Zeus Walkthroughs: Peloponnesian War
» Episode I: A Kingdom Reborn
Goals- 800 people in homestead or better
Hints & Tips
Welcome to Sparta! You will take this rather unproductive swath of land and turn it into an empire. But first, you need to begin building a city.
The only resources that can be produced at Sparta are wheat and pork. However, you begin the adventure with a large number of trading partners. Use them to help you in your journey towards greatness. Wheat can be exported to two of your allies, which means you can make money selling wheat, and also earn favor giving it to them as gifts. The development of a large wheat industry should therefore be your first priority.
Start by building a common housing block not too far from the immigrant entrance point at the top of the playing area. You can build a few hunting lodges to produce a quick supply of food, but begin building wheat farms as soon as your employment situation allows.
To get your housing up to homestead level, you need to provide the houses with food, fleece, some neighborhood appeal, and at least one form of culture. You may want to withhold one of these to put off advancing to the next episode until you have a thriving wheat export industry up and running. When ready, move on to episode 2.
» Episode 2: Sparta on the Rise
Goals- Sanctuary to Ares
- Rule Olympia
Hints & Tips
These two goals should probably be attempted in the order shown. Once you build Ares' Fortress, you can send him and his Sparti to conquer Olympia.
You must acquire all the goods for the Fortress from abroad. You can request the goods as gifts, or acquire them through trade. Note that Athens and Thermopylai produce plenty of marble and bronze. Butter them up with gifts of wheat, then request those other goods to help build the Fortress. Buy wood from the distant city of Phoenicia.
Note that the Fortress only requires 2 sculpture to be completed. Any sculpture you produce after that can be exported to Corinth for huge profits.
Some of your allies may become nervous at your rising prominence in the world and decide to invade your city. You can bribe them off if you like, but, at this early stage in the game, your rabble units should be more than enough to fight off the enemy. Here's a tip: to select more than one unit, first left-click at the base of a standard in the Palace. With that unit selected, left-click and drag the mouse around multiple standards to select them all. They can then be moved and given orders as a group. Place the units between your city and the enemy and they will pummel the bad guys with a hail of stones. If you have built Ares' Fortress, his Dragon may join in the fray, torching your enemies to a fine crisp!
When you complete the Fortress, you are ready to conquer Olympia. You can try to accomplish this with Ares and his Guard alone. Or you can also send along an ally. You may need to improve relations with one of your allies to get their favor up high enough to request a military strike. When you are ready, first pray to Ares by right-clicking on his Fortress, and then pressing the button to pray. If he's in the mood, he will offer to join you on your conquest. Then go to world level and enlist the two Ares' Guard units (preferably with an ally) to conquer Olympia. Once they are sent, Ares will let you know if he himself is joining them. It may take a few tries, but eventually those pesky Olympians will succumb to your onslaught and you will be ready to advance to Episode 3.
» Episode 3: War with Persia
Goals- 20 skeins of fleece for colony
- 20 sheaves of wheat for colony
- 2 sanctuaries
- 80 people in mansion or better
Hints & Tips
In this is a challenging episode you will enter into global politics on a higher level. You will develop a powerful military and a formidable set of immortal allies to help you on your way. Your enemies will become increasingly hostile, and you may find that you need to fend off a number of invasions before your work is done.
The two most important and challenging goals are to build a second sanctuary and to develop a large elite housing district. Tackle the elite housing first. Build these in a separate area from your common housing. It's expensive to accumulate all the goods these elite folks need, but once you have their housing up and running, the taxes they pay will more than make up for it.
To save money, import raw materials and convert them into the goods needed. You can produce armor and olive oil this way. Both of these goods can also be exported for profit. Develop highly-evolved elite houses as quickly as possible to maximize your tax income and to provide you with a powerful military units. Mansions can provide you with two hoplites each. However, you may wish to take your elite houses to higher levels by supplying them with wine and horses. The highest level of housing - Estate - can support up to four Horsemen each. Since Horsemen are twice as strong as Hoplites when attacking on the world level, that means an Estate provides you with four times the military strength of a Mansion.
