You know you’ve wanted to play as the Romans in AOE2…
In this scenario, you command a Roman outpost at a remote territory in Germania. Scouts have reported that several the Germanic tribes of Germania have banded together to invade and conquer Roman territory. Forward enemy encampments have been constructed near the outpost, and a massive host is approaching. Enemy bandits have raided temples and monasteries in the region, and have stolen precious Roman relics. Your forces have resecured three of the relics already, but four are currently being held in the enemy encampments.
Despite having prepared for the impending assault, the enemy host is estimated to exceed 10,000 warriors. Luckily, however, the enemy is not well disciplined and will not be able to articulate an assault with their entire force. There are three ways that you can overcome this threat:
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Destroy the forward encampments.
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Vanquish 10,000 enemy warriors.
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Resecure four relics and hold them.
Accomplishing any of these goals would break the enemy’s morale and send them out of the region. You must eliminate this threat for the sake of Rome.
Scenario Features:
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Difficulty levels are appropriately set and will directly affect the performance of enemy units’ hit points and upgrades.
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Fixed force setup with the ability to train additional military and research upgrades. You will start with only sixteen villagers and cannot train more. (Your tech tree has been modified to simulate the Romans. See more details in the next section below.)
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Enemy attacks are mainly set by triggers. They will approach in somewhat of a “wave” function. The standard AOE2DE AI will also control some of the troops.
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Resource shipment delivery system: A routine shipment of resources will be delivered by Ox Wagon to your Market. You will also have the ability to order smaller resource shipments by way of Ox Carts at your Trade Workshop.
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Kill reward system: You will receive routine rewards of gold for reaching set “total kills” goals.
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An additional, optional kill reward system is also available. If you delete the Aqueduct segment at the right corner of the map, the optional kill reward system will be turned on. This reward system will provide you with 5 Gold per kill. Warning: The limitations of the scenario editor triggers will unfortunately cause the “unit converted” sound (the least annoying sound I could use for this function) to play every time you earn a kill.
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An enemy population governing system has been implemented to prevent too many enemy units from flooding the map. This will be beneficial for slower computers. This feature can be disabled by deleting the Stone Wall segment at the right corner of the map. (This scenario is actually intended to be played without the enemy population governing system engaged. Therefore, slower computers may experience a lot of latency with or without it on. Please send me feedback on your experiences with and without this function.) Keeping this feature enabled will result in longer playtime and will lower the difficulty.
Roman Military:
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Legionaries are the backbone of your army. They are outfitted with the best armor and a shield to deflect enemy arrows and javelins. They are difficult to defeat. However, they are weak against swarms of enemy troops, and enemy Scorpions and Mangonels. After unlocking their area damage attack bonus, Legionaries will have the ability to vanquish mass groups of enemy units.
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Imperial Skirmishers represent Roman warriors who used pilums and javelins. They do not have a minimum range; they cost only food to train; and they deal bonus damage against both archers and infantry. You will find these units at your Barracks because they generally trained with other infantry.
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Heavy Swordsmen represent Roman auxiliary infantry. They are well-armored, but are better suited to fight enemy infantry than other warrior classes.
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Archers have been modified to represent their role in the Roman army. They have +2 starting range and deal bonus damage against cavalry units.
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Crossbowmen have been modified to represent a more realistic role. They have -1 starting range, a 5 second rate of fire, but deal 320% more base damage per shot. They also deal bonus damage versus archer class units. (Romans were believed to have used crossbows, or manuballistae, in battle.)
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Heavy Crossbowmen have been modified to represent a less realistic version of the crossbowman with a longer range and more punishing attack. For the purpose of this battle, they will serve as your long-range marksmen. They can be found at the Blacksmith.
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Cavalry Archers have been modified to deal bonus damage versus cavalry class units.
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Scorpions have been modified with increased range and deal bonus damage against cavalry class units. They can be built at the Blacksmith.
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Heavy Scorpions retain their standard range of 7, but have been modified to represent the Roman polybolos (repeating ballista). Their rate of fire is half the standard rate, and their base damage has been decreased to match the Scorpion. (They will still deal more damage per second due to the rate of fire increase.) Heavy Scorpions can be built at the Blacksmith.
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Onagers have been modified to deal additional damage against enemy infantry class units. They can be trained at the Siege Workshop. (You will begin with two Siege Onagers, but you will be unable to train more.)
