The Conquest of Nineveh (named Nineveh in the original) is the eighth and last scenario of the Voices of Babylon campaign in Age of Empires. It depicts the Battle of Nineveh, marking the end of the Assyrian Empire.
Scenario instructions[]
Description[]
โ | Nineveh, 612 BCE Finally, Babylonia has been liberated from Assyrian oppression. Civil wars, rebellions and foreign invasions have brought the once-mighty empire to its knees. The Assyrians have fallen back behind the imposing walls of their capital at Nineveh while an army of Babylonians and Medes converge on the capital of Assyria. Destroy the Wonder in Nineveh to break the power of the Assyrians indefinitely. | โ |
—In-game section |
Starting conditions[]
- Starting Age: Iron Age
- Starting resources: 2000 food, 2500 wood, 2000 gold, 400 stone
- Population limit: 75
- Starting units:
- Gaia units:
Objective[]
- Destroy the Wonder in Nineveh.
Hints[]
- You begin in a poor position. Expand quickly and take over Nimrud's resource deposits, and then concentrate on attacking Nineveh itself.
- Catapults are your best chance of destroying enemy walls. Use these weapons wisely to gain control of the map.
- The Medes are sending their best soldiers, siege engines, and ships to help tear down the walls of Nineveh. Your scouts report that they have arrived in the east.
Description[]
โ | Nineveh, 612 BCE Finally, Babylonia has been liberated from Assyrian oppression. Civil wars, rebellions and foreign invasions have brought the once-mighty empire to its knees. The Assyrians have fallen back behind the imposing walls of their capital at Nineveh while an army of Babylonians and Medes converge on the capital of Assyria. Destroy the Wonder in Nineveh to break the power of the Assyrian definitively. | โ |
—In-game section |
Starting conditions[]
- Starting Age: Iron Age
- Starting resources: 2000 food, 2500 wood, 2000 gold, 400 stone
- Population limit: 50
- Starting units:
- Gaia units:
Objective[]
- Destroy the Wonder in Nineveh.
Hints[]
- You and your allies are in a disadvantageous position. It is vital to your success to quickly turn the odds and gain control over major resource deposits.
- Catapults are your best chance of destroying enemy walls. Use these weapons wisely to gain control of the map.
- The Medes are sending their best soldiers and ships to help tear down the walls of Nineveh. Your scouts report that they will arrive from the northeast.
Description[]
โ | 612 BC The Assyrians have been pushed back from Babylon and now the tide has turned. The Assyrians have fallen back behind the mighty walls of their capital at Nineveh. Destroy Nineveh's Wonder to break the power of the Assyrians forever. If necessary, destroy any Assyrian allies that stand in your way. | โ |
Starting conditions[]
- Starting Age: Bronze Age
- Starting resources: 2000 food, 2500 wood, 2000 gold, 400 stone
- Population limit: 50
- Starting units:
- Gaia units: None
Objective[]
- Destroy Nineveh's Wonder.
Hints[]
- Determine which enemy's forces are the weakest and destroy them quickly, for they control the resources you need to win this battle.
- Catapults are essential to your success against the Assyrians. Use these weapons wisely to gain control for the Babylonian Empire.
Players[]
Player[]
- Player ( Babylonians): The player starts with an advanced town with some villagers and a little fleet of War Galleys, in the south island.
Enemies[]
- Nineveh ( Assyrians): Nineveh has an Iron age town fortified with walls and towers on the northern island. They employ a strong Navy and numerous powerful units. They will build a stable and then a Wonder with 7 villagers.
- Nimrud ( Assyrians): Nimrud starts in the Bronze Age. They have an active economy and will be the main opponent.
- Assyrian Defenders ( Assyrians): The Assyrian Defenders have a bunch of towers dotted on the separated islands. They are a token force and will not post a large threat to the player's Iron Age army.
Player[]
- Player ( Babylonians): The player starts with an advanced town with some villagers and a little fleet of War Galleys, in the south island.
Enemies[]
- Nineveh ( Assyrians): Nineveh has an Iron age town fortified with walls and towers on the northern island. They employ a strong Navy and numerous powerful units. They will build a stable and then a Wonder with a lone villager.
- Nimrud ( Assyrians): Nimrud starts in the Bronze Age. They have an active economy and will be the main opponent.
