Reign of Blood is the first scenario of the Montezuma Campaign in Age of Empires II: The Conquerors. It is also the only scenario available in the trial version of the Conquerors expansion.
In this scenario to win, the player must find 4 sacred shrines and place a relic into each by using monks (after advancing to the castle age), and keeping the Mayan and Aztec enemies from destroying the shrines. There is a relic in front of each shrine.
The first two shrines are hidden in the trees west of the player´s initiall village, the third is north of Tepanaca (orange), and the fourth is cross the river near Tlatiluco (red) and Xochimilco (purple). It will require a transport ship to reach, and is surrounded by Jaguars.
The player must defend all the monasteries in their possession, as losing any monastery will cause the player's defeat. It is impossible to build any new monastery in this scenario.
Note: This is the only Montezuma Scenario where the Tlaxcalans and the Spanish army don't appear (as the Spanish hadn't even arrived yet), not counting the second where the Spanish make a minor arrival appearance at the end.
Scenario Instructions
Starting Conditions
- Starting age: File:Feudal-age-reseach.jpg Feudal Age
- Starting resources: 200 wood, 200 food, 200 gold, 200 stone
- Population limit: 75
- Starting units:
- Gaia units: None
Objectives
- Capture the 4 shrines (Monasteries) sacred to Quetzalcoatl.
- Place a sacred Relic in each of the 4 shrines (Monasteries).
Hints
- 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
- 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
Enemies
- Tepanaca (Mayans) is based at the northeast of the map, with their eastern part being defended by a gate and some palisade walls. They use archers/crossbowmen and Eagle Warriors, as well as Plumed Archers if played at 'moderate' level and above.
- Tlatiluco (Aztecs) is based at the southwest of the map, and being the weakest opponent. They use Men-at-Arms and Eagle Warriors.
- Xochimilco (Mayans) is based at the northwest of the map, being the strongest opponent. They use archers/crossbowmen, Men-at-Arms/Long Swordsmen and scorpions.
Strategy/Tactics
You start at the eastern part of the map. In the beginning of the game, there will be a few jaguars coming. Since warning has been given before hand, it would be advisable to get your military units ready to attack the jaguars. Once the jaguars come, ring the town bell to garrison your villagers into the town center. Besides your military units, you may also use your town center (with villagers) and watch towers (if any) to attack the jaguars, but you must manually assign the buildings to attack any animals. To avoid casualties, the town center alone can be used to neutralize the jaguars.
The two nearest monasteries are: one at the northwest of your base (between your base with Tepanaca) and another at the southwest of your base (between your base with Tlatiluco). There is also a monastery between Tepanaca and Xochimilco, and one more at the western part of the map. It may be advisable to build up before going after the monasteries, as you will have to defend them.
Once you have taken the two nearest monasteries, you should defend them by either stationing military units around them, or build towers and walls. For the northern monastery, you need to deal with Tepanaca, as they may build an archery range near the monastery. Even though they have a gate and some walls, you can actually sneak in from their west (between them with Xochimilco), which has no walls, but you must watch out with their two towers in the middle of the lake. Once you have discovered that monastery, Tepanaca will accuse you for defiling "their monastery" and send an army of eagle warriors against you. You should already have a band of army ready to deal with Tepanaca.
Discovering the western monastery would require dealing with defenses by Tlatiluco (having two towers along your way) and Xochimilco (having a castle and several military units such as scorpions and archers.) You must at least drive the Xochimilco army away from the river shore before you can build a dock. You may need to bring a few villagers along the way, and protect them with your soldiers. Then use the dock to build a transport ship to carry your units across the river. The monastery is guarded by many jaguars, but if not being provoked, they would only attack villagers and Jaguar Warriors. You may just send in a monk to garrison the relic, if you have already created a monk from another monastery.
Defeating all enemies will NOT result in victory. The player still needs to garrison the relics in the Monasteries to complete this scenario.
If you have built a market near your base at the east, and you wish to trade with any of the enemy markets, the best market to trade with would be the Tlatiluco one, as trading with the Tepanaca one would require taking a long route by their west (due to blockade by their gate in the east) yet generating less gold (simply due to distance), while attempting to trade with Xochimilco would end up having your Trade Cart being attacked. In order to trade with Tlatiluco, you should destroy their tower at their east. You may need to defeat their army to keep your trade carts safe.
Trivia
- Despite having Tepanaca and Xochimilco depicted as Mayans, in reality they were not. They, together with Tenochtitlan (the player) and Tlatiluco, were all Nahuas or Nahuatl/Aztec-speaking people.
- This level was the sole level included in the demo of the game.
- This is the only scenario where the Aztecs' main nemeses, namely the Tlaxcala and Spanish, do not appear at all.
