BATTLE REALMS
COMPILATION OF FAQ AND STRATEGY FROM THE FORUM BOARD (WITH LITLLE EDITING)
DATE RELEASE:
VERSION: 1.00
COMPILED BY: Amrul Isham Ismail
CREDITS: All those Master RTS quoted in here. I'm just compiling this 
outstanding but scattered information and it's purely charity work (at least 
for now) for those who seek help. :)

CONTENTS:
1.0	GETTING ZEN WARRIORS
1.1	Dragon Path
1.2	Serpent Path

2.0	STRATEGY
2.1 General
2.2 Dragon Clan
2.3 Serpent Clan
2.4 Lotus Clan
2.5 Wolf Clan
2.6 Against Lotus Clan
     2.6.1 General
     2.6.2 Warlock

3.0	WALKTHROUGH
3.1 Dragon Path
    3.1.1 Getting Shinja
    3.1.2 At Swans' Pool
    3.1.3 Kill Lotust
    3.1.4 Second Serpertholm
    3.1.5 Helping the Monks
3.2 Serpent Path
    3.2.1 Second Serpentholm
    

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1.0 GETTING ZEN WARRIORS
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1.1 DRAGON PATH 
---------------
"You'll get Sabon (in the path 'destroy all the lotust after the 1st 
sepentholm) at the end of a winding hilltop. The hill is the only hill in the 
level that has a narrow path of travel." - Integnos, 8 Dec 01

"You'll get Tao pretty late in the game where you have to choose from either 
to the Ninja's path or the Monk's path. Tao will automatically join if you 
choose the Ninja's path." - eddie6818, 9 Dec 01

"..That i know is: Kenji (auto), Shinja (auto), Otomo (auto), Kazan (auto), 
Garrin (take the middle path to Swan's Pool), Gaihla (take the middle path 
after 1st Serpentholm mission)" - unknown (sorry, miss this one)

"You can't have all the characters at the same time. You can get Arah by 
taking the the left route to Swan's Pool rather than Garrin's center route." 
- eddie6818, 2 Dec 01

"You get Gaihla in the Shale Mines mission. When you choose which level to 
play, it's the left one, I think. Gaihla is in the very center of the map, 
fighting some Wolf clan soldiers. I find it odd that she's fighting some of 
her own people, but I suppose she's really serious when it comes to 
protecting the forest." - Abyssal Delusion, 16 Dec 01

"Well, only completed the dragon clan side, but i've seen the following so 
far - Kenji, Otomo, Shinja, Lord Garrin, Arah, Karzen, Tao. Ninjas and Monks 
also gotten from Keep, so thought you like to know that. You have to choose 
between Garrin and Arah in the mission just before going to Swans pool. If 
you choose to go via wolf side, you'll get Arah. If you choose via the middle 
route, you'll get Garrin. If you choose Lotus.. that I don't know. I didnt 
seem to get any hero via that route... 
Arah is an archer.. powerful one at that.. 4 hits to kill most enemies, 
Garrin's special ability is to summon horses - i guess if you have the 
patience, you can summon horses for all your units :) 
Also choose between monks and ninjas at the 3rd last mission. Ninjas can 
become invisible, great for scouting, but monks are better fighters." - 
DePbLuE, 17 Dec 01
 
1.2 SERPENT PATH
----------------
"How to get: Shinja and Otomo, 2 level after choosing side. Vetkin: attack 
Riverside. Koril: attack Lotus after Serpentholm 1st. Tao: get the monks when 
choosing ninja or monk. ..I tried to get Utara, but failed. To get her, 
choose left after Serpentholm 1st." - xyzzealot, 11 Dec 01

"..Serpent: Kenji (auto), Shinja (auto), Otomo (auto), Koril (From Lotus 
Clan, the scholar of space,choose to destroy Lotus last province).." - 
unknown

"You can get Velkin on the center route to Swan's Pool." - eddie6818, 2 Dec 
01

"..U can get Budo from the stage where there's a river splitting from the top 
and bottom half. In this stage your only opponent is the Wolf Clan. If I 
recall correctly, u don't have to pick the path, it's automatic. You will 
have to move your units to the Bottom left screen, make sure to bring a 
Geisha along. About Utara, u'll get her automatically when you destroy the 
Wolf Clan's KEEP in the center of map." - eddie6818, 6 Dec 01

