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|.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.|
|~==~|¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬|~==~|
|.><.|     _______________________________________________________      |.><.| 
|~==~|                                                                  |~==~|
|.><.|       AGE OF EMPIRES 2: AGE OF KINGS GUIDE / WALKTHROUGH         |.><.|
|~==~|     _______________________________________________________      |~==~|
|.><.|                                                                  |.><.|
|~==~|¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬|~==~|
|.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.|
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Guide author: Useless
E-mail: utuselessut@hotmail.com
Guide version: 1.6
Game version: 1.0
System: PC

Copyright: Useless 2006

This entire document is (c) 2006 Useless. All trademarks are property of
their respective owners. No section of this guide can be used without my
permission. This includes, but is not limited to posting on your website,
making links to my guide, including parts of my guide in your own, or making
reference to any material contained within.

Please do not email me to ask for permission to host this guide, as I will be 
unable to give it to you. I don't have enough time to manage and upload FAQ 
versions at any sites other than the two listed below. These sites are 
therefore the only ones permitted to host this guide:

GameFAQS.com
NeoSeeker.com

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|.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.|
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------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬-----------------------------
                               TABLE OF CONTENTS
------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬-----------------------------

 1. INTRODUCTION
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

	1.1 INTRODUCTION
		1.1.1 WELCOME
		1.1.2 HINTS AND INFO
	1.2 USING THIS GUIDE
	1.3 CONTACT ME

 2. WALKTHROUGH
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

	2.1 WILLIAM WALLACE (LEARNING CAMPAIGN)
		2.1.1 MARCHING AND FIGHTING
		2.1.2 FEEDING THE ARMY
		2.1.3 TRAINING THE TROOPS
		2.1.4 RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY
		2.1.5 THE BATTLE OF STIRLING
		2.1.6 FORGE AN ALLIANCE
		2.1.7 THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK
	2.2 JOAN OF ARC
		2.2.1 AN UNLIKELY MESSIAH
		2.2.2 THE MAID OF ORLEANS
		2.2.3 THE CLEANSING OF THE LOIRE
		2.2.4 THE RISING
		2.2.5 THE SIEGE OF PARIS
		2.2.6 A PERFECT MARTYR
	2.3 SALADIN
		2.3.1 AN ARABIAN KNIGHT
		2.3.2 LORD OF ARABIA
		2.3.3 THE HORNS OF HATTIN
		2.3.4 THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM
		2.3.5 JIHAD!
		2.3.6 THE LION AND THE DEMON
	2.4 GENGHIS KHAN
		2.4.1 THE CRUCIBLE
		2.4.2 A LIFE OF REVENGE
		2.4.3 INTO CHINA
		2.4.4 THE HORDE RIDES WEST
		2.4.5 THE PROMISE
		2.4.6 PAX MONGOLIA
	2.5 BARBAROSSA
		2.5.1 HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR
		2.5.2 HENRY THE LION
		2.5.3 POPE AND ANTIPOPE
		2.5.4 THE LOMBARD LEAGUE
		2.5.5 BARBAROSSA'S MARCH
		2.5.6 THE EMPEROR SLEEPING

 3. CONTRIBUTORS / CONTRIBUTIONS
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

 4. VERSION HISTORY / UPDATES
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

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|.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.|
--------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬-----------------------------
                                 1. INTRODUCTION
--------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬-----------------------------
|.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.|
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--------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬----------------------------
                                 1.1 INTRODUCTION
--------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬----------------------------

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 1.1.1 WELCOME
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

This is my walkthrough for Age Of Empires 2: The Age Of Kings.

Let me establish some credentials before I begin for real:

If you have any problems with the fact that this guide is not aesthetically 
beautiful, sod off - I'm writing a guide here, not competing in the ASCII 
Filler Olympics. God, I hate ASCII art. If a computer does it for you, it's 
not bloody art. Be told.

I realise that the AOE games are RTS, and that an RTS walkthrough might be 
considered an oxymoron. This walkthrough is for people who, like me, had or 
are having problems beating any or all of the single player levels. I can't 
guide you through every minute of every game, since RTS games are so open, but 
I can help you with the levels and bits that gave me difficulty, and there are 
lots of those.

Most of these level guides take you through only one specific way to complete 
the level, because obviously it's impossible to list every method. If you have 
a better way to win a particular level than the ones in here, by all means use 
it; email me it if you want, and if it's significantly better or as good as 
mine I'll list it in the next update and credit you for its inclusion. Please 
try to be specific in your contributions - suggestions like 'TAKE ALL YOUR 
GUYS AND ATTACK THE THING WITH THE STUFF IN THE PLACE LOL!' are helpful to 
neither man nor beast.

Objectives sometimes change when you achieve certain triggers. My listed 
objectives are the ones which you are given at the start of the level - any 
other subsequent objectives are dealt with in the guide, though not 
specifically mentioned.

I haven't read any other walkthroughs for AOE2:AOK, though I know there are 
some. This stuff is all my own work, and any similarities between mine and 
someone else's are coincidental, though I'll surely be ahead on swear words.

Finally, if you're looking for stats, cheats, stats, stats, cheats or stats, 
don't bother. This is purely a walkthrough, and if you think I'm sitting here 
bashing in numbers which you can find for yourself just by clicking on a unit 
and looking at its properties, you are sadly deluded and your hairdo is crap. 
And as for cheats - if you use cheats, why read a walkthrough? Eh? God, I hate 
people...

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 1.1.2 HINTS AND INFO
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

I've given each level a difficulty rating from one to three. I realise that 
even some of the levels I've marked as Easy can be quite hard, but difficulty 
is relative, and if you think The Maid Of Orleans is hard, wait until you come 
up against the likes of The Lombard League. By the way, if you disagree with 
these ratings, tough.

In this guide I have mostly denoted enemies by unit / building colour, instead 
of by nationality. This just makes it easier to know which ones I'm talking 
about while you're actually playing the game, since some levels have four or 
five nationalities of enemies, and frankly I sometimes have difficulty 
remembering what frigging nation my own guys are from.

If you have stone to spare, build a castle. Then build another one. They are 
by far the best things in the game, and they solve most problems. Try to have 
units garrisoned inside to deal with trebuchets, rams and bombard cannons. 
About the only level where building a castle is a bad idea is The Lombard 
League - read that section to find out why. Oh, and The Horns Of Hattin, 
because it's impossible.

The computer often tends to attack the last building you built. This means 
that you can defend your entire main base just by building a castle somewhere 
else and making sure it stands. Weird but true, mostly.

Trading carts count towards your population limit - be careful how many you 
build.

Try to find a balance between workers and combatants. I tend to have nine 
farmers (or six fishing boats if I'm using only boats for food), seven 
lumberjacks, five gold-miners and four stone-miners, plus a single peasant for 
building and repairing. This allows me a lot of combat units, but even one 
extra can make a big difference, especially if that one is a trebuchet or 
something.

When you are nearing the end of a level, where everything is a fight and your 
base is all but forgotten (except for those sodding farms making scittery 
noises at you every two minutes), try getting rid of some of your peasants. 
It's safe to say that if you have over 10,000 units of food, you can kill off 
a few peasants to make room for more combat units. Try not to have any units 
who are virtually superfluous. And sell your surplus goods in the market - I 
know 14 isn't much but it's still better to have less wood and a bit more 
stone than have tons of wood you'll never need.

Castles and towers are excellent, since they are technically combat units 
(well, buildings), but they don't count towards the pop. limit. You can have, 
in theory, fifty towers, five castles and one peasant, and your population 
will be 1/75. So with one actual unit you can hold off vast armies. This isn't 
really tenable though, since god only knows where you'll get the stone from, 
but you get the point. Use your stone - that's what it's for.

Base defense is a lot easier if you look for the nearest bottlenecks and block 
them off. The computer almost never sends units at you in transport ships, so 
pay attention to the shape of the land and plan your base layout accordingly. 
Holy Roman Emperor in the Barbarossa campaign is a great example of this - you 
can build one massive wall all around your island, or you can build four gates 
and fewer than twenty squares of wall for the same effect.

Town centres can act like mini-castles if you pull your peasants back to them 
with the town bell. It's unreal how often town centres can save your arse, yet 
they're still easily forgotten. One full town centre and one single scout 
cavalry to draw enemies in can provide a better base defense than an empty 
town centre and ten knights. Probably. I just throw these things out there 
without bothering to verify them.

Group units according to abilities and movement speed. Grouping scout cavalry 
with Teutonic knights would earn you a stupidity award in some countries, and 
a bullet to the brain in others. Scotland, for example. Grouping champions 
(melee) with skirmishers (ranged) is another mistake - the champions will be 
almost useless. Monks do well in groups of monks only, as a sort of ambulance 
service bringing up the rear.

Use the scatter formation when you're getting attacked by mangonels or 
scorpions. One mangonel can instantly delete an entire squadron of yours, so 
know where they are and make them a priority kill.

Quick in and out attacks can be very useful in this game. For instance, send a 
scout cavalry running around the perimeter walls of an enemy base, then send 
him running back home, drawing the gullible enemy guards into the firing range 
of towers and castles. Sometimes it's amazing how many enemies you can take 
down just by having a quick unit run past to get their attention.

-----------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬---------------------------
                              1.2 USING THIS GUIDE
-----------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬---------------------------

Please view this guide in a text viewer / editor with a set fixed-width 
font, or else it might look a mess. I use Courier New, Size 10.

Use the Find command (CTRL + F) with the numbered contents menu at the start 
of the guide, in order to quickly jump to the section you want.

I have put the main walkthrough section of the guide towards the end, after 
all the other game information. This is not a design flaw - it's deliberate.

--------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬------------------------------
                                 1.3 CONTACT ME
--------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬------------------------------

I always appreciate feedback for any of my guides, so if you want to send 
strategies, thanks, blame, criticism or applause feel free to mail me your 
comments. I consider all suggestions (and playtest them if possible) and I 
often revise and rewrite based purely on reader contributions. All feedback is 
welcome, unless it's to tell me I suck.

Please consider the following before mailing me:

- Check whether your suggestions or questions are already covered in the 
guide.

- Check whether there is a more recent version of the guide available - I 
revise and update a lot after a first release.

- To email me, please send your message to 'utuselessut@hotmail.com' and put 
'AOE2:AOK guide' and the guide version number in the subject line.

- I don't edit contributor emails (unless they're obscene), so please make 
sure you won't mind seeing what you've written appearing in a future version 
of the guide, spelling mistakes and all.

- Let me know in your mail whether or not you want your name and email address 
to be included with your contribution - if you don't specify then I'll assume 
you want it included.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
|.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.|
--------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬------------------------------
                                 2. WALKTHROUGH
--------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬------------------------------
|.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.|
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This is the section of the guide which will instruct you on how to 
successfully beat each of the levels in each of the campaigns. My strategies 
are my own, and they worked for me; but if you have better ones then just 
stick to using them, obviously. And maybe think about contributing them to 
this guide.

I've tried to split each mission guide up into sections, though some don't 
lend themselves to this at all. I've also included a QUICK HELP section at the 
end of each mission guide, to allow you to skip past all my inane pish and get 
right to the useful hints.

Anyway, good luck and I hope my tactics help you out.

------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬---------------------------
                               2.1 WILLIAM WALLACE
------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬---------------------------

This campaign follows the fortunes of William Wallace, in spite of the fact 
that he doesn't show up until the last level. This leads me to believe that 
this campaign was designed by Americans. The Scottish campaign is generally 
really easy, true to the fact that Scots can pretty much stroll through any 
conflict without even cracking a fingernail. We're the greatest.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.1.1 MARCHING AND FIGHTING
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty - 1/3

Objectives:

Follow the instructions to reach the Scottish village.

---

Even if you are the type of person who waves at aeroplanes, you will still 
have difficulty failing this level. There is an urban legend which says that, 
instead of the usual 'YOU HAVE BEEN DEFEATED' message, this level will just 
grow hands and smack you in the head.

