Age of Empires II: The Conquerors/Montezuma

Before you read the actual article, do know that this advice is very general and probably only even vaguely useful on the easiest difficulty setting. So, use this only as a general guide.

These are the Objectives:
 * 1) . Capture the Monasteries near the flags shown on the mini map.
 * 2) . Place the four Relics in the Monasteries.

Your village is in the Eastern corner of the map. You begin on the Feudal Age, with a Town Centre (TC), a Barracks, three houses, three Watch Towers (one next to the houses, one near the Western approach and one near the Northern approach), three Eagle Warriors near the Barracks and three villagers near the TC. There is no shortage of wood, as always in AoE2. If you run out you are doing something wrong. There are thirteen Gold mines, eight Stone mines, four Turkeys and six Forage Bushes in the immediate vicinity of your village. You only need about 3500 Stone so this is enough resources to last you awhile.

According to the scouts section of the Objectives tab, the Tepanaca (orange) have a wall that will require siege weaponry to break. This is true to some degree. They do have a wall. One wall. However there are two ways into their town, so getting in isn't too hard. They are Mayan, not Aztec and train Archers and Eagle Warriors. They are North North-West of your base. (Note: The second way into their base is not at the end of the West road. Instead, go West and then North at the first opportunity. Go North North-West at the fork in the 'path' and then travel North-East at the road. You can then attack the Tepanaca town from the West without worrying about the wall that blocks the Southern approach.)

Next are the Tlatiluco (red). They are South South-East of your base. They train units from the Swordsmen line (Starting with Militia) and Eagle Warriors. Finally, the Xochimilco (purple) are your most dangerous enemy. They are Mayan, not Aztec and they train Archers and Scorpions. Leave them until last unless you are very sure of yourself or strong enough to fend off the other two enemies while attacking the Xochimilco.

First, order one of your villages to each resource and one builder. (You will have to make two more villagers in order to do this.) Build a Mining Camp near the Gold mines to the West of your TC. You don't need a Mining camp near the closer Stone mine. When you hear "I hear the growl of the jaguar. Is this a bad omen?" ring the Town Bell. This is because four jaguars will attack. When your TC and Watch Tower have killed the jaguars, send your villagers back to resource collecting and assign your builder to build Stone Wall across the two approach roads into your village. This is to stop minor raids. Once the stone wall is finished, build towers and an Archery Range. Unfortunately, since you are playing as the Aztecs, you cannot build any cavalry. On the plus side, neither can your Aztec and Mayan enemies.

You can use your three Eagle Warriors to either scout carefully or to kill intruding enemy scouts. You can safely scout everywhere inside the walls, up the Northern road to the Tepanaca wall, around the lake to the North, all the way to the river to the West and anywhere North except for the Tepanaca town and jaguar enclosure (through the Palisade Wall near the lake).

All the time while using one villager to build the defenses, the other villagers should have been collecting resources. You have good amounts of stone and gold inside your base that should last you a while. The trouble with the early stages of this level is how slowly you get resources. I recommend not trying for the Castle Age until you have at least five villagers per resource and two builders. Also, don't do anything that costs food except for making villagers. (For this reason, Archers are the best unit to make if you want some soldiers early on.) By this stage you should have a good amount of resources (except food). There is nothing you can do about the orange Archery Range near the top right-hand flag, so ignore it. As soon as you can, with the number of villagers mentioned above, advance to the Castle Age. Then build a Castle and start training Jaguar Warriors. When you have ten or so, send them and a villager to either of the closest two flags. Capture the monastery and wall it in, with a Watch Tower and gate.

Make one monk at the first monastery you visit and collect the relic. Leave the monk there. Then go to the second monastery and do the same, walling it in and making a monk to collect the relic. Then make another monk and heal all the soldiers. Then take the soldiers and monk up to the Tepanaca town and destroy the mill. Be careful of the Watch Towers in the lake. Go around the towers, but otherwise ignore them. They disappear when the Tepanaca resign.

Next, upgrade Archers to Crossbowman, build a Blacksmith and research everything available there. (Note: You are restricted to the Castle Age in this level, so with these units and researches you have the required military). If you like you can build a University, but it isn't really necessary except for the Treadmill Crane which increases villager build speed. You should probably build a siege workshop, as the Tepanaca have a castle and many villagers to garrison in their TC.

When you have about fourteen Crossbowman, three Eagle Warriors, ten Jaguar Warriors, one Monk at each Monastery and one with your army, you can attack. Go around the forest and bypass their wall, it's quicker and cheaper because you don't need Battering Rams that way. Destroy just about everything except for the TC, Castle and Towers in the lake. Make some Battering Rams and destroy the gate in the Tepanaca wall. Destroy the TC and Castle. (The Castle is on the cliff near the TC. There is also a mill and some villagers who will garrison in the Castle.) When you capture the Monastery, some Eagle Warriors will charge out of nowhere and attack. Defeat them and build a Monk to garrison the relic. Build a Castle and some wall around the Monastery.

Up near the castle there is some Stone. By this stage your Stone Miners will almost certainly have run out in your base, so bring them and build a Tower and another Mining Camp. You don't have to destroy the Tlatiluco, but it is a good idea because they will periodically attack you with Men-At-Arms. When the Tlatiluco are destroyed, raze the Xochimilco town and then build a dock. Create a Transport Ship, take some soldiers across, kill all the jaguars, capture the Monastery, build a Monk (or use the one you had, if you brought it across), garrison the relic and win.

Actually there is one other thing you have to do. When you garrison the last relic, a patch of trees will appear in the South-West of the map. Mine through it to win.