Yellow Jackets Walkthrough

You hold a small Aramon outpost in the north-west corner: a Barracks, 2 Watch Towers, a Lodestone, a Mage Builder and 8 soldiers. The rest of the map belongs to an Aramon army of 103 units, with 8 Strongholds, 13 Watch Towers, a Trebuchet and 3 Keeps. Its Barracks in the south starts training troops in the first second. You win when all 3 Keeps are destroyed. Nothing else has to die.

In the first 18 minutes, 4 raids come for you, and each one is told to hunt a particular kind of unit. Beat them at home while you spread onto the sacred sites near your base. Then take the Keeps one at a time with Catapults, which out-range every tower Aramon owns. The mission sets the same forces at every difficulty, and it runs no script of its own.

The Battlefield

The map is a long strip, 2592 pixels wide and 4000 deep. Your base stands on open grass in the north-west corner. East of it, a strip of bare earth dotted with stones runs south, and a round pond lies in the northern fields. Aramon's paved city runs down the east edge and across the south. A walled yard in the north-east holds a Barracks, a line of Strongholds and Watch Towers guards the east side, and 2 Keeps stand in the southern city. The third Keep is on its own in the north-east corner.

Map of Yellow Jackets 1234567ABCDEFGH
The planEnemy positionsYour unitsEnemy unitsNeutralHover a dot to see the unit and its orders. · Map 2,592 × 4,000 pixels · Scroll or pinch on the map to zoom; drag to move. Hover over a feature or a resource for its details.
  • 1Your Lodestone, on a site rated 2.0. Both of your Watch Towers can reach it.
  • 2A free sacred site rated 2.0. It lies on the path of the 5:00 raid.
  • 3Another free 2.0 site, south-west of the base.
  • 4The first Catapult post. The Stronghold at (1968,576) is 703 away and the Watch Tower at (1968,384) is 635 away.
  • 5The second post. From here the Watch Tower at (2400,96) is 587 away and the Keep at D is 661 away.
  • 6The middle of the map, out of reach of every Aramon tower. A Trebuchet built here reaches all 3 Keeps.
  • 7The southern siege post. Both southern Keeps are 691 away.
  • A3 Horsemen and a Knight. At 5:00 they attack your Lodestones, then any Trebuchet, then your Mage Builders.
  • B12 soldiers, a Catapult among them, wait here until 17:30. Of the 4 Assassins, 3 also start here.
  • C4 Knights. At 10:00 they come for your Catapults first.
  • DThe north-east Keep, with a Watch Tower at (2400,96) beside it.
  • EThe western Keep in the south. From 30:00 it trains Knights, Mage Archers and Barbarians. The Barracks just east of it trains from the first second.
  • FThe eastern Keep in the south. A Stronghold stands 307 away at (2512,3424).
  • GAramon's Trebuchet, with a range of 2700. Its only order is to wait until 30:00.
  • HThe Barracks in the walled north-east yard. It starts training at 20:00.

The Aramon Timetable

Time What happens
From the start An Acolyte of Anu inside your base walks east to (1264,1872) and then to (2464,1808). 9 of your units are ordered to attack it. The southern Barracks starts training 2 Mage Builders, 10 Horsemen, 10 Archers and 5 Catapults, and repeats that order 14 times.
5:00 3 Horsemen and a Knight from A attack your Lodestones, then Trebuchets, then Mage Builders.
7:30 4 cloaked Assassins walk to (1680,1904), then west to (192,1904). From there they attack your Archers, then your Swordsmen.
10:00 4 Knights from C attack your Catapults, Swordsmen, Archers, Knights and Mage Archers, in that order.
17:30 The 12 soldiers at B attack your Strongholds, then Watch Towers, then Trebuchets.
20:00 The Barracks at H starts training 5 Horsemen, 5 Archers, 5 Catapults and a Mage Builder, 16 times over.
30:00 The Keep at E starts training 10 Knights, 10 Mage Archers and 10 Barbarians. The waits end for the Trebuchet, the Keep at D and 17 other units. The data gives them no further orders.
35:00 The wait on the Keep at F ends, with no further orders.

The Plan

Hold the Base (0:00 to 18:00)

  1. Let your units deal with the Acolyte of Anu at the start. It has 2300 hit points, and your 3 Archers, the Watch Tower at (112,352) and the Mage Builder are all within range of it. If it gets away, do not follow it. Its path ends at (2464,1808), next to the soldiers at B and within reach of 2 Strongholds.
  2. Have the Mage Builder put a Lodestone on the site at 3. It costs 280 mana and adds 20 mana per second. Leave the site at 2 until the 5:00 raid is beaten, because it lies between the raiders and your base. Train a second Mage Builder at the Barracks so that building never stops.
  3. Before 5:00, gather the Swordsmen and Barbarians by the Lodestone at 1. The raid from A brings 3 Horsemen with 4050 hit points each and a Knight with 5911. Fight them there, under both Watch Towers. A Barbarian's sword does 640 damage.
  4. Keep training Archers and Swordsmen. At 7:30, 4 Assassins come in from the south, by way of (192,1904), and go for your Archers. An Assassin has only 500 hit points, so keep Swordsmen and Barbarians standing next to the Archers.
  5. At 10:00, 4 Knights come from C. They want Catapults first. If you have none yet, they go for your Swordsmen and Archers. Fight them under the towers again.
  6. Add 1 or 2 Watch Towers (2751 mana each) near 1. At 17:30 the group at B goes for Strongholds and Watch Towers, so your towers draw it into your whole army. Kill its Catapult first, because its range of 750 is longer than your towers' 500.

