15. Within the Long Walls | The Grand Campaign | AoE2: DE

[@alexandersturnn4530]

Poor Themistokles...man was done dirty.

[@teddyhaines6613]

I believe the option to sell Athena's gold is a reference to how after the invasion of Syracuse, Athens had to melt down the statues and ornaments in their temples to pay for a new fleet...which they lost to the Spartans shortly thereafter. And I'm sure people at the time said they were getting punished for dishonoring the gods like that.

[@mryes413]

The Thirty Years' Peace was a treaty signed between the ancient Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta in 446/445 BC. The treaty brought an end to the conflict commonly known as the First Peloponnesian War, which had been raging since c. 460 BC.

[@tyranitararmaldo]

I took classics, so yup, read the speech of Pericles! Nice you can play it here. Also I tied Cleon up in legal disputes just to shut him up. Annoying little man.

[@drmajalis1583]

best level in the campaign so far

[@George-ur8ow]

Easily my fave scenario, and the first one I first replayed when I finished the grand campaign

[@vezirimerdo]

The hardest campaign level

[@raynightshade8317]

Best Mission in the campagin

[@gabea6518]

Creative but difficult to do. The first two Spartan scenarios are challenging to say the least. This one takes the cake in difficulty and there is a certain route to take to stay in power.

[@tobiasm5579]

Dont make the Guys agry 😂😂😂😂😂

[@jurgnobs1308]

I really didn't thibk the first two spartan ones were hard at all. but the i think second to last one, where you have to conquer towns and send gold tribute to build a fleet, i havent managed that one on hard yet

[@gabea6518]

​@@jurgnobs1308 that one was manageable. Tbf, that was an interesting balance to sacking and funding the fleet. But target the towns with forts and there will be huge amounts of resources that you take. I mean sending 1000 gold lead to perhaps 4 to 5 warships being commissioned. It is a fun scenario imo.

[@gengarpokemon7731]

@@gabea6518 focused on sacking the yellow and cyan cities first since you get way more resources and significantly weaker earlier and fortified towers along the way then destroying the wonder and the remaining time whatever grey settlements were left.

[@ForwardFeedback]

@@jurgnobs1308 I found the Spartan missions got easier as you went on. For the one sacking towns to fund a fleet you just need to add a ram or two to your army as you go through towns and pack your infantry/archers into them so that the rams tank towers/forts, with the infantry coming out to protect them from enemy inf/cav.

[@Ts5EVER]

This one is creative.

[@mryes413]

Poor Ornlu trying so hard not to lose his campaign.

[@gebhard128]

This reminds me a lot at the Komnenos scenario, my favorite one from V&V. My only critique is that the objectives come a bit overwhelming and without already knowing them from a failed attempt I never had the time or the ressources to react before the elections

[@AnthonyAvon]

This one is a bit tricky to figure out for the achievement but just like the rest, it's quite fun. I'm going through the campaign the second time now just to experience it all again.

[@lazarossuleimanoglou2426]

*Pericles gives a speech for the Athenian dead and praises their sacrifice for our continuing prosperity* Ornlu: "Yeah, go us, we are awesome" 🤣

[@mryes413]

The Golden Age of Athens was a period of cultural, political, and economic prosperity in the Greek city-state of Athens that lasted from 480-404 BC. It's also known as the Age of Pericles, named after the Athenian statesman who led the city during this time

[@mryes413]

In 461 BC, Pericles achieved the political elimination of this opponent using ostracism. The accusation was that Cimon betrayed his city by aiding Sparta.

[@Mortreed]

This reminds me of dravidian campaign level where you try to build up your reputation, but with less politic.

[@hardric6284]

Late, but... Today, In Ancient Greeks were actually bad at X, And the Spartans were the worst of the lot, A Twofer In Compensation. Siegecraft and Logistics. The Siege one should be obvious, 10 years of being unable of piercing through the Long Walls. The Logistics kicker, Sparta failed at properly sieging Athens for *10 years*, while Corinth, a port city, second pretty much only to Athens, and its ally, was *roughly 4 days of march away*. And lack of supplies still was enough to stop their attack each time over the 10 first years of the Peloponnesian War. It's only on the *last year* of this phase of the war the Spartans belatedly, finally, realized they needed an outpost to secure the area long-term, and as a drop-point to stay supplied there all the year... And the truce happened before they could try anything about this.

[@keebs8683]

To get the achievement what helped me was to research the prosecute tech as soon as possible. Disclaimer I did it in standard so I don’t know if this works on harder difficulties. You get the gold by selling off the excess stone (you don’t need it) and then food/wood to get there

[@MrAnonymous00100]

Harder to achieve as cost is increase as per difficulty.

[@stefanandrejcik571]

It costse 4000 on hard, but yes it is possible, but mission is absurdly hard to do with achievement but I did it

[@edorn9972]

Awesome scenario, but I can't for the life of me figure how to score the achievment (favor not dropping past 50).

