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Reign of Blood is the first scenario of the Montezuma campaign in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors.

Intro[]

Passed down to you by Cuauhtémoc, Eagle Warrior of Tenochtitlan. An omen appeared above the forest, the shape of an ear of corn, but blazing like daybreak. It seemed to bleed fire, drop by drop, like a wound in the sky. I am a warrior, not a priest, and knew not what to make of such a sign.

I consulted with the seers and magicians to see if another great war was coming, but they answered only in riddles. "The gods want more sacrifice," was their answer. That was always their answer.

Much of our empire of rain forests and volcanoes has been conquered in the name of sacrifice. The magicians tell us that we must make a sacrifice every single day for the sun to continue to rise.

It took the relay teams two full days to carry my message the two hundred miles to our city of Tenochtitlan. After two more days, my uncle, Montezuma, emperor of the Aztecs, sent his reply.

Montezuma's priests foretold that the god Quetzalcoatl might soon return from his long exile. How else to explain the omen?

Montezuma ordered my warriors to increase their efforts to consolidate the rain forest between our lands and those of our enemies. We must establish control over four shrines that are sacred to Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent.

Because the Aztec Empire is mighty and constantly expands, we have made many enemies. We must defend these shrines from our enemies in order to prepare for Quetzalcoatl's eventual return.

Scenario instructions[]

Starting conditions[]

Differences between difficulty levels[]

  • On Standard difficulty, the player receives 3 Watch Towers to help guard their base, and Murder Holes is already researched.

Objectives[]

  • Capture the 4 shrines (Monasteries) sacred to Quetzalcoatl.
  • Place a sacred Relic in each of the 4 shrines (Monasteries).

Hints[]

  1. The Aztecs are restricted to the Castle Age and a population limit of 75.
  2. You must defend the shrines that are sacred to the god Quetzalcoatl. Making new Monasteries will not be sufficient to please him.
  3. Your enemies will attempt to destroy the shrines in order to embarrass you before the gods. Therefore, do not attempt to claim the shrines until you can defend them.
  4. Aztec Monks are very powerful when fully upgraded. Once you capture a shrine (Monastery) and have advanced to the Castle Age you can train Monks.

  1. You must defend the shrines that are sacred to the god Quetzalcoatl. Making new Monasteries will not be sufficient to please him.
  2. Your enemies will attempt to destroy the shrines in order to embarrass you before the gods. Therefore, do not attempt to claim the shrines until you can defend them.
  3. Aztec Monks are very powerful when fully upgraded. Once you capture a shrine (Monastery) and have advanced to the Castle Age you can train Monks.
  4. The Aztecs are restricted to the Castle Age.

Scouts[]

  • Montezuma's forces (1, Green) begin in the Feudal Age with only a few soldiers. These few must defend the Aztec town from early attacks.

Your enemies are three:

  • The Tlatiluco (2, Red) are located to the west. Their army of swordsmen and Eagle Warriors can be dealt with relatively early.
  • The Tepanaca (4, Orange) dwell to the north of your town. Their walls may keep you out of their town until you have siege weapons. They train Archers and Eagle Warriors.
  • The Xochimilco (3, Purple) are your most dangerous enemy. They live far to the north and train Archers and Scorpions. Do not engage them until you have many Eagle Warriors at your command.

  • Your scouts report: Montezuma's forces (green) begin in the Feudal Age with only a few soldiers. These few must defend the Aztec town from early attacks.
  • Your enemies are three; The Tlatiluco (red) are located to the west. Their army of swordsmen and Eagle Warriors can be dealt with relatively early.
  • The Tepanaca (orange) dwell to the north of your town. Their walls may keep you out of their town until you have siege weapons. They train Archers and Eagle Warriors.
  • The Xochimilco (purple) are your most dangerous enemy. They live far to the north and train Archers and Scorpions. Do not engage them until you have many Eagle Warriors at your command.

Players[]

Player[]

  • Aztecs ( Aztecs): The player begins with a Town Center and a few Eagle Warriors and Villagers in the southeast.

Enemies[]

Dialogue[]

Aztec Villager: I hear the growl of the jaguar. Is this a bad omen?

After capturing Gaia Monastery to the west of Tepanaca:

Tepanaca: You defile our sacred temple, Aztecs! The gods demand a sacrifice!

If a Monastery is destroyed:

Aztec Villager: We have allowed one of the sacred shrines to be destroyed! I fear the wrath of the gods! The corn will bleed and insects will plague the cities of the Aztecs for all eternity!

Strategy[]

To win, the player must garrison all four Relics scattered around the map inside each of the four Monasteries. The player will not win after defeating all the enemies, and it is not necessary to defeat any enemies. The player cannot advance to the Imperial Age and cannot build Monasteries.

Tlatiluco has a small base in the southwest defended by a single Watch Tower. They will resign when they have less than four Villagers and lose their Town Center.

