HH HH MM MM MM MM 333 HH HH MMM MMM MMM MMM 33 33 HH HH MMMM MMMM MMMM MMMM 33 HHHHHHH OOOO MM MM MM MM MM MM MM MM 33 HHHHHHH OOOOOO MM MMM MM MM MMM MM 33 HHHHHHH OO OO MM M MM MM M MM 33 HH HH OO OO MM MM MM MM 33 HH HH OO OO MM MM MM MM 33 HH HH OOOOOO MM MM MM MM 33 33 HH HH OOOO MM MM MM MM 333 ARMAGGEDON'S BLADE: DRAGON SLAYER CAMPAIGN VERSION 1.1 By Lord Xar, a.k.a. Robert Dent Contents 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Version Info 1.2 The campaign 1.3 About the author 1.4 Legal-ish stuff 2. CAMPAIGN 2.1 Basics 2.2 Fighting rust dragons 2.3 Fighting faerie dragons 2.2 Crystal dragon level 2.3 Pros and Cons of Faerie vs Rust 2.4 Rust dragon level 2.5 Faerie dragon level 2.6 Azure dragon level 3. MISCELLANEOUS 3.1 Where's the rest of them 3.2 Acknowledgements 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 VERSION INFO Version 1.1 04 June 2002 Replaced "combat" with "attack" as one of the stat names and spellchecked the document. Version 1.0 30 May 2002 Original version. 1.2 THE CAMPAIGN The Dragon Slayer campaign involves the quest of the hero Dracon to become the world's greatest dragon slayer. This can be achieved by locating and slaying a specific azure dragon. To do this you must slay large amounts of other dragons including all the "normal" dragons and the "new" dragons - crystal, faerie and rust, as well as (oddly enough) a load of azure dragons. This campaign is generally considered the hardest in the expansion pack, but I haven't played the final one (that can only be accessed after beating the main five) so I don't know. Since many people find this one so hard, I thought best to write a solution. It may not be the best and many may disagree with my tactics, but that is the nature of the game. At the time of production the other FAQ on tactics at GameFAQs.com didn't cover this one, but that may have changed by the time you read this. In most of the levels only the final kill counts. The rest are for experience, the treasure the guard or to clear the way. All of the levels are on a time limit, so unless you need to kill them don't go out of your way to do so. 1.3 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Can't be bothered to write this section. Most people won't read it and those who do probably won't care. All you need to know is my board postings on GameFAQs is under the name of "Lord Xar". If you want to comment on this FAQ, use the GameFAQs board. Last time I wrote an FAQ I gave an e-mail address and got a load of hate and junk mail show up in my mailbox. I don't intend to make that mistake again. 1.4 LEGAL STUFF The author doesn't give a damn what you do with this work. I created it to help people, so if you want to pinch it and claim you're doing the same that is between you and your conscience. 2. CAMPAIGN 2.1 BASICS In addition to its difficulty putting people off, there are several other factors that reduce people's enjoyment of this one. First of all, spells. This is a largely magic campaign and magic spells are random. If you don't get the right spells fairly early on the campaign will be considerably harder, maybe impossible. Since you only have one source of spells in the first level, you are best of making sure you get most of the vital spells in your first town (Camp Dracon). If you don't, restart and doing that a lot can put people off. Second, quantity of opponents. There are several encounters where you meet insane amounts of enemies and have to use their own strengths against them. The sight of 3500 Naga Queens bearing down on your army leaves people thinking the campaign is impossible and so not worth their time. Thirdly, time limit. Many people don't like time limits, as it is hard to tell until the last few weeks if you are going to make it. While you may have only seen a quarter of the level by a third of the time, you may or may not still make it. By the same token you could be playing for several hours and fail near the end due to time because of a decision you made near the start. Fourth, character levels. Dracon is limited on character levels (8 in Level 1, 24 in Levels 2&3) means that after most fights the "can gain no more experience" appears, which makes obelisks and chests back-up hero only That said, if you know roughly what you are doing and get the right spells fairly quickly, it is one of the best of the campaigns. I prefer it to the Armageddon's Blade campaign since I don't like the Conflux troops. Stat enhancing locations (Star Axis, Mercenary Camps, Libraries of Enlightment) are the keys to success. Providing it won't use up too much time get every one of them. You will probably need them. The spells that you will use a lot and I consider vital are: Slow Level 1 Earth Blind Level 2 Fire Berserk Level 4 Fire Resurrect Level 4 Earth Town Portal Level 4 Earth Secondary selections that are useful, but not so vital (you will probably get them during the course of the campaign, but it isn't worth restarting if you don't) Dispel Level 1 Water Chain Lighting Level 4 