The Land of Kings

The Land of Kings
Scenario information
Game	Age of Empires: Return of Rome
Campaign	Sargon of Akkad
Civilization	Sumerians
Color	Blue
Scenario no.	4
Previous	The Prophecy
Next	Subartu

The Land of Kings is the fourth scenario of the Sargon of Akkad campaign in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Return of Rome.

Intro

Despite not having been groomed for rule, Sargon had a natural talent for kingship. He built his new capital of Akkad to the north of Sumer, sending his new subordinates a powerful message. He would not follow the traditions established by past kings no, this was truly a new beginning.

An enormous court soon surrounded Sargon. More than a thousand servants, priests, scholars, and soldiers populated the king's palace and they all had to be fed and paid.

Sargon therefore turned his sights on neighboring kingdoms. Once, dominion of Mesopotamia had been the sum of his ambitions - but Sargon had changed.

The larger his entourage grew, the more he pushed his old companions away - and the greater the riches he amassed, the greedier the flickering in his eyes seemed to me.

He hardly spoke of the goddess of war anymore. He no longer visited her temples, nor offered her sacrifices. It seemed that as his power grew, Sargon forgot to whom he owed his throne...

...and now, as he rallied his armies to conquer the kingdom of Elam, he tempted her wrath.

Scenario instructions

Starting conditions

• Starting Age: Bronze Age
• Starting resources: 450 food, 300 wood, 400 gold, 75 stone
• Population limit: 75
• Starting units:
  • 5 Scouts
  • 3 Chariot Archers
  • 3 Villagers

Objectives

Main objectives

• Defeat Elam.
• Neither Akkad nor the Hurrians may be defeated.

Secondary objectives

• Defeat the Elamite Navy by destroying its docks so that your allies from Nina can resume naval trade and pay tribute to you again.
• Tribute the shipbuilder (Player 7) 500 gold to buy 3 Catapult Triremes.
• Loot Elamite Houses for additional gold.
• The Hurrians will gather resources for you. You can determine which resources they gather by using the following taunt commands:
• - Type 3 to tell them to gather more Food.
• - Type 4 to tell them to gather more Wood.
• - Type 6 to tell them to gather more Stone.

Hints

1. Sargon can support a population of 75 and may advance to the Iron Age.
2. You have hardly any Villagers and cannot train any more, but Sargon's new capital of Akkad will provide you with laborers on a regular basis. The Hurrians, on the other hand, will provide you with resources but need military support against Elamite counterattacks.
3. The hotly-contested, fish-rich Persian Gulf could be an excellent source of additional food income, but you must defend your Fishing Boats from the enemy navy.

Scouts

• Sargon's powerful army (1, Blue) has gathered in the south on the coast of the Persian Gulf. It is prepared to attack Elam, but lacks Villagers.
• Sargon's new capital of Akkad (2, Green) will supply your army with Villagers, but must be protected from enemy raids.
• The allied Hurrians (3, Cyan) are militarily weak, but the regular shipments of wood, stone and food with which they provide your forces will prove crucial.
• Elam (4, Yellow) lies to the east, defended by a powerful army of Chariot Archers and Heavy Cavalry. It also has a sizable navy (5, Red) of Fire Galleys and Triremes prowling the shores.
• The coastal town of Nina (6, Purple) suffers grievously at the hands of Elamite pirates. Only after Elam's fleet is eliminated can Nina become a significant ally.

Players

Player

• Player ( Sumerians): The player starts in the Bronze Age controlling an established town and small army just south of the centre of the map, and can eventually advance to the Iron Age. No Villagers may be trained, but other economic units can be.

