Greetings my esteemed subscribers, welcome to the greatest gaming channel of all time.
Now I'm joking, it isn't really, it isn't even a gaming channel, but I thought it would be fun to introduce it thus.
What is perhaps the greatest of all time is Age of Empires 2 and we have a new DLC for the game, which is set in good old India.
And as you can see before you, we have a campaign with good old Babur.
Now, as you have probably seen, I can only suppose that you are following me on different social media, Telegram, for example, and Instagram.
Then you've seen Babur Khan posting.
I recommended a book series a while back, which the first book in the series is about Babur Khan.
And I actually read this book quite a few years back, and then I decided to reread it.
And it was much better on the second read-through, because as you attain more experience yourself, you get a different appreciation for the ups and downs of life, so to speak, and you get a different appreciation for someone who, despite everything, pursues his goals and his visions, and someone who has a firm belief in his own destiny.
So, for all Indians who might be listening and watching this, I am of course not endorsing the havoc Babur caused in India, but you know, history is full of violence, so it's not really something I need to say, but I know that there is a bloody history of the Mughals.
But anyway, the book series is what I want to get to.
I can highly recommend it.
Great series, and as you all know, I do write a lot of book reviews, mainly of more esoteric literature as of late.
Now, if you're new to reading, I would definitely recommend you to read some historical fiction so you get a good, easily digested overview of certain time periods.
So, I learned quite a bit from just reading those books about the Mughal Empire.
Now, anyway, this is not actually a video on books, this is H of Empires 2 Let's Play video.
So, we're gonna get straight into good old Babur here.
So, as I'm sure they will say in this cinematic, we're about to see Babur Khan claimed to be a descendant of the great Chinggis Khan and also of Tamerlane Timuru Lenk.
Who you actually have a campaign here in H of Empires 2 and he was a brutal conqueror of exceeding ruthlessness.
Might make a separate video on him later on, who knows.
So, anyway, Babur Khan, he came from a line of bloody conquerors, and of course, he had grown up with people telling him of his destiny, of his blood, that he had, you know, was divinely blessed to achieve greatness.
And of course, if you have that sort of belief in yourself, then reality will conform to that vision.
As I mentioned in Dauntless.
Now, anyway, enough talking from my side, let's get into the game itself.
Pearl of the East.
Perhaps they are talking about Samarkand there.
We'll see.
You may accuse me of vanity, but I have decided to write the book myself.
It should be good literature, after all.
I dined with fine emirs and caroused with simple peasants on moonlit steps.
I waged wars and sat on thrones, only to lose them again.
And it all began in the maelstrom of intrigue and bloody skirmishes that was my beloved Transoxiana, the melting pot of Persian high culture and nomadic traditions.
To the east of Summerkunt, my father ruled the fertile slopes of the Fergana Valley.
Like all heirs of Tamerlane, he was a proud Timurid who sought to imitate his great ancestor.
Unfortunately, Allah had not blessed him with a knack for warfare.
After a few humiliating defeats, he decided to devote himself to his other passions: eating, drinking, and rearing pigeons.
One day, as my father was climbing the stairs to check on his birds, Allah, in his infinite wisdom, decided that this model of gluttony had waffled on the earth for long enough.
Halfway up to the dovecote, the stairs collapsed under him, and he fell to his death.
And that is how I, Babur, came to be lord of the Fergana Valley.
Yet, like all transitions of power in our culture, it was not to be a peaceful one.
Thanks to my dear mother, Kutluk, my bays agreed not to abandon what surely appeared to be a dynasty in shambles.
But my devious uncles were another matter.
At that time, I was just a 14-year-old boy with nothing to my name.
And my uncles, who had long desired the Fargana Valley, thought that my inheritance was ripe for the taking.
So there is the dangers of bloat maxing.
You can't bloat max, you can't bulk too hard, then you will die in such a manner.
So, anyway, good introduction, as is the case for most of this H V Empires 2 campaigns.
They set the stage.
Okay, so we have to hold off the enemy Timurids.
So, Timurids, the etymology is the house of Timur, so Tamerlane.
So, we have some the fortified tower must not be destroyed, and Babur and his mother, Kutlug, must survive.
Fair enough.
We can look at a hint.
I'm not going to read through this because it's not reasonable at this particular time.
Men sneak around in the shadows of our walls, my princess.
Shall we get the boy to safety?
These cowards snuck up in the dark of the night, but there is no need to fearfully hide.
Hold our position until dawn, and the sun will reveal the faces of these scoundrels.
All right, we need to defend here.
So here we have Kutlug, which is the mother.
And here we have Young Babur.
So since we have these heroes, they regenerate health.
They might as well take some damage.
So I'm not risking Babur.
I am merely making sure that he is getting a taste of battle.