Air Implosion Level 5 Earth Magic Mirror Level 5 Air Anyway, on with the show... 2.2 FIGHTING RUST DRAGONS Rust dragons are stupid. They are obsessed with either master gremlins or (less frequently) golems. Make sure you have a stack of one of these in every fight and that the stack is not immediately next to another (such as the center area for seven stacks or the close formation) because their main attack (like most other dragons is two hexes long). They are faster than you so will regularly smash into your gremlins before you can stop them. For this reason don't have the gremlins as an outside stack either as more dragons can get to them rather than anyone else. If they can't toast gremlins they will pick on another stack, regularly your enchanters. Their acid breath dual attack is annoying, but the second part doesn't appear to affect anyone caught on the second hex of the strike. Also sometimes it doesn't do any damage, but reduces the targets defense instead. This is usually only when the try to attack titans or naga queens. Use resurrect to keep the gremlins alive (the rust dragons will keep attacking them while there are some left) and then when only one weakened stack remains blind it and resurrect to full strength before killing it. They can't stop the blind (unlike the Faerie dragons) so again with enough magic points you can leave each fight without losses. 2.3 FIGHTING FAERIE DRAGONS The Faerie dragons only appear in a few locations, but most of these can't be avoided, making the level fairly linear. Fighting the Faerie dragons is a real pain. Faerie dragons are spellcaster, which means they stay at range and blast you with very powerful spells. I not sure how the spell damage is calculated, but the power level used is higher than the number in the stack. The dragons are faster than you, so in most of the encounters you will find half your troops are dead before you even get a go. Building an army for a couple of weeks only to watch half your army gets killed in the first turn is very frustrating. The dragons also have an inherent magic mirror skill. Although it seems to have a low success rate, when it works you can get a load more of your troops killed before you get to try again. Tactics for fighting them are as follows: Berserk. That's it really. Keep as many of them berserked as possible every turn until there is only one stack left. Have you attack troops and ranged troops attack any out of range of Berserk and hope they stay together. When their numbers start to get low use your ranged troops to whittle them away until you could kill them in one hit (such as from your Naga Queens). When only one weakened stack is left, Blind it (this is where the magic mirror usually come off). With it blind it is helpless so spend a few turns resurrecting all your losses, then kill it. This costs a load of magic, but you can leave most fights with no losses, which due to the time limit is very useful. 2.4 CRYSTAL DRAGON LEVEL You start with a sizeable, non-upgraded army next to a witch's hut and some earth elementals. You also get a town with a Level 5 Mage's Guild, a library, but no creature facility. This means you have to keep as many of your troops alive as possible. You also get to carry any surviving troops over to the next level for an added incentive. As stated in 2.1, first thing is check Camp Dracon's spell selection. If you don't have at least three of the spells listed in 2.1, restart the campaign. This can get boring if you have to do it a lot, but it is better than dying on the next couple of levels. First time I played this I got lucky and the Level 4 spells in Camp Dracon were Berserk, Resurrect and Town Portal. First turn, snag the witch's hut by your start for Basic Earth, then the lumber mill and move towards Camp Dracon. The witch's hut that appears below you contains Basic Water, which I never needed, but it is up to you. Further south just above the tree is Basic Air and on the left is Basic Fire. Above Basic Fire is a coal mine. I snagged Basic Earth, Basic Air and Basic Fire and left Basic Water alone. (Air School is useful for using Dimension Door to chase down the enemy in the Rust level later on.) Then snag the coal mine and enter Camp Dracon. Oddly enough Dracon doesn't start with a spell book so remedy that immediately. Then head off to the Earth Elementals. Defeat them and then the Gold Golems guarding the Equestrian Gloves. This should put you on Level 7. As you climb the levels here the most useful secondary skills are Intelligence, Resistance, Archery, Armour and Sorcery (in that order). Intelligence is so important that if you don't get it reload and fight again. Resistance is rare so don't hold out for it, but take it if offered (it helps a lot with Faerie dragons). Next swing back to Camp Dracon as you will have probably got Adv or Exp Wisdom from those fights and can now get the precious Level 4 spells. Either rest a day and then head south or set off straight away. The route is between the Basic Fire and