right pass. Enemy attacks will be frequent and of considerable size so a choke point must be create to have a better fighting chance. Once the Town Center is complete, additional Peasants should be trained to gather necessary resources and build Gardens. Wood should only be gathered from the larger northern group of trees and players must monitor their Peasants to make sure they do not create more openings. Once the berry bush and ducks run out, players will have to immediately resort to farming for food. A dock can also be built to train fishing ships who will remain out of reach from enemy attacks, although at Titan difficulty only two shoals are available.
The enemy will send armies made up of all kinds of human units, as well as Immortals and myth units. Some waves will consist solely of Chinese myth units (except Azure Dragons and Vermilion Birds) which can be countered by training all six available Immortals. A Temple should be built to train Monks and research Elixir of Immortality. The armies consisting of human units will lack upgrades so if the player converts most of them and researches technologies from a War Academy and Stable, players will have the upper hand. Converting the enemy units alone may not suffice as the frequent attack will thin out the player's army before they can be healed. It is therefore advised to build two War Academies and Stables to replenish the army in a pinch. Numerous Towers will also be needed to eliminate any unit that bypasses the player's choke point. As always, the campaign heroes should always stand in front due to their bulk.
Once the player has a stable defensive stance, they can build a Castle from which they can train a handful of Fire Lances. These can venture out in the jungle and destroy any enemy building encountered while some Monks should accompany them for support. Destroying as many buildings as possible will be required to slow down the attacks but also gain access to additional jade mines as the one at the beginning of the scenario will run out quickly. Some of the other jade mines can only be accessed by burning away the bamboo covering them. After the attacks become less frequent, players can send a fraction of their soldiers to the trapped Rocs. After defeating the guards, they will instantly become available to the player, enabling their units to navigate faster.
Additional Fire Lances or even War Salamanders can be trained to garrison inside the Rocs along with Mounted Cavalry and Monks and be transported to the location revealed at the south of the map where the first Vermilion Birds are trapped. There are towers guarding that area who deal bonus damage to airborne units so it is advised to evade them by dropping off the units in the path leading up to a bamboo forest which can be burnt down. After destroying all Rogue Forces in the area, the player will be granted four Vermilion Birds. These powerful units can now be sent around the map to destroy the remaining buildings of the Rogue Forces but should regularly fall back to be healed. Once all Vermilion Birds have been freed, the player will be given their final objective.
Zhi will make note that the enemy stronghold is protected by powerful beams that are lethal to airborne units. Depending on the player's game version, these beams will either instantly kill Rocs and Vermilion Birds, or be harmless to them but will prevent grounded units from passing through. Players can test this by gathering the Bridle of Pegasus Relic and testing them out with the Pegasus it spawns. If the Pegasus dies, players will need to transport their entire army just outside the rays and cast Forest Fire to bypass the bamboo forest before laying siege to the defensive structures and the large army guarding it. If the Pegasus survives, the units will have to be transported over the beams via Rocs as the Castle is too far out of reach for any ranged unit. It will be necessary to destroy some of the Towers using Fire Lances stationed on the other side of the bamboo forest. There are also too many Towers for the Vermilion Birds to fly safely in that area. The enemy army can also pass through the beams with ease so it is recommended to lure them out before using the Rocs to bypass the beams (a second army may need to be created to accomplish that). Regardless of the method used, as long as the player can defeat all the Rogue Forces and destroy the buildings guarding the last Vermilion Birds, they will be rewarded with victory.
Hideout strategy[]
This strategy is applied to Titan difficulty. It is, of course, also applicable for the other grades of difficulty.
The main idea of this strategy is to escape the Rogue Forces' attacks entirely by abandoning the Town Center and instead moving the Villagers with Rocs to a hideout which is protected by the forest. From there, the player can easily build an army to fulfil the objectives without needing to waste resources to defend the base. The following steps are required:
- BUILD TOWN CENTER: while building the Town Center, send the heroes to the place where the Rocs are hidden.
- FREE ROCS: when they arrive, place the Geysir god power in the middle of the enemy troops to defeat most of them. Make sure Zhi is more in the back than the others, so he doesn't take too much damage, as he can heal the others way faster than he can regenerate himself.
- TRAIN PeasantS: in about the same time, the Town Center is built. Train Peasants with repeat, and send all of them to the Berry Bushes nearby. It's a bit tricky because the player need to do this in the same moment as placing the Geysir god power.
- MOVE ROCS: when the Rocs are freed, let the heroes be healed by Zhi. Move all the heroes, Halberdiers, and cavalry into one Roc (they amount to a total of exactly 15 troops, the maximum capacity of a Roc) and send them to the Vermilion Birds in the south (where the Gold Mines are bigger). To dodge towers, it's a good idea to move along the edge of the map. Send the other Roc to the player's village, above the Town Center.
