The Bandit Leaders

The Bandit Leaders is an example of what is known in AoEO as a Global Quest.  This means that you complete it by doing other quests and accumulating whatever the objective is asking of you.  These are found frequently throughout all the civs and booster packs.

An example in the Greek civ is one which counts the wolves you have killed.  An equivalent with the Eggies is one which counts elephants killed.

In the case of The Bandit Leaders, you have to kill the three bandit chieftains:  Draco, Clutus and Homer, by completing three separate quests:

1. Draco's Legion
2. Clitus Attacks
3. Homer Run.

The Bandit Leaders is a global quest

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We Found Them

We Found Them is a capital city quest which appears with your Village Elder at around Level 7.

The objective is to defeat the enemy, requiring to go round the map in a circle as you destroy successive enemy camps, walls, buildings and soldiers.

The Village Elder is the quest giver, centre 

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Fishing Our Waters

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had started doing the Greek quests from scratch on another server.  Every now and then I'll pull up one of those early Greek quests for a bit of a look.

The quest Fishing Our Waters can be found with the Port Master around level 6.

I was curious when this quest came up because a few weeks earlier, on the official AoEO forum, a poster mentioned that he had had trouble completing it because he ran out of enemy fishing boats to destroy.  This didn't happen to me.

The Port Master is the quest giver for Fishing Our Waters

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The Bandit Armada (Elite)

This is the final of a three part series of posts on the Greek capital city repeatable quests which you can do in Elite mode.

This is the bigger and grander of the three repeatables, but it's not any more difficult.  Once again, there's a smart way to complete it efficiently, including the second objective, which requires you to produce no military units.  The quest can be, and should be, completed by focusing on ships.

Start Game

Let's remind ourselves of what the quest looks like from the start.

I've just started aging up to Age III, I have one dock ready to go

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Challenge: Kill the Docks (Elite)

This is the second article in the series dealing with Greek capital city challenge quests on elite.

Early on in your AoEO career, you want to start having a crack at this quest on Elite, and even when you get to level 40, it's worth the occasional look at it because on Elite mode, you're receiving level 40 chests.

Plenty of people do this on co-op, which is fine, but try and get to the stage where you solo it. I wouldn't say it's a difficult quest (it's not), but there's a smart way to do it, and then there's, shall we say, the inefficient way to do it.

You should always (always) be aiming to get the second objective of finishing five minutes early.

Kill the Docks is one of two capital city quests available from the Port Master. The Bandit Armada is the other one, and I'll cover that one another time.

The Port Master is the Quest giver for Kill the Docks

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Starting Out - Part III

I wasn't going to have a Part III for the starting out series of posts, but then I remembered something earlier today.  A while back, I discovered that all the civs and booster packs you own, you actually own them across all servers, and you can play them from the start at each server.   I suddenly recalled that I had started a Greek civ on the Athens server a while back, and had forgotten all about it.

Now this is good news, because it allows me to re-visit a few things, re-live some old times, but more importantly, have a bit more up-to-date hands on exposure to stuff which otherwise, I hadn't seen for a while.

And I have to say to you - it's a lot of fun starting all over and re-acquainting myself with some of these very early quests.

So I have gone back to the very start, and that has inspired me to write one more starting out post, while I aged up from Level 4 to Level 6.

To start off with, here is my very plain, bare, empty Greek city at level 6:

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Challenge: Not Without a Bomb

Let's cut to the chase - this challenge is insanely difficult - outrageously difficult.

In my early AoEO playing career, I can remember the following challenge quests which initially had me stumped:

• Final Farmdown
• Size Matters
• Defence of Arsinoe
• Not Without a Bomb

...and it's this one which takes the cake - top of the pops - no question about it.

Full marks to the developers for showing some humour with the title of the quest.

I became obsessed with this quest, and after at least 10 goes, maybe more, I finally soloed it with only seconds to spare - it was a damn relief!

