Help! How can I beat "The betrayal of Otomo" on hard?

[Warhammer 40k Enjoyer]

I tried this mission (Kenjis Journey -> Serpent Path -> The betrayal of Otomo, mission 11)
now a bunch of times and it just seems to be impossible hard, I tried every cheese I have up on my sleeve.

This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96tCl8_BX2o&list=PL7HbVcsAslQmvbEnDovSLxq3Lu7pBAagk&index=18

Every starting point here is actually pretty terrible, whenever I had to play a mission on this map I took the rice field on the bottom left on the map, as that place has the most strategic advantages but Otomos main base is at that rice field.

The furthest I got was without any rice fields at all and turtle on the Mountain gathering all my ressources with bandits looting.

But then I got my army wiped when I got attacked right after Otomo summoned the dragon combined with a big army attacking me.

Fan Geishas seem to be extremly helpful but If I see one healing a Zombie or a Ghost one more time.....
And if I don't use Zombies I get outnumbered too hard.


This mission seems rediculus, but I really wanna beat it on hard difficulty, does someone here have a good advice for beating that mission?

[Wheelzaplenty]

i don't play on hard, but i have watched vids that suggest building 2-3 swordsman asap, and send your starting units + swordsmen down to the small outpoost next to Otomos's base, wipe it out and buoild a new base there, using a well for water and replacing the peasant hut in the rice feild with your own for rice.

[󠀡󠀡]

This is almost nostalgic! Back in the day, 10 years ago I was suffering on this mission. It made me give up on Battle Realms for nearly 2 years. :)

It was the only mission out of the whole campaign that gave me mad troubles. But back then I had no idea about the game.

You're going through that because we've restored the original AI that is smarter. They cooperate with each other and they use abilities (Dragon Fire is the main problem here).

Can you send me the save file? I'd like to see how to beat that with my current skills.

This may be useful: https://battlerealms.github.io/chart/

Also, as far as I remember, it's possible to wipe the Wolf's base instantly and go from there. I would recommend using Raiders for burning/denying the Dragon Monument.

[Warhammer 40k Enjoyer]

Tried that a few times, I will now turn the musketeer at the start instantly into a raider and the crossbowman from the Tower into a bandit to gather ressources, maybe that works better.

[Warhammer 40k Enjoyer]

@KoMiKoZa Sure I can give you the save file, where can I send it to you?

[Flowers]

quickly make a base at topleft and spam musketeer until you're stable, then up to you whenever to diversify the units.

Eventually finished that mission with ronins as my frontliners and a hella lot of musketeers with two or three canoneers for building demolishment (though musketeers can also do the same job more or less.)

The area of attack you need to probably pay attention to the most is at the top is a hilly forest and I found that the wolf ai liked using that route so have some watch towers left and right.

Equip the watchtowers with geishas so that they function as some sort of automatic well for healing as you'll be defending from a lot of attacks from both the wolf and dragon.

have kenji hold position and tank the damage from the wolf tower while the rest destroys it. This way he regenerates while tanking the damage and can minimize the casualties, hopefully none until you get your musketeers up and going.

[Supermash]

i give you the best way to beat this map.

The answer is very simple. Build On serpenthome montain (all your military production and one paysant hut). it's very easy to defend even on hard.
with mass mousqueters with high ground andvantage thay can't kill you.

So i start to rush the montain (and we have already a tower to help) and with my starting army i rush the first botom dragonvillage (he is undefended with no tower, a fast rush can destroy one threat quickly)
on the montain i build a paysant hut , a alchemist hut , and a thieve guild with a bath to create fan gaisha.

for rice with the first hut we have i collect from it and the ai don't attack it if i don't have military or many hut nearby.

after that it's pretty long to beat it ( average one hour) but with your defense position and a mousqueters army they can't beat you.
i let all our first bulding down because they are useless and we can't rush the first wolf village with swordman because of tower so the tavern is useless.

i gave you all the key for sucess and i beat it on hard 15 years ago at 8 years old so you can do it.

[H.E.C.U soldier]

Yeah this mission was monstrous, probably the hardest in the whole game.

[Relington]

Originally posted by Khaos:

i give you the best way to beat this map.

The answer is very simple. Build On serpenthome montain (all your military production and one paysant hut). it's very easy to defend even on hard.
with mass mousqueters with high ground andvantage thay can't kill you.

