aoe2lobbies.com

I've never used them before. Last night I stuck 4 or so into my farmland. I watched as a single hussar got 2-3 vil kills before he even took a single shot. Every time he'd move to attack the vil, the bombard towers would shoot where he was going. But then he'd stop to swing his sword and the cannonball would fly way in front of him. Then he kills the vill and runs in a totally different direction and the same thing happens. I just felt that if I had keeps, the arrows would fly faster and he'd have died sooner. Did I do something wrong?

I didn't read them too much as I try to avoid spoilers for my first campaign playthrough, but the one to loot 10K gold using Varangian Guards made me chuckle

Hoping that they don't unlock all at once like The Last Chieftains ones. Still salty that I didn't get to unlock those legitimately

I was a decent player at 1K3-K4 elo, I stop playing for a few months and when i came back, I erased my hotkey by mistake. I've never been able to reput them in the folders, never been able to reproduce the alchimy I had and buttons. And now everytime I come back, I feel so disabled, it's like relearning a new game.

AOE2 is so demanding and depressing. The automatisms that you build are so ephemeral.

What do u do if they douche you on glade, like i saw it coming so i walled my section but he broke through with tc. just kept moving the tc and i know not to repair and just remake etc, but here i am kind of stuck you know, he walled in my walls and put towers behind it, i was in feudal with some towers and skirms, ahead for most of the game but i could not leave my bubble. eventually just had no room and died. Is it just gg if they wall u in?

Every unit in the game (not counting niche units like petards) has an Imperial Age upgrade, with the glaring exception of skirmishers, which gets capped at Elite Skirm in Castle Age. Wouldn't it make sense to have the Imperial Skirm as a general upgrade available to a wide range of civs, just like Hussars and Halbs. Don't know if it should have the same stats as the existing Vietnamese unit, but that's something that can be balanced. I'm talkning about the principle of not having an Imp age upgrade at all.

Hello, I have a small Discord, mainly based out of the U.S.

We play TG's usually in the evening times, 7-8 EST. Elo range from about 500 to 1200.

We are going to start doing "Rec review Fridays," where you can submit a rec to be streamed on Twitch. Now... I myself am only 800 elo, so there wont be much coaching aspect going on. Its more just for fun and a way to showcase a game you'd like to see. Comment or DM me for the Discord if this interests you.

Thanks, GLHF

Edit: All elo is welcome.

What were they thinking when they made this "improvement". Its bugging my trebs all the time.

Make it attack enemy units, "Bruh those units are far 18 tiles away so im going to unpack 🤪"

Wtfff...

In the previous version, you attacked enemy units, they never unpacked like that.

Is there a little option or mod for this, like Old Trebuchet Behavior ❎

Hi everyone, I’m not sure if this belongs here, but as an Age of Empires II player, I thought I’d share this story with you.

Recently, my grandfather passed away. Yesterday, I went to his house to help my father, and he told me that if there was anything I wanted to keep as a memory of him, I could take it.

So I walked through the house where I spent so many Sundays during my childhood. I opened drawers I had never dared to touch as a kid, and looked through some of his old belongings and memories...

I knew that my grandfather had been playing Age of Empires 1 since its release, all the way until his final year. But I only started playing myself about two years ago, when he had already started having health problems, so I never got the chance to have those conversations with him as fellow Age of Empires fans.

While going through his drawers, I found some Age of Empires 1 documentation, probably dating back to 1998, carefully kept next to his PC.

That PC was used almost exclusively for his daily game of Age of Empires 1 and for reading his emails.

There was a game manual containing pretty much everything you needed to know about the game. It’s incredibly detailed.

The second document is a fold-out technology tree poster. On one side, it has the complete technology tree, and on the other side, it details every civilization bonus and technology tree for each civilization.

The slightly strange detail is that he had heavily stapled the pages together between pages 11 and 16 of the manual.

I would have loved to play a game of AoE1 or AoE2 with him if I had discovered my passion for this game a little earlier.

Live without regrets, friends.

Goodbye, Grandpa.

