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The great new temple has had a powerful effect on the people of Egypt. Priests are revitalized in their fervor and are spreading the word up river and along the coast. You are leading a new settlement in the west near Libya where raiders have been harassing Egyptian towns. These raiders possess a powerful new weapon called a Ballista. Capture the Ballista and bring it to your Town Center.
—In-game campaign description in the Original Release

Religion (Crusade in the original) is the eighth scenario in the Ascent of Egypt Learning Campaign in Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. An earlier version is the third scenario of the Dawn of Civilization beta campaign (and the CGW demo). The scenario teaches the player about Priests and how to convert enemy units.

Scenario instructions

Description

The great new temple has had a powerful effect on the people of Egypt. Priests are revitalized in their fervor and are spreading the word up river and along the coast. You are leading a new settlement in the west near Libya where raiders have been harassing Egyptian towns. These raiders possess a powerful new weapon called a Ballista. Capture the Ballista and bring it to your Town Center.
—In-game section

Starting conditions

Objectives

  • Capture (convert) the Ballista and bring it to your Town Center.

Hints

  • You must convert the Ballista and then prevent it from being destroyed by the enemy before you can move it to your Town Center.
  • You might use your resources to build a large force to destroy all units supporting the Ballista before your Priest converts it. Or you might approach more slowly and use your Priest to convert the supporting enemy units one by one before converting the Ballista.
  • If your original Priest is killed, you can mine the deposits of gold in the area to create additional Priests.

Description

After establishing and defending their settlement, the Egyptians have grown. Their knowledge has increased with their numbers and they are now on the verge of the Bronze Age. They still suffer from one disadvantage, unfortunately: horses are not native to Egypt. A tribe from afar has recently attempted to colonize the lands to the west of your settlement and they are rumored to have brought horses with them. Capture one of their horses and return it to your Town Center so that your wise men might learn from it.
—In-game section

Starting conditions

Objectives

  • Convert the enemy Scout unit and bring it back to your Town Center.

Hints

To win this scenario, you must make use of a new type of unit, the Priest. Priests don't damage an enemy unit directly but convert it instead to your side. A converted enemy unit becomes one of your units. Priests have a good range but be cautious-they are weak and slow. Some units may also take longer to convert than others so it is unwise to send priests out alone. Priests can also heal friendly units that have taken damage. To heal, have the Priest "attack" the friendly unit.

The Priest becomes available in the Bronze Age and is built at the temple. To enter the Bronze Age (where the temple becomes available) requires two Tool Age buildings (which exist already) and 800 food. Build Farms to get the food needed to reach the Bronze Age. Unlike the units seen so far, Priests cost gold to build. There is a small gold mine on the map that contains enough gold to produce several Priests. Once you locate it, mine it in the same way any resource is gathered (left click on the Villager you want mine gold; right click on the gold mine.)

Players

Player

  • Player(Egyptians): The player starts with a Bronze Age base in the eastern corner of the map. It includes all bulidings of the prevoius ages and a temple, some villagers, and a priest. The player has access to all resources within his base except for gold. Somehow the initial player is unable to research Bronze Age technology at the initial market, so he has to built a new one to get access.

Enemies

  • Enemy(Egyptians): The enemy (whose name is picked randomly from the pool of Egyptian AI names) starts with an army of seven Bowmen and the ballista. He has also some buildings but does not produce any villagers. He changes diplomatic stance towards the player from neutral to enemy within the first seconds of the game.

Player

  • Egypt(Egyptians): The player starts with a Tool Age base in the eastern corner of the map. It includes all bulidings of the prevoius ages and an archery range, and some villagers. The player has access to all resources within his base. The player cannot build a stable.

Enemies

  • Libyan(Egyptians): The Libyan start with a tool age base including all Stone age bulidings, a farm and an archery range. The base also includes five watch towers. They train villagers and gather resources but their economy is disabled in reality because all technologies and buildings are locked to this player.

