Empire Earth II/The Hanseatic League

Once again, you play as the Teutonic Order. This time though, you won't be enjoying technological superiority over your foes, as you are not fighting pagan barbarians, but the state of Poland. Both you and Poland (as well as the other nations) will be stuck in the Middle Age (Epoch VI).

Your starting position seems quite strong: you own three territories, and already have a decent number of Teutonic Crusaders. On the other side of the map is your ally, the Holy Roman Empire, with well developed cities. Obviously, there is a trick: you do not have any Gold on your territories, and the nearest nods are well defended in the heart of Poland. Poland is slightly bigger, with four territories, and obviously has access to Gold.

The solution is simply to follow the objective of the mission, and to establish trade with the Holy Roman Empire (and other nations) in order to gather Gold.

Thing is, there again, you will have to act fast, or else Poland will start building wall, towers and fortresses all over the place, which will be extremely tedious to take down with a limited supply of Gold. But do not worry, as you will receive many reinforcements that will allow you to crush Poland, as her units are no match for your Crusaders.

Mission information
🇨🇴
 * Primary Objectives
 * 1) Trade with the Holy Roman Empire
 * 2) Quash any rebellion
 * 3) Reclaim Pomerania


 * Secondary Objectives
 * 1) Blockade Sweden
 * 2) Thwart unrest in Pozen
 * 3) Thwart unrest in Danzig
 * 4) Thwart unrest in Thorn

🇨🇴
 * Defeat Conditions
 * 1) Pozen, Danzig or Thorn is destroyed
 * Factions
 * 1) Teutonic Order - Red (Player)
 * 2) Poland - Green
 * 3) Holy Roman Empire - Teal
 * 4) Dissidents - Pink
 * 5) Sweden - Orange
 * 6) Denmark - Grey

🇨🇴
 * Epochs Available
 * 1) VI - Middle Age

Walkthrough
As usual, as soon as the game starts, make sure you have enough citizens gathering resources for you. There is a Warehouse in Posen right nearby a forest, two nods of Iron and Tin and a forage patch. Put six citizens on each resources and garrison ten more of them in the Warehouse to increase the productivity. There is also a Stone nod in Danzig, left of the Warehouse. Finally, you can build farms in Thorn, as you will be short on Food early on.

Poland will not attack you, but this is no reason to be slow. You will soon receive a new objective: you have to build a Temple and an University in each territory to stop rebellions. Do so as early as possible, and note that there is already a Temple in Danzig. Each time you fulfill one of the three objectives, you will receive reinforcements: around 15 Teutonic Crusaders. If you do not build Temples and University, Dissidents will occasionally spawn near your City Centers. Do not forget to put a couple citizens in one or two universities, to gather Technology Points, but do not bother about Temple: you cannot really spare Gold to hire Priests.

Lastly, even though you do not have any Gold, you still can make an army: Crossbowmen can be hired without Gold, so start chain-producing them. You can also build a few Stables, so you can produce Teutonic Knights once you start getting resources.

In the meanwhile, start making Trading Cogs in your Dock. At the moment, you cannot establish land trade lines with Germany (your Trading Carts would swiftly get killed by Poland), so start trading with the German Dock in Rostock. You will soon receive a new secondary objective: blockading Sweden. Triggering this objective might cause a bug that will prevent your Trading Cogs from visiting the Dock in Rostock.

To blockade Sweden, you will need to bring five military ships on the location marked on your strategic map. Build five boats (Barques are cheaper), bring them to the blockade location, and Sweden will turn hostile. One or two Swedish Barques will attempt to lift the blockade and fail, causing Sweden to ask you to lift the blockade in exchange of 1,000 Gold. Simply move your ships away to lift the blockade and get the cash. Once that is done, resume trade with Rostock.

At around 15 minutes in, you will receive the last primary objective of this mission: claim Pomerania (the territory just west of Posen. To do so, you will likely require a few siege weapons, such as Heavy Rams or Heavy Siege Towers. Hopefully, you can now build those with the Gold you have. As soon as you have 20 Crusaders, 20 Crossbowmen and a few Siege Towers, attack Pomerania. Destroy the Towers and the Fortress with your Towers, while your knights and archers take care of enemy units.

Attacking Pomerania will mean that Poland now engages in a full scale war against you. Polish units will probably attack Thorn et Posen, make sure to have some towers and units in each city. Most of Poland's strength will try to defend Pomerania though.

Whenever possible, build a City Center in Pomerania, to conquer the territory. Poland will keep sending units there, just leave your army nearby, or take the fight to Sieradz or Cracow. You are now free to make a few Trading Carts and to start trading with two other German cities to win the mission.

Tips

 * Instead of "thwarting unrest" you can use your Crusaders to convert the Dissidents. They have Men-at-Arms and Pikemen, that you likely won't be able to hire by yourself since they cost Gold.
 * You don't have to keep your leader (Hartman von Heldrugen) alive, so try to bring him to the fight. His special ability is quite nice too.
 * Each time you get a Crown for the first time, you get new reinforcements and a leader. If you can get a Military Leader, you will properly crush any Polish army that comes at you with his ability.
 * Denmark seems to be pretty much useless. They don't build docks, and there is no secondary objective related to them. Maybe it only triggers after a long while.