Take the North-East Keep (from about 18:00)

  1. Train 5 or more Catapults (751 mana each). A Catapult can see only 160, so send a Spyhawk (266 mana, sight 225) or a Horseman ahead to find targets for them. Keep Swordsmen in front of them, because a Catapult has only 1400 hit points.
  2. Set up at 4 and destroy the Stronghold at (1968,576) and the Watch Tower at (1968,384). Both are inside the Catapults' range of 750 and too far away to fire back. A Stronghold has 18,500 hit points, so it takes 15 Catapult shots.
  3. Move to 5. Destroy the Watch Tower at (2400,96), then the Keep at D. A Keep has 25,116 hit points: 21 shots. Then put a Lodestone on the 2.0 site at (2480,608) and build one at 2 as well.

Break the South

  1. Gather at 6. From here a Trebuchet (11,194 mana, range 2700) reaches all 3 Keeps, at 2008, 1976 and 2149. It is out of reach of every tower, and Aramon's own Trebuchet at G is 2777 away, just beyond its range. It sees only 200, so it needs a spotter near each target. Catapults can do the same work more slowly.
  2. Work south along the east side with the Catapults, one tower at a time, each from just outside its range. Take the Watch Towers at (1760,1536) and (1760,2128), the Strongholds at (2080,1552) and (2080,2144), then the Watch Towers at (1664,2480) and (2240,2480).
  3. Move to 7. Both southern Keeps are 691 away. The Stronghold at (2512,3424) is 952 away and the Watch Tower at (2016,3088) is 537 away, so neither can reach you. The Mage Archer at (2128,2976) is only 416 away, so kill it first. Then destroy E and F. Try to do it before 30:00, when the Keep at E starts training.
  4. The mission ends when the last Keep falls. The rest of the city can stay where it is.

Which Units Beat Theirs

Aramon unit Its threat Your answer
Stronghold Cannon, 1125 damage every 4 seconds, range 600. It has 18,500 hit points. Catapult, range 750. The Stronghold cannot hit anything closer than 180.
Watch Tower 2 bows, 225 damage each, range 500 Catapult: 4 shots destroy one
Knight 5911 hit points, sword for 750 damage, speed 3.3 Fight under your Watch Towers with Barbarians (640 damage) and Archers
Horseman 4050 hit points, fast (speed 2.9) Swordsmen and Barbarians, guarding what it hunts
Assassin Cloaked, with a dagger that reaches 175 It has only 500 hit points. One Barbarian blow kills it.
Catapult 1250 damage at range 750, longer than your towers Horsemen ride it down: speed 2.9 against its 0.85
Trebuchet 2001 damage at range 2700 Stay more than 2700 away, or kill it: 2975 hit points, 3 Catapult shots

Mana

All 10 sacred sites on this map are rated 2.0, so a Lodestone on any of them earns 20 mana per second. You start with one at 1. With the Barracks and the Mage Builder adding 1 each, your income at the start is 22 mana per second.

The free sites near home are at 2 and 3. There are 2 more far down the west edge, at (128,2624) and (80,3184), out of reach of Aramon's towers. The site at (2480,608) is free once the Keep at D falls. The rest are inside Aramon's lines. One is behind the walls at (1536,2576), next to the Stronghold at (1392,2480), and 2 are in the southern city at (1008,3568) and (1680,3584). Aramon's own Lodestone stands on the site at (2496,3552).

You cannot build a Divine Lodestone here. Only an Acolyte builds one, and Acolytes are not on your list.

Traps

  • Each raid picks its targets by type. The 5:00 raid wants Lodestones, Trebuchets and Mage Builders. The Assassins want Archers, then Swordsmen. The 10:00 Knights want Catapults first, and the 17:30 group wants Strongholds, Watch Towers and Trebuchets. A Trebuchet built before 17:30 is on 2 of those lists.
  • Units that chase the Acolyte of Anu across the map end up at (2464,1808). The Strongholds at (2080,1552) and (2080,2144) both reach that point.
  • Aramon's Trebuchet at G reaches 2700, which covers the southern city and step 12. The data gives it only a wait until 30:00. It does not say whether the Trebuchet fires before then, so do not leave units standing still in its reach for longer than you need to.
  • Aramon's army keeps growing. The southern Barracks trains from the first second, the northern one from 20:00, and the Keep at E from 30:00. What the computer player does with those troops is up to it.
  • You lose only when every unit you own is destroyed.

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