"..I think you can only chose one (Budo or Koril) after first Serpentholm, 
but before Swan's Pool, I think River side is the only place to get 
additional heroes (Vetkin), but since in Dragon path you can get Arah before 
Swan's pool, you can get Utara before Swan's Pool, but I don't know how (I 
tried all three path)." - Yulius, 10 Dec 01

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2.0 STRATEGY
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2.1 GENERAL STRATEGY
--------------------
"It might help if u use packhorses to gather your rice... at least 5 peasents 
with packhorses should be enough, i guess about 7 to fuel development and 
unit funds, 2 or 3 after that to fuel unit building." - blaisem, 16 Dec 01

2.2 DRAGON CLAN STRATEGY
------------------------
"one word "Archer" upgrade their range and fire power, 12 of them can wipe 
out the whole base JUST REMEMBER TO PUSH THE "STAND GROUND N BUTTON" so u can 
kick lotus ass in a distance. works well for me!!!" - Richard Rubante, 16 Dec 
01

"To be perfectly honest, I think the Dragon clan is lacking in a lot of 
areas. They're generally the weakest clan. Well.. Except one little 
unit...Kabuki! They're the most powerful unit in the game. Why you ask? Two 
words: Flash Powder. Liquid went a little overboard with this battlegear.. 
It's way overpowered. It has an AE, it stuns enemies, and completely lowers 
ALL their resistances. A skilled player can kill almost anything with only 6 
Kabuki with Flash Powder. Not only is it way powerful, but the resulting 
bloodbath gives TONS of Yang. For the most part, Yin/Yang acquisition is 
dependent on the amount of damage dealt (And kills) in battle. And since 
Flash Powder lowers the armor of all the units, the damage dealt against the 
enemies is ridiculous.. Hence, you can sometimes gain 5-8 Yang from a very 
quick and painless (for you) battle." - Abyssal Delusion, 16 Dec 01 
 
"I mix both Kabuki and archers. My fav tatic is to have about 12 archers and 
4 Kabuki with flash powder. Have some Archers with flame arrows. Kill off 
enemy units at a range, those that approachs, flash them, then use kabuki to 
kill them. Rinse and repeat." - DePbLuE, 16 Dec 01

"I'm playing the dragon clan as of now, and whats worked with me every time 
is the following: 
4 Geisha (grouped), 4 Powder Keg Cannoneers (Grouped), Any heroes (grouped), 
then everyone else as a samurai (grouped). Against the lotus I just have my 
crazy dragon skin eat up their foofy (yes, foofy!) ranged attacks, my geisha 
heal, kinda.... the cannoneers blow stuff up, and my heroes are just there. 
It worked just fine." - EvilDeathCrab, 12 Dec 01

"I don't use those powder keg guys everyone is so fond of. I just make 
regular archers, samurai, and geishas. This makes an automated assembly line 
easier, which is essential for defending your base while you are on an attack 
run. While I'm building up an army, I just position archers around my towers, 
with a geisha or two behind the clumps of archers. The Samurai and heroes 
wait a bit behind the clumps of towers and archers. This pretty much eats up 
any attacking force (especially Lotus), with little or no loss to your own 
troops. Once I'm maxed out, I take about 3/4 of my force on an attack raid. I 
make sure that most of my archers have the fire arrow, but give one or two 
the zen arrow. I stop well before seeing the enemy base (where I think it 
is), and fire a zen arrow or two at a rice paddy and/or water source. This 
pretty much scopes out the entire camp. Then, I get as close as I can without 
being spotted, and let my fire archers go at the outermost tower(s) and 
buildings. The cool thing about upgraded archers is that they have the 
longest range in the game, and can hit towers without being hit back. 
Anything else is toast to a tower. The enemy then sends a force to get the 
archers, but it's too late. The buildings are burning. Retreat the archers, 
shut off fire arrow, and let your army ambush the enemy defenders who rush 
out. Once that battle ends, I rush into the CENTER of the enemy camp, to take 
out the last towers and military buildings first. Turn the fire arrows back 
on, and let your zen archers shoot troops. Huts and peasants can wait until 
last, and they usually get caught up in the shuffle anyway. Sometimes, I use 
the Dragon spirit on a clump of towers and enemy forces to make the enemy's 
defense paper thin for my all-out assault. 
The Serpent Raiders can be used the same way, except I don't think they have 
the range to avoid tower fire, so speed and caltrops is more necessary. They 
key is to cause fire and chaos in the enemy camp before actually attacking 
all-out. The AI re-trains troops unfairly fast, so you want to have as much 
of the place on fire as possible while you are fighting." - ADK, 13 Dec 01

