Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition

This might be the easiest campaign in the game due to the fact that missions 1,2,3,4 are guided tutorial missions.

Some general advice right off the bat from November 14 Day 1 release:

1. Make a save game for each mission, right before you complete the last objective or defeat the last enemy, if possible. (I had issues getting this achievement to pop and I got lucky that the game autosaved right before the English castle was destroyed at the end of mission 7. I had to reload the game and complete the final objective 4+ times before the achievement finally popped somewhere between the victory screen and the statistics window. ) This should also be a good idea if you are going for some of the miscellaneous mission achievements that require you to do something special or complete them within a certain time frame. Try to make that save right before any possible critical turning points.

2. You possibly need to make sure your PC app Xbox Console Companion is open or the achievements won't register

3. Cheat codes DO NOT work for achievement progress in AoE2:DE and you will receive a notification after the game is over when you reach the statistics page. This will obviously mean that all campaigns will have to be played legit this time folks (different from AoE 1: DE)

4. You can play the campaign missions on the easiest difficulty - Standard - which should make the experience a little less stressful

In theory, this achievement shouldn't be a problem to unlock after completing the 7 missions in the William Wallace campaign and I'm sure some people won't have issues. Make those saves though and make sure that Console app is on in the background and it will hopefully work out eventually if you struggled like I did.

As always, let me know if I should change anything to make the guide better or provide more tips. Also, I'll keep my eye out for confirmation that this is a regular issue or not

If these guides suck let me know what I did wrong or did not explain well and I will consider revising it.
General tips and tricks for all guides, and there won’t be anything too specific in any guide. These guides are just for completing the missions on standard. In some cases, a mission will have an extra achievement you can get, and I will go over that by either referencing someone else’s guide that I used or by going into a bit more detail on how I acquired the achievement. I am also playing on PC as I honestly tried Xbox, and I just couldn’t react fast enough on some maps so I may mention hotkeys related to the default keyboard setting.

Economics
If the population limit is 75-100 I will typically have eight villagers each gathering wood and food, and six villagers each gathering stone and gold (once all the accessible stone is gathered than those villagers will switch to gold, and once all gold is gathered those 12 villagers will be re-tasked to acquiring wood or food) and I usually keep two villagers to build whatever it is I need.
If the population limit is 125+ I will usually have 10-14 villagers each gathering food and wood, and 8 villagers each gathering stone and gold, and will follow the same guidelines for when resources run out.
You can use trade carts/cogs to get gold, I just usually don’t. of the 8-14 villagers gathering food some of those villagers may be fishing boats gathering from fish traps (100 wood for 715 food is a great way to get a ton of resources and I would usually have 4 boats doing this). You can also trade resources at the market, but again I usually did not do this.

Military
Generally speaking, my strategies involve good placements of castles filled with 20 archers/cavalry archers, using 3-6 trebuchets (or battering rams filled with soldiers if trebuchets cannot be found or made), 2-4 monks to travel with forces primarily just for healing but you could use them to convert units or buildings and then having roughly a dozen knights/champions to defend the trebuchets. I would also advise getting all the related upgrades to these units and building to maximize their efficiency. Placing towers around the castle can also help to thin out groups of enemies that attack and to take care of rams.
Deviations from units used may depend on the civilization you’re playing as. For example, if I am playing as the Saracen I will use the Mamelukes instead of paladins, as there are camel specific bonuses and upgrades that make these units more efficient. So, remember to look at the bonuses you get for the civilization you’re playing as so that you can better defeat the enemy/keep yourself alive.
Some tactics/tricks

Open wall defense- if you have a wall spanning 20 tile the enemy will throw themselves at a random number of wall segments trying to break it to enter your base or an area you are trying to deny them access to. However, if you destroy a single wall segment then a good majority of the time your enemy will try to funnel their units through that break in the wall which you can use to your advantage. Basically, station your soldiers nearby or in that break, as well as build an assortment of towers and castles (I can usually get by with just the one castle max garrisoned with archers) and you can create a maze of walls leading to this break, just so long as the wall is not completely blocked off for the enemies to run through.

Archer vs Villager tactic- when you get to an enemy’s town center most likely there will be a number of villagers nearby. If you attack the TC or a villager, then all the villagers will enter the TC and fire back at your units which is problematic for early raids. Instead have a group of archers (I usually do 20) and have them out of range of the TC and manually have them all target one villager at a time to kill them all. This method has a bit of micromanaging involved but once the villagers are dead you can push your other units (knights or men at arms) to attack the TC and destroy it. This method can be used at all stages, but I found was exceptionally helpful early on if I wanted to eliminate an opponent quickly. Alternatively you can also place a castle down in range of the TC and fill it with archers to kill the villagers and destroy the town center.

