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Aztecs I like mesoamerica.
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Apr 27, 2023 14:49
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NewMars posted:Aztecs Their campaign is great, but I feel it should wait for El-Cid!
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Apr 27, 2023 16:48
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I could go for a grab bag C. Battles of the Conquerors I remember Agincourt being quite a trip. It really changed how young me perceived archery.
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Apr 27, 2023 17:06
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I vote for Conquerors . As a kid I played Hastings too many times to count
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Apr 27, 2023 18:57
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Much like the AoK campaigns, the Conquerors ones are intended to be played in order of Atilla -> El Cid -> Montezuma, increasing in difficulty as they go(much more steeply than AoK, weird outlier Siege of Paris excluded). With Atilla currently on hold pending the Roman changes, my vote is for Battles of the Conquerors.
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Apr 27, 2023 22:28
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Vote's closed! Time to go fight some Battles!
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Apr 28, 2023 04:07
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Battles of the Conquerors: Tours Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Maps of the World Very well, then let us begin, the tales of the conquerors.  In the Definitive Edition, they just bundle all the Battles scenarios together, but I will be starting with the earliest scenario from the original Battles of the Conquerors and playing through them in chronological order. The first stop on the list then, is Charles Martel's defense of the Kingdom of the Franks at the Battle of Tours.  Starting Text "It is impossible to imagine the world ending on such a fine fall day. Yet the storm of Muslim horsemen continues to rage throughout Europe, leaving conquered cities and shattered armies stunned in its wake. The lightning-quick strikes of the Muslim horsemen break the city of Bordeaux and then Poitiers, leaving precious little of the Frankish Kingdom to defend. Yet Charles Martel gathers the disheartened Frankish army for one last stand at the city of Tours. Arabic horses, bred for speed and beauty, begin to splash across the Vienne River. Martel's knights and swordsmen, trudging under the weight of iron mail, struggle to interpose themselves between the Muslims and the city of Tours. Carrion birds circle the air, anticipating the savagery to come. The rest of Europe watches anxiously, for this is the climax of the Muslim invasion and the last stand of Christian Europe."   Frankish Soldier: The Muslim armies are advancing slowly, but we will not have before they are at the walls of Tours. Poitiers has fallen already. You start with two separate forces, a moderate army to the southeast and the city of Tours to the north. If you're trying to speedrun the mission, you can run your army directly southwest to Poitiers, but in most other cases you want to bring it up to Tours as quickly as you can.   This is because, while the Muslim forces are busy pillaging the countryside, this will only occupy them for about, say... 7 minutes?   At which point they start assaulting your base with multiple waves of troops, including Abd ar-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, a Genitour Hero (one of the Berbers' Unique Units, a mounted Skirmisher trained at the archery range).  Frankish Soldier: We have reached Poitiers! The Muslim baggage train is protected inside. If we can capture it, they will retreat back from whence they came. ...but if you build up your defenses enough to survive the first few waves, then you've basically won the mission. The half hour I skipped is just me booming to Imperial while the Berbers and Moors throw themselves against the walls and die to Frankish Castles.   The six Trade Carts that comprise the Muslims' baggage train are located at the back of the Moors' base in Poitiers, make sure to destroy the Castle to ensure they don't get shot at. Losing any of the Trade Carts doesn't fail the mission, but instead requires you to wipe out both factions completely to win, which can be a long and tedious process.  Frankish Soldier: The Muslims have retreated from Frankish lands! We are victorious! Drag the Trade Carts back to Tours' Cathedral and that's that. Ending Text "The soul of the Frankish army was its knights, but Charles Martel knew that his cavalry-undisciplined, buried under weight of weapons and armor-could not match the swiftness of the Muslim riders. Therefore, he ordered the knights to dismount and join ranks with the Frankish swordsmen to form a tight shield-wall. The Muslims had always conquered with swift offensiveness and were not equipped to counter the Franks' defensive strategy. The arrows of the Muslim archers bounced harmlessly off the heavy Frankish armor, and the light Muslim cavalry could not breach the human chain. Battered and bleeding, the invaders broke ranks and fled back to the Pyrenees and the protection of Spain. From Charles Martel's Frankish kingdom eventually grew the Holy Roman Empire, making him the founding father of both Germany and France." You can win this mission in 5 minutes if you're really good at micro and use your starting army to bash down the gates of Poitiers and act as a distraction while you bring the Trade Carts back to Tours. Even without doing that, you only really need to get to Castle Age to get the tools you need to defeat the Moors, and the Berbers are more of a distraction/supplement to the Moors' forces than anything else. One of the more boring scenarios, really. Extra Slides Intro Slide 1 Intro Slide 2 Intro Slide 3 Intro Slide 4 End Slide 1 End Slide 2 End Slide 3 Jossar fucked around with this message at 12:11 on Apr 29, 2023 |
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Apr 29, 2023 03:39
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Looks like the Frankish forces had to fight without any heavy cavalry at all in the real battle. Now try again without training any paladins. 
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Apr 29, 2023 05:33
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My favourite has to be either dos pilas or vinlandsaga, can't wait to see those two.