Strategy

This scenario can be won in a matter of minutes. The Ballista is just south of the town, and the player starts off with a Priest. Train some Scouts, and send them to kill the Bowmen, which may otherwise kill either the Priest or the converted Ballista. Once the Bowmen have been dealt with, the player can send some Villagers south to a Gold Mine and create two more Priests. Send the three Priests south, taking advantage of their good range and making sure they outrange the Ballista, and the Ballista will be converted within moments. Take it to the player's Town Center and the scenario is completed.

First objective is to reach Bronze Age. So build up an economy of about eight foragers (later farmers) and four woodcutters. Research domestication and build farms as soon the berry bushes are depleted. Meanwhile train additional villagers to gather stone and gold. Research the watch tower and build some to fend off possible attacks. When Bronze Age is reached, build a temple and a siege workshop and build at least a priest (it is also recommended to fully upgrade him) and a stone thrower. Also research wheel and build 8-12 chariot archers. Approach the enemy base with this force and level the three outer watch towers while defending the stone thrower with your chariot archers. Fight through the base heading to the western corner of the map where the scout is walled in, defended by two watch towsers. Keep away your chariot archers so the do not kill the scout by accident, causing immediate defeat. Level the towers with your stont thrower, then convert the scout with your priest (again do not let the other units kill the scout). Then destroy a segment of the wall and let the scout ride towards yout town center to win this scenario.

History

Historical notes

The Egyptians developed a rich and varied religion based on the worship of around 2000 gods and goddesses. Some of these deities were worshipped throughout the country, some by a specific town, and others within the home. Many of their religious beliefs were linked to the sun and the Nile, the two entities most responsible for the agricultural bounty that was the basis for Egypt's relative affluence. The pharaohs, with the help of priests, conducted rites throughout the year to insure the regular rise of the Nile and movements of the sun.

For major deities great temples were built. Each temple was considered a home on earth for the god or goddess to which it belonged. A temple was not a place of worship. The cult statue representing the deity might only be shown a few times each year at special festivals. The people brought offerings to the temple that were collected by priests and priestesses. The people could pray to a statue of the pharaoh, believed to be a descendant of the gods, who might intercede on behalf of the petitioner. Questions for the god or goddess were passed to priests or priestesses for reply.
—In-game section

Historical outcome

The religion of Egypt remained a powerful unifying force for thousands of years. It overshadowed or influenced the religions of smaller neighboring barbarian cultures.

Egyptian religion was not without disruption, however. During the reign of Akhenaten (1364-1347 BC), for example, the old gods and goddesses were briefly deposed. The pharaoh insisted the people worship only one god, Aten, represented by the disc of the sun. He built a new city and temple for Aten and banned the worship of the old gods, causing great disruption. The names of the old gods were physically removed from many inscriptions. The idea of one god only may have influenced later religions. Within a few years of his death, Akhenaten was branded a heretic and the old gods and goddesses were restored.
Akhenaten is believed to have been the father of Tutankhamen.
—In-game section

Historical notes

Although the Hyksos were pushed back for a time, they did not give up the quest of taking Egypt. They continued to infiltrate in small groups and become part of the culture. A series of week Pharaohs and squabbling over the kingship weakened the country eventually, including the frontier fortresses.

A crisis occurred around 1700 BC when Hyksos armies using horses invaded Lower Egypt and took control over most of the river delta. The next 100 years were known as the Second Intermediate Period when rule of Egypt was shared by several groups.

