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River Outpost (The River Outpost in the Definitive Edition) is the ninth scenario of the Ascent of Egypt campaign in Age of Empires. It teaches the player to use transports.

From the Definitive Edition onwards, the description for Ascent of Egypt recommends experienced Age of Empires players to begin the campaign from this scenario.

Scenario instructions[]

Description[]

NuRoR transport ship
โ€œThe Fourth Cataract, 1878-1860 BCE

For centuries, the Nubians of the South have attacked and pillaged our cities in Upper Egypt. Pharaoh Senusret Ill is determined to deal with them for good. His plan is to subdue lower Nubia by building forts along the Nile River all the way to the Fourth Cataract. To the south of your position, there is an island on the Nile which would be an ideal location for such a fort. Explore the island, clear it of enemies, and build a Town Center and two Sentry Towers there.
โ€
—In-game section of Return of Rome

Tutorial[]

TRANSPORTING UNITS ACROSS THE WATER
Villagers, military units, and Artifacts can board a transport vessel and travel across water. Allied units can also be transported. Each transport vessel can only carry a limited number of Villagers, military units, and Artifacts at once.
To load a transport vessel, build a Light Transport or Heavy Transport at the Dock, select the unit to load, and then right-click the transport vessel.
To unload a transport vessel, select the transport vessel, select the Unload button at the bottom of the game screen, and then left-click a location on shore or in shallows.

Starting conditions[]

Objectives[]

  • Build a Town Center on the island.
  • Research Sentry Tower at the Granary.
  • Build two Towers on the island.

Hints[]

  1. Destroy the enemy towers on the island before you start building there.
  2. To destroy the towers, build warships, or create a small band of infantry units such as Axemen and transport them to the island.
  3. You must advance to the Bronze Age and build a Government Center in order to build a second Town Center.
  4. You must build a Transport to carry Villagers to the island to build the Town Center. The island is inhabited by hungry predators, so bring several Villagers and some military units as protection.
  5. When the island is free from predators, you can build a Town Center and begin gathering the stone you need to build two Sentry Towers.

Description[]

โ€œThe Fourth Cataract, 1878-1860 BCE

For centuries, the Nubians of the South have attacked and pillaged our cities in Upper Egypt. Pharaoh Senusret Ill is determined to deal with them for good. His plan is to subdue lower Nubia by building forts along the Nile River all the way to the Fourth Cataract. To the south of your position, there is an island on the Nile which would be an ideal location for such a fort. Explore the island, clear it of enemies, and build a Town Center and two Sentry Towers there. But remember to be wary of Nubian raiders coming down the river.
โ€
—In-game section of the Definitive Edition

Tutorial[]

TRANSPORTING UNITS ACROSS THE WATER
Villagers, military units, and Artifacts can be loaded aboard a transport vessel and moved across water. Allied units can also be transported. Each transport can carry a limited number of villagers, military units, and Artifacts in each trip.
To load a transport vessel, build a Light Transport or Heavy Transport at the Dock, click the unit to load, and then right-click the transport vessel.
To unload a transport vessel, click the transport vessel, click the Unload button at the bottom of the game screen, and then click a location on shore or in the shallows.
TOWERS
To build Sentry Towers, you first have to research the technology at the Granary. Once it is completed, your Watch Towers will have upgraded to the stronger Sentry Towers.

Starting conditions[]

Objectives[]

  • Locate the island on the Nile River
  • Build a Town Center on the island
  • Build two Sentry Towers on the island

Hints[]

  1. There are towers on the island that you must destroy before you can start constructing there.
  2. To eliminate the towers, build war ships, or create a small band of infantry units, such as Axemen and transport them to the island to take them down.
  3. In order to be able to build a second Town Center, you must be in the Bronze Age and have a Government Center.
  4. You will need to build a transport to carry villagers to the island to build the Town Center. You should take several villagers because the island is inhabited by hungry lions and crocodiles, which will attack your villagers on sight.
  5. When the island is free from predators, you can build a Town Center and begin gathering the stone you need to build two Sentry Towers.