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Apr 29, 2023 06:48
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Vinlandsaga is fun, Hastings is great, and I'm pretty into Mazikert... There's a lot of fun, dumb one-offs in the Battles
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Apr 29, 2023 07:32
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Abd ar-Rahman al-Ghafiqi is a Genitour, the Berbers semi-unique unit; it's a mounted skirmisher that can be trained by the Berbers and anyone allied with them. He appears on the players side in the Tariq ibn Ziyad campaign and was added to the Tours scenario in DE, as he was historically present (and killed) at the battle. The Berbers player in this scenario was originally playing as Turks. Also, if you lose any part of the baggage train, the objective changes to having to defeat all enemies. cncgnxcg fucked around with this message at 09:03 on Apr 29, 2023 |
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Apr 29, 2023 08:58
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Negostrike posted:Looks like the Frankish forces had to fight without any heavy cavalry at all in the real battle. Now try again without training any paladins. It's an interesting thought. If I was doing this, I'd probably just go all in on Throwing Axemen with some Pikemen/Halbs thrown in for good measure, but there's nothing that either set of forces trains that would make this that difficult except for Scorpions, which could be handled via micro. You'd have to at least grant me the trebs though, as taking down a Castle with just Infantry would be a bloodbath (and not something that the real Charles Martel would have had to worry about). Maybe if I tried to just micro the Trade Carts instead, I could still do it with only Infantry? Also you'd have to kill off your initial Knights, since the game does give you a few to start. cncgnxcg posted:Abd ar-Rahman al-Ghafiqi is a Genitour, the Berbers semi-unique unit; it's a mounted skirmisher that can be trained by the Berbers and anyone allied with them. He appears on the players side in the Tariq ibn Ziyad campaign and was added to the Tours scenario in DE, as he was historically present (and killed) at the battle. Yeah, this is a notable enough mistake that I went back and edited ar-Rahman's description. Thanks! Jossar fucked around with this message at 12:23 on Apr 29, 2023 |
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Apr 29, 2023 12:16
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Battles of the Conquerors: Vinlandsaga Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Vikings Theme  Vinland Saga is an ongoing manga by Makoto Yukimura, started in 2005, which is a loose fictionalization surrounding events in the Norse world in the 11th century CE. It primarily focuses on the tale of Thorfinn, son of Thors, an angry young man who serves as a sort of special auxiliary for Askeladd, the leader of a group of raiders who killed Thorfinn's father. Thorfinn's initial motivation is to kill Askeladd in a duel as revenge for his father, but things become increasingly complicated once the raiding band is recruited as part of King Sweyn Forkbeard's invasion of England, and through a series of mishaps ends up responsible for ensuring the safety of Prince Canute, whose father nominally wants him back but is simultaneously trying to kill him. As the plot progresses, Thorfinn and Canute are both forced to confront the nature of a world in which God's love is absent, or if present, heavily imperfect, and in that absence men have chosen to act with violence towards one another. Thorfinn eventually decides that he can no longer bear to live in a world governed by such principles and will find a new one where men can live in peace, no matter how difficult it may seem to do so. Contrarily, Canute refuses to abandon the world as it is and states that he will reforge it into a paradise on earth, though he is constantly haunted by his father's insistence that no matter any such good intentions, the crown that lies upon his head will force him to become a monster in order to preserve the power that would allow him to pursue his desired goals. Of course, these personal revelations are mostly achieved in the prologue and initial chapters of the story and... Oh.  Intro Text "In the gloom, the longhouse feels empty. But it is filled with the odors of rust, tar, and animal fur, and the snoring of dogs. It is the man named Erik who speaks, smacking scarred fingers together for emphasis, the steam of his breath tangling with the wood smoke. He fills the men's heads with legends of exploration and raiding, of a sea that eats longboats and an undiscovered country ripe for Viking occupation. He tells the Vikings that they can leave their frigid homeland, and sail across the endless Sea of Worms to a new world brimming with wild grain and grapes and wild trees. To the Vikings, he speaks of paradise, and of course the grizzled Norse men are always eager for adventure. When he asks for volunteers, men slam their weapons on tables and shout his name in the cold air. Erik the Red smiles."  Viking: It has been a hard winter, and the wolves are hungry. We must protect our villages from their packs.  Viking: To build enough longships for this journey, we'll need gold, and lots of it. There's plenty in the fishing villages of Britain for the taking. You start this mission on Iceland with some defenses, but only a moderate amount of Stone for more, and no gold piles at all. Also, there's a bunch of wolves around the map that love to attack your villagers. I mostly spend the first few minutes setting up a fishing economy and having my starting Berserks (Viking Unique Unit, fast moving infantry with slightly higher melee armor and less HP than the Champion line, that self-heals) and Erik the Red (a Hero Berserk, sort of represents of a composite of Erik and his son Leif Erikson for this scenario) wander around the map killing wolves. The game likes to hype up how resource poor you are this whole mission, but it's not true as long as you don't make a ton of high gold cost units. I never ran out of trees on Iceland proper, and the seas are nearly entirely safe for fishing, as long as you don't go near Greenland.  Viking: Hear that howl? That one's the king of the wolves. He can take down an army of our Norsemen.   That's right folks, it's time for the Ornlu cameo. Build a Blacksmith and Ornlu spawns in to attack your village. The king of the wolves is kind of a pain - he tore through my Berserks and would have killed Erik if I hadn't garrisoned him in the starting Castle. But now Iceland is safe, apart from the occasional unit or two that comes from Greenland to raid.   Viking: The British keep their gold in these markets. Burn all you can and carry the gold back to our ships. After massing a whole bunch of Pikemen, I go and sack the Britons' village, which only has a few Archers and static defenses. The Markets (which have 600 and 1100 gold, respectively) are worth it, tearing down the rest of the village is only useful if you still need additional food and wood for some reason.  Viking: So this is the Isle of Greenland. We should be able to find food and wood here to replenish our fleet. At this point I sack the outer reaches of Greenland to ensure safety for my home base/fishing fleet, as well as build up a forward camp on their island rather than try to keep ferrying troops over from Iceland. You have to be a little bit careful because you can't build on a lot of the ice, but it is doable without alerting their main base. In theory it is possible to skip dealing with Greenland entirely. But most of the bottom of the map is covered with a giant field of death that quickly kills ships, so you have to be very good at threading the needle to not have Erik instantly die and fail the mission. Get too close to the death zone and the Vikings themselves will remark: Viking: Legends have spoken of this place, the Sea of Worms! The waters here are alive and eager to chew through the hulls of our longships. We should sail clear of this place, even if it means crossing Greenland by foot.    