scenario help -- Middle Ages

[dh_epic]

I've been playing for a while through the scenarios (I'm surprised it took me this long to try to pick them up, they're great!)

I have a couple artefacts that I've gotten through conquest.

But I'm supposed to return them to Jerusalem?

How do I get them there if it's by a sea route?
How do I get them there if it's an enemy city?

I haven't tried yet, but I'd hate to spend 20 turns to get there to find out I messed up.

 

[Gumby78]

To return the artifacts you have to take Jerusalem and move the unit with an artifact into the city.

 

[dgfred]

You will have to capture Jerusalem before you put the relics there. What
civ are you playing ? It is a very long way by sea but you
have many options along the way, especially if you are a civ. How
many relics do you have? If you go by land you have to plow your way through , or at least sign a Right of Passage with a couple of
civs . There are several succession games on the forum if you look a
couple of pages back ; really good reading and you can see many
different strategies .

 

[narmox]

BAsically it's like "capture the princess" that was introduced in PTW, but instead of a princess unit they're relics, and instead of the enemy capital they only score point when brought to jerusalem. And it's great fun

 

[Pook]

You will need to transport a sizable army to capture Jerusalem and bring the relic in. What's sizable? I've done it with two armies and twelve knights/crusaders using five galleys. I was playing England and conquered both Castile and Cordova, using the Iberian peninsula as the launch point and sailing through hostile waters to get there.

 

[dh_epic]

Sounds like fun. I think I'll be able to tear it up.

I'm playing as France, and I've taken out Burgundy, and I'm going after Castile now. I'll be sure to bring a bigger army than necessary. I thought I might be able to pull it off with like 4-6 troops, but I guess I should be more prepared.

 

[Pook]

I'm playing it now as the English again. This time, after taking out the Celts, I've decided to ignore Castile & Cordova and take out the Franks. Things were going fine until.... Attacking from the West, I took Bordeaux easily, and Orleans after a struggle. Two leaders down, one to go. When the Franks finished the "Robin Hood/ Robine Couverture" wonder in Boulogne, I took that without much of a fight. Then came Paris, where all I had to do was take out the third leader and the Franks would collapse.... Attacking with 9 vet+ knights, 9 vet+ crusaders, and a swordsmen army, I couldn't take it. La grenouille ne mourra pas! Right now I'm still recovering/ regrouping. I'm debating whether to a) starve it from size 12 to size 6 or below, b) build loads of trebuchets, or c) get a new army bigger than the last one and try again, or some combination of the above.

 

[dh_epic]

Yeah man, what a great scenario. I love the goal oriented gameplay, instead of the straight up domination.

 

[amtrick]

This is one of my favorites, too. I've won as the Franks and Abbasids and most recently as the Germans. Here's a recap of my "German" experience. It has some strategy and tactics hints in it.

First I had to secure the Fatherland and free up some expansion territory. The Burgundians were the fall guys in this phase. When taking out their last "King", make sure you have a few settlers ready to go to grab the Italian peninsula...this becomes the springboard for your sea route to Jerusalem. At first I couldn't find their relic...finally a roaming knight looking around the Magyar territory (on a RoP) "stumbled" across it lying on the ground. Apparently the Burgundians were trying to move it when they were destroyed. The units carrying disappeared and the relic was just left sitting there. I guess the Magyars didn't realize its value.

Next I took out the Danes ... at least the ones on the European mainland. I just didn't feel like I could dispatch a good chuck of my military south with those berserkers hanging around my northern border. All this time I was making nice with Poland and Magyar just to keep the neighborhood peaceful.

By this time I have created a couple of MGLs, which I turned into Armies and stocked up with knights. BTW, don't put more than 3 knights in them since a galley can only carry 4 units and the "leader" counts as one. (Can't remember the Wonder that let's you expand armies to hold four units, but I had it). The armies came in handy, since the Franks declared war on me about that time. Heavy skirmishing along the border finally cost them Paris (another relic!), Orleans and couple other cities and they were ready to call it quits. They were so crippled by then I knew they wouldn't be a threat for the rest of the scenario.

Okay, so production base and borders are secured and Italy is a gun pointed right at the Med islands. I island hop to the east making sure I have a series of cities on Cyprus, Rhodes, etc. The "pipeline" is running .... cities producing more units that land-travel to the tip of the Italian boot where they are picked up and shuttled to the Eastern Med island base on Rhodes (?). The galleys turn around and go back for another load.