Anyway, run around all the flags, take down the outpost and then defend the 
base against the three English soldiers.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

The map designer initialled this one - try using the reveal map cheat. No, I'm 
not telling you it.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.1.2 FEEDING THE ARMY
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty - 1/3

Objectives:

Gather 50 food, 50 wood and 50 gold.

---

You can just let your first villager do everything, or go down the route of 
having different villagers do different things. I don't know which one takes 
longer, and I intend to spend zero time finding out.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Just follow the instructions.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.1.3 TRAINING THE TROOPS
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Train 4 militia.

---

There are no enemies in this area, though the game hints would have you 
believe otherwise. Just build a house then a "berrecks", and train four 
militia men.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Why are you reading this?

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.1.4 RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

To win you will need to advance to the Feudal Age and repel the English raids.

---

There are no English raids here. Just gather enough resources, of which there 
are plenty, to advance to the Feudal Age.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Some gold and sheep to the north.
A lone villager hiding to the south.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.1.5 THE BATTLE OF STIRLING
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Defeat the English army and destroy their tower.

---

Finally, a bit of excitement. No, I'm wrong. The AOE games always prided 
themselves on being historically educational: if this is an accurate portrayal 
of the Battle of Stirling then my arse is a detailed scale model of Mount 
Rushmore.

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
--------------------------------

There's plenty of stone to the north and gold to the west. Build a house, then 
a mill next to the berry bushes for quick food. Then just build up your base 
while you soak up the pathetic English attack, which incidentally was the 
basis for their latest World Cup campaign. I just realised that if I never 
update this document again, that statement will remain true. Anyway, ringing 
the town bell should deal with the enemy easily.

Once you've got about fifteen scout cavalry and fifteen skirmishers, just 
charge the tower. Use your ranged units to take out the English behind the 
palisade wall, knock the wall down with your cavalry, charge the tower with 
the horsemen and take out the last two archers with your own ranged units.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Ranged units are always good for drawing enemies away from the protection of 
their towers.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.1.6 FORGE AN ALLIANCE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Capture 3 relics and guard them in your monastery.

---

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

This is the first of the Scottish missions with any real challenge, unless you 
count evasion of boredom. Peasants apart, you can do this mission with one 
monk and one siege onager. 

You get a lot of resources at the start, so turn all your peasants into 
farmers so you can advance to the Castle Age very quickly. Build houses while 
you're waiting, then produce a few more lumberjacks. This will get you up to 
speed as soon as possible.

There's plenty of gold and stone to the west. The first relic is just south of 
your monastery. The quicker you grab it, the more gold you'll get.

Explore the coastline around to the west. The two crossings both lead to the 
gates of the enemy, so avoid them for now. Head into your allies' base 
(yellow) and discover the second relic on top of the hill to the north. Take 
it back to the monastery.

You have tons of time to build up your base and forces, since the English 
attack your allies before they attack you. Get all the way to the Imperial Age 
and assault the English base with the strongest units. Building stone walls, 
gates and towers at those two river crossings might not hurt either. 
Constructing your unit production buildings just behind these river defenses 
will be a good plan too, making it easier and faster to replenish any units 
you lose.

The relic is on a hill beyond the red walls, directly south of the eastern 
river crossing. Smash up the base, grab the relic and take it back to the 
monastery.

Here's my sneaky, cheap way of getting the third relic (cheap unless you 
include mangonel upgrades). Draw the English forces away from the area of 
their eastern gate, and sneak a peasant all the way around the coast to the 
south east while the English are occupied. When your peasant reaches the edge 
of the map he should be on a grassy hill with thick trees to the west and the 
river to the east. Build a siege workshop and a monastery here. Produce one 
priest and one mangonel. Upgrade mangonels to onagers, then to siege onagers. 
Siege onagers can smash through trees using their attack ground ability, so 
break through the trees to the sand. Follow the treeline around until you're 
due north of the southern corner of the minimap. Smash through these trees and 
send your priest in to pilfer the relic from under the noses of the English. 
Take it back to your new monastery and you're done.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Use your initial stocks to advance quickly.
Don't bother tributing your ally.
Building walls and towers at both river crossings makes this level a joke.
The sneaky way is ALWAYS better. If you're a fan of the Thief games, you know 
this already.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.1.7 THE BATTLE OF FALKIRK
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Build a castle.
Destroy the English castle.

---

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Right. The second the level starts, put all your peasants to work, build four 
more, then advance to the Castle Age. Gather all your starting combat units 
together and send them down to the river crossing to the west. You should have 
enough stone to build a castle, so get the four miners to go down and build 
one right at the crossing, while your combat units guard the construction 
site. As soon as the castle is done, garrison your combat units in there, and 
send your miners back to work at your main base.

Wallace arrives with a lot of help, so get his lot over to the castle too. 
They won't all be able to fit in, so explore the area with your horsemen while 
you build up your base. With that castle there, you don't have to worry about 
your base getting attacked any more, so just take it easy. Build a university 
and research murder holes and other upgrades so you can deal with invaders 
more effectively, including the rams.

And that's your base safe, with a ton of free combat units into the bargain. 

ATTACKING THE ENGLISH BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

This couldn't really be easier. Use the free transport ships to take Wallace 
and the elite woad raiders (good name for a band) over to the south east of 
the far island, along with some trebuchets and whatever else you feel like. 
You'll meet not much resistance, and wiping out the English should be easy if 
you keep your groups organised and your siege units protected. Take out their 
castle on the hill with trebuchets.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

A castle at the crossing basically wins you this level from the very start.
Woad raiders are really quite crap. Elite, my arse.

--------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬-----------------------------
                                 2.2 JOAN OF ARC
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Take Joan Of Arc on a tour of what seems like the entire country of France. 
She's a talisman but she's dangerous to use in battle, since most of the 
levels rely on her not dying. Ironically, the most difficult level of this 
campaign is the only one she isn't in.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

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 2.2.1 AN UNLIKELY MESSIAH
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Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Escort Joan from the camp at Vaucouleurs to the Chateau of Chinon.
Joan must survive.

---

Is there such a thing as a likely messiah?

This is just a walk-from-A-to-B-to-C mission. Take your knights, men-at-arms 
and crossbowmen south, keeping Joan at the back. Watch the British beat up the 
Franks, then follow the dirt path around to the broken bridge on the west 
shore. Go north, sticking to the trees to the east. Take out the group of 
thugs by the outpost, and head farther north by the trees. Cross the bridge 
and go north west to the Franks encampment. Joan must approach the group of 
units to get their help.

Don't go across the north west bridge; instead go back over the bridge to the 
south and use the ram to attack the gate to the west. Remove any red units 
which attack the ram, and bust your way through the gate. You can try to take 
down the whole base if you want, but there's not a lot of point.

Anyway, head west, over the river crossing, and deal with the three wolves. 
Farther west is an ambush, but sticking to the southern coast should let you 
avoid it. Pile onto the boats. The only important one is Joan, since this is 
the last piece of combat. When you knocked down that gate, you ceased to have 
a use for your ram, so send it in first as a decoy, while everyone else jumps 
onto the boats.

Head south, following the western coast. Halfway down, you should see a cliff 
with some trees around it. There will be a small break in the cliff edge where 
you can pass, so let your guys off here, then just right-click on the flag at 
the north west corner of the mini-map and your units will get there by 
themselves.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Keep Joan away from combat, but still quite close to your other units.
Watch out for wolves.
The ram is good for drawing fire at the boats.
If you get warnings about where not to go, heed them.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

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 2.2.2 THE MAID OF ORLEANS
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Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Joan must survive.
The cathedral in Orleans must remain standing.
Escort Joan to Blois so she may command the French army.

---

Send everyone north. You will meet a bunch of goons halfway there - use the 
monk who waves you off if you need healing. 

Keep pushing everyone north. When they reach Blois you will get a lot more 
units, as well as six trade carts.

Outside the eastern gates, it might be worth exploring a bit to the east and 
down south, since there are lots of minerals around here. Head along the 
northern coast when you're done here - don't go too far east or you'll run 
into trouble. Along the coast you should find the boats, so take everyone 
across, including the carts. 

There is gold to the west which might come in handy, and farms and stone north 
of that. The farms will save you a lot of building in a short while. Get over 
to Orleans - as soon as you approach the gates, the city comes under your 
control. The carts aren't essential, but they will give you a lot more 
supplies to get started with.

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
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Well, from here it's up to you. You've got a nicely walled compound, whose 
surrounds should be dotted with towers as soon as you have enough stone. You 
can try a castle if you want, but since you'll be under attack from all 
directions, its effectiveness will be lessened a bit. The biggest problem is 
protecting your farmers, lumberjacks and miners, since they'll all have to 
work outside the walls. I'd suggest building a tower next to every mining / 
lumber operation, and next to the mill. Get your peasants in there at the 
first whiff of danger, and keep a close eye on them. The enemies will attack 
them once in a while.

ATTACKING THE CASTLES
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Here's how I prefer to do this.

Immediately upgrade to the castle age, and build a castle north of your base, 
just out of reach of the red towers. Meanwhile have your first three peasants 
start farming, and use the food they bring in to create about ten or fifteen 
more peasants. Have your ranged units fill the guard towers along the south 
and east edges of your base. Have about five of your new peasants mine the 
stone north of the free farms, and the rest cutting wood right next to your 
castle.

Next to your new castle build a siege workshop and a university, upgrading to 
Murder Holes when you can. Build about ten rams (no trebuchets allowed here), 
or more if you can afford them (you should have plenty of gold). Attack the 
red wall due west of the red castle (the part surrounded by trees, in between 
the range of the corner towers) with your rams - they should break through but 
they will be under attack. Send all your surviving rams through the gap and 
have them attack the castle. Send in all the rest of your forces after them, 
so that the rams draw all the fire but all your units are hammering the castle 
at once (keep Joan out of it). With luck the castle should fall, though you 
will have very few units remaining, and you'll have to watch for mangonels. 
Believe me, this way does work, and you can get this mission over with very 
quickly just by using a lot of rams and your starting units.

If you do it the long way, you'll spend a lot of time mopping up all around 
your walls, dealing with mangonels, lots of rams, horsemen, archers, etc. 
You'll need towers at every length of wall, and a strike-force of cavalry 
ready to charge out and get rid of any siege weapons. Plus you'll have to 
protect your peasants at the same time.
______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________V1.3 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

Harpret Kalsi <bruceybonus3002@hotmail.com> 

"just wanted to say that I found a very easy way of getting past the maid of 
ORLEANS scenario. Basically when u start theres one of the enemy castles 
placed just above your troops to the west a bit. You can take out this castle 
from the very start of the map with the troops u are given including the ones 
u need to collect to the west of the map. But yea if u can take out that 
castle and then take ur trade carts to ur town, u win the map as soon as they 
reached the flagged area without worrying about defending the town and 
catherdrel"

---

I tested this for the first time after your mail, and it worked great for me. 
Basically got all my units together and blasted the hell out of the castle 
south of the bridge, which I usually avoid. This is good if you're a decent 
enough player to get away with it, but that castle and its guards can be 
dangerous, so save before you head in if you're going to try it. 
______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________V1.3 CONTRIBUTION______________________________

One thing worth noting: once you reach Blois, the yellow monk who was standing 
by the cathedral at the very start will possibly have followed your guys all 
the way to Orleans without getting killed. For some weird reason, this guy 
stood outside my northern gate and HEALED MY FRIGGING ENEMIES. If he does this 
to you, introduce him to the business end of a mangonel, because that sort of 
aid is the last thing you need in this level.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Look for the boats outside Blois.
There is a lot of farms and a mill west of Orleans, just waiting to be used.
Rams can end this level quickly.
Build towers everywhere, including next to your peasants.
There are lots of minerals in this map - just explore.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.2.3 THE CLEANSING OF THE LOIRE
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Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Destroy at least 3 British castles.
Joan must survive.

