Location: Pyrenees Mountains, Hispania.
Date: June 27, 49 BC.

Objectives:
- Defend the pass across the Pyrenees.
+ Meet Sextus Calpurnius and his men (new objective after 10 minutes).
+ Sextus Calpurnis must survive (new objective after 10 minutes).
+ Meet with Titus Lucius and his men (new objective after 20 minutes).
+ Titus Lucius must survive (new objective after 20 minutes).

Unit Control Points: 391/500.
Troop Control Points: 17/50.
Starting units: 2x Auxiliary Archers (30), 3x Auxiliary Infantry (30), Centurion (level 3), Centurion (level 0), 2x Equites (12), Hawk Scout, 2x Legionaries (30), Physician, Praetorians (16), 2x Spearmen (30), Wolf Scout.
Available units: Archer Cavalry, Auxiliary Archers, Auxiliary Infantry, Balearic Slingers, Equites, Gladiators, Hawk Scout, Legionaries, Physician, Praetorians, Spearmen, Wolf Scout.
Available construction: Ballista, Battering Ram, Catapult, Defensive Tower, repair.

                            .-''-.
                         .-'      '-.
                      .-'   _ .    8 '-.
                   .-'.  . |1|  .       '-.
                .-'.       .     .  .      '-.
             .-' .          . .       . .  .  '-.
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       .-'   _    . .          .      .          .  '-.
      '-.   |2| .      .     9  .  7  .             .  '-.
         '-.    .  10  .               .            .  .  '-.
            '-. ~        ~ ~ ~ ~ ~   .   .               .   '-.
               '-.~           ~            .            6       '-.
                  '-.         .             . .      ~   .         '-.
                     '-.      . .  .  .        . ~ ~   .              '-.
                        '-.     .       .    .  . .  .            _      '
                           '-.    5  . .   ~       . .  .  . . . |4|  .-'
                              '-.     .  ~ ~     .         . .     .-'
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                                       '-.       _ .     ~.-'
                                          '-.   |3|    .-'
                                             '-.    .-'
                                                '--'
 _
| | = Village/barracks (may include various defenses).
. . = Path (minor pathways not shown).
~ ~ = River, sea or lake.
] [ = Bridge or location for bridge.
                                                                          

1 = Your village. Population 300. Start location.
2 = Ally's village. Population 300.
3 = Enemy village. Population 1000.
4 = Enemy village. Population 1000.
5 = Sextus Calpurnius.
6 = Titus Lucius.
7 = Suggested defensive ridge.
8-10 = Alternative defensive ridges.

The orders imply both your village (1 on the map above) and your ally's village (2 on the map above) must be defended. However, it is possible to have your garrison destroyed and not fail the mission. Of course, without a base it will become increasingly difficult to complete the mission. If your ally's garrison is destroyed the mission will be failed. Aside from surviving, the mission lasts until the Pompeians and their provincial allies decide to retreat. There are two known methods of getting the Pompeians to leave:

The first is to destroy at least one enemy village in a bold offensive strategy (see below - it is arguably the easiest strategy, but is the least obvious).

The second (more common) way to complete the mission revolves around the defecting generals. After 10 minutes of play, Sextus Calpurnius and his men defect (at location 5 on the map above). After 20 minutes Titus Lucius defects (at location 6 on the map above). Once the defections occur, send a unit (any type will do) to meet the defectors and then ensure the officer reaches the protection of your fortifications. There is no need to ensure the defecting troops survive, just their officer. LordJohnDrinksalot writes: "I sent Wolf Scouts to contact the Centurions as they defected." From loki: "I kind of cheated, I sent two Auxiliary Infantry in the woods where the defections would be, putting them on hold, and defensive, right at the beginning of the mission. That way, I was able to reach them as soon as they defect, thus I could carry them back very quickly to my base without having to spend troops to reach them." You will need to survive just over 20 minutes, so a strong defense is suggested.

On normal difficulty, more than 2000 enemy units attack from the south over the course of about 20 minutes. These are mostly Roman units, so may be somewhat harder to defeat than the Barbarian and Egyptian regulars found in most of the previous missions.

My suggested defensive strategy involves fortifying and defending the ridged area south of your village, overlooking the shallow water (marked 7 on the map above). The ridge has two approaches, one on the northern side, and another on the east. At the southern end of the ridge there is woodland, with a small area of open ground on the southern-most tip. Immediately select all your troops and run them to the ridge. Leave one Centurion (the level 0 Centurion) to recruit at the village. Order recruitment of a few Auxiliary Archers, followed by Praetorians. By the time the Praetorians start training you will have the required Honour Points ;-) .

Build a Catapult on the southern-most tip of the ridge, and position a Wolf Scout next to it. Place your initial archers in the woodland, as stationary and aggressive. The Wolf Scout is important because it extends the reach of these ranged units out across the shallow water *and* into the nearby woodland, thus keeping enemy targets in view for as long as possible. On the northern half of the ridge build two towers, one facing each of the entrances. Fill these with newly recruited archers as they become available. Place a unit of stationary Spearmen across the mouth of each entrance. Hotkey cavalry and melee troops (initially mostly Legionaries, later Praetorians), but keep them on the ridge with hold orders until you need them. Once the initial constructions have been completed use the remaining Auxiliary Infantry to build Catapults. Aim to have half a dozen Catapults in operation by the end. Set all Catapults to aggressive, and give them the option to fire barrage shot. Ballistas may be a viable alternative for the careful commander - in my experience they tend to cause slightly too many friendly casualties in what is already a fairly chaotic mission to manage.