Basic Air huts to the Fire Elementals. Smash them to get your eighth level and continue south past them. Proceed downwards snagging each and every stat enhancers. Check out the University to see if there is anything useful (only if you haven't got all 8 skill slots filled by then) and claim the mines. You should try to keep a roughly even balance on Power and Knowledge (favouring power slightly as Intelligence skill will up you magic greatly). There is a +3 Attack sword off to one side halfway down this path guarded by a load more Fire Elementals. You can get it if you want. I didn't bother. After 6 or 7 days travel you will find a Garrison. The occupants are a set of elementals, but they are the basic ones so just smash them. To save time and troops try to use each ones weakness (lighting against air elementals, ice bolt against fire elementals, etc.). You shouldn't have a problem with these guys. After the garrison head right and snag the stat enhancers before hitting the storm elementals. Grab the gold mine. Don't worry about the tomes of magic. You don't need them and they don't travel with you into the following levels. Head north. Grab the stat enhancers and smash the garrison then follow the loop round to the set of portals. You will see when you put the cursor over them that only two are Two-way Monoliths. Ignore the rest. Defeat the golems, grab the Sword of Hellfire [+6 attack] and go through the two-way portal by it. Beat the gargoyles and claim the Spellbinder's Hat. Return through the portal and go through the only other two-way portal to the end section. Fly or Dimension Door past the enchanters and the golems (you need to equip the hat for that of course). Upgrade your troops and Dimension Door on to the Black Market. Don't walk to it or you will activate a trigger that takes a load of resources and gold off you. Buy what you want and skip the trigger again. Don't attack the Crystal Dragons at this point. You should still have a couple of weeks (at least) on the clock, so return to the main section (the Star Axis right of the first garrison should be reachable). Tour this area and grab the defense bonus and magic tower bonus. From the magic tower, dimension door to the Merc camp and swap the Spellbinder's Hat for the Diplomat's Ring. (Not much of a trade you may think, but it gets you the Necklace of Bliss [+4 to all stats] later on.) By careful positioning you can also find a Coliseum near the Spellbinder's Hat on a one-way road. Dimension Door in, grab it and return. Return to the end zone, kill the enchanters. (You may need to resurrect after that one) Kill the crystal dragons. I don't know if it grows, but I faced off 7. I finished the level with 10 days left on the clock and all stat enhancers collected. 2.5 Pros and Cons of Faerie vs Rust For Level 2 and 3 you have to complete the Faerie Dragon level and the Rust Dragon level, but have a free pick which one you play first. Note: the first one you play allows you to start with the troops from Level 1, but the second one you start with just a few enchanters. Faerie Dragon Level - Pros Starts off easier so you can get up to Level 24 easier. Faerie dragons are easier to kill than Rust dragons You get the Crown of Dragontooth by playing Faerie first Faerie Dragon Level - Cons Faerie dragons will do far more damage than Rust dragons and because the tend to stay at the other side of the screen (being ranged troops) they will usually get two turns before your main attack troops (Naga Queens) can reach them. Higher collection of dragons in one attack 3500 Naga and 3500 Naga Queens levels - need I say more? Less stat enhancing locations Time limit is tight - I beat it with only 3 days to spare Rust Dragon Level Pros Rust dragons do less damage Rust dragons come in small units (I only saw five instances when there was more than 10 in a attack) Rust dragons are obsessed by Master Gremlins and will usually attack them and ignore the rest. You have an opponent who will clear some of the mines and garrisons near him for you (and waste some of his troops doing it). The time limit is easy. I had tagged all but one mine and defeated the opponent with two months left on the clock, which allowed me to leisurely tour the map grabbing all the stat enhancers. More stat enhancers Dimension Door scroll Back-up superhero (starts on Level 20 with a large army and a Lion shield [All +5]) No extreme troop totals. (Or at least none that I found. The opponent may have cleared them.) Loads of limited towns. Good for Town Portal movement, not a big advantage for the computer. Opponent is a barbarian which means each of his towns will usually have a "+1 to attack" Hall of Valhalla (+1 to attack is rare on level up for the Wizard class). Rust Dragon Level Cons There are Rust Dragons on every mine, which could cost troops getting the first few mines. You have an opponent who runs along behind your hero reclaiming mines that you have to go back to later. (He is too hard to usefully put guardians in place) Rust