The Horde Rides West is the fourth scenario of the Genghis Khan campaign in Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. It is based on the Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia (1219-1221), and to a much lesser extent, of Cumania (1217-1241) and Russia (1223-1242).
Intro
Sleep in the saddle. Drink the rain. Eat nothing but dried meat, dried milk, and horse blood. Such is the life of a Mongol at war.
At night we are rewarded with fermented yak's milk and the promise of Persian treasures.
Driven on by the words of the Great Khan we have crossed miles of the Asian continent at a full gallop.
Before us lies the vast empire of Persia.
The Khwarazm Shah will be given one chance to submit, and then his cities will be pulled down brick by brick. But not all of us head into Persia.
Genghis has sent Subotai Ba'atur of the Reindeer People north into Russia. The Russian principalities are disorganized, and Genghis hopes that Subotai can break them one by one. Then the borders of Mongolia will cover all of Asia.
Scenario instructions
Starting conditions
- Starting Age:
Castle Age - Starting resources: 200 wood, 400 food, 200 gold, 200 stone
- Population limit: 75
- Starting units:
Objectives
- Subotai must survive
- In the north, deploy Subotai's horde to conquer Russia.
- In the south, the Khwarazm shah is expecting a gift. But it is assassins he will find in our Trade Carts. We must deliver the carts to the shah quickly, before he breaks his alliance with us.
- Defeat the Khwarazm Empire.
Hints
- Your two armies are divided and will not be able to meet until they reach Samarkand.
- If your assassination attempt fails, the leadership of the shah will guarantee that the Persians are a much more deadly enemy.
- The Persians are expecting their gift. If they do not receive it soon, they may eventually declare war on you.
Players
Player
- Player (Mongols): The player starts with two small bases - Subotai's in the north, Khan's in the east.
Allies → Enemies
- Khwarazm (Persians): Initially allied, Khwarazm becomes the primary enemy once the assassins killed the Shah. He has a large fortified city in the south with a couple of Castles. He mainly attacks with Paladins, Cavalry Archers, and War Elephants.
Enemies
- Merkids/Kipchaks (Mongols, Cumans in the Definitive Edition): The Merkids have a small base west of Subotai's base in the north. They are inactive and after killing their two Cavalry Archers, they resign and give all their buildings to the player.
- Russians (Goths, Slavs in the Definitive Edition): The Russians are the primary enemy in the north. They attack with small groups of Men-at-Arms and Battering Rams, occasionally adding Huskarls (Boyar in the Definitive Edition) and Knights. Their base is small and without walls, although with one Castle.
Strategy
Both Genghis' and Subotai's forces begin separated by a cliff, and it is only possible to unite them after advancing towards the Persian citadel. Subotai attacks Russia (Goths) from the west while the Khan must first deliver a gift to the Persian Khwarazm shah within 30 minutes (13 minutes in the Definitive Edition) - but the presents are actually assassins hidden inside two Trade Carts, who will attack the Shah until he dies. There is a camp of Merkits near Subotai's base in the west, who will immediately surrender when their two Cavalry Archers are killed, providing several buildings for the player. The player should hold off defeating this camp until they can adequately defend it.
If the player takes too long delivering the carts, the Persians will attack. They will also attack if the player sends military forces inside their walls. It is best to build up the military of the eastern camp first, since the Persians will be much more aggressive than the Russians. The Russians will only send in small waves of infantry which can be easily repulsed. The Shah's army consists primarily of Paladins and War Elephants as well as some siege while the Russians primarily produce infantry, rams as well as Boyars in the Definitive Edition.
The player should focus on making cavalry archers in the western camp and anti-cavalry (camel/spear) units in the east to effectively counter the Russians and Persians, respectively. The Mongols have terrible Monks, so converting the War Elephants may not be all that effective. Monks can help dealing with the Persian army however. It may be a good idea to wall off crucial segments in the eastern part of the map to help defend against the Persian War Elephants. The player should also focus on raiding Persian gold stockpiles to hinder their production of heavy cavalry and elephants. After the Shah is defeated, the combined forces of Subotai and Genghis should then clear up the poorly defended Russians with little trouble. The player will win after defeating the Persians and Russians.
Outro
The Persian army numbered nearly half a million men but was beaten by a Mongol army less than half that size. The governors of outlying cities were executed by pouring molten silver into their eyes and throats.
