Cooking Breaking Bandits - Contest with Minos Shield Reward!

With the release of the new legendary recipes, one of the best ways of farming for the new recipes are the guaranteed legendary chests from certain quests (not ep store chests). Because I had a theory that you can do Breaking Bandits quickly with ep consumables, I kept testing until I had a firm strategy in mind. Once I did, I tested the strategy with @Atlas008 and the results were as good as planned. But we can always do better.

And this is where you come in. Take our proof of concept and refine it further, and you may win a King Minos Radiant Shield.

Competition ended on July 1.

Example Run (10:59, co-op):

Note there is no audio because I messed up in my recording.

Rules:
Runs must be better than my example time (10:59) before they can qualify for item rewards. Players can still qualify for participation coin by uploading any run after this contest was posted (April 6).
Runs must be recorded, and completed in Online mode.
Co-op is allowed and recommended.
Advisors must be visible during the run.
All consumables except Resources of the Empire and Magnificent Fury are allowed.
All gear are allowed.
I cannot participate in any qualifying runs.

Leaderboard:
@Kire @Donar (CO-OP): 6:50
Example Run: 10:59

Prizes (per player):

1st place: 1 Choice of King Minos' Radiant Shield or Zahhak's Sword of the Undying (note that if both players want shields, they must discuss who gets the higher inf armor shield between themselves)

2nd place: 1 Set's Sash of the Solstice

3rd place: 1 Arrows of the Piercing Frost

Participation reward: 50,000 Coins

Useful information:
To unlock this quest, do the quests We Killed These Guys Already, then the quest Why Does it have to be Bandits?
The map is randomized each time, but there will always be three triremes, one middle island base, and one top island base.
The enemy priests have the staff of hermes, so they will convert infantry very quickly.
The defending enemy units in each base are two ballista, six priests, some toxotes, and some infantry.
Enemy chieftains cannot be converted.

Recommended Setups:
Tank Infantry: Zahhak/Minos or Aeneas Shield/Actaeon Cloth or Sesotris Cuirass/Medal of Lycurgus
Siege: Khnum or Ra's Ram/Ishtar Plating/Delian Wheels
Priests: Staff of the Ice King or Exceptional Empyrean Staff

Recommended Advisors:
Infantry/Solo: Finnbar or Odysseus/Herakleides or Lycurgus/Mehrab or Leonidas or Havard
Rams: Thutmose/Combutis or Amunet/Ligeia, Titus, or Seneb


Strategy:
Both players rush age 3 as soon as possible. Before reaching age 3 the infantry player starts building large quantities of tanky infantry, otherwise eco, build houses, and prepare a dock and make merchant transports. When reaching age 3 the infantry player continues training infantry, but also trains priests for converting the ballistae. The other player builds siege workshops and trains battering rams. All the while both players keep researching key tech when relevant. Around the 3 or 3 and a half minute mark the assault begins on the central island.

When both players land on the bottom of the first island, one player will buff both players' units with Strength of the Empire. The infantry player makes sure their units are being attacked while the siege player prioritizes the nearby wall first, then the fortresses, then the town center. The Infantry player meanwhile prioritizes the enemy priests, and converts the enemy ballistae. When the ballistae are converted, they will prove valuable in your assault. Finish clearing all enemy defenses on the central island, then start preparing for the assault on the topmost island.

The strategy for the topmost island is largely the same, but because it is an open base, the walls should not be attacked. When landing, have the other player buff the armies, use the ballista for aid against the swarms of enemy forces.

Final notes:
Submit your runs down below!

 

NOTE THAT THIS VIDEO DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR THE CONTEST, AND IS ONLY FOR LEARNING PURPOSES!

Need help with figuring out how you can break the 11 minute mark? Well after me and Atlas farmed Breaking Bandits a little more, we've further developed our strategy, breaking the 7 min mark.


The main developments we've had is we've discovered in terms of advisors, using Mehrab in A3 when possible is the best, but using Lycurgus + Leonidas on Greeks, or Havard on Norse, helps Hoplites or Harjars survive a lot longer. We also think that Greeks + any siege civ has the fastest time, with said siege civ also making some units that can aid in the cleanup process, and that by leaving the normal priests on the middle island, they can clean up all the villagers there. Other than that, the fast time is primarily from faster execution. I hope anyone that plans on partaking in my challenge the good luck with island spawns, and the confidence in executing this strategy, or even your very own.

Recommended Roles per civ
Greeks - Tank, can also Siege
Egypt - Siege
Persia - Tank or Siege
Celts - Siege with Woads
Romans - Siege
Babylon - Tank
Norse - Tank

 

Yes.

 

Alright, I will admit the reason I didn't post the 2nd shield on the original post for my contest. I didn't have a second. But now I do!


I also increased the participation reward from 10k coin to 50k coin. Note that unlike item rewards, participation coin does not require you beat my example time of 10:59, so on the off chance you just do a random breaking bandits run without consumables, you can still record it (so long as it's posted after April 4) and submit it here for participation coin.

 

Congratulations @Kire and @Donar for winning the contest! Prizes have been mailed, enjoy your shields!

The contest is officially over. No more entries are allowed. Who knows if there will be another in the future, but I do not know what prizes I will have in store next time.