dragons have more health than Faeries. Conclusion All in all I find it far easier to do the Rust Dragon level first. The Rust Dragon level is more about attack and the Faerie Dragon level is about skills and stats. This means the skill/stat increases in the Rust dragon level are more useful since you can't carry troops from Level 2 to Level 3. Also, in my opinion, the Necklace of Bliss (the reward for Rust then Faerie) is better than the Crown of Dragontooth (the reward for Faerie then Rust) It is, of course, up to you (the player), but this FAQ is written with Rust then Faerie in mind. 2.6 RUST DRAGON LEVEL The first thing to remember is that Rust Dragons are obsessed by Master Gremlins. Keep resurrecting the gremlins and this level become considerably easier. Every mine is guarded by Rust Dragons. If you find a mine without any it means your opponent has got there first or it's a trap (there is a crystal mine in the middle-left like that). You start in the bottom right corner just north of a crystal mine. Go there and kill the dragons. Tag the mine and claim the Ogre's Club [Attack +5] as your prize. It will save time in the later fights until you get the Sword of Hellfire [Attack +6]. Also grab the hut and "eyeball" the opponent's towns. Note the names of the computer's current heroes, as they will be the toughest ones when you meet them later on and should if possible be taken out by Dracon personally. Head north tagging the wood and coal mines. Head further north tagging another wood and then the crystal mines in "Crystal Valley". Keep heading north until you find the genies then bear left to the Coliseum. Defense it usually best in this level (unless it get way ahead of Attack) since the club gives you the Attack stat you need. Keep going left and get the golems and the dragons for the gold mines. When you can't go left anymore, head south claiming all the mines and then fill in the middle bit. To save time have a couple of other heroes wandering around (one on the opposite circuit to yours). Don't waste good troops by having them fight any dragons though. As soon as you have this corner mapped and the stat enhancers claimed, send Dracon back to town and collect any troops available as well as a few new spells. Then head left and smash one of the genies. Spread out through this area with you main hero going roughly straight across from the lowest set of genies. You should find another town here. Grab it. Continue searching this area, grabbing the stat enhancers. Almost immediately south of the new town is a spell scroll guarded by a group of archmages. Kill them and grab the scroll. It is dimension door. Just left of the new town is an small area with a spell scroll and a prison you can't get to normally. Use dimension door to get it and release the prisoner. It is a level 20 hero (mine was Crag Hack) with a sizeable army and a [+5 to all] shield. Grab the shield and the Ancient Behemoth (optional) off him and dimension door back out. Have Crag Hack grab the scroll (another Dimension Door) in order to free him. Note the majority of his troops are non-upgraded. Also since Enchanters don't count as Tower troops (don't know why), adding Ancient Behemoths will give the -1 Morale penalty for 3 troops types (you should have an item to counteract that by now). This may be changed in a future patch. In the south-west corner is an area you can access from either the black border guard (inside your start area) or by the dimension door. I used the dimension door so as not to waste time/troops fighting the titans beyond the blue border guard in order to get the black tent. Also in this area you can get the Angel Feather Arrow (+15% to Archery skill), which can be traded in the north-east area for the Golden Bow. By doing this level my way, neither will be of significant use. (Although the Golden Bow stops the range penalty, the rust dragons are usually on your side of the board by the time you get to move anyway). Don't forget to pop through the monolith and snag the mine behind the black gate at this point. North east of the new town is a hill fort so send Crag Hack there as soon as possible to get his troops upgraded. North of the new town (just above where Crag Hack was) is a Seer's Hut to allow you to change the Diplomat's Ring (from Level 1) into the Collar of Conjuring (carry over item to Level 3). Oddly enough the fact you can carry over the Collar isn't listed on the Scenario Info, but it does happen. Around the time you start exploring this region, you will see the first signs of your opponent (not counting the areas "eyeballed" from the hut near your start town). If it is a scout, smash it with whoever is at hand capable of doing so. If it is a start hero, get everyone to run towards Dracon. Provided they are closer to the hero than Dracon is, the computer will usually keep approaching until that changes (the computer regularly falls for this). When you meet one of the top ones, you again face the most annoying computer trick. When things get