Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

You need to destroy the docks too. They are south east of your orange Allyson southern base.

POSSABLE SPOILERS. ONLY READ IF NOTHING ELSE IS WORKING FOR YOU.

This is either bugged or I got lucky on last play through as I tried several times with a save at around 40 minutes left so it allowed me to try different ways of strategy.

Every time I destroyed the 6 red camps plus the docks and the purple to the west and mini camp that is south of it and the cyan enemy and the grey monks on east side of map it did not work. I tried with destroying the wood walls several times too which did not work.

What I could not figure out was if I need to kill the (1)main enemy king(elephant archer) before time ran out. (2)Did I need to destroy all the wood walls. (3) Did I need to destroy every structure from Cyan enemy cuz once in awhile a villager would escape and build a new mine or farm in area I already cleared. (4) When should I go to Yellow enemy? (5) Do I need to destroy the red castles behind stone walls? (6) Is it ok to destroy monks before visiting yellow enemy?

As I said, I tried several ways and nothing was working. Right before I was about to give up, the achievement pops and it was just a few seconds after the timer ended and Red was about to march. 2 objectives still showing and one of them says defeat main Red leader (I forget his name) so he does not need to be killed before timer runs out.

I was sending 3 teams of 40 knights to cover left and right side of river in center of map. I usually killed the monks early as I need that team to work on cyan as fast as possible. I even sent 10 monks down the map on right side in columns to make sure if a building did show up, I could get to it as I thought I was not getting achievement cuz of villagers from cyan escaping and building something just out of sightline.

So on my last try I did this order.
team 1 to the west on purple and team 2 to the east on cyan just below our camp. Team 3 was still being made and when it got to 40 it was assigned to bottom right corner using the attack nearby enemies as it travels. To make team 3 I killed off about 30 villagers as I only needed gold to keep making knights(I forget if they are knights or other rank but its middle tab as scouts are on left and camels on right).

After purple is wiped out at top left location I move team 1 down through yellow to trigger monks objective then to mini camp for purple(purple now defeated) then staying way away from red team behind stone walls I send to left side and head south then follow water going south east to docks(just being safe as I am moving team 2 around getting cyan buildings. Once docks are done I send north to orange camp that's basically straight west of red camps and rest at orange camp as I sent some monks there earlier so they can heal while I check stables to send more to replace any troops killed and while I was doing that team 2 destroyed the top half of cyan. After yellow was visited and top half of cyan done then team 2 went to monks(I destroyed all buildings here but left walls alone as I was trying new strategy of different order of killing camps and moving on once red flag at camp turned grey(notice this at red camps). Grey monks now defeated.

While team 2 was at monks, I sent team 3 down to bottom right corner using "order" that troops should destroy anything nearby as they march to corner.

When team 2 was done it went south using "orders" of killing anything nearby as they march so both teams 2 and 3 are clearing out cyan enemy eventually making it to bottom center where they destroy castle then I have a team destroy all walls around elephants and the other team getting the other elephant stable.

Before teams 2 and 3 made it to bottom of map, I started team 1 on the red camps. I destroyed both red camps on left side of river and after red camp destroyed I destroyed the walls(only on left side of river so since I did not do the other walls I do not think they are needed but I mention cuz I did them in case its bugged.

While doing those walls I was resending teams 2 and 3 to keep clearing our cyan enemy then quickly back to team 1 and I go to the north red camp that was destroyed to go across river destroying it then hitting next red camp as I head south. There should be 3 more red camps with all 3 different siege weapons. I save onagers for last so when I'm going south on right side of river I see the break in the pathway and I go east to get those red camps. Teams 2 and 3 are done with elephants and heading north to make sure anything of cyan is destroyed and sure enough cyan now is defeated with a strike line across their name.

Now all 3 teams can be used and about 5 minutes left as I was making sure all cyan structures are destroyed. I send team 1 to onagers and team 2 is close by in case onagers get lucky and wipe them out. Team 3 is heading to just south of orange camp to be ready to kill red Leader. Once red onagers camp is down, I move team north where you can cross river so not to far from onagers camp. I look at the time and figure since I did not kill red leader this time as that was part of the strategy this play through that I would have to do another try at some time but seconds after the timer ran out and right before they march, achievement popped.

So what did I do so different this time?? I really do not know as I tried so many times before that hence why I wrote this long comment ONLY for those that are struggling and cannot get the achievement to pop.

If I were to guess I would say walls do not matter as I did not do them all except for westside of river red camps and elephants stables.

My other guess is it might of popped since I visited yellow before monks location was discovered.

Or maybe its just bugged and it finally popped. Either way I hope this saves you a lot of frustration and time if nothing else is working for you:)

The game doesn't state all the secondary objectives at once. How do they unfold? I couldn't wipe out cyan.

Does it pop as soon as you complete the objective? Swear I've done it twice but not tryna play the rest of the level out if I don't have to

Figured it out for me. There are FIVE smaller bases with wooden walls. 4 along the water and then one to the east of the main base, more south that has a seige workshop, onagers and a tent. All the flags need to turn white. As soon as I destroyed all the buildings it popped. Had also done secondary objectives and eliminated Teal.

Excellent guide. Cheers!

I had to upvote as this was the better guide i used the other and it was too basic.
I would just add that there are 4 red bases that need to be killed the top one has cavalary and archers and is connect by th river marshes. Then on the left side of the river is a small base with a few more archers, the final one is in fron of the enemy main base with catapults and archers it is further away from the river so didnt see it. If you dont get the achievement resign then press return to map to reveal it, its how i saw the last base i had missed.

Thanks for your comments, made some edits to the solution.

Ha, just checked the update 34055 which I discovered AFTER doing this:

The An Army Marches on Its Stomach achievement no longer requires any towers to be destroyed.


For full list of achievement updates:
https://www.ageofempires.com/news/aoe2de-update-34055/

I'm sure there were only 5 settlements?

I'm sure there were only 5 settlements?

Just FYI you don't need to weaken the army (it's 'tick box' is gold, not silver). Also, i didnt actually get a objective to destroy the settlements, but once i did the achievement popped so looks like you have to do it either way.

Near Dargnajan walled base (Aksum Empire player), there are some settlements: one with scorpions, other with onagers and near the Begedren castle some Siege Rams.

Extracted from your comment:


"To weaken your army, I destroyed the 4 northernmost settlements."


That's a lie. That is why I have put you negative in your comment.

I've tried this twice now and it wont unlock. EDIT: 3rd times the charm. I made sure to completely wipe the bases including the walls on the attempt that unlocked it.

just to be clear, the emcampments / settlements to destroy are the ones surrounded by pallisades with flags inside. For me I'd missed a tower by the time the hour was up. I carried on and took it down well after the army had marched and the achievement still popped! But only once I'd taken the final tower. So the timer may be glitched too.