"I like to use dragon warriors with the flame sword, archers with fire arrow, 
kabuki warriors with flashpowder, and maybe some 2 or 3 giesha thrown in for 
healing. It just feels good to watch your opponents' town go down in flames 
while their warriors are being killed, thanks to flash powder. Oh yeah make 
sure to upgrade your archers in both range and damage." - EniGmo, 16 Dec 01

"I use Dragon Warriors and Archers, both for attack and defend, equip the 
Dragon Warriors with fire sword, make a short work on enemy buildings. Don't 
use fire arrow on archer, not useful to unit. Don't forget to fully upgrade 
them." - xyzzealot, 1 Dec 01

"A mix of 3 kabuki warriors with flash powder!!! (nuff said the coolest 
ability in this clan) and a 5-6 dragon warrior(has strong magical 
resistance/explosive) combo is very effective against lotus, back up of 
course with 8 archers/canoneers, which is also very effective because of it 
explosive and piercing damage. Samurais aren't as effective against lotus, 
cause it has poor defense against magic/explosives, but they are very 
effective against wolf clan cause its resistance against non magical 
stuff...I also suggest not using samurais till mid-final stages of the game 
where you have upgraded everything and have built up a lot of yang point, 
samurais do extreme amount of damage with yang blade!" - goldnarmz, 6 Dec 01

"Watchtowers: Your most forward building. Put your armies right in front of 
the most forward building or take some distance from the towers, but don't 
too far. I use archers with range upgrade at towers. When the Lotus attacks, 
they will target the towers first. Don't rush them yet... Wait until their 
melee units come to the towers, or all of their ranged units target the 
tower. When they do this, rush them, you'll find them unprepared for melee 
attack. My defending team only consist of 3-4 archers, 1 geisha, and the rest 
are Dragon Warriors or Samurais, balance their number. After I finish all the 
upgrade and gather the heroes, I start the counter attack. The attack team 
consist of Arah, Kenji, Kazan, 1 geisha, Tao, 2-3 archers, 2-3 Dragon 
Warriors or Samurais. But I need to play hide and seek here... The ninjas are 
only for defend, even they are stronger from normal units, they still easily 
killed." - xyzzealot, 1 Dec 01

"Effective unit against Lotus? Well, I recommend .... ARCHER! Yes, archer. 
try to mix them with Samurai and Geisha and Lotus is history. (If you got 
Arah, you'll have a major advantage against lotus since she can kill most of 
units, even warlock, in 2-3 hits from very very very long range)." - 
Paetanat, 2 Dec 01 

2.3 SERPENT CLAN STRATEGY
-------------------------
"I normally jack up on musketeers especially with snipe shot. Against wolf I 
use blast shot sometimes too. i like crossbowmen weaken shot. I usually get 
lots of bandits with that and sometimes a couple of ronin with blood bond. 
Raiders are more back up type units. I like to bond my ronin with canoneers 
or geisha and i leave at least 1 geisha per character. I also mix in 
swordsmen. Budo is especially useful as a peasant taskmaster, i get her asap 
so i can withdraw some of my peasants while i mass create my units. She also 
serves as a peasant guard in case of that lotus teleporter dude." - blaisem, 
27 Nov 01 

"Bandits and Musketeers. I don't use Ronins for combat, only for calling the 
Necromancer. The Necromancer never engaged in battle, only take some distance 
from combat field and start summoning. Bandits and Musketeers have more 
upgrades than the Ronins." - xyzzealot, 1 Dec 01

2.4 LOTUS CLAN STRATEGY
-----------------------
"What I like about the Lotus is Issyl (Scholar of time) he haste our units to 
incredible speed, you must figure out this too if you want to take down a 
good Lotus player! You could use this trick to speed up your resources just 
like Budo!." - Freakazoid, 4 Dec 01

"Blade acolyte, Deseased One, Warlock, and if you got some spare time, Master 
Warlock. Blade acolyte for their splash melee attack... yep, watch their 
blade, area attack. Deseased One, when they die.... the bring some enemy with 
them and poisoned them. Warlock.... a very powerful long range unit. Master 
Warlock is a good melee and long range, watch their claw for melee. I use 
Zymeth first and then the one with ability to summon golems (forget his 
name). This can make 3 free peasants to become military unit." - xyzzealot, 1 
Dec 01