Of course, we have to be careful so he doesn't die, young Babur.
And of course, when you play Age of Empires 2, you can try to get the archers to shoot at infantry and the cavalry to chase down archers.
Now I managed to lose some of my cavalry, unfortunately, but it is what it is.
And now I actually forgot to do something which I should have done at the very start, and that is to upgrade the attack of my archers.
Oh well.
I can always blame my gaming performance on the fact that I'm recording.
Alright, good stuff.
So we have started the mission itself and we're going to conquer these hostile Timurids.
So now what you should always do, if you play any strategy game, I suppose, you should build up your economy.
So what I will do now is I will try to get hold of some stone somewhere so I can build a second town center and then I will boom.
And boom means that I will create a strong economy.
That is the first action to do whenever you play.
But it cannot hurt to have loyal allies by your side.
Seek out other emirs in the area who can be convinced to join our cause.
I will do so, Kutlug.
I will actually explore a bit with her.
Now you can also create a market and buy.
You can trade some gold for stone.
And then we can build our second town center.
So I'm gonna do that.
Boom.
And can you spill it here?
Since we can continue to boom, we can actually build two town centers.
I believe it's the only resistable course of action.
And now, I'm gonna get rid of the Uzbeks.
So we're baiting them.
We can't bait them.
They are unbaitable.
But we're going to see if we can do something here.
Now they have been successfully tricked into coming to us.
And of course I don't want to lose young Babur here, so he will have to run around a bit when the others are fighting.
So now we have cleared the path for Kutlug to explore a bit while we boom Max here.
So basically I will probably edit this video.
But my people report that the Uzbeks construct siege weapons in a nearby camp.
I would rather see these powerful devices in your hands than theirs.
Aha, so these guys they have told us that you can gain this tribuchet which is which is good.
I will do it.
But yeah, as I was saying, I will edit this video because it would be too long if I record all of it.
So I will just keep booming here, my economy to create economy and then we will strike out.
So that is a good idea if you play H V Empires 2 or any strategy game for that matter to get your economy in order before focusing on military matters.
Then of course you should create an army at the same time so that you don't get mugged by enemy raiders and the like.
So I'm doing that and I'm creating some more horse archers.
I think that's reasonable since we're playing as the Tatars.
Ah, Babur, the young tiger with both Tamalanes and Temuchus blood in his veins.
Very well.
Bring me ten white horses and we shall form an alliance following our traditional customs.
Alright, so we have to procure ten white horses to get this fine gentleman to ally with us.
So I suppose we'll have to scout around a bit and I see two magnificent white stallions here.
Come with me.
I will gift you to this gentleman right here and he will take good care of you I am certain.
And here we actually have another fine horse.
So we're gonna send him straight down here.
And then we have a third Timurid noble to visit.
And then we'll launch a little raid here.
Just need to build up our forces a bit.
And here are two more horses.
How nice.
Your father is not exactly a religious man.
Do you care more for pious Babool to Shundin?
Then bring me a holy relic.
We are indeed pious.
So we will do that.
We will bring a sacred relic to this fine gentleman so you can meditate upon its sacredness.
But as you can see we have also been attacked here for a fine fortified tower.
We need to defend it at all costs so here we have it Samarkand We cannot go nearer now, I suppose.
We have to continue to defend.
Here we got into a bit of trouble here, unfortunately.
So now we have to use the infamous or famous, or depending on your perspective, hit and run tactics.
Because here we can see pikemen, halberdiers, they are especially good against cavalry, cavalry archers, so we need to pick them off at range so they don't get close.
And now, of course, we need to repair our tower here so we don't get mogged.
And perhaps build a castle there somewhere as well.
I think that's the only reasonable course of action.
So we're gonna take these guys here and place a magnificent castle and you can see the nice central Asian aesthetics of the buildings here.
Good stuff, good stuff.
And now we need to find a relic.
He was very pleased with our offering of ten white horses.
I am...
I'm happy now we can fight alongside us as we try to mog these new males.
Now I'm sure these hostile Timrids were not new males.
I think we were quite concerned indeed with honor and the principles of principles of warrior culture.
And now, as you can see, we have amassed a decent enough force so we can probably go on a little raid to procure this trebuchet.
Perhaps that's actually a silent T, if you pronounce it in French.
I am unfortunately not fluent in French.
It's completely barbaric of me.
Alright, the moment of truth...
Can we defeat these Uzbek scouts?
Perhaps we can.
So we have here some camels which are good against cavalry.
Because horses, they don't like camels.
They get a bit anxious when they're near camels.
And this is reflected in the game, by camels being additionally good against the cavalry.
So yes, I suppose that was enough.
