(No) Trap Map: Summoning The Wind (with video link)

Summoning The Wind is a mission I neglected for a long time. The main reason was of course the story line. I could not identify myself with the mission goal. In this mission Zhuge Liang stands in the middle of it, mumbling about south-eastern winds and waving his fan obnoxiously while lots of monsters try to kill him. Now that is completely fine with me, he had it for a long time coming with all his fan waving. Why should I defend him? If I could be part of the attacking hordes I would gladly join.

Name	Summoning The Wind
Minimum level	130
Maximum number of participants	3
Size of a party	main + 3
Time limit	60 minutes (theoretically…)
Total number of vehicles allowed	at least 1
Entry fee	10 M
Total upgrade cost	14.5 M (post Spelltower)
Catapult cost	15 M
Reward	15 x Commander’s Loot (150 Atlantica Gold Coins)
XP victory bonus	600 M

Ok, the real reason was that I was always overwhelmed very quickly by masses of monsters because I did it wrong. But if you pay attention to some very basic guide-lines you can solo it, and this blog entry describes a way how to do it. It is by no means the only way. It has to be said that this mission is only for the well-geared to solo. I could pretend that everyone with the right tactic could do it but that would be pure cant. There are a lot of monsters who will attack your group of merry women (I had no male mercenary with me) and you should have good armor to take some hits and good weapons to prevent more hits.

Here is an outline of the mission:

1. There are no traps that I have encountered. That is the reason this map is not dubbed as “Trap Map”. There may be traps on the map but not where it counts.

2. My formation was: cannon main (+10 dg cannon), oracle (+3 evil staff), sheriff (+10 evil gun) and – lo and behold! – vampire (+6 dg instrument). That is the first time I took a vampire (instead of my janissary) with me on a main+3-mission. I saw it in a video and the additional healing capacity more than outweighs the lesser damage a vampire makes.

3. Take all upgrades.

4. First thing is to kill the mini-boss near the base camp on the left side as fast as possible. Don’t kill the small monsters which come directly after and which are heading to your base (see below 10).

5. After you have killed the mini-boss you go to Zhuge Liang (centre of the map). Don’t bother with the summon portals.

6. As soon as the first cut-scene (start-up cut-scene not counted) commences, with a deployment of allied troops, you should stall. Drag out every turn to the full extent of the time allotment. That prevents too much monster generation of the summon portals. The mission is time-based, not turn-based, so slow turn speed is good for you. But you must have killed the mini-boss near the base camp before the first wave reaches Zhuge Liang or you will fail because either your base camp or Zhuge will be destroyed. For that reason you can’t stall right away from the beginning – quite the contrary: you have to play as fast as possible. Your goal is to be back with Zhuge when the monsters from the first wave appear to molest him.

7. The cut scenes will give you visual clues from which side you have to expect the next attack. Position your mercenaries accordingly.

8. Zhuge Liang has a lot of hitpoints but they are not infinite. Here your vampire shines: you can heal him. And you should scroll flames away if an attack lets Zhuge burn. Normally freezing scrolls are best for that because purifying – while working, too – also scrolls your seth’s will away.

9. The mission does not end after the wind direction changes but only if you have slain the boss (Jiang Gan) which will appear directly after it. That can be a bit messy, there are a lot of mobs around him.

10. From time to time there will spawn allies. They go to the nearest point of conflict and if there is none, they go to the centre. You don’t want them in the centre . You want at least most of them at your base to defend it. That is why it is important not to kill the small monsters which come to your base after you have killed the mini-boss at the beginning (see above 4). You have to let them make their futile attempt so that your allies (which have already spawned or will spawn very soon) have something to sink their teeth into.

11. Enjoy the 15 reward boxes this mission nets you.

For people who need it: Here is a table of the waves in this mission. I have written down the time left (as shown in the mission overview) when the cut scenes began with Zhuge Liang waving his fan hypnotically.

Wave	Time Left
1st wave	55:10 min
2nd wave	50:35 min
3rd wave	46:30 min
4th wave	42:15 min
5th wave (boss)	38:00 min

A video about one of my solo-runs in squad mode:

Part 1

Part 2

This run was kind of awkward because the attack waves did not do what I want. What I want is that every attack wave comes through to the centre as fast as possible. That way I can kill one wave before the next appears. What happened (besides other mishaps) was that one attack wave got stuck a bit and then two waves at once came to the middle. But hey! That is challenge for you! And anyway, it did work out in the end.