The Legend of Prithviraj is the fifth and last scenario of the reworked Prithviraj campaign in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
Intro[]
Prithviraj's victory over Muhammad Ghori proved to be a curse. Believing that the Turk would not return, my raja took to revelry and the company of Sanyogita, leaving the defenses to rot.
It is here that I, Chand Bardai, enter the story and make my mark on my king's legend. I warned my raja that nothing would stop the Turk. The warlord had come down from the barren Afghan mountains to gaze upon the wealth of India and would return with a larger army.
My raja was wise and he listened to me. He sent messengers to the other Rajput princes, calling them to war. But few listened.
Laughing, the princes told the messengers that surely the Turks would not return so soon after being bloodied by Rajput Kshatriya. The princes of Rajasthan sent only token forces to aid my raja's defense.
As my king marched once again to war, I feared that he would not return. I began to write this tale and shared it with the other poets. Even if my king did not survive the battle, his legend would live on throughout all of India.
I would make sure of it.
Scenario instructions[]
Starting conditions[]
- Starting Age: Castle Age
- Starting resources: None (initially, then 400 food, 400 wood, 300 gold, 100 stone for each converted Raja)
- Population limit: 125 (increased by 25 for each converted Raja after the first, up to a total of 200)
Differences between difficulty levels[]
- On Standard, there are four Ghorid raids, with a 20 minute interval between raids. There will be no towers defending the bases of Yadava, Chola, and Pagan.
- On Moderate, there are five Ghorid raids, with a 15 minute interval between raids.
- On Hard, there are seven Ghorid raids, with a 10 minute interval between raids.
Objectives[]
Main objectives[]
- Choose your starting kingdom by converting a raja.
- Convert the remaining rajas.
- Defeat the Yadava.
- Defeat the Chola.
- Defeat Pagan.
Optional objectives[]
- Defend your lands from the Ghorid raids. Defeating them is difficult, but your spies will warn you in advance of their attacks, allowing you to prepare.
Hints[]
- Chand Bardai is a poet, not a warrior or logistician. His lack of skill at war means you are restricted to a population limit of 125 and cannot build a Town Center or Castle. However, the rajas do have this knowledge, so each one that you convert will give you access to new technologies and 25 extra population space. Castles can only be built once all rajas are converted.
- Take care not to cause too much destruction when attacking the Indian Dynasties. Once you convert each raja, his buildings will become yours. Rapidly taking over the Indian states may seem appealing given the benefits, but it will also extend your frontier and aggravate your neighbors.
- The first raja that you convert will share his unique wisdom with you. Bhima is an expert horse rider; Subhatavarman is a pious man who believes in infantry tactics; Paramardi is a master of the bow; and Vijayasimha is specialized in siege tactics. Subsequent conversions will still yield benefits but are no longer specific.
- Killing a raja instead of converting him will not bring defeat, but you will not receive his buildings.
- The Ghorids are occupied with wars abroad and thus cannot mount a large-scale invasion, but bands of raiders will continue their forays into India for the foreseeable future.
Scouts[]
Your scouts report:
- Poets have reached the courts of four dynastiesโHoysala, Kakatiya, Lambakanna, and Senaโto tell Prithviraj's tale and convince these Hindu rulers to unite in his honor.
- Other factions benefit from continued disorder, however and will try to stop Chand Bardai. The Yadava (3, Green) invade from the west with Camel Riders, Cavalry Archers, and Elephant Archers.
- The Chola (4, Yellow), once rulers of South India, have been weakened by foreign wars. Nevertheless, their archers, Light Cavalry, and ships remain a threat.
- Finally, Pagan (5, Cyan) encroaches on eastern India with Burmese infantry, elephants, Arambai, and Monks.
- Poets have reached the courts of four dynastiesโHoysala, Kakatiya, Lambakanna, and Senaโto tell Prithviraj's tale and convince these Hindu rulers to unite in his honor.
- Other factions benefit from continued disorder, however and will try to stop Chand Bardai. The Yadava (3, Green) invade from the north with camels, Cavalry Archers, and Elephant Archers.
- The Chola (4, Yellow), once rulers of South India, have been weakened by foreign wars. Nevertheless, their archers, Light Cavalry, and ships remain a threat.
- Finally, Pagan (5, Cyan) encroaches on eastern India with Burmese infantry, elephants, Arambai, and Monks.
Players[]
Player[]
- Player ( Gurjaras): The player starts with four Poets, each one located in a different town belonging to the Indian Dynasties. They need to choose which town to use in the beginning by converting the Rajas. The remaining Poets will be removed once the player successfully converts a Raja.