Sitting around 900elo, with Nomad being my best map by far. I tend to go for 5-7 fishibg ships as early as possible with keeping my tc running to get an early food bonus. When opponent starts attacking on water I just let them die and focus on land. Ussually that works because opponent doesn't have enough to defend on land when also spending wood and gold on ships. Some people don't even go for water or use almost the same strat by only using fishing in early game. At my elo skills just aren't high enough to get land war, water war and eco going at the same time. But lately I find myself battling an opponent that goes up to 20-30 fishing ships wich really gives them a good boom.

My question here is: should I learn to battle on water as well to avoid this? And how much exactly can I spend on this. It used to be like 1 fire ship can do alot if opponent doesnt react on water, or even triggering them to invest alot in water and counter on land. But since the fishing ships can be garrisoned I feel like I really need to invest alot to really kill his water eco.

Guys Tiramis is starting a funding campaign to create a documentary about Daut. If you have few bucks to spare please support the man. I have attached the kickstarter and the promotional video too. Hopefully we can get more documentaries like this related to AOE2.

Youtube Video

Lets say, just as an example, my units are in the corner of the map, and i want my units to move to a castle that is far away. And i want them to patrol around that castle.

If we make them patrol from our current position, and add the checkpoints, what will happen is, the units will move to the castle, go around the castle and then come back to the initial position we set the checkpoints.

Is there a way to do this without having them come back?

Please, give me some argument to change my mind. This discount on so many types of units (all lines of archer, skirmisher, militia, spearman and new varangian guard) sound too good to be true. I see that they are missing blast furnace but as a trade-off infantry gets some additional armor (melee or ranged or both).

Summary for saxons techtree

archery: no HC, no parth

barracks: complete

stable: no paladin

siege: no siege onager, no BBC

blacksmith: no melee + cav armor final upgrade

dock: get cata galleon, no clanker, no carvel hull, no incendiaries

univ: no BBT

castle: complete

monastery: no fervor

TC: complete

mill + lumber: complete

mining: no stone shaft

C UT: monk +1 convert range, train 33% faster

Imp UT: (hoplite ability, but only for infantry instead)

UU: (see fire lancer, but isnt a gunpowder unit)

link: https://cdn.ageofempires.com/aoe/media-downloads/Saxons-Tech-Tree.png

Hey guys, completely new player. I understand the basics but I cant really win any match against anyone.

When i start i usually focus on resources, mill, farms, houses and getting to feudal, after that is when i start worrying about barracks and troops.

Most matches I just get to feudal and without any chance to start making a decent army, i get attacked and cant defend myself at all, how can i counter this? Also how can they get a good army so early in the game?

If you could just briefly summarrize like the path you take when you start a match so I know if im doing something wrong.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd really appreciate it. I'm getting so irritated, it seems like every single player at my ELO range (mid 600s) does m@a rush and/or tower rush. Someone stone walled me into my own base on Glade last night. I'm so annoyed and I can't get past it. Archers are supposed to counter but if he's showing up with like 5-10 maa does that mean I'm already too late? Please help, I'm in a massive state of tilt and it's not fun at all right now...

Hi, question from a newbie, what should I do as Teuton vs Japanese? I have great Palas, but Japanese has great Halbs. Teuton Knights lose against Samurai in big fight. I was hit with expensive combo of Arbalest and Samurai, what kind of units are best to counter this?

I’ve been playing aoe since its inception… hard stuck at 1K… any build order suggestions?

Ty

-Shoveler

Difficulty Ratings

• 0: A very minor threat that is easy to overcome
• 1: A fair fight that makes things interesting
• 2: A difficult situation that requires some outside the box thinking
• 3: A highly difficult situation requiring lots of micro-management, unit-countering and precise timing
• 4: A constant struggle in which focus and momentum must be maintained at all times, as well as proper tactics and timing
• 5: Nearly impossible. Every move must be flawless or aggressive save-scumming is necessary to win

Victors and Vanquished:

