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THE ART OF WAR
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BASIC INFORMATION
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BY: The Ambassador
EMAIL:
[email protected]
LAST UPDATED: 05/31/05
VERSION: .15
SITES THAT MAY POST THIS GUIDE: gamefaqs.com gamespot.com supercheats.com
www.mogelgott.de
IF YOU FIND THIS GUIDE ON ANY OTHER SITE, PLEASE EMAIL ME IMMEDIATELY
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. NOTES and GENERAL STRATEGIES
2. VERSION HISTORY
3. CAMPAIGNS:
A. ENCIRCLED BY FIRE
I. LIBERATION CAMPAIGN
II. SAXON GOLD
III. TURKISH STRONGHOLD
B. UNDER THE BANNER OF KING FREDERICK
I. TRADE ROUTE BATTLE
C. CHAMPION OF THE EMPIRE
I. MUTINY IN BOHEMIA
D. NOBLE'S HONOUR
I. SOUTHERN PROVINCE
II. INCURSION
III. MUTINY IN UKRAINE
E. GRAND BEY
I. DESERT WARRIORS
4. SINGLE MISSION
A. AZOV
B. COLONIAL WARS
C. INSURRECTION
D. THE TURKISH INVASION
E. THE LONG WAY TO VICTORY
F. THREE NATIONS
G. MY FIRST MISSION
5. RANDOM MAP
A. GENERAL MAP STRATEGIES
B. NATIONS
C. OTHER
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1. NOTES and GENERAL STRATEGIES
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1. I am assuming that you know the basics of moving, selecting multiple
units, unselecting units, constructing buildings, etc. If I need to add
a basics section, email me and let me know what I need to cover.
2. Due to the harsh general difficulty of this game, the strategies
used will be for EASY, unless otherwise stated.
3. For easier gameplay, always turn on the health/reloading bars that
appear on top of each unit after pressing the `/~ key on your keyboard
(it is in the upper left-hand corner). This helps in figuring out your
troops, as well as finding enemies hiding in forests.
4. LEARN HOTKEYS: Hotkeys are simply shortcuts to units. Select a group
of units (or just one unit) that you wish to have a shortcut for. Then
press CONTROL and a number 1-0. Once you have done this, all you need
to do is to press the number that you assigned to that group to jump to
those units. It is the absolute fastest way to select units.
5. Look ahead and use the minimap. You will avoid tons of casualties if
you know where your opponent is before they know where you are. Each
colorful dot on the minimap represents an unit. Glance down at it as
many times as you can to avoid being ambushed.
6. Advance to the eighteenth century as soon as you can. Build one of
each building and advance. The moment you have advanced, research the
Montgolfier to see the entire map, giving you a tremendous advantage.
7. Use pause to your advantage. This is the sole reason why I am
writing the Art of War guide before European Wars. You can control
units while in pause, so do so.
8. If you ever forget your objective, F1 will tell you what it is.
9. When you see my campaign missions in the table of contents, know
that the last mission listed in each campaign probably has not yet been
beaten by me, so there won't be a guide for it.
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2. VERSION HISTORY
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05/26/05: Begin work on guide. Completed from setup to Saxon Gold. Also
included skeletons for up to Trade Route Battle.
05/31/05: Completed Mutiny in Bohemia.
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3. CAMPAIGNS
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A. ENCIRCLED BY FIRE
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LIBERATION CAMPAIGN:
MY Opinion Rating:
Comparative Difficulty (to other campaigns): * (easy)
Fun: ** (only fun if you enjoy minor skirmishes)
This mission starts you off as a lone rider, whose objective is to save
several peasants before they are shipped off. Although it may sound
like it, there is no real time constraint here. Start off by following
the road west until you reach a village. The general in charge will
give you a regiment of 21 pikeman to use. Further west is another
village. Pay the 3000 gold (you have 30,000) and buy the 16 cavalry.
Continue westward on the path until you reach a fortified village. Talk
to the commander in charge and he will tell you to take care of the
rebels to the west. Take all of your men to face the southwest of the
village and charge. Numbers will be deceiving, these are LIGHT
infantrymen, in other words, worse than fighting peasants. Once the
camp is destroyed, go back to the commander and he will give you 13
dragoons (which are, in my opinion, the absolute best guerilla units in
the game).
Now, since there is nothing else further west, take the path leading
northeast from the fortified village. You will come across a group of
soldiers willing to sell you a multi-barreled gun for 5,000 gold. Don't
buy it unless you truly want it; you don't need the cannon, but you
don't need the gold, either. Continue up to the northeast and you will
find a town that will freely give you a general, 3 cannons, and a
howitzer.
