The Breath of the Dragon

The Breath of the Dragon is the third scenario of the Dracula campaign in the Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten. In this scenario, the player is playing as Slavs.

Vlad Dracula is leading his army against the Ottoman Empire, first defeating the Ottoman army by an ambush at a narrow pass between the forest. Then Vlad disguises himself as a trader to enter the Ottoman-controlled Giurgiu and capture the town. Finally, the remaining five villages or towns are to be subdued by destroying their town centers, castles, and the mosque in Darstor. While Darstor is the main force of the five Ottoman towns, they have to rely on the other four for resources, which the player shall conquer them to sabotage the supplies. Orsova is supplying wood; Rahova is supplying gold; Novoselo is supplying food; and Obluciza is supplying stone.

Ally

 * Wallachians (Slavs)

Ally → enemy → ally → enemy

 * Ottoman Army (Turks)

Enemies

 * Darstor (Turks)


 * Novoselo (Slavs)


 * Obluciza (Slavs)


 * Orsova (Magyars)


 * Rahova (Slavs)

Storyline and gameplay
Vlad Dracula is is leading his army on the path in the northwest of the map, discussing their plan of an assault on the Ottoman army. The hand cannoneers suggest to have them ambush in the forest on the eastern side of the path so that the enemies would not know what hits them, while the hussars suggest to ambush on the western side of the path and prepare to assault from there. Note that the Ottoman army would arrive in 90 seconds time, and if the player has any unit standing in the middle of the path, the ambush would fail and the casualty would be greater. The Ottoman army will have two Bombard Cannons which will come last, though easy to be taken down, they are a great threat to opponents standing close together. The player shall place all ranged units together in the east, while all melee units in the west.

After a bloody fight that annihilated the Ottoman army, Dracula is set to take down Ottoman-controlled Giurgiu, in the middle of the map. The player would have to travel southeast along the path and see a trade cart, which the player is to chase after and nab it. Dracula will disguise himself as a trader (technically a king) while there would be two pikemen and two hand cannoneers hiding in the trade cart. The player shall bring both Dracula and the trade cart into Giurgiu. The rest of Dracula's army would be left behind, waiting for Dracula's signal.

Upon entering Giurgiu, the trade cart will be deleted and the four soldiers will come out. Dracula manages to enter, with his ability to speak Turkish. While the player's aim is to capture the castle, the player shall capture the towers by garrisoning any of the five units into each tower. However the player must try not to have the four soldiers together, as if they enter the corner on the right of the Town Center and there is any Ottoman soldier there, they would raise suspicion of the Ottoman guard. If Dracula himself gets near the broken bridge where there is an Ottoman cavalier, the cavalier will also be suspicious, as the 'trader' looks familiar to him. If any of the player's unit attempts to get near the castle while the Janissary is there, he would be stopped by the Janissary and being ordered to turn back. Whenever the player raises suspicion by any Ottoman guard, the unit must leave the sight as soon as possible or else after 15 seconds the Ottomans will get alarmed and begin fighting the player. Though technically optional, it is advisable that the player captures the tower in the middle of the river, on the eastern side of the broken bridge, in order to take down the Janissary banner and distract the enraged Janissaries, so it would be much easier to capture the castle.