Game:

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings (1999)

Duration: 16:47

3,033 views

26

Good News first:

Keeping the carts safe is easy, just move them behind your army. As for the Scorpions, don’t allow them to be singled out by the enemy and keep them close to your army. In fact, they can contribute a lot to this mission.

Bad News second:

This mission has a rather awkward mechanism tied to it, interfering with the third bonus goal: Routing Saladin

As soon as you pass a certain unknown “damage dealt to enemy” threshold, the enemy army will flee. If Saladin is not routed at this point, the third bonus goal will obviously fail. So you obviously have to prioritize Saladin, but at the same time deal with the remaining troops, but not killing too many at the same time.

First move:

Dispose of the enemy Light Cavalry. Initiate first attack always with Knights Templar, Richard Lionheart or Longbowmen, to avoid HP damage to your own troops. Setup for a tactical defense geometry (camp). 6 out of your 7 ranged units can only move or shoot, so the only way for them to be able to fire is to move them in range and bind the enemy for 1 turn or let the enemy move in their range. The second method is preferred here, as there are some mountains and hills available close to your spawn point and lots of open terrain with no chokepoints to block enemy units. Make sure to move Crossbowmen onto the Mountains, as the Scorpions are not able to.

By doing so, you allow your “move or shoot” ranged units to contribute to the battle. Setup your melee units in the vicinity. On the right flank I deployed 4 Knights Templar, as they are best suited to withstand the rather weak attacks of the Horse Archers (Zeal significantly reduces the effective damage you take).

Second Move:

After the Horse Archers have moved into the range of your ranged units on the right flank, you can advance. However, stay in the center to avoid the troops on the flanks as much as possible and to locate and engage Saladin. This message is your last warning, before you reach the aforementioned threshold.

“My advantage is lost! The English King is a crafty devil. I must call for more forces!”

Rout Saladin, then (with the third bonus goal secured) engage as many troops as you can, delivering high damage strikes. It should be enough to make the enemy flee at the start of their next turn.

I have replayed this mission several times and had some trouble with getting consisten results with the third bonus goal at first, as I would regularly end up with causing too much damage before I was able to take the fight to Saladin. But after I changed my troops deployment to stay at the center of the map and especially delay engagements with enemy troops on the flanks, routing Saladin before causing too much damage elsewhere could be executed with surefire reliability.

Other than providing vision, Scout Cavalry don’t contribute much to the fight, due to their rather weak Attack Rating. So don’t hesitate to use them as Cannon fodder to avoid damage to your more valuable Knights Templar. Even with all the Desert terrain around, they are still extremely useful with their high mobility and their Zeal ability to regenerate 20 health each fight they survive. Occasionally you even have the opportunity to execute powerful Plains Charges (this is of course also true for your Knights and Richard Lionheart). Check the underlying terrain to see if you will receive the bonus.

Other Statistics