Muspelm

Hidden Cities - 1
Treasures - 4

Muspelm is a small area. It's in the sky, after all so it can't be too huge. It's ruled by Slust, a member of the unique Dragoon class. He's very strong but he'll join you if you beat him. So how do you get to him?

The tactics in this stage are very simple. Deploy three strong units. Send one to the Temple right next to your base. Send one to Taudeni, the town right next to your base. Send the other to Insala, the city in the middle of the road between the two bases (near a lake and some mountains). You're all set.

Now watch the enemies charge at you in huge numbers. They're nothing hard; the hardest enemies may be Evil Ones (powerful physical attacks) and Cherubim (strong magic attacks vs. anything with low ALI). While they're throwing themselves at you, send a flying scout to find all of the treasure on this map as well as the Chaos Gate (on the island south of your base). Also find the hidden Temple (at the east end of the southern peninsula, southeast of the enemy base). Liberate all the other cities, as they're well out of the way of enemy approach.

After a while the enemy onslaught will have ceased, as (as I explain it) the enemy simply ran out of money to rebuild all those units since you seized all of the cities in the area. You may even want to stay one or two days here to get the huge amount of tribute that this will bring you. Attack Slust at your leisure.

Boss: Slust
HP: 198 | STR: 149 | AGI: 138 | INT: 128 | CHA: 62 | ALI: 78 | LUK: 60
P: 70 | F: 56 | I: 58 | E: 62 | B: 50 | W: 50

Meet Slust the Red. He's a Dragoon, a member of a unique class. He's got very high stats and isn't weak against any particular element. And he's got two Gold Dragons with him. How are you going to beat this juggernaut?

Well, the Dragons have a lot of HP but they only have one attack, it's physical, they use it twice, and it has a tendency to miss. Slust gets one attack, it never misses, it's physical and it's very, very strong, but it won't kill you.

That's the good news: He probably won't kill you. You, however, need to deplete his HP. The easiest and probably only way to do that is use Sorcerers. To get 'em, use an Undead Staff on a Mage. You can first get Undead Staffs in Diaspola, by trading Sentoul Demons for them in the hidden city of Anglem. In the screenshot, I have two Sorcerers. Sorcerers cast the same area attack magic as Mages, except twice in one battle. So in the screenshot, in addition to my Doll Master (2 Acid attacks), I get 4 Phantom spells (since they will hurt Slust the most out of everything the Sorcerers have). 6 area attack spells, plus two Paladins (who won't do any damage but are good for absorbing it) have a high chance of depleting Slust's HP. If they don't, they'll bring him down to about 10 HP, and you'll finish him off almost at once in the second round. No need for Tarots.

Beating Slust will make him join you, provided that your reputation is high enough and you have the Star of Heroes.