"If the enemy is above 3 or 4 you need a watch tower (just 2). I think the 
best unit for watchtowers is Zymeth & Master Warlock. Just beside them put 
warlocks & master warlocks (don't forget to select them & press "N") & Issyl 
(Scholar of Time-select & press "O") in the middle of your troops, when the 
enemy attacks, click Issyl & use his skill. Repeat until you have 8 Warlocks, 
8 Master Warlocks, 4 Chaneller (if I spell it correct) on horses. I usually 
put the warlocks on team 1, master warlocks on team 2 (following/guarding 
warlocks), 4 chaneller(2 guard warlock, 2 guard master warlocks), and don't 
forget to bring Zymeth. This could finish off all enemies without loosing any 
unit! This doesn't work against a good human player!" - Freakazoid, 3 Dec 01 

2.5 WOLF CLAN STRATEGY
----------------------
"Berserkers, Sledgers, Brawlers. I use Druideses (how to spell them?) for 
watchtower, with this, they can safely annoy enemy attack force with their 
entangle ability, but I never see them healing ally.... All of the Wolf 
Clan's melee unit are strong even the Brawler, the standard one. Only 
sometimes, I use Werewolf, if I have time to micromanage the process. Try to 
get Shale Lord (the big guy with black skin) or Longtooth ( the guy with 
boomerang ). If you have a chance, use Wolfs too, their main use is to 
overwhelm enemy number." - xyzzealot, 1 Dec 01

"Druidess NEVER heal ally. They don't have ability to heal. You should notice 
that ALL of Wolf's units have faster healing rate than other clans. That's 
why ... no heal unit for them...except for Gaihla (sp?) the Nymph's ability 
to 'group heal'. IMO, if you really want to heal the wolf, upgrade the 
'natural healing' and see how fast they recover (you have to stand by and do 
nothing though). So, the tactic for Wolf that I recommend is....hit the enemy 
fast and hard. Try to equip every unit with Shale Armor (some can't equip the 
armor, i.e. Werewolves) because it gives resistance against explosion and 
..something.. when the units get low on health, use the 'passive mode' on 
them so they'll stand idle and heal themselves." - Paetanat, 2 Dec 01

"I think wolf is best used in maps where a rice field is far from the water 
source. its beacause the wells of the wolf clan don't required anything else 
but rice. This means that it would be quicker to get out those maulers, 
hurlers and bersekers. And since you'll be using wolf, get the shale lord 
out. This monster kicks building arse really good!!!! :)" - RaZoRBacK, 6 Dec 
01  
 
2.6 AGAINST LOTUS
-----------------
2.6.1 General
-------------
"Samurai = perfect, don't use ki sword, use the battlegear that makes them 
immune to ranged attacks, you don't need to micromanage, just group them and 
press b(make sure they are in a group by themselves so you don't trigger 
other unit types' battle gear, all you do is press b aim for the warlocks and 
then watch lotus die, the rest of the lotus squad can't stand up to samurai, 
works all the time, i used it in every mission with lotus, as long as their 
ranged units can't harm me they die fast." - Gotaiken, 29 Nov 01 

"I found that chemists are more useful than archers against most lotus units. 
Actually, I still think kabuki warriors are your best bet against lotus. If 
you rush the enemy with dragon warriors and samurai, then bring the kabuki 
with the chemists, they'll have enough time to use stardust and negate the 
more powerful attacks." - Spite7, 30 Nov 01

"What makes Lotus so good is because every single one of their 2nd and 3rd 
tier units can deal large amounts of damage in a wide radius. Diseased ones 
do A LOT more damage upon death compared to a Samurai. Unclean ones do lots 
of area effect damage with each attack, and upon death, they blind all units 
within range (like Kabuki Flash Powder). Infested Ones can upgrade their 
damage AND area-effect radius! Warlocks have a battlegear which has a HUGE 
area-effect radius that can wipe out armies fast with multiple use. Master 
Warlocks have a battlegear which makes all of their hits go through multiple 
enemies. My point is that no matter how big your army is, the Lotus can 
easily wipe them all out while using considerably less units. With that in 
mind, the way to counter Lotus is through the use of ranged units. The more 
units you have upfront, the more units you lose....so you only need around 
1/4th of your army composed of melee units. I've beaten the Dragon Campaign 
with no trouble at all with 3/4ths of my army composed of Archers, Chemists, 
and Powder Kegs. The rest of my army consists of units with BG that negate or 
stall damage (i.e. Dragon Skin, Chi Shield, Stardust, and Flash Powder)." - 
Integnos, 30 Nov 01

