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A game by Ensemble Studios/Microsoft, 1997 A guide by Matthew Simon Douglass (AKA BigglesTh9) Biggles95@gmail.com ----------------------------------------|Table of Contents | | | | 1. Introduction | | 2. Version History | | 3. The Campaigns | | - Ascent of Egypt Learning Campaign| | - Hunting | | - Foraging | | - Discoveries | | - Dawn of a New Era | | - Skirmish | | - Farming | | - Trade | | - Crusade | | - River Outpost | | - Naval Battle | | - Wonder of the World | | - Siege in Canaan | | - Glory of Greece | | - Land Grab | | - Citadel | | - Ionian Expansion | | - The Trojan War | | - I'll Be Back | | - Siege of Athens | | - Xenophon's March | | - Wonder | | - Voices of Babylon | | - Holy Man | | - Tigris Valley | | - Lost | | - I Shall Return | | - The Great Hunt | | - The Caravan | | - Lord of the Euphrates | | - Nineveh | | - Yamato Empire of the Rising Sun | | - The Assassins | | - Island Hopping |

| - Capture | | - Mountain Temple | | - Canyon of Death | | - Oppression | | - Friend in Need | | - Kyushu Revolts | | 4. Legal Stuff | | 5. Acknowledgements | ----------------------------------------*************************************************************************** **** INTRODUCTION *************************************************************************** **** Hello all. Age of Empires is certainly a game that many remember fondly. It was probably one of the defining games of my childhood. As I was about eight or nine years old at the time, though, I really had no idea how to play it. I just enjoyed creating silly scenarios. I improved, though, and gave the game a good dust-off in recent times, leading to the creation of this guide. Campaign Mode serves as this game's backbone (but not the real meat-andpotatoes), with scenarios designed around a historical storyline. These will first introduce players to the basics of gameplay, before eventually throwing them some real strategic curveballs. This guide offers some (usually) succinct pointers on how to get through each one. This guide assumes a rudimentary knowledge of real-time strategy gameplay, but will offer advice starting from a fairly basic level. *************************************************************************** **** VERSION HISTORY *************************************************************************** **** When I posted the initial version of this guide, I had no updates in mind. Furthermore, I planned to have it posted under GameFAQs' In-Depth FAQs section (as simply a guide to Campaign Mode). However, it was posted as a general walkthrough, which it may evolve into. Stay tuned! My version history in full: Version 1.00 (July 1st, 2007) - Complete Campaign walkthrough

Version 1.01 (July 11th, 2007) - Proofread; quite a few spelling errors and such corrected Version 1.10 (January 23rd, 2008) - Pretty small update after this long, I guess. Second proofread, reader strategy added, difficulty ratings for campaign scenarios (standard arbitrary strategy guide stuff). *************************************************************************** **** THE CAMPAIGNS *************************************************************************** **** You can play through the game's four game choose. Note, though, that the game lists them in difficulty. Certainly, you're supposed to This guide assumes that they'll be played Babylon and Yamato. campaigns in any order you roughly ascending order of play the Egyptian campaign first. in this order: Egypt, Greece,

A brief summary of what to expect from each: Egypt - This campaign serves as the game's tutorial. The first several scenarios will simply be instructive of to play the game. The last couple will leave to your devices, though, and apply your learning practically. Greece - These scenarios will tend to be the most similar to standard (nonCampaign) gameplay. Mission objectives will tend to involve seizing land or retrieving artifacts (Artifact being the proper in-game term), with development of a strong army being necessary. Babylon - Most of the scenarios in this campaign will involve the total destruction (or assimilation) of enemy forces. This will have the most difficult second half of any of the game's campaigns. Yamato - You'll have a very rough start here, as the first two scenarios will give you a set number of military units and no way to acquire more. The scenarios in this campaign will tend to be the most linear. Without further ado, let's begin! =========================================================================== ==== ASCENT OF EGYPT LEARNING CAMPAIGN =========================================================================== ==== Egyptian Campaign, part 1: Hunting (8000 B.C.) Objectives: - Create seven Villagers Difficulty: 0/5 Strategy: This is the mission where you learn how to point and click. ;) Kill a gazelle and start gathering meat. Once your guy has brought back two loads, you'll have

enough meat to create another villager, who can join in the gathering. Repeat this process until you have seven of them and you win the game. Egyptian Campaign, part 2: Foraging (7000 B.C.) Objectives: - Create a Dock - Create a Granary - Create a Storage Pit Difficulty: 0/5 Strategy: Start by chopping down the three or four trees around your starting position. This will give you enough wood to build any one of these buildings. Cross the shallow water and you'll find a few more trees (and a whole lot of berry bushes - but pay them no mind). Build your Storage Pit here, and you'll be able to gather wood quickly. Once the few trees around your pit have been thoroughly chopped, you should have enough wood to create the other two buildings. Do so wherever you please. Egyptian Campaign, part 3: Discoveries (6500 B.C.) Objectives: - Find the 5 Discoveries Difficulty: 1/5 Strategy: This is the first time you have some competition from another civilisation. Your objective here is to seek out the five 'Discoveries' (large prints on the ground in the shape on a horned animal). Your first move should be to create another villager with the available meat. Then go about finding your Discoveries. 1st Discovery: West corner of the map (but be careful of the lion!) 2nd Discovery: North corner of the map (just a little bit of a hike). Return to your Town Center, go a bit to the East and start foraging for berries. Create another two villagers. 3rd Discovery: A bit further East from the starting point 4th Discovery: Go north from the third one, between the cliffs and the water. You'll be jumped by an enemy Scout (a cavalry unit), but your group should have no trouble dispatching him. Turn left into the little forest enclave (but again, look out for the lion). 5th Discovery: Head North through the cliff path and your final Discovery will be at the end. Egyptian Campaign, part 4: Dawn of a New Era (6000 B.C.) Objectives: - Advance to the Tool Age Difficulty: 0/5 Strategy: This mission takes a little more time than the previous three, but you'll have no competition here. Have your three guys chop wood until you have 150 pieces. Build a Dock and then a Fishing Boat. Send your boat over to the patches of fish once it's ready, and

have your villagers chop wood to build more (you'll also need to build houses along the way). There are two conditions for upgrading to the Tool Age: having 800 pieces of food and having two Stone Age buildings (not including your Town Center and houses). You can easily get 800 stocks of food by fishing, especially if you don't create any more villagers. If you're feeling lucky, you can send your team South and hunt elephants, but this mightn't end well for you. In any case, build a Storage Pit somewhere to satisfy the latter condition. Finally, go to your Town Center and click "Advance to Tool Age". From here's it's an automatic process that just takes a while. Egyptian Campaign, part 5: Skirmish (5500 B.C.) Objectives: - Destroy the enemy tribe Difficulty: 1/5 Strategy: This is probably your first taste of military combat. Don't worry - this is a lot less daunting than it sounds. Send your troops east and you'll soon come to a plateau, with enemy troops on the higher ground. You'll probably see their Bowmen first, so pick them off with yours. An Axeman will probably attack you from the side, so set a few of yours on him. After the initial confrontation, work your way around the cliff and up the plateau. Finish off the remaining enemy units. Egyptian Campaign, part 6: Farming (5000 B.C.) Objectives: - Control the ruins - Stockpile 800 food Difficulty: 2/5 Strategy: You begin this game in the Tool Age, with 100 stocks of food. Use this to upgrade your Clubmen to Axemen (select your Barracks for the upgrading menu). Have your villagers start foraging berries and create more Axemen until you have at least five (preferably six). Your first priority should be to take the Ruins. Send your Axemen to the West corner of the map (crossing over the shallows to the Southwest of your center). You'll face four enemy Axemen and a Clubman. Dispatch them and set up your remaining troops around the ruins. The supply of berries will soon run out, so you'll need to build Farms to increase your food supplies (and you'll first need to build a Market). Have your villagers starting chopping wood until you have enough to build a Market and four Farms, then have them all start farming to reach your food quota. Beware of attacks by enemy ships in the later stages of the game (though you're unlikely to see more than one). It would be wise to build your town inland. Egyptian Campaign, part 7: Trade (2000 B.C.) Objectives: - Stockpile 1000 stone - Stockpile 1000 gold Difficulty: 2/5

