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โ€œIt is better to live one day seeing the rise and fall of things, than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the rise and fall of things.โ€
—A friendly Buddhist Monk giving courage to the Indians before the desecration of their holy murti carried out by the Ghorid hordes

The Fate of India is the fourth scenario of the reworked Prithviraj campaign in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. It is based on the First Battle of Tarain (November 13, 1191). In this scenario, which is basically a reverse Defend the Wonder but with Relics, Prithviraj's army must take up a fight against three Ghorid hordes and have to prevent them from fully desecrating their holy symbols and icons.

Intro[]

Without his daughter, Jayachandra became a stampeding elephant - no one was safe from his overflowing rage. But anger alone could not win a war and Jayachandra would not have been a threat to my raja had it not been for the jealousy and cunning of a once loyal subject.

Oh Kaimbasa! How love and jealousy made him betray his master! The minister who had advised my king since he was a boy, and whom Prithviraj honored like a beloved uncle, sought the one woman he could not have - Kaimbasa fell in love with Sanyogita. His jealousy drove him to Jayachandra's court to betray his own king.

Whispering in Jayahandra's ear, Kaimbasa gave direction and purpose to the king's anger.

He urged Jayachandra to send an ambassador to the Afghan hills to find Muhammad Ghori, a brutal warlord said to command a slave army numbering in the thousands. The messenger would regale the Turk with tales of the riches of Prithviraj's kingdom and whisper to him how the young king was too smitten with his bride to defend his lands.

Then, Kaimbasa promised the vengeful king Prithviraj would be defeated and Jayachandra would rule Rajasthan.

Unknown to the two men, their fateful scheme would jeopardize all of India.

Scenario instructions[]

Starting conditions[]

Differences between difficulty levels[]

  • On Standard, the Imperial Age will be researched immediately in the beginning. However, all Castle Age technologies still have to be researched.

Objectives[]

  • Destroy Monasteries to prevent an enemy victory.
  • Each Monastery you destroy resets the relic countdown.

Secondary objectives[]

Hints[]

  1. You are restricted to a population limit of 200.
  2. Train units and research technologies quickly; your enemies begin with the same amount of resources and they will not waste time.
  3. Although you start with a high amount of resources, do not neglect to train more Villagers. You will need a robust economy to win.
  4. The sooner you help the Buddhist Monks, the greater the impact of their reward.
  5. All of your enemies rely heavily on cavalry, making them vulnerable to camelry.

Scouts[]

  • Prithviraj's brother, Govind Tai, commands the Rajputs defending the kingdom from the invading Ghorids. He has the treasury of Ajmer at his disposal, but the Ghorids are equally powerful.
  • The Ghorids belong to a multi-ethnic sultanate composed of Turks (2, Red), Persians (3, Green), and Tatars (4, Yellow). Each of these factions rely on cavalry armies supported by siege. The Persians train War Elephants and Knights, while the Turks and Tatars rely on large numbers of Cavalry Archers and Light Cavalry. The Tatars also benefit from their unique unit, the Keshik.

Players[]

Player[]

  • Player (CivIcon-Gurjaras Gurjaras (CivIcon-Indians Indians before Dynasties of India)): The player starts with a base in the east which is separated into two by a river. The western half contains all the military buildings, while the eastern half contains the Town Center and all the resources.

Ally[]

  • Buddhist Monks (CivIcon-Burmese Burmese): The Buddhist Monks will ask the player to return three Relic Carts to their Monastery and reveal their initial positions in the map. Once done, they will give the player the Atheism technology for free.

Enemies[]

  • Ghorids (CivIcon-Hindustanis Hindustanis (CivIcon-Turks Turks before Dynasties of India)): The western Ghorids base trains Light Cavalry and Cavalry Archers.
  • Ghorids (CivIcon-Persians Persians): The southern Ghorids base trains War Elephants, Knights, and Mangonels.
  • Ghorids (CivIcon-Tatars Tatars): The northern Ghorids base trains Keshiks, Cavalry Archers, Scorpions, and Trebuchets.
  • Muhammad Ghori (CivIcon-Turks Turks): Muhammad Ghori controls 3 Monasteries located inside each Ghorids army base, which will start a Relic victory countdown (200 years). Once a Monastery have been destroyed, the Relic will be immediately moved to another Monastery, triggering another countdown.

Strategy[]

On all difficulties, immediately research Kshatriyas, as it will make all military units cost -25% food. Build Mills near the Shore Fish, and garrison them with Sheep.

On Standard, Imperial Age is researched right in the beginning. While this saves the player 1,000 food, 800 gold (as well as very precious time), Castle Age technologies and upgrades still have to be researched.

On Moderate and Hard difficulties, research the โ€‹Imperial Age as soon as possible. Immediately start creating Villagers; putting them on gold (north of the Town Center) is a priority. The Buddhist Monks will ask the player to return three Relic Carts to their Monastery. Once done, they will give the player Atheism for free. The first Relic Cart (out of the three the player must bring back to Orange to unlock the secondary achievement) is on the left of the Gold Mine, accompanied by a Chand Bardai (healer); a Villager can go scout the area to find them. Use a Transport Ship to ferry the Relic Cart and Chand Bardai across the water. The player should also produce Fishing Ships. They should also use their Transport Ship to ferry a few Villagers across the water to build more military buildings; while there are several buildings in the central base, the player will need more to spam unit production, as well as Castles to protect them.