Ally โ Neutral[]
- Indian Dynasties ( Gurjaras): They have four towns located in the center of the map, between the two rivers. Once the player picks a starter town, all the other Indian Dynasties towns will turn neutral, and will defend the town when the player is attempting to convert the remaining Rajas. All the buildings and troops belonging to them will be converted to the player when the Raja inside a particular town is converted.
- Rajas ( Gurjaras): They are the leaders of the Indian Dynasties, represented by hero Elephant units located inside each town. Their towns will turn to the player after converting the Raja. In spite of being hero units, they are convertable.
Enemies[]
- Yadava ( Gurjaras): Yadava is located in the western corner of the map, across the river from the Indian Dynasties' towns. They train Camel Riders, Shrivamsha Riders, Chakram Throwers, and Elephant Archers.
- Chola ( Dravidians): Chola is located in the bottom right area from the bottom Indian Dynasties' town and train Urumi Swordsmen, infantry and Elephant Archers. While they have docks, they don't actively build military ships, instead using Trade Cogs to trade with Pagan.
- Pagan ( Burmese): Pagan have a walled base that is located in the east and mainly train infantry, Arambai, and Battle Elephants. They also train a fleet of Galleons and Fire Ships. Unlike Yadava or Chola, they are very unlikely to attack unprovoked. They also have Markets in the north east that provide trade for the Ghorids, and they themselves trade by sea with Cholas.
- Ghorids ( Hindustanis): Ghorids occupy the entire extent of the northeast border of the map, from the northern corner to Pagan in the far east of the map. They are defensive and won't attack, but have a sizable defensive force of Camel Riders, Cavalry Archers and Ghulams. They're the only player who trades with Markets, even having Caravanserai.
- Ghorid Raiders ( Hindustanis): Ghorid Raiders spawn as a wave of units every 10 minutes, with an increasing intensity each consecutive wave. The waves originate from the lands of the Ghorid player, and can only be stopped by eliminating the grey player. Their attack waves consist of Camel Riders, Cavalry Archers, Ghulams, and eventually Siege Elephants. After about 90 minutes of in-game time (Hard Difficulty), the player will get the message that Ghorid Raiders have stopped their raids in India - withstanding one last attack after that will complete the objective 'Repel Ghorid raids' and disable any subsequent attacks from them.
Player[]
- Player ( Indians): The player starts with four Poets, each one located in a different town belonging to the Indian Dynasties. They need to choose which town to use in the beginning by converting the Raja's Elephant. The remaining Poets will be removed once the player successfully converts the Elephant.
Ally โ Neutral[]
- Indian Dynasties ( Indians): They have four towns located across India: two in the northeast near the Ganges river, one at the southern tip of the Indian peninsula, and one on the Sri Lanka island. Once the player picks a starter town, all the other Indian Dynasties town will turn neutral, and will defend the town when the player is attempting to convert the remaining Rajas' Elephants. All the buildings and troops belonging to them will be converted to the player when the Raja's Elephant inside a particular town is converted.
Neutral[]
- Rajas ( Indians): They are the leaders of the Indian Dynasties, represented by the Elephant Archer located inside each town. Their towns will turn to the player after converting the Elephant Archer.
Enemies[]
- Yadava ( Indians): Yadava is located on the north coast, near the northernmost Indian Dynasties' town and train Camel Riders, Cavalry Archers, and Elephant Archers.
- Chola ( Indians): Chola is located in the middle of the map and train Crossbowmen, Light Cavalry, and War Galleys. Their northern side is undefended by walls.
- Pagan ( Burmese): Pagan have a walled base that is located in the east and mainly train infantry, Arambai, Battle Elephants, Mangonels, and Monks. Unlike Yadava or Chola, they are very unlikely to attack unprovoked.
Strategy[]
Defensive strategy[]
Note: The Poet still cannot carry Relics. The player cannot make more Town Centers except for the ones belonging to the Rajas that were converted.
This guide assumes that the player struggles to manage a large base, and the player is willing to play a long, drawn-out defensive game. It is possible that most of Town Centers except one might be lost to raids.
Each converted Raja provides one of the following group of technologies researched for free:
- Bhima: Husbandry, Light Cavalry, Chain Barding Armor, and Bow Saw (1,000 resources total).
- Subhatavarman: Fervor, Sanctity, Long Swordsman, Arson, Chain Mail Armor, and Heavy Plow (1,225 resources total).
- Paramardi: Thumb Ring, Bodkin Arrow, Leather Archer Armor, and Stone Shaft Mining (1,500 resources total).
