English Campaign

Keep in mind that there are several ways of completing these scenarios, but here is my advice as to how to beat them the way I found to be the easiest one.

English Campaign

1: Return of Young William

Timeline: 1040

Epoch: Middle

Ahhh, the Middle Age, one of my favorite eras :o) You start this scenario with a few units, 4 long bowmen and 2 long swordsmen to be exact, and it would be a good idea to at least upgrade the attack and range of your bowmen. Never underestimate the power of William, for he can heal your units as they receive damage. Also, don’t be shy about using the battle cry, especially not in the mass battles. You will go to the areas indicated on the map to gain allies, all the while defeating the enemies you encounter. It’s not hard at all, as you won’t be attacked in large numbers, and as long as you can use William’s abilities right, you shouldn’t even lose a single unit. After you’ve defeated the bridge guards, you will arrive in Falaise, and the city will be at your disposal.

Use some villies to build a granary, and have some collect wood. You won’t be attacked at this point, and you have all the time in the world before you decide to attack Toustain. Have your army go east (not south-east). There will be a path for you to follow, and you will encounter some guards, which of course, you will kill immediately. In the nearby city, the inhabitants will give you 1500 stone, which you will need to get siege weapons. Go back to Falaise, and go south-east, and when you see a path going slightly east, follow it. Here you can buy 3 siege weapons, each for 500 stone. You should buy at least 2 trebuchets, buy 3 if you wish, but you might want a ballista for the infantry of Toustain. I wouldn’t bother with a heavy ram; they get destroyed so easily buy the many towers outside Toustain. Remember to protect your trebuchets well, without them you will not succeed in taking out the town defences.

And now on to building up your army: If you continue down the road, further south, you will find a city containing a few gold and iron mines. Destroy the towers and kill the habitants protecting this camp, and get some villagers to mine for gold and iron. When you think your army is big enough (it doesn’t need to be VERY big) attack Toustain with sharp and steel! Use the trebs to take out their towers, but keep your army ready for when the enemy army engages at you. When the coast is clear, you can enter the city and take down their castle keep.

William has conquered Normandy...

2: William Duke of Normandy

Timeline: 1047

Epoch: Middle

This is a fighting scenario, and you’re starting with only one unit; Gollet the Jester. Bring Gollet to Valognes, which is indicated on the map, to warn William. He will encounter an archer and two swordsmen on his way. Now, you can either just run away from them until you reach the farm, or you can kill them and almost get yourself killed in the process. If you decide to go with the second option, kill the archer first, and then the swordsmen. Further along the path, Gollet will hear a strange sound to the north. Travel north along the path, and you will find a chest of bandages that will restore his hit points as well as a new sword that will upgrade his attack. Then, proceed to the farm where you will be given a disguise, so that you can safely enter Valognes just west of there.

Now you will gain control of William of Normandy. Now you must escort William to Falaise. You can’t exit through the main gate, but don’t worry. There is a way out through a hole in the gate on the east side. On your way to Falaise you will encounter an enemy patrol, but as long as you cast battle cry on him, you should manage to get by without Gollet being killed. Further down the path, you will find a church. Send William into the church so that his hit points will be refilled, and have him and Gollet to hide behind the bushes. When they have passed, continue until you reach a town, where you will gain control of 3 knights. Proceed to the east, and you will soon reach a canyon with an ambush of enemy archers and an army on the other side of the canyon. Just have the knights fight the army, while William sneaks through, and escapes safely. Now all you have to do is talk to the mayor of Falaise, and gather allies in the towns indicated on the map. Bring your new units with you, and visit all the towns. In one of the towns, you must have William fight their town champion, but don’t worry; just cast battle cry on him.

When you have enough soldiers, William will let you know. Regroup with King Henry at Val-es-Dune, and most importantly, save your game! This battle is very difficult; I had serious problems with this one. Don’t forget, you have 2 heroes, each capable of casting 2 battle cries, so try the get as many enemies as possible to be affected. Save one battle cry for Guy of Burgundy though, and keep William far behind your army, so that he doesn’t get killed. I found that being defensive worked best for me. I just let them attack me, and then I had my archers shoot at the pikemen. Just have your archers in their own control group and have them attack the piercing weapons. Do the same with the shock weapons and piercing weapons of your own, but wait until they approach you. This may seem pointless, but actually, it turned the tide of the entire battle for me. At the end, only a few archers remained, and I had my remaining archers kill them.

Now there is nobody stopping you from killing Guy of Burgundy. Have William and your remaining knights eliminate him. If this didn’t work for you, then you can always fall back to Falaise, where the towers will take out their army.