Strategy: This is probably the first mission where you'll need a solid plan of action to survive. The Minoans will hit you with a ferocious naval onslaught early on (they'll probably have five ships), so your first priority is to prepare for and repel this. Have all of your villagers cut wood. Use your food supply to create more villagers. Create Scout Ships with the wood harvested. You'll only be able to produce one Scout Ship at a time, so they're going to get shot down by the more numerous Minoan ships, but keep producing nonetheless. Your dock is bound to come under fire while you're producing ships to replace those sunken, but if all goes according to plan, it won't be destroyed. After this initial wave, the Minoans will retreat and you'll have a long period to recover. Now focus your efforts on gathering food. Build a Fishing Boat or two, as well as a Barracks and Archery Range, and upgrade to the Battle Axe immediately. Build an army of about a dozen troops. The other rival tribe, the Libyans, may launch an attack eventually, so you're advised to make a preemptive strike. Head down to the Southwest of your village and trash theirs. They don't have much of a military, but be warned that they do have a Ballista (a powerful projectile weapon). With both enemy forces repelled, you're free to start stockpiling. Stone can be gathered in two locations: to the East of your village, and on an island just off the coast of the Libyan village. Be wary if you choose the island, though, because it's home to the remainder of the Minoan forces, including two Stone Throwers. If you have a few Fishing Boats in action, start building Trade Boats and send them over to the Canaan (they being your only allies) Docks towards the South of the map to trade food for gold. Once this has all been set in motion, you can just relax until your stockpiles reach the required amounts. Egyptian Campaign, part 8: Crusade (1900 B.C.) Objectives: - Capture (convert) the enemy Ballista and bring it to your Town Center Difficulty: 2/5 Strategy: Of the four villagers you start with (you shouldn't need any more), have two pick berries, one chop wood and one mine gold. With the food and wood, build a force of about eight Bowmen. Using the gold, research Astrology at your Temple (this increases the converting power of any Priests you have) and produce

another Priest. When this is done, head across the river (it would be wise to make a save file before doing so). Upon arrival at the enemy village, you'll be greeted by about a half-dozen enemy Bowmen. Your team should win this confrontation effortlessly, though. The hard part is converting the enemy Ballista, which you'll see shortly. Have your remaining troops take fire for your Priests while the conversion takes place (the Priests will be the Ballista's default target). If this is successful, wheel the Ballista over to your side of the river and that's game! Egyptian Campaign, part 9: River Outpost (1700 B.C.) Objectives: - Find the Large Nile Island - Build a Town Center on the island - Build a two Guard Towers on the island Difficulty: 0/5 Strategy: This may prove to be the most time-consuming mission yet, but it's also extremely easy for one simple reason: the enemy has no mobile military force. Your first task will be to build a Dock, after which you can have all of your villagers start chopping wood. Upgrade your Scout Ships to War Galleys, and build about four or five of them (you could probably do it all with just one, but it would take a lot longer). The island in question is a little way to the West, and will be heavily fortified by Watch Towers. Luckily for you, your War Galleys have a longer range of attack than them, so you can shoot them down without taking any return fire. There's one a little way inland that can be hard to reach; move your ships to the West side of the island in order to get in range. While you're at it, shoot all lions and alligators on the island. Once the coast is clear, so to speak, build a Light Transport. Have your villagers build a Government Center (a requisite for building extra Town Centers) and chop another 200 pieces of wood, then send them over to the island. Build a Town Center there, and then start raiding the local stone mines for the necessary resources. Build two Watch Towers, mine another few hundred pieces of stone and head back to the mainland. The Guard Towers mentioned in the mission objectives are the last upgrade in the Watch Tower line. While the next upgrade, the Sentry Tower, can be accessed at your Granary immediately, Guard Towers require advancement to the Iron Age (note that these upgrades will also cost stone, which is why you were advised to gather some before leaving the island). This advancement takes 1,000 pieces of food and 800 of gold, so get to work! Build a few Fishing Boats (you may want to upgrade to Fishing Ships to make them faster) as your principle source of food. There are gold mines, conveniently enough, right next to your Storage Pit, which allows the gold quota to be reached very quickly. You're likely to get the gold you need before

the food, so have your villagers start hunting gazelle when you're done mining. Once you're in the Iron Age, select "Upgrade to Guard Tower". Once this is done, you win! Egyptian Campaign, part 10: Naval Battle (1650 B.C.) Objectives: - Capture the stolen Artifact and it bring it to the Town Center Difficulty: 1/5 Strategy: Upgrade to the War Galley immediately. Create an extra villager with what foods you have left, and have them all chop wood. This is pretty much all you need to do to secure victory. The enemy will be straight on the offensive, but their naval force is laughable: just a Scout Ship or two. Build a few War Galleys and you can easily repel any force of theirs and launch a devastating counterattack. Their Bowmen will appear to defend the shores, but your ships will make short work of them. Once you've made your attack on the enemy coast and effectively disabled them (ignore the Sentry Towers; they're simply too much effort to destroy), build a Light Transport and send a villager or two over. The Artifact is right at the back of the village, behind some walls. The enemy shouldn't have Bowmen left at this point, so you can bring it over to your Transport without impediment. Then it's just a short cruise back to your shores. Egyptian Campaign, part 11: Wonder of the World (1625 B.C.) Objectives: - Build a Wonder Difficulty: 3/5 Strategy: Hoo boy! This may be your first serious challenge. Building is a Wonder is obviously far too monumental (sorry) a task to go about while fending off attacks from enemy civilisations. Your enemy this time is the Canaanites (who you might remember were your allies not three centuries ago). The other two civilisations have no military to speak of and just trade with you and your enemy (though one of them might declare you an enemy, which means NO TRADE FOR YOU!). Have two of your four villagers chop wood, and the other two pick berries. You'll want to upgrade to War Galley ASAP, which requires you to gather a bit more food than you start off with. Once that's done, however, have everyone chop wood and start building your fleet. It won't be long until the enemies send a couple of ships over to attack your village, but they'll only be Scout Ships, so they'll be easy enough to defeat. Be on red alert if you see a Light Transport approaching your shores, though; it will carry some strong infantry units (mostly Short Swordsmen) and a Stone Thrower, and since you won't have time to build an army (this one's all about

your navy), this will probably be the end of you. Your central strategy is to keep chopping wood and building ships. When you've fended off the initial attack and your waters are safe, build a Fishing Boat or two to gather food. Once you have four or so Galleys, you should start launching a counterattack on the Canaanites, whose base is on the far-West of the map (but keep a couple of Galleys at home so you're not too exposed). The enemies will have Sentry Towers posted around their shoreline, but more importantly, they'll probably have a couple of Stone Throwers. These can tear through your ships with alarming efficiency, so make them your first targets. Next up are the enemy men, their Docks, and then anything else of interest - if you can level important buildings without getting in range of the Sentry Towers, all the better. Once you've cleared out Canaan's military force, it's time to start gathering the enormous quantities of resources you'll need for your Wonder (1,000 each of wood, stone and gold). The Southern shore of the Canaan land has bountiful supplies of gold. The island in the East corner of the map has all the wood and stone you could need. Once this is all said and done, though, keep in mind that building a Wonder takes a while; with 10 villagers on it, it can take upwards of 10 minutes! Assuming you are safe from further attacks by Canaan (though it wouldn't be a bad idea to save just before you start building), just go and fix yourself a good snack or something while your people are slogging away (but make sure you don't miss the crowning moment when your Wonder is completed!). Egyptian Campaign, part 12: Siege in Canaan (1450 B.C.) Objectives: - Destroy the Canaan Government Center Difficulty: 3/5 Strategy: After all the advancements you made over the course of the campaign, you're back to the Stone Age at the start of this one. How's that for a kick in the teeth? Mercifully, though, the enemy won't be the first to attack this time, and they aren't likely to expand as quickly as you. First up: no Docks. While the previous few missions had you reliant on a strong navy, ships will be all but completely useless here; the only bodies of water are narrow channels, enemy Sentry Towers will prevent you from fishing early on, and the enemy doesn't really have anything installed along the water's edge. Victory here is decided solely by your army. Your first priority is advancing to the Tool Age. As you have some resources at the beginning, create a few extra villagers. Divide them evenly between gathering food and wood. Build a Storage Pit next to some forest (this in itself will help satisfy requirements for advancement). By the time you've advanced to the Tool Age, the supply of berries near your