Around this time the first wave of enemy attackers should arrive. The majority of attacks come directly from the south. Let your archers and Catapults do as much damage as possible. LordJohnDrinksalot notes: "The archers really hurt the enemy the most, with hundreds of kills, especially if they attempt to cross the river near the hilltop." Only use other troops once the enemy get close to the ridge entrance(s). Then use the most appropriate group of troops to deal with whatever enemy units are approaching - let enemy cavalry charge the Spearmen, use your cavalry to mow down their archers, and send melee troops out to deal with others. When the enemy attacks from the woodland to the east, send melee troops out to deal with them - this approach is rarely used. When the battle is over, pull everyone back up onto the ridge immediately and let the Physician heal them. Only take your eye off the battle momentarily to bring newly trained troops to the front-line or to meet with the defectors: Some groups of enemy such as Gladiators and Praetorians will reach the ridge and wipe out half of your defenses if you are not ready to respond with melee troops.

Although not directly protecting either village, this method covers two of the three possible approaches to both villages, including the only two approaches that cavalry and Spearmen can use. The main group of archers and Catapult on the southern-most tip will engage the majority of enemy coming directly from the south so long as they have the extended range afforded by a nearby Wolf Scout. Those that get through head towards your allied village, but so few survive your aerial bombardment that your ally is more than capable of finishing them off. This is less true on hard difficulty, since the allied village appears to train fewer new units. However a veteran player should be able to spare troops to assist their ally in the closing stages of the mission.

There are several other possible ridges close to the villages that may be used for defense, shown 8-10 on the map above. Location 10 (the ridge just to the south of the allied village) will be used by your ally anyway. Location 9 contains a clump of trees that may be used to hide archers and an area behind suitable for Catapults and other troops. Unfortunately the single access to the ridge is directly from the south, so the enemy engage your melee troops far sooner than using the method outlined above. This only protects against forces coming directly from the south, allowing the enemy to out-flank the villages' defenses unless alternative defenses are set in place. The ridge to the east of your village is of little practical use since it only fires down on troops that have already reached your village - and enemy archers can happily set fire to the garrison without leaving the shelter of the nearby woodland.

Instead of defending a ridge, consider defending your village itself. Kmorg74 writes: "The trick here is to keep concentrated and inside the town. Build up three towers in your village and keep tight. Build catapults next, at least five. Keep the Praetorian big guys in the middle small wood with a Centurion and a healer. Build only enough archers to fill towers and Praetorians." Praetorians are excellent troops for defense, and will very often be the only troops still standing after a huge enemy onslaught. Random writes: "I built 3 or 4 defense towers close by my town and filled them with archers. My infantry hid in the trees just south of my town to attack anyone that came close, while the towers could shoot them easily. I sent my Equites out on hit and run missions on enemy archers that attacked the allied town." From Shinobi: "I placed the Praetorians near the towers and let the melee units come to them so the towers could help them with boulders. When the melee units are eliminated, I send the Praetorians to the nearby forests to kill hidden archers."

Shorty writes: "But there is one problem: your ally won't hold the village - therefore send a couple of infantry to his town and start building a couple of towers." Shinobi writes: "On the ally side I placed 2 archer groups on the forest/hill just south of the village and placed the 2 spearmen groups on the pathway to the forest/hill to protect the archers. When the spearmen kill the melee units, I use the Equites to kill the remaining archers. To protect the middle portion, I placed the 2 Legionaries groups on the forest with defensive and hold position commands." From artifax: "I was more successful when I tried to conserve my troops using my Equites to sally back and forth protecting 'our allies village'."

FV Constantinus writes: "Defense? Yeah right! I got to thinking, I am 100% better at attacking than defending and the only way I won the previous defense missions was by counter attacking. I did the unthinkable under stress and took my whole force on an offensive. I burnt the garrison of the village in the bottom left corner while the enemy took out mine. To my surprise they didn't tell me I had failed, so I kept it up and the Pompeians stopped attacking."

This is the easiest way to win the mission. Immediately run all your troops south, close to the western enemy village (3 on the map above). Be quick or else your forces will run into enemy troops coming north from the other village (4 on the map above). Leave one Centurion hidden in woodland away from the battle - it is important that one unit survive. Now engage the huge army by the village with everything except archers. Once the battle has started, move your archers to within range of the village, and order them to attack the village (note _village_ not garrison). Everyone in the battle will probably die. That is not important. Hopefully your archers will have managed to set the village alight. Keep your remaining Centurion hidden and wait for the village to burn down. The enemy should logically put out the fire, but they seem too busy fighting to notice. Once the village is destroyed the Pompeians retreat and the mission is victorious - total time less than 5 minutes.

Written by timski