Xochimilco starts with the largest town in the northwest will a Castle. They will resign when they have less than four Villagers, lose their Town Center, and lose their Castle.

Tepanaca starts will a small base, but is the most defended player out of all the enemies with four Watch Towers and a Castle. Their starting army consists of seven Archers and two Eagle Scouts. Their west wall is defended with two Watch Towers, while the east wall is undefended. They also have a double layer Palisade Wall containing several Jaguars east of their east wall. They will resign when they have less than four Villagers, lose their Town Center, and lose their Castle.

Soon after beginning, one of the player's Villagers will warn of wild Jaguars coming to the village. Take the starting Eagle Scouts and kill all jaguars as they come from the northeast, before they reach the Town Center if possible as this will not interrupt the Villagers' work. After that, scout north and west to locate nearby mines, Javelinas, and Turkeys.

There are only four Relics, each near a shrine, and no enemy can pick them as they cannot build Monasteries of their own. The two nearest shrines are near the roads west of the starting base; the third is at the north of the map, only accessible after crossing the Tepanaca base, and the fourth is beyond a river west of Xochimilco. It is advisable to build up before capturing the shrines, as they will have to be defended from the enemies. In particular, building walls and towers on the elevated ground north and west of the starting base, beyond the mines but before reaching Tepanaca territory or any shrine, is a good way to free troops and neutralize early enemy attacks. Early defenses can get overwhelmed by sheer enemy numbers (especially in the Definitive Edition), but they become virtually impermeable after fully upgrading them, since no enemy can build siege weapons besides Xochimilco's Scorpions. Defending the shrines can be accomplished by either stationing troops, or building towers and walls near them.

The Tepanaca start with a gate and walls on their southern flank. In The Conquerors, it is possible to avoid them altogether by following the road of the nearest shrine and attacking Tepanaca from the west, but in the Definitive Edition, this path is also walled (there are also Watch Towers behind both). Beyond there is a couple of towers in a small lake, forcing attackers into the center of the Tepanaca base which includes a Castle on a cliff. It is also possible to enter the base from the east by tearing down two lines of Palisade Walls and dealing with Jaguars between them, but this will also lead straight into the Castle.

Send a sizable force of upgraded swordsmen, Skirmishers, and siege weapons against the Tepanaca. Do not think of simply capturing the Tepanaca shrine with an Eagle Scout in a suicide mission, because this will spam several Eagle Scouts coming from the north towards the shrine and they will destroy it. The Tepanaca also always build an Archery Range just east of the shrine, where they train Archers and Skirmishers.

Reaching the westernmost shrine requires dealing with the defenses of Tlatiluco (two towers on the water road) and Xochimilco (a Castle and several military units, both ranged and melee). Prior to the Definitive Edition, the shrine is separated by a river, which Xochimilco must at least be driven away from the river shore before the player can build a Dock and Transport Ship to cross the water. Obviously, this either requires bringing in some Villagers under the soldiers' protection (along with a few Mangonels), or converting some from the Tlatiluco and Xochimilco with Monks. In the Definitive Edition, if the game has dragged on long enough, the shrine will be accessible by foot, as Xochimilco Villagers will have chopped many trees. So once the shrine is captured, the player should defend it. The shrine is further defended by Jaguars, but since wild animals ignore Eagle Warriors and Monks, it is not actually necessary to kill them before reaching the shrine and capturing the Relic.

Trading is discouraged, due to the map having plenty of Gold Mines and the first captured Relics providing additional gold already. If the player wishes to do so anyway, the best Market is Tlatiluco's, as their military capacity is the easiest to cripple without actually defeating them, and their Market is further than the Tepanaca's and therefore more profitable. It is also inadvisable to train Jaguar Warriors due to their high cost and vulnerability to ranged weapons.

Outro[]

When my warriors had captured the shrines and defeated the Xochimilco and Tlatiluco, we made the long journey back to Tenochtitlan, laden with gifts for Emperor Montezuma: jade, feathers, and of course, prisoners.

The sheer vastness of our city on the lake seemed staggering after having been in the rain forest for so many days.

Emperor Montezuma lives in the most sumptuous rooms with his wives and concubines. While we spoke, he drank frothing chocolate from a golden cup. Musicians played their drums and flutes and masked women danced.

When my uncle, Montezuma, first ascended the great pyramid many years ago to become emperor, there was a great celebration. Yet now some question his leadership. He sometimes makes decisions slowly, and rarely does he lead the warriors into combat.

Montezuma's priests informed us that Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, would soon return to Tenochtitlan to reclaim his kingdom. Since I had helped prepare for his coming, I was given a new obsidian macana and promoted to the rank of Jaguar Warrior. There was more feasting and dancing that night. The air was heavy with perfume.

