This article is about the scenario. For the unit, see Henry the Lion (unit). |
Henry the Lion is the second scenario of the Barbarossa campaign in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. It is loosely based on the German expansion to the East (Ostsiedlung) during the Late Middle Ages.
Intro[]
The empire was in full bloom, and her population was rapidly expanding. The Germans felled forests, drained marshlands, and reclaimed land from the sea itself.
This newfound prosperity made expansion too tempting to resist. Eager to test his military might, Barbarossa set his sights east towards the Kingdom of Poland.
To assist in his invasion, Barbarossa called up one of his mightiest vassals, Henry the Lion. Henry was a powerful prince of Saxony, and his decadent palaces outshown the emperor's own.
While he swore fealty to Barbarossa, some questioned whether Henry the Lion did not want the Empire for his own.
By ordering Henry the Lion to aid in the subjugation of Poland, Barbarossa meant to test his oath of allegiance once and for all.
The empire was in full bloom, and her population was rapidly expanding. The Germans felled forests, drained marshlands, and reclaimed land from the sea itself. But there was still not enough space.
Bringing the vastness of Poland into the empire would ease the pressure on the empire's borders.
To deal with Poland, Barbarossa called up one of his mightiest vassals, Henry the Lion. Henry was a powerful prince of Saxony, and his decadent palaces outshown the emperor's own.
While he swore fealty to Barbarossa, some questioned whether Henry the Lion did not want the Empire for his own.
By ordering Henry the Lion to aid in the subjugation of Poland, Barbarossa meant to test his oath of allegiance once and for all.
Scenario instructions[]
Starting conditions[]
- Starting Age: Castle Age
- Starting resources: 1,000 food, 1,000 wood, 1,000 gold
- Population limit: 75 (100 in the Definitive Edition)
- Starting units:
- 10 Pikemen
- 6 Crossbowmen
- 6 Knights
- 1 Light Cavalry
Objectives[]
- Defeat Poland.
- (after Henry the Lion's betrayal) Defeat Henry the Lion.
- (secondary, after Henry the Lion's betrayal) Capture the villagers of Henry the Lion.
Hints[]
- The German states of Bavaria and Saxony are 'feeding' the armies of Barbarossa and Henry the Lion. Defend the helpless feeders at all costs.
Scouts (Definitive Edition)[]
Your scouts report:
- Barbarossa (1, Red) and his German ally, Henry the Lion (5, Orange), are on an expedition east to conquer the lands of the Polish. They do not have Villagers themselves, so both armies rely on supplies from the duchies of Bavaria (3, Green) and Saxony (4, Yellow).
- Poland (2, Blue) occupies large swathes of land to the east and will field Obuchs, swordsmen, siege weapons, and warships. They will send regular raids into German lands.
Players[]
Player[]
- Player ( Teutons): The player starts in a central-western position on the map. All military building for training land units are at the player's disposal, but no Villagers, so the player cannot build up an economy.
Allies[]
- Bavaria ( Teutons): Bavaria lies in the southern part of the map, with only Villagers and civilian buildings, gathering resources and paying tribute to the player.
- Saxony ( Teutons): Saxony lies in the northwest. Just like Bavaria, they also have only Villagers and civilian buildings, gathering resources and paying tribute to the player.
Allies → Enemies[]
- Henry the Lion ( Teutons): Henry the Lion has his base at the western tip of the map, without any Villagers. He builds rams and Teutonic Knights. As his stance towards Poland is 'ally', his army does not resist the Polish invasion and simply gets slaughtered by the Polish (This is corrected in the Definitive Edition; while he is not particularly aggressive, he will attack the Polish if they attack him and may target the Castle near his base). In a later stage of the game, he becomes the player's enemy and the player must defeat him.
Enemies[]
- Poland ( Poles; Goths before the Definitive Edition, Slavs in the Definitive Edition and before Dawn of the Dukes): Poland occupies the east of the map, with Castles, Siege Workshops, Watch Towers, Docks, and Houses scattered across the land. They field Long Swordsmen, Obuchs (Huskarls before the Definitive Edition, Boyars in the Definitive Edition and before Dawn of the Dukes), siege weapons, and send in navy early on. Destroying the Polish Castles and Siege Workshops forces Poland to resign.
Strategy[]
The player starts from the central-western part of the map. Poland has a navy that will attack the player in the early stage of the game, so they may wish to build Fire Ships to defend against the Polish navy. However, once the player has destroyed the Polish navy and they have stopped building a navy, they may start building Trade Cogs to trade with the Polish Docks. That is, unless the player chooses to destroy the enemy Docks. It is also possible to end the threat of a Polish navy very early, on at least on standard difficulty, by sending the player's Fire Ships to burn down their Docks in the very early game. The player will encounter War Galleys en route which they must eliminate, but this tactic can almost instantly remove considerations of a Polish navy from the game.
Poland will invade both the player and Henry the Lion, who will simply get slaughtered without resistance (unless playing the Definitive Edition), and may occasionally attack Saxony and Bavaria. As Poland is attacking Henry the Lion, it would be advisable to at least destroy their Mangonels to prevent them from stationing at the west, where some Gaia Villagers will spawn to prevent accidental destruction. Henry will fight back in the Definitive Edition and might even destroy a Polish castle.