1. Temujin (orange): Difficulty 1
   1. Khamag Mongols (grey), Merkits (yellow), Xi Xia (purple), Great Jin (red), Kereyids (dark blue), Naimans (green), Tatars (teal)
   2. I don’t know everything about how this map is supposed to work, so I will just relate what happened to me. My story began at a small tent in the northeast with 2 heroes, a horse archer and a melee cavalry, outside a tent with a Khamag priest who would heal me. We had to ride directly south a way, killing a few Merkit light cavalry before reaching the Kereyids, a small group of imperial age hussars and cavalry archers around a wonder. I received a few horses and returned them to my camp where they became mangudai. My mission now was to destroy a large tent in a nearby Merkit camp, which I avoided for a long time.
   3. I noticed numbers on the map weren’t increasing for other factions, and I was allied with all of them. I spent around an hour riding across the map, discovering the camps of the Tatars to my southeast, the Naimans in the west and the great tent with a few more neutral priests in the middle. In the south was a large city belonging to Xi Xia, and the Great Jin had a large swathe of territory with a locked fortress in the east. I collected some cattle and soon discovered a few other Merkit camps, which I sacked to acquire a few more horses and cattle each. I was careful to avoid losing any troops in the conquest, and I eventually had destroyed every camp but the final one. Destroying structures in this scenario rewarded me with gold, so I had thousands.
   4. Upon destroying the final tent I was given 2 villagers and significantly more gold as the Merkits were finished off. I was now given the ability to research a unique tech at my tent that would give me more population, extra villagers and horses, heroes and advancements. I rushed through 4 of them swiftly, but was suddenly attacked by the Kereyids, Tatars and Naimans when my former melee hero betrayed me and disappeared in the west. All of the factions were immediately imperial age with strong units, though I had quite a large force of mangudai by now. My main objective was to either sack the remaining tribes or destroy the two Chinese cities, but I elected to ignore the Chinese and instead put my villagers to harvesting wood and my dozens of cattle while constructing a blacksmith, archery range and stable (all I could build) to upgrade my units.
   5. Initially I was clearly on top, as I sacked a nearby Tatar camp with ease and claimed more horses and cattle. This didn’t last, and I was soon beset on all sides by occasional raiding parties of dangerous enemies. Gold was low, but other resources were not, and the raids were sporadic enough that I was able to leave just a few men near the priest to heal and defend while the rest of us engaged the enemy. Decisively, my army hit the Kereyids and destroyed them completely, amassing significant gold rewards and stopping one of the more dangerous enemies. The Tatars used many camels which posed a serious threat, but I had collected enough gold to fully upgrade my units and research the last main tech, maxing my population and giving me access to the great tent. This upgraded my initial ranged hero and allowed me to train elite mangudai for 200 gold each which I never did.
   6. My army eventually hit the Tatars, starting a massive battle in which we lost around half of our men. Fortunately, we decisively destroyed their remaining production buildings, and then we simply had to finish off the few tents and units that remained to force them into absolute surrender. After returning and healing, we rode for the Naimans with a few cavaliers and hussars to round out the archery power. The Naimans had monks which we could hastily snipe, and otherwise trained only steppe lancers who were helpless before our arrows. They were numerous but easily beaten, and we battered them with ease before pushing them into their main western base and killing the traitor who united them against me, finishing him and the last hostile tribe. I was then allowed to declare victory at the great tent when I desired, and I did so because attacking Chinese cities without siege weapons didn’t sound appealing.
   7. I don’t know if this mission is poorly put together or if I just broke it accidentally, but I don’t think it’s very good. Normally a steppe raider scenario is enjoyable, but this feels weirdly empty and sort of sluggish, as well as awkward. It presented my choice of conquests as an actual choice, but the tribes attacked in moments before I could decide anything which meant the choice was made for me. Its lack of difficulty kept it from just feeling annoying, so I can’t really be mad at it.
2. Mstislav (dark blue): Difficulty 4
   1. Cumans (grey), Vsevolod the red of Kyiv/Mstislav of Kyiv (red), Sviatoslav of Novgorod/Yaroslav of Novgorod (green), Yuri of Vladimir/Konstantin of Vladimir (yellow), Danylo of Halych (teal), Other Factions (purple), Unknown Invaders/Mongols (orange)