Greenland has multiple Castles, and has gold and stone piles so they don't have to worry about wasting resources. Additionally, since you're stuck in the Castle Age, this means you have to build Rams to take out the Castles rather than stand back and fire away with Trebuchets. This part of the mission turns into a little bit of a grind, especially as Greenland will also build a bunch of Scorpions to shoot at your Infantry with. But I keep hammering away, and eventually overwhelm Greenland long enough to tear down their Castles and Town Center. Viking: You wish to see the Sea of Worms? Look upon it and despair! Just before Greenland would be eliminated, they ally with you so you can have their line of sight, and then resign. This is supposed to show you the Sea of Worms, but I guess the game bugged out, because I get nothing south of Greenland itself.  You also get Greenland's unmined resource piles, which are enough to last you the rest of the mission.  Viking: The New World! I claim it in the name of Erik the Red! (after a few seconds) To establish our settlement here, we will need to construct a town center, a market, and 12 houses. With Greenland defeated, you can just build a dock on the west side of the island and build a bunch of Transport Ships to take your army and a bunch of villagers to Vinland. The above dialogue only triggers once Erik the Red himself sets foot on Vinland.  Viking: Wild men live in these forests, calling themselves the Skraelings. They don't have steel like ours, but they're fierce and they have numbers. It will be a long and bloody winter. After this message pops up, you're on the clock.    The Skraelings will start to attack your settlement, at first in small numbers, but then in large raids until you win the scenario. In the original Age of Conquerors, they were literally just the Celts, but now they are a slightly modified version and instead of Woad Raiders have a uniquely skinned "Algonquian Warrior", although mechanically it's just a Woad Raider with worse attack. They will not replace their Algonquians, but they will replace their Militia. If your army was good enough to defeat Greenland, the Skraelings are no real threat.  Viking: The name of Erik the Red will never be forgotten as the first Viking in the New World! Completing the last set of buildings completes the colony and finishes the mission. Ending Text "Much of the Viking history is recorded in oral accounts called sagas passed down through generations. Two of the most famous sagas are reserved for the adventures of Erik the Red and his men who crossed the mighty sea in tiny ships to forge a new Viking sovereignty. Vinland, as the new world was called, was not kind to the Vikings. Although they lacked the iron weapons of the Norsemen, the native Skraelings were fierce warriors, and fought relentlessly to defend their homeland against the Norse invaders. The vastness of the North Atlantic cut off the Vikings in Newfoundland from their homeland, and they suffered many long years in trying to establish their new colony." From the map being a hybrid land/water map, to having a big focus on raiding with resource-efficient units, this is a scenario that really lets the Vikings shine. Combined with the mirror match against Greenland and the defense against the Skraeling rush near the end, this definitely comes across as one of AoEII's more iconic missions. I haven't even gotten to the easter eggs yet!  On this island to the south of the New World is a hero Algonquian Warrior named Bert. This was originally a Woad Raider called the Lonely Hermit, who was there as part easter egg, part encouragement to win the scenario the normal way rather than via eliminating the Skraelings. He's called Bert in the Definitive Edition after Bert Beeckman, one of the developers for the original Forgotten Empires mod. This shot of the map also lets you see the Sea of Worms in the minimap. itisawyrm.jpg  Hiding behind these rocks in Greenland is a recruitable Penguin unit. Acquiring it provides an achievement. Extra Slides Intro Slide 1 Intro Slide 2 Intro Slide 3 End Slide 1 End Slide 2 End Slide 3 Jossar fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Apr 30, 2023 |
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Apr 29, 2023 16:46
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Competitive Multiplayer Overview: The Vikings Unique Unit: Berserk - fast infantry that regenerates Unique Unit: Longboat - fast warship that fires multiple arrows Unique Techs: Chieftains: infantry +5 attack against cavalry and +4 attack against camels; infantry generate gold when killing villagers, trade units and monks Bogsveigar: archers and Longboats +1 Attack Civ Bonuses: Wheelbarrow, Hand Cart upgrades free. Warships cost -15%/-15%/-20% in the Feudal/Castle/Imperial Age. Infantry have +20% HP starting from the Feudal Age. Docks are 15% cheaper. Competitive Rating: Above Average The Vikings are a supremely flexible and well-rounded civilization that are a common sight in the high-end competitive circuit, even if they're not as reliable as some. Free wheelbarrow and hand cart are deceptively powerful upgrades, they make villages move faster and carry more resources. Vikings get these instantly and free, and also have available most of the game's economic upgrades. I've commented before that competitive AoE2 is all about gaining small advantages that snowball into big advantages as the game goes on, and the Vikings excel at this aspect of the game. Adding to this, the Vikings have access to the majority of the game's military upgrades, and solid access to most unit types across infantry, cavalry, archers, siege, and navy. Few civs can pull off tech switches as naturally as the Vikings, and good Viking play often incorporates more than one tech switch over the course of the game. The Vikings also, as you might expect, are well known as a naval civilization, and on water-heavy maps jump straight into the top tier of competitive prowess. Even in pure land maps, though, the Vikings' flexibility and economic advantages keep them in the conversation. The Vikings' drawback is that they tend to lack a decisive knockout weapon. They're flexible, but they do lack paladins, gunpowder units, hussars, and halberdiers. Berserks are not bad, but they're not the kind of competitive unit that typically decides games. If both the Vikings and their opponent make it into the late game and are still evenly matched, the Vikings will typically struggle. Given how close a lot of high-end competitive games are in terms of player skill, this does hurt the Vikings particularly badly despite all their advantages.
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Apr 29, 2023 17:21
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missing the intro text unless that's deliberate This mission was pretty weird as a kid. Not just the sea of worms but there was some bug in Conquerors where the trigger for the wolves would also affect a local deer, that would start lowering your buildings' HP despite ostensibly having no attack points. Pretty freaky.
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Apr 29, 2023 23:20
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Viking are also notable for being the civ involved in all fatslob matches, black forest, vikings only, set the next six hours aside.
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Apr 30, 2023 01:11
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Feels like the kind of mission that would be fun to remake in Age of Mythology.
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Apr 30, 2023 03:32
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Chronische posted:Feels like the kind of mission that would be fun to remake in Age of Mythology. There's actually a remake of this scenario by the guy who did a lot of the forgotten campaigns. It's really neat.