Town Center will probably be almost depleted. Build a Granary, a Market and some Farms (each being a requirement for the next), and start harvesting. Upgrade to the Battle Axe and build an Archery Range. You may want to do some researching to improve industry: Woodworking and Domestication (from the Market) are recommended. Once you've reached the Bronze Age, you'll probably be almost ready to make your raid on the enemy lands (across the shallows to the North of your village). They'll put up a mighty defence, though, so don't go unprepared. You may consider researching Short Swordsmen and Improved Bowmen. I didn't, but it is feasible; there's a generous supply of gold in the hills to the West of your village, although it's guarded by an enemy tower. In any case, build a Siege Workshop and a couple of Stone Throwers. The Canaanites may have been quiet while you were on your side of the river, but they'll really show their claws when you begin the invasion; remember that this is their last stand. Expect to be fighting a good half-dozen at a time. Make sure you protect your Stone Throwers, even at the cost of your troops' lives, because they're the only practical way of breaking through the enemy's line of Sentry Towers. If possible, continue producing troops back home, but don't let this distract you. One of the first enemy buildings you'll come across is their Barracks, whose destruction will remove a bit of the pressure on you. Work your way up the hill and you'll come across quite a few towers and an Archery Range. You'll be fighting an awful lot of enemies here, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to pull back a bit and bring in reinforcements before you take this final step. Just push on a bit further from there and you'll come to their Government Center, which is surrounded by walls. If your Stone Throwers are still in one piece, blast your way through the wall instead of trying to maneuver your army through the tiny gate on the right-hand side. That's one campaign down and three to go! =========================================================================== ==== GLORY OF GREECE =========================================================================== ==== Greek Campaign, part 1: Land Grab (2000 B.C.) Objectives: - Destroy all Dorian farms - Build five farms Difficulty: 2/5 Strategy: This is a mission that looks a lot harder than it actually is. Your principle enemy here is the Dorians, who start off with a reasonable military force and upgrade very quickly. While your intuition may tell you to

build a force of your own, you start with a formidable 10 units (six Clubmen and four villagers). As such, you're best off going straight into battle to prevent them from expanding. The Dorian town is to the northwest of your starting position. The first building of theirs that you're likely to come across is their Storage Pit, which you can ignore. About a screen north of that is their Barracks, which is your priority target. They will, of course, have some units protecting their military hub, but you'll outnumber and destroy them. Pick off the Clubmen, then the villagers, before destroying the building itself. Next up to the north are their Farms - one of your two mission objectives. There are four to destroy. Once you've conquered Doria, it will be time to set up your civilization. Head East from the destroyed farms and you'll come to a clearing encircled by trees, with several berry plants dotted around. You may meet some Tyranian resistance (probably four Clubmen), which you will need to quash. This will probably wear you down to your last few units (hopefully you'll have some villagers left - if not, you lose), but it will be the last battle you'll fight for a while. Set up a Town Center, Barracks and Granary (as close to resources as is practical), collecting more wood as necessary). You'll want at least five villagers and five Clubmen around, so produce more units as needed (the Ionians to the east may launch a small attack, but this will be of little concern if you're prepared). Once you've built all you need to (which is likely to include houses), have all of your villagers forage for berries until you have enough food to advance to the Tool Age. Gather resources (if you have more than 200 or so food left, just collect wood) during the upgrade. Upgrade your Clubmen to Axemen so you have a reasonable defence force. Then go about collecting wood, building a Market, and finally five Farms. Then victory is yours! Greek Campaign, part 2: Citadel (1500 B.C.) Objectives: - Control the Ruins - Build two Sentry Towers around the Ruins Difficulty: 3/5 Strategy: Unlike most other missions thus far, this is a battle that probably can't be won by army or navy alone. However, your army should be your first priority. Build a few extra villagers so you have six or seven; split them about evenly gathering wood and food. You start in the Tool Age, so upgrade to Battle Axe immediately. Build an Archery Range. There are easily enough berries near your

Granary to upgrade to the Bronze Age. Once in the Bronze Age, research Sword Swordsmen and create a few with your reserves of gold, as they'll bolster your army nicely. Research Toolworking and Leather Armor at your Storage Pit to strength your force further. Once you have a strong army of at least a dozen or so, build a Dock and a few Scout Ships. Upgrade to War Galleys if you can. Your first target is to the North of your village, on the other side of the river. You'll probably be met by at least a dozen enemy soldiers. Have your ships offer support fire and establish a blockade on the enemy's side of the land (it's connected to both the enemy's land and yours by shallows). Once you've cleared out enemy presence, bring some your villagers over. You might want to build some walls to halt further advances from the enemy base (but leave some ways in). Start mining gold, which will allow you build more Bronze Age units - most importantly Stone Throwers. When you think you're ready, make your march into enemy territory. It will be heavily fortified by Watch Towers, and contain the remnants of their army, so be ready. Once you've secured a path to the ruins, you'll need to bring some villagers over to build your Sentry Towers (which you'll also have to upgrade to). This will probably require more stone than you have; there's an ample supply on a small island on the West side of the map, between your mainland and the enemy's. Finish staking your claim. Greek Campaign, part 3: Ionian Expansion (1400 B.C.) Objectives: - Establish a Government Center on Ionia in the flagged area OR - Find 3 Ruins Difficulty: 2/5 Strategy: Personally, I'd go with the latter objective. This mission starts fairly relaxed. You'll be in the Tool Age at the beginning, so do the obligatory stuff: upgrade to the Battle Axe, build an Archery Range, and build Scout Ships and Fishing Boats. Divide your villagers evenly between chopping food and picking berries, but move more onto wood-chopping as soon as you've started fishing. Advance to the Bronze Age as soon as possible and upgrade your ships. While this isn't the fastest-paced of missions, the Ionians will send over ships eventually. It will take them a while to upgrade to the War Galley, though; you might even do so before them. Once you've quashed their initial efforts and are sure you have the upper hand, send your fleet over (their land is to the North). Move all activity in your town towards gathering wood and building more ships. As usual, destroying their Docks is likely to leave them unable to launch any further attacks. They'll probably start building Stone Throwers to defend against naval attacks, though, so be careful. When you feel you're safe from the Ionians, it's time to go about whichever

mission objective you choose. Assuming that you go for the Ruins, look at the following list to help you locate them: Ruin #1: On the West side of your continent, on a zigzagging peninsula. The point of this peninsula will form a canal of sorts with the opposite landmass. As the Ruins are very close to the shore, you can make contact with your ships. Ruin #2: On an island in the West corner of the map. There will be a few Lydian Watch Towers around (Lydians being the other enemy civilisation, who have no other units), so don't dawdle. Ruin #3: In Ionia, to the Northern end. It will be mostly surrounded by walls. Bring cavalry units so you can reach it quickly. If you'd prefer to go for the Government Center, the flagged area is along the cliff-face in Ionia's Northwest. Greek Campaign, part 4: The Trojan War (1250 B.C.) Objectives: - Kill Hector - Capture the Treasure of Priam Difficulty: 2/5 Strategy: This may be your first encounter with "Hero" units. These units are far more powerful than most others, and your target, Hector, just so happens to be one. Fortunately, though, you'll have one on your side: Alexander. You start in the Bronze Age with a full complement of Tool Age upgrades. Upgrade to the War Galley and start building, because the Trojans will begin invading pretty soon. Unlike most scenarios, though, Transports will pose little threat to you; you'll have a vastly superior ground force, lead by Alexander himself. Hector will keep to his side of the map, so don't worry about him charging in. Have your villagers focus on gathering food and wood. Troy will make a fairly meager effort to expand its navy, so you should be able to attack once you have a half-dozen or so ships. As always, destroy their Docks immediately. As they've built most of their city along this lengthy coastline, scour it thoroughly, destroying as many buildings and killing as many units as possible. Keep your ships here to discourage any effort to rebuild. As you're likely to be greeted by a large army once you land in Troy, lead by Hector, you'll want to spend some building up your force. There's an island on the South side of the map with plentiful amounts of gold. Use your Storage Pit to upgrade cavalry units (you'll want Alexander to be as strong as possible when he faces off with Hector). It would be an idea to include some Priests (converting stronger enemy units like Hoplites will help a lot) and Stone Throwers. Hector has 400 hit points and probably over 25 points of attack, which makes defeating him no mean feat. Alexander will have to take the lead, with ample support. Once this deed is done, though, the fight is more or less over. The

Treasure mentioned in the second objective is in the East corner of the map. Just approach it (you don't need to retrieve it) and the mission ends. Greek Campaign, part 5: I'll Be Back (1200 B.C.) Objectives: - Destroy the Temple - Capture the Artifact Difficulty: 4/5 Strategy: Whoa, this is not a fun start! You begin with just a small army in the midst of an enemy encampment, hopelessly outnumbered. Your only option is to escape via the Light Transport to the South. You'll probably make it out with just a few Cavalry units (your Bowmen will be too slow). You still won't be out of the woods just yet (in fact, you're about to head straight into them). You have a small navy, but it will be rapidly falling against the enemy's. This will at least provide a handy diversion for your transport boat to escape, though. Sail northeast along the opposite coastline and land as far in as possible. From there, your remaining troops will have to make a dash for another Light Transport on the opposite side of the island. Enemy Ballistae and Bowmen will offer resistance, but your Cavalry can easily outrun them. Once you arrive at the South side of the map, though, you'll get the reinforcements promised in the scenario briefing: probably about 30 or so assorted infantry, cavalry and siege units. This is an impressive army, to be sure. But with no villagers or resources, they're all you've got. Your ultimate objective is to take back your land from the Minoans, but you'll have to go through Ionian territory first (this stretch of land separates the North and South of the map). I recommend taking a couple of Priests and Ballistae, and then as many Cavalry as a Heavy Transport will carry. As taking on the Minoans will be a pretty significant task, you'll want to minimise casualties here (although you can probably afford to lose this one shipload). While clearing out Ionia, tread carefully. Cavalry are excellent for dealing with enemy Ballistae swiftly, and your Ballistae will allow you to destroy the Sentry Towers posted around the place. Heal your units between skirmishes. Finally, destroy the Ionian docks on to the West and you'll free some Heavy Transports on the North side. Defeating the Minoans is your final objective, so mobilise ALL of your remaining units (bring them over to the land you just conquered and load them on to the newly discovered Transports). Consider placing your various units on different boats. Make for the cliffy bit of shoreline where you initially departed. If you've followed my advice from the last paragraph, unload you siege weapons first (but not right where combat is about to take place) and have them start destroying

