Of Castles and Kings is the third scenario of the Edward Longshanks campaign in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Lords of the West.
Intro[]
Edward left the Holy Land in an uneasy truce. Baibars had promised to keep the peace for ten years, ten months and ten days; now, with more pressing matters developing back in England, my father could only hope that the Sultan would keep his word.
While Edward was away on Crusade, building his reputation as an honorable and capable leader, his father Henry died, leaving him the English crown.
He returned to an England both stable and eagerly anticipating his arrival. On August 19, 1274, the Lord Edward was crowned Edward I of England.
Wishing to expand his new kingdom, Edward set his sights west towards Wales, an old enemy that had supported Simon de Montfort during the baronial rebellion.
The Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd constantly antagonized the Anglo-Norman marcher lords on the border. Adding insult to injury, he took Simon de Montfort's daughter Eleanor as his bride.
My father pounced on the already fractured Welsh factions, seeking to conquer them piece by piece. But if there was one thing that the Welsh princes hated more than each other, it was Englishmen imposing their laws on Welsh territory.
Llywelyn's brother Dafydd joined the fray and the brothers waged a war of stealth and ambushes, defeating Edward's southern armies under Luke de Tany and Gilbert de Clare.
Seeing that the hardy folk of these mountainous forests and coarse heaths would not bend easily to his will, my father changed tactics. If the Welsh could not be crushed in open battle, they would be brought to heel from a series of impenetrable castles.
Scenario instructions[]
Starting conditions[]
- Starting Age: Castle Age
- Starting resources: 500 food, 500 wood, 500 gold, 200 stone
- Population limit: 150
- Starting technologies:
- On all difficulties: Hoardings
- On moderate difficulty: Squires, Bodkin Arrow, Chain Barding Armor
- On standard difficulty: Squires, Husbandry, Ballistics, the five Blacksmith upgrades from the Castle Age
Objectives[]
- Travel to the site of the first Castle.
- (subsequently) Defend the builders while they construct the first Castle.
- (subsequently) Travel to the site of the second Castle.
- (subsequently) Defend the builders while they construct the second Castle.
- (subsequently) Travel to the site of the third Castle.
- (subsequently) Defend the builders while they construct the third Castle.
- (subsequently) All three castles must stand.
After successfully defending the Castle construction sites the time has come to deal with the Welsh:
- Choose your path to victory:
- Defeat the Welsh army.
- Kill Llywelyn ap Gruffydd and Dafydd ap Gruffydd.
- (secondary) Kill Welsh Villagers (3, Green) to prevent supplies from reaching Llywelyn and Dafydd's forces.
Hints[]
- King Edward can advance to the Imperial Age and support a population limit of 150. The construction of Castles and Cannon Galleons is impossible, but English masons are constructing some castles for you.
- Waste no time in marching to defend each Castle under construction. The death of the builders will mean defeat.
- The Welsh are adept at mobile, hit-and-run warfare. Use the terrain to your advantage and try to force pitched battles on your terms.
- The peasants serving the Welsh Army also provide the retinues of its commanders with resources. Raiding them will cripple the entire enemy war effort.
- Weigh your paths to victory. Crushing the Welsh Army requires you to only defeat one enemy, but the war can also be ended merely by killing both Welsh princes.
Scouts[]
Your scouts report:
- King Edward (1, Red) has arrived in Wales with an army to oversee the construction of fortresses at several locations. The masons undertaking this task (6, Grey) must be protected at all costs.
- Several English vassals and allied marcher lords (2, Blue) hold lands in the south and southeast. They will support Edward by defending his strongholds with swordsmen, Elite Skirmishers, and Knights.
- Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, Prince of Wales (4, Yellow) has his seat in the western region of Gwynedd. A force of infantry and archery units defends him with their lives.
- Llywelyn's brother Dafydd (5, Cyan) operates from a hideout in the north. His personal retinue consists of heavy cavalry and archery units.
- The Welsh Army (3, Green) has made camp to the northwest. Swarms of Light Cavalry, swordsmen, and Elite Skirmishers will issue forth in time, complemented by an array of siege engines.
Players[]
Player[]
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- Player ( Britons): The player starts with King Edward, Archers and Knights, with a few Tents for housing. The first objective is to reach the nearest Castle building ground and defend the builders. The player cannot erect a city until all three Castles have been completed.