We can train some additional soldiers here for good measure.
always good to have and here we have found a sacred relic so we need to train some more camels i suppose to get rid of them And here we see great levels of unemployment.
Need to put these guys to work immediately.
Otherwise, we don't have any gold.
But as I mentioned before, you can actually trade and get some gold that way, but of course it's better to mine gold or even trade.
You can see if we find a friendly market somewhere and we can send some trade cards Behold we have procured the and there we were Exceedingly close to getting Babur killed
Perhaps I should actually station him in the castle here so he doesn't.
So he doesn't die would be a fail.
It would be a failure of a let's play.
Oh, this is also a bit of a failure.
They got mogged by villagers.
They got mogged by raiders.
So we have to send our cavalry there immediately.
You can also train some new villagers.
Our trusted camels.
They uh...
They take care of business.
and now as you can see you can also upgrade their armor so they're a bit tougher so we have destroyed one castle here and we are approaching the great city of samarkand
And we have also finally picked up the relic which we will gift to the pious lord of this fine village.
I hope he appreciates our fine gift.
And there is the second castle we need to destroy with our fine trebuchets.
We have procured a military camp here as well so we can train additional soldiers and send into the thick.
The thick of a fighting.
Nice to hear.
He did.
He did appreciate our fine gifts.
But still diplomacy is as good a weapon as a sword, sometimes.
So now we have to be on the lookout for Pikeman as I said.
Otherwise they will completely mog our cavalry.
Fortunately, there's horse archers have a decent attack against this pikemen.
So all good, all good.
Right, so Samarkand is almost ours.
We just have one castle standing in the way.
So I'm not gonna spoil anything about the book, but Samarkand was Initially, at least, the grand prize that Babur and of course all Timurid princes wanted to have it.
The jewel of Central Asia, one could say.
A very rich city, of course, neatly located on the Silk Road.
Speaking of the Silk Road, or rather, the Silk Road, I have a book which I have shown, and I will get around to read it.
So the Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan.
I will talk about it in a podcast or a book review or even in a video when I've read it.
But my to-rid list is back in the hands of a true Timurid.
And this man of honor is you, my son.
As delightful as it is to watch these duft grunt children of Tamale slaughter each other, it is getting a little boring.
It is time to put an end to this juvenile struggle.
I see your anger, my son.
But it is good that the Uzbeks are so haughty.
Reckless opponents are easy to overcome.
Yes, as I was saying, my to-read list is quite extensive.
As it is.
But I will get around to that book eventually.
And now, of course, as you saw from the dialogue, Shaybani Khan, which is a prominent antagonist in the books as well.
Hear the claws of the tiger!
Shaibana Khan has decided to wage war upon us and- And yeah, as I was saying, he appears in the first book as well.
Good times, good times.
Now, as you can see here, the enemy Uzbek army, their civilization is the Kumans.
And the Kumans, a very fascinating story in itself.
They got driven away during the Mongol conquest of Russia.
They fled south.
Some of them ended up in Egypt as slaves.
And then the so the Mameluk dynasty.
And then they actually got their revenge on the Mongols in certain battles in the Middle East.
Very fascinating story.
Again, I might make some sort of video on it.
I will certainly mention it again.
And you have in this fine game, HMRS 2, you have a campaign where you play as the Cumans.
I highly recommend it if you play the game.
Now, checking back in, as you can see, we have almost defeated Shaibani Khan and his Uzbeks.
Just need to get this castle down, and I do believe that the victory will be ours.
The tiger has shown his clothes.
Mark my words.
This autumn night, we overcame the walls of Samarkand.
The city's merchants and dignitaries were thrilled to receive me and praised my sense of justice, as they had heard that I did not tolerate looting among my soldiers.
Yet when Shaybani Khan returned in the spring and Uzbek's soldiers blocked the trade routes, their enthusiasm quickly evaporated.
Before long, a famine broke out in the city.
As the weeks wore on, more and more of my men left Summerkunt under the pretext that they might catch a few sheep outside of the walls.
None of them were ever seen again.
In the end, I realized that I had to gamble for my survival.
With my last loyal followers, I snuck past the besiegers during the night and sped towards the Fergana Valley to procure provisions and reinforcements.
When we reached the valley at dawn, two riders came bringing terrible news.
In my absence, one of Shaybani's generals had made himself the new master of Fergana.
I felt like my father must have when the stairs gave way under him.
I had stretched my luck too thin and lost the land of my forefathers to the invaders.
Alright, good stuff.
Good stuff.
I will see if I make a second video.
I will meditate upon it.
Do let me know in the comments if you like these videos.
I, of course, I enjoy making them.
All good.
And if we do continue on this campaign, we will lead down to India to establish the Mughal dynasty.
But yeah, we'll see.
Thank you for watching and I wish you a high thumbs rest of your day.