Towers. As you work your way up the cliffs, you'll inevitably come across enemy Priests ("the Seven Yellow Old Men" in the briefing). See that they receive your Bowmen's attention before they can start converting. Importantly, make sure your Catapults and Ballistae aren't destroyed. Reach the top of the cliff, destroy their Temple and break down the bit of wall protecting the Artifact it's over! Greek Campaign, part 6: Siege of Athens (463 B.C.) Objectives: - Capture the enemy Artifacts Difficulty: 2/5 Strategy: The outcome of this scenario will probably be decided in the first few minutes. If you're still standing by then, you've probably won. Expect to really pull out all the stops in these first few minutes, though; there's a massive Spartan army on its way to your doorstep! The Spartans (all Phalanxes - among the most powerful of infantry units) will advance from the South, destroying your Farms en route. There will be several of your villagers scattered around there, so rope them all in quickly. Have them start chopping wood immediately. As all the action's happening along the coastline, you're advised to build a few ships to give you the edge. Your Guard Towers will be crucial for defence, so preserve them well. Move your infantry out to receive the attack, but keep them within range of your towers. Halting the advance won't be a cakewalk, but once you have, the mission's effectively over. You'll need to build a small army to head into enemy territory and claim those Artifacts, though. While this isn't a difficult task, you'll want to do it in one fell swoop. Create a half-dozen or so Centurions, with a Priest or two to keep them healthy, and you'll be set. You'll need gold to do this, so trade with the yellow Spartans at the South end of the map. You'll find an island to your East with huge amounts of stone that's best used for trading. The Artifacts are on the Southwest side of your continent (where the Spartans emerged from). Simply discover all four of them and the game ends. Greek Campaign, part 7: Xenophon's March (401 B.C.) Objectives: - Capture the enemy Artifact - Bring the Artifact to your Government Center Difficulty: 1/5 Strategy: As you start in the Iron Age with a full set of upgrades, this is where gameplay just gets tedious, as there'll be no sense of advancement. You have a few villagers and some wood, so have them build a Storage Pit and start gathering - there's ample wood to be chopped. If you want food, build a Town Center and some Farms. As you can't build a Barracks, Archery Range or

Stable, though, you can do nothing to expand your army at the moment. But it's quite strong enough as it is. March to the West with just a little caution, as the red-clothed Persians lie in wait. Their forces mainly consist of Broad Swordsmen, which should pose no real threat, but beware of their War Elephants. As you have a Priest on hand, the Elephants are best converted. Lay waste to their town at your leisure. Your army won't be able to progress further immediately. You'll need to bring your villagers over and build a Dock. While you're at it, consider building a Town Center here. Construct a Heavy Transport and a few Triremes, and you're ready to make the next move. On the North side of the river, you'll be greeted first by the yellow Persians, who'll have fair numbers but pose no particular challenge, especially if you have cover fire on the water. When they're defeated, you'll have access to the only supply of gold on the map. Bring some villagers over and start mining. Build an Academy and Siege Workshop here, as well as a Storage Pit, because the gold will finance the creation of some Centurions (not that you're likely to need them) and, more importantly, Heavy Catapults. On the way north you'll come across some brown Persian defences. Smash their walls and just blitz - there's really no need for clever tactics here. To the west of this lies your final adversary - the oranges. They'll be a lot stronger than the last three lots, with an abundance of Guard Towers, so you'll need your siege weapons. One enclosure contains the Artifact, but also a few enemy fighters - among them Hero Xerxes. You can quite easily destroy them with Catapult fire, though. Once you've cleared out orange territory, bring your villagers over - north across the pond from here is your Government Center, and there are no Docks or Transports provided. A short sail later and you're the victor - it seemed almost too easy! Greek Campaign, part 8: Wonder (331 B.C) Objectives: - Destroy the enemies or their Wonders Difficulty: 5/5 Strategy: This is the last scenario of the campaign, and boy howdy does the game know it! This is a battle on three fronts. To the East, the Cambyses will have completed their Wonder, so the race is on as soon as the game begins (the "2000 years" on the game's timer is about 15 minutes real-time). Darius, to the West, will begin building theirs several minutes into the game. The Persians, to the North, will not build a Wonder, but they will attack you throughout proceedings.

You start off with reasonable resources. Create a few extra villagers to make for light work. You'll want to have most of them on woodcutting, but have at least one each on food and stone gathering. Almost immediately, you'll want to build a Siege Workshop and a Temple. You should also build three Ballista Towers along your Northern border, and Fortifications to fill in most of the gaps (but leave one for your mobility). In preparation for your invasion of the Cambyses, you'll want to create three or four Heavy Catapults and a Priest (you can't mine gold right now, and this is all your initial supplies allow for). You'll need to leave some of your troops at home to repel the inevitable Persian invasion (your Cavalry particularly, as they have Catapults), but at least bring your Bowmen along. The Cambyses city is fortified by walls and Guard Towers, which will be no problem with a few Catapults handy. The main hazard will be their Bowmen a few of them are bound to be killed incidentally by catapult fire, but you'll need some men handy to take care of the rest. Their Wonder will sustain a fair blasting, and within the walls there'll be the remnants of the Cambyses forces, so you'll have to work quickly. Make note that there is some gold around here, which would be a boon to access, but it might take too long to clear the place of enemy presence. Make sure that some of your Catapults survive. By the time you've destroyed the Cambyses Wonder, Darius will have undoubtedly begun work on theirs (and by the time you reach them, they'll have finished building and the countdown begins). Furthermore, their defences will be far more solid than those of the Cambyses, employing all forms of ground units and a naval force along the Southern river. If you managed to secure some gold to the East, create more Cavalry, Heavy Catapults and Priests. If not, just build whatever units you can. You'll have an epic siege ahead of you. There is one handy little trick that I discovered, which will allow you to avoid a full-scale siege: send whatever Catapults you have left (you'll want at least two) along the North walls of Darius' city, destroying their Ballista Towers as you go (your range will be just a bit further than theirs). Try get the hang of aiming at ground rather than proper targets, as this will allow you to destroy the Towers without destroying the walls before them (if the walls are destroyed, enemy troops will emerge and your plan will be shot). Once this is done, move right up to the wall and open fire on their Wonder. Their Bowmen will try to foil your plans, though, so you'll probably need some of your own to provide support fire.

Once the second Wonder falls, that's ultimate victory for the Greeks. Good work on another campaign completed! =========================================================================== ==== VOICES OF BABYLON =========================================================================== ==== Babylonian Campaign, part 1: Holy Man (1760 B.C.) Objectives: - Convert or destroy all enemy units Difficulty: 3/5 Strategy: In this rather brilliant mission, you start the game with just a lone Priest, and have to build an army by conversion. Head straight across the shallows to the Northeast, and you'll come to a village of the yellow-clothed Akkadians. Convert one, and have him get to work building a Town Center (you begin the game with enough Wood to do so), building a Barracks and gathering resources. Your Priest will need to take some time to 'recharge' his faith between conversions (watch the percentage in his display), but have him keep at it and you'll eventually have converted everyone in the village. This place is conveniently close to the water (without being close enough to come under fire from enemy ships), so it will make an ideal center of operations. Start developing your army, build some Docks so you can begin fishing and always be gathering resources. More likely than not, your main enemy here, the Elamites, will build a navy before you and start carrying out attacks with Scout Ships. A risky, but effective, strategy is bringing your Priest over to the coastline to convert the enemy ships (but make sure that he's adequately protected) while building some of your own. If you can assimilate the enemy's navy and destroy their docks, you can concentrate on building a powerful ground force. Upgrade to the Bronze Age, build a Siege Workshop and then some Stone Throwers. When you think you're ready, send your troops eastward and start wreaking havoc. Once the Elamites are defeated, destroy what's left of the Akkadians to claim victory. Babylonian Campaign, part 2: Tigris Valley (1755 B.C.) Objectives: - Capture 2 enemy treasures Difficulty: 4/5 Strategy: Like so many of this game's scenarios, this one is about a fast naval build conveniently, you start right by the coast. However, you'll be playing at a significant disadvantage here. Again, you'll be up against the Elamites (who have a small, irrelevant splinter group) and Akkadians. The Elamites will upgrade to the Bronze Age almost immediately and start building War Galleys. The Akkadians will be militarised