---

This mission can be hard or easy, depending on how you approach it and where 
you site your main base. Take all your guys north at the start, and you should 
meet up with some ships. Take everyone across the river and let them off, then 
kill off your transport ships to lower your pop. limit.

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
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You can either choose to start your base right away, or you can attack 
Burgundy with what units you have. This is not difficult at all - just head 
north from your landing point, and you should find their small base. It's 
defended by four or five towers, but these are not tough to take down, as long 
as you stay out of the firing range of the others while you're doing it. Take 
out the town centre first though, sneaking through in between the towers, and 
get rid of any peasants or combatants around. This will do you a favour in the 
long run, since these guys would have been using up the valuable gold and 
stone dotted all around here.

There are several places you could put your base, but I recommend way down in 
the southernmost corner of this island, over the river crossing. There's 
plenty of gold and stone along to the east; tons of trees which are also 
grouped closely together to make up nice bottlenecks where you can put your 
gates; the river is just south west if you want to build boats to go up the 
smaller river to the north; and the area is as far away from any enemy base as 
you can get.

You will be under attack from over the river crossing once in a while, but not 
so much if you got rid of Burgundy at the beginning. Most of the attacks will 
be from the north east, but nothing some walls and towers can't handle.

ATTACKING THE ORANGE BASE
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Explore to the north - you should find three castles behind walled compounds 
about two thirds of the way north east, from the top of the map to the bottom. 
There is another castle in the far north, but this is more difficult to take 
down.

When you destroy your first castle, Fastolf will attack with some of his 
goons. He is pretty tough, but not if you capture him with monks. He has the 
same stats as Joan, and is well worth grabbing.

You might also want to take out Fastolf's base, which can be tough since it's 
quite spread out. Worth it though, since it allows you to sneak around to the 
back of the middle castle.

ATTACKING THE RED CASTLES
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The three lone castles are all in small, walled compounds, vulnerable to 
attack from the rear. Just use rams on the walls then pile everyone in through 
the gap and raze the castles.

The base in the north is a different proposition, involving longbowmen, 
mangonels, towers and walls. Nothing too heavy though, and it is easier if you 
attack through the eastern wall. Better to leave this though, when there are 
three easier castles.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

The less open your base is to attack, the better. A corner is always better 
than an edge.
Taking out Burgundy at the start saves you a lot of grief.
Capture Fastolf if possible - he is noticeably different from his bodyguards.
If you're placing mining operations far beyond your city walls, protect them 
with towers - they may be attacked, and one tower will not be enough.
Go for the three red castles, rather than the one in the bigger base in the 
north.
Towers by the river will deal with all those red ships.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.2.4 THE RISING
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Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Travel west to help reinforce the French town.
Be wary of opposition along the way.
Joan must survive.

---

Go north from the starting point and follow the coast along to the far west. 
This should let you avoid almost all of the enemies in the middle of this 
area. Once you get Joan to the flag, you will gain some peasants, a town 
centre, a mill, a lumber yard and a mining camp. Use the berries for some 
quick food.

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
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Whatever you do, this base will be pretty hard to defend for quite some time, 
especially since it's in such a suckage position for defending. The nearest 
bottleneck is to the north, over the river crossing. You should wall this off 
as soon as you get a chance, but otherwise it will be a case of desperate 
defending and ringing the town bell a lot until you get enough stone to put a 
castle up, which will definitely do you a favour in this mission. I'd 
recommend relying on quick response units for defense, rather than a lot of 
walls and towers, since the area is too open and there's not a lot of stone 
around. Keep some mobile units around your town centre and farms, since 
enemies have a habit of suddenly appearing inside your base from out of 
apparently nowhere.

I tend to put a wall and a gate at the crossing to the north, then build a 
castle at the other crossing, plus another wall and gate, since the eastern 
crossing is the most dangerous.

Once the nearby stone and gold deposits are exhausted, the next nearest is to 
the east. They may be lightly guarded by the last of the reds, but nothing 
major at all. 

ATTACKING THE GREEN AND ORANGE BASES
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You can help yourself in this mission by realising that all you have to do is 
wipe out the town centres of each of the three enemies, not every building and 
unit. And the orange and green centres are actually very easy to take down.

For the greens to the north of your base, just send in four or five rams as 
soon as you have them built, and you probably don't even need to bother with 
an escort. The rams can knock out the town centre very fast, and once this is 
done the greens will just stop functioning. The same applies to the orange 
base, except for this one I just sent about six trebuchets halfway up the 
eastern crossing and had them heave their ammo over the gate and onto the town 
centre, which is right next to the castle. The castle will topple with the 
town centre, and the orange base will shut down straight away too. That's two 
out of the three enemy bases gone with only a few siege weapons needed. True, 
the trebuchets were under attack, but they managed to get rid of the town 
centre before the orange guys destroyed them. So you can launch full scale 
attacks on both bases and lose quite a lot of units in the process, or you can 
expend money on a few cheap siege weapons - it's up to you.

For the ships cruising along the river, I built my own dock to the west and 
quickly got some galleons together. Take out any enemy docks and stay away 
from the orange castle to the east. I tend not to bother with sea units in my 
games, but the boats in this level can be a pain for your walls and gates at 
the western crossing.

ATTACKING THE YELLOW BASE
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The final base is a different prospect altogether. This place is seriously 
well guarded by towers, many mangonels, and many, many longbowmen. Trying to 
get through is a nightmare, especially since they have two castles, both of 
which will constantly produce longbowmen, who will always try to suck your 
units in by firing then retreating. But you can't follow them because of the 
mangonels, who will pour out of the gates and reduce your squadrons to mince.

I've had good luck with sitting just outside the east gate, trying to suck 
longbowmen out one at a time and finishing them off with my own ranged units, 
who are all the time getting healed by priests. This has the added advantage 
of being out of range of the castles, and being as far away as possible from 
all those mangonels. Meanwhile I get rams / trebuchets to attack the northern 
corner of the wall and break through there, which should not raise undue 
suspicion from the enemy. At that point I pour my horsed units and siege 
weapons through and head across the northern edge of the map. I get all my 
siege weapons to target the town centre, sending my other units in first to 
draw fire. Trebuchets and rams should do the job in time while the rest of 
your units are distracting the billions of longbowmen.

Remember it doesn't matter how many units you lose, just as long as you take 
down the town centre by the end of it. Throw everything you have at it. 

QUICK HELP
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Wall off both crossings as soon as you can.
Keep plenty of fast, mobile units in and around your base - ranged units are 
little use in this level.
Stone is scarce, but castles are very much worth it at each crossing.
Taking out the green base early can gain you valuable resources.
A few siege weapons can beat two out of the three enemies.
When attacking enemy bases, target EVERYTHING on the town centres.
Sneaking into the yellow base is far better than a frontal attack.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

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 2.2.5 THE SIEGE OF PARIS
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Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Joan must survive.
Refugee villagers in Paris are attempting to escape English tyranny. Locate at 
least 6 of the refugees.
Rendezvous with the king's reinforcements in Paris, just south of the river 
bridge.

---

This is another cross-country traipse, this time through the enormous city of 
Paris. Like the Hints window says, defend your siege weapons because this 
place is a nightmare without them.

Take everyone north, sticking to the west edge of the map. You will reach a 
castle defended by towers and a wall. Destroy it and head carefully east until 
you reach the gate. Attack the gate with your bombard cannons while everyone 
else fends off the enemies who come through the gate. Send someone through the 
ruined gate to pick up the peasants, then pull them back out again with the 
peasants. From here you can knock out a lot of the Paris buildings from behind 
the wall, just by firing over with your cannons and trebuchets. Careful of the 
castle to the south and the trebuchet guarding it.

Next, head inside the confines of the walls. There is a mangonel to the south 
and a couple of galleons guarding the water - all three of these units should 
be taken out in order to make your life easier. You can destroy all the 
buildings you want, but it doesn't make any difference to the level. You 
should be more concerned with getting to the bridge to the south east. There 
are two towers and a galleon on the near side of it, a monk and another tower 
in the middle island, and another tower and a mangonel at the far end. Attack 
the monk in the middle with Joan, who cannot be converted.

Once over the bridge, take Joan east to the cathedral and kill the other two 
monks. There is another mangonel lurking to the south who may take a shot at 
you. Don't let it draw you towards the champions farther south.

Head south east and pick up the militia, scorpions, axemen and a couple of 
knights, who can help you deal with the elite longbowmen against the eastern 
wall. Next, knock a hole in the wall where you met the bowmen and go through 
to find the dirt path to the east. Follow it south until the road forks. Stop 
here.

This is probably the hardest bit of the level if you choose to attack, so 
don't. Watch the battle in the revealed area to the east, where Burgundy take 
on the Compeigne. Your purple enemies will win and remain lurking around 
inside the walls, but their large force should be pretty depleted. This should 
make it easy for you to send in all your forces first, then run in Joan and 
the six peasants while the Burgundians are distracted.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Guard your siege weapons.
Don't chase enemy units too far - let them come to you.
Attack monks with Joan.
Exploring can get you killed - just follow a narrow route.
Leave the Burgundians to it at the final area, and only charge in once their 
forces are heavily damaged by Compiegne.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.2.6 A PERFECT MARTYR
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Difficulty: 2/3

Objectives:

The Trade Cart carrying the French flag must survive.
Plant the French flag (loaded in a Trade Cart) on the hill in Castillon 
(covered with flags).
Rendezvous with the French artillery, commanded by Jean Bureau.
Rendezvous with the French army, commanded by Constable Richemont.

---

No Joan in this level, but at least you don't have to watch her back all the 
time.

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
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The first job is to get rid of Burgundy, which is really quite easy if you do 
it sensibly. Loth as I am to be sensible about anything, let's give it a go 
anyway.

Head south until you find the rendezvous point, where you will gain control of 
the army. Head over the river crossing to the west and get the artillery. Now 
take all your units, including the trade cart, down to the southern edge of 
the map, where the trees are. Keep heading west, past the batch of gold and 
across the little rocky place which looks like it's blocked.

Incidentally, if you want to build up your base quicker, you don't actually 
have to pick up the artillery yet. Just avoid them and take down the base with 
the army, then come back for the artillery once your base is up and your pop. 
limit is at 75.

If you did get the bombard cannons, group them together, your horsed units 
together, and all the rest of your combat units together (apart from 
trebuchets), so that you have three groups. Put your remaining units 
(trebuchets, peasants and trade cart) in a fourth group and keep them well 
away from the action. Put your three combat groups on 'no attack stance'. Go 
past the purple mill of Burgundy, and the fishing peasants, and go south 
across the crossing. Now put all your units on aggressive (apart from the 
bombard cannons, as they can accidentally land their cannon balls on the heads 
of your men) and get them to decimate the base. Make sure you mop up the 
peasants especially.

As soon as you attack the southern settlement of Burgundy, the northern one 
will empty and all of those units will charge to protect their twin base. 
Mount your defense at the southern end of the river crossing you just came 
over, keeping your groups intact (keep the bombard cannons out of it). Once 
all the Burgundians are gone (check for stray peasants), Burgundy should 
resign and you will get their resources. You can now set about building your 
base at either of the sites they have just vacated.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________V1.6 CONTRIBUTION_______________________________

Anonymous

"in the last Joan of Arc mission: A perfect Martyr, you said in your guide to 
build a town. Now this strategy may appeal to people who like to destroy 
everything or want a bit more fun (me for example in the "siege of Jerusalem" 
village i totally leveled Jerusalem minus the untouchable buildings) Instead 
of building a base i used my starting troops to just go straight to the finish 
line at the red British base.

