Into the Caves

Into the Caves
Scenario information
Game	Age of Empires III
Campaign	Act I: Blood
Civilization	Knights of St. John
Color	Blue
Scenario no.	2
Previous	Breakout
Next	Pirates!
Setting information
Year	1565
Map

“

As Sahin is driven from Malta, Morgan and his men regroup and prepare to push the surviving Ottomans from their camps.

”

Into the Caves is the second scenario of Act I: Blood in Age of Empires III. The Knights of St. John must wipe out the remaining threat to the island.

Summary

As shown in the cutscene, Morgan Black wants to find any remaining Ottomans and soon finds Sahin The Falcon making a swift retreat. They have a short conversation about the future of the knights and Sahin gives an annoyed Morgan the nickname "Frenk" before he departs. Later Alain informs Morgan that pockets of Ottomans are located to the east and so Morgan orders his men to follow him. Bringing with them a bombard captured from the enemy, in the event they will need it's firepower.

The player still does not have access to the Home City, nor can they send for shipments, much like the previous scenario. Any experience earned will be saved for later, and the player does still level up the Home City.

Starting conditions

• Starting Age: Fortress Age
• Ending Age: Fortress Age
• Population limit: 200
• Starting units and technologies:
  • Morgan Black
  • Alain Magnan
  • 24 Crossbowmen
  • 3 Swiss Pikemen
  • 1 Great Bombard
  • 1 Priest
  • 10 Settlers
  • 1 Fishing Boat
• Starting resources:
  • Easy: 1,500 food, 1,300 wood, 1,300 coin
  • Moderate: 1,300 food, 1,100 wood, 1,100 coin
  • Hard: 1,000 food, 800 wood, 800 coin
• Other differences between difficulty levels:
  • On Easy, there are much fewer enemy Janissaries. The Ottomans have fewer villagers and in general are much easier to rush and overwhelm. They only have 1 Barracks and 1 Artillery Foundry.
  • On Moderate, the Ottomans have fewer Janissaries and fewer villagers, but have 2 Barracks, an Outpost near the mine entrance, and an Artillery Foundry.
  • On Hard, the player starts with one less silver mine near them, while the Ottomans have the full number of Janissaries and Settlers. In addition, they have 2 Outposts guarding the mine entrance from different approaches, and their initial attack is more formidable and heavy.

Objectives

Primary objectives

• Defend the base from the Ottoman attack.
  • Destroy all the Ottoman Weapon Caches. (8 total)

Secondary objectives

• Claim the nearby Treasure. (300 XP)
• Build an Artillery Foundry and train at least 10 Hoop Throwers. (500 XP)
• Find a shipwreck and gather any supplies near it. (300 XP)

Players

Player

• Morgan Black ( Knights of St. John) - The player's base consists of a Town Center, two Barracks, two Outposts, several Settlers, a Dock, as well as a Field Hospital.

Enemy

• Ottomans ( Ottomans) - The Ottomans attack the player's position immediately as the mission begins, with multiple Janissaries. They also control eight Weapon Caches that must be destroyed and three Stockades with a total of 15 Swiss Pikemen held captive. They also have an established base outside the caves, and will eventually include cavalry and siege units (such as Abus Gunners) to their ranks.

Treasures

There are 5 treasures on the map, some of which are guarded.

• Lost Moche Gold worth 80 coin. It is guarded by 2x Wolves. Collecting this is a secondary objective.
• The Boots of El Pollo Guapo, which increases the speed of whomever picks it up by 25%. It is guarded by an Outlaw Rifleman and an Outlaw Rider.
• Some Oak Trees worth 75 wood.
• A carob plant worth 75 food.
• Some Oak Trees worth 75 wood.

Aggressive Strategy

The player begins under attack, though the bombard proves the player's greatest weapon repeatedly during this battle. The town begins moderately sized. Equipped with two Outposts, two Barracks, a Field Hospital and some Houses along with 11 Settlers and a single fishing ship. It's not overly important to start building more right away.

