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{{Header Nav|game=Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings}} | {{Header Nav|game=Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings}} | ||
==Barbarossa 2: Henry the Lion== | |||
This is an extremely unusual scenario for a number of reasons. Most importantly, although you do have an economy, you are restricted as to what units and technologies you can have. In particular, you cannot ever have villagers, so you can't do anything villagers are needed for. The primary functions of villagers are to develop a controlled economy, to build static defenses, to build structures offensively, to repair structures, ships, and siege equipment, and to reshape the terrain. You can do none of these things here ( | '''There are some major surprises in this scenario. If you play this scenario knowing what will happen, you are playing it wrong.''' | ||
This is an extremely unusual scenario for a number of reasons. Most importantly, although you do have an economy, you are restricted as to what units and technologies you can have. In particular, you cannot ever have villagers, so you can't do anything villagers are needed for. The primary functions of villagers are to develop a controlled economy, to build static defenses, to build structures offensively, to repair structures, ships, and siege equipment, and to reshape the terrain. You can do none of these things here. (Your economy is not subject to much control.) Secondly, you cannot ever have monks. Therefore, you cannot convert enemy units, and healing your own units will be problematic. Cavalry can only be healed inside castles (there are two in your home area), and infantry can only be healed inside castles, Town Centers (there are two in your home area), and Towers (there are three in your home area). What this means is that infantry become much more cost-effective than in normal games. Infantry are usually worth very little, because they die so quickly that their effective cost is much larger than the purchase cost, while cavalry generally never die, so their effective cost is equal to the purchase cost. But this calculation assumes that healing is readily available, and is not valid in this scenario. Thirdly, you are restricted to the Castle Age, so your most advanced units are unavailable. The biggest problem in that regard will be the lack of long range artillery. | |||
A number of things follow directly from the above points. Loss of any of your buildings is very bad or disastrous. You must protect your buildings AT ALL COSTS, and the same holds true for Henry the Lion's buildings. Damage to your economy is very bad, so protect your economic bases! They can rebuild to a certain extent, and they may even be able to grow, but your income is only their surplus, so make sure that they have a big surplus. Of course, you and Henry can never build walls, so you could be attacked at any point, and there does not appear to be any stone on the map, so your other allies may never be able to build walls, either. In some sense, this is fair, because Poland also cannot build walls. You can never have more than 50 military units, and the same holds true for Henry the Lion. However, this should not be a major problem, because you hardly ever have that many military units in a standard game. | A number of things follow directly from the above points. Loss of any of your buildings is very bad or disastrous. You must protect your buildings AT ALL COSTS, and the same holds true for Henry the Lion's buildings. Damage to your economy is very bad, so protect your economic bases! They can rebuild to a certain extent, and they may even be able to grow, but your income is only their surplus, so make sure that they have a big surplus. Of course, you and Henry can never build walls, so you could be attacked at any point, and there does not appear to be any stone on the map, so your other allies may never be able to build walls, either. In some sense, this is fair, because Poland also cannot build walls. You can never have more than 50 military units, and the same holds true for Henry the Lion. However, this should not be a major problem, because you hardly ever have that many military units in a standard game. | ||
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When you have scouted as much of the map as you safely can, you will have found: | When you have scouted as much of the map as you safely can, you will have found: | ||
- on the SW "home" continent, one Polish castle and two Watch Towers; | |||
- in the NW corner, five Towers, a Siege Workshop, and two Houses; | |||
- in the east, one Polish castle, three Towers, a Siege Workshop, and two Houses; | |||
- in the middle-north, one Polish castle, three Towers, a (second) dock, and a House. | |||
This gives the Poles a maximum population of 85 military units, which is much larger than their practical population, so attacking their Houses is a waste of time. Attacking their Siege Workshops is definitely a good idea, because you can fairly easily knock out their production of heavy equipment. After that, it should be fairly easy to deal with the Huskarls, which is all the Poles can keep producing. The Poles will eventually run out of resources, but you have no idea how long that will take. In case it isn't completely obvious, they have no means of generating income. The Poles are restricted to Castle Age units. | This gives the Poles a maximum population of 85 military units, which is much larger than their practical population, so attacking their Houses is a waste of time. Attacking their Siege Workshops is definitely a good idea, because you can fairly easily knock out their production of heavy equipment. After that, it should be fairly easy to deal with the Huskarls, which is all the Poles can keep producing. The Poles will eventually run out of resources, but you have no idea how long that will take. In case it isn't completely obvious, they have no means of generating income. The Poles are restricted to Castle Age units. | ||
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Be advised that the Poles will attack you in force regardless of what you do. As soon as you see their first scout (if you see him), you know that their attack waves are not far behind. | Be advised that the Poles will attack you in force regardless of what you do. As soon as you see their first scout (if you see him), you know that their attack waves are not far behind. | ||
There are three major surprises yet to come. The first is that Henry the Lion should back-stab you. It is not at all clear what triggers this. It appears to happen completely at random, even though all AoE scenario triggers are absolute (non-random), and it may not happen at all. Nevertheless, it is intended that the back-stab occur. It is probably intended that it happen while you are heavily engaged with Poland and most or all of your units are away from home, and you appear to be doing well. Thus Henry thinks he can get away with it, and he thinks that he needs to do it. You might have had some clue that Henry is not with the program, based on the scenario introduction and the way his units behave (they just wander around aimlessly at home and never try to hurt Poland). | |||
There are three major surprises yet to come. The first is that Henry the Lion should back-stab you. | |||
The second major surprise is that you can get villagers. After all you have gone through, knowing that you couldn't have any, and trying to cope with it! By the time you get them, there won't be any gold or especially stone left for you to mine, but your remaining allies continue to send you tribute, and there is no shortage of wood and therefore food in any case. Having villagers, the scenario becomes much, much easier. | The second major surprise is that you can get villagers. After all you have gone through, knowing that you couldn't have any, and trying to cope with it! By the time you get them, there won't be any gold or especially stone left for you to mine, but your remaining allies continue to send you tribute, and there is no shortage of wood and therefore food in any case. Having villagers, the scenario becomes much, much easier. | ||
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