this time around, although they won't be on par with the Elamites. You'll inevitably be up against superior military technology here, so you'll have to compensate in numbers. To count your blessings, you start off with 500 in every resource. Build a Barracks and advance to the Tool Age immediately. While you're waiting, build at least three Fishing Boats to start gathering food and have your villagers chop wood. Once you're in the Tool Age, get to work immediately building Scout Ships. You should have enough wood for at least two right of the bat. Consider building a second Dock to speed up the process. Use ALL food that your Fishing Boats gather to create more villagers, and have them all chop wood. It won't be long until the two enemy civilisations begin their attack. They'll probably send only one ship at a time each, but the Elamites may already have upgraded to War Galley. This is where the enemy will bleed you white if you don't have a constant supply of wood. Just keep building ships and you should repel the attack. But look out for Transport Ships! If they land, you won't have an army to protect yourself (forgoing an army for now is the only way to build a navy that can compete with theirs). Once you've secured your shores, and you have a good 8-10 Scout Ships at the ready, it's time to launch a counterattack. The Elamite and Akkadian towns are both located to the Southeast of yours. The only apparent way of winning this battle is to strike hard and early and destroy their Docks. Expect resistance they'll be bound to keep a few of their ships at home, and they'll have archery units to make life more difficult for you. Make sure you keep producing ships, and men to gather resources for them. Once you've destroyed both of your enemies' Docks, you can bide your time before making the final push to reclaim your treasures. Let your stocks of food increase, and advance to the Bronze Age. Invest in powerful land units such as Short Swordsmen, Composite Bowmen and Stone Throwers. Build a few Transport Ships and fill them with these units (but leave a couple of spaces free). You can find your first treasure to the Southwest of your base, populated by red-clothed "Elamites". They'll attack in reasonable numbers, but they'll only have Clubmen, so victory for your side is pretty much a given. Have one of your ships take the treasure home. This island has quite a supply of gold, so bring some villagers over to start mining. The second treasure is in the main Elamite base. This will, of course, not be so easy. Optimally, you'll want 15-20 strong ground units to make your raid here and a few War Galleys to provide cover fire. Land on the West coast to avoid additional fire from Akkadian towers (the Akkadians can be ignored

entirely once their fleet and Docks have been destroyed). Keep in mind that the enemy's final resistance will include Iron Age units such as Hoplites and Catapults. Go inland as quickly as you can to find the treasure. Once you have it onboard one of your ships, hightail it back to your village and the battle is won. Babylonian Campaign, part 3: Lost (1595 A.D.) Objectives: - Destroy the Hittites Difficulty: 2/5 Strategy: Here's a fun one! At the beginning of the mission, you're stranded on an island: one Priest, six Composite Bowmen, with no ships, buildings or villagers. That's a doozy of a situation, hey? Make your way to the North shore. An enemy Priest (with three Bowmen to accompany him) will come into view. He'll start trying to convert your units, but you're not going to put up with that shit. Shoot him down quickly. Shortly thereafter, an enemy Heavy Transport will arrive to collect the survivors. It's your one ticket off the island, so have your Priest convert it immediately. With your team onboard, sail north until you reach Hittite territory; you'll know you're there when you come until fire from Sentry Towers. Unload your crew as far along the coastline from these as possible. When you've landed, you'll be attacked by a few Bowmen, followed by a whole lot of villagers. You're strong enough to handle them all, but make sure that your Priest converts a few of them. Once you've fended off the initial defence, have your Priest get to work converting enemy buildings - make special note of the Barracks, Archery Range and Storage Pits; Town Centers can't be converted, unfortunately. It would be nice to convert the Docks as well, but they're heavily guarded. Use your new military buildings to create a few units, and get to work on a good, oldfashioned massacre. Meanwhile, have the converted villagers gather resources to fund this (particularly gold). Initially, the enemy Sentry Towers will prove to be an obstacle. When you've cleared some space and don't think enemies will interfere with your building (which they will en masse if they can), build a Siege Workshop and a Heavy Catapult or two. I don't need to tell you what to do from here. Babylonian Campaign, part 4: I Shall Return (1125 B.C.) Objectives: - Destroy the Elamites Difficulty: 4/5 Strategy: Like the similarly-named Greek scenario, this will have you right in the fray

from the beginning. Right off the bat, your village is being ransacked by Hoplites, Cavalry and Catapults. There's nothing you can do to save it; you just have to get a few people on the Light Transport on your Southeast shore and flee. Obviously, you're going to have to do a lot of rebuilding before you can challenge the Elamites. Head East you'll find some rather fertile land to work with. Of course, you'll need to start by building a Storage Pit. From there, build the following buildings (recommended order): Docks, Town Center, Granary, Market, Barracks and Archery Range. Fishing is the best way to gather food early on, but make sure you stay near the coastline of your new settlement, or your boats are likely to get shot down by enemy Catapults. Build a few extra villagers to speed things along. Keep your supply of food up and advance to the Bronze Age as soon as possible. The Elamites will launch an attack on your new home eventually, and by then, they may well be in the Iron Age. If they have Triremes, you'll have to outnumber them significantly with your War Galleys. Upgrade and start building as soon as you're in the Bronze Age. To truly compete on equal terms, of course, you'll need to be in the Iron Age. There's a supply of gold on the North side of your new land. While gathering food, use your navy to protect your Fishing Boats (or, preferably, Fishing Ships). Be warned that the enemies may make landing (there's bound to be an exposed section of your coast), and they may have with them Hero Alexander. Nothing on your side will be able to defend against this - except a Priest. A Temple should be your first Bronze Age building. Once you're in the Iron Age, it really goes without saying that you'll want to upgrade to the Trireme as soon as possible. This is where you can finally make your counterattack! Perhaps the enemy's greatest strategic disadvantage is that they're on an island; this will allow you to circle and destroy anything built along the coast. Their Docks are first on the agenda, of course. They'll probably have Catapults and Ballistae at the ready, so destroy them on sight. When you've cleared their coasts and are ready to make your final sweep, amass a solid army, including Priests, Catapults and villagers (you'll see). If you've converted the enemy's Hero unit, things will be a lot easier. Land on the small island connected to the main one by shallows, and bring your Triremes around to provide support fire. You'll encounter significant resistance. If your villagers can build some Guard Towers a little way in from your landing zone after you've beaten the first wave, it will make it a lot easier to endure. This has been a particularly difficult battle, but it's finally winding down.

Babylon Campaign, part 5: The Great Hunt (1120 B.C.) Objectives: - Retrieve the Artifact Difficulty: 5/5 Strategy: You probably read the scenario title and thought that YOU would be the hunter. Well hey, guess what! This is basically a series of little obstacle courses. While your group will receive reinforcements along the way, they'll probably be just enough to replace what you lose. Here's the breakdown: Initially, you have eight Axemen. You'll be up against six Lion Kings and two Elephant Kings along the way. If that doesn't scare you, it will in time. Advance cautiously and try to fight one Lion King (and certainly no more than two) at a time. The Elephant Kings will hit you HARD, so make life easy for yourself by luring the last Lion King out from between them. Then just dash past the Elephants and you'll have your first reinforcements. Once you clear the first checkpoint, six Improved Bowmen will take your back. Finish off the approaching Elephant Kings and advance to the East. You'll come under fire from enemy (Improved) Bowmen. They'll outnumber yours, so send in your Axemen first of all, and have your Bowmen just provide cover fire. Continue to the North, and a couple of friendly Scouts will be waiting for you. Up ahead is a gauntlet of Sentry Towers and Bowmen. Don't stay and fight just leg it! You have speed on your side. Forget about any Axemen and Bowmen you have left, though, because they won't make it through. You'll be coming up to a relative lull in activity now. After you're sure that you're clear of the gauntlet, make a save file. In fact, you'll need to make several throughout the course of this mission. Next up, you'll get six Cavalry. Head West and you'll soon be ambushed by a couple of Ballistae. Strike swiftly and you needn't suffer more than one fatality (two at most). You'll then come across two (rather separate) pairs of Elephant Archers. Ignore them for now - killing them will destroy any chance of completing this mission. They're easy to outrun, anyway. Finally, there'll be a couple of Stone Throwers in your path, and two more on an island to your right. Destroy one of those in your way and run from the other. You'll soon come across a wall, which you need to move right up to - this will reveal two friendly Priests on the other side. Have them convert the approaching Stone Thrower. If everyone's alive and well (you should, ideally, have at least four Cavalry units left), save your game - you're advised to make it a separate file to the last. Your next destination is back to the East, around where the gauntlet of towers ended. On the way, you'll need to strengthen your army, and clear up this area.

