| “ | The Trojans are counterattacking and Ajax is surrounded! Arkantos must rescue him and regain control of the battlefield. | ” |
| —Scenario description | ||
| “ | The Trojans counterattack and Ajax is surrounded! Arkantos must free him and regain control of the battlefield. | ” |
| —Scenario description | ||
Just Enough Rope is the fifth scenario of the Fall of the Trident campaign in Age of Mythology. The main objective is to destroy the military buildings in Troy's forward base after rescuing Ajax from a raid.
Summary[]
After breaking through one of Troy's large gates, Arkantos and Odysseus receive word that Ajax is surrounded by Trojan cavalry. They must abandon the gate in order to rescue their ally. Once Ajax is safe, they will need to fall back to his camp and train an even stronger army to take out Troy's military production buildings.
Scenario instructions[]
Starting conditions[]
- Starting age:
Heroic Age - Starting resources: 300 food, 100 wood, 100 gold, 0 favor
- Starting population limit: 25
- Starting units:
- Starting technologies and upgrades: All Classical Age technologies
- Starting god powers: Bolt, Restoration, Bronze
Differences between difficulty levels[]
- On Easy, the Trojan forward base starts with fewer units and buildings. The player begins with Watch Tower, Hand Axe, and Pickaxe researched.
- On Moderate and below, the Trojan forward base starts in the Classical Age.
- On Hard and above, the Trojan forward base starts with more units, military production buildings, and two Watch Towers. The Trojans begin in the Heroic Age and send more cavalry to harass the player's base.
- On Titan, the Trojans begin with Draft Horses and Engineers researched.
Objectives[]
- Defeat the cavalry attacking Ajax.
(Attack the Trojan cavalry quickly, before Ajax is overwhelmed.) - Bring Arkantos and your army to Ajax's Town Center to the southwest.
(Move Arkantos and your surviving army southwest, to Ajax's camp.) - Build up a stronger army and destroy all the buildings in the Trojan forward military base area.
(Troy has secretly built a forward base outside of Troy. Before you can siege Troy itself, you will have to destroy this threat. Troy may also attempt to build additional military buildings close to your base - stop them! Note: It may be useful to explore for alternate routes into the enemy forward base.)
Players[]
- Arkantos ( Zeus): Begins in the Heroic Age worshipping Athena and Dionysus, with Arkantos, Odysseus, eight Hippikons and eight Hoplites.
Allies[]
- Ajax ( Zeus): Ajax' troops consist of a few Hoplites, Toxotai, and Ajax himself. Once rescued, his units and buildings will convert to the player's control.
- Agamemnon ( Zeus): Consists of one Town Center located at the end of a trade route leading to Ajax's Market.
Enemies[]
- Troy ( Poseidon): They will continue to resist attacks from Arkantos and the Greek troops but will resort to sending Villagers outside their walls. Troy will regularly raid the player's camp.
Strategy[]
This guide is applied to Hard difficulty. It is, of course, also applicable for the other grades of difficulty.
To lower casualties, the player should send all units to defeat the Trojan raid. Arkantos should be the first to attack as his moral boost will strengthen all friendly soldiers. Once the cavalry units are defeated, Ajax will guide Arkantos to his camp and convert to his side. Players should immediately start Villager production and focus entirely on their economy rather than on their military. However, Ajax has no military buildings to offer so a Military Academy, a Stable and Temple should be built to train soldier replacements and gather Favor.
Rushing to the Mythic Age to worship Hephaestus is recommended to benefit from his Plenty god power and technologies. Players may also focus on their military and defense instead as Troy will attack regularly. There are lots of Pigs available so player may either gather food from them right away for a fast Mythic or begin farming/hunting and let the pigs fatten up for a slower advancement. Either way, researching Husbandry is recommended. If the player advances quickly enough, they will be able to research the Forge of Olympus technology and then fully upgrade their soldiers with all Armory technologies at low cost.
There is one safe gold supply by the Town Center but it will run out quickly. While there are two large Gold Mines atop the cliff to the northwest, Troy will attempt to guard it with a Watch Tower and will regularly send units to raid it, so it is not a safe gold source. Instead, the player can mass-produce Donkey Caravans to trade with the allied Town Center located at the southern end of the trade route. Trading with allies creates a higher gold income and the cliffs will protect the caravans from attacks.