I first annihilated the northern Burgundian base (purple) by using siege 
weapons and keeping my melee units on stand ground in front of them and the 
ranged units whom i also kept in stand ground (i grouped melee together, siege 
and ranged together) my ranged units would focus fire on anything that came 
close (required my input of course) if anything reaches the ranged units 
(highly unlikely) the melee units on stand ground would take them out. As soon 
as the Burgundian base was leveled i moved my troops past it (the base was 
only leveled to give me more room to work) i saved as often as possible as 
soon as a small objective was completed (eg. a tower was destroyed without 
losing any units) you might not need to do this but personally i hate losing 
troops and i loaded every time i lost a few, though you must not lose too many 
because you wont be getting more using my strategy.

As soon as the Burgundians were gone, i moved carefully down south west of the 
Burgundian base then up a little to a marshy crossing over the river where a 
number of red British troops, 2 Keeps and a few mangonel await. I kept my 
knights on stand ground directly north of the crossing and then i used my 
siege to take out the towers, the ranged units took out any reds that came 
(keeping in mind purple will still harass you with two handed swordsman and 
champions in small groups take them out as they come) the knights are to move 
down and take out the mangonels as they come as they will be absolutely 
devastating against your weak archers and cannoneers. As soon as they were 
defeated you would have lost a few troops maybe move across the river again 
fending off the constant but laughable red and purple attacks. Hug the river 
with your troops to ensure minimum damage from more towers. Soon you may come 
across a bombard tower dangerously close to your men, at this point array 
siege to destroy the tower and again use your troops to defend. Then move 
further north and finally west until you meet a red castle which you take out 
with siege. Then keep moving west and little bit south until you come to a red 
gate facing north, take this gate out and move all your troops in, at this 
point tons and tons of red troops engage you, too much for your army, keep 
them busy with your troops and get some of your troops to attack the tower 
guarding the target destination of the flag (you did keep the flag with you 
right? and the civilians to repair the siege with your resources from 
destroying the purple TC) the troops will be targeted by the towers, the rest 
of your men will be busy getting cut to pieces (though putting up a good 
fight) then simply weave your cart in between the fray and get to the flagged 
area. Voila mission accomplished."

---

Thanks. I am the kind of player who likes building bases, but an all-out 
assault is another way of doing it, and if it works it works.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________V1.6 CONTRIBUTION_______________________________

Each site has advantages over the other, but I tend to go for the southern 
base. It has a fantastic bottleneck, enough space (just) to build up a full 
base, and it is very far away from the enemy bases. The northern site has 
berry bushes, walls, gold, stone and lots of trees, but in my experience it 
comes under heavy and constant assault even when you're not ready to defend 
against it. Besides, those resources will stay there untouched for a very long 
time, and you can build your secondary base here later. 

By the way, that big area in the south that you passed at the beginning might 
look attractive, what with all that gold and those trees. No, it isn't. I've 
tried a few times and I just get a kicking from attacks from both sides, as 
well as problems with having to mine the stone to the west, which leads to my 
mining operations getting wiped out almost as fast as I can build them. It's 
the lack of stone that makes this area a bad place for a base, but if you 
think you can successfully maintain a base here, good luck to you.

Anyway, assuming you are using the southern Burgundy site for your base, just 
plug the crossing bottleneck with walls and a gate as soon as you can, and use 
your given units to fend off attacks while you get building.

Three problems with this place: firstly, you will probably be attacked by some 
red ships from the west. Your bombard cannons should be able to take them out 
when they appear, but don't build any important buildings by the western coast 
until they're gone. Another problem is the red tower across the river to the 
north, but again use bombard cannons.

The third problem isn't really to do with the site, it's the number of units 
you have. I had sixty-five by the time I'd gotten rid of Burgundy, and it took 
me a long time to get my infrastructure up with that many units taking up 
space. So I killed off most of my light cavalry and sent the rest exploring, 
not minding if they got killed. I also got rid of some of my arbalests, then 
just let the others gradually die from defending. Don't go overboard and kill 
them all off, but you will probably want to sacrifice some to make room for 
peasants.

ATTACKING THE ORANGE BASE
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Once your base is up and running, and you're used to fending off bunched 
attacks from longbowmen, knights, siege weapons, whatever, you will probably 
want to take care of that orange base in the north west. To do this, it would 
be very helpful to establish that second base in the old Burgundy site to the 
north. To do this, send in your own combat units to clear away any reds who 
might be lurking, then build walls and gates and then a castle in the gap 
between the lines of trees at the west of the walled area.

Build a stable, siege workshop, monastery, whatever else you want behind the 
castle, and start mining the stone and gold. Your first base should be OK from 
now on, since the enemies will target the new one, but keep an eye on it 
anyway.

Taking down the orange base should be pretty simple, as long as you group your 
units intelligently and keep them away from that castle. Use trebuchets or 
bombard cannons on the castle, and your hand cannoneers or whatever to fend 
off the enemy's ranged units. This battle can take surprisingly long, but 
concentrate on the castle and the unit production buildings first, and it 
should have a happy ending. All that remains is to explore the surrounding 
area for those pesky peasants who will try hard to start up a new base to the 
south.

If you're lucky, there will be a big batch of stone among the ruins.

ATTACKING THE RED BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Take out the two red towers over the river, then send through whatever combat 
units you have amassed. Heading south west is suicide, since this is where all 
the main fortifications are. Much easier to head north, taking out towers as 
you encounter them, and all the way around the top of the map, past the 
castle, until you come to the back gate. Make sure you have your trade cart 
with you, then just bash through the gate and walls with everything you've 
got. It should not be hard to distract the enemy while your trade cart rolls 
up to the flag, at which point the level ends, along with the Joan Of Arc 
campaign.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

The southern Burgundy base is the best site for your own first base.
Do not allow your trade cart to be destroyed - if you get a DEFEATED message 
without knowing why, it's probably because of this.
Sacrifice your starting combat units to make room for peasants.
If you want to build up your base quicker, as well as go over your pop. limit 
later, don't pick up the artillery until later.
Attack the orange base through the easternmost gate.
The red base is a joke if you sneak around the back and send your cart through 
while the rest of your units provide a distraction.

---------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬--------------------------------
                                  2.3 SALADIN
---------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬--------------------------------

This campaign can be surprisingly difficult in places, given that it's the 
third of five. It takes place mostly in the desert. Beyond that, I dunno much 
else, other than that I'm having to stop myself making jokes about salad cream 
and cauliflower ears, and puns like 'lettuce proceed'...

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.3.1 AN ARABIAN KNIGHT
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Defeat the Franks west of Cairo.

---

Fend off the first attack by the blue scouts, then take everyone east to the 
coast. Follow the coast down, running into very little trouble on the way. 
Eventually you will come to a larger encampment at the south end of the river, 
guarded by knights, crossbowmen and axemen. Group your units intelligently and 
beating these guys should result in few friendly casualties.

Head over the bridge to meet the last of the blues. The Egyptians have 
probably changed stance to enemy by now, which means you're going to have to 
get rid of the bunch of red units who will come out of the city and onto the 
middle island. Take them down without going too far east yet. You have to 
threaten the Egyptian mosque in the northern end of their city, which means 
breaking through the gates. You get a free cannon galleon, which you can send 
north along the coast to explore the western walls and find out where the 
towers are. You should also use your cannon galleon to take out that first red 
tower behind the southern gate, before you send your ground units through it 
(you'll have to destroy the gate too, unless you can inveigle everyone through 
when an enemy unit opens it from the inside).

By the way, if you destroy that blue blacksmith on the island you get a free 
chain barding armour upgrade.

When taking your units through the Egyptian city try sticking to the middle - 
too far west gets you within range of towers, too far east takes you too near 
more towers and a castle. It's not hard to make it up there with hardly any 
injuries, and when you run into a solitary monk in front of a gate you're 
nearly there. When this monk falls the Egyptians become your friends again, so 
it might be a good idea to send just one unit all the way up there on his own 
and kill the monk without endangering everyone else. Then the rest of your 
units can pass through the city unharmed.

Your units can now get through the red gates, which is nice since you've just 
been handed a lot more units, including a ram. Take everyone through the north 
east gate and out into the desert. You now have to defeat the turquoise Franks 
to the south east, and it will be much easier if your siege units remain 
intact. They have a siege workshop and a town centre surrounded by widely 
spaced towers. They also have quite a lot of units, including mangonels.

I like to attack one of the towers and then fall back, letting the Franks 
come to me, way beyond the protective range of their towers. They will empty 
their base, and if you are stationed far enough away you can mop up the 
turquoise knights well before the mangonels and pikemen reach you. With all 
their units gone, you can then send your ram to break down the town centre on 
its own.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Protect your siege units.
Destroy the island blacksmith for an armour upgrade.
Send one solo unit to the mosque to kill the red monk - this will save your 
other units some trouble.
Don't attack the Frankish base by piling all your units in - attack then 
retreat, drawing their units away from their towers.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.3.2 LORD OF ARABIA
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Defeat Reynald's pirates.
Defeat Reynald's raiders.
Do not allow your allies of Aqaba and Medina to be defeated.

---

There's nothing particularly hard about the beginning of this level - just 
build up equal numbers of farmers and lumberjacks quickly, then gold miners. 
The best defense of this base is just to ring the town bell whenever enemies 
appear, then suck the enemies towards the centre with your mounted units. 
You'll be getting attacked from the north quite often, and also sometimes from 
the west, where the blue base will drop units off from boats. A castle on the 
western edge of your settlement should deal with them easily, while a few 
towers and scattered units will sort out attacks from the north.

Unfortunately you do not have a lot of stone, so research cartography from 
your market so you can see what your allies see. Don't worry about your allies 
by the way - they will hardly ever be under serious attack, and you can 
basically ignore their constant pleas for help. Get a stone mine going next to 
the south east allied base, and your own base should progress nicely.

By the way, your allies will occasionally gift you some resources. They will 
also keep complaining about being under attack, even after you get rid of the 
raiders. Ignore the idiots.

ATTACKING THE TURQUOISE BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

This is extremely easy. I had a group of knights, a group of mamelukes 
(castle), a few monks and five rams. Use mamelukes to mop up while your rams 
hit their southern gate. Take out the tower next with the rams, and fend off 
more archers with everyone now inside their walls. The archery is to the north 
and it should be the next target, followed by the town centre. Get rid of the 
remaining two towers while your mamelukes and knights take out the rest of the 
peasants. There might be more peasants hiding outside in the desert (try next 
to the stone deposits), and once they're gone the raiders will resign.

ATTACKING THE BLUE BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

The pirates are in the west, across the water, and you'll have to build 
transport ships to get over there.

But first, a few things to tie up on your side of the water. There is a couple 
of stone deposits in the north, past the turquoise base, and a relic between 
the yellow and turquoise walls, by the trees. Across in the middle stretch of 
land, which can be reached via the river crossing in the north, there is more 
stone and gold, as well as a walled off area full of red raiders. Get rid of 
the crossbowmen and the mangonel so you can access the gold. The pirates have 
a mini base down to the south of this island, with a tower, some houses and a 
dock. Finally, to get your ships up and running, try building your dock in the 
very northern end of the river, just around the crossing. Your dock will be 
attacked right away, as well as your ships, so make sure your dock is north of 
some fortifications. I like to build a castle right on the coastline so that 
any passing galleons will be shot down before they reach my dock.

To take out the pirates' base, just get all your units to the southern tip of 
the western island and head north, getting rid of buildings as you find them. 
There are some towers, and you will probably be hassled by galleons, but 
nothing major. Keep your units together, your rams protected and everyone away 
from the beach, and you should have little trouble dealing with the blue base, 
including the castle. Since they're a sea-faring bunch, the pirates actually 
have very few ground units - I just ran into some knights and that was it.

You might want to build about ten galleons to clear out the seas of enemy 
galleons before you transport your units across to the pirates' island, but 
this will probably necessitate killing off some of your own land units to make 
room. It will make traversing the sea much safer, but it's up to you.