rough they retreat taking all their artifacts with them and get rehired back at base immediately. Most of the time, you have to surrender to get this (and that costs money), but they can do it for free and so regularly will. You may also see some movement north of your start area, but they generally won't wander in yet. Send Dracon north of the new town and you should find a Library of Enlightenment and eventually another town. Grab it, but don't bother defending. Don't bother recharging magic and head north, by the right hand route (unless there is an enemy hero camped on the left road). Pass the garrison, grab the magic spring (double magic points) and swing north west. You will find the first barbarian town. After a usually tough fight, grab the town, the Attack bonus and head east to the next barbarian town. Grab it and then head south to the third one. Only divert to smash any enemy hero you see hanging around. By capturing the three barbarian towns and defending them, you leave only the four Tower towns between his corners and the south row. Only one of these can be upgraded (just north of your start area) and so if his heroes flee there isn't a lot of troops to rebuild their armies and so can be killed by a big army before they have time to flee. Now return to the Tower town below the Barbarian corner (either Town Portal or, if you lost the town, walk for a few days). Retake if necessary and head right. While this is going on, Crag Hack should head back to your main town, grabbing stat enhancers on the way. There he should pick up any titans, naga, genies and mages available to replace his goblins, wolves and now missing behemoths. Then head north. If the computer breaks into your territory before Crag Hack gets to your main town, Town Portal Dracon there and smash them before Town Portalling back to the Barbarian lands. Crag Hack should take the town just above your territory and wait there for Dracon to arrive, then the two of them hound the enemy into the last corner (there is a town just outside the barbarian lands eastern gate). While you do this send your scouts tagging any free mines that the computer claimed (either itself or took off you). Note: there is a crystal mine in the middle left not far from the Hill Fort. It can only be approached up a tree lined, two unit long path. It appears to be undefended, but you will get jump on the first of the two square by 20+ rust dragons. Let Dracon do it. With that done combine the armies on Dracon and send him around the map tagging remaining mines. Note that although most mines have only a few dragons, the ones surrounding the Barbarian lands have 30+ dragons on them. Don't forget the mine behind the Blue Guard in the top corner (the monolith leads to the area with the black tent that got "eyeballed" at the same time as the Barbarian towns). If you used dimension door earlier, ignore the titans and the black tent and claim the last mine straightaway. You will almost certainly be Level 24 when you leave and so in the next level you can't gain anymore experience at all. Seeing the "no more experience" box after a fight work 350,000 experience is real annoying. That's two down and two to go. 2.4 FAERIE DRAGON LEVEL This is the one that is by far the hardest in the entire campaign. Should be the last one, but I guess someone messed up there. Why would the Faerie dragons be the Azure dragons henchmen when they are harder than the Azure dragons. That aside on with the solution. If you went here from the Crystal Dragon Level you will have all the troops you finished that level with and, if you got it, the Diplomat's Ring. If you went here from the Rust Dragon Level you will have a bunch of enchanters and the Collar of Conjuring. You will lose more troops in the fights so need to use more resurrect spells at the end of attack (see 2.2 and 2.3) than with the rust dragons, so I recommend you play the Rust level first to get all the knowledge stat enhancements. I don't know if you need to kill all the Faerie dragons or only the last ones, but most of the Faerie dragons have to be killed anyway. I'll check this and amend the FAQ appropriately. From the start head south and snag the wood. Ignore the tree for now (if you are playing this after Rust you can ignore the tree completely) and explore this area. Don't open the box yet. Head north and snag the mines, the coliseum and the war college. Grab the two boxes that are together. Don't open the one by the gold mine. Wait about three weeks until you have titans then go get that box. Three faerie dragons will jump you but this is just a warm-up. Kill them and get the gold. With them down head back to the box you skipped earlier, ignore the leprechaun's message and open it. Five faerie dragons will attack. Again you shouldn't have too much trouble. Winning will give you the four-leaf clover on the next square. Explore this new area up to the box the blocks you way onward. Don't open that box yet. It is best to hire some more heroes to save time and have the