The capital city of Samarkand, which was expected to withstand our siege for a year, fell in five days. Separate mountains were made of the skulls of men, women, children, horses, dogs, and cats.
We roamed the streets in wonder at the opulence of the Persians, drinking at their fountains and gorging ourselves on sherbert and tropical fruit. For a man born in a tent, it seemed as if Genghis Khan had torn open the gates to Heaven itself.
Russia and Mesopotamia were now ours to command. The empire now stretched over seven thousand miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Black Sea. We were about to enter Europe when tragedy struck.
Trivia
- This is the only scenario in the campaign that has no direct equivalent in the fifth Design Document of Ensemble Studios (dated 17 July 1998), although the assassination of the Shah resembles a planned mission to infiltrate a Hsi Hsia mountain fortress and kill their King.
- After bursting from their Trade Carts, the assassins will not be attacked by the Persians until they kill the Shah. Take advantage of this by killing all of the Shah's ceremonial troops (who incidentally also comprise most of the Persian Army), then slaughter the Shah without fear of retaliation. The two assassins alone can thus cause serious damage before the player's troops even arrive. Additionally, only the Castles and Wonder need to be destroyed to defeat the Persians, so consider destroying them before assassinating the Shah. This can best be accomplished by building Siege Workshops in the Persians' base and creating Battering Rams.
- This no longer works in the Definitive Edition, as the Persians will retaliate if the Shah isn't killed within a few seconds of their appearance.
- If the player fails to assassinate the Shah, then the Persians immediately gain 2000 food and gold, and choose to build 40 villagers instead of 25. It is still possible to beat them, albeit much more difficult.
- In Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, the Russians are now accurately represented by the Slavs, while the Merkids are replaced with the Kipchaks and given the Cuman tech tree.
- The north part of this scenario is represented also in the The Battle at the Kalka River scenario from the Kotyan Khan campaign.
Historical comparison
- In sharp contrast to the scenario's temperate environment, this area is occupied by desert and steppe in reality, with forests only in mountain ranges and near rivers. In fact, one of the greatest feats in the campaign was the march of the main Mongol force through the arid Kyzylkum Desert to attack Khwarazm from the north, which the Khwarazmians believed impossible but the Mongols achieved through a revolutionary system of Logistics.
- The division of the Mongol forces mirrors their real life strategy of attacking with a decoy army through the mountains to the east, to lure the bulk of the Khwarazmian army there, then invading the weakened Khwarazmian garrisons from the north. The two armies converged in the capital Samarkand, as in the scenario.
- Though the scenario begins with the Mongols using traders to hide assassins for the Shah and weaken Khwarazm for an invasion, the real war was caused by the Khwarazmians killing a genuine Mongol trading expedition. Genghis Khan sent an army led by Subotai and Chepe to capture the Shah after the fact, but he escaped to an island near Abaskun in the Caspian Sea and died of pleurisy there.
- The presence of Russians is strange. Wether the large body of water to the west is the Aral Sea or the Caspian, their in-game location would fall within the Cuman-Kypchak Confederation, which was invaded by the Mongols for sheltering Merkit refugees. Later on, the Mongols would invade Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria in pursuit of Cuman refugees.
- Relatedly, Subotai's role seems a combination of four of his real life campaigns - if not more:
- Against the Merkits and their Cuman allies in 1217-1220, during which he also defeated a Khwarazmian expedition against him.
- The invasion of Khwarazm from the north, which was actually led by Genghis Khan himself (with Subotai by his side).
- The "Great Raid" where Subotai and Chepe pursued the Shah west before turning north and defeating the Cumans and Russians at the Kalka River, in 1223.
- The invasion of Russia proper in 1236-1240, where the Russians suffered from internal division (unlike at Kalka and in the scenario, where they were/are a single force).
- Many players question the Khawarazmians using War Elephants against Genghis Khan due to the game's Persian civilization being based mainly on the Sassanid Empire. However, the Samarkand garrison did indeed have an elephant corps, and the Mongols defeated it by firing catapults on them. Not impressed with the elephants, Genghis Khan had the surviving animals released to the steppe to fend for themselves instead of incorporating them into his army, and they died of starvation.
- The cutscenes imply Russia to be a strictly Asian region. However, none of the medieval Russian states were located in Asia.