Siege of a walled city- Lets say you have a city enclosed by a wall with four gates. What I like to do is pick one gate and set up my forces there and kill anything that comes out and cause distractions, while at the other three gates I build walls making the gate useless. Sometimes these walls are attacked but that should not be too big of an issue. the purpose of doing this is to funnel all the enemies’ villagers into one spot which is the open gate as they go to gather resources which can cause a drain on their economy, as well as prevent the villager from creating a new town center at some random location you have to hunt down. You can then destroy this gate and move your forces in and destroy whatever it is you need to win the level.
If you use a monk to convert someone then that will aggro most units in the area, however if you leave them be and allow them to heal your forces then the enemy will fight your troops and will be less likely to target the monks.
If you press shift and click on an icon (villager icon) to train a unit then “5” of that units will be put in the queue
A relatively high number of enemy towers and castles will not have murder holes upgraded and as such you can get a few units in and attacking a tower or castle. With little repercussions.
Cheats- not case sensitive
“Marco” reveals the map (disables achievements)
“Polo” removes fog of war (disables achievements)
For easy scouting of enemy positions and resource locations, follow these steps:
1. Save your game.
2. Enter in cheats one at a time.
3. Look around and identify what you are looking for and make a note of where said thing is.
4. Load your saved file and continue the mission.
This method allows you to use cheats and look around and know where things are without disabling your ability to get an achievement. Just make sure you don’t continue playing after you use the cheats as it is frustrating to do so and then realize the cheat is active and have to revert to your save.

Gaia/white units- on some maps there are units or buildings that once you get close enough, will join your forces. You can use this in one of two ways:
1. Get the units immediately to bolster your army or economy or get access to units you otherwise wouldn’t.
2. Wait to get these units until you have maxed out your population as this will net you more economic workers or more military units than you would normally be allowed to have.


I advise going through the tutorial, but assuming you’re all adults you can make your own choices.

1. Marching and Fighting
For this one follow directions in game, I primarily used the attack command “R” to order my troops on an attack move.
2. Feeding the army
Learn how to gather materials, again follow game directions.
3. Training the Troops
Grab your four villagers and task them to build a barracks then a house. Once the barracks is built train four militia. Shortly after the fourth militia is trained you win.
4. Research and Technology
Gather all the sheep to the town center and have your villagers harvest them, choose one villager to build either a mill, mining camp, or lumber camp it does not matter which and once done task that villager to gather food. Once you have 500 food advance to the feudal age and create one or two militia if you want. Once you reach the feudal age immediately research the man-at-arms upgrade at the barracks. Shortly after the upgrade is complete one knight and two militia will appear to your right(east). Go kill them and then you win.
5. The Battle of Stirling
First actual level. Take your scout and gather sheep in the surrounding area and set him to explore, or manually explore with him yourself. Task your villagers to gather food and create more until you have a sufficient amount gathering food, wood, and gold. Don’t bother with stone as it really isn’t useful for this map. Train up about a dozen militia or more if you choose, advance to the feudal age, upgrade your militia at the barracks, and with upgrades at a blacksmith. You should be good to attack the English and win but I also created 12 archers from an archery range to speed up some of the fight and better ensure victory.
6. Forge an Alliance
As stated, your goal is to garrison 3 relics into your church. The first relic is just below(south) of your church, so grab a monk have them pick up the relic and garrison it in the church. Once done, get your economy set up and have a villager build a market. Once complete build a trade cart and send it left(west) to the yellow team’s marketplace. The gate to their area should open and you can send a monk into their town and have them go up(north) and right(east) to find a relic in the woods. Grab it and send it back to your church. The English may have attacked your ally in which case you should send some units over to help them because that’s what friends do or something like that. After this attack I would recommend building a few towers on the opposite side of the river from the English at one of their two gates. Garrison these towers with archers, and then have some knights trained up along with 2 battering rams filled with pikemen or swordsmen and bring along your 3 monks to heal injured units. Station the knights in front of the towers and either use a knight or an extra archer to lure the enemy units out of their town. Have your knights kill the units coming out and have your monks nearby to heal people. Once there are no enemy units nearby move up your rams to destroy the gate, and send your army through. Fight your way to the relic and once there have a monk grab it and take it back to your church, or you can wait a bit and completely wipe out your enemies for the fun of it and then garrison the relic in your church at which point you win.
7. The Battle of Falkirk
Start off by getting your economy set up and training more villagers. As you do this create a few knights and archers to defend your base. You already have some stone walls up and I recommend finishing up the one at the southeast end of your base, then filling up all but one segment of the wall in the southwest wall of your base (use open wall strategy here). Once the walls are set up you can make a tower or two and garrison archers in them, but I would advise saving the stone for a castle later. As you complete these steps the English will mostly be attacking your outposts that are further away from your base. Just ignore these guys as you do not have a large enough army to take them on and win, just focus on defending your main base. Once you have advanced to the castle age take your assembled army and travel to the west and look for a shallow area that the English are using to cross the river. Build a castle near the shallows here (once the castle is built William Wallace will appear with reinforcements) and garrison it with some type of archer, place your knights in front of the castle in a defensive stance with monks nearby for healing. Defend this one and only point that the English can attack you from and work to advancing to the imperial age. Once you have reached the imperial age build a few trebuchets and ungarrison your castle. Move your trebuchets into position and have them destroy the watch towers and gate to the enemy base. Keep your knights nearby as a shield for the trebuchets and have your archers in a stand ground position slightly behind the trebs with monks nearby as well. Once these buildings are destroyed move your forces in and you can either pick apart their base or move straight for the enemy castle to the southeast. Again, use your trebs to take out the castle, with knights and archers defending them. Once that castle is destroyed victory is yours and you now have a 5g achievement.