Age Of Empires: Definitive Edition (Hardest) - Glory of Greece: The Conquest of Crete

A wildly different level, which threw me off. Your retreating forces don't end up reaching a third land mass across the sea, and instead just have to weave through the forest to reach the S of one connected land mass where your base is. The other main difference to I'll Be Back is that the two minor forces aren't just Towers and Units, but also will periodically attack you with light forces and have bases. The Minoan Scouts are mainly just Bowmen, but the Greeks will field similar units to your own. Fishing Ships are a good start again for Food. Your defence should do well, but try and convert units with Priests (even if you delete them). You randomly get some Improved Bowmen in your base, but I wouldn't bother trying to keep them alive. I start by heading W with Hoplites backed by Stone Throwers and Priests. I admittedly should have used some Cavalry in this level, as Bowmen became annoying throughout - although this was mainly in the cluster to the W of Minoan Towers, especially as my forces got split. The Minoan Scouts being as split up as they are is slightly annoying, especially as they mainly field Bowmen, but again, Cavalry would have alleviated a lot of this issue. Hoplites are good, but the Centurion snowball supported by Heliopolis is MUCH better. Make sure to take the Gold to the NW, as this will help you fund more Hoplites and Stone Throwers and push for the kill on the Scouts. I make a push through the NW side of Yellows and initially encounter little resistance, making me overconfident and I over commit forces here, which eats up a lot of my Gold and makes assaulting Pelasgians that much harder (and actually essential for their Gold to wrap the mission up). Because of this, I initially have to rely on War Galley to whittle them down as I knew most of my units would again be claimed. The Towers deal the killing blow to Pelasgians and then their Gold helps me finish the level through slow advance of the Yellow Minoans. I think I simultaneously got a Conquest victory and default one, as I couldn't spot any of the Yellow Minoan forces about.