So i start to rush the montain (and we have already a tower to help) and with my starting army i rush the first botom dragonvillage (he is undefended with no tower, a fast rush can destroy one threat quickly)
on the montain i build a paysant hut , a alchemist hut , and a thieve guild with a bath to create fan gaisha.

for rice with the first hut we have i collect from it and the ai don't attack it if i don't have military or many hut nearby.

after that it's pretty long to beat it ( average one hour) but with your defense position and a mousqueters army they can't beat you.
i let all our first bulding down because they are useless and we can't rush the first wolf village with swordman because of tower so the tavern is useless.

i gave you all the key for sucess and i beat it on hard 15 years ago at 8 years old so you can do it.

Yeah I remember beating it like that too. Hold the mountain and have secret peasant partisans try gathering rice while the enemy isn't looking. But I think I used cannoneers instead of musketeers because of the OP smoke bombs and cannoneers defeat all their buildings.

[Ah Jangan Dong]

I just rushed otomo base and shinja will immediately come to your aid and quickly build a base there I'm also on hard you just need quick hands

[Warhammer 40k Enjoyer]

Yaaaaay I did it! :3

Big thanks to @KoMiKoZa who gave me some very helpful tips that certainly helped beating the mission.

So right at the start of the match I instantly ordered all of my units and a peasant on the top of Serpentholm asap. I kinda got super lucky and the AI ignored my initial starting hut for a long time, so I could gather ressources there easily. On top of Serpentholm I built a base to train Cannoneers and Geishas.
I also built a keep to get access to Utara and Vetkin, then destroyed it to get place for other buildings.

I built a bunch of towers at entrance to the plateu on which I placed Fan Geishas (shoutout to KoMiKoZa again) and surrounded them with Cannoneers, I didn't build any Musketeers even though they would have done the job as good aswell.

The Zen Masters were building the frontline as tanks.
Except the Necromancer, I put him away from the defense and let him summon Ghosts instead of Zombies, as Geishas like to waste their Stamina on Zombies which gave me a PTSD.

A Crossbowman placed Phosphorus Bolts around the most used ways on the map so I could always see whenever the enemys planned an attack.

Bandits are live savers in this mission as they can gather ressources from corpses whenever the enemy decides to raid the rice field. I'd say having 2 of them available at any time on serpentholm behind the defense line makes things much easier.

It took me a while to get the idea to recruit Utara and Vetkin, as I didn't expected them to be as useful as they turned out to be.

Shinja, Utara and Vetkin are the real MVPs in this mission, their AOE abilitys are just fantastic to destroy big enemy waves and helped me to break free from beeing sieged to getting into the offensive.

My frontline contained the Zen Masters and 5 bandits which have a nice explosive resistance (unlike Ronin)

I had about 5 Fan Geishas and the rest of my army were Cannoneers.

I steamrolled my enemys counter clockwise on the map, starting with Otomos base at the foot of the mountain.


Overall I'd say it is a very fun mission, which punishes little mistakes pretty hard but also requires you to get a little bit creative and use some knowledge over your units.

Big thanks again to everyone beeing helpful here :)

[Mr. L]

That's pretty easy. I always love to rush the bottom Dragon base whilst training some swordsmen. Save up enough rice and water for a Hut, Stables and a Well.

Afterwards just train up some Snipers and Cannoneers with Smoke Bombs and you're good to go.

[󠀡󠀡]

After a painful of week of trying to release it, I've finally made it.

Actual walkthrough begins at 8:00 mark. Took me ~22 minutes to complete. Attacking instantly basically. Not camping on the hill (Serpentholm) since that's the slow way.

3 reasons why you should go for the top right (Wolf) base:

• Lots of rice and a distant/protected water spot.
  
• Horse spawn nearby.
  
• Shinja arrives right to that base.

Couple of things to note:

1. AI was merciless in earlier versions of the game. Later nerfed.

2. SteamBR only has partial restoration of that AI, it's still easy there.

Nonetheless, I've made a vid that might help others get a better understanding of the game & this mission in particular.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1965897678

[Dieu-Sama]

Hold the mountain is the best option, once you have 4 - 5 bandits you don't even need a gathering peasant team anymore, just micro manage corpses loot when the ennemy launches an assault, and bam, 300 or more rice and water each time.

And on 2001 vanilla, it was even harder, dragon team in particular was using battle gears like crazy, like sending teams of spearmen with whriling spears, kabuki warriors with stardust, and frinking powder keg cannoners with sharpnel !

[Saiba Jinzero]

This is a easy level.. in the beginning send your zen masters to enemy and kill all peasant before they grow stronger while you building up. If it too fast for you put that speed back to normal

[Warhammer 40k Enjoyer]

Nice Video @KoMiKoZa!

Really well made and great to watch.