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Apr 30, 2023 05:14
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So let's talk about Vikings and the possibly unfixable water meta of competitive. In AoC, Vikings were the undisputed kings of any water map; they had even cheaper docks (-25%) and their discount on warships was a flat -20% instead of the scaling -10/15/20%, these bonuses were nerfed in the Forgotten, but this nerf is really secondary to why Vikings are today much less attractive on water maps, and to understand why we need to look at the water meta-game. The way naval combat is supposed to work (spoilers: it never worked out this way and probably never will) is a rock-paper-scissors system: galleys are countered by fire ships are countered by demolition ships are countered by galleys. BUT: in AoC, fire/demolition ships only become available in Castle Age, which completely fucks any potential balancing and makes the galley line the only potentially viable naval unit. This is because fire ships have very little range, while galleys have a lot of range. Once you have enough galleys, they can kite and focus down fire ships easily, thus beating their ostensible counter. Since you can build nothing but galleys in the Feudal Age, players will naturally spam the one warship they have to gain map control, and once fire ships arrive, they are already obsolete. The water-meta in AoC was stale and extremely boring; just Vikings endlessly spamming one type of ship at each other. Then the African Kingdoms DLC comes along and shakes this up completely, with a simple but genius change: you now have Feudal Age versions of the fire/demolition ship, which at least temporarily makes the counter system work, kind off. In low numbers, fire ships reliably beat galleys since can actually close the range without sinking. Demo ships are still rarely seen, as a unit that kills itself to do anything has some inherent problems, and you need to always hit multiple ships with the explosion, otherwise they're strictly inefficient. Anyway, the meta now revolves around early fire ships, transitioning to galleys later. This is a massive problem for the Vikings however, as they don't have fire ships at all, because their longboats are supposed to fill a similar role as the counter to galleys. Longboats only arrive in Castle Age, so Vikings are stuck with galleys, making their water game very inflexible; you have to spam galleys from the start and probably relegate yourself to defensive play for a good while, which can work but is entirely predictable. Coupled with nerfs to Viking dock/ship cost and the arrival of several new powerful naval civs with access to fire ships (Italians, Portugese, Malay), Vikings are now a second rate pick for water maps at best, outside of team games where their downsides are less pronounced or drafts where you eventually run out of better water civs. The core problem is of course that the rock-paper-scissors system of naval combat doesn't work, because sufficient amounts of rock start beating paper and turning the entire thing on its head. TL;DR: Water combat is broken. cncgnxcg fucked around with this message at 12:45 on Apr 30, 2023 |
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Apr 30, 2023 11:41
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Battles of the Conquerors: Hastings Intro Text "Mercenaries and Norman knights look dubiously at the ships that wobble in the black, fog-choked sea. What man is this Duke William to put so many horses on leaky transports? William ignores their questioning glances and stares across the channel in the direction of England. Edward the Confessor is dead, and now three men claim rulership of England. Harold the Saxon sits on the English throne and even now hastens to fortify his shores against two invasions. Harald Hardrada, King of Denmark and Norway, sends Vikings from the north as William invades from the south. The outcome of this three-way conflict is as murky as the fog that shrouds the English Channel. Harold the Saxon's huskarls are professional soldiers, not mercenaries. William's only chance is to use heavy cavalry. To do so, he must first get all of these horses onto these unreliable boats. The future of England is about to be decided..."  Norman Knight: The Saxons have the British Isles well fortified. We'll need to transport our knights across the channel and use them to defend our builders. Norman castles should hold back the Saxon tide both here and on Britain. (after a few seconds) Harold the Saxon has taken to the seas. We can't let his navy control the English Channel or we'll never succeed in our invasion. You start this mission with a moderately built up base, but apart from the Villagers, you only have William the Conqueror (Cavalry Hero unit), and a few knights to defend the place. The base looks fortified, but there's so many holes in the walls that it might as well not be.  Harald Hardrada: William of Normandy, you and I have no quarrel. It's Harold the Saxon who's the enemy of us both. If you declare me an ally, I'll likewise do with thee. After a few minutes in, Harald Hardrada invites you to ally with him. This is basically an excuse to watch an in-engine cutscene that happens shortly thereafter.  Harold the Saxon: You Viking scum forget how to fight this far inland! In what is an... interesting choice, the game decides to represent the Battle of Stamford Bridge with the Vikings attacking across the bridge, held off by a lone Saxon soldier for just long enough that Harold's huskarls can form up into an organized shieldwall and break the invasion. This is the opposite of what happened. Indeed, the intense bloodbath that occurred at Stamford Bridge as a result is often argued as why the Saxon army was unable to stand up to William of Normandy's army at the Battle of Hastings several weeks later.  Harald Hardrada: William! Old Harold the Saxon's smashed my forces at Stamford Bridge. My Vikings will keep fighting, but you'll have to come here and transport them across yourself. It's just as Harald says - you get a bunch of free Longboats, Berserks, and Harald himself (has the appearance of a Berserk, but is really more of a Throwing Axeman Hero unit), but there's no way to access them until you get a Dock up and send up a Transport Ship.  This is a bit of a problem because the only way to the shore is through a bunch of the Raiders' Towers and a couple of scattered enemy units. If you were really committed to getting Harald's forces as quickly as possible, you could use William to tank everything and rush some Villagers down to the sea, but I've got bigger problems.  So funny story, none of the Civilizations on this map are Britons. You're playing the Franks, Harald's playing Vikings, but all of the Anglo-Saxon forces are represented by Goths. While Harold's forces are only really relevant once you land on England and the Raiders are a fairly passive, if obstructive force, the biggest threat in the mission is the Saxon Navy constantly spamming Huskarls to raid your base. Because of their high armor and attack, even a moderate number of Huskarls can cause problems really quickly and I nearly lose my starting Town Center to this first raid. Getting a Castle up on the west side of your base is a high priority to ward off these raids, and I really should have done that immediately.   Eventually I'm able to tech up to Imperial and decide that it's time to start making progress on the Raiders. First is clearing out their Towers so I can have access to the sea. The Saxon Navy is also more than happy to have their War Galleys take a pot shot at your land units, so be prepared for that eventuality.   Then I move to destroy the Raiders' main base. This was also motivated by the fact that my starting gold pile was running out and I needed somewhere to expand. Fortunately, the Raiders have a gold pile in their territory that lasts me the rest of the scenario. You will notice that while I have a few Paladins floating around, the majority of my army is comprised of Throwing Axemen. This is because the Goths love to spam Pikemen, which even compared to other anti-Cavalry units like Camels will devour your Cavalry units. Therefore it's more efficient to use Throwing Axemen to take care of them and focus fire individual Huskarls when necessary. Yes, that means that this scenario is the reverse of Tours, but with the narrator overhyping Norman knights instead of Frankish infantry.  At this point, I start moving Harald Hardrada's forces down to join the rest of my army. You get a one time bonus of 500 food and gold from Harald when the Transport Ship reaches his troops,   Harold the Saxon: Come down off those horses and see how huskarls fight man to man! The invasion commences. Now the thing about the Saxon Navy is that it's turbocharged towards trying to knock you out of the game. But this means that 1) a lot of their ships have been destroyed trying to attack my coastal forces directly, 2) unless you directly sail into their base, the Saxon Navy doesn't care if you land anywhere else in England. So there isn't that much to fight through to get to the point where all I have left to worry about is Harold's direct forces.   Harold the Saxon: Go home, young William. This island will remain Saxon! Harold makes for a fun opponent, given that he's constantly taunting you, but he's ultimately not too threatening. His standing army isn't too large, and while he has a lot of facilities to produce troops from, fully upgraded Throwing Axemen can mow them down before they get to the fight.  Harold has some huskarls who have been kept in reserve for the final defense of the castle, and they make a respectable run for the Trebuchets, but really these guys should've gone out with the initial wave of troops.  Norman Knight: All hail William the Conqueror, King of England and Normandy! Ending Text "Harold the Saxon's huskarls looked certain to defend the crown for him as they fought the Vikings to a bloody stalemate at Stamford Bridge. Despite his losses, Harold marched his exhausted troops south to meet William the Conqueror near Hastings. William's archers and pikemen were no match for Harold the Saxon's veteran huskarls, Harold even broke the charge of William's Knights. William himself went down in the fray, and as rumors of his death spread, the Normans turned to flee. William was not dead, however, and he rallied his troops by throwing aside his helmet so they could see his clean-shaven face and know that he was alive. William and his armored knights rode down the huskarls, breaking the Saxon force, and continued their ride all the way to London. William was crowned king on Christmas Day. Because his reign eventually ushered England into a position of unprecedented world leadership, the year 1066 became established as the most famous date in English history." Look guys, I know you like playing Goths for maximum aggressiveness, but you're never gonna make it past 1200 ELO if you don't learn how to manage your economy properly and deal with counter-raids. Extra Slides Intro Slide 1 Intro Slide 2 Intro Slide 3 Intro Slide 4 End Slide 1 End Slide 2 End Slide 3 End Slide 4 Jossar fucked around with this message at 23:56 on May 1, 2023 |
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Apr 30, 2023 16:03
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Harald Hardrada here is more akin to a Throwing Axeman that uses the Beserk sprite, he attacks at range.
