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                         THE ART OF WAR

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BASIC INFORMATION
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BY: The Ambassador
EMAIL: [email protected]
LAST UPDATED: 05/31/05
VERSION: .15
SITES THAT MAY POST THIS GUIDE: gamefaqs.com gamespot.com supercheats.com
IF YOU FIND THIS GUIDE ON ANY OTHER SITE, PLEASE EMAIL ME IMMEDIATELY


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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. NOTES and GENERAL STRATEGIES
2. VERSION HISTORY
3. CAMPAIGNS: 
  A. ENCIRCLED BY FIRE
    I.    LIBERATION CAMPAIGN
    II.   SAXON GOLD
    III.  TURKISH STRONGHOLD
  B. UNDER THE BANNER OF KING FREDERICK
    I.    TRADE ROUTE BATTLE
  C. CHAMPION OF THE EMPIRE
    I.    MUTINY IN BOHEMIA
  D. NOBLE'S HONOUR
    I.    SOUTHERN PROVINCE
    II.   INCURSION
    III.  MUTINY IN UKRAINE
  E. GRAND BEY
    I.    DESERT WARRIORS
4. SINGLE MISSION
  A. AZOV
  B. COLONIAL WARS
  C. INSURRECTION
  D. THE TURKISH INVASION
  E. THE LONG WAY TO VICTORY
  F. THREE NATIONS
  G. MY FIRST MISSION
5. RANDOM MAP
  A. GENERAL MAP STRATEGIES
  B. NATIONS
  C. OTHER


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1. NOTES and GENERAL STRATEGIES
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1. I am assuming that you know the basics of moving, selecting multiple 
units, unselecting units, constructing buildings, etc. If I need to add 
a basics section, email me and let me know what I need to cover.

2. Due to the harsh general difficulty of this game, the strategies 
used will be for EASY, unless otherwise stated.

3. For easier gameplay, always turn on the health/reloading bars that 
appear on top of each unit after pressing the `/~ key on your keyboard 
(it is in the upper left-hand corner). This helps in figuring out your 
troops, as well as finding enemies hiding in forests.

4. LEARN HOTKEYS: Hotkeys are simply shortcuts to units. Select a group 
of units (or just one unit) that you wish to have a shortcut for. Then 
press CONTROL and a number 1-0. Once you have done this, all you need 
to do is to press the number that you assigned to that group to jump to 
those units. It is the absolute fastest way to select units.

5. Look ahead and use the minimap. You will avoid tons of casualties if 
you know where your opponent is before they know where you are. Each 
colorful dot on the minimap represents an unit. Glance down at it as 
many times as you can to avoid being ambushed.

6. Advance to the eighteenth century as soon as you can. Build one of 
each building and advance. The moment you have advanced, research the 
Montgolfier to see the entire map, giving you a tremendous advantage.

7. Use pause to your advantage. This is the sole reason why I am 
writing the Art of War guide before European Wars. You can control 
units while in pause, so do so.

8. If you ever forget your objective, F1 will tell you what it is.

9. When you see my campaign missions in the table of contents, know 
that the last mission listed in each campaign probably has not yet been 
beaten by me, so there won't be a guide for it.


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2. VERSION HISTORY
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05/26/05: Begin work on guide. Completed from setup to Saxon Gold. Also 
included skeletons for up to Trade Route Battle.

05/31/05: Completed Mutiny in Bohemia.

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3. CAMPAIGNS
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A. ENCIRCLED BY FIRE
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LIBERATION CAMPAIGN:

MY Opinion Rating:
Comparative Difficulty (to other campaigns): * (easy)
Fun: ** (only fun if you enjoy minor skirmishes)

This mission starts you off as a lone rider, whose objective is to save 
several peasants before they are shipped off. Although it may sound 
like it, there is no real time constraint here. Start off by following 
the road west until you reach a village. The general in charge will 
give you a regiment of 21 pikeman to use. Further west is another 
village. Pay the 3000 gold (you have 30,000) and buy the 16 cavalry.

Continue westward on the path until you reach a fortified village. Talk 
to the commander in charge and he will tell you to take care of the 
rebels to the west. Take all of your men to face the southwest of the 
village and charge. Numbers will be deceiving, these are LIGHT 
infantrymen, in other words, worse than fighting peasants. Once the 
camp is destroyed, go back to the commander and he will give you 13 
dragoons (which are, in my opinion, the absolute best guerilla units in 
the game). 

Now, since there is nothing else further west, take the path leading 
northeast from the fortified village. You will come across a group of 
soldiers willing to sell you a multi-barreled gun for 5,000 gold. Don't 
buy it unless you truly want it; you don't need the cannon, but you 
don't need the gold, either. Continue up to the northeast and you will 
find a town that will freely give you a general, 3 cannons, and a 
howitzer. 