[@nefftron1]

On Hard it's very tough but doable. Key points: -Launch the raid on the Peloponnese immediately at the start, and wait no more than a minute or two to send the follow-ups later. Gold is short at the start so I sent only Lembos in the first raid, but I do think you get a bigger bonus (and more ships back) if you send a stronger fleet; for me three Biremes and 7 Heavy Lembos was enough to get a strong result on the third raid. -Besides the raid, I spent opening resources on Caravan + fishing ships. I focused my economy on gold early, because you'll need to renovate the Acropolis to stay above 50 before the first tribute ship arrives (obviously, make sure all tribute ships arrive). After that, you can up the wood content of trading and shift some fishing boats to food. Other than those initial ships, I didn't add extra eco. Keep your navy health and your eco ships alive. -Sell your estate the first time your support dips to around 54, I don't think any way exists to keep it and get the achievement on hard. -Buy the Aegina colonization when the first tribute ship arrives. You only have to kill the six hoplites near the landing site to be able to hit the two forts, so you can handle it with ~8 archers (maybe even fewer if you can lure the hoplites into some galleys). In my case the fort was about to die while I was at a high ebb of favor. If that happens, delay the final shot until you're at ~65 or so to make sure you don't waste any (it's a very large favor bump). Once it's finished, you can ship the Treb back and use it to snipe towers where the Spartan officers are. -For me, the closest shave was around the time the Spartans leave Attica for the first time. Have your 20 lancers ready to go so you can rush out to the town to garrison it. In my run I literally got it with 50 approval exactly. With the hoplite city, I sent the hoplites after Sparta left Attica for the second time and had them stand next to the objective to trigger later (be careful, sometimes Sparta will see them there and attack). -I found that it wasn't too worthwhile to go after the Spartan commanders, but you can kill the southern one pretty easily with galleys or with the Treb and archers after Aegina is wrapped up. -If you keep your water eco secure and don't squander units you should have quite a few resources piled up by the third gen. That's important because you'll want to Burn Bodies as soon as the plague begins. I also prosecuted Creon at this point because I had enough gold stockpiled; but in theory it might be better to send money to the Oracle or build troops to hit the Spartans.

[@edorn9972]

​@@nefftron1great guide!

[@MateusVIII]

@@nefftron1 Damn, thanks for that! I have tried it at least 10 times now and I always have favour dipping to 48 or 49 right before something gives me the bump.

[@mryes413]

In this mission, you are going to have a decent navy and a decent army and a lot of calvary. Also, gather a lot of resources and research everything.

[@duliththenuka2110]

What you think about this dlc so for

[@OrnLu_AoE]

I am 8500 words into the script for my review 11. It should be ready shortly after the end of the playthrough

[@asifmubeen-dc3ub]

In this scenario, well after the time of Themistocles, the Peloponnesian War begins and Pericles must defend the city of Athens. You can withstand a siege, but how about an election?

[@mryes413]

Ornlu is in a jumbled up mess.

[@srijitmajumder99]

Folks, gotta question, is the achievement even possible?(on hard) I tried without selling Athena's gold. Selling Athena's gold is a direct -40 favor....so that means first thing is to sell that estate, gain the favor and then sell the gold....and then prosecute Cleon and repair the Acropolis quickly. Thing is the 10 favor window is so small it does not allow me to consecutively do both. I am left at 55 favor and no resources to jump start my economy. Any bright ideas will be appreciated, thank you. Edit: Did it at last with painstaking amount of retries. Key is to grow economy first and continuously produce merchant and fishing ships while grabbing caravan, scoop nets and war drums as priority techs at the start. Sell your estate at the 54 favor mark. Keep producing merchant ships till they reach 24. Do not overmake or undermake merchant ships. Goal is to repair the monument, then with the resources gained from the first tribute ship, immediately sell everything and prosecute Cleon at the first chance ASAP. After this, grow your economy, shift your balance to 50/50 wood/gold,... Then make lancers to reinforce, then send sea raids with lembos. After that its pure cakewalk.

[@stevenhough7555]

Thanks for this. This is the only one I couldn’t beat on hard. I didn’t get the achievement but I did beat it at least.

[@mryes413]

Better restart Ornlu.

[@stefanandrejcik571]

I loved the design of this mission, but it has meeeh unfun execution especially when I was doing achievement on hard, I did it but it was pain.......

[@christos49]

Very interesting mission, but ultimatley not too fun to actually play. Not bad, but wouldn't play again.

[@raynightshade8317]

I hate they skipped Plataea it the most important battle fo the Greco Persian war and its not even mentoned

[@Γνώστηςτωνγατών]

Full focusing on Greco-Persian wars condradits this DLC with the Peloponnesian war but, I think, addons should fix this (really there were many events mentioned in this DLC's campaign but not covered well, for example the Greek siege of Sardis and Xerses's crossing Hellespontus, if not to mention some Greek campaigns like, the local anti-Persian uprising which, the Egyptian expedition to support which has almost no analogues in the whole European history, except Caesar's expedition, the fifth Crusade and Napoleon's campaign).

[@raynightshade8317]

@Γνώστηςτωνγατών it should have been Sardis not Byzantines

[@Γνώστηςτωνγατών]

@@raynightshade8317 Byzantine is more suitable to the DLC's Athenian campaign (began at Marathon, much later than Sardis) part, for Sardis it should be created a campaign or at least a single mission for Aristagoras as the protagonist while in first seven missions he's an ally and an enemy.

[@raynightshade8317]

@@Γνώστηςτωνγατών I suppose that is part of the issue having to follow one character. Spartans campaign felt kinda like a mess simple cause of how they made the second character personality

[@lanh.7573]

Adding Plataea would just be another _Battle of Marathon_ type of scenario. So maybe they intentionally cut that out.

[@DrPoth]

Awful level. Just not fun.