"8 fully upgraded Archers (no BG) can take out 6 Warlocks(no BG)? Thats 
right, 8 first tier Dragon units (240 rice/240 water/8 trains) can take out 6 
third tier Warlock units(540 rice/540 water/18 trains). So the only way Lotus 
range is stronger than Dragon is if the Lotus trained 2 times longer. 6 
Cannoneers can take out 8 Warlocks, too." - Integnos, 30 Nov 01

"I learned that serpent musketeers simple ping the lotus to death .. 6 of 
these will wipe out one whole lotus offence .. add the explosive charges to 
them and they can easily demolish the building... add a couple of samurai, 
bandits, and or ronins, with 2 gieshas, and there you go, an unstoppable 
force." - AzNxRomeOx, 8 Dec 01   

2.6.2 Warlock
-------------
"Send any melee unit at it and they will go down. If u are wolf make sure the 
unit is shaled or in a berserkers case, shaled or blessed dragon, any melee 
unit, but try to get a dragon warrior at them asap. Serpent, any melee unit, 
but i have found bandits particularly effective, also, if u need to buy some 
time and cant get swordsmen at them, use your musketeers. Musketeers are 
resistant to magic, so just let them blast away (BG would be nice) and the 
warlocks attacks won't hurt them much. u only need a couple of units to get 
them to stop firing ranged since usually most adjacent units will 
automatically stop and start attacking a melee unit. Oh and btw, careful with 
samurai or ronin, they will get owned by their ranged attack. If u have a 
mixed force things shouldn't go too bad. If u are lotus, just use a mixed 
force of infested, unclean, and diseased." - blaisem, 16 Dec 01  
 
"As dragon i use dragon warrior and spearmen" - EniGmo, 16 Dec 01

"Basically when you're in defender side, you can use watchtower as a decoy 
for the warlocks. Wait until they attack the tower and then rush them with 
melee unit. 
As Dragon: use Dragon Warriors, they have magic resistance. 
As Wolf: use Berserkers, if you don't have time for them, you can use other 
melee unit. Basically, all Wolf units have magic resistance... I play 
skirmish and see this, even Master Warlock cannot easily harm them. 
As Serpent: Bandits with poison upgrade. 
As Lotus: Warlock vs Warlock or 2nd tier unit to fight them." - xyzzealot, 16 
Dec 01

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3.0 WALKTHROUGH
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3.1 DRAGON PATH
---------------

3.1.1 Attacking Shinja (2/3 Mission)
------------------------------------
"There is a higher ground in the middle of the enemy base, just move some 
archers there and make a watch tower there too, make some dragon warrior just 
incase the enemy moves. With this strategy, the enemy usually doesn't move 
when you shoot them with your arrow. Kill all of the enemy troops, destroy 
the Keep, hit Shinja till Yellow all by your archers from above and you won't 
be attacked by the enemy!" - Freakazoid, 14 Dec 01

"If it's your first mission, do this: take your peasant(s) and make a hut. 
Immediately designate a peasant to building another peasant hut, next to your 
first one. The next two peasants go to rice and the third to water. After 
that, when your peasant finishes, try to make a dojo/tavern next to both of 
your peasant huts. if you don't have enough resources, put him on rice. When 
u get 4 people on rice, put another person on water, put spare peasants on 
rice and water, the most you should have on rice is 6 peasants and on water 3 
(i use 2 on water and 5 on rice). Once you start getting a reasonable flow of 
rice and water, you should have a dojo and 2 huts. Now repeat this two more 
times, getting 2 huts per dojo/tavern. For each two huts, double right click 
on a dojo/tavern. Attack in groups of 6 or 7, and once u are finished 
building, reduce rice to two peasants and water to 1. After your first few 
attacks, he should be on the defensive, reduce rice to one peasant for more 
attacks. Don't leave any spearmen defending. Worst comes to worst, your zen 
masters should be able to handle any attack shinja can muster. By the end of 
the mission you should be attacking in squads of seven. Ah and, upgrade 
attack first, then life. 
"If u are on your second time through, do as above, but build your peasant 
hut to the south in the middle of the rice fields next to the water. Station 
the rest of your base at the top of the rice fields. Your second dojo/tavern 
should be a target range/sharpshooting guild instead. Designate one of your 
dojo's/taverns to double right click on the target range. Build your 
watchtower in the small forest at the top of the rice field, it should be the 
building that the enemy will run into anyways, provided u squished everything 
together, and anyways his range should hit them. Make archers at the top of 
the watchtowers in case u didnt know. oh and take out his mini base of 
dragon/serpent recruits first, then position 3 or 4 archers on the cliff to 
the left side of his base. Demolish your tower and place it in the middle of 
the entrance to his base (the one on the right). Then lure his big ass army 
out, and use your watchtowers abilities plus your archers on the cliff along 
with some close range warriors. A couple tries should kill them all off. Then 
raze his peasant hut. Forgot to say, your zen masters should defend your lone 
peasant hut. Provided u move fast enough, it shouldn't be hit (I've never 
been attacked there, only once from the north)." - blaisem, 16 Dec 01

