Help with a scenario. the one with three brothers.

[GZSTG]

Its just like the last story mission. I can't beat it no matter what I do. I tired holing up in the underground and blocking all the entrances with scouts. the computer can fight the scouts even though they are not on the same map. How? How am I supposed to win. I always end up between two of them or right underneath one. I cant do the magic victory since they are always more powerful than me. and I can't do the score victory due to the brothers starting with three cities each. I hated it in the last story mission and I hate it here. other than switching the difficulty from normal to easy I don't know what to do. anyone have any advice?

[~ Fabulous ~]

make a fire nation faction > Arcane Focus+ Keen-Sighted...high culture + Powerful Evokers + Gifted Caster...go chaos materium, focus on getting aoe damage magic...tactic, weaken the enemy by cluster bombing them with overwhelming amount of cluster bomb, followed by multiple chain of kills which will cause enemy to route...oh and choose wizard king for best result

[Janthis]

What's more annoying about it is that they are supposed to be at war with each other, yet I've never seen them actually fight. But they will happily attack my troops if they're nearby. Starting position also matters, I literally started between them one time. Best bet is to start in a corner somewhere and build up your forces without antagonizing them, but if one of them starts a magic victory and is on the other side of the map, I dunno. I tried fighting one of the brothers and he had stacks of tier 4 and 5 units by turn 40, it's definitely a hard scenario.

[Morphic]

Could always offer yourself as a Vassal to one of them. One game I did that since one of the brothers was rolling out T3 and T4 units around Turn 30 and was dominating the map. I tried fighting him and was doing okayish but two other AI decided to declare war on me. No way could I handle all those stacks all over my domain.

[Rianith]

This scenario is the hardest IMO, only try it after you've won all the others.
Starting position is key, you don't want to be in between them, but off to one side helps.
Appease them, keep out of trouble till eventually one will attack you
and by then hopefully you got three 6-stacks that can survive any combat with minimal casualties, which you will definitely know more about doing
once you've put hundreds of hours into the game...
Also one mistake I made first attempt was to make it 4 players only, so it was just me and the bros. You definitely want 7 players, so the others can distract them and give you some easier targets for expansion.

[Urinietszche]

I am playing it right now, as Karissa the Red. Fighting 24 enemy stacks per turn. Gonna need doctor when I finish it. Managed to destroy one brother, razed a city of second. Third one decided to make defencive pact with me despite -800 relations because his sibling casted Magic Victory spell.

So far I can win impossible battles with berserkers because they are steadfast+flameburst weapons. I also keep one of Godirs in good relations so I could buy tier IV items.

Kinda weird because when I was sieging capital of first brother I had to fought 9 Shrines of Smite with my tier I-2 units. Second one prefers to spam Tyrant Knights and Eagle riders so far.

[Wking]

It's extremely simple.

Directly become a vassal to the one of the three brothers which is closest to you and who can create a buff zone for u. After clearing the surrounding area and completing exploration, disband your army and focus solely on building a strong economy. Wait for someone (which is brothers) else to initiate magic victory(usually around turn 80 or 90).

You need a lot of money. If your overlord has initiated the magic victory, you're in a good position. Otherwise, give some gift money to your liege and aim for a relationship value of 600. Once you're out of vassalage, break the defense agreement. Become the vassal of whoever is close to completing the magic victory. GG! It was the laziest game I've ever played XD.

[Rianith]

This scenario you can win against the odds, you just got to have learned how to cheese every battle, by summoning tons of units as an expendable buffer, while your core 18, maybe Archers, Watchers, Awakeners bombard the enemy into oblivion.
Wisp familiars can add to the three L5/10 summons + weaver so you should always have 36 units after 2/3 turns,, half of which are totally expendable.
Just keep out of trouble till you build your army and then be prepared for interminable battles against crazy powerful stacks,
and also having to forestall magic victories.
Won this on turn 104 with magic victory after two failed attempts. Fun.

[snuggleform]

I avoided making any bonds/pacts with anyone until I had a comfortable stack of 2-3 units (reason being I did not want to get dragged into anyone's wars, just wanted to build up). Then I positioned my stacks in range of one of the brother's capitals, waited until his armies were far out doing battle somewhere, then declared war on him and started making pacts with one of the other brothers. I took his capital before he could retreat back to base, and then I sniped his hero and he was out of hte picture. This took 2 brothers out of the picture (since I started making friendly pacts with another one), and the one I eventually allied went for a magic victory which no one could stop.

[rumpelstiltskin]

perhaps this one is best played with magic victory disabled? looks like the brothers are supposed to properly fight it out and end it with good old-fashioned fratricide, not by doing "research".

[snuggleform]

I just beat this on brutal on my first try, no magic victory. I was high culture, massed evokers and way later on added awakeners. I allied with the yellow brother since he prefers good alignment and I participated in banging up one of the other brothers who was getting hit by everyone. By the time I was focusing on the last brother awakeners were coming online and it was a predictable victory at that point.

Ironically in the very beginning there was this super annoying cat race that came out of the nearest underground entrance and made a city right next to my capital; I was prepared to strike it down but I didn't dare to because it allied with the same brother I was allied with. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it contributed to killing one of the other brothers in a massive way.

[Sifer2]

Originally posted by rumpelstiltskin:

perhaps this one is best played with magic victory disabled? looks like the brothers are supposed to properly fight it out and end it with good old-fashioned fratricide, not by doing "research".

If you want to experience the "proper" outcome then yes it's almost absolutely required. Magic victory is poorly designed atm being way too easy to reach. So in missions where the AI starts out with a lead they will reach it super fast.

As for winning the scenario properly I think your really meant to ally with one of the brothers, and help them defeat the other two. But because it often likes to spawn all the AI's around you rather than fairly distributed it's hard to get it to ever play out that way.

[Janthis]

I just beat this on brutal on my first try, no magic victory. I was high culture, massed evokers and way later on added awakeners. I allied with the yellow brother since he prefers good alignment and I participated in banging up one of the other brothers who was getting hit by everyone. By the time I was focusing on the last brother awakeners were coming online and it was a predictable victory at that point.

Were they actually fighting each other? In my experience the AIs very rarely fight, they just build up big blobs of units and move them back and forth, never attacking unless they have an overwhelming advantage.

Starting position also matters in a big way. My last attempt I started right next to the purple brother who is the most aggressive and always declares rivalry on me. Then the yellow one, who was on the other side of the map, went for magic victory. Of course none of the other AIs did anything about it, and with all his troops turtled in his territory, I couldn't stop it either. My next attempt I'll disable that as well.