Aoe2: DE: Hard: Edward Longshanks 2) A Man of God

A Man of God is the 2nd scenario in the Edward Longshanks campaign, with the objective of the scenario to keep at least one castle in both Tripoli and Arce still standing for 1 hour. The strategy should be to defend the initial wave of attacks, then grow your economy and construct defences before slowly venturing out and destroying Green, Purple and Grey. You can use both Yellow and Orange as useful defenders or aggressors, depending on what you need in the moment. Full defending will work as well, you don't need to go out and attack, but doing so will weaken the enemies if you do. Part 1: Defence Right at the start, you're being attacked by Green. Select all your available soliders and send them to the front gates to wipe out the enemies. The knights in particular should target mangonels and rams, while everything else should be micromanaged for a favourable matchup. Ie, pikemen on cav archers and mamelukes, etc. Once the enemy is cleared out, you'll need to quickly focus on base building, defence and growing your economy. This is important as a strong start will make it much easier to stay on top of all the attacks as you'll be able to defend them properly. Monks need to garrison the relics next to their monasteries. Fishing ships should go to the north west of the west gate and a new docks should be placed there as the southern ones will be continuously raided in the next 5-10min. Send all the trade cogs to your allies, Blue or Yellow, doesn't matter which and have the 4 stone villagers collect stone while the rest of the villagers gather wood. You'll want to build towers along the southern cape, to prevent enemy ships from getting into the bay and potentially sniping villagers and/or buildings. Heated shot, ballistics, masonry, keep and the blacksmith upgrades will be very powerful here and will quickly sink the mass of ships around this coastline and you should prioritise these upgrades within the first 15-20min of the game. You should focus on building trade cogs and fishing ships at the new dock, for the first. This will give you a protected trade route and fishing spot, giving you food and gold, while your villagers can safely get their initial wood inside the city walls. Longbowmen, when upgraded with the Yeoman and blacksmith upgrades, will be able to outrange everything that Green sends at you, including mangonels and cavalry archers. So longbowmen will knock out most enemy units and scouts/knights should be used to crush any rams or trebuchets that come your way. For raiding the enemy, knights, pikemen and longbowmen will be fine, though knights and cav archers are better for their mobility while longbowmen have the superior range. Once you are ready, focus on eliminating the small Green camps, around the center of the map, then work your way around to Grey and eliminate them. Purple should be next to be eliminated but the Green camp/docks in the southern corner is vicious and will spam units like no tomorrow so you may have to settle for crippling Purple. This will greatly weaken Green allowing you to either defend or attack. Initially, Yellow should defend Tripoli (Blue) just to make sure they are okay, before either defending themselves or going on an offensive. Blue has fire towers/castles/army but can get overwhelmed by Cyan's numbers, particularly if Blue is out in the open. For 500 gold, Orange is a good distraction that will keep Cyan busy and will take some of the focus off Blue. Defend or attack as necessary and once the timer drops to 0 with at least one castle in Acre and Tripoli each, then victory is yours! Allies: Tripoli (Blue): They train Serjeants, Pikemen, and Crossbowmen. They are mostly capable of defending themselves, but the player should still keep an eye on them. Crusader Orders (Yellow): They will only act if the player uses the taunts to direct their actions. They train Knights, Teutonic Knights, and Long Swordsmen. The taunts are: 210 to tell them to defend Acre. 220 to tell them to defend Tripoli. 230 to tell them to defend themselves. 240 to tell them to mount an offensive. Potential Ally: The Ilkhanate (Orange): They will ask for an alliance after 20-25min in game and once you tribute them 500 gold. They train Light Cavalry, Cavalry Archers, and Mangudai. Enemies: Aleppo (Cyan): Located in the middle of the map and will train Camel Riders, Long Swordsmen, Elite Skirmishers and siege weapons. Mamluks (Green): They have multiple bases scattered around the map and attack Acre from the beginning. They train Mamelukes, Cavalry Archers, Light Cavalry, Rams, Mangonels, Trebuchets and war ships. They get stronger as time progresses. Qaqun (Purple): They have a small garrison and some buildings, and they provide the Mamluk forces with resources. Nazareth (Grey): They have a small garrison and some buildings, and they provide the Mamluk forces with resources. Nazareth also has a Town Center but they will not train any Villagers.