Act II "Ice" - Mission 1: "Defend The Colony" — "Age Of Empires III" Campaign Guide

Mission 1: “Defend the Colony”

In the first level of Act Two, Ice, Kanyenke and John have been called to protect a colony governed by John’s uncle Stuart. Reports are that the Cherokee have been recently raiding the settlement, which is suspect due to their previously peaceful relations with thew colonists.

Primary Objective: Defend your Town Center for 15 minutes.

"Age of Empires 3" - Act II Ice - Mission 1: Defend the Colony (1 of 5) — Rescuing the trapped Settler treasure in “Defend the Colony” of Age of Empires 3.

Defend the Colony begins with a small army under your control fending off an attack on Stuart’s settlement which is under your control for the duration of the level.Take some of the Settlers and reprioritize their harvesting, moving all of them off the mills and dividing them among the trees north of the base for wood, the deer to the west for food and the gold mine near your market in the northwest of your base. Upgrade your resourcing at the Market so you can pull in the goods faster. Build and upgrade fishing boats to harvest the whale for coin and some of the fish for more food, 6-7 boats being a good number, 4 on the whale and 3 on fish.

As soon as you have beaten off the initial attackers, take your army including your cannon and move it out of the base, capturing some of the treasure along the way to the west corner of the map. You will need to get a head start on the first secondary objective. Start by releasing the captured Settler treasure near your Market so it can harvest for you in the mean time.

Note: Avoid traveling too far south in this level, there are Cherokee war camps that when approached trigger over-sized waves of attackers that can easily overwhelm your forces.

Secondary Objective: Stop the Cherokee from destroying the SW village (500 XP)

"Age of Empires 3" - Act II Ice - Mission 1: Defend the Colony (2 of 5) — Defending the southwest village from Cherokee attack.

Continuing to that western corner of the map you should encounter the purple base just before a large Cherokee raiding party shows up to wipe it off the map. Put your forces near the purple Musketeers, just below the base where the Cherokee will come up from. Using the cannon will make this fight considerably easy and limit your losses. Once the attackers are driven off, control of the small base is yours, most importantly the Settlers. Leave the Settlers here to harvest near the base as Cherokee won’t attack here again.

Defend the Town Center (cont) & Secondary Objective: Escort the Refugees (300 XP each)

"Age of Empires 3" - Act II Ice - Mission 1: Defend the Colony (3 of 5)

"Age of Empires 3" - Act II Ice - Mission 1: Defend the Colony (4 of 5)

"Age of Empires 3" - Act II Ice - Mission 1: Defend the Colony (5 of 5)

From this point on in this level, your priorities will be centered around amassing 2-3 decent sized armies to place around your main base, one just west, one to the south west and one directly south, as these are the major directions the Cherokee attacks will come from. Musketeers and Skirmishers should be accompanied by Falconets when you get the resources to advance to the Fortress age, especially as the enemy will bring cannon of their own eventually. You can capture any nearby treasure in the downtime between attacks.

Eventually groups of Settler refugees will start spawning at the southern edges of the map, running towards your base and asking for help. Don’t concern yourself with them as they can make it to your base just fine on their own. Just mop up the tailing attackers when they pass near any unoccupied forces of yours. When the Settlers make it to your Town Center, you will earn the experience to use on home city shipments and the Settlers will become Skirmishers to defend your town. If still tailed by attackers you can now use the Skirmishers against them.

If you can, do your best to protect the many Outpost towers built around your base and upgrade them when you hit the next age to improve your defensive ability. If you can keep them repaired and from being destroyed, they can be a very helpful addition to your efforts here.

From here on out, just continue to manage your defenses while the fifteen minute timer counts down. As long as your Town Center is still standing when that timer hits zero, Defend the Colony will be completed without any further action.