Allies[]
- Marcher Lords ( Sicilians - Normans): Lords that defend the Welsh border. Once Edward and his army approach them, they will tribute some of their soldiers and Villagers to help the player build an economy.
- Castle Builders ( Britons): Merely the builders of three Castles which Edward must protect. Once they finish building, each Castle will subsequently turn over to the player. They cease to exist in-game after this is completed.
Enemies[]
- The Welsh Army ( Britons): The Welsh Army has numerous camps and is the most frequently dangerous. They occasionally attack the player with infantry, archers, Light Cavalry, and Battering Rams.
- Llywelyn ap Gruffydd ( Britons): Llywelyn has a fortified base to the northwest separated on land by a forest. He trains Longbowmen, Knights and siege weapons, and also has a force of warships. Llywelyn will not actively attack the player, except on Hard difficulty, where he will send his warships to attack the English coastline.
- Dafydd ap Gruffydd ( Britons): Dafydd has a smaller base but it is well-fortified. He also trains Knights, archers and infantry to defend himself. He does not attack the player on Standard or Moderate. [Hard needs testing.]
Strategy[]
The scenario is actually pretty simple. At the beginning, the player has to protect the masons building the Castles with their starting troops. The masons start building the Castle when one of the player's units arrives at the construction site, so the player should send the cavalry units in a separate control group so they are not slowed down by the other units. By using the right counter-troops and micromanaging the Longbowmen, protecting the masons should be possible for all Castles without great difficulty, even at the highest difficulty level. Care only applies to the last Castle, because there the Welsh Army come from above and below, and thus the construction workers can quickly be killed from the other side. If all Villagers building a Castle are killed, the scenario ends in defeat.
After all three castles are completed, the player gets control of all Castles (since the Castle Builders start in the post-Imperial Age, the Castles are fully upgraded) plus any surviving builders and some Villagers with whom they have to build a base. There is space behind the Castles for this, but due to the walking paths that are too close to resources, the area behind the middle Castle is best. The player should invest as much as possible in Longbowmen and seal three of the four entrances to the river side with walls; this funnels the Welsh AI to a river crossing, allowing them to be picked off wonderfully by Longbowmen. If the player walls off all river crossings, the Welsh will attack via the shallows near the third Castle. Funneling the enemy should give the player more than enough time to build up the economy, technology, and military in order to overrun the Welsh. There are two different ways to win; both are about the same difficulty and take the same amount of time, so it doesn't matter which way the player decides.
Llywelyn ap Gruffydd is the only enemy that builds a navy, but he does not use it to attack the player except on Hard difficulty. Reaching him requires either Transport Ships (not recommended) or using Onagers or Trebuchets to destroy the forest between his base and the army's economic center. Both he and his brother are garrisoned inside Castles that must be destroyed to assassinate them. They resign once killed.
The Welsh Army is scattered between the two brothers, as well as a small base immediately across the river from the first Castle. Defeating them requires destroying their economic center and all of their Houses. They also have two Monasteries, one to the north and one to the west, each of which contains a garrisoned Relic. Destroying one or both swiftly may prove beneficial to the player, as it changes the direction of the gold flow, but becomes less necessary later into the scenario.
Note: the player cannot research Warwolf in this scenario.
Outro[]
The Welsh fought valiantly, but they were no match for Edward's wrath. My father's forces outmaneuvered Llywelyn's forces and smashed them at Orewin Bridge. The Welsh prince fell to the lance of a lone rider, who knew not the importance of the man whom he had slain.
His brother Dafydd was captured at Nanhysglain and declared a traitor to the English crown. Edward pitilessly condemned his bold adversary to be drawn and quartered.
Wales was now firmly in my father's grip. He bestowed upon me the title of Prince of Wales, which shall be the heirloom of my line henceforth.
The network of formidable fortifications that Edward constructed throughout the land shall ensure that the Welsh bow to the English crown for generations to come.
Trivia[]
- Dafydd ap Gruffudd was the first person known to have been tried and executed for what from that time onwards would be described as "high treason" against the King. Edward ensured that Dafydd's death was to be slow and agonizing, and also historic; he became the first prominent person in recorded history to have been hanged, drawn and quartered.