"I beat the game by first putting a lot of archers on the hill overlooking 
the valley in which Shinja's fort sits. Then take 1 or 2 spearmen and lure 
the enemy into the range of your archers. Repeat as necessary. Unfortunately, 
you will be sacrificing spearmen, but it is a pretty low cost for big 
results. Be sure to upgrade your archers with Zen Accuracy and Arrow 
Craftsmanship before starting the process. Once you clear the valley of 
personnel, start to whack away at the buildings. You will have to contend 
with the occasional peasant, but they are easy pickings. Once you've cleared 
all the peasants and peasant huts, it's smooth sailing. BTW I recommend at 
least 5 archers, preferably 7-8 to do this." - VALiloceu, 14 Dec 01

3.1.2 At the Swans' Pool
------------------------
"I play this level by grouping Kenji, Otomo, and Shinja as 1 group and the 
rest as one group. 1 group guard the north side, the other the south part." - 
xyzzealot, 5 Dec 01

3.1.3 Kill all Lotus (tempting, but not quite) :)
-------------------------------------------------
"My strategy for beating it was to take over the Lotus' northwest outpost 
right at the beginning. If you know how to micromanage, you can destroy the 
base without losing a single unit with your starting troops. After that, I 
just surrounded the southeast end of the base with watchtowers. I got a bunch 
of upgraded archers(8+), a few powder kegs(4-6), a few geishas(2-3), some 
Dragon Warriors with chi shield(4-6), and all the Heros I had, then started 
destroying the other Lotus bases as early as I could." - Integnos, 4 Dec 01

"That mission is a simple one, you need to build a base at top left of the 
map.  
It's not heavily guarded, you can take them down easily. 
Send all you have to the base, build a peasant hut at the bottom of the pool. 
With this you can start generating peasant. Told your peasant to help with 
the attack. Soon you have more ( about 4 peasants ) use 2 of them to collect 
rice and water. Try to clear up the building at the middle first, this is 
important so you'll have enough freespace to build a dojo and start cranking 
out spearman. When building the dojo, try to put it almost at the mouth of 
the entry area, this place is small but with enough room management, you can 
build all kind of building plus 4 peasant hut but with no tower.... I wasn't 
using any tower that time, but I win. After you clear out the enemy, start 
defending and crack out Dragon Warrior. If you get Arah early, she is the 
main key to attack the enemy. If not, you'll nedd a good strategy management 
to keep your men alive when attacking. 
A bunch of Dragon Warrior with a few Geisha can hold out for some time. Use 
you heroes for this. 
At this level too, you can get a Lotus hero... forget his name though. 
Just take it easy, you'll find the Lotus weakness, very soon." - xyzzealot, 7 
Dec 01

