Honfoglalas (Hard) is impossible.

[ﮐʜᴑƌᴧԓ]

So I've completed everything on Hard up to this point, some have been seriously tough but with some tips I've managed to pull through. However, Honfoglalas is just impossible.

I've reached the battle against the Bulgars. I have an army of 150+ fully upgraded, 2/3 mixed cavalry and 1/3 pikemen. I have 8 castles along their northern shoreline, protected by palisades.

The Bulgars won't attack me behind palisades, so I can lay waste to their army with the castles, but the army never stops coming, ever. I can't attack, my 150+ army gets wiped out in less than 5 minutes of getting near their base. Whatever I spam; siege, cavalry, pikemen, a mixture... everything is wiped out.

The enemy has 5 castles, 5 town centres, ~120 villagers and and 80 strong army, they're also in the Imperial age. They have so many military buildings, that their units are instantly replaced. They have about 50,000 gold and 200,000 food/wood.

If by way of a massive single assualt I take down a castle, or a towncentre it is instantly rebuilt and producing again. Same with any military buildings.

I would love to know how you are expected to win against such odds.

I'm guessing there is some trigger to get them to switch to ally and give in, possibly by destroying a certain building, but without any direction other than "defeat them" that seems unlikely.

Any help?

[ﮐʜᴑƌᴧԓ]

To add; I also have at least 3 of each military building, when I send in my army each building is set to produce 15 and send them straight into battle. Of course, they're wiped out one by one as they arrive...

[John Fish]

ah yes this was a tough fight surely. I won it by building up my first base behind the Byzantine city, securing a spot of land in front of the byzantine city, and building a couple barracks, stables, archery ranges and a castle there. From that point on just keep making trash and magyar huszars and slowly push the line forward. Everytime you win some land build more barracks stables and archery ranges there. It really takes some time but I think the bulgars surrender when they've lost all their TCs and castles.
Be warned however. When you defeat the bulgars, the pechenegs move in from the North to finish you off. Make sure Almos doesn't die.

[iknowjack123]

IMHO the new campaigns were garbage. Compared with the original AoK and Conqeror's campaigns, the new one's really don't stack up. Essentially, the AI in the new campaigns is set to "Off" and totally relies on triggers to do anything. What this means is that the enemy has a tendency to spam non-stop masses of units at you until a specific objective is met (ie a certain building/unit is destroyed ect.) In this kind of scenario, there is no sense of progession really: the enemy will just keep ramming non-stop forces at you, no matter how many you kill or how many enemy buildings you destroy they jusy keep coming.

So like you describe, you'll often find yourself in these near impossible situations where there is basically 0% chance at winning. The difficulty levels are all messed up as well...easy is a joke, normal is not challenging, and hard is pretty much unwinnable.

I gave up playing them after doing the Alaric campaign and trying a handful of the "Ancient Battles" scenarios. Talk about tedious gameplay, 90% of the time you will find yourself either guiding a small force through an extremely large map or you will be faced off in a regular "Build and Destroy" scenario with no chance of winning.

Seriously save yourself the headache and just give up. These campaigns were all made by amateur modders and pimped out by Microsoft as a legit product just so they could make some easy cash.

I recommend the vanilla campaigns or Age of Mythology if you want a similar experience with slightly changed gameplay. Just don't buy the AoM HD version, it is not worth the asking price and the original 2003 game is better in every way except graphics (and the old graphics weren't bad by any means)

Also recommend WC3 and Frozen Throne - the campaigns were overall really well done. Don't let that stupid World of Warcraft nonsense ruin this game for you

[ﮐʜᴑƌᴧԓ]

Well, for anyone who cares I managed to beat it. By waiting...

and waiting...

and waiting...

Yeah, If I just waited long enough and let their endless waves crash on my line of 10 castles with a single palisade-width point of entry, eventually the AI just kinda "gave up"...

His villagers stopped gathering, he stopped building anything, they wouldn't rebuild farms, they even stopped building endless diaganol lines of lumber yards. For some reason he no longer produced any skirmishers, only cavalry. Yet, when I took out the army he had, he didnt replace them.

Occassionally, after destroying a town centre or castle one villager may wander off and try to build a replacement, but other than that he did nothing...

I really think this part of the scenario needs some work, as it's impossible until the AI just kinda switches off...

[executor_rs]

I have completed this mission on hard and I agree the fight against the Bulgars was painful. It took me literary hours and many tries until I finally figured out what to do.

Just like you, I made a camp on their Northern shore protected by palisades. Create 2 detachments, one with ~100 cavalry and pikemen, the other with 15-20 rams and support units. This 2nd group must be placed in the South, close to the entrance to the Byzantine town, without being spotted by the Bulgars. The larger group must do its utmost to attract the enemy troops to the North, while the rams move towards the enemy base and start leveling it. It may take more than one try, but this is the only way.

If you want to be even more sure of success, make even more than 20 rams. The Bulgars don't have hard hitting units, so they cannot destroy them quickly. And make sure they are distracted.

And after you're done with the Bulgars, prepare for the final battle against the Moravians :) Although that will be easier, since they don't have Houses, only Castles (hint, hint!) ;)

[法輪功 Free Tibet]

I also have completed this mission, but a lot different way.

I built up 4 castles in Byzantine territory, stuffing them with the archeries. This is to take down the Bulgar's infintie soldiers coming down to me.

1. AND made bunch of smithereens(suicide bomber) and bombed the Bulgar's castle again and again.
The purpose of keep bombing the Bulgar's castle is to 'Deplete' the rock stockpile of Bulgar,

2. After Bulgar stops builidng castles, start bombing their Town Centers,
As their rock is depleted, Bulgars are not availble to rebuild their Towncenters.

3. Start hunt down Bulgar's villagers. As their villagers are all gone, they cannot rebuild the army buildlings.

4. After killing all the villagers, bomb the army buildlings(barracks, archery range, stable) one by one. Ultimately their soldiers cannot be reproduced since their army buildlings are all gone.

5. Hunt down the Bulgar's soldiers. and at some point, they will surrender.

Hope this strategy helps you.