William Wallace, a knight and Scottish patriot in the 13th century, takes command of the warriors of Scotland in an attempt to resist invasion of the better-equipped English armies. This campaign is a tutorial game, in which you can learn the basic gameplay features of Age of Empires II, such as collecting resources, building structures, training your armies and fighting your enemies with different units of various attributes. It is a good starting point even for those who have played the original Age of Empires. You can learn the new features of the sequel like garrisoning, defence stance, and formations from the Tutorial.
William Wallace 1
Marching and Fighting
If you've played the original Age of Empires (or any similar real-time strategy game), it is recommended that you skip this level and begin at The Battle of Stirling. This level merely serves to acquaint a newcomer to the most remedial basics of the game and is pretty self-explanatory. After a brief talk about Scotland and the impending invasion of Edward Longshanks, the level will begin. Simply select your lone Militia and follow the flags as the narrator commands. After the fourth flag, you will be given some reinforcements. Continue to follow the flags and you will reach an English outpost. Right click to order the selected troops to attack. This is easy as the outpost can't fight back. Once it's destroyed, proceed northwest and you will reach your village. The English will send a trio of Militia to attack you. Just attack them with all your units and you'll beat them. End of level.
William Wallace 2
Feeding the Army
In this level you will learn the basics of resource harvesting. Ignore the narrator who tells you to harvest food from the berry bushes, and send your villager to hunt one of the deer near your town center. Hunting triggers an event that will give you four free villagers once your villager takes the first load to your Town Center. Distribute them between food and wood. When you have 30 wood, build a house and train a sixth villager and send him to mine gold. Now you have everything you need, so as soon as one resource stockpile reaches 50, take all the villagers collecting that resource and have them gather something else. Once you have 50 of each, the level ends.