- Vijayasimha: Ballistics, Murder Holes, Guard Tower, and Gold Shaft Mining (1,475 resources total).
- Any subsequent conversion will give Kshatriyas, Frontier Guards, and ability to build Castles, respectively. Each successful conversion will also gives the player 400 food, 400 wood, 300 gold, 100 stone.
Opening moves[]
- Convert Vijayasimha first.
- Gather all the forces available, and convert the Rajas one by one, from bottom to top. While doing so, the player should send in their soldiers to serve as distractions while the Poet converts the Raja. As time is of the essence here, it is more important that the Rajas be quickly converted than to reduce troop losses.
- Concurrently, gather all Villagers near the middle of the map, where 2 Stone Mines and about 5-6 Gold Mines are located. Mine them out as quickly as possible. This is a safe move since the Yadava, Chola and Pagan only begin attacking the player much later - and mining these resources will deprive them from using it against the player later in the game.
- While the other 3 Town Centers are destroyed, wall off the southern entrance of the top base with double walls (ideally, the player should research the Fortified Wall upgrade as well).
- With all Rajas already converted, the player can build the first Castle to protect the top entrance to the top base.
- The player should also build two Docks in the shallow stream at the same entrance, then wall of most of the entrance - leaving only a small gap to funnel the enemy troops into
- Research and spam Galleons. About 40 are needed to reliably protect the gap in the walls.
- When possible, build the equivalent of another two Castles near the gap in the walls (some players prefer to use towers) to protect the northern entrance.
- When possible, build about five Trebuchets to provide counter-fire against enemy Trebuchets.
Following these steps, the game plan consists in simply troubleshooting and ensuring that the base does not get overrun.
About 20 minutes after it is announced that the Ghorid raids have ended, the inevitable slowdown in the flood of enemy soldiers will become noticeable. When the player feels confident, they can destroy Yadava with about 40 Chakram Throwers and another 10 Trebuchets. This will allow the player to trade with Yadava's Market - and ensure that the game is pretty much won.
Tricking the game[]
While the first objective is to convert one of the four rajas, nothing in the game forbids the possibility of simultaneous conversions. Once you can control the poets, pause the game, select each of the poets and right click on its target, quickly un-pause then immediately re-pause the game to initiate the conversion process, and save. Un-pausing or reloading the save will result one, two, three, or four out of four conversions. Obviously, odds of simultaneous conversions will be increasingly smaller compared to the previous n. Nonetheless, converting two rajas instantly by this method is relatively easy, and the player looking for better luck can reload the save until the desired results are achieved. As has been said in the previous strategy, converting the rest of rajas is not difficult. And achieving the next conversion only takes to wait for the poet/monk to get charged, use your sturdy elephant and/or raja units to act as a distraction, and convert.
Rapidly converting all four rajas facilitates a bigger and faster booming strategy, providing a better economy from the very first minutes. If done right, and the portion of the player is well explored, no resources will be a scarcity before the first raids. Castles, upgrades, and mass production will be affordable before the first raids, and any kind of future losses will have a minor impact.
Note[]
- The Poet cannot carry Relics. The player cannot make more Villagers.
The first Raja the player should convert is the one in the town with a Castle. After that, build a Transport Ship and bring the Poet to the island. Since the Indian Dynasties are neutral, they will not attack the Transport Ship. Since the Poet has 70 hitpoints and 4/4 armor, he will manage to convert the second Raja without dying. Upon converting the Raja and capturing the town, the player will take control of another Monk. Then bring the Poet and the Monk by Transport Ship to the eastern base and convert the third Raja (be careful to avoid getting near Chola's Docks). Since the northern base will be under frequent attacks from Yadava, the player can convert the fourth Raja later.
Train a few War Galleys on both the first and third towns for protection and upgrade them. Build a wall (buy stone at the Market on difficulties other than standard) to protect the bridge in the third town from incursions from both Chola and Yadava. Build walls to the east in the unlikely event that Pagan attacks. Meanwhile, a Pagan Monk will attempt to cross the town carrying a Relic. Kill the Monk and capture the Relic.
Since both Chola and Yadava mostly train archer units and the player will easily reach the 100 population cap, it is a good idea to train Elephant Archers to defend against their attacks (carry them by Transport Ship, while being careful to avoid getting near Chola's Docks, but keep a few in the first town for defense). After converting the last Raja, bring most Elephant Archers to the last town. Elephant Archers only have to fear Yadava's Camel Riders but, in big enough numbers, they can easily kill them, as Yadava will not train many Camel Riders and will prefer to train Cavalry Archers and Elephant Archers (the player can easily convert the latter). From now on, only Elephant Archers, Galleons, Monks, and Trebuchets should be trained, and the player may have to delete weaker units to free population space for them.