   2. Holy cow this was a lot. This mission begins with the player in control of the city of Smolensk just northeast of the center. The city has a castle at its northeastern edge, towers covering its northern and southern gates as well as a monastery, barracks, stable and archery range, along with a few houses. The player has a mounted hero, a few boyars and some reskinned serjeants that can be trained from towers in this scenario, and must use them to kill a few other faction aligned raiders just south of the city. Upon killing them, the player gets 2 villagers at a nearby lumber camp and 4 at the mill where the raiders were, all immediately working on endless farms and many trees for the player. The economy buildings cannot be selected, and villagers cannot be trained in this scenario.
   3. The player’s initial goal is to defeat the four Russian cities around the map and replace them with allies. In the north is Novgorod, a Lithuanian city that trains leitis’, skirmishers and pikemen. In the south is Kyiv, a Slavic city that fields masses of boyars, infantry and mangonels. To the west of Kyiv is Halych, a Polish power with obuchs and hussars. Lastly is Vladimir in the northeast, a Bulgarian opponent that sends waves of infantry and konniks. All of these enemies will take around 15-20 minutes on hard before launching waves of enemies at any exposed military buildings of the player endlessly. Along with all of their normal units each faction also builds rams, and they improve to imperial age just minutes after attacking, followed by imperial age upgraded units. The player, on the other hand, cannot easily acquire such strength, and can only capture a city by damaging the castle inside to half health.
   4. The player’s population and resource gathering are quite limited, though there are 2 relics in the starting monastery as well as a few others that can be gathered. The other factions enemy controls all of the neutral forces across the map, including a few groups of infantry led by mounted heroes that can be recruited by approaching and a collection of berserkers that can be recruited in the west and, after keeping them for a time, teach the chieftains tech to the player. If these berserkers are escorted the south of the map, they leave and give 100 gold for each one still alive. Apart from these powers are many military outposts, lumber camps, farms, monasteries and a dock that are held by enemy soldiers. Killing all enemy soldiers gives the player control of the area, recruiting villagers to work in economic zones, giving free relics at monasteries and allowing the use of more military buildings at military camps. As camps are captured, or as time advances, the Slavic units guarding these structures improve to imperial age as well. There are also a few Teutonic camps in the west under this faction that want the player to destroy 4 pagan shrines in the western region of the map. Destroying these shrines, guarded by monks, skirmishers, archers and some cavalry will give the player a few free crusader knights, Teutonic knights and a mounted hero. Lastly, if the player contributes 500 food to the Cumans, which can be done at no extra cost, 5 free kipchaks can be hastily trained at the castle for free, and eventually 5 mounted archer heroes are given to the player as well. If the Cumans are turned on instead, the player gets 25 population but can no longer train Cuman units. Population can only be gained by securing houses at other faction villages otherwise. Throughout the scenario the player hears tales of the Mongols, so I knew what was coming.
   5. On my first attempt I rode northward, quickly finding a hero and liberating a military camp and lumber camp with a bit of difficulty. We found berserkers, met the Teutons and pushed into pagan lands before Novgorod hit our military camp and sacked it. I reloaded and met them there, building some rams and pushing north to confront them. I actually managed to maintain the siege weapon and take the castle, losing a few men but getting 6 free leitis’ in exchange and gaining an ally. Unfortunately, I had difficulty making further progress due to other enemy attacks, and I returned home where I moved south and conquered another military camp and discovered a new hero. I intended to take Kyiv next. Unfortunately, despite many reloads, my men were just not strong enough to defeat the imperial age enemies who made brutal use of siege onagers, and I gave up.
   6. On my second attempt I saved a few starting villagers with some clever pausing and shift assignments, giving a small economic boost, and I dispatched my men to gather 3 heroes, 2 relics and the berserkers before any major engagements. With this army we conquered the same lumber camp and military camp as before and then marched on Novgorod again, taking the city with more trouble this time. I had looked up how the scenario worked, so I knew what I needed. Eventually I would naturally get the imperial age, but it would take a long time. If, however, I took three villages with mills, I would get it quickly. I focused on upgrading units and training kipchaks, putting together a small force including heroes and kipchaks to kite and chip down neutral towns while my main body withstood the 3 enemies’ constant waves at my northern military camp (since it had my only exposed military buildings).