Normandy has once again been secured for William...

3: The Battle of Hastings

Timeline: 1066

Epoch: Middle

The first part of this scenario is pretty straight forward, so it shouldn’t be necessary to go into depth about this. Just collect the proper resources and guard the resources from bandits. Build up your army till you’ve reached your pop cap and delete citizens to make room for more soldiers. You should bring a priest to England, and if you want, a prophet. It’s your call; if you think one malaria attack is worth a pop cost of 5, go ahead.

When your army is big enough, bring William to the docks and build enough transports for everyone, as well as some warships. Bring the ships across the channel, but protect your transports well from enemy ships. You only need to use your battleships as a distraction.

When you’ve unloaded, you might want to convert the two archers on the hills nearby, so that they won’t bother you. Now it is time to fight the English army. This battle is much easier than the battle in” William Duke of Normandy”, but it is also very different. If you manage to wound Harold Goodwinson, his army will be strongly demoralized, so try to select a small group of units to attack him with. Remember the unit relations, and you shouldn’t really have a problem with this one.

At one point, William will fall of his horse, so be quick to get him to the top of the hill, or else you will lose. When the army is eliminated, you will have to defeat Harold himself and his personal guards. Use William to cast battle cry on them, and wipe them out. Malaria is also very effective here. Now all you have to do is march into London in triumph. But, what’s this? William doesn’t have a horse? This is an outrage! Don’t worry, there is a horse just north of there that William can use :-)

NOW you can ride into London and complete the scenario.

William has proven himself the rightful ruler of England...

4: The Hundred Years Wars Begins

Timeline: 1340 - 1346

Epoch: Middle

You begin the scenario with a small fleet of ships, as well as 3 docks. Use your resources to build 3 Battleships, 1 Galley and 1 Frigate. When your ships are ready, gather them together. Set your Demolition Ship to a Ctrl group and move your ships to the East until you reach the French navy. While your ships are fighting, have your demo ship sink the French flagship. Then it’ll be a piece of cake sinking the rest of the ships.

In the next part, you will have control of an army in France, led by The Black Prince himself. Proceed west until you reach Caen, and use your trebuchets to take out their gate. When their army exits the city, wipe it out, but without approaching their towers. Now you can easily enter Caen and destroy the towers on the inside and the four buildings in the blue area. When the citizens from England arrive, build a settlement near the ruins and start gathering stone. When you have reached the proper amount, you can construct the buildings you need in order to destroy Calais.

Begin farming from the farms and mine gold and iron from the mines north of Caen. There is a French village east of you that probably will attack you. Don’t bother invading Calais by land, that’s just too difficult and painful. Instead, build a dock, and a transport. There is a place right north of their town center where you can unload. You should build a prophet and bring a few trebuchets to Calais. Also bring some archers and swordsmen for the small army that will attack you. It will take some time for them to reach you though, so you should have more than enough time to summon an earthquake with your prophet :-) When the town center is destroyed, you have won.

Calais has been crippled, and The Black Prince is showing his power...

5: The Black Prince

Timeline: 1356

Epoch: Middle

This scenario is very easy, but be careful with the few units you’ve got, though. You won’t encounter too many enemies, and don’t forget that The Black Prince can heal your units if they suffer damage. You have to collect all the chests and bring them back to the shore where you started. Just south of your starting point you will find such a chest, but be careful; there is a prophet there that will summon a volcano if you don’t kill him quickly enough. Just east of there, you will find another chest, and a few units to defeat. When the trees have been cut down, you can proceed to Perpignan.

When you have all the chests, return to the starting point by going north of the collapsing canyon, killing the troops there. When you have arrived, you will gain control of more units, so that you can conquer Voltieres. Use the trebuchets to take down the towers and the gate, and stay on top of the hill. You will find conquering this city to be very easy, and that’s it!

The Black Prince has succeeded in his raids of South France!

6: We Band of Brothers

Timeline: 1414 - 1415

Epoch: Middle

This is a pretty long scenario, and it’s divided into two parts. First you have to visit every temple in England and eliminate the Lollards, then you have to build an army and defeat the French Army.

In the first part, you should bring quite a few troops when you go to the temples. There’s no point in explaining where all the temples are, you’ll find them easily. There are temples close to the resource patches shown on the map. When you find a temple containing Lollards, kill their army and then destroy their temple. Visit all the temples, all the while using your citizens to collect resources. Watch out for nearby priests, if you see one, kill him immediately, so that your citizens won’t be converted.

