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CD Player's Site Hints, Tips, Strategy and FAQs for playing Populous III online

Boats and balloons (aka Vehicles in Popspeak) are normally disabled in multiplayer games, which is a shame, because you can have fun with them by way of a change sometimes. Even if they have been disabled, you can get them on the following levels by worshipping:

Two Crabs

  Boat House from the head on the main island
  Balloon House from the head on the horseshoe island

Linked Isles

  Boat House from Red's stone head

Face Off

  Boat House from stones between Blue and Green, and between Red and Yellow.

Send one brave to the boat hut to begin constructing a boat and use a couple of others to collect wood. You need 3 wood to build a boat. 5 people fit in a boat. Boats are particularly useful if both players are on islands or if you want to attack from the (undefended) back of your enemies camp (and it is close to sea). People in boats can drown if you cast swarm on them (look at the spells page for more information). If a boat somehow gets blown on land, it will explode (after 13 seconds).

Balloons are rarely enabled on multiplayer because they make the side which posesses them too powerful. In particular, putting two firewarriors into a balloon and casting magic shield on them makes them pretty near impregnible so you can park them over the enemy base and they will happily blast all his followers with impunity until the spell runs out (after 2 minutes). You can call them back just before then, reapply it and keep on going ad infinitum. Fun for a while, but not if you're on the receiving end.

There is, however, an excellent counter to this which is very little known and was sent to me by Jo:

Just cast a swarm *just beside the balloon* (you can aim this perfectly by observing where the balloon shadow is). The swarm will likely go over the balloon sooner or later, causing its inhabitants to jump out screaming and not thinking much about doing more damage. If the first swarm doesn't hit, send another one. And, once the enemy fire warriers cool down, watch them getting beated up by irate braves... or just blast them away, since their protection more likely than not will have worn off. Been there, done that, works like a charm :-)

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