It is very hard, because for one thing when I got near the end I almost lost one of my armored elephants and that would have resulted in me getting defeated. The last remaining armored elephant barely had any health left. To make matters worse temples and stables are not allowed either. Also, the villagers are useless at least until the Romans (yellow) is not a threat anymore and worth mentioning as well that the Romans (yellow) do not surrender even if you take out all of their villagers and town center.

If I had any chance at all with my villagers they would have to destroy two walls and hope that the Romans (yellow) do not find them. While there are a few random military units for getting they are scattered. Early in the game the Romans (yellow) also try to spam towers with their villagers even on standard difficulty. Considering the fact that you start off very low on resources combined with brown spamming units the villagers seem to be almost useless.

This campaign is why I stopped playing, but I'm back at it again.

Originally posted by Xarlas:

This campaign is why I stopped playing, but I'm back at it again.

I won this mission without cheating on standard difficulty, but just barely. Standard difficulty seems hard difficulty while easiest difficulty perhaps might seem like moderate difficulty at least. Moderate and hard difficulty might seem like hardest difficulty (but I am not sure since I have only played on standard difficulty and not sure what the difference is between moderate and hard with this mission) and hardest difficulty might seem like extreme difficulty even though extreme difficulty is not an option for campaigns. Also, sword difficulty ratings did not exist back then, but it has a three sword difficulty feel to it. I have considered playing AoE: DE again at some point mainly for getting achievement awards and less cheating , but I have not found the time to do it yet mainly because I am overall more interested in AoE II: DE than other games from this series.