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Cataphracts can be trained at the Command Center. Cataphracts deal area damage (without having to unlock it with a technology) and excel against infantry. They are expensive to train, but train slightly faster than Centurions.
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Centurions can be trained at the Command Center. Centurions are arguably the strongest troops available to you; however, they are expensive. While they deal bonus damage against infantry class units, their high hit points and base attack enable them to excel against most opponents. Their main weaknesses are polearm infantry, scorpions, and large swarms. After unlocking their area damage attack bonus, Centurions will have the ability to vanquish mass groups of enemy units.
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Trebuchets can be trained at your Command Center. Trebuchets have been modified to deal area damage. (Romans did not technically use Trebuchets, but they did built very large onagers to bring down city walls.)
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Priests can be trained at your Monastery.
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Light Cavalry and Knights are also available to you. Each represent some of the light and medium cavalry regiments of the Roman military. Light Cavalry are cheaper. Knights receive +1 attack and have a moderate bonus against infantry class units.
Scenario Hints:
Objectives:
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The enemy cannot be stopped by sheer conquest. They are too many and will not yield until one of the three objectives are achieved.
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The important “encampments” to destroy are the large huts. There are seven of them.
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Destroying the encampments and/or attempting to capture the relics will require precision assaults, and you will be forced to risk dividing your army.
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There are markers (flags) in the wilderness. If you go past these flags, your units will suffer attrition, and they will surely die.
Economy:
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You have only sixteen villagers available to you, and you cannot train more. Use them wisely.
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You will receive an inherent trickle of gold and food throughout the game.
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Your mills will automatically produce additional food. Do not let the enemy destroy them.
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You start with three relics. Use them to enhance your gold flow.
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There are no gold veins available on the map, so you will have to rely on your gold trickle, kill rewards, and your Market.
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You will receive routine shipments of resources by way of Ox Wagons. They will automatically deliver resources to your market.
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You also have the ability to order smaller shipments of resources by training Ox Carts at your Trade Workshops (200 Gold each). Deliver the Ox Carts to your Market to receive the shipments.
Technologies:
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Many technologies have been moved to either the Command Center (Town Center) or Black Smith.
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Legionaries will earn an area damage attack bonus when Blast Furnace, Plate Mail Armor, and Arson are researched.
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Centurions will earn an area damage attack bonus when Blast Furanace, Plate Mail Armor, and Plate Barding Armor are researched.
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Watch Towers shoot two arrows per attack by default, but will gain additional arrows for research each of the following technologies: Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, Bracer, Heated Shot, and Arrow Slits. Watch Towers will be able to loose a total of seven arrows per volley once all of these technologies are researched.
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Heated Shot has been modified to give Watch Towers, Archers, Crossbowmen, Heavy Crossbowmen, and Cavalry Archers bonus damage versus siege weapons.
Enemy Military:
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Enemy warriors will gain “morale” (small HP boosts) routinely as the battle progresses beyond fifteen minutes. (Each boost will occur every five to ten minutes of game time.)
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The enemy host is comprised of the following units: Militia, Man-at-Arms, Long Swordsmen, Two-Handed Swordsmen, Norse Warriors, Woad Raiders, Berserks, Iroquois Warriors, Spearmen, Pikemen, Halberdiers, Throwing Axemen, Skirmishers, Elite Skirmishers, Archers, Longbowmen, Heavy Cavalry Archers, Light Cavalry, Knights, Leitis, Boyars, Konniks, Scorpions, Mangonels, and Rams.
Feedback:
Please leave feedback here so that I can make necessary improvements. I am also working on a scenario that allows players to play as Romans in Random Map and Multiplayer. It will, of course, not include any of the OP synergy bonuses that this scenario does.
Subscribe:
To subscribe, simply go to Browse Mods and search for “Romans vs. Germania”. The scenario name is “Romans vs. Germania - Winter Forest”.
Updates:
- Fixed a bug that caused resource shipments to set the resources to the delivery amount instead of adding them.
- Removed the AI functionality. The enemy behavior is primarily dictated by triggers. The AI was causing issues with certain triggers firing correctly.
- Slightly improved enemy encampment defenses.
- It is recommended that you play this scenario without an AI. (I believe this can only be done by testing in the editor, unfortunately.) You can also try playing with an AI that works with fixed forces.