back-up raid the warrior tombs. Have Dracon open the Quest Guard in the bottom right with the Collar of Conjuring to get the Necklace of Bliss [+3 to all] as well as a cloud temple and naga place (can't remember its name). The scroll is Implosion, but you probably already have that. Claim the castle in the middle bottom and snag all the mines. There are two boxes next to each other by a mage tower. Have Dracon open the first and a bunch of mages will attack. Wipe them out quickly (I used Chain Lightning) and then take the second box (treasure) and the mage tower. This should take a couple of weeks from opening the "five dragon" box, so claim the titans and open the remaining box. A scary 45 Faerie dragons will jump you, so unless you have a 5+ week strong army you will not even get a turn. Using the tactics in 2.3 you can actually get through this without any overall losses. After clearing it head on to the town just beyond. There are 9 Faerie dragons guarding the town plus a bunch of normal tower troops (sometimes the computer doesn't hire any backup, but they are not a threat either way). Concentrate on the Faerie dragons and it should be fairly straightforward. Rest up and Town Portal to get anymore troops you have as it will be a long way before you get another town. It may be best to get another couple of weeks, but I just headed out and left a couple of back-up heroes to wait for the troops before following. Head north, smash through the pointless enemies. If you are strong enough to get here, the opponents won't be a threat. Ignore the portal as it only takes you back to your start town and you would use Town Portal if you wanted to do that. Keep going until you reach the Gremlins just after the Defense stat tower on the coast. There are two thousand of these guys, but they should be a significant threat. I used Implosion on one stack (it could do over 4500 damage by this point) and my titan horde on the other. No real problem, but worth mentioning due to the insane quantity. Just after here are some more gremlins for Continue on the path, holding to the mountain wall and through the gate. You need to head towards the light blue tent you saw from the mage tower you tagged by the two boxes. Before fighting the naga make sure you get a well. You will need all the magic you can get for this one. Make sure you have some master genies available. There are 3500 naga guarding this tent. In a stand-up fight you wouldn't stand a chance. An army required to beat them that way would take years to collect, so you must use their own strength and stupidity against them. In the first turn cast Slow. This will put their movement to 2 hexes. Hit them with ranged troops for the rest of the turn. Don't even think about sending in close attack troops. In the second turn case Berserk on the largest number of stacks you can (usually three). Again keep chipping away with ranged troops. Repeat. If an unberserked stack gets within five hexes of your line send the master genies beyond them. The stupid enemy will change direction and chase them instead. Keep the ones by the genie running after them by keeping them closer to the nagas than the rest of your troops and keep berserking the rest. Use ranged troops on the berserked nagas to keep the berserked stacks at equal quantities (or as close as you can) or you could find yourself with a single stack of a couple of hundred and no-one else to get them to fight. It will take a while, but when only one stack left if you need to blind that stack and resurrect (if you do this right you should have no losses) then kill the last of them. You will get an insane amount of experience, but due to the level cap you can't claim any of it. (If for some reason you were below Level 24, this fight will get you there is one go) Get the tent and head right. Don't waste time with the titans and gold mine, head north here and claim the three boxes (all treasure). Around the middle right is a town behind a green gate, but you can't get it yet so remember where it is and move on. In the north east corner of this area is a garrison with a bunch more Faerie dragons (about 40, I think). Kill them as normal and step forward. You will jumped by 12 more Faerie dragons. Note the red gate and then head right and through the Light Blue guard. Grab the green tent and the boxes. One contains griffins, but they are no threat. Tag the mage tower if you want. Return to green gate and claim the town and the red tent. Recharge your magic (the two dragon battles at the gate take loads of magic) and Town Portal to get some more troops. Make sure you have far more than 20 naga queen and 10 titans (you should have anyway by this point). Head back to the red gate. Get the north box for some more dragons and the box by the boots for even more. Town Portal back to the previous town and recharge your magic again. Rush along the top stopping only to grab the box for more dragons and then reach the quest gate. Head south to the two boxes and take the lower one. It