Keep in mind that the main objective is to destroy Red's Monasteries. Build Trebuchets to quickly destroy them. Use appropriate counters, mainly Camel Riders, Monks, Shrivamsha Riders, and Elite Skirmishers: Green spams War Elephants and Knights, Yellow uses Cavalry Archers and Keshiks, and Red has Cavalry Archers and Hussars. Do not skimp on spending: the player needs to create a lot of units, and fast, and upgrade them as fast as possible.

While the hints recommend using Heavy Camel Riders against the enemies, this is actually only a good idea against Hussars, Knights, and Keshiks. Yellow and Red train lots of Cavalry Archers who, with their hit-and-run tactics, will force the player to micromanage their Camel Riders, who have low pierce armor, very well. Besides, Camels are pretty ineffective against War Elephants. Here is where the player should make a good use of Elephant Archers. This unit's high HP makes them very resistant to enemy Cavalry Archers and so they will require little micromanagement. Researching Frontier Guards also makes them more resistant to melee units. Alternatively, Shrivamsha Riders are great counters to Cavalry Archers thanks to their dodging mechanic and their unrivalled movement speed, but they must not engage enemy melee units, or they will be easily taken down. Sadly, since the Gurjaras do not even get Pikemen, countering the War Elephants cannot be done cheaply; Monks will be the best available counter to them.

The player can build Castles around the base for defense, and garrison some archers. North of the starting base are some allies the player can trade with. Use upgraded Monks to convert enemy elephants, and defend the Castles to let the enemy exhaust military units. With a few Trebuchets, destroy the northern Monastery before the timer runs out, and destroy the Town Center and military buildings to cripple future attacks. Capture the second Relic Cart, and place the army near the Castles to defend against attacks from the south and prepare to take the southern Monastery. Before the timer runs out, send an army, destroy the southern Monastery, and take out Castles and Stables to cripple their attacks.

Take the final Relic Cart and the nearby Town Center. Relic Carts can get bugged en route to turn-in if the player's allies take control of them (they are a neutral unit, like sheep). To avoid this, send the Relic Cart along with one unit to avoid losing control of it.

With the Relic Carts captured, two Monasteries destroyed, and their military production greatly reduced, destroy the final Monastery. Just keep spamming units and converting enemy elephants. As soon as the third Monastery is down, the scenario is complete.

Alternative strategy[]

Create as many Hussars and Trebuchets as possible, use the Hussars as bait for the enemy troops, take advantage of their distraction to bring the Trebuchets closer to the enemy base, and destroy the Monastery. Do this twice more to win.

It is recommended to destroy the Red base first (the most distant and most difficult), then the Yellow one, and finally the Green one (the easiest and most unprotected).

Wonder victory[]

The player can win by building a Wonder and defending it for 200 years. The player should build the Wonder in the eastern base, where the enemy is unable to attack it. Here timing is the answer: when the Wonder is built (this can be done before the first 200-year countdown expires), a countdown will appear for the player's Wonder, while at the same time there is already another countdown for the enemy, which is ahead of the player's countdown. When the first Monastery is destroyed, the enemy countdown will be reset and now the player's countdown will be ahead and, when it ends, the player will be victorious. Note that for this to work the player has to destroy any Monastery after building the Wonder, otherwise they will be required to destroy a second Monastery. It is also recommended to research Treadmill Crane as it will speed up the player's victory.

Monastery on fire (exploit)[]

Damaging a Monastery enough to force a Relic to ungarrison ends the countdown, but doesn't start a new timer. At the same time, there are no Villagers to repair the Monastery, so the Relic remains ungarrisoned. At this point, the timer never restarts, allowing the player to boom across the river without the constraints of a time limit.

Outro[]

Thousands of Turkish horsemen - the slave soldiers of a savage warlord - descended from the Afghan hills to the plain at Tarain. Great clouds of dust rose in their wake, obstructing the vision of the Rajput Kshtriya. The Turkish cavalry unleashed a shower of arrows on the Rajputs. The indian warriors, facing an enemy they could not see, could only weather the blows against them.

With the battle hanging in the balance, Govind Tai, brother of my king, rode alone into the dusty fray, challenging the Turkish warlord to single combat. He struck Muhammad Ghori from his horse and wounded him. The warlord's slaves encircled their master and carried him off the field as the Turkish trumpets bleated a retreat.

Trivia[]

  • Changes in update 61321: The player is now using the Gurjaras civilization, and Ghorids is now using the Hindustanis civilization. The player no longer has Cavalry Archers as their starting units, but has Transport Ships and Chakram Throwers.
    • The change of the Ghorids to Hindustanis is possibly to reflect various Afghan and northern Indian people who served under the Ghorid dynasty (much like how the Tatar and Persian factions represent the eastern Turkic and Iranian people respectively of the Ghorid dynasty). However, the Ghorids do not use any specialities of the Hindustanis, making Light Cavalry and Cavalry Archers instead of Ghulams and Camel Riders, which would counter the Gurjara army better.
    • Although Muhammad Ghori himself appears physically in this scenario (as modified Tamerlane) in the Western Ghorid camp, slaying him does not seem to have any effect on the scenario.
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