Historical outcome

Obtaining the use of the horse and the technology of the chariot were critical steps to the revival of the Egyptian kingdom. Upper Egypt was able to rebel against the Hyksos rulers of Lower Egypt and begin the struggle to reconquer the whole Nile Valley.
—In-game section

Trivia

  • The name of the scenario was probably changed due to the anachronistic nature of the former title, as the Crusades were religious wars fought in the Medieval period.
  • There is an historical inconsistence in the beta version: while the enemy is named "Libyians" and depicted correctly in the west of the river nile delta, the historical outcome (as well es the "historical notes") mentions the Hyskos instead.
  • There is another historical/gameplay inconsitence in the beta version: the player's mission is to convert an enemy's scout to obtain horses. Consequenty, the stable is locked in this mission. Despite that the player can still train chariot archers if wheel is researched. Since it is impossible to lock single units or technologies in Age of Empires, it is likely that this inconsistence caused the developers to change the coversion target from scout to ballista in the final release.
Campaigns in Age of Empires
ReturnRome-AoEIcon Age of Empires
AoE Ascent of Egypt icon Ascent of EgyptHunting · Foraging  · Exploration · Dawn of a New Age · Skirmish · Farming · Trade · Religion · River Outpost · Naval Battle · A Wonder of the World · Siege in Canaan
NuRoR hoplite idle Glory of GreeceLand Grab (Claiming Territory) · Citadel (Acropolis) · Ionian Expansion (The Conquest of Crete) · The Trojan War · I'll Be Back (Colonization of Ionia) · The Siege of Athens · Xenophon's March · Wonder (Alexander the Great)
NuRoR priest idle Voices of BabylonThe Holy Man · The Tigris Valley · Lost (Vengeance) · I Shall Return · The Great Hunt  · The Caravan · Lord of the Euphrates · Nineveh (The Conquest of Nineveh)
Yamato, Empire of
the Rising Sun
The Assassins · Island Hopping · Capture (Definitive Edition) · Mountain Temple (The Mountain Temple) · The Canyon of Death · Oppression (Coup) · A Friend in Need (Jinshin War) · Kyushu Revolts (Fujiwara Revolts)
RomeIcon Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome
The Rise of RomeThe Birth of Rome · Pyrrhus of Epirus · Syracuse (The Siege of Syracuse) · Metaurus (The Battle of the Metaurus) · Zama (The Battle of Zama) · Mithridates
Ave CaesarCaesar vs Pirates (Caesar's Revenge) · Britain (The Invasion of Britain) · Alesia (The Siege of Alesia) · Caesar vs Pompey (The Battle of Pharsalus)
Pax Romana
(Imperium Romanum)
Actium (The Battle of Actium) · Year of the Four Emperors (The Year of the Four Emperors) · Ctesiphon (Ransom at Ctesiphon) · Queen Zenobia (Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra) · Coming of the Huns (The Coming of the Huns)
Enemies of RomeCrossing the Alps · Third Greek War (Third Macedonian War) · Spartacus (The Revolt of Spartacus) · Odenathus vs Persians (Odaenathus, Lord of Palmyra)
Age of Empires Definitive Edition icon Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
Reign of the HittitesDemo: Homelands  · Growing Pains  · Opening Moves  · Fall of the Mitanni  · Battle of Kadesh
DE: Opening Moves  · Raid on Babylon  · The Battle of Kadesh
AoE The First Punic War icon The First Punic WarStruggle for Sicily (The Battle of Agrigentum) · Battle of Mylae · Battle of Tunis
AoE2Icon-ReturnRome Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome
RoR Trajan TrajanLegates and Legions · Roman Repute · Heads Will Roll · An Old Enemy · Blood in the Water
RoR Pyrrhus of Epirus Pyrrhus of EpirusA Second Alexander · The Many Kings of Macedon · Pyrrhic Victories · Savior of the Greeks · Sisyphus
RoR Sargon of Akkad Sargon of AkkadThe Chosen One · Divine Will · The Prophecy · The Land of Kings · Subartu
Demo versions
Dawn of CivilizationDawn of a New Age  · Skirmish · Crusade · The Wreck of the Hyskos  · Last Stand
Bronze Age Art of War
Names in brackets represent campaigns and scenarios renamed and/or reworked in the Definitive Edition.
Crusade(beta)

Crusade (Beta)

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