Age of Empires II: The Conquerors/Lepanto

The Start
You begin with moderate resource levels. 800 wood, 600 gold, 1000 food, and 400 stone.

You also have 16 villagers and a fleet of ships, as well as some catapults. 3 of your ships are Cannon Galleons. Try to keep them alive, as you may need them to demolish enemy towers.

There is a Greek village on the same continent as you. They are neutral, and should not bother you - provided you do not bother them.

Villager Tasking
You could task 1-2 villagers to work on the wonder at this point. But you don't really need to start building it yet.

You DO need to setup defenses, and gather resources so you can defend yourself effectively when the Turks send in transports.

Send six villagers to chop wood (you need the lumber). Four go to mine gold. That leaves six villagers. Send two of them to work on farms at your Town Center. The other four quickly build walls along your coastline.

There is no need to build walls outside of your encampment at this time. The Turks rarely land there.

It is recommended that you build stone walls along the coastline within your encampment. There are some strong arguments for palisade walls. But they go down quickly under fire from Bombard Cannons.

Regardless of your decision, prioritize walling off the coast near your wonder. Perhaps leave gates near your docks, to help with future repairs.

Turkish Assault
A few minutes into the scenario the Turkish Navy attacks you. If you use your available ships effectively you should be able to win this battle.

In particular remember:

-Your Fire ships are particularly effective against enemy Galleons, at close-range

-Your Galleons can draw enemy fire away from your fire ships

-Your ships can attempt to lure enemy vessels into range of your towers

After the battle is over check on your Cannon Galleons. If they were destroyed perform the necessary research and build more, as soon as you are able. Depending on the difficulty you may need some Cannon Galleons to clear the way for your villages to build walls along some of your coastline.

Naval combat
In this scenario the main obstacle to your victory is enemy transports, which have a habit of landing on one part of the map, while your attention is focused elsewhere. Enemy Cannon Galleons may also be problematic.

Therefore, it is recommended that you optimize your defense accordingly. Build a lot of Demolition ships, and a few Fire ships.

Line the demolition ships along your coast in pairs. Defensive Stance is recommended.

Be sure you have a few extra demolition ships nearby, since they will frequently blow up non-transport enemy vessels, resulting in holes in your lines.

Don't be afraid to pull ships from adjacent sectors to stop transports heading for a hole.

While your demolition ships are sinking enemy transports, your fire ships should be on the lookout for any escorts the Turks may occasionally send with their transports. Those escorts MUST be taken out ASAP, as they will draw your demolition ships away from the transports.

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Greek's offer
Sometime into the scenario, the Greek Village will offer to ally with you, if you tribute them 800 gold.

Although you do not have to accept this offer it is recommended that you do so, as soon as is practical. ---

Turkish Landing
Despite all your precautions there will likely be times when the Turks will decoy your attention, decoy your demolition ships away, and land on your shores.

If your coastline wall is complete your demolition ships, and catapults should be able to kill the Turkish units.

If your wall in the landing area is incomplete recruit some cavalry, to attempt to defend your base. Send in demolition ships if the enemy units are still on the coastline.

You need to deal with this attack quickly otherwise the Turks will land more troops on your coastline, and crash through your defenses.