| “ | Japanese samurai relentlessly assail Korea, whose defenders seem to stand little chance against these seasoned warriors. However, the ingenious Yi Sun-shin resolves to repel the invaders and smash the Japanese navy with a deadly new weapon. | ” |
| —In-game scenario description in the Definitive Edition | ||
Noryang Point is the eighth scenario in the Battles of the Conquerors campaign in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors. The player plays as the Koreans, defending themselves from a Japanese invasion. This scenario is based on the Battle of Noryang.
Intro[]
The haze of spent gunpowder hangs over the gravel-strewn beach, confusing the seabirds that nest on the rocky outcroppings of Chinhae Bay. As soon as the winds of the Eastern Sea disrupt the cloud, the Japanese navy will return, cannons blazing at the seawalls and what remains of the Korean fleet. Although the army has so far managed to repel any of the samurai that have waded ashore, it is only a matter of time before the Japanese are victorious.
The last hope for the Korean navy is an innovative commander named Yi Sun-shin. Admiral Yi is constructing a secret weapon - a ship with iron armor that can withstand the Japanese cannon and a spiked hull to repel boarders. He calls these ships Kobukson, or Turtle Ships. If Admiral Yi can ready his fleet of Turtle Ships in time, then the Koreans stand a chance of defeating the Japanese. On the other hand, if he is too late...
Scenario instructions[]
Starting conditions[]
- Starting age:
Castle Age - Starting resources: 1,000 food, 1,000 wood, 1,000 gold, 1,000 stone
- Population limit: 125 (115 if the Wonder is destroyed) (75 before the Definitive Edition)
- Starting units:
- 18 Villagers
- 5 Galleons
- 2 Fast Fire Ships
- 2 Cannon Galleons
- 18
- Gaia units:
- Starting technologies:
- War Galley
- Imperial Age
- Murder Holes (Only on Standard difficulty)
Objectives[]
Main objectives[]
- Defend Korea from the Japanese.
- Find Admiral Yi and learn of his secret weapon.
- Use Turtle Ships to defeat the Japanese navy.
- Destroy all of the Japanese Docks to end their threat to Korea.
Secondary objectives[]
- Prevent the Japanese from destroying Korea's Wonder.
Hints[]
- The Koreans are restricted to a population limit of 125.
- Defend the Wonder if you can, but you can achieve victory without it. The Wonder provides a small gold income and 10 additional population.
- The Japanese navy is initially superior to the Korean fleet. You will need to figure out some way to even the odds.
- Only after finding Admiral Yi will the Koreans be able to train some of their most powerful units.
- Defend the Wonder if you can, but you can achieve victory without it.
- The Japanese navy is superior to the Koreans. You will need to figure out some way to even the odds.
- The Koreans are unable to construct Castles or train some of their most powerful units, at least initially.
Scouts[]
- Your scouts report: Korea (red) has an extensive town, but is vulnerable to the Japanese navy, particularly its Cannon Galleons.
- Expect Japan (yellow) to attack with everything they have, including ships and Samurai on Transports. You will need to play defensively until you have the means to bring the battle back to the Japanese homeland.
- Two potential allies may be found. Admiral Yi (green) is a brilliant Korean tactician who will certainly assist, provided you can locate him.
- The Chinese (orange) are no friends of Korea, but they may fear the Japanese even more. Might they be of assistance?
Players[]
Player[]
- Koreans ( Koreans): Has an ill-defended base with few warships at southernmost tip of the Korean Peninsula, and a Wonder by the eastern coast. At the beginning, the player's Wonder is under a strong attack by the Japanese Navy. It is highly recommended for the player to rescue the Wonder in the Definitive Edition, where it not only generates 0.5 gold/s, but also provides 10 population limit. In the later game, the player will be told to find Admiral Yi while encountering a huge Japanese fleet and massive landing forces.
Allies[]
- Admiral Yi ( Koreans): Resides at the northwestern part of Korea. His gate is initially blocked by trees. Once the player has met him, they will obtain all his three Castles, himself (a Turtle Ship hero), and another two Turtle Ships. Once the player brings the three Turtle Ships out, the rocks blocking their way will be cleared together with the trees around the gate - giving the player land access to these castles.
- Chinese ( Chinese): Located on the small island at the southwestern part of the map (likely based on Jeju Island), having a castle, a few watch towers, 10 Chu Ko Nu and 10 Bombard Cannons. Once the three Turtle Ships are brought there, the player will take control of all the 20 units. Note that while they may be attacked by the Japanese Navy, they do not even retaliate because their stance towards Japanese Navy is 'ally'.
