| “ | I don't understand… will it fight? | ” |
| —Ajax questioning the purpose of a large wooden horse | ||
I Hope this Works is the sixth scenario of the Fall of the Trident campaign in Age of Mythology. The main objective is to build the famed Trojan Horse and invade Troy from the inside.
Summary[]
| “ | Convinced that the Trojan walls will never fall, the heroes plan to use the Trojan Horse in a final attempt to invade the city. | ” |
| —Scenario description | ||
Convinced the Trojan walls will never fall, the heroes plan to use the Trojan Horse in a final attempt to invade the city. Their activity must be kept secret however so they must kill any scout sent from Troy before they can deliver the news to the city. Once on the inside, they will be able to destroy the main Trojan gate and Troy's Fortresses and finally rescue Helen.
Spotlight[]
| “ | Greek Cavalry are trained at the Stables. The Hippeus is a Classical Age cavalry that is generally good at defeating archers and siege weapons but weak against infantry. In the Heroic Age, the Greeks can train the Prodromos, a counter-cavalry that is very good at beating cavalry, but is weaker against other types of units. | ” |
| —In-game section | ||
Scenario instructions[]
Starting conditions[]
- Starting age:
Classical Age - Starting resources: 400 food, 50 wood, 300 gold, 115 favor
- Starting population limit: 45
- Starting units:
- Starting technologies and upgrades: Copper Weapons, Copper Armor, Copper Shields, Medium Infantry, Medium Cavalry, Medium Ranged Soldiers, Draft Horses
- Starting god powers: Bolt, Restoration
Differences between difficulty levels[]
- On Easy, the player begins with an additional Watch Tower in the northwest of their base. The Trojans will not cast Forest Fire on the woods next to the player's Town Center.
- On Moderate and below, the player begins with Signal Fires researched.
- On Hard and above, the Trojans begin with Iron Weapons, Iron Armor, Iron Shields, Champion Infantry, Thracian Horses, Engineers, Boiling Oil, and all available upgrades for their myth units researched. Troy invokes Lightning Storm when their gate is destroyed.
- On Titan, the guards patrolling Troy in the second part of the mission consist of five Cyclopes (rather than one Cyclops and four Hoplites). After Troy's gate is breached, an army of seven Cyclopes will deploy from the northwest part of the city.
Objectives[]
- Accumulate 1000 Wood to build the Trojan Horse.
(You must have 1000 Wood available before the Trojan Horse foundation will appear. Do not allow scouts to escape after discovering your base - they will bring armed patrols if they make it back to Troy's gates.) - Build the Trojan Horse.
(Task Villagers on the Trojan Horse foundation to build it. By using more Villagers it can be built faster. Do not allow scouts to escape after discovering the build site - they will bring armed patrols if they make it back to Troy's gates.) - Sneak your Heroes through Troy toward the Trojan gate and find a way to destroy it.
(Avoid detection if at all possible. Use your God Powers to your advantage.) - Kill the Cyclops guard to capture the Helepoli siege towers.
(Remember to make good use of your God Powers. You may want to reserve the Bronze power for Agamemnon's troops when they arrive.) - Use the Helepolis Towers to destroy the Gate of Troy.
(You can garrison your Heroes into the Helepolis towers to protect them from attack, but don't let the towers be destroyed.) - Defeat Troy by destroying the three Fortresses within its walls.
(The gods are pleased with your progress in battle and have granted you two uses of the Meteor God Power. Use them to help you destroy the Trojan Fortresses.)
Players[]
- Arkantos ( Zeus): Arkantos, Ajax, Odysseus, Agamemnon, two Hoplites, four Prodromos, three Toxotes and some Villagers start in the Classical Age worshipping Athena, with a Town Center and only a handful of buildings spared by the previous Trojan attacks. They are restricted to the Heroic Age and to a population of 150. They are also unable to build walls or train Petroboli.
Ally → Neutral[]
- Troy Civilians ( Hades): They own some buildings that make up most of the city of Troy. Some of their units can be captured by the heroes. This is primarily a decorative player.
Enemies[]
- City Guards ( Poseidon): They will initially send scouts (Champion Hetairoi) to ensure Agamemnon and his forces have left. If they are near death, they will return to Troy's gates. If these are allowed to return to the main city, Troy Military will send additional forces to finish the job. They also have a huge army that assemble outside the city walls which can be seen if a scout is returning since the player will gain line of sight on those returning scouts.
- At night fall, they will have minimal units which will guard the city of Troy
- Troy Military ( Hades): Their army will just stay behind the Trojan walls unless the City Guards' scout(s) are able to return to the gates. During the daytime they own numerous Guard Towers atop a cliff on both sides guarding the gates. They begin in the Heroic Age worshipping Aphrodite.
- After finding the Trojan Horse and bringing it within their gates, their own troops will simply disappear, leaving them only with buildings which include the three Fortresses and several military production buildings at nightfall.
- At nightfall, the numerous Guard Towers outside the city walls mentioned earlier will disappear as well.
