Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition – How to Unlock An Army Marches on It’s Stomach Achievement

In this guide you can find detailed info on how to unlock the “An Army Marches on Its Stomach” achievement.

What We Have to Know about the Achievement

All credit goes to A Cement Hive!

An Army Marches on It’s Stomach

• Complete all secondary objectives and destroy all of Dagnajan’s smaller bases before Dagnajan and his army march in the third Yodit mission “A Fallen Crown”.

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There are 4 specific Missions that you have to complete to obtain the achievement:

Secondary Objetives

1. Destroy the ortodox monks (5 monks + wonder).
2. Destroy the raiders (1 small army + base with units).
3. Destroy the teal castle to liberate elephants (no units near).
4. Destroy all of Dagnajan’s smaller bases:
   Divided in 7 bases (6 military camps + 1 small base), which each have different units and buildings:

Tower, docks and houses (no units).

Cavalry army, Stable and an outpost.

Crossbowmen / Swordmen army, houses, towers and 3 military buildings.

Pikeman / Elite Skirmisher army, a tower, an outpost and an archery.

Mixed army (Infantry units, knights and Scorpions) and 3 houses.
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Shotel warriors / Siege Rams, 3 houses and an archery.

Crossbowman / Onagers, 2 houses and a siege workshop.

Remember

You have to kill all the units and destroy all of the buildings in each base (Everything except walls). If you forget just a single building, the achievement won’t pop up.

Information – Tips

You start with:

• Wood – 700.
• Food – 700.
• Gold – 400.
• Stone – 200.
• Villagers – 5.

Units

• 4 Shotal Warriors.
• 3 Archers.
• 1 Light Cavalry.

• Your ally does nothing in this mission, but he’s useful for the map exploration, which he’s giving you.
• The timer starts at 10:00 min (Game time). It gives you 75:00 mins, before Dagnajan starts marching.
• In my opinion these things are not useful for this mission: Imperial age / Stone / Castle
• Teal sometimes attacks you, be careful.
• Personally, Knights / Camels + Rams are the best units in this map.
• Dont attack Dagnajan’s main base. If you attack or just walk too close to his base, he might start marching with his army.
• Learn the map. Remember enemy and resource locations, it will be useful for this achievement. You might want to use the cheats “Marco” and “Polo” to uncover the map completely, once. Make sure to restart the game after, though, because cheating disables achievements!
• A good economy is important in this mission. Balance your resources carefully.
• Don’t forget to build houses, especially when you’re booming (strategy where the player focuses almost exclusively on their economy).

Step One: Fast Castle – Ortodox Monks (00:00 – 10:00 Game Time)

You should do both things at the same time, but it’s doable. When the villagers are building, you can manage your units to attack the Monks.

Fast Castle Strategy

At the beginning, use 1 villager to build 3 houses, 1 blacksmith and 1 stable (prioritize houses first), while the other 4 villagers should build a Town center in the middle of the woods and berries, near to were you started on the map.

When your villagers finished the Town Center, split your villagers (2W – 2F). Then create 2 more villagers and send them to the berries. When the first villager finished the buildings, send it to cut wood (3W – 4F).

Finally wait until you have enough food to start Castle Age Tech.

Ortodox Monks

At the same time that are you preparing your base, use your small army and clear the area where you are going to build your base.

Use your light cavarly and find the other light cavalry, which is near the Orange base, while your army is crossing teal’s base (you will find 2 other light cavalries).

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After having found the light cavalries, keep walking to the east and you will find the ortodoxus monks in a base that is sorrounded by mountains.

Be careful when you try to kill them! Try to aggro them with cavalry and kill 1 by 1.

Another option is to use your archers in order to bait their conversions (Send 1 by 1) , so you can save your shotal warriors and cavalry, which deal more damage to structures.

When you killed the 5 monks, destroy the wonder and they will resign.

Step Two: Booming (75:00 – 65:00 Timer)

Note: When the game reaches 10 minutes, the timer starts.

A few seconds before reaching Castle Age, send four villages to the north (foragers) .Create villagers and build houses when you reach the next age, while you’re building the other town center.

In the north, there is an area where you can build a town center with a good quantity of resources, especially food (berries, fish and an elephant).

Now focus on your economy, prioritize in food and wood (when the timer reach min 68 you should start sending villagers to gold mines).

Manage your villagers and population carefully. Sometimes, when you might lack of wood or food, you have to react quickly. Don’t forget building houses, because you are going to lose time waiting until you complete them.

Preparing Your Army (65:00 – 58:00 Timer)

At this moment, you should have a good quantity of villagers, so you can start creating your units.

I recommend to create knights and camels, because they deal good dmg and resist against most attacks (your enemies have a variety of military units).

But don’t use all your resources at the same time, try to balance your economy, keep producing villagers and military units.

Around 60:00 (Timer), I recommend to send 3 or 4 villagers (lumberjacks) to the middle of the map (Orange’s second base) and create 1-2 stables and 1 siege workshop, so you can continue creating units. Send your 3-4 villagers to lumber near of that area (you might need it later).

Around 59:00 – 58:00 (Timer), you might have a army of 20 – 25 (knights/camels + units that survived before). If it’s possible, research ‘Scale Barding Armor’ and ‘Forging’ on the blacksmith.

Note: Prioritize in your cavalry. Siege Workshop – Battering ram is not necessary at this moment. If you don’t have enough resources, you can build / create them later (58:00 – 55:00 Timer).

Step Three: Alobian Riders (Purple) – Dagnajan’s Docks (58:00 – 48:00 Timer)

If possible, do both tasks at the same time.

Alobian Riders (Purple)

Now that you have an army, it’s time to defeat the Alobian Riders(Purple). They are located in two specific areas, 1 group of units in the middle of the map (near orange’s second base) and 1 base in the northwest.

Start killing the group of units first (really easy), then go to the northwest and find his base.

Remember: This secondary objective is unlocked by sending a unit to the Alodian Traders (located in the west of the map).

When you reach his base, start destroying the tower and their units that are near.

At that moment, most units will start moving to attack you. Split your units and prioritize the onager and after that kill all of them. When you killed them, destroy the military buildings and purple will resign.

Dagnajan’s Docks

You have to create 2 – 3 battering rams and send them to the southwest, where Dagnajan’s docks are located.

Be careful when you are moving your rams, near there is the main base of Dagnajan and you might trigger the march.

There isn’t much to say about the place, just destroy the tower and then the others buildings.

Step Four: Dagnajan’s Military Bases – Teal Castle (48:00 – 29:00 Timer)

Dagnajan’s Military Bases

By now, you have enough resources to keep producing units. Prepare your army: A group of knights/camels and 4 – 5 rams.

When you think that you are ready, start attacking each base.

The strategy is simple: kill their units, then use your rams to destroy the buildings.

Recommendations

• Send 2 or 3 knights and aggro the enemy units, useful in areas where it’s difficult to kill them with a big army.
• After cleaning the base which had the crossbowmen / swordsmen army + buildings, you can send your villagers (which you used before) to build more stables and siege workshops.
• Be careful when you are going to attack the base, that has crossbowmen and onagers. You might trigger some units from Dagnajan’s base.

Teal Castle

The castle is located in the southeast of the map. This secondary mission is unlocked when you reach the area where the castle is located (a warrior will talk about this).

There are no enemy units, so you can send your battery rams without any problem.

Before sending your rams to the castle, you should clear the way.

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After completing all the secondary missions and destoying Dagnajan’s small bases, the achievement will pop-up.