A combination of fully upgraded Elite Elephant Archers and Trebuchets (with some Monks to heal and convert enemy Elephant Archers) are all that it takes to defeat both Chola and Yadava. Elephant Archers deal bonus damage against buildings, so they can even take down most buildings (except Castles) on their own. Upon defeating Chola, the player can pick up their Relic.
Now only Pagan is left and a similar army combination can be used to defeat them. Since Pagan trains Battle Elephants and will attempt to convert the player's Elephant Archers, Monks are once again recommended, to both convert Pagan's Battle Elephants and reconvert any converted Elephant Archers.
Chola resigns when all their military buildings are destroyed and Pagan resigns when most of their base is destroyed. Most likely due to a bug, Yadava only resigns when the last unit is killed, which may force the player to scout the entire map to find the last unit since Spies is unavailable.Outro[]
Prithviraj's heroism could not overcome his delay. He was defeated and taken to the Turkish warlord's castle in the Afghan mountains. There, my king was cruelly blinded and imprisoned.
I followed my raja in his captivity. When I came to the Turkish court, I regaled the warlord with the same tales and feats that I have told you. Surely, I persuaded him, a generous warlord would treat such a heroic raja as a companion and vassal, not as a prisoner condemned to a sullen dungeon.
But Muhammad's heart was cruel and though he brought my raja from his prison, he mocked Prithviraj for his blindness. In ridicule, he threw a bow and a single arrow at my raja's feet and dared him to strike at him.
Prithviraj drew the bow. Though he could not see, the sound of the Turk's sneering laughter made his aim true. He released the arrow, striking Muhammad Ghori. The guards fell upon Prithviraj and slew him.
In Ajmer, Sanyogita was stricken with grief. So strong was her love that she could not bear to live another day without her Prithviraj. In honor of her husband, and defiant to the end, she took her life by throwing herself into a fire.
Thus, my story ends where it began - with a legend born of fire.
Trivia[]
- Prior to Dynasties of India, the intended victory message, in which Chand Bardai says "No matter what happens against the Turks, Prithviraj will be remembered for centuries! Now, I must hurry to find my raja and help him complete his destiny..." wasn't implemented correctly. As soon as the last enemy was defeated, the game declared the player victorious without playing that message. This was fixed with update 61321, and the message plays after completing the victory objectives.
- In history, Muhammad Ghori was assassinated in 1206, years after the defeat of Prithviraj at the second battle of Tarain in 1192. The outro states that despite being blind he managed to hit Ghori with his arrow before being executed, though unlike in the older outro of Battles of Tarain, it does not state that Ghori was killed by the arrow. It's more probable that Ghori was merely injured by the arrow despite it piercing his chest.
- When the outro says that Sanyogita killed herself for the loss of her husband, it describes the Jauhar, an old traditional custom among the Rajputs where a (usually royal) woman ends herself by self-immolation upon the death of her husband and capture of the city/fortress in war to prevent humiliation from the victors.
- This is the only scenario in the campaign where Chand Bardai himself does not appear physically.
- The scenario has seen significant overhaul in Dynasties of India:
- The map used to depict the entire Indian subcontinent including Sri Lanka, as well as Burma. Now it seems to depict only Eastern and Central India.
- Prior to the expansion, the four Rajas (Kings) had different names: Sena dynasty in Bengal in the East had Laksmana Sena, Kakatiya dynasty in the North (erroneously) had Prataparudra, Hoysala dynasty of the Deccan (Southwest) had Veera Ballala, and Lambakanna dynasty of the island of Sri Lanka in the South had Nissanka Malla (erroneously, as he hailed from Vijayabahu dynasty).
- Currently, the Raja names are changed to another set of contemporaries of Muhammad Ghori: Bhima in the northwest (most likely referring to Bhima II of Chaulukya dynasty), Subhatavarman of the Paramaras, located east of Bhima, Paramardi of the Chandelas as the eastern-most Indian king, and Vijayasimha of the Kalachuri dynasty south of the Chandelas and north of the Cholas. The hints continue to erroneously mention the former dynasties and not the new ones, including those who cannot be physically present in the region depicted, such as the Sri Lankan Lambakanna dynasty.
- Formerly, no Ghorids were part of the scenario and the player only fought other Indian kingdoms and Burmese. In the new version, they are a powerful enemy and lead periodic raids into India.