Poseidon Walkthrough: Proteus and Bellerophon

» Episode 1: Boys will be Boys (Lycia)

Goals:
- Population of 1500
- Support 16 Hoplites or Better
- Treasury of 1500

Hints & Tips
This is quite a large area so don't worry too much about planning in advance. There is plenty of room to be less than perfect in the placement of your buildings. A good general strategy is to begin by placing a common housing block in the northeast area and gradually expand towards the southwest. The northeast is close to important meadows (for all your housing improvement needs) and wooded areas.

Wheat will be your best choice for a long-term food source as there is plenty of space for the farms and, in later episodes, you'll need to it feed some horses. Place several farms in the northeast meadows for easy access to your housing.

Be careful when placing Carding Sheds and sheep so that the sheep don't end up wandering towards the wolf packs near the top of the play area. One way to avoid this is to place olive trees (or grapevines) in the meadow near the wolves. The animals won't bother the trees and the trees will keep sheep from wandering near the wolves as they graze. Sheep will be much more comfortable in the northern-most meadow, away from predators. After all, a comfortable sheep is a happy sheep.

Antissa should be your first trading partner and its corresponding trading post should be built relatively early. Soon after this episode begins, Antissa will announce its decision to begin purchasing olives. Since olives can be produced pretty easily, begin exporting them to Antissa as soon as possible. Later on the residents of your housing will want olive oil, and you will be able to either scale back your olive exports or expand your production. Antissa also produces one very important resource that your city cannot produce: bronze. Without bronze you will not be able to produce armor, and no armor means no Hoplites! Be careful not to import bronze too quickly, however. Bronze is quite expensive and can really put a strain on your treasury. Try to import just enough to meet your armor production needs. If armor can be over-produced, the excess can be stored for future episodes or sold to Tiryns.

In this scenario, no one will buy wood and there really isn't anything that can be done with it, so don't harvest wood unless unemployment becomes a problem and your citizens need busy work. If this happens (and it may), remember that wood can be stored and used in later episodes.

Shortly after the scenario begins, Chimera will begin attacking cities. Though you may have military when this happens, don't respond to a city's requests for aid. Without a hero, your troops will be marching to their death. Unfortunately, Bellerophon cannot be summoned until a later episode, so dealing with Chimera will have to wait?

Because of the rocky and narrow coastline, placing Piers can be difficult. This will be particularly problematic if your main city is not near the coast, but don't be too concerned with this. You will be able to produce most of the goods you will need and won't need to resort to much trading until later episodes. If you enjoy trading, meat can be exported to Midea for some extra cash.

Watch your drachmas! It can be easy to overspend and go broke in this episode. When you get to a point where you are able to turn a profit, don't be in too much of a hurry to finish the episode. Taking your time will allow you to pad your treasury and give you a little cushion in later episodes.

» Episode 2: In Memory of Abas (Lycia)

Goals
- Rule Heraeum
- Rule Tiryns
- Rule Midea

Hints & Tips
All three of the cities you must rule are very weak militarily. You should be able to begin attacking them almost immediately. When planning your attacks, try to be aware of three factors:

First, the order in which you conquer the cities doesn't really matter, but Heraeum is the only city that produces a good that your city does not (marble). When you conquer them they will give marble as a yearly tribute. Thus, it may be to your advantage to conquer them early so that you will begin receiving marble as soon as possible. You will need quite a bit of marble in later episodes?

Second, keep producing armor to replace what is lost in combat, and to make sure you maintain as many Hoplites as possible. When sending troops to conquer a city, send every available soldier. This will reduce the chance of the costly (and-time consuming) military rebuilding that comes with defeat.

Lastly, three or four companies (minimum!) of Hoplites should be enough to take the cities, depending on the difficulty level. If you want to have an even greater military superiority, try building a Horse Ranch or two. There should be plenty of wheat available and ample workers as well.

Periodically, you may have to defend your vassals from attack by your other rivals. However, if you strike quickly enough, you will be able to take all three cities before they have much of a chance to try to liberate each other.

Finally, try to build up some cash before heading to the colony episode. Once Antissa begins buying wood, you may as well begin selling it to them since there should be more than enough idle workers and there's always plenty of wood!