Enemies[]
- Japanese Navy ( Japanese): The main enemy of this scenario, located in Japan, and frequently invade with Galleons, Cannon Galleons, Fire Ships, and occasionally Demolition Ships. They will also transport Samurai, Hand Cannoneers, and Monks. However they have no villagers (or even a Town Center) to gather resources.
- Japanese Raiders ( Japanese): They have no Villagers as well and do not have a navy. They will attempt to destroy the Wonder with Samurai, Crossbowmen, Heavy Scorpions, and Capped Rams. They might destroy the Gaia Transport Ship provided to find Admiral Yi after the player spots the Transport Ship.
Dialogue[]
Korean Soldier: We cannot drive off the repeated attacks of these Japanese warships. We must seek aid from Admiral Yi Sun Shin. Rumor has it that he has been working on a secret weapon.
When Admiral Yi Sun-shin is located:
Korean Soldier: With these Turtle Ships, we will send every Japanese ship to the bottom of the sea! We should build as many as we can.
Chu Ku Nu: Admiral Yi, we can assist you in driving off the Japanese raiders, but you will have to transport us across the sea.
When the Japanese navy is destroyed:
Korean Sailor: Our coast is now rid of Japanese marauders, but they could return in the future. We should sail to Japan and destroy all of the Japanese docks.
After destroying all the Japanese Docks:
Korean Sailor: Korea is free once again!
Strategy[]
The simplest strategy is to concentrate on defending from the Japanese Navy (yellow). Build ships to face theirs, but also have a few soldiers on hand, in case a transport ship makes it across. The best way to do this is to concentrate on Fire Ships, as the Japanese Navy does not build many Demolition Ships. The player may be able to achieve sea superiority, which allows them to intercept most of the enemy transports, which is the most efficient way to defend against their land attacks. An alternative and maybe better way is to abandon the original settlements and build another well fortified town center inland, concentrating on fortifying this, the best location being near the central cliff. This strategy stops the problem of Japanese boat attacks (although the player will still have to face the Samurai and other raiders).
After some time has passed, the player will be given the task of finding Admiral Yi (green), who has developed a weapon to fight the invaders. If the player sends a unit up north (Scout Cavalry are perfect), they will find a Transport Ship on the river, and a few soldiers from the Japanese Raiders (purple). The player can defeat these, but it is not required; just get the unit across the river, and head west to receive two Elite Turtle Ships and Admiral Yi himself (a Hero Turtle Ship).
As the ships head south, the Chinese (orange) residing on the small island south of the Korean peninsula will give the player ten Chu Ko Nu and ten Bombard Cannons, but they will be useless until they are transported somewhere. It would not be advisable to send the Transport Ships there before bringing the Turtle Ships, because once the player owns the 20 Chinese units, the Japanese Navy will immediately start attacking the island, and the Chinese Castle and towers will not protect them (see section above "Allies").
After sinking the Japanese fleet (which should not be too difficult, with a few Turtle Ships), the player will be given instructions to destroy all of their Docks. They are not located by the time the objective appears, so the player will need to explore or research Spies in order to locate them. A combination of Elite Turtle Ships and Elite Cannon Galleons are all the player needs to finish the scenario.
Defending the Wonder[]
- Achievement: The Wonder, the Wonder, the...Oh, Never Mind
Although the objective is present in both the original version and the Definitive Edition, the Definitive Edition of the game introduces an achievement for successfully warding off the Japanese navy from razing the Wonder initially seen in the game. The Japanese Navy will attack the Wonder in the northern part of the base. The player must make an attempt to defend it with the surrounding Keeps (once advanced to the Imperial Age, the Guard Towers are automatically upgraded), and by sending Fire Ships and Galleons if necessary. Before the Definitive Edition, there is no consequence if the Wonder is destroyed, but the Japanese fleet will immediately start attacking the player's base to the south, which therefore makes it highly advised to protect it at all costs. In the Definitive Edition, however, the Wonder generates a trickle of 0.5 gold/s (the same rate as a Relic) and increases the population limit from 115 to 125.
However, some things of note, especially if one attempts to unlock the achievement, is that in the Definitive Edition, defending the Wonder in difficulties other than Standard will be difficult, as the Japanese will have additional Cannon Galleons at the start, and they will be upgraded to elite. Initially, there were 8 Cannon Galleons at all difficulty levels, but after certain updates, there are 10 Elite Cannon Galleons on Moderate and Hard difficulty. On standard difficulty, there are 6 Cannon Galleons (not elite). This will make defending the Wonder a difficult task.
Bearing in mind that the player is allowed to pause the game and will need to act a lot in few seconds, to prevent the Wonder from collapsing:
- Send the navy immediately to the enemy Cannon Galleons (dive into them among the ordinary Japanese Galleons) and simultaneously train more ships from one Dock. Fire Ships are highly recommended due to their resistances, speed (the reinforcements will quickly reach the combat zone) and output damage. Indeed, the other Dock should research the Fast Fire Ship/Galleon upgrade. In addition, the Villagers near the Mill should start building 3-4 new Docks in order to significantly increase navy production.