But I noticed as I walked down the steps of the emperor's palace that the omen still hung heavily over the lake, spraying sparks over the midnight sky. So says Cuauhtémoc, Jaguar Warrior of Tenochtitlan.

Trivia[]

  • This scenario was the only one included in the The Conquerors demo.
  • This is the only scenario in the campaign where neither the Spanish nor the Tlaxcalans are present.
  • In the Definitive Edition, it is no longer possible to reach the Tepanaca shrine without walking near the towers in the lake; however, the towers themselves can now be reached by walking over shallows.
    • There are also some shallows-looking textures added to the river west, but these cannot be walked over, so it is still obligatory to build a Dock and Transport Ship to reach the last shrine.

Historical comparison[]

  • According to Ensemble Studios, the scenario was designed to showcase the new Mesoamerican civilizations, architecture, unique units, trees, and animals for the demo, and was not based on any historical military campaign.
  • Though Tepanaca and Xochimilco are depicted as Mayans, in reality they were Nahua peoples, just like the Tlatiluco and the Aztecs themselves.
  • Furthermore, all three enemies lived near Tenochtitlan and were conquered by the Aztecs long before the time of the campaign. Montezuma actually campaigned against the Mixtecs, Huejotzincans, Tlaxcalans, Cholulans, and Zapotecs.
  • On the other hand, it is true that Montezuma tried to consolidate the empire's rule over lands conquered by his predecessors, more than just expand, and this included taking direct control of strategic temples and fortifications.
  • The omen mentioned in the intro was a comet seen over Tenochtitlan in 1517. According to the indigenous sources recorded by Sahagún and Durán, it was the first of eight bad omens that preceded the Spanish conquest.

Gallery[]

Campaigns in Age of Empires II
The Age of Kings
William Wallace PC: Marching and Fighting · Feeding the Army · Training the Troops · Research and Technology · The Battle of Stirling · Forge an Alliance · The Battle of Falkirk
PS5 - Xbox: Preparing for Battle· The Battle of Stirling · Forge an Alliance · The Battle of Falkirk
Joan of Arc An Unlikely Messiah · The Maid of Orleans · The Cleansing of the Loire · The Rising · The Siege of Paris · A Perfect Martyr
Saladin An Arabian Knight · Lord of Arabia · The Horns of Hattin · The Siege of Jerusalem · Jihad! · The Lion and the Demon
Genghis Khan Crucible · A Life of Revenge · Into China · The Horde Rides West · The Promise · Pax Mongolica
Barbarossa Holy Roman Emperor · Henry the Lion · Pope and Antipope · The Lombard League · Barbarossa's March · The Emperor Sleeping
Others E3 1998
* added with update 75350
The Conquerors
Attila the Hun The Scourge of God · The Great Ride · The Walls of Constantinople · A Barbarian Betrothal · The Catalaunian Fields · The Fall of Rome
El Cid Brother against Brother · The Enemy of my Enemy · The Exile of the Cid · Black Guards · King of Valencia · Reconquista
Montezuma Reign of Blood · The Triple Alliance · Quetzalcoatl · La Noche Triste · The Boiling Lake · Broken Spears
Battles of the Conquerors Tours · Vinlandsaga · Hastings · Manzikert · Agincourt · Lepanto · Kyoto · Noryang Point
Hidden scenario The Saxon Revolt
The Forgotten
Alaric HD: All Roads Lead to a Besieged City · Legionaries on the Horizon! · Emperor of the West · The Sack of Rome
DE: The Battle of the Frigidus · Razing Hellas · The Belly of the Beast · The Giant Falls · A Kingdom of Our Own
Vlad Dracula The Dragon Spreads His Wings · The Return of the Dragon · The Breath of the Dragon · The Moon Rises · The Night Falls
Bari HD: Arrival at Bari · The Rebellion of Melus · The Great Siege
DE: Arrival at Bari · The Rebellion of Melus · Loose Ends · The Best Laid Plans · The Onrushing Tide
Sforza HD: An End and a Beginning · O Fortuna · The Hand of a Daughter · The Ambrosian Republic · A New Duke of Milan
DE: Mercenaries and Masters · His Own Man · Prodigal Son · Blood and Betrayal · Viva Sforza!
El Dorado# (removed) Tales of La Canela · The Split · The Amazones · The Cannibals
Prithviraj* HD: A Promising Warrior · The Digvijaya · The Elopement · Battles of Tarain
DE: Born of Fire · The Digvijaya · Hand of a Princess · The Fate of India · The Legend of Prithviraj
Battles of the Forgotten@ Bukhara · Dos Pilas · York · Honfoglalás · Langshan Jiang · Kurikara · Cyprus · Bapheus · Kaesong (cut)
# added with patch 3.3; * added with patch 3.5; @ added with patch 3.6
The African Kingdoms
Tariq ibn Ziyad The Battle of Guadalete · Consolidation and Subjugation · Divide and Conquer · Crossing the Pyrenees · Razzia
Sundjata Hunted · The Sting of the Scorpion · Djeriba Gold · Blood on the River Bank · The Lion's Den
Francisco de Almeida The Old World · Lion of Africa · Ruins of Empires · Estado da India · A Son's Blood
Yodit Path of Exile · The Right Partner · A Fallen Crown · Broken Stelae · Welcome Home
Rise of the Rajas
Gajah Mada The Story of Our Founders · Unconditional Loyalty · The Oath to Unify Nusantara · Serving the New King · The Pasunda Bubat Tragedy
Suryavarman I Usurpation · Quelling the Rebellion · A Dangerous Mission · Challenging a Thalassocracy · Nirvanapada
Bayinnaung The Burmese Tigers · The Mandalay Cobra · The Royal Peacock · The White Elephant · The Old Tiger
Le Loi The Dai Viet Uprising · The Mountain Siege · The Battle at Hanoi · Reaching South · A Three-Pronged Attack · The Final Fortress
Definitive Edition
The Art of War Early Economy · Booming · Rushing the Enemy · Fast Castle Age · Defending Against A Rush · Land Battle · Destroying a Castle · Naval Battle · Battle Formations
Pachacuti A New Power Arises · The Field of Blood · War of Brothers · The Falcon's Tent · Like Father, Like Son

