Recap pages are Spoilers Off by default, so in all these pages all spoilers are unmarked. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned
Nearly a century after Tamerlane's death, his descendants are still fighting for supremacy in Transoxiana and Persia. The youngest among them is Zahir ud-Din Muhammad – also known as Babur, ‘the tiger’. He dreams of restoring the crumbled empire, but another wave of invading horsemen from the northern steppes is about to change everything.The player is in control of Tatars and Hindustani, using the color Orange.
Scenarios
1. Pearl of the East
Almost a century passed since the death of the great Tamerlane and currently, Transoxiana is a land of pastures, cultural mixture and treachery. The valley of Ferghana is ruled by the rich but slovenly and gluttonous Umar Shaikh Mirza, a man more interested in food and breeding pidgeons than involving himself in the business of ruling the land. When he dies in an accident, the attention of his greedy brothers turn to his consort Qutlugh and his son, the young Babur. With the threath of an Uzbek army marching on Samarkand, the Pearl of the East, these devious men plan to move to take over the city and eliminate Babur, but neither the young heir or his politically-active mother are ready to go down without a fight...2. The last Timurids
After the loss of Samarkand and Ferghana Valley, Babur and his strong mother Qutlugh are forced to live a miserable life on the run, followed by a handful of loyal soldiers, not all of them armed. Then, when all seemed lost, a request of help came from the city of Herat: there, one of Babur's uncles needs help against the advancing armies of the Uzbeks, ready to march from the north and south. Strengthened by his mother's tales and reassuring presence, Babur rides west towards Herat, braving the desert, Uzbek raiders and the insidious lord of the mountainous city of Kabul, who overlooks the incoming battle with enigmatic eyes.3. Into India
Still longing for the beauties of Samarkand and the culture of Herat, Babur soon grows familiar with the snowy mountains and bountiful hills of his new domain of Kabul. Even without Quthlug to his side, Babur still rules the city and trades with many merchants from the nort of India, gathering riches... and precious intel. The cities of India, such as Lahore, Jalandhar and Landhiana are still in disarray after the great sack of Tamerlane, almost a century before. To see if these rumors are true, Babur leads a raiding army across the danger-filled afghan mountains to pillage the rich cities.4. The Battle of Panipat
Having gained an enormous bounty from the raids in Hindustan, Babur can now employ his bulging coffers of gold to obtain a precious help for his army: newly-perfectioned gunpowder weapons such as muskets and cannons, alongside expert Ottoman engineers to reproduce and obtain such useful arms. Now that his army can field artillery, Babur marches at the head of a huge army of fifteen thousand soldiers. Unimpressed, Ibrahim Lodi, currend Sultan of Delhi, prepares to meet him near the desolate village of Panipat, with a much bigger army ready to crush the invader.5. The Rajputs
With the death of Ibrahim Lodi and the fall of Delhi, Babur now rules over a kingdom which, unfortunately, is poor in culture or luxuries such as fruits and other delicacies, but rich in gold and silver, a richness which draws the attention of the rebellious Rajputs kingdoms in the West, domains so pround and powerful not even Lodi could conquer them, while his own Timurid soldiers are starting to lose some of their loyalty. Determinated to emerge victorious, Babur rallies his subjects for one last battle against the invading Rajput kingdoms.This Campaign contains examples of:
- Action Mom: Qutlugh for the first two scenarios. Unlike other important female figures in other campaigns, Qutlugh has her own Hero Unit represented by a unique female cavalry archer and can fight head on.
- The Alcoholic: Babur loves his Afghan wine, so much that him pouring away an entire shipment of the stuff in front of his soldiers to make a point about how everyone must endure sacrifices for the greater good is enough to motivate them.
- Arc Words: "Allah gives, Allah takes" are often spoke by Babur when talking about his shortcomings.
- Call-Back: Several to the Genghis Khan and Tamerlane campaigns:
- After years, you can have once again a player character in orange.
- The layout of the city of Samarkand is identical on how the city appeared in "The Horde Rides West".
- Two of the Khans who may join your cause in "Pearl of the East" have requests similar to those of the Mongol tribes in "Crucible": namely, they want you to deliver a relic to their monastery and obtain some animals from you (white horses in this case).