To get rid of the pirates for good, wipe out all their buildings then hunt 
around for any stray peasants or ships. There are lots of fishing boats 
around, and sometimes the pirates send one or two peasants to the beach just 
west of your main base, where they just stand doing nothing.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Use your starting units and the town bell for early base defense.
There is plenty of gold and stone on your island, and more gold can be gained 
via trade carts.
Ignore your allies' cries for help - they're in no danger.
Attack the turquoise base as soon as you have a decent strike force - there's 
no point hanging around.
Defend your dock by placing it in a site where enemy ships will have to pass 
close by to a castle or towers.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.3.3 THE HORNS OF HATTIN
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 2/3

Objectives:

Capture the Piece of the True Cross (a relic) and return it to the Horns of 
Hattin (marked by flags).

---

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

This is a very tricky level, but it's one where it helps to bear your main 
objective in mind. You don't have to wipe out all your enemies, just find the 
relic and bring it back to your base. But first you're going to have to get up 
a decent base, and this is one level where you have to defend almost totally 
through units.

Get all your starting peasants in the north base to collect the mutton from 
the sheep, and use the food to produce lumberjacks. Set up a lumber operation 
on the northern corner of your base, where there are plenty of trees, then 
produce a few more peasants as gold miners. There is a batch of gold along the 
eastern edge of the map - just send the peasants along and down the little 
archipelago to find it.

The southern base is not really worth worrying about - I tend to get the three 
peasants there to mine the gold, and also build a monastery once you're at the 
castle age. The monks can capture any enemies who might attack the palisade 
walls (including the knight Reynald de Chatillon), but most attacks will be 
launched at the northern base.

Your market can help give you any resources you're short of, since you should 
have plenty of gold for quite a while.

As I said, defending this base is reliant on units, and so the quicker you can 
get into the castle age (sorry, no castles, towers or stone walls allowed in 
this level), the better. I rely on skirmishers and knights to take care of 
whatever enemies break through the south western palisade walls, as well as a 
few monks to capture enemy knights. The town bell can help deal with any who 
get through, and your mangonel can do a job on units lurking beyond your 
walls.

One thing I thought I'd note: I'm not a fan of scorpions at all, but almost 
all your enemies will be streaming through a tiny gap in the wooden palisade 
wall at the southern edge of your north base. Sitting four or five stationary 
scorpions within range of this gap might be a good move, since every enemy 
passing through the gap will get hit by multiple bolts at once.

RETRIEVING THE RELIC
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

You'll just have to concentrate on building up your forces inside your 
northern walls and deal with enemies as and when they break through. Your goal 
is to have enough units to continually defend your base, while also looking 
for the relic. Your job might be made a bit easier if you can take out the red 
British base to the south east. They have some scorpions and quite a lot of 
crossbowmen, but taking out the archeries and town centre with rams while your 
knights get rid of any ground units and the siege workshop should be enough. 
You might have a hard time tracking down the last of the British units, since 
they'll have stray peasants all over the place trying to re-establish the 
base. Just keep scouting around with knights while everyone else defends your 
own walls, and eventually you should clear out the last of the red units.

The relic you need is in the northwest of the map, in a double-walled compound 
defended by monks. Unfortunately the Hospitallers and the Knights Templar have 
bases nearby, so you're going to have to break through those difficult bases 
before you can get to the relic. That is unless you knock down the wooden 
palisade wall at the north west corner of your own base and sneak some forces 
around the back.

I took two monks, a couple of mangonels, a handful of knights and a few 
skirmishers along the northern edge of the map, encountering hardly any 
resistance. Don't get your guys to shoot at any peasants they pass, and the 
enemies should not be alerted to your presence. Take out the monks inside the 
walls with your skirmishers, while your mangonels knock down the walls. The 
Hospitallers will be alerted and send a few units to try to stop you, but take 
them down with your escorts, while your monk grabs the relic and takes it 
home. Remember you're taking the relic to the pavilion surrounded by flags in 
the middle of your base, not your monastery.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Stone is useless in this level, so don't bother buying any.
The space in your pop. limit taken up by the five or so peasants whom you 
would usually have gathering stone is free here - use those slots for more 
defenders.
Rely on ranged units and knights to defend your base - most attacks will come 
through the exact same section of wall, making scorpions probably your best 
option.
Wiping out the red base as soon as possible will make things easier.
The relic is easier to get by sneaking around the back than it is by steaming 
through two heavily guarded enemy bases.
Reynald de Chatillon will attack your southern base near the start - if you 
can capture him with monks your southern base should be left alone from then 
on, and he is a very useful unit to have.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.3.4 THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Do not allow any Jerusalem Monastery or the Dome of the Rock to be destroyed.
Destroy the 5 towers defending Jerusalem so that Saladin's army can occupy the 
city.

---

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

The best way to win this level is with a very well protected base, and it just 
so happens that you have everything you need close by to get one up and 
running quickly. There's stone just north of where you start, and some nice 
cliff edges for you to base your walls and towers around. Explore to the north 
west and south east of where you start, and plan your walls accordingly, 
making sure you leave enough room for all the buildings you'll need as well as 
two or even three castles. Pretty soon you'll be under attack from all angles, 
so try to make sure that the first thing enemies encounter is a castle and / 
or towers. Beyond this, it's up to you how you build your base.

You will eventually run out of gold and stone, and the nearest, most easy to 
access deposits are to the south east. Explore and you should find batches of 
both, with little chance that the enemy will try to take your new mining 
operations out. Might be worth putting a tower next to each mining camp you 
build though, just in case. 

The game tells you to take out both the inferior enemy camps before going for 
Jerusalem itself, but this isn't really necessary. Once you have enough of a 
force for an attack, taking down the orange base to the west is extremely 
easy, but not essential, since the enemy will just be launching lots of 
fruitless attacks against your castles and towers.

The yellow and orange bases are heavy on peasants, obviously designed not to 
really do you any damage but mostly to just get in your way while you attack 
Jerusalem, and also to eat up resources. There is a relic in a walled square 
at the back of the orange base to the west.

ATTACKING THE TOWERS OF JERUSALEM
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Bear in mind that all you have to do to win is to knock down the five towers, 
all of which are on the perimeter wall. So gather together lots of mamelukes 
and knights, plus a few monks and trebuchets, and just saunter around the 
outer walls, knocking out each tower as you find it with the trebuchets while 
everyone else defends the siege weapons. Make sure your trebuchets don't take 
out the Dome or the monasteries and this should be easy.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

A walled off base with two or three castles behind it is crucial to winning 
this level.
Make sure you leave no holes in your walls on the north west or south east 
approaches to your base.
Just one bombard cannon inside your walls, behind your castles, can take care 
of all enemy siege weapons.
Mamelukes are fantastic for every aspect of this level - build as many as you 
can.
A bunch of well-escorted trebuchets can knock out the towers easily, winning 
this level in no time.
There are lots of unguarded resources to the south and east of this level.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.3.5 JIHAD!
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 2/3

Objectives:

Defeat any 2 of the 3 Crusader cities: Tiberias, Tyre, Ascalon.

---

This mission has two timers on it from the beginning to make it more 
difficult, and it's also a very definite siege level, with your enemies 
holding most of the cards. Don't worry about your allies however - as far as I 
know they never get attacked. I've given this level two out of three because 
it's so much easier if you build an intelligent defense and send out recon 
troops.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________V1.6 CONTRIBUTION_______________________________

WILLIAM SULLIVAN <wsully1954@msn.com>

"In the level Jihad! it is possible to build a wonder for an easy victory. You 
probably will have to take out the orange's wonder first but if you get it up 
and defend it for 350 years, then you won't have to eliminate Tiberias or 
Tyre."

---

Thanks, I never think of building a wonder unless it's an actual objective, so 
this should make the mission easier, if also more boring.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________V1.6 CONTRIBUTION_______________________________

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

First things frickin' last. Get your fishing ships busy immediately and put up 
another four or five farms near your mill. Next produce some lumberjacks. You 
may have noticed the less-than-abundant trees inside your walls; you may also 
have noticed your allies' town to the north east. This would be a charming 
place to site your lumber and stone operations, since your peasants will be 
out of the way of enemies and won't have to hang around just outside your 
northern walls to work. Get seven or so lumberjacks up there as soon as you 
can and get them to the trees west of your allies' town. There is stone 
directly south of their market, so get some peasants started there too. You 
might even want to build a new town centre up there, though I haven't done 
this. The gold you'll be using first is at the southern point of your main 
base.

Here are some priorities for you:

Build a castle. You can actually do this pretty quickly thanks to the fact 
that you have so many buildings given to you already, including a market. 
Building a castle just south of your archery is a good idea, and it will do 
you a lot of favours. I also like to build a second castle right next to my 
docks, because these will be under serious fire later and ships just won't be 
good enough, especially since you'll be needing so many land units.

Build at least ten knights. The land units attacking you will include all 
sorts of delights, and knights are versatile and quick enough to deal with all 
of them. I'd especially recommend skirting around the perimeter of your base 
so that you can see enemy squadrons coming, because many of the enemies won't 
actually switch to attack stance until they reach your walls, even if you 
attack them pre-emptively on the way. It's always so much nicer to get rid of 
four mangonels and two trebuchets before they start shooting back.

Pick up the relics. You can't exactly get the one in the western end of the 
blue base at the moment, but the one north of your allies' town will do nicely 
when you get a monastery up.

The only yellow ships which will give you real trouble are the bombard ships, 
which is why you should always have some galleons next to your docks. Use the 
galleons to draw these particular enemy ships into range of one or both of 
your castles and your towers.

Anyway, the oranges in the south will start building a wonder sooner or later, 
before anyone attacks you. By this time you should have all your peasants and 
your knights ready, and should be building a castle, preferably the one which 
will be dealing with the eastern attacks - the ships come a bit later from the 
west and north. That wonder makes the oranges your first priority, and you 
will be needing mostly trebuchets and knights, and mamelukes if you have a 
castle. 

There's no rush and you'll have to fend off a few attacks from all directions 
first, but don't leave it too late. Your first batch of knights will probably 
get defeated through defending your base, but you should have the resources to 
build more anyway. The Tripoli guards will resign once their first attack is 
wiped out, but be on the lookout for mangonels and rams from the east.

I'd also recommend that you wait for your castle to be built and then just 
concentrate on mamelukes for your ranged units - I tend to ignore the archery. 
Keep building up your forces as you see fit, but make certain you have some 
galleons or war galleys. Try not to go overboard on towers in this level - the 
stone is pretty limited for a while. Just rely on a couple of castles, and 
mobile units ready to draw enemies towards them.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________V1.6 CONTRIBUTION_______________________________

pull tiger <pulltigercock@hotmail.co.uk>

"this may be really obvious but ive found a way to make the jihad!!! level a 
ton easier.  i beat the level on only the third try and the attacking troops 
hadnt even got anywhere near my wonder, they hadnt even made much of a threat 
at any of my buildings

the way i did it was there are three ridges that provide access to your 
fortress.  i quickly got villagers building walls here and i basically blocked 
up these ridges with walls 4 deep. I then built some towers either side of 
these to draw some of the fire and then placed some of those cannon guysaround 
this area as well to take out the trebuchets that they throw at you. i then 
had to block up the beach area to the top left hand area of the fort next to 
the river, again, walls 4 deep.  you then need to make sure the area to the 
right of your fort is taken care of as a lot of soldiers keep coming through 
here but the trees slow down their progress, you can put your ships in the bay 
here to attack the people as they come through, although any troops in this 
area will get pounded from the ridge above. 

like i said this may be totally obvious but i beat the level in about 40 mins 
on my third try and pretty much started building the wonder straight away."