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Apr 30, 2023 16:46
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So even the game admits that Throwing Axemen are better! Went back and edited that in. Fun fact, before Age of Conquerors came out, there was a Harold Haardraade hero unit in the original Age of Kings Scenario Editor, which was just a better monk with the military unit voice set. The military hero entirely replaces the Monk unit in all games going forward. Jossar fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Apr 30, 2023 |
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Apr 30, 2023 16:50
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Man, I wish there was an opposite-view scenario where you could ruin William the conqueror's day. Hate that guy.
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Apr 30, 2023 19:45
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NewMars posted:Man, I wish there was an opposite-view scenario where you could ruin William the conqueror's day. Hate that guy. I was just thinking the same thing; need more a-historical scenarios where you get to beat the smug off of 'the Conquerer' types. In fact, it probably would have been more interesting, having to defend against two sizable standing armies with (presumably) very limited resources and time. Needing to micro your forces on one front so you had enough left to destroy William's own forces!
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May 1, 2023 01:29
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Battles of the Conquerors: Manzikert Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Turks Theme Intro Text "Minarets of dust twist upwards as horse hooves strike the fractured earth. Thousands of Seljuk Turks stream across the Anatolian Plateau to converge on the walled town of Manzikert, which was recently recaptured by the Byzantine army. The Byzantines are the heirs of Rome, and their armored cataphracts and legions of disciplined swordsmen can smash aside the light armored Turkish horse archers--provided they can catch them. However, an unlikely turn of events has greatly improved the Turks' chances for victory. The Byzantine army is wracked by treachery and deceit from within. One day, a band of mercenaries deserts the Byzantines. On another, the army's second in command leads a treacherous conspiracy against the commanding general. If the Turks can somehow turn the splintering factions against the Byzantine army, they may overcome a better-equipped and better-trained enemy."  Seljuk Rider: Below us lie the many Themes of the Byzantines. We should capture all we can before facing the brunt of the Byzantine army. For this scenario, we get to play the Turks. You have a moderate army, but no villagers, although you do have troop production facilities. The game starts you off in the Castle Age and without access to gunpowder units. But hey, we've managed without them before just fine, so that shouldn't be a problem, right?  Well, poo poo.  Seljuk Rider: These Cataphracts pack quite a punch. Better to fire and retreat than face them toe to toe. With half the Turks' civilization bonuses being useless, the game instead heavily encourages you to drown the map in Cavalry Archers, even providing you with this outpost of Cataphracts to practice kiting on. It's pretty good advice. It's also worthwhile to pump out a bunch of Light Cavalry if you have the population space, as you won't be doing anything else with that Food and the Turks get upgrades to the Light Cav line for free.   Cappadocia Villager: Turks! Pouring out of the Zagros Mountains! They'll spare no one!  Seljuk Rider: We have captured Cappadocia. As long as their villagers are safe, we should have all of the resources we need. (after receiving tribute) With this gold, we can train many more horse archers. The goal is to smash the defenses of each of the themes, then ride units up to the Town Center, which defeats the theme and allies it to you. Every so often, as long as a theme isn't defeated, it will tribute resources, which you can use to further grow your army. Cappadocia is pretty much all about getting through their static defenses before rushing the TC. They have an army, but it's not too significant.    Seljuk Rider: Pisidia is now ours. Pisidia is the opposite, they have a relatively large army of Cavalry Archers and Mangonels. I set a trap for Pisidia's army near Cappadocia by luring them in with my melee units and having the Cavalry Archers rain down arrows from the cliffs above. But once they're defeated, you can pretty much just walk into Pisidia with nothing to contest you at all. It is also at this point that the main Byzantine Army sends a couple of Rams and Cataphracts forward to probe, but they're shot down easily. This is the only time they'll take the offensive in the whole scenario.  Seljuk Rider: We can capture this mine by destroying the towers protecting it. Then the villagers will produce gold for the Turks!  Capturing Pisidia also triggers this side quest, where if you tear down the towers of this Saracen gold mining camp, Pisidia will send miners over to the area and give you more gold in their tributes.   The final theme, Galatia, has a well-rounded defensive set up - Walls, Castles, and an army. Their army even tries to use the same trick on me that I used against Pisidia, but unfortunately for Galatia, I have a much larger army and can focus fire their units down first.  Galatia Villager: We surrender! Just spare our families Seljuk Rider: The Theme of Galatia shall submit to Turkish rule! (after a few seconds) This town will produce gold coin for us now, as long as we can keep the Byzantines from taking it back. Capturing all three themes gives you an age up to Imperial, allowing you to upgrade your troops and prepare them as much as possible for the final assault on the Byzantine Army.  Seljuk Rider: The Byzantine army is fortified atop this plateau. We must be patient until we have the troops we need to conquer it.   Mopping up the Byzantine Army is kind of a formality at this point. Their static defenses are impressive, but otherwise they just have a disorganized mix of units comprised of a little bit of everything, and don't have a coherent answer to getting shot in the face by dozens of Cavalry Archers. Seljuk Rider: Manzikert has fallen! The Byzantines will be forced to withdraw to Constantinople, and all of Anatolia shall belong to the Turks. Ending Text "As long as the sun was in the sky, the Byzantines could fight the Turks back towards their camp. When dusk settled over Anatolia, however, the Turks could harass the ponderous Byzantine cavalry as it withdrew to Manzikert. When they could stand no more of this torment, the Byzantine flanks collapsed into a full rout and the Turkish horse archers pounced for a quick kill. The Battle of Manzikert was not lost due to the poor performance of soldiers or commanders, but through Byzantine treachery. Deceit from within the armies disrupted the chain of command, as factions feuding for control of the throne in Constantinople betrayed their armies at the front. A much-weakened Byzantium was then forced to call to the rest of the Christian West for help, leading to the Crusades. The Byzantine Empire lingered for another four centuries, but in only a shadow of its former glory." Non-standard scenarios are always fun, but there's not much to add here that the mission itself doesn't already cover. I wish that the developers had explicitly named us as the army of Alp Arslan rather than just a generic horde of Turks pouring out of the Zagros Mountains though. Extra Slides Intro Slide 1 Intro Slide 2 Intro Slide 3 Intro Slide 4 End Slide 1 End Slide 2 End Slide 3 End Slide 4