- FREE VERMILION BIRDS SOUTH: it should be easily possible to free the Vermilion Birds with the troops in the player's Roc. If the player want some of the regular units survive, it's recommended to first release the heroes, and then the others. Make sure to keep the player's Roc only for a short time within fire range, and to send him back to the player's Town Center right after he dropped all troops.
- SAVE PEASANTS: if the player started to train Peasants right in the beginning, the enemy's attacks will start around the time the player's 15th Peasant has been trained. When the attacks start, immediately move all Peasants into the Roc above the Town Center and make him fly southwards to the hideout where the player freed the Vermillion birds. 15 Peasants are enough to win the scenario easily, although if the player gets more, it will be faster of course. If the Roc which initially sent the heroes south arrives back healthily, the player can try to save more Peasants which are trained during the enemy attack. This can be achieved by making sure the Peasants leave the Town Center on the side opposed to the enemy's forces and by having them enter the Roc fast and keeping the Roc out of the enemy's range, e.g. on the water. It should be possible to save an additional 5-10 Peasants this way
- BUILD ECONOMY: now the player's Peasants are safe in the hideout south, surrounded by forests, and with two Gold Mines, one of them big. The player can take their time to build an economy and gather resources for training an army. Since the player cannot train more Peasants without the Town Center, the player should focus on improving the economy through building all 10 Gardens and researching all economic upgrades.
- FREE VERMILION BIRDS NORTH: it is possible to free the Vermilion Birds north with just the four vermilion Birds which the player got south. However, if the player wants to prevent some of them dying, it's best to free them through a combination of the heroes and regular troops which survived in step 5 (no need to train more troops for now; focus on economy first) transported by a Roc. Be very careful to not loose the Roc, since it's much more valuable in this approach than all Vermilion Birds together. Also send some Peasants with that Roc to the north, so the player can build military buildings once the player frees that hideout
- BUILD AN ARMY NORTH: it's convenient to have all the player's army buildings in one hideout (in the north) and all the player's economy in the other (in the south). This is in case the player's Rocs should all die and the player would be forced to use a Forest Fire to release the army. The player's economy can still be protected by the hideout. Now focus on training a big army.
- FREE THE LAST VERMILION BIRDS: use the Roc to drop them just outside of the player's hideout. Since the player's Rocs are the most valuable unit, it's not worth risking their life by flying all the way to the opponent's Castle; it's just enough to drop the player's units outside of the hideout. From there, they can move on land and use Forest Fires to reach the Castle. Also, it is a good idea to free the second imprisoned Roc pair, so the player has spare Rocs if they lose some accidentally (which can happen very fast due to the extra damage towers deal to flying units in this scenario). The player will probably need more than one full army to free the last Vermilion birds, since the enemy's forces are immense on Titan difficulty. I that case, just always use the Rocs to bring new troops over the forest protecting the player's northern hideout.
The most difficult part of this strategy is completing steps 1-6, since all of them need perfect timing and placement. They should be completed within approximately the first five minutes, so it's worth trying them again and again until the player get it right, because the rest is quite easy if the player doesn't lose the Rocs.
Additional tips[]
- The player can destroy the nearest enemy temple before it begins producing myth units, by immediately sending their starting army south whilst their Peasants build the Town Center. This makes defense of the base greatly easier.
- Early on, players should rely on the Sacrifices technology for their Favor income while the Gardens generate other resources necessary to afford defensive structures, units and economical technologies.
- Similar to the Trapped scenario, the enemy will send Yak Caravans in an attempt to distract the player's units.
- The Forest Fire god power available in this scenario is a special version that can only burn down bamboo trees and cannot damage units.
- If the player does not have access to a safe jade mine for a prolonged period of time, they will need to build a Market and sell wood for gold.
Closing cinematic[]
The original Vermilion Bird thanks the heroes for their services and advises them that Pangu can be reached by following the constellation of Niao Hui. Danzhu is seen hiding in the foliage nearby overhearing the advice and declares to Jiao-Long that he will be waiting there with his army.
Trivia[]
- The enemy may cluster several of their units next to a bamboo forest to the west of the starting Settlement. The Rogue Forces were likely supposed to burn it down with a Forest Fire, creating a fifth pass to the player's base but this never occurs.
- Vermilion Birds is misspelled numerous times throughout the scenario.
- The Vermilion Birds' speed has been increased to 7.00 feet/second in this scenario.
- The Tail of the Cerberus Relic is found in this scenario as it was meant to make Vermilion Birds to use their special attacks more frequently when they originally had one. The other myth units the player can train lack special attacks so this Relic is useless.