Allies

• Akkad ( Sumerians): This player is an ally in the western part of the map who can be traded with. They possess a large but vulnerable city and only train Axemen for their defenses, which are no match for the Elamites raids. They have two Town Centers in the outskirts of their city, which they don't rebuild if destroyed, and if they lose both of them, they will resign. They donate Villagers to the player from their central Wonder every 5 minutes, so long as the player has less than 25 Villagers.
• Hurrians ( Hittites): This player is an ally in the northern part of the map who can be traded with. They control an economic-focused city with gates to the west but open to the east, and a small defensive military consisting of Broad Swordsmen and Priests, which also are no match for the Elamites' raids. They have two Town Centers, and unlike Akkad, if one of them is destroyed, they will try to build a new one. They have no access to gold, so will need to be tributed it to replenish their military. The Hurrians tribute Sargon resources every 5min 20s, initially up to 400 food, 300 wood and 175 stone. After 15 in-game minutes the player can ask the Hurrians to provide far more of a particular resource (up to 1,000 food, or 1,000 wood, or 800 stone) by typing 3, 4 or 6 in chat (Enter button by default).

Neutral → Ally

• Nina ( Babylonians): Located in a small city to the players south-west they are inactive until the player destroys the Elamite Navy's Docks, after which they become available for sea trade and will send out parties of Cavalry, Chariot Archers and Stone Throwers to raid Elam.

Neutral

• Coastal Village ( Sumerians): Just south of Elam is a small Tool Age village. If reached by the player's units they will offer to sell three Catapult Triremes (which are not present in the Sumerian technology tree) to the player for a tribute of 500 gold.

Enemies

• Elam ( Persians): This player controls a large city in the eastern part of the map and two military camps north of the player from which they conduct raids. They can field Scouts, Stone Throwers, Catapults, Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry (on Moderate or Hard difficulty), Cataphracts (on Hard difficulty) and Improved/Composite Bowmen (on Easy or Moderate difficulty).
• Elamite Navy ( Persians): Possessing four guarded Docks: one south of the player's base, one on the southeast coastline, and two midway along the central river. The Elamite Navy will raid with War Galleys, which eventually upgrade to Triremes, and all Docks except the easternmost are protected by Guard Towers.

Strategy

The player cannot train their own Villagers, but will gradually receive them from Akkad until the player has 25; any losses will eventually be replaced. The player can train Fishing Boats for faster food collection and Trade Carts (after researching Wheel) for guaranteed gold income, both of which can be created with no limit other than the population cap.

Walls can be utilised later on to control enemy movement, as there is little choice but to send Villagers forward to collect more gold after exhausting the meager mines near the player's starting location. While trading is another way to perpetually generate gold, it is noticeably slower than mining.

The enemy pirates have several Docks through which it can threaten not only the player's Fishing Boats, but also the base, which is near the shore, as well as the shallows through which the player's army must pass to enter the enemy bases in the north and the east. It is recommended to try to establish naval supremacy early on. Note that wood collection improvement technologies such as Artisanship increase the range of all arrow-firing units and buildings, so it should be prioritised.

The Elamites will periodically attack the player and their allies, utilising Cavalry-line and Stone Thrower-line units. and on Standard/Moderate difficulty Composite Bowmen.

The hero unit Sargon of Akkad is not available in this scenario, so the player has to start creating troops earlier.

Camel Riders will serve best to counter enemy Cavalry in the Bronze Age and are also useful against archers and siege. The player can also attempt to field several Priests, with a buffer unit like Chariots in front, and convert the enemy's gold units. Once the enemy advances to the Iron Age, they can upgrade Cavalry to Cataphracts, which will no longer be as easily countered with Camel Riders. The player can instead utilise the afore-mentioned Priest army or advance to the Iron Age themselves and switch to Elephant units or Centurions.

To destroy enemy buildings, utilizing Stone Throwers may not be the best choice in this scenario, as Cavalry have great survivability and are trained faster by the enemy Elamites (represented by Persians here), so they can easily kill the Stone Throwers before going down themselves. Instead, utilizing converted Cavalry or other melee troops to destroy buildings is recommended in the Bronze Age, then transitioning to War Elephants in the Iron Age. Enemy Composite Bowmen can be countered with stronger ranged units such as Chariot Archers, Horse Archers, or other mounted units.

