Christopher da Gama's Expedition is the second Historical Battle in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. It focuses on the aftermath of da Gama's expedition to Ethiopia in 1542, particularly the battles between his crew and the Ethiopians against the Somalians in the Ethiopian–Adal War (1529-1543).
Summary[]
| “ | Following in the footsteps of his famous father, Vasco da Gama, Christopher da Gama, traveled east seeking riches and adventure. On the East African coast, he learned that Ethiopia had been nearly conquered by the Somali Adal Sultanate. Da Gama set out to find and rescue the Ethiopian Emperor and help him retake his empire. | ” |
Opening[]
The opening cutscene reveals that Christopher da Gama himself has been killed by the Somali and the player gains control of the remaining crew as they flee. The enemy force is overwhelming, and cannot be defeated at this stage. After fleeing to the Ethiopian base, the player gains access to Home City shipments and acquires their main objectives: free the surrounding villages and defeat the Somali forces.
This scenario can be difficult early on, as the player will not gain access to buildings to train units from. All reinforcements are from shipments or freed villages, so the player must be careful with their forces and take care not to overextend their reach. The player must also protect the Ethiopian base, as the allied forces will not always have units on hand to defend it themselves.
Objectives[]
Starting conditions[]
- Starting Age:
Commerce Age - Ending Age: Fortress Age
- Starting resources: None
- Population limit: 60
- Starting units: (approximately)
- 15 Pikemen
- 8 Crossbowmen
- 4 Organ Guns
- 15
Objectives[]
Primary objectives[]
- Escape the Adal forces and reach the Ethiopians.
- Help the Ethiopians defeat the Adal Sultanate.
- Defend the Ethiopians.
Secondary objectives[]
- Drive the Adal forces from the Ethiopian villages to strengthen the Ethiopian army.
Players[]
Queen Sabla, leader of the Ethiopians
Player[]
- Portuguese Expeditionary Force ( Portuguese): The player starts with some Crossbowmen and Pikemen and 2 Organ Guns being chased by enemy units and having to retreat to the Ethiopian village to the southwest of the map. One Outpost serves as a point to receive shipments from the Home City.
Allies[]
- Queen Sabla Wengel ( Ethiopians): The Ethiopian village have various unique Ethiopians units like the Shotel Warrior and Spearman that fight against the waves of Somalians warriors.
- Ethiopian Villages ( Ethiopians): The Ethiopian villages have various unique Ethiopians units like the Shotel Warrior and Spearman that can fight against the waves of Somalians warriors when the player liberate the villages.
- Portuguese Expeditionary Force ( Portuguese): This comprises of a single Caravel in the southern waters. It controls the ship which delivers the reinforcements sent by the Viceroy of the Portuguese colonies in India.
Enemy[]
- Ibrahim Al-Ghazi ( Somalians): The Somalians attacks the Ethiopian village in increasingly difficult waves and with more units each. The enemy base is located in the northeast of the map.
The map[]
The map has similar terrain to East Africa maps. Since the player has no base of their own, nor Settlers with which to collect resources, they can only resist with their few troops and collect experience by finishing off enemy troops, in order to receive reinforcements from the Home City, which will arrive from the Portuguese Outpost south of the village of Sabla Wengel.
Home City Cards[]
- Click here to see an overview of all Home City Cards available in the "Christopher da Gama" Historical Battle
| Some cards are highlighted with: | |
| Purple | Shipment that can be sent an INFINITE number of times |
| Red | Shipment that can be sent twice |
| Card | Description | Age |
|---|---|---|
 10 Crossbowmen
|
Delivers 10 Crossbowmen |  |
 10 Pikemen
|
Delivers 10 Pikemen | |
 2 Priests
|
Delivers 2 Priests | |
 Archaic Soldier Hitpoints
| Crossbowman and Pikeman hit points +15% | |
 Archaic Soldier Attack
| Crossbowman and Pikeman damage +15% | |
 8 Musketeers
|
Delivers 8 Musketeers |  |
 Military Supplies
|
Grants Veteran Crossbowmen, Pikemen, and Musketeers | |
 Artillery Hitpoints
| Grenade trooper hit points +30%; artillery hit points +15% | |
Strategy[]
Initial attack[]
When the scenario begins, the player is placed directly into an unwinnable fight against a large Somali force. The player should immediately begin moving their units south, trying to keep as many alive as possible by sacrificing units that are too slow or weak to make it past the enemy. Once the Ethiopian base is revealed, the player should move their remaining units to the marked locations as quickly as possible, without detours.
Once the player's units begin to reach the allied base, a series of voice lines will play. Once these are complete, a tower in the base will be converted to the player to use for Home City shipments, and the player will receive a reinforcement of 5 Crossbowmen, 5 Pikemen, and 2 Organ Guns. From this point on, the primary way to replenish and upgrade the player's forces will be through earning shipments.
Liberating the villages[]
The next objective is to liberate the eight surrounding villages while defending the base. While saving the villages is marked as a secondary objective, it is the primary method of completing the scenario. Each liberated village (all enemy units killed in the area) will award the player with a small group of African units such as Spearmen, Shotel Warriors, or Javelin Riders, as well as converting to the main allied faction to produce units for them periodically.
However, the enemy forces also continue to produce new armies, which are slightly stronger than the allied groups at first. Without help from the player, the Ethiopian base can eventually be breached by Somali forces. Because of this, the player should keep some units near the north and east gates of the base to help in the defense (a good choice for this would be any surviving Organ Guns, which will slow down advance parties but can fire from near-safety behind walls).
The player should try to keep their main force together, with all units not defending the base in one group. It can also be wise to time attacks based on the flow of combat between the allied and enemy forces to avoid taking too many casualties on the way to villages. The first few shipments should be for additional units, but after that it would be wise to ship improvements and/or Priests to boost the survivability of the existing units.
After four villages are liberated from the Adal garrisons, the player advances to the Fortress Age and can send for more shipments.
After liberating a number of villages, the tide of the periodic ally/enemy conflicts will start to turn. At about six or seven villages liberated, the allied base will become nearly safe from enemy attack, as each village will periodically spawn a group of allied units. After the player saves all of the villages, a large Ethiopian army arrives headed by Emperor Gelawdewos, son of Queen Sable. The army makes way to the main base of the Adal forces, and can by itself tear down the central tower, which wins the scenario. The player can accompany the main Ethiopian force or take the initiative for the final assault on the Somali base.
Finale[]
After liberating most or all of the villages, the Ethiopian forces will be strong enough to start destroying the towers and walls of the Somali base. The player should ship any last-minute improvements or units, then move all of their remaining forces to the center gate of the Somali base. With the player and allied units attacking this gate, it should be easy to break in and destroy the enemy production buildings. Once the marked building is destroyed, a series of voice lines will play to end the scenario.
Trivia[]
- Originally, the menu description for this scenario listed the enemy as "Portuguese", but the enemy forces are primarily Somali. This was fixed in update 9476.
- While the scenario is named after Christopher da Gama, he dies during the introduction cutscene. The battle instead focuses on his surviving crew.
- The Ethiopians and Somalians use special units that are not available in any other scenario. However, many of these are statistically similar to existing units.
- The Ethiopians in this scenario are a scenario-exclusive civilization who are different from the playable civilization Ethiopians who were added in The African Royals.
Gallery[]
