Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (PC) - Achievement - A Truly Holy Emperor

Convert the Cathedral in Milan without acquiring a single Villager in the third Barbarossa mission "Pope and Antipope".

This method involves a little sneaking, but isn't all that difficult. Start by sending your priests on the transport as close to the Cathedral as possible and then disembark. Send the transport back and try and bring the rest of your units if there's time, but if not, take your strongest as the 5th initial member on the boat.
As long as you don't attack or go too close to their military, they will not attack you. The first thing you need to do is get inside the city. Keep your troops close to the gates and wait for an opportunity. There is a relic just outside of the enemy base that they will send a priest to collect. There are also sheep you can take which can help. Purposely lose the sheep to the enemy and try and follow it in as they bring the sheep within their walls. They also occasionally send trade carts through the gates. Careful not to block the gates too much or it can stop the enemy using them as it will detect the path is blocked. If all this fails, units will occasionally use the gate and you should eventually be able to get in. The more troops you get in the better, but try and get all your priests in. Any other units are a bonus that will help defend to buy your priests time while they convert the cathedral. Careful to avoid enemy units - there is a mangonel fairly close to the route in the video as well as an enemy priest near the cathedral itself. Troops will be quick to react once you start converting. Just buy time and protect your priests.

17/01/2021 - An update has changed the AI of the computer slightly which may cause the enemy to have more troops within their walls than shown in this video. This is still a viable strategy to get the achievement, however greater care may need to be taken navigating your priests to the cathedral.

Alright this took me a while and afterwards I realized i could have done it a lot quicker.

There are a few steps you have to take
Don'ts:
-NEVER convert villagers
-I also don't recommend upgrading the monks so that their conversion kills

Quick summary:
0) Make sure to use the Save Game system
1) Convert crema
2) Scout as much as possible
3) Wait for Cremona to build a market (10-20 min)
4) Build a ton of trading carts
5) Get a decent army
6) Upgrade that decent army
7) Destroy the west gate of Milan
8) Have 20 priest beeline it to the Cathedral

Extensive explanation:
1) Convert the entire town of [3] Crema. Kill all villagers and their town centre but convert all houses, markets, blacksmiths etc.
2) Get your Scout across the river and explore, you'll notice that the north and east gate of Milan are guarded by towers. West gate isn't
3) Keep watching Cremona so they build a market. Otherwise you cannot trade and have a gold income
4) Just keep trading most of your gold into wood. I recommend at least 30 trading carts. You'll be trading a lot of resources so the more gold income, the better.
5) I recommend 20-30 infantry. I couldn't convert a stable and wood went into my 6-8 Fireships to counter [5] River Guard warship navy.
6) Definitly upgrade through the barracks and the blacksmith
7) By now you'll have a decent army and you can see the west river branch right in front of the west gate. Make sure to start building your 20+ priests. The gate will take a while unless you're able to convert a trebuchet or cannon. The oganars will kill your priest so I recommend rushing them with infantry
8) Once through the gate, make sure to heal up and have a good army. Put your army in the middle of the town to draw 80% of Milan's army. Make sure your priests follow close but have them beeline it to the cathedral. It will only take about 7 seconds to convert the thing and you might lose half your priests but once it's converted you achieved victory AND this achievement :)


Extra's / optional
-Upgrade your transport ship
-To help with food, build a handfull of fishing ships
-If you need more houses, the south east will have a few next to a dock. You will get raided by cannons so make sure your priests are spread out and your army stays on the move
-It took me about three hours because I went for a lot of optional things like taking over River Guard northern defense. They do have a barracks there which makes it easy to produce extra army. If you do a more lean run, just get the numbers in
-Always have some priest with your army for healing

Hey guys the guides here are great, but one of them is for the Pc edition and I’m not sure if the other one caters for the most recent update on console.

I have included the video of me doing this with starting units. All you need to do is transport your units, sneak into the gate by waiting for a villager/monk/soldier to exit (be prepared to save scum and be patient) and slip in as they slip out. You can also use sheep but I found this to be hard work.

Here is the video:


The key is occupying their troops with yours whilst the monks convert the cathedral. The other videos show the routes perfectly and this hasn’t changed so I haven’t included that. I’m hoping this will add to the other guides and provide an alternative perspective for console players.

I know it’s not an original guide per se but please don’t down vote me for this as I am trying to assist people who have highlighted things in the comments of the other guides.

Thank you in advance and if there’s anything you want me to clarify let me know and I will edit/reply in the comments