Description[]

โ€œ1700 BC

The power of our armies and religion has stabilized our frontiers for the time being. The Nubians to the south remain a threat, however, although subduing them is too expensive to consider. As an alternative, the pharaoh has ordered that a river outpost be placed on a strategic Nile River island to discourage Nubian raiders from coming down river. Locate the large island in the center of the river to the north and build a Town Center and two Guard Towers there.
โ€
—In-game section in the original release

Tutorial[]

TRANSPORTING UNITS ACROSS THE WATER
Villagers, military units, and Artifacts can be loaded aboard a transport vessel and moved across water. Allied units can also be transported. Each transport vessel can carry a limited number of villagers, military units, and Artifacts in each trip.
To load a transport vessel, build a Light Transport or Heavy Transport at the Dock, click the unit to load, and then right-click the transport vessel.
To unload a transport vessel, click the transport vessel, click the Unload button at the bottom of the game screen, and then click a location on shore or in shallows.

Starting conditions[]

Objectives[]

  • Locate the large Nile Island.
  • Build Town Center on island.
  • Build two Guard Towers on island.

Hints[]

  • There are towers on the island that you must destroy before starting construction there.
  • To eliminate the towers, build war ships, or create a small band of infantry units, such as Axemen, to take them down.
  • You must advance to the Bronze Age and build a Government Center before you can build a second Town Center.
  • You will need to build a transport to carry villagers to the island to build the Town Center. You should take several villagers because the island is inhabited by hungry lions and alligators, which can be hunted.
  • When the island is free from predators, you can build a Town Center and begin gathering the stone you need to build two Guard Towers. You can research Watch Towers at the Granary, and upgrade to more powerful towers there.

Players[]

Player[]

  • Player (Egyptian AOE DE ROR icon Egyptians): The player starts along the southeast edge of the map, with a small base comprising a Town Center, Granary, Storage Pit, Government Center, and three Houses.

Enemies[]

  • Nubians (Egyptian AOE DE ROR icon Egyptians): The Nubians have five Watch Towers dotted around the river island in the middle of the map, but no units.

Player[]

  • Player (Egyptian AOE DE ROR icon Egyptians): The player starts with a small base in the eastern corner of the map, with a Town Center, Granary, Storage Pit, and three Houses.

Enemies[]

  • Nubians (Egyptian AOE DE ROR icon Egyptians): The Nubians start with five Watch Towers on the river island, five ships near the island, and a pair of Docks at the southwest river shore with four Bowmen guarding them.

Player[]

  • Player (Egyptian AOE DE ROR icon Egyptians): The player starts with a small base in the eastern corner of the map, with a Town Center, Granary, Storage Pit, and three Houses.

Enemy[]

  • Enemy (Greek AOE DE ROR icon Greeks): The enemy (whose name is picked randomly from the pool of Egyptian AI names) starts with Watch Towers on the river island. They do not possess any other units. They change diplomatic stance towards the player from neutral to enemy within the first seconds of the game.

Strategy[]

The map is divided into three landmasses, divided by a river running from north to south. The player starts on the eastern landmass, the Nubians are on an island in the middle, and the western landmass contains gold and a few trees.

There is foraging and hunting to be found close to the player's starting point, but additional food will have to come from fishing or farming. The main woodline is northeast of the base. If the player exhausts the base's large gold supply, a small gold deposit can be found directly north of the Town Center, along the northeast edge of the map, and more still on the western landmass. The only Stone Mines are on the central island; this is also the only location on the map with predators or enemies.

Villagers can explore without fear, and without hurry. There are no predators on the starting landmass (or the western landmass, although this region can be ignored unless the player is desperate for gold), and the only enemies in the game are Watch Towers, which are completely immobile.

Towers have pierce armor, which grants some resistance to arrows and ballista bolts. Each point of pierce armor reduces a point of pierce damage, to a minimum of 1. This means that it is usually best to attack towers with siege weapons or melee troops. However, Watch Towers are the weakest type, and lack range. It is possible for the player's warships to fire from beyond the towers' reach by building a Market and researching Artisanship, or simply by upgrading the Scout Ships to War Galleys at the Dock.