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May 2, 2023 00:08
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Competitive Multiplayer Overview: The Turks Unique Unit: Janissary - more powerful hand cannoneer Unique Techs: Sipahi: mounted archers +20 hit points Artillery: +2 range for bombard towers, bombard cannons, cannon galleons Civ Bonuses: Gunpowder units have +25% HP. Gunpowder technologies are 50% cheaper; Chemistry is free. Gold Miners work 20% faster. Light Cavalry and Hussar upgrades are free Scout Cavalry line gain +1 pierce armor Gunpowder units are created 25% faster Competitive Rating: Average The Turks have two big advantages married to one big drawback. Janissaries are an excellent unit, and Turks have among the best light cavalry and mounted archers in the game. Janissaries, hussars, elite cavalry archers, and bombard cannons are a game-winning composition, and a typical successful Turk game uses hussars to flood the map, cavalry archers to gain map control and raid the enemy, then janissaries and bombard cannons to break the enemy's teeth. Everything in the Turkish bonuses feeds into this strategy, but one should never forget that the Turks also get cavaliers, heavy camels, and siege rams with an expansive suite of research upgrades to support a game-winning tech switch. And yet, you often won't see a tech switch from the Turks because their drawback puts them on a ticking clock. Gold is, on almost every map ever seen in the competitive circuit, the most sharply limited resource in the game, and every power unit and advantage in the Turk lineup requires gold and lots of it. Their gold miners may work faster, but that merely means you'll exhaust the map's gold that much faster. Without gold, the Turks' only good trash unit is the hussar, and while the Turks have very good hussars, hussars alone won't win you the game. Unless your screen name in AoE2 is Hera. Turkish victories tend to be short games because Turkish power is based on their gold supply. If the enemy can deny the Turks access to gold, or if the game drags on long enough to exhaust the map's gold, the Turks will almost always lose. They have a powerful game plan with a major weakness, and so tend to be around the middle of the pack in terms of overall success in the competitive scene.
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May 2, 2023 00:50
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Turks are, notably, very good on Arena, a common multiplayer map mode, where contesting the relics is often a major part of the game (and the free light cav upgrade is extremely valuable in that fight), bombard cannons are a key unit, and a fast imperial janissary push can be game ending.
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May 2, 2023 03:10
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Noob question here: what makes gold that limited given trade carts and relics?
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May 2, 2023 07:05
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Relics are slow and trade carts both need an ally (which is pretty rare in competitive multiplayer) and are extremely vulnerable.
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 08:05 on May 2, 2023 |
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May 2, 2023 08:03
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YaketySass posted:Noob question here: what makes gold that limited given trade carts and relics? trade carts only work in team games, not 1v1s, and relics don't provide enough fast enough mathwise- a relic provides 30 gold a minute, or the equivalent of 1 fully upgraded villager. So even if you have all five relics, five villagers is simply not enough for lategame. Now I mean some is better than none, especially if your opponent has no relics, but yeah, it's kind of a drop in the bucket likewise tradecarts aren't as efficient at bringing in gold as villagers (depends somewhat on how long the trade route is, civ bonuses, etc). plus tradecarts cost gold. so again you absolutely want to get trade carts going in advance of when your mines run out, because some gold is better than none gold, but you are going to be getting less than what you did mining.
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May 2, 2023 08:12
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Chronische posted:I was just thinking the same thing; need more a-historical scenarios where you get to beat the smug off of 'the Conquerer' types. In fact, it probably would have been more interesting, having to defend against two sizable standing armies with (presumably) very limited resources and time. Needing to micro your forces on one front so you had enough left to destroy William's own forces! I just looked this up and apparently there was a britons campaign planned where you'd play as the saxons throughout. It had a battle of hastings scenario, but I don't know if that was different or retooled to the version in the conquerors.
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May 2, 2023 10:55
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Battles of the Conquerors: Agincourt Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Britons Theme Intro Text "The rains come again, until there is nothing left of road, wood, or field, nothing in the entire world but mud. The exhausted English soldiers hoist their longbows over their heads, trying to protect the precious yew wood from the water. The empty wagons can scarcely roll forward, even though all of the supplies have long been eaten. Terrifying hoof beats resound from the rear. The French knights have come. The English have been in a slow retreat ever since the debacle at Harfleur, where King Henry the Fifth's glorious siege dragged on and on, costing the lives of 3000 Englishmen. Now, Henry has all but abandoned his dream of establishing his hereditary claim to the French crown. Like his men, he only wants to reach Calais and the ships that will return them home to England. On the road back to Calais, the French army overtakes Henry. Knowing that the English are fatigued, starving, and outnumbered three to one, the French have no interest in negotiation. The English make their stand on a wooded hilltop. The archers plant stakes in the ground to offer some barrier against the deadly French cavalry. Henry's only hope is that his lightly-armored infantry prove more nimble than the impetuous French knights, and that the range of his archers can even the odds before the French horses are upon them."  English Soldier: My King, the siege of Harfleur is lost! We should withdraw before our casualties are too grave! And so, after hours and hours of cursing out the name of Perfidious Albion, we finally get to play the Britons. You start the scenario in a chaotic mess, with Harfleur sending a bunch of Knights after your army from the west while Crossbowmen come up from Amiens in the south. The first thing you should do is get away from the towns' static defenses before wheeling around to destroy both forces. Harfleur has no other purpose on the map other than this initial attack. Amiens itself can be attacked, and razing their Blacksmith grants you a number of Imperial Age Blacksmith techs, but it's heavily fortified. Like last mission, you do not have any villagers, but unlike last mission you have no way to build more units. You're stuck with what you start with and what your Monks can convert, so it's not worth engaging enemy forces if you don't have to.  