There is nothing further east. Take your 13 dragoons and head west, 
playing "kill the nearest enemy before he kills you". If you play it 
right, you can expect minimal casualties. Just make sure to move your 
cursor over the trees to kill any hidden troops (are there are quite a 
few of them) as well as keep all of them occupied shooting one enemy at 
a time. Also, if a pikeman gets too close, manually run the dragoons 
back and once far enough away, fire.

Once the enemy is properly disposed of, take all of your units up to 
the white base. The general will ask for 5000 gold for you to pass. 
Take one good look at his base and decide "yes". Watch out, for there 
are a couple of blue pikeman just outside the base. Whatever you do, do 
NOT go north, unless your version of a fun pastime is a suicide mission 
because in the northwest are several blue ships that just love to kill 
units and directly north is an ambush that will come into play in just 
a few moments.

Use your dragoons to kill all of the bridge's guards. Once the guards 
are dead, send your dragoons to the enemy side of the bridge and put 
them on "stand guard" (on of the buttons beneath their picture), so 
that they will attack any troops that get close, but will not rush in 
and kill themselves. Then, take your 3 cannons (not the other two 
artillery) and set them up just behind your dragoons and destroy the 
stronghold (make sure that your targets are not to close to the 
peasants because otherwise they could die too). 

As soon as the majority of the troops are wiped out, come down with the 
dragoons and take out the remaining units, but do NOT get too close to 
the peasants (you do not want to recapture them just yet). Now, take 
the rest of your troops down through the bridge and bring the 3 cannons 
closer. Use the cannons to kill the small army southwest of the 
stronghold. Also, shoot out the gate, for if your cannons are close 
enough to shoot that army, they can shoot out the gate with minimal 
casualties. Once there are very few left (or if the remaining pikemen 
charge), you should charge. Take the Rider (your main character) and 
bring him up to a ferry. You will capture both ferries. The top one is 
ready for loading, but the bottom one needs to be adjusted (in other 
words, select it and right-click somewhere on the shore). Pile in all 
of your troops and peasants as fast as you can. As soon as you see blue 
ships coming in from the north pull out the top ferry (as long as no 
important units (the peasants or the Rider) are trying to get in). As 
soon as you can, pull out the bottom ferry and send them both south. 
You will get attacked, but hopefully you got out fast enough to avoid 
getting sunk, as your allies will come to your aid. As soon as you land 
enough peasants, you win this mission.


SAXON GOLD:

MY Opinion Rating:
Comparative Difficulty (to other campaigns): **
Fun: * (short but not so sweet)

Start off by pausing the game. Put all of your citizens to work in the 
mines (there are just enough to reach the five limit in each mine). Put 
both of your barracks to work creating 100 pikemen in each barracks, so 
that when your units die, they will instantly be replenished. Do NOT 
create musketeers, since they use up gold. Send your general to the 
back, since if he dies, you loose. There will be multiple waves, ending 
with a very large wave at around 14,000 gold. Always have your pikemen 
under "stand ground" in between the two towers, covering your 
musketeers. I would put your pikemen on one hotkey (you WILL need them 
to charge, at least for the last wave), your musketeers on another, and 
your towers on yet another one, that way you have complete control over 
the battlefield. There is not much else that I can help you with here, 
so good luck.

As soon the gold count reaches 15,000, stop making pikemen, and instead 
make musketeers to go up near the north gate. Also, take away any 
troops not already in battle (or are very near to be battling) and send 
them north to the gate as well. As soon as the horses are packed, have 
everyone escape through the gate. A massive wave of soldiers will 
attack and run over your nice campsite. Too bad you're already gone. As 
soon as they start to attack, switch your barracks back to the pikemen, 
and create just a few more. These are simply designed to keep your 
mines in operation as long as possible. Also, whatever you do, do NOT 
have your units attack the blue army to the northeast, as they will 
decimate your meager troops. As soon as all of your units are through 
the gate (or as soon as it is too dangerous to keep it open), close the 
gate and the blue advance will stop.

Head north and you will come across teal, who will let you pass for 
1000 gold (this is why you wanted to keep the mines open). Go through. 
Once you round the bend and are about 1/3 of the way from your 
transport (from the bend to the boat), slow down. About halfway is a 
small army of soldiers. Select your pikeman with the lowest health and 
have him stand several paces in front of the rest of your army. Then 
send your army (neither the horses nor your general) to the east. 
Hopefully your unit in front will attract the cannon, which will need 
to reload while the remainder of your units attack. As soon as it is 
halfway clear, bring over your horses and general and send them into 
the transport ASAP. Then as soon as your army has decently defeated the 
army, load them up quickly. The reason for this (as you will soon find 
out) is that the blue ambush south of you realized their mistake and 
will try to kill you.

