Ok I did some research regarding this scenario. Basically should you fail to rush the tatars in feudal age then you lose. Thats it. Thats the gist of it. No time to turtle and think, no map exploration that allows you to discover a way to beat the scenario. Just a counter, tic toc, tic toc. I understand there is a system of having a certain number of swords represent the difficulty of each campaign and that kotyan has 3. But it still feels… Unfair. I recently played thgough le loi and it was great, very different from whe I first tried The mountain siege years ago. I heard rumors that it was tweaked by the developers. Maybe yes, maybe not. I think this scenario should be taken a look at. Maybe give 5 more minutes before the tatars attack in full force? Fundamentally the campaigns that rely on a single trick to be beaten feel vastly inferior to the other ones: into china for the mongols, if you dont migrate to jins island you lose, bari 4, if you dont petard capuas castle you lose, barbarossa the lombard league if you dont betray henry the lion you lose. This inflexibility seems to be contrary to the spirit of a game noticeable for featuring counters to basically every strategy.
Wrong forum, move to AoE2.
But the time limit is part of the narrative in this scenario and its more than enough to beat the scenario, you’re supposed to feel desperate to break the way out while your allies resist. Narrative is also told through gameplay.
There’s even an achievement to do it without advancing to the castle age, to highlight the Cuman’s bonus of extra town center of Feudal and early Siege Workshop. The Cuman civ design is strong early aggression, and this scenario is perfect to show it.
Time limits are hated in this kind of games, but it adds to have more variety in the the types of scenarios. If you really expect this game to be all turtle scenarios, you expect wrong.
All of those “one tricks” are false, you don’t need to do that in any of those scenarios to win. I did nothing of of those things on Hard and won those scenarios several times.
It seems to me that you struggle with the economy and the speed of the game. You should try “The art of war” campaign with gold medals to train the economy. The hard campaigns expect that you have a good speed with the economy.
I’m pretty sure I did none of those things, on Hard. It’s not that they are too hard, it’s that they are harder than you are used to them being. But that’s actually good design: it means there is still more left for you to do and master.