So! I just went through hell. Restarted/ Lost the scenario quite a few times! But I did beat it on very hard!
For the initial vill problem! All vills on screen when starting the first conversion will attack you. So if there is only one! you should be able to do it no problem! Additionally I suggest building the TC up where the elefant is. that way you have an early food boost and stone is available. but most importantly! there is a chokepoint where you can tower!
Once yellow doesn’t attack you anymore when converting, convert as many as you can! Go for a big overboom with 25-30 vills, it’s important you get to the bronze age asap! Tower will defend you while you age up. You want the attack upgrades, range/lumber upgrades for your towers. as soon as you reach bronze age you need to tech into chariots. I was down to 4 vills when i finally got my first few chariots. Cavalry is also very good as they tank chariots quite well. Have at least 1 priest so you can heal up your units in between the fights. Red will send wave after wave to your town.
These need to be repelled with your towers and your melee chariots. Once you did rebuild your eco you can start regaining your half of the map before attacking reds base straight on.
I spammed chariots out of 3-4 stables and 2 ranges. sniping the monks and killing the temple so no new ones will follow is mandatory to overcomming reds massiv spam.
good lock to everyone! It was a blast and properly the hardest scenario I played on very hard so far.
Can’t wait for what ever is coming with the ror dlc for age2