Raiders of the Red Sea is the third scenario of the The Sultans Ascend campaign in Age of Empires IV: The Sultans Ascend, and the second scenario in the 'Saladin' chapter. It is based on the Crusader raids in the Red Sea in 1183.
Intro[]
Scenario description[]
A hostile Frankish fleet stirred the peaceful waters of the Red Sea. They would soon feel the fury of Saladin's navy.
Opening cinematic[]
Vying against Christian and Muslim rulers alike, Saladin, in time, rose to power. But a dreadful turmoil bedeviled his realm. A demon, disguised as a man. One Reynald of Châtillon preyed on Muslim merchants and pilgrims. With all the folly of a man deranged, Reynald dared gnash at the heart of Islam itself. Saladin would hunt this dishonorable wretch over land and sea.
Loading screen[]
Led by the reckless Reynald of Châtillon, the Franks brought their marauding to the Muslims of the Red Sea. But their depredations would not go unanswered.
Start of scenario[]
The once prosperous waters of the Red Sea were now impoverished by the plundering of Reynald of Châtillon. But the spirited Muslim fleet would fix every bow and ballista on expelling this unruly malice
Scenario instructions[]
Starting conditions[]
- Starting Age:
Feudal Age - Population limit: 200
- Starting units:
- 10 Villager
- 3 Archer ship
- 10
- Resources: 1,200 food, 1,600 wood, 1,000 gold
Objectives[]
- Establish a naval presence
- Build 3 Fishing Ships
- Assign 3 Fishing Ships to fish for Food
- Build 5 Trade Ships
- Assign 5 Trade Ships to trade with allied Docks
- Build 3 Baghlahs
- Sink the Frankish Ships
- Maintain trade and accumulate gold
- Team Gold Accumulated
- Chase off the Raiders
- Keep Civil Unrest low
- Raze the Pirate base to calm unrest
- Protect the allied docks from Reynald
Gameplay[]
- Frankish raiders may attack allied Trade Ships or your base.
- Pirates will also attack ships in the area.
- Every time a Trade Ship is destroyed, Civil Unrest increases.
- Position fleets around the map to quickly respond to enemy threats.
Hints[]
- All Gold income - whether from trade or found on the map - counts towards the target amount.
- Consider finding the source of the Pirates and eliminating them. This will calm Civil Unrest.
- Destroyed enemy ships leave valuable resources behind. Check the floating debris!
Players[]
- Ayyubid Sultanate (Ayyubids): The player starts in the south of the map with a small town containing a Town Center, a House of Wisdom, a Market, three Docks, some Houses and economic buildings, and several Villagers. Although the player's name is given as the Ayyubid Sultanate, and they share the flag of the Ayyubids, the civilization is much closer to the Abbasid Dynasty, with the same unique technologies, Golden Age bonuses, and unique units, except for replacing the Camel Archer with the Turkic Horse Archer. The player is limited to the Castle Age.
Allies[]
- Yanbu, Aydhab, and Jedda (Ayyubids): The coastal towns of Aydhab in the west, Yanbu in the north, and Jedda in the east each have three Docks and a Town Center, along with a few other buildings each. They do not maintain any presence on the map except for Trade Ships going back and forth between the Docks.
Enemy[]
- Franks (Principality of Antioch): The Franks do not have a permanent on-map presence, but rather constantly spawn ships from the Stealth Kelp Forest in the northwest of the sea. They will attack with large amounts of Galleys, Hulks, and Raiding Galleys, and a smaller number of Demolition Ships.
- Arab Pirates (Abbasid Dynasty): The Arab Pirates have a small base on the islands in the southeast of the Red Sea surrounded by Stealth Kelp Forest. It is not reachable until revealed by the narrator. The base holds a sizable amount of Treasure Chests and is guarded by a small group of Pirates and Springalds, as well as Fortified Outposts. Periodically, Pirate Ships will spawn here and attack Trade Ships.