contains one titan to fight and a load of goodies. The other contains a load of tower troops to fight and few goodies. Since you can't get any experience anymore don't bother with the long fight. Head back to the quest guard, hand over the troops (10 titans and 20 naga queens) and continue. You will be jumped on the path to the town by about 40 Faerie so you might want to visit the well first. Claim the town. Get more troops if necessary, grab the dark blue tent and then sail south from the shipyard. Sail about seven or so squares from the left hand side of the map and you should find the first of the two islands. You can't land here so don't bother. Continue downwards and land on the second island (can only been done on the left side). Claim the town, recharge your magic and prepare for the second insane fight. Beyond the dark blue tent is 3500 naga queens. Use the same tactic as the nagas, but remember that naga queens can move four hexes while slowed, so be more carefully when positioning your master genies. Resurrect if needed at the end and then go back to town to recharge your magic. Not far from here you will face 100 Faerie dragons in one go and so you may want to check out the Black Market on this island and the Artifact Merchant in town (building one if you haven't already). Then go through the portal the naga queens were guarding. Here you are faced with a choice of three Faerie dragons. You only need to fight one of them as the other two are apparently illusions, but which one. Easy. As you approach a stack, the leprechaun message will re-appear and tell you it is definitely not this one. (Not the "it isn't this one either message") Defeat the stack and win the level. You don't get to carry the troops over, so there is little point resurrecting them. 2.6 AZURE DRAGON LEVEL This level is very straightforward and rather annoying. There are no wells and no magic guilds, so you only get the magic you start with an the slight daily increase. This means if you haven't pumped your Knowledge up to an insane level (mine was over 40 at the start of this one), you may run out of time waiting was enough magic to recharge to take on the next fight. Mysticism can help with this, but if you are careful you might not need it (I didn't). Troops-wise you start in a good position. Your initial town is fully upgraded (except mage guild and naga queens) and has ten giants in it. Every town is the same on this level except they are missing one or two upgraded building, but you can't upgrade any of them so grab the un-upgraded troops at take them to one that can upgrade them. A bit time-consuming so let a back-up hero do it once Dracon has begun his long walk. Although it is a matter of personally preference I didn't use the gremlins, gargoyles or golems at all in this level. In the first town grab the available troops and head out (you have no resources to begin with). Head south. Almost directly south is another town. This can be a bit tricky to do without using a lot of magic, but it is possible. Unless you lost a lot, don't bother resurrecting - for now there is plenty more where they came from. Wander around this area, clearing mines with Dracon and claiming the loose resources with other heroes. Don't bother tagging the gremlin workshops, you won't be using them. After a couple of weeks, grab the titans and head left. In the middle you will find another town. Capture it, grab the troops and head back. By now you will have 30+ titans and have upgraded your nagas to naga queens. North east of this third town is some gold dragons guarding a gold mine. Don't bother with the reds beyond them, you can't use what they are guarding yet. You will have seen a gate south east of your start town guarded by a load of different dragons including Faerie dragons. I mention the Faerie dragons as this is the only time you see them. Smash them all. Unfortunately the blind/resurrect trick doesn't work because none of the normal dragons (red, green, gold, black) can be affected by it. This is why you need a load of troops first. Once past grab the purple tent, the gold mine and the Equestrian Gloves. Town Portal between the three towns and get an obscene number of top troops and then head through the purple gate. (I had 150 enchanters, 120 master genies, 102 naga queens and 56 titans.) Head along the path, taking stat enhancers, experience and scholars (there isn't an experience cap on this level). Most of this level is just following this path. Along this path are several naga banks. They should be easy money by this point and so get them and then continue. While Dracon follows the path, have one of your back-up heroes trailing behind grabbing resource. Don't waste Dracon's time by getting him to do it. Have the rest moving each week's troops into one town so Dracon can grab it and get back on track with only two Town Portal spells. After awhile you run into some green dragons. Kill them. Remember green and red dragons are vulnerable to Berserk (since it is Level 4). You