So that's the first point, it is possible to solo it, but if it finally gets to you, it's also available for co-op, and don't worry, I've helped out some very good players in co-op on this quest over the journey.

The engineer from Mycenae is the quest giver for this challenge.

If you are soloing, you should aim to get out at least 6 rams, probably need 8.

Open the book to find out more.

Challenge: Keep Them Under Our Wing (Elite)

Your Greek city has a few repeatable quests which are worth doing in Elite mode as you gear up and start to improve your game play.

One of these is Keep Them Under Our Wing.

Keep Them Under Our Wing with the Scout Quest giver next to the Adviser Hall

Even once you've reached level 40, playing this quest in Elite mode gives you three level 40 chests, not too bad for a 10 minute quest.

On top of that, it's a good game for practicing a few basic skills, micro-managing your villies, etc.

Open the book to discover how to crack this quest!

Challenge: It's the Final Farm Down

The Helice Merchant, to left of the Palace, is the quest giver for the farm quests.

All of the three premium civs  offer a series of challenge quests which are often as much about improving your game play as anything else.  The Final Farm Down in the Greek civ is a good example of this.  In this series of challenge quests you have to build 10 farms in 10 minutes, and a minute is knocked off each subsequent quest, until finally you have a bare 5 minutes to build your 10 farms.

If you're anything like me, you were relieved to build your 10 farms in 6 minutes and were completely dismayed that you had to do it all again with one minute less.

I struggled a couple of times with the Final Farm down until I cottoned on to something really stupid which I
was doing.

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The Civilisations - Greek

Greek coat of arms used in AoEO

This is the first of a series of articles in which I go through each of the six civs.

Many begin their AoEO experience with the Greeks, and I’m no different in this regard.  The Greeks were my first civ, the ones I first took to level  40, the ones I first managed to gear right up to the rafters, the ones with which I first completed alliance and legendary quests, and they remain my one true love.

It’s probably natural that you might come to favour your first civ, primarily because you will become so familiar with it, get used to the bits and pieces you like most, get used to the various build orders, how to make your economy  hum each and every quest, build a massive army, etc, etc.

So what do I like the most about the Greeks?

Click Open the book below to find out!

Exotic Egyptians Versus the Great Greeks: Just Who Should You Choose?

If you're having a hard time deciding between which civilization to dominate with, have no fear. I am here to help you make your decision. I'll provide a list of reasons why one might choose either civilization. My personal bias verdict will be at the end.

                                  Greek Civilization                          

• Very cool culture if you like knights, swordsmen, archers and bar wenches.
• There's a smooth transition throughout all ages.
• Units are generally very sturdy. (e.g: Compare the Spearman and Toxotes to their Egyptian counterparts.)
•  They have access to freakin' Socrates. Need I say more?
• Greeks have a very formidable navy capable of steamrolling your opponent's vessels. Literally!
 

                                Egyptian Civilization                         

• Very exotic culture; the Egyptian setting is vibrant and filled with amusing things like camels, sand and elephants
• Remember those camels and elephants you saw in town? You command them in the battlefield.
• A unit, called the Priestess of Set, heals your units and gives whichever building that she molests a buff to production and collection.

My verdict: 

Do you like the traditional, the tried and true, the orthodox? You would like the Greeks. Their architecture and units scream I'M AVERAGE in every way possible. Nothing really stands out about them, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. People who might like Greeks include jocks, historians, Greeks, and your average joe.

If you're the type of person who likes exotic things like pet snakes or pet humans, then you'll like the Egyptians. Everything from what they wear to their building decorations make them pretty unique. Add in War Elephants that smash things and you have a pretty good recipe for something different. The types of people who might appreciate this civilization include artists, minorities, animal lovers, and exotic pet owners.

I hope that helped you make your decision, even if it was just a slight sway. If it didn't then I apologize. Maybe my next post will suit your fancy. What will it be? You'll have to check back to find out. I'll give you one hint, though: maps. Lots of them. =D