---

I don't know why it didn't occur to me to use guiding walls in this level - I 
certainly used them in other levels. But if you can stream your enemies to one 
or two points and have towers or ships there waiting for them then this level 
will, as you say, get much easier. Cheers.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________V1.6 CONTRIBUTION_______________________________

ATTACKING THE ORANGE BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Nothing too hard here, though try attacking their north eastern gate, as the 
other one is too close to their ships. Take out the towers first, and send 
knights and mamelukes in to clear out the mangonels and various other land 
units - there should not be many, as this base is mostly defended by towers.

Once you've gotten rid of the last of these, get your trebuchets to knock out 
the wonder inside the walls. The oranges will only be defeated when you wipe 
out the units next to the wonder, as well as the last of their ships.

You have now defeated Ascalon, which leaves you with only one other of your 
enemies to vanquish in order to complete the mission.

Incidentally the Tiberians may have offered you a truce if you tribute 1000 
gold to them, but sod that. Well, it gives you a bit of respite while you 
rebuild your forces, but... it gives your enemy 1000 gold. It's up to you. You 
will almost certainly have run out of the first stocks of gold and stone by 
now anyway, but there is plenty more gold and a little more stone to be found 
on the mainland. Just scout around north and east and buy stone from the 
market if necessary.

ATTACKING THE BLUE BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

The yellow base is to the north. It's tiny and it's an island, but attacking 
an island surrounded by bombard towers is not a lot of fun. Another 
interesting thing is that the yellows have very little wood on their island 
and will soon run out, leaving them unable to build more ships. But the blues 
are directly east, and who wants to have to build five or more transport 
ships? So let's attack the blues instead.

Find the forest due south of your allies' base and follow it down until you 
meet the blue castle. They have a couple of other castles - one on the south 
western approach to the base and one away to the east beside some gold, but 
once you've taken care of the castles the blues really have very little else 
that can't be easily slaughtered by mamelukes and knights. From there it's 
just a case of systematically slaying their peasants until they resign.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Use your allies' base for stone and lumber operations.
Two castles - one on the east, one on the west - will be very helpful.
As much as you might dislike building ships, have about eight galleons at all 
times and upgrade them when you can.
Use scouts to warn you of incoming attacks - this virtually halves this 
level's difficulty.
Elite mamelukes, trebuchets and monks are all you really need versus the 
oranges and blues.
There are two relics - one north of the allies' base, the other in the blue 
base.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.3.6 THE LION AND THE DEMON
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 3/3

Objectives:

Construct a wonder and defend it.

---

Oh God. This level is hellish, and whatever you do you'll have great 
difficulty.

Firstly, there's only really one place to build your wonder, and that's at the 
back of your base, next to your gold and stone deposits. Try to build it 
outside the walls and it will attract immediate attention from virtually every 
enemy unit, and there are four different sets of enemies in this level, all of 
whom will send very varied squadrons at you, including every type of siege 
weapon (except maybe scorpions).

Of course, this will also be true if you build it inside the city walls, but 
at least that way you can defend it. Speaking of defense, your first castle 
will not be enough - I'd recommend at least one more against the east wall, as 
well as a lot of towers and maybe a second layer of wall. Inside your castles 
should be either mamelukes or knights or both, since you're going to be 
running around outside the walls a lot to mop up all those trebuchets and 
bombard cannons. The fact that your base only begins with two gates and 
neither are on the east wall is a pain in the arse, but if the enemies manage 
to knock a gigantic hole in that wall put a gate in it, since this makes it a 
lot easier to deal with the attacks from that direction. If you've first 
gotten rid of the trees that is.

Of the four resources you'll need, wood is the most difficult to come by. 
There is plenty of stone and gold - so much that you can start building your 
wonder right away if you like living dangerously. Be aware that the level 
gives you a little time at the beginning to prepare, but not if you 
immediately start on the wonder - then it's on for real.

For peasants, have about eight or nine farming around your town centre, 
another seven or eight on lumber (within the walls, unfortunately), and about 
six or seven each on stone and gold. You get four fishing ships but these are 
very slow and they take up valuable space in your pop. limit, so scuttle them 
if you want. You will hardly ever be attacked by ships, if at all, so that's 
some comfort at least.

You need a constant influx of all four resources to keep on top of this level, 
so take care of your peasants, especially the vulnerable lumberjacks against 
that south east wall.

As for combat units, I rely almost totally on knights and mamelukes for 
mopping up, with a few monks inside the walls for healing. The only useful 
siege weapons here are bombard cannons, which are unfortunately the only ones 
you can't build from the beginning. Which brings me to another point - most 
university upgrades are already done, but get chemistry underway as soon as 
possible so that you can build the bombard cannons. They are invaluable for 
counteracting the enemy from all directions.

Don't even think about attacking any of the four enemies. I have successfully 
taken down the greys in the south about halfway through the level, but once 
their castle was down and they were defeated, my own units were so depleted 
that the remaining three enemies took my base out easily, and I lost the whole 
thing. Better to keep your units healthy and safe inside your walls, and take 
a purely defensive stance throughout.

You can try attacking one of the enemies as soon as the level starts, with the 
blues or yellows being the closest and 'easiest'. I have tried this about ten 
times, and have not succeeded once. They have too many mobile units and 
towers, they keep ringing the town bell every time you approach one of their 
peasants, and all my starting forces were taken out every time, leaving me 
with nothing with which to defend the base. Don't bother - stay inside your 
own base and wait.

There's not a lot else I can tell you here. Just make sure resources are 
coming in constantly, especially stone for those towers and repairs - and try 
not to over-complicate things by experimenting with different defensive units. 
Upgrade when you can at the various buildings, and do NOT let any of your 
castles fall. They are critically important through the whole level. The 
Accursed Tower is also really nice - try not to let it fall, since it is 
better in every way than your usual towers (except for garrison capacity).

Finally, the wonder. Building it at the beginning of the level makes life 
instantly difficult, usually before you have had time to upgrade or add units 
or anything else at all. But then the quicker you get it built the quicker the 
timer will run down. On the other hand, building it later, once your base is 
relatively prepared, allows you to defend it all the easier. But by then you 
have a lot less gold, stone and wood inside your walls, and you'll have 
trouble if you run out altogether of any of them.

The only happy fact from all this is that getting the wonder built is the hard 
part. It takes frigging epochs to build, even with about thirty peasants 
bashing away, but once it's up the timer runs down surprisingly quickly in 
this level. By the time mine reached zero, my wonder was under heavy attack, 
my walls and all my units were gone, as well as all my castles and most of my 
other buildings. The enemies don't seem to rush straight to the wonder, which 
gives you a little more respite. Try surrounding it with at least one layer of 
wall while you're building it - this should give you even more time. 

But as I said, this level is a killer whatever you do, so don't be surprised 
if you only just make it and no more. Or if you don't make it at all...
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________V1.6 CONTRIBUTION_______________________________

WILLIAM SULLIVAN <wsully1954@msn.com>

"There is a much easier and painless way of beating the Lion and the Demon on 
the Saladin campaign. If you explore west with your ships you might find a 
small island with one tree and some gold. There is a small hump on the south 
tip of the island. If you have your peasants clear the gold and the tree on 
the hump, then you can build your wonder on this hump. Use your remaining 
resources to build a castle and a small navy on the island to defend against 
the enemy ships. You should win the level with no problem."

Larry Neer <lneer@hotmail.com>
     
"I took the coward's way out on this scenario. Since it just says to build and 
defend a wonder, I built my wonder on the largish island about in the middle-
west of the ocean. Only one of the foes has a navy and they weren't hard to 
fight off.
     
First thing I deleted most of the houses. The city has many, many more houses 
than you need. Getting rid of most of them lets your troops move around inside 
the walls a lot better and also lets you farm inside the town. BTW - this also 
works in 2.2.2 The Maid of Orleans
     
Grew my economy and land forces as fast as possible. Also built a navy of 
maybe 18 galleys. Also fought off the various attacks from the land-based 
forces. Once my economy was going good and the attacks on the city were 
becoming harsh I moved 12 peasants to the island with gold and mined the gold 
on the south half of the island. Once that gold was gone I had room for a 
wonder.
     
Meanwhile I was careful to defend the island from sea attacks and defended as 
best as possible at the city. Also build a dock on the island and kept 
building new ships until my supplies ran out.
     
The city eventually fell - every single stone gone except for one half-burned 
gate they left standing. I think I counted 18 trebs hitting me at one point. 
Before they got to my market I sold everything of to maximize the amount of 
wood and gold to make more galleys with. Spammed galleys after that to keep 
the (yellow?) navy away until the clock ran down. Finally won with 12 
peasants, one wonder, maybe a dozen ships, one dock, and hardly any supplies 
left."

---

If only all really tough missions were this easy. Thanks :)
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________V1.6 CONTRIBUTION_______________________________

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Pray.
Get peasants up and running as soon as possible - get all four resources in 
fast.
Knights, mamelukes, monks, bombard cannons, towers and castles - build nothing 
else.
You may not use any of your ships - scuttle them to make room if so.
You start with a lot of wood which you won't be needing for anything other 
than farms and bombard cannons, since you have been given almost every 
building. Sell some at the market.
Concentrate on creating units first - deal with upgrades later, when you can 
afford them.
When sending out knights and mamelukes to take out enemy siege weapons outside 
your walls, target the siege weapons only, then retreat. Don't get into a 
scrap with anyone else - that's how you lose your entire force.
Draw enemies into range of your castles, as usual.
The castle upgrade, hoardings, can buy you a little more time.
Try not to lose the Accursed Tower.
When building your wonder, get every single one of your peasants on the job. 
Enemy siege weapons will generally target the closest building, which should 
always be a tower. Build towers, then more towers - it will make life so much 
sweeter. And keep repairing them.

-------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬-----------------------------
                                2.4 GENGHIS KHAN
-------------------------------¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬-----------------------------

This is what I call a campaign! The last three or four levels of this campaign 
are unforgettable classics. Don't get Genghis mixed up with Gandhi - that's a 
common mistake made by me only.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.4.1 THE CRUCIBLE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Ride forth to each of the Mongol tribes and convince them to join the Khan's 
army. Make an example of any tribes which openly war against you.

---

This level is so simple it doesn't really even deserve one out of three for 
difficulty. 

The level starts once the guy finishes his Sean-Connery-with-an-aneurism 
impression. Head north to the grey encampment and find out that they want a 
relic. Can't do that right now, since you need a monk to pick up relics. 

Head north east and pick up the sheep, then farther north to the blue 
encampment. They want twenty sheep, so donate the six you just found, as well 
as the eight which can be found north west, north and north east of the blue 
camp. This brings your total to fourteen. The remainder are best obtained from 
the red palisade to the north east of the blue camp, though you will have to 
fight off three red cavalry archers. Once you have sent the blues these twenty 
sheep (send them to the flagged area) they will give you six cavalry archers 
and two monks, while all the sheep mysteriously dematerialise, as sheep will. 
By the way, the monks will heal you even before you bring them sheep.

From here, head down to the green camp to the south west. They will ask you to 
vanquish their far off enemies, but ignore them, change your stance from ally 
to attack and wipe them out. This will save you a hike later. Convert a couple 
if you can.

Next, head way over to the eastern edge of the map and to the pink camp. Avoid 
the red outpost by the river to the south. When you approach the pinks, they 
should realise that you have vanquished the greens, which is what they would 
have asked you to do anyway. They give you more cavalry archers, and now we 
only have two camps still to deal with. Now for that relic.

North of the pink camp is a red enclosure, heavily guarded. This contains a 
relic, but there's a much easier one available by following the cliffs around 
to the south until you come to the one by the trees, guarded by three wolves. 
Send a monk in and grab it - the wolves didn't attack my monk - and send your 
monk all the way back to the grey base who want it, avoiding that red outpost 
on the way.

While your monk is doing this, send the other monk and all your horsemen down 
to the light blue base. They ask you to remove Ornlu the wolf, who can be 
found among his pack to the south east - follow the cliffs up and around. 
Target 400HP Ornlu with everyone you have, then kill the rest if you can be 
bothered. You might lose a couple of units, but so what? Unfortunately none of 
the wolves can be converted by your monks.