get a message saying this may be hard, but by this point it probably won't be. Continue onward. Don't forget to get the Targ shield [+4 to defense]. Eventually you will reach some red dragons. Same again and then through the portal. Remember near most of the dragon fights are luck and/or morale boosting locations. Get them and go back to them after the fight. Every little helps. Through the portal are some greens, but you don't need to fight them. They are worth 50000 gold when you beat them so it is up to you. Explore this little area. Continue round the loop, ignore the medusa stones. Note however there is a load of monsters behind the stones. They aren't worth bothering with unless you want the bow [+10% to Archery skill]. You probably won't need it even if you do have the Archery skill. Continue on and fight the gold dragons before going through the portal. Beyond here is a town, so grab it and Town Portal back to your home for more troops. Continue down the path. You will find some black dragons. This can be painful as they do extra damage to your titans, but they still shouldn't be too hard. Go through the portal. Kill some more blacks and grab the blue tent. Just beyond here is a small side area guarded by a set of reds. Grab the morale boost, kill the reds, grab the boost again and enter. Inside you will find some gold and some blacks guarding a ring. You need the ring later on, so kill the blacks and grab the ring before continuing. Another portal and some more dragons later, you will find another town. Grab some troops, but don't Town Portal. Just beyond this town is some archmages guarding a two-way monolith. Kill them a head through. This will lead to the monolith next to your start town (the one behind the blue gate). Open the gate and head left back to where the gold dragons were and kill the reds. Beyond that is a Seer Hut who wants the Targ Shield in exchange for +7 Attack points. It is up to you if you want it. I had Yawning Dead Shield [+3 Defense] to replace it so was only 1 Defense point down and 7 Attack points up in this deal. Then return to your start town, grab any available troops and go back through the monolith. Continue north. You will find a coliseum guarded by a load of Rust dragons. These lot hurt if you aren't using gremlins, but nothing too bad. Snag the coliseum for old times' sake and continue. Just beyond is a Quest Guard who wants the ring the black dragons had, so hand it over and prepare to face the Azure Dragons. When I took on the Azure dragons I had 195 Enchanters, 160 Master Genies, 150 Naga Queens and 107 Titans. I had stats of Attack=56, Defense=48, Spell Power=49 and Knowledge=51. I only had 37 magic point left, but with my horde this wasn't a problem. Oddly enough Azure dragons are very straightforward. They have a lot of health (1000 each) and do a fair bit of damage, but use no special tricks. (They have an ability called Fear that stops an stack from moving, but I have only seen them use it once in all three battles). The first battle is against 50 Azure dragons, so smash them. Not that hard. They are obsessed with genies so throw a resurrect in the final turn and continue. If you got pounded you are probably not going to win the next fight, but I barely lost five percent of my troops in that one. Next you take on 100 Azure dragons, but not you are blessed ground so every spell works at Expert level, so be careful. If the Master Genies cast Prayer or Counterstrike it is good as it gets everyone. If they case Frenzy then reload and try again. This is the last major fight so it doesn't matter what you lose. Throw a resurrect in the final turn (if you still have the magic) and then take your losses and continue. Just beyond this mob is a single Azure dragon. Yes, just one. You have troops that can kill one several times over per hit and then send it against you. Probably a waste of your time, but kill it to win the campaign. With my horde of troops I didn't have much trouble with the dragons. In my opinion the final fight against the "Azure Dragon King" should have been a special against a super-enhanced dragon. For example, one with black's magic block, rust's breath attack, faerie's magic as well as Azure speed and health. As it is the final fight is somewhat of an anti-climax considering what you went through to meet it. 3. MISCELLANEOUS 3.1 WHERE IS THE REST OF THEM I only intended to write this FAQ for the Dragon Slayer campaign, so there other campaigns are not mentioned. I may get round to writing ones for the others, but I don't know. For now the other walkthrough FAQ at GameFAQs lists the Armageddon's Blade and Dragon Blood campaigns. 3.2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Me (for writing this) "Major Gamer" (no idea who this is, but their comments on the board were helpful) 3do (for the game) Nicholas Yu (for covering two other campaigns, so I don't need to) GameFAQ for hosting this Any other game site that also hosts it. The more it gets about, the more people it can help.