Age of Empires II: The Conquerors/The Great Ride

Objectives

 * 1) Raid All Roman Villages Except the Roman Fort (blue)
 * 2) Destroy the Roman Fort's Town Center
 * Optional: Give 6 Villagers to the Scythians

Map
Available on the Steam website.

Walkthrough
While the "point" of this mission is raiding, you are really playing more steamroller than hit and run. Your initial forces can't dent the Roman fort but no one else will last long.

You begin with an assembled raiding group. You can start by raiding Naissus to your east without taking any damage to your troops and receiving wood, and then kill all the villagers of Sofia before they enter the town center for protection. Then destroy Sofia's town center, so that you get some food. Then, go south, and someone from your troop will tell you that some of your soldiers are trapped near the castle of Dyrrhachium.

It is best to approach Dyrrhachium along the southern side of their base, so as to completely avoid the fortified mangonel to the north. Your cavalry archers should make short work of any infantry. Destroy the Town Center, then free your troops at the castle to the west. You can destroy the castle itself with light casualties, as it does not have murder holes. This is optional and depends mostly on where you want to put your base.

When you get to Thessalonica, do not kill the villagers, only destroy the houses and soldiers. The Thessalonica villagers will be "captured" and change sides; kill any holdouts. To the southeast, you'll see the city of Adrianople. Take out the towers, kill everyone, and destroy everything. The mining camps yield stone and gold.

Now with resources, villagers and most of the map, you can build a base on Adrianople's ashes or inside the old walls of Dyrrhachium. If you do the latter, just destroy both gates and the castle, replacing the gates with your own; this leaves you with a very defensible base. If using Adrianople, you will need your own walls.

When you have enough stone, you can build a castle to the north of ex-Adrianople to cut off Roman probes. If you have not already, your scouts will learn of Scythian wild women to the west of the Roman fort. There is an opening in the trees there leading to the Scythians, who want 6 villagers for reasons that totally don't have anything to do with all those skeletons. Send 6 lucky villagers to then and you will be told to claim a reward. Max out your population cap first - the reward is a dozen each of petards and hunting wolves.

Use the petards along with your built-up army and blast the southern gate of the Roman fort and the towers, then hooking east to the Town Center over the Roman standing army. Destroy the Town Center and the Romans surrender. You do not need to kill them all or take out the castle.

Tips

 * Don't attack the Roman Fort early or your army is toast.
 * Max population out first with a good mix of combat units before accepting the Scythian reward, since it will push you far over the limit.
 * It is not needed to destroy all the buildings in the area just destroy the needed buildings to get the Resources.
 * If you want to defeat all of the Roman Villages kill or destroy the following:
 * Sofia: Town Center.
 * Dyrrhachium: Castle and Town Center.
 * Thessalonica: Market, troops, Docks, and Villagers if some did not join you.
 * Naissus: villagers and trade workshop.
 * Adrianople: villagers, troops, and some of the buildings.
 * You CAN win as soon as you're given petards by the Scythians. Immediately march them to the southern gate, blow it and charge them to the town centre in the top right corner. Use troops to distract the knights who will chase. About 5 will level it, you're given more than enough.