   7. It was very touch and go, especially with the onagers that occasionally appeared, but I managed to secure a nearby monastery and fishing village before the fighting started so lost monks could be retrained to maintain the army. The kipchaks held the line well, losing a man every now and then, and chieftains made my infantry excellent at repelling boyars, konniks and hussars despite those I was losing over time. Finally, however, I captured my third mill town just north of Halych, fending off constant Polish units while picking off the occasional other enemy. My wounded kipchaks rode to the northern camp while I trained others to join my heroes at home, and my free Cuman heroes arrived shortly thereafter so I added them to my ranks. I soon had the imperial age, and started researching higher tier blacksmith upgrades while training a few trebuchets. I learned in my last attempt that Kyiv’s castle is within trebuchet range across a river to its north, though I couldn’t exploit it then. This time I did, and Kyiv fell before they could respond, giving me not only a new ally and eliminating enemy onagers, but granting me access to a university.
   8. My two allies were now combining forces, and pushed the Poles against the wall though they were hopeless against the interior defenses. Fortunately, my small army with trebuchets arrived to help, and the Polish castle, close enough to be hit from outside the walls, fell as well. This left only Vladimir, which my allies started swarming, allowing me to dispatch my cavalry from the camp to the west to clear pagan shrines while my main force moved on Vladimir. The castle was further in and covered by kreposts, making progress a bit slower, but we did push in and capture the city, giving my allies control of all 4. They started massing troops just east of the center, preparing for what was to come. I managed to recruit the Teutons and tried to capture some more military camps, but was unable to once the Mongols came.
   9. At first it was just a few dozen raiders which my allies repelled while I gathered my forces where I could. Suddenly, the map revealed over 400 Mongolian mangudai, keshiks, trebuchets and siege rams, all aggressively moving forward. My allies were crushed in moments. And my frontal forces were pushed into full retreat as the Mongols torched the neutral villages and Cumans before them. I unwittingly drew the Mongols to my base, causing their hundreds of units to swarm near my castle while a few fought some of my men north of it. I started using my accumulated thousands of resources to train units, but when it was clear the battleground would soon shift I sent my new units to Kyiv or Novgorod to prepare, massing onagers in the north. I managed to dispatch the enemy trebuchets which were massed with the rams waiting for the right time to attack in the back, thanks to my heroes and some assorted cavalry. Unfortunately several dozen siege rams with enhanced speed were still up and they charged in, demolishing my entire base to nothing but rubble (literally not a wall left).
   10. At first it seemed hopeless, but the enemy sent about a dozen rams to Vladimir with minimal protection, allowing a small collection of units I had sent there for refuge to destroy them. The Mongols had only 5 or so rams left, a major blow despite their numbers, and they were down to at most 200 men by the time Vladimir was sacked. Naturally they moved west towards Novgorod, though their progress was slow due to Polish and Slavic raids from the south and I was able to dispatch a few wounded cavaliers to destroy another ram. I gathered my onagers on the southeastern gate of Novgorod and waited while some skirmishers and horse archers waited behind. My remaining cavalry were in Kyiv.
   11. Fortunately, these men weren’t needed. Novgorod dispatched a massive army to engage the Mongols who sent a few archers and the rams at the gate. My onagers were waiting, and all but 1 ram were destroyed before the mangudai pelted my onagers. The Lithuanians destroyed the last ram not long after, and careful use of my ranged units continued to cut the mangudai down since they had lost all of their keshiks and were divided from all directions. I called my whole army to the fight but it was already over, and myself and Novgorod soon finished the Mongols off, ending the mission with a savage victory.
   12. This mission was truly brutal, and I think a major balancing issue is present on hard where the AI gets imperial age units very fast and the player is heavily bottlenecked from that for some time. Fortunately, just a few trebuchets completely shift the balance of power, and capturing three mills is more tedious than anything else provided the player can properly micro the enemy waves until then. The last fight may be the most terrifying large-scale battle I’ve ever seen in a game, period, and I truly thought all hope was lost when the horde descended on my castle. Fortunately, spending the whole scenario gaining allies paid off, and they came in clutch, each and every one, when it came time for the end. I’m glad this is done, but it was very cool and pretty fun once I knew what I was doing.