Troy will raid regularly with mixed armies of Hoplites, Hippikons and Toxotes. Later on, they will also produce Petroboli, up to four at a time. Producing archers will not be necessary seeing how the goal is mainly to destroy buildings. Rather, the player's army should consist of Hoplites and Hypaspists who not only are good against Cavalry and Infantry respectively, but will also do bonus damage against buildings thanks to Zeus' benefits. Hippikons should also be trained to deal with the archers and Petroboli. Troy will also send lone Hippikons to scout the player's base and even lure soldiers away. In this scenario, micromanaging will be critical to ensure the right soldiers are attacking their counters and not wandering off away from the battlefield. There are two passes that lead to the player's base. Walling off one of these will help funnel the enemy in one predictable area. Dionysus has already been worshiped so the player will not have access to any form of healing aside from one cast of Restoration. That God Power should be saved for prior to an attack against Troy's buildings as it will ensure the army is at full health and will repair any buildings damaged by the raids, enabling them to stand longer in the event of a surprise attack. Before that happens, many of the players soldiers will fall to repeated attacks so keeping units away from their counters is especially important to prevent unnecessary losses.
Troy also worships Poseidon for a change, so they will attempt to send groups of villagers to build Stables close to the player's base (made easier by their reduced cost). Standing beyond the passes, especially the east one, will be necessary to prevent surprise raids that will take little time to arrive. It also means that whenever Troy's buildings are destroyed, Militia will spawn from them, which the Hypaspists will also need to defeat. Much to Arkantos' surprise, Troy will also attempt to send Villagers outside their walls to gather from farm and other resources. Raiding these will slow down Troy's unit production.
Before attacking Troy head on, it is best to begin production of Colossi. This building killer will quickly tear down Troy's military buildings while the soldiers take care of Troy's armies but can also fight soldiers if cornered. The Colossus can also heal itself by eating trees if it is injured and is easier to produce thanks to Zeus' increased Favor generation. One of the Relics on this map also reduces Myth Unit training time. Once the player has bypassed the Trojan Stone Wall, they can cast Bronze to make them more resistant against attacks from Troy's military while units that deal high crush damage focus on Troy's Town Center. When destroyed, it will not produce Militia but still slow down their unit production. It is best to avoid attacking the Towers if possible as only the military production building (Academies, Archery Ranges, Stables and Temple) need to be destroyed. Once all those buildings are destroyed, the player will be rewarded with victory.
Titan Difficulty[]
- There are 4 openings that need to be walled.
- Make sure to wall the two Gold Mines (on the top left cliff).
- There is just 1 more Gold Mine that Troy has access to (top left on the map). Explore the hidden path (with a Pegasus) and send troops to raid that mine. The enemy will not notice and the player can slowly starve him off from Gold.
- Train cavalry; the enemy will be constantly attacking with siege weapons.
- Myth units can be helpful as the enemy does not have Heroes.
- Get Husbandry as soon as possible as there are a lot of pigs available for food.
Additional tips[]
- On top of having three campaign heroes, the player has access to Zeus' additional heroes, including mighty Bellerophon, so research Olympian Parentage may be useful to grant them all more HP.
- It is not recommended to capture Troy's farms as that area is poorly defended from attacks. It is best to keep all villagers near the safety of the Town Center.
- To the east of the farms, however, lies an area fenced with Wooden Fences that walls a secret passage leading behind the Trojans' base.
- Extra measures should be taken to protect the many tents the players begins with as these provide valuable population. Surrounding them with walls and towers is recommended.
- There are additional Trojan buildings to the southeast, but these can be ignored.
- Like most of the scenarios involving the Trojan War, the Trojans will never build heroes. An army heavy on mythological units will do well.
- On the hill northwest of Ajax's camp, an enemy villager may attempt to build a watchtower near a couple of large gold mines, so it is highly advisable to prevent this from happening.
- Additionally, the enemy will try to build a fortress on the large hill northeast of the base. This isn't very preventable, but can be avoided by taking the secret passage mentioned before.
Closing Cinematic[]
With all the military buildings destroyed, Arkantos advises Ajax that it is time to resume the attack on the Trojan gate. However, they receive word that Agamemnon himself has been attacked so they must fall back to the main camp and see how bad it is.
Video[]