"I agree with xyzzealot on base setting area which is the northwest area. 
However i didn't go straight for the attack. There's small rice field at the 
entrance of the area which u may built some peasant hut and get some rice. 
By the time u clear up the pond area, u should have enough rice and peasants 
to get a good start. There's also an enemy building north to the rice field. 
U should get rid of that too. Just use two of your hero and set the kabuki 
and archer at stand ground but within striking distance. The geisha should be 
used to heal the heroes. If u have enough rice, built an archery range. U 
can't build any archers (not enough water) yet but u may upgrade your one and 
only archer using the yang points u gained destroying the building and some 
enemy units. Upgrade for more damage first. The peasants' hut(s) u build here 
won't last long as the lotust will eventually raid it. But by the time they 
arrived, u should have already transferred your force to the pond area. 
Remember to toggle peasant creation off on these huts once you have built a 
new hut by the pond. Eventhough those's hut will later get crused, u will 
atleast be able to see the incoming enemy force and set up a defense. My 
defend strategy is a little different with xyzzealot, i go for the archers 
instead of dragon warriors. The reason for this is they are must cheaper and 
faster to produce. Furthermore, lotust strength is mostly on its range units. 
So the best defend i think is another range unit, as they seems to take less 
damage. The dragons' archers also got significant advantage in the length. So 
just start creating lotsa archers with 2 archery ranges and group them all at 
the entrance to the area (there's only one entrance) but don't place them at 
the downhill area. Your hero should be able to take those managed to get 
through. 20 archers with fire arrows and some close range back up should be 
able to take care of this level. By the way, be carefull with the base on the 
southwest area as some enemy units may have missile resistance BG." - 
Penjejak Badai, 17 Dec 01

3.1.4 Second Serpentholm
------------------------
"What I did at Serpentholm 2nd, I attack the Serpent force with all I have 
once the game started. I manage to take out their entire peasant hut, making 
them unable to do anything. My peasants already build up a base at the left 
bottom area from the start. With only the spearmen, I manage to hold the 
first Lotus' wave. To hold the next, use Dragon Warriors and watchtowers with 
archer as the decoy. In defending from the Lotus, use towers as decoy. This 
to make their warlock's attack directed to the tower. You can smash them 
after that and repair the tower" - xyzzealot, 11 Dec 01

3.1.5 Helping the Monks 
-----------------------------------
"Run all of your units to the SouthEast corner of the map, and set up a base. 
The Lotus will go for the monastery, and usually leave you alone down there. 
So, send most of your army, and your heroes up to the monastery. Set each 
fighting unit to "guard" the monastery. The high ground there gives a huge 
advantage. Build towers, and just defend for a while. Send a peasant up to 
the monastery to repair it, and have him build a hut and collect rice too. 
Once you have a large army, attack the Lotus. Its a pretty easy level, 
actually, since the monks keep respawning for free." - ADK, 16 Dec 01


3.2 SERPENT PATH
----------------
3.2.1 Second Serpentholm
--------------------
"I've heard a lot of people having trouble with this mission...but its pretty 
easy if you know how to micromanage. Here are the steps I took to secure the 
east side of the map: 
1.) Send the Crossbowman on the lone Watchtower into the Tavern. Put 2 
peasants on water and 3 on rice. Then set the Peasant Hut waypoint straight 
to the Tavern. Send the Ronin, Bandit, and Musketeer into the Thief's Guild. 
2.) Have the initial Ronin Blood Bond with Kenji. Kenji might have his life 
cut in half, but the Ronin can survive 2-4x longer. They both must survive 
skirmishes so they can regenerate health. 
3.) Take out the southern Dragon Clan with your initial units(Bandit, Ronin, 
Musketeer, Kenji). You shouldn't have any casualties if you play it right. 
Use the Bandit's Paralsysis Darts if you come across any Samurai. If one of 
your unit dies, restart...you didn't micromanage and make use of your 
BattleGear very well. Be sure to upgrade Swordsman damage at the Tavern the 
second you receive a Yin point. Upgrade the Swordsman life if you receive 
another 3. 
4.) After you've taken out the southern Dragon Clan, you should have over 5 
Swordsman next to your Tavern. Change your Peasant Hut waypoint and build a 
Bathhouse. Make 2-3 Fan Geishas. Send them to the Thief's Guild. In the 
meantime, take Kenji, the Bandit, Ronin, and Musketeer to your Peasant Hut 
and guard it. Send your second Fan Geisha to Kenji's group. 
5.) After a little bit longer, the northern Wolf Clan will attack. By now you 
should have 6+ fully upgraded Swordsman and a few Fan Geishas. Repel the Wolf 
Clan's onslaught with them. Be sure to use Dark Pact on your Swordsman. Don't 
send Kenji's squad though....they're needed by the Peasant Hut to repel any 
Dragon Clan attacks. 
6.) After you've defended your base from the Wolf Clan, Shinja and the 
Necromancer should arrive. Summon 2 Spirit Warrior's immediately and have 
Shinja's troop march to the Wolf Clan's base. Right as they attack, send your 
army of Swordsman and Fan Geisha into the fray. You should be able to take 
out the Wolf Clan with no trouble. Remember to manually make the Necromancer 
attack things. He does insane amounts of damage, but hates to fight and just 
stands around doing nothing if you don't command him to fight. Kenji's squad 
should have successfully repelled 2+ Dragon Clan attacks by now with no 
casualties. By now you should have destroyed the southern Dragon Clan, the 
northern Wolf Clan, and secured the eastside. You have a lot more breathing 
room so do whatever you want. Personally, I trained all my Swordsmen into 
Bandits, upgraded their damage, sent them into the Thief's Guild, then sent 
every single one of my soldiers(excluding Kenji's Squad) to the westside and 
swept the entire enemy base clean. Non-stop action...I love it! This level is 
great because it forces you to micromanage to win. None of that 'build a huge 
ass army and attack' crap." - Integnos, 24 Nov 01