3. Constantine XI (dark blue): Difficulty 2
   1. Constantinople (purple), Genoese Galata (yellow), Ottomans (green)(x3)
   2. This is a very cool siege mission, similar to Bohemond in the east where the player had to defend Antioch from Saracen invaders. Much like that mission, this one gives the player many starting units and heroes, an imperial age beginning and high walls with fortifications, though there are only 3 castles and only 1 covers the northern section of Constantinople’s walls. The others have a few bombard towers or guard towers, with a fortified wall circling the outer edge and various stone walls covering the interior. In the center of the city is the Hagia Sophia, which must remain standing in order to win, along with the emperor Constantine who cannot die. The player has 3 docks in the south, 1 further west and 2 to the east, along with another 2 in the north behind a sea wall. The Ottoman forces endlessly spawn beyond the city and cannot be stopped, but instead must be endured.
   3. Once the mission starts the player is given a 10 minute timer before the Turks arrive. There are 18 villagers in the city who can collect food from the many cattle and few bushes, wood from the hundreds of trees and stone from a few ruin mines, but farms cannot be built. I immediately invested in fishing ships in the safety of the north, and also sailed out to search for an island that was told to me in a bonus objective using my starting ships in the north. My starting galleons were quite strong, and coupled with a few fire ships they cleared a small blockade and secured the small island in the water to my northeast. This island was just south of an enemy ship spawn point, and had a fortified tower with a few free crossbowmen to garrison with and a dock for hasty resupply. I set my villagers to work, massed my forces in one of the southern gates, the northern gate and two of the northwestern while leaving the southernmost and westernmost mostly undefended, since the enemies didn’t really attack them.
   4. I had a significant starting stockpile but used it to mainly upgrade units and buildings, rather than train more men. I had a population limit of 500 that was already half full, as well as many relics in the churches to supply me steady gold since there were no gold mines or trade opportunities. I did build a transport to talk to the Genoese that had a small hold north of me, and they asked me to kill a Turkish commander just north of them. I took a few starting paladins and my emperor north, killing the commander and his men while suffering a few losses and earning myself thousands of several resources and 4 free powerful galleons for my fleet; a most worthy trade. I also researched 2 special techs at the Hagia Sophia, specifically to make infantry near my northern castle heal and give that castle an additional 3 range. Along with these were maxed ranged upgrades for ships and fortifications, significant armor upgrades and chemistry as well.
   5. The enemy soon came, launching an initial attack force with cannons and siege rams at the gates I had defended and doing some real damage in the south. Fortunately, these cannons were very limited, and a cavalry charge destroyed them which forced the enemies to close in more, though I did lose most outer towers that saw battle. After a few minutes, ships started bearing down on the north, east and south of the city, destroying a few coastal towers and battering the walls while occasionally approaching docks. My northern tower and galleons held the line easily, but my ships in the southern docks had a harder time, forcing me to build more fire ships and war galleys with my extremely limited wood. Most enemy rams moved south towards the open gate where my men were standing. I intended to close it, but Turkish soldiers were ignoring my towers and ranged units to march south and attack the open gate, so I left it open. We settled into a steady rhythm, and after 10 minutes the enemies dispersed giving me time to recoup.
   6. I put more villagers on wood than before, needing a stronger navy, but I lost surprisingly few actual soldiers in the gates. I trained a few replacements, and had a couple of new side objectives to improve the morale of my men. Each objective involved an enemy admiral with a powerful flagship, a galleon in the east and a fire ship in the south, which I decided to try and pursue. Using my own galleon I lured the eastern defenders into my northern tower and destroyed them before surging towards the admiral. Sinking his ship cost a few fire ships, but I received thousands of resources in return, and I realized how side objectives worked here. My northern fleet retreated and I used a ship in the south to try a similar tactic, though I only had weaker ships and sea towers. Fortunately I didn’t need to fight the guards since the admiral attacked first and outpaced his support, allowing us to surround and kill him. I lost most southern ships but gained thousands more resources, maxing most units except for a few elite upgrades and heavily bolstering our fronts with mounted archers and hand cannons, as well as more cataphracts to repel bombard cannons.
