Ending The Old Ways - walkthrough | Commonwealth Campaign AoW III Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Conditions of victory:
1. Defeat the Elven Court
a) Defeat Saridas
b) Defeat Julia
c) Defeat Fai Dural
d) Defeat Leana
Side missions:
1. Help the Dwarves
This is the last mission of the campaign, and it is available after you have completed the Slaying a False God mission, which in turn, is the offshoot of the choice that you made in mission 4 (Matters of Duty). You start the game in the South-Eastern corner of the map. To the North of you, there are your new ally - Valery, whereas, to the West, there is Dwemus. Your new mission is to eliminate all of the remaining players, in order to unify these lands under your rule.
Defeat Leana
You start with a quite considerable army, which you should command to the West of your city, where you will encounter your first opponent- Leana. With good machines, you should be able to capture the first city, and defeat the High Elf Monster Hunters that are revealed, without any problems. Leana's next city is a bit to the North. It is highly probable that t will be captured by your ally, Valery. As you proceed to the West, you will encounter some more hostile cities, which you do not need to capture, if you do not want to lose your units. Then, continue Westwards, close to the Southern edge of the map. It is best to go towards your opponent's Throne City straight away. You can also capture one of her cities, along your path, in the case in which you are sure that you will win and that you will lose no units. After you have captured the Throne City and you defeat Leany in battle, the first opponent will be off your head.
Defeat Fai Durai
The next opponent that you encounter is Fai Durai. Also here, you should behave in the same way as in Leana's case. Remember to attack only if you are sure that you will not sustain too heavy losses. Go towards the Throne City straight away, or keep capturing the enemy cities, one after the other. Regardless of the path that you choose, after you capture the last city and defeat the last leader, also this enemy will fall into oblivion.
Defeat Julia
You can find the cities of the net opponent, if you keep going to the North-West. Again, there are no surprises here - the Throne City is heavily guarded. Take advantage of that and, if you need to supplement your armies, capture one of the better-developed cities and wait for a moment, until you are able to expand your army. Once you decide to attack the Throne City, make sure that your army is powerful enough. After the victorious besiegement, the road to the final opponent is wide open for you.
Defeat Saridas
In order to complete the campaign, you still need to defeat one last enemy - Saridas. You should not have too many problems with that. As far as, in the case of the previous cases, you could afford waiting and capturing the consecutive cities, one after another, in this case you should march towards the last Throne City and attempt to capture it in one, confident strike, which completes the last mission in the Commonwealth campaign in success.
Side missions
Help the Dwarves - After several turns, you will receive a piece of information from Dwemus, concerning the friendly Dwarves, that dwell to the north (during the message from Dwemus select the "Excellent, we will" dialogue option, which starts this mission). They will join you if only you clear the region of their cities of the marked opponents (these are elf groups). Dispatch a sizeable army there (or even 2), because the profitability of this mission is high - after you have secured the region, you will be rewarded with several cities, an army to the North of the map and also a fortress in the underground. This is sure to increase your influences in the region and ensures you with income of gold to your treasure.
Hints
1. This mission is not too difficult, but it is time consuming. - defeating all 4 of the enemies requires you to cover go quite a way on the map and to fight a number of battles. Therefore, you should not haste - it is better to keep pushing forward methodically, than to make risky moves, without the cities secured, and return over and over again to recapture them.
2. You start with a very good army, which cannot go to waste. Therefore, try to progress with reinforcements, because the enemy may destroy one of them without any problems, if you divide it into too many parties.
3. The army that you start the mission with is so good that it should last you until the very end of the mission, especially when it comes to the excellent machines. It would be very costly to try replacing them which is why it is best not to lose them, because they ensure quite an advantage in battle.
4. You can defeat enemies in any order you wish however, it is best to defeat them in the order that you encounter them. This will ensure a quite stable situation at your back.
5. It is worthwhile to complete the side mission and help Dwemus's brothers. Thanks to this, you will gain several cities and your economy will surely not suffer from that. remember that the elven units are not weak and there are several parties of them. This is why you should dispatch a sufficiently strong army to dealing with them.
6. This mission can be completed in two ways - the first, and the slower, one consists in methodical cutting through, deeper into the map, and capturing of the successive enemy cities. The faster one assumes that you defeat your opponents in battle and quickly capture their Throne Cities, which will cause quick defeat. In this case, you especially need to watch out for your units, because the opportunity to supplant them is much limited.