A quick bit of espionage shows there are 17 Swedish Mercs in Jerusalem! I've shuttled three armies and about 12+ supporting units and 4 catapults to the Eastern Med for the assault. So I sign up an alliance of Byzantines, Turks, Fatamids, Rus and Bulgars to attack when I do...trying to drain the Abbasid war machine towards its borders.

I land near Jerusalem with my Armies (which a now add the fourth unit to) and a settler on the coast to establish a new city. Crusaders move up on the hills around the city to build fortresses, their work shielded by the Armies. The Cats start flinging and the Armies start attacking from the now-fortified hills, wearing down the garrison and slipping back into the city I built to recover strength as need. Supporting units range around the city cutting roads and fending off reinforcements. After about 5-6 turns Jerusalem falls, three relics are returned in one turn and the Germans are victorious.

Gosh I love this scenario!

 

[Jason Fliegel]

I've only played this scenario once -- as England -- and strangely, it didn't take that big an army to sack Jerusalem. I started by conquering France, which gave me access to the Mediteranean. I then launched a force of about 25-30 kinghts, catapults, and crusaders. Once they landed outside Jerusalem, I declared war (reputation be damned!). The AI promptly moved started sending all of its offensive units over land to get to me, leaving Jerusalem relatively deserted. I captured it, moved my artifacts in, and won the game.

Now, whether I would have been able to hold Jerusalem is another matter, but since the artifacts I returned brought me over 30,000 points, I didn't need to hold Jerusalem.

Here's my final map:

 

[dgfred]

@amtrick- I am in Goldsboro , glad for some more civ freaks nearby .

You guys need to give the civs a try, the Beserkers the
butt. Love to see all the different tactics and gameplans everyone uses.
Keep the replies coming.

 

[Ged of Earthsea]

It really is a great conquest for replayability. I've done English (start with an army - nice!), Swedes (Beserkers and Blacksmiths are broken), Abbassids (deceivingly difficult), and Burgundy, all on Emperor.

Burgundy was definitely the hardest and most fun. On Emperor the AI starts with so many units and neither France nor Germany are shy about lounging around your territory with big old stacks of them. Had a sweet pre-build that got the HRE, giving me the tech to bribe France into defending me against a German sneak attack.

As in most of the Conquests I've found, you pretty much need to stay at war at all times to provide enough cities to support your unit costs. You also need to take distant luxury cities to keep your more corrupt cities in WLTKD.

With Burgundy, that's hard to do, as your borders are so extensive and thus hard to defend. The game turned in a funny way, as I was just about going bankrupt, and missed out on Notre Dame by 3 turns. I switched to palace and grudgingly researched Improved Seigecraft, as the Krak was the only wonder wihin reach. Get craft in the nick of time, only to discover the bug where it can only be built in a size six or smaller city. Here's the rub - nobody else has Seigecraft yet, so the three rich civs pay ungodly amounts for it - financing an army that lays waste succesively to Bulgaria, Byzantium, and, very carefully, dodging a nest of assassins, Antioch, Damascus, and Jerusalem. (If you take them in this order, the assassins can't counter attack without leaving themselves open for a turn.)

The Abbassids ended the game with 29878 victory points to my 31050.

= )

 

[narmox]

Last time, I played was as English.. Don't know why all you guys are waiting for knights. After killing off the Celts, I filled my 2 galleys and about 20 curraghs with swordsmen (and my swordsmen army), sacked Jerusalem.

Then realized I needed more than one relic, let the Abbassids recapture Jerusalem (no use holding it), rampaged through Italy till I find the relic in Venice finally, and brought my whole army back to Jerusalem. I was too lazy to get another relic but I was 15000 points ahead of everyone, so I declared myself victor and played another game.

Only near the end did I see the Franks massing knights at the German border, so I didn't bother trying to get their relics with my swordsmen.

And I agree with the others. Awesome scenario Too bad it's a bit slow on my computer so I'm not really tempted to play that much...

 

[Zandrew]

You will need to transport a sizable army to capture Jerusalem and bring the relic in. What's sizable? I've done it with two armies and twelve knights/crusaders using five galleys...

The last time I played this (as Cordova, monarch lvl), when I got to Jerusalem I was shocked to see it had just been razed by the Byzantines! I walked my relics over to the rubble that used to be Jerusalem and collected the points.

 

[kb2tvl]

I played this scenario as the Anglo-Saxons and the Byzantines. I have a higher score with the Anglo-Saxons. Still, bringing that artifact to Jerusalum will win you the game if you can fight and some constant rate. It is worth 10k points....

You will need 10+ wins to take the city and there will be conter attacks. Maybe buy allies.