There is nothing further east. Take your 13 dragoons and head west,
playing "kill the nearest enemy before he kills you". If you play it
right, you can expect minimal casualties. Just make sure to move your
cursor over the trees to kill any hidden troops (are there are quite a
few of them) as well as keep all of them occupied shooting one enemy at
a time. Also, if a pikeman gets too close, manually run the dragoons
back and once far enough away, fire.
Once the enemy is properly disposed of, take all of your units up to
the white base. The general will ask for 5000 gold for you to pass.
Take one good look at his base and decide "yes". Watch out, for there
are a couple of blue pikeman just outside the base. Whatever you do, do
NOT go north, unless your version of a fun pastime is a suicide mission
because in the northwest are several blue ships that just love to kill
units and directly north is an ambush that will come into play in just
a few moments.
Use your dragoons to kill all of the bridge's guards. Once the guards
are dead, send your dragoons to the enemy side of the bridge and put
them on "stand guard" (on of the buttons beneath their picture), so
that they will attack any troops that get close, but will not rush in
and kill themselves. Then, take your 3 cannons (not the other two
artillery) and set them up just behind your dragoons and destroy the
stronghold (make sure that your targets are not to close to the
peasants because otherwise they could die too).
As soon as the majority of the troops are wiped out, come down with the
dragoons and take out the remaining units, but do NOT get too close to
the peasants (you do not want to recapture them just yet). Now, take
the rest of your troops down through the bridge and bring the 3 cannons
closer. Use the cannons to kill the small army southwest of the
stronghold. Also, shoot out the gate, for if your cannons are close
enough to shoot that army, they can shoot out the gate with minimal
casualties. Once there are very few left (or if the remaining pikemen
charge), you should charge. Take the Rider (your main character) and
bring him up to a ferry. You will capture both ferries. The top one is
ready for loading, but the bottom one needs to be adjusted (in other
words, select it and right-click somewhere on the shore). Pile in all
of your troops and peasants as fast as you can. As soon as you see blue
ships coming in from the north pull out the top ferry (as long as no
important units (the peasants or the Rider) are trying to get in). As
soon as you can, pull out the bottom ferry and send them both south.
You will get attacked, but hopefully you got out fast enough to avoid
getting sunk, as your allies will come to your aid. As soon as you land
enough peasants, you win this mission.
SAXON GOLD:
MY Opinion Rating:
Comparative Difficulty (to other campaigns): **
Fun: * (short but not so sweet)
Start off by pausing the game. Put all of your citizens to work in the
mines (there are just enough to reach the five limit in each mine). Put
both of your barracks to work creating 100 pikemen in each barracks, so
that when your units die, they will instantly be replenished. Do NOT
create musketeers, since they use up gold. Send your general to the
back, since if he dies, you loose. There will be multiple waves, ending
with a very large wave at around 14,000 gold. Always have your pikemen
under "stand ground" in between the two towers, covering your
musketeers. I would put your pikemen on one hotkey (you WILL need them
to charge, at least for the last wave), your musketeers on another, and
your towers on yet another one, that way you have complete control over
the battlefield. There is not much else that I can help you with here,
so good luck.
As soon the gold count reaches 15,000, stop making pikemen, and instead
make musketeers to go up near the north gate. Also, take away any
troops not already in battle (or are very near to be battling) and send
them north to the gate as well. As soon as the horses are packed, have
everyone escape through the gate. A massive wave of soldiers will
attack and run over your nice campsite. Too bad you're already gone. As
soon as they start to attack, switch your barracks back to the pikemen,
and create just a few more. These are simply designed to keep your
mines in operation as long as possible. Also, whatever you do, do NOT
have your units attack the blue army to the northeast, as they will
decimate your meager troops. As soon as all of your units are through
the gate (or as soon as it is too dangerous to keep it open), close the
gate and the blue advance will stop.
Head north and you will come across teal, who will let you pass for
1000 gold (this is why you wanted to keep the mines open). Go through.
Once you round the bend and are about 1/3 of the way from your
transport (from the bend to the boat), slow down. About halfway is a
small army of soldiers. Select your pikeman with the lowest health and
have him stand several paces in front of the rest of your army. Then
send your army (neither the horses nor your general) to the east.
Hopefully your unit in front will attract the cannon, which will need
to reload while the remainder of your units attack. As soon as it is
halfway clear, bring over your horses and general and send them into
the transport ASAP. Then as soon as your army has decently defeated the
army, load them up quickly. The reason for this (as you will soon find
out) is that the blue ambush south of you realized their mistake and
will try to kill you.