English Soldier: The French will undoubtedly harry our retreat - we must make haste to a transport so that our King Henry will once again see beloved England! (after marching near Voyennes) We may just be able to slip between these cliffs and the walls of Voyennes. However, Voyennes is known for its learning - perhaps we can recover something from the university there. So there's your goal for the mission, get Henry V (represented by another one of those generic Cavalry hero units) back to England. The bridge is out on the direct route to the north, so you have to go through the vicinity of at least one of the French towns to get to the other side of the river and progress further. Frevent has basically nothing except a bunch of Spearmen to convert, but you can slip through the walls of Voyennes, and they have something interesting...  Destroying Voyennes' University researches Chemistry, which provides a bonus to one of the primary units of your army, the Longbowman (the Britons' Unique Unit Archer, a more powerful version of the Archer line with extremely long range).  From that point onwards it's a quick crossing over the bridge, as long as you make sure not to get within range of Voyennes' Castle.  English Soldier: The castle of Agincourt lies down this road. We will likely face many French knights. The fighting will be fierce. The game does a good job setting up Agincourt, the battle, here. First you get a scene near the muddy field.  King Henry V: Today is St. Crispian's day, and every year from now on you will be able to show your scars and say that you were here with me on St. Crispian's day. He today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother. Followed by Henry V performing the St. Crispian's Day speech from Shakespeare's Henry V. Sometimes I feel like there's a law that if you have Agincourt in your game, you have to use the St. Crispian's Day speech, but then again it always works.  English Soldier: We'll see how these French knights stand up to English longbows! French Knight: Come down here in the mud and you will see how the French knights fight! Most of the units that the game gives you by default are weak against the Cavalry line, so the play is to put your knights in front to absorb as much damage as you can, followed by the Infantry as a backup in case the line doesn't hold, and have the Longbowman sit at the top of the hill for the elevation bonus damage. Siege stays out of the way and Monks either try to convert enemy Knights or heal depending on which you think turns the tide better. The French have the speed advantage, so you pretty much have to just set things up as best you can and then have the Longbowmen focus fire until all of the French Knights are dead.  English Soldier: A trebuchet! If we could capture it, the castle of Agincourt will pose little danger! (after capturing the Trebuchet) Excellent! The French will regret allowing this to fall into our hands!  From here on out, the rest of the scenario practically runs itself. There's a Trebuchet hidden in this set of palisade walls that trivializes destroying the remaining French static defenses.  English Soldier: Quickly now, my King, board and set sail for beloved England. There are a bunch of Towers here and the Stables will continue to produce Knights, but they are easily smashed, and as long as Henry V makes it to the boat are irrelevant anyway.  English Soldier: England! A sweet sight! King Henry is almost home!  One uneventful ride across the Channel later, and with Henry V on English soil, the mission is won. Ending Text "The Battle of Agincourt is remembered not because it was an inevitable triumph, but because it was an upset. Outnumbered English longbows were victorious over French knights only because the knights had to charge up a muddy hill through a dense forest. The English wore little armor and were able to catch the encumbered French in the middle of their retreat. A charge by Henry and his surviving cavalry pushed aside the beaten French and opened the road to the coast. Despite his victory, Henry did not follow through on his attack, but withdrew to England. The true winner of the battle was Burgundy, which was able to come to power in a vacuum emptied by both the English and the French." This is a very short mission. Everything else is either a setup for or denouement to the battle at Agincourt, which is surprisingly small scale for Age of Empires II, even on higher difficulties. That makes it very tactical, which is an interesting change of pace compared to the usual flood of units. Extra Slides Intro Slide 1 Intro Slide 2 Intro Slide 3 Intro Slide 4 Intro Slide 5 Intro Slide 6 Intro Slide 7 End Slide 1 End Slide 2 End Slide 3 Jossar fucked around with this message at 01:46 on May 3, 2023 |
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May 3, 2023 01:38
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Ah, one of those missions in which we fight for ontological evil, there's a whole campaign, too. In real life, yeah, the French army's options were all bad and they proceeded with the least bad one and well, it was a dark day for humanity. I suppose they had a good reason for not backing off that day, I'm less familiar with the details than the commanders in charge at the time.
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May 3, 2023 02:02
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Competitive Multiplayer Overview: The Britons Unique Unit: Longbowman - archer with extended range Unique Techs: Yeomen: foot archers +1 range and towers +2 attack Warwolf: trebuchets deal blast damage and 100% accuracy against units Civ Bonuses: Town Centers cost -50% wood starting in the Castle Age. Foot archers (except skirmishers) have +1/+2 range in the Castle/Imperial Age. Shepherds work 25% faster Archery Ranges work 10% faster Competitive Rating: High I think this is the shortest list of bonuses we've seen yet, but it tells you very effectively what the Britons are about. Archers are a critical unit in the competitive multiplayer scene, and the Britons have few rivals for the strength of their archers. Adding to this, the Britons have powerful economic bonuses to help them develop and expand. Early economic advantages and powerful military advantages are a recipe for a high-tier civilization and the Britons don't disappoint. Warwolf also deserves special mention, trebuchets are the dominant siege weapon of the late game in AoE2, and Warwolf radically changes the calculus of how to use them because now they're snipers that deal area effect damage. The Britons also have a well-rounded tech tree that includes very good monks, an excellent navy, a full set of infantry upgrades, and cavaliers. Britons are at their best in closed maps like Arena, or mixed maps where they can bring their other advantages to bear, but they're also famous for their tech switches in high-end play. The Britons are so famously specialized as archers that you occasionally but regularly see Britons winning games by switching into cavalry. The Britons may lack hussars and paladins, but if your enemy is prepared for archers and trebuchets, they won't be prepared for knights and the Britons get a full suite of secondary research upgrades for their cavalry. What keeps the Britons from the highest tiers of competitive play is their lack of a power unit to drive pushes like hand cannons, siege rams, bombard cannons, or paladins. Britons are often described as 'hard to push and hard to push with.' They're a consummate defensive civilization, but Briton advances are typically slow, grindy affairs based on archers and trebuchets. Killing a proper Briton base is rarely an easy ask, but contrariwise the Britons will often struggle to contest map control against aggressive opponents. Britons are a perennial second-tier threat in the competitive scene, but lack that certain something to propel them to the 'what's the most powerful civ in the game' discussion.