   7. Soon the next wave came, and it was extremely similar to the first but with a few heavy cavalry archers sprinkled in and a second wave of rams and cannons closer to the end. We lost a few men but prevailed again, and received another mission to clear out Ottoman docks built north of Constantinople, up the safety of our river. I knew this was an existential threat since my only food now was coming from fishing that river, so I moved my northern fleet there, built a few more fire ships and a dromond before sailing north. The Turks had some heavy resistance, and I lost all my fire ships and a galleon or two, but we leveled the docks and earned another few thousands resources, as well as guaranteeing our own safety from that direction. I upgraded my men to elites and waited for the next attack.
   8. This battle was much worse, since enemy ships hit us enough to obliterate quite a few walls on the southern shore and mangonels made an appearance in the north. Worse yet, I had to fend off 3 or 4 waves of cannons, and sometimes there were 5 instead of 3 bearing on us at any given time. Despite my many upgrades I was losing both cavalry and ranged units in droves, but not enough to spell defeat. We held the line again, forcing the Ottomans back and giving us time once more. I received another objective to charge into the heart of the main Ottoman camp to the northwest and injure the leader of the enemy, improving our morale. I dispatched my cataphracts and paladins, sending them to their doom but truly injuring the enemy commander and giving me thousands more resources. I heavily reinforced the fronts, and soon gained ships from the pope containing paladins, crossbows, organ guns and hand cannons escorted by a galleon. My own fleet cleared the way for them, and I added these men to my ranks.
   9. The final invasion came as the Turks tried their hardest to break us, but the rhythm was too well established and I had an answer for every strategy. My food stocks were low and my cataphracts were getting rapidly massacred, but cannon after cannon was destroyed and the Ottomans made no progress other than leveling a long-range fortified tower in the northwest and killing a few of our hundreds of soldiers. In the end they were defeated, but then fantasy was erased and the closing narration reminded me of the truth. Constantinople, despite my best efforts, had been lost.
   10. This was a pretty cool mission, reminiscent of other siege levels but lifted to a higher degree and containing more rewarding side missions. I expected the Turks to unveil some secret weapon or new strategy partway through, but they never did, and I could’ve held out for much longer if I needed since I never even lost the outer wall. Though I was low on food I had mass produced towers around the Hagia Sophia with spare stone to guard my important spots, and there were thousands of wood and around 2,000 gold to sell and buy what I would need for more cataphracts and cannons. The durability of heavy cavalry archers was essential here, since they could draw enemy fire and survive with monk healing with help clearing their attackers. This was enjoyable, and I think I’ll soon see if it’s still fun when on the other end.
4. Fetih (green): Difficulty 2
   1. Quartermasters (teal), Genoese Galata (yellow), Constantinople (purple)(x2), Roman Army (dark blue), Westerners (red)
   2. This mission is the inverse to Constantine, putting the player into the shoes of Mehmed sieging Constantinople. The mission begins with the player in control of a small army with villagers in both the northwest and east. The east is the tip of Anatolia, separated by water, but the land around Constantinople stands almost empty save a few farms belonging to the city to its southwest. Each starting location has a few tents but that’s all, and the player has several thousand resources, almost all upgrades and access to many more resources scattered about the map. The player has a single side objective of destroying or bribing for 1000 gold Genoese Galata, but that is the only one. The main objectives are to destroy the 3 castles of the city, kill most of the defending heroes including Constantine IX himself and capture the Hagia Sophia.
