Creon
Creon is the fifth house of Kingdoms, added by The Iron Plague expansion. It is a nation of science and machines rather than magic, led by the Sage. Its army relies on guns, iron ships and strong fixed defences.
A House from The Iron Plague
Creon is not part of the original 1999 game. The Iron Plague was released in March 2000, and all 25 units in Creon's build tree come from it. Creon does not appear in The Book of Darien campaign. The version 4.0 patch made it available in multiplayer games as well. The expansion as a whole has its own Iron Plague page.
The Sage
Creon's monarch is the Sage. In battle, the Sage has 15,750 hit points and three attacks: Blue Flame, Mortar and Energy Blast. The Mortar reaches a range of 1,200, much further than any other monarch's weapons.
The Sage builds Walls, Gates, Mana Refineries, the Gatling Crossbow, the Smithy and the Navy Yard. The Sage can also summon the Ghost of Garacaius, the god of Creon. At 360,000 mana, it is the most expensive unit in the game.
The Land and Its People
The manual and the atlas of the original game do not describe Creon. Wikipedia describes it as a distant nation driven by science, and names its capital as Atys. In mission 19, Zhon's forces cross Ullin's Fingers, the mountain wall on Aramon's western edge, down into the lowlands of Creon.
The Iron Plague opens with Taros sinking Verunan transports on their way to Creon. According to Wikipedia, those ships carried the gold that Aramon owed Creon for the knowledge of gunpowder. Creon then takes the Verunan island of Caora, invades Aramon, and is finally besieged by the monarchs of Darien.
Creon's god is the Ghost of Garacaius, and two Creon missions are called Son of Garacaius and Father's Day. The Iron Plague page tells how the story links Creon to the lost emperor.
How Creon Fights
Apart from its god, no Creon unit is classed as magic in the game data. Besides the Sage, only two units carry personal mana: the Chief Engineer and the Neo Dragon. In the campaign, the Chief Engineer turns the corpses of the fallen into Automatons.
Creon fights from range. Not counting builders, the Sage and the god, it has 10 fighting units. Of these, 9 have a ranged weapon, and only the Automaton fights purely hand to hand. The Shock Trooper uses a taser, the Tortoise fires cannonballs to 805, and the Fire Wagon sprays flame. Creon can also freeze or stun its enemies: the Mechanic, the Chief Engineer and the Neo Dragon all have such weapons.
Its defences are strong. The Prismatic Mirror fires a beam of light to a range of 1,478, the longest of any structure except Aramon's Trebuchet. The Bomb Sprinkler and the Gatling Crossbow add more firepower.
At sea, the Navy Yard builds the Submersible, the Stern Wheeler and the Iron Clad. With 12,864 hit points, the Iron Clad is tougher than any ship or sea creature another house can build.
In the air, Creon breaks the usual pattern. The other houses' dragons cost 43,944 to 49,287 mana and are limited to one at a time. The Neo Dragon costs 5,652 and has no limit, but it has only 5,135 hit points, against about 24,000 for the others. Apart from its god, Creon's only unit limited to one at a time is the Aerial Juggernaut. It is a flying fortress with cannons that can also carry troops.
Creon gathers mana with a Mana Refinery and a Mana Amplifier instead of Lodestones. With 25 units, it has the smallest build tree of the five houses, shown in full in the Creon build tree.
Notable Units
| Unit | Role | Mana cost |
|---|---|---|
| Automaton | Basic melee machine | 301 |
| Mechanic | Builder | 355 |
| Fire Wagon | Flame thrower | 778 |
| Tortoise | Mobile artillery | 780 |
| Shock Trooper | Infantry with a taser | 982 |
| Beast Rider | Rider with a cannon and claws | 1,820 |
| Submersible | Warship with a mortar | 2,156 |
| Iron Clad | Heavy warship and transport | 3,645 |
| Chief Engineer | Top-tier builder | 4,734 |
| Neo Dragon | Dragon with freezing breath | 5,652 |
| Prismatic Mirror | Long-range defence | 8,565 |
| Aerial Juggernaut | Flying fortress, one at a time | 42,161 |
| Ghost of Garacaius | God | 360,000 |
Creon in the Campaigns
You play Creon in 9 missions of The Iron Plague, more than any other house in that campaign. These are missions 3, 8–10, 17 and 22–24, plus mission 26, the alternative final mission.
The first is Join Us, where you put down a revolt on Caora. In March at Dawn, you must build twelve Mana Amplifiers and hold them for ten minutes. The alternative ending, Father's Day, has you defend the Sage against all four monarchs of Darien.
Sources
- Game data extracted from the GOG release of Kingdoms: units, build lists and missions
- v4readme.txt in the GOG release (patch notes for version 4.0)
- The lore atlas in the GOG release of Kingdoms: the Aramon section, for Ullin's Fingers
- Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, Wikipedia