After the Lollards have been killed, go to the large city in South England and build until your pop cap has been reached. You’ll need 2 or 3 trebuchets. Remember to also bring a couple of citizens. Transport them across the channel, and move your army towards the city east of you. Just use your trebuchets to take down their gate and towers, and your army should have no problems in defeating their army. When the coast is clear, move your citizens into the city and start building a barracks, an archery range and a stable. Delete your villies and once again, build till you’ve reached your pop cap.

Now on to the real challenge: Defeating the French Army in Agincourt. Although they outnumber you greatly, you have two heroes and if you use them wisely, you should prevail. Move your cavalry closer to their army, then move them back, drawing them towards your main army, and wiping them out with your archers. Their front men should be knights, so use your archers on them. Your cavalry must hurry up on the hill and destroy their two cannons. Just like the Lollards had Arquebuses, these guys also have a few Renaissance weapons. Try to use the war cry on their army, but be careful. Both your Hero’s are easily killed. If they’re low on hit points, move them away immediately. If you remember your unit’s relations, which you should know by now, you should be able to destroy most of their army, and win. The battle is rather difficult, but strategy is much better than brute Force in this kind of fight. When only a few remain, they will flee.

The French Army has been defeated, and Normandy has been re-conquered…

7: The War Against Napoleon

Timeline: 1808 - 1814

Epoch: Industrial

The first part is so easy, it really should require no walkthrough. Just sail to Lisbon and defeat their scattered army. The next part is a little worse.

Set some villagers to gather wood so that you can build a granary. Set a few villagers to gather stone as well, only enough for a couple of towers. Then use the food and wood to build up your army. Bring heaps of British Infantry, Serpentines, Bronze Cannons, Dragoons and Imperial Culrassiers. Also, remember to bring at least 2 medics. Be careful with the gold and iron, as it’s very limited. You should free the Spanish Army by destroying the towers of the city with Serpentines. That’s a piece of cake, cause there won’t be any troops attacking you.

Now on to liberating the 3 cities; Toledo, Talavera and Salamanca. It’s not too hard, just take good care of your units and try not to lose so many of them. Set you cavalry in one CTRL group, and have the Culrassiers hack away at the French while the Dragoons shoot them without being hurt, as all the fire will be concentrated on your Sword Cavalry.

Before attacking the next city, have your medics heal the wounded. Repeat until all cities have been liberated. Now you have to attack the main army in Toulouse. Before you do that, though, use your remaining resources to upgrade or expand your army. Have all your villagers go to where your army is. Don’t worry, you won’t need any more resources. When crossing the mountain, you have to b careful; there are 3 sharpshooters there. Wellesley won’t get killed by them so have him ride across and kill the sharpshooters. When the path is cleared move your army across and stop at the last mountain top. Have your villagers build 2 or 3 towers on top of the mountain and wait for the French Army to attack you. If they don’t show up, move a unit towards them and then go back.

Now you’ll have the advantage of fighting them from a height, and if you keep all your cannons in the back, they will fire at them at a steady rate, and they will also have trouble getting past the towers. If Wellesley’s hit points are dropping rapidly, move him back to the cannons immediately. When only a few French remain, Napoleon will be defeated, and you will have emerged victorious!

Sir Arthur Wellesley has showed his true strength…

8: The Battle of Waterloo

Timeline: 1815

Epoch: Industrial

In this last scenario, you will have to protect Brussels from Napoleon’s army, as well as defeating them. Have the messenger move towards the rendezvous point, but watch out for the sharpshooters on the way. You may kill them, or just run away. They won’t be a problem later on. When he has arrived, you must defeat the troops that have been following your allies.

When Wellesley finds out that this messenger never made it back, he will go himself and build up his own army. You will find yourself north of Brussels, but you should really go to Monte St. Jean and build a base there. The French Army will have to pass through that point. Build 2 barracks’s, 2 stables and 2 siege factories there, and lots of towers south east of the hill. Also train 2 sharpshooters.

When your army is big enough, go to Quatre Bras and kill the opposing army there. Have your sharpshooters walk in front of them, kill a few guys with them, and move them back to the base. This army is not very big and should not be a problem to defeat. Now the main army will try to attack Brussels, so fall back to the base, build a few medics to heal your wounded men, and have towers ready for when they attack. There are a few stone mines just south of there. Spend your remaining resources on building a large army. Also build a few bombards and keep them in the back. Keep your sharpshooters guarding the base to spot approaching troops. They should be able to kill 3 or 4 men before getting killed themselves. Now the towers, your cavalry, infantry and your cannons will make short work of the French army. That’s all there is to it!

And Napoleon’s army was defeated, once and for all…

Congratulations!