- In "Into India", clearing a mountain pass with Armored Elephants reveal a path leading to a monastery whose monks were stuck for 15 days and join the player like in "The Promise". Despite the name being a clear call-back to "Into China", the scenario plays more like "Scourge of the Levant", where you have to amass enough amount of gold from raiding the enemy factions, the difference that it only counts gold obtained from raiding instead of gold in general.
- "The Battle of Panipat" is similar to the final scenario of Tamerlane, complete with an impending battle and the chance to convert enemy soldiers and damage the enemy resources.
- The Cavalry: In "Into India", after gaining enough money through pillage, a horde of nomads from Transoxiana (represented by a score of Elite Mangudai) will descend from the secret mountain path to join the battle.
- Cosmetic Award:
- "The Persian Tiger" for completing the campaign.
- There's also "Never Trust a Campaign AI"note , "An Offer You Khan't Refuse"note and "The Renovator"note .
- Developer's Foresight: In the first scenario, the first Khan request ten white horses for his camp, represented by the Horse C unit. In case you bring him a Horse A unit, he will point out that the horse is brown and kindly asks you to not try to take him for a fool.
- Downer Beginning: Even if you conquer Samarkand in the first scenario, the Uzbek Army simply reform stronger and lay siege to the city, forcing Babur to eventually leave for India.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: You're only able to hire Siege Elephants after the second scenario, where you have to pay a large sum of money to the merchants from India to learn how to tame and breed elephants. Furthermore, only from the fourth scenario onward, when Babur has enough money to hire turkish experts, you can hire handcannoneers, bombards and research Shatagni.
- Fat Idiot: Babur's father Umar Shaikh doesn't have a flattering description, being fat, dull, gluttonous and more interested in his hobby of breeding pidgeons than ruling his domain.
- Foil: To Tamerlane: both start up with Tatars set in Transoxiana, but while Tamerlane is a ruthless, unstoppable and undefeated warlord who'll eventually leave a gigantic empire behind, Babur, while no less valiant, is much less successful than his ancestor, often losing what he just fought hardly for, making his campaign sound bitter and more mature. Also, while Babur is also a raider and an invader, he seems to have a genuine love for art and culture and can be more lenient towards those he defeat.
- Hold the Line:
- The first part of "Pearl of the East" involves surviving the night attack on Babur's base and repeal the attacking uncles. After that, it starts out as a proper build and conquest scenario.
- In "The Battle of Panipat", you have 25 minutes to prepare against the Delhi attack, which lasts for 25 minutes. Once it's over, the Sultanate becomes less aggressive and Ibrahim Lodi's unique unit will spawn.
- Keystone Army: Once you kill Ibrahim Lodi, the indians will lose morale and declare their defeat soon enough.
- Must Have Caffeine: When Ibrahim Lodi sees how though the Ottoman gunpowder troops are, he thinks it must be because of the coffee they drink.
- Oh, Crap!: The Uzbeks in the second scenario have a moment of panic the moment you begin the counterattack to their camps.
- Pet the Dog:
- In "The Battle of Panipat", Babur allows Ibrahim Lodi's body to be entombed in a magnificent mausoleum after the battle.
- In "The Rajputs", a secondary objective allows you to repair the town centers of four distant villages.
- During the campaign epilogue, Babur mentions how he invited a huge number of people to the banquet meant to celebrate victory, including those poor nomad shepherds who took him and his mother in back in Transoxiana.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: "Into India" involves attacking and pillaging merchants, monasteries and other buildings belonging to the three Indian towns of Ludhiana, Lahore and Jalandhar. Babur's Timurid soldiers are so used to this, infact, that when he tries to be more civilized and stop such barbaric behaviour they start to resent him.
- Smug Snake: The Amir of Kabul in the second mission: while he does offer an alliance early on so that you can focus on either Uzbek army, he'll betray you as soon as you win both of them. There's even an achievement for refusing to ally with him and just be done with him.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Once you take over Samarkand and defeat your rivals, the Uzbek Army declares war on you and starts attacking.