Once everyone is in the transport, set sail. There is a ship to the
south, but it is more concerned with attacking blue than you. Keep
sailing east, ignoring all of the ships (let them have fun killing each
other). If you were sailing due east, you will spot land, as well as a
path. Isn't nice how mapped out these missions are? Follow the path (if
you get shot at, just keep moving, since it was one of those ships
misfiring). Due east is your goal: a black fortress. Have your general
and horses talk to the general who is southwest of the riders and you
win the mission.
TURKISH STRONGHOLD:
I have reached the village in past games, but died. This one will have
to wait for a little bit.
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B. UNDER THE BANNER OF KING FREDERICK
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TRADE ROUTE BATTLE:
This is a mission that gets Cossacks a lot of negative fan mail.
Instead of going east at the start, some go south where there is an
ambush waiting for you. I still have yet to finish this mission.
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C. CHAMPION OF THE EMPIRE
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MUTINY IN BOHEMIA:
MY Opinion Rating:
Comparative Difficulty (to other campaigns): **
Fun: *** (it is basically a random map game with a few extra twists)
You start off this mission with a general (your special unit) and 17
musketeers on the bottom of the map. Follow the shore west and you will
run into some bandits. They ask for 2000 gold to keep them from
attacking you. You can defeat them with minimal casualties and you will
need the gold later. Just make sure to approach them with your general
and are keeping your musketeers behind him (since they cannot fire at
close ranges). Keep moving west and you will see a small band of
pikemen who will join you for 200 gold. This is completely your
decision. You probably won't use them, but if you want them, take them.
Make sure you again approach them with your general first, if you
intend to take them on. Further west is 4 black musketeers. You can
avoid them by hugging the north, but later on they will attack, so take
them out now with your own musketeers, shooting one at a time.
Now that you've taken care of all of the enemy units in the south, keep
heading west. There is a house just north of the path. Visit it and the
owner will give you a letter to take to a second house; accept it,
considering that you will be going right by the house.
Turn the corner and head north. Your allies are in the middle of a
battle. Go ahead and join them, as the remaining units will guard your
camp. Continue north, deliver the letter, and receive your 100 gold.
Keep moving north and gain control of the village. Now this mission
turns into a normal random map-like mission, except for that your two
enemies already have towns up and running.
You have four groups of enemies. There is a group of bandits to the
south of you. There is a second group to the north of you, guarding the
northwest mine. Your first major enemy, blue, is to the northeast of
you, at the chokepoint separating the west from the east. Black is in
the far east.
Start off in whatever matter you normally use for random maps. I would
create all of the buildings (there is some stone to the east of you),
control at least one of each mine, build a couple of shipyards to the
far south (Directly beneath your village is extremely narrow, so it
hard to get ships through), and advance to the eighteenth century ASAP
to get the Montgolfier. Throughout this time you will be attacked every
few minutes from the northeast in squads of 16 or 25. My strategy used
to deal with these (as well as the northern bandits) is to create a
diplomatic center and build (what else) 50 dragoons. Put them on two
hotkeys and send 25 to the mountain to the east and 25 north, so you
can quickly attack any enemies that come at you. To deal with the
bandits to the south, create two ships and send them up the river. Kill
the bandits' yacht and kill as many bandits as you can. Then take your
17 musketeers and finish the rest of them off (you won't need them
later on, so don't be worried if some or all die). After your ships are
done, you can send them out to disrupt your enemies' docks.
Blue sends more waves at you than black does, but his base is a lot
weaker. The one thing to watch out for is the tower that is in the
northwest corner of the town. You can send your two sets of dragoons to
skirmish along northwest town hall and the southern farms. There are
three openings you need to cover to stop all skirmishers from attacking
you: the northwest corner of blue's village (dragoon set 1), the south
of blue's village (dragoon set 2), and the hill southwest of blue's
village (your 17 musketeers can guard it).
The best I have found to finish them off is to build 30 mortars to
blast the tower and destroy all of the military buildings (having the
Montgolfier is nearly a necessity at this point). The nice thing about
mortars is that they explode on contact, shooting off shrapnel to kill
any peasants who are trying to fix the buildings. Then all you have to
do is to enter in with your dragoons to mop up the leveled town.
Black requires the same tactic, but you may want to have a few more
dragoons, and, considering that once you destroy black you have won the
game, you don't need the extra gold. Take out the buildings one at a
time and eventually victory will be yours.
VIENNA:
Coming Soon...