Historical Battles
Tours · Vinlandsaga · Hastings · Manzikert · Agincourt · Kyoto · Noryang Point
Bukhara · Kurikara · Cyprus · Bapheus · Lepanto
Dos Pilas · York · Honfoglalás · Lake Poyang
Event scenarios E3 2019 Demo · Mongol Raiders · Barbarossa Brawl · Mangudai Madness · The Siege (co-op) · Ayn Jalut
The Last Khans
Tamerlane Amir of Transoxiana · Gurkhan of Persia · Harbinger of Destruction · Sultan of Hindustan · Scourge of the Levant · A Titan Amongst Mortals
Ivaylo A Most Unlikely Man · An Unlikely Alliance · Tsar of the Bulgars · Echoes of Heroes · Where the One-Eyed Man is King
Kotyan Khan Raising the Banners · The Battle at the Kalka River · Saving the Huts · Blood for Blood · A New Home
Lords of the West
Edward Longshanks Vain Ambition · A Man of God · Of Castles and Kings · Toom Tabard · Hammer of the Scots
Grand Dukes A Kingdom Divided · The Wolf and the Lion · The Cleansing of Paris · Unholy Marriage · The Hook and Cod Wars · The Maid Falls
The Hautevilles Guiscard Arrives · Roger in Sicily · Bohemond and the Emperor · Bohemond in the East · Wonder of the World
Dawn of the Dukes
Algirdas and Kestutis Family Affairs · No Man's Land · The Tatar Yoke · A Worthy Opponent · In the Shadow of the Throne
Jadwiga The Matter of the Crown · Star of the Poles · Duel of the Dukes · The Siege of Vilnius · Vytautas' Crusade · The Fruits of Her Labor
Jan Zizka The One-Eyed Wanderer · Courage and Coin · The Iron Lords · The Golden City · The Emperor's Fury · Warrior of God
Dynasties of India
Babur Pearl of the East · The Last Timurids · Into India · The Battle of Panipat · The Rajputs
Rajendra The Successor · Deeds of the Father · Rising Star · Sacred Waters · Slaying the Vritra
Devapala Dissatisfaction · Desire · Renunciation · Liberation? · Enlightenment
The Mountain Royals
Ismail The Red Hats · Road to Royalty · Alexander Safavi · The Fallen Amir · Khata'i
Thoros II Outlawed · The Emperor's Revenge · Caught in the Crossfire · Bloody Crestwaves · Of Turncoats and Traitors
Tamar Takeover · Yury's Revenge · The Protectorate · Tamar the Builder · The Queen in the Panther's Skin
Victors and Vanquished
Victors and Vanquished
Charlemagne · Finehair · Ironside · Nobunaga
Drake · Fetih · Gaiseric · Robert · Temujin · Xie An*
Constantine XI · Karlsefni · Komnenos · Mstislav · Otto · Ragnar · Seljuk · Shimazu · Stephen · Vortigern
* added with update 141935
The Three Kingdoms
Liu Bei The Oath of the Peach Garden · Heroes of the Realm · The Scholar and the Sandal Maker · The Great Escape · The Battle of Red Cliffs
Cao Cao The Yellow Turban Rebellion · Emperor In All But Name · The Battle of Guandu · Lord of the North · The Battle of Red Cliffs
Sun Clan The Imperial Seal · The Conquest of Jiangdong · The White Tiger · The Avenger · The Battle of Red Cliffs