So, I was playing the second mission and I always used to beat them on moderate easily (HD and AoC)
But now, 20 mins into the mission, blue goes Imperial. Cyan starts in Castle and rushes with these:
And mind you, this is their second attempt with 3 Magnonels and a ram.
The first one was about 8 mins earlier.
And you can’t even go Imperial here.
The Blue Franks also sends noticeably stronger Paladins and Onagers via transport(They used to send cavaliers in AOC and HD) and Cyan didn’t move up from Feudal Age. So why all these changes ?
Pros like The_Viper may be able to do it in his stream but we are below 1600 players.
Rebalancing is required.
Also, The Third Saracen mission seems to be way harder for even Standard Difficulty.
Well just play on standard difficulty, it’s nice for more advanced players to be able to replay these campaigns and actually care about strategizing a bit. I’m by no means even close to The Viper however I find the new difficulty levels to be great.
I just played this mission in HD before the launch. I can 100% confirm it would send paladins and onagers. you can get around it by throwing a castle near the shore since they try to land the same place. Also cyan did go past feudal and I had to chase it back and forth as it wouldn’t resign and just slip one villager away where I couldn’t find it and rebuild its town center and start over.
also for original poster I had the same thing in HD and thought I was going to loose but got some camals out and killed them and hurried rams over to his base. He didn’t really make any after the initial group. Not sure if its programed or if it was cause I responded in time.
It’s not bad, however this should be a bit nerfed down for new players.
Should have added that this is difficult for newer players.
But I agree, the older ones were easy. And the only one I remember to struggle was the last Joan of Arc misson
Well, it’s some time since I played that one. So you may be right.
Standard it too hard too
It’s just not enough time to do anything
I’m elo 1600 please understand. I’m not a legend, but i know the basics well.
Please relay the messege.
Which difficulty, you didn’t mention
Because this is standard which I’m talking about and I did complete the same mission in HD and AOC on my own at moderate and Now I’m unable to do it on standard.
There are obvious problems. It’s supposed to be the easiest possible difficulty in DE
lol the lowest so standard I believe? I was just trying to run through them before launch to tell the difference in the campaigns. It also depends on what you do that triggers AI attacks sometimes. but yeah this wasn’t new besides I think in mine cyan had 2 rams and 2 magnoals.
also is 38 minutes a rush?- sorry never mind that was OPs picture not yours but still.
15-20 mins. They consistently attack in under 20 minutes.
I only showed the units they sent (Didn’t manage to keep the first rush’s SC). Yeah, it is not a rush but the first attempt was. (About 10-15 mins earlier, not sure)
ohh alright, yeah idk I know for a fact blue sent onagers and pallys in original and I do remember siege from cyan nearly wiping me out but not crossbows. I haven’t played the mission on DE yet
Still, I’m not saying these are bad changes.
For example Atila m1 on Moderate makes you keep an eye on those 10 horses because if you leave them be, Persians will try to kill them (I don’t recall this on AoC and HD, correct me if I’m wrong)
And these are decent.
Just saying, for the sake of new players (not me, I played since 2009) We should keep them a bit easier and not as easy as they were.
I did this mission on hard a few days ago and besides the fact that blue goes up to imp it wasnt hard at all. The Raiders 100% dont start in Castle Age so you can clear the trade Route with your starting army and a few scouts. Also, no offence, but its almost 40 min gametime in this screenshot and you are still in feudal with starting deer left and lots of wood and gold to trade at the market. Just try again you can do it 
I tried it on standard and i was in Castle age by 17 mins and was getting attacked by knights, skirms mangonel and crossbows from cyan.
And this is the easiest difficulty. I didn’t have time to make many units as well.
And after about 5 mins later transports from the blue player came in with Cavaliers and Onagers
How would i deal with both with only a small buffer ?
Please elaborate.
Also, this Should be easier, that cannot be denied.
I went farms first, I should not have, but yet, this does not change the fact that cyan attacks with 3 magnonel and a ram 23 min in-game (the screenshot is for the second attack)
I just check my recording, for me it went like this: Trade Route cleared at like 10 mins, reached castle at 17, at 18min i was camping cyan with crossbows, he got to Castle at 20 but i had mangonels up and at 24 min he was practically dead. At this point my allies also start sending gold for defending the Caravan. Blues Transport came at 33 min but for some reason he send vills. The later army from gets killed by my castle. My best guess would be that you didnt manage to secure the sheep near yellow and cyan takes them slowing you down and helping him get to Castle fast.
Ok. I manage to save a lot of sheep
Please elaborate your strategy on attacking cyan. And defending from blue. Starting from 17 when you hit castle age.
Nothing fancy really, build a siege Workshop near cyans base and added more crossbows and a few mangonels. His army is to small to deal with mine and i slowly take out his base. I might have been lucky with blue because mostly he build ships and the armies he send just dies to a castle of mine. My main army after killing cyan moves to the left behind yellows base. Blue Lands Cavalier and siege there but i kill them with my army. Seeing how he builds heavy siege and Cavalier i switched to mamuluks and bring them and a few rams over using a transport on the far left.
Like, when comparing the Dracula cam[aign with the new version, it’s nerfed alot.
Not a good thing though, The first mission is way easier