Once everyone is in the transport, set sail. There is a ship to the 
south, but it is more concerned with attacking blue than you. Keep 
sailing east, ignoring all of the ships (let them have fun killing each 
other). If you were sailing due east, you will spot land, as well as a 
path. Isn't nice how mapped out these missions are? Follow the path (if 
you get shot at, just keep moving, since it was one of those ships 
misfiring). Due east is your goal: a black fortress. Have your general 
and horses talk to the general who is southwest of the riders and you 
win the mission.


TURKISH STRONGHOLD:

I have reached the village in past games, but died. This one will have 
to wait for a little bit.


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B. UNDER THE BANNER OF KING FREDERICK
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TRADE ROUTE BATTLE:

This is a mission that gets Cossacks a lot of negative fan mail. 
Instead of going east at the start, some go south where there is an 
ambush waiting for you. I still have yet to finish this mission.


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C. CHAMPION OF THE EMPIRE
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MUTINY IN BOHEMIA:

MY Opinion Rating:
Comparative Difficulty (to other campaigns): **
Fun: *** (it is basically a random map game with a few extra twists)

You start off this mission with a general (your special unit) and 17 
musketeers on the bottom of the map. Follow the shore west and you will 
run into some bandits. They ask for 2000 gold to keep them from 
attacking you. You can defeat them with minimal casualties and you will 
need the gold later. Just make sure to approach them with your general 
and are keeping your musketeers behind him (since they cannot fire at 
close ranges). Keep moving west and you will see a small band of 
pikemen who will join you for 200 gold. This is completely your 
decision. You probably won't use them, but if you want them, take them. 
Make sure you again approach them with your general first, if you 
intend to take them on. Further west is 4 black musketeers. You can 
avoid them by hugging the north, but later on they will attack, so take 
them out now with your own musketeers, shooting one at a time.

Now that you've taken care of all of the enemy units in the south, keep 
heading west. There is a house just north of the path. Visit it and the 
owner will give you a letter to take to a second house; accept it, 
considering that you will be going right by the house. 

Turn the corner and head north. Your allies are in the middle of a 
battle. Go ahead and join them, as the remaining units will guard your 
camp. Continue north, deliver the letter, and receive your 100 gold. 
Keep moving north and gain control of the village. Now this mission 
turns into a normal random map-like mission, except for that your two 
enemies already have towns up and running.

You have four groups of enemies. There is a group of bandits to the 
south of you. There is a second group to the north of you, guarding the 
northwest mine. Your first major enemy, blue, is to the northeast of 
you, at the chokepoint separating the west from the east. Black is in 
the far east.

Start off in whatever matter you normally use for random maps. I would 
create all of the buildings (there is some stone to the east of you), 
control at least one of each mine, build a couple of shipyards to the 
far south (Directly beneath your village is extremely narrow, so it 
hard to get ships through), and advance to the eighteenth century ASAP 
to get the Montgolfier. Throughout this time you will be attacked every 
few minutes from the northeast in squads of 16 or 25. My strategy used 
to deal with these (as well as the northern bandits) is to create a 
diplomatic center and build (what else) 50 dragoons. Put them on two 
hotkeys and send 25 to the mountain to the east and 25 north, so you 
can quickly attack any enemies that come at you. To deal with the 
bandits to the south, create two ships and send them up the river. Kill 
the bandits' yacht and kill as many bandits as you can. Then take your 
17 musketeers and finish the rest of them off (you won't need them 
later on, so don't be worried if some or all die). After your ships are 
done, you can send them out to disrupt your enemies' docks.

Blue sends more waves at you than black does, but his base is a lot 
weaker. The one thing to watch out for is the tower that is in the 
northwest corner of the town. You can send your two sets of dragoons to 
skirmish along northwest town hall and the southern farms. There are 
three openings you need to cover to stop all skirmishers from attacking 
you: the northwest corner of blue's village (dragoon set 1), the south 
of blue's village (dragoon set 2), and the hill southwest of blue's 
village (your 17 musketeers can guard it). 

The best I have found to finish them off is to build 30 mortars to 
blast the tower and destroy all of the military buildings (having the 
Montgolfier is nearly a necessity at this point). The nice thing about 
mortars is that they explode on contact, shooting off shrapnel to kill 
any peasants who are trying to fix the buildings. Then all you have to 
do is to enter in with your dragoons to mop up the leveled town. 

Black requires the same tactic, but you may want to have a few more 
dragoons, and, considering that once you destroy black you have won the 
game, you don't need the extra gold. Take out the buildings one at a 
time and eventually victory will be yours.


VIENNA:

Coming Soon...