» Episode 3: Big Game Hunting

Goals
- Sanctuary to Hera
- Slay the Medusa

Hints & Tips
When this episode begins, make sure you build a Storehouse right away. You will be receiving olive oil and fleece tributes and will need a place to put them. It is very important not to miss these tributes because Heraeum cannot produce either good. Medusa appears early on in the episode in the eastern section of the city, so that area should probably be avoided. Perseus is needed to slay her, but it may take awhile to summon him, as some of his requirements are pretty lofty:

The fleece, sculpture and drachmas should be no problem, so focus on the Sanctuaries. The most difficult part of this episode is that THREE of them must be constructed. Fortunately, Heraeum has a marble quarry! You will want to begin hewing marble as soon as possible because constructing three sanctuaries will require a great deal of marble.

When building sanctuaries, try to build them as close to the marble and bronze areas as possible. If a sanctuary is placed too far away from the materials it needs (marble, wood and sculpture) construction will be slowed. Artisans like building materials to be stored near the construction site, so place Storehouses near the areas where you will build the sanctuaries and store the three sanctuary goods there. This will help you enjoy the benefits of the sanctuaries as early as possible.

It may be best to build Hermes' Sanctuary first since it is the smallest (and easiest to build) and will speed up trade when completed. Remember that Zeus' Sanctuary is enormous and the most difficult to place so make sure to place it before Hera's, ensuring that you have enough open space to place it.

As in previous episodes, ignore the requests for aid in battling Chimera. Though his hall can be built, Bellerophon cannot yet be summoned. The hall needs horses and no Horse Ranch can be built in this episode.

Place a Pier to Lycia early. The narrow waterways provide only a few good sites for Piers and placing it early will keep you from inadvertently building where you want to place a Pier. You will need to trade some bronze to Lycia to keep your treasury in good shape. Be aware that you will have to produce A LOT of sculpture over the course of this episode (over 40 pieces!), so make sure your bronze production is adequate for export and for supplying your Sculpture Studios.

Don't bother with elite housing in this episode. There isn't much military activity, and should any enemy invade Heraeum, they can either be bribed or crushed in a highly entertaining manner by Zeus once his sanctuary is completed. Corinth will eventually cause trouble, demanding things and harassing your allies/vassals. If they become hostile, they may attack, so remember Zeus's sanctuary!

Medusa will be more aggressive at higher difficulty levels, so be sure to give her a wide berth.

» Episode 4: A Question of Etiquette (Lycia)

Goals
- Fulfill a forthcoming quest

Hints & Tips
There will be a couple of early invasions, but they should be nothing to worry about if you've been maintaining your military forces adequately. By this point, you should have at least 10-12 elite houses in order to have a military that will make things easy on yourself. It may be worthwhile to take the city of Solymi in order to secure another source of bronze, but this city will revolt and liberate itself at the end of the episode.

A tidal wave occurs in the south by the Piers, so be wary of building extensively in that area.

This is a pretty straightforward episode. Just meet the requirements of Bellerophon's Hall and fend off any attacks. Bellerophon requires:

» Episode 5: If You Can't Beat Him, Join Him (Lycia)

Goals
- Rule Themiscrya
- Rule Solymi
- Slay A Monster

Hints & Tips
This is similar to the previous episode. The monster is Chimera and while you are waiting for him to turn up, feel free to attack Themiscrya and Solymi. You can also attack any of your other rivals if you have any and have time. You may have already conquered some of these cities in previous episodes, so this episode may be rather short.

» Episode 6: Revenge

Goals
- Treasury of 30000
- Slay A Monster
- Population of 3000

Hints & Tips
Again, several of these goals may already be met when the episode begins. Try to meet the requirements of Bellerophon's Hall as early as possible (watch your bronze supply!) so that damage from the Echidna will be minimized. Bellerophon requires:

» Episode 7: The Wheel of Fortune Spins

Goals
- Sanctuary to Apollo
- Fulfill a Forthcoming Quest

Hints & Tips
Begin building Apollo's sanctuary right away because you will have to wait a while to receive the quest from Hera. You will need to import marble from Heraeum in order to complete the sanctuary so be sure you have plenty of storage space around the area where you build it. You may also want to export any excess goods (especially wine to Heraeum) to free some storage space.
When you receive Hera's quest, build Bellerophon's Hall and dispatch him when he arrives in the city. Bellerophon requires:

If you choose to continue playing after this adventure is done, quite a large city can be constructed on this area. How high can you get your population?