   3. The Constantinople factions represent the walls, towers and a few monks, missionaries and Teutonic knights defending the Hagia Sophia, as well as Constantine himself who starts near the northwestern castle and moves when threatened. The westerners control 2 large groups of defenders and the buildings around the northern harbor where they produce endless ships. The Roman army makes up the bulk of the force, holding power over all of the relics and many monasteries, all the castles and the various defending heroes, armies and military buildings of the city. It is this faction who builds ships in the 3 southern harbors, but all of them are trapped in the city since the outer gates are locked. The fortified tower on the island is also under Constantinople’s power, but it can be relatively easily destroyed since it gets no naval support except for 1 ship, and 2 groups of player ships can be found in the northeast and southeast if approached, but they are not under player control by default. If Galata is ignored, they do nothing and treat the player like an ally. There are also a few markets in the western and southern corners as well as a harbor in south Anatolia that are the quartermasters and can be traded with with no risk.
   4. My initial game saw me build small fleets to try and hastily destroy the enemy docks, but we were mostly pushed back while I moved an army north to conquer Galata. Even once made an enemy they wouldn’t attack me and I couldn’t attack them, which i think is a bug. It wasn’t long after that a massive wave of westerner forces appeared in the south, bringing in almost 60 galleons and several transports full of troops. I restarted, having learned the lay of the land a bit better and knowing what to expect.
   5. On my second attempt I immediately used my villagers to build 5 town centers, 3 in the west and 2 in the east, and dispatched someone to discover the northern ships. These ships immediately attacked the nearby tower, and I used one of the 2 transports to bring my eastern army to the island while the other sailed south for the second fleet. I quickly built a dock and mass produced villagers, starting a strong economy and establishing trade before sending out as many fire ships as I could. I soon had around 40, along with many galleons, all waiting near where the westerner fleet would spawn. It soon did, and we engaged it directly, destroying it to a ship. Reinforcements would not be arriving.
   6. I then constructed a few docks in the Golden Horn to the north, behind the sea wall, to eliminate the westerner docks. I constructed a few dozen fire ships and galleons, using them to bait the enemy ships up to a castle I had constructed on the coast. I had a few castles near my main base, along with other military buildings, but wasn’t using them much yet. In the meantime, my ships in the south were massing both galleons and fire ships, preparing for the southern docks. Each force had 2 cannon galleons with them, used to target the docks directly. The fighting was brutal in both spots, but enemy ships weren’t proactive and I had the advantage of numbers. I lost all of my fleet, but they lost their harbors, allowing me to pick off those that remained and control the water in full.
   7. Initially I planned on just bombarding everything I could, but I was warned the westerners were coming before long and assumed something bad would happen. I used more ships to hold the reinforcement spot and breached the northern gate to start invading, luring the enemy into a mass of castles and janissaries nearby, most of which were destroyed. I eventually learned that the threat was empty, having been patched out since there was initially a hard time limit, so I had nothing to worry about. I reloaded to before I opened the gate and bribed Galata for a few free galleons before using my cannons to target every coastal fortification I could find. Enemy mangonels and monks were frustrating, but we managed to clear almost every Roman buildings from the coasts with our ships, forcing them into the center, when the northern gate suddenly unlocked. 
   8. A massive engagement started, but I had a lot more janissaries this time and they were massacred after several minutes of charging. I put together 4 control groups of janissaries and a fifth of melee units with some cannons, all of which rolled in. We battled through the streets, destroying everything that remained and eventually ending the threat of both the westerners and Romans. We closed in around the Hagia Sophia, putting down Constantine, his bishop and defenders and felling his towers before capturing the wonder and declaring victory at it. We had won.
   9. This mission feels a bit awkward and disjointed, initially presenting a time limit but not following through. Resources are abundant and unchallenged, Galata feels like an afterthought and player allies are just sitting nearby waiting to be found but otherwise saying nothing. The interior of the city is good, but it’s a carbon copy of the last mission so nothing new. It’s a solid enough scenario, but not as high quality or engaging as some of the others. It is, however, rather difficult because of the knowledge gap regarding random enemy triggers. Once these are known, like the reinforcements or gate unlock, they are easy to counter.

How am I supposed to play the game when I'm stuck here listening to this banger of a music???