AoE1 campaign - Ascent of Egypt - s9 River Outpost - tower layout

Layout of Nubian towers on the central island. The circles show their arrow reach.

As described by the briefing, it will eventually be necessary to bring units to the central island by creating a Light Transport at the Dock, loading units into it, moving the Transport to the shore of the central island, and unloading it. Villagers will be needed to construct the buildings needed to win the scenario, and mine the stone that's needed to build Sentry Towers.

A strategy will also be needed for dealing with the predators on the island: the Villagers could deal with them, but their spears would leave decaying bodies that block potential building sites. Better to take them out with military units; either sniping them with the warships, or sending a couple of land units across with the Villagers to deal with the Lions and Crocodiles. Stone Throwers (trained at the Siege Workshop) will be very effective at bringing down the Nubian Watch Towers, but cannot attack nearby units, so care must be taken not to unload them next to the predators.

It is possible to completely avoid all the towers by unloading at the absolute east or west of the island, and very carefully positioning the stone-mining Villagers to avoid entering the towers' range. It will be difficult to build a Town Center and two Sentry Towers completely out of the Nubians' range, but the towers' arrows cause so little damage to buildings that it doesn't really matter. Alternately, to play it safe but still destroying the minimum number of towers, clearing out either of the southern ones will give the Villagers plenty of room to work.

Despite what's written in the briefing, the player can immediately build additional Town Centers, as the scenario starts with all the prerequisites: it is already the Bronze Age, there is already a Government Center, and there is enough wood in the stockpile to build one. The only complicated part is building it on the central island. 300 stone will be needed to create two towers, another 50 to upgrade them to Sentry Towers, and 200 wood to build the Town Center.

In this version of The River Outpost, there are predators on every landmass. On the player's starting land in the east, there is a Lion immediately north of the Gazelles, and a Crocodile at the northern and southern extremities.

The Nubians also pose more of a threat. They have five Scout Ships that can attack units near the coast, so be ready to withdraw exploring Villagers in a hurry. When finding a clear patch of coastline on which to site a Dock, build up a fleet of War Galleys as soon as possible to wipe out the ships. The Nubians also have a pair of Docks in the southwest, defended by four Bowmen. After clearing out these units, the Docks can safely be used for trading, as they never train anything.

There is no Government Center at the start, so the player must build one before additional Town Centers can be made.

In addition to meeting the main objectives, the scenario can also be won by simply destroying all of the Nubians' units and buildings. The Definitive Edition is the only version of this scenario which can be won this way.

In this version of River Outpost, there are predators on each of the three landmasses, but fewer than the Definitive Edition. On the player's starting landmass, there is just a single Lion, north of the Gazelles.

As in Return of Rome, the enemy just has five Watch Towers, and no units. The towers are all on an island in the middle of the map; this island contains the map's only stone deposits, and is occupied by a number of Lions and Alligators in addition to the towers. The player needs to build transport ships to bring Villagers to the island, where they can build a Town Center, quarry the stone, then build a pair of towers. To protect the Villagers, the island's existing towers and predators will need to be destroyed or avoided.

Uniquely to this version of the game, the player must advance to the Iron Age, as this is a prerequisite for the Guard Tower technology which is required to win. To do this, stockpile 1,000 food, 800 gold, and construct two different Bronze Age buildings (Government Center, Temple, Academy, Siege Workshop). Iron Age can be researched at the Town Center, and when it is complete, Guard Tower research will be available at the Granary. This is the third of the four tower technologies: after Watch Tower and Sentry Tower, but before Ballista Tower. Note, do NOT upgrade the towers to Ballista Towers before building at least two towers, as this prevents the player from winning the scenario, as the trigger to complete it is exclusively activated by Guard Towers.

The easiest way to destroy the towers is by attacking from beyond their range, using warships. Watch Towers in Age of Empires have 5 range. The player's Scout Ships in this mission are upgraded with Woodworking, so have 6 range, but their line of sight remains 5. So after discovering the tower, the ship will need to retreat before commencing fire. Alternatively, the ships can be upgraded to the longer-reaching War Galleys at the Dock.