Once you've freed the Priests, have them heal any wounded units. Your Stone Thrower can make short of the two nearby Sentry Towers. Make absolutely sure that you convert the two Stone Throwers on the small island; as their range is the same as your Priests', though, this will include a considerable amount of risk. Move your Priests' out of firing range as necessary. Have the two Priests follow the arrow on their side of the wall to reveal a Light Transport, which you can use to retrieve your two new Stone Throwers. On the way back East, make sure you convert all four Elephant Archers (have your Priests pair up to convert them one at a time, retreat, and then wait until your faith is regained to try the next one). On the East side of the map is a cluster of Sentry Towers that you can destroy with your new firepower. Once this done - assuming that you still have the three Stone Throwers, four Elephant Archers, four Cavalry and two Priests (all of these are entirely necessary) - create a new save. Here comes the really horrific part. Head up the foothill and you'll be greeted by about a half-dozen Ballistae and a Catapult. Use your forces as efficiently as possible to defeat them (while it's tempting to try to covert a Catapult, this is almost certain to result in your Priests being killed, and you need them here). Move just a little bit further forward and you'll encounter another five Catapults. Finally, a huge legion of Improved Bowmen and Priests emerges to finish you off. The outcome of this will be decided by a combination of quick reactions and sheer luck. As long as you manage your forces very well and heal between each wave, though, the odds won't be too badly against you. The last wave is particularly nasty, as you'll have very few units left by now and can't afford to have any of them converted by the enemy. As always, of course, Priests are the priority target. If you come out of all this with two or three Elephants standing, as well as at least one Priest, heal everyone and create a new save file. Your final objective is to reach the island in the North corner of the map. You'll have one Light Transport to get you through, and you'll be blasted by Ballistae and Catapults throughout, so you must move quickly and choose a good route. My winning course involved moving along the coast to the center of the map (aligned with the North and South points), moving North until seeing the outline of the island, and sweeping round to the landing point on the West side. This is where you're in the most danger of being shot down, so keep maneuvering evasively until you've landed. Once on dry land, move around and up the hill on the double (you're still being shot at). The Artifact is right at

the top. You've just finished the hardest scenario in Campaign Mode, so enjoy the sense of relief! Babylonian Campaign, part 6: The Caravan (1119 B.C.) Objectives: - Return the Artifact to your Temple Difficulty: 2/5 Strategy: Here you finally get a mercifully brief and easy scenario, but don't get too complacent! Your Artifact will be guarded by five Composite Bowmen. They're the only units you have for this mission, so exercise some caution. Head Northwest along the forest path and you'll be ambushed by some red Elamite Axemen. Since you have the considerable advantage of range, you should take no damage here (or at least very little). Further to the West, you'll come across the yellows, whose presence is made clear by their flag. Once it's in sight, turn to your left into the little alcove with the Ruins. Almost immediately, two Broad Swordsmen will come for you, but you should be able to shoot them down before they strike. On the cliffs before you stand two Priests. If you pick them off quickly enough, they mightn't be able to convert any of your units (fingers crossed). On the way out of yellow territory, you're likely to come across a Cavalry and a Phalanx. The Cavalry is fast and will probably get a few hits on you before you can kill him. The Phalanx really hits hard, so keep your distance. Heading northeast from here, you'll come to a dense area of forest with Guard Towers scattered around. Just move swiftly - if you lag around, some War Elephants from further up North will arrive. If you arrive first, though, you'll reach your Temple quite unabated. Babylonian Campaign, part 7: Lord of the Euphrates (648 B.C.) Objectives: - Destroy the Assyrians and Chaldeans Difficulty: 5/5 Strategy: You may have been hoping for more than one easy scenario in a row, but it isn't going to happen. Indeed, this is perhaps the most difficult of the conventional build-and-attack scenarios. You'll start in the Bronze Age, but only have Tool Age technology. The Chaldeans are settled on the North side of your land, and will send over their army frequently. The Assyrians, settled on the landmass in the East, will send over their navy. To complicate matters further, the Chaldeans will also send a navy to attack, and the Assyrians can send over troops via Transport. In a sense, you can be fighting as many as four battles at once. To have any hope of surviving this constant assault on all fronts, you'll have to begin production FAST, and luckily, you do have good resources.

Build a few extra villagers, and divide them between gathering wood (which you'll have to gather from the forest to the East of your starting point, because the forest to the North is a valuable natural barrier) and food, with maybe one each on stone and gold. But have at least one head up North and build a wall (near the shallows and alongside the forest) and a Watch Tower to stave off Chaldean attacks for a while. Yes, this will have your manpower spread pretty thin. Your first military objective will be to destroy Assyria's Docks, which will assuming they don't rebuild, which is unlikely to happen - effectively remove them from the game (though you'll have to return to finish them off eventually). While it would be tempting to upgrade to the War Galley first, time is of the essence in this initial stage, so I recommend mass-producing Scout Ships instead. Meanwhile, research the Short Sword and start producing troops, because your barrier to the North will fall eventually. Next on the itinerary, you'll have to eliminate the Chaldeans, who are rivals for your land and resources, as well as a constant military threat. It would be to your advantage, though, to take some time to advance to the Iron Age first. If you're fairly sure you have control of the sea, you can build Fishing Boats (and upgrade to Fishing Ships) to satisfy the food quota. If not, use the berry plants and gazelles inland, and build Farms when they're depleted. There's quite a lot of gold around, but you'll be competing with the Chaldeans for it. Once you have advanced, upgrade your Short Swordsmen to the Broad Sword, and then to the Long Sword. Build a Siege Workshop, upgrade to the Catapult and build a couple. You'll also need some Priests, so build a Temple, and at least research Astrology and Monotheism. You might also want an Archery Range and some Composite Bowmen, as well as a Stable and some Cavalry, but don't think of either as a requirement. Your strategy for invading Chaldean territory will have to be sound. Have your Catapults destroy their Guard Towers (they're likely to have made this upgrade by now), which will be posted around the entrance to their village. Your Priests will be needed to heal your other units, but if they have a spare moment, convert useful buildings such as the Market and Government Center rather than destroying them. Chaldea's Docks will be a priority target, in any case. Once their navy has been destroyed, yours can aid in the destruction. Invading Assyria is something that can be done at your own pace. Upgrade to the War Galley, if you haven't done so already, and research Artisanship and Craftsmanship (you'll want your ships to have as much range as possible). As you raid their shores, you're likely to be met by Chariot Archers, Catapults and Ballistae. Destroy as much as you can by the sea to make your invasion easier. As they'll have Guard Towers, you'll need at least one Catapult.

They're also likely to have a lot of their force inland, so you may have to retreat at various points to protect your Catapults. In the end, this comes down to a war of attrition; by the end of the game, your resources will likely be depleted. The key is to act quickly but not hastily, and not waste your resources. Babylonian Campaign, part 8: Nineveh (612 B.C.) Objectives: - Destroy the enemy's Wonder Difficulty: 4/5 Strategy: This is quite the suitably epic final scenario. Nineveh, settled to the Northeast, will begin constructing their Wonder at the game's onset however, they'll only have one man on construction, so you'll have an awful lot of time to stop them. An awful lot of time, that is, until you consider that this is a rather great task. As the Wonder will be revealed on the map, check its progress frequently. Two things of note: firstly, you'll have huge amounts of resources at the beginning, but no Town Center or villagers. Secondly, you'll actually be playing Egyptians here, which will have an effect on available technology (but almost certainly for the better). You start off with six Scout Ships at your disposal, so it goes without saying that you'll want to upgrade to the War Galley immediately (at the same time, create a Priest as well - we'll get to that in a moment). No sooner will you have upgraded, though, than the enemy begins a vicious naval assault, with War Galleys, Triremes and Catapult Triremes. You'll be outclassed in both numbers and technology, so you'll just have to maneuver well. There is a way of circumventing the initial lack of villagers, which will probably be necessary to achieve victory: along the strip of coastline on the land opposite yours (the yellow "Enemy" settlement) between the forest and the water, there may be a villager out to chop wood, who your Priest can convert. This will probably have to be done VERY early on, though (preferably, immediately after the first wave of Nineveh ships). If you're successful in conversion, bring your new villager over and build a Town Center, then advance to the Iron Age (you already have the necessary resources and buildings). Upgrade your War Galleys to Triremes. The yellow "Enemies" to your West will be a constant thorn in your side. While destroying Nineveh's navy as quickly as possible is essential, you may want to destroy the yellow Docks before going for Nineveh's, or you'll be facing shipments of yellow troops throughout the game. Nineveh is likely to have a few Docks, with a fair supply of Triremes to defend them. Build a few of your own, along with a Catapult Trireme or two (though you'll have to research for these), and begin your raid. They'll have an assortment of Sentry Towers and Ballista Towers around; the latter will

