Between the map floating above the planet and the music I’m a huge fan of the ambiance this stage: it truly feels like we’re at the end of a long, epic struggle. Zanatus summons forth a horde of wraiths that vary quite a bit in composition. In particular note that the cannon squad has six cannons; they cannot be allowed to survive beyond the first player phase.

Luckily the cannons are well within reach of raider fire and cavalry hit & run attacks. The warbows on the ledges will have four range, so be wary of which squads you leave near. Otherwise I recommend a hit and run attack to eliminate the first rank of squads, particularly the gunpowder ones, and then advance your infantry to weather the dark magic, fire magic and centurion squads.

At the start of turn 2, twelve more squads will arrive as reinforcements, but they’ll need a turn to close with you.

You should be able to clean up the nearby squads and push up to assault Zanatus himself. Send in squads with Aoe first as Zanatus is actually five separate targets and his arms/legs can be killed off faster than the main body.

If you press hard and have a large number of mobile, high damage squads you may be able to end it on turn 2. I would not grind for that outcome though, as the next few turns have some gambits that you’d miss out on. At the start of turn 3 Zanatus is surrounded by an impenetrable shield as he prepares to cast wide swathes of dark magic into the highlighted red squares.

Shift your attention to his minions instead, eliminating those you can reach and forming a defensive wall against those who you cannot. The northern cavalry reinforcements pack a wallop, so either pull back further from them, preemptively attack them or have some sentinel/centurions hold against them.

The forces on the left and right are far easier to hit and run back across the red danger zone and shoot them from the raised platforms. Zanatus’s shield is still up on turn 4, so use this round to wipe out whatever enemy forces remain.

On turn 5 the shield will finally drop, but Zanatus will attempt to absorb his wraithlike henchmen at the end of player phase. Hopefully you eliminated them all on turn 4, but if not you have a choice to make: attempt to finish Zanatus this turn or clear all of his minions to ensure he won’t absorb them.

You should have regained blessing and exemplar, so you can use those both on one of your high damage single target squads. I used General Ragavi (twice), MC and Jaromir to finish Zanatus off once and for all? For now? Only time or perhaps the sequel will tell..

If you cannot finish Zanatus this turn, then focus on the minions first and keep wearing him down. The cycle of reinforcements and shields and then absorbing them for power will continue until you manage to topple him.

Enjoy the excellent ending sequence and thank you for following along.