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May 3, 2023 02:17
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This popped up on my YT recommendations and I think the thread might enjoy it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ4TMdIYadc
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May 3, 2023 16:36
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Cooked Auto posted:This popped up on my YT recommendations and I think the thread might enjoy it: Or think Noclip has chosen its subjects poorly, resulting in a video of two halves: blatant lies about AoE1DE's development process, and poor talking heads promotion for AoE2 on Xbox LOL. For what really happened on AoE1DE, read this post by Rich Geldreich (the programmer most famous for calling Valve a high school clique hell - he's a bit of a character himself that I don't want to derail this thread for). For most of the community who are laser-focused on the chosen game they play, what they got out of this documentary is this one concept presentation slide showing Forgotten Empires' suggestion for cultural Monk and Monastery models during AoE2DE's development. They'd actually attempted this in the AoE2HD period, and made a batch of cultural Monk models, including a Buddhist monk and "Imam". Both times they were ultimately turned down, and these models became used only by heroes, or never saw the light of the day. When something like that happens in revival-period AoE, it's usually because of either or both of two factors: 1) the developers are concerned about backlash from the competitive playerbase, who are naturally conservative when it comes to drastic changes; 2) Microsoft being cautious about offending real-life political parties. Meanwhile, while the Xbox ports are of no interest to many, I care about UX design and would love to see good quality propaganda from MS for them: show the research and testing facility where the AoE2 for Xbox UI was created, interview the key personnel, discuss the trials and errors they faced in the process. Instead, we got empty words papering over every actual detail. But alas, the reality of modern AoE is it combines the best of indie and 3A development: the money-pinching of indies and the red tape and secrecy of a bureaucracy. Making good propaganda is way beyond the department's PR budget.
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May 3, 2023 19:23
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cuc posted:For most of the community who are laser-focused on the chosen game they play, what they got out of this documentary is this one concept presentation slide showing Forgotten Empires' suggestion for cultural Monk and Monastery models during AoE2DE's development. They've added so much content over the years that the absence of new models for monks (outside of American civs) keeps surprising me. I guess it could get a bit culturally dicey though, or represent a lot of work if you get sufficiently granular like this concept page does.
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May 3, 2023 19:40
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I would kill for some pagan Lithuanians and shamanistic Mongols. And the Spanish Inquisition.
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May 3, 2023 20:23
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Battles of the Conquerors: Lepanto Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Spanish Theme Intro Text "The steady splashing of the oars of 200 ships striking the water drowns out all other sound. The most powerful fleet ever assembled by Don Juan of Austria and his allies in Venice sails under the burning light of dawn towards a final encounter with the Ottoman Turks. The Turkish army has greatly expanded its empire, adding North Africa and Mesopotamia to the Turkish holdings in Anatolia, but has finally been turned back by a staunch defense of Hungary. Undaunted, the Turks turn their attention to the Mediterranean, where they intend to break the Christian naval powers of Venice and Spain. Now, 200 rowed galleys and six heavy galleasses lumber into the Bay of Lepanto to meet the 270 galleys of the Turkish fleet. The ships draw up with scarcely five miles separating the distance between them. A storm of arrows darkens the sky, and the drone of splashing oars is finally drowned out by the thunder of cannon."   Spanish Navy: There's hundreds of Turkish ships out there. We don't have the numbers to go on the offensive, so we should just keep their galleons and transports at bay. (after a few seconds) Why did our brilliant leaders insist on building the wonder so close to the shoreline? I was tempted to steal Gargarensis' bit from Age of Mythology and do this entire update in quotes from G.K. Chesterton's Lepanto, but after having read the rest of it I think we're good not quoting more than the cyclops already did. The goal of this mission is simple - build a Wonder and defend it. The Turks will periodically attack by sea, but you're playing the Spanish, who if no longer one of the better naval civilizations in the game, still have a full Dock research tree for you to play with and faster and more accurate Cannon Galleons.  Spanish Navy: Our fire ships will sink the Turkish fleet to the bottom of the Ionian Sea! I avoid building the wonder for now, instead sending the villagers off to go gather resources and build up a larger navy. The Turks attack with a large force, but it's a little heavy on the Cannon Galleons as opposed to units that can fight back effectively against other water units.  Greek Villager: I do not think we would fare well under Turkish rule. If you tribute us 800 gold, we will ally with you instead. (after paying the tribute) Ah, it is prudent for us to join forces against the Turks. You may mine gold from our villages or islands and we will tribute you what we can spare. At 700 seconds in, the village to the southwest asks to ally with you. Hand them their gold and you get tributes over time for the rest of the mission. The gold and stone piles are nice, but this mission is already pretty generous with resources as is.  Spanish Navy: Turkish transports! Don't let them land! In addition to attacking you with warships, the Turks also send Transports full of land units to try and destroy the Wonder. There's an achievement for not letting any of them make it to shore.  At about this point, I decide that I'm as well built up as I'm going to be and send the villagers off to start constructing the Wonder.  Unfortunately, the Turks take this opportunity to slip a transport past my blockade. It's the only time that this happens all mission too, which is a darned shame. The navy does most of the work in mopping these Champions up.  With the Wonder built, that starts a 200 year countdown timer to victory.  Spanish Navy: It is dangerous to sail too far into the jaws of the Turkish fleet. We're better off patrolling our own shores. At this point I get a bit bored and start using Cannon Galleons to raze some of the Turkish buildings. They have a massive build up of fortifications on their side of the map, but contrary to what the game says it is possible to mount a counter-invasion. It's of limited use though: unless you destroy the Turks entirely, they will always spawn in at least some troops to continue the assault. But watching Spanish Cannon Galleons tear down buildings is a beautiful sight.     The Turkish fleet grows in intensity with its attacks, but never manages to hit the critical mass necessary to overpower my own fleet. When the timer hits zero, the mission ends without fanfare. Ending Text "The heavy Venetian galleasses broke through the Turkish lines and trampled over the smaller ships of the Turks, but there were too few of the galleasses to win the battle on their own. The Spanish and Venetians attempted to grapple and board the Turkish ships, where the superior experience and weapons of the Christian sailors could be brought to bear. As the day wore on, the Turkish juggernaut began to run out of strength. Scores of Turkish galleys were dashed on the rocks and others sank to the bottom of the bay. Less than fifty Turkish ships survived the battle. Lepanto was not the climax of the conflict between the Christians and the Turks on the Mediterranean, but it was a turning point. The Turks had difficulty rebuilding their fleet back to its former size, while the Christians continued to update their fleets with the latest technological advancements, ensuring a decisive military advantage for further encounters on the high seas." So many times in this game you see a scenario that allows for naval options, but really wants to be a land battle. Once in a while, it's nice to have a mission that sticks to its guns, and just stays a naval battle. Extra Slides Intro Slide 1 Intro Slide 2 Intro Slide 3 Intro Slide 4 End Slide 1 End Slide 2 End Slide 3
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May 4, 2023 03:42
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Obligatory image: Motifs of the battle would appear again when Ensemble made Age of Mythology's villain Gargarensis appear cool by reciting G.K. Chesterton's Lepanto, though stopping short of any anachronistic references. From the AoM LP: TheCog posted:https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/47917 ==== Meanwhile, if any German-speaking goon is entertained by my droning about behind the scenes stories, I may use some help translating a podcast interview with AoE2DE's Art Director. Contact me by DM if necessary.
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May 4, 2023 17:08
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