Walkthrough

Around 20 seconds into the scenario, two things will happen: Sargon receives the first batch of extra Villagers from Akkad, and Elam launches a cavalry raid from its enclave on a mesa in the middle of the map.

Immediately start training extra Camel Riders to help the starting force deal with the raid, and continue pumping them out, because swift action will make a huge difference in this scenario. It's tempting to train Fishing Ships to gather extra food, but this is likely to draw attention from the powerful Elamite Navy. (There's no point in training Merchant Ships; Akkad's southern Docks can't be traded with and Nina's won't be available until the Elamite Navy is defeated.) Focus the starting Villagers on food and gold to keep up the initial military assault. Gazelles and forage bushes are rare here, so the food will need to come from farms.

After the raid is dealt with, Elam will spend around 7 minutes quietly building its economy, so won't train units to defend its two military enclaves on Sargon's side of the map. They're only protected by Sentry Towers that are easily dispatched by an early raid. After this period has elapsed, the enclaves will start churning out Cavalry, so assaulting them becomes much harder. (Note: strangely on Standard difficulty the quiet period is shorter - 5 minutes - and the enclave Stables are likely to produce Scouts during that time.)

While it's tempting to target the mesa enclave where the raid came from, which is closer to Sargon's base, the more important target is the enclave on the northern edge of the map, between Akkad and the Hurrians. As the game goes on, the Hurrians won't be able to survive invasions from Elam's increasingly advanced army, so depend on troops and fortifications from Sargon to survive - but if Elam's northern enclave is allowed to remain, it will cut the player off from the Hurrians, and will be able to quickly pump out Cavalry-line units from its three Stables. The game's initial quiet period is the best chance to wipe out this key threat.

The northern enclave is protected by two Sentry Towers, which will go down easily to Sargon's Camel Riders (which being Sumerians gain extra defense against arrows). Researching Metalworking will allow the troops to do their work more quickly. If the player can spare the wood for a Barracks, Slingers will be useful against the towers, and Axemen have an attack bonus against any Cavalry that appear after the quiet period elapses, but otherwise keep up a steady stream of Camel Riders to wipe out the enclaves quickly. On Hard difficulty Elam never uses its Archery Ranges, so the player's military should move on to the next target after the Sentry Towers and Stables are destroyed.

By the time the troops reach the mesa enclave in the middle of the map, it's likely to be around the end of the quiet period, so if the remaining troops aren't enough to fend off a mob of Cavalry, it may be worth holding back until a bigger force can be mobilized. However the mesa enclave is smaller than the northern one, with just two Stables and two Archery Ranges, so reinforcements will trickle out more slowly - and there's just one tower here.

Next priorities are fortification, navy and bolstering the Hurrians. Sargon's side of the map is difficult to wall off, with large expanses of open space, and Elam fields a lot of Stone Thrower-line units. Villagers will also get picked off by the Elamite Navy's ships and towers if they stray too close to the eastern river. But it's important to slow down Elam's increasingly dangerous raids (remember, the player needs to defend their allies as well as their own base), so wall off sections around the middle of the map; this will use more stone than Sargon starts with.

The biggest upcoming threat will be the War Galleys of the Elamite Navy. If the player hasn't built any Fishing Ships then hopefully the enemy will head north to focus their attacks on Akkad's Dock. If they do attack Sargon's Docks on the south coast (which will almost certainly happen if the player has built Fishing Ships), they'll be difficult to repel, as they attack in large numbers. Ideally the player should build a sizable navy before going to war at sea, so focus Villagers on acquiring wood as soon as the 7-minute initial phase is over, build extra Docks, and train up as many War Galleys as possible, keeping them garrisoned in their Dock ready to unleash all at once. When ready for war, have the group focus fire on enemy ships as soon as they come into range.