- Assyrian Defenders ( Assyrians): The Assyrian Defenders have a bunch of towers dotted on the separated islands. They are a token force and will not post a large threat to the player's Iron Age army.
Player[]
- Player ( Egyptians): The player starts with an advanced war camp (without Town Center nor Villagers) and a little fleet of Scout Ships in the south island.
Enemies[]
- Ninevah ( Greeks): This player will build a Wonder that the player must destroy onset of the game, using a single Villager. They have a large fortified town to the north of the map, which is guarded by a huge army at all directions.
- Enemy ( Babylonians): This player has a town with in the west side of the river. will aggressively attack the player throughout the game.
- Enemy ( Assyrians): This player owns some Sentry Towers on the island to the southeast and northwest of the map.
- Enemy ( Minoans): This player owns a few Catapults in an enclosure southeast of Nineveh near the port of the great city.
- Enemy ( Hittites): This player owns a couple of Sentry Towers and a couple of Catapults in an enclosure northwest of Nineveh
- Enemy ( Phoenicians): has a couple of Villagers trapped in a forest in the west side of the river
Strategy[]
This guide is suited for playing the original Age of Empires version.
Babylon (Blue, Egyptians) start off at the southern end of the map, with a sizable town, but no Villagers. Ninevah immediately starts building a Wonder.
There are six enemy teams on this map, but four of them are only represented by a handful of units or buildings, and represent no strategic threat. The other two are the red Ninevah (Greeks), and the yellow Enemy (Babylonians).
You don't have any Villagers, so start training a few Priests to convert some, and some Hoplites and Stone Throwers to protect them. As the units train, some enemy ships might get too close for comfort. If this happens, send your navy to deal with them, and train some new ships in case you lose any.
Send your units to the yellow island. Destroy all towers with the Stone Throwers, and use the Hoplites against soldiers. Convert any Villagers you come across. Ship some of them back to your base, to build a Town Center and gather resources, and keep others to build military buildings on the yellow island.
Keep destroying troop-producing buildings and towers until you feel in control of the yellow island. Start gathering resources for your final assault.
Ship units across to the red island - the south side is a good landing site. Destroy anything that represents a threat, apart from those soldiers you convert (Elephant Archers and Phalanxes are particular good conversion targets). Once you find the Wonder, destroy it to win the scenario.
For the Definitive Edition version, get some towers up along with Docks, spam Galley (mixed with some Fire Galley if desired). Always draw red into the range of towers then fight. They do not seem to rebuild anything, so they should be out of the sea fairly fast. Yellow, on ther other hand, could be very annoying as they would spam units and would essentially using up the resource that could be the player's. If the sea is cleared, send some units to the northeast corner to collect the gaia units, which are post-Iron-Age powerhouses. Protect the Juggernaut as it cannot be replaced. Lift the yellow tower with a Juggernaut or Galley, then land with powerful units and siege, kick them out of the game as soon as possible. Prepare a large army to invade the red island afterwards.
History[]
Historical notes[]
โ | In the 7th century BCE, a series of wars erupted Assyrian Empire and the people it had subdued. The king of Babylonia, who was the brother of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, formed a secret alliance with the Medes, Elamites, Aramaeans, Arabs and Egyptians to overthrow his brother. When the Elamites were defeated prematurely, the king of Babylonia decided to act calling upon the alliance to go to war (in 652 BCE). However, the rebellion was crushed, and Ashurbanipal captured Babylon, eliminating his brother who died in his palace when it was set ablaze. A series of punitive attacks were launched by the Assyrians to deal with those who dared rise against them. The Arabs were quickly defeated, and Elam became an Assyrian province after their capital, Susa Ashurbanipal's reign was more peaceful, and Assyria reached the zenith of its power. At this point in history, Babylonia was surpassed culturally and economically by Assyria. The tide turned when, in 635 BCE, a civil war erupted in the Assyrian heartland, and they could no longer fight off foreign invasions, in 626 BCE, the Chaldeans, who had settled in southern Babylonia, revolted in Uruk and occupied Babylon, while the Scythians laid waste to Syria and Palestine. In 625 BCE, Cyaxares of the Medes, began to conquer the eastern provinces of Assyria. Then, a combined army of Chaldean Babylonians