Strategy[]
This guide is applied to Hard difficulty. It is also applicable for the other grades of difficulty.
Preparing for Trojan offensives[]
Immediately as the scenario begins, one hero should be sent to retrieve the Relic south of the town as it increases the speed of cavalry. Also, the Hand Axe and Crenellations technologies should be researched and a Stable built. Food will be needed to train more Villagers and cavalry units, so the player should have their villagers gather food from the Goats while the Prodromoi search north-west and south-east of the Town Center to find more. Villager production must be kept steady, to get enough resources for not only building the Horse, but also to replace fallen soldiers and construct some more military buildings. Once the Goats are used up, Fishing Ships should be used for food gathering as they are less vulnerable to the impending Trojan attacks.
The area around the Town Center is fairly open and resources are scattered widely so it will be difficult to monitor the activity of Villagers and the arrival of the Trojan scouts. Troy will regularly send scouting parties of six Hetairos and will switch back and forth between arriving from the north pass and from the east pass. These can easily be lured closer to the Town Center which, alongside the towers, will bombard them with arrows. The player starts with some Watch Towers to help take them out, but it is best to build some additional towers for protection. Crenellations will enable the towers better hit the fast-moving cavalry and do bonus damage to them. The Prodromoi are the best option at countering the Hetairoi as they are faster and also do bonus damage to them.
Speed is crucial as once only two Hetairoi remain, they will attempt to flee to Troy to warn the city of the imminent danger. The Bolt god power can be saved to kill one scout that may escape. If even one scout makes it back to the city, Troy will send an army made up of Hippikons, Hypaspists, Toxotes, Nemean Lions and a Petrobolos in an attempt to finish off the player. If this army is successfully killed, Troy will resume periodically sending scouts of Hetairoi.
The Trojan Horse has a slow build rate, so lots of Villagers will be needed to construct it. Once the player feels safe, all Villagers should concentrate on building the Horse. Once the Horse is complete, a cutscene will occur and the second part of the scenario will begin.
Inside Troy[]
Ajax, Arkantos and Odysseus will exit the Trojan Horse now brought within the walls of Troy after nightfall, and must be sent to scout ahead. There will be a patrol of four Hoplites and a Cyclops (five Cyclopes on Titan), strong enough to tackle all three heroes. Players should simply wait for these to move on to another area and then continue towards the gate. They will need to kill an Elder Cyclops to capture Troy Civilian's four Helepoli, but should first wait for a Colossus patrolling the area to leave. Once the Cyclops is killed, the Helepoli will now be under the player's control and can be used to destroy the main Trojan Gate after the heroes kill the Hypaspist guard. The heroes can even garrison in one helepoli to grant it more attack and so it can tear down the gate faster.
Once the gate is destroyed, Agamemnon will arrive with reinforcements made up of Hoplites, Hypaspists, Toxotes, Catapults and Colossi. Casting Bronze as fast as possible will help protect the soldiers from Troy's Lightning Storm. The combined strength of these units and the Meteor god powers granted will be needed to destroy the three Fortresses. Once Troy has fallen, the Trojan War will end and victory is secured.
Additional tips[]
- Players may train Minotaurs to give some additional bulk to their army, but they must be careful not to knock Troy's scouts away from the battlefield, allowing them to potentially get a head start in fleeing back to Troy.
- Troy may cast Forest Fire to disrupt villagers gathering wood far from the player's Town Center.
Trivia[]
- This scenario can be won during the first part if the player destroys the three Trojan Fortresses without building the Trojan horse.
- If the main Trojan Gate is destroyed during the first part of the scenario, Agamemnon with reinforcements and two uses of the Meteor god power won't appear, since one of the objectives asks the player to destroy the Gate of Troy. The objective remains incomplete; However, destroying the three Trojan Fortresses still rewards victory.
- Originally Achilles was meant to appear as character. This can be seen from an image contained in the Multiplayer Alpha files, where he is depicted leading an army out of Troy whilst Arkantos and Ajax arrive at the Docks in the end cinematic.
- This is the only scenario in Fall of the Trident where the lighting changes from day to night.
- Agamemnon's army arrives with Egyptian Catapults, rather than Greek Petroboli.
Closing cinematic[]
The Greek army marches out of Troy as the remains of the great city is destroyed by a meteor storm. Arkantos felt the war was a nice break from battling pirates and was planning on returning home. However, his ships are not in the proper condition for the return trip to Atlantis. Arkantos is directed to Ioklos for ship repairs and Ajax says he could show him the way.
Meanwhile, the cyclops Gargarensis is overseeing captives at a dig site. Kemsyt reports that the pirate Kamos has returned but lost the trident to Arkantos and that the Atlantean was on his way to help the Greeks in the Trojan War, and his presence would end it soon. Gargarensis retorts that the siege has already ended. He then orders Kemsyt to send for Kamos as he wants to speak to him personally.
Gallery[]
Video[]
See also[]
- The Trojan War, the same event depicted in Age of Empires
