Empire Aflame Choices

[Ebola]

I'm close to the end of the Empire Aflame campaign (just finished defending Kanthas from Shadowspawn). I got curious what all the different paths look like, especially since I've now got a choice between two critical missions.

A couple of specific questions I had:
What does the Filos path look like?
What's different if Marcra or Ocram die early?
What happens mission-wise if you don't ally with the Centaurs in Kanthas (defending Kanthas was shockingly easy with the Centaurs allied)?

Are there any other interesting plot/gameplay forks that happen that I may have missed?

[Kaysoky]

This answer contains basically entirely spoilers... so I won't bother with hiding them behind the spoiler element.

Filos Path

The "evil" route is quite different. Upon choosing Filos, you totally reset your army. The army you grew for the first half of the campaign (including all items) are turned into your enemies, and you'll have to kill that army over the next couple of scenarios, as they appear in your way.

In terms of scenario differences, the crux of the differences is that you play from the Shadowspawn perspective for many missions as Filos. Instead of defending the Hearthspire, you seek to corrupt it. Instead of saving the Eagles, you try to slaughter them.

However, these differences basically disappear in the final few missions. Instead of stopping the Master as Moira, you stop (or replace) the Master as Filos. Many of the final missions are the same as Moira's.

Nevertheless, you do get to control shadowspawn and demonspawn as Filos, with their never-ending stream of free units from portals. People have complained about how tedious this can get (moving dozens of free units from portals on one side of the map to another), but there is an element of novelty here.

Marcra's Death

Marcra just doesn't want to die... If you best her in battle, she'll usually just get swooped away by an ally and re-appear later on. If she falls against the Shadowspawn, she'll sometimes appear in the final battle anyway, from beyond the grave (seemed like a bug to me, but... I dunno).

Ocram's Death

If you lose Ocram, you basically lose a traitor. He has the best training options (+25% strength) so you want to keep him around to use it. I think he won't appear in one of the later defense missions if he dies early (as Moira). If you keep him around as Filos, you'll eventually get multiple story prompts which will have Filos execute Ocram (because he is the Master's thrall).

Kanthas Aflame

On higher difficulties, I would say allying with the centaurs does not make the map easier. They tend to clutter the map with routing centaurs and prevent you from getting a good line of troops against the flying Shadowspawn. By not allying with them, you can potentially ally with the Imperial cities to the south of Kanthas instead. I think this nets you more gold, but at the cost of not being able to hire Tirea.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Kaysoky:

This answer contains basically entirely spoilers... so I won't bother with hiding them behind the spoiler element.

Filos Path

The "evil" route is quite different. Upon choosing Filos, you totally reset your army. The army you grew for the first half of the campaign (including all items) are turned into your enemies, and you'll have to kill that army over the next couple of scenarios, as they appear in your way.

In terms of scenario differences, the crux of the differences is that you play from the Shadowspawn perspective for many missions as Filos. Instead of defending the Hearthspire, you seek to corrupt it. Instead of saving the Eagles, you try to slaughter them.

However, these differences basically disappear in the final few missions. Instead of stopping the Master as Moira, you stop (or replace) the Master as Filos. Many of the final missions are the same as Moira's.

Nevertheless, you do get to control shadowspawn and demonspawn as Filos, with their never-ending stream of free units from portals. People have complained about how tedious this can get (moving dozens of free units from portals on one side of the map to another), but there is an element of novelty here.

Marcra's Death

Marcra just doesn't want to die... If you best her in battle, she'll usually just get swooped away by an ally and re-appear later on. If she falls against the Shadowspawn, she'll sometimes appear in the final battle anyway, from beyond the grave (seemed like a bug to me, but... I dunno).

Ocram's Death

If you lose Ocram, you basically lose a traitor. He has the best training options (+25% strength) so you want to keep him around to use it. I think he won't appear in one of the later defense missions if he dies early (as Moira). If you keep him around as Filos, you'll eventually get multiple story prompts which will have Filos execute Ocram (because he is the Master's thrall).

Kanthas Aflame

On higher difficulties, I would say allying with the centaurs does not make the map easier. They tend to clutter the map with routing centaurs and prevent you from getting a good line of troops against the flying Shadowspawn. By not allying with them, you can potentially ally with the Imperial cities to the south of Kanthas instead. I think this nets you more gold, but at the cost of not being able to hire Tirea.

Extremely informative - in case I ever want to play Empire Aflame! ;)