While your other monk is taking the relic to the grey monastery in order to be 
gifted with mangudai, get your heroes back to the light blues to receive their 
equally obsolete reward of flaming arrows and five camels. I'd have preferred 
five arrows and some flaming camels. Once both these things are done the level 
is over.

This is the quickest and most direct way I can come up with for completing 
this rambling RPG-type level with as little hassle as possible.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

You can attack friendlies by opening the alliance menu and changing from ally 
to enemy.
Monks are the best scouts to warn you of nearby reds.
Allied monks can heal your wounded units.
The relic must be placed inside the grey monastery to be accepted.
Sheep can make themselves invisible at will.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.4.2 A LIFE OF REVENGE*
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Prevent the tent of Genghis Khan (Wonder) from being destroyed.
Kill the traitor Kushluk.

---

That's one hell of a bloody tent. A 'World Ranger Storm Buster 4' is usually 
good enough for me.

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Don't worry about your wonder: not only will the enemies rarely attack it, 
they have no unit available that can do it serious damage. Of more pressing 
concern is building a defensible base. Follow the advice and head north, 
killing the handful of cavalry archers guarding the yellow base. This done, 
the base becomes yours, with seven peasants thrown in.

Explore the surrounding area while you build your base. There's lumber to the 
east, gold to the north and stone to the west. The deer are handy for early 
food. You will be under attack from the red base to the west, but the first 
wave will approach the wonder first, and will probably succeed in taking down 
the houses around it. The town bell is your best defense for a long time, but 
concentrate on getting your own combat units sorted and developing towards 
building a stone wall and a few towers around your base to do the thing 
properly.

ATTACKING THE RED BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

It's not that the red base is hard to defeat; it's just that you have to 
achieve it with such crappy units of your own. Anyway, once you have a decent 
complement of melee and ranged units (no siege weapons available), head west 
and take out all the enemy combat units first. Hunt down the peasants next, 
until they're all gone. Some may be working way to the south east, but finding 
them won't be hard. Attacking the red base is much easier if you have more 
units queued in your archery and stable, ready to head for assembly points 
which you have placed in the heart of the red base.

KILLING KUSHLUK
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Wouldn't you know it: Kushluk scarpered immediately, as soon as he saw you 
attacking the reds. Now he's hiding away to the west, in a seriously well 
guarded base. You can explore it if you want by using a monk to convert one of 
the scouts who keep floating past on the other side of that palisade wall, 
then sending the converted unit in to die.

The worst thing you can do at this point is break that wall. It's not 
defending your enemies, it's defending you.

The best thing you can do is build a castle right next to it. This manouevre 
is known as 'flushing the Kush'. OK, it isn't really. But whatever you want to 
call it, Kushluk will idiotically head straight for that walled enclosure, to 
within range of your castle, which should have as many units as possible 
garrisoned inside it. Three seconds later he's dead and you've won, and all 
those green units and buildings away to the west are left scratching their 
collective arse and wondering where they went wrong.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Ignore your wonder.
Ring the town bell until you have walls and towers up.
Wait until the reds attack you and get mowed down by your towers, then 
counter-attack their depleted base.
Kushluk can be done to death just by building one castle next to the walled 
enclosure.
An attack on the green base could best be symbolised by a big ball of stupid.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.4.3 INTO CHINA
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 2/3

Objectives:

Conquer the Tanguts, Hsi Hsia, Jin and Sung.

---

This is just an incredible level from start to finish, one of the most 
memorable of the whole game.

There is a problem with this level, since even after you've defeated the four 
enemies mentioned in the objectives it still won't end. You also have to 
defeat the Engineers, who are in dark blue.

Take all your starting units and head south east, sticking to the edge of the 
map until you reach the river. A little west you can pick up a necessary 
transport ship, which should be used to convey everyone across to the other 
bank. Send everyone south and kill off the Engineer guards. When you head 
farther south you are given a mangonel, a ram and six peasants. You can save 
yourself some trouble later by killing off the last of the Engineers now - you 
don't need to raze the buildings, just the peasants. Don't be decoyed too far 
west though - there is an enemy tower over the crossing.

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Back to the ship and across to where you came from, then take everyone north 
and look for a nice starting point for a base. There is gold and stone around, 
as well as lumber to the north and south of this area. I recommend putting 
your base as far north as possible, but with your town centre the southernmost 
of your buildings. You will need the town bell to fend off early attacks from 
enemy units, and also as many of your starting units remaining as possible to 
deal with the rams. If your town centre is the first building the attackers 
encounter, having come from the south, the others can remain unmolested.

Your plan here should be to get a castle up as quickly as possible, situated 
somewhere next to the big clump of trees to the south. There is gold to the 
east of these trees too, and you will want to enclose both behind walls. 
Before enemies meet your miners and lumberjacks working in these areas, they 
should run into at least one nice big castle and some towers and walls in 
front.

The castle is doubly important: it will defend against numerous attacks from 
lots of different types of units, and constantly; and it will also allow you 
to build trebuchets. Send some trebuchets to the northernmost point of the 
Great Wall just beyond the confines of your own base, and use them to knock 
down the nearest towers, followed by the wall itself. You want to bash a big 
enough hole to allow one of your units through to the other side, where they 
will run into a couple of Engineers' buildings and some free bombard cannons, 
which will be extremely useful to you. Plug that hole with your own wall once 
you have the bombard cannons safely inside your base.

About the Wall: there are towers all the way along it, and it is always at 
least three layers deep. Trebuchets and bombard cannons make short work of the 
towers, though the walls take longer. My advice would be to avoid knocking any 
holes in the wall, other than the one you made to get the bombard cannons 
earlier. There are actually two gates in the wall, though you can only see the 
one to the west. The second one is more to the south, and it is vertically 
aligned so that it's invisible. I tend to block up the western gate with my 
own walls and make sure there are no other holes in the Wall, so that my 
enemies all come through the other gate, at which point they run into my 
towers and castles. Your fortifications will always take a localised beating 
if you do this, but if you funnel your stupid enemies through one gate, you 
can never be taken by surprise.

ATTACKING THE YELLOW BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

The Jin (yellow) have to be your first target, since they're the only ones 
smart enough to attempt construction of a wonder. This puts an annoying timer 
on the level which you really could do without, but with this guide in front 
of you you can't go wrong. No, you can't.

Get up a good force of knights, mangudai and trebuchets, with some monks 
thrown in for much needed support. It is also a very good idea to send at 
least one peasant with these guys, since reinforcements are much easier to 
obtain when you don't have to send them across an entire map and two guarded 
rivers.

Use that transport ship you got at the start to send trebuchets over to the 
island where the blue Engineer base used to be. Get them to knock out that 
pesky tower to the west, then bring everyone else over on the same boat. Get 
everyone down to the southern edge of this island, while your ship makes its 
own way down the river to meet them on the southern coast. 

At this point you can either build a dock and create more transport ships 
(and upgrade them), or you can just use that single one you were given to take 
everyone down to the southern island, where the Jin reside. Your ships will be 
attacked by Jin galleons, but it's up to you.

Whatever you do, your forces should end up on the south island, right on the 
eastern edge of the map, by a forest and a little pool. Head right down to the 
south east corner of the map - here is a good place to build a stable, 
archery, etc. A castle is maybe a bit overkill, since you'll be attacking the 
Jin and they'll be defending - not the other way around. Build one if you have 
tons of stone and if it makes you feel any safer.

The point is that you should have a decent force with which to attack the Jin 
base, with the capability of sending in quick reinforcements of each type, 
should your first lot fall in battle (which they will). Send your guys 
cautiously west - you will be met with some knights, then a wall, then a gate, 
then four towers. Deal with each in turn, bashing the towers floorwards with 
trebuchets while everyone else protects your siege weapons from the Jin who 
will be flowing through the gate. Once these towers are gone, take out the 
gate and head inside. There are two more towers along the north wall, and lots 
more Jin to deal with. Get your trebuchets started on the wonder while 
everyone else defends. Once the wonder is gone you can breathe easy, even if 
your entire strike force was wiped out. The buildings you built to the east 
should be able to produce units enough to take care of the rest of the Jin 
base, though you may have to send trebuchets or bombard cannons over from your 
northern island to deal with the numerous towers, as well as the castle to the 
south. If you can take out all the Jin peasants the towers and castle will 
crumble, but do it however you want.

A few more things about this part of the level to note: 

Don't leave your main base unguarded - keep at least some bombard cannons and 
a few knights around multiple castles and towers while the rest of your guys 
are away. It will still be under heavy attack and you will have to keep an eye 
on it.

You might think that it will be easier to sneak your trebuchets and knights 
along that southern wall of the Jin base and take them by surprise, but you 
really won't. You might succeed in destroying the wonder from this vantage 
point, but everyone will be bottlenecked and you'll be under more concentrated 
attack from both front and rear than you would if you went in through the east 
gate. Experiment though - as long as the wonder is wiped out, not much else 
matters.

Don't relocate everyone to the Jin island once they're gone - the stone and 
gold around won't last forever, and an island cut off from the rest of the 
level is not a good launching point for an invasion. Transport ships take up 
room in your pop. limit. Just set up some mining camps for the gold deposit 
and the two batches of stone, as well as a lumber camp in the eastern forests, 
since it's safer to get wood from here than in the north base.

ATTACKING THE GREEN BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

You can now destroy any surplus transport ships you may have made, but keep 
one so that you can take a peasant from the Jin island north to the main land 
mass, except that you are now inside the confines of the Great Wall. There are 
lots of stone and gold to be had in the area due north west of where the Jin 
had their dock, so building a mini base around here might not be a bad idea. 
Keep away from the towers until you can take them down with trebuchets. This 
is an excellent place from which to attack your remaining enemies, so relocate 
to here, if anywhere.

I put up a castle, and behind it my mining camps and one of each unit 
production building (except obviously a dock). If you follow my example, your 
enemies will now mostly be attacking this new castle, which is easily 
defensible with walls and towers. But you're going to be killing your enemies 
off soon anyway, so don't go overboard - this level just got a bit easier.

On the other hand, the greens are the most difficult of your remaining enemies 
to take down, simply because their main base is in a horribly strategic 
location. You're going to need a large force to get rid of that castle, those 
trebuchets, those scorpions, those mangonels, all those melee and ranged 
units, and every last one of those insanely irritating peasants. At least they 
don't have any towers. Nope, I'm wrong.

After much experimentation, I just stuck with mangudai, trebuchets and monks, 
and when they got killed I built more. Mangudai are at least as effective as 
knights in general, and ranged units are just more useful at this point than 
melee. Bear in mind that you should now have tons of at least two of the four 
resources, and that you can easily sacrifice some peasants to make room for 
combat units.

Heave whatever forces you can muster to the south west, where you will pass 
some green peasants before discovering their castle and main base on a big 
hill with a curvy, bottlenecked approach. Oh good, I like those. Your 
trebuchets should target the castle as soon as they spot it, while everyone 
else defends them. Mangudai can hit the enemy trebuchets in front of the 
castle, but they'll have to do it while hitting everyone else as well. If you 
have enough of them, and with monks behind them for healing, the greens should 
eventually stop pouring down the hill, leaving you to go up and deal with the 
town centre and some siege weapons. Trebuchets can wipe out everything up 
here, while your other guys start trying to hunt down those peasants. There 
will be some milling around and running off into the distance, but it's maybe 
best to just forget about them for now while you deal with your next obstacle 
- the reds.

ATTACKING THE RED BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

This is actually really easy with mangudai, monks and trebuchets, and if you 
keep everyone together you should have very little trouble. Attack their base 
from the east, since this is the only way you can get in at their town centre 
and other buildings. They have a bottleneck on the river which actually suits 
you more than them. Get your trebuchets to hit the outlying houses, then watch 
as the reds pour across that little river crossing, right into the blades of 
your mangudai. It's a massacre, and your guys are free to head west and 
delete the red buildings still standing. Again, ignore any fleeing reds, as 
there's not long to go now until the end.