It's useful to wipe out the Elamite Navy as quickly as possible, because this brings Nina into play - the only ally that will actively fight Elam - and gains Sargon control of the highly defensible central river. It's not necessary to wipe out every warship or Guard Tower: when all four Docks are destroyed, their entire faction will be wiped out. There's a Dock on a little island directly south of Sargon's base, the player's navy is able to shoot this down from beyond the range of the island's Guard Tower. There's another Dock to the far east, near the southernmost gates of Elam, which could be the next target for Sargon's navy; another option is to run a group of fast-moving Chariots or Camel Riders past Elam's towers and take it down in melee. The other two Docks are along the river and are much harder, being protected by Guard Towers, Elam's Catapults and a screen of warships, probably Triremes by this time. Don't get bogged down whittling down the towers: eliminate the troops, then focus on the Dock, which will go down a lot quicker than the tower. When only one Dock remains, it's worth making a kamikaze run, because its destruction will swing the game radically in Sargon's favor.

The Coastal Village to the east has a trio of Catapult Triremes that can be recruited, which can take down the Docks more rapidly than Sargon's War Galleys and Triremes. Move a ship between the Catapult Triremes and the coast, and they'll send a parley. Sending 500 gold in tribute will recruit the warships, but keep them screened behind more conventional ships, because this is a one-time offer and Sargon can't train any more. Consider combining arms with land troops, especially War Elephants or Catapults if the player has reached the Iron Age.

While the sea war is waging, Elam will likely be starting to raid the Hurrians, who have no fortifications on their vulnerable southeast flank. If Sargon can't reach them in time, send a tribute of gold so they can train more Priests and Swordsmen. But this won't be enough to hold off Elam's Catapults forever, so the player will need to send troops as quickly as possible to mop up the invaders, and then build walls to slow down the next attack. Use any surviving Hurrian Priests to heal Sargon's troops. The player will need to keep a permanent garrison here, because the Hurrians never develop a powerful military. Priests can be key defensive units, able to convert the enemy cavalry and send them out against the siege weapons, but an intact wall is needed to keep the Priests safe. A team of mounted archers should mop up any units that survive the conversions, and it's useful to keep a few Hoplite-line troops (or converted Cataphracts) ready to tackle anything that breaks through the walls. Keep a similar force on the southern landmass to deal with raids closer to home.

With the Elamite Navy gone and the Hurrians safe, things become easier. Mop up the Elamites' towers to gain control of the river, and secure the shallows to cut off their access to the western landmass. Nina will now start sending raids across the river to pressure the Elamites. But Elam won't go down easily, fielding large numbers of Cavalry-line units and Catapults which race to action wherever the city is attacked. Priests can convert Cavalry units that aren't normally available to Sargon, Elephants/Phalangites will make short work of enemy fortifications, and Horse Archers or converted Cavalry will quickly close the gap to shred the enemy Catapults. Elam's economy is vast so they won't stop churning out troops until they're nearly defeated, but with Sargon controlling the river and the north, they can easily be kept at bay until the player is ready to begin the assault. Elam doesn't rebuild their structures, so each Stables and Siege Workshop destroyed will reduce the enemy's counter-attack capability.

Outro

Can a mortal being of flesh and blood become a god?

I asked myself this question more and more often as we embarked on a brutal campaign of conquest through lands so distant that I would never have imagined visiting them.

The Divine Will, which Sargon once received and taught his followers, was now indistinguishable from his own. He made it abundantly clear that his will was to enlarge his empire, whatever the cost.

I was not the only one who noticed our king's change of character. Discontent brewed among the population. Many of the soldiers, tired and spent from constant campaigns, harbored thoughts of treason.

Sargon did not seem to notice his people's growing distrust. Caught up in his own world, where friend and foe alike gave way to him, he was already planning his next conquest - a campaign that would lead us even deeper into darkness.

Trivia

• The exact location of Akkad is actually unknown. In this scenario, Akkad is located in the southeastern portion of Mesopotamia, on the border with Elam.

Gallery

Sargon's capital Akkad (ally) as it appears in this scenario