Jan Žižka #4 on Hard + Achievement
Jan Žižka #4 on Hard + Achievement
I was having a really hard time with this scenario and tried several different strategies. Eventually, I found one that made the scenario much more manageable and allowed me to finish it relatively quickly.
Since you are basically racing against the clock, I thought I'd write down the exact strategy I used in case someone comes across this scenario in the future looking for a solution.
- The beginning
There is a lot of information thrown at you at the start, but immediately move ALL your army toward the Green enemy. Send two soldiers separately to collect the unprotected wagons with resources nearby.
Garrison the relics, put your villagers to work, and research the available blacksmith attack and armor upgrades. Advance to the Imperial Age as soon as possible.
Then push toward Green's base. Put your Hussite Wagons in front of your Archer/hc and simply eliminate everything in your path.
Don't worry too much about losing units. You will have plenty of resources later, so trading units for speed is worth it here.
Push through the city without worrying about destroying every building. Once you get close to the castle near the Wonder, send Jan Žižka to the gate leading to the Wonder.
As soon as you do this, that entire section of the city becomes yours.
- Push North
Move your remaining army north of your MAIN base. By this point, you should already have completed the research for the Imperial Age.
Use your monks to heal whatever remains of your army. Start producing cheap units and build up numbers with Pikemen and Light Cavalry.
At the same time, produce Trebuchets and continue pushing north.
The Yellow enemy should be attacking you around this point. Use your castles efficiently to deal with their attacks. A lot of enemy cannons will be within range of your castles, so prioritize killing them as quickly as possible.
At this point, Red should start attacking your newly captured city with rams, Teutonic Knights and Cavaliers.
Ignore them completely.
Let Red destroy as much as he wants while you continue pushing toward his northern base, which should be almost completely undefended.
Clear the path with your army and use your Trebuchets or Bombard Cannons to focus directly on Red's castle.
Once the castle goes down, Red should surrender.
- Finish Yellow
You can clean up the remaining Red units in your city if you want, but it isn't necessary.
Now move your entire army south. Your economy should be in a somewhat better position by this point.
Start producing Cavaliers and Hand Cannoneers, while continuing to use Trebuchets and Bombard Cannons.
Destroy the Yellow castle in the south. This is important because destroying this fortress allows additional reinforcements to arrive by ship at your main base.
Once the fortress is destroyed, use all the reinforcements together with your remaining army for the final assault on Yellow.
My time
I managed to finish the scenario in 35:29 in-game time, which should correspond to roughly 23 minutes and 40 seconds of real time at the standard game speed.
So, not exactly a true speedrun, but pretty close to one compared with a normal playthrough.
I've also seen people using Petards to finish the scenario in around 14 minutes of in-game time, so there is clearly room to make this strategy much faster.
Hopefully this helps anyone else struggling with this scenario on Hard + Achievement!