Storming the Beaches

Storming the Beaches is the second scenario of Act II: China in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties. The mission centers around rescuing Admiral Jinhai and gaining vengeance from the Zamorin's forces in Kozikhode India. The scenario starts off with the cinematic "A royal greeting" where it shows Jinhai's fleet exploring the Indian city and ending up being driven and chased out by the Zamorin's troops and the player must swiftly and successfully save Admiral Jinhai and defeat the Zamorin's forces to complete the scenario.

Primary

 * Build a Town Center and a Dock (1000 XP)
 * Rescue Admiral Jinhai (1000 XP)
 * Destroy the Zamorin's Town Center (1000 XP)

Secondary

 * Build a Wonder so your army can Age up (500 XP)
 * Build a Castle on the beach (500 XP)

Strategy
Players start out in a fair sized island on the bottom of the map with 4 Villagers, A Covered Wagon, Captain Huang, Lao Chen, 3 Chu Ko Nos and 4 Qiang Pikemen provided from the fleet. The player can start to build their Town Center right away and should place it in a location farther inland so it won't be easily attacked by enemy forces but close enough for Villagers to gather resources from the ship crates. Once the Villagers have gathering all of the provided resources, the player can begin their next step.

After all the resources all gathered, there will be a massive supply of 800-1000 gathered from crates, the player can now start to massively spawn Villagers with this bounty of food, To compensate for the massive spawn of Villagers, the player will need to build Villages for their population. At the same time they can purchase improvements from the Market to increase Villager gather rate on resources and other bonuses.

The player can also begin to build Fishing Boats with they received. although it will be costly in the beginning, they will help provide food needed for growing a military and Villagers, the Fishing Boats should be fishing close to the player's Dock so as they are susceptible from enemy attacks.

As the player advances and explores east of the island, they will be confronted with a small band of Landsknecht mercenaries and Urumis that will aggressively attack them. These units are very powerful and will kill many of the player's provided Qiang Pikemen and Chu Ka Nos, leaving 3-4 units dead. Using Lao Chen and Jiang Huang's special abilities is recommended against these units. While these enemies units are fought, two enemy Marathan Catamaran will sail from the north and will attack the Treasure Fleet. The player can build a War Junk to take down the Catamarans with ease to handle the threat.

As the ships explore, the player can begin to massively build their military from the Military Academy and begin to age up to Fortress Age and then the Industrial Age if they have the economy going.

If the player has at least 15 troops, they can send them to the eastern edge of the island to defeat an enemy encampment consisting of an Outpost and Barracks. The encampment will be guarded by enemy Rajput and Urumis although their numbers will be small and can be dealt with little loss.

Once the Catamarans are sunken, the player has plentiful time to grow their fleet in the island, they can use these minutes to increase resources gathered and to build an army and navy. The player can proceed to build War Academies for faster military training and Rice Paddies to gather Food faster. While doing this, they should send a pair of ships to scout North and explore the waters and the enemy islands for a visual view.

As the player bombards and shells the enemy settlements on the coast, the Zamorin's Mountain Castle's will take a significant time to destroy and will cause great havoc to the player's ships, it is recommended to bombards the castles with 2-3 Fuchuans. Once the castles are destroyed, the player has destroyed the enemy's coastal defense capabilities.

The player can now transport their large military from the other naval ships they have, it is recommended to have at least 20-25 military units well balanced with Flamethrowers, Changdao Swordsmen, Steppe Riders, Qiang Pikemen, and Chu Ko Nos.

The Zamorin's settlements will be poorly guarded and his military units will put up strong resistance, groups of 4-5 Howdahs as well Urumis and Rajput will be stationed near each wall checkpoint and can be taken down with the Player's Changdao Swordsmen and Qiang Pikemen. Once the player keeps marching past and defeats the Zamorin's forces defending, they will reach Admiral Jinhai near an Udasi settlement with his captors. Once the player moves their forces to Admiral Jinhai, the scenario is completed.

The map
The map bears many simalarities with Indian themed maps in the expansion including Deccan and all maps featured in Act III: India. The map consists of a small island in the south and a larger landmass in the north, both separated from a stretch of sea. Players begin on the smaller island in the south where resources are somewhat limited. Ashoka and Eucalyptus trees dominate both landmasses although are scarcer in the smaller island, Nilgai are the only huntable animal in the island, and are found in small herds of 3-4. Treasures can be found on the small island but are defended by stronger Treasure Guardians including Lions and Rhinoceroses. The sea in the map contains many bounties as well, Tuna can be fished in the sea for Food while Humpback Whales can be used for Coin.