ATTACKING THE LIGHT BLUE BASE
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

You have two options with these guys - north or south. Either way, it's the 
same as before, with monks healing your mangudai who are edging forward 
gradually in a big group - or maybe two groups - taking out the enemy units 
easily and quickly one by one as they get near enough. Trebuchets for the 
buildings and the mangudai attacking the base while defending the trebuchets. 
With this style of attack the last enemy base should offer little resistance.

Now all that remains is to finish this level off entirely, which means dealing 
with those peasants who are still running around the countryside, trying to 
begin new bases. Research espionage from a castle if you haven't already, and 
get your mangudai on the case. Make sure you include the dark blue Engineers 
in your culling activities, since you can't complete the level otherwise.

QUICK HELP
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

The Engineers' island is not a good site for your main base. Neither is the 
eastern end of the Jin island. Neither has readily available stone or gold.
The town bell is useful for early defense, but you will still need ground 
units to kill off the rams.
Build a castle as soon as possible and site it next to the big clump of trees.
Pick up the bombard cannons through the north end of the Great Wall, 
preferably after you have hit your pop. limit.
Block off one of the enemy gates, forcing enemies to be fed through the other 
one.
Build a mini base east of the Jin to make attack easier.
The Jin island is not a good place from which to attack your other enemies.
Control the gold and stone south of the eastern end of the Wall.
The simplest attacks are the best against the three enemies on the mainland.
Sacrifice peasants to make room for more combat units.
Research espionage to help finish the level.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.4.4 THE HORDE RIDES WEST
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Difficulty: 2/3

Objectives:

Subotai must survive.
In the north, deploy Subotai's horde to conquer Russia.
In the south, the Khwarazm shah is expecting a gift. But it is assassins he 
will find in our Trade Carts. We must deliver the carts to the shah quickly, 
before he breaks his alliance with us.

---

There are about four enemy bases in this game which can be nightmares to 
attack, and this is one of them. The only reason this level doesn't get three 
for difficulty is that it gets much easier once you figure out the best way 
to do it.

You may have noticed that you have two bases, and you may be wondering how to 
manage each one against the other. It would probably help to have clear goals, 
so here they are.

Your northern base will be attacked first, and by a lot more units, and yet it 
is easier to defend than the southern base. You will want to have lots of 
combat units in the north, while hurrying to construct a castle in the south. 
The castle is absolutely crucial if you want to keep your southern base (which 
you do, since this is where the early gold and stone is), since the southern 
base will easily be wiped out by war elephants if you don't have a castle to 
occupy their attention.

But before you do all that, select your trade cart in the south and right 
click on the revealed area in the yellow base to the west. You need to get 
that cart over to the shah quickly, or they'll launch an attack you won't be 
ready for. The cart will be allowed to pass, and when it reaches the shah two 
swordsmen will jump out. At this point, it's important that you get them both 
to attack and kill the shah, because if he lives the yellow retribution will 
be much worse.

Here's what to do next: build five peasants from your southern town centre, 
and the other three in the north with your starting food. Get all eight 
peasants in the south mining the stone and gold, with more on the stone. You 
want to build that castle as soon as you can, so you need to get from 200 
stone to 650 quickly. Meanwhile take your northern combat units west and kill 
off the two cavalry archers. This will gift you two archeries, a mill, a 
market, a mining camp, some houses and a big batch of gold. Lovely.

Your northern peasants should start farming, bringing in more and more food 
from which you can build more farmers, then lumberjacks. Then more miners in 
the south, etc. I tend to stop at nine farmers and seven lumberjacks in the 
north, and seven stone miners and six gold miners in the south. With any extra 
food beyond that, build up combat units in the north, as well as a strong 
base. Most of your attention will be on the north, since the south can take 
care of itself once that castle's up.

Build the southern castle just to the west of the crop of gold you will find 
along the road, but don't build it way west of your town centre. If you do 
this, the elephants will just avoid it and knock out your town centre without 
impediment, rendering the castle redundant. Build it in such a spot that 
enemies attacking the southern base can't help running into it. You will also 
probably want a monastery in the south, somewhere behind the castle, so that 
you can create monks who can capture as many wonderful elephants as the yellow 
guys can send your way. Build a university as well, since enemy war elephants 
prefer your castle to not have the benefits of murder holes. Walls and towers 
can help, but really it's mostly about having at least one castle to protect 
your southern town centre. Make sure to keep your castle in good repair.

While the yellows are attacking your southern base, the reds are attacking the 
north. The best they can do, however, is knights and rams and huskarls - 
nothing difficult if you have walls and towers up around that freebie base you 
were given. Make sure you scout out the forests around this base though, since 
the reds will just go around your walls and head straight to the town centre 
you started with. If they attack, make sure they go where you want them to go.

Make sure Subotai doesn't die in the north, or it's all over.

ATTACKING THE RED BASE
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This is painfully easy, and even easier if you wait until they launch a failed 
attack against your own base. Head south west with knights and rams and ranged 
units until you reach their castle (by the way, a castle in the north base is 
a bit of a waste until the reds are actually gone). Hit the castle with your 
rams, while everyone else protects them. The reds should have very few units 
hanging around, and the remainder of their base should be a stroll to take 
down. This will leave you with a nice, healthy crop of gold, if you don't 
leave it too long to attack. By the way, there is another big deposit of gold 
in the trees south of your two bases.

At this point, building a castle halfway down the western edge of the map, on 
the dirt road, might not be a bad idea, though don't go too close to the 
yellow walls to the south. If you do, they will attack your castle, and you 
will not survive. Build the castle in a spot where it won't attract attention 
but will still be a barrier against any yellow scouts who decide to come 
north. Now you can basically forget about your northern base and concentrate 
on the southern end.

ATTACKING THE YELLOW BASE
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This is much easier from the south than the north, so that's what we'll be 
doing. At some much earlier point you probably reached your pop. limit, what 
with having two bases and two defenses to deal with. That's OK, since the 
yellows will still be throwing elephants uselessly against the walls of your 
southern castle(s), allowing your monks to convert them, pop. limit be damned. 
Having at least ten elephants in your southern squadron is a very good idea, 
though you can technically keep nicking them for as long as you want. The 
yellows can't go over their pop. limit, but you can so make them pay. Some 
trebuchets also wouldn't hurt for this attack, and the rest should be 
mangudai and / or knights (I prefer mangudai). You can even sacrifice some 
of your northern units to make room for more in the south, since the northern 
base is pretty superfluous from now on.

Anyway, I had at least ten elephants, lots of mangudai, some monks and a few 
trebuchets in the south, and I sent them westwards to take out that gate and 
the two towers. Through the gates you will encounter some knights, and maybe a 
few gold-miners depending on how long you have waited. Farther west, the first 
thing you will run into is a castle among some pillars. Behold, the place from 
which the elephants were spawned! If you believe you have more than enough 
elephants for now, take it down with trebuchets. Mangudai will make short 
work of the knights who come to investigate. You may also draw the attention 
of more elephants - convert as many as you can (one or two monks per 
conversion) and delete the rest with your own elephants.

There are a few yellow buildings to the south of that castle, as well as a few 
knights and peasants, but the main base is of course to the north. Head that 
way until you reach the two towers guarding the gate. You could go that way, 
but you're probably not an idiot. Do we want to go through a horrible 
bottleneck with monks and towers and knights and elephants, or do we want to 
go through the trees to the west, a route which offers a nice open avenue to 
that wonder we want to destroy? I don't care, we're going through the trees.

The long-winded way is to bring over a peasant from your southern town centre 
and erect a castle just behind the trees. This does tend to draw arrow-sharp 
attention from every enemy in the vicinity however, so it might be better to 
launch your offensive from here without the support of a castle. Either way is 
good, so do what you think is best. I have noticed that the yellow base never 
seems to stop sending more and more and more and more units against your 
castle if you put it here or nearby, which makes it difficult to decide when 
to mount your own attack. On the other hand, it's always nice to have a castle 
right behind you, as well a nice source of more mangudai.

Anyway, to attack the wonder just push everyone forward, with your elephants 
leading the way, mangudai right behind them, and monks right behind them. 
Monks can convert enemy elephants or knights to begin with, then offer healing 
when they run out of faith. Elephants should target enemy elephants, while 
your mangudai deal with the knights and monks.

While all this is going on you should have planted your trebuchets and they 
should be attacking the wonder from just behind the main battle. Keep 
everyone occupied with your mangudai and elephants and the trebuchets should 
have it done in no time, at which point you win.

QUICK HELP
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Just remember: units in the north, castle in the south.
Send your trade cart to the shah right at the start of the level, and make 
sure the assassins succeed in killing him.
Subotai is in the north - don't be afraid to use him, but keep an eye on his 
health.
Research murder holes or your southern castle is in big trouble.
A monastery in the south lets you convert those yellow elephants almost 
infinitely, and they are absolutely invaluable.
Explore the north for lots of gold.
The red base is extremely easy to take down - don't be fooled by the regular 
attacks.
Build a castle halfway up the northern road then forget your northern base.
You don't have to destroy the entire yellow base - just the monastery.

~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~ = ~.><.~

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
 2.4.5 THE PROMISE
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Difficulty: 1/3

Objectives:

Capture the Bohemian flag.
Capture the Polish flag.
Capture the German flag.

---

This level is great fun, but the start can be difficult to get a grip on.

BUILDING AND DEFENDING YOUR BASE
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Two of your four starting peasants will automatically start chopping lumber, 
and the other two will go for the deer next to your town centre. I've noticed 
that the start of this level is much easier if you let your food-gatherers 
hunt the deer first, instead of trying to build farms right from the start. I 
failed four times with farms, but succeeded the first time I went with the 
deer instead. You need all the wood you can get in order to build buildings 
faster.

For lumber and gold, send a few peasants up far north of your base, where 
there is plenty of gold and lumber. This keeps them out of the way of the 
trouble which comes to your town centre. There is also a very handy relic, 
which should be picked up ASAP. Site your lumber and gold-mining camps up here 
for preference.

You should build a stone wall at the beginning of the path which leads up the 
hill to the castle, since strong forces will be coming down here soon. Once 
the wall is up, sit your mangonel behind it on 'stand ground' stance.

You could try doing the same down at the southern path which leads to the blue 
base, but I've found that they are more likely to send forces against you if 
you don't allow their peasants access to the very valuable stone deposits. 
Instead of blocking the way, try sitting ranged units right next to the stone 
and get your miners to pick it up as quickly as they can. Don't build your 
mining camp or anything else too close to the cliff to the west, since ranged 
enemies will target it and your miners from the top of the cliff when they 
head along the upper path.

Your base will periodically be attacked by both red and blue, and they will 
target your town centre first if there are no obstacles in their way. Wall off 
the reds if you want, but this tends not to work with the blues, since they 
send mangonels along with the soldiers. Let the blues through and let them 
come to your town centre (ring the town bell and suck the enemies in with your 
horsemen). Then just let the peasants inside shoot them down while your 
horsemen run around in circles to draw their attention. Your town centre 
should never be in real danger given the weakness of the forces the blues 
send.

Try to convert the red Teutonic Knights if you can - sit your priests behind 
the wall / gate and target one knight each per priest - they are very handy 
units to have.

ATTACKING THE BLUE BASE
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The blue base is actually very easy to attack. They have two or three guard 
towers and a castle - otherwise they are very weak. The best time to attack 
(as usual) is when they've just sent a squad to attack your base and you've 
wiped them out. Send mounted units along with rams - anything else is pretty 
much useless for this attack. Send the rams to take out the first tower, while 
your horsemen mop up any blues who attack your rams (in