and Medes marched on Nineveh, A former attempt by the Medes to take the city had been thwarted by the Scythians, but in 612 BCE the Medes and Babylonians succeeded in destroying Nineveh and, with it, the Assyrian Empire. The invaders took their revenge on the local inhabitants and, 200 years later, Xenophon (a Greek mercenary serving the king of the Persian Empire) found the country sparsely populated. In a few decades, the mighty Assyrians went from capturing Babylon (648 BCE) and Susa (639 BCE) to ceasing to exist as an empire. With Assyria gone as a major power, several new ones rose in its place: The Median Empire in Iran, a new Egyptian Kingdom in Egypt, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the rest of the Middle East. Babylonia entered its last period of glory with Nebuchadnezzar II as its most successful king, remembered best for capturing Jerusalem, capital of Judah, in 597 BCE. Following the revolt of Jerusalem in 587-586 BCE, many residents were carried off to Babylon and kept there for several generations. Babylon during this period was perhaps the most impressive city in the world. The wealth of trade and empire was expended on monuments, ziggurats, and palaces. The giant walls and the Ishtar Gate were described in detail by Herodotus and listed as one of the wonders of the world. The famous Hanging Gardens were built to resemble a verdant mountain to remind Nebuchadnezzar's wife of her homeland. This status stood in vast contrast with the condition of the city during Assyrian rule. The final Babylonian Empire lasted until 539 BCE, During that year, the people of Babylon surrendered their city without a fight to the great Persian king Cyrus II. They had grown tired of their incompetent ruler Nabonidus and were ready to accept the wise and capable Persian king. The Persian Empire would become one of the most powerful empires to have ever existed in East. | โ |
—In-game section |
Victory[]
โ | Nineveh has been destroyed and the Assyrian Empire has been broken. A new era has arrivedโone of Babylonian rule. The coalition congratulates you on a job well done. | โ |
—In-game section |
Loss[]
โ | Our siege has failed and the coalition has broken down, bickering amongst themselves like little children. The Assyrians once more have managed to take power and re-establish their rule over our people. Somehow, you were never to be heard of again, but rumors circulate that you were sold to the Scythians where you spent the rest of your life scooping up horse manure. | โ |
—In-game section |
Historical notes[]
โ | While Babylon revived under Chaldean rule in the late seventh century BC, the power of Assyria began to wane. Continual warfare had worn heavily on its population. The vassal states of its empire chaffed under oppressive and brutal rule from Nineveh. A new power, Medea, rose east of the Zagros Mountains. Harried from the outside by the Medeans and Babylonians, and weakening within, Assyria was tottering on the edge of ruin by the end of the century. The final shove was during the march toward Nineveh by 612 BC. | โ |
—In-game section |
Historical outcome[]
โ | The combined assault by resurgent Babylonia and the Medean newcomers from the east took Nineveh in 612 BC, ending Assyrian power forever. In a few decades, the mighty Assyrians went from capturing Babylon (648 BC) and Susa (639 BC) to ceasing to exist as an empire. Babylonia entered its last period of glory. Nebuchadnezzar II was its most successful king, remembered best for capturing Jerusalem, capital of Judah, in 597 BC. Following the revolt of Jerusalem in 587-586 BC, many residents were carried off to Babylon and kept there for several generations. This was the Babylonian Captivity described in the Bible. The Babylon of this period was perhaps the most impressive city in the world. The wealth of trade and empire was expended on monuments, ziggurats, and palaces. The giant walls and Ishtar Gate were described in detail by Herodotus and listed as a wonder of the world. The famous Hanging Gardens were built to resemble a verdant mountain and remind Nebuchadnezzar's wife of her homeland. The final Babylonian Empire lasted until 539 BC. During that year, the people of Babylon surrendered their city to the great Persian king Cyrus. They had grown tired of incompetent rulers and were ready to accept the wise and powerful Persian king. | โ |
—In-game section |
Trivia[]
- Ninevah's lone Villager builds a single House at the start of the game, then proceeds to build the Wonder. That is why Ninevah does not start building the Wonder right away at game start.
- In the original Age of Empires, the order of appearance of all factions in this scenario, including the player's, is the default setup when a player is creating a new scenario via the Scenario Editor (Player 1 is Egyptians, Player 2, is Greeks, etc.). It is unclear whether it was an oversight or purposely done.