- Research Bodkin Arrow and Bracer at the Blacksmith. Research Heated Shot (do it first) and Masonry at the University. The sum of these factors will amp up the Towers' damage while granting a bit more of durability to buildings under attack.
- Send the Villagers spawned at the Town Center to the Wonder to repair the buildings and to build new Towers. At the Town Center, start a Villagers queue, sending them to gather wood and gold.
- Make sure the Villagers spawned at the Mining Camp start gathering stone. This will be needed to both build and repair buildings in the Wonder area,
- Fight wisely. The player should focus on taking down the Cannon Galleons with both the ships and Towers, as the other ships are much less of a threat to the Wonder.
If done properly, the Wonder will remain standing and the initial attacking force of the Japanese will be defeated. After this, rebuild a few Keeps next to the Wonder and research other relevant technologies to strengthen them (e.g., Architecture). Please note that, to destroy the Wonder, the Japanese Raiders will launch a land attack with a decent mix of units at a later stage of the game. For this reason, the player should consider training some land units once possible to at least snipe their siege weapons. The Towers can easily take care of the rest of their units.
Note: When the Definitive Edition was released, the Korean Castle Age unique technology was Panokseon, which increased the speed of Turtle Ships by 15%. This research was unavailable until the player found Admiral Yi (even if the player built a Castle before that). With update 42848, this technology was removed (now Elite Turtle Ships get an automatic 15% speed increase) and replaced by Eupseong, which increases the range of non-Bombard towers by 2 (and replaced the Korean civilization bonus, which increased the range of non-Bombard towers by 2 in the Imperial Age). Because of this, now the player's Keeps start with 2 less range (9 instead of 11), and they could only research Eupseong after finding Admiral Yi. With update 50292, Eupseong is now available for research since the beginning.
Outro[]
The Japanese were unable to establish a base on either China or Korea. Therefore, all supplies and reinforcements had to come from the Japanese islands themselves. Once Admiral Yi destroyed the Japanese navy, the samurai armies were isolated from supply, and the invasion ended.
Yi Sun-shin died in the battle, but the Japanese commander, Hideyoshi, died soon after, and with him, the lust for Japanese conquest. The possibility of a Japanese empire in eastern Asia in the 16th century died under the guns of slow, but deadly, armored Korean warships.
Trivia[]
- The scenario is highly historically inaccurate. The real Battle of Noryang took place west of today's Namhae Island in South Korea, while the scenario takes place at the southern area of the Korean peninsula. Also, in this scenario, the player has to destroy all the Docks in Japan, but historically, the Koreans didn't attack Japan in the battle.
- Turtle Ships were not used in the battle. There were 3 Turtle Ships in total in Korea, but they were all discarded by Won Gyun in the Battle of Chilcheonnyang in 1597 when he saw a fleet of Japanese warships come towards his side, while admiral Yi had lost his commandership to king Seonjo. There were no Turtle Ships in the war after the Battle of Chilcheonnyang.
- The outro made a factual error by saying that Hideyoshi died shortly after Yi Shun-shin's death. In reality, Hideyoshi died on 18 September 1598, while the battle took place on 16 December 1598, when Japan was ruled by the Council of Five Elders dominated by Tokugawa Ieyasu (referenced in the outro of Kyoto). However, the news of Hideyoshi's death was withheld from the Japanese military in Korea to preserve their morale.
- Despite the presence of economic buildings and drop off points (Lumber Camp, Mining Camp) the Japanese Navy does not have any villagers to utilize them nor will they ever - lacking a Town Center. They only have Fishing Ships as gatherers. Destroy them to lower the cost of Spies, as it will be useful to achieve the last objective of this scenario.
- The Japanese Navy's stance towards the Chinese and Japanese Raiders is 'enemy' while for the vice versa it is 'ally'. Therefore, the Japanese Navy may attack the Chinese and Japanese Raiders without any resistance.
- The Wonder provides a small gold income and 10 population.
- Simply destroying the Japanese Docks without meeting Admiral Yi Sun Shin does not trigger victory. The objective to destroy Japanese Docks will be given only after Admiral Yi is being taken out to the sea.
- Chronologically, this is the last campaign scenario in Age of Empires II, being set on the eve of the 17th century, even overlapping with the early time period covered by Age of Empires III.
- By pausing the game as soon as it begins, it is actually possible to queue Turtle Ships without finding the admiral. The option is removed as soon as the scenario starts, but the Turtle Ships will continue to be trained.
Gallery[]