History[]

Historical notes[]

โ€œFollowing the First Intermediate Period, prince Mentuhotep Il (c. 2061 โ€” 2010 BCE) of the 11th dynasty built on the successes of his predecessors and reunited Egypt by defeating the rulers of Herakleopolis in Lower Egypt. This ushered in a new period in Egyptian history called the Middle Kingdom Mentuhotep Il made Thebes the capital of the kingdom and is sometimes referred to as the "second Menes", in remembrance of the first ruler of the Old Kingdom, identified with Narmer, who united Egypt centuries before. Egyptian society had changed drastically since the Old Kingdom, despite the attempts by Middle Kingdom pharaohs to emulate their predecessors from the previous era. Local officials had much more power and wealth, and it had become easier for them to rise in rank. These differences are apparent in Egyptian art of the period. Pharaohs were no longer the only ones commissioning art, as local rulers and the upper class could do so as well, resulting in greater variety and diversity of artwork.

Conflict with Egypt's southern neighbors, the Nubians, was very common in this period, but it was not until the reign of Senusret Ill (c. 1878 โ€” 1860 BCE) that Egypt made significant conquests in the south. Senusret Ill led four military expeditions against the Nubians and managed to bring lower Nubia, in the north of the region, under Egyptian control. To consolidate these conquests, the pharaoh ordered his subordinates to build a network of fortifications along the border to block further raids by Nubians.

Senusret Ill is also known to have led a military expedition into Canaan, but his main achievement was in bringing stability and prosperity to Egypt. During his reign, the cults of Osiris and Amun became increasingly popular and Osiris would become a very important god of the afterlife, where he served as ruler and judge. Senusret Ill also finished the construction of Amun's Temple near Karnak begun by Mentuhotep ll. This temple was the largest religious building ever constructed at its time. The reigns of Senusret Ill and the other kings of the 12th dynasty are considered to be a golden age for Egypt.
โ€
—In-game section

Victory[]

โ€œRisking their lives, your builders managed to construct the fort on the Nile River island. It is only one of many forts, but it is certainly the most important as it controls access to the river itself. Your stalwart soldiers man the fortifications, and thus the Nubians have given up on their attempts to raid Egypt. You do not believe the Nubians will be stopped permanently, but your actions have brought peace for the time being. โ€
—In-game section

Loss[]

โ€œAttacking by night, the hostile Nubians managed to pick off your builders one by one, dooming your fort's construction. Because of the sizable gap you have allowed to appear in the Egyptian defenses, the Nubians are now able to raid Egypt at will. The pharaoh is sending you on a solo scouting mission into Nubian lands without food, water or weapons. Pray to Ra that your end is swift, and that Osiris' judgement is lenient. โ€
—In-game section

Historical notes[]

โ€œThroughout Egyptian history, the Nubians to the south (but upriver) remained a potential threat. At various times in Egyptian history, the pharaoh ordered campaigns against this area to move the threat back. The Egyptians periodically advanced further up river, from cataract to cataract (rapids and waterfalls that blocked boat movement) over the centuries. After each advance, Egypt would take control and then gradually lose it, forcing another invasion at a later date.

One defensive tactic was to place fortifications at strategic points. The fortress at Buhen was one of nine built at the Second Cataract around 1900 BC. Its outside wall stood 36 feet high and contained an estimated 8,000,000 mud bricks. Inside the fortress were barracks, homes for soldiers, and stables for trade caravan donkeys.
โ€
—In-game section in the original release

Historical outcome[]

โ€œThe fortresses at the Second Cataract were successful in keeping the peace in the region for about 300 years. In terms of American history, this span would compare to the period stretching from the settlement of the Jamestown colony in Virginia to the outbreak of World War I. Around 1600 BC, a new ruling force in Nubia, the Kushites, became sufficiently powerful to overthrow Egyptian rule and destroy the forts. Between 1550 and 1300 BC, stronger pharaohs returned to Nubia and conquered it once more, this time extending their control up to the Fourth Cataract.โ€
—In-game section in the original release

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