"I built a Metal Shop a little later then. I was writing it off the top of my 
head and probably forgot. I remember using the Paralysis Darts the most while 
defending the peasants, so I probably took out the southern Dragon Clan 
without it. Be sure that your units aren't all spread around the Wolf Clan 
when attacking it. Its better to attack closely together so your fan geishas 
don't have to walk far to heal. 
Make sure your Musketeer is away from the group with his sniper scope on. 
Make sure you keep using Kenji's Critical Strike as much as you can. Try not 
to have the Bandit get hit by more than 1 Samurai if possible. Kenji and the 
Ronin should take the hits if possible. If you're still having trouble taking 
them out, send 1-2 swordsman to Kenji's group. 
Remember to use battlegear a lot and learn how to micromanage better. Don't 
ever make a unit run if he has a battlegear that uses stamina (like Kenji). 
Try and pull back low life melee units away from battle (ie. run away) if you 
can. When the AI ignores it and attacks another unit, send the unit back in. 
Try and send 1 or 2 units charging at ranged attackers if you can. They won't 
be able to do much if they're engaged in melee. Try and keep enemy units away 
from geishas and ranged attackers. 
Save before a battle. If you lose, try the battle again. You'd be amazed at 
how pulling a few injured units back, attacking specific enemy units, or 
having enemy units attack another unit can turn the tide of a battle." - 
Integnos, 25 Nov 01

"If you float around the main grounds you're going to get reamed no matter 
what you do. Live a little safer. Relocate to the top of Serpentholm where 
your watchtower already is. You have a great vantage point and room to build 
a bunch of buildings. It lacks any rice or water though, so you'll have to 
build a well and get rice with a little more risk. Though being above the 
enemies and giving them only one entrance will definitely help you out and 
make it well worth it. While you're relocating to the mountain top and 
building an army there, keep a couple guys on water/rice duty at your initial 
peasant hut to help build your stock. You should notice an improvement in 
your hold of the land. Oh yeah, also you might want to send the few guys your 
start with down past the mountain to wipe out a lot of the enemy base down 
there (I'm serpent so those were dragon people I believe, and for me anyway 
were easier to critically weaken) that'll give you more breathing room and 
give you much more access to the rice fields down there."  - Comte de la 
Fere, 26 Dec 2001

"This mission is hard, but with correct timing and fast response, you can 
beat it.  
1. Send all military units to demolish Dragon's base at lower map. Watch out 
for towers. Try not to get anyone killed. With 1 peasant hut, use 2 to gather 
water, 3 to rice, and then crack out swordsman. 
2. Once you destroy the lower base, build a tavern and a peasant hut at lower 
rice field. Send your entire peasant for this. And then build a stable and 
well.  
3. Prepare for attack. The wolves are coming. If you have some spare 
resource, build a sharpshooters' guild fast... so you can have bandits.  
4. Build 3 tower to defend from the Dragon only... the wolf are easy to deal 
with... 
5. Train ronin one by one. Once you have upgrade most of your units and have 
all zen master... time to counter attack.  
6. Destroy the west dragon base, that's the main base... Full strength of 
ronin should do... 
7. After this, dealing with the wolf is easy thing, one note... they always 
on losing side when having close combat with ronins. Up to you to destroy 
which base first. (There are 2 of them)." - xyzzealot, 16 Dec 01

Note: Even though this compilation is not really complete, I hope it may 
prove useful to some players. If anything, you may e-mail me at 
amrul77@hotmail.com

Source: www.gamefaqs.com battle realms forum board

Copyright 2001 by Amrul Isham Ismail