probably be too hard to destroy, but the former should go now (this way, you can clear a path along the far north of Nineveh's territory). If your naval attack has succeeded, it's time to prepare for invasion. You'll want an assortment of Hoplites, Catapults, Priests, Composite Bowmen and maybe a couple of elephant units. Land at the clearest spot possible, have your ships clear away whatever enemies come to meet you at the shore, and move inland cautiously, destroying whatever towers stand in your way, before finally giving their Wonder everything in your arsenal - you know the drill. Chalk up an overall victory for the Babylonians! =========================================================================== ==== YAMATO EMPIRE OF THE RISING SUN =========================================================================== ==== Yamato Campaign, part 1: The Assassins (365 A.D.) Objectives: - Kill the Izumo leader Difficulty: 5/5 Strategy: I'll say it straight off: this mission is just plain frustrating, and the outcome will largely be dependent on luck. You have five units (three infantry, one cavalry and a "Hero" bowman), and no way to create more. Your first destination is the East corner of the map. You'll have to fight several lions on the way. Avoid them where you think you can, make sure you don't fight more than one at a time, and move wounded units to the back of your ranks. Make ABSOLUTELY SURE that none of your units die. Upon arrival, you'll meet a Priest who will handily heal your units (but you'll have to move them right up close to him - to the point where you're more or less touching). Assuming that everyone is still alive, save here. Head Southwest towards the enemy village. You'll fight a few more lions on the way. Cross the shallows, and you'll be in enemy territory. If you've taken any damage AT ALL fighting the lions, you're advised to go back to the Priest and heal now. Once you're on the other side of the shallows, head northwest and you'll arrive in the enemy village. Progress a bit further and you'll come to some stone walls (on the far left-hand side, there's another Priest) with a clearly flagged entrance between them. This is the part you'll really hate. Go straight through the gates and IT'S ON! Enemy Hoplites, Sentry Towers and Stone Throwers will make short work of you if you don't think fast. Make a mad dash to the northwest, and then northeast (using the walls as your guide). You'll see some more flags, indicating that the enemy leader is nearby. He just so happens to be a Hero Xerxes - perhaps the ultimate infantry unit. You'll

need your whole team at just about full health to bring him down. Good luck! Alternate strategy, submitted by Seah Lay Kian [ah_gong84@hotmail.com]: "Firstly, thanks for your guide which helped me quite a bit when I got stuck in the game, especially Canyons of Death in the Yamato campaign. I have some contributions which I would like to share for the Assassins game of the Yamato campaign. I realise that Xerxes is located near the port towards the northern end of their peninsula, so I got all my units to stick as close to the coast as possible and make my way to the priest hiding there. The trouble along the way is the guard tower, but there is a nice patch of land where the priest is, with the tress acting as barrier between where Xerxes stood and my units. So I use my knight and swordmen to go out and lure Xerxes so that he comes into range of my hero bowman. Hero bowman can be hidden safely behind the trees near the priest, and once he is in sight, everyone can kill off Xerxes. It should be easy because the bowman has the advantage of range." Yamato Campaign, part 2: Island Hopping (370 A.D.) Objectives: - Recapture the six stolen treasures Difficulty: 4/5 Strategy: Again, you'll be given a few units at the start and will have to make do with them alone. The Izumo have a small village to the Southwest of the map. This includes a Dock that will be producing War Galleys continuously. Obviously, you won't be able to defend against a growing enemy force for long, so your first task is to put an end to this. You'll have to confront two of their ships almost immediately. Don't load your Transports yet, because you'll need your Catapult to destroy the enemy Galleys without yours taking too much damage. After this initial effort has been quashed, it's time to weigh anchor. Sail through the narrow path between islands until you reach the aforementioned point on the map. Upon arrival, land on the small island next to the enemy village. They may still have a War Galley or two around, so sink them before trashing their Dock. At this point, none of your ships and neither of your siege weapons should be destroyed, and casualties otherwise should be minimal. Once this is done, there will be a lot less to threaten you. Sail around to the other islands and begin reclaiming your treasures in any order you please (though I've numbered them in roughly clockwise order, which worked for me). Load them onto your Light Transport so they don't get mixed up with your troops. Treasure #1: On the island where you should be right now.

Treasure #2: Somewhere on a little archipelago (mass of small islands) in the East corner of the map. There will be several enemy Bowmen, but your War Galleys will make short work of them. Treasure #3: On a larger island just north of the archipelago. There will be a formidable enemy force here, but the treasure is very close to the shore, so you can wheel it away without having to engage them. Treasure #4: On an island in the North corner of the map. It will be protected by three Composite Bowmen, so unload as soon as you arrive. Treasure #5: On an island a bit South of the center of the map. There will be dangerous animals (lions and elephants) around. The Artifact will come into view as soon as you land, so you can move it to your landing point without having to approach it. Treasure #6: On a cliffy island immediately West of the last one. Two Composite Bowmen will be all that keep you from your quarry. Yamato Campaign, part 3: Capture (375 A.D.) Objectives: - Capture the Artifact Difficulty: 3/5 Strategy: This map is basically an enormous lake with an encirclement of land, and a small island in the middle. This means, of course, that naval control is the key. Begin the game by building walls to the North and South of your village this will buy you a fair bit of time as the enemy sends small groups of Axemen from both sides. It would also be worth building a Watch Tower to the South, where the bulk of attacks come from. After that, focus your effort on developing a navy. Create a couple of extra villagers to accelerate the process. Upgrade to War Galley and start building. The brown Izumo to the Northeast will soon begin building a formidable navy of their own, so beat them to the punch. After you've destroyed their Docks, head south and do the same to the yellows. Once this is said and done, you'll have to put together a ground force to assault the island at the center of the map. There will be Fortifications and Ballista Towers, so you'll need a Siege Workshop and some Stone Throwers. Destroy your walls to the North of the village and head that way along the river bank, and you'll eventually find some much-needed gold mines, with a sole enemy Sentry Tower to protect them. This gold can be used to create any Priests, Cavalry and Hoplites you feel you need. Begin your assault on the island by circling with your ships. There are a few enemy Ballistae and Catapults that you'll want to destroy before you send your ground force in. Make your landing on the shallows just to the East of the island (NOT on the island's shoreline, as this will place you straight in the line-of-fire of their Ballista Towers) and begin a standard siege operation.

Two rows of Fortification are all that protect the Artifact. Yamato Campaign, part 4: Mountain Temple (376 A.D.) Objectives: - Destroy the Izumo Temple - Build a Temple where the Izumo Temple once stood Difficulty: 3/5 Strategy: You'll begin this one in the Stone Age, so you'll have to do a bit of work to get your army started, and you have very little space to do so initially. Create two or three extra villagers, and divide them between wood chopping and berry picking as seems appropriate. Build a Barracks and either a Storage Pit or Granary (not hugely important which, though I'd go with the Storage Pit). And upgrade to the Tool Age as soon as you have the necessary food supplies. The yellow Kibi faction on the East side of your island will soon send over Clubmen (followed by Axemen) to attack. You begin the game with two Watch Towers, which should stem the first few waves. Once you're in the Tool Age, though, you'll want to build an Archery Range and start producing Bowmen to form a more mobile defence, and begin your counter-attack when you have a halfdozen or so. Shoot down any Axemen in sight, lay waste to their Barracks and work your way up the hill to their village. Once they've been defeated, this would be an ideal place to expand your settlement, with rich resources and a lot of space. Your next target is the brown Kibi, who will probably be developing a navy. Build a Dock and get to work on one of your own. Take this land and you'll have access to gold and stone. Advance at least to the Bronze Age, construct the requisite buildings and create some Stone Throwers (Composite Bowmen, Cavalry and Hoplites couldn't hurt either). Your ultimate target, of course, is the Izumo. While they make no effort to expand their force, their island will be exceptionally well-fortified to begin with. It will be a fair slog to the top of the Izumo's mountain, so don't come without a strong force (by now, you should have a fair idea what this means). They have Guard Towers posted on their beach, so you'll inevitably take a bit of damage before destroying them. Their Bowmen and Catapults will rain down on you on the way up, so you'll need to be able to return fire. It's easy for waves of weak forces on your side to be dispensed with, so come out swinging! Yamato Campaign, part 5: Canyon of Death (380 A.D.) Objectives: - Retrieve the Artifact and bring it to the flagged area Difficulty: 4/5 Strategy: You're given a seemingly infallible force at the onset, but as with the first two scenarios in this campaign, what you see is what you get - apart from some