Strategy[]
Note: The below scenario conditions and strategy are written for the Hard difficulty. Lower difficulties may differ slightly from what is described below.
The strategy in this scenario is similar to that on a standard naval random map game. At the start of the game, the player has 5 minutes to start creating ships, and should use this to continue building up their economy to support a large navy. The player should focus on creating Villagers and assigning them to gather wood, creating Fishing Boats to gather food, and creating Trade Ships to gather gold. More Fishing Boats and Trade Ships are needed to support an economy than the initial number in the objective. Advancing to the Castle Age should be a priority, and Ageing up with the Culture Wing to get Preservation of Knowledge will likely provide the most benefit, since most food should be coming from Fishing Boats. If, however, the player is having difficulty protecting their fishing fleet from enemy raids, the Economic Wing can also provide an alternate source of food. The most important upgrades to research are Wheelbarrow (after building a Mill), wood gathering upgrades, Trade Wing upgrades, Blacksmith technologies (after building a Blacksmith) and all Dock upgrades. The only necessary military production buildings to build are Docks, and in this case, the more the better, since the player will be quickly losing ships at later stages of the scenario.
Once the raids have started and the objective switches to keeping civil unrest low, simply continue building up a sizable, balanced navy, and countering Frankish and Pirate raids, taking advantage of the ship counter system. Use Baghlahs vs Galleys and Dhows vs Raiding Galleys and Demolition Ships. Explosive Dhows are also useful against the Pirate Warships, whenever the Franks have a larger number of Hulks, and as a general purpose damage dealer against large groups of ships. It should be fairly easy to keep Civil Unrest low even if the enemy sinks some Trade Ships, since defeating enemy ships continuously lowers Civil Unrest. Furthermore, when the player has amassed around 10-15 Baghlahs, it will be possible to raze the Pirate base to reset Civil Unrest back to zero. It is not necessary to build land military units to defeat the Pirates and collect the gold in their base; the Pirates can simply be baited by a Villager to come within ship range and defeated that way. There is also a Gold Mine on the island. If enemy raids are sinking too many Trade Ships and Fishing Boats, consider adding Villagers to gather gold and/or food. Trading with the farthest-away Docks grants the most resources, but puts the Trade Ships at highest risk of being attacked.
Once the player has gathered enough gold, Reynald will launch one final attack with a massive amount of ships. It will not be possible to defeat this fleet with only 200 population worth of ships, so this is where having a large amount of resources saved up and a large amount of Docks will come in handy, to replace lost ships, especially Explosive Dhows. The latter are extremely useful here since the Franks group their ships in packed formations and will sail to a predetermined point before breaking to attack. One group of ships will break off to immediately attack the allied Docks in the north, one will sail through the center of the sea towards the player's base, and one will sail towards the allied Docks in the west. Before they reach these points, Explosive Dhows can simply sail into their formation and detonate all at once, dealing massive damage. It will be nearly impossible to save all the allied Docks, especially those in the north, so the player should focus on defeating one of these groups at a time while preventing the Franks from ultimately reaching the last group of Docks in the east. Fighting around the allied Docks after researching Any Port In A Storm can provide an advantage to the player, as their ships will be continuously healed even during combat. Once all of Reynald's ships are destroyed, victory will be achieved.
Achievement[]
Having 20 Trade Ships simultaneously awards the 'Master Naval Trader' achievement. This is easiest to get at the start of the scenario before the Frankish ships start attacking in force. The more Docks are built at the start of the scenario, the easier this is to get quickly while also building military ships.
Outro[]
End of scenario[]
The skill of the Ayyubid sailors prevailed. Reynald's fleet abandoned their evil doing and left the Red Sea, never to blight these waters again
Post-game screen[]
The Ayyubid fleet outmatched and scattered Reynald's belligerent raiders. The Red Sea and its people were secure.
Unlockable content[]
- Video: Raiders of the Red Sea
- Page from History: The Lion's Hunt
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This scenario depicts the same events as the Lord of Arabia scenario in the Saladin campaign in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.