The strategy runs mostly on the initial units the player saves, the Bombard, 15-20+ trained Crossbowmen, and the high siege damage Swiss Pikemen the player saves. It's not important to earn large amounts of experience in the campaign, since the player won't be able to Build a Deck like in skirmishes. Any new cards the player unlocks will not be able to be switched out for inferior cards, the player is stuck with both. Furthermore, if the player reaches the maximum number of cards allowed in a single age line (9) the next card purchased for that age will push one off the list (can never be used again), maybe even one the player wanted to keep. For this reason it's best to know what's most useful so the player can precisely take the cards the player wants for the ages they want (with or without cheats). The trick below (leaving the scenario running) is one way to "buy" a greater number of Home City Cards (when the Home City becomes active) with a time investment instead of a cheat code.

Note: Enemy settlers will typically flee into the cave, or to the gold deposit north of the treasure X in the first picture.

Note: The ship treasure wreck has 500 food, 500 wood, 1,000 coin available to collect in crates.

Note: The Ottoman Mosque near their Dock has a similar bounty of resources available, with 1,500 food, and 2,000 coin. There is also a pile of 600 wood near the cave entrance that can be quickly stolen if the player rushes up there.

Sahin attempts to make peace with Morgan and the Knights of St. John

Alain gives new orders to Morgan and his troops

Knights of St. John colony under attack

Upgrade the Crossbowmen at the Barracks, and train 15-20 more while finishing off the Ottomans attacking the base. Heal any wounded units at the Field Hospital and Priest. Head northeast (ignoring the treasures and caches) and attack at around 4 minutes with the bombard in tow.

The attack at 00:05:02 after having the soldiers focus on the Ottoman defenders and the prisoner cage while the bombard pummeled the Ottoman town center. Have the prisoners and all other units focus on the town center after they are freed. Once the town center falls, free the prisoners to the southeast and then head immediately to the cave to intercept a Covered Wagon.

The attack at 00:06:44, the Town Center wagon almost escaped but look closely to notice a cannonball chasing it. It's important to stop this wagon from making it into the cave, they can attempt to rebuild otherwise because the game doesn't prevent the player from building "underground".

The attack at 00:13:36, halfway through the caves while operations continue outside to mop up stragglers.

The attack at 00:19:56, only those two Galleys and two Ottoman Fishing Boats remain at this point.

The attack at 00:21:21, the final Galley sinks. All enemy military units are crushed, destroy the caches and gather the treasures.

The game at 01:30:59, the home city had reached level 5 due to building Mills (+80 experience each). The player can check their level progress by clicking Menu and Player Summary. This works only on scenarios where the player has no teammates, otherwise it opens the tribute screen

One of the few scenarios in the game where it is possible to build docks inside cliff walls. Given that this scenario can be beaten on any difficulty with a turtle and naval supremacy strategy as well, it's worth noting.

The Knights of St. John find a secret opening in the caves after detonating the Weapon Caches

Speedy Strategy

Technically all the player must do to win this scenario is destroy all of the Weapon Caches, the time taken to win can be reduced to 5–7 minutes. Instead of following the above strategy to stop them from building, instead focus solely on destroying each of the caches and destroying them as quickly as possible.

Instead of immediately counterattacking and destroying their town hall follow the same steps above but then head in that direction and clear a path into the cave with the bombard in tow. Train 10-15 more crossbowmen and send them to the cache north of the starting town. Trying to build an artillery foundry to train some hoop throwers (bonus objective) at the base for defense is optional. Hotkey the bombard so the player can quickly deploy it or get it ready for travel. When the last cache is destroyed the scenario ends.

Trivia

• In the cutscene "Answers" before the scenario, Morgan's civilization is actually French (likely a reference to Sahin calling him Frenk).
• In the "Library of Stone" cutscene that succeeds the scenario, at a certain moment Alain Magnan says: "America sive nobi orbis", which can be translated from Latin to "America or the New World".
  • It is possible to see the figure of a White Jaguar painted in the stone.
  • The Library of Stone is inspired by the real-life Megalithic Temples of Malta.