Henry the Lion will betray the player if one of the following conditions occurs (Hard Difficulty):
- Game continues until the 2000th second (33 minutes and 20 seconds).
- The player assigns 3 soldiers into the northern or southern Polish base.
- The northwestern Polish Castle (on the western side of the river, near Saxony) is being destroyed.
- The player manually changes diplomatic stance to Neutral or Enemy.
The player will be informed by a soldier of theirs that Henry the Lion has some Villagers at the west; this is actually the Gaia Villagers mentioned above ready for their possession. There will be a flag marked at that spot. Send any unit to the flag and the Gaia Villagers become the player's. If there is any enemy around, they may start attacking the Villagers, and any Mangonel will deal a great blow against the Villagers, so the player should watch out. There is also a relic there, being confined in Henry the Lion's walls and locked gate. If the Polish army has destroyed the structure, the player may just send a Monk to take the relic, as long as there is no enemy around.
It may be a good idea to convert Polish Huskarls whenever possible, in order to make use of their speed and strength, as they cannot research Heresy. In the Definitive Edition, Obuchs are also valuable conversion targets as they can tear the armor of Henry's Teutonic Knights.
Alternative strategy[]
Players can defeat Henry the Lion by changing their stance to neutral, building as many rams as possible, and attacking Henry's Castle, Siege Workshop, and Barracks before he changes his stance to enemy. This is no longer possible in the Definitive Edition, since he will automatically change his stance to enemy should the player do so. Alternatively, the player can station all the rams around the Castle. Once Henry changes stance, they will ram the Castle, and once it is destroyed, he is defeated. However, since The Conquerors, the player can send 8 Petards right next to Henry's Castle so that it will go down the moment he changes his stance to enemy, and then it will be easy to finish him off. Alternatively, use Mangonels and the "Attack Ground" command. Using the hill advantage whenever possible, the player can destroy all of Henry's production buildings before the betrayal takes place.
Video[]
Outro[]
Henry expected to be drawn and quartered, the usual fate of traitors in those times. But Barbarossa recognized the potential for a strong ally and officially forgave him, provided that Henry the Lion would swear to support Barbarossa from now on.
Amazingly, Henry agreed.
Germany was unified, and Henry the Lion was pacified. But the Holy Roman Empire was not complete. Harkening back to Charlemagne, the empire claimed ownership of Italy, and especially Rome.
Trivia[]
- Henry the Lion has the same voice as the narrator of the Barbarossa campaign, foreshadowing the reveal that they are the same person in the final outro.
- This is one of three scenarios in which a player starts with over 20,000 points (due to having 99,999 of all resources); namely, Henry and the Polish. The others scenario where this happens are The Great Siege and York.
- There is a way to win this scenario without being betrayed by Henry (and thus sharing a victory) in The Age of Kings: Defeat Bavaria before 6:41 in-game time, which will make Poland resign for some reason.
- Like in the previous scenario, the player starts with a Light Cavalry even though it is not available to the Teutons otherwise.
- Since this scenario predates the release of Age of Empires II HD: The Forgotten, the Poles are played by Goths rather than Slavs. This is corrected in the Definitive Edition, where the Poles are properly represented by the Slavs, like the fifth Genghis Khan scenario. On the other hand, the Poles in the sixth Ivaylo scenario are played as Lithuanians. The Poles got their own civilization in the Dawn of the Dukes expansion, thus correctly appearing in all scenarios involving Poland.
- Henry the Lion's betrayal against Barbarossa is similar to Tokhtamysh Khan's betrayal against Tamerlane in the Gurkhan of Persia scenario, as in both cases they were allies and targeted the same enemies.
Historical comparison[]
- Barbarossa invaded Poland early in his reign, in 1157. However, the purpose was not conquest but the restoration of Wladyslaw II, who had fled to Germany after being overthrown by his brother, Boleslaw IV. After negotiations, Barbarossa withdrew in exchange for several promises (allowing Wladyslaw's return, large sums of gold and silver, Boleslaw's youngest brother as hostage, joining the Emperor's army in his Italian campaign, and going to Magdeburg to address Wladyslaw's complains against him). As Boleslaw honored none of them, Barbarossa invaded again in 1172 (long after Wladyslaw's death) and secured a new peace wherein Boleslaw gave 8,000 marks to Barbarossa and partitioned Silesia between Wladyslaw's sons.
- The second (if not main) inspiration of the scenario is Henry the Lion's campaigns against the Slavic Duchy of Pomerania on the lower Oder river in 1147, 1164, and 1177. Pomerania was once pledged to Poland, but Polish rule ceased by 1138. While a vassal of the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry allied in these campaigns with the King of Denmark, rather than with Barbarossa. He also demanded the Pomeranians's submission to himself, and they transferred it to Barbarossa only after Henry's downfall, in 1181.
- Henry was the Duke of Saxony since 1142 and was made Duke of Bavaria by Barbarossa in 1156, explaining why he remains allied with Saxony and Bavaria in the game despite betraying the player.
- Henry's eastern wars brought his downfall eventually, but in a less direct manner than in the scenario. Instead of rebelling against Barbarossa, he refused to provide troops for Barbarossa's Italian campaign of 1176 and used them against the Slavs. Barbarossa blamed his subsequent defeat on Henry, accused him of insubordination, seized his lands, and banished him from Germany.