When your elite housing is up and running, start building a second Sanctuary. The forge of Hephaestus provides copper ore deposits, from which you can make the armor you need to supply your army. He will also supply Talos to help defend your city. Artemis will supply your city with two companies of Amazon warriors. Imagine what that would do for the night-life in your city! The Oracle of Apollo gives you the ability to see into the future. Also, Apollo will chase away just about any invading god from your city.
Now that you have a powerful army and a few gods on your side, you are ready to move on to the colony mission. But don't rush. Take some time in Sparta to accumulate more money through trade. You can also indulge in all sorts of military escapades on the world level. Try your hand at raiding and conquest. The fewer rivals you have going into the colony episode, the better. Of course, if you want to be a real pain in the neck, you can try to conquer your allies as well. But beware: attacking allies tends to make them really angry at you.
When you are ready, set aside the fleece and wheat for your colony and move on. You will have a choice between two colonies. We will provide Hints and Tips for both Taras and Ithaca, however, you only get to play one colony in Peloponnesian War, so choose wisely.
» Episode 4a: The First Skirmishes (Taras Colony)
Goals- Fulfill a forthcoming quest (Diomedes' Mare)
- Rule Odessos
Hints & Tips
Taras takes place on a tiny playing area with very little room for mistakes. There are abundant meadows on the mainland and on four landmasses separated by water. You can raise sheep and grow grapes in Taras, and there are boars and fish for food.
Your top priority is to build a decent city of Common Housing while still leaving enough space for an Elite Housing district. There are several ways to go about this, but here's one approach: Build your common housing on the large central island. Develop your fleece industry on the smaller island, and your wine industry on the mainland along the left-hand edge of the playing area. Make sure you have bridges and roads connecting each part of your city. You will receive wheat and fleece from Sparta so you should be able to get your housing up and running quickly. Set up a fishing industry. Import and/or request olive oil. You will need it for both housing types. Your quest will be announced at some point, but hold off on building the Hero's Hall to Hercules until you start on the Elite Housing.
Once you have enough surplus labor, build your elite housing neighborhood on the large landmass to the lower right of the playing area. You will have to import olive oil, armor, and wheat. Use the wheat to supply a horse ranch or two so you can evolve your Elite Houses into Estates. These will not only provide you with a powerful army, but will also supply plenty of tax revenues. Also, export excess fleece for profit. If you need money, you can also export wine, but remember that you will eventually need a large stock to summon Hercules.
Place the Hero's Hall to Hercules amongst the elite houses to take advantage of their excellent cultural access. Right-click on the Hall to see what Hercules requires to come to your city. Here is a list of his needs:
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- Hercules hall has excellent cultural access
- Win any Pan-Hellenic Game
- Excellent city wide gymnasium access
- 1,500 people in the city
- 32 amphorae of wine
When you are ready, summon Hercules. Once you have summoned him, begin exporting wine. When he arrives, send him on his quest right away. To do so, click the overview tab on the control panel, and click on the green box next to Ares' request. Hercules is the only one you need to dispatch. Once the quest is complete, the location of Odessos will be revealed.
Wait until Hercules returns before you set off to conquer Odessos. By now, you should have evolved your elite housing far enough to have several elite military units. Head to the world map and dispatch those troops, along with Hercules and an ally if you like. When you have conquered Odessos, you can return to Sparta a Hero in your own right!
» Episode 4b: The First Skirmishes (Ithaca Colony)
Goals- Slay a monster (Scylla)
- Slay a monster (Cyclops)
- Rule Delos
- Support 2 Triremes
Hints & Tips
Like Taras, Ithaca is made up of a string of islands. However, it has more room on which to build. You're going to need it, since this episode requires a lot of workers.
