Assault on Blackrock Spire Alliance Tides of Darkness Mission 13

Objectives

- Destroy Blackrock Spire
- Eradicate any and all enemy forces

 

Start this level by focusing entirely on building up your defenses. You'll want to focus more on a naval defense than a land one. Build a Foundry as quick as possible and at least 5 Battleships. Also explore the ocean around your base using your Gnomish Flying Machine as quickly as possible. This enemy primarily attacks by sending Transport Ships down to your base - you'll need to destroy these ships before they make landfall or the Ogres will wreck complete havoc on your town.

For the land defense units I recommend you make Knights and Rangers primarily to protect yourself - Rangers for any Dragons they send your way and Knights to go against all land units. Additionally the Knights can be turned into Paladins later and be taught Heal which plays a big role in our strategy. Don't make many land units though until you've upgraded them at the Lumbermill and Blacksmith otherwise they'll just be enemy fodder.

Our enemy starts out with fully upgraded units and they have the benefit of being able to easily use Bloodlust on all of their units at once since they don't have to worry about that pesky human reaction time. What it all comes down to is our ground units will be completely shredded to pieces by their Ogres if you let them make landfall.

Build up your base, upgrade your Town Hall into a Castle and make a Gryphon Aviary as well as a Church. They're the two most important Advanced Structures for this level. As you protect your harbor with the ships you've made you'll want to focus on building a Gryphon Army of at least 5 Gryphons. That's when part 2 of our strategy comes in.

When the enemy decides to start attacking you with Dragons it'll occupy the majority of your time just defending your base. What you should do is create a whole bunch of Gryphon Riders; these guys can defend the base on the dragons entirely on their own. However the enemy doesn't stop sending Transport Ships when they start sending Dragons - that means you're going to need to leave your naval defense out front of your base too. Unless you make Elven Destroyers (which I don't recommend) your ships will be completely helpless to the Dragons.

This is where your l33t skills come in. You'll need to constantly be keeping an eye out for incoming Transport Ships and Dragons all while planning your attack on the town on the small island just to the north with a gold mine. Here's what I recommend you make...

10 - 15 Gryphon Riders
8 - 10 Battleships
4 Gnomish Submarines
1 Transport Ship
10 Paladins

Guard your base with the Gryphon Riders, Battleships and Gnomish Submarines. When one of your Gryphon Riders takes heavy damage pull it back to base and Heal it with a Paladin. Then once you've got the situation stable and a lot of units use the Transport Ship to send Peasents to the island just northeast of your island and build a Town Hall.

Slowly move your naval fleet north at this time to take the island with Horde. Send 3 Battleships around each side of the island taking out the Troll Destroyers and the Guard Towers. Pull them back when they are attacked by Dragons and take out the Dragons with your Gryphons. Once the ships have cleared all they can reach on the island send your Gryphons onto the island to take out the remaining towers, trolls and whatever else is there. Then use your Transport ship to send Peasents onto the island and make a Town Hall. Build a few Guard Towers, not Cannon Towers, on the island and protect it with your remaining ships and half your remaining Gryphons.

Use your other Gryphons to take out anything that attacks your units back at our home base or the small island we just took over. Take some time to build up another naval fleet and more Gryphon Riders, heal your Gryphons that are injured with your Paladins and then we attack again.

At the very start of the map, the location that you were shown the Paladins getting wrecked by the group of Horde troops, that's where we'll want to attack from. The Horde have a small bay up in this area which is where my attack begins. Send a few ships up the northern coastline as a decoy - the enemy will hit them with a couple tornados then send your real fleet into the harbor and take out as many towers as you can. Follow that up with multiple Gryphon attacks until you've cleared the entire enemy base.