Machinations - walkthrough | Commonwealth Campaign AoW III Guide
Last update: 11 May 2016
Conditions of victory:
1. Get the Oscillator Gem back
2. Edward must survive
3. Kill the traitors
a) Kill Drugal
b) Kill Gormsog
c) Kill Svengir
Get the Oscillator Gem back
Exceptionally, now you start the game with one city, a keep and two (temporary - as it will soon turn out allies). If you choose the "Can you assist me?" dialogue option, and then "Yes" your ally will dispatch his armies to the defense of your city. However, in the light of the events yet to happen, this is not recommended. Gather all of your units, also the ones in the city, which is safe (as of now) and clear the area. In your city, start building the buildings that will allow you to recruit new units, as well as the ones that raise their levels.
Keep following the path to the West, while clearing the path, as you go and exploring Tombs as well as Ancient Ruins. After a moment's walk, you will find a independent city, which you can include in your Empire.. Remain in the area, for a moment and make sure that you have cleared it of the enemy units. Then, follow the road to the South, where you will find another city, which you should also include in your Empire. Below the settlement, you will find a keep, which you should approach ONLY if your cities are secured and the area cleared. ON the East, you will find yet another city, which you can take care of. Before you capture the keep, you should have a good army, which you take on Svengir with, in a hasty attack. Once you are ready, capture the enemy fortress and prepare for a surprise.
Kill Svengir
Well, your former allies are nothing short of traitors and you need to deal with them, one after the other. After you capture the fortress, you should go ahead with your armies, towards the nearest adversary - Svengir - and eliminate him as quickly as possible. First of all, capture the first city and then, try to clear the region and go North-West. At all times, remember to train new units in your cities. In the ones that are the closest to the enemy settlements, also train the units that you are going to need for the future attack. Remember that, most probably, you will be nagged at by incessant enemy attacks, and it is sure to happen at the beginning, right after the change of alliances.
In the meantime, you should reach the next city to the North-West of the first one, which you captured from Svengir. Again, include it in your Empire and keep going West, to your opponent's Throne City. If you seize control over the situation and secure successive spoils of war, there will come time for the final showdown, against the first one of the traitors. For that reason, gather your army, along with siege engines, and attack the Throne City. Progress slowly but methodically, thanks to which you will avoid a surprise attack on the weakly-defended city. After the successful onslaught on Svengir's throne room, it is time to turn your attention to the North-West, where there are more enemies waiting for you, which you should be able to handle simultaneously.
Kill Drugal
Drugal's cities are in the Eastern end of the map. You should already have your own, well-developed city in that region, which will be an ideal field base for attacking the opponent. remember that you should prepare an appropriate number of ranged units and trebuchets. To the extent it is possible, you should deliver one of your leaders to the battlefield, which will considerably increase your forces.
Kill Gormsog
Here, the situation is similar, if not identical, as in the case of the earlier two - gather an appropriate army, including siege engines, and go to the North-East of your first city, which should now be your field base. If you capture the city, and you will not find your main enemy there, you will find him in the second city, which is located to the south of the Throne City. IF you have sufficient armies, go there immediately. Otherwise, wait until you regenerate your forces and deal the final blow.
Hints
1. The initial alliances are temporary. You should remember about that and take advantage of the time that you have left. Make sure that your cities are safe, develop well and have the base for recruitment of offensive units. Therefore, you should not haste to capture the keep, because it is after this victory that you will be betrayed. If you move too fast into the center of the map, and leave the cities underdeveloped and without protection, you can forget about capturing the enemy fortress quickly (if at all). The game will probably get longer and you will be busy running around the map and recapturing your cities, instead of attacking the enemies.
2. If you need to summon your armies quickly, to defend a city, most probably a newly-captured one, in the face of the approaching armies, use the strategic Raise Militia spell. Thanks to this, there will appear an allied unit in the city and the city will lose 100 population. You should not, however, hope for any strong unit but, if there is no other means of defending the city, remember that there is a way.
3. Do not haste to capture the abovementioned keep. regenerate your units in cities, explore the map and get prepared for the demanding battle.
4. The enemy armies are quite sizeable but, many of the enemy units are Spy Drone. You need to use the fact that they explode, after they are destroyed to your advantage, thanks to which you will be able to deal quite decent damage to all the nearby units. Therefore, you should attempt to start a chain reaction where each Spy Drone destroys, or damages another one. Thanks to this, you will be able to deal considerable damage to the enemy, by detonating him at the right moment. However, this works both ways - you should avoid the situation in which the enemy drones come closer and surround your units.
5. Towards the end of the game, when the enemies only have one city each, you can send all of the units to besiege them and leave the cities with few, or no, units to defend them. Probably, nobody will make it through and, even if the enemy attempts snatching the morsel and splits his forces, the better for you. The less units there are, to defend an enemy city, the easier the siege is going to be.