The introduction to Ithaca provides some good strategic hints. Two fearsome monsters, both of which require Odysseus to be killed, will terrorize you. Scylla is a particularly nasty monster who will make it hard for you to gather food from the seas around Ithaca. Therefore, make summoning Odysseus your primary goal. The requirements for his Hall include:
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- Excellent popularity
- Excellent city-wide health
- 8 elite houses
- 32 jugs of olive oil
- 16 amphorae of wine
Start by building your housing block not too far from the immigrant entrance in the top-right corner of the playing area. Gather urchins along the shore and set up Fisheries for additional food. Hint: you can greatly increase the yield from urchin gatherers and fishermen by following two rules. First, place the Fisheries and Urchin Quays as close as possible to the food source. Second, place an "accepting" granary right next to the buildings. These two steps can more than double rate at which these workers gather and store food. To get food to your housing, build a granary near the agora set to "get" fish and urchins.
Scylla will occasionally drop in on your coastal food industries and mangle a few buildings. Be quick to replace any that are lost.
You will receive gifts of food and fleece from Sparta, so build a Granary and Storehouse to store them. These should help you evolve your housing up to Tenement level while you begin expanding your city. You will eventually need to import fleece. To further evolve your housing, import olive oil as well.
Set up a large marble industry. Marble can be exported to Elis and Olympia. Note that Hermes will continuously harass Elis during the episode, often cutting off trade with them. Still, even when you aren't able to trade with Elis, you can send them gifts of marble to butter them up, and then request goods or cash from them in return.
You will need fleece and olive oil just to place the eight elite houses, in addition to the amount you will need stored to summon Odysseus. You have a choice. You can import and/or request these goods early in the mission, or you can take the time to develop triremes to raid your rivals for the goods, as suggested in the introduction. Triremes require wood, armor, and lots of workers. You can produce wood with Timber Mills. For armor you can import it, request it, or manufacture it with imported bronze. Importing bronze and exporting armor is also a good way to make lots of money in Ithaca.
Whether you get the goods for Odysseus by guile or by force, move quickly. Already Scylla is harassing your shores, and Cyclops is on the way. To summon Odysseus, you also need to have excellent popularity. Popularity can be seen on the overview control panel tab. Increase popularity by lowering taxes and raising wages. Keep an eye on your employment situation, since tinkering with wages affects the number of workers in your workforce.
You also need to ensure that you have excellent citywide health. Use the hygiene overlay in the hygiene and safety control panel to see which houses need healer access.
Once you accomplish all these goals, summon Odysseus. Hopefully, you will be able to do this before the Cyclops invades.
Having killed the monsters, you need only build two triremes (if you haven't already) and conquer Delos. Sending the two triremes and Odysseus should be enough, but if you throw in a few hoplites and maybe the help of an ally, you will be sure to triumph. Then it's on the grand finale!
» Episode 5: All Out War
Goals- Rule Athens
- Rule Amphipolis
- Rule Delos
- Rule Eritrea
- 50 people in Estate or better
Hints & Tips
Having completed your colony mission, you are now headed back to Sparta to complete your rise to dominate all of Greece. Your colony will appear on the world map, and depending upon which you chose, you will have different import/export goods available to you at this time. Taras sells fleece and wine, and buys armor and olive oil. Ithaca sells wood and marble, and buys wheat and fleece. Even though a number of trading partners have switched over to the Athenian side, you should still be able to access all the goods you need to keep your city going, and to expand your elite housing as you prepare to begin your conquests.
To get your elite houses up to Estate, provide them with wine and horses in addition to everything else.
Expect some attacks from your uppity rivals. If they invade by land, they will enter the playing area at the same spot as the immigrants and traders. You can build a tight defense in this area, using walls and towers. Also, place rabble units on the high ground. They can pelt the invaders with rocks but will be safe from any frontal assault. You can use your elite units and walls to hold the enemy in place while your rabble rains down a hail of stones from above.
If the invaders attack by sea, place your rabble along the riverside. They might be able to sink a few of the transports before they make it to shore and unload their troops.
When you have conquered the rivals listed above, and met the housing goal, you have won the Peloponnesian War!