reinforcements towards the end, there's no way of replacing fallen units. As you'd imagine, this makes things pretty challenging. Consider dividing your four types of units (Cavalry, Horse Archer, Composite Bowman and Broad Swordsman) into separate groups for the sake of mobility. Your first opposition will come from a large group of Axemen and Bowmen. They should pose no real threat, but try to take out the Bowmen immediately, and make sure you protect your Horse Archers. The next wave of enemies will be handily taken care of by some roaming Lion Kings. The lions are no friends of yours, though, so pick them off before they get close to you. Head right from here and you'll come to path leading up a cliff face. Sentry Towers will serve as a minor obstacle, but you can use your Horse Archers and their superior range to your considerable advantage. As you work your way up, though, enemy Catapults and Composite Bowmen will try to halt your advance. Your Horse Archers are likely to be occupied with the towers, so have the rest of your force protect them. At the summit, there will be a huge force of Composite Bowmen and Short Swordsmen waiting for you. You're bound to lose a lot of units, but at least make sure that your Horse Archers live. From here, you'll have to begin a fairly arduous trek south. Of course, there will be plenty more Sentry Towers to make your life hard. There will also be several more Composite Bowmen to wear down what remains of your troop. Again, you'll need your Horse Archers to destroy the Towers while the rest of your team provides support. You'll eventually come to a wall with a final Sentry Tower within its range. The tower will need to be destroyed before you can start on the walls. Be wary also of the enemy Catapult. Once the wall has been broken, though, things begin to turn around. Head to the beach and load your remaining soldiers onto the provided Heavy Transports. Sail a bit to the West, and you'll find your reinforcements (which, thankfully, include Catapults and Priests). Finishing this mission is now a matter of raiding the enemy island and retrieving the Artifact, which is no mean feat. Have your Priests heal the wounded, because you'll need to be in top shape. Your island is, of course, an ideal save point. The enemy still has no shortage of manpower - you'll probably see no less than dozen Phalanxes (!), supported by Composite Bowmen and Catapults, rise to the occasion here. Hopefully, though, your concentrated firepower will bring them down before they can land many hits. Your Catapults will certainly help in breaking through the hordes here. Clear the island and out and retrieve your Artifact. Yamato Campaign, part 6: Oppression (385 A.D.) Objectives: - Destroy the Kyushu Government Center Difficulty: 4/5 Strategy:

As you'll have enemy Phalanxes rudely patrolling your village from the start, you'll need to act fast to survive. The Kyushu (or rather, the Tang) will demand payments of 200 gold every few minutes to keep the peace. As "tributes" involve an extra 25% fee on top the nominal amount, it'll cost you 250 each time. You'll have 400 to begin with do the math! Get your bearings immediately. Just up from your Market, there'll be a gold mine that you can use to satisfy the demands - but not for long, as it'll only provide an additional 400 pieces. You'll need to escape before the well runs dry, so to speak, and the Tangs get aggressive. Start producing villagers until you have 10 or so (or as many as your initial supplies of food will allow). Have a couple of them head a bit north and start mining gold and rest move over to the coastline. Build a Storage Pit (there'll be plenty of wood to chop right by the coast) and then a Dock. Next, create a couple of Light Transports, followed by as many Scout Ships as you can afford (but keep at least 120 pieces of wood in reserve). So long as you have a guy or two mining, you'll be able to meet the first two demands. You won't be able to sustain this for long, though. After the second payment, move everyone over to your Dock, and be ready to load everyone onto your transports and flee once the third ultimatum comes. Your new home will be an island on the West side of the map. While your transports make their way over there, have your Scout Ships sweep around the Tang's Southern coast and raid their Docks (you don't want to compete with them later for control of the waters while you're struggling to rebuild). You'll have to make your landing along a small peninsula in the West corner of the map. Build first a Storage Pit to start gathering wood, followed by a Town Center, Market, Granary and Docks (you'll free up a bit of coastline on the East side of the island as you chop wood). All the food, wood and stone you're likely to need will be on this island and gold can be mined on the island just north. Once you have the aforementioned buildings, have most of your guys pick berries. Build next a Barracks and either an Archery Range or Stable (this choice is pretty much irrelevant, but you'll need one), and advance to the Bronze Age when you have the necessary food. When you're in the Bronze Age, you can begin striking back. Upgrade to the War Galley and sweep the enemy's coasts. You'll at least destroy most of their Catapults this way. Your key target, the Government Center, is built quite close to the coast. With the range upgrades, your ships should be able to attack it, but there will probably be villagers just out of range repairing it.

Back at your island, build an Academy and train five Hoplites. Ship them over and they'll aid considerably in the assault. Just finish things quickly, before enemy reinforcements arrive from further inland. Yamato Campaign, part 7: Friend in Need (400 A.D.) Objectives: - Protect the Hyuga town - Destroy Kyushu town Difficulty: 2/5 Strategy: This one will open with a pretty full-on battle between the Hyuga and Kyushu, with a few of your troops mixed in. There's very little you can do to affect the outcome of this, but the Hyuga are likely to come out on top. While there are many units at your base, this is on the other side of the map, so the battle will be over by the time you can send them over. Have them sit this one out. Once the Hyuga town (and particularly, their Government Center) has been protected, you'll have to strike back at the Kyushu. Make your way North towards their town, and you'll first come across some gold mines. Bring some villagers over and assume control of these immediately to gain the upper hand. You might want to build an Academy, Siege Workshop and Temple here so you can produce units without them having to make the long trek over from your neck of the woods. From here, it's a pretty standard siege. The Kyushu's towers will certainly have above-average range, but if you research Engineering at your Government Center, your Stone Throwers can top this. The game's penultimate scenario will be over before you know it! Yamato Campaign, part 8: Kyushu Revolts (405 A.D.) Objectives: - Destroy the Kyushu city Difficulty: 4/5 Strategy: This is it - the grand finale of Campaign Mode. You weren't expecting the game to go easy on you, were you? The land will be divided into three stretches by narrow rivers. The Kyushu will occupy the North stretch, you the South, and the one between would be a noman's-land, except the Kyushu will have Sentry Towers posted. As this middle stretch contains bountiful natural resources, victory will be dependent on seizing it. You'll need to use the resources on your side of the divide very effectively. Just to the South of your Storage Pit, there'll be some gold mines that will be essential for building your army; they won't last you the rest of the game, though. There's plenty of wood to be chopped, and you'll have berry plants and

Farms provided for food. You have a Scout at the beginning, so you him to map out your surroundings. The Yamato's trademark in land combat is the cavalry charge, as illustrated by their reduced production cost. Amass a strong army of Cavalry, and support them with Metalworking and Scale Armor. You also want some Priests; as the enemy will have a vastly superior army in size, you'll have to wear them down a few at a time with hit-and-run tactics (using your Priests to heal in between). The Kyushu will have already staked their claim in the middle section of the map. Across this stretch of land, there will be little plateaus with an abundance of wood, food and - mostly crucially - gold. Each one will be heavily guarded (with a Sentry Tower on each one - consider bringing a Stone Thrower or two), and most will be only accessible from the Kyushu's side. You'll need a strong force to make a breakthrough here, after which you can bring over some villagers over to the plateaus, wall yourself in and start mining. Establishing your hegemony (look it up) in the middle section of the land won't be easy, but when it's done, victory is yours. If you like, you can use your new supplies of gold to advance to the Iron Age, upgrade your Cavalry further and create more Priests and Stone Throwers. With just the thin strip of land to the North under their control, the Kyushu will collapse eventually. Congratulations on finishing Campaign Mode! But this is just the beginning. *************************************************************************** **** LEGAL STUFF *************************************************************************** **** I'll just make my position on this clear right now: I don't claim copyright on this guide, because that would really be patently (no pun intended!!!!!) ridiculous. I'm not making any money from it, and it's based on something that's already copyrighted (the game itself). "Information wants to be free" is one of my guiding maxims. As such, you can reproduce this guide wherever you like. For honour's sake, though, do so IN WHOLE (or with reference to the complete publication), and make mention of me and the document's original place of publication (GameFAQs). I don't demand prior written permission, but drop me a line about it, too. *************************************************************************** **** ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS *************************************************************************** ****

- Ensemble Studios for developing this beauty of a game. - Microsoft for publishing it. - GameSpot for producing a guide that I would probably have never finished the game without (if my strategies aren't working for you - although THEY WILL check theirs out). - My family and friends for being